tonari no shibafu

Device holder

This is cool and has the whiff of being designed by someone trying to solve their own problem.

via Josh Spear

One of my new favorite things

Steep and Cheap

Good deals on gear, but you have to be ready to pull the trigger immediately.

Headphone recommendations?

I'm thinking about buying new headphones. These are going to be used primarily to listen to audio when in public spaces like cafés. Noise cancellation is not (I think) a priority, though I've never tried a pair, so I don't know whether it's a where-have-you-been-all-my-life technology for me. I plan to watch an occasional podcast or listen to content embedded into websites (youtube videos, etc.).

Recommendations?

I've been thinking recently...

...about getting a new IPod. The one that Libby got for me broke down quite a while back and I haven't replaced it since I don't ride the trains much and haven't been running regularly for some time. But recently I've been thinking about picking up a new one, because with Ish's schedule I end up working out alone a lot. The trouble is that since we've cut down our workouts to only two or three a week, it hasn't really made much sense to spend the money on an mp3 player.

Still, a large format IPod might be just the thing to make me loosen the purse strings.

Iron Game

End of an era

Eleven years ago, my friends got together and bought me a backpack to use as luggage on a trip 28 years in the offing. I was heading off for my year abroad in Tsukuba and was running on empty cash-wise. Anyway, it was the perfect gift and I used it as luggage until about 2 years ago as well as it accompanying me on every hiking trip since that time. Not to mention that my old roomie took it to Niger.

About a week ago, I got an email notice about a sale at Sierra Trading Post and I bit the bullet and picked up a new backpack. The sale price combined with the current value of the yen vis-a-vis the dollar made it irresistible.

Can't wait to try it out and thanks again to Todd, Amy, Rob, Lisa and Etchan for all the years of use I got out of the Mountainsmith.

How to maintain your bicycle

Wikihow presents a step-by-step for maintaining your bike.

via LifeHacker

Goin' on my wishlist

The most excellent bag I've seen in a while. Too bad I didn't know about this company when Mark was looking for recommendations last year.

via Josh Spear

Drool

I didn't know how to type out the sound that Homer makes when he finds something irresistible. Just know that I was making the sound in my head while typing.

Zwei bags

Free rides on a segway

See ya'll there.

TOKYO — A special park set up at Fuji Television in Odaiba offers test rides of the Segway human transporter to visitors until Jan 3 to make the new electric-powered vehicle familiar with users. The two-wheeled stand-up machine with a handle has no breaks, but its move is controlled by body weight shift. Anybody who weighs between 45 kilograms and 120 kg can ride it.

via Japan Probe

Linkies in time for Xmas

Wired's review of digital cameras

Wired's review of 2006 video cameras

Use RSS to comparison shop

Just kinda cool

While I don't think that it would have any practical application in the life I lead, besides perhaps, just being made aware of the preponderance of fields in my environment, this is just pretty cool.

Cory Doctorow:  This morning's Wired News has a fascinating article on the practice of implanting small, strong rare-earth magnets in one's ring-finger. The result is a kind of "magnet sense" -- people who've had the implant report that they can tell when a wire is live and when they're going through a magnet security-scanner at a store, even when their laptops' hard drives are spinning up.

Quinn Norton of Wired News has had the operation and writes in detail about how it felt, what the problems were, and what she was able to do once it was in place. The most amazing part is that months after the magnet implant fragmented and Quinn lost her "sixth sense," it reassembled itself (magnets tend to draw towards one another) and the sense returned. 

  What if, seconds before your laptop began stalling, you could feel the hard drive spin up under the load? Or you could tell if an electrical cord was live before you touched it? For the few people who have rare earth magnets implanted in their fingers, these are among the reported effects -- a finger that feels electromagnetic fields along with the normal sense of touch...

According to Huffman, the magnet works by moving very slightly, or with a noticeable oscillation, in response to EM fields. This stimulates the somatosensory receptors in the fingertip, the same nerves that are responsible for perceiving pressure, temperature and pain. Huffman and other recipients found they could locate electric stovetops and motors, and pick out live electrical cables. Appliance cords in the United States give off a 60-Hz field, a sensation with which Huffman has become intimately familiar. "It is a light, rapid buzz," he says.

Link

Random stuff

Christina Aguilera, vamping...

What happens after a decade of double digit economic growth?
High culture...
China's 50 most beautiful people
via Danwei

A list of the best vegetarian restaurants (and dishes) in Boston
via boston.com

Tips for new faculty from OSU
via Photoethnography

A cool water bottle sized/shaped bicycle repair kit.
via Boing Boing

You can be a girl for $900

A blog of a guy whose eaten nearly 14,000 bowls of ramen in shops across the country.

Terri Gross interviews CCH Pounder of The Shield, one of my favorite shows.

One of my new favorite photo blogs

Where to get the best sandwiches in Boston

Workaday world

It's funny how much my day-to-day expectations rise and fall based on my schedule.  I usually find myself on humpwednesday dreaming about all the free time of the weekend and trying my best to squeeze in errands during the week, so that I can free up even more time on Saturday.  Most of tomorrow is going to get chewed up by studying, but if the weather holds, I'm going to head out with Shoe and shoot a little hoops.  You see, he has done the seemingly impossible, he found an outdoor/free court in Tokyo.  There is another one that I know of at Komazawa Koen, but other than that I have yet to see one in all my travels.

I'm hoping that my new toy will come by late afternoon (I got confirmation that it was mailed from Osaka last night), so that I can try it out on the way.  Later on in the evening Chris is gonna come by and he, I, Misa, Shoe 夫妻, and maybe Dado and Redouane are gonna hang out, drink beers, and tell tall tales.

Papa's got a brand new bag

Yesterday I had to head in to school for a meeting with my professor (which got cancelled because he was under the weather).  After seeing the note on his door, I was told by the folks in the office to call him at home, which I did.  It turns out that visa requirements make it impossible for me to change to the PG status that I mentioned the other day, and so I am going to continue with the program and then try to extend at the end of the (typical) three-year writing period.  Anyway, after heading to the administration building and sorting out the paperwork and due dates for various things (found out I have until August to pay my fees), I headed to Shinjuku to look for luggage.

the pickings were decidedly slim at my favorite gear store, and the one bag that had all the features that I wanted (semi-hard shell, wheels and backpack straps) was a little too small capacity-wise.  I ended up going with a bag from deuter, and while not ideal for travel, it is a nice addition to my growing bag collection.  One of the things that I like about it is that there is a panel that extends and allows you to zip-up the straps such that they are not visible. 

I learned the hard way that if you travel with a backpack as luggage, the handlers tend to throw it around by any exposed straps in some homage to the samsonite gorilla.  The very first time I came to Japan, my bag showed up with one of the small straps that secures the top section/waist pack broken.  It also has a separate compartment at the bottom that should be able to hold 2-3 pairs of shoes -- shoes always being a problem for me in the past.

Well, one more piece of the puzzle down and now I just have to do some laundry this weekend and start figuring what goes and what stays.  So psyched that I don't have to dismantle my hiking pack/earthquake bag this time.

Something else to add to my earthquake bag

Portable solar power cells....sweet.

via Gizmodo

Dissin' the Lumix

I am the type of person who is fairly fanatical about my brand loyalty.  I have bought multiple products (based on liking one) from Marmot, Mountain Hardwear, and Sony (back in the day).  I was, therefore, disturbed that the folks over at Akihabara News don't much care for the Panasonic Lumix series.  Their dispersion-casting is not enough to discount my personal feelings about the FZ10, but will give me something to think about when I get a new camera in a year or so.

Holiday Gift Ideas

Here are some things that I am thinking about getting myself some folks for Xmas.

The best Cookbooks of the year.  (via Rebecca Blood)

Michael Broadbent's book, Vintage Wine. 

Riedel wine glasses.  Heard about these on Hsiao-ching Chao's excellent On Food podcast.

Dr. Toy's best children's products of 2005.  (via Rebecca Blood)

Nigella's measuring cups.  Mmmm, Nigella...  (via Slashfood)

External harddrives that look like legos. 

A bike helmet cover.  (via Boing Boing)

I'm feeling the green down deep inside

Check out these IPod cases so you can, like Putty, '...support the team.'

via Gizmodo

お願い

So I managed to lose my phone again, this time for good.  Which means that I have lost all of the information in my cell's address book.  For most folks, I have phone numbers and emails on my harddrive so no big worries, but if you are one of my fellow AU users, please send me a CMail when you get a chance, just to be sure.  Also, any phone calls or normal emails are also appreciated as they save me the trouble of manual entry.

Here are a few things I found out today:

1) The Win 'generation' of phones by AU are is not covered by the student discount.
This is a serious bummer because, of the phones currently available with Bluetooth, both of the two that I considered buying are in this category.

2) The USB cable for the 'lesser', non-WIN line of phones costs over USD $120.
I thought, well hey, if I can't get the phone I wanted, that which had a 3 megapixel camera and bluetooth capability for wireless ISync, then I'll just bite the bullet and do it the old-fashioned way, via cabling.  The problem being that the grand total of the cable and the software required to clue ISync in to the AU dilly-o, runs damn near $200.  The phone would have only cost me $70, had I not been using the same old one for 3 years, and therefore had bonus points up the yingyang (which basically made it free).  How much would

the adapter be for the WIN phones be you ask?  $10.  "Bastards!", doesn't quite seem to cover it.

In any event, I ended up going with this phone.  It seems ok, although it is a Toshiba (my old one was by Kyocera), which means that I have to learn an entirely new interface. 

I really feel like the software should be homogeneous within any given phone company.  Since, at this time, most people will only change providers here once due to a number of factors including inability to retain phone numbers, loss of saved data, cost as cf. buying a newer phone with the same company, etc.)

UPDATE: Fixed the most egregious grammar mistakes...

Relief for the お祖母ちゃん

Portable train strap.

via LifeHacker

If I were still DJing...

I'd definitely get one of these

.

My faith in human nature? Intact.

So the guy that found my phone turned it into the phone store.  They called someone from my phone who then relayed the message.  They're sending it back to me today.

When I get it back i'm going to look into using ISync with it.

Phone stuff

The guy that found my phone called Misa on Sunday and told her that he thought it was a bit of a pain to send  it back to me COD, but would call again later.  Turns out he called last night sometime after about 2 am and that the message was cut off, seemingly because the last of the phone's battery power gave out. 

Since he thought that going to the post office was too much hassle, I am less than optimistic that he will take the time to recharge it, just to contact me.  That combined with the potential that he is stalling me while making a bunch of calls he won't be responsible for -- my faith in human nature is not yet shaken, but I'm getting a little worried -- prompted me to drop by the AU store before work today.  I checked out the two current AU phones that are Bluetooth-enabled, and both are a little pricey but cool.  I did some research a while back and remember reading someone's complaints that not everything matched up between their cell phone and ICal and the Address Book, so I went to the Japanese Apple site and checked it for myself.  According to the charts listing which phones are capable of which functions, it seems that all of the AU phones have all of the ISync capabilities with the exception of being able to read the mail from the cell onto the computer.  Not bad, though, as I really only wanted my ICal alarms and to be able to have complete Address Book info on both machines. 

I am going to wait until tomorrow before I do anything about it.  I figure to give the guy one more day and then I will likely go for the cheapest phone I can, get the USB cables, and save the Bluetooth for my next upgrade. 

Hiking update

Torrential rains + gale force winds + lightning at 2800 meters = Early return

The tent performed rather well and my experience has prompted me to refine my alpine hiking gear list somewhat.  Turns out that a little farther North of where I was some people died due to avalanches caused by the storms.    Still feel a little unsatisfied so I may try a hike closer to home before vacation ends.

Suica Compatible phone

I've been toying with the idea of getting a new phone recently.  I have had my current phone for about two and a half years and, though it works pretty well, the discount that I'll get on the new phone peaks at 18 months.  So I gain nothing monetarily by holding onto the phone.

Problem is that most of the phones that AU sells are laden with bells and whistles, and the only thing that I want is bluetooth compatibility.  I don't really even need a camera, let alone ability to watch tv or videos.  Anyway, I see over at Akihabara News that there is a new phone that acts as a Suica card and can therefore act as a train pass on all Japan Railway lines. 

That might be worth rethinking my next phone choice.

Logitech's IPod headphones

Check out these cool wireless headphones meant for use with IPods.  Expensive but sweet.

via Popgadget

Hammerhead 2 (cont.)

Took this picture from my veranda. The tent takes up the better part of a 6-tatami room.

Hammerhead 2

My new tent came on Saturday (finally). It is really way roomier than I had anticipated. The head space in the middle seems to be ample for someone to pass something rather heavy (like a pack) from a stooped over position to someone outside of the tent. One of my pet peeves with the lower-ratio, sacrifice-everything-for-weight-ethos tents is that in the case of inclement weather (i.e.- when you have to spend more than just bedtime in the tent) it was very hard to do anything besides lay there hoping for the weather to turn. But this tent has enough room for two to sit up and play cards, two doors (another big plus) giant vestibules and many options in terms of the amount of mesh that you have exposed. It probably would not be a very good tent for tropical climates as it heats up pretty quickly with the rainfly attached (although I didnt think it right to put stakes in the tatami so the airflow would have been better), but should be just perfect for the alpine environments that we frequent.

Consumption

I have been moving along at the subsistence level for quite some time here. Truth be told, I have increased my spending to just about match my income. I blogged a bit about changing that a while ago, and to that end I am going to start tracking my expenditures to see where I can make some savings. I'm a bit old to be broke for the week before payday every month.

Although a bit contrary to this spirit of financial discipline that I am hoping to foster, I am going to come into a bit of money in a month or so and am going to buy some things that I have wanted/needed for a while.