Ask the Magic Building

Jesus, Mary and Joseph Magic Building! What with Andy staying and so on, I've got nine days worth of blogging to catch up on if I want to maintain my smooth illusion of unstoppable daily updates! Do I have a snowball in hell's chance of making up that difference?

Yeah! You're right Magic Building! I can do it! I can do the show right here!

(The Magic Building lives in downtown Sapporo and will green-light any project)

Blog Breakdown! Apologies! Frustrated Errands! Hello July!

Matthew actually "bone-to-pick-ed" me about not posting here for going on a week now, and certainly I've got a lot to answer for. I will however use my time machine (a.k.a. alcohol - Oh! I kid! I won't touch a drop for at least another week) to go back and fill in the last five or six days I haven't posted with some business or other. Be sure to check it out! I'm sure there'll be some real gems in there!

Sigh.

Despite blogging here almost daily for almost a year now I'm still fairly skeptikal about blogging in general. That is, I want to blog daily, almost as a challenge for myself, but I don't want to just contribute to the ailing lifespan of a meme, limping its way through the internet, or keep chuntering along on reposts of found material. So last week I ran out of steam and anything I thought I wanted to write about, I quickly second guessed myself into dropping.

While I love writing I'm also aware that people like pictures more than words in some cases (internet browsing being one of those) so I generally hold off on posting unless I've got something to illustrate my post with. That's kind of come round to bite me on the ass though, because I probably end up writing less and using the pictures as a kind of crutch. Also I never remember to take photos of things. I meant to do an assload of restaurant reviews, but every time I go out I completely forget to snap the restaurant or the meal. Anyway I've put aside some time today for writing - any kind of writing - and this'll do as good as any, pictures or no pictures. I'm still stricken by the fear of vanishing into even more of a snivelling parody of a twenty-something indie-ish caucasian male though, so I also don't want to write too much about my day-to-day life. That's the kind of blog-work of which Chris always used to say "Why the fuck should I care?" Never a truer word and all that, but I think I'll have to relax a little bit.

Today I got up early-early and caught two trains and a bus to get out to the Unten Menkyo Shiken Jo - the driving test centre in Teine. Teine isn't that far from where I live, but there's no connecting bus routes from here, so I had to take two trains and a bus to get there. I went there to get a Japanese driving license, hopefully I can do so without taking a test because the UK and Japan have a reciprocal driving license scheme going seeing as we both drive on the left. I brought a veritable portfolio of forms, documents and IDs only to find that I'd still slipped up. I needed to prove that after having obtained my British license I had lived in the UK for at least three months and though it was pretty obvious, both my passport and driving license have been renewed while I've been in Japan so there's no actual written proof that I lived there. I could have got my license in the UK (11 years ago) and then fled the country immediately afterwards, spending the intervening time in Guatemala or Austria for all they know. It's a pisser, but you cannot (really, I didn't even bother, and I'm sure that I came out of the situation much better than if I had) argue with the rules in Japan. So I'll take my old passport and driving license and go back next week. I'll take photos then I think. The shiken jo feels like it's out in the middle of nowhere, and the pounding sun, the dying grass, the crowds of people aimlessly moving between innumerable counters and clerks made it feel like some kind of holding facility for lost souls who weren't quite bad enough for hell.

Next disappointment was at the post office. I'd already tried to post this sodding box to Bunny once, but it was 150g too heavy for regular parcel post. I took out a couple of inessential things and took it back, still 38g too heavy. So... one more time for the world.

The rude ladies at the bento shop Sazae (I used to think it was coz I was foreign, but my coworker told me they're rude to everyone) were marginally less rude than usual when I picked up onigiri for lunch.

OK! To the time machine...

My favourite object in the world / Something about blogging.

I hereby present to you, for your... delictation and universal appreciation the Nike Air Max 90 burger, by Ole Hemmendorff:


It was created for Nike, who commissioned 8 artists to interpret a classic Nike item for a big launch in Stockholm. Considering I still don't buy Nike it's kinda weird that I've posted two items basically about how cool they are, but they are nothing if not fucking prolific - and this combines two of my biggest crushes into one repulsive, irresistable whole.

Of course, it has been posted on many, many, many blogs before, which made me think again about blogging. Well actually the list of "via"s made me laugh. (apparently this is an internet shorthand for "I'm ripping off someone else's blog" that I wasn't aware of).

I originally saw it on High Snobiety, then was prompted to use it here by seeing it on Kanye West's blog. Yeezy is kind of an asshole though, coz he never credits his sources and he rarely links out, so I googled it to get closer to the source... and here's what I found:

a blog
via
via
via

And amusingly that last link is to Vice magazine who seem to be organising the launch for Nike, meaning that they commissioned the artist really, not Nike.

Many blogs seem to fall into two categories: linkblogs, trawling the internet for the cream, and personal blogs writing about events in the person's life. I recently got involved with the creative groupblog Loom in direct opposition to the first of these, and I've been trying to make this blog more like the latter, with occasional internet finds and so-on dropped in because, frankly my life isn't all that interesting and I can't post everyday otherwise. Those seem to be the blogs I like - a combination of everything - and I guess I'm still feeling my way here.

So I'd like to make the following my statement of intent for this blog. "I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm trying not to be a wanker. I'm sorry."

Thank you.