I really loved the first transformers movie. I went in with rather low expectations, and walked out thinking it was probably the best movie I saw that year.

So I really had such high hopes for the new one. I hated it in so many ways, it is not even worth my time to enumerate them. Summary: while some of the things I hated are due to my familiarity with the original source, many are not. Top of the list: pointless dumb/sexual/bodily humor/ not-so-witty-remarks

I know some of you liked it, you are entitled to your opinions. They won't change mine.

How can the same creative team get the first one so right, and the second one so wrong?

Not a lot to say really, but I realized it had been a month since I posted, and I probably ought to say something. I check my friends page every day because I love keeping up with all of you, but frankly there is just not a lot interesting going on here right now.

I've been very pleased with my Dark Heresy game lately. Very energized around that again.

Diet is going well. 37 pounds gone.

And I can't wait for this weekend when I take a little time off around the 4'th. I really need a vacation, work has been stressful lately.

Hopefully next post I will talk a bit more about my recent experiments in MMO'ing.

Lastly- there are a couple names on my "friend of" list that I don't recognize. Glancing at the journals, you all seem to have interests similar to mine. If you have friended me from some strange connection and would like to be friended in turn, feel free to post and introduce yourself.

Date:	2009-05-24 07:29
Subject:	I'm not dead
Security:	Public
Mood:	cheerful

Hi all.

Sorry it has been a while. Work has just been very busy. I am still really happy. I love my job, I've lost 30 pounds since I started my diet this year, and Greg and I are on vacation in a BEAUTIFUL mountain cabin this weekend. Been playing a little World of Warcraft again.

The Details:

Job front- I'm doing some very fun, challenging work, but it is very taxing. Everyone is constantly telling me what a great job I am doing. Feel very secure in my employment, which in these times is a wonderful thing. Still (usually) getting to work from home 2 days a week. But the down side is that we have one of me, and we need 4. As in, we have had job reqs open for months to hire 3 more of me. So while my boss (who I adore) understands that I can't possibly do the overhead work we have for 4 people, there is 4 people's worth that both she and I know really needs doing and I'm struggling to keep up with just the parts that can't wait. The last couple weeks have been particularly INSANE, because we're finally getting some good candidates for those open reqs. But I am in charge of the phone screening, which means having to do that, and then face to faces (no working from home) on top of everything else.

Life in general: Greg and I blissfully happy. We talk about it all the time. How lucky we are to have the life we do in these trying times. We will be doing our long term financial planning (read: retirement) today, but I ran some initial numbers and we're in great shape.

Yes, I've lost 30 pounds. I am pleased with it, but there is another 40 to go. Still I bought and wore a bikini for the hot tub here in the cabin, so we have progress. There are certainly times where I wish I could have other foods, and times when I loathe exercising (or even times like last week where I just couldn't make it happen), but in general I am finding the lifestyle changes pretty easy for the scope of what I'm doing. And I feel confident that once the initial restrictions on what I can eat have been eased (once the weight is off and I'm just maintaining) it's going to be fine.

This cabin is amazing!! We're up in the North Georgia mountains, only a couple hours from our home. Gorgeous, spacious (sleeps way more people than just us), has internet and an outdoor hot tub, plus a giant bath tub. We're just hiding out up here over the long weekend, and I'm enjoying recovering from the very stressful work week. I should have brought the camera to take photos. Next time I will.

Well, I spoke too soon about sleep schedule. I am so far from anything resembling US Time. >< (Or Japan time..)

Anyway, I have our Japan pictures uploaded here:

http://east-horizon.net/travelgallery/gallery.php

Doing this made me realize 2 things:

1) I never uploaded the pictures from our Honeymoon in Rome. I need to remedy that.

2) I need to create some master index of my travel pictures. They are scattered all over my websites because some galleries I haven't wanted to share with some audiences (read: professional contacts). But it makes it hard for even me to keep track.

FINALLY. After five days of living in the twilight zone, I am finally (I hope) back on something approximating US time. I went to sleep at 8:30 and woke up at 5. Close enough. It beats waking up in the middle of the night and staying awake for 5 hours like I have pretty much have since my return.

Now I just have to quit missing Japan! :-)

Just a few pictures while we have internet. I wasn't going to take many pictures since I've been here so much, but Greg's parents have asked we take some. Plus, the first time I was in Japan, I didn't take any pictures, and that was the only time I was here for the sakura.

So just sampling. Bigger images will be available in the final gallery.

The view from our window at the ryokan in Kyoto




As I mentioned in my last post, the sakura aren't really in bloom yet, but everything is still in motion to get the hanami (sakura viewing) festivals up and running. Here's a shot of what a japanese festival looks like.




However, the shidare sakura (weeping sakura) trees bloom a bit earlier. And there are a few places where you can see them nearly full. I'm so glad. While looking for a lunch spot, we ran into this BEAUTIFUL little street near gion where shidare sakura were lining a canal in front of several traditional storefronts. Simply beautiful.



I also realized as I was digging through my websites, that I don't think I ever uploaded our honeymoon pictures... I will need to remedy that.

Greg and I arrived in Kyoto yesterday.

This is my fourth (or is it fifth?) time here, so I've seen a lot of what there is to do by this point. But we're trying a new place I've never stayed, and I have to say- I don't think I'll ever stay anywhere else ever again in Kyoto. The place we're staying is called the Three Sister's Inn. It's a traditional structure, but it has modern amenities like private bathrooms in every room and even wifi! The staff are super friendly and it is in a fantastic location. It's literally around the corner from one of my favorite shrines, and there are lots of shops and restaurants nearby, as well as several bus lines.

Greg seems to really like the city, it's much more his speed and style than the modern press of Kyoto. Some cold weather has set the sakura trees back, which is disappointing. There are some trees starting to bloom, but it's doubtful we'll see them in Kyoto in all their glory. It sounds like they should be close to bloom in Fuji and upon our return to Tokyo though, which may prompt some re-arranging of our trip.

I haven't actually taken any pictures yet, but I'll try to snap a few, including the ryokan today.

Not a perfect night's sleep last night, but much better than my first night in Rome. Plans to manage sleep on the plane seemed to have worked reasonably well. I feel very lively this fine Japan morning.

Anyway, off to enjoy Japan now!

In 24 hours I'll be on my way to Japan!

Haaa.. Finally, the hard parts are finished.
I have made all our restaurant reservations (at the places that need them) for the trip to Japan.

I hate having to do stuff in Japanese over the phone. It's a lot harder without visual cues.

But I managed. All set!

2 more days until I get to see Watchmen in IMAX

7 more days until I get to visit my friends and family back home

18 more days until I leave for Japan!

I love my new weight machine.

I didn't know I had all those muscle groups. (And well.. it's arguable that I don't! ^_^ )

The weight is in ten pound increments, up to 160 pounds. I had to use the ten pound setting on everything but the back and tricep exercises (on which I used 20). -_-

It came with instructions for two sets of exercises you can do for each muscle group. I basically did one rep of the first exercise for each group. I'll try the second set later in the week. I was impressed by what an interesting workout it is though. Quite varied- way less boring than cardio (although I can't read while doing it).

( Effects of my injury )

I am having a great weekend. I am in an amazing mood and wonderful things are happening. If I believed in being on a roll, I would buy a lottery ticket. :-)

They installed the new phone jack yesterday and I got to game last night in my private room with speakerphone.
I hit my 20 pound weight loss mark this morning.
I went grocery shopping and it was magical. Somehow all the products I had been wishing my grocery store carried were on the shelves now. Seriously.. I had to stop and ask myself if I was in the right store. I even found they carried Daikon- the Japanese radish.
I picked up a bunch of stuff and my grocery bill was still less than I thought it would be.
I got some great compliments on my Dark Heresy game.
And possibly best of all- They are predicting the cherry blossoms will be early this year: http://tenki.jp/sakura/expectation This will put us in Japan -exactly- when the sakura should be in full bloom in the central part of the country.

I am looking forward to the great chili experiment this afternoon, and they should be delivering my weight machine anytime. So hopefully I will have even more awesomeness to add by the end of the weekend. :-)

I am DYING of anticipation. Three more weeks before we head to Japan for vacation.

I am diligently planning and scheduling and booking reservations. I'm making sure I have maps and phone numbers printed out for all the restaurants we want to go to. (Tourist destinations are easy to find, small shops on city streets.. often not so much.) The internet has been a much more useful tool than in previous trips, partly because I am doing my planning from the US where I have a printer, instead of Japan.

And google maps is FABULOUS for Japan. I love the way their maps are laid out, with both the Japanese and roman characters.

But I'm afraid I might combust before it is time to go!!

Lots of various things I could post about, but let me catch up on this one:

I mentioned a couple times that I started a Diet. (It deserves at least one capital letter.) Now, this has been pretty impossible to hide at work, since it makes my eating patterns odd, and of course everyone asks about it.

Therefore, I figure there may be some readers curious about my Diet as well. ( Details behind the LJ Cut )

Now if I can just not put it all back on when we go to Japan. :-)

Our first anniversary is coming up next week on the 23'rd. We decided to combine it with Valentine's day into one celebration.

Here is a picture of the beautiful roses Greg got me:

Date:	2009-02-12 23:14
Subject:	I won't miss this.
Security:	Public
Mood:	annoyed

Ugh. The legacy of consulting still pursues me.

Filing multi-state non-resident tax returns is such a pain. SO MUCH PAPERWORK.

Barf.

I will be so glad not to have to deal with this for my '09 returns.

http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=382

Date:	2009-02-04 18:35
Subject:	SQUEEEE!!!
Security:	Public
Mood:	ecstatic

OMG! I'm a finalist in the Dark Heresy adventure contest!!

http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=378

Well, after getting an international phone card to be able to make all my reservations (some of which I had to do in Japanese), I finally have our trip all booked. I put a lot of research into finding nice places to stay for the Kyoto and Hakone part that weren't exorbitantly expensive. I do hope we see some cherry blossoms!

We leave Monday March 23, fly first class direct from Atlanta to Tokyo
Arrive Tuesday March 24. Stay 2 nights in Tokyo Hilton Shinjuku
Arrive in Kyoto March 26. Stay 4 nights at the Three Sisters Inn Annex, a Japanese style inn with private bathrooms right behind one of the big shrines in Kyoto
Arrive in Hakone March 30. Stay 1 night at Ichinoyo Ryokan, room with outdoor private onsen. (This was our big treat, staying at a real Japanese ryokan and a room with a private japanese bath.)
Hakone day 2: Move on to the Yamagashi Inn (to avoid 2 nights of ryokan prices). But Yamagashi Inn has an all you can eat sukiyaki dinner included.
April 1: Return to Kyoto. Stay 3 nights in Hilton Tokyo Bay (near Tokyo Disneyland)
April 3: First class back home

The Hilton stays are both paid for with points.
And the Kyoto hotel takes credit cards, so happily it just means I need to deal with getting enough cash yen for the 2 other nights.

I still need to get rail passes and get plenty of yen in cash, but I am waiting for the exchange rate to improve.

Now I just have to iron out our agenda in the cities we're going to.

I can't wait!