Author: Captain Nerd

Veteran’s Day 2013

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At the 11th hour, on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the guns of war fell silent for a time. The men and women who fought in that “War to End All Wars” hoped and prayed that no one would ever hear the guns of war again.

Sadly, a new generation was called upon to fight in an even larger war, which changed the face of the world, and ended in the terrible, bright light of nuclear fire. “Surely,” the exhausted warriors then prayed, “Surely we can now lay down arms forever, and live in peace with our families, safe at home.”

And again, and again, and yet again, these prayers were not answered, and new generations of men and women gave up safety and peace, gave their blood and sweat and life and limb, so that we could live our lives safe and at peace.

All those who fought in that terrible first World War have now passed, and we are saying farewell to the men and women of the “Greatest Generation” that followed, far too soon. We have lost so many others to other wars since, but yet there remain those who feel the call to defend and protect what peace we have, who do not feel the sacrifice to be in vain.

To the men and women who yet man the ramparts, who have and continue to sacrifice their own safety and peace for us, for the men and women who every hour of their service risk their lives, to these we say “Thank you” and pray the same prayers of all who have fought, “Surely, surely this time…”

Nerdtour 2012: Riding the Enoden pt. 2: Kamakura

enoden1-044So, after riding the Enoden for a few minutes, it was time to get off at the station in Hase town, where the Great Buddha (Daibutsu) of Kamakura is situated. Like most of the towns along the Enoden, Hase is a tourist town, making the most of the local attraction. A lot of tourists come because of the Buddhist aspect, and a lot more come just to gawk (yeah, I’m guilty of the latter.)

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Not being Buddhist myself, I didn’t get the spiritual feeling, but as a techie, to me the Great Buddha is an impressive engineering feat! Cast in bronze sometime in the 13th Century, the statue is hollow, allowing people to go inside for a mere 20 yen (about 30 cents US).  The temple grounds around are also very impressive, with sculptures both man-made and natural. 

kamakura-046This day was particularly fun, because there was a tour group from an elementary school, and some of the kids were split up into groups, each group assigned to speak to a foreigner in order to practice their English.  The group that approached me and my buddy John did a very good job of introducing themselves, asking if they could ask questions, and handled their English fairly well.  The questions were basic, “Where are you from?” type questions.  It was fun watching them “ambush” other foreigners, too, although I have to wonder if all of the foreign tourists spoke English.

So, here is the gallery of photos I took in and around Hase and the Great Buddha of Kamakura.

Enjoy!

 

Nerdtour 2012: riding the Enoden

So, I’m updating (only a year later!) with some more photos from my Nerdtour of Japan! This will broken up into a couple of sets of photos that are going to be on my portfolio site, but I’ll update here when I update there!

So, on this day I rode the Enoden train, a historic train line that runs from Kamakura to Fujisawa, with the main stop in the middle, at Enoshima Island. Enoshima has been a tourist spot since the days of the Shogun, and the Enoden gets its name from “Enoshima Dentetsu“, Enoshima Electric Railway. Kamakura is famous for its large statue of Buddha, which I will post in another set of photos. The train runs along the beach on the Pacific Ocean south of Tokyo, with stops at several beach towns along the way. I stopped at one of these, Shichirigahama, which turned out to have a nice view of Enoshima Island, as well as Mount Fuji (but only in silhouette, as usual…). It very much reminded me of the beach towns of southern California, especially with the surfers, and apparently the Enoshima area is known internationally for its surf. After spending way too much time in Shichirigahama, I continued on to Fujisawa in the evening, but due to failing batteries I didn’t get many photos of the city.

This set of photos is from the first leg of the day trip, from Etchujima station near Monzennakacho, through Tokyo Station and Kamakura Station, and sights along the Enoden to Hase.

At any rate, Enjoy!

Rainy day in Chiba – photos

The Chiba MonorailSo, I uploaded some more Japan pictures to my portfolio site, these are pictures I took on my last day there. It was appropriately cold and rainy, to match my gloomy mood. These are photos mostly of Chiba, including riding on and watching the Chiba Monorail. Also got pictures of some of the runners in the Chiba Ekiden marathon, which passed right by the monorail and JR stations in Chibaminato.

So, hop on over and enjoy (don’t be too depressed at the gloom!) the gallery!

Maryland Renaissance Festival “Day of Wrong”

I went to the last day of this year’s Maryland Renaissance Festival, which is traditionally the “Day of Wrong”, where people come dressed in anything but medieval costumes, although some choose to dress in a mashup of historical and modern, like the “Scottish Stormtroopers” or the “Iron Man knight”, most are just regular cosplayers (as if “cosplaying” is a “regular” thing! =^_^=). I captured a few of the folks, including some cosplay friends, as well as the general ambience of the place. It was a beautiful day, sunny but kind of cool, perfect for an Autumn day.

And so, hasten thou to ye Faire, and enjoy!

Let the Merriment commence!

“Welcome to Tokyo” Olympics promotional video by “World Order”

There’s a musical group in Japan called “World Order“, started by a former kick-boxer and now choreographer and composer (why have just one career?) named Genki Sudou. The group has made several music videos, and their signature style is to dress in expensive business suits and march in robotic unison through crowded streets in Tokyo, followed by pop and lock dancing to music composed by Sudou. They’ve been featured in ads for some companies in Japan, as well as performing in different places around the world.

Since Tokyo won the rights to the 2020 Summer Olympics, “World Order” made a “Welcome to Tokyo” video, where they perform their song and dance in various famous (and not so famous) places in Tokyo, such as Akihabara, Asakusa, Ginza, Roppongi, and Tokyo Tower. It was neat seeing this, because I’ve been to most of the places they perform in this video, which makes me wish I had been there when they were recording this! Seeing familiar places also makes me want to go back again, although with my current employment situation that’s not going to be possible for a few more years.

At any rate, here is “World Order” performing their song “World Order” in Tokyo.

Enjoy!

Power tools dubstep…

One of my favorite Youtube artists is Joe Penna, the “Mystery Guitar Man“. I’ve posted about him before, he’s a master at taking small video segments and literally “playing” them as notes in pieces of music. He’s also experimented with stop-motion animation, odd mechanical contrivances for making music, recreating old technology, and other unusual things. He’s worked solo and collaborated with other musicians and Youtubers to create short musical video pieces. His enthusiasm about the technology of video and music is undeniable, and he always looks like he’s having tremendous fun creating his works.

This video he made has been out for a little while, but I recently re-discovered it while roaming Youtube. I kind of like some music called “dubstep”, but not in any great way (some performers make pieces that go on for a good part of an hour, and that’s way too long for me). This short clip is kind of an interesting take on the genre. Using only video clips containing the sight and sound from various tools he used while building a sign for the sponsor of this video, he manages to make a very presentable “dubstep” piece.

Enjoy!

Been a bit too busy to blog…

Between workload on my project and trying to work up my portfolio with photos from my great-nephew’s wedding, I have been only sparsely blogging. But, that’s going to improve soon, as my role on the project ends Monday, and I’ve finished with the wedding photos (but not the others which I have yet to move from here).

I don’t have anything else to write about right now, but feel free to go check out my portfolio site, where I’ll be occasionally posting or moving photos as I get to them. I’ll be on the lookout for more fun and unusual stuff when I start wandering the ‘net again!