"Courage and perseverance are important if one is to run anything resembling a news organization...the folks at theOtaku.com have demonstrated themselves to have ample quantities of both."
~ TCJ (The Comics Journal)
"A couple years of experience in the Otaku circle have taught me at least one good lesson--to trust Adam."
~ myO member
"Adam is actually a decently accomplished troll."
~ Allamorph
"The scale of Adam's cunning genius is truly frightening."
~ TimeChaser
I saved all my vacation days so I could take a massive vacation in December. I'll be taking off from December 16 to January 2nd. I'm excited, it is truly much needed.
In other news my Bebop re-watching is going very well. To me Bebop is the perfect anime. While individual episodes and moments might be flawed, the work as a whole is magnificent.
One interesting bit of news is that Nimble Strong is being featured in an upcoming book about the best iPhone games ever made. It joins about 60-70 other games, which is a huge honor.
It's 4 AM...maybe I should go to sleep?
Na, will get some reading done first.
See You Later, Space Otaku
Murakami is one of the best writers alive today. And he happens to be Japanese. A major book of his just came out, titled IQ84. I'm not far enough into it to know where it stands among his other works, but I wager it'll be up there. Anyone looking for their next book to read should look no further.
On a side note, I'm also reading the just-translated manga Drops of God. It's an educational manga about wine. Also good.
It's been too long. I have a few updates for you:
- The last year and a half I've been employed at a magazine company full time. The main reason is that I went broke with the fall of the anime industry, the economy, and the worse-than-expected performance of Nimble
- Working full time has used a lot of my energy, which explains why accomplishments are slow around the network. I've felt conflicted about this. On the one hand projects like theOtaku and Nimble and 100ThingsILearned have always been the most important part of my life and I feel sad that so much time has passed without too much new. On the other hand I have done good work at the company and it's good to have financials under control. I yearn to do both, but it's HARD.
- Careers are tough. Politics, back stabbing, lack of control in some cases. I miss the working relationships with superstars who are also people that I have strong chemistry with. I question what I'm doing a lot and there have been a few moments where I considered quitting on the spot. Everything can be going great one month and the next is horrible.
- The Steve Jobs biography is good so far. I'm reading it on the iPhone, like I do most my books these days. (It's more pleasant than it sounds.)
- I'm rewatching the entire Cowboy Bebop series. It's my favorite anime TV show of all time. I'm feeling nostalgic and a little existential.
I remember 9/11, not like it was yesterday, but like it was maybe 10 years ago, which is about right.
I had just moved to NYC and had a breathtaking view of the World Trade Center towers. I lived not far from them but not exactly close either. When I lay in bed at night, watching them out the window was often the last thing I remembered before falling asleep. I only enjoyed the view for a few weeks before it was gone, replaced by an ominous mass of smoke and dust that I worried would blow toward my humble apartment
I remember quiet in the streets, a sense of alarm, businesses giving discounts to help New Yorkers cope ($5 broadway show tickets).
I don't remember feeling any sort of hysteria, I managed to keep my cool, but I do remember being inundated with IMs and emails from otakus asking if I was okay.
The most lasting effect of 9/11 to me is the once or twice a year nightmare I get - it's always different in storyline and situation but the feeling I get when I awake from it is the same.
Is my useful products from Japan column a good or bad idea? Stuff like this is something I'm passionate about but I know not everyone feels the same way.
Are there any useful made in Japan products that you use?
@_@
