the thoughts and experiences of Heather Meadows
I dunno, I was tired of “pics”.
As usual, it’s really too bright at midday for pictures. But they’re okay.
I loved seeing that lizard sunning himself on the fishing dock. Right after I took the picture above, he slipped down through that crack. I guess I got too close to him.
I took some decent pictures (I think). They’ll be up later, along with some pictures I took at the Greeneway on Wednesday. Yesterday I went to a doctor’s appointment during lunch, so no pics from that :>
Mainichi: Hitachi successfully tests first revolving elevator
With the increase in high-rise buildings, elevators with high transporting ability and shorter waiting times have been in high demand. Up until now, elevator makers had responded by making elevators faster and producing double-decker elevators, but there was a limit to how fast elevators could go, and with double-deckers, the people in one car had to wait when the other car stopped.
Revolving elevators had been seen as a key to the problem, but lack of the technology to move them proved an obstacle. Designers considered a linear motor system using electromagnets, but the huge amount of electricity they used and safety concerns in the event of power failure remained problems.
The revolving elevator Hitachi produced was developed for a 20-story building, using eight elevator cars. The system uses cables, like conventional elevators, but rather than fixing the tops and bottoms of the cables, four pairs of cables are arranged in rings to carry the eight cars. The carriages are placed at opposite angles, and the elevators move in pairs, with one car going down while the other goes up.
Since the elevators operate in pairs, when one of the elevators in the pair stops, the other one does too, but the system is still more efficient than double-decker types.
Is that crazy or what?
See, this is why Language Log rules.
A discussion of the phrase crazy talk–what it is, and how it may have come to be.
Now they just need to investigate devil woman, and their analysis of Kevin‘s speech patterns will be complete.
With a name like that, how could it not rule?
The new product coming out in April merges the companies’ most symbolic products into one just as the two toy makers have fused together.
“Pocket Monster Advance Generation Game of Life” requires players to race toward a goal, collecting Pokemon, forcing them to fight competitors and striving to achieve qualifications such as a Pokemon doctor along the way.
Unlike the regular “The Game of Life,” where players’ pieces are model vehicles, the Pokemon version uses Monster Balls. “Pocket Monster Advance Generation Game of Life” will cost 3,780 yen. A pocket version is due to go on sale in June at a recommended retail price of 892 yen.
I used to love the Game of Life when I was a kid.
I was very pleased when I first learned the Japanese months. ichigatsu 一月, nigatsu 二月, sangatsu 三月…hey, they’re just counting! How easy!
Imagine my surprise today to learn that in the past, the Japanese used month names like we do. The names have some interesting meanings, and are still used in literature.
Read all about them on About.com.
My favorite is shiwasu 師走, the “month of running priests”. :D
Pictures forthcoming.
Things to bring next time:
[Edit 11:24 pm:] Pictures are up, such as they are.
The lighting wasn’t really conducive to photography, but I got a couple of decent shots.
Whew, what a day.
It seemed like it was nonstop from the moment I arrived at work.
First I had to put up the videos I hadn’t had time for on Friday. Then I had to do stories and videos for the weekend. There were other miscellaneous updates to do. I started amassing information for the 5 and 6 pm updates as early as possible, and ended up working through lunch. (I ate a turkey and Swiss sandwich, a yogurt, and a peanut butter and chocolate chunk granola bar while I worked.)
The news meeting at 2:30 was a nice reprieve, and, just like on Friday, I enjoyed hearing how the news got discussed and planned for dissemination. After the meeting I threw together the web content for 5 and managed to get it all done before the news aired. Then I was free to pay attention to recording the live broadcast, and then snagging clips from it. I put together the 6 o’clock news quickly too, but I had to wait for the encoded video to upload to the server, so I wasn’t able to do clips until 6:45 or so. If I make shorter video encodes they upload faster, but I was busy with text stuff during the 6:00 broadcast and didn’t stop the recording during the commercials.
Ultimately I did get pretty much everything done that I needed to. I also learned a few more things about the job and what I have to accomplish. There’s kind of a schedule for certain kinds of content. It’s not just the same thing every day. That’s nice, as it keeps things new.
I realized today that I really have to have a good idea of what’s going on in local news to do my job well. That’s fine with me, though.
The most exciting part of my day was when a breaking news story came up at the meeting and I got to put it on the website. It was kind of thrilling to be one of the first ways people might have heard about the story.
Mainichi: DPJ admits sender, recipient of ‘Horie mail’ may be same person
DPJ Secretary-General Yukio Hatoyama is set to hold a news conference Tuesday to announce the results of the party’s investigations into whether the e-mail is genuine.
When asked about whether the sender of the e-mail is identical to its receiver, Hatoyama said, “There are such observations.”
“If it’s true, it raises questions about why the sender sent the e-mail to himself. We must look into the purpose of doing so,” he told reporters.
Gee, I wonder what the purpose might have been? ;P
Check out my new Wish List! It’s over on Amazon.co.jp, and currently is filled with the Maru Ma manga. X) Shoji Kawamori Macross Design Works is still on there from several years ago, too…I wouldn’t mind having that again, but my main priority is more Shibuya Yuuri.
Apparently there’s a character in the manga/novels who wasn’t in the anime. His name is Badwic, and you can see him at the bottom of this page. I don’t have time to mess with a full translation right now, but my limited Japanese ability indicates that he has something to do with the study of women’s fiction in Shin Makoku. Maybe he’s the publisher of Anissina’s books, I dunno.
Time for bed!
(P.S. 460 yen is, like, $3.96. Just so you know.)
I watched the first four episodes of Kyou Kara Maou Taizen Shuu today, raw. It really is a quick summary of the series. Each episode covers an entire story arc. The first episode was Yuuri’s arrival and decision to become the Maou. The second one was the retrieval of Morgif. The third one was the Stoffel civil war arc. And the fourth one was finding the Mateki. I’m not sure how it’s going to go when they get to the longer arcs, but we’ll see!
I was hoping since the DVD box art features chibis that there would be some chibi-fied stories, a la Prince of Tennis. It’s still possible that might happen. You never know! For now, though, they’re just using the original episodes, with Yuuri narrating. That’s also fine with me :>
So, H&R Block messed up their own taxes. There was apparently also some sort of glitch that messed up the taxes H&R Block did for people last month.
Sean and I use H&R Block every year.
Fortunately we haven’t done our taxes yet, and H&R Block claims to have fixed the problem…but still, this doesn’t give me a lot of confidence.
(via Slashdot)
I’ve known for awhile that Hokkaido has ice festivals. (And I really want to go to them!)
Today, via HappyNews, I discovered that Alaska has one too!
John Leguizamo will arrive by dog sled at an ice-carving festival in Fairbanks to open a park with characters from the upcoming sequel to his film ”Ice Age,” officials said.
[…]
Besides towering sculptures, the monthlong ice festival this year will feature huge carvings of Sid the sloth, voiced by Leguizamo, and other characters from the ”Ice Age” movies. The sequel opens March 31.
The Hollywood visit means more attention to the yearly ice art festival, considered a world-class competition. The event matches teams racing to create intricate carvings than can be as tall as 30 feet and weigh more than 22 tons.
I would love to try my hand at photographing ice and snow sculptures.
In celebration of “International Pancake Day” (the day of the pancake race I mentioned last year), IHOP will give you a free short stack of pancakes between the hours of 7am and 2pm.
Here’s the offer as listed on IHOP.com. I found out about this at Snopes.
Tuesday morning is kind of an inconvenient time for most people with jobs. I could actually go, though, because I don’t have to be at work until 10am!
That’s the only “plan” I have for Mardi Gras so far :>
