bjx.net - The Japan Blog

Updates upon updates...

2008-12-20T08:05:00.001-06:00

Well, it's not like I haven't been doing anything...

- Last Friday (12/12)
The professor of the two social sciences courses recieved an invitation to a discussion at the US embassy on the future of east asian economics and the changes that will be happening with Obama's administration. He couldn't go due to having a class, but got 10 invites to give out to students; I went with a group (ironically skipping the very course that he couldn't miss) and got a very good first-hand look at Japanese politics and their view of themselves in the world, which was a major topic in the two courses. I won't get into details; it's pretty boring if you're not interested in it. (though I think more people would be interested in that than me talking about computers...)

I've been in Osaka 3 times in the last 2 weeks, one being the above; and all the times I wandered around the Namba/Nipponbashi area. (if you know what those places are, you know why I was there) The second and third times I was around I randomly ran into a magic international trade that I surprisingly didn't know about, though apparently I've dealt with him implicitly in the past through third parties. (I'd say small-world, but I randomly ran into a classmate in the middle of Tokyo, so it'll take a lot to surprise me in this country anymore)

One of the Magic store visits, I gained instant thankfulness for keeping in touch with the Magic scene at least a little; I double-backed at a store when I saw the cheapness of a couple things.

Most of this early week was on papers and finals cramming; I was incredibly happy that I didn't procrastinate on my papers like I usually do; I had a snag in the entire point of one, and had the time to rewrite a good portion.

Japanese is going pretty well; my main problem right now is really vocab; I think I counted by word-knowledge around 1000 words, so it's quite easy to randomly just get confused in a discussion.

Today, I was in Kyoto most of the day; I actually took the same route that I took the first trip I made to Kyoto with some other people, both because I knew there were gift shops with what I wanted in the area and because I could see how much had changed in how I percieved everything around me.

How much? Well, a good bit, but the thing for me was that I got back to the dorms around 7PM and had a wierd thought: I hadn't spoken English all day.

Tomorrow is cleaning most of the dorm room, going through an inspection, and then I'm probably going to run down to Kyoto one more time and see if I can find this outdoor mall I've heard about. I start heading out at 6AM on Monday.

(my roommate even thinks it's cold back in the states, and he's from Finland, so that's just how cold it is there...)

TSO

2008-12-12T23:41:00.001-06:00

I missed TSO yesterday...

Nothing is happening...

2008-12-10T05:16:00.003-06:00

Just saying it...

One class down, another one finished tonight though papers, then 5 parts of final exams between 2 classes and one huge paper.

Still Alive

2008-12-04T03:43:00.002-06:00

Just in a normal routine now, getting towards the end of the semester and working on papers...

Side note: If you've got a huge music collection and never done this before, try re-encoding everything at 128kbps. I dropped 40% of the physical size of my collection, and though I noticed a slight difference, it wasn't that much of a difference.

Weekend away...

2008-11-23T09:24:00.003-06:00

Sorry mom, I should've told you, but I didn't want you worrying _that_ much...

So, this weekend was the last 3-day weekend, so I was off in Tokyo for a while.

Saturday:
Get there, I am completely lost. I walk around the train station looking for a station map, and finally find something. I spend the next 10 minutes trying to match what I'm seeing to the station map in Lonely Planet and getting nowhere. I finally find a solution when I turn the Lonely Planet upside down and realize that the station map isn't any of the stations I'm seeing. (one company's map in the guide, one on the station map) After promptly figuring that out and getting my bearings, it was pretty straightforward figuring out the rest of what I needed.

I got there around 5, and my first priority was finding the place that I was sleeping, which was a capsule hotel (I have pics that I'll put up eventually) nearby Akihabara. After finding there, I spent the rest of the evening around Akihabara. Basic description of the place: if you are a fan of anime and you like technology, it is Mecca. I didn't buy anything special or expensive, but I do know some future plans :) (especially because I could look at and fool around with the new Macbooks)

This, however, is the crux of _all_ of Japan: these stores close way too early. I exited from a huge store at 8:10 to find most of the district closed or closing. From there, I pretty much headed back and fooled around in the capsule hotel for a while. Around 11, there was some breaking news story about some homicide. (or hit-and-run) It was interesting watching it, mostly because it was so different than something like CNN, but also because I had a good chance sitting alone to decipher Japanese through TV.

I still haven't found an unprotected wireless connection in Japan. This includes Tokyo, Osaka, Nara, Kyoto, and Hiroshima.

Sunday:
I honestly started the day thinking about going and seeing if I could head back a bit early. (I set up the trip here for both ways through the Shinkansen while in Osaka; I found someone who spoke English at the ticket station then) I ended up taking a loop line the long way back to the Shinkansen station, stopping at a few places, such as the Imperial Palace, Ueno Park, Shinjuku, and Shibuya. I'll have some pics from the places, but here's the reason I went to Shibuya. Ueno has a pretty good-sized park and had some good sights, and both Ueno and Shinjuku had some interesting bazaar-style business streets. (I could swear at one point I entered the alley of an alley of an alley and found a store)

There's more, but it's kind-of a mixture of tiredness and soreness here...

We visited a prison today...

2008-11-14T07:37:00.002-06:00

There was a makeshift gift shop setup for us.

Enough said.

Some pics

2008-11-11T11:34:00.002-06:00

Went to Kyoto again as a field trip for Zen, meeting a Zen priest in the area who came from the US.

Added some pics from both that and the Hiroshima trip.

...it's 2:30 right now...and not the good one.

The Election in Japan

2008-11-07T01:00:00.004-06:00

When the polls first closed in the US, it was 9AM here. I had an 11AM class, but after noon I was free to keep an eye on everything.

The campus had a room setup especially for the election coverage, having CNN available on all day in a room that could hold about 150 people. Most of the day the number hovered around 30, peaking at the Obama speech at around 60-70.

The call on CNN was made at 1PM; though it was obvious to us that it was guaranteed, we all still needed the visual to be sure. There was a good amount of cheering going on, and many people (myself included) at least shedding tears, if not more.

For me, though, my main thought was about in the summer of '07, I can't remember who I was talking to, but my honest opinion at that time was that I would be lucky to ever see a non-white president. That thought still hasn't sunk in yet, as I'm sure it hasn't to many people around the country.

EDIT: I did send some pictures I took in to CNN, and it's posted here: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-138714
Apparently, they're going to send some stuff back home as appreciation for sending in stuff for them to use :)

The other thing, though, was that I saw and watched friends who I've made around here crying because McCain lost. I could use some of the paragraphs above to describe them in the same way, and the only difference would be the tone.

It still seems odd saying this, but this is the first major election I've not been in Madison for. One professor I talk to frequently called Madison something along the lines of a "socialist stronghold", and even I talk about it to others as the San Francisco of the midwest. Eau Claire seems like it's close to a 50/50 split, and though here it seems easily 80/20 towards Democrats, that a large difference to a high school where you could come close to counting the number of Republicans on a pair of hands.

Money updates

2008-11-03T05:56:00.002-06:00

Here are the numbers back just under a week ago...

USD: 92.79
Canada: 71.625
Britain: 144.43
Australia: 58.481
Euro: 118.164

Checking now, this is how much they've moved:

USD: 99.30 (+ 7.02%)
Canada: 83.041 (+ 15.938%)
Britain: 161.065 (+ 15.177%)
Australia: 67.584 (+ 15.566%)
Euro: 127.67 (+ 8.044%)

Many people here are getting relieved that there wasn't a crash. (Though, if it get's up to 105 again, I may just play it safe and transfer plenty over to a local bank account we needed setup here)

Random Friday Night

2008-11-01T10:10:00.002-05:00

Well, Friday was a relatively interesting day; here's just what happened, as an idea of a random day here:

- Classes at 10:00AM and 11:00AM.

- The school is having a festival this weekend, so I looked around the festival. It was mostly a bunch of food stands, along with various clubs doing demonstrations. For me, it was people constantly going towards myself and the foreign students to try to get us to buy food. It also being the weekend(ish) of Halloween, I saw some costumes that you'd never find anywhere close to the US. (I won't get into that right now...)

The whole thing was the second time I really got nervous in Japan since coming here; most of that was the combination of being in a very crowded place and being in a place where everything was in Japanese. (cool, but stressful)

I just ate in the cafeteria; I honestly didn't want to try some random food and they were serving maabou-udon (Sichuan tufo on rice) today.

- 1PM social sciences course, which was just a class to get some dates settled for the rest of the class.

- After that, I headed down to Osaka with a few other people who play Magic. Getting there pretty much involves a 10-minute bike ride, then a half-hour on a train, then 15 minutes on a second train, then a 15 minute walk in an place where there really aren't street signs to know where you're going.

We spent a little while at the magic shop, but we split, with me heading down with a couple other people to one of the manga districts nearby in Osaka. Yet another place where I kept thinking "only in Japan". A couple notable things:

:: Every single place with merchandise had three places in common: sections on Neon Genesis Evangelion, sections on Haruhi Suzumiya, and sections on Ghost in the Shell. Someone with said that he thought about having a competition with another person in Tokyo on who can find the most items between three things: the NERV logo, the SOS団 logo, and the Laughing Man logo.

:: Most of the places had adult sections; unlike US stores, every store we just randomly stumbled into it. There is just so much less in "body issues" here like there are in the US; halloween showed that just as much as being around the manga district.

- After hanging around these guys for a while, they headed back home and I hand back to the magic shop to watch some games and grab a couple things.

I left Osaka around 8:30 and got back to the dorms around 10:00; my main reason for going to Osaka was to not be around the dorm that night, as there was a party until 10:00. Unfortunately I got out just as everyone was getting kicked out, so I literally was waiting outside the gates for 15 minutes while 50 drunk people on bikes were coming out to go out and party at karaoke parlors for a while...

Well, that's just a random day where I actually do something.

I've got a backlog of pics and small videos; I'm just getting a little lazy on getting them up.

Currency

2008-10-28T05:37:00.003-05:00

The last week or so, people (myself included) have been going nuts over the (probable) recession around here.

When I got here, the exchange rate was about ￥105 = $1.00, and it was that way until about 2 weeks ago. Right now, it bottomed out Monday at ￥90 = $1.00, though it's bouncing back a tad right now (94.6).

The issue here is that this really is nothing. I'd assume you've heard that despite everything that's going on, the dollar's bouncing back amazingly well. It's just that the yen is going so amazingly well right now that even the dollar is falling to it. Some comparisons:

(all numbers are the amount of yen that equals whatever the equivalency of a dollar is; first number is the number around 9/1, second is where it bottomed out to this week)
USD: 108.65 -> 92.79 (-14.6%)
Canada: 102.34 -> 71.625 (-30.0%)
Britain: 198.21 -> 144.43 (-27.1%)
Australia: 93.35 -> 58.481 (-37.4%)
Euro: 159.59 -> 118.164 (-26.0%)

Video upload

2008-10-24T10:23:00.001-05:00

http://plantpath.wisc.edu/~jbb/nihon/matsubara.avi

As of writing this, I've just started the transfer to get that up; it should be done by the end of the hour. (1AM here, 11AM CST)

Sub-update (and a video)

2008-10-24T08:56:00.002-05:00

Well, midterms went more-or-less alright, at least I think. I'll get the news back on Monday.

After classes today, I went with another Magic player on-campus to guide me around Nipponbashi and Namba, in Osaka. If you've ever heard of Akihabara, this is the Osaka version of it. I plan on heading back there on Sunday, but the jist of today was that I have found full-force Magic in Japan. I'm just happy I walked out of there without spending every penny on things that are impossible to find in the US. (though I don't know about Sunday, as I'll be actually shopping around this time...)

As for a video, I've been trying to do some edit work on a video which was shot on the trip to Hiroshima, when we met an A-bomb survivor. I think I'll have a good, relatively-small-size video ready tonight*. (I've been having all sorts of problems getting programs to do what I want them to do) I'll post it as soon as I get a copy the way I want it.

*Tonight my time; it's 11:00 PM when I wrote this.

Midterms

2008-10-20T08:11:00.002-05:00

Ugh, stuff in every class, and a pair of oral Japanese tests tomorrow... Makes me prefer UWEC for the time being.

I've uploaded a few extra videos from the last couple months to youtube. I'll probably be busy at least until week's end.

Short story so far on last weekend: Hiroshima is a very interesting place to go to, especially if you are from the US. The people from school that came from the US were more subdued than the rest of the people there. The entire thing seemed somewhat overwhelming...

So much to say...

2008-10-15T09:10:00.003-05:00

Letsee, between a few trips, I've got plenty of pictures to get online, but I'm just at the tail-end of a pretty bad cold that it seems most of campus is getting in some form or another. That and midterms (only 3 of 5 classes, thankfully) coming next week which I'm actually studying for, and tests all over the place the rest of the week (and Hiroshima this weekend...), I've got a full list of things to do, so not that many updates for a while :)

Random addition

2008-10-03T07:26:00.004-05:00

I've got a youtube account going which I'll probably start posting videos to, instead of Picasa. (which cuts away from how much space I have for photos)

I had my camera going going from one of the supermarkets in the area back to the dorms, so that's what's on there right now.

EDIT: Maybe I should link it. http://www.youtube.com/bradleyjx

Someday in the Rain

2008-09-29T09:58:00.002-05:00

Yeah, it pretty much has been raining the last couple days, and should be raining tomorrow as well.

There really hasn't been that much going on recently; this Sunday I'm heading down to Nara, and the 16th(ish) I should be going down to Hiroshima for that day.

I've found some new things in Photoshop, and I've been fooling around with panorama and splicing images which I should be adding into the Picasa album sometime soon. I've also got a video of something I wish I really could've gotten when I did: some of the cell phones in this country have the ability to view over-the-air TV. Oh yes.

PS: If you want to get in contact with me quickly, use bradleyjx@softbank.ne.jp now. (it goes right to a cell phone, and unlike in the US the systems are (pretty much) unlimited)

Fushimi Inari

2008-09-23T09:05:00.002-05:00

Day off of classes today, so I tagged along with some people over to Kyoto and the Fushimi Inari shrine.

...I now know that my knee is good for anything the rest of the year. The shrine consisted of walking for about an hour and a half, almost entirely going up and down stone stairs. If you've ever seen pictures that are pretty much nothing but a path covered in torii, this was the place.

The most interesting point of the entire day came after we left the shrine and I was hanging out with a few people; on a couple occasions, where I ended up with people, I was the person with the most language knowledge, which meant some quick thinking. (though I've gotten _much_ better with the language just being around it for the past month-ish)

Pics updated in the picasa album + a few more pics and movies in the album with the images around campus. The ~200 on there are nothing compared to the ~1000 I've taken so far...

Just some updates and random things...

2008-09-22T07:48:00.001-05:00

- I haven't worn my knee brace for a bit over a week now, though my right leg is still giving me problems on occasion.

- Tomorrow's another day off; I'm looking to go with a group into Kyoto again. I'm not quite sure what they are intending on doing, (I've heard some things which I know can't be true) but I just want an excuse to go out there again.

- I'm trying to learn how to figure out where things are (in terms of figuring out the address system); if I can at least find someone that can tell me where something is, I may be going with a couple other people into Osaka and trying to find a prerelease.

- I was pissed last Wednesday, as I missed Sasuke. Google that (it's a TV show) if you don't know what it is.

- I've added a 5th class to my schedule, mostly because it fit pretty well into my schedule, and the professor's one of those kinds of people where you'd want to take what you can from him while you can.

- Food and I have been on a pretty bad relationship the past week; I'm simplifying what I'm eating right now to close approximations to what I would eat at home, but so far that doesn't seem to be doing anything. This morning and afternoon have been particularly bad, but I'm pretty sure it's nothing serious other than adjusting to the food long-term.

- I don't know if I'm losing weight or not yet :) My appetite came back with a force about a week after I got here, but I'm back to not eating that much here; I've been told it's the rice that's causing that. I'm finding 1XL shirts around here but no 2XL, so dropping a little would probably get me to the point where I could actually find clothing in this country.

yawn

2008-09-17T23:57:00.002-05:00

...feels like school...

Couple little things...

- That typhoon looks like it may hit us as a tropical storm tomorrow night; it doesn't seem like anything's really going to happen :(

-hm... I guess nothing else...

Finally figured it out...

2008-09-15T08:20:00.002-05:00

I've had this little problem with combining Japanese + Java. The jist is that I've never been able to get Java to handle Japanese characters, no matter how I set things in Eclipse or setup Java, I've never been able to get it working.

...turns out I just needed to skip step 1 and go straight to step 2. Apparently, the console in Eclipse can't handle the characters, but everything else can.

So, for the past ~1 year, I've been unable to work with Kanji in Java simply because I haven't tested it outside of one specific area.

Technical shorthand to this: "System.out.print("新しい")" displays "???", and "JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"新しい")" shows the kanji correctly.

Typhoon Sinlaku

2008-09-14T10:27:00.002-05:00

One of the things I said about coming here is that I wanted "major" things to happen while I was here:

- An earthquake
- A typhoon

The former hasn't happened yet. (the 6.9 one in Hokkaido this past week we didn't feel down here) The latter may happen in the middle of this week.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Sinlaku_(2008)

This kind of brings up another random complaint I have around here; the best place I have found so far for weather is a single, outdated radar at weather.com; unlike at home, where radars and satellite images are easily found, I haven't found anything close to that around here...

Classes

2008-09-14T10:07:00.005-05:00

So, since I'm done with one week and I haven't gotten around to this, this semester I'm taking 4 classes:

- Spoken Japanese, L2
Pretty much 5 hours a week; grammar and vocabulary. The sensei is pretty nice, and the class is only about 10 people, so it's a very good learning environment.

- Reading/Writing Japanese, L2
3 hours a week on Kanji. I've had this class just three times so far, and I think I've learned about as much in 3 hours as a month in Eau Claire, and it's just technically been review so far. (though I think a lot of that is just because I'm around the language) The class is about 15 people, and the teacher studied at UW-Madison for a while, so we've had some things to talk about since the first class.

- Zen Buddhism
3 hours/week on this. This is probably the class which I'm taking more for credit than any of the others, but it's something I'm interested in at least to having a preference for it over the other 4-5 choices I had for classes that counted towards a JPN minor.

- China / Japan Relations
3 hrs/week as well. This class I thought would be the one that I'd care about the least, but the teacher is really quite amazing. I've talked to at least 5 people who said that they were planning on dropping the class until the first class ended. He's just one of those professors that has his opinions, but really knows what he's talking about and is passionate towards it. This class also has several trips planned in October, (including ground zero at Hiroshima) so there should be some interesting pics coming.

Story of the week

2008-09-13T06:34:00.002-05:00

This is second hand, but there seems to be quite a few people around here who don't keep track of what day of the month it is, so many people needed to actually hear that 9/11 was this past week.

A couple people who I talk with around here was telling me about when they were visiting a small shrine around the area where we are staying. While they were around, they saw an old Japanese man coming and were worried that they shouldn't be there. (for some reason or another; not many of use can read signs...) He began talking in Japanese to them, though only one of them knew enough to really be able to converse. The rest understood some of the conversation, but were mostly just listening; they asked after the old man left.

He was apologizing and sending condolences to the Americans for what happened 7 years ago.

When the rest of the people I was with and myself heard this, we were quite surprised; compared to WWII, we were feeling that happened 7 years ago was nothing compared to what Japan lost in the 40s. It's just kind-of the response to everything we have been experienced when it comes to how the people around here are; everyone is so nice around here, but sometimes it's just amazing how compassionate.

State Champs

2008-09-12T08:57:00.002-05:00

Just a random thought that I've been thinking about...

If I ever played Standard, and I was thinking of playing in States this year, I'd be thinking about playing this kind of deck:

-----

03 Jund Panorama
03 Mutavault
04 Graven Cairns
02 Twilight Mire
01 Fire-Lit Thicket
02 Vivid Marsh
03 Vivid Crag
02 Swamp
02 Mountain
01 Forest

04 Figure of Destiny
04 Fulminator Mage
03 Demigod of Revenge

03 Sarkhan Vol

04 Bitterblossom
03 Everlasting Torment
03 Firespout
04 Goblin Assault
02 Incendiary Command
02 Poison the Well
03 Profane Command
04 Rain of Tears

-----

Untested and not really thought through too much, but the basics is an LD deck to go after the complicated manabases inevitably at this event; the deck would basically work like a deck that tries to disrupt the overall progress of the game long enough to have cards like Sarkhan Vol, Bitterblossom, Goblin Assault, and Everlasting Torment in play with the disruption, where this deck will rebuild without wasting mana like the opponent.

9/11

2008-09-11T03:41:00.003-05:00

Professor: Oh yeah, it is 9/11 today.
Class: (looks at watches) Oh yeah, huh.
Professor: (moves on)

To be in a place where the closest thing to American media is CNN International...

Home cooking...

2008-09-06T10:19:00.003-05:00

I was at one of the 3 supermarkets around campus (a 7-11, a .99 store, and a normal market) and the latter of the three had Johnsonville brats. I grabbed a pack ($6 for 6) and checked the back after I got back to the dorms; they're from Sheboygan.

On sounds...

2008-09-06T07:35:00.002-05:00

I was just starting an episode of this series and I remembered about this. BTW: If you've never seen this series, it is either the creepiest of most off-the-wall series you'd see, depending on if you know much about anime.

This is easily the most surprising thing I have found since I came here: many of the sounds which I hear around the area are not unfamiliar sounds. The insects and birds around here I've heard from the TV shows, and the first time I heard the train bells go off wasn't surprising, and I know what it was immediately. (for reference, the trains are like Chicago, but they run right on street-level, so you have lights and sirens all around)

On the internet...

2008-09-06T07:22:00.003-05:00

Biggest complaint so far. (this post gets technical)

Basically, you have no ports. Everything on campus is proxied through port 8080 and one system.

This breaks, among other things: FTP, Magic Online, iTunes, torrents, (wasn't planning on it while here anyways...) IM clients.

To do anything outside of the internet, I need to run a tunneling program. That program allows me to have some additional functionality, mostly just allowing Digsby to work. I still can't restore my nearly-crippled iPod Touch, FTP-update my website, play MTGO, etc.

On bathrooms...

2008-09-06T07:17:00.004-05:00

You walk into the bathroom in the dorms in socks (the shoes are left by the main door) and, if your feet classify as "possibly-Japanese" (< 9), you put your feet into some provided slippers. You've got a half-dozen stalls, each with a high-tech seat.

The seats are pre-heated; in the summer it makes every seat feel like someone was in it 2 minutes ago, but apparently it's good in the winter. You sit down, and you hear a fan start to keep the smells from going out. Then you've got the buttons on the side; two "bidet" buttons, a "stop" button, and a button to fake a flush. You stand up and the fan gets stronger until you flush.

The sinks are motion-activated, but the dryer dries with a high-pressure line of nozzles (like a line of air), and your hands dry in about 10 seconds.

A Ku-ra-pu-ro-a-du of pictures

2008-09-05T08:43:00.001-05:00

Too much to talk about at the moment, sleep is needed.

Pics updated on the picture site.

Roomate

2008-09-02T06:47:00.001-05:00

I've got a Finnish roommate.

...the variety in accents is starting to get to me around here...

Vending Machines...

2008-09-02T06:36:00.002-05:00

There are 2 major "soda" machines around here, then occasionally you'll run into other forms of vending machines.

You've got the "Coke" machines, then the "Boss" machines; the former sells mostly coke products, the latter everything else. I've only found one machine that gives Mt. Dew. (sugar Mt. Dew, so much better than HFCS Dew), and more machines give out no-cal Pepsi than regular Pepsi. (good luck finding diet anything)

You've also got a ton of machines that give out all kinds of drinks in a fountain-drink style for pretty cheap. (16oz @ .70) Then you've got the food, which are the normal candy ones (that dispense things that definitely aren't candy) and then food versions of the fountain-drink style. (i.e. a cup comes down and ramen follows)

I've gotten into this lemonade-like drink called CC Lemon, and there are also a couple melon-flavored drinks that are pretty good.

Incoming...

2008-09-02T06:14:00.002-05:00

Countdown to live in san, ni, ichi...

2008-09-02T05:39:00.002-05:00

I have internet access in the dorms in Japan.

All is well.

While I get things moved around and setup Picasa in the next hours/days (I'm still having jet lag), but for now I'll just give you this from a few hours ago...

[ meh, I'll get it up a little later; the camera's taking a while moving the ~200 pics... ]

More random notes...

- I just realized today that sunset happens around 6:30 here. Conversely, it gets bright outside at about 5. (I know, I've been awake at that time to see it...)

- I am caught up with everything I really need to do until classes begin, so I'm riding (both figuratively and literally) around for the next 5 days, doing not much.

- The internet here is the Japanese internet. Going to google is the japanese site. CNN defaults to the International site. It really helps to know your way around the places that you regularly go to.

- Biking here is really an expert sport, even though the bikes would be called one-speed women's bikes in the US. There are metal/concrete posts to prevent cars from getting into sidewalks, and it turns into quite the challenge at some points. It does cut the time from the dorms to Kansai from about 20 minutes to 5, though, so I'm not complaining.

- It rained here for the first time since I got here today, and I happily was caught in the middle of it. It's hovering around 90 here every day, with humidity around 60%...

It's hot.

2008-09-01T17:05:00.004-05:00

7AM and I'm sweating; yesterday it had to be 95 + humid.

I'm seeing one of the reasons there are vending machines EVERYWHERE around here.

It's hot.

2008-09-01T17:05:00.001-05:00

Catching up (Part 3)

2008-09-01T03:18:00.002-05:00

Dated 09.01 at 630 AM (this morning to me)

-----

Well, so far everything is going more-or-less smoothly, so a few notes on how things work around here...
The biggest change for me so far is the shoes, which is two-fold. First, you leave your shoes in cubby holes to the side of the front door and walk around the entire building in socks (or barefoot). In addition, when you go to the bathroom there are little slip-on shoes to put on, though the emphasis seems to be on "little"; I don't think more than 1/2 of the guys on this floor can fit those shoes onto their feet.
The room I'm in is about 20'x12', the front being 4'x12' and being the entranceway + closets; the second part is 12'x12' and is a tatami floor with a floor-level desk and two futons to sleep on. The last 4'x12' is a normal study space: 2 desks, chairs, lighting, and storage space. There's AC in the room and building, though.
The roads around here are very small; most are one-lane roads (driving on the left) with either a bike lane(ish) or sidewalk. Despite this, I've seen large shops just out of nowhere, where it would be considered a back-alley in the US.
Someone else pointed this out to me, but I think I've seen one bench so far, including in parks.
Other things...
Just about every Japanese ready-made dish I have seen in an american supermarket I've seen here as well.
Fruit here is expensive, to put it mildly. Most of the melon I've seen around here is cut into 6ths and costs $2 a slice. Apples are a bit better at about $.80/per.
I'm having a pretty hard time with my sleep schedule so far. So far, I've pretty much hit a wall around 8:00PM, fall asleep by 9:00, and wake up at about 5:30AM. I need to shift that about 3 hours forward, but I just get exhausted way too early.
Yesterday was 35 degress celsius, and humid. I was out walking with people a good part of the day, and it really felt like umpiring behind the plate with all the gear on; I guess the nice part about that is that it really wasn't unbearable.
Internet Status: I can ping to a couple servers, but I can't get any internet around here. One thing the school is asking is to setup a "proxy connection to [web address port 8080]" and I still haven't figured out just what that means.
Pictures: I didn't install the software before I left, and I need an internet connection for the installation. So, nothing for a little while.
I found a vending machine yesterday that dispensed Mountain Dew in 20ish oz. cans, and it was easily better than US Dew. Sugar > HFCS. The problem is that around here, it seems Coke is king, so I don't know how many other vending machines I could possibly find that have it.

Catching up (Part 2)

2008-09-01T03:18:00.001-05:00

Dated 08.31 at 6:30 AM...

-----

Well, it's 6:30 in the morning here as I type this, and I can't get a connection to the internet.
The planes were pretty good; the Chicago - SF one was business class, with a meal I didn't expect on a plane: sausage, ham, cheese omelete, potatoes, muskmelon, blueberries, grapes, and drinks. The SF-Osaka one we just barely got on (we were there early, it was just a space issue), and that was just a normal (11-hour) flight.
We got into Kansai about 4:00PM in the time here (midnight CST), where it took about an hour to get through everything. We pretty much went from the plane to an automated shuttle, then to a quarantine area where we and another plane just unloaded on, pretty much filling the place. Took about 30 minutes to get through there, then we ended up in actual customs. Nothing like the US there; they didn't check anything other than the passport and even then it wasn't that much. We found the group meeting place for the school pretty quickly.
We got onto a bus (with 11 people total on it, seemed kind of wasting space, but they had tons of them) and drove through Osaka to get to the campus; about 1/2 the bus was taking pictures all over the place. The entire ride, there was a backdrop of mountains and cloudy peaks over to the west and north. We didn't see that many pachinko parlors until we knew what we were looking for, then we were seeing them close to everywhere.
90 minutes later, we finally got to the dorms. We got in pretty quickly and moving in right away. The housing is pretty much what you'd say as Japanese, though. There's a room by the entrance for shoes; the rooms have western parts to them, but the main portion is Japanese. The rooms are a bit larger than Eau Claire's dorms, but it's pretty much a door, followed by a small entrance (with closets on each side), then you step up onto a tatami mat floor which is about 12'x12'; the bedding is all futon-style, just folding it up and placing it to a side during the day. Then on the other end is about a 12'x5' space of desks, chairs, and everything you'd need. The plugs on the wall are the equivilant to 2-prong US-style plugs, so I have power to everything that I need.
The campus is pretty strict with their network (I knew this going in at least), so there's confusing language with setting up the laptop with a connection. At least, I can't figure most of it out.
At about 8:00PM we had a brief touring around some parts of the town, as well as the local supermarkets. There's a place to eat on the campus, but we're pretty much on our own here. This was my 25th and 26th hour awake, so I just ended up getting some food which I knew what it was (just some onigiri a guide said was seafood inside) with some liquids which I've had before, and got home and crashed.
Random thoughts so far:
There are a lot of Minnesotans here for some reason.
I think Helen ended up being creeped out on several occasions at how observant I can be in an environment; last night, even after being up for 25 hours, I was talking with her when she was smoking and mentioned there was an ashtray about 20 feet away, on the other side of the group we were in.
Either there are a ton of driving ranges around here, or they're just really easy to see. You look across a cityscape and see these big green poles and netting every couple minutes driving on a highway. We had to have seen at least 10 going from Osaka to Hirakata.
The interesting thing about driving around for 90 minutes is that the city really came down in uniqueness. Not so much that the city didn't look special as it just wasn't as different as you'd expect. It felt like going through Chicago, just that a good number of the
The dorms are about a 10-15 minute walk from campus, which kind of makes everything a bit of a time getting around.
Everything seems very much purpose-driven around here. There isn't room for doing something other than in the place it was meant for. You don't bring food outside the eating area and kitchen; you don't bring shoes beyond a certain point.
It really bothers me for some reason that the equivilancy for a dollar here is just a relatively-simple coin.
It's a very good thing that there's a AC in the dorm. It's not so much a good think that the entire dang thing is in Japanese, most of it kanji. There's a guide for it, but I accidentally set it to the "heat-only" setting last night.
It's actually been very helpful that I had that one year of Japanese before-hand, as it's easy to figure out most things around here with just that knowledge. At least knowing a little bit about formatting and how things should look.

Catching up (Part 1)

2008-09-01T03:15:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm going to be posting some daily writing I've made in the last couple days. The internet is still not working around here on personal computers, despite asking some questions and getting advice. (most of it being "that was given in [document name here]; wait, it isn't?")

Here...

2008-08-30T17:46:00.003-05:00

Short story:
- Got here just fine.
- No problems
- Was awake 26 hrs. yesterday.
- No internet in the dorm rooms yet.

Long story:
I have posts and pictures ready on my laptop for whenever I get a connection.

San Francisco

2008-08-29T12:37:00.002-05:00

It's 10:37 PST and I am in San Fran right now; first flight seemed alright, but I just need to have this over and done with.

I'm going to be done traveling for nearly a day and the clock'll only have advanced 6 hours...

Site update

2008-08-21T15:01:00.003-05:00

I'm changing around some of the setups on the website to a simpler system for updating.

- The site actually will have a homepage, and not just a redirect to the blog.

- The banner'll be changed pretty quickly; I wanted a large area to put pictures and other random things once I get going in Japan, but right now it's just the template I have for it.

- The blog's layout is now fully customized to what I want. In other words, I finally started looking at how Blogger actually does site layouts, and spliced the previous layout into my current design for the site.

- Pictures will eventually either have something on it, or redirect to my Picasa setup.

- Etc. is for everything else. I'll probably put my little utility programs on there, and just random other things.

Random Update, the deux

2008-08-19T16:59:00.003-05:00

- My wisdom teeth removal (part 1) is at the "just being annoyed that more stuff gets stuck back there than normal" stage.

- I'm working on building a redesign to actually have a main page around; I'm working on setting it up with the idea of many images being on there all the time. (i.e. easy background swapping) Biggest bonus of the new design so far: JST + CDT clocks. Check them before you try to contact me when it's 4:30 in the morning over there.

- I'm only really wearing my knee brace when I'm out of the house at this point; I'm back on the bike full-time, and just taking it easier than I was before.

- My magic collection is about 25% done being converted from binders + deck boxes to sleeve (those ~1000-count) boxes for Japan. In my mind, I have 4 parts of my collection: binder 0 (promos), binder 1 (main binder), binder 2 (crap binder), and the decks; 2/3 of binder 2 and the decks are set.

- I got my excess packs and that TSP box I've been carrying around sold off from a friend at Gencon; $250 wasn't what I _really_ wanted for a price on it all, but it beat my minimum by $20. That went into a DS, New Super Mario Bros. (80% of the way to 100%-ing it) and Super Mario 64DS (~45 stars) for the trip; I plan to find some Final Fantasys before I go, so I should have plenty to do.

A thought occurs...

2008-08-07T16:26:00.001-05:00

- Brett Favre is now a member of the Jets.

- Madden '09 has him on the cover in Packers colors.

- Interesting? Nah.

Random Update

2008-08-06T13:23:00.005-05:00

I have a brace on my right knee from a dislocated patella last Tuesday, my mouth is almost back to normal from getting my top wisdom teeth out last Friday, and I had a persistent kink in my back Monday and Tuesday this week. So, I'm just ready for the next day to begin 2 days before it comes...

Japan's getting almost there; 2 small things left on the things-to-do list, then it's just clothes shopping.

Reformatted my laptop to set it up for Japan. Those that know my computer know I don't normally run any antivirus or spyblock software, as they just slow down the computer beyond any desire I have to use them. I tried putting Symantec Endpoint on, and it pretty much began a cascade of problems, including disabling automatic updates and preventing me from installing some of my more ... grey ... applications. So, I had to start from scratch again and I'm just leaving the antivirus off for now, at least until I get _everything_ on it. I know I'll lose some of my crackers, (Symantec doesn't like AnyDVD, ophcrack, and netpass, if you know what those are) but I'll live.

Biggest complaint of this reformatting: towards the end of last semester, I started looking around for "stock images" for image work later, as I was getting tired of searching google images every time I wanted something. I eventually became a regular surfer of 4chan, because despite any criticism I've heard of it, it's one hell of a topical image repository. Many of my current wallpapers came from there, as well as now-about 60% of the total library of images I use. I was changing desktop themes and moved to a great artwork wallpaper I found over there, and just thought to myself that I wish we had faster internet at home, just so I could surf 4chan like I could at school.

Bad Legs + Injuries

2008-07-30T12:07:00.002-05:00

Well, here's the timeline...

- Last Sunday (7/20) I was umpiring a double-header; in the 3rd inning of the first game I was getting ready for a play at 3rd when the runner stopped and started running back to 2nd. Since I was already in position for the play at 3rd, I had to run full-stride to catch up for a possible play at 2nd (or to see a tag) and pulled a muscle in my left quad area; in the end I was sore for a couple days, but the main problem was that I couldn't move much at all for the remaining 1.5 games, and spent most of my time behind the pitcher and hobbling around as best as I could.

- Tuesday (7/29) I was biking to work in some construction, and needed to get from gravel to pavement about a foot up on steep slopes. So, when I pushed down on my right pedal, my knee gave out. I found out later that I apparently dislocated my patella.

So, right now I'm in a knee brace and hobbling around. The brace is pushing pretty hard into my leg muscles, but I think it'll work out there. The only complaints I have right now is that I can't bike for about a week (I'll be biking one-legged mostly, but right now I can't even bring my leg high enough to go through the motion of pedaling without a good amount of pain) and that it just takes forever to get anywhere. (my 5-minute walk between buildings took 15 today)

Now I'll be out of action pretty much this entire weekend...

iPod Phone, 7/4 FNM, and random stuff...

2008-07-04T20:41:00.002-05:00

Just another "random notes" day for posting...

[ iPhone - phone = what I have; what I have + phone = ?)

I bought a little thing which is basically a microphone you can plug into the dock connector of an iPod. The one thing left from that I've done, and I now have a SIP/VoIP phone on my iPod Touch. I've been showing it off simply by dialing my cell from my iPod, and it's getting some pretty amazed looks, especially from the tech people who understand just what this is.

In short, I have a phone for Japan.

[ 7/4 FNM ]

3rd FNM I've actually played in this summer, and I still hate this draft format, almost more so because I won the pod today. My first 4 picks: Armored Ascension, Grim Poppet, Shield of the Godhead, Shield of the Godhead. I proceed to find 2 more Ascensions and build just an OK creature base. The one game I lose is to a turn-5 win on the opponent, where I still ended the game with a 12/12 flying Scuttlemutt and drop the opponent to 2.

I still hate the format because I didn't win for having skill or anything; pack 1, pick 1 I took a Ascension over Godhead of Awe and Ballynock Cohort in a bad pack, pretty much signaling white to the left, there is NO pack-2 white (or much at all), and I can still scrounge a G-base deck, run lands 11 Plains, 6 Forest, and still just plain own the matches with powerful, difficult-to-defeat enchantments.

Seems like Mirrodin and Warhammer, except there's like 8 different forms of it and there is much less defence against it.

[ Japan update ]

Got mail from Kansai, pretty much giving me everything I need left to get to Japan; sending that out next week.

Still need to get some travel arrangements finished, though I've got till the 10th on that, and it's just an email.

EDH Play of the [insert random time period]

2008-06-21T00:01:00.002-05:00

This is why I play EDH:

I was playing Merieke Ri Berit vs. an Arcanis deck, which was a very competitive chess-match that included dueling capsizes, the opponent running a recurring counterspell chain for a while, and Urza's Factory tokens dealing almost all the damage in the game.

The game ended the opponent playing, of all the odd cards to see in EDH, Eye of the Storm. I knew his hand was Scrivener + 2 unknown cards, I have Capsize (public) + Arcanis (opp. didn't know, useless against his deck with Arcanis as general) in hand. I draw and play Trinket Mage, getting and playing SDT underneath the powers of EotS. End of my turn, my opp reveals his unknown card, putting a Mystical Tutor onto EotS and getting a Time Warp; there was a Reito Lantern in play, so this could go infinite.

So, the turn begins with (we both have "sufficent" mana available):
Opp - Reito Lantern, Scrivener, hand of 1 unknown card (drawing into Time Warp)
Me - SDT + 1 Urza's Factory token in play, Capsize + Arcanis in-hand.

He tries to play his hidden card, which is Turnabout (targeting my lands, tapping). I respond by spinning SDT, thinking if it would work, then drawing off of top and windmill-slamming...

Teferi.

With that, my opponent is locked out of playing instants and sorceries (can only play at sorcery-speed, and all of those would be only playable as part of the resolution of EotS), and I have an Eye of the Storm to use openly with a Turnabout + Mystical Tutor already on it.

He scoops after realizing the situation.

What people have told me about Japan, part 1

2008-06-14T21:59:00.002-05:00

This is something I've been meaning to do, but there are some people which, when I say I'm going to Japan, have been giving some interesting advice. I really thought I should document some of these odd ones...

- Someone told me that because I have long hair, some people will want to see me head-bang, assuming that I do it.

- My favorite so far went something like this: "You'll get people that want to ask you and have you play American rock music, but don't play anything like death-metal."

I know there are more, but now I know I have places to put things like this...

$japan_cost = $japan_cost - $1500;

2008-05-30T10:34:00.002-05:00

Chicago -> Osaka. Under $250. Enough said :)

Small program for some people

2008-05-26T15:43:00.005-05:00

Well, last FNM I finally decided to do a little program that I've seen a need for, so I built a program for DCI Reporter that gives you the final standings sorted by pod.

[ link ]

It's not done, any bit simplified in-code, or overly functional, but right now it does exactly what it says: input a file from a tournament and output a sorted list of the pod's standings. It also gives tiebreakers, since I needed to calculate those anyways... (they're a good bit more confusing than I thought when I started this)

This weekend's mostly been a bunch of "I was bored..." moments; I also whipped up a quick program so that I could do rating adjustments quickly on my own. Nothing too special.

Wasn't bored enough to start work on a macro-ing program that I've been thinking about...

Weekend notes...

2008-05-24T17:46:00.004-05:00

- I'm finally getting a break after 4 days of work + umpiring, and I'm just bored.

- I got a quick question from someone yesterday asking me about how their rating would be affected in a MTG event after a match, his was nearly 2000 and his opponent was (approx.) 1600. I got bored and just built a quickie program to handle something like that, but I answered him using my "in-head" method of guesstimating point swings:
> Take K-value * 50 (or K / 2 * 100 if you want something easier to do in-head). In this case, it was 400 (8 / 2 * 100). If you are ahead by more points than that, you won't gain anything by winning. (conversely, if you're more than 400 under, you won't lose anything by losing)
> If you're both even, then a win/loss will bring your rating up/down by 1/2 the K-value. If you add the above to that, you can just cut the remaining ratings into sections. i.e...
> > You are +100 rating = a win brings you + 3 points
> > You are +200 rating = a win brings you + 2 points

Yeah, it's a little complicated.

- I've been getting questions from family about if I've gotten a Wii yet; I've been looking for one pretty much continuously since last October.

Well, for me the reason was simply because of Smash Bros. Brawl. I always knew that I would love the console, and I still feel that I would. The issue now is that I also knew that I'd eventually also get a PS3 for some games, specifically FFXIII, GTA4, and LittleBigPlanet. Now I've hit a 4th game in a little game called Mirror's Edge. Seriously, watch this trailer.

I don't play FPS games, and I really don't like anything that's a Halo derivative, but I do have some games that I like from branches of the genre. (Portal, enough said) There's something about a game like that that is about technique as much as any combat that just makes me want it. It's like watching the LittleBigPlanet debut again for me, as it just has that "charm" as something different, but just something that seems so fun. I think I'll be describing it as "GTA if instead of running on the ground you needed to jump from rooftops".

- Still nothing on Japan, and I hear enough about it. I've gotten to the point where I start conversations asking if they know that I'm going, just so I can get it out of the way. I'm still not thinking about it that much, as I still have better things to do.

- Random trivia, just because I really am that bored right now. If you've heard of "Caramelldansen" or "the U-U-Uwa-Uwa Dance" (this thing), there's an interesting story as to the origin of that dance. It comes from a Eroge ("dating sim" is the easiest, though mild, way to sum that genre up) video game called "Popotan". It has an anime based on the game that I heard is very good, and I may look at it in the future. From what I've looked at in reviews, it's like Elfen Lied to Americans in that the series is actually pretty good, but because there are things in it unacceptable by american standards, you'd never see it here. If you want to see the origin of the dance, it's here; NSFW warning: It's got a lot of stuff in it against US "standards".

Evangelion Returns...

2008-05-12T19:53:00.005-05:00

I recently found a copy of the new NGE movie, You Are (Not) Alone. It pretty much covers everything from the series from the first scene, stopping right before Asuka's debut. Some thoughts I've had...

- It feels just like Evangelion. Many of the scenes are almost exactly the same, though they do take away a good portion of the filler. I've heard some people complain about things missing like enough development time of characters or lack of drama for the sake of moving through the story. I agree that some parts feel rushed, but there was a need for the pace; if I try to not think of it in terms of the previous story, there are some odd choices of scenes (it'll probably be explained once the other films come out) but it still has most of the core to the story.

- I first watched NGE in about '02, before I even cared about Japanese culture, so one scene I never really understood in the dub was when Shinji first got to Misato's place and said "I'm home."; it makes so much more sense now that I know some about Japanese and the ただいま/おかえりなさい (tadaimi/okaerinasai) exchange.

- They've kept a lot of the random moments that you remember from the series, for those that pay attention like that. The bathroom scene (where they're talking while the camera goes across the line of stalls) still has the "Out of Order" sign on one of them.

- The CGI in here is a little overdone in some places. It may just be the nature of the style that comes with the series, but there are occasions where either it wasn't needed or it was too overdone. (2 exceptions: the Ramiel battle and the movement of the city)

- As one of those people that is used to be someone intending on being a music major, I really appreciated the music here. Many of the scenes used remixes from the old series, taken into more modern levels; the tracks have a sense of suspense on occasion, both by the nature of the tracks and what I expected from them. When you know the music, and you've heard it for a long time, the movie makes adjustments on those themes that you have heard for so many years, and the suspense increases greatly there.

- If I had one major complaint here, it's that there are scenes that are just plain too dark. You'll go 15 seconds hearing all kinds of things going on, and knowing that there are things going on, but you won't see anything going on. I've tried on both my monitors, at night, with all the lights off; you can't tell what the hell's going on...

- The Ramiel fight scenes (6th angel...the blue one that's shaped like a Octahedron with a hell of a sniper shot) is easily the best Evangelion set of scenes I have ever seen. The angel is around for the last 40 minutes of the film, and all you can say is ... damn. You just wish they could've done what they did in this film in the first series.

- I do think that this movie is better than the combined 6-7 episodes. You lose a lot of the theme work done simply because there are time restrictions here, but in return you get something that is genuinely a good watch. It's like watching a clip show of the best of Evangelion, but it's seamless, provides some great fight scenes, and still maintains what is the essence of Evangelion.

The new top dog (in anime) (tie, that is)

2008-05-11T17:27:00.004-05:00

[ side note: I use this site for keeping track of anime I watch and want to see. I use it mostly to remember what I want to watch, but I also use it's "top 5" as a way for me to occasionally think about what I consider the best ]

Well, just a couple days ago I finished watching Haibane Renmei for the second time. The first time became a marathon run, just like Elfen Lied was, but this one was a bit more interesting to me.

When Tech TV was still around, they aired an anime series called Serial Experiments LAIN. I never thought this series was the greatest thing ever, but I thoroughly enjoyed it when I watched it. I remember biking to the first Magic store I regularly visited, passing by a power substation and hearing the sound, then even going so far as to trying to incorporate that note and the idea behind that note into some music I was writing. I just watching the series, but I always didn't like just how empty it was. You needed to really pay attention to go through the series, understanding everything. Some people like that kind of thing, but I tend to like listening to anime and being able to move my attention around if I need to.

Haibane Renmei's main designer is the same as LAIN, and the story shares a similar style to LAIN (very thematic, large amounts of allusion). However, the story is much deeper and conversational than LAIN, bringing the discussions between characters into light as a route to expression. It seems like I'm trying to grasp at little things here to explain the differences, but you really need to watch the two series to see just what is different about them.

But what I loved abou this series the most was just how good it was for "easy watching", like one of my other favorites, FLCL. It never pressed itself to you and forced you to pay attention, though watching it closely would mean a deeper understanding. You can just sit back, let this go, and just love the entire series for what it is.

The other thing about this series, though, is that this is the second series I have watched in recent months (the other being TokiKake) that I genuinely thought "Hey, this is a series I could use to introduce other people to anime." My mom's seen me watching a good number of series, and sometimes I get the feeling that she gets the wrong impression of why I watch anime. (I think most of this comes from when Ghost in the Shell was on [as] regularly, as that's usually when she stopped by my room when she went to bed) My older brother currently has my copy of FLCL, as I thought he'd be interested in a series that is like that. (He suggested Paprika to me, and they feel kind of similar) I never could really think of a series my parents would be interested in seeing, though I was looking at TokiKake for this summer among a couple other possible candidates. This one, though, will probably be first.

Next ones I'm looking at running through: Air, Gurren Lagann, and finally starting up xxxHolic. I may also restart Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei...

Getting ready for baseball

2008-05-11T17:03:00.002-05:00

For most of the umpires I work with, the season started 2 months ago, when high school started up with their spring leagues. I don't start my umpiring until school ends, which will be 2 Mondays from now, but I get into it pretty fast, with 48 games so far this summer and a probable 25-40 more. If you want an interesting hour of surfing, checkout the videos on youtube for baseball umpires; there's a bunch of videos of blown calls, some of the San Diego chicken, a few "what is the correct call" ones, and a few angry parents thinking their kid was robbed when they really weren't.

It made me remember of one of these calls from last year, which was my first real "injury" situation I've ever had as an umpire, but also was one of the most controversial calls (apparently) I ever made:

I was field umpiring, with an old friend and respected umpire who umpired games I played in being at the plate. There was nobody on base and the batter hits a pop-fly behind the pitcher, at the grass. I focused on the runner for first-base tag (expecting the plate umpire to make the catch/no catch call), but also turned my head to watch the catch myself. (my philosophy here is that if I have nothing immediate, it's always a good idea to just have 2 sets of eyes on a situation, even if one is just glancing) I watch the second baseman have position, but collide with the shortstop while making the catch in the air. 2B drops to the ground and lands on a leg funny, falling to the ground in pain; I call time immediately (another philosophy thing, no matter the level I don't keep play going with an injury) and check on the player. Eventually, we feel it's best to call for an ambulance and get the player off the field that way.

Here's the controversy, though. I go to grab his glove after the whole thing settles down to bring it back, and the ball is still in it. The player came down with the ball, threw off his glove, and the ball was still inside it. Neither myself or the plate umpire made a call on the catch, and in the end I make the call that it was not a catch, the runner gets 1st base. The reason for this is that I took a strict interpretation to the rules on a catch: under the rules, he never made a "controlled" release of the ball from the glove, so it isn't a catch.

I learned later that this had made it to some umpiring lists and that this actually became quite a conversation. I'm surprised that the end result of opinion was that it should be called a catch.

Wonder what's in store this year...

u u uwa uwa

2008-04-14T23:54:00.002-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX6e7sO1ss0&feature=related

Elfen Lied

2008-03-26T01:15:00.003-05:00

I'd heard a lot about this series in the past, and I have had it downloaded for a good while, but I just never got around to watching it. I always said that it was something that I would really need to be "in the mood" to watch.

Well, this past weekend I was just in the mood to watch something; I'd been re-watching Evangelion and didn't want to see any more of that, I didn't want to take a FLCL run or to watch something which I'd been watching already. So, I decided that I should finally see what this series was all about, and go beyond the first 8 minutes.

6 episodes later, I slept for the night with the thought of "wow, that series was not what I expected."

A little background, first. I first found out about this series from an anime-review website* which had some good reviews for the series. I'd also heard it in passing from many people, with such terms for it as "legalized anime-porn", "blood + nudity", ... you get the idea. My only experience with the series prior to the weekend was the first 8 minutes of episode 1; I'd heard more about that than any other part, so I watched that right when I first acquired the series.

The next day, I watched 2 episodes, finished Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations (the last episode just came out), and ran through the last 5 episodes.

That series is amazing. There's a website where I keep track of what I watch and also keep a running top-5 of animes; the list was FLCL/Haruhi/TokiKake/Evangelion/Outlaw Star. I never thought I'd stop considering Outlaw Star one of my top picks, but Elfen Lied kicked Evangelion to #5.

All I can say in a review of the series from what I heard about it that it is somewhat true. This series would never be aired on US television; the gore isn't an issue, but there'd be problems with the nudity. On the other hand, the series is just something that you could not expect coming into it. You are a little on-edge every second of the series, unexpected moments come in the first 8 minutes + some other sections that keep you on your seat, watching for the smallest change to prelude a large scene reminiscent of a horror film. In this tension, though, you get a very strong story for an anime, though you do see these "links broken and then re-attached by accident" stories often. The twists in the story, though, are ones that are unique to a series like this; the graphic nature of the series fits incredibly nicely, and the series wraps up with links complete and a very strong emotional bond formed between the main characters.

Elfen Lied is not a series for everyone, though. From everything I've read and from my opinion, I consider FLCL and this linked: you either love it or hate it. I would not suggest this series to anyone as their first series, or even 5th. Unless you can go beyond the explicit nature of the series to get to the true story, you will never like it; you can't do that if you don't have an understanding of the "intricacies" of anime. (in other words, there are strange things in this series, but you'll see stranger just going through other, much more normal animes)

* I went to the site as I was writing this, and I clicked on the first banner ad in several months intentionally. Lesson here: targeted advertisements on very specific sites work.

2008-02-15T13:03:00.002-06:00

This is just testing how Picasa works on here...

Christmas '07

Best thing Ever, again!

2008-02-14T15:20:00.002-06:00

...I start off with turning good music into 8-bit music, then I learn about something else that is just makes me want Super Smash. Bros Brawl even more.

I just "procured" the soundtrack that is on the disc.

It's 1.1 GiB of music.

>300 tracks, only about 50 of them are "game sounds".

You've got:
- Super Mario Bros., Jazz theme
- Mario 3 Airship, Heavy Metal
- Rainbow Road!
- Several huge orchestra versions of the Zelda theme
- Pokemon! 10 tracks of good themes from the GB games (and not just the main theme...)
- Mute City, Remixed
- Tetris!
- The ENTIRE Melee stage soundtrack
- Sonic + More Sonic + Even More Sonic!
- All kinds of new Brawl music

...and I'm someone who hasn't been a huge Nintendo person since the PS1.

... can March get here already?

The Best Program EVER!

2008-02-12T23:09:00.002-06:00

Well, it could take in MP3s and do this, but...

This program takes any MIDI file that you input it and gives it instrumentals of an old-school 8-bit gaming system.

I've got 8-bit Katamari going right now; it was Final Fantasy before that, and Fire Emblem prior :)

Sites I've been working on...

2008-02-11T00:56:00.001-06:00

UWEC - Tolarian Academy
UW - PEN Network Services

test

2008-02-08T14:34:00.001-06:00

This is a test.