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Showing posts from March 13, 2005

Honshu and Okinawa

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I am back. I spent 10 days in Japan, 5 days for work on the main island of Honshu and 5 days of solo adventure in Okinawa. Travel is so invigorating dispite the uncomfortableness. Jetlag, anxiety, crowds, and other discomforts aside, it is mind-expanding and rewarding. Work went well. I flew a new airline (Skymark) from Tokyo to Naha. I am always wary of strange discount airlines and all the traps they set. However, I had a great expereince with "Sky". I was actually shocked. Super easy checkin at the airport, no extra fees even with extra luggage. The primary mission in Okinawa was to visit the Peace Park and the suicide cliffs of Okinawa. From what I understand, at the end of WW2 the inhabitants were encouraged to commit suicide rather than surrender to the Americans and get tortured and eaten. Besides other types of suicide, they jumped off the cliffs at the Southern end of the main island. If you have seen the original color footage taken at the time, I am sure you ...
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The following is a picture of my desktop. I am watching a TV program in the upper right (Skeeter Davis). I have my class in the center and ebay in the rear along with the e-mails, of which many are unread.
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The Internet is a fad; I told you. It was nice weather today. My homework took less time than usual. It still took hours. I don't know what I would do without my new calculator and my Barron's Dictionary of Financial and Investment Terms. I started all the machines today. I can see spring is coming. We had a lot of melt-off today. Despite the mud out there, the drainage system I put in last year seems to be handling the water quite well. I have a lot more of that kind of work to do. The latest plan calls for a well, spring, alcove kind-of-thing that you see in Europe everywhere. Originally, I was going to put in a hand pump, but now I am considering a gravity, always-running feature next to the future garage. I am looking forward to working on the brick or stone work. Click pic for video
Sundogs I saw two nice sundogs this morning on the way into work. They are a curiousity for sure. For example, what sets the distance from the sun to the sundog. The air seemed clear. It did not seem like there were any ice crystals in the air, 6-sided or other-sided. It was nice to see it and know what it was.
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I turned in my midterm exam, 14 pages of financial analysis. I am optimistic. I spent quite a bit of time on it, that is for sure. Some things still don't make total sense. It is those pesky things that help you to learn though. This Tuesday we have a Berkshire town meeting in regards to our new "Road Preservation Law." Wednesday we are having the Tioga County planning board meeting in Berkshire. We have a couple pieces of business I need to review beforehand. I took a couple of hours off yesterday. Douglas's friend Jamie came down with a vintage snowmobile (Bought as scrap metal). They spent all day Saturday and Friday night cruising around the property. I took it around for awhile and did some jumps and stuff. It was kinda nice getting around so easily in the deep snow that would be very difficult to get to otherwise. The property is faring winter well (what else would it do?) It was a good distraction from school. It is inane fun. It all turns to work as compu...