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Showing posts from May 13, 2007

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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It is actually kind of hot out today, and in. I am trying to prioritize items worthy of endeavor. There is a lot of stuff to do no doubt about it. I will have a regret when I leave this world. It will be I couldn't do more. It is what it is. I bought a new truck, shown below. I pick it up Wednesday. It is a basic truck and last years model, but it will do me just fine. The diesel was a bit of an extravagance with all the features it had, but I got a great deal in 1997. I bought my first Chevy truck in 1984. I traded it in for a 1985 and had the 1985 one until I bought the red one in 1997. I am selling the red one myself just like I sold the blue 1985 one. They sell fast. "Pre-enjoyed" is what they say. I used most of the enjoyment up on both of them. The blue one had about 105,000 miles on it when (as my brother says) went to truck island and the red one has a low-low 154,000 on it. It has been said that the diesels don't run right until they have 150,000 miles on...
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Here is a picture I took on February 19th when I was snowshoeing on the farm just after getting back from Antarctica. There is so much life in this picture. It was pretty amazing to me to see that Winter in Upstate NY is teeming with life compared to Antarctica. It was (is) like a dense jungle in comparison. One of the biggest misconceptions about Antarctica is that there is all this wildlife. Outside of the sea there is no life, wild or not. The sea harbors life very nicely because the sea ice seems to protect a lot of species from predators for at least part of the year. But outside of the sea it is incredibly lifeless. It is hard to describe how lifeless, because I have nothing to compare it to. There are no aromas. I have been in touch with my friends I made on the ice. It is interesting to see who is going back this year and all the other related stories. I have several projects still going on related to the ice. This weekend I have been doing farm work including skidding, cut...