Mt Fuji training continues...

Saturday morning (Feb 18) we had a surprise snow on the ground with more falling and being blown by a bitterly cold wind. Perfect weather for taking my daughter Yuko out geocaching in the tall hills in the undeveloped section of Jefferson Memorial Forest. It was only a tiny taste of what it will be like while climbing Mt Fuji this summer. A short (20 min) uphill climb with almost 2 hours in the cold (it will be pretty cold at the top of Fuji).

While up there on the ridgeline circuit she added two more geocache finds to her account at Geocaching.com where she is known as Maxi Ranger. I think she is beginning to question her own devotion towards going through with the Fuji climb. Not sure if it is the climbing or the cold however...

Arsène Lupin: Gentleman Burglar (review)

I finished the book this morning an I have to say that it was actually quite good. This series ranks up with the Jules Verne adventures and Sherlock Holmes mysteries as one of my favorite old time writings series. In fact, Sherlock Holmes had an appearance in the final chapter! The odd thing is that while they spell Holmes's name correctly in this book, the Arsène Lupin sequal is titled Arsène Lupin vs Herlock Sholmes... weird... even as a copyright issue, it doesn't make sense considering the first book had it spelled right.

I think I might have mentioned it in the preview post, but even for a book printed in English in 1910, this book's writing felt surprisingly modern. More so in many cases than even Sherlock Holmes or any story by Verne. Therefore I couldn't help but picture Arsène Lupin as looking like the anime Lupin rather than a Victorian era gentleman dressed up in the clothes of the period or in the tuxedo, top hat and cape as I've seen in some of the movie poster or book cover images I've Googled up recently.

New (okay first) Logo!

This is the newly created logo for Studio Irodori. It is of course the Japanese kanji for Irodori which roughly translates to SPECTRUM OF COLOR in English. Eventually I'll figure out a way to post this at the top of the blog and I may use it on any art or games I have published in the future.

Arsène Lupin: Gentleman Burglar (preview)

Well the review of Negima can wait. Every manga fan and his grandma have probably blogged their views about this manga (for better or worse). I like it but I’m going to take my time to give it a worthy mention. In the meantime I’ve decided to spout off a preview about a recent find I made at the local Salvation Army thrift store book section.

While perusing the shelves for some new books (meaning old books) to add to my collection, I was startled and then excited to find a 1910 English edition of Arsène Lupin: Gentleman Burglar by French author Maurice Leblanc. This book was reportedly the inspiration for the Japanese manga/anime Lupin the 3rd by Monkey Punch.

The book is still in excellent condition for tome that is 96 years old. I am still currently in the first chapter but the story and the storytelling is quite interesting and the English is almost modern compared to another 1910 novel I have called The Boy Aviators on Secret Service by Captain Wilbur Lawton.

Mon. Leblanc’s adventure story looks to be an easy and exciting read very much in the vein of his fellow Frenchman Jules Verne. I should have it finished in the next day or two and will blog a somewhat expanded review of it then.

Reviews of "stuff" coming soon.

Until I come up with a better reason to blog, I plan to use this space to review various "stuff" that I find entertaining. Movies, cartoons, manga, anime, books, art or whatever catches my eye (or my wallet). So stay tuned. The first thing I review may be the manga Magister Negi Magi Negima!

Testing

Okay, let's see if I can do this blog thing.

Yesterday I received my subscription copy of Knights of the Dinner Table #111 which had my Battle Chess game on page 39. It feels really cool to be published again. KODT #112 is supposed to have my Dueling Druids dice game too. I can hardly wait for the checks to arrive. I guess my badge for the Origins convention will be paid for by those two articles. I'm scheduled to run demo games of Tech Support and The Great Space Race at the con.

I've got three more games ready to be typed up and submitted to KODT and I'm also working on a new board game based on the Kenzer & Company forums community. That one is looking really interesting if I must say so myself.

Hmmmm, nothing else to say. Time to shower and see if there are any Olympic highlites on TV.