Thank Budda its Golden Week.. I finally get a chance to catch-up on all the little nigglies that piled up over the last couple weeks months..!!! As a tired member of "Generation D" it has become ever more clear that theres just never enough time to get it all done, & of course I really can't blog about what has kept me working at 120% capacity either. Sometimes I wonder if I'll end up like this guy, taking meetings even in the after-life..!!!

If making cash was only as easy as my Blogshares Trading.. I just noticed they have a competition going until May 7th to 'write something musical'.. for a Billion dollars you'd think it would become my top priority. The first thing that came to mind when I saw that was this video I did with n2o way back in the day called "Pot of Gold" (at the end of the rainbow).

WMP

300k

Real

300k

Ok.. I know it was waaay over-due.. but yes I finally got around to doing something about this section of my wild web world. Hope you agree that it looks a little cleaner and runs faster now too..?!? The DSL speed videos pop-up in the screen player window now instead, I was struggling about how to present them but in the end that will just have to do..  8-)

Otherwise, it has been a real rush here the last few weeks, DGS is in town with the Mobile Intelligence Tour and I've been trying to keep up with all my other tasks as well.. sure could use a vaction..!!! However we had a blast at the Pink Cow the other night.. they have the coolest decore in the mens room I've ever seen. Also made a music video on this machine and found a great little safe sex to go shop for busy people just like me..!!!

Lookee thar Pa.. some kinda alien ship isa comin inta Tokyo 'arbor..!! Yep, strange daze indeed. While I could ramble on about the current state of affairs - its all been done before - perhaps this better late than never Hina Matsuri (google) video clip is more worthwhile. Note: Sometimes I really should just enjoy the moment.. focusing too much on future developments beyond my control has become exceedingly tiresome.

Congrats are in order to Atomic Taxi for putting on a great show in Shibuya last nite..!!! For those who didn't get to attend - even people who were there - heres that video clip we did on Saturday put together for the event. Make sure you crank up the speakers and sit back to enjoy the scene. Right on guys.. but next time lets have a plan..!!!

LOMO Arigato...!!!
Two photographers with LOMO cameras shoot Tokyo from a new perspective! A series of up to 200 various sized photographs which display the Tokyo scene and lifestyle as viewed from their fresh vantage point behind the lens of a popular LOMO Kompakt Automat camera made in St. Petersburg Russia. Discover interactive, vivid and artistic images from these two inspiring Japan based foreign photographers in a tribute to their passion for lomography.

The opening exibition party even got featured in The Japan Times

People are always asking what is the secret to my 'Success'.. so, here ya go, a splash of that every morning and you'll be as strong as 1,000 camels in the courtyard..!!! Maybe when I cash out my chips it will be time to do a little condo shopping, room with a view here would suit me just fine $_$ Meanwhile will have to settle for closer to home (read: backyard) Plum Blossom adventures and enjoy the strange - whacky place that is Tokyo. I'll give anyone billion bonus travel points if they can figure out what this logo is for..!!!

"Heard you missed us.. We're Baack..!!!" Yikes, when was the last time I posted here, its been way too many digital dog days for sure. Lame.. but got a few links and pix to pass your way.. starting with this killer flash Ping Pong game that I have still yet to beat. Also, thought the folks at Empirewatch did an awesome job on this edit of G.W's State of the Union speech (Quicktime .mov). Recently came across a Hot & Fresh story from Drew in Korea.. talk about coffee with an extra kick.. 8-) and closer to home thought you'd wanna check-out some - Nihon Style -  monster truckers.. 10-4 good buddy..!!! Otherwise, a quick recap on my Japan Adventure includes a Yama Shrine tour last weekend and this quick snap from Roppongi resturant that was just too funny.. 'Always a Clear Favorite'..!! And for those keeping track, Yes.. I finally settled on the new car (think the Mrs. will like this as a Valentines Gift..?!?) Ok.. feeling kinda goofy I guess since the weather has been great lately and the Plums are starting to bloom (thanks Urabe-san).

Back to the grind and all things considered.. having fun. Came across a few interesting links in last little while fer ya. The BBC was nice to point out to the world that some crazy scientists in Japan have come up with a Magic Dream Machine.. no doubt Playboy will start marketing sample cd-roms to plug-in for Xtra sweet dreams..!!! And another Brit site has this story from China about how English people caught SARS but not the Japanese.. weird. Speaking of China, heres the link to see designs competition for Bejing 2008 Olympic Stadium - like that 1st one myself..!!! A little closer to home the good folks at The Japan Times have announced a photo contest.. no doubt Sushicam Jeff is working double time to get his best pix in for that. Finally - also via Japan Times - heres a peek at the J-Girl wannabe Rock & Rollers scene. I really gotta get out with my camera more often.

What a radical pain in the ass.. my main machine has spent the better part of the last 24hrs going through several stages of Surface Scan to examine the unknown trillions of bytes on my 5 storage HDD's of data. Thank the digital gods that made it through all, everything seems to be A-OK again. Note to self - buy a DVD burner already - 200 hours of edited video programs should be backed up better than they are right now.. Eeeek. So it turned out to be somewhat of an unscheduled holiday. I did make the best of it though; surfing on new sites, reading some longer articles I usually have no time to bother with and I even dug out the wifes Yamaha DX keyboard and made some noise. So, sometimes a bad thing turns out to be a good thing. Guessing I'll make time in the future to play some buzz trax for the boyz and maybe contribute to OpSound as well..?!? Over the 'holidays' I spent a day working on this project to submit for the Creative Commons Contest, really feel like I should be trying to do more of that in the future. It was also great to get such positive feedback from Colin on our version of "My Life Changed, Completely".

Theres at least 3 other interesting things that are starting to cook but I just can't talk about them here yet, needless to say that 2004 is gonna be an exciting year. It reminds me of a dream I had way back in the day that (like a vcr) I could fast forward my life to see how things turned out in 10-20 years, problem was that after the fact I discovered the magic life remote control had no rewind button..!!! Go figure.. so, while the details were hazy - even at that time - the one thing that stuck was that I sped by alot of cool stuff and couldn't go back to live it in realtime.. maybe planted a good seed for weird movie script there. So, to the point, as much as I would love to see how these new things pan out.. have to be patient lest an entire year flies bye only to miss all the fun along the way.

btw: Picked up my new spousal visa the other day.. so I'm allowed to stay in Japan now until Jan. 2007..!!! What a trip.

On this years ritual trip out to Hakone shrine for New Years eve to drink Amasake by the fire, and listen to the ancient trance-like GaGa-ku music.. I didn't bother to bring my mini-dv camera and *shoot the scene*. How relaxing to just be normal, almost like everyone else, it really was a pleasant change. Even still, being slightly geekish.. I've been playing with the new V601sh cellphone from Vodafone made by Sharp, and had it along to shoot this quick clip. What an impressive little unit - and popular story - with a full 2 mega-pix camera that actually records video in .3gp format, which in effect is readable for most destop players..!!! I'm thinking that it will become the tool of choice for my next handset sometime soon. I must be becoming more like a local and less like a tourist..!!!

*Hakone Shrine Videos* from 2001 and 2002  (Win. Media 200k)

Meanwhile I spent 4 hours today cleaning up my computer area.. OMG; what was that smell..?!?! Whew, it's gone now so guess I'm ready to rumble for 2004. @_@

btw: If you didn't get to see any Fireworks this year, or the ones you saw were kinda crappy, then make your own awesome hanabi show here. Thanks Francis.

SO.. "what did you do for Christmas" the family was asking.. well, since the Mrs. and I actually had the whole day off - together for a change - we made pancakes and opened the few little gifts under our little tree.. and then went out on a big road adventure to.. CostCo..!!! I know how funny that seems, even now a few days later, but we had a blast finding our way to the Machida industrial park to do some bulk shopping.. including monster pizza and apple pie of course. The train-ride there would take maybe 1/2 hour plus anther 30 mins on the bus.. but we drove instead so it would be easier to pack home the bargins. Ahhh.. not really much in the way of killer deals tho, and the traffic was insane coming back, it took almost 3 hours of bumper to bumper highway hell.. (>_<) to get home. But hey it was fun, and without a doubt I'm sure we'll always remember x-mas 2003 dinner at a roadside Denny's resturant.. but thats another story altogether.

Meanwhile back on the web, I found a few cool links yesterday; SAQ (Seldom Asked Questions) from Ed Jacobs qUirKY jaPan HomEPage there is tons of other great stuff there too.. wonder if he'll ever include me on the massive links database..?!?

This Phillip Torrone Moblog Maddness story via Joi Ito was a whicked idea.. Armed with his hotel alarm, a docomo picture phone, a clie and a pocket pc taking 1 picture, every 30 minutes, every hour, for 24 hours, 7 days a week, for 3 weeks, no matter what. I wonder how long it will take for copy-cats to pickup on that one..?!? Also noticed that Kristen and Co. have their Hello Tokyo project on-line to view a few clips and order the DVD.. Congrats..!!!

Otherwise.. I hope you all have a great New Years eve, I'm looking forward to making our (3rd) annual trip out to Hakone Shrine. Jeff at Sushicam is doing a great freaking job covering this country with words and photos (another cool santa shot here..) Good luck on the Best Japanese Blog (& Photo Blog) Awards dude.. you deserve it.

Here we are in the midst of a silly season in full swing and so I just wanted to add a couple updates before getting carried away with it all. First of all major congrats are in order for Taka-san over at Brobe, his site won a design award from Nifty (ISP), and I'm really happy for him about that..!!! Also recieved this classic photo from buddy Dave of 'Sam the Man' sitting on Santa's lap, damn does that boy look fully ready to tear into some wrapping paper or what..?!?!! Came across this Great Flash presentation for Creative Commons the other day, I was totally impressed with Lawrence Lessig's "Free Culture" speech when he was in Tokyo to launch their Japanese version. The video I shot that day for the Glocom Forum 2003 is online now (50mins run-time) so you can watch it here.

Another interesting tradition played itself out again yesterday.. on every Dec. 21st we have a hoth bath filled with many oranges floating around in the tub to 'stay healthy' over the coming winter season..!!! Kind of a weird cool wa.. my first time a few years ago was pretty big surprise though - stepping into the tub and I was like - Whaa@_@aat...!!! And finally, just noticed that a Google search with keywords Video Blog ranks Video-Link Japan right on top of their 50,000 listed...!!! I've got another great little surprise in store coming up real soon. =^_^=

PS: I was saw this the other day at Roppongi Hills.. Wow..!!! "The kewlest Xmas thingy so far... NEO Xmas Trees. Looks like fiber optic nerves flowing through the trees." Via: Ore no Buloggu

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