Archives for October, 2003
2003.10.31 (Fri)
Big Pumpkin
16:58 | Comments (7)
I suppose today there should also be a big pumpkin. Happy Hallowe’en, everyone. May all your nightmares come true.
Yet Another Fuji
16:58 | Comments (5)
Can you tell I love Fuji? What a classic shape, your standard volcano, a child’s idea of a mountain — yet how absolutely it transcends its simple geometry.
2003.10.29 (Wed)
MT-Blacklist 1.5
16:58 | Comments (7)
Jay Allen’s very good MT-Blacklist just got a whole lot better.
Watch the Sky
16:58 | Comments (5)
If you were a god, would you come up with a universe as interesting as ours? I’m not sure I could.
2003.10.27 (Mon)
Mountain Food
16:58 | Comments (4)
On the table outside where we sat and drank our coffee (which could have used some snake in it) was a bowl filled with mountain food. The old guy explained what everything was, but apart from the acorns and chestnuts, I can’t remember the names of anything. We didn’t eat any of it; I think the arrangement was more decorative than tasty and anyway, I had some snake to keep me warm.
Half a Fetish
16:58 | Comments (2)
OK … here’s a strange one: Left shoe fanatic held in Japan.
Low-carb Depression
16:58 | Comments (8)
A nutritionist commissioned by McCain’s — the potato product company — claims that the Atkins diet can lead to winter depression.
Fuji From Kintoki-yama
16:58 | Comments (4)
Absolutely exhausted! Up at 5:30 this morning for an early start out to Hakone for a walk up Kintoki-yama to eat lunch in the company of Fuji (and more than a few other people with the same idea). The weather couldn’t have been better, and Fuji was on fine display.
2003.10.24 (Fri)
A Bottle of Booze
16:58 | Comments (3)
They really knew how to put together a bottle of booze in the old days. Perhaps the contents were every bit as rough-hewn as the bottle itself.
Man Bites Shark
16:58 | Comments (12)
You and your men are cleaning the catch in the shallow waters by the beach when a large shark approaches. What do you do?
Belkin Card Reader Review
16:58 | Comments (6)
Possible problems with the Belkin Media Reader with larger Compact Flash cards?
2003.10.23 (Thu)
The Perfect Squall
16:58 | Comments (8)
I caught a bus home from Shibuya today and by the time it dropped me in front of the Agricultural University, a neat little localised squall was bubbling away overhead.
Let me be the first to congratulate A List Apart on the launch of 3.0.
American English Continues Its Descent
16:58 | Comments (12)
Ian Garrick Mason in The Christian Science Monitor looks at a new book on “the degradation of language and music and why we should, like, care.”
2003.10.21 (Tue)
Shinjuku Boogie Woogie
16:58 | Comments (5)
I happened to be in Shinjuku yesterday just before sunset and saw this view as I walked back to the station. Rats in mazes must get views like this all the time.
Prada Tokyo
16:58 | Comments (6)
I saw the Prada Tokyo building for the first time last night came away a convert — not to Prada (I’m every bit as suspicious of high-priced clothing as I ever was) but certainly to the work of Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, the architects.
2003.10.20 (Mon)
More Sunlight and Plaster
16:58 | Comments (6)
On the spur of the moment we decided to visit the Nihon Minak-en yesterday which is a park full of old houses that have been collected from all over the country (how they were brought to the park is a mystery, but there they are). I now have more photographs of sunlight on plaster than you can shake a stick at. Here are two more.
2003.10.17 (Fri)
Bounced Sunlight on a Plaster Wall
16:58 | Comments (5)
This photograph almost shows the nice lighting that was at work here. Two old plaster walls face each other across a driveway. Mid-afternoon sunlight strikes the one behind me and is reflected back onto the wall shown here making it, in effect, lit by itself, or at least its twin.
A Thousand Things to Say
16:58 | Comments (3)
A little while ago I broke the 1000 post mark on this site. That’s a bit of a surprise. Who would have thought I’d have more than a thousand things to say?
Free Japanese Lessons from MIT
16:58 | Comments (9)
M. Sinclair Stevens discovers self-study Japanese language course materials in MIT’s OpenCourseWare initiative.
2003.10.16 (Thu)
Enticing Pachinko
16:58 | Comments (8)
Isn’t this enticing? Ah yes, pachinko! Where the fun never ends.
2003.10.15 (Wed)
Dirty But Clean Wins the Booker
16:58 | Comments (3)
DBC Pierre has won this year’s Booker Prize for “Vernon God Little”
Frank Heine, 1964–2003
16:58 | Comments (2)
Saw the sad news on Typographica just now that Frank Heine, the designer of Dalliance and many other typefaces, has died.
2003.10.14 (Tue)
Professional Lego Builder Wanted
16:58 | Comments (11)
Jacob McKee, Community Developer Manager for Lego, wrote to me to let me know about something very amazing indeed.
Yellowlane
16:58 | Comments (3)
Yellowlane is “the oft-neglected web persona of designer Josh Williams.” You can get icons there — and not just for Macs. ;-)
Light-bending Secrets of the Peacock
16:58 | Comments (0)
Researchers at Fudan University in Shanghai have figured out where all those colours in a peacock’s tail come from.
MT-Blacklist: Fighting Comment Spam
16:58 | Comments (9)
Comment spam is becoming a real nuisance. The redoubtable Jay Allen has been giving this problem a little thought, shall we say, and has written MT-Blacklist.
View to Komazawa
16:58 | Comments (2)
Noticed this view towards Komazawa tonight just after sunset.
2003.10.10 (Fri)
Abolish the Catholic Church Now!
16:58 | Comments (40)
Absolute madness from the Catholic church, telling people that condoms are useless in preventing the spread of HIV.
Pale View of Hills
16:58 | Comments (0)
Now that it’s cooling down, moisture is leaving the air like the last guest of a summer party that went on too long and we’re getting the first hints of the clarity that winter brings. Last night’s sunset happened (as it always does) over the Õyama and Tanzawa Ranges, only now we can actually see them rather than just infer them.
Japanese ‘Culture’
16:58 | Comments (1)
Robert Brady identifies the touchstone of Japanese culture. Be very afraid.
Neil Postman Dies
16:58 | Comments (2)
Just saw that Neil Postman has died. Notices in The Toronto Star and The New York Times.
2003.10.08 (Wed)
TypePad’s Official Launch
16:58 | Comments (3)
Congratulations to SixApart on the official launch of TypePad, a beautiful piece of work.
2003.10.07 (Tue)
Festival Fashions
16:58 | Comments (0)
Happi are loose jackets (I guess) worn at festivals. They often bear a crest or design that identifies the wearer’s affiliation with a particular temple, shrine or organisation. Get a whole lot of them together and it’s typography on parade.
2003.10.06 (Mon)
Stop and Smell the Hydrants
16:58 | Comments (13)
I’ve noticed something about the way a lot of people walk their dogs.
2003.10.05 (Sun)
The Biggest Drum in the World
16:58 | Comments (2)
OK, I don’t really know if this is the biggest drum in the world or not, but it has to be a contender.
2003.10.04 (Sat)
Minami Shinjuku
16:58 | Comments (3)
I was early — both time of time and time of year. While the light was indeed beautiful, the sun is still setting too far to the north. I hadn’t realised it was a winter effect I was after.
2003.10.02 (Thu)
Coetzee Wins Nobel in Literature
16:58 | Comments (5)
J. M. Coetzee has won the 2003 Nobel Prize in literature.
2003.10.01 (Wed)
Ferry Returning From Kozushima
16:58 | Comments (5)
A not-so-bad example of Fuji NeoPan’s grain
More Cell-phone Sickness?
16:58 | Comments (42)
I’m not really a raving Luddite (I just play one on the internet) but I couldn’t help noticing stories on a Dutch government study of 3G signals causing nausea, tingling sensations and headaches.
Idle Words
16:58 | Comments (1)
Maciej Ceglowski writes Idle Words and has become one of my favourite writers on the web.
More Japanese Choose Non-Traditional Burial
16:58 | Comments (4)
I recognised a piece of his right scapula, and the left corner of his jaw. There was a fragment of skull that I thought might have been the upper part of the occipital plate because of the zig-zaggy lines on it.
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