Thursday 18 October 2007

Pic of the day: Package from Japan and battery charger.

Day of stuff

I bought a battery charger today. This was probably because of the battery powered LED gadgets I am slowly accumulating. I have a LED flashlight, LED head lamp and will be getting a small LED wall light. For some reason these all use 3 AAA batteries.

I went to Expert, the electro chain, but the shop assistant insisted that you can only charge 2 AAA batteries at the time (despite the 4- battery chargers being clearly marked as AA and AAA) and in any case they did not sell AAA rechargeable batteries apart from charger, so I would have to buy two chargers with AAA batteries. Uhm, let me go elsewhere. Strange, I usually get exactly what I need at Expert. Perhaps I just wanted this, and did not need it?

Next I went to the local photo turned electronics shop, Elite Foto (Wintersborg), and talked to someone who knew what they were talking about. It still cost me nearly $100 (including the Scandinavian 25% sales tax admittedly) but I got a nice little charger handling 4 batteries of either AA or AAA, and 4 batteries of each type. (The AA came with the charger and was plastic wrapped with it, and one set of AAA bought separately.) I have a sense of deja vu at this point, but am not sure why. I already have a charger that only handles AA. Long ago I bought a charger for NiCd batteries, but I threw it away in the move, I hope. The age of NiCd is over.

It would have been cheaper to buy dozens of alcaline batteries, actually. They are getting ridiculously cheap now. But we have only this one planet, right? Or perhaps it takes so much resources to make a rechargeable battery that you would have been better off buying several alkaline, just like with cars... getting a new car to save the environment hurts the environmen, unless your old is breaking down anyway. Or the biofuel, but don't get me started ranting about that. I like to think that rechargable batteries are not that much worse than alkaline.

Oh, and I later found out that the battery charger that I already had, the one that could only handle AA batteries, could actually also charge AAA. I just had to flip the contacts in a certain way, and suddenly they were the right size for AAA. -_- If I had not been so eager, I could have saved the money and the environment and not been stuck with 2 chargers and a set of AA batteries I have no idea what to use for.

***

When I came home, there was this packet in my mail box. It fit in this time too, just barely. It takes a little planning to fish out a box from an almost full mailbox, but I can do it. I just have to fish out the other stuff first and then lift it from the sides.

As usual it is from CDJapan. Almost all the music I buy is from there. I wish I could just download music, but it does not work that way. The legal download sites that are open to us Norwegians don't list Japanese music. I could still pirate it, but that would not show much appreciation, now would it? I hope the Japanese music companies aren't run by old pigs raping the hopeful artists, like you sometimes hear about in the west. At least they are unfailingly polite, unlike their western counterparts, which often come across as thuggish, crazy or both of the above. (RIAA anyone?) Of course, impulsive agression is kind of considered a virtue in America, while eastern peoples tend toward the more devious.

Be that as it may, the package contained the singe CD Kokoro Kara no Message by Sakura. It may be better known as the 4th ending song to the anime Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi or "History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi" (often shortened to HSD Kenichi).

In principle, I think people should be able to listen to their friends' music despite being on a different continent. The Economist referred to our age as "the death of distance" and I agree. But I don't know that people of my generation, or even the next, are responsible enough to handle the new opportunities. I know that the recording companies aren't though. And so I reward those who act responsibly, buy shopping with them.

The song is beautiful anyway. There is also an accompanying song on the CD, called My Best Friend, and as usual there are karaoke versions of both songs. Sakura is cute in a not too glamour way and has a pleasant voice for those who are not into the extremely underage voices of "cute music" (such as Under17 and PoppinS). Sakura (Cherry blossom) is a common enough real name, but I don't know if it is a real name in this case. I still read very little Japanese, though I understand a tad more of it when listening now.

Kokoro Kara no Message is not in any way similar to the content and style of the martial arts anime, and was introduced very near the end of the series. It is actually a quiet love song. I suspect it was tacked on to the series to get (well deserved) publicity. Hey, it worked, I bought it!