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I won 3rd place in the Abbey Hill Literary Short Story Contest.  Check out my story here.  Thank you Abbey Hill Literary, it was an honor to place!

This is the first contest I have entered and to win was a wonderful shock.

For all you Gundam fans who have been visiting my blog, hello! Thanks for stopping by. Found this on the interwebs and thought you all might get a chuckle out of it.

A woman in Taiwan encrusted a RX-78-2 with jewels. Check it out:

Via Pink Tentacle – check it out for more pics.

Just a quick update on the huge Gundam model being built on Odaiba.  Check out the latest pic and video below. I’m telling you, this will bring on an alien attack… They’re finally going to think we’re ready to fight.

So that giant Gundam statue I blogged about a while ago is now half completed.  Check out the pics below to see how its coming along.  A friend of mine made an interesting comment about this statue.  What if aliens were to do a fly by, see the robot, and think, ‘ok, they’re ready.’  Just food for thought.

Photos via Mainichi

Seriously, where did the month of May vanish to? For now, enjoy the cover to this book I saw at Borders:

I’ve been thinking a lot lately of what to post on here, as you can see been trying to do all sorts of things. Well, how could I leave out photos. They’re oldies, but goodies.

Please welcome 2005!

Winter

Spring

Summer

WHOA!

View from my old train station in Shinjuku and one of my favorite night views in the city.

My first apartment in Japan

Recycling slot machine?!?

Beware of falling demons

CNN is so punny

For those of you who didn’t read this comment, I’m posting it here so you can. This was written by Lynne Faust, Jake’s mother. My heart goes out to Jake’s family and friends as the fourth year anniversary of his death passed last Saturday – 4/4/09. I was unable to make it down for the protest, so if anyone made it, please let me know how it went. RIP brother – you may not be in our lives, but you are in our hearts.

Thank you for your insightful words, Evan. I continue to be outraged that the only thing the media continues to publicize is a regurgitation, exactly the word I used, of the old Joe Hughes’ Union Tribune story put out the morning Jake was murdered, a story to vilify him, a story fabricated by the officers responsible for ending his life, and a story proved to be a lie by two separate eyewitnesses to the shooting who gave sworn depositions as to what really took place. It is so sad that not ONE source of major media in San Diego is interested in any of this, the very reason why the city settled: There was too much incriminating evidence against them and they knew they had everything to lose. This law suit was never about the money, you know. It was about disclosure, to find out exactly what happened to Jacob and to make that known publicly, which I intend to do. There’s no amount of money they could have given me to undo what was done. No one will ever fill Jake’s shoes. No one will ever fill the hole his absence has left in our lives and our hearts. A part of me died that day with him, Evan. And we all know money doesn’t bring back what’s dead.

Thank you for being Jake’s friend.

Lynne

Oh the humanity! This 24ft. tall fire breathing robot stormed through Roppongi Hills on Saturday March 28th, taking several small children out in its wake.  No one knows where or how this robot was created, but some people suspect that Dr. Steel may have a hand behind it.  This might be his first move into world domination.  Many people were seen pointing to the robot and screaming in terror (see below).

Actually, this friendly robot was created by Sculptor Kenji Yanobe for the Roppongi Art Night. For more information and photos, visit the below links.

Video via CScout Japan.
Photo via Pink Tentacle.

I don’t know if  you remember, but a year ago I posted this open letter to the ghost and spirit of Jacob Faust. Long story short, my friend Jake was shot to death by the SDPD on April 4th, 2005. This week, the San Diego City Council settled with his family out of court for the measly sum of $325,000. I’m sorry, but my friend Jake’s life was worth WAY more than $325,000. In fact, you could never put a price on his life, that man was priceless and one of the most honest, caring, and honorable people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting in my life. Now, this is where the mass media gets me, The San Diego Union Tribune posted an article earlier this week explaining this settlement. As you can see from the article, investigative journalism is dead. Instead of looking into the story and digging for truth, they copy and paste regurgitated MISinformation that was propagated shortly after his death. These hack reporters only listen to the people we can really trust, crooked cops and corrupt officials, and take every word they say as golden nuggets of truth. Those police officers killed my defenseless friend. They shot him in cold blood. Doesn’t anyone question anything anymore? When did we start taking everything at face value. Isn’t there more to every story than we hear?

Let’s think about this, the reason the police have power over us, is because we give them that power. It is us, the population, who are the keepers of power – not the police and surely not the government. Never forget who put these people in power and never forget who can take them out. I don’t say this often enough, it may be because I’m a cynic, but I love my country. I hate the corruptness and pretty much everything else about the government today, but damn if I don’t love my country for allowing me to be free to say it.

So here are a couple ways the government might be screwing you over:

• California to Outlaw Black Cars
• NY Times – Everyone is Homeless!
• Obama Opposes – Oh? And alcohol and cigarette tax increases are good economic policies? I don’t even smoke it, but if we made it legal and end prohibition, we could save ourselves a lot of money.

In other news, I called the Employment Development Department over 42 times yesterday and never got through once. More on that nightmare later.

Here are two great videos to help show you what technology might look like in several years. The surprising thing is that the second video is produced by Microsoft.

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-GB&#038;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:a517b260-bb6b-48b9-87ac-8e2743a28ec5&#038;showPlaylist=true&#038;from=shared" target="_new" title="Future Vision Montage">Video: Future Vision Montage</a>

Bandai announced yesterday that they will debut and showcase a life size Mobile Suit Gundam. Standing at over 18 meters, 60 feet, the Gundam model will be available for free viewing at Odaiba’s Shiokaze Park, Odaiba is a small reclaimed island in Tokyo Harbor with many of amusement centers, movie theaters, and a Statue of Liberty replica – I know, weird right? Beginning in July, the Mobile Suit Gundam will be displayed for anywhere from 2 to 3 months. Following which, Bandai has no idea what the hell they will do with the 60 foot statue. What does one do with a 60 foot statue?

Odaiba Statue Artist Rendering

The Gundam statue will be made of iron and plastic (FRP), and can easily be broken down into smaller pieces. According to Bandai, the head will operate, the eyes and over 50 other body parts will light up, and mist and fog will be dispelled from over 14 places in the body.

Mobile Suit Gundam debuted April 7th, 1979 and only originally ran for 43 episodes. The original series has spawned a great deal of spin-offs and movies. For more information on Gundam check out their Wiki.

Original article through Yahoo News Japan.

Evan's Rendering

HIS Japan, one of the bigger Japanese travel agencies, yes they still have travel agencies and they are one of the more popular ways to find travel deals in Japan, has set up some great tours for all you foreigners heading to Japan. Now you can live out your dreams of making a ceramic Maneki Neko (lucky cat), touring the Tsukiji fish market and learning how to make Sushi, taking a class on how to wield a Japanese Samurai Sword, or becoming a Ninja.

If you really want to get crazy, you can take a tour of Akihabara, Electric Town and geek central, with this guy:

(Caption: AWEEEEEEESOOOOOME!)

All I have to say is, if you want an excellent tour of Tokyo from someone who really knows the city, buy me a plane ticket and I’ll join you. You don’t even need to book me a hotel room, I’ll find somewhere to sleep. If you really want to have a fun time, book my wife a ticket too and we’ll both show you around the city. Why spend $50 on a 2 hour tour, when you can spend $500 for a full week!

However, if you do just want a short tour, check out the HIS Experience Tours, I’m sure it will be fun – but not as fun as me!

Photo via HIS Pop Culture Experience in Akihabara