So the last (?) remaining public bath in Nakano started demolition last week. There had been a notice posted for a few weeks saying it was about to go, and then all of a sudden it was in pieces. They seem not to care that they destroyed some beautiful roof tiling, the main wood beams, and the like in the process, just smashing it down with a large bulldozer. I’ve grabbed what I consider some dramatic shots from mid-destruction this weekend, along with one of those ceiling tiles which will make a nice bookend. Photos soon.

While taking the photos, I passed by a woman who was wearing a shirt: “United States Of America Music Softens Our Minds”. Brilliant. Just wish I could have snapped a shot of that.

And with each passing minute I get closer to Italy :)

May 18th-19th (this weekend) is the 4th annual MASTURBATE-A-THON. It’s all for a good cause. Who will sponsor me for each minute I masturbate??

All money goes to the Hassle Free Women’s Clinic.

See more here or here.

Richard’s sayonara party was last night. After he hired me on and we worked together since November…he felt like a father to me, and I am not sure I’ll feel right about being here without him. When I was impetulent, he was level-headed. When he lost the faith, I helped prop him back up — and likewise in reverse. I always got a boost knowing that I could go to him with a good idea, and he’d carry it to the highest levels of the company with strong enthusiasm. And now, with no foreigners in the company higher than my level, our traction will be even lower than it used to be. Life is going to get hard, harder than it already is. Good luck to you Richard, and let me know when your bed & breakfast in Ashland, OR opens. I want to be one of the first guests.

Just posted a nice nasty thing about Japan. I’m in a bad mood. Read if you want to be pissy too.

…wasn’t a letdown. It rocked. Even though I had to watch it on two VCDs downloaded from the Internet (no, you can’t know how or where.)

The trailers don’t do it justice. Though there is a hell of a lot of cheese in the film too…

If you want spoilers, post a comment to this message, so the rest of you who don’t want to have spoilers won’t see them.

So I ended up spending all day yesterday, and a bit of overtime, working at the Exodus data center on one of our clients’ machines. All three of their severs (two production, one staging) went down within a few hours of each other late last week, cause still unknown (because evidence may have been trashed by the people that tried to fix it.) At least it’s back up and running, and I’ve hardened the machines as well as I know how. Next step: analyzing further to see what really happened…

This morning I went to the post office to pick up a package (the RV-7 preview plans, read on) and the office was closed. Now, the Nakano post office is supposed to be open 24 hours. So I was a bit upset — until I realized it was 8:55, 5 minutes before the “full service” counter opens. I looked through the curtain, and saw what I had previously only heard of: Japanese company morning exercises. But the post office ones were especially fun. They did some arm and leg stretches as a warm-up. Then, they made movements in unison, chanting things like “Greetings” (irasyaimase) “Just a minute” (sho sho omachi o kudasai) and “Thank you very much” (arigato gozaimashita). They looked like marionettes, and I was especialy amused with the vim & vigor with which they all said “I’ve found your package!” :P

In any case, they opened 5 minutes later and let me get my preview plans, which are sitting quite happily next to me (in their cheap-ass 3-ring binder. Japanese binders are SO much better made, but that’s a rant for another day…) All the stares I got from jealous salarymen on the train this morning made up for carrying the heavy thing (along with my laptop) to work :P

So I was posting this BIG comment over on my girlfriend’s livejournal, and when I pressed the BACK arrow on Mozilla 1.0rc1, it lost my entire post! But pushing the forward arrow still posted the form, and gave me the error that my post was too big…

Obviously my post was still in the browser’s memory. But how would I get it out? A disk search didn’t turn it up, and I didn’t feel like dumping memory to look for it…

So I did the next best thing. Installed windump (tcpdump for win32) and:

C:\> windump -s 0 -i 1 -w missingpost.txt

…and hex-edited out the text, converting all the + to spaces and the other ctrl characters to their ASCII equivalents…

15 minutes of work that I could have used to rewrite it, but boy, I am proud I can still do this sort of silly stuff. :)

THIS IS AN EYES ONLY…oh, sod the Dark Angel stuff. :)

Unconfirmed rumor: Spike Tokyo has closed its doors. Supposedly 12 people were fired (probably the rest are heading to Sydney or other offices…)

Since my friend tessier mentioned it, I can’t get it off my mind. I must build and own one of these.

Last night my semi-boss invited me to a dinner party at his place with some friends. It was great — Richard, Angel, thanks for a lovely time! Mercy and I really enjoyed it…

Now I have to get back to work. Between joystick drivers, piles of paper on my desk from the CEO guy, and my semi-annual review, I actually have a lot to do all of a sudden…

WHAT’S THE STORY BEHIND YOUR LJ USERNAME?

When I was about 16, I made friends with a 3/4 Cherokee, 1/4 French woman. She gave me the name Soaring Eagle, saying it was the name of a friend of her grandfather’s who was a Blackfoot Chief. The “eagle” stuck with me, and when I learned some Cherokee in college, I learned wohali meant eagle. The nickname stuck!

HAVE YOU EVER HAD A MAKEOVER?

Just last weekend, actually. At the NARS counter in Isetan, Shinjuku, Tokyo. I told them I like the natural look, avoiding the Tammy Faye Baker syndrome. It looked very nice, actually, and I bought some of the stuff they used on me. But I prefer facials and little-to-no makeup.

HAVE YOU EVER WITNESSED DEATH?

Human death? No.

WHAT’S THE LONGEST TIME YOU’VE STAYED OUT OF THE COUNTRY/WHERE?

16 months, here in Japan, not counting the short vacations I’ve taken there. If you count those, about 8 months.

ONE THING YOU’RE GRATEFUL FOR, TODAY.

The love and support of my dearest friends and GF — can’t beat it!

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE HIGH SCHOOL MEMORY?

Ack, high school sucked. Except for those three standing ovations our nationally-acclaimed jazz band got at the Midwest festival for the National Council of Music Educators. That rocked.

WHAT IS THE MOST INSANE THING YOU’VE DONE FOR/TO YOUR LOVE?

Moved to Japan. Unfortunately that relationship ended about a month after I got here . . . at least I also moved here for a job!

DESCRIBE YOUR DREAM WEDDING.

It’s still a secret, and yes, I’m working hard on it. One hint: Athena.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE DOING WHEN YOU ARE 60?

Everything I don’t have time to do now, but better. Like flying around the world in a plane I built with my own two hands. Or developing the latest Q*Bert clone for my PlayStation 9. And partying the night away like there’s no tomorrow, wearing purple the entire time.

WHAT IS YOUR FIRST MEMORY?

I remember sitting in the corner of my grandparents’ living room, watching everyone around me. I was listening to a Stevie Wonder album, and eating a cookie (I think). I must have been 2, or younger…

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE QUOTE?

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
-e. e. cummings, 315, from Collected Poems

MY FIRST HEARTBREAK HAPPENED WHEN I WAS…

My first puppy love thing in high school…was 15. And it only took me a few minutes to get over it, since it was pretty lame to start with.

HOW MUCH MONEY DOES IT TAKE TO KEEP YOU FOR A YEAR?

More than you can afford, lemming! :)

DO YOU HAVE ANY WEIRD PREFERENCES?

Depends on how you define weird. I like natto and sushi, those are pretty weird. Oh, and girls. I like girls. :)

WHAT IS ONE THING YOU WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND ABOUT THE OPPOSITE SEX?

Being so gung-ho for violent games and sports. I love sports with good rules and love talking about them, but “Battlebots?”

WHAT PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY DO YOU WANT MOST RIGHT NOW?

An airplane. Preferably a Cirrus SR22 or a Van RV-7(A?).

NAME ONE TV CHARACTER YOU’D MOST WANT TO BE.

Dark Angel. No question.

FAVORITE GEMSTONE?

I have to choose? Oh, all right, sapphires. :)

GIVE YOURSELF A PORN STAR NAME.

No.

WHAT’S YOUR WORST FLAW?

Working too hard. That, and eating an entire bock of Honeycomb in one sitting. Yes, the big size.

WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO THIS SUMMER?

Move to Toronto, and start my IFR training.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG RIGHT NOW?

Origin Of Love from the Hedwig And The Angry Inch soundtrack

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE MOVIES IN THESE CATEGORIES: HUMOR, ROMANCE, DRAMA, ACTION, HORROR?

Shamefully stolen from , since I agree with her more than 50%:
humor: Monty Python and the Holy Grail
romance: What Dreams May Come
drama: Run Lola Run or Citizen Kane
musical: Hedwig and the Angry Inch
action: The Usual Suspects
horror (film noir): Mulholland Drive

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DISNEY SONG?

Main Street Electrical Parade, for the analog synthesis.

DESCRIBE YOUR DREAM HOUSE.

Big enough for all our stuff, and then some. With a pool, big garage and work area, and the most awesome bathroom you’ve ever seen.

YOUR TYPICAL SLEEPWEAR:

Um, nude.

WHAT’S IN YOUR BAG?

Palm m505, wallet, iPod, schematics to the Voyetra Eight, DoCoMo cell phone (keitai), business cards & holder, tissue, pens, allergy shot.

WHAT IS THE MOST INTERESTING THING YOU’VE EVER WORN, PIERCED, OR TATTOOED?

A blue latex dress, which I still own and wear on occasion. Woo woo!

HOW MUCH MONEY DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR WALLET RIGHT NOW?

26,483 yen. Which doesn’t last you long in Tokyo, no matter how frugal you are.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF IN YOUR LIFE?

Always striving to be a better person. That, and finally standing up to my parents.

HOW WAS YOUR SENIOR PROM?

I didn’t go.

TELL US ABOUT ANY OF YOUR BIRTHDAYS.

This year’s birthday sucked because I was at a convention in Arizona. But at least I had dinner with my lovely GF and she took good care of me!

WHAT DO YOU MOST ENJOY ABOUT LOOKING AT OTHER PEOPLE?

You DON’T enjoy it yourself??? It’s so much fun to sit at a sidewalk cafe and just people watch, especially the other people in the cafe :P

WHAT ARE THE FIRST FIVE THINGS YOU WOULD SPLURGE ON IF YOU WERE A BILLIONAIRE?

1. Make a star!
2. Pay off the politicans in Japan who are feeding projects to construction companies.
3. Give money and development projects to firms that are ecologically sound and would beautify Japan from its current concrete wasteland.
4. Help out my friends who are in need financially so they can get a leg up in the world.
5. Buy lots of different kinds of neat aircraft and get trained in them all.

WHAT IS YOUR DAILY BEFORE-GOING-TO-BED RITUAL?

Shower, brush teeth, get into bed, talk with my GF until we both fall asleep.

WHAT IS THE WEIRDEST/FUNNIEST NICKNAME ANYONE HAS EVER CALLED YOU?

Donut slave.

WHAT ARE THE MAGAZINES YOU READ ON A REGULAR BASIS?

These days? Ugh, IEEE Spectrum and AOPA Pilot. Boring Joan.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PAIR OF SHOES?

Currently my Hush Puppies, though I wish I had something a bit more comfortable…

WOULD YOU RATHER BE A HOBBIT, AN ELF OR A DWARF?

An Elf, again. I used to be one, but they clipped the pointy bits off of my ears and I lost my magic with it! :(