Mike's Blender - Things You Might Want to Know


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Mike's Blender

Things You (Might) Want to Know

Recommended:

The Site:
Way back in May of 2003 Mike's Blender was born. It was a grey, ugly little thing when it first stuck it's head out into the wider world, being little more than a collection of boring, static information, bad flash animation and annoying animated gifs. Time rolled on and although for a time it was in some danger of being doomed to the netherworld of forgotten and shuned webpages, it managed to survive to its gawky and ungainly teenage years of 2004. By that time, bad photos and short, uninformative posts about Japan were framed by still more flash and confusing javascript, but the pimples started to fade, and by 2006 it was looking almost halfway decent, albeit still without a very clear direction. By 2009 though it had matured into a simple, clean and handsome website, ready to take it's place as one of the best Japan related sites on the web.

The Author:
At least the above is what the site told me to write.
As for myself, I'm a Canadian guy currently living in Tokyo. I've been here since 1998 and previously lived in Hakodate, Hokkaido before settling down in the largest city on the planet.
I have a love/hate relationship with Japan, which may be evident from the 'tongue in cheek' articles I sometimes write about my adopted country. Sometimes things here just drive me nuts, but other times I can't imagine what I'd do if I went back home again.
If you need to contact me outside of the site's commenting system or twitter, you can send me an 'emergency' email at mike[at]beddall[dot]net. Those that comment or email and never get a response, don't feel bad, but replying to comments is not my strong suit. I have had people ask me, so I'll say it here that I don't have time to send people various Japanese goodies they want, or products that I review. I try to answer questions on specific points about living in Japan to people who ask for advice, though generally my response time might be a wee bit slow.

Advertising:
Unless you want to advertise on Mike's Blender of course. If you're an advertiser, 'Hello! How are you?' Advertisers can be assured of a very fast email response time. Rates are generally negotiable depending on what kind of advertising you'd like. I currently have text only ads as well as text/image ads.

Photography:
Sometimes on my voyages through the internet, I'll come across strange and bizarre things, like photographs that I took being used on someone else's website, without permission or even a linkback! I'm not a professional photographer, nor do I do things like watermark my images, but please, at the least, link back to me. Is that so hard?
I currently shoot with a Nikon D80 and love it dearly.

Oil Painting:
I paint yeah. Currently the 'other' thing I do when I'm not trying to amuse you with blog articles. Admittedly there is no real connection between my painting and posting about Japan, but hey, can you blame me for a bit of shameless self promotion?