It’s been ages since my last post, but strangely enough, I’ve had 3 comments in the past week on various topics – even heard from an old friend that I haven’t talked to since high school.  Like usual the post about squid ink pasta remains popular, and according to Google Web Tools, I’m ranked around number 7 when you type in that key phrase.  Guess not many other people have written about it.  Anyway, I thought it might be nice to write again and keep everyone up to date on what is going on.

Tonight I sat back to enjoy the third presidential debate.  The first two were pretty boring, but this last one had a sense of urgency that made for good viewing.  Both candidates seemed to be surrounded in a cloud of pressure forcing them to get their message out much more forcefully, and I can only ask why this didn’t happen before.  I felt that this third one was pretty evenly matched, but unfortunately McCain came across as being a little whiny.  I used to be a huge McCain fan so it’s pretty disappointing to see how far he’s fallen in this campaign.  I’m sure a lot of it is the work of his campaign team, even his brother told the press to let him be him, but you’d think he’d have more control over what is going on.  Obama’s policies just make more sense to me this time around – especially in areas such as health care, which I was without while living in the US.  I will say this though: even if Obama wins, I’m still disappointed in his Yes vote for telecom immunity.

As for other going ons, there’s more after the jump:
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Funny story, although not so at the time.

On my way home from seeing a movie today, I was playing a Sony PSP on the train. Like always, I was standing in the area closest to the door but pressed up against the seat to avoid traffic. At one point an old man (probably in his 70s) got behind me and actually pushed me off the train.  Since he was stumbling on the train as well I just figured he was trying to get off, and rather than block his exit, I just decided to get off and let him pass.  Well, much to my surprise, rather than exiting like a normal person, the old man continued to push me to keep me from getting on the train again. We got about 10 ft. away from the train door and I was trying to get around him to re-board, but he was doing a pretty good job of getting in my way.  Then things started to escalate.  He started yelling at me and tried to rip the PSP from my hands. He was obviously drunk and was yelling at me for both playing games and not understanding the rules being a foreigner.  I wasn’t quite sure what rules he was referring to, but I had had enough of his crap so I told him we were going to the police (in Japanese of course) and strangely he immediately agreed to go with me.

I was pissed as hell at this point, but I decided that rather than go to the police we should just stop at the station office and let them deal with this piece of work. When we got there I told the people what he did to me and he said, “Yep, that sounds about right,” and proceeded to explain to me that you can’t play games on the train. The office attendant butted in and told him that you can’t push other riders off the train and that playing games is not against “the manners” as long as you are wearing headphones and not playing the sound loud enough to bother other riders. The old man bowed and said something like, “Yeah, I suppose there are some things that I should apologize for too.”  After hearing this sentence I got even angrier and told him, “There’s no damn too about this at all.  You owe me an apology!”  At that point he started to berate me for not accepting his apology and the office attendant had me sit down so he could start talking to him about how playing games isn’t a moral offense. They then asked me if I wanted to call the police to report him but I told them I just wanted to go home.

It was a very bizarre experience and not one I would really want to repeat but I felt it was pretty strange that the old guy would actually physically accost me to stop playing games quietly on the train. I’m totally for this “Be mindful of your neighbors” campaign that they are running here to keep people calm on the trains but this was pretty crazy.

The worst part was that when the station attendant told the old man to apologize to me the old man tried to hug me. The station attendant jumped in between us because he was probably unsure of how I would react to getting touched by the old man. In the end, the old man did one of those politician handshakes (the two-handed one) and was sent stumbling off on his way into the sunset.

Needless to say I was pretty worked up about all of this.  Maintaining my composure was probably the most difficult part of this whole ordeal.  It’s not quite often that you have someone in elderly diapers attacking you for something totally irrelevant.   We’re told to respect the elderly but things like this really just sour your overall impression of them all.  I doubt this will ever happen again, but at least now I guess I’m prepared.

Oh, and on a side note, I saw American Gangster starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.   It’s a great movie and a must-see for people who like police dramas.  The story is based on a true story.

It’s funny. Sometimes I have a million ideas for blog topics running through my head but when I actually try to put them down on ‘paper’ I get writer’s block. I suppose it’s not all that strange; writing, according to Stephen King in his book On Writing, is mostly about practice. He says that in order to become an author you should be reading 4 hours and writing 4 hours every day. That doesn’t help me much for writing these entries based on my time limitations, but I think that my inability to write my blog is an indicator that I’m still not experienced enough. Like I mentioned in some of my initial posts, I created digitalKI not because I’m interested in sharing my ideas with the world but because I like writing. This is one of the best ways for me to practice and I find that the casual tone of most blog posts to be perfect practice for creating actual dialog in the short stories I write. I definitely think I’ve been making some progress but there is still a lot of work to be done. Living in Japan has been a wonderful experience, but at the same time it has also done tremendous damage to my ability to communicate normally using English. At least by maintaining this blog I’m able to get in some much needed practice. With that said, I think I’ll mention two things today and try to keep it light. There are a fair number of disturbing political stories going around right now and I’d rather not focus on those for now.
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Yesterday marked the very first time my wife and I tried traditional Japanese nabe cooking in our home. Nabe means pot in Japanese but it really refers to the way the food is cooked. A giant pot is filled with broth and, depending on the kind of nabe you prepare, stuffed full of vegetables and some kind of raw meat – i.e. balls of chicken (not chicken balls – you dirty minded individuals). This pot is then heated (normally at the dinner table) where it cooks right there in front of you and is usually considered done once the meat is fully cooked.  Nabe is usually only served during the winter, and it can be a really healthy way to stay warm.

We will probably try more varieties before this season is over but I’m personally very excited to have a new variety of cooking that we can enjoy at our house. You can see a picture on my wife’s blog.  The post is in Japanese, but it’s marked Nov. 4 (you can find the link to her site on my blogroll).

You might be interested to know that nabe is also the food that sumo wrestlers eat on a daily basis to gain weight (they eat tons and tons of food before sleeping around 14 hours a day to put on the pounds).

I was reading around on the net again like usual and found a pretty disturbing piece of information that I was previously unaware of. I can’t really say if this was an accident or on purpose (I will let you decide for yourself), but apparently the person who blew the whistle on the Abu Ghraib prisoner torture scandal was outed on television by Donald Rumsfeld despite his wishes to remain anonymous.

This link is for an article on the BBC website that describes the incident in more detail, but it seems that after Joe Darby (the whistle blower) was named on TV in front of his peers, he was then flown out of Iraq and put under protection for six months out of fear of retaliation. His house in the US was vandalized by people angry over the whistle blowing and his wife, after learning what her husband had done, fled to her sister’s house to avoid any repercussions.

Those who are anti-Bush tend to say it was on purpose, as does Joe himself, but what I find more disturbing about this whole issue is that there are actually Americans who would be angry with Joe Darby’s actions. To be fair I don’t know if this reaction was by acquaintances from his home town or complete strangers, but it makes me angry to think that doing the right thing would make you a target. Call me naive, which I readily admit I am, but when a crime has been committed I have always been under the impression that it needs to be dealt with properly. Strangely, I wrote about a similar topic in a letter to the editor of the Japan Times. It’s scary times we live in when people in the right are subject to wrong.

Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.

I find it hard to believe how much time has passed since my last blog entry. Work has been busy, and my usual ramblings don’t seem important enough to sacrifice some free time. I have been doing a little behind-the-scenes maintenance though, and I’ve been very happy with result of installing Spam Karma 2. It has completely stopped the amount of crap coming into my mailbox, and I can at long last live without the annoyance of cleaning out junk mail. You have no idea how much this annoys me.
Today I thought I’d just cover a light topic that might be of interest to some of you. When I first came to Japan I had terrible posture. Even now it’s not perfect, but I have been actively trying to fix the way I sit and stand over the past few years. My mom always warned me about sitting up straight, but it wasn’t until I started Kendo over here that I finally realized why.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Kendo, it’s kind of like Olympic fencing, except it’s the Japanese traditional form of sword fighting using a two-handed weapon. Most of the gear is the same as in fencing except the gear is very top heavy and is constructed using plastics, wood and a heavy canvas-like material. I think the full set of Kendo gear wears around 20 lbs. (roughly 8 kg) and probably more than half of the weight is in the helmet. When you first put on the gear, you learn right away whether your posture is good or not. If your center of balance is off just the tiniest bit, it becomes very hard to stand up straight, and after about 10 minutes of trying to maintain your footing your legs feel like jelly. The key to doing kendo right is to keep your back straight even when moving forward.

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Despite the excessive length of these blogs you might be surprised to know that for the most part I’m writing these on my cell phone. Usually on my way home from work I’ll have an idea pop into my head and since I’ve got around two hours to kill, it becomes a great way to pass the time. In this way it’s also interesting to see how the phones here have developed differently to match the needs of the market. The whole idea of texting as it exists in America and Europe never materialized here, and instead most people either send actual email from phone to phone or sometimes a lighter,more text-like message. It costs around 3 to 8 cents to send an email based on the length and attached pictures and it can be cheaper or free if that person is in your family. Unfortunately for Europeans and Americans cell phone companies saw how popular this technology could be and jacked up prices even for the bastardized format that is texting. Lrn2grmmrnoob … The future of our children is oh so bright.
Yesterday I talked briefly about a group of rocketeers making a replca X-wing and I was thinking that I’d focus on that topic more. Of course I’m interested in the project itself, but what I’m actually really happy to see is this kind of casual teamwork still alive in the US. I’ve always believed that what made Americans great was that sense of individualism and curiosity of our surroundings being applied to teamwork and ingenuity. It’s not so often that you see this kind of community activity anymore, and even more-so for one related to a scientific venture. Perhaps I’m simply uniformed or just plain wrong, but it really feels like times have changed a lot even in my short lifetime.

Also, as an update to last week’s X-wing replica story, you might check out the story again to see the launch video. The launch was a great success, but the X-wing fell to pieces very quickly after rocketing into the sky. It’s really a cool thing to see and a perfect time to cue the Porkin jokes.

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Today I’m going to fly off into ultra-bizarre land and explain to you a hobby I’ve had for a few years. I don’t have a name for it or anything because it’s essentially just walking, but it makes crowded places like Tokyo really enjoyable. I have to say that you could probably apply this to cars as well but after you read the below description you’ll understand the inherit risk.

To start off with, you need to walk really fast. Not just a little bit, but pretty much twice as fast as the normal flow of traffic. This sounds stupid, but this is the main, if not the only, rule that you have to follow. The object of this hobby is to move from place to place as fast as possible while maneuvering around the other pedestrians and without stopping. While you’re traveling at that speed the biggest risk is bumping into someone else. This becomes especially dangerous in crowded train stations where there are lots of people moving in different directions, and at night in Japan you also have to watch out for those stopping suddenly to bow and say their farewells.

So now you understand the extremely silly basics of this game that I play. The fun part however comes when you start adding additional tricks to make sure you aren’t stopping. These are just a few (and I added names to these just for the heck of it):

Shielding- Shielding is extremely useful in very large crowds of varying speeds where you can’t seem to move forward. In order to shield you actually have to find someone slow and preferably big. This person actually affects the flow of traffic in their favor and you can use this to your advantage. They usually create natural openings in their wake and this is where you want to be.

Taking up wingman- This is just like it sounds and is the opposite of shielding. You take up a position either directly behind or diagonally from someone faster and more aggresive. Some people are jerks when they walk and expect others to get out of their way. These people are great for being a wingman because they are forcing openings in crowds. Just remember that you still need to be making forward progress so you need to ditch this person the first opportunity you get.

Backdrafting- Especially in train stations you’ll find people moving perpindicular to traffic flow. For a split second, you’ll find that a rift opens behind that person as others move to avoid him. Just like fire rushing to eat up pockets of air, you can use that rift to make great speed.

I already know that this game sounds ridiculous, but when you consider that a lot of people here walk like zombies, you can probably picture how fun this is. As I mentioned before these techniques are probably already being used by professional race car drivers, but I’ve just applied them to walking. It’s not as fun doing this game in the US unless it’s really crowded but you should give it a try.
If anything, you’re moving so fast that it’s going to be great exercise.

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I’m on the train writing this blog on my cell phone – sorry for any mistakes. It has been a laid back weekend with lots of mini-events that I’d like to detail here.

First of all, I just finished watching Michael Moore’s newest movie Sicko in the theater. I particularly like his movies, but you really owe it to yourself to see this one. This movie is less politically motivated than his last two (although there are the occasional anti-Republican potshots here and there) and it does a good job of skewering the medical system and its numerous flaws. I watched with shock and awe as problem after problem was detailed, and I sat wondering why more is not being done to fix the system. You may be one of those people that believes everyone should pay their own medical bills, but just wait until you or a loved one gets cancer and then can’t figure out why you can’t get coverage anymore. I lived in Seattle for a year without coverage and a routine dental checkup (without cavities) cost me $200 whereas a dental treatment over 3 days with fillings cost me $60 in Japan. Separately, an ultrasound and blood tests cost me $14. My healthcare isn’t free, but it’s certainly not the $12,000 it costs to get one fingertip sewed back on (as seen in Sicko). Please see this movie and then spread the word.

On another less serious note, I started watching Desperate Housewives with my wife and I’m pretty impressed. The show is much more entertaining than I was expecting and does a great job of toying with viewer reactions. It deals heavily in the black and white to misdirect you in ways that you can’t really predict. Another thing that surprised me was the soundtrack by Danny Elfman – it gives the show a very Edward Scissorhands feel. I’m a bit wary of how long a show like this can last, but for the time being I’m guardedly optimistic.

Well, things in Japan certainly have become interesting. If you check out your favorite news site like cnn or foxnews or whatever, you may see a tiny blurb about the prime minister of Japan quitting. It may seem like no big deal in the foreign media, but over here politics have entered into meltdown mode. Everyone was pushing for the prime minister to resign, but the timing at which everything happened is akin to a laxative finally working during a rush hour traffic jam. I mentioned previously the election in Japan and how the ruling party was massively defeated. To recap, this was mainly because of a variety of scandals as well as a complete botch-up of the social security payment system. People were pissed and they let the ‘Old Guard’ know their feelings through a lack of votes. What I didn’t mention was that because of this defeat, the part was essentially backed into a corner and they were trying to regain their lost position – in other words, their position in the government was tenuous at best. Abe (who is the prime minister) was under a great deal of pressure to resign but he said he was going to stand his ground and decided that a complete reshuffle of his cabinet would be the best way to start repairing his party’s reputation. However, just a few days after his new cabinet had started work, more scandals came to light regarding his new appointees and there were more resignations – I think the running total for one year is at 5 resignations and one suicide. Still, Abe continued to say he would hold his ground, and boldly stated that if his anti-terrorism plan wasn’t voted into law that he would possibly resign. Which brings us to yesterday.

Only 3 days after giving his equivalent of the State of the Union Address Abe suddenly announces he’s quitting. No one, including his party members, was prepared for this. It’s completely out of the blue, and as such, the usual stoic Japanese politicians have begun venting their anger openly in front of television cameras around the country. Some are saying that the timing of this resignation couldn’t have been worse, and I read today that Abe is either having possible health problems or that there could be a breaking story this weekend talking about how Abe was involved in a financial scandal. This is all merely speculation, but I think as the next few days go by I will learn more details about this situation. So, when you read that small article on your favorite news site this weekend about the prime minister in Japan, you might reconsider what it actually means – and just for some extra perspective, the ‘Old Guard’ that I mentioned before, the ones who got voted out of the upper house of the Diet, have always been conservative and the US’s staunchest allies. What effect this will have on America’s ability to function in Asia is something I’m interested to see. For more information, you might check out this article on time.com.

Moving on now, I thought that I might mention one more thing to those technology lovers out there. I’m a pretty jaded computer user/gamer, but two days ago I found an absolutely amazing technology that takes completely random sets of pictures and can form basically 3-d models out of them. Not only that, but no matter how high the resolution of the pictures is, there is no slow down related to viewing the pictures. It’s hard to describe accurately with words alone, but if this kind of technology sounds interesting to you I suggest checking it out. This is currently being developed by Microsoft’s tech lab, and right now the technology is being mainly used for showing buildings. One thing that I need to stress before you view this is that the pictures that form the 3-d images are taken by completely DIFFERENT people. This means, for example, that you could download all of the pictures of the Eiffel Tower off of Flickr and generate a 3-d image of that structure.

On the website there are a few photo sets including historical sites in Europe, but my favorite is probably the really high resolution photograph set taken at the launch pad of the space shuttle. They also have one more set that actually allows you to see the extent of tile damage found on the bottom of the shuttle while it was flying around in space. The detail is so extreme that you can actually zoom in and almost make out the serial numbers on EACH tile. Needless to say, the potential for this is out of this world. The technology is called Photosynth.