It’s the little things that make you think less about that enormous building going up in front of your apartment, putting another boot into the already beaten view, and think they actually tried to make it all that little less painful.
Here’s photo of some enormous Christmas lights on the side of a new apartment building that’s going up. They didn’t need to do this, but it does seem that little more humane.
First of all I should say that the response from MS Japan’s 360 Service Centre was fast and flawless. From sending free of charge, to getting it back about 7 days later in great condition along with a letter explaining the problem, and a free 1 month LIVE voucher, it was a very satisfying customer experience. Ignoring of course, that the damned thing broke in the first place.
The sad part of the story though is that it arrived back on the same day as some Xmas gifts arrived in similar brown cardboard boxes from Amazon and Rakuten, and thus I never noticed it had returned until about two weeks later, when we checked on the web site to find out where it was.
Oops.
That does of course reflect how little gaming time I’ve had of late – virtually zero, with just as little PS3 time going in on Little Big Planet, which I’d rather as a good game, but not a great game. I’d rank it below most of the Mario platformers, and I think it only has the attention it does because it’s one of the very few platformers for PS3 and it’s got a lot of good graphics and sound.
Anyway, now I’ve got the 360 back, after the Xmas holiday, I plan to ‘finish’ LBP, and get back to Condemned and Dead Space on the noise machine. Yes, they managed to make sure the 360 retained it’s trademark whirlwind noise footprint.
Like most people with an enthusiasm for the technical I seem to amass, attract, or otherwise aquire cables, connectors, converters, other paraphernalia of a mobile life, the skeletal remains of previous generations of technology and other items which end up in boxes and on shelves. Of course to my family this is known as ‘the cable junk pile’.
Tonight then, in an effort to procrastinate over doing some real household chores, I took it upon myself to go through the back storeroom, which is home to most of the computing equipment, and through some boxes, and decide what things I need, and what I don’t.
Actually, I’m quite practical and ruthless when I have these clear-outs. There’s almost no emotional attachment involved, except when it comes to my old Palm IIIe which I will keep in a box near me forever, you hear me? Forever!
After about an hour I had no visible cables on the shelf and places, and was down to my one small cardboard box and toolbox again. All the things I might need are in the former, and the day to day items like chargers and such are in the latter.
The big losers this time were: S-video cables, a joystick which has been broken for at least 4 years, some RCA cables, about 3 USB -> mini USB cables, of which I have many, some coax cable I didn’t know I had, a fan I will never use in my PC and various other things which I just don’t have the devices to use (old Canon Ixy charger) or have duplicates of (the aforementioned cables).
Anyway, it’s done and I’ve pruned my burgeoning cable nest sufficiently that the rest of my family are satiated with the sacrifice for now.
Actually, that title should read ‘Will Game for Pizza Discount Coupons’. It’s been a very long time since we ordered pizza, so off I trotted to the Domino’s site to order the goods, when I remembered that if you play a short Flash game, you can get a discount.
However, in the aeons since I last ordered, the games have changed, and these new ones are actually quite difficult, though you still score a 10% discount coupon after you figure them out. I still think this is a fun and harmless way to earn a coupon.
I played game B where you have to toss the pizza dough and finish six in sixty seconds.
Alas once more the word ‘hiatus’ appears on Nanikore. It’s a shame, but it’s life. Last year the blog was on hold for three months, and this may well be the case again, for the same reason. It’s not that weak excuse of ‘life getting in the way’. How the hell can life get in the way? I love my life. That actually seems to be the issue. I have so many things I want to do, and finite time and energy to do them. Right now then, the blog is falling in priority in comparison to these other goals.
So then, another hiatus. During this time I want to take the few minutes I spend thinking and writing on this blog, and transfer them to working to complete a few personal projects – from finishing a few short stories I had ideas for, to actually finishing a full novel length story which is scandalously still in progress.
I don’t have delusions of grandeur, I wont be a published author, even a self published one; that’s not the goal, just finishing it is the goal.
Other than that, I’m thinking of listening to all 3,200+ songs on my iPod from A-Z. Sounds difficult.
As I’m paid offshore, I have to sort out my taxes locally and either file them over the net, or go down to the tax office, and then pay the due balance by bank transfer etc.. Well, today, with two weeks to spare on the deadline, I went down to the ward tax office, submitted my forms and supporting documents, and paid my taxes up for fiscal 2007.
I have to say that there’s something uplifting and refreshing about just getting it sorted out in one fell swoop, so now, with the except of pre-payments for 2008 taxes, and local tax payments, that’s it for another year.
Overall it’s not too painful for me to actually get the numbers together, as I don’t claim for much except the family. We’ll see how nasty it gets next year if we buy onto the property latter during 2008.
‘shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather’
Often when I post anything about earthquakes, it’s about one here in Tokyo, or somewhere in Japan at least, but it seems today there was one a stone’s throw away from where I grew up, in Grimsby on the coast of England.
It’s kind of odd to me, having been through a lot of earthquakes, thankfully all safely, here on the Pacific rim, that a real jolter happened in Grimsby just still requires me to alter the angle of my forehead to get it in there.
Well, I know my family is OK, because I called them pretty smartish to make sure nothing had fallen off or down, so I hope all the other people are OK too.
Feeling ill. Had to take the day off work due to calls from the big white telephone. Probably more than anyone wanted to know.
That there title does indeed say ‘Seikatsu Happyoukai’, which the best I can divine, translates to ‘Lifestyle Presentation’.
As you would expect, this has virtually nothing to do with the event we actually went to.
What we actually attended was our daughter’s hoikuen (Day Care) year in review event, which combined some little musical numbers with some dancing and singing by the children (mercifully, just a couple of minutes for each of the hoikuen’s classes) and a slideshow of their various events from 2007.
I suppose though that you can indeed consider that a lifestyle?
That all said, it was entertaining, and a chance to see all her classmates and meet some other parents, and wield camcorders in absurdly amateurish ways. That is one of the best things about being a parent in these situations. Panning and zooming. All over. All the time.
Today I finally closed my account with Spinnet, the ISP I’ve been using for over six years. They’re a great company, whoLe but de casino ligne. I still recommend, but as I get my internet access via my apartment building, and all my e-mail, and my websites are hosted by another company, there was little reason to continue to pay 2,100yen a month. I was hoping, with potentially many in my situation, they’d allow for tier-ing of their fees, but alas not. Anyway, if I need a pure ISP in the future, I’ll be sure to sign up with them again.
If you’re still using my Spinnet e-mail (which bizzarely ends with the very legacy ‘@***.att.ne.jp’) then you’ll get bounces. Either use the other one I sent out, or reply via this site with a comment.
