Entries this day: TJ_Bike_back_in_Tokyo... TJ_Bike_returns_to_Tokyo Universal_Modeling_Language Zzzzzz

TJ Bike back in Tokyo...

TJ Bike back in Tokyo...

No news is good news with me and TJ Bike.

I have deemed my shoulder 100% healed, and decided to go back to Odawara to get TJ
Bike and ride back to Tokyo and finish the journey.

Things didn't quite work out that way; I recognized the back brakes were basically
useless (this is likely a primary cause of my accident), so I didn't want to ride
back home.  Fortunately, I had left my bike bag with TJ Bike.  Packed TJ Bike into
the bag and took the train back home.

Details are here
http://robnugen.com/journal.pl?type=all&date=2006/08/11#TJ_Bike_returns_to_Tokyo

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In other news, I have gotten full time work!  This is good news for I will begin
some positive cash flow to pay back the debt after a wonderful 15 months of
traveling.  It does mean I will be in Tokyo for another year, so that's one more
year of not seeing friends and family back home.

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Also, I have found a few men in Tokyo from Mankind Project (http://www.mkp.org), it
will be a great blessing to reconnect with this energy.

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No travel plans at this point (though I have just added blank pages to my
passport!) so probably no more Rob Updates for a while.

Please send *your* updates!  I love to know how my friends are doing.

   Peace and Love
   Hugs and Blessings
   - Rob

TJ Bike returns to Tokyo

2:50pm JST Friday 11 August 2006

Made it back to Tokyo with TJ Bike!! It seemed a lot quicker than I expected, though at times TJ Bike seemed a lot heavier than before.

Why?

I guess because I took the train back, and when not on the train, carried TJ Bike on my back. 1300 yen to get back from Kamonomiya, primarily via Tokaido sen.

Super thanks to Nachiko for all her help in getting TJ Bike safely home. Recovering him from the police station, storing him at her house, picking me up at the train station last night, and getting us to a bike shop this morning.

Our plan had been to have a nice ride around the river near her house and then chill in a park.. but after getting on TJ Bike, I realized the source of my accident:

The brakes didn't work worth shit.

Though I got them fixed in Kobe (thanks to Richard getting me to a competent bike shop), they were crap again by Hakone, causing me to eat dirt and then meet pavement.

No more crashing due to failed parts for me, so we went to a bike shop, but neither he nor his friend could fix them to my satisfaction. I basically want all new brakes.

Chilled with Nachiko in Mister Donuts for a bit, then she helped me load TJ Bike into a bag for the trip home. That's when TJ Bike started getting heavy.

I was quite pleased to see the station was on Tokaido line; I'm quite familiar with its route in Tokyo. Zoom straight to 品川行って、山手線で渋谷に行って、田園都市線で帰った。(*)

On Tokaido line, starting from 4 or 5 stations from Kawasaki to Kawasaki, I met a mom and her kids a bit after she asked me if my big bag contained a bicycle. Her son was too cool to talk (being about Jr High age), but her daughter gave me a piece of candy. We got through a few questions and talked a bit about Francois after I saw the daughter's Poohbear keychain thing. Gave them a link to Francois' slideshow.

All in all, a good day. And 12 more hours to go!

(*) this is not a translation, but a related story:

2:42 PM Fred: ok
          me: AND AND AND AND AND there is a funny thing
              you got 5 mins?
        Fred: whassat?
              yeah, but not more
2:40 PM   me: In Shibuya, there are three train lines owned by the same company
        Fred: k
          me: but they don't physically connect. People have to exit the platform area and go to the next one
              Transferring from one line to another (of the same company) costs nothing
2:41 PM but exiting the gates and reentering costs something.
              SO
        Fred: .
          me: they have a way to tell the tickets that we are going to transfer to the same company's other line
2:42 PM Fred: ok
          me: For some reason, during the day those tickets (with credit to enter the other lines)
              pile up (like 4 or 5) and are available at the specific turnstiles..
2:43 PM it's like peope use the transfer tickets, but then don't Take The Ticket with them
              SO these tickets are like an untapped resource that the train company is happy to throw away periodically
              and I am happy to use
        Fred: and you're happy to captialize...?
          me: perfect!
        Fred: haha
          me: there is an even better word..
              harness
2:44 PM Fred: heh
          me: "every year thousands of lemmings..... ... if we could somehow harness this energy, we
              could keep their lives from being wasted"
              I just go grab a ticket and boom only 20 cents or FREE to go home
2:45 PM Work will pay for both ways to and from.. and I just use TO
              can't do it at my station; there are no other lines to transfer
        Fred: haha
              cool!
          me: def
2:46 PM Fred: aiiite
              i gots to go
          me: though I'm just thinking about it... I will have to bang out the numbers to see if I can actually capitalize
        Fred: a friend is in town
          me: seeeeeeeeee you
        Fred: aiight
              lemme know how it goes!
          me: peace
              tru
        Fred: just sell them, yo
              at work?
          me: haha
              like homer simpson selling sugar
        Fred: to ur students?
          me: to sketchy
        Fred: heh
          me: would never work
2:47 PM Fred: tru

Universal Modeling Language

5:45pm JST Friday 11 August 2006

Just about to continue working on mapadmin, but decided to read about UML first. Rick suggested it to me, and I think I need a better way of laying out projects.

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I didn't get very far reading about that. The language is not really a language, but just a set of ideas to write out a project from different points of view. Wikipedia has a pretty good description and lays out the complaints against UML.

Zzzzzz

1:17am JST Saturday 12 August 2006

Falling asleep here; worked on maps code, played secondlife a little bit (my character name is Blinking Signals (because we can't choose our last name or just one name) and watched three episodes of Simpsons after Michael got home.

Got an email from the mom from Tokaido line, but no email address to write her back.

I'm in touch again with the woman who called herself Tatyana. This time she is calling herself Natalia. I am pretty sure it's the same person because s/he's using the same email address. Not sure if I will make a new 3rd level domain name or what. She sent two pictures I hadn't gotten last time.

Before I write, I need to think of a good persona for myself. I'm thinking of living on Rapa Nui, or an island without a big airport.