Studio Irodori

Executioners From Shaolin

2011-09-11T21:59:00.000-04:00

After decades of searching I finally found a DVD copy of my all time favorite kung fu classic. The 1977 Executioners From Shaolin! Great action and the first appearance of uber kung fu bad guy Pai Mei. I used to watch this on Channel 41's Black Belt Theater as a kid and even then though that the mom was pretty hot. The brass training dummy was pretty cool too.

Thanks to Dragon Dynasty for releasing this in widescreen and Walmart for only charging $9 for it. I can now do the Snoopy dance of joy.

Still nothing...

2011-09-05T21:33:00.000-04:00

Well over a year and a half since the last non-update. I think the only reason I keep this blog is to squat on the name and keep the nice Aya Matsuura video in the sidebar.

Nothing new to say

2010-01-10T12:59:00.002-05:00

I'm still being lazy and have nothing much to say. I should be writing a short story for the Midwinter Writer's Guild at the Kenzer & Company forums but... I need time and there's never enough.

Finished NaNo

2009-12-20T10:46:00.000-05:00

I did successfully complete my NaNo novel on time even though I'm late in saying so here. I think I should delete the whole thing though.

Halfway there

2009-11-15T22:15:00.001-05:00

I finally caught up to where I should be after losing a day of typing due to buying and watching UP on DVD Tuesday. I'm finishing the night at a little over 25k!

NaNoWriMo 2009

2009-10-04T17:09:00.003-04:00

I just registered (I think) for NaNo 2009. My story project for this year is another Power Ranger type story called Esper Rangers. Of course it involves a group of young and attractive people with esper (psychic) abilities banding together to fight the forces of extra-dimensional evil... or do they?

On a side note I just got back from the annual Octoberfest geocaching camp-out at Windy Rock Farm in Bardstown, KY. Good times as usual though of course the nights are chilly for tent sleeping. I came well prepared though.

Laid off again

2009-09-24T22:01:00.002-04:00

Not as bad as it sounds. This is the fourth time this year that I've taken a one week voluntary lay off and collected unemployment. It gives me time to rest my body somewhat, hang out with my grandson and do some warm weather geocaching while other muggles are still at work. We may have another lay off in December too.

With all my vacation time and lay off time together I'll probably have worked less than ten months this year. Really, it makes me want to retire altogether... if I could win the lottery.

Back to reality

2009-09-03T21:54:00.002-04:00

Well, yeah... obviously my vacation to Japan is long over and true to form I'm late in my updates.

The trip was of course fantastic. I did some more hiking in the mountains (Nunobiki Falls in Kobe and Mino Falls and Katsuoji Temple in Mino). I picked up a copy of the Capcom classic Mickey's Magical Adventure for the Super Famicom at a shop in Geek Street in Kobe as well as a cool new book on the VF-1 Valkyrie from Macross.

Chiharu and I saw the new Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0 movie and the new Pokemon movie at fancy new theaters in Osaka and Nishinomiya respectively. I'm looking forward to seeing the Summer Wars anime on DVD someday. It looked pretty good in the trailer show before the other movies.

We also climbed the "lowest mountain in Japan", Tenpozan, which also qualified as a Virtual Geocache before visiting a humoungous aquarium and also a Studio Ghibli storyboard exhibit at the nearby Suntory Museum.

I guess it's too late now to update more about the trip but I'll try to post a few pics someday soon.

Having fun

2009-07-20T20:31:00.002-04:00

I think I'm around the halfway mark in my vacation in Japan. I made a mistake in thinking that my laptop would handle my camera's memory card without an adapter so I didn't bring the adapter or a cable. Any pics I post will have to be from my daughter's camera. Or wait until I get back home.

So far I've done most of the shopping that I want. Manga, CDs and games all accounted for. I guess I'll have to buy a full CD version of Angela Aki's "Answer" since I can't find the single of the song I want. I have found Superfly and Perfume though along with more Hikaru Utada, Wink and many others.

I've climbed the Rock Garden portion of the mountains between Ashiyagawa and Okamoto. That was two days ago and my calves are still feeling the burn.

The rainy season is still going strong. We had a very noisy thunderstorm in the wee hours of Monday morning and it is rainy strong and steady now on Tuesday morning. More later.

Shopping Day 1

2009-07-13T08:55:00.002-04:00

I decided to take it easy today and just do some shopping in the Hankyu Tsukaguchi area. My daughter and I rode the bikes there and looked around Sun Sun Town for a while. It was surprising to see how many shops had closed down. Even the book store on the first and second floor was gone and replaced with a dental clinic.

The Wanpaku video game shop under the movie theater was still open with lots of cool used games. They had lots of old video game hardware dirt cheap too. I'll be going back for stuff like a Super Game Boy adapter for my Super Famicom and some Playstation items such as PS1 mice for 100 yen and an PS2 Eye Toy for only 250 yen.

After that we went to Book Off for a few used manga and check on CD prices. At another nearby used shop we found some Harry Potter books in Japanese (of course). Then I picked up a new Pepsi Shiso at the Lawson convenience store. Not bad to start but the aftertaste is really weird.

Then we did some shopping and walking around Tsukashin. I picked up a hiking map for the Mt Rokko area.

Dinner was karage chicken!

In Japan

2009-07-12T17:29:00.002-04:00

Well I made it to Japan in one piece though not without a couple missteps. At Narita airport I got lost and followed the rest of the people through Immigration when I should have found my way back to a connections flight. I saw no sign properly marked though. Eventually I made my way back to the gates. Luckily I had plenty of time before my next flight.

Then in Kobe I was so tired that I rushed onto the first express train I saw and it ended up going the wrong direction so I had to get off at the next station and go back. I ended up getting to the in-law's house a little after 11pm. I haven't done any proper math but I think it took 28 hours from door to door with no sleep.

Gah! They showed Dragonball Evolutions as one of the in-flight movies! Truly horrible. Even if I paid attention to my Nintendo and couldn't hear the film, I could still feel the badness drawing my attention. At least it wasn't Street Fighter: Legend of Chun Li...

6 Days

2009-07-05T22:47:00.002-04:00

The main suitcase is mostly packed. All the clothes and gifts are in. As well as an extra sports back to use as a second suitcase on the way home. If I used it straight and empty on the way there it would be an extra $50 so I'll wait until the return trip and bring it back stuffed with books, CDs and toys.

Now I just wait until Saturday morning when I hit the airport. Actually I can't wait until Sunday morning (Sunday night in Japan) since that means the long series of flights will be over. I'll be laying down to sleep on a soft futon with the smell of tatami floors and the hint of salt water in the air.

7 Days

2009-07-04T20:52:00.002-04:00

Packed up my hiking and geocaching gear for the trip to Japan and downloaded some more caches to the GPS. I still have to try and contact the ticket counter for the high speed ferry boat that will take me across the bay from Kansai airport to Kobe airport.

Countdown to Japan

2009-07-03T13:03:00.002-04:00

Only 8 days left till I hit the "road" for Japan (more like air then water). I've been digging through my junk boxes trying to find my hiking trail map for the Minoo mountains but no luck. I guess I'll have to buy a new one at the ranger station. At least I found my old GPS so my daughter can use it.

I've got my passport out and packed in my carry on too. My reading material is ready as is my DSi gaming selection. Yu-Gi-Oh World Championship 2008, SNK vs Capcom: Card Fighters DS and Super Mario Bros.

Gearing up

2009-06-29T23:10:00.002-04:00

Okay, it's time to get back in the blogging mood (like I was ever in it before). I've got a vacation to Japan coming up in less than two weeks. I'll try to do daily updates here if only to get in some writing practice. Most of my pics and quick updates will still go to my Facebook and Twitter pages though.

Much delayed update

2009-03-06T23:52:00.003-05:00

Hmmm, I seemed to have skipped over the holidays and neglected to post the fact that I'm now a grandpa. My grandson Sage "Seiji" Ian Szalay was born on December 13, 2008. He's been growing fast and is healthy. So far he is a good baby.

Origins '08 continued

2008-10-29T11:13:00.002-04:00

I never did get around to continuing my report on Origins '08. I think I've forgotten most of what I wanted to say anyway. It was as interesting as usual. I attended a few panels and discussions. RI ran the Great Space Race tournaments for Kenzer & Company to earn a few back issues of Knights of the Dinner Table that I had been missing as well as a nifty "booth monkey" icon added to my account on the Kenzer forums.

Probably the worst thing that happened to me was the stupid people at the Hyatt Regency overbooked their room for the con. So even though I had reserved a room almost a year in advance they didn't have space for me on Friday night! Luckily they made up for it by arranging a room at The Columbus hotel free of charge. That was nice even though it was a seven block walk. At least they had a room ready for me on Saturday night.

I doubt I'll ever try staying at the Hyatt ever again though. It's just too expensive with poor management. I didn't even know that hotels could overbook. I don't think people cancel hotels as often as they do airline flights. It should be illegal in either case. Starting next year I'll be camping outside town and driving in. I can get four nights camping and downtown parking for less than one night at a downtown hotel. That leaves more money for food and goodies at the convention.

The only other unfortunate things about the con was that attendance seemed down as did the number of dealers. The dealer room was only 2/3 full this year so there was less shopping opportunities and few deals to be made. Also for some reason the Smithees got stuffed into a room that was way too small for the number of people who usually attend. It should have been in one of the ballrooms but schedules seemed to conflict. The convention promises that it won't happen again next year.

One of the new things going on was a geocacher gathering in the picnic area outside the con. It wasn't officially part of the con but those who showed up did get a Finder of Tupperware ribbon to go with the usual con ribbon collection. I can't find my badge right now to take a pic of it.

Anyway, a good con in general. Origins still beats Gen Con in my opinion.

NaNoWriMo 2008

2008-10-29T10:52:00.003-04:00

Less than three days until NaNo '08 starts. Thank gawd October 31 is on a Friday this year. Now I can easily stay up until midnight to start writing on the stroke of 12 and not have to pay for it at work the next day. I've got the word counter on the right side of blog so anyone can see how I'm doing.

This year's novel will be about a group of people starting their own micronation on an old cruise ship in the Pacific Ocean. Their effort will be sponsored by a 24/7 internet TV network. All colonists wear electronic tracers that turn on any cameras near them so viewers can follow their favorites via dedicated web channels (sorta like the Truman Show). Normal around the ship viewing is free, but bedrooms are Pay Per View. The most popular colonists become the focus of bidding wars between companies who want ad space on the side or bottom of that colonist's web channel.

A side story may involve the legal efforts back in civilization to get the micronation recognized as a true sovereign nation. The working title right now is Micronation Pacifica.

Hurricane Ike hits Louisville!

2008-09-26T22:16:00.002-04:00

Of course the news is delayed...

Sunday, Sept 14 - the remnants of Hurricane Ike roared through the Kentuckiana area with winds averaging 45 mph with gusts over 90 mph. All that wind and not a drop of rain.

Neighbors were standing outside in the street watching huge patches of shingles and siding being ripped off of their houses. Trees split or fell doing even more damage. Power was cut off to over 300,000+ customers in the area and many remained that way for well over a week!

Our house only had a handful of shingles flipped up and a fence bent by a neighbor's tree. We lost power around 1:30pm and got it back at 12:45am Monday morning. All in all it was pretty cool from my point of view. But I'm crazy like that.

Geocaching Guild on Gaia

2008-08-23T10:45:00.001-04:00

The continuation of the Origins '08 adventure will continue but first I'd like to announce that I have formed the first Geocaching Guild on the Gaia Online hangout site. Hoody hoo!

http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/index.php?guild_id=89081

Origins '08 part 1: Stormy Weather!

2008-08-16T21:50:00.003-04:00

In keeping with tradition I'm posting this post about my annual trip to Origins a month and a half late.

The trip to Columbus, Ohio for the con was uneventful. I arrived at the Alton RV Park outside the city and set up the tent just before a violent storm blew through and collapsed the tent on top of me. After the storm I reset the tent properly in time for the next wave of the storm (or storms) and it survived better. I hit the sack at about 10:30 with the rumblings of another storm audible in the distance but I fell asleep anyway.

Suddenly at 11:45 the tornado siren that was actually located in the campground itself went off and I hit the ceiling of the tent! Stepping outside I saw the wind was picking up again with lots and lots of lightning flashes lighting up the sky quickly. Old people were shuffling from their RVs to the basement of the camp office to seek shelter. Like the brave fool I am I just stood there and watched the storm for a while then hopped into the Civic and fired up the laptop to check the RADAR on the camp's free WiFi.

Looking at the image I could see that it was a monster. Rather than the regular thin, vertical (north/south) line passing over the city west to east, this storm was a big, gigantic, horizontal (east/west) blob that was moving slowly. I went back to sleep in the tent around 12:30am but woke up every hour after that and still could hear the frequent thunder and flashes of lightning.

The sirens continued to cycle on and off for an hour. I found out on the morning news at the con that the sirens were supposed to stop around 12:30am but a lightning strike had damaged the system so they had to go to the source and pull the plug manually. The lightning was that crazy!

When I woke up I found water had gotten into the tent somehow and filled each corner. A couple more inches and my air mattress may have been floating. ;p The only reason that I can find after much thought is that the seams hadn't been waterproofed properly and rain would soak in and then drain onto the floor.

More on the con itself in the next post.

WALL-E

2008-07-28T23:07:00.003-04:00

I don't know why I took so long to get around to writing this. It must be because I'm the Gawd of Procrastination. Anyway...

I saw WALL-E on opening day while attending Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio. The new Pixar film proves that the studio can do no wrong and has replaced Iron Man as my favorite movie of the year. A "must see" in theaters and a "must buy" on DVD or Blu-Ray in November. WALL-E will may you laugh, cry and gasp.

The animated short before the movie was called Presto and it was great fun too. I revamp of the movie theater cartoons of old. I'm looking forward to the second short that will be included on the DVD. Titled BURN-E, it is supposed to be about the welder robot that got locked out of the Axiom.

The Iron Man movie is AWESOME!

2008-05-03T15:47:00.002-04:00

Today I saw the Iron Man movie and it totally is the best live action super hero movie ever in my humble opinion. Robert Downey Jr made the perfect Tony Stark and the suit design was pure perfection. Great SFX and CG, cool fight scenes, funny one liners and even a clever cameo by Stan Lee.

I can only think of a couple small down points with the film. Terrance Howard seemed a bit... weak as Jim Rhodes and Gwyneth Paltrow did not make a very attractive Pepper Potts. She reminded me too much of Kirstin Dunst as Mary Jane in Spider-man and she didn't seem very attractive to me either.

SPOILER: Stay through to the end of the credits to see a cameo by Nick Fury of SHIELD. It looks like this is going to be part of the Ultimates universe since they used Samuel L Jackson to play Fury.

Earthquake!

2008-04-18T23:31:00.002-04:00

We had a magnitude 5.2 earthquake at 5:38am!

I had just gotten back into the bed after taking a toy away from the cats in the hallway when the room started to shake. First I head a noise in the hall and thought the cats had found something else to mess with, then I felt a light shaking and thought it was a semi-truck braking at the light outside. Then we knew it had to be an earthquake when it kept going for several more seconds and got a bit stronger.

There were supposedly a few minor aftershocks in the 2.x ranger but one at 4.6 at 11:15am while I was at work. The office people felt it but I missed it. I must have been either on a forklift or maybe up at the tape machine. Oh well.

One month already...

2008-04-03T22:43:00.003-04:00

It's hard to believe that it has already been a whole month since the passing of the great Gary Gygax. I wish I had gotten to meet him, get an autograph and have him roll my old Red Box d20 once like I do other gaming celebs. The Kenzer & Company crew plan a toast to him at Origins this year. I'll be there with my daughter and sister of course.

Gary makes the second of my heroes that I'll never get to see now. The other was Charles Shultz (creator of Peanuts). Well at least I've gotten to meet my third hero, the great fantasy artist Larry Elmore.

Wow 2008 already...

2008-02-01T07:49:00.000-05:00

Wow, it's hard to believe that it's 2008 already... and February at that. I guess I'm not doing very well with my annual New Year resolution to "quit procrastinating".

I'm already looking forward to the Beijing Olympics even though I'll only be watching them on TV. I can't wait for the presidential election crap to be over though.

Another good thing about this year is while I'm not planning any trips back to Japan, at least my mother-in-law will be coming from Itami for a visit this spring. Hopefully by then we'll have the house paid off as planned and have plenty of money to show her around.

NaNo novel finished...

2007-12-02T21:49:00.000-05:00

...and I hate it. Not really, but I really got tired of expanding on a couple major mistakes I made early on. After a few days of rest I'll start a major rewrite and edit. I finished it at 9:50pm on the last day and the end wasn't a real end. More like a "to be continued ala Book 1 of Lord of the Rings."

The edit will remove several characters, rearrange events and probably by the time I get to the point where I finished I will only hve 25,000 words instead of 50k. Hopefully I will have time to add some more chapters and bring it back up to the target amount and get to a real ending. I won't hold my breath though.

NaNoWriMo 2007

2007-11-16T18:26:00.000-05:00

I'm halfway through National Novel Writing Month 2007 and as of lunch time today halfway to the 50,000 words goal! You can watch my progress using the widget in the right hand column. Unfortunately the NaNo site only updates the widgets once per day.

This year's novel is a steampunk fantasy named appropriately "Steampunks". It is a bit tongue and cheek at times with the characters sometimes realizing the cliche situations they are in. It will probably go over 50k like last year's novel "Code Rangers".

Hawaii, Japan and Origins 2007

2007-11-11T22:18:00.000-05:00

It has been a long, long time since I updated the old blog. I'd forgotten I'd had one for some reason.

Anyway, Hawaii was awesome. If I couldn't live in Japan but had enough money then Oahu would be the place for me to retire. Heck even if I didn't have the money I could happily be a beach bum there in the Waikiki area if the wife ever kicked me out of the house.

Japan this year was great as usual. I climbed several mountains this time and managed to get my Fuji hiking staff back to Kentucky with me even though the airline lost it at first and had to deliver it to the house several hours later.

I figured with all the hiking, mountain climbing and sweating I did over there, I shouldn't have gained any weight. But apparently I gained 8 pounds in muscle on my legs. They were hard as rocks just like after my climb up Fuji last year.

In early July I went to Origins International Gaming Expo in Columbus, OH like I do every year. This time my oldest daughter went with me. She disappeared almost right away to hang with my sister and her friend who arrived the day before and I didn't see her again until the last day of the convention. :P

While there I gave my first Double Red shot of blood to the Red Cross. The vampires they had going around collecting victims, er volunteers didn't have time to find me. I went right to them and besides the snack (better than at the Louisville Red Cross) I also collected one of the rare "Heinlein Society: Blood Donor" ribbons of the con and a SF pin.

Of course I also picked up the usual assortment of new dice and used games to hold me through the winter until Origins 2008.

Nara Daibutsu

2007-06-05T20:06:00.000-04:00

We visited the giant Buddha in Nara yesterday. All I can say is "Awesome!" both the Buddha and the building that surrounds it. They say that the current building is about 30% smaller than the original buildings that were destroyed by fire. I made sure to claim the virtual cache that was there plus the real cache on the top of nearby Wakakusayama. There were thousands of tame deer all over the place (temples, shrines, gift shops and the streets).

Back on Japan time

2007-06-01T20:12:00.000-04:00

We're finally back on Japan time and able to stay awake I think. We've visited the Instant Ramen Museum in Ikeda and yesterday we did window shopping at the geek shops in Kobe.

Afterwards I went hiking by myself through the Kitano neighborhood and on up into the mountains to see the Nunobiki falls (see photo) and on up higher to the Nunobiki Herb Garden/Park. Then I took the Ropeway back down into Kobe.

I love Hawaii!

2007-05-27T23:20:00.001-04:00

We're finishing up the Hawaii portion of the vacation tomorrow morning when we head on to Japan. So far we've done the Ala Moana Mall, Punchbowl cemetary to visit my grandparents, climbed Diamond Head and failed to find the geocache, swam with the fishes in Hanauma Bay and rode an outrigger off Waikiki.

Even though I love being in Japan more than anything, I really will be sorry to leave Oahu. Here's a pic of me and the wife on top of Diamond Head.

3 days till vacation

2007-05-19T19:21:00.000-04:00

There are only three full days left until we leave on our vacation to Hawaii (May 23~28) and then on to Japan (May 28~June 11). I'm probably unknowingly putting off all kinds of stuff until the last minute which will make Keiko very annoyed with me. I always do. Hopefully I can keep a better log of what goes on this time here and with Google documents. The new notebook computer will help a lot too.

I plan to climb Diamond Head and seek a geocache there. Then there will be plenty of hiking in the Japanese mountains. Rokko mountain and Arima onsen, Nunobiki falls over Kobe and then the Katsuoji temple trail in Minoo.

Camping in Bardstown

2007-04-29T19:57:00.000-04:00

I got back from camping at a farm in Bardstown this morning. Several geocachers and I were cleaning the place up (cutting trees, clearing creak and burning stuff) in return for the owner letting us use the place in October for our annual gathering.

The day was fine, though tiring. The night was cold and sort of miserable for late April. My new tent didn't retain heat nearly as well as I'd hoped. It is also just barely big enough to hold me sleeping while laying corner to corner and then only if I don't use the air mattress. There was a lot of condensation on the inside walls this morning too.

Needless to say I didn't sleep too well. So I'm off to bed soon... zzzzzzz.....

Fuzzy Knight wiki

2007-04-20T15:30:00.000-04:00

I recently created a free Fuzzy Knights wiki with the PBwiki people. It is growing slowly but steadily with two or three new entries per evening. I'm doing my best to find clear face shots of each character with little to no word balloons. The Fuzzy Knights strip creator, Mossfoot, is being very helpful so far with his explanations for Fuzzthropic Theory and remembering minor character names. There is a link box in the right side of this blog, but here it is again anyway.

http://fuzzyknights.pbwiki.com/

I've also created a wiki for my steampunk Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting, Crystalis but I'm not quite ready to release the link yet.

Speaking of D&D, I found the sad news yesterday that Dragon magazine will cease publication in print form with the September issue. An online version just won't be the same. I'll miss seeing it on the rack with an occasional Larry Elmore cover and finding the useful bits and pieces to use in my game. It will make future 13 hour flights to Japan harder to deal with if I don't have a Dragon magazine to read from cover to cover.

Oh well... I hope the online version is much cheaper to subscribe to.

Toshiba Satellite

2007-04-08T20:20:00.000-04:00

It has been one month since I got my cool new notebook computer. A Toshiba Satellite A135S4427. The computer is great but I don't see anything to get excited about with Windows Vista. It looks pretty much just like Windows XP except that the borders of the windows are slightly transparent and you can rotate through them.

The only real complaint I have is about the Toshiba Flash Cards. About once per week they will pop up with a message saying that they are "not responding" and that window will not close down unless I restart the computer. I've tried looking up the problem online but can't seem to find what causes it or even a clear and simple explanation of what the TFC do and if I can disable them permanently without ill effect.

I'm setting up the notebook for use at gaming conventions. Useful gadgets, mood music, rule PDFs and such. I'm even putting in some maps and aerial photos for when I'm hiking or geocaching.

The best thing about this notebook is that it has built in Wi-Fi so I can use it in hotels or coffee shops when I'm doing things with the Write Club (but we don't talk about Write Club).

More books

2007-04-08T20:12:00.000-04:00

More books acquired in March and early April include:

Going Postal - Terry Pratchett
Maracot Deep - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Works of Jules Verne
Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott
Angels & Demons - Dan Brown
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats - T.S. Eliot

And a few old photo books of famous places in Britain (first half of the century) and The Way We Lived in the 20th Century (beginning to end including what we thought the late 20th and early 21st Century was going to look like).

New old books

2007-03-17T14:32:00.000-04:00

The latest trip to the Salvation Army turned up some nice surprises. A hardback version of Terry Pratchett's Going Postal which is of course another part of the Discworld series.

I also found an old, undated paperback named Maracot Deep by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame. I had no idea that Doyle had written science fiction.

The final book bought was an old photo book of places in Britain in the 1930s.

Not much new...

2007-03-04T11:47:00.000-05:00

Not much new on the personal front for me. Just a few new books and DVDs added to the collection.

Some new old books include:

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
When the Tripods Came
The Guardians
The Godfather

Latest DVDs are:

What Dreams May Come
City Hunter (Jackie Chan)
Raw
Delirious
Police Story 1 & 2
The Sea is Watching
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Best 10

Just to name a few. I'll be adding a link to my DVD collection to the side bar soon.

Instant noodle inventor Ando dies at 96

2007-01-06T11:13:00.000-05:00

Saturday, January 6, 2007 at 07:21 EST

OSAKA — Momofuku Ando, the founder-chairman of Nissin Food Products Co, died of a heart failure on Friday evening at a hospital in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, his family said. He was 96.

Ando was widely known as the inventor of instant noodles.

Born on March 5, 1910 in Taiwan, Ando initially ran clothing companies in Taipei and Osaka while he was a student at Ritsumeikan University. In 1948, he founded the precursor of Nissin, before introducing "Chicken Ramen," the world's first instant noodle product, in 1958.

Ando was inspired to develop the instant noodle after coming upon a long line of people on a cold night shortly after World War II waiting to buy freshly made ramen at a black market food stall, according to Nissin. The experience convinced him that "Peace will come to the world when the people have enough to eat," it said.

In 1971, Nissin introduced the Cup Noodle, instant noodles in a waterproof styrofoam container that could be used to cook the noodles, ahead of his competitors.

Dubbed the "Ramen King," Ando is credited with expanding Nissin into the No. 1 company in the industry and was well-known for his dedication to his job.

Kei Kizugawa, head of the "Kamigata Geino" journal, said Ando was a great food product inventor whose accomplishment equals that of Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co who was dubbed in Japan as the "Father of Consumer Electronics."

"I believe generation after generation will talk about Chicken Ramen. I don't think there will ever be an instant noodle product that beats the taste of Chicken Ramen," Kizugawa said.

Ando became a chairman after handing over the presidency in 1981 to his eldest son, but came to double as the president again two years later after having a conflict over the company's policy, including development of new products.

In 1999, Ando opened the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum in Ikeda after posting his second son, Koki, as the president.

Ando retired from chairman's post in June 2005 to serve as founder-chairman.
In July 2005, Nissin introduced a vacuum packed instant noodle specially designed for Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi to eat during the U.S. space shuttle Discovery's mission.

Showcasing his "Space Ram" noodles in front of reporters, Ando said, "I'm happy I've realized my dream that noodles can go into space."

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/395279

Japan opens royal tombs for research

2007-01-03T21:11:00.000-05:00

Japan opens royal tombs for research

2 hours, 7 minutes ago

Japan is allowing researchers to study 11 royal tombs, the graves of ancient emperors, sealed centuries ago, in a move that may shed light on the myth-shrouded origins of Japan's imperial family, according to a news report.

The secretive Imperial Household Agency has until now refused to let the public, and even scholars, enter the old tombs, saying the spirits of past emperors should not be disturbed.

But after a petition by the Japanese Archaeological Association and other scholars in 2005, the government has agreed to grant them limited access to the graves, according to a report in the mass-circulation daily, Yomiuri Shimbun.

A small number of researchers will be allowed to enter only the outer fringes of the tombs, and will not be allowed to excavate, the Yomiuri said, citing the association.

Archaeologists say inspecting the tombs could shed light on the origins of the country's imperial family, the world's oldest surviving line — a sensitive topic in Japan, where until 60 years ago the emperor was worshipped as the descendant of an ancient goddess.

The late Emperor Hirohito broke with that tradition by renouncing his divine status in 1945, after Japan's defeat in World War II.

But the myth that Japan's 125 emperors descended from the sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami of Japan's native Shinto religion still holds sway among rightists.

Suggestions by some scholars that the imperial line originated elsewhere — for example, on the Korean peninsula — have been attacked as an insult to the Japanese people.

The tombs to be opened up include one for the Emperor Nintoku, who is thought to have died in 399 A.D. Calls to the Imperial Household Agency went unanswered Wednesday, a national holiday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070104/ap_on_sc/japan_imperial_tombs_1

Happy New Year 2007

2007-01-01T21:35:00.000-05:00

Ah... a fresh New Year. What to do with myself this year... Visit Hawai'i and Japan again? Probably. Finish and sell several new mini-games to Kenzer & Company? Probably. Attend Origins '07 in Columbus, Ohio? Probably. Keep my resolution to stop procrastinating? Probably not.

Merry Christmas (belated)

2006-12-26T09:45:00.000-05:00

I'm a day late but Merry Christmas to all my imaginary readers. I got a neat camouflage dice bag and my daughters got some DVDs and games that I can enjoy too. I'm also feeling good since I don't have to be back to work until January 2nd so I can clean up my den and rearrange my entertainment center.

The family also got a tiny bit bigger with the addition of a currently unnamed hamster.

TGIO party

2006-12-03T22:50:00.000-05:00

Tonight was the NaNoWriMo TGIO (Thank Gawd It's Over) party at the Bristol Bar & Grill. It was an interesting gathering and I was pleased to find out that many of the NaNo-ers seem to be liberals or at least to dislike Bush. I can't go wrong in letting my daughter hang with a good group like that.

Day 30

2006-11-30T22:19:00.000-05:00

Sigh... Day 30 and nothing to do... thank gawd. Time to start working on my submissions for Kenzer & Company (traps, games and stuff) and their Knights of the Dinner Table magazine.

We've been having temperatures in the upper 60s and low 70s since Thanksgiving. I took a day off from work yesterday to use up some time and do a little shopping with some eBay money I've been saving. Got some Gold Digger comics and the latest volume of the Negima manga in English (#12). I've still got to get around to doing that review of Negima don't I?

Day 29: FINISHED!

2006-11-29T23:31:00.000-05:00

Free at last! I wrapped up the story tonight around 11pm and was validated a Winner with 54,003 words. Now I can get on with my life again. Woot! TGIO! (Thank Gawd It's Over)

Day 28: GOAL!

2006-11-28T23:25:00.000-05:00

Well it is the first goal anyway. I hit 50,000 then 51,000 at tonight's Write In at Starbuck's. Officially I'm at 51,084. Hopefully I'll wrap it up tomorrow and then get on with other things.

Day 27

2006-11-28T15:17:00.000-05:00

Almost to the goal. I stopped at 49,142 last night, so only 858 more words until I'm legit. It will take a few more than that to officially wrap up the story though. Luckily I have Wednesday (Nov 29) off from work due to holiday slowdown.

Day 26

2006-11-26T21:24:00.000-05:00

I almost there. I'm so close I can taste it. I'm stopping at 47,743 tonight to recharge my imagination. The climax has begun.

Day 25

2006-11-25T22:58:00.000-05:00

It looks like I forgot to update yesterday. I don't remember what it was yesterday but today my word count is 45,552. Almost finished. I hope I can wrap the story up at the 50k mark so I can get on with typing up some new gaming submissions that I'll actually get paid for.

Day 23 Happy Turkey Day

2006-11-23T23:14:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving. I got a lot done today and finished up at 42,761.

Day 22

2006-11-23T12:14:00.000-05:00

Managed to get up to 40,471 on Day 22. Seems I'm so far ahead that it takes less than the usual 1667 word per day to turn the bar green each day now. Yay.

Day 21

2006-11-21T23:09:00.000-05:00

Had a semi productive night at the Starbuck's write in. There isn't a lot of space for a laptop on those tiny tables but I've upped my count to 39,176 so far. I also discovered that a large chocolate milk cost more than an entire gallon at that place!

Day 20

2006-11-20T22:54:00.000-05:00

Yawn... just barely met the quota today. YouTube is just too entertaining plus the kitten sitting in my lap is sleeping while hugging my left arm. It ain't easy to write under these conditions. Finished at 37,699 tonight.

Day 19

2006-11-19T21:22:00.000-05:00

Let's see. 3683 words yesterday and 1919 today. I've passed the daily goal of 1667 and stopped early tonight at 36,002 words. I should be at 31,673 so I'm 4329 words, or 2.5 days ahead of where I need to be. I so rock even if my story sucks in its current unedited form.

Day 18

2006-11-19T00:01:00.000-05:00

The day ended with another big increase in word count. I really need to quit my day job to get more writing and art done. 34,083 is the grand total up to today! I'll probably take a few days off after Thanksgiving to make sure I meet my goal and that I'm able to wrap things up satisfactorily.

I'm already looking forward to editing this down and streamlining the story into something without all the padding.

Day 17

2006-11-18T00:05:00.000-05:00

Yawn... didn't quite hit the daily 1667 goal but I got close and upped the count to just over three fifths done at 30,400+. The first appearance of the Ranger costumes will be written during Day 18.

Day 16

2006-11-16T23:12:00.000-05:00

I finished another quota of words but the project is starting to grind on me. This is probably due to all the early overtime at work. Staying up late to finish and getting up early isn't fun. Sitting at 29,204 tonight. G'night.

NaNo-ing on Day 15

2006-11-15T23:11:00.000-05:00

I made an effort to keep going with the writing today and hit 27,426. This project is turning into a grueling ordeal similar to climbing Mount Fuji this last summer. It is hard but I keep going just because I bragged to so many people about how I was going to do it and I have my pride, just like with Fuji.

It isn't so much the coming up with words as it is the slight guilt I feel with all the padding and inane conversations I have my characters making just to meet each day's quota. Fortunately this story will never be published to the masses in this form. I may edit it down to a sleeker form to submit after I have my one free vanity copy printed from Lulu.

Embedded video

2006-11-15T08:17:00.000-05:00

Perscription cough syrup with Codine in it is good to make me feel better but bad for novel writing. Hardly got anything written last night (sitting at 25,738). How do you like my embedded video channel from YouTube though?

YouTube and NaNo

2006-11-13T23:27:00.000-05:00

Day 12 of NaNo and I'm at 25,311. Halfway finished, yay! I might be further if I hadn't gotten broadband and become addicted to YouTube over the weekend.

NaNoWriMo Day 12

2006-11-12T20:26:00.000-05:00

I had most of the day to write today and did 3013 words for a grand total of 23,702! I'm getting close to the halfway mark. Today I introduced the first monster attack (actually the second but the characters don't find out about the first until the evening news).

NaNoWriMo Day 11

2006-11-11T23:42:00.000-05:00

I had to work some early overtime today (a Saturday of all days) so I was exhausted and didn't get much thinking done on the story. I managed to hack out the minimum I needed for the day (stopped at 20,689) but it is mostly filler and the conflict still hasn't started yet.

I had to watch my new Cars DVD too and found the first easter egg on it. Since I finally got broadband on Thursday, I also spent some time searching YouTube for interesting videos.

NaNoWriMo Day 10

2006-11-10T23:26:00.000-05:00

19,044 today. Not bad, but not much conversation and none of the action I had planned. Oh well, a gain is a gain.

NaNoWriMo Day 9

2006-11-09T22:48:00.000-05:00

17,131 today. I'm still ahead and still truckin'. Main character intros are over and the first gathering is passed. Time to start introducing the baddies and some conflict, both inside and from outside the group.

NaNoWriMo Day 8

2006-11-08T23:15:00.000-05:00

I hacked out 1836 words tonight which puts me at 15,179. That puts me 1843 words ahead of schedule for Day 8 and 176 ahead of Day 9 if I took tomorrow off. I'm having cable broadband installed tomorrow so hopefully it won't screw up my computer with any glitches.

NaNoWriMo Day 7

2006-11-07T22:54:00.001-05:00

Whoa, so sleepy. Didn't get much NaNoing done today. Too much overtime at work in the morning and then other stuff after work. Plus I'm getting really sleep from the NyQuil that I'm hpped up on.

On a side note: Yay! Northup finally lost! We're free at last.

Oh and 13,343 today.

NaNoWriMo Day 6

2006-11-07T08:55:00.000-05:00

Ended last night's session with 12614. I'm still ahead! Woot!!

NaNo countdown

2006-11-06T08:55:00.001-05:00

Hey the graph countdown for my NaNo novel has finallly fixed itself. It sort of makes sense now.

NaNoWriMo Day 5

2006-11-05T21:27:00.000-05:00

Whew! I had a nice run this evening. I'm at 10,607 right now. I could go on but I figure I'd better hit the sack early rather that burn myself out or risk running out of ideas.

NaNoWriMo Day 4

2006-11-05T09:44:00.000-05:00

Ended Day 4 with 8264 words but I was too tired to update before bed. So here it is now. Expect another update for Day 5 tonight hopefully.

NaNoWriMo Day 3

2006-11-03T23:42:00.000-05:00

Still ahead of schedule with 6509 words. I've introduced two characters with extensive backgrounds on their recent pasts adn put them together on a plane. Tomorrow I will be introducing a third "virtual" character. I'm inspired by Code Lyoko but I'm still trying to make it as original as possible from that series.

NaNoWriMo Day 2

2006-11-02T23:33:00.000-05:00

Not a bad pace today either. I've managed to wrap up Chapter 1 and started Chapter 2 and hit 5005 words before bedtime. Still well ahead of schedule. Week 2 is when I'm supposed to worry about running out of steam or being abandoned by the Muse.

NaNoWriMo Day 1

2006-11-01T23:22:00.000-05:00

Whew! The first day is finally finished, at least for me. I stayed up until midnight and managed to beat the "300 words before bed" dare and clocked in at 696 words. I still managed to have a productive day at work after that and then take my daughter to an appointment. Then after dinner until now I'm at 2889 as of 11:30pm. Time for some sleep.

Nodoka and the Megazord

2006-10-30T22:30:00.000-05:00

Umm, there is no real story to this pic. I was just cleaning off my desk of all junk and distractions for NaNoWriMo and when I moved this megazord up onto the newly dusted computer tower next to Nodoka (from the Negima manga), they just looked really cool together. It looks like she is really sidling up to the big guy.

Back again...

2006-10-29T19:00:00.000-05:00

Wow! It's been almost 3 months exactly since I've updated this thing. I'd be ashamed of myself if I wasn't the King of Procrastination.

Anyway, the clocks have been set back for fall and that means it's almost November and time for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I crashed and burned last year just under the 6,000 word mark. It was a shame too since I really wanted to finish writing that steampunk story.

This year I'll make it to 50,000 words though. I'll be doing a Power Rangers parody set here in Louisville, Kentucky with a group of Dungeons & Dragons players and a cute female exchange student from Japan. I should be able to include all my hobbies in this story. There will be a noticable influence of Code Lyoko too.

Stay tuned and watch the word counter on the right side of the page increase throughout the month.

Gedo Senki (Tales From Earthsea)

2006-08-01T03:57:00.000-04:00

This morning, my youngest daughter and I went to the Itami Toho-plex to see the new Studio Ghibli movie Gedo Senki which is based on the Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin. The title itself is from the fifth book in the series while some of the characters are borrowed from the first three books. It was the first film directed by Goro Miyazaki, son of the god of anime Hayao Miyazaki.

Even though my Japanese is limited, the story and film itself was excellent. I look forward to seeing the English version someday. The animation quality wasn't as highly detailed as what Ghibli fans are used to. You start off seeing a ship being tossed in the waves but you don't see the individual planks as you would expect to see in a film from this studio. It actually feels like you are watching an older Miyazaki anime such as the Future Boy Conan TV series.

The animation was good though and so was the action. The story is what really got the most attention and it showed. There isn't much more I can say without giving stuff away though. Just look forward to seeing it in a theater near you.

Underachiever conquers Fuji!

2006-08-01T03:28:00.000-04:00

After all these years I finally did it! On July 27, 2006 I took the Shinkansen to the Mt Fuji area. After a two hour bus ride through the forests around the base of the mountain and up into the clouds (literally) we arrived at the Fujinomiya Route's 5th station starting point.

After purchasing a hiking staff for 1000 yen, I began my climb at 5pm in heavy clouds. I couldn't see anything on either side of the trail, not to mention the mountain itself. It was hidden during the bus ride up so I could have been climbing a totally different mountain and never known. At the 7th station I finally broke through the cloud layer into perfectly clear skies.

A group of British tourists and three classes of junior high school girls were spending the night (till 1am at least) resting at the 7th station. From here we could look down on an ocean of clouds with the sun just setting and a moon quickly following. Lucky for me. I started climbing again and the stars soon began to come out by the hundreds.

As I continued climbing through the night the Milky Way itself soon became clearly visible. Since I was practically alone on the side of the mountain, I laid down on the trail itself several times and just watched the sky while I caught my breath and calmed my heart down. I caught sight of several satellites in the first couple hours of darkness. As I climbed higher I saw the occasional shooting star including one that lasted a long time and left a tail across the sky.

Of course the higher I went, the harder it became since both the trail became steeper and the air thinner. I had brought some canned oxygen but only bothered to take it out of my pack at the rest stations. I'm not sure if it helped much but I did finally arrive at the top alive around 4am the next morning. 11 hours is way over the average time to climb Mt Fuji so I guess I'm not as in as good a shape as I had thought.

After making it to the top I made it over to a peak on the east side of the mountain to catch the sunrise at 4:49 with many others who had suddenly began to appear on the trail in the early morning hours and quickly passed me by. After many pics with the Cybershot I was ready to head back to the top of the trail to find some food at the little "restaurant". That mostly consisted of overpriced instant noodles. I gladly paid 800 yen for a cup of ramen and drank it down to the last drop since the top of Fuji was so cold and windy.

I then paid 200 yen for the use of the toilet, 300 yen to get my stick stamped at the Shinto shrine and sent a few post cards to the families from the tiny post office at the top. I saw an Israeli guy who had been on the bus with me in the eating area. He had started at the same time as me and made it to the top by 10pm and slept in the post office with a borrowed blanket. He had started out with flip flops on his feet too!

After a quick cell phone call to my wife's family to let them know I was at the top and safe, I began my decent at 6:30am. It took me 4.5 hours to slide my way down in the volcanic gravel. A platoon (?) of Japanese Self Defense Forces were going up the mountain that morning along with several father & daughter teams. Once at the bottom I bought the family some Fuji "cowberry" cookies as an omiyage and sat talking with a British lady while we waited for the bus to take us back to Shin-Fuji station and the shinkansens that would take us home.

A mistaken train switch at Nagoya slowed down my return by an hour or so. I was super exhausted when I finally arrived and just had a light dinner, shower and went straight to bed. My leg muscles below the knee are still hard like rocks and sore. Of course that could be because I went to climb nearby Mt Ikoma on the 30th with a local hiking group. I'm a glutton for punishment.

Another day

2006-07-25T19:18:00.000-04:00

It's been a few days with nothing majorly entertaining to report from the land of the rising sun. On Monday (24) and Tuesday (25) we visited my daughters' schools to thank the principal for allowing them in and taking care of them. Chiharu is going to daily free swimming at her school during the summer break.

I've just been riding around checking prices at various used CD and manga shops. No one seems to have the Katamari Damashi soundtrack. I'll be checking Virgin Records and Tower Records in the Umeda section of downtown Osaka today. I'll also be going to a big sporting goods store to check on prices of canned oxygen for my climb up Mt Fuji on July 27/28. I may meet a local expatriot friend if he contacts me before I leave the house.

Greetings from Itami City

2006-07-23T06:03:00.000-04:00

Greatings from beautiful and rainy Itami City, nestled in between Osaka, Amagasaki and Kobe. I got here on the evening of July 21 (Japan time) after an unusuallly bumpy ride on a Northwest 747. After I landed at Kansai International I hopped on a shuttle bus to the ferry port on the corner of the man made island. The ferry Sora took me across the bay to Kobe Airport in just 29 minutes as promised.

From Kobe Airport I hopped the automated Port Liner into downtown Kobe (Sannomiya area) and switched to the Hankyu line for a ride to Itami. I don't think I saved any time but it was interesting and it saved my in-laws a 4 hour round trip (with tolls and parking fees) since they didn't have to come and get me.

I finally made it to their house all on my own, unpacked the goodies and presents and after a hot bath I totally zoned out on the futon. The next day (22nd) wasn't much more exciting. I took a walk in the morning and set my GPSr for the Japan area. My sister-in-law came over with her kids and we had a pizza party of sorts. As soon as she left my jet lag kicked in with a vengence and I was in bed before 7pm and didn't wake up until around 4am the next day (23rd).

Today (23rd) I finally got out to do some shopping at the used manga and game shops. I'm holding off on most purchases until I check out some more shops, but I did pick up the rare Love Hina 0 (zero) book. I also managed to find a couple of Japanese PS1 games I've been wanting for years. Macross Digital Mission VF-X and Tokimeki Memorial Quiz.

Origins rundown

2006-07-06T22:47:00.000-04:00

Origins was a blast again this year! I'll grudgingly admit that Gen Con is bigger and seems to have more to do outside of the exhibit halls, but I feel right at home at Origins and in Columbus. I took my time getting up to Columbus, hitting a rest area geocache along the way and rescuing a stuffed cat as a companion for my plush Esper Ranger mascot.

I spent Friday night (June 30) at a Holiday Inn Express outside the city preparing the cards for my playable demo of the Kenzerland Chaos board game. Cutting up printouts of the card descriptions and then glue sticking them to the front of old Yu-Gi-Oh cards, then putting those into sleeves. I had just gotten the board itself printed and laminated at Staples that morning.

Saturday (July 1) I arrive at the Convention center a little after 7am, grab my badge and then sit at an open gaming table up in the breezeway until the hucksters room opened at 10am. All the while I had a copy of the Great Space Race prominently displayed for all passing to see. The swag bag was excellent this year. A free back issue of KODT, a purposely deformed Crystal Caste d6 with D'oh! written on it, a handful of d6s from customdice.com, a couple of the Horrorclix figures with a pair of tiny d6s and... pogs? Who's trying to sell pogs again?

I thought I would be running free demos of GSR at the Kenzer & Company booth, but it turns out they had me scheduled to run ticketed demos in the tabletop gaming room. I dash over there to run demos of the Tech Support card game from 10am ~ 2pm, then had the rest of the day free for shopping.

Checked into the Hyatt (3pm) connected to the con center and had a very cozy room up on what they call the "8th floor" but is really probably at the 15th level on any of the surrounding buildings since the Hyatt sits up on these crazy concrete legs. Kicked back for a while just in time to see the shuttle launch scrubbed.

Went back to the expo hall to look around more and sit in on another demo game of GSR until the hall closed at 6pm. Went to find some dinner, hit a nearby geocache and sat in on the traditional Knights of the Dinner Table: Live Reading (8pm ~10pm) where Jolly Blackburn was surprise inducted to the Origins Hall of Fame. I had my name in the box to go up and read this year but didn't get drawn.

Back up to the room to read KODT to myself and watch Monty Python's Flying Circus on TV until I fell asleep with the big picture window open to the high rise city lights.

Sunday (July 2) got up, packed up and took some stuff down to the car, got breakfast and ate with a fellow Kenzerite (Rythax). Went back to the room to get my convention roll-around suitcase with the fuzzyknights.com bumper stickers, checked out and went to run the GSR demos in the tabletop gaming hall. Never did get time to find people to try my Kenzerland Chaos game.

Did some more last minute shopping, got my sister a Princess Bride related T-shirt. Bought a couple cheap ($5) anime DVDs, a Kentucky terrorist hunting license, a tube of mini D&D dice for plush Esper, a zip-up dice tin, a 100 sided die (Zocchihedron) and had a "What If?" conversation with Col. Zocchi about the Pearl Harbor attack. Cashed in my demo work credits at the Kenzer booth and hit the road for home.

Once I crossed the river at Cinncinnati and got back into Kentucky, I did what I always to and totally missed seeing the spot where Interstates 71 & 75 stopped being the same road and took a wrong turn without even realizing it until an hour later when I was almost to Lexington instead of Louisville. D'oh!Got home safe. Now it is time to prepare for my trip to Japan on July 20th.

Origins pic

2006-07-03T11:44:00.000-04:00

Just a quick pic from the convention. Esper Ranger pimping www.fuzzyknights.com for a friend. I'll have a more complete rundown of events at Origins soon.

Origins 2006 part 1

2006-06-30T21:21:00.000-04:00

Okay, I'm not actually at the Origins International Gaming Expo yet. Right now I'm sitting in the lobby of a Holiday Inn Express just outside the host city of Columbus. I'll be heading into town early in the morning to collect my badge and then bone up on the rules for the two cool games that I'll be demoing at the Kenzer & Company booth on the expo floor.

Tech Support is an interesting and quick to learn little card game about exactly what the title says. You try to get help from the call center guru while doing your best to hinder other players' attempts.

The Great Space Race is a super cool board game involving racing space ships. I'll be doing a fuller review on that in a few days after I've got a couple games under my belt. It looks interesting as heck though with plenty of chain reaction destruction (I love the domino effect).

Hopefully I can get to a computer tomorrow evening to give a review of the convention itself too.

Cars

2006-06-11T11:35:00.000-04:00

Not so much a review... more like a heap of praise and a strong suggestion.

This is getting a bit tiresome, what with the folks at Pixar forcing me to repeat myself over and over. "They did it again!" Whenever I see a teaser for a Pixar film one or two years in advance I always think "They can't make a very interesting film about (insert subject here: bugs, monsters, fish, super heroes, cars)" Then they always, much to my delight, prove me completely wrong.

"They did it again!" with Cars. I consider myself a pretty imaginative person but what they did with the world design, characters and story blows away anything I could come up with even on a good day (with or without the help of outside stimulants). My words just won't do the film justice. I would gladly pay the Japanese movie admission price of $16~$18 to see this movie. It is that stunningly good. Make sure to sit through the credits until the very end for all the gags too.

I would gladly get into a duel with the Spoony One himself over the quality of this movie if he ever gives it a negative review. Now go forth and see it immediately! This I Suggest!

Kittens!

2006-05-06T19:51:00.000-04:00

This seems like a good reason to continue with my blogging. A stray cat we had been taking care of gave birth to kittens in our next door neighbor's dog house 3 weeks ago. We've taken them all in now and they are breaking all kinds of hearts. My sister will be taking the grey and orange ones (both boys) while we keep the two black ones (boy and girl) and the mother (named Mimi).

We are keeping them in my den right now away from our older cat (Maxi). We hope they will all learn to get along.

Mt Fuji training continues...

2006-02-20T21:15:00.000-05:00

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)

2006-02-20T21:00:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-02-16T21:53:00.000-05:00

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)

2006-02-13T21:06:00.000-05:00

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.

2006-02-09T22:25:00.000-05:00

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

2006-02-08T21:32:00.000-05:00

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.