Nov 13, 20080
We’re Off
We just boarded the flight to Osaka and the doors are closing here soon. It’s finally time!
Nov 13, 20080
Off to Japan
Well, today’s the day. Julie and I were up early for the 6am flight to Atlanta where we just landed. We have two more flights and then the vacation is on for real! We’ve waited a bit for this, so we’re pretty excited.
Nov 6, 20080
Japan Trip Itinerary
The following is Julie’s and my subject-to-change work-in-progress itinerary for our upcoming trip to Japan.
[Check out the below locations on the Japan Map page I've set up.]
Thursday, November 13
[all times local]Flights:
- MIA-ATL
DL 982
600A - 754A - ATL-DTW
DL 660
935A - 1131A - DTW-KIX
NW 69
100P - 500P (11/14 arrival)
Friday, November 14
On Friday, we arrive in the evening and are going to make our way straight to the hotel in Osaka. That’ll probably be as much as we accomplish on Friday.
Saturday, November 15
Saturday morning, Julie and I will hop on a bullet train to Tokyo and we’ll check out Akihibara (the gadget district), Asakusa, Shibuya, and a few other spots that afternoon and evening. Hopefully I’ll be able to meet up with my friend Masaharu as well. We’ve tentatively planned on visiting the Advertising Museum in Tokyo.
Nov 5, 20081
Not Being Filibuster-Proof is a Good Thing
The way I see it, Democrats got almost everything they could wish for last night - and maybe even more. It was like a jolly old Santa Dean flew from house to house and stuffed little leftist, godless, tax-and-spend stockings full with most of the goodies on a Liberal’s list. But, some things didn’t make the cut. California appears to be passing Prop 8, rescinding the right to marry that gay and lesbian couples were granted just a short time ago. Florida’s own gay marriage ban passed. The congresswoman I voted for didn’t win. But two major things happened that we should all be ecstatic about. The first one’s obvious. We overwhelmingly elected Barack Obama to the highest office in this democracy, the significance of which I don’t think can be fully understood yet. Eight years of bad policy and complete disregard for the very things that make this a great nation (ahem, like the Constitution) have now been loudly rejected and we can all move on and make things better.
Nov 4, 20080
Julie and I go to Japan
Above is a map that I’ve put together of Julie’s and my upcoming trip to Japan next Thursday. I can’t believe it’s coming up so fast! I have put pins in all of the sights we plan on seeing, and I’ve linked their respective Wikipedia page so you can check out where we’re going. Hopefully I can make updates with notes and such. I’m not too sure - using Google Maps for this is new to me, but it seems like there are a ton of possibilities.
Some highlights of the trip will be:
- A tour of the Toyota Factory
- Visiting Akihibara, the gadget capital of the world
- Seeing Himeji Castle
- A day at a Spa on the west coast of the country
And tons of other stuff!
Oct 27, 20080
Pumpkins!
Julie and I got our Pumpkin situation sorted out last Thursday and they’ve been hanging out on my front porch since. I went down to the art supply store and loaded up on carving supplies. I got a tool to shave the inside down, I got a whole host of tools to carve away the skin, I picked up tracing paper - the works. So, here’s what we came up with. Julie’s is the wicked McCain in the foreground, and mine is the untrustable and out-of-focus Cartman waving gleefully in the background. Julie’s is doin great. Sadly, mine is starting to rot and I fear he won’t make it until Friday, but I’ll try my best to keep him going.
Oct 27, 20080
Netflix Watch Instantly Freakin Finally for Macs
For those of you who have felt jilted by Netflix because they excluded your shiny Mac from their online movie-streaming goodness, today (sort of - see below) is your day of exaltation. When Netflix launched their “Watch Instantly” feature on their website you had to be running Internet Explorer and Windows to access it. Double damn. Mac convertees and devotees had to do the unthinkable to bypass the restriction - run Windows through Bootcamp or Parallels/Fusion. I, for one, am too cheap to buy virtualization software, so I was stuck with Bootcamp, which meant I had to power-down my Mac and boot it back up in XP. So, as you can imagine, I did that, like, twice before I just decided it was all stupid and not worth my time. But, I was majorly bummed, as the Watch Instantly feature is pretty fantastic. So, joy of joys, Netlfix have announced that they’re switching the web-app to Microsoft’s Silverlight (the irony) which will now make it available to us Mac users.
So, now that you’re all excited like me, hold tight. They’re going to roll it out to subscribers bit by bit and should have everyone up by “the end of the year.” Make it snappy, Netflix!
Oct 25, 20082
Holy Giant Confederate Flag
I’m in Tampa, and look what I just saw! I know it’s not a great pic- best I could do at 70mph. It’s a HUGE Confederate Flag. Holy cow! How disgusting!
Oct 24, 20080
In Line To Vote
So, I was convinced to vote early. Now I’m glad I was talked into it. I’m down here at Miami City Hall, where early voting turnout has been record-breaking, standing in line and waiting my turn. Word on the street is the line’s about 1hr long. This is great! I’m excited!
