I guess you could say my life is now complete

Why, you ask? Because the sweet "Yaranaika?" t-shirt my podcasting pal shidoshi bought me while in Japan late last year finally is in my grubby little hands.

Please accept my apologies for the rather crappy nature of the photo below. Apparently the camera on my MacBook doesn't like sunny mornings. (How Seattle of it!)

Hopefully you can make out enough of it to see that the shirt bears the same image found on this blog's header.

In case I haven't said it before, the text on the shirt is Japanese for “shall we do it?” and it comes from a  rather dirty--and gay--manga called Kuso Miso Technique that was first published back in 1987.

Introducing: Shall We Do It?

As a result of my recent "Suggestions?" post, I've decided to add a new, published-as-often-as-I-feel-like-it column to this blog's line-up.

If you can't quite tell from its title what it'll cover (and I can't really blame those of you who feel that way), here's the gist: every so often--likely every other week, but I can't promise I'll keep to that schedule--I'm going to publish a "Shall We Do It?" post that details, via blurbs of a reasonable length, my impressions of all (or at least most) of the games I'm currently playing.

I'm not entirely sure how I'll title these posts, although I have a feeling it'll be something along the lines of "Shall We Do It? (Attack of the Friday Monsters, Bravely Default demo and Zooo)."

Another possibility would be to give them headlines like, "Shall We Do It? (Week of Jan. 6, 2014)," but that seems just a bit too or sterile to me.

That said, what do all of you think (of this pair of title options, not of the general column idea)?

Oh, and in case any of you are curious, the name of this new column was inspired by the most famous line--"Yaranaika?" which translates to, "Shall we do it?"--to appear in Kuso Miso Technique, the bara manga from 1987 featuring Takakazu Abe (aka the handsome guy seen above, in my avatar here and on Twitter).

Cruise with me baby

I'm not entirely sure why, but I've rarely shared any photos of myself here or on Twitter. Of course, I also rarely share them on Facebook or Flickr, so maybe I'm just not a "share photos of myself with the masses" kind of guy.

Still, after seeing the photos my sister-in-law snapped of me and my husband, David, during out recent cruise, I felt compelled to share a few of them here. Hopefully you'll get a kick out of them.

And if not? Well, things will return to normal tomorrow morning. I promise.

This photo (above) was taken while our ship, the Island Princess, made its way through a segment of the Panama Canal. Why am I so peppy, you ask? I'm guessing it's because I was on my third soda of the day--and it was only 10 am.

In this photo, David and I are demonstrating our prowess (or not) at paddle tennis. I'm pretty sure we were the only people on the entire ship (of just under 2,000 passengers) to try our hands at this rather idiotic sport.

Do you see the look on David's face in the photo above? That's the face of a guy who has beaten his husband at ping pong (or "table tennis," if that's how you roll) in 1,000 out of 1,024 matches. Sigh.

Me and the hubs working on our tans (or not) in Aruba. You can't really tell by looking at this photo, but I was sweating like a pig at the time. What can I say? My body was meant for cooler temps.

I don't know about you, but I think this last photo should be used to promote tourism in Aruba.

So, there you have it: 10 days of fun whittled down to five photographs. Do you feel as though you know me a bit better as a result? Probably not, but at least now you know I'm an actual human being and not just a NSFW bara manga character.

Guess who made an appearance at the Cure Cosplay Festival?

Me! Well, kind of.

Actually, someone dressed as Takakazu Abe, "star" of Junichi Yamakawa's infamous (and meme-inspiring) bara manga from 1987, Kuso Miso Technique, made an appearance at the above-mentioned event, which recently took place in Tokyo.



You recognize the handsome face in the photo above, right? If not, turn your eyes toward this blog's banner/header--or toward the profile pic I use here and on Twitter.

(Via kotaku.com)