chaset1

R.I.P. Behemoth (1997-2009)

2009-11-21T11:29:42Z

My beloved Umax S900 Mac clone gave up the ghost tonight.

The hard disk I had in there with the OS X partition started clickety-clacking to high heaven. In the process of trying to shoehorn in a replacement, I had unseated the processor card just enough to cause a fatal problem. The machine did not come up ever again. I'm still kicking myself... I didn't think Behemoth will die by my own hand.

It's probably the power supply that died, which was probably nearing its useful life anyways. I could spend time and money trying to fix the issue, as there are ways to jury-rig an ATX power supply into a Mac Clone. However, I decided that it's time to move on, as higher priorities have come into my life. I guess it's sort of an end of an era for me... this gives me an excuse to clear out the computer and a whole lot of associated hardware.

Upgrading that machine has been a hobby of mine ever since I got it, back when a 200MHz 604e kicked butt over any type of Pentium. The 2GB SCSI hard disk bit the dust pretty quickly, but since then, the machine has had all kinds of upgrades -- USB, Firewire, Hardware MPEG decoder (remember those?), 100 BaseT ethernet, 640MB of RAM (the machine supported over 1GB), DVD ROM drive, CD Burner, 4MB IMS Twin Turbo to 32MB ATI Radeon, 300 MHz G3 then up to 1GHz G4... I think the Clone era had some of the best machines in Mac history.

It was the first "high-end" computer that I splurged on after getting my first few paychecks at my first real job. It served me as my primary computer until I got my first PowerBook in 2000. After that, it also spent some time faithfully and reliably serving my sister. The machine never gave her any problems that I didn't cause myself.

The one regret I have is that I really wanted to keep a Powermac around to play all those Mac OS 8/9 era games once I retire. There are several titles that I never got around to finishing. SheepShaver and other emulation technologies seem to have mostly obviated the need to keep the hardware around, but it's still different to be able to fire up old hardware... to hear its cheerful "bong".

If at all possible, I want to get it into the hands of someone with the desire and the will to resurrect it and make some use of it... but it's looking pretty unlikely.... most of the parts will be auctioned off (stay tuned for my e-bay auctions)... and the empty corpse of Behemoth will go to the recycler.

On a related note, my little sister's Quadra 605 didn't survive 3 years in storage. That little guy served her and me since 1993 or so.

May they rest in peace.

Much agoo about something

2009-11-18T07:08:47Z

It's a dad's duty to extoll his daughter's absolute cuteness, regardless how true it is from an external observer.
This just makes daddy melt.

Shana nanana, Shana nana na, Doo Wop!

2009-11-16T22:16:10Z

I just accepted a position at a network equipment manufacturer in Sunnyvale! Woo Hoo! I'll be employed again!
This lifts a significant psychological burden on me, and let me actually take a short vacation that feels like a vacation at last!

Thanks to all who supported me in my job hunt.

Now I can buy diapers for Leina, among other things. There's a list of purchases I've been holding back on, like a new video card so I can play Demigods. (It's amazing that my Radeon X850 makes that game a slide show, even though it handles stuff like Left4Dead just fine)

Woo hoo hoo!!!! Income!!!

Cat's not in the cradle...

2009-11-12T09:54:54Z

...since we have neither a cat nor a cradle... or a silver spoon, for that matter.

But how time flies when one has to look after a tiny screaming blob of a human. Fortunately, she is 200% adorable.

In 6 weeks, I think she's hit 5kg at least (we'll get an actual accurate weighing at he 8 week physical). The initial jaundice and body weight scare has come and gone. We've resigned ourselves to supplementing with formula, which significantly eased the stress on Midori. We have settled into more or less a routine with me taking the night shift and Midori taking the morning shift. Leina's getting close to 4-hour blocks of sleep (not quite there yet). Her favorite "word" right now is "AGOO", which she seems to repeat at every opportunity.

My fate in terms of job hunt will be decided fairly soon, I hope. The last month of severance has already passed, so now I'm running on reserves. I've had a couple of more on-site interviews. I'm waiting to get definite word on both. With any luck, I'll get to CHOOSE where I'll go. Fancy that.

Most days these days are spent just looking after the baby and surfing the job sites. And yet, time passes too quickly. I keep wanting to add details on what I've been doing, but really, it seems that's all I've been doing.

Family and friends have visited in the mean time. It helps break the monotony and gives us a lot of parenting info.

Oh, I know what's new... I went to the dentist. Looks like I need to get some of my fillings replaced, but I'll wait until I can actually pay for them. Midori also needs to fix a few cavities. Oh bother.

For the relatives, contact me if you want any pictures. For others, I know other people's kids aren't nearly as cute as your own, but just contact me if you want to see any pictures. Like any parent, I have no shortage of them. :)

Comic II

2009-10-03T04:49:51Z

Borg Baby, being recharged.

Comic I

2009-10-03T04:46:59Z

...um, OK. So now what do I do?

Joining the party, already in progress.

2009-09-27T03:02:22Z

Joining us today at 9:55 AM Pacific Daylight Time is Leina Ikeda-Tsang (No, we probably won't do the hyphenated thing. I just wanted to make sure people don't go "huh?" to the Ikeda name only.)

I'd like to note down how it all went down for posterity (which I guess means Leina), but I'm losing consciousness in front of the keyboard. This entry will be edited later.

Amazing thing about this child:
-She nailed her due date spot-on, just like we've asked her to.
-Actually admitted at close to 2AM, delivered around 10AM. Doctors said it was fast for a first baby.
-3255 grams, which is over 6% of Midori's normal weight. Big for a Japanese baby.
-Positively adorable. (Midori and I 100% certify that statement. Of course we're not biased.)

9/25
Afternoon - Midori is complaining of tummy discomfort. Maybe it's what she had for breakfast.
Evening - Still complaining of unexplained discomfort. The three of us (including Mother-in-law) take a walk to a nearby shopping center to pick up some milk and pasta.
11:27 PM - I'm messing with a old Celeron laptop wondering to what uses I can put it, when from the bedroom, I hear screams of "破水だ！破水だ！". Midori runs into the bathroom, and indeed, there is amniotic fluid. (Tip for expecting parents: a $8 waterproof sheet can save a $500 mattress.)
11:30 PM - I note the time, amount, color, and odor and call the hospital. The advice nurse says wait one hour and report back on additional amount of fluid.
9/26
12:00 AM - Midori is still feeling that discomfort, a bit stronger. Oh, they're intermittent? Uh... perhaps we should time those. 12:05:53~12:06:38, 12:07:58~12:08:53, 12:09:53~12:10:50, 12:13.. eh, I think it's time to call the hospital again.
12:15 AM - I explain the additional amount of fluid and what appears to be contractions coming 2 minutes apart, directions are to come to the hospital now.
12:30 AM - Rapidly get dressed and get in the car.
~1:00 AM - Check into hospital. There are several last-minute paperwork at the admission counter. Couldn't we have taken care of this when they gave us the rest of the paperwork?!? Midori is still smiling. Get sent to the observation room. Midori is examined, temperature taken, blood presure taken, and baby monitor (FHR) and contraction monitor attached. She's really feeling the pressure now.
~2:00 AM - Hospital staff says they're admitting her, and we move to the labor/delivery room. Midori is asked about the pain. It is reaching 3 out of 10 by now. One of the nurses tries to draw 3 blood samples for some testing. The third vial didn't get very full, so she looked at it funny but decides to take it because it was so darn hard finding a vein in Midori.
~3:00 AM - We darken the room and settle in to let the labor progress. It's appearing pretty painful and we sort of try the breathing like we learned. Some time in there, the nurse asks about the pain level and Midori asks for some relief. She gets some IV pain medication which puts her half asleep and it helps a little. I also get a little shut-eye, intermittently awakened by her rough breathing as the contractions hit. I also give up on trying to find a pattern in the contractions because it's been swinging back and forth between 3 and 6 minute intervals apparently randomly. Some time in there, another nurse comes in to inform us that she needs to re-take one of the blood samples because it didn't work out in the lab. Pricks her 3 times but fails to get a sample. She's trying to draw from the lower wrist and hand... hmm.
~5:00 AM - The pain medication has worn off and the pain is apparently getting pretty intense. We try to breath through it... not sure it's helping much. Some time in there, we ask the nurse if we're getting any closer -- still 3.5 cm.
~6:00 AM - shift change. The new nurse asks about the pain and Midori is basically asking for ANYTHING to make it bearable. Nurse offers epidural or more pain medication. I ask isn't it too early for epidural, and is promptly informed that they should take that part out of the prenatal classes because really you should get it any time you feel you can't bear the pain for an additional hour. Oh, ok. Let's do that. Another nurse came in at some point to take the untaken sample. Draws it from around the elbow joint and gets the sample with little difficulty. Why didn't the other nurse just do that and save Midori 3 holes.
~7:00 AM - Anesthesiologist is called. Shows up around 7:30 (I'm getting fuzzy on the exact times of this sequence), but is immediately called away on an emergency, and we wait another 10 minutes for the replacement anesthesiologist. I liked it because he LOOKED more like a seasoned veteran than the other doctor ("feelings" matter at this point, I'm sure the other one was just as competent.)
~8:00 AM - Midori is getting an epidural. I an supporting her as she leans over from the bed. I have to translate for Midori, and this lets me watch everything the anesthesiologist is doing... boy that's a long needle. That's funny, there's something strange about my senses. Am I really here? Hmm... it's getting hard to get my legs to keep standing. Keep standing, legs. Umm.. keep standing, legs. Ok, this is getting way too difficult. I tell the nurse that I need to sit down, and I sit down. The nurse took over supporting Midori. Thankfully, the chair was nearby. The doctors tell me to sit and keep my head down. They ask if I want juice, and I say yes. Keeping the head down and getting some fluid (and sugar?) brings me back to my senses pretty quickly. I guess that's what fainting feels like. The doctors and nurses tell me that expecting dads do it all the time, and good thing I had sense enough to sit down before going down and needing the emergency room myself. Phew. Midori's mom also apparently had to step away as the needle made her ill. It didn't look too menacing, but I guess there's something about watching sharp things inserted that gets to our primal senses.
~8:30 AM - Nurse declares Midori is ready to deliver and we can start as soon as the staff is ready. The epidural is mostly working now, and Midori says no pain, but the urge to push is tremendous.
~9:00 AM - They staff got ready, and maybe Midori got her first push or two in before the first doctor gets called away to an emergency C-section. (There were a few other talks of this by the staff throughout the night. Apparently, there was a baby rush of 5 babies before 6 AM, and a couple more in the morning, apparently some of them via emergency C-section) The med student is left sitting in the baby catching position looking kind of awkward. Replacement doctor shows up pretty quickly and Midori starts pushing in ernest. The epidural is in full swing by now, but Midori's tired.
9:55 AM - Pop comes Leina, after ... I lost count... maybe 20 pushes. What a relief. She gives a healthy sounding cry almost immediately.

I have the video, but unfortunately, I didn't get to take any stills. Ah well, can't have everything.

Got on board the eastbound 747...

2009-09-27T02:40:52Z

Well, an interview has come and gone. I'm glad I finally landed an interview because it was getting quite discouraging to not get through to even that step. Unfortunately, it didn't pan out, but them's the breaks.

It's nice to be able to visit mom and sis on an as-needed basis, but it looks like the only open prospects I have right now are in southern California. I wouldn't rule these opportunities out, but it is such a shame to not be able to take this job change as a chance to be closer to family. I thought a lot before deciding what to do about relocating back. I still don't think it was a mistake, though. Fremont is reasonably nice.

Because of the weight of my future is still heavy on my shoulders, I haven't been updating the blog very much. Suffice it to say, we've settled in reasonably well now. Not a whole lot of noteworthy events other than a Baby Shower and a few family gatherings.

But the biggest deal of all, is in the next posting.

Been through the Bay on a car with no name

2009-08-30T19:39:44Z

Spent yesterday basically circling east bay (up 880, down 680) to hit various spots and go to a relative's birthday.

I ate too much at the party. The cake was good.

Here is the latest picture for grandma and aunties to see:

Our car has no name, but the baby does. We've settled on 玲菜 transliterated "Leina".

For those that care, that's "clear sound as of a ringing bell" and "vegetable leaf, or a cuisine/dish".
We wanted her to eat her vegetables. She's expected to pop out in less than a month... eek.

It never rains in California...

2009-07-22T00:33:41Z

Midori has been impressed with the utter lack of precipitation here. (Japan would be just finishing up most of its rainy season about now).

Just a quick update...
... we found a place to live, and I now own a car again. Yay. (well, Boo! to all the expenses associated with that). We are 16 days into our 30 days free housing and car. So, this is good.

We landed on 6/28, spent a couple of days at Mom/Sis's places, and enjoyed a couple of days in Pine Crest... for the first time in 4 years. (Double Yay!). Before moving down to San Jose for the temporary housing.

So, most of the big, tedious stuff is out of the way... so now I can concentrate on the Job Hunt.

Hopefully, things will settle down some more once we're moved in and I'm employed... wait, who am I kidding. The little bean is about to burst out in less than two months. I guess I won't have any peace for a couple of decades. Ah well, c'est la vie.

Do you know the way to San Jose?

2009-07-09T18:28:00Z

...I've been away so long, I may lose my way...
Actually, it was pretty easy... just take 680 South..

In any case, I'm in San Jose now... busily job and house hunting. It's exhausting. I probably haven't updated anything since before the Hiroshima trip, but I think everything will have to wait until things settle down.

Anyone looking for a hardware engineer give me a holler!

I love your lovely little...

2009-06-26T12:58:22Z

Well, I've got a few minutes, and Midori went in for her check-up today...
so for the aunts, uncle, and grandma...

飛べ！渡米！

2009-06-26T10:12:47Z

Well, this is it... in less than 48 hours, I'll be on my way back to the 'states.

It was fun while it lasted. The movers will come tomorrow morning, and the internet will be disconnected tomorrow evening.

I have a pile of pictures to upload from the Nobeoka trip and the Hiroshima trip. Stay tuned.

Bannana fanna fo fanna

2009-06-05T10:58:08Z

Well, the time has come to make a decision, since sticking with "big bean" is probably not going to cut it as the child goes through school. Big bean, coincidentally, would be a direct translation of the Japanese for "soybean", but anyways...

Here are the candidates. I'm not using any official romanization system, be beware that vowels in romanized Japanese are always of the shortest kind unless annotated otherwise. e.g. "a" as in "Inca", not as in "cat". Also, the Japanese don't distinguish between L and R. All instances of words containing that sound have tongue position some place in between.

Romanized Name	Japanese	Kanji Candidates
Rena	れな	麗奈、麗那、玲奈
Reina	れいな	玲奈
Karen	かれん	Were thinking just hiragana for this one.
Karin	かりん	Ditto here
Anna	あんな	Haven't thought about it yet. Suggestions welcome.

Given the above, guessing the sex of the child is left as an exercise for the reader.

Latest picture to be here soon. stay tuned.

Flu? What flu?

2009-05-17T03:21:09Z

I'm back from my final home leave. Midori got her Visa stamped - which is as good as a green card for the moment. We landed in SF on Saturday, and spent the afternoon at my sister's. That's when Sis pointed out that the rental car was leaking oil. That pretty much killed any plan of going anywhere during the weekend. Calling Hertz, the only locations that are open are airport locations. I deferred the car change to Monday morning, but Local Edition doesn't stock any cars with a nav system. So on Monday, I had to go to Oakland airport anyways to get a car I can use.

http://gallery.me.com/chaset#100134

Anyways, the weekend was pretty relaxed, and was spent mostly adjusting to jet lag and hanging around near my sister's place.

Monday was spent driving down to LA, stopping at Santa Cruz beach on the way. It was too windy and cold to do anything there, but I just wanted to see it since it's been so long.

We met up with Antony in the evening, and dashed out to grab a bite. Midori wanted to try Chipotle Grill, which she saw on the last trip. We also grabbed an In-n-Out burger.

The next morning, we were off to San Diego. We checked out the sights at La Jolla and took a look at Old Town San Diego. We spent the afternoon in downtown, at the mall. (whatever it was called)

We stayed at a motel out in Escondido. It was actually a pretty good place for the price ($49).

Wednesday was spent driving, and we spent the most of the rest of the time relaxing at mom's. On Thursday night, we visited Geoff. The kids were asleep, so we were able to spend a good time chatting and having a dinner... consisting of strawberry shortcake.

We flew out on Saturday, and this car had a maintenance req'd light on. Can't Hertz keep their cars in order?

There was a little bit of excitement after we landed at KIX. We couldn't leave the plane until everyone has filled out some forms and had their temperature taken. Team of people in bunny suits took about 20 minutes to do this. The flu thing was all over the news in Japan.

Midori's parents picked us up at KIX, and we headed out to Costco in Amagasaki. We picked up roast chicken, bagels, pizza, etc. and had a rather large dinner.

We walked out to Himeji station on Monday... it's changed a lot since the last time we were there. They redid the building with lots of shops. Tuesday was spent mostly relaxing, with a trip out to an Okonomiyaki place to try "Doro-yaki". It's a variant in which the batter remains half cooked on the inside. It wasn't bad, but not as good as the regular kind.

Wednesday, Midori's folks again drove us out to the airport. On the way, we stopped at an Indian restaurant we heard about on TV. "クスムインド家庭料理", (Kusum Authentic Indian Cuisine) which is run right in the apartment of an Indian family. It was very good, and all-you-can-eat. After checking out the mall in Nishinomiya (to use the Coldstone coupon Midori had from a previous incident), her folks dropped us off at ITM, and our vacation was done.

==
Unfortunately, there were no opportunities for interviews during the trip. There must be something wrong with my resume... Once I'm back in the 'States, my former employer will provide me with placement consulting services where I can have professionals look at my resume. So far, I'm batting 0 out of 10 or so. One company gets points for requesting additional information via mail. That didn't pan out, though. One company was silly enough to state in their response that they "found a more qualified candidate." My reaction to that is, "how do you know? You didn't even talk to me!" but I can't quite say that to their face. Somebody should probably go and fix their form response, though, because it is a silly thing to send to someone they haven't actually evaluated.

I think that my peeve is that almost every employer assumes that I'm some sort of idiot who can't learn a new skill beyond what I've listed on my resume. I understand that they have to have some way to filter the input, but that's a very silly assumption if you're looking for best talent. I don't know what the solution to that is... but the aforementioned company with additional mail questions is on the right track, I think.

==
We are considering that, given the uncertainty, Midori might stay with her folks until things settle down. The unfortunate side effect of that is... Pine Crest!!! It would be a shame for her to miss it.

Chase and the beanstalk

2009-05-10T18:43:37Z

At least one person asked how the little 'bean' is doing, and I'm sure mom would like to know, so here's the picture. (one of many, many to come, I'm sure).

This is actually from the last examination. This time, the doctor didn't take a picture because it would be too big to fit in the frame. This is all too fast...

I'm looking for a video camera now... it looks like they're not tape any more. Which, I suppose, is a good thing. However, they also don't have 1394... so here's another case of mediocre technology supplanting a technically superior one. USB2.0 has been significantly slower than Firewire in all of my experience--sometimes frustratingly so... and have you seen what a hack-on kludge USB3 is going to be? The way they are doing it makes it obvious the standard was never designed to do what it's being shoehorned into doing. If only consumers were clueful and picked the right tool for the job... ok, that's enough of a tech rant.

In any case, if there is a hard disk based camera with a 1394 port and analog inputs anywhere in this universe, I'd like to hear about it.

Spring came, spring came, to where did it arrive?

2009-04-24T07:57:09Z

Spring is definitely here, and the cherry blossoms are almost all gone.
I am madly rushing to prepare for my US trip, but I had to clear out my camera for that, so here are some pictures.

http://gallery.me.com/chaset#100106
http://gallery.me.com/chaset#100122

After Igor's hina-matsuri party, there was DnC's party while Midori's friend was visiting. We took her to Mt. Aso and Fujisaki-shrine in the city.

We had the chance to visit a nice park in Kikuchi city for cherry blossom viewing. Very nice, and they happened to have a dog competition (mainly catching frisbees) going on, so there was a bit of entertainment.

Once we got into April, work eased up. My project got postponed, and I suddenly had a lot of free time at work.

A couple of weekends ago, Miki, DnC, Dave and we went out to Oguni and Tsuetate town for a nice lunch and a view of their famous carp streamers.

Last weekend was a potluck party at Hinohara-park in Ohzu town. That was fun. The weather was fabulous.

To folks in the 'states, see you soon.

The axe has fallen.

2009-04-15T14:05:40Z

Well, it happened. Given the current economy, it could be seen from miles away, but the reality really strikes when one gets the documents from HR.

They will not be renewing my contract, so I'm headed back to the 'states at the end of June. It has been an amazing three years. Time has also come to hit the pavement for the first time in over a decade... in a significantly worse job market. I'll probably be busy until end of July, and then be somewhat occupied still if I haven't found anything by then.

Severance will keep me afloat until about year-end, and boy am I regretting buying my condo.

If anyone has job tips, let me know. I'll mostly be poking around in the SF area, but I'm open to coming back to Japan.

In the mean time, I need to get my readers up to date on the recent happenings... stay tuned.

...oh, almost forgot.

I will be in the 'states on my home leave/job hunting trip from 4/25~5/2. Friends in the SF area might be visited on by unfamiliar visitors from far away. We were originally planning a NY trip in there somewhere, but it turned out to be too expensive and too much of a hassle. We may replace with a LA trip. Stay tuned.

Still freezing, after all these days.

2009-03-14T13:31:47Z

We got a cold snap today, after a couple weeks of increasingly milder weather. The cherry blossoms are already blooming. (BTW, this is probably the best season to visit Japan, when the cherry blossoms are blooming.)

The month started off with a brunch party at goger_i's place. March 3rd was girls' day, and he had the full set of hina dolls already for his brand-new daughter.

This was followed up a week later with another waffle party at dythim's place. Lots of people showed up, and it was pretty fun.

Work has been a pain. It always seems that they take the engineer's real estimate, divide it by two or three, then put together the schedule. Blech.

Exchange rates...

2009-02-28T15:00:58Z

I think the going rate was about a thousand, but I'm having trouble grasping how many words this is...

Probably at least 12000 words, I think. And probably many, many more, for at least the next 18 years. Talk about unstable markets.

Speaking of which, I'm still getting paid in USD, which really, really sucks.

This thread's worthless without...

2009-02-28T14:46:10Z

Let's see... Valentine's day, which also happens to be our first anniversary, came and went. For the occasion, we went to Saga Prefecture (佐賀). We thought Kumamoto was sort of out in the sticks, but overall, I think Saga is even further out in the boonies. On the way out, we stopped at the Tosu Premium Outlets, which is pretty much what you'd expect from a typical outlet mall. One memorable thing about this is the following:
This is the "Love It!" size we got at the ColdStone location in the mall.

This is what Midori was expecting from her experience in December in Palm Desert.

Needless to say, Midori was quite disappointed. In fact, she wrote the ColdStone management in Japan later, but that's another story.

We checked out Karatsu (唐津市) mostly, with a visit out to the Yobuko area to see the morning street market and the "seven kilns" rock formation. (七ツ釜). We reserved a washitsu (Japanese-style room) at the Hotel in Karatsu, which was a nice change of pace. The final attraction was Karatsu Castle (唐津城), although on the way home, I took the slow way through Saga City rather than the fast way via the expressway, which let us see more of the locality.

The most recent event was another attempt to clim the 3333 steps in Misato Town. Dythim organized the trip, and a lot of people showed up. That was last weekend, and my calves are finally fully recovered.

Today, I was finalizing my U.S. tax info to be sent off to the accountant. What a painful process. There's something inherently wrong with a system that requires citizens to do something that is beyond the skill and knowledge of ordinary citizens.

I finally got around to uploading the last 3 months' worth of pictures.

http://gallery.me.com/chaset/100087
http://gallery.me.com/chaset/100083
http://gallery.me.com/chaset/100069

I will get around to the Saga trip photos soon. Stay tuned.
enjoy.

Back to the ol' routine

2009-01-31T04:16:54Z

What can I say, the hectic business trip is a fading memory. It was pretty tough going, and the cold ruined my throat on the first weekend, and I had been battling the symptoms for the entire two weeks.

At the last moment, minutes before the final status meeting, I finished all of the specified tasks I was sent there for. It was a miracle.

On the last day, I got up plenty early, but I was driving a bit too carefully. I got to the Hertz, but was about 15 seconds too late to catch the shuttle bus to the terminal. That was my undoing. The next bus took a good 10 minutes to leave, which got me to the check-in counter about 35 minutes before the flight. If I had been in the right place at that time, I probably would have heard them doing the final call for my flight at the international counter. (The only other time I had an international connection from a domestic flight in the U.S., they had me check in at the domestic counter, so it wasn't obvious to me that I had to do it the other way.) I thought I had more margin when I left the hotel, but one delay after another seemed to add up. In any case, the machine wouldn't let me check in. And the United employees were trying to be UNhelpful as possible for a good 5 minutes while I tried to get help. One walked away from me in mid conversation. Another told me to go to the ticketing counter (wrong answer). I was finally able to get one of them to mention that because my flight to SFO connects to an international flight, I should be checking in at the International counter. Gee. Thanks.

By then, I was hopelessly late. Regardless, I waited in line for 45 minutes at the international counter, and got them to get me on stand-by for the next available flight to SFO. By luck of all luck, I managed to get on the 8-something flight. I think I was the last stand-by called to the counter.

Then, at SFO, I was the first (and only) standby called for the afternoon flight to Narita. Score! It helped that I had gotten on the list at 8AM Boston time. Furthermore...

I was in seat 13A. had started walking into the economy cabin before looking at the numbers (as is my habit)... hmm... 26, 27.... oh, hmm.. I should go back a few rows. Wait... hmm... the first row is 20-something. Hmm... NO, IT CAN'T BE!!! Walking back into business class, I found 15, 14, 13!!!! BINGO! It was my first business class experience. At that point, I was willing to forgive United for their amazing customer DIS-service.

The best thing about it was the leg room. The food came with real silverware and glasses and cups. Wow. The only minus is that the movie screen does not come up high enough, and by the end of the flight, my neck was starting to hurt from looking down and to the right.

I got to Narita too late to catch the Kumamoto flight. I called my brother and he let me crash for the night. Unfortunately, he was out late (I caught him in town to get the keys), and I left before he woke up.

Finally, on Sunday morning, I made it to Kumamoto. Yay.

==
The new year's was very easy and relaxed. Midori's folks came, and the only thing we did was a quick tour of Takamori and Aso. We visited two small shrines in Takamori and one in Kikuyo. The highlight of the Takamori trip was a dengaku (田楽) lunch.

I also got to see Daikanbo, though it was in fading light and we didn't stay long due to the cold.

Akemashite

2009-01-12T15:18:48Z

Shoot. I wanted to get caught up on my blogging over the new year's, but it didn't work out that way.

To summarize the last two months,
I got to mom's on Monday night before Thanksgiving. Relaxed mostly at home on Tuesday, picked up Midori on Wednesday, went out to Korean dinner that night. Thursday morning, we met with some relatives. My great aunt was going off to her vacation house in Palm Springs. She invited us-earning us an opportunity to check out Palm Springs, which wasn't planned.

Thursday, we had TG dinner at my elder sister's new place. I was too busy repairing the little one's computer to really relax there. Met with friends (Dan and Francesca, Rex) on Friday morning, and took off in the afternoon for Lake Tahoe. Stopped at Sacramento Fry's for some coffee and browsing toys (gift for Midori's cousin's kids) and computer stuff. Got to Incline Village at night, checked out Starbuck's. Got up, took a walk around there. (It wasn't as interesting as I had hoped), and headed out to the Bleu Wave Lake Tahoe Cruise, where we met a Chinese businessman and saw the lake. After the cruise, we went to South Lake Tahoe, where we just checked into the hotel and looked around the casinos and shops.

Next morning, we took a walk around again, but decided against taking the gondola up the mountain because it seemed too expensive. (Though opinions we heard from friends later suggested that it may have been worth it.)

From mid-day, we headed south on 89/395. I've wanted to share that scenery with someone in the passenger seat for a long time. :) There, I also had my first roadkill experience. A bunny hopped on the road in front of me, and I hit the brakes, and it looked like it would pass between my wheels. However, looking in the rear view mirror, it seemed that that poor thing hopped under my tire. May it rest in peace.

I got to Lone Pine in the evening, as planned, where we had Mexican food, as Midori had been wanting almost a whole year. Next morning, we headed out east across Death Valley. I lost some time due to making a wrong turn (second guessing the nav system is usually not a good idea) and got to Las Vegas in the afternoon. We walked up the strip checking out shopping malls and casinos until our Blue Man show. After checking out the show, we walked down the strip doing some more touring. The next morning, we checked out the Krispy Kreme donuts in the hotel (also one of the targets for this trip) and headed out of town, stopping at Del Taco on the way.

Although it wasn't plan, the route to Grand Canyon took us through Hoover Dam, which was a nice bonus. The rest of the route is pretty boring drive through lots of empty space. We stopped briefly at the Sunset Crater park, but the ranger said we won't have time to see anything in the fading light. We got to little Grand Canyon just before dark, giving us an opportunity to take some pictures. We got to the hotel near Grand Canyon, and went to the nearby pizza place and took it back to our room (another mission accomplished).

The next morning, we took whatever time we could to check out some Grand Canyon views before heading out to Palm Springs. This resulted in another long day of driving through lots of very, very, very empty space. We got to Palm Springs just exactly at the appointed hour in the late afternoon, giving us just enough time to drop off my great aunt and uncle at the airport. We checked out a shopping/restaurant street in Palm Desert, settling on a Ruby's for dinner. Since we've basically been stuffing ourselves on heavy hotel breakfasts, Mexican food, and pizza, we had salads for dinner.

The next morning, we packed up our things, cleaned up, and headed out into town to check out shopping malls and grocery stores. It wasn't a very exciting day in and of itself, but it gave us an opportunity to shop for gifts for ourselves and others. In the evening, we headed out to West Covina to meet up with Antony again. After hanging out at his house, we went out to El Torito for dinner (notice a pattern here?). We then took our leave and headed out to Dan's place where he had agreed to let us crash for the night. In retrospect, we could have crashed at Antony's, but I had mistakenly believed that his place was further from the airport.

By then it was the night of 12/4, and we had an early flight on Friday morning. We snuck out like thieves in the morning (Thanks, guys. Sorry we didn't get the chance to properly thank you for your hospitality) and got to LAX in plenty of time to have some Starbuck's. Midori safely caught her flight to SF (then back to Japan) and I got on my plane to Boston.

A little more on my business trip and happenings since then in my next installment.

Ventura Highway, in the sunlight

2008-12-14T23:14:07Z

My first week at headquarters is over. I've finished one of the main tasks I was assigned, but haven't been able to complete the other due to lack or resources (or purhaps, I'm doing something wrong.) Basically, I'm supposed to run some tests on our latest circuit board, but the other board I'm using to test keeps failing its own test. Argh.

The third task is progressing nicely.

It is *COOOOOOOLD* here. It snowed last Sunday. But, as it is in California, it's actually warmer when it's cloudy/raining/snowing, which was the case throughout the work week last week. It was sunny again this weekend, but it was again freezing cold last night. I was able to do some touring of Boston over the last two weekends, which I will blog about later.

Looking back at November....
We started November with a trip back to Food Pal Kumamoto. I've mentioned this place in my blog before. The difference this time is that they were having some sort of a fair or an event, and surprise, surprise, there were actually people there. It was mainly to pick up the rice crackers that mom likes so much.

Then, we went to a dinner party for Rie's birthday. It was at a Thai restaurant by the surprising name of "Cabbage & Condom". They aren't just being silly; apparently, part of their profit goes to a charity that helps prevent the spread of AIDS in Thailand. The food was good, but their menu has definitely been "adapted" from typical Thai that I'm used to. They didn't even have Thai ice tea.

After that, it was mad rush to finish preparing for my US trip. I went earlier than Midori because she still had to go to one more day of class. (after a 4 day weekend, no less! They couldn't just wrap up one workday earlier... the jerks!).

Starting out in Kumamoto, it was smooth until I got to Tokyo. I met my brother in Akihabara to FINALLY transfer the cell phone account to my name. He had long left au and switched to Softbank, but the account was still in his name. So, for the rest of my time in Japan, I'll have to pay my own phone bill. Thanks bro for the 2.5 years. :)

My brother offered to drive me to Narita, so I said OK. It would save me the trouble of lugging my luggage. I almost regretted it. Let's just say his driving was more thrilling than most rides at Six Flags. He didn't need to hurry, because my flight got delayed due to technical difficulties, causing the passengers to board, get off, then board again. It took off almost 3 hours later than scheduled.

The flight was uneventful, though a bit rough. I also got stuck in one of the middle seats, which was uncomfortable to say the least. In flight movies were "Kitt Kittridge" and this other really boring one about a guy with a baseball card and fish typing poetry. I think they screwed up, since it didn't say on the magazine that that movie was supposed to be for a trans-pacific flight. I arrived around 10am-ish, and it wasl about noon by the time I was in my rental car making calls to friends and family. I sort of lucked out -- they got me a car, but when I went out there, there was an empty stall. A bit annoyed, I went back and told them. The replacement car they gave me had a navigation system, for free. This came in a bit handy later on.

I first headed out to see Antony. We spent the afternoon pretty much sitting around and talking about playing video games. In reality, we only got one game of Warcraft III in. Then I went to see Dan in his new home. It had an interesting layout. Having missed good Mexican food, we went out for that. Then, I went to sleep. Traveling to the U.S. makes for very long days. The second day was spent just relaxing at Dan's. I took a long nap in the afternoon to recover, worked on one of Dan's homework problems, and went out to a real Thai dinner. I also got a chance to see the Pasadena "strip" area again.

The third day was mostly business -- I had my optometry and dental appointments in TO starting at 9:30 AM. This is when I realized I should have brought my spare frames. It turns out I needed a new prescription, so I gave up my only pair of glasses, resigned to live with contact lenses for the next couple of weeks. While I was there, I took a look at the good ol' Best Buy, Janss marketplace, and the Oaks mall. Then I left TO, checked out Fry's, and my condo.

The management company said my condo needed a lot of work -- and they were right. The tenants did a number on it, though it wasn't that pristine to begin with. This is going to cost me a bundle.

After that, it was off to Mom's. I had to take an hour nap in the mountains before grapevine (as I've done many times before) before finishing the trip.

The next part of the trip: family reunion.

Woburn-out

2008-12-06T05:50:00Z

I have just wrapped up a whirlwind tour of the American Southwest, starting in the Bay Area to Lake Tahoe, on it, around it, then through the 89 via Bishop and 395 to Lone Pine, then across Death Valley to Las Vegas (tossing in some Blue Man), then onwards via Hoover Dam to Grand Canyon, then back across to Palm Desert/Springs back to LA.

What a trip, and my dear wife is just about landing in Kumamoto by now... while I'm stuck in Massachusetts preparing for the hectic weeks ahead.

It was great to see many of you! Once my fate is more certain, we shall arrange for more external suspension!!

==
So, where was I?

Back in early October, I went to the "Mizu-akari" festival in Kumamoto City for the second time. This time, however, I wasn't alone. :) Midori came with me, and we also got to see the usual gang in town. Although it was nothing spectacular, it was a good excuse to go out.

The next day, dythim had a waffle party, again with most of the usual gang. It also turned out that we had a break in our busy-ness that weekend, so after the waffle party, we headed out to Kagoshima (鹿児島), which we've been talking about for a long time.

Since we got a bit of a late start, we got there in the early evening, after making one stop at a highway rest-stop. Our first stop after checking in at the hotel was the sweet potato confectionery shop, 唐芋ワールド (Karaimo World) Kagoshima is famous for its sweet potato, and is one of the top producers thereof in Japan. After a taste test and looking through the sweet potato exhibits, we headed towards the Kagoshima Central Station (鹿児島中央) building. The building houses a decent-sized shopping mall in addition to the train station. (a common pattern in Japan) There, we had a dinner consisting of Kagoshima Black Pork (黒豚 and Red Chicken (赤鶏) dishes. I also had a cup of green tea boba drink and some other snacks. Having had our fill, we walked back to the hotel.

The second day was a busy day. We got an early start and headed out to Sakura-jima (桜島) via ferry. There was some trouble finding the ferry port, but we got there without much trouble after that. Touring of Sakura-jima mainly consists of driving around it and looking at the various volcanic formations and the plants that grow on it. The visitor's center provides the background and history of the island (now connected to rest of Kyushu). After checking out the visitor's center and the view of the Kagoshima Bay, we started driving around the island. Midori took a turn at the wheel until more tourists started filling the roads.

Some of the specialties of the Sakura-jima island are Sakura-jima Daikon [best described as daikon of unusual size] and Mikan (Satsuma Mandarin Oranges). After circling the island, we checked out the gift shops and had lunch at a "rest stop" of sorts. There, we were able to try mikan soba, specialty ramen (wish I remembered what was special about it), and mikan soft serve. All good.

Once back on mainland Kyushyu, we headed south to Ibusuki (指宿), stopping at every interesting looking spot on the way. It was mostly food that caused us to stop and take a look on the way (cream puffs, sweet potato soft serve, etc.) We made it to Ibusuki in the late afternoon. The main point of going there was Ibusuki-onsen (hot spring), which is right on the beach. The hot earth causes the sand on the beach to be hot, and people go there to be buried in the hot sand, sort of like a sauna.

After we were done trying that, it was almost getting dark. We headed back up north and rushed to the old samurai homes district (武家屋敷) in Chiran-town. (知覧町) Apparently, it had already closed to the public by the time we got there, but we were able to take a peek as the light was fading. We wandered about trying to find the place where they were collecting the entrance fee, but we never found it, and we didn't really get to see the gardens anyways. (There are still people living in the houses, apparently.)

Throughout the trip sough to Ibusuki and back, the navigation system kept on steering us away from the toll road that runs through the middle of Kagoshima. I thought the toll road would be faster (closed to pedestrian traffic, no intersections, etc.) and was wondering why it was doing that. On the way back, we wanted to get home quickly, so I decided to take the toll road (Ibusuki Skyline). It turned out to be not much different from most country roads in Japan. It only had one lane in each direction and was very curvy up and down the mountains. I think the only thing it offered was better views of the mountain, but that did no good in the dark. Oh well, it teaches me to ignore the navigation system.

Once we were on the regular expressway, it was a quick trip back to Kumamoto.
It was a good trip, and makes another notch on our belt. We have visited significant locations in 6 of the 7 prefectures on Kyushu now. (We still need to hit Saga)

==
Other minor happenings include dinner in town with Miki, Yuko, Akiko, Dythim and us in town. Miki initially planned it as a sendoff for Dan, but Dan couldn't make it, and we decided to go out and eat anyways. It was a good Izakaya kalled Ishikawa. Apparently, there are two in town and we went to the wrong one before being set straight. Midori was wearing her heels and this caused her a bit of pain as we had to walk all the way up from shimo-toori to kami-toori. Then, one of the waiters spilled sauce on Midori's favorite sweater and handbag. Agh. Fortunately, the stains came out on the sweater, and the restaurant paid for the cleaning on the hand bag.

==
So there's the update on those things. I think I've already put the pictures up last time, I think.

Now, I've added the TG/US trip to the list of things to cover.