Christopher Graves

A New Home

2010-10-02T12:35:00.002-05:00

You may have noticed that I haven't been posting to this blog much lately. Well, there's certainly a good reason for that.

I've moved!

Yep, remember that old Tumblr I was experimenting with? That's the my new blog now. You can find it here: http://cjgraves.tumblr.com.

Over time, I'll slowly be converting everything to the new blog, and hopefully, everything will be routed properly to there.

So, fix your bookmarks and feed readers! And let me know what you think of the new place!

Moldable Silicone = Hacking Fun

2010-07-02T11:08:00.002-05:00

I've recently discovered this product called sugru, and it seems pretty awesome. It's pretty much moldable silicone that cures at room temperature. Imagine the cool hacks you could do with it... custom rubber grips, patching leaky... things, custom rubber cases for certain death-grip phones. I almost want to buy some just to see what all I can do with the stuff! I definitely have ideas for improving the crappy grips on my Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto and Uni-ball Jetstream 2 & 1 multi-function pens.

On the sugru site, they even have a gallery of hacking ideas for you, in case you run out.

Anyone else out there have any cool ideas or uses for this stuff?

Social Networking Tweak

2010-06-29T19:10:00.005-05:00

So, if you haven't seen it yet, I have updated my blog layout! I have really been wanting to design a minimalistic blog, and with Blogger's new design editor, and a little bit of modifications done by yours truly, I think I've finally been able to pull off the look I've been wanting. What do you think? Oh, and are there any weird coding problems, let me know so I can fix them.

Actually, there's been quite a lot of changes going around here. Recently, I have been attempting to get my social networking sites all in order. Although I'm not entirely sure if it's effective, I'd like to share with you my goal in organizing these sites.

First of all, let me lay down the social networking sites I primarily use and the goals for their use:

Facebook - A more personal and intimate hub for what's going on with me, Facebook will be primarily for close friends and family. So, if I've deleted you from my friends recently, please don't be offended. You can easily follow me elsewhere for updates.
Twitter - I'll be using this as a public, quick, anything-goes status update.
Flickr - For pictures I feel comfortable sharing with the world and posting directly to my blog. As soon as I get a mobile phone with a good camera, I'll be posting more, I hope!
YouTube - I'm not overly active over at YouTube, hopefully I will be soon; again, when I get a decent mobile phone. Right now, it's just full of subscriptions I follow and whatnot. Probably boring for most of my readers.
Picasa - As my Picasa album is nearly full and I'm unwilling to pay a monthly fee for expanding my capacity, it's simply a dead archive at this point. I am, however, considering other solutions for sharing photos, such as DivvyShot or Facebook (for friends and family only, of course). But with great Blogger integration, it's rather hard to give up.
Google Reader - I cannot begin to tell you how much I love Google Reader -- but that's for another post. As I go through my daily feeds, I occasionally share items I think are rather interesting. So publicly, G. Reader a direct access to all articles I want to share with the world.

The setup:

My blog will serve as the main outlet for my personal content: articles, thoughts and other larger updates going on in my life. And, as most bloggers say they do, I'd really like to start writing (or at least posting) in my blog more often.

Media content will be retrieved from Flickr and YouTube to enhance the blog. And from there, information about my blog will be sent to Facebook and Twitter, where Followers can be redirected to my blog.

Shared information and other fun stuff, such as from Google Reader, goes directly into Facebook and I have to manually send those links to Twitter (as Twitter is more public and you know what they say about online reputations).

Thankfully, a lot of this is automated due to a variety of services, such as FriendFeed, a lifestreaming service, and FeedBurner, a service from Google designed to enhance your feeds.

Is it an effective way of managing my social content?

Hm, that could be a tough one to answer. It does feel rather sloppily put together. Ideally, I would like to use one main service to manage everything, rather than making use several automatic "helper" services.

In the meantime, this is my aim to get things in order. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Christmas Vacation in Okinawa

2010-06-23T17:46:00.000-05:00

So, it's quite a few months late, but I'm finally getting around to posting our Christmas vacation album. For Christmas vacation, Kassie and I decided to visit Okinawa - the tropical island in southern Japan.

View Larger Map

Despite looking so tiny on the map, Okinawa is actually larger than it looks. It's very different from the main island of Japan as well - that's not surprising being it used to be it's own kingdom since the 1860's. And because of the American military base there, the Okinawan people are quite used to (and very friendly toward) foreigners. The taxi drivers were a lot pushier as well.

There are no trains or subways, which are practically all over in Japan, but there is a single monorail that goes up and down the length of Naha, Okinawa's capital. I personally think it would be nice if it went up and down the length of the entire island. But the monorail was nice and clean and thus looked fairly new. Such an idea may be on the drawing board for the future.

Other than that, tourists have to rely on busses, taxis, or rental cars to get around. Here are some photo highlights from our trip:

Enjoying the local cuisine. Lobster, yum!

A rainy outdoor scene at Okinawa World

At a university near Shuri Castle

Arial view of Okinawa

A beach

More beach

Downtown shopping area of Naha.

Goya champuru - bitter, but delicious!

Kassie and I managed to get off the island of Okinawa and took a plane to Ishigaki island. Then took a ferry to Iriomote island - a very tiny and quiet island where about 80% is wild, protected forests. Only a single road runs along the coast that takes about an hour to travel - we read that there is only one gas station, too. It is also quite famous for the Iriomote cat, an undomesticated feline about the size of a house cat native only to this tiny island.

I was hoping to spot an Iriomote cat, but because of their nocturnal lifestyle and our limited time, we were unable to spot one. I heard it was quite rare, anyway. Interestingly enough, I did manage to spot one of my junior high school students all the way down here!

Anyway, here's some photos from Iriomote island:

Overall, it was quite a pleasant experience. We probably enjoyed the warm weather the most, despite raining half the trip. We'd definitely visit again. Hopefully we'll get the chance to spend more time in Iriomote when we do - a few days of relaxation and spend some time in the only natural onsen in the Ryuku Islands!

An Update

2010-05-21T12:29:00.003-05:00

Okay, so yeah... it's been a while. But you know how things go.

My contract in Japan is over now and I'm back in America. We had some time off before we went back and ended spending a lot of time in Tokyo (saw some Kabuki) and even Korea. It was a lot of fun. Pictures soon, I hope (I know, I know... still working on those Okinawa pictures from December). Working on visiting the folks, friends and finding a job, but since Kassie became sick, it's been a little difficult.

But I'm back! I'm hoping to get back in touch with a lot of friends that I haven't seen for a long time. You know who you are.

Lots of cool news has been coming out lately -- I've been active on my Twitter stream about it, but hopefully I'll get to posting some more impressions soon.

It's good to be back!

An actual conversation between me and my wife

2010-03-21T10:33:00.003-05:00

Me: *gets out of the shower and gets dressed*

Wife: *jumps in the doorway wearing all black clothes* Boo! I'm a ninja! Did I scare you?

Me: I didn't even see you coming! *we laugh together a bit*

Wife: *walks away... 5 seconds later I hear a BANG from the other room* Owwww!

Me: I don't think a ninja--.

Wife: I'm still a ninja!!

Crazy Test Answers: Chapter 2

2010-02-10T04:22:00.004-06:00

Hey everyone - long time no see! Sorry I've been putting off on my blog posting. You can blame Ultima Online for that one.

Anyway, our school had a test a few months ago and this test had it's share of strange and funny answers as well. Here's a the highlights:

In the following section, the students had a list of words they were supposed choose from to write in the blanks and make a proper sentence. The underlined words were what the students were supposed to fill in.

Here is the correct answer:

Please call me back.

A students wrote:

Please back me up.
Please call me phone. (Maybe if you're Scottish)

The next was problem needs some explanation. In Japan, there are "priority seats" on trains and buses. These seats are reserved for old or injured people, pregnant woman, or people with small children. Some people feel it's OK to sit there as long as there are none of the above around. If one gets on, you're supposed to give up your seat. The following sentence is referring to that.

The correct answer is:

Stand up when you see old people.

A student wrote:

Hang up when you see old people.

The final example was a fill-in-the-blank. They were supposed to write the correct verb form, but the following student obviously misspelled the word. I doubt they had any idea what was meant when they wrote it.

The correct answer was:

The girl standing by the tree is Yoko.

A student wrote:

The girl stunned by the tree is Yoko.

That's all I have for crazy test answers. Hopefully within this week I'll get our photos from our Okinawa trip uploaded online for you to see. Until then, you can check out what I have up so far here.

Also, an aerial shot of Mt. Fuji taken on the plane ride home. Enjoy!

I'm designing my own GoGoStand for my iPod touch

2009-11-08T04:49:00.003-06:00

GoGoStand website: http://www.gogostand.com/

Try to guess what came in today

2009-10-14T04:56:00.004-05:00

I'll give you a hint:

That's a might goofy grin, isn't it?

Despite my birthday being in August, I had yet to pick something out. On our Kyoto trip I was musing with Kassie on what I should get and we decided I should get something I want but wouldn't normally get.

I decided on an iPod touch for a couple of reasons. First of all, I couldn't get an iPhone because of my 1 year visa (well, I could, but I didn't want to spend $400 on a device that I couldn't use to it's full potential when I got back to America). Second, there are a large variety of apps that will be incredibly handy for me - a Japanese dictionary, kanji handwriting recognition, some GTD (getting things done) apps, syncing with iCal, and (of course) games. Third, it's practically a pocket computer.

So, I order my iPod touch two Saturdays ago. Despite being out for a month already, this area of Japan had yet to received the new models of touches, so clerk at the electronics store suggested I try ordering it. He told me me if I order it, it'll be in next week. After placing the order, he changed his tune, telling me it'll arrive in 1 to 2 weeks. I waited 12 days. But hey, at least it's in, right?

So, yay, I have a new toy!

These answers are right in my book!

2009-10-07T20:00:00.000-05:00

Last week, some of the students at my junior high school had their tests and I offered myself to the teachers to help grade them. Little did I know that would be snickering away the day at these awesome answers. I wanted to share two of the best answers with you.

Students were given words jumbled together and had to make a sentence using a specific grammar point learned over the semester.

The Correct Answer:
It's fun to ride a bike.

Student's Answer:
It's a bike ride to fun.

On another question, students were supposed to fill in the correct word. The blank word is in the parenthesis.

The Correct Answer:

I'm going to (be) busy this weekend.

Student's Answer:
I'm going to (get) busy this weekend.

I wanted so badly to count them correct, but I don't think the teacher would like that.

Google Wave - I has it

2009-10-07T03:45:00.003-05:00

Well, thanks to a friend (and fellow Iwate English teacher) on Twitter, I got my invite into Google Wave today!

I haven't had much time to play with it yet and I'm still trying to figure things out, but I'll try my best to give some of my impressions on it in the near future. In the meantime, if you have any questions about Google Wave, I'll try my best to answer them.

Da Burnz!

2009-10-06T20:30:00.000-05:00

I have a new look.

I think they were subconciously inspired by John Lennon (from this video), Wolverine, and Mr. Darcy. I watched all three of these over the weekend.

Vacation Photos in Kyoto

2009-10-05T04:45:00.000-05:00

As evident from some of my previous picture-posts, Kassie and I spent some vacation time in Kyoto while visiting some of Osaka and Nara. Kassie has already posted about the trip on her blog here, here, and here (part 4 ~~coming soon~~ right here). If you're interested in the pictures we took, you can find them on my Picasa Web Album.

We had a great time. Usually, I'm so nervous vacationing in Japan because I'm worried I'll get us lost, or something. But after having such a difficult time trying to find our hotel, I was more frustrated than worried, so I ended up letting loose and let myself enjoy our trip.

And I was finally able to eat some authentic Osaka takoyaki!

From Osaka, Kyoto and Nara

It's quite interesting to imagine that 2 seconds after this picture was taken my tongue would be in pain and I would be unable to taste anything for 3 whole days.

Kiyomizudera's Entrance

2009-09-23T04:12:00.001-05:00

Kassie and me at Kyoto Station

2009-09-23T04:07:00.001-05:00

The Big Buddha

2009-09-22T00:59:00.001-05:00

Just a quick dark shot of the big buddha of Nara.

Road to the Fushimi Inari shrine.

2009-09-20T21:30:00.002-05:00

Kiyomizudera

2009-09-20T03:51:00.000-05:00

Hotel Bibles

2009-09-19T02:34:00.001-05:00

Interesting New Flavor

2009-09-18T05:45:00.001-05:00

It surprisingly does taste like relax!

Box o' Dr Pepper

2009-09-16T04:04:00.001-05:00

Hellz yeah.

Geto Hot Springs

2009-09-12T03:47:00.001-05:00

A shot of one of the coed hot springs Kassie and I went to today. Naked with old people. Yeah.

The largest thatch roof in Japan

2009-09-05T01:33:00.001-05:00

Yeah. We totally went there.

Exploring Mizusawa

2009-08-28T22:56:00.001-05:00

Just a quick shot of one of the sights we saw.

Back in Japan

2009-08-15T03:21:00.000-05:00

So, I failed to post anything while we were on vacation in America. But hey, it's my vacation.

Anyway, we're back in Japan now, relaxing for the next few days as we get ready to go back to the grind. Hopefully, I'll start posting again soon.

I often post to Twitter, so you can see what I'm up to there, if you'd like.