Entries this day: Dream_PB Good_idea Hilarious_post_on_NaNoWriMo Integrating_disqus_test Message_to_Yongfook My_camera_isn't_broken New_Marble_Track donkihote-_is_open_24_hours

Dream PB

8:01am JST Saturday 1 November 2008 (day 14101)

Had a chance to get a used table from a friend, so I solicited the help of some friends to help me move it. Richard (Kiwi) was helping move it when I arrived (late) with my group, and he was upset. I placed my hand on his chest and made eye contact with him for a few minutes as he changed from hot and sweaty to normal; emotionally angry to spiritually enlightened; and from Richard the Kiwi to Kim Sawyer, my warrior brother.

I then apologized to the group for making them wait again, thanked them for their help, and suggested that if we get just one person on each corner of the table, we could lift it easily, or two smaller people on each corner, and a girl went to the opposite end and just picked it up, "or one strong person to just get the other end," and we started to carry it.

She wasn't as strong as I thought and she struggled a bit to carry it; I considered asking for help again from the group, but didn't.

- - - -

Riding in a train along a river, there were plenty of people on it, but no windows to keep us all inside. We could see down the cliff into the river, and I noted with some curiosity (and excitement) that PB was sailing along the river. It looked really far away; farther away than the river itself (or the river must be really wide?)

The train driver announced something about waterfalls that I didn't understand, and then suddenly I couldn't see PB, because the river was right up at our level; because I had been looking back at the ship, I didn't see the water falls! The train turned to cross the higher elevation river, so we could see the water flowing off to the right of the train, off the face of the cliff.

Rolling across some islands in the water, we went by a family of kangaroos, one of whom was a really cute blonde girl with kangaroo body (a centauroo?), who waved to the train as we passed by. She saw how the train had no sides, so she suggested helpfully: "be careful!" as we passed by, even though normally she would just wave like a character in a theme park.

I said I was being careful, but then noted another equally cute woman on the train, just in front of me; under the guise of being helpful, I scooped my arm around her waist to ensure she said on the train.

As we progressed, I wondered if it was appropriate to have my arm around her, but she didn't seem to mind, so I just stayed there. Nice.

Arrived a a party, someone announced we could see PB, which was parked in the river, visible from an onsen. I was all excited like, "really? where? where?" because it was my first time in this area.

A guy pointed and was like, "roughly that way," pointing up a hill, so I started out, taking a dirt road that led roughly that way. He was like, "no nononono," as if I should have known better.

And I was like, "fahkoff, so show me," and he proceeded to walk straight down the little slope to go up the hill. I realized I had forgotten my camera in my haste to follow, but he had one in his pocket and threw it back to me. We were soon climbing up a rickety ladder with a goat standing on it. He made it past the goat, and I made it past the goat more quickly, and then past my friend. As we arrived at the top of the ladder, I realized we were in the onsen area, with two naked old Japanese men standing in the water up to their knees, looking at us as if we might be invading their space.

We remained quiet, to support the atmosphere, but then everything changed when I saw the ship. She was there, just beyond the onsen, chillin' in a nub of the river fed by the onsen runoff. The onsen remained, and a dinner party appeared around it, complete with cocktail dresses and a grand piano. I started taking pictures, but couldn't get very good shots, so I started running as I kicked off my shoes behind the grand piano and arrived on the other side of the ship, where I called to the driver (the ship was just a speed boat now), asking him to turn sideways so I could see the PB logo.

He did, and I took pictures, listening to the sound of the click to know it had taken. The lighting was low, so I tried to keep the PB logo in place in the viewfinder as the light meter ticked up from 0.00 to 10.00 in about 2 seconds. I wasn't able to hold it quite correctly, but a few times I got some nearly crisp shots of the ship. I knew there should be a way to set the flash correctly, but didn't know how to do it.

Good idea

9:16am JST Saturday 1 November 2008 (day 14101)

While writing my dream, I noted that the date features the word "November," in particular "1 November," the first day of NaNoWriMo!! But what to write?

Oh! How about if I just write my dreams each night, and expand as necessary... Hmmmm!

Hilarious post on NaNoWriMo

12:51pm JST Saturday 1 November 2008 (day 14101)

Yes. I screwed up.

But I think my apology is golden. Golden and hilarous. ;-)

[Thunder Rabbit scampers toward the door, frantically searching for someone who can fix the site.

Just as Thunder Rabbit leaves the room, someone shouts in carefully measured tones, "Wait Right
There, Rabbit!"

Thunder stops quickly, wondering if his luck has changed. He turns around to find himself face to
face with a high ranking Administrator.]

Um, Hi!, I'm Thunder Rabbit!

["Yes, I see," muses the Administrator. "And I also see your name on this post."

Thunder Rabbit's eyes followed the Administrator's finger pointing toward the sky, just above
Lousy's post. He swallowed.]

Yes, I wrote that.

["Yes. And I'm sure you thought you were very witty by mocking the tone of a new user."

Thunder Rabbit swallowed again. This was not going the way he had hoped.

"May I ask you, Mr Rabbit," asked the Administrator politely, "how you arrived in this room?"

Thunder knew, somehow, the Administrator knew the answer already, so it was best not to lie.]

Um, through the forum labeled, "Site and Message Board Feedback and Suggestions."

[Thunder spoke carefully so as to properly capitalize each word.

"And did you see, at the top of the 'Site and Message Board Feedback and Suggestions,' a post
labeled, 'Read Me'?"]

I believe it said, "READ THIS FIRST - New features and enhancements. What to post here." um, sir.

[The Administrator's eyes widened a bit. "And did you, Mr Rabbit, READ THAT FIRST?"]

Um, er..

[Thunder Rabbit looked down at his big fuzzy feet.]

er.. no.

["I see," smiled the Administrator. "If you'll permit me, I'd like to quote a line from that
post. Line 5, starting from the first character, 'THIS FORUM IS NOT FOR BUG REPORTS. That's tech
help, next door.'

Thunder Rabbit looked up at the Administrator. Then back down at his feet.

"Mr Rabbit," said the Administrator calmly, "we've had a few server issues."

Thunder watched as the Administrator flipped through a clipboard of paper featuring post-it notes,
scribbles and highlights.

The Administrator found the appropriate note, and began to read. "The word count validator will begin 
working at midnight," he paused, "November 1st," he continued, "2008," he added, "PST," he explained.

"Please enjoy your stay."]

Thank you!!!!!

[With that, Thunder Rabbit scampered back to his writing.]

Integrating disqus test

4:06pm JST Saturday 1 November 2008 (day 14101)

Might add this to all my entries. Might.

Message to Yongfook

6:41pm JST Saturday 1 November 2008 (day 14101)

Forgot to mention that I code straight HTML using emacs.

Dearest Yongest Fookest,

Though I'm your senior by ten years (March (but also Aries) 1970), and I've had my journal online
since before "blog" was a word, it seems you're my web-senior by a longshot.  I found your site
while trying to sort out a way to update my site in near-realtime.  I don't know exactly how I got
to your site; neither "sweetcron" nor "yongfook" are in my google search history.

But that's not why I'm writing.

In searching for how to tweak sweetcron, I ended up sidetracked on *your* lifestream, and faq, and
old site, and old faq.  I like your humor and apparent allegiance to Apple and open source.  And
your hair and gray suits are sharp.

I've started several websites, and have content strewn around the intertubes; thank you for helping
me get the content back together.

In other news, I also live in Tokyo (川崎市, near 武蔵小杉) and work (and sometimes hang out) around
渋谷.  Do you ever hang out at The Pink Cow in Shibuya?  I plan to attend their vegan night buffet
on 12 November.  Do you ever attend the Tokyo PC Users Group?  (I don't, but if you do, you may know
my friend Travis).

I work for http://77hz.jp/; we
produce http://iflyer.jp/, http://sbstrm.com/,
and have some other projects in the works for which web designs may be required.

I imagine your Tokyo life is at least as busy as mine (which ironically isn't busy this weekend),
but I think it could be cool to meet you somewheres.

   Peace!
   - Rob

http://robnugen.com/
http://robnugen.com/sweetcron/
http://u.cow.fly2.nu/

My camera isn't broken

8:07pm JST Saturday 1 November 2008 (day 14101)

Not that I ever wrote that it *was* broken, but I'm happy to report that my camera is not broken. I dropped it last night, and it seemed to work okay after that. But today when I tried to turn it on, I heard some small but ominous clicks coming from the lens movement mechanism. I torque and banged the camera a few times to try to get it to work, and then

it wouldn't come on at all.

Damn. damn damn damn. I didn't really plan to buy a new camera just yet. Within a year, but not *this* year.

I thought it could be the battery, so I charged it, but with the careful realization that it might not work when I put the battery back in.

So, a few hours later, I giggled happily when it did, in fact, work, when I put the charged battery back in.

New Marble Track

8:12pm JST Saturday 1 November 2008 (day 14101)

This marble track, which was inspired by my marble track, has inspired me to work on a new marble track.

donkihote is open 24 hours

12:36am JST Sunday 2 November 2008 (day 14102)

In my quest to begin construction of Marble Track #3, I needed to buy some extension cords to get better lighting. Basically I want to make a stop action animation of the construction: piece by piece.

Not sure if I can do this project, nor how long it will take, but I know I can make a marble track. It's just keeping and then stringing all the photos into a movie that's the trick.

My trip to get extension cords started with a TJ Bike ride to the 99 yen100 yen shop near 平間 station. I had estimated that I needed a 3 meter cord, so when I found they only have 0.5 meter cords, I realized 100 yen wasn't enough for 3 meters.

Emailed Ami to see if she could call me (she's chillin' with her mom in the hospital; I didn't know if I could call. She called me back, and I told her what I wanted to buy.

"Can you wait until tomorrow or Monday?"

"nope. Gotta have 'em now. Now now now."

So she described where I could find ドンキホーテ, the cramped Wal-Mart of Japan, open 24 hours for my purchasing pleasure.

I spent a significant amount of time finding the perfect solution. I already have (energy saving) bulbs, so I didn't want to buy a lamp, as such. I ended up buying three extension cords, and two bulb sockets.

(( One extension cord (1098 yen) is simply to "move" the outlet that's hidden behind my closet door. For a year I've had my phone charger, electric toothbrush charger, camera charger, and AA battery charger connected back there. Well now with my handy 6-outlet extension, I can move the toothbrush closer to where I keep other toiletries, plus a bonus: no longer on the floor. ))

For 898 yen, another cord (featuring a single power switch for 3 outlets) will connect to the other wall outlet, where I have both my computers taking up the sockets now. I don't really need to plug anything else in here, so it will host one or both computers, plus the third extension cord.

The third cord has three outlets, but does not have a switch, and not a well-known brand; it was only 398 yen. I'll use it to hold two light sockets, at 90 degree angles to *sort of* spread some light around. I imagine it will work well, if I can just get it placed well.

Grabbed some pennies (actually yennies) out of the brimming take a penny leave a penny cache, but didn't use them when the cashier checked me out. I just stored them in my wallet for next time. Maybe 5 yen.

Rode slowly back on TJ Bike, text messaging Ami to let her know my status. Because TJ Bike has been living out in the rain, I can't get the back sprocket out of top gear. So I just peddaled slowly back, enjoying sparse traffic and quiet of night time. Rode past Maruetsu where Ami and I often visit near Hirama station, past 南武線 without having to wait for a train, and with some effort (in top gear) up the hill near my house over the train tracks.

At home I labeled all the cords with "1 Nov(ember) 2008 via TJ Bike ドンキホーテ 398/898/1098 yen"