Protected: Movin’ on down, to the southside

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A good day ^^

 

Protected: My new(?) home! Let me show you it…

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BLARG!

I’m sorry that I’ve been awful at keeping up this blog. Considering the recent surge of traffic that I have been receiving I’m going to start collecting my many pictures and get to work over the next couple of weeks in order to update. In the mean time, I will provide you with a scene from Star Wars, the fowl-version.

Disclamer:

To be honest, I just randomly found this picture on my computer and decided to post it up. I remember making this picture a long time ago in order to send to a beloved creationist I know. I think the humor was lost if I remember correctly. Also, luke skywalker was a tool … just sayin’.

 

Conference in Sapporo

Howdy,

I have returned to the intert00bs and come bearing photos. Having had several people misinterpret my intentions when dealing with philosophy, I will reassure you that my intentions are to support sound scientific, rational, evidence based reasoning and will only tackle scientific questions when philosophy attempts to contradict rationality. If you disagree with those intentions, then you are likely continuing your misinterpretation as it should conflict with no one’s belief system (except maybe Christian Scientists and other anti-rationalist philosophies [note: I have seen signs at various places of worship exclaiming, “A rational mind is the hand of Satan,” which is where I base this claim.]). This is not to mention the Methodist preacher who assaulted my profession when I was nice enough to visit his church to spend some time with my family before I left for Japan … luckily, I don’t hold grudges 😀 .

Now on to the real stuff. A few weeks ago, I attended the International Conference of Photo Excited Processes and Applications (ICPEPA-6) in Sappporo Japan. It was a lot of fun, but being as it was my first conference, I made it my duty to attend all of the talks and discussions. I didn’t get to tour the city very much, unfortunately, but I did get to take some really interesting photos of the Ainu Museum outside of Chitose. Enjoy!

Drying fish that have been smoking for nearly a year at the time of this photo.

Traditional Ainu houses.

Boats anchored off of the shore of the lake in the Museum. The Ainu focused mostly on meats and much less on grains in their diets.

Giant Wooden Caving (I'm sorry, but I forgot who/what it depicts)

I am not entirely certiain, but I like the multiple lines in the photo

Animals kept at the museum which are animals that the Ainu often dealt with.

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*Edit*

I have a bunch of new pictures since moving to Tokyo on Thursday, but I will need a bit of time to organize them and post them. Sorry for being such a delinquent 😉 .

 

Wha?

 

I … can … do it!

577 Kanji Down, 1465 to go … 59+ more for today

 

Hilarious revelation … what’s on the grill? （然）

Ok, so I have made it to 249 Kanji and hope to be at 323 by the end of the day … I wanted to impart something funny that I learned yesterday.

Sort of thing (so)　（然）

Let us break it down piece by piece … This character is made of 3 different primitives.

Flesh　（月）

Dog　（犬）

Fire　（火）

Ok ok, so how the heck are you supposed to remember something like this?! Just think of walking to a BBQ and saying, “mmm … what’s that smell? What sort of thing are you cooking?” Of course, I reply, “It’s that damn chihuahua that barks all the time. I put the dog’s meat on the fire … mmm … can’t wait!” The end.

Conceptually, this idea was derived from the book, Remembering the Kanji: Vol 1 by James Heisig.

 

Brain hurt … need more brains

Wish me luck, folks, as I have begun an edeavor to learn all of Japan’s official Jōyō Kanji （常用漢字・じょうようかんじ）. Jōyō Kanji is an official list of Chinese characters learned by all Japanese secondary school graduates. This list contains 1,945 kanji and was last updated in 1981.

Don’t be confused, my problem is not the desire to learn all of these characters. This should be the goalof all people learning the Japanese Language … I just decided to go ahead and do this all in the course of a month. I hope to have completed all of these kanji by August 20th. Now, I know what your thinking: “You’re an idiot”; “failure is unbecoming”; “blah blah blah”; or something like that. Thanks to the Heisig method, however, I feel that this can be a reasonable goal. I have already learned 100 previously unknown kanji in 1 day (I already knew ~200). The method also allows for acceleration as it builds your comprehension and imagination for these characters as you press onward. By the end of this month, I hope to have completely understood the underlying meaning and writing of all of these characters. After that, I’ll start on the ability to read them in Japanese … pronunciation (any given character can have up to 6 or 7 different pronunciations).

Wish me luck …

 

What is that? #2

OK OK, I bet this is pretty easy, but using a pretty nifty ASCII Converter, I made the following image. What are your guesses?

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMWNNXK0000KKNNWMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMWNKOkxdollllccllllooxkOKNWMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMNKkdlcccccccccccccccccccccclok0NMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMWKkocccccccccccccccccccccccccccccclx0NMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMNOoccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccoONMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMNOocccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccclkNMMMMMMM
MMMMMMKoccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccl0WMMMMM
MMMMMKdooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood0WMMMM
MNXXXKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKXWWWXWWWXKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKXXXXW
WxllllllllllllllllllllldkKX0koldk0X0kolclllllllllllllllllloN
WxcccccccccccccccccldOKX0xlcccccclox0X0xocccccccccccccccccoN
Wxccccccccccccccox0KKOdlcccccccccccccox0KKkolcccccccccccccoN
WkollllllllolokKNKkdlllllllllllllollllllox0NXOollllllllllldN
WXKKKKKKKKKKXWNXK0KNXKKKKKNXKKK0XNX0KK0XNK0KXXWXKKKKKKKKK0KW
WOxolcccccccxNxcccoXKlcccdWOccccxWkclccONocccoNKlcccccccoxkN
MXKxcccccccckNxccclXKlcccdWOccccxWkccccONocccoNKlccccccco0KW
WxllcccccccckNxccclXKccccdWOccccxWkccccONocccoNKlccccccclloN
WxllcccccccckNxccclXKlcccdWOccccxWkccccONocccoNKlccccccclloN
WkO0occccccckNxccclXKlcccdWOccccxWkccccONocccoNKlcccccclk0xN
WxodlccccccckNxccclXKlcccdWOccccxWkccccONocccoNKlccccccloddN
WxcccllccccckNxccclXKlcccdWOccccxWkccccONocccoNKlcccccccccoN
WxccokklcccckNxccclXKlcccdWOccccxWkclccONocccoNKlccclxOdlcoN
WxccokxlcccckNxccclXKlcccdWOccccxWkclccONocccoNKlcccldkdlcoN
WxcccccccllckNxccclXKccccdWOccccxWkccccONocccoNKllllccccccoN
Wxccccclo00oxNxccclXKlcccdWOcllcxWkccccONocccoNKoOKdlcccccoN
MXKKKKKKKXXKXWXKKKKNNKK0KKWNKK0KXWXKKKKNWKKKKKWNKXXKKK0K0KKW
WOddddddddddOW00XkddddddddddddddddddddddddxKKOWXxdddddddddxN
WxcccccccccckNxxkoccllxdlccccllccccldxllcclxxdNKlcccccccccoN
WxllllllllllkNxcllllloOOolllo0KdllllO0dlllllloNKlllllllllloN
WX0000000000XWK00000000000000XXK0000000000000KWNK000000000KW

image created via ASCIIconvert.com

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What is that #1 answers….
That’s right, mom and dad, you are the lucky winners today. Ya, so you were the only two who even attempted …

1. Massive 5 in buttons for a bathroom light (you said toilet ... close enough)

2. The red plugs were actually the surge protected buttons ... but meh

Jonny, tell them what they won, just for playing…

That’s right, *WINK*. Our consolation prize is … this handy dandy highlighter. Come on down and pick it up!