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General Meta

State of the Blog

Back when this blog was the most active, I liked to kick off the new year with a post that shared some of my intentions for the coming year. Although it included things I wanted to do with the blog, it went beyond that, and would lay out projects that I was hoping to make happen. As 2018 comes to an end, I’ve been feeling like it’s time to do something similar, focusing on this site.

As I’ve written before, after this site was on what amounted to “life support” for quite a few years, I started writing again regulary a couple of years ago. In part it was by merging my media consumption diary with this site (it used to live on Tumblr), and then it was by blogging about Japan-related happenings again. I eventually tired of the latter — it just wasn’t the same when not there, and made me miss my life in Japan more than anything else — so I stopped, and tried to focus on things that touched my current reality, i.e. being a game developer here in Montreal. I launched what was to be a weekly column called “Game Boy,” but as much as I enjoyed writing those posts, I started feeling like I needed to write something “proper” (meaning more thought out), and then I started procrastinating a bit, which led to no new posts. At the same time, my media consumption diary (called “Debaser“) started building a huge backlog, to a point where I just stopped updating it, other than adding the movies that make up my movie marathons (as I like collecting them in a post when I’m done said marathon).

What to do?

For the foreseeable future, I’m doing two main changes. First is that I’m no longer going to log all of my media viewings like in the past, and instead will just continue to write-up the movies I watch as part of my various marathons (or whatever content fits the bill, as I did for my October horror marathon). I’ll also keep doing my seasonal anime posts, which I started doing again last year (here are this year’s winter, spring, summer, and fall posts).

As for the rest, I’m going to combine my old blogging style — quickly written short posts — with my current gaming interests and life. I’ll still tag them in the “Game Boy” category, which will make them all easy to find.

I do still like the exercise of writing regularly — whether anyone is reading or not — and so I just want to find a way to do so that is interesting and fun for me, and doesn’t feel like something I need to do or that I’m behind on.

In the meantime, I invite you to check out my “Favorite Media” list for the year, an annual post I quite enjoy putting together, and that I’ve done for 9 years now (20102011201220132014201520162017, 2018).

Categories
General

PSFK on Future of Health

I’m a big fan of what Piers has been doing over the years at PSFK — both with the site, but also through the reports and talk events he organizes — and just wanted to give a heads-up to their latest project, a special report for Unicef on the future of health. As Piers tells it, it’s a “200 page report that not only describes the critical trends that are bringing healthcare to the many across the world but also has over 40 ideas for UNICEF based on the report from creative agencies like Wieden + Kennedy, Great Works, Cunning, Night Agency & Story Worldwide.”

Categories
Design General Stores TB.Movel

TGS

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The Traveling Gas Shop at Picasso 347 in Shibuya.

Update: As far as what is found at the shop, it doesn’t differ much from the stuff you’re used to seeing elsewhere from GAS (the books and DVDs, as well as tees), but the space is quite nice, especially the wall with their Shoppingbag display (pictured here). I actually really like the bag, and wouldn’t mind getting one, but find it a bit too pricey (around 3000 yen for the smaller version, and 4000 yen for the big one).

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General TB.Movel

Makoo

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Neat cubic puzzles from Japanese artists, also at Tower Records.

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General TB.Movel

Moleskines

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Moleskine exhibition at Tower Records in Shibuya. You can put some gloves on and leaf through them.

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General TB.Movel

Wearing 2002

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Dug up this old Muji tee from 2002 today which I haven’t in ages — an oldie but goodie. Also, I’m listening to latest The New Pornographers album, and loving it.

Categories
General TB.Movel

DCROSS

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At the Mitsubishi Electric-sponsored DCROSS cafe, near Maru Biru. I was going to go to the Dragonfly Cafe, but it didn’t look too inviting — very sparse, almost clinical, interior.

Update: I was really disappointed by that Dragonfly Cafe. I quite like the one in Aoyama, and often go there (and bring people along), and find it hard to believe that they would/could create a space that felt so uninspiring. More than anything, it just looks boring, and the layout gives it a cafeteria-like feel. Not to say that DCROSS is a great spot — it’s a bit too commercial for my liking with all the product ads everywhere — but I had a comfortable couch to sit on and relax after my long day of walking.

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General TB.Movel

Brutus at Maru Biru

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A Brutus taste-testing event at Maru Biru.

Update: They also had a counter where they were selling past issues of the magazine.

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General TB.Movel

Atelier Muji

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Atelier Muji is currently covering environmental issues.

Update: This picture was of course taken at the Yurakucho Muji, but my big Muji surprise for the day was when I got back to Ikebukuro and went to another Muji to buy something (a mixer) and saw a foreigner working at a register! She was blonde, and seemed to speak Japanese natively (I just heard from afar, I wasn’t at her register).

Categories
General TB.Movel

Tigers GameCube

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Oh my — a Hanshin Tigers GameCube!

Update: I spotted this at the Sofmap in Yurakucho (under the Muji store).