Anyways...

this will probably get deluged under the huge amount of stuff in your box, but...

got all nostalgic for the old MalkMeet pictures,

mine are all gone, lost in some move or another.

i tried a google image search and pulled up a few that ria'd taken...

gods i look both young and horribly drunk.

Anyway...

if anyone has any of the pictures from the '97 DC or '99 (?) Milwaukee MalkMeets,

we'd much appreciate you dropping me a line.

Ahhh...stuff...

Time for one of those infrequent updates.

The company has managed to find a way to make going on the National Healthcare Plan

(Shakai Hoken)

completely untenable.

And bully for those motherfuckers.

It amuses me that healthcare rings bells for spell-check,

but

motherfucker doesn't.

Things have been...stressful recently,

with the return to regular migraines and periodic insomnia that that usually brings.

Just money,

and there never seeming to be enough of it.

Well, other stuff too, but i don't really see the need to get into all of that at the moment.

And my bike key has seemingly flown the coop.

If we're very lucky, it will have fallen out of my bag at work,

though i highly doubt we're very lucky

(on that count, at least).

The Nemuri-Hime is out doing the karaoke thing,

as a job support/training thing

this time around.

Which is cool, really;

though, i'd like her around, right at the moment.

Maybe we'll rock up some 3D Dot Heroes to kill the time,

or try to sleep.

Sleep.

Remind me to tell you about

Little Miss Sunshine,

sometime...

If there were ever someone i

wouldn't mind reading about in the newspaper,

like the accidents or obituaries page.

Gods and fishes.

It is disorientating and slightly disheartening to be home at this hour on a Tuesday.

i ought to be at work.

A stupid fuckup the final account for which is mine,

a change in schedule i assumed and forgot

wasn't for a Monday later this month.

There are,

there always are,

other directions i could cast some of this fuckup onto

but what would be the point, really?

i despise lateness in myself,

just do.

Others, not so much,

there's usually,

a book, a something,

i can distract myself with

waiting.

But being late myself,

something approaching anathema.

Galling on some fundamental level.

Saa...done is done and nothing to be done for it.

On other topics...

Deadman Wonderland is our current paper crack.

If you don't mind brutality towards...

well, towards everyone,

you might enjoy it.

i really want to enjoy Demons's Souls,

though i really think the skill level might be beyond me.

One of my...friends, i guess you'd say...

anyway,

he got glassed in the face by his long time girlfriend.

Not excessively bad,

and it helps that Bon was a phone-call away from stitching him up.

The reaction all-around was a "that's all fucked-up" shock-laugh,

and "boy, he picked a spit-fire,"

kind of thing, but...

Had the roles been reversed, i think the best he could have hoped for was police involvement,

and really, knowing the character of the principals (bon, he and she),

and the attendants (the whole Babylon connected crew),

i think a stomping would've been on order.

There's something in the disparity there that bothers me,

at least a bit.

So...

A lil bit ago we marked the 6yr anny of being here in Japan.

Slightly hectic and all that.

i hadn't really thought i'd be here quite so long, but...

well, look at that, yeah?

Somehow we remain resolutely not dead,

and that has to count for something.

i think there was something witty to go in this post, but it seems to have been misplaced.

We do feel a bit bad for missing 'lex's birthday and all,

so sorry about that, yeh...

Well...Fall seems to have summer in some kind of submission hold

maybe more a Boston Crab than a Figure Four Leg Lock...but that's just my take on matters.

Kirin says it must be Fall, on account of they've got their seasonal out on the shelves...

actually pretty good for a Japanese beer...

though this may be restricted tastes on my part.

We've just had what they call a historic election over here.

The LDP has been not just soundly defeated

but whupped from here to the fence and back.

Its nice to see that crew of cronies out,

for the very least so i won't have to see the embalmed corpse that is Taro Aso on my TV anymore.

Though it remains to be seen if this new group of jokers will be any better.

They seem to have the "Promising shite we hardly need paid for with money we don't have" thing down pat.

Well...apparently it wasn't a hangover...

since those things don't tend to be catching.

i could describe the last Sunday...but we'll just leave it to say it was both grotesque and undeserved.

Saaa...

In other news...

i don't know how many of you were reading the old version of this thing round about 3, 4 years back?

Or if you'd remember

(and if not, please, it ain't no thing i'd like to forget myself).

Anyway, i may have mentioned Byron and Steve along with the regular cast of characters back then

(and if i didn't i should have).

Anyway, they were a part of the whole Nishi-Umeda thing;

and like so many of that set,

had the good idea to get out while the getting was....

Anyways,

they were back in town,

completely at random,

and without any planning,

at the same time the other day.

so we all got together for drinks at the old combini.

Gods it was like being in the fucking way-back machine.

There was even Kani-Pan and the ramen.

Life is a fucking ball.

Anyhow, its been a bit, jah.

What's happened exactly, then...

Well, we made it through another birthday with no fatalities

though it was a near thing, that.

As a present to myself...the new Katamari Damashii...because there're few things more relaxing than rolling up cats.

Lil D left town last week and that was...not terrific.

Well, the last drink-n-go-round was fun as always but...

this leaves just two of us Nishi folks left now, and we don't hardly see A any more.

Speaking of...

we were really supposed to see the Darce last night;

that was the plan at any rate.

Well, Handsome Taro turned out to be working the bar,

quite unexpectedly,

and so Bon appeared in short order.

and we spoke of ships and tax and sailing wax

and the random and spotty nature of law enforcement here;

seeming to drop rocks on Osaka piercers

but leaving the ones in the Big T and Nag-town free and clear.

And fuck 'em.

But time just sort of slipped off and we didn't end up spending all that much with

the Darce,

and we do feel a little bad about that.

But we stood a round with A and his new lady.

And, but who am i to say, but,

what is it with these stick-thin, no-curves,

death-camp chic chicks anyways?

Whatever,

he seems happy,

maybe he always wanted to date a 13year old boy with a fancy title

(3rd runner up to Miss Japan! Tee Hee! *gag*).

And anyways,

in some karmic turnabout,

the Nemuri-Hime has been clobbered

and well-proper clobbered by the dreaded

Hangover Faery.

She always takes such good care of me in my own times of head-pounding need,

though,

i can't really gloat any.

Geeze...

Don't post a few weeks and there's just so much

stuff.

Mizuki-love has been enjoying a well-earned break from the working-type grind.

Though this may end soon, with any luck her next gig will be as a vocal coach, and at least in the direction of things she likes.

Of course, this means she has a fair amount of free time, and thanks to wedding cash, various options of spending both, besides setting about the house moping.

(which is one of the things i tend to do when i'm out of work, though that's neither here nor there).

Anyhow...i get a call at work, this afternoon,

that she's hit a beer festival with a friend,

with plans for cosplay karaoke afterward.

We are filled with envy and terror.

Terror.

So...

the Nemuri-Hime and i trundled off to the woods, somewhere, to one of these "Athletic Courses" that sprang up and were left to rot sometime ago. A small skeleton crew remaining to make sure no one gets dead in a litigation-inviting fashion.

Pretty much wood and rope obstacle courses, baby versions of all the ones you see in training montages in bad military movies.

Let me tell you, disrepair and poor maintenance only enhance the fun to be had at these places. Good opportunities to shout the title abounded.

And also BBQ, the place provides all the essentials.

Of course, way, way, overpriced, but such is life.

All in all awesome hiding behind every tree.

This is how Thursdays ought be spent.

Friday was, if the universe has any mercy, the last time i should have to deal with the government for the next 3years (outside of actually picking up the visa).

We, that is me, had to deal with the supremely creepy and not-at-all helpful troll woman.

Go through all my papers and details and the whatwhat.

Spoke almost completely in ellipses, non-sequiturs, and aborted conversational arcs.

All in total deadpan.

And i thought,

Well, that's the world over, then.

Maybe.

Not just back home at the DMV.

Jeez...even my old DVDs look super nice on this TV...

can't wait 'til they actually get to Silent Hill.

At any rate...

We've been doing the Kobe thing for a few days now and it really is

well and truly too far away.

My boss in writing pulled a few different routes off some site or other,

but i never trust any of the times they give on those things;

never seems to work out well, is all.

We also had a few words w/r/t expecting at least some kind of paycut in the up-coming contract,

that makes me more than a little bit nervous.

We'll be happy when the new visa comes through,

with any good luck we'll be able to pick up something else.

'cause the company looks like they'll be fighting my health insurance too,

completely in disregard of the law and all.

That whole end of things is just a basket of shite,

right now.

To keep this from being just one gripe after another,

we heard the first cicada of the season this morning

and that never fails to cheer me up.

Also had a cool li'l preying mantis on the balcony doin' its hunting thing

and narrowly escaping some rotten bird's

Beak of Death (tm).

We heartily support.

Edit Note 1: My chummer Matt Heslin has a blog-type-thing with some really good bits on the Wedding and associated trip. Its over at www.heslin.org
Edit Note 2: Actually...SH is a little too clear. i almost want another noise filter over top.

And just last night we were saying,

But, isn't this a bit of a dry rainy season, then?

Well, we've got it now, yeh.

'sbeen buckets and buckets almost all bloody day.

Busy day.

Lots of dealing with governments of both stripes

and getting forms in triplicate

and translated.

There was a chap at the ward office who was losing his shite in a spectacular fashion,

well,

spectacular for Japan,

at any rate.

But full-throat screaming,

pounding both hands on the table,

in my experience,

the point before actual physical violence,

losing of shite.

And no one was really doing much of anything about it.

Was the weird thing.

i figure, in the States, not much of that,

before a quick escort from the building.

And knife shopping,

we did that too, today.

There's a story in that,

though not really as amusing.

Did get a nice one, though.

These tomatoes will know fear.

Mizuki's snoozing away on the otherside of the table here.

She got back in town a bit ago from visiting a sick Aunt,

which, as these things do, required a lot of drinking.

Also, not much sleep; doesn't sleep so well outside our own bed even when i am around.

Me, i just stay up egregiously late and nurse whiskey and the sleep mallet will get there eventually.

i've been reading some of the notes people have put up regarding the wedding and trip here

(as a note, if i get permission to mention the addy, you really ought to read Heslin's blog on it...Heslin is fucking rock on toast and you'd best believe it).

My father pointed out that i was amazingly lucky to have friends good enough to come all this way to see us.

To which i couldn't really respond,

it was like saying "water is wet."

For all the kvetching and bitching that i do,

mainly because its amusing to me, and a release valve,

i have been filthy with good fortune most all my life.

To the point where, sometimes i just don't realize how weird and, well...

to use the term in a less ecclesiastical sense,

blessed

things have been.

Though now that i write this, i do worry abit that i'm summoning the shitstorm.

i read, in someone's pithy .sig file that

reality doesn't really need to concern itself with plausibility,

or something to that effect.

i think that sums things up nicely.

i think i've probably thanked you all previously,

but really,

i ought to do so again.

And again.

So...

just in case i might be lulled into thinking that my schedule was nice and sorted,

or at least dealable as far as these things go,

the company up and decides to transfer me again.

Now were back out at over an hour in travel time and twice the price on a one way.

At least its not in the sticks again...

though it is Kobe,

which i loathe on principle.

Gussy-in' itself up like some knock-off Tokyo.

Now, mind, this'll be 6 different schools that i'll have worked at since coming back to this damned company.

Now, see, eking out more time for me and Mizuki has been a red thread running through everyone of my transfer requests and problems with the worthless bastards.

And, so, of course, every transfer has managed to shave just that much more from the time we have together.

Irksome.

Once the spousal visa comes through,

if it comes through,

we'll just have to see if we can swing a job with an embalming company here

(qualified or no, as i may be).

Like i said,

irksome.

Well, we've finally gotten the TV sorted,

to be delivered next Thursday, but still.

One week and i can dismember hideous, reanimated space-corpses

in (almost) full HD.

And then we rolled the points from that purchase into

a new iPod,

so there's that,

and finally being able to listen to stuff i like,

rather than stuff

i'm stuck with.

And there's something about major purchases,

even now that i'm financially stable enough to make them,

that leaves me kind of giddy.

The feeling like

i may have, somehow, really fucked things up?

Heh...

space-corpse dismemberment.

Whee!

We'll probably get stuck watching American Cyborg 3, tonight, entropy help us.

Anyways.

We managed to smack the hell out of Silent Hill: Homecoming's spider bitch a bit back.

You know, after figuring out how to deal with all the random bugginess of it, without being able to download patches

(thanks Konami, and region sensitivity, we'll serve you maggot punch in hell).

All in all, not hideously disappointing, as far as things go.

At the very least, it wasn't "The Room."

The story was...well...it was.

Though i did like the monster design,

though, obviously, i'm a sucker for grafted and bolted mecha-spider limbs.

i think my main problem with the SH franchise,

supported in part by SH2, but mainly from my inexplicable love of Tynes,

is that the image of SH i insist on having,

isn't, in fact, presented by (almost) any of the games, thus far.

i see SH as Carcosa as an onion of infinite layers.

People exist on their own layer of reality and can effect and be effected by those on neighbouring layers.

So where one person sees monsters, the other can see people, and they can both be technically right.

For their own layer of reality.

But really, its just cultists and rubber beasties

(and, kinda, maybe, the devil...so very tired of the devil).

And that's all its been, consistently, for most of the series.

i shouldn't get so disappointed, and just enjoy the atmosphere and good music.

Well, at any rate.

We've got the computer doing what we want it to;

which, to be honest, is damned little.

the whole IRC is up and running, that's pretty much the bit i really needed, and the 'lil Beast delivers that admirably.

On the other hand, though not 'lil Beast's fault...the iPod,

mind you an old one,

everything's got to be FireWire this and USB that,

and, in the end the damned thing won't hook up as is.

Just sets there mocking me with music, half of which i didn't even want to listen to that much when it got put in there.

i, for one, will not be taunted by the damned thing,

we've gotten our money's worth out of it, and so, if

during this fireworks season

it finds itself in a new and interesting occupation...

well, so be it,

ain't no skin off'n my nose.

Otherwise, 's'all the same as it ever is.

an excessively nice personal life,

spiked with interludes of work bullshite.

Probably like most others' lives, though, in the main

i can't say a bit against it.

Saaa....

We hiked up north abit, t'Kyoto,

and hunted fireflies.

i'm not sure, before coming here, if i would've found much in that.

Its gotten to be a yearly tradition, now.

i have to say,

its damned nice.

It feels weird doing any write up of this seeing as Amaya has already gotten one down with startling verisimilitude, and yet.

First, Irish whiskey, not Scotch...but still.

i don't really know how i feel about everything.

Not in a "Oh, was this a good thing or a bad thing," kind of way, mind you.

We're quite firm in the mind of it was a good thing, don't fret.

More, a "i really don't have a comparable experience," kind of thing.

i'm not really, excessively serious about much of anything, is all.

Yet, i'm quite serious about all of this.

Which, i suppose, is strangely old-fashioned coming from me.

i can't think of anything i've done even remotely as difficult as coming down the stairs

and laying out how i felt about things in front of everyone.

Everyone important to me

(who could make it, i realize, living here does make it difficult on people to visit, i know).

And we did, somehow, manage to do it. With everyone's support.

One of those common, house-hold acts of bravery,

i don't wonder.

Anyways...

i don't know really where to go with this, other than,

i'm really happy.

Its been a long and difficult road to get here.

There've been more than enough setbacks to fill a rucksack.

But, in the end, here i am.

And its all thanks to you goddamned lot.

i'd probably consider killing someone at your behest,

but don't expect me to do any jail time for you.

My Love'd be displeased.

The wedding was fucking rock on toast, though i still don't have a lot of time to get into it.

i swear there'll be something more substantial later.

For the moment i really want to thank Amaya for organizing, and everyone who slung money together, for my shiny new computer.

It sits there now all silent and menacing.

Thank you all very much for this,

and for various support,

great and small,

that's gotten me here.

*here's where i get sniffly*

And like that

its summer and here already.

Almost hot enough to fry a dog and a side of eggs.

Almost, though not quite there yet.

Like the wedding

T-Minus 10 and.

Its like every uni paper i ever wrote

months of noodling and doodling

and

the night before

you finally set down to write

and realize there's so much more that needs be done.

And just like every uni paper,

such an odd lack of stress.

Like things can't but help but work out.

You've got all this down.

Had Bonjin open another pair of holes in the right arm, Friday.

Figured we'd give the post another go

of it.

Balance is important.

Far be it from me.

Not that i'm down on plague.

Or for that matter, think this swine flu will be more than this season's SARS.

But if it, or the Japanese gov't response to same,

does manage to screw up my wedding...

i will kill the world.

Seriously, now, how many years waiting for the end of days,

and its got to show up now?