I’m watching the 15th Anniversary special of “Count Down TV” right now. Starting in ‘93 and working its way through to the present, I’ve realised that my introduction to J-music was around the mid-90’s. Artists popular before around ‘96 are mostly unknown with acts from after that period more familiar. Thinking back, I’ve listed some artists I used to listen to… some are still around now. They’re not in any particular order:

Southern All Stars
Kiroro
Dragon Ash
Mr. Children
Glay
Utada Hikaru
Every Little Thing
Speed
Amuro Namie
WANDS
Hamasaki Amuro
Spitz
B’z
Globe
Kinki Kids
SMAP
L’arc~en~Ciel
Judy & Mary
T.M.Revolution
aiko
PUFFY
Shiina Ringo
Misia

I can’t really say the music was better back then but I think there were a lot more artists I liked than there is now. Maybe it’s just nostalgia or age…

Internet is a wonderful thing. After nearly 2 weeks of having no internet at home, I now do! After an hour or so of unsuccessful fiddling about with installation CDs and web-based admin pages, I decided to try a different telephone socket, and lo-and-behold, it connected pretty much instantly! Anyway, unfortunately I didn’t manage to get the Fibre Optic 100Mb connection as this building doesn’t have the optic cable installed. The 2nd best option was 47Mb ADSL. Ah well!

@Matt: yes you do still see tatami rooms in a lot of houses here but not so much apartment blocks. My guess is that it’s a lot more expensive than regular carpet or wooden floors.

I’ll be posting pics up of the place later – a virtual tour if you will.

Anyway, the news is filled with Lehman these days; everybody seems to be blaming them for the smallest down-turn in the financial markets. I wonder what’ll happen to the company come next week?

But yes, I’ll hopefully be updating this a lot more regularly now that I have non-restricted internet access outside of work!

I ran up a phone bill of close to Y50000 last month just from internet access, partly because I didn’t sign up to the unlimited data plan, which would have limited it to around a 10th of that.

but yeah… phone plans aren’t as cheap as they used to be.

I’ve signed up to twitter. I may or may not be using it during my trip to Peru

http://www.twitter.com/konfyujon

See you soon!

I’ve decided to restore the anonymous user as I believe that although there may be people that read my blog regularly, they may only continue to do so anonymously. The password is as before.

Though I do hope that many of you do register properly.

The anonymous user has now been deleted. Please register if you wish to read the friends-only entries.

気持ちってそう簡単に変えられないんだね。てか、今夜ちょっとこの気持ち卒業したいと思ってしまった。まじで、辛いもん。普通に乗り越えたいんだけどやっぱ酔ってる時ってホンネがでちゃうんだね。今、泣ける。切ない。寝た方が良いよね~。

My brother is in town this weekend; I think I’ve become more family oriented this year considering the dispersal of family members across the globe. I visit home a lot more often, partially because I’m roughly in the area after football matches I play on Saturday, and also because there’s been one occasion or another. Anyway, I’m missing this “halloween” party tonight that a couple of friends organised. Personally, I’m not a great fan of halloween and it’s over-commercialisation. I suppose it’s not just the commercialisation of it but I’m not gonna go into that right now.

I have an interview tomorrow afternoon; I have set aside the whole of today and possibly tomorrow morning to prepare for it. I haven’t had a face-to-face interview in a couple of years and I’m wondering whether I have lost that edge that is so essential in an interview. I know that this is only the first round and it should not be too difficult but it should not be taken lightly. I have this fear that despite my intelligence and problem solving skills, when I’m put on the spot I will crumble. I’m not saying I’m weak under pressure, on the contrary I think I deal with it pretty well. All I’m saying is that the types of questions that get asked in interviews revolve around fundamental concepts such as sorting algorithms and design patterns; these fundamentals I have barely considered in the past couple of years.

I seem to be full of negativity these days, not in terms of career prospects or course related stuff but generally in regards to certain aspects of my life. The thoughts that do cross my mind on these occasions are never good ones and I don’t see this ending any time soon. Despite all this negativity, I think things will turn out ok. I suppose that’s just one of my qualities – the ability to believe that in the end, it’ll all be ok; that sounds like optimism to me…

I feel I have more to say but I should focus on what should be done and what I need to do.

There’s a few things that can drive a man insane in this world; actually, there are many things but the one thing that is really not helping my sanity is the construction work going on nearby. At the moment, they are doing some piling work and throughout the day there’s a constant vibration of the drivers piling the ground, for the foundations I expect. Sometimes the vibration is big enough of things to shake but usually it is barely felt and that is the worst. It’s ok when things around you are vibrating noticeably but when you start questioning whether the ground is truly shaking or it’s just some strange thing happening with your body, it is a bit disturbing.

Anyway, that’s all for now I guess