Entries this day: Dream Dream_analysis Emacs_toggle-input-method Invaluable_code List_that_wouldn't_quit Mail_from_Korea Mail_from_Sumidasan ZZ_software_update

Dream

8:32am JST Monday 22 May 2006 (day 13207)

I was driving Scottie, my favorite car, in Japan, and having some challenges remembering which side of the road to use, but I got it right as I went through a short underpass, then turned left up this hill, and had to shift through the gears up the hill, but my feet remembered how to do that. Up the hill and into this little covered area where I needed to turn left into someone's garage, but it was blocked with an inflatable mattress standing vertically upon which my G hoodie was hanging to dry.

I stopped and snagged the hoodie and went into the garage to thank them for drying it and was ready to be on my way, but the guy was like, "that's not dry yet [like you said it was]."

I was like, "oh, don't worry..."

but he was totally into drying it, and set up a heater to make it dry more quickly, so that I could use it while we go on this camping trip, but then the dryer wouldn't work and he constructed a replacement fan to fit into the end of a pipe (with screened output on the left), but for some reason *that* wouldn't work either, so he fashioned a small fix to fix that, and it was quite close, but not perfect, and he cut out *more* plywood and made a whole new exhaust fan unit, and had to install it backwards due to some issue, and it therefore required ordering some really long threaded bolts, and I was thinking, 'holy shit; all this just to dry my hoodie; this guy is really determined..'

but I wasn't sure *why* he was so determined. Was it a cultural thing - take care of the guests, or an honor thing - he said he would do it, so he's doing it, or did he just like construction projects?

I came back into the room to help him and soon woke up.

Dream analysis

8:45am JST Monday 22 May 2006 (day 13207)

I think this dream came after I was just sitting on my arse last night evaluating photo album software while Kazzah cooked dinner. I seem to have really felt guilty about that.

Granted, I did go shopping for the food and did do all the dishes last night (and I do mean night: 1:30am), but still felt weird playing while she was working.

I was just so focused on using the wireless signal that had become available and then sucked into going through all the delicious source code...

Emacs toggle input method

8:48am JST Monday 22 May 2006 (day 13207)

I found this after a mistype of the variety C-\ instead of C-] to replace the escape key (sometimes it registers two (or more) ESC's when I hit the escape key, so I've turned to C-]

Anyway, C-\ is toggle-input-method, which put me into typing Japanese, which was annoying for a second until I remembered what I had pressed to get into that mode, and pressed it again to get out.

Then I had to check wtf happened.

C-h c

Describe key briefly: C-\

C-\ runs the command toggle-input-method

Cool.

BUT, that's not why I'm writing.

Previously, I had been changing the keyboard input at the OS X level, and emacs would handle it by giving me an external bar into which I could type, and then it would put the characters into the buffer.

It worked perfectly well, like this:

ひらがな、カタカナ、漢字。

But it's a bit annoying to have to look in a different line-window to type, etc.

Now, I can just type C-\ and type right in the big window, like this ひらがな、カタカナ、漢字。

Wow! And this way, when I type control characters to add html-markup, it knows not to try making those into Japanese at first (though it gracefully recovers even if I'm in line-window mode).

This is totally phat.

Emacs rules!

Holy shit; I just noticed one more thing: when I type something like this: てすと, and then hit the space bar, it gives me a selection of choices in the bottom line, [1 テスト]which I can choose by typing the identifying number of the item I want, or by repeatedly typing space.

Oh, wait; I have to hit the spacebar a couple times before that comes up. It's to save keystrokes (and not waste processor time) because usually one or two SPCs will get to the desired kana or kanji.

The only limitation I see: up to 10 options are available at a time, even if there are more than that many options.

But still, given that it remembers the chosen selection and favors the ones selected often/recently (I don't know which; it's been so transparent that I don't care) it's not an issue.

Okay, now I found an annoyance: I can't get it to print the kanji for my name without typing one character at a time: 路 武

でも、すごいです！

Invaluable code

9:45am JST Monday 22 May 2006 (day 13207)

I found this beautiful code written by Mike Schienle

It's a perl script to extract images from emails and put them in mySQL

The code is beautiful and to me looks basically flawless. I will probably pick up a lot of its pieces and hopefully be able to give props to my main man Mike.

List that wouldn't quit

10:07am JST Sunday 21 May 2006

Things to do

Today there is a 5% chance of internet and 95% chance of being outside, so I will focus on non-internet activities:

o = started; * = finished

1. * Give props to webquarry for great service

2. change website passwords

3. move /travel/Palestine/2005_olive_harvest/one_shade.jpg and two_shades.jpg

4. move pictures out of online /images/journal directories:

   1. 1998/
   2. 1998/flood
   3. 1998/rally
   4. 1998/tree
   5. 2001/07
   6. * 2002/01
   7. * 2002/02
   8. 2002/03
   9. * 2002/05
   10. 2002/06
   11. 2002/07
   12. 2002/11
   13. 2002/12
   14. * 2003/02
   15. 2003/03
   16. * 2003/08
   17. * 2003/09
   18. * 2003/10
   19. * 2003/11
   20. * 2003/12

5. create more albums in images/need_to_upload

6. Uploading more pictures from my hard drive:

   1. from Kobe to meditation center
   2. those that are in folders on the desktop (marble track, moving from me-an-Wende's house, etc)
   3. the final final ones from PB 52
   4. the final final final ones from PB 49 (unless I did them already)
   5. the ones from Koji's farm
   6. from riding to Koji's farm (unless those are done)

7. Incorporating them into my journal entries from those occasions.

8. decide what to do with /journal/images/kyoto_nara_kamakura

9. Updating iPhoto to iPhoto 6 (if it's a free upgrade, which I think it is)

10. figure out what I have transcribed from PB 52 journal

11. o list below what I need to transcribe from PB 52 journal

12. transcribe Japanese journal from PB 52:

    1. page on backside of picture with me and Kin sleeping
    2. page with me and Kin sleeping picture
    3. Kimberly and some guy picture page
    4. next page about Vodafone
    5. buncha pages after that

13. write card to あかね

14. mail November card to Delphine

15. mail card to あかね

16. mail card to Genkiman Dan

17. think about how logfiles can be sent to me

18. Write about my trip from Kobe to the meditation center

19. Research photo album software

    http://holocore.com/?PictureSync
    http://php.resourceindex.com/Complete_Scripts/Images_and_Graphs/Image_Indexing/index.html
    http://www.view-sw.com/birch/
    http://www.emalbum.com/

    plus, this extracts images from mail messages with perl. Awesome.

    http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/05/07/iphoto_perl.html?page=2

20. Testing the output of saving for web and updating (or hopefully scrapping!) iPhoto_2_legible.pl as necessary.

21. write birthday reminder code

22. read email

23. research auto-geotagging camera

24. start looking into how to do googlemaps again. draw that red line!

25. look for official US govt info regarding Airplane Day

    archive it

26. make a note to look again in (each year for) 10 years

27. in 10 years, look up public school textbooks about Airplane Day

28. archive proof against govt version physics911, etc

29. add birthday field to Rob Updates db

30. add birthdays:

    1. Rei, May 2nd
    2. Slavena, 17 February

31. write comic snagger with on/off switch

32. allow Rob Updates to change directory

33. think about writing site_visualizer; look for a free version

34. look in to marketing Francois branded cups and shirts

35. write to Jimmy regarding Francois branding

36. offer to take teddybear Tomoko's teddybear up Mt Fuji

37. login to quicken/turbotax to do taxes.

38. Ask Zach from World of Where if I can get a registration code (I helped him find some bugs in his previous version of the software (and paid for a registration anyway after he gave me one free); perhaps if I can find bugs in the new version...)

39. Write a Rob Update

40. Decide where to go next if I continue TJ Biking: (basic ideas:

    1. ? somewhere near Fuji to see the peeps who I met on the last day of PB52
    2. Odawara to meet Nachiko
    3. ? northwest Tokyo to meet Alice and her husband
    4. back into Tokyo), OR escape the country OR plant myself somewhere.

41. Decide what to do next...

42. comment on http://www.yruuspider.com/

43. see why ひかり doesn't show up correctly on http://robnugen.com/cgi-local/journal.pl?type=all&date=2003/08/09

Mail from Korea

2:24pm JST Monday 22 May 2006 (day 13207)

From: YES Youngdo English School
To: Rob

Dear Rob,
 
Hello
My name is Jenny Lee from yesyoungdo ahnyang branch.
I was informed about you by Andrew Milton and I would like to have an interview with you as soon as possible.
Could you let me know when you are okay with your contact number?
I look forward to hearing from you.
 
Yours sincerely.
Jenny Lee

I just gave Karen's digits... Now suddenly it all begins to move...

Mail from Sumidasan

4:24pm JST Monday 22 May 2006 (day 13207)

After getting the positive note back from Korea, I sent a semi-byebye note to Sumidasan, who I had asked if he could sponsor my visa. I had basically assumed the null response was a "no" response.

But

I apologize you for not responding your request.
I have been negotiating with Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare  about
your request.
( I am a ex-'yakunin'=government oficial.)
They are searching appropriate job for you somewher internatinal section.
In any country 'red-tape' is red tape,you know.
If their respose is good for you, I will inform you of the news.

In any case, we are waiting your return to Tokyo and shall have good time
with you.

Holy shmoley! A government job in Japan? How...... unexpected and different that would be!

Yikes stripes; this is ... wow.. I feel a bit of fear around taking such a job because I don't want to stay THAT long (whatever that means), but it would be pretty phat to be able to practice Japanese, etc. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

but I had started looking forward to a new adventure in Korea.

two totally different possibilities, each of which may or may not be available.. what a present moment the unknown future provides!

ZZ software update

10:56pm JST Monday 22 May 2006 (day 13207)

Kazzah and I are back at her apartment; we just work work worked all day; I got a lots of pictures shifted around on my website, putting them into directories that I think I'll be happy with in the long run, though some of them are in long spindly directory structures like thin vines with flowers on the end.

A kinda weird thing happened; I installed the latest security updates that had been recommended, and now Software Update cannot reach the internet.

Try again tomorrow and see what I can figure out.

I wanted to run Software Update again to get the latest iPod updates, which I had been ignoring until Kazzah let me borrow the iPod Nano that her school loaned her (as they loaned one to every other language teacher and student).

Now: bedtime.