okay, two things:

I just found out something really cool I'm allowed to do for my job: as long as there's nothing else planned for a day, I can pick out my own trade fairs/conventions to go to, while on the clock for work. Next week I'm gonna go to an modern interior design fair that should be amazing! Also, later in the month there is a toy convention and a comic convention, both at Tokyo Big Sight.

Also, Microsoft just unveiled their latest technology, called 'Surface.' Can you guess what it is? haha, it's a touch-screen table-top, that I thought at first seemed entirely unnecessary, but after watching some of the video demos I'm sort of impressed. If they can really pull off all of the things they showed in those demos, it could be really really sweet. Except, of course, for all the neck pain from looking down constantly. Check out the videos, though, if you're interested: Surface official site. I think the neatest part of it is that--and I don't have any clue what technology it uses to do this, maybe bluetooth combined with other things--it can recognize certain devices or objects that are placed on top of it, such as a cell phone, mp3 player, credit card, digital camera, or even a drink. I think the best use as shown in the demos is as a table-topper in a restaurant: people can select what they want using a touch-screen menu, and can pay with their credit cards afterwards by simply placing it on the table. This would also make it easy to split the check, which is shown in the video as two people place their credit cards on the table and drag images of food and drinks that they had ordered towards their own credit cards. I mean, seriously, that may not be necessary in any way, but you gotta admit that's amazing.

Tonight, I'm going to a concert of another friend I made at the open mic, Sorcha. She's from England, I think; we didn't get a chance to talk much, but i gave her my business card and she emailed me about the show. I don't have any other plans, so what the heck. I think it's far away from where I live, but whatever. Should be another adventure. I'm off work now, so I'm out. Peace y'all.

Love,
D