Surprise! Welcome to my party.

 Musings  2 Responses »
Jun 282011
 

Friday night around dinner time I unexpectedly arrived at a surprise party in celebration of my recently becoming a father.

I was the third person there.

Well, tied for second. When my friend brought me there, there was only one other person there. His girlfriend.

I was confused at first.

Being greeted with “This is a surprise party for you, but everyone else is late!” was much more hilarious than sad. People did show up eventually. And when they did, I was the one who got to yell “Surprise!”. That seemed fitting somehow.

One time when I came back from the bathroom, everyone shouted surprise. That was also unexpected. The party had already been going on for a good hour or two. I liked that. These friends of mine have a good sense of humor.

It was a wonderful time.

 Posted by revenantkioku at 8:53 am

Wikipedia is Boring

 Musings  1 Response »
Jun 162011
 

Well, the Japanese one, at least.

I try to read more Japanese, I really do. But there is just something about the almost lack of pictures and “clump” that the Japanese text tends to do on the site that just drives me insane. It’s like how 2ch is just a bunch of text with maybe a bar here and there to separate things.

I know it has often been said that the simplistic web design of Japanese sites is to favor browsing on cellphones, but with the advent of smart phones I can only hope we get more and more into decent looking sites.

It’s not just Wikipedia that is bothering me recently, though.

Try to find a good GameFaqs-like resource in Japanese. It doesn’t exist. That’s fine, except then you are browsing wiki-like sites that have the guides for the games broken up into sections which are then further broken up into parts. Trying to find anything ends up taking more time than it is worth.

Am I just not used to these sites? Am I complaining too much? Am I browsing the wrong part of the web? It always seems that if I look up something in English, I get current results. Japanese results can be from a decade ago.

 Posted by revenantkioku at 2:57 pm

Kirby’s Dreamland 2

 Gaming  No Responses »
Jun 132011
 

I have been on a Gameboy kick this year.

I don’t know what started it, but it has been extremely refreshing. I managed to beat the original Kirby’s Dreamland under a half hour while I waited in the car for my wife one day. Playing its sequel has been more of a slow burn over the past few weeks, and I finally got to what I think is the final boss today.

Not faring too well against it.

Something that I do kind of like and dislike at the same time is these items that I have found in the stages that I am not quite sure how to get. I don’t know if they are just bonus items or affect the game in anyway were I to actually collect them. I am sure if I poked around enough I could figure out their secret but I’m not sure if I have the time.

 Posted by revenantkioku at 11:42 pm

Timeslip

 Musings  No Responses »
Jun 122011
 

The only reason that I know about two weeks have passed since my son was born is because my library books are due today. Time has been funny recently.

I don’t know if it is the frequent naps, the hectic lifestyle or a slow onset of crazy, but it really feels like a year has passed by in these two weeks.

At this point it has become even more apparent how useful organization is. The problem of course is keeping up with it. I found a pretty good to-do app in Quickie but the issue as always is to remember to actually look at the to-do list.

The issues of the modern man here, I swear.

 Posted by revenantkioku at 7:20 am

Good but…

 Gaming  1 Response »
Jun 072011
 

Whine mode, activate!

Well, the PS Vita is going to be $250 in the states. No idea what it is going to be in Japan, but it probably won’t be more than ¥30,000. With this price point and the power it is going to be packing this should be pretty great for gaming.

Kind of worries me, though.

My concern, and of course it is a very selfish one, is that the Vita follows in the footsteps of the PSP and is home to games that I don’t enjoy. I own very few PSP games and the majority of the are ports and remakes. Which, it is great to play Final Fantasy IV and The After Years on the go, but it has definitely been lacking in the original titles that grab me.

Those have all been on the DS.

And the 3DS isn’t doing so great so far. Maybe this will push Nintendo to price drop, and the price drop will spur some interest from developers. Perhaps if the Vita jumps to the lead the types of games I like will be developed for the Vita.

Somehow I doubt it.

The trend in gaming is going for safe sells. Chris Kohler wrote a great article on this. And it seems that while we are only briefly into this year’s E3, he’s right. Shooters and other safe sells abound. The big issue is the types of games I want to play are hardly what sells.

I’m a father now, so my gaming time is going down. That’s okay. I’ll live with that. But it is still something I enjoy and the price point of the Vita being affordable seems to be a signal that the aspects of gaming that are unimportant to me, powerful graphics, internet accessibility, are becoming the front runners at an affordable pace. Which means if this is what the majority of gamers want, it is what the majority of games will be.

I just feel like I am being pushed out of my hobby.

 Posted by revenantkioku at 5:52 pm

漢字検定

 Japan  No Responses »
Jun 052011
 

I picked up 漢字検定 DS the other day. I had it years ago when it first came out but now it’s much easier to go through. It’s not so much that I get more right, but that in general I have a better grasp on Japanese in general, so I am able to make better deductions and I am able to better learn Japanese in Japanese than I used to be able to.

But then I found 漢字検定 DS 3 exists.

Now I feel like I wasted my cash. I checked a bunch of stores, only saw the first 漢字検定 DS software, and while I knew a 2 existed, I had read it wasn’t that much of a jump over the first one. Having looked at some videos of 3, however, I see that it has fixed some of my qualms with the first software, which I so recently bought for the second time.

I could put up with the flaws, but that just seems silly. Sure, I could sell this one at a loss and get the new one. I cannot return this one because I already lost the receipt like a fool. I usually do research, but this just escaped me.

Oh well.

I think I’ll put up with the 漢字検定 DS1 for a while and if I do get into it and start cranking out good study with it, then I’ll plunge for the newer and better one. If I don’t really get into it, I can count this as testing the waters.

 Posted by revenantkioku at 10:13 pm

Exhausted

 Musings  1 Response »
Jun 042011
 

First, all the proper congrats, おつかれさま and all that should go to my lovely wife. My son was 3520 g, 51 cm and apparently had a head much larger than the average baby.

Or so they tell me.
Continue reading »

 Posted by revenantkioku at 5:49 pm

Anticipation

 Musings  No Responses »
May 292011
 

Our son’s due date was Thursday.

My wife didn’t start getting pains until yesterday afternoon. They got pretty consistant around 11 pm, so we called the clinic and they told us to come in. They checked her up and said she was still a good ways off from giving birth. Better safe than sorry, I guess. Today has been a bit painful for us though.

More for her, I’m sure.

I heard that giving birth was tough. I never doubted it. But for the past day it’s been like watching my wife being punched every ten minutes by the Invisible Man. It’s grueling to watch, and while the hand holding and massages seem to help her a little bit, I can’t even imagine what it must feel like.

Everyone has been telling me to rest. Well intended advice, I am sure. I can’t, though. Well, I have been laying down next to my wife and reading when I’m not massaging or helping time the contractions. But I’m definitely not ‘at rest’. Tense would be the word. While I slept last night, and for a good number of hours, I definitely do not feel like I did. Not sure how I’m going to go to work tomorrow.

Completely drained and this is only the beginning!

 Posted by revenantkioku at 7:11 pm

Takin’ His Time

 Musings  No Responses »
May 262011
 

Well, today was my son’s due date. And….

Nothing.

Well, he’ll be here soon, so I guess there’s no reason for me to fret. It is, however, much harder to wait than I expected!

 Posted by revenantkioku at 10:43 pm

Dear Little Dude

 Musings  No Responses »
May 252011
 

Dear Little Dude,

Hey, Little Dude. How’s it going? You haven’t been moving around as much lately so I’m wondering if you aren’t resting up for the big break out. Your mother says you’ve been moving, so that’s good. But I’m still finding it a bit weird that you aren’t kicking around like you used to. It’s okay, I’m not really worried. I’m sure you’ll be fine. Continue reading »

 Posted by revenantkioku at 1:08 pm
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