Speed Racer

This film looks pretty awesome. I never watched the 60s anime, but the film reminds me of F-Zero with all the racing and bright lights.

Christmas Day

So it's Christmas Day. I wasn't really excited at all this year, and it feels better that way actually 'cos there's less of an anti-climax.

I ended up receiving mostly money, which is good, but I also got a cool book kinda thing from my sister. It's called the Star Wars Vault and it charts the history of Star Wars with pieces of replicated memorabilia like cinema tickets and original sketches attached to the pages. It's quite fun - like a Star Wars Jolly Postman.

Totally unrelatedly, I discovered an awesome cover version of The Police's Message in a Bottle by Matisyahu. Check it out while you can on his MySpace page.

家に帰る

I've just returned to my parents' house for Christmas. I'm glad to be back for a bit, and I'm going to try and take a break from studying for a few days, which I haven't done in months.

I got both my essays in on time, and I'm pleased with how they turned out. I think I'm starting to understand what makes a good essay a bit more now. But all that essaying meant I had to neglect the Japanese language part of my course, so I'm gonna have to do some catching up over the break.

Wireless internet is great. I unpacked my PC after bringing it back from my place, and I'm connected to the 'net in only a few minutes. It's crazy, but awesome. Crazy awesome.

More essays

I've been writing my essay on the Japanese economy all day down at the Information Commons. The IC is Sheffield University's hi-tech new library which opened last year, and I find it easier to write essays there than sat at my PC in my bedroom. I think because I spend quite a lot of spare time in my bedroom on the internet or whatever it's kinda hard to reset my mind and focus on doing work in the same space. Also, being in a big library full of people who are working makes you want to work yourself, and I usually go down for 5 or 6 hours, so after a while you just drift into a state of unconscious work. The only problem is it's often quite hard to find a PC when everyone's writing essays.

I'll probably go down tomorrow too, but the deadline is this Tuesday, so I'll be able to relax soon.

神戸！

Last week I found out that I'm very likely to be going to Kobe university for my year abroad next year (I don't know why I didn't post this earlier). My teacher released a list of where everyone in our year will be going, and luckily I got my first choice. There will probably be a few changes to the list, but hopefully not involving me. It's all becoming a bit more real now.

Football in the snow

I've just got back from playing football at 10am on a Saturday morning in the snow! I'm finding it a little hard to type as my fingers still aren't moving properly. The match was between the Japan Societies of Sheffield University and Nottingham University, and the score in the end was 3-3, despite us leading 3-0 at one point. It was an 11-a-side game, and was more fun than the 6-a-side football I usually play.

Nintendo have recently been re-designing their websites around the world, and the UK version just launched this past week. Due to the success of the Wii and DS Nintendo seem to be taking everything a bit more seriously these days, and the new website looks nice, and is much more functional and efficient than the old one, although it is all white and doesn't have so much of that old Nintendo charm.

My account from the old site has been carried over, so I still have my balance of Stars, which are points earned by purchasing Nintendo systems and games. The Stars Catalogue has some nice collectables available - a while back I ordered a limited edition Mario Gamecube controller through the catalogue, which is pretty neat. There's also the opportunity to link your web account to your Wii and exchange Stars for Wii Points to use on things like the Virtual Console. But everything's quite expensive in terms of Stars. For example, I have just about enough for a t-shirt from the catalogue, although I've registered ten different products including two systems over the last two years.

Ah well, it's better than nothing I suppose.

Shopping online

I recently received a t-shirt and CD in the post from American metal band He Is Legend. I was on MySpace when I saw a bulletin from the band about some new t-shirt designs or something, so I clicked through to their online store. The store is part of a system called Big Cartel, which I was really impressed with. You don't need to sign up for an account to order (which I hate doing), and payment could be made through PayPal. Due to this, and the fact that the pound/dollar exchange rate works out in my favour right now, I ordered a t-shirt and a CD, all within about 5 minutes of first seeing the bulletin on MySpace. I wish all online commerce was this easy, and I also prefer buying music direct from the artist this way.

I think I'm gonna buy Christmas presents online, but I'd better hurry to make sure they don't all get stuck in the Christmas post.

GBA SP

My GBA SP came in the post today! After giving up all hope of it arriving, the parcel was finally delivered on a Sunday, which is strange, but I'm glad it's here. It's the Classic NES Edition, which was released about 3 years ago. I remember first seeing the design back then and wanting one really badly. But surface design aside, the GBA SP is a really great system - very compact, nice display, great button layout. They didn't really need to attempt a re-design with the Game Boy Micro.

I ordered some games too, which all arrived before the Game Boy. I bought Snoopy Tennis, Wacky Races, Pokémon Gold and Super Mario Land, and I forgot that I also owned three of the NES Classics games from back when I had my DS - Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Xevious. Awesome!

The Game Boy isn't quite in "excellent condition", as the eBay listing described, but it's just charging up now and I can't wait to start playing.