time for a new story.
currently there is a typhoon approaching... rock on. as i hear it, the pacific isnt the nightmarish cesspool of weather and hate that the atlantic is, so maybe its nothing to worry about.
but i have lived the majority of my life in florida, so maybe im just jaded.
lots of wind so far. rained earlier, around lunch time. that didnt stop us from walking back to the lab eating icecream cones under our umbrellas. banana chocolate chip. win.
so, i finally got started with an electron microscope today. there was one particular sample that was very very interesting. and the rest... well, im getting paid to be here, so it must be worth it. round about 5 i decided to call it a day. brain was fried.
was able to borrow a bike from a fellow high priest at church. its not in the best shape, but it got me home. needs some work. work that i would be happy to do... if i could turn the rusted nuts. i need to find out how to ask for WD40 in japanese.

another couple of days...
so. much. walking. tho my sleep schedule is beginning to normalize, im still waking up at sunrise. ->5am
today, we got amanda packed up and off to the airport so she can make it home.

yesterday: Osaka Castle. freakin' awesome. the grounds we beautiful. the castle itself was smaller than i imagined, at least on the inside. but within there is a museum. with some old samurai armor and swords. i got a little concerned when i saw a man walking the grounds in red samurai armor. SR4 anyone?
lunch on the way home, and dinner at a cafe on campus. nothing amazing. also hit the campus book store.

wednesday. umeda sky building. a ferris wheel on top of an 9 story building. yodabashi umeda, a crazy electronics store. pics to come of all these things.

tuesday? crap. what even happened on tuesday? grocery shopping? recovery from soreness and being a bad tourist? sounds good.
i know on monday i officially got checked in. and we met up with my professor for a quick tour of campus and the surrounding area.
all in all, it seems that breakfast isnt a big deal around here.

so, sunday in osaka.
woke up too early. with nothing else to do, we decided to leave early. good thing we did because tho we thought we were on the right train. we happened to get on an express, which totally skipped the small stop we needed and went straight to the next major station... then, we got on a wrong train trying to get back. fortunately this gave us enough information that we were definitely able to sort out where we needed to be.
was very nice to run into some english speaking people at church and we even had one fellow, dan who offered to translate for us.
there were a set of sisters and a set of elders. 3 of the 4 were from the states. i had even served in elder wilde's stake in santa clara.
anyhow. we really had learned what we needed to about teh trains. because we made it back just fine. had a lazy sunday afternoon.
unfortunately, when the sun rises, i wake up. and it rises very early here, mostly because they dont use a daylight savings time, so good for them.

720am 7june2012
welcome to the ATL. land of "free internet"
so free im writing this up in notepad and will post it later.
got here without incident. back is okay. got an inflight movie on the next leg of the trip.
leaving for seatle in 50 minutes.
this probably wont be as interesting as it could be.
anticicpation led to a lack of sleep. the 'sunrise' from above the cloud level was pretty cool.
2 50 pound bags and a chock full carry on... hopefully enough for the 17.5 hours of air time and 2 months in a foreign land where i dont speak the language.

some other time. some other place. 

ive lost track completely. im in japan. the flight was crazy long. then on a train. then on foot in the rain. 

but im here. with my wife. 

and now that i am not in a vehicle, im going to crash.

more later.

gaming is a way to turn statistical probability into defeat.

-jane espenson

Avengers

As nerds are wont to do... i have put this new trailer to the test.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/marvel/avengers/

While I'm super excited, this movie will never be everything I want it to be.

The hype, in my mind, is epic. still, I'm Super Excited

Issues: contained entirely within the 49th second of the trailer is Cap hitting a punching bag.

The bag explodes before he punches it. And the reflection in the background doesnt match either. The left hand is open in the close up and closed in the wide angle.

In the 53rd second, we see Hawkeye's Bow. The mechanism is pretty awesome.

1:11 we see some sort of magic-weapon thing. blades, blue glowing bits. for 8 frames at 1:31 we see Loki using it to cause destruction.

1:21 Fury is firing some sort of rocket launcher. due to some weird timing it shows blast after he has shot it.

1:23 Hawkeye firing an arrow which lets loose before his fingers move.

I hate most of the costume changes. namely Cap and Thor. And I think Widow's hair looked better long as seen in Iron Man 2.

I love the use of NIN in the background. The wit is there. I really can't wait.

because someone told me to

and that person isn't even the one follower that i have.

went to 80s night at Eclipse for a friend's birthday after Friday Night Magic.

another friend asked me for my top 5 favorite musical artists of all time were...

apparently i am growing to hate these kinds of lists...

there is so much out there its so hard to pick. and the slow and ponderous answer i gave probably isnt actually correct.

stabbing westward, didnt have to think about this one at all.

nine inch nails, because well, its true

kmfdm... maybe... probably not. She Wants Revenge should go here.

Pop Will Eat Itself. this is closer than kmfdm, but once i get to this point, maybe MC chris would replace it

Voltaire. sure, ill stick with that

there are other top 5s. all of which i have the same amount of trouble listing.

favorite movies of all time

star wars

the princess bride

and here im already having trouble... Fight Club

Equilibrium

maybe the Avengers Franchise... i dont know if it will stand the test of time tho.

now i think i need a break from listing

in response, i asked my friend what his super power was. failed to respond. i win.