Tag Archive for 'geek'

Super Festival 46

Published
by
Electric Pig
on May 1, 2008
in Toys and Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

I don't really know why April 29th, the former "Green Day" holiday, has been renamed "Showa Day". I thought it could have been thanks to the negative associations with the diet-punk band of the same name, but then that doesn't really explain why it would be renamed in honour of a war criminal ex-emperor. According to various reports, the change (which had completely flown over my head when it took place in 2005), was meant to encourage reflection on the turbulent period of the Showa Emperor's (Hirohito as he is known in my head), rule. I imagine that the right-wingers wouldn't be too unhappy that another concession has been made to their goose-stepping, pencil moustache-wearing lunacy either. Apparantly, "Green Day" has been moved to May 4th, and "People's Day", has now been abolished. So, in the end it seems rather fitting that an Emperor that did so much to aid the suffering of his people has once again manage to barge his way, at their expense, into the spotlight.

This Omnipotent-Fascist-Ruler Day Showa Day, Eri and I went to Super Festival 46! Super Festival 46!! was a chance for Eri to see a live performance by Kazuo Umezu, her favourite manga artist and all-round lunatic. He actually lives a road away from me, and we see him almost every day, walking to and from his latest project, the much-protested-against-by-small-minded-neighbours red and white striped house he is constructing near the park. He was scheduled to perform some of his songs and would be selling some hard-to-find Umezz-goods, which Eri was dying to buy. I was a little worried by the thought of being at a 6 hour live performance and question/answer session in Japanese with an octogenarian mad-man (as Eri described the event), but was happy to go as payment for numerous things she has gone to with me in th past. The event was in Ueno at the science museum.

Except that it wasn't. Eri had glanced at the flyer which said blah, blah, science museum, blah, blah、importantaddressdetails, blah, blah, blah, and had presumed that the science museum mentioned was the huge National Museum of Nature and Science in the Ueno Park museum complex. We got to Ueno, left the station from the wrong exit, and walked about a mile in the hot sun (me with a streaming cold), up the hill to the right exit and had a look at the park & museum map. The science museum was there, except that it was National Museum of Nature and Science and not the Science Museum Tokyo, where the event was being held. After checking the flyer, we realised that the actual event was in Kudanshita, about 30 minutes away by two trains.

When we finally got to the museum, I found out (to my utter dismay), that it was a good, old-fashioned toy fair, with loads of old and new toys, figures, comics and props and most amazingly of all, a meet and greet with ADMIRAL CRIX MADINE of Star Wars fame!!!1111 Oh, and we were also too late for the appearance by Umezu. Still, I met the Admiral, forgot to get a photo with him, bought 5 Star Wars Kubricks for 1000円 (bargain), and met some famous Japanese Manga people that I hadn't heard of. Eri did manage to buy a lot of Umezz-goods so was not too sad at not meeting him. I just wished I had known about it earlier as I would have been able to (finally) meet an Ewok. Oh well, the quest continues.

My Macbook Pro and Me

Published
by
Electric Pig
on January 21, 2008
in Mac
. 2 Comments

My Macbook Pro is not burning dual layer DVDs. Again. I bought the computer in June or July last year. After about 3 months, the metallic finish on the hinge latch button started wearing off and I took it in to be repaired. The lovely man in the Shibuya Mac Store "Genius" Bar, (he had a very American name, something like Virgil, and interesting facial hair), told me that it was clearly my fault and therefore not covered under the Mac warranty. He then proceeded to get out a little screwdriver-like thing and to scrape into the joins on the mac to show me that dirt had collected there, which he suggested were from a "viscous fluid". Now, I know a thing or two about viscous fluids and assured him that no viscous fluids had come anywhere near my Mac. I said that I thought that it may have been sweat that my hands secreted in the boiling Japanese summer. After a long, long argument, he agreed to fix the button (which being a computer, required the entire bottom of the Mac to be replaced). This ended up taking about a week.

Then about 3 months later, the computer stopped burning dual-layer DVDs. I burn quite a lot of DVDs and so was quite annoyed by this. I did wonder if perhaps I was burning too many and had somehow worn out the drive, but I hadn't burnt a stoopid number of them and anyhow, what the f**k, if they sell a drive as able to burn DVDs, it should bloody well burn DVDs, and not suddenly stop after 3 months. It seemed that a lot of people on the web were having similar problems and I took it back into the Mac Store ready to have another long arguement with my bald American friend. This time, though, I got a very nice Japanese man who took one look at the problem and agreed to send it off for repair. This took about a week.

Now, three months later, the exact same problem has happened. I called the Mac Helpline and again they have agreed to repair the drive and are even going to come and pick the thing up from my house and deliver it back when finished. The guarantee on the new drive will last for 90 days or until the original 1 year guarantee on the computer runs out, whichever is longer. This pisses me off. If they are going to replace the drive, surely I should get a year guarantee on the new drive too, independant of how long the computer's guarantee is. Also, considering that of the 6 months I have had the computer, 3 weeks will have been with the computer being repaired, surely they should extend my guarantee to cover this. Otherwise they could just sell broken computers, take a year to "fix" them and give them back still broken and claim the 1 year guarantee and run out. I can't really fault the service I have got, at least when I have argued enough to get it, but just am very pissed off about having to constantly get service at all. My last Mac lasted 5 years and only needed a repair once. Mac should really think about the quality of the drives they put in their laptops.

The Trials of Downgrading my PSP

Published
by
Electric Pig
on January 13, 2008
in Video Games
. 2 Comments

I wonder if it's because I am getting too old to understand the instructions that these youngsters are putting on all the internet sites, or if it's because they are all concerning PCs and I am used to Macs, but trying to play emulators on my PSP is really, really confusing me. 

Edit: Holy Fucking Shit! I got it working! I'm playing Mario on my PSP! Emulators FTW!!!111 

Under The Influence

Published
by
Electric Pig
on January 9, 2008
in Art
. 2 Comments

I'm not a massive comics fan or anything, but I would really like to go and see this exhibition. Over 100 artists have all done versions of their favourite Stan Lee creations. I don't know why, but I find things like this, derivatives perhaps, rather than the originals, more interesting than the originals themselves. The same often goes for cover versions of songs over the originals. For me, working within the framework of the original often reveals more about the artists or musicians than their own creations do. I'd really like to see the whole exhibition of these.