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April 28, 2006

South Lawn Face Lift

For all those UVA alumni out there: Is any one else as confused by this as I am? Is that a pond in the middle of the new terrace over JPA? Are those more colonnades? Where are the new classrooms going to be?

April 27, 2006

Judo Senior Nationals Update

I know you've all been waiting for the results so here they are.

Sensei Heidi came in 3rd in women's 78Kg and 2nd in the women's Open.
Bandi came in 2nd in the men's Open, to an apparently much bigger Polish guy
Jim came in 5th in men's Masters.

I'm not sure how this affects Heidi's chance at an Olympic team spot but I hope not badly, I think she had hoped to come in first for her weight. In the meantime, I continue to try and get ready for the tournament in a couple weeks and the rank testing a week after. Several people at the dojo think that I could move up two ranks, which would be pretty cool.

Today 70's and Sunny

Sunday, it was a little cold and ominous looking out but I had just watched Elizabethtown, which I'm reluctant to admit gave me that sweet sadness feeling which perfectly reflected the dreary sky. So I decided to go for a short walk in Cheeseman park in order to wallow in the feeling. It was very nice, there were people out walking their dogs while talking on the phone and even some kids out tossing a baseball. After taking a quick turn around the park I decided to take the slightly longer way back home. Just then the skies opened their fury and golfball sized hail started bulleting down from above. At first they were intermittent and huge and I was no where near shelter. I thought seriously that if one of them hit me I was likely in for a gigantic bump on the head. Unfortunately, I was still in my emotion coma from the movie as well as the peaceful walk and the hail fit in so well with the About a Boy soundrack coming from my iPod that I continued my slow walk down the street chuckling softly as I watched people madly running about with newspapers over their heads. Miraculously, I still hadn't been whacked on the head and only suffered a minor glancing shot to the right elbow when I'd finally made it to the 2 foot overhang outside the gay coffee shop. Several people were out under the overhang watching the mayhem ensue. And soon the hail came down faster and faster and smaller and smaller, they were now about pebble sized and coming down as thick as a spring rain storm in Virginia. We all stood there laughing and astonished as the hail continued for several minutes and car alarms went off all around us. It was a completely surreal experience, made even more so by the fact that it had been 70 degrees the day before and as soon as the hail hit the ground it shattered and melted on the warm pavement. It finished abruptly and faded quickly into a damp, chilly and sunny afternoon. The next day, April 24th, it snowed.

April 24, 2006

Opening a Can O' Worms

Often times attempting to apply statistical analyses to everyday life has some uninformed and ugly side-effects. So I must admit that I hesitated before deciding to pass on this link. But I do find it interesting none the less. These types of studies are innately controversial. I think that the emotions it stirs up are infinitely more significant than the science itself. Personally, I can see that I am much more likely to point out possible confounding variables in this study than I would be in say a study showing that women are more likely to be right handed than men. It's interesting when you can see your own defensive tendencies.

April 21, 2006

始めまして

Yesterday was my first Japanese class. I had fun and didn't feel behind at all since there were even a couple people in the class that had never taken Japanese before. First of all for background the class is run by the Japan-America Society of Colorado and is held in the Buddhist Temple in downtown Denver.

I had to go into work early in order to make the 5:25 start time for the class and I was a little concerned about finding parking near the temple, but not to worry the Denver Buddhist Temple has it's own parking garage which happens to be free after 5, score. I think it is pretty close to a bunch of bars downtown too, so needless to say this knowledge will come in handy in the future. A couple days ago I got an email from the girl who is organizing the class giving detailed directions on how to get to the classroom. I felt like I was heading to some clandestine meeting. The directions told me that the main entrance to the temple would be locked so I would have to enter the building through an unmarked orange door from the parking garage. Then I proceed through a short corridor and into a dark empty gym. After the gym I would find myself in the lobby and should proceed up the stairs where I would find the classroom on my right. As I followed the directions I was concerned that the building seemed completely empty and almost all of the lights were off in the place. I don't know what I expected a Buddhist Temple to be like but it wasn't like this. The place seemed like an elementary school during summer vacation. Small carpeted halls and an old school gym complete with those blue wall pads that small children enjoy running into at full speed.

I was also surprised at the average age of the class. Most of the people there seemed to be about my age, a sharp change from the class I took in Arlington, where the average age was in the mid 40's. In Arlington the main reason for taking Japanese was because the person's spouse was getting relocated there either due to business or military. In this class most of the people seem to be taking Japanese for the fun of it. A couple of the guys are preparing to enter the JET (teaching english in Japan) program in July and there is even one guy taking it to better understand Japanese carpentry. The Sensei is a Japanese woman who's english has such a thick accent that it's hard to tell which language she's speaking, but she seems nice and I assume I'll get used to the accent soon enough. I'm excited it's a woman Sensei since I've heard that women and men speak japanese slightly differently and there is definitely a difference in tone and the way the language sounds.

All in all, I think that the class will be fun even if it is mostly review.

April 20, 2006

Wine tasting: Art or Science?

My brother-in-law is a master wine maker. He has his own wine cellar where he makes batch after batch of lovely wine. He performs experiments, testing how changes in acidity or other factors affect the taste. He keeps scrupulous notes in a log book for each batch. He does this up until the point where he meticulously bottles and racks the wine leaving it often for several years in order to age and develop a deeper flavor. He then of course promptly forgets where he put each batch and never labels the bottles or the racks. Effectively ending any sort of testing he started earlier in the process as he has no idea which bottles were made with reserve and which ones weren't. Of course this chain of events turns out wonderful for Rick and I who showed up Tuesday night for family dinner night and were treated to an impromptu night of wine tasting as we tried to figure out which batch of wine was which.

Our "results" followed, as one might guess, a rigorous scientific study and logical progression. We first had to figure out which batch the "?" bottles came from using the ancient but simple art of drinking glass after glass from each group. Then once that was decided we relabeled each batch number based on Ted's extensive notes, the amount of dust accumulated while the bottles lay on the racks and of course more tasting. Pure Science!

April 18, 2006

Mom always said I had a hard head

I'm amazed that it doesn't happen more often but I knocked heads with a girl last night at judo practice. She was going for a throw and I was going for a counter throw or at least a block for her throw and we ended up both going down. She got me on the forehead and I had a nice red mark but that was about it. Unfortunately, I got her on the temple and she felt light headed and dizzy and ended up sitting out the rest of practice, oops. I felt pretty bad, especially when I found out that her boyfriend would have to drive her home and Rob would have to drive her car back for her. But I'm pretty sure she didn't hold it against me since she invited me to go mountain biking with her, if I ever got a bike, and after practice she seemed quite excited about the prospect of having a black eye. She smiled and said "Now I'll look tough!" The whole thing reminded me of the time in highschool that I broke a soccer teammates nose by accident. She was marking me and I turned a little too fast catching her nose with the back of my head. The poor girl had to wear a sport mask the rest of the season.

In other judo news, two of my senseis are competing in the USA Judo Senior National Championships this weekend. While I was looking through the pre-registration list I saw two other names I recognized from my time with a judo club in Arlington. When I was playing the brother and sister they were both still juniors but I'm sure they're amazing now. The brother, Leland, is only 16 years old!

More:
Here's the bio for Sensei Heidi on the USA Judo website. Not too shabby, huh?

April 17, 2006

Hey Liz, you go girl!

Through the family email list I got a link to this article about my second cousin, Liz. She's created an online art gallery for young artists where you can go browse and even buy their stuff. Take a look, it's pretty cool.

I Forgot:
My cousin Kirstin Wing has some photos on the site too.

Ah, I'm Horribly Sunburned

So even though I put on sunscreen and even reapplied to my arms and face, I still got burnt on both my legs as well as the skin just under my hairline over my forehead. That's what I get for skiing in shorts two miles closer to the sun. But really, who puts sunscreen in their hair?

So here's how it happened, I went skiing yesterday, Easter Sunday, with Rick and his friend Whitney, a crazy fun girl with an unhealthy obsession with raspberry flavored chewy candy. I would tell you the name of the candy but all I remember was that it was something like Manga and I can't google it because of the sheer number of Japanese Comic book sites out there, one even called "Candy Candy". Anyway, we went skiing. It was beautiful, not a cloud in the sky, and the snow conditions weren't terrible. It was so nice out that after a few runs we decided to sit down for a couple of $7 beers and very undercooked burgers halfway up the mountain. We sat there admiring the many people in tanktops skiing and boarding past us. One guy was boarding with nothing but his swim trunks on.



I decide that my legs are really too warm in my waterproof pants and so took them off. I of course dutifully put on sunscreen that Rick had been carrying around in his bag as soon as I finished my food. However, it was obviously too late as you can see. Here I am clueless to the fact that I'm already burning.



We sat there for a while, unwilling to move from our comfortable lounge chairs and occupied ourselves by calling people to wish them a happy Easter and throwing snow balls at the ski poles sticking up in the snow in front of us.

We were even visited by the Easter Santa,



who gave us little chocolate Easter eggs out of his fanny pack.

Once we pulled ourselves out of our chairs, we headed over to the base to stand and listen to a nice band while drinking tasty margaritas. We even got the added treat of a Streaking Boarder, unfortunately my camera hand wasn't quick enough to capture the moment.

All in all it was a gorgeous last day of the ski season even if my legs are now burnt in a very unsightly blotchy fashion and my hairline will probably peel in a day or two and look suspiciously like a terrible case of dandruff.

April 12, 2006

Everybody brain farts

Don't you just hate that feeling when you know there was something fascinating that you were going to search in google and then you forget what it is? I do. It's like when I was a kid and would wait eagerly for the commercials during a show so I could run upstairs and do something real quick and then forget what it was I was supposed to do as soon as I got up there. Maybe I've just got a terrible memory but it seems to happen to me all the time.

April 10, 2006

Team Beer Strikes Again

Since they were released a few years ago I never paid much attention to the crazy wheel shoes that so many kids are wearing these days. But after going to a Judo tournament and seeing all the kids from my judo club zooming around the gym in them, I have to admit they look incredibly fun. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure I'm too old to go around sporting such mobile footwear, though I'm pretty sure I could probably find them in my size. Ah well, maybe I'll invest in a pair of rollerblades instead and go zooming around Wash Park with my sis.

The Judo tournament was fun, I didn't participate though since it was only for higher ranking belts (brown and black) and I'm not quite up to that challenge yet. I'm told there's another tournament in a month or so that has a lower rank division, so look forward to the play by play in the future.

Afterwards there was dinner and then four of us went out for drinks and pool at some college bar near DU. I had great time. One of the guys is Mongolian and apparently an amazing Judo player, he's in some national tournament in a month or so and a quick google search reveals that he came in 5th in the US Open last year and used to be on the Mongolian National team, anyway the poor guy is still working on his english proficiency and conversations with him are fairly difficult. We did learn that in Mongolia dogs say "gwa, gwa" and the word for beer sounds suspiciously like pew.

Yesterday Kim and an old friend of hers (in town for the weekend) and I went to the mall to see the "Mask Project". It was pretty cool with masks painted by all sorts of random artists and celebrities. One of the ones that made me laugh was William Shatner's. So many of the actors would just have other people paint the mask and then sign their name to it, but I'm fairly certain that Bill did is own painting. Another one I liked was done by Mimi the Elephant, it's her "trunk print". Anyway, I thought it was cute.

Afterwards, I got a lesson in car maintenance from Rob (the other judo guy from the night before) and his friend Ty (sp?). I "helped" them change the oil in their cars and do some crazy bypass surgery on Rob's electrical system. Apparently something was draining the battery on his very old car so that every time he stopped driving it he had to detach the battery. So now he has one key to start the car and another plastic key to put in a switch, that we installed to the left of the steering wheel, that completes the battery circuit. The whole thing is very ghetto but it was fun to play around with the inside of the car. Sorry I didn't take pictures of the whole thing.

April 06, 2006

Aboriginal Genetics

For those who read this blog that are at all interested in genetics this may be interesting to you too.

It basically says that there is genetic evidence to support the evidence from dated aboriginal rock paintings showing that Australian Aboriginies have been around since around 40,000 years ago. For modern humans this is a long time ago. Neandertals were still around until about 30,000 years ago. And 40,000 years ago is also about the time of the Cro Magnons in Europe.

Ok, now I can go home!

More of other peoples pictures

And here are more ... this time I searched Hokkaido (the northernmost island in Japan).

Crystal
Flowers
Ainu Dance
Swan Swan
Somewhere neat

Other peoples pictures

Still nothing to do at work so with spring finally on it's way, I've been looking at pictures of Scotland in the winter. If any of the rest of you are as bored as I am here are a couple of the pretty pics a flickr search for the tag "cairngorms" pulled up. For those of you who may not know the Cairngorms is a mountain range in the lower highlands, a couple hours north of Edinburgh.

Beinn a Bhuird
Cairngorm Plateau
Snowy Sunset
Rocks

Weirdos where are you?

The weather men have been threatening us with storms for the last several days here in the Denver area. Even though the Denver weathermen are continuously clueless it seems that their predictions might finally come true. There were actually raindrops when I drove back to the office after lunch. Anyway I thought that these clouds were so cool looking that I took a quick snap in the car. (sorry it's so dark)



So with Salesforce down and the only work I have at the moment relying entirely on the program I've nothing to do except stare at the screen. I just got a survey from Budget to do tonight but I'm pretty sure that doing outside contract work on company equipment and time would be frowned upon. I feel so exposed in this cube.

So I'm working in the sales department which is in a separate building across the street from the main building where all the actual science and programming happen. I have this image in my head that the other building is this big party place where all the fun zany people hang out. Here are the reasons I have to think this: 1) Once I got an email saying there was food for grabs over there, 2)I've seen a couple people from there wearing jeans and 3) the zany bizarre people certainly aren't in my building. Don't get me wrong, everyone here seems normal and nice. They makes snide comments to each other over the cube walls and stuff. But there is still something lacking, they're just too normal. Where are all the quirky weirdos? Where are my people?

April 04, 2006

Sticky Sushi Rice is Fun and Yummy

So, second day of work, doing mostly the same stuff as the first day. Judo last night was fun although one of the senseis I think decided that we weren't trying hard enough and made us all do squat jumps and wall sits, not fun. I got to see a few of the pictures taken by two of the guys who went to Beijing last week. Why is it that Asian mountains look so much different than American or even European mountains? Maybe it's just me.

Anyway, speaking of pictures here are some that Brian has put up from his trip out here last month. The sushi turned out very well if I do say so myself.


April 03, 2006

This time I can't wear flip flops

So here I am, at work once again.

I had a great time being back home but unfortunately it was way too short. I did get to see the cherry blossoms on peak day, they are as beautiful as ever. Also, Brian and I went to Great Falls on friday and had a cute little picnic on the rocks by the river. Rolls, swiss cheese, pepperoni and a bottle of red between us, it was awesome. On sat. since my flight left from BWI, Brian got us tickets to the Baltimore Aquarium, which was a lot of fun. I haven't been since elementary school and it's changed quite a bit. We watched a pretty cool dolphin show and decided that being a dolphin trainer would be a pretty awesome job. All I need is a whistle and a wetsuit and I'm ready! Also, I got to amaze Brian with my random knowledge of fish and reptiles since there was a whole exhibit on Australia. Admit it Brian, you were totally amazed :)

It was also the visit of dinners. Two dinners at the rents for my childhood favorites, dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant in Adams Morgan with some of Brian's buds, dinner at Paya Thai for girl talk with Becca and Na, and since my dinner schedule was full Brian's parents had us over for homemade pie, which was excellent.

And now here I am working, learning some new databases and meeting some new people, who all seem very nice. But alas, my lunch hour is almost over and I better go. No good slacking off on the first day! (I'll save that for tomorrow :)

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