2011 Mar 16
One of my favorite songs by one of my favorite singers, Hajime Chitose.
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2011 Mar 15
Hi all! You might have noticed that I have a new buddy icon/avatar graphic that I am using on twitter, foursquare, gowalla, IM, google, etc. I made it over at EightBit.me. I’ve been looking to replace my old one for a while now, and I really liked the EightBit.me avatars that I’ve seen. I had to edit it a little bit in photoshop to add a nice background and also edited the hair a little (had to recede the hairline a “pixel”!) By the way, you can click on the “about” link on the top left to see the buddy icons I’ve used in the past. 2011 Mar 14
 Each year, Mariko prepares a big batch of soybeans to make miso. I’m not sure the exact process or how long it takes, but I do know that we enjoy tasty miso soup any time! Last year’s was a rich, dark color and the flavor was amazing. So much better than the store-bought miso or (heaven forbid!) the instant miso mix. Plus I imagine home-made is a lot cheaper. 2011 Mar 13
 A few months ago I was at the REI on 6th and Lamar, and I happened upon a pretty nice sale. They had a ton of lightly used shoes available for super cheap and I managed to find two pairs of Keen shoes that I really liked. The low-top pair was $8 and the boots were $20, so I saved around $110 off the retail price! They did have a little bit of wear (and a fair amount of caked-on mud) but they are really comfortable. Keen shoes are pretty good, but on these two pairs the soles were separating from the mid-soles. Kind of annoying, but easily remedied by applying some good ol Shoe-goo. A tube of this stuff is only about $4 and works great. I used a popsicle stick to get the glue well into the separation, then I smashed the shoe under a heavy bag of topsoil (I was in the garage) and left it overnight. The next day, the shoe-goo was dry and the sole was good to go! The shoes came with plain brown laces which were ok but I wanted to get some old-style hiking laces for the lo-tops and then a more modern pair of hiking laces for the boots. I had to get rid of an older pair of shoes to make room for these new additions but I think it’s a nice trade. 2011 Mar 11
I’ve been thinking about why I buy the brands I buy, and why I recommend Dell to people who ask me about computers. First and foremost is that one of our family works for Dell, so of course we support the hand that feeds us! But it’s not only us — a lot of the local community here in the Austin area also depend on Dell. It makes sense to support our friends and the local economy buy buying their products. Secondly, Michael Dell gives a lot back to the community by supporting programs and facilities like the Dell Childrens’ Medical Center. Many of us are not aware of the things that Dell does, but it’s really eye-opening when you take a look at the master list of philanthropic causes that the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation help support. And on an even more local level, when I visit the local library I see the generous Dell Foundation check displayed behind the checkout counter. Years ago I would see something like that and not think too much about it, but these days I try to notice acts of generosity like that. I think many of us who buy tech products only look at certain things such as price, performance, design, and desirability. I’m the same way, but now I also look at what the company behind the products stands for and what they think is important. When I do that, I’m happy to buy from a company like Dell. 2011 Mar 10
Do you love the Surf Coaster too? 2011 Mar 09
 Last weekend we went to Explore UT, which is an all-day event held on campus. University student volunteers from all the disciplines have exhibits and activities set up for the visiting school-age kids. There’s quite a range of things to do and learn about, but Bay and Koa always are most interested in the Engineering and Science activities. This year, the highlights for them were the Robotic Soccer game, which was played by Aibo and Nau robots. That was pretty cool to see. Another thing they really enoyed was the VR environments. Koa got to walk around the room and interact with virtual drumkits, piano keys and a life-size statue that you could punch. Bay did a VR race around a city environment. He said the graphics were “pretty weak”, though. At the Science area, we got to see exploding gummi bears and the diet coke geyser using mentos. We’d never actually seen that in person although we’ve heard about it before. I always like Explore UT and we have gone the past three years now. It’s kind of fun to visit campus and experience a little bit of University life again! 
2011 Mar 08
Several months ago I was talking with Bay and Koa about a funny song/video named “Eat It”. I told them it is the funny version of another song by Michael Jackson. They had never heard of Weird Al and didn’t know anything about Michael Jackson, but after watching all the Weird Al videos on YouTube and then the Michael Jackson originals, the kids were hooked — on Michael Jackson! I downloaded the album Number Ones Below is my favorite tune from Number Ones, “Rock With You”: 2011 Mar 07
 Yesterday morning I went with Bay to the local Walmart to pick up Pokémon Black/White for the DS. Both Bay and Koa wanted to get the English version of the game (the opposite color than their Japanese version) and I wanted to pick up a copy for myself since I’ve been enviously watching them enjoy the game ever since they got them in Japan last Xmas. The game has similar gameplay to all the previous Pokémon games, but it’s a lot slicker and the environments are pretty nicely rendered. It even looks great on my DS Phat circa 2005. The dialog in the game is actually quite funny, and some of the TV shows I’ve watched in the houses you can visit are really interesting. One of them has a lot of romaji in it. Not sure if the translation team was taking a day off, but it was really funny. I was reading the instruction manual last night and some of the things you can do via wi-fi seem pretty cool. It’s pretty confusing reading without actually having the chance to go through it in the actual game, but the wi-fi trading and battling look fun. One frustrating thing I encountered is that our new router is not compatible with the DS. In previous firmware versions, there is a simple setting to change to enable the DS to connect but in the firmware I have, there is no option, and I don’t want to downgrade the firmware for fear of screwing up the rest of our setup. But luckily, the DS’s can access wi-fi via my G2 phone and it’s awesome wi-fi tethering. Which is great, because there is a special Pokémon named Victini that you can download right now. I haven’t played a game on my DS in a while now, but Pokémon Black/White are a perfect excuse to dust off the old console. Lots of fun! |
from Amazon.com and it has been in heavy rotation on my iPod whenever they are in the car. I think it’s funny the songs they chose as favorites. Of course they love “Thriller” and “Beat It”, but I was surprised that Koa loves “Man in the Mirror” and Bay really likes “Dirty Diana”. Just recently we watched 