The Rabenstranger

rabenstrange.com

2007-12-04T22:12:00.001+09:00

Google decided to violate it's motto and be evil. They no longer allow me to link to my wordpress blog when commenting on Blogger.

I don't use my Blogger account for posting.

Find my recent posts at rabenstrange.com

Edit:

Google has re-implemented the Name/URL feature.

New Posts @ Rabenstrange.com

2007-02-09T07:56:00.000+09:00

As previously announced, I have began to post to rabenstrange.com.

This week I've put out several posts including:

Skyscraper Mania

Rabenstrange.com Open for Business!

2007-02-04T00:05:00.000+09:00

After months of work, I have finally realized that my new site, while not perfect is already (debateablely) better than this one and so I've decided to make the switch. Go Now

I'll probably double post to this site for a little while longer but the days of rabenstranger.blogspot.com are numbered.

Night Ride: Shinjuku - Yasukuni Dori

2007-01-29T21:30:00.000+09:00

On my way home from school today, I shot some pictures of my route. Despite having lived in Japan for more than four months now, the brightly lit displays along the main streets still impress me. More Pics

I'll try to put pics up more often. The things I see everyday can be pretty interesting.

Cliche

2007-01-28T22:03:00.000+09:00

From Hank's questionaire on the Brotherhood 2.0 Podcast comes this question: If you were a cliche, which one would you be?

John wanted to be a "Dark and stormy night."

I would choose, "to wax eloquent."

How about you, if YOU were a cliche, which would you be? Reply in the comments.

The Pursuit of Happiness

2007-01-27T01:11:00.000+09:00

On the recommendation of several friends, I watched The Pursuit of Happiness, the new Will Smith Movie based on the true story of a man who through effort and perseverance worked his way up from homelessness to become a multi-millionaire stock broker.

While I've never been homeless before, as I see my time at school coming to a close and my bank balance rapidly plunging toward zero, I feel a kinship with Smith's character and hope that in a few months when I'm the one looking for a job in the financial services sector God will bless me with the contacts, diligence and the touch of luck necessary to land a career.

If you find a spare moment, say a prayer and ask God to give me the wisdom to plot the right course and the faith not to worry.

Another Reason to Hate the U.N.

2007-01-26T10:47:00.000+09:00

Fox News is reporting on yet another U.N. scandal and cover-up. Apparently the tough talking new Secretary General is just as crooked as his predecessor.

You'd think that an organization so condescendingly self-righteous as the U.N. would be able to pick an honest leader once in awhile but it seems that the graft and corruption are not so much a problem at the U.N. but the essence on which the U.N. is based.

It has always been my opinion that the U.S. should never have joined the orginization and I that now, amidst yet another scandal we should consider withdrawing from it and saving the U.S. taxpayer some money.

Haiku

2007-01-25T00:22:00.000+09:00

Haiku is a Japanese martial art form. Unlike most of the well known fighting styles such as Judo and Karate, Haiku does not use physical blows to attack opponents but rather a poetic form that none the less is capable of inflicting great pain. Anyone who has heard a bad Haiku will understand what I mean.

Haiku can also be used to augment a physical attack style. Consider this scenario:

A Haiku master and his foe are in the dojo, locked in a contest of honor. Endlessly, they circle each other, looking for an opening. Suddenly the master shouts:

"I blow my nose at you

Go and boil your bottom now

Silly person's son!"*

The opponent groans in agony at the horrible poetry and attempts to devise an appropriate counter Haiku. While he is distracted counting syllables, the master delivers a round house kick to his head, ending the fight in one strike.

Pretty impressive, eh? You ought to go practice up your 5-7-5 skills. I know I will.

*Dialog shamelessly ripped from Monty Python and the Holy Grail

2007-01-24T11:21:00.000+09:00

This is pretty sad. Using Myspace as a predictor for presidential campaigns? Crazy, eh?

Not So Innocent

2007-01-22T22:51:00.000+09:00

For month's I've been telling people that Dakota Fanning is my favorite actress. She's cute and innocent and has a lot more acting talent than most of the actresses twice her age. I liked the fact that she was scandal free and considering that she's only 12 I assumed she'd stay clean for years to come.

Well I was wrong. Today, Dakota will be debuting in a truly sick movie, Hound Dog, at the Sundance Film festival. The material is so graphic that there is talk of criminally prosecuting those behind the film on exploitation charges.

HT: Kingdom Advancer

The Second Holocaust

2007-01-22T11:03:00.000+09:00

A frightening essay in the Jerusalem Post today outlines how the Second Holocaust will occur and logically explains why the world will stand by and allow the Jews to be slaughtered... again.

The thing that strikes me about this article is that it presents Israel's annihilation as inevitable. Considering the virulent hatred of the Moslem and Iranian leaders and the weak kneed pacifism of the West his vision of the future seems almost unstoppable.

Biking

2007-01-22T07:17:00.000+09:00

I'm biking to school for real for the first time today. I've rode the route before as practice to make sure I knew how long it would take but I've never done it with the immovable deadline of class starting time before. Wish me luck.

FIXED!

2007-01-21T23:19:00.000+09:00

I figured it out! Everything is back where it's supposed to be!

It might sound a bit silly and selfish but I prayed hard and tried a few new things, one of them, a desperate attempt assured of failure actually turned out to be a work around.

Hopefully the girl next door didn't hear my exclamation of joy and classify me as a total nutcase.

By the way, in the off chance any of you had time to change your link to http://www.rabenstrange.com, don't put them back, I transfered my posts into the Wordpress blog and though the template is pretty rough everything should be functional. I should be able to switch over soon.

Sanctity of Human Life Sunday

2007-01-21T23:13:00.000+09:00

President Bush has declared today, January 21 to be Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. It is a day to reflect on the tragic cost legalized abortion has visited upon our society in the form of innocent lives ended. The tremendous potential that has been destroyed is dwarfed only by the moral stain on our nation's bloody hands.

Ronald Reagan, the president who originally founded this day of remembrance spoke these moving words on the first Sanctity of Human Life Sunday in 1983:

Since 1973, however, more than 15 million unborn children have died in legalized abortions -- a tragedy of stunning dimensions that stands in sad contrast to our belief that each life is sacred. These children, over tenfold the number of Americans lost in all our Nation's wars, will never laugh, never sing, never experience the joy of human love; nor will they strive to heal the sick, or feed the poor, or make peace among nations. Abortion has denied them the first and most basic of human rights, and we are infinitely poorer for their loss.

We are poorer not simply for lives not led and for contributions not made, but also for the erosion of our sense of the worth and dignity of every individual. To diminish the value of one category of human life is to diminish us all. Slavery, which treated Blacks as something less than human, to be bought and sold if convenient, cheapened human life and mocked our dedication to the freedom and equality of all men and women. Can we say that abortion -- which treats the unborn as something less than human, to be destroyed if convenient -- will be less corrosive to the values we hold dear?

Thanks to Motte Brown at the Boundless Line for the heads up and quotation. As an aside, if you've noticed that I've been getting a lot of good stuff from Boundless, I really recommend to check them out. I certainly get a lot out of their articles.

Finally Working On It

2007-01-20T20:57:00.000+09:00

A couple weeks ago I was all psyched up about my new website and was shooting for a January 1 move for this blog. Obviously, the move still hasn't occurred. This is because I've been quite busy for the last few weeks and haven't really touched it since 2006.

In the last couple days, my schedule has finally started to open up a little bit and so I'm back to working on it. Hopefully, I'll have it ready sometime soon.

As an aside, I really recommend Wordpress to all of you who are interested in hosting you own blog. It allows a great deal more flexibility and reliability than any of the free hosts while providing a more feature rich platform. If you make the switch to Wordpress, give the K2 theme a try, while a bit intimidating at first the more I learn about it the better and more useful it gets.

Quotation of the Day

2007-01-19T07:24:00.000+09:00

I saw a fantastic quote today that's worth sharing:

"How small, of all that human hearts endure, that part which laws or kings can cause or cure." - Samuel Johnson

The commentary that went along with it is pretty good as well, from Boundless:

There's no question that government is important: It has some necessary functions. Still, we'd do well to remember the centuries-old words of essayist Samuel Johnson: "How small, of all that human hearts endure, that part which laws or kings can cause or cure." These days, alas, governments can cause a lot more of "what human hearts endure" than they used to, as technology has made control and destruction so much easier. (The 20th century, especially, was all too full of examples of such evils.) But they can still cure precious little, and often make things worse when they profess to try.

Not a bad summary of government if you ask me. Read the whole article, while brief it has some excellent insights into the limitations of government and the way that real people change the world.

Japanese Appliances

2007-01-18T13:30:00.000+09:00

For the record: Japanese appliances are lame. Now, considering the Japanese obsession with conservation and their tendency to small everything (small food portions, small cars, small apartments etc.) it would be silly to expect them to produce large, macho household machines. Still with the reputation they have achieved for high tech gadgetry you might think that even if small their stuff would be good. Alas, such is not the case.

The typical "range" is has two small gas burners with a miniscule smokeless grill in a tray underneath. Basically, the setup is a glorified camp stove.

Homes and apartments here are heated and cooled by small air conditioner units that sit in the windows. As a result, there has to be a separate heater in every room and it's impossible to achieve consistent heating. This problem is amplified by terrible insulation. They've got nuclear power plants and yet they can't figure out central heating and fiberglass insulation.

Their washers are small but bearable. Dryers on the other hand are small and worthless. My clothes are currently in the drier and according to the LED timer they will be done in a little under 6 hrs.

I could go on...

So far the only nifty appliances I've seen are microwaves that also work as ovens and refrigerators.

Updating Maslow

2007-01-17T21:15:00.000+09:00

I was surfing around today when I stumbled on a poor, poor blogger that has been without internet access at her home for months but has acquired service of some kind in the last few days. I shuddered at the thought of life without internet and her recent triumph warmed my heart. Connection to the world and it's digitaly stored knowledge has become a necessity in my life. As I thought about this my mind made a leap of association (as it often does) and I recalled Abraham Maslow and his so called, Hierarchy of Human Needs.

Poor Dr. Maslow, lived in a time before computers and formulated his hierarchy in the 1940's. Thus his model shows gaping holes when it is used in modern times. It's time to bring it up to the present:

Maslow's Hierarchy has more problems than the single one I've corrected and there will never be consensus on a definitive ranking of needs and wants. Nevertheless, I think I've delivered a long overdue correction that everyone can agree with.

Thank you Wikipedia for the source image.

First Pirated HD DVD

2007-01-16T19:10:00.000+09:00

The new HD DVD format for movie distribution as been confirmed as cracked. Early this week a complete, un-encrypted HD DVD version of Serenity became available as a 19.6 GB BitTorrent download. From this point on, those with large hard drives and no fear of the MPAA can expect to see all of their favorite new movies become available in all their high definition glory.

It seems oddly fitting that Serenity, with it's anti-authoritarian vibes and geeky cult following should be the film to pioneer HD DVD piracy.

Thanks to Tarrick Twilight for the heads up.

Getting Organized

2007-01-15T23:16:00.000+09:00

I never make New Year's Resolutions and this year was no exception. I didn't even crack my usual lame joke about resolving to break my resolution.

However as this semester has started, I've really been working to clean up the scattered mess that is my life. Unlike a resolution, there was no defining moment when I declared my intention. Instead it has been happening here and there over the last two weeks that I see something out of order and think, "My life would be simpler if that was neater."

It started with my email inbox. I cleaned out the hundreds of messages clogging my screen at every login, labeling the important ones, making all the reply's that I had been procrastinating and archiving everything for future reference. For the first time in more than a year I had an empty inbox. Now I try to empty it every evening.

The second day of class, I was taking one of the innumerable class handouts being passed around when I decided that I didn't feel like dealing with the huge floating pile of unsorted papers that has been a constant in my life for as long as I can remember. From that point forward, anytime I receive a handout or am given a piece of paper, I immediately label it in the upper right corner. I created folders at home for each of my classes and have been cleaning out my backpack and my desk into the folders a couple times a week.

I've actually started using a calendar. Geek that I am, I am using the web-based Google Calendar program. I inputted my schedule and all the test days on my syllabi, church, etc. setting them to repeat on all the proper days. I've also been using it as a kind of dated to-do list. Currently it's set up to email me a list of the days activities every morning at 0500. This gives me a reminder of all the things on my daily itinerary.

For the first time in my life, I've been self-motivated to keep my room clean. My Mom wouldn't believe it if she saw it.

As these small habit changes begin to permeate my daily routine, I have begun to have a much greater sense of relief. I'm not constantly worried about forgetting things. I feel less distracted. Really, it's a wonderful sensation.

Now, the only question is, "Will it last?"

Sick

2007-01-15T07:56:00.000+09:00

I'm not feeling well today. While I haven't thrown up yet, from the way I feel now I think it's pretty much inevitable.

I've already emailed my teachers to let them know that I won't be coming to class. This marks the first time I've ever been too sick for school in the 3 years I've been in college.

Update: I'm feeling almost completely better and have decided to go in to school after all. All I've missed is my first class.

Why Worry?

2007-01-14T21:41:00.000+09:00

I was doing my bible reading today from Matthew when I came across a verse that both convicted and encouraged me. Despite having it memorized and having read it countless times, I had somehow forgotten it's simple truth:

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

-Matthew 6:33-34 (NIV)

Just today I was considering the challenges of funding my next year of university, stressing about my career options and generally allowing myself to get lost in the problems of the future. I've spent the last several days running about trying to tie up details and organize my schedule for the semester that I've allowed my eyes to lose sight of the God who is bigger than my situation and demands my attention. Like Christian in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress I started to sink in the Slough of Despond. Now I realize that so long as my focus is right, God has promised to work things out for my benefit.

I Want to Ride My Bicycle

2007-01-13T22:45:00.000+09:00

After a bit of confusion I finally got a correctly registered bike. It's so nice to confidently ride past police officers without fervently praying that they don't stop me and ask for registration. In honor of my new registration I stopped and talked to three cops this evening (I should mention that my getting hopelessly lost probably played into this).

When I got the bike, I discovered two unexpected devolopments. The first was that the bike is pink. Yeah, you heard me. I'll be riding a bright magenta vehicle to school everyday for the next three and a half months. Go ahead and laugh it up. Hardy, har, har. The second surprise more than made up for it though. Instead of the usual anemic mamochan, it's a three speed. Unlike the vast majority of Japanese bikes I can change gears for hills. Pretty neat, eh?

Simplification

2007-01-13T02:39:00.000+09:00

Today, I was able to adjust my class schedule to accommodate a 3-day per week arrangement. Now instead of having International Monetary Economics splitting my Tuesdays and Thursdays in half, I merely stay an hour later on Monday/Wednesday/Friday for Psychology. This should allow me to get a decent job and even if that's not possible, it's still a more

My Schedule

God has really been blessing me lately but at the same time I feel convicted at how poorly my devotional habits have been. I am so unworthy of His providence. I guess it's a mini-lesson in grace.

Busy Day Off

2007-01-11T20:42:00.000+09:00

Today I had a day off from school because my only Tuesday/Thursday class's teacher was unable to come in. Unfortunately, the lack of school didn't mean that I got a lot of time to myself.

First, I got up early and headed into downtown Shinjuku to get the address on my foreigner registration card changed. The ward office I had to go to was in one of the unseemly districts but fortunately, I was spared seeing any of the really gross images I'm told are frequently displayed there. I was able to find it relatively quickly via a handy online map that I retrieved with my phone. Getting back to the proper station enterance proved to be a chore but with a bit of trial and error I eventually figured it out.

From there, I went to my landlady's apartment to get a bike. She had lost the key to the bike so I had to carry it to the bicycle shop where she had the old lock taken off and a new one installed. The process was supposed to take a half hour so she went off to perform other errands leaving me to pick up the bike when it was finished. Unfortunately for me, she didn't sign to have the registration changed. As a result, I had to take the bike without proof that I owned it, a very dangerous thing to do here in Japan. She also didn't give me instructions on how to get back to my apartment with the bike so I explored a bit until I found the ward office I had visited earlier in the day. There, I was able to pick up a detailed map with which I was able to navigate back home. It was a rather stressful afternoon but I eventually made it back. Still, I don't have registration so I can't use the bike for commuting yet.

After getting back I did a homework and worked on schedules and budgets for the rest of the semester. Needless to say, I'll enjoy my sleep tonight.

Spring Classes

2007-01-10T20:59:00.000+09:00

School started yesterday and now that I've had a chance to evaluate both my Tuesday/Thursday and Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes I think that I will have a good spring. My course load appears to be significantly more challenging and at the same time more interesting than last semester.

The economics proffesor who is teaching three of my courses seems to have a good sense of humor while at the same time running a strict and fast moving class. He is also currently in the process of conducting economic research and I am hoping to get a chance to assist. Experience in research can't hurt me when I attempt to get a job after school or apply for post-graduate education.

My Psych class also appears like it will be useful. The course centers around teaching students to conduct scientific, academic research. While this might sound a bit dry, the ability to effectively use academic search tools, construct a research proposal and design scientific experiments will be useful throughout the social sciences, including in my chosen field of economics.

In other news I'm pretty much settled into my new apartment. I'm sure I'll continute to learn all the quirks about the building and my roomates and I'm still far from familiar with the neighborhood but I expect things to work out well here.

All in all, things are shaping up well. God has been good to me.

Reading 2006

2007-01-09T11:34:00.000+09:00

The Polka Dotted Pickle recently posted a great list of all the books she read in 2006 with brief reviews. I enjoyed her list and they say that imitation is the sinceres form of flattery so here goes:

A note on my scoring: I use a 5 star system. 2.5 stars is indifference, less than 2.5 are books that I'd recommend avoiding. 3 stars marks a reasonably good book and anything higher indicates a book I really loved.

The Ionian Mission - Patrick O'Brian. Three stars. This is book #8 of the fantastic Aubrey-Maturin series which novelize early 19th century naval warfare. While not my favorite in the series it is worthwhile.

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen. Four stars. What can I say? I really enjoyed this book. Contrary to the belief of inumerable hordes of teen-aged girls this isn't a romance, it's social satire.

Life on the Edge - Dr. James Dobson. Three and a quarter stars. Dr. Dobson lays out a compelling challenge for young adults to seize hold of their own destiny and to use the early years of adulthood wisely.

Backyard Ballistics - William Gurstelle. Three stars. This book gives instructions on how to build a variety of shooting, flinging and launching devices. In all honesty I was a little disappointed by the projects but the fascinating history tidbits made the book well-worthwhile.

How to Stay Christian in College - J. Budziszewski. Three stars. A good primer but I'd already heard most of the advice from his columns on Boundless.

Till We Have Faces - C.S. Lewis. FIVE STARS! This retelling of the Cupid-Psyche myth was fantastic. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Just for Fun - Linus Torvalds and David Diamond. Four stars. This autobiography of the Finnish creator of Linux was fascinating, inspiring and humorous.

Art of the Catapult - William Gurstelle. Three stars. Like Backyard Ballistics but focused on trebuchets, mangonels and ballistas.

The Icarus Hunt - Timothy Zahn. FIVE STARS! This was actually a re-read. This Sci-Fi adventure story was so fun that I had to read it again. I passed it on to my non-sci-fi fan mom and she also loved it.

Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis - Four stars. You can't go wrong with C.S. Lewis. This tome begins his Space Trilogy.

My Man Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse. Three stars. A funny collection of short stories.

Perelandra - C.S. Lewis. Four and a half stars. My favorite of the Space Trilogy.

That Hideous Strength - C.S. Lewis. Three stars. The conclusion of the Space Trilogy was very different than the original two books and I didn't like it as well.

Freakonomics - Stephen D. Levit and Stephen J. Dubner. Three stars. While interesting, and commendable for bringing Econ to the man-on-the-street, I think some of the studies showed errors in methodology and reasoning.

An Army of Davids - Glenn Reynolds. Four stars. This book by the author of Instapundit presents an optimistic and inspiring view of the future and a bright eyed look at how future technology developments will improve our lives just as current innovations are making positive changes to todays world.

Outbound Flight - Timothy Zahn. Three stars. I'm really getting tired of Star Wars. Even Zahn was only able to achieve "good" instead of his usual "fantastic."

Economics for Real People: An Introduction to the Austrian School of Economics - Gene Callahan. Three Stars. A good start but the Austrian School's ideas can't be compressed into such a small book. The examples given in the book were a bit cheezy.

In Fury Born - David Weber. Three and a half stars. Another military Sci-Fi. A fun read.

Adventures from the Technology Underground - William Gurstelle. Three and a half stars. An online add for this book is what originally motivated me to pick up Gurstelles first two books. This one deals with dangerous but extremely cool science projects including rail guns, tesla coils and flame throwers.

Free to Choose - Milton and Rose Friedman. Four Stars. Reading his book this summer increased my sadness when this economic masterbrain died in the fall.

That concludes my list. I know that I'm missing some books, but these are the ones that I really enjoyed. With one exception all of them were read before I came to Japan. The lack of a good library, the busy blur that my life has become and the plethora of good articles, conveniently available on the internet prevented me from putting much time into books during the fall. My resolution for this semester is to make it through a dozen books before I go home for summer break.

Moving In

2007-01-08T00:12:00.000+09:00

I have found an apartment and so I've been spending the last few days settling details and moving in. I ended up choosing the place that I found on Friday.

I called and met Marika, the landlady, and arranged to see the apartment at 5:00. I arrived almost an hour early but I made good use of this time to explore the neighborhood a bit and scout out the local stores. Then at 5 til, I went back to the building and rang the doorbell.

I was slightly embarrassed when I realized that the Marika was a dance teacher and that had interupted the last few minutes of a lesson. I guess she didn't mind too much because as soon as the lesson was over she began cooking a special New Year's dish for me and another tenant. It became quickly apparent that Marika is a very friendly lady and has a much, much closer landlord/tenant relationship than normal. Just a few minutes after meeting me, she enlisted me in slicing meat for dinner. She made soft rice with herbs, which she told me is the traditional food eaten by Japanese people to cleanse the palette after the rich foods consumed during the New Year holiday. We also had fish sashimi and the Japanese version of my ancestors' pickled herring. Although not terrible, I won't be looking to eat more in the future. Probably, my appreciation was poisoned by my general dislike of seafood.

After dinner Marika gave me a tour of her apartment buildings. She has four of them. I ended up choosing a room in a building that is just one block from Nakai station on the Oedo subway line. This gives me direct access to Shinjuku and school by train. Better yet, because of the apartments location in centeral Tokyo, I'll be able to get to most of the city, including school by bike. It looks like I will once again be biking to school everyday. To make my commute easier, Marika is selling me a better bike. I should be able to make it to school in approximately half an hour.

Back in Japan

2007-01-06T10:11:00.000+09:00

I arrived back in the Land of Sushi yesterday. My plane flight was uneventful and relatively comfortable. I was slightly surprised upon boarding that the plane was not a Boeing 777 but rather an Airbus A330. I may sound like a traitor by saying this but I liked the A330 better. The seats were more comfortable and the TV's allowed you to play a wide selection of movies and games on demand rather than showing just 3 or 4 movies on a set schedule.

I am staying at the home of some friends from church while I look for an apartment. They have a very nice apartment in Chiba. They have an extra bedroom so while I am here I have a room all to myself. They are so generous. God has really blessed me with good friends.

Today I've been scouring the net for places to live. I've found several that look like possibilities although they are a little bit more expensive than I had hoped. Since I don't speak Japanese, Shou, my host, has assisted by making telephone inquiries for me. I've also been sending out emails. So far I've arranged one viewing for this evening.

All in all, I've had a very smooth arrival in Japan. So long as I find a decent apartment in the next few days I can say that God has blessed me with a nearly perfect transition.

Working

2006-12-29T17:11:00.000+09:00

Today I put in a day at the printshop where I worked before going to Japan. While I'm not exactly tanking up the bank accounts, it's nice to be able to earn a few dollars here and there while I'm home.

In other news, I've started packing for my return to the land of sushi on the 3rd. In the process I went through my boxes of stuff that I had stored and threw about a third of it away. I intend to do further thinning before I leave. Unfortunately, it seems that fate took the liberty of getting rid of some of my stuff for me, one of my boxes of stuff is missing. As Murphy would predict it just so happens to be the box containg my network switch which I intended to take for use in my new apartment.

Sorry about the pictures from yesterday, I got interupted while uploading them and haven't made time to finish the process.

Pacific Science Center

2006-12-28T09:21:00.000+09:00

The Dead Sea Scrolls are currently on display at the Pacific Science Center in downtown Seattle. This morning the older members of our family (everyone except the two youngest) tried to take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity to see these amazing artifacts.

Because we have so many people in our family, the cost savings conveyed by owning a membership when buying tickets to see the scrolls are almost sufficient to pay for one. For only a few dollars more than we would have paid to simply see the scrolls we were able to purchase a full year of admittance to one of the best museums in town.

Unfortunatelly, all of the daytime showings were sold out. While Dad waited in line to buy tickets for this evening, Emily, Arita and utilized our newly purchased membership to checkout a display of animatronic dinosaurs in the room next to the ticket line.

I snapped a few pictures, to make sure my camera (which also serves as a phone in Japan) was working properly with my new memory card. As you can see from the pictures I'll be posting soon.

After three months of waiting to buy a new digi-camera, now that the time has come to do so, I'm too cheap.

Update:
We just got back from seeing the scrolls. They were amazing and well worth our time. I was fascinated and awe-struck as I gazed on fragments of scripture copied by hand around the time of Christ's birth. The most amazing to me was a part of the oldest copy of Psalm 119 in existence. The letters on the parchment were as clear as those on the pages of the novel I was reading this afternoon. I was able to look at the scroll and see the changes of script every time God was mentioned. It was truly a thrilling, once in a lifetime experience.

Unfortunately, there were no cameras of any variety allowed in the exhibit.

New Profile Pic

2006-12-28T07:45:00.000+09:00

I'm trying to find a new profile pic for rabenstrange.com. At the request of a significant percentage of my blog readers I am going to abandon the "mugshot" picture and attempt to find something with more popular approval. I'm going to attempt to increase my readership and a more friendly looking picture might be an asset as I do so. Since my first choice wasn't acceptable, my own judgment in choosing picture is obviously faulty. Therefore it will be up to you, my readers, to serve as the selection committee.

Here's my first candidate for consideration:

What do you think of it?

Update:
I have gotten some feedback and most of it has been negative. As a result this pic will not be used. Thank you for helping to avoid another stylistic blunder.

The Real Meaning of Christmas

2006-12-26T13:25:00.000+09:00

John 3:16-18

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

Holiday Itinerary

2006-12-24T15:59:00.000+09:00

Tonight our family will be camping out around the Christmas tree, a holiday tradition we've celebrated for as long as I can remember. We'll get up early tomorrow morning to open our family stockings gifts from each other before driving to my aunt and uncle's house for a celebration with my the extended family on my Dad's side. We'll spend the night at their house and open more stockings and eat breakfast before heading to a different aunt and uncle's house for a lunch and afternoon celebration with my Mom's extended family. Christmas night we'll head home.

They're Back

2006-12-22T16:50:00.000+09:00

After the sibs and I spent a lazy day about the house, Mom and Dad arrived home from their trip. Fortunately, after a bit of harried work, we managed to get things mostly picked up before they arrived. We also took the time to hang up the paper snowflakes that have becocme a traditional decoration at our house.

Mom and Dad seem to have had a wonderful time. They were staying in Vancouver, B.C. and apparently they were able to enjoy a few days of sleeping in and relaxing without having to worry about their children. They brought us back chocolate hedgehogs from Purdy's.

Home Alone (with siblings)

2006-12-21T17:51:00.000+09:00

My parents are in Canada enjoying a well-deserved few days vacation. This leaves my sisters, younger brother and I at home fending for ourselves.

We're making good use of the time to prove that we're not quite grown up yet. We've been watching movies, staying up late and gorging ourselves on brownie sundaes and nachos. That is to say, we're having fun.

I've started to play around with my new website. So far I've managed to successfully install wordpress and learned how to play with themes and such. Unfortunately, setting up my theme hasn't been nearly as simple as I hoped. The template which I've been developing is based on a theme which I can't find anywhere online. After many frustrating hours of searching I've embarked on an attempt to build my own based on the venerable K2.

Needless to say, this is a much more involved process than the simple cut and paste work I was expecting and as a result it doesn't look like I'll be able to meet my goal to unveil the new blog on January 1st. I'll be giving occational updates on my progress to let you all know how it's going.

LAN Party!

2006-12-19T19:59:00.000+09:00

I'm at a LAN party at my good friend Tarrick's house. For the uninducted, a LAN party is what occurs when a number of people bring their computers to the same location for the purpose of playing games. They usually involve the consumption of copious quantities of Mountain Dew and pizza. We also use these get togethers as an opportunity to share programs, files and show off our PhotoShop projects. The LANage is the ultimate in geek guy social fun.

Earlier this evening, a few of us worked out a deal to share webhosting. This resulted in me purchasing a year of hosting from AN Hosting. Look for some major changes in the Rabenstranger in the coming weeks and months. Depending on how difficult the blog transfer process proves, I may be at rabenstrange.com by the first of the year. If my online buddies could watch for the shift and update their links I would greatly appreciate it.

In other news, my power came back on Sunday night. Hallelujah! (That wasn't sarcasm, I have a new appreciation for the miracle of electricity.)

Blackout!

2006-12-16T11:56:00.000+09:00

As you may have heard, Seattle has been hit by a large windstorm and more than a million people are without power. I am one of those million people. Seeing as our router is an electronic device, and electronics require electicity my posting may be intermittent until power is restored.

Currently, we're having a birthday party for my little brother. It should be an interesting evening.

Grades

2006-12-14T02:24:00.000+09:00

I got my grades today and they were a bit disappointing, three A's and two A-'s. Not terrible, but not nearly as good as I had hoped.

Both of the A- classes had very subjective grading and didn't have a hard scale based on points, instead they had a much more ambiguous letter grades and weighted assignments. I much prefer classes where I can discern EXACTLY how well I'm doing as each test or assignment comes back.

Ticket

2006-12-13T07:01:00.000+09:00

Today I reserved a ticket for my return to Japan. Despite flying on short notice in the middle of the holiday season, I was able to get a roundtrip ticket for about $850 after all taxs, fees, surcharges etc., an excellent deal if you ask me. For those of my classmates wondering where to get such a deal, visit IACE.

Right now I'm a little sad that my I will have to leave so soon. At the same time though I'm a bit excited about this next semester. My classes are more interesting and this time around I'll already know the basics of getting around in Japan so I'll have an easier time jumping into things.

I've made a pact with myself to go out and do more this time around instead of moping about and playing on the internet. Hopefully, I'll manage to improve my Japanese a lot this semester as well.

The Land of Plenty

2006-12-12T04:07:00.000+09:00

I am thouroughly enjoying my return to the United States, land of things free and home of the steak. I had almost forgotten how nice it was to get stuff at for free, to sit on a bench while out for a walk, use a public restroom, drink from a drinking fountain or throw my garbage in a trashcan on the street.

American beef is just as good as I remembered it. I've had steak twice and a big juicy hamburger so far. I've made up for our KFC Thanksgiving with a big turkey dinner with the family. Turkey leftovers turned into a delicious turkeye pot pie.

But best of all is getting to spend time with my friends and family. I've baked Christmas tree cookies with my 5 yr. old brother, built a couple of fabulous gingerbread houses with my siblings and aunt and started my Christmas shopping with my sisters. Yesterday, I went over to my friend's house to watch Three Stooges and Indiana Jones.

I love being back.

A Sad Story

2006-12-09T16:19:00.000+09:00

I surfed over to CNET today to read check reviews for a couple MP3 players when I learned that James Kim, the CNET gadget editor had died. He and his family became trapped in the snow during a family trip. He died trying to get help. His body was found the day before yesterday. At 35 he left behind a wife and two daughters aged 4 years and 7 months.

I'm Home!

2006-12-09T15:45:00.000+09:00

I have safely arrived back in Seattle. So far I've eaten turkey and steak. Nachos are next on my list of craved foods to be consumed.

I'll try and get a more substantive update up soon.

Disney

2006-12-06T10:33:00.000+09:00

TS2A0051.JPG.

Christmas @ Disneyland.

Bowling

2006-12-06T01:25:00.000+09:00

Today, instead of our usual scriptural study our Lifegroup went bowling. It was an interesting experience considering the last and only time I bowled was at a friend's party when I was 9 or 10 years old. Today was the first time I played a real game without bumpers.

I came in last out of five people the first game but despite my abominable technique I managed to move up to 2nd place in the second game. It made me feel good despite the knowledge that my score was more a result of luck than skill.

Anyhow, it was my last time to meet with these guys so we exchanged best wishes and sayonaras. Now I've said goodbye to most of my friends here.

Just two more days!

Insomnia

2006-12-05T23:44:00.000+09:00

I have two finals today but I'm running with my sleep tank on E. My room mate woke me up around 3:00 when he came in from a late night cramming and I haven't been able to sleep since. It is now almost 7:00 and since I have to get up in less than an hour anyway it doesn't make much sense to try and sleep now.

Update:
I finished both my finals thereby ending school for the semester. I think I did well on both tests, It's late afternoon and I'm still not too wiped out from my lack of sleep. I have my last Lifegroup meeting tonight so I'll have another round of goodbyes. I've been packing my bags/box for move-out tomorrow. It'll be good to be home.

Night on the Town

2006-12-04T06:43:00.000+09:00

Friday night, I went to the Funky Friday college group at Stephanie's church. I had to leave early because I wanted to go out with some buddies to see Casino Royale. After the movie we planned to stay in a capsule hotel, for fun rather than necessity.

Funky Friday was fun, we had egg salad sandwhiches and had a nice time of chatting and fellowship before I had to head out to Ikebukero for the movie. Since it was my last Friday in Japan, I said goodbye to my friends and thanked them for their generosity and hospitality.

I probably should have started my goodbyes earlier because I ended up being a couple minutes late for the movie. Fortunately, they were still showing the typical, "turn of your phone" warnings. One of these had me laughing as it instructed movie watchers to wait in their seats for instructions from theatre employees in the event that the theatre caught on fire. I don't know about you but if I ever find myself in a burning theatre I am not waiting for anyone.

Casino Royale was fantastic. For those of you who don't know, this is the new James Bond movie. It features a wonderful new addition to the franchise: a compelling plot that actually makes sense. I highly recommend it to fans of the action genre.

After the movie we went to Shinjuku in search of a capsule hotel but the few that found were very seedy and expensive. Instead of sleeping, we spent the night wandering the town, hitting arcades and 24 hr. stores and restraunts. We finished up by riding the train all the way around the Yamanote loop. It was a great time.

I ended up getting home around 8:00 on Saturday and sleeping until late afternoon.

Train

2006-12-03T16:31:00.000+09:00

Train.

On the train on the way home from church.

Morgan Stanley

2006-12-02T23:03:00.000+09:00

Tuesday(sorry about the delay, I've been busy), I had the privilege to visit Morgan Stanley Japan's headquarters in Ebisu. You may recall a few months back that I entered a 10 page research essay into a competition for one of two $7500 scholarships. Winning that money is what made this trip to Japan possible.

I arrived a few minutes early at the Yebisu Palace Garden Tower and got to wait in a very finely appointed alcove until the other scholarship recipient, a girl named Christine, arrived and Mr. Trapnell, the Morgan Stanley Executive Director who was co-ordinating the event, was ready to meet us.

Mr. Trapnell gave us a brief introduction to Morgan Stanley as a company and introduced us to one of his subordinates in Human Resources who later in the day gave us a very helpful talk about job searching in the financial services market.

Then we were served lunch. Over lunch we got to meet several very interesting people, including one of the foremost economists in Japan and a Morgan Stanley employee who had recently worked as a journalist for the Wall Street Journal. Lunch was fantastic. Even though I'm sure I made a fool of myself with my inept use of chopsticks, I thouroughly enjoyed the discussion of the Japanese economy and foreign relations. I haven't had such a stimulating conversation in a long time. It reminded me why I love studying economics.

After lunch we were given a brief tour of the building, most notablely the trading floor. It was interesting to see the endless rows of desks each set up with between 3 and 8 20" flatscreen monitors. I seriously envied the display of screen real estate. I also learned a little about what the job of being a trader is like.

After that we had our talk with the man from HR and got a chance to ask questions about hiring and, more important to our immediate future, internships. At this point I think that with the restrictions on my working hours it will probably be very difficult to arrange an internship but at least I got a chance to send in my resume and talk to some of the hiring people. After a lengthy exchange of thanks and goodbyes we went on our way. I showed Christine to Shibuya to meet with some of her friends (She's been living in Kyoto, not Tokyo) and then headed home to begin studying for my economics finals.

One of the most important things that was driven home during my visit was how hard those guys work. It has made me pause to consider, whether the fantastic pay would be worth the commitment it would require to earn. I would appreciate all of your prayers on the hard career decisions I will be making in the next few months and years.

Amazing Christmas Light Show

2006-12-02T21:36:00.000+09:00

Home Stretch

2006-11-30T14:09:00.000+09:00

This quarter is quickly coming to a close. I have exactly one week to finish my finals, build up my relationship with a potential employer (Morgan Stanley), pack all my things for the trip home and move out of my apartment.

Needless to say things are going to be a little hectic. I'll try to keep up on the posting buy I'm sure you'll all understand if I have to keep things short.

Right now as I type this I am in between my Econ finals. The test which I just finished had me sweating bullets. It contained three problems of which I had to do two. One was extra-credit. I did the first one easily but the second two had me stumped. I understood them but I was missing one piece that kept me from solving them. I was caught going in endless circles around the answers. Finally, with 15 minutes to go on a two hour exam I had a Eureka! moment and was able to solve both problems.

Instead of doing terrible I think I'll have a score above 100%. I'm very happy about that.

Now, in about half an hour I have another exam. I am a great deal more confident about this one and on top of that, my scores have been so good so far that I can get a C and still get an A in the class. I'm pretty sure I'll be close to 100% on this exam but it's comforting to have that extra cushion in my grade.

Update:
I just finished the second exam and I am no where's near 100%. The teacher radically changed the format he used on all of his previous exams and this new format was not at all friendly. Previously we had four problem on the solving portion of the test and got to choose 3 of them with the last one available as extra credit. This test he only gave us two with both being mandatory, no extra credit available.

One of the problems was tested a concept that he just briefly mentioned and despite the fact that I spent five 3 and a half hours studying yesterday and thought I had every possible problem covered, I couldn't do it. Now I'm just hoping that I got the high C I need to get my A in the class.

Changes

2006-11-28T04:00:00.000+09:00

I have been working on a new look for my blog and I would really appreciate your opinions on my progress.

You can view the new template here.

I am particularly interested in your thoughts about my replacement of all the pastel blue in my current template with a dark red. Do you think this is too hard on the eyes or do you like the contrast? If I were to add another color to the scheme which one do you think would go well with the red? What would go well with the blue?

What do you think of the new header? Do you like the rounded corners? Is the text too big and bold? What do you think of my using Japanese? What if I were to remove the light gray swirls in the background of the image?

Your answers to any/all of these questions is greatly appreciated. Any other suggestions or comments are eagerly desired.

As you may have noticed, this template is not on Blogger. That is because I will probably be moving to a Wordpress based blog (@ rabenstrange.com) sometime in the future (I'm aiming for a debut of the new blog in a couple of months).

Monday

2006-11-27T19:37:00.000+09:00

As I always do on Mondays I am heading for Lifegroup. Lately, we have been meeting in Shinjuku.
I really enjoy these times of fellowship.

Greed

2006-11-27T13:22:00.000+09:00

One of the biggest challenges that comes with studying at a university in Tokyo is the enormous outlay of money that it requires. On top of the typical overpriced tuition, there is the constant expenses of daily life in Tokyo. Nothing is free here and very little is cheap.

As a result, I've been living pretty much at the subsistence level. Looking over the records I've been keeping of all of my purchases since coming to Japan, I can see that the only things I spend any real money on is food and transportation. I really can't spare the cash for anything else.

All this goes to say, that in the last day or so I've been considering what I would do with my money if I had some cash to blow. I came up with a kind of fantasy Christmas list of things that I can't afford, here are a few:

Tippmann Pro/Carbine Paintball Marker - $160
For some reason I've been craving a good game of paintball lately and digging about online I think I found the perfect gun for me. The Pro/Carbine is known for being extremely rugged and reliable and simple to fix, clean etc. More importantly, it's one of the most accurate stock guns available, SpecOps Paintball recommends it for paintball snipers. Unfortunately, the gun is no longer produced and as a result it is quickly disappearing from retailers.

Oakley SI Computer Bag - $175
I need a case for my laptop and I would love for this awesome bag to be the one I get. In addition to it's quality construction and militaristic aesthetic, I really appreciate the large bag body, numerous pockets and comfortable carrying strap. It would be just thing for bring my laptop too and from school on the train. Backpacks are unwieldy on the train and a sling pack would really fit the bill.

Eten Glofiish M700 Smartphone - Not yet released
This slim phone combines the features of a high end PDA, GPS unit, and light Camera. With wireless LAN support (802.11b/g), a QWERTY keyboard, touch screen and a 2 megapixel digital camera this is just the thing for surfing the web and posting blog entries on the go.

Creative Zen Vision M - $250
This is my MP3 player of choice of the many options currently available. Although the iPod and Zune probably have better players, they require the use of proprietary media software that really gets on my nerves. The Zen would play all of my music and video files without the need to mess with a frustrating sync/file-conversion program. Additionally, the Zen is reported to have better battery life, durability and reliability.

Optimus Keyboard - Not yet released
This futuristic peripheral uses organic LED's to create a mini-screen on each key. This allows the board to be instantly reconfigured for use with any language, game etc. This would be particularly useful here in Japan.

DAS Keyboard - $Until the Optimus arrives early next year, the DAS is the keyboard I most want to buy. It's stylish, jet black, unmarked keys are individually weighted for increased typing speed and utilize ultra high-end switches for crisp, perfect keystrokes.

UltraSharp 1907FP 19" Flat Panel Monitors - $280 each
Currently, CNET's highest rated 19" monitors, a pair of these would be just the thing to expand my desktop and give me the screen real estate I crave. Extra fast response times, superb color and vivid contrast make for excellent gaming or movie watching.

IEM (In Ear Monitor) Headphones - $150-200
This style of headphones inserts slightly into the ear canal and seals your ear off from outside sounds. This allows them to best so called "sound canceling" headphones at reducing noise. Because of the close fit and lessened competition with other sounds, IEMs are used at extremely low volumes thus extending the battery life of your music player.

With that out of the way, it's time to get back to reality.

Wheels on the Bus

2006-11-27T13:01:00.000+09:00

Today was the last day of class.I got out of school early and so now I'm on the bus headed home.
When I tried to pay my fare, the bus driver didn't have change for my 5000 yen bill. It was quite embarrassing. After asking everyone on the bus if they had change, the driver let me ride free, telling me to pay double next time.

On a Sunday

2006-11-26T21:58:00.000+09:00

This morning I forgot that the service times at church have changed. I didn't get up in time for the service I usually attend so now I'm on my way to evening church. I'm bringing the disposable camera Mom sent in hopes of getting good night pictures of Tokyo at night.

Tonight, after I get home, I have to write a 1 page paper for Psych class.

This is going to be a busy evening.

2006-11-26T15:39:00.000+09:00

This is a test to see if I can successfully post to this blog with my keitai.

It's Beginning to Look a Bit Like Christmas

2006-11-26T00:18:00.000+09:00

As the holidays approach, Tokyo is putting up more and more Christmas decorations. There are wreaths, fake evergreen bows and lighted displays everywhere but despite the trappings of the holiday, there is no Christmas spirit here what-so-ever. It is very sad. At home you can feel the joy and good cheer of the holidays everywhere you go. It's subtle but reflected in the voice and face of almost everyone you meet. Here there's lights but the holiday is completely dead. It has no meaning, it is a mere commercial fabrication. It makes me sad and adds an extra chill to the winter air.
This is the beautifully lighted tree in the square in front of the local train station. One day I got home from an errand to see downtown Jiyugaoka decked out in Christmas finery. It reminded me of home.

Note: This picture was taken with my camera phone. I sent it via email to my PC as a test to see how good the pic showed up on a real screen. I'm impressed. The camera phone pics are a lot higher quality than I expected.

Christmas Wish List 2006

2006-11-25T01:38:00.000+09:00

In honor of the busiest shopping day of the year, here are a few of the things that I want/need* to get during this Christmas season:

Optical Mouse - I'm hoping for a nice 5 button mouse but I also like the standard Microsoft one.

Pen Drive 1GB - I haven't had a flash drive since my 256MB Lexar got stolen. I need one now.

MiniSD Card - I need one for my phone so that I can take loads of pictures and easily transfer them to my computer for use in blog posts.

Webhosting - I want to buy some server space so that I can host my own website, blog, FTP site, Wiki etc.

Gore-Tex Jacket - It'll be winter in 日本 when I come back and a good, rain-proof coat will undoubtedly prove invaluable.

Digital Camera - My cameraphone isn't ideal for documenting my adventures abroad. I don't need anything state of the art.

BDU Trousers - In Japan I have to dry my clothes on the line and I've found that my BDUs dry much quicker than jeans. Unfortunately, the Japanese are sometimes offended by Americans in camo so solid black or gray are the preferred colors this season.

Creative ZEN - My MuVo died on me. I'm ready to move up to a bit nicer MP3 player. I like the Creative players because they don't require annoying software like iTunes or Zune.

19" Flatscreen Monitor(s) - I love my laptop but some more screen real estate would be nice. An LCD would also be nice for my desktop.

Tillamook Cheddar - I've been missing cheese for more than three months and so I have decided to bring at least one large brick back to 日本 with me.

Wrap Around Headphones - The wires in the pair that I have are broken causing spotty sound. Be forewarned: I'm picky about headphone comfort.

Wireless Hub - It would nice to set up a wireless network in my new apartment.

Black Socks - What can I say? I lose socks and need replacements frequently.

Money - My finances are going to be tight during the Spring Semester and any contributions towards my college expenses will be greatfully received.

*Most of these are things that I'll have to buy for myself if I don't get them as gifts.

Japanese Refrigerator

2006-11-25T00:43:00.000+09:00

This is a Japanese refrigerator. I think it's neat. The layout is typical the clear shell is not.

Happy Thanksgiving

2006-11-24T09:01:00.000+09:00

This year I have a lot to be thankful for. Living thousands of miles away from home forces me to be more dependent on God's provision and gives me a new perspective for viewing all the things with which he has blessed me in the past.

Here are a few of the things I am thankful for:

My Family - I have always loved my family but a few months separation has shown me that I take them for granted far too much.

My Friends @ Home - Moving away from the buddies that have been my constant companions for the last five or more years makes me appreciate how unique we all are and how well suited for friendship.

My Friends Here - It would be significantly harder to be here if I didn't have a few friends that share my values to remind me that God is in control.

American Beef - I am thankful that God invented cows. I am also thankful that he taught Americans to feed their cows corn and steroids so that they doesn't taste nasty and bland like Australian beef.

Scholarship Money - If it weren't for $20k in scholarships, I couldn't be here.

The Internet - If Al Gore hadn't invented it, I would be deprived with my primary source of entertainment, news and information as well as my Skype line home.

My Room Mate - Even though we don't hang out much and have pretty different outlooks on life, he still tolerates my eccentricities and I appreciate that.

Even though I'm not home to celebrate the holiday with the people I am still very thankful. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and eat lots of Turkey for me.

Goodby Mr. Friedman

2006-11-22T13:25:00.000+09:00

Today I learned the sad news that Milton Friedman has died at the age of 94.

I greatly enjoyed reading his books and found his theories and ideas to be brilliant and insiteful. He pioneered ideas that were considered ridiculous when he proposed them but are now taken as fact and recognized as common sense.

I highly recommend his book Free to Choose to anyone even remotely interested in economics or politics.

Update:
I found an Wall Street Journal obituary detailing a couple of his many achievements.

The End is in Sight!

2006-11-21T20:29:00.000+09:00

Today I attended my last lecture in both of my Econ classes. Because Thursday is Thanksgiving and Japanese Labor Day, we don't have class and Monday is the final day of the normal semester. I still have three days for my MWF classes but classes are pretty much over.

I'll be going to the immigration office to get my re-entry permission on Wednesday. That will probably be an adventure as the office isn't located near any train stations and will require a 15 minute walk with unclear directions and a bad map. I'm expecting to spend a lot of time looking for it but I'm free the whole day so it shouldn't be to much of a stresser.

Finals start on the 30th. I have both my Econ finals on the 30th. I was able to get one of them moved from December 5th so that I'll have time to move before I get thrown out on the street on the morning of the 6th.

My other finals will be on December 4th. The 5th, I'll move out. The Sixth I'll go to Disneyland. Then finally after months of anticipation I'll go home to my family on the 7th. 16 days!

Festival!

2006-11-21T00:07:00.000+09:00

My school had a festival this Sunday. The student government required all clubs to run a fundraising booth and so Steph, Kimi and I ran a donut and coffee table.

Unfortunately, the estimates on the number of attendees was wildly inaccurate, so we bought way to many donuts and went about $60 in the hole. It was kind of sad but at least there's lots of yummy donuts to eat.

The festival also featured demonstrations by several of the clubs and a kind of talent show. It was pretty neat. Some of the performers were very talented.

Anyhow, that's what I did this weekend.

Funky Friday Cafe

2006-11-18T03:50:00.000+09:00

Today, I went with Stephanie to her church's Friday night college get together. It was fun and I got to meet a bunch of new people.

We had dinner, a rice dish with crab, egg, seaweed and some other stuff that I couldn't identify mixed in. As odd as the mixture sounds it was quite tasty. If I knew how to make it I would.

After dinner we played a game, kind of like Scattergories except that instead of listing words on various topics, the objective was to write down as many four letter words that started with the same letter as your name. Luckily there were no Freds, Sams, Dons or Harrys playing. I came in second.

Steph and the musical members of the group played a worship set. Then she shared her testimony. After that we all discussed what we believed God's purpose for us was.

It was a good time.

Package

2006-11-16T01:26:00.000+09:00

Huzzah! I received another package from home on Tuesday, this time from my family. It was loaded with beef jerkey, dried mangoes (which are fabulously tasty), Sugar Daddies, tea and a pan and cookie mix.

I have been doing a little bit better about sending letters. I'm still a despicable scoundrel when it comes to keeping in touch but at least I'm progressing a little. I've got a fat envelope of letters sealed and ready for the post office. It'll be in the mail tomorrow.

In other news, Kimi, Steph and I are trying to organize a trip to Disneyland (the one in Japan, not California). Scheduling will be tough but I think we'll be able to make it work. It'll be awesome if we can pull it off.

Things are Heating Up

2006-11-14T23:57:00.000+09:00

As the end of the quarter draws near my workload is finally starting to pick up. Lately, I've been working on essays or assignments everyday.

Saturday, I took a break and Stephanie and I went to Sunshine City, a 5 story, mostly underground mall in Ikebukero. It is famous because it is one of the biggest malls in Tokyo. Despite it's reputation it was actually smaller than the mall that I occasionally visit at home.

While there, I was looking for photo-worthy things that I could shoot for my mom. The mall was already decorated for Christmas and in the main square there was a three story blue and white flashing Christmas tree. As I moved close to get a good angle, I found that there was a small stage at the front with three guys in full samurai armor and a lady announcing something in Japanese on it. Since they were obviously worth the film I decided to snap them too. The lady on stage noticed my camera and she brought Steph and I on stage to get our pics taken. It was great.

In one of the stores they were selling air fresheners, similar to the pine tree ones at home except instead of a tree they were shaped like a marijuana leaf and were advertised as "hemp" odor. Why would someone want their car to smell like pot? Especially in a country where you do hard time in prison for so much as looking at a joint. Anyways, I thought it rather interesting.

After we finished walking the mall, we stopped at the busiest Starbucks in the world. It is located at "the crossing" in Shibuya. I almost choked when I had to pay more than $4 for a plain cup of hot chocolate. We got our drinks quickly but we ended up having to wait for more than half an hour to sit down. They were playing Christmas music in the store, reminding us that it's almost time for us to head back for the holidays. It also reminded us that we would be missing all of our Thanksgiving traditions. We sat and comiserated for almost an hour. With the rain outside and the Christmas music playing, while sitting and drinking Starbucks, it was almost like Seattle just without the people that make me call it home.

Registration

2006-11-10T13:02:00.000+09:00

I've registered for classes for next semester. From the looks of things, I'll be facing a much more challenging course load this time around. I am currently signed up for the following classes:

Intermediate Macroeconomic Analysis
International Monetary Econcomics
Statistical Analysis II
International Trade
Scientific Thinking in Psychology, Writing Intensive

At first I thought that I had devised the perfect schedule, I would come in from 9 til 4:00 Monday, Wednesday Friday with Tuesdays and Thursdays free. That would allow me to get a real job but unfortunately, one of the classes I hoped to take is not actually applicable to my degree. The replacement class that I have to take is at 3:15-4:45 Tuesday, Thursday. Ahh! it's so frustrating.

English Camp

2006-11-08T19:26:00.000+09:00

I'm sorry that it's taken so long but I've finally got a moment to give my report on Yamato Nishi English Camp 2006.

On Saturday the 28th, I got up at 0530 to grab a bite and a shower before meeting up with the rest of the Jiyugaoka residents that were helping out at the camp. I was really dragging because I had stayed up really late the previous night but nevertheless, both Josh(my room mate) and I made it to the meeting place on time @ 0600. Unfortunately we were the only ones who did. The rest of the group had done their typical Friday night drinking and ended up being quite a bit late. Other than the annoyance factor, it didn't really matter though.

We all made it to Shinjuku to meet the rest of the TUJers by the appointed time and from there we all made it on to the right trains to make it too Sagamiono. It really was amazing how every single one of the 28 TUJ students made it on time. I was impressed. Upon arriving in Sagamiono we were hustled to our busses for the five hour to the retreat center in Gunma prefecture. I blogged about that ride during the drive.The camp was held at Tokai University's Kogen Seminar Center in Gunma Prefecture amidst a beautiful fall, mountain landscape. We arrived at 1330, a little bit later than projected. We dropped our bags in our room, sat through a quick orientation and were at our stations ready to teach within an hour of arriving.

Throughout the weekend, each of the foreign students, most of us from Temple, was assigned to a station through which groups of students would rotate. The first day, we helped the student with introductions and then listened to a short presentation about their school. We coached them on their pronunciation, posture and other things to make their English presentation sound better. I thought that these exercise were a bit dry. What made them a lot more enjoyable was chatting with the students between sessions.

After a couple of workshops it was time for dinner. We all ate with our groups. By the time I met up with my group and made it through the line, the food was cold and between that and it's unfamiliarity I didn't really like it. The conversation with the Japanese students on the other hand was very enjoyable.

That night after dinner, we had several hours of free time before the students had to go to bed. During this time we got to hang out with them, chatting, playing games and taking pictures.

I should pause here and clarify that when I say, "take pictures" it was like being a full on celebrity. I got mobbed by literally dozens of girls wanting to take pictures with me. Over the week end almost every spare moment was an excuse for students to whip out their cameras and get pictures taken with an American. I probably appear in a couple hundred pictures, each one featuring me with the same cheezy grin. I felt a bit self conscious but seeing the excitement all the kids showed at the chance to take a photo with me I couldn't turn them down. It was crazy.

I have never been so popular in my life as when hanging out with those Japanese highschoolers.

One of the American English teachers at Yamato Nishi made my time at the camp a lot more challenging. The complication was innoncent enough, he has the same name as me. This meant that every single one of Yamato Nishi's 240 freshmen students permanently memorized my name the first time they heard it... and they expected reciprocity. Through out the camp I had students greeting me by name and then asking if I remembered their name. Can you believe that I forgot one or two of them? Okay, so I really forgot pretty much all of them. I ended up memorizing a little more than a dozen names out of all the students. At least the few that I remembered were wildly thrilled when I remembered them. I definitely need to build up my name recall skills.

The second day we did workshops for most of the day. This time we helped students work on distinguishing between English sounds that are indistinct in Japanese for example, 'l' and 'r', played word games and helped the kids work on speeches for a contest that was held on Monday morning.

Once again, after dinner we got to hang out with the students. It was a blast. Their excitement with us as foreigners, the challenge of bi-lingual conversation and the many friendly, fun kids all combined to make for a great time. After the students went to bed, the Americans stayed up chatting until early in the morning.

Despite our lack of sleep, we managed to get up and conduct the speech contest. One of my friends, a girl that I chatted with both evenings, won first place. I had helped her work on her speech and so needless to say I was super happy.

After the contest, we packed the few things that we hadn't put away the night before and loaded on to the busses for the return journey. On the bus the kids did karoke. It was excruciating. What with the terrible Japanese 80's music, the off-key guys and the feedback through the sound system the din was pretty awful. A fact which hardly prevented it from being fun.

All in all the trip was the funnest thing I've done since coming to Japan. I would highly recommend the experience to anyone who has a chance to do something similar. I know that I'm going to do my best to help out at English Camp next year.

NOTE: Pictures courtesy of the much appreciated Kimiko, who actually has a camera.

Go Vote!

2006-11-08T00:18:00.000+09:00

It's election day.

I didn't ever figure out how to get my ballot sent here so I'm sitting this election out. Don't worry, I'm terribly ashamed and feel like an enormous hypocrite. Despite all my whining about the government I didn't even find a way to exercise my own franchise.

Don't be a loser like me. Go vote!

Package!

2006-11-07T00:30:00.000+09:00

Huzzah! I got a package from home today.

My spendidly spectacular and oh-so-appreciated Aunt Janet and Uncle Chris sent be a big box loaded with candy, microwaveable kettlecorn and popcorn, Pringles and a new sweat shirt.

I am so happy to have snacks from home. The Japanese have some pretty tasty snacks but they tend to be expensive and they just aren't the same as what I'm used to.

The sweatshirt is also very timely. It's finally starting to cool off here. It won't be long before it's coat season proper.

I also got a fabulous letter and card from Emily (unfortunately the color doesn't come out good in my webcam). I showed it to some of my friends, they all admired it and thought it was super cute. One of them wished that she had a sister like Emily.

I have such a great family. They are always sending me wonderful packages, cards and letters to brighten my day. It is rather humbling how much they care. Unfortunately, I am not nearly so good at returning their attention. I usually forget to write and haven't sent any packages back. I really don't deserve them.

A Few More Days

2006-11-03T15:31:00.000+09:00

Sorry folks but it looks like it'll be a few more days before I get around to any more substantial posts. I've got two 5 page paper due in the next week, one of them on Monday. As a result I'll be needing to focus my writing energies on school work. I realize that I'm getting backed up, I still owe you guys a tour of the Imperial Palace and a more thourough treatment of my English camp experience.

A few interesting things have happened that I can relate pretty quick, hopefully they'll keep you entertained while I work.

A few days before Halloween, I was riding to a school and I saw a few little boys looking at masks and costumes at a small shop. One of them picked up a mask to look at it and when he held it up it was a Michael Jackson. The kids screamed and ran away. I laughed.

I actually had a trick-or-treater. One of the girls in my dorm rang everyone's doorbells. I think I was the only one who had candy on hand to give out.

Today is a Friday, but I've got the day off from school. Hopefully, I can get my Monday paper done today so that I can go touristing tomorrow. I've got church stuff all day on Sunday. Monday is BIble Study. I'm starting to get busy...

Home Again

2006-10-31T01:18:00.000+09:00

I just arrived home from English Camp. I had a fabulous time and have a lot to tell. However, it's really late and I've been running with my sleep tank near E and so I don't have time to tell about everything we did over the weekend.

Going to English Camp

2006-10-29T00:14:00.000+09:00

As I write this post I am riding on a bus to help staff at an English Camp. For the next three days I will be helping Japanese high schoolers to improve their English.

The camp is being hosted out in the countryside, about 5 hrs. from Tokyo by bus. We left early in the morning and should arrive sometime in the early afternoon. In order to make the most of our time, the school is having us start teaching shortly after arriving.

During the pre-camp meetings I was told that the students level would be very basic. I got the impression that they were just starting their English studies and were unable to carry on a real conversation. From the few girls I've spoken to so far this does not seem to be the case. It may be that the girls introduced themselves are the most confident of the group and that the rest are at a lower level.

When I walked on to the bus, I got a taste of what it must be like to be a celebrity. Everyone was eager for my attention and were delighted with everything I said. The gushed with pleasure whenever I was able to understand them and answer back. I can see why people get addicted to fame and popularity.

Since I don't have internet while I write it, this post has been time delayed.

Odds and Ends

2006-10-28T02:21:00.000+09:00

Here's a few things that have happened over the last week that didn't really merit a post of their own but might proving interesting:

Apparently the local police's new hobby is stopping gaijin bicyclists and asking to see their registration to prove that the bike isn't stolen. I've been stopped twice, one guy upstairs has been stopped three times. One time he wasn't carrying his wallet with his bike's registration card and got arrested (I'm not sure of all the details on the situation). Needless to say I've been very careful about remembering my wallet lately.

Yesterday, riding my bike to school, I passed a bright orange Lambroghini stuck in traffic. As traffic spurted and clogged, we kept passing each other. In the end I proved to be faster. It gave me great amusement to outpace a high performance sports car that cost more than my parent's house on my rusty granny bike.

While in a shop today, they were playing Weird Al's new single, White and Nerdy. Likely, I was the only person in the store that understood the lyrics. I thought it was pretty funny.

The Imperial Palace

2006-10-26T23:55:00.000+09:00

Yesterday I had the day off from school. I didn't want to sit around and waste time like I did on my previous holiday so, along with Stephanie, who was also looking to doing something touristy, I found somewhere to go.

When we arrived in Japan, the school gave us a packet with some touristy brochures, including a set of these maps with self guided tours. We decided to do the one around Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace.

Tokyo Station is sort of the Grand Central of the city. It was built in 1914, patterned off of the Central station of Amsterdam. It is built out of beautiful red brick and looks very old-style European. Unfortunately, the station sustained heavy damage during Allied bombing in WWII, including the destruction of several beautiful domes that used to ornament the roof.

The Imperial Palace (map) or Kokyo, is the official residence of the Emperor of Japan, Akihito. What is now the Imperial Palace used to be Edo Castle, which was built in 1457. It served as the military capital of the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Edo period (1603-1867). In 1869 during during the Meiji Restoration, the Emperor regained power and began to rule from what became known as the Imperial Palace.

This palace, like Tokyo Station was bombed during WWII. Unfortunately, it was completely destroyed. It was rebuilt in 1968. This is clearly visible when visiting, everything looks very new, not at all like it would if it were the original 549 structure.

The Palace grounds incorporate large Japanese gardens, high walls and wide moats. Visitors are not allowed inside the inner areas of the complex where the actual Palace and main buildings are located. Stephanie and I were able to visit the East Garden and to walk around and see the main gates, the Nijubashi bridge and the East Garden. Unfortunately, I do not have a camera and so was unable to take pictures. The pictures in this post are all of the net. However, Stephanie, made up for me by taking lots of pictures which she will be posting on her blog sometime in the near future. I hope to do some more commentary on our trip once I get those photos.

Firefox 2 Huzzah!

2006-10-25T21:31:00.000+09:00

Today Mozilla released the final, official version of Firefox 2. This new version includes many improvements including more efficent resource utilization, an integrated spell checker and a modern, sleeker looking interface.

I downloaded a copy yesterday before the rush on the servers but I haven't gotten around to installing and using it yet. I've been using a fair number of extensions and I want to make sure that all of the important ones are compatible with FF2 before I make the switch.

Long may the Fox reign!

Journeys

2006-10-24T23:20:00.000+09:00

I foumd out the other day that Kimiko, one of the few Christians on campus here at TUJ has a blog. Give her a visit and leave a comment if feel the inclination.

While she isn't quite as picture happy as Steph, she also does a better job than I at chronicling daily life in Japan. For example this wonderful picture of the Japanese version of food. Apparently she actually ate all that.

As I read the blogs of my fellow students I am confronted with the degree to which I am wasting an enormous opportunity to explore this unique and amazing country. I really need to get off my backside, go out and explore.

This Proves that I'm Open Minded

2006-10-24T15:36:00.000+09:00

This post was created, edited and posted using a Mac.

While I really hate the mouse and key board this uber sized display on its adjustable pivot thing is pretty spiffy.

As I'm beginning to use Macs a little bit more my outright hatered for them is being tempered and refined into a mere grudging dislike. They're non-standard layout and interface is irritating and due to the Apple poor quality to price ratio, I'll probably never buy one but at the same time I can now do most of my essential tasks and could imagine using one if a real computer were temporarily unavailable.

2006-10-22T23:31:00.000+09:00

I miss home.

Cooking for Geeks

2006-10-21T21:17:00.000+09:00

You've probably noticed that over the last week or two my attention has become increasingly occupied by the acquisition and preparation of nutrients. I am attempting to discover the techniques required to create edible combinations of plant and animal products which I then injest with the expectation of receiveing the nutrients necessary to sustain my body.

In other words, I'm trying to learn to cook. It is not an easy process. In search of assitance, I turned to the internet. Fortunately, my good friend did not let me down.

I found two great sites look like they will be very helpful; Cooking for Engineers and Snacksby.

Cooking For Engineers is:

"a cooking site that approaches cooking as a form of engineering rather than an art. Step-by-step descriptions and pictures guide you through each recipe."

Like the description says, its a detailed, geek-friendly cooking guide. I love the way they refer to their pots, pans and utensils as "equipment and gear".

Snacksby is "like Macgyver, but for food". Basicly to use this site you input a list of all the ingredients you have on hand and it spits out a list of recipes that you can make with the ingredients you have on hand. It's pretty neat. At first I was a bit skeptical, but after using it to find my dinner tonight my opinion of the site is much improved.

Cooking is usually not an area in which geeks excel. It's nice that some people are putting some effort into translating the art of cooking into a more methodical science.

Microsoft to Donate Computer Classes to Terrorists

2006-10-21T10:40:00.000+09:00

I found this story to be pretty amusing:

Microsoft Corp. has agreed to donate more than $300,000 to open computer centers where former paramilitary fighters will receive free training for civilian jobs, the government said Thursday.

Responding to a request from the Columbian government, Microsoft will be donating $234,000 in cash and $77,000 in software to help captured terrorists develop job skills so that they won't return to their usual careers, "crime, forming armed gangs... extortion and drug-trafficking."

The paramilitary group for which these men used to fight is funded primarily by growing and trafficking cocaine.

How would you like to try and teach Microsoft Windows to a convicted, crack-addicted terrorist, who is unfamiliar with any kind of machinery ore electronics more complex than his AK-47?

2006-10-21T08:43:00.000+09:00

Countdown - Click here to view the time left until I return home.

Adventures in Cooking: Fried Rice

2006-10-20T21:44:00.000+09:00

Yesterday, I decided to continue my self-taught* cooking education by trying to make fried rice, the variety filled with tasty little bits of meat, veggies and egg. I found a recipe online and followed the basic instructions. About 45 minutes later, my rice was ready to eat.

To make it, I first cooked some rice (supposedly fried rice is usually made to use up left over rice but I didn't have any). When it was done, I dumped it into my wok along with a tablespoon or two of canola oil and started stirring it around. Then I poured in some soy sauce and continued stirring. Next I added some finely frozen veggies: corn, peas and small cubed carrots. Finally, I squished all my rice up around the edges of the pan and scrambled a couple eggs in the middle. When the eggs were done I mixed them into the rice. Viola! Dinner.

My rice turned out so well that I decided to make some more this evening. Unfortunately, I encountered more trouble my second go round.

Since the first batch came out wonderfully I decided to make a much larger batch this time so that I could have some for lunch tomorrow. I started to make several cups of rice but I forget it on the stove and ended up burning it badly. For those of you new to the world of cooking, it's generally a bad sign when your are reminded of a forgotten cooking project by your olfactory sense.

I had to throw the whole pot away and start over, this time having to scrub hard-burned rice off the bottom of the pot before beginning.

I decided to continue with my plans to make a large pot despite my initial error. Fortunately the second batch came out perfectly and now I can happily report a full stomach and tupperware filled with tomorrow's lunch.

*In reality I am only somewhat self-taught, I often get cooking advice from my parents via Skype before trying a new recipe. In this instance however, the internet was my only teacher.

del.icio.us

2006-10-20T18:05:00.000+09:00

del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site that allows users to store their bookmarks online so that they are available from any computer with interent access.

What makes del.icio.us interesting is that it allows users to tage their bookmarks and make them public so that they can be viewed by others. This allows people to get a rough idea of how popular a site is and to find sites on a particular topic that others have found helpful.

Do any of you use del.icio.us?

Boudless

2006-10-19T23:12:00.000+09:00

The Boundless webzine and its accompanying blog have been a really encouraging source of good advice for me since I began reading them about a year ago. I know I've mentioned Boundless awhile back and even included it as one of my sidebar links but since there is an especially good set of articles up right now, and I've had a fair bit of reader turnover, I thought it might be a good time to give it another shout out.

I hope Boundless blesses you as much as it has blessed me.

Teach Me

2006-10-18T22:32:00.000+09:00

For the last few weeks, I have been reading through the Psalms in order for my daily devotional. This is a major departure from my reading strategy for the last eight years but so far it has been a blessing to go slower and focus more on smaller sections of scripture.

As I read, I am beginning to identify strongly with David as he pours out his heart to God, asking for mercy and blessing. It amazes me how each day's Psalm is just what I need right when I read it. I find encouragement on days when I'm down and thankful praise when I'm doing well.

About a week ago I came across this passage (quote from the NASB):

Psalm 25:4-7 Make me know Your ways O Lord; Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For you are the God of my salvation; For you I wait all the day. Remember O Lord, Your compassion and Your lovingkindness, For they have been from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; According to Your loving kindness remember me, For Your goodness' sake, O Lord.

Since then I have been using this passage as a prayer before I do the rest of my reading.

God's Word really is living and active.

Door Knockers

2006-10-16T00:55:00.000+09:00

I went to visit a friend in Kanagawa prefecture this week end. While at his apartment, someone rang the door bell and we opened it to fine a Jehovah's Witness.

Needless to say I was surprised. We chatted amiably, she tried to convert us and vis a versa. Her English wasn't that good and so we didn't really get anywhere but it was a interesting experience.

Webhosting

2006-10-14T01:53:00.000+09:00

I'm thinking about buying myself some webhosting. There are several things that I really want to try that require having a decent webhost.

I've poked around a bit, looking at free hosts and most of them seem to be pretty hokey. They give you cheezy subdomains or strange addresses and they have horrible user interfaces loaded with obnoxious adds. Even if I could get past all that, most of them won't allow me to install the kind of software that I want to use.

Anyhow, I found several hosts that have good reputations and that seem to be pretty user friendly. They give me 10-20 GB of hardspace and a thousand GB of bandwidth. Most of them come with professional blogging software (pre-set up if so desired), FTP, domain name(s), free tech support and uptime guarantees among a host of other features and services.

Here are the ones that I'm looking at:

If you know anything about these guys, have other recommendations or any advice I'd really appreciate your input.

The other thing that's appealling about these guys is that they're quite affordable, costing $6-8 per month which works out to less than a hundred dollars a year.

This looks like a really cool toy to buy and yet...

My miserly superego points out that I don't have an abundance of disposable capital to work with right now. Between the costs of tution and Tokyo living I'm living pretty close to the wire. Can I afford webhosting when I balk at the cost of buying fruit at the grocery store?

*UPDATE* I looked a bit more into AN Hosting and they are offering 50 GB of hard space, 1000 GB of bandwidth and all sorts of goodies for $7 a month, with my first two months free. That seems like a sweet deal. $70 for a year of sweet webhosting... It's so tempting.

My Temperament

2006-10-11T23:57:00.000+09:00

It is often useful to have a general model with which to analyze and categorize ourselves and the people around us in relation to disposition, preferences and the like. Of the several systems I've tried, my favorite is the Jung/Myers-Briggs/Keirsey style model. While Jung, Myers-Briggs and Keirsey differ slightly in their definitions of types, they use the same general categories and the same notation for results.

Usually the easiest way to discover your temperament is to take one or more of the online tests. I like to take several because they often utilize a different style of questions that yield slightly different results. After taking several tests I can analyze the results they give and decide which fit best. It seems that sometimes one tests will measure one dimension of temperament better than another, but the other test is more accurate on another dimension. With a little thought, I think you can get helpful results.

If you take one of these tests you will receive a four letter score such as ESFJ or INTP. The test measures four different dimensions of temperament and each letter represents your preference on one of them.

The four dimensions are:

Extroverted/Introverted (I or E) - This represents the degree to which you enjoy meeting with new people and/or spending time in large group settings and whether you energize by interacting with people or spending time alone.
Sensory/iNtuitive (S or N) - This represents the degree to which you rely on past experiences and concrete observations over intuition and conceptual reasoning when making decisions or evaluations
Thinking/Feeling (T or F) - This represents the degree to which you rely on emotion over logic to make decisions and evaluations. This also has to do whether you are people oriented or goal oriented.
Perceptive or Judging - This represents the degree to which you value stability and scheduling over spontaneity and flexibility.

I have taken a wide assortment of this type of temperment test over the last few years and I think I can describe myself well in these terms. So which of the 16 possible temperments am I?

I am an INTP.

My preference for Introversion is very weak. I usually feel awkward and uncomfortable when meeting people in social situations for example at a school or church get-together but at the same time I feel less uncomforable with unstructured, chance, one-on-one encounters for example I often strike up conversation while waiting in line or at work. I also need a good balance between time alone and time with people. Too much time alone makes me restless but constant time around people makes me crave some time alone with a good book. Generally, I like to have other people around when I DO something or go somewhere but I like to have time alone with the computer or a book.

I am strongly iNtuitive. I think far more abstractly than concretely. I understand theories and concepts like those found in economics or philosophy much better than things requiring more physical reasoning like mechanics or wood working.

As a moderately strong Thinker, I use logic and reasoning over emotion when making a decsion. I often think of issues without considering the feelings of other people. For example, I think that in some circumstances dogs could provide a useful food source, an opinion that flies in the face of most peoples affection for pets.

I am very mixed on the scale of Perceptive/Judging. I use P because when predicting behavior in combination with the other dimensions I usually act as a P. I like to keep my options open but at the same time I need to know of where I'm going and a rough idea of a plan to get there. I like to have a base of stability but to improvise from that base. I am prone to procrastination and am often impulsive about my use of time. Therefore I try to use lists and schedules to force myself to complete necessary tasks even though these methods are not natural to me.

So there you have it, my self-diagnosis of my temperment. Those of you who know me feel free to point out any flaws or blindspots in my reporting. Hopefully this was intersting for you guys. I encourage you to take a temperment sorter or two and post your results with your analysis.

Chowder: Take 2

2006-10-11T22:30:00.000+09:00

I made chowder again today and this time it came out great.

I cut my potatoes smaller and boiled them longer and slower so they cooked down better, I didn't burn the bacon and I didn't allow the soup to boil after adding the milk.

I learned from last times mistakes and I made a tasty meal that didn't come prepackaged. Perhaps I can learn to cook after all.

Air

2006-10-10T16:26:00.000+09:00

It's amazing what a dramatic improvement air can make to a bicycle tire.

Today I went and retrieved my bike from school. I took a bus to school and then lugged my bicycle with its rear flat tire all the way home. Actually I quickly tired of lugging it and ended up riding it on the rim most of the way.

I took it to Seiyu, the Japanese affiliate of Walmart and was able to get it repaired without talking to anyone. It was pretty neat. I just brought it to the bike area, the guy saw the problem, took the bike patched both holes in the tube, handed me a piece of paper with the price on it and I paid, no muss no fuss.

What was also interesting is that he was able to fix the bike without ever standing up. When I brought the bike to him, he was sitting on a little cart thing. He had all his tools arranged so that they were immediately at hand and he didn't have to move to get any of them. It was a very efficent system and rather interesting to watch him work.

I'm so glad to have this problem solved.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

2006-10-09T23:48:00.000+09:00

(Picture taken with my lappy's webcam)

In the last week or so I've slipped into the habit of eating a loaf of bread everyday.

That might seem rather excessive but here a loaf consists of a mere six to eight slices, a number easily consumed in my average day. I start the day with a couple pieces of toast, then for lunch I have a pair of sandwitches utilizing two slices each and then in the evening another sandwhich makes a good, pre-bedtime snack.

When I first came to Japan, I didn't buy any bread at all. Going to the store and seeing what to me was less than half a loaf of bread selling for the equivalent of $1.50 seemed to me to be nothing short of extortion. However, as I've gotten used to Japanese prices I've come to realize that two meals for $1.50 (plus butter for toast and jam for my sandwhiches) is actually a pretty good buy.

It feels rather odd buying four or five loaves of bread at a time so I've been buying my bread in onesies and twosies. This means I have to make an almost daily trip to the store for bread, thus I am gaining a new appreciation for the Lord's prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread."

A Great Day

2006-10-08T00:18:00.000+09:00

Today was a wondeful day, made all the better by contrast with the last few days.

It started as a good weekend should with me sleeping in till 11:30. I got up and played around a bit on my computer. I had a nice chat with Tanya and Virtual Mindshare, while checking my email and reading my newsfeeds.

Around 2:00 I went out to Shibuya and met a friend from church to do some shopping in Harajuku. I got a cheeseburger and fries for lunch (I found coupons on the sidewalk on the way).

After working our way through Harajuku, we went to a worship service at church. I did a better job of worshipping than I usually do, focusing on God rather than allowing my mind to wander and really praising from my heart. It was a good time.

After the service, I stayed around and chatted for a long time. I think I made a few new friends. I'm going to help them with some street ministry on Tuesday which should be interesting considering that I don't speak Japanese.

Finally when everyone left church, we all converged on the local Sukiya for a late dinner. I had soup, salad and a tasty bowl of Tonkatsu-don. Chatting continued until we all went our seperate ways on the train.

Finally, on arriving home, I had a nice devotional reading from Psalm 18. Now I'm writing a quick blog post and heading for my cozy bed, with a full belly, happy and exhausted.

Rebuilding Microsoft

2006-10-07T23:51:00.000+09:00

Wired Magazine has a really good article on the shifts taking place inside Microsoft as Gates steps back in favor of a new Chief Software Architect, Ray Ozzie.

Mr. Ozzie will be shepherding Microsoft as the corporation attempts to shift its focus to the new web-based model of application distribution.

The article was great and if you're at all interested in software or business, I highly recommend it.

Typhoon

2006-10-07T02:39:00.000+09:00

Yesterday, I wrote, "Depending on the weather, I may walk it [my bike] home sometime in the next week.". Well, the weather reports are in and it doesn't look like I'll be getting my bike in the near future.

You see, right now I'm getting hit by a typhoon (the Asian version of a hurricane). In America, everyone knows for a week in advance if their is the slightest chance of getting hit by a hurricane. Here my first warning was watching the rain blow sideways and umbrellas turn inside out on my way home from school. Once inside Josh turned on the TV to show the entirity of Japan covered in one swirling storm.

I don't think they're predicting major damage. I walked to Seven Eleven at one'o'clock in the morning to buy chocolate and I survived without harm except for getting wet and cold.

The storm should blow over in a couple days. So what's next on the forecast?

...Another typhoon. No joke.

A Lousy Day

2006-10-05T22:33:00.000+09:00

Today wasn't a very good day.

On my way to school, I got a flat tire on my bike.

Of course the day I got a flat was also the day that it had to pour down rain. After class, a Japanese classmate helped me to look for somewhere to get my bike fixed.

We found a store that sold bike tires and inner tubes but I don't know how to change a back tire. After a bit of asking around, we found a bike shop. Unfortunately for me, there was a hand-written note on the door saying that the shop was closed early. I ended up just locking up my bike to be fixed sometime in the future when the shop opens up. Depending on the weather, I may walk it home sometime in the next week.

After trecking about in the rain for more than an hour, I ended up having to wait in the rain for another twenty minutes for a bus and pay to go home.

Of course I'm pretty much out of food but since I didn't want to walk a half hour out to the grocery store with no bike or umbrella I ended up digging through the cupboards to find something for dinner. I found some curry but the girls next door have taken the communal ricecooker and weren't home for me to get it back.

I ended up cooking my rice in one of the nasty little pots that were provided by the dorm.

Reading back over this, I'm being kind of whiney. Sorry about that, I'll try to do better in the future.

Testing

2006-10-03T20:52:00.000+09:00

I am trying the new beta for Windows Live Writer blog publishing software. This is just a quick test to see if it is configured properly and if posts I construct in this application are properly posted here on The Rabenstranger.

I intend to keep using Live Writer along with Performancing, to see which if I either I prefer to the default Blogger site. As I come closer to a conclusion I'll provide a more detailed review. Until then, feel free to try out either on your own and let me know what you think.

*EDIT*

Palm boy said, "I tried the Live software a few months ago, I liked it. But I like the online one better, its faster for me."

Ah, but I've got a Live Writer extension for Firefox. This makes for quicker bloggin because I can blog from any website instead of having to go to blogger.com/home. I just click one little button and up Live Writer pops, ready to record and publish my thoughts.

Woody said, "So it worked then?"

It certainly looks that way. Now I'm testing to see whether I can successfully edit a post.

Accountablility

2006-10-03T20:31:00.000+09:00

I've started attending a small bible study with a few friends from church. We meet each week to study God's word, discuss our personal devotions and fellowship.

One of the things that we are doing is making a conscious effort to hold each other accountable to spend time in the Word and in prayer. I haven't been doing very well with my devotions since coming to Japan but the encouragement from my Christian brothers is already starting to make a difference in the way that I prioritize my time and helping to focus on the eternal.

Your prayers would be appreciated (as always) as I strive to develop habits that will lead me into a deeper relationship with God.

Monthly Budget

2006-10-01T01:46:00.000+09:00

I added up my total expenses for September today. I spent 43,784 yen ($371). My daily average for the month was 1459.67 ($12.37). Not bad if I do say so myself.