melonBlog

No Yuki! - yet
Well so far the snow has eluded me! there has been a few days when the snow has come to town but it's not a great season so far this year in Niseko... the official start date for the season keeps getting pushed back and now i'm not sure when the mountain will open... really i'm not that fussed as i will be here for a long time and there WILL be plenty of snow in the next few weeks... it's getting colder all the time but we keep getting unusally warm, sunny days... another sign of how messed up our weather patterns are becoming due to Greenhouse emissions?... all in all though i'm still having an excellent time, Studying Japanese, Drinking with the locals, and generally hanging out.

The pension i'm staying in Hang Loose is experiencing a few cancelations and date push backs so i've had a room to myself for the last 2 weeks (which is great)!

Last night we (me and a few guys from the pension) went to a wicked Onsen (Hot -Thermal- springs bath) up the mountain a way... it was excellent! I've applied for my Gaijin card (Alien Registration) and hopefully that will come through in the next week or so and then i can get a cell phone and my own internet connection... when that happens i'll be updating this Blog on a more regular basis and will start to post photos to my gallery section of the site.

Credit where credits due!
I'm going to have a little whinge here about the way things are run in the corporate world... I was asked by my former employer to develop an application in Flash that enabled a user to upload their photo to a NW (new weekly) magazine layout, and edit the headlines therefore personalising their own magazine cover.. they could then send the cover to a friend or enter a weekly competition. The appication has been running for almost a year now with many people using it. Here's the pisser... It just won an award in the recent Awwwards (web awards) for "most innovative use of technology"... I was stoked... but then i found out that i (and my employer) recieved NO CREDIT WHAT SO EVER!!... the credit went to an agency i had never heard of who apparenlty came up with the idea?? How annoying!

Internet Awwwards finalists announced
Create your own Moccona Mocha Duet Cover , Douwe Egberts by Carat Interactive (Douwe who?, Carat who?) this should read...

Create your own Moccona Mocha Duet Cover , ninemsn, Flash Developer: Me, Producers: Tonya Meadows, Emma McDonald, Technical Lead: Kylie Johnson.
Damn i'm pissed!

Whoppee Cushion
The Whoopee cushion has got to be the funniest invention ever known to man... Look i've had a couple alright but a friend has just cracked out a whoppee cushion! and no matter what sound he makes i cannot help but piss myself laughing... faces really help with the translation!

Arrived and loving it!
Well i'm here in Niseko and although there's not actually very much snow here yet and the mountain isn't open for another few weeks, im having a great time sampling the local cuisine and meeting with the locals... last night i went out to a "Cook your own Beef" restaurant and ate stuff i would never have imagined.. beef...beef toungue, heart, entrails, stomache... etc.. and i must say that it was all very delicious! oishkatta!

i've spent most of the last week just hanging out in the lodge im saying in and just relaxing.

The Snow... the snow started to fall last night and we had about 10cm overnight, apparently there's a large dump on it's way and due for the end of this week... it's been snowing a bit today, but nothing to write home about ;)
I'm going to head into the local town of Kutchan tommorow to try to organise my Gaijin card so i can get a cell phone and my own wireless internet connection...

would you like more bandwidth with your fries sir?
McDonalalds is starting to offer high speed wi-fi for wireless puters in selected stores...San Fran, NY, Seattle, Chicago, Milwaukee, Canada... it's a deal with toshiba and intel thats on a trial basis as certain meal deals... 'spose they gotta keep their customers McHappy some how...and i wouldn't be with food

Travelling...
Im in Korea at the moment just got in from a flight from Adeliade via Sydney....been flying for and waiting in lounges about 15 hours now... this is the last leg of my journey i am flying from Seoul Incheon Intl to sapporo in about 3.5 hours and the flight takes about 2 hours 35 min... then i'm at my destination! well after a 2 hour drive ;)
I must say Incheon airport is rather cool with these free internet terminals up in the KAL lounge...

Yuki cometh?
i got the board i was on about in an earlier post... ended up with a 164! hmm that is long, but i think it'll be fine for the powder from the peak, or even better.. Yotei san. although i've had my eye on the cam of late and there's not a lot happening... early days yet and i'll be there in 4 days! woohoo@yeehar.com

5Kb club
A friend of mine just kindly pointed out this site to me... it's got a lot of very small creative ideas on it, and just goes to show what you can do with a bit of imagination, it's been there for a long time but like many other cool things remains illusive in the mess.