| So young, so much potential. |
[Jun. 22nd, 2008|09:58 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | 太陽の楽園～Promised Land～ - 神戸みゆき | ] |
神戸みゆき, the singer to the two first season of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch had passed away at the age of 24. She was pronounced deceased on Jun 18th 2008 at 4:08am. Cause of death is a heart failure.
It is especially sad to remember that I barely experienced life went I was her age. Because of an incident similar to this, I've made a promise to experience, and bring experience.. Like the old saying, health is wealth. |
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| Japan no longer safe? |
[Jun. 8th, 2008|11:45 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
The saying of how the world we live in is no longer as innocent as it used to be really isn't just some catch phrase anymore. We had the knifing epidemics in UK, now even Japan is not immune to the age of growing violence.
I strongly feel many reactive people / government is going about it wrong curbing violence by focusing on the means, but not the root of the violence. There will always be the means, unless the need is extinguished. Asking the question of Why, instead of What.
Stabbing rampage in Tokyo. killing 7, wounding 12 |
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| Excessive logging |
[May. 9th, 2008|02:09 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  amused | ] |
This is funny.. So today the bill for my work phone came in, and it was 54 pages long. That is right. Fifty Four pages.
AT&T is rather obsessed in logging every tiny little transactions. Since I am a very heavy data user, and I get automated pages all hours of the day and night (those who traveled with me in the past, my sincerest apologies). My usage are typically higher than the typical thumb master teenager..
While I have heard people getting 300page bills, I always thought those were either flukes or just a myth.
Well, I can tell you that these massive phone bills are quite real. I some how feel I have done some wrong to the rain forest today.... |
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| [PMXStaff] Thanks For The Memories! |
[Apr. 1st, 2008|04:08 pm] |
To the staff and friends of Pacific Media Expo:
Since 2004, PMX has striven to be one of the best and most influential
events in recent years, showcasing concerts such as T.M.Revolution,
OLIVIA, and The Candy Spooky Theater; and hosting Guests of Honor like
Yasuhiro Nightow, Daisuke Moriyama, Bryan Konietzko, Michael
DiMartino, Angelic Pretty, and James Kyson Lee. PMX was an act that
many other cons attempted to follow. We defined a new generation of
fans for a new generation of Asian pop culture.
But sadly, all good things must come to end...
As of today, Pacific Media Expo is no more. Gone. Kaput. Adios.
Sayonara. Fin. 完 . It was a great 4-year run and fun, but we simply
ran out of absinthe. Many of us have already moved on to other, more
quieter things like fishing, sewing, playing poker, trading stocks,
strumming on Guitar Hero 3, wii-ing to Smash Brothers, hobo'in after
failing to flip a house, chasing girls (or guys if your initials are
M.T.), smurfing like Spitzer, or just being a regular boho.
On behalf of PMX, I would like to thank each and every staffer for
their tireless and most-appreciated efforts, but most importantly, for
the memories we shared. Good luck and hope we'll meet again soon!
Regards,
Chris Hemaratanatorn
Chief Executive Officer
Pacific Media Association |
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| LJ and shady pops |
[Mar. 27th, 2008|11:14 am] |
It appears Livejournal,and few other sites are now sporting shady pop up ads. In particular with journals using the so called "plus" ad supported account.
I'm not a big LJ participant for many reason, and this perhaps for me to take further migratory actions. There are honest marketing, and there are underhanded / aggressive marketing. This one is is the latter.
For now, I'll simply local DNS resolve all hosts associated to their ad servers. At least things will load faster without loading all the junk.
( Tell me what is wrong with this picture. ) |
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| Perfect world not so perfect |
[Mar. 22nd, 2008|02:12 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sad | ] |
I know his is old news.. I'm revisiting now that it's nearly a month since the start of all the accusation regarding to Baby The Star Shine Bright's labor dispute.
It doesn't look like it will get any resolution anytime soon, My heart really goes out to these girls. They are hard workers with a real passion. One has to wonder how they survive with their level income. Shop staff pay are only around $9 to $12 /hr, with a small bus stipend for getting to and from work.
My wish is BTSSB to be an example, and show compassion tho these girls.
The following link is fro the Hyogo prefecture senior high school teacher's union website.
A demonstration march in respond to BTSSB's action ..
http://www.hyogo-kokyoso.com/index.php
[edit]
It appears a lot of people did not know of this incident. I'll quickly summarize.
4 employee were suddenly fired at the Baby Kobe branch. There is an claim for wrongful termination by the manager, and an association that the same manager harassed customer and the staff.
The the Baby company's respond is that this is the store manager's do, and the company has no responsibility for this matter. The liability is of course being disputed.
further clames is that over time pay was never given, and staffers were forced to buy the company's clothes by preemptively taking an amount out of their paychecks. Other problems also came out of the wood works such as hours allocation or lack there of in possible evade fulltime employee obligations, as we as the lack of social insurance.
They're vowing to fight until their firing is overturned, and retracted.
The group is supported and guided under the Japan Communist party, a very left wing union. It also appear that the teacher's union is in support of this as well.
source: http://www.jcp.or.jp/akahata/aik07/2008-03-06/2008030603_01_0.html
*note: Due to the many misconception of the Japan Communist Party. It is in fact quite left wing in the political spectrum, NOT what most western world think it is. please read these linksfor further information:
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Communist_Party
Japanese Communist Party- http://www.jcp.or.jp/ |
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| IRL Macaron from Japan. |
[Mar. 9th, 2008|11:37 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  busy | ] |
I've been nudged a few times to post these. But many who know me well, know that I don't like posting pictures for attention getting purposes....
( IRL Macarons ) |
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| Friends are always welcomed! |
[Feb. 28th, 2008|01:00 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  happy | ] |
My Japan hair stylist is visiting San Francisco this coming month. Cant wait to see her, and take her around.
She is in this collection of pictures
http://community.livejournal.com/egl/10892528.html
And I look like pebbles.... |
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| pipe dreams reflection |
[Feb. 24th, 2008|10:57 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | contemplative | ] |
Is the lolita a sustainable community?
( a small tale of my thoughts. ) |
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| Strange twist of fate.. |
[Feb. 17th, 2008|01:50 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  hopeful | ] |
The year is still early but there are so much preliminary things to do. I already a second generation of profiters hard at work. I just hope greed does not perverse what we have currently at the expense other's efforts.
In other notes, I haven't spoke much about the most recent trip since it was pretty much all business related. Quite boring to most everyone. There were no shortage of work related emergencies, and lots sleep loss.
Long story short, a $3,674.67 phone bill came in. No, you read that right, and that is not a typo. It covered several voice calls, and LOTS of data routing over international roaming 3G mobile networks to put of some fires at HQ. Not to mention lots of loss sleep.
In a really strange twist of fate I was given a 16G Iphone due to the ordeal of this huge bill. Even I was a taken little off guard with this development. (yes, visualize me with doing the booglie eyes)
I guess what appears to be a bad thing can some times turn into a hidden blessings.
I will end this entry with one of my favorite quote from the movie Blade Runner back in 1982.
"The light that burn twice as bright lasts half as long. And you have burned so very very brightly..." |
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| Angelic Pretty english shopping site. |
[Feb. 15th, 2008|12:01 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  working | ] |
If case the word hasn't spread like wild fire yet. The site will be open for business mid-end March. Paypal will be accepted, as well as most major credit cards. Some will offer better exchange rate than other. It is best that you do your research to optimize your purchasing power with your bank.
http://www.angelicpretty.com/en/ |
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| Home sweet home? |
[Jan. 21st, 2008|07:22 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | contemplative | ] |
The question is , where IS home?
a few weeks ago with the encounter of the fortune teller, I couldn't help to wonder if it's not all a coincident. Or all this were meant to be.
I might post a few pictures and perhaps write some stories However, much of the trip was largely business related and I am under NDA.. Sorry, folks. |
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| Obligatory Japan status post |
[Jan. 17th, 2008|08:25 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  pleased | ] |
Caught up with old friends and made some new ones. Shopping has been pretty minimal for me since things are rather different now that I'm, on the other side of the fence. On the other hand, the unique natures of what was acquired were well worth the sacrifices.
Most of my time during this trip pretty much revolved catching up with friends, agendas, business meetings. While I am not allowed to give any details at this time, prospects are quite positive. It will be a busy year.. |
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| Journey again to the east. |
[Jan. 6th, 2008|01:54 am] |
Is it vacation or is it work? Sometimes it's one in the same.
it is almost routine, but this time many doors are opening. I will do my best with these opportunities, and I hope the dream of a positive community will be successful. |
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| hocus pocus? |
[Dec. 9th, 2007|11:43 am] |
It was just friday when I went to a friend's company christmas party. At the party as expected, good food and good entertainment. Among the various entertainments, this year they also have hired a fortune teller whom you can request for either a palm reading or a tarot card reading. Since I have never had any sort of reading done before, and I do consider myself some what of s a skeptic of these things. I simply couldn't resist, decided to stand on the and very slow moving line to see what comes out of it. We were of course the last two for the evening.
( Cut to spare those who are affected by the TL;DR syndrome. ) |
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| Normality?! |
[Dec. 5th, 2007|08:20 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Pichi bed | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  surprised | ] |
I went to bed at around 11pm last night. which it's highly unusual since I typically am caught up working on various projects (usually Oneesan related stuff) till around 2-3~am. Got up at the usual hour 7:30am for work this morning feeling rather refreshed. I just realized, I have not slept like this this in over 6 months., far longer than I can really even remember. Is this what normality is like? I envy those who have the luxury of rest every night. |
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| Viz Media Center |
[Nov. 28th, 2007|11:29 pm] |
Looks like the Viz Media Center has been pushed back. I guess things are now up in the air again. |
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| Post PMX07 |
[Nov. 13th, 2007|05:57 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  drained | ] |
Just got home, starting to unpack my luggage.
This is by far the most trying of any events my team and I had ever put together.
So much perseverance, trials, and tears shed not in vain. These memories and bonds will not be forgotten.
more later. |
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| Post halloween thoughts. |
[Nov. 2nd, 2007|01:21 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  calm | ] |
While I was returning from home last night on the short drive home from the ferry docks . I have noticed there were at least two confirmed cosplay lolita out trick or treating. Given that it was only a short 10 mins drive, the ratio was quite high. I am quite convinced that peak of lolita awareness is probably approaching. Not quite there yet, but approaching. However, in other thoughts, I am not too sure if I am happy or sad about what I saw. The costumes were of course halloween costume quality, and the poor girls probably didn't know better. So Im quite split. it is nice that it is contrary to some, it is picking up. On the other hand, there are the the mislead.... |
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| Earthquake |
[Oct. 31st, 2007|01:18 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | happy | ] |
Things are just business as usual with just 1 week away from the big day at PMX...
Tonight, we've experienced a very significant sized earthquake at 5.6. Couple with the recent SoCal fires, I've notice many of my friends used whom laugh joke about my tinfoil hat mentality on being readied and prepared are now taking a second notice.
Disasters happens. It's always less of an "if" and and more of a "when", and "what". My philosophy is that these things are always inevitable throughout history. When that time comes, I'd like to be one who can help. I like modern convinces just like everyone else. But having the necessary primitive skills prevents one to become a liability to others. |
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annoyed
peaceful