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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Road Rage Witness as the Season Changes

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The migrating birds are just starting to come back. Yes, we are seeing some first signs of spring. It takes a while living here to see Winter in Atlanta. There is definately a winter. The leaves fall. It gets cold. and we are heating not cooling. Heating is about half the cost compared to cooling for a benchmark.

I am splitting my "free time" between remodeling and doing the winter pruning. The Crepe Mytles grew over 8 feet this past year. It gets trimmed off every year and it starts all over again. I used three of my chain saws.

I got stuck in traffic behind a road rager--cut off the car ahead of me, stopped, got out and started screaming. All in heavy rush hour traffic. They both had masks on, not sure about vaccines.

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Honshu and Okinawa

-
Image
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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Priorities

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One of the strangest processes I go through is setting priorities of what I need to work on. I can't say I finish one project and start on another. I often take a project to "a stable place" and then start on another "comprehensive" project that ends up as many smaller projects with their own lifecycle. The good news (and what allows me to be proud) is that I finish projects. Finishing is a big deal to me. I enjoy that part. A lot of folks get joy out of starting projects, but then get beaten down by setbacks and reality. Real progress (and growth) comes in steps. The stair rise is seeing and knowing progress. The stair step is when you dont see progress. You have to have faith you will get to the next rise. It will happen. In my latest "comprehensive" project "zoom room improvements" includes deep cleaning (inside and out), new electric, ethernet, and flooring. In addition, some foundation repairs. The original posts were set poorly and th...
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I had a flying lesson tonight. I felt like I did better on some stuff, but there is something always to add. Pile it on. It takes time and effort. Reading really helps maximize a lesson. One of the fundementals I really have to work on is a good checklist mentality. I am the first to recognize that a pure checklist mentality may not be optimal for finding new things, but there is considerable merit in checklists. In fact, I have a list everyday, every week, and throughout the year for work. Staying on the list is a required discipline. I need to be able to be in checklist mode and, when I need to, be out of checklist mode. When I came in for a landing tonight there were some folks watching. I went up to them after we landed and they asked "Was that a student landing?", "Why yes it was", was the reply. "It looked really smooth" he said and he showed me the camcorder in which he had it recorded. "It didn't feel very smooth to me.", I replied....
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The Electromagnetic Spectrum --DC to Daylight (and actually well beyond)

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Besides carrying my scintillation detector with me looking for ionizing radiation (over 2.46 petahertz) and decaying isotopes, I have been playing in the more friendly "basement" of the electromagnetic spectrum (under a gigahertz). A pic of my radio bench. I sold my IFR ( http://blog.theguysatwork.com/2025/02/updates-storm-and-other.html) . I needed to replace the function (at least a lot of it) with a cheaper digital produt. So for 1/10 the sale price of my IFR, I ended up buying a TinySA Ultra+ ZS406 Spectrum Analyzer. It is indeed tiny. It does what I want it to do and it's a fun new toy. Our autographed copy of the "Fall of Civilizations" arrived from the UK. Paul Cooper does such a great job with his pobcasts and videos. I felt compelled to get a personalized copy of the book. ( https://www.paulmmcooper.com/ ) Seeing this licence plate on the front of a pickup truck seemed fitting-- not so much as contrarian, but as a Komatsu equipment fan. It's g...
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I broke my new kodak digital camera. What a drag. It didn't take much. I got it for 80 bucks but still. The LCD got broke somehow. Renning's Maxim: Man is the highest animal. Man does the classifying.
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