OK, I admit it. I've been delinquent, and taken way too long to add an update to the site.
However, the circumstances ***have*** been a bit unusual. After the second week in Osaka, I flew back to Austin to be the best man in the wedding of my best friend (Dave Sandal) and his new wife, Jill. But that's getting ahead of things...
Meanwhile, going back to the second week in Japan, I can't say that there were any new developments. Definitely worth noting, though, is the dinner that the Japanese Special General Contractor (responsible for finishing out the building and installing the special effects for T2) hosted. I don't know if I've mentioned it or not, but Osaka is considered to be the food capital of Japan. Believe it or not, there's supposed to be a really good Mexican food place in town. I have to confess that I'm skeptical, but I'll try it out, just to make sure. Anyway, for the SGC dinner we went to a Brazilian restaurant. It was another buffet where you eat and drink all you want for two hours (they seem to be popular). The food was excellent, and things didn't get too wild.
It's when we continued our drinking afterwards that things got a little more interesting. As dinner wrapped up, our host suggested that we all go a nearby karoake bar (big surprise, huh?). How could we refuse? As it turned out though, the karoake facilities weren't running at the time, so we took over the back room of an Italian restaurant (also reputed to be excellent). What ensued from there, I'll keep very short: One of the ***very*** big Americans went head-to-head with at least a dozen Japanese guys, virtually one after the other, in successive beer chugging matches. He won every time except one. The amazing part is that he easily walked away. I've never seen anything like it.
I'm getting more comfortable with work and learning more every day. However, I will say that I was very happy to go back to Austin after two weeks in Japan.
Being back in Austin was great. I got to see lots of friends in the short period of time that I was there, and marry off my best friend to boot! By this time, Dave and Jill are relaxing under the sun getting tans. The weather was fantastic, but my departure was made a little easier by the bad weather that eased in just as I was leaving. I'm definitely going to have to work at embracing Japan and distracting myself from how much fun I'd be having in Austin if I was there.
Leaving Austin, I came to Los Angeles for a couple of days. Of course the weather has been great, except for the smog that's tends to get very bad in "The Valley". But even that seemed to clear up for a bit yesterday and I could once again see that there actually are mountains around, not just a "Twilight Zone" end of the earth at the edge of town. This time I was able to watch the show repeatedly, from front stage and back stage. Some of the effects really are amazing when you can watch them up close. Imagine moving a 4,000 pound frame-mounted screen about 8 feet and stopping it, all in about 1/4 of a second. The forces involved are very frightening. One of my jobs is to make sure that it doesn't land on anyone.
So that about wraps the last two weeks. It's been fun, and now I'm off to Osaka again. But first I've got a couple of quick notes:
- I'm bringing a compass. Hopefully I'll remember to carry out when I go out.
- So far, I'm still staying at the Ritz.
- So far, I'm still flying Business Class. Basically, since I'm filling the role that a regular Universal staff member would fill, I'm getting a couple of staff perks. Cool!
- I've decided on a camera, but it's not available until mid-May (Nikon CoolPix 990). Then I'll probably buy it out of the states, since it looks like it'll cost about 50% more here (go figure!).
Also: Check out the new pictures (April 19 and 21)! I took these with my SLR and scanned them. The quality isn't the best, but they get the point across.