wasabi

the Digital symptom

2006-11-23T21:42:00.000+09:00

Hello all. It has been a long while.

In dealing with nearly 2 months without internet access and several comuter OS re-installs (plus hardware upgrade) there has been considerable delay in blogging.

I long for the glory days of blogging: when the firewall at work let me post and I could while away the long nightshifts by posting here and there.

I will be posting soon. There have been many more pictures as I am trying out my newest toy: a Sigma f1.4 30mm lens.

Updates as soon as I get my photo program installed. (2meg pictures are a bit large for the web...)

Cat!

2006-08-12T20:37:00.000+09:00

I was going to take pictures of fireworks today, but it rained.

Meow.

That is all.

Eat up!

2006-08-06T08:42:00.000+09:00

I finally got to go to my first firework show of the season yesterday. This one was a big one too! We made a BarBQ out of it.

Here in Japan, regular BBQ sauce (American style) simply doesn't exist. So, on trips to America I am always sure to pick up a few bottles. So yesterday, we carry all this stuff out (2 small grills, chicken wings and legs, pork ribs, marinated beef, family recipe kababs, a hell of a lot of drinks...) and set up. We got there at about 11am and my girlfriend and I sit in the sun with no shade for a few hours waiting for people to show up. Eventually they do. We set up the grill and an official comes over and says, "Your cooler is far too small, so you will have to dispose of my body by some other means." (What he really said is, "You can't BBQ here.") This is after hand carrying about one hundred pounds of stuff by hand over bus, train, and a heck of a lot of walking.

So, we go over the hill and set up there. News comes that this is no good too. So, we pull out the secret weapon: E. Her name is longer, but we will identify her as agent E. E has the ultimate weapon combination: a killer look and a sexy voice. She talks to the official a minute or too and says we have no where else to go. Permission is granted! (She's just got a weird voodoo power. She doesn't have to do anything, it's just a mind job. Space like: The female of the species is more deadly than the male...)

So, the BarBQ goes off great. Many of the Japanese had never had American style BarBQ before. The two kids (three and five) really liked it. I ended up giving the extra bottle to the father. (To make it sound dramatic, preceed the previous sentence with "In a drunken rage".) Since I was cooking, sadly, I did not bring my camera. One of the guys (the father actually) had his Pentax digital SLR and I got to try it out. Nice feel to it! I hope he will send me some of the pictures I took of the fireworks. The fireworks are wonderful and the show was about 1 hour long.

One thing I should remember for next time though... Since it was going to be very hot, I work a tighter fitting running shirt. But, regularly wearing T-shirts outside has given me a nice farmers tan. Some of my shock white upper arm was exposed. Though lathered in spf 50, it just didn't stand up to the sun. Now, I have Neapolitan arms brownish on the bottom, pink in the middle, white on top. Strawberry stings a bit, but mostly it's just funny looking. Maybe I should find one of my long sleeves...

Back... without a witty title

2006-07-23T10:50:00.000+09:00

I am back from America, but since I got back I have had almost no time for anything. Since I took all that time off, now I get to make it all back up. Fun.

Anyway, quiz time. (And, incidentally, picture time.) Three historic places, each getting progressively more difficult to guess. One hint each. When you want to know the answer, check the picture's name. Good luck!

Number one:

Giveaway hint : This picture is worth five pennies.

Number Two:

Hint: Mamie has quite a beautiful home!

Number Three:

Hint : Though on the Northern side, this picture is taken from the Southern side of the field.

checking in

2006-07-02T07:10:00.000+09:00

I'm in the US now and am just checking in. No time to write and I can't upload new pictures from here anyway. I am having a good time!

On the previous post, someone (who will not be identified!) left me an e-mail address. I have hidden comments on that entry to protect your e-mail from robots. They are stalking you. Buy an EMP cannon today.

Talk to everyone soon!

on the move

2006-06-12T23:25:00.000+09:00

It's been busy lately! I am finally able to write for my blog more. I figured if they are going to block the firewall at work, then when it is slow, I am just going to compose an entry and e-mail it to myself. Though, I find that yahoo mail like to break my links...

Even with this new technique, work has been busy! Though, I am working a lot of extra hours too. I am going to the US in a few weeks, so I am making up the time now.

I am looking forward to eating! It's funny that when you go how, one of the things you most look forward to is food. Home food is always different. I don't know the exact science behind this, but it's true: there is no food like home. (Some say no place, but they have never seen suburbia. Everywhere is like home. Well, sort of...)

I am also looking forward to testing my camera. I was hoping to get a lens or two because they are bound to be cheaper in America... except that they don't exist. Every place I have called doesn't stock fourth thirds lenses! I can sometimes find the Zuikos, but I can almost never find the Sigmas. Especially not the new Sigmas... Like the 30mm F1.4 HSM. hang on... OK, drool is safely tissued. Maybe they just haven't hit the shelves yet.

For those of you who come here for the photos, the above shot is fairly easy to take, you just need to set your camera for late shutter flash. On my Olympus, that is "Slow 2". The flash fires just before the shutter closes making everything "pause". You do have to have a long shutter time for this to work. Set your camera to a ISO of 100 in low light or manually set the shutter for maybe half a second, hold the camera steady and take a picture of a close by moving object. (Close enough that the flash will reflect off of it.) Try it on people and they look like ghosts! Have fun!

Guam to Tokyo

2006-05-29T18:30:00.000+09:00

Hello everyone! I am back in Tokyo and just about to head to work, but I figure I owe you an update. Here it is in turbo speed. Step back behind the safety line and 3. 2. 1. Go!

Guam was wonderful, but I wish we had hand a little more time. We arrived at night on the first day and just had time for dinner. Friday's was across the street and still open so they got the business.

The next day was snorkeling. Lots and lots of snorkeling. A break was taken for picture taking when the sun got low in the sky. Dinner at Outback. (I wanted a -big- piece of steak. That's hard to find in Japan!) Drinks at the hotel bar. Watery pina colada. No second drink, but nice view.

Day 3 was scuba in the morning and driving in the afternoon. Scuba was really fun and deserves its own entry, but for now it can be turbo speeded as (learn to dive, feed fish hotdogs, watch your fingers!) Driving in turbo speed is (about 3 hours to loop the south of the island not including U-turns, dogs and chickens in the road, Jeff's Pirate Cove, or other sight seeing.)

Day 4 was me forgetting where the rental place was and a fantastic "good gosh we have 5 minutes to be back at the hotel!" drive and then rush to the airport.

Heck of a great time!

Oops! I am late for work!

(PS: I am going to be opening a economic/political/social psychology blog apart from this one. Seems keeping politics away from polite company is the old rule. Any ideas on names???)

More fish, less work

2006-05-21T01:03:00.000+09:00

Kiri points out that my previous fish looks like it is crying. That's not a good note to leave on! Here is a different, king size fish from the airport aquarium in Hokaido. He looks bored, but then again he is stuck in the airport. Despite similarity in circumstance, he bears no resemblance to Tom Hanks. Well, maybe he does...

Anyway, here is a different fish:

As you can see, that's the reason you buy a nice camera: so you can take pictures of fish in aquariums. I'll be extra nice and provide you a link to a web-optimized, 50 percent size version so you can feel all fishy. Drink enough and he'll look like he is swimming. You should be drinking right now to get the effect. Don't worry about any stigma about being drunk in public (or anywhere else), fish drink all the time... Besides, stigmas are so yesterday. Fish like you being you.

To make a quick get-away from my previous paragraph (I kinda got stuck with no good way out there), I am looking forward to a drink on a sandy beach tomorrow. I suspect there will be fish there. Better stop that though before I make a U-turn back into bad fish joke land.

It's 1am here... and I can't think of anything clever to say. Just bad fish jokes. (Better draw this entry to a fin-ish. Ha!)

Be back in a few days!

Going out

2006-05-18T20:29:00.000+09:00

Wow! I can't believe I remembered my password for this!

Hello! It has been a while. (I wonder if anyone besides advertising trolls ever comes here anymore?) Work has become quite busy and the firewall policy is as strict as ever. When I started blogging, I coould post at any time at work. That was sure helpful on the night shifts! Now I can't post. (If I try, I get a big red firwall sign saying "FORBIDEN" and "WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!" Quite jolly fun that, but not very enduring.

Next week I am going to take a few days and go to Guam. I have never been there. Long time readers may remember that I went to Saipan at one point. They are fairly close to each other. I am looking forward to it, but I am a bit worried about the sun. I burn quite easily. The other day, I decided to get a little base sun, so I tended my balcony garden without a shirt. I was outside maybe 20 minutes, but came in with a nice red back.

Now I am going to the beach of full sun. Danger Will Robinson! I bought one of those UV shielding shirts for snorkling. I hope it helps.

I would love to get one of those waterproof digital cameras and take some pictures of fish. I just can't see paying a few hundred dollars for a camera I will use twice or less a year. Then again, I could also use it as a regular camera...

I have a nice new camera now, but it is nice. And by nice, I mean big. It's just too big to carry all the time...

I'll keep this updated with what cameras I am looking at. But this trip will likely just be a disposable camera or memories under the water. As for out of the water, you can bet I will have a camera or two!

Tomorrow I go to a send off / baby shower for a friend of mine. She departs for America next week. I find it funny how the news is always talking about all of America's shortcomings and often emphasizing how wonderful all the "little countries" are, and yet this Peruvian, married to a Russian, choses to go to America so that her baby can have citizenship. Perhaps America isn't so bad as the mediamen whole like us to believe. Though, personally, I am not too happy with America's bankers at the momment: they have managed to hurt my savings quite considerably. (If I keep money in the bank, I spend it. So, my savings acount is stock. It's the only way to keep it from my mad impulsive buying. You know, like underwater camera, muffler for the car (that is on the other side of the planet), a host of new books, a larger appartment, a few more lenses for my current camera, a telescope, polarized perscription sunglasses, a Corevette, a LS-7 for the Trans Am, new socks. You get the idea.) Anyway, tomorrow the athering is at an Idian friend's house. I am wondering what to bring... He doesn't drink and she shouldn't. I have to get a picture frame for her anyway: I have a picture to give her. She doesn't like it because she is drinking a soda in it and "she looks fat", by her assesment. But frankly, it's a great picture. She gets it anyway. I'll post it here if she gives me permission.

See you after Guam!

Fish at a local aquarium. It's not Guam, but it is fish.

waiting in an airport

2006-03-09T17:33:00.000+09:00

Just back from Hokkaido. Lots of snow up there. But nothing to do in an airport but sit there and stare at your own shoes and fantasize that you are an artistic photographer. Well, and play with the fish in the tank. Every good airport should have a fish tank!

Bugging Me

2006-02-15T17:37:00.000+09:00

Subtitle: Why I haven't been updating.

OK, I am just going to have a catharsis here and dump a bunch of stuff.

Of course the firewall at work makes it hard to update, but that's not the big problem. The problem is that I don't want to write much since I broke up with my ex-fiance. This is a mixxed bag. I don't want her to be upset, so I don't want to write about new stuff I am doing. (She read this blog.) But I don't want to keep my life on hold either.

The other day I finally got over it and posted about my trip to Shikoku. Two days later I got a text e-mail from my ex saying the following:

"Thank you for the fun time. Have a wonderful life. Goodbye."

I haven't talked to her for a few weeks and suddenly I get this. It means she doesn't want to talk anymore. I would like to keep communications open. But I haven't had much to say lately...

Anyway, so, I get this. I mean, is this what people do? Just fire off missives desguised as niceities? I mean, I didn't leave her because I wanted to sleep around with other girls. I stopped because we had different life goals and we were always fighting about them. She wanted to live in Japan all her life and I want to go back to the US, at least for a while. She was always worried about money and never wanted to take risks. I wanted to be more free to take risks.

The heart of the problem was that I really did like being with her when she wasn't worried about something. But she had many worries and needed to move past them. But she didn't because I was always there trying to solve the problems: she never learned to solve them herself. So, we ended up with monthly big "I am going to leave!" fights about one thing or another and then making up a few hours later. I am sure I did a lot of things wrong, but, in the end, I just had to take some time to find my life. And, I am pretty sure, she needed to find some things in her life.

But, what I got was stuff like this. Stuff that tells me I made the right choice.

Anyway... I hope that she and I can talk again sometime. I hope that she will understand why I did this. But if not, what can I do? Perhaps I shouldn't do anything.

So, that's one reason I haven't posted much lately. Maybe she will read this and understand. But this is really for me to talk about my feelings.

This post likely makes little sence... but I wanted to say it. This doesn't talk about my current girl-friend who is darling. But that's not the point right now...

Long time

2006-02-05T15:46:00.000+09:00

Hello everybody!

Yes, it has been a long while since I have posted. I've been at work and when not at work I've been snowboarding.

I did take a break from all that hard work snowboarding and went to Shikoku. I filed up the memory card in my camera and will post some pics soon, but I have to upload them first. I wish I had a 200 Gig photo album online. That would be cool.

I have found the new camera to be much more sensitive that the old point and shoot. I supose it should be, but it came be frustrating at times. Especially for my dearest girlfriend who waits while I shoot the same picture five or six times. If that's not a statement of love than I don't know what is!

I went to Shikoku to meet her parents. What lovely people! They laugh a lot and it's just nice to be around them. They took us sightseeing and to a resort hotel for a night and we ate a big meal which included jellyfish. Raw jellyfish. For those of you curious, it has no flavor at all. None. But the other food did. And I consumed until my belly was full, because that's what you do when it's all you can eat! That full stomach, plus a full day of sight-seeing, plus a short bike ride, plus a stay in a warm bath and hot sauna resulted in repeated letter Z's.

Anyway, I will relate more stories with pictures once I get them uploaded. Shikoku has beautiful mountains and long bridges. Good for pictures.

Idiots! (...but they did print it in the right place)

2006-02-05T15:44:00.000+09:00

>> This was accidentally posted on my Japanese blog. I'll move it here where it should have been...

Quote:

" The German-language version of the Web-based encyclopedia Wikipedia remained off-line Friday, following a court order barring the German chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation as part of a lawsuit filed by the family of a dead hacker.

A Berlin court ordered the site pulled on Tuesday, after the family of the German hacker known as "Tron," whose real name is Boris F., sued the Wikimedia Foundation to prevent them from publishing the real name of their son, who was found hanged in a park in 1998."

Right. So, the, Mr. AP journalist, then why are you publishing it? Sigh...

Source: http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/01/20/D8F8E3QGE.html

Merry Christmas all!

2005-12-24T21:16:00.000+09:00

God bless you this year!

(Obligatory PC message: For those of you who do not celebrate this holiday or chose to celebrate on "winter holidays", please take this with the good wishes implied.)

This year my wish list is for good health, time to read, time to snow board, and pretty days when I have time to carry my camera. May the world become richer in peace, mind, and pocket and friends richer simply is numbers and closeness.

Let us not forget what we have been blessed with, least of all hope.

Merry Christmas to all. May your wishes be fulfilled.

Christmas Came Early

2005-12-15T19:43:00.000+09:00

OK, the camera parade is passing by like this:

It started with a few regular 35mms when I was young. A few disposables went by including on waterproof disposable.

The digital entered my life in the form of an Olympus X-2 (5.0 mega pix!). Well, that's a lie. The first digi-cam was the one that was on my cell phone. But, it's really hard to call that a real camera. Baby X-2 was a messy affair. She showed me all I wanted to see. But our wild life-style, pictures all day and night, quickly took a toll on her. Soon, she fell apart and we had to go our separate ways.

I had a short affair with a 3.2 mega pixel Casio Exilim EX-Z3. Small and sexy, but, not too much upstairs. Couldn't figure out how to take good pictures at night.

That's really an important thing to me. This Christmas season, I got a little lonely and started looking for some companionship. While walking through an electronics store, she stepped out from behind the counter: a sexy machine flexing some serious muscle. I went up and started a quick conversation. She picked up the topic fast: her focus was sharp, but she easily went from topic to topic. Any thing I brought up, she knew what to do. And she had some spunk too! I fell in love and took her out. She has expensive tastes! Lenses and memory and tripods. I am going to have to put in some overtime at work! I am still learning her likes and dislikes, but she's doing it for me.

Without further delay, I give you my latest optical lover: the Olympus E-500. She dresses up in either her 14-45mm Zuiko digital lens or her 55-200 mm Sigma zoom.

Learning the game on the beach.

Sendai Tongue

2005-12-03T08:46:00.000+09:00

Two nights in Sendai, just a short 3-hour Shinkansen train ride away. There, I went to see the "city of trees" and taste the mooless cow. Ladies and gentlemen, that is indeed what Sendai is famous for: cow tongue. To those in my American / European audience, I believe I may hear some rustling. Fear not the tongue, for it is your friend! The tongue in Sendai is the finest in the world; salted, seasoned, and grilled to perfection.

(From the Rikyu restaurant web site.)

I am here to tell you today that the meal pictured above was finer than any steak I have ever eaten and well worth the trip on its own merits. I would have taken a picture of my own, but I was quite preoccupied with consuming. This is the meal I took at both my arrival and departure from Sendai.

Arival was at 3:00pm. After a successful game of find the hotel, there was time for shopping eating and leisure. Though the evening came to a close early as the next morning would see an early set-out. (Which ended up as waking at nine.)

After a good nights rest, it was off to the mountains surrounding the city. The geology of the area is quite nice with many rocky features and running rivers. Young mountains sloped up and down covered in a patchwork of late fall browns and deep evergreen greens. Cutting the quilt into patchwork were the many rivers which twisted and fell in beautiful displays.

Adding to this were little flurries of snow that came and went as the day passed into evening. But that evening, both the day and my partner were growing very cold. We made our way back to the train station. The station was nothing more than a small building with a one person office and a kerosene heater placed on the floor. (There wasn't even a ticket machine. You were expected to catch the conductor as he passed through the train and tell him when you got on the train.)

Since the trains came every hour and where still had a few before the last train, we called up a local resort and went to have a bath. Sendai also has very nice hot springs. After a long rest in the hot water and a short sit in a massage chair, we came back and boarded the train.

The next day, it was sightseeing about the city. There were of course many stores and shops, but not too dissimilar from those in Tokyo, so we soon took to the outer edges of this city.

(In the distance, a Buddha watches over.)

We visited some old castle ruins and past a few temples. Along the way, fall managed to show us some lingering colors.

The trip winded down with a bits of shopping and one last trip to a tongue restaurant. Quite a memorable trip and only 3 hours up the track from Tokyo.

Dinner Time?

2005-11-28T17:43:00.001+09:00

I'm having jet-less jet lag. Maybe call it job-lag. I work days, I work nights. I'll fall asleep on the train and wake up not knowing if I am coming home or going to work. Weekends are the same as week days: they all just become days.

But that's just to keep me on my toes.

Thanksgiving came the other day. Thanksgiving was spend over a lovely dinner of pizza and salad. Afterwards it was finished by a cafe mocha with a shot of Amaretto. (The real stuff, for those keeping count.)

Meals are getting displaced.

That brings me in a round about, chain-of-thought, way to my musing for the evening. (morning?)

Having just finished a night shift, to be dining with someone finishing a day shift, what path to take? Breakfast? Dinner? Eat-in? Eat-out? Here's my scandal:

I am sleepy. Worked all night for the last two nights. She won't be getting off until after nine. That leads us to "eat out", right?

Not so fast (food). I've been cruising on quick bites for the last few nights (mornings?). That's what you do for long night shifts. Burger or a noodle shop is just easy. Nice restaurants are available though. There is a nice BarBQ close by....

But that leads me to the problem of the tongue. Tongue you say? Well, you can't when you are holding it. Ironic that it is impossible to say "tongue" while you hold your tongue. People can't get the "g" to hook up. Unless you have "the gift". Returning to the topic... Actually, it's not my tongue that is the problem. It's the cows. (Ha! You grabbed your tongue, didn't you?)

See, tomorrow I am going to Sendai. Sendai is famous for cow-tongue. There are tongue restaurants as far as the eye can see. And I will certainly be dining in tongue restaurants fancy and cheap for the next few days. Often with beer!

So, as it stands, I should likely skip the restaurant and head to the grocery, right? Ah, but that involves cooking. In my current living situation (I had to move) that brings me back to the dreaded one-burner kitchen. (Oh yeah, I am looking at moving again!)

I got potatoes and no imagination. And looking at one-eye the fry-pan heater, I got no motivation.

To move my tired body to the grocery and my mind to the recipe book, or to let it all go the store owners that will be sticking their tongues out at me all week...

What sound does a tongueless cow make anyway?

One for America!

2005-11-26T12:24:00.000+09:00

I was just reading an article on Forbes Magazine (on-line) and there was an article called The Year's Best Coupes. Now, it's no secret that I am into cars, so, I decided what the good people, and by good I mean very rich people, at Forbes magazine think are good cars.

Predictably, there are many very expensive cars. In fact, the first car mentioned is the Bentley Continental GT as "Best coupe for flaunting your wealth, tastefully". Tastefully starts at the tune of $171,285. So the parade begins showing cars that range in price from the oh-so-cheap Infiniti G35 ($33,700 and up) to the national economy of some small islands.

But one grabbed my attention: the 3rd cheapest on the list. Not much was said about this car. Only a few lines that basically said, "If you like American cars and you really can't spend $150,000 plus on the Ford-GT, then you could get this... I guess...". It was the Corvette.

But the Italian cars? Gush gush gush. For example, I learned that the Ferrari F430 "looks beautiful" and will present "the most engaging driving experience you can have in a street-legal car". Emphasis was placed on its "terrifying" 0-60mph time also.

Ah, but the dream...

And now I present, in full factual status, a salute to America:

Ferrari F430

Base Price: $163,845 (tested at over $205K!)
0-60mph: 3.9sec
0-100mph: 8.6sec
Top Speed: 195mph
Quarter mile: 12.0sec

Chevrolet Corvette Z06

Base Price: $65,800
0-60mph: 3.7sec
0-100mph: 7.9sec
Top Speed: 198mph
Quarter mile: 11.5sec

What to do with the spare $100,000? I think I'll buy a big 'ol America flag and a giant firework show.

Oh say can you see?

(sources: Forbes.com, Fast-autos.net, Motor Trend)

A trip to Virginia. Presented in picto-vision!

2005-11-17T22:19:00.000+09:00

I took a short trip to Virginia. Rather than give a long detailed account, why not give a brief photographic essay. These pictures are presented in loving memory of my Olympus X-2 camera that passed away shortly before this outing... Now, in amazing picto-vision...

Welcome back to Richmond.

First stop: out with the old rims, in with the new. (Old back one was bent and bumpy!)

Apples? WHERE? Out to Graves Mountain to pick apples. Those are apple trees!

Syria (pronounced "Sai-Ree-Ah") is really a pretty place.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, there sits a very fat cat.

The river was calm and pretty just a short walk from my family home. It was a cool crisp day. Perfect for casting stones.

No fancy stories or brilliant narrative this time, but I hope you enjoyed!

Greetings all!

2005-10-07T17:53:00.000+09:00

Well, after a sudden move and a huge battle with the internet company I finally have internet again! I just got it running! In time to go to work and not be able to post! Murphy strikes again!

I've missed posting and talking to everyone. But, a long post will have to wait. I just want to tell everyone that I am alive. My camera saddly is not, but that story will have to wait too. I will share one of it's final moments at the end of this post.

I am getting ready for a short trip to America. (At least I think I am. I called a moment ago to verify my e-tockets, but my cell phone won't connect to their number. Grrrr....)

More to come!

Near work...

Tough time

2005-08-30T11:37:00.000+09:00

I just wanted to say that I am going through a really tough time right now.

I am between the woman I promised to marry (and our new home) and a woman I have loved from afar for far too long, who I finally know cares about me.

One has a deep history and the sense that I know I could live forever with.

The other brings me peace and understanding that I have never found with anyone.

I am taking some single time to figure out my heart. I will not be a cheater. I must decide.

I am completely and utterly laid low. Not eating and upset.

I feel like a highschool kid who's still growing up. I thought adults were supposed to be strong with this sort of thing!

God bless you all.

Nerd? Geek? Dork?

2005-08-25T10:25:00.000+09:00

The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test
http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=9935030990046738815

The results?

Pure Nerd
78 % Nerd, 39% Geek, 34% Dork
For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.

You scored better than half in all Nerd, earning you the title of: Pure Nerd. The times, they are a-changing. It used to be that being exceptionally smart led to being unpopular, which would ultimately lead to picking up all of the traits and tendences associated with the "dork." No-longer. Being smart isn't as socially crippling as it once was, and even more so as you get older: eventually being a Pure Nerd will likely be replaced with the following label: Purely Successful. Congratulations!

Sweet.

A lightning quick update.

2005-08-23T23:06:00.000+09:00

I ran over to my new appartment to do a quick warding off of bad spirits. (Japanese custom: sprinkle salt and sake at all four corners of the new house before moving anything in. This has the bad side effect of attracting drunk old men. Strange...)

I carried my snowboard (BoD) and an iron (IoD?) all the way across Tokyo and dropped them off. They are the only residents at the moment.

It was storming outside. But I decided to snap a quick photo. I had to balance the camera on a vent. It didn't work so well. This is the very fuzzy, poorly focused view (le sigh) from my new balcony:

That is the Shinjuku skyline. That tower looking thing on the right hand side is, in fact, a tower! Tokyo tower to be specific. This view is zoomed in, because this collection of sky scrapers is the highlight of the view. I am hoping to be able to see Mt. Fuji off to the east on clear days. Let's hope! If not from my balcony, I'll definately be able to see it from my building.

More pictures and less fuzz to come!

Sayonara Minami Kashiwa, Hello Ogikubo

2005-08-21T13:17:00.000+09:00

This is moving week! (I get nine days off this month... in a row... and I spend it moving?! Well, it's a good move, so....)

I am moving accross Tokyo to Ogikubo. I'm leaving my one room (10x12) for a tenth floor appartment with a view! And, it's close enough to the country that I won't feel walled in. I hate concrete. Unless it is particularly nice concrete.

(Minami Kashiwa in the Spring)

I'll write more once we are all moved in, or at least reasonably close!

Please, don't tell me how to get to...

2005-08-05T11:03:00.000+09:00

Sesame Street

This man was facing a fine for having a big statue of Big Bird (though blue) on his chimney. He didn't want none of that, so he did what any rational person would do: he moved it to a platform on the roof. It's not on the chimney any more!!!

OK, let me first point out that he is probably indeed one crazy guy. I won't say tin foil hat yet, but maybe not far from it.

But, here's the thing. It's his property. LaurenB recently wrote that our Constitutional rights are dropping like flies. (There was a big picture!) She's right: we are losing many rights. Right to property is one of the most endangered rights. Nowadays it looks like every organized group has a hold on your property: The state can steal it (Kelo v. New London), the bank can claim it (if you fail to make other payments), neighborhood groups can tell you how to style it. On and on and on.

Imagine, for one moment, if you bought a shirt. At the register, the store employee said, "You must wear this shirt only with plain pants and a regular belt. Any attempt to wear this shirt with pattern pants or, God forbid, shorts, will be met with a fine of $20 per infraction. Though you are on your honor not to commit such atrocities against our brand name, there will be occasional inspections to make sure that you are operating with in our predetermined notions. We reserve the right to alter these notions or impose additional restrictions as we see fit." Even if you paid for it after that, would you really consider the shirt yours?

Sure, if you are renting the property, shirt, or whatever, the rightful owner has the right to dictate how it is used, but, we are talking about ownership. If you want to wear -your- new shirt with big red puffy pants with little bells that jingle like Santa's favorite elf, it may not be attractive, but it isn't illegal.

So, if this guy wants to put a big blue bird statue on his house, that is entirely his business.

The counter argument to this is that it "depreciates the neighborhood". While having all tenants contribute to the neighborhood is a wonderful lofty goal, it is not within their power to do so. If it were, the tenants would be living under the tyranny of the majority: the neighborhood association would be able to dictate whatever it wants. In fact, the only person with authority would be the person who originally held the property. After it is sold, then they no longer have control.

Further, the only real control over the situation is zoning rights. So, he can't change his house into a park or a store. They do have that assurance.

This is the same as "saving the rain forest" or anything else property related: The only way to assure that the property is used in that way you see fit is to own it yourself... and hope some neighborhood association doesn't think otherwise.

Kashiwa Matsuri!

2005-08-02T17:46:00.000+09:00

I had said previously I had gone to the local town festival. Well, my local town is Kashiwa for the time being and they have a pretty large town festival! My camera decided that, despite being a camera, it did not need to take pictures so I only got a few good ones (and a whole lot of fuzzy ones) before it completely gave out. But, for your viewing pleasure...

This guy is made entirely out of paper! There is a wooden frame underneath him that I suspect is made out of chopsticks. How's that for ingenuity!

On one side of the station, there was a big high-school band that played. There were dancers, cheerleaders, traditional dancers, traditional drummers (taiko), and all sorts of other things.

There was a big tug of war contest for the kids. Some of the young mothers playfully helped in the game (they were wearing sandals and slip-ons). Others, wearing work gloves and shouting loudly, were out to dominate! I raised my camera to take a picture of one of these super-moms, and that's when it flashed "error".

On the other side of the station were countless food vendors, a parade, and a flee market. I didn't find anything good in the market, but my companion found a few little trinkets. People were shouting to look at their goods. Instruments were playing as dance troops marched by. Young girls were wearing their colorful yukatas and young boys were vying for their attention.

We wandered back at the end of the day and ate some BarBQ chicken along the way. It's nice to have a festival day.

No stairway! Denied!

2005-07-28T11:18:00.000+09:00

Time to explain my amazing lack of posts lately: All bulletin boards (including blogs) have been blocked my company. Blogger.com, et al, are nixed by the firewall when processing authentication. In short, I cannot post. Not to my blog, not to yours, not to anywhere. (OK, there are a few exceptions, but I am not going to say anything about it because the internet police will soon realize there is a window and patch it with a four foot thick slab of concrete and armed guards.)

So, apologies to everyone. I am still reading your blogs, I am just very slow to update and comment.

As it is, this is after a night shift and I am half awake. In that spirit, a quick 'run-down' update:

1. There is a new firewall at work. It sucks.

2. I went to the local town festival and it was very cool! There was dancing and music and wonderful photo-ops that I missed because my camera craped out and died after only a few shots. Those will be posted soon... I hope.

3. A big typhoon came to Tokyo and made me go to work early so other could go home. Right after I got there, the storm changed it's path and missed us completely.

4. Security is haywire at work and they are blocking access to my blog because they don't have anything better to do that get paid for harasing us.

5. It is crazy hot outside. I hear people cackling outside right now. They keep muttering something about the day or reckoning and chalupas made out of real human hair. Or maybe I it's just the heat making me crazy. No one ever talks about the day of reckoning.

6. I am moving next month! New appartment. (Finally! More than one room! For me and my fiance! yeehaw!) Honestly, we have been living for the last year in an appartment that is about 10x15. I wish that was a joke. The new one is much much bigger and will have 100Mb Internet.

7. The new internet, unlike the one at work, will allow me access to things like web pages.

That's the anthem.

Bravo Tony Blair

2005-07-22T00:04:00.000+09:00

"The people who do these things are the people who are responsible for them."

- Tony Blair

At first this may seem very obvious, but the heart of this statement is very very wise. And he is right.

London, Part Duex

2005-07-21T23:12:00.000+09:00

First: I hope everyone in London is OK. I following the news as it develops.

Next...

Angry rant:

Remember all those pretty words about not letting it happen again? The ones that went without any action? Well, for some odd reason, those words failed to stop terrorists and London has been bombed again.

Just in case bombs aren't enough to point this out, allow me to use some of those oh so effective words:

Trying to excuse violence by saying that the purpetrators are misunderstood or are products of "our society" does nothing to stop them. In fact, by telling the terrorists that their actions "aren't really their fault" encourages them. For those who don't care what we think, our inaction shows weakness, which is readily exploited.

It's time to stop thinking with feelings and "we are the world" type worldliness. The message is clear: we all may be human, but some humans are willing to kill others just because we aren't the same (or aren't doing what they would like.) In order to protect ourselves, our children, and their future, these people, regardless of their motivations, must be stopped. The time for handwringing is over. We need a united voice that says, "This is not acceptable. You will not hurt us, or our children. If you try, we will defeat you. If you come to talk, we will talk. But if you come to hurt, we will destroy you."

We all want world peace. I believe that.

Only some of us believe that peace to be total control of everyone else.

Fear may be their tool, but fear is only an emotion. It's time we rose above emotions and unite with our minds.

You can'na change the laws of physics...

2005-07-21T05:22:00.000+09:00

Aye.

Condolences to friends and family of Jimmy Doohan.

Now no one is left to hold the Enterprises main reactor together just a few more minutes. I give the rest of the cast only a few seconds past the next photon torpedo hit.

Ten Thousand and One Yellow Daffodils

2005-07-15T20:28:00.000+09:00

Another tricky title!

I am recovering from my cold and my admittedly rotten mood. I was going to call this post "drainage", but that seemed a little crude. I hope to be fully recovered soon.

I took the BSCI exam today. By the end I was thinking, "Well, goodbye $150. I'll see you again someday...", but through some comedy of errors, I managed to select the right answers often enough and I passed! Only 3 more exams left to pass now to complete my certification. (According to the company, new certification = good.)

It is just darn hot here in Tokyo. I mean oppressive hot. Swim through the air and hope you don't get stuck in the gel that is the humidity kind of nasty hot. What makes this fun is that I live in an apartment. Doesn't make sense? Well, let me elaborate... The apartment owns the utilities... and they pay for the electricity.

Gentleman...(and Ladies)... I give you, the Thermo...stat.

You may be thinking like this: Sweet! That's me wearing a sweater inside on the hottest of days!" However, the management thinks more like this: "There is a possibility that the residents might set the thermostat below 80 degrees... and might leave it on while they are away. Below 80!!!"

To combat such reckless abuse of resources, the air conditioner has a built in timer of 3 hours. It cannot be disabled. It cannot be changed. In the words of Book of Armaments, slightly modified for my purpose, the timer shall "count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then the air-con, the residents being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it."

So, I sleep with the air-con's remote at my side. When it gets warm and the heat stirs me from my dreams, I fumble for the controls, and somehow manage to find the big button. In the day time, when it blinks off, the house is hot again in five minutes. When we hear the vent start to close, there is a blitzkrieg to secure the remote and start it up again.

Oh, the trials of life...

LOS

2005-07-12T12:37:00.000+09:00

Welcome to the world of network engineering. LOS is an alarm. It's bad. It means that something very wrong has happened. Well, usually. Sort of. If you expect things to keep working, it's bad. Really, what it means is that one machine no longer hears anything from another machine. Maybe it's unplugged. Maybe it's been shut down. Maybe it ascended with great glory and the singing of angels into the heavens above. But the machine hear doesn't know. It only knows one thing: it is completely disconnected without a trace of the other side.

LOS is Loss Of Signal.

And that's where I am today.

LOS

Sick. Tired. Drunk. Happy.

2005-07-10T01:26:00.000+09:00

Well, I am nowhere near over this cold.

I am however drunk and am listening to Glenn Miller. And that brings me some warm comfort.

I just signed up for the BSCI exam (while drunk). I've been studying for a long time to take it, so now it's time to test the use of that study time! Well, not now, actually. Friday. Now this whole post doesn't make sense.

Doubling back on myself (this sounds a bit painful. I'm glad it's only colorful rhetoric!), I killed off the cold, mostly, with copious amounts of fruit. My night-shift meal consisted of a peach, a bowl of cherries, and 1.5 liters of orange juice. That's a lot of juice for one sitting! And that helped. Well, that and the drugs. I would apologize to Tom Cruise for using drugs, but I am convinced that the same alien bits that make up all of us (according to him) also make up the cold germs. So, the drugs go in, along with fruit, and the tiny germs die a horrible fate. I just wrestled one to the ground and hammered a wooden stake through his tiny blackened heart. Someone once said that drugs and alcohol don't mix. They probably thought that the running with scissors marathon was a bad idea too.

(side note: OK. I'm not really that drugged up. Just inebriated. I took Advil Cold and Sinus (special imported version!), but that was a long while ago. The bottle of shochu (it's like Japanese vodka) was just sitting there all lonely and I had some pineapple juice. Once I poured it, I couldn't put it back. No choice but to drink it. Then I poured some more. Amazingly, the conditions previously mentioned re-occurred! I couldn't put it back and had no choice but to drink it.)

In other news, blogger is pissing me off again. Seems the spell checker likes to skip about randomly. Fortunately, I can claim alcohol as the source of my spelling mistakes tonight! But no one will believe me.

Well, it's raining heavily outside and the rain is making a lovely sound. Mr. G.M. is too. Well, his recording is. I won't speculate further.

If you'll excuse me, I will now descend into drunken song and fall into a slumber. Just something about Glenn Miller...

Lovers hail the moonlight cocktail...

Yuck

2005-07-08T05:32:00.000+09:00

London is bad. But I got a visit from some little terrorists too...

I came to work tonight wondering why I felt so lethargic. Now I know: I have a full blown cold and I can barely talk.

I'm drinking tea.

I would like to write a brilliantly clever tale of how it developed a la Spurious, but I'm just not in the mood. Surely if I were, I would present an amazingly entertaining monologue, with many witty and fascinating asides, allusions, references to great works of art and literature, cute fuzzy animals, hidden sexual references, blatant sexual references, thinly veiled attempts at making sexual references that could have been presented blatantly but weren't, wily exploits, personal relations, in-laws, out-laws, grand rhetoric, aesthetically pleasing pictures, Machiavellian notions, and allegory. But only if I was in the mood.

Typing that gave me a headache...

Yuck.

I want to go home.

This just in

2005-07-07T22:33:00.000+09:00

People are stupid. Stupidity costs lives.

Though I of course could elaborate on my thoughts, but I think it more appropriate to delay that until a later time.

I can only hope that appropriate actions are taken to ensure this doesn't happen again.

My condolences to the people of London.

Update:

Other blogs posting on the same issue:

Lauren: What the F-ck is wrong with people?
Superious Plum: Our thoughts and Prayers...
Spakkadi: I'm not Ignoring London...

If I miss you, post a comment and I'll add it to the list.

Update 2: They are already pointing fingers on CNN. How sad is that?

Unfortunate

2005-07-07T13:19:00.000+09:00

Spakkadi posted a quote that got me thinking...

And then I found this unfortunate thing. I just wanted to let the world know that:

Take the Which Monty Python & The Holy Grail character are you? Test @ The Monty Python & The Holy Grail Unofficial Fan Site

!!!

2005-07-04T17:17:00.000+09:00

Smite smite smite!

The comet....

Smitten!

Traveling to meet Smaug

2005-07-02T10:13:00.000+09:00

Or, a walk through the Misty Mountains*

The trip to Karuizawa was one filled with quite a variety of experiences. Rather than offer the account as a story in the 'as it happened' fashion, I will instead offer it by topic. By far the most impressive point to the trip was the walking through the woods.

In between momentary showers, the sun shown down on us as we walked through the woods. The paths were well worn but not crowded. Birds of many songs sang around as we walked. Occasional signs reminded us of bears, so we sang with the birds so as not to surprise a bear and raise his ire. It wasn't long before we found the first of many pretty waterfalls.

I took my camera and left my sandals as I jumped into the stream for a nice photo opportunity. Cold water ran over my feet and I soon donned my sandals again as the stones below my feet felt far colder. Still chilly but bearable. It was too pretty for me to worry much about my cold feet. This place was clean and good, and it was impossible not to give into it. Soon it was time to turn around and head back to the hotel, as much as I would have preferred to stay outside.

As we returned a small thunder storm rolled in and we spend the evening watching the lightning play across the mountain range from our hotel balcony.

The next morning came fresh and bright. We mounted bikes and toured the town, but the allure of the forest could not be denied and soon we were back in the woods.

Again signing, we marched up and down mountain paths. It was a warm day, but the shadows of the trees were cool and the sound of water flowing was refreshing in itself. Soon, the sound of water grew stronger as we came to a small stone enclave.

This beautiful fall stood between the stones sending mist wafting towards us as we entered its domain. A few stone hops and a slip or two later, I was standing before it. It spoke it's watery piece and the world stood at attention to listen. I would have stayed there for hours listening to it's peaceful words had worldly concerns, the rental return time on the rental car, not convinced me to say goodbye. I made a promise to return again, hopefully when the leave begin to show color.

But it was not time to rush back to the big city yet. There was a short bit of walking to be done yet. Our walk (and short drive) led us to the final stop of the day.

This place had the most number of people, probably because it was closest to the road. Yet, the proximity to the road did not detract from its quiet splendor. Small falls appeared all around visitors. In the center a massive horseshoe of falls spread out, about as tall as a person, maybe slightly taller. People sat and smiled. Some talked, all listened.

A moment later, my watch dragged heavy on my arm and we were off. We bought a baked fish from a roadside vendor and then headed back to Tokyo.

The city may be home, but the concrete soon passes away and a short drive brings you back to the mountain roots.

* Let's see who gets this one ;)

Taking a break from politics

2005-07-01T11:52:00.000+09:00

I'm looking over my last several posts and what do I see? All politics. Every one. So, I am going to step down off the soap box and post on something else for a while. It's too easy to get so buried in the workings of national systems that one forgets the importance of things much closer to them. Excuse my while I get some pictures off my camera.

For lack of a better word, "sick".

2005-06-30T18:51:00.000+09:00

This might offend a lot of you. In fact, it should.

Your Federal tax dollars at work!

(Political note: Ann Coulter is very much a right-wing writer and you will pick up on some definate right-wing lines. Read the article for it's point.)

Whining to the point of absurdity

2005-06-30T10:46:00.000+09:00

I read this whole article on the design of the replacement tower for the World Trade Center in NYC and the only thing I got out of it was "I don't like the design because obviously security was a concern, and now I must turn it into a political statement."

I suggest you at least skim this article before finishing my piece so you have a clear understanding of what I am addressing.

I could go on about how this person's complaint is based solely on his interpretation of the design and not on anything that isn't arbitrary, however, that is not my concern. My concern is the wild proliferation of politicization.

The design has been politicized.
The memorial at the bottom has been politicized.
When they finally start building, how much do you want to be that the choice of vendors will be politicized?

It's ridiculous.

Have we come to the point in society where all projects in public view must pass the litmus test of being "Politically Correct"? Must we hold a special election every time any project is in the public view to make sure that it do not offend anyone? Have we "progressed" to the point where we can progress no longer due to petty bickering amongst ourselves? Or should I say, we can no long allow the progress of others when we disagree with the minutiae of their designs?

My statement: This is a building in New York built by New Yorkers. New Yorkers should design it according to their values. If security is a concern, it should be expressed in the design, as should any other concern of the people who pay for it. Those people who are not paying for it really have no say.

As for the memorial, I think to avoid political concerns, the memorial should focus -only- on September 11th. This is their hollowed ground. To use it as a platform for anyone else's concerns is to put those concerns above respect for the lives lost in that spot. Imagine if the Vietnam war memorial was made to include a documentary film of Jim Crow era laws?

Certainly there is a need to address concerns on all sorts important matters, especially regarding the history of freedom in the U.S. (and, frankly, the rest of the world.) However, using a monument to the dead as a platform is a bit like stealing the mike out of the hand of out of person giving a eulogy to talk about how bad the slave trade was. The old saying is, "There is a time and a place for everything.", not, "Everytime and everyplace for somethings".

Let the builders build their building. Let the mourners honor their dead.

And, more importantly, let's not object to everything we personally don't like with grand political rhetoric.

If you don't like the design, just say so. Some buildings are just ugly, after all.

Comments welcome!

Constitutional Degradation

2005-06-28T17:55:00.000+09:00

Quote:

"The specter of condemnation hangs over all property. Nothing is to prevent the State from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory."

- Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

I humbly request that all of my readers read Dr. Thomas Sowell's column on the recent disgrace of the Supreme Court. I will not offer my own comments here as I have proliferated my opinion on other blogs. You know what I think of property rights anyway. (Reminder: I consider them absolute and would greatly like to see the "public use" clause stricken from the Fifth Amendment.)

Back and afraid

2005-06-28T10:28:00.000+09:00

I am back from my trip and it was lovely. I was planning a nice pictorial post, but I am at work now and the pictures are at home. I checked the news and I have no choice but to post on a few news articles. Stay tuned for photos. Coming up: The probloem that might kill you tomorrow has a solution that can kill you today!

Extreme solution to un unproven theory. Sure, the idea of the Earth getting warmer (but possibly a few degrees!) is pretty scary. Hollywood has made sure of that with plenty of environmental disaster movies. If movies and some select* statistics are enough to convince you, then combat that theory with a 500 billion to 600 trillion dollar project guaranteed to make the Earth colder! Sure, it would have side effect like a giant ring of light at night, (migratory animals be damned!), and possibly chilling the Earth, but Science has given us the mandate to gamble all the life on the planet so that we can combat something we aren't even sure about.

Saving the planet is certainly a noble goal. However, this project is not only way too far ahead of evidence, it has the potential to create a far nastier problem. And I mean much nastier than a bunch of crap in the sky to mess up star viewing.

*I have to say select data. Sure, some oceans have rising levels in the world. We all have been told that. But, some other oceans in the world are actually receding. This counter evidence is often simply ignored, because it doesn't fit the theory. This is quite counter to the scientific method. Most theories ( not all) of global warming are based on the notion of, "Gee it's hot this summer... And the glaciers are breaking off! The planet must be getting warmer!" Neglected are the lowering oceans and theories that the glaciers re-grow, and that the planet naturally changes temperatures in zones anyway. I wonder if the animals in the ice-ages were worried when things started to get warmer? If we want to limit gas emissions and polution in order to clean up the air, fine. If you want to spend a whole lot of money on "global warming", let's spend it documenting the problem first. If we are talking about a few degrees over then next few hundred years, we definately can afford to take the time to be sure of what we are looking at. What we can't afford is to chase monsters we aren't even sure of in the dark.

Story Number Two: Dr. Frankenstein or Honey, I Re-animated the Dead. Science has now given us the ability to drain your blood and fill you up with nice perserving saline solution and keep you on ice a few hours until we can patch you up or at least until the charcoals are ready in the BarBQ pit. Who funded this projected? Count Dracula, thanks for asking. Rumor is that Count Chocula's rival project, filling veins with chocolate syrup, didn't work so well, and the "choco-dogs" didn't revive, but tasted really great when microwaved with marshmallows.

Interesting from a scientific point of view. Eerie and creepy from any other point of view.

That is what is going on in your world today. This it Tokyo, signing off.

UPDATE: The zombie dog link has been fixed.

That's enough.

2005-06-26T01:01:00.000+09:00

I am grabbing my camera and taking two days in the mountains. I'll see everyone when I get back.

(I was planning to go to an island beach, but every plane was full. Saipan, Guam, Bali, Cebu... All full! Every one! I wanted to spend more than a few days anyway. I'll go later...)

Take care of yourselves.

100 Gs

2005-06-24T01:29:00.000+09:00

That's right, she's a victim. Her interpretation was mistaken, and for that, the radio owes big-time.

There's no disappointment nowadays, now that we have superlitigation!(c)

Right idea, wrong motivation

2005-06-24T00:15:00.000+09:00

WARNING: Potentially very offensive political post. Hide the children. ...might want to hide the adults, too.

This just in from Oasis.

G8 will fail

I am surprised he thinks so. I agree with him, but not for the reasons he states. He believes it will fail because G8's performance's will fail to reach the politicians.

Why do I think it will fail?

This is about alleviating debt. With what, free money?

News to the world: there is no free money.

If the politicians "release" the contracts of the poor countries, the contractors get screwed. Some of them might even fold, making it a lot harder for the poorer countries next time they need anything. Or instead the burden could be put on the richer countries' tax payers. They could be called to pay off the debts of the providers instead. Certainly that would garner more political support from the voting public. As for the business world, CEOs that fail to make a profit for their stockholders don't last long.

Note what I am saying: Helping poor nations grow into rich nations is a good thing! Creating debt relief is not only not going to happen, to focus on debt as the source of the problem detracts from the real problem, which is lack of income.

We have all heard it: Give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish...

Let these people work and make their own country richer. If they aren't willing to work, no amount of cash we throw at them (in the form of debt release or advances) will ever change that.

But, I have said before, I don't like to criticize without offering a solution. So here it is: G8 will fail because it is looking in the wrong direction. The politicians don't directly hold the cards, the businessmen and the investors do. Maybe G8 should invite people to invest in poor countries and build business there. They should sing motivational songs for the people there: We trust you (with our investments) to work hard! Grow fat from your own work. We'll grow fat too, and we will all prosper! (We'll leave the low wage discussion to another time. Foreign companies are there because they are better than the local companies.)

Honestly, the only thing that can save poor countries isn't the saviors of big foreign governments, but the people themselves, working to build their own fortunes.

Some touchy thoughts:

- We must not think much of these places or their people if we think they need our help all the time. America built itself on hard work. These people are capable of doing the same. Isn't it condescending, or even perhaps a bit racist, to say, "Those people in country X are so needy! Only we can help them, because they cannot help themselves."?

- Thinking that the successful need to sacrifice themselves in the name of the idle is to punish the successful for succeeding.

- The Federalist Papers state that America should have no foreign policy but open borders for trade. I know out sourcing jobs is a touchy subject. But how can a poor nation grow out of poverty if they have no means of income? Further, how can a rich country sustain it's economy, without sealing the borders, when other countries can under-bid it for the same goods and services? This, though seemingly paradoxical, has a simple answer: poorer countries, by nature, are better at providing "lower class" jobs, while rich countries are better at Administration, R&D, and other such high level tasks. Higher education is more common amongst the rich population by necessity. By outsourcing our "lower class" jobs, such as manufacturing, we allow companies to be more competitive. They lower their bottom line and can then grow. Those that "lost" their jobs to outsourcing will find it far easier to get a better job in a thriving economy. They may even find that they are needed for a better job, especially if they are educated.

All in all, economy is not a zero sum game: If we allow people to work and produce freely, the whole of society will grow and benefit.

So, let's not "forgive their debt" at our own cost. Instead, let's invest in them and let them better themselves and all the rest of us in the process.

Let's start by lifting trade barriers. Maybe G8 can sing about that.

As always, I welcome opinions and thoughts!

Brazil vs. Japan 2-2

2005-06-23T06:31:00.000+09:00

And that last one was sweet.

A day at the pier

2005-06-20T15:22:00.000+09:00

I did get to go fishing and forget about troubles for a while. Three friends and I met and headed to Oiso. The day started cloudy, but soon the sun came up to keep us warm and make the cold beer more enjoyable.

This was quite a busy pier. It wasn't too long before we started to make friends. The first friends we made were a pair of young twins. 5 years old. That's ten between them! And they shared with us their ten years of fishing experience by helping hold the rod.

Later came a little boy, not too much older. He had a bit of trouble when his hook caught on the back of his pants. We helped him out, but not before he de-pantsed himself in an effort to get it out. Kids are funny. After he got his pants fixed, he caught three little fish!

Between 4 people, 43 fish. Mostly aji. We only knew they were aji because an old man came and looked into our bucket and told us so. (I don't know their English names!)

All fried up with lemons and sausages. There was watermelon too.

A simple trip to enjoy a simple task. This is what summer days are made for.

Plans are for fools

2005-06-15T22:54:00.000+09:00

Random thoughts:

Recently, AMG was criticized by an anonymous reader for writing about herself on her own blog. What should she talk about in her own blog? The intellectual fortitude of annonymous posters? And do those need to meet the approval of readers too? If you don't like what you read, click away. Who is the fool? The person who writes foolish things or the person who continually invests their time reading them?

When did it become fashionable to ignore responsibility and commitments in the pretentious name of "personal freedom"? The once called "golden rule" (do unto others...) seems to have been replaced with the mantra "Do as you feel, without respect to others." It is perfectly acceptable to "be yourself". It is scandalous to use that as an excuse to impose on or endanger others.

I want a new camera. The one I have takes pictures too grainy for my taste. ...And the lens cover finally dislodged from the housing.

Perhaps it would be good to live a life without regrets. But having regrets often motivates improvement and introspection.

The longer I think, the more I realize that the most profound statements are made in the spur of the moment.

"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest." - Adam Smith

Disgusted

2005-06-15T07:08:00.000+09:00

It seems that Michael Jackson is an unavoidable topic. I was trying to avoid it but it's everywhere. Worse, many people seem confused.

"MOM BLEW IT" : Yeah. It's a d-mn sporting event. The jurors weigh evidence. Her attitude is not important. It's not evidence. I am so sick of people behaving like this is some sort or competition where one side has to out perform the other. But that might just be the kind of circus freak-show that the justice system may have become.

"INNOCENT" doesn't mean that he is a lovely happy person who should be allowed to sleep with little boys anytime he feels like it. He is clearly a nut job. The jury simply said that, again, based on the evidence presented in the trial*, they were not convinced that he was guilty of the charges laid.

People are behaving as if he is now allowed to roam the streets freely and enter anyone's home he wishes and steal children away to a hidden voluptuary. If anything, his alleged misdeeds (which is all they can be said to be) now have such infamy that any parent (or child) would have to be insane to allow a private audience with him! In that spirit the trial was not all together unsuccessful.

Regardless if he is guilty of child molestation or not, I personally do not find that his life-style is a healthy one to impress upon children.

(*) "ALCOHOL" is one thing I can't get by though. How does this jury let him go on the charge of giving alcohol to a minor? There was more than enough evidence on that account. Or does a finger snap mean that all evidence to the contrary is just a bunch of fabricated lies?

Finally, what I think: Honestly, I am not sure he is guilty of the molestation charges. That is not to say that I think him innocent beyond doubt! I -do- think he is a freak and should not be around children. But I am not sure he molested them. (And why, oh good gosh why, whenever there is a story like this, is it -always- teenage boys?) Since I was not in the court room and privy to all the evidence, it is not my place to say "he is guilty" or "he is innocent". Rather, it is my position that I must say "he was found innocent", even if I remain forever suspicious. This is sort of a double edged sword: assume for the moment he is innocent. He can never escape that suspicion.

I think that many people, including the mother, were not exactly concerned with child welfare in the first place. The mother did have a history of con jobs. Frankly, I believe the mother saw this as a grand opportunity. Her motivation wasn't the welfare of her son, or this sort of thing should have been brought to the court's attention earlier. What about the security guard that said he saw Jackson abuse (no details here please. ew.) a boy in the shower. Why didn't he come forward earlier? Apparently, protecting children isn't the motivation. If fame or fortune, however, is, then the grander the show, the more interest is garnered.

In the end, the imperfect human must judge by what is given to the sences. Whatever actually happened, that if for God (or karma, or whatever otherworldly figure/belief system you prefer) to know and judge. But, if human reason was ignored in place of a circus show, then we have all lost the trial.

Extreme close-up! Whoa!

2005-06-10T00:33:00.000+09:00

My desktop needed updating. I have seen the same picture of Richmond for a long time, so it was time for something a bit more colorful. Chikura was very colorful, with lots of colors, especially of the floral kind. So, I dug up this nice picture or a bright yellow flower out of that album for my desktop. I figured I would share.

But, it leaves me wondering... Is it OK for a guy to have a great big flower on his desktop? Will I be wearing a dress tomorrow? And will the dress match my heels?

I am reminded of Garth, just before he has to beat a mechanical hand to death: "We fear change." You never know where the change will stop! Maybe I should put the picture of Richmond back before it is too late!

Cuban Transportation

2005-06-09T15:54:00.000+09:00

Clever. Very clever. But they forgot that we don't have leaded gas anymore.

0 to 2

2005-06-09T10:25:00.000+09:00

Japan defeats North Korea to go on to the world cup! And there was free tequila!

Look at that, out on the wing

2005-06-07T11:42:00.000+09:00

Go! All of my readers are now on assignment to follow this link and then follow the link on Spakkadi's post.

Don't wait! I'm watching you.

Beach magic

2005-06-06T15:28:00.000+09:00

Recently, a question came up about altering pictures. Since I am still thinking about Saipan, I will use another picture from the same trip to illustrate what I do. Maybe I should make this into a tutorial...

Basic background: Digital cameras think too much and often guess poorly... So, after you get home and load your happy pictures from Wonderland onto your PC, you take a look at you pictures. Hmm... I don't remember that place being so red. Whoa! Though it was dark out, this picture looks like mid-afternoon! It was a really bright day, but this picture is a shade grey, for some odd reason. I don't remember taking a picture of my own butt! Luckily, PhotoShop is there to help all those mishaps. (Well, except the last one.)

1.) 2.)

3.)

1. Original (much smaller. The original is a 2560x1920)

2. After cleaning up the levels. The camera's not-so-perfect auto-brightness and white-balance settings get fixed here. Image>Adjustments>Levels You want to slide the little arrows along so that they start just where the graph shows black. This is a summary of the color data in the image. By doing this, you trim the "empty" data. Also, slide the middle slider just a bit either way to adjust the "middle" of the color.

3. Contrast corrected / final. Though, instead of the contrast tool, I used the curves tool. Use the contrast tool to strengthen or soften colors across the board. Or, use the curves tool to do it more specifically or in particular color bands. Adjust carefully! A small change is generally all you need.

Now, about the picture. There were really pretty bright-colored fish in that water! I sunburned my back really good looking at them. Well, and chasing a handsized brown blowfish. Maybe I deserved it.

Update:Here is the original and the finished side-by-side.

That beam came from space

2005-06-06T14:35:00.000+09:00

Spakkadi, the ranting space cadet, has challenged me to a questionnaire:

Music Meme

1. The person (or persons) who passed the baton to you.

Spakkadi (That's s-p-a-k-k-a-d-i)

2. Total volume of music files on your computer.

8.2 GB and counting.

3. The title and artist of the last CD you bought.

My Story / Ayumi Hamazaki, V2.0 / Fighting Gravity

4. Song playing at the moment of writing.

About You / Ayumi Hamazaki

5. Five songs you have been listening to of late (or all-time favorites, or particularly personally meaningful songs)

Recently:
America / Fighting Gravity
Moments in Heaven / Tokyo Ska Paradise
Cool #9 / Joe Satriani
The Distance / Cake
Rock You Like a Hurricane / Scorpions

6. The five unfortunate victims to whom you will afflict with this musical baton.

Kiri,
Andrea,
Tim,
Browen,
MaryB,
and Echrai.

I'm tagging six! I figure one of you will drop out. LaurenB just did a much bigger version of this, so I will not chuck the baton at her... this time.

7. Super bonus question! Do you dance by yourself when you think no one is looking?

Yes. Yes, I do.

All I need is a holiday

2005-06-04T17:20:00.000+09:00

Some time to get away.

OK. I admit, I just got back from almost 2 weeks off in America. But that was a bunch of running around! I want to just go lay in the sand, listen to the waves, and fade into slumber as the sun passes under the horizon.

(This is from my trip to Saipan. My apologies to those who have seen this pic before. I like it!)

Which reminds me, I want to get my scuba license this year...

It's 6:30am!

2005-06-04T06:33:00.000+09:00

I just woke up from my short night-shift break and it's time for random observations!

- I work for a communications company. Why are most of the problems here caused by people failing to tell us what's going on? (e.g. lack of communication?)

- LaurenB is very cute (read "she is damn well hot, but she is married, so I will say cute instead"), but she posts about needing to get in shape. I suppose regardless of our situation, people always want to improve. I make a lot more money than I did 3 years ago, but I still feel like I need to make more...

- Besides, people that believe they are already perfect are annoying.

- It's hard to make coherent posts when I haven't had coffee yet.

- Ears are wasted on the young. By the time a person is finally ready to sit back and listen, they have often lost their hearing! (This statement is coming from a guy who likes to run his mouth, too!)

- Random human sounds often amuse me (excepting screaming type sounds). Random machine noises often annoy me.

- Angels come from unlikely places. A co-worker of mine, who is by no means a saint, is bringing me coffee now. He must have feathers in his wings. But I really just want to see the coffee.

A hi-speed bus in the background

2005-06-03T15:38:00.000+09:00

The day before a night shift is always a mixed mental bag. It's like being on a long airline flight heading for a different timezone: you should sleep but you don't really want to sleep. But you know that just a short while later, you will want to sleep and you won't be able to sleep.

The plan was to study today for that lovely CCNP certification, but it became just a lovely time to sleep. It's been work work work lately without anything particularly post worthy. Yesterday was particularly busy. I was supervising two newer team members and they both work hard. But we had a number of advanced issues yesterday that all fell on me at once. I was supposed to meet my fiance and go out to dinner and I had to cancel because I just couldn't leave on time. (I got home at about 10:30.) We were going to one of my favorite restaurants, too.

So, back I go tonight. I'm waiting for the laundry to finish. While that machine spins along outside, I am eating fried chicken from the fridge, listening to some music, and posting here.

Later this month, I am going to try to go fishing with some old friends. I don't really care for fishing, (The idea of hooks whizzing by my head bothers me.) but I do care for eating. Last time we went, almost a year ago, netted us only one fish about 3 inches long which eventually was used for bait. But at least we all were very intoxicated. (That is the point, right?) One of my compatriots started drinking before we got on the train at around 7:00am. Some people take this drinking thing very seriously. Anyway, I am looking forward to going if I can get everyone together. I need to call the guy whose house we intend to crash. He lives 10 minutes walk from the pier and has BarBQ facilities. Good guy!

The things you leave behind

2005-05-31T08:01:00.000+09:00

This all that remains of a priest's home on Malvern Hill. It stood at the time of the battle in 1862. All that is left today are the chimneys. It was just beginning to rain when I took this picture. The original is more grey. In fact, it looks like a faded old photograph, even though it is digital. I re-touched it a bit to bring out the color. But photography is not the point of this post. My thoughts are on what you leave behind; what marks you leave on this Earth. Recently, Mary Bishop posts on parenting. Or rather, the recent lack there of. Those in the most dire of circumstances know what is important in this world. Those of us in a position of privilege all too often forget.

Perhaps the most important mark we leave behind on this earth isn't something to be seen at all, except in the eyes of our children and children's children.

"Cluck cluck cluck", the defendant replied

2005-05-30T03:51:00.000+09:00

Don't laugh. This isn't funny.

Stop laughing!

Let them lead the way

2005-05-29T07:10:00.000+09:00

Echrai did this a while back, and I liked it. So, here goes. This is gonna be long...

I believe in personal responsibility. Those that blame others will never fix themselves.

I believe that people are different. That is inequality handed out by fate. To believe that we can all be equal in all things is folly.

I believe "A level playing field" means equal opportunity. There is no such thing as equality of results. Egalitarianism is a dream. Attempting to institute this dream is not only an exercise in futility, but a very dangerous upset. Hard workers have been laid low so that the less industrious or the less able so that there can be "equality".

I believe that we must judge someone by their actions and results, rather than by their intentions. Intentions are for God to know. We as humans must judge on the outside.

I believe the sexs are innately different. That is not to say one will invariably be better than the other in a given task. It is to say that I believe there is a disposition that makes men and women more -likely- to be interested or good at one thing or another.

I believe that words are the foundation of culture and society. Once a government has the ability to change the words meanings, like Orwelian new-speak, they have the ability to dictate anything.

I believe that a government should be of laws and not men. Laws are to be as written and never ?living?. A ?living law? is a tool of the interpreter. That interpreter is thus a tyrant, able to do as he believes the law should be.

I believe the current US Federal Government is far bigger than it should be. It is quickly becoming the monster that the original colonists sought to escape.

I believe that money is a good thing. Rich people invest and make jobs for others. I think that if people replaced the word "company" with the word "job provider" they might not speak so harshly. However...

I believe that a company's job is not to be a job provider. It is beneficial that it does so, but, a company exists solely to make money by providing services and/or products. Thus, all parts of a company, including employees, must be evaluated by how much revenue they produce vs. how much they cost. This obviously is a generalization. Customer service people who give refunds cannot be expected to "bring in" as much as they "take out", excepting that their good service will make the customer wish to continue business with the same company.

I believe that war is a horrible thing. I also believe that it is sometimes the lesser of two evils. In the case of Iraq, I believe, from the human standpoint alone, that the people of Iraq are better off now than they were under Sadam's regeim.

I believe everyone makes mistakes. People in groups make bigger mistakes. I believe to what we must judge by is not the mistakes so much as a person's response to those mistakes. (This is sort of a re-write of one above.)

I believe capitalism works. I believe price controls break it. I am entirely for free economy, wherever it can be applied.

I believe that affirmative action causes racism.

I believe that laws only affect the law abiding. Gun control (restrictions of ownership) does not reduce the amount of guns available to criminals, but it does make them more bold in attacking and stealing from others who cannot legally have guns.

I believe that CNN, ABC, NBC, and the AP are biased. I also believe that they believe they are not biased.

I believe that tax dollars should not be used for arts, museums, or music. All of these things can be privately funded. When people have more money to spend, they spend it. Without beaurocracy in the way, arts and the like may find they have more funding through direct contributions from "richer" people.

I believe in a flat tax. I am beginning to believe in the consumption tax. I do think that rich people pay too much so that welfare cases can live of their fat. More on this...

I believe stealing is still stealing regardless of the recipient. I consider the tsunami donations made by the US government criminal: they have no right to donate out of our pockets. (I ?do- think that voluntary donations to causes like this are a good thing!) To add insult to injury, the politicians who spent out of other?s pockets announced how caring they were to do this.

I believe that "gay marriage" is not a right. When marriage is based solely on love, then what is to keep, for example, brothers from marring, or a granddaughter and grandfather? Or groups of people who claim to be in love together? (Why should marriage be limited to two people?) I do, however, thing that the government can provide civil unions to any two consenting adults, however, it should not be called marriage. (This goes back to my belief about the meaning of words.)

I believe that homosexuality is often genetic, but not in all cases. In some cases, it is learned. In some cases, heterosexuality is learned.

I believe that there is evil in the world.

I believe in the death penalty. What is the logical point of allowing someone to continue to draw resources out of society (tax funded prison) when that person has already demonstrated such contempt for its community and beliefs?

I believe that emotions are often our greatest stumbling block. We must think with our minds rather than our hearts, even though it often brings us pain to do so.

I believe that the art of polite argument has been nearly lost.

Finally, I believe that a person knows his situation better than any 3rd party. People who offer advice are constructive. People who offer control, to make someone do the right thing, are enslavers.

Grandma was right

2005-05-27T22:22:00.000+09:00

If you play with it too much...

But why stop there?

2005-05-27T16:02:00.000+09:00

Some in the UK feel that you're kitchen utensils represent a threat to yourself and others:

You can't be trusted with sharp objects.

First handguns were banned. Crime escalated. London now has a higher crime rate than almost anywhere.* Well, with that problem solved, what is next in our social engineering experiment? Oh, knives! Since government control worked so well with guns, obviously it should be used again. This will keep Emeril at bay on that fateful day when he kicks it up too many notches.

Idiots.

* I grabbed this article on a quick search. There are much better ones out there.

River humor

2005-05-24T08:09:00.000+09:00

My mother lives way out in the country. Their sense of humor is beyond all rules and manors.

It's not just one. There are about 15 of these posted posts all in a row. Can I get a rim shot?

The sun has gone down and the moon has come up

2005-05-24T00:14:00.000+09:00

A few pics from Pontiacs in the Park 2005

G T O

The 1977 "Can Do" Can Am. Not to be messed with.

On the track with "The Grocery Getter" and the worlds fastest naturally asperated car . Naturally powered won.

Me (the figure in the driver's seat) getting ready for a pull on the dyno. (A dyno is a machine that measures power.) The results are secret! Shhhh...

Bonus: click here for a 16 sec video of one of the drag races. Modem users may want to click and sort their sock drawer. Twice.

Is it wrong to be obsessed?

2005-05-23T23:56:00.000+09:00

I just picked up The Incredibles on DVD. Actually, I had bought it from Amazon before, but had ordered the non-widescreen by mistake. That had to be exchanged. For those of you in Japan, that's Mr. Incredible by the way. (Bonus: In Japan, often movie titles change. For instance, "The Mummy" was released here as "Hamunaptra", the name of the city of the dead in the movie.)

What a fun movie! I think what makes it though isn't the graphics, or the super powers, or any of that. It's the human story of Bob Parr and his relationship with his wife and family. For those of you who haven't seen it, this is not just a kid's show. I won't go into details, but there is a lot to relate too, especially if you are a parent.

The music is great too.

M came to get down

2005-05-23T06:19:00.000+09:00

Just an interesting observation from the past:

"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what is will be tomorrow."
-- James Madison, Federalist no. 62, February 27, 1788

The show goes on

2005-05-21T11:40:00.000+09:00

Hang on 'yall! I'm back!

I am back from my 9 day trip to America. This morning, I defined jet lag. I woke up at 6am perfectly awake and rested. I had the urge to got directly to the store and buy bacon and eggs for breakfast. I got up showered and got on the bike. I rode, enjoying the morning weather to the store, which had a sign that said they would not open until 9:30am. It was just past 7:00am at this point, so, I took the bike in the opposite direction, passed by the apartment, and went to a convenience store and found bacon. I brought it home and made it, coffee, and got out some Krispy Kreames (that I had brought from America). I had a nice breakfast at 8:00am on a Saturday. Ladies and Gentleman, this sickness, this perverse Saturday morning non-slumbering state, is jet lag. I apologize for this ugly image. No one is safe from it's eerie, other-worldly effects when long-distance travel afflicts them*. Who knows what evil lurks behind it's seemingly benign face?

Being awake in the morning is indeed scary.

Beyond jet lag, (That is why you are reading, right?) the trip was wonderful. It was packed with the Pontiac show, re-unions with friends and family, and precious little time for anything else. I'll deal with the car show in another post.

The picture above is from the Commodore theater in Portsmith, Virginia. It's a dinner theater. That is to say, one arrives an hour before the show and eats food at the tables and then swings ones chair around to face the movie. We saw "Sahara" which was a fun flick. I had a sandwich of some nature to eat and I watched the film with a old fashion glass bottle of black-cherry pop in my hand. Kind of classy. As you can see from the photo, the theater itself is pretty classy too. Don't let the old looks fool you, though. It's a THX certified theater. (You know: "THX: The audience is now deaf.") So, in summary, you get good food served to your order, then a movie presented with the sharp cut of technology, all from the comfort of your very own wide, plush swivel chair. Good stuff!

* OK. Jet lag may possibly be avoided for long distance travel going North / South. Tecnicality!

Preach on, brother!

2005-05-08T07:28:00.000+09:00

This just in:

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says the Constitution "is a legal document...and like all legal documents it doesn't change." Scalia told an audience at Texas A&M, "You should not use the constitution as a means to enforce your own social views," adding that interpreting the Constitution to fit current social trends "is not a road that has a happy ending." Scalia went on to criticize those who politicize the judiciary, asking, "What in the world is a moderate judge? What is a moderate interpretation of the Constitution? Halfway between what it really says and what you'd like it to say?"

My goodness! A judge who actually knows his job is not legislation! A rarity in today's times, if the news is any indicator.

A long while ago I was watching The People's Court, with Judge Koch. There was a case that involved the death of a dog. There was little doubt that the defendant was indeed responsible for the death of the dog and he was being sued for a rather large some of money. The accuser was rather close to the pet and regarded it as family. The law however regarded the dog as property. As such, he could only sue for replacement value. Judge Koch then did something that I thought was pretty amazing: he said that he could only order the defendant to pay for the replacement cost of the dog, however he personally did not agree with the law. He did what the law said, despite disagreeing with it! (This is the reason I respect him so.) He went on to garner more respect from me by stating that since he felt that the law was not appropriate in this case, he would write a letter to the appropriate legislative authorities and ask that they consider changing the law. But, in the case before him, he followed the law to the letter.

It is my humble opinion that we need more of that sort of attitude. People shouldn't bend the rules or invent them when the existing ones don't fit their pre-conceived notions. Especially not judges, at any rate. Our society depends on knowing what we can and cannot do ahead of time. If the written laws cannot be trusted, on what is our society based?

Blog of note

2005-05-08T06:11:00.000+09:00

I have spent the last hour reading this blog, but it covers a sensitive topic: the war in Iraq. Maybe "cover" is not the right word. This is a soldier's diary, basically. His picture is quite different from the PhotoShop version we get from the news. ("It will never sell like that! Give me more lights, more bass in the background track, and make sure that the Iraqi child holds the Pepsi can label out!") What really strikes me is the spirit of the people living there.

Excerpt: As one Kurd said to me in perfect English, "I was born free. I live free. I will die free."

It's like a Greek tragedy: the whole range of emotions.

A walk under the blue sky

2005-05-06T00:36:00.000+09:00

Sometimes, it's just best to look up and dream.

Or take a walk.

Or just look out a window.

Hello, my name is Aurthur and this is my diversion

2005-05-05T23:14:00.000+09:00

4 days left before the big America trip and all of them are work.

Yesterday, my fiance and I celebrated her birthday. I am not allowed to disclose her age. We spend the day at the park and the weather was just beautiful. We spent a good long time just lying on the grass. There were kids everywhere playing all sorts of games. We stayed until the park closed and then met some of her friends and had a small party and ate ribs. (Yes. American style BarBQ ribs.)

It was fun. I wish she could come with me to America this time, but it will have to wait until next time. She isn't a big far of car shows anyway...

What was that silly revolution for?

2005-05-03T19:43:00.000+09:00

Congress is moving quickly toward setting strict rules on how states issue driver's licenses. Sure, it's a blatant violation of the 10th Amendment, but that never stopped the Federal Government from expanding power before...

10 days and a plate

2005-05-01T01:24:00.000+09:00

WS6 98

Echrai has been writing about license plates.

10 days...

It's the final countdown

2005-04-30T21:58:00.000+09:00

Ten days. Ten days left until I visit the US. I am a bit anxious about it actually. It's a 14 hour flight, then back behind a wheel of a car. Transportation that I don't have to meet at a platform! Imagine!

I am never quite comfortable on a plane. Frankly, I really don't like heights. But, it's faster and safer than taking a ship. Heck, it's safer than when I am back in the Trans Am. Speaking of the TA, I'll have to take a day to learn how to drive again. A car feels a bit funny after not driving for a long time.

Tomorrow is a night shift. I have 4 night shifts and 2 day shifts before I go. (That's good. The night shifts will help me get over jet-lag quicker. That's also bad: I won't be home much to spend time with my fiance before I leave. She can't get off work for this trip.)

We're leaving ground...

Anyway, people tend to leave more comments if I post a picture. So here goes.

Fire up the BarBQ boys

2005-04-26T22:42:00.000+09:00

This just in from Dr. Thomas Sowell:

"If people are willing to do the right thing only when there is no cost whatever, that is the very definition of cowardice."

Just thought I would share.

Finishing work and off into the sunrise

2005-04-26T06:42:00.000+09:00

This night shift is almost over and I am ready to sleep. I couldn't sleep during my break tonight. I just kept thinking about so many things. Incredible how far the mind can wander. For whatever reason I got on the eerie thought of ghosts. (Note: To read on may freak you out or make you question my sanity. Read on with caution.) I guess I was thinking about it because the topic had come up earlier today when a manager was talking about un-identified sounds in our old building.

I have seen a few ghosts in my time and felt the presents of far more. Last summer when I visited the US, a friend of mine and I went out to see the stars one night. Where we stopped was a farm field where soy beans were grown. But not only a farm field, it was also a Civil War battle field (Malvern Hill). Over 1000 soldiers died in that area.

The beans were dead stalks at the time and made a loud rustling if you moved through them. We were there roughly at midnight and there was dim light from the moon. There was enough light that you could make out shadows. As we watched the stars, we became aware of movement in the distance. I looked out into the field and a good stone throw's distance away I saw a shadow. It was the figure or a man, running across the field clutching a rifle across his chest. But there was no sound. It was black only. No detail. Only a black shadow against the dim background. He ran through the dead soy stalks... without a sound. Just moments after I laid eyes on him, his simply disappeared. Gone! Like he fell down. A second later, the figure re-appeared, still running, then gone again. I looked at my friend and queried him. He had seen it too, but only for a moment. We waited a few moments, but the figure was gone. No sound. No disturbance of the beans.

It didn't take much longer for us to agree we should leave.

We came back the next day to check the field. There was no path through the stalks and they crunched loudly as feet passed through them. No one should have been out there that night, especially not with a rifle. (It was bow hunting season. But no sound? And no voice?)

This isn't the first time I have seen a ghost, and I doubt it will be the last. You know when you have seen a ghost anyway. There is a certain feeling about it.

Anyway, I just thought I would post and seen if anyone else has ghost stories to share.

Late to work, early to leave

2005-04-24T11:26:00.000+09:00

Tonight I go to work for the mysterious "M shift". "M" is for maintenance, and that's good enough for me. What that entails is me doing checks on equipment from 11pm to 5am. I know you, dearest reader, are highly jealous of this shift, but, alas, I cannot share it with you. It is written in that eternal document, known as the schedule calendar, that I must fulfill this role.

As many of you might also remember, "C" is for cookie. I came across an interesting piece of commentary recently. It seems that Cookie Monster is Cookie Monster no more.

Hang on for more pictures of Taiwan. They're come'n. Hold yer horses!

Lost in translation

2005-04-20T14:50:00.000+09:00

Welcome back! I have just gotten back from Taiwan with a collection of touristy pictures. It seems that while I when I walked out the door, the blog knombes became restless and dismantled my blog. Well, I fixed it. So welcome back to you too!

Taiwan was an incredible place. It is an odd bi-polar mix. There are temples and traditional places that are colorful and rich. There are shopping areas (like the Taipei 101 that are luxurious and clean. In between are old hovels and run-down buildings that look as if they were taken out of the background of a 1970's film about gangs in the Bronx. Brown building with wires dangling from the roofs running all over and eventually going into windows. But the really amazing part of the trip was the food.

We were only there for one full day (and two half days). The majority of that day was consumed by a free tour that was included with the travel package. Now, I took free to mean a bus ride to various tourist sites. That was half right... What I got was a tour paced to a Richard Simmons workout video. We went all over the place without really sitting down (except on the bus). I soon came to understand the local meaning of the word "free" though: every other place we stopped was a tourist trap designed to demo and sell a particular product. (The Chinese herbal medicine store being the strangest.) And sell they did!

There was far too much in the trip for me to tell all in a single post. (If I did, it would be pages long and people would just skip to the pictures.) So, I'll divide it up and talk about it in several post over the next few days. Hopefully, the internet police won't completely block me at work!

Into the wild blue yonder

2005-04-17T06:50:00.000+09:00

I'm off to Taipei! I'll see everyone in a few days.

Special thanks to Tim for his advice on using my mouth. Hopefully I won't mispronounce anything and create a global incident. But, then again, if TV has taught me anything, I know that if I do, that incident will be very funny to all outside observers and that in the end we will all be better people... Until next week when a similar episode occurs.

Have a good weekend!

Machines know better than you do

2005-04-16T10:30:00.000+09:00

This just in from the automated firewall at work.

My blog, wasabi, which strives to present ideas and photographs in a family friendly way, has been automagically classified by the server as "adult content". The following blogs are also being classified as adult: AMG, Echrai, Spot the Frog old, Mindful Things, and Spurious Plum.

Apparently, anything with "blogspot.com" is considered "adult" and thus gives a big warning screen and prompts me for a password whenever I try to view it. Big brother will also save a copy of the page I view so that he can read it later. This is absurd.

Anyway, I just though you would all be happy to know that you are now proud owners of adult content web sites. Congratulations.

You might think I'm delirious

2005-04-14T14:16:00.000+09:00

Thank you to everyone for all the nice comments you ('yall) have posted about my pictures. It makes me glad I took up the hobby. Everyone likes compliments!

Last post I mentioned that I really like night photography. I also mentioned that my other favorite photo was a night shot of Fushimi Inari Shrine. Rather than leave it to you imagination, I decided to share. Cue the drum roll. My favorite picture from the shrine is:

That bright spot by the roof line is Venus, I believe. One more picture from inside the temple:

You might think I'm crazy, to hang around with you. Or maybe you think I’m lucky...

Taking the desk

2005-04-14T01:25:00.000+09:00

Laurenbove asked me for a larger version of some of my recent photographs. So, here are two large, desktop size photos. Copyright me, blah blah blah. Use them on your desktop. Don't sell them. (If you are interested in buying publication rights, please feel free to contact me, though!)

First off, the "white flowered tree picture": Big version of Sakura Dreaming. Modem users might want to click this and go grab a coffee and a sandwich.

The mystery pink tree was also requested, but the close-up is rather fuzzy. (Photoshop hides it nicely in the small version!) So, I offer an alternative picture:

This is one of my favorite pictures that I took in Kyoto.* To be honest, my favorite photography is night photography. The way things light up at night tend to make them larger than life, like Batman. The same man in his daytime suit is never quite the same. But at night, the whole image changes. For your desktop viewing, modem killing pleasure, I offer this in a larger version as well.

* The other is another night shot of an Fushimi Inari Shrine. I may post it later... Inari is a kitsune too!**

** "kitsune" means fox. "Inari" is the fox deity in the Shinto religion who watches over farmers and growing things. Specifically, Inari is the god of rice. No small role in Japan! According to Shinto beliefs, foxes act as messengers for the spirit, and sometimes for people too!

At the sound of the tone, it will be 4:10am.

2005-04-13T04:02:00.000+09:00

Mark Heath writes an interesting blog entry about the 22nd Rube Goldberg Machine contest. (Yep. I am going to make you visit his blog for the link.)

For those of you not familiar with Rube Goldberg, he was a cartoonist famous for designing elaborate machines to do simple tasks. By "elaborate", I mean, "beyond the point of reason, using components not meant or approved for use in a work environment including, but not limited to hamster powered wheels, fleeing cats, rockets on strings, and rolling bowling balls.

Any ridiculously over-designed, overly-complex notion or mechanical construct can now be referred to as a "Rube Goldberg". But, as LaVar Burton used to say, you don't have to take my word for it!*

* But I would appreciate it if you do. I really don't have any collaborating source on this...

Awake at 5... pm

2005-04-12T17:10:00.000+09:00

And another night-shift day begins.

Previously, I mentioned joining the gym. While it was nice, $90 a month is a bit steep. So, I didn't join. But, really, money wasn't this issue. Free time was a potential problem, but that wasn't the big thing either. What it came down to was spring time. It is so nice outside! Why pay to be inside a big metal enclosure when it is so pretty outside?

Now, I can ride the bike around. Granted, it looks a bit silly: exercise shorts, running shoes, and a basket on the handle.

Also, there is a pool by my work. That's indoors too. But, at $6 per use it won't gut my wallet and stalk my credit card. That has it's silly side too: mandatory swim caps.

I'll join the gym when the endless rain starts in a few months. Maybe.

Floral Mystery

2005-04-12T17:05:00.000+09:00

This is a pretty tree. But, I don't know what it is...

The bark looks like cherry, but the blossoms don't open wide like the cherry blossoms do. Though, it blooms at around the same time as the cherries. Maybe it is in the same family. Does anyone know? If not, just enjoy the pictures.

3 deuces and a 4-speed and a 389

2005-04-11T15:42:00.000+09:00

Well, I am a traveling machine, it seems!

This month is Taipei. Next month back to America for a Pontiac show. More news later!

Listen to her tack'n up now...

Under the Sakura and dreaming

2005-04-11T15:01:00.000+09:00

The cheery trees are in full bloom now and spring has rolled out it's green carpet. It's really pretty outside.

Everyone is crowding into the parks, night and day, sharing laughs, stories, drinks and food. These pictures are from the Imerial Palace garden near my work. (I ran over there on a lunch break to snap these photos.) People were sitting on blankets on the central grass field and playing. As it was a Saturday, kids were everywhere! I wish I had had a frisbee and someone to play with. As it was, I took a moment to sit under the sakura (Japanese for "cherry") trees and just peacefully enjoy.

The wire jungle

2005-04-11T14:01:00.000+09:00

The lab was an interesting experience. My previous prediction was actually not so far off from reality.

It was a short walk from the station, with cherry trees flowering over head and residential houses lining the streets. Hidden amongst those dwellings was a white building with a round communication tower and my company's logo printed on the side.

Inside was a mix of the expected and the unexpected. The lab was a strange bi-polar place. I entered through a card-locked door. Beyond the door was a security camera, various motion sensors, and bare hallway with a door at the far end.

I walked to the door. There, I was greeted with a laptop and an escort through the web of wires. They were everywhere: on the floor, growing like ivy on the walls, and dangling from overhead like grape vines in an Italian hanging garden. Giant skeletal racks supported this nervous system and held the organs of lights and fans. The hum of electronic life was deafening. We moved through the labyrinth of equipment to a small desk, buried in papers and equipment. There I was presented with my own wires to insert my laptop into the collective machine. There the split happened.

On one side of me was this organism of wire and lights, but on the other, giant bay windows and the bright light of a spring day. Cherry trees dropped their petals and flowers danced in the breeze. I was caught between the world of the human engine and the symphony of the world's spring renewal.

So, the day was an odd mix of feverish routing experimentation and spring daydreaming. It was a rather interesting experience. It is typical to say, "man versus the machine". One must be careful not to surrender to it... Especially on a beautiful spring day.

It's poetry in motion...

2005-04-07T12:56:00.000+09:00

Tomorrow is a day of fun. Tomorrow, I get to journey to the other side of Tokyo. Transported by a fiendish network of tubes, electrical wires and rails (the train system), I will be delivered to the lab. There countless experiments shall take place all to ensure that my company's evil creation is complete: the network.

Actually, it is a training session in the company network development lab. They are introducing a new service that my department will be on the frontline for. I haven't been to the lab before, so I am looking forward to it. I envision this to be a high tech place choking with wires, strange blinking lights, and tubes with bubbling fluids. Screens will hang from metal racks as seemingly random code dances on their green and black screens. The staff will be wearing white coats with various tools and notes sticking from their many pockets. Eyewear will be accented with microscope lenses and small bright lights. The lab will be dark and hard to see beyond your own shadow, but yet blinding with diagnostic lights that blockade you in at every turn. Anti-static shoes will soften footsteps over the tentacle like spray of wires that hide the long forgotten floor. Between the beeps, hums, and mechanical whirring, the muttering of scientists, troubled with calculations beyond mortal's counting numbers, brings a subtle consciousness to the whole machine: the organism that swallows you into its deep swirling, contemplating mind. ...It will probably be just a bunch or routers on a table. pfft.

All my tubes and wires and careful notes! And antiquated notions, but! - it's poetry in motion.

Just leave it Shake...

2005-04-05T16:34:00.000+09:00

Yesterday, I went by the travel agency to drops some cash. I tend to busy myself extravagant gifts for my birthday, savings be darned. (This is not a big change from usual, I just have an excuse on my birthday.) So, this year's gift, or rather gifts, include a trip.* A trip to where, you ask? Of course you do. I am going to take three days and go to Taipei. My camera is ready and my stomach hungry. Admittedly, I may have to eat before I go, but I will be sure to be hungry while I am there. Taiwan is supposed to have wonderful food and tea. It's all supposedly cheap too. I am sure it is compared to Tokyo prices!

Sight-seeing should be fun too. The world's current tallest completed building, Taipei 101, is not too far from the hotel. I hope the top is open for tourists! If not, I may have to pretend I am the telephone guy. ("Hello. I am here to check your wiring. I believe that I am supposed to start on the top floor in the room with the best view.") There are also a number of temples and such that I would like to see. Hopefully, I won't have to impersonate the telephone guy for those too.

Language is the only thing that worries me. I am told that there are many people that speak English there. My Japanese will probably not help though. I am going to have a friend teach me the basics of the local talk. For anyone traveling to a country that speaks a language other than your own, I recommend learning the following. It will may your stay more comfortable for you and those crazy foreigners that never learn'd English. (What silly people!)

1. Hello and Goodbye
2. Please and thank you
3. Numbers, 1 trough 10
4. Yes and no
5. Is this OK?

You might want to throw in "Where's the jon?" if you are going for bonus points. Yes, it's important, but those things tend to be well marked anyway.

Numbers 2 and 5 are the most important.

5 will help you about anything you aren't sure about. For example, 'is it OK to have a napkin?' Point. "Is this OK?" Simple. How about, 'is this the right amount of money?' Hold out the money. "Is this OK?" I hope it was... What about, 'you've got it going on and I'd like to join in'? Point at the fleshy bit which most captures your attention. "Is this OK?" Get arrested. See! It's just that easy!

Number 2 is just basic politeness. People will try and help you a lot more if they think you respect them. Even if they are silly, non-english speaking foreigners!**

*(The other gift is an intake kit for my Trans Am. But I can't collect that gift until I visit America in May. I admit, this is an unhealthy obsession. But I like horses. Lots of them. Under that red hood.)

** This is a joke. It is included only as humor. No angry replies please. Also, they rarely understand the word silly.

Frog with a 'fro

2005-04-05T10:38:00.000+09:00

Seriously, this frog has it going on. I'll let the story explain itself.

The Frog

Thanks Mark.

(Cheers to Kiri who pointed me to Spot in the first place!)

Bogged blogger

2005-04-02T22:09:00.000+09:00

Timmy's mother: Lassie is back, but where's Timmy?

Father: "What's that Lassie? You say Timmy fell down the well again? And that badgers stole his clothes so they could fool the US border patrol? Quick! Lead me to the badgers, Lassie!

--- We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for the following breaking news story:

Blogspot.com, popular for bloggers worldwide, has decided that when a user posts a comment on another person's blog, it should not show up on the comment counter for hours, days, or possibly not at all. The comments are viewable only if the user clicks "post a comment".

Insider information states that this is actually intended to make bloggers feel as if they are being shunned by their fellow bloggers! Apparently, when a blog author logs in and sees the comment counter stating a "0", he or she will immediately go to their regular readers blogs and place derogatory posts. This in turn will invite more derogatory posts in what is commonly called "a flame war". The result is dramatically higher hits on pages. The blog industry is funded by advertising which bases it's payout on site traffic or hit-count. In theory, as uncounted posts will be entered more than once, seeming low posts will begin flame wars, and blog authors will have to monitor their sites more carefully, the hit counts, and thus the potential advertising incomes, will soar!

The president of blogspot.com, Mr. Presidente Bloggah, was quoted as saying, "You can't spell "ass", without A.S. (A for "Abject", S for "Stupidity".)"

And now, back to your regularly scheduled program ---

Badger: I've got the gun, son. I think it's you who should behave yourself...

I pitty 'da April fools...

2005-04-02T06:23:00.000+09:00

There are jokes left an right today! AMG has beaten me to the punch (not that I am blazing speed, anyway) and compiled a list of most of them.

I won't repeat her list, but I will note a comic joke that she missed. It seems that the cartoonists have ganged up and decided that the gods are asking for characters abuse. So far, I know of three comics that share the same joke:

Fox Trot
Get Fuzzy
Pearls Before Swine

Anyone else know any other comic that got in on this?

With reckless abandon

2005-04-01T11:58:00.000+09:00

I have nothing to say. That's why I am posting. Rather, I feel guilty about not posting in a few days. But, if the news media can fill empty space with puffed up nothing, so can I!

Actually, I do have one observation to make: lanterns.

A few posts ago, I mentioned that lanterns have been put up for night viewing of the cherry blossoms. Those trees are budding and soon there will be pink flowers everywhere. People will sit on the ground and picnic until late hours or the night. It's a fairly romantic image.

Well, someone, presumably not the romantic type, decided that it would be wonderful fun to go rip them all down and tear them up. So, now, there are bare lights hanging there with a few shreds or lanterns.

It started with just a few lamps torn up. The next day, over half of them are gone. Now, there are maybe 15 remaining. Little do they know, they are closing in on the one exploding lantern! The piñata of doom, if you will. Keep swatting them, you little punks, keep swatting.

(Note to the authorities: this is a joke. There is no exploding lantern. *wink* *wink*)

Building my stress back

2005-03-30T14:15:00.000+09:00

It's been a few days, so I guess I owe a post.

As mentioned, I went to try the gym. They have a large assortment of machines there that, despite their lights and buttons, all seem to be manually powered. I always had to peddle something or push something to make them work. Worst of all, it seems that the point of all that pushing and peddling was just to change the numbers and lights on the front panels of said machines. All that work made me tired. What is this all about? For $100 a month, I have to do all the work?! Something is very wrong about this.

All kidding aside, it is a very nice gym. My first workout included, in rough order, 20 minutes on a bike, stretching, back machine (50kg), chest machine (30kg), back/lifting machine, leg spreading machine (I wish I had a better way to describe that...), curl-ups, weight lifting, stair machine (20 minutes), weird-ass ski machine (10 minutes), tread-mill (20 minutes), different bike machine (20 minutes), and more stretching.

I got a look at the pool, but I didn't have a water cap. Those things look kind silly to me... But if you get in the pool, you have to wear one. I didn't get to see the tennis courts, but they have those too. You have to pay extra to use them for some odd reason.

So, now it comes down to this: do I want to sign on the line for $100 a month (for a non-automated gym!) or try and get by jogging, swimming at the $6 per use pool, and lifting the water bottles I tied together? If I go to the pool ten times a month, that leaves me $40 left for water bottles with the same amount of money! Imagine all the water I could drink!

Anyway, I have until April 3rd to decide.

The hour has passed

2005-03-26T17:46:00.000+09:00

I took my lunch break late and decided to walk down to Akihabara to check out MP3 player. It's a twenty minute walk there, and the weather is cool and crisp. Quite a nice walk. But walk turns to quickly to a stand as I hit the wall. It seems that I forgot one important thing: today is Saturday. Just as I cross the bridge into Akihabara, I hit the wall. The writhing human mass. The dragging thick fog of human beings. After 10 minutes pushing through the flesh jungle, (what a day to be without a machete!), I realize that I am just never going to get to a good store. Even if I did, it would be so crowded that I wouldn't be able to do any intelligent shopping anyway.

This reminded me why I love my irregular schedule: I get weekdays off. Wonderful weekdays when the crowds dissolve like a bad dream under the morning sun. Monday I have the day off, so I will try again.

So, anyway, I figure out the obvious ("Whoa! There are crowds of people everywhere near shops on the weekend!") and head back. I get back to the office after 45 minutes of walking and wait for the elevator. ...and wait... ...and wait...

Our elevators were designed by Machiavelli: they will see you coming and head for the opposite extreme of the building. My favorite elevator story was when I got on, hit 11F, the doors shut and off we went: 2. 3. 4. 3. 2. 1. Doors open. Start over.

So, I give up and take the stairs. I won't elaborate, but at the 11F, I was quite convinced that I really need to join the gym. Sigh...

Give me a snowday...

Forecasting the weather indoors

2005-03-26T15:15:00.000+09:00

Tomorrow is a special day: gym day! I am going to try the gym near my home train station and see if it is really worth $100 a month. (They let you go for a one-day free trial.) Now is the time I really wish a had an MP3 player! My CD player is just not going to cut it for exercise. Oh, I would just go out and buy an iPod shuffle, but it seems that it doesn't have a bass-boost function... (Well why the #!&$ not?!) I'll have to check into other models later.

I am really looking forward to getting into the pool. Not the walk to the pool mind you! ("Look at me! The man without muscle development!") I've really let my upper body go to waste. That is compared to that magical moment when I looked like Arnie S. I don't really know when that magical moment occurred, but, I am sure it did. My legs are not so bad though from the minimum 30 minute walk I get everyday: 15 minutes one way to the train station and supermarket. Snowboarding helps too.

Anyway, this is my self-conscious moment. I could just stay home, but then it would never change. But the Arnold Schwarzenegger delusions might continue as long as I hid all the mirrors.

Early to bed...

2005-03-26T09:41:00.000+09:00

I actually managed to get to sleep before midnight last night and I am pretty awake this morning for a change! I got a seat on the train too. I've had my sandwich and morning coffee and things are looking very good. Too good maybe...

Anyway, I am thinking about doughnuts. Donuts of all types and tripes.

Near my work there is a New York Doughnut shop (sorry, no link). It is sort of expensive. The doughnuts look like the kind you would buy at a local supermarket bakery. You know the ones: the squarish ones. Appealing in some ways. But the appeal is lost when you look at the price. Because they are "New York" doughnuts selling in Tokyo, reference the following equation: NewYork * Tokyo = expensive. (** See short rant below)

For those price minded, there is a cheaper alternative. Japan's basic coffee and doughnut shop is Mr. Donut. They have a wide selection of round doughnuts. There latest and greatest doughnut is a doughnut made of 8 individual balls that form a ring. It is slightly sweet and the texture is sort of chewy. It's like mochi for any of my readers that have had the chance to eat mochi. Anyway, it's a cool doughnut. I have a suspicion that this is not a Japanese company though. I think it is actually from the US west coast. Anyone know for sure?

When I was growing up in Richmond, we had two doughnut choices: Dunkin' Doughnuts and Krispy Kream.

Dunkin Doughnuts has all but disappeared. We would go to D.Ds sometimes when I was in elementary school. I remember being all excited, as kids are around sweets, when we would go to D.Ds. There were some many different kinds with frosting and such. We didn't really have a candy store that I remember: D.Ds. filled that role for my childhood.

Krispy Kream is the god of doughnut stores for the American east coast though. Now that I am older, I prefer K.K. (When I was a kid, I did really like Krispy Kream because they had a doughnut with chocolate frosting and tiny multicolored sprinkles that fell everywhere as you at it! I am sure, for the same reason that I loved it so, that my parents hated it.) Why do I classify K.K. as the god of doughnut shops? Well, you see, there is a large machine that makes, bakes, and sugar glazes the regular doughnuts in the store. It makes a wonderful smell! When you go and order these lovely doughnuts, they are taken directly from the machine and placed in a box for you. One can then consume a "hot and fresh" doughnut. There is, in fact, a large neon sign on the outside of the restaurant to let people know when the "hot and fresh" doughnuts are available. We usually order a dozen at the drive-through and consume half of them on the way home. There simply isn't a better doughnut.

One wonders why we went to school? Did you teachers ever teach you this?

The origins of the doughnut

Or, the boring old based-at-least-partially-on-recorded-facts version.

Anyway, I'm hungry.

** The short rant:
(This works for any famous city * Tokyo, by the way. Louis Vitton, the handbag / fashion company, owes some 60% of its sales to Japan alone. Without Japan they, and this is not an exaggeration, would be out of business. Their products sell for a lot of money because... they are foreign! And expensive! And thus a BIG status symbol! I would say 1 out of every 4 young women on the train has something with a LV mark on it. Maybe 1 in 20 for the guys. How, with that much market saturation, do they continue to maintain the image of a status symbol is beyond me. But then again, sadly, Japanese (especially the young girls) are taught that 1) image is more important than substance and 2) The words printed in magazines and broadcast on TV are not to be questioned. I'll deal with this in another post though. This post is about doughnuts!)