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Viewing Category: Living
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 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! 
2010 Dec 23
Posted by Barron •
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PermalinkThis is one of my favorite movies of all time. I was obsessed with the film Diva, so when Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Betty Blue was released, it was a must that I see it in the theater. Since it was an artsy foreign film we saw it at the Bijou Theater in Hermosa Beach. I loved the movie so much that I went back to the theater a few months later and asked the manager if he had a movie poster. He went into the back room and brought it out for me! I think I still have that at my folks’ house. The story follows the relationship of Zorg and Betty, as she slowly becomes unstable and ultimately goes insane. But despite the dark parts of the film, there’s lots of funny and touching moments. And the soundtrack is fantastic! 2010 Dec 22
Since I am reminiscing about Japan (only a couple more days until I am on the plane), here’s another song that I used to listen to back then. I was probably December of 1996. I used to put my new Pizzicato Five CD ”great white wonder RARE MASTERS 1990`1996” into my Sony Discman and hop on the Friday night bullet-train from Tokyo Station to Osaka. This song was the soundtrack at the time, zipping through the stations and passing the city lights. I remember arriving in Osaka and waiting at the station, smoking cigarettes until Mariko got off work. Those were such fun times! Another P5 tune from the disc! 2010 Dec 21
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PermalinkI was jumping around YouTube watching music vids when I came across one of my all-time favorite songs: Ano Natsu no Hanabi by Dreams Come True. It goes back a ways! I think when I first heard this, I was making up my mind to move to Japan and this song kind of clinched it for me. I love it. Here it is from one of their amazing concerts, then the album song below, and lyrics (with rough translation) below that. Natsukashii! Japanese Tooku kara mune furuwasu oto ga hibiite kuru Hito de afureru teibou hagurenai you ni Imagoro anata mo dokoka de omoidashiteru no? Tomodachi ni hiyaka sareta mou natsu no hajime ni wa Kawa ni ochiru hanabira ga kieteku magiwa ni Imagoro anata mo dareka to kotoshi no hanabi wo miteru no? Nokoru kemuri kasumu daisankaku Imagoro anata mo dokoka de omoidashiteru no? Kotoshi mo kirei ne ano hi to onaji you ni kagayaku hanatachi Imagoro anata mo dokoka de chitteku kisetsu wo ikiteru English From far away, heart-shaking sounds are echoing Riverbank so overflowing with people, probably not able to peel off These days do you too, somewhere, recall… that day… Teased by friends at the very start of summer These days are you too, with someone, seeing this year’s fireworks? The remaining smoke, hazy Great Triangle [Altair, Vega, Deneb] These days do you too, somewhere, recall… that past summer’s fireworks… This year too, so beautiful, the same as that day, the shining blossoms Translations from DCTJoy.com 2010 Sep 21
Last week the kids said they wanted to walk to school. I usually drop them off by car and the head straight to work. But now the routine will change a bit and I am walking with them partway to school, and then they walk together (and sometimes with a friend to make 3 of them) the rest of the way. There’s a semi-busy street they have to cross, so I go with them on that part of the route. The speed limit is 30mph but I see plenty of cars whizzing by at around 40 and there’s a curve which makes it a little harder to see far. Today was the third day I walked with them and they wanted me to not go as far. I still watched them walk until they were out of view. It feels really great to get a little exercise in the morning, and my legs were actually a little sore. I’m really out of shape! 2010 Aug 10
While looking through the Aerostich catalog I noticed they were selling an anime named “Kino’s Journey”. I checked for it on Netflix and saw that the 15 episode series was available so I put it in my queue. The story is about a traveler, Kino, and her talking motorcycle, Hermes. They travel the semi-fictitious world, stopping and visiting many different countries. These countries vary in size, technology, and culture. Each episode is a small self-contained story and usually has some insight into human behavior. I found the series to be pretty interesting, sometimes shocking, sometimes funny. But most of all, I enjoyed the motorcycle footage. It looked like a cool “motorrad”. The opening and closing theme songs are really good too. When I was riding my motorcycle last week, I couldn’t get the opening song out of my head! 2010 Apr 20
I love this song from Lupin III. When I played the remixed version, Mariko knew exactly where it was from. Remix version below. |