Sumimasen (Excuuuuuse me)

My sincerest apologies to the few disgruntled readers who have found my latest work to be a little heavier on the content and less on the pictures and shiny clicky things. Please note that it is not my fault if you sit at home all day and surf because you have: a) no job b) no life c) no love d) stuck work all day reading the internet e) all of the above f) any combination of the above.

We, the staff and editors of the World of Jedicraft, vow to continue delivering high quality entertainment and literary prose until our limbs go cold and our butt-checks have shriveled up like lemons. We promise to maintain our journalistic integrity in the face of unfair, biased criticism and endeavor to always put the people of our bold country, and their interests, first.


Wisdom of the Day: McDonald's diet coke is da bomb.

Tunnel Under Broadway

Okay, that tunnel is actually the R line, but to its credit, they are both long, underneath some tough terrain, and usually occupied by strange individuals who may or may not be transporting all sorts of illegal, unethical or tasty substances; especially the dude I saw last night.

The tunnel, found this week by US Immigration Officials, linked a warehouse near the Tijuana airport, a city known for Tequila and donkey-women love affairs, to another just outside the Californian city of Otay Mesa, which I know nothing about except what their website says: Otay Mesa, a community within the City of San Diego, located east of I-805 and South of Chula Vista, was developed as an industrial area in 1985 because of the creation of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. After seventeen years, Otay Mesa has become California's largest commercial land border port and one of the busiest commercial land border crossings in the United States. Otay Mesa is home to the first Dedicated Commuter Lane, an airport, large parcels of value priced industrial land and numerous economic development incentives programs such as the State Enterprise Zone and the Foreign Trade Zone, both designed to induce companies to locate in the region.

The tunnel was used for transporting both illegal immigrants and illegal narcotics into the US, but never at the same time due to the landlord’s, one Stanley Roper, policy on that sort of thing. Mr. Roper was already under investigation by California police for the unsanctioned rental of rooms to two women and one man simultaneously.

While nearly one kilometer in length, the tunnel is the longest ever found in this sort of situation, if you don’t count the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, the McDonald’s cross-country burger tunnel and the Christ of Jesus-Christ of Later Day Saints Get Up by Going Down Faithful Transportation System. Unlike these systems, the Mexican tunnel had a ventilation system, electricity, HBO-on-Demand and a cement lined floor. US Officials are uncertain as to the tunnel’s origin or length of use, they did release a statement: “We believe the tunnel to be in use for more than 3 days and suspect its primary users were probably South American in decent, possibly Spanish speaking, and wanted to enter the US in a clandestine manner, otherwise no comment.”

Wisdom of the Day: You have a greater chance of getting what you don’t expect rather than what you want.

Blackberry Blues

The BlackBerry: staple of the today’s business world and a necessity for companies like mine. We use it all day long, to interact inside the company itself, clients via email or phone and with our suppliers. Without it, our job would be a lot more, ummm.. interesting.

So, it goes without saying that the US Supreme Court’s refusal to review a major patent infringement ruling against maker Research In Motion Ltd, could spell major disaster for the business world if a federal judge goes ahead and files an injunction to block RIM’s business. Another words all BlackBerrys will need to be shut off.

And who is causing all this? Simple, a small company called NTP Inc, which produces nothing and instead sues other companies for patents it had bought ages ago and thus causes problems for everyone, is suing them for patent infringement, another words a patient troll or as I like to say the scumbags of the software industry.

This isn’t exactly new news, because they initial legal proceedings began in late 2002 when a jury in Richmond, Virginia (consider yourselves just another name for Florida) ruled in favor or NTP, thus the court ordered RIM to cease sales and operations of the BlackBerry line. The appeal that avoided this is nearly up.

What’s next? Well, businesses from New York to Switzerland to Australia are having panic attacks. The economic repercussions could be devastating to a variety of industries across the globe. May users are hoping that RIM, will settle (with a settlement possibly as large as $1,000,000,000 USD) and end this fiasco. Only time will tell.


Wisdom of the Day: Anything chocolate coated is acceptable in the South Beach diet.

Where's the door?

It’s open and poised to kick Takafumi Horie out into jail for a long time. For those of you who don’t know livedoor is a Tokyo based internet company that, like many internet companies, draws its revenue from mysterious places. Seriously, livedoor made the major international news, this week, when major allegations of securities and accounting fraud were brought against and some of the major players, including Horie, were arrested.

livedoor was originally founded as Livin’ on the Edge, a sort of internet consultancy by Horie and his friends while still in college. It later acquired a defunct ISP called livedoor and changed its name to reflect the merger.

Horie and his company made headlines last year when they tried a very non-Japanese style hostile takeover of Fuji Television, one of the largest media outlets in Japan. The takeover ultimately failed and left Horie, nicknamed Horiemon for his resemblance to cartoon character Doraemon, in a bad position. livedoor had been steadily growing due to mergers and acquisitions, they even tried to apply for their own baseball team in early 2004. Unlike American business, from where Horie probably learned his techniques, this sort of operating style doesn’t fly well in Japan. It ultimately turned into the company’s downfall when the allegations and raids on several livedoor locations, Horie's home, and the homes of other livedoor and subsidiary executives were made and investors rushed to dump livedoor stock which dropped to a 52 week low and caused such heavy simultaneous trading that the Tokyo Stock Exchange needed to be stopped to prevent a system crash.

What happens now? livedoor employs around 1000 employees in the fashionable Roppongi Hills district of Tokyo. It was a great stock in Japan until recently and the country’s premier internet companies with a number of international holdings. This could be the end of the company, and those people would be start to be updating their resumes. Horie, himself, is awaiting arraignment and has resigned as CEO.


Wisdom of the Day: All you need to make a subway trip into a vacation is three empty seats and a sufficiently fruity drink.

Where's the beef?

It’s still here apparently. After only a month break in the over two year Japanese ban on US beef imports, not to mention the cessation of the Yoshinoya Gyudon, which provides subsistence to at least 74.6% of Japan’s salarymen, high school students, Otakus and English teachers returning home from a late night of drinking, Japan resumed it’s ban after a small amount of cow spinal matter was found in a US beef export a few days ago, which is supposed to be removed to help prevent the spread of mad cow disease, or as the Japanese refer to it, a normal American personality.

While this news is excellent for the Australians, who use anti-American beef ads frequently to damage the already damaged reputation of American cows, who are the largest in the world and spend the most on their military (UMDI: United Moo Defense Initiative), who now can continue to supply Japan with a majority of it’s beef and still satisfy the other 25%. While this news has devastating effects on US meat producers, the Bush Administration is taking the brunt of the punishment. After a stellar two years with skyrocketing approval ratings, Bush found his numbers pullet on Friday as a result of the renewed ban.

While the range of opinion on this topic is nearly on par with whether Bert and Ernie are gay and if their union is now illegal under the new gay marriage bans, the universally accepted opinion is that is curtains for the Bush Adminstration. One commentator was quoted as: “While many people believed was ready to change the laws and stay for a third term in office, this beefy blow could mean the end of republican power for years to come.” A clone of John Malkovich, who was been unable to find work after starring in the critically acclaimed Being John Malkovich, also added: “Malkovich malkovich malkovich malkovich malkovich, malkovich malkovich, malkovich malkovich malkovich malkovich malkovich malkovich malkovich malkovich malkovich malkovich malkovich malkovich malkovich malkovich, malllllllllllllllllllllllllllkovich!”


Wisdom of the Day: When in doubt, go for Sukiya.

Ode to a Day in Bay Ridge

On a particularly lovely spring-like Saturday afternoon in January, Nicholas went for a walk and to run some errands in the little known and somewhat isolated town of Bay Ridge. Little did he know what an adventure he would find.


First a little about Bay Ridge: Once know as Yellow Hook (and currently as the ass-end of the R subway line), for the yellowish soil the original Dutch settlers observed. This name was changed in 1853 after yellow fever struck the area and residents realized what an ill fit it was given the circumstances. The new name was given due to the location of the neighborhood's location next to New York Bay (and the exquisitely clean Verrazano Narrows River), excellent views of which were visible from the ridge that has now become Ridge Boulevard. These views attracted wealthy people, who built extravagant summer homes along Shore Road overlooking the water, many of which are still standing today and worth well over one million dollars (or 100 billion cents). Once the 4th Avenue Subway (now the R line) was extended in 1915, however, many Manhattan workers looking for quieter surroundings began to flow in, transforming the area into a middle-class suburb (paraphrased from Wikipedia).

Nicholas roamed the broad streets and narrow alleys in search of a prize he knew deep down in his heart existed, but couldn’t force his mind to grasp with all his force. His suspicions were confirmed when he arrived at his first destination, the holy grail of all food of the area, Buon Gusto pizzeria. A savory array of foods awaited his pallet as he sat down in the company of his fellow Brooklynites, and their strange language, to enjoy the specialties of the house.

His journey then took him towards the sea to the cool crisp breezes and the loud exotic sounds of the bay’s wildlife, including the rarely seen cargo tanker. The breeze of the ocean filled his lungs while the mysterious language of the Arabic radio station filled his ears, coming from the youths riding in their horseless horse-drawn carriages. He wondered the area for a while collecting a few tokens of his trip, though identification proved difficult as shards from a torn pizza box and an express mail package seem to blend into each other with an ease rarely seen this side of the Fresh Kills relocation center.

The banks of the area provided him with ample time to check his new device, a Bluetooth headset, capable of allowing one to speak on one’s magically cell phone with having to hold anything and thus blurring the line between the chronically insane, chronically ill and the chronically addicted to their cell phones. With his pitiful savings secured for the long term, Nicholas journeyed to his next destination.

As the streets melded together to form a continuous path from the Uno to the Delta and onward to hachi-jeu-hachi, he was suddenly blinded by a light so intense that its source could be nothing manmade. He looked up an heard a voice speak in his mind from a distance so intolerably far that it’s absence pains the heart and bleeds the mind. For when Nicholas heard the voice’s words he knew the truth of his heart and the realization that tomorrow would be a better day, the solution to all his problems could be found near him and the mayonnaise and seaweed are truly the ultimate toppings to any pizza.

With this disturbing information filling his mind, he beat his chest and pulled at his hair, yet unable to yell out as he could not breathe. He looked up to see a rather large horseless horse-drawn carriage, sometimes used by the local militias, or residents with exceedingly small penises, drive straight for him and with a final pow, awake him from his slumber.


He looked out his window to realize that is home was here, in Osaka and that the spring-day of errands and computer work had been replaced by the profession of language instruction and his gracious Japanese hostesses. He was just the dream in the eye of the dreamer. Or was he?



Wisdom of the Day: Solve it and get a cookie.

Queens no Family Market

I would have never believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. I had always heard rumblings of such a thing, and even started to nickname the Broadway station area of Astoria as Shin-Nihon, but nothing could have prepared me for this.

These pictures are accurate: you are looking at the only Japanese convenience store in New York City. As you can see, Family Market is a sort of take off of FamilyMart, although the products are somewhat different. Family Market functions as sort of a small import shop for Japanese goods in the area for the homesick Japanese who live around there, and there are a lot.

When you walk in you are greeted with shouts of “irashaimase!” (welcome in Japanese) and will be hard pressed to move around with saying “sumimasen” (excuse me). The Japanese themselves fill the area much like the Coca-Cola in your bottle does. According to my friend, in her house, which holds six rentable rooms, there were only Japanese until about a month ago, and now 4 still remain. In addition, the streets, stores, and garbage scream Japanese, literally. My friend says you can hear drunken Japanese roaming the streets at night and I got a bag of Japanese potato chips stuck to my sneaker on the way home.

So what does this mean to you? Well, are you looking for Japanese TV shows on video (without subtitles of course), Japanese fashion magazines, beer or Calorie Mate? Then this is the place to be. Horny guys looking for Japanese girlfriends because they like anime or have an Asian fetish need not apply.


Wisdom of the Day: Sometimes you have to take the subway back a station to get ahead.

Who do I Owe Dinner to?

Over two months after my last official paycheck from Berlitz, I have finally received my new one. And it wasn’t disappointing. I have to say that even though it’s only been about 2 weeks or so with my new company, I am very happy. We definitely have the feeling of a small/start-up company. I get to where a few different heads, have to think on my feet and get to learn tons (and so far I haven’t burnt down any offices, always a plus). I’m getting to know just about everyone really well, a few better than others just because I interact with them more, but I’m pleased that everyone is really cool, no psychos (that’s for all my Unos friends), geeks or insanely bad looking people. The work itself isn’t bad, something I always wanted to do, but I realize that I will have to study more on my own in order to catch up because the company is just too busy to show me too much. That’s okay, ‘cause I like the challenge. Was there a point to all this? No, I just figured if I owe anyone money or a dinner, now is your chance to collect. Thus, if you miss this post you get shit. That’s the way it goes.

Anyway, I had something else to say today but I can’t remember so I will just leave you on today’s slice of enlightenment,


Wisdom of the Day: Fuckups are like snowflakes, no two are exactly alike.

Sign of the Coming Apocalypse

While it’s true that not all sequels suck and many turn out to be good, this, surely, has to be a sign that Disney has, officially, run out of ideas. While Aladdin: Return of Jaffar, Peter Pan: Return to Neverland, Cinderella 2, Sleeping Beauty 2 and the Jungle Book 2 (no, I’m linking them, tough shit!) were all awful: I still feel the need to point out that is will be bad. And I’ve decided to point out a few other disappointing sequels. Feel free to disagree at any time:

	Matrix Reloaded : Awesome trailers, great score, great fights and car chases, and one of the most convoluted stories this side of a Japanese anime. Does anyone know what the hell the Architect is talking about?
	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire : Yeah, okay, sure, I typed out the the full name. Why is it that every year or two, like an a Alzheimer's patient, I go to see the new one only to be disappointed again. And who the hell said it's acceptable for every movie to be four hours long these day?
	Aces: Iron Eagle III : So they just threw the story out the window completely? And why do they never name the enemy countries in these movies? Admittedly now it's not PC to say it was Iran or something like that, but in the 80s no one cared!
	Ghostbusters II : The magic was gone and kept going. Still, it was nice to Dr. Janosz Poha continue his acting career on Ally McBell (Ally My Love for all you Japanese writers). Still, the Walking Statue of Liberty was merely an amusing copy of the Marshmallow Man.
	Odorudaisosasen (Bayside Shakedown) The Movie 2 : Just wasn't funny. Not nearly as good as part one. Still, you can only appreciate either of them if you like Japanese movies.
	Rocky V : Stallone at the lowest of his acting career. This was so bad I wanted to vomit. I can't believe I paid money to see this. I'm sure the words exist for how awful this movie was. And I didn't even feel happy when the good guy pulls through in the end (did he, I can't remember anymore). This movie is kinda like massive head trama.
	Batman & Robin : George Clooney didn't ruin this, but he didn't help. The ice skating bad guys, nipples in the costumes, rearrange score from Batman Forever and Arnold Schwarzenegger make this one of the worst movies of all time, not only just a bad sequel.
	Any Star Wars movie made after The Empire Strikes Back (Teikoku no Gyakushu) : They all sucked, except for the effects. I officially award George Lucas the title of Ed Wood without a budget.
	Ocean's Twelve : Two words: This movie suckeeeeeeeeeed! What? That's three words? Sorry I was thinking on the same mentality level as the writers of this movie.
	Bambi 2: At least it wasn't called Fluff Tail's Return.

Wisdom of the Day: Don’t see any movie if it has a 2 in the title. Or a too, or a to. Okay, just ask me first.

Totally Floored

What an opening! Yes I know all the TV channels, magazines, websites, newspapers, etc. were screaming that the first 10 minutes of 24 season 5 would be the best ever, and they were great! I was completely blown away, had no idea what to expect and am now on the edge of my seat. I would like to say one thing.

The first 10 minutes of season 5 are great, only if you have seen the previous seasons. Otherwise they will mean little to you.Besides that, for me the only difference between seasons 1, 2, 3 and 4 and season 5 is that the other ones I could watch at my own pace, but with season 5 I can only watch one a week! The suspense will kill me!!! Rush and your DVDs, You suck!


Wisdom of the Day: Wait for the DVD, especially with Narnia...

Buy the Best

This post is more for my Japanese friends who read this site. It still might be interesting for the rest of you, but I dunno.

Anyway, as I have written before, Japan is huge on electronics. Besides being the biggest consumer market in the world, Japanese people are constantly buying electronics and upgrading what they have. While the majority of electronics bought and sold are Japanese in origin, I was always shocked to find a large number of iPods on the trains and busses and streets of Osaka.

In Japan you can find a few major store chains in every city: Yodobashi Camera, Sofmap, Joshin, Bic Camera, Midori Denki and Camera Naniwa to name a few. Despite their names, these stores do not focus on cameras, but rather a large variety of products. Well over here in the US, we have many as well, but today I visited and photographed Best Buy.

Best Buy is a sort of electronics super store. Inside you will find all manner of televisions, DVDs, CDs, video games, computer accessories and parts, digital cameras, MP3 players and accessories and much more. Best Buy is a really cool place, but is usually a zoo on a Sunday day. The only thing they are missing is the point system that is commonly used in Japan.

In this system, a store marks up items a little, but returns the cost in the form of points which can be redeemed for items in the store. Unlike the crappy American credit card companies which give you around $100 for every 75,000 points you spend (usually 1 point for every $1 spent), Yodobashi camera gave you 10% of your purchase back in points. Which means that after I spend about $1000 dollars I get $100: a clever way to keep customers in the store.

Still, Best Buy isn’t a bad place to get that DVD you have been looking for.


Wisdom of the Day: Rubbing fried chicken on our skin might give you good luck, but it will definitely give you acne.

Cross- Compatibility

Many of you know about this week’s major announcement at MacWorld. For the rest of you who are lost in space: Apple, breaking 20+ year relationship with IBM, announced the next generation of Macintosh computers will be run by the Intel Core Duo chip.

What does this mean? First of all, what is a Core Duo chip you ask? Basically, it’s a fancy name for a slight modification of the Pentium D line, but for all intensive purposes it’s a Dual-Core CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer) processor whose ancestors date back to the original Pentium line and further (Intel 386 anyone?).

Why is this special? Traditionally CISC chips have run the PC platform and Windows with it, while on the far end of the court, Macs and their Power PC line are RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer), the Mac OS being specially designed only to run on RISC CPUs.

I won’t enter the debate between the two processor design theories, although the loss of Mac means that RISC processors have lost most of their footing in the commercial market. While other applications still exist, mainly involving gaming and graphics, this turn of events could mean the end of IBM’s time in the CPU market.

Additionally, this decision has some profound impacts on the computer world. First, it increases the market share, and thus dominance of Intel and assures that AMD will stay in second place for a long time to come. Second, since Macs now run CISC chips, software that normally wouldn’t run on them might be more comfortable, making the Mac a bigger market. I could almost see the Mac clones making a come back.

Finally, since the Mac OS now runs on an Intel chip, which is rather similar to a Pentium D, the next logical idea would be that a Mac running a CISC CPU and a CISC version of the Mac OS could dual boot into Windows, and vice-versa. The idea is something that geeks have been dreaming about for ages. Will it happen officially? No. No doubt that Apple will try to lock it down, but I’m sure a group of hackers somewhere are waiting to get their hands on a new Mac Book Pro to try it out.

My predictions for the coming year: the Mac market share will finally make it into the double digits; a lot more viruses will now be Mac friendly; iTunes will finally stop trying to conquer my system; I will get a pony. Okay, kinda made the last one up.


Wisdom of the Day: Start everyday without an Egg McMuffin.

It's Friday the 13th

That's all I have to say!

I've come into possession of a map...

Obviously once you see the picture to the left of this you will know that this post has nothing to do with the new version of King Kong, which I thought was great by he way. Yes, for well over a year now I have been reading about the upcoming Transformers live action movie, directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg which is based on the original animated series from the mid to late 1980s.

Well today I got my first taste. This is an actual test clip from ILM. It’s not really any way associated with what will happen with the movie, it’s just a quick showing of a car changing into Sideswipe, and then walking a little.

While it’s not as cool as the dancing Scion transformer from last year (which was also rumored to be another ILM test for the movie), it shows a lot of potential and means that this movie might actually rock.

In the meantime you can listen to this and remember the good olde days.

Wisdom of the Day: All the things we love are coming out in movie form now because Hollywood truly has run out of ideas.

Technical Pandemic

Okay, so I’ve only been in this for two days now, but I have noticed an alarming, yet amusing, trend. Let me first say that every customer that I met was nice and cool and easy to get along with. They have all been friendly and cool and my working situation has been relatively stress-free (yes, I know only second day….) and I am really starting to enjoy it. Having said that, back to the pandemic:

1- Telling your tech about your comedical computer moments.

2- Asking your tech a lot of other questions about unrelated issues (ie: while installing a printer asking why the internet browser freezes and sometimes crashes when looking at Uh-oh.com – [WARNING! THIS LINK IS NOT, I REPEAT NOT SAFE FOR WORK; THAT MEANS YOU!])

3- When your tech is about 10 minutes from finishing a task (which may or may not be his/her last) adding a new task (tech is underneath a desk connecting something when you ask him/her to download Yahoo! Messenger (no!, I’m not linking it, tough shit!)


Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. This amuses me very much. And the best thing is, since my company bills by the hour and I’m never in a rush, it doesn’t effect me.

By the way: did I mention I got a job? I fix, build and setup computers and networks for a living, instead for everyone for an occasionally slice of pizza. Watch your mail for my bill. You know who I am!


Wisdom of the Day: It only hurts when you ask the same question for the seventh time.

A Question of Numbers

This is more of a question than a post. But last night in my drunken stupor I was told that there are around 60,000 Japanese people living in New York City? Is there any truth to this? I believe so.

To start the population of New York City is around 8 million people, so statistically speaking, any group of that size would easily get lost in the mix of peoples that make up NYC. Second of all, has anyone noticed how taken Americans are these days with Japanese culture? Midtown is filled with Japanese restaurants, bookstores, supermarkets, etc. Not to mention Dish in Bay Ridge (small joke, very small). Japanese movies are starting to be shown in limited release here. Japanimation is more popular than ever and you don’t have to go to Chinatown to buy bootleg videos anymore. A waiter last night even told me that St. Mark’s Place in the East Village is like Japanese Harlem. You need plenty of people to staff these places who speak Japanese for all the tourists and fellow Japanese residents who would come there.

Finally, I feel this is accurate because of the large number of Japanese I met in Osaka who thought that NYC was the greatest place in the world and couldn’t wait to go. They came here in droves and sometimes had trouble leaving. I think they want a little adventure, or like the freedom and opportunity (especially women) provided by American culture.

Anyone care to rebuff?


Wisdom of the Day: A sitcom is worth 33,120,000 words.

My Favorite J-Pop Stars (2)

Here’s a few I forgot:

	Melody: roughly mentioned in this previous post, Melody is a Hawaiian born Japanese pop singer who has become recently more famous for her coupling with Ryohei Yamamoto and M-FLO for the song Miss You . Speaks perfect English and her voice just captivates me...
	BOA : Actually a Korean pop star who can speak Japanese fluently and is well known and loved in Japan . Has had many hit singles and albums and done a number of compilations with M-FLO, Koda Kumi and others. Loves American Hip-Hop, R&B and can speak English very well.
	Ayumi Hamasaki – Best known Pop star in Japan and the spokesmodel for Panasonic for a long time, Ayu is the best know international Japanese popstar and probably has the highest number of fansites on the web. Her songs have been used in numerous commercials and ads and her singles always debut at #1. She's notorious for controlling her outfits used in live appearances, which usually start expensive tends throughout eastern Asia .
	Ayaka Kimura – originally part of a Hawaii based Japanese Pop band called Coconuts Musume , which has since disbanded since she is the only member, Ayaka now models, occasionally groups with other Musume bands and appears on TV with her Ayaka no Totsugeki Eikawa in which she gives the girls of Morning Musume surprise English lessons.
	Aiko – known for her cute and stylish look. Has a very high pitched voice, but has a few good songs. Had a huge single late last year and is expected to release a new album sometime in the coming year.
	Rika Ishikawa – formerly of Morning Musume , Rika now part of a J-Pop trio called v-u-den. Known for her great singing voice, very different from her high pitched whining voice.

Wisdom of the Day: Got Jet Lag? Get Nyquil!

My Favorite J-Pop Stars

My top picks. This is more of a “I have nothing to say post”, rather than a “I’m really horny” post.

	Tomiko Van – of the now disbanded Do As Infinity . Soon to start a solo career. Will you marry me?
	Koda Kumi – Very recently big pop singer. Did a Christina Aguilera (MSWord spell check had it! I'm floored!), going from cute and sweet to hot in sexy in one album . The belly dancing video has to be seen to be believed. Is also a spokeswoman for Christian Dior in Japan and known for the theme songs to Final Fantasy X-2 and the movie Cutie Honey .
	Utada Hikaru – Very cute, has a very wholesome image. Got married recently to the director of CASSHERN , who is about 11 years older than her. Amazing voice, but can't dance to save her life. In recent video she is doing one of her new English club songs and she just kinda bounces…
	Shinohara Ryoko – well known for a famous pop song in the 90s that was used as the theme to the original Street Fighter anime movie. Now a well known TV drama actress.
	Sheena Ringo – whose name can be spelled like 5 different ways, in a fairly popular J-Pop star you occasionally tours with Utada Hikaru in the US . Has been singing in bands since she was 15 and went solo four years later. Also, She was born with an illness in which the esophagus becomes more narrow as it gets closer to the stomach, resulting in many surgeries.
	hitomi – very attractive slim singer well known in Japan for a large number of successful singles including Candy Girl and Love 2000. Somewhat older for the J-Pop scene, being now 30, she's married to an advertising executive with twins. Came strongly into the limelight when rumors of her being a lesbian filled the Japanese papers alleging that she was in a secret relationship with another Japanese pop singer, Yoko Yamaguchi . Both hitomi and Yamaguchi have always denied the allegations, though jokingly. Commenting about it in a September 2005 interview, hitomi joked: "Of course Yoko and I were angry about it - who wouldn't? Instead of being called bisexuals, we were thought to be 'merely' lesbian!"- paraphrased from this article.

Wisdom of the Day: Take what you can get.

Happy Birthday Mike G!!!!

Happy Birthday Mike G!

I don’t have a picture of you, so sorry. Actually your present is being able to post on the blog today, but I’m still waiting on that. C’mon, I only told you yesterday! Expect some pictures from the party tonight.

Also today I went ringtone crazy since my phone can use MP3s as ringtones. My selection is also featured here:

BOA - Valenti
Do As Infinity - Hi no Ataru Sakamichi
The Clash of Lightsabers
RZA - Fatal
NIN - You Know What You Are
Rob D - Clubbed to Death
Koda Kumi - Selfish
50 Cent - High All the Time
Linkin Park and Jay-Z - Jigga What/Faint
Dimitri from Paris - Down to LoveTown
Offspring - the Noose


Any Requests?


Wisdom of the Day: No means no 93.7% of the time

Sayonara: Do As Infinity

Tonight, the World of Jedicraft goes slightly interactive with some music clips for you. The reason for this is to discuss one of my favorite Japanese bands: Do As Infinity. I just found out (I’m a little slow in the music news) that the band announced their breakup in the end of September last year (2005) and had their last concert at the Nippon Budokan in late November of the same year. Thus, it’s been a very emotional day...

Do As Infinity was formed in 1999 by Dai Nagao, a talented song writer who was writing under the AVEX Records label for some Japanese pop stars including Ayumi Hamasaki and hitomi, Nagao was given the opportunity to do something he always wanted to: form a rock band. Extensive auditioning brought in the awesome Ryo Owatari as guitarist and the beautiful (both in appearance and vocally) Tomiko Van for lead vocal.The group spent most of 1999 as most starting Japanese bands do, playing outdoor live, free concerts in popular areas of Tokyo, such as Shibuya, hot on the heels of their smash hit first single: Tangerine Dream.

The next years brought fame and popularity to the trio as their singles topped the charts all around Asian (especially Shinjitsu no Uta which was more popular in China than in Japan). Other big hits include: Hi no Ataru Sakamichi, SUMMER DAYS, Rauken, Boukenshatachi, Under the Sun/Under the Moon (two connected songs) and For the Future. Additionally some songs were used in other forms of media: anyone who watched Vampire Hunter D will recognize Tooku Made, InuYasha fans know Week!, rumble fish was used as the theme for the movie Kamen Gauken (Turtle University??), and their final single, TAO, was the theme in the game Tales of Legendia.

So what happened? Many believe Dai never fully committed to the band later on during its six year run. While he wrote 95% of the songs and helped to manage the band, his other responsibilities at AVEX frequently occupied his time; no example is truer than then the band played in here in NYC without him. By 2005, he had become less of a staple at concerts and live appearances.

The trio have now parted, their last song TAO, talks about saying goodbye to good friends, but all is not lost. Tomiko Van is starting a solo career, her first album is expected to be out in February, while Ryo Owatari has started a new band called Missile Innovation, also expected to debut around February. Dai continues to write many of the popular songs today in Japan. The band is finished, but still have an intensive following worldwide, including here in the US, where a quick google of the band’s name reveals a large number of fan sites and wannabe husbands of Tomiko Van. Tomiko Van! Okay, I needed to put in two more links! Sue me for providing you with more reading material!

Wisdom of the Day: Being socialable is tough; much easier to be a hermit.

The New Year

The New Year has started, although some claimed we needed to start a second later than normal to make up for the discrepancy between astronomical time and atomic time. Regardless, last night at my friend’s party we made a list of twelve wishes, twelve things we wish for or that we would do in the coming year, one for each month. Here’s my list:

1. Be Happier by this time next year (I figure it should continue).
2. Be in better shape by the time I’m 30.
3. Don’t be addicted to online games (although Orso, Keith and EveOnline are trying hard).
4. Improve my Japanese (no small task in NYC)
5. Improve my Programming Skills
6. Improve my OS/Software/Technical Skills
7. Get a job
8. Get an apartment
9. Reduce my cell phone bill
10. Get a Mac
11. Get married to Kyoko Hasegawa
12. Get some new ideas for next year.

And a very Happy New Year from Caliean. I figured I’d wish you all from him since he never updates his blog...

Wisdom of the Day: The Internet is great!