From A Distance

Last night was a bit of  a restless one. People have been writing so many lovely messages about Shinhwa.biz it made me feel terrible and rather wakeful all night that i was closing it down, but in the end well wishers can't substitute for the contributions needed in news and running  cost so I am feeling its still the right decision. if this is how it hurts after 5 years i can't imagine what it would be like after more!.

I spent most of today wresting with the forum code on the new server space so that i can still access it and start to prune posts and reorganise it into a manageable archive. I just couldn't see the pages until i found one of the mods for the forum for the thank you posts was incompatible with this version and had to be turned off. oh well, can't save everything I guess as there is no update for it.

So i hope thats the last sunny day i waste sorting something like that out and making my eyes all tired and fuzzy. I even ate dinner at my desk to get it done so i can relax now  ^__^

of my weekend aims - meeting Karonina for bento and transferring the leehom site was all i managed, but that's not bad going for me. Most of Sunday was spent watching 'Bloody Monday' over a coffee and then some lunch where a cute baby kept trying to talk to me.

Of course today was the big day with the Harry Potter Tour of the Leavesden studios, but its a story that will just have to wait as I am really quite tired now and need to sleep!

I go to Bournemouth for my work tomorrow, proudly wearing my ravenclaw hooded top and will be eating my chocolate frog on the train. cos really, that's where they are best eaten hehe.

On Monday it was announced that Toma Ikuta will be starring in a movie adaptation of Urio Shudo’s 2000 Edogawa Rampo Award-winning novel Nou Otoko (literally “Brain Man”).In his first “dark hero” role, Ikuta will be playing a mysterious unfeeling killing machine named Ichiro Suzuki who commits murders in the name of justice.
His character possesses an unusually high intelligence and prodigious memory, but is also completely incapable of feeling human emotion.
The role will reportedly be physically demanding, involving intense action scenes. Ikuta has been training in various martial arts for about 6 months in preparation for filming, including the Filipino martial art Kali and Bruce Lee’s hybrid system, Jeet Kune Do.
The story is set in a suburban city in the wake of indiscriminate serial bombings. Yosuke Eguchi (44) will play Chaya, a police detective who discovers Suzuki in the hideout of the bomber, a salaryman named Midorikawa. Yasuko Matsuyuki (39) will play a neurosurgeon tasked with evaluating Suzuki.
“Nou Otoko” is slated for release in February 2013.

Read more at Arama They Didn't: http://aramatheydidnt.livejournal.com/3892582.html#ixzz1xYvbdcJu


http://www.tokyohive.com/2012/06/ikuta-toma-to-play-a-serial-killer-in-nou-otoko/
http://aramatheydidnt.livejournal.com/3892582.html

Yay!!!

I really like Ikuta Toma - i have a small obsession with his rather lovely nose - that he will play a dark 'hero' in a film is pretty awesome - especially a ranpo noir type! Its up against 47 Ronin - the film I am working on right now - so it looks like a good month for me ahah!

I just finished 'akihabara@deep' drama he was in, but really liked his role in 'hana kimi' better. - take a guess at my fave moment of his.. i dare you!!!!

I know, I know, I have been absent for a bit. My bad. Or rather work related busy-ness that was inescapable. For most of March I was working 2 projects at the same time, one short one with a very tight deadline (the film is due out on 16th May) and the other the long term one I am the lead for (the cool Hollywood/Japanese one). Three weeks of getting home at past 10pm was exhausting and I've no idea how I managed. Anyway, that's all done with but the long term project is going to be heaps of work. In light of that I've decided to consolidate my random blogs all over the place to being here so I have one place to go and write stuff and that's that. I have a work blog and a film blog too but they stay separate as they have their own domain names. Expect much more variety in posts from now on (assuming i get a few minutes a day to blog of course)

Next week i have a film festival to go to which I'll be blogging about on my film blog (http://countingpulses.com) but I will cross post the last film review with AAA community as its Himizu which has Nissy in.

Right now I am enjoying 'Tumbling' a lot and its made me go all weepy at some episodes. Its such a sweet drama! http://www.mydramalist.com/dramalist/saharial is where you can catch up with anything I am watching/have watched and do add me as a friend if you feel like joining there too! I'd love to compare and get recommendations :)

In other thoughts. I am dropping the very first domain name i ever bought. I never use it and its based off the catchphrase of a singer who i think is being a total jerk these days and has lost direction. I still love his older works, but I think creatively he is a little dried up. Sad thing is so many people worship him and allow him to dominate awards that talented others don't get noticed.

hmm what else... this evening i was 'aftershock' which is a Chinese film about the Tangshan earthquake of 1976. I cried a lot at the end.

i got  January Junon and its cute!
aAA stuff is awesome, there is some CNblue for my friend in the Philippines and...

Shohei Miura is no longer blonde!

Was doing a little research into rpg design etc and decided to make a check list of do and don't factors. They are in no particular order as its all about what i find as i trawl the net.

• try to stay away from any mechanic that requires referencing a big important chart
• design the mechanic around the game
• Define your game in the text by what it IS and DOES, not by what it ISN'T and what it AVOIDS.
• Don't leave major setting elements for later. If it's important to the game, put it in the guide
• include a sample character
• include at least one intro adventure
• Don't describe something in the flavour text that cannot be duplicated according to the rules
• test the system rules for loopholes and potential abuse of rules
• Don't use terms before they've been defined. Don't introduce too much jargon at once.
• avoid tired old cliche's that have been done a zillion times before, unless you are intending to use them for satirical reasons.
• logical order and not scattered to the four winds

Make sure that  the reader has a solid idea of:

1) What the game's about
2) What the characters are like
3) What the archetypical example of the game is


there - i think that's enough food for though. of course, those things were aimed mostly at dice and point type RPG, but i think they can apply as a good guide for fic based rpg which is what VR is :)

I've heard a disturbing whisper on the net today that ShinJiro's next photobook is going to be a nude one and the concept is male prostitute...

I'm not really comfortable with this at all really. I don't know why because  I have no problem with nude photography at all, I think the human body is beautiful.  I liked the Shinhwa Wild! Photoshoot - though that was done before I became a fan so maybe that makes a difference.

I'm trying to work out why so here are some possible things that spring to mind...
 

• Perhaps its because its one photobook of one guy all nude for however many pages. It feels gratuitous and voyeuristic.
• Perhaps its because Shinjiro is quite slender and it might make him look too young :/
• I don't know who the photographer is so I don't trust the angle taken .
• The concept is demeaning, not just for Shinjiro but also for AAA
• Perhaps because I like Shinjiro but am not attracted to him

*sigh* anyone else out there have any thoughts?

 

Ok, well, the server is down at work so I have a few moments to catch up with all that's been going on here.

I was pretty much glued into the events in Japan since I came into work that Friday morning and discovered what had happened. I spent the week watching the news while at work and praying for the brave souls working on the reactor for the sake of the world (let's face it world... you owe them BIG time - even if the company they work for hasn't been honest all the time).

Of course the world media was disgusting as always and made a big fuss over the radiation and not enough over the humanitarian disaster that was happening and was far more urgent to deal with. The scaremongering got to the point where people wouldn't go near the area and to bring supplies and help those whose lives had been destroyed.

I gave money at the Japanese Centre when I went down there last week. It was easy to see some panic buying of favourite snacks had been going on too as some of the shelves were getting really empty! My favourite Korean restaurant is going to be holding a fundraiser too so I will go to that, but I wanted to do something more than just throw money at the disaster. I got involved doing this...

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=164490464005&v=info

as I always have more wool than I need and that way too i feel i am doing something practical and meaningful too. I sent a whole 2 parcels of excess wool so the organiser can hand it over to the elderly ladies she cares for can help too (this made my mum happy too as she always says i have too much and frankly i hate seeing wool go to waste!)

I'll post a pic of my squares on 31st March when i take a batch to London stitch 'n Bitch - have done 4 so far - 1 pink, 1 orange, 1 pink and green striped and am working on the 4th still.. emerald green!

I'm going to pick up a book on learning Japanese enxt week, though also will be getting another Korean one as watching Korean dramas every day is improving my language bit by bit.

ps: i love when Nissy says any Japanese word that ends in  -mas  >_<;;;;

London has a wealth of japanese restaurants and sushi places - always irresistable and has a couple of shops in central London too. I am sure there are more in London itself, but as i am only ever in Central, its nice i have a choice of 2 places to go to - especially as one has now moved to be 2 doors down from the other!

Mitzukoshi Department store is there for the Japanese tourists in their coaches who turn up for the tax free (for japanese only i guess) high end goods - Maison de Chocolat, Cath Kidson and a ton of other brands. It feels so upmarket going in there but the staff are quite polite and friendly even though I don't stop on their floor. I always head to the back and down the stairs to the bookshop which sells magazines, anime, films,cds and cute goods. I usually get my 'Junon' and 'what's on' here as they also have a stamp scheme for a discount and i spend enough to actually get one.

I usually just go in once a month as its expensive to get magazines etc and i am always tempted by various goods and cute note pads and stickers like i am 5 years old! Today I picked up a Junon and a what's in and  *faints* the pics of Nissy are just to die for!!!! i can't wait to go home and gaze at them some more! I would do that now, but i am eating a croque monsieur at Starbucks in notting hill and i don't want grease to get on everything . Cheese always drips when i eat :/

i also picked up some cute writing paper and stickers!

I then moved onto the Japan Centre (it has a website, go look!) and i usually get a magazine here if they are sold out at the Mitzukoshi book store. We really need a Book Off in London as japanese culture is so popular. They would do really good business i am sure!! anyway - i picked up some Ramyeon, macha powder (for making green tea icecream! woot), some tohato pea crips which i ADORE - i don't eat crisps anymore, but there aren't really crisps.. more of a pea snack... right? They do make me a bit gassy, so I won't eat them before church :P. I also got some panda snacks and a pear juice drink which is another addiction of mine.

*sips chai latte slowly*

so tonight i gotta do a whole buch of things for ... something. Right? Not all the replies are in just yet... so I'll give it until the end of the day before i set things up properly but if no one else replies.... thats that. I think in the end we all have to be decisive... or else all momentum is lost. And i'd hate for that to happen!

so, thats it for my sunday rambling... time to watch another drama episode... r maybe get some work done... aish i can never decide!!!

I started writing a story about a month ago, a small scene that sprung to mind like the start of a movie that I knew was the beginning of a very interesting story. It lingered for a bit, changed a few times like it too wasn't sure what it wanted to be yet. I knew it was a thriller, but there was more to it than that. At first I tried using some Korean actors I like, but they just didn't fit - miscast in this little drama. Its not an unusual situation for this to happen - so I let it be for a while, playing with AAA in my head until it all clicked into place.

and oh boy has it clicked into place - on Tuesday morning I was supposed to go to a talk that the company i work for puts on to tell us about upcoming projects. I never made it - I had to dash into work almost literally to get the basic ideas of the story written down - i was so excited!!!!

I wrote a scene at lunch today that also sprung to mind and I was writing some last night too.  I will be finishing the Hidaka scene soon.

I do have a problem though...

I want to share it but i don't want to have anyone take the idea either :( Its always such a  dilemma. I'm not yet sure that half way through it will turn into something i'll want to edit and carve into shape to submit anywhere .

any suggestions anyone?