Desk Diary 2011/09 - 2012/02
Recently noticed a direct relation between how often I can write stuff for the site and how many milestones that my company achieves - unfortunately meaning that the more I achieve, the less I can write as my time is taken away to complete my goals. I'll never give up on writing though as its important not only for me to continue sharing but also because this site serves as a record of my life so that I can look back at what I've been doing.
Recently I've had more offers to produce and present on various TV shows in Japan and around the globe - have accepted a couple and one will start in Japan in a few weeks - its a morning show this time round. Will post more details on that soon.
Also working on a product called Moekana - a new way of learning Japanese! Good Smile Company are distributing the product which should be with you next month. Have also been doing more work for the Japanese government which is always fulfilling.
Am also working on a load more products and wot not that will be revealed all in good time ^^;
Am also working on a load more products and wot not that will be revealed all in good time ^^;
Anyway, this post contains photos of the office taken between October 2011 until the end of Feb 2012.
This photo taken back in October in the midst of producing Culture Japan Season 2.
Back then my MacBook Pro 17" was my main machine - the iMac was used for editing the show. I need at least two machines for my work - When the iMac is rendering, it cant do anything else at all! I need another machine so that I can continue with mail and wot not.
This camera angle was used to film the studio section which we would shoot in the office.
On a regular basis, stuff falls from the ceiling and blocks me in the office - but thats OK because you are taking some of it off my hands - Will announce the winners this weekend.
If you are wondering about the Mirai mousepads - should be some still available.
Was still quite warm back then in October - nice breeze through the window.
Here I'm currently rendering Episode 6 of Culture Japan season 2 - one of my fave episodes where seiyuu Mimori Suzuko and I go cutting folks in Osaka with an invisible katana ^^;
Grabbed one of these Moshi Mini DisplayPort cables so that I could use the iMac as an external monitor.
Another iMac arrives - 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2048 MB. Need more power for running Final Cut Pro X.
Upgrading the memory to 16GB.
Playing about with layout ideas for a wee bit.
Back at the time, was thinking of using the MacBook Air as my main machine. Its also an i7 on SSD meaning its fast but starts to wheeze when using Skype which is a shame.
First thing to do is to copy my home directory and settings over from my MacBook Pro 17" to the iMac. If you turn on your Mac with the "T" key held down, it boots up in Target mode meaning you can mount it on any other mac as a HDD.
Playing about with more layouts.
And this is what I settled with - the old iMac is currently being used by somebody else for editing and wot not.
December - during the festive season, the elves come out to play.
During the cold seasons, the air conditioner is always on to heat up the room which gets dry - the machine in the bottom left of the photo is a moisturizer that prevents us from drying up and looking like Pruneface.
Our CTO Chris at the controls who is currently working on the new version of Mirai Gaia.
All the girls gather for a dusting down.
I dont get to dust the girls as often as I'd like to but I try not to leave it too long - dust on figures accumulates oil in the air which is why figures can start to get sticky.
Horrid!
I use a cooking brush that I picked up from a 100 yen store to dust down the girls.
Its time to get rid of some boxes. I usually keep some around for a wee bit until I know that I'm going to keep the figure forever - in which case I throw out the boxes for recycle.
All cardboard boxes should be opened up and folded flat.
All plastics should be separated out and recycled too.
When I first visited Japan, I loved anything and everything that had Japanese written on it - I even took these rubbish bags back to London and put them up on the wall in our bathroom so that I could read it when having a pee ^^;
Snaps of some of the girls after a dusting down.
Some figures get a dirty nose after a while either from dust or handling - just like our Yoko here.
When you get paint transfer marks or dirt on your figures, use some paint thinner with a cotton bud to wipe it off.
Yoko without a grimy dirty nose!
Looks like Yuzuko has some paint transfer from her skirt on her belly - will fix that up with a dab of paint thinner.
Cute bottom!
And from time to time our furry friends come out to play - no not your lil bro but cute spiders. I always end up spending a few mins trying to catch them so that I can let them out the window.
I cant wait to add my characters to the Nendoroid collection!
These photos taken in January.
Added a new set of shelves for some Gundams.
Our Dyson looks like its about to kick the bucket.
Feb was full time production on Moekana.
More stuff falls from ceiling!
I speak and read Korean but I cant type without a Hangul keyboard. Here I've taken some Hangul keys and am about to stick them on to my Japanese wireless keyboard.
My Korean keyboard is wired and does not have the English/Kana keys that I use for Japanese input.
Now I have the best of both worlds - you can see the "英数" key next to the space bar - on the other side is the kana key.
Looks like Yuki just woke up.
These photos taken late February.
Poster for the Yuzusoft title Dracuriot! We made their website and will be working together on doing more stuff soon!
When I get time I need to get that Mirai-chan dakimakura cover into production. I've engineered it to be really soft to the touch just like the Mirai Mousepad!
At this moment in time, I had no idea that this office...
...would end up looking like this - we moved out...
Read more from the Desk Diary series below.