2006
Contest Closed
21/12/06 22:43 Filed in: Books
Ok, I
have decided that I have enough books for the new year, primarily
because I am not sure I can afford to buy this many books! Here is
the list of my own choices:
The Collected Short Stories - Dahl (already about half done)
The Odyssey - A Modern Sequel - Kazantzakis (just started, pretty awesome, heavy Nietzschean influence, very long)
Getting Things Done Allen (2nd read)
7 Habits of Highly Effective People Covey (2nd)
If You Want to Write - Ueland (2nd)
One Hundred Years of Solitude (ugh, I have to read an Oprah book)
The Road - Cormac McCarthy - yay postapocalyptic fiction!
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Thompson - I am breaking down and finally reading it.
Guns, Germs and Steel - Diamond
Remembering the Kanji 1 - this is a textbook with all 2000 main use Kanji - I intend to learn them all.
The Magus - Fowles
The Old Capital - Kawabata
I am a Cat - Soseki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami
Lightweight Backpacking and Camping: A field guide to wilderness hiking equipment, technique and style
Fixing your Feet - Vonhof
The Complete Walker IV - Fletcher and Rawlins
Four Pairs of Boots - McLachlan
Lost Japan - Kerr
Collected Fictions - Borges
On the Road - Kerouac
20th Century Poetry and Poetics - ed Geddes
Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry
Because no one made any suggestions for subscriptions, I am going to subscribe to the Malahat Review and The Fiddlehead, because the former was my first rejector and the latter may dare to be my second, and because they are fairly prestigious. Lastly, because I am turning hardcore and because it is cheap, I am going to subscribe to Backpackinglight's print mag. It is $15USD with my membership, though shipping costs double the price. Still, $30USD for 4 issues is pretty good.
Here are the submissions:
Financial Peace - Ramsey - Matt
The Tipping Point - Gladwell - Matt
Nausea - Sartre - Ty
On the Road - Kerouac - Ty (unofficial submission)
A Pale View of the Hills - Kazuo Ishiguro - Naben
Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis - Naben
The Old Devils - Kingsley Amis - Naben
The Collected Poems of Philip Larkin - Naben
Hitching a Ride with Buddha: Travels in Search of Japan - Ferguson - Melia
True North - Harrison - Dad
The Road Home - Harrison - Dad
Dalva - Harrison - Dad
As Naben, cocky ass that he is, pointed out, if the same person suggests both the 1st and 2nd place books, or if he or she already owns the prize, I'll figure something else out.
37 Books all told! Some of them are ridiculously huge, as in entire anthologies, but I have a whole year, so I'll give it my damnest. I'll start with the ones I actually own, in addition to the subscriptions. Here's a tentative starting list:
The Collected Short Stories - Dahl (already about half done)
The Odyssey - A Modern Sequel - Kazantzakis
Financial Peace - Ramsey - Matt (loaned)
Getting Things Done Allen (2nd read)
7 Habits of Highly Effective People Covey (2nd)
If You Want to Write - Ueland (2nd)
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Guns, Germs and Steel - Diamond
The Magus - Fowles
The Tipping Point - Gladwell - Matt (loaned)
These are so big that I'll have to read them gradually.
20th Century Poetry and Poetics - ed Geddes
Remembering the Kanji 1
Collected Fictions - Borges
Wish me luck and look forward to the reviews!
.
.
.
How the hell am I going to afford this?
The Collected Short Stories - Dahl (already about half done)
The Odyssey - A Modern Sequel - Kazantzakis (just started, pretty awesome, heavy Nietzschean influence, very long)
Getting Things Done Allen (2nd read)
7 Habits of Highly Effective People Covey (2nd)
If You Want to Write - Ueland (2nd)
One Hundred Years of Solitude (ugh, I have to read an Oprah book)
The Road - Cormac McCarthy - yay postapocalyptic fiction!
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Thompson - I am breaking down and finally reading it.
Guns, Germs and Steel - Diamond
Remembering the Kanji 1 - this is a textbook with all 2000 main use Kanji - I intend to learn them all.
The Magus - Fowles
The Old Capital - Kawabata
I am a Cat - Soseki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami
Lightweight Backpacking and Camping: A field guide to wilderness hiking equipment, technique and style
Fixing your Feet - Vonhof
The Complete Walker IV - Fletcher and Rawlins
Four Pairs of Boots - McLachlan
Lost Japan - Kerr
Collected Fictions - Borges
On the Road - Kerouac
20th Century Poetry and Poetics - ed Geddes
Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry
Because no one made any suggestions for subscriptions, I am going to subscribe to the Malahat Review and The Fiddlehead, because the former was my first rejector and the latter may dare to be my second, and because they are fairly prestigious. Lastly, because I am turning hardcore and because it is cheap, I am going to subscribe to Backpackinglight's print mag. It is $15USD with my membership, though shipping costs double the price. Still, $30USD for 4 issues is pretty good.
Here are the submissions:
Financial Peace - Ramsey - Matt
The Tipping Point - Gladwell - Matt
Nausea - Sartre - Ty
On the Road - Kerouac - Ty (unofficial submission)
A Pale View of the Hills - Kazuo Ishiguro - Naben
Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis - Naben
The Old Devils - Kingsley Amis - Naben
The Collected Poems of Philip Larkin - Naben
Hitching a Ride with Buddha: Travels in Search of Japan - Ferguson - Melia
True North - Harrison - Dad
The Road Home - Harrison - Dad
Dalva - Harrison - Dad
As Naben, cocky ass that he is, pointed out, if the same person suggests both the 1st and 2nd place books, or if he or she already owns the prize, I'll figure something else out.
37 Books all told! Some of them are ridiculously huge, as in entire anthologies, but I have a whole year, so I'll give it my damnest. I'll start with the ones I actually own, in addition to the subscriptions. Here's a tentative starting list:
The Collected Short Stories - Dahl (already about half done)
The Odyssey - A Modern Sequel - Kazantzakis
Financial Peace - Ramsey - Matt (loaned)
Getting Things Done Allen (2nd read)
7 Habits of Highly Effective People Covey (2nd)
If You Want to Write - Ueland (2nd)
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Guns, Germs and Steel - Diamond
The Magus - Fowles
The Tipping Point - Gladwell - Matt (loaned)
These are so big that I'll have to read them gradually.
20th Century Poetry and Poetics - ed Geddes
Remembering the Kanji 1
Collected Fictions - Borges
Wish me luck and look forward to the reviews!
.
.
.
How the hell am I going to afford this?
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Site Problems?
21/12/06 09:34 Filed in: Site
News
North Korea is more fucked than I realized
19/12/06 23:00 Filed in: Events
I can't
figure out how to embed the video so here is a link worth
watching: North Korea: Children of the Secret
State. The guy that did
most of the filming not only escaped from North Korea, but returned
and escaped again several times to get this footage. Find another
person willing to do that kind of journalism. (via Digg, Google,
and Discovery)
Still Doubting?
19/12/06 10:05 Filed in: Environmental
Issues
Still
have any doubt about the absolute certainty of catastrophic climate
crisis? "The
Denial Machine" Thanks to
the CBC.
Melia and Peter add to the List
18/12/06 22:16 Filed in: Books
From Melia, the finest
photographer I know, we have Hitching a Ride with Buddha: Travels
in Search of Japan - Ferguson, and from the ol'Dad three Jim
Harrison novels (I sure hope I like them!) True North, Dalva and The Road Home.
This brings the total up to 33 novels, collections, books, or tomes
of poetry, some of which are staggeringly large. Anyway, cross that
bridge when I have to.
I am still waiting on some poetry journal suggestions. Keeping with my habit of upping the ante, I'll add one more: On the Road - Kerouac. I figure I have bugged Ty about his tastes enough to actually warrant reading something he likes, if only to further ridicule him. Actually On the Road may very well speak to me at this time in my life, so I'll give it a shot.
I am only two suggestions away from my cap, but I may still raise that cap! As for the contest, next year the person who suggests the best book will receive a copy of the second place book as well as something else, and the second place will receive the first place book.
I am still waiting on some poetry journal suggestions. Keeping with my habit of upping the ante, I'll add one more: On the Road - Kerouac. I figure I have bugged Ty about his tastes enough to actually warrant reading something he likes, if only to further ridicule him. Actually On the Road may very well speak to me at this time in my life, so I'll give it a shot.
I am only two suggestions away from my cap, but I may still raise that cap! As for the contest, next year the person who suggests the best book will receive a copy of the second place book as well as something else, and the second place will receive the first place book.
Naben weighs in on the book list and CONTEST!
14/12/06 11:37 Filed in: Books
Naben, pinnacle of
erudition himself, has contributed to the book list.
First - The Collected Poems of Philip Larkin - Larkin is a great poet from all appearances, and I have been meaning to read this.
Next - Lucky Jim and The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis. I have no idea about the titles or the author, so these are certainly the most mysterious.
Lastly - Kazuo Ishiguro's A Pale View of the Hills. Ishiguro is another author that I am aware of, but have never read.
Thanks to Naben for his varied suggestions!
We are now at 25 books and 3 volumes of poetry. Naben also pointed out that if my work schedule changes, 2 books a month isn't very much. So, let's make it 36!
I am going to up the ante and put down Jorges Luis Borges - Collected Fictions. This is actually a previous Naben suggestion, and I have read a bit of it already, but much remains.
I will also subscribe to 2 journals or "zines" (though I find that title distasteful), provided that they will ship to Japan, so if you know anything about that scene, make a suggestion! It can be large-scale or small production. I'll review each issue and the publication as a whole.
Finally, the best suggested book for the year will win a prize! I can't reveal it (mainly because the idea just occurred to me) but due to the nature of the contest it is pretty clear what sort of gift it will be.
First - The Collected Poems of Philip Larkin - Larkin is a great poet from all appearances, and I have been meaning to read this.
Next - Lucky Jim and The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis. I have no idea about the titles or the author, so these are certainly the most mysterious.
Lastly - Kazuo Ishiguro's A Pale View of the Hills. Ishiguro is another author that I am aware of, but have never read.
Thanks to Naben for his varied suggestions!
We are now at 25 books and 3 volumes of poetry. Naben also pointed out that if my work schedule changes, 2 books a month isn't very much. So, let's make it 36!
I am going to up the ante and put down Jorges Luis Borges - Collected Fictions. This is actually a previous Naben suggestion, and I have read a bit of it already, but much remains.
I will also subscribe to 2 journals or "zines" (though I find that title distasteful), provided that they will ship to Japan, so if you know anything about that scene, make a suggestion! It can be large-scale or small production. I'll review each issue and the publication as a whole.
Finally, the best suggested book for the year will win a prize! I can't reveal it (mainly because the idea just occurred to me) but due to the nature of the contest it is pretty clear what sort of gift it will be.
New Photos, Book Update, Mac Geekery
13/12/06 01:03 Filed in: Site
News
3
Things, because I should be in bed:
I have added new photos to the gallery, and finally decided on a layout for such galleries, after having my entire Saturday derailed by the issue. The pictures are of staff and students at my Christmas party.
Books have been suggested. I am now adding Sartre's Nausea and Financial Peace by Ramsey, thanks to Ty at TRR and Matt, my compatriot in geekery. The book list is at 16, and I'll add three from the Hiking world and :
Lightweight Backpacking and Camping: A field guide to wilderness hiking equipment, technique and style
Fixing your Feet
The Complete Walker IV
Four Pairs of Boots - McLachlan
Lost Japan - Kerr
BUT - I'll still keep that space open... that's right, you can still suggest 8 more books, and I'll read all 29 next year and write reviews!
Lastly, the super cool doods at Macheist are selling a fantastic bundle of mac shareware. $50 nets you $300 of award winning software. Check out the site if you or someone you know loves macs - it would make a good present, and 25% of proceeds go to a charity of your choice. My favorite is Delicious Library, which is a super sexy way to keep track of all of your books, cds, dvds or vids in one place. You can even use your webcam to scan in the barcodes.
Correction: I had intended to include the Tipping Point in my original list, so I didn't add Matt's suggestion. Now I see I forgot to write it down. Added!
I have added new photos to the gallery, and finally decided on a layout for such galleries, after having my entire Saturday derailed by the issue. The pictures are of staff and students at my Christmas party.
Books have been suggested. I am now adding Sartre's Nausea and Financial Peace by Ramsey, thanks to Ty at TRR and Matt, my compatriot in geekery. The book list is at 16, and I'll add three from the Hiking world and :
Lightweight Backpacking and Camping: A field guide to wilderness hiking equipment, technique and style
Fixing your Feet
The Complete Walker IV
Four Pairs of Boots - McLachlan
Lost Japan - Kerr
BUT - I'll still keep that space open... that's right, you can still suggest 8 more books, and I'll read all 29 next year and write reviews!
Lastly, the super cool doods at Macheist are selling a fantastic bundle of mac shareware. $50 nets you $300 of award winning software. Check out the site if you or someone you know loves macs - it would make a good present, and 25% of proceeds go to a charity of your choice. My favorite is Delicious Library, which is a super sexy way to keep track of all of your books, cds, dvds or vids in one place. You can even use your webcam to scan in the barcodes.
Correction: I had intended to include the Tipping Point in my original list, so I didn't add Matt's suggestion. Now I see I forgot to write it down. Added!
2007 Book List Mission
09/12/06 13:40 Filed in: Books
Starting
this May I set out to read 12 more books in the remainder of the
year. Happily, I have surpassed that total - here is the list with
a hard and fast review out of 10:
Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Nietzsche 8.5/10
More Die of Heartbreak - Bellow 7.5/10
If You Want to Write - Ueland 9/10
Pale Fire - Nabokov 8/10
Turning the Mind into an Ally - Mipham 7/10
The Illiad - Homer 7/10
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Covey 8/10
Kokoro - Soseki - Review 5/10
An Inconvenient Truth - Gore - Review 9.5/10
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Brison - Review 8.5/10
The Cossacks - Tolstoy 7/10
The Three Musketeers - Dumas 7.5/10
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - le Carre 8.5/10
The Well Fed Writer - Bowerman 8/10
Before May I know I read at least these three:
Getting Things Done - Allen 9/10
Freedom and Death - Kazantzakis 8/10
Valis - Dick 7/10
My Goal for Next Year is 24 Novels/Books and 3 Volumes of Poetry - here is a tentative list:
The Collected Short Stories - Dahl (already about half done)
The Odyssey - A Modern Sequel - Kazantzakis (just started, pretty awesome, heavy Nietzschean influence, very long)
Getting Things Done (2nd read)
7 Habits of Highly Effective People (2nd)
If You Want to Write (2nd)
One Hundred Years of Solitude (ugh, I have to read an Oprah book)
The Road - Cormac McCarthy - yay postapocalyptic fiction!
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Thompson - I am breaking down and finally reading it.
Guns, Germs and Steel - Diamond
Remembering the Kanji 1 - this is a textbook with all 2000 main use Kanji - I intend to learn them all.
The Magus - Fowles
The Old Capital - Kawabata
I am a Cat - Soseki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami
20th Century Poetry and Poetics - ed Geddes
Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry
Wow! That's a lot. But wait, you say, there are only 14 books there. That's where you come in: I will read whatever people suggest! Now is your chance to bless or inflict a book upon me! I'd like to read some new authors, so I am open to your suggestions.
Leave a post in the comments! One to two books per person. (I hope I actually have 5 readers...)
Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Nietzsche 8.5/10
More Die of Heartbreak - Bellow 7.5/10
If You Want to Write - Ueland 9/10
Pale Fire - Nabokov 8/10
Turning the Mind into an Ally - Mipham 7/10
The Illiad - Homer 7/10
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Covey 8/10
Kokoro - Soseki - Review 5/10
An Inconvenient Truth - Gore - Review 9.5/10
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Brison - Review 8.5/10
The Cossacks - Tolstoy 7/10
The Three Musketeers - Dumas 7.5/10
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - le Carre 8.5/10
The Well Fed Writer - Bowerman 8/10
Before May I know I read at least these three:
Getting Things Done - Allen 9/10
Freedom and Death - Kazantzakis 8/10
Valis - Dick 7/10
My Goal for Next Year is 24 Novels/Books and 3 Volumes of Poetry - here is a tentative list:
The Collected Short Stories - Dahl (already about half done)
The Odyssey - A Modern Sequel - Kazantzakis (just started, pretty awesome, heavy Nietzschean influence, very long)
Getting Things Done (2nd read)
7 Habits of Highly Effective People (2nd)
If You Want to Write (2nd)
One Hundred Years of Solitude (ugh, I have to read an Oprah book)
The Road - Cormac McCarthy - yay postapocalyptic fiction!
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Thompson - I am breaking down and finally reading it.
Guns, Germs and Steel - Diamond
Remembering the Kanji 1 - this is a textbook with all 2000 main use Kanji - I intend to learn them all.
The Magus - Fowles
The Old Capital - Kawabata
I am a Cat - Soseki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami
20th Century Poetry and Poetics - ed Geddes
Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry
Wow! That's a lot. But wait, you say, there are only 14 books there. That's where you come in: I will read whatever people suggest! Now is your chance to bless or inflict a book upon me! I'd like to read some new authors, so I am open to your suggestions.
Leave a post in the comments! One to two books per person. (I hope I actually have 5 readers...)
Review: A Short History of Nearly Everything
09/12/06 13:06 Filed in: Books
Bill
Bryson is known mainly for his travel literature, but maybe he
should be known for his curiosity. This book, A Short History of
Nearly Everything, is three years of research into everything we
know about science, from the most fundamental to the most widely
disputed. The book is organized into large chunks of kinds of
science, starting with the cosmos, working through chemistry, then
onto biology and genetics, and finally looking at human descendants
and our future. Each chapter is laid out historically, from early
thoughts on chemistry and alchemy to the current puzzlings over
just how the hell proteins sort themselves out.
First, it has to be said that the book is well researched, clear, and full of analogies that continually pummel the reader with the scale of the earth and the severe improbability of our existence. However, the book truly shines in the human stories behind the science. These days, with rabid fundamentalism making an even worse name for religion than before, science has come to be just as trusted as the gods of yore. The famous figures, like Newton or Darwin, come to life as real, confused, and often plain weird individuals. Newton, for instance, sometimes sat up in bed after waking and then sat motionless for hours due to the inundation of thoughts swamping his mind. Another anecdote describes Huxley asking him if he knew why planets moved elliptically ( a big question of the day ) to which he replied it was due to gravity, and that he had proven it. Huxley was shocked and asked to see the proof - Newton, had, however, misplaced it. Bryson writes that this is the equivalent of telling a cancer researcher in an offhand manner that you cured the whole business but then lost the file.
Karl Scheele, the humble pharmacist who discovered 8 of our most common elements, had the habit of tasting everything he worked with, a habit which eventually killed him.
My favorite is Henry Cavendish, a major discoverer of chemical laws, who was so shy that "any human contact was for him a source of the deepest discomfort." (85) Bryson describes him going to scientific parties where the understanding was that no one was to talk to him or even look directly at him, but rather stand in his vicinity and speak as though speaking to no one. If he had the courage to reply you might have heard a mumbled reply, but often you heard a frightened squeak and found yourself truly speaking to no one, as he had fled.
Now that I've read through the book (and it is quite sizable) a lot of the details of science weren't new or particularly worth remembering, especially all the wrong theories, but then again, I've always been interested in that kind of stuff, so other might learn more from it. The stories of brilliant, vicious or just plain lucky people figuring out our little corner of the world stuck with me much better. Recommended.
First, it has to be said that the book is well researched, clear, and full of analogies that continually pummel the reader with the scale of the earth and the severe improbability of our existence. However, the book truly shines in the human stories behind the science. These days, with rabid fundamentalism making an even worse name for religion than before, science has come to be just as trusted as the gods of yore. The famous figures, like Newton or Darwin, come to life as real, confused, and often plain weird individuals. Newton, for instance, sometimes sat up in bed after waking and then sat motionless for hours due to the inundation of thoughts swamping his mind. Another anecdote describes Huxley asking him if he knew why planets moved elliptically ( a big question of the day ) to which he replied it was due to gravity, and that he had proven it. Huxley was shocked and asked to see the proof - Newton, had, however, misplaced it. Bryson writes that this is the equivalent of telling a cancer researcher in an offhand manner that you cured the whole business but then lost the file.
Karl Scheele, the humble pharmacist who discovered 8 of our most common elements, had the habit of tasting everything he worked with, a habit which eventually killed him.
My favorite is Henry Cavendish, a major discoverer of chemical laws, who was so shy that "any human contact was for him a source of the deepest discomfort." (85) Bryson describes him going to scientific parties where the understanding was that no one was to talk to him or even look directly at him, but rather stand in his vicinity and speak as though speaking to no one. If he had the courage to reply you might have heard a mumbled reply, but often you heard a frightened squeak and found yourself truly speaking to no one, as he had fled.
Now that I've read through the book (and it is quite sizable) a lot of the details of science weren't new or particularly worth remembering, especially all the wrong theories, but then again, I've always been interested in that kind of stuff, so other might learn more from it. The stories of brilliant, vicious or just plain lucky people figuring out our little corner of the world stuck with me much better. Recommended.
So I Am Still Going Through Ecstasies
09/12/06 12:17 Filed in: Photography
On
Wednesday I took basically the greatest photo I have ever taken.
Have a look at the gallery and
guess which one it is in the comments. So through the haze of
photographic ecstasy, I've made a few other revelations:
Having a huge aperture means you actually have to pay attention when you are focussing. My old camera focussed very slowly, period, so I always had to take time. Since the Rebel can shoot so fast continuously,
AND it has a really wide aperture,
the possibility of having truly out of focus shots is greatly
magnified. The geisha shot from the previous gallery proves it - I
blasted away without taking much care to focus, and I got a very
fuzzy geisha. I've been using the maximum aperture most of the
time, and it has surprised me. The main "problem" has been, as in
the photo of the girl on the bridge with the yellow umbrella, that
only part of the main subject is in focus. I wanted the whole girl,
but the distance different between the edge of the umbrella and her
face meant that her face is blurry.
This certainly isn't bad - but it is a challenge. If I am using autofocus I need to make sure my aperture isn't too big, and that it has focussed on the right thing.
Another realization has been more psychological: I always wondered how pro photographers could get into peoples faces and take photos. For me, I have found that raising a camera to my face is sort of like hiding behind it. I'm not holding a digicam out at arm's length in a superobvious photo pose; instead I am concealing my face and looking at the world through a very small window, somehow cut off from reality a little. That, coupled with much faster shot taking time and a long lens that doesn't require me to really get into people's faces means that I am taking photos of strangers that look good for the first time.
Having a huge aperture means you actually have to pay attention when you are focussing. My old camera focussed very slowly, period, so I always had to take time. Since the Rebel can shoot so fast continuously,
This certainly isn't bad - but it is a challenge. If I am using autofocus I need to make sure my aperture isn't too big, and that it has focussed on the right thing.
Another realization has been more psychological: I always wondered how pro photographers could get into peoples faces and take photos. For me, I have found that raising a camera to my face is sort of like hiding behind it. I'm not holding a digicam out at arm's length in a superobvious photo pose; instead I am concealing my face and looking at the world through a very small window, somehow cut off from reality a little. That, coupled with much faster shot taking time and a long lens that doesn't require me to really get into people's faces means that I am taking photos of strangers that look good for the first time.
New Camera Magic!
04/12/06 12:21 Filed in: Photography
After
months of saving and the help of family for Christmas, I've bought
my first Digital SLR. The body is the previous entry level Canon
model, called the Digital Rebel XT in
North America (the digital Kiss here,
unfortunately). The lens is a 50mm/1.4 fixed lens, which, despite
it's cheap design, has received really strong reviews for picture
quality.
3 things really stand out, in comparison to my faithful little Canon A95:
Aperture size - my previous max was 2.8 - now it is 1.8 - meaning that my ability to take in light and to have cool depth of field effects has multiplied by 3.
Light sensitivity - my old max sensitivity was 400 but it was grainy as all hell - now it is 1600 and looks great!
Shooting speed - I can power up, focus and take a photo in 6 seconds if the light is decent and I have a good stationary object with the A95 - with the XT it takes a second and a half or so (unless I leave the lens cap on, retard!) The geisha shot I took (and I took two) you can see in the gallery wouldn't have been possible at that proximity with my old camera. The shots are out of focus because I aimed poorly in my excitement.
Enjoy!
3 things really stand out, in comparison to my faithful little Canon A95:
Aperture size - my previous max was 2.8 - now it is 1.8 - meaning that my ability to take in light and to have cool depth of field effects has multiplied by 3.
Light sensitivity - my old max sensitivity was 400 but it was grainy as all hell - now it is 1600 and looks great!
Shooting speed - I can power up, focus and take a photo in 6 seconds if the light is decent and I have a good stationary object with the A95 - with the XT it takes a second and a half or so (unless I leave the lens cap on, retard!) The geisha shot I took (and I took two) you can see in the gallery wouldn't have been possible at that proximity with my old camera. The shots are out of focus because I aimed poorly in my excitement.
Enjoy!
Nightmare!
04/12/06 12:17
On Matters of Perspective
23/11/06 20:54 Filed in: Environmental
Issues
I'm not going to pin it
on a family member, because that would be absolving myself of any
responsibility, and thereby crippling the ability to act for
change, but somewhere along the line I picked up the world view
called "pessimism-fatalism-egotism". My last bitter post came out
as result of having a moment of optimism, green in it's
vulnerability, squashed by a singular act of environmental
disregard.
Thinking over the last couple of days and watching a few good TED talks, I realized that being negative and superior to those who haven't come to understand that we are in deep shit actually accomplishes jack shit. There are people out there that see pollution as merely a problem: something with handles and gears, something that can be solved. These amazing world leaders in thought, among other things, don't spend evenings brooding over the stupidity of humanity - they grab a textbook and educate. They don't bemoan environmental abuses - they broadside corporations in court. Conclusion - blogbitching on my part contributes very little, if anything.
One reason for this is that the world is generally insensitive to screaming environmentalists such as myself. From a media perspective, it is all they seem to do (though you'd have to scream to get anyone's attention). Hearing that the world is in a shitty place AND we all have to sacrifice greatly AND that may not even be enough to spare the looming doom... well I suspect most people just change the channel on that sort of news. The current thinking is that environmentalism has to be decoupled from granola, hippies, and that guy in hemp who spraypainted your fake fur coat last year. Because frankly, if you dig that culture, you are already on board. It is the bigwigs on the golf course that need to be persuaded, not browbeaten, that buying carbon credits in order to be a carbon neutral company actually makes financial sense. It is the conservative Christians who figure the world is about to end anyway who need to be convinced that mass transit is not only cheaper but more relaxing that driving (in addition to being lower in CO2).
Lastly, it is the educated pessimists that understand the situation but think nothing can be done who need to be re-educated, because something can be done -- IS being done. But you'd never know that from navel-gazing.
Thinking over the last couple of days and watching a few good TED talks, I realized that being negative and superior to those who haven't come to understand that we are in deep shit actually accomplishes jack shit. There are people out there that see pollution as merely a problem: something with handles and gears, something that can be solved. These amazing world leaders in thought, among other things, don't spend evenings brooding over the stupidity of humanity - they grab a textbook and educate. They don't bemoan environmental abuses - they broadside corporations in court. Conclusion - blogbitching on my part contributes very little, if anything.
One reason for this is that the world is generally insensitive to screaming environmentalists such as myself. From a media perspective, it is all they seem to do (though you'd have to scream to get anyone's attention). Hearing that the world is in a shitty place AND we all have to sacrifice greatly AND that may not even be enough to spare the looming doom... well I suspect most people just change the channel on that sort of news. The current thinking is that environmentalism has to be decoupled from granola, hippies, and that guy in hemp who spraypainted your fake fur coat last year. Because frankly, if you dig that culture, you are already on board. It is the bigwigs on the golf course that need to be persuaded, not browbeaten, that buying carbon credits in order to be a carbon neutral company actually makes financial sense. It is the conservative Christians who figure the world is about to end anyway who need to be convinced that mass transit is not only cheaper but more relaxing that driving (in addition to being lower in CO2).
Lastly, it is the educated pessimists that understand the situation but think nothing can be done who need to be re-educated, because something can be done -- IS being done. But you'd never know that from navel-gazing.
Hope
19/11/06 00:24 Filed in: Environmental
Issues
I was
riding my bicycle to work on friday and reflecting on the passing
scenery. The sun split the clouds overhead and lit the ruddy maple
leaves, the city and the river lay to my left, a bank of trees to
my right. My thoughts ran something like, "You know, the city is
beautiful, set here against the mountains, the river is mostly
clean and full of life, the air is clean today, the trees change
colour as though nothing is amiss on the planet. Maybe we'll be ok
-- maybe humanity will survive it's own stupidity and vice. Maybe
it'll all work out somehow." One really couldn't be but optimistic
in such weather. I turned off the river path, up a bike ramp and
onto the sidewalk next to the street above. As I rolled down the
bumpy cobbles I watched a middled-aged man pick up with a plastic
bag what I can only imagine was dogshit, as his little white dog
was standing next to him. "That's nice," I thought. The man
proceeded to wad the bag into a ball, cock back his arm, and, with
the casualness of tossing a ball to his son in a park, throw the
bag of dogshit into the river.
I rolled past in disbelief. Twenty feet past him I hit the brakes, turned around and looked at him, trying to express what wouldn't have come out in Japanese or English - shock, rage, confusion. I looked at the little white bag, now sitting in the shallows of the river and glared at him again. He was looking at me, but I wasn't able to make out his facial expression. Unable to decide what to say or do, I started to ride off again, but then stopped and turned around to look at him again. By this time he was looking around: at the ground, the street - certainly not at the foreigner seething with rage 30 feet in front of him. "Fuck!" was all I could manage as I rolled off to work.
Shock subsided, optimism was shredded, and what was left was depression and bitterness. Here, in a 30 second vignette were all of humanity's problems boiled down. A man feels some social pressures but not others (picks up shit, disposes of it incorrectly), is lazy (tossing it instead of carrying it to the can), is self-centered and unable to cope with the slight discomfort of warm shit in close proximity, and is stupid, as throwing it in the river - in a plastic bag - is far worse than the cosmetic problem of leaving it on the sidewalk in the first place. Then, on the opposite end, a proponent of saving the planet froths and howls incomprehensibly at his offended principles, alternates between sadness and violent impulse. I walk the city and see it's vices, yet know some of the reasons. The smokestacks are industry, the shoppingmalls - jobs, the cars and planes a necessity of travel. But to catch someone innocently going about his daily stupidity hits harder than any grim scientist, spells trouble for humanity more than any foreboding report.
I rolled past in disbelief. Twenty feet past him I hit the brakes, turned around and looked at him, trying to express what wouldn't have come out in Japanese or English - shock, rage, confusion. I looked at the little white bag, now sitting in the shallows of the river and glared at him again. He was looking at me, but I wasn't able to make out his facial expression. Unable to decide what to say or do, I started to ride off again, but then stopped and turned around to look at him again. By this time he was looking around: at the ground, the street - certainly not at the foreigner seething with rage 30 feet in front of him. "Fuck!" was all I could manage as I rolled off to work.
Shock subsided, optimism was shredded, and what was left was depression and bitterness. Here, in a 30 second vignette were all of humanity's problems boiled down. A man feels some social pressures but not others (picks up shit, disposes of it incorrectly), is lazy (tossing it instead of carrying it to the can), is self-centered and unable to cope with the slight discomfort of warm shit in close proximity, and is stupid, as throwing it in the river - in a plastic bag - is far worse than the cosmetic problem of leaving it on the sidewalk in the first place. Then, on the opposite end, a proponent of saving the planet froths and howls incomprehensibly at his offended principles, alternates between sadness and violent impulse. I walk the city and see it's vices, yet know some of the reasons. The smokestacks are industry, the shoppingmalls - jobs, the cars and planes a necessity of travel. But to catch someone innocently going about his daily stupidity hits harder than any grim scientist, spells trouble for humanity more than any foreboding report.
Redesign, New Photos, Video
29/10/06 15:57 Filed in: Site
News
Part of
my reluctance to update recently was due to indecision about my
site design. As it stands I have 2 blog-style entry lists with
summaries and then main entries. I want to keep the two somewhat
separate, as the travel's page is better for a potential employer
to see. My photos, similarly, are buried in another section.
Anyone have any suggestions for different site organization? Bear in mind that I am not working with code - I am using Rapidweaver to put the site together, so some options, like one RSS feed for multiple pages, doesn't seem possible.
***
Three hours later I had purchased a new theme and was far deeper into screwing around with my site than ever before. Let me know what you think of it.
Anyone have any suggestions for different site organization? Bear in mind that I am not working with code - I am using Rapidweaver to put the site together, so some options, like one RSS feed for multiple pages, doesn't seem possible.
***
Three hours later I had purchased a new theme and was far deeper into screwing around with my site than ever before. Let me know what you think of it.
An Appendix to Lonely Planet's "Hiking in Japan" Odai-ga-hara to Osugi
28/10/06 15:06 Filed in: Focus on the
Locus
This is
a short entry: despite the availability of buses, of hordes of
tourists, and current maps that give the appearance of everything
being a-okay, the trail down into the Otsugi Valley was destroyed
by a Typhoon in 2004. I met a large group of hikers who warned me
off the non-existent trail with a profusion of "impossible,
impossible" and also pointed out that the hut that I was aiming at
had the characters for "temporarily closed" written over it. The
guy leading the group of hikers apparently owned that hut, and we
were all rather confused as to why my 2006 map would list the hut
as closed (due to the typhoon) but still had a trail drawn in, when
it fact it had been destroyed.
Anyway, that trail has been trashed - I returned home defeated.
For those of you still interested in exploring other trails in the area, it is still possible to go as far as Awadani hut on the original trail. The hikers I met were doing a loop track that went from Awadani hut up to Nishidani-daka, so that could be a possibility, even though it isn't posted on the LP or Shobunsha maps.
Anyway, that trail has been trashed - I returned home defeated.
For those of you still interested in exploring other trails in the area, it is still possible to go as far as Awadani hut on the original trail. The hikers I met were doing a loop track that went from Awadani hut up to Nishidani-daka, so that could be a possibility, even though it isn't posted on the LP or Shobunsha maps.
Review: An Inconvenient Truth - A few harrowing details about Al Gore's prophetic book on climate crisis.
25/09/06 09:55 Filed in: Environmental
Issues
I not
worried about future generations, nor am I worried about my unborn
grandchildren -- they may not exist.
I'm worried about my future kids, I'm worried about me.
Reading Gore's books is like getting hit in the face by a prize-fighter in slow motion. You can see it coming, you can understand the footsteps - it's simple even! - but it doesn't fail to complete crush your skull. Want a summary of Gore's book? We are screwed. No, that's too passive. We've screwed ourselves.
In the course of my short life I have met people who say - oh global warming, it is just a warm year; pfff, that's just a hoax made by leftists to get votes; global warming? sounds good - I hate winter. First, there is zero doubt among scientists that the planet is warming up. Second, the only people that doubt it are those that have been duped by the hitman scientists hired by oil companies to spread disinformation. Before I read this book I knew the planet was warming up, I knew sea levels were rising, but I didn't know how much, how fast, and most importantly, what the corollary effects would be. So here we go:
Greenland's ice cap, which is melting rapidly, breaks up and slides into the sea. The massive increase in water raises global sea levels by 7m - that's 20ft. Do you live in Richmond? Better move. How about Bangladesh, Florida, Manhattan? Your house is going to be underwater. Holland, which has always been under sea level, will lose 3/4 of its landmass.
Think for a moment about 60m poor and homeless Bangladese trying to find a home. Where do they go? India. Is India going to be happy about 60m refugees? Where do all of the people in Miami move to? Do you think, if the death of 3000 people in 9/11 is enough for war, 60million people looking for a home might have a similar effect?
"But I live inland - that's no concern of mine." Really, well here are the corollary effects of a warmer planet:
--Desertification - parts of the US could lose as much as 60% of their soil moisture, which means - forest fires, crop failures and higher prices.
--Fires - shifts in climate cause drought in some places and floods elsewhere. Higher temperatures makes lightning more common, resulting in more fires, resulting in more CO2.
--Storm strength - Warmer seas and air means stronger storms. Last year the strongest hurricane ever recorded occurred - Hurricane Wilma. Katrina, not nearly as strong, crippled the whole Mississippi area and destroyed a city.
--No clean water - as the glaciers, particularly in the Himalayas, melt, the 40% of humanity in Asia could face a severe shortage of potable water.
--Permafrost melting - the arctic, much of which is in Canada, is accessible due to frozen roads. The number of days with frozen roads has dropped from 210 a year to less than 80 since 1960. Any structure built on the solidity of permafrost will suffer severe structural damage from it's shifting foundations.
--Forest destruction - Pine beetle, the scourge of BC? Cold winters are needed to kill it. Instead, they are killing trees, which then makes forest fires more likely, which increases CO2 and raises the temperature even further.
--Disruption of the Gulf Stream - there is a river of warm currents in the Atlantic that flows from South America to Europe, making Madrid much warmer than New York, despite the same latitude. A large dump of cold water as is coming from Greenland could totally stop the Gulf Stream, resulting, counter-intuitively in an Ice Age. It happened once 10,000 years ago when the last big Glacial lake suddenly dumped from the Great Lakes area into the Atlantic. The world suffered 1000 years of cold temperatures as a result.
--Warmer temperatures also mean an increase in disease, as well as disease bearing insects able to survive in places that were once too cold. Add a pile of corpses from floods and disease increases.
--Ocean acidification -- CO2 makes the ocean acidic. This kills coral reefs. Coral reefs are an important home for thousands of organisms. Goodluck getting sushi when we have made the ocean a wasteland.
Perhaps what will make most people take notice the most will be the economic effects. Insurance companies will no longer be able to predict potential weather damage and may either increase insurance premiums or refuse to insure certain homes or people. This would essentially make a house unsalable. Imagine row upon row of seaside home, slowly being approached by the ocean, with mortgages in the millions and no buyers. What happens to financial institutions when thousands of people declare bankruptcy at once, and also try to make an insurance claim? What then happens to global stock markets and the money you have squirreled away preciously?
Gore's website www.climatecrisis.net has information on what we can do individually to cut our CO2 emissions. Unfortunately, these are "lessen the blow" measures, as scientists are now saying that we are past the tipping point and the large changes are unpreventable. Gore asserts, however, that by making the transition NOW, not when the shit hits the fan, we can bear the hardship we have caused ourselves more ably.
A final note on the book: this book has really affected me, so far as to reconsider my career path. I received the book openly however. A critical problem for this book, despite its simple and graphics heavy design, is that it was written by a former Democratic Vice President. This means that in the polarized US, where the majority of change needs to happen, a large chunk of the populace will dismiss it as "liberal lies". It is hard not to be totally pessimistic about this, but I have tried to be proactive - I used my AC only for half of July and August, I installed compact fluorescent lights which I have been turning off as much as possible and I've been trying to cut my shower length to shorter than 10 minutes. I've been avoiding buying imported food as much as I can. I have been a real "I don't need a bag" nazi.
Despair is defeat, so go to that website!
I'm worried about my future kids, I'm worried about me.
Reading Gore's books is like getting hit in the face by a prize-fighter in slow motion. You can see it coming, you can understand the footsteps - it's simple even! - but it doesn't fail to complete crush your skull. Want a summary of Gore's book? We are screwed. No, that's too passive. We've screwed ourselves.
In the course of my short life I have met people who say - oh global warming, it is just a warm year; pfff, that's just a hoax made by leftists to get votes; global warming? sounds good - I hate winter. First, there is zero doubt among scientists that the planet is warming up. Second, the only people that doubt it are those that have been duped by the hitman scientists hired by oil companies to spread disinformation. Before I read this book I knew the planet was warming up, I knew sea levels were rising, but I didn't know how much, how fast, and most importantly, what the corollary effects would be. So here we go:
Greenland's ice cap, which is melting rapidly, breaks up and slides into the sea. The massive increase in water raises global sea levels by 7m - that's 20ft. Do you live in Richmond? Better move. How about Bangladesh, Florida, Manhattan? Your house is going to be underwater. Holland, which has always been under sea level, will lose 3/4 of its landmass.
Think for a moment about 60m poor and homeless Bangladese trying to find a home. Where do they go? India. Is India going to be happy about 60m refugees? Where do all of the people in Miami move to? Do you think, if the death of 3000 people in 9/11 is enough for war, 60million people looking for a home might have a similar effect?
"But I live inland - that's no concern of mine." Really, well here are the corollary effects of a warmer planet:
--Desertification - parts of the US could lose as much as 60% of their soil moisture, which means - forest fires, crop failures and higher prices.
--Fires - shifts in climate cause drought in some places and floods elsewhere. Higher temperatures makes lightning more common, resulting in more fires, resulting in more CO2.
--Storm strength - Warmer seas and air means stronger storms. Last year the strongest hurricane ever recorded occurred - Hurricane Wilma. Katrina, not nearly as strong, crippled the whole Mississippi area and destroyed a city.
--No clean water - as the glaciers, particularly in the Himalayas, melt, the 40% of humanity in Asia could face a severe shortage of potable water.
--Permafrost melting - the arctic, much of which is in Canada, is accessible due to frozen roads. The number of days with frozen roads has dropped from 210 a year to less than 80 since 1960. Any structure built on the solidity of permafrost will suffer severe structural damage from it's shifting foundations.
--Forest destruction - Pine beetle, the scourge of BC? Cold winters are needed to kill it. Instead, they are killing trees, which then makes forest fires more likely, which increases CO2 and raises the temperature even further.
--Disruption of the Gulf Stream - there is a river of warm currents in the Atlantic that flows from South America to Europe, making Madrid much warmer than New York, despite the same latitude. A large dump of cold water as is coming from Greenland could totally stop the Gulf Stream, resulting, counter-intuitively in an Ice Age. It happened once 10,000 years ago when the last big Glacial lake suddenly dumped from the Great Lakes area into the Atlantic. The world suffered 1000 years of cold temperatures as a result.
--Warmer temperatures also mean an increase in disease, as well as disease bearing insects able to survive in places that were once too cold. Add a pile of corpses from floods and disease increases.
--Ocean acidification -- CO2 makes the ocean acidic. This kills coral reefs. Coral reefs are an important home for thousands of organisms. Goodluck getting sushi when we have made the ocean a wasteland.
Perhaps what will make most people take notice the most will be the economic effects. Insurance companies will no longer be able to predict potential weather damage and may either increase insurance premiums or refuse to insure certain homes or people. This would essentially make a house unsalable. Imagine row upon row of seaside home, slowly being approached by the ocean, with mortgages in the millions and no buyers. What happens to financial institutions when thousands of people declare bankruptcy at once, and also try to make an insurance claim? What then happens to global stock markets and the money you have squirreled away preciously?
Gore's website www.climatecrisis.net has information on what we can do individually to cut our CO2 emissions. Unfortunately, these are "lessen the blow" measures, as scientists are now saying that we are past the tipping point and the large changes are unpreventable. Gore asserts, however, that by making the transition NOW, not when the shit hits the fan, we can bear the hardship we have caused ourselves more ably.
A final note on the book: this book has really affected me, so far as to reconsider my career path. I received the book openly however. A critical problem for this book, despite its simple and graphics heavy design, is that it was written by a former Democratic Vice President. This means that in the polarized US, where the majority of change needs to happen, a large chunk of the populace will dismiss it as "liberal lies". It is hard not to be totally pessimistic about this, but I have tried to be proactive - I used my AC only for half of July and August, I installed compact fluorescent lights which I have been turning off as much as possible and I've been trying to cut my shower length to shorter than 10 minutes. I've been avoiding buying imported food as much as I can. I have been a real "I don't need a bag" nazi.
Despair is defeat, so go to that website!
Review: A short discussion of Natsumi Soseki's famous novel, Kokoro, or "the heart of things".
24/09/06 23:29 Filed in: Books
To date
I have read two very famous Japanese books: Snow Country and now,
Kokoro. I haven't understood either.
Looking back at my notes on Snow Country, I liked enjoyed it more and understood it less. It had far more imagist beauty that I could connect to, but much more unsaid nuance.
What of Kokoro then? The book is split into 3 parts: a young student meets a disillusioned man and becomes fascinated with him, the student is forced to part from this man to attend the slow passing of his ailing father, in which time the disillusioned man attempts to explain his life to the student in a lengthy suicide letter mailed to the student's country home. The letter gives the man's full biography and details the fatal love triangle that occurred between him, his future wife and his best friend, the results of which crush the man's spirit for the rest of his life.
The book is mainly a psychological exploration of relationships: the student and the enigmatic man, the student and his parents, the older man, his friend and his future wife. More interesting that this, the book is a discourse on suspicion, anxiety and guilt that swallows lives. At times it reminded me of Crime and Punishment, what with Raskolnikov's consuming guilt. Raskolnikov, however, finds some salvation.
The book aside, I just can't get into Japanese literature. The entire book, the whole premise hinged on the fact that the man couldn't talk to his best friend honestly and resolve their differences with some sanity. The whole plot was swollen with obligation, honor, and propriety, such that the characters were paralyzed to near inaction.
A westerner reading this book probably just wouldn't connect with it. A Japanese person, although the Japanese have opened up a bit in 100 years since this was written, would understand. As for me, living in Japan and experiencing, albeit through the gauze of semi-ignorance, the same social pressures and seeing them all around me, this book encapsulates everything that pisses me off about this culture.
A comparison: Zorba the Greek, a book that I adore, has as its title character one of the most passionate people I've ever read about. Zorba wouldn't sit in a little room and agonize about his rival in the other room, he'd challenge the man to a fight. He wouldn't feel put out and depressed if he caught his love talking to the other man, he'd grab his mandolin and try to win her affections. Overall, he wouldn't wait for the "right moment" like the main character of Kokoro. He'd just do it, and to hell with propriety. If he couldn't talk about something, he'd explain with his guitar or with a crazy dance.
The book itself is so so. If you want to have an idea of Japanese-ness that gets pushed over the edge by unfortunate circumstances, give it a read. For me, however, I tossed the book down, glad that the somewhat interesting plot but annoying characters were done with. Oh, life has no meaning, I have no faith in mankind. Blah blah. When I hear someone talking like that, I think he needs to get laid or have his life put in danger. Suicide as the only recourse in a situation laced with obligation, guilt and honor, seems totally ridiculous to me. But that's the take of a freefloating "outside person" in Japan.
Looking back at my notes on Snow Country, I liked enjoyed it more and understood it less. It had far more imagist beauty that I could connect to, but much more unsaid nuance.
What of Kokoro then? The book is split into 3 parts: a young student meets a disillusioned man and becomes fascinated with him, the student is forced to part from this man to attend the slow passing of his ailing father, in which time the disillusioned man attempts to explain his life to the student in a lengthy suicide letter mailed to the student's country home. The letter gives the man's full biography and details the fatal love triangle that occurred between him, his future wife and his best friend, the results of which crush the man's spirit for the rest of his life.
The book is mainly a psychological exploration of relationships: the student and the enigmatic man, the student and his parents, the older man, his friend and his future wife. More interesting that this, the book is a discourse on suspicion, anxiety and guilt that swallows lives. At times it reminded me of Crime and Punishment, what with Raskolnikov's consuming guilt. Raskolnikov, however, finds some salvation.
The book aside, I just can't get into Japanese literature. The entire book, the whole premise hinged on the fact that the man couldn't talk to his best friend honestly and resolve their differences with some sanity. The whole plot was swollen with obligation, honor, and propriety, such that the characters were paralyzed to near inaction.
A westerner reading this book probably just wouldn't connect with it. A Japanese person, although the Japanese have opened up a bit in 100 years since this was written, would understand. As for me, living in Japan and experiencing, albeit through the gauze of semi-ignorance, the same social pressures and seeing them all around me, this book encapsulates everything that pisses me off about this culture.
A comparison: Zorba the Greek, a book that I adore, has as its title character one of the most passionate people I've ever read about. Zorba wouldn't sit in a little room and agonize about his rival in the other room, he'd challenge the man to a fight. He wouldn't feel put out and depressed if he caught his love talking to the other man, he'd grab his mandolin and try to win her affections. Overall, he wouldn't wait for the "right moment" like the main character of Kokoro. He'd just do it, and to hell with propriety. If he couldn't talk about something, he'd explain with his guitar or with a crazy dance.
The book itself is so so. If you want to have an idea of Japanese-ness that gets pushed over the edge by unfortunate circumstances, give it a read. For me, however, I tossed the book down, glad that the somewhat interesting plot but annoying characters were done with. Oh, life has no meaning, I have no faith in mankind. Blah blah. When I hear someone talking like that, I think he needs to get laid or have his life put in danger. Suicide as the only recourse in a situation laced with obligation, guilt and honor, seems totally ridiculous to me. But that's the take of a freefloating "outside person" in Japan.
Notes from Addiction
24/09/06 12:18 Filed in: Sordid Personal
Details
I don't
know much about chemical addiction: hard drugs, cigarettes, coffee
-- but I know a thing or two about psychological addiction. I
started playing video games when I was 8, but it wasn't until I was
14 that a sudden influx of income permitted me to buy and play
games at a previously unknown level. Weekends dissolved. Weeknights
evaporated. The peak of my "problem" was in university, living with
my good friend Matt. Matt has more games than anyone I know and he
generously shared them with me. Within 2 years I had purchased a
Xbox and a Gamecube and I spent my weekends and most of the summer
of 2004 moving from one distraction to another.
Then I finished university. I looked back from the vista provided and saw a string of unread books, a relatively small social life and a total lack of a girlfriend or anything resembling a date. More importantly, I saw the future: living in Japan, working and then letting video games sop up the rest of my time. Moreover, I needed money, so I quit video games and sold the lot.
The pain of the transition was soothed by a totally new circumstance. However, Japan is possibly the worst place in the world to go if you want to be free of vids! When I arrived and found out that even one of my students worked for Nintendo, I knew I was in for trouble. Even so, I persevered, with only slight lapses in temporary situations like arcades and the visit of Matt (bearing his own games).
Until yesterday.
On a whim, though the unconscious uses the word "whim" as a shield for more nefarious doings, I went looking for Mac games on the net. I found Fallout 2, a game that friends had raved about, concerning life after nuclear war. I installed it. As though a light had suddenly burnt out, 6 hours passed. The game wasn't particularly fun, as I had played games made by the same studio after this one, and I could see what had improved in the next games. Even so, despite dying, finding the controls annoying, endlessly watching my character swinging his spear and missing and waiting again for my turn-- EVEN SO --I was totally immersed in the pursuit of items, quests and levelup opportunities. I wasn't even enjoying the game, but I was drawn into the activity.
Scientists call the drug that is released during concentration dopamine, I think. Like a guy craving a cigarette after 20 years, I felt the same desire, but also the guilt. I knew I had betrayed myself and my resolution to quit. Playing was a guilty exercise that violated one of my values "time is the most precious commodity". So, I deleted it all in a fit of self-disgust.
Apologists will say: we need a way to relax, it is just as much a waste of time as any other idle hobby so there is no harm in it, it isn't a waste of time if we enjoy it. However, my problem with vids is that they are almost entirely a closed circuit. Yesterday, I poured myself - 6 hours - into a game that gave me a little pleasure back, but that's it. No new friends, no learning, no life-changing experiences, other than the realization that they weren't for me anymore.
It basically boils down to death. For those of you, who, like me, have been drawn into activities that produce little if anything, I suggest weighing your vice against eternity. Napoleon didn't even have time for sleep, Asimov wrote from 9:30am to 10pm everyday.
Death is tomorrow - is there something you need to do today?
Then I finished university. I looked back from the vista provided and saw a string of unread books, a relatively small social life and a total lack of a girlfriend or anything resembling a date. More importantly, I saw the future: living in Japan, working and then letting video games sop up the rest of my time. Moreover, I needed money, so I quit video games and sold the lot.
The pain of the transition was soothed by a totally new circumstance. However, Japan is possibly the worst place in the world to go if you want to be free of vids! When I arrived and found out that even one of my students worked for Nintendo, I knew I was in for trouble. Even so, I persevered, with only slight lapses in temporary situations like arcades and the visit of Matt (bearing his own games).
Until yesterday.
On a whim, though the unconscious uses the word "whim" as a shield for more nefarious doings, I went looking for Mac games on the net. I found Fallout 2, a game that friends had raved about, concerning life after nuclear war. I installed it. As though a light had suddenly burnt out, 6 hours passed. The game wasn't particularly fun, as I had played games made by the same studio after this one, and I could see what had improved in the next games. Even so, despite dying, finding the controls annoying, endlessly watching my character swinging his spear and missing and waiting again for my turn-- EVEN SO --I was totally immersed in the pursuit of items, quests and levelup opportunities. I wasn't even enjoying the game, but I was drawn into the activity.
Scientists call the drug that is released during concentration dopamine, I think. Like a guy craving a cigarette after 20 years, I felt the same desire, but also the guilt. I knew I had betrayed myself and my resolution to quit. Playing was a guilty exercise that violated one of my values "time is the most precious commodity". So, I deleted it all in a fit of self-disgust.
Apologists will say: we need a way to relax, it is just as much a waste of time as any other idle hobby so there is no harm in it, it isn't a waste of time if we enjoy it. However, my problem with vids is that they are almost entirely a closed circuit. Yesterday, I poured myself - 6 hours - into a game that gave me a little pleasure back, but that's it. No new friends, no learning, no life-changing experiences, other than the realization that they weren't for me anymore.
It basically boils down to death. For those of you, who, like me, have been drawn into activities that produce little if anything, I suggest weighing your vice against eternity. Napoleon didn't even have time for sleep, Asimov wrote from 9:30am to 10pm everyday.
Death is tomorrow - is there something you need to do today?
Pzizz!
21/09/06 23:01 Filed in: Macs
and the Net
I
recently found a cool program though my friend Matt - pzizz. The
weird name comes from its function: it induces sleep. Basically,
you start the program and it plays a randomly generated track of a
man talking quietly (and no, he isn't saying "buy coke" or "kill
the president", though one of those requires much less convincing)
and strange music. My gleanings from the website suggest that the
music is specifically designed with a frequency modulation that
stimulates the areas of the brain that are active during
sleep.
There are two versions, the basic powernap version, and the addon sleep version. Normally the former costs $40 and the latter, $20, but right now the website www.mydreamapp.com is holding a contest for ideas for cool Mac applications and if you sign up and vote BEFORE THE END OF FRIDAY you get a FREE copy of the nap version!
I have tried the nap version a couple times and have thought it was really cool. Recently I have been waking up earlier and doing more with my day, so I end up feeling exhausted. I have only had a couple chances to try the nap, but both times it make me really relaxed, though not quite asleep, as I didn't have a good place to really stretch out. The sleep module, however, can be downloaded as a trial, and it knocks me right out. Last night I was asleep in about 5 minutes, though in fairness, I rarely toss and turn longer than 10. The naps can also be exported as mp3, so you can listen on your ipod and sleep wherever.
Anyway, it looks cool and it available for Mac and lowly windows, so give it a shot. I'm off to bed.
There are two versions, the basic powernap version, and the addon sleep version. Normally the former costs $40 and the latter, $20, but right now the website www.mydreamapp.com is holding a contest for ideas for cool Mac applications and if you sign up and vote BEFORE THE END OF FRIDAY you get a FREE copy of the nap version!
I have tried the nap version a couple times and have thought it was really cool. Recently I have been waking up earlier and doing more with my day, so I end up feeling exhausted. I have only had a couple chances to try the nap, but both times it make me really relaxed, though not quite asleep, as I didn't have a good place to really stretch out. The sleep module, however, can be downloaded as a trial, and it knocks me right out. Last night I was asleep in about 5 minutes, though in fairness, I rarely toss and turn longer than 10. The naps can also be exported as mp3, so you can listen on your ipod and sleep wherever.
Anyway, it looks cool and it available for Mac and lowly windows, so give it a shot. I'm off to bed.
An Appendix to Lonely Planet's "Hiking in Japan" Daisetsuzan Grand Traverse
16/09/06 12:41 Filed in: Focus on the
Locus
Notes from my recent Daisetsuzan hike for
those interested in doing the same. I sent these to the main Lonely
Planet writer in Japan, Chris
Rowthorn.
Read More...
One More Reason to Never Pick Up a Gun - What goes by undetected in the phrase - no casualties.
16/09/06 11:51 Filed in: Focus on the
Locus
Read a
news reel: 53 dead, 92 injured. After you read about the dead, the
injured seem to be in such a better place. It is true, being
injured is better than being dead, but for me, for the official
counts in the news and the internet, the injured matter so much
less as to be like apples and oranges.
The problem for me lies in the variety: what can injured mean? A bomb goes off - one guy gets nicked on the thigh by some flying glass. Is that an injury? It has to be treated. Do they count those? Raise the severity - someone else gets a shard of glass driven though his leg, requiring surgery to save it and giving him a permanent limp. This must be an injury. And again - another person nearest the assailant loses a leg, an arm and an eye and suffers burns that disfigure him. The last two suffer from injuries that affect them for the rest of their lives. Yet when we hear the often unelaborated word "injured", it passes by under a cloud of "at least they aren't dead". The lack of elaboration is likely often due to the military. They have to release that soldiers were killed, but they don't have to say that soldiers were horribly disfigured and are being shipped back to the US for their families to deal with.
And then there is this. Due to advances in body armor, soldiers are surviving blasts that still turn their brains to tapioca. They experience slow physical reactions, memory loss, violent mood swings, and depression. This is being called the signature wound of the Iraq war, due to the number of roadside explosives.
So we have among the hazy injured: the limping, the burnt or scarred, the mutilated, the blinded (deafened etc) AND the mentally retarded. While shell shock in previous wars was a result of extreme anxiety, this is actually physical brain damage, and largely untreatable with psychology.
Even worse, there are soldiers who haven't reported being injured, but whose brains have been seriously damaged. Want to see a time-bomb? Send a 20 year old decked in honors back to a family he doesn't remember.
The problem for me lies in the variety: what can injured mean? A bomb goes off - one guy gets nicked on the thigh by some flying glass. Is that an injury? It has to be treated. Do they count those? Raise the severity - someone else gets a shard of glass driven though his leg, requiring surgery to save it and giving him a permanent limp. This must be an injury. And again - another person nearest the assailant loses a leg, an arm and an eye and suffers burns that disfigure him. The last two suffer from injuries that affect them for the rest of their lives. Yet when we hear the often unelaborated word "injured", it passes by under a cloud of "at least they aren't dead". The lack of elaboration is likely often due to the military. They have to release that soldiers were killed, but they don't have to say that soldiers were horribly disfigured and are being shipped back to the US for their families to deal with.
And then there is this. Due to advances in body armor, soldiers are surviving blasts that still turn their brains to tapioca. They experience slow physical reactions, memory loss, violent mood swings, and depression. This is being called the signature wound of the Iraq war, due to the number of roadside explosives.
So we have among the hazy injured: the limping, the burnt or scarred, the mutilated, the blinded (deafened etc) AND the mentally retarded. While shell shock in previous wars was a result of extreme anxiety, this is actually physical brain damage, and largely untreatable with psychology.
Even worse, there are soldiers who haven't reported being injured, but whose brains have been seriously damaged. Want to see a time-bomb? Send a 20 year old decked in honors back to a family he doesn't remember.
Hokkaido Photo Trip
10/09/06 23:38 Filed in: Focus on the
Locus
Photos
08/09/06 11:26 Filed in: Site
News
I have
the same photo gallery published in flash over on the photo page.
Let me know how it runs on your computers, as there is a less
graphically intense version available.
Also, don't forget that both "Travels" and "Hobbyist Punditry" have separate RSS feeds. Subscribe, if you want to avoid senselessly coming to my site and oogling. Or don't and oogle. Both are cool with me.
Also, don't forget that both "Travels" and "Hobbyist Punditry" have separate RSS feeds. Subscribe, if you want to avoid senselessly coming to my site and oogling. Or don't and oogle. Both are cool with me.
Platypus Water Bottles
08/09/06 11:14 Filed in: Lightweight Gear
One of
the favorite pieces of gear among fanatic gram counters are the
Playtpus water bottles, made in Seattle.
These bottles, unlike those
omnipresent Nalgene bottles you can see on university campuses, are
made of a soft, tasteless plastic. When full they form a shape
fairly conducive to holding and drinking, although when near empty
they can flop around a bit if you don't control your water flow
carefully. When empty, the bottles squish flat and fit damn near
anywhere. Alternately, you can roll them, as I do, to fit one into
my little day bag around town. I fill it up at work, use it, then
empty it and carry it home. A 1L bottle weighs 28g, and although a
wider opening would make cleaning easier, you can't beat the
weight. (well, you can, with cheapass plastic pop bottles, but they
last less time and can't be flattened). My only real issue is with
the pushpull caps. These caps are made so that they don't open
accidentally in your bag - fair enough - but they are really hard
to open, especially with your teeth (not recommended). Still, they
are the only bottles I use when I am not boiling water for health
reasons.
Steve Irwin, Croc Hunter
05/09/06 10:22 Filed in: Events
Steve
Irwin, the crazy Australian that shocked most of us with his
way-too-close encounters with animals, died on monday. He was
stabbed in the heart by a stingray and likely died instantly. I was
pretty sad to hear that he died. He always made me laugh and
brought the animal world closer to me. At the same time, I am not
so surprised that he died. He lived an extremely dangerous life and
relished it.
What else is there to say? Having recently read the Iliad, the death of a popular figure is a recurring theme for me. Perhaps his wife was more prepared for the possibility, but I doubt the children were. Sad.
But still, he was quite the little ripper while he lived.
What else is there to say? Having recently read the Iliad, the death of a popular figure is a recurring theme for me. Perhaps his wife was more prepared for the possibility, but I doubt the children were. Sad.
But still, he was quite the little ripper while he lived.
The Penny Stove
02/09/06 14:12 Filed in: Lightweight Gear
In
Japan, open wood fires are prohibited, which presents to camping a
large problem: how am I going to cook? When I was a kid, my family
would have a fire mainly for fun, marshmellows and evening warmth,
while a two burner coleman stove did the cooking. That was
backcountry 4x4 camping with my dad - last year, I was faced with
the prospect of cooking for myself and lugging the stove around on
my back.
The first stove that caught my eye was the popular Jetboil.
This stove was revolutionary when it
came out, as the canister, stove and pot are integrated to provide
ideal heat transfer. The price, however, is about $75USD, and the
canisters are both small and proprietary (other canisters may not
fit inside the cup). Price aside, the jetboil can bring water half
a liter to a boil in 2 minutes (they say) and is really fuel
efficient.
As I was reading reviews of the Jetboil, I came across a new breed of stove - the alcohol stove. These stoves operate by burning the vapor from high-concentration alcohol such as the drinkable Ethanol, fuel line cleaner like HEET, or the noxious but strong Methanol. The simplest stoves burn alcohol in a cup under a pot, which reduces the chance of clogging or failure, common with gas or mixed fuel stoves, to next to nil.
The stove I chose was the Scandinavian darling, the Trangia.
The Trangia consists of a cup for
alcohol which is lit and then vaporized into the exterior jets. I
took my Trangia on one trip, but discarded it quickly, and a bit
prematurely. On this trip I had neglected to take a windscreen.
Windscreens, however, are essential for alcohol stoves because the
flames move more slowly than gas stoves and are more easily
disrupted, increasing fuel consumption and lowering the boil time.
In any case, I decided to try a new, lighter, homemade stove.
Through Mark Verber's list of recommended gear I found the Penny stove.
The Penny goes a step further and
corrects a problem common to alcohol stoves. When alcohol is
vaporized too quickly, it escapes through the jets without boiling,
lowering fuel efficiency. The Penny uses a novel design to
counteract this - a penny covers the fuelling hole and seals the
stove until boiling alcohol accumulates excessively. At that point
the penny lifts due to the pressure and the gas is released slowly
and burnt off, preventing fuel loss. The stove took me a couple
hours to make and is constructed of a couple ridged Heineken
cans.
Enough background. I took this stove on my 5 day hike through Northern Japan, and also cooked with it for 3 other days spent at campsites in towns. What a rocket! I started my trip concerned about fuel consumption because I had to boil all of my water to kill a waterborne parasite that is rare but possible in those mountains. The Penny boiled tons of water, and in about half the time -- 4 to 5 minutes -- of other alcohol stoves. Unfortunately it was a bit big for my Evernew Titanium pot and it melted the rubber covers on the handles. I am working on making another with better jet placement for my small pot. In any case, highly recommended: it weighs 19g and boils nearly as fast as clunky gas stoves.
The first stove that caught my eye was the popular Jetboil.
As I was reading reviews of the Jetboil, I came across a new breed of stove - the alcohol stove. These stoves operate by burning the vapor from high-concentration alcohol such as the drinkable Ethanol, fuel line cleaner like HEET, or the noxious but strong Methanol. The simplest stoves burn alcohol in a cup under a pot, which reduces the chance of clogging or failure, common with gas or mixed fuel stoves, to next to nil.
The stove I chose was the Scandinavian darling, the Trangia.
Through Mark Verber's list of recommended gear I found the Penny stove.
Enough background. I took this stove on my 5 day hike through Northern Japan, and also cooked with it for 3 other days spent at campsites in towns. What a rocket! I started my trip concerned about fuel consumption because I had to boil all of my water to kill a waterborne parasite that is rare but possible in those mountains. The Penny boiled tons of water, and in about half the time -- 4 to 5 minutes -- of other alcohol stoves. Unfortunately it was a bit big for my Evernew Titanium pot and it melted the rubber covers on the handles. I am working on making another with better jet placement for my small pot. In any case, highly recommended: it weighs 19g and boils nearly as fast as clunky gas stoves.
Bon Bon Cafe
01/09/06 11:35 Filed in: Focus on the
Locus
I'd like
to say I found this cafe, but I tend to stay away from French food
in Japan. Japan's idea of French food is French Fries but this is
my own Canadian cultural bias: we have immigrants who can share the
real thing. Japanese cooks have to make a guess and cater to the
Japanese palate.
In any case, I ''found'' this cafe through a coworker, who likely ''found'' it through the Lonely Planet guide for Kyoto. That she ran into the main writer for LP in Japan there makes it possible. The food is great and cheap! Lunch is from 300 to 700 yen, offering sandwiches and salads. You can eat inside in the AC or sit outside on a covered patio -- a rarity in Japan -- and look out over the river and up at the big Kanji that has been cut into the mountain side for several hundred years. Dinners are either 2000 for an entree or 1000 yen for a dish, and drinks are about 600 yen, with wine by the bottle available. Dessert runs about 500yen.
My only dislike about the place is that the menus have French dish names and Japanese explanations of the ingredients. While it was nice to be able to partially read a menu in Japan, the script describing the ingredients in Japanse was scribbly and hard to make out, so I had to guess that I knew what was in it by the French title. The waiter I spoke to did speak a bit of English, however.
Lunch is paid up front, dinner is paid at the end. Overall, a charming cafe, a fair attempt at French cuisine, and a fantastic location. Take the Keihan line to the terminus at Demachiyanagi, take exit 3, and cross the bridge. It is on the water.
In any case, I ''found'' this cafe through a coworker, who likely ''found'' it through the Lonely Planet guide for Kyoto. That she ran into the main writer for LP in Japan there makes it possible. The food is great and cheap! Lunch is from 300 to 700 yen, offering sandwiches and salads. You can eat inside in the AC or sit outside on a covered patio -- a rarity in Japan -- and look out over the river and up at the big Kanji that has been cut into the mountain side for several hundred years. Dinners are either 2000 for an entree or 1000 yen for a dish, and drinks are about 600 yen, with wine by the bottle available. Dessert runs about 500yen.
My only dislike about the place is that the menus have French dish names and Japanese explanations of the ingredients. While it was nice to be able to partially read a menu in Japan, the script describing the ingredients in Japanse was scribbly and hard to make out, so I had to guess that I knew what was in it by the French title. The waiter I spoke to did speak a bit of English, however.
Lunch is paid up front, dinner is paid at the end. Overall, a charming cafe, a fair attempt at French cuisine, and a fantastic location. Take the Keihan line to the terminus at Demachiyanagi, take exit 3, and cross the bridge. It is on the water.
A Bold New Venture!
27/08/06 22:18 Filed in: Site
News
