Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Namflow's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, June 27th, 2009
11:12 pm	How I won a Starcraft 2 Beta Key (now with video!) I entered a contest over at www.starcraft2forum.org! The contest was simple enough, pick a category and make a video about starcraft 2. I entered the "Psi Report" category, which is "make a news report covering the launch of Starcraft 2." My video came in first place in that category!!! woo!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL78VEB0uYc Enjoy! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
7:39 pm	A typical Cardinals fan? So it turns out the other dude in my Japanese class is from, of all states, Arizona. After class this conversation took place. Him: Hey, who ended up winning that game? Me: fucking cardinals. Him: Oh wow cool. Me: Are you a fan? Him: Not really, but now that we're doing good... So the fans of the team that managed to beat us in our 5th NFC Championship game, they aren't even fans! He didn't even know the results of the game until he asked me DAYS later. Eagles fans are ALWAYS Eagles fans. Through the tough times, and through the good... errr, through the tough and the even tougher times. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, January 19th, 2009
8:21 pm	When the Eagle Cries It's a sad day when not every Philly team can play like the Phillies. :'( (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008
5:07 am	Fisheye Lense Software Let's say you buy a fisheye lense, which is used for taking 180degree pictures. Maybe you like taking pictures of scenery when you travel, maybe you are a camera / lens / tech junky, maybe you just need a 180 panorama view to accurately portray your massive cock. Anyways, when you attack your new lens to your camera and take a picture, the image that is saved looks like it is all circly, as if you are looking through the peephole of a door. Now, suppose your 180degree fisheye lense also comes with some software. It's free, but functional. What would you want this software to do? What is important to you? Discuss. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, July 11th, 2008
10:19 am	Someone tagged that mob... So I've been sending out a massage barrage of emails and phone calls in support of my 'Second Shot at Glory' campaign. One of the girls was an ex-student from Mikuni High School who graduated a few years back. So I sent her an email telling her I'd have a goodbye party in Mikuni and she should stop on by. Her response (sprinkled with cute icons) 'Hi Rich! Thanks for your email. So you're going to Kanazawa. That's sad... but congrats on the new job. It's a shame but I can't go to Sama Sama on the 19th. Now I have a baby in my stomach and my physical condition is bad. I think it'll be impossible to get outta here by the 19th. I'm on an IV... Sorry Rich. But I was happy you wrote me. Thank you! Goodnight! Sorry for replying so late at night.' Chalk another one up for the wonders of Japanese sex education. Real or not, that is now the best excuse I've ever heard from a chick for not wanting to hang out with me, beating out the previous champion: 'Sorry I can't make it tonight - I forgot it was my mom's birthday! So I'm eating dinner with my family.' I still haven't gotten the ultimate J-girl flake email, where she emails you pretending to be her own mom saying that she died. (this has happened to a friend of mine) Now *THAT* would be hillarious. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
2:02 pm	Goodbye Party, Second Shot At glory Went to the Sayonara ALT goodbye party and had fun. I ran into hyakunana (j-dude who used to live next to me named for his apartment number 107). Last I saw him he got hitched to his hot hot hot wife, and now he's a dad! I can't believe him being a father at all. I mean, this is the guy who came over to my apartment to borrow my computer to watch some porno his friend burnt him on a DVD because, as he put in English with a thick Japanese accent, 'I think many women ok. I think masterbation very very ok.' And this guy is a dad now!?! I also ran into Misu, a cute girl who I used to have a crush on. She was hot and had big boobs. Note I say 'was', cause now she isn't that hot, and either she was hiding her boobs or they disapperaed or something. I think it's a shame how the very few j-girls that actually have boobies sometimes try to hide them instead of putting them on display for everyone (like me.) Boob rant over, turns out Misu is getting married. Grats for her. I remember when I first met her she told me she didn't want to get married and she wanted to play around and have fun. Too bad I was a wimp and didn't get with her, and too bad it turns out she doesn't want to have fun anymore. I also saw Yumiko on Sunday, she is the 6000yen coke girl. It had been over a year since I saw her, and a few weeks after that she called me to say 'Hi Rich! I've got some news... I got a boyfriend!' I was pissed. I also wrote a haiku about her when I shaved my nuts and then she cancelled at the last minute. Anyways, she wasn't as hot as I remembered, and not that genki, but we had a fun time and she said she'd come up to visit. She also paid for my dinner, which is a step in the right direction to making up for her charging me 6000yen for a coke. When she comes up to see me I'll be sure to make it worth her wild. :) I also emailed Miho, a cute girl who used to be one of Rhen's students who worked at McDonalds in Mikuni. She was really super duper insanely cute. We never hooked up. :( But we'll be seeing eachother before I leave. One (last) shot at glory. And speaking at getting a second shot at glory, I went to the movie theater to see Speed Racer (which looked awesome! Crazy mad special effects and CG. Oh yea, there was also some plot about car racing or something...) And once I got my ticket I went outside and a girl came running after me. Turns out it was Emi, who I had gone on one date with to karaoke but she had a boyfriend so I didn't push things. Booooo, I know. Anyways she was mad keen and all touchy feely and looked really sad when I told her I was leaving soon. I said we gotta hang out, she said she was free Tuesday, so I said 'next Tuesday?' and she said 'Sure!' And then we hugged goodbye. w00t w00t next Tuesday, Emi is awesome cause she is really cute and bubbly and cute. So I dedicate my last month in Fukui to successfully taking a Second Shot At Glory. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
8:52 am	Consumer Beware! The Half Empty Cola of Doom! So last night I went to Korona world (the movie theater in LPa, Fukui City), watched a movie, and ordered one of their large colas for what was like 400 or 450yen. So the girl takes the 'L size' cup, puts it under the soda fountain, pushes the 'fill up L size cup' button and out comes my delicious frothy beverage of choice. Only thing is... the machine stopped filling my cup when it was clearly half empty. No, it wasn't half full, it was very clearly 100% half empty. So the worker girl there added some ice and the cup was maybe 70% full. I asked her if she could fill it up to the top. She said she hit the button to fill up a L sized cola and that it was preset amount of cola I got with my L sized cup. I told her my cup clearly wasn't full, and that I ordered a large cola because I wanted to drink a large quantity of cola, not a small quantity of cola in a large sized cup. Some guy working there offered me some explain I didn't really bother to try to understand. Something about the amount of cola you get in a L size cup is predetermined, and then they add ice, and it's the perfect mixture of ice and cola (with just the right amount of air at the top of the cup so your precious cola won't accidentally spill out) and that was the way it was. All attempts at logic such as 'I ordered a large cola because I saw the large cola up on display and I wanted to drink that much cola cause I'm a sugar loving American' didn't work. I also told them there was no point to ordering such a large cup if it wasn't full to the brim with awesome. For some reason they didn't agree... I guess the customer isn't always right here in Japan. My movie was about to start, and it seemed I wasn't getting through to the two 700yen per hour part time workers. I paid for my large cup that was 70% fill with a mixture of 50% cola and 50% ice and watched my movie. While my soda was not frothing to the brim with delicious flavored sugar water, my soul was frothing to the brim with RAGE. For the gaijin smash has failed, on so simple a task as to get a full cup of cola. So let this be a lesson to you young ALT, to not be fooled by the rather large cup on display at the consession stand at the movie theater. Do not think 'Horray, I have finally found an American sized soft drink in Japan!' For what awaits you inside your cup is not Pepsi or Coke, but lies, deceit, and empty promises of an unfulfilled dream. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 12th, 2008
2:45 pm	Akihabara Craziness So I'm sure you heard about the crazy dude who knifed a bunch of peeps in Akihabara. Guess where he brought the gun? At Fukui's main mall, LPa! (formerly known as Copa) There's a military supply store upstairs where I bought some handcuffs for my MILF Hunter halloween costume. Apparently they sell knives and stuff, and the dude came up from Shizuoka to buy knives for his rampage in Akihabara. I heard the police have been visiting the store a lot recently, and once everyone knows it was *that* store that the crazy dude bought his knives from, I wonder how much longer the store is gonna be in business? Total craziness to think the dude was up here in Fukui and bought his knives at that store. I know that store! Also sucks that Fukui is linked to this tragedy in this way. (Comment on this)
2:40 pm	crazy awesome kid So there's this one special kid who is now a 3nensei at Ota. He was a 1nensei when I firs tgot there and he was crazy and tried to run over other kids with his bike on bicycle training day, and once I was babysitting him in the nurses office and he started to take off all his clothes, and I think he bit me once. Other than that we get along fine! He's pretty smart, after English class he always calls me over to the other 'special' classroom and he wants to play the game we played during class. And then there's another special kid, who is kinda quiet and shy and always has a look on his face like he doesn't know what's going on. So crazy kid explains the game to shy kid and tries to get shy kid to play, but shy kid always walks away. It's really cute how crazy kid explains the game like he is the teacher. Maybe he's a lot smarter than I think? He gets what is going on, and understands most of the English we studied that day (no more or less than any of the other students.) (Comment on this)
Friday, May 23rd, 2008
3:01 pm	Kids <3 Metal Shirts You know all those awesome metal t-shirts from bands like Hammerfall and Rhapsody I wore during my college years? My elementary school kids LOVE them, the most popular being Rhapsody's 'Symphony of Enchanted Lands' t-shirt with a knight ridin a firebreathing dragon. They also love the Hammerfall T-shirt for the single 'I Want Out' with the knight bashing his way out of a prison cell and a rainbow outside. One awesome kid asked me how to say dragon in English. Then he asked for warrior, or knight, while pointing at the Warrior of Ice. Then he asked me to make him a replica Emerald Sword and bring it to school. Then he started striking crazy poses while making slashing motions. This very same 4th grader, who is super awesome, was spotted holding a girl's hand sitting together on the stairwell before English class. I was like go little dude!!! This is the same kid that taught me how to shoot a DBZ-style fireball by shouting KAMEHAMEHA. * * * Last week I was doing lessons on questions ie: 'Is it big?' - 'Yes it's big.' - 'No, it's small.' 'Is it fast?' - 'Yes, it's fast.' - 'No it's slow.' Like that. Things got a little tricky for adding animals and fruits 'Is it an animal?' - 'Yes it's an animal.' - 'No, it's a fruit.' That extra 'a' or 'an' in there can confuse the kids, or make them sound awesome. They accidentally started saying 'a' infront of all the adjectives. Ie: 'Is it cute?' - 'Yes, it's a-cute.' 'Is it heavy?' - 'Yes, it's a-heavy.' They sooooo totally sounded like Mario saying 'It's-a me, Mario!' It was so super cute I didn't want to correct then. (Comment on this)
Monday, May 19th, 2008
3:27 pm	tales from the elementary school land Today at the monthly morning assembly Watanabe Sensei mentioned the earthquake in China. He referred to China has a country really close, a neighbor, to Japan, which I thought was really nice. Sometimes there's tension between Japanese and Chinese peeps so it was cool hearing him talk about China in a friendly way. Then in my 3rd period 5th grade class while I was playing a game with the kids (the question game where you give them a worksheet and you eat pick an item and try to guess what the other person picked by asking 'Is it big?', 'Is it a fruit?', etc). Anyways I was sitting down playing with one of the kids and another one of the kids tried to take my wallet out of my back pocket. Little bugger tried to pickpocket me! I stopped him and then he asked what was in my back pocket. Maybe he was just curious as to what was in my pocket? Maybe he knew there was big money to be had and went to work? Even so, it was rather quite cute. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
8:30 am	Tax Holiday: Japanese Style With all the news about a tax holiday in America, I think they should do what Japan does. AT a few gas stations after you pump your own gas, you pay for it, and there is an electronic slot machine right on the pump. Match 3 symbols in a row and you get some money back. I could only imagine of one of the candidates tried to suggest they use THAT to help fix the gas problems in America. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
1:18 pm	Stop whining about gas prices It boggles the mind how the American news is making such a huge deal about having to pay $3.70 per gallon of gas. Do they have any idea how much gas costs elsewhere in the world? Gas here costs $5.72 a gallon. I hear Britian's gas prices are even worse. It's really hard to feel sorry for those peeps driving SUVs in America and have to pay over $100 to fill up the gas tank. For the love of god get a smaller car, you'll get better mileage AND it'll cost less to fill up. (Comment on this)
Monday, May 12th, 2008
2:12 pm	Purple Moose: Battle of the Bands Last night I went to a battle of the (cover) bands. Ok, it wasnt much of a battle, but it was fun. The concert was held at Chop in Fukui City. To get an idea what this venue is like, picture the very first venue in Guitar Heroes 1. That IS Chop. The first band was a bunch of high schoolers. They played the first opening song to Death Note so that made me happy. Then the guitarist broke a string. And the drummer dropped his drumstick. And it was DISASTEROUS. It's a good thing audiences here are soooo polite, the kids still got clapped and no one heckled them. Plus they were good sports about it anyway. They had their own fan club of jailbait in miniskirts and long stockings. As a (bad) joke the singer kept introducing the band over and over and over and talked way way way too much inbetween songs. Next up was a band with a chick singer who wore short shorts. <3 <3 <3. They were the magic mushrooms and they threw out mushroom sponges into the audience that were said to bestow whoever caught them Happiness. During one song she shot a pingpong ball into the audience, and in another song she took out a badminton racket and hit a sponge mushroom into the audience. Did I mention the singer was cute as hell and hot? Cause she was. The drummer was an old dude whow as a sushi chef so he wore his chef outfit to play the drums. It's as if each band had their own gimmick... Next up was a Nirvana cover band, misprinted in the phamphlet as Nirnana. They did a good job cause they didn't talk inbetween songs at all. I'm not sure if they even introduced themselves, they just played and played and played. I wish they saved Teen Spirit for the last song instead of in the middle, but it was cool. They added the guitar solo that is in the Guitar Heroes version, makes you wonder eh? Their drummer was cool cause he was fat and all sweaty and pounding the shit outta the drums. Well, I suppose that's what all drumers do, but he was super cool cause he was fat. Next up was another band with a chick singer. The first song was cool cause she sounded all spooky. Then she had a COSTUME CHANGE so I marked out hard. She was also really cute. The band was meh. Last up was Purple Moose, starring Karl as frontman. His two J-guitar dudes are awesome and marked out hard when they saw my Hammerfall t-shirt, and when I told them I loved Bodom, and shit like that. The band was only the two guitarists and Karl on vocals, so they had their computer do the drums, bass, and keyboards. Man, with all those arranging programs out there now, the oldschool way we used to do it in Everyone with Alex writing programs in C to talk with Cid the Synth seems really, really oldschool. Even so, it made me happy we weren't the only ones to use pre-recorded bass and drums. And even without a live drummer or bass player Purple Moose KICKED ASS. They destroyed the other bands. It was awesome. Karl can scream like a madman. He even had the frontman antics down, pounding the mic with the beat, looking all emo and shit cause that's the kind of screamo music they played. It was awesome. Makes me wish I was in a band again. Everyone playing keys, or even as a frontman. Not that I can sing really well, but I have the energy and charisma to be an awesome frontman. Maybe I'll start taking vocal lessons once I move to Kanazawa. (Comment on this)
Friday, May 9th, 2008
2:25 pm	The Golden Days of Mikuni High School A few weeks ago I got dinner with Miwa and a bunch of old teachers from Mikuni High School. The main reason for the dinner was cause Kizu Sensei was getting married so we all got together to write her a message. I wrote her a nice message despite Miwa's encouragement to write her a message along the lines of 'Hurry up and pop out lots of babies!' Miwa is 34 now and she's constantly looking for a husband. She goes to 2-3 konpas or goukons a week. Those are parties that are usually 3on3 group dates where the boys and the girls sit on opposite sides of the table, talk to eachother, and try to find their soulmate. I find it unbelieveable that a girl as beautiful as Miwa could go to soooo many of these things and not find a guy. She says the cheap ones cost 3000yen while the higher class ones (with higher class guys) cost over 10,000 yen. Dizam! She said she went to one and she was promised there would be lawyers, doctors, and other high paid peeps but the guys weren't actually in those professions and she was pissed off and all the guys could do was say 'I'm sorry.' Kizu Sensei is getting married to her boyfriend she's had forever now. They met in college up in Kanazawa I think, and now they are moving down to Osaka. I always thought of Kizu Sensei as Miwa's 'project.' Project being a new kid or an uncool kid in school that the cool kids try to fix up and make cool. Ie: Orly was always afraid that when cool kids tried to befriend her in high school they wanted to make her their project to fix up and be cool. She was just a little bit chubby so she had slightly bigger boobs than the average Japanese girl (ie: slightly bigger than nothing) so I'd always stare at her chest when she wore button shirts imagining this immense pressure on the buttons of her shirt to keep her boobs in place. Alas, there wasn't :'(. Next was Mura Sensei, a pretty cool English teacher. He hated the ALT 2 ALTs before me who got pissed at one of his classes and yelled at the kids 'I'm gonna kill you!' oppsie. One night at yakiniku Brendon put over all my teachers, including Mura Sensei, for being insanely funny, and even though Mura Sensei was a square compared to the rest of them he was still better than Brendon's teachers. Mura Sensei is married and his wife keeps popping out kids. He got sent to Karl's Junior High School from Mikuni and hates it cause it's too much work. Now he works with Galina. I also saw Hasegawa Sensei, one of my funniest JTE's from Mikuni. He taught me lots of dirty words in Japanese like 'sanbanmei no ashi' (your third leg) and stuff like that. He always joked about having many girlfriends (emphsis on the S) despite being married. It was good to see him although he couldn't stay for long. I saw one old teacher who used to be head of the staff room or something. Miwa made fun of him for not picking up her calls but picking up Hasegawa Sensei's calls. I liked him cause when I was at Mikuni he told me he forgot my predacessor's Ellie's name. That made me happy, but I also knew sometime in the future he would forget my name as well. And that he did, and he asked me my name. I remember him for always trying to talk with me in the bathroom while I was trying to piss at the urinal. He also brushed his teeth in the bathroom like I did. He has grey hair and glasses. There was also a quiet computer teacher there. I remembered him to be quiet from Mikuni High School and he hadn't changed. Fuji Sensei was also there. I thought she was really cute back when I was at Mikuni but now she's showing her age. She's the same age as Miwa, and just as single. She used to wear these red glasses that were really hot, but now she doesn't and one of her eyes looks bigger than the other one. It was good to see everyone again. I miss Mikuni High School. Mura Sensei put it best when he said all the teachers there also miss Mikuni High School, and that they've all scattered and gone their seperate ways. (bara bara baby!) He said they reminisced about the good old days of Mikuni High School... the Golden days of Mikuni High School. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
3:34 pm	How I won the Fukui ALT Poker Tourney So last Saturday was the annual Fukui ALT Poker Tournament, held for charity every year to send $$$ to send our girl Sopa through college. The first time I ever played Texas Hold'em (or any kind of poker for that matter) was a week before last year's tournament at ALT Poker School. I ended up winning a table there and thus my entrance into last year's tournament. However, I got eliminated fairly early on in the tournament. Fast forward to this year and I wish I could tell you I was a more experience and grizzled poker player, having a year of play under my belt. Nothing could be further from the truth – a weeks ago I couldn't even tell you what the hands were. But the big tournament was coming up and I was determined to win it. So I spent all of last week at school reading online poker strategies for Texas Hold'em, my free time at home watching YouTube Texas Hold'Em strategy videos. I knew if I simply familiarized myself with simple poker psychology I'd do a lot better. Understanding the theory, things like 'That dude is trying to steal the blinds' or 'This table is really loose, no more bluffing' would make me a much better player. So here's the few basic ideas I took into this tournament: - You can steal the blinds by being on the button and raising pre-flop. - Don't let anyone steal your blinds, since you're already invested you have a cheaper investment to see the flop. - If you are seeing a lot of showdowns the table is loose. - Play loose tables tightly, play tight tables aggressively. - Loose tables means less bluffing. - If you have a great hand you can check in hopes that someone else will raise. - You can fake a tell to trick people out. - Best position is to be on the button, worst position to the left of the big blind. - If you're in a bad position only play great hands. There's no reason to pay to see the flop on a crap hand in crap position. Patience grasshopper! Ok, now that I got the psychology down, I thought it would be a good idea to actually memorize the poker hands to know what beats what. After that I took my newfound poker skills to free FaceBook poker, which taught me patience and the true definition of a loose table. To complete my training I rented Rounders from Tsutaya for a meer 120 yen. I was ready to go! The annual Fukui Poker Tourney is 32 people divided between two preliminary rounds with two tables each. Each player starts with 3000 in chips. In the preliminary round if four people at my table were eliminated I'd move to the 2nd round. In the 2nd round if I survived 8 eliminations between the two tables I'd be in the final 8 and in the money. I started off aggressively, trying to steal blinds pre-flop and the like. However, the table was very loose and almost always went to the showdown. I noticed this and started to play a lot more conservatively. I also noticed other players' styles. For instance, a dude named Andy was a rock, playing only really good hands while the looser players battled amongst each other. Since the table was so loose it wasn't long before 4 people were eliminated and I had secured myself a place in the 2nd round. I had gone from 3000 to 5000 yen while Andy had got himself 15,000 or so. During the first round I perfected my poker face. I had sunglasses, I didn't talk during play, I didn't even pay attention. If I raised I'd just silently spread my chips out in front of me. If I folded I'd silently push my cards in. One of the girls at the table said I was like a statue. The only time I showed any emotion was when I won a huge pot, which caused me to smile and dance in my seat. Anyways, onto the second round, where I noticed players were playing a lot more conservatively. Only a few hands now went all the way to the showdown. I stole some blinds which made me happy. I stuck with my strategy and went from 5000 to 10000 in chips, then up to 20000. Players kept dropping out and before long I was in the finals. With 20,000 I started to hear people talking about me. Some people called me a mathematical genius; others called me a vertical clam. (Apparently vertical clam is a poker term for playing like a pussy) Andy, the 15,000 player from my first table, was eliminated by now. I later heard him say that during the first round he had folded many hands that turned out to be winners post-flop. So he said he paid to see a lot more flops and that cost him. Even though he missed some potentially big hands, he was also up to 15,000 at the end of the first round, and despite having a huge stack and a winning strategy he decided to change it around. Crazy huh? With only 8 players left and I was in the money. For each player to drop I'd be guaranteed more money. I kept playing my strategy since it was working. I played tight, tried to steal blinds if everyone up to me folded, and only saw my strong hands through. After all, I didn't need to personally eliminate everyone from the tournament, I just had to keep my stack high and survive until they eliminated each other - and eliminate each other they did. Of course I did play some hands, and at one point I went to the showdown on two hands I could have won but lost due to the kicker or something silly like that. I was down from 20,000 to about 10,000. Not ideal, but I was still going strong. And before long there were four. The final four - amazing for someone who had logged less than 6 hours of poker play in his life. Amazing, but not surprising – I belonged there. My chips were running around 10,000 with the blinds 1000 and 2000 a piece. Despite running low I knew I'd still pull through. My strategy got me this far and I'd stick with it to the end. With only 4 people left my strategy was to see the flop if I was big or small blind and to be willing to throw that away instead of pushing a crap hand post-flop. If I had a crap hand in a non-blind position I'd just throw it away, cause at this point no one is going out without a showdown – I might as well have a great hand going into that showdown. The player to my left didn't share my conservative play style; he had gone all in on 3 or 4 of the last hands. The rest of us were playing conservatively so he was stealing a lot of the pots. He had been drinking and I remembered reading online how, statistically, you won't be getting three awesome hands in a row. I was running out of chips and didn't want to be eaten alive by the blinds so when I got a pair of pocket Jacks I knew it was time to make my stand. After the flop he went all in, I called him. On the flop he got a king to pair up with his pocket king, thus giving him a hand that was beating mine. All that could save me now was another jack. The 4th card was garbage so it was down to the river. And guess what the river washed up? My 3rd jack! I shook his hand as he left talking about how much fun he had, how glad he was to make it to the tourney, how nice it was to see all his friends, and how he had no regrets. It reminds me of that line from The Rock: 'Your "best"!?! Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen.' Now there were three of us left, the dude across the table had a decent stack and the other dude was running low. I continued to play it safe, playing to at least the flop when I was a blind, but throwing it away if it was garbage. One hand when I was the big blind I got pocket 10s. Awesome. The flop brought me another 10, which was great! The other guy with a big stack was still in this round and it was time for me to sucker him in. All those rounds of playing pussy paid off – I checked to him and he raised. Of course I called him. 4th card brought nothing so I gave a quick sigh as a fake tell while laying out 5,000 in front of me. He raised, I called it. The river brought me my 4th fucking 10. No time to pussyfoot around, the dude had invested this far, it was time to go for it. ALL IN. He didn't even think before calling me. My poker face turned into a smile. A huge fucking smile. I lifted up my shades and threw down my 10s. Turns out he had a straight or a flush or some other hand he thought was good but lost to four 10s. I started dancing in my chair and shouting out 'Bitch! Bitch!!! hahahahah' as I took in all his chips. I had so many chips I needed Chris Redd to help me sort them all out. So the only thing that stood between me and 1st place was an awesome ALT who is the only ALT in the prefecture who is my senpai. He had a fraction of my stack and would be eaten alive by the blinds in minutes. Thankfully it didn't even last that long, he went all in on his first hand in 1on1 combat. Unfortunately for him I had pocket Queens, with another queen on the flop. Three queens won me the tournament. At this point I shook his hand then started dancing like a maniac and jumping up and down. I can hold my poker face until I win and then I go ape shit. I started smacking the air as they do at the end of The Bloodhound Gang's 'The Bad Touch' music video. I kept jumping in place. I won!!! Now, getting 26000 yen on a 3000yen bet is awesome, but even better than that was the feeling of besting my fellow man. I'm very competitive and the fact that I beat so many people, especially the ALTs who are regular poker players, was awesome. Guys shaking my hand, girls hugging me, all cause I'm that damn awesome. Special thanks to John for his support and for sitting through the whole tournament. (Actually, he left halfway through the 2nd round to go pickup girls at the local supermarket and Aoki) I had told him before hand that it could go late and that he'd have to wait until I beat everyone. I don't think he believed me :). Also special thanks to Chris Redd for the support and helping me organize my chips at the end. I believe my victory came through for a variety of reasons. First off, I'm awesome, I knew I was gonna win, I talked trash like I was gonna win, and I played like I was gonna win. Second, I had a working strategy and stuck with it, even when my chips were down – I knew they'd be up again. Third, I was patient. It was a long ass tourney, starting at 10:30am and ending at 10:30pm. Some people got drunk, others bet haphazardly to get it over with. I celebrated my victory over a bowl of piping hot, delicious ramen. The Hokuriku Winter was still in full effect, ice on the roads, wind almost blowing my car into a rice field, so Harland and I decided it would be best to head home than drive around in the snowstorm. (Comment on this)
Friday, March 14th, 2008
10:57 am	3/14: Happy Pi Day! 3.141 baby!!! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
2:10 pm	How to own a Pub with 100 yen So there's this chain of British Pubs called Hub here in Japan. Always full of gaijin. Last weekend I went to Osaka and went to a hub with Harland, Karyu, and some dude named Greg. It was full of people and we had trouble finding a seat. So I went over to the online jukebox and searched for a song. Nothing but crap, crap, more crap... and Judas Priest! I wanted to get the maximum amount of metal for one 100 yen coin, thus picked the one and only Painkiller for 6:06 worth of dueling guitar solos, screeching Halford vocals, and pure metal. I was the only person in the bar to be happy when the song came on. Everyone else got a disturbed, unsettled look on their face. Some were holdin their ears. People began to leave. By the time the song was over over half the hub had emptied out, never to return. I laughed, as my 100 yen summed forth the Painkiller and he erridacated the scum from the Hub. Try it next time and see how many people leave before the song is over. Even if they lower the volume (twice!) it won't do any good. Why? HE..... IS... THE PAIN KILLER THIS... IS... THE PAIN KILLER PAIN... KILLER... PAIN... KILLLER that's why :) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
3:57 pm	English Camp Sup sup sup I had a really fun English camp all day at the Asahi Junior High School. It's been quite a long time since I've done one (mainly cause I'm a 5th year and use my seniority to sneak out of such commitments). But it was a really awesome camp, quite a difference from my first English camp here in the sweltering hot mountain camp where I first listened to, and loved to hate, the song Hello Goodbye. This camp was fun cause the kids were all energetic. I was in charge of team 5. There were four kids and they were cool. It was my goal to lead them to victory over all the other ALTs and their groups. The kids did a kickass job of introducing me to the class cause I brought in awesome items for everyone. I also organized the kids in a great order, girl boy girl boy, with the quiet girl speaking 3rd so the first and last impressions of my group were that they were all loud. The first girl introduced my stuffed animal which looks a lot like Maggie and she told them how when I see my stuffed animal it reminds me of Maggie back home. Next was a dude who showed them all a pic of me and alex, asking the crowd 'Which is Rich?' and getting them to answer. Next was the quiet girl who introduced my favorite tie, the ice cream tie. She even put on the tie once she was done which got a laugh. Finally, the cool dude showed them all my favorite Eagles plush football. He said 'Rich loves the Philadelphia Eagles, but they always lose. So Rich is very sad every day.' Then he said 'The Eagles pass like this!' as he motioned to throw the ball but accidentally dropped it behind his back. :) Next my kids kicked ass for our skit, which was to talk about the differences in a Japanese restaurant and American restaurant. The key differences were: - No Tip - Pay at the cash register, not the table - Use the service button to call the waiter - No exchanging $$$ hand to hand So I was cool and let my kids star in the skit all by themselves. In all the other skits the ALTs got involved but I thought it would be too easy for me to get laughs pretending to be the dumb gaijin while the kids correct my foreign ways. Instead, my main man Yuya decided to be the America. He started off the skit 'My name is John! I'm AMERICAN!!!' with bigass guestures. Then him and a girl were hungry and went to a restaurant. They got their menues but the waiter was slow, so the girl told him to hit the button and then the waiter came around. That got laughs. Then they orered, said 'Let's eat!', ate, then said 'Thank you!' while looking up to the heavens with their hands together. No 'itadakimasu' or 'gochisousamadeshita' in MY English skit! (err... I mean... my students skit) Next the dude tried to pay at the table but the waiter told him to pay at the cash register. At the cash register the quiet girl refused his money he went to hand her, telling him 'No! Put the money in the trey.' Then she asked what the extra $$$ was and he said it was a tip. His friend told him there was no tip in Japan, so my man Johnny took back the tip, looked at the audience, and proudly explained 'I love Japan!' hahaha it was PERFECT! Johnny ended up taking the reward for best actor, and I'd like to think he took my gaijin genkiness and personified it in his roll. My team didn't end up winning best skit (that went to another team where the ALT was star of the skit instead of the students), but we kicked ass. Our team also came in last place for points despite all my attempts to help them cheat to win. The most brilliant of which was telling them, while playing a boggle type game, to add 's' to the end of every word to get two words for the price of one. I'm willing to play dirty, but not as dirty as the other ALTs. Damn them!!! Then I went to sukiya, got the taco rice there (which is GREAT), some tonjiru, then went home and passed out at 6:00pm, sleeping till 8:00am the next day. I sure am glad I had the sense to wake up at some point and set my alarm. You'd think that falling asleep at 6:00pm would ensure you'd never oversleep for work, but then you don't know me! (Comment on this)
Friday, February 22nd, 2008
3:44 pm	awesome job interview, snow So last weekend I went up to Kanazawa to see Jon and have an interview at his company called D-link. It wasn't so much of an interview but having his boss take the both of us out to an expensive restaurant, eating a delicious steak dinner, and having two bottles of expensive wine. The boss dude really liked me, and at some point he left to go to the bathroom and I asked Jon how it was going. Jon said, 'It's going great! He loves you... it's already decided.' And so it looks like I've got an awesome job lined up once JET is over. When the interview started he was hating on my beard, but by the end of the night (and after two bottles of wine) he was fascinated by it. While waiting for daiko he was sitting next to me on a sofa and he was just like, 'Can I touch it?' I was all 'uhh... yea... sure...' and he did. I'm used to my elementary school kids and girls I'm hitting on wanting to touch the beard, so it's only natural a j-dude would want to as well. Funny thing is this man was 46 years old! Only in Japan. After the weekend in Kanazawa (where I got AMOGed by some dude with one arm) once I finally got back to my house I couldn't park cause there was too much snow in my driveway. I tried to just ride right over it but even my mighty Daihatsu Mira couldn't tackel the mighty mound of snow. So I got my car stuck and had to shovel it out. I'm gonna be sad about leaving my job as an elementary school ALT cause the kids are really awesome. Hashiya-san (the secretary at Hagino) says that the town may not have enough money for an ALT so the homeroom teachers are gonna start teaching ABC Time instead - but it may not be as fun as it is now. That makes me really sad cause ABC Time is one of the kids favorite classes, they always have so much fun playing games, speaking English, and just goofing around. It makes me sad to know that when I leave I might be taking my awesome fun classes with me. (Comment on this)