Typhoon and end of September

Here's Emma and her future boyfriend Tatsuomi-kun! This is our friends' son Tatsuomi, he's 7 months old now.

Busy weekend with friends coming over and the Typhoon. We had to pull the habaneros and jalapenos inside to make sure they don't get blown away or damaged. I lost 1 habanero pulling them in.. it fell off and rolled down into the park.
I updated my server to the newest linux, and did a lot of new things, we're using xmbc now with our androids as remote controls.. it's really neat and there are a lot of really nice plugins! I found a "glee" radio station!

I spent most of the day at the console actually doing a lot of work via command line, there's something satisfying sometimes about doing it all by hand! I'm going to set up some more stuff later, but I think I've got it to a good place. I'd like to see about getting TV streaming in, but there's not much support for Japan's digital broadcasting.

Did my work out again, got 4x5 on 98kg kilos, maybe just one or two more weeks and I'll be over 100 and ready to start doing different workouts.

Let's see... should I start my tirade on iPhone 5? or have you read the news? it seems like every day someone is finding some new bug with it, from the vibration hardware being old and too strong, to wi-fi not connecting (oops-- no iCloud) to the map just plain outright getting lost. I saw an article today about what apps you should be using to replace iPhone's stock apps, and thought... well, why'd you buy the iPhone if you're going to replace all the stock apps? you should have just gotten some Android with a bigger screen and more hardware features.

Nuff Said

Typhoon

Busy days as always... but... I made Sriracha! That's what you do when you have 200grams of habaneros and other mixed peppers... Looks good right? Emma is smiling about it:

I have to let it ferment for a few days before I boil and bottle it. I'm torn between leaving it chunky and seedy or pushing it through the sieve and making it into more like the paste you usually see in the stores. Now...here's the catch... a lot of the peppers are habaneros... This could be crazy!!

Tomorrow we're getting emma's picture taken in a little Kimono.. gonna be so cute!!

See you space cowboys.

New records

I think I've shared this before.. but it's our first shot of a smiling Emma.

Today I set a new record! I'm up to 98kg on the reps on bench!! it's tiring!

So tiring I'm going to just write that and log out!

See you guys!

Baked blackbeans

What's baked blackbean?
I'm not too sure what all it entails, but it's a jellybean (the newest upgrade for android) rom and it's pretty neat. I like the black with glowing blue accents :) However, the keyboard layout is US, not Japanese!!
Other than that it's really neat and fun.

Hmm.. what's new in life?
I7m sleeping earlier and waking up earlier... 4:30am :) yeah.. it's crazy early, but... it's nice :)

I started a new training program, you run as hard as you can as long as you can and mark it as your base time. Then cut that in half and run it in an interval with twice that for recovery.. try to run it 6 to 8 times in one session.... if you're not about to puke or fall over.. you're not doing it right!!

It's almost eleven so I'm off to bed.

See you space cowboys!

Back in the saddle.

Hmm.. so much to write about! but I don't want to bore you with too much.

I could go on a long spiel about the iPhone 5, but I'll save that for a more boring day. How about today I bore you with the fun of going to the office two days in a row.. Yippie!

Actually even more boring... I set up my computer to put "NVFLASH" on my transformer. I'm itching to try out jelly bean and a custom rom, so I've been backing up my stuff and syncing the back up to box.net .. do you have box? I got 50gb free!! from free cloud storage, I think I have close to 100GB...  I hardly ever use box now that I'm on windows :( On linux I had an rsync to automatically put my photos in box. *yawn* what a boring topic! Anyway, I'm waiting for my back up to sync before I try unlocking my device... once I unlock, then I'll NVFLASH and try out a custom ROM.

Ok ok... I said I wasn't going to bring up the iPhone, but I just want to say something in passing. I went over to the store behind my house and looked at the iPhone 5... I have to say.. it looks nice, but, I just don't get it... why make such a small phone when the other smartphones have big screens? When I had the iPhone 3gs, I thought it was a great size until I got the samsung galaxy sII lte... and it's awesome! The screen makes all the difference... Now I wouldn't mind getting a note, but I'd love the s3! Big screen, high speed, and neat new stuff!

Maybe some more tomorrow.

Until then,
See you space cowboy.

I'm back!

I was in America for 10 days on business, and I've been back a week. I'm getting back in the swing of things I suppose!
Here's my first post back :) sorry for the delay!

America was interesting after being in Japan for so long. One of the first things I noticed were the immigration people... they were seriously rude! I'm so used to everyone in Japan being so polite when the talk to you, it was surprising to be treated so gruffly. Also.. the TSA scanning and everything is CRAZY. After the trip I feel like I could sleep for at least a week!

Anyway, here's a picture of today's cooking:
Peanut butter chocolate oatmeal cookies!!

Maybe tomorrow I'll talk about the iPhone 5

Hisashiburi

It's been a while I feel since I last posted.. though maybe only a day and a half! Man I've been so exhausted these days, but the project is finished and I'm glad! There are some places for improvement but all in all it's pretty smooth!

Look at all the peppers!! What should we do with them? maybe this fall I can make Sriracha with mixed hot peppers.

Emma is doing great, we took her to the Embassy and with the exception of an explosive bowel movement she was a little angel! She slept almost the whole time in the bjorn and it was really easy to go out with her.

She's been really good every time we've gone out, I hope she keeps this streak up.

See you space cowboys.

Java

Today I expanded my resume!

I finally finished my program for work. It's a tool that checks how many of our members fit certain criteria -- it's pretty neat! Anyway, it's a couple thousand lines of code and uses PHP, mysql, jquery and a little bit of HTML5. I still need to make some final touches like pop-up help menus and some colors and other things that will make it easier to look at it and understand it. 1 month of work finally done!! YaY!

Customer Service

Today we write a reveal all on Japanese customer service.

I just watched a story on the news about how foreigners all feel that Japanese customer service is amazing, though the truth is, it really isn't. Saying that customer service in Japan is like saying the automatic car wash has great customer service. In Japan, most customer service positions have a lot of training and they are meticulous about the small things. The customer service that people feel is so great is really just very good training and very extensive rules about every aspect of their customer service. I'll admit, it is really really good if you stay within their instruction manual and within the hours of operation. Here's where it goes bad:

Let's say you're on a diet or have some kind of allergies and you go to a restaurant. Good luck! If it's not on the menu, it's almost impossible to get a special order. At McDonald's I wanted mustard instead of mayonnaise on my chicken sandwich. The clerk's head looked like it was going to explode and they had to get a manager to tell me they couldn't do that. I ended up scraping it off... In America, my experience has always been that they try to do what you want. If I ask for a no sauce burger at McDonald's in America, they probably won't even bat an eye and give it to me. I was on the phone this weekend talking to Southwest (while I disagree with what they did, I appreciate it) and the lady contacted her manager to find an open seat on a flight even though the website said they are all filled. The reason why I disagree is: if the flight is filled, it should be filled. There shouldn't be any magic seats available.

If you're lucky to make it within the hours of operation -- which are very brief -- then great! But let's go over the fun in Japan. Banks are open 9-4or5  on weekdays with a 1hour lunch. Bank call centers are open for the SAME PERIOD OF TIME. If you don't bring your stamp, you can't access your account. I don't care if you brought every form of photo ID and 3 different samples of DNA confirming it's you, no stamp, no money. But, you can deposit into your account with just the account number.

To sum up, service is Japan is great, but it's only great because of extensive training and rules, everyone has a kind of "if a then b" training. If you want something just a little outside the normal scope or you can't make it during hours of operation (i.e. you are an employee and you need to go to the bank) It's quite terrible. There is no "I'll try" or "I'll ask my manger if they can do it" there's "I can't" or "My manager will tell you why I can't do it".

see you space cowboys

Weight lifting!!

Today I read a an article about practice, and it's quite similar to my idea about weight training. "Deliberate practice leads to mastery" Which is what I believe about weight lifting "Challenging weight lifting leads to muscle growth" If you can cruise a 5k run, or lift x lbs easily, why are you doing it? If you're not constantly challenging yourself and increasing the challenge, you'll not see any significant gains. Unfortunately I haven't been practicing my guitar like this lately :( But I should!! I'll try to get back to it again soon! I've been super busy finishing this coding project for work. and I'm not finished yet, but I've got it up to a very useable state. I just need some final coding and to brush up the html and css.

Anyway.. just some thoughts.

See you space cowboys.

Post Script:
My current work out:
Chin-ups -> squats super set -- chin-ups with a weight plate, squats with in an increasingly heavy weight (currently 85kg)
Bench press -> lunges bench press is currently 43kg per hand and lunges are 15kg per hand.
5 sets of 5