The Japanese are amazing. They produce some of the best electronics, usually before the rest of the world does. They are among the trendiest people in the world - picking up on the newest fashions ahead of others. They have visionary entertainers, as seen in their well… unique TV shows.

I’m a big fan of Initial D, an anime show about downhill drift racing. I’ve also enjoyed watching Slam Dunk, also an anime show, this time about a high school basketball team. There are bunch of other shows, about everything from samurai to space travel. The most unique shows, however, at least in my opinion, are those about cooking.

Yes, there are a whole lot of cooking shows around. I’m sure we all remember Wok with Yan and the Nora Daza series of shows. Now, I’m also a fan of Good Eats and other cooking shows, but the Japanese have taken cooking on television to a whole new level.

Another anime show, Cooking Master Boy, is about… well… a boy who travels to different places and beats the resident chefs in cooking matches. Just a while ago, I caught Iron Chef on ETC. This show seems to come from the same vein as Cooking Master Boy. In Iron Chef, a guest chef challenges one of the ‘Iron Chefs’ to a duel. They are both given an hour to prepare any number of dishes with one theme ingredient. At the end, three judges decide who came up with the better dishes.

The local entertainment industry could learn a lesson or two from the Japanese. Their ideas may sometimes border on the the bizaare, but at least they have a lot of fresh, unique, and creative concepts. I may not like everything the Japanes produce; I may in fact find some of their shows downright silly, but I do admire their willingness to try new things. I’ve heard that the Japanese are rigid, unwilling to change. Well, after watching some of the shows they produce, I’m not too inclined to agree.

My brother’s stuff still occupies most of my storage space. The bathroom is still pink. The ceiling fan doesn’t work. My curtains let in way too much light. I need more dark wood furniture. I have to find a way to put up a lot of pictures. I want a small refrigerator and a phone.

Otherwise, I’m pretty happy with my room.

I have net access in my room.

I’m happy.

‘Nuff said.

I don’t know why my connection wouldn’t work earlier, but it works now! I had my cable crimped at the closest suking tindahan, i.e. Villman, and it worked! I won’t go into the technical details, but basically, they used one standard for wiring (568-A) while I used another (568-B). I don’t know why their wiring worked while mine didn’t, but I’m not complaining anymore. Now, I just have to worry about threading the wire from my room to the study all over again… or at least getting somebody to do it.

So now I say that technology doesn’t suck… but the weather does. It just rained. On most days, I love the rain. Today, however, the rain makes getting to roof (and staying there) quite a bit more difficult. This means that I have to wait until tomorrow (or maybe later) to get my room wired. Oh well…

I should be typing this blog entry from the comfort of my bed. I should be enjoying the fact that my room is now wired… connected to my home network. I should be congratulating myself for threading roughly 50 meters of cable from my room all the way to my network hub.

I should be, but I’m not.

This morning, after hanging out outside my window, my brother’s window, my roof, and outside my study, I finally got a wire running from the study to my room. This wire was supposed to give me internet access, but it didn’t. My guess is somewhere along the way, one of the 8 little wires inside the cable snapped, effectively cutting my connection. So much for being wired.

I wanted to get WiFi, but my room is pretty far from the study where my hub is… at least 30 feet away. This puts it out of the range of the standard WAP router.

I decided to go the wired route… but this hasn’t worked out either.

I need to figure this out… but right now, I’m obviously just whining.

I haven’t quite set it up yet, but I can live in it.

I want to repaint the walls of my (not quite) new room… but I guess I have to be happy with getting a new paint job for my car instead.

I need to find a way to string over 100 feet of cable from the study downstairs to my room… this means I’ll have internet access from my room.

I want to move my stuff in, but my brother’s stuff is still in the way. I don’t particularly mind having all that audio equipment, but the rest of the stuff has to go.

I technically don’t have a bed yet… instead I have 2 mattresses, one on top of the other.

I have a pink bathroom… and some of the tiles have flowers on them.

I have a fancy ceiling fan with… well… i want simpler light fixtures.

I have a door with more carvings than I care for.

I have a sony component system… with a busted CD changer.

I have a lot of work ahead of me.

It’s just past five on a Saturday morning and I’m awake… typing away on my laptop.

This means one of two things
1. I’ve been working all night and I have not slept in order to catch a deadline… or…
2. I’m headed out really early… meaning I’m probably headed out of town.

Sunday: basketball… Monday: basketball… Tuesday: volleyball… Wednesday: basketball or maybe badminton… Thursday: wall climbing… Friday: swimming… Saturday, whatever comes up…

This week, a sports-fest and a poolside barbecue… next week, a trip to Baguio… after that, a trip to Bolinao… what else? I really don’t know.

On the menu: Bad Breath Special (1/2 pound grilled beef patty with cream cheese & garlic, blue cheese, onions, and then some, on a sesame seed bun) at Brother’s Burger, all you can eat sushi and ramen at Enraku, spiked shakes & smoothies plus a whole lot more at Ricca’s, Munchies & ice tea slush at Joaq’s, chocolate fondue at Old Swiss Inn, Ice Monster… and more…

Watched a lunar eclipse… went swimming fully clothed… enjoyed some fondue… went on joyrides (1,2,3)… poked my head through a roof… played with my nephew… the list goes on…

Is it obvious I’m having fun?