Kucchi’s Neighborhood

It's not good to cheat (not video gaming) when married.

He divorced his wife because he was cheating. Then they head for a permanent split. It's not about cheating in video games, it's not about using cheat codes, it's just this: The divorce of Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren (pronounced eel-LIN nore-DE-grin). He was injured in a car accident last month, it wasn't good. I still haven't watched golf in a while, I may have been busy playing my DS.

Please read the full article why they got divorced. Six Apart has completely neglected Vox because they still have to fix the iStockPhoto conduit.

Edit - December 20, 2009: I have not seen the J-pop blogger MorningBerryz in a while but now her blog is gone. MorningBerryz cancelled her Vox account without any reason since most of her blog posts, her photos she took, her entire library are now gone (also her stuff on her blog that I have favorited), but I'm still going to buy my DSi in the future.

 Yeah, I changed my blog name again...

 

Idolgasm:  The exact moment when a J-pop fan crosses over into full-blown Wotadom

That is exactly what I experienced last week when I first heard Momoiro Clover's first single.  You might say "But CK, you are already a Wota".  However, as Morning Berryz pointed out to me tonight it is always possible to have "multiples". (Hehehe) 

Momoiro Clover's popularity has been skyrocketing over the past week.  And they have been getting some notice in the "West" as well.  I think that's great.  It all started for me late one night in the middle of last week when Jasey from Stage48.net asked me if I had heard of this group.  I was sold after the first video.  Now everywhere I turn bloggers are talking about Momoiro Clover.  SolarBlade from Kurayama Monogatari was talking to me about his review tonight, Annie from Sweet Japan has been regularly featuring them on her site.  Oh, and they happen to be the covergirls at CDJapan today!

 

 

But my real coup de grâce came when Morning Berryz commented that she has purchased the group's discography!  So in celebration of Momoiro Clover's rising popularity, here is a mini-picspam to enjoy!

 

 

I really liked this series although they were taken before Momoka had joined.  I posted Reni and Sayaka's pictures on my last post.  Great photography work!

 

 

Hahahaha.  When I saw the masks I immediately thought of the robbery scene in Matsuura Aya's Sukeban Deka movie!

 

 

And I just love the back cover of the new single for obvious reasons!  Hehehehe :)

CK in California

 

I stopped drawing anything for three months. I have to apply for a job in a fast food restaurant (Carvel, DQ, Dunkin' Donuts, Pizza Hut, etc.) I will buy the domain blog for myself this weekend. :)

What's [really] charming and cute are photos of a "girl who is happy in her father's old boots with untied laces". The boots that I bought 4 years ago have spider webs (ugh, yuck!) in them. I'll get new ones in January or later in the winter. I will make up a wish list for Christmas, then I read the bible. I wonder if one of my nieces wear my old boots because I have this drawing by natasa10 and this photograph by dohreme on Flickr stuck in my head now.

Solange Magnano died last week due to her "rear behind" issues. Kusumi Koharu graduated this month, I will [definitely] miss her. The GBA cover on my DS is missing, hope I get a DSi in the future (no, I don't play GBA games that much).

Edit - 2009/12/14 - I have made my list and the domain blog is ready to be purchased. I should start buying it from Go Daddy. I really don't want ads, just the WordPress blogging tool.

Here's the 2009 recap. I was doing the coin toss. I flipped the coin. It was tails, so I will have no more teen years next year in February. There's a countdown for graduation for myself, which is on the Vox's widget sidebar. So, it's "goodbye, surfing the internet (Web 1.0)", and "hello, Web 2.0". Here's what I have been drawing:

The coryrobertsintokyo.net splash page, including the "ENTER" arrow, which takes you to the new blog (which is not ready yet):

I used colored pencils and softlead pencils to make the drawing. Also, this:

I just love this group!!!

But who the heck are these girls?  Momoiro Clover???  Sometimes I forget that there are a lot more than three female idol organizations in the universe.  You always hear (insert SKE girl) was in some group, and (insert Idoling!!! girl) was in some other group. I never really pay much attention, and it's a good thing because my Amex would never get a rest!

But I like this group's gimmick.  H!P has their fru fru Prom Dress flamboyant look.  AKB have the naughty seifuku style.  Idoling!!! are the sporty girls.  And here's Momoiro Clover with the kawaii Yukata look.  Their music seems to have a traditional Japanese flair to it, especially the first single which was released this past summer...

And here is a live version of Momoiro "Punch-y" for ya!!!

They are so adorable!!!  Momoiro Clover has been around for about a year and a half, releasing two singles over the past 5 months.  And like a traditional idol group, they have already gone through a multitude of lineup changes.  They are currently a 6nin ensemble, with five graduates.  The most notable graduate being Takai Tsukina who went on to be an original member of SKE48 before graduating from SKE this year.

The oldest current member is 16-year old Reni Takagi, who reminds me a lot of C-ute's Yajima Maimi (when she had long hair...bahhhhhhh!)  The youngest member is 13-year old Ayaka Sazaki, because she has an adorable smile and looks like a cross between Maasa Sudo and Kana Kobayashi.  Yes, there is always one member of an idol group that will captivate me, and for Momoiro Clover...Ayaka is the one, just adorable!!!

By the way, you can check out their profiles on the official site...

One of the big reasons I am so drawn to Momoiro Clover is their gimmick.  The outfits are great, and I am especially diggin' on the music.  I love the tradtional sound mixed in with the pop.  I really hope they don't lose that, because I think it will make them stand out as a group and possibly be a key to big success!  I did notice that their second single, Mirai He Susume! sounded a little more like straight J-pop...

I bought both CD's, which are available in multiple versions on all of your favorite J-music buy sites, as well as their 2010 calendar which releases this week.  But what really kills me is that they were doing appearances all over Tokyo while I was there this month, and I didn't know them...I MISSED IT, DAMN!!!

Oh well, thank you to my buddy Jasey from Stage48.net for turning me on to Momoiro Clover, definitely a group to watch out for in the coming year!!!

CK in California

Tiger Woods was injured in a car accident today, but he's fine right now. I haven't been watching golf in a while, but I missed the Thanksgiving Day Parade yesterday, you can see this tweet here. I know it's really bad about being a violent person, but the YouTube conduit is fixed, thanks to the Six Apart staff. You can view the full article here.

On my Flickr incident, basically many people are blocking me from their Flickr because I was found stealing photographs from their Flickr without their authorization because of fd's Flickr Toys' Mosaic Maker, I should've tell Mr. John Watson (the owner of fd's Flickr Toys) to remove the Mosaic Maker from the site because it looks like a "stealing-other-people's-Flickr-photographs" effect -- and the photographs I have added to my Flickr favorites, which I was using fd's Flickr Toys' Mosaic Maker, which are allowed to stay up, they put Creative Commons license on, but I didn't want to take the risk. So, I removed the Flickr photographs from my photostream (and the ones that I have added to my Flickr favorites) with Creative Commons license.

Then I noticed that someone uploaded inappropriate photographs on Flickr and blocked me without any reason, because I was adding them as friends to my Flickr contacts during that incident. No one wants to upload a photograph that have inappropriate gesture/profanity to their Flickr photostream.

Then finally, I was found venting frustrations/swearing/stealing photographs that the Flickr staff reported me for doing that, until they didn't say anything about my incident -- and my first Flickr account was deleted by the Flickr staff without warning. I had over 150 photographs in my Flickr photostream, and over 100 Flickr contacts, they are now bit the dust. I chose to be less violent and not play/watch any violent movies/TV shows (you know, the ones that have the "TV-14", the "TV-MA" ratings for the TV shows; the ESRB ratings "M" and "AO" for the video games; the MPAA ratings "R" and "NC-17" for movies; and the "Parental Advisory" label for certain albums), you know they (sometimes) have profanity. Watching too much televison/playing too much video games/too much of computer time can rot your brain.

Then I get ready for Web 2.0, the new blog will have a "G" and "PG" rating -- English text typed in my own words, photographs which are taken by me, and illustrations that are drawn by me -- no computer and video game screenshots or YouTube videos, they won't be uploaded. I can't move out of New Jersey as of yet, just move the city of Rahway (I know that most IP addresses in Essex County are banned permanently, I'm telling you this, it's really bad about violating social networking sites' policies and guidelines, you know. That is mean. They can ban a person's IP permanently). Maybe I should move to Silver Lake in Los Angeles after Rahway, New Jersey.

Time for me to get ready for Web 2.0 by buying me a domain blog. This blog is all archival, I'll let you know when the final post is up.

Update: My father told me to read the bible and reading the 10 commandments to be a better person, because it's really bad about being a violent person and violating social networking sites' policies and guidelines, as described above. Also here, if you want to read about my incident. I'm switching my real Chucks to Levi's "fake Converse" shoes.

Truth be known, I'd rather have an MB photobook! ;)

So it is time for me to once again do my duty and hold the drawing for the winner of MB's cool Aichan PB prize.  I could do the old tried and true pulling of the sheets of paper from my awesome JunJun cap.  But I thought I would mix it up a bit.  Did you notice anything interesting under the tree?

In honor of MB's new found interest in the group I love, we will be picking the winner of this awesome prize using a deck of totally awesome AKB48 "Team A" playing cards.  Yatta!!!

I picked these up on my second trip to Japan back in 2008.  For those of you in the know, these are circa A3.  So there are quite a few graduated members in the deck.  Oh, and if you look closely you will see a little package on top of the Kimagure Princess CD.  That is the Halloween candy given to me by SDN48's Sayaka Kondo when I saw them perform on Halloween night!  So the way this will work...I am going to use the Hearts and Spades.  And you may have noticed there are two Jokers in the deck...

For no reason whatsoever, I chose maiZe to be the white Joker, and Ada xD to be the grey joker.  The colors correspond to the outfits they are wearing.  BTW, this is the first time I have ever had them out of their original order.  And there is no way I am going to shuffle them the traditional way.

Okay, I will keep drawing until I pull a joker, and that will declare the winner.  First draw out of the box...

Continuing on...Yukarin of Hearts, Michiru of Spades, Queen of Hearts (team shot), CinDy of Hearts, Mariko of Hearts, King of Spades...

Congratulations to maiZe.  I am sure you will love the photobook as much as I love my AKB Poker Deck!

And Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! :)

CK in California 

Francisco Rodriguez died yesterday, he was a Venezuelan boxer. He was 25 years old. You can read the full article here.

I have to read the bible, and I have to read it slowly to get more of it/be less violent. I think I should start with the New Testament. There's still H1N1 going around, so please wash your hands often. I'm going to buy the domain blog this week and keep this blog for archival purposes. The music of the day? Here.

Ken Ober died 3 days ago. You can read this article here. He was the actor and the 80's game show of MTV's Remote Control. I wasn't born with the game show.

I was using threats of violence/death and profanity, so I decided to stop being violent, and not use profanity ever again. All this drama shindig, this has to be stopped permanently. You can read this wikiHow article here, also this one. Also, the IP addresses being banned in Essex County permanently, I have decided to move to Union County, I'm not ready to move to the state of Florida yet. However, it's still a follow up to "Taking freedom of speech", which I wrote about that 5 days ago. Plus all that "I can do whatever I want", "I will be dead at age 20", "snakes on a plane", "look, you need to interpret this shindig since [insert something here]", "never tell me what to do" ... who needs that - obsolete!

I better get an iPod so I don't have to listen to music on the computer. Enough being violent. Time to read the bible, get the domain blog, and get a job. I'm going to buy Photoshop in the future... Wonder if I can make my handwriting fonts?

More information after my coryrobertsintokyo.net domain is bought, the WordPress blogging tool installed, and the Japanese-style WordPress theme.

Update: My father got his own laptop yesterday, it's an HP, has Windows 7 (I use Vista, not Windows 7), has the ability to connect to TV, has the remote, etc., but no internet connection. I no longer take photos of screenshots (me doing game playing). Also, I have to respect copyright.

I had a lot of Flickr peeps blocking me from their Flickr because I was stealing their photographs without their permission because of fd's Flickr Toys' "Mosaic Maker", my old Flickr account was deleted without warning because of fd's Flickr Toys' "Mosaic Maker"/venting frustrations/stealing photographs. I had no other choice but to get a job without being violent. So here's this, my friends, I end this 6-year-story, it's time for me to buy the domain blog and get a job... Then I finalized the action to buy the domain blog for myself.

I'll see you around.

First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!

The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.

A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.

Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.

And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!

~ daisy