I shook the hand of the man who invented Tetris, saw Shigeru Miyamoto talk about Mario, and Eiji Aonuma talk about Zelda (both of these talks were nothing less than spectacular), and met the directors/developers of many studios who make some of my favorite games.  Most of the vendors/studios were giving out tons of swag; picked up numerous t-shirts, mugs, stickers, etc.  One of the things I got was a free copy of Madden 2007, which I will rant about later.

After talking to many recruiters and other developers I'm feeling much more marketable now.  Not necessarily in comparison to them, but in comparison to what they are looking for.  It really puts the industry in to a slightly more friendly and tractable perspective.

In short, the conference was an absolute blast. Will definitely have to make it a habit.

So yeah, its broken. And as I said, I never do anything the easy way. Turns out the area of the bone where the tendons connect broke off. The tendon is fine, the bone is just screwed. Well, actually its about to get screwed. Or more acurately pinned. Two pins to be precise. I go in on monday for the surgery. Really I should count myself lucky; I'm getting to see a rare side of Japan (the inside of a hospital) and its considerably more cheap than getting it done at home. Socialized health care is awesome. I'm definitely a fan now. Six X-Rays and all my lab work cost me LESS than $90, and the surgery is only going to cost about ￥15000, which is around $135. A small fraction of what it would most likely cost in the states.

As for Penthouse Views, some friends and I went down to Osaka to party at the top of the Hilton. A nice buffet of gormet cakes and other various desserts accompanied by one of the best views in Osaka. Some of the best cake I have ever had; they even had Sakura Cheesecake. Once I gather the pictures I will post them.

"When a man cries, he cries alone, but when he laughs, the world laughs with him." - Oldboy

Something must be done.  SOMETHING MUST BE DONE.  Oh the humanity.

"Does the noise in my head bother you?" - The Gods Must Be Crazy

I've tried all sorts of stuff to try to right my brain this morning: talking to people on the net, talking to roommates, eating breakfast, drinking lots of coffee, didnt try jumping jacks, but I did briefly think about it, a hot shower didnt help either. Its like half of my brain is tied up thinking about something really really hard and Im not sure what it is. Its happened before with mixed results, but its always very annoying while its going on. Lets hope its some sort of brilliance unparalleled by man. Or maybe I shouldnt get my hopes up. *shrug*

Incidentally I took a couple online quizzes just to try to get the brain going again, one of them told me my personality is that of Hitler. Didnt exactly help my situation.

And now a pill of wisdom from my currently befuddled brain:
"Never make assumptions. Be impeccable with your word. Never take anything personal. Take death as your advisor." -- Don Miguel Ruiz (The 4 Agreements)

For a class I was once taking, I started reading a book entitled "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle," and have since continued the reading of it. This in itself is no remarkable feat, I know, but the book itself is something I think most have sadly missed putting on their 'to read' list. For within this novel Murakami weaves an intricate and dream-like tale of a very ordinary man with nothing particularly wrong with him. This vague description might lead you to the thinking that it would be a boring and trite story, but nothing could be further from reality. As much as it must irritate, I'm finding myself disinclined to elaborate on the subtleties of this masterpiece, but I would nevertheless recommend it to anyone who finds the bazaar interesting.

"Attraction is the worst parts in you connecting with the worst parts in someone else."

It Starts (2004-05-14 14:53:22)
All my crap is packed, but there is no way in hell I could be considered ready to go. Ah well. Here are some random pictures of me. "Why?" You might ask. Because I have them, and I want to test out this little blogger that a wrote in a couple of hours.
*insert obligatory your mom comment here*'

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First entry -- a bit long (2004-05-18 23:15:40)
Took me a while to get situated up here. I had a horribly long flight. The flight plan made it look like the trip over here was going to take 14 hours. I was obviously WRONG. I got to the airport at about 3, got on my first flight about 6. Plane left at about 6:30, I got to dallas about 7:00. Then I got to wait untill 10:30 to leave on my next flight. The second flight looked promising: nice comfy chair, some free food, and a personal tv for each seat. Well, MY TV was broken. As far as i know it was the only one that was broken and the airline people didnt feel it was neccissary to do anything about it. Oh well, im not bitter. Really.When i first got here I thought I was going to have to find a way to get a hold of Masa and Misuzu, but Misuzu was so nice. She showed up and waited for me for like 2 hours. I really cant thank Misuzu and her family enough, they were so nice. Misuzu took me to this festival in Asakusa, which is some where in the vacinity of Tokyo. I missed the parades and stuff but I got to see some temples and shrines and too little bands playing taiko.

After that we met up with Masa and went to Misuzu's parents house. They offered to put me up for the night, and they treated me to dinner. Such nice people. I tried speaking broken japanese to them, and they spoke some broken english to me. It was a realy fun night. I wish i had thought to take a picture of them.

Next day me and Masa went out shopping and looking around in Tokyo. We went to Akihabara, the famous electronics district. There was all kinds of stuff there. Didnt buy anything yet, though. Maybe on my way back I will. After that we met up with Masa's friend Ryoto. He's is also a really cool guy, we went all over Tokyo. And hit Shinjuku area and ate some lunch at Otoyoo's. Its some little restaurant that is popular around stations all over Tokyo. Iced soba is pretty good btw. Then we hit some stores and eventually met up with Misuzu and Masahiro. Then we ran around a little and went to a pub. After getting sufficiently buzzed we went and tried some kareoke. In japanese and english. I realized that I cannot sing, and can barely remember the words to some of my favorite songs. Go me. Somewhere during the day I bought a cellphone. Not to bad, only set me back like 5000yen.

Next day I got on the Shinkensen(bullet train) and went down to Kobe. It was a really interesting trip, but unfortuneately Im not sure how to explain it right now, and my battery is running low.

First few days in Summary:
Japan rocks ass. Tokyo especially rocks ass. Sushi here is 10x what it is in OK. Trains are confusing, but the people here are really nice. Strangest things I tried eating: a fish eye, and somethings brains made into a fine paste. Retrospect: Pack lighter.

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Catch up. (2004-05-20 02:21:12)
So first, what happened yesterday and someother stuff I left out.Yeh, my experience on the Shinkansen trying to get from tokyo to kobe was fun. But really. I hadn't been on a train in my life until I got here, and up till that point I had been running with Misuzu and Masa. When I tried navigating those damn train terminals I was SOOO fscking lost. Imaging a very confusing layout for a building with lots of signs pointing seemingly random directions and you have a glimps at what i was going through. But then you have to remember that most of the signs are in japanese. Yeah, that rocked my ass. And not in that good way.

After I got to kobe I tried to find Jason (the guy Im currently staying with, who btw is very cool (btw, his family is also very cool (nesting is fun))), but he was not home yet, so I had to once again run around on my own and try to find something to do. I ended up randomly finding this little shine in the middle of the neighborhood. Very cool. After I finally got connected with jason and his family we went down to the bar. Had a little beer and a little yakisoba (fried buckwheat noodles), and tried talking with the natives. I met some interesting characters that night. A man named fisherman who nicely brought us some freshfish, and a man they call owl man, cuz he stays up (im guessing, not sure though). I tried talking to owl man all night with no success. *shrug*

Now the next day, I came down to Sannomiya. Forgot my umbrella and got really wet. I did get to do some shopping though. Found a really big dept. store called Joshin's I think. I wish the US had even a 10TH of the cool stuff they have here. Specifically the video games and the fscking TINY laptops. Also ran into some big store called Sogo. Not sure what was all was in it, after going through 3 levels of just food I left. Also found a bunch of super trendy stores that sell shoes starting at 50,000yen (~$500). Later that night I went back to that bar with Jason, this time drank a bit more beer and sake. Learned a lot of japanese and finally was able to talk with owl man. I dont know why people said that a lot of the older people have hostility still. In fact the old men that I was hanging out with said that if our conversation had happened years ago, there never would have been a pearl harbor. Im finally becoming comfortable speaking japanese with people. BTW the little internet cafe Im sitting in right now deserves some props, cuz they are super cool. www.batterycafe.com. Awesome joint.

Havent uploaded any pictures recently cuz my script is kinda broken. I will go back and add some soon. This is the kind of crap you get when you use some cheap software made by some hippy in a few hours. I will have to track him down and kick his butt... wait... thats me... *punches self in face*