Anime FramesCongrats on the venue! Knock 'em dead!
I pronounce GIF as its individual letters, G-I-F. If pressed to pronounce it as a word, though, I use a hard 'g'.
Gurren LagannThe quality of this figure is amazing, but... Quite frankly, I've never seen more fake looking breasts. By that I mean that they look like they have overdone implants. Creepy.
Tokyo Take OutI tried only allowing myself anime or games when I had reached certain goals for the day/week/month. It actually didn't turn out well at that time, because whenever I had a string of setbacks I'd end up doing nothing but work or zoning out when I sh...
Firearms in JapanIn most parts of the US, owning a firearm requires nothing but a quick background check--and that's only if you're buying from a dealer. Buying from an individual requires no checks at all. Some US states have stricter laws which dictate regulation...
Japan 80's MusicI started to listen to 松任谷由実 (Matsutoya Yumi) when I offered to track down some music for a Japanese family member who's been away from her music since moving to the US.
松任谷さん has been making releases from the 70s through the 90s! I hav...
iPhone wallpaperDanny, I see that your iPhone wallpaper is dithered.
I don't know if you notice or not, but it was certainly something that bugged me when I got my iPhone. It turns out that any imported photos are dithered! I haven't found a general solution fo...
Breakfast in JapanFor me, breakfast in the morning is fruit or fruit juice.
The stomach produces different kinds of acids at different times, which are more adept at digesting different things. In the mornings, especially if I have to get up early, fruit is much e...
iPhone Battery PackI'm rarely out of reach of either my car or my laptop, so I end up using one or the other to charge my iPhone.
I have another portable battery, but the form factor on this is nice enough to make me consider it. I can fit that right in my pocket.
A Day in Tokyo 4Nifty to hear about the Mini running Ubuntu. I love Ubuntu, and it runs on all my desktop computers that aren't Macs. However, on the server I always use CentOS. CentOS isn't perfect, but it's something of a business standard and I don't feel like...
K-ON! MP3I've been enjoying K-On! a lot, but it's a mixed bag. The production quality is excellent, and when it does something right it's spectacular. I get giddy just watching the OP and ED. However, I feel that in its attempt to adapt and extend the 4kom...
20090320 Top Redesign ProgressIt looks very, very nice.
The hard part is, of course, balancing meeting initial interest with promoting other articles... Best of luck with it! It'll be interesting to know how it works out.
dannychoo.com iPhone verI look forward to this. I use the current page on my iPhone, but very reluctantly.
I'd also be eager to read any comments on the development experience. I hope to start working on an iPhone interface for a particular platform I'm using after I ge...
Mac Life 4Danny, I had the same issue of public/private network myself, when using another app. Before we went to a VPN, my solution was to use ssh to forward the proper port from the client machine, through the firewall, to the server--the firewall allowed j...
You Got MailI have my own mail server running Postfix for SMTP and Dovecot for IMAP/POP, and I access it with Mail.app on OS X (I use Kmail on Linux and Thunderbird on Windows). I have huge numbers of messages, and it's true they're all in separate files, but w...
Partial or Full RSS FeedsI'm torn on this. Ideally, I'd prefer full feeds as it speeds up the acquisition of data--the very point of Atom/RSS! However, very long posts can be awkward or cause "bogging" in some RSS readers, Google's included (especially on me iPhone).
I'...
Japanese HospitalsFor a look at some of the problems of the Japanese health care system (not that other systems don't have their own problems) is the manga "医龍-Team Medical Dragon-". It was written by a doctor and medical journalist, and despite its rare but unnece...
Japan Drivers LicenseUS-based drivers have trouble porting their licenses because each state has its own standards, not all of which meet Japan's standards. That sounds ridiculous, but this is because the US used to be like the European Union (but that has changed as th...
Sony Vaio P Boot TimeGlad it was of help!
I had the black screen problem, but only part of the time. Fixed after deleting the sleep memory and changing the sleep mode. It appears many others pegged that as the core of their black screen problems to, as I ascertain f...
Sony Vaio P Boot TimeI had problems with my MBP sleeping... Sometimes it wouldn't, and no matter what it would take a long time.
I don't know if it is related to your issue, but my problem is identified here: http://www.windley.com/archives/2007/10/fixing_macbook_pr...
Mirai School UniformThe outfit looks great! Love it.
That is also the least creepy Dollfie face I've ever seen. If they get any less creepy than that, I might have to take up the hobby.
Best and Worst Anime of 2008Many people dropped Toradora assuming it was just another cliched tsundere-abusing-a-spineless-guy show.
Fortunately, it turned out to not be that at all. That was a feint that led to a much richer show.
Japanese DrinksThere are some great drinks in Japan.
There are some AWFUL drinks in the US. That's because sugar tariffs and corn subsidies have resulted in artificially expensive sugar and artificially inexpensive corn... which has resulted in almost all soft...
7pm in Tokyo - Fortune TellingNo interest in fortune telling, here. I am the master of my destiny.
And it's Back to the Future III. That series is one of the larger influences in my life. A little geeky, perhaps, but it was for the better.
Anime n Manga TrainsJapan's railways are mostly privatized these days, actually.
Still, these are ways to earn money, not just waste it. A few of them are artistic endeavors intended to bring attention to the company, but even more of them are flat-out advertisement...
A Week in Tokyo 29I never did get too far into the practice of making coffee from beans because I can't stand the stuff. ^^;
I do visit interesting, semi-remote places known for their great coffee, though. Right now, for example, I'm in the volcanic region of Guatem...
Kemeko DeluxeI'm really enjoying the Kemeko anime, for the most part. It really brings the manga to life in ways that just weren't possible on the page.
However, it loses all subtlety in any emotional scene and with anything remotely sex-related. In the the...
New MacbookI think the glass screens look nice, but I can't work on them. I need to see my work, not my reflection.
I was set to spend money on a MacBook Pro today, but the glass screen only thing killed that idea. Instead I'm buying the MBP I'm using now...
Simplified or TraditionalFor me, keeping the radicals that indicate the meaning of a character, or at least show it's history, are key in helping me remember characters and interpret characters that I've yet to learn. Older simplifications (like we see in kanji) tend to pre...
Simplified or TraditionalPersonally, as some one learning kanji, I can't stand Simplified Chinese. The Japanese simplifications tend to be very natural and the radical etymology is clear. On the other hand, most of the uniquely Chinese simplifications seem horribly arbitra...
Tora DoraWhile I found Taiga supremely annoying, I enjoyed the heck out of the first episode.
The characters are shaping up to be more than just cliches, which is why I was able to put up with it, so I expect the annoyance provided by Taiga to be severely...
1/8 Scale Hatsune MikuShe looks amazing, but unfortunately I won't buy cast-offs. A matter of principle for me.
I notice that the main data page doesn't note that she's cast-offable. This is an important data point for both sides, methinks. If I can't know for sure...
Graduations in JapanI did not have a graduation ceremony for high school, since I enrolled in college early, and I left college to pursue my career when I discovered how irrelevant my degree path was and ran out of money. I wouldn't have gone to any graduation ceremony...
Saber SupermarketI never see it in commercial shops in the US. On occasion it might pop up on the walls in things like child care centers.
I do see it more in South America, but again, mainly on things for children (playgrounds, etc.). It's just out in the open...
Japanese GirlsDanny, have you considered having an iPod hooked up to a non-helmet speaker? Then if you still need an in-helmet feed, you could use a splitter and an FM transmitter to get it there. Cheap and easy to do with much more widely available parts.
