synaesthesiaJP

So I’m waiting for Max to get on the 360 for a little massive Xbox 360 damage, and I thought that I would finally go ahead and update the blog.

This is going to be a long one, so I won’t kill you with everything above the jump; however, if you want tales of E3, Top Gun on the big screen, Ikea and assorted fun, continue on. Even if you don’t check out the rest of the post, definitely check out the gallery section of the site… I ponied up for a full flickr account, so the gallery is now organized into photosets. http://gallery.technolustomega.net

So right after I posted about Paul van Dyk, I took off to E3.

It wasn’t nearly as overwhelming as I thought it would be, and the work was not as hard as I thought it would be, so I had a great time. I won’t write about the games, etc. because that has been covered to death, but I will say that I loved the energy the place had. It’s great to see people feeding off the games and what they mean, however disingenuous that energy may be.

(It was neat to meet Sakurai-san…)

And just as neat to meet the GameLife crew.

Another really cool bit of E3 were the parties. It seemed like I was going out every night. Monday night I had a dinner, Tuesday night I went to go see MI:3 (which I thought was good, but significantly lost steam in the last act), Wednesday was our company party, Thursday was the Sony party (WITH INCUBUS! I LOVE INCUBUS!! I was really excited to see them live once again!), and Friday was the Microsoft Party with the Crystal Method. What was great about things was that I got into all of these parties in my first year at the company. Apparently for someone in my position, I was quite lucky.

(Incubus at the Sony Party)

(Bumped into Mizuguchi at the MS party on Friday)

(The Crystal Method…)

When I got back from E3, I had some serious jet lag that seemed to last for a week. It was like my get up and go just got up and went (no royalties to Aerosmith needed…). But being home did allow me to start to redecorate my living room, something that I had been planning to do for a while now. I bought a couple of viespa cabinets off of rakuten and started from there.

Then I went to the 100 yen shop and bought spray paint and wood boxes to make the speaker stands. The cabinets are holding my games and my vinyl. Very easy to use.

I also took the chance to clean up the cable creep and ugly bookshelves that were near the TV.

Even though the room was only half empty, I decided to go ahead and entertain my old host sisters with a Mexican dinner party. They plopped down on the TV, and I began to cook. The menu – Chicken Nachos and Quesidillas.

Around this time, my friend Anthony Pringle also visited. It was great to see him, but it was also sad, as he was returning to the states the next day along with his sister and my friend Patrick, who was studying at my old alma-study-abroad-mater Kansai Gaidai. I also got the chance to see Top Gun on the big screen at a very nice theater. I never realized how much fun that movie was (and I love it) or how absolutely absurd it can get. Between the insane tongue kissing to the absolutely hilariously obvious musical cues, it is pure 80′s cheese, and that excites me. I came away convinced that you could watch Top Gun with your eyes closed and no dialogue (just SE and Soundtrack) and understand the movie perfectly well.

The next week, I had to take a business trip to Tokyo. I decided to foot some of the bill myself and stayed at the Mercure Tokyo Ginza, a French modern designed boutique hotel in the Ginza shopping district. I was very impressed with the digs, especially for approximately $135 USD a night.

I took the chance during this trip to check out IKEA in Minami-Funabashi. The place is gigantic, and in a matter of no time, I had dropped $200 USD to finish off my living room, among other things. Here’s how the room turned out.

I also picked up a wok, enabling some great spicy chicken stir fry!

Finally, I’ve taken up the game of darts with some coworkers. It is a great way to unwind Fridays after work, so I’m more and more motivated to get better. However, since I am still a beginner, some peculiar things still happen. Like missing sideways.

I’ve got to practice DJing more… Been listening to the excellent new Ferry Corsten album, and it is inspiring me to practice more, but it is primarily an issue of time management. I wish I was as capable of managing my hobbies and free time as I was my money. Along with getting more exercise, it is something I definitely need to work on.

P.S… Mai is doing great.

Posted under: Gaming, Life, Movies, Photos, Work

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 7th, 2006 at 10:38:16 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.