Friday 29 February 2008

Wasabi Rice Ball

Part of the Iron Chef style competitions at the opening party this year included a speed eating of the deadly Wasabi Rice Ball.

The Wasabi Rice Ball is about 4cm in Diameter and contains a lump of Wasabi (Japanese horseradish that is used to accompany Sushi and is very hot) about the size of a large marble.

Each contestant (Victim) was given 2 Wasabi Rice Balls and 4 contestants competed in each round.

I thought why the hell not and volunteered for the second round... see below:



It wasn't horrible, or even that spicy (Perhaps I have killed my taste buds?) but it was difficult to eat as it was so chewy. Not to mention less than 2 hours ago I'd eaten my fill at McDonalds.

As the game show host says... it was definitely more nutritious than the McDonalds.

Opening Party



Minamicon for the last few years has had a opening party as opposed to the ceremony they had in the past. It's really fun as they have loads of Anime related party games. Such as Pikachu Swingball:



Sgt Frog Pinata:



Anime twister and an iron chef competition.

Naomi and I won a DVD on the knock down a plushie game:

Arrived at Minamicon... Straight to McD's

We've arrived at Minamicon... Broken our backs unloading our stuff. Now we're clogging our bodies with McD's... the convention has started :-)

Thursday 28 February 2008

The time for MinamiCon commeth...

... and I've got far too much to do! Why am I sitting at work when I should be packing, making a costume, checking stock and generally running round like a headless chicken?

I'm totally shattered already (Been up till 3am almost all week getting ready, then up for work at 7:30).

That all said tho I'm excited to be going again, I have a lot of fun at these conventions, and this will be the first one where I'll be writing blog entries. I only hope I get the time in between getting drunk, selling Pocky, running around in a cosplay costume, spending money I don't have in the dealers room on stuff I must have, but don't need. And most importantly catching up with some of my closest friends.

Wednesday 27 February 2008

Training is over

It was a long week but now i've finished my training course i kind of miss it. Designing mechanisms and all manner of wierd things as practical examples to further my knowledge of the Solidworks CAD system was great fun.

Now i'm back to the monotony of my everyday work, which doesn't challenge me.

I think i need to find somewhere i can let my designers mind roam free and do what it does best. Perhaps freelance could be worth a shot... Just wish i was that brave!

Carbon Cutting

I've been spending the week doing drilling trials to test a new material we've been asked to work with, as a result I've been away from my nice warm office and in the workshop.

It's not exactly gripping, but for those that are interested (More so those that aren't engineers) here's a short video of a 6 axis milling machine doing a simple linear cut and a "pecking" drilling cycle.

Hope it entertains

Monday 25 February 2008

Today is not a good day for tooling :(

Today is not a good day for tooling, this is because so far i've made 3 schoolboy errors in my programming. Which has resulted in 3 smashed tools and me feeling a twat. God I need to go home and have a beer.

Friday 22 February 2008

Happy Birthday to Nomi

It's my beautiful girlfriend Naomi's birthday today :-) so here goes:

Hip hip horay!
Hip hip horay!
Hip hip horay!

Happy birthday my darling xXx

Anyone that knows me knows she is the light of my life, and i consider myself incredibly lucky to be with her sharing all her happiness and joy... I only hope i can bring her the same happiness she brings me.

So today is her special day... In fact everyday is made special just by her being here with me, as she is my star xXx

Wednesday 20 February 2008

Training

I'm on training all this week for solidworks which is the CAD system of choice for my company. I've been working with CAD for quite some time now (Damn I'm getting old) and have used most of the industrys standard packages, this one i have to say is one of my favourites. Easy to use and intuitive, I've grasped it's use quickly... It's obvious that it's based on pro-engineer (the creators of solidworks started off working on pro-e) through the way the menus work, it has some differences from pro-e that I either miss or find annoying, but life can't be perfect :-) hopefully I'll be able to bring some new knowledge to the table when I get back to work.

One good side effect of this course is that it's only just up the road from Naomi... So i'm getting to spend lots of time with her at the moment :-) Life is good :-)

Saturday 16 February 2008

Smoke Alarm

Smoke alarm went off this morning... At 6 :-( it was a I'm going flat warning... Problem was there's at least 6 smoke alarms in Naomi's house... It took me Andrea and Allan a good while to track down the offending one and pull it's battery. Which I suppose renders the whole idea of the warning alarm a bit pointless as now it's totally off instead of nearly flat!

Friday 15 February 2008

Oriental City Food Court

A purely orientall food court... My idea of heaven. And all reasonably priced. So much choice tho... Difficult to know where to start! I worked about 2 miles away from here for a few months... I should have taken advantage of that and tried one of everything :-)

Ramune

Whilst picking out other stock for our venture with Okashi UK this year we came across some bottles of Ramune. Ramune was the first fizzy drink in Japan and basically tastes like lemonade... But what makes it cool is how it's sealed. Each glass bottle has a glass ball "stopper" that has to be pushed into the bottle to open it. Then due to the shape of the neck (and a bit of skill on the drinkers part) the glass ball can be held out me the way whilst drinking. It's a cool idea, and an instantly recogniseable bottle to anyone interested in Japanese culture.

We only picked up a few tho :-( looking at the stock now we should have bought loads more, as everyone thinks this will be a big seller.

Wierdest Advert for Self Storage

On our way into London today we spotted this sign for a self storage company... How did they get all that junk up so high? And what's with the Big Ben? It's a cool sign, but definately worthy of being called wierd!

Restlessness

Today I have the day off to spend with Naomi... So you think my body would let me have a lie in... Oh no... It insists on waking me up in time for work and refusing to let me go back to sleep :-(

Delivering the Black Stuff

Thought this was a really funny slogan :-) Shame it was night time and the photo came out so bad :-(

Thursday 14 February 2008

100k Milestone

At 7 years 4 months my car has passed the 100k milestone. It's not been without incident, but I still love her. Here's to another 100k Ryoko :-)

Mums never really think their sons grow up

No matter how old you are mums always view their children as children. My mum will still be wiping my face with a tissue (why do all mums have one up their sleeves?) When I'm 40.

I found this in my lunch today... I'm still a big kid at heart so it's now sitting on my desk :-)

You're never too old for kinder eggs :-)

Intresting Artwork

Shame I couldn't take a picture, but I was in Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital in London (Ish, it's Blackheath) but they had some fantastic artwork on display. The one that stuck out in my mind was called 60 seconds and consisted of several paintings that contained all the signatures of the people employed by the Hospital, it was a really lovely sight, and goes to show how many people are involved in working at such a facility. And indeed the variety of ethnic backgrounds, given that there were (Amongst the few I can name) Sanskrit, Japanese, Chinese and Arabic writing styles.

Tuesday 12 February 2008

Pea Soup

Talk about bad weather today. This morning I could hardly see my car on the drive. Come lunchtime it'd hardly gone at all... But by the time I left work it was far worse... Good job I know the route well. I might as well have been blindfolded.

Musical or Opera

I think I could do with developing a lot culturally, one of those things is going to the theatre more often (Which I love, but very rarely do).

My girlfriend Naomi is well versed in theatre and music (Being both her passions and what she studied at Uni) so I plan to see everything she takes part in, and also go see whatever she like that's on in the theatres round the county.

Something I never knew (Or rather considered) was what the difference is between a Musical and an Opera, now I know what some of you are thinking... it's obvious Opera is sung in foreign language by a fat lady, Musicals are sung by sprightly young adults leaping about on stage like they have springs in their shoes. Well stereotypically yes that's right... about as right as London being full of Black Cabs, Red Telephone boxes and the whistling Bobby on the beat. Here's the distinction:

Opera: Little or no dialogue is not sung, the story is conveyed through recitative, where characters sing to one another to tell the story. Removing all spoken dialogue (the libretto)
would not damage the storyline. There can be large sections of instrumental music.

Musical: Songs, music and dance tie scenes together, but do not form the basis of dialogue (which is usually extrapolated through the libretto), only reinforce it. Removal of the songs would only reduce the impact/emphasis on the storyline and reduce the emotional attachment of the audience to the, often thinly developed, characters.

So by all rights Sweeny Todd is an Opera, however it's touted as a Musical (Although even that's really not mentioned much), but it's a little unfashionable to call it an Opera, as it conjures up the stereotypical view of fat ladies singing Arias. Which is a real shame as I think it is a beautiful format that is very undersold in today's market.

Long Nights


Got myself roped into doing a few late nights to get a few hours off in lieu. So late nights aplenty for me... days like this I miss Red Bull :-(

Monday 11 February 2008

Not a Monday Morning Person

Not a Monday Morning Person does not even begin to cover it... after a nice long relaxing weekend, my body wants to continue relaxing thru to the following Friday, preferably without interruption.

However on a busy weekend like this one just gone (Where I also suffered with waking up early, and not being able to get back to sleep) I'm not going to get up even if the postman’s delivering a wheelbarrow full of cash to my doorstep.

Suffice to say my eyes sting and I want my bed.

Today is going to be long I fear.

Sunday 10 February 2008

Old posts

Managed to post a lot yesterday, unfortunately it's meant that my movie reviews of Sweeny Todd and In the Valley of Elah have been published to the archived pages. Please check it out.

X-BOX 360: Tis Evil I Say

Do you reckon the 360 in the XBOX 360 alludes to the exorcist having a head spin round 360?

Saturday 9 February 2008

Darkside

Next time I'm going to listen to Nomi...

When I shop in Camden I always go in all the shops down one side. Then turn around and do the other side. Nomi spotted a shop she wanted to go in. So I said "Nah wait till we come back". Turns out the perfect top for our cosplay was in there waiting to be found :-)

Cyberdog

Anyone that knows me knows I'll live and die in Cyberdog clothes... They are by far and away my favorite brand. I even love the music in store :-)

Fairy Goth Mother

Nomi loves corsets... And I love Nomi in a corset :-) and there's no better place to come than Camden for corsets :-) Fairy Goth Mother Is one of the best as it's actually a shop. Nomi managed to pick up two really lovely ones. One red underbust and a black corset with pumpkins on. It's beautiful (pics to follow).

Quote of the day

Sadly no pic to match... As we were too busy laughing. But quote of the day goes to Nomi with:

"Crotch scratching hobo... outside shop"

Sushi





For lunch we had Sushi in an old Sushi bar in Tottenham Court road, which was the first place I tried it with Andy many years ago (before he was vege). Delicious is all I can say... You really can tell the difference with fresh compared to conveyor belt style Sushi bars. Never had sea eel before... It was lovely :-)

Forbidden Planet - Cat Ears


Retro Gaming on the Underground

Why are they playing a Megadrive? Can't be it was just the first thing to hand. Perhaps it's so old it's not a marketing issue with royalties?

I want a garbage can?

We're shopping in London today. The first thing we heard coming off the train was a woman with a thick American accent saying:

"I want a garbage can... Don't they have garbage cans here?".

Felt like saying "No we don't... as people put bombs in them"

Monday 4 February 2008

In the Valley of Elah

I'm not really going to write a lot about this film, as to be honest there's not a lot to say.

It's a good film, with an excellent and compelling storyline... but... it’s just far too long!

Like 1:30 hours too long (It's a total of 2:01 long)... it should have been made into an episode of Prime Suspect.

It's a deep and moving story about a father trying to find out about the death of his son and the circumstances around it. Tommy Lee Jones plays Hank Deerfield the father of Mike Deerfield a soldier who has just returned from Iraq and been murdered. Being an ex Military Policeman he takes it upon himself to uncover the truth behind his sons death.

The film drags... a lot... we only ever see Mike in flash backs through the grainy videos recorded on his damaged mobile which seem ultimately pointless. Sadly like a lot of the film, it just feels very padded with information that is irrelevant to the storyline. Like for example a scene where Tommy Lee Jones cuts himself shaving.

It's not bad, just drawn out. A good film to watch at home doing the housework, as you can keep half an eye on it and not miss anything detrimental to the storyline.