Category Archives: Random

Random, Travel

In the nick of time

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I meant to write this a few days ago, but got distracted. Here is the year’s, uh, yearly update before has now become the September 1 deadline.

In October 2023 I got my PADI Advanced Open Water license. I’m now certified to go down to 30 meters, or 100 feet. Found a place a few hours away that offers training in English, so I did that over three days. The area is Atami, which is about 45 minutes away from Tokyo Station by bullet train. I by now means consider myself advanced! It’s purely in title.

During the Japanese New Year break (お正月/年末年始) I took a trip to Oahu with my mom. During the summer between kindergarten and first grade, my mom, dad and I took a trip to Hawaii. I believe we visited the islands of Maui, Oahu and Kauai. I barely have any memory of the trip, and while I have been to Hawaii several times since then, it’s always been to the island of Maui.

Continue reading In the nick of time →
Random

Scuba dooby do

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Suppose I should keep up with the now yearly update. It’s already Oct. 1 as I write this in Japan, but still Sept. 30 back in my home of Texas, so I count this as making the cutoff.

Earlier this year I took a trip to Okinawa and received a PADI Open Water scuba certification. Means I’ve been trained to safely dive down to a depth of 18 meters, or 60 feet, as long as nothing is above me. That is, no going into caves or wreckage where there is no way to swim straight up to the surface.

I first did a scuba dive in Maui, Hawaii, in February 2022 just as the covid-19 pandemic was beginning to spread. The experience was wonderful and decided to get the certification. But the aforementioned pandemic took off and I put the plans on hold.

So in March of this year I made the trip to the island prefecture of Okinawa and spent three days getting a certification.

There was quite a bit to remember, and it was physically exhausting, but a good time.

Just a few minutes from Odawara by local train. This is where I did my diving. Well, in the nearby ocean, not at the station.

Yesterday, Friday, Sept. 30, I did my first dives since then down in Kanagawa in the area of 小田原 (Odawara). Woke up at 6 a.m., got on the train at 7:15, arrived around 8:50. Got home around 4:30 p.m. It was a long day.

The dives themselves were all right. The water was a bit choppy, so visibility was pretty low (2 – 4 meters) most of the time, but it was nice to be able to just enjoy the dive and not have to do various exercises and practice maneuvers needed for a certification.

I didn’t take any pictures of the water, but I promise it’s there behind the buildings.
Japan, Random

No fast internet, but great movie

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First, a short rant. Afterward, awesome news.

About three weeks ago when I was in Akihabara, I was coerced by some guys at Yamada Denki to sign up for fiber internet for my apartment. I checked with my company, whom I sublet my apartment, to confirm installation was OK, and was told “yes.”

The technician came out to install the fiber wire… but within a few minutes told me he wouldn’t be able to. It seems some type of pipe or tubing needs to be installed in the wall from outside by a different company that NTT (internet provider) could run the write through.

I contacted my company who contacted the leasing company who contacted the apartment owner, and was told that type of construction is not allowed. Well, shit.

I understand there’d be cost to the owner to have the work done, but it would definitely please this tenant. In the meantime, I’m stuck with ADSL internet rated at 47 Mbps but in reality only get 3 – 3.5 Mbps.

One of my favorite movies from my childhood is “Flight of the Navigator,” a not particularly fantastic movie, but it’s a fun, family friendly movie about a kid who accidentally gets swept in time 8 years into the future… unbeknownst to him.

Scientists, doctors, etc. try to figure out where he’s been. On his way to find out what’s happened, he comes across the alien drone ship, Max, who picked him up in the first place.

I got it on Blu-ray, and while it was advertised as an HD remastering, it’s just a standard transfer with quality no better than 480p from a DVD. And no visual cleaning was done at all. There are still specs of dust from the film itself that shows up on this version.

But it’s got both English and Japanese, and the same story I loved as a kid. ^_^

 

Random

Reunion a long time in the making

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Back in high school, I knew a fair amount of people. With a graduating class of 700+ (!!), there were a lot of people to know. I feel I was pretty lucky in that I was able to float between groups without too much trouble. I was friends with people in athletics, band/orchestra, art, theatre (I was in there), and others.

It meant I knew people, but I wasn’t close with a ton of people. Thanks to facebook though, regardless of my prior relationship with someone, I’ve been able to keep in touch with many. One of those people is Jim. Continue reading Reunion a long time in the making →

Random

Increasing my reading speed

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A few posts back, I mentioned a site I came across a month or two ago called Spreed! Using the site helped me to read faster when I use the site itself, but reading anything else was still my normal rate of around 300 words per minute.

Based on some other things I read recently, the site works because it cuts down on the time needed for your eyes to move and focus on new words. That is, the effect is really just temporary. I decided I’d find a different way to improve.

Reading reviews of different products and books, I found a book titled “Breakthrough Rapid Reading.” I threw down about $15  to get it from Amazon. The book is a course meant to be done in about 4 – 6 weeks.

The book starts with a test to get an estimation of your reading speed. I was around 250 wpm After a few days, I’m past 400 wpm. It seems that at the moment, the book is focusing first on increasing my speed, while later chapters will have me focus on improving my comprehension.

How fast I will get after the recommended 6-week time, I do not know. But I will say I’m enjoying it so far.