As you may have realized, I've made some changes to the blog today. I've added a new page called Social Me, I've added a link to my photostream at Flickr in the far right sidebar, but most importantly, I've added a new comment system.
Before this update I had a box for my Twitter updates just below the Shared Items box. But I decided to remove that box because it didn't really fit in with the rest of the site. But instead of removing Twitter completely, I've now added my FriendFeed under the page called Social Me. Now, FriendFeed doesn't just show my Twitter updates, it also shows updates from all the other social networking sites I'm a member of. For example, it'll update when I Digg something, upload a photo to my Flickr account and when I add a bookmark to my del.icio.us account. I don't want my site to be all bloated by all the social media sites I'm on, so this is a great solution (at least in my opinion) to prevent that from happening.
As said before, I've added a new comment system. It's called Disqus and can be used on many platforms, like Blogger, WordPress, TypPad etc. The reason why I decided to do this is because I just don't like Blogger's current comment system. I want the comment system to work like WordPress' comment system, with just a normal comment form, like this:
You don't have to sign up for a Disqus account to comment, however, if you want to have your own avatar, you will need an account. Having your own avatar is good since it somewhat highlights your comment. If you don't want to sign up, do NOT check the "Verify my post" box, if you do, Disqus will ask for your account information.
I hope you'll like this update, if you have any questions, just use the new comment system! If you don't know how to comment, you'll find my email address in the picture above.
Cheers!
New Comment System and Social Me
Image Hosting & Updates
I haven't posted in a while, I haven't had anything interesting to write about lately. I do have some interesting subjects I'm going to write about sooner or later, I also have some unpublished content that I'm not completely satisfied with, but I might publish it sometime. I want to encourage everyone to use a feed reader, since you don't have to visit my site all the time to see if I've updated or not using that. It saves you a lot of time!
Lately I've been trying out some new image hosting websites. I've been using Photobucket and ImageShack for quite some time, but I'm not really satisfied with them because of their limitations on file sizes and/or image resolutions. So I've been trying out Flickr and Picasa, which also have their limitations on certain things. Flickr is a good image host, but what I don't like about it is that you can't have more than 3 sets unless you pay a yearly fee of ~$25, you also need to pay that if you want to upload and share bigger photos. So Flickr is not good enough for me, which is why I've also tried Google's Picasa. I like Picasa, I can have just as many albums as I want and I can upload files as big as 20 Mb. However, Picasa also has it's downsides, for example linking to photos and tagging photos is a real pain. To link to a photo you can choose between using a direct link or a HTML link, but what I miss is a BBCode link for forums. Tagging photos is really time consuming since you have to tag your photos one by one, I at least haven't found a way to tag more than one photo at once. I also just have 1 GB free storage on Picasa while I have 6.54 GB on Gmail, which is kind of strange, it should be the other way around. However, I think I'll continue to use Picasa for a while, I'm a fan of Google so I guess I'll learn to love it, just like I did with everything else.
Yesterday I got an email from a man called Andrew (also known as Cruxay) about a link exchange. This led to a new partnership which I'm looking forward to continue working on in the future. Feel free to take a look around on his new blog about Japan in general, it's new but if you're interested in dramas, the otaku culture and reading about various places in Japan you should definitely pay a visit.
If you're interested in exchanging links or if you have anything else on your mind, feel free to contact me.
Turtles, what's the dealio?
As you can see I've made some changes to the header, mostly because it was outdated (it contained some information that wasn't correct anymore). So why turtles? Well, some of you probably didn't know this but kame (as in my blog's name) is the Japanese word for turtle. Of course there's a story about this word and why it's a part of this blog's name, and that is the story I'm going to tell you now!
When I was young (I'm still young, but with that I mean really young) my parents and I adopted three turtles. These turtles were my first pets ever and I loved them very much, until it started to smell that is (which was like 2 weeks later). So we got rid of them and then I got two sand rats instead, but that's a whole other story. So my first encounter with turtles wasn't that good but a couple of years later when I started watching anime, the turtles slowly started to come back to me. Turtles are quite common in various animes and in Japanese culture in general, so I couldn't really escape them. However, my opinion on turtles really changed after this. But this of course isn't the only reason why I chose to use kame as a part of my blog's name. Just to make this clear, kame is just a part of the blog's name while my nickname is Sano (but you might know me as Sanokame from other places since Sano usually is unavailable, I also tend to use kame as a surname).
The real reason why kame came to be a part of my blog's name is because of a girl, A girl whose name is Eri Kamei. This girl is a member of one of Japan's most famous all-girl J-pop groups and is also in my top 5 list of female celebrities. Since turtle (kame) is part of her name, this is a subject that is quite often mentioned wherever she might be at the moment. And that is the main reason why I chose to use this word.
That's the whole story of my relation to turtles and why it's a part of me and this blog. Why I decided to add the turtles now was because I thought the header was too simple and it didn't make this blog unique at all.
Just in case you don't know Eri Kamei I'll post a couple of pictures of her from her latest photo book. You can also read about her here.
Blog updates & history
As you can see I've updated a couple of things on the blog. If you read my last post you know the reason. So here's what's changed:
- Links and colors
I've changed the color of the subscribing links, I want them to stand out from the rest since those links are important. I've also removed website links and added some new links in the blogroll instead. I did this because the links aren't necessary since the sites shows up in featured feeds or shared items every now and then. - Dannychoo.com featured feed
Just changed the amount of items in the list to 6. My feed will soon be featured on Dannychoo.com as well, hopefully. - Shared Items
I started using Google Reader thanks to spongbros on Twitter, and with that I can share specific items from my feed subscriptions. So instead of having too many featured feeds, I can pick the most interesting (in my opinion) news/articles/blog posts and share them with my readers. - Twitter Updates
I'm now showing my 5 latest Twitter updates, I love Twitter. - New social bookmarking tool
Instead of having a lot of tiny images of all social bookmarking sites under all posts, I now have this drop down thingy from Add This. I wasn't too happy with how it was before, but this tool is great!
I personally like the current version the most, but let me know what you think!
No, I'm not dead
I guess it's about time I give you folks an update. So this is the situation, the last 2 or 3 weeks has been hell because of school. I've had so much to do and basically everything not related to school except for music, has been put on hold. But it's finally over and I'm feeling great! I need some time to get back on track though, there's so much to catch up on. But very soon everything will be back to normal on here too, which means more posts for you to read and more time for me to waste!
Next time something like this happens I'll keep you updated, I wouldn't want my readers to think that I quit blogging for good.
Later!
Would you call me a pirate?
For quite some time I've been wondering what people think of me when it comes to piracy. I considered myself a pirate a couple of years ago, I used to download all my music, movies, games and programs. Nowadays I buy a lot of music and movies, and I don't play games anymore. I do still download stuff, but in my own opinion I'm not doing anything illegal. You see, I'm not doing it because I don't want to buy the stuff. I have a couple of reasons why I do it and now I'm going to try to explain myself.
- I'm a fan of Japanese and Korean music and I almost never listen to western artists, and when I do, I use Last.fm. I can't just go down to my local music store and listen through the CDs I want, cause they don't have them. So how about the iTunes store or other online stores that provides previews? Yes, they're great and I do use iTunes store to listen to previews. But sometimes listening to previews isn't enough for me. Previews are good enough when we're talking about artists I already know and listen to. But when it comes to artists I've never heard before, I prefer to listen through the full length album before I decide to buy it. I mean, I don't want to buy something without knowing that I'll be satisfied.
- Using torrent sites is a GREAT way to find new music. If I were more mainstream I wouldn't need them but you see, I listen to a lot of music which isn't that well known. For example I listen to jazz and lounge music, and without torrent sites I would never have found those artists. So thanks to torrent sites, those artists got one more fan, who also buy their stuff.
- CDs are expensive, I can't possibly buy everything cause I'm not Bill Gates. However, CDs on iTunes costs about half the price, but the thing is, I can't use the Japanese iTunes store since... I'm not Japanese. I know you can buy those gift cards to purchase music on whichever iTunes store you like, but do I really want to pay $20 for a card worth $15? No. (yes I have to, since I need to buy the cards from a reseller).
- When it comes to movies and TV series I can't do much about it. I can't go to the movies and watch Asian films and TV series doesn't come with English subtitles. However, some Japanese movies comes with subtitles, but you usually have to buy Hong Kong or Korean versions. The Korean versions are good, but the Hong Kong versions are not very reliable. I do however buy my favorite movies, after watching them. TV series (or J-doramas) never comes with subtitles so I have to download fansubbed versions.
- I'm a Mac user, almost everything I need in terms of applications comes with the OS. And there are a lot of great open source programs available for the Mac, actually the only program I use which isn't free (or comes with the OS) is Adobe Photoshop CS3.
I don't consider myself a pirate, and I don't like it when people call me a pirate either. Sure I download stuff, but I like to know what I'm buying cause I don't want to throw away my money on stuff I don't like. Though, if I were more into western music, my view on this would definitely not be legit.
But let me know what you think, and do you download or buy the stuff? Or do you do both like me?
P.S. I ordered music for over $170 last week. And by the way, Yanko Design is back up!
E ya later!
Sanokame v2.0
So I've finally changed the blog's design! I thought it was about time and I didn't really like the the green color of the background in the old design. I also removed the Blogger navbar, cause it's just annoying for visitors and it's not very nice looking. I'm happy with the new design, I was aiming for a clean and stylish design which at the same time is easy on the eyes (when reading).
So this is what the old design looks like if you don't remember, or if you're new here. Let me know which one you like the most.
Another thing I'd like to mention is the About page. I updated it a couple of days ago, but I never mentioned it in a post . Anyhow, I wrote a little something about myself besides basic facts.
Blogger's been down today for quite a long time, it started just when I was editing the design so if you were here earlier everything probably looked like a mess. I'm not sure if it's fully back right now either but I think it is.
Well, that's all I had to say. Let me know what you think, see you later!
Mars 02, 2008
I couldn't think of a good title so today's date will have to do, since this entry isn't going to be about anything special...
My weekend
This Friday I went out to a pub with a couple of friends, that was the first time I drank beer (or any alcohol at all for that matter) since New Year's. That's 2 months, definitely a new record! I don't think it's necessary to drink alcohol anymore so I'm probably not doing that again for a while, going out drinking that is. I only had 3 beers anyway so it's not like I was drunk or anything, having a beer or two sometimes is nice though. I went home early and went to bed and that was my friday...
Saturday... I woke up at 9 AM, not tired at all but it was too early for me so I went to bed again and woke up at 3 PM, haha. I didn't do much that day but I went to a friend and played some games later that night.
Today I've been sitting here the whole day and taken it easy, right now I'm listening to bonobos and drinking a cup of coffee, relax to the max. I've also been video editing a bit, I made a music video for Tae Guk Gi (The Brotherhood of War), I'll post the video in the end of this post. Unfortunately my MP3 player is broken so I have to get a new one, but I guess it's about time. I'm going to buy an iPod nano and as said before I'm also buying 4 GBs of RAM for my laptop. The rest goes to my savings account! I can't really live without an MP3 player so I have to buy a new one, RIGHT NOW.
Tomorrow I have to go to school again, booo! Good thing only for 2 weeks since we have our spring holidays after that, mmm nice.
Well that's about everything I had to say right now. I'll be back soon so see you later!
Oh I almost forgot about the video! Here it is:
Monday Michiru
Many of you people out there probably have heard of Monday Michiru before. She's a Japanese-American singer and songwriter, and I think she's an actress as well but I haven't seen her in any movies or anything, at least not that I know of. Anyway she's well known for featuring a lot of different artists, mostly in genres like Jazz, House, Chillout etc. Her style is acid jazz, her songs are very relaxing and it's just a real pleasure to listen to her. If you're interested I'd recommend you to listen to her albums, moods, My ever changing moods and routes.
So what's been up lately? Well, yesterday I spent some time studying... That wasn't fun but I had to do it and it feels really good now when it's done! I also spent about 1.5 hours cleaning my room, since I have a new computer I had to fix a lot of cables and stuff that was just lying on the floor. So now everything is really neat and clean!
Today I went to school, didn't do much at all. I arrived at 10 AM and sat in the cafe with a couple of classmates till 11.30, then we had to answer some poll question, stuff like "what do you think of this school?". That was basically it, I had a meeting with my supervisor about my project and after that I spent about 30-40 minutes talking with the receptionist about traveling! The receptionist in our school is a very good person :), I wonder if she reads this haha!
Other than that I don't have much to talk about when it comes to the personal stuff. Coming up next on my blog is a review of Gal Circle and Buono's new album, so stay tuned!
Later!
NANO-MUGEN
Yesterday it was announced that AKFG (ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION) is bringing back the NANO-MUGEN FES.. And that's just awesome in my opinion! It's scheduled for July 20-21 in the Yokohama Arena, the lineup will be announced later on their official website. Some of my favorite bands participated in that festival in the past, for example ELLEGARDEN, BEAT CRUSADERS, Straightener and AKFG themselves of course. I really want to go there this summer, if anyone would come with me to Japan for a week I'd definitely go there, I just have to attend that festival sometime in the near future.
So, if anyone is interested, let me know!
I haven't done anything special today, I've mostly just been sitting here or in front of the TV. At least I found out about a new interesting feature on Gmail which I'm now using, it's kind of like synchronizing 2 different email addresses. I've also watched Chris Pirillo a bit, damn that guy is hilarious, and smart!
A friend of mine blocked me on MSN sometime this week, I've been blocked for several days now for a really lame reason. He was being really weird, like REALLY weird... So I asked him "why are you being so weird today?" and he was like "I'm not weird, I'm being myself!". And then he got mad and called me some really bad words, I don't know why he took it so serious. I hope he'll unblock me soon.
I realized a good thing today by the way! I haven't had a sip of alcohol since New Year's. 2 months! I think that's pretty good for someone who drink occasionally. The reason may be because many of my friends are doing their military service, and those who aren't are using this as an opportunity to drink less often. And of course I'm using this opportunity myself, I'm going to work out more often and reduce the time in front of the computer. I've ordered my new laptop and getting rid of this computer which will help me to make my life healthier.
Why am I doing this? Well, not because my lifestyle isn't healthy enough, cause it is OK. But the reason is because I'm bored and I need a change. I spend so many hours in front of the computer doing nothing at all, so I need something else to do besides it. That makes sense, right? I mean, you can be bored of the Internet!
I'll end this post with a nice PV by LAST ALLIANCE.
New display name, not a new identity
Hello everybody!
After using "JewnaS" as my display name for about 5 or 6 years, I've decided to change it. Why? You might think, and there are many reasons why.
- Reasons why I want to remove this nickname
- "JewnaS" is hard to pronounce, I don't even know myself how to pronounce it myself haha
- I'm simply bored of "JewnaS"
- The nickname "JewnaS" relates to some stuff that I just don't want it to
- Reasons why I want to have "Sano" as my new nickname
- It took me a lot of time to find the nickname I wanted. And in the end I thought, why not have a name that can relate to my real name in some way. Sano, hey that's almost my real name backwards, just without the j in the end!
- Sano is easy to pronounce in Swedish, English and Japanese, and I'm pretty sure in every other language too
- I just think it's a nice nickname!
Another thing that change is my blog URL! From now on I just want to keep everything in one place cause that saves me a lot of time. So www.sanokame.com, simple and easy to remember.
Now, what I don't want you to do is bashing me for changing to a name that's not cool enough or just sucks in your opinion. Or well, go ahead but I'm not likely to give you an answer to anything cause I just don't care :). Sure, you can say what you think but that's not gonna change anything.
So why am I doing this now? Well, I'm going through some big changes indeed, if I did it 2 years ago it wouldn't have been such a hassle. But I feel like I need to do it now cause so many other things are changing, or are going to change. Like what?
- I'm going to be a Mac user from next week
- I'm changing my lifestyle a little bit, which means I won't have as much time as now in front of the computer. But don't worry, I'll still have way more than enough!
- I'm graduating soon which means I'll go in to the world of... workers... or what you call it. Which anyway is a big change! So I just feel like changing it all at once.
That's it.
Ttyl, hopefully about something else!
Dogen
I've been studying quite a lot lately (for someone who don't usually study much ^^). I finished an exam today in IT-communication or whatever it's called, I think I did good! I'll get the results tomorrow. Also, tomorrow I have a final in business economics, which I'm not very confident about but hopefully I'll do OK.
Anyway, new month and what does that mean? Wait a second... *click*
New Aya picture in my calendar! Nice eh?
Yesterday I ordered my new laptop! A MacBook 2.0GHz, can't wait to get it! My gaming days are over, I just don't find games very interesting anymore, and I get bored really fast so I have no need for a better computer, this one will be more than enough!
Oh yeah, today when I was working out (jogging on the treadmill) my neighbor was annoyed by the noise I made (or well, the noise that the treadmill made :P). Apparently the neighbor living under me called my father and argued about it, he said that his roof was going to fall in, haha. I guess I just placed the treadmill on a bad spot since he has never heard us using it before. Anyway, it was my first time working out in months so I'm not in shape, but I'll continue working out on a regular basis now since I need to get in shape before I start bouldering (rock climbing) with my friend.
Lastly, I'd like to recommend this site, dogentricks.com. This guy (Dogen) is really something, he's been in Japan now for about 4.5 months studying Japanese. He makes really interesting video blogs about his life and everything that happens around him in Japan. And damn that guy is just living his (and also my) dream! Anyway I think you should check it out cause he's a really nice guy and another thing to check out while you're there is his forum which has some really nice threads about health and conditioning (besides Japanese and tricking topics). He has a good taste when it comes to music too! I'll just post this PV by bonobos which he posted on his blog a while back. Enjoy!
Oh no!
Today I spent most of the time trying to get a Wordpress blog to work. I wanted to use Wordpress instead of Blogger just because I need to be able to use static pages. But since Wordpress is completely fucked up (sorry for the language but I'm in a bad mood) I can't use it! It can't even handle simple line breaks. So now I have my own domain (which was to be used for the Wordpress blog) and no use of it. Well, I could still use the domain for my Blogger blog, and I guess I'll do that when I feel like changing it, the process for doing that though is just a hell. I'll have to call my registrar for help I think...
Anyway, at least I'm able to post now without making my eyes bleed because of Wordpress.
I haven't watched a lot of doramas lately, let's see... Last time I wrote about a dorama it was about Hana Kimi, that was on January 24 and now it's February 03. Normally I would've finished a dorama by now, but I guess it's not too bad. I'm watching Hotelier and I'm on the second episode so 7 episodes to go.
What else is there to talk about?
Oh! The last post might have been unexpected. Most of you (probably all of you) know that I like Morning Musume and some other groups in H!P, but to see me posting about Buono and Airi, well that just doesn't happen very often! I've never liked any of the younger groups in H!P before but I'm totally into Buono now T_T. And just to make sure you get this right, I'm into the music and not the girls themselves! Believe it or not xD
I might even buy Buono's new single! :O
I mean how could I like these girls because of their looks? No way I could!Or could i? No, no way
This on the other hand...
So now you fully understand how I feel!
The domain I bought by the way is www.jyonte.com. For now I'm just using it as my portfolio, I have a lot more to upload though. Anyway it's not important since I'm planning to use the domain for this blog.
I have an exam tomorrow by the way... I should go to sleep but somehow I managed to sleep 13 hours last night so I'm not very tired right now. But I'm definitely not pulling another all nighter, cause that's way too painful T_T. Anyway, I didn't study a lot cause I'm a lazy bitch when it comes to stuff I don't want to do. But I hope I'll do good anyway, it has worked before ^^. The teacher this time though is a man so I can't provide any special services, LOL. I'm so funny.... -.-
I don't think I have anything else to say... so... later!!
Soundtracks
It's Sunday again and the anxiety is starting to build up, because tomorrow school starts again. I'm so bored of it, I just want to graduate and get a job! Well, only 5 months to go so I'll just need to hang in there.
Right now I'm listening to the Taiyou no Uta soundtrack, it's really nice, one of my favorite soundtracks actually. This isn't something you normally think of but the soundtrack of a movie or dorama is actually very very important. When you finished watching a movie/dorama, the first thing you say isn't something like "wow the soundtrack of this is really awesome!". But when you listen to it afterwards you realize how much the soundtrack actually did for the movie/dorama. A movie/dorama without a great soundtrack is not a good movie/dorama. But a soundtrack isn't much without a great movie/dorama either. I wonder how many times I didn't like a movie because of the soundtrack, probably many times... But it's just something you don't think of much until you listen to the soundtrack one more time.
These are my current favorite sountracks:
- Maundy Thursday
- Taiyou no Uta
- 200 Pounds Beauty
I've been listening to An Cafe today too. I'm not a jrocker but since An Cafe is coming to Sweden in Mars I thought it would be cool to attend their concert. And I actually like some of their songs, my favorite is Smile Ichiban Ii Onna. So now I just have to ask some friends if they wanna join me!
Happy new year!
I know it's kind of late but Happy New Year!
I've been busy so I didn't have time to post until now. What did you do on New Year's Eve? I spent the time with a bunch of friends, having a nice dinner (tacos xD) and after that we went to a party. It was fun, and it was my first time to drink Japanese beer!
For the first time in my life I have New Year's resolutions, hopefully I'll keep them, I think I will! These are my resolutions:
- Study Japanese more seriously
- Less alcohol (I don't drink a lot though, but less is better!)
- Focus on saving money for the trip to Japan
- Keep supporting my favorite artists by buying their stuff (this one is harder though since I need to save money for the trip :P)
- Stop being so freaking lazy, lol.
Great start of the year anyway, I got the Aya Ueto calendar today and I'm waiting for more stuff to arrive! I'll upload pics of the calendar later when I have it on the wall.
I'm buying a new phone and I think I have decided now, a Motorola RAZR2 v8. It's really nice and really slim (53 mm x 103 mm x 11,9 mm), it's kind of pricy though. I've got some new straps for it that I got from YesAsia :D. I'm waiting for more though! What do you think of this phone?I don't really have more to say right now. Oh yeah, I began to watch Hana Yori Dango but I won't review it or anything until I've finished it so you'll have to wait for that :P.
Later!
Christmas holidays coming up!
Finally Christmas (and Kameimas) is coming up. Tomorrow's my last day in school (YAY, FINALLY!). Every winter we have a beach volley tournament in school, the teachers have won every time so far but I have a feeling that's going to change this time! Wish me luck!
Today I was expecting to receive a package from YesAsia but it seems like I'll get it maybe tomorrow or on Thursday, it's three Epik High albums in that package by the way. I also recently ordered the Ueto Aya 2008 calendar and some of her singles but I'll have to wait until after Christmas for that. However, I got another package today but that's a Christmas present for my dad. I had no idea what to give him so I ordered the Planet Earth TV series, I think he'll love that box!
And while I'm at it, what should I get for my mother and sister? Geez that's a hard one, I guess I need to go downtown and take a look around in some stores, I wish I didn't have to since it's damn crowded there now. Oh, and if you know some good House music please tell me, cause I'm giving that to my uncle!
Anyway, enough about Christmas for now!
This is all for today, oh wait, check out Ines-chan's blog, it's great!
Later!
Dream: Shopping with Ueto Aya
Today I have some time off to make a new post! Since I have no work to do today because of a early Christmas party I have nothing else to do. So I thought I could tell you about one of my dreams (actually it was a daydream) with Ueto Aya!
I've had a couple of dreams about Aya but the funniest one was when I went shopping with her.
It began somewhere in Japan of course, in some big shopping center. Everything was very normal like when you go out to look for new clothes, people everywhere and a little bit of a chaos. But just in a sec I were "teleported" into a really nice store which was totally empty. I took a look around for nice clothes and then I turned around... Then I saw 2 bodyguards at the door to the girls area, I went to ask what was going on and they just said "you shouldn't be here!". At first I was a bit shocked since he yelled at me but then I asked him if I could go into the girls area since I had to find something for my girlfriend (but I didn't have a girlfriend). The guard to the right answered directly with a no, but the guard to the left said that they could ask if it was okay. So the left guard went in to ask and came back with a smile on his face and said "go ahead!". I still didn't know what the big deal was, but then I came in and saw... Aya!
I just acted like it was nothing special and went to look for something nice for my fake girlfriend. It was totally quiet and Aya was standing in the other side of the room looking at some nice dress. Eventually I decided to say something to her, so I asked if she could help me find something for a friend of mine. She was like "yeah sure! that'll be fun!", and I was screaming "YAAAAYYYY!" in my mind. Aya asked me what sizes I were looking for, so I said "anything that fits on you should be good!". We took a look around and grabbed everything cute and beautiful and then went to try them on, on Aya of course!
She tried some of the really nice clothes and I gave her like a thousand compliments. So I asked her "do you want this? and that too?" and she answered with a "yes!" every time! And I ended up buying every piece for Aya and then we lived happily ever after. I never bought anything for my "friend".
The End.