Spyed Trip Summary and the deviantART Horizon
yellow[alien]probed This journal entry is entirely long overdue. I can not believe that I allowed myself to go almost a complete week without, at least, writing a simple update. In this entry I will try to recap all the festivities that took place while $spyed was visiting followed on by some tidbits of information on what is taking place on the deviantART horizon!
For those that have not been paying attention $spyed made a rare visit to Japan; so extraordinary that it was his first time in Asia. He arrived at Narita International Airport on Friday May 14. Being that he is, after all, a Ninja, it was hard for us to find him when he was coming out of Customs. When we did manage to locate his black dressed ass we kidnapped him and took him down to our house in Yokohama.
Take a wild guess as to what his first meal in all of Japan was?
Sushi. This former New Yorker, now Californian Greek, eats more sushi than half the population of Japan!
The first weekend he was here we ventured over to Atami for a nice little Hot Springs getaway. In Japan when you go to a Hot Springs, otherwise known as an Onsen, you get butt ass naked and relax in naturally hot water. What an intriguing way for me and Angelo to bond after actually meeting for the first time.
I do not remember him trying to catch any looks at my ass while we were showering however there were a few times when I felt my ass warm up with embarrassment, as if someone in the onsen was thinking how tasty it might be! Let us hope and pray that it was not $spyed but I guess we will never know.
After an exciting and relaxing weekend at the onsen we hopped in the car and took a 4 hour drive back home where we met *jmills74 and his girlfriend Mari for some good old fashioned Yakiniku and Yebisu beer! What a relief it was to drink some beer after being cooped up in the car for so long, thanks to hellified Japanese Sunday traffic.
Monday we chilled because Anthony had school and we can not really be taking him out of school for too long. Tuesday was our excursion to Fuji Safari Park where a young giraffe decided that my car tasted far better than the vegetation that the park rangers fed him. Wednesday we ventured to Tokyo for a wicked Sumo tournament. Check out Jimmy’s gallery for far better pictures of the tourney!
Thursday was a relatively quiet day because we had put Anthony back in school. We chilled at the house and Junko made dinner; the second homemade dinner that Angelo enjoyed during his visit. That night we headed out to a local bar and proceeded to get slightly drunk and ended up staying out until about 3 in the morning. I was supposed to work the next day, and wake up at 5:30, but I was still drunk so I decided to call in sick! Friday we visited the Navy base in Yokosuka so that the Ninja could see the small number of ships in port and do a little shopping.
Saturday was the ever official Japan devMEET, where we had the opportunity to meet *chonbi and ~popomta. Visiting the Great Buddha was a blast as was checking out Hachimangu Shrine. The entire experience was fun even though * deviot backed out, as usual, and *isa50 decided to be antisocial, as usual. Though a small gathering it was fun nonetheless. Again, visit Jimmy’s gallery for more pictures!
Sunday the stealth Ninja departed for Los Angeles at 3pm where he ended up arriving 4 hours earlier! Is that not the coolest thing since cylindrical objects that vibrate? We kicked that little rat bastard back to Los Angeles so hard that he fell back 4 hours in time!
So here we are; Wednesday evening in Japan. Curious what is on the deviantART horizon? Here is a small little tidbit. When I say small I mean *deviot small!
Our entire prints division has been extremely hard at work on some really exceptional new features for every deviant. Headed up by $spot these guys have been busting their asses behind closed doors but their work is soon to come to fruition. Some already has; take a look at browsing and purchasing deviantART Prints. You owe it to yourself to stop by the user pages of % achfoo, %lllo0o0olll, %rzero, % skittleboi and $spot and offer words of encouragement because these guys definitely deserve it!
$chris and $syragon have been busy handling server related issues and handling coding of print related projects and other exciting features that everyone will soon have the opportunity to enjoy. These guys are relatively silent but they are definitely hard at work on a daily basis!
Secluded up in Canada, $mccann has been hard at work on a secret new feature that will offer some intriguing new interactivity to deviantART. I got a taste of a beta test today and all I can say is “wow!”
Lastly, venox and myself have been working on some new subscriber features. For those of you who have been wanting some more “control” you might be pleased with what we have to offer. Do not read too much in to that because it probably does not mean what your first thought might lead you to believe.
On a closing note, here are some screenshots to whet your appetite!
On an ending note, if you are interested you can check out the complete set of unedited photographs from $spyed’s visit here! I warn you: they are unedited and were taken with my POS Canon PowerShot S300.[s]
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