iPhone in Japan

Came across a blog that gives a better rundown than I could about why the iPhone is going to have a hard time succeeding in Japan.

In other news, sorry I haven’t posted an entry in quite awhile. On Sunday I went down to Kumamoto University and presented my paper, "Speaking Truth to Power from the Depths of Insanity: Melville’s Cassandras, Azzageddi and Pip." A title like that just makes you want to read it, doesn’t it? Well, I finished it on Saturday and it felt so great to finally present the damn thing and put it behind me. The audience was sparse, but not moreso than for most other presentations–holding this year’s Japan English Literature Society (Kyushu Branch) conference in Kumamoto meant that some people who usually come didn’t make the extra distance.

Now I’m buckling down on my next paper, on Iain M. Banks’ The Player of Games. It’ll be nice to do something non-Melville. I’m reading a bunch of books on utopianism, which will be good grounding for the next paper after that, for a conference in the spring. But this one on Banks is for the Australian conference in early December, so I need to concentrate on that for now.

Also, today my friend Jan arrives to stay with us for 10 days. Whoo! Haven’t seen her in years.

After this months-long period of busy-ness is over–that is, after I get back from Australia–my Hungarian buddy Laszlo is loaning me his Gamecube and an HP Lovecraft game. I expect to spend the rest of December just doing my job and playing. Man, am I looking forward to it!

superdave