dragon*con 2008 parade

Science Fiction fans gathered in downtown Atlanta this morning for the opening of Dragon*Con. Dragon*Con bills itself as “the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US.”

After seeing the opening parade this morning, I have to agree. It lasted just under an hour, but covered thousands of Science Fiction years, spanning galaxies and genres, marching heroes and villains alike side-by-side. I posted several pictures on Flickr.

filed under: atlanta, dragoncon

groundbreaking automotive innovation

Many, many, years ago, I heard about U-Turn signals and wondered why no car manufacturer ever implemented it as a safety feature. More recently, my Dad asked me to help craft some forward-looking ideas for vehicles because he was asked by an Automotive Research company to offer some “unmet needs.” I offered some safety ideas such as a motion + weight + seatbelt + temperature sensor system which could alert anyone outside the vehicle if it was off, locked, hot, and considered anyone to be inside. I also offered some nice-to-have feature ideas, such as a memory setting for all the mirror, seat, and pedal positions as well as radio presets. Cars seems to have bits of this one, but never the complete set. This is all pretty basic stuff.

But today I saw real innovation in an Alpharetta parking lot. Amazingly, none of this has caught on with any of the auto manufacturers. Not only is this car painted to blend in to both jungle and urban environments (it’s a near color match against the concrete wall), the enormous coffee mug holder (the enormous coffee mug inside is evidence of the über-holder) and the toilet paper attachment are just plain genius.

filed under: alpharetta, vehicle

it’s the end of the world as we know it; or maybe not

Scientists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) are preparing the Large Hadron Collider (LHR) for a test on September 10, 2008 in which particles are accelerated toward each other at the speed of light – to crash them. They’re looking for evidence of the Higgs Boson particle. The Higgs Boson is the only particle in the Standard Model of particle physics we haven’t actually observed. A recent Reuters article describes how the experiment itself will recreate the “Big Bang.”

My initial reaction to reading this was similar to that of a needle sliding off of a record player. WHAT? Has anyone checked to make sure an improbable power surge won’t destroy the earth vis-a-vis a Genesis Effect? Is it wise to recreate the very birth of everything we know? For some reason, there’s something naturally alluring to the concept of blowing stuff up or crashing things (but please stop crashing Teslas). I was compelled to look more into this.

CERN’s web site actually tells this a bit differently. “Physicists will use the LHC to recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang …” Oh. Ok. That’s COMPLETELY different. When they slam these particles together it won’t create a Big Bang, the result will create conditions similar to those around just after the Big Bang. I guess we have to trust CERN scientists to not blow up our planet in order to poke through nuclear rubble for a Higgs Boson. Then again, they’ve already addressed concerns about microscopic black holes, strangelets, vacuum bubbles, and magnetic monopoles, so why worry?

filed under: cern, large hadron collider, higgs boson

… a second chance … to catch myself, to make it real

Anyone who’s read prior entries on my blog knows R.E.M. is my favorite band. I’m so totally stoked. I’m going to see R.E.M. on Friday, October 24, 2008 in Dallas. Earlier this year, I took my family to see the Atlanta show, the last stop on the US tour. It was my kids’ first concert and a night I’ll never forget. My wife and I took turns holding our children, 6 and 4, on the backs of the seats in front of us, singing and dancing the entire time.

For whatever reason, R.E.M. will be back in the US for this show and I so did not want to miss this. Visiting Dallas means I get to see and hang out with my sister, Sharon. She’ll be happy to know R.E.M. has embraced Web 2.0, encouraging the tagging of Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, and blog posts on a per-concert basis. No doubt we’ll both take advantage of this. Two months to go! My countdown begins.

filed under: dallas, r.e.m.

x-file

The Superior Court of Fulton County Georgia excused standby jurors in Jury Pool Group 28 from service today. This information is not a secret, the court informed callers via their automated message yesterday beginning at 5:00 PM. Even as I made my way to downtown this morning (an hour and fifteen minute trek) and arrived on time at 8:00 AM, I knew the standby jurors in Group 28 were excused. What I did not know was I was a standby juror, and I didn’t need to be there at all.

The jury summons has a box labeled Standby Status. When you’re selected to be a standby juror, they place an X in the box. There was no X in the box on my summons, so I interpreted this to mean I was not a standby juror. I left my house at 6:45 AM in order to make the 7:16 AM North Springs MARTA train. This would put me at the Five Points station at 7:45 AM – plenty of time to walk two and half blocks to the Justice Center Tower.

When I arrived, I was asked to surrender my Canon PowerShot SD700 IS at the front guard gate and metal detector. I guess this is for security, but they strangely didn’t care about my Sony HDR-TG1 HD camcorder, which is probably a far greater threat if they’re concerned about pictures of the inside reaching the outside. I hadn’t planned to take pictures or recordings while in the courthouse, but I did want them handy en route.

As soon as I checked in to the Jury Pool, I was informed I could leave. I wasn’t there seven seconds. It turns out they forgot to put an X in the Standby Status box. Fulton County has a serious problem getting anyone to actually show up for Jury Duty. Roughly half of the people summoned don’t report. Sadly, those who obey the law are the ones who paid the price today. Fulton County wasted a lot of people’s time today by not letting anyone know about the missing X. My employer is fantastic, but I can’t imagine the hardship of someone losing a paid day. Sure, you always find something else to do, but that’s not the point. They could have easily mentioned the X-File in yesterday’s daily recording.

As I left the courthouse, I decided to make the most of my reclaimed time. Downtown Atlanta has services you just can’t find in Alpharetta.

filed under: atlanta, fulton county, jury duty, marta, canon powershot sd700is, sony hdr-tg1

competitive; me?

The Summer Olympics are in full swing, so it’s only natural to day-dream about competing to be the best. I’ve thought long and hard about this and decided if they ever open the following categories, I’m a world contender:

Competitive Fast Sleeping: I always wake up thinking I haven’t had enough sleep. Clearly I’ve slept too fast, because when I wake up, I usually have to get up. I’m willing to bet I sleep faster than others and would welcome a world stage to prove this.

Competitive Low Mileage Volvo Ownership: This endurance event pits Volvo owners against each other for a non-intuitive Volvo event in which the Volvo never leaves the garage. Most Volvo owners pride themselves on cars with hundreds of thousands of miles. Next month, I’ll have owned my car since September 2001, and as it turns seven years old, I’ve logged 20,142 miles (I just checked it). My carbon footprint is a toenail (and the little toenail, at that).

Competitive Pocket Stuffing: I don’t leave the house anymore without my AT&T 8925 (which grants me Slingbox Pro access to my Tivo HDs and allows me to tether my laptop for HSDPA 3G network access), my Sony HDR-TG1, my Canon PowerShot SD700 IS, my Inova Microlight, a somewhat boring wallet, a Swiss Army Knife, and a case to hold my Oakley Square Wire sunglasses. All of this is typically stuffed into cargo shorts and yes, I have an amazing belt.

Come on, Olympic committee! You let NBA players in now when it used to be amateurs only. How about contests like these on a level playing field?

filed under: olympics, att 8925, slingbox, tivo, sony hdr-tg1, canon powershot sd700is, inova microlight, swiss army knife, oakley

weird science

I love science and some stories are really cool. There’s a story today about a 50+ year old mystery. Mummified remains from 1948 plane crash identified details how the science of DNA and a lot of teamwork helped identify the human remains of a plane crash a long time ago. The particularly neat thing about this story is solving this only became possible because new technology came along. Things change so fast these days; if you can’t solve a problem today, sleep on it and maybe things will work out tomorrow.

But sometimes, science stories don’t make any sense. This week, two men from Georgia held a press conference claiming they’d found Bigfoot. DNA again also played a role here. But instead of showing anything conclusive, it failed to prove the big hairy beast (which no one is allowed to see via video or photograph) is anything unusual. I mean come on, they have the thing in the refrigerator. If you’re going to claim you’ve got something the world MUST see, at least give us a picture that doesn’t look likes Clarence Beaks. The thing is dead. Get a decent picture! It’s not like it’s running away!

Here’s another odd story: Huge gatherings of whale sharks discovered in Gulf of Mexico. I’ll quote the article, “We have lots of reports of 30 or 50 animals in one place,” said Hoffmayer, a scientist with the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs, Miss. “They are obviously gathering for a reason. But right now we are not sure what that is, or how they know to show up at these spots.” Dude, people do this all the time. It’s called a Flash Mob. There are documented examples of this.

The whale sharks are probably all out for sushi or a pick-up football game.

filed under: dna, bigfoot

she’s right, this part of ‘we’ is not morning people

The family’s been a wreck this week because of sleep deprivation. My son has to get up around 6 AM for school. My wife has to be up to help my son get ready for school and be picked up by carpool. My daughter is a light sleeper so if anyone else is up, she’s up, not to mention she’s up earlier than anyone anyway. And my body clock is in full anarchy this week because of my trip to Japan last week.

Friday night dinner-time rolls around, and we made tracks for the Village Tavern. My daughter was not in a good mood, and as the menus arrived to the table, she began a quiet little tantrum. Sitting in the booth facing the wall, balled up, looking sad, she all but ignored the waiter as he tried to address her to make her smile. No luck. Once the food showed up, her spirits lifted a bit, but she was still pretty quiet. The waiter came around to check on us, and addressed her again. What are the odds, though, of him saying, “You woke up nicely!”

As if on cue, my daughter hopped up onto her knees, leaned around me to speak to him, and spread both arms open wide. She exclaimed, “These people are NOT morning people (as she motioned to me and my wife by nodding her head from side to side toward each of us). I, am morning people. When I wake up in the morning, I say ‘Morning, I’m going to kill you,’ and then I kill the morning. Where is my extra cheese? You gave my brother fresh parmesan and not me. See, he has extra cheese, and I don’t.” As she paused to take a breath while pointing to her grilled cheese sandwich, which really didn’t need any extra grated parmesan cheese, the waiter was just silent, frozen. My wife and I were laughing too hard to help him out.

We’re used to this, of course, but it never ceases to be amusing when our four year old can can dumbfound anyone she speaks to.

filed under: alpharetta, village tavern, kids

mourning? morning.

I've started a new habit. Well, its not a habit until you it 40 times or something. Anyway, I actually get out of bed when I wake up now instead of hitting the snoozebar or going back to sleep. It’s crazy, I know, but I get up at strangely early hours now and work out on my Cybex Arc cardio contraption.

This morning was one of my new gigs; I was up before 6 AM. Really, I was awake because my daughter woke me up at 5 something to tell me her leg was
itching. I scratched her shin and all was well. She’s been sleeping in a tent in her room for the past two weeks, so she went back into her tent and I was hoping she’d go back to sleep.

Fast forward 30 minutes later. She comes downstairs with my wife, hand-in-hand. She has a complete look of disbelief and yells out to me - after I take
my earbuds out, “I thought you were in bed! I was trying to wake you up. I kissed your pillow! I am a morning ‘festibal’, and you guys are not, so when I wake up, I pop out of bed, I go to [the top of] the stairs, and I say, ‘Morning, I am going to kill you,’ and then I jump up…” and went on to add probably three or four more things. She’s four years old, watches perhaps a bit too much television, and unlike the rest of us in the house, is 100% a morning person.

filed under: exercise, cybex arc, kids

made in china

China has had a rough year when it comes to producing toothpaste laced with poison, toys full of lead, and pajamas literally made of deadly levels of formaldehyde.

At the last minute, a high ranking Chinese official decided seven year old Yang Peiyi, tapped to sing for the Olympics opener, wasn’t pretty enough and her teeth weren’t straight enough to represent her country. So fifteen minutes before showtime, nine year old Lin Miaoke was brought in to replace Yang Peiyi - and lip sync. Lin Miaoke had no trouble taking all the credit for her “beautiful voice” after the performance.

Well, I guess this makes sense in some weird way since other parts of the Olympics opener were faked, too.

China has 20% of the world’s population at over a billion people. They couldn’t locate their own version of Lil’ Romeo or Taylor Swift and instead chose to break a little girl’s heart - in the name of patriotism?

filed under: olympics, china

jealous of the somniacs

I’ve been awake since about 2 or 2:30 this morning. I usually don’t have a problem with jet lag, but this time I guess I do. I finally gave up trying to get back to sleep around 4 and decided to exercise. I actually went for a full hour on my Cybex Arc. After that, I was off to Bagel Boys and Starbucks to bring breakfast back for the krewe. I really wish we had a Jamba Juice here.

I had a crazy thought this morning while working out. I wonder if it’s possible to align a European R.E.M. concert to my one or two trips coming up in the next few months. There’s one in Latvia on September 12 which might work out perfectly. Delta even flies there (via a codeshare). Now if I can just figure out where the stage is so I can shop for a seat …

filed under: cybex arc, bagel boys, starbucks, jamba juice, r.e.m.

it’s a small world, and we’re all thai’ed together

I re-met Calvin today in the Delta Business Class check-in line in Narita NRT). Calvin studies at Georgia State and works for Delta in Atlanta. Calvin was attempting to board the flight to Atlanta as a standby passenger (as a Delta employee), but the flight was full. Instead, he’s hopping a short flight to Seoul, South Korea, and will try to fly home from there. I say I re-met Calvin because I sort of know his family, and I’m virtually certain Calvin’s been to my house.

How small a world is it? Calvin’s Dad owns Thai Thai in Alpharetta. We’ve been ordering take out and eating at Thai Thai regularly for years. Though his Uncle usually does the delivery runs, he’s helped out in the past. And here he is in Tokyo. I knew today was crazy 8s. Travel safe, Calvin!

filed under: alpharetta,delta,tokyo

crazy 8s

It’s August 8, 2008 where I am. It’s just after midnight. Because this day will be much longer than 24 hours for me, it’s crazy 8s.

I completed my work in Tokyo earlier, then ventured to Tsukishima to cook my dinner on a teppan table. Tsukishima is about 20 minutes by subway from Shinjuku. We got a late start, not leaving until almost 9 PM. The dinner was excellent.

On the return trip, the subway was actually more crowded than when we left. It’s 11:30 PM, and it was absolutely packed. Some people were browsing their phones, others were falling over half-asleep. Clearly, if everyone would drink just one Jack Black Mocha Blend, the train would be a much more happening event. Strangely, even though these are sold right on the platform, people weren’t going for it. The vending machine was capable of using the same PASMO card to buy drinks as you use to open the gates to access the subway. You push the button of your selection, wave your card over the reader, and out pops your drink. I, like many others, didn’t try a Jack Black Mocha Blend, either; I need to get some sleep. I’m going to miss Tokyo.

filed under: tokyo

entrepreneurial venture for tokyo: umbrella hats

Enough can’t be said about how much residents of Japan use mobile phones. As recently as lunch, I saw a table of four women sitting in complete silence, texting, reading, or just staring at their phones. I’ve seen one armed bandits on bicycles glancing up from their phones now and then to try to choose a clear path while sailing down the sidewalk. About the only time I haven’t seen anyone staring down at their phone was when it was raining, and cyclists used their free hand to hold an umbrella. And they didn’t look very happy about it. I’m surprised they didn’t wear an umbrella hat to keep a free hand for the phone.

filed under: tokyo

delta to gogo

Delta will soon launch Wi-Fi on domestic flights. The strangely chosen MD88 & MD90s will receive it first, then it will roll out to the rest of the fleet except the 777. Allegedly, VOIP calls will be prohibited. But as one other Flyertalk member noted, if VPNs are permitted, voice calls won’t soon be far away. I’m wondering how the flight will crew will notice the difference between a mobile phone using Wi-Fi or HSDPA (further wondering if HSDPA will even work at that altitude). I know for sure mobile wireless companies haven’t build their data networks for 400+ MPH tower hand-offs!

filed under: delta

chopsticks

I’m used to hearing thunder from ground level. Thunder sounds completely different when you’re in a high rise building. There’s a sort of tinny echo which follows the large booms. Today’s Tokyo rain lowered the temperature a bit, but kept the humidity up very high. The lightning and thunder put on an exciting audio & video display from late afternoon to evening. Even now, the lightning is still flash, even though the thunder and and have stopped.

I was able to make a quick stop after lunch today and buy some chopsticks for my wife and daughter. They like to use them to help hold their hair in little buns. There were two saleswomen helping me, one of them much younger than the other. The younger of the two demonstrated why I was buying the chopsticks, and the older one just giggled, probably thinking it made as much sense as placing a fork in your hair.

filed under: tokyo, chopsticks

land of the rising sun

Japan is known as the “Land of the Rising Sun” and I know why. The sun was up this morning at 4:45 AM. This really surprised me. Atlanta and Tokyo are at nearly the same latitude, so I thought sunrise and sunset would be about the same. For the most part, Japan does not observe Daylight Standard Time. The sun was gone last night by 6:30 PM. All my previous visits were in late Fall or Winter, and sunlit hours never caught my attention because they seemed to be about the same as home.

Today was another hot and hazy day. Temperatures were in the 90’s with extremely high humidity. Outside, the haze seemed to hold the city held hostage until some rain finally began falling around sunset.

I met with my friend Masa for lunch and dinner. Lunch was Standing Sushi, a place where there are no chairs. In front of each standing spot is a small post where you can hang your backpack or laptop case. Standing Sushi is lunch at warp speed. The restaurant is tiny; my hotel room is larger. There’s not much conversation as people duck in to slam some lunch, and then bolt right back out. Because it’s sushi and prep can take a minute, you can literally eat lunch on a fifteen minute break.

Dinner was a slower experience. Masa got a little carried away. He said he wanted to know how I best liked fish. I said I really didn’t have a preference, and I was sure whatever we had would be great. THAT was a mistake. Masa ordered in Japanese, then told me food would begin arriving shortly. We started with a sashimi platter with varieties of snapper and amberjack, some cod, and I think even something called alfonsino (clearly named after Alfonso Ribeiro from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air). Next, and not necessarily in this order, we had fish served tempura’ed (baby scallops and vegetables), deep fried (assorted white fish), boiled (cod) and served in a teriyaki-ish sauce, grilled (marlin), and tartare (I have no idea what was in this one, but it was sort of red). They even gave us a colorful fish guide so we could know what the fish looked like as it’s former self. It didn’t please Masa too much when he again at the end of dinner asked for my fish preparation preference … I told him I liked it all (although the tartare was a bit weird for me).

Tomorrow is Eel Day.

filed under: sushi, tokyo

24

I’m a bit of a paradox. I really don’t like to leave the house, but I do like to visit new places. Today began as any other long journey; I really didn’t want to go anywhere, especially half-way around the world. But since teleporting people still isn’t commercial available, I’m stuck with the usual modes of transport. I didn’t have all the action of, say, a day-in-the-life of Jack Bauer, but my 24 hours were pretty solid.

I did something a bit different this time and took MARTA to the airport. The train ride to the airport was not unusual by MARTA standards. One gentleman close to me had his music exploding into his earbuds and rapped out loud, really loud, to the songs. Another gentleman closer to the back of my train car offered social commentary in between the tunes he freely shared via his harmonica. My favorite part, however, was the train’s driver who gave us the play by play at every stop in Spoken Word style, never missing a syllable. “You are board-ding the south-bound train to the air-port … next stop is Oak-land City Stay-shunnn, board here for the Ful-tonnn Coun-ty jail, Gor-don’s Bail Bonds, my ex-wife’s apart-ment, and oth-er plac-es you will not ever vis-sit. Thank you for choo-sing MAR-TA.” I’m paraphrasing this of course. For the first time ever though, I actually knew where I was at each stop as we journeyed south.

The airport was a smooth operation. When I checked in, I asked if there were any pairs of unoccupied seats. I’d received an upgrade to Business class, so scoring a possible vacant seat next to me would be lottery-like. I have a pretty sensitive nose, so the typical international business booze-and-snoozers basically make me want to gouge my eyes out when they start yawning after they wake up. Sure, airlines always give you earplugs and eye masks, but come on Delta, what about olfactory shielding?

Anyway, great news: the last row of Business had two vacant seats – so I moved to one of them. It was a tense 30 minutes waiting for the boarding doors to close but when they did, I’d struck it rich. No one beside me, no one behind me, and unbelievably , no one in front of me to lean back into me. I was in a pocket, a bubble, a cocoon of space, and I even had a power jack for my laptop.

My good fortune on this flight just kept getting better. I turned on the personal entertainment system and scrolled through to see what they had on-demand. As if they knew I was flying today, there was a BBC documentary on R.E.M. In an hour-long program, I got to watch vintage live performances of some of my favorites like Half a World Away, Daysleeper, South Central Rain, and Leaving New York. It brought a lot of smiles as I recalled the beginning of this summer when my wife and I took our kids to see R.E.M. live. I don’t think I’ll forget that night as long as I live.

During the flight I also watched two movies: 21 and Iron Man. Both were good choices. I was really happy to see Robert Downey Jr. back in action and he really nailed this role. An Iron Man sequel is a sure bet.

Fourteen hours after boarding the plane, I’m back on the ground. Once off the plane, it’s Immigration, Customs, baggage claim, a thirty minute wait for the bus followed by a ninety minute bus ride to Shinjuku.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to work the toilet without getting sprayed, electrocuted, or “cause trouble” as the first rule on the inside of the lid warns.

I’m off to go find some dinner, then sleep.

filed under: marta, r.e.m., tokyo