Archive for the ‘Other’ Category

OC meme

Thursday, February 6th, 2020

For some reasons, I find this funny. It also makes me say “where isse my pizza” with an Italian accent in my head over and over again.

Nintendo, please don’t sue me.

Number of the year 2019: 6118

Wednesday, January 15th, 2020

The year 2019 is over, 2020 is the new 2019.

The number 6118 is quite a representation of 2019. What does it stand for? Of course, it’s an approximation but here goes:

Number of weeks: 46 (52 minus some weeks public holidays, business trips, end/beginning of year, etc.)

Number of kilometers per day: 26.6

Number of workdays per week: 5

Multiplied together: 6118 kilometers spent commuting on the bicycle in 2019. No wonder my legs feel tired…

Update: Fixed two typos. Shame on me for making them, kudos to me for fixing them.

Update II: Together with 6118, there’s also 1 (replacing both tires 1 time) and 2 (replacing the brake pads 2 times)

Finally finally done…

Friday, October 25th, 2019
block puzzle screenshot

In case you don’t know, this is the app called Block Puzzle (on Android). After 7 years of puzzling, I managed to finally solve the last remaining puzzle (#491) on 24. 10. 2019 at around 14:49 – in an airplane flying from Dublin to Paris. Perhaps as decadent as it gets.

I already asked the person who introduced me to Block Puzzles not to show me any more puzzles, thank you very much.

Anyway, done and happy with it.

Mosquito Stats 2019

Friday, May 24th, 2019

The bloodsucker* season started in late May. This year’s stats so far but they’re getting convoluted. I didn’t take notes for a couple of days so accuracy’s pretty much gone now.

Update: The score below unfortunately is completely outdated… the last couple of weeks I smashed and ground probably hundreds of potential generations of mosquitos… so the general score would probably be something like “me: so many more than them”

Total score: me: 38 – them: 6 or so by July 22nd

Timeline kept until early July:

July 8th: me: 3 – them: 0
July 7th: me: 1 – them: 1
July 6th: me: 6 – them: 0
July 3rd: me: 1 – them: 0
June 30th: me: 1 – them: 0
June 28th: me: 1 – them: 0
June 27th: me: 1 – them: 0
June 26th: me: 5 – them: 0
June 25th: me: 2 – them: 0
June 24th: me: 1 – them: 0
June 22nd: me: 1 – them: 1 (I don’t seem to have any bites but the splat went red so I guess it got me during the night)
June 19th: me: 1 – them: 0
June 18th: me: 3 – them: 0 (they seem to be kind of stupid)
June 12th: me: 2 – them: 0
June 5th: me: 1 – them: 0
May 31st: me: 1 – them: 0
May 24th: me: 3 – them: 1

*the worst sort, too… 🙁

Decline of the heroine

Monday, May 6th, 2019

Last week, I went to the movies to watch “Birthday wonderland” (in Japanese called バースデー・ワンダーランド).

The movie is visually appealing and well done, just as you would expect it to be. For comical effect or something, the obligatory “cute” characters are also included.

However, the story line is rather bland and feels kind of chewed on and spit out. It’s a mix between Spirited Away, Laputa Castle in the Sky, The Cat Returns (“猫の恩返し”) but with a not very inspiring female main character.

The above listed films also feature heroines as main characters, as you probably know. However, in their adventures, they have to prove their worth, they face overhwelming odds but still they persists and come out on top.

The heroine in Birthday Wonderland is called Akane (I even had to look up her name because I forgot). No spoilers here so I will not recap the story, but apart from grabbing someone by his leg and later pushing the same person down a well (I said no spoilers, please watch the movie to make sense of this), she does not really do anything except complain. It’s not very inspiring at all… Possibly this is just her character but it’s hard to feel sympathetic towards her because for whatever reasons she also gets to get away with whatever lazyness or dishonesty she’s pulling off.

The film last almost two hours. If you don’t care much about depth and if you don’t mind lined-up anime clichés, go ahead and enjoy yourself.

For those who expect some depth and bravery, save your money and wait for something else to see.

Follow-up questions…

Wednesday, February 13th, 2019

This weekend, I had another one of these slumps… where staying at home seems a waste of time but going out is not much better because it isn’t really comfortable anywhere (at least in winter).

The problem was compounded by this dreaded feeling of “I should be doing something instead of nothing” and “I wish things were different”.
Steve Vai, in one of the many youtube interviews he gave, once went on record saying “he only felt bored one afternoon” which he seems to remember vividly as it was so unusual for him.

Great for him. Me on the other hand feel pretty limited in what I can do at my present location so I was lying in bed thinking “I wish things were different” – as a somewhat responsible adult with working experience, such a statement is not really useful though. The inevitable follow-up question thus is “how should things be different”?

I became aware of the requirement to ask a follow-up question thanks to age, wisdom and training (be it professional or as a result of bringing up kids).

Unfortunately, the answer to that is not really simple. Every decision results in some consquences with which you will have to live. How far you want to go is up to you.

A slightly cautious “happy 2019”

Monday, January 7th, 2019

Ah, well…. another year… I wonder what will happen this year. Anyway, if we’re really to talk about resolutions, I’ve decided to pursue my goals more vehemently although I’m somewhat afraid of the consequences for the people around me.

Nonetheless, to all of you out there: happy 2019, may your dreams come true!

Kabutomushi are awesome

Saturday, August 18th, 2018

In Japan, there is a famous and well-loved beetle called カブト虫 (kabutomushi), which goes by the common name of Japanese rhinoceros beetle.

Anyway, here’s the wikipedia link to it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_rhinoceros_beetle

You might have seen pictures and if you watch anime, you will probably have heard of them. However, these things are huge. Check this out:

(No banana for scale but an adult’s hand)

They’re completely harmless but it scratches slightly when they hold on tight due to the slightly hooked ends of their legs.

They can be kept as pets although they don’t live very long. Since they’re mostly active at night they will sleep during the day. They eat jelly and fruits e.g. pieces of apples and watermelons.

For some reasons, they will invariably fight an other species of beetle called クワガタ (kuwagata) when their paths cross.

The above picture was taken at a exhibition on beetles in Shinjuku.

Can’t unsee it…

Wednesday, July 18th, 2018

every time I walk by…

reminds me of this:

(shamelessly stolen from https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/en.futurama/images/9/96/Futurama_roberto.png/revision/latest?cb=20110619182621 )

The pain of moving…

Monday, December 4th, 2017

across continents. Moving to another continent at the end of the month and besides being scared shitless, there’s so much to do when you need to clean out your apartment. So much to throw away…. because there is so much that accrues over time. I found old guitar cables, not used for 15 years. They definitely need to go. And since I’m boarding the plane with just three pieces of luggage, I can’t afford to bring almost anything. Shipping is quite costly.

But then again, so much memories are buried in all that stuff.