From Edwin.
Self explanatory: youforgotpoland.com
kensuke & momo
Went up to Kensuke's house to play with him and momo. Had a massive allergy attack from all the greenery, but it was fun. Kensuke is now big enough to stumble about and cause trouble, and momo's front teeth have come in finally, making her look more and more like her mom every day. Hiroko saw her old gang of elementary school buddies and we ate far too much, as usual.
tomo & mieko married!
Congrats to Tomo and Mieko for tying the knot. I like to say it was a shotgun wedding, because she's a month pregnant, but alas it was all part of the plan.
I also take some small responsibility because I encouraged her to join IT not Corp Comms back in the day, and I like to think that had something to do with her meeting Tomo in IT. Then again it could be totally unrelated, but whatever.
Saw Spike and his very pregnant wifey, bumming because she's gotta go easy on the booze. Also saw Moka, who's announced he's leaving Morgan to go give a hand at the front office. Good for him!
The old ECT team from the days of yore at Morgan Stanley is slowly dissolving; life is change. And change is good.
Here's the photos.
I also take some small responsibility because I encouraged her to join IT not Corp Comms back in the day, and I like to think that had something to do with her meeting Tomo in IT. Then again it could be totally unrelated, but whatever.
Saw Spike and his very pregnant wifey, bumming because she's gotta go easy on the booze. Also saw Moka, who's announced he's leaving Morgan to go give a hand at the front office. Good for him!
The old ECT team from the days of yore at Morgan Stanley is slowly dissolving; life is change. And change is good.
Here's the photos.
eat well, dream well
I'm fairly certain that I've been having vivid dreams the past few days, but as soon as I wake up, all I have is the vague recollection that I was just dreaming...but I can't remember what about. I hate that.
Hiroko says, "Every time I wake up, all the comforter is wrapped around you, and I'm cold, and you're dead asleep." So it's some kind of karmic payback for stealing the covers?
Maybe it's because I've been eating better these past few days. The fear of high blood pressure has put a motivation on me, and I've been attempting to cook dinner for the past couple days. Here are some things I have discovered:
* You can put lots of different spices in the sauce and the chicken will still taste bland.
* Too much garlic is too much.
* Don't put any food into your mouth until you've thoroughly chewed and swallowed everything. And taken a sip of tea.
* Talk alot during dinner; it's more interesting, it makes the meal last, and you feel fuller without having eaten as much.
* Eating 200 grams of pasta in 20 minutes is just as filling as eating 500 grams of pasta in five minutes. And it's less painful afterwards.
* Hiroko still eats really, really slowly. But it's arguably a better way to eat than too much, too fast.
* Japanese food has lots of salt in it. Hiroko says it's because the water in Japan doesn't have any minerals in it like in the states, so all minerals, including salt, have to be added to the food. I think it's just because Japanese people generally like salt.
* Japanese food labelling requirements pale in comparison to the states.
Hiroko says, "Every time I wake up, all the comforter is wrapped around you, and I'm cold, and you're dead asleep." So it's some kind of karmic payback for stealing the covers?
Maybe it's because I've been eating better these past few days. The fear of high blood pressure has put a motivation on me, and I've been attempting to cook dinner for the past couple days. Here are some things I have discovered:
* You can put lots of different spices in the sauce and the chicken will still taste bland.
* Too much garlic is too much.
* Don't put any food into your mouth until you've thoroughly chewed and swallowed everything. And taken a sip of tea.
* Talk alot during dinner; it's more interesting, it makes the meal last, and you feel fuller without having eaten as much.
* Eating 200 grams of pasta in 20 minutes is just as filling as eating 500 grams of pasta in five minutes. And it's less painful afterwards.
* Hiroko still eats really, really slowly. But it's arguably a better way to eat than too much, too fast.
* Japanese food has lots of salt in it. Hiroko says it's because the water in Japan doesn't have any minerals in it like in the states, so all minerals, including salt, have to be added to the food. I think it's just because Japanese people generally like salt.
* Japanese food labelling requirements pale in comparison to the states.
typhoon #23
Just a couple of weeks after #22 slammed across Japan and we got hit by #23. Strongest typhoon yet, and with the ground still wet from the last typhoon, much of Japan, especially in the southwest, was a mess of landslides and overflowing rivers. HR told folks to leave work early, so last night I left at five. Coming out of the train station I was met with horizontal rain. My umbrella was totally useless; the wind was blowing so strongly the I felt like I was laying down under a shower. I basically gave up and trudged home through overflowing gutters. Good thing I had my boots on, though. At least my feet were dry.
Golly, I'm sure glad that there's no such thing as global warming, otherwise I'd suspect all these typhoons had some kind of meaning.
This morning it was a bit gray but the typhoon's gone off into the Pacific, and most of my neighborhood is still standing, so it wasn't a total loss.
Golly, I'm sure glad that there's no such thing as global warming, otherwise I'd suspect all these typhoons had some kind of meaning.
This morning it was a bit gray but the typhoon's gone off into the Pacific, and most of my neighborhood is still standing, so it wasn't a total loss.
good bad attitude
Paul Graham touches on the American-ness of the hacker ethic. He is spot on, and of course no reasonable government official, and especially not anyone in this fear-mongering White House, would even get it.
(un)health check
Not really much point in getting a health check if the doctor doesn't actually tell me anything helpful from the results, eh?
Turns out that I cannot escape genetics. The high bloodpressure from my mom's side rears its ugly head. I need to lose weight and cut salt as I am a classic case of prehypertension.
I've never been a big salt fan and now I have an excuse to demand lower salt. Hard to do though in Japan; a spot of soy sauce and it's all over!
Then again cardiac arrest is not an option, so no more second bowl of rice, no more post-dinner icecream, more fruits and veggies.
Turns out that I cannot escape genetics. The high bloodpressure from my mom's side rears its ugly head. I need to lose weight and cut salt as I am a classic case of prehypertension.
I've never been a big salt fan and now I have an excuse to demand lower salt. Hard to do though in Japan; a spot of soy sauce and it's all over!
Then again cardiac arrest is not an option, so no more second bowl of rice, no more post-dinner icecream, more fruits and veggies.
doughnuts!
It's not Krispy Kreme, but Doughnut Plant, NYC makes a damn fine cinnamon roll that puts Starbucks to shame. Hiroko and I found it yesterday walking back from Meguro after having lunch in Shinagawa and loaded up for breakfast. Don't think we can freeze them so we'll have eat them all in the next couple of days!
speakers
Hiroko's birthday present has finally come together. Got a 5.1 set of speakers from Axiom Audio, a Yamaha receiver, and bunch of speaker cable from Ivan. After playing with Conan for a while and checking out his house in Yutenji, I made a couple of trips to Bic Camera to get various necessary cableage and finally get the system wired up. Still need another D video cable to connect the TV output to the receiver, but in general it works.
Now if I can just figure out how to get all the remote controls consolidated...
Now if I can just figure out how to get all the remote controls consolidated...
konishi-sensei
Konishi-sensei came up last night and practiced at Honbu Dojo. Very interesting. The theory behind many of the kata are just different enough to make the kata quite different. And of course they don't 'cut', so most of the movements are practically unusable. Interesting, but not my thing and not the 'cutting iai' Mugairyu that we do and are used to.
music
Everything you ever wanted to know about electronic music. Mad snaps to Ishkur for not only mapping the genre and providing samples, but for summing up, in a simple, sarcastic paragraph, the essence of the music.
the political post
This will be my one, and hopefully only, political post. Just watched the 3rd and final debate. As an overseas citizen I have a simple agenda:
I have not lived in the US for a decade, and yet I pay taxes. ALOT of taxes. The US is one of a handful of nations that fully taxes its citizens overseas.
The president, in my humble opinion, should be neither a lawyer nor a statesman. He should be an accountant, or at the very least have an MBA. Because running the US is simply about economics, but the economics are not simple. You have some money (taxes) that you have to spend on stuff (roads, schools, killing brown people in the desert.)
Here's what you do:
A) Collect fewer taxes
B) Spend the the money you do have wisely. Intelligently. Efficiently.
The only other thing I really care about is you and your God telling me that the way I live my life is wrong.
To this I give Kerry credit. When asked about his faith, he basically said: "My faith guides me in what I do and why, but not how I legislate, because I cannot force my faith on others who may have a different faith."
Bush, on the other hand, said "God told me to spread freedom and democracy and to kill all the fetus-killing, liberal, terrorist, non-Christians."
Unforunately, as my esteemed father taught me a long time ago:
"The average American is average. And that's pretty fucking stupid."
So my prediction is: Bush wins. I stay in Japan indefintely, where the government is at least as screwed up, but as Douglas Adams summed up best, mostly harmless.
I have not lived in the US for a decade, and yet I pay taxes. ALOT of taxes. The US is one of a handful of nations that fully taxes its citizens overseas.
The president, in my humble opinion, should be neither a lawyer nor a statesman. He should be an accountant, or at the very least have an MBA. Because running the US is simply about economics, but the economics are not simple. You have some money (taxes) that you have to spend on stuff (roads, schools, killing brown people in the desert.)
Here's what you do:
A) Collect fewer taxes
B) Spend the the money you do have wisely. Intelligently. Efficiently.
The only other thing I really care about is you and your God telling me that the way I live my life is wrong.
To this I give Kerry credit. When asked about his faith, he basically said: "My faith guides me in what I do and why, but not how I legislate, because I cannot force my faith on others who may have a different faith."
Bush, on the other hand, said "God told me to spread freedom and democracy and to kill all the fetus-killing, liberal, terrorist, non-Christians."
Unforunately, as my esteemed father taught me a long time ago:
"The average American is average. And that's pretty fucking stupid."
So my prediction is: Bush wins. I stay in Japan indefintely, where the government is at least as screwed up, but as Douglas Adams summed up best, mostly harmless.
iPod + Sazae-san
Snarfed this from Chimi. For those who know the long-running Japanese cartoon Sazae-san, check out the iPod commercial.
health check results
Got my yearly health check results back:
Height: 169.3 cm (5'6")
Weight: 78.0 k (171.9 lbs)
BMI: 27.2
OK, I admit I've got a nice gut going on and can stand to lose some weight; my BMI is too high and my suggested BMI is 22.
But my suggest weight is 62.4 k (137.5 lbs.) So I'm supposed to lose 15.6 k (34.4 lbs)?! I guess if I cut off a leg or something...
Height: 169.3 cm (5'6")
Weight: 78.0 k (171.9 lbs)
BMI: 27.2
OK, I admit I've got a nice gut going on and can stand to lose some weight; my BMI is too high and my suggested BMI is 22.
But my suggest weight is 62.4 k (137.5 lbs.) So I'm supposed to lose 15.6 k (34.4 lbs)?! I guess if I cut off a leg or something...
mukayu
Just back from two nights and three days in Beniya Mukayu, the coolest hot springs hotel in Ishikawa Prefecture. Check it out.
Weren't sure if we'd even make it, because the typhoon on Saturday was bearing down hard. We headed to the airport expecting our flight to get cancelled at any minute. The other two flights after hours, and basically everything else after 5 pm, was cancalled, but we made it.
Very cool hotel; stylish modern design but traditional rooms. Stunning food. Wandered around the town during the day, checked out the local pottery (kutaniyaki) and historical sites, and made my own traditional paper postcards at the Arts & Crafts Experience Extravaganza that is Yunokuninomori.
Weren't sure if we'd even make it, because the typhoon on Saturday was bearing down hard. We headed to the airport expecting our flight to get cancelled at any minute. The other two flights after hours, and basically everything else after 5 pm, was cancalled, but we made it.
Very cool hotel; stylish modern design but traditional rooms. Stunning food. Wandered around the town during the day, checked out the local pottery (kutaniyaki) and historical sites, and made my own traditional paper postcards at the Arts & Crafts Experience Extravaganza that is Yunokuninomori.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)