Happy New Year everyone. Here's a flattering picture of me eating some Octopus Balls.


Me and the wife spent the past eight days in Tokyo for New Years. We had such an awesome time, I really, really liked it there. We did a bunch of interesting things, each of which I kind of feel like deserves its own blog entry. I am not going back to work until Monday, so perhaps over the next few days I can focus on getting over my jet-lag, and start wading through all of the photos I took. Here are a few:


This was breakfast on the first day. We woke up super-early, so found we were eating our noodles with all the still-drunk party-goers from the night before.


Tommy Lee Jones is the Boss of Tokyo.


This morning (now almost 20 hours ago for me), we realized that you could see Mount Fuji from the hotel room!

More later.

This is a shame. George MacDonald Fraser, author of the Flashman novels, has died.

I'm sort of ashamed to admit that I don't read as many "proper" books as I probably ought to, so I'm taking note of Fraser's passing because he's one of a handful of writers whose work I'll seek out. I've read a bunch of the Flashman novels, and I think they are awesome. The way he writes about the historical periods with such knowledge is impressive, and the way he has Flashman act like such a dick all the time is hilarious.

I've also read two of Fraser's autobiographies. One about his experiences in World War II, and one about working on Hollywood movies - though that one was really more about his opinions about how left-wing liberalism is destroying England. It also had a lot to say about how the European Union is a terrible thing.