New Digs

I know in the past I have bitched and moaned a little about how I really don't like Bay Ridge so much, and this is true, I really don't so much. But when a decent apartment came my way, I found myself having extreme difficulty saying no. Especially since 6 months back home is my limit.

Picture this, a large 1-bedroom apartment. I mean a decent sized bedroom, huge living room, smaller officey room with large closet, big kitchen with enough space for a table, chairs and a cabinet, in addition to the fridge and stove. Plus, French doors, a built-in-shelf in the living room wall and quiet area facing windows. Next the rent; While I was stressing a little, its only about $100 more than most of the much smaller studios in Bay Ridge and Astoria, the two areas I was thinking about. And finally, I can move in, in two weeks. The landlord also cut me a few other deals and made the deal very sweet. I've decided to sign a year lease so worst case scenario, I change places in a year.

Not bad at all. But, there are a few changes worth noting:

1) No all-night 50 person parties allowed.
2) No holes in the walls, ceilings, floors, glass windows or frying pans.
3) Beds allowed, although Japanese style Futons are okay too.
4) Illegally borrowed “Road Work” lighting systems are prohibited.
5) All manner of balcony activities are now not allowed due to lack of balcony issues.
6) No pets!

Pictures forthcoming when I move in. The moving crew will be ready, you know who you are!

A Sink Hole Grows in Brooklyn

So today didn’t start so good. First I woke up about 50 minutes late. Fortunately I was only going to the gym, so it just reduced my gym time and it didn’t make me late. Second as I was eating breakfast I saw a peculiar thing on the television screen: a green Ford SUV was leaning into a large hole in the street. The first thing that stuck was: ‘How drunk was that driver?’ The second thing was: ‘That sucks.’ The third thing was: ‘That block looks really familiar…oh snap, that’s right near me.” The fourth thing was: ‘That’s right above 4^th Avenue and the R Line. I wonder if that’s going to effect the subway.’ The fifth thing as the NY1 reporter informed me of the R train cancellations was: ‘Motherf$%@!!&!”

On Monday morning at 3:30AM, a woman driving home in her green Ford SUV, had the unlucky circumstance to drive over an area of 73^rd Street and 4^th Avenue after a water main had broken and begun to saturate the street above and below it. The weight of the SUV collapsed the whole and sunk the it in. The woman was able to get out in time, but her car wasn’t so lucky. Nor were the 500,000 people who were inconvienced by the trains not running, nor the power, gas and water disruptions caused to get the SUV out.

As we stand now, it’s Monday night and I have been assured that service will be restored by Tuesday night at the latest. While I feel that to be a bit conservative of an estimate, I do feel it’s more realistic than my previous estimate of April 1^st, 2011.

Cha-La Head Cha-La

Which is the equalivent of Daijoubu in Japanese, which translates into “I’m good,” or “Are you okay?” depending on the intonation. Any person who was serious about anime back before it’s mass distribution in the states and the English bitchation of the song in question, know where this is from; Dragon Ball Z.

Actually, I’m not sure what got me into this. I came home and was doing a few things before taking a shower and care across this while in a search for Hasegawa Kyoko videos on Google video search. This in turn made me want to here the theme music again, the two most famous being Cha-La Head Cha-La and We Gotta Power.

So whats the point of this post? I’m not really sure. I guess I could talk about Dragon Ball, it’s history, storyline’s it’s trouble with the American censors, but this article on Wikipedia does a much better job. For anyone interested in the short version, the show was censored somewhat in terms of language, some minor nudity, slightly too violent fighting scenes (have you seen any Hollywood movies??? This was an anime!!!) and my favorite, a character who was the greatest known fighter in the world, an egomaniac, and he sucked by the way, Mr. Satan. His name was considered too offense for American “Christian” audiences, although he is not a evil character, and many consider that he was designed by series creator Akira Toriyama, as a parody of the 1960s American martial arts figure Count Dante.

Now, I think I’ll go to the highest point on Bay Ridge and eat some chicken.

Okonomiyaku desuka?

Good Okonomiyaki is hard to find in New York City. My usual haunts in Osaka: Fugetsu, just doesn’t exist here, but I bet would do great. For a place reknown for its international gourmet selection, I’m always amazing that finding decent, non-sushi based Japanese food can be tough.

Take last night for example. Jay and I headed to Decibel for a little post-soup dumplings hot sake (yet how they make those is still kinda a mystery. I don’t believe the recipes, it must be magic!). Decibel is a great place for so many reasons. The atmosphere is chill, the music selection is never mainstream and the Japanese sake selection (yes, I know it’s a very gaijin thing to categorize all shouchu, nihonshu and other Japanese liquors in one stereotypical category called sake, but it is easy, and yes, I know the difference) is large and the waiters are always a good opportunity to practice my slowly fleeting Japanese ability. Yet, the microwave Okonomiyaki was something I was not expecting.

While overall flavor was not that bad, the tendency of the dish to get hard within a few moments of cooling (typical of any microwaved food) was not appealing. According to the waiter it was made fresh by their chef and frozen for the night crowd, which I can understand as this place is more of a bar and doesn’t employ a full time chef or anything. But I can recommend that if you want some more real Okonomiyaki, go find a decent restaurant. For everything else, I highly recommend Decibel, in case the mood of this post suggested otherwise.

Okay now, I’ll shut up. No, really. Done.

Coyote Hunting

Is the name of the newest skill required by the NYPD, which will also expand by about 1200 people in the coming year to deal with the new threat of coyote-related terrorism. The 20+ hour chase that started around 9PM last night at a skating rink in Central Park finally came to an end this morning around a quarter to 10 when police sharpshooters finally tranquilized and captured the year-old, 35-pound coyote, now nicknamed Hal. At its height, the hunting party included police officers, sharpshooters, cameramen, park rangers and TV news helicopters.

The strange thing is that most authorities are uncertain about how the coyote made its way to the island of Manhattan. The current consensus is that it swam across to the island and then made its way down to the middle of Central Park, possibly covering more than 100 miles from its starting point. More interesting yet, it is believed that the coyote may have been chilling out in the park for a few days before it announced its presence to the city by jumping onto the Wollman Skating Rink on the east side of the park between 62^nd and 63^rd streets.

Actually this isn’t an uncommon occurrence. According to Stan Gehrt, assistant professor of wildlife ecology at Ohio State University in Columbus, coyotes are known for expanding their territory and over the past 30-40 years, are becoming accustomed to being in urban environments and surrounded by people. In the mid 80s, the city of Chicago dealt with about 20 coyotes a year, now that number if around 380 a year. No worries though, as while coyotes do prey on cats and some small dogs, there have been no urban based coyote attacks in recorded history in NYC nor Chicago. Coyotes are also known for being smart, which is probably why the police, and channel 4, had such trouble finding it.

Upper East Side Yorkshire terrier owners: time to hide your pets.

Go Japan!

Nice job. I haven’t followed baseball since I was 7, but I still know what’s going on and enjoyed a few games while I lived in Osaka. But the World Baseball Classic is a dream I had when I was a kid and ever since I knew that other countries played baseball, and the first one just finished.

16 teams from 16 countries and no, sorry America and all you loud Yankee fans out there, we were not the best, hell we were beaten by Canada and lost most of the other games. So, kudos to Japan for kicking ass and recovering from their two loses to Korea.

Here’s to you Japan. America, win next time, or we will have to change the name of the World Series! I’m sure Mari is loving it.

Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 2

Okay, yes I know I already did a post about Battlestar Galactica, but its such a good show that I couldn't resist. Recently the show ran its second season finale, and we were totally floored.

I know that some of you are fans and have already seen it, iTunes downloads is making me want to buy a video iPod, and since some of you haven't so I wouldn't include any explicit spoilers. In some ways the finale was what I expected. We saw more get character development, some things we knew were coming and some things we weren't expected, especially the ending. Many shows feel it proper to end a season on a cliffhanger or to end a multi-episode story arch and then pick up a few months and/or years later. BSG's finale did all three in one episode. It ended a major story arch, in a way, it fast forwarded in time (okay minor spoiler) and it ended on a cliffhanger. Do I really have to wait until October to find out what happens next? Guess so, I now officially have a love/hate relationship with producer Ronald Moore.

The last season ended with Adama being shot and the Cylons on the offensive. It was an explosive finale that left us dying for more, and when season 2 began, it picked up right at that moment, the cliffhanger effected the next 7 episodes in the season. These guys know how to write a story, and now that they have the creative freedom they didn't on DS9, we are seeing really good stuff.

It has been said that we, as a species, define our reality by understanding suffering and pain. A perfect would not work with us. In the past sci-fi has always been happy and cheerful, replent with bright shining visions of the future. Star Trek and many sci-fi writings of the 30s and 40s are examples of this. Shows like Battlestar Galactica, and its predecessors, Deep Space Nine, Bablyon 5, Dr. Who, Farscape, are paving the way in this newer version of a more real future.

Can you Guess?

While killing time before a job, I came across this. I'm not sure what it was and I'm betting it’s gonna be a coffee house, because only those trendy kinds of places would have a sign like this.

Any ideas?

Donnakusai

Which roughly translates as smelly sounding in Osaka-ben, and is the only word I can use to describe what has been happening to me over the past few days.

Friday morning: 8:15AM. I am at 59th station in Brooklyn waiting to transfer to the N line express to make my way to Manhattan. While the N line is much better than it was 4 years ago, it is horribly inconsistent; sometimes getting to Union Square in 20 minutes, sometimes in 50. Anyway, I jump on the line and notice a homeless guy sitting in the corner. Perhaps its important to add that the first thing I noticed was that the car seemed empty for a weekday morning at 8AM, the third thing I noticed was the two Japanese girls running out of the car screaming "kusai!" (bad smelling). The car reeked and everyone started running to the other end to escape it. Even the conductor sent a cop down to check it out and left the doors open long enough for me to escape into a much more crowded, yet less smelly car.

Friday night: 10:15PM. After watching the fairly bad Ultraviolet, I made my way to meet some friends in a bar near Houston Street called Iggy's. The Q train pulled into the 42nd station, somewhat empty, but not unexpected as it was Saint Patty's Day and many had picked their place for the night. Within a few seconds of sitting down, in the middle of the car no less, it hit me again. Not as potent, but the distinctive smell of non-bathed flesh. Next stop and I was out on the R train anyway to get to the local stop I needed.

Saturday morning: 9:24AM. I was waiting on the platform for the train back into the city after crashing in Queens. The train pulls in, people start to get on the car I'm about to enter, until the stench pours out of the car and into my nostrils. The perfect timing of this with the opening doors allowed me to rechoose my entrance and avoid another situation.

Now, I'm waiting on the platform at 59th Street in Manhattan, for the 6 to go to the gym. Let's hope I don't have any more pleasant experiences.

Got Fat?

Wanna get fat? This is a good way. Actually it’s not so surprising to see food in America getting more and more bad for you, but even this is a little ridulous. Okay, if I go to a game I will try one, but still… I know all the cute Japanese girls would be eating tons of these things, right Mayumi?

Wiring

Yes okay, I know that yesterday was my day off, but I saw nothing wrong in volunteering a little time to help rewire the office and in the process learn a ton about wiring. And I got to wear a workbelt for the tools, nice. Also, we got to make a huge mess in the office. Always fun.

Okay, here’s the story. Our office’s phones suck and for any serious network work, wirless sucks. We need a wired network and now we have it. Thanks to the supervision and knowledge of our phone guy, Hank, we wired our office with network and new phone jacks and which will make our lives much easier. I’m actually excited to be using this network since I had a hand in putting it together. The majority of the work consisted in running wires around the walls and actually creating the jacks. The wires have to be opened and separated in the right places to make it all work right. I made a few mistakes as I am still learning everything but it all worked out in the end.

While I didn’t do the actual programming of the phones nor connecting it all through a patch panel, I learned a ton and had a good time.

I forgot....

my iPod at home today and the gym was soooooooooooooooo boring.

Nothing else to say today.

Gyms

After doing the differences between Japanese and American cities (thanks for ruining everything Kaze! Expect some nasty comments real soon!), I figured I’d talk about gyms as well. My apologies if the last post sounded negative, it wasn’t supposed to.

Anyway here’s some things I’ve noticed, this is a fairly direct comparison of NYSC on 23^rd and Park South and Konami Sports Club in Bentenchou.

-All, and I mean all, the cardio machines in NYSC have TVs that you can change the channels and often show Britney Spears! Konami runs a lot of housewife dramas and early morning variety shows.

-KSC has 1 assisted bench press; NYSC, more than I have fingers.

-NYSC: many attractive NY girls, not that I’m looking; KSC: many attractive Japanese girls, once again not looking.

-NYSC: protein drinks taste mysteriously like chocolate, vanilla and/or strawberry shakes, actually makes you look forward to the end of the workout; KSC; protein drinks taste like Jello without the flavor or food coloring, makes you want to stay on the gym floor.

-NYSC: private showers with conditioner; KSC: Japanese-style sitting row group showers with Shampoo/Conditioner combo and large hot spring style bathing pools to relax your sore muscles afterwards. TV in the sauna provides sports for anytime, almost as good as the Ocho.

-NYSC: free towels with new skin scrapping action; KSC: non-free towels smell slightly like fish.

-KSC: personal trainers push you for 2-3 slow reps with light weight and then respectfully congradulate you on lifting 2.3 kgs; NYSC: personal trainers tell you to stop being a pussy dimpshit, after you just did 15 reps of 10 lbs heavier than you could even dream about lifting, and make you do 10 more.

-KSC: PTs call everyone by last name; NYSC: PTs call all men dude, bro, man, chief, women are babe.

-KSC: Old men in the shower are amazed by your non-Japanese skin are large member; NYSC: Old men don’t make it to the shower room as they carted off to the ambulance.

-KSC: high number of members who attend the first week after joining only to never return but continue paying membership fees for at least another 18 months and appear in the VIP member list; NYSC: : high number of members who attend the first week after joining only to never return but continue paying membership fees for at least another 18 months and appear in the VIP member list.

I’m going tomorrow. See you there!

Cityscapes

While living in Osaka and visiting a number of Japanese cities over the past four years, I was occasionally struck by the newness of many of the buildings and complexes that I saw and went in. Still, this didn’t really faze me much until I returned to NYC.

As we all know, towards the end of WWII, the Japanese mainland was heavily bombarded by America forces, resulting in the burning down of large parts of some of its major cities, such as Osaka, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Yokohama and Fukuoka. The result: post-war era reconstruction was done using more modern building materials and architectural styles. Ultimately, the Japan of today is a much more visually modern place than say some of the major cities of America, such as New York City.

The pictures from this post are from my personal collection, but show a large number of buildings constructed no more than 20-25 years ago. Whereas, the average NYC building seems to be more than 50-60 years old, some of the more iconic buildings like the Empire State Building pushing 90. New construction is all around, especially in the Times Square area, however, the majority of NYC buildings had a few years, and pounds, on their Osaka counterparts. The Umeda Sky Building, completed in 1993, is the perfect example of the modern ideas being implemented. The complex consists of two 40-story towers connected at the top by multiple bridges and an observation roof. Another, which is also the second tallest building in Japan, is the WTC Cosmo Tower, a 55-story skyscraper and the centerpiece of the Osaka Bay area.

Construction materials as well are diverse. New York buildings seem to favor concrete, stone and brick, mixing the city with various shades of dark and light greys, reds and tans. Osaka, tends to favor glass and steel, creating a rather futuristic and very Asian style to it’s cities. Great examples of this include Honmachi in Osaka and Shibuya in Tokyo.

Still, perhaps the greatest difference is the current development occurring. In Osaka, in my old neighbor, there were no less than three new high rise buildings being put up. Osaka station is being redone and expanded, homes, office space and entertainment plazas are being constructed at a rapid pace. Meanwhile, here in NYC we are still debating over the successor to the World Trade Center and only a few new buildings pop up, while the city, itself, ages.

Ebony Hillbillies

There isn’t much to say here, except these guys rock. Their sound was kick ass and free, although I left the remnants of my wallet (I hadn’t hit the ATM in a few days so that was like a buck fifty) to say thanks. Its not often you get a good show in the 42^nd Street Subway Station, near that well-known pillar.

Snowmen Cometh

Maybe I should’ve posted this on Thursday night, but I was busy drinking downtown.

Anyway, as I said before Thursday was predicted to be another bad snow day, and what a day it was. I woke up in the morning, made my way to and from the gym and to my first client of the day in a chilly, grey day. The sky showed no signs of movement and the light of the sun, while striking my skin, were hidden from our general perception.

After an hour with my first client, I exited a large uptown apartment building to find myself uptown and in a veritable and beautiful mist of white. The skies had opened and I felt like singing “Jingle Bells.” At least, until I got off the train some 80 blocks later and found the weather had warmed enough to turn the mist into a flood of rain-like hail which hurt and wet in one swift blow.

I was lucky enough to spend most of the rest of the day in the office, until 3PM, when it was back out into the wet of it to install a printer. By this point, the rain was peltingly heavy and the city had transformed again into an icy flooded wonderland of slickness.

But now as March has engulfed us, there is no more snow to look forward to and Central Park will rebloom into the beautiful summer bouquet that we all know and love. The least I could do was show some pictures from the last major storm of this winter.

The Last of ...

The end of March usually signifies the end of the very cold snowy season. Well no twice. First this snow is still sitting in the stairs down to my basement entrance (which is never used because its DAME!) because there is no reason to clear it, it’s dirty and we are too lazy. Second, supposedly the weather report says tomorrow will be snowy, go figure. Actually I doubt we will see anything significant...

In other thoughts, writing this and updating things makes me remember that the end of next month will be the one year anniversary of the new World of Jedicraft blog, July being the anniversary for the site. What should I do? Any ideas? Maybe more importantly, what will you get me? Ponies are always a good choice.

And for those of you who haven't noticed, the Wisdom of the Day hasn't been here in about a week or so, because its moved to its new blog. Check it out, its currently a work in progress, so it will get nicer looking as soon as I have 20 minutes to do it!!