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New Zealand Festival – Roppongi Hills

Published 16th of Nov, 2007. Stored under Journal

This weekend is New Zealand Paradise Week at roppongi hills arena in Tokyo. The company I work for is responsible for one of the Booth designs, my part to play is also visible in the costume design and paraphernalia (booklets, folders etc). The general theme is grass, so if you see a booth there covered in fake grass, you’ll know who was responsible!

Eat in Style Magazine

Published . Stored under Journal

The office where I work is very nice, it was designed by Eat and Steve Lidbury. Sometimes, it’s used for modeling shoots. So this month you will be able to see a little bit of the office in Style Magazine. I see enough, but it’s always a pleasure.

bank statement

Published 9th of Nov, 2007. Stored under diary

sometimes Japan is, well, nuts.

I went to the bank to get a statement on my account a few days ago, only to be told by a rather squat gentleman with dangerous nosehair that they can’t give me a statement. I was told to use the internet instead. Considering citibank’s internet banking is a joke, I told them to shove the site where the sun doesn’t shine and let me talk to an account advisor. Eventually I got to floor 2 of the shibuya citibank building, sidestepping the festooning nose haired gentleman who had up until this point been blocking my way, thanks to a silent but proactive member of staff. I was handed a ticket, special access!!

On level two of citibank I took my seat and waited my turn. After a few minutes I was allowed to talk to a human being who promptly informed me that they don’t “do” statements. The human being raised her arms to form the giant X symbol of no. Recognising this symbol to mean that I should get angry and pursue my right to a statement on my account, I turned my Japanese up a dial and demanded a statement or I would close my account. The human being had now lost the power of speech, and was being controlled remotely by robot using invisible wires, they collectively decided to print me a statement. Although, the beauty of this is they still had the last laugh… I wasn’t allowed to take it with me.

the new job, life, future

Published 30th of Oct, 2007. Stored under diary

Office is life is medicine for this jaded designer, who has been “on the road” for the past 2 years. With a plethora of new projects in the works, including my vision for the company homepage (something I often end up making when joining a new company!) this may well be a space to watch.

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Legend of Zelda DS: Phantom Hourglass

Published 15th of Oct, 2007. Stored under Journal

wow!

I cannot get enough of this game.

Imagine two whales. One whale is older, wiser and crusting with barnacles (the SNES whale). The other whale is younger, livelier and some would argue prettier (the game-cube whale). These two whales have had a crush on each other for quite some time, but have never been able to quite get it on. With a final push, the older male courts his younger female, knowing it’s his last chance to further his spawn before sinking to the whale graveyard. The younger female accepts, the two whales sing in delight, leaping from the sea and crashing it one another mid air the female is impregnated, whale spunk everywhere…

.. the spawn is zelda on the DS.

A truly majestic beast. Taking the best iso view and puzzle solving action of the “original” and marrying them perfectly to Windwaker’s style and grace.

Truly one of the most graphically stunning titles out there on the DS. The game-play is stunning. This humble writer has been stuck various times…

Surfing Pain

Published 27th of Aug, 2007. Stored under diary

Yesterday I went to the beach. You have to travel quite far out of Tokyo to find a decent beach, so I went to a place called onjuku. I have actually been wanting to go there for a long time, and this is probably the last decent weekend, as we enter summers decline.

Surfing was kinda eerie, just a bunch of guys sitting on their boards waiting for waves. I did catch a few, managed to ride one, then retired to BBQ. I’m always amazed at the self-automation of Japanese people. I had no idea what was going on, blindly moving from the beach to a BBQ spot next to a hostel. Most relaxed atmosphere one could ever ask for.

Probably time to get a car so I can do this more often.

Oh and the pain part of this title relates to my multiple bruises whilst taking a battering in the surf.

Wordpress hax. Authors page & individual post styling.

Published 22nd of Aug, 2007. Stored under ideas

Bonus: limiting post count on pages

Wordpress, however easy it is on the mind for non coders like me, is always going to come up short on the goods when turning a clients idea into reality. This article isn’t for those proficient in PHP to be honest. If you know PHP, you are well equipped to make wordpress do whatever you pretty much damn well like. If you like your full head of hair (and don’t fancy trading your design skills for learning PHP) the following may well help you keep it:

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Mt Fuji conquered, phone broken

Published 17th of Jul, 2007. Stored under diary

if you are trying to get ahold of me, please try 03 3498 3085

Needless today, mt.Fuji hurt in all the right places. I took a rain free climb to the 8th outpost (80 mins from the summit) and bedded for the night, in order to catch the sunrise in the morning. The next day was just a wall of water with zero visibility. I got to the top and walked back down, due to the weather it felt fairly inconsequential to be up there. However, being able to say you’ve done it, or just thinking so, gives one a great sense of well being.

Preparing for Mt.Fuji

Published 11th of Jul, 2007. Stored under diary

I’m taking a trip to mt.Fuji on the 14th, I’m not sure whats it going to be like but preparing is a wildly varying mish mash of advice. Some people say take everything but the kitchen sink, others say travel light. I have no idea whats up there. Will there be snow? Ice? Will I freeze my balls off?

So I am taking a trip to get some “real” shoes on friday, considering I own what can only be described as “city” shoes.

I’m really psyched to be going up there, and watch the sunrise at the top.

29th birthday

Published 25th of Jun, 2007. Stored under diary

Sunday was my birthday, happily celebrated on saturday with some close friends.

We started off with 2 hours of food and drink, which seemed to pass by very quickly. Followed by darts, and karaoke. Drunken mess.

The following day I went to check out the last day of an exhibition in a place called odaiba, but the queues were so insane we decided to just hang out at a massive mall instead. Watched Pirates 3, ate food, drank, happy and content. Thanks for the gifts. I’m enjoying my Gerard Butler 2008 calendar!!

new projects of late

Published 15th of Jun, 2007. Stored under Journal

well, nothing I can really talk about but have been busy these recent months. Still alive!

Designed 4 packages for something you eat, soon to be released here in Japan.

Did the layout and design on a 51 page guide to Tokyo.

Programmed templates for a large tourist board site.

Ah well, it’s all my secret work. Hush hush whispers in the back rooms of the dadako HQ.

300

Published 11th of Jun, 2007. Stored under diary

Went to see 300 on saturday afternoon. Slightly gory and over the top but interesting and dark film. Really good art direction.

So we came out of the theatre (it’s the first day of screening) at roppongi hills and went for a coffee at tullys (next to banana republic).

Who was sitting right in front of us? Only the main actor from 300… Gerard Butler.

The girlfriend and I looked at him for ages, umming and arrring to if it really is him, because he did look slightly fatter and had no beard.

Finally I couldn’t take it anymore and went over to talk to him. It was him. He humored me a bit as to his identity but was indeed humble and down to earth. We shook hands and got the hell out of there. Then spent the rest of the day in awe and shock.

Time for a new phone (suggestions welcome!)

Published 22nd of May, 2007. Stored under Journal

Well, after about a year and a half, I’m finally bored and quite bothered by my Sharp 903. It still says “vodafone” on it (which is quite embarrassing because they got taken over by softbank here in Japan last year!).

Reasons why I hate my phone:

• the camera is slow
• picture browsing is slow
• nothing appears to work (can’t add mp3s or java, or use mp3 as ringtone)
• Sharp phones are not supported by iSync (a must for my next phone)
• text messages are limited to about 100, with no option save or backup
• vibration is annoying as fuck, it vibrates for about a minute when receiving a simple text
• the menu is truly retarded

So, hot on my list is the 705NK. Which has predictive text input for english (a rarity in Japan), and it’s made by Nokia, so it will probably sync with my mac, meaning I won’t have bother with two separate address books!

Also my contract is far too expensive.

And too many hentai are calling me.

Sonys new, old iPod shuffle

Published 25th of Apr, 2007. Stored under Journal

The creatively titled “NW-E013″ usb stick music player, bears a more than a passing resemblance to apples OLD shuffle. The one they ditched a while back.

Released here in Japan a few days ago, Sony believes this latest walkman (with an LCD readout and 1gb capacity) will make the connection between downloads and it’s bespoke mp3 / internet HI-FI unit more seamless.

As you can see it would only be a matter of time before that thing gets ripped out of the HI-FI by an inattentive child or adult, destroying the usb slot and possibly the walkman in the process.

Features abound. The LCD readout is colour, and even sports a mode to browse music by CD cover.

…

Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t work on mac osx.

Blu-Ray Apple

Published 15th of Mar, 2007. Stored under ideas

Long awaited next mac mini, and how it may use blu-ray drives.

Apple TV is dead before it even left the shelf

Apple TV has arrived, but it has a few flaws. These flaws are virtually un-noticable in the current technology market.

The device will only support 720p HD at the maximum, whereas Blu-ray is a true full HD format, supporting upto 1080p. The difference being? 1080p is the highest standard currently available on the consumer market, with prices tumbling on FullHD televisions by the minute, 1080p will soon be the desired format, this is where Blu-ray fits in neatly. A graph showing 1080p and 720p conparisons can be found here.

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injury

Published 13th of Mar, 2007. Stored under diary

I managed to fall of my bike yesterday evening, after colliding with a post.

My left foot, both wrists and my chin (!) are a bit worse for ware. I actually landed on my chin and hands when my foot got trapped by one of these ridiculous metal bollards on the street near me. Lucky I didn’t land on my teeth, like a friend of mine once experienced.

Irony is, I can’t walk on my foot at all, but riding my bike is no problem!

Our Earth is Growing?!

Published 6th of Mar, 2007. Stored under Journal

Even since a child in my Geography class, I thought something was up so I raised it with my teacher “Mr Hankins”. I must have been about 13 years old.

Science has a habit of holding onto ideas that just don’t make sense. I think this is a perfect candidate for letting go. It also neatly explains how dinosaurs got so big, combining a smaller earth with less gravity would easily let them swell to gargantuan sizes. (although this is not mentioned in the video.)

Ikea part 2

Published 3rd of Mar, 2007. Stored under diary

Took a trip down to Ikea in Yokohama today, and to my surprise they use HP display computers!

Way back in November 2004 I bought myself a HP laptop, only for it to fry it’s self some 14 months later ( Buy / I lost a year of diary entries so the Fry moan is gone)

So while traversing the maze of Ikea, doing my best not to get annoyed by the hordes of happy love birds, my earlier Ikea post came to mind. In that entry I mulled over the idea that maybe it would make sense for Ikea and Apple Inc to team up, selling iMacs from Ikea. Looks like HP have got in on the act!

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NDS homebrew with passcard3 & M3Perfect

Published 20th of Feb, 2007. Stored under diary, ideas

I live out here in Tokyo, and despite what you might imagine, it is very hard to get ahold of homebrew kit out here. There are some dodgy shops here and there, but often they are geeky and un-comunicative about what they sell due to legal reasons.

So, out for a walk trying to find a dreamcast with my friend in Akihabara last weekend, I spotted a shelf full of NDS “stuff”.

I enquired to the geeks behind the counter about what hardware I need but they told me that they cannot give me any information about how it all works! They even told me that even if I do buy any of the kit I can’t take it back or have a receipt!

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moan 2007

Published 15th of Feb, 2007. Stored under ideas

For all the benefits my Mac has brought me, there are still some improvements to be made. Here’s a list of features I have sent to Apple and other companies (Adobe) this year, in some kind of vain and possibly pointless hope that they may fix for the insane month of March. Where 2007 becomes “year of the Mac”:

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