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Don’t worry, you haven’t accidentally broken some security barrier to see this; “Top Secret” is the name of the project and has nothing to do with its level of security.
The Competition
A couple of years ago, producers of Trackmania, 2moons and other titles, announced the “Top Secret” competition, where amateur games developers were to work together and create a game based on the specifications from the design team (at the same time, the designers were also in a competition for best input etc. The prize was to become director of the project). The winning team gets an instant $100,000 and any production costs up to $1million are paid off. Acclaim will then publish the game, and the developers get revenue and more money based on revenue and time spent supporting the game once it’s released. Continue reading Top Secret: Not a Secret.
6th April 2008, as the world watches, mortified yet scarily passive about Magube’s “re-election”:
President Mugabe gives a speech on world peace. He opens up by saying “I hate guns”, as someone behind him holds a gun up to his ear and fires a blank. Mugabe’s stunned reaction reminds me of “I can’t believe you’ve done this”. After recovering from the initial shock, he bursts into tears, holding his head in his hands in humiliation and embarrassment.
For those of you wondering what “I can’t believe you’ve done this” is, here you go. The exact facial expression I’m on about is just at 8 seconds when his face comes back in view of the camera with a look of frustration:
I couldn’t help but feel angry about how we try to justify the Iraqi, Afghan and potential Iranian wars in the name of democracy and liberty, yet we let this guy so blatantly pillage his own nation.
This entry is part of a series, Planning Japan» You may have noticed while reading the plans, I was hesitant to use pronouns (I, We, Us), which made the writing awkward. The reason for this is because I wasn’t clear on if I was going by myself or a with a friend, Herman, who was still deciding if he liked my plans or not.
And then, this evening, I checked to see if the KLM prices were still dropping, but in-fact most of the flights had taken a huge hike, in some cases by over £100, so I told Herman the brown stuff may be about to hit the fan if we don’t act quick, and I think the sense of urgency may have been the decider for him. As for myself, despite initially planning to go alone, I’d got my hopes up so much about having a companion I was less enthusiastic about going solo. So, we did some final checks, and refusing to buy tickets unless he’d got a confirmed booking, I nagged at him a while, and, well, we now have tickets 
The downer is that as I booked the tickets, I got a message saying that because someone else has just bought tickets for the flight, the price has risen for my own ticket. Dammit Herman!
The next rush now will be at 1:30am on either the 21st or 22nd of this month, depending on if we decide to fly out to Amami on the morning of or the night before the eclipse. The reason being that Japan’s domestic airline opens bookings at 9:30am two months in advance of the flight, and there’ll probably be 1000 other people wanting to make the same journey…
This entry is part of a series, Planning Japan» Unfinished, I’m still adding locations and details, but here’s the interactive map courtesy of Google, no more tacky lines drawn in MS Paint 
Clicking on icons will give details, though I havent bothered filling most of the details in yet. Clicking on the lines will also give info on the times of trains we’ll be using to travel along them. If I accedentally leave a price in Yen and you’re confused, 10000Y is just less than £70.
Let me know how this map works out for you, with regards to integration on the website, for example, if it messes up the site on smaller resolutions.
This entry is part of a series, Planning Japan» The Warei Taisai festival is on between the 22nd and 24th, the 24th being the main day with bull sumo. To the north of Japan is the Samurai Festival in Soma city, from 23rd to 25th, again the main day being on the 24th, but I think the samurai festival just about beats watching bulls pushing each other around. So, to compromise, I think the best route is to head back from Amami to Uwajima for the Warei Taisai, and have a girly giggle at the statue of the stone penis at the nearby Sex Shrine.
The night of the 23rd, take a night train (free this time, though sleeping on a “specially designed” floor) to Soma, watch the festival. After this, chillax. There’s no more set dates for festivals, but there’s still things I’d like to do. For example, Tokyo is now between where we are and Osaka. Near Tokyo is Mt Fuji, which I’d like to climb overnight (as many people do, apparently) to watch the sunrise. Another night-time to-do is hop over to the docks and checkout the street-racing scene. One of the man-made islands is a huge parking ground where the art of car-tuning is taken seriously, and throughout the night races (almost legally) head out from and return to here. Oh, and the huge fireworks display is on the night of the 25th. So that’s at least 2 nights planned in Tokyo, with plenty to do during the day, such as have a gander at the Expo in nearby Yokahama (while avoiding being stamped on by a 2-story high mechanical spider).
Once done here, return to Osaka for a couple of days, perhaps with a few hours in Kobe, and then return home. This is by far the cheapest third of the tour, as there’s not silly costs of night trains, scenic routes or flying out to remote islands.
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