Anime 2008

Back on track

Kaijuu — Sun, 18 May 2008 21:09:00 GMT

I'm finding myself getting back on track since quite a while. It's been quite busy at work for months now, and I felt like losing it for a while.
Fortunately, my colleagues were happy to give me a swift kick in the pants and making me realise that I'm not alone; they're there to help as well.

The next hurdle now is to try and actualy rest at night, and to get rid of some demons from long ago.
One of them has been rendered harmless just yesterday; I heard from a good friend of mine that said demon has finally met his match and therefore giving me some peace so it won't bother me again.
Baby steps, taking it easy, but I'll get there eventually.
Enjoyed Chinese dinner with Thomas & Marlijne on Friday. Always a good thing to meet with friends and do fun stuff.

With Anime 2008 out of the way, and Anime 2009 under construction (but only some early preparations), I'm starting to focus on the trip in August. I even made a shirt design:

For those who can't read it, the large Kanji say Natsumatsuri (summer festival), and next to it is the list of cities I'll be staying in: Tokyo, Osaka and Hakata.
The mentioning of Amsterdam is to give it a touch of Dutch.

Cheers, K.

Anime 2008 was a blast

Kaijuu — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:34:00 GMT

A pity it's over, but as they say: "All good things must come to an end."
It was good, it was cool and I had fun. Loads of pictures were taken; I have about 4,5GB to sort out.

Cheers, K.

Just about dead

Kaijuu — Thu, 01 May 2008 10:18:00 GMT

But not entirely. :)

My apologies for the lack of updates; been really swamped lately due to work and private matters. On a positive note; I'm just about done with all my Anime 2008-things!
Video program is dubbed to one of our harddisk recorders, the majority of my stuff has been packed and other bits 'n bobs are completed or just minutes from it.

Now to find out why Nero keeps crashing on my opening video, but if push comes to shove, I think we can play it from one of the laptops present.
I'm ready.

Cheers, K.

Why Japan?

Kaijuu — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:08:00 GMT

A question that people ask me when I answer their question on where I spend my vacations, is "why". Why do I travel 10.000km to the east, to a country that's said to be the most expensive places to be, where they have all these weird TV-shows and singers with high-pitched voices. Why don't I just book a flight to Spain, like everyone else, get drunk and bang a few chicks?

Well, the last part, because that's not my style, and as for the first reasons; Japan isn't that expensive if you just know where to go, and those silly shows are just the icing on the cake. ;)

Essentially, you could say I can blame it all on my mum, as she is a librarian and an avid promoter of reading. ;)
I reckon I was about 7 years old, when I got my hands on a comic book featuring a Japanese heroin called Yoko Tsuno (check out this web site; it's awesome. I used to e-mail frequently with Ilse a few years ago, but apparently, we ran out of things to talk about and lost contact since), by Roger Leloup. I believe it was the 1977 album "The Border of Life", an album about a wartime drama, artificial blood, a medical experiment lasting over 30 years and the connection between them.

Leloup is a fabulous artist, and draws as faithfully to the original as possible (well, save for the extraterrestrial décors, of course), most often working from photo's, films and mock-ups.
While "The Border of Life" is set in Rothenburg, Germany, and not Japan, I wanted to read more.

I also wanted to read more about Yoko's home country, so I tried to get some, but failed at the time.
Also in those years, Dutch television showed a multitude of cartoons, all dubbed in Dutch, but with a particular drawing style as a common point.
I loved watching Swiss Family Robinson, Heidi of the Alps, Quack the Duck, Nils Holgersson and even Candy Candy.
A few years later, I discovered that they all came from the Land of the Rising Sun.
Due to various things going on in my life, Japan dropped off of my radar as I had some serious matter to attend to.

We skip a few years. I still read the Yoko Tsuno-comics regularly at that time and my fascination for Japan was rekindled by discovering some video games and a book with Japanese fairy tales (but for the life of me, I can't remember the name of the book.
It was dormant until somewhere in 1995, where I got my hands on a game called Cobra Mission, translated from Japanese to English.
With those cartoons in the back of my mind, I wondered whether there would be more of this, and where. Well, I came up with next to nothing, and I wasn't very rich either, so I had to put it to bed once more, as the only things I could find were rather shoddy GIF-files on the internet.
However, I did find stuff about Japan on the 'net, so my interest rose once again.

Again, we skip a year or two to 1997, when I bought a few VHS video tapes containing Project A-Ko and Megazone 23.
Horribly expensive and dubbed in English with Dutch subtitles, but I managed to get myself some anime! I still have them, although I play those titles from DVD nowadays.

That was basically the start of my anime addiction.

Unfortunately, I was a bit slow on the ball, as for instance I didn't know that a small trip to Amsterdam could accelerate the hobby, or that a Japanese popular culture festival was held right here in the Netherlands but hey, all water under the bridge now. ;)
I also got more information about Japan itself, and somewhere in 1999, I decided that I wanted to go to Japan in the future.
Still piss-poor at the time, so I had to keep it a wish at that time.

Again, we skip a couple of years; I landed myself a job where I could save a bit of money as well as pay the rent, so in 2001, I decided that I would travel to Japan in either 2003 or 2004.
Due to my job, I was unable to join Niels in 2003, but in June 2004, I finally managed to tag along.
I was bitten by the Japan-bug right then and there, and we all know that lead to a grand total of 6 trips in three-and-a-half years, with 120.000 kilometres in the air and I don't know how many kilometres by metro, railway, bus and foot.

So much to see, and so little time to see it all, so I jump at every opportunity I get. :)

I simply love the country, the people, the architecture, Japan's landscape and the way they do things over there.
While I haven't visited that many countries (apart from Japan, that would be Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy, Greece and Belgium), I can say that I feel very safe and comfortable in Japan.
My understanding a bit of the Japanese language helps closing the language gap a little, I'm an avid fan of some of their major export products and I can't help at times comparing Japanese efficiency with Dutch inadequacy.

Now, I know very well that Japan has its own share of problems (including trying to solve them in a Japanese way, however bent that way might be) and that it's not the paradise some people believe it is, but I can't help but love the country, and I hope to visit Japan for many years to come.

Cheers, K.

My Silence, a small recap of the past two weeks

Kaijuu — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 13:35:00 GMT

It has been rather quiet over here because of my rather tight schedule and lots of overtime recently.
Heaps of things to do at work, and my spare time is primarily used to recharge.

The Easter week-end was a welcome change of pace; an extra day to get back on my feet and to get some stuff done in the house.

It kills me, but I'm also thinking of skipping being a tech at this year's Freedom Festival on May 5. It's right after Anime 2008, and while I don't have to do much for May 5 beforehand, it's something I have to take some spare time for.

Add that up to my current state of semi-permanent tiredness, and you just know something has got to give.

Fortunately, there is light at the end; a new colleague is probably joining us who will take some of the daily tasks off my hands (but as long as he hasn't signed and stays with us, I won't celebrate just yet), which enables me to get some spare time back from the clutches of overtime. :)

Apart from that, I don't really have much to say at the moment, as a great part of my daily life currently revolves around work.

Something positive; I will be returning to Japan in August; more on that later.
And yes, I know, I have something to finish, like posting pictures.
I also have several small projects running, including something ambitious and electronic.

Cheers, K.

Things to do on your lazy Sunday

Kaijuu — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:42:00 GMT

After working your butt off for three weeks, one might want to do something else.
When I'm not sleeping, I like to improve my house, apart from my work for Anime 2008 and a few other hobbies; other people decide to get creative in a different way.

Making music with Windows sounds, for instance, or gathering a whole bunch of your friends, distant relatives and total strangers to play Human Space Invaders (this guy also made similar movies involving Pole Position, Tetris and Pong).

I leave you with another classic I saw about ten years ago for the first time: Ping pong, Matrix style

Cheers, K.

An "I don't have to run"-day

Kaijuu — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:43:00 GMT

Sometimes it's nice to have a day filled with nothing (well, apart from re-arranging my book case and doing some stuff around the house), especially when you already have three working days worth of overtime on the tally for February alone.

One of the departments at work happened to be divided over two rooms, and another department was taking a serious amount of space in one of those rooms so we needed to do something about that. After much planning, figuring out what the patch list would be, talking to Facility (who needs to move desks and stuff) and making sure the department in question is giving us a floor plan that's making everybody happy, we (Facility, Systems & Networks and a few people from other departments who offered to help) managed to get the total transformation done in three nights and a Saturday.

No mean feat, as the total amount of desks came down to 47, with the same number of computers (with two screens each) and telephones, and an ungodly amount of cables and extension cords to make sure everyone's wired up.

I also took care of some stuff for Anime 2008 today, which draws closer and closer.
Time for bed, now.

Cheers, K.

Anime 2008 will be here!

Kaijuu — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 23:09:00 GMT

I'm buzzing with excitement right now; I went to Abunai this weekend to sell vouchers for tickets for Anime 2008.
I have been talking with people just about every moment I was there, checking things out, getting ideas and letting people know we're still here.

It's basically kickstarting myself for Anime 2008, as I'm full of ideas, have some good discussions with people on things and basically want to kick ass with our next festival.

Whiieeee!

Cheers, K.