#watched the 5.1 trailer yesterday

[shalomniscient]

if mavuika turns out to be sad and soggy and horrendously willing to self sacrifice because she misses her family or something it’s going to be so over for me. sad and soggy characters who put up a relaxed and carefree front? brother say less

[journeydb]

July 6 2018 London

Happy Anniversary to us!  This year we’re celebrating our 26th  year of  marriage and 39th year as a couple on the same day, because when we got married we decided to do it on the anniversary of our first date, which we had been celebrating for thirteen years by then.

We started our first full day in London by returning to Hyde Park, since it was a short visit yesterday and we hadn’t seen much of the park.  I was particularly impressed by the size and scope of the gardens in Kensington Gardens inside the park, which I didn’t remember being so beautiful when we were here before.

This amazing tree’s branches created a large cave inside, which was nice and cool after walking in the morning’s heat.

Since we decided that another theme of our trip would be to visit castles and palaces that were featured in three of our favorite TV series, “Victoria”, “The Crown”, and “Downtown Abbey”, we stopped by Kensington Palace, one of Queen Victoria’s favorite residences.

The palace was hosting a showing of Princess Diana’s dresses and, had Bruce been more interested we would have gone inside, but he was hungry and wanted to get to Notting Hill, where we planned to have lunch.  I have always been a fan of Princess Diana and was extremely sad when she died.  She had a great deal of charm, grace, and compassion and she was also a very good mother to her sons.

It was fitting that the first cafe we noticed was named after Princess Diana, who is  still idolized by many people around the world, and especially here in London.

One of our all-time favorite movies is “Notting Hill” and I have probably seen it four or five times but Bruce has seen it at least twice that many times.

Trip Advisor told us one of the best places for lunch in Notting Hill was Granger and Co., although it’s more famous for its amazing breakfasts, apparently.

The ambiance was relaxed and pretty and the food WAS delicious, so we had a nice, peaceful lunch and then headed out to find the famed “blue door” from the movie.

If you have seen “Notting Hill” you remember the blue door of the protagonist’s apartment. The real story is even more interesting.   According to Trip Advisor:

“The location: 280 Westbourne Park Road, Notting Hill (of course).

The scene: Hugh Grant’s bookshop owner starts an unlikely relationship with Julia Roberts’s (fictional) Hollywood superstar. She’s holed up inside his bedsit, besieged by the press – until his eccentric housemate (Rhys Ifans) upstages her by giving the paparazzi a dance in his undies.

Then: The rundown bedsit full of pizza boxes was in fact a set – even in 1999, you’d have been unlikely to find a down-at-heel bookseller living here. The blue door actually belonged to a three-bedroom church conversion, long rumored to be the home of the film’s writer Richard Curtis.

Now: The flat is valued at around £5 million. The original blue door was auctioned off for charity but its replacement is still popular with selfie-hunters. ‘We get tourists asking for directions every week,’ says the manager of The Castle pub across the street – which, in a parallel universe, is Hugh Grant’s local. ‘A lot of them come back for a drink after. The blue door has been a godsend for local businesses!’”

If you’ve never seen “Notting Hill”, click on this trailer and maybe you’ll want to join the rest of us who fell in love with this romantic comedy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RI0QvaGoiI

After seeing the blue door we walked through Notting Hill to Portobello Road Market, which was also in the film, and found quite a few good deals.

No trip, especially one focusing on Queen Victoria, would be complete without a visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum.  According to Wikipedia:

“The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied and decorative arts and design, as well as sculpture, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects.  It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

The V&A is located in the Brompton district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in an area that has become known as "Albertopolis" because of its association with Prince Albert, the Albert Memorial and the major cultural institutions with which he was associated. These include the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Royal Albert Hall and Imperial College London. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. As with other national British museums, entrance is free.

The V&A covers 12.5 acres (5.1 ha) and 145 galleries. Its collection spans 5,000 years of art, from ancient times to the present day, from the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa.  However, the art of antiquity in most areas is not collected.  The holdings of ceramics, glass, textiles, costumes, silver, ironwork, jewellery, furniture, medieval objects, sculpture, prints and printmaking, drawings and photographs are among the largest and most comprehensive in the world.

The museum owns the world's largest collection of post-classical sculpture, with the holdings of Italian Renaissance items being the largest outside Italy. The departments of Asia include art from South Asia, China, Japan, Korea and the Islamic world. The East Asian collections are among the best in Europe, with particular strengths in ceramics and metalwork, while the Islamic collection is among the largest in the Western world. Overall, it is one of the largest museums in the world.

Since 2001 the museum has embarked on a major £150m renovation program. New 17th- and 18th-century European galleries were opened on 9 December 2015. These restored the original Aston Webb interiors and host the European collections 1600–1815.”

After returning to the hotel and resting we went out for a romantic anniversary dinner at Le Caprice, highly recommended by the one of the hotel’s concierges.

We really liked the restaurant, especially the ambiance in the garden, and the food and service were also excellent, so the dinner was the perfect way to end a  perfectly wonderful anniversary.

[63824peace]

Wednesday, 12th of october 2005

Television programs receive broadcast extensions in autumn, or else they are canceled. This year's turn-around resulted in the cancellation of Nihon TV's Tuesday Suspense Theater. The show had been broadcasted for twenty-four years. It was television's second longest running show, outlasted only by TV Asahi's Saturday Wide Theater. What a disappointment!

Both programs featured series of two-hour dramas. No one of my generation ever missed an episode. We eagerly awaited each new installment to see how the drama would escalate. Of course, this was before we became adult contributors to society as members of the work force.

Serialized television shows us that traditional storytelling methods are outdated. They are too straightforward to offer useful social criticism. We will only have variety shows left if the old-fashioned shows go off the air. Television programs and games are alike ; each needs its audience.

We should still preserve some media and cultural artifacts that are uninfluenced by popular trends. People who share my temperament grieve the loss of a show that we grew up watching. Saturday Wide Theater remains on the air; the patriarch of television programs survives for now. I sincerely wish it well.

I watched the weather forecast this morning. The usual autumn rain front moves under the influence of high atmospheric pressure. The children who have eagerly awaited the athletic festival celebrated a victory this week. Typhoon-20 will still come ashore, but at least it seems that the sky will be clear this afternoon. I yearn to feel a pure autumn day.

We held our routine meetings this morning. I realized suddenly that I haven't seen Shin-chan in a while. I checked his work booth, but he wasn't inside.

Then I remembered he is on vacation.

The MGS4 team worked around the clock when we were preparing for TGS. They are taking the belated vacation that they missed during the August Bon festival. Everyone ought to be enjoying time with their families or lovers. They are making up for lost time. Because of the vacation, Mr. Nishimura hasn't sent feedback on my articles via our intranet server. I wrote my articles without his counsel this time, so I'm eager to learn his reactions. I expect that I'll owe him a few apologies when he returns.

I ate Yakisoba with pork, mushrooms, and oyster sauce at the Chinese restaurant Fuuton San Raakyo for lunch. I probably should have eaten udon. I have a comprehensive endoscopic exam scheduled for my stomach and intestines tomorrow. I ate udon last night though… no, excuse me. I ate Oudon for supper last night. Because I prepared for the exam last night, I wanted at least to enjoy Yakisoba for lunch today.

I received a pamphlet from my doctor's office that details my pre-exam preparations. It reads: "Please abstain from eating vegetables, fruits, and seaweeds prior to your procedure." I feel pretty fortunate that I dislike vegetables. I wonder though... was it okay to have eaten the mushrooms?

Mr. Shida came to the office this afternoon to perform the final check on the Existence disc. We started by watching and listening to it in the editing studio. He seemed to enjoy it more than he scrutinized it.

I have entrusted the remainder of the third disc's direction and structure to Mr. Shida. I also had requested that he write and edit the L Book that accompanied the limited edition of MGS3. The man knows more about MGS3 than even the MGS3 staff. He might be the only person after myself who knows the game so intimately.

The MGS team is a big family. Of course, specialized divisions focus on developing specific aspects of the games, such as the script, the visual designs, the programming, and the audio. As Director, I unify the various parts by giving orders that guide everyone along my vision. Leaders and supervisors manage each group from within, but the success of our work ultimately hinges upon my relationships with each staff member.

The game only becomes possible through direct relationships with each person working in each group. Intimacy grows between us. We discuss certain development details known only to the specific person and myself. For example, the scripting group usually understands the game better than anyone else. However, they don't know anything about how the audio works. They listen to the audio during the development process, but they aren't privy to the ideas that have laid the foundation for the audio's development. They have no way of knowing those conversations.

I don't know how other game developers work, but we make MGS through a honeycomb of confidential relationships.

Mr. Shida has conducted check-up interviews with almost the entire MGS staff for years. He even checks up on me. He knows our outfit down to the slightest details. He knows the whole staff as intimately as I do, so I have entrusted him with the Existence disc.

I have already supervised the whole process. I am confident that my collaboration with Mr. Shida will really make our work shine.

Mr. Shida and I finished our work in the editing room and proceeded to the sound room. I noticed a few flaws when I listened to the Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound output. Every time I review a certain scene I think, "That doesn't sound right. Maybe I'd rather do it differently after all." We don't have much time left. We wouldn't dare revise the disc's contents at this stage if the project were in the hands of an average producer.

My work as a game designer takes priority over my role as a producer, however. I grumbled to myself, "You know, I would really like to... well, I would love to change that, but... well, I guess we'll just have to leave it as it is." Mr. Shida kindly responded, "Why don't we tweak it a little?"

Even if our time is short, Kojima Productions' sound team is always ready to tackle new problems. Our true pleasure comes from doing the best work possible.

I will share my technique for cultivating this attitude with HIDEOBLOG's readers. It isn't good enough if a man must tell his staff, "Hey, fix this." I cultivate a specific work environment so that my staff naturally says, "Hey, let's fix this!" This attitude is any game's most crucial ingredient.

If any part of our development staff feels overstressed, chances are it's the programming team. They are responsible for debugging the game and creating the master copy. Sometimes our interactions become pretty tense.

Mr. Shida suggested that we go ahead and revise the audio, despite the size of the task and our time constraints.

"You said the right words!" I said in the Kansai dialect. "If you didn't think like that, I wouldn't have even let you in here. So you really think we can revise it at this stage?"

"Yeah, let's hit it. Let's push ourselves until we fix this thing and everyone goes home satisfied."

Mr. Shida is right. A truly good thing makes everyone happy. Everyone makes a huge effort. Kojima Productions' vitality spins upon one point: an unspoken consensus to make only things that are truly good and that improve everyone's happiness.

Preparation for our field training continues. Yesterday's carpenters have become today's outfitters. They are checking all of our field training equipment.

I realized that today is Wednesday, Kojima Productions' Longest Day. Everyone leaves the office at 5 P.M. today to watch a movie. We're all so busy this week that no one has even prepared to go home after the film.

I am unable to watch today's movie, but I have great movie-related news. MGS4's TGS trailer will officially show at the 2005 Tokyo Fantastic Film Festival. It will run in the Shinjuku Milano Theater at 10:30 P.M. on Saturday (October 15).

The MGS4 trailer will run as part of the special event celebrating the Tokyo Fanta's tenth anniversary. The event's theme is a dedication to the late Teruo Ishii's memory. And there's more! Shogo Ishii's film Crazy Thunder Road will run at the end of the dedication event. Shogo Ishii... one of the most revered men in the industry!

I will share a screen with Director Ishii... wow, what an honor! I can't even describe my delight. Sometimes we are blessed in this life beyond our expectations.

I picked up Depeche Mode's new album Playing the Angel on my way home. It was a quick grab, like a bird snapping something from the grass then barreling away.

The pre-exam preparation pamphlet says that I should have taken the laxative at 7 P.M. I arrived home a little later than that though. Around 8 P.M.I ate Su-udon at home ; udon noodles without anything added for taste. (According to the folks at the restaurant Tsrutontan, it should be Su-Oudon.)

After I ate, I took the laxative according to the pamphlet's instructions. I dissolved the Magukoloolu-P medicine into 150ml of water and then poured in the additive Rakisoberon. I mixed them up and gulped the whole concoction. I chased the laxative with three glasses of water. I felt as though I were an astronaut undergoing launch preparations.

I'm a typical Type-A personality. I like to follow procedures. I really had wanted to begin at the scheduled time.

I followed the next step at 9 P.M. and drank three more glasses of water. The laxative hadn't taken effect yet, so I decided to push it a little. I drank two extra glasses of water. I listened to Depeche Mode while I waited for the laxative to kick in.

The music is good... really good! I was a little anxious given the band's four year lapse between albums. Alan Wilder has left the group, but Playing the Angel really reminds me of Depeche Mode's glory days.

I'm kind of a dork, so Depeche Mode's music fits me. I love David’s voice and singing style despite the fact that I'm a middle-age man. I'll listen to Depeche Mode even if I'm Grandpa Kojima.

The laxative started working while I listened to the album. I followed the pamphlet's last step at 11 P.M.: I drank two more glasses of water. I was on my own after that, so I recited my procedure to myself. "One: drink some water. Two: listen to Depeche Mode. Three: use the restroom."

...I feel as though I have become a drainage pipe.

I think I'll stay away from Oudon for a while.