When ya'll get the chance, check out Tri's new Project Pink
----------------------------------------------------
Woke up at: 06:15
Mood: Chill
Listening to: The Next Movement by The Roots
Weather Report: Clear but cold
Japanese Word/Phrase of the Day: ___ no ue ni = on top of the __
Japan News: TOKYO - Shipments of "happoshu" low-malt, beer-like beverages for general household consumption are expected to surpass those of beer in 2003 for the first time since happoshu was launched in 1994 in Japan, industry data showed Wednesday. Such shipments of happoshu by Japan's five top brewers - Kirin Brewery Co, Asahi Breweries Ltd, Sapporo Holdings Ltd, Suntory Ltd and Orion Breweries Ltd - during the January-November period came to 176.93 million cases, compared with 156.57 million cases of beer shipped during the same period.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fantasy Football Update (as of 12.10.03):
Record: 7-6-1
It's playoff time! Unfortunately, my lost to japanimal this past weekend moved me from the championship bracket to the consolation bracket.
Week 14 matchup: japanimal (Ko)
Sakamoto Samurais: 61
japanimal: 68
Playoff Picture
Week 15 matchup: Spam Jam (Tri)
Championship Bracket
Poopsie Liver Butts (Marty) #1 vs. Scruffs Minions (Don) #4
japanimal (Ko) #2 vs. Feo Football (Marc) #3
Consolation Bracket
Sakamoto Samurais #5 vs. Spam Jam (Tri) #8
wholly shet (Matt) #6 vs. Macs Silver & Black (Jim) #7
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fantasy Basketball Update (as of 12.10.03):
Record: 35-24-1
RESULTS
Week 1: 6-4 W, japanimal (Kotaro)
Week 2: 6-3 W, Dribblin' Balls (Jookie)
Week 3: 6-4 W, Scruffs Thugz (Don)
Week 4: 6-4 W, Gsytle (Gee)
Week 5: 5-5 T, Prima Hooligan (Hooli) (My toughest opponent so far. Out of all the teams that I've played, I have the most respect for this one.)
Week 6: 6-4 W, Macs Kings (Jim) (Even though I more than doubled his pts, rebs, steals, assists, blocks...I also more than doubled his TO's and Techs.)
Week 7 Matchup: wholly shet (Matt)
As of right now, I'm down 5-3.
Made some changes to my roster. I dropped Travis Best, Scottie Pippen and Ron Mercer and picked up Jiri Welsch and Ira Newble.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current Book Status:
Count Zero: pg 82
Haven't been readin' too much since I haven't been ridin' the trains lately.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
News:
TECH:
- DVDs, drives don't mix, says government study. Recordable DVDs stand a substantial chance of being incompatible with DVD drives, but the situation is improving with new models, according to an ongoing government survey. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a division of the U.S. Commerce Department's Technology Administration, said its tests proved DVDs and DVD drives to be compatible only 85 percent of the time. "This means that if a recording is made on 10 different brands of DVDs, the odds are that at least one will not work," the institute said in announcing the results Thursday. "The problematic results range from DVDs that do not work at all, suddenly freeze, or have video or audio 'drop out.'" read more here
- BlackBerry aims to go Wi-Fi. Research In Motion is working to allow its BlackBerry devices to connect to Wi-Fi wireless networks, anticipating demand for the feature from its target corporate customers. With the gradually growing number of Wi-Fi wireless network installations in large businesses and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) trials on those networks, the Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM has been testing built-in Wi-Fi connectivity in its BlackBerry devices, the company confirmed Monday. The capability should be available sometime after spring of 2004. read more here
- Game industry leads race for digital 'uberdevice' One of the most heavily touted concepts of the Internet boom was "convergence"--the notion that practically all consumer technologies, from television to instant messaging, would be housed in a single box. read more here
SPORTS:
Baseball News
- Kazuo Matsui agreed to a $20.1 million, 3 year contract w/the Mets
- Akinori Ostuka agreed to a 2 year contract worth just under $2 million
- Shigetoshi Hasegawa resigns for $6.3 million, 2 year contract w/the Mariners
- Eddie Guardado signs a one year deal with 2 option years
- Tim Worrell agreed to a $5.5 million, 2 year deal w/the Phillies
- Bartolo Colon signed a $51 million, 4 year contract w/the Angels
Cleanin', ESPN BBALL, Dinner w/Makuhari family, School, Shopping w/Takahashi sensei, Yakiniku
12.07.03 Sunday
Didn't get much...well maybe no sleep because I was so into the 24/7 mode of ESPN basketball on my xbox. I literally played it for like 8 hours straight!!! During some breaks, I did some laundry and cleaned up some more. For lunch, I had some curry rice and ran a few errands. For dinner, I headed out to Makuhari to meet up with Ami & Sho and the Muraguchis. Mama, as always, made some slammin' food. This time, it was a kimchee nabe. Towards the end, she put some fresh mochi that her and papa made that day. So it was kimchee mochi! It was the first time that I've had it and it was da bomb!!! Got to talk to Hide more about geek stuff. He got the latest Tungsten. It's pretty dope. Can't belive it has 50somethin' MB! I'm really jockin' Palm OS 5.2 now. Especially with the Japanese software upgrade. Anyhow, I gave them all their omiyage and Ami and Mama especially liked the cinnamon cookies from Las Vegas.
12.08.03 Monday
Natto, the breakfast of champions! Another day @ school spent interviewing the 8th graders. Played bball with Aso san, who finally played which was koo to have somebody who knows how to play. Afterwards, went to Laox (an electronics store like Best Buy) to go buy a heater. I ended up gettin' Hide's BDAY gift...Equilibrium DVD but the name was changed to Rebellion. Don't know why they axe the names to some movies. Takahashi sensei and I also bought some USB flash drives. After droppin' me off, I headed over to Ikko for dinner. Had some saba and miso shiru. Came home and played some of my 24/7 baller. If I don't play a lot, my baller's skills deteoriate. Just like real life. I need to get my defensive awareness up cuz I'm gettin' jooked to easily. I also tried out my new heater but it only worked for like 30 min, before flickerin' and turnin' off. WTF!!! Gonna have to tell Takahashi sensei bout this!
12.09.03 Tuesday
Yet another day of interviewing the 8th graders. During lunchtime, while the kids were playin', Iwase kun accidently broke one of the windows in the classroom and was cut really bad. When I went to teach the 8th grade class after lunch, I noticed Sunayama sensei, Yamazaki sensei and some other students cleanin' up the floor. I didn't realize they were cleanin' up blood until I was standin' in it. I helped them out but was shocked to see so much blood on the floor. I thought it was just a nose bleed or something but when I found out what really happened, I was shocked. The whole window was broken and these windows aren't small. As I was cleanin' up the blood, I brought out my elven ranger skills and was able to track the path Iwase kun took. From the window, to the hallway, to the bathroom, back out to the hallway, then down the far staircase. Since Takeuchi sensei had to take care of all the logistical stuff, I proceeded to our classroom to make sure the students are ok. They all were pretty shocked/sad/concerned about what happened and kept askin' me if I knew the details. I enjoy the 8th graders a lot more because they're more willin' to try to talk to me. Though the language barrier is still there, it's a lot smaller than it was when I first started. I can probably communicate @ about 80% understanding now with them.
I also got to try out my new USB drive. For some reason, it crashed my notebook. I got a frickin' blue screen on Windows 2000!!! WTF!!! I then tried to use Takahashi sensei's drive and it crashed my system again! We tried it on Ito sensei's notebook with the same results. Frustrated as hell at this point, Takahashi sensei and I went back to Laox and we exchanged my heater and then went upstairs to the computer department to see what's up with our USB drives. After listening to our problem, the guy that helped us tested our USB drives on the store computers with no problems. He then said that because I have English windows, it's not going to work. What kind of crap is that!?!? That's like sayin' my US floppy disk won't work in a Japanese floppy drive!!! Basically the result of this trip was: I returned my USB drive and Takahashi sensei kept his. With it being Tuesday night, when I came home, I watched my favorite programs. I cooked up some grubbin' sukiyaki, tried out some new games on my Xbox and called it a night.
12.10.03
Natto, the breakfast of champions! Washed down with some vegetable juice. Yummy!!! The school's internet connection is finally back up after a hiatus of about 5 days. Once again, another day of interviewing 8th graders. Finally started interviewing the boys. For 4th period, 8th grade science elective class had these two ladies come in and demonstrate how to make japanese sumi paper. I made two pieces that are currently on the sciene room window drying. They'll probably be dry by the end of the week. Chatted it up with Ishihara sensei at lunch today. We talked mostly about the volleyball (he was the volleyball coach at our school) and about oshogatsu (Japanese New Year's). Had another class of interviews and then just chilled in the teachers' room til about 1700ish and then headed to Yakuendai eki to go to Funabashi for yakiniku with Suga and Ralph. Ralph is back from Peace Boat, where he was on a boat for 3 months that went around the world; from Japan -> Taiwan -> India -> Australia -> Kenya -> Egypt -> Italy -> Spain -> NY -> Alaska. He's been back for about 2 months now but will be goin' on another excursion for the Peace Boat beginnin' on Christmas. I also met Hatakeyama san, who lived in NYC and San Mateo for about 7 years. Her English is really good and she surprised me with her knowledge of the states...more specifically Vegas and Macys. Kinda trippy. Had some grubbin' Korean food and some makolee, which is like Japanese Doboroku...or unfiltered sake. Miyazaki also came through a little bit later and it's always interesting to have him and Uenohara (Ta kun) around as a team. Caught the train with Miyazaki and @ Kesei Tsudanuma, we saw that they're installin' new sign boards for the Shin Kesei line. Much more modern than the ancient signs they use now for the train times. The new ones employ full graphics! Came home and watched my show with Manami Konishi in it.
Well...it's gettin' late...so I'm callin' it a night.
Kaz out...
This entry was posted by kaz, on
水曜日, 12月 10, 2003.
You can leave your response.
