In With The New

Kenwood eXcelon DDX814. What's it do? There's not too much that it doesn't. Touchscreen display, Bluetooth support for your mobile w/ noise-canceling mic, iPod/iPhone direct control through the head unit, DVD playback, MPEG and DivX support, multiple USB inputs, navigation/satellite/HD radio ready, blah, blah, blah.











And of course, 2 Kicker CVR 12" subs in the back. I've already got Japanese people looking at me crazy.

Penny II Black/Copper

TOUGH. Nike is killing me with all these sick Penny II releases.

Rampage, Cro Cop Done

Weird week in the MMA world, as two of my favorite fighters, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic, have announced their respective resignations from the UFC. Rampage's case is especially disheartening because he's fighting at his peak right now. Aside from dropping a questionable decision to Forrest Griffin, Jackson has won all of his fights since coming to the UFC, including convincing victories over Chuck Liddell, Wanderlei Silva, and Dan Henderson. Rampage is slated to play B.A. Baracus (of Mr. T fame) in the new A-Team movie, and it looks like he'll be pursuing a career as a full-time actor. You know, he's one of my favorite fighters and I hate to see him go, but if he can make a living without giving and receiving concussions, then good for him. Just would have been nice to see that Evans fight before he threw in the towel.



With Mirko, the writing was on the wall. Everybody gets old sooner or later, and it was about time for Cro Cop to hang up the gloves. His UFC run will inevitably put a dent in his overall legacy, but MMA fans will remember how scary a striker he was in PRIDE.



"Right kick, hospital. Left kick, cemetery."

Out With The Old

Farewell old factory head unit...



...it wasn't anything that you did or didn't do, it was just time to move on.

Ridin' Around Town (With Nowhere To Go)

My initial plan was to not mess around with the factory head unit because it looks so clean with the wood dash, but I'm going to cave and get something with a few more bells and whistles.



...but more on that later. Got limo tint on the rear.



Pretty crazy how 5% pops off of pearl white. On the negative side, I can barely see a damn thing out the back when driving at night.

「オーッホッホッホッホ！!」

It's Monday morning over here in Japan, but the weekend's really just beginning thanks to "Silver Week." We've got until Wednesday off, which makes for a whopping 5-day break from work. Apparently, the next time Japan gets this particular string of holidays is in 2015 (thanks, wiki), so I guess I should feel pretty fortunate that I happened to be around this year. What's weird is that I'm usually out traveling during these extended weekends, and as a result, I haven't been entirely sure what to do with myself at home over the past couple of days. For what it's worth, I did get a substantial bit of shopping done today: laundry detergent, milk, beef, green onions, eggs, shampoo, orange juice, Frieza's chair, etc.





Yes, in one of those odd impulse purchases that I'll undoubtedly have to explain in vain to house guests in the future, I ended up buying a フリーザ chair for my iPod.

$MELL LIKE THE VAULT

STEP TWO~!

Simpler Times

For whatever reason, I was perusing my old xanga blog the other day, and it really took me back. Don't get me wrong, I honestly don't miss xanga in the least, but I do miss a lot of the banter that when on between the boys back then. Just for kicks, I've taken the liberty of reposting a bunch of the golden nuggets that made me chuckle. A lot of the stuff is even funnier when taken out of context (and of course there's anything that R says, which doesn't make sense in any context).

LOL what if one day we were just at taco bell eating then all of a sudden onofre got up and starting kicking some guys ass. i wouldnt even spill my fruit punch.
-mike

i almost ran over Julian Sensley. that guy needs to learn how to use the crosswalk.
-me

We should go on a road trip this summer with a 10 lb. bag of trail mix, cause trail mix is a DEADLY WEAPON. When the shit goes down, you just pull out the mix- nothing is quite as devastating as that yummy blend of NUTS and RAISINS.
-me (shortly after watching the bonus video on the Rufio EP)

lol look linus said he loves boys
-mike

man, go to france or something. yeah, i'm sure you could get the money some how. idk, do what seta did for the band in high school, sell m&ms and stuff.
-onofre

Needless to say, I kicked that envelope's ass.
-me

white people think japanese are only good with numbers and not words. what morans~
-mike

yeah, someone assumed I was chinese cuz I told her my name is Ono. wat a fucking bitch.
-onofre

i think i'll also try driving around naked like chance. that seems like a good time.
-me

why is mikes page rated 18 and over. I can't go to his site.
-linus

It's kinda funny that the recording that plays when you call up Boost Mobile customer care is a black dude's voice. I half expected a Ludacris song to start playing when I got put on hold.
-me

man, i'd punch chance if he made me miss senses fail.
-onofre

Ok...I've been wondering about this for a while, but do you have to be a shitty driver to become a Costco member?
-me

speaking of gay, i did see you and chance order tortillas in a spinach dip once.
-mike

i took four straight classes once. it was the worst decision of my life. my stomach went crazy by the fourth one.
-onofre

If I don't shave for a few days, I've noticed that I begin to look sort of like Adam Morrison.
-me

subwoofers are fun. so are robots.
-mike

woah...is that girl in the game...geez.....that skirt is pretty short....all she has to do is stretch or pick up a pencil or something and its over!
-onofre (upon seeing a picture of Rikku in FFX-2)

like this |____| close or like |__| close?
-mike

Not to say that I'm stupid necessarily...just stupid during exams.
-me

AM all nighters are ex post facto claims for calling justifiability to next-day exhaustion.
-mike

i told you not to watch that shitty ass movie. it was the "king kong" of 1998. but at least king kong starred naomi watts.
-mike

King Kong also had that entire bug-sequence with the fucking 12 foot centipede.
-onofre

I knocked the fuck out on my doorstep and I think Ashtray came by and ate my taco while I was sleeping.
-me

Hello Kitty toaster. HER FACE IS BRANDED ONTO THE FUCKING TOAST. It's the bomb, baby.
-me

die scum
-mike (upon learning that I was feeling sick)

You'd be surprised how many times I try to crawl into that plastic tunnel of the play pen like at Burger King and get stuck cuz I'm too big.
-J

apparently she hasn't divulged her sex life to you yet. believe me, i was scarred for life.
-cr8

the other day some random guy tried to hit me with an egg while i was walking home. he was in a car passing by and missed me by a couple of feet.
-linus

what a frickin' waste of protein
-cr8 (in response to above news of linus being assaulted by egg)

Fermp!
-R

bing!
-R

ill have to go with the no panties.
-R

Eat pizza!
-R

You need something more powerful. Like Shaka Zulu
-R

You like dags tommy?
Dags, you like dags?
Dags, tommy dags!
How'bout mi caraven
-R

let's form a study group... that involves medicinal marijuana, of course
-mike

I always see the phoenix on your xanga and just now I thought of charles barkley and his shoes. remember those? those were sooo nice. i never had a pair though, only my sister. I had instead my fucking smooth british knights.
-onofre

"I had instead my fucking smooth british knights." Such a sick quote. If I ever write a movie script, that bad boy is definitely going to be in it.

なす！！！

I can't help but love how country my school is. I can teach a class, come back to the teacher's office, play with the dog, buy some vegetables, then go and teach another class. I ended up buying some eggplants from the vegetable lady without really taking into account the fact that I had no idea how to prepare them. So I did the next logical thing:



In this case, "the next logical thing" entailed snapping some photos of the eggplants next to my Eggplants. Tomorrow: eggplant mabo tofu. I smell disaster.

FFXIII Release Date (JP)

2009.12.17



Just in time for Christmas. Still kicking around the idea of getting an HD setup just for this game.

Urban Assault Vehicle

Switchin' whips like kicks. Traded in the MKII for a Honda.



Just kidding. The Orthia is just a loaner for a few days while my car is at the spa. The thing handles like a tank, sounds like a helicopter, and is green to boot, so I think it officially qualifies as a UAV. Rolling around in a war wagon is an interesting change of pace, but I'm already missing my JZX.

New Flavors Of Penny III In Summer 2010

I think I'm good with my White/Royal pair, but those Eggplant ones are looking real nice. I guess someone has figured out that Eggplant looks good on pretty much anything with the Foamposite technology. I'd put money on Nike dropping an Eggplant 1/2 Cent sometime next year.





Some orange accents to go along with the purple would have made the shoe perfect. Guess this is as close to my dream of the Phoenix Suns Penny III as I'll get. Oh, and the red ones aren't bad either.