Tim’s Ramblings

Yup. Today I went back to the old apartment for one finaly time to finish up some vacuuming and cleaning and left with the keys on the counter and the door unlocked. *sniff*…I’ll miss that place. It was my “womb” for 10 years. A horribly HORRIBLY cluttered womb…but a womb none the less. :D

For the EXTREMELY few of you who have ever seen the disaster that was my apartment before I moved out, here’s what it looks like when everything is out. :)

But no more rent and stuff and I can now say I only live here in Westlake so all is well!

Of course, I then find out today while chatting with the cutie at the cheese stand at the West Side Market (I don’t know her name…even after like 4 years…she’s just “the cutie at the cheese stand” in my mind…) that she moved into the apartment across the street from me last week! NOOOOO!! I could have been her neighbor!! Boooo. …not that anything would have happened of course…because you know…I’m a wuss…but damn. We were both like “aww…it would have been kinda cool!”. Oh well. So be it.

But yes, my first time back at the WSM in a month! It was great. I got all the stuff I usually get along with a slice of lasagna from Ohio City Pasta that looked really good and picked up a bratwurst and a falafel for lunch. It’s…so…GOOD. Drove home and ate a lovely late lunch while watching the French Open in HD. More specifically watching Maria Sharapova in HD. Dear lord what a beautiful woman. No makeup. Total concentration. But still looks amazing. Every time I see her in that Canon Powershot commercial, I get jealous of the dog. Is that bad?

Anyway, this post seems to be morphing into “Tim’s current obsessions” and that’s just not healthy nor does it need to be pursued any further.

Later today I’m off to a little party so I hope the weather holds out. Supposed to rain and thunderstorm too…but so far it’s been beautiful so I’m crossing my fingers.

:)

So, since I haven’t updated in a while… No new pics or anything yet. Will get to it. Really.

Before I start…I’m no Penguins fan, especially growing up in Buffalo. But since the Stanley Cup is on NBC, I’ve been watching it and knowing how Detroit utterly dominated the Penguins the first two games, I am genuinely impressed and entertained at how well the Penguins are doing tonight. I have to say, I have to cheer on the underdogs. :) They are getting some great great shots on goal.

Anyway…

Since the last update, I survived the damn typhoon and came home last Thursday night. The typhoon was horrible as expected. POURING rain. Train delay. And once the trains started moving the trains were PACKED. Once I got to the station, the wind was so bad an unbrella was impossible. It was just insane….

The flight back was relatively uneventful and I got some sleep on Thursday before gong to work on Friday.

Friday night was Eddie Izzard! He was awesome. Yeah, he was no longer in FANTASTIC makeup but it didn’t matter. And even though he’s a big star now with his own TV show too, he hasn’t lost his edge and the 2 hour show was too damn short! Just hillarious!!

Saturday was my sister’s wedding reception at the club house for my townhouse complex. About 25 people and BBQ from Bubba Q’s. It was a good time. My sister asked if I can bring my entertainment stuff so my plasma TV, Xbox 360, Wii, and PS3 also ended up at the clubhouse. For a while we showed a slideshow from the wedding and Hawaii using the PS3, then some GTA4 action on the Xbox (where I think a few of the guests were genuinely appalled at the strip joint scenes more than the mayhem and massacre), and finally on to Rock Band.

Rock Band went on until 12am and then it moved to my place where it continued on until 2am. Good times.

This totally messed up with my jet lag and the next day I didn’t wake up until 2 when my sister called… Ooops. I was supposed to go to my apartment and finally clear it out since I have to turn my keys in this weekend. Thank god my sister called.

She helped out big time on Sunday for about 3 hours and we completely filled up an already pretty full dumpster. Eeesh.

Monday I spent most of the afternoon at my apartment cleaning more stuff and taking more stuff home. Stuff like books and such that was still there along with more games, cleaning stuff, all the surge protectors and such that I had back when I had pets, and a buttload of monitors and computers….eeesh.

Tuesday I went back to do more cleaning, take more stuff home, take apart the tables and such, and generally do more cleanup.

Tonight? Same thing.

Tomorrow? Yeah…but I have to be there early since the gas guy has to come into the apartment to turn off service (each apartment has their own furnace) and D is coming over to help me move the table and such out the curb. Someone is going to have a good day taking stuff from the curb tomorrow. I’m talking 4 perfectly fine dinner chairs, some decent shelves…even some broken (though probably fixable) electronics like 2 printers, a scanner, and my old Aiwa stereo I had since college (remember those?).

Friday? Um. Well…I should go back and vacuum. We’ll see since I have a little birthday part to go to after work at a bar…

Saturday? Keys go bye bye and I am officially DONE with the apartment! Wooo! …after 5 months… Ha.

Anyway, what I now have to do is go through all the crap I brought back and clean it up and put stuff up in the attic if I need to and so on and so forth. I can do that over the weekend I suppose.

But now that I no longer have to pay rent…maybe it’s time I start looking at a new car or something…hmmm…the Nissan GTR looks sexy as hell… :)

For godsakes…

Not a direct hit but it is POURING and some major winds. It’s due to the swirling clouds on the edge of the storm that is passing over eastern Japan… The poor reporter standing in the middle of Tokyo live said that it is like standing in the middle of a waterfall and you can’t really even open an umbrella…

Guess where I’m going this morning?

Nope. Not Tokyo. Yokohama.

Where is Yokohama? RIGHT on the shore. Oh. My. God….

Trains are delayed.

Horrid rain.

But I’m going! I will survive!!! Though they are saying that the peak of commuter time is going to be the peak of the storm.

Fun.

I can’t win….

Wish me luck….

At least by this afternoon it’ll be past us… Though I’m going to be indoors from 1 to 5. So yeah. Didn’t matter then….

So, after posting my last post, I took a bit of a rest and then headed out to Shibuya. This is the first weekend I’ve had free in Japan in a while so it was nice to hit up my usual shopping places.

But man…I noticed this is Akihabara too but there are a LOT of westerners here these days. In Akihabara there has always been the geeks walking around but this time I saw standard tourists there as well. I guess web sites like Gizmodo and such are doing their job of making Akihabara sound like some gadget paradise (it can be if you know where to go).

So this time I headed out to Shibuya, the youth district or sometimes known as the “Times Square of Tokyo”. This is going to be a photo heavy post so everything is after a cut after the first pic. Click on the link to see the rest of the post!

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Got my new one!

The Canon IXY 29IS.

Mmmm…

It’s basically the same design as my old one but after 2.5 years, it now has image stabilization, face recognition, and now takes 10 megapixel images. Very nice. But just as easy to use. Compact. Light. Sturdy. With a good lens.

I like it. (^_^)

My old Camera took a total of 3666 photographs in 2.5 years not to meantion a decent number of short movie clips. Not bad really when you think about it. Here’s to my new one lasting just as long!!!

(Edit: Ha! Turns out I got this before it’s release in the US. In the US it will be released May 20th as the Canon PowerSHot SD770IS. Nice. I paid a bit more for it than I would have at Amazon but I will chalk that up as a premium since I got to hold and take test shots and compare it with oodles of other cameras at the store before deciding on this one.)

Back on December 10th of 2005 (I checked my blog…) I picked up my 5 MP Canon IXY digital camera at Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara. It was a really nice little camera. Great lens and nice small but sturdy frame. It’s not so thin that I’m afraid to put it in my pocket and have it break but not too thick that I couldn’t. The screen was smaller than the latest ones and no image stabilization but that meant I had longer battery life. 5MP was plenty for pure point and click and it took some great pictures.

Today though, I went to my parent’s and then, while at dinner, I pulled it out to take a pic and found out that the screen cover broke!! AAAA. The cover was loose and 1 was missing while the other was stuck partway closed and was also crooked! Dear god! What happened? I even dropped this camera before and there was a dent it in but it was still working fine. Man….

All I can think of is, sometime between getting on the train to get to my parent’s place (I took a picture then and it was fine) and getting there, it must have gotten bumped in the wrong way and it broke.

*sigh*

I liked that little camera. I’ll miss it. My mom took it over to see if she can get it fixed for cheaper than a new camera. If she can, then she can have it. It’s just a mechanical problem and the camera itself is still in great working order (barring the dent in the body and the coating on the LCD screen worn off…think of it as “well used”).

But, the nice thing is, since I’m still here I’m off to Akihabara tomorrow to get a new one. I had to go there anyway to pick up a laptop for an employee (part time) here in Japan so I’ll pick up a camera while I’m there too. I’m a Canon guy so it’s going to take a lot for me to not buy the latest Canon. We’ll see. What I really really want is the Leica M8. But….yeah….at $5.5K, it’s definitely a tremendous guilty pleasure. No zoom lens. Hell…NO LENS (bought separately). I think I will have to hold on that one…at least for now.

So tomorrow I’m off to Akihabara to get a laptop (alas…not for me) and a camera. I also want to buy some manga but I might go to a different place for that. Of course, getting back to the hotel and THEN leaving again is a pain…but I might have to so I won’t have to lug everything around.

Fun.

Anyway, time to go to bed. I need to pack tomorrow since I’m switching rooms. Woo….

Well, looks like I’m not going home today after all.

We got a good lead on a deal here but for us to get the green light we need to do some convincing with some of their Japanese managers. Sooooo I get to put on my sales hat and go and convince them that our solution is what they really really really really want.

Fun.

Unfortunatley they can’t get everyone together until Thursday morning. I am going to go see Eddie Izzard on Friday and I really don’t want to miss it. So it’s gonna be a fun little schedule. Basically I have a flight leaving at 3:55. That means I need to be at the airport by no later than 1:55. I will be an hour away from Kawasaki for the meeting Thursday morning. From Kawasaki I am, at best, an hour and a half away from the airport. Soooo I need to make sure to be back at Kawasaki by 12…which might be tight. Ugh. (yes…I figured all of this out now as I was typing…). Fun times.

So today I’m here at my parent’s place to do laundry. This is the first time I’ve been here since early February I think. Dad’s at work so we’re just kind of chilling out. Tomorrow I need to go buy a laptop for an employee here and so forth. Fine by me. I’ll get more points :)

Of course this kind of screwed up some plans. I was going to go to my apartment (yeah…still have it) with my sister to go get her stuff out and also to get some help in tossing out stuff. But looks like she will be going there on her own. At least I have Sunday next week and Memorial Day to clean the place out at the last minute. Woo…

So that’s it. Oh, and I get to change my hotel room tomorrow so I need to pack tonight so they can move my stuff for me while I’m out. What a pain… But at least I’m done manning the booth. My feet were KILLING me by the 3rd day and I was getting really tired bowing deeply and handing out our catalog to anyone walking by (pick up rate of about 10%). Oh well. It was our firt booth in Japan as a company so we gotta start somewhere right?

Mom went out to get lunch. Starving… Oooh, she’s back! Man…I hope things go well next week…

So apparently it’s Typhoon #2…not just a tropical depression.

It’s not making landfall thankfully but it’s still going to graze us. It’s already been raining hard since around 10pm last nigt and it’s supposed to get windy and get more rain throughout the day until mid day at least as it goes past us. Yaaaaaaay. I can’t WAIT to walk through this weather. My unbrella is going to get shredded in this wind….

Just another fun trip I guess. Why is it that I always seem to be here during these storms???

So…before I get into the flight and such, I got back from buying some electronics (more on that later) and eating a very filling meal and turned on the TV just in time to see the weather report.

…and there’s a storm coming right at us…

Ok. Not a typhoon like last time. But it’s swirly and strong and will at least graze Tokyo on Tuesday and Wednesday. Great… Because you know, that’s what I enjoy. Trudging through the rain in a suit. Oh, and I didn’t bring my long overcoat because usually by this time here in Tokyo it’s nice and temperate and actually bordering on warm. Yeah. Due to the storm? Chilly. ….wonderful….

Oh well, at least most of Wednesday I will be indoors at a trade show so if all goes well we will get hit late and I won’t care. Hopefully.

Flight was…long. Felt long at least since it’s always long regardless. This time, even after reading, playing on the PSP, and even watching some recorded TV, time just seemed to go at a crawl. Of course, I was also jealous too…since I spied a mom and 2 kids in business class. Come on. Those 12 year old brats don’t need to sit in BUSINESS CLASS. Grrrrr…. The mom was all blinged out and was wearing this horrid leapard print shirt which was so ridiculously ugly that it was probably some extremely expensive exclusive designer shirt that cost more than every single thing I’m wearing totalled up including my watch and my ring (that dad gave me – titanium…ooooh).

So, instead of up there, I was sitting in coach where, right next to me was a baby less than a year old (with all the newborn kids around me at work I’m getting good at telling a kid’s age…). Crying? Oh yes. Fussing? You betchya. THEN, their friends decided that the aisle next to me was the best place to converge with THEIR kids. It was like an “Interracial Couples with Babies Tour”. 3 white guys. 3 Japanese women. All had babies all about the same age. Weird. It was like they were all debating which of their babies would be the most beautiful / handsome due to being a half and half… And yes. they were all fussy. And no…I did not enjoy the dude’s ass constantly rubbing up against my arm….. *sigh*….

As for people watching at the airport, Newark was interesting. Right by the Continental louge smack in the middle of the pathway with tons of people walking all around, a couple were in deep deeeeep deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep embrace. Just making out like they were totally alone… Now, in a movie? It’ll be this romantic scene. In reality? Fucking get out of the way… Electric car almost ran them over, people are trying to go around them, I was just hoping, hoping that the electric cart would just say “screw it” and hit them….

Ah well. Not all was bad though. Well, I’m so used to this now that when I get to Japan, I have my own routine. Get past customs, get out to the terminal. Go to the ATM, get money out. Walk to the other terminal where there is a small mini mart. Buy 3 rice balls and a bottle of cold green tea. Go downstairs, get the ticket on the Narita Express, and once the train starts moving and goes outside after a brief stop at Terminal 2, I eat my rice balls and drink my tea while watching the rice fields go past (the airport is out in the countryside). It’s the first time I can really let out a big sigh, relax, and know that I’m almost “home”.

Went to the nearby electonics store to buy a replacement power chord for my laptop (the wire frayed and I had to tape it up with electrical tape…yow…), an extention chord / extra outlets that I’ve always forgotten to buy (the desk in the room only has 2 plugs), and an AC adaptor for my wireless router that I forgot back home. Then stopped by a noodle place for a big bowl of chanpon (it’s like ramen but the noodles are thicker and there are more veggies in the broth) and some gyoza. This filled me up since I don’t eat on the plane. And stopped at 7-11 to pick up a magazine, some peanuts and rice crackers, drinks, and 2 cans of beer in case I need help in falling asleep….especially since I have an early day tomorrow and I need my sleep desperately.

It’s 6:15pm now. Setup my walkman to record some TV shows. And I plan on watching some TV, doing some work e-mail, and then hitting the sack.

Hope you all have a good Sunday! (^_^)

It feels like I was just gone. Oh wait. I was….

But with my parents here the first week and work being a bit (to say the least) hectic the 2nd, it really does feel very short between trips.

This time I am gone for just a week. There was a chance that I would be heading out somewhere in South East Asia or Brunei afterwards but with schedule conflics and such (Eddie Izzard on Friday and my sister’s wedding reception on Saturday) it got pushed back. Which honestly I’m all for at this point.

At least this past week, as much as work was a pain, I did go to a dinner and a movie with J so that was nice. Went to see The Forbidden Kingdom. First time Jackie Chan and Jet Li are in a movie togther! Wooo! Their fight scene? Awesome! Wooo! …but there’s only one. Boooo… And there’s a white kid coming of age… Blah. But both women in the movie were HOT! Wooo! …plot? What plot? Booo…. But it was entertaining so I can’t really complain. And the fight scene between the two great cinematic kung fu stars was impressive as hell.

Other than that, most nights I was either on a conference call or playing Grand Theft Auto 4. It’s fun. I really like this one. I think this is the first one I really enjoyed since Vice City. The very first GTA3 was amazing but then Vice City totally topped it. Tommy Verceti was a fun character to play. San Andreas didn’t really do it for me. And none of the PSP ones did it for me either. But this one is fun. The story is actually really good. The voice acting is great and other games should follow what Rockstar has done here and bring true voice acting to games. But the best thing is the main character. Niko Bellic, an illegal immigrant from an unnamed Easter European country, is ruthless, cold hearted, but likable. I don’t know exactly why but with his accent and matter of factness and everything, you really enjoy playing this guy.

Sure…I’ve killed hookers and drug dealers and cops…. That’s part of the game. But they made even that easy and actually fun to do. The last games, gun fights were always a bit frustrating. Now, you can easly take cover and pop out to shoot other people, and that makes a huuuuge difference in a shootout. They did make the game more difficult though by not having as many hidden weapons, the cops are now far more ruthless if you get a wanted level, and health is almost non-existant other than buying food from stands and such, but it takes a back seat once you start getting into the game. The world is incredibly detailed with small touches everywhere and hell, you can even watch TV or go to a comedy club with real comedians! Last night I watched like a 5 minute routine with Ricky Gervaise (the guy from the original British version of The Office).

Anyway, it’s fun. If you have a next gen system, it’s worth at least checking out. It kinda sucks I can’t play it this week :( Not that I would have had time since most of my nights are pretty packed now and I’ll be jet lagged….so not sure if I’ll even log on to World of Warcraft either… Stuck at level 21…..

Other than that, nothing new. Sitting in the lounge, typing this up, looking at fellow travelers… People change when they travel. There’s guys in suits. Families with parents looking like they’re totally beat and dying at 6:30am. And a woman just walked in with a rolling laptop bag and a big duffle bag and wearing a bright red halter top, ridiculously tight mini skirt, and a searingly bright red cowboy boots…. Oh, and on the way to the lounge, I passed a girl on the payphone saying, not so softly, “You tell that bitch to get that number and call that other bitch goddammit!”. Nice….

At least I got to go through the new x-ray machine they got here that lets you keep your laptops and such in your bags since it scans everything in 3D. Cool stuff.

Only one thing I have to do when I get to Japan and get to my hotel. Check in, drop bags off, and immediately go to the electronics store to buy a laptop power supply. My current one, the wire has frayed from being wound and unwound so many times in the past year. You know it’s bad when you plug it into the surge protector at the office and it starts sparking…. Right now it’s held togeter with electrical tape…. Ooops….

Maybe I’ll write more when I get to Newark since I have about 1.5 hours there. But for now, in case I don’t, hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!!