Entries this day: AM_deflations Roller_coaster_pics Shinkansen_pics_and_video TJ_Bike_needs_a_bell baby_saving mcD's_dinner wtf_list

AM deflations

7:05am JST Saturday 27 May 2006 (day 13212)

Slept in the tunnel; headed out at 5:40am.

1. Many homes are constructed with nails as fasteners

2. They can be used to point at maps and other things

3. They are relatively inexpensive yet quite durable

4. They can be used to make beds

5. They leave easily identified holes in innertubes

Regarding number 5 above, in today's case two easily identified holes in one punch.

- - - -

7:45am

Fixed both punctures in record time. And now I know why the guy at the bike shop used scissors to make the hole bigger. It easier to see once the rubber cement is covering it (before applying the patch).

- - - -

8:45am

Another flat.

I kept my cool, though I wasn't really impressed with my luck.

- - - -

9:32am

Fixed the flat, this one being a gash in the tube. When I inflated, I saw what had happened. I will ride super carefully to try and keep it from happening again: There's a little hole in my tire, where the tube poked out like a hernia. Hit a bump and the rim sliced right through it.

- - - -

9:45am

bump-slice

Limped to the next gas station and they directed me to a bike shop.

Offloaded heavy stuff from the back: my backpack on my back and my green bag on TJ Bike's handlebars. Headed to the bike shop, trying to lift the back to keep a lot of weight from damaging the rim. The tire is absolutely shot. Tube can be salvaged, but it now has 8 patches and a small gash next to the most recent patch.

- - - -

10:15am

The bike shop turns out to be a motorcycle shop. The guy was like, "we'll have to order the tire."

"how much will it cost? wait; who cares... what time will it get here."

"Not time. day."

"Tomorrow?"

"Umm"

"Day after?"

"mmmm"

"The day after the day after?"

"probably"

"next week? Next year???"

He laughed, which was a welcome relief from Japanese not understanding sarcasm.

The day after tomorrow I plan to be in Odawara. I can't wait.

He explained that his guy had gone upstairs to check, but if they didn't have it, they didn't have it.

Oh shit...

- - - -

They had it.

And a tube.

ふしぎ, said I. (unbelievable)

- - - -

They put it on, and said it would be 5250 yen. I have 3000 + change in my wallet. "Is credit card okay?"

"not really."

I counted the notes in my wallet: "1, 2, 3, finish," I said.

そ、か。。 and they got the credit card machine going.

I thanked them profusely, and thanked the guy who had directed me there as I rode triumphantly in front of his shop.

Roller coaster pics

1:35pm JST Saturday 27 May 2006 (day 13212)

I was looking for a park for lunch and saw a sign for a zoo and botanical garden. Looked at where the sign pointed and saw a roller coaster.

Hmmmmmm. Wonder if I can get some pics.

Long story short (for once), they wouldn't let me in (without buying a ticket) and tried to explain that the coaster wasn't running due to the high wind (I don't care; I just want pictures) so they accepted my camera and took pictures for me while I ate lunch outside the park.

How much did it cost the park to have that employee (manager type, given her nicer uniform than the ticket taker) go take pictures? Why not charge me for the ticket, offer to buy it back if I'm back at the gate within 5 minutes?

Because I wouldn't have been able to get pics of the train inside the platform...

Nice.

Shinkansen pics and video

3:39pm JST Saturday 27 May 2006 (day 13212)

Second lunch while on a bridge, next to a train line and a shinkansen line.

Earlier today I took another pic of TJ Bike and shinkansen.

TJ Bike needs a bell

7:41pm JST Saturday 27 May 2006 (day 13212)

Before I run over any more school kids, I'm going to get a bell. My plan is to liberate one from an abandoned bike.

If a bike has two flat tires and is way in the corner of the bike parking area, and has a bell, I plan to snag that bell and give it another chance to ring.

baby saving

5:41pm JST Saturday 27 May 2006 (day 13212)

On the west side of Hamamatsu, about 4km west of the station, I was lucky enough to save a baby from likely concussion. The strong wind (against which I have been struggling all day (it sucks)) tried to blow over a woman's bicycle with her baby in the front handlebar seat while she was getting her other child out of the back seat.

Whoops; tipping; she grabbing the bike and squealing a bit, and I instinctively just sprang over and caught the bike like a super hero.

I got yer back, baby jack.

- - - -

I don't know how I will make it to 小田原 tonight.

mcD's dinner

6:41pm JST Saturday 27 May 2006 (day 13212)

I've made it to Mapple 3 (which includes Tokyo), and am on page 2 A:3 at McDonald's. I plan to ride 3 more km tonight to a river for sleepin' purposes.

70km tomorrow to Shizuoka, then I can make 小田原 pretty easily in a day, I believe.

7:30pm

I've just transcribed all the journal entries from last night and today.

wtf list

7:52pm JST Saturday 27 May 2006

Things to do First

1. test the Python gallery script you found. C-something

2. If it works basically well, scope the source.

3. If the source looks manageable,

   1. wipe out Coppermine

   2. restore /images directory from backup

   3. try to start a dialogue with the cat who wrote the Python code

   4. try to make the thumbnail mods to Python code

1:00am JST Friday 26 May 2006

Things to do

Started actually moving pictures from iPhoto to my site today. Also messed around with Coppermine a lot. I might use it.

o = started; * = finished; X = バッツ

1. Turn Coppermine ecard logging on

2. Remove /images/etc/kanji_tunnels

3. Upload more pictures from my hard drive:

   1. from Kobe to meditation center
   2. Kobe dinner party
   3. kids' meditation
   4. V-center to Amanohashidate
   5. Amanohashidate
   6. Amanohashidate to Biwako
   7. Biwako to Kazzah's
   8. delete or mail or upload those that are in folders on the desktop
      1. moving from me-an-Wende's house
      2. comics
      3. images from Dude's
      1. 04mar2002
      • gene gets shaved
      2. 30mar2002 maggie move
      3. for_vero
      4. genx_jan2002
      5. shepherd_resurfacing
      • 20020113
      • 20020116
      • 20020209
      4. move these online
         1. IMs
         2. bryn
         3. coaster pics
         4. dallasrally2000
         5. gmails
         6. images15feb2002
         7. images15jan2002
         8. images8jan2002
         9. jamaika
         10. jenpics
         11. roll2
      5. palestine
      6. pb
         1. pics49th_voyage
         2. pics52

4. create more albums in images/need_to_upload

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

6. Incorporate them into my journal entries from those occasions.

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

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

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

10. 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

11. write card to あかね

12. mail November card to Delphine

13. mail card to あかね

14. mail card to Genkiman Dan

15. think about how logfiles can be sent to me

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

17. Archive for later use: this extracts images from mail messages with perl. Awesome.

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

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

19. write birthday reminder code

20. read email

21. research auto-geotagging camera

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

23. look for official US govt info regarding Airplane Day

    archive it

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

25. archive proof against govt version physics911, etc

26. add birthday field to Rob Updates db

27. add birthdays:

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

28. write comic snagger with on/off switch

29. allow Rob Updates to change directory

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

31. look in to marketing Francois branded cups and shirts

32. write to Jimmy regarding Francois branding

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

34. login to quicken/turbotax to do taxes.

35. 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...)

36. Write a Rob Update

37. 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.

38. Decide what to do next...

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

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