Category: cool things!

These things are cool!

Burritos… In… SPAAAAACE!

I won’t make any jokes about “the flying burrito, brother” (too late!) but this was a pretty interesting video by the “Mythbusters” guys, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, and Canada’s coolest astronaut, Chris Hadfield, with help from chef Traci Des Jardin. The plan was to come up with something good to eat made with the ingredients available on the ISS. Chef Des Jardin figures out a way of making a beef burrito using the steak, tortillas, and beans that Commander Hadfield had access to. It’s neat to see how things work on Earth and how different the same things work without gravity, and how cruel it can be to watch people eat fresh fruit that you only get once every few months if you’re lucky!

Enjoy!

Remember…

On this Memorial Day, remember the fallen, the ones who gave everything for us, and remember the ones who have served and who are serving now, at home and far away.

Thank you!

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base of flagpole with inscription "Americans came to liberate"

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David Lee Roth, hitman?

Well, yeah, he was a “hit, man” back in the 80’s as part of Van Halen, but he’s been in Japan filming a supposed “trailer” for a supposed Japanese yakuza (gangster) film. He’s gotten older (as have we all) and more craggy, almost alien in this trailer. Which I guess is appropriate, since Japanese consider everyone else “aliens” (gaijin). If this is going to be a real movie, which I doubt, it could be pretty good, especially if it’s actually more of a spoof. I mean, an American hitman taking out yakuza in a Japanese bath house, while quoting “Sailor Moon”? And taking the bath he paid for afterwards? Way over the top! And no on-screen violence, either, which is a welcome change.

While it lasts, here’s the “trailer”.

Enjoy!

Nerdtour 2012 quickie: Enoshima Girls

Be grateful you can’t hear me singing this! And I only did one verse so you can be even more thankful!

Enoshima Girls
(sung to the tune of “California Girls” by the Beach Boys)

Well Tokyo girls are hip, I really dig those styles they wear,
And Osaka girls with the way they talk, they knock me out when I’m back there.
The Tohoku farmer’s daughters really make you feel all right,
And Hokkaido girls with they way they kiss they keep their boyfriends warm at night.

I wish they all could be Enoshima
I wish they all could be Enoshima
I wish they all could be Enoshima girls!

Sun, sand, surf and cute girls, the Beach Boys would have loved Enoshima! =^_^=

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Assassin’s Creed 3 and parkour – whoa!

Okay, disclaimer: I know next to nothing about the Assassin’s Creed series of games, other than that number 3 is supposedly set in the British Colonies around the time of the American Revolution, and the character doesn’t like the British. So, this video might be even more interesting to you gamers who know about it, and you may or may not be as impressed as I am by the athletic ability of the guy, Ronnie Shalvis, who performs the parkour moves in this video. He does quite a few flashy and most likely unnecessary moves, but daggone they’re amazing nonetheless! The cinematography is fantastic, and the scenery is breathtakingly beautiful.

I will let you all judge the skill of the performer, and how “Assassin’s Creed”-worthy the video is. It impressed the heck out of me.

Coolest. Astronaut. Ever!

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has been using his time on the International Space Station to show that space is not just for scientists, but also for artists and creators. He’s been posting some beautiful photos of the Earth from space, and now he’s made a music video of his cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” with a few revised lyrics! He apparently recorded the video and audio of his song on the station, which the producers on the ground mixed with the music track and edited together into this video. He recorded this with new lyrics having to do with his return from the ISS, which you can tell he’s going to miss. It’s really a great job that he’s done, and I hope others get to follow the musical and artistic trail he’s blazed!

Now, by definition (mine), astronauts and cosmonauts are cool people, but I have to say that, after the Apollo astronauts, Chris Hadfield is on my list of The Coolest Astronauts Ever!

Enjoy!

Finally, a new book!

After many years of dithering and dawdling and otherwise procrastinating, I finally have a new book out! Hopefully the first of many, its photos cover one morning and early afternoon at the Kiyosumi Garden in Tokyo, Japan, on my first full day there.

In case you’re interested, I have both print and ebook versions available, although not through the Apple iBookstore. I’m using the software and website of Blurb.com, which is a print-on-demand service that provides book composition tools, as well as a marketplace and promotion utilities (such as the preview below) to help people create and sell books. Their model is quite reasonable, they establish a base price for paper quality, number of pages, and size of book, and the creator (me!) adds a small amount of markup, to keep once the book sells (hopefully!). I want to take more of the photos that I took on my Nerdtour 2012 trip and make books from them, because I saw and photographed some interesting sights and activities in the Tokyo area, as well as in the Touhoku region of Japan.

I named this book “Kiyosumi Garden Tour” and it’s basically a walk-around through the park, in pictures, with some occasional explanatory commentary in captions. The ebook version can be previewed and ordered here, while the print version (much more expensive, but batteries not required!) is available here.

If you want you can preview a few pages in this viewer (click on the “view fullscreen” icon to see a larger version:

Look for more books during the upcoming year!

Reaching Autumn: A “Calvin and Hobbes” fan movie…

This is an interesting short (13 minutes) movie, “Reaching Autumn: A Calvin and Hobbes Movie”, featuring live actors portraying the characters “Calvin” and “Susie Derkins” from the comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes” once they’ve grown up and entered society as young adults. Calvin is portrayed as a serious businessman who’s abandoned his imaginary world, while Susie is shown as a bohemian, free-spirited artist. They meet by accident and have lunch together, while comparing notes about their childhood memories and their current lives. It’s a tender movie, with flashbacks and many scenes in the autumn woods. Some of the acting is a bit stiff, the timing is not quite right, but the heart is definitely there, and if you have fond memories of the “Calvin and Hobbes” comic strip, then you won’t be disappointed in this take on it, especially the end.

Enjoy!