It’s spring and with it comes to the old proverbial ’spring clean’. And so it’s out with the previous annoying template that was causing no amount of problems and in with something a lot more flashy, or as I like to thinkabout it a lot more ‘friendly and nice looking’.

For anyone who has owned or owns a Mac, the theme should be ‘familiar’ as it’s essentially a take on the Apple layout. It’s clean and simple, and what’s more it’s all customisable on the fly - you can click and drag any of the boxes in the sidebars and move/order them as you see fit, and you can also minimise them using the little green button.

The gallery has changed as well, it’s still in the process of being finalised, but it works a lot better than the previous one. There’s still a few things to be changed, improved on but all in good time. I barely have enough time to do what I need to do as it is.

So far everything seems to be working, but let me know if you find anything that doesn’t. So please go ahead and have enjoying, I’ll be doing some much overdue writing in the coming weeks too.

Popularity: 4%

written by Laurent \\ tags: geeking, Random, template, update, wordpress

The TEFL world just keeps giving to me today. Well actually, Alex’s blog is really the one that keeps giving if truth be told.

I stumbled upon this article which Alex had linked, and which is quite simply amazing in its detailing of the latest forays of English teaching in Japan.

The article details the efforts of a man, who runs a chain of Maid cafes, the quintessential otaku attraction, to set up a school which combines two very simple things: English teaching and cosplay (or cross-dressing using costumes from Anime and Manga). The fact that these two things really have nothing in common doesn’t seem to stop his incredible logic, which is pretty flawless when you consider his argument for such a mind boggling link-up:

Otaku are known for their incredible customer loyalty, while schools are known for their trouble in getting customers to keep on coming back, so I figured a school for cosplayers would achieve the perfect blend

And if all this wasn’t enough, the school’s English focus is also something to behold, deciding to go for that much avoided market of ‘Broken English’… you couldn’t make this up if you tried. Hell, look up the school’s site and its extensive ‘Maximal Broken English’ online lessons!

Still the best is kept for the end, as the article is wrapped up with a quote that I believe could well and truly transform the world of TEFL as it’s known. And if it doesn’t do that, it should at least provide for what could possibly be the most entertaining English lesson to watch or partake in ever.

“I want to start classes for kids some time in the future. And I’ll make the teachers get dressed up in Pikachu suits.”

Somebody give this man an award right now, please.

Popularity: 4%

written by Laurent \\ tags: geeking, Japan, Random, school, Teaching, TEFL

For most foreigners, Japan not only carries an image of the exotic and different but also of futurism, aided in no small part by its cultural output, especially anime. Stepping into Tokyo for the first time, taking in the sights and sounds of places like Shinjuku or the public transport system only reinforces this perceived impression of a hypercapitalist, futuristic society. Give it a while though and you realise that while this impression does have a grounding in reality, it’s also exagerated in parts, misrepresented through an outsider’s lens.

But as I found out last month when I went to the Dairoboto exhibition, in Ueno, Japan does lead the world in robotics, which given the aforementioned preconceptions of a futuristic society, is hardly surprising. Japan uses more robots than any other country and, as the exhibition’s blurb explained, is the world’s leading ‘robot kingdom.’ A term that would send the imagination of any self respecting nerd wild with possibilities.

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Popularity: 3%

written by Laurent \\ tags: computers, geeking, Japan, pictures, robots, technology

By definition trade shows are far from exciting, what with being all about just one thing and generally just an occasion for people to showcase their new products, technologies etc… in whatever field it is that’s the focus. I can think of a few expections, having done my fair share of trade shows in the last 10 years: music and video games. Well ok they’re not boring to me because I’m into both things heavily. But really what other subjects could make a trade show appealing? What’s that? the sex industry you say? Perverts… :lol:

Anyways, I’ve been going to DJ/music trade shows for the last 4 years regularly, mainly PLASA in London, which used to be the most interesting of all the European trade shows but has in recent years become a ghost of its former ‘glory’. All it offers these days is the chance to catch up with people you haven’t seen in ages and piss about with new equipment and also pretend to be remotely interested in whatever marketing BS the reps come at you with. I also went to ECTS a few times while I lived in London, which was the European equivalent of E3 or Tokyo Game Show. Good fun but on a really small scale. By and large I learnt soon enough that trade shows are only really good for one thing - catching up with people, getting drunk and pissing about (ok and sometimes actually doing some work).

With the last PLASA being quite disappointing (actually it was shit) I was really looking forward to Tokyo Game Show - the second biggest video game trade show on the planet after E3 and by the sounds of it and stories from my mates, quite possibly the most fun you can have with geeks in one day, in a enclosed space. TGS takes place yearly, at Makuhari Messe a giant exhibition hall just outside central Tokyo, in Chiba prefecture. This year the show ran for 4 days, with the first 2 open to trade only and last 2 open to the public. I opted for the trade days, purely because from my past experience trade days tend to be better - less people, more exclusive stuff to be seen, and more importantly more (and easier) freebies to be had.

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Popularity: 2%

written by Laurent \\ tags: geeking, storytelling, TGS, video games

No you’re not dreaming, the site has suffered a drastic makeover and update. Which is part of the reason why I haven’t been posting much for most of the month. The other reasons being: I’ve had an surge of work (paid work even, the best and most urgent kind there is! :lol: ), I’ve got totally sucked into Heroes season 1 (catching up on 23 episodes before the new season started this week - tv marathons ftw) and I’ve been working on updating this blog as well, which was a slow process due to the aforementioned bits and other things.

Finally done did it though. New design, layout and a fresh new Wordpress version too. Which I must admit is actually nice - probably the first time I’ve felt genuinely pleased with it since I’ve started updating WP. I really wasn’t happy with what had been changed in the previous 2.0x versions, but this one seems to have fixed a lot of things and added a lot of good stuff. So far anyways. Having spent the best part of 6h doing everything today my brain’s probably just too frazzled and I’ll start seeing stuff I don’t like tomorrow after some sleep (and more episodes of Heroes, yes I’m hooked).

So anyways sit back, relax and enjoy. Have a play around, there’s lots of new little nifty things added: the snap shot preview for all links, the gallery’s had a face lift, there’s a new archive page (link at the top) which is lovely and easy to use, you can now share any post on this blog easily by clickling the share this! link which will open a pop up menu giving a choice of options like digg, delicious, emailing etc…, you can also navigate posts by using the calendar or the tags cloud (which will be updated this week to include all posts) or the search function, I’ve added the Turntable Radio podcast feed, and there’s a wicked little thing at the top which you can use to scroll through all the posts on the front page. Whoo hoo for geekery.

If you see anything broken or have any comments/feedback on the changes please drop us a comment. More posts coming up tomorrow too, got a backlog of writing!

Popularity: 2%

written by Laurent \\ tags: bloggin, computers, geeking, tired, update, wordpress

I spent part of the day in Akihabara today - the mecca for all things video game, anime and geek. We’re talking serious business here. If you’re a geek for either games, electronics or anime, or all three, then Akihabara is where you want to die - cos you won’t wait long to go to heaven.

I’d been to Aki a few times before, but only quickly and to grab some bits for the house. Electronics wise the place is amazing. The main part of town is dubbed Electric Avenue - and quite rightly so, alongside multi-storey buildings offering everything and anything are little stalls selling their wares, and all next to each other in an area no bigger than Camden town. It’s total crazyness and as much of a sensory overload as Shibuya, but for entirely different reasons.

Akihabara is not all electronics though - it’s also gaming heaven. The biggest and best arcades in the country are there, with floors dedicated to one genre. It’s insane, and constantly packed as well as incredibly noisy as all the arcades boom out their respective audio. And amongst it all are countless otakus playing, including a high amount of seriously talented ones (I guess that talented part depends on where you stand when it comes to games). Alongside the arcades are tons of video game shops selling anything you can think of.

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Popularity: 3%

written by Laurent \\ tags: akihabara, arcades, geeking, Tokyo, video games