Making Friends

I've found a good way to make the TSA people at the airport smile and be friendly.

My wife spent a couple summers teaching intensive language courses at a university out east. For the 9 (?) week program, students are required to speak ONLY their target language, and have to sign a written agreement stating such. An interesting by-product of this process is the t-shirts that they create - some are for the overall program (for all of the languages), and some are specific to the language and level. I have one shirt from first year Japanese that has written on the back in Japanese "I only speak Japanese". Then beneath that in English, "If you can't read this, then you're probably not supposed to talk to us..." The shirt is somewhat bright green, and despite it being a gift from my wife, she is very adamantly opposed to me wearing it in public. Especially when we're in an area where there might be some native Japanese speakers.

So, back to making the TSA folks smile. When I flew home to Illinois yesterday I was wearing a t-shirt that says "No English Spoken Here" on the front, then on the back "But we do speak:" with all of the languages taught at the school written in the native characters beneath. The security checkpoint I went through yesterday just happens to be the same checkpoint for international departures. Two of the TSA officers smiled when they saw my shirt and asked "what does your shirt say?" (as if trying to test if I speak English). I responded and explained where the shirt was from, they explained how they thought it was humorous because many of the people they encounter day-to-day truly cannot speak English.

Next time I fly I think I'll wear that t-shirt. When the TSA officers ask what my shirt says, I'll look very confused and give them my best broken English while pointing to my shirt - "No speeku ingureshu!".

Thin Air

"Thin Air" - it's the title of one of my favorite Don Ross tunes (the favorite?). I got the sheet music for my birthday last year, and one of my guitars has been in this tuning for probably half a year or so while I've struggled with learning this song (probably doesn't help that I play for maybe a total of one hour during an average week).

Anyway, the difficult part of learning a Don Ross, Andy McKee, or Antoine Dufour tune is getting "in the groove". As you may have noticed, there's a very percussive/rhythmic feel to most of the music these guys make. Getting both hands (especially your right thumb) to cooperate can be difficult. Tonight I felt like I was maybe finally really starting to get "in the groove" for "Thin Air". Am I ready to post my rendition on Youtube? No not yet. For now, here's Don playing it: "Thin Air".

Morphin'

My wife has been here with me in Illinois for the past couple weeks, and she'll be here for another week. I came home one day last week to find a multi-color throw over my couch (instead of the typical plain navy blue sheet I use as a sofa cover). Last night she came home from a shopping trip with a bright orange/peach tablecloth that immediately found its way on my usually naked dining room table.

She'll be moving in permanently in July. This is how it happens, isn't it? One small thing at a time, then one day you find yourself waking up in a bed with pink, flowery, frilly sheets...

Two Weeks

As I was entering my time at work this afternoon, I realized that if I work exactly eight hours tomorrow and Wednesday that I'll be 80 hours over for this month. That's two full work weeks! How did I manage to do that?

I guess the one 80 hour week and the two 60 hour weeks would add up to an extra 80 hours...and my compensation is the satisfaction of a job well done. Yippee.

10 kg

I stepped on the scale this morning. Looking back to the first weight I have documented in my workout calendar (Jan. 27), I've dropped 14 lbs in exactly three months. I'm pretty sure I was about 8 lbs heavier around Christmas time compared to the Jan. 27 weight. That's 22 lbs, or exactly 10 kg (as my wife pointed out).

At first glance, that sounds like a lot, but if you assume four weeks per month, that's 16 weeks (since Christmas). That would mean an average weight loss of 1.4 lbs/week or 0.6 kg/week.

Slow and steady wins the race.

No Goodbyes

At the Andy McKee show he played a Don Ross tune, "No Goodbyes", and said "this one's dedicated to Tashi." I didn't know who Tashi is, but found out here. Notice the date he passed away. The Andy McKee show we went to was on April 12.

Here's the master playing this song. Notice the dedication in the info to the right of the video: "No Goodbyes"

Triumvirate

I've now gotten to see all of my three favorite guitar players live - Don Ross last year, Antoine Dufour a month or two ago, and Andy McKee just a couple weeks ago. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the shows and hope I get the chance to see all of these guys live again.

Here's a pic from the Andy McKee show. His popularity has taken off over the past year thanks to Youtube (search for "andy mckee drifting" on Youtube).

2 for 2

I've been spending so much time at work this past week that I haven't had the time to go grocery shopping or cook. So, I've been eating a lot of fast food. What have I learned? Go to a fast food restaurant about 30 minutes before it closes and order a dessert (like an apple turnover) with your meal. I did this two nights in a row at two different restaurants and got the dessert for free both times.

I finally went grocery shopping and cooked my own dinner tonight - mac & cheese.

American Engrish

I love the website engrish.com. It's dedicated to mistaken English ("Engrish") found in east Asia on clothing, packaging, signs, etc. Having lived in Japan for two years, I have a great appreciation of Engrish. Here's a recent nugget:

I'll pass on the water passed by the manager....

I always figured Engrish to be an anomaly only present in east Asia, but I've come to learn that it also exists in, of all places, *gasp*, the United States. My wife found this example at a mall in Michigan. She took the picture with her cell phone, so the focus was a little off.

The next best thing to walking tall?

Engrish and Kneehongo

Why do people feel the need to try to look cool by buying apparel or getting tattoos with writing in a foreign tongue they don't understand? Why oh why?

Tipping the Scale

After being sick one week, then insanely busy with work last week, I finally got back to the gym yesterday. Part of my Sunday morning ritual before going to the gym is stepping on the scale. After two weeks of not working out, I expected to be a few pounds heavier than when I last weighed myself three weeks ago. I was pleasantly surprised - I had actually lost an additional five pounds. The needle was just to the left of the line for 200 lbs. I'm going to call it 199.5 lbs. and say it's the first time I've been that light in close to 5 years.

Why do we spend so much time at the gym if we can accomplish just as much weight loss (or more) with sickness and elevated levels of stress? I think I'll start a "stomach flu with new responsibilities at work" diet. I guarantee somebody will buy my book. Who wants to help me write the draft for the infomercial?

Patriotic?

Is my Japanese wife more patriotic than I am (as in an American patriot, not a Japanese patriot)? Let me elaborate.

Since we got married June of last year, this was the first time we had the option of "married filing jointly" when filing our taxes. I went through all of the paperwork and found we'd be getting a return close to $3000 - roughly two-thirds of that being from my wife's withholdings, one-third being the savings for filing "married filing jointly" as opposed to "married filing separately", and the portion from my withholdings being nearly negligible.

From one perspective, a large return is bad since it basically means you've given the government an interest free loan over the course of the last year. Or can sacrificing the interest/returns you could have made on that money for the greater good of the country be seen as patriotic?

If so, that would make my wife more patriotic than me.

Elated Insomniac

Great news! My wife will be moving to live with me in July. When she made the final decision on Sunday, I told her I was so excited that my head might explode. She thought I was being sarcastic, but I was serious. This is a VERY big deal for me (and for her too, I think).

So, that's the elated part.

As of Tuesday of last week my responsibilities at work have changed. I've been put into more of a leadership role, helping oversee and guide people who do the work I was doing up until last Monday. Honestly, I'm a bit overwhelmed by the change - I've gotten much busier in the past week. At first I thought I wouldn't really enjoy the new responsibilities and would want to return to my previous job, but though I've been insanely busy the past several days, I'm finding I really enjoy it. I feel I have more control over the quality of our product, and am faced with more interesting challenges. I think the new responsibilities will help me grow as an individual (sorry about getting cheesy on you). Maybe it was perfect timing for a change - I had been doing the same job for ~1.5 years and was feeling a bit bored and stale.

So, with the change in responsibilities, I've inherited a very hot potato. And apparently "I've only been on this project for two days" isn't a good enough excuse for not making progress and not understanding the history of the project. It's only Tuesday and I've probably worked 30+ hours already this week. Yeah, I'm a party animal.

Oh, the insomnia part? I guess it's the excitement and anxiousness that comes along with a job change (nervous isn't the right word), but I haven't been able to sleep since Friday night.

So there you go, I'm an elated insomniac.

Claw BSME

Yes, I confess. I have long fingernails. But only on my righthand, and I keep the pinky nail trimmed. I've even been known to glue on an acryllic nail when one of my natural nails breaks.

Surprisingly I don't get many questions/comments on my fingernails. Of course, a few people at work have asked me, but that's expected since we work together on a daily basis. When I'm out and about, I can only think of two times when someone has asked me, and both of those have occurred in the past two months. Both times I was asked "do you play guitar?" or "what kind of guitar do you play, classical or regular?" Both times I was tempted to respond similar to Don Ross - "Yes, I play guitar, but don't tell my mother - she thinks I'm a cross-dresser."

Unfortunately, the long nails are no substitute for practice time. I've been very lazy when it comes to practicing guitar. But even with regular practice, I don't think I'll ever reach the level of Don Ross, Andy McKee, or Antoine Dufour.

Oh, by the way, if you like the videos I have linked above, be sure to check out their other videos on YouTube (Andy's "Drifting" has over 10 million views) and maybe pickup some of their albums on iTunes or at candyrat.com. There, end of plug for some of my favorite guitarists.

Incredible Dog Finals vs. NFL Playoffs

I flipped the tv on for some background noise this morning (technically afternoon, I guess). I figured I'd leave the Jets/Patriots wildcard playoff game on while I showered, dressed, and did some cleaning. The last tv I watched was the Colts/Chiefs game yesterday (go Colts!), so my tv was still on the local NBC station. So what was NBC showing today at the same time CBS was showing the NFL wildcard game? The Purina Incredible Dog Finals. It apparently includes several events, but I only witnessed the one represented by the picture on the left: Dog Diving.


As you can pretty well figure out from the name and the picture, the dogs get a running start from a platform and jump into a pool of water. It's basically a doggy long jump. The dogs start at the far end of the platform, some shaking and drooling with excitement, while the trainer encourages the dog to "stay" and waves the dog's favorite toy. When the trainer determines the timing is right, they cue the dog ("Gunner! Go Gunner! Go get it!") and toss the toy into the water, of course luring the dog to jump into the pool.


As with most sporting events, there are commentators to explain the finer points of skill and strategy for us: "Look at that dog's form!" (how do you improve a dog's jumping form!?), "That was a great jump! The throw was key to that jump." (gee, do ya think?), "Jim chooses to use a rubber chicken for Benji's jumps."


I found myself captivated by it all. I probably watched for a good 10-15 minutes until I finally changed the channel. I got to thinking - how do you become a commentator for the Incredible Dog Finals? Or, even better, how do you become a cameraman? "This is just a temporary gig. Someday I'll be a cameraman for professional sports."


I'm kind of poking fun, but who am I to judge? To each his own.


For those interested, there are podcasts available here.

The Pad In Peoria

With the help of Mom, Dad, and Ben all of my stuff was in my new apartment a week ago. (Thanks again guys!) I've spent the last two days getting everything organized and put away, and I think I'm just about done. I was feeling pretty proud of myself, then had the startling realization that actually some of my stuff is still at Mom and Dad's. Why do I have so much "stuff"? Looking at all of my stuff reminded me of part of an old George Carlin routine I caught on tv a few weeks ago: Why do we need an apartment/house? To hold all of our stuff. And what happens when we get too much stuff? We need a bigger house to hold all of our stuff. What do we do when we travel out of town? We have to decide what our favorite stuff is, because we can't take all of our stuff with us.

Life would certainly be simpler if we all had less stuff.

I have to admit though, after a year of basically living with only my stuff that I could fit in my car, it's nice to have all of my stuff again. I haven't used my own kitchen knives again yet, but that's one of the small things I'm looking forward to; the knives in furnished apartments aren't of the best quality.

I even had the pleasure of doing my laundry in my own washer and dryer today (as in they are mine - they didn't come with the apartment).

Well, here are a few pics of my new pad. Pardon the mess. As I mentioned a moment ago, a few things need to be put away yet.

Enter the front door and in front of you and to your right is the living/dining room area:

And to the left is the kitchen:

The other side of the kitchen:

Attached to the kitchen is the laundry/utility room. Please note MY washer and dryer:

And Dad, I managed to finally get that dryer duct routed and clamped down. Wasn't really that bad once I pulled the washer out and cut the duct down to a more appropriate length:

Okay, back to the living room (feel free to admire my high-tech entertainment system):

My balcony:

Every king must have his throne:

And my bedroom/office:

From another angle:

And another angle (note that there are neither skeletons nor Tom Cruise in the closet):

Since I wanted to box up all of my CDs and put them away somewhere, I decided to rip them all so I'd have them on my computer. I spent a good deal of time doing that last night and this morning. The result? I now have over 11 GB of music on my computer. According to iTunes, that's 8.5 days of music without any repeats. Too bad I have to go to work next week...

Atlanta Trip Report (Two Months Late)

Well, it's been about two months now since fu-min came for a visit and we visited some places in the Atlanta area. Kind of a late update, but better late than never, right?

Big sign or little woman?

We went through the CNN studio tour. It was pretty interesting and you get to see some artifacts like a road sign brought back from Iraq that has so many bulletholes in it that it looks like swiss cheese.

The Coca-Cola Insignia in Japanese

We also went to the "World of Coca-Cola" which is basically a museum of all things Coca-Cola. They have old bottles, old ads, etc. They even have a room setup as an old-fashioned soda shop with a soda jerk who gives a presentation on how fountain sodas used to be made. They also have free samples of U.S. beverages and international beverages made by Coca-Cola. The bottom two on my list: Bitter Something-or-other (don't remember the exact name) from Italy and Ginger Beer from South Africa. What makes these two so horrible? In both cases the name is very representative of the taste.

Landsh... er, Whaleshark

With the Georgia Aquarium having been completed last November, no trip to Atlanta is complete without a visit to the world's largest aquarium. The ocean display is great (part of which you see above). They have two whalesharks, a tunnel you walk through which goes under the tank, and the largest viewing window in North America (the picture above). If you'd like to go to the aquarium, my advice would be to go on a weekday and go first thing in the morning; the place gets packed!

Reach out and touch... a starfish

Tybee Lighthouse

We paid a visit to Tybee Lighthouse which is on Tybee Island (near Savannah). We climbed all the way to the top, but didn't have the nerve to walk around the external walkway at the top.

Fort Pulaski: The first fort to get the crap blown out of it by rifled cannon

We also visited Fort Pulaski which is about halfway between Savannah and Tybee Island. Fort Pulaski was built due to a lesson learned during the War of 1812: American waterways could be better protected. The fort's design and construction was the first assignment for a Westpoint graduate who is now better known as a Hemi Orange 1969 Dodge Charger with a Confederate flag painted on the roof (Robert E. Lee). After the fort was built several years passed, the fort wasn't kept up as well as it could have been, and it was starting to look like Georgia would join the Confederacy in war against the North. Southern soldiers captured the fort from a handful of Union soldiers without needing to fire a single bullet. The Confederates dug in and brought the fort back up to the kind of condition it should have been in. When Union guns started showing up across the river, the officers in command of Fort Pulaski weren't worried. General Lee himself had told them that the Union cannon wouldn't be able to do any significant damage from that distance. I mean, who wouldn't have believed him? He built the place! Well, little did General Lee know that the Union had developed a new weapon and the power of the rifled cannon was about to be unleashed for the first time in battle. The Union guns knocked down a large part of the fort's outer wall (you can see the area that had to be repaired--the bricks are a brighter orange and there are no pock marks from shells) and the Confederates surrendered the fort (surprisingly, there were very few casulties). To this day you can still see some of the shells lodged in the damaged outer wall. This place is a pretty neat little piece of history.

The first victim of rifled cannon -- forts would never be built the same again

The things that make life worth livin'...

I spent the past week in Utah for a business trip. I lucked out because I was staying an hour away from where my oldest sister lives. I got to spend pretty much every evening with my sister, her husband, and their two daughters.

It always makes me feel special when I pull up to their house and see two little faces pressed against the window. Kids can be a lot of fun, and my nieces are no exception. I really enjoyed spending time with them.

I also enjoyed being able to get out of the house for some one-on-one time with my big sister. Thanks for the good times big sis and family!

Field Trip: The Cyclorama

This weekend I made my first fieldtrip to Atlanta. I decided to go see the Cyclorama in Grant Park. Apparently this was a bit of a fad after the Civil War -- large oil paintings put together in the shape of a cylinder. In the case of the Atlanta Cyclorama, it is a painting depicting the Battle of Atlanta from the Civil War. The painting is 42 ft. tall and 358 ft. in circumference. It used to be larger, but due to being transported around and such over 100 and some years, it's been worn down a bit. The painting is suspended with stadium seating setup on a platform inside the cylinder. The stadium seating is concentric to the painting and 30 ft. less in radius. The 30 ft. in between is filled with a diorama to give the painting more of a 3-Dimensional appearance. The stadium seating slowly rotates while different images from the painting are highlighted by a spotlight and explained by a narration. It was really pretty interesting. The building also contains the restored locomotive "Texas" which was involved in the "Great Locomotive Chase" of the Civil War. (I hadn't heard of it before, so don't feel bad if you haven't either.)

The Cyclorama Building from the front

The next picture shows the rear part of the building where the painting is housed. You can see the metal structure that supports that part of the building (the painting weighs 9000 pounds!). If you take a close look at that part of the building and the metal structure, they are covered with lightning rods (they didn't show up in any of my pictures). I guess it makes sense for a building housing 9000 lbs. of canvas and oil paint valued at $20 million. If it was mine I certainly wouldn't want it going up in smoke due to a lightning strike!

The part of the building that houses the painting

If you're interested in reading more about the Cyclorama try these two websites:

http://www.bcaatlanta.com/index.php?pid=81

http://roadsidegeorgia.com/site/cyclorama.html

The Pad

Okay, now that you've seen my ride, here's a quick virtual tour of my apartment. First, the building from outside:

Then up the stairs and to the right:

Come on in!

Take an immediate left after you enter the apartment, and there's me bedroom (bed complete with skirt and pillow shams):

Turn around and there's my computer (and the tower of boxes):

Connected to my bedroom is the study:

Back out to the common area, here's the living room:

The dining room:

Kitchen:

And finally, attached to the kitchen is the laundry room (out of respect of my roommates privacy, I didn't include any pictures of his bedroom):