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:

Ninna Temple

There’s actually a lot going on right now, almost too much to write about in just one blog entry, but I’ll start with my recent trip to Kyoto.  Last weekend my wife and I packed up our bags and headed out on the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto.  I’ve been there once, about 10 years ago, and my wife went there, as most students in Japan, during junior high.  For both of us it was nice to just get away before the birth of our first child, and even better, this time of year is probably the best time to visit the Kansai area (Kyoto, Osaka, etc.).  Summers in that area are dreadfully hot, and winters are surprisingly cold.  The spring and autumn, however, are pretty out of this world.  The Japan of old does exist, at least in spirit, and during these seasons you can really get a feel for a time long gone.

Every year Kyoto gets swamped with people who want to see either cherry blossoms or autumn leaves, but since it’s still early for the leaves to change colors we really hit the jackpot.  I really recommend visiting Japan during this time of the year if you can get the time off.  Just be careful though – prices for planes and trains skyrocket during the spring and autumn so be sure to get some kind of package deal, or pick up the JR rail pass that only tourists have access to.

Also, in following with my complete lack of focus, or I should say my absolute focus on everything in general, I’ve been working on computer graphics at my office.  I tried out some computer modeling a long time ago, but it’s pretty amazing what you can do with the programs available nowadays.  I just can’t get enough of creating new objects, and in particular I’m really focused on making things look real.  Photorealism is extremely hard to achieve – just check out a B movie to see what I mean – but it’s really rewarding when you can actually get it done.  I’ll probably be posting some pictures here sometime in the near future.  Requests are also ok.  I can’t guarantee the quality, but I’m always up for trying something new.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 16th, 2008 at 2:39 pm and is filed under About Japan, My Travels, Political Info., Random info.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.