I recently watched a videoclip by a guy called Gimmeaflakeman where he describe the use of, and link to, a very useful plugin for Firefox called Rikaichan. Along with a dictionary (also found on that site) you can hover Kanji or Hiragana/Katakana and it will translate the words in a popup. Either watch the video or go to their site for a preview. Really nifty plugin. :-]

I decided to order GH: Metallica (along with World Tour for the instruments), splitting the cost with my brother.

Unfortunately I ordered it for the wong console; the Wii instead of the 360. D'oh!

It's just a matter of sending it back to have it replaced, but it's still a bit of a bummer. I really need to start paying attention to what I'm doing.. Silly thing.

Silly update: I recieved a mail stating that I could bring the package along to their nearest store to get a refund and/or swap for the correct version. I went but we quickly realised that a part of the shipment was missing - GH: Metallica. After a bit of searching and a quick call to support they could confirm that it had been sent in a separate package, which I hadn't picked up on (sometimes threaded mails in Gmail can be a nuisance if you're not observant). Nothing much to do but to return home with the box to await GH:M which'll hopefull be here Monday. And then return once more to swap 'em.... -sigh- Sometimes our postal services are a bit....postal..

A further update: Got the parcel and went to swap it for the right version. Turns out they were sold out, but I got my money back. We decided to order the game from another store that had the games in stock. Previous purchase was a bundle with both Live Tour and Metallica but we decided to buy them separately (which was a little bit more expencive). Also, instead of just ordering the game, we decided to get the version that included a guitar. A mighty cool looking guitar, if ou ask me. :]

The game's pretty sweet, and rather challenging. At least on drums, I can't play a higher difficulty than medium without fucking up too badly. ;D I thought drums would be pretty easy, having played real drums in the past, but the way we had the drums positioned back then is almost mirrowed to this drumkit. Makes it more of a challenge = more fun. :] The only crappy thing I can think of when playing drums is that they are pretty noisy (no shit, they're drums!?) and it makes it hard to listen to the song without a reasonable loud volume. Playing is a great workout though. ;]

When it launched I was a little sceptic towards Spotify, I've been using various websites that offered almost the same thing (or so I thought) so I wasn't really impressed. But after trying it out I have changed my mind, and for the last few weeks it has been my source of music (even playing tunes I have on disk).

Having Spotify's radio set to only play Heavy Metal from the 00's I have found a bunch of new bands and arranged them in a playlist. As of now the list consist of only one song from each band. (So far it's basically just a way to keep track of the bands; the songs may be picked somewhat randomly).

At the moment the list is called "band som är lite småbra" which roughly translates into "alright bands", meaning if I find a song/band that doesn't suck, it may very well end up on the playlist.

Enjoy! :)

As per usual, when I've been modifying a previous template to where I think it looks great, I find a new one. This theme is called One Room and was ported to s9y by YellowLed. I won't fiddle too much with it, it looks good the way it is.

Just finished writing down the material from lesson 6. Here's some of what's been covered so far:

x はどこですか。
x wa doko desu ka? - Where is x?

ここですか。
koko desu ka? - Is it here?

あそこですか。
Asoko desu ka? - Is it over there?

ここじゃありません。
Koko ja arimasen. - It's not here.

あそこじゃありません。
Asoko ja arimasen. - It's not over there.

なにかたべますか。
Nanika tabemasu ka? - Would you like something to eat?

なにかぬみますか。
Nanika numimasu ka? - Would you like something to drink?

いいえけっこです。
Iie kekko desu. - No thank you.

どこでたべますか。
Doko de tabemasu ka? - Where would you like to eat?

わたしのところで。
Watashi no tokoro de? - At my place?

あなたのところで。
Anata no tokoro de? - At your place?

わたしのところでなにかのみませんか。
Watashi no tokoro de nanika nomimasen ka? - Would you like something to drink at my place?

I'm concidering a slightly more vegetarian diet. I wouldn't (read: couldn't) cut back on meat completely, there's too much taste-sensations at steak there.........no pun intended, much.

In all seriousness though, it would be for health reasons, although the reasons themselves are not huge. At least not yet, I suppose.

It's not all that often, but now and then after I've eaten meat I can feel my intestines cringe, like (mildly) cramping. I'm guessing I'm either not chewing enough or my body's getting worse at digesting meat. Which would be a bit alarming, but probably not all that surprising. But it's not too late to change, right?

And actually, another reason would be that vegetables are fucking tasty.

I don't see myself being picky about animal products as such, eggs and milk for instance. Can't really live without them. Remember this is just to make myself feel better physically. If I have to beat up a cow now and then, so be it.

Day 2 was actually wednesday two weeks ago, but nothing exciting happened (so I didn't bother writing anything). There were no driving, just a day full of theoretic stuff. We did a small test to see how much of the information we had picked up. Most of us did good. We all went home to practice some more though, in preparation for the big final day.

Day 3 (today) was rather awesome. Started out with the usual, casual cup of tea (the others had coffee, branding me 'tea-man') before we did the final test. I dunno if it was the tea that did it, but I got through and managed to score enough points to win myself a certificate. Sweetness, thank you very much!

Yay me! ＼（＾ ＾）／

I got the Special Edition Steelbox which contains a bonus DVD with interviews and behind-the-scenes material. The DVD wasn't really worth the extra money, though there were some interresting clips, like when they showed how they recorded the in-game cinematics but it was mostly pretty boring. The box however is really nice compared to the regular 360's keep cases (no 360 logo and all that).

When I first started playing the controls were a little funky. I was used to playing far Cry 2, and they handle a bit differently, obviously, from having a different perspective and all. (Which i would later find out again when I picked up FC2 again....jikes!).

Knowing the difficulties of previous games, I started playing on the easiest setting, just to get a feel for the game. Sadly with that, the only things I had real problems with were the bosses and mini-bosses. The rest was pretty straight forward.

Something that bugged me was the lack of challenging pussles. That's what I really liked about the older instalments, that you have to look for clues and use your wits to get by. Here, the most challenging pussle is to find a lever for your partner and tell her to get ready to use it, while you go look for a lever of your own. Piece of cake.

Ammunition isn't really an issue when playing on the easiest setting. At least not when you play with an AI controlled Sheva. I played through the game with a friend and I could swear we used up more ammo. I'm thinking Sheva preserves ammo better than any of us did. ;D

I'm slowly going back to where I begun this journey. I'm feeling confident enough to write hiragana and am now, once again, listening to the Pimsleur's Japanese-"tapes", writing along as the lessons go. I finished lesson 2 earlier today and here's some of what I've written thus far:

すみません、えいごがわかりますか。
Sumimasen, eigoga wakarimasu ka? - Excuse me, do you speak English?

にほんごがすこしわかります。
Nihongoga sukoshi wakarimasu. - I know a little Japanese.

おはようございます。
Ohayou gozaimasu. - Good morning!

ありがとうございます。
Ariagatou gozaimasu. - Thank you!

いいおてんきですね。
Ii otenki desu ne? - It's nice weather, don't you think?

Of course, I write by hand, so it won't look as pretty as this. ;-] But it's good fun, and a good practice. :-]

The last line, about the weather, fits really well with where we are right now so I used it for the title. Spring (practically bordering summer) is a pretty nice season and for the last few days we've had really warm weather. いいおてんきですね。:-]

I hardly slept anything last night. I was really fucking anxious about today. First time in a long while I felt this way. Ugh, I hate it.

As soon as I got to work, all those feelings were gone. Worried sick for nothing. Fuck you, imbecile body.

So, yeah. A while ago someone at work asked if I wanted a forklift certificate. I said yes. I mean who wouldn't, right? All expenses paid and all that shit. Sweet deal. The place i work at isn't all of an asshole. Mostly though, but not all.

The "tutoring" (dunno what it's called exactly) wasn't held at work, but instead five of us had to cram up in a small Golf (I swear, my back's gonna hurt forever) and drive for about an hour. Bleh.

Once there we were greeted with coffee (and for me, tea) before taking the lifts for a spin. We had some good times driving them back and forth, practicing various maneuvers. I did pretty good for my first time driving (to the point where the tutor-guy didn't believe I had never used a lift before in my life, hur hur).

We're heading back tomorrow, but there'll be no driving, only "schoolwork". Technical stuff..

This is good fun, I'm happy I agreed to go. And it'll help me get a better job in the future. :]

Well then. I find myself playing a lot of Resident Evil, eagerly awaiting RE5. I ordered it last Wednesday, and it should be here any day now (shipping takes a wee bit longer from UK). In the meantime I'm playing up on the older instalments. Just to keep a fresh imprint of the story in the back of my head.

And also because Resident Evil is fucking great!

Yesterday I got hold of Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. It's fun, but kinda tricky. :-]

I've been looking into a couple of free Mmorpgs and discovered Florensia. It's not easy getting into a new game when you're used to WoW's oh so simple interface and settings, but I've been giving it a shot.

Starting off, you chose between four different classes: Explorer, Noble, Mercenary and Saint. I picked a Mercenary, he was the most badass looking one (and not a lot at that).

At first I was a little cunfused. Questgivers and their hand-in counterparts don't show up on any maps. However, the questlog states who I need to talk to, and the 'big map' displays where all the npc's are at. It's a minor inconvenience looking for someone, but so far there's only some 20 npc's to select (in the town where I currently reside) so it's not too bad.

Another thing I found a little annoying is when 'sealed' gear drops. Sealed means that I can't use the item unless I unlock the seal. How do I unlock it? Find the local bartender..

..What?

At first I was thinking, alright, this is a Deckard Cain type thing, where I whip out a few gold to have my gear identified, right? Nope. You still need to shell out some cash, but you also need.......fish a Dissolution Pearl, aquired from fishing.

...What?!

In other words, I'll need to find out how to fish, which'll be a drag. Or not, as I found out you can go away from keyboard while you fish and it'll keep going until you run out of room in your inventory or run out of bait. That's kinda sweet. Every once in a while you'll catch a pearl. (Don't ask me how that works, catching pearls with a fishing hook..)

It'll be a huge improvement from the fishing in WoW. (I swear, I have NEVER in my years of playing come above rank 7 in fishing).

Another thing that I have yet to explore is the ability to get your own ship and take to the seas. It sounds really cool and will be useful when travling between the islands that make the world of Florensia.

So I kind of got it all down now, I can kiiiinda read hiragana and katakana, albeit really really slow, and I still stumble a bit upon some of the characters. Especially the dakuten and handakuten. But it's getting there.

Now, I've taken on the task to properly learn to write them. Like, for instance, if I see this せ, I know it's 'se', but if I am to write it from memory, I'll have to stop and think, hard. But I'm working on that and hopefully, in a near future, I'll be writing a few posts in Japanese.

Some while back I found a site where yould submit what you've written (in whatever language) and native speaking users could correct you or make suggestions. I've lost the site, sadly, but that could've come in handy. :-]

(Read this first).

The DVD was released on tuesday and it dropped in my mail yesterday. So finally, I got to see the movie! It was pure awesome and both Oskar and Eli were as cute as I imagined when I read the book. Both Lina and Kåre did great jobs with their characters, even though the dialogue felt just a little stiff at times (not at all limited to these two, however).

What bugged me (apart from the -again!- far-too-few scenes with Oskar and Eli), was that they left so much out of the story. So much info about Håkan was lost. Information about Eli's past was lost, only hinting about the "I'm not a girl"-bit. Quality time with Oskars' dad was lost (although there was a kind of a montage [even Rocky had a montage!!1] that kind of covered that I suppose).

All in all though, a wonderful movie. I'd encourage you to read the book before watching the movie. And I'd encourage you to watch it before the Americans destroys it with their upcoming remake. :-]

Ok so my previous attempts at learning the hiragana table has been a bit, hm, futile. Sure I learned a few, but sitting there writing them to no end kinda got me nowhere.

The other day my friend introduced me to something new (I swear, he's the one that throws all the good stuff at me!) -- a book called Remembering the Kana: Hiragana and Katakana by James W. Heisig. There's six or so lessons that skip back and forth through the book (menaing you don't learn them "in order").The first lesson starts of smoothly with 9 syllables.

I started practicing today, and I've nailed the 9 so far. (Yeah it's not all that hard yet). Apparently you can go through the course in ~3 hours and pick up all of the hiragana table, but I decided against moving too fast now that I found a method that actually does work really well.

And here's the beautiful part: With the help of Mnemosyne (also suggested by the same friend - I love you man, haha!) I can test myself and see what syllables I know and which I need to practice further; the program remembers your answers and asks for the ones you don't know very well more often than the ones you do know. Very nifty program indeed!

Finally getting somewhere. :)