Politics and Vodka,

At the end of this election I've seen a lot of things happen that didn't surprised me. It did not surprise me that Obama won and it did not Surprise me that the democrats cheered with a bit of smug satisfaction while many republicans treated it as the doom of the country.

Naturally both sides will never agree on whether this election has turned out good or not. The Bush years are over whether you like that or not. And as much change as Obama will try to bring, the world is going to move at the same pace it always has. A leader can inspire you with his words, but what weight those words carry are detirmined in hindsight by the validity and consequences of his actions. Our government can shape our day to day lives, but how much of that do we really want?

I love my country, and I will continue to believe in our country the same way i did when Bush was elected, and the same way I did when Clinton was in office before him.

I was inspired by an old friend of mine who wrote in her facebook blog about how she hated the division between people after the results, and I absolutely agree. Even those who don't like Obama should rally behind him and participate in the system because in truth, thats the only way our system works.

Thanks to everyone who voted, and lets put forth our best efforts to be Optimistic about the future.

And more importantly, Lets all have a drink.

Tech blip

I saw the coolest thing I think I've ever scene phone wise on TV.

It was a flip phone that can fully disconnect the top and bottom half from one another still functions and actually has some really sick video game features where the top half would be the screen that you could pun anywhere or even hook up to a TV and the bottom half would turn into a video game controller, and both sides being touch sensitive rather then having actual buttons the bottom half would actually physically take the lay out of a controller. It was very intense.

Just something to be excited for in 7 years when that phone might come to America.

Rain

I can't stand constant rainy weather. In Tokyo for the last two months its been raining nearly non stop. Every other day there's more and more rain so much to the point where sometimes it doesn't help to have an umbrella because its raining so hard you're getting soaked slowly from the bottom up.

Also with this back and forth of rainy and sunny weather its been going back and forth from cold to hot to cold to hot again, which means that sometimes you might bring a jacket somewhere only to be met with hot sweaty weather and by contrast you might go somewhere wearing flip flops and shorts and end up soaked and freezing.

I hope it isn't this raining finishing out the year.

Tech Japan #1

Ok, lets talk about the Japanese tech world for a second. The tech world in Japan is very different from that in the US. All the little techy things that we swoon over in the US are everyday devices in Japan. For example lets look at Cell phones:

The iPhone made waves in the US being one of the first Phones to intergrate the use of full Email service and complete web browsing software into a phone in a User friendly and stream line manner. In Japan who cares? Japan has phones that, while they may not have complete touch screen phones that eclipse the iPhone, have enough features to not make the hugely expensive data plan worth it. To illustrate this point I bought the Cheapest model phone I could without sacrificing my desire to have something cool and my phone has full email, web browser, Media player, and fully functional (not a mobile modification) TV.

Hell even my crappy prepaid phone that I had for a month or so had full Email and Web browsing.

I'll just throw this out there. US public transit needs to start taking notes.

I'll continue this on a later date but let me say for now that I could go on and on.

Bears...

To quote a great figure in American Journalism:

“Bears are giant, marauding, godless killing machines.”

~ Stephen Colbert on bears

That is all.

Oh shit how time flies

I have to say that I'm sorry for kind of ignoring this blog for the better half of a month. Since then I've had a birthday, started classes and done all kinds of shit. Its been a really slamming summer but now its been work work work for the past few days.

Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wish's. My birthday was on the 4th and My facebook was flooded with comments and I went out and had a great night here in Tokyo, and I want to thank everyone who made that possible.

I've been seeing GT-R's left and right and I have to say as many times as I see them that car never stops impressing me. Everything about its design is 100% flawless. Its become my dream car and I'm totally shooting for one.

and Street fighter fans have the 4th installment to look foward to. I think it will be a pretty smash hit on console in the states.

Thats my short for now, until next time.

Tokyo Thus far

Tokyo is an amazing city and I have to say I'm having a great time so far. First of all its a massive place, second of all you have a lot of freedom in general. And my god when you find a gem (no matter what form it comes in) you found a Gem. I was here with a bunch of people up until now, and I have to say I was definitely Sad to see them Leave. Although I realize I'm pretty new to city life. I've never actually Lived in a City and I realize that living in the city is really weird. You have no sense of personal space. I mean Granted I'm living in a hotel (I've been here for a month so staying and living are kind of blurred), and I move into my own place this Friday). My personal space is really is the size of my bed and a desk.

I have to say I'm getting a much better grasp of the language. And I'm getting used to the Not America-ness of Japan.

I hope everyone is having a good time at home. I miss everyone Damn. Good times though, I'll catch you on the flip side possibly next Christmas.

Irish Pubs

You would never expect that one of the most fun times you would ever have in Japan would be in an Irish pub. I always thought it funny but always true is that I have the best time in Irish pubs in Tokyo, and I'm not talking about the ones in Roppongi They don't count. My friend Plays in an Irish band around Tokyo, And I have to say that this is quite the site the see. They are all amazing musicians.

I'm tired so thats all for tonight, but i figured its been almost two weeks since a post mostly because the program I'm in has stuffed so many things into such a small span of time, and it is beating the hell out of my endurance. Still fun though.

Finally Here!

One of the things I find most annoying about long plane rides is that you find that everything that you enjoy doing becomes instantly boring after roughly the first 2 hours give or take. Sometimes that can be fine but on a 14 hour flight that can get just a little bit annoying. Fortunately however, those of you who are thinking of flying continental to Japan will be happy to know that there are some nice improvements to the entertainment system. They now feature an "on demand" system that actually has a really wide selection. For once its something on a plane that can actually keep you busy for a decent amount of time. Although i have to say that even regardless I hate planes. I can't sleep on them because I've never had the ability to sleep on a plane Pills don't even work; They just make me groggy. Being Groggy sucks.

Anyway after this 14 hour flight we arrived at Narita Airport where it took us roughly another 3 and a half hours to get to the hotel in Tokyo.

Thank goodness it is well worth the trip out because man after traveling a total of close to 18+ hours, you kind of just want to pass out.

I do love this city and I think for now I'm gonna go to bed so I can comment on it when I'm well rested.

Oh Man

I have to say I'm pretty pumped. Thank you to everyone who came out to see me off on friday night. I really appreciate it and I had no idea. I've never had so much fun being made fun of. Thank you to everyone who help set it up.

I also have to say Thank you to all the BWS guys who came out on the hiking trip. Definitely some good bonding time.

Man you guys have made it so hard for me to leave Jersey seriously!

I'm gonna miss everyone while I'm gone, but I will be reachable and I will be back.

Out of the woods with one week left...

I've finally gotten all of my paper work completed for my trip to the land of the rising sun, and now all that I have left to do is pack. Well at least that is all I have to do that concerns my trip. I still really haven't put much thought into how I'm going to live over there. It's kind of a hard thought to get used to. Because of Airline restrictions I can't really bring much more then my laptop and a big duffel bag full of cloths.

With a week left, it kind of sunk in that I'm not gonna be around Jersey for a long ass time. Which is fine to a point but Jersey does really have some local color which I've grown quite fond of. Such as Diners. I think I'm gonna miss Diners, and My home town is beautiful.

But of course what will be most missed is my friends from Jersey. Damn, 20 years of shenanigans.

March on my home state Hooligans. March on!

Intense Driving

Do you ever have a moment were you just drool over a master piece of engineering. Or you end up staring at something as if it is a gift from god descending from a beam of light that its parting a nice sunny hole in a dark cloudy sky?

This is one car that is completely dominating my list of wants right now. And granted all my little fast and the furious fantasies are sitting in the toy box with my little ninja turtles action figures frankly because in both cases I've somewhat outgrown them. Somewhat.

The new GT-R is the sexiest car I've seen in a long time. I really can't wait to sit in one of these bad boys as I am determined to buy one if its the last thing i do. My one wish is that they will slap the classic blue pain on it but that's honestly something I can live without.

Man this car is fast and if you don't believe me see for yourself just how fast it is.

And look how sexy it is.

Countdown of Everything

I am leaving for Japan in 16 days give or take. The reason it is give or take is because I dug myself into a Visa hole that is just awesome. But this count down has become just one in a list of many that I'm excited about.

The first is movies:

Starting of with the Countdown to The Dark Knight, and if you haven't heard about this you live under a rock, and If you are not excited about it you should stay there. We are now entering a golden era of comic book movies and if you don't think so, then you haven't seen Iron Man or The Hulk yet. Lets Face it, both were awesome and Batman will be too.

Now there are two movies I'm waiting for, but not because I expect good things. Those two are the Dragonball movie Staring Justin Chatwin, and the second is Street Fighter: The legend of Chun-Li staring Kristen Kreuk. Now lets face it, the DragonBall movie has a 99% chance of being complete shit. First of all because the characters just don't have good actor representation, this is not to say that the actors that play these parts are bad, nah far from it. I can't blame anyone for being bad in a role I feel is impossible to play. Every single actor will have to prove that its possible to play the role, even if the role is small and insignificant. However Dragonball Will have excellent special effects because lets face it, CG has gotten good enough to really do any movie.
Street Fighter might suffer from simply poor writing. I mean Kristen Kreuk is hot, and should work as Chun Li. However I will be suprised if this movie is written well.

The second is games:

specifically Starcraft 2, and in addition to that Diablo 3. Blizzard has decided to come back to all the fans of the company that haven't moved on to World of Warcraft. When is either coming out? I have no idea, I don't trust release dates from Blizzard until the game is less then a month away. Both games look like perfect sequals to two already perfect series, and seem to follow the very good guidline of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Which brings me to another game: Deus Ex 3. The third sequal to this game has the tremendous responsability of being at least half as good as the first game, which means it has to be at least 20 times better then the second. But with nothing but a Teaser Trailer out so far there really isn't anything to say about it yet.

And last but not least is Street fighter 4 which looks awesome! No doubts in my mind on this one.

Oh and For you Techies, the iPhone 3G comes out on friday. Enjoy!