Every once in a while, I like to import a few things from Japan. Let’s face it: the Japanese have much cooler stuff than we get here in the US. They live on the bleeding edge of technology and have a real knack for presenting products. Take, for example, the KitKat candy bar I purchased. Here in America, we get one flavor of KitKat and the four breakable wafers come in a plain orange wrapper. That’s it. No flash, frills, or funky flavors. Meanwhile, in Japan, there’s a constant turnover of flavors. Some hang around a while, some are limited, and others simply fizzle out.

“Royal Milk Tea” is the flavor I purchased. It arrived as part of a ten-count case. Each candy bar comes in it’s own little box. The end is perforated, with a little thumb indent. You shove your thumb into the perforation, pull up, and…

… the package reveals two pairs of individually wrapped KitKat bars. This is kind of nice, because I don’t feel pressured to polish off an entire four-wafer candy bar in one sitting. I can grab one little packet and I only feel obligated to finish two wafers.

This type of packaging reminds me of the “unboxing” trend that so many people get a kick out of these days. Consumers like to feel that they’re opening a present every time they buy something. Apple, Flip, and Aliph are all companies that abide by this concept, as they deliver their product in creative ways. Shiny boxes with concealed flaps and transparent plastic parts are fast becoming the norm, while the days of cutting open blister packaging is (hopefully) on the wane. Interestingly enough, something as simple as a candy bar seems to fall into this category in Japan. Who wants to tear open a piece of foil-coated plastic, when they could instead have their own unboxing ceremony each time they eat a snack?

All that aside, I know the burning question in your mind is, “How was the candy bar?” Well, I thought it was pretty good. It certainly tastes like milk tea, but has an underlying chocolate flavor too. In my mind, it seems like the wafer holds the tea portion of the flavor, while the outer chocolate-like substance provides the milk. I can’t get too attached to these though. From what I hear, they’re a limited edition release and will soon be removed from production.

Other currently available flavors include: Milk Coffee, Caramel, Raspberry & Passion Fruit, Strawberry, and Chili Powder (seriously).

Hello. Happy 2010. Yes, I know it’s almost February.

The power of the human mind always impresses me. Our ability to retain information for long periods of time without actively tapping into it is amazing. For example, back in January 2008, I took the time to learn both the Japanese Hiragana and Katakana alphabets. I wouldn’t say I knew them cold, but I knew them well enough where I could stumble through Japanese text and be able to sound out the words (visualize a toddler learning how to read). I worked on this for about a month, but ultimately got distracted and stopped studying.

A few days ago, I decided to pick up where I left off and give it another go. I initially spent my time re-learning basic Japanese words to refresh my memory – stuff like counting to ten, colors, animals, etc. Last night I decided to dive back into the Hiragana alphabet. I was expecting to remember almost nothing and have to start from scratch, but as it turns out, I didn’t do half bad. I was able to remember 27 of the 46 basic Hiragana characters…

That’s a picture of a basic drag-and-drop matching game. The purpose is to match the Hiragana characters up with their respective English-represented sounds. Now, after two years of not touching Hiragana, I managed to get 59% of them right on the first try. After I took this screenshot, I managed to match up another half-dozen through trial and error. The rest, I simply couldn’t remember.

Now, the purpose of this blog post is not to brag. Most people have this ability to recall things. Riding a bike, hitting a baseball with a bat, and basic algebra are all good examples of things that are easy to pick back up if you’ve neglected them for a while. The brain is an amazing tool. We often deride ourselves if we fail to remember a word or fact during an everyday conversation. “I must be losing my mind,” we say, but with the sheer amount of organic data floating around in our skulls, it’s certainly excusable. Especially considering the complex tasks we execute and recall on a daily basis.

December is nearly upon us and the holiday season is in full-swing. My tabletop Christmas tree is sitting on my dining room table and I purchased a set of new LED Christmas lights, which were promptly strung in my bedroom and kitchen windows. I can smell the power savings already.

Actually, these LED lights are pretty spiffy. Besides the obvious benefits of less power usage and a lower electric bill, they appear to be much more vibrant than the traditional incandescent lights. A good comparison would be automobile brake lights. The incandescents on a regular car are bright, yet soft, while the LED tail lights on a higher-end vehicle are almost piercing. The LED lights also run far cooler due to their reduced power consumption. The downside is that the strand of lights seems to have some kind of inline resistor, which does get slightly warm. It also the clunkiest thing on the entire strand (comparable to a C-size battery) and can be a challenge to hide when decorating.

Overall, I’m happy with my purchase. I’ll probably save a few dollars on my December energy bill, while providing seasonal merriment for all my neighbors.

I think I’ve finally begun to see the light. I used to view Twitter as a farce; a simple distraction to keep morale up during a day of work. After all, what was the point? When I first started using it, the service was largely a vehicle for friends to exchange goofy little updates about themselves. Feeding the cat? Tweet it. Varnishing your footlocker? Tweet it. Initiating a multi-million dollar diamond heist? Tweet it. Despite this, Twitter continued to evolve. While it still serves as a melting pot for all the world’s experiences, it also serves as an excellent way to stay up to date on news tidbits.

While I do share tweets with friends of mine (which also show up in the top-right corner of this website), I largely use Twitter to keep up on news and interesting people. By following SonyPlayStation, I’m able to stay informed about the latest game releases and PS3 firmware updates. Meanwhile, AdagioTeas, keeps me up-to-date on the tea inventory at my favorite online tea retailer. It’s actually useful! Who would have thought? My only gripe is that not enough of my friends use Twitter, so I’m largely left reading the tweets of people I don’t know on a personal basis.

Because of the increasing usefulness of Twitter, I found myself requiring tools that would circumvent my increasing need to visit the website a hundred times per day. For the longest time, I used an iPhone app called Twitteriffic ($5). This worked fine for my limited use, but as my needs increased, I found myself wanting more – especially an application for my desktop computer. And so, about three weeks ago, the great Twitter software shakedown began.

At first, the field was large. For the iPhone, I was considering TweetDeck, Tweetie 2, Twitterific, and Echofon. The desktop computer side of things was a bit smaller with just TweetDeck and Echofon. At first, the selection was whittled down quickly: I found the desktop version of TweetDeck far too complicated and annoying, so Echofon easily won out. On the flipside, I found the iPhone version of Echofon to be a bit on the light side, so that was dropped almost immediately. Twitterific held onto the crown for about two weeks, until I decided that TweetDeck and Echofon offered far more features, while being easier to use… and that is where I stand right now. I’m still debating between TweetDeck and Tweetie, as both apps are almost equally weighted with pros and cons. If someone held a gun to my head and told me to pick one, I might lean towards Tweetie, simply because I like it’s minimalist design, but both apps are otherwise in a virtual dead heat.

  

Left to right: Echofon, TweetDeck, and Tweetie 2
(Click to Enlarge)

That about concludes my Twitter software spiel. I would review each individual program and explain their merits, but I think this blog post would end up being a solid 2000+ words in length. Just know that I’m a picky guy and each Twitter client is examined for their presentation, color scheme, ease of use, and chunkiness (in other words, less bloated = better). If nothing else, I hope this list will help to point someone in the right direction if they’re looking for a good Twitter client.

Also, if you’re a Twitter user, keep your eyes peeled for FlyTags. That’s me.