Well I'll be....

Genetically Engineered Plants Detect Land Mines

A Danish company, Aresa Biodetection, has developed genetically-modified flowers that change color when their roots come in contact with nitrogen dioxide in the soil. Explosives used in mines produce NO2 as the chemicals gradually decay. The company plans to sow fields of NO2-sniffing Arabidopsis thaliana (Thale or mouse cress) in areas riddled with long-forgotten ordinance from Angola to Cambodia.

The effort's life- and limb-saving potential is staggering: More than 100 million land mines kill or injure 26,000 people in 45 countries each year. Today's most popular detection method is poking around with a stick.

Link

Cleared!: Halo 2

Ok, after 10 days and only 8 of those actually playing the game, me and my little neighbor friend finished up with playing Halo 2. That doesn't seems like a long time at all, does it? That's because it's not. But it does fit in with various sites reports on what the games length was intended to be. But sadly, it's always attached to the phrase, "...but that's ok because online multiplayer is where you'll be spending all of your time." Hmmm.... no online for this cowboy so that sours the deal a little.

But I wouldn't say I'm upset with the game. The first half of the game was great. The city levels have to have been my favourite in the series but then the later half of the game starts to become repetitive and "dark". Like a "I can't see what's shooting me", kind of dark. Also the end "Boss".... is a kick in the dick. Nothing fun about it. Nothing creative, nothing cleaver just simply shooting at your target until it's dead.

I remember playing the final level of the first game where you had to drive your Wart Hog through one huge obstacle course as enemies from all over where shooting and attacking from all sides as you raced against the clock and the threat of being blown up with the ship. That was exciting, when me and my co-op buddy were finished with that we were exhausted and our hearts were racing. As for Halo 2's finally we were left with the feeling of, "Ok, he was a minor obstacle, bring on the level that wraps the game up with a bang." But after the brief CG scene all we were rewarded with was the credits and loose ends leading up to the next game.

One could say that Halo 2's "Big Bang" is the adventure itself and not just the final great level like it's older brother. Yes, one could say that, but not me. Sure, the entire game boasts huge environments amazing detail and layers but there's no way they couldn't have continued this into the last level. It stinks of trying to (finally) get the game wrapped up and out for the holiday season after numerous delays and long production time. I'm sure an extra few months would have provided the time to really make this game end on a high note.

Although I've written a lot on what I didn't like about the game, I could write a whole lot more on the "Holy Cow!" aspects. The game really did impress me more times than I give it credit for and I'll definitely play through it again which is more than I can say for a lot of other games. Probably because it duplicates the ol' 30 seconds of fun for 10+ hours rule and it does it really well. I'm just dwelling on the fact that I got all hyped up and anticipated this super ending and got dealt what just seemed like another normal, albeit, more difficult task.

Pros

Fun shooting enemies and hi-jacking vehicles over and over and over.

High production value and better than average story.

(What I hear) One of the best online games out for console owners.

Great special edition packaging and informative, well produced dvd showing what Bungie had to go through to make this game. For only $5 more this was a real treat for fans.

Cons

Game really tapers into repetitiveness and bland levels later on in the game.

During CG scenes, texture draw-in is really noticeable and distracting.

On the short side. (Says the guy with no Xbox Live)

Today's lesson

As you all know, I'm an English teacher in a Junior High School in Japan. What you may not know is the type of tripe I have to correct on a weekly basis. Now's the perfect opportunity for some show and tell, don't you think?

Today I had my students hand in what they had four weeks to work on. I repeat. Four weeks. The teacher I work with made the assignment which was for the students to research and write about something from Okinawa. (The small island south of Japan that's also apart of the country.)

I got a few that were nice and expected because they satisfied the tasks of the assignment, but most of them were like the mess italicized below.

Suchiko is a long ago refrigeration of nothing age keep of pork Okinawan tradition dish spread.

Salt soak but no salty it sake of knob as be grad article.

I know Suchiko is food (because he had a picture glued on underneath) but that's about it.

If I handed this pile of words in as my homework in grade school I would be told to do it again without a doubt. Especially after getting four weeks to do it and two and a half years of English lessons. Just a little angry because this is how most of them were and always have been.

And that's how my day was today. I'm going to go home tonight and eat chocolate for supper and make a Christmas shopping list for my family to try and cheer up.

Birds!

A few days ago I was hanging out in my room just watching tv when I noticed the birds outside where louder than usual. So instead of investigating I turned the volume up and continued watching only to notice the little buggers again a few minutes later. Fed up, I went to my window and saw this.



Birds everywhere, millions of them chirping and swooping at little girls riding their bikes. Loitering around on public power lines like they own the place and making a mess only a mother could love.

I couldn't believe their general lack of respect for parking their rear ends outside of my room and gabbing away, so I decided to take action.

"Hey!" I said. "Hey, you on the power lines....Ya, you with the wings! Waddaya think your doing over there? Huh? You best carry on before I start crackin' some heads around here!"

Nothing.

"Hey! Smelly birds! Hit the road! I'm trying to relax and your making a racket. If your going to eat the farmers seed, then do it and hit the next spot cause if you don't you'll be sorry!"

One of them turned. He took notice with me in the window.

"KAW!" He said. "KAW! KAW!" Again. They didn't take kindly to being called smelly, I could tell.

"KAW?" I chortled, "Kaw this ya filthy bastards!" Extending my left arm as far as it would go as I stuck up my middle finger. "That's right, I went there! And there's plenty more where that came from."



And with that little gesture, they were gone. Gone off to annoy another resident of our quaint neighborhood leaving me to feel like the man. Boo Yah!

You dropped her coupons and you were lookin' fine

Sorry. It seems I wrote this about a month ago and forgot to post it. But it can be very exciting as well, like a time capsule of sorts. Let's look back about one month from now to see what I was thinking about...

That's right, Beastie Boys (click me!) are coming back through Japan this January and I snatched up some tickets for me and some friends. Should be a good time so I'll post some pictures and do a little write up after we go.

In other news, Yumiko and I are ever so close to getting our immigration papers finished up. These have been a pain in the butt for the past 10 or so months and I'll (we'll) be more than happy to finally get them out the door and on their way to be processed. Although waiting for the results might be just as bad, but at least we can do other stuff while we worry instead of just gathering information while we worry. And Yumiko is being a brave soldier today. Last week (2 weeks) she got her braces fixed on and today she'll be getting her wisdom teeth removed and a medical exam to boot. I'll have to buy her an ice cream for her troubles.

(update: She looks a little better but still can't open her mouth up all the way cause her cheek has a pocket of tough tissue of something gross like that. She'll be going back in in a few weeks too! Hopefully her face will be normal in time for the wedding.)

Oh and I hear that there was another earthquake today a little before 9 this morning. A 5 in Nigata and a.... I dunno, 4? here. Kuushuu also got a little shake this morning around 5 am. It'll be nice to get off this sinking ship and back to the main land.

Russell Jones Dead at 35

Russell Jones, A.K.A.-Old Dirty Bastard, A.K.A.-Dirt McGirt, A.K.A.-Big Baby Jesus, A.K.A.-Dirt Dog died last night in a recording session after complaining he'd been having chest pains. No other news is available at the moment.


It's pretty sad after he ran from the law for petty everything like shoplifting (he's rich), and speeding all the way up to drug possessions, then getting thrown into a tough slammer for a few years only to get out and suddenly die like that. I'm certainly shocked. I swore the radio said T-Dotty dies suddenly, but then they started playing one of his tracks and figured it out then.

Not much else to say than it's a sad sad day when you see a clown cry and even sadder when Big Baby Jesus/Dirt Dog/ Dirt McGirt dies like that. Given the guys history I thought he'd go out in one of the craziest fashions ever, not that I'd like for it to have happened, but it's kind of what one would expect given the guys reputation to be a complete nut at times.

If you have the chance, look for some of his new tracks on some P2P cause they're just as crazy as anything he did before he was locked up, then go out and buy his album, if they decide to release it, if you liked what you heard. He had probably one of the only rap styles I could stomach out of any other rap artist, so I'll certainly miss him and miss hearing about some of the things he'd gotten himself into.

If feel more Christmas in that Wham! song than I do in Japan

Well, more earthquakes in the night waking up little sleeping me but nothing else is new. I really just wanted to share a conversation that I had around the supper table with the family last night.

It went a little something like this;
Yo: So when's Christmas again?
Yu: December 25th.
Yo: Ah ok. I work on the 25th so how about we have a party on the 24th?
Yu: Eh?! But we already reserved the Christmas cake for the 25th! Why didn't you tell me you worked that day?
Yo: Ah, my mistake. Well, phone the shop today to see if we can change it. While you're at it, phone Kentucky (KFC) and make an order for the 24th too.
Yu: ....ok
Yo: Oooo, Dale, meat!
Da: ......
Yo: Christmas cake and kentucky! Looking forward to this year's Christmas, eh?!

And that's how the last three years of Christmas has played out for little ol' me. A strawberry cake and lining up for Kentucky Fried Chicken with the rest of the Japanese population while shielding my eyes from the tacky "Happy Christmas '99" sign blinking and blinding all who dare look at it.

Another Christmas tradition in Japan is to take the one you love out for a nice meal. You know, to show how much you love them. Too bad half of that time is standing outside with all the other couples waiting for a table because of the first come first serve restaurants that have burned me in the past.

Then after the supper your supposed to go look at "illumination". Illumination is as you may have guessed, is a light show in the spirit of Christmas. And the whole crew is there. Creepy robot Santa's herking and jerking around all corners bringing young ones cheer and joy, banners proclaiming "Happy Christmas!" and "Christmas #1!" hugging your senses and Christmas songs sung in Japanese to really get the holiday cheer stirred up.

"Hey this is Jingle Bells.", I would say, only to hear from the kids around my legs. "Eh? There's an English version of it?"

One good thing to come out of Christmas in Japan has been my personal relationship that I've formed with Yumiko's coat rack. Throughout the year it just stands in the corner of her room doing it's job, but since I've come along, I've asked it for a special favour around the holiday's. And that is to stand over my presents with it's broad branches and thick trunk. I vow to actually decorate it this year and give it a proper uniform for its Christmas duties.

So this year, on Christmas Day, as you gather around a large home cooked meal with family and friends. With the warmth of the house from the chilly winter air and the soft glow from the tree, know that Japan is doing its best to imitate another holiday they have no understanding of.

The List

Ah, November, the start of the holidays (in north america) and the annual cramming every AAA game release of the year into the final weeks leading up to Christmas. I figured I should create a little check list of this generations games I have completed and new games I'm taking on to try and sort this fiasco out in my head. I guess this is my way of notching my bed post to keep track of all the last nights I've had.

Games Completed

GameCube

Mario Sunshine

Pikmin

Pikmin 2

Metriod Prime

True Crime: Streets of L.A.

Viewtiful Joe

Super Smash Bros.

Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Splinter Cell

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

XBOX

Halo

Halo 2

The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay

Gameboy Advance

Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3

Mario and Luigi's Super Star Saga

Mario Golf: Advance Tour

Advanced Wars

Metriod Fusion

Made in Wario

Castlevania: Art of Sorrows

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon

Astro Boy: Omega Factor

Games Currently Playing

Gamecube

Tales of Symphonia

XBOX

Burnout 3: Takedown

There now, straight and tidy. Naturally I'll add to it as I finish a game.

This album makes me want to...

This album makes me want to...

...do this.

That's right. This album makes me want to take my rad bmx off a sweet jump for like 3 feet of air. I dare anyone to listen to this and think of anything other than running after bad guys in a California sunset, stopping only to give some kids tips on strong and healthy living. This light on the vocals heavy on the horns and drums album was inspired by people jumping, driving cop cars through stacked cardboard boxes and the mustaches of yester year.

Bush?

So, uh.... I guess Bush won. I don't know about in Canada and America but the impression I got living in Japan was that everyone hates Bush and Kerry (who reminds me of a Frankenstein) would win by a landslide simply for being a lesser of two evils. Movies, books, cd compilations and gatherings a plenty all rallying against him, not to mention the blatant proof that his term was a bust with the state of the current economy and his was on terror putting the nations debt at an all time high and started on falsities seems to point in the direction that he wouldn't be back for a second term.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. With America's primitive way of voting and vote counting it almost seems something fishy is a float. I hope they re-think a safe and secure way to cast votes so the outcome of future elections reflect how the people really feel. Cause we all remember the year Bush was first elected into the white house and all the problems the most powerful country in the world had just counting up the ballots. Who's to say that can't happen again.

I know I shouldn't care that much cause I'm Canadian, but America's position of a "world leader" affects everyone so rightfully so I'm concerned. And to think, I'll be 27 by the time America will have a new president. With all the lying and damage we have seen in America's first four years with Bush it's going to be interesting to see what the world will look like after another four. I can't help but feel pessimistic about the entire affair.

A whole lot-a shakin' goin' on

Wow, I just realized how long it's been since I've actually wrote anything in here. It's been a crazy past few weeks here in Japan and I haven't had anytime to burn writing on this thing till today.

The main focus that's been in Japan lately have been the earthquakes. Lots and lots of earthquakes. The first earthquake hit October 23rd around 5:30pm that registered a 6.1 on Japan's scale of 7 in the location it originated from and was said to be about a 5.x in the area me and yumiko were in. That has to have been the biggest earthquake of all of them cause there was stuff falling all over the place in the shop and it's not like we could run outside because just over head is cheaply glassed windows and powerlines a plenty so we just stayed in the shop and waited it out while the shop assistant hugged her Mac to make sure it didn't fall from its purch. After about a good 35-40 seconds when the shaking stopped the lady brushed her front and snapped into her sales pitch again like it was nothing, but me and Yumiko were like, "You crazy! Let's get oudda heea!" Surprisingly enough we lost our mood to shop.

While walking back to my car parked a few blocks away it was eereyly quiet in the downtown area. Really still and unsettling.

We talked about it walking back and once we got back to where we had parked was when the second one hit just as strong as the first, only this time were we outside surround by buildings, concrete power poles and lines and buildings patched up with rippled sheets of tin trying to shake free from the ground. Since it's uncommon for the after shock to be as strong as the initial quake we got pretty nervous and got out of the city and headed towards home. Naturally most other people had the same idea and we found ourselves stuck in traffic listening to radio reports of structural damage in other parts of Japan. (namely Nigata since it's directly above the source of the quakes 10 km below its surface)

At that time the ground started shaking again and we saw powerlines and street signs shaking heavily again and we realized that the second earthquake wasn't a fluke but a part of a pattern of quakes.

From that point on the entire night had an hourly quake that was no where near the strength of the first three but still made people sit up and take notice. It was said that from the time of the first quake to 12 am that morning there was a reported 360 separate seismic happenings and 5 of them had been in the lower 6's (again in a 7 point scale).

Sunday was the same story again with earthquakes throughout the day some strong some unnoticable and monday had maybe one. Later that week there was another big earthquake that registered about a 6 again, after "scientists" predicted that the chance of another quake of the same strength of the first was less than 10%. Guess they were wrong. After that there hadn't been any we could notice and everyone thought the quakes had passed and started to relax a bit, but just this morning at 4:40am another (weak) earthquake woke me up again. It measured a 3 in Nigata and a 1 in Saitama. It's scary cause they always start small and build so even when there's a little one you always think it will keep building.

Later I saw in the news that the small quake I felt in the morning that was reported as a 3 was instead reported as two quakes at 3 and 5. The stronger one being about an hour later. But since then we haven't felt anything which is good. People are still a bit jumpy but things are getting back to normal. I think everyone is tired of nature for the moment seeing as just before the earthquakes, Japan experienced the biggest typhoon its seen in the past decade.

The area I live in is pretty sheltered compared to the rest of the country but it was still something to see. Lots of wind and water which seems to make sense since it was a typhoon. And before the typhoon was a sequence of other typhoons. Rain for about 3 solid weeks. Because of all the wind and rain the vegetable crops have taken a beating and have driven the veggy prices sky high, some people reporting to have seen lettuce going for about $12 in Tokyo.

Around these parts you'll be getting lettuce for about $5 and big radishes for $4 and everything else for 2-3x what your used to paying. But, I'd rather pay through the nose then eat a filthy foreign vegetable. Could you imagine if the government actually imported vegetables to satisfy the demand? There would be illness and disease everywhere. It would be crippling to the national health system. Panic and bad taste all in one! But thank Budda they have not done anything of the least in terms of importing. We must stick together through such tough times. Resist temptation to question anything, and most of all protect Japan's economy and supermarkets!



Look at its big round eyes watching and waiting. You know evil breeds outside our walls.

Final Thoughts: Dogs and Demons

Well, I ended up burning through that "Dogs and Demons" book pretty fast but instead of writing my thoughts on it while it was fresh in my head, I opted to wait a good week to forget a lot of details thus weakening anything relevant I had to say. Success!

All in all, I still strongly recommend anyone read the book with the warning that it can be cynical when it doesn't have to be, and potentially misguiding a lesser educated reader on certain subjects.

One part I found was when he wrote about the school system and how all it is there for is to bleed children of free time to repress personal thoughts (everybody is doing everything the same all the time leaving no time for personal growth) making them easier to manipulate into the system of Japanese life. To train children not to question authority's and to generally "teach them how to be Japanese". He goes on to say that the children all over the country hate school and he brings up all these numbers showing suicide rates among school kids.

Seeing as I teach these same kids he's talking about, I took the time to talk to some kids about what they think about school and generally observe school life and with my findings it doesn't look like they absolutely hate school at all. Everyone had some complaint, but so did I in a Canadian school and everyone had a majority of good things to say about school. You can mark that up to ignorance of not being able to compare it to any other school life, but my point is, school isn't a complete shit fest/ brain wash (well parts of it is) he added it up to be. Even though he is accurate when he says that these childrens school years are almost all spent at school or preparing, studying, thinking, and playing club activities at school and there is an over focus on memorizing facts to simply answer exam questions and not actually build free thoughts but the way he exaggerated it makes me question the other material he writes about in his book.

I'd say all of the stories and examples he brings up are true, but maybe he went a little adjective crazy here and there painting a gloomier picture than what is actually there. But then again, the subjects he talks about can't afford any writer to be modest about things. These are real problems that the fate of the country balances on so anyway he can get some attention towards them I say power to him. Just don't get sucked into it yourself and in some cases subtract what he says by 2 for clearer vision of Japan today and not 2002. (Has the country changed that much since then?)

The entire book was incredibly easy to read through always bringing up fresh ideas and subject matter, although the middle gets somewhat number/statistic heavy but he pulls it back in the end with some interesting stuff.

Recommended.

Next book on the list: Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Mansion Murders

Picked it up at the airport for the trip but didn't start it till now. We'll see.