So I was buggering around with Ubuntu when it decided it needed updating. Reet oh. *click*
Previously, I could only hit 256kb/s maximum - that is, downloading from a nearby fast source and doing NOTHING else. Either the heat is making me more easily impressed, namely at being given the speeds we've paid for, or that is genuinely good. Time for some downloading. :D
Since you buggers made me feel bad about my last blog. >_>
When I came back from Japan, I felt myself getting back into the same old routine. Henseforth, I decided to incorporate a new task to perform everyday - try something new at least once a day. It can be anything from a different route home to a small snack. It's actually quite eye-opening how...little there is to do in the north of England. :?
Saying that, I still try. I've discovered a little cafe down a sidestreet in town that's incredible. And the wonders of Ubuntu.
Ever discovered something by chance and ended up loving it?
My father always used to say "There's no panic like the realisation your head is stuck in something". I disagree.
Having a girlfriend has the amazing ability to create paranoia at the drop of a hat. For example:
"My tummy feels bloated..."
"I felt a bit sick this morning..."
"I'm late..."
All these are easily explained. A hearty meal has made her full and the same meal has made her feel ill the next morning. She was late for meeting me as the bus didn't turn up. I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I'm terrified of having kids. Anyone else like this?
Well, not really.
I've got heat-induced insomnia, basically it's too hot to sleep. So I'm trawling the internet looking for things to do. Lo and behold I was sent this link for reading lulz. Reading this has solidified 3 lingering thoughts I've previously had:
1) A lobotomised gibbon can write for Men's Health.
2) Men, by and large, have the same moral values as a bunny on Viagra (read: Get Off The Hook).
3) We are no closer to understand either gender than we are understanding why Quarks are such awkward sods or what the hell The Bloop was.
The fact is, every human on this planet has a different map of the world to everyone else. I know for a fact that Kleeyook prefers yandere personalities whilst Deihjan prefers men who're a wee bit chubby. Saying an entire gender prefers one specific factor and that it has an objective step-by-step guide on how to acquire (or indeed fool someone into believing) that is nothing short of insanity.
Have you ever asked for advice on OT? Did you take it seriously?
I've just got my results: 2.2 BSc Hons in Psychology with Law! Initial reaction:
I also got Heroes Season 1 on DVD and have developed a new man-crush on Hiro Nakamura. :D
Also tried out Pepsi Raw today:
It tastes like fizzy maple syrup. It's alright but...normal Pepsi is tastier and you get a hell of a lot more for the same price.
So that's my update: Pepsi and Degree. Ja matte.
Reet oh, back from Japan yesterday. Didn't sleep in 26 hours so I just crashed as soon as I got home. Anyhoo, here's a photo/video walkthrough of my awesome trip to Nihon! Note: Right click - View Image for full screen awesomeness on any of these photos.
Bastard o'clock in the morning...time to get going.
Manchester Airport with my travelling companions (giggles @ "humped crossing").
My dinky travel suitcase vs friend's mobile fortress.
Great Britain from the air *waves goodbye*. I'm not a very good flyer (I hate take-off and landing) and this is only emphasised by the little turd sat directly behind me screaming whenever we hit turbulence.
Charles De Gaulle airport is nice to look at but an absolute ball-ache to navigate. Imagine someone deleted random parts of a Google Maps direction list: the gate number you're looking for will be on some signs but then disappear for a while before coming back...by which point you have to turn around.
Skip 12 and a half hours of cramped Air France flying and in Narita!
Narita "Tokyo" is similar to Birmingham "London". It's a good hour or two on a train before you get to the actual city. Nice view, mind.
Due to the time zones, the flight was 12 hours flying with the sun. We left France at around 10am and landed around 10am the exact same day. So what looks like my famous L impression is actually just extreme jetlag.
ZOMG! Bed! No...must stay awake for...*checks watch*...7 more hours...sod it. We all fell asleep around 3pm ^_^; All hotels usually give you kimono/yukatas as dressing gowns, but often have hideous hotel logo patterns to stop you nicking them. Sometimes you get origami cranes, like the chocolate mints they have in western hotels.
Bento time! If you buy a bento from a convenience store they'll offer to heat it up for you. Also got a Moomin Poppa free with a bottle of water.
Lovely view from the hotel. The yellow building on the left are apartments, got some funny looks when I was photographing it, and the second tallest white building in the center is the Universal Music recording studio. Time to go shopping methinks...but where?
Why, Akihabara of course! You can find damn near everything you nerdy folks want here from anime, manga and figures to...
A wall of douches! Every colour imaginable! They're actually camera lens cleaners, but we had to ask someone to make sure ^_^;
My travelling companions were enthralled at the GashaPon doodads. Just imagine a Kinderegg without the chocolate. Usually they have DIY figures or phone accessories.
Yodobashi-Akiba (aka Yodobashi Camera). This place is MASSIVE. It's 9 floors up, 6 floors basement. The amount of stuff in here boggles the mind. Shopping in Japan is interesting. The shop assistant sellotapes your bag shut when you've bought something, which is nice if you're only getting 1 or 2 things, but after the 4th or 5th bag (you can't collect things between floors, you have to buy whatever you want on each individual floor) it becomes cumbersome.
Time to go to Akihabara! The Duty Free shops aren't what you want to go to - unless you're setting out on buying something like a camera, the savings you make on the crap they sell isn't worth it. Just go into a regular shop and buy it, they're very well made and cost just about the same.
If you go to Akiba, you need to go to Gamers! This is where you can get all the otaku-esque stuff, often dirt cheap (compared to buying it imported from England, anyway).
Trivia time! Japanese people are very distrusting of credit cards. Because of this, online shopping isn't anywhere near as popular as it is in the West, even Amazon.co.jp had a difficult time getting off the ground until they introduced COD (Cash On Delivery). Because of this, shops will sell a hell of a lot more variety of quality goods and shopping around for cheaper prices is "better" if you will. I got a Krauser II (Detroit Metal City) figure for just under 2000-yen, 1500-yen cheaper than a previous shop.
Wandering down random streets is fun. Even though some places are crowded they are never intimidating. Japan is an incredibly safe place. 50 points to whoever can spot the litter.
Hamamatsucho, the business capital of Tokyo. World Trade Center is on the left.
Apart from the Pokemon Center, there isn't that much to do in Hamamatsucho. All the buildings from the photo above are either office buildings or food shops for the office workers. For some incredibly stupid reason, they've installed a bunch of Mosquito devices around. The Mosquito is a device that emits a high frequency noise, similar to the ringing sound in movies when a bomb has just gone off near someone, at a frequency heard only by people under 25. The fluttering sound in the video is the cameras pitiful attempt at picking this up.
Went to a lovely park across the road for some peace and quiet. The contrast between the concrete neon jungle and the serene traditional areas is quite surreal.
Awesome stag beetle I found. I called him Terrence.
Koi carp. Most fancy pond places have them and they'll swim right up to you hoping for food. Hmm, I fancy something a bit more high-tech now...
So it's off to Shibuya! The Scramble Crossing is organised madness. With the exception of Osaka-ians, most people in Japan will wait for the green man to appear before crossing, even if there's nothing coming for miles.
Found an ESP Custom Shop that sold absolutely mental guitars.
Players of The World Ends With You will recognise a load of places in Shibuya, such as the 109 Building.
Double-yoo-tee-eff?
Trying my hand at a Bullet-Hell game. I couldn't even get past the first level ^_^;. Arcades in Japan are a must-try, even just once. They're very loud and stink of smoke, but some of the weird and wonderful games are great to play. Sometimes when playing a fighting game someone will play against you on the other side: win or lose, never look round at who's playing you...and you'll more than likely lose.
Yes, that is Half-Life 2: The Arcade Game.
You've more than likely seen Pocari Sweat. This stuff is...interesting. It is a very lightly flavoured glucose drink designed to rehydrate you faster (like reverse sweat, hence the name). It tastes like really thick, flat lemonade.
In Tokyo Station, waiting for the Shinkansen to Kyoto. When you're going up escalators, stick to the left hand side. The right hand side is "reserved" unofficially for people in a rush who walk up them, except for in Osaka which is the other way around.
Some of the views from the Shinkansen were very pleasant. Japan eats a lot of a particular kind of short-grain rice (they even serve it for breakfast) and they don't import any, so a lot of the country side is taken up by rice fields.
Every so often you'll find a random shrine or temple-like thing just in the middle of a street or shopping district.
This mechanical crab is both funny and terrifying to look at. Hmm, I wonder what this shop actually sells?
Literally just across the street from our hotel was this beautiful shrine and park. Had to take the photo from the back because there were a lot of roadworks outside. It was lit up at night, but my camera couldn't take a decent photo of it.
I think this was one of those things were you write a wish down then tie it to this. I didn't think the Japanese deity could read English so I just left it alone.
Ran up these stairs like a Japanese Rocky. Wasn't as impressive and I'm more out of shape than I thought ^_^;
Even at shrines, there are vending machines on nearly ever street corner. You'll never go thirsty in Japan, that's guaranteed. It's just finding a bin that's difficult.
Me eating dangos. They're lovely: lightly flavoured sweets that are kind of half-way between marshmellow insides and gum. I tried some syrup ones (Mitarashi Dango) but they were nowhere near as nice.
Tastes exactly as it sounds (ie. gross).
Itatakimasu.
Arigatou gozaimasu.
On the plane home with my "window" seat. The French are absolute ****s sometimes. I don't have any photos of our transfer at Charles De Gaulle because our flight home was at 17:35 and we landed at 17:25.
So, AirGuitarist87 went to Japan. It was an absolutely brilliant time and I whole-heartedly recommend anyone to go even once. Some nuggets of random thoughts to finish this up.
Well, hope you enjoyed my blog. Sayonara.
Be back a week on Thursday. :D
In the meantime, here's my second favourite picture from my last trip.
Well my "model" photos came in through the post this morning. Don't have a scanner so it's a photo of a photo.
I think I look a bit...tired in the close up. Anyway, I've supposedly been chosen in the top 20 of all the others photographed, which to me just screams "slim pickings". If I want a portfolio doing to send out to agencies then I'll need to pay £95 to have a professional session done.
Wait, what?
Yup, I have to pay £95 for something that won't guarentee me work. £275 to have it sent to 6 agencies. I'm not the cleverest person in the world with mathematics, but I do know something about not having to pay for work. This isn't exactly a scam, it's perfectly legal and their work does produce results (one of them was Marconi's girlfriend on Dark Knight), but it certainly isn't for me. Flattery will get you everywhere, as they say.
I condemn thee to the fiery pits of the Underworld.
I really find it insane that of all the talented actors, writers and nice people in the world that go unnoticed and unloved this shower of **** get their own show. Honestly, the combination of the horrific acting, the nigh-on unbearable writing and the canned laughter that is used way too often (ie. more than never) has given me indigestion. It's like my body is physically rejecting it.
There's a very daunting thought at the back of my mind telling me that this pile of wank is going to stay on for quite a while. Two Pints of Lager & A Packet of Crisps has been on the air for years despite a universal hatred and general unfunniness. Call me old fashioned, but I like to find comedy funny. If it's not funny, what I'm watching is an awkward drama.
I think the straw that broke the camels back was an incredibly unfunny joke that went along the lines of:
"She's fit, like Lily Savage"
"Lily Savage is a man. Like Cilla Black."
The only way someone would understand this joke would be if (a) they watched TV in the 1980s-90s and (b) you had the mental capacity of a lobotomised walrus. Giving that this is set in a college, the actors as supposed to represent 16-18 year olds. If this is true then they would have been born in 1991 at the earliest. Taking into consideration that both Lily Savage and Cilla Black peaked at around 1994, it just shows exactly who was writing this crap.
Today I was stood outside a shopping center waiting for my friend. I had some Dethklok on the ol' iPod playing, minding my own business. Then this woman approached me. She handed me a card. I don't normally take leaflets and things but something seemed off here - the card was big, about half the size of an A4, and it was fancy laminated paper, something you wouldn't normally hand out en masse. The woman had already buggered off by the time I read it.
I've been scouted for a model/acting agency. :|
Then on my way home another woman came up to me. She was incredibly happy to see me, ecstatic even. Her eyes lit up and sparkled like a Christmas Tree.
"Are you the Real Radio Renegade?" she asked.
"...No" I said. :|
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