Category Archives: Life and Stuff

When Things Don’t Work the Way They Work

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The thing I like about Apple products is that they update quickly without much effort on the part of the user. You get a pop-up that says “Dude, there’s like this update available but if you don’t want it now that’s cool, because you can just like download it and keep in like your collection until you’re like ready to get to know it.” (Something like that.)

Granted, the updates aren’t always good ideas–which the download dude always denies by saying that, like, maybe I’m not cool enough for the update, you know; just saying–but at least everything that can update does.

I bring this up because today, against my better judgement (as if I had anything resembling “judgment” no less “better”), I decided to update my laptop and my netbook to Windows 10. I wanted to do this before I attempted to update my desktop computer to see how much effort and/or swearing will be involved and if the update is actually worth the effort.

I clicked all the icons that said “Get Windows 10” and then watched while a bunch of white dots spun around and around and around but not much else happened. I tried starting the process over but simply got more dots. After staring at the dots for a while I suddenly found myself feeling happy and calm and realized the spinning dots were probably an attempt to hypnotize me into thinking that Windows 10 had been installed and was awesome. I managed to look away and thus saved myself.

Eventually, after three restarts, five windows trying to do the same kind of nothing at the same time and several well chosen swear words, I got Windows 10 installed on my oldest laptop. I haven’t had a chance to use it much, but I like the looks of it thus far.

The problem is the netbook. It has a tendency to hang up during updates and, also technically, it doesn’t have the upgrade icon. I am therefore attempting to update something that might not be ready for the update.

This will not stop me from trying. (I got the netbook for almost free–all it cost me was a curry lunch–so I’m not too worried about messing it up.) It’s already had issues and I’m on my second restart.

I think I’ll practice some Japanese swear words, just in case.

A Long Time to Decide to go to the Theater Far Far Away

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Note: Star Wars: The Force Awakens spoilers Not Included

Tonight theaters across Japan premiered Star Wars: The Force Awakens at 6:30 p.m. Tickets have been on sale for weeks but I, of course, waited until a couple hours before the show to decide if I was going or not.

The catch was if I would take the family or not. This presented a couple problems: The girls haven’t seen the original movies and didn’t seem keen on seeing the new one. My plan for them to watch all the movies in the  “Machete Order” (A New Hope; The Empire Strikes Back; Attack of the Clones; Revenge of the Sith; Return of the Jedi; or by episode number: 4-5-2-3-6; never watch episode 1) was treated as if I’d just assigned them two books worth of algebra homework.

Then, at two hours before the movie, I logged on to the local theater website and saw that the premiere showing was still open. At that point, She Who Must Be Obeyed said that although she’d be interested in going, she hadn’t seen all the movies either even though I’m pretty sure that was in our marriage vows: love, honor, cherish, memorize Star Wars lines. After several minutes of discussions about discussions, I decided to go ahead and go, family or no, but promised to report on if it was worth taking the girls to see on Sunday.

(The whole time I was doing this I was remembering a friend’s warning that seeing the new Star Wars series would be like a second marriage: the triumph of hope over experience.)

There was then a few minutes of wrestling with the website–which timed me out at one point and then sold the seat I wanted out from under me. I managed to reserve a ticket and then tried to figure out how to get the tickets once I got to the theater. By the time all that was finished, it was time to go.

I got out the door without my reading glasses but that turned out to not be a big deal. The ticket machine was painless as all I had to do was push two touch-screen buttons and hold my phone up to a reader so the machine could read the QR code I’d been sent in an email. The machine printed a ticket and a receipt and all I had to do was not lose the ticket.

I admit to having a teenaged thrill about going to see a new Star Wars movie and couldn’t resist getting the large popcorn, which turned out to be a proper large and not a Japanese large which means I’ve had my carbs for the rest of this year and part of the next. I was surprised that the theater didn’t sell out and disappointed only one fan had a light saber. (He seemed surprised too and turned it off right away.) There was a good mix of people my age and younger. No one was in costume.

Then the lights went out and there were no previews. Instead we got the Lucas Film Logo and “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….” And then there was that pause and then that punch of music with the Star Wars logo and I was kid again for a little while.

 

The Last at Long Last

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The Test Time Continuum reared its ugly head today. In its defense, though, I did distract myself a bit.

I had 78 essays to mark and then had to add up all the scores. My usual routine is: read, decide on a score, doubt the score, skim again, write a score, add up the points, doubt the math, add up the points again, get a different number, add up the points a third time, write the score on the paper. Later, after all essays are read (multiple times) and all marks are ciphered (multiple times) I enter the marks in my spread sheet.

The morning started well: I finished half the exams with little trouble (minus distraction for hanging laundry and random exercise) and then decided to take a break and run to town to get money (it’s payday), lunch and a haircut.

I got the money with no problems and didn’t even have to stand in line. I deposited the rent, although I’m not sure I deposited enough (long story) and then did some window shopping that, oddly, actually included me taking a “grail” pen of my grail list (let’s just say the burnt orange is too light and too yellow for my taste now that I’ve seen it in person). I then tried to decide on a place to eat. This turned out to be complicated.

Because of my low carb rules, I found a place that served something called the “Chicken Chicken” plate, which seemed to feature a lot of chicken. (Granted, it was breaded, but it would fit my carb limits, at least that’s what I told myself.) I went in and got a seat, ordered my “Chicken Chicken” and was informed it wasn’t available (I didn’t catch if it was sold out or just not available because I was too busy screaming “NOOOOOOOOO!”) The only choices available were things I could get elsewhere for cheaper so I got up and left.

The next place I chose had a hamburger steak plate with vegetables and avocado on the side for a reasonable price. I went in and got a seat but when I got the menu, the “California Burger” wasn’t on it. I asked if more choices were available and was told that there were “after 4:00 p.m.” Because I was already running late, I decided to stay and ordered my second choice. It was good, but nothing special.

The next phase was the haircut, which happened surprisingly quickly (and the woman cutting my hair actually got it short enough this time).

At that point, denial was over and I went home to do the last bit of marking. Unfortunately, by taking a couple hours to do errands, I’d walked into the Test Time Continuum and the last batch of exams took longer than I’d planned. When I finally finished the last one, I was relieved, but not as giddy as I usually am.

Scattered and Awesome

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My plan was to sneak off to the lobby with the smokers and the bored dads and mark exams. It didn’t quite work that way.

Today was the annual concert for our girls’ piano “club” and a sister club. Dozens of kids of different ages took turns showing off their musical skills (for better and for worse) and the club teachers showed off their musical skills (for better and for worse).

We arrived early and secured seats and I then spent the practice period marking and giving dirty looks back to anyone who gave me dirty looks as I was technically occupying eight seats, including one that never got used (more on that later).

The problem was our girls were scattered around different places in the program which made it impossible for me, as official videographer, to run away. Our youngest closed out the first set with “Dolly’s Dreaming and Awakening” by Theodore Oesten. She Who Must Be Obeyed was worried about this performance as our youngest has inherited my tendency to suck at stuff in practice and then deliver a good performance. (Note: this does not apply to sports other than karate.) Our youngest did a great job with only a couple small mistakes.

She was followed by the piano instructors who showed off their skills on the piano and the Electone (or shockingly high tech electric organ).

I was then informed that I was to record our girls’ piano teacher’s performance and then informed that I’d recorded the wrong performance (despite instructions to do so) and was supposed to record the later piano performance. The problem was this performance came well after our girls duet on “Whole New World” from Aladdin. My plan to run away and mark was thus thwarted.

My father-in-law ended up sitting next to me and he 1) stole my extra leg space (Japanese concert hall seating was designed by the sadist who designs airplane economy class seats) and 2) fell asleep which meant I had to occasionally wake him up.

At the same time, the lady on the other side of the eighth seat seemed angry that it was occupied by exams and not a person.

Our oldest then did a terrific performance of Chopin’s “Puppy Waltz” (aka The Minute Waltz) and that was followed by her playing the piano whilst all the other piano students sang.

As always, our girls rocked, and some of the others were pretty good, too. However, I’m not sure the teachers needed three different performances to show off their piano and electric organ skills. That seemed self-indulgent (he said as he wrote a blog about his life) especially when the performances weren’t always that good.

Next year, I hope they cut back their performances. I also hope they move the whole thing back a week so I can enjoy it without exams.

Last to Know; First to be Blamed

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There’s a moment in the horror movie The Strangers when Liv Tyler’s character asks one of the masked home invaders why they were torturing her and her family. The masked invader (known as Dollface) says “Because you were home”.

In my case the answer is “Because you are husband”.

For reasons I don’t fully understand, our girls’ piano teacher and her colleagues schedule a large performance in the middle of December. It falls after the girls’ final exams but before the end of school. This is great for them, but not so great for me as I’m in the middle of marking exams and I lose most of a Sunday by going to see our girls perform for a few minutes.

The last couple years this has been complicated by the arrival of the strangers, er, the in-laws who arrive to see the performance. Last year they stayed at our small apartment and I told She Who Must Be Obeyed to never, ever do that again during exams. This is partly because I’m torn between doing my job and playing gracious host.

Gracious host, however, doesn’t pay that well so I tend to opt for doing my job whilst everyone else has a good time. I then get called out for being rude. My reaction usually is, “I know, I know. Now let me finish marking so I can stop being rude.”

Now, I know you’re thinking “Why don’t you just plan for this and get your marking done early?” First, we don’t control the schedule of the exams so we may not have much time to do our marking before pass back classes. Second, I only found out the in-laws were in-bound last Monday in an “Oh, by the way, did I tell you XYZ?” (I’ve been getting that a lot lately from other sources, too–more on that in another post.)

Granted, they aren’t staying the night, but they did spend the afternoon here and we had a big dinner out. Once again, I got to play the rude host. I did get a lot of marking done, though.

 

20,000 Words Short of the Win

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If I hurry, I can finish my current novel and win NaNoWriMo by midnight Japan time. All I have to do is write about 171 words per minute for the next two hours.

Although I maintained a reasonably consistent writing habit, which is the entire point of NaNoWriMo, I wasn’t able to sit down and grind out the pages needed to “win”. Starting the evening classes twice a week also stole away a lot of time and although i had a lot train time my routine amounted to 1) if you get a seat, nap on the way to Tokyo; 2) get a seat at a coffee shop with free Wi-Fi and write your blog entry; 3) after the classes, if you get a seat, read all the way home because the seats are too cramped to write comfortably and you don’t want to risk looking up into the eyes of the little old lady standing in front of your seat.

(Note: Yes, for the record, my mother raised me better than that.  However, the rules are if you don’t see the little old lady, you don’t have to give up your seat too her. Something like that. Either way, gentlemanliness and gentlemanly virtue vanish on the last train and that little old lady would have killed someone for that seat and probably tried.)

The other hassle was exam preparation time which filled up slots that could have been used–totally unofficially of course because “salary” and “good worker” and “contract”–as writing time. Today for example, I had an extra hour of down time (long story) and ended up doing actual school related work at the school where I work. (I am as surprised as you are.)

If I do this again next year, and I almost certainly will, I will aim to trade off some of my free days in October with my busy days in November. I’d intended to do that this year, but it didn’t work out.

The results of all this were 29,524 (ish) words; a lot of world building and rebuilding; several pages of character description and character design; the basics of a plot and a couple usable scenes; the chance to use three pens in “real world” conditions (more on that in another post); a novel worth pursuing.

As always, it’s been an interesting month of writing. It was easy at first, then not, and then life and work took over to make it even more difficult. I’ll keep working on the book but will also make time to finish the editing and typing projects that have been put on hold this month.

(Also, next year, if I’m still doing this blog, I might count those words as part of my daily word count…)

 

Sitting Waiting Writing Watching Waiting and Waiting

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I spent most of the day sitting in an uncomfortable chair waiting for one thing to happen. After it happened I kept waiting.

Today was the annual competition for our youngest’s rhythmic gymnastics club. Clubs from all over the area gather and their members put on one performance along with a hundred or so other girls.

The spectacle involves lots of sitting, a few speeches (this is Japan after all) and then a series of warm ups and practices. One hour after we arrived the competition started. The competitors paired off with someone of the same age group and performed their routines.

The problem with RG is that each performance (ball, hoop and dance) has a different song and that meant the different competitors cycled in and out as the people in charge cued up the right song. Also, it apparently wasn’t possible for the judges to watch more than one person so only two girls could perform at the same time.

The other problem is that each girl only performs once. Our youngest did a performance that involved the ball and some dancing and then got to join us in the stands to watch the rest of the performances. After that, we had to wait to see the final awards ceremony with, of course, more speeches.

Along the way I wrote 10 pages for my NaNoWriMo novel (more on that tomorrow) and every now and then looked up and clapped. In my defense, everyone else was using their smartphone when their loved one wasn’t performing.

Our youngest did a good job, but not a great one. The difference between good and average in RG is shockingly large. She lost control of the ball once but mostly her weakness is she lacked any polish. Her jumps and turns aren’t smooth and she didn’t seem to have much energy.  She finished in the middle of the pack but far from last.

Next year we’re going to have to sit down and talk with her about if she wants to stay in or not. If she does, I’ll be there again, writing tablet in hand, only watching when she’s performing.

Fujitsu Arrows A-301F Smartphone–Long Term Review

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How many pieces does your phone have to be in before you replace it? In my case the answer was four. But even that’s not entirely accurate because I only replaced the broken cellphone when it became clear the battery was dying.

I did a lot of careful research but my master plan to modernize the entire family was rejected by She Who Must Be Obeyed. I therefore began a second search. I was not married to a brand, which meant I would look at both Android and Apple products.

My main requirements were that the phone had to have a large screen, but not one that made me look as if I was holding a book against my face, and it had to fit in my pocket so that I didn’t need to carry any kind of extra bag for it. It had to have good battery life. It also had to be provided by my current provider. (My provider also handles iPhones and if the larger iPhones had arrived in Japan a few months earlier than they did I might have one of those now.)

Luckily Softbank had a phone that was getting good reviews and which Android tech types in the USA were lusting over. It turns out it was a good purchase.

The Fujitsu Arrows A-301F has a 5 inch LCD screen with 1920×1080 resolution; 64 gigabyte internal memory and a Micro SD slot; and a 13.1 megapixel camera that’s decent but not great. (It’s a lot of megapixels on a small sensor so it’s not as good as it could be.) It weighs 5.54 ounces. It comes in white, black or pink. (For the real tech geeks: It’s running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean on a 2.2 Ghz Quadcore with 2 gigabytes of RAM. This all means something important, I’m sure.)

The screen is about as large as I would get. I can reach all the corners without having to study yoga and/or dislocate my fingers or thumbs. It will fit in my jeans pocket, but it always reminds me it’s there. Without a rubber cover the plastic case is a bit slippery.

The battery has held up well–even when, as now, my laptop is tethered to it so that I can write and post this entry–and I like that it comes with a special charging station that allows it to go from 0% charged to 100% in just over an hour. The advertising said that even a 10 minute charge would give it enough power to run for a few hours and I’ve generally found that to be true. (Note: that’s only true with the charging station, though. If it’s just plugged in to a computer with a regular USB cable it charges slowly.)

The Arrows phone in the charging station.

The Arrows phone in the charging station.

The screen is large enough for comfortably reading books on a Kindle app (more on that in a future post) and for my thumbs and fingers when I’m writing something or taking notes. I also like the fingerprint reader/touch sensitive button on the back. I can turn the screen on and swipe away the start screen wallpaper with out using my thumb.

The back side with the touch-sensitive button. The three holes on the side fit the charging station.

The back side with the touch-sensitive button. The three holes on the side fit the charging station.

My only complaint about the phone is that I’m apparently the only person in Japan who bought one. As such, it was discontinued quickly and will almost certainly never get an updated version of the Android OS. This leaves it at late-2013 vintage unless I decided to start messing with it myself.

The contract is up next May and I’ll have to decide to stick with this phone or move to another. Apple is always in the running as are other Android phones. Knowing me, though, I’ll keep this one until it’s in pieces and then I’ll try to figure out how to make it work a little longer.

 

 

Mad Game Watching Skills

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I managed to finish my NaNoWriMo pages for today, but between bursts of writing, I needed a distraction. Because it was another day when I couldn’t be bothered I ended up watching a game more than I played it. It turns out I’m actually pretty good at that.

Although World of Tanks is a free game, it makes its money by selling special tanks, premium time that lets you earn more in game “money” and experience when you play, “garage” slots so you can acquire more tanks without having to get rid of any and “gold” which lets you buy other special tanks and special equipment.

Every now and then, as a way to improve their viewership, game streamers will giveaway gold, or premium time or special tanks to their followers. On the days I can’t be bothered to play, I’ve had good luck winning some of those special things. In order to win you usually only have to make a comment or type a certain code and you are entered in the drawing.

Over the past several months I’ve won two special tanks, “gold”, premium time, a garage slot and a t-shirt.

Faced with that luck, over the past 24 hours I watched snippets of Tanking for the Troops which is an occasional game streaming “telethon” that helps raise money for Operation Supply Drop. which sends crates of games and game related items to deployed service people and those in veterans’ hospitals so that they might enjoy a bit of distraction from the brutal reality around them. My cousin (a U.S. Marine) told me about how World of Warcraft was his distraction in Afghanistan between work, bouts of boredom, and random threat alarms.

I, of course, was in this for myself. By merely commenting I was automatically entered in drawings and won “gold” and a special tank. All this for being snarky a couple times an hour.

Once I had mine, er, after winning, I made a small donation to Operation Supply Drop.

The trouble is, to use any of this free stuff, I’ll actually have to be bothered to play the game. Not an easy thing to do with exams coming up. Maybe I’ll just watch more streams and see what I can win.

More Than One Challenge Causes Strife

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I annoyed our youngest today. Like all kids under the age of teen, she has a natural desire to help out and do stuff. However, because she’s a tween, she apparently only likes to help out and do stuff once.

She Who Must Be Obeyed and our oldest were off to visit schools today which left me in charge of our youngest and random chores.

The first chore was to hang the laundry outside but that involved a couple steps. The first step is to unpack every other item from mesh bags She Who Must Be Obeyed insists on putting things in and which adds extra complications to what should be a fairly straight forward process. (That’s another post. If I’m smart I’ll never write that post.)

The other step was to take down and fold the laundry from yesterday. (That’s another post. If I’m smart I’ll never write that post either.) I took the dry laundry off the hangers and handed it to our youngest and said “fold this”. I had to provide a little instruction but she did a good job.

Later, it was my job to throw together some lunch. I reheated yesterday’s mushroom rice and whipped up a wilted spinach salad with bacon, tomato, olive oil and a dash of lemon juice. Our youngest seemed to enjoy the meal.

After we ate I cleared the table and told her to do the dishes. She went into preteen mode and ignored me. Later, when I reminded her to do the dishes, I got the “why?” and, oddly, I gave her an answer that didn’t involve “I told you so”. I told her I’d cooked and she got to clean. Also, it wasn’t that many dishes and I would do the biggest and most dangerous things (frying pans and knives). She grunted a response (which is clearly proof she’s practicing to be a teenager) and did nothing.

Eventually, I had to remind her to do the dishes. At that point she did them and even dried them and put them away.

Now it’s my turn to do the dishes. (Insert grunted response.)