firefox 1.5 released!

try out the black japan theme, it's pretty dope!

nintendo revolution is comin' out @ next year's e3 expo.

for all you mac photo enthusiasts, aperture is now shippin'

on monday nite, had dinner @ いっこ with my big sis, 戸板先生. it was good to catch up on things. made some future plans for the annual koiwa vball tournament with teams comin' from all over japan. also, she is goin' to come to ikko's 忘年会 this sunday too.

yesterday, had the 3rd and final computer trainin' for the teachers. about 35 min into it, i was laughin' to myself about how many teachers were sleepin' thru the whole thing. who would've known that i would fall asleep too in about 5 min. however, durin' the second hour, from out of nowhere, came this other trainin' instructor who made all the teachers wake up (if ya know what i mean). suddenly they were all into the session, askin' questions away...

today is sachi's last day before headin' back to 宮崎, however she's only goin' to be gone for like 3 days. i thought she was goin' to be gone for 3 months!

in closin', here's an interestin' quote from one of steve kerr's nba articles on kobe bryant:

Kobe Bryant's offensive displays are so impressive even his teammates seem to stand around and watch.

this is so true. the lakers aren't goin' to win when kobe takes 30+ shots... go warriors! go clippers!

aite,

kaz out...

in da news:

- holographic rival to blu-ray/hd-dvd

- dual-core battle: amd vs. intel

- wanna try to hack the 360? it's a tad bit harder than the first xbox...


here are some pics from 幸's 送別会:

R.I.P.
Pat Noriyuki Morita aka. Mr Miyagi
1932-2005

was a long week even tho there was a day off on wednesday. been busy with making and correctin' the 9th grade midterms. on da 22nd, taught my students that today was a special day. the english teacher thought i was goin' to explain to them about thanksgiving, but i quickly corrected her. it was the day that the xbox 360 is beign released. doesn't really have too much of an effect on the students because they're all ps2 heads. it's a shame that there have been so many problems/bugs... had 幸子's 送別会 on thursday. about 8 teachers and i went to sala for the 二次会. the next day was pretty tough. had way more classes than normal for some reason. had to make the 8th grade test too.

headed out to tokyo @ nite to meet up with rick and b. went to eat yakitori and then just chilled and watched espn. b almost won 2 games in a row which he has never done, ever!! relaxed a little bit and watched the american men's vball team go against egypt. i played against some of the guys on the american team, so it was interestin' to see them. headed out to shibuya, went to the apple store there for the first time and had dinner with b & kyoko. sunday was just chill. got a few errands done and cut my hair.

in da news:

- a mp3 player for you hello kitty fans

- a lacie lego external hd

- be careful of the sober x worm

- michael irvin arrested in texas on drug charge

- ww2-era bomb found in tokyo

- school boy dies from bamboo spear. ummm...why were these jhs kids throwin' a 10 ft. long spear???

fantasy sports update:

fball
- prima league = 2nd
- public league = 2nd

bball
- diablos = 6th
- hollyhock = 6th

24 & madden marathon weekend

this weekend was a pretty chill one. didn't do too much but watch like 5 discs (3ep/disc) and finish my 1st season of my madden franchise (won the superbowl w/carolina).

24: season 3 is pretty good, but up until the last 3 episodes, it hasn't been as good as season 1 or 2. i'll make a final synopsis after i watch the ending. next up...season 4 baby!!!

the madden franchise mode is pretty koo. playin' on all-pro level is really challenging. you have to work for everything. since the new passin' mode is totally different than in previous games, it took me a LONG time to get the hang of it (im still nowhere close in being proficient, as 29 ints for j.delhomme shows). they got the radio show and all the stuff you can do in da offseason is pretty dope. scoutin' college players, givin' them workouts, the draft (which is pretty realistic) and then restructuring/resigning players' contracts, etc...

this week's plan:

- finish 24
- get an ipod case
- get my re-entry permit
- finish makin' the 9th grade midterm listening test
- watch serenity (firefly movie)


kaz out...

rant

had the worst class of the 9th grade yesterday and had to regulate on them. they have absolutely no common sense at all. 不常識 it's one thing to sleep in class cuz you're not preventin' anyone else from learning. however, if you're havin' a conversation with another student from across the room, then i have a problem. imagine 5-6 different conversations goin' on at the same time when you're tryin' to explain something. had to bring up the whole, "are you really 9th graders? the 7th graders are more mature than you are" bit and they responded with, "we hear that a lot". so when i asked them if they were fine with that, they didn't say anything....

i usually have a really high tolerance and with the other grades i usually just joke around with them. but this class especially, i've had enough. this is just one of the reasons why this is my last year teaching...

/rant

first of all, i wanted to congratulate cal and brandon for finally gettin' the store open. ya'll definitely gotta check them out for the dopest kicks!


wakin' up the other day wasn't so bad even tho it's a saturday. however, watchin' the last 5 episodes of 24: season 2 til 1 in da mornin' didn't help the cause either. i must say tho, the last few episodes were dope! jack bauer is da frickin' man!! now i can start watchin' season 3 and then 4 so i'll be caught up with everybody.

had to teach by myself today for the 8th & 9th grade elective class. really didn't have do too much because i just gave them handouts.

the demo class went ok. nothin' really special.

went to get my ticket and then headed out to tokyo to eat some yakitori w/b & junj.

came home the next day and just chilled. finished readin' "splinter cell" and ate dinner @ mama's. finished watchin' firefly and started up playin' madden.

next day, met up with jan (who i haven't seen in like 10 years) and had lunch in harajuku. went to the apple store in ginza and finally did it. picked up the 30gb black ipod. just need to get a case now for it. probably do that this weekend.

started up 24: season 3 and it's pretty crazy to see what has happened in 3 years (the time frame between the end of season 2)

fantasy sports update:

nba
diablos league: 6th/20
slandro: 3rd/10

nfl
prima: 2nd/12
public: 1st/10

koo little article on the xbox 360 @ anandtech

tgif, ポッキの日

i wish i could tgif but i can't since i have to work tomorrow. we have　授業参観, where the parents come to observe class.

today is ポッキの日, because the date; 11.11, resembles the fine japanese snack.

finally was able to get caught up on 24: season 2 after almost 3 years! hopefully i can finish it by this weekend. after that and firefly, gonna check out lost: season 1.

am a little sore from bball practice yesterday. i actually ran most of the practice with them. i was helpin' out the 7th graders on defense and tried to explain to them the proper ways of: defendin' the inbound, bumpin' the screen, help rotation, etc... at first they weren't really comprehendin' it, but when they actually executed it correctly, they prevented the startin' 5 from gettin' an easy shot.

my girls vball team is goin' to the chiba prefecture tournament. i wish them the best of luck.

til next time,

kaz out...

weird weather...

awesome weather saturday, pourin' rain on sunday (at least 1.5 inches) then blue skies the past few days. i guess i should be happy that i haven't caught a cold yet. also, since the weather has been so up n down, i haven't fully set up my kotatsu yet. probably gonna finish it up by the end of the week.


firefly & family guy

been watchin' firefly for the past few days. interestin' mix of future and the wild west. family guy has been straight comedy. the old school references are da best.


nothin' much else goin' on. made some grubbin' chicken adobo last nite. pretty good for the ingredients that i had.

this is a 6 day work week so i'm only halfway thru. i guess it makes up for all the holidays that i've lately. since there's class on saturday, we get the followin' monday off. in japanese, it's called 代休.

aite then,

kaz out...

it's been a quick week since it was a national holiday yesterday (文化の日). was able to get a lot of stuff done around da house.

we have part II of our computer trainin' today in a little bit. then i'm finally meetin' up with buddy hitoshi, who i haven't seen in like half a year.

finished up the dvd video of my school's chorus festival. not bad for my first idvd project. also updated my powerbook to 10.4.3 without any problems. after all of that, cleaned up my files/directories as well as my usb keychain.

no real plans this weekend but chill. i'm wonderin' if rick will be comin' back so i can pick up my games that my buddies made for me...

kaz out...

here's the latest pic i have of my niece, maile



fantasy sports wrap up:

- nfl
::::: prima league: tied for 1st., 7-1-0, 6 game winnin' streak
::::: public league: 1st., 6-1-1, 3 game winnin' streak

- nba
::::: diablo's league: 3rd place, 477.9 pts.
::::: back home league: tied for 1st., 60 pts.


in da news:

- xbox lounge opens up in japan

had the big draft on saturday. some background:

- it is the 8th year of the league
- it's a keeper league
- 20 team league
- 5 teams dropped out from last year
- 4 new "expansion" teams this year (i'm one of those)
- top 7 finishers from last year won money from the pot (￥85,000; ￥50,000; ￥35,000; ￥25,000; ￥15,000; ￥10,000; ￥5,000
- the top 7 draft order is reversed. ie., 1st place picks 20th, 2nd place picks 19th, 3rd place picks 18th,..., 7th place picks 14th
- the last 4 teams from last year had to pay extra (￥10,000; ￥7,000; ￥5,000; ￥3,000)
- the last place (20th place) team got 20 "ping pong balls", 19th place got 14, 18th got 10, 17th got 7, 16th got 4
- the expansion teams got 3
- 8th-15th place got 2
- each team has 15 players, 10 starters/5 reserves (3 guards, 3 forwards, 2 centers, 2 utility players)
- so...total players drafted = 15 x 20 = 300 players!?!
- draft was offline but had online peeps from 3 other countries
- lineups are set weekly
- scoring categories/pt. breakdown: Points (x1), field goals (attmp=x-1: madex2.4), assists (x2.4), offensive rebounds (+2.1), defensive rebounds (+1.8), block shots (x2), 3-pt. (attp=x-1: made=x3.8), free throws (attp=x-1.2: made=x1.7), steals (x2.2), turnovers (x-1)
- bonus scoring cats: Triple doubles = +50pts. Game misconduct = -50pts* (if system allows). No points deducted for suspensions
- draft picks (except 1st round) can be traded

so, i ended up gettin' the 10th pick. really wanted e.brand but he got picked 3 picks ahead of me. i drafted ak47 with my first pick. after the first round, there's an expansion draft to balance the lineups for people who only kept 1 keeper as well as for the expansion teams cuz they don't have a full lineup. i drafted j.magloire in the first round of the expansion draft. then picked up a.iguodala in the second round of the expansion draft (i REALLY wanted him this year, so i might have taken him too early. but hey, if you look at as the 50something pick, then it's not too early). here's my team:

10. A. Kirilenko F
23. J. Magloire C
28. A. Iguodala GF
43. J. Terry G
63. L. Ridnour G
83. B. Haywood C
103. R. LaFrentz C
123. D. Williams G
143. M. Daniels G
163. M. Ely F
183. D. Fisher G
203. T. Ariza F
223. S. Stoudamire G
243. S. Parker G
263. E. Batista C

the draft took about 6.5hrs!!!

yesterday was my school's chorus festival. was a long day. highlight was when the pta did their gospel song. there was also a guy that played the pipe organ.

*** trivia time *** did ya know that a pipe organ has over 3,000 pipes?

since i was there, i missed an online fantasy bball draft with my buddies from back home. luckily i pre-ranked my players and ended up gettin' the 4th pick. i was the only person out of 10 that wasn't there. i'm pretty satisfied with my team.

round player
1 d.nowitzki
2 b.miller
3 m.bibby
4 d.howard
5 j.johnson
6 a.iguodala
7 j.howard
8 t.prince
9 b.gordon
10 j.crawford
11 m.daniels
12 s.dalembert
13 v.radmanovic

honda sensei was havin' some problems gettin' the video he took yesterday was crashin' on 3 of his pc's. so he asked me if i could try it on my mac. i was easily able to add all the 7th and 8th grade videos. he then tells me that he needs to stop contemplatin' & go out and buy an imac. need to get back to importin' the 9th grade vids and then puttin' all of them onto dvd. til next time...

kaz out...