Two Zard CD’s will be coming out next month. “Soffio di Vento” (Breath of Wind) is a selection of Izumi Sakai’s favorite songs, and “Brezza di Mare” (Sea Breeze) is a selection of Zard songs from the Zard staff and production team. There will also be a book with photos, Sakai’s handwritten lyrics, etc. I might have to pick them up when we visit Japan later this year. Also this year, there will be two tribute concerts called “What a Beautiful Memory”. The first one will be in Osaka on Sept 7, and the second at Budokan in Tokyo on Sept 14. I wonder who the artists are who will be performing Zard tunes…

I just read a blog post about a new computer display, and part of it read,

“When I turned it on, I was blown away – literally.”

I am imagining the display exploding, sending the poor owner flying into the livingroom wall. Or maybe he didn’t use the word “literally” correctly.

Seriously though, Glenn Wolsey’s blog is great. I learn a lot from it.

While in California I noticed that many of the auto ads on billboards were all about MPG. Here in Texas, it’s still about power and luxury. I want a Prius, btw!

Just a quick recap of the weekend. Saturday we had a visit from a guy who does residential and commercial window tinting. The Texas sun is a bitch, and we want to cut down on our A/C bill, plus keep the house more comfortable. The owner of the company came out and gave us an estimate and left us some samples. He was really nice and friendly. I think we will use him, although we probably won’t get as many windows treated as we had first thought.

After that, we went to Mariko’s coworker’s wedding. It was held at her house, and it was really nice. I missed the ceremony because I was in the minivan with “Mr. Meltdown” (Koa), who had a fit just before the ceremony. I decided that it would be best to just wait till the ceremony was over, then rejoin the festivities when it was ok to be noisy. The food that the family prepared was great: turkey, roast chicken, bbq chicken, mac n cheese, stuffing, potato salad, collard greens, sweet potato pie, and lemonade. It was all really yummy. In the backyard, there was a giant inflatable moonwalk thing with a big Spongebob on the front. All the little ones had a lot of fun. That night, the kids crashed early!

Today we went to Sakurakai (Japanese kids’ playgroup) which was at our friend’s house in Steiner Ranch. It was a pool party, and was great. The pool was awesome, with waterfalls and a beautiful view. We had pizza and beer (for the parents) and everyone had a good time. This evening we just relaxed and played around at home.

That’s pretty much it. Time to read a bit and snooze!

I am looking forward to some real DDR on the Wii, and Hottest Party seemed pretty cool. But I just saw the new screens and vids, and I don’t really like the character style at all. Enough with the big goofy heads already! I remember turning on the big head option on an old Star Wars fighting game on the PSOne, and it was amusing for about a minute. I am hoping they will put regular sized heads back on the DDR characters for this version. Otherwise they should rename the game DDR: Thunderbirds Version or something, cuz they look like goddamned marionettes.

On July 6th I went with my brother and my friend Tony to see the Dodgers play the Marlins at Dodger Stadium. I hadn’t been there for about 10 years, and a lot had changed. First of all, parking is still a bitch. I read about how it was now wonderful, and that you could get in and out of the parking lot in five minutes. That is BS. Plus, it now costs 15 frickin dollars to park! Goddam McCourts.

Anyways, the stadium is still beautiful at first glance. I actually like the color of the seats, which are muted blues, yellows and greens. It looks cool. But now there are advertisements everywhere! It’s pretty depressing. Everywhere you look, there is an ad. There is this video thing that goes around the entire infield that looks pretty cool, except that they put an ad up there for most of the inning, and it looks horrible. There was a State Farm ad on for an inning and consequently a big red bar was splashed across Dodger Stadium for 10 minutes. Blasphemy! One of the charms of Dodger Stadium growing up was the lack of ads. There was just a 76 and (later) a Coca Cola ad in the outfield. Goddam McCourts.

Another huge change is the addition of prerecorded songs for each batter, plus way too much video on the giant screen. I used to like hearing the organ music between innings, with maybe a little blooper vid or shots of the fans sprinkled in. But Dodger Stadium has just gotten too loud. At least they do still have some of the organ music played by organist Nancy Bea Hefley. I wish they would let her play more. I can imagine Jamie McCourt phoning up to the organist to stop playing and turn on the rap.

I had a couple Dodger Dogs, and they are still great. I was surprised that they are still under $5! But $10 for a cup of beer (large) is insane! And the peanuts are not the same. First of all, they are in plastic bags, and secondly, they cost $5.50! For peanuts! Frickin McCourts!

The field has changed a bit since the addition of those luxury box seats. It doesn’t look right anymore. The field is too “squished”. And it is not as much of a pitcher’s ballpark anymore because of the loss of some foul territory where fielders could make plays. That kind of thing makes me mad because now it’s just another thing that sets today’s stats apart from the old days. But at least there are luxury boxes! Woohoo!

I blame the McCourts of course. They must be getting rich. But at the expense of the fan experience. I guess I am just an “old-timer” and wish for the good old days. Kids growing up now will never know what it was like to go to see a big-league game that wasn’t tainted with the loud music or loud ads. A nice relaxing time at the ballpark is now a rock concert.

Lastly, this was the first Dodger game I have been to where I didn’t hear Vin Scully’s voice coming from a sea of transistor radios. I missed that. I guess a lot of the Dodger Stadium charm really is gone. Oh, the Dodgers lost it in extra innings. I blame the McCourts.

We are back home in Texas. Yesterday was crazy because we woke up at 4:30am to make it to our 7:25am flight out of LAX, so we were tired all day. I was falling asleep in the afternoon. But now it is back to work! 🙁 More on the trip to follow!