Eddie's Brain Download

Neat stuff

2010-07-02T05:16:00.001-07:00

So before I get to the cute stuff, I wanted relate to you guys something that I thought was just neat.

Earlier on in the week we decided to go out to one of the local shops in town, a normal department store type of thing, just to look around for various things. However, we ended up going into the store shortly before closing time, though we didn’t quite know it at the time. Anyway, so we went through looking at some cute kids clothes and toys for awhile and then a very polite girl came up to us and made gestures while apologizing. Using our deductive reasoning and vague understanding of Japanese, we realized that she was telling us that it was closing time.

And now comes neat part!

So we haven’t been in a department store at closing time before, so when we left, it was quite a bit different than what we were used to. All of the salespeople and workers of all sorts were standing in their designated areas near the walkways and whenever someone(us or one of the other customers) walked by, they gave this huge bow and thanked us for shopping with them. Of course this was in Japanese and they had said other things than just “Arigato gozaimasu!” but you could tell it was along those lines.

For some reason it really moved me, even though i’m getting quite comfortable the japanese way of politeness. Perhaps it was in the way that they did it, and with such enthusiasm. Either way, it was something that I wish was done in the states, but sadly I don’t see it picking up there.

Anyways, onto other things! Today we ended up going to the Daei mall outside of base today and we ran into a nice little sale going on for some festive summer clothing, and of course we ended up buying some after some humming and hawing over it all :-P

picture time!

Rienna in her new clothes. The second photo is a close up of the design. Little fish!

Thian has dragon flies on his.

And me! I have a face on mine :-)

Till next time!

Hey…this seems familiar……

2010-06-19T05:07:00.001-07:00

So we decided to take a trip to Yokohama today to visit something from our pasts…

That’s right! Shakey’s pizza!!!!

We had found the restaurant months ago and we vowed that we would get back to the place before we left japan.

We both have a fondness for Shakey’s pizza since it was the place to go when you had a super duper pizza craving in our youth. However, most stores (if not all) had closed down in Washington state.So of course it was super ultra awesome to encounter a shakey’s pizza in japan of all places. To give a review, I would have to say that this Shakey’s pizza tastes exactly like it did way back when. Although i have to say that only the “Original” pizza tastes the same. The rest of the menu has been given the good ole japanese twist, which of course is good in it’s own way, but really we came for the old fashioned shakey’s more than the “zomg pizza in japan” experience.

On to the pictures!

Mer and the kids in front of the entrance.

Yes, that bottom pizza is “Tuna and Corn” pizza.

We of course had to try the Marshmallow dessert pizza

Yummmmmy!

Overall, a fantastic day trip, and a wonderful blast from the past.

I will leave you all with pictures of the kids(and my wonderful, fantastic wife) being cute and trying to do the peace sign to the cameras, Japanese style!

Blogging again?

2010-05-27T23:27:00.001-07:00

Yeah……We’ll see how this goes again :-)

So after much prodding, poking, shoving, and eventually a kick in the pants, meredith got me to update this thing again :-P

So I will endeavor to update the blog some more.

It’s been a long time, and much has happened. We’re still here in japan, having lots of fun. We just purchased a car over here, a Nissan “Sunny”, the japanese have some cute names for cars here hehe.

Anyways, that’s all for this post, i’ll try to include more “wordy” stuff in the next one i put up. For now, be content with photos :-)

Haircute! :-P (misspelled on purpose )

Halloween!

2009-10-31T20:27:00.001-07:00

Sushi kids!

Insert coin(s) for witty and amazing title.

2009-10-06T04:42:00.001-07:00

Hello family, friends, creepy stalkers. It’s time for another blog update!

I know, I know, it has been awhile, but I assure you, nothing big has happened. No big plans, no big changes, nothing out of the ordinary.

…did i mention we gave Thian his first haircut?

anyway onto other things… wait wait wait, ok, I hear you gasping behind that monitor, and I also hear you wondering when im posting picture. Well fine here they are :-P

Before:

After!

That’s all for now!

oh, did I also mention we have a super typhoon coming our way? I sure do love the rain :-)

Strange, and yet so delicious

2009-09-16T15:52:00.001-07:00

So being in Japan for me is like being a small kid in the candy store for the first time. You look around and all around you are strange and alluring objects. Every candy in the store surrounds and swirls around you in a maelstrom of flavor and color. The combinations are nearly endless, nary a flavor left untouched and all of it wrapped into alluring packages whose call rivals that of the Sirens in the tales of old sailors books. As such, I have found myself trying nearly everything I can get my hand on:

Bananas covered in chocolate. Rice crackers. Octopus packed into a small round breaded thing. Sushi of every kind of fish. Flavored sodas and drinks of nearly any type you can think of.

All of this and more! However, it is the latest item that recently tried to attempt to make on my own that I will talk about now:

Coffee Jello!

Meredith had found a Japanese website that was doing a recipe day or something of the like, and it featured the new jello. Instantly I was enthralled with the idea and set out to make it as quickly as possible. It didn’t take much, just some instant coffee, some non flavored jello packs and boiling water. Nothing special, just….coffee jello.

Let me tell you my friends…… it is Delicious.

Now to find the next thing in the candy store :-)

You have gained a level in, Cooking!

2009-09-11T00:17:00.001-07:00

So I managed to accomplish something I’ve wanted to do for a long long time; Creating my own pretzels!

Everytime I go to the mall, the lure of Auntie Anne’s pretzels is too much and I wind up with like $20 worth of pretzels to eat / save for later. Yesterday I happened to be browsing a food recipe application on my Ipod touch, looking for something yummy to make for dinner when a shiny beacon of tastiness that is Pretzels graced my screen… I was helpless to resist.

Soon after Meredith got home we went to the store and I immediately bought up everything I needed to create the goods. All went well but then I made and error, a very serious and stupid error. In the recipe it called for 1 cup of sugar, 1 1/2 Teaspoons of salt. What I wrote down was: 1 cup of sugar, 1 1/2 salt

As you can probably guess, I put 1 1/2 CUPS of salt in. Yes I thought it was kinda weird for that much salt, but I was drunk of the promise of delicious pretzels and forged ahead thinking I was safe because I wrote the directions down. lol.

Anyway, the cooking process wasn’t so far from normal, although the dough didn’t rise as much as it should have, and it was kinda dry-ish.

Finally I got it all baked and as soon as it was out of the oven, I took a huge bite and, lo and behold, it didn’t taste that bad…… for the first second or two. Then the taste of salt flooded into my mouth and stayed there like an entrenched army. Nearly anything I tried to do could not get rid of this soft, lingering ghost of a salt taste in my mouth.

ugh.

Fast forward to today:

I tried to attempt creating my pretzels, the taste of salt finally had released it’s grip on me and I deemed it time to try again. This time I used the normal amount of salt and I have to report this: They are Delicious!

Not quite as good as Auntie Anne’s pretzels, but still pretty dang good.

Sooooo tired

2009-08-23T16:09:00.001-07:00

Here’s an email I wrote to meredith this morning, thought it was enough to post up.

ugh, what a night :-(
Here's how it went.
Rienna first woke up at about 2-3ish, complaining that she was cold, ok, ac was on, i'll just turn it off.
*buzzer sound* wrong!
She complained like hell and woke up thian, so I just covered her back up again and tucked the blankets in and went with that, she complained a little but I told her thian was sad, go to sleep and she did.
Went in, changed thians diaper. Now that he was awake he seemed to be having some teeth pain, must be getting a new tooth in, he's been doing that a bit more lately. Fine, got him some tylenol, back to sleep for me.
I wake up again at about 4 this time.
Rienna is up and cranky again. Fine, put her back in bed, cover her up, give her an extra blanket.
In my half awake daze I also try to shut off the AC again, stupid me. This sets off a chain reaction with rienna of whining and eventually I turn it back on. No way to comfort her without it. Odd because just a few weeks ago she was scared of it being on O.o
anyways, I try to leave and now it's the normal bed time " I want a hug, I want a kiss, I moved you need to tuck me in, now I want a kiss, now a hug, I want bear, no I don't want bear, I want baby"
Arrrgghh.
Eventually I get her to sleep and I go back into the bedroom and pass out.
In my dream I faintly hear the alarm, but then it's gone quickly enough.
Eventually I wake up on my own at about 7:10 going WTF something is wrong. Yeah, the whole "not being late" part of my brain was shouting angrily at the rest of my brain for not listening to him....sorry Late Man, I was tired.
Thankfully Rienna was still asleep and as such wasn't downstairs in danger or anything. /sigh of relief.
Crazy kids.
Today, im going to take a nice long bath and maybe a nap.
Yeah...that'll be nice.

Dora the explorer…more like Dora the Thief!

2009-08-08T17:17:00.001-07:00

Heh, ok, so i haven’t written a blog in awhile, I have been really busy with the kids, however, something happened today that I thought was so funny that I HAD to write it down for all to see.

Ok, so here’s how it goes:

I was laying Thian down on the ground and was changing his diaper when Dora the Explorer came on. Rienna got really excited and ran over to the TV yelling, “Dora!!!”

Ok, normal so far. Then Swiper appeared on the tv and rienna again yelled out, “Swiper!”. For those of you who don’t know, Swiper is the Raccoon/fox/whatever the hell he is on the show, and he basically steals stuff, and Dora + the rest of the cast have to stop him before he does.

Anyway, so I’m changing Thian and I barely noticed that rienna was moving really slow, shuffling her feet going past me. Then she comes up around me on the other side and goes right next to Thian. Then, just like in the show, she slowly moved her hand towards the toy I had given Thian to play with and then snatched it out of his hands. After that she started to shuffle away again, but I stopped her, and not picking up on what exactly she was doing other than taking Thian’s toy, said to her, “Rienna! don’t take thians toy, that was very naughty!”. At that point she said, “but im swiper! swiper!”

I just cracked up laughing because it all came together and actually made sense. I tried to explain to her that playing swiper was bad, because swiping other peoples stuff isn’t cool.

Ahhh, children, it’s the small things that turn out to be gems, lol.

My first big trip out without Meredith

2009-07-12T02:36:00.001-07:00

I know, crazy right?

Hehe, anyway, I went out with the O’neils to go see a festival going on here in japan, and I thought I would pass on a few pictures that I thought were neat.

These guys basically carry around that shrine thing throughout the town. I couldn’t tell you why or what for at the moment, but it’s interesting stuff. It’s also Really really hot here, and it’s grueling work…from what it looks like. Also before these guys start, I believe they have a ceremony where they drink some alcohol first :-)

Here’s a close up of one of the shrines(ive no idea if it’s supposed to be called a shrine or not)

Here’s a man doing some sort of play or something. Either way, he has an awesome mask.

The kids, having a nice cold jello drink type of thing to ward off the heat.

This mannequin thing was on top of some moveable cart thing with a drum inside.

Here’s a video of the guy who was doing that play/dance thing.

And here’s a video of the guys moving the shrine along. Like I said, it looks like grueling work :-) Especially since it’s really humid and about 80-90 degrees out. They wear the short and thin clothing for a reason :-P

Ahh I love memes.

2009-07-01T03:44:00.001-07:00

There’s something about meme’s that are just fundamental in my life,particularly on the internet. Now, im not particularly talking about LoLCat, but more like casual saying that get passed on by a community that you pick up on. This can be passed on in real life, or, more easily online, since the stigma of saying some utterly redonkulous(can you guess where that’s from?) isn’t as bad as it is when you are face to face with someone.

Let me show you some examples and where they came from. The original source of many of these things can’t be tracked down, so if I say, well this came from this particular place, don’t yell at me if you found it somewhere else.

Eve online: 0/ this is a person’s head with an arm up, waving. A greeting of hello or goodbye.

warcraft: Oh god, so many to choose from but ill just post one for now: Zomg(it’s Oh my god, with a Z added to the end, for particular emphasis on whatever you are !!!! about)

There’s some other odd ones that generally if you are browsing internet forums you will pick up on.

one is a number like 91k, or 21k, that denotes when you joined or post count, or something, i havent figured it out, but it’s a term of how old you are in the forum, and of course the older you are the better.

Anyway, you get the point. I have no idea what it is about these memes, but it’s like pokemon, i want to collect them all. Maybe it’s just so I understand half of the crap that is posted on forums :-P

On that note, post the ones you know of, and where they are used.

Michael Jackson beat it today.

2009-06-25T16:05:00.001-07:00

Yes, I know horrible joke right? (look at the title of post until you get it)

It’s always sad to see a celebrity go, although with michael…well a bit odd. I haven’t particularly been a fan of Michael, although I have recognized his talent. It seems a shame, it’s almost as if his life was wasted away and he could have done so much more. At least once he started to have the whole life change thing, I can’t put my finger on where it started, but somewhere along the way, I think his train got diverted and it just slowly fell away from the rest of us, in normalacy.

Anyway, he is gone now, and so I will remember him as he was back before all of the craziness.

and who knows, he may just come back as a zombie and start the zombie apocolypse with awesome dance moves.

I have to say, if im going to die by zombie, at least it’ll be entertaining until they reach me.

Thrillaaaaa, Thrilla niiightt!

Boggle @ Dell

2009-06-22T15:38:00.001-07:00

dell support people are friggin idiots.
They called me and left a message this morning about calling them back so they can check the status of the repair. So i call them up, give them the case number and then just to make sure i go over the course of events in very specific and clear terms.
"I live in japan, so I had to send the laptop to relatives in the states to get repaired by your service guys. Service guy came out to relatives house, fixed laptop, and now laptop is being shipped back to japan for me to verify it has been fixed. When it gets here, i'll call you guys back and let you know how it went."

The guy then says to me, "oh, well we dont ship to japan, let me transfer you to customer service and they can help you out"

uhhhh, wtf, so I repeat back to him and said, no no, the repair is already done, its already being shipped back to me, I will call back when I verify it's done.
"ok, sir, let me transfer you to customer service"

*brain frizzes out from stupidity*
Idiots.

<note: some of that is annotated but not by very much>

Soo Sad

2009-06-21T20:55:00.001-07:00

Well, one of my worst fears has happened. I dropped my ipod and the screen broke. Yes I know, horrible! Horrible with a capital H %$#%$#%$#%^#$^^@

The gibberish above is the censored version of a curse that only Cthulu himself could conjure, it is for your own protection that I censored it.

Anyway, so the glass screen broke on the ipod and sending it in to apple will cost a whopping $119 bucks to get it fixed. Very sad indeed.

So far ive turned the ipod off and made myself not touch it, in fear of the glass scratching the lcd underneath, but if I send it in to apple they will end up just giving me another unit instead of repairing the glass.

The funny thing was, it happened the day after I started looking online for a case to protect it against falls

Arggh!

Ah well, yet another thing I will need to mail back to the states to get fixed….le sigh

Broke and strapped for cash?

2009-06-19T04:50:00.001-07:00

Alrighty, so I haven’t written an update in awhile. Mainly nothing going on with Meredith out to sea for awhile. However, lately i’ve been wanting to write something down so that all of you who follow my blog (and never comment on stuff, ya bastards….this excludes you Cass <3) can get some sort of update that I truly am alive, lol.

Alas, I have as of late been short of material, until now.

On with the show:

As of late ive been partaking a lot of Hulu.com for my tv watching experience while the kids are sleeping, and ive run across something funny enough for me to share.

Yes, it is the show “Get me out of here, I’m a Celebrity”

Basically the show is about a bunch of celebrities dropped off into the middle of a rainforest and they have to go through their fears.

Of course the first thing that comes to my mind is, “my god these guys are really strapped for cash if they are doing this. I wonder how much they get paid”

Most of the celebrities on here are not really on my radar of people to watch, except for two. Lou Diamond Philips, a great guy, who i really think is better than this show, and Alec Baldwin. However, I have to say, I don’t think a baldwin can do anything that can surprise me anymore.

Seriously, can you think of something, short of murder, that a baldwin hasn’t done yet?

Ya, didn’t think so :-P

Also, let me mention the wife of Rob Blagojevich, the former governor of Illinois. *head shake* The who and the what now?

Seriously, i did not recognize how bad his stupidity in trying to sell a seat on the senate caused so much grief as to make you flee to a rainforest.

I’m sorry ma’am, truly, I did not recognize how bad it was :-P

So anyway, check out the celebrities getting tortured, it’ll at least entertain you for an evening while you are drinking with friends :-)

Get me out of here, i’m a celebrity

Reverse OCD

2009-06-13T20:05:00.001-07:00

So I think Rienna might have OCD, well, ok maybe not, but it’s about as close as I can explain it in short terms.

Basically, instead of being compelled to clean and put stuff in order, she is compelled to take every bin out of the cubby and empty it’s contents onto the floor. Then merrily move onto the next one.

Lemme show you what im talking about.

Imagine if you will, each of those boxes, maybe 1ft by 1ft, are filled to the brim with assorted toys. Now imagine them on your floor. Imagine all of the toys looking like an odd magma flow of plastic pieces and stuff animals strewn across your floor. Start to feel a bit crazy?

Yeah.. me too.

Man, I do love the kids a lot, but seriously, must you empty out every bin?

oh snap, time travelin again!

2009-05-22T04:43:00.001-07:00

I was told I needed to do quads this time. :-P

OMG we had double twins!

2009-05-22T02:56:00.001-07:00

Yeah, so I went back in time and made my little swimmers mutants and we ended up with two sets of twins.

Im just that awesome.

Every so often, my crazy ideas, might possibly be right

2009-05-18T06:38:00.001-07:00

So we’re watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition(our new tv watching series) and a thought came to me.

For those of you that don’t know, this show is about Ty Pennington going around the country with his trusty band of constructors, building new homes for people in need. It’s a very heart tugging show. I find myself fighting back tears from time to time…it’s that emotional.

But that got me thinking. Ty Pennington really puts the screws to people to get the tears flowing. For example, he’ll be talking to somebody like the mom of the family, about the background, whats wrong with the house, and then all of a sudden he will get this sad look in his face and say something that just tugs at the emotions of whoever he is talking to. Like, “I know, you tried so hard to keep your family safe…and then the fire came…..”

By this time the person is in tears and he looks extremely satisfied. It’s subtle but once you see a few of these shows, you’ll understand and know exactly when and how he’ll start pulling at the strings.

And that brings me to my theory…..Ty Pennington is a Tear Vampire. He lives off of the tears of human beings. Hell even in the beginning, he shows the application video the families send in, and he makes his own people cry!

Anyway, don’t take my word for it, watch the show, and for further evidence, just look at this picture.

Just look at that smiling face!

:-P

P.S. This is all in jest….maybe?… :-) Ty! if you are reading this, you do good work, keep it up

The zombie Invasion is upon us!!

2009-05-13T19:39:00.001-07:00

Soooooon!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090512/sc_mcclatchy/3231765

Here’s a short excerpt.

The flies "dive-bomb" the fire ants and lay eggs. The maggot that hatches inside the ant eats away at the brain, and the ant starts exhibiting what some might say is zombie-like behavior.

"At some point, the ant gets up and starts wandering," said Rob Plowes, a research associate at UT.

The maggot eventually migrates into the ant's head, but Plowes said he "wouldn't use the word 'control' to describe what is happening. There is no brain left in the ant, and the ant just starts wandering aimlessly. This wandering stage goes on for about two weeks."

O.o

I recommend getting The Zombie Survival Guide while you can!!

I will miss you!

2009-05-05T05:02:00.001-07:00

The rain had come.

In most cases, I would have been happy. The rain has generally always left me in high spirits, and low in temperature(a bonus in my case), cleansed as though it had washed away any grimy stress clinging to my soul.

The rain today, was not one of those.

No, today's rain had brought with it a deep, bellowing sorrow. The sorrow of having the one you love the most taken from you, if only for a short time.

I watched her leave, through the blurring wind and rain, and enter into the huge titan of steel. I marked the memory in my mind, to try and keep it close, but the rain and it's sorrow had seemed to want to flush it away.

As I walked home with the kids, a silence grew around us. We watched as other souls passed by us on their somber trek away from their homes, their families, their lives. Then the rain pressed in upon us, and soaked us to the bone, leaving behind a pit of mud in the depths of our hearts, for our missing beloved.

At last we arrived home, weighed down from our journey through the gray mist and rain, and at once I started a bath and put the kids into the soothingly warm water. They perked up immediately, as though brought back to life with an extra pack of spare batteries.

Not wanting to ruin the moment, but wanting to make sure they knew what had just occurred, I asked them if they remembered where mommy had went. Surprisingly, the oldest looked at me, smiled and said, "Mommy went on the boat, in the water!" and then laughed and as if nothing else happened, picked up some bubbles floating nearby and showed them to me.

At once, all but a fraction of the sorrow was gone, replaced by a warm, fantastic glow, and as I looked at the kids, I knew, I just knew, that everything would be alright.

We'll see you soon hun. Have fun on your adventure!

When in the world is Carmen Sandiego?

2009-04-27T05:37:00.001-07:00

An interesting game idea, might be interesting if they can polish the game a bit. There's something about multiplayer time travel that tickles an odd portion of my brain and causes it to seize up and start drooling. I would liken it to when I look at extremely large and complex math formulas for too long, but I think Meredith would get upset at the reference :-P

(P.S. I love you hun!)

(X^2+Y^2-1)^3 = X^2Y^3

Hint: graph it

(Basically this game allows for time travel in an Real Time Strategy game--think Command and Conquer. Watch the videos and be entertained!)

If you are interested in the game, you can find the page at:

Achrongame.com

You would be surprised at what leaks out of my head

2009-04-23T16:38:00.001-07:00

Well I promised you guys that I was doing some "artistic" stuff with my photos and inspiration hit this morning as I was walking along.

(ok the truth is I was playing with fonts and graphics on my computer, but walking along in the morning sounded much more appropriate for the content :-P )

Anyway, so I made a poem out of one of my pictures and put it to uh...pixels?

anyway, I've no idea whether it's polished enough for consumption but here ya go.

I hereby release it into the wild, may it find sustenance to live on.

(EDIT: You may have to click on the image, the stupid page isn't being nice and letting the blog layout resize to fit the image)

Sad, Informative....and hilarious!

2009-04-21T19:03:00.001-07:00

Hello Peoples!

Not a lot of time, gotta go out in a sec, but I wanted to share some stuff with ya that I thought was hilarious.

I was tooling around with some graphic forums / websites and I ran across this site that does photoshop tutorials, but in a comical way.

It's hard to explain, so I will let the site show you.

Go Watch the videos!

You Suck at Photoshop

Hanami

2009-04-06T19:33:00.001-07:00

Hello again friends and family.

I did promise ya'll some good pictures of the flowers around base, so, here ya go:

and for artistic flair, I give you my (hopefully soon to be famous) writing notebook. It contains the secrets to the universe, a cookie recipe, and a drawing of a bridge.

Oh I suppose it contains a few stories in there too, who'd have guessed ^.^

A beautiful arrangement wouldn't say? No? well lemme give you the rest of the scene.

I must say it's a fantastic spot to write. It's quite peaceful . The ocean water laps softly on the bank while visions and dreams drift past in a slow rhythm, just waiting for me to pluck them out of the air and plant them into the soil of the page.

Yes, I do believe I love writing, and I am glad to have the opportunity.

Stay tuned! I am also working on altering / improving some of the flower pictures for some more artistic flair. We'll see how well it works out ^.^

Till then, Ja mata (See you later)

The shenanigans of celebrities confuse and amuse us all.

2009-03-31T21:52:00.001-07:00

Hello there peoples!

So I was reading up on one of my favorite sites today, The smoking Gun, and found out that the guy who does the ShamWow commercials, Vince Shlomi, got arrested. For some reason I find celebrities getting arrested for the dumbest things amusing and wished to share this all with you.

Ill let this excerpt from the website(click here to read the entire article) say it all.

"According to an arrest affidavit, Shlomi met Sasha Harris, 26, at a Miami Beach nightclub on February 7 and subsequently retired with her to his $750 room at the lavish Setai hotel. Shlomi told cops he paid Harris about $1000 in cash after she "propositioned him for straight sex." Shlomi said that when he kissed Harris, she suddenly "bit his tongue and would not let go." Shlomi then punched Harris several times until she released his tongue"

Heh, crazy celebrities, I wonder if people lose IQ points when they get onto television, even if only for a commercial.

I bet you won't see him in the same way when he hits that shammy on the table from now on

Ah well, I hope his shammy absorbs blood from a hooker as well as it does spilled soda ^.^

*Boggle*

I just don't where to begin

2009-03-30T06:27:00.001-07:00

So I haven't posted a blog in awhile and I figured now is as good as any. There really hasn't been anything big lately going on, just the usual day in day out stuff.

However, it has been long enough that I thought I should make a post before people start thinking we've fallen into the ocean or something. Anyway, Ive got two rants for you lined up...well maybe 1 and a half.. we'll see how it turns out, and just a quick personal update.

First off, the goodies: I have now started in earnest with my writing, and it is really exciting. I'll leave you all with that :-P

Anyway, I have used up most of my words for today so ill get onto the juicy meat of rantitude(ooh did i invent a word? hmmm we'll see)

Rant #1: SYFY --- Really did anybody NOT see me ranting about this coming? It's really a shame that my number 1 channel has come to this. For some crazy reason they decided that in one of the best years they have had for ratings, they have decided that their huge pool of nerds in the basement(their words I believe) are no longer good enough for them. Ya know, I can understand if they changed the entire image of the channel and rebranded with something completely different, but SYFY, what kind of crazy drugs are they on? It's the same damn name, spelled differently. They are alienating their entire base(oh excuse me, subtract the people that watch the wrestling shows on the SCIFI channel *Triple Mind Boggle*) for a friggin misspelling. Anyway, im going to sum all of this up with one phrase: Ahhhhhhghghghghghghghghghghhghghghgh

Rant #2: Battlestar Galactica--- Ok, im gonna go easy on these guys because overall I liked everything about the show in general. What I do have to say is that I wish they did things a tiny bit different with the ending. The whole "Watch out or you too may fall victim to cylon attacks" type of thing was a bit too bland for my taste. Ive seen too many stories do the same thing and point out societies flaws and how we must amend our ways to avoid the awesome battle scenes we will have in the future. :-P

Anyway, in all seriousness, It could have ended differently, a bit more ...oh whats the word....thoughtful? whatever, either way, in the end it was an Ok ending.

Well that's all I have for today, tune in next time, and I may have a bunch of cool stuff to show you from the cherry blossoming ^.^

Unmitigated Cuteness.

2009-03-07T18:47:00.001-08:00

Just another lazy day.

2009-03-05T18:04:00.001-08:00

So I have been neglecting the blog lately, but after last weekend, it was hard to do anything but stare at the wall and try to recuperate. This week has been fairly uneventful. Ive mainly been watching the kids and playing Eve Online. I hop onto Warcraft every so often but without raids it is kind of hard to do anything in there anymore. I have alts to play but most of them are tied up with one of Meredith's characters, so no play time in warcraft for daddy at naptime :-(

Anyway, so Ive been playing Eve, which is fun as hell, and they are bringing out an expansion on the 10th, which will be fantastic.

There is a few other games that I am waiting to come out. Let me list em:

1. Diablo 3 (almost everybody knows about this one)

2. Star Trek Online(OMG! It's soo close and yet so far away!) This one is fantastic. Basically you will be the captain of your own ship, you can select your head staff and even customize the ship. One thing they are doing to make it more like the Startrek shows is that they are doing episodic content for missions. It's hard for me to explain so I will let the professionals do it.

Here's a quote from one of the guys making the game in and interview with Zam News.

"One of the features that sets Star Trek Online apart is its Episodic Content. We don't want players to be stuck in the same environment for three hours hunting tribbles until they level. None of the Star Trek TV episodes take place on one set -- neither should STO's content.
Our Episodic Content is designed to take you to a number of widely differing environments during a single gameplay session.
For example, you may be assigned to visit a planet within Federation protected space. When you arrive in orbit, you find yourself in a tense standoff with a heavily armed Orion Syndicate battleship. After dealing with the Orions, you send an away team to the planet's surface and discover that the Orions were providing cover for a Klingon force that has beamed in to break up a diplomatic conference. You stop the Klingons' sabotage and then go into the embassy, rescue the diplomats and confront the Klingons' commander, who has information about a second Klingon attack already in progress.
Beam back to your ship and warp to another planet, where you face a Klingon fleet in a climatic space battle. Millions of lives are depending on you -- can you avert a galactic tragedy?
That's what Episodic Content in STO is like."

Fantastic eh? Anyway, soon as that comes out I am forming a fleet(a guild in other terms) If you are interested in joining, just let me know by email(jinxz0@gmail.com) or by comment on the blog :-P

Oh also check out the offical site: www.startrekonline.com

3. Jumpgate Evolution: This one used to be an old game by the same name -evolution. Basically like eve, except it's more of a twitch shooter type of game. Think of an airplane flight combat game on the consoles(Ace combat, Tom Clancy's Hawx) and put it in space, that's kinda what jumpgate appears to be. Anyway, check it out at http://us.jumpgateevolution.com/

That's pretty much my list at the moment, im sure another cool game is in the works, but ill find it eventually :-P

If any of you come across one, lemme know, I am always looking for the good stuff.

Laters!

Nagano trip!

2009-03-01T04:19:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone!

So this weekend we went up to Nagano(it's the place where they held the winter olympics back in 1998? somewhere near that time.

anyway, we had lots of fun, but we are waaaay too tired now.

So without any more babbling....On to the pictures!

The kids in the strollers, ready for a looong trip.

All of us (that's the kirkbrides to the left and right of meredith)

For those of you who dont know what a japanese train station looks like, here ya go:

Since we were on a long trip on the bullet train, they had people with snacks going around for purchasing. I got a delicious sandwhich and whiskey water :-P

When we got to nagano, we found all sorts of fun stuff in and about the city, for example crazy mannequins

Mariner elephants

KIWI POCKY!!!!!

A hotel with not only a bible, but a Buddhist book as well!

Now onto the snow monkeys

Heres rienna sitting next to a random japanese lady who made her origami stuff.

and thien being cute

Snow monkeys up close

And of course you too can watch the snow monkeys

in case you cant read all of that it's http://www.jigokudani-yaenkoen.co.jp (CLICK ME!)

Anyway, that's all for now!

Have fun watching the monkeys!

Out and about in the country!

2009-02-26T19:52:00.001-08:00

So anyway, we're gonna spend the weekend out in a hotel where the snow is in japan. It's gonna be fun.

But anyway, before we leave, I ended up seeing this awesome shirt online that I wanted to share with you Navy peoples!

http://www.snorgtees.com/314ofsailorsarepirates-p-692.html

hehe.

Later!

Cute! Bento!

2009-02-22T07:33:00.001-08:00

Hello guys!

So, like i said last week, i was working on something awesome and I made my first bento box lunch for Meredith when she goes to work tomorrow(by the time any of you read this itll probably be monday our time, sunday your time)

Anyway, basically the way bento works is that the mothers pack up their husbands/childs' lunches in a nice neat box. Sometimes it can be decorative or for the majority of the meals, just tightly packed and organized into efficient and delicious lunches.

Of course, for it being the first time I went with the decorative type, which is called cute bento(or at least that's what i seem to find it being called most of the time).

Anyway, ill stop talking and let the pictures talk for themselves.

These were from the first experiment:

That's a small cracker hat, with food coloring gel eyes and mouth and inside is a very tasty cherry treat! oh! and seaweed(Nori) hair underneath the hat.

These hearts are also made out of rice and are banana flavored(cherry filling as well)

And heres the actual meal i made.

top Left: A cherry man in a bathtub of pineapple gel cubes that I dyed blue-ish(Good god are these delicious)

Top: a face of a man and panda filled with yummy chicken inside rice.

Bottom Left: A cheesy corn soup with chicken bits.

Bottom right: Left overs from tonight's dinner which consisted of mangos, rice, chicken, broccoli and other assorted goodies.

Middle: Carrots and mini oranges(the name eludes me at the moment and im too lazy to walk to the kitchen).

Anyway, that is an example of a cute bento box, it's a bit crude compared to some of the ones ive seen, but hell, for a first timer, I dont think i did too bad.

Talk to ya guys later!

Wow Sham! Sham WoW?

2009-02-18T15:23:00.001-08:00

Hello everybody!

I don't have much today, but I wanted to show you guys this comic that you fans of Warcraft will love.

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20090216

Also go to the next comic if your a fan of Street Fighter.

Anyways, things are good with us here in Japan. Im working on something that you guys will find awesome. Stay tuned!

Happy happy zoo time!

2009-02-10T04:56:00.001-08:00

Hello again!

So the other day we made a trip out with the Kirkbrides to the zoo and had tons of fun. Lets get on with the running commentary eh?

Here's us next to the entrance. Yay pandas!

Rienna being introduced to an owl. Both of them have a "uh...ya, you are way too close to me" look going on.

Here's a bird area and the kids looking at it.

More proof that japan is full of odd stuff. Im not sure what it's supposed to be.

Llama Llama Llama(I have an urge to say it 3 times fast, i cant control it) ^.^

Rienna checking out the polar bears

Lunch Time!

Here's Rienna humping the goats. Seriously, she would get over to the goat and just grab onto it's butt and walk along with it. I suppose that's the easiest spot to hold onto it and not get ran over, but either way it was funny as hell to watch.

Guess who got to hold a chicken! She absolutely loved this thing to death. She was holding it like a stuffed animal and nearly shoved her face through it.

Thian loves grabbing random plants.

Yummy! A chocolate covered banana! God I love japan.

Rienna holding up her monies.

Thian being cute.

And that's all folks!

Stay tuned for whatever we do next!

The Bird Empire Strikes Back

2009-02-09T19:04:00.001-08:00

So we had an exciting trip to the eye doctor the other day
I needed to update my prescription and since the kids hadnt eaten lunch yet we stopped at mcdonalds at picked up mcnuggets to eat on the way. So now we turn off into this corridor street to go to the hospital and then all of a sudden this huge hawk(and a frighin huge one at that) swoops down and steals all three nuggets thian had in his tray and hands. Nuggets and fries flew everywhere and everyone was just stunned. Then the rest of the flock showed up and followed us to the hospital. It was insane to say the least.
Anyway nobody was hurt so it was just more of a freaky experience. Remember, watch the skies when there is food in your strollers!

Posted with LifeCast

Making up for lost time.

2009-02-04T06:43:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone!

I apologize for not writing a blog in awhile, it's been a pretty boring week for the most part, so I have been waiting till I was in the mood and had enough things to chat about to at least fill a small bit of time.

On to the content!

So we have the housing guys here in our little spot of the neighborhood wrapping the house windows and other spots in plastic so they can paint. The funny thing is, the houses were pretty good on the paint before they started, so we're not quite sure why they are doing it again. Anyway, as you can guess, the nice flapping sound of grocery bag plastic is at a near constant level outside the house, and during nap time, it becomes the very bane of my existence. I say this, because you also add on the sound of electric sprayers and men coming off of lunch and chatting about outside a child's window will keep them up indefinitely. Oh and let me not forget my lovely watch dog who feels it's his supreme duty to inform me every half hour that there are men outside and must be howled at.

It's fun to say the least, but I think the kids have gotten used to it all, and Rienna has finally decided to actually stay in bed the past few days.

Heh, Ive got to say, that ended up being longer then I thought and I still have plenty more to talk about!

On to content #2!

So the other day it rained here pretty bad and I was letting Brandon go out the backdoor and I noticed that there was some string on the ground....and it was moving like a snake. So I decided it was time for me to go into super detective mode and figure out what the hell it actually was. Turns out the worms here are friggin long, and I mean freakishly long and skinny. Of course, being a guy, I had to try and step on it, dont ask me why, we just have that urge to step on things from time to time. When I did that, it spun underneath my foot and twisted itself, and I learned that it was a lot harder then any worm I have come across before. To say the least, it was strange.

Now Ill leave you with the last bit of news, to take your mind off the freaky worms.

We now have an xbox 360! So if any of you are on xbox live, feel free to make me a friend on there, the nick is Eraxis1 (that's a one at the end if your monitor is crappy or if you cant read the font)

Also if any of you have any good recommendations for games, feel free to comment to me on them. Ive got a few that I am already looking at, but it's always good to get info.

Anwyays, talk to ya'll later!

Of Ninjas and Crazy people

2009-01-26T17:25:00.001-08:00

Nice title eh?

Anyway, I was visiting Cassidy's blog today and had this huge comment going about enjoying baby gates while she can since when the actual Terrible 2's hit, itll be bad. Then it turned into a huge post, so im gonna keep it here instead. ^.^

Anyway, so if you have a child under 2, make use of those baby gates and cages while you can. Eventually the kids can get over them like ninjas. They can also climb walls, hide in plain sight, steal things from your pants from across the room and have the ability to locate the most breakable object in the house and promptly destroy it.

So just a few days ago, Rienna was practicing her ninja skills and decided to promptly open up the front door with absolutely no sound at all, and make a dash for the nearest parking lot and street.

We managed to catch her before she got there, but it freaked us the hell out that she managed to get out without a sound.

So now we've turned into that crazy old guy that everybody knows that lives down the street who thinks "They" are out to get him and has booby traps all over the house and lawn.

It's true, we have bells and chimes hung up on the front door as well as her room. Plus the back sliding door has pressure bars WAAAY up high to keep the doors closed.Ive even installed an extra lock on the front door with a padlock. It's insane how good she is about managing to find a way to leave the house. Im even thinking about how useful it would be if i hung a cowbell around her waist or something.

Hopefully she'll grow out of trying to kill herself, but I dont know, she may just be Evel Knievel reincarnated. Im just waiting for when she manages to get into a stroller and roll it down the stairs for fun.

oh noes! she's awake! Ive gotta spray her down with a bottle of Ninja Begone before it gets out of hand!

*ninja vanish!*

aaannnd we're back

2009-01-23T03:18:00.001-08:00

Hello everybody!

We finally got internet back and boy has it been a LOOONGG week.

We just got our new house and for the past couple of days we've been fighting against hordes of angry household goods boxes, scheduling Internet, cable, phones, and various other things, and unpacking everything.

I think ill start off with showing you guys the house and then I will give you guys the gift of seeing Buddha.

Here's our backyard

Ze Kitchen(im french?)

Here's looking in from the front door

The living room filled with just the crap we had brought over on the plane with us.

The little spot for the washer and dryer between the kitchen and the dining/living room

These remotes control the AC/Heating units spread throughout the house. We have like 6 of them mounted on the walls, notice it's all in japanese ^.^

WARNING: CUTENESS FOR NEXT 3 PICTURES!

Heres a view out the front, notice the awesome playground about 20 steps away from the house ^.^

And as promised, the walk to and view of......THE GREAT BUDDHA!

Special Note: Anybody ever play the Legend of Zelda? Anything looking familiar? Yeah the tri-force is everywhere here. ^.^

And that's the Great Buddha. Yes he is large, very large.

We also visited some other shrines/temples. If you want to see more pictures check out the picasa site(picasaweb.google.com/jinxz0)

but for now ill leave you with the cutest thing ive seen in awhile. Other then my kids of course :-P

Hellos From The Ipod

2009-01-22T02:16:00.001-08:00

Hey guys,
We just got our new house a few days ago but no Internet and LOTS of stuff to do. Anyway. Yes we are alive. Updates soon

Posted with LifeCast

HAPPY BAGS!

2009-01-02T05:10:00.001-08:00

So today I will be talking about Happy Bags! (Disclaimer for my male cohorts: Im not talking about what you think I am, feel free to guiltlessly move on if you get bored)

Anyways, apparently here in japan, at the start of the new year, malls and shopping centers everywhere have this awesome sale where not only do they have lots of stuff at reduced prices, but they also sell Happy Bags! These are pretty much grab bags with random(but evenly distributed) goods in them and generally youll pay like half of what it would normally cost to buy all of the stuff in the bags.

So today while we were out we bought like $200 worth of stuff in bags, and didnt even know what was in the bags. I tell ya, it was FUN. We did get a few things that were so so, but we also got some awesome stuff too. One bag had several types of dishes/cookware, another had some clothes, and of course, we got an awesome Hello Kitty handbag that had a bunch of cool kids Hello Kitty stuff in it(Toothbrushes anyone?)

On to other things, we still dont have our house yet and we're staying at the Navy Lodge at the moment. However, the housing people have been on vacation since before xmas, and we have a lead on an empty house, so first thing monday, we may have a house(or at least a timeframe on when we can actually move in).

And then, when we get the house, im going down to the 100 yen store($1 store but way more awesome then the stores back home, you can actually buy stuff that is worth more then $1) and im making off with like 5 dump trucks worth of household goods to decorate our new home!

Im so excited!!!

anyway, till next time

Sayonara!

There are ups, and downs.

2008-12-22T22:49:00.001-08:00

So whenever one is transplanted from one part of the globe to the other, one is bound to run across new people, new plants, new animals, new germs.

I managed to get sick first and yesterday was the worst of the entire thing. Seriously, I felt like an oven on thanksgiving day, 400 degrees and going All....day....long. Sweat was pouring off me like a monsoon, it was that bad.

Eventually things got better, and now I only have a sore throat and cough, but of course, now everyone else is in the cooking stages.

Anwyays, other then being sick, things are good. We're next on the list for a townhouse here on base, so it's only a matter of time before we get one. whheee!

Till next time!

Konnichiwa!!

2008-12-18T00:48:00.001-08:00

So anyway, it took longer than expected for the next blog, but whatever, we're having fun. Just about every day this past week and a half we've been going outside of base and traveling around. Plus for this week we've been going to an orientation to the base and japan in general.

To say the least, it's been BUSY!

Now of course, all of you can see all of the pictures we post up at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jinxz0

but heres some of the better stuff.

Fist off, ive started to collect all of the cool stuff you can get at the vending ball machines. If you dont know what these are, basically it's a favorite past time of the japanese to collect toys that are sold out of these machines that release toys that are sealed in plastic balls, which of course you can take out and enjoy.

They also sell random cards and other silliness (swords, airplanes, boats, ninjas!)

And of course, we had to go to the mall and buy stuff for the kids. Behold! Japanese children's books!

And we also ran across some delicious animal crackers that have way more then our normal kind do, plus they provide spellings of the words in japanese and english!

Followed by random pictures of us and the room in the Navy Lodge!

And here we are in Tokyo with the Kirkbrides. BTW Cheese Ramen is DE-FRIGGIN-LICIOUS.

(note- that yellow bowl below is empty cause i ate it all ^.^ )

(outside of the ramen shop had this small window with random pigs in it)

And then! on the way back, we stopped by the 7/11(yes we have a 7/11 but think of about 70% of the stuff replaced with japanese stuff....sushi anyone?) and i found the coolest thing.

Final Fantasy Drinks!

Then we had our first storm, it wasnt that bad, but the view from the hotel was fantastic.

(Random cute picture inserted here!)

And then for today, we went out on a tour of the area close by the base, and also visited a shrine nearby.

(Here is a park right outside of base)

(and here is Meredith pointing to the building she will be working in, which btw is up Really, Reaaaally high)

and our fortunes! hehe

oh, and we also stopped and got some hangy things for our phones, which is a necessity here of course :-P

Anyways, that's all for now, theres some more pictures on the main picture site, so feel free to go browse. Im exhausted so I wont go into anything more at the moment, but I hope ive at least given you guys a glimpse into what it's like for us over here.

More to come another day!

Sayonara!

A short one today, I R Tired!

2008-12-13T03:52:00.001-08:00

So just about every day that we've been here in Japan, we've managed to go out and walk for at the very least 3 hours straight. Today we left at maybe 9am, and we didnt get back until 8pm. Crazy huh?

anyway, just a quick update for ya'll, we're doing fine, and it's so extremely fun out here that I have to say, even my huge expectations of japan were blown out by how cool it is here.

ZOMG WE'RE IN JAPAN!! JAPAN I TELL YOU!

2008-12-08T18:58:00.001-08:00

Ahh it's been a hectic few days, I dare say months, but we finally made it to japan. Let me start out with the flight and move onto more pleasant times.

The flight started out like any other, we go to the airport, get into line and wait along side the many other stressed out people and their mini-dogs in purses. Eventually we got through the line(or meredith did, i got to sit down and watch the kids and the animals, both of which were vying for my attention) and we had to wait for the security guys to walk the animals over to the special security gate so that homeland security could make sure we werent packing cocaine into our animals and then they waved us along to the normal security gate that everyone must pass. Then we went through the gate, which was amazingly short(we went straight to the metal detector) and went over to board the plane.

Now comes the fun part! So we get onto the plane, with me lifting two bags with my feet and rolling the other two bags behind me, we managed to get ourselves to the assigned seats, and then we sit there. Then we sit some more. And then some more! Finally the pilot announces that some douche decided to bring a random extra kid that wasn't scheduled to come on the trip with them(hey cousin Ronny! come to japan with us!) So we left like two hours later then we were supposed to, but we still managed to land in time to get to the kennel to drop off the dog and cat before we were stranded with them.

Anyway, we got into base and checked in and finally got settled.Since then we've gone off base about two times and have gone around base by walking with stroller(strollers sometimes) and by bike to check out the scenery and of course eat the local cuisine. By far this is the best place ive been on Earth. I think I will kick and scream when the time comes to leave this place but either way, ive got 3 years ahead of me. Anyway! on to the awesomeness.....Pictures!

This is right inside the courtyard of the Navy Lodge(our temporary home till we get our house) It's friggin awesome for the kids.

One of the vending machines in the building and of course, actors endorsing products!

Here's a small little thing they set up inside of the lodge.

And money!

Heres us!

And a sewer Cap!

Yours truly and a wonderful view from one of the MANY playgrounds around base

And how can you go wrong with an R2D2 mailbox!

Anyways, that's all for now, Sayonara!

Eddie's Brain Download

Neat stuff

Hey…this seems familiar……

Blogging again?

Halloween!

Insert coin(s) for witty and amazing title.

Strange, and yet so delicious

You have gained a level in, Cooking!

Sooooo tired

Dora the explorer…more like Dora the Thief!

My first big trip out without Meredith

Ahh I love memes.

Michael Jackson beat it today.

*Boggle* @ Dell

Soo Sad

Broke and strapped for cash?

Reverse OCD

oh snap, time travelin again!

OMG we had double twins!

Every so often, my crazy ideas, might possibly be right

The zombie Invasion is upon us!!

I will miss you!

When in the world is Carmen Sandiego?

You would be surprised at what leaks out of my head

Sad, Informative....and hilarious!

Hanami

The shenanigans of celebrities confuse and amuse us all.

I just don't where to begin

Unmitigated Cuteness.

Just another lazy day.

Nagano trip!

Out and about in the country!

Cute! Bento!

Wow Sham! Sham WoW?

Happy happy zoo time!

The Bird Empire Strikes Back

Making up for lost time.

Of Ninjas and Crazy people

aaannnd we're back

Hellos From The Ipod

HAPPY BAGS!

There are ups, and downs.

Konnichiwa!!

A short one today, I R Tired!

ZOMG WE'RE IN JAPAN!! JAPAN I TELL YOU!

Boggle @ Dell