Thursday, June 12, 2008

Concerning the Middle East and water,
it turns out there's more than enough of both.
I had been planning on submitting this post on Friday night, but as you'll soon read I had plenty of stuff to write about to fill up a post. And it's actually interesting too, believe it or not. I mean, with an awesome title like that one, you know it's got to be at least mildly interesting... right? I hope you answered yes to that question.

Tuesday, June 10th
As with Monday, today was rather dull. Everything went very smoothly with the activity book. I showed it to Iwaoka-san and he seems to like it. Apparently he wants to submit it along with Manga Messiah to some sort of competition thing. I’m not sure if I’m understanding him correctly or not, but that kinda freaks me out if it’s true. I mean, I think I’m doing a fine job on it, but it could be better. He liked what he saw though. So, I continued working on it all day and made surprising progress. I finished laying out all the story pages and then began working on a few more of the activity pages. As it stands, I think I’ll easily have this thing done by Friday.

Wednesday, June 11th
Yet again, today was rather dull. I worked on my activity book up until lunch. I got a few more of the activities done. I’m about halfway done with them now. A bit before lunch Naruafu-san (the one designer who can speak English fluently) informed me that my help was needed with something regarding the Arabic translation of Manga Messiah. They’ve been having some trouble with it because the Arabic font being used is not compatible on their machines. So, the team in the middle east working on the project vectorized the type and sent it back here. Unfortunately they laid the entire manga out on the wrong image scans. Narafu-san emailed them about getting it fixed, but they haven’t responded to the email. She says they never do. Sometimes they do what is asked, sometimes they don’t, but the designers here never know which it is going to be. Due to that particular issue, they are always stuck in limbo. Unfortunately this particular project needed to get done ASAP and they didn’t have time to just sit around and wait, so they shoved it onto my desk. Basically the task was to do the best I could making the current layout of the Arabic type look presentable. This meant adding text boxes, moving around the blocks of type, changing colors where I deemed fit, etcetera. It was mind-numbingly dull work and the afternoon was long. Sure, it required some creativity and thought, but I didn’t have fun doing this like I have with the other projects they’ve given me. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but once I did it went smoothly. It’s a slow process, so finishing will probably take all day tomorrow as well. I’m not sure what this means for my activity book. Perhaps some overtime hours will be in order after all. One thing is for sure though, whether or not I’m enjoying my work, I am learning quite a bit about Adobe InDesign. It’s a much more complicated program than I gave it credit for.

On a more social note, the design team informed me today that they are planning to take me out this Friday night. Apparently it’s a big deal. They’ve invited the other two people I regularly talk to here at NLL, Chieko-san and Mike-san. Mike-san is my lunch conversation guy. He’s originally from British Colombia so his English is perfectly good. We have interesting conversations. The schedule for Friday is to leave straight from work at precisely 5:30 PM and go out to this restaurant called (insert name that starts with a T). After dinner we’ll go out for a night of karaoke. It sounds like a fun evening! Apparently this restaurant is one that takes classic Japanese food and makes it new. All I’ve had so far is very traditional stuff, so a little variety will be nice. I look forward to trying it. The fun aspect of karaoke should go without saying. I love to sing and have taken part in a couple karaoke contests (though never won), and I think going out with a bunch of people, socializing, and singing to good songs sounds like a blast.

This evening for fun I worked on a design project of my own creation. When I find scans of nice anime-realted images, I like to come up with ideas for wallpapers. Most of them never get completed, but this particular scan called out to me (you can see the original scan here). It needed to have something done with it. It was a nice piece of artwork before I got my hands on it, and I think I added to it's beauty in a way (it's always hard to measure up to an original). I really like what I created, but I'll let you guys be the judges. I call it "Come Find Me." Tell me what ya think!

Thursday, June 12th
Today started out horribly. The whole thing started last night when I realized that I no longer had any clean clothes to wear. I had to do laundry. My normal practice while here is to do my laundry in the evening after work and get it hung outside before I go to bed so it can dry on the line overnight, or at least get dry enough to be comfortable to wear. The same thing happened last night. I got everything out on the line by about 11:00 PM and went to bed a few hours afterwards. Unbeknownst to me, rain was forecasted for the night. It was a perfectly sunny day yesterday and when I checked my weather widget it said it was going to be a perfectly sunny day today (which it was), but it neglected to inform me of the minor showers overnight. It rained all night until about 8:30 AM. Needless to say, my clothes didn’t dry, but in fact got even wetter. I woke up at 7:00 AM and had nothing to wear. NOTHING. The only clean things I had left were an undershirt, a pair of socks, and my swimsuit. Guess what I wore to work for the first half of the day? Embarrassing. It would have helped if the dryer worked. I had to pay ¥200 for the privilege of using the thing and all it did was warm up my clothes a little. Completely worthless and senseless waste of money. I managed to get a pair of underwear and one of my t-shirts mostly dry before work by use of the magical device known as a hair drier, (so I wasn’t going commando with a swimsuit and undershirt to work) and I got a pair of pants a little less wet by lunch. So, the last half of the day I was decently dressed yet damp, but the first half was embarrassing and miserable.

Despite the whole rain incident, my morning started out wonderfully. For once I had a nice night of sleep. I woke up before my alarm this morning feeling alert and refreshed. It’s not often that that happens. At work I continued with the Arabic project from yesterday. I made wonderful progress and managed to get it completed by about 3:30 PM. The design team was grateful. So, the last portion of the day I worked on my activity book again. I finished two activities in those last two hours which means I have five more to go before completion.

Now for more on the night out with the design team (plus two). Tsusumi-san was concerned that going out to eat and karaoke in the same night would be packing it in a bit too tight. So, they’ve decided to split the evening up into two nights. We’ll go to dinner at that T place on Friday, then next week sometime, probably on Monday or Tuesday, we’ll go out for karaoke. Sounds fine to me, but I was kinda looking forward to karaoke tomorrow. Oh well. Such is life. ^_^

Caesar1280's Anime Ticker

.hack//Legend of the Twilight, Air, Air: The Movie, Akira, The Animatrix, Appleseed, Aquatic Language, Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror, Beck, Black Lagoon, Blame!, Blood the Last Vampire, Bokurano, Burst Angel, Castle in the Sky, Cowboy Bebop, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express, Egao, FLCL, Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala, Gankutsuou, Gatekeepers, Genshiken, Ghost in the Shell, Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society, Gin-iro no Kami no Agito, Grave of the Fireflies, Grenadier, Haibane Renmei, Hellsing, Highlander: The Search for Vengeance, Hikaru no Go, Howl?s Moving Castle, Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade, Jyu Oh Sei, Karas: The Prophecy, Last Exile, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, Midori?s Days, Milennium Actress, Mushi-shi, My Neighbor Totoro, Naruto, Naruto: The Movie, Nausicaa, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death And Rebirth, Ninja Scroll: The Movie, Other Worlds, Paprika, Perfect Blue, Pet Shop of Horrors, The Place Promised In Our Early Days, Prétear, Princess Mononoke, Read Or Die, Read Or Die: The TV, Samurai Champloo, Samurai Seven, Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal, She and Her Cat, Spirited Away, Steamboy, Tide-Line Blue, Tokyo Babylon, Tokyo Godfathers, Trigun, Voices of a Distant Star, Witch Hunter Robin, Wonderful Days, Wrath of the Ninja, X

Anime I've Seen - .hack//Legend of the Twilight - .hack//Sign - 5 Centimeters per Second - Air - Air: The Movie - Akira - The Animatrix - Appleseed - Aquatic Language - Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror - Baby Blue - Beck - Black Lagoon - Blame! - Blood the Last Vampire - Bokurano - Burst Angel - Castle in the Sky - Cowboy Bebop - Cowboy Bebop: The Movie - Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express - Doorbell - Egao - FLCL - Fullmetal Alchemist - Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala - Gankutsuou - Gatekeepers - Genius Party - Genshiken - Genshiken OAV - Ghost in the Shell - Ghost in the Shell: Innocence - Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society - Gin-iro no Kami no Agito - The Gokusen - Grave of the Fireflies - Grenadier - Haibane Renmei - Happy Machine - Hellsing - Highlander: The Search for Vengeance - Hikaru no Go - Howl's Moving Castle - Innocent Venus - Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade - Jyu Oh Sei - Karas: The Prophecy - Karas: The Revelation - Last Exile - Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi - Midori?s Days - Milennium Actress - Mushi-shi - My Neighbor Totoro - Naruto - Naruto: The Movie - Nausicaa - Neon Genesis Evangelion - Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death And Rebirth - Ninja Scroll: The Movie - Other Worlds - Ouran High School Host Club - Paprika - Perfect Blue - Pet Shop of Horrors - The Place Promised In Our Early Days - Prétear - Princess Mononoke - Read Or Die - Read Or Die: The TV - Samurai Champloo - Samurai Seven - Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal - Serial Experiments Lain - Shanghai Dragon - She and Her Cat - Spirited Away - Steamboy - Tekkonkinkreet - Tide-Line Blue - Tokyo Babylon - Tokyo Godfathers - Trigun - Trinity Blood - Vampire Hunter D - Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust - Voices of a Distant Star - Witch Hunter Robin - Wolf's Rain - Wonderful Days - Wrath of the Ninja - X Total: 93

Anime I Haven't Completed - .hack//Roots - Ah! My Goddess - Angelic Layer - Avenger - Baccano! - Bamboo Blade - Basilisk - Binchou-tan - Black Cat - Bleach - Blood+ - Boogiepop Phantom - Case Closed - Le Chevalier d'Eon - Chobits - Chrono Crusade - Code Geass - Coyote Ragtime Show - D.Gray-Man - D.N.Angel - DearS - Death Note - Dennou Coil - Desert Punk - Digimon - Dragon Ball Z - Ergo Proxy - Eureka Seven - Excel Saga - Fighting Beauty Wulong - Final Fantasy Unlimited - Flag - Freedom - Full Moon - Gantz - Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Gintama - Glass Fleet - Great Teacher Onizuka - Gundam Seed - Gundam Wing - Hayate the Combat Butler - Hellsing OVA - Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - Ikki Tousen - InuYasha - Jigoku Shojo - Kage Kara Mamoru - Karin - Kino's Journey - Love Hina - Loveless - Lovely Complex - Lucky Star - Makai Senki Disgaea - Marchen Awakens Romance - Meine Liebe - The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Mononoke - Monster - Moon Phase - Mr Stain on Junk Alley - Naruto Shippuuden - Negima?! - Negima! - Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion - Nerima Daikon Brothers - NHK ni Youkoso - Night Walker - Ninja Nonsense - Noir - Peacemaker Kurogane - Pokemon - Prince of Tennis - R.G. Veda - Ragnarok - Rec - Red Garden - Robotech - Romeo x Juliet - Rosen Maiden - Rurouni Kenshin - Saikano - Sailor Moon - Samurai Deeper Kyo - Sci-fi Harry - School Rumble - Scrapped Princess - Shin-chan - Shingu - Shion no Oh - Shuffle! - Shrine of the Morning Mist - So Long, Mr. Despair - Solty Rei - Sousei no Aquarion - Speed Grapher - Spice and Wolf - Super Milk Chan - Tales of Phantasia - Tenchi Muyo - Tenjhou Tenge - Texnolyze - The Third - Tsubasa Chronicles - Urusei Yatsura - Venus Versus Virus - Welcome to the N.H.K. - Winter Cicada - X-1999 - Xenosaga - XxxHolic - Yu Yu Hakushou - Yume Tsukai - Zero no Tsukaima - Zipang Total: 116

Manga I've Completed - Cowboy Bebop - FLCL - Manga Messiah - Manga Metamorphosis - Q*Ko-chan - Saiyuki - Shirahime-Syo Total: 7 Manga I Haven't Completed - .hack//Legend of the Twilight - Black Cat - Blame! - Chobits - D.Gray-man - Darkside Blues - Death Note - The Demon Ororon - Desert Coral - Disgaea - Eureka Seven: Gravity Boys and Lifting Girl - Fruits Basket - Getbackers - Hayate the Combat Butler - Kamunagara - Legal Drug - Love Hina - Loveless - Megatokyo - Naruto - Negima - Read Or Die - Rurouni Kenshin - Tactics - Trigun Maximum - XXXHolic Total: 26

Anime I'm Currently Watching
Samurai 7, InuYasha, Samurai Deeper Kyo,
Boogiepop Phantom, and Shrine of the Morning Mist

Manga I'm Currently Reading
Read Or Die, Hayate the Combat Butler, and Megatokyo.hack//Roots, .hack//Sign, 5 cm per Second, Ah! My Goddess, Angelic Layer, Avenger, Basilisk, Binchou-tan, Black Cat, Bleach, Blood+, Boogiepop Phantom, Case Closed, Le Chevalier d'Eon, Chobits, Chrono Crusade, Coyote Ragtime Show, D.Gray-Man, D.N.Angel, DearS, Death Note, Dennou Coil, Desert Punk, Digimon, Dragon Ball Z, Ergo Proxy, Eureka 7, Excel Saga, Fighting Beauty Wulong, Final Fantasy Unlimited, Flag, Full Moon, Gantz, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Gintama, Great Teacher Onizuka, Gundam Seed, Gundam Wing, Hayate the Combat Butler, Hellsing Ultimate, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Innocent Venus, InuYasha, Jigoku Shojo, Kage Kara Mamoru, Karin, Kino?s Journey, Love Hina, Loveless, Lovely Complex, Lucky Star, Makai Senki Disgaea, Marchen Awakens Romance, Meine Liebe, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Mononoke, Monster, Naruto Shippuuden, Negima?!, Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion, Nerima Daikon Brothers, NHK ni Youkoso, Night Walker, Ninja Nonsense, Noir, Ouran High School Host Club, Peacemaker Kurogane, Pokemon, Prince of Tennis, R.G. Veda, Ragnarok, Rec, Red Garden, Robotech, Romeo x Juliet, Rosen Maiden, Rurouni Kenshin, Saikano, Sailor Moon, Samurai Deeper Kyo, Sci-fi Harry, School Rumble, Scrapped Princess, Serial Experiments Lain, Shingu, Shuffle!, Shrine of the Morning Mist, So Long Mr. Despair, Solty Rei, Sousei no Aquarion, Speed Grapher, Super Milk Chan, Tales of Phantasia, Tenchi Muyo, Tenjhou Tenge, Texnolyze, The Third. Trinity Blood, Tsubasa Chronicles, Urusei Yatsura, Welcome to the N.H.K., Winter Cicada, X-1999, Xenosaga, XxxHolic, Yu Yu Hakushou, Yume Tsukai, Zero no Tsukaima, Zipang

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