Leynos no Daibouken

I'll be traveling to London on the 5th May to visit my sister. Just wondering, does anyone have any good suggestions for stuff I could do there? Last time I was there I visited the British Museum, the Tate Modern, Camden Market, Greenwich Market, took a tour of central London's amusement arcades and saw a film at Leicester Square. My current thoughts are the London Eye, the Science Museum and a night out at Fabric, but I have a lot of research into other possibilities to do before the trip. Any other suggestions (especially of the geeky kind) would be welcome. Museums and galleries are cool, though I saw all the big museums as a child. (Has the V&A changed much in 10 years?)

Cheers.

Another day spent at home. I think this will be the last. So I watched a fair bit of anime and played lots of PSP games.

That's Paradise Kiss finished now, and I'm pleased to say that it reached a meaningful and satisfying conclusion. There's lots I like about this show, and I can appreciate it on a few levels. There's the obvious "ooh" factor of George and Caroline's relationship, which is in equal measures magical "sweep you off your feet" kinda stuff and a believable depiction of a long term relationship.

I also find a lot to look up to and identify with in both characters. George (Jouji) is such a gentleman; he knows how to act and behave around a lady, he always shows impeccable taste in everything, not least in his dress sense, and he seems like someone so in control of his world. At the same time, his failings are those that I can relate to--not being entirely sure how to relate to people, a feeling that there are time he wishes he could be closer to Yukari than he knows how.

Caroline's ambition to break free from the world she knows and discover a place where she will fit in is something I think everyone should take to heart. It's certainly something I wish I had thought about a lot earlier in life. Whether that position is influenced by parents, peers or just through laziness, I think that not to have control over ones place in life is such a sad state of affairs. Not everyone needs to live a special life, but to have lived ones life and to now be wishing that things had happened differently is something that everyone should try to avoid as early as is realistic.

The other aspect of Parakiss that I enjoy so much is the fetishistic attention to detail that is lavished on the costume and set design. Most of the fashion references are lost on me, but I can imagine none the less how much work must have gone into the research of materials and designers. Details of the design process and of the finished product are all lavishly represented, not only in the creations of the Parakiss team, but in the everyday clothes that they wear throughout the series. Real world objects are used continuously, note for example the detailing of the spirit and liqueur bottles behind the bar in the atelier. Similar embellishment is afforded to aspects such as cars and sewing machines.

I've also just about packed for Firbush now. I doubt I'll be leaving the house tomorrow evening, so any final packing can be done then.

QR Code

Hmmm... I saw something on the Parakiss web site. Looked kinda like this:



"QR Code eh?" A 2D barcode? I'm a little behind the times here. I'd seen something similar on the parcel I got from UPS yesterday. Could it be that the barcode web pages of Stand Alone Complex were becoming reality? Wikipedia came to the rescue:

More recently, the inclusion of QR Code reading software on camera phones in Japan has led to a wide variety of new, consumer-oriented applications, aimed at relieving the user of the tedious task of entering data into their mobile phone. QR Codes storing addresses and URLs are becoming increasingly common in magazines and advertisements in Japan. The addition of QR Codes on business cards is also becoming common, greatly simplifying the task of entering the personal details of a new acquaintance into the address book of one's mobile phone.

Cool! :) Sounds a bit like Cuecat, but in a form that's actually useful. I especially like the part about QR Codes on business cards. Doubly cool in that it's a practical mass market use for camera phones (other than the obvious).

Sucks to me for not keeping up with ketai culture.