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Showing posts from July, 2013

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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Does the world really need this tension?
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I was out in Peoria Illinois Thursday last week. Friday night I flew to Ithaca NY. Saturday we loaded up my truck and drove back to Atlanta with my truck. That is a long drive. I spent Saturday night near Carlisle PA. It is a great place since there are a huge number of hotels to support the huge auction need. Great.. provided there isn't an auction going on. The traffic was bad at times and the rain all made it what it was. I am now back in Duluth feeding my imaginary cat. Here kitty kitty kitty!
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It is mid-week. Busy as usual. I bought a bird cam for my bird feeder. The reviews said that it was good for retires. Maybe that is why I bought it. The technology seems sound. The manual is terrible. I have to decide if I go with it or replace it with a halfway decent remote control camera instead. I don't have a single decent picture to post with it yet. Maybe that answers my question. I am back in Illinois this week and NY this weekend. The weather in Atlanta has been very wet. I got a photo today from a colleague with snow in Southern Brasil (shown below). Sim, meu Portugues aulas continue. For a minute a while back I thought everything might have been perfect. I remembered George Carlin's bit that says something like "Wait.. here it comes. Heree it comes... * ... Holy shit its gone!" (ed) It is that "time" thing again. I took a test on CSM about Russia. It was pretty tough. I was a bit ashamed with my score. The good news for today is that I am...
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Today is cleanup day. I had a neighborhood party at the house again last night. There were more people than last time and some new faces. I really like my house and neighborhood in Atlanta. There are definitely some characters in my neighborhood. We had a beer tasting of several beers from Brazil, Russia and Belgium. Earlier this week I was in Wichita, Kansas. The flight back was a classic with delays, some short, some long. They all add up. Even though it is only a 2 hour flight from Wichita to Atlanta it is mentally tiring. It is depressing when you can see your car out the plane window on final approach and it takes an hour to get to it. ATL is usually a very fast airport, sometimes not.
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Time for a refresh on this great song. Encyclopedia Galactica entry
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I am back from Moscow after a great trip with many many photos to sort through. The pic with me with the US flag is at the US Ambassadors reception at his residence in Moscow (Spaso House). That is where I had my July 4th backyard BBQ this year. I brought Potato Salad. Very cool. Other pics show Putin's ceremonial residence at the Kremlin Lenin's tomb in Red Square Soviet space shuttle "Buran" in Gorky park. World's largest cannon "Tsar Cannon" Russian river boat Soviet exhibition center fountain www.vvcentre.ru/eng/
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