I’ve been a fan of Ghibli films for a long time. I have most of the ones released on DVD in my collection, and have enjoyed watching them over and over. The artwork is always incredible, the stories are always interesting, and this usually keeps me coming back for more. “Karigurashi no Arrietti” is the story of a family of tiny people who live under a house somewhere in Japan, and a young boy who is staying in the house to recuperate from an illness he has just recovered from. The family survives by foraging around the house. Using secret passageways in the house, and taking what they can. A cube of sugar here, a tissue or two there. Arrietti the daughter of the family goes out with her father, their primary forager for the first time. He shows her around the house, and where to get stuff. Their “borrowing”…

Recently I went to Japan to visit my wife. While we and a few of my relatives were at “Tokyo Disney” we stopped at a convenience store called “News Day”. We were looking for chocolate, but what we found was Banana flavored Kit Kats. I decided to pick one up and give it a try. I waited until my return to the US where I opened the bar up at work and proceeded to cut it into 5 pieces to share with my co-workers. I grabbed the bar, and it started to melt where my fingers touched it. Leading me to believe the base was a white chocolate. The flavor is that of fake banana flavoring. Reminding me a lot of the flavor of banana Runts. The texture was that of a normal chocolate kit kat. While the concept is interesting, I can’t find myself buying a whole lot of…

Tonight I did something I wish I had done a lot sooner. I went to see a band that has been a part of my album collection for 30 years. I first started listening to W.A.S.P. when my uncle introduced me to their debut album. Being an impressionable 10 year old I instantly fell for “School Daze”, a song that compares a child’s need to go to school to that of a person imprisoned for no reason for just being what they are and what they have no control over. With introduction W.A.S.P. seeds were sown. Seeds of free thinking, of rebellion, and of personal desire to make something of myself. I arrived at Showcase Live at 5:15pm, early enough to grab my spot in line with my friend Laurie who had been waiting for me there. The doors opened and we were offered a place to sit. Stage right….

Tonight I ventured over to Movie Stop and grabbed a disc I have been waiting to be released for months. It is the latest Hayao Miyazaki’s Chibli studios film “Ponyo”. A story inspired by “The little mermaid” (or so Disney has put on the outside box) of a little sea creature who is found by Sasuke a 5 year old boy who mistakes her for a gold fish, and takes her home. Ponyo however is the daughter of the sea goddess, and once she gets the taste of human food she uses her magic to transform herself into a human. With her transformation brings on strange events and their adventure begins. Much like many of Miyazaki’s other films it is hard not to fall in love with the characters. Ponyo’s innocent playful manner. Sasuke’s serious undertaking of the job that he’s set out to do, along with the incredible character…

Today I was browsing through my tweeps when I saw that @liza had an announcement. A project she’s been working on for some time has come to life, and is viewable for all too see. This project is Ibis Reader, and HTML5 based ePub reader, which allows you to read ePub applications on any mobile devices who’s browser supports HTML5. I decided to take it for a test drive. I grabbed my iPhone was went to Ibis Reader where I was redirected to the mobile version, and to where I was given instructions on how to setup Ibis Reader on the iPhone. One of the things it asked me was if it could use 50MB of storage on my phone. I agreed, and next I found myself in an area where I could browse books. I scrolled through a couple pages until I got to one called “Japanese Fairy Tales”….