Aabhsent With Out Warning

A test

2011-05-28T11:14:00.001+09:00

So, heres a test post from my new tablet. It doesn't help much for the photography in general, but it is cool.

-G

Photorepair Basics: Where do I start?

2011-05-16T04:55:00.008+09:00

There sure are a lot of old pictures that I have inherited... and I spend a lot of time repairing them... and I thought "Hey, other people must do this as well!" and I went looking and they do... but some people don't know what to do with the really badly mangled ones. Or worse, they have really bad practices... So... I thought "Hey, I should do a photorepair blog!" Then I thought "Where do I start?!?"

I came to the conclusion that I should start with "Where do I start?"

I've been using Photoshop almost every single day of my life since 1992 (I have achieved the infamous "10,000 hour" line). So I guess the first thing I should say is "You have to have Photoshop". I wish I could help you with Gimp or some of the other really good programs out there, but I just simply have been lucky enough to have had Photoshop in my life since Version 2.0. Some of these techniques are good for any editing project, but I really know Photoshop, and not so much when it comes to other programs.

So,

Rule 1) Always work on the largest version of the picture you can. If you are scanning the picture in, always scan so the picture is at least 3,000 pixels across. I have a TON of little pictures from my grandmother's little box-camera. They are probably 2 inches tall and an inch and a half high... really, really tiny! I always scan them in at 600dpi, always.

Remember you can always make a picture smaller, but you can never recover data once it's gone, so you can never enlarge a picture in the computer.

Really, what you want to do is be able to see the grain of the photograph before you see the pixels in Photoshop. If you can't see the grain, then you need to re-scan/reacquire the photo.

Rule 2) Never work on the original. Open the scan and then use "Save As" to save it as something else, be it "001-1.jpg" or "Mom and I playing piano at the Worlds Fair in San Diego-01.jpg" always keep an original copy somewhere.

Rule 3) Never destroy data on the picture. No matter what, that can't be undone. For example, if you adjust levels on a picture, never clip past the start of the data. Adjust the gray slider instead. (I'll talk more about this in "How to get your colors right" which will be my next post).

So, that said... I'll be off.

(I'll talk about these two pictures in later blog posts, too...)

---A

A New Direction

2011-05-16T04:52:00.002+09:00

So, it seems that there are folks out there who want to read a photography/photo editing blog. :D So I'm going to reorganize the blog from this point forward to be more to just that! :D I'll do political stuff elsewhere :)

SO, from this post up is all photo stuff, this post and older is undecided! :D Venture at your own risk

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To catch a snowflake

2010-11-10T11:21:00.006+09:00

Finally! After a very abnormally warm September AND October we finally get a little snow!

I wanted to catch a single snowflake falling with my Canon D50. I had to have the shutter at 1/500 to actually CATCH the snowflakes... but it was so dark that I had to set the ISO for 3600 (!)

But I did catch a single snowflake falling on the railing...

Long time no... wait...

2010-11-09T01:02:00.001+09:00

So, I've recently been informed by folks that there are still people who read my blog out there...

Rather than being absent without warning. :D I'm going to post here for folks who want to read about the exploits of Kai the Great and perhaps Luna the Fuzzy and the other small people in my world :D

What an awful thing...

2010-04-03T14:51:00.002+09:00

There is a lot of controversey about a Japanese game called "Rapelay" which, among other things, allows the player to rape and molest theoretical women in the game.

Now, before I go any further in this line, I don't want anyone to even THINK I condone this kind of behavior, nor do I want to see or touch this game.

What I want to address actually isn't the game at all, it's our culture.

It worries me that people want to villify Japanese for this game... No one villifies people for shooting virtual people, no one villifies people for stealing virtual cars (Okay, Grand Theft Auto got some heat... but it was never really bad until they had a SEX scene!)...

Sometimes a fantasy is just a fantasy...

Why is it that when a person fantasizes about raping a woman, it's instantly deviant behavior and everyone KNOWS that they WILL rape a woman at some point...

But when a person fantasizes about a new car no one expects them to actually STEAL one...

Is it because "normal" people don't have drives to hurt women?

That might actually be so; Though I have never entertained even the smallest notion of hurting a woman, I HAVE entertained the notion of hitting someone with a long stick...

And, really, hitting someone with a Japanese long staff... or even worse (And I have done this), shooting someone with an arrow from my Kyudo bow (Yeah, very un-zen of me...), this doesn't make a single person worry that I really WILL hurt someone with my bow...

In fact, people would probably laugh, pat me on the back, and say "Yeah he/she IS a real jerk!" As if they understand...

But, people, I am still (Technically) fantisizing about killing someone, which is still a fantasy just as morally corrupt as fantasizing about rape... isn't it?

Again, I certainly won't kill anyone with my bow (It's VERY uncool... and not so good for the other guy), I will resolve my issues with him/her in a normal professional way, only imagining about the arrow piercing various organs.

So, what is it about rape that makes this fantasy so much worse?

Is it the fact that the fantisizer is imagining hurting a person? Or is it hurting a woman?

As opposed to my fantasy which only involves the targets' life oozing away? (Actually, in this hurty fantasies, I end up being such a wus, the targets of my agression never actually hurt or die... they just go "Gee I wish I had known you were so awesome with a bow... I'll let you do your project now..." I usually am so cool, the arrow does this wicked Robin Hood thing and pins their clothes to a tree... But for the sake of this argument, pretend that it's actually violent and bloody...)

What about fantasies that do NOT involve rape, but involve something "perverse", like public nudity (Has any male out there NOT watched a tv show and seen some gorgeous starlet on the red carpet and mentally undressed her, leaving her exposed?)... if you worried that every man who had that fantasy was going to jump over the ropes and strip some poor actress naked... you'd just lock all men away...

So, is it a combination of violence AND perversion? Public nudity is pretty perverse, and shooting someone with an arrow is pretty violent...

Well, here's a test: what if I made a game where people shoot naked women with arrows?

(Okay... Actually, that sounds awful!)

Either way I think the point is: most people fantasize about all kinds of things, and they never, ever do them... only a very small percentage fantasize about doing things and they actually DO them... And honestly, that percentage doesn't need help acting out their terrible fantasies...

I think that just because I envision some cute girl without her clothes on ( I AM male)- I think you can still safely sit near me if you are female...

And perhaps, just perhaps, this goes for those who fantasize about nastier things (Naked women and arrows!)

-Me (No really, I'm imagining arrows sinking into that persons.... *sigh* okay, left sleeve... )

Wow...

2010-03-26T09:17:00.002+09:00

So, here's the final talley:

Our doctor sent a bill for $657.50, which, we discovered, was originally $3,420.40, but our insurance covered it...

Then we found out why:

The Hospital obviously got to the insurance company first; charging $3,650 for our stay. Insurance hit the cap at some point and paid $800 of it, but we still have $2,700 in bills to pay.

So, we will pay $3,000 out of pocket for this.

Let me note something: total, having a baby in America cost us $5,500 out of pocket for 9 months, or about $620 a month (All things considered). We paid $320 a month for insurance that stopped it from being $1,230 a month... but you add that back in and it was still an (Average) of $950 a month to have a healthy, normal child.

When the health care package goes through, we would have gotten a payment of $5,300 from the government to cover any costs above our bills.

Which means that now, in a recession, when one of us can't work (Because she's taking care of the baby), and I'm worried about losing my job, we wouldn't have to worry about this baby costing us every spare penny we have...

Which, by the way, is exactly what we ARE worried about; I simply don't make enough money to cover all of these bills... so we are going to have to take from our savings.

So... okay, people HATE this bill... Why? For 100 years we left it in the hands of the "private sector" and they have made it impossible for the average joe to get any help... 100 years.... how long do we have to wait?!? 1,000?!? 10,000 years? I mean, really! There comes a time where someone has to do something. Waiting another 50 years won't change anything, except more of the working class will die of needless things...

People, we need to stop. The bill is through; it won't kill babies, it give us middle class people a chance to survive. We can fix the rest of it...

But guys, worrying about petty politics is not worth my life or my child's life...

And without this, I won't ever get medical attention if I need it... and I'm worried I do need it (But I can't be sure, because I can't afford to be sick)

Well, it passed

2010-03-22T22:49:00.004+09:00

That major health care bill passed...

And for the life of me, I can't tell what that means.

For librals and Democrats, it means we are all going to get health insurance, we can all go to the doctor whenever we want, it'll be cheaper (Not free just yet, but soon), and by 2014 all will be fine.

For Conservatives and Republicans, we just flushed the whole mess down the tubes and not only will people suffer, but we will suffer with great sufferyness. No one will benefit, it is simply a trillion dollar boondoggle that is going to have to be paid for by Kai...

So, I really still don't know what any of this means...

So, I decided to look into it.

1) This is simply Obama trying to look good: True, we've been working on public health care since Roosevelt was president... TEDDY Roosevelt (1915, people? World War ONE?). Is that the reason he did it? Maybe, but that's not a reason NOT to do it. This argument is misinformation and trying to grasp at straws.

2) This bill does not address problems with Malpractice Insurance: Also True. The bill allots only $50 mill to this issue, and that was a compromise for the Democrats. Originally, it did not address it at all.

But, and this is the very, very important points here: You can't put an ammendment on something that doesn't exist. You need a law in place in order to add stuff to it. And, the biggest problem in our health care system today is that the insurance agencies are making a killing (literally) on us. Those Agencies don't have anything to do with malpractice insurance (Though those agencies are also making a killing... ). If you compare the number of doctors that are being taken for a ride by malpractice insurance, then compare it to the number of Americans that are being taken by insurance agencies (Indeed and the number of people who are not insured at all because of this), then it does seem disproportionate. I looked it up, and there are some 900,000 doctors in the United States (Does that seem low to you?), let's just say 1 million doctors in the US. there are 309 million people in the US. 75% are working class or middle class, so about 230 million people are being taken for a ride by insurance. This means that though it is a problem, it is 0.5% the SCALE of the bigger issue.

3) This does not address the problem with a dwindling medical work force, and Doctors will be payed less: True. It has no provision for the fact that it is more lucrative to go into private practice here in America than go into General Practice and work for the public health.

But... that's capitalism. And it's like saying "This bill does not address terrorism issues", no, it doesn't... but that's a whole different problem that needs another bill passed through congress.

3) This isn't what the people wanted: False. It's been a war of soundbites on this issue, no one wants to read the 2,000 page bill, and to be honest, I don't even think the lawmakers read the 2,000 page bill... "Death Squads" anyone? Really, I think if I actually believed that this bill meant my father would be denied coverage because he's old, I'd be against it, too... of course, that's not even in the bill... nor is there anything LIKE that in the bill...but there were people who said that was in the bill...

People wanted health care. It's started. That's the key point.

4)We are going to pay more in taxes: True, where else would you think the money comes from? In the end, however, I think we'll actually pay less. Our taxes are much more than Japan, and they have completely socialized Health Care. Our Tax boondoggle isn't health care, it's defense (That's not to say we don't NEED defense, just put the blame where it belongs).

One of the Conservitives spat out in disgust that by 2014 19 Million Americans will only get $6,000 in subsidies to help with health insurance...

Did anyone notice that our deductable was $5,000? I don't know if this fits or not, but if the government gave us $6,000 per year to subsidize that, we could wipe out our deductable and cover $2000 worth of medical bills (They pay 50% after the deductable)!... Then we could go to the doctor anytime we wanted and it would cost us $375 a month! I would happily pay that! Happily! That's all we really need to make this family healthy.

This would put an end to people like my mother dying because she couldn't afford to go to the doctor. This would put an end to "We can't afford to be sick" (A mantra I grew up with)...

The last big thing I heard was that before (Since Teddy Roosevelt) Health Care had a far greater approval rating than it did this time , Thus, it stands to reason that we aren't doing the right thing:... well, I'll pose this as well: Maybe the reason was because it never went this far... It got killed early every other time because of politics looong before anyone could vote on it.

Here's what I do know: it will cost America's corporations, they will have to cover their employees or pay a VERY stiff fine.

So... whose interests are we REALLY worried about?

Perfect? If America EVER makes perfect legislation, then someone has drugged the Congress and House... we aren't designed to make perfect legislation.

I remember sleep

2010-03-19T13:43:00.002+09:00

Okay, Kai is now 1 month old... he poops regularly, he has acne like any good infant should...

And....

He starts at about 10PM crying and doesn't let up until 4AM...

But...

At first I thought he had colic... now I'm thinking he might not, his parents are slightly clueless... We didn't catch on about the diaper thing until recently (Yes, it is entirely plausable that he wet a diaper and then 5 minutes later wet ANOTHER one- Oddly enough, this is something we must learn)....

and burping... even breast-feeding, Kai does indeed need to burp and 30 seconds of light tapping on Kai's back may not actually solve the problem...

Yes, we need to learn that.

So, in all the advice that we got (Hahaha... get used to not sleeping! Hahaha Get used to dirty diapers... etc), this was advice that we coulda used...

Thus begins the new life for this Blog; Kai's life. Someday... not as far down the line as you might think, I'm hoping Kai will be posting here.

For now, it's Daddy's turn.

This is Kai at one month: healthy, not yet happy (He's alternating from "Content" to "Lobster-Baby-Mad" and not much else), but stable :)

And... he's ticklish... a little. :)

---Daddy

Are you listening Mr. Obama?

2010-03-12T03:49:00.002+09:00

So, here's the deal;

I pay $370 a month for my health insurance.

It has a $5,000 deductable, meaning they won't even touch a medical issue until we reach $5,000 out of our pocket FIRST.

Then it's 50% after that... so from $5,001 to, say $10,000 I still have to pay $2,500

For our hospital visit, where my son was born, we just got a bill for $2,045... my insurance -To whom I have paid $4,000 so far (And continue to pay $370 a month)-, paid $900 of the $3,000 bill. Not even half of what I have paid in... and it doesn't cover the new pediatrician visits (Since that is a seperate thing)... so we start all over again chipping away at that massive deductible. With a deductible that high, it is likely that a healthy person will NEVER get help from Insurance... all of our trips will have to be out of pocket... which means I will never go to see the doctor until I am REALLY, REALLY sick (Because my son and wife will go before I ever do and we simply do not make enough for all three of us to go). Probably, like my mother, the next time I see a medical professional it will be a coroner.

Now I'm hearing that this new health care will require me to have health care... that's fine, but it better not be like my current plan... Which, I might add, is the BEST I could get (My company is simply too small to have it's own insurance-this is with a seperate company)... If it is, then I will no longer support you. Forcing people to pay for a screwed up system isn't helping, it hurts.

When we talk about Auto Insurance -which we have lost all respect for because there is rarely help from the companies when you need them- we often say that Auto insurance is simply "paying for permission to drive".

Please, PLEASE, don't make this Health Care bill be nothing more than paying for permission to live.

---Me

Pressure (De Do De do de de de do...)

2010-01-12T23:08:00.002+09:00

It interesting: I've been working at my job for 9 months. It's a company run by my father and step-mom. It's a great company, and a lot of fun...

Except...

I've noticed that it is putting me under a lot of pressure, I work long days and there is a little bit of interal conflict. It seems that everything I'm writing these days seems to be complain-y, dark or simply depressing.

I can't seem to see the bright side of anything, which is very unlike me.

It's amazing what a little stress and pressure can do to your psyche...

I'll make it a point to find something positive to blog about here in the future!

Guess what color?

2010-01-10T04:39:00.002+09:00

So, I went into work today (Yes, Saturday... I like my job, so this doesn't bother me), and we were testing a lovely 8 year old boy. After the tests were over, this boy and I sat down in another room while mom and the testers went over the test.

So anyway, the boy and I started talking.

"D'yu no Martin Luther King?" He asks me, his English is seriously mangled, though his mother's English is fine.

"Of course,"

"He has skin like me." The boy replies.

"Yep, and he did a lot of good things for people a long time ago." I say.

"Iz because white people don li' black people."

This kid is 8... The wierdest thing is, he has no idea what he's talking about. He says it with a smile, chatting away with me happily. He doesn't think I hate HIM, he thinks those "White People" (People who paint themselves with white wall paint) hate "Black People" (People who paint themselves with black wall paint). It's all about those other people... not us, in the room...

Man, it's gonna suck when he finally puts 2 and 2 together.

Who it's really going to hurt is his white friends who will suddenly become targets of anger and resentment that isn't even theirs. Heck, I'm 40 years old and it's not even MY generation who did this... much less this little rugrat who is innocent and adorable and hasn't a trouble in the world...

I told him about going to Japan, I told him about finding out that Japanese are exactly the same inside. In our hearts. People are people.

I hope that helps him when things turn ugly for him.

His accent (Obviously not pulled from his mother) is going to be the worst part; because he's not an idiot (He's very smart) but he sounds uneducated, or undereducated... He's going to have the hardest time getting a job, which he'll blame on racism, which will feed his hate...

Man, it's so sad, too... he has a lot of potential.

Potential that is already poisoned.

Healthy Government

2009-12-25T01:49:00.002+09:00

So, the Health Care bill passed the Senate...

I noticed that it was split right down the party lines.

Just like the House.

Which means one very important thing to me:

Either a) no one has any opinion on their own

or b) There is some powerful rhetoric going around.

I have heard all kinds of things about this new bill which is just lovely:

1) "It will allow illegal aliens to get health care."

Really? Those Illegal Aliens with Illegal Social Security Numbers, I'd guess...

2) "It will allow people to force old people out of health care because of pre-existing issues"

(Even if that WAS true) Because these days when you are old, you are in such great hands...

3) "(Said with Sarcasm) The Government has done such a great job with public education..."

Yeah, it's good that every American child is in private school... What? They aren't? You'd think We the People would pay for the better option... it's available!

4) Let the market control it! If people don't want it, they will pay for the better course!

Right, over the last 50 years people have chosen, by letting the market decide, that they want to pay $500 for a 60 minute visit. People have chosen, by letting the market decide, that they want to give up health care for themselves so that their children will live... Somehow I think the market has gotten smarter than us and are taking advantage of us. They banded together to charge us insane amounts of money.

5) That's not because of the market, that's because of frivolous lawsuits!

Perhaps that is somewhat true; but my mother sacrificed herself for us in the 80's, long before it was hip to sue... I remember a number of times when she would say "I'm sorry, we can't take you to the doctor, we can't afford it." She was a single mom, with her own business (Read: No health insurance-Even if she had it for everyone else, she could never afford it for herself; she was the boss). My dad was self-employed, with no health insurance. So my sister and I, we just laid low and hoped that no big diseases would hit us...

The problem is, big companies have health insurance, poor people have government mandated health insurance. So this lack of health insurance only hurts us, the middle class.

As a running talley for you guys: Kai has cost us $1,902 in health insurance premiums, and $2,160 out of our pocket, payable right now, in Cash (Because our Health insurance has a $5,000 deductable). So far we have paid $4,000 for that baby (He's worth it), and that is what the Market has let happen, that will triple by the time he is born, to $13,000 out of pocket, payable right now, in cash.

So forgive me if I don't want to hear "Let the Market control it!", the Market has decided that we get to be billed twice; once for the outrageous medical bills which we pay for in full and a second time just in case the outrageous becomes insane.

Look, Republcians; if you don't like the bill, that's cool... if you are voting against it because all the other Republicans will hate you for it, then I will never forgive you. But since EVERY Republcian voted against it and EVERY Democrat voted for it, it very much seems like no one actually cares about the bill, they just voted because everyone else was doing it.

-Me

Here's fair:

2009-12-19T01:01:00.003+09:00

So, when we got back from Japan, we decided to become upstanding members of society. I was not so good with my life before I went to KPI and got my Cognitive Therepied, and then went off to be a reponsible Teacher in Japan. It's amazing what that has done with my life. Upon our return, we decided to correct our previous errors.

When we came back, I got my credit report (What a mess) and we decided to try to fix it.

We discovered a big problem from US Bank in Colorado. So, on on of our trips to Colorado, we went into the bank and asked them about it.

They had no record of me, or of my account, or any issue therein.

I couldn't remember anything about it, really... I knew it had something to do with my overdraft protection, but it's been four years and two lifestyles ago, I can't even remember my address.

So we decide it's on the "Challenge" list. We will challenge it and they will remove it some day.

Nope.

They served me papers!

I ASKED them, I WANTED to fix the problem, and they wouldn't help me. Now they want to take me to court!

The worst part is that I have two choices: Settle out of court and pay $1,150 RIGHT NOW (No exceptions, no grace period) or go to court, (I'd have to plead guilty, after all, I have proof that I WENT TO TRY TO SOLVE this in JUNE), then I'd owe $2500 (Court fees and the like) And that, too, would be RIGHT NOW...

What happened is: They sent the thing off to collections, the collections group couldn't find me (I was in Japan), but, of course, there is no communication between US BANK and their collections agency, so when we came in to try to fix it like civilized people, they couldn't find me... so they turned me away... Then the collection agency finally found me! And what did they do?

They simply serve me papers!

What in the hell do these people think they are doing?!?

Do I have $1,150? Yeah, we do... It means we don't do anything for Christmas, though. We ARE preparing for a baby...

So, thank you US Bank, you just took away Christmas for us. Good Job! Our first Christmas back in the States in three years.

(this is not a plea for donations, this is a "Screwed up Justice" thing. Sure, we owed the money, but if they hadn't turned us away in June, it would have been paid off by now in small, easy to manage, payments... instead of completely depleating all of our resources right at Christmas...)

This is why (Republicans out there) Capitalism doesn't work so well: They don't care about me, it's not important. There is no check or balance to stop them from ruining me, my family, whatever. Because they have millions of other families out there that they can get money from. There is no reprucussion from behving badly.

This is why the Deomcrats say government needs to interveine. Is that the right answer? I don't know... probably not. But saying "Let the market handle itself" means that even when you want to do the right thing, you will get screwed. And nothing you can do or say will fix this. US BANK doesn't need to worry about making me mad... I don't even live in Colorado. I'm not a potential customer.

All I can do is vent here...

Thanks for letting me vent :D

---(Unhappy, Broke) Me.

The Powers of PSIII

2009-11-24T22:24:00.002+09:00

So... we bought a PS3 (Playstation 3)... the idea being that we really enjoyed RockBand, and our Wii, which we bought in Japan, is region encoded, so we have to buy a new Wii here in order to play American games. Sorry Nintendo, you don't have a monopoly, so I exercise my right as a Capitalist and I vote you off the island-sure, I payed 25,000 yen once to you, but you won't be getting any more cash out of me.

So anyway, back to my story: we bought a Playstation 3 so we could play Rockband which we so enjoyed when we went to Denver and played with our friends (Namely Dr Heimlich... :D)...

I plug the thing in and within seconds it discovers my computer and asks if I want to access the computers' mp3 and video files... I blink... say "Yes" tell my computer it's okay, and suddenly all of my Mp3's are playing through my PS3...

(Another side story): While I was in Japan, I bought a bunch of DVD's... well, now that I'm back in the US, they are all useless (Because they are Region 2 and we live in Region 1)... So, I ripped the DVD's to my hard drive (I dare you to sue me for it... I bought them, I own the originals...)... but Maia doesn't like to watch the computer...

But now the PS3 will play them! On our normal TV!

The last thing that happens is that Netflix sent us a disk for the PS3 (I ordered it)... and now we can watch instant on-demand movies straight from Netflix on the PS3... we go to Netflix, order a movie, put it in the Instant queue and go to the PS3 and select it... 10 seconds later we are watching a TV show or movie!

So... we bought the Wii because it was revolutionary, but they region encoded it, so it lost out to the Playstation... which wasn't revolutionary... until we discovered what it can do!

Congrats, Sony... you beat the Wii

---Me (No longer Mii)

2009-11-06T09:18:00.004+09:00

So, here's a ponderable:

I was listening to my music here on Windows Media Player. When I noticed that the album cover is displayed in a little window... Strange, I think, since I ripped this album from my personal collection... I know I didn't scan the cover of the album in when I ripped it... So how did Windows Media Player get the album cover?

Then I see a little triangle next to the album cover... so I click it... and it says "Do you want to buy this album for only....?"

No... I already bought this album... I don't need another copy... Unless...

Unless you are assuming that I got my music off of the web and you are offering me amnesty (Hey, you can go "legit" by buying that illegal piece of music you are playing...)

Nice assumption, Microsoft... There is no real good reason for that button, either you are assuming that I stole my MP3's or, even worse, you didn't even think about the message you were sending and were instead just thinking "Hey! We can make more money! Isn't that cool!"

Hmm... I wonder if I can get Winamp back on my computer...

---Grumble Grumble

Watch this space...

2009-10-28T21:22:00.003+09:00

So, I've been informed from a number of sources, that people are reading my blog. :)

Well, people other than my favorite Doctor, whom I know reads my blog :)

So many things are happening in my life right now it's kinda hard to even really assemble the thoughts for it.

But, my son is very mobile inside Maia, rumbling about and making her belly bump and roil in a way that is both fascinating and a little alien-looking. But, I think our little bundle of alien won't stop being an alien until he's, like, 20...

We all binge clothes-bought, between Dad, my step-mom, Maia and I... we have ensured that the child will not be naked...

Also, the Ares 1-X mission is launching today. :)

Okay, there is a big thing I want to post about, but I need to assemble it first. More later.

---Me

And the results....

2009-10-05T04:29:00.003+09:00

A Boy!

With every dark time in one's life, there are always bright ones. We can now start calling our baby by his real name: Kai.

Kai means "Ocean" in Japanese and, interestingly, in Hawaiian. This gives us a nod to the Japanese culture (Obviously) and the Hawaiian culture (Where Maia went to junior and senior high and her father still resides in). It is also the name of the Kyudo position just before releasing the arrow, the "Prepared to shoot" position (It means "Culmination" or "Meeting", meaning "Where the spirit and the weapon meet in harmony in order to properly fire the bow"). It uses a different Kanji, though.

Kai also sounds a lot like "Guy" (in fact, in Japanese, the name is almost exactly the same-Here's to hoping you guys can all see "Simplified Chinese and Japanese" character sets...):　

Kai: 　カイ
Guy:　ガイ

(I get the cute little quotes, he won't...)

The Kanji that we will use will be ocean: "海”

Yeah... that's cool.

Interesting, though, for those of you that use a Japanese word processor... I have to type his name in as "umi"... It's strange typing Kai and spelling it "Umi"... only in Japanese .... :D

I'm ready to embark on this new adventure, with my son! :D

A thought

2009-09-16T10:03:00.002+09:00

I have been thinking;

It seems we humans come in two flavors: the Dreamers, and the Guardians.

The Guardians use their wisdom to help society. Tempering the Dreamers by remembering the past.

The Dreamers use their dreams to push society forward, evolving it and shaping it.

The drawback to the Guardians is that sometimes they let fear control them and they get too stuck in keeping things the same or safe.

The drawback to the Dreamers is that sometimes they are unrealistic about their goals.

When the Guardians get too strong in our society, we stagnate. When the Dreamers get too much control, we overextend.

Usually, like a pendulum under ever increasing force, the Dreamers and the Guardians pull against each other until something breaks.

It's not wrong or right, no more than it is wrong or right for a river to flow downstream. It is the nature of Man.

I wonder if that is what has happened to the followers of Jehovah over and over again; after 1000 years, the Judaic religion came to a crossroads. The Dreamers pulled against the Guardians, the Guardians held firm. The Dreamers left. That was when Christianity was born. 1000 years later the Christians came to the same crossroads; the Guardians held firm, the Dreamers left and Islam was born.

It's been 1000 years, and the Guardians of Islam are starting to hold firm.

I wonder what the Islamic Dreamers are making?

Who the Health Cares?

2009-08-05T21:10:00.002+09:00

So, before we left Japan we purchased health insurance-knowing that we were going to try to have a baby (our company is small enough that it doesn't really have health insurance just yet).

The stipulation, of course, is that in order to have the insurance cover the baby, we must have had the insurance for a month before we conceive.

We did that, paying our first payment in March, we didn't conceive until May.

Now we are in the doctors office for our first visit. It turns out that the insurance has a $5000 deductable and it only pays 50% after that...

Having a baby (Provided everything is normal) in this area, costs about $10,000.

So, by the time we have our baby, we will have had our insurance -which we pay $315 a month- for 11 months, totalling $3,465. They will pay $2,500 to help us through our delivery.

Hmm...

One could argue that I'm paying that extra $900 for protection against something going wrong, but this also presumes that the insurance company doesn't decide that Post Natal is a seperate charge and thus we are back to the beginning with the initial $5000 deductable...

At this point, I'll take Canadian, British or Japanese health care... It costs me money to have insurance... Insurance is making the situation (Which is already incredibly expensive) MORE expensive...

---Poor Dad

One adventure completed...

2009-07-11T02:46:00.002+09:00

...Another one just beginning.

This is Mirai/Kai Davis. 8 weeks 3 days along. Heartrate is 172BPM length is about 2CM long.

The duedate is February 19th 2010.

---Dad

About visiting people in Denver...

2009-07-10T00:36:00.002+09:00

I didn't actually get to post this: For those of you we missed while we were in Denver:

We wanted to see all of you! But there were some very annoying factors:

We didn't rent a car; we rented a moving truck which got 2 gallons to the mile and had some alarming penalties if we went over our allotted milage... Besides it was a beast to drive...

We were only there for three days and had to clean out our stuff from 4 locations... and go to Jessica's graduation (Did I mention that little Jess... Jessinator... NADER-CHAN graduated?!?!? From High School!??!?!?!?).

We were staying at James' apartment... but without James (He got deployed), so we didn't want to trash his place with a party or what-not.

But most important: I was very swamped with moving back and getting everything organized. I simply dropped the ball and failed to organize a party. That's the real thing. It ended up being a slapped-together thing. But that wasn't a "I don't love you" thing! Honest!!!

SO

We are coming back for the convention in September. We want to see everyone at that time! :D We'll plan it so we are there longer than just the convention so we CAN see everyone. Anyway, I hope that makes up for the not-seeing-folks-because-we-are-doofi problem :D

---

On a side note:

Mal, I think you are absoluetly right about remembering how different the world is in Japan and here. It's a good idea: I wrote a lot of this down in my memories file in order that I won't forget :D

Visiting important places

2009-07-10T00:26:00.002+09:00

It only took me a month before I could find time to visit the Johnson Space Center. But with us came our friend Masa, whom is the father of one of Maia's students.

Masa lives in MaiaTown, (well, OldMaiaTown), and every Saturday Maia went to teach Masa's 4 year old and a cluster of other girls ranging from 2 years to 10 years English disguised as an Art class (the older girls were already tired of English, so they had to be tricked into it).

Masa's English is excellent, he works for an American company (In their Japanese branch), and therefore he often comes to the States to do work.

Ironically, the HQ of his company is in Dallas.

So, it turned out that just after we came back, he came over for a business meeting. He drove down from Dallas and we went to JSC.

It was surreal; just before we left Japan Masa, his wife and daughter, Maia and I went on a little trip to Fukashima Prefecture to visit a beautiful cave... and here we were in Houston on the tram tour in Mission Control...

I might add that both Masa and his daughter are fans of the space program (As in: We didn't abuse him by choosing this location).

How wierd, though... two worlds apart, Fukashima and Houston... yet within months we are in both places... the same people (Well, almost the same people), but in a totally different location.

Home... but not settled in yet...

2009-06-03T21:54:00.002+09:00

I'm back in the US!

In the first few weeks we learned a few very important things;

1) No matter what they say, renting a truck is never going to be JUST $650... And being nice doesn't pay.

We flew to Denver to gather our things which had been stored (Kindly, I might add) by my friends in various locations. While in Denver, we went to a certain short one's High School graduation (The same short one whom visited us in Japan not more than three years ago and went to Nikko and Akihabara with us), and then we were going to rent a small truck and drive it (And our stuff, the short one went on to graduation parties and the like, so we left her in Denver... :) ) back here.

Of course, they had only one 10 foot truck. And myself and a small woman wanted that truck. The small woman was afraid of driving the 16 foot truck (Who could blame her?), so, being the chivalrous man I am, I said "No problem." to the fellow when he asked if I would be willing to take the upgrade (For no extra cost).

The truck drank gasoline like a huge 8-cylinder, non-aerodynamic truck with transmission issues... It cost us nearly $80 to fill and it only went about 250 miles on a tank... all in all we paid an extra $350 for our truck... with the added insurance ($100), our $650 truck ended up being over $1000...

That hurt.

But we got home, and we did enjoy our few days with our friends in Denver...

Now we begin our new life, back in the land of "Nothing gets done right, and you have to pay for our mistakes"...

We had to pay $300 for new brakes on our new car 45 miles after we bought it (That's right 45... we barely had it for a week). And now the door handle on the passenger side has broken and the wheel is rubbing against something when we drive over 60MPH... As of yet the car has 120 miles on it... and you know, it's all our problem.

I wasn't allowed to hand-carry my $500 Japanese-made bow onto the airplane with me (Because I might use a 7 foot bow as a terrorist weapon in a 6 foot cabin), but I had to sign a waiver saying that if they broke it tossing it around under the airplane, it wasn't their problem, it was mine.

All of our boxes... 8 of them... with all of our belongings and personal effects (Not to mention my suits and work clothes) have gone missing... they made it to Kawasaki port in Japan on April 15... and vanished. The US postal service has no idea where they went... (We will call the Kawasaki port tonight) So we may only have the things we brought back in our suitcases (Not a whole lot, because we are only allowed a small amount of baggage on an international flight).

As if that wasn't bad enough, my apartment in Japan has decided to charge me for $1000 worth of cigarette smoke damage to my apartment.... I find that to be insult to injury... but they garnished my last paycheck for it. I'm still fighting them (Luckily I took pictures of my apartment in 2006 which shows the smoke damage very clearly), but I think being accused of smoking is about as low as one can get...

So... that's why I haven't really posted to my blog of recent... I'm still in "Bitter Old Man" mode; mad at the world for all of the things that are going wrong...

So, here are the things that are going "Right":

I'm gainfully employed (I was from about two weeks before we left Japan). Both Maia and I work for my step-mom in a business that is not only a good business, but also something I believe in strongly. Like the medical field it is helping people, which is a very rewarding place to be in life. I'm working with children with learning disabilities. Currently I'm working on their database stuff, but later I'll be working with the kids as well.

I have a house! Our own, very large (well, in comparison to my apartment in Japan) house... It was dad's house before he got married and moved in with my step-mother, but he lived here for many years, and I'm very familiar with this house and that makes it one of the best things to return to.

I'm here with Maia. No matter what, I'm glad to be here with her. No matter how strange things get outside our small bubble, inside that bubble it's very normal :D

So, I guess things aren't so bad after all :D

And this is it...

2009-05-06T07:52:00.004+09:00

The last post from Japan.

In the last three years I have made amazing friends, known fascinating kids, seen incredible things and eaten squid.

At 5 this Wednesday afternoon, Maia and I will get on a plane and come home... we stop in Seattle, Denver and then, finally, in Houston.

We arrive in Houston Wednesday night at 8:30... all of 3 hours after we leave today. It will be the longest 3 and a half hours of my life.

On the plus side; I'm on a 777 for the first time in my life. Boeing's newest aircraft... I've been waiting to get a ride on that one for a long time... well for a decade or so, anyway...

I also haven't stepped foot on US soil since March of 2006... I'm in for culture shock... maybe not a lot, but some.

Anyway, I guess I have something new to blog about; reintegrating into American society...

And hey! Star Trek opens Friday! :D

---Me

Signing off

2009-04-30T08:44:00.002+09:00

This is it. Today they cut off the Internet, then the water, gas and last, power.

We will be staying with a friend for four days (Next week is a holiday here in Japan, so, of course, they can't clear us from our apartment during it... since we fly out on the last day of the holiday, it was either clear the apartment BEFORE the holiday or change our flight...). Either way, though; I'll be out of contact until I return to the land of the Stars and Stripes.

Expect reaquisition of signal on Thursday night or Friday morning. For some of you that might be earlier (I will have to post from Dad's computer until I get the computers at my house dusted off; set up and internet connected...).

I'll post a retrospective on Japan when I get back... boy do I have a lot to write about...

Until then; Moriya base here; signing off.

In the Last Days

2009-04-25T21:06:00.002+09:00

The stress level is intense.

We have all of 11 days until we land in Houston.

But we have 7 days until we surrender this apartment...

Monday we will be getting rid of our Refridgerator... we might have to throw it away (At great cost to us) because it's more than 5 years old. The recycling fee is $60, and that's if you bring it to them (Remember, we no longer have a car... I wonder if the train would wait long enough for us to move a refridgerator onto it... )

What amazes me is this country is so into recycling... but they have massive MASSIVE penalties for appliances that are more than 5 years old (Cars, too...) so everyone buys new things every 5 years, and throws their old stuff away (Because no one wants them).

So... here is a country that is concerned about waste and trash, making more trash than Americans (And that's saying a lot...)

I'm so stressed out... But it's almost over.

Shipped

2009-04-14T17:43:00.003+09:00

So, just how much DOES it cost to send everything you have accumulated during your time in a foreign country?

About $800.

We sent home 8 boxes via the Japanese Post... the 8 boxes weigh almost exactly (Within half a kilo) what Maia and I weigh combined.

Thus we have sent home 1 Metric us. :D

The next metric us goes home via aircraft (A 777 to be exact. I came over here on a 747 and I'm going home on a 777! I am a happy camper :D)

We have already begun the assembly of our lives in America... it's so surreal, here I sit, still in Japan, making plans for what I will do in less than a month in Texas... I'm plotting a real phone number, calling up my friends to gather up my belongings so I can move them into our new house (Which is already waiting for us). Plotting buying a car, the whole shebang...

I'm even looking to get phones and internet service rigged up so that I won't be without connectivity when I get home...

Meanwhile the rain gently falls on the streets, washing more Cherry Blossoms from the greening trees. The scooters buzz down the narrow road, the tires hissing on the wet pavement. The train goes to the station, the crossing bells chime. The City Hall clock strikes 5 O'clock with it's cute little melody which can be heard all over the town. And I type here on my computer, still in this little wonderland of strange, tiny people, remotely assembling my life in the "real world".

It's so surreal...

In transit

2009-04-10T07:20:00.003+09:00

The thing about moving is that it involves moving...

I hate this.

I moved out of my Leopalace (The Japanese apartments that are probably best likened to "Starbucks" as there are literally 3 Leopalaces in MyTown and I have no idea how many I have seen in the spaces beteween MyTown and Maia'sTown...) and moved in with Maia...

Maia's not done yet, though... her packing has only really just begun...

So we fight... every day.

We had a tradgedy at MySchool a week before graduation, and that struck me hard... then I had to struggle to get moved out of my apartment before they took my car away, then I lost my car (It was a company car... you can't fault that :D), then I moved here... where on top of having to start all over again on the apartment thing, I'm fighting with Maia...

I just haven't let up in nearly a month...

And here I was hoping to enjoy my last spring in Japan and enjoy not having to do anything...

Well, you can't win them all...

I'll survive, but this isn't doing my stomach any good...

So, here it is...

2009-03-24T06:56:00.002+09:00

My last day...

I got up this morning and turned off my alarm, the one that has been going off at 6:30 every morning for three years.

Today is the last day of being "Sensei".

There isn't a whole lot that I have to do today; I just have to take pictures and go to closing ceremony...

Even my desk is all cleaned out. I have to remove the sticker that says my name in favor of the one that says "Generic English Teacher" (Not really, but something like it)

It's so strange; these last three years have flown by so quickly.

-----

Last Kid Story (Well, Live kid story):

I was walking down the hallway when one of my secodn years (Another girl named "Summer", who was once in the running for Forum, but she was just a bit too quiet) came up to me.

"How is your tooth?" she says.

"Huh? It's called "Tooth" in English." I say, completely misunderstanding her (Hey, my Japanese isn't perfect...)

She laughs, repeats "Tooth" and then asks again; "How is your tooth?"

Now I'm following her; This must be related to being with 1-3 just before going to the dentist the other day, "It's fine." I reply.

"No pain?"

"No pain."

"Good, then you don't need a root canal!" She grins.

I look at her with my best dumbfounded look.

"My mother was your dentist." She says.

I laugh, sometimes I feel like I'm living in the television show "Lost"... everyone is connected...

"Tell her she did an excellent job!" I say to her. She grins in a proud way (Everyone is proud of their moms, I guess). This Summer is very grown up for her age, she's what we would call "14 going on 35"...

"I will" she says and goes wandering off to lunch.

I had always thought that girl had rather perfect teeth... now I know why.

Haisha

2009-03-18T18:07:00.002+09:00

So... my teeth aren't the worlds best anyway... it was only a matter of time...

One of my molars developed a cavity and I decided to avoid the pain and misery of a root canal by going to the dentist BEFORE it started to hurt...

But... I dreaded it... and really... I put it off and put it off...

Finally, though, I received notice that as of March 25th, I have no insurance at all... Knowing that would be the time when my tooth would erupt in cascades of immense pain, I decided to just do it..

I hate the Dentist...

But at least this dentist was cute :D (don't tell Maia I said that...).

Anyway, they call me in and they sit me down on the chair. The chair, by the way, is situated on the second floor of this building, which is all windows. The chair I'm sitting in overlooks the little park across the street where kindergarteners are playing cheerfully. The sun is shining, it's a lovely day, and the kids are playing. A small squadron of High School kids trundle by on their bikes, chatting. This is the way all Dentist offices should be...

"So," says the dentist, sitting next to me on the little dentist stool, "you have a cavity?"

Side note: The Japanese word for cavity is "Mushiba" Literally "Insect tooth" or "Bugtooth"... It was believed, way back in the olden days, that when a tooth got a cavity, it was because you snored at night and the bugs got into your mouth and chewed on your teeth... Woah...

"Yes" I say, "About 10 years ago I lost the tooth behind it due to not coming into the dentist on time (At least I'm honest) and I think this cavity is connected to that..."

"Ah, let me see."

I lean back.

She frowns (I can only see her eyes anyway above the mask and under her little medical cap, so I'm having to read her expressions there). "Well, it doesn't look good... does it hurt?"

"No, not at all."

She zots it with cold water and air...

"Now?"

"Nope."
So I'm off to be nuked... she stands next to me as the familiar Dental X-ray is swung into place. The assitant puts the lead vest on me and then the doctor places a wired device in my mouth next to the tooth and holds it there! The little X-ray beeps twice and she says "Okay, done!"
She didn't even leave the room! I'm shocked!
We return to my chair where the little computer screen next to the table already has the pictures of my tooth up on it...
"It looks like the cavity is actually much bigger on the inside... I don't know if we need to do a alfjkghadlkvjadlfkvj."
"A what?" I ask... fear bubbling up inside me...
"A alkbldkfjbnvadl."
Okay, Dental Japanese... not my forte... "How's the root?" I ask (Because I can say "Root")
"That's the problem," she says "No pain is a good thing, but as you can see, the cavity is really close to the root." (She passes her cursor over the tooth, and you can see layers of the tooth vanish and reappear... my goodness this is cool!)
"Root Canal" I whisper in English in a horrified voice... as if avoiding the wrath of the Root canal gods...
"Yes, Ruuto Canaru."
So we start the drilling...
At some point she says:
"Okay, now we are going to Goro Goro."
This sounds like a bad porn movie or something... but I just nod... She's cute...I guess... I've seen worse plots...
She puts the grinder in...

Gororororororororororororororororororo.... it says in my mouth... Ah... I get it.

Then she looks at it with the mirror.
"Okay, I think the root is okay... I'm going to use the laser now."
Laser? I perk up... Suweet! I'm going to get zotted by a laser! :D
"It won't make any noise." She says.
"But it does make a strange smell." I add.
"You know?" She asks.
"I love lasers! They are cool!
She laughs.
The laser pops a lot, and there is a distinct... um... odor which I needn't discribe, but you can guess... And a strange taste in my mouth... but that's okay.
Then she puts in the filling and we are done!

I go to the front counter and the lady asks; "Do you have insurance?"
Uh oh... here it comes, "No..." (I pay up front and my insurance reimberses me... it's easier to just say "No" than explain all of that)
"So, you'll be paying out of pocket?"
"Yes."
"That will be 5,700 yen please." She says and hands me the bill.
For those of you that don't speak Yen, that's roughly $50... That's it.

As a side note, Maia did something to her knee two weeks ago, and it swelled up... she went to the doctor, got an X-ray, had the fluid drained, and was given some pain medication for 8,000 yen... (About $80)...

Why is Socialized medicine a bad thing again?

Anyway, my tooth that had been chewed on by bugs while I snored at night has been repaired.

-Mushiba no more

T minus...

2009-03-17T06:42:00.002+09:00

It's been a while since I blogged last, but I have good reasons for not updating! Well, they are good to me, anyway.

So a quick update:

My third years have graduated... now I am officially in school longer than they were (they were my first year "First Years", so we started school at the same time). I'm proud of myself for graduating almost all of my third years.

I was just informed by my company that as of the 25th, I won't have a car anymore... so I'm scrambling to clean my apartment out before then so I don't have to try to move things via bus :D

The Sakura are starting to bloom, which is a focal point of my existance, thus proving that I have become part Japanese, if not in flesh, certainly in spirit.

I have so many things to do I can't see straight... I've had to write things down in my calendar in hopes to not miss anything... Man... it's a mess up here...

But I'm still alive, very very stressed, but still alive.

---Me

2009-03-02T14:17:00.004+09:00

*Snicker*

I look silly :D

http://www.farragut-animated.com/

(go to "cast and Crew" about halfway down)

And my shirt is awfully.... red...

"I'm gonna die!" "You're not gonna die..." "Oh yeah? What's my name?!?!?"

Yep... It was SO nice knowing you all... I shall leave my Phaser to Kasia, and my Tricorder to Mal...

The end of a real era... and a chapter

2009-02-27T19:16:00.003+09:00

I just learned that Friday (Today) the Rocky Mountain News, Denver's first newspaper, is closing forever.

I don't know why this is killing me, but it is.

I guess because mom was such an avid reader and I remember Sunday mornings we would get up, come downstairs and start parting out the Newspaper for the comics and different parts of the paper (In our younger days the toy ads were rather popular... later I would actually read the Parade section... I was wierd). After I left home, the Rocky was one of the points that mom and I would often chat about over the phone. When columnist Gene Amole, suffering from a terminal illness, continued his column, chronicling his last days, Mom and I discussed that in detail, too...

I still remember in 5th grade Colorado history learning that in the early days of the Rocky, the "war" between Denver and Auraria as to whom would become the capital of Colorado, forced the paper to be built ON Cherry Creek... literally over the river (Since that was the dividing line between the dualing cities).

I used to cut comics out of the Rocky and glue them together in little booklets... (Mostly Alley Oop... I think I was trying to understand the story... and I figured if I collected enough of it, I might actually understand it... I never really did... but I loved the art). I went through Calvin and Hobbes, and Garfield and For Better or For Worse... It was from the Rocky that I clipped my copy of the last Peanuts cartoon...

Mom had copies of all of the great John Elway moments squirreled away, and when I went through her things after she died, I found a complete Rocky from somewhere in 1986 in a box... in almost perfect condition... (I still have no idea why she saved it...)

I remember siding against the Denver Post during the decade-long struggle between the two newspapers that almost killed them both...

...well, I guess it did manage to kill one of them....

I have always loved the Rocky... It was Denver's first newspaper. It is a part of Colorado history in a way that is so deeply entrenched and woven into the historical fabric that schoolchildren must learn about it (Though few seem to remember).

But it was part of my history too... and something about losing the Rocky... and not being able to call mom and discuss it and be shocked over it and bemoan it... it's just getting to me...

It's like losing a friend...

Goodbye Rocky Mountain News, I have great memories of you, I always will... Don't worry about your legacy, it's in our history books.

We will remember you.

Where am I?

2009-02-25T07:00:00.002+09:00

So, a few weeks ago I drew a new picture;

I think this is a great piece. One of my best. Better than most of the pieces I have done before, she is dynamic in pose, the face is interesting, all kinds of cool stuff...

Then I post it to a comics site for feedback.

24 hours later, there are (Conspicuously) no replies to it (It's the only thread with no replies... all other threads have at least 3).

This morning I find one reply, "the left eye seems too far to the left of the face, it seems as though her face is pretty much straight on to the viewer so the face should just be a bit more symmetrical and proportioned,There needs to be more turn to the hips in her pose from the way she's positioned, and the hands could do with more time spent on them but with some changes it could be a really beautiful picture."

Oh... Well...

Of course, I used a photo as a reference, any eye or hip problems are due to the model, really... (I actually think it must be my shading that's causing an optical illusion).

Here's the thing; this is one of the first pieces of mine that I've been really, honestly proud of. I feel I have come a long way to get to this piece. I feel I have boosted my skills quite a bit...

And it's not even worth a reply from the American Comic folks... When it is, it gets ripped (The other posts don't get this kind of treatment... there are a lot of "Wow! That's incredible!" and "Great Inking!" and stuff like that with a little critique. Mine rates only one response, and it's a pretty hard critique)

So, the question is; Should I "Sour Grapes" this? (Aw, they just don't know good art when they see it) or do I need to get over myself and admit that what I think is good really isn't good, and I need to go back to the area I know I can do right (Manga - style comics)?

I think the thing that is the most frustrating is that I thought this was my BEST piece so far... and obviously I can't seem to judge my own work...

Hmph...

---Me

A monkey's grandson?

2009-02-20T14:54:00.002+09:00

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/18/martin.cartoon/index.html?iref=newssearch

So here we go... Another interesting article. A NY post cartoonist makes a cartoon that I don't get and America goes into Black alert. Crying foul and screaming for that man to be burned at the stake for being a racist.

I posted a reply to it... but I noticed they didn't care much for it because it never made it to the responses page...

So, since I didn't actually think it was very agressive (I was being pretty fair-handed), I guess it must not have made any sense...

Well, that's what we have blogs for! :D

So, here's the deal; Ronald Martin is a columnist whom usually does the "Black people are oppressed" thing in his responses. Which is cool.

But the crux of the problem is that a long time ago black people were equated with chimpanzees... and thus this cartoon is obviously a poke at Obama, whom is black and therefore...

Except, I know my history pretty well, and somewhere I missed the chimpanzee thing... perhaps I slept through that part of history class or something, but I have to be honest, if I had been struck with the desire to write a cartoon refering chimpanzees, I would have never guessed I was "implicating" black people...

The problem is; that means that I must be educated in African American plight in order to not offend African-Americans.

So, I went on ahead and tried to do that;

I found three words that are used to label African Americans (Besides African Americans, of course); "Colored", "Black" and of course the dreaded "N" word (Which I was going to write out here, but I think the blogger will delete it automatically if it detects it). I found no reference to chimpanzees anywhere. I ran three different search strings: "African-American lables, African American slang and ethnic slang"

So, let's be clear here; Black people want to be equal, but everyone else must study black heritage before interacting with Black people. This study must be extensive enough that it means a trip to the local library now... And probably a couple of years of reading...

Or I could just live with them and figure it out by osmosis... most likely by making mistakes and getting in real hot water and widening the gap between our "peoples".

Yep... Now I have been pushed so far away from black peoples that I must STUDY in order to be friends with them...

And they wonder why there is still racism?

Here's the part that really sucks; I only have this problem with AMERICAN blacks (Not all of them, mind, just the ones like Mr. Martin, whom have already pegged me as "One of THEM" without even lookeing) , Normal black people -you know, the ones from Africa that don't require a textbook in order to communicate with them- are family to me...

My own kinsmen, the ones from MY country, however, are aliens...

Mr. Martin and those who saw the link between the Chimpanzee and Obama; if you go looking for evil, you WILL find it... even when it doesn't exist.

For me, I'm tired of talking about the color of my car and looking around nervously to make sure no African Americans are around to hear me say the "B" word...

---Me

About the smell of Roses and Violins

2009-02-18T20:43:00.004+09:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

It's a long read, a very long article. Sit down, grab a cup of coffee, read it.

Trust me, you need to do this.

When you are done reading it, you'll understand how important it was to sit there and read this important article.

(No, this is not a Rickroll or a joke or anything of the sort, this is serious)

Thank you Ev, for bringing it to my attention, I'll be adding 10 minutes to all of my commutes because of this.

Yag-me Jubei!

2009-02-16T23:39:00.003+09:00

This is sorta more for Xanderman than anything else, but anyone who has played Samurai Spirits (Samurai Showdown in English) knows of the character Yagyu Jubei.

The thing is; he really existed... and is rather a famous figure here.

In December I went to Kyoto with my Dojo (And I have some GREAT pictures from there)... but this one pretty much sums it up; Standing on the ruins of the Castle of Yagyu, near the infmaous Yagyu Dojo (Which I visited), where at one time Miyamoto Musashi once stood. On ground where even today the New Shadow School of swordsmanship is practiced, there was this;

Yep, they have a sense of humor even with their history...

---Yagme

Kid Stories

2009-02-14T09:09:00.004+09:00

I know I'm not posting very much, we are down to the final stretch on so many projects that I'm simply slammed.

So I have two stories to share: This weekend is Interactive Forum... not the summer one which is only the schools in our town, but the regional one which is all of the schools in the three big towns in the area.

It's also my last Forum.

My team manages to lose every year in the local, so the odds aren't so good for them to do anything interesting in the regional... But we'll try.

To make matters worse, Ms. Turtle, my team teacher, has once again taken over the Forum and, dispite all of my arguments, begun to have them memorize sentences.

(Break for those who are new to my blog); Interactive forum is the new "speach contest" here. They discovered that kids who performed in the Speach contests still couldn't say even their names in English, so they invented this; three kids from different schools are put in a triangle, given a topic (My Favorite person, My Dream, etc) and then they have 5 minutes to talk about that subject in English. They are judged on how natural their English is and how well they follow the conversation. It's brilliant!

Ms. Turtle has them write a whole bunch of sentences in Japanese, she translates them into (bad) English, and then they memorize them...

So, we go into forum and of course they are lost... The other kids talk about all kinds of things. The English isn't complex (Do you, Can you, Is your, My...), but since they learned "Do you like Cats? I have a cat named Pooky, he's cute but sometimes scary" as a whole unit, they can't break it down, so if another kid says "I think my teacher is scary" they don't understand... even though they are using vocabulary they have learned.

---

Anyway, I end up spending most of my time "De-programing" them. Last night was our last practice (The Forum is on Sunday, and we have a City-Wide practice today with all of the MyCity folks). So I'm sitting there with Summer, Water and Mom's Girl, my three second years. Summer has been in this for a while now, and she and I have a repore about us (She actually is talking to me in English now... "Can I go to the Toilet?" etc!). I've talked about her before (Last year some time), and things with her have changed in school (She and Mr. Woods are at odds now), but she and I are still good.

Anway, I was drilling them on asking questions (One of our weak points) and they were cooking along when the conversation went along like this:

M: What is your favorite food?
S: I like hamburg...
(Me): Hamburger... "Hamburg" is a city in Germany. (Note: In Japanese, Salusbury Steak is called "Hamburg")
S: Ah! Hamburger.
(Me-Adding complications): I don't like Hamburger in Japan, they make it too sweet.
S,W,M: Eh?!
S: Too Sweet? Like candy?
(Me): Yep.
S:When I was in New Zealand, I ate Lamb... I didn't like it.
(Me): I don't like Lamb, either... (In Japanese) And during forum do that!!!!

I turn to the other girls; "See, that was totally natural and unplanned! THAT will get you points!"

The girls all nod knowingly.

I smile.

We will probably STILL lose, but at least Summer is starting to really kick butt.

Too bad she's turning into a little bit of a bad girl... She's starting to buck the system, which is why Mr. Woods is on her. We lost a girl last year (HatGirl, whom became pretty much a lost cause and was so bad that she almost didn't pass High School exams) because she went down this path... Mr. Woods' solution is to yell at her a lot... Which I advised against... but he's doing this the Japanese way...Strict and Disciplined... Unfortunately, I think Summer is cracking under years of oppression to do the right thing and not make mistakes, so adding more pressure may be a bad idea. I fear she'll go the way of HatGirl (From last year) anyway.

Well, in about 3 hours, we'll see if Summer can even stand up to MyTown... much less MyArea...

---Me

The Sister

2009-01-25T10:55:00.006+09:00

So, my little sis came to Japan to visit over the break. We went EVERYWHERE... Yokohama, Mt. Fuji, Saw Kabuki, Visited Nikko, all kinds of things... and I got some pictures! So... here's a slide show for you poor souls... (This is like having everyone over for the slide show that you can't escape from! :D)

Let's start with more pictures to add to my "Who Watches the Watcher" collection of pictures of people taking pictures: G at Lake Sai taking a picture of Mt. Fuji:

I really don't think my Sis knows how to NOT look cool...

Maia at Lake Sai (WWtW Picture number 4,400 or whatever... I like this shot, though!)

Fuji at Lake Sai... (note the reflection! :D)

There was this incredible field where some very interesting sculptures were being made by people who would turn the sprinklers on at night and spray the trees and wood constructs. By morning the entire place was a ice wonderland... Icicles everywhere! I love Ice and Sun.

Afer Yokohama (Where I didn't bring my camera) and Fuji we went to Nikko in the mountains.

There was this interesting shot of money placed in a lantern at a temple in Nikko... I notice a lot of 1 yen coins... can't blame them... they are a scourge...My sis at the gardens in Nikko... I don't know why this picture didn't turn out like I wanted it to... I guess I'm just better at candids than posed...We went to Laku Chuuzenji in Nikko and the view from the hotel was spectacular... I was so inspired, I picked up the Slate and using ArtRage2, painted the scene from the window: welcome to the 21st century artist...Yeah... we didn't go to the Psycho bat cave... It seemed like it would be a little creepy... :)

I figured people would want to see some pictures... since my Japan journey is almost at an end... Anyway, enjoy! :D

The PLAGUE!!!!

2009-01-18T20:48:00.002+09:00

So, Maia and I are talking, nothing serious, and I notice she is pulling blankets across the room and bundling up and looking paler and paler and paler...

"I'm really cold" she says... so I haul out the thermometer, 38.0 degrees...

Great...

"On Friday, one of my kids came to school and collapsed at his desk because he has influenza." She tells me... "Later I went to that class and ate lunch with them... about halfway through, one of my kids says, "Miss Maia, have you had your flu shots? Your sitting at Sick-Kun's desk... the one he collapsed on."

So... we pack up quickly (She spent the weekend up here) and we get her home, medicated and in bed...

Now... She's been all over my apartment all weekend... in my bed (Especially when she started to feel bad, I put her in the bed and covered her with every blanket I could find), in my kitchen, everywhere...

Nothing sucks worse than knowing you are in for it.

I went to the store and stocked up on instant foods (Knowing, when you have the flu even the simplist tasks are out of your reach)...

I am, in essence, bracing for impact... I know I'm in for it...

I'm doooooooooooooomed...

Worse than that, I just started INTENSE interactive forum training with my kids... We only have a month to ready ourselves for the big forum... and I'm going to be hit with the flu...

Well... here's to hopeful thinking! :D

---NotSickYet.

2009-01-09T07:01:00.003+09:00

Happy 2009 everyone! :)

Gia came to Japan (Hence why I haven't blogged in a while).

We tried to stay (All three of us) in my apartment, but that became laughable very fast, So we stayed at Maia's apartment.

What did we do in those ten days? Everything... or at least it FEELS that way...

We started out going to Yokohama, where we rode the fastest elevator to the top of Landmark Tower, and visited Yokohama Chinatown. Of course, it is Gia, so we also visited the Foreigners' Cemetary.

Then New Years rolled around and we tried to go to a temple to ring the bell... but we went to a shrine first and spent some time eating squid with a whole bunch of drunk Japanese fellows who weren't sure where the temple was, but have some more squid! :D Ultimately we found a temple and rang the bell.

Then we went to Mt. Fuji.... I'm not kidding. By car (It's a national holiday and we were stuck in traffic at 11 in the morning passing through Tokyo on C2).. which was interesting. On the way home it took us 2 hours to go 10 kilometers when we got stuck in the rush to return to Tokyo.

Then we went to see Kabuki at the Ginza Kabuki-za (The Emperor's Kabuki theater). But that took two days since it sold out while we were waiting in line on Saturday. Instead we went to Asakusa on Saturday only to find that there were literally millions of people waiting to get in to Sensoji temple... which was astonishing! We had to wade through a sea of humanity just to get across the main thuroughfare. That night we went to Karaoke, Japanese style.

Then Sunday we actually went and saw the Kabuki play, which was pretty cool (They had a ship on stage! :D)

Monday and Tuesday we went to Nikko, which is in the mountains. We had a room at this little hotel on lake Chuzenji. I actually used the slate and painted a picture of the lake and the mountains from the window, but I didn't finish it.

Finally, it was time for Gia to go home, which was sad. I love my little sister and she was a lot of fun to be with. It's interesting how amazing this country is and how much I have forgotten that fact since I have been here for three years. I knew I would... but only intellectually... I guess in my heart I am starting to think of Japan as commonplace.

Which means that it's probably time for me to come home.

Thank you, G. You helped me remember just how awesome this country is!

-Me.

It may be SHAPED like a Christmas Tree...

2008-12-24T13:12:00.002+09:00

But it's still SQUID!

Blended, crushed, mashed squid with corn and little flecks of something red... I'm not sure what... cut with a Christmas tree cookie cutter and then cooked in an oven...

Oh... oh my.

And while we are at it, it's really wierd to be at school on Christmas Eve... That's just strange.

But, hey, I had my Christmas Cake... And tomorrow I'll be with my girlfriend, so I'll be in line with the rest of the Japanese... (Christmas is a friend/lover holiday... New Years... that's when you are with your family... which I will do as well, because I'll be with my sister whom is coming over in just four days!)

Happy Whatevers! :D

2008-12-20T20:27:00.003+09:00

No trees were harmed in the making of this picture:

Completely done in-computer. I bought a program called ArtRage2... with my tablet... Oh... it is like having all those things that I never liked because they made my hands messy... I can use CHARCOAL again!!!!

Clean up is so hard... click on the "x"... :D

Ah...

and in a few days, we'll have this program on a Slate...

My life is so good... :D

Happy Whatever, my friends! I'm glad to have you!

---Me.

Don't insult the feathers...

2008-12-15T17:20:00.004+09:00

So I did it. I purchased the scaryist computer ever...

I went slate:

I bought it a few days ago when I experienced my first real downer since being here. I had taken my little laptop into Akihabara to the guys that I bought it from. It had a loose connection in the Hard Drive and when the computer was packed "Face Down" (As in where the hinge of the laptop screen was up), then the computer would not boot. Placed "Face up"(Hinge down), the computer was fine. If I forgot, I had to "Han Solo" it (Hit the computer-something I lothe to do) to make it work again.

So I take it down to the little shop with the Indian guys (Not Japanese- these guys deal in computers with US Operating Systems) and give them the computer thinking that it'd take a couple of hours or so to fix the drive. The guy that I bought it from isn't there, but his buddy is. He looks at it and says "I'll give you an estimate in three days" I should have known there and then there was a problem... I hand over my good little computer...

A week passes and no phone call. So we call them. It turns out they have sent the computer off to Hitachi for repair. We confirm our phone number and then they tell us they'll call us back in a few days...

That was five weeks ago.

If I ever see that computer again, which I very much doubt, I'm afraid they are going to charge me hundreds of dollars in repairs on it. since I only paid $400 for it in the first place, I'm not into it... $100 worth of repairs was all I was really willing to do.

So, I'm replacing it.

I bought a slate.

These computers are what Bill Gates was swearing would change the computer industry forever... but he miscalculated.

(What he miscalculated was that typewriters were what replaced handwriting, not computers.... and most people type faster than they write).

Anyway, for me, I'm all about it. I'll type on my big computer, on the keyboard, and I'll draw on the slate, with no keyboard to get in the way. They are perfect for that.

As an aside; They are also used extensively in the medical industry (Ahem, Mal) because they are easy to carry around and easy to take notes on (I have no idea if the Handwriting analysis software can understand Doctor-eze, though :D).

It does have two microphones, so that it can triangulate your voice and then, using speech-to-text software, convert that to text... I have no idea how well that works, either, but you can pretty much expect that I will try it out! Maybe I'll try to make a blog post unedited so you can see how well it does it (As in I'll make a blog post and I won't erase the mistakes...)

Anyway, because the tablets use a special version of Windows XP and you can only get that bundled with the slate (And I now don't trust that guy in Akihabara which deals in English computers), I can't buy it here. But, sombody's sister we know (Read: mine :D) is coming to visit in a couple of weeks for New Years. So I had the slate, which I bought off of eBay in Canada of all places, shipped to her and then she'll bring it over when she comes...

I'm all kinds of slate happy :D

Wow....

2008-12-04T23:22:00.004+09:00

Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion

Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion

Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion

S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion

Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion

The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)

Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion

Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion

NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion
TOTAL: $3,920,000,000,0002008

BAILOUT TOTAL AS OF NOV 2008: $4,616,000,000,000

Now, it should be noted that this is sort of apples and oranges, the bailout is a loan, not an expenditure and we expect to get some of this money back... but that will be in the future (Sometime... not this year) and the government didn't print that money to be given away, it is borrowed against our assets.

I'm not saying anything for or against the bailout (Honestly, I'm underinformed on it, so I can't, in good conscience, say anything for or against...)... This is simply something I saw and thought it was interesting. :)

---Fascinated...

And it's all well and truly over... Part two

2008-12-04T06:03:00.002+09:00

So, the same weekend where I went out to the Capital and tested for Niidan I also had a run-in with a different kind of emotional situaion.

My Nanna passed away.

This has more than a few profound effects on me.

The emotional part, though there, is muted. Nanna had Alzheimers and since abotu the time that mom died she really hasn't made much sense of life... so to me, my Nanna left me in 2001/2002. When she came to Denver for mom's funeral, she kept asking over and over who it was that had died, and when we told her it was mom, she seemed shocked every time. Repeating that she was too young to die...

This has been a blessing and a curse, when my uncle died in an ATV accident a few years back, she would have to go through the loss of a son over and over and over again... until I think both dad and my cousin just opted not to mention it any more...

But she was my last grandparent. In my nuclear family, I'm down to a dad and a sister, which is a shocking realization. Of course I have Maia (And if you count Maia, you can count my step-mom, who is pretty cool, too), and then you extend out to my non-nuclear, but still pretty high-explosive family (Mal, James, Jer, you know who you all are) and it's not like I feel like I have no family... quite the contrary, I feel very loved. Of course, I now have a whole squadron of aunts and an uncle (You know who you are, too Pat).

It's just that I never imagined a time would come when I would be facing the fact that I have almost no one left in the nuclear family. My sister is pretty much eternal at this point, young and vibrant, but dad... he's certainly not on his last leg, but I can see now that he isn't eternal... There will come a time when it will just be G and I...

This doesn't bother me like I thought it would, it bothers me in a totally different way; I can see now why people want to believe in an afterlife (I'm not saying I do or don't, here... I'm just observing). There are more people in my family who are gone than there are who are alive.

My great grandfather, Daddy Jo, died when I was 8, his wife, Mama-O, died when I was 10, Grandmother (My grandmothers' mother... we called her "Grandmother"... it's a southern thing), died when I was in my early 20's. Even Grandmother's husband died when I was 2... and Aunt Betty (my mom's mom's grandmother) died when I was 4... When I was born I had 3 grandparents and 5 great grandparents.

My children will be born with no great grandparents on my side... and only one (biological) grandparent... that's so wierd for me to think about. Maia will be bringing in 2 grandparents, but even she has lost her father's parents (Her grandfather also passed away this past weekend... we both lost grandparents that weekend...). So we are down to 3 grandparents and 2 great-grandparents.

But here's the part that I think hurts the worst; my dad is an orphan.

When my grandmother, Gigi died in 1995, mom called me up and said "I'm an orphan, now." I remember those words as if they were etched into my very soul. My mother, the unstoppable woman of Doom, whom had, up until that point, been so self-reliant and strong, sounded so small and scared. I said everything I could to help her out then... but what could I say? I was her son...

Now dad is an orphan... But he's not saying it. Maybe in his way he has already moved to that last line "What could I say? I am only his son..." But it's still true.

Dad's dad (Also named Guy) died when he was 15, in the late 1950's. Dad has had only Nanna for all of these years. But he has had Nanna. And because of the life they led together, My father, my uncle and Nanna, struggling and fighting against all of that adversity, their bond was very strong.

And now it's gone.

Does it bother me that Nanna died? Yes. Deeply. Nanna was a brilliant woman, one of those people you rarely meet in life. She was one of my pillars of life. Always there to give a hug, always there to be strong for me. She had her moments, but don't we all?

But what could I say that hasn't already been said brilliantly by my father, who knew her far better than I did?

Nanna, you put up with the worst and the best of us (The three grandkids). And no children ever loved you more than we did. We glued your carpet together with wax, we almost burned down the house... probably more than once. We travelled the creek behind your house which was rife with water moccisins, even though you really didn't want us to do it. I can't even say how many times we messed up your living room, and we tore up your nice pillows. Through it all you smiled at us, chuckled at us, hugged us, kissed us, and when we woke up from staying up all night watching movies at an unreasonable volume, there were always blueberry muffins in that silver muffin holder that you had made just before going off to work.

Nanna, when Grandmother was dying you said, in your self-deprecating way; "You don't have to be here for my funeral, Guy, but try to be here for Grandmother's" And I said "Nanna, I won't miss your funeral, I promise."

Nanna, I missed your funeral.

Ad Hominem

2008-11-27T19:42:00.003+09:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

This is an interesting thing. I have finally found a word that describes one of my biggest pet-peeves with people.

for those whom don't know what this word means, and don't want to click the above link, allow me to sum up; Ad Hominem is when someone responds to an argument with an attack on a person's character or personal traits, rather than giving any reasonable counter-argument;

"I think abortion is bad because it is murdering children."

"Well, that's because you are a Republican."

Being a Republican doesn't make abortion good or bad. It has, in fact no bearing at all on the case stated by the person starting the argument. The problem is; if person A is, indeed, a Republican, what can he/she say? No? The argument is therefore stopped and person B "won"... but not for any good reason.

Why Guy, you may ask, did you post this in your Blog?

I'll tell you,

Ad Hominem is Latin for "argument to the man" or "argument against the man"...

More importantly it's Latin... Which has been dead for a looooooong time... this means that people were arguing Ad Hominem 2000 years ago.

No matter how many cars and planes and spaceships we have, humans haven't gotten any more complex in at least 2,000 years.

--Hominamiha!

And it's all well and truly over... Part one

2008-11-25T07:17:00.002+09:00

Two things happened this weekend, and I want to talk about both of them in detail... But I haven't the time this morning, so I'll talk about the part that is easiest.

On Monday (Which was a national holiday here), I tested for NiiDan (Second Degree Black Belt) in Kyudo in the Capital. I passed (There were three from my dojo there, and I was the only one that passed). I am now, officially a NiiDan in Kyudo.

The important thing is; all of this struggling to get to the next test is over. The next test is in late May, after we return from Japan. Thus I can't test for SanDan (Third Degree Black Belt) From this point forward I can just maintain my skill. But it means no more struggling.

--Niidan

Beating the system

2008-11-18T23:13:00.002+09:00

for the last three years I have had a real problem with Blogger. A long time ago it detected that I was in Japan and it decided to make all of my controls in Japanese.

With some fenagling, I figured out where the language section was and managed to switch it back...

But then it decided to cycle my computer's cookies. Which means that every month or so it "forgets" that I set it for English, notices I'm in Japan, and gives me all of my controls in Japanese... again.

I have to admit this has led me to not post as much... mostly because it's a real pain to figure out what all the controls mean (Remember folks, Japanese is one of the most difficult languages to read...)

Well, somewhere along the line I started using Google documents. I uploaded many of my projects to it so I could work on them anywhere.

Well, somewhere along the line, Google bought Blogspot... so my Blog suddenly appeared in my Google Docs mainpage...

In English... :D

I just discovered that using my Google Docs mainpage I can get to my blog without having to login (Which is good, I never remember which password I used for my blog, and since "Aabh" was taken, I had to login as "Aabhnormal" or "Aabhsent" or some other name which I never remember as well). AND it's all in English... an amazing accomplishment.

In other news; I go for my 2nd degree Black Belt in Kyudo (Niidan) on Monday... It's the last test I'll be able to take here in Japan (The next test opportunity will be a month after I return to America)...

I do have stories... but I've been archiving them to my "Memories" file, where I have been putting the kids real names in -I don't want to remember them as "Genki-chan" in 10 years- but since I've been doing that, I have to convert them back to post them here...

Time until NiiDan: 6 days
Time until End of school : 4 months
Time until Return to America: 5 months

The Telling of My Life

2008-11-10T22:37:00.003+09:00

So, around about 2002 I decided that I would start trying to dig up any memories I had about my life and write them down. This was prompted by my sister and I doing my Genaology work. I had all of these people in my history who were simply names, a birth date and a death date. But we ran into one person whose letters had been preserved in a book. I thought how wonderful it was to actually read about him. He was a real human.

So, I started writing all of my memories down in hopes that 200 or 400 years from now my GGGGGGGGGGGGGgrandwhatever would find out that I too, led a boring life and all was right with the world.

When mom died and I realized I really didn't know a whole lot about her life before me, I was spurred to write more, so that my children might know about my life before them, if they were so inclined.

By complete error, however, I left the document in America. Much to my chagrin.

So I started a new one here in Japan, and I guess I'll just merge them together when I get home.

I had a stroke of inspiration, however, and decided to copy the stories I have told here on my blog into this file, changing the names back to their real names so that I will always remember them (I can't post them on a public blog)

I just finished copying all of them over from here, and, in combination with what I have already written over the last 3 years, the file is now a whopping 67,810 words long, some 125 pages in Word... This is not including the stuff I wrote in America that needs to be merged in...

MAN I am long-winded.

I take a certain amount of pride in knowing that somewhere, in the deeep, dark future, my ancestors will be put to sleep by my writings :D

-memememememememememememememememememe

A great Man...

2008-11-06T05:54:00.002+09:00

Has passed. Michael Chricton, author of Jurssic Park and Andromeda Strain, died from cancer Tuesday.

He was an accomplished author, and director, writing Andromeda Strain while still in medical school.

But he was also an amazing storyteller, and that is what I admired.

He will be missed.

Okay, last political message...

2008-11-02T22:50:00.003+09:00

I am a patriot.

When my government says: "Honest, we had a reason to invade another country... and it wasn't oil! And no, we won't show you what that reason was, it's Top Secret! Stop saying it was Oil! Yes, we are making money off of Iraqi oil, but that wasn't the reason!

"I know we have made a lot of other blunders and have been caught lying in the past to you, in this case -honest- we didn't lie." That makes me stop and worry.

When they add; "Believe us or you are not a patriot!" I get scared.

And, really, you should, too.

Socialized Medicine

2008-10-21T20:56:00.002+09:00

So, I've been hearing a lot about Obama wanting to socialize medicine... And then I hear all kinds of horror stories therein about socialized anything...

I woke up this morning with double-vision and dizzyness... I'm still not sure what caused it, but since it could be the sign of a stroke or something, I went to the local clinic.

Where the only doctor in town that speaks English saw me in 11 minutes, checked my eye response and other things (Blood pressure, etc) diagnosed my problems as related to sleep deprivation and fatigue (I do suffer from bad insomnia), gave me a shot of something (I don't know what, but only because I really don't know what the nurses were saying, they were talking in medical Japanese... something I haven't really studied too much....), gave me a prescription for medication that I needed to take for the next 7 days (Yeah, I have no idea what that is, either), rest, told me to lay off TV and video games for a while (Easy enough :D) and sent me on my way.

The entire trip took 1 hour, cost $35.00 (Another $15.00 if you count in the strange blue pills), was filled with some interesting anecdotes about my life in this city of mine... and the hospital was within walking distance (Which is great, since I really didn't trust myself to drive while dizzy)...

So... what's wrong with Socialized medicine?

Right, it's bad for the industry...

So, in America I have to wait a day (I never got in to see the doctor on the day I had a problem. There were times the problem had worked itself out BEFORE I got in to see the doctor), I pay $100 for the office visit and $50 for the medicine for this problem... heaven help me if I have a worse problem (My Flu test last year cost me $110... I can't imagine what it would have cost me in America!). My mother stopped going to the doctor when she realized she really couldn't pay her medical expenses... That turned out well.

Well, okay... so I'm glad we are fighting against this... At least the industry is good to go!

As for me, well... I don't know what has caused the problem, it's better now, but I still have trouble focusing my eyes on things and it feels like I have the flu (That, strange disconnected-head feeling). And I have to do Kindergarten tomorrow... If I'm still dizzy, This'll be really fun.

Mal... I'd love to hear from you on this one; Why are we afraid of socialized medicine?

Coin conservation failure

2008-10-06T23:41:00.008+09:00

I was at the supermarket a while back, buying groceries.

The clerk tallies everything and says: "That will be 2,451 yen, please."

So I pull out my change purse, and seeing that I have an inordanate number of little, irritating, completely useless, aluminum 1 yen pieces, I decide to give her 2,506 yen; 2 1,000 yen notes, a 500 yen coin and six of those damndable aluminum coins... Seems reasonable, I give her six little aluminum coins, she gives me 1 copper coin. At least you can give the 5 yen pieces to the temples (They have a hole in the middle, making them lucky... That takes some explaining, just take my word for it, giving them 1 yen pieces is bad form)...

Now, my plan is brilliant; she will give me a 50 yen piece and a 5 yen piece. I will have traded 7 coins for 2... I will have saved room in my already bulging coin purse that randomly leaks 1 yen pieces into my backpack or pocket as it fails to maintain structural integrity due to an overload of aluminum...

What does she do? She smiles, mumbles an apology in super-polite Japanese, slides the 500 yen piece into the change sorter and gives me back my 6 yen... with that "Yeah, you probably don't really understand how to use that "money thing", do you?" look on her face.

And then promptly gives me 49 yen in change; 4 ten yen pieces, a 5 yen piece and 4 MORE stupid, little, aluminum 1 yen pieces.

So... I gave her one coin and gained 9 coins...

I tried to argue, by my Japanese-speaking brain is slow to react and I am thus greeted with the pleasant Boop Boop Boop sounds of her checking the next customer in line...

As I fed the last of my newly aquired gains into my strained coin pouch, it just looked back at me with that, stupid, metallic, overwide grin...

And then, just to spite me, it spat a couple of those 1 yen coins into my pocket...

Yet another step down...

2008-09-21T19:47:00.002+09:00

I completed The next issue of Tamerlane: The Champion, If you are interested it is available at the Tamerlane website: www.usstamerlane.com

(You don't need to read it, don't worry :D)

This has been my test for myself; I have never managed to complete a comic before, having a magic "Window" at 20 pages. I would get to 20 pages and then stop...

With this new issue, I have completed 115 pages of comic! 115!

Whether this is due to the fact that I'm in Japan (And thus in a very productive world) or because of the treatments that I underwent at KPI, I don't really know. But I'm excited to be able to complete a project!

Actually, there is one more issue of 40 pages to do on this Episode before I can call Tamerlane "Done"... But somehow, I don't think completing it will be a problem...

The only problem I have now is that I don't know how to NOT work... I am purposely not doing any more comic work for a while and I feel... lost? Like I don't know what to do with myself... It's so wierd... Everytime I think of something I could do, I feel a little guilty, like there is work that SHOULD be done... It's really strange...

I'll get over it, but I think this is the first time I've ever exibited "workaholic" traits in my life.

---Me

Woo Hoo!

2008-09-15T21:48:00.002+09:00

I just drew my 109th page of Tamerlane!

When this issue is done, I will have penned 112 pages! Amazing, ain't it? :D

And the response?

2008-09-04T18:39:00.002+09:00

"This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting and never use the word 'victory' except when he's talking about his own campaign,"
"It's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform, not even in the state Senate,"
"What exactly is our opponent's plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make the government bigger and take more of your money."

From Sarah Paulin...

I guess... well... I guess we can't be adults about this, can we?

Obama has shown himself willing to attack the issues, not his opponent... McCain and Paulin open fire with what's wrong with Obama... It's kinda like the "And your mother is ugly, too!" thing... it's lowbrow fighting. Recently that has become the norm...

It takes so much less intelligence to say "Be scared of my opponent!" than it is to say "I have a plan!"... It's safer, it also hides your not having a plan if you don't have one...

Well... I'm not sitting on the fence any more, I guess...

2008-09-02T07:35:00.002+09:00

"Let me be as clear as possible," Barak Obama said. "I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as governor or her potential performance as a vice president."

Okay, so, no matter who you are voting for, this was a good thing to say.

Bravo, Mr. Obama. I may not vote for you (That's not decided yet), but whether I do or don't, I'm very impressed with your words.

The Word for the day is "Beard"

2008-09-01T20:54:00.003+09:00

So, over the break I decided to grow a beard and mustache. Now, it should be noted that I tried to do this once before about 10 years ago and ended up with a beard of such amazing redness as to make my mother call me "Redbeard" for a month... The thing is; I don't have red hair! I have no idea why my beard decided it needed to be red, it just did.

Anyway, I figured since I was on summer vacation, I'd grow a beard.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that whatever gene made my beard red before has been damaged by cosmic rays and this new growth seems to be blond-ish brown like my head-hair with salt-and-pepper grey (Of course). It actually looks kinda nice.

So, Maia doesn't really like the beard thingie, so part of the reason I grew it during the vacation was because she was going to head back to America to visit her mom, I figured no one was going to kiss me during this time, so no one could complain! It was perfect!

I was wrong (Not about the kissing... but about the complaining...)

I go to Kyudo and Sensei takes one look at me and cracks up. Totally looses it. "Guy, that's no good!" he says, between gafaws... "The Mustache can stay... but the beard... no..."

I smile at Sensei and explain the why of it and go into practice.

Now it's a month down, and I have trimmed my beard neatly (I do not believe anymore in the bushy soupcatcher that men often wear. I like my fathers' beard; very neatly trimmed), and it actually is looking rather complimentary.

Maia comes back... and she likes it. So, I decide to keep it for a little while longer.

I go to class and Sensei starts laughing at me; "Guy," he says, "This is no good; you look like a foreigner."

Woah...

There's an interesting thing...

----

As a side note; my kids love it! I run into a bunch of girls in the hallway and they start squeeling and only Junior High girls can do, saying "it's so cool!" then one suddenly says in English: "Beautiful!"

They all giggle and run off...

Ah, such simple lives they lead.

---Me.

Right vs. Left

2008-08-18T13:39:00.002+09:00

I've been thinking about this for a long time;

"Conservatives will sell their grandmothers for a dollar"

"Liberals want the government to run their entire lives"

(These are the polite comments :D)

My father (Whom is a Conservative) and I have been arguing over School vouchers. I (Moderate to partly Liberal), am against the School Voucher system. My father, is for them. We have gone round after round about this. Gotten into heated arguments that makes Maia cringe (since these arguments are all over Skype, when she is here, she doesn't have much choice but to listen in), and everything.

But one thing keeps making me pause; Dad is an intelligent man, certainly as intelligent as I. If I can see the problems with the voucher system, why can't he?

The voucher system in a nutshell: We all pay taxes, and then each parent gets a voucher for "Tuition", if you will. Then the parent can take his voucher and kid to any school he wants. That way if the Public School system is not doing a good job, you can take your kid elsewhere.

Pros: This system encourages competition, public schools will have to shape up fast to keep up with the private schools who will (In time) bring our children's average test scores back up.

Cons: If a monopoly occurs, competition ceases.

We don't actually argue the point, you see. What we really do is spend time slinging insults at each other. "Guy, you're being Naive! the Government hasn't changed in 200 years, why do you think it will suddenly straighten up and fly right now? By the time we straighten the government up, our kids will be complete idiots. You Liberals all think that the Government should just walk in to your lives and take it over."

To which I reply: "Dad, you can't give our children's future over to business, Think Microsoft; do you like Vista? No? Too Bad, Microsoft has paid a lot of money so that computers don't work with anything other than Vista... so, unless you want to work in the stone age, you have to have Vista. Is Vista the best OS? No. But you don't have a choice. (And before I get people telling me "Yes you do; you can go to Linux", in actuality, you can't. Many very specific programs I use can only be used on Windows. Switching to Linux would stop all work I'm doing completely... No one has ported some of the programs I use to Unix... and "Gimp" as wonderful as it is, was built expressly to NOT be Photoshop, so using Gimp means I would have to start at ground zero and relearn the program again from scratch). How, my dear father is Microsoft a good example of "Good Capitalism at work"? Would you really want to be forced to take your kid to "Microschool"?

He would then say: "Guy! People are graduating High School without being able to read their diplomas!"

But, I keep coming back to the same thought; "Dad is easily as intelligent as I..."

What is the REAL problem between dad and me?

We keep assuming strange things about the other; "Dad, you would rather have a "Clear Channel" school where everyone has to learn about the Bible (Because the Christian Churches were the best funded, and have run everyone else out of business), and evolution is banned rather than a system that is controlled by the Constitution and civil rights."

"Guy, you would rather let the government take care of you, even if they are so tangled up in beauracracy that they can't buy a pencil without going through 50 people, rather than give the parents the right to choose whom they want to teach their children."

And that is the problem; we get so mad (I mean that in the "Insane" sense, not the "Angry" sense), that we would rather instult each other than understand each other.

I wasn't looking to change dad, by the way. I just assumed that my belief that he was an idiot must be flawed, since I happen to know better. So I wanted to understand his side...

But I had to get past all this rhetoric first.

"Guy, come up with a better plan, then."

Dad, I'm sorry, but that's just provoking a fight; Brilliant minds, far superior to mine have been working this problem for thousands of years. You can't expect me to surrender my argument simply because I am not more intelligent that the cumulative history of the world.

Why don't we get to the bottom of this, find out where our real positions are, and then figure out a solution together?

Here's the way I see it: There are two kinds of core monitary democracies we can have:

Socialism: Everyone pays the government taxes, the government then provides services rendered (School, military, food, clothing, etc).

Capitalism: Everyone pays other people to render services.

Of course, there are flaws to both of these governments. That's why we are mixed (For example: the US doesn't have a capitalistic military (The government pays for it), but we do have a capitalistic medical system....)

The real difference between Liberals and Conservatives is in which one of these two evils they see as lesser.

Liberals seems to see socialism as the lesser of two evils, conservatives see capitalism as the lesser of the two.

Neither group really thinks that we should be all capitalist or all socialist. That's a pipe dream on both counts, the reason we are mixed is that neither system works well in reality. The best we can hope for is some semblance of balance.

Why is it, then, that when we argue, we constantly assume the other side WANTS to do bad things?

Doesn't it seem like that?

a thought experiment

2008-08-14T01:10:00.004+09:00

I have a little thought game to play for you folks out there (All three of you that read my blog):

Pick the one topic you most hate, most dispise, absolutely detest...

Do you have it in your mind?

That one topic that really makes your blood boil...

Can you see it? Clearly?

Now, flip it around and defend it. Defend it using the most reasonable and logical arguments that you can.

For example; let's say you are Pro-Life. Defend the Pro-Choice side (Or vice-versa).

I'll bet that it will make you very uncomfortable. I'll bet that you can't even do it. I'll bet that you end up saying outrageous, unreasonable statements like "I think Pro Choice is great beacuse I love murdering babies!"

We simply can't do it.

Why?

Because we are afraid. We are afraid that if we understand a viewpoint, we automatically agree with it. So instead we refuse to learn about "The Other Side". We rebel, we block it... and we get entrenched.

We are more likely to believe that the "Other Side" is naive, stupid, stubborn, dense, all kinds of interesting things...

We are more likely to believe the "Other Side" is less intellegent than us. That they don't have all the facts, that they didn't research it as much as we did...

Rather than try to look at both sides of the argument and come up with a solution for the problem, we will stand there, declare that a solution is impossible (This from the monkeys that learned how to fly in space) and insult the other side.

Which, since we don't actually know anything about the "Other Side"(because we are too afraid that understanding is agreeing), we do nothing more than prove that we really aren't all that bright...

We are more willing to turn our friends and family into enemies than to solve problems.

Now, here's the second part to this little thought experiment:

Did you just fight with a friend? A lover?

Recall your last fight with that person, take their side, and defend it.

I'll bet you can't do it. I'll bet you can't make their side make sense to you. No matter what you do it'll will always come down to you making up stupid statements; "I didn't take out the trash because I LIKE being lazy!" You won't be able to make it be reasonable. You are simply too afraid.

Interesting, isn't it?

The Cheyenne had an interesting thing to say about this, we have all heard it, but no one actually practices it any more;

"Don't judge a man until you have walked a thousand steps in his moccasins"

We aren't even willing to take one step, because we are too afraid that we might be caught wearing his moccasins...

-----

(Moon hoax people are just idiots! Yep... I can tell that I'll be practicing this thought experiment for a while...)

How does it feel?

2008-08-09T23:17:00.002+09:00

When I took my shodan test, one of the questions that they planned on asking was "How do you feel when the arrow hits the target?"

This is a loaded question and I know it. As I have said in earlier posts, Kyudo isn't about hitting the target, it's about correct form... At least not until much, much later.

In practicing for the Shodan test, I got to actually fire on the target a little... the only time I hit the target was when my arrow hit the next target over... most of the time the arrow flew high or low (Remember, the targets are 28 meters away... that's a looooong way away). I've never hit the target...

Now, I'm preparing to go for my Nidan (Second Degree Black Belt), so tonight Sensei says "Guy-chan, go one more round on the makiwara (The practice target), and then you are going for the targets."

OooooooOOOooooOOOOooooooo.... Says me... (Mostly because my stomach just clenched up and forced all the air out of my lungs...) Great... I know I have to practice this, but I liked it better when the target was less than a meter away...

I get up to the line... and fire my first arrow....

Let's say, I'm glad I can recover that arrow...

The second arrow is fired... it hits the curtains way above the targets and sticks there, shaking loose all the cicadas that are sqweeeeee-sqwee sqwee sqweeeing.... (When you shoot an arrow near them, they chatter... kinda like really mad Jawas or something... betcha didn't know that... I didn't)

Then it's time for round 2... First arrow; waay to the left... but hey! In the dirt near the targets at least!

Then the second arrow: waaay right... I'm trying so hard to remember where my bow was when I released... I keep forgetting... it's really irritating... I can't seem to sight in on anything (A Yumi doesn't really have much in the way of sights).

We go to tea (Which, since it's 7,000 degrees in the dojo is actually Mitsuya cider on ice). Sensei talks about our trip to Kyoto.

"Guy-chan, where do you want to go in Kyoto?"

"Shin-kage-school dojo" I say. Appreciative eyebrows raise, I continue, "Yagyu Castle, where Yagyu Jubei lived."

Sensei smiles at me, "Yosh!" he says, "Guy-chan, only one more year, ne? Then you go home..." He sips his cider, "Only one more year... I'm going to miss you."

Heads nod around the circle.

"Okay, back to shooting! Last round! Guy, you're up, again!"

So here I am, back on the line. I draw back the bow... I let the arrow go...

And I make more cicadas mad...

I don't know... this is a lot harder than it looks.

I nock my last arrow...

The cicadas are looking at me with evil eyes... they have just settled in...

I let the arrow go..

THAK! -- the sound of arrow hitting bamboo and paper.

everyone in the dojo yells "YOSH!"

"Of course, the last one..." Sensei says, grinning, "Last Samurai...."

How do I feel?

Relief.

Well... Helllooooooo 36

2008-08-07T13:45:00.003+09:00

Even when I'm totally still, I just can't seem to stop moving through time...

*Sigh*

---Feelin' old

Oh...God...

2008-07-23T10:55:00.003+09:00

Okay... I am becoming rather concerned about this;

A week or so ago I received this chain mail from my Aunt (Whom I love dearly... This needs to be said because I think I reacted rather strongly in my reply and I don't want her to think I hate her in any way...)

Anyway, here we go:

U. S. "no longer a Christian Nation"

Please send this on to your friends, spend time each day in prayer for our country, and get out and vote in November.

Dear Friends,

As I was listening to a news program last night, I watched in horror as Barack Obama made the statement with pride. . ."we are no longer a Christian nation; we are now a nation of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, . . . As with so many other statements I've heard him (and his wife) make, I never thought I'd see the day that I'd hear something like that from a presidential candidate in this nation. To think our forefathers fought and died for the right for our nation to be a Christian nation--and to have this man say with pride that we are no longer that. How far this nation has come from what our founding fathers intended it to be.

I hope that each of you will do what I'm doing now--send your concerns, written simply and sincerely, to the Christians on your email list. With God's help, and He is still in control of this nation and all else, we can show this man and the world in November that we are, indeed, still a Christian nation!

Please pray for our nation!

-----

First of all, (And I'm not reaching into that "old tired bag") The First Ammendment protects freedom of religion for a reason. Britian wanted everyone to be one religion, everyone paid taxes to the church and the church had POWER. A lot of power.

Anyway, Thomas Jefferson was a Deist, George Washington excised religion from the government. We aren't a Christian nation. In fact, 25% of us are Non-Christian. And that number increases every year. We should never be thought of as Christian. It's not fair to the non-Christian community.

Now, according to CNN there will be Muslim ads running on busses. This is cool. But... um... hey there are protests? Why? Jesus Saves? Why can't we hear a little about what Mohammed did?

I know, the claim is that the man behind it is a terror suspect... but good gracious, guys EVERYONE is a terror suspect these days! You guys are searching and detaining your own government officials at the airport and strip searching them. You don't know who is a terror suspect anymore. Heck, in writing this blog, I'll become a terror suspect (When I won't even kill a fly in my apartment... but, heck, I have nothing better to do than be interrogated after a 15 hour flight... come to think of it, that's got to be much more effective than Chinese Water Torture...).

Naw, this is more "If you aren't Christian, you are bad." Beeswax.

By the way, Nation of Islam, you're not doing much better, here. I encourage learning about all religions... but simply having the word "Infadel" means there is something majorly wrong with your dietical logic.

Consider: You have two sons. You leave cryptic post-it notes on the fridge about what the boys should do. Sometimes you leave the post-its in their rooms, disguising your handwriting so it isn't clear who wrote it. Then you stand back and watch as they knife each other to death?

That's not my idea of God. And it shouldn't be the world's view, either. I'm not sure why it seems to be.

Anyway, again; get your facts straight guys, stop painting the other guy as bad because even though he's a pretty hard-core Christian he is not Christian enough because he doesn't hate Muslims.

Yes, we are a nation of Christians and Muslims and Jews and Wicca and Athiests and Agnostics and Native Americans and all kinds of varied and differing opinions.

And, trust me, unless you guys really want a Holy War the likes of which you can never imagine, then you probably want it to stay that way.

God's Children knifing it out over whom Dad likes best...

Einstein said; "I don't know what World War III will be fought with, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

The world is a religious powderkeg, guys... It's dangerous mixing politics and religion...

Spam humor

2008-07-18T14:34:00.002+09:00

We are all getting it... and I seem to be doomed to get it badly... between my two email accounts I receive about 350 spams a day... Add my two forums and that doubles.

Anyway, the only thing I can do is derive some humor from it... today I'm cleaning out my Hotmail account and I come across this gem:

Stoptheringing@Stoptheringing.com: Do you have ringing in your ears?

Two days later I get:

Stoptheringing@Stoptheringing.com : DO YOU HAVE RINGING IN YOUR EARS?

This made me chuckle for a long time... :D

--Humored

I Must remember this...

2008-07-17T19:37:00.003+09:00

(No, this has nothing to do with kisses :D)

I went for my weekly night with "the Boys" at the local Ramen shop (run by a really nice fellow who has been running this litteral hole-in-the-wall for nearly 20 years now) last night.

My neighbor and fellow teacher from Britian is leaving at the end of the week and returning home, so I figured, naturally, that everyone and their uncle that this rather charming, kind person has met (And there are quite a few folks we are talking about here) would be there. This place is pretty small, and I thought that it would definitely fill up quickly... I figured if I brought my own car I could leave early if I needed to.

Anyway, I drop in before anyone else, but the shop master is there and there are two other guys at the bar as well (Ramen shops have bars and, well, in the case of this one, one table... but the table is Japanese-style, which means you sit cross legged or seiza... not for me) I sit down and immediately after the guys at the bar realize I can speak Japanese, they are suddenly friendly and chatting with me and everything. We are having a grand old time talking about all kinds of things.

Then the boys show up (At which time the fellows chat with them too). I relay the story to my British friend and he tells me the following story:

"I was down in Yokohama this past Christmas, and I had dropped into a bar. There were two Gaijin sitting at the bar across from me and they were talking about reading in the newspaper about the murder that had occured in MyTown. Naturally, since I'm from MyTown, I perked up as I live in MyTown, so I said, 'Excuse me, I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but you are talking about the murder in MyTown, I happen to be from MyTown...' To which I stopped talking because they both were looking at me with a definite look of mistrust and suspicion. I kept thinking 'Mate, I'm not going to ask you to buy me a drink, I don't want any money, I just wanted to talk.' And then it hit me; what a sad state of affairs the US and UK are in; no matter what, if a perfect stranger walks up to you, you naturally assume he wants something from you."

I realized as two rather attractive young women entered the ramen shop, that even the women in Japan are friendly and unassuming.

In America, if you walked up to a random woman and said "Hi, I just want to chat for a second." they'd spray you with mace.

I'm not sure what that says about our respective societies, but I think the first thing it says is that people in the US (Canada) and the UK are becoming so self centered that the only time we approach other people is when we want something from them. It's pretty much a lost cause in the cities, but it's even spreading to the countryside where people used to be really friendly.

Which leads me to the next logical conclusion; when I get home, I'm going to go on a mission. My mission will be to talk to one random person every month (In the beginning, later I'll do it as often as I can), and just chat with them. Learn something new. And ask only one thing in return; that they pass it on (Should they feel so inclined).

So, who is with me? Pick a random person and go up to them and talk to them for just a minute or two, tell them the truth; you think we as a nation have forgotten to be friendly and you want nothing from them but a moment of friendly chat, and maybe if they feel like it, they can pass it along. Tell them you are not representing a political candidate, or a religion (If you are religious, you have to leave that at the door, sorry... unfortunately, Christian hardliners are among those whom "Always want something" and are contributing to the problem here) you don't want money, or a drink (I'd recommend turning one down should you be offered, it sabotoges the cause). Ask them about their life, do they have kids? a family? Where are they from? Do they have an interesting story to tell? Then, thank them for their time, give them a friendly smile, and walk away, knowing you took one step toward making our countries friendly and safe again.

:)

-Me

Fuji through my lens

2008-07-15T10:50:00.003+09:00

Everyone has their own take on Mt. Fuji. Mine is... well... very me. :)

Taken at Moriya Station (On the Tsukuba Express Line tracks) just after sunset.

---Me.

Interesting...

2008-07-05T04:58:00.003+09:00

So, I was reading an article on cnn about a senetor which is recommending that national speed limits be reimposed on the US... I thought that was an interesting thing...

The national speed limits were repealed in 1995.

The thing I thought was most interesting, though, was the numbers that it spouted;

In 1995, oil was $17 a barrel, and the average gallon of gas was $1.10

today (In America), oil is $145 a barrel, and the average gallon is $4.10

Run the numbers? Oil is 8.5 times the price it was in 1995... but gas is only 3.7 times...

I just paid 4300 yen (About $40) to fill up my 24 liter (6 gallon) tank. Which is almost $7 a gallon. Now, it has been argued that I don't drive as much as Americans... but I am in the boonies, with no train service, and I still cover about 1600km (about 1000 miles) in a month (Of course, Maia does live 20km from here). That's about half what I did in Denver, but it's only half...

When I got my little "Kei" car (It's a 3 cylinder 650cc engine) a year ago (Maia and I lovingly call it the "Piglet"... I'm not entirely sure why...it just fit) I paid 3200 yen to fill up the tank, in a year it has gone up about 30%... Just so you guys don't think you are the only ones suffering... I spend about $250-$300 a month on gas... and I have little more than a glorified motorcycle...

Sometimes I wonder if Americans are aware of how good they have had it?

in 1995 gas here was about the same as over there, about 100 yen to the gallon (roughly a dollar to the gallon), now it's 700 yen to the gallon... about 7 times as expensive... which means that you can argue that America is reliant on foreign oil, but not half as much as the rest of the world. America is getting it's oil domestically somehow... because Japan and Europe have watched the gas prices stay pretty close to the average cost per barrel of oil.

Japan has done something about it (Case in point: The Piglet, I mean, 30% of all vehicles here are the same class as the Geo Metro... and have been for nearly a decade). I'm wondering when I get home, how I'm going to find a Piglet that I can drive... because honestly, I don't need a 27 cylinder 9.4 liter engine anymore... I'm kinda comfortable driving this Kei car...

I think Americans could be, too.

Plugging

2008-06-30T22:50:00.003+09:00

The most interesting thing about animation is the way that you can draw a series of lines and then send them off and get back a little movie with your lines all happily moving around and giving the equisite feeling of movement...

You gave something life, simply by drawing lines.

I have been working on Animated Farragut for a while now, and NeoFX (The company doing the assembling) sends me back proofs every time I finish an animation set, and it's fun to see the little characters move and dance about.

And know that I did that.

Recently, NeoFX sent me an actual cut from the show, where one of my animations was actually put into the scene, and synched with the recorded voice...

Wow... I DID that. There's my character, talking and blinking and turning his head...

It's really gratifying.

Wierd, huh? I think most people would think that sitting for hours, erasing lines and redrawing almost the exact same line would be maddening after a time...

But I don't...

I wonder what would make me, an ex-ADHD kid, capable of doing this? Fascinating, isn't it?

I wish I could show you some of my work, but I've been working under wraps, and I can't share anything just yet. But you will get to see it! I promise!

---StillAnimating

Disturbing... in many ways...

2008-06-25T20:05:00.003+09:00

So, I was casually reading the news on CNN when I noticed the top story (This was a couple of days ago, mind) about a man being charged for killing his wife while scuba diving in Australia.

Okay, so that's interesting, but it comes with this picture:

The caption under the picture reads: Tina Watson (background right) lies motionless after she drowns during the couple's honeymoon in Australia.

I think "Ah... that's really.... wait a minute! That's an AP photo! What the heck was an AP photographer doing?"

"Excuse me, I'm with the Associated Press, don't mind me, I'll just be swimming along with you just in case you should try to murder your wife..."

What in the heck was this person doing? And, while we are at it, what is the guy in the foreground doing? "This woman is dying or dead, hey! Picture for the Daily News? Cheeeeeez!"

This picture is truly bizzare.

Now, the file is listed as art.ap.scuba.... So, maybe it's an artist rendition... which would be nice... but if it isn't... boy... woah...

No matter which way you put it -provided it isn't an artist rendition- this is a bad sign... I just remember Bob Sagat during the old "America's Funniest Home Videos" segment after all those parents would film their kids falling from the roof and keep filming as the kid squirms in pain....:

"If something bad happens: Put Down The Camera, and get help."

At least that other dude is trying to get to her...

---What?

Happy Solstice!

2008-06-21T07:10:00.002+09:00

Well, for the first time in 118 years or so, the Solstice comes early! You can thank your local neighborhood planet for that.

Also, Mars' Solstice will be in just a few days; on June 25th (Earth Time :D)

---Me

Irony

2008-06-16T19:42:00.004+09:00

Okay, so... You all know what my degree is in, right?

I finally get to use it! Yay! I love animating! It makes me happy and Zen and all kinds of wonderful :)

And...

In an interesting twist of irony, I'm working on Starship Farragut's Animated episodes... They pulled me in after seeing my Tamerlane work.

I'm working in Filmation style!!!!

For those who didn't grow up with me; Many many years ago, when I was a young lad, I believed that Filmation had wrecked the very nature of Star Trek with their Animated Episodes. I was vocal, I was whiney... I was a pest. Yes, I was that 14-year-old snot-nosed know-it-all which would go on for hours about how Filmation was the bane of all existance...

My tone changed when I went off to college and learned why Filmation's style was so simplistic. Short production times and tiny budgets led to reusing cells and backgrounds and music. It worked for fast, cheap animation.

I also learned that it's not the vehicle that counts, the story's the thing. Filmation may have been simple, but the story was told very well.

Anyway, Farragut is trying to faithfully reproduce the Filmation Star Trek Animated Episodes (TAS) style. And they are doing an amazing job! The attention to detail is top-notch.

It'll look great on my resume! And it is still extremely Zen for me to just sit there, drawing frame after frame after frame... I am astonished that I never realized this is where I belonged before...

If you want to see what they are up to, here's their preview site:

http://www.farragut-animated.com/

--DaAnimator

(Edited when I realized this didn't paint a good light on the Farragut team, which, of course, was not the point I was trying to make when I wrote this post... I've got to learn to be more careful about blogging...)

Earthquake

2008-06-14T08:55:00.002+09:00

Wow... we just got hit with a 4 here on the Japanese Earthquake scale (Makes things sway, but nothing major)... I go to check my normal earthquake site and I see it's in "Emergency Mode", where it doesn't actually list all the stations individually, but rather only lists the prefectures... I look and Miyagi prefecture just got nailed with a 6+ earthquake... that's pretty nasty... You'll probably be hearing about it over there...

Mixed bag...

2008-06-12T06:55:00.003+09:00

I am training up again for the local Interactive Forum tournement.

For the uninitiated; Here in Japan we have a local competition every year for speaking English. The idea spawned from having speech competitions. Speech competitions are all well and good for memorization, but the ministry of education decided that it wasn't really helping to promote the actual speaking of the language.

So, they invented the Forum. Three kids from different schools in the area sit in a circle and have 3 minutes to talk about a certain topic (Which is picked from three pre-decided topics just before the forum starts), for example; My School or My Dream. Then these kids must talk about their dream or their school for three minutes and then they are graded by judges. The best 8 out of the group (There are 12 kids that are in the competition for 2nd grade and 12 for 3rd grade) then move on to the next level, and so on until they reach National Championships sometime in September...

Anyway, we have been heftily beaten every year because Miss Turtle, who is very young, and is still absolutely sure she is right when she employs tactics she learned in College (Which she is newly graduated from) like writing things down for Forum (Erm... Miss Turtle, this is a spoken competition... Yes Guy, but they have to input data somehow... Erm... why not have them talk to each other? That won't work, you just don't understand) insists on having our kids memorize phrases "I have two cats, their names are Bob and Pooky." "I like apples, especially I like green apples". You might imagine that my poor kid goes in and proudly announces that he likes green apples at which time the other kid says, "I don't like green apples, they taste like dirt, don't you agree?" at which time, since my kid has never practiced "Don't you agree?", my kid just stares at them... and loses the competition.

I struggled last year to actually teach them to talk, but I was overruled and we lost again... this year, though Mr Woods, my good friend, is in charge of the English Department, and he (Finally) let me run the show. I actually convinced the other teachers (Not Miss Turtle though, she's really stubborn as only the youthful can be) when I went up to Summer-chan (My really good kid, who lost last year because she was forced to memorize things), and I asked her:

M: Summer-chan, do you have a brother?

S: Eto (Um).... Ano (Um).... yes, I do.

M: Summer, How old is your brother?

S: Eto... Nandake (What's that again?)... He's 16 years old.

M: Summer, What school does your brother go to?

S: Eto.... Ano.... He... Eto.... Goes to Countryside High School.

M: Summer, what color is my car?

S: Eto.... Your car is... nandake... black.

I turned to the other teachers, "See? She can answer anything in English, she's just too slow... in Forum, by the time she gets through her "Ano"s and "Eto"s and "Nandakes", the other kids in Forum have moved on without her... but her skill is actually far better than there's."

It sold everyone except Miss Turtle, who is, as you might expect, having them write out all their sentences in a notebook.

That's alright, I got free-reign finally on the kids.

So we started a game; I gave them 30 seconds, one kid was the asker, the other was the answerer, they had to ask as many questions as they could in 30 seconds.

Then I wrote the number of answers on the whiteboard... NOW it was a competition! The kids started out with 3 questions in 30 seconds, but in less than a half-hour, they were suddenly at 6 or 7 questions in 30 seconds... Then Summer's team broke the 10 question barrier, so I went up to her and said: "Okay, now you can only talk about "Your Dream"." Summer gives me her "You want WHAT?" look, but I just smile and you can see it go through her brain... then she gets it and she grins mischeviously back at me and is at it again. Her team is bumped back to 5, but it only takes a few minutes to get her back up to 8 or 9...

After practice was over, they all plied out of the classroom with huge grins on their faces, planning new English phrases to use tomorrow... and Summer runs back over to me and says "Guy-sensei, thank you! That was really fun!" and she meant it (No one has ever liked Forum practice, much less thanked me for it).

This is what it means to be a teacher.

After this, I come home, but for the first time in a month or so I decide to stop over at McDonalds, I go in and I recognize the girl behind the counter. She was one of my third years my first year here. She recognizes me too and she smiles, "Hello Guy-Sensei" she says in a whisper (It's really not appropriate for workers to be unprofessional here, even at McDonalds, something I really like about Japan), I smile and ask her which High School she's going to.

"I didn't get into High School." She says with a sad smile, "I failed the entrance exams."

This was like a bullet to my gut, I swear... I knew she wasn't doing good, but it was my first year, and I really wasn't very clued in... I feel responsible for this... I feel like I let her down...

Wow... Talk about your highs and lows... Summer, she'll be fine, she's only worried about getting to the TOP school or the second school... This girl... who is a bright young woman... will be stuck at McDonalds, aspiring to one day be a manager... And that's her life outlook.

Interesting day in the life of a Junior High School teacher in Japan.

---Me.

A plea for the coming election

2008-06-04T18:37:00.002+09:00

I really don't care who you vote for, but please PLEASE... research for yourself the candidates... don't listen to what CNN or Fox or Jon Stewart or Rush Limbagh have to say about the candidates... it's party politics and that can't be trusted...

Case in point:

Me: Dad, if you don't like McCain, why not vote for Obama.

Dad: I won't vote for Obama, he has no experience.

Hillary said the same thing... Ah... he heard this from Hillary...

Dad, please read this message:

Barak Obama: Member of the Illinois State Senate from the 13th distrct: January 8, 1997 – November 4, 2004, Junior Senator From Illinois, Assumed office January 4, 2005

Total time holding office: 11 years (January 1997 to present)

John Fitzgerald Kennedy: United States Senator from Massachusetts In office January 3, 1953 – December 22, 1960 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 11th district In office January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1953

Total time holding office: 13 Years (January 1947-December 1960)

Abraham Lincoln: Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 7th district In office March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849

Time in office: 2 years (1847-1849) Note; this is half the time Obama has spent in almost the same exact position

George Washington: ------

Time in office: 0 years...

I don't mind the mud, I don't mind the slinging... I only mind it when intellegent people only listen to the mud...

Folks, vote for who you like... it's your choice... but, for our country's sake, vote smart! Question everything!

I don't know where I'm going yet. I may not decide until the last minute... but I will research everything before I cast my vote. I encourage you to as well.

125/60

2008-05-31T18:29:00.002+09:00

Every year I have watched a steady decline in my blood pressure (Which was dangerously high before leaving the States). Today I went in for my annual health check.

The doctor ran a check on everything; Kidneys: Nominal, Heart: good, Blood pressure: 125/60... he stops, "Wow, that's pretty good!" Last year it was substantially higher (But still 140/70 or something... I blogged about it... but I'm not going to look it up). Just before I came to Japan, my blood pressure was somewhere in the 150-160 range... enough that at my first health check (a week in) the doctor gave me a grave look when he took my blood pressure.

Okay, so my luck isn't improving with my weight just yet (We chubby-cheeked cuties, you and me, Sawbones :D), but at least my blood pressure is not critical any more.

I have changed my diet, I don't eat as much McDonalds (There are no other fast-food chains out here, but there are two McDonald's...). But I do drink more coffee than I used to in the States... Anyway, I think stress plays an enormous part of blood pressure... and though I have a lot of responsibility, I am pretty stress-free over here. :D

--That's MISTER 125/60 to you! :)

The Last Night of the year

2008-05-24T21:59:00.004+09:00

Bet you are all wondering where I went... well... I was working on yet another comic... yes, it's my Star Trek comic (I'm not obsessed with Star Trek, I'm obsessed with not quitting another comic 20 pages in).

You can find it here: http://usstamerlane.foxtailgraphics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=492#492

This puts the total pages of comic book done on this story line (Tamerlane) at 20+40+12= 72 complete pages of comic. I'm not going to be happy, though, until I approach the size and scale of Tods Dracula comic (He's on page 200+ and still going). I figure if I can clear 200-some-odd pages of Tamerlane, not drifting off topic, or stopping because I'm bored, or whatever, then I'm capable of taking the "training wheels" off and going back to my original works.

I've spent many years starting projects and not finishing them, I'm so very tired of it. So every page now with this comic is a success for me.

You are, however, free to make fun of me at your leisure. :D

I'd like for folks to read them, though, and give feedback (Pointy-ears notwithstanding) I'm still very serious about my Tamerlane stories, and I work very hard on them, so they should still be entertaining. :D I am putting my soul into the stories... I just can't ever publish them for money... which is okay, I'm not really in a "Money" mode these days... I'm a little... disenchanted with money...

Erm... another shocker...

2008-05-08T23:39:00.003+09:00

This is a page from the sports section of the Prefectural paper:

This is (And no, I'm not making this up) my name in the sports section of said prefectural paper:

(In a sea of kanji there are those lone katakana characters... woah...)

I think when the wheels of that lovely 747-600 (And it was a pretty aircraft I would like to add at this time) touched down at Narita airport, the furthest thing in my mind would be that I would be listed in the sports section of a Japanese newspaper... Heck, being in the sports section of any paper would be among the last things I could imagine ever doing in my life...

If you are curious, that's a list of those that made Shodan (Black Belt) during the Kyudo tests (Apparently it's a much bigger deal than I thought...) two weeks ago.

But now... (And I really can't believe I am saying this), I can add "Listed in the Sports section of the newspaper" as one of my accomplishments in my life...

Of course, this paper belongs to Mr. Graves, and I'll have to give him the original back... I'm going to see if I can't find a copy at school tomorrow (It's only a couple of days old). If I can, I'll save it for you, Dad. :D

I am rather stunned... Sure, it was hard... but I never thought it was this important... perhaps it was better that way: I know I would have blown it if I knew that it was this big of a deal...

-Spending my 15 minutes of fame in rather unexpected ways

A good day...

2008-05-04T10:59:00.008+09:00

Maia and I are on Golden Week (Which, this year falls mostly on the weekend, so we've taken to calling it "Golden Weekend". It's 3 national holidays in a row, which, added to a weekend, makes for 5 consecutive days off...

That is, unless the holiday falls on a weekend. In Japan Saturday is a workday, well... for everyone but us school folks. So, we get Saturday off! Well, isn't that nice...

Anyway, Sunday is also on the holiday, so they are giving us Tuesday as a "Switch day", it's not really a holiday, but since "Green Day" (Midori no Hi) falls on Sunday, we get Tuesday as the switch day.

Anyway, enough about the why... Maia is staying at my place this weekend. Friday night we go to the mall and, completely on impulse, we buy a Wii (Actually, it was impulsive to buy it on Friday, we have been pondering buying one for a while, it seems like it might actually have games designed to exercize the body more... I'm into that). We had both gotten our year-end bonuses, and I was going to buy a new computer with mine... but my company is sneaky, and they pro-rated my final paycheck of the year (See, I technically ended work on March 24th...), so they took away $700 from my paycheck and then gave me a $1000 bonus... Needless to say I really only got a whopping $300 bonus. So we bought a Wii instead. The computer will have to wait.

Anyway, Saturday morning we wake up and eat breakfast and then, completely on impulse, we get on a train to Tokyo (This too, wasn't really an impulse. We bought Mario Kart, and the Wii version has a cute steering wheel thingie which you put the remote into so you can drive. We only had one, and we wanted another... and everywhere was sold out, so we thought; if we can't find a wheel in Akihabara, there isn't one in all of Japan). We have no idea where we are going after our short mission to Akihabara. We are thinking of all kinds of places to visit. But we have no plan... By the time we arrive in Akihabara, we are thinking of going to Ningacho, via Nihombashi.

Nihombashi was the first stop on the very famous Tokaido road (The road that linked Tokyo (Then called Edo) with Kyoto, the capital of old-time Japan). It was a bridge that crossed the river that defined the very edge of Edo. It's now a very central ward of Tokyo (How times have changed :D).

During my Kyoto trip, I visited the last station of the Tokaido Road in Kyoto. And now I have been to the first station (Nihombashi)

The most interesting thing is that Highway 4 goes over Nihombashi... Think about that for a second: the freeway goes over... the river goes under... Highway 4 is built over the river... it just travels along, suspended about 100 or so feet above the river, going the whole way down. They had no more room along here to build the freeway on land, so they just built it on the river.

We then walked to Ningacho, which is interesting, but is really just a series of little teeny shops which didn't really interest us that much.

Upon returning to Akihabara, though. We ate at a Burger King! A real, live, Burger King (Which was surrounded by McDonald's...) I enjoyed the first Whopper I have had since I landed here... :D

Then we went to the book store.

See, I have a little goal; I discovered (Before I came to Japan) that one of my favorite Authors, David Weber, has had his series of Honor Harrington books translated into Japanese, and with some cool artwork, to boot. So I made it a goal to be able to read these books. In light of this, I've been collecting the books over here in order to read them when my Japanese level is high enough (This is still a little ways off). Well, I was pleasantly surprised to find "Echoes of Honor" at the bookstore, so, of course, I picked it up:

Poor Nimitz!

(These books are in Japanese order, book 1 is on the right, book 2 is on the left)

but then, while I was there, I spotted something wonderful!

These are the original Dirty Pair novels! Yes sir, the girls of 3WA are all here in the original novels that started it all (Well, okay, started one of my favorite Animes of the 1980's... which is probably why most of you, except Jer and James are saying "Whu?"). I saw a whole mess of the books, but I only picked up these two novels.

I've read Honor in English and so I want to read the novels in Japanese for the practice and the curiosity (How do they translate "Impeller Drive"?). The Dirty Pair novels don't exist in any language but Japanese. Which means I can't cheat. I have to learn Japanese in order to read these books. I have a whole new goal! (And I'll probably pick up all the other DP novels. I really just love Yuri and Kei! (Gads, look at Mugi... he looks downright terrifying... not fluffy and sleepy like he does in the series) :D) The girls of Collateral Damage are back! Or... Never left... or something...

I love the collars! I keep forgetting these books were written in 1982...

So that was our impulsive trip to Tokyo. I walked across five Wards (Akihabara, Kanda, Nihombashi, Chuo and Ningachoo), which racked up to 8,500 steps on the pedometer (Whomever said "10,000 steps a day" is on drugs). We only took a train back to Akihabara because we were totally beat.

-3Wme

zero tolerance

2008-04-28T23:27:00.005+09:00

All of my life I have been a person who is naturally against alcohol. Not really because of any specific thing, it just seemed like people who drank alcohol tended to not get much else done in their lives... This was my teenage, Black-and-white view on the world (It would change, of course, as I grew older)

And being drunk seemed like a real uninteresting experience to me (Why would anyone choose to throw up and have splitting headaches?).

Recently, though, I have come to the conclusion that I am afraid of alcohol. And that wasn't acceptable to me.

So, I have taken to drinking a beer with the guys next door when we watch movies or go to the ramen shop down the street.

One beer every two weeks or so.

But recently, I thought about having a beer at night, at home, by myself.

Maia suggested that I shouldn't have beers unless I'm with the guys. And she seemed a little worried when she said it...

So a couple of nights ago I'm standing at the convinience store and I'm looking at the beers and thinking "Gee, I really kinda want a beer." Not with the guys... just me. I was going to go home at watch a movie and drink a beer and just exist...

That was it.

I'm just too compulsive a personality. Its too easy for me to slip into this pattern... No.

Alcohol just isn't right for me. It's just not. Okay, so maybe I'm being afraid... but standing at the convinience store and thinking about a beer for no reason at all except to have a beer... yes, I realized right there and then that I could throw my life away with that one beer.

Dramatic? Melodramatic? Maybe... but really, should I risk it? I can't control my weight yet. It took 15 years to control martial arts. I just recently realized just how addicted to Television I was... I'm a person who falls for these traps. It's why I never even so much as took a puff off of a cigarette; I have always known, deep in my heart, that I'll fall for it.

I don't know, I need to make a call on this one, and I'm thinking the call I made at 12 years of age just wasn't a bad one (Even if it was built on an underwise thought process).

Japan has a zero tolerance policy on drinking and driving. Something this culture respects to an almost militant degree (It's the quickest way for me to get out of drinking at enkai parties; tell them I'm driving and not a drop gets near you. They even watch to make sure you don't get anything but tea). Maybe zero tolerance, which is what I have lived on all of my life, isn't such a bad policy.

Okay, so perhaps people who drink are not all losers (I figured that one out a long time ago), but I just have this feeling that should I start drinking, I would be a loser... and I simply don't have time for that.

Too much to do.

I'm not afraid of alcohol, I'm afraid of me and alcohol. Is that an acceptable fear, or do I have to face it?

And....

2008-04-20T19:03:00.003+09:00

I am now a Black Belt (Shodan for those of you who are nitpicky).

Anyway, I'll post more later, but for now, I'm going to go get dinner! :D

Don't worry, you are only testing for Black belt... no one expects you to hit the target

2008-04-18T23:43:00.004+09:00

So here we are, almost at a real turning point in my life.

See, on Sunday I test for my black belt in Kyudo. I thought it was my halfway to black belt, but no, that's called something else... we adults, we don't test for red, green, blue, purple... whatever, no no, we simply test for Black and then you go on from there... Had I been in High School I would have been passing through all those other belts...

I have struggled with this all of my life... I would get to a pretty high belt in something, then quit before I could make anything of it...

So now we are actually about to do it... and do it right. You can't get much more authentic than testing for a black belt in Japan...

Anyway, I digress. Sunday I drive to Mito (The capital) and take my test.

It's a two parter, a practical and a written test.

"You can write the answers in English" says Sensei, "But they will ask you the questions in Japanese"

Nice.

So, now we prep to do the test, and for the first time I'm actually doing the complete competition procedure (And I thought the 8-step firing procedure was tough... step with your left foot, step with your right at a 45 degree angle, bow to the judges, step to the Waiting line, kneel, bow to the target, stand, move to the firing line, kneel, turn, kneel, put the bow in front of you, pivot the bow... no, take the string at no more than 10 centimeters from the bottom of the bow, load the bow, turn the other arrow counter... now wait....

That hurts... I'm sitting in what's called "Kiza", this is like Seiza (The traditional Japanese sitting posture of "kill your toes", but instead of having your feet flat on the floor, you are sitting upright on your toes (As in kneeling more like how westerners are kneeling). You can't move so much as a muscle as the other archers go through the firing procedure... approximately 3 or four minutes. If you think that's nothing, you should try it... it HURTS.

Now, and this is the part that kills me every time, you must go to the next "wait-point" when the person 3 archers before you fires... not 2 archers, not the guy in front of you, no... the timing must be perfect...

Man... suddenly I'm forgetting everything... Worse, I forgot to do the stepping procedure, a "day one" thing that you learn before you even learn to not wear rings on your fingers (Ha... that is a brilliant thing to learn)... I'm getting all kinds of tangled up in the procedure, Sensei is yelling at me... boy I'm pretty down.

Then Mr. Graves says "Good. You'll do fine" and I feel the weight of 10 tons lift off my shoulders...

Here's an interesting thing to note:

I have been at the Dojo for 19 months now (78 weeks, 150 or so classes), I have been to class an average of 4 hours a night twice a week (I have been less times and more times, but on average it was twice a week), for a total of some 600 hours of practice. I fire at the makiwara (Practice target placed about a meter and a half from the archer) approximately 5 times a night, or about 450 pulls. I had one seminar where I shot at the Mato (Real target) probably 16 times (It seems it was four sets of four arrows). The target was at short distance, about 10 meters or so.

After all this time, last Tuesday was the first time I actually fired at the target at 28 meters. My first arrow went very, very wide, hitting the burm about a meter to the left and 2 meters too high... the second... HIT!

Everyone stops and looks at me with shock...

"Was that a hit?" Asks Mr. Middle. The targets are paper, and they make a very distinct "snap!" when the target is hit.

"I... think it was" says Mr. Graves...

It was! I hit the target at position "2"...

Of course... I... I um... I was at position "3"...

"Don't worry, you are only testing for Black belt... no one expects you to hit the target."

And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, pretty much sums up Kyudo, right there.

Now lets see if I can not really mess up on Sunday... and lets see if my toes will stay attached to my feet as I sit on them...

--ShodanMae

A Life Update

2008-04-12T22:01:00.003+09:00

So, it occurs to me that I have a lot of little things to report, but nothing really big, so I'll consolidate:

1) Kyudo: This is pretty much eating up all of my time. I am going to class five times a week now... but the test for Shodan (Which I recently discovered is "Black belt" for those of you not accustomed to the Japanese system) next Sunday. I have to answer questions (Luckily I can wrtie the answers in English... but I have to listen to the question in Japanese... I'm not sure that helps much). This is the primary reason I'm not getting anywhere on my major Hiroshima blog post.

2) School: School has started and my new first years are so cute. I have a girl in my second years who is wonderful, but she has a problem staying conscious... (I'm not sure what it is, but it's medical). Last year she passed out once a month or so... but this year she has passed out every day so far... and sometimes she is out for many hours... it's unfair but the teachers are thinking she's going to be remanded to a care facility... Which is a shame, except for this problem she is a perfectly normal little girl (I say little but I had to lift her from the floor a couple of times... Perhaps "Perfectly normal teenage girl" is more appropriate. She doesn't seem so little when you have to lift her up...). This is unfair considering we have a third year boy who has punched a teacher (Not me) and we can't get rid of him (He also fights every boy he gets near and he insults me simply because I'm American... he hates Americans, see...). He stays, she goes. Next time people talk about the wonders of the PTA, I'm going to remember this. It's because of the PTA that we can't ship him out.

3) Drawing: I am getting some drawing done, but because of Kyudo I am a little behind. I am in the middle of an interesting side story for Tamerlane which I think is cool (But don't we all think our work is cool? I mean, who would purposely do uncool work? I guess whether it really is cool or not is debateable) :)

I've started watching the evening news in hopes to get better at my Japanese. Maia is going to help me on a weekly basis with Japanese as well... see, a few weeks ago Sensei looked at me and said "Your Japanese is awful! I would have expected more from you after two years! You are slacking! Get to it!" It stung, but it was really refreshing to hear (Most Japanese people look at you and say "My goodness! You are almost fluent" when you can barely say "Sayonara"), he added, "If you go back to America without speaking Japanese fluently, it will not only be a waste, but you won't be able to keep the language." He is absolutely right. One of my goals while I was here was to become fluent in Japanese. Not so that I could watch Anime without subtitles, but because I firmly believe it is important to be bilingual. Any language... but there is sufficient evidence that says bilingual (Or quadlingual... ahem... DrMal) people are markedly sharper mental-processing-wise, and have a lower risk of Alzheimers.

So, soon DrHeimlich is moving, Good luck to you on that one, my friend! I'd love to say "I wish I was there"... but really... that would be lying... a lot... But at least I have a hell of an excuse :D I wish I was there for the "after-moving-pizza and a movie"!

Also Good luck to Tia for her Job hunting this coming weekend! :D

And.. er... Gads, Mal... what ARE you doing? (Noting nothing on your blog recently, hint hint)

Okay, so... I twisted a muscle in my neck somehow sleeping crooked so I'm going to go to bed, read a little more "Musashi" and go to sleep I do believe!

Free who?

2008-04-10T17:01:00.002+09:00

Okay, I need some help on this one...

Why is Tibet special?

Yes, I get that Tibet was invaded in 1950-something and has become part of China by complete force. That sucks, but many places have been invaded since time immemorial and... honestly... we just have to get over it... We can't really return all the lands to their rightful owners, there's simply too many people (Can you image 5 billion people trying to squeeze into Europe? Meanwhile in No-man's-land USA, 50,000 people live... one person for every 100 square miles...)

I get that China is abusing human rights. They need to stop. I have no question about that. That's part of the International Community's domain. And we are working on it (Slowly... China is a rather large monster to be fighting, but we have been and continue to make progress).

Why Tibet? Why disrupt the Olympics? The only time that the world (Or at least the ones who are willing to play nicely) get together in peace? The only world activity that really doesn't involve guns and tanks (biathalon (or is it Triathalon?) notwithstnading :D)

I'm not trying to be argumentative, I'm angry to see that the Olympic torch, a symbol of peace, getting snuffed out because of one little country which has (rightfully) been wronged.

Is this what our future is all about? Snuffing out peace until everyone is happy? This could be a loooooonnnnng time, then.

The thing that makes me so mad is that people seem to be resigned to the concept that we will always kill each other off, and that we might as well all take a collective sigh and grab a gun and shoot someone, because it's just inevitable...

The world isn't perfect. We all know that. As we grow things will become even more testy, should we really just cancel the Olympics and go back to killing each other like civilized people?

Anyway, I digress... someone tell me what makes Tibet so special as to disrupt peace?

Hanami

2008-04-04T00:07:00.005+09:00

So, I am swamped, I admit it... On April 20th I test for Shodan (No, really), and Sensei has me coming to practice 4 times a week... On top of that, I'm doing all the other things that I have been doing for a long time. Also, we went to Hiroshima (Which I'm STILL composing a blog post about that one...)...

But since the Hiroshima blog post isn't done yet (Lots to talk about), I'll show you my Hanami pictures.

See, the Cherry Blossoms are blooming here, and they are stunning... so Blain and I went on yet another Photo Safari... this time to the wilds of Ueno park (Which has a famous Cherry Tree... erm... stand? Forest? whatever, famous trees... :D)

So... until I get my Hiroshima post up, here's some Sakura (Cherry blossoms):

As the wind picked up, the blossoms started to fall like snow:

Of course, the blossoms only kept me entertained for a few moments, then I started to see all the people around me... and... well... Here's mom showing the little one the picture she just took:

I love this one: "Me, in Ueno park... taken by... erm... me.":

There is something surreal about me taking a picture of a person taking a picture of themselves in Ueno park...

Japan's Finest were in force in Ueno park... this is particularly entertaining since I think the crime rate in Ueno park is the worst in Tokyo... one robbery per three months or something like that... and certainly not during Hanami:

RIGHT! I was taking photos of the Sakura! Here we go:

Sakura festival Lanterns... man these are beautiful:

Sometimes you just have that once-in-a-lifetime-shot... this was definitely one of them:

I should make product pictures... It was Hanami, everyone was taking pictures of the flowers... Don't get me wrong, the flowers were cool... but the people were cooler... so I took pictures of the people taking pictures of the flowers. I love this shot:

I have totally had days like this (Note the flash is out on her camera... in broad daylight... I think she's having more trouble than she thinks...):

What was I here for? OH Right! Sakura!:

When I got to the dojo after this, I told them that I had gone to Ueno park for Hanami (Hanami, by the way is "Flower Viewing". It's so popular in Japan that they have a special word for this pasttime), the entire dojo claped and OOOoooooo'ed and Sensei said: "Now you are a real Japanese, you have done Hanami".

I didn't have the heart to say I was watching the watchers almost as much as I was watching the flowers...

---Hana-Me

A tragedy in process

2008-03-12T21:46:00.005+09:00

Setsugyoshiki... sutsuyoshiki... aw boy, I have a real problem with that word... I learned it wrong and I haven't been able to un-learn it... it means "Graduation".

That's it for my third years, the wonderful kids who were last years' second years with Mr Woods (My last-year second grade teacher).

Some of the greatest kids were in there; Mr. "Oh Oh Oh Me Me Me! Pick ME!.... I have no idea!" was in there, as well as Doe Eyes (Miss Kendo), and a plethora of other characters that I have neglected to write about here, but I have logged elsewhere (On my little computer). They are all gone now.

And the school feels a lot emptier.

Sure, I have a new batch of second years lined up to be third years in a month... but for one I really just have a problem with many of them. They have, as a group, learned that we teachers can't do anything to them if they are bad (the PTA here is the same monster it is in the US), so they are completely out of control. The rooms are a mess, they read books, sleep, talk in loud voices, throw trash during class. There is only a handful of kids left who even study. The numbers are down all across the board on their tests... To say that next year is going to be a tragedy is quite an understatement. They are easily falling behind my first years. I feel that next year at Interactive Forum, I might just ask for an all second year team... because my third years just might not be up to the task. The worst part is that they are contaminating all the good kids, pressuring them into being bad as well. I started talking to one of my favorite kids, a boy who tried very hard to be at Forum, and a good English speaker, and he looked at me and said, in a rude voice, "(Japanese) I don't understand you, teacher." They have gotten to him as well.

Remember, the make-or-break point for a Japanese teenager is third grade junior high... you make a mistake here and it's McDonalds for the rest of your life... but they don't seem to care...

It's a tragedy in process....

I hope next year we put the toughest teachers in with the third grade. It's their only hope.

Woah...

2008-03-04T15:57:00.003+09:00

http://www.trekunited.com/news/content/view/854/81/

I don't even know this site... or this person! I'm starting to pop up everywhere!

I'm getting that creepy feeling that I'm in over my head...

At least it's a flattering review :D

---A little stunned...

Out of the mouths of... well... okay my kids

2008-02-28T19:05:00.004+09:00

Every so often I mark papers. It's part of my job, I sit down, look over 150 papers, correct the errors with my red pen, write "Good Job!" and then give them back to the teacher... well, it's part of my job...

But I do run across some interesting things:

"I think to lurn English to we."

I actually wrote: "I really don't know what you are saying here..."

And

"(MyTown) is the city where a lot of green is wonderful"

I just couldn't explain that one to my teachers... it's correct... but... woah...

and

"Because delicious kimchee wants to eat."

I tell you, the food here is a little scary...

But the best one came today... I photocopied it because... well... I... um...:

I started laughing and laughing... and tears started streaming down my face... then I realized... I can't even begin to explain why this is hysterical... My teacher, hoping to find the same humor, read it and just simply didn't get it...

She had even written "Team Members" on the board... that just adds to the pricelessness of it all.

---Still laughing

One Demon down...

2008-02-14T23:58:00.006+09:00

I've been struggling since November to break a personal barrier.

The content of this barrier really isn't important, but the barrier itself is.

For many, many years I have struggled against myself to complete projects that I start. I have a wealth of good ideas and I never seem to finish them. As I grow older and mature, my ideas seem to be maturing as well (As in, they are starting to sound better... less... erm... "stupid").

I love telling stories, and writing, and have done both since I was in Junior High. I have written stories with my friends and have involved myself in writing challenges with them as well. I'm not particularly an incredible writer, nor really an excellent artist. But I consider myself servicable at both tasks, which is a useful combo...

The problem was; I never managed to complete these projects. If the project went on too long, I'd ultimately lose interest and give up.

But I finally did it.

After 20 years of struggling, I managed to finally complete a cycle. The first Tamerlane comic is now done. Not only that: I managed to release it only two minutes late (The standing tradition with the Fan community is to release their fan works at the time of the registration numbers of the ship, in this case: 5:10PM... it's stupid, I aknowledge that... but sometimes its fun to do stupid things... one could say this entire project is stupid... and since I can't ever sell it, one might be right...).

As I said earlier: don't judge it on it's content. I'm not so much a Star Trek geek that I can only write Star Trek fan fiction, this just happened to be the first project I managed to complete (Ironically, this is also the first Fan Fiction thing I've ever written in 20 years...). I'm going to finish out this story and then, taking all the experience from this project, I'm going to move on to my own stories (And provided this continues, complete them!). Besides, the comic itself could be about naked cats dancing in the rain and I'd still be posting here about this success. What it is isn't even remotely as important as what it signifies; I can complete a project, long term, start to finish.

For those interested in reading said book, you can find it over on my Tamerlane website:

http://usstamerlane.foxtailgraphics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=53

Anyway, if you've been wondering where I went; I haven't forgotten my blog, I just know that if I go onto the web, I lose about 1 or 2 hours surfing the various forums and posting and stuff... and as I approached my personal deadline for this comic I couldn't afford to lose those precious hours...

So, I'll be posting back here now that I'm done devoting so much time to a silly fan comic... Well, until issue 2... but that's not going to start until May...

next: Naked Dancing Cats in the Rain- the comic.

:)

--Me.

STS-122

2008-02-07T06:49:00.000+09:00

STS-122

Orbiter: Atlantis (OV-104)

Payload: European Space Agency's Columbus science laboratory for the International Space Station (ISS Assembly Flight 1E)
Launch: Feb. 7, 2008, 2:45 p.m. EST (5:45AM Tokyo time...)
Site: Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Landing: Feb. 18, 9:57 a.m. EST
Site: Shuttle Landing Facility, KSC
Duration: 11 days (planned)
Number of Orbits: TBD
Orbit altitude: 122 nautical miles (226 km)
Orbit inclination: 51.6 degrees

Stephen Frick - Commander
Alan G. Poindexter (rookie) - Pilot
Leland D. Melvin (rookie) - Mission Specialist 1
Rex J. Walheim - Mission Specialist 2
Hans Schlegel - Mission Specialist 3 - ESA Germany
Stanley G. Love (rookie) - Mission Specialist 4
ISS Expedition 16 Crewmember Léopold Eyharts - Flight Engineer - ESA France (Eyharts will be replacing Daniel M. Tani on the Station)

Love was the Capcom (Capsule Command at Mission Control) for the ISS for a while, so on this flight, he'll actually get to be on the other side of the radio. Melvin was a NFL draft pick for the Detroit Lions, but pulled a hamstring during practice, moved to the Dallas Cowboys and pulled it again during practice. He left football and became an astronaut.

So far the orbiter Atlantis has completed 28 flights, spent 220.40-days in space, completed 3,468 orbits, and flown 89,908,732 nautical miles (166,510,972 km)

STS-122 will mark the 24th shuttle mission to the ISS, the 29th flight of OV-104 (Atlantis) and the 121st space shuttle flight since STS-1.

Good luck, Atlantis!

A day of rememberance

2008-02-02T03:18:00.000+09:00

It was five years ago today, at 9:01 AM on February 2, 2003 that the Space Shuttle Columbia (NASA Orbital Vehicle (ov) 102) fell into the normal radio blackout as it passed into entry-interface with the Earth's atmosphere. The protective heat tiles, used to shield the fragile orbiter from the heat caused by the extreme friction with the speeding atmosphere, failed and the left wing of the orbiter was burned off of the spacecraft. At a speed of nearly 25 times the speed of sound, the unbalanced spacecraft attempted to use it's space-borne retrothrusters to control its firey descent, but by then the left side of the spcaecraft was disintegrating. Columbia broke apart over the open fields of North Texas.

A little under a minute later, the seven astronauts in the hardened protective cabin, were also subjected to the immense forces of the thickening atmosphere as the crew cabin, too, finally failed and broke open.

None of the seven crew members survived the remaining unprotected 2 mile freefall at mach 10.

Today marks the end of a very tragic week for American Spaceflight, with January 27 being the anniversary of Apollo 1 and January 28 being the anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger, I'd like to take a moment to remember these men and women who have given their lives to further our boundaries and push mankind into space, a noble and peaceful cause.

Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Command Pilot, Apollo 1
Edward H. White II, Senior Pilot, Apollo 1
Roger B. Chaffee, Pilot, Apollo 1

Francis "Dick" Scobee, Commander, Space Shuttle Challenger,
Michael J. Smith, Pilot, Space Shuttle Challenger
Judith Resnik, Mission Specialist (MS1), Space Shuttle Challenger
Ellison Onizuka, Mission Specialist (MS2), Space Shuttle Challenger
Ronald McNair, Mission Specialist (MS3), Space Shuttle Challenger
Gregory Jarvis, Payload Specialist (PS1), Space Shuttle Challenger
Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Spaceflight Participant (Teacher in Space), (MS4), Space Shuttle Challenger

Rick D. Husband, Commander, Space Shuttle Columbia
William C. McCool, Pilot, Space Shuttle Columbia
David M. Brown, Mission Specialist (MS1), Space Shuttle Columbia,
Kalpana Chawla, Flight Engineer (FE1), Space Shuttle Columbia
Michael P. Anderson, Payload Commander, Space Shuttle Columbia
Laurel B. Clark, Mission Specialist (MS2), Space Shuttle Columbia
Ilan Ramon, Payload Specialist (PS2) - col. Israeli Air Force, Space Shuttle Columbia

---

Where in the world is Me-Sandiego?

2008-01-30T20:55:00.000+09:00

I'm still alive... and I haven't forgotten about this blog, or the fact that there are loved-ones whom read it from time to time.

I'm just really pushing to meet a deadline at this moment (February 14!) and I have pretty much shut every other system down in order to meet it.

I'll be back very, very shortly with more stories from the Land of the Rising Sun!

Now, I'm back to the very sad duty of finishing up my "Goodbye" note to my third years, I do this every year, but really last years' third years I only knew in passing... this years' third years... well, I've really gotten to know a lot of them and enjoy being with them... I've learned that some of them are real sweet and lovable characters.

I'm really going to miss the little guys...

---Me.

Okay, I finally hit THAT point.

2008-01-19T23:55:00.000+09:00

I quit.

I am getting nowhere on Japanese, everyone (Including Maia) talks rings around me and I am completely clueless.

I am getting nowhere in Kyudo, every night I go there and have the exact same problems I had the nights before... no wonder I'm not ready to test yet...

Whew!

Okay, now that THAT is out of my system, it's back to the books for me. Everything should be a lot easier now that I'm no longer in my own way.

Why do we make everything so difficult for ourselves? I mean, couldn't I have just skipped this step and gone on to being an excellent Kyudo-ka and fluent in Japanese without having to throw in the towel and get the pep-talk (which, by the way, I've skipped for expediency-sake), and then return to the ring? Man, it's like we are built to live our lives like a bad 80's Karate-kid knock off...

Anyway, I'll be back in Japanese class on Tuesday and back in the dojo on Thursday, don't worry. :)

--Frusterated with language and martial arts.

English Kanji

2008-01-17T19:05:00.000+09:00

I have talked about Kanji before but for those who either missed it or came in late, Prior to contact with China 1500 or so years ago Japan had no writing system. When China connected with Japan, they gave them Kanji, the Chinese Idiographic writing system (think Egyptian hieroglyphs). A “Letter” in Kanji has a meaning, not a pronunciation. So a single character means “river” or “mountain” or “run” or “walk”. The Japanese adapted these Kanji to their way of life. But instead of simply changing the way the “letters” are read, they added the Chinese readings to the existing Japanese readings. So now most Kanji can be read one of two ways, either the Japanese way, or the Chinese way. For example the Kanji for “Mountain” is read “Yama” (As in Fuji-yama). But the Chinese reading for the same Kanji is read “San” (Which is actually how the Japanese read it “Fuji-san”) When you are talking about going to a mountain, you use “Yama”, when you are talking about a specific mountain (Like Mount Fuji), you use “San”… You just have to learn when to use which reading, this is simply the rule for mountain… other words have different rules.
This would be complicated enough, but as the cultures of Japan consolidated and stopped being small, warring country-states and started being the unified “Japan”, the different dialects of Japanese were consolidated as well, and those readings were added to the Kanji. So, now some Kanji have one Chinese reading and one primary Japanese reading, and sometimes many other Japanese readings… For example the kanji for water is read “Sui” in Chinese, and “Mizu” in Japanese… and “Mi” or “Mina”… and when you use “Sui” and when you use “Mizu” or “Mina” or “Mi” is just something you have to learn.
Luckily, some things have only one reading, the Chinese reading. These things are usually things that Japan didn’t have but China did have prior to contact or things that were discovered in China and brought over later. For example, Electricity has only one reading “Den”. And really the kanji with the most readings are the simple ones. The Kanji that make up “Ministry of Governmental Oversight and Observation” really only have one reading… Technically they might have two, but you don’t need to learn the other one (Unless you want to participate in a “Kanji bee”). “Water”, “mountain”, “ground”, “sun”, “moon”, these are the Kanji that have the most readings.

Now, it may seem this is complicated enough, but the Japanese have to make it even worse; you must write the Kanji in the correct order… you can’t just scribble out the Kanji in any way you feel is cool… no, you must write this section, then all horizontal lines, then all vertical lines (with a few notable exceptions where you must write the vertical lines first…). It’s maddening… and I love it…

Which makes me think I am certifiably mad. I really have taken to Kanji. I love learning them, I love learning Stroke Order (Which lines go first…), I’m really enjoying this…

There is one saving grace, complicated Kanji are often constructed out of simpler Kanji. For example the Kanji for “Bright” is the kanji for sun and moon next to each other. This makes it a little easier to remember the Kanji, by making up little stories I can remember how to write the Kanji; “The Sun and Moon are both very BRIGHT”.

I use this technique on even more complicated kanji: “It takes a WEEK for the samurai to tell his story in the shelter by the roadside” The Kanji for week is composed of “Road”, “Shelter”, “Samurai” and “Mouth/story”. If you speak to that same soldier in the shelter, you can RESEARCH information about the enemy from him in the form of a story, thus “Speak”, “Shelter”, “Samurai” and “Mouth/Story” becomes “Research/look up”

Sometimes I will ask Maia about Kanji in this manner: “Dear, what is “Thread” and “Winter”?” to which she will reply “End or Finish; “Owari”.” I will then make up a story for myself to remember the Kanji: “The thread of the year ENDs in winter”

But this is a very Western way of approaching Kanji… my Japanese compatriots look at me like I am mad when I explain this way of thinking. They learned them as complete units, not like words with “Letters” inside them… they learned them the way I learned to read words as a dyslexic child: like each word is a complete picture… Which may explain why I’m taking to Kanji like a fish to water, it’s natural to me to take a word and “snapshot” it and then understand the meaning.

But I discovered an interesting insight into the Japanese culture, by looking at this in reverse.

Today I was in 2-2 and working with my second years on the grammar point “er” and “est” (Godzilla is strongER than King Kong, Godzilla is the strongEST of all monsters.) And one of my girls is working on a worksheet, and I’m watching her over her shoulder.

The Worksheet shows a picture of China and Japan, the word “large” and has the text China ___ _____ ____ Japan.

So she writes: “China is large than Japan”.

I point at the sentence and I say, “Don’t forget the “r”…”
She says “Oh! Right!” and then she takes out her eraser and erases the entire word.

“China is _____ than Japan.”

Then she promptly writes “larger” in the exact same place.

“China is larger than Japan.”

I’ve seen my teachers do this exact same thing…they will forget the “s” on the end of a noun while writing on the blackboard and then they will erase the entire word and then rewrite it with an “s”.

Because to them “large” is a different “kanji” than “larger”… “cat” is different than “cats”…

Thus, my fellow teachers can’t understand the Samurai in the shelter on the road telling a story for a week… it’s all one unit: “Shuu”… week… not components… a complete unit. And if some of them equate English the same way with each word is a complete unit it could get ugly fast.

This seems to explain why spacing is so foreign to my first years… it shouldn’t be important, technically. Kanji doesn’t have spacing, and only an idiot uses spacing when writing Japanese. Can you imagine what must be going on in the subconscious of my poor First Years’ minds?

ifIwritethingslikethis it should be perfectly clear to everyone, after all, it has six “English Kanji” in it…. and they are pretty clear, aren’t they? Wait, you are telling me that all English-speakers need the Kanji separated? And that the English Kanji changes simply because it is at the beginning of a sentence? Or because it has a plural? So English has three Kanji for every single word?!? Damn… English is HARD! But, hey, look! Some English Kanji only have one Kanji per word… “Jones” for example… wait, no… that has the Kanji “Jones’s” too and “Joneses”? I hate English… It may have many readings, but at least Japanese only has ONE Kanji per word…

…And I just taught my second years that there are yet two more English Kanji when you are comparing things (larger and largest)… I’m amazed they haven’t all revolted and killed us all off…

I think some of my kids equate the alphabet with Hiragana (The Japanese Phonetic characters, primarily used for grammar and to assist in the reading of Kanji), but the problem is that it doesn’t work the same way in both languages… the letter “ka” is always pronounced “ka” in Hiragana… it never changes… the letter “c”, however, might be pronounced “See” or “Kah.” Which, logically would be more like Kanji with its myriad readings… I think were I Japanese, I would make the logic step from Romaji (The Japanese word for English letters) to Kanji rather than Romaji to Hiragana.

Hmm…

They see things exactly the way my dyslexia-stricken brain sees words: Complete units. It’s why I have such problems with Random Capitalization. Some of my… er “English Kanji” in my Brain have just been Learned without their lowercase “kanji”…

The more I learn about the Japanese, the more I learn about me.

-Me.

The Large Kyudo Meeting (Honest, that's the name)

2008-01-07T21:22:00.001+09:00

So I am at practice one night and I say to Sensei: "Sensei, sometime I want to take pictures of you."

"Okay!" he says in reply, "On January 6, I have to do a presentation, please take pictures then."

Cool. I say...

When, where, how long? These things are completely unimportant, this is martial arts, I will go wherever, whenever, for however long...

So, Saturday rolls around and I go to practice.

"Sensei... Um... where am I going tomorrow?"

Sensei starts laughing, "You don't have any idea, do you?" He says.

I nod...

"Okay, You will be with Mr Center (The other newbie... though he's been with the Dojo for about a year and a half longer than I), Just follow him."

"Hey Guy!" Mr Center says, he and I are great friends, actually, and I'm glad to be assigned to him, "Okay, I'll be at your place at 6:50."

"6:50..." I say, feeling the cold leetch into my bones, my last few days of vacation and I'm spending them getting up at 6... "Okay, I'll be there!"

So Sunday morning comes along and I'm up before false dawn... I shower, prep all the cameras (I'm using both the Video and my SLR for this), and I go out to get the ice off of the car.

Now, I should mention, I'm no stranger to ice, but this area has the approximate climate of Houston, and so though I can get ice off of my car easily... it took me some time to get a good ice scraper... because these people believe that there is no ice here...

Anyway while waiting for Mr Center, I look at a little printout that Mr Grave (Another of my favorite people) gave me. It shows Highway 50... a highway I'm simply not familiar with... So I pull out my driving map.

It's in a city I've never been to before... And it's an hour North... well, at least Mr. Center is leading the way...

Mr. Center shows up on time (And apologises for being late... It's a Japanese thing), and we are on our way, Mr. Center in his White plate car (Big engine) leaving my yellow plate (Small Engine) car in the dust. I struggle to keep up with him... and I manage it, barely...

We make it to Far Out There City and we go to the dojo...

It turns out to be the Greater Western State Prefectural Dojo Competiton. And there are kids from schools all over the area there...

I set up my camera, and Sensei goes onto the stage and opens the ceremonies... It turns out he is the ranking master, so he is the head judge. (This means I don't actually get instructions from him...Luckily I guessed correctly and he was happy with my results).

After the opening ceremonies, Sensei does a lovely presentation for all gathered. Kyudo is such a beautiful martial art, full of ceremony and precise actions. Sensei makes it look simple.

After the ceremonies, the first of the High school kids gets to shoot on the target... And suddenly I recognize one of the kids up there...

It's Bow-chan! She is here with her schools' Kyudo team! She is wearing a strange purple headband... which I soon learn means she is a first year (Because she is)... with her is another of my girls from last year... who I even remember her name (An amazing accomplishment since all kids wear nametags... but they are written in Kanji, so I have to work extra hard to remember anyone's name). I say hello to my ex-student, who bows to me (That's why I remembered her, she was very, very polite... and as a third year, that was a rather rare trait). She talks to her pals, her other students (She was also wearing one of those "First year" headbands), explaining that I was her teacher last year, and she goes off...

It should be noted at this time that I really REALLY stand out... I'm the only foreigner... I'm not kidding, I am the sole foreigner here. Of the probably 500 people here, I'm the only one with blue eyes... I am a sensation, everyone wants to know who I am... Sensei makes a point of asking how I am every 10 minutes (I still have that stupid cold, week four for those counting... but Maia brought me NyQuil... It's half gone, but I am much better now. I love my Maia.) and my dojo-mates are all into explaining in detail all about me...

Now I have Bow chan to talk to. She chats only a little, because she is a first year, and that means she is in charge of stringing everyone's bow, wrapping everyone's bow, and taking care of the arrows... and they are snapping at her when she so much as looks out of line... but she did manage to chat with me twice... I was so happy. She talked to me in English... I am a proud teacher.

I took 300 pictures at this meeting, and I noticed the early ones were not so good... I seemed to have "Warmed up" as time went on... literally and figuratively... it was pretty cold that morning.

I am having a real time with focus. I turned off the auto-focus a long time ago because it was bothering me (It had trouble guessing what it was that I was focusing on so it would just bounce all over the place). But I have trouble seeing whether it's clear in my viewfinder... I have a focus light in my camera, but I don't always see it (Because of the angle)... so the early shots are just slightly out of focus...

I haven't really sorted the pictures yet, but I will. When I do, I have some pictures to send to Bow-Chan.

5 months until my Sho-dan test.

---Me.

Japanese don't get sick on Wednesday...

2007-12-20T08:03:00.000+09:00

Of course many of you probably know that the Japanese medical system is socialized. Which, if you listen to the Anti-Socialist Americans means looong lines to fix a broken bone and X-rays from the 1950's...

Of course, none of that is true here in Japan.

So far, I've gone to the doctor four times, twice for routine health checks and twice because of random illnesses that have gripped me for whatever reason (Well, not for whatever reason, I'm a teacher... kids are germ-generators... it DOES make some sense).

The Health checks are routine and I don't need to do anything more than say "Hi, I'm Me" and they load me into a room, take my blood pressure (Which has been falling every single time... yeah!), blood, etc... make me pee in a cup, then haul me off to be nuked (X-rayed). Then, (As you may remember from my last little excursion), they tell me my kidneys are failing... wait... no, you just excersized? Oh, then there is no problem.

Well, I have had a very persistant cold, It started last Monday and by last Wednesday I had lost my voice. My voice came back on Thursday, but the stupid cold stayed on... By Wednesday, my Vice Principal was threatening to carry me to the hospital himself.

The problem is this: we have no IC's (People who help us with Japanese-English interface) here in MyCity anymore. Our wonderful IC whom I really adored, quit about 5 months ago... meaning that the teachers out here are completely on their own.

Now, I had discovered that a doctor at the hospital near me spoke English, so I figured I was set.

Nope.

You see, the only Hospital open on Wednesday in my town is the ER hospital. And it's only open until 5.

I'm guessing the ER part of the ER hospital stays open... Strike that: I'm hoping the ER part of the ER hospital stays open... But I'm not sure.

Anyway, That's one of the most frustrating things about being an American on Japanese soil... In the beginning I used to think the Japanese were simply crazy, but now I am starting to see Mal's point of view with Americans just expecting everything instantly.

Gas stations close at 9, ATMs close at 8, Hospitals close at 5 or 6, Pharmacies close at 4... if you need these things, you need to be there before these times. You MUST plan ahead here.

Some things don't make any sense, of course... how do you plan your car accident ahead of time? "Oh wait, it's 7:30, I do believe I'll postpone my salmonella poisioning until tomorrow morning..."

I guess those would be ER things... provided the ER stays open (It should be noted that the ER is brand-new... built after I came here... so even if it does stay open... what did they do before it was here?)

And it is a small crack in the vision of the ceaslessly working Japanese... because no matter how hard you work, you have to leave before these times to pull money out, go get aspirin (Which you can only get in a Phamacy here... so if you have a headache, please have it before 4PM), get gasoline, or even go to the supermarket (Only convinience stores are open 24 hours, and not even all of them are at that). So even though they'd like you to think they never leave their desks and are tireless workers... it cannot possibly be true... I have no desire to project that image and it is a full time job scheduling things so that I never run out of gas, always have at least $300 on me at all times, and am properly fed... Add a cold and man I'm overloaded.

Erm... I don't have much else to add to this story except that: Without my IC I had to go to the Hospital by myself, explain my symptoms in Japanese, respond to questions in Japanese, and get instructions in Japanese... Which, I'll tell you now, was a real... pain. :) It's bad enough to be sick... it's worse to be sick and alone in a foreign hospital and having to rely on your broken foreign language skills... It's even harder if you are someone like me who understands that Doctors are people too and feel compelled, even through all of these drawbacks, to crack jokes and smile at the doctors and nurses... I hope you appreciate me, Mal!!!!!! ;D

Oh, Mal, Dad: My blood pressure was 120 over 60 (Or 60 over 120... I never remember which one is the top number). Which has fallen steadily from 200 over 90 when I arrived in Japan two years ago. Since my first health check upon my arrival (Where the nurse looked at my 200/90 and nearly panicked right there and then), my blood pressure has never ventured even near there...

---Still sick, coughing (That cough that you love so much, Mal... and my kids run in sheer terror from), and sniffling... and just generally wishing that they had NyQuil here...

The Shinjuku Photo Safari

2007-12-01T09:50:00.000+09:00

So, last Friday was a national holiday, so my friend Blain and I packed up our cameras and headed off to the Buroughs of Tokyo on a Photo Safari:

Our first stop was Asakusa, with the beautiful Sensoji Temple:

I don't know why the temple had public phones, but they were interesting, and both Blain and I found them stunning... needless to say we both took pictures...

...then I set up with my street-zoom (300MM lens) and started taking pictures of the people entering the temple complex... I love this man's face:

I noticed a great deal of little kids in Kimono... Blain told me that it was Seven-Five-Three, the traditional holiday where kids aged -you guessed it-, seven, five or three years old dressed up and went to the temples... Well, this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up:

But that wasn't the best shot from Asakusa... I saw this little girl in a purple kimono and I redied my camera... then I took three shots... the last one (The one that came up on my screen) was a real loss... out of focus, cropped badly... bad color balance and I was so sad... but then, after I got home, I saw the first one of the set (The one I had set up my camera for... she was walking toward me after all), and I was stunned:

I'm not sure I could have done better if I tried...

....

I also got some great shots of lanterns from the main thuroughfare...

I love those lanterns:

...

After that was Shinjuku. The section of Tokyo famous for having the Krispy Kreme... yes, THE Krispy Kreme... there was a sign out front that said "The wait to get a doughnut is 1 hour and 30 minutes"... the line for the door trailed back 150 meters or so from the building entrance... I took pictures, but they weren't really "Portfolio quality", so you all can see them in my scrapbook when I get back. :D

What I did take from Shinjuku was this stunning picture of the high-rises from the bookstore... the amazing thing is; I took this shot without a tripod! :D

Shinjuku also had this wonderful display of what it called "A Circus of Light". Wire pagodas and wire animals were rigged with Christmas lights in a fantastic display... of course, me being me, I didn't care much for the wide shots... but I loved the close-ups...

Last we came back to Akihabara, also known as the Electric Town... If it runs on electricity, you can find it in Akihabara. I found this light shop (That's all they sell, lights... ) on a street corner and decided to have a lot of fun... This shop was so bright that on this cold November night I was being warmed by being on the sidewalk in front of this place... I set my light meter to the sidewalk, locked the shutter open (So my camera thought it was going to take a picture of a nighttime street), and snapped this shot:

---Shutterme

Another Day, Another Crackpot theory

2007-11-25T08:12:00.000+09:00

Well, many of you know that since I read Desmond Morris' "The Naked Ape" I have been completely enamored with the "Water Ape" Theory.

This theory states that we humans, during that time when we were apes, descended from the trees, and then, instead of walking on the savannah, we got into the water... The theory has some very good points... the most damning of the points being that humans can swim immediately after birth, but can't walk... much less take care of themselves on land for more than 2 years. Humans also have hair like a seal all over their bodies (very tiny except in key places). And fat that is distributed under the skin, like a whale or a seal, not around the internal organs like an ape. Also... we are the only primates that can control our breathing... the other primates, they drown in water. In fact, very few animals can control their breathing... the vast majority of the animals that can... live in the water.

And, of course, it has been disputed by science not because it's a bad theory, but because the woman who came up with it was a crackpot.

So, for 40 years, the standing theory in science is that humans were apes in trees, then one day they climbed down, lost their hair, stood upright, started to control their breathing, had babies that couldn't even run from predators, got amazing dexterity control, and were humans... no reason for these changes... they just were.

...And then Science goes off to laugh at the Christian Creation theories...

You may also know my absolute hatred for the "Pangaea" Theory (For those not in the know, Pangaea is the theory that all the continents were once fitted together into a "Supercontinent" called "Pangaea" which lived on the left side of the planet). My problem being that things in space form (Roughly) spheres... not spheres with a big lump on the left side... Pangaea was a violation of the general laws of gravity and the nature of space...

But last night I was led to an answer to Pangaea that I could believe in...

http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/81096/detail/

The theory was first put forth (Like the Water Ape theory) in the 60's by a fellow named S. Warren Carey.

Here's the theory; the Earth has been growing since the creation. The continents were all once connected... but they were all connected together... the planet had no oceans (That's not true, but the oceans were in a different place... inland).

The video talks a little about how this theory works, and it should be noted that I really don't buy the timeline...

But put in a larger timeline, and fitted with a modified (Heavily) creation model, I think I like it better than any other Creation Earth model I have experienced (Isn't that arrogant? Erm... please take that in the manor of which I meant it :D);

Here we go:

Starting with the "Cooling Disk" theory of creation, we lived in a Birthing Nebula, like the one in the Belt of Orion. Inside this nebula, a disk of material formed, spinning around a central point. This point will ultimately become the sun... for now, though, it is just a disk-y mass.

Five distinct masses begin to separate themselves in the disk, the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, along with a whole mess of smaller pieces of material which has no home.

At this time, the sun is huge, and not quite making nuclear fusion really well, but it has a lot of mass, so the other four planets orbit it... Jupiter orbits really close to the Suns' surface.

Time passes, and the Sun shrinks, putting a lot of pressure on the materials inside it, which then pass the Coulomb barrier (The point where the electrostatic force that keeps atoms away from each other is overcome). The sun then goes "live" and lights up, making a solar system of four planets and a whole bunch of junk.

The junk starts to fall toward the sun and towards Jupiter... and gravity forces them to form a "Ring" around the sun akin to Saturn’s rings. The rings form 4 distinct bands, An "A" Ring, which is thin from being swept into the sun, a "B" and "C" ring, which, separated by a gap, are rich with the junk at the center of the system, and a "D" ring, of which material is constantly falling into Jupiter.

Time passes, and inside the rings, the rocks are forming planets... small ones at first... probably started by a large asteroid which, being the biggest thing in the ring, starts to sweep up the rest of the ring during its orbit of the sun. Before long (Galactically speaking), the rings disappear, leaving four planets; Planet "A" is small, most of the material being swept into the sun, Planets B and C are the same size, being part of the inner rings, not stolen from... planet D is also small, having its ring material being stolen by Jupiter... but Jupiter is smaller than the Sun, so the D is not as tiny as A.

Pressure on that initial asteroid that formed these planets, becomes intense... and deep within these planets cores, the rocks too pass the Coulomb barrier and become molten, heating up the mass of rock from the inside... And when something heats up, it expands.

All four of these little planets then begin to expand... ice and gasses that were part of the ring of matter that is now a planet start to boil to the surface, heavier metals start to sink to the core. This is a great sifting process for the planets. Soon you have all kinds of interesting layers of material; heavy metals at the core, light metals on the surface, mixed with heavy liquids, and then gasses on top of all of that... Poof, you have a living breathing planet...

But more telling than that is the fact that the crust has been expanding, like a cookie in the oven, the crust has cracked and popped apart, allowing new crust to form underneath it. The new crust (Like those on your cookie in the oven) is deeper into the planet... the planet, having an atmosphere, prevents what little junk is left in the system from filling those holes... so they remain, like wounds... Water fills the holes on Earth and Mars...

Time passes again, and now you have life forming on Earth and maybe elsewhere, but the four planets are still, slowly, expanding... but Mercury runs out of space inside it... the atoms pass back through the Coulomb barrier, and Mercury's core goes cold. A little while later, Mars, also being on the smallish side, follows suit, losing it's ocean and it's atmosphere, neither one being replenished from the boiling gasses in the crust. Earth and Venus, though, are larger, and still have some growing to go... so they haven't gone cold yet.

This theory intrigues me... and, like the water ape theory before it, it was abandoned in the 70's by science... even though (As the video shows with the ages of the ocean floor) it does seem that newer science is supporting this theory (the plates on the planet are moving away from the Atlantic and the Pacific... not just the Atlantic as Pangaea maintains... it's hard to have a supercontinent that lived in one place but came from two places).... There doesn't seem to be a reason for this abandonment... it just was... and now we teach Pangaea... Which violates the laws of nature...

The Japanese have nothing on Science for being stubborn about something even when all the evidence points away from the theory.

Hmm...

---Me

FREEDOM!!!

2007-11-19T21:19:00.000+09:00

Because I know many of you don't watch Japanese Animation I generally don't post about it...

However, I did get a degree in Animation, so I do enjoy watching said animation...

And sometimes one thing just completely startles me...

This one thing is Otomo Katsuhiro's new project called the "Freedom Project". Six Direct-to-video (Which in Japan doesn't mean "Relly Bad" like it does in America) animations sponsored by Nissin Cup-of-noodles (Which shows up a lot in the Anime, sometimes with rather humorous results).

Other than the fact that the opening song is voiced by Utada Hikaru (One of my favorite singers), the animation was so stunning I literally stopped talking to Maia on the phone to stare, open mouthed, at the anime...

Otomo Katsuhiro is best known for the anime "Akira", which is one of the landmark Anime's in the history of the Genre. The animation in that was so groundbreaking that, in 1989 when it came out, many Americans suddenly sat up and took notice of this little niche market called "Anime"...

He's out to do it again.

Freedom Project takes place on the Moon, about 300 years in the future. A disaster befell the Earth and killed everyone but the folks on the (then) fledgling moon colony... so the only survivors of the Human race live on the moon.

That was then, this is now.

Now, the main charcters live in a thriving moon colony where they race really nifty motorcycles (Think Tetsuo's bike from Akira, except with SW Episode One's variations and sound effects). I won't give away too much of the plot, but it has me hooked... I can see why it has been rented out every time I went to the video store for the last three months...

The animation is, mostly, 3D... but the only reason I can tell is that they still have "Drift" (As in the movements are a little too fluid, the head moves to the left and drifts back to the right a little. One of the little telltales of 3D animation... and something that is really hard to detect). But the 3D models are perfect... they look hand-drawn! There are still shots (Where the crowd is watching the bikes prepare for racing, so nothing is moving...) which are obviously hand-drawn, but the animation... is 3D... and it merges seemlessly! I was having a hard time seeing the switch... (In fact, I'm still not sure where the switch really was!)...

The thing that I loved most, though, was the opening credits (Again, not just because of Hikki's song), there are shots of the bikes racing in the "Racing Tubes" which are rendered as if they are from the Manga (Comic Book)... complete with ziptoning! (The black dots that comics use to simulate gray values so that they can print it... if you have ever photocopied somthing that was drawn in pencil, you'll understand what I mean. Ziptoning prevents that "Blotted black" look that you get when printing a page). The bikes squeal around corners and there are little floating "KI! KI! KI! KI! KI! KI"s (The Japanese sound for squealing tires in a comic) that drift by the skidding bikes! It's absolutely gorgeous!

If it wasn't $60 for each 30 minute disk (USED, no less)... I'd own the whole lot... as it is, I'll have to just rent them, watch them, then wait until I get home and buy it there...

Ironically, Anime is one commodity that Japan knows it has and prices accordingly... I have rarely found any Anime for less that $20... new OR used. Most new DVD's are $70-$100. Now I only buy Anime I know I can't get in the US... I bought Macross the movie, which is 25 years old (And completely unavailble in the US), used for $70... because I had no other choice. It sold new at $75, and resold at $70... that's the way it is... And the only extras on the disk are 4 television commercials from the original movie release in 1984...

So, if you folks are looking at buying Star Trek: Remastered and are complaining about the $140 price tag for 20 hours of television... keep in mind that Anime is roughly $100 per each hour over here...

---Impressed with "Freedom Project"