Coffee Cup with Tom

Pizza

2010-09-29T17:55:00.000-07:00

I haven't published in a while, so here's something to chew on. Expect quick topic changes more suited for a microblogging site:

• Homemade hawaiian pizza, not-yet-cooked. I'm sure it will be delicious!

• I'm breaking the habit of double-spacing after sentences. This was great in the days of typewriters, but no longer. Double spaces were also useful back when writing 5 page papers was difficult. But because I can't be shut up anymore I don't need more spaces in my writing.

• I sold all my Pentax equipment and bought a bunch of Nikon equipment. In a perverse showing of loyalty, I rebought many Pentax lenses under the Tokina name.
The 40/2.8 and 77/1.8 have no peers. Their service has earned top honors and I wish them well in their retirement.

Sous Vide

2010-04-25T20:02:00.000-07:00

I've been interested in sous vide for about a month now, and I finally got the tools and the nerve to do it. The experience was rewarding because the meat was superb and the cooking was—believe it or not—easy.

First, I found a cooler at Costco for $25. You'll probably have one of these around the house. Costco also sells good meat, so I bought 3 pounds of USDA Choice flank steak.

Flank steak is hard to cook normally. I've burned my share of these. Usually I'd butterfly the steak so that there isn't much meat left in the center, so that it cooks a little easier. None of this is necessary with sous vide.

Instead, I seasoned the steak as per usual, and then I rinsed the salts off and dried the steak with paper towels. Then we put the steaks into gallon-size ziplock bags. We used the immersion technique, and some massaging to get all the air out.

The next step is to put the meat in the cooler full of 134ºF water for 3 hours. We could have cooked for less time, but we decided to do 3 hours to be safe because this was our first attempt.

Maintaining the temperature while waiting is pretty easy. I put about 120 cups of water into the cooler to begin with. The formula for raising the temperature is to heat a 15-cup pot full of water to 10 times the desired change in temperature. So if my cooler is at 132º and I wanted 134º, then the difference is 2º and I'd need to heat 15 cups to 152º, and then remix the water. I hope that makes sense. To be clear, I took 15 cups of water from the cooler, heated it on the stove, and then recombined the water into the cooler.

The cooler normally drops temperature at approximately 1º every 30 minutes. As luck would have it my cooler was positioned in the sunlight and actually maintained perfect temperature for the entire two hours. However, when the steaks were introduced the temperature dropped and I needed to add more heat a few times fairly quickly, but that period passed and the following period was maintenance-free. So it was even easier than I expected.

When the steaks are cooked, we pulled them out and dried them off. Rob seared the steaks in an iron skillet using clarified butter. Chris cooked some fantastic spinach and veggies. Nealon played on the porch in the sunlight. Nicole slept. Perfect.

The flavor was really good. This method of cooking can be extremely easy, especially once you develop a process. As the summer months come, I'm sure that temperature can be regulated by opening and closing the blinds.

Natasha helped clean up. I think we ended up using every utensil and pan in the house, and we had to run the dishwasher twice that day. The guys are good at keeping clean while they worked, but Natasha deserves special mention for all of her hard work.

Thanks to everybody who participated! And thank you to the scientist-chef who invented the technique. Please try it yourself too, it is easier than it appears.

Reblogging

2010-01-20T08:33:00.000-08:00

I use Google Reader to plow through RSS feeds. I used to share a bunch of stuff, so that if you hooked-in to my shared feed you could see the stuff that I liked the most on the internet. It was fun, even though I'm pretty sure that nobody read my shared feed.

Starting in about December, Google Reader began collecting all the junk that other people liked and creating their own top stories feeds. Which made my shared feed completely worthless, because very rarely would I find something that I liked that wasn't also duplicated on the customized feeds. My shared items are merely a subset of Google's shared items. Their list is better. Nobody in their right mind would look to my feed for entertainment when they could take from Google. So there isn't much point in having me pick and choose favorite content.

There isn't much joy in discovering "new" content if Google is parked right next door with a bigger and better list of discoveries.

Camera Update

2009-04-29T17:09:00.001-07:00

I've been geeking out with my photos lately. I'll show some of the more interesting results.

First, I was curious as to how I actually use my zoom lens. A zoom lens is one that can change field of view, meaning that you can zoom in on stuff. Most of my lenses are the opposite, called prime lenses, and they give you one field of view and cannot change.

Back to the zooms. I searched for all images that used my Pentax DA* 50-135mm f2.8 lens, and then from those I computed the number of shots taken at each field of view. I knew that I hit the stops on the wide and narrow ends more than I used the middle, but this tells me more exactly what I actually do. Here's the chart:

62% of my shots were at 50mm or 135mm. That is a whole lot. Depending on your point of view, this either means that I should stick to primes or that 38% percent of the time I like the flexibility of the zoom. Or you could say that even if I used the zoom at one extent or the other, it is like having two primes mounted on my camera, giving me a great deal of flexibility. Or you could say that I'm a fool, because I use the most compromised positions on my lens (things in the middle are better optimized, see Feynman's story on plastic gearing).

Next, we take a peek at which lenses I'm shooting most. The gray/black pies are lenses which I've sold for one reason or another. The colored slices are in my current bag. This graph doesn't account for my preferences over time. I've only had the DA 35mm f2.8 for a year, and it is already catching up to the 50mm.

Last, I compiled some data on which apertures I use the most. This is a neat graph.

This one is neat for a few reasons.
First, you can see my favorite apertures right off the bat! f8.0 makes any lens look good. And most of my lenses are full-open at f2.8, so that one gets a lot of action. f1.4 is the max for the 50mm, and it gets used a lot too.
Second, this graph shows the difficulty in making meaningful graphs. Not all ranges in the graph are equivalent. The ranges could have been made equivalent. I could have made buckets the size of one stop, or made each bucket contain the same number of shots and had the range indicate preference. Maybe a scatter plot would make more sense. Maybe a hybrid scatter plot could indicate the number of occurrences at each point. And so on.
Third, the data shows a number of shots at f27-f38. Which is weird because I don't think anything I own goes beyond f22. So the whole thing could be fake anyway.

Lastly, I got a new camera yesterday. The Pentax K20D is here to replace my K10D. I put my K10D up for sale at my work's version of craigslist and got a buyer within minutes. Yay.

Keep your eye out for future shots at ISO 3200 and occasionally ISO 6400. Or maybe some 21fps sequences. It is gonna be awesome.

Cell Phone

2009-04-09T09:29:00.000-07:00

As a rule, as time progresses technology becomes cheaper and easier.

But not with cell phones.

My first cell phone was purchased in Germany for 100DM (about $50). It didn't come with a contract, all the grocery stores sold prepaid cards, it was easy to use and cheap. I love cheap stuff. Text messaging cost about 2¢, you only paid to send text (free to receive), and I could make a prepaid card last for a long time because I didn't talk much. This plan made texting the cheapest and preferred option. Further, ICQ could send messages for free from the internet to a cell phone, and nobody would pay. The transition from landlines to reasonably priced cell phones was liberating and reasonably-priced.

When I came back to the states, I bought a phone with a 1-year contract for $30/mo. Texting cost $0.10 to send and $0.10 to receive. Because my minutes were plentiful, it actually cost more to text than it would to make a phone call. The phone was free with contract. ICQ would not send text to this phone for free.

My next phone cost $200 and came with a 1-year contract. Ouch.

My next phone was $200 with a $100 rebate (which I forgot to send) and came with a 2-year contract. The monthly price for the minimum minutes went up to $40.

My current phone was $70 after rebate. The outside LCD screen broke within two months of regular use. I'm not a brute, I treat my stuff nice. In fact, when I sold a bunch of DVDs to Amoeba Music in Berkeley, the dealer told me that I take really good care of my stuff and they would like to see me come back to sell more stuff. I think the phone must be prone to breakage and was a design flaw flowing from cost-savings and corner-cutting. The message is clear—I should have paid more for a better phone.

What's worse is that I chose my phone by-the-numbers, using a scheme that didn't work. My phone has the biggest battery I could find. I like to charge my phone once per week. But instead of using a big battery to extend standby life, my new phone uses 3G, which apparently uses the bigger battery to power more frequent and intense bursts of energy-draining communication with the cell towers. Despite my large battery, my battery life is less than ever. And if I accidentally hit the GPS button (which I don't pay to enable), the phone will die within hours doing a service that doesn't benefit me.

These days, modern phones are internet enabled. But, true to form, the prices have gone up yet again. Now you have to buy an internet plan in addition to a voice plan. The internet plan runs around $40/mo, which rivals the price of my home internet plan. Ouch. I don't pay for this option either.

If I could, I would turn back the clock to 2001 and use the cell phones and cell phone plans of that era. The service was stellar, the prices cheap, and the phones were a little bulky but useful.

Open Letter to Yogurt Makers

2009-04-07T09:24:00.001-07:00

Make containers that don't explode when opened.

PDFEdit

2009-03-14T15:40:00.000-07:00

The IRS has PDF tax return forms. Normally, if you want to enter your own values into the form you download Adobe's Acrobat. Normally, I think Adobe makes shoddy products that I don't want to use. So I thought I'd use a free alternative.

First, I used fink to install kpdf. Which worked fine, if you want to read PDFs and you don't want to edit them.

So I searched around and discovered PDFEdit, which is supposed to edit PDFs.

It isn't available in my package manager, fink, so I downloaded the source and tried to compile it. I'll share some notes here because I found some oddities.

I used fink to get all required libraries. This puts them in /sw/lib. No big deal.

Configure required the following command:
>sudo ./configure --prefix=/usr/local --with-boost=/sw --with-boost-libdir=/sw QTDIR=/sw/lib/qt3

Notice that the QTDIR is set on the command line. Which is weird, because it is in all of my environments already. But without this addition, the command won't work.

now, if you try "sudo make", the script will barf on what appears to be a ranlib command. So I tried the command interactively to see about the error, and it worked fine. Turns out the problem is QTDIR again, so the following command worked:
>sudo make QTDIR=/sw/lib/gt3

And once again, "sudo make install" won't work without QTDIR, so once again:
>sudo make install QTDIR=/sw/lib/gt3

Now the program runs, and to the extent it is capable, it works. But "works" is different than "works as expected". Sure, PDFEdit will let you edit PDFs, but you need a degree of patience that I don't possess. This tool is, in my exaggerated opinion, a single step up from using a hex editor to modify PDFs.

Look at this screenshot (click to enlarge):

You simply selected a field, the social security number, and then use the panel on the right to pick out the PDF element from a tree, and then use the panel on the bottom right to insert a new value. I'm not sure whether to select l, m, s, l, or m from the object list. I'm not confident that changing any of these values will avoid PDF corruption. The process is scary.

If I'm scared by this software, I can't imagine what other users feel.

I'll stick to a pencil.

Sometimes it is fun to goof around

2009-02-19T09:10:00.000-08:00

#!/usr/bin/python

fiblist = [0, 1]

def fib(n):

if(len(fiblist) < n):

fiblist.append(fib(n-2) + fib(n-1))

return fiblist[n-1]

Because sometimes it is more fun to goof around than to do homework.

My first version didn't keep a list, so the recursion got hairy quickly. I tried fib(100) and waited long enough to expect an out-of-memory error for the VM stack rather than an answer. The list version (shown) is as fast as the blink of an eye for fib(100), but it overflows to Long and I'm not sure whether Python retains significance or only retains magnitude.

I've always liked the fibonacci series. When I read The DaVinci Code, I remember getting most of the mysteries right without cheating. I think one or more had to do with this series, but I don't remember anymore.

In grade school math we had to draw a poster based a geometric theme. I drew a series of circles whose centerpoints lied on a logarithmic spiral with diameters of the Fibonacci series filled with colors whose wavelengths approximated the Fibonacci numbers over the visible spectrum for the number of circles that fit on the poster. It took a long time and a lot of thought. I received a "C" because there "wasn't enough math." In truth, the geometry was there but not perceptible if you didn't know where to look.

I liked my poster and I didn't care about the low marks.

Besides Dan Brown's Fibonacci parlor tricks, another source of "mainstream" Fibonacci goodness comes from Tool's song Lateralus. The syllables in each line arpeggiate the Fibonacci Series. There are tons of logarithmic easter eggs too, such as the lyrics starting 1.617 minutes into the song. Swing on the spiral.

Shopping History Horrors

2008-12-11T14:50:00.001-08:00

Over a decade ago, when I was a teen, I bought a Star Wars book from Amazon (along with a dozen other books that summer), decided I didn't like it, and never bought or read another.

But Amazon remembers. And every time I visit their website, it suggests a bevy of Star Wars books that I might like.

I can't make it stop. I've tried. I've tried. I've tried.

The reason I can't change it is because when Amazon suggests an item that you might want, it will discount the price to help entice a sale. Like all good systems, people began to game the system and force Amazon to recommend big ticket items so that they reduce the price (5% really adds up on a $2000 computer). Once word got out, Amazon changed their policy to make it harder to guide their suggestions towards the items you were going to buy anyway.

I guess it shouldn't bother me so much. But this all relates back to a simple fear that other people misunderstand my positions. I suppose this entire post is built on that fear.

Copyrights and Google Reader

2008-11-08T15:31:00.000-08:00

I am not a lawyer, you are not my client, this is not legal advice, if you want legal advice then hire yourself a lawyer. This is a blog for my personal entertainment only.

I recently read a case where Perfect 10 (P10), a company who sells images of naked ladies, sued Google for indexing P10 images on the Google Image Search (GIS). 508 F.3d 1146 (9th Cir. 2007). GIS finds an image on the internet, turns it into a searchable thumbnail, and then links to the original.

P10 says that Google is infringing upon a copyright. Google defends on "fair use". Google wins because the thumbnailing step is "highly transformative", serving a different function than the original. Those looking to buy the original aren't likely to settle for the thumbnail. Google isn't hurting P10's market (at least, P10 didn't prove that Google was hurting their market).

To skip some steps, Google creates and hosts "original" thumbnail copies, and simply links to the full size images hosted on other websites.

This is a good time to repeat my earlier disclaimer. IANAL. YANMC. TINLA. For entertainment purposes only.

If, supposing alternate facts, Google hosted full size pictures instead of thumbnails, then their use would not have been transformative, and they probably would have lost their case. And this brings us to the heart of today's post. When Google hosts a full copy, it may be liable.

There is so much more that can happen here. Copyright law is applied on a case-by-case basis. Anything could happen. 17 U.S.C. §107 intentionally avoids bright line rules. No presumptions can be made. I cannot say this any clearer — this is just for entertainment. I haven't done my research and google probably already won its battles.

How can Google Reader allow me to copy a webpage and publish the result on my shared list? Check out my latest post for an example: My Shared Items

I just posted a picture of Max Biaggi riding the 2009 Aprillia on the amazing new Portimão track. The image is linked from SuperbikePlanet. Said another way, the image is not hosted on Google's server. That is a good thing for Google's liability.

But the text is not linked. Well, a link exists. But the article (this happens to be a one sentence article) is copied in full. Non-transformatively.

I could run through a boring fair use test. Instead, I'll just conclude that this stuff makes me wonder. Maybe it is permitted because the site permits Google crawling. Maybe because much of the Reader material is published by RSS anyway (a copyright holder can't really publish and then expect privacy, right?). Maybe the commercial use is minimal (though I think the commercial use is pretty strong — Google gains a lot of valuable information on me and my friends, and then shares it with spooks in a Virginia bunker). Maybe, maybe, maybe.

One of my favorite uses of the "note" button is to take an annoying burned feed and share it in full. Is that fair use?

What would the Roman Emperor do?

Fall Fashion: Horizontal Stripes

2008-10-18T21:37:00.001-07:00

The trees are changing colors and I decided to take advantage of a sunny day by working on a project I've been planning for at least a year now. The concept is simple: trees look really good in the fall and I could take stunning photos. But I wanted to capture more than just a few trees. I wanted to take pictures of Portland.

My photos have more than just pretty trees. These photos also have power and telephone lines. You'll feel like you are in Lake Oswego on a sunny fall day, surrounded by all the colors of the rainbow represented in the delicate texture of fading leaves. And by our fine city's vast cable network. If you've got the telephones, flaunt it. Don't be shy.

I've shared a handful of photos at my gallery here. Please check it out. All photos are unprocessed, unfiltered, 21mm.

Summer is Over

2008-10-02T17:08:00.000-07:00

Today feels like the first day of Winter. Many people think of winter as the season starting in late December and lasting until the flowers bloom. As a former Alaskan, I think of Winter as the season starting around the first snowfall in late September or early October and lasting until Break-Up in April. So this is the right time of year for Winter to come, in my little world.

The rains came heavy today. We have a new season. Time to start wearing a jacket.

For the record

2008-09-30T15:18:00.000-07:00

OK, sometimes I think I'm a computer smart guy. Capable. And all that.

Today I spent 30 minutes trying to figure out why Google Reader doesn't save my password. I started with my browser, telling it to autofill. When that failed, I updated my keychains and removed the entry for Google so that I could make a new one with the right properties. When that failed, I reset my browser, deleting all cookies and stuff. When that failed, I didn't know what to do.

All of this takes 30 minutes because fixing problems on a computer is mainly about perseverance. It still didn't work. So I persevered.

Ultimately, the fix was to adjust my bookmark. It took me to a login page instead of to the general page where it would remember my login.

Fixing problems isn't about knowing the solution. It is more about trying and trying and not giving up.

Fat Guy in a Little Coat

2008-09-15T21:35:00.000-07:00

The movie Tommy Boy had a scene where Chris Farley puts on David Spade's coat and starts to sing "Fat guy in a little coat, fat guy in a little coat."

I wouldn't remember it except for a guy in my 9th grade biology class who thought it was the funniest scene ever, and he'd sing the song and swing his arms around.

This weekend I've been assigned a short paper, 1600 words, no framework provided, and the topic is big enough to write a book about. My problem is that I've got to lose 1000 words before it fits. And I've been holding my breath in to get this far!

Windows

2008-09-07T20:10:00.000-07:00

I installed MS windows on my mac today. I've got some old games that I want to play.

Here's a record of my problems:

• The bluetooth keyboard tool gives you two seconds to type eight character passwords.

• I installed to an unformatted partition. It didn't work. It wouldn't ever work. But it let me try for 30 minutes.

• I connected to the internet and went to windowsupdate. The first thing I could do, before actually updating the computer, is verify my computer by downloading WGA.

• In the 10 minutes I needed to handle WGA, my computer was passively infected with a virus.

• The virus wouldn't let me install SP3 or the windows virus remover.

• Thank Steve Wozniak that I can figure it out on my own.

• Four reboots to update to the latest files.

Thanks for reading. This one was for me, not you.

This is where I can improve

2008-07-31T09:14:00.000-07:00

My latest hobby is photography. I'm self trained, which means that I read a few books and I don't receive any advice from real people. In truth, my photography is worse for the lack of photography friends. Further, my results are stymied in another way that I've recently realized: my "process" does not include examining every shot.

In the great olden times of photography, each shutter activation was tied to a fair amount of expense and effort. Every *click* was soon followed by an hour in the darkroom. Failing that, each shot would at least be developed at the drugstore and the results would all be delivered in hardcopy. Either method cost enough money/time that only the rarest photographer would be willing to shoot many photos of the same scene.

The result was that the older photographer would take time to frame a shot, viewing the scene their mind, making sure all the settings were right, and taking a single photo with their fingers crossed. Once prints were made, a good photographer might look each one over and decide how they would have improved the shots that failed.

And this is something I rarely do. Instead, I'll have 10 photos in a series, each taken in rapid succession, each with minor changes in settings. I'll modify the exposure slightly in search of a good setup. I'll take a few photos in hopes that one will be in focus.

And then I go to my computer and choose the best one of twenty, and discard the remainder. I rarely make prints. I don't look at the results too often, and the bad results are ignored before they were even half seen.

And this moment, when the photos are done, when nothing remains to adjust and all the light meant to be captured was captured, and all the light that could have been is lost, this is the moment where I have not been taking my lessons. Instead, I discard the results.

I know that print examination makes a difference. I know because my office has a dozen prints on the wall. And I look at each print and I know where I got things wrong. And each print tells me what to improve the next time I shoot. And I remember some of these lessons the next time I shoot.

But these few are the only prints I exmine. Thousands of photos and only a dozen get critique.

This is where I can improve.

Spring Break Collection

2008-05-03T16:23:00.000-07:00

Jingu Stadium, Japanese Baseball. We caught the season opener on a half-rainy day at the ballpark. The Tokyo Dome ballpark is right next door, and is protected against rain. Jingu Stadium, however, gets wet.

Natasha and I discussed the possibility of seeing baseball while we were still outside of Japan, but it wasn't in our itinerary. I think I was inspired, at least partially, by seeing the stadiums from the top of the world. The next morning, I looked to buy tickets online using the hotel's computer in the lobby. Buying tickets is the hardest part, so I'll explain the whole process.

First, I checked the Yakult Swallows website and was unable to find instructions in english. I did find a schedule, and it clearly labeled the first game as 6:00 pm on that very day. Lucky us.

Next, I tried to talk the hotel clerk into showing us how to buy tickets. He began by pretending to call someone to get a schedule, and told me, "so sorry, no game today at Tokyo Dome." I think he tried to get himself off the hook without lying. There was no game at Tokyo Dome, but there was a game at Jingu Stadium. He was probably still bitter with me for eating twice as much food as anybody else during the free breakfast. Also, I couldn't tell the difference between combustible waste-product and non-combustible. The yogurt packages, for example, look like waxy paper or maybe a plastic or part-styrofoam cup — and I have no way of knowing where to put it. It might burn if the temperature was high enough, but so would styrofoam, and I wouldn't want them to burn styrofoam. I'm pretty sure that guy was looking at me funny when I'd try to categorize my waste.

I told him that I had found a schedule online, and then showed him the webpage with all the info, and then asked him how we can buy tickets. He read through the webpage and told us that we would need to buy the tickets at a convenience store, such as 7-Eleven or AM/PM. Luckily, these are all over the place. There were probably a dozen within two city blocks. It was like trying to find a Starbucks in downtown USA.

At 7-Eleven, following the usual communication by gesture and endless repeating of a single word, the clerk communicated that we would use a special phone in the back of their store, hit the blue button, and then work out a deal with the person on the other end. So I tried this, and using a handy book of phrases I asked if the person on the other end spoke english. No. Nobody there speaks english. The phone jockeys probably speak Japanese and Malay. I tried calling a few times, got different people, and nobody could speak with me.

I'm not so egotistic as to believe that they should speak english. But it was frustrating, because we'd spent half of the morning getting this far. So we carried on with our business for the time being, toured Roppongi and other areas, and decided to wait and see if we could make it to the stadium to buy tickets in person.

Luckily, that afternoon, we were in a 7-Eleven and I found a guy who spoke english and was willing to help us. He was clearly not Japanese. He used the special Bat-Phone and dialed the red button instead of the blue, and he talked for a couple minutes with the person and found us tickets. He wanted ¥3000 (about $30) in cash. When he got the money, he went behind the counter and disappeared for a while, without telling us what was going on or providing a receipt. We both had that feeling you get when someone has just robbed you and you can't do anything about it.

After about 5 minutes, their electronic ticket machine behind the counter started working, the guy came back, and he processed the sale and gave us our tickets.

At that point, we had a plan. So we continued our sightseeing and began a long trek toward the stadium on aching feet. On the way, we found Honda's world headquarters where they have everything Honda makes on display, from cars to motorcycles to lawnmowers. We also found Sony's HQ, which had many large TVs hooked up to PS3s playing unreleased games like Gran Turismo 5.

We arrived at the stadium well ahead of schedule, and were still too late to get the good cheap seats. The first-come-first-served seating fills up early. We ended up behind the foul post in right field.

The teams playing were the Yakult Swallows and the Yomiuri Giants, Tokyo's two biggest teams. We sat in the Yakult section, but Natasha's bright orange jacket was better suited to the Giants colors. "Swallows" is, apparently, a very difficult word to say for the Japanese people. The fans were doing some cheers in english which I couldn't even tell was english until the tune set in. I first discovered that they were saying "swallows", then I figured the rest out. These small breakthroughs excite me.

Our section had flag wavers and head cheerleaders. When the team scored everybody would bring out their mini umbrellas and sing and dance.

Good thing they all brought umbrellas. It rained pretty hard during the first half of the game. I stood in a line to buy a garbage-bag marketed as a rain jacket. When I was close enough to touch, they sold out. The second half of the game was dry, though.

Natasha ate a funny looking soup. I ate an expensive bento box of mediocre food. Garlic fries would have been a welcome addition.

The scoreboard was high tech. It looked like an old card-based scoreboard, then turned into a super high-res video screen. Very neat.

We had a great time at the ballpark, and I highly recommend that you visit.

Spring Break Collection

2008-05-01T19:45:00.001-07:00

Hamarikyuu Gardens. These gardens have better flora than the imperial garden. We arrived just as the cherry trees blossomed, which is a result of lucky timing rather than skillful planning. There is a saltwater lake and accommodations for shogun duck hunting. I took some shots at the ducks, but I used a camera instead of a NES Zapper.

This photo was taken before Natasha became angry with me for taking too many photos. As I type this, I'm left with only photos and memories, and if experience has taught me anything, I've learned to trust photos better than memories. Sorting through these photos brings me back there as if it were yesterday. Additionally, being in charge of the camera gives me an important task which keeps me occupied, happy, and less irritable.

Here is a photo of Natasha after I'd take too many photos of her:

The ducks were channelled into stream-lets, where a wealthy landowner would use rice and cunning to catch the duck in a net. This is the samurai way. I didn't know this until I began writing this blog. During out visit, I couldn't see the utility of the small channels, but it all makes sense now.

Here is a photo from a duck blind. I think they threw the rice out from these stealthy positions.

This area was also designed to train falcons. Go Mordecai!

Finally, earlier that morning I was watching their version of Saturday morning cartoons. They had options similar to Sesame Street, but what interested me more was a show about programming a computer to draw fractals. This was taught at a high enough level that even children might be interested. It speaks volumes for their culture (or at least speaks to my misunderstanding of their culture).

I think "maru" means "round" and google says that "hankei" means "radius".

Pretty neat, if you ask me. I've never seen its equal on American TV.

Spring Break Collection

2008-04-29T09:58:00.001-07:00

Park Hyatt, Shinjuku. This is the bar where the movie "Lost in Translation" was filmed.

You can see two baseball stadiums on the right hand side, one is the Tokyo Dome and the other is Jingu Stadium. More on that later.

We found ourselves on the "back" side of this building, looking for this building, confused by the signs on the building which made it sound like it was something else entirely. This sort of confusion was an every day occurrence, but this time we had professional help. Natasha asked a delivery lady on a scooter where the building was. The lady was super nice — she phoned her boss and asked for directions, then she asked some of the other locals where it was. She simply would not give up. 5 minutes is way past my attention span for gaijin charades, so I wandered off while Natasha negotiated the farce. Eventually Natasha escaped and the delivery lady zipped off. We circumnavigated the imposing structure to see what was on the other side, and then we saw another sign that told us we had already arrived.

We came before 8pm, so there was no cover charge. We had to order drinks, though, and that will set you back 15+ dollars even for a non-alcoholic beverage. On the bright side, they had free munchies with wasabi peas and puffed rice. As the sun set, the view got even better. This was a relaxing way to spend an evening, resting our feet and looking out over the world.

All toilets in Japan are good. Most have bidets, showers, seat warmers, and flush ferociously. The toilets at this hotel were even better. These had massage modes, joysticks to control spray aim, the mens toilets lifted the seat automatically, and an LCD screen provided system status.

If you are wealthy or crazy, you could also order dinner here. I'll be saving that option for the next time I'm on business with a company credit card.

The streets of Shinjuku are famous for being shockingly busy with light. You'll see these streets in the scenes from Lost in Translation. It was very neat to walk about at night, but we were too tired to carry on and we didn't really explore the nightlife, and instead walked a couple blocks to get to our train and retire.

Video Games

2008-04-28T07:51:00.000-07:00

Here are the video games I've played sometime during the last year:

Final Fantasy X (2001). Pretty cool game, great music. I wish I could tell the "level" of each character so I could try to keep them balanced.

Planet Puzzle League. This is the same as Pokémon Puzzle Challenge and Tetris Attack. 2 player mode is outstanding when your opponent is good. Back in undergrad, Frank and I would play epic games with chains going well into the "?" zone.

The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (1998). Zelda 3 for SNES was one of my favorite games of all time. This one is A-OK, but not in the same league. I might get around to its sequel,Majora's Mask, preferably before 2018.

Gran Turismo 4 (2004). I like to see how long it takes to get all the gold medals for the Super License. On the day this game was released, Clint and I took vacation and played until our eyeballs fell out. I haven't done either of the Sarthe 24 hour races, but I tag-teamed Neubergring with Clint nearly two years ago.

Dragon Warrior (1989, US). In 1989, my brother and I subscribed to Nintendo Power and received this game as our free gift. Neato. I recently re-played it on an emulator. This one brings back the memories.

Clearly, I'm not a modern gamer. I don't have a current system (except for the Nintendo DS portable). I haven't played computer games in a while, and I'm not as thrilled to play video games as I used to be. But my slow adoption of old classics means that I play only quality games, ones that are or should be Game of the Year, ones that are old news and $10 in the bargain bin, ones that emphasize gameplay and fun, and even if they did push pixels in their heyday, they don't depend on graphics to tell a story.

I'll happily accept game recommendations, but don't be surprised if I wait another decade before I get around to it.

Spring Break Collection

2008-04-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

Natasha and I went to Taiwan and Japan over spring break. I didn't write anything about the break because it was so vast that any faithful attempt to describe things would take too long. So this may be the first in a series where I show a photo and describe a small portion of the break.

The first photo was taken at the Tokyo Imperial Palace gardens. The palace is in the center of Tokyo, the property value is near priceless due to location and size. We ate lunch near here, too, and the locals believe that sandwiches sold near the Palace are also priceless.

This destination is easy to get to, was free to explore, and was well maintained in the typical Japanese fashion. Visitors can only see the gardens, as guards and trees block the palace grounds. The biggest draw for this location is that it is a park in the heart of a huge city, surrounded by moats and castle-like walls. The other parks in Tokyo had better looking flora, and I'm sure there are better sites in Japan to look at trees.

As a historic destination, or if you really love castles and vast open spaces located in the bustle of a city, the Imperial Palace is a neat place to visit. But I will probably not be back there on my next trip, unless the actual palace grounds are opened.

Dream Theater Greatest Hit CD

2008-04-26T14:17:00.000-07:00

Dream Theater released a CD called "Greatest Hit (and 21 other pretty cool songs)". Pretty funny, because only one of their songs was ever popular. I like DT a whole bunch, but I acknowledge that it takes a while to train your ear to enjoy it. I listen to DT frequently, and I really like them, but few other people enjoy it.

Speaking of acquired tastes, there is an interesting episode of Radio Lab which talks about the international appeal of country music. I found the story interesting because I grew up listening to country music with my parents, I really liked it, and it certainly wasn't cool. I don't listen to country often these days, although some of the old songs are still good for more than nostalgia. Here is a link to the program, available free on iTunes: iTunes Link

And now, back to the books!

Here is a photo I like

2008-03-16T21:39:00.001-07:00

I took this photo at Starbucks this morning, and I really liked the way it turned out. The lens is the amazing 10-17 fisheye, I'm sitting inches from the table and the lens captures everything. The lens captures 180 degrees from corner to corner, so the greatest spherical distortion is at the corners. The paper is thusly huge. My model is in the center, where the distortion is minimal, which is the best place to put a person. The two cups of coffee look really big and the baristas can be seen serving a customer — all impossibly far away.

I have about one ounce of art in me. I'm sure there are a million things wrong. And most people really dislike fisheye because it distorts things. Oh well, I still like it. Rectilinear lenses also distort edges, preserving parallelism at the expense of relative size. We're just used to seeing it. My subject is blinking too. Tough. I like it.

Ever tried a Mac? I hope you didn't use MS Word.

2008-03-16T20:57:00.000-07:00

I avoid Microsoft Word, because it is horrible. But I need to work with a partner, so I need to use this vendor-locked abomination because it is easy for me to adjust, and harder to ask my partner to try something new.

When I set out, I thought it was bad enough to be writing .doc files, depending on Rosetta (because MS is too busy to compile their code), and looking at the various indecipherable mystery-meat buttons taking up half of my screen. I thought my problems would be limited to autocomplete, autocorrect, and clippy the wonder helper.

I was wrong.

It turns out, Microsoft decided to break every other standard for human interaction. Selecting text grabs whitespace on both ends, option doesn't function normally, forward-delete-word doesn't work, and the program had annoying habits of splashing toolbars outside of the program's allotted focus area. Come to think of it, delete-word is probably the most useful command they could have supported. They have made a program which, if used regularly, completely fails to "get" human interaction within the environment.

I honestly believe that MS intentionally set out to provide stupid and useless control mechanisms for Word for Mac, just so they could confuse everybody on how the system is supposed to respond. And they probably don't recompile because they like slow interaction. And they use custom menus for stuff like printing that doesn't support keyboard interaction, and their preferences are all goofy, and their help system is the usual Worthless Windows baloney instead of useful, contextual help.

How did such a horrible company fool so many people into using their junk?

One Coincidence Does Not Give Rise To Another

2008-03-16T17:33:00.000-07:00

I enjoy a good logical fallacy. They sound convincing and authoritative, but when fully considered amount to nothing. I want to provide some examples, but the wikipedia article linked above does a much better job.

December 21, 2012 is coming, and the latest internet fad is to wear a Nostradamus hat and proclaim "the end is neigh!" This is a simple non-sequitur. The neat-looking date "12 21 2012" must be ominous, so naturally the end of the world must be neigh. Whatever that means. Oh, the Mayan calendar, which you no doubt use every day, happens to "end" on that date (I haven't checked for myself).

The way I see it, when you use a wheel for a calendar, it will occasionally go 'round.

What's even better is that the argument is supported by the true claim that , "the Sun and the Earth will be aligned that day." It turns out that the Sun and the Earth are always aligned, because two points always describe a line.

Most people discussing this are probably not actually expecting the world to end. They probably know how bad the conclusion actually is. All well and good, and the broader topic is interesting in a Schneier "risk assessment" kind of way.

Whatever you do, keep your fingers crossed just in case (which is another interesting topic, if you know what I mean).

Homemade Carrot Cake

2008-03-01T16:29:00.000-08:00

I baked a carrot cake this afternoon! It was pretty fun to see all the ingredients make a cake.

The process is long. Building a cake from scratch takes a lot of elbow grease – especially sifting the flour mixture using a tiny wire screen that isn't made for sifting. But the results are much more satisfying than buying a cake at the store. Natasha was nice enough to do all the cleaning, and she shredded the carrots.

The cake tasted great, especially with a hot cup of French Roast coffee (thanks Scott). The icing is far more delicate than carrot cake you'd find at the store. And the cake itself it more moist.

On a different subject, I've been battling allergies for the last two weeks. Yesterday was particularly debilitating because my nose wouldn't stop running. So I've once again started over-the-counter allergy medication. I've tried to avoid the meds because their side effect is insomnia, and I already have trouble sleeping. As with all medications, I've got the weigh the benefits against the burden.

Tonight Natasha and I will be going to a big charity auction hosted by our school's Public Interest group. We'll get dressed up and bring out pocketbook, but traditionally the items cost more than I'm willing to spend. Plus, I'm not looking for new things to buy – my list is long enough as it is.

BBQ Sauce, hold the HFCS

2008-02-22T05:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Natasha and I were at the grocery store. I was in a downbeat mood following a long week of school and an incident where I had my arms full with three boxes of cereal and our shopping cart had gone missing. Also, the guy stocking meats told me that they had never sold pre-formed breakfast sausages, even after I explained that I've bought them at this store not too long ago. Missing shopping carts and non-existing meats can be explained by cart-thieves and uninformed meat stockers, or by stress-induced dementia. Since I prefer the simple explanation to the complex, I found myself in the BBQ aisle in a bad mood.

I am not a "health nut". But I'm also not willing to regularly eat stuff that isn't trustworthy. I don't drink soda (even though I used to like it). I try to avoid hydrogenated oils. And I try to avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).

I don't like HFCS for two reasons: (1) I've read that it is hard on your liver and body, and (2) political/free-market/economic reasons. I avoid corn syrup in general and I avoid HFCS in particular.

But, the ingredient is so well-loved by the American food market that I still find it in many of my foods. It is so well loved by the BBQ sauce industry that I could not find a single brand which did not list some corn syrup as a top ingredient.

That's right, every single BBQ sauce in the entire store had form of corn syrup in their primary ingredients. Not even one bottle was sweetened only by simple ingredients like sugar and molasses. Someone out there understands a niche market, why don't they make regular BBQ sauce?

Then it gets worse. The niche market for un-corned sauce is filled, in part, by corn syrup. At least one sauce lists "ketchup" as a primary ingredient, and the ketchup is made with HFCS. They've found a clever way to pass the quick-scanning ingredient test. Instead of solving the problem by making a clean sauce, they've approached the problem by trying to fool the customer.

I was so disgusted that I didn't buy anything.

Waste Paper

2008-02-13T06:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we received our "brief" materials, a thick pile of documents filled with evidence, requirements, and sample writings.

Each time I get something like this I ask myself whether the value of printing so much paper is worth the cost of the materials used. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. During the previous semester, a professor assigned an essay and then printed a packet of anonymous answers for the whole class. That was colossal waste of paper – I'd already done my research for the answer so I wasn't looking to learn from my classmates, and the class was probably my largest and therefore had the most entries into this useless tome. Plus, optional reading is not high on my foodchain - I have enough to digest.

As I was leaving class I noticed an abandoned packet on a classmate's desk. I figured it was accidentally left behind. I was, in all honesty, unhappy at the sight of so much paper waiting to be thrown out by the next person to use the classroom. I figured that the owner would eventually want another copy and would print out another packet, wasting a tree in the process. I knew that I would find the owner in the cafeteria and I was heading there myself, so I decided to deliver the paper and save a tree.

So I personally delivered the papers. What I wasn't expecting was the reaction I received. She spoke in a convincing tone, "oh, that was an extra packet. You are SO SWEET!" Ummm, no I'm not. I'm mildly angry at the waste of paper and I happened to be going to the cafeteria, so I brought the packet along. My goal wasn't to please anyone. I might have expected a "thank you." I was surprised at the reaction and I think I just said "OK" and walked off.

What is the moral? I guess I can't take a compliment. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The power is yours.

Yeards, Celery, and Tairy

2008-02-03T20:01:00.000-08:00

Way back in December I mentioned that I love to hate Terry Goodkind. He is a terrible author, his books don't make sense, and each book opens to a wonderfully odd bearded and ponytailed stare:

I'm not going to discuss why his books are bad, but instead talk about my relationship with the books. I won't spoil the books either.

I picked up the idea to read his books from my college roommate, who had hardback editions of the first five book from his series "The Sword of Truth." I'm certain that I asked if the books were good, and I'm pretty sure I was told that they were somewhere between OK and good. That was enough of a recommendation for me, because at that point in my life I had an enormous appetite for summer reading and I'd tear through series quickly and occasionally with multiple re-reads of last summer's best.

By the third installment, I was pretty unhappy with the series, but I persevered. I should have trusted my gut, but hindsight is 20-20. I continued on until school started. At that point, the younger brother of a good friend told me that he loved the series. Maybe peer pressure was working on me, maybe I lacked the good common sense needed to split from the series. Nevertheless, I carried on.

I had already come too far, and I committed myself to the b00ks simply because I'd read the first 9 and only 3 more remained. Each year I would find myself in the bookstore only to be stared down by a pony-tailed and bearded fellow who compelled me to buy the latest installment, promising that the end was in sight and preying on my need for completion. I couldn't stop myself. Finally, I found relief in the final words of the final book. Although I said I wouldn't spoil the books, let me tell you that the ending is the best part, and not because of the ending written in the book.

Considering that you are at my page and reading this now, you are be aware that the internet allows people who share interests come together and discuss their narrow interests with other like-minded individuals. There are "rules" to the effect that you can find the most esoteric content somewhere on the web. Today, I've found the group of people who seriously hate Terry Goodkind and their hilarious discussions of the author.

They describe his ponytail/beard as a "yeard," they discuss Tairy's celery enemas which the author uses to steel himself against the Lemmings of Discord, and they discuss his interviews which shed light on his twisted worldview. If you've suffered from Tairy's books, search for these Lemmings and have a good laugh.

Printer Problems

2008-01-24T14:40:00.001-08:00

My printer is manufactured by Lexmark and branded by Dell. Dell puts a Dell sticker on the face, Lexmark makes the parts. My computer thinks it is a Lexmark printer, and uses the default Lexmark driver. Lexmark printer cartridges physically fit into the printer.

And here is where the problem begins.

Although the toner is a 100% perfect, identical, exact fit, the printer won't operate with Lexmark toner. Because Dell puts a little chip on the cartridge that disables the printer unless you've purchased your toner from Dell. Which is maddening. I can buy Lexmark toner everywhere, including Costco, but I can only buy Dell crap from Dell.

And what do I get for the trouble? I'm not sure. This technology only serves Dell, and is a hinderance to me. Dell has a vendor lock that prevents me from using alternatives, so they can charge more.

I don't mind that I can't put HP toner in my Lexmark printer, because they are manufactured at different facilities by different companies. But he distinction here is only on the surface, and the two cartridges are probably made on the same production line on the same day. The limitation is strictly business.

Tonight, I'm buying a printer that works with toner I can buy at the local store.

Star Wars

2007-12-20T17:04:00.000-08:00

If you haven't seen Star Wars Episode III yet, I'm going to spoil a scene, so please move on and skip this post.

There is little good to speak of in the jar-jar trilogy of Star Wars, Episodes I, II, and III. But there is a small gem in Episode III where a real tale is told: Palpatine convinces Anakin that the Jedi are evil.

The scene is set against a bizarre water-opera with flying fish and suspended spheres of water. Anakin walks in amongst Palpatine's friends, who are curtly commanded to leave. Then Palpatine starts to sweet talk the young Jedi with conspiracy theories of a Jedi Council power-grab.

Then it gets more interesting. Palpatine asks Anakin, "did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis The Wise? Darth Plagueis is a dark lord of the Sith so powerful and so wise, he could use the Force... to create life."

And in a few moments you understand how the young Jedi, seeped in petulance, could embrace the dark side. He is convinced that he can control the forces of life and protect his family. Anakin doesn't set out to do evil, he begins to believe that what he is doing is right.

Ian McDiarmid does a wonderful job acting the part of Palpatine. He narrates just as I would expect from a Sith, he comes out swinging from the moment he says, "leave us." The tense music, the Cirque du Soleil flying fish, and the creepy senator all add up to a classic scene buried in an otherwise dull movie.

Then you can fast forward to the fight scenes.

------------------------

I took my last final today, so I'm setting up my plans for the break. I enjoy racing games, but there is nothing left to do on the ones I own, so I'm exploring other options. An acquaintance from school suggests PC racing, because the games are supposed to be more realistic. I'd like to give them a shot, so I'm setting up Boot Camp again to install Windows on an Apple computer.

The last time I installed Boot Camp was right around the time it came out, something like 2005. I uninstalled it about a year later – I never used it and it wasn't satisfying. Maybe this time will be more interesting.

I'm also looking to read Goodkind's latest trash novel, Confessor. I have a love-hate relationship with Goodkind, I love to hate him. But just as with Windows, I keep coming back for more.

As a final note to tie my sub-posts together, George RR Martin is a superb author who fills his books with scenes that are more satisfying than the gems you'll find in Star Wars.

GRRM : Goodkind :: Mac : XP

The circle is complete.

Camera stuff, finals, refocus

2007-12-08T16:49:00.000-08:00

I'm looking to buy a new lens. The 50mm 1.4 is my top choice right now. It is a prime lens, which has some interesting qualities listed below:

"Prime" means that the magnification is unchangeable. You can't zoom in, you can't zoom out. This allows the manufacturer to make a lens which is really good at taking pictures at the one-and-only focal length. It is easier for a manufacturer to make a lens work really well at a set focal length than it is for a designer to make a lens which works well throughout many focal lengths. This means that there is less glass in the lens and the quality is improved.
Easier design and less moving parts means that these lenses are cheaper than their zoom-able counterparts. The tradeoff is that you can't zoom. So it may force me to be a better photographer and work with my tools more. This isn't a bad tradeoff, in my opinion.
Without getting technical, prime lenses generally allow more light to pass through. If you are curious, search for info on "aperture." More light means that you can use faster shutter speeds, and you can take clear action photos. It also means that you can do interesting effects such as focusing on a very small portion of the photo and blurring the other parts.

Natasha says I can buy the lens, but I'm going to mull it over.

On another topic, Tuesday is my first final test. I feel pretty good in general, but I've never taken a class where the only score that mattered is the final test. Please wish me luck over the coming weeks, I'd like as much help as I can get.

Just yesterday I spoke with Clint about blurry photos. He mentioned that new computer programs can refocus an image. That means that you can have shaky hands and the computer will play mathematical games to figure out what the original photo should have looked like. I went to Google and found that a plugin exists for a popular image editing tool, meaning I can do this myself at home. Now I can be the computer guy from CSI who says, "enlarge, sharpen, enlarge, sharpen," and get the villain's license plate reflected off the hero's sunglasses.

So I thought I would do just that. This past summer, some idiot rear-ended me in stop-and-go rush hour traffic. I got out of my car with a disposable camera and he drove off. My photos of his truck were very poor quality and the shots were too blurry to be useful.

My plan was to run the blurry photos through the refocus tool and see if anything interesting came up. Honestly, I expected nothing – the shots were taken with a truly horrible disposable camera with poor quality film.

In the end, it didn't matter. After the insurance was worked out and my car was back on the road, I threw the photos out. I didn't want to keep the photos. All they did was make me angry. But I had a hope that I had kept digital copies buried somewhere on my computer. So I pored over the archives and searched high and low. They are gone forever, so we'll never know who the truck belonged to.

I've surpassed my allotted time. Back to the books!

Amateur Photography

2007-11-16T09:01:00.000-08:00

I own a DSLR camera, which is something akin to a teenager owning a Ferrari. Actually, it is probably more like a midlife-crisis Ferrari owner. Point is, all that power and no idea how to use it.

Case in point: walking through the woods with Natasha, we happen to see a woodpecker peck-peck-pecking at a tree. I've stumbled unwittingly upon a subject. This is a perfect opportunity to take some stunning pictures of nature at work.

Only problem is that I don't know what I'm doing. So I take out my zoom lens and snap 200 photos. Only one of the photos is sharp and in focus, the rest are fit for the garbage bin.

So where does that leave me? I apparently don't have the skill to take steady shots, I don't have the patience to lug around a tripod, and I don't have the money to hire a camera crew (I'm exaggerating here, I have photos of Natasha lugging around my camera bag). The only force I've found to compensate for my lack of skill is copious quantity. I've got to take a lot of photos to get one that hints at quality.

I wonder how my photography would have been if I had taken this hobby on in another era. If I had to develop my film painstakingly, if film cost real money with each squeeze of the shutter, if I had to calculate exposure, focal settings, and aperture by hand. Would I take better photos because it is too damned hard to take crappy ones?

I'll keep at it. With time and practice, many things become easy. Until then, I'll be the guy holding the shutter button and shooting until my 400 shot memory card is full.

Stick to Your Teeth Cookies

2007-11-11T19:35:00.000-08:00

I baked cookies! Even better, I recorded it. The chocolate melts right before your eyes and the cookies are done in smell-o-vision (I tried to upload the smell-o-vision-version, but Blogger doesn't support it yet).

The recipe is Paula Deen's, so you can check out the food network website and make some for yourself.

Mmmmm, tasty.

Welcome! Introductions are in order.

2007-11-11T12:09:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my new "blog." I had a "blog" on a popular social network, but I found it lacking in features and quality. In particular, it didn't publish properly and creating new entries was ugly and difficult. Ultimately, I removed myself from the other site and am starting anew here.

MYSELF

I'm a former computer scientist, now in law school. I like motorsports, coffee, and $7 pens. I live in Portland, Oregon, and have lived in CA, TX, AZ, Germany, NY, and AK. I like puns, puzzles, and some video games.

Lets talk about some of the fun stuff I've been up to recently. I'll tell you about school, vehicles, and Portland.

SCHOOL

School is taxing. I spend vast amounts of time preparing for class. Law school involves copious reading and a good amount of writing. Despite the boatloads of work, I enjoy it all. I like my classes, I like my classmates, and I like my teachers. Many people dislike some portion of their classes – not me. I like them all. This is a good sign.

My computer science background allows me to pursue certain parts of patent law which aren't otherwise available to lawyers. This field is bustling with activity. I have an inclination toward practicing this body of law, but it is way to early to tell. For now, I'm happy to keep my options open and see what is out there.

VEHICLES

My neighbor backed into my motorcycle and knocked it over.

If there was some good of it, he owned up to the problem and came and got me. "I didn't see it." He did $315 of damage and paid for a replacement fairing. Good thing the cover was on, too. I took the whole right hand side apart and searched everything for damage, so the time investment was also pretty big. What a pain. This really hurts me, but there is nothing to be done about it now.

Following that, I had some shifting problems. These problems are impossibly remote to anything that could have happened as part of the tip-over. I tried to diagnose the problem and found a lot of people who have installed a shift detent arm with a stronger spring and had all problems clear up. So I ordered the part. $200 later, while installing it, the new part rubs against the engine case. I call the manufacturer and they don't really care much. I'm still trying to work with them to get things straightened out.

Part of the installation process involves using a special tool to hold the clutch basked while removing a bolt that is tightened by Hercules himself. Turns out that the specialty tool I bought doesn't fit, so it chips at my clutch basket and ruins another $100 part. Woe!

Further, it looks like the new detent arm doesn't do a damn thing. The next possible action is to tear the whole transmission apart and replace the shift forks and any broken dogs. So the transmission job is on my to-do list. It involves (1) remove engine from frame (2) split the cases (3) fool with the transmission. I've never done anything this detailed. Professional mechanics specialize in transmissions because general mechanics won't touch them. I have the job penciled in for Christmas break.

PORTLAND

Portland is great. The weather is very nice. The city has a public rose garden that we've

walked around a couple times. The campus is also very nice and fun to explore on foot. Come to think of it, the campus is nestled in a state park, with paved paths winding through wooded areas and the cool breeze of the Pacific Northwest. I've got nothing to complain about.

Also, Natasha and I are having a great time together. We walked around the campus yesterday and explored the older buildings for the school of education. These buildings are a page out of history – I'm glad they are around and I'm also glad that we don't have to use them. Much of the law school is recent and modern.