Right now I'm cleaning my place and preparing everything I need before heading to Tokyo and meeting my friend, Kairyu. I'll probably be updating this blog more than usual since I'll have something interesting to write about for once. We'll be bouncing all around Japan with our trusty rail pass. Too bad I don't really know anyone living in Japan so we could meet and hang out, or have some sort of guide.

Expect plenty of pictures.

I found a kitsune lamp at one of the stores in the Sacramento mall yesterday and could not resist the urge to buy it. I needed a lamp there anyways for when I'm reading.

http://gamingforce.org/miles/lamp.jpg

Now to find a tanuki lamp for my work desk. :3

After a 2 month delay I'm officially meeting my internet friend, Kairyu, in Japan from August 11th (will be 12th when we get there) to the 22nd. That's right... tickets GET! Somehow all of his delays scored us cheaper tickets. Still need to reserve a hotel room for our stay in Tokyo where hopefully Kairyu won't blow all his money in the Pokemon center. There we'll get all the shopping and exploring out of the way before heading on the shinkansen to Osaka. My teacher also has a friend who lives in Tokyo that she'll call up and have meet with us if I want so we won't be totally lost. I'll ask her about that real soon. Osaka will serve as a central hub while we explore different temples in nearby towns and what not and experience Japanese culture and take billions of pictures.

In Osaka we'll be staying in a youth hostel. Maybe we can make some friends with Japanese college students in there. We'll see.

I'm so relieved! She, as an inside cat, managed to survive the construction, heat, and horrors of the outside world for a whole week. My friends spotted her outside from the balcony randomly while playing a board game. Apparently she found her way back home. Anyways, they all ran outside like maniacs and scared her off into one of the buildings that are still being worked on. So we all proceed to explore these with flashlights. After our failed attempt she showed up yet again and this time my friend rod managed to chase her into a bush and grab her.

She was pretty dirty and a little beat up. Both her front paws were cut and bleeding for who knows how long. She also has a fever and was shivering We took her to an emergency vet to have her checked out. She didn't need stitches and she's only sick with a fever. Otherwise she's fine. My friend Alexa helped me bathe her and now she's purring and happy to be back home. Poor cat. All this happened after 1AM.

So getting her a collar with her name and my phone number on it in case this ever happens again.

Somehow after the fourth of July party Patches turned up missing. I can't find her and she wasn't anywhere to be seen since that night. I'm beginning to think that maybe she somehow went outside as people were leaving and no one noticed. This seems unlikely though. She's terrified of the outside world.

I looked in every possible area of my home in case she got stuck again (she did get stuck under my couch one time) but it ended in failure. She doesn't have a collar but she is microchipped with my address data within it. I just hope someone picks her up so she doesn't starve.

I have no problems playing wii games like any other right-hander. Nunchuck in left hand and wiimote in right. However, when playing Okami on the wii I cannot do straight brush strokes for shit unless I switch the wii-mote into my left hand and do it. In a way I wish I could use the joystick in this version. I like the widescreen feature of this game. If only it existed in the ps2 version I would just go back and play that one again.

Oh well. I guess I just need to practice using the brush with my right hand. I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Studio Ghibli films:

http://www.gamingforce.org/miles/purchase.jpg

I also own Howl's Moving Castle and used to have Spirited Away (until my friend borrowed it). All of these are great movies though I'm a bit surprised at Disney for releasing Pom Poko here in the states. It has to be one of the most Japanese films I have ever seen. Most of the culture references would fly over everyone's head. And not only that, but all of it is uncut. Raccoons fighting with their testicles and there's even a porn magazine with visible boobs. How this got away with a PG rating, I don't know.

NSFW:
http://www.gamingforce.org/miles/pompoko.jpg

I still haven't watched Nausicaa yet. I'll watch it this weekend. I also wanna watch Kiki's Delivery Service as well.

Things I am working on over the summer and the future:

1. I am going back to college again. This time, a real college and not some private tech school. Unfortunately I have to start from the beginning since I don't have any real college credits. I'm going to work with computer science this time around. I need to learn some programming anyways.

2. Took my assessment exam and did alright in reading and writing. If I scored 2% higher on the grammar portion I could have avoided taking the essay. 96 required and I got a 94 which means I have to do it. I failed math pretty badly too since I haven't completed a math course since 2004. I swear, I took up to trig before and my scoring has placed me at a Pre-Algebra level. Damn it!

3. Still working on Japanese. Currently I am doing independent studies and showing up to the summer session a few times a week to help sensei out. I will take 411 and 412 starting this fall to complete year 2 of the Japanese language. I feel like I'm catching on so all this extra practice helps. I'll most likely minor in Japanese at this point.

4. I STILL NEED A ROOMMATE! I own this nice condo but need the roommate since I'll be cutting work hours for school. At this point I might have to consider a complete stranger. I don't like this idea that much though.

5. Going to Japan in August with Kairyu and Nightwatch (if he can come). Looking forward to putting my year worth of Japanese lessons to test. My friends keep telling me I'll probably bring back a Japanese woman. Haha! We'll see about that.


And then other random things:

1. Metal Gear Solid 4 is probably one of the most amazing next gen experience I've had thus far between my PS3 and 360. The visuals, the gameplay, the cutscenes. Everything about it was just amazing. The only thing that hurts this title would be the online mode. Very disappointing with only 5 maps and a few modes of play. We'll see how they expand it in the future. I'm most likely gonna do another play through soon.

2. Mario Kart Wii is fun too. I got a 2 star ranking on everything only four days after owning the game. Talk about dedication. I left off online with 8000VR. With all the cheating I stopped caring about raising my VR anymore. Now that I finished MGS4 I might go back and go for all 3 star rankings while pulling my tail out in the process.

I spent the last 2 days sick with today being the worst. I think I got sick off of someone from that party on Friday night. Today I have a fever and spent a majority of the day in bed. If I'm up and about for too long I get dizzy and nauseous. Plus I have a runny nose and a bad cough. It's kind of disappointing if you ask me. I might call in to work tomorrow if this keeps up.

I have made good progress in Pokemon. Down to two badges to go and I finally have my Lucario. I also spent some of my 600 dollars on a brand new DS Lite. I dig the smaller size and the clearer screen. It sucks I have to rebuild my friend lists in all my games though.

I finally got around to making one. Unfortunately it is taking awhile to add all the games I've played to it. I'm missing some in the consoles already covered there and I still have a ton more to go (Dreamcast, PS2, PS3, N64, gamecube, xbox, 360, wii). I'll add little by little as I have time. Anyways, y'all should make one too! =3

http://backloggery.com/main.php?user=kilometers

I bought the most random crap from Walmart today. What else does a guy have to do during an hour lunch break? Anwyays, I was walking around the store holding the following objects:

-An iron
-Ironing Board
-A weight Scale
-A Pokemon DVD: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew from the discount section

After playing so much Brawl I wanna get some back story on Lucario. This movie should do the trick, I think. Was tempted to buy a few DS games but I need to budget my spending.

I managed to snatch the game before the street date. The hard part was making it through the rest of the day at work without paying too much attention to the game box sitting on my desk. But now that I'm home it is so time to brawl the rest of the night away. <3 you Nintendo.

Nightwatch commissioned vaporotem and made one for me and I really dig those goggles. So awesome. His name is Kiro and he's the fox on the left.



http://vaporotem.deviantart.com/art/Cochibi-Nightwatch-76650614

So now that I have a character I'll have to have more of these done in the future. Thanks. :3

Why is she so fucking awesome. I got Shimogama sensei for our second semester of first year Japanese. And she was up to her usual goofyness. Like telling is "Oh, don't get the workbook. I make copies for you. Shhhhhh! If you don't have audio CD get the mp3s from your friends. I didn't tell you that though!" Then shortly after she started speaking in mostly Japanese and shoving work down our throats. She always keeps things fun and challenging. The students who didn't have her previously looked lost since they didn't expect her strict teaching style.

As hard on us as she is I still managed to get a 95% in her class the first semester. And I'm not exactly the best student. I think her drilling the language into our brains really helps us learn better. That, and me studying flashcards and doing homework during work hours.

So this girl I used to play PSO with like 6 years ago added me as a friend to her facebook. Now I haven't made any contact with her for that long and now she comes out of the blue and said that we used to journey through ragol together. But still, I thought it was kind of neat to talk to her again. Especially since we've both grown out of our teen years since then.

Now that I think about it I must have still been on her AIM list and she searched for facebook friends through there and found mine.

I've been having a bad week. Yesterday my car battery was failing. Couldn't get my car to start that morning and ended up 30 minutes late to work. After work I had to buy a replacement (bye bye 80 dollars) to prevent the problem again. Then I had to swap it out outside in the dark. Then I had to fight traffic and arrive 30 minutes late to class. Luckily my teacher let me do the quiz despite her rule that it can't be made up if you aren't present when it is handed out. And then I finally got home and crashed right away. Somehow during that time I lost my access card and didn't notice until this morning.

This morning I was franticly searching for the bloody thing but of course ran the risk of being late again. Couldn't find it, so I said hell with it and borrowed a visitor pass for the day. I figured after work I would have plenty of time to find it. And here I am now... no trace of it. This sucks. They don't like it when employees lose security cards. Even though we don't have our logo or anything on it they claim it's still a huge risk having someone gain unauthorized access with it. With my tardiness on top of the loss of my security card I can see this hurting my first year review next week.

Not too happy with myself right now...

( <3 )

I am so glad I have the next 2 days off from work.

Sorry about all the picture entries. I just don't have anything else to write about besides my Japanese class and work. =\

( Patches! )


A co-worker was taking care of her since she was a homeless kitten her daughter brought home. Since they already had a few cats this extra one was proving to be a handful. So she was trying to find someone at work who wanted to take her. Since my cat is home by herself 10-13 hours a DAY during the week I thought it would be fair to give her a playmate.

At first April didn't seem very happy. At first she was hissing constantly at patches as she was exploring the area. I rarely hear her hiss either. I guess she was trying to be protective of her territory. After following her around awhile they started chasing one another around and play fighting. Cutest thing ever. Patches is still so small and energetic that April is out of breath. I'm just glad they seem to be getting along.

Oh yeah, buy Ratchet and Clank Future if you own a PS3. Best platformer I've played in awhile. And the graphics are some of the best I've seen on the PS3.

This time it is of my home.

( Tons of pictures within )

And I do try to constantly keep everything nice and clean. My cat can be messy at times but nowhere near as bad as my old roommate.