The MASSIVE Update Part 2 - the era of self

Well, that took more than one day didn't it. Sorry. It really is hard to blog these days, but I want to get it down before my mind hazes over.

I want to start by talking a little bit about the new apartment.

It’s located in Kichijoji, a town about 15 minutes west of Shinjuku on the Chuo-line express train. You can take the Inokashira-line to Shibuya in 15 minutes too.
Sometime I’ll walk around Kichijoiji with a camera, and you can see for yourselves why it’s such a great place to live. I’m pretty chuffed.

The apartment in its current state

It took me a couple of weeks to get the apartment in order, and there are still a lot of things to sort out. But it’s much nicer now than when I’d just moved in!
It’s a pretty old building – made in the 70’s (ancient for destructo-happy Japan) so it has lots of… quirks. I couldn’t cook anything for two weeks because firstly the stove was on the opposite side of the room to the gas taps and it took me ages to find somewhere that sells a 3m hose, and secondly because the electricity went in the kitchen and I was unable to work out how to switch it back on (antiquated system).

No real complaints about the bog, although the lack of a window or extractor fan soon persuaded me to invest in fragrant sprays

There are other quirks too. There are three CATV cables for the TV. Why? Why oh why?
I had no lock on the balcony door for two weeks. And the balcony door is such a bad job. It doesn’t close fully. I can see why – when I asked the landlord to put a lock on the door, he got some cowboy guy around who tried his best to fob me off with just sticking a piece of rubber at the bottom of the door – like a wedge – to stop the door from being opened from the outside. After demonstrating to him that merely by applying strength to the door you could dislodge the wedge, he got off his arse and went to the hardware store to buy a proper lock. Even then, he didn’t remove the old one fully – it just dangles from the middle of the door now.

The balcony, and Kichijoji beyond

But without a shadow of a doubt, the most peculiar aspect of the apartment is the rather bizarre placement of the shower room. It’s on the balcony. You open the balcony door, and there is a pod there that you get into. An individual pod. It’s rather fun. You can sit on the sofa and watch someone shower. If you’re into that kind of thing.

Balcony, shower, TV. Everything you need in one meter.

So a couple of weeks ago I had a little house warming party with 5 friends. We barbequed stuff on the hot plate outside, and played Wii Sports. Unnecessary metal trinkets on the back of girls’ jeans have etched black patterns onto my walls now though. There goes my deposit!

Proof that I have at least 5 friends

I am now determined to make friends. To hang out with them. To expand. For too long I was locked away. People are rather interesting if you give them a chance.

I went to an event for fans of the band “Supercar” in a club in Shimokitazawa. It was fun. I chatted with these Japanese guys and we exchanged business cards (yes you even do that in clubs here). I sent them emails, but no replies. There’s something about Tokyo people where it’s deemed socially acceptable to just not reply to emails. It really boils my blood. Stop being pathetic! I can imagine them waking up hung-over, in a cold-sweat, thinking “god… I made friends with a foreigner! What am I going to do? People will think I’m weird and look at me”, or some such thing. Or perhaps they threw themselves onto the Chuo-line – many other people do after all. Perhaps I have that effect on people.

I’m just kidding! I’m quite amazing actually.
In fact, I’m worried that I may appear “too cool”, if this is possible. When I talk with people, I inevitably mention that I was an actor, and now I work at a video games company, my Japanese is great blah blah blah – maybe they just think “hmm, he probably has loads of swanky mates, and will think that I’m of petty significance in the grand tapestry of his life”.
If they are thinking that, they are wrong! Ordinary people are most welcome. I don’t bite.

Lately, I started doing something that I’ve wanted to do for about 14 years now. I finally started to learn the drums. It’s great.
The studio is half way between the station and my home, which is dead handy. I pop in there every other day for a rat-a-tat-tat. Once a week I meet my teacher who pushes me forward. I can really feel the progress.

My sensei, "Monkey T Nissy"

It’s not cheap, but you know, you have to do these things. I’m 26 already. 14 years of procrastinating right there.

That’s a whirlwind tour of what has been pertaining. Tonight I’m going to Yotsuya to see my friend Matt’s band, Placebo Sound. They’re a good unit, very tight, with some top songs too. Tonight is their last scheduled Live event for now, and it has drink-as-much-as-you-want too. Great! More good for me!
Goodness goodness goodness
I just realised that the words “good” and “god” are very similar. I feel nauseous now and must stop writing.

Down Time

I just wanted to report that yeh, I'm still around, still doing my thing. I'm telling ya, having a job sure does hit your blogging time... plus of course, there aren't as many things to blog about.

Surprisingly, there are a lot of things going on at the moment. Will I blog about them? Probably not. Not all topics are appropriate for the internet.

But fear thee not! I will be back soon with fun acting clippings.

In the meantime, I hope that the entire world is enjoying Peep Show. You should be!

It's political incorrectness gone made

It's strange how major life events like starting a career can really hit your blogging output. I realise that March has been a skinny month. I've had plenty of things to talk about. They're piling up, but fading in clarity, much as they did in my FFXII obsession era (I haven't touched since, and may never again. Everyone has limits).
I don't really want to go into any great depths job-wise just yet. It's only been two days. Let's see how it pans out though.

What I really want to talk about today is the USA. Yeh, the States, baby! That's one crazy place right there. A fat, pulsating boil that you can't help but look at. I feel that when one looks at the States, one can see a gushing rainbow of humanity's diversity. The good and the bad. The beautiful and the repellent.
To start with the bad, I watched the Al Gore documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth" last weekend.

No witty comments here.

No, I'm not saying that the documentary was bad. Suffice to say, the documentary does not cast the Bush administration in the most angelic of lights.

Let's not beat around the... uh, Bush... let's just beat the f****r directly. Damn, I hate that guy. That will never change. Watching this documentary, it occurred to me that the greatest historical event of the last ten years, objectively, is not 9/11 and terrorism, but a small number of Florida voters in 2000. Would the world be a better place if Gore had become president, rather than Bush? I don't doubt it for one moment. It saddened me deeply. That Bush won that election, and then got re-elected, fills me with profound despair. My faith in my fellow man drops. This guy is filling the world with resentment; promoting animosity and greed.

So I guess it's not too surprising to come across comments like this on the internet. Frequently. I've censored them for you, sweet children.

Rabownsyou (1 month ago)

Christ, I wish I could poke out everything wrong with American's. I f*****g hate them so much.

assimilate (1 month ago)

i hate americans.

phazzydoo (6 months ago)

lol, trying to sell an intellectual quiz show to Yanks, they're fat.

Firstly, it shocks me that people are willing to post comments like this on the internet. Publishing racist comments for the world to see. Secondly, the "intellectual quiz show"in question is "Countdown". Sigh.
I found these in the comments section of a Youtube video. It was an excerpt from Charlie Brooker's "Screen Wipe" TV show, where he shows clips of British TV shows to Americans. He deliberatly chooses campy, extreme examples. Unsurprisingly, the American audience find "The Bill" and "Countdown" to be cheesy, and, well, crap. And let's face it - that's what they are.

What I want to say is that just because we hate Bush (and rightfully so - he is a **** *******, a ***** ******, and ******** **************), it doesn't mean that all Americans are like that. Sure, they elected him (allegedly), but lets remember that only about 35% of Americans voted. and 51% of them voted Republican. So, we should only be disgusted with 18% of Americans.

I have been privileged to meet lots of Americans in my lifetime. And I've liked plenty of them. They aren't deserving of such baseless hatred. They can be funny, intelligent, sarcastic and they are clearly aware of their country's deficiencies.

Let's try to remember that the US has produced books, music, movies, games, TV shows, art etc. etc. of the highest quality and diversity. It would be callous to deny that we like any of it.

So, the Youtube people who stuck up for "The Bill". Can you really tell me that it is better than "The Wire" in any way, and expect me not to guffaw in your face?

I was led to "The Wire", ironically enough, by Charlie Brooker again

I watched all 40 episodes of The Wire in just over a week. Utterly gripping stuff. The UK could never produce anything like this. We need the US. I'm not sure if I'd like to live their myself, but on a visceral level, we need it. It's a mirror for us all to look in; because we all could end up like that. The highs the lows.

If only more Americans bothered to vote.

Battlestar Galactica - MUCH better than the original series

That's right. Sticking my foot out there on this one.

Believe it or not, this is sci-fi. In the future, people wear two vests.

It's pretty good. Good enough that I watched all of series 1 (5 DVD's) in one weekend.

As a teenager, I watched StarTrek - The Next Generation almost every day after school. I wasn't a Trekkie - it was just the best thing on TV from 5-6pm.
But I'm not gonna lie to you - it's obvious that I enjoy a bit of escapism. My life is steeped in Games Workshop and video game lore. And traveling is basically escapism too.

But oddly, what makes B.G. great isn't that it's sci-fi. Its visual effects are adequate if unspectacular (though they never look cheesy), and its premise is hardly new (robots go out of control and attempt human genocide).
What makes B.G. great is that it's a human drama. It just happens to be set in space. And dang, it really sucks you in.
The producers really did a great job. They really understood the zeitgeist. Now, I'm gonna talk about the zeitgeist for a bit. Some of you may wish to switch off now.

In this era of "web 2.0", people aren't so easily wowed any more. You can't expect to just stick some futuristic gadget on TV, make it go 'bleep bloop' and then the audience are amazed. We're too wise to all that now.

Last night, Moonraker was on the TV. Somehow, I'm a Roger Moore fan. He made James Bond so camp, so debonair... it was great 80's stuff to watch. But watching it last night, for the first time in yonks... it was quite... stupid. Maybe Austin Powers really helped us all realise how ridiculous it all was. So detached from reality. The best, most memorable scene in the film is the cable-car scene with Jaws. There are no laser guns. No quasi-futuristic clothes. Just two men trying to kill each other in a tense spectacular scenario. It's a great scene.
Now don't go telling me that Sean Connery was the "correct" Bond. There are just as many problems with the smarmy, rotund Scot as any other of the Bonds. But that's a different issue.

If we fast forward to the now... the new Bond... Daniel Craig... I would say that it's the best movie containing James Bond ever . It isn't necessarily the best Bond movie (continue reading and I hope you'll catch my drift), if you consider Bond as a genre unto itself, but, if you just consider it as a film, an artistic, dramatic creation, then it blows the other Bond movies away. Bond movies should always be a product of its era. And, like Battlestar Galactica, Casino Royale is most definitely a product of (and a contributor to) the current zeitgeist.

So, what is the current Zeitgeist? I would say that it contains the basic tenants (there may be more - please enlighten me);

• The characters are human, and therefore susceptible to human weaknesses. We are vulnarable. And you can't just kidnap a girl and then the guy must put down his weapon. It goes much deeper.
• Characters have a reason for their evil actions. They cannot just be de-facto evil. To see why people become terrorists, to see people lie and cheat out of greed and a desire for power... these are human traits, and we want to see them. Think of a Ghibli anime compared to a Disney one. Thinking about the world this way can help us understand the current socio-political climate of our world. It ain't so black and white. We all have the potential to undertake malicious acts. Stories help us understand the motivation that can provoke such acts. That's why there should be no censorship, and no 'taboo' subject matter.
  
• Technology isn't a story element - it's a prop. So, find a suitable, believable prop, use it, and move on with the story. Don't dwell on it. Don't gloat over its omnipotent powers. You will look stupid in 10 years time, I guarantee you. In B.G., much of the technology actually goes backwards from our current time - phones are cluncky and have wires. That's future-proof, right there. They have circumnavigated against any possible future accusations of being outdated - genius.
• When people fight, it hurts. Body's slam against walls, blood flies, scars remain. For a while afterwards, you will be exhausted. Fighting isn't fun. Look at Bond fight. It hurts just to watch. You really believe that a guy like him would fight like that. There are no roundhouse kicks.
• Women can be tough. Men can be sexy. The two are not exclusive.
  

In a nutshell, it's about people. B.G. is basically ER in space. ER must be more than 10 years old now. It was pretty groundbreaking at the time. The notion that Doctors get tired, that Hospitals aren't super white and squeaky clean, that people die and bleed and cry...
B.G. also borrows the camera style from ER. Close-up, shaky hand cams. Faces that fill the entire screen. The B.G.'s commander (The guy in the photo above) has a really rough, pitted skin texture. You watch B.G., and you will see it. This is a tough guy. What a contrast to Captain Picard.

Does all this have any implications for video games? Yeh, of course. Unfortunately, they are pretty harsh ones too. In TV and movies, visual effects are an accompaniment to the actual footage. You analyse where you need CGI, and you make it.
A video game is 100% visual effects - everything has to be realised by an artist. It's a cruel twist that the resource most important to TV and film is also the easiest to aquire - real human actors. Sadly for games, they need actors, humans, too. But they have to create them from the ground up. And humans are the most complicated, detailed of all objects.
With so much focus - and resources - on the visual effects, it's very easy to forget that the goal of a video game isn't to have spectacular, eye-bleeding effects (stand up Perfect Dark Zero - now get out) - but to have great gameplay. With the new generation of consoles, the resources required to produce adequate graphics in high-definition are astounding. I really suspect that many developers will lose sight of the goal.
The second challenge comes from this rejection of form before function. If games aren't played for their graphics, what are they played for? The answer is of course, gameplay. Good ol' mysterious gameplay. Nobody knows what gameplay really is - just like we don't know what a great story is. There is no guaranteed formula. This is why we really need higher education courses that focus on this. Wake up people - games are real, they entertain millions of people, and create millions of jobs (developing, manufacturing, distributing, retailing, press, PR...). The amount of people from varied backgrounds with game-specific skills is cripplingly low. I'm talking about non-techincal skills here. Anyone can learn Maya or 3D studio Max. But how do we learn about level design? Game narrative? Character design, when we have to design the game for every individual player?
Giving people three years to think about things and experiment will make the world of difference. Currently, High-Ed game courses are of a fairly low caliber. This will surely improve over time as the mount of people qualified to teach and the quality of game related literature improves.
Many games are also important for their story and characterization. Half Life has an intriguing, character-led story. Final Fantasy 12 does not. They aren't necessities for a great game, but they sure do help to maintain your interest. Half Life is unique in that there are no cut-scenes. You never once leave the body of your avatar, Gordon Freeman. Sometimes, you walk past a door and you hear a conversation on the other side. This is an example of game designers looking at narrative from a gaming perspective rather than a film one. We are in the game - so please, don't take us out if it. It's all so wrong. In Total Warrior: Spartan, there are occasional cut-scenes where your avatar gets angry, shouts, and generally makes decisions on your behalf. This is a guy that you never really see in-game, as the camera is zoomed out in order to make the game playable (as opposed to Dynasty Warriors, where the camera is much closer - too close in fact, and you can't keep track of your enemies). This actually made me dislike the Spartan character. At the end of the day, perhaps all video game avatars should be mute, like Link, Gordon Freeman and Master Chief. As soon as some deep American voice bellows out of my body, I'm suddenly reminded that I'm in a video game.

Games are starting to get more realistic. More human. They will start to challenge our actions. Deus Ex tried it, and I think more will. When we play a game, we kill people without question. There will be games that challenge this notion. Don't let your kids out of the house, because, you know you don't want kids playing this stuff. That doesn't mean that its wrong - games have an untapped potential to be profound. I can't wait to see it.

It's no longer good enough to make a 'cool' product, market it to death and reap the rewards. In this era, consumers are smart. If something is full of crap, flawed or cynical, then you can bet your board-room-decisions arse that "the web" is gonna talk about it, and your reputation will be shredded mercilessly. In the 90's, in the decade of marketing, Playstation killed Sega's hardware division by appearing to be the 'cooler' product with guerrila advertising in night clubs and festivals. No-one realised that the Dreamcast was stuffed with great exclusive games. Fast forward 12 years, and Sony is getting murdered by bad press surrounding the PSP and PS3. They are essentially using the same marketing tactics - ads that concentrate on the 'spirit' and 'coolness' of the Playstation brand rather than the quality of the product.
In a distant land called the internet, consumers are tearing them apart in forums.
In the meantime, Nintendo releases a new, reasonably priced, innovative product. The TV commercials show people playing the game. If you make a good product, the people in the internet forums will do all the marketing you could ever need.

This is web 2.0. We won't be patronised any longer.

The procrastination of truth

Remember a while back I posted about "getting closer to why I am in Japan".

Well, lately, it hasn't been going according to plan.


I didn't get the Motion Capture part.
The movie is looking increasingly dubious.
I still haven't heard about any jobs from my Game Localisation company.

Those were my three main goals for this year, and they are looking slightly vaporous...

Despite all this, I've been in pretty good spirits lately. I've just finished another tax course - perhaps the relief from that is perking me up. It's always nice to finish a teaching job, and realising that both you and the students somehow enjoyed it. Today we did a two hour roleplay session of a foreigner filling his Tax payments... somehow, the students were enjoying it; laughing, smiling. Bizzare.

Well, they are out of my life now, so it's time to think about what comes next. I've got a few TV jobs coming up in Feb, so that should keep me ticking over in the meantime. I'm doing one commercial with a mega-famous pop star from SMAP too. It'll be the most I've ever gotten paid for one day's work. I deserve it, need it, will use it.

I was walking home the other day, and suddenly realised.... if I leave Japan, I won't be able to eat sushi (properly)... this shook me a bit. Not sure if I can leave Japan now. The food here is just so great. British food is so miserable... it makes me angry. Gastro pubs? Friking gastro pubs? Who the hell are these idiots. I went to one in London with Mickey O' last year... it was basically pub food, with herbs shucked on. Decorated with fancy names and dim lighting.
Don't get me wrong - there is plenty of good food in the UK. The problem is, if you go in a pub/restaurant/cafe and order food, 70% chance it will be merely adequate... it's like just producing the meal is the goal (on a large plate so that you can charge five quid for it). I worked in a pub. It was dreadful. Almost everything was frozen-->microwaved.
Am I being too cynical here? Am I looking at the UK through shit-tainted glasses?

Thoughts, life, jobs, etc

Quite a lot of things tend to happen lately. Things that excite, things that bore, and things that defy themselves.

Recently, the tax college has started to go well. I'm finding a rhythm, the students are used to the class, and we're all getting along. The course finishes in two days, and we're going out for a party tomorrow night.
You would assume that teaching tax English to tax officers would be dull as hell, but, it has actually turned out to be a fun experience - and, of course, very well paid. More money in 6 days than I have previously managed in a whole month of acting.
I've also realised, again, that I am actually a very good teacher - in so far as I can keep the students interested for a good 90% of the lesson. I don't know why, but I do tend to grin and smile throughout teaching. It's a cheeky grin, because I know that I can abuse my power, and the students find it funny when I do. If it looks like you are having fun, then it projects onto your students.
I will be the first to admit that I'm not the best at actually teaching language points, and getting students to memorise grammar. But, that's not really what I'm here for. Japanese students are very good at this by themselves. What they need is to increase their ability in speaking situations, so I just try to get them talking as much possible - nonsense is fine. You'd be surprised by some of the funny shit they come up with. One of my students loves the word hate. Hate is a fairly hilarious word really, when you think about it. He uses it with reckless abandon. We laugh. You would probably laugh too.
For the record, the main reason that I don't like teaching is the preparation - and preparation is key in this industry. I just can't concentrate when I have to pre-read the texts, note possible language and vocab points, think of exercises and fun, original games...
So, they've asked me about another course running in January, so I may do that too. The thing is, several things seem to be starting to rotate now.
On Thursday, I have an interview with a video game localisation company to help proof-read translated games. If I want a career in the game industry, I'm sensible enough to realise that this would be a very valuable experience. The money is pretty crap - but thats not the intention.
Also, in January, I will have an audition for a Motion Capture job for a video game. This would be a great job to get. Experience and money wise.
On top of this, there is the (shrinking) possibility of the Thailand movie job in February. It's all enough to make me think that, well, my visa expiring in March is a bit of a damn pain.
Oh, and, also, there was a brilliant sunset today from the classroom - the sun set behind mount Fuji, searing it's outline a reddy-gold. I stopped the class to check it out. I didn't take a photo for you though, sadly. So I stole this similar one instead:

I do, however, promise to scan in some of my tax textbook soon - so you can see what I have to play with :-P

Films, new jobs, nonetheless blasé

I guess that this week should have been a big week.
I acted in my first ever movie.

It's called 'Nippon no Aozora' (Blue skies over Japan), and is basically about the McArthur treaty - the post WWII negotiations between Japan and America over future military capabilities.
I was just an extra. But a good extra, you know. Not just walking in the background - I have a 10 second scene which features me giving Hershey bars to Japanese kids. I'm a member of the Military police. They even gave me a 40's hairdo, and brickloads of make-up, as if I'd been in Okinawa for a month.


I didn't even shave properly. I didn't bother to look at my scene in the script. What was I thinking? There's no doubt that I had one eye on my PS3 video. It may be sad, but that made me think more than a movie debut did. Will I be in the IMDB now? It comes out in March. I think I'll wait for the DVD. It would be too embarrassing to burst out into laughter when I appear in the cinema. I always gaffaw when I see myself on TV (apart from when I've been edited out, of course).
My distracted performance was even more compounded by the rather strange direction. The Director didn't speak directly to me. One of the AD's told me a basic outline, but the actual cut was different. Very confusing. Add to this the random factor of kids, who did something different in every practice shot. Also, I had no specific lines, but I was free to say anything that came to mind, as long as I told them exactly what I said later for the Japanese in-movie translation. My mind was so preoccupied with all these variables, that I'm not sure if I even remembered to do an American accent! We only did one cut. No second chance. I was so disorientated that I forgot my coat. And then we drove to the station, and I realised that I was still wearing the military trousers...
I guess that acting in movies is kind of hard. I'm also convinced that good directors make bad actors look good, and vice versa. Let's hope that I get better directors in the future!

I've had a number of interesting costume roles lately. As a special Christmas gift to my fans around the world, next week I will compile a video of all my cameos that have been screened in the past month, but weren't big enough to warrant it's own video. It'll be a bit like those disappointing Christmas comedy specials on BBC; AbFab or whatever.

As an appetizer, here I am, taking names and kicking some quite serious butt-ocks.

"Hey, you - shut up!!"

"Your ass is mine, cowboy!"

But that's not all. Starting today, I started a one-week course teaching English to Japanese Government Tax Workers. Not just general English. Specific, tax English. For 110 minutes each lesson. All day, every day, same 10 students. It is dry. The English is impossible to teach. But the money is very good.
I sincerely hope that this will be my last English teaching job - my soul seems to have had it. Money or no. This doesn't make me happy. Dressing up as a policeman, for 1/3rd the money... bring it on!

Video game video generates heat

Things recently got interesting concerning the PS3 video that I posted on Youtube yesterday.
I spent a good 6 hours transferring the video file, encoding, translating and subtitling it. My general goal was to get it done and get it out there.

I managed to get the video linked in at Kotaku.com - one of the internet's biggest gaming news blogs. You can see the article here. It's a site that I've always enjoyed - its always had a good group of writers writing insightful and amusing game news. Because it's such a popular site, it does, of course, attract its fair share of tossers. Being a blog, these tossers do, of course, have the ability to comment. One of the reasons that I seldom comment on blogs and forums is due to said tossers, who seem to be preoccupied with antagonising, insulting, bragging and generally, well, being tossers. It's the main reason why I've always kept my blog low-key - I want to distance myself from such people. They, like the one ring, have only the power to destroy.

Needless to say, whilst my video did garner some nice, insightful comments, it did also attract a couple that, well, hurt my feelings. Is this what blogging is all about? Exposing yourself to the opinions of tossers, living in fear of what they may say? Sometimes I've noticed that my friend here, Tim, who is himself a video game journalist of some renown, sometimes gets personal attacks in response to articles that he writes. He defends himself vigorously. Sadly (or maybe it's a blessing), Kotaku has a strange invite system for commenting, so I am unable to defend myself against the criticisms. I will just have to let them lie/lye.

The criticisms in question were attacks of my translation of the TV program.
Here is what _yeah had to say;

Those subtitles are horrible. Just from the first three lines (actual translation in brackets, wrong translation used in the video in quotes)

販売初日は大行列! (There was a massive line-up formed on the release date!) -> "Massive slowdown in sales!"

あっと言う間に売り切れとなった超人気ゲーム機プレイステーション３。 (The super-popular game console that was sold out almost instantly, the PlayStation 3) -> "The item in question: The Sony PlayStation 3."

町から姿を消したはずでしたが (Although it should have all but disappeared from the city by now,) -> "Despite officially on sale only domestically"

意外なところでバンキシャは発見！ (We at Bankisha have discovered it in some very unexpected places!) -> "We have discovered exceptions!"

... I had to stop watching at that point before I stabbed my damned eyes out. Eugh.

and bugbread has this to say;

Those are truly fucked up subtitles, and it's not a matter of brevity (that's expected in subtitling); they're just wrong.

No wonder the guy's section got completely cut, his Japanese comprehension is horrible. I'm sure that the quizzical look that he got after answering a "ridiculous question" was quizzical because they asked him a perfectly sensible question, which he didn't understand, and then he gave a nonsensical answer based on what he guessed incorrectly that they had asked him.

Um, ok guys, I really think you need to chill out a bit. This is a Youtube video. I make no claim to be a professional translator. I am not being paid. I am doing a public service. If I didn't translate and post this video, nobody would have, and these people would never have had the chance to see it anyway.

In language teaching we say that 'making mistakes is part of the learning process'. I knew that I wasn't 100% accurate in that video. I knew that I got some stuff wrong. But I tried. And I have no doubt that my Japanese ability improved thanks to this exercise.

Whilst I don't mind anyone who wants to correct my translations, when people start making it nasty in order to try and make themselves look cool, or better... let's just say that I'm disappointed at these kind of people. They wish to maintain their clique of perfect Japanese speakers. Well, this isn't the matrix - I can't just install Japanese in my mind, there is no Japanese dongle that fits snugly in ones rectum. As far as I'm aware, anyway. If you wanna learn, you gotta make mistakes.

So, my message to everyone - don't let yourself be cowed by these cowards!

Kotaku Link: Foreigner's PS3 opinions Cut by Japanese TV

This leads me on to think: what does blogging and new media mean? What potential does it have, when we are exposed to such reckless commenting? Imagine if you were watching Newsnight, and after every article, they would have to show 20 comments by chavs, mostly involving swearing, chest pumping and bias. Yes, it's democratic, but where can it lead us?
In the past 6 months, I have finally started to feel like I am starting to discover purpose in my life in Japan. Like everything has been building up to it. Whilst I had a great time in the process, the first 3 years here do now seem somewhat... like a long dream. A paused existence. I came to Japan to chase the holy grail of gaming, to try and see where I might fit in. I think I'm getting closer.
What has this got to do with blogging? I have met two gaming journalists in Japan now; Tim as mentioned and Brian at Kotaku, and, I must say, they are both very nice guys. They have never been anything less than friendly, generous and willing to help. Regardless of what you think of their writing or journalistic abilities, at the core they do not slag individuals off with no purpose.
Secondly, why is it that I am always cautious in comparison? I have an acting friend called Jack, who has been working here quite a while. Thoroughly nice chap. Every time there is a new actor on set, he introduces himself. What a blindingly good idea I thought! Why not establish trust as the base of a meeting, rather than caution? I almost always wait for someone to introduce themselves to me, or I wait until I have observed somewhat of their character first. I think it is a hang-over reaction from school. Damn school.

I am quite resolved that, despite the layer of miserable humans that populate forums across the web, I will not be goaded into mud-slinging. Their arguments always - always contain some massive flaws of sense or logic that can be pointed out without seeming arrogant or condescending. If someone is being a dick, I would prefer to make them feel disappointed by their actions, rather than make them think that I'm a dick too. Can we reform these people? Is there hope? We are all products of society after all, and it would be pointless to hate these individuals. They will constantly resurface. It is an unsolvable problem. So there is no point hating them.

So, in conclusion, I say again to all the people out there who criticise others for a lack of perfection - what are you adding to this world?

And, what do you think? Can others help me iron out this mental crease?