Drove down to Atlanta to see my Tech friends and get some drum practice in at my Mom's house. Thanks to the wonders of YouTube, I can basically use Rock Band run-through vids to play songs on my drum set in Mom's basement. I seem to be getting decent...I can keep a beat, do some basic fills, that sort of thing. The way forward seems to be just getting all variations of basic 4/4 stuff down cold so that I can start to improvise off of that.
Anyway, Atlanta. Y'know, if life were to send me back to my old stomping grounds, I would not complain one bit, but it sure is nice just to visit every month and a half or so. Most people complain about the traffic, but it's still not a quarter as bad as the Chicago Traffic Singularity, and living in a decent neighborhood on the perimeter is still not cost-prohibitive.
In other news, I put down a deposit on a new townhome in a better section of Nashville. The place is due to be completed in December. I'm quite excited, and more than a little terrified.
I'm still fixing bugs in HDTV software here in Nashville. Software engineering is where my calling lies, so I enjoy the work. In my free time, I'm learning to play a fake plastic drum set via Rock Band (halfway through Expert at the moment), as well as playing Halo 3 online with local friends. Also, I've joined a bowling league, and occasionally, I go hiking.
I've also been seeing films, of course. Over the past few months, I've really enjoyed Brick, Juno, No Country for Old Men, Eastern Promises, Superbad, The Bourne Ultimatum, Hot Fuzz, and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.
Blogging isn't something that's coming naturally to me at the moment, partly because I've spent the last 5+ years in engineer mode (where brevity is next to godliness, and tools of good writing (florid descriptions and the like) are seen as drags on the almighty signal-to-noise ratio) and partly because, after two years in Japan where seemingly everything was out-of-left-field bizarre, the little bits of bizarre that hit me here in Tennessee don't present themselves quite as pithily describable as those in Japan did. But whatever, such is life, the more I learn the less I know. Hope things are good with all y'all.
As a director, I'd put Ridley Scott a few pegs above Michael Mann. Which is why I find it odd that American Gangster is a notch or two below Heat. Gangster is a good movie, but a) it's 30 minutes too long, b) Crowe and Denzel are both on the closest thing to auto-pilot that you'll see in their respective careers (although Denzel does come to life in a few scenes), and c) the casting and screenplay both seem wanting. Netflix-worthy, but not really worth the trip to the local cinema unless you're okay seeing a decent film that suffers for having had too many chefs in the kitchen.
It's not Goodfellas, but hey, what is? Scorsese hasn't really shown up for work since Casino, so a decent movie by his standards is most welcome. Also watched Munich this week. The sex scene at the end was a big WTF, but the rest was pretty damn good. The New World is this weekend, if I get a chance. God I love life as a movie whore.
Me (seeing that the Marysville Honda plant is shut down for the day): I think those Ohio people are wimps. "Oh boohoo, we're getting some snow. Let's shut everything down." My cousin works at the Marysville plant. Next time I see him, I'm gonna tell him he's a wimp. Co-worker: I think your cousin won't be very happy when you call him a wimp. Me: Oh, I don't think he'll be too upset. He knows what the things that come out of my mouth are worth. [Note: He also knows I'm from Georgia, ranked #1 nationally in stupid snow-related behavior.] Co-worker: I'm glad I'm not your cousin. Me: I think a lot of people are glad they're not related to me.
Having received a year's subscription to Netflix, I began my newly cinetastic 2007 with Kind Hearts and Coronets, a 1949 British film about an ostracized heir to a dukedom who creatively murders most of the relatives standing (or living, rather) between him and the title. This Ealing Studios production stars Sir Alec Guinness, who plays the disgruntled heir, and Sir Alec Guinness, who plays the heir's victims. Call it Man Bites Dog meets Back to the Future, Part II. It is to Sir Alec's credit that the stunt casting never gets in the way of the film, but, as a black comedy, it doesn't quite hit the mark. The main problem is the decided lack of sympathy that Guinness' would-be noble evokes. The filmmakers perhaps intended Louis Manzini to be taken as a underdog with a plucky, can-do spirit who wills himself to aristocracy, but he comes off more as a manipulative (albeit shrewd) psychopath who mixes his pretension, sense of entitlement, and inferiority complex in equal measures. The film isn't bad, or even mediocre, but I can't help but think of Yojimbo, the standard all black comedies aspire to. Toshiro Mifune, the ronin in Kurosawa's masterpiece displays a terrifyingly ferocious joy while slaying his adversaries in cold blood. His is a baptism in blood, and the viewer cannot help but be electrified by the cleverness and enthusiasm with which the ronin ensnares and strikes down his prey. Compared to Mifune, Sir Alec's Manzini seems merely naughty. But then, black comedy doesn't always age well, and perhaps the mild tone of this piece of the 1940s is more a testament to the depravity of the current age than to any directorial sheepishness in the face of the British censors of the time. At any rate, I shall drink a toast to Sir Alec and retire for the evening. Good night.
My birthday was mainly spent driving here to Michigan City, IN. I'm taking the Japanese Language Proficiency Test in Chicago tomorrow, and the Super 8 here doesn't charge out the wazoo. I'm 30 now. Ten years ago, I might not have had the clearest vision of what I wanted to be doing on my 30th birthday, but I'm pretty sure it didn't involve spending the night at a Super 8 in Michigan City.
My life has been really busy for the past few months. Forgive me if I repeat myself, but I moved up to a much nicer part of Michigan back in June, and now have the privilege of being able to walk to work. Work itself has been insanely busy, but that is quite alright with me. The more I have to do, the faster time goes at the office. The worst thing in the world is sitting at your desk at 5:00, killing time, knowing you have to stay another hour but not wanting to start anything that can't be finished before you leave.
I think the last time I posted, I talked about _Le Samourai_. It's an amazing movie, but not one I plan on watching again. I dunno, I think I've been starting to clarify my taste in film a bit...I've really liked everything I've seen by Renoir, for example, but Bergman really just kinda leaves me cold. A couple of weeks ago, I watched the former's version of _The Lower Depths_. What an exquisite picture. There seems to be a dearth of basic humanistic empathy in many auteurs' movies, but I find that, in a directors' best work, the screen radiates warmth, even when dealing with moral ambiguity. I dunno, I trying to form some cogent thoughts on what I've seen lately, but those thoughts may need a bit more time to take shape. Some DVDs I've seen lately that I've enjoyed:
_The Lady Eve_ _Shoot the Piano Player_ (one of those films I'm gonna have to watch again) _The Thin Man_ _Pickpocket_ (the only Bresson film I've seen so far with that empathy I look for) _Paris, Texas_
I have very few issues with my health and general constitution. No allergies, one broken bone in 29 years, haven't gotten physically ill in about seven years or so...I'm most certainly grateful for the way my body treats me. My only complaint: every summer I catch a cold. My last week of high school, not only was I ridin' the Kleenex, I had a string of bloody noses that left me sitting in a classroom with my head tilted back for a hour plus. Just when things were under control, I'd sneeze. A couple of years ago, I caught a bad one just in time for my sister's wedding in Nashville. Ten hours of sleep a night, and I was still wiped out for a few days.
Compared to that, this particular week in June isn't exactly high-leverage, I guess. But I still don't like writing off a perfectly good summer weekend, y'know?
I tell friends that my job is writing computer programs for windshield wipers, which is only partly true. By night, I fight cri...I mean, a lot of software development (and this is especially true for semi-critical automotive components) involves testing. But first, a bit of background (stay with me here).
Currently, the group I work in is taking a large Japanese computer program for a Japanese car and using it as the basis for the computer program of an upcoming American car. (For all you non-computer geeks, this process is called "porting".) Surprisingly, the code itself is in English (well, kind of; there's no such thing as Japanese C or Japanese Assembly Language, but all the comments in the code (things like "This part of the program takes the doorlock signal as an input and produces the headlight signal as an output") are in Japanese).
But the code is not the only part of the development process. The software we make requires a lot of documentation explaining exactly what each piece of code does and how it does it. There is a very general, plain language description of the purpose and function of the software called the specification. For this project, the specification is well over 300 pages long. Overall, I would estimate that the original code that we are porting has about 5000 to 10000 pages of related documentation. All of this is in Japanese. Thankfully, I do not have to translate any of it (although I do have to look at the original Japanese sometimes and figure out what's going on).
No, my job (provisionally completed yesterday) was to take previously constructed tests from the old (made in Japan) source code and run them on our new (made in Japan *and* America) source code. For each function tested (windshield wipers, headlights, door locks, etc.), I had to write a report describing each little difference between the old tests and the new one. Having finished that task, I'm now working on constructing a tool to more completely automate this process.
Anyway, I occasionally get asked (in real life) how a software engineer earns his paycheck, so I thought I'd detail one of the duties (believe me, there are many others) that I'm required to perform.
I'm guess I'm gonna have to finally give in and set this weekend aside to clean my ap't and car. The key is to make a plan and stick to it (or so I've heard), but, as a software geek, I think I'll use a greedy algorithm instead (i.e. find the messiest spot in my place and get that clean; do while (ap't is messy);). The impetus for organizing my life? I spent 20 minutes this morning searching for the fob to my Camry before realizing the darned thing was in my breast pocket (where I always put it). It's like my dad always said: if I had a brain, I'd be dangerous.
"Greater" Detroit, as I've so often complained, is among the best in the country for Middle Eastern food and beer, but certainly among the worst for Mexican food and good home cookin'-ish places. I'd been looking for a decent diner around here that isn't a Coney Island, and yesterday I went to a place called the Classic Cup Cafe that more than fits the bill. Just about everything my companions and I ordered (egg skillets, burgers, salads, and char-grilled salmon) was quite delicious. The only grey lining to this silver cloud is that, because the restaurant is in west Ann Arbor, it's about 35-40 minutes drive from my current residence. But beggars can't be choosers, and I go to Ann Arbor every couple of weeks anyway. So I guess I'll have to find some new complaint about Michigan to replace the diner harangue.
Some thoughts on a few DVDs I got from the library this weekend.
The Cranes are Flying - Russian WWII melodrama. Meh.
Coup de Grace - German WWI drama. Not bad, but I'm not sure what Schlondorff is trying to say with this film. Ostensibly in color, both the film and the cinematography feel washed out and grey.
Le Samourai - 1967 French crime film directed by Melville that is the spiritual forebear of the modern hitman film. Melville's M.O. throughout is the old filmmaking adage "show, don't tell," and, as such, the plot glides on with a stunning economy of dialogue. John Woo writes in the accompanying booklet that this film is a big influence on _The Killer_ and _Hard-Boiled_, but Melville's action scenes here are indebted to Kurosawa's minimalistic swordplay, whereas Woo's echo Peckinpah's slow motion bloodbaths. Immensely satisfying, and easily the best film I watched this weekend.
Through a Glass Darkly - A trifling Bergman film concerning a woman battling with psychological illness and her artistically-inclined family coping with her disorder. This film unfolds like a musical, except instead of songs, we get clumps of spoken insights concerning each character's psyche. This proclivity for soul-baring really overwhelms the movie, and I felt uncomfortable as the film wore on, like a man listening to a woman he just met tearfully detail her mother's cancer. Apart from Bergman's psychological profiling, we never really get to know the characters.
Summertime - 1955 film about an aging American woman (Katherine Hepburn) and her long-awaited stay (and romance) in Venice. Not the most uplifting premise for a film, but director David Lean and Hepburn truly earn their paychecks steering clear of the maudlin and the pathos and the omg-stop-trying-to-manipulate-my-emotions. Not quite a great movie, but it could have been much, much worse.
...was very very busy. I didn't even get a chance to ride up to Sanbongi, my official Japanese hometown in the Northeastern recesses of Japan. But I'll get another chance to visit my former stomping grounds again, I'm sure. Anyway.
We flew into Kansai International Airport on Thursday, Oct. 20th, and back out on the 28th. Both flights were quite pleasant, especially since the adjacent seat was empty each time.
In total, I stayed four nights in a business hotel next to Shin-Osaka station, two in a Japanese-style inn in the Asakusa section of Tokyo, and two in Mie-ken, in the suburbs of Nagoya.
Osaka was fun, although I didn't get to do much sightseeing. I did, however, get to walk through the main arcade in Osaka, called Doutonbori. Atop one particular restaurant in Doutonbori sits a giant crab. This giant crab is to Osaka what the Big Chicken is to Atlanta. I was enjoined by an Osakan coworker to visit the giant crab, and by God, I saw the giant crab. I also visited the famous diving bridge, where Japanese Darwin Award contenders gather every time the Hanshin Tigers gain entrance into the Japan Series. (The Hanshin Tigers are Japan's answer to the Chicago Cubs.) It was on this bridge one October night in 1985 that the intrepid Hanshin fans celebrated their last Japan League championship. During the celebration, fans threw a likeness of each Tigers player off the bridge (called Ebisu-bashi). When it came to the Tigers' foreign star, Randy Bass, no appropriate likeness was immediately at hand, so the fans stole a statue of Colonel Sanders from a local Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. Since then, the Hanshin Tigers have not celebrated a Japan Series victory, hence the "Curse of Bass". According to lore, Hanshin will not win again until Col. Sanders is recovered from the depths of the river. And, from the Wikipedia comes this amusing note: "In 2003, when the Tigers returned to the Japan Series after 18 years with one of the worst records in the Central League, many KFC outlets in Kobe and Osaka moved their Colonel Sanders statues inside until the series was over to protect them from rabid Tigers fans."
Nowadays, fans themselves jump from the bridge into the shallow canal below. To prevent this, the Osaka gov't has erected a tall clear plastic wall on Ebisu-bashi, and signs warning of the dangers of diving into the water are placed on the opposite wall.
I'm travelling with a fellow engineer from Sumitomo who happens to be Korean, and, for some reason, people are much more bemused when I break out my Japanese than when he breaks out his. They get this priceless expression on their faces, like "Holy shit! A talking bear!".
The ramen here is great. We went to this tiny place near the Shin-Osaka station, and ate some thoroughly competent noodles. I was kinda hoping to get through the trip without drawing the ubiquitous compliments on my skill-zuh-zuh-zuh with chopsticks, but the waitress there was impressed. Oh well, it beats the hell out of the "Thanks for Hiroshima, asshat" stares I sometimes get from the elderly on the trains of Nihon.
And now my head is threatening to crash into the keyboard, so I will have a second crack at overcoming my jet lag. Later, y'all.
The DTW airport shuttle driver told me that construction on the new terminal there will finish in late 2008. In other words (depending on your view of Detroit), the wing will open on a cold day in hell. (Cold days in hell are getting to be pretty common. After all, I'm here in Japan on the company dime. :-)
The flight here was mercifully uneventful. Didn't get much sleep, but I did get a bit more of _The Singularity is Near_ read. Interesting stuff. Anyway, I'll be in Osaka tomorrow for a seminar, and then in Tokyo for the weekend and Monday (for the Motor Show). 090-8078-9731 if you're bored and have the money to call Japan. I'd forgotten that the hotels here smell like old motor homes, btw.
Does anyone else find those TV ads for Citi(bank) (you know, the ones where they say "There's more to life than money") a little, um, disconcerting? I'd certainly like to see Aetna commercials with a similar premise. ("There's more to life than competent health care.") Well, not really the commercials, just the reaction to 'em.
In other news, I'm going to Japan on Wednesday for a one week business trip. Should be fun. :-) (I'm really liking my job right now.)
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