OK, WWW.GIVEYOURMEAT.COM is up! Bookmark now!
Last night at iaido, Naganuma-sensei stopped by unannounced. We went through regular practice, and at the end he helped me for a few minutes with the first seated form, shin. He seemed surprised to see me at Friday practice:
"I saw a scooter outside and thought 'that looks familiar', but I didn't think you'd really come all the way out here for practice."
"It's not that far...I'm going to iai 4 days a week now. Can't get off a conference call on Thursday nights so only 4 days a week."
"What about aikido?"
"Gave up. No time outside of iaido!"
I guess he seemed a bit pleased, as he was the first one to get me into iaido, and he's a nut himself, practicing all the time for years.
Hiroko set up a dinner at an Okinawan food restaurant last night for my birthday. Damn good but that green veggie goya is way too bitter.
Had a dream that I was back in high school, it was really crowded, and I was late for class b/c I couldn't get my schedule. Plus my history teacher kept playing with a big knife.
Had a dream that I was back in high school, it was really crowded, and I was late for class b/c I couldn't get my schedule. Plus my history teacher kept playing with a big knife.
I used Verisign/Networks Solution's online customer support email form to submit the following request because the web forwarding I had set up didn't seem to be working. What follows is the single most bizzare email thread I've ever been in. I still can't determine whether I was getting responses generated by human beings, software, or both. Note how I am intentionally being rude and sarcastic, and using the inquisitions, all in an attempt to fool the VeriBot.
Fascinating.
From: renfield.kuroda@morganstanley.com
Received: 07/31/2002 11:05pm Central Standard Time (GMT - 5:00 )
To: customerservice@networksolutions.com
Subject: I have a different dot com forwarding question
name: renfield kuroda
comment: isn't forwarding. www.giveyourmeat.com should be forwarding to http://renfield.net/blog.html but
it's still giving the under construction page.
x: 1
email: renfield.kuroda@morganstanley.com
domain: giveyourmeat.com
y: 12
service_request:
topic_id: REG3DCF
nictrack:
topic: I have a different dot com forwarding question
type: NSI-managed
------ Please do not remove your unique tracking number! ------
<<#26085-35576#>>
##########
Dear Mr. Renfield Kuroda ,
Thank you for contacting VeriSign.
With regard to your inquiry, our records indicate the that web forwarding service has already been activated. Everything is working on our end.
Please know that your inquiry is important to us, and we value your business.
Best Regards,
GIRLIE001
VeriSign, Inc.
##########
I'm glad to hear that. Now can you do me a favor? Can you open a browser and type:
http://www.giveyourmeat.com in the URL and see what page loads?
When I try it, I get Verisign's Under Construction page. That, in my opinion, does NOT mean that "everything is working".
Regards,
r e n
##########
Dear Mr. Renfield Kuroda ,
Thank you for contacting VeriSign.
We have received your request to activate/modify your Web Forwarding.
In order to begin, it will be necessary for you to have your account number and password available. If you need to retrieve this information please go to the below link and click the "Forgot your Account Number or Password" link.
https://www.netsol.com/en_US/manage-it/login.jhtml
In order to activate/modify your Web Forwarding, please follow the instructions below:
1. Please visit our main site located at www.netsol.com
2. At the top of the page, click the "Account Manager" tab.
3. Under the "Returning Customers" header, input your account number and password, click "Login".
4. Click the domain name that you want to set up your Web Forwarding for.
5. Click the "Web Forwarding Service" link located beneath the yellow "Web Site Manager" button.
6. Click the "Dot Com Forwarding" radio button.
7. Input the domain name or IP address that you want your domain to forward to in the dialogue box provided, click "Go".
**It will take 24-48 hours for your forwarding to be activated**
Please know that your inquiry is important to us, and we value your business.
Best regards,
NATIVITY001
VeriSign, Inc.
##########
Is this a joke? Or is this some kind of non-human, auto-response email?
Let me explain the situation very clearly:
* I paid you money for web forwarding
* Web Forwarding has been turned on to forward www.giveyourmeat.com to
renfield.net/blog.html
* you (Verisign) have verified that the Web Forwarding service is functioning properly
* I have verified that it isn't. When I go to www.giveyourmeat.com, I get the Verisign Under Construction page.
r e n
##########
Dear Mr. Renfield Kuroda ,
Thank you for contacting VeriSign.
If you have registered or modified domain information, these updates can not be seen immediately. Once your modifications have been completed, it will take 24-48 hours before your new information will be visible on the Internet. This 24-48 hour delay is due to zone file propagation.
The zone files, which update the Internet, are not transferred instantaneously. They take at least 24 hours to upload to the Main Root Servers which, in turn, spread information throughout the Internet. This can create delays of up to 48 hours before changes are visible in our WHOIS database, located at: http://www.netsol.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois
These updates are made at 12am & 12pm Eastern Standard Time.
Requests received and completed by these times will be included in the next zone file update. However, your record may not be visible in the VeriSign WHOIS database for 24-48 hours from the time of the zone file update.
To check WHOIS, please cut & paste the following URL into your browser or go to our main page and click "Whois Lookup" in the upper right hand corner:
http://www.netsol.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois
Best regards,
NATIVITY001
VeriSign, Inc.
##########
Once again this information is quite interesting, but entirely irrelevant. I have not changed any DNS information, I have paid for your Web Forwarding service. I assume this means that the server Verisign uses to host the domain www.giveyourmeat.com
gets updated with a redirect page, either at the server or browser level. I fail to see what replicating DNS information has to do with it.
I'll ask this again: can you open your browser and type www.giveyourmeat.com and see what page shows up? If you see Verisign's Under Construction page, the service ISN'T working.
Regards,
r e n
P.S. I have now gotten responses from "NATIVITY001" and "GIRLIE001" -- are you actual human beings with names, or just (fairly) intelligent bots?
##########
Dear Mr. Renfield Kuroda ,
Thank you for contacting VeriSign.
We have checked on our end and the forwarding is working fine. Please
double-check on your end.
Please know that your inquiry is important to us, and
we value your business.
Best regards,
FORSYTH001
VeriSign, Inc.
##########
Thank you, "FORSYTH001".
Whatever you did, it now works: www.giveyourmeat.com
is now correctly forwarding to
renfield.net/blog.html
Regards,
r e n
P.S. You are a computer program, right? "FORSYTH001", "NATIVITY001" and
"GIRLIE001" are some kind of code/server version handles, eh? Or are you
all actual human beings who are just not allowed to respond to customer
inquiries in any way that deviates from some internal customer service
handbook? Well, human or machine, my problem has finally been fixed, so
thank you.
##########
Dear Mr. Renfield Kuroda ,
Thank you for contacting VeriSign.
Just glad to be of service.
We appreciate your message and look forward to providing you with continued quality service in the future.
Best regards,
FORSYTH001
VeriSign, Inc.
Fascinating.
From: renfield.kuroda@morganstanley.com
Received: 07/31/2002 11:05pm Central Standard Time (GMT - 5:00 )
To: customerservice@networksolutions.com
Subject: I have a different dot com forwarding question
name: renfield kuroda
comment: isn't forwarding. www.giveyourmeat.com should be forwarding to http://renfield.net/blog.html but
it's still giving the under construction page.
x: 1
email: renfield.kuroda@morganstanley.com
domain: giveyourmeat.com
y: 12
service_request:
topic_id: REG3DCF
nictrack:
topic: I have a different dot com forwarding question
type: NSI-managed
------ Please do not remove your unique tracking number! ------
<<#26085-35576#>>
##########
Dear Mr. Renfield Kuroda ,
Thank you for contacting VeriSign.
With regard to your inquiry, our records indicate the that web forwarding service has already been activated. Everything is working on our end.
Please know that your inquiry is important to us, and we value your business.
Best Regards,
GIRLIE001
VeriSign, Inc.
##########
I'm glad to hear that. Now can you do me a favor? Can you open a browser and type:
http://www.giveyourmeat.com
When I try it, I get Verisign's Under Construction page. That, in my opinion, does NOT mean that "everything is working".
Regards,
r e n
##########
Dear Mr. Renfield Kuroda ,
Thank you for contacting VeriSign.
We have received your request to activate/modify your Web Forwarding.
In order to begin, it will be necessary for you to have your account number and password available. If you need to retrieve this information please go to the below link and click the "Forgot your Account Number or Password" link.
https://www.netsol.com/en_US/manage-it/login.jhtml
In order to activate/modify your Web Forwarding, please follow the instructions below:
1. Please visit our main site located at www.netsol.com
2. At the top of the page, click the "Account Manager" tab.
3. Under the "Returning Customers" header, input your account number and password, click "Login".
4. Click the domain name that you want to set up your Web Forwarding for.
5. Click the "Web Forwarding Service" link located beneath the yellow "Web Site Manager" button.
6. Click the "Dot Com Forwarding" radio button.
7. Input the domain name or IP address that you want your domain to forward to in the dialogue box provided, click "Go".
**It will take 24-48 hours for your forwarding to be activated**
Please know that your inquiry is important to us, and we value your business.
Best regards,
NATIVITY001
VeriSign, Inc.
##########
Is this a joke? Or is this some kind of non-human, auto-response email?
Let me explain the situation very clearly:
* I paid you money for web forwarding
* Web Forwarding has been turned on to forward www.giveyourmeat.com to
renfield.net/blog.html
* you (Verisign) have verified that the Web Forwarding service is functioning properly
* I have verified that it isn't. When I go to www.giveyourmeat.com, I get the Verisign Under Construction page.
r e n
##########
Dear Mr. Renfield Kuroda ,
Thank you for contacting VeriSign.
If you have registered or modified domain information, these updates can not be seen immediately. Once your modifications have been completed, it will take 24-48 hours before your new information will be visible on the Internet. This 24-48 hour delay is due to zone file propagation.
The zone files, which update the Internet, are not transferred instantaneously. They take at least 24 hours to upload to the Main Root Servers which, in turn, spread information throughout the Internet. This can create delays of up to 48 hours before changes are visible in our WHOIS database, located at: http://www.netsol.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois
These updates are made at 12am & 12pm Eastern Standard Time.
Requests received and completed by these times will be included in the next zone file update. However, your record may not be visible in the VeriSign WHOIS database for 24-48 hours from the time of the zone file update.
To check WHOIS, please cut & paste the following URL into your browser or go to our main page and click "Whois Lookup" in the upper right hand corner:
http://www.netsol.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois
Best regards,
NATIVITY001
VeriSign, Inc.
##########
Once again this information is quite interesting, but entirely irrelevant. I have not changed any DNS information, I have paid for your Web Forwarding service. I assume this means that the server Verisign uses to host the domain www.giveyourmeat.com
I'll ask this again: can you open your browser and type www.giveyourmeat.com
Regards,
r e n
P.S. I have now gotten responses from "NATIVITY001" and "GIRLIE001" -- are you actual human beings with names, or just (fairly) intelligent bots?
##########
Dear Mr. Renfield Kuroda ,
Thank you for contacting VeriSign.
We have checked on our end and the forwarding is working fine. Please
double-check on your end.
Please know that your inquiry is important to us, and
we value your business.
Best regards,
FORSYTH001
VeriSign, Inc.
##########
Thank you, "FORSYTH001".
Whatever you did, it now works: www.giveyourmeat.com
renfield.net/blog.html
Regards,
r e n
P.S. You are a computer program, right? "FORSYTH001", "NATIVITY001" and
"GIRLIE001" are some kind of code/server version handles, eh? Or are you
all actual human beings who are just not allowed to respond to customer
inquiries in any way that deviates from some internal customer service
handbook? Well, human or machine, my problem has finally been fixed, so
thank you.
##########
Dear Mr. Renfield Kuroda ,
Thank you for contacting VeriSign.
Just glad to be of service.
We appreciate your message and look forward to providing you with continued quality service in the future.
Best regards,
FORSYTH001
VeriSign, Inc.
Chimi's been working at Amazon.co.jp for a few weeks now, and her first project is finally live: DVD Movie Zone.
Iaido last night was awesome. Ando-sensei couldn't come, so in his place Niina-gosoke came! This is the first time I've been in practice with Gosoke actually instructing. There were only seven of us in class and everyone else was at least 3dan. Gosoke was strict but his teaching style was "old school" I was later told. He stood at the front, we all spread out around the room, and he called out the first form: "shin!" We all kept repeating the form and every now and then he'd shout something at someone: "Oi! That's how we teach the beginners, but if you move your feet that slow, you might as well not even draw your sword! Don't waste everyone's time if you're not going to think about what you're doing!"
At one point he was accosting the person behind me and then suddenly: "Oi, ren! What the hell you think you're doing? Bigger swing! Bigger! And...you're now 1kyu!"
Huh?, I mean "Yes sir! Thank you sir!"
So I got promoted to 1kyu, which means I can officially go for shodan (blackbelt) in October.
The practice went on like that for 2 hours. We went through all five basic seated kata, then the five basic standing kata. Each time we'd keep repeating the kata and every now and then he'd shout something at someone. A couple of times he came right up to me and corrected my footwork, not cutting me any slack and treating me like everyone else, even though I wasn't even dan yet and everyone else in the room was way above my level.
When doing "sa" and "yu" (seated forms in which you turn 90 degrees, draw, and cut in one move) Gosoke made a clear distinction between doing the form for competition -- show every move clearly -- and doing the form to cut down an opponent -- fast, smooth, no pauses. Again he didn't cut me any slack, telling us "we teach the beginners to do each little move; grab the handle, rise to your knees, draw a little, raise the leg, turn, draw some more...but you do that and you'll get your hand chopped off before you even turn to face your opponent. He's not sitting next to you drinking tea, he's charging you, sword drawn! React! draw-turn-cut!"
His final words to us were to practice with our bodies and our brains. It's not enough to show up to practice and do the moves, we have to THINK about what we're doing: where is the opponent, why do we turn like this, how does this flow? Given all the time it takes to get to and from practice and actually hold the sword and do iai, it's pointless if we're not going to think about what we're doing. And it's not just during practice, either. Standing on the train, eating lunch, sitting on the toilet; always thinking about iai. What if that guy charged me? What kind of attack would he use? How could I react? Where do I move? What if I try holding like this? The body without the mind is just meat moving in space, and there's no art in that, so we have to cultivate the mind (spirit) as well, and then the movements will come.
By the end of practice we were all drenched in sweat (yesterday was also the hottest day of the summer so far!) but glad we made it. I realize I have a LONG way to go...
At one point he was accosting the person behind me and then suddenly: "Oi, ren! What the hell you think you're doing? Bigger swing! Bigger! And...you're now 1kyu!"
Huh?, I mean "Yes sir! Thank you sir!"
So I got promoted to 1kyu, which means I can officially go for shodan (blackbelt) in October.
The practice went on like that for 2 hours. We went through all five basic seated kata, then the five basic standing kata. Each time we'd keep repeating the kata and every now and then he'd shout something at someone. A couple of times he came right up to me and corrected my footwork, not cutting me any slack and treating me like everyone else, even though I wasn't even dan yet and everyone else in the room was way above my level.
When doing "sa" and "yu" (seated forms in which you turn 90 degrees, draw, and cut in one move) Gosoke made a clear distinction between doing the form for competition -- show every move clearly -- and doing the form to cut down an opponent -- fast, smooth, no pauses. Again he didn't cut me any slack, telling us "we teach the beginners to do each little move; grab the handle, rise to your knees, draw a little, raise the leg, turn, draw some more...but you do that and you'll get your hand chopped off before you even turn to face your opponent. He's not sitting next to you drinking tea, he's charging you, sword drawn! React! draw-turn-cut!"
His final words to us were to practice with our bodies and our brains. It's not enough to show up to practice and do the moves, we have to THINK about what we're doing: where is the opponent, why do we turn like this, how does this flow? Given all the time it takes to get to and from practice and actually hold the sword and do iai, it's pointless if we're not going to think about what we're doing. And it's not just during practice, either. Standing on the train, eating lunch, sitting on the toilet; always thinking about iai. What if that guy charged me? What kind of attack would he use? How could I react? Where do I move? What if I try holding like this? The body without the mind is just meat moving in space, and there's no art in that, so we have to cultivate the mind (spirit) as well, and then the movements will come.
By the end of practice we were all drenched in sweat (yesterday was also the hottest day of the summer so far!) but glad we made it. I realize I have a LONG way to go...
As I will hopefully be spending more time cutting real things with real swords, I've added a Shizan page.
Being an upper-middle class white boy of privilege, it's good to get a dose of old-fashioned discrimination now and then to keep reality in perspective. Today I went to the Minato Ward Office to renew my Alien Registration Card. All resident foreigners in Japan are required to carry this photo id with them at all times. Furthermore, we are required to show this card whenever any officer of the law and/or government representative demands it. Failure to have the card and/or failure to show it when requested are grounds for arrest, and most likely deportation.
Kannai-san gave me a couple more photos from the shizankai last month. Next one is in two weeks!
Shock! Kiyokawa said that he's already sold his sword! Seems when he was showing it to me last week, someone else happened to see it as well and was so taken with it, he gave Kiyokawa 100,000 yen on the spot as down payment! Who the hell carries around that much cash? If he wants the sword that badly, he can have it! I just hope I find a decent one this Sunday.
Shock! Kiyokawa said that he's already sold his sword! Seems when he was showing it to me last week, someone else happened to see it as well and was so taken with it, he gave Kiyokawa 100,000 yen on the spot as down payment! Who the hell carries around that much cash? If he wants the sword that badly, he can have it! I just hope I find a decent one this Sunday.
Fun-filled weekend:
Went to iai on Friday and as Kubota-sensei wasn't there Tanaka-sensei and Sanno-san showed up. Yet another hot and sweaty practice.
On Saturday Hiroko was off doing girlie things so I sat around and watched Orange County, which Nate lent to me last week. Then I wandered around Shibuya and decided to finally go see SW2. Whilst sitting on the street before the movie, trying not to move in the oppressive heat and humidity, Kev and Z walked by. It was Z's birthday and they were on their way to get some curry for lunch. So I joined them for a quick lassi and then went to catch the movie. I was pleasantly surprised: this movie was better than didn't suck, it was actually a good movie. Corny and played at times, yes, but a good movie nonetheless. Finished up the evening with a quick dinner at good old Lucky, and then back home.
Sunday Hiroko and I spent some quality time shopping in Shinjuku and ended up buying her a new yukata and all the trimmings. I got a nice junbei and new obi, too. All in preparation for my 30th birthday party next week.
Went to iai on Friday and as Kubota-sensei wasn't there Tanaka-sensei and Sanno-san showed up. Yet another hot and sweaty practice.
On Saturday Hiroko was off doing girlie things so I sat around and watched Orange County, which Nate lent to me last week. Then I wandered around Shibuya and decided to finally go see SW2. Whilst sitting on the street before the movie, trying not to move in the oppressive heat and humidity, Kev and Z walked by. It was Z's birthday and they were on their way to get some curry for lunch. So I joined them for a quick lassi and then went to catch the movie. I was pleasantly surprised: this movie was better than didn't suck, it was actually a good movie. Corny and played at times, yes, but a good movie nonetheless. Finished up the evening with a quick dinner at good old Lucky, and then back home.
Sunday Hiroko and I spent some quality time shopping in Shinjuku and ended up buying her a new yukata and all the trimmings. I got a nice junbei and new obi, too. All in preparation for my 30th birthday party next week.
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