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Reminiscing

With the holidays here upon us, like many folks I am trying to finish off the final few errands before Christmas strikes. This includes buying a few gifts (which I am finally done with as of this evening – whew!), packing, listening to Christmas songs and generally trying to get in the mood of the holidays despite the fact that work is crazy as always.

With regards to the “trying to get in the mood”, I have been doing the usual listening to Christmas music as well as setting the Tivo to record various Christmas programs. I didn’t bother to decorate this year, because only Zach and I would see the decorations, us being in an apartment and all. Also, I’ve been too busy at work to really want to go to the effort. Lately by the time I get home from work I am exhausted.

Anyway, some of the songs and shows of Christmas have me reminiscing back to the days of yore ( πŸ™‚ ) when I was little. One memory in particular comes back to me. I used to love watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but two things always bothered me. One was the Abominable Snow Monster, who seemed to me to be the most incredibly scary monster ever. I mean, he scared the heck out of me for a long time. The other was the sad plight of the Red Pokedotted Elephant and the other misfit toys. It always seemed incredibly cruel to me that no one would want such a cute toy elephant πŸ™‚ To show you what a big softie I am, even now my eyes mist over when I watch that part. πŸ™‚ But enough reminiscing… I still have to finish packing!

Google Video

Thanks to JC’s SCHUA video, I have now discovered Google Video! I didn’t know this existed, but it is kinda interesting. Take for example this video of an idiot getting shot with 140 paintballs. Or this one of Bob Sapp (a sort of ultimate fighter in something called the K1) chasing little Japanese women around trying to rip balls off of them and vice versa (don’t ask, just click). This one, which is a parody of the Power Rangers is hilarious! Or this one about how 9/11 might have been an attack by the US Government or some other much more organized entity than Al Qaeda. This last video claims that the aircraft that attacked the Trade Centers were not passenger aircraft and in fact did not have windows. In addition, it claims that the plane that hit the South Tower had extra equipment on it and fired a missle into the tower right before impact. This seems kinda far fetched, but one of the interviews with a Fox newsreporter who was interviewed right after the attack (and you can listen to it in the video) said that the plane he saw hit the tower had markings he had never seen before, NOT like a normal airline aircraft. One has to assume he would know what a United Airlines plane looks like, they are certainly not difficult to identify. Aside from this discrepency, the analysis of the Pentagon attack certainly brings up a lot of questions. As does the collapse of Trade Center Building 7, which supposedly was brought down by internal fires, which incidentally, have never caused a steel skyscraper to collapse. Incidentally, several government agencies, including the CIA and SEC had offices in this building and the files for several SEC criminal investigations (of Bush friends?) were completely destroyed in this building collapse. Coincidence? Is it possible that 9/11 was some sort of neo-con special op designed to give George Bush and his republican cronies free reign to try out their “new world order”? Yes, I know it sounds like conspiracy theory whackoness, and I think this video goes over the top sometimes, but it asks some good questions and points out some VERY interesting things. Worth watching I think.

Just a Piece of Paper

Apparently, last month our “Commander in Chief” called some congressmen & women into his Oval Office and tried to convince them all that the fascist, draconian piece of shite known as the PATRIOT Act was a good thing. When confronted by said congresspeople and his aides about how damaging to the Constitution this police state law is, our wonderful president shot back, Ò€œStop throwing the Constitution in my face,Ò€ Bush screamed back. Ò€œItÒ€ℒs just a goddamned piece of paper!Ò€.

If anyone ever wondered why we’ve lost more rights under George Bush the Younger than under any other administration in the history of the US, there is your answer. To Georgie, the Constitution is just a piece of paper for him to sop up the few civil rights we have left and toss them down the toilet. If he thinks that it is just a piece of paper, I don’t guess we can count on him to live up to his oath and spend his term “protecting and defending” it, huh?

Sailing Off Into the Sunset




Sailing Off Into the Sunset

Originally uploaded by neepster.

Again, apologies for not posting very often. Work has been crazy busy. In addition to that, and in part because of it, I have been out of town a LOT. In the month of November I spent only about 8 days in the US. The rest of the time I was either in Japan or Mexico. The beautiful photo to the right of this entry was taken the day after Thanksgiving in Rocky Point, Mexico. The sunsets there were amazing. Easily some of the most beautiful I have ever seen and this one was maybe the best. Something to remember forever. Absolutely gorgeous. Some more photos are up on Flickr.

Himeji




Chris and Himeji

Originally uploaded by neepster.

Since this weekend finds me and my friend Chris B in Japan together, so we met up in Osaka and decided to go see Himeji Castle. I met up with my friend Chris B on Sunday and we hopped the trains to Himeji.

When we got to Himeji, we walked to the castle, taking a lot of photos along the way.

Himeji Castle is one of the few original castles in Japan that haven’t been burned down in an earthquake or firebombed or atom bombed, etc., which made it worth seeing for us.

Chris and I wound our way though the iron clad gates to the main keep and climbed all the way to the top (6th) floor and looked out over Himeji.
At the top they have a Shinto shrine that seems to include praying to Geikikakan Sake πŸ™‚

After climbing to the top and then back down, including some really short ceilings on the stairways that made me think I needed Hermes Conrad’s limbo skills, we got back down to the bottom and took some more really cool photos. Then we found the Harakiri (ritual suicide) area which was probably about as nice a place as one could find within the castle to decide to disembowel oneself….

After that we bought some souvenirs and headed back to Osaka.

Come Fly With Me, Come Fly Away

It’s been almost a month or something like that since I posted to my blog. So, whatever readership I had that were not close personal friends or family has, I’m sure, given up and stopped bothering long since. But just to let you know that I am still alive, here’s a CONTROVERSIAL NEW BLOG ENTRY* and of course, I will try to post more in the future (as well as try to never drink to excess again, lie again, and a bunch of other things that are going to keep happening, so don’t hold your breath).

Life once again finds me on a plane to Japan. I have lost track of how many times this is, but it is #4 for this year…. I think my best guess is something like #17 or some such total trips to Japan and about 18 or 19 to the Far East…

I have come to the conclusion 11 hours is too long for anyone to be on a plane. Ok, scratch that. I assume 11 hours is just fine to be on a plane if you are flying to Paris for a romantic get together with your sexy lover, but it is way, WAY too long to be on a plane for a business trip.

Additionally, 11 hours is too long to fly because not only do you have to sit in seats that were seemingly designed by Torquemada for the Spanish Inquistion (but rejected as being too cruel and inhumane) and desperately try to fight off deep vein thrombosis, but your options for entertainment are limited to one or more of the following:
1. Do email, play video games or do something else on your computer, which in my case means for about 45 minutes before my aging battery konks out.
2. Listen to your music player or the songs on the inflight music station until your ears bleed from the pain of the earbuds
3. Read a book or a magazine. I like to read Wired, as it pretty much confines itself to interviewing geeks who have made several hundred million dollars doing relatively obvious things that I would have never had the guts to try… really builds up the self esteem πŸ™‚
4. Fantasize about things… usually s** (Mom and Dad, do not read this part), but sometimes geeky stuff like “what would I be if I lived in Ancient Rome”… yes…. maybe this post should not be posted….. hmm…
5. Deeply analyze your life, noting things you did well and right (seemingly few) and things you did poorly and wrong (seemingly many)
6. Grow emotional about #5, and for added fun, relive some of the poorly and wrong moments, mentally kicking yourself for your stupidity
7. Watch various recent Hollywood (or Japanese) movies on the little screen in front of you (Boeing 777) or on the wall at the front of the plane (Boeing 747), designed to appeal to the widest audience possible which usually means a relatively poor action flick (not too violent now), two comedies and two romantic, emotional movies.
8. Grow emotional about #7… especially the last part of it. Yes, I know I am a guy…. but YOU try sitting in the dark for 11 hours with only the silent bodies of your fellow passengers and the white noise of the turbofans and see how YOU feel, especially after having done #5 for a few hours…
9. Try to manage your fluid intake so you don’t have to climb over your fellow passengers more than 2 or 3 times during the flight to go pee…
10. Try not to eat ALL of the Hershey’s chocolate kisses, Oreos, Pringles and/or beef jerky you bought in SFO when you knew you wouldn’t be able to stand eating that nasty, nasty cattle class “cuisine” with it’s rock hard rice bits and pseudomeat and have to have SOMETHING on your 11 hour flight.

Additional things that SOMETIMES provide entertainment value
A) Noting exactly what flight course the plane is on on the map that is kindly displyed for you by the airline and counting down (vainly) the minutes until landing. Note that on this particular flight, we are NOT taking a great circle route to Nagoya, but instead are just cutting right across the Pacific. This has the added advantage of putting us even farther away than usual from any emergency landing strips.. which leads into:
B) Trying to anticipate when the next burst of violent turbulence will occur and time that to when you need to get up and pee. Pray that you don’t mis-time it and get stuck sitting for an hour and half while you go through turbulence so bad that no flight attendant can move, much less any passengers (last flight).
C) Try to pretend that while B is happening, you don’t really need to think about A because if anything goes wrong the odds of you making it to an alternate landing strip large enough to handle the monster plane you are in are low, odds of living through a crash on the ocean are even lower and the odds of surviving more than a few minutes in the cold water of the North Pacific are essentially nil. Just ask the Titanic survivors who went into the cold water of the North Atlantic… hmm… wait, there weren’t any πŸ™‚

Anyway, the absolute WORST part of the plane ride is the last 3 hours. I desperately try to avoid looking at the clock/map more than every half hour, but what seems like a half hour to me is apparently only 5 minutes to the time sucking vortex that is an aircraft flying to Japan. For the last 3 hours I desperately, desperately want to get the HELL OFF THE AIRPLANE. It progressively gets worse until for the last hour I silently plead to whatever higher power exists that can we PLEASE, PLEASE LAND RIGHT NOW! Inevitably, the answer is… “Sorry, no we can’t.”

On one last final note, I estimate that I have spent >360 hours on planes to the Far East in the last 10 years… that is more than 2 solid WEEKS! And just so you don’t think I am always a glass half empty sort of person, there’s been a lot of fun at the end of some of those plane rides…. so I guess it was worth it πŸ™‚

* I consider any blog entry to be controversial that shows that I have any emotions other than constant, unbounded joy, or that mentions my innermost thoughts or other things that I feel uncomfortable having other people know.. in other words, most of this post.

This is Gator Country




This is Gator Country

Originally uploaded by neepster.

Last weekend I went with my family down to visit Gainesville, FL and see my little brother. On Saturday we saw went to the Florida-Mississippi State football game at the Swamp. It had been 9 years since I’d been to a college football game, and the game at the Swap was a lot of fun. Florida won 35-9, scoring on a blocked punt and TWO safeties. After the game we had a good time at JC’s place, although our choice of card games was probably not his favorite. Oh, and for future reference, getting really, really drunk off of Jagermiester is not a good idea πŸ™‚

Shinkansen Goes ZOOOOM!

While I was in Japan last time, Mat and Sriram and I happened to be in Gifu-Hashima station near Nagoya at night when a Shinkansen went flying through the station. Sriram had the presence of mind to record it on his camera, so if you ever wanted to see (and hear) what it is like to be right next to a Shinkansen flying along at 280km/hr, look at this.

About 5 minutes after this video was taken, two Shinkansens went through the station simultaneously from opposite directions at full speed. Waaaaayyy cool. Unforunately Sriram didn’t get that on video very well. Share and enjoy.

Nara




Chris at the Todaiji

Originally uploaded by neepster.

Another post from Japan a couple of weeks ago.

On Saturday we checked out of the hotel, checked our bags with the bell hop and took a train to Nara. Nara was the capital of Japan for 74 years starting in 710 AD, before the emperor got tired of the all the powerful Buddhist monks in Nara and decided to move to Kyoto. There are several very old and large Buddhist temples in Nara. The most famous is probably the Todaiji, an immense wooden building (supposedly the largest wooden building in the world) which contains the Daibutsu (Large Buddha). Given that we had limited time, I exercised my executive travel agent decision and decided we would concentrate on the Todaiji and the Daibutsu since we had to move to Hiroshima in the afternoon.

We arrived at Nara via the Kyoto to Nara JR train. Leaving Nara station, we wandered across the street to KFC because Mat was looking for some breakfast. After some chicken nuggets that tasted suspiciously like fish, we stepped outside for a photo op. The restaurant had Colonel Sanders dressed up like a jack-o-lantern and Mat just had to get a photo with him. After some KFC, we headed down the street towards the park and the Todaiji. Although Nara is in the mountains, it is not very high up and it was HOT. Almost as hot and sticky as Kyoto was. We walked up a commercial street past the Nara pagodas and into the park near the Todaiji. In the park we saw the first of the famous Nara deer. An older gentleman was being accosted by the deer and tried to send her our way. Further into the park, we took some more pictures and stopped to buy some deer food. Or, as the nice vendor said, “Bambi foodu desu”. The deer are smart and hang out near the vendors and then SWARM once they realize some sucker is actually buying food. After being accosted by multiple deer, we made our way down the street, past some vendors to the Todaiji and the Daibutsu. After several more deer pictures, we at last reached the Todaiji. We hung out around the front of this massive wooden structure, taking a lot of pictures before going inside to see the Daibutsu. Inside, we wandered around the Daibutsu, looking at the model they have of how the temple complex looked like originally, with some very large pagodas that have since burned down, then seeing the column with a hole in it that it is rumored that you will go to “heaven” in the afterlife if you can crawl through it. Apparently only the children will. At the end of the tour around the Daibutsu, Sriram and I donated for the new roof of the Daibutsu, getting to paint our names on the inside of a roof tile. So, in a hundred years or two hundred, or whenever they redo the roof, a worker will see our names :).

After that, we had to hurry back to Kyoto and get our bags and head to Hiroshima. We stopped just long enough for Sriram to buy a katana (non-sharp kind, as in Japan you have to have a permit to buy the sharp ones), giving rise to all sorts of Guantanamo jokes for the rest of the trip.

Kyoto




Chris and Mat at Kinkakuji

Originally uploaded by neepster.

Today a delayed post on my last visit to Japan (2 weeks ago).

We spent Friday going through Kyoto. We got a bit of a late start because of complications arising from the “Shot Bar”, but we were out and on our way to the Toji by 11am or so. We took the local train one stop from Kyoto station to the Toji, which is a 5 tiered pagoda Buddhist temple which is synonymous with Kyoto. Most of the Toji buildings were built in the late 700s AD, but almost all of them burnt down either from lightning or from the dynastic wars of the 1500s, and so these particular instances of the buildings are only about 400 years old :). Still older than almost any building you can find in the US. Keep this in mind, this is a common theme with Japanese temples. Very old.

After the Toji, we walked to the Kyoto subway and rode it north to Nijo-jo. Nijo Castle (Jo) was started in 1601 by Ieyasu Tokugawa (the 1st Tokugawa shogun). It was mostly complete by 1603, but was not 100% done until 1626. The Tokugawa shoguns ruled Nijo-jo until the Meiji Restoration in 1867, after which the Castle was given to the Imperial family. It was donated to the city of Kyoto in 1939. It is a World Heritage site. While not as impressive as Osaka Castle, it is quite nice in that it is one of the few original palaces still left. The original nightingale floor (which squeaks when you walk on it, to discourage ninja or other assassins from sneaking in) is still in place and the original shoji paintings, etc., are also still there.

After Nijo-jo, the next stop was the Kinkakuji, also known as the Golden Pavillion. Originally a retirement home for the third Ashikaga shogun, it eventually became a Rinzai Zen Buddhist temple before it was burned down in 1950 by an obsessed student. It was rebuilt in 1955 with more gold than it originally had, giving it its current beautiful appearance. The official Kinkakuji site also has a web cam, but remember that Kyoto is GMT +9 hours, so your best chance of not seeing darkness is in late afternoon/evening US.

Before hitting the Kinkakuji, we decided to find some food. Since Mat and Sriram still hadn’t had any “real” japanese food, we went looking for some. Since Sriram is a vegetarian (and does not eat fish), this was a bit hard :). However, we did find a noodle place down the street from the Kinkakuji that had some kareudon. Or to anglicize it, Curry Udon. Sriram liked the kareudon so much that we spent much of the rest of the trip looking for more πŸ™‚

After the Kinkakuji, we decided to go to Chionin, a temple on the east side of Kyoto near the Westin Miyako hotel. We took the subway and walked from the Keage stop to Chionin. Unfortuately, by the time we got to Chionin, it was about 4:30 or so, and the temple had closed. Or at least, that’s what we assumed. While standing around outside Chionin, we noticed this really cool cloud being backlit by the sun. After this disappointment, we wandered back to the subway and ran back to the hotel before going out to Shin-kyogoku for some shopping. We probably walked in excess of 10 miles that day, so we decided to forego the “Shot Bar” again and turned in early, especially since we were going to Nara on Saturday. All the photos are up here. Next up: Nara.

I’m in the News!




$3.20 Gasoline

Originally uploaded by neepster.

I was at the gas station yesterday, staring in shock at the amount of money I had to pay to fill up my vehicle, when I decided to use the phone cam to record it for posterity. No more than 30 seconds after I took this picture, a reporter for the Arizona Republic came up and asked me some questions. As expected, out of our 5 minute conversation she picked the choice quotes she liked, rather than the ones I did, but here I am, recorded in the NEWS!

Gion




Gion Street

Originally uploaded by neepster.

Last night we got to Kyoto and decided to go to Gion, the district famous for Geisha, the traditional Japanese art persons/courtesans. Gion today is an interesting place, full of a variety of eating establishments and bars. We wandered through Gion marvelling at the streets that looked like they had been there for 400 years (and probably have been) and managed to find a cool place to have a drink. The “ShotBar” as the only English sign described it, was small. Only about 8 people could sit there and drink and we were the only ones there until we left. The proprietor was a nice guy who didn’t speak any English, but let us get a bit rowdy in good humor before we finally had had enough and headed back to the hotel. On the way back, we saw a maiko, an apprentice geisha, clogging across the street in her tall wooden sandals. Way cool. Photos are on flikr.

Zenkoji




Zenkoji

Originally uploaded by neepster.

Once again I am in Japan for business and pleasure. Monday morning found us in Nagano, so I took Sriram and Bin to the most famous landmark in Nagano, Zenkoji before we had to go to work. Zenkoji is a famous buddhist temple that has been around for 1400 years and is reputed to contain the first statue of Buddha brought to Japan. However, a copy of the statue is shown to the public only every seven years. So we did not see it. After working hard on Monday, some of us moved to Tokyo and the beautiful Imperial Hotel. After a nice dinner at the wonderful Maharaja Indian restaurant, I decided to walk all the way around the Imperial Palace. It is gigantic. It took me more than an hour and a half to walk all the way around it. After that, I trudged back to the hotel and immediately dropped into bed. Photos are up on flickr.

Sake & Laziness

Yeah, I know I haven’t posted much lately (why do my posts always start with that?), but frankly I haven’t really felt like it (and why is that always in there?).

However, I recently came across a very useful link about sake. For those who remember, sake is one of my top 3 favorite things about Japan. The Shinkansen and Akihabara are the other 2. There is a website called John Gauntner’s Sake World, which has a LOT of useful English info about sake. Reading Mr. Gauntner’s resume certainly leads me to believe he is probably the foremost English speaking expert on sake, and maybe even just foremost, English speaking or not. Worth checking out if you love sake, as I and Tim certainly do.

The Backstroke of the West

Not sure if you all have seen this before or not… perhaps JC has. Apparently some folks in China pirated the chinese version of Stars Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. However, to make money in the english market, the pirates translated the chinese translations straight back to english. Whoever did it obviously did not speak english, but the translations are absolutely HILARIOUS. Revenge of the Sith is somehow translated to Backstroke of the West…. and that is one of the least funny parts. Check it out.

Hiroshima

60 years ago today, an atomic bomb was dropped from the Enola Gay into Hiroshima. The bomb was dropped in order to try to prevent the necessity of executing Operation Downfall (the invasion of Kyushu and Honshu) and the estimated million plus casualties on both sides from that operation. However, the destruction and suffering caused by the bomb was so horrific that many people question whether or not it was worth it. After recently studying Operation Downfall (thank you Strategy and Tactics magazine), it seems pretty likely that it was indeed worth it, as the invasion and occupation of an undefeated Japan would probably have made the invasion and occupation of Iraq look like a Sunday brunch at Tavern on the Green.

Anyway, I’ve just realized that I will be going back there in a month or so, during my next trip to Japan. Some work friends of mine are finally coming with me and they want to see Hiroshima and Kyoto, so we will spend two extra days and do that. Should be interesting.

Take a moment to reflect on Hiroshima today, and lets hope the use of nuclear weapons never occurs again on this little green planet.

Kansas City

This weekend I went to Kansas City with my friend Jean. It was great fun. We ostensibly went to see the Kansas City Explorers World Team Tennis match with the Sacramento Capitals. More on that later.

I got to meet up with my aunt and uncle and my two cousins at their very nice house in Shawnee Mission. We had a nice lunch and tried to get everyone up to speed on what is going on in each other’s lives. Since we don’t see each other that often, it took a while. My cousin Erin works at a nearby park as part of her internship for college, so we went to the park and walked around. My cousin Alex plays the drums, so he played a little for me. It was very nice to get to see them all, even though our time was limited as I had to get down to the plaza and see the tennis match.

Jean and I had great seats at the match, right on the net and only 3 rows back from the court. In fact, the owner of the KC Explorers sat right behind us and together we gave the lines people grief for some poor calls. The owner was very nice to us (not so nice to the linespeople) and invited us down onto the court after the match to meet the players. He almost didn’t believe us when we told him we flew up to KC from Phoenix to watch the match. πŸ™‚ We got to meet the Bryan brothers, Brian MacPhie, Samantha Reeves, and the Bryan brothers’ father, who just happened to be the head coach of the other team. We got our pictures taken with one of the Bryan brothers (sorry don’t know which one) and with Brian MacPhie. We saw all three of them play in Scottsdale in March. Unfortunately I don’t have the photos to put up because the Explorer photographer took the photos and we haven’t been able to get a copy from him yet.

Great fun.

Dennis

Although my family has evacuated from the path of Dennis, our prayers were not answered and it made landfall almost on top of Navarre Beach. This unfortunately puts Ft. Walton Beach and Destin in the most damaging quarter of the hurricane, the NE quarter. Having seen the damage done by Ivan last year, I fear the worst.

NW Florida, our thoughts are with you.

Dear Hollywood

This weekend I saw Batman Begins. Yes, it is a good movie. Certainly head and shoulders above all the previous Batman movies, driven primarily by actors who can act, and a script that wasn’t written for children. However, as I have repeatedly pointed out to my friends, Batman Begins was not original in the least. It AGAIN, shows us how Batman became Batman. Come on, didn’t we see this exact same thing in the FIRST Batman movie (remember Michael Keaton?)!!! I think this complete lack of creativity is what is killing Hollywood. And it looks like it is getting WORSE, not better. Almost every movie I saw advertised at the movie theater was a knock off (or even worse, DIRECT remake) of previous movies. Does Hollywood really think that people will pay $10 a head to go see a remake of Herbie the Love Bug? Or Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? Or the Bad News Bears (for the love of God, if you are gonna remake a movie, at least remake a GOOD movie!!!!)!!!!!

Hollywood, get some frickin creativity. You suck.

Moved

After about two weeks of moving, I am finally moved out of the house and into an apartment. Trying to squeeze an entire house into a 2-bedroom apartment is not easy by the way. The apartment looks like a bad rummage sale. Hopefully it will be better later this week when some of the large collection of boxes and furniture in the apartment living room gets moved out to another apartment. Friday was supposed to be the closing date for the house, but in typical real estate fashion, I have no idea whether we actually closed or not. No one called to tell me that we did, and of course the wire transfer of the proceeds didn’t take place yet either. I always get nervous about wire transfers… who knows where the money could get sent. And I swear I don’t understand what the people involved in real estate transactions get paid for. They don’t do jack to earn their money from what I can see. They are close to worthless. All the real work is done by the seller and buyer. All the buyer’s real estate agent does is search the MLS to find a house for the buyer and take the buyer around. All the seller’s real estate agent does is consult on the sale. And don’t get me started about the Title Company…Talk about a racket.