Archive for February, 2007
February 28, 2007 at 2:33 pm · Filed under Computers
I have been working away at a problem related to japanese strings in a database, character encoding, and java servlets for the past week. Not continuously but the problem has resulted in an unacceptable amount of my time being consumed and even some emotional bruising (from the java sun forum). Basically, I was getting a utf-8 encoded string from the database and I wanted my servlet to return an html or xml page, also encoded in utf-8, containing the string. I probed my program at every step to determine when the data I was getting from the database (a byte array of utf-8 character values) was turning into “???????……”. Could not figure it out until just now. Even though I had this set:
res.setContentType(”text/html; charset=utf-8″);
res.setCharacterEncoding(”utf-8″);
I also needed to specify utf-8 encoding when I made my printwriter (how the html or xml page strings are sent out):
PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(res.getOutputStream(), “UTF-8″));
yeah…that last little bit there…, “UTF-8″ was all I needed.
I am sooooo happy that I finally figured out what I was missing but…really…all of this time. It is things like this that make me think about my life on the time/production/satisfaction scales. If I were indexed I would draw some nice little diagram resulting from these reflections but…time to move onto other things (like double checking that things I think work now are *actually* working).
February 28, 2007 at 10:29 am · Filed under Theeeeeeeeeeesis
I have to find the right font.
This size is too big. My thoughts will seem too loud.
Maybe if I give this folder a funny name, the amusement will make me more eager to work on things inside.
Damn my yogurt cup is emptying - what happens then?
I need a log, which notebook? Oh maybe this one that I stuck a motivational sentence sticker on a long time ago. What does it say again?
I should wash my face this oiliness is distracting me. It’s like a film that is trapping productive thoughts inside.
Hmm I wouldn’t mind mapping this out on paper. It would be nice to have a new notebook lying around. Maybe even a moleskine. No maybe a moleskine would be over doing it. For now I will staple some foolscap together. Can I make it funky looking though? Maybe some ribbon…
Now which pen…I can’t use this one because I use it for studying kanji and can’t have it dry up too quickly. My gosh I have a serious lack of good pens.
I need to remember that it will not be written from word 1 to word N or even from section 1 to section N. Patches we need patches here.
Does the thesis get double spaced?
And can you plagiarize yourself?
It is warped. I find half of myself taking immense pleasure in distracting the other half from the task.
m1: oh let’s due some pushups!
m2: okay…1…2…3…oh crap, wait…
m1: ha ha fooled you but we might as well finish now right?
m2: well yes…I guess that would make sense…oh you, *blush* you get me every time
m1: it’s for both our own goods…
m2: can you be so sure about that?
m1: yes.
m2: ok.
m1: well, I won that round. As a reward, I get another 5 minutes of your time to write about it.
Does it count as working on thesis time if I go to LIVIN to get some office supplies I am seriously running on scraps here. I need:
- smooth pen
- notebook (2)
- post-it notes: bold colours, none of that pastel crap that makes ideas look like they have the flu
Omigod this is horrible. My dorm room wall is covered in this awful textured wallpaper. Awful because post-it notes do not stick. It could be because I am using 3 and a half year old post-it notes (heh heh bought when I was an eager fresh master’s student) but…I dunno. Add to shopping list above: white board wallpaper. This is Japan - they have to have it somewhere.
Oooo my neighbor just brought me cheesecake from Hokkaido (in the North of Japan) and I have to eat it today because it expires but if I eat this…I really have to giv’er until 11:30pm.
Last night: I started working on my thesis. From 7:30pm (okay 7:45 after I spent 15 minutes reorganizing my computer desktop space) to 11:30pm I stayed on the playing field. I got distracted and frustrated and confused a lot but for the most part I think I was playing the game. I did actually get some progress…I feel. Most importantly two things happened:
1. I left the thesis denial phase - note a new post category for thesis related things which you may see a lot of in the near future.
2. I am eager to meet that monster again tonight.
February 23, 2007 at 11:42 am · Filed under Technology & Effects
I love Jan Chipchase’s work and try to keep up with his site. He is a researcher for Nokia: travels around the word, observes mobile phone culture and takes a lot of pictures. What I love the most is his honesty. He brings to light interesting trends, habits, etc. but notes when there might be a bias:
Despite the rear area often being considered, in the words of a female clothing designer we interviewed, a ‘problem zone’, in Tokyo mobile phones and music players like the iPod (pictured above) are increasingly making their way into the back pockets of women. (…) Of course this ‘trend’ could merely be a result of me seeing what my male brain is hard-wired to see.
To note on women carrying their mobile or mp3 players in their back pockets:
1) The back pocket is used to state the worth of a pair of jeans. It is indeed a zone for personalization, for advertising, for expression. The mobile adds to this expressive zone - people will be looking there (for reasons other than hard-wiring in the male brain…I would be lying if I said I did notice back pockets).
2) Are women more attentive to things in their back pockets? Possibly due to self-consciousness (”is there something on my butt?”). I put my mobile in my back pocket when I am expecting a phone call or email that I cannot miss.
3) A mobile phone or mp3 player in the front pocket of women’s jeans/pants? No that doesn’t work.
February 22, 2007 at 2:27 pm · Filed under Computers, I'm a Nerd, Work
Today - I used a hex editor for the first time.
K so I’ve had to deal with hex before but this is like…I used a hex editor.
If you spend a lot of time on computers or programming this might be a fairly insignificant event for you but for me - there is some strangeness to it.
Luckily it is helping me find answers. I am battling with character encodings in Java. I have to convert text (possibly Japanese) encoded in iso-2022-jp to utf-8 and it is only half working. Some characters (mostly hiragana but a few kanji) are showing up as ???. I’ve been able to figure out that in my program, characters are been properly converted from iso-2022-jp to their Unicode values. So it is a problem when going from Unicode to utf-8.
I’m sure this was really interesting for you all…
Oh! Last night after work I missed a train by a few seconds and in my frustration I bought this strange hot sweet red bean beverage from the station vending machine. I can’t remember the name but I will try to post a picture tomorrow. It was nice at the time but on reflection I don’t know if it is necessarily good to consume habitually.
February 20, 2007 at 12:40 pm · Filed under Experiences
It was pissing rain. I thought it was a sign. I am not ready for this race and now it is raining so the event will be cancelled and I will be saved. I checked the marathon’s website on my mobile at 5:30am – no notices. Maybe they forgot to update the site like they said they would. Well there is no harm in preparing and getting myself to Tokyo. By the time I arrive at Shinjuku they will have made a cancellation announcement and I will take a deep breath, think “oh that is too bad” and head back home. Heh – no.
Sometime after Yokohama I started spotting other runners on the train. Identifiable by plastic bags distributed to store our belongings during the race and RC tags attached to the laces of their running shoes. Getting off at Shinjuku station I tried to lessen my nervousness by observing the pre-race activities of fellow participants. Drinking sport drinks? Eating? What are they wearing? How are they tying their shoes? Stretching? What are those patches they are adhering to their legs and neck? I wondered about these things as I headed to the starting area. The entire way was occupied by marathon participants. I began to realize the crazy number of people who would be running today.
It was still pissing rain and I had no umbrella. I had to find truck #23 to drop my belongings off in. The crowds I squeezed through kept me relatively warm but I was still getting soaked. I can’t believe this. How will this affect the race? Why didn’t I buy a poncho!! I dropped off my bag, luckily received a large plastic bag with arm and head holes (free poncho) to wear during the race (luckily as I think I later overhead another guy asking why he couldn’t get poncho as the race guide said they would be distributed), then headed to block K, the last starting block; for slow people (?) and first timers. There was still another 30 minutes before the race would start. I jumped up and down a lot, I tried to stretch. I was quickly turning into an icicle. My jacket sleeves soaked through and stuck to my bare skin. I was wringing water from my 100円 shop gloves (k so I don’t have like…marathon gear) and wondering if my hands would be warmer with or without them. I thought I was going to die.
Around 10 minutes before the starting time, the people in the back of my block started a wave of hands in the air and “woooooh”. As it flowed ahead my frozen mouth managed to break into a smile and it actually made my whole body feel warmer for a moment. Maybe this would be okay. “But if it is going to be okay – I want to start…now!” The race started at 9:10 but being in the last block, we had to wait for more than 27,000 people (btw I am sort of guesstimating these numbers) to go before we would get to the start line. A large screen display a few blocks ahead showed the start line. The first people to leave – they appeared to just gun it. I wondered – how fast will people run? Am I just a jogger? Can I really “run” in a race?
We moved forward to the starting line slowly and anticipation grew. Some people hopped, jogged, others kept walking. As each block started it felt like a wave of energy would be passed to the blocks behind it. I was forgetting my coldness more and more. A woman was standing on her apartment balcony and as groups passed by she waved her arms and called out to them. Hundreds of faces looked up to her and cheered back, waving hands in the air. That one woman made thousands of people cheer on Sunday – that was incredible. Approaching the starting line I actually felt hot with happiness. This is it, I don’t know if I can do this or not but I don’t care anymore because wow this is so amazing.
The first 4km flew by. No I didn’t fly by, I was unsure of my limits so tried to keep a steady, comfortable pace the entire race. Given the comfortable pace, and my excitement over the event, I almost felt like I was just trotting down the streets of Tokyo. Like – no effort. I can’t get over how amazing the energy felt. I didn’t have to motivate or push myself. I was driven by the other runners, the yells of “ganbatte yo!!!” from the spectators, the sound of 60,000 feet slapping the ground. At points bands were playing – marching, bagpipes, taiko and the sound made my legs float. Passing under the train bridge a hilarious but polluting amount of men stopped to relieve themselves. I half felt sad and eww and half of me laughed at the rows of runners face up to the bridge’s cement base. Then a block of buildings with brightly coloured vertical signboards came into sight. A perfect representation of what I thought Japan looked like before I came here, it made me think “holy crap I am running through the streets of Tokyo”.
After 4km the initial excitement wore down a bit. I was thinking about my endurance. I know I can run 4km but what happens when I passed 7 or 8? This made the trip to 5km feel long but once I got there the realization that I was half done drove my energy back up. I felt like I was making relatively good time (for my standards) and if I continued at this fairly comfortable pace I could make it to the 10km in (almost ha ha not really) no sweat
I made it. Passing the finish line the runners slowed down to a walk and we followed each other down a path into Hibuya park where we were given heating ponchos to wear. I slipped mine over my numb body and entered the scramble of people getting Soy Joy bars, bananas and water. Past the refreshment row was the handing out of medals and then after that, the removal of our RC tags. I won’t even talk about the craziness while trying to pick up my belongings or drying/changing in a large theatre with thousands of other sweaty people. Let’s just say that eventually I made it home, ran a hot bath and laid there until the water was cool again.
By nighttime I was able to see my running time online. 01:03:27 – a shade quicker on the second 5km than the first. It is not very fast but for a first, I am really happy about it. I was incredibly uncertain over my ability to run the 10km so never pushed myself to hard. I did not spend a moment out of breath so I think that next time I will be able to pick my speed up a little more and maybe shoot for 50 minutes? I did experience some discomfort in my left leg. My hip was cramping up and near the end the cramps were crawling down my leg’s thigh. There were never any sharp or unbearable pains but I think I need to make my bottom stronger.
I feel a little bad about writing so much when I only ran the 10km, not the marathon, or even a half marathon but…the 10km was like, a mini-meghan-marathon. My mind is shooting for that full marathon someday but not anytime soon. I think I am a fan of these 10km races and when I get bored of them, that’s when I will consider going for the full marathon.
February 16, 2007 at 4:59 pm · Filed under I am feeling...
less than 48 hours…my tummy is already fluttering.
half an hour left at work then off to the travel party. we will go…somewhere…eat and drink…stay overnight in some type of…sleeping lodge establishment then part ways in the morning.
i have no clue how the evening will transpire but you will here about it and sunday’s race after the weekend.
February 15, 2007 at 1:24 pm · Filed under In the Kitchen and Foodstuff, Japan
It’s a little sad - the other day I went into my neighborhood Lawson’s convenience store and the oden stand was gone. Oden came in the fall when it started getting chilly outside and it is the best warm-me-up convenience store food. Sure, home oden and izakaya oden are much better but on those windy nights where you are just too tired to cook at home…oden did the trick. I loved oden.
It is highly possible that you have not heard of or seen oden before. If you have not, read a description from bento.com and also check out their page on translating the oden menus from 7-11 and Lawson’s.
February 14, 2007 at 10:04 am · Filed under Thinking
I friend notified me that if you google megmilk, this site comes in 3rd - after www.megmilk.com. How cool is that? Unfortunately this only works with english google and if you use www.google.co.jp which would be more relevant to megmilk, I am off the map.
So yesterday I was thinking about how my site could get among the first few pages of a www.google.co.jp “megmilk” query when it came to me - really, I should be trying to get in a megmilk commercial. I figured that I would have an advantage given the whole being tall thing. Drink milk and grow. I guess a first step would be to make a demo tape. Then I need to find the appropriate people to contact from megmilk. I wonder if this is possible…
February 13, 2007 at 3:47 pm · Filed under Experiences, Japan
Moving back to Saturday afternoon – I attending a coworker’s wedding ceremony. It was beautiful (of course) and the food was delicious (of course). From my memory, these are things that happened:
-> Sometimes people have a ceremony the same day but sometimes not. This couple chose not to. The party started at 2pm at a hotel in Yokohama.
-> Arriving at the hotel we checked are coats, dropped off our wedding money (there is a word for this but I can’t remember what it is), received programs and had a chance to have our pictures taken with the bride and groom.
-> About the wedding money: in Japan it is tradition for guests to bring money for the bride and groom. It is partly gift money and partly money for the party. I won’t say how much but – a lot. I was told that Saturday’s wedding was cheaper than regular weddings as the bride and groom set a price for all. If a price is not set there is like an “average” and you pay more or less depending on how well you know the people. Umm…this is my interpretation…I could be wrong about some of the above.
-> The seating plan was included in the wedding program. My name was the only non-Japanese name and it looked kind of funny. Interestingly, we (me and other NTT people) had a table at the very front of the room, closest to the bride and groom. I guess another thing about weddings here – friends and coworkers are guests of the bride, groom, and their families so the families sit in the back of the room, even the parents. Only the bride and groom sat at the very front and I thought they looked so lonely.
-> The party progressed with a mixture of getting food served and bride and groom-related activities. Some of interest: (oh no we are getting into layer two of bullets here)
- The groom’s friends came up to their table often and poured drinks for him. It is possible that the he could get very very drunk if he did not manage this well. My friend told me that sometimes there is a bucket next to the groom’s seat to dump poured drinks into rather than refusing the gesture or drinking too much.
- The MC periodically read telegrams sent by people who could not attend the wedding. Totally a common thing - when someone gets married, people in their workplace will send a telegram.
- The bride started the party in a white wedding dress and halfway through (I think) left to change into a second dress (an as-the-bride-likes dress). Sometimes the bride will also wear a traditional Japanese wedding dress for part of the ceremony but my coworker chose not to.
- When the bride came back in her new dress, her and the groom did a candlelighting ceremony of sorts. They walked into and around the room with a flame, lighting candles at each table then going to the front to light a large candle by their table. I think this is a Japanese tradition but actually, I am not totally sure. I can see it being done at Western weddings too but it has been so long since I have gone to one…
- There were presents at the tables for each wedding guest. Like a wedding grab bag but like – not cheap. If you are in Japan and see a group of people dressed well, kind of drunk and walking around with matching bags possibly marked with a hotel name – they were just at a wedding. Ours contained a box of cakes and a catalog for…a catalog gift. The catalog gift is like a wedding registry but…opposite? A nicely wrapped box contained a catalog from which we can choose a gift to be mailed to our homes. Options include jewellery, furniture, kitchen things, bags, clothes, watches, and so on. The super cool options – food. Great for me as I am not up to buying more things than I can take back to Canada. Some examples: 7 boxes of chicken curry from the Royal Oak Hotel, 7 tins of nori (40 sheets in each tin), 2 octopi, 3 x 250mL bottles of maple syrup, a whole lot of handmade sausage from Hang (a store in Kobe I think), 8 slices of a baked cheesecake from Cake Mania dessert café, etc. I think I will end up going for some good green tea or matcha powder. I can consume it here but it will last me a while. (unlike the iced cream puffs). Moving on…
- Well, that’s all I remember about things at the party for now. It lasted for around three hours and we had two hours before the second party. On the way out the bride, groom, and parents were lined up to thank us and give another piece of omiyage from the party.
I was really surprised at how the guests were made…kind of…important?? I don’t know how to put it. There was just more of a feeling from the couple and their families that “we are happy about getting married and soooo happy that you came to share this with us”. The party even began with a slideshow of the guests! They found pictures of each guest and flashed through them.
For the second party (nijikai) we went to a restaurant in Chinatown. Another different thing in Japan – the family does not typically go to the second party. This is for the bride, groom and friends. Also if some friends did not come to the wedding ceremony/party, they may still come to the second party. The atmosphere was a lot more relaxed; some people changed from their suits and dresses to regular clothes, we sat on tatami mats and the happenings were not speeches and formalities but games for the bride and groom to play (like a nintendo wii boxing match…the bride won).
There was also a third party but I was done for the night. I hope that all had fun there too and that the bride and groom have lasting memories of their day.
February 13, 2007 at 9:58 am · Filed under Experiences
I just returned home from a wedding and while I was hoping to post something about that this week…my experience on the way home will be told first. Sad as it was not the most positive experience but my mind is not FIFO.
On the train home a drunkard came into my train car and spoke to everyone and then chose to sit next to me. Drunkard = old man who is probably not homeless but dressed a little like it, carrying a can of convenience store alcoholic beverage like he is on a drinking spree but you suspect there is probably always a slur to his voice. He was talking to me but even if I was fluent in Japanese I probably wouldn’t be able to understand so I kept repeating “wakaranai, wakaranai” (I don’t understand/don’t know). He kept talking and would hold out his hand for me to shake. I shook it twice and I feel ashamed admitting that (which I will talk about after the story). At one point a man sitting nearby pointed out to the drunkard that I obviously did not understand Japanese and I am thankful for that because from stories I have read, people here have a reputation for ignoring troubling situations in public. I like experiencing things that go against generalizations of a culture.
At no point did the drunkard try to touch me. He just sat too close and would not stop trying to slur things to me. My station came and I waited until the last minute to get out of the car in case he would try to follow me and – he followed. “Everything is okay”, I thought. Totally no danger because my legs are long and I can run home fast if need be. But walking down the stairs to the station gates I did not feel right. I had a lump of emotion in my throat and a dark street seemed scary – even if I could run down it faster than anyone could catch me. I went inside the station store / ticket counter and watched the flow of people through the gates. He came through last – yes I could have ran three or four blocks in that time and I would be safe from him following me (if he was even contemplating that). I don’t know if he saw me but I thought I’d wait a few minutes before I left.
The store was small and I could sense that the two station employees were wondering what I was waiting for AND I could feel hot tears behind my eyes, all ready to come out and party. Had to do something so I told the men what happened sort of…”man on train talking to me now scared can I wait for a bit?” One of the men talked a lot to me but I could not understand him so had no clue what his interpretation/impression was. With some people, I can understand bits and pieces of what they say because I have learned those bits but there is a class of people who do not use ANY of the bits I know and he was one of those people. He made a phone call – to whom? Finally I heard something about a taxi so that made sense. The drunkard was outside and I pointed him out and told them that he was probably not dangerous; I was just a little shaken up and wanting to wait for 5 minutes. The station dude pulled a shade down over the window I was standing by to hide me.
Then I saw red-flashing lights…ah – he had called the police. I was a little embarrassed because I had not been hurt or abused in any bad way – just a little uncomfortable. My feeling – I didn’t want to be inconvenient.
Two police officers came in. Then another two came in. I was a little more embarrassed because my situation was using the resources of five people when all I needed was a deep breath and possibly a hug. They took down my personal information and I told them what happened (as much as I could) and then they had me talk to an English speaking person over the phone. It is okay, I am okay I tried to stress. Nothing wrong was done to me. I just had an experience that strained my emotions (but I couldn’t really say that). They told me they would patrol the area for a while. A cab came and I was taken home.
I was still upset and walking into my room I put my finger on what was troubling me. In the train I was in an uncomfortable situation but I could not raise my voice, I did not walk away and find another seat, I shook this stranger’s hand not wanting to. I took no control over the situation. Options came to mind but worry that they would be overreactions stopped me from taking action. If I changed seats I would be snubbing another human who was only trying to make conversation. What if I was physical threatened? I can imagine defending myself but I don’t know. Would I hesitate, question whether or not I am being attacked enough to possibly harm someone else and then react too late (if at all)?
The other part that upsets me is my feeling that I was overly emotional and wasted people’s time with something small. My reaction was probably normal but we are so programmed to be ashamed about crying, ashamed about losing it sometimes (or I am…though I suspect a number of you have seen me lose it…please know that I always felt bad about it afterwards). I don’t think it is appropriate to let the emotions completely loose. It can strain the emotions of people around you and make them uncomfortable. But sometimes, I want to accept them.
This makes me remember my grade one teacher who was also my kindergarten teacher. She knew that I had started school a bit early and could be held back if I did not have the maturity of a child born in 1980. Grade one was hard as my family moved to Regina from Saskatoon and I went from having one school friend to no school friends (and yes my kindergarten teacher also happened to move to Regina that year so I had her two years in a row although I did not realized that until some years later when I was looking at class photos and marveling at how much these two teachers looked like each other and my mother confirmed, yes, they are the same person). Sometimes I got frustrated and cried. Her technique to get me to stop crying was to threaten me back to kindergarten. Sometimes it worked. Did this condition me to think that crying is unacceptable?
I think I am done telling that. It is actually…two days later and on reflection the whole scenario is somewhat amusing. Still, it has left me thinking about how I can take control of my comfort and have respect for my own feelings.
February 9, 2007 at 10:50 am · Filed under Evil Things
Maybe not allergic in the I could die sense, but my onion and garlic reactions have become increasingly harsher and harsher. Of course I love the taste of garlic and I don’t mind eating onions but when I do…I wake up in the middle of the night with a headache and feverish feeling. Not chilled or sweating but I feel this weird hotness, like it is right under my skin and trying to get out. It takes me a while to get back to sleep and when I finally do, it is a restless one.
This was tested last night. I made 親子どん (oyako donburi…I think that is right…translates to “parent & child rice bowl” so….bowl of rice with cooked chicken/egg on top) and the recipe calls for a lot of onion. Had a horrible sleep and I still feel off this morning. Had the hot skin crawly feeling while I was jogging.
This reaction makes no sense and it is only in the past few years that they have been like this. I tried to find information on onion/garlic and insomnia but in my shallow search only came across some blurbs about onions being a remedy for insomnia…to smell a cut onion before falling asleep and leaving it on your nightstand. No - not quite me.
Ugh I am tired and I think I might be the only person…oh no…there are 2-3 others in the office right now. Most people are on holidays or away at a forum. The weekend, when it comes, will be nice. On Saturday I go to a wedding party and on Sunday, a workshop on creativity. The wedding will be interesting and the workshop well…I don’t know what we will do but I was told to wear clothes that are okay to dirty and I like the sound of that.
Currently I have a puffed wheat square craving after reading Jen talk about them. Had not thought about them in the longest time and realized that I have not seen them here. Could they possibly be a Canadian delicacy? Tried to search Wikipedia for them and no…is there another term? I might have to find the ingredients, make them, share, and then write a Wikipedia article (it would be my first).
February 6, 2007 at 10:37 am · Filed under Computers, Things Found Online
In case you didn’t catch this one: Mario Brothers 3 theme for Firefox. It is rocking my day. My favorite part - pipes as scrollbars. I can’t stop scrolling. Then to stop loading a page - the statue dude…genius! Now are there sounds for this too? Ooo and I just remembered that I don’t have all my toolbar items up. Added a koopa and fuzzy beetle (is that what they are called…can’t remember).
If you try it, make sure you orientate yourself with the back button (unless you are one of those key command people)…Mario running to the left. I did a google image search on spatula at work thinking it would be relatively harmless and it was mostly harmless but I didn’t want to stay there for long. Lost a few seconds trying to find the back button.
February 2, 2007 at 2:01 pm · Filed under Experiences
Yesterday I went to Miraikan (museum of the future) for some work. Pretty sweet place and good for pictures. Though I must admit that one of the things I enjoyed the most was the astronaut photos. Who went up in space in what year. Umm…was handsome a requirement to be an astronaunt in Russia in the early 80s?
and this is the globe, sort of like…the big thing there:
it is pretty cool and because there were few people in the space with me, the atmostphere was incredible.
