The lengths some of us will go for a good cup of coffee can be quite extraordinary sometimes, especially when we’re in another land. As a person who enjoys coffee perhaps more than is normal, I’ve tried my fair share of brands. It would be nice to say that many of the brands have been [...]
土用 (どよう), the day people all over Japan eat うなぎ (eel) to bring good luck, was a few weeks ago but the Mrs. and I were unable to partake in this relatively new tradition for a decent price. So, instead of paying twice the price for something we could have any day of the week, [...]
With each passing year, movies get bigger and bigger. Very rarely can we walk into a cinema and see something lacking the touch of computer animation, and rarer still can we watch something that isn’t a remake of some other story. So you can probably imagine my surprise when, after watching the latest Fast & [...]
There’s been an incredible amount of spam running throughout the Blogosphere recently and, judging from the IPs of the messages getting through Akismet, over 90% of these messages are coming through anonymous or open proxy servers. These very same servers are also one of the most powerful tools in the arsenal of content theives, scammers, [...]
“What’s the diagnosis?” he asked with a touch of hesitation in his voice.
“Not good. I’m afraid that there’s not much we can do at this point,” the man in a white lab coat replied.
“You don’t mean ….”
“I’m afraid I do.” Knowing that the next words had to be chosen carefully, the professional continued. [...]
12.26.08 | Internet, Reviews, Technology | Jason
“Japan 1877.
The Meiji era is in full swing as Japan transforms from a feudalistic land of warlords into an industrialized global powerhouse. However, many are angry about what is happening to their proud country – among them, former daimyo Lord Capulet. His battles with General Montague, a decorated American soldier training Japan’s army, [...]
When was the last time you defragmented your computer? Last month? Last year? Never?
Defragmenting our systems’ hard disks should be an important part of everyone’s computer maintenance schedule, but it’s amazing how rarely this function is actually performed. Then again, considering how many of us actually maintain our systems, we shouldn’t [...]
07.26.08 | Reviews, Technology | Jason
Unless you happen to be some sort of linguistic genius, a talented musician, or some unfair combination of the two, chances are you will have trouble learning a new language and the little nuances required for accent-free pronunciation. I’m lucky enough to have my very Japanese wife to help me with pronunciation, but there’s [...]
07.23.08 | Reviews, Windows Mobile | Jason
Hayao Miyazaki’s (宮崎駿) latest film hit the theatres this weekend. His first in four years, the tale of 崔の上のポニョ (Gake no Ue no Ponyo — Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea) end the speculation that the animation great had made his last movie. Reiko and I took advantage of the half-price movie tickets at [...]
It’s almost that time of year again. The developers at Automattic and elsewhere around the world have been putting together the latest version of WordPress, a blogging platform used on this and a billion other sites, and it’s just about ready for release. Dubbed WordPress 2.6, this next version of the popular software [...]
A few weeks ago I had tested a possible solution to display Japanese characters on my Worldwide English-version of Windows Mobile 6. Although it didn’t quite work the way I wanted, it provided a little hope for the future, as it’s rather important for me to display the three character sets (four, if you [...]
07.11.08 | Reviews, Windows Mobile | Jason
A few days ago, while telling me how stupid I was for saying that I wanted a notebook computer to last at least 15 years...
The countdown is almost up on this year's winter Japanese Language Proficiency Test, and thousands of people residing bo...
Do you ever wonder about your neighbours? I wrote a few months ago about how one of my neighbours has the same camouflag...
Believe it or not, I had a terrible habit back in Canada. It wasn't one with drugs, alcohol, women, or even excessive ...
Over the last decade or so I've been battling a bunch of minor problems such as insomnia, headaches, chest pain, and blo...