Recently (call it the past couple months) I have been walking home from work. Late in the evening the oppressive heat and humidity is slightly more tolerable, and since I get no exercise as of late, it's a good 45 minutes of activity 3-4 times a week.
In order to maximize the geek factor of a simple walk, I had to get myself a pedometer.
I've settled on Omron's HJ-113. I could have gone ubergeek and stepped up to the HJ-710IT but the software is Windows only and besides, not entirely sure how much statistical analysis I can get out of my daily walks home.
At the very least I am shooting for the Walking Holy Grail: 10,000 steps a day. My strategy for achieving includes always using the stairs to go up or down less than two floors at work, skipping the taxi when I can walk, and getting up to talk to people instead of using the phone.
Do my pedometer antics make me pedantic?
yoshida party
Went to Yoshida's place and as always there was tons of good food. Tonchan didn't nap much because she was so excited. After feeding her we went home and she fell asleep as soon as we walked out the door and stayed pretty much dead all night, slept in pretty late this morning too.
she loves books
she loves books
Originally uploaded by renfield.
The Tonchabeast when hungry cannot be easily sated! Combine a months-old habit of eating paper with the ability to sort of crawl and add a low bookshelf of kids books. The results are books all over the floor and a mouthful of soggy paper.
And of course the book is her favorite and mine: Where the Wild Things Are. Wild Things indeed!
life is good
life is good
Originally uploaded by renfield.
Happy birthday to me! Mama sent me this awesome t-shirt. And P got me some great books including Oh Daughter! and Crazy Festivals of Japan.
meat coma
The weather looked like it would hold, so I fired up the BBQ and began the grillin'. Eventually the rain started coming, after some lovely thunder and lightning, but by then we had piles of pork, lamb, and chicken, as well as the occasional potato and corn cob. Various children raced about wildly as their parents sat bloated and smiling, and slowly the meat piles receded.
A few photos; no meat, mostly family.
A few photos; no meat, mostly family.
jolly jumper
The latest in child torture devices. She loves it, for 10 minutes. And then she totally freaks.
carnage
First of all, it's just too goddamn hot. 'Nuf said.
Went to check out a couple more international pre-schools for the Tonchalizer. Big schools, small schools, English schools, Japanese schools...lotsa options. Guess the most important things are:
* does the schedule work for us?
* do they have room for her?
* are the teachers cute and from New Zealand?
My daughter's education is massively important, obviously. The carnage I can imagine her doing with a box of pencils and a bottle of glue...she's got my genes, so I'm sure she'll be one of those unique kids who requires lots of "quite alone time" in the corner with the restraining belt.
Speaking of carnage, who pulled the bottom out from under the markets? Man I haven't seen it this ugly since the post Y2K internet bubble popped and I was sitting on some really expensive Cisco and Yahoo. Nikkei dropped like 2.4% today, which isn't too bad because it was never really up all that much. But yikes the rest of the world is feeling it.
This isn't any subprime fallout, this is your basic, run-of-the-mill over-reaction stupidity. All the talking heads on CNN and BloombergTV tell everyone the subprime shakeout is squeezing the big lenders and for some reason all the couch-traders and soho day traders think it's somehow relevant, and start selling out of everything, chasing the bottom.
Ah, but we can't blame retail, because the "professionals" have been caught with many a pant leg around the ankle, eh. The intelligence of crowds, they say?
At least I bought some reasonably cheap dollars...could have done better but I don't exactly sit around all day watching the FX tickers and punting currencies. I sit around all day reading Japanese securities law and punting term sheets and product descriptions and making little charts with arrows.
It's actually kind of fun, the whole "product structuring" thing; if only I actually knew what I was doing. I think my main job is to keep all the interested parties in the room from killing each other, find the one thing we can agree on, and drill on that until we have a workable product that
a) makes money for us and the client, and
b) keeps everyone out of jail.
Of course a is easy if you ignore b, but all that money isn't going to buy you much more than smokes and tv privileges in prison.
I honestly believe that the law is meant to be followed. Just sometimes the rules are hard; incomplete, a bit vague, kinda out-dated. All the more reason to scrub it down, figure it out, do the right thing, and come out shiny. Clients love it, regulators love it, and I can proudly tell my mom I am not perpetuating vast evils and carnage.
At least not at work.
Went to check out a couple more international pre-schools for the Tonchalizer. Big schools, small schools, English schools, Japanese schools...lotsa options. Guess the most important things are:
* does the schedule work for us?
* do they have room for her?
* are the teachers cute and from New Zealand?
My daughter's education is massively important, obviously. The carnage I can imagine her doing with a box of pencils and a bottle of glue...she's got my genes, so I'm sure she'll be one of those unique kids who requires lots of "quite alone time" in the corner with the restraining belt.
Speaking of carnage, who pulled the bottom out from under the markets? Man I haven't seen it this ugly since the post Y2K internet bubble popped and I was sitting on some really expensive Cisco and Yahoo. Nikkei dropped like 2.4% today, which isn't too bad because it was never really up all that much. But yikes the rest of the world is feeling it.
This isn't any subprime fallout, this is your basic, run-of-the-mill over-reaction stupidity. All the talking heads on CNN and BloombergTV tell everyone the subprime shakeout is squeezing the big lenders and for some reason all the couch-traders and soho day traders think it's somehow relevant, and start selling out of everything, chasing the bottom.
Ah, but we can't blame retail, because the "professionals" have been caught with many a pant leg around the ankle, eh. The intelligence of crowds, they say?
At least I bought some reasonably cheap dollars...could have done better but I don't exactly sit around all day watching the FX tickers and punting currencies. I sit around all day reading Japanese securities law and punting term sheets and product descriptions and making little charts with arrows.
It's actually kind of fun, the whole "product structuring" thing; if only I actually knew what I was doing. I think my main job is to keep all the interested parties in the room from killing each other, find the one thing we can agree on, and drill on that until we have a workable product that
a) makes money for us and the client, and
b) keeps everyone out of jail.
Of course a is easy if you ignore b, but all that money isn't going to buy you much more than smokes and tv privileges in prison.
I honestly believe that the law is meant to be followed. Just sometimes the rules are hard; incomplete, a bit vague, kinda out-dated. All the more reason to scrub it down, figure it out, do the right thing, and come out shiny. Clients love it, regulators love it, and I can proudly tell my mom I am not perpetuating vast evils and carnage.
At least not at work.
crab, king of the ocean
Ah, the joy that is traditional gift-giving in Japan!
Every summer we send various people who have done us right a traditional summer gift, usually some tasty katsuo. In return, Momo's mom and P's childhood friend sent us a huge case of frozen, boiled king crab legs.
Oh, the mighty feast that ensued. Masa came over to help eat, and I diligently separated flesh from shell, resulting in a huge pile of crabby goodness.
After stuffing ourselves, we still had a massive pile of crabmeat leftover, so I made up a huge pan of crab fried rice for later.
Post-dinner I was feeling the food coma and dozed off on the couch for a bit. Crab power!
Every summer we send various people who have done us right a traditional summer gift, usually some tasty katsuo. In return, Momo's mom and P's childhood friend sent us a huge case of frozen, boiled king crab legs.
Oh, the mighty feast that ensued. Masa came over to help eat, and I diligently separated flesh from shell, resulting in a huge pile of crabby goodness.
After stuffing ourselves, we still had a massive pile of crabmeat leftover, so I made up a huge pan of crab fried rice for later.
Post-dinner I was feeling the food coma and dozed off on the couch for a bit. Crab power!
akiba
At Roland's behest, I spent the day in Akihabara with Madeleine Brand (and her posse) host of NPR's Day to Day.
They were working on a story about Japanese manga and anime's portrayal of environmental issues, and I took them around the hood to see all the standard stuff. Akiba was in full Sunday swing, with cosplay kids, street singers, cafe maids, custom doll shops and awesome action figures, robots and PC parts, comics and eclectic electronics.
With a mic in my face and the odd probing question, I waxed non-eloquently about a variety of anime and manga topics, so on some show in the future, I may very well make my radio debut!
They were working on a story about Japanese manga and anime's portrayal of environmental issues, and I took them around the hood to see all the standard stuff. Akiba was in full Sunday swing, with cosplay kids, street singers, cafe maids, custom doll shops and awesome action figures, robots and PC parts, comics and eclectic electronics.
With a mic in my face and the odd probing question, I waxed non-eloquently about a variety of anime and manga topics, so on some show in the future, I may very well make my radio debut!
soba
Before we headed off to Ginza, we stopped by Sarashina Horii for some soba. I went for the futouchi (fat, boonies style) which was seriously al dente and damn fine.
Checked out the antique faire at Matsuya, but besides the crazy old lady who sold me a nice kimono last time, and the crazy old lady and her husband who sold us the hand-made geta last time, wasn't much impressive stuff.
Checked out the antique faire at Matsuya, but besides the crazy old lady who sold me a nice kimono last time, and the crazy old lady and her husband who sold us the hand-made geta last time, wasn't much impressive stuff.
slob
slob
Originally uploaded by renfield.
Parenting is War. One of the many battles I lose: feeding. The Tonchabeast will not be sated. The Tonchasaurus will not be pacified. The Tonchalizer will not be satisfied.
I am entirely unclear as to how she managed to get food onto her eyebrows. Nevertheless, she ate everything (excluding the bits spread all over her face, arms, clothes, table, high chair, and floor.)
shinhinanomoto
shinhinanomachi
Originally uploaded by renfield.
Many nefarious dealings with The Shady in town, so after multiple debauchery nights, we required some quality seafood and fried chicken. A final bowl of salty sea slug finished off the evening meal before several bottles of champagne down the road.
A good time was had by all.
debauchery
Big Boss in town and the typhoon clearing out, so the whole team headed out to dinner. I came late because I had to teach at Honbu.
We took over the back room of 57 before heading up to Orange at Midtown. Vertical appetizers were a bit silly but the french fries with truffles was quality.
Sent the foreigners into the depths of sketchiness in Roppongi whilst the Japanese crowd went for late-night ramen and I dragged myself home at 2:30.
We took over the back room of 57 before heading up to Orange at Midtown. Vertical appetizers were a bit silly but the french fries with truffles was quality.
Sent the foreigners into the depths of sketchiness in Roppongi whilst the Japanese crowd went for late-night ramen and I dragged myself home at 2:30.
italiano iai
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