Video 1 of my arcade game project

I have posted my first video in my arcade game project.

If anyone is curious they can follow my progress here:
http://mmmkii.blogspot.com/

However I will repost my first video here for shits and giggles.

The "Tango 1000"

I am back. When I left it was sunny and the kids gave me hugs and waved bye-bye, but by that evening Mika and Luna had broken out into the Chicken Pox, and by Sunday they were both covered in spots! So, feeling like I should be home for moral support, plus the rainfall on our second day dampening our spirits, I wasn't feeling the touring magic on Sunday. But the trip TO the Tango Peninsula was a good one. I took over 200 photos and vids, but just posted 80 pics on my web album, which is here: http://picasaweb.google.com/carljamesson/Tango1000

My favorite parts of this trip involved food and talking to friends. I got to eat FLYING FISH sashimi for the first time. That was great! As were the horse mackerel and snapper. Most of the cooked fish was good too, though I don't care for turban shell (sea snails) even slightly. We had fish for breakfast too which...really is a alien idea to me, but this is my third touring event where fish was served for breakfast -- as well as raw egg over rice. Japanese sometimes seem like they are competing with China for the "What kind of odd shit can we eat today" awards. I am a relatively open-minded person, so it only took me one touring trip (the Yamabiko ride) to get-over eating what I consider "dinner food" for breakfast. That is just what there is, and Splendor doesn't stop for snacks between breakfast and lunch, so you just eat when you can. It does bring up the point that eating sweet breads, such as pastries, pancakes, french toast, or waffles is really a cultural thing. I have always said that "my stomach cannot handle lunch/dinner foods in the morning" but I guess that was cultural training. Sunday's lunch of deep fried, breaded pork cutlet over rice with eggs on top was boss by the way.

Naturally seeing the Splendor guys and riding with them was good. Riding in the hills was good fun, and I was really glad to get to hang out with Owen too. Owen rocks. Hope you take time to look at the photos, though it may take a few days to make any comments on them.

Part of the fun of going to the Tango Peninsula (in Kyoto Prefecture btw) was stopping by the famous land bridge, "Amanohashidate". This photo I had to take off the net because in typical Splendor fashion, we stopped to see it from afar but did not actually go to see it close up, or visit the viewing point. Splendor is about riding and meeting each other; not site-seeing. Still, it is really famous and I would liked to have walked on at least part of it. (Too big to cross unless that was your plan for the day I think) I could have ridden back to see it from the hotel I think if I took 30-45 minutes to go back. So instead, when we arrived at the Yosaso hotel (与謝荘) and the beer began to flow, I took a short ride into the hills to see this alleged "Daibutsu" (large statue of the Buddha).

Nobody I was with ever heard of it, so I expected something not very old, and likely not very big. It was more of the type of statue you would see in a large garden, where the garden is actually the main attraction. But, the little adventure was good for me, and I took some time to calm my head, get centered and all that. And this brings up a point which is that riding in the hills of Japan is one of the few kinds of riding I really like here. Totally opposite to hwy. riding. Anyway, it was a little funny because the hotel owner who gave me a map to the "Daibutsu" said it was about 2km away, and it was 10-15km and he wrote down only 2 of the FIVE turns that I needed to make. But, even though I was in the farmlands, I managed to find just enough people to stear me in the right direction, or redirect me when I went too far. These mini-adventures really make me feel good because I drive with my sense of feeling, and I always know when I am going the wrong way. For example, I knew that I was supposed to turn right back there even though the man specifically told me that there was no turn, and that my target was on the left. (I confirmed this with a farmer and I was correct). So that part always makes me happy. (A kind of "In your face" to the people who tell me that you cannot trust your "gut" or don't believe in another kind of perception.)

The down side is, after a couple of incidents with car drivers in Kansai I actually no longer enjoy riding my bike in Japan when alone anymore. There is no sense of freedom or joy just "red alert". So the ride home was not very enjoyable for me. It just isn't the motorcycle riding I grew to love. I am actually used to horns and middle fingers like in the US, but while people seem more angry there, but nobody ever deliberately TRIED to attack me with their car. I know, you wouldn't think based on the good attitudes of the Japanese people who live in the US that car drivers in Japan would be so massively aggressive but some are extreme.

In summary:
1. Riding to the coast -- thumbs up
2. Riding with Splendor -- thumbs up
3. Meeting Marcy, Owen, Hiroshi, Yuka and all the guys -- thumbs up
4. Food -- 3 thumbs up
5. Small "Big" Buddha -- thumbs up

Thumbs down to rain and Japanese highways.

Side note: 2 of the 3 "1000 mile" trips I have been on with Splendor were just 300 or so miles for me (They live farther North). Yet their annual trips to Kitakata are over 1000 miles round trip for me, and the trip to Hirayu hot springs is pretty far too. ...no Kitakata 1000 patch for me though.

Financial and mileage details just in case you cared...or I care later:
Gas was 130yen/liter at most places and 123yen/liter at the cheapest. In USD that is: $5.18/gal. in town, $4.89en/gal in BFE. INSANELY expensive!

5/23 Gas 1171(9L/2.38Gal.); Tolls 3100 (2400, 700)
5/24 Gas 2000(14.24L/3.76Gal); Tolls 4900(900, 450, 2850,700)
...total 11,171en for gas and tolls for a 543km trip. ($117. for 337.4 miles)

A $158. hotel fee included 2 large meals with as much beer/coffee as one could drink. (20people drank 58large Japanese sized bottles of beer Sat. night) In Splendor, the fee is split evenly whether you don't drink or are a lush.

Total trip cost was $275. Probably the cheapest Splendor ride I have been on in Japan.

My bike got 55 miles per US gallon (23km per liter), which I think is pretty awesome.
And the odo is still at 24177km/15,023miles

More Spear-to-the-Head Commentary

Hi there.

I am in the "War paint and tomahawk" mode right now, don't really know why, but it doesn't really matter then does it? So I decided to post this BELOW my tour report because I didn't want to have funky darkness hovering above my talk about riding. THIS post is about my experience with translating for agencies over the past year-and-a-half.

First, flat out fuck the weasel-like Japanese work habit where if you don't like someone's work quality, don't tell them just disappear and pretend that nothing happened. That is the non-confrontational approach that America has sadly also leaned toward. Goes right along with breaking up via email, cleaning the floor by sweeping everything under the carpet, etc. This happened to me last year with an agency who I worked with for several months, but repeatedly had me do rewrites even when my English translations were right-on (and I checked with other translators to be sure). The last job I did with them, I made a mistake (spelled the client's name wrong -- it was ShinMaywa, not Shinmeiwa). Apparently their in-house checker did not catch the mistake either and the client was pissed off big time. And that was the last I heard from them. They just stopped working with me without a word. That was 8 months ago. But out of the blue, last Friday night the boss/owner of the agency calls me up wondering if I can do a "Rush job" for her. Reminiscent of stories buddies tell you about that girl who dumped him, but calls up 6 months later needing him to help fix her car. So, 2 middle fingers up to her.

Next, a big middle finger to all the business people who apologize with a whine in their voice while habitually dealing garbage. And to those who believe that all translators are fine with working until 2 or 3am every morning, or that freelancers are supposed to work weekends and all national holidays -- fuck you guys very much.

Also, fuck the business world for treating those who give you money like gods, but your workers like whores.

Next, only to the translators who believe that they are especially intelligent or gifted just because they can read and write in a second language. Try telling a European how smart you are for being bilingual. All translators are not like this of course, but some have massive attitude problems. To these people, my bum is high in the air to be kissed.

Also, to the English checkers -- the non-native speakers (who often cannot even speak English!!) whose job it is to question the English of not just native English speakers, but native speakers who are linguists! To these people I just say, "You were better off serving coffee at Starbuck's. At least there people thought you were cute; but now you are just annoying."

There is a special piss-off that I wrote about many months ago, but saved it in draft form because I didn't want my personal comments to come back and haunt me if a translation agency did a Google search on my name and found me screeching about agencies I worked with...and now I am finished, so... this was regarding a translation "mentor" and trainer from a well known translation company that prides itself on "Only working with professionals".

I did some financial translation training with this company in order to take on an annual report project for the biggest bank in Germany. I read a 90 page training manual on the subject, then translated 3 documents for them as part of the training. After that I was to translate 2 more docs as a test. It was supposed to take a week. The trainer not only ignored the company's instructions to me on the training, but took a full MONTH to talk about just one of my documents, he was absolutely clueless on his first comment...I think he was drunk...and I wrote a blog post about it. Here is that comment:

[Do not tarnsalted every phrase that ends with the Japanese "kara" or "ga yue ni" in thiis case as "Due to..." or "Because of". You can often get much tighter English with construtions such as "...means..." or "...allows you to..." or whatever.]

I personally try to stay clear of construtions, but only because they tend to be construted and can really stain...or "whatever". But if you think that makes no sense, then what about this question from the same guy?

[Can you take you business in a...source?]

Um... Can you repeat the question? (insert bong hit) I complained to the company and asked for a new mentor but neither did they give me one nor even REPLY to my complaint! That pretty much was the end of Elan-EX. I cannot take a company seriously who uses mentors or trainers who don't write none-too-good.

Anyway, to all the people who made 2008 and the first part of 2009 a real wing-dinger, I quote Wendy Testerberger (Stan Marsh's girlfriend) when I say "Fuck them. Fuck them right in their asses."

Just getting the old gun off.

Peace on the Porch

Just sharing pics of my porch-top "garden". Little bit of ivy, on the wall, some flowers, aloe, but what I'm mostly watching right now are the tomatoes and strawberries. This year I am more into the plants than last year, since I have been away from green for so long. Last year I tried just 2 tomato plants, and that didn't work out so well. So this year I planted 5 tomato, and 5 strawberry plants. 2 of the strawberries are already gone, but I am hopeful that at least one will produce. Got a couple of tomatoes that popped up too! Very happy bout that.

Another cool score on You-tube!

Motorcycle Jacket Repairman: Part II

If you recall, I have been working on the wife's biker jacket for awhile now. And as of today, it is FINISHED! And it is good.

It was a real challenge to line this thing, and while I did not do it up as beautifully as a pro would, it is fully operational, and may very well posses enough fire-power to destroy an entire planet -- though I am assured that she will not use her jacket for evil.

No frills on this thing; no inner pockets, and since it is all hand-stitched, no two stitches form a perfect line...but I DID replace her old, ripped up, thin-ass satin lined pockets with new black canvas ones. Not shiny, but who needs shiny pocket linings? These pockets will withstand a +3 flaming vorple sword attack I tell you! I also backed the red satin liner with canvas. That made it easier to install the liner, but also will keep the satin from rubbing against the inside of the leather wearing it out faster. That is how the last hack relined the jacket apparently. Very nice, she is happy. (I liked her expression in this pic. It says, "I got my leather jacket, but I'm walkin' all the time. Got a problem with that?")

Many moons ago.....

Do you remember this?

One of the few clips of quality I could find from the Langan & West morning radio show of KISW 99.9 FM Seattle circa 1980...

One of my high school teachers used to let us listen to it during class. There were many episodes and it went on for I think till 1984?....I remember recording them and we would listen to them over and over, but the tapes never survived...this is the first time I have herd the show since then....I still love them...

They also had special longer Leave it to Beaver 1980 or rather 82,83 shows that were hilarious like "Apocalypse Beaver" but I couldn't find them.

I think this clip was an early one and may be the Pilot episode.

I still crack-up hearing it again.

At the Movies...not quite

Recently I watched "Push", "Star Trek" and "Paul Blart Mall Cop".

Star Trek: I envy Phil because over in London, he will get to watch it at Imax, whereas our Imax is still showing the same fish movie it has had for years. Lame. Very rad movie. I have not followed Star Trek since "Next Generation" after that, every spin off I saw should have been thrown into a black hole. Utter crap. THIS Star Trek was refreshing and felt as if I was watching a real movie rather than a crappy movie to placate Star Trek fans. My only complaints are that "Sylar" was the new Spock and that the old Spock, while he was very cool, reappears in THIS movie too. You just can't keep Leonard Nimoy out of anything can ya? Maybe he owns the rights to the name?

Push was like "Jumper II". Humans with secret powers chased by a scary black man. I saw that already. I still liked the movie. A good thing to watch on the PC.

Paul Blart was a classic "embarassed for the guy in the movie" comedy. Good enough to watch!

Also been watching all the old Family Guy shows. I never liked the show until just now. Now I am giggling my ass off. Must be a 40's thing.

Color codes for website templates...just in case you cared

After the flag

Jerez

Riding into 2009 -- 2 Years of Rebelling Against the Man in Japan

Oooo. Perdy new International Driver's Permit came in the mail today. "But the one in this photo says 2007?" Well of course. Why take a new photo when this is identical to the one I got in 2008, and 2009? Sillies.

While people who actually passed the test and got their Japanese Motorcycle License have pride in the fact that they passed. And I think that is just OK. Pride is dumb in general, and I have my own brand of dumb pride. I enjoy the fact that every year I get an I.D.P. from AAA in the USA. It reminds me that I will not play Japan's "little" licensing game. I complained about this 2 years ago, but I decided after my brief and unpleasant experience with Japan's rider exam that I would not give them another yen to try for a license that actually costs MORE than if I get a piece of paper from my own country that says I can drive.

It costs me $15 for this piece of paper, and with it I can drive any size motorcycle and any car that I find with the keys in it, left running in front of a convenience store. How convenient! It cost me $100 to fail the Japanese Fascist Licensing Game. $30 just for a translation of my WDL...$10 for their rules and regs book, $33 to take the written test, $7 for my photo, some money for an eye exam ($6?) and $10 to use their bike to test (you cannot use your own). I saved $16.50 because I failed though, cuz you have to pay a PASSING FEE if you pass. All these fees REALLY pissed me off. I was waaaaaay over the gov. fucking me in the butt every time I bent over in the US, and I was just totally not ready to take anymore of it here. I was pissed off when I fell off their narrow metal beam, and did not make a new appointment to retest, but that meant when I calmed down and decided to test again a few weeks later, they told me I would have to spend another $100 to start all over again, including another translation of my license, eye test...tests to make sure I was still stupid enough to walk through the maze and get the cheese.

So yup, still holding that grudge. And while that might not be very intelligent, I am rebelling against that which I find even less intelligent. This is my badge. It is less rude than getting a bronze badge of a middle finger that reads "Japanese Dept. of Motor Vehicle Licensing" on it.

Kinako Kinako Mochi

Fat-ass mochi. I am in the process of getting a couple teeth worked on, and my dentist is pretty far away (about an hour away in Hyogo prefecture). Next to her office is a new shopping center. It is a serious den of inequity in that there is a candy store, bakery and a Starbuck's...oh my! I got sucked up into the sugar vortex last week, and yesterday was my second trip so I stopped by the mochi shop to get the kids some kinako mochi. HUGE stuff!

Kinako is actually made from powdered soy beans, and I imagine a lot of sugar. It is mildly sweet and feels like fine sawdust. Kinda tastes like...brown sugar and ...bean powder. Anyway, mochi is sticky (made from extra-sticky rice) it tends to make the kinako powder a bit moist, so usually you get a bit extra kinako to roll it around in before munching it down...but the shop lady...oh my GOD! Just LOOK at the amount of kinako powder she put in here!!! Literally you cannot see that there is anything in there but powder!

That was the first thing I had to take a photo of. The mochi itself is pretty darn big. Anyone from here would say it is about double the usual size. I am not massively into it, but sometimes ya gotta get what the kids shriek for.

Birthday Present Comes a Month Early!

Wow. I know, I start many of my posts with "Wow" so, how about "frickin' WWWOOOOWWW!!!"?

It has been years, and years since I had any bass in my music outside of my headphones. You KNOW I love my music -- shit, I probably love your music too -- but the last time I had any real speakers was...when I was about 20. Back then I went into debt to get some Baby Advent speakers that were very, very nice at $250 a pair, back in 1989. I went away to art school (Chicago) and...where did they go while I was gone anyway? For several years after that I survived off headphones, and the time has crept by in such a way that I have kept thinking "I need some good tunes at home". Been saying that for 15years. Since I have been living in Osaka, I've been using some old-school computer speakers that were old when my roommate gave them to me 10-15 years ago. My dad would have said "They're good enough ta run sound through" but then, he was around for the Great Depression too and that is where you get THAT kinda thinkin'.

Today I FINALLY bought a set of speakers, again they are for use with the computer, but that is where I am found these days...and they are amazing. Most speaker sets appear to have a bass box speaker that goes under the desk, and that is clearly what makes the difference for me. Gott in Himmel! Rammstein is like an entirely new band!!! My first listening choice was Daft Punk "Touch it - Technologic", then "Television Rules the Nation" and my desk was vibrating. "Wollt Ihr Das Bett in Flammen" makes my keyboard fingers tingle!!

Blessed be the Tech n' Roll!!

With the new business neighbors next door, I feel a bit...compressed?...stilted? to be able to rrrrock, so maybe this weekend I will pull out the "white trash teen" in me and say fuckit and let it rip. But even at a low level I still FEEL the music! In the evening Nami and me watched Valkyrie, and we could feel the airplanes going over head...from below, but we felt em anyway! (I know, I sound like a hillbilly who has just discovered surround sound, but I reckon it will be another 5 or 10 years before they have that kind of technology.)

There is at least one reader out there who makes me feel guilty when I buy shit "How did you afford that on your pay?" so I have a habit of explaining shit like "how I could afford it". This time it is was luck. When my sister was here she bought her son all sorts of video game stuff at Yodobashi Camera, and used my point card. She used her shopping-chi to rack up $40 worth of points on my card. With the park too rainy to play in, I took Mika and Alex downtown with me on my mission. (They got lunch, a ferris wheel ride and ice cream with sprinkles out of the trip so they were stoked too.)

I find it surprising that for $70 we can get such awesome sound. 50w speakers deliver rivers of sound power compared to old-school compy speakers, and the woofer has transformed my desk into giant speaker box. It is very nice. And thanks to my big sis' spending tons of money to rack up points on my Yodobashi card, I only paid $30 for this happiness! Yow!

I ... LOVE this commercial!

Though Nonomi Sasaki here is singing all in English, I had to search other people's blogs to find out what the hell she was singing! "Papa mama lucky morning! My friend is unlucky. Sun is shining for me, handsome guys want me, big money hit me!!! I am a lucky girl! Because I drink Lucky Cider! Hi!" Usually I pay no attention to names of "talents" here, but her name appears on this vid...really, says 佐々木希 right there? I see her all the time on my favorite comedy show (she occasioanlly appears on the guest panel). She is a top fashion model and always portrayed (?) as an airhead and people giggle at her ignorance/naivete', for in Japan, stupid+cute girl = pure.

Cultural studies aside, I love this commercial. "She is a lucky girl, because she drinks Lucky Cider!!" I laugh every time I watch it (even though that is not likely the reaction the company was looking for)

http://www.suntory.co.jp/softdrink/lucky/cm.html

Regain Commercial

Currently my second favorite commercial. Unlike Americans, Japanese people DON'T rush ...anywhere. Why rush? They are going to be at work til 12am anyway? Still, I like the ad.

Contacting Yahoo Small Businesses by Email

This is not usually the type of thing one blogs about, but frankly, I just spent at least 30 minutes going through the Yahoo's circular system of nonsense trying to find an email address or form to contact them about my account. Their damn phone number is all over the place...give me mail or give Yahoo death!

This all started because I wanted to cancel my Geocities Plus account. They are ending service anyway, so now that I have moved my website to another host, I no longer need Yahoo's service. BUT, even though I followed the instructions to cancel my account? I got an error message saying there were issues with my domain and had to call them. Gaaaahhh!!! In case you never thought about it? People in Japan cannot call 1-800 numbers in America. So here is the email form for Geocities, and even the email address of Yahoo Domains, in case you ever need it. I found "geo-billing@yahoo-inc.com" in my email box from 2007, but it appears to be a dead address now.

Yahoo Geocities Plus/Pro mail form:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/geocities/general.html

Yahoo Domains:
domains-support@cc.yahoo-inc.com

True, my Geocities account will be demolished in a few months, but why should I pay for it until then?