:Japan )

In response to Mr. Knuth’s call, here are my submissions:

• tech vex
• tech tantrum

If they aren’t self explanatory, I’ve failed.

It’s been a long time, again. By now I think everyone knows that’s my MO. No use in apologizing.

I write because a little over three minutes ago I became a proud new owner! I made my last payment to the Sallie Mae piper and tomorrow I will be the new owner of a brand-new debt free life!! Woohoo!! Thanks Dad for being such a stickler for watching one’s debt. Now should I follow my American heritage and think of what insanely expensive luxury item I could put myself in debt with next? Not on your life you MBNA / Bank of America blood-suckers.

Went to see the Da Vinci Code last Friday and it didn’t live down my expectations. Sure it was a little entertaining to see how the guy unwound his puzzle but just like one other story of his that I actually read, it was way too predictable. I never read the book The Da Vinci Code but I did happen to inherit another book of Brown’s, Digital Fortress, when I moved into my current residence. It’s another mystery/suspense like story only this time involving cryptography, the NSA, and big powerful computers. Digital Fortress also had brilliant code breaking characters. But the most annoying thing about these characters is they can crack these really hard codes in no time using some form of photographic memory or drawing on past puzzle solving history yet they get to these puzzles that I can work out or immediately see and I have to sit reading while they muddle their way through.

Initially I gave Digital Fortress a little slack because I was a little too close to the subject of computers and tech news but then when I saw the same formula taking place in The Da Vinci Code, I wrote it off. I flipped through the book and saw what looked like muddling through the puzzle of Da Vinci style writing. I thought surely anyone who has taken high school Art History has heard about Da Vinci writing in a mirrored style. Then to make matters worse, when that part comes up in the movie, the writing is English! Way to stick to authentic Da Vinci style guys.

Final verdict: As entertaining as a prime-time TV show in the U.S. but not close to being worth the hype that surrounded it.

I doubt I will give him a third chance on my dime.

Well I still am in a slight state of shock but after almost one and a half years I have joined the legions of ALTs with internet access at their desks! When I came into work this morning, there waiting for me on my desk was a new notebook computer already hooked up to the network! No more walking down the hall to use the old “Win Me” rust box anymore. Although that was a source of new scenery on “desk work” days.

Now the question is: will I join the legions of ALTs who use their blog as a way to stay sane / awake on said office days? Well so far so good…

However, on the downside of all this I have found myself downgraded to lowly “user” status on a brand new XP Active Directory Service controlled network. No longer free to install useful (read superior) programs like Mozilla Firefox nor am I able to just shove in my USB pendrive and have access to it. As a former Administrator though, I do admire the ability of this little town to have come up with these permissions and set up. I wonder if they stayed ‘in house’ for the complete setup or if they had contractors come in to do the permissions. Regardless, I can remember the days back at “The Lab” when permissions and security were introduced and I definitely don’t envy whoever it is taking care of complaints from people today.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays one and all! This is my second Christmas in Japan and I don’t really have much plans. Of course I’ll talk to the fam and open presents but otherwise just gonna be hangin out, watch a movie or three, eat unhealthy christmas food of japanese fashion and whatever else hits me on a whim.

Well as if to prove Murphy’s Law is still in effect, New Orleans, the consulate I applied through coming on JET, has taken on the once unimaginable wallop of a near Category 5 Hurricane, Katrina. You can see for yourself in this pretty informative news clip, from one of the local New Orleans stations,the extent of the devastation.

Local News clip of devestation to New Orleans by Katrina

There’s some landmarks mentioned that are now submerged, if not completely washed away, that I remember walking to a little over one year ago as I waited for the day we’d depart for Japan. Nothing less than Shocking. The Mayor mentions toward the end of the clip that Bush and Thugs, Inc. have asked of a wishlist from him…I hope he asks that all his National Guard members and equipment be brought back from Iraq (where they never should’ve been) so they can help. They will arrive in time as this will take a long time to fix.

Well I saw that a new version of WordPress came out so I decided to upgrade and thus all my previous designs have been reset. (Mind you I did back-up of course). But for now the new default theme that comes with WordPress isn’t as hideous as its predecessor so I will leave it be for now. This new version apparently has a new way of customizing the theme of one’s site so I will have to do a little research into it before I start meddling with the site design again.

Update well it wasn’t much more than a day after I update that WordPress makes the news by getting itself banned from Google. They were hiding links to some alledged 168,000 sites thus making their Google rank go up. Sadly that appears to be the result of offering software for free and then depending on ads for revenue, the ad makers will try to get you to do any dirty trick that’s possible. Sigh. Nevertheless I will continue to use it because it’s good stuff. No harm done to me so no foul.

Finally got around to editing the default WordPress install to make it look not so ugly. I love the abilities that CSS provide as far as layout and keeping visual style seperate from content, but it is still feels a little painful editing it in Dreamweaver. Big props go to EditCSS and Mozilla Firefox for once again making life easier. But as for Dreamweaver, I am pissed that they still don’t have an SSH/SFTP way to syncronize your local editing with your live website. Jesus, only people who are looking to have their site hacked still use FTP.

Anyhow, I hope that now that I’ve begun the process that I will have more time to devote to playing around with the sites design until it ‘feels like home’ Feel free to tell me what you think.

Just for a little added bonus to people interested in web development, a couple of my fav CSS related links:
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Firefox has finally hit 1.0! Since their site is being hammered right now it is highly recommended you use your favorite bittorrent client to grab it. Here is the windows English version and the Japanese version.

If you aren’t using Firefox as your main web browser yet… well you either love pop-ups, spyware, and virii or hopefully you just haven’t been informed. Surely it’s not because you’re too lazy to download it >:| It is after all available for windows, mac, and linux.

Well it’s finally down to the last day. I hope everyone has plans to make it to the polls or has already done so. As for myself, I’ve received my ballot in the mail around October 1 and had it back in the mail shortly thereafter. My opinion of Bush has never been favorable and he has done nothing in the past four years to change that… in fact he’s only made it worse. From the lies about weapons of mass destruction, the idiocy of the secretary of defense (which Bush appointed and is thus responsible) claiming “we will be greeted as liberators,” to the blatant destruction of the Constitution by claiming we can hold people indefinitely because they are “enemy combatants.” As if that wasn’t bad enough, they make official memos that “change” the definition of torture so that it’s “okay.” That is just a short list of my complaints but they are abhorrable enough to remove anyone from elected office…(even though he wasn’t elected the first time grrr)

What in the last four years has been compassionate conservatism? What in the past four years has restored honor to the Presidency that supposedly was lost with Clinton? What in the past four years has restored, or even maintained, the honor of United States?

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So today I finally got my hair cut for the first time in Japan. The service level was way higher than I was expecting… A “standard cut” had one hair wash /shampoo at the start, the cut, then another shampoo and cut (I don’t know why shampoo either), and then finally a scalp, neck, shoulder massage. That was an unexpected little piece of heaven..I hadn’t had a massage in sooo long. Ah and it was a very big plus these were female stylists as well, cute compared to many that have cut my hair in the States.