tadaima

Simply. That’s how my DS Lite now operates. I have gone from 5 games to 800 games overnight. At a time when I should be studying and not much else.. Anyway, I wanted to talk about why I started this blog – or more so what inspired me to begin writing stuff again, taking photos, writing music, making video art, all of the stuff that makes me feel good about myself, my life and perhaps even makes me feel OK about being 31, single and having no plans for even a relationship, let alone the M word.

I had never been one for blogs particularly – I had to write one for university, but purely as a design journal / process documentation type thing. I did write personal stuff on it but never really felt comfortable baring my life for all and sundry. It kinda felt fake – like when your dad buys a “cool” t-shirt and a pair of adidas sneakers and a cap, and tries to act all hip around your friends while they secretly roll their eyes. Not that I was trying to be cool – but I have never been one to share my random thoughts with many people. My couple of really close friends, yes – but that’s about it. So it didn’t feel right – I just wrote that stuff because I thought that’s what you are supposed to write. The result being a wooden, awkward log of random thoughts, images and my second year musings on the theory of design. I shudder to even dig it up now. I do know it’s still online though.

So last year, I had planned to go to Vietnam for a semester – my university had offered me and two other people a place in HMC. I wont go into details, but lets just say that work got in the way, and I declined to go – instead taking six months of school to work full-time. Quite the opposite of what I had planned. Maybe I’m getting old after-all. During this time, I took a break from creating things. I kinda needed a break to be honest, so it was OK. This drought of ideas and motivation continued for a good 10 months – during which time I mostly worked, played video games, and occasionally studied Japanese. I was listening to Alex and Beb throughout this time – and it was Alex that kept me going with my Japanese study. Not that my motivation for that was lacking, but I was sick of Pimsleur style super-formal rubbish, and was getting dis-heartened that despite a couple of years of moderate effort, I still couldn’t understand a thing when I watched Japanese TV or movies. Alex’s podcast was the first one I found that actually taught spoken Japanese – and it was such a breath of fresh air for my Japanese study. Around this time, I also became friends with some Japanese people living in Melbourne – one of which I see a lot of. She also has been helping me learn to speak every day Japanese. I appreciate that formal Japanese is important to study, but you would swear they spoke two different languages.

Anyway, fast forward to a couple of months ago, and I was going through some older episodes of Learn Japanese. One of them featured Rob Holbrook, in a minor role – but he provided great input. I can even remember what he was talking about – “おねさん、なまちゅうちょだい”. I found Rob’s podcast at that point and began to go back through old episodes – it was great to discover Alex was also a part of News From The Other Side, along with a huge cast of other characters – ex-pats living in Japan, presumably teaching Japanese. From my perspective, even more than the actual content of the podcasts, what I found interesting was how this social network of ex-pats exists across cities. It suggests to me that there is a real cultural isolation for がいじん living in Japan, and as a result a strong community forms. Also interesting is the involvement by Japanese in this community, and the relationships that exist. Is it a little bit hipster for Japanese to hang out with foreigners? It seems so, in my opinion.

Im getting off topic slightly, and will return to that topic at a later date… Back to News From The Other Side – I can’t remember which episode this was from, but I distinctly remember a conversation that took place, and Rob was talking to Alex about how people need to stop treating myspace, facebook, blogs, youtube etc any differently to television – how it’s all become one in the same. He then talked about receiving criticism from people who don’t contribute anything – and by that meaning not contributing to.. the creation of content I guess – in whatever format or medium that may be. It got me thinking about what I had produced in my first couple of years at university, and the fact that I had practically stopped doing ANYTHING. I remembered how good I felt when I did actually create something – put something into the world which is mine. Something that I was proud of, and fucked if I care what anyone else thought because I was putting stuff out there, and unless you have / are, then I dont care what you think. It was that moment, while sitting in my car outside a pizza shop, hungry, listening to the podcast, that spurred me back into action with a new frame of mind.

I didn't necessarily decide to create a new blog right there and then, but I knew it was time to get back into action. I knew that I wanted to be someone who was putting stuff out there, not just consuming it from the other end. I dont intend for this blog to be the product of my efforts - merely a part of documenting the process that is my life. I guess it's not that different to my first blog when you consider it - though I feel a hell of a lot more comfortable than I did before.

To Rob and Alex, I owe you a drink of your choice, in a city to be determined.

clap your hands, assignments due!

Myself, Brad, Ben and Yoko went to the Hi-Fi Bar on Tuesday night to see American band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. It was a freezing night in Melbourne, but the heat of a thousand hipster music fans was enough to warm the inside of the venue. The opening band was called New Estate (melbourne), and featured a somewhat tubby drummer stuffed into a scout shirt. Lets just say watching him play the drums was mesmerising.. kinda like a lava lamp is mesmerising. OK, that was a cheap shot - I actually really liked them. The drummer completely stole the show though - he even sang a couple of numbers. The whole band was completely nerdy and not hipster - which was their appeal for me. I hate indie hipster bullshit - would much prefer to watch or play in a band full of normal people who just really love music.

CYHSY were good. Good like cheese on toast is good. Not great, and not shit, just good (was it Damon Albarn who said that? I cant remember). The band had quite the cast of characters - a drummer that looked like Chuck Norris, twins on bass and guitar, Napoleon Dynamite on keys and the singer with that voice. Not much stage presence going with this lot, though plenty of smarm from the singer. Perhaps a little too much smarm. Anyway, my ears hurt for a couple of days after. It was fucking loud.

Im edging closer to the end of Semester one on the uni front, which means everything is due. I spent 6 hours last night fucking with httperf and webalizer on an apache server for an assignment. Not exactly my idea of fun. I also have a photo journal due, of which I have done little to no work on. I'll get onto that over the weekend.

Tonight, we are heading into the studio it seems, so I'll get whatever pictures, video and sounds I can; and if they dont completely suck, I'll be sure to put something online.

talk and tales of takoyaki

First of all, I have uploaded some new photos to Flickr - the link is to the right, over there on that side bar thing. I took some photos while I was in the studio on the weekend and while I was driving. On top of that, I took a few photos from the Japan Festival that we went to on Sunday, though those aren't up yet. Maybe they will be by the time you read this. Maybe. I have also added a Top 10 weekly artists from my last.fm account (thanks polarkun) - it grabs info from itunes and automatically updates.. Amazing eh?

Ben, Yoko and I watched the FA Cup final on saturday night from the comfort of our lounge room. We had planned to go to a pub, but as the night got on, we got lazy. The match started at midnight here you see. So we got a slab, cooked some dinner, and watched the game (after all but finishing our season in the La Liga on Winning Eleven 2007). And what a boring shiteful game of football that was. I dont have much more to say about it other than Drogba's goal wasn't bad, but that doesnt cancel out the fact that he's a diving bastard.

As I mentioned, I went to the Japan Fastival on sunday with Brad, Yoko, Ben and Yoko's flatmate Shiori. We also took a DV camera, and made a video. You may or may not see that in the future. Time will tell. It was OK, but nothing special. Worth going just to get takoyaki - something that I love and something that is not easy to find in Melbourne (well easy to find, but not easy to find good takoyaki - most of the Japanese restaurants in Melbourne are run by Chinese or Honkeys, so good, real Japanese food can be hard to find). There were girls in Kimono, and displays of Koto, Taiko and a Japanese born Australian blues singer named George Kanakawa. I have seen this guy play before on the streets of Melbourne, and he is awesome.

There is a strange phenomenon in Melbourne, and I'm sure elsewhere, of young Chinese and particularly people from Hong Kong pretending to be Japanese. They dress like Japanese, wear anime t-shirts or bathing ape, go to things like the Japan Festival with their PSP in hand, all the while trying so hard to look like a hipster they fail miserably. My Japanese friends are also aware of this, and have a laugh about it. I'm not sure where it comes from - especially considering the history of the two countries and their current relationship. Anyway, it was fun, though really crowded - I guess adding to the "authentic feel". Ha!

Yesterday was spent doing anything BUT what I should have been doing - uni assignments. It's amazing how dusting the television becomes an attractive alternative. I Played squash against Brad last night. He killed me, but it was exercise. We went for a quick swim after that, then came home and made dinner. We are both trying as best we can right now, to eat out as little as possible - both for health and financial reasons. Mind you, I think it's cheaper to eat out sometimes, than cook.

hisashiburi

Thursdays are big days for me. I get up at around 7:30am to get ready for work. A quick shower, and I'm off. I drive to work because where I work there is little in the way of public transport (2 buses per day) - which is the bane of my life. You see, I live on the north side of Melbourne and work on the south side. What this means is that every morning and every afternoon, I have to drive my car across the city. For those who dont know, Melbourne has a great network of trams, and as a result we do not have many buses clogging the roads and our lungs. I love catching a tram, as it affords me time to play my DS, and work on my laptop, or just close my eyes and listen to music and podcasts. There is a tram stop about 1 minute walk from my house too. So it pisses me off even more that I have to drive to work. Riding a bike isn't really an option for me, as a) it would take a while and I value my sleep, and b) I dont own a bike.

Yes, I would like cheese with my whine, thank-you. Anyway I get to work around 9-ish. I finish at 4:30pm, then drive straight to University. I leave my car outside my office there, and go to a Web Server and Web Technology lecture, from 5:30pm until 7:30pm. After that, I have a tutorial class for the same subject from 7:30pm until 9:30pm. Long day eh? At that point, I have not eaten and will usually do one of two things: Drive-thru somewhere on the way home and eat garbage, or get home and dial a pizza (well when I say dial, I mean order it over the internet). Either way, Thursday night dinner is not good for my health or my slowly expanding waist.

Last night though, I got home and Ben and Yoko had cooked a Japanese Curry, with salad and opened a bottle of wine. It was possibly the greatest thing ever - the food was delicious and healthy, and it meant that I could just eat, then start doing some homework straight away. The main stand-out however, and the reason I am writing about this, is that last night I met God, in the form of fried whole garlic in miso paste. I am salivating right now just thinking about it. PRAISE JESUS! You have to try this if you havent already - get a head of garlic, peel all the cloves, pan fry them in a little olive oil until golden, serve on a plate with a spoonful of miso paste next to them. Dip garlic in paste, eat, repeat. PRAISE JESUS!

On the Japanese front, I have been talking a lot to my friend Shinpei this week. I have learnt how to use の in place of でしたか thus taking me one step closer to sounding like a normal Japanese speaker, rather than someone who has listened to Pimsleur and studied Japanese for 6 months at University (me). I was a little confused at first but Arex of Learn Japanese helped me out cause he's a top bloke. I am now the mod of the Learn Japanese forums, so join up if you are interested in learning the language. I have also been reading I am Doraemon, Gadget Cat From the Future - a manga that is in both English and Japanese.

I was talking to some people online the other night about accommodation in Tokyo, and I started to find the websites of some of the places I have stayed over the years - and it really started to give me the bug again. I'm going to have to start making plans to head over again real soon. Melbourne to Tokyo or Osaka return is about $400 for me (I get cheap airfares) so I should do it soon. Still saving for a new mac though....

We haven't done much lately in the way of our band (besides pull faces while playing). I have obtained a solid state digital recorder too, so I want to try that out. I think we are going to go into the studio on saturday night after the FA Cup final and drink some Jager bombs and see what comes of it. I'll take in still and video camera and record some audio, so I'll put some up online (providing it's "suitable") haha. We have also toyed with the idea of making a podcast so people can laugh at our "funny Australian accents" - dunno what will come of that, if anything.

I have skype set up on this PC, now that my ibook is deceased (RIP). I can get my iSight to work with video, but no audio, so I'll find a mic and then start adding everyone. I'm looking forward to catching up with Uncle Archie in China, having a chat to some friends in the US and maybe meeting Arex and other Learn Japanese people.

I have a heap of new photos to upload, so I'll get onto that over the weekend, and link it on here.

home brewed beer

I've had a fairly uneventful last 5 days or so. On Thursday last week, I drove a good mate to the airport - he was off to Seoul for a wedding - one that I had originally intended to also attend, but due to various circumstances, I couldn't make it. Instead, I spent saturday at work. I work in IT and I was migrating some servers - something that requires a little work, then a lot of waiting followed by a little work, so I spent a good part of the day watching videos about the church of Scientology on Youtube. Entertaining to say the least.

Actually I did go out on friday night - Ben's sister was down from Sydney so we had dinner at Gaylords - the most unfortunately named Indian restaurant in the world, and then ended up a Loop bar - one of my favourite in Melbourne. I really should start taking photos of these places and uploading them for you to see. Started the night with one of Ben's homebrews - this one tastes amazingly like Hoegaarden!

This is all out of order, but Sunday was spent hanging out in the city and at my office at RMIT, then treated myself to a sunday night pizza. I really love sunday nights - while everyone else goes to bed early to get ready for work, I can stay up late and pretend it's still saturday night. I dont work monday's you see - I have university classes from 5:30pm, so monday for me is about sleeping, doing homework, and uni. I also dont work fridays, so thursday nights for me are like friday nights. Pretty sweet eh?

I havent mentioned this here but my ibook died recently, so I have been saving my pennies for a new macbook pro. In the meantime though, a bloody awesome mate has decided to loan me his ibook for use in the studio and at uni until I get a new laptop. Some friends transcend awesome.

I also installed Skype on my pc at home last night, and added Alan and Tim - will add Archie tonight too. I was thinking about adding Alex Brooke from Learn Japanese, but I thought I may put ondue pressure on myself to talk to and be recorded by him, and I'm too much of a shy little australian when I'm sober.