I have updated the photo and I am not sure if I like it much better. It might be simply that I don't like getting my photo taken because I never know what to do in them. So please feel free to comment on which photo you like better.
* JOSH
Thursday, September 29, 2005
An updated photo
Well you might have noticed a new picture in the corner. Someone, who will remain nameless*, thought that I did not look my best in the old photo. To be honest the old photo is over a year old taken within a week or two of arriving in Japan in May of 2004. For completeness here is the old photo.
I have updated the photo and I am not sure if I like it much better. It might be simply that I don't like getting my photo taken because I never know what to do in them. So please feel free to comment on which photo you like better.
* JOSH
I have updated the photo and I am not sure if I like it much better. It might be simply that I don't like getting my photo taken because I never know what to do in them. So please feel free to comment on which photo you like better.
* JOSH
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Chronicle Careers: 07/08/2005
A fear I had when I started this blog was that it could adveresly affect future job opportunities. This article is a short discussion of this topic.
Chronicle Careers: 07/08/2005
I guess this is a note to self and other fellow bloggers that we should remember that these blogs are public. I think I am going to review my entries at least grammatical errors for a start.
Chronicle Careers: 07/08/2005
I guess this is a note to self and other fellow bloggers that we should remember that these blogs are public. I think I am going to review my entries at least grammatical errors for a start.
Monday, September 26, 2005
Discrimination against Left Handed People
Ok so I am bias,
Last night at church someone announced a research project that they were looking for native English speakers. Cool, I go and check it and you get paid ichi man en (sorry I slipped into Japanese [10,000 Yen {A little less than $100}]) for like an hour or two test. I checked the requirements and one was to be right handed. That of course from my first post basically counts me out.
Oh well the test required that you be in a MRI and listen to sentences and then push some button depending on something. It sounds like that they are looking at what areas of the brain are activated while listening to English. There research that shows that left handed people use different portions of their brains for different things than right handed people. So the testers are just trying to limit the number of variables in the test.
The last interesting portion of the story was that is that one word that they used in the description was "gratuity" which was used with relation to money and travel expenses. So I guessed it had to do with getting paid but I was not sure. I double checked and here is the definition: something given voluntarily or beyond obligation usually for some service. Ok so I was about right, but the other funny thing was that another person from England was also not sure of the meaning.
I am not sure what all of this means except that I should probably improve my vocab.
Last night at church someone announced a research project that they were looking for native English speakers. Cool, I go and check it and you get paid ichi man en (sorry I slipped into Japanese [10,000 Yen {A little less than $100}]) for like an hour or two test. I checked the requirements and one was to be right handed. That of course from my first post basically counts me out.
Oh well the test required that you be in a MRI and listen to sentences and then push some button depending on something. It sounds like that they are looking at what areas of the brain are activated while listening to English. There research that shows that left handed people use different portions of their brains for different things than right handed people. So the testers are just trying to limit the number of variables in the test.
The last interesting portion of the story was that is that one word that they used in the description was "gratuity" which was used with relation to money and travel expenses. So I guessed it had to do with getting paid but I was not sure. I double checked and here is the definition: something given voluntarily or beyond obligation usually for some service. Ok so I was about right, but the other funny thing was that another person from England was also not sure of the meaning.
I am not sure what all of this means except that I should probably improve my vocab.
A Chinese Meal
Last Sunday I had dinner with some Chinese and one Taiwanese friends from my lab. The primary course for that meal was gioza. The closest thing to gioza that I can think of in America is egg rolls. But those are not even close, really except for the idea that you have some type of dough wrapped around a filling. For the traditional Chinese version these guys are typically boiled, however the tasty version is when you throw them in a frying pan with oil. I think I like that version because I am like my dad with the saying, "When its brown its cooking, when its black its done."
There is a version of these here in Japan also, however they are typically fried, or at least the times that I have bought them at the store.
There was a variety of different dishes that were served along with the gioza. There was some noodles and cucumbers, a weird black hardboiled egg and tofu which was warmed up, pigs ears (i think) along with a couple of other dishes.
All in all it was good meal and I highly recommend that you try gioza if you ever get a chance.
Below are some pictures from the event.
This is a picture of the stuff that goes inside the gioza.
The finished gioza afeter wrapping in dough and boiling.
Xe (pernouced Joh in Japanese and Yay in Chinese) finishing preparing the meal. There are sevral of the dishes on the table.
There is a version of these here in Japan also, however they are typically fried, or at least the times that I have bought them at the store.
There was a variety of different dishes that were served along with the gioza. There was some noodles and cucumbers, a weird black hardboiled egg and tofu which was warmed up, pigs ears (i think) along with a couple of other dishes.
All in all it was good meal and I highly recommend that you try gioza if you ever get a chance.
Below are some pictures from the event.
This is a picture of the stuff that goes inside the gioza.
The finished gioza afeter wrapping in dough and boiling.
Xe (pernouced Joh in Japanese and Yay in Chinese) finishing preparing the meal. There are sevral of the dishes on the table.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
I will be home for Christmas
Well on Wednesday night I made the reservations for the trip home for Christmas. For those interested, I will be arriving on Dec. 14 in the afternoon and will leave on Jan. 4 in the morning. On Thursday when I was looking at the news sure enough what did I see, the airline that I made the reservation with (Northwest) had declared bankruptcy. In all reality this is nothing major, it however does not give me a warm fuzzy feeling down inside.
The second thing related to this I saw that NW was offering a service that 90 days before departure you could choose your seat. I was like sweet, exit row seating here I come. As it turned out they are doing what I thought airlines should have done all along now which is charge more for exit row seats, basically making business class seats. This had been an idea of mine for a while would be to increase the price of exit row seats by $50 or so. I would happily pay that on the long trips to and from Japan.
Ah well, I will be home over Christmas which puts me in a really good mood. For the people I know I will be seeing do you have any requests from Japan, or should I bring my normal, dried squid or some Chinese food.
Ah well that will be enough for now. I will not as many updates as I did last week because those had been topics that I had been thinking about for a while.
The second thing related to this I saw that NW was offering a service that 90 days before departure you could choose your seat. I was like sweet, exit row seating here I come. As it turned out they are doing what I thought airlines should have done all along now which is charge more for exit row seats, basically making business class seats. This had been an idea of mine for a while would be to increase the price of exit row seats by $50 or so. I would happily pay that on the long trips to and from Japan.
Ah well, I will be home over Christmas which puts me in a really good mood. For the people I know I will be seeing do you have any requests from Japan, or should I bring my normal, dried squid or some Chinese food.
Ah well that will be enough for now. I will not as many updates as I did last week because those had been topics that I had been thinking about for a while.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
A Japanese Garden
One Sunday morning a friend and I went to a Japanese garden close to my apartment. There really is not much to say except to look at the pictures. So without further adieu here are the pictures.
They had some large (I am guessing) gold fish in the ponds.
They had some large (I am guessing) gold fish in the ponds.
Over the counter medicine in Japan
File this under the differences between the US and Japan.
The other day I was looking for Tylenol to take care of a headache. I was able to find it in the drug store without too much trouble. I checked the recommended dosage on the side of the box, and its one capsule per dose 3 times a day. Each capsule has 300 mg of Acetaminophen. Now if you pull out a typical bottle of over the counter Tylenol from a America, lets say extra strength or what ever it is 500mg per capsule, 2 capsules per dose 4 times a day.
So this leads us to one of three conclusions.
Oh and one other side note you cannot buy over the counter drugs at convenience stores or super markets. Only at drug stores which are not open 24 hours like the other stores.
Last interesting note, Halls cough drops are sold in a connivance store in the candy isle while they are not sold in the drug store. The Vick's cough drops are the opposite. The Halls are the only one that I have found that are worth taking to prevent a cough.
So another nugget of information for future visits to Japan.
(Someone with more knowledge on any of these topics please feel free to comment)
The other day I was looking for Tylenol to take care of a headache. I was able to find it in the drug store without too much trouble. I checked the recommended dosage on the side of the box, and its one capsule per dose 3 times a day. Each capsule has 300 mg of Acetaminophen. Now if you pull out a typical bottle of over the counter Tylenol from a America, lets say extra strength or what ever it is 500mg per capsule, 2 capsules per dose 4 times a day.
So this leads us to one of three conclusions.
- In America we take way too much
- The Japanese are more sensitive to the medicine so they don't need as much
- Take your pick on a get rich gimmick on either side of the pond.
Oh and one other side note you cannot buy over the counter drugs at convenience stores or super markets. Only at drug stores which are not open 24 hours like the other stores.
Last interesting note, Halls cough drops are sold in a connivance store in the candy isle while they are not sold in the drug store. The Vick's cough drops are the opposite. The Halls are the only one that I have found that are worth taking to prevent a cough.
So another nugget of information for future visits to Japan.
(Someone with more knowledge on any of these topics please feel free to comment)
Monday, September 12, 2005
Earthquake in Japan
So four weeks ago we had an earthquake here in japan. As I am sure you can guess I made it through with no problems. For the size of the earthquake, 7.2 or so, and how close it was to sendai it is surprising there was not more damage. For me because everyone asks I was filling up a container with liquid nitrogen. So nothing special. Of course The next room over to me there were gas bottles full of Arsenic, silane (a poisonous gas that bursts into flames when it comes in contact with air) and a variety of other flammable and poisons gases. So nothing new. When the earthquake hit I shut off the valve to the liquid nitrogen and then dived out the front door because I was on the ground floor close to a door.
The only damage that I had to deal with at the lab is one of the buildings a water line broke which in a room on the second floor there was an inch or two of standing water. Of course there were more than a few cardboard boxes on the floor so this caused some problems. Otherwise there was no damage to the lab.
I really felt sorry for people who used the train system here. After every major earthquake the tracks are checked for damage. The problem is that trains are a primary form of commuting here in Japan. So when the trains finally came back on line I guess there were very long lines for people to get back on to get where they needed to go.
The only damage that I had to deal with at the lab is one of the buildings a water line broke which in a room on the second floor there was an inch or two of standing water. Of course there were more than a few cardboard boxes on the floor so this caused some problems. Otherwise there was no damage to the lab.
I really felt sorry for people who used the train system here. After every major earthquake the tracks are checked for damage. The problem is that trains are a primary form of commuting here in Japan. So when the trains finally came back on line I guess there were very long lines for people to get back on to get where they needed to go.
Transducers 2005
Well from June 4th through June 10th I was in Seoul, South Korea for Transducers 2005. I had a poster presentation. What this means is that I wrote a paper for the proceedings and for the conference I made a poster that summarized my paper and stood in front of it for 3 hours to answer questions from other participants in the conference.
Our lab had 10 or so papers at the conference so we had those people plus the professors there with us. The group with the students got their a day early which allowed us to do some touring around Seoul for one day. Here is a couple of the picture that I got from there. The first is of the king palace are. Please don't ask me to explain everything because I have fogotten now.
The second is of the king's private garden.
I will not post any food pictures but I will leave it like this I was happy to get back to Japanese food. The food in Korea is very spicy. After more than a few meals did I come away with a burnt out mouth. The best way to describe some of the spices was that they continued to get hotter you eat more. There more several dishes there that I liked such as the yakiniku, you are given raw beef, a grill and some spices. You do the rest. The bubinbi is much better than what you can get in Japan. Those were the two dishes I liked the best along with one trip to TGIF's (one of those chains) where I got the first club sandwich that I have had in over a year or maybe 2. Sendai is not big enough to get those type of chains up here, if I was in Tokyo I would have no problem finding those types of restaurants.
Funny stories from Korea.
The first is that on the day that my group was out sight seeing twice I had young children come up to me and say hello. The first time that it happened I was not expecting it and the little girl started yelling hello at me until I turned around and greeted her. What struck me as odd is for the amount of time that I have been in Japan that has maybe happended to me twice and never by young children, while in one outing in Seoul it happened to me twice.
The second funny/interesting story was of my name tag at the conference. My name tag looked something like this.
Now this is be worn by a 6 foot 2 ish guy with blond hair and blue eyes (see picture on side) and two or three people said to me, "You are not from Japan, are you?" I got a kick out of this, as did my lab members.
I should say the conference itself was very good and I had a good time. I met several interesting people and went to several interesting presentations.
Our lab had 10 or so papers at the conference so we had those people plus the professors there with us. The group with the students got their a day early which allowed us to do some touring around Seoul for one day. Here is a couple of the picture that I got from there. The first is of the king palace are. Please don't ask me to explain everything because I have fogotten now.
The second is of the king's private garden.
I will not post any food pictures but I will leave it like this I was happy to get back to Japanese food. The food in Korea is very spicy. After more than a few meals did I come away with a burnt out mouth. The best way to describe some of the spices was that they continued to get hotter you eat more. There more several dishes there that I liked such as the yakiniku, you are given raw beef, a grill and some spices. You do the rest. The bubinbi is much better than what you can get in Japan. Those were the two dishes I liked the best along with one trip to TGIF's (one of those chains) where I got the first club sandwich that I have had in over a year or maybe 2. Sendai is not big enough to get those type of chains up here, if I was in Tokyo I would have no problem finding those types of restaurants.
Funny stories from Korea.
The first is that on the day that my group was out sight seeing twice I had young children come up to me and say hello. The first time that it happened I was not expecting it and the little girl started yelling hello at me until I turned around and greeted her. What struck me as odd is for the amount of time that I have been in Japan that has maybe happended to me twice and never by young children, while in one outing in Seoul it happened to me twice.
The second funny/interesting story was of my name tag at the conference. My name tag looked something like this.
Andrew Randles
Tohoku University
Japan
Tohoku University
Japan
Now this is be worn by a 6 foot 2 ish guy with blond hair and blue eyes (see picture on side) and two or three people said to me, "You are not from Japan, are you?" I got a kick out of this, as did my lab members.
I should say the conference itself was very good and I had a good time. I met several interesting people and went to several interesting presentations.
Spring in Japan
Now onto spring
Well much like the NY after a while I can't wait for spring, whether it be to get out side and bicycle a little bit, walk around or just get some fresh air. Now also like NY I think spring and summer are a little "sweeter" because you have come through a cold winter so you can appreciate the warmth and the nice weather better.
The highlight of the spring is sakura which are the cherry blossoms. The cherry blossoms that you see in Washington DC are the same as the ones here because those cherry trees were a gift from Japan. The cherry blossoms start blooming in the south where it is warmer and work their way north through the archipelago (archipelago refers to all of the Japanese islands which stretch several hundred miles). This is similar except in reverse in how the fall colors move south from the colder areas.
I have included one picture of a street with these trees in full bloom up the street.
I have several more pictures but just to put it simply they are nice to look at.
A second picture that I am including is just kind of funny that I took the same day.
I know that this guy is safe but the picture was something that I could not pass up. The guy on the ground is probably ready to take my camera away for taking this picture.
Next up Korea for Transducers'05
Well much like the NY after a while I can't wait for spring, whether it be to get out side and bicycle a little bit, walk around or just get some fresh air. Now also like NY I think spring and summer are a little "sweeter" because you have come through a cold winter so you can appreciate the warmth and the nice weather better.
The highlight of the spring is sakura which are the cherry blossoms. The cherry blossoms that you see in Washington DC are the same as the ones here because those cherry trees were a gift from Japan. The cherry blossoms start blooming in the south where it is warmer and work their way north through the archipelago (archipelago refers to all of the Japanese islands which stretch several hundred miles). This is similar except in reverse in how the fall colors move south from the colder areas.
I have included one picture of a street with these trees in full bloom up the street.
I have several more pictures but just to put it simply they are nice to look at.
A second picture that I am including is just kind of funny that I took the same day.
I know that this guy is safe but the picture was something that I could not pass up. The guy on the ground is probably ready to take my camera away for taking this picture.
Next up Korea for Transducers'05
Winter pictures
I guess in follow up to the last post one of the impetus for this blog was that ofoto or kodak or whatever had changed the policy of posting photos to that service which I had been using to post photos. I also for the longest time have not been happy with the service and had been thinking about moving. Talking with my friend Scott he mentioned that blogger allowed you to post photos in the blog for free. In some ways this is better than the ofoto method because one it forces me to choose only the good shots instead of dumping all of my photos for people to wade through. Secondly I can choose certain photos to discuss or tell the story behind.
In this post I will discuss some of the finer points of living in Sendai during the winter.
First off lets take a look at this picture that I took after or during a snow storm last winter (February or March).
Notice several things in this picture. One there is a road under all that white stuff put is not plowed and probably won't be. The reason is very simply that Sendai is similar to some of the southern states where they will get reasonable amounts of snow but it melts is two or three days. I would not say that all the snow melts after a couple of days rather most of the stuff on the roads melts and foot paths are packed down people to walk on.
The second thing to notice the person on the scooter is still out in the middle of this. This is not uncommon for people to continue to ride scooters or motorcycles no matter the weather. Also some scooters will actually have studded snow tires so that they can get traction.
Winters in Sendai are not anywhere near as harsh as they are in upstate NY. What they are damp which makes it hard to get warmed up, see next section. When it snows which typically is less than 6 inches but could be up to a foot or more (once or twice a year) it is a heavy wet snow and it is not uncommon to have two or three inches of slush underneath. So water proof boots are nice for keeping your feet dry.
A note on most Japanese homes and apartments is they don't have central heating. This means it can be difficult to get warmed up when coming back to your home. Most people use space heaters of some type to do the heating, whether it be gas, kerosene or electric. Personally, at my apartment I have a AC system which can be run in reverse so that it heats instead of cools. This is what I used to heat the apartment. I am a cheap bastard so I rarely turned it on, only when I was going to be around for a while.
The point of this is that you need to dress warmly not only outside but also when you are indoors.
Just so that this is not all warnings the one thing that I really liked this snow for was it made everything white (obvious I know) but when everything had been the dull colors from trees loosing their leaves it added some nice variety for an hour or two then everything was white.
The next post will be on a happier subject of spring and sakura.
Andrew
In this post I will discuss some of the finer points of living in Sendai during the winter.
First off lets take a look at this picture that I took after or during a snow storm last winter (February or March).
Notice several things in this picture. One there is a road under all that white stuff put is not plowed and probably won't be. The reason is very simply that Sendai is similar to some of the southern states where they will get reasonable amounts of snow but it melts is two or three days. I would not say that all the snow melts after a couple of days rather most of the stuff on the roads melts and foot paths are packed down people to walk on.
The second thing to notice the person on the scooter is still out in the middle of this. This is not uncommon for people to continue to ride scooters or motorcycles no matter the weather. Also some scooters will actually have studded snow tires so that they can get traction.
Winters in Sendai are not anywhere near as harsh as they are in upstate NY. What they are damp which makes it hard to get warmed up, see next section. When it snows which typically is less than 6 inches but could be up to a foot or more (once or twice a year) it is a heavy wet snow and it is not uncommon to have two or three inches of slush underneath. So water proof boots are nice for keeping your feet dry.
A note on most Japanese homes and apartments is they don't have central heating. This means it can be difficult to get warmed up when coming back to your home. Most people use space heaters of some type to do the heating, whether it be gas, kerosene or electric. Personally, at my apartment I have a AC system which can be run in reverse so that it heats instead of cools. This is what I used to heat the apartment. I am a cheap bastard so I rarely turned it on, only when I was going to be around for a while.
The point of this is that you need to dress warmly not only outside but also when you are indoors.
Just so that this is not all warnings the one thing that I really liked this snow for was it made everything white (obvious I know) but when everything had been the dull colors from trees loosing their leaves it added some nice variety for an hour or two then everything was white.
The next post will be on a happier subject of spring and sakura.
Andrew
Explanation of stuff
Well this is my first lets say real post to the blog. For all of you reading this whether it be family or friends tanks for stopping by to take a look. I guess this is kind of my way of putting up information and talk about what I am doing, and stories but I also am not sending out emails to people who don't want to receive any of my emails.
For those who don't know a blog is just a place on where some one ore many people post information on some topic or just what they are thinking about. They are pretty popular right now and they have been around for several years and I am now finally getting started on making one (not that I am making one, more of I am using this service blogger to make it).
In this blog there will be discussions of a variety of topics. Anything from current stories from Japan and my stay including pictures, to discussions on science and technology that I may have seen news articles about.
The title of this blog as you can see is up in the air right now so I will be thinking about that more in the future. You need to remember that this is going to be a public blog.
The name ehud42.blogspot.com comes from the fact that I always liked the story in Judges 3:12-30 which I will quote to you here.
New International Version (emphasis added by me). (Possible errors added by me because I hand copied this section.)
So basically I like this guy because he is left handed, and is a all around good guy for leading Israel against the Moabites. This story is rememberable for the imagery in it. This one of the few if not the only time in the Bible that someone is mentioned explicitly who is left handed. As most people will know I am left handed so that is the connection.
The 42 is simply that comes from the fact that right now I have a IBM thinkpad T42 laptop. This also is the same user name that I use with skype, and my gmail account.
For my Rochester friends who know the story of how I got the name JapAndrew, that blog name had already been taken so that is why I had to go for Ehud42. Maybe that can become part of the title.
finally, will spend the next few post devoted to stuff that I have been meaning to tell people about but I have not gotten around to it.
So on to doing some more typing.
Andrew
(For people that are curious I had "nothing" much to do today (Sunday) so I decided to start typing up blog entries.)
For those who don't know a blog is just a place on where some one ore many people post information on some topic or just what they are thinking about. They are pretty popular right now and they have been around for several years and I am now finally getting started on making one (not that I am making one, more of I am using this service blogger to make it).
In this blog there will be discussions of a variety of topics. Anything from current stories from Japan and my stay including pictures, to discussions on science and technology that I may have seen news articles about.
The title of this blog as you can see is up in the air right now so I will be thinking about that more in the future. You need to remember that this is going to be a public blog.
The name ehud42.blogspot.com comes from the fact that I always liked the story in Judges 3:12-30 which I will quote to you here.
12Once again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and because they did this evil the Lord gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel. 13 Getting the Ammonites and the Amalekites to join him Eglon came and attacked Israel and they took possession of the City of Palms. 14 The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years.
15 Again the Israelites cried out to the Lord and he gave them a deliver-Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab. 16 Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a foot and a half long which he strapped to is thigh under his clothing. 17 He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man. 18 After ehud had presented the tribute he sent on their way the men how had carried it. 19 At the idols near gilgal he himself turned back and said "I Have a secret message for you, O king." The king said, "Quiet!" And all his attendants left him.
20 Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of this summer palace and said, "I have a message from God for you." As the king rose from his seat, 21 Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king's belly. 22 Even the handle sank in after the blade which came out his back. Ehud did not pull the sword out and the fat closed in over it. 23 Then Ehud went out to the porch; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.
24 After he had gone the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, "He must be relieving himself in the inner room of the house." 25 they waited to the point of embarrassment, but when he did not open the doors of the room they took a key and unlocked them. There they saw their lord fallen to the floor dead.
26 While they waited, Ehud got away. He passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah. 27 When he arrived there he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim and the Israelites went down with him from the hills with him leading them.
28 "Follow me," he ordered , "for the Lord had given Moab your enemy into your hands." So they followed him down and, taking possession of the fords of the Jordan that led to Moab they allowed no one to cross over. 29 At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not a man escaped. 30 That day Moab was made subject to Israel and the land had peace for eighty years.
New International Version (emphasis added by me). (Possible errors added by me because I hand copied this section.)
So basically I like this guy because he is left handed, and is a all around good guy for leading Israel against the Moabites. This story is rememberable for the imagery in it. This one of the few if not the only time in the Bible that someone is mentioned explicitly who is left handed. As most people will know I am left handed so that is the connection.
The 42 is simply that comes from the fact that right now I have a IBM thinkpad T42 laptop. This also is the same user name that I use with skype, and my gmail account.
For my Rochester friends who know the story of how I got the name JapAndrew, that blog name had already been taken so that is why I had to go for Ehud42. Maybe that can become part of the title.
finally, will spend the next few post devoted to stuff that I have been meaning to tell people about but I have not gotten around to it.
So on to doing some more typing.
Andrew
(For people that are curious I had "nothing" much to do today (Sunday) so I decided to start typing up blog entries.)
Friday, September 09, 2005
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