Kyoto - fifth day

I'm settling in well after nearly a week here, finding my way around the city and the mentality. I noticed yesterday a particular sign of the process of getting accustomed to the place: People in the street don't look "Japanese" any more, they just look like people. I still have terrible trouble judging ages (at least from a polite social distance), but then that sometimes confuses me in Germany* too.

I haven't had a Lost in translation moment yet, but that is probably due to having Piet and Eiko as my hosts and guides. It would be much trickier were I on my own. Yes, fewer Japanese speak English than I expected, and (more significantly) many of those who can are reluctant to do so because they fear embarrassing themselves or inconveniencing me by their mistakes; but on the other hand I've managed to buy food, books and batteries for my camera, and take the subway, a bus and a taxi by myself without causing offence or laughter. I'll expand on this at another time. (The Japanese love that movie, by the way, they recognize the truth of Bill Murray's confused isolation and their inability to help him. I like it too, and would recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it yet.)

I haven't really done very much, mostly just walked around and looked at stuff. I haven't yet been out of the city, for example, nor out to the suburbs to see Katsura-Rikyu (by appointment only, booked out until after Christmas!) or Ryoan-Ji. My plan for the remaining time is to keep my room here in Kyoto as a base and do day trips out, with at most an overnight stop in Tokyo.

The temples are beginning to merge in my mind, or at least their names. I'll remember the Buddhist prayer ceremony I happened to see (and hear) at Choin-Ji, and the hanging terrace above the woods at Kiyomizu-Dera, and the sand garden at Ginkaku-Ji, and the mirrorlike reflection of the illuminated autumn leaves in the pond at Eikando Zenrin-Ji last night, and my feeling of awe in the shrine at Kennin-Ji. On the whole, Kennin-Ji was probably my favourite so far, for the beautiful painted screens and because almost all of the shrine complex is open to visitors. It reminded me of the courtyards and ambulatories and ancillary spaces of the European cathedrals (though entirely different in scale and materials, obviously). Kennin-Ji is one of the few shrines I've seen where you can actually walk into the building and approach the altars; Choin-Ji is another.

Time for a walk in the garden at Heian Jingu, before lunch and more discussion with Eiko.

* I first typed "real life" instead of Germany. Japan is very much like Second Life!

Thought for the day

One day, while staying at a friend's house, Nasrudin peered over the wall into the neighbor's yard and saw the most wonderful garden he had ever seen. He noticed an old man patiently weeding a flower-bed and asked,

“This is a beautiful garden. I'd like to have one just like it. How do you make a garden like this?”

“Twenty years of hard work.”

“Never mind,” said Nasrudin.

Indeed.

Balconia, 2010 edition

It's been a long, chilly and wet Spring. This weekend marks the first time I was able to have lunch on my balcony! In previous years, I'd been sitting out there as early as mid-April. Bah.

The job presses on, we are barely keeping ahead of the construction workers — and now have to stop for a week to submit a building-permit application to add a waterslide to the project. This must go through straight away so that the concrete-laying company can get the shell finished before the steelwork starts, because once the frame goes up they will be unable to use their crane to transport the roughly 80 tonnes of concrete needed. Shifting that lot by wheelbarrow is not feasible.

I've been mostly off-duty this weekend, bar an hour today finishing up two drawings that I didn't get done on Friday evening. Had sushi for lunch on Saturday, then went on to the Skybeach for an iced coffee in a deckchair with my feet in the sand; today, walked downtown again to meet G and U and the kids for a cappuccino on the terrace of the Kunstmuseum, then made it back home just in time before the rain started.

I've been reading Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, in the newish translation by Volokhovsky and Pevear, and am approaching the end. It's a good read, despite Tolstoy's manifest disapproval of Anna's life and choices. What a prude he was. I get the impression that he was surprised and shocked by the way the story unfolded as he wrote it.

I mentioned some time back that I had started playing Dragon Age: Origins. I'm finding it hard to get the time to play it: unlike Second Life I feel that I can't just drop in for a half-hour or two, it feels like I need a block of two hours or more to be able to get into the story, so I have let it go. As far as I can judge, it is a very good game: the characters are well written and their interactions are interesting and surprising, the world is visually very appealing, there are plenty of side quests to intrigue and entertain; but it's just not Second Life. I can determine which of several train tracks the story will take, the decision tree is a veritable labyrinth (to mix my metaphors), but the fact remains that the story does follow along a path that someone else has set. It's brought into focus something that I had felt but not fully realized about SL: my joy in it is based in personal contact and conversation. I'm also becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the relentless killing. I guess I'm just not a gamer.

I will be running a workshop in Second Life this autumn on "the SL-ness of SL," and have started making notes for discussion topics and practical exercises. It is all theoretical stuff about identity and shared culture, and would be of very little interest to non-Second Lifers; there's nothing about me and little about Susan in that blog. Nonetheless, if anyone is interested, let me know by e-mail and I'll send you the URL — on the condition that you never mention it (or the avatars' names) here. To forestall unhappiness: please note that I will mercilessly and instantly delete any comments made here that break this condition.

Disorganized

Sneaking under the wire again. I have to organize things a bit better around here. Woke far too early, tossed and turned for nearly two hours, then slept again far too late, and the day never really got back on course.

That is all.

Eight down, twenty-two to go.

Johari

Settling back into home and routine after three days away (it felt much longer somehow). Here's a simple make-weight post to keep up the NaBloPoMo routine. Play along at my Johari Window by selecting the five or six adjectives from the list that you feel best describe me.

More later perhaps, now it's time for work. We have to form a plan of action for dealing with this new project!

Shabbat shalom, my dears.

Seven down, twenty-three to go.

Preparing

To Munich tomorrow for two nights, for the database toolkit's nearly-annual developer conference. Will spend the evening and tomorrow morning preparing a new Windows version to install on my favourite customer's system on Thursday. I hope I will be able to get an internet connection on all three days, to keep NaBloPoMo'ing. Time will tell.

Lovely day today, sunny and blue skies, temperatures around 10°C which is warm for this time of year. G and I went for a cappuccino on the terrace of the Kunstmuseum after delivering the model to the competition headquarters, where we were joined by U and Ralph. Very pleasant.

I mentioned back in February that there was something odd about the way a competition from November 2007 had ended. Well, something very unusual and exciting might happen tomorrow evening in a small town near the Rhine, which I can't tell you about yet (and possibly never in all the details). Watch this space.

Three down, twenty-seven to go.

Playday

Up early for an ultrasound examination, to check whether the widely fluctuating bloodtest results indicate a problem in my guts. The specialist confirms that my liver, gall, pancreas, stomach and kidneys are all as and where they should be. Good.

The day being lovely (warm, blue sky, gentle breeze) and myself being damned hungry (one must arrive for the examination on an absolutely empty stomach), I decided to have breakfast outdoors at the Cafe Eberhard, and there met Slim. We talked for an hour while Larry was at a child psychologist across the street, and decided to continue to meet there on Wednesday mornings for as long as the fine weather and his sessions continue. She's looking very well, happy and healthy again after a rough spell last year.

Then walked on downtown intending to go to the river to see if last week's cranes were still there, but got distracted by the newly half-reopened Staatsgalerie. The collection has been entirely rehung, featuring many works that had previously languished in the cellars and mixing old and new together: rooms are now hung by subject or style rather than by age or country of origin. There are some wonderful pieces on display, and the arrangement is thought-provoking and occasionally amusing. Highly recommended to any Stuttgarters who haven't been lately; however those living further afield are advised to wait until after December 13, when the last few rooms will be opened and the renovation complete.

In the course of the renovation, the Herrenberger Altar has been moved to a larger and more central room, where there is now space and light to appreciate the rear panels (i.e. the opened-out wings). Since these were the outer "weekday" sides, they have faded considerably, but are still quite fascinating. I shall have to go back for another look, and will nab one of the little folding stools.

In other news the first competition was sent off with twenty minutes to spare yesterday. It looks very good, I think we have a fine chance of being in the money again with this project. That was our fourth third competition this year, and G is looking to do two more. Personally, I think he's crazy, but who am I to get between a man and his idea of fun?

Awake

Rain falling against my window woke me from a pastoral dream which had turned to dystopian violence. What I feel in such dreams is equal parts fear and humiliation at my helplessness in the face of unreason, my inability to do anything about the situation.

It's been two weeks since I posted. What have I been up to, you ask? 'Tis a fair question, for which I have no particularly pleasing answer. I might well say that I have been on a sort of internal holiday, since I have also done very little work during this time. I have spent a lot of time, entire working days, in Second Life; though again even there I would be hard pressed to tell you what I did in SL too. Mostly talking and listening and a fair amount of worrying, about two friends who are going through rough patches in their real lives. I don't feel that I can say much about this, because they aren't my stories to tell. I am slightly uneasy at the amount of time I spend in SL, and the increasing proportion of my emotional life that takes place there.

Working slightly less than half-time with G and U on the two competitions due this summer, with moderate comfort. Working very semi-occasionally for the Münsters, I've hardly lifted a finger since delivering the last batch of changes.

Reading quite a lot: the King James Version Apocrypha, Terry Pratchett's "Making money" which I found quite good despite the Lioness's poor opinion of it, Michel Houellebecq's "Plateforme" (in German, a Christmas present; very disturbing, quite a good read), "The black swan" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (expect the unexpected), and currently both Charles Frazier's "Thirteen moons" (coming of age in the Appalachians during the Indian Wars) and a collection of essays on reading "the classics" by various German authors. The disappointment of the summer has been re-reading T.S. Eliot after more than a dozen years, sparked by my remembering "Prufrock" recently: much of it is unreadable. Many poems come across as badly dated, as fusty as the Victorian stuff that the Modernists opposed. I still have a soft spot for Prufrock and "Ash Wednesday" and the "Four Quartets", but the rest is superfluous. Sorry, Tom. And let me draw to your attention a book review in a New Yorker from this Spring, about economics and choice and what utter fools we mortals be: fascinating stuff, well worth reading even for non-economists.

Hot chocolate is ready, so I shall sign off and take it back to bed to read myself to sleep. Shabbat shalom, my dears, may you all be happy and healthy this weekend.

First day of summer

Summer arrived in Stuttgart while I was away. The chestnut trees are in full bloom, triggering an unusual allergic reaction: I have a dry, scratchy throat and eyes. The dandelions have been and gone, the roses are budding out. Toronto is at least three weeks behind us climatically, the magnolias were just starting and many trees were still bare.

I'm sitting in shorts and t-shirt in my summer office aka the balcony, having just eaten brunch out here (bacon and scrambled eggs with cheese and mushrooms), with a cup of coffee and a pair of telephones by my side. The temperature is somewhere in the high 20's, the sky is immaculate blue and there is a gentle breeze stirring the leaves of the trees in the schoolyard opposite.

Life is grand.

In geek news Microsoft announced last week that it has sold 2 million Zune MP3 players since the device was introduced in November 2006. Apple sold 10.6 million iPods last quarter. 'nuff said. source

In blogging news Dale is hitting a groove, writing well about the intersection between his beliefs and his massage practice. Quitting the cubicle was such a good move for him. He writes here about pain and self-control, here about poetry and meditation and his fifth blogday, here about maintenance and tennis balls, here about surrender:

I went to KCC last night. It was full of young people... It was nice to see them all there. Though I'm puzzled, as always, when young people come to the Dharma. How do they know, yet, that the world isn't going to make them happy? It makes so many promises. It's so beautiful, and so plausible. And it's so good at convincing us that our unhappiness is our own fault. If only I were twenty pounds lighter -- if only I weren't diffident -- if only I had enough resolution -- if only I did yoga every day -- if only I meditated every day -- if only I ran every day practiced the guitar every day went to the gym every day studied Italian every day read more demanding books learned to appreciate opera and Noh drama and Renaissance painting and memorized poetry and got out into the wilderness made more time for friends and understood quantum mechanics and stopped pressuring myself to do more things -- ah, then I would be happy.

and here about visitors to his massage practice:

If one more woman apologizes to me for being ten imaginary pounds overweight, I am going to scream.

1) You are not overweight
2) It would be no damn business of your massage therapist if you were
3) You are so beautiful that it makes my heart sing

Quite right. Go read.

Another one bites the dust

Friday again, how quickly the weeks fly past. The linden trees in Rose Street have fully leafed out and are casting dappled shadows on the sidewalk, which will soon be falling on the office floor and even my onto my desk. I've been wearing my leather jacket to work (with sweater and scarf) this week.

Leaving work last night, the air was so mild and the sun still so high (at 6:45) that I walked downtown to the Königsplatz and treated myself to a beer on the terrace of the Kunstmuseum. I sat for an hour watching the passersby, commuters and shoppers and flaneurs alike, and noting how the shadowline of the setting sun crept up the hillside opposite. Very pleasant.

Today, very mellow and relaxed, in the mood for making an early start to the weekend. Shabbat shalom, my dears.

Idle

Took a 90-minute lunchbreak today, walked downtown and had salmon steak and Bratkartoffel with a glass of French white wine at a semi-fastfood place, and very nice it was too. Trees are leafing out all over — and the dandelions are up!

After such a lovely break, I am now finding it very difficult to get back to work. Be strong! I only need another 1.5 hours to make my weekly target. Spent the whole of yesterday plus an hour Tuesday working on a single page of the Münsters' Wiki, the longest and most complicated piece yet. I was absolutely exhausted at the end of it, I found myself yestereve sitting around in SL lost for words. Imagine that: moi, unable to find le mot juste.

I've now spent a week back at Rose Street (and for that matter back at work) after the better part of three weeks off, what with London and bronchitis, and have come to a conclusion. At least some of my discomfort and annoyance here has a biochemical basis: too much caffeine and sugar. It makes me irritable and unconcentrated and vaguely queasy. I am considering making a thermos of Yogi Tea to bring with me each morning, to cut down on my coffee consumption. As for the sugar, I could simply stop going to the local bakery every single morning (and most afternoons too).

Enough. Onwards and upwards, get those damned 90 minutes done.

Shabbat shalom, my dears. I wish you all a delightful and Springlike weekend.

Winding down

I shall have to rise at 5 4:45 a.m. tomorrow, to be in Münster at 10 a.m. for a presentation of the software I've been translating. I had wanted to write a longish piece on Second Life (which has been gestating for quite a while) but Princess invited me to a walk in the forest which swallowed the afternoon and early evening. This will have to do for now, my dears.

Still alive

Just a brief post to allay the dire suspicions of those who harbour such things.

Two snippets related to my last post. Reading in the "New Yorker" from December 26, 2005 (it's a long story) I find this quote from Philip Pullman, author of the trilogy "His dark materials:"

Although I call myself an atheist, I am a Church of England atheist, and a 1662 Book of Common Prayer atheist, because that's the tradition I was brought up in and I cannot escape those early influences.

In a reply to one of this week's Posted Secrets, an e-mail commenter said

Whenever I go into a church building, I apologize to God for not believing in Him.

Exactly.

In other news Darren Broadfoot lists 44 fascinating and little-known facts about William Shakespeare.

In other, other news here's an amusing little art-history quiz: Famous or not?. Give it a try. I shall post my score in a day or two, to avoid intimidating you all. (Apologies to whomever I am borrowing this from, I can't remember else I would have credited you. Honestly.)

In otherest news Last but not least, here's a new favourite blog that I haven't mentioned before: the story of Charlie, an orphaned coyote pup being raised by "me and a tomcat in a one-room log cabin in Wyoming."

Stuck in neutral

I seem to have nothing to say or do these days, now that NaBloPoMo is over and the translation has come to a natural break between the application itself (finished) and its associated documentation (the Münsters are considering how—technically—to proceed). I spend whole days sitting around drinking coffee and reading, or doing script-related stuff in Second Life.

Bought four cases of wine with G tonight, for his official birthday party on Saturday, at a local taste-before-you-buy place. Good fun, I came home slightly buzzed and ravenously hungry. Would rather have had olives after the wine, but found only chocolate. Ah well.

So as a kind of apology for my silence and blatherings here's some worthwhile stuff: thoughts on The End from Wil Shipley, some wonderful long-exposure night photos from Noel Kerns, and a very long but fascinating article by Errol Morris (yes, the filmmaker) about truth and photography, a geek's delight if ever there was one.

Weekend off, in a way.

Lazy weekend, which as usual actually means being quite busy in non-financially-productive ways. I spent some more time in the office cleaning up and interfering with offering helpful advice to the model-building team for the second competition. Apparently the first will be judged tomorrow! How exciting.

I finished reading "Lonesome Dove" and found it wonderful but very sad. The ending is quite grim and has a sad taste of loneliness and defeat. Nonetheless highly recommended, the best book on the settling of the West that I know.

Wrote a few new Second Life scripts (a chiming meditation timer for M2, interior lights that turn themselves on when the sun sets) and made my first small contributions to the SL scripting-language Wiki. Waiting now to attend the next in the occasional series of seminars on avatars and identity that I blogged about some time back, after which I shall go straight to bed without passing Go.

The weather has changed again and is now blowing violent gusts of wind in all directions, and the coffee and biscuits that I had with G and U in the office an hour ago is sitting heavily in my stomach.

It feels odd not to have any numbers to write down here.

Another eleven minutes of Saturday

Sneaking under the wire again. Tomorrow will be even tighter.

The competition progresses well. We have fitted nearly all rooms into the available volume, and the sections and elevations are taking shape well. I hope to be finished with it on Monday evening.

That is all. Good night, my dears.

Twenty-four down, six to go.

Weekend starts here.

Happy Friday, everyone. There's not much to report today, I've been working in real life and making friends in Second Life. I was just dancing the tango with a professor of rhetoric on her lunch-break (I'll leave you to guess which life that was in).

I wish you all a peaceful and pleasant weekend. And since it wouldn't be Friday without a Favourite, here it is. [Updated: and here's the link.]

Short

I fear that I'm catching a cold. I shall go to bed early tonight.

That is all.

Shabbat shalom. Enjoy the weekend, my dears.

[Updated: nearly forgot the Friday Favourite, from this CD.]

Because it's been than kind of day

Courtesy of Pacian, the Nerd Test. My score, to inspire or amuse you:





Go ahead, take the test. You know you want to. (Pacian and Zhoen have already taken it and so are excused, everyone else: start clicking.)

The holiday spirit

Once again sitting on the balcony, drinking coffee and listening to the sounds of summer. The weather is warming up after a few days of cool rain; it's currently sunny and mid-twenties with a gentle breeze, which I find pretty close to ideal.

It's funny that when I'm away from the computers, I have many ideas about things that need blogging, but when I sit here nothing comes to mind—at least, nothing that I'm willing to write about yet. Apparently I have a higher impression of my thoughts when I am not able to set them down: walking around town my mind is full of clever, eloquent posts that only need to be typed out, but sitting here it all seems very scrappy and incomplete.

Anyway.

It occurs to me that I haven't been on a real walk, meaning more than the usual two to three km of a Saturday downtown shopping trip, since returning from Spain three weeks ago. I shall rectify this immediately if not sooner, by walking down to the river to enjoy the evening air. More later, perhaps.