Lars Martinson's Blog, page 5

The Future is Now (and it’s cheesy)

My parents bought a used Prius a few months ago, and I saw it when I visited America this summer. The dashboard display reminded me of a cheesy, unrealistic display you’d see in sci-fi movie from the 80s. Just look at this:

Everything about this looks fake to me. The weird, segmented gauge on the right, all the random little numbers and abbreviations… but the icing on the cake is the phrase “Hybrid System Indicator”. I mean, really? It just reeks of meaningless, high-tech-sounding nonsense.

Even funnier is the secondary “Energy Monitor” display. Check this out:

Doesn’t that look like something from Total Recall or something?

I suspect part of the reason for the Prius’ dashboard design is rooted in the whole “life imitates art” thing. They probably wanted something that looked high-tech, so what better way to evoke that than with a design that looks like it came from a sci-fi movie? I probably would have drawn inspiration from movies that came out after Reagan left office, but whatever, to each his own.

Either way, I hereby deem this little piece of reality to be unrealistic.

Thrilling “Tonoharu: Part Three” Chase Scene!

"Tonoharu: Part Three" Intense Action Scene! pic.twitter.com/XIw5zo49wN

— Lars Martinson (@larsmartinson) August 15, 2014

Whoops! Between jetlag and trying to get back into the swing of life in Japan, another week slipped through my fingers and I didn’t have time to compose a blog entry again. So here’s a some Tonoharu: Part Three art.

I’ll try to have something a little more substantial next week!

This week’s blog entry cancelled; check back next week!

Hey all! I promised new blog entries every Monday, but I’m flying from the US to Japan tomorrow and with all the preparations to get ready just didn’t have time to get a blog entry ready. So I’m taking the week off. New entry on next week!

Tonoharu 1 Paperback Promo Flyer

Above is the promotional flyer I designed to send out with review copies of the Tonoharu: Part One paperback. You can click the above image to see a larger version (but one that’s still compressed so it won’t take forever to load). Or if you’re dedicated, you can download the PDF in all its full resolution, 3.7 megabyte glory here:

Tonoharu1pb_flier

As you can probably tell, I’m going for a “film festival” vibe, with the laurel wreaths and all that nonsense. I figure Tonoharu is more likely to appeal to a literary crowd than to, say, anime or genre fans or whatever, so I geared my design in that direction.

That said, I also wanted something that would grab the attention of reviewers right off the bat, since you don’t have much time to make an impression. So I lead off with the $10,000 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle thing, even though it has nothing to do with the actual content of the book. Hopefully that’ll be weird/interesting enough to get a few more reviewers to at least thumb through the book, which is maybe all you can hope for.

Anyway, if anyone knows any reviewers / blogs / YouTubers / magazines etc. that might be interested in a review copy, please let me know. Thanks a million! (^0^)/

Groucho Marx Kanji

Whoops! Forgot to write a blog entry this week, so instead, here’s a kanji I studied recently that looks like Groucho Marx.

See you next week!

“Tonoharu: Part One” Paperback Glamour Shots (plus Amazon pre-order!)

Here are some pictures of the new Tonoharu: Part One paperback, as well as a few notes about them:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152572833478913.1073741828.594318912&type=1&l=b6a020eb9c

You can order a signed copy of the new paperback right now, and I’ll ship it out this week:

http://larsmartinson.com/get-the-tonoharu-part-one-paperback-a-few-weeks-early-order-now/

Or if you prefer, you can pick it up at your favorite retailer this fall. In fact, Amazon pre-orders are now open if that’s your preference!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0980102367/

Get the “Tonoharu: Part One” Paperback a Few Weeks Early—Order Now!

Exciting news! I finally got my hands on some advance copies of the Tonoharu: Part One paperback, and it looks great! But don’t take my word for it–here’s your chance to get your hands on a copy a few weeks ahead of the official release in September!

I’ll have a very limited number of copies I’ll be bringing back to the States when I head back for a visit this week. Right now I’m thinking I’ll be bringing back about 20 copies. If there seems to be enough demand I might bring back as many as 30, but I probably won’t have room in my luggage for more than that.

I’m coming back this Thursday, July 17th, so copies ordered by then will be sent out by Saturday July 19th via first class mail.

Cost

For books shipping within the US: $20 USD ($15 for the book plus $5 for shipping)

For books shipping internationally: $30 USD ($15 for the book plus $15 for shipping*)

Shipping:




Within the USA $20.00 USD

International $30.00 USD

As I say supplies are severely limited, so if you want a copy order now!

*Note: If you live in Japan and don’t mind waiting until mid-to-late August for a book, it might behoove you to hold off on your order; I’ll probably have some copies for sale when I return to Japan for a lower shipping cost.

I’m Home, Empty Room!

The Japanese language has stock phrases that are always used in certain situations. Before you start eating a meal, you say “Itadakimasu” and when you’re done you say “Gochisosama deshita”. These phrases are so entrenched that Japanese people even say them when they’re by themselves and no one is around to hear them.

There are also stock phrases for when you leave and return home. When you go, you say “Ittekimasu!” (I’m leaving) and the whoever’s still at home says “Itterasshi” (Have a safe trip). Then when you come back you say “Tadaima” (I’m home) and whoever’s home says “Okaeri” (Welcome back).

I was surprised to hear from a Japanese friend who lives alone that she still says “Ittekimasu!” and “Tadaima”, even though there’s no one to hear her and offer the reply phrases. I couldn’t help but laugh, because imagining doing the same thing in English comes off as a little sad.

Pet Peeve: Cardinal Directions on “You Are Here” Maps in Japan

Anyone who’s had the misfortune to see me navigate knows I have a terrible sense of direction. East/West/Left/Right… just can’t keep them straight.

So one thing that really drives me nuts is how free-and-easy they play with the cardinal directions on the “you are here” maps at train stations in Japan.

To my mind, north should pretty much always be “up” on a map, especially if it’s a map designed for people unfamiliar with an area (i.e. anyone using a “you are here” map). But in Japan, north can be any damn direction you can think of.

On this map, north is what would traditionally be northwest, thereby making all the streets unnecessarily slanted.

Here’s a map where north is what would traditionally be west.

And finally, here’s a map where north is pointing straight down (pardon the crappy blurry photo). What possible reason could you have to design a map like this? For the one where north is pointing left, maybe they had a landscape-orientated map but wanted to show more to the north and south. Still a bad idea, but I can at least I can imagine a justification. But to have north pointed towards literally the opposite direction you’d expect? What the hell Japan?

Immortal Mountain Fairy

I’m currently studying for the highest level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. The test is intended for non-native speakers, so even though it’s the “highest” level, you really only need the reading comprehension of a typical Japanese high school grad to pass, and most of the vocab and kanji seem pretty practical.

That said, it’s sort of hard to not feel like I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel of when I’m studying the kanji for “immortal mountain fairy”. Oh well, at least it will come in handy for all the Japanese language “Twilight” knockoffs I’m intending to write!