MistaSparkle

The Japanese govt. made such a stupid move by sending troops to Iraq.... even for non-combat purposes. Japan was well above this fray, but the idiots running this country asked for terror threats, and asked for something like the kidnappings when they got involved. They could've stayed out of this mess. STUPID STUPID STUPID!!!

In this day and age when we have military types boasting about surgical strikes and precision bombs, the US media does incredible damage to democracy by not showing, in graphic detail, the consequences of the war (and Im talking about US and Iraqi casualties). "Embedded" journalists are basically kept on a leash, and major news networks wont go near the gruesome truth so they wont upset their audience, whcih would lead to a loss of ratings/market-share and advertising. I have heard so many americans say... "We have the most precise weapons in the world. We can hit the hair on a camel from the

Adobe Premier is a great prog. Its a little bit more difficult to use than iMovie because it's targeted for more of a professional market, but it's not too tough to learn the basics. It's a $700(usd) prog, so I would recommend getting yourself a free bittorrent client here and then getting the torrent file for premier here

I'm pretty sure you can't watch PAL signals on a Japanese TV. I think you might be able to if you run a PAL signal through a pal/ntsc VCR which should automatically convert to NTSC... ...which means you wont have to worry abut being able to watch those european scat videos in PAL format on your NTSC tv.

NF - thanks for that heads up. I'm definitely going to give that a shot. I've been putting off replacing the battery for so long because of how stupidly expensive it is, but I've never heard of replacing the cells.... interesting. Will definitely look into that now.

I would steer clear of Sony VAIOs. I bought one a couple of years ago and there are a few things about it that really pissed me off. 1. Once you buy sony, you're locked into buying more of their crap. I had to pay 4500 yen for a piece of sh*t plastic adapter to use an external monitor. (a capability that was advertised, except that they leave out the detail that you need to buy an adapter) 2. You can't change the operating system. I tried loading an english version of XP into my machine, but after doing so I realized that all the drivers for things like the touchpad and function keys

Sending your credit card info online carries the same risk as passing your info over the phone. It's just another method of transaction. If a company is going to screw you over, it wont matter if you give them your number online or over the phone.

Went to an enkai last weekend, and after the booze had been flowing generously for a while, conversation moved into personal matters... Talking about gfs/bfs/spouses/etc... Now I don't remember the word used to describe it, but this one guy I work with is paying 100,000 in something like alimony to his ex-girlfriend (not wife, wasnt even engaged)! Someone else explained that in Japan, if you live with a girl for more than 3 years, regardless of your or her income, you are required to pay break-up money to support her!!! So, naturally, I asked if guys normally refuse or if lawyers get involved.

ok.... who are the 3. Anyone care to step forward?

danz: how did I already know before opening this thread that you would be the 1st or 2nd reply...

Im a fan of those movies too.... but that could be a whole other topic...

Which movie would that be? The new Zatoichi?

Quote: Originally posted by Ocean11: > had me slapping my forehead and rolling my eyes That actually sounds like quite an entertaining performance. Have you considered what you're going to do for the sequel? Well in true matrix fashion I would continue with sequels entailing monologues of half-baked philisophy and drawn out death scenes intertwined with hard forehead slapping and eye rolling.

I finally watched 3 last week... and it definitely had some badass scenes, but the rest of the movie had me slapping my forehead and rolling my eyes. 1st one was a great start, but the 2nd and 3rd parts are lessons in how to f-up a good story.

I don't know much about the xbox players subtitle support, but you can definitely download the separate subtitle files from the site I posted above.

The whole realty business in Japan is a big scam. Reikin aka "thank you money" is more like "FU money"... they charge you just because they can. And the security deposit is a total wash too. I left my last apartment absolutely spotless... cleaner than when I got it, and they charged me something like 3man in cleaning fees.

For those outside looking in on the US (and many from within), anyone besides Bush is an obvious choice. Unfortunately the Bush propaganda machine has 100 million dollars in campaign money to pump the population full of patriotic garbage... Roughly 45% of Americans are under the impression that Bush is good for the country... This is a scary time for the country indeed...

yea... you can either use a video player that supports subtitle files like BSPlayer or you can download something called VOBSub which is a video filter that will load a subtitle file when you play any video file of the same name. There are tons of sites out there for downloading subtitle files, but http://subs.2ya.com specializes in Japanese/asian films.

Watched a couple of Japanese movies recently... 壬生義士伝 (Mibu Gishiden)[ imdb ] - A samurai drama about the shinsengumi, which were the special personal guards of the shogun. Well done, good fight scenes, and not too much overacting (which most j-dramas are plagued by). The Japanese was too difficult for me to follow, but I was able to get english subtitles which were well written. and GO [ imdb ] - A movie about a Japan-born, half-north korean half-japanese high school kid (starring Kubozuka Yosuke), and the problems he faces and choices he has to make growing up in japan.

Got bond and ninja gaiden.... both awesome.

Quote: Originally posted by Ocean11: But I never chill out because I don't know what that is. obviously you haven't met my friend maryjane ...

Plucky, congrats man! Nothing better than that feeling of weight being lifted off your shoulders after leaving a job... Travelling cross-country should be an adventure. Good luck!

Quote: Originally posted by Ocean11: I read 'Shonen H' in translation - excellent. Title sounds interesting... who's the author? what's it about?

Quote: Originally posted by RayInJapan: All of that "Nader cost us the election" stuff from the demos is just crap! Just more stuff for them to whine about. Although Nader got a percentage of votes during the last election, there is no proof that his votes would have gone to demos instead. Agreed... The dems failed to appeal to the progressives, and they got exactly what they deserved, a big fat L. For a change they should take responsibility for the failure in 2000 instead of scapegoating Nader. ...and G-mon gives good advice... the more disgusted you are, the more you need to vote! L

Was riding in just a shirt at Asagai last weekend in balmy spring conditions... whole bunch of riders out there looking like fools with bandana covered faces.