I’m sick

31st of Oct, 2006ce* in: diary

Not sure how I got it but now have a stinking cold. Or “Kaze” (ka-zay) in Japanese.

In a bid to kill myself off early, I’ve opted to coming into the office, a good 20 mins from my home, because of an urgent request to send data to a client. Unfortunately the data is on my broken back-up hard drive, which I am in the process of fixing. It’s tough. The recovery process takes about 8 hours and then the actual shifting of data takes a lot longer, about 20 hours I guess, to move the data from one hard drive to the other.

Still, I’ll be the wiser for it. Always back up to DVD every month!

To the left is my new invention to curb my torrent of snot, which seems to be draining out of my face in a hurry. The more that drains out and I suck back in, the more I snease and cough. And splutter. And infect the others in this office.

Tonight is “designers week” here in Tokyo, to which I have been invited to the opening bash (which is invite only) and I can’t go! I swear I got in this state from drinking in the first place, so maybe it’s just as well that I am giving it a miss.

OK. Time to rest now. I think I have a fever.

ever have one of those days?

20th of Oct, 2006ce* in: diary

OK here’s an indication of what I look like today.

nothing special, a bit of creative shaving and my jacket. But hell, why was everyone looking at me on my way into work?

There’s paranoia (easy to have in Tokyo, where everyone looks at you any way because 99.99% of people are Japanese) and there’s people looking at you, directly in the eye. No looking up and down, which sometimes happens and is rather annoying, like someone is scanning you (as some of my tall Japanese friends can attest, first people look to see if they are wearing heels). I counted at least 10 or 15 people look me directly in the eye on the metro and literally stare with a burning gaze until I had past them, as if I had a giant sign above my head or something. In the end I had to burst out laughing, just as the Nth person was staring at me (sadly she was a very pretty girl, that’s omotesando for you). I must have given HER paranoia!

In tokyo, where you see girls dressed up as dolls and mohawk punks working behind the counter of convenience stores, one would think that a tall foreign man might go unnoticed.

Oh to those who I told I was going to shave my head today; apparently I’m not allowed. :/

Jerrys Gift

13th of Oct, 2006ce* in: notiondesign

Working for Notion Design I produced this interactive flash website, for Jerry’s unique collection of Jewelry and clothing. Originally I was going to make a real pirate map and scan it in, but in the end I decided photoshop could probably give me the same results without all the mess. Photography is by Kyosyu Mizohata.

Cammy White (SF2)

7th of Oct, 2006ce* in: sketches

bit of saturday afternoon fun. Cammy White from the Street Fighter II games (wiki)

From capcoms bizzare Cammy the Sexy Air Hostess:image

To Cammy as I imagine she was meant to be (click for bigger version):

flight sketch

5th of Oct, 2006ce* in: diary, sketches

I really don’t enjoy flying, unfortunately. Usually it’s take off and landing, the bit in-between is OK. However this has not always been the case, I have clocked up well over 200 hours in the air - on everything from Jumbo Jets to small passenger light aircraft. My nerves come from an incident that happened in 2003. I was on a 747 coming in to land in Amsterdam from Tokyo. It was a long flight, I guess everyone was looking forward to the descent. The seat-belt sign came on as we hit some turbulence, most people returned to their seats, I feel sorry for the ones that didn’t as moments later we hit an area of what some call an “air pocket” (although it’s disputed what to call them). I have no idea how far the plane descended in those few seconds, with the entire plane’s occupants screaming it was hard to tell what was going on. I guess it was a close one, any lower and we might have been at risk of landing strangely.

(more…)

okinawa

4th of Oct, 2006ce* in: diary

I spent a long weekend in Okinawa (Japan’s most southerly islands). The countryside and seaside really reminded me of Cornwall in the UK.

While there, I picked up inspiration and new Japanese words. Also I was able to turn my phone off for 4 days, and not see a computer. (not sure they have computers in Okinawa, much like Cornwall) Indeed, this was very relaxing for me.

Photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawken/sets/72157594312167743/

Some of my favorite moments were spent in the sea, canoeing and snorkeling. I do have a film taken by the snorkeling instructors (who appear to have one of the best jobs in the world, considering I saw at least 3 girls bare their breasts by accident while taking off wet-suits, in just one morning.), when I get this scanned I’ll post it up (minus any breasts unfortunately).

Blog Spam

ce* in: blog

I keep getting spam posted to my blog entries, some of it incoherent, others links to random products or porn sites. I have comments on my blog set to moderation accept for pre approved posters, so it’s not a fantastic problem because I can delete it very easily, just I wonder why they do it and does anyone else get spam comments? I wonder if it’s totally automated or if someone actually sits down and spams peoples blogs by hand.

Blog spam, what will the bastards think of next?