It's been too long...

...my non-existent friends that never really read this thing anyway. What a sad world where people who aren't there don't read your crumby weblog. Sadness.

Anyway... A lot has happened since the last time I've written. Nothing of grand spectacular note, really, normal things that seem to just pile on just a bit of drama already saturating in the heat of life.

Um...yes...

Take a look at all the posts beneath:

Portfolicious

Every time I take time away from my blogs, especially my portfolio, it seems someone pops up to give me a comment. This time was no different.

I had just finished updating my Portfolio (which is now updated - go see. Now!), when a grad student from LA left a message saying 'HEY! I like your stuff! I'm working on an animation project. Could you storyboard it for me?' And I'm like 'Dude!'

Then, soon after, my wife, who was working on her own blog said 'Hey! A woman I'm in contact with said she's friends with some manager-dude at this huge film production company in Japan. He also saw your portfolio and was like "Whoa! His stuff is cool. I wanna meet him and possibly give him a job ([perhaps] despite our lack of ability to directly communicate)! Tell him to come to Tokyo." Isn't that fuckin' sweet-aces?!'

'Hell yeah,' I says. Then I fill my pants with brown. 'Oh God,' I says.

I've been published thrice in magazines here, and now all these people want some of The Mike. Art + Popularity + Full-time job + soon-to-be newborn baby = Dead in a frickin' week!

Christmas with the Napolitanos

It was a nice Christmas. Just the two-point-fraction of us in our old apartment in Daikokucho. We got much, though this year, we were unable to send anything over. Lack of funds this time around, most of which were going to the newly-developing fetal-creature inside my wife's once-unsuspecting tum-tum.

And YES, our thank you letters are a bit (3 months) late, but they are coming. We haven't forgot about them (or you, mi familia) - it's just that we're three months into this new place and we're not even completely settled. Yet. Ever. Whatever.

ニューマンション！

We finally moved out of old, stinky, dirty, noisy, roach-infested, Yakuza-swarmed, poop-filled Daikokucho to the kinda-newer, cleaner, quieter, cuter-bug-filled, more secretive-Yakuza-swarmed, poop-less, more expensive and less convenient Nishinomiya, in Hyogo Prefecture.

My Studio (^-^)v	The shower, sink, and washer

This is the kinda place where everyone drives a BMW and pays higher prices because the stores know they can charge more. That leaves us, the poor, very nearly in the fucking cold.

The kitchen and dining area	The very messy living room plus wife

This is the kind of place that has only one bus every TWO hours in the mornings. The evenings only are a bit more frequent. My legs are so buff from my twice-daily 20-minute walks up and down sometimes impossibly steep hills. This, of course doesn't include the hour-or-more traveling I have to do by trainZ to and from work!

The Bedroom	Nolan's future room, when he's big enough to need it.

When we finally moved into this 'brand-new' apartment, it was filled with so many broken things, like the sink's drain that was held together with duck-tape (our personal favorite) and getting each the problems fixed was like sucking on a shark-nipple - we met much resistance. In Japan, no one wants to do anything. They do, however work very hard to pass the buck - which my wife does not tolerate! Hooray for American corruption!

I can't complain about the view, though.

Babies Grow I'm Told

It's 100% Official. We're having a boy. Nolan Something Napolitano is 9 months old - according to the Japanese baby calendar (that's about 8 months in 'real' time. He be growin'! And BOY, is he a kicker... and a puncher. What I mean to say is he will earn his way through life being a street-fighting vigilante. Couldn't be prouder! Go Irish!

Here's his development since last I posted:

Seventeen Weeks	Twenty-Seven Weeks
27 Weeks: Creepy Profile 1	27 Weeks: Creepy Profile 2
27 Weeks: Creepy Spine	31 Weeks: Creepy Triceps and Cheeks
	31 Weeks: Creepy Pig-leg eating

Dem Wacky Boids

Near to where I live, there is a pretty big river that splits and reforms more times than I can count. Althugh it's surrounded by the blacks of asphalt and grays of concrete, migratory birds left-behind often come to take a dip in the shallow, and quite filthy waters.

Near to one of my schools, there is a discount, franchise bookstore. Upon one of the corners of this monster of a homewrecker, pigeons scoff at their human enemies by comfortable resting upon the very impaling-death-spikes that are meant to keep them off. The are the yoga-masters of the fowl-world.

Babies Are Needy Shites

Not even born yet and this blob of a creature is already loaded with crap. Not only is he strollered and futoned, he's got a crib on the frickin' way, has a four-way carrier, a baby-bag plus enough butt-cleaning products to supply the WHOLE family for years to come. Down below are a couple of mommy-sweaters that my own mommy whipped up for the mommy of a certain Nolan Napolitano. The light blue one even comes with a matching one for Nolan after he's borned, plus a bevy of blankets for the blossoming butterball.