BOOOOOOOO!

Just want to drop in to say

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I did have two halloween parties but both work-related. There was an after party (actually a farewell for a teacher) with fellow teachers, staff and some other folks ended up having a long-overdue karaoke night. The first hangover in almost one full year, good grief!

Why drive a stick?

Automatic transmission is for people who can't operate vehicles well or simply want to use them as a means to get from point A to point B. Strictly speaking it's mere paddle-pushing. That said, being able to drive a standard doesn't give the driver an edge.

People argue that driving a stick stuck in traffic going uphill is a pain in the you-know-what. While it's true maybe they haven't internalized stick-shift in a way that the act of driving is like controlling the extension of their own limbs.

Driving should be fun. It's helped me more than once to get out of the house and get some much needed sun. Even driving an auto could be fun but the experience is no doubt discounted.

I found it almost disturbing that more models are being manufactured in auto-shift only. And if you take a look at some concept cars these days, lots of them are so automatic it's dangerous. If I drove one of those powered everything with a sat-nav sitting in/on the dashboard I'd certainly just doze off mid-drive. I'm not against technology. Gosh, never me. I'm worried about the driving culture.

edit: Rock added practicalities like saving gasoline and less expensive dealer's MSRP.


In the U.S., it's called a stick-shift;
in Canada, it's called a standard-shift;
in most parts of the world, it's aslo called a manual-shift;

in Europe, however, it's called, simply, a car.
I admire those EU bastards. Over there they have the Nurburgring; in the US, a racing ring is literally a ring, left turns all the way baby!

Of all the sites I've visited on said topic, standardshift.com offers the most complete instructions and step-by-step. Click on the FAQ and videos links for detailed explanation. Also the forums offer further help from other enthusiasts.

reading material:
Caution: Student Driver
Killing the stick-shift dinosaur
Driving a stick shift isn't automatic
wikipedia's page on driving techniques

A few words of advice to younger auto-shift drivers:
At least give it a try before you dismiss it as useless and outdated, although one try is hardly enough. The best thing to do so you can learn how to drive one is to buy a used/new stick. You'll learn when you have no choice! I have seen more than one case where someone I know did exactly that and since has mastered it.

For those who drive a manual shift you should consider to (if not yet):

1. change the behavior of your car with different shifting patterns.
2. red-line without checking at the tachometer, listen to how high your engine revs. Yes you might have to sacrifice music.
3. rev-match.
4. have at least two shifting schemes for each car.
5. find the shifting sweet spot on each gear.
6. always use the correct gear for best performance. (considering turbo lag, otherwise don't bother)
7. never rest your left foot on the clutch. Normally you shouldn't rest your hand on the shift knob either but do so when you're driving an underpowered car, to feel the mechanism and quickly get thru the first three gears.

cumulonimbus clouds

I love clouds in general, especially low-hangging, massive sky-blocking, few but distinct in the blue air. I've been taking a few pics with my cell phone.

And of course there are those along the quick changing
3pm sky threatening to crumble upon the earth.


At last the distance heavy clouds caused by a passing typhoon.

Christmas spirit

I don't know if you believe in Christmas miracles. I don't. But the fact that the atmosphere surrounding the holiday season might miraculously work small wonders.

Here is mine:
One Christmas eve I was shopping and as I wandered into a downtown perfumery (don't ask) I saw a Lolita Lempicka's apple-shaped container that always reminds me of a girl I had feelings for. So I bought it. I wasn't going to give it to anybody as I had no one in mind. I was going to use it as a room fragrance.

After walking around for a while I got tired, went into a fastfood restaurant, and opened the packaging. As I was sitting there admiring the pretty apple shape some guy at the next table asked me what it was. I explained to him and he said I must still have strong feelings for the girl who used it. Yes, I suppose so.

Soon we started chatting the little holiday chitchat and his bisness was to make up with his girlfriend so they took this shopping trip from Philly (I could be wrong, could have been Charlotte) to NYC. He lost sight of her amid the crazy last minute shoppers. Long story short, I ended up giving him the Lolita Lempicka. His face lit up with surprise. I hope they made up. That was five years ago.

gaijin in Japan

There is this more or less meaningless repetition of a gaijin's life in Japan. Yesterday as I was digging through the mess that is the Internet and found a way to locate interesting blogs to read, I notice a patterned phenomenon. The method is simple. Any blogsearch engine would do, go type in any Japan's city's name in English and you shall see hundreds of gaijin blogs coming up.

So there I was going through some of them to see what these strangers are up to. Suprisingly, everybody does the exact same things, has the same camera angle, hikes the same hill, discovers the same insights, is proud of the same Japanese friend, cooks the same food, loves the same bands, hates the same social injustice, has the same drunken pics, goes through the same inevitable, etc, etc.

The only things that are slightly different, names.

Under the sun, ain't nothing's new.

hmm....

So that was a classic case of trial and failure. I was enjoying blogging in Japanese but at the same time not able to express my feelings. Damn Japanese, so hard. So my solution is to keep a separate Japanese blog. I'll leave this one alone, the way it has been.

trustworthiness

Again, people, make sure you do fact checking with a trusted source like the New York Tiimes. (sarcasm intended)

Encouraging signs from the Wikipedia project, where co-founder and überpedian Jimmy Wales has acknowledged there are real quality problems with the online work.
Criticism of the project from within the inner sanctum has been very rare so far, although fellow co-founder Larry Sanger, who is no longer associated with the project, pleaded with the management to improve its content by befriending, and not alienating, established sources of expertise. (i.e., people who know what they're talking about.)

read on

sudden thought

I all of a sudden thought of something strange. I will no longer use English as the language of this blog. It will now be Japanese. First it will be good to have a chance to practice [Japanese if I keep a Japanese-only blog]. My Japanese really isn't that good so if you care to correct me it'll be more than appreciated. Last English post signing off.

It's all or nothing!

computer offline

been offline for a couple of days due to some harddrive partition problems. now back up but lost all files. reinstalled and reconsider.

How it started:

I've been dual-booting my computer for years (close to 10). This time I got too comfortable and not enough HDD space. Long story short, I installed the new Ubuntu distro and it went haywire. Note: Ubuntu itself is cool but it really isn't too user-friendly towards PPPoE connections. (not true at all after a small investigation)

Lessons learned over and over again: don't redistribute already partitioned harddrive with critical data on it, especially with different partitioning software. period.

I did backup some files ahead of time but half are lost, photos, docu, etc.

America

I got the munchies (not drugs-related) so I got dressed at 1:30 in the morning to go out for some grocery shopping. Yeah, tell me about it. Though I suspect that's really hunger for answers. I did indeed go out despite the rain. And I'm typing with my right hand only while my left is holding snacks.

America is so wrong on so many levels. Before you bash me, I'm an American citizen, living in Japan teaching the American ways. Some sort of representative you might even venture a label. I won't disagree. First of all, let's set the record straight. It's the United States of America. That is, the name of the country in question. America, is, a, continent.

I thought I'll never see the day, but it's coming, for sure it is. You know no nation is capable to escape the fate of pattern. As a matter of fact, all things, are bounded by the law of pattern. Great powers rise, peak, then fall. We know the U.S. will fall. I just don't think I'll see the day. But that might change.

Problems:

Number 1: being patriotic, foolishly so, or nationalistic. (By the way if you think there's nothing wrong with the US, please get the fuck out of my blog, back to Kansas. There you have it, a taste of your own medicine called ignorance.) Being patrotic doesn't work, at least not in a country like the U.S. There are too many idiots. Being blindly patrotic is how all wars started. We might have an unqualified president, but without mal-educated patriots, he can't just go bully every country with an oil reserve. How about being patriotic on the earthling level, hate 'em aliens instead?

Number 2: being religious. Do not run the country with the Holy Grail in one hand. The world is not 5000 years old. If you can't do what your religion book says, then leave it on the altar when you visit it on Sundays. There are questions which science can't answer, but do keep faith to yourself, for it is a personal belief. What do you think caused more deaths in history? Religions or Hitler?

Number 3: being ignorant. Get educated. Although there are many scholars in the U.S., the majority have very little common sense. No wonder Americans are the laughingstocks for the rest of the world. Yes a lot of people are ignorant, Americans or not, but they at least try to elect someone who is not. This administration is beyond jokes. Million of people don't die, starve, or go broke as the result of a joke.

Number 4: being selfish. OK, who isn't selfish. But you can be smart selfish. Instead of raking in whatever money you can get your hands on now, invest a little for the future. A little charity goes a long way. The haves in this country just don't care about the have-nots. The poor will eventually come after the rich. In the end you lose, whoever you are. Share. Is it so hard? Taking care of the poor at home and globally in turn takes care of most of the needs for wars and terrorism. When will people realize material is physical and physical attributes are only temporary.

Number 5: being arrogant. There are other cultures out there just as colorful, educated, diversed, rich, etc, if not more sucessful already. The rest of the world don't have to act in unison with us. The U.S. shouldn't force their ideals on others.

Number 6: being corrupted. We used to say, wow, look how corrupted the Soviet Union, China, Malaysia, Congo, etc, are. What do you think the U.S. is any less bureaucratic? Think again. If you have enough money, you can buy yourself a congressman. If you own a large corporation, you can buy a president. On top of that, what do you think lobbying really is? Government officials no longer get the job because of their merits. Legislation no longer takes the people into consideration as much as to evade the public eyes. Elections no longer reflect the collective will of the majority. And people no longer hold their elected officials accountable.

Number 7: being apathetic. Just how many people give a rat's ass? Shit happens. How much you're willing to risk your peaceful lifestyle to rock the boat? Most couldn't care less, as long as checks still cashed, ends still met. But don't take it for granted.

read:

This is a racing video game forums. The folks are from all walks of life all over the world, which makes them the common folks, a good random sample of the world. They discuss the U.S. This is one of a gazillion discussions going on in the WWW, but a darn good one. Watch out for heavy doses of sarcasm and ignorance.

Another discussion by a random sample of the world.

Another one.

Annular Solar Eclipse

On Monday, part of the Sun went missing. The missing piece was no cause for concern -- the Moon was only momentarily in the way. The event was not a total eclipse of the Sun for any Earth-bound sky enthusiast but rather, at best, an annular eclipse, where the Moon blocked most of the Sun. Because of the relatively large distance to the Moon during this Earth-Moon-Sun alignment, the Moon did not have a large enough angular size to block the entire Sun. Those who witnessed the solar eclipse from a narrow path through Portugal, Spain and Africa, however, were lucky enough to see the coveted Ring of Fire, a dark Moon completely surrounded by the brilliant light of the distant Sun. Pictured above is a Ring of Fire captured two days ago in unusually high resolution above Spain. The resulting image shows details of the granular solar surface as well as many prominences around the Sun.

source:
NASA
Astro Meeting

hellish quake

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program's earthquake list

Earthquakes and active faults in northern Pakistan and adjacent parts of India and Afghanistan are the direct result of the Indian subcontinent moving northward at a rate of about 40 mm/yr (1.6 inches/yr) and colliding with the Eurasian continent. This collision is causing uplift that produces the highest mountain peaks in the world including the Himalayan, the Karakoram, the Pamir and the Hindu Kush ranges. As the Indian plate moves northward, it is being subducted or pushed beneath the Eurasian plate. Much of the compressional motion between these two colliding plates has been and continues to be accommodated by slip on a suite of major thrust faults that are at the Earth’s surface in the foothills of the mountains and dip northward beneath the ranges. These include the Main Frontal thrust, the Main Central thrust, the Main boundary thrust, and the Main Mantle thrust. These thrust faults have a sinuous trace as they arc across the foothills in northern India and into northern Pakistan. In detail, the modern active faults are actually a system of faults comprised of a number of individual fault traces. In the rugged mountainous terrain, it is difficult to identify and map all of the individual thrust faults, but the overall tectonic style of the modern deformation is clear in the area of the earthquake; north- and northeast-directed compression is producing thrust faulting. Near the town of Muzaffarabad, about 10 km southwest of the earthquake epicenter, active thrust faults that strike northwest-southeast have deformed and warped Pleistocene alluvial-fan surfaces into anticlinal ridges. The strike and dip direction of these thrust faults is compatible with the style of faulting indicated by the focal mechanism from the nearby M 7.6 earthquake.

What makes this quake so deadly is how close the hypocenter was to the surface of earth. And the two colliding plates literally rubbed each other the wrong way.

USGS's analysis
BBC's report
animnated fault motion
map courtesy: BBC

aerial photography

of Japan: (can be used as wallpaper, 1024x768)



Moments like this let me appreciate the fact that I'm here.

Photographer: Yann Arthus-Bertrand (website)

39th Tokyo Motor Show

The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, Inc. (Chairman: Itaru Koeda; “JAMA”) will hold the 39th Tokyo Motor Show — Passenger Cars & Motorcycles — (2005) at the Makuhari Messe in Makuhari, Chiba City for 17 days from Friday, October 21 to Sunday, November 6 (exhibition open to the public beginning Saturday, October 22).

The theme for this year's show is “'Driving Tomorrow!' from Tokyo.” It expresses the Tokyo Motor Show's commitment to being the festive place where people can experience the world's most advanced technologies and designs, while at the same time serving as a source of up-to-the-minute information on interactions between the automobile and motorized society, focusing on the evolution of the automobile in ever more environment-friendly directions.

Hey you, the imaginary you, didn't think for a second that I would miss the Tokyo Motor Show now did you? If you did then your assignment is to read through this blog from post #1 on. The fact that another "Tokyo" event is held in Chiba makes it a crime (for me) to miss it. So how am I going to make it that I work six days a week? Well I can always go on my only dayoff on Sunday, when it'll be filled with a gazillion motorheads. Heck I think I'm gonna wake up early to pay a morning visit before work. It'll be a bit of a drive still (2 hours local). Expect some pics.

This reminds me the good ole days of Jacob Javits Center in NYC. I used to register for corporate passes, never paid a dime for any admission.

vehicles of note:
Nissan Skyine GT-R Proto (click here for the full lineup)


Mazda Senku Concept (click here for the full lineup)


Mitsubishi Concept-X (click here for the full lineup)


Subaru B5-TPH Concept (click here for the full lineup)


for Honda's lineup, click

Special events:
Clean Energy Vehicle Test Rides

We began to offer test rides of fuel cell, hybrid and other "clean energy" vehicles at the 37th show, and they will be available again this year, with nearby Makuhari Seaside Park serving as the main venue. The lineup includes 13 vehicles from 7 companies, with electric vehicles and hydrogen vehicles making their first appearances.

link: tokyo-motorshow.com

trendiest Asian women

She is smart, hip and tech-savvy, but this long-held image of a Hong Kong woman has never been proven - until now.

A survey, conducted to obtain a more in-depth understanding of the mindsets and attitudes of women in seven key Asian markets, found Hong Kong women are the trendiest in the region.

I don't think I find Hong Kong women trendier than their Japanese counterpart, especially those in Tokyo and Osaka, but they do have a taller figure and a much more distinct personality, for better or for worse. However if you go and compare the rest, like being smart and tech-savvy, HK women win blindfolded with hands tied behind their back, suprisingly a more familiar territory for the Japanese (err...).

Females praise HK women, but males fear them, for the very same reasons - they're intelligent and independent. Recent studies show that marriage rate in Hong Kong is in decline. Women have been pushing back their marriage in hope for a more competent man but they don't show. Or they being the escapists they are, go northwards, where plenty of poor Chinese girls are looking for a way out of China and possibly out of poverty. It's not unlike some relationship-impaired Americans and their Russian wives.

source: SCMP via Yahoo!

superb gadgetry

I don't usually post electronics here, but this little player really got my attention. I do, however, spend half my Internet surfing on gadget- and software-related sites.

GP2X:



It does everything imaginable under the sun, bar none.

Product name GPX2-F100
CPU Dual CPU Cores
ARM920T: Host processor
ARM940T: Video Coprocessor
NAND Flash Memory 64 Mega Byte
Dimension 143.6mm* 82.9mm*34mm
Weight 161 Gram (Without Battery)
RAM SDRAM 64 Mega Byte
Storage SD Card
Connection Type 2.0 high speed
O/S Linux
Power supply 2AA
Display 3.5" TFT LCD
Resolution 320*240(QVGA)

Video
Video file MPEG 4, Dvix 3.11,4x,5x, and Higher, XVID
Audio file MP3,OGG,WMA(Later On)
Resolution MAX 720*480 30fps
Frame Rate Max 30 fps
Bit Rate Video Max: 2500 Kbps ~
Audio Max: 384Kbps
Caption SMI
TV-OUT Support

Audio
No. Channels Stereo(L+R)
Frequency Rate 20Hz~20KHz
File MP3, OGG, WMA(Later On)
Bit rate sampling 16bit/8~48KHz
Equalizer Normal, Classic, Rock, Jazz, Pop

Additional Function e-book, game

Image Viwer JPG, BMP, PCX, GIF, PNG

Continuous playback time
Video (2850mAh) Approx. 6 hours
Audio Approx. 10hours

It runs on Linux, which opens up homebrew game support. Whatever you can think of that can be done on your computer can be done on this little thing. Take that, (insert name of favorite gadget here)! Price: US$ 179.90

It is a(n):
MP3 player;
handheld game device;
(anything that's emulatable, including GB Advance)
Digital Video player;
E-book reader

official homepage:
gpx2.com

a word of warning: no one knows how well it actually works until someone does a full hands-on review. It's out the end of this month.

a walk down the aisle

Congratulations Claire & Wes! Wishing you a Wonderful Wedding Day and all the Happiness for your life together.

My dear friend Claire is getting married this week. She doesn't read this blog so I don't expect her to comment.

But here is a song from the Beatles:
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE
(If you want to sing along: click here)

Love, love, love
Love, love, love
Love, love, love

There's nothing you can do that can't be done
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy

Nothing you can make that can't be made
No one you can save that can't be saved
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time
It's easy

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

Nothing you can know that isn't known
Nothing you can see that isn't shown
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be
It's easy

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

All you need is love (All together, now!)
All you need is love (Everybody!)
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Yee-hai! (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)

Yesterday (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Oh yeah! (Love is all you need)
She loves you, yeah yeah yeah (Love is all you need)
She loves you, yeah yeah yeah (Love is all you need)

Greatwall of China

I've been meaning to write a few lines about the Great Wall of China. Clair and I traveled there two years ago during Christmastime. We flew in from Osaka, arrived in Shanghai on the 22nd.

Soon after our flight touched down, we took a 14-hour night train from Shanghai to Beijing. I insisted on getting a little privacy so we got one of those soft sleeper cabins. There are four beds but luckily it was only me and her the whole time. I don't deal very well with sleeping with strangers. (not being sarcastic, I can't sleep while traveling)




the corridor outside the cabins, the dinning car was
cozy too, a bottle of inexpensive local red wine and
northern cuisine agreed well with my stomach

When we finally arrived in Beijing it was cold, around 30F the week we toured it. It was Christmas after all and I had the bestest time, even though there were no hints of Christmas anywhere. We did the Summer Palace, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and a couple of other touristy spots. The crown jewel of the trip was of course the Great Wall. We signed ourselves up on a local bus tour which their only responsibility was to bring us from our youth hostel to the Simatai section of the Wall and back. We were supposed to get back in the afternoon at a specified location for the return ride. However that's what we had to figure out, we were given minimum directions. If I didn't speak the language the whole group of foreginers (a bunch signed up for the same tour, but then we were "sold" to a bigger bus, joined with more foreigners) woulda got lost pretty bad. I wonder how business is usually conducted.



It says, "The Great Wall of China is the greatest
[wall] in the world; the Simatai of the Great Wall
is the greatest of the Great Wall."

To get to the Great Wall from downtown Beijing takes a while, at least two and a half hours if I remember correctly. And Simatai is where you should go if you're a little adventuresome. Some people upped the ante and got dropped off at the other side perhaps 15 miles away at the next section and hiked their way to this side of Simatai. We weren't that crazy becuase it was December. And we didn't want to get too worked up.

We went there on Chirstmas day.

We did quite a bit of climbing. The Great Wall was . . . great! It goes up and down and the winds were unforgiving. The weather up there is very changable. Clair, of all people, got scared, and so we had to stop at one of the beacon towers to wait for the winds to die down. Apparently platform shoes don't help on steep steps. I promised not ever to tell it but I doubt I'll see her again and, who reads these posts but me anyway. It didn't snow. But on our way up from the city on the bus we saw residue of grey snow and quite a few dead animals, hung under the weak sun to dry. Interesting selection of delicacy that I won't ever consider trying unless my life depended on it.

Some parts of the wall are so dangerous. With the wind
blowing, it's a small miracle there aren't injuries.

After we did Beijing, we took the same train back to Shanghai and met up with Izumi (sweetest girl) for New Year's in Shanghai. It's such a different town.

side notes:
There were lots of "farmers", who claimed to have lost their jobs, selling postcards and pictures at the Great Wall. One of them kept bothering us, but I felt horrible for her. I gave her some money and told her we didn't want the stuff she sells.

The Great Wall has always been on the top of my list of things I want to do. Now that it's done I feel like it was the most appropriate time with the right person I couldn't have chosen if I wanted to. It was short-lived but an unforgettable piece of memory I'll take to the grave.

Pics aren't mine, I searched and found some on the 'net. I didn't have a camera, but if I had one, I'd have taken very similar pics. Sorry for stealing yours.

While writing this post I can't shake the song by the band Japan, led by David Sylvian: Communist China.

Future of Food

quotes from documentary:

We're losing genetic diversity. We're losing intellectual diversity that we're going to find very very needed in the future...

One of the problems that the [agricultural] biotechnology has is it has nothing for the American consumers. There's nothing there...

This is one of the most disturbing trends in economics...

Without proper labeling, consumers will not be able to make informed decisions...

Food is one of the most intimate things we do. And if we don't have any choices about that, I think that's a very troubling scenarios.

It's up to you...

thoughts:
I most certainly find it very disturbing that 80% of the food you can buy in the supermarket is controlled by no more than a handful of multinational corporations. They are patenting everything, genetically engineered or not, including generation-old seed developed by local farmers. Sooner or later they will own the entire food supply of the world.

Foods that haven't been labeled GE (genetically engineered) or GM (genetically modified) don't mean they aren't because the current law says they don't have to be. They are developed in labs, as opposed to over decades of tests and proven facts that they're safe for the consumers and their ecosystems. From a distance it seems no harms have been done. We do expect things to be more from the lab, less from mother nature. But if you take a closer look, it's worrisome where it's headed.

On the other hand, the government hardly legislates for the people anymore. These officials who decide the future of food production happen to be the same executives found under said corporations. A number of them work or have worked for the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) or EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).

Of them all, the example of Monsanto really demonstrates this close tie between the various branches of the government and their supposedly enemies.

Linda Fisher: (she went back and forth between these jobs four times)
Executive Vice President for Monsanto Corporation
EPA Assistant Administrator for the Office of Policy, Planning and Evaluation (OPPE)

Justice Clarence Thomas
Supreme Court Justice
Monsanto's lawyer for regulation affairs

Mickey Kantor
Secretary of Commerce
Board of Directors, Monsanto

Lidia Watrud
Advisor to the U.S. EPA
Biotech Researcher, Monsanto

Ann Veneman
Secretary of Agriculture
Board of Directors, Calgene, purchased by Monsanto

Michael Friedman
Acting Commissioner, FDA
Senior VP, GD Searle, a division of Monsanto

William Ruckelshaus
Chief Administrator, EPA
Monsanto Board Member

Donald Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
President of Searle, subsidiary of Monsanto



related reading:
wiki: Genetic Engineering
genetically engineered food
Mothers for Natural Law

download:
The Future of Food

IMDb:
The Future of Food (2004)