Today was my last day at Capcom. For the past 2 years and 2 months, I have worked with incredibly creative people on incredibly fun games, been a part of the best selling game of 2007-to-date here in Japan, and fulfilled lifelong dreams. But there is more work to be done.

Just like my friend Robert Love, this has been an operose decision. Walking away from the place that gave you a shot, and where you had great success, is always a difficult thing. I’m going to miss the people I’ve worked with, and the projects I’ve worked on…

Yet, just like Robert, new challenges lie ahead.

So I’ll be back in sunny Florida in 3 days. I can’t wait to visit family and friends, because big things will be happening soon.

Also, Google’s Robert Love (above) proves he is the smartest man I know by shooting Ron Paul’s Gold Standard full of holes in his blog.

Thus, a gold standard is only as good as the government implementing it. If the government can be trusted to hold the peg immutable, then you don’t need a gold standard in the first place. If the government cannot be trusted, then a gold standard is little recourse. The state is either an honest custodian of the monetary supply or it isn’t.

Unfortunately, we haven’t gotten to meet up since college. This must change soon.

Add to the list of pointless gadgets I don’t need, but want nonetheless.

It’s only 300 bucks.

But what I will be buying is:

Also… ONLY 4 DAYS UNTIL FLORIDA!

I recently watched an excellent documentary on Osaka host culture. It is out of print on region 1 dvd, but you can watch the doc in its entirety on google video.

Take a gander and tell me what you think: The Great Happiness Space.

I’m coming home.

October is going to be a big month of changes, so I decided to skip out on TGS and head for the burning sun of Florida.

I’ll be in Tampa from 9/14-9/17, Sarasota on 9/18, Miami from 9/19 to 9/22, and back in Tampa on 9/23 before leaving from Orlando on 9/24.

If you want to hook up while I am in town, please drop me a comment or an email.

Mai’s birthday last week went swimmingly.

On Thursday night, I decided to cook her a going away dinner for being 22. So I took the bottle of Bai Gorri I bought at Hanshin’s excellent wine shop (a great wine for 4500 yen) and went about cooking a wonderfully tasty Penne Arrabiata with Chorizo sausage.

Once it was cooked, I filled halved bell peppers in a pyrex and baked them at 350 for 8 minutes to get a little bit of crisp and taste from the peppers.

The Bai Gorri red from Spain really brought out the heat of the Chorizo which I had cooked in a pepper infused olive oil when making the sauce.

Needless to say, Mai was pleased.

Friday was Mai’s actual birthday, and I took her out to El Pancho for some Mexican for dinner.

I bought her the bracelet next to her watch from a Japanese guy who was on a TV show called Ainori. I loved him (his name is Hide) for being a decent human being that you could really relate to. I love him even more now for starting a store that buys goods at fair prices from Masai tribes in Africa and sells them here. He was in Loft Shinsaibashi with a mini version of his shop in Harajuku for 5 days.

I spoke with him for a bit and he was happy to try out his English. Very nice guy and he was even excited it was Mai’s birthday. Only bummer was Mai didn’t get to meet him.

On Saturday, Mai and I went to Umeda where I opened a new Citibank account, then headed back to Takatsuki and watched Death Proof. Death Proof was all sorts of awesome, and I am glad it was 20 minutes longer than the US release. I am looking forward to buying the US release because they cut all the fake trailers since the movies are now split up. I’m also interested in seeing how it is different.

For dinner, we went to a Teppanyaki steak house that Mai wanted to try, and I was quite impressed with the quality of their meat. It was a nice dinner, but I fear I have been eating too well lately. Being back in the US in two weeks is going to make me fat.

After dinner, I came home, packed up my records, and went to my residency at Club Zing in Osaka – The Colors Weekender. This time I played with DJ Eshiro, a trance DJ and wonderful co-worker… Even if he often busts my balls.

Today, I watched the Transporter, ate some pizza, and played a few hours of Call of Duty 4′s Beta, which is outstanding.

I also got Exclamation Warriors in the mail the on Saturday, but since I seem to be the first one I know to have gotten it, I decided to strike while the iron is hot and eBay this copy. I’ll get another one later with the remainder of my points.

Hopefully I won’t have any surprise business trips in October, because as it stands right now, one of the only hip-hop groups I really enjoy will be playing at Club Triangle on 10/27.

If you’ve never heard Dilated Peoples, it is what hip hop should be: