Monday, October 29, 2007

Trip to Nagano

On the 20th through the 21st, J and I went to Nagano Prefecture with 11 of my former classmates from K.University for a weekend in a solar and wind powered "zero-oil" cabin up in the mountains. Pictures say a thousand words, so here's a link to about 70,000 words :p

Friday, October 19, 2007

Blogger Earth Day

Blogger Buzz: Environmental Blog Roundup

Blogger recently featured blogs that are "buzzing" about the environment. A nice idea and a good way to hear what others have to say.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Self-discipline

On Monday, I made my first visit to the gym. I'm loathe to wake up early on Mondays to begin with, but to wake up extra early to exercise is really a personal challenge. Nonetheless, I had made an appointment to meet with a personal trainer to familiarize me with the equipment, so I dragged myself out of bed.

I was scheduled to start at 7:30 but arrived at 7:45 and changed into my workout wear. That left me with 30 minutes to analyze my weight, percentage of body fat and bone mass as well as take my blood pressure, then do some warm-up on the stationary bike, continue with 10 minutes of stretching and finally a couple machines. For 30 minutes, I felt that I had accomplished quite a lot, and my trainer was friendly and accommodating throughout.

Thus, I scheduled for another visit on Tuesday morning and vowed to arrive for a full one-hour workout. On Tuesday I woke up in plenty of time, downed my cup of coffee and arrived before 7:30 to change. This time I went through an abbreviated diagnostics course, hit the stationary bike, did my stretches and then trained on the rowing machine, bench press and weight training to strengthen the lower back and abdominals. I finished orientation about 10 minutes early so I did a bit of cardio on a machine which has a name that I can't pronounce (it simulates walking, more or less).

This morning I slept in (until 7:30) and plan to go again tomorrow, but I'm happy to say I am not too sore. I reckon that means I'm not overdoing it. If anything, I want to settle into a regular routine of going about three times a week, and I find scheduling to meet with a trainer helps to keep that schedule. At this gym, that is all included in the fee, so after my first 5 visits they will help me to conjure up a training schedule with certain objectives.

I'm not really a "gym type", per se, as my objectives are to be healthy and not succumb to love handles so often seen on the matured male body (I'm not quite advanced in age enough to say I'm middle aged... give me another 5-10 years). The trainer showed me my charts and recommended some weight training to boost my muscle mass, which I can see is the right direction to go. My other objective is to stay physically active despite what is more or less a desk job. With all the new technology that promotes "mobility", it's funny how it has ultimately allowed us to remain in one place to do all of our work. Now if they could only invent a device that delivers a healthy body and mind through a broadband connection and block reception to fat and fatigue. Until then, looks like I'll be frequenting the gym.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Musical language

Yesterday I listened to an excellent episode of the radio program Radio Lab that covered the topic of music in relation to language. In the program they interview a professor who studied human ability for "perfect pitch" (that is, the ability to be able to identify any note upon hearing it without having to run to the piano) amongst different language speakers. The comparison between those who spoke English as their mother tongue and those who spoke Mandarin Chinese as their mother tongue were astounding: Chinese speakers were NINE TIMES more likely to have perfect pitch than their English speaking counterparts (all participants were students of music). Since tonal languages like Chinese and Vietnamese have a broader range of sounds that are constantly produced by the speakers at the same pitch, this suggests there may be a connection in the language we learn as infants and our ability for our brains to make sense of the sounds we hear. English is not a tonal language, yet plenty of speakers of non-tonal languages have become famous classical musicians, so this is not to suggest that one group has some special ability that others do not. But it does suggest, along with later content in the show to back this up, that we are able to accommodate new sounds and sound patterns over time (think of that song on the radio or CD you own that you have to hear 2 or 3 times before you decide you like it), however, until we adjust to these sound patterns, they are more-or-less gibberish to our ears.
In any case, as a music lover and a language learner, this was fascinating to me. It also puts some weight to the theory of playing Classical music to infants or even while a baby is still in the womb. It is said that this could increase the child's capacity for intelligence. If anything, it seems feasible to me that introducing the broad range of sounds that are contained in Classical music to a child at a young age would strengthen their acute hearing ability so that they are able to identify not only musical notes (as in "perfect pitch") but also the emotion expressed in human speech, the fine points of foreign languages and pronunciation, and maybe even assist in the complex thought process.
On a different note (no pun intended), think of the popularity of rock n' roll and later forms of music. Not only are they easy for people to relate to and identify with, but something like heavy metal music, that uses simple and sometimes dissonant musical chords, may resonate with someone who is feeling inner turmoil. Likewise, expressive singers may invoke emotions that we otherwise would suppress or pay little attention to. Even some pop musicians could trigger a sense of unity and calm our nerves by the simplicity of their music. At any rate, the affect music can have on our mood is nothing to be ignored, and understanding the language of music could help us to communicate better ourselves. By adapting to various types of music and acclimating to a broad range of patterns in sound, we are opening up our mind to new possibilities and possibly a solution to some conundrum that, up to that point, seemed like gibberish.
(link to Radio Lab episode)

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Three-day Weekends

Whoever decided that modern society would generally adopt a two-day weekend knew what they were doing. In fact, it might have even been better when we had only one day of rest, (really, who can argue against that? isn't that proclaimed in the Bible?) although that depends on your objectives in life.

Indeed, our objectives have changed since the days of Adam and Eve, and these days, the 5-day work week is mostly to the advantage of companies who are concerned about employee productivity. And from that perspective, the three-day weekend is awash! That is to say, with three days off, that is nearly half the week, and the results (at least in my case) is that I completely forget about being at the office. Hence, when I return to work on a Tuesday, my motivation is often near zero to jump in and get through the tasks for the day. This is often resolved by lunchtime, but it just goes to show that "nearly half a week" off will inevitably become a full half-week off (which can only be slightly modified with a big cup of coffee in the AM).

So, what I'm getting at is that we had a three-day weekend recently and yesterday, the first day back, was indeed awash. By the afternoon I had cracked a book and started to read through it, although considering the title - Slope Stability and Stabilization Methods - it's no wonder that I was procrastinating. Nonetheless, I was surprised to find quite a bit of the content to be interesting (the power of caffeine), and by page 4 I found an excuse to take notes... but only because I thought it would make for an interesting (I hope) blog entry, which follows:

Since Hurricane Katrina, people have become concerned with the strength of those walls that sometimes protect our communities from flooding - water dams. These days it is inexcusable to ignore hazardous infrastructures that could affect, if not destroy, entire communities (including the bridges of Minnesota counties). When engineers build embankments or dams these days, the structures are often on such a grand scale that they are technologically beyond layman understanding, although they use the same principles of compaction that were discovered in the 1930s. Of course, this idea of "compaction" is nothing beyond the understanding of any kid at the beach with a plastic shovel in hand building a sand castle; not to mention that mankind has been constructing real-life castles, pyramids, embankments and roads for hundreds or thousands of years. So how did they do it way-back when?

For example, it is important to apply these "principles of sand castles" when building embankments for the construction of a new highway and railway to increase their strength (and avoid building a bumpy road that would look like it came straight out of the Flintstones). It doesn't take a rocket scientist - or even a rock scientist - to understand that one must compact the soil along the path where one plans to lay down a highway. This obviousness is reinforced by the fact that mechanical equipment has been used to compact soil since the late 1860s, when the first road compaction roller was built, even though there was probably little understanding of the various factors involved, i.e. moisture content, unit weight, etc. Much in the same way that a kid at the beach must improvise with the tools available to him or her, prior to 1860, humankind has been practicing the sand castle principles with whatever they had available.

In fact, according to one source, one of the oldest recorded earth fill dams is the dam completed in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in the year 504 BC, which was 11 miles long, 70 feet high and contained about 17 million cubic yards of embankment. Although the details of construction of that particular dam might not be available in records, we needn't look any further than 1893 in the United States for a hint at how they might have improvised. In lieu of the unavailability of plastic beach shovels at that time, according to the Highway Research Board, the 85-foot high Santa Fe water supply dam of New Mexico was compacted by... 115 goats!


This bit of trivia has been brought to you by the 3-day Weekend Initiative.

Friday, October 05, 2007

Coca-cola has found a way to tap into your wallet!



Anyone throwing their money away on plastic bottles that are thrown away after one use? The bottled water phenomenon has certainly gotten out of hand. Of course I was impressed this summer to find that S, A and family have all bought reusable water bottles for their daily drinking needs.

Here's a little bit more information. (Okay, I'm cheating a little bit here because this is information from an NGO which I'm a member of, but still, very good information):

"Americans consumed more than 31 billion liters of bottled water in 2006 – nearly 28 gallons for every man, woman, and child. Manufacturing all those bottles required 900,000 tons of plastic and emitted as much greenhouse gas as 500,000 cars! Trucking a bottle of water 500 miles can double its climate impact – and some are shipped much, much farther."

The NGO recommends finding yourself a nontoxic, reusable water bottle and, if local water quality requires it (most don't - in fact, up to 40% of bottled water is simply repackaged tap water), a water filter. They even provide a link: Center for a New American Dream

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Old-fashion or poor fashion?


If you've ever seen the movie Serial Mom (1994) by John Waters, the memorable scene of Kathleen Turner killing an innocent woman for her poor fashion sense will probably remind you to never wear white shoes after Labor Day.

Some people say that this etiquette is old-fashion and have unleashed their "daring" sense of style by breaking this so-called rule. Others stick steadfast to the rule, although many allow for "winter white" as long as it's congruent with cold weather (think white winter boots).

Now, frankly, as a guy, I knew nothing about this until seeing Serial Mom years ago, and even then I had to ask around to find out what was wrong with white shoes (not to mention I had to look on a calender to remember when Labor Day is). So I may have been aloof to this sort of thing, or even excused from it (since a guy wearing white tennis shoes is pretty excusable any time of the year, and a man wearing white dress shoes is just asking for the fashion police to scuff his shine at any time of year!), but this morning I experience my first Serial Mom moment.

Part of my morning routine is to admire the working women in Tokyo on the way to work. Basically, I consider this as natural as a morning cup of coffee, not to mention that I just can't help it. Usually I am quite pleased by the ladies of Tokyo, as they are rather refined and charming, if not debonair. However, this morning, as I was walking up the steps to exit the subway station, I noticed a woman in front of me wearing a dark blouse and dark skirt with low-heeled shoes...which were, of course, white.

Instinctively, I conjured up a calender in my head (past Labor Day) and then considered that I was wearing a sports jacket with my suit since it is getting cooler. I also noted that in the fall, people in Tokyo change to darker colors en masse (and in Spring change to lighter colors. This is socially coordinated almost to the day!), much the same way that traditional foods are served according to the seasonal changes. I hopped up the steps a little faster to get a look at the woman a little better. She was probably in her late 20s and Asian, although I couldn't tell if she was Japanese for sure. Granted, although the "Labor Day rule" is generally observed in Japan (possibly for different reasons, such as simply to coordinate with the clothes color change), people still have a pretty "daring" fashion sense in Japan. But at second glance, I decided that the shoes looked awful and then just felt bad for her. She didn't look like the type who was trying to break any rules, she just had a poor sense of style.

I suspect my coffee this morning was a little bitter, so you'll have to excuse this undeniably snooty posting. If you still don't understand, watch this (YouTube), and you'll know what I mean.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Playing your cards right

Over the weekend I finally made the first move. Honestly, I had been putting it off long enough and it was time to get down to business. I decided it was high time to put some regular exercise in my weekly schedule and join a gym.
So on Saturday I did a search for gyms located near my office which would be open early enough for me to fit in a morning workout (I know, a lofty goal indeed!). Luckily I found one that is not only near my office, but one that has another branch nearby home, and they allow members to use all their branches freely. I figure this will be good for working out on the weekends.

I visited the one near my home on Saturday afternoon and took a look. After a short tour by one of their staff, I met with the manager who explained the membership system to me, i.e. where the other locations are, the free towel with every visit, that sort of thing. I told him everything sounded great, but I would visit the location near my office during the week and then decide. He said that would be no problem, although he hoped I would return to his branch when I signed up.

Today I went at 8:00 am to see what the gym near my office was like, choosing that time to see how crowded it might be, and thus how easy it would be to get a treadmill or bicycle, etc. I was happy to find only about 4 or 5 people there, and the staff who gave me the tour said that was common for weekday mornings. Then I met with the staff member who was supposed to give me the spiel about the membership system, but I told her that I had already gotten the details from my visit to the other location, and would probably join over the weekend when I had more time to fill out the forms.

It was at that point that I was told, very kindly, that by all means I was welcome to join from any location, but they would be very happy if I joined from their branch.

"Membership is the same no matter where I join, right?" I inquired.
"Certainly. You can use any of the locations no matter where you join. However, maybe I can talk to the manager here. He might be willing to offer you a slight discount for joining at this location."

*Ah, the cards were on the table!*

What else could I do but play along? Afterall, I truly was planning to join at the location near my house over the weekend. "Well, I'm planning to join this weekend. Here is my phone number, so have your manager call me in the evening before the weekend if he would like to offer something of that nature."

I figure I have nothing to lose no matter where I join, but they seem to have something to gain... so I might as well have something to gain by being persuaded one way or the other. Actually, since I will use the location near my office more often, I might as well join there, and I was quite happy to hear the suggestion to do so.

In any case, I should be able to remain active over the coming fall and winter months, and the gym (both locations) seem to be very pleasant.