So far I have only been to one musical, that was “Mamma Mia” on Broadway NY in 2009. But yesterday I went to see Avenue Q at the Enmore Theatre. It was a great show, and I can say, I laughed so hard my cheeks were hurting. Before going in to watch the musical, I had no idea what it was about or anything, aside from a friends’s brief explanation that it has something to do with Sesame Street.
After watching I can give a brief plot summary. The story takes place in New York on, you guessed it, Avenue Q. We are shown the life of all the residents and a new collage graduate struggling to make ends meat. Even though they might seem like a regular bunch of people (and monsters), but they all have something that makes them special. Like Tod, who is gay (even though he doesn’t want to admit it) living together with Nicky, unemployed college graduate; Brian, the jewish ex-baker with an oriental wife - Christmas Eve; Trekkie, the monster, who … utilises the internet to its fullest potential; and others. What else makes them all special, is that they are all just a little bit racist, for now and of course, it sucks to be them, if they were gay.
And now I finally know where the some of the viral songs and memes come from. Overall great show, very happy Amy invited me to go. Her is a link for the playlist of songs, but I would highly recommend that you go watch it yourself if you can.
Ever since coming back from Japan, I have been upgrading my life. I got a new apartment, a whole lot of great furniture, new job (upgraded version of old job), new clothes, a 5k iMac, and now some more shiny new things. For years now I have been longing for batter typing experience - a mechanical keyboard. But since I was going to Japan and then in Japan, I could never really get one, cause they are heavy and bulky. Fast track to the beginning of the month. My WoW Cataclysm gaming mouse, which served me well for 5 years, has started to show signs of death, it may not be dead yet, but definitely breathing its last breaths, so I started searching for a worthy replacement.
The main criteria for a new mouse was that it must be wireless, and I mean wireless and dongleless. I wanted a Bluetooth mouse, that would not use any USB ports on my iMac, which only has 4 and they are all taken for my HDDs (and now new keyboard). It was hard to find a good quality mouse with more than the standard number of features which is also bluetooth. And during this search I started thinking. Maybe I could get a wired mouse and just plug it into a keyboard that has extra USB ports, that could solve my issues. So I looked into keyboards, and what do you know - DasKeyboard just released the Mac version of its new DasKeyboard 4. You can see what it looks like on the header image, and boy it looks pretty! That was an instant purchase. But hey, wait a minute, what about the mouse? And so the search continued…
Until I somehow found this little beauty: Logitech MX Master. It is Bluetooth, it feels just like my old WoW mouse, it has Mac supported gestures, and it even has a sideways track wheel (thats gonna be useful for photo editing - I thought). So I got it as a present for Lexi (he owed me a birthday present). Now my setup is complete.
DasKeyboard 4 for Mac Review:
The main feature of any mechanical keyboard is of course the clicky keys. I selected the cherry blue keys and I say for a fact, they are loud. But thats exactly what I wanted! They keys are smooth and the keyboard itself feels very sleek. Whats great are the dedicated OS X keys like brightness control, playback controls, sleep button, fn key and of course a great looking volume knob. The keyboard also has 2 USB 3 ports at the top, so thats great as all the other USB ports in my iMac are taken up by hard drives. DasKeyboards are rather pricy (+Australia Tax), but I do believe the it is worth it. I can see myself using this keyboard for a long time for writing assignments, writing code and of course gaming. The only negative aspect of it, is that the cable looks and feels cheap and doesn’t look as elegant with an iMac, but thats just aesthetics.
Logitech MX Master Review:
I am very happy with this mouse. It embeds everything I desired in a mouse for my iMac station - bluetooth, back and forward buttons and smooth scrolling. In the end though, I got so much more. The mouse has Mac gesture support which is activated by pressing the button under your thumb and drawing the mouse in one of the four directions. It has a very very nice scroll wheel, with 2 modes, slow and tactile, or fast and smooth. I switch between the 2 regularly depending on the task that I am preforming. The mouse also has the capabilities to work with up to 3 different computers, so I have already paired it with my iMac and MacBook Air. Charge wise, it has been a good week and I have yet to charge it once, so I am very pleased with that. One down side is that the bottom pads get scratched super easily. After a week of use, they look like I have used them non stop for 4 years. But since you don’t look at the bottom that often, I am not too worried about it.
Overall I am extremely pleased with my upgrades and looking forward to the new OS X software, new iOS software and perhaps even a new iPhone in September.
Ah the crystal clear azure sea, the white sand of the beach and the green trees, so beautiful, so tranquil - these are the Maldives.
Honestly after spending 7 days on the island all I can say is: its bliss. If you are in need a rest and have enough funds to back it up, I say go for it! It will be the time of your life. All you do is lie on the beach, eat delicious fruit and go snorkelling to see all the colourful fish down bellow. So bring your sunnies, snorkelling gear and a good camera (normal and underwater) cause you will see so many beautiful things that you will definitely want to keep these shots forever.
Now its time to get back to my normal life: work and uni here I come.
Welcome to another exciting episode of: ‘Vadim goes traveling around the world’. This time he is visiting the land of sand and oil - United Arab Emirates. What did our young traveler find in this distant Arabian land? Find out after the break.
Hope you liked that intro, anyway let me tell you about Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the desert. After arriving in Dubai, taking the metro to the city and checking into the Warwick hotel near the financial district, I had some time to stroll around the city while waiting for my parents arrival on a later flight. The city is big, like seriously huge, there is a 14 lane freeway in the middle of it for gods sake. It boggles my mind to event think that all of this was built in the last 20 years on top of sand and water. Dubai as a city is very rich and expensive, you can see luxurious cars and clothes everywhere. Honestly though, the price of some items is exactly the same as in Sydney (looking at tech prices).
When my parents arrived we went to the heart of the city - Dubai Mall. This place is like the campus of USyd filled with shops, stalls, boutiques, parlours, restaurants, and an aquarium. The mall is huge and has 1200 different shops. In the evening they have a beautiful fountain show. It goes from 6pm till 10pm every 30 minutes. I would highly recommend watching one or two of them as they are all different and very pretty.
We spent all of next day having fun and enjoying ourselves in the Aquaventure Waterpark at the Palm. Not only did we get to go on a bunch of rides and slides, but we also took part in the underwater fish viewing experience. They put on these white helmets onto us and gave us water tanks. There were a bunch of fish swimming all around us, so cool! My dad had a waterproof camera, so I had the opportunity to take a bunch of photos down there, and I even took a #underwaterSelfie.
Next day was spent 120km to the west of Dubai, in the capital of UAE - Abu Dhabi. There they have two main attractions: Ferrari World - a giant Ferrari themed park and the largest mosque in the country. In Ferrari world we had the opportunity to look at the history of the cars and racing, eat some good Italian food, and even ride on Ferrari powered go carts. Then we went to the grand mosque, which can hold up to 40,000 followers at a time. Its spacious and gorgeous. They have the worlds largest carpet and chandeliers by Swarovski.
And last but not least, we went on a safari in the sands. Ridin in Jeeps in the sand was pretty awesome. It was a bumpy ride, but at the end of it, we got to see the sunset, ride some camels, and drink some Arabian coffee.
T’was a great holiday, now the hard work begins. For then next 8 days My family and I will staying in a resort in the middle of the Indian Ocean on one of the islands of the Maldives.
Today Apple released updates for both their desktop and mobile operating systems. Please welcome OSX 10.10.3 and iOS 8.3. These new updates bring a lot of bug fixes, new emoji and most importantly the new Photos app for OS X and iCloud Photo Library. Now all my photos will be in sync, but I will still keep Lightroom for all the DSLR pics that I snap.
To celebrate, here is a photo of the sunset over Rhodes from a day ago. I’m of to bed, as tomorrow the iWatch is up for display at the Apple stores around Sydney and I must take a look at this new piece of technology!
This is an unedited photo captured on my iPhone 5s at 6pm on the 8th of April.
Стоп Хам (Stop a Douchebag) is a youth movement which fights against traffic rule violators and arrogance on the roads of Russia. They fight against people who park their cars in the middle of the road, sidewalks or even pedestrian crossings. They also fight against people who think they are the smartest and drive on the sidewalk to save time and go around a traffic jam. Why do they this? Well if its not them then who? Who is going to fix this mess that roads in Russia have become? There is a saying in Russian: “We only have 2 problems in this country: Idiots and Roads”.
What do they actually do?
They stand around on sidewalks and wait for cars to come at them. Sometimes they are met with smiles and laughter, but more often they are met with arrogance and violence. People in Russia (and other former USSR countries) don’t like following rules, they don’t like obeying simple traffic laws. Why? Well because they think that they are the smartest, that they can outsmart the herd of sheep that are blindly following rules, that they are above the law just because they have more money or power. Well these young guys and girls here to prove them wrong. They don’t take bribes (unlike the police), they won’t move because they are threatened, they won’t back down because this douchebag is in luxurious Mercedes car. Most of the time it goes well, they get to a resolution, but sometimes things get waaaay out of hand.
Here is their official (Russian) YouTube channel, which has over 374,000 subscribers, so I recommend you take a look and see just how amusing bad the situation is.
And here is an unofficial channel that adds English subtitles to the videos. So check it out and lets pray for their success.
Almost a year has passed since I left beautiful Sydney. And now I am back, back to a new year of uni, new job, new apartment in Rhodes! But at the same time I can now see all my good old friends, eat all the amazing food I have been missing out on, and spend 3 times more than I should on daily necessities! Yay for Sydney!
But seriously, I came back on the 17th of February, which is a month ago. I’ve been very busy with buying furniture (from IKEA), seeing friends, going to uni again and 20 hours of work a week. All I can say I am happy to be back, but at the same time I do miss certain things about Japan. Right now I am trying to hunt down a place where I can buy a simple bicycle for a decent price (not in the 1k range). Aside from that, the apartment is mostly furnished, just waiting on dining table and sofa.
My life is back on track, so I will end this small update post by saying that while life can be hard some times, and we have so little time to do all the things we want, its important to appreciate every little thing that has happened, and continue going forward!
Every year a bunch of snow sculptures are constructed in the Ōdōri park in Sapporo. This year is the 66th Sapporo snow festival and I had the opportunity to experience it first hand.
To start of, I would like to say that with big events like this, it is important to book hotels and flights early. I booked everything around the middle of November and that was apparently too late by Japanese standard. All the affordable hotels in Sapporo city were booked out, so the best I could find was a Toyoko Inn in the nearby city of Tomakomai, which is 1 hour away from Sapporo by train. But that was ok and well worth it in the end.
The main attraction was the giant Star Wars sculpture made by the Japanese defence force. It was made to celebrate the reboot of the Star Wars movies, with Episode VII coming out this year. There was a bunch of other amazing snow and ice sculptures which we got to see before some of them melted and were removed.
We also got to go to 2 special shops: the Snow Miku Shop and the Madoka Magika Shop. The Snow Miku shop had goods and a small museum dedicated to the history of Miku and especially in relation to the Snow Festival (there has been a new Snow Miku every year for the past 5 years). The Madoka shop had a whole lot of goods available, which can not be found in regular anime shops, so that was a very pleasant experience (my wallet is crying). There was also a restaurant that had Madoka themed drinks and a QB ice cream (he tasted like vanilla), so we couldn’t resist.
Lastly I went to the Sapporo Beer museum located a few subway stops and a short walk away from the main station. There they had exhibits on the history of breweries in Hokkaido and how beer was sold in Japan ever since the Meiji Restoration. At the end of the museum, there was a beer testing area, where we got 3 glasses of beer for 500¥ (~5$). After getting a bit drunk on good quality beer we went to the next door Japanese style BBQ restaurant and enjoyed the rest of our evening eating delicious meet.
And here is what you have all been waiting for, my beautiful photos:
My 10 months in Japan is almost over and it is time to pack up and fly back to Sydney. What can I say, it’s been a wild ride. A lot of events, celebrations, and great experiences overall. But now its time to say goodbye, time to leave Japan for a while, time to go back to my proper studies in UTS.
It’s a strange feeling. On one hand its sad to leave Japan and Kagoshima, as it is a nice place to live once you get used to all the quirks of the culture and social interactions. Then on the other hand, my mind is already in Sydney settling down in my new house in Rhodes, setting up my new iMac and just getting ready to go back to university.
There are a lot of things that will be greatly missed: like the fast and convenient trains; the ability to go anywhere by bike; the delicious, healthy and cheap food; the safety; the rejuvenating waters of the onsen; the fast and unlimited internet; and just life in general. But then again there are a lot of things that I have to look forward to, such as: variety in food, delicious meat, cheap and juicy fruit; the ability to pay with my credit card everywhere; not having to deal with stacks of paperwork every week; next semester of uni and new challenges.
Maybe because I can adapt to a new place easily, that I don’t really find much sadness and discomfort in leaving the old one behind. Maybe because I am always busy looking forward and thinking about my future, that I don’t have time to worry about the past, and regret not doing something better. To me the world is one whole thing, it doesn’t matter whether I am in Japan, Australia or Europe, wherever I am, I will call that place home. And one amazing piece of technology, the internet, helps enforce this idea of having a single home - the Earth. By staying connected I can be everywhere at once, I can live in any place in the world, yet be connected to the events and people somewhere entirely different.
I have already shipped 2 11kg boxes to Sydney, which cost me about 150$ and I am slowly starting to sell off my kitchen appliances and pack up my suitcase. In just 2 weeks, I will be back in Sydney, and will be remembering about the fun I had here, but always looking at the future, at the fun I will have in my life from now on.
Why am I wiring a post like this? Because of this: This Japanese Life Blog. I have read the book, I have read his blog, and his writing makes you reevaluate your life, your priorities and see that everything changes, you just need to change with it.
Set after the events of season 1 and 2 this movie brings a new arch to the Psycho Pass series with a new story while bringing back some familiar faces. If you haven’t watched seasons 1 and 2, there is little to no point of watching the movie as it revolves around established ideas and characters. Though season 2 was not as well accepted as the original, it is still worth watching as it hold some key plot points which are discussed in the movie.
For those who have seen the previous seasons, they will be pleased to hear the Gen Urubuchi is back in charge and he once again does a marvellous job of creating a new environment and portraying the characters in that setting. Before I continue any further, I would like to warn everyone that if you press “Read More” then you will be spoiled for seasons 1, 2 and parts of the movie.
CAUTION
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
First please take a look at the trailer for the movie as it sort of explains the setting and what is happening.
Story:
The premise is that there is this group of foreigners who make their way into Japan and are trying to overthrow Sybil. Why, because their country of Shambala (real world Cambodia) has recently started adopting the Sybil system and that has turned the country into a war zone, where the government is trying to eliminate all resistance.
After the foreign threat was eliminated and two of the infiltrators were caught, our beloved moe inspector Tsunemori Akane starts to interrogate them. However Sybil takes it one step further and just analyses the brain of one of the terrorists, thus killing him in the process. What they (yes Sybil is a they) found out is that the terrorists are from Shambala and that the war is becoming a very serious issue for the country and the continuation of adopting the Sybil system there. Furthermore Akane is shown a few images of Kougami, who is apparently helping the resistance with the fight against the government. To see if it was Kougami who was responsible for the attack on Japan, Akane requests to be sent to Shambala to research the situation and find Kougami.
Upon arrival she sees the brutality of the local forces towards the population and the poverty in which almost 90% of the people live in. Then she is welcomed by the leader of Shambala (who’s name I just can not remember) and the commander of the army AraraIzaya-Nicholas Wong. All I can say… he is a b*tch.
The city of Shambala Float is just like Japan, it is safe and everyone living there is protected by Sybil. Or it would seem that if it weren’t from the large number of people wearing these blue collars which indicate that they are Latent Criminals. These people are allowed to live in a normal society and earn points, which should help them decrease their Crime Coefficient and keep their Psycho Pass clear. Basically they are treated as slaves, while the “good” people can enjoy life in a perfect society. And then there is the rest of the country which is outside of the walls of Shambala Float, they are all labeled as unworthy and treated as scum not even worth of a Latent Criminal status.
Akane joins Wong-kun on their operation to take out some more rebels and thats when she finds him, Kougami. Disobeying orders and jumping into the fire, she finds him and runs off. Instantly labeled as a criminal by the Shambala army she escapes with Kougami to their base in Angkor Wat (I am serious, their base in the temple of Angkor Wat).
Without going too deep into the dialogue and everything, they talk things out and decide to overthrow the corrupt government together and stop the war. She returns to the capital, while Kougami gets captured and dragged to the capital. Final stand off on the roof didn’t go as planned. Poor Wong-kun is dead, along side with his whole army, thanks to the crew from Tokyo, they showed up right on time. Apparently the government modified the Crime Coefficient values of their whole army and made it so that they are within normal range (under 150), whereas the true values were way over 400. How they did that, I didn’t not quite get though.
Akane goes after the leader of shambala and has a long chat with him and Sybil. And Kougami takes care of the mercenaries who captured him and then runs off into the unknown.
Comments:
The most important thing I would like to mention is that because I watched it when it came out in Japan, I did not understand the important dialogues: the one in the plane with the sensei and Sybil, and the final showdown between Akane and the leader. Due to that I can not fully comment on how great it was, as I did not get it. But from what I could grasp, Akane’s logic is bulletproof and Sybil listened to her again.
The action though was gorgeous. That animation quality, that CG, truly worthy of Psycho Pass.
Many people wanted the movie to finish the story of Psycho Pass, but I can say that it was just another arch, but it established some new ideas and I believe it finished up Kougami’s role in the show and I doubt we will see him in any future Psycho Pass installment.
Overall it was a great experience, even though my knowledge of Japanese was not enough to fully understand it. Would watch again.
Also when watching a movie at a Japanese cinema, you get some free goodies. This time I got this small booklet with character designs, backgrounds and images of the weapons used.
We spent all of next day having fun and enjoying ourselves in the 
They stand around on sidewalks and wait for cars to come at them. Sometimes they are met with smiles and laughter, but more often they are met with arrogance and violence. People in Russia (and other former USSR countries) don’t like following rules, they don’t like obeying simple traffic laws. Why? Well because they think that they are the smartest, that they can outsmart the herd of sheep that are blindly following rules, that they are above the law just because they have more money or power. Well these young guys and girls here to prove them wrong. They don’t take bribes (unlike the police), they won’t move because they are threatened, they won’t back down because this douchebag is in luxurious Mercedes car. Most of the time it goes well, they get to a resolution, but sometimes things get waaaay out of hand.
