Anime Magazine: Desk Diary 2014/02

Its been a while since the last installment of Desk Diary but at least I didn't leave it till over half a year to get todays update out ^^;

As I mentioned last time, there was going to be quite a few changes. We needed space to fit more people, equipment and stock for the production of Smart Doll.

We were looking for a new office but because my salary is so low (my pay is the lowest out of all my employees ^^;) - all the insurance companies rejected my applications. In some cases I was given the gaijin treatment - but will talk about that in a separate post ><

What we ended up doing is moving out of our house and turning the 3 floors that we have into our office - wifey and I moved into a small apartment around the corner.

Anyway, this is what the 2nd floor of the office is looking like today.

Photo taken end of October last year - building a small Mirai shrine in the corner.

Shifted things around to make better use of space during December.

My wife shares a desk at the other end of the 2nd floor. Wifey looks after all the things I'm bad at - accounting and HR.

Another recent photo with the kitchen in view.

Finally did it - consolidated my computing to the MacBook Air and ditched the iMac which can now be used for editing season 3 of Culture Japan.

I save much more time now that I only have 1 environment to maintain and the processing power of the machine is more than adequate for the stuff I do on Photoshop, Fireworks and Final Cut Pro.

The red keys are a rubber hangul keyboard overlay - I can't type Korean at all without it ><

I try to keep my table as clean as possible but more often than not it gets messy. Here I am working on the Ejector Pin placement for the Smart Doll Injection Mold.

This is what my desk looks like today.

I've reached that age where I need a pair of computing/reading glasses which I hang on the wall.

Not sure if you noticed but I also changed the glass that I use for my table to a more opaque green one - only because Ikea didn't do the frosted glass ones anymore in Japan. My previous table is now on the other side of the room.

Working on the Japan Map with Linus.

And here is the figure/doll shrine with my fave girls.

Kuroyukihime by Maxfactory - comes with a load of sharp parts that you could cut yourself on - just like I did ><

Which is why I prefer to display her like this.

I love this scale figure of Akane Isshiki by Good Smile Company.

Battery change - been wearing this trusty watch for about 12 years now.

Picked up this pair of Sony MDR-XB610 headphones from Amazon after seeing it one day at the airport - the orange! And yes it turned out to be a pretty decent pair with really nice bass too. Price was 7,769 yen.

I use this MDR-XB610 mainly for when I watch movies or play games and continue to use the MDR-CD900ST at work.

The gorgeous Cat Lap Milk by Native - shes an extremely ecchi figure though and if you really want to you can check out the other angles here. I lost the squashed oppai parts for her though - or somebody took it from the office ToT

Regarding the pose - I guess she dropped her contact lens or something.

The office seems to be filled with ecchi figures of late - but its not my fault - they just seem to fall from the ceiling ^^;

This is Yuki by Orchdseed - thanks to Hobby Search for sending her over ^^;

Picked up this OEM Mac-like USB hub from Amazon. Looks great in product photos but not so great when you open the box ><

Some tools for Smart Doll production.

Previously used this small set of draws for figma parts - now use it for bits n pieces which I take out n about with me like my wallet n keys etc.

MUJI have a load of nice small containers like these - they feel like they take up less space as they are transparent letting light through.

Currently working on Moekana the 2nd edition which is due for release this April. Its a second edition which means that its not a completely new product but a revamp of the previous one - just like there are 2nd editions of Harry Potter where they fix spelling mistakes and wot not ^^;

For the 2nd edition of Moekana however, there are much more changes with the introduction of Kizuna and Chitose and we include Katakana too. Cards from the booster pack are also included and many of the illustrations have been revamped.

Just released by Alphamax is Velvet from Shining Ark.

Got some Tanita scales for weighing this n that for Smart Doll parts.

These BOSE SoundLink Mini Bluetooth speakers are incredible! I've always wanted something small with decent sound and got these for Christmas from a good friend - thanks Michele!

Very surprised at the bass and sound that this little fella can produce - currently serves up the background music in the office.

Picked up 2 Acer G246 24" monitors for the office - I currently use one of these attached to my MacBook Air. Quite reasonable at 16,908 yen.

New 3D printer for the office and Smart Doll production - full review lives here.

And if you are wondering from the photo - yes I did go and make smaller oppai for Mirai-chan ^^;

Not a fun decision to make but a necessary one - we moved out of our house in October last year to accommodate the production of Mirai Suenaga Smart Doll.

Here I'm packing up the game corner ;-;

And this is what our new place looks like. We managed to get a meeting with the person who owned the apartment so we didn't have to use an insurance company - or we would have had our application rejected again ><

The lens makes the apartment look bigger than it is. After living in our own 3 storey house since 2005, moving into this small place feels not so great and certainly does not feel like home.

While the living room has enough space to move around just a wee bit - the other rooms in the apartment are so small that its difficult to do anything without accidentally thumping the wall with ones elbow or hitting ones head in the kitchen.

Having said that I do appreciate having a roof over my head - I am aware that there are so many homeless folks out there ><

The walls are concrete but you can still hear domestic noises from next door - living in noisy apartments was one of the reasons why we bought a house in the first place.

Our current kitchen - not a lot of space to move around in ToT

The entrance with the bedroom at the back of the photo.

This apartment was designed with a corridor which takes up a load of space - would probably have been better if the entrance opened up into a living room and have the other rooms attached to it.

My current goal in life - to start selling Smart Doll so that we can begin to recuperate costs and save enough to move into a proper office - then we will be able to move back to our house. Aim to do move back home this year.

Meanwhile back in the office on the 1st floor - up until now its been used as storage and to house guests. We needed to start cleaning out this room so we started with the sofa which will go up to the 2nd floor.

The 2nd floor back then.

Moving one of the tables out of the corner.

In the process rediscovering the amount of cables Apple decided to put on the old Cinema Displays - and then cursing the designer - and re-cursing myself for buying it in the first place ^^;

Sofa in its new location and then attempted to clean up some of the electrical wiring.

The Mirai shrine in this corner didn't last too long though.

The new Mirai shrine missing a Smart Doll.

Back in December.

Folks take power naps on the sofa - and I always try to place a box of tissue and an eroge magazine next to the person sleeping - but they always wake up before I get to take a photo ^^;

The new sofa area makes it a wee bit more easier to have meetings when guests come over.

Those who have been keeping up with the Desk Diary series will know that the shelves on the wall are called Clear Rack - very easy to put up and take down.

Most kitchens in Japan come with fluorescent lighting which I'm not a fan of - unfortunately the fixture is different which makes it a pain to change.

To change a fluorescent lighting fixture in Japan, you need to hit the breaker or be immune to electrification. Then you attach one of these fixtures called Shomei Hikkake [照明引掛け].

After you have the standard fixture, you can pretty much attach anything you want and we decided to go for track lighting.

And here are the track lighting lights - 836 yen each from Amazon.

Picked up some more bits n pieces for the office.

I hate wires - they make humans miserable. Where possible I try to minimise the pain caused by wiring - especially when its thick just like the one in this photo - the one on the bottom does exactly the same thing but takes up less of a footprint.

Same thing here - HDMI cables are usually thick but managed to find ultra thin ones on Amazon for 1,269 yen - less footprint and grief means I can focus on more important stuff instead ^^;

Currently working on a Bridal Mirai.

A bunch of goodies arrived from Shirahane Nao (DMYO) sensei ^o^

Some of the Gunpla that I made many many moons ago.

Not enough Christmas gear to go around so only Karin-chan gets to play Santa.

The Gundam boys are back in town.

Most of these are GFF Gundam Fix Figuration which started its line way back in 2001.

How many of you enjoyed Mobile Fighter G Gundam?

This post contains a video, click here to view.

Some goodies in the form of T-shirts from J-List - they got a ton of parody T-shirts.

Speaking of T-shirts - some doll sized ones from Murasaki.me - she made me some prezzies last year and I liked them so much that I've comissioned her to make the official ones for Smart Doll.

For some reason, of late I've started to like a darker shade of orange which is close to red - probably because whenever I order something online where the description and photo is "orange" - it arrives looking half way red ><