Monday, January 14, 2013

The year of the snake 2013!

That's not a normal snake? Is it a cobra?
Considerably later than other years so far on this blog, but I thought I should give it a shot to try and summarize 2012. As the remaining readers of this blog obviously have figured out, other prioritizes made my blogging schedule irregular to say the least. The start of the year I was kept busy by Toddler Sunshine, Mrs. Sunshine's late stage pregnancy and trying to get into the job I started in the summer the previous year, after the birth of Baby Salaryman things just passed by in a bit of a blur. 

Biggest Event of 2012 was of course the birth of Baby Salaryman, born to restore balance to the battle of the genders in the Salaryman household and ensure that my name lives on for eternity in the island of Japan. May his seed burn strong and brightly.

Biggest Revelation of 2012 is much harder to pinpoint... Looking back, it feels like most of the year was spent looking after kids or working with not much in between. Of course, seeing the Avengers movie in the movie theater was great, there came out some good new music as well, thinking especially of Agent Side Grinder with the song Wolf Hour and old school EBM band Orange Sector with the hit Der Maschinist, the comeback of Daybehavior, but nothing that really changed how I view the world.

Biggest Staying Power in 2012 was the iPad, the little tablet has not gotten me bored with it yet. In fact, I like it so much that I upgraded to the newer iPad during last year (the one with the faster processor) after some negotiating with Mrs. Sunshine ("Do you really really need it?" "Well..." "If you really really need it and you absolutely must have it you can buy it, but there are other stuff we need..." "Ok, thanks, I'll buy it then!"). To toddler Sunshine's delight, this means that we now ended up with three iPads in the household and one that she has claimed her own. I have even seriously considered getting one of those water proof iPad bags so I can bring it in the bath with me as well. I'm still waiting for the toilet model of the iPad as well.

Best Blog of 2012 is also really hard as I have not found any new particularly interesting ones and for my favorite ones both Corinne and Chris have run into a bit of a blogging fatigue similar to mine it looks like. Former "Green Eyed Geisha" started a new blog that I was looking forward to, but the posts there also stopped coming. Kamo with the blog This is how she fight starts is the most interesting thing to pop up in 2012 (but not sure if I actually started reading it in 2011?). Even if I am embarrassed to say that my commenting manners is lacking, I still check out Project Me and was happy to see Ninja Without a Clue make a comeback in posting.

Keep at it, it'll get better with time!
Favorite Comment Dropper of 2012 is the people behind Mumbai/Dehli Escorts who ferociously started leaving comments on my posts advertising their exclusive services. In the beginning I deleted them as soon as they came up, but their eagerness to drop comments won me over and I decided to let them be (at least on older posts). As an interesting tidbit it can be mentioned that I have very few visitors from India, I have myself never been there with no plans to go and I doubt that many of my readers visit India often and even if they did they would not trust those guys with their physical needs. Good work Mumbai escorts and happy 2013!

Other Stuff that kept me Entertained in 2012 was (to my surprise) the King of Thrones TV-series, it's rare to see fantasy done well but this show has pulled it off. The Walking Dead TV-series and comic has kept its staying power, but ultimately they all still lose out to a classic like The Wire (which I started re-watching during autumn and still working my way through). Some good games came out as well in 2012, thinking particularly of Mass Effect 3 (I was ok with the ending), Dishonored and the remake of X-Com. But still, nothing like Skyrim from 2011...

To all my readers, a belated Happy New Year and wish you all a fantastic 2013! This year happens to be the Year of the Snake, something that is supposed to be good, contrary to what the Western image of snakes would make you think...      

14 comments:

Francois said...

Game of Thrones!!!

Sarahf said...

A belated congratulations on your new baby and the new IPad. The Mumbai ladies look delightful, don't they? Classier than some, I think. And thanks for the mention, I feel a bit of pressure to think of something to write now!

Sarahf said...

BTW, I've tagged you in a meme, if you'd like to play along.

Gaijin Wife said...

Belated new years wishes to the house of sunshine and salaries... Kids and work do tend to just takeover so I foresee another 17 years or so of that :) god damn it. Am also not impressed with hiatus of bloggers the past six months. Surely 2013 will prove to be so fabulous everyone just feels the need to blog about shite everyday. i hope so.

thegypsie said...

Ah yes Walking Dead; I just recently started it. Now I have to wait for the next season to be available on Netflix.

I wish you and yours a very prosperous and happy 2013.

Nyasha said...

Congrats on the birth of your child! I'll have a look at your recommended best blog of 2012! Mass Effect 3 was good but the ending really annoyed me!

I hope you have a happy 2013 and achieve all you want! By the way, I have my own blog which focuses on Asian culture and entertainment such as video games and I wonder if it is possible for you to view it and tell me what you think about my blog: http://nynyonlinex.wordpress.com

Martin said...

Dito

kamo said...

Thank you, that's very kind :)

Two things I love about my blog's name -
1. The way it tells you everything you need to know and nothing you don't, and
2. On the disappointingly few occasions that people type it out in full, they always try to unconsciously perform a little auto-correct on the grammar. Like it's just too obviously wrong to stand as it is.

Not that I'm complaining, of course. Hope we hear more from you this year, but completely understand that you've got your hands full. Best wishes to you, Mrs S and the nippers in 2013.

Unknown said...

I seem to be finding a lot of Japan blogs that are petering out, just as I'm starting. Oh well

Chris said...

My ipad is just as awesome as ever and it had a HD Aquarium going all the time...I'm feeding a fake fish and very o.k. about it :)

The blogiverse has shifted...I dunno where the fuck it is now?

I was worrying about having Cancer while making Halloween and Christmas displays that scared and wowed everyone and then realized I had stopped eating and sleeping because of the projects...which causes weight loss...who woulda' thunk?

I was doing stuff and everyone else was using a blocking tool to make you think they were inactive...you missed a bucha shit dude...life altering type shit dude...Corrine wrote will someday considered the new Bible and you missed it!!!!!!

chris said...

2013 and I STILL can't type!!

Mr. Salaryman said...

Francois - King of Games? No? Game of Kings? I could have sworn it was King of Games...

Sarafh - Thank you Sarahf, the Mumbai girls are in a class of their own! I usually try to stay out of those meme thingys, but thanks anyway!

GaijinW - Yeah, and to think that I thought having one kids was busy enough, two of them kinda take over everything, but they can at least be adorable from time to time...

ST5000 - Yeah, the show was better than I expected, if you read comics I would also strongly recommend the comic series.

NyNy - Thank you for dropping a comment! I checked out your blog and it looks fun enough, but as I live here in Japan I'm not so interested in blogs on Asian culture ;) Looks nice though and you have gathered up a fair bunch of readers too it looks like, keep it up!

Martin - Huh? Do you also have a blog on Asian culture?

Kamo - At some point you probably have to explain that name...?

Nat&Matt - Well, at least I have no intention of closing shop, but posting gets harder to do regularly...

Chris - Nicely phrased, there probably has been some form of "shift in the blogoverse" but I'm as clueless as you as to where... Great to hear that it wasn't anything serious, just overwork, take care of yourself! Hopefully you got some rest during the new year's break but now the kids are back in force I would guess...

Will said...

Though there may be more and more noise akin to what gets facebooked and tweeted, there has been a shift.

Akky Akimoto's most recent post, as well as the unfortunate rapid fade of Aaron Swartz, are harbinger's of what is to come.

As the universe expands, deception is becoming more difficult. There's a lot of information that really wants to be free. At this time, it's still a matter of cost.

Getting people to think beyond the electronic medium is still kind of a challenge.

Oh yeah, good luck with the family business. As you may have already found out with the new addition, 1+1 does not equal 2. This is when people find out how good they really are with math.





Martin said...

Someone else also likes the Wire:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIom3LSbB0I&NR=1

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