november 2006

a couple of things this month:

i finally decided on a layout for the redesign of my homepage and figured out how to implement it. many thanks to chekov from lanfreun.de for his assisstance with php and css!

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then, i got some spam-mail which turned out to be some advertisment from a friend. brendan, former classmate in aijp at yamasa surprised us all with a book he wrote. the book, he says, is loosely based on his time in japan.

if you don't know brendan, here's a short (one-sighted) introduction on him. despite his tallness (190cm?) he features refreshing sarcasm, enthusiasm and enjoyable honesty. he truly was a high-light to have in class.
after my initial impression of him being a smart aleck i came to appreciate his sarcastic remarks, his talent to party and his refusal to give in to things japanese he didn't understand in class. whereas i would have faked understanding rigged with a wry smile he kept on saying "don't get it" until he got the explanation he wanted. keep on doing that!

as to his profession, probably due to a lack of real world skills he took on teaching english to kids in japan and after his return to new york and his continual lack of skills despite japanese (at which he got very good) and playing drums he probably had no other option left than to write a book.

i read the preview of his classic-to-be called "Memoirs of a Douchebag: John Box in Japan" and can only recommend it. it's sarcastic, funny and if you've been to japan you'll know what he's talking about. however, because i'm cheap i didn't buy a copy and that's where you come in. give him all your money because what's good for john box is good for everyone (but mostly john box).

here is the link to the lulu page where the book can be previewed and purchased:
http://www.lulu.com/content/455435

he also created a blog where he'll be posting entries once a week or once every two weeks.
http://johnboxjapan.blogspot.com

check it out!

nice going, brendan. keep on rocking!

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digicam replacement!

my first digicam was a canon ixus 300 (see pictures below) which i bought in 2000 if i remember correctly. 2.5 mega pixels was reaally nice back then and that camera travelled to a lot of places with me. sadly i accidentally dropped it a couple of times and needed a replacement.

after some research on sites like steves-digicams.com and dpreview.com i decided on a canon powershot s3 is (see pictures below). i'm still experimenting with the settings but this baby definitely has potential. advantages over the ixus 300 are: standard aaa battery format instead of a prorietary format, better zoom, image stabilisation and tons of options.

the outdoors pictures taken last week are really nice and capture the athmosphere much better than the ixus 300.
unfortunately, the case i bought together with the camera is sub-standard. no pockets for additional batteries or memory cards. guess i'll have to get a replacement soon.

(although i may sound like i'm hooked on canon cameras, their printers and printer driver software still suck >_<)

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