Monday, August 09, 2004

>> The Fall Renewal

Sorry for the lack of updates folks since I’ve been posting a bit more often at my other site, but worry no more as I’m already working on a renewal to these very pages. Yes, it wasn’t long ago that I revamped the site with the current design but, well, you know how I am with this kind of stuff (if not, welcome to the wild and wacky world of Riccin). Coming in a month or two, (hopefully) in time for the general release of Movable Type 3.1 (scheduled for the end of this month), the pop site will undergo a total renewal in design and attitude. This will be the final post here (I’ll still be posting new content over at www.okinawanmusic.org) until the site’s renewal.

Monday, July 05, 2004

>> Blogging at OkinawanMusic.org

Haisai all! I’ll be blogging over here (www.okinawanmusic.org) regularly with only major entries posted to the ‘pop’ site. See you there!

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

>> Pop.i-O gets along with IE/Win

Those of you who use Internet Explorer for Windows (i.e., at least version 6.x) should now be able to view the site correctly. Still, you can do no wrong by downloading yourself a better web browser but that’s just my humble opinion. If you’re still seeing something that you feel shouldn’t be a part of the design, try refreshing/reloading your web browser or emptying its cache. If you’re experiencing problems with IE 5.x, please let me know as I don’t have one that I can use to test the site.

Monday, May 10, 2004

>> Pop.i-O’s Spring 2004 Contest

It’s been a l-o-n-g time but finally, here’s a new contest for you, my precious readers. I must warn you that the Pop.i-O’s Spring 2004 Contest will not be an easy one. First, the prize: Banda Tontonmi’s debut album “Saudade de Uchina”. Second, the contest: on Pop.i-O’s new banner, name all of the album covers that are on it (see, I told ya it wouldn’t be easy); i.e., the artist names and the album titles. If you can go even as far as to list the record label and release date for each album, I’ll throw in another CD! Good luck!

The contest will last until we have a winner or until my next (easier) contest in the summer. :)

To enter the contest, send me an email at riccin[at]internet-okinawa[dot]com, with “Contest” in the subject line, or to make the whole process a little easier, just click here to email me. (Btw, there are 15 albums in all.)

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

>> i-O BBS

Who doesn’t love a good discussion?

Join us at the i-O BBS (bulletin board system) and join the internet-Okinawa community! One of our newest Team i-O members, Derek Young, established this new system for us to facilitate interactivity and community amongst our members and site visitors.

What good is a discussion board without any active discussions? That’s where YOU come in! Please jump in and start participating!

If you have any questions about the BBS, please drop us an e-mail at support [at] internet-okinawa [dot] com.

See you in the BBS! Let’s start chatting!

I practically live there so I hope you’ll join and keep me company. :)

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

>> Site Tweaks for April 2004

Sorry for posting nothing but “Site News” lately. m(__)m

I’ll be tinkering with the site for a week or so and hopefully (i.e., hopefully) have a new entry or two up too. Nifee to all of you who have stuck around during my absence from these pages. I’ll try to make it up to you as soon as May kicks in.

Tuesday, March 30, 2004

>> I’m Still Alive!

Okay, no more making promises that I won’t be able to keep so here goes: April is going to be a big month for me so I won’t be posting much entries anytime soon. May. May I finally be able to get this site going again in May? We’ll see…

Monday, February 23, 2004

>> I’m Alive

Haisai. This post is to let everyone know that, yes, I’m still alive. I’ve been busy with my minyou group’s upcoming recital in April as well as other things. I’ll try to have some new things up soon (not just “Site News” :P) so until then, I apologize for the lack of new things to read on the site. See you soon!

Sunday, January 25, 2004

>> Behind The Pop

Ever had one of those nights where you’re actually sleepy (for once), but find yourself working on something (like this website) that can obviously wait till the morning? Welcome to the world of Richie the utasha (in training) behind the pop. Things done in the wee hours of the morning:

1) Upgraded MT from 2.65 to 2.661
2) Surfed the web
3) Upgraded MT-Blacklist from 1.62 to 1.63b (Donna has it installed on the main blog as well — we all hate comment spam with a vengeance at i-O)
4) Checked out Apple.com (they still don’t have any special message up for the Macintosh’s 20th anniversary!)
5) Added an Atom feed
6) Updated the Kung-Log powered badge to the ecto powered one
7) Checked the validation of the index page and the feeds (so far, so good)

Now, it’s time to sleep. My fingers are beginning to move at a snail’s pace across my Mac’s keyboard. (-_-)zzz

Thursday, January 01, 2004

>> Okinawan Pop Culture Bloggers Wanted

Okay, the title says it all. To start off 2004, I’m looking for Okinawan pop culture enthusiasts to blog along with me. This’ll lessen my workload (i.e., if anybody answers this open call) so that I’ll be able to work on the other projects I’ve mentioned on this site. Here is a little (wish) list I have for those who are interested in joining:

• Have some idea of what blogging is all about (familiarity with Movable Type or TypePad is a plus)
• Have access to a spellchecker ;)
• Have no problems with doing it all for free (I guess this is the most important “wish” of mine)

There’s no time limit for this so if you’re interested or have more questions, please email me at: riccin[at]internet-okinawa[dot]com.

>> Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone the best Year of the Monkey!

Monday, December 29, 2003

>> Site Tweaking

I’ll be tinkering around with the site (mostly with the design) for a week or two so please pardon any weirdness you may encounter. Regular posts to continue next year (which happens to be less than three days away).

[Update: Please “Reload” or “Refresh” your web browser to see the latest changes to the site.]

Thursday, December 25, 2003

>> Happy Holidays from Pop.i-O

Geez, to think that this’ll be my only post for the whole month! I wonder if anyone else feels that this year went by in a blur. Did I have that much fun? It’s certainly been a blast blogging about Okinawa’s pop culture and I really appreciate the positive feedback I’ve received from like-minded fans from Brazil, Canada, Chicago, France, Germany, Hawaii, Japan, Korea, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Singapore (to name a few).

Although there were projects of mine that I did not get off the ground this year like O.M.G. (Okinawan Music Geeks), a special event for reaching my 10,000 visitor, or interviews of performing arts instructors in Hawaii (and abroad), my “hope” is to see these and other projects on the site in 2004 (hey, if I can’t do it in a year’s time then it’ll never get done).

Finally, I want to say nifee to all of you who keep me positive enough to keep this little blog going, and to all of the very talented individuals within the Okinawan pop culture community who make this all possible. Have a safe and happy rest of the year and I’ll see all of you again next year!

And most of all, têgê everyone. ;)

Richie v(^o^)v

Sunday, November 02, 2003

>> Absence

I must apologize for my long absence from the pop pages. What have I been up to? Well, besides blogging regularly to my personal weblog, I’ve also been busy with the usual things (i.e., work and music), and, I’m also contemplating another change to this site or creating a new one. Of course, this site will always remain for Okinawan pop culture. I’m thinking of creating a site strictly for Okinawan music which will make use of one of my open domains, www.OkinawanMusic.org. If anything, you’ll be the first to know. ;)

Sunday, October 19, 2003

>> Updates

I’m hoping to have some updates to the site before the day is over and the contest for my 10,000th visitor should be up by the end o the week. First update to be posted an hour from now.

Sunday, October 12, 2003

>> 10,000+

I’ve reached the 10,000th visitor milestone (it came and went a couple of days ago) and as promised, I’ll have a bunch of goodies on this weblog in the coming days (or perhaps weeks!). I’ve been quite busy these last couple of weeks but as soon as time permits, I’ll have new content up as well as a contest to win a free CD or two to commemorate my reaching the 10,000th visitor mark. Stay tuned for more!

Sunday, September 28, 2003

>> No DotW today

I’m taking a break from posting a new DotW today since it’s my big bro’s birthday. I’ll return next week with the second part of my DotW on Rinken Band. I’ve also reached my 9,000 visitor today! :D

Monday, September 22, 2003

>> A new DotW and my 10,000 visitor

I have a new DotW up for the O-Pop group Rinken Band (yes, finally). Due to the large number of album releases by the group, I will separate them into two parts. Look for Part II to be completed by next weekend.

As you may’ve noticed, I don’t have a public counter that tracks how many unique visitors stop by the blog, and, I normally don’t mention my site stats. But, I’ll be reaching my 10,000th visitor in about a week or two so I just had to mention that, right? Since renewing the site back in March, I’ve had a steady stream of visitors (about a 100 per day) and although this site isn’t swimming with the big fish, for a little weblog on Okinawan pop culture all is not shabby either. Nifee (thanks) to all of you for visiting and I’ll be sure to bring you the same English-language content you’ve grown to love (you do love the stuff don’t you?).

Tege,
Richie Yamashiroya

P.S.
I’ll be doing something special (a CD giveaway, a special article on J-Pop, and lots more!) for the pop blog after I reach visitor number 10,000 so stay tuned!

Monday, September 15, 2003

>> The DotW is back!

Finally. The DotW (Discography of the Week) feature is back! (Btw, I’m still working on the Rinken Band one having just completed the cover scans.) This week’s featured artist discography is Banda Tontonmi’s brilliant debut album “Saudade de UCHINA”. Enjoy!

Tuesday, September 02, 2003

>> I’m Back! [Updated]

I’m back from my August vacation and I (think I) have a lot of news to catch up on. First off will be to announce some of last month’s new music/video releases and second I’ll finish (or start on) the projects I had mentioned before taking one of my yearly breaks from these pages.

I want to thank those of you (nice to finally meet you Wes, Ray!) who introduced yourselves to me as a fan of this website at the festival. That’s what makes this all worthwhile and fuels the flame to keep this site going as long as I can. As you know, this website is a labor of love and about 75% of the music mentioned on the site is purchased through my half empty pockets. Having Okinawan music fans email me, introduce themselves to me, or snail mail me, makes me one very happy blogger. A big heartfelt nifee (thanks) to you all!

O.M.G. (Okinawan Music Geeks) is still alive and it’s one of the projects I hope to complete before I take my next yearly vacation from the pop pages in mid-December/early-January. I’ll have some information up on the club before the month is over or please get on my case about it — nifee!

[Updated on Saturday, September 12, at 10:51 pm HST.]

Sunday, July 20, 2003

>> For the month of August

I’ll soon be taking my yearly break from the pop pages in August to prepare for the Okinawa Festival in Honolulu. Before that happens, I hope to have a DotW for Rinken Band, my final J/O music store review of Tower Records, and a few other things. Of course, I’ll still be reading my email so keep ‘em coming. :)

Sunday, July 13, 2003

>> Hyping it up

So now that we know for sure that a certain top O-pop band will be performing in Honolulu, what better time to hype things up a bit?

My next DotW will feature that band and some info along with it. Stay tuned!

>> Taking a break

Okay, I got quite a lot done yesterday so I’m going to take a break from this site (at least for the rest of today). I’m still working on the final Hawaii J/O store review, and I have most of the info I need to complete my History of J-pop - Okinawan-style, but I’ll post those entries on a future date. For now, I think I deserve a much needed cup of coffee. Tege!

Saturday, July 12, 2003

>> And for the rest of this weekend

I hope you’re enjoying your weekend. I have two, count ‘em two, DotWs coming up by Sunday and I hope to have my final Hawaii J/O store review of Tower Records up by tomorrow too. And, if I somehow find the time, I’ll post an entry on the history of J-pop — Okinawan-style. Stay tuned for more!

>> Lots to report

I’ve been gone for much too long and I have a lot of stuff to report. The first of these entries should be done in about an hour.

Friday, July 04, 2003

>> Site News 070403

Wow, my last “Site News” was back in April of this year! Anyhoo, if you’re visiting from the mother site nifee for stopping by. :)

I still haven’t decided if I’ll keep this layout or not so the other links still use the original layout (since moving to MT). The logo is of an Okinawan woman with traditional hairstyle listening to music through a pair of state-of-the-art (okay, it can be low-tech ones too) stereo headphones. It’s kind of a mixture of new and old with a tie-in to music.

>> About the new pop.i-o logo

The new logo for the pop weblog, or Yuntaku, is inspired by works from manga artist Monkey Punch and Okinawan artist Bokunen Naka. If there’s anyone who can take this concept and make it better please contact me. Nifee!

[Update] I wasn’t happy with the new logo so I’m going to fall back on my old one for the time being. The offer still stands for the new one tho’. :)

[Update 2] Okay, I tried again and I like this logo better than the original new one. And yes, the offer still stands. ;)

>> Site renewal, well sort of

Doing a little tweaking here and there so please pardon the real-time construction of the pop weblog. Not sure if I’ll keep this design but it should work better with older IE/Win browsers now.

Thursday, June 26, 2003

>> I’m back (albeit temporarily)!

Haisai! Yup, I’m neglecting the pop blog again. Been busy with the usual stuff so tonight’s entry will be a quickie. By Sunday I’ll have a double dose of DotWs, pics from Banda Tontonmi’s recent studio session (nifee for the pics Tiemi!), new Terebikko news, and *ahem* much, much more!

Thursday, June 12, 2003

>> Neglected

I know. I know. I’ve been neglecting this weblog and haven’t posted a new DotW for this past week. I’ll make it up by posting two new DotWs by Sunday, June 15, and I’ll have a bunch of other stuff up by then too — i.e., I’ll really do my best to get new content up by then. :)

Tuesday, May 27, 2003

>> On the menu

Here’s a list of things I have coming up on the pop:

• My 4th and final Hawaii J/O music store review of Tower Records.
• New Terebikko news.
• A guide to navigating the pop site. I know that most of you visiting here are probably newbies to this whole weblog thing so I’ll have a step-by-step tutorial on the best way to get the most from my site. In the meantime, if you have any questions you know who to ask.
• A list and description of Okinawan performing arts schools/groups in Hawaii.
• A new A Closer Look featuring O-pop stars and minyou stars.
• Interviews with anyone willing to talk to me in real life, IM with me, or through email.
• Up-to-date news on O.M.G. (Okinawan Music Geeks), an Okinawan music lovers group I’m trying to establish. I’m thinking of changing the name to O.M.F. or Okinawan Music Fans. What do you think? (Btw, we’re still accepting members.)
• Of course my DotW (Discography of the Week) will continue as it has been.

There’s much, much, much more coming here at the pop so keep coming back, okay? Nifee! v(^o^)v

Friday, May 16, 2003

>> An early DotW post becomes my 100th

I’m going to be quite busy this weekend so I decided to post the DotW (Discography of the Week) a couple days early. That entry (the one previous to this) also happens to be the 100th post for the pop site. v(^o^)v

Friday, May 09, 2003

>> Site News 050903

I’ll have a lot of new info regarding the J-Pop scene (and some other goodies) up by Sunday, Mother’s Day. Right now, I’m kinda in need of some time away from my Mac, and a much needed stretch. Be sure to check out my other projects in the meantime.

i-O Blog: Internet-Okinawa.com’s team weblog.

Chitose Hajime Fan Blog: one of my fanblogs.

A Parsha cluB Fan Blog: another fanblog of mine.

Wednesday, May 07, 2003

>> Chitose Hajime Fanblog

Attack of the fanblogs? You betcha. ;)

I’ve completed part two of my fanblog phase. Now, it’s time to sleep. (-_-)zzz.

Link: Chitose Hajime Fanblog.

Tuesday, May 06, 2003

>> A Parsha cluB fanblog

My Parsha cluB fan site blog is finally up! I don’t have much content up yet but it’s a start. :)

Link: A Parsha cluB Fanblog.

Wednesday, April 30, 2003

>> The i-O Blog is up!

The i-O Blog is officially up. If you visit there, be sure to leave a comment too. Nifee!

Monday, April 28, 2003

>> MT and the i-O Blog

Well, it’s not official yet, but we’re going to start using MT for the main site too. It’s called the “i-O Blog” and it should be officially up by Friday.

Sunday, April 27, 2003

>> Designer of new i-O logo posts entry

Travis Morgan, the designer of i-O v.2’s new logo, has posted an entry on the site update as well as a plug for this site — nifee Travis! His next project for the i-O site will be to create a “high impact flash intro” — can’t wait to see it!

>> i-O v.2 is up!!!

i-O (Internet-Okinawa.com, this site’s mama) has a new look! Our Jedi web master Donna has been juggling a schedule that would tire me to just write about it so I’ll just say she’s a really busy person. Otsukaresan (something like “thank you for your hard work”)! The new i-O logo (which I hope to stick somewhere in my site too *hint*) is designed by i-O team member Jedi Flash master, Travis Morgan (links to his weblog).

[update] This is my 50th post! Yay!

Thursday, April 24, 2003

>> Site News 042403

Worked on some site tweaking today — mostly on the archived portion of the site tho’. I’m wondering if the site is now loading okay with Win/IE (Windows Operating System/Internet Explorer) 5.0 - 5.5 users. Because of a CSS parsing bug in those versions of Win/IE, I had to use a box model hack, but I’m still unsure as to whether or not it’s working. If you’re a visitor to this site who is using either version, can you please email me or leave a yuntaku (comment) on this site? Nifee.

This earlier post of mine has a screenshot of what the site may look like with Win/IE 5x users (note: this is before the hack) and what it should look like if it had loaded properly.

Tuesday, April 22, 2003

>> Chitose Hajime fan site (lack of) progress report

Yup, I’m still at it. I’m also working on a fan site for Parsha cluB so it may take me a bit longer to finish Chitose’s one too. In the meantime, check here for the latest news on Chitose. For a quick search you can either click the “J-Pop” link in my Categories section or do a search under her name in my “search da pop” section.

Friday, April 18, 2003

>> Bug begone!

If only things were as easy as using a Jedi mind trick to make things better —*sigh*. Anyway, the site should now load properly with Win/IE 5x users. Nifee to these sites for their valuable information on CSS hacks:

BlueRobot.com
Glish.com : hacks
Tantek.com — Box Model Hack

Again, visit this page to learn more about upgrading your web browser to a more standards-compliant one. Nifee.

>> Bugs

I found out that Win/IE 5x has a CSS parsing bug so changing the size of the main column may not make any difference at all. But luckily, there’s a fix. Funny, I’m sure my friend using WinME with Win/IE 5x (now that I think of it, it may’ve been IE 6x which should be a little better than IE 5x) had no problem viewing the site. I’ll try to have it done by the end of the night for you Win/IE 5x users. :)

>> Site News 041803

Our Jedi web master Donna sent me an email with a pic of how this page looks with the Win/OS running Win/IE 5.5 with a screen resolution of 800x600. I’ve noticed this problem (the right column blending into the main column) when the window size in a web browser is reduced but I didn’t totally factor in a screen resolution smaller than my current one (1024x768).

I’ve made the main column (the one you’re reading this in) smaller in size so I hope the problem’s solved now. This site no longer uses nested tables so I’m still getting used to working with a CSS-only layout. One thing’s for certain now, the site validates as XHTML 1.0 Transitional so please, please use a web browser that supports web standards to view this site.

For more info on using web standards compliant web browsers, please click on the graphic below. Nifee for your understanding and cooperation. :)

Links to learn more about web standards:
W3C — the World Wide Web Consortium
WaSP — the Web Standards Project

[update] I’m including a pic taken from my computer’s screen using Mac/IE 5.22 with a screen resolution of 1024x768 to compare and contrast with Donna’s earlier pic.

This is how it should look in your web browser’s window. If the right column is still blending into the main one, please email me with your OS (operating system e.g., Win2000, WinXP, MacOS9, MacOSX), your web browser (e.g., Win/IE 6.0, Win/Netscape 7.0, Mac/IE 5.16, Mac/Camino 0.7), and your screen resolution (e.g., 800x600, 1024x768). Nifee!

Thursday, April 17, 2003

>> But does it work?

From the Richie is a web browser otaku file: systems/browsers — results:

WinME
with Win/IE 5.x (thanks Ray) — works

Mac OS X (10.2.5)
with Camino 0.7.0 — works
with iCab 2.9.1 — doesn’t work
with Mac/IE 5.2.2 — works
with Mozilla 1.3 — works
with Netscape 7.02 — works
with OmniWeb 4.2 — kinda works
with OmniWeb 4.5 — works
with Opera 6.0 — works
with Phoenix for Mac OS X 040503 — works
with Safari 1.0 Beta 2 (v73) — works

Does the site work well with the system/browser you’re using? If it’s not on my list can you please offer me your info by leaving a Yuntaku (comment) or by sending me an email. Nifee!

>> Site News 041703

Haisai and welcome to pop.internet-okinawa.com’s site renewal!

If you’re a total newbie to the site, you may want to check out my About/Info Page first. Also, you may want to read my older posts which can be found by clicking on the links to “March” or “April” in the Archived Stuff section on the right column (old timers may want to check out my archives too). You could also check out the Categories section which are defined as:

DotW (the Discography of the Week) — Okinawan artist discographies, pop.internet-okinawa.com’s bread and butta.
J-Pop — News on the J-Pop scene.
pop.i-o — Site news.
Reviews — Where Riccin (Richie’s nickname pronounced like “Gucci” but with a “n” at the end) reviews all kinds of Okinawan-related stuff.
Terebikko — What’s on TV?
Yuntaku — Anything and everything (rants & raves) I have to say about Okinawan things.

Don’t worry, you won’t have to remember these (if you don’t want to that is :P) as each category page will have its description underneath the site’s banner.

Finally, if you encounter any problems with the site or just want to yuntaku (talk story), feel free to email me or leave a Yuntaku (comment) below. Nifee for your interest in the pop culture of Okinawa and I hope you’ll stay with me long enough to enjoy the things to come.

Têgê (hang loose),
Richie “Riccin” Yamashiroya

P.S.
If you’re interested in joining our Internet-Okinawa.com team, feel free to send an email to our Jedi web master Donna. If you want to be a part of the pop weblog you can send me an email at riccin@internet-okinawa.com (yeah, I’m asking to be spammed :P).

Wednesday, April 16, 2003

>> Going live

Having finished transferring my first review, I’m now ready to make this site go into default mode. Nifee to those of you who have been checking out and knowingly or unknowingly helping me beta-test this site renewal. To those of you who are just joining us, haisai and welcome to the new pop.internet-okinawa.com filled with CSS goodness.

>> Validated!

Just put my CSS and XHTML 1.0 pages through the W3C validator and they all (almost) pass! “Almost” because I still have a parse error for “select.jumpbox” on two of my CSS pages. Oh well. No biggie.

>> Ahead of schedule

The Links Page and the About/Info Page is done! I’ll put up one of my old reviews by tomorrow and then this site will be the default for pop.internet-okinawa.com!

Tuesday, April 15, 2003

>> Site News 041503

This weblog is almost ready to go live! Yay! I think I’ll finish up the links page then work on a review before making it the default for the main site. Projected date of semi-completion (nothing’s ever completed here): Friday, April 18, 2003.

>> A bit late but here it is

A new (actually the first) DotW (Discography of the Week) is up! This week’s featured artist is Parsha cluB.

I also changed the fonts around and added the banner (the one you see above with Seigwa) to the archives and permalink pages.

I’m planning on putting up one of my old reviews next.

[update] Hmm. Interesting. The posts done with MT leave a break (an XHTML tag) after the title while the ones done with Kung-Log don’t, e.g., look at the title for this post which was written in MT, and look at the one below it (the DotW one) which was written in the Kung-Log app. I can’t believe that I’ve only noticed it now. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to do the KL ones manually. :(

[newer update] My bad. I simply wasn’t setting Kung-Log’s text format to convert line breaks. Note to self: if I don’t wanna read directions, at least look at every detail of the app very closely. ‘Nuff said.

Sunday, April 13, 2003

>> Recent Comments section

I’ve decided to scrap the “Recent Comments” section for now.

Saturday, April 12, 2003

>> Still up

Yup, I’m still up and making little changes to the site. I added a “Recent Comments” section although I’m not sure if I’ll keep it or not. If I do decide to keep it, I’ll make a graphic for it later on tonight. Now, it’s time for sleep. (-_-)zzz

Friday, April 11, 2003

>> It’s decided!

Ha! Don’t you love it when there’s no one else in control! I’ve decided to go along with my plans below. I’ll be testing out a DotW category come Sunday. I’ll start with Parsha cluB. Oh, and I’m still taking comments even though I’ve made up my mind to do things the selfish way. But, if I read a good argument against my decision, I’m willing to work around my wagamama-ness.

>> Hmm

I’m thinking of sticking to this MT weblog for things that I would normally have made a web page for. For instance, if you visit my “da pop that works” site (the original “working” site), you’ll notice that I have separate pages set-up for my DotW (what I call my “Discography of the Week” feature), UPzine (the Uchinâ Pop eZine), my reviews, and my Chitose Hajime Fan Site. With the exception of the fan site, I could actually make the others into MT categories and blog it instead of writing up the HTML for it. Everything incorporated into the weblog and made simpler for me. Hmm.

Let’s see if it’s possible. With the DotW, I could make thumbnails of the album covers and save some space that way. Where the title is, I’ll have the artist name. Definitely a possibility. I’ll have to give this a try with one of my older discographies.

With the UPzine things get a little hairy. I could just do away with the UPzine as I’m already posting entries to this weblog that is similar to my sections (or categories) in the actual ‘zine. If I do decide to do away with it, I should set-up a categories link on the menu column to make it easier to see what I have available (in fact, I should’ve made one in the first place).

My reviews section fits perfectly into a weblog category so that leaves me with making pages for my fan site. I just freed up a lot of time away from my Mac! Wait, is this a good thing?

Yuntaku (comment)?

Thursday, April 10, 2003

>> Don’t I ever sleep?

I just finished the about page! Actually, there’s still some things I want to add to it so it’s not really completed yet. False alarm - gomen! Perhaps I’ll have some time to finish the links and some of the other pages tomorrow later on today. (-_-)zzz

Wednesday, April 09, 2003

>> Fixed 040903

It wasn’t some crazy CSS flaw on my part but a XHTML one! Anyhoo, it’s been fixed and I’m outee!

>> Finally, a site update

A new look - scratch that - a new temporary look for “the pop”. Still fixing some CSS mistakes but I’ll have it done in no time (note: I’m running on Okinawa+Hawaii Time™). What do you think? (psst, that means please leave a comment - nifee!)

Oh, and the other pages have not been updated yet. Doh!

Thursday, April 03, 2003

>> Site News 040303

I didn’t have a chance to work on the site today, gomen. I’ll try to have some updates by Monday.

Wednesday, April 02, 2003

>> Welcome to the party!

Visitor from the main site? Haisai!

As you can see, this looks totally different from the site you just came from. Donna (our Jedi web master) and I are in the process of redesigning both sites (www.internet-okinawa.com for Donna [and what an undertaking she has!] and the “pop” site for me) from the bottom up with CSS.

Please read through my past posts (there’s only a few more than what’s on this page) to gain a better idea of where I’m at with the site renewal.

Feel free to leave a comment or two on the posts that interest you the most. Nifee (‘thank you’ in Okinawan) for your interest in the music of Okinawa and please continue to support our site.

Têgê (‘hang loose’ in Okinawan), Richie “Riccin” Yamashiroya.
riccin@internet-okinawa.com

>> Looking more Okinawan

I’m working going to start working on Okinawan-themed background images for this site. I rummaged through my parents’ closet and got some good ideas from their clothing with Okinawan designs. Maybe I’ll have some of them up by Friday.

Instead of a “sneak peek”, I now officially have a link to this page from the main site. I think it’s better if more people are involved in my so-called “beta test”.

Sunday, March 30, 2003

>> Ara Yukito & Parsha cluB

The first article (May 2001 Edition) I wrote for the UPzine featured my favorite O-pop band, Parsha cluB. I’ve been a fan of their music since 1995 and I try to attend their concerts whenever possible.

As of today, I’ve attended a Parsha cluB concert in 1996, a Ara Yukito with Sunday (the nickname of his taiko player/percussionist) concert in the same year, a Parsha cluB performance at the Orion Beer Festival (the memory is blurred by *ahem* a few too many orders of Orion Beer, but I [could] swear they were there) in “the same year”, and last night’s special guest appearance by Yukito-san for his friend Shida Fusako Sensei’s concert in Honolulu. Okay, that last one doesn’t technically count as a “full” concert, but seeing him (or they) live should count for something, right?

Anyway, to get to the point (yes, there is a point to this little entry here) is that as big a fan I am of their stuff, why no fan site yet? I’ve made one for Hajime Chitose, and I’ve only been a fan of hers for about a year. So, added to the renewal of pop.internet-okinawa.com (the old site is here), and among the other projects I have planned for April, will be a fan site for Parsha cluB and Ara Yukito - yay!

>> Another setback

Gomen. I’m going to postpone (yet again) the unveiling of the site renewal till the end of April or beginning of May. Looking at it, okay staring at it for a couple of minutes made me realize that it’s really missing an “Okinawan” element to it. As is, it could be like any other site of mine. I’m looking into using Okinawan kimono patterns to fill the top part of the pages and/or add pictures of artists (most likely album covers) to give it some Okinawan identity.

Just some minor stuff today. I’ve changed the font on the entries part of this page from Verdana to Trebuchet MS. I’ve also switched fonts on the other pages as well, but unlike the “yuntaku” page, the font is being used on the whole page instead of just a part of it.

I’m planning to post on my other blog about last night’s Shida Fusako concert. I’ll link to it on this site when it’s done.

Friday, March 28, 2003

>> Postponed

Looks like I’ll have to postpone the previously scheduled update to this “renewal” site till early next week. Gomen!

I’ll have to try to get to bed early tonight since I’ll be out all day tomorrow performing as part of the jikata for Shida Fusako Sensei’s performance. Wish us luck!

Thursday, March 27, 2003

>> Haisai!

Visitor from pop.i-o? Welcome! :)

Feel free to help me beta-test what will be the new look of pop.internet-okinawa.com. You may want to read through my other posts to gain a better idea of what I’ve been working on. Also, I’d really appreciate any feedback which can be sent to me via the “comment” link below. Nifee!

Wednesday, March 26, 2003

>> More Site News

All pages but DotW, UPzine, and Chitose Hajime are up. I’m hoping to complete the layouts for them by Friday. I’m also hoping to have the content done on all pages by then too. :)

>> Findings Part 1

Here’s what the pages should look like (screenshots are of the Phoenix web browser):

Link to the index page.

Link to the yuntaku page.

Link to the about page.

Link to the links page.

This site totally blows on iCab 2.9 (preview). The index page is awful on OmniWeb 4.2 (beta 2), and my solid and dashed lines don’t show on this browser either. The index page is slightly off with Opera 6.0 but the other pages are okay. Another problem came up with Mozilla 1.3 and this page. The search input bar stretches past the column, only slightly though. On Safari 1.0 beta (v60), the index page is also screwy and is flushed with the top of the screen and not centered, but the other pages are okay.

The site looks great with Camino 0.7, MSIE 5.2.2, Netscape 7.02, and Phoenix.

I’m currently running Mac OS 10.2.4.

[update] Silly me. I just really took a look at those Phoenix pics and found that the search input bar stretches past the column too. Here’s the view of this page with Camino 0.7 and how I want it to look: click here.

>> April Fool’s Day

I’m about 75% finished with the page layouts! I’m still unsure as to whether or not I’ll be making a page for an artists list like the old site. Well, we’re still in beta so anything can happen. I’m planning to unveil the site on April 1st, although I’m hoping that no one will take the site renewal as a joke. :P

Tuesday, March 25, 2003

>> Haisai!

Welcome to the new and improved “pop.internet-okinawa.com”! I’m still in the middle of working on the other pages so please pardon the construction. Nifee!