OK, so I'm catching up on some old news.
Just after Thanksgiving I was invited along on a pheasant hunt in LeSueur, MN. It was Linda's brother in-law, nephews, Linda's Dad Billy, and a bunch of others. I was really looking forward to it because it was my first ever hunting trip. I never was interested in hunt however I did think that pheasant hunting might be fun because it's usually a nice time of year and the hunts walk around most of the day. Unlike goose and duck hunters who have to hunker down in the wetlands or deer hunters that sit motionless in trees.
I did carry a shotgun for a time and took aim at a bird. But I never fired. I was try for the perfect shot instead of just blasting way. I realized that I was having just as much fine shooting my camera so I switched back to the camera for the rest of the day. I have all the photos on my Flickr account. Pheasant photos
12/24/2006
12/04/2006
Japanese Language Proficiency Test
For about a year I have been taking a class in Japanese once a week at work. That plus the 10+ years of dabbling in study lead to me deciding that I should take the JLPT this year.
The test is give once a year at various locations around the world. All on the same day mind you. As luck would have it, they give the test in Chicago not far from where Linda is pursuing her MBA. So it was really easy to drive down to Chicago and stay with her. While she was studying I was cramming for the test. The one snag in the plan was a snow storm in Chicago that forced us to leave quickly Thursday evening instead of the planned Friday departure.
There are actually 4 tests given depending on the takers skill level. I took the easiest one; 4. The test was 3 hours long and had three sections, vocabulary, listening, and grammar and was 100% in Japanese - no English. I knew going in that the listening would be very difficult and would be my worst section. So I really had to do well in the other 2 to compensate. My prediction came true, out of 16 question in the listening portion I completely understood 3 and partially understand half of the rest of them. But that was not unexpected so it didn't throw me off. I thought I did near perfectly on the vocabulary which also includes reading the kanji characters. At the beginner level we are expected to know about 100. I easily pass that part. The grammar part was more difficult but I only guessed on a few.
The results won't be in till March which is totally ridiculous. We answered on those computer score cards with the 'fill in the dot with 2H pencil' format. They should have been able to scan them at the door instead of waiting 3 months. Weird! A passing grade (which all anyone is looking for) is 60%. I feel I have about a 50/50 change of just barely passing due to the listening part. I did the math. If I get 85% or greater in BOTH the other sections I will pass.
So the fair question to as is; why? Why take the test. No, there's no true need at work, though I have worked with Guidant's marketing department in Tokyo. It IS considered an official test so there is some value on a resume. That is if I apply to a Japanese company that even knows with the JLPT is. No, mostly I just want to see where I'm at with the language and to motivate my study. If I don't pass I won't be totally disappointed - or surprised for that matter. I always assumed it was a long shot to pass.
Either way, I'll post the results in March.
11/26/2006
All New, Sorta
Tonight I spent some time looking at my blog and blogging in general with blogger.com. They have added some nice features that I wanted to take advance of like labels. The new features need to be on their servers to work so I've switched the URL as well as all the files to blogspot.com. If you are reading this you've already figured that out. It also didn't really make sense to have it on mnmaya.com. I only had it there because I own the domain.
I also decided that it was time for a format change. I like the simple design but I'm not convinced it's the final one. Any thoughts?
11/06/2006
10/28/2006
What I'm watching on TV
TV is important - at least to me. I watch a lot of TV but in the last few years I've tried it make it good TV ( good to me) and not just mindless surfing. Have a Tivo makes it easy. It records all the things I like and allows me to watch on my time. Tivo might be the greatest innovation ever.
So here is my list of the 'can't miss' shows.
Battlestar Galactica
The reimagination of this 70s show might be the best on TV right now. And that not just me saying that. They have created a compelling and believable scifi world with people that act and react like real people. They take chances and you never really know what might happen. BSG is exactly why I'm drawn to scifi. What is also very cool is that the creator, Ron Moore, makes a commentary of every episode that can be downloaded for free. Its a fascinating looking into the making of the show.
Lost
What I like about this show is the mystery. I hope it all means something.
Heroes
This is a brand new show so I don't have much history with it but in many ways it has combined what I like about Battlestar Galactica and Lost. A big mystery, scifi themes, and believable characters that I'm already engaged with after only 3 episodes.
There are other shows on the Tivo like 'Dog the Bounty Hunter' and 'The Simpsons' but those three are the ones that I make a point to see.
10/14/2006
Animation Examples Online
The fact that I didn't even know they were on the web is not surprising. Once I create them I rarely if ever get to know where they are used and if they were even successful. Sometimes I find out that they have a life beyond there original intent which is always gratifying to me because that means it was valued.
The whole library site
My favorites (animations, not conditions :-) ) are:
Heart Failure
Sudden Cardiac Death
Atrial Fibrillation
Techy notes;
The animation was created in Maya using the vector renderer for the simple cartoony look. We opted for that over a more realistic look because it seems less shocking. It's also impossible to have one cross section of the heart that shows all 4 chambers. Most illustrations are greatly contorted for clarity. The animation was exported as Flash animation and in some cases was actually tweaked in Flash. Even though it's 2d, by using Maya I was able to use much better animation controls thereby giving the heart more realistic and accurate motion. I've looked at a lot of heart animations on the internet and I think these have some of the best motion.
10/12/2006
Marathon Statistics
Before the race they had these wrist bands with the mile by mile pace you would need to complete the race in X amount of time. I had the 3:50:00 band. Today I was comparing the splits I recorded with my watch to the band when I realized it would be easier to type them in. So here is each mile, the 3:50 pace time, my time in bold, and my per mile pace. It's interesting to see when I started to lose the pace which was at 18 where I lost a 2 minute lead on the pace. It continued to slip for the rest of the race but I already knew I was going to beat my goal of 4 hours. So I was giving into my legs need to slow down. Mile 24 was pretty bad.
There were 3 mile markers that I somehow missed.
1) 0:08:47 - 08:42 8:42
2) 0:17:33 - 16:44 8:02
3) 0:26:20 - 25:04 8:19
4) 0:35:07 - 33:24 8:20
5) 0:43:54 - 42:00 8:35
6) 0:52:40 - 50:41 8:41
7) 1:01:27 -
8) 1:10:14 - 1:08:13
9) 1:19:00 - 1:16:41 8:27
10) 1:27:47 - 1:25:06 8:25
11) 1:36:34 - 1:33:44 8:38
12) 1:45:21 - 1:42:27 8:42
13) 1:54:07 - 1:51:17 8:49
14) 2:02:54 - 2:00:23 9:06
15) 2:11:41
16) 2:20:27 - 2:18:14
17) 2:29:14 -
18) 2:38:01 - 2:36:55
19) 2:46:48 - 2:46:16 9:20
20) 2:55:34 - 2:55:46 9:30
21) 3:04:21 - 3:05:16 9:29
22) 3:13:08 - 3:15:02 9:45
23) 3:21:55 - 3:25:20 10:18
24) 3:30:41 - 3:36:18 10:58
25) 3:39:28 - 3:45:00 8:41
26) 3:48:15 -
Finish 3:50 - 3:55:46
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