Recently I swapped the HDD in my laptop. I was getting frustrated with the storage being too small and the speed being too slow.

Wednesday is manga café day. This time I brought my own laptop — power and network courtesy of a friend on staff — and discovered Lineage 2 costs ¥3,000 a month.

The reason I’ve been busy lately is that I’ve suddenly been meeting a lot more people, which means less time in front of the computer.

With an acquaintance working at a manga café lately, I keep getting brought along again. Yes, another manga café day today.

With less than half a year to graduation, I called my old employer Komeda: ‘Could I come back?’ Easier than starting fresh somewhere new. Time to remember the job.

Found a supercar at my part-time workplace. Well — more like a Choro-Q miniature, if we’re being precise. Apparently it comes with a Coca-Cola purchase.

“I am ifbot. Hello.” Various robots appeared in demonstrations at a conference. One of them was this “ifbot.

Today I’m at a two-night, three-day academic conference (more of a gathering, really) in Awara Onsen, Fukui Prefecture.

Worked as a conference assistant — an information science student assigned to the electromagnetics track, learning that SAR values measure how phone signals affect the body.

Went to a baseball game today. I’ve been to about 10 games over the years, but this was the first time seeing a loss. Shock.

New phone at last: au’s Osaifu-Keitai with no external antenna and a clear screen. One complaint — the ringtone is too quiet for such a basic function.

This perfectly clear sky. Such good weather that I used the digital camera I recently bought at auction to take some photos of the school buildings.

Spam has increased dramatically lately — even more than before. About 40 messages a day now. Genuinely annoying.

This happened yesterday — I don’t think I’ve ever felt such a sharp “oh no” moment.

Lately, friends keep having bad things happen — hospitalization, a car accident — one piece of bad luck after another.

Three million unused Expo advance tickets, 30 days left — Aichi Expo announces uniform admission caps for September. Reservation or not, once it’s full, it’s full.

The K-Net Electric auction fraud made Asahi Shimbun: over 1,000 cases, tens of millions of yen, the operator missing. One of the biggest auction frauds on record.

The K-Net Electric auction fraud, dissected: build feedback with a month of honest sales, then list everything at once and vanish. Even auction stores aren’t safe.

Recent spam comes in story form — serialized messages from ‘Kaho’ about bumping her husband’s left-hand-drive car. Annoyingly well-crafted, still spam.

While driving today near the Kusunoki interchange on the Nagoya Expressway, I spotted a sign like this: “CONSTRUCTION SITE — DO NOT APPROACH!!!