Golden Week 2011

This Golden Week, we managed to take a good break after all the work settling down.

It started with a visit to the nearby Shinagawa Aquarium, actually one day before Golden Week (GW) officially started.

The kid and his cousin were very excited at seeing all those fishes and marine mammals. They were running around from exhibit to exhibit, and were very drawn to the dolphin pool.

Next, we went to Karuizawa 軽井沢 with my sister-in-law and her family. It was the first time the two kids got to travel on the bullet train (aka Shinkansen 新幹線) and you can see how excited they were.

Once at Karuizawa, we went to the main reason of this trip: Toy Kingdom (おもちゃ王国)!

The kids got to sit on Thomas the Tank Engine. My son was sooooo excited, he pulled me back to get another ride.

And he got to play with Thomas again after that... we left him on his own for quite a while, he was lost in his own world with Thomas.

So you can imagine how tired he was after we got back to the hotel...

We took another trip to Nikko with my parents-in-law. There was a small river running through the hotel's compound.

From Nikko, we took a drive up to Ouchijuku 大内宿. On the way there, we enjoyed the scenery, with blooming sakura trees.

We also stopped at Tou no Hetsuri 塔のへつり, just before we reached Ouchijuku.

Ouchijuku is a small little hamlet used by samurai lords as a travel lodge in the past. The people here continue to maintain the old houses and it is a tourist spot now.

And the water flowing down from the mountains provide a way of keeping things cool... a natural refrigerator!

On the way back from Nikko, we stopped at Ashikaga Flower Park. The flowers were in full bloom.

There were many wisteria trees like this one...

And here's the son in his yukata!

Osama bin Laden is dead?

They say that Osama bin Laden is dead.

But does this mean the end of the war on terrorism? I don't think so, not by a mile. A war fueled by ideology is going to continue as long as the ideological principles it is based on continues to hold, and as long as people have differing views, terrorism will not end. So while some may celebrate the death of bin Laden, there is no real reason to bring out the champagne. And now that revenge is on the table, there is all the more cause for worry...

Rule of 7

Today, I want to introduce to you the "rule of 7" as I was taught. This stemmed from the endless presentations that I have been seeing of late, with tons and tons of words that make you strain your eyes just to see them.

The "rule of 7" is very simple. If you need to present something, it should have no more than:
- 7 slides
- 7 points per slide
- 7 words per point

While it may not be possible to keep to the rule, what it is actually trying to say is, keep it simple, keep it concise.

Sakura in full bloom

The sakura (cherry blossom) trees started to bloom a few days ago... and then suddenly, they were in full bloom! It was a nice stroll along the river with sakura trees in full bloom lining the riverside.

But sad to say, they will drop off in a few days, to be replaced by green leaves... Like a quote, "Life is but a flower in the spring." Life is short, we should enjoy it while it lasts.

Sakura blooming

It is the time of the year again, though a bit late this year. Sakura aka cherry blossoms have started blooming!

Second birthday

The baby is no longer a baby but a toddler, and he is two years old! How time flies...

First, a sumptous dinner prepared by the grandmother.

And which birthday is complete without a birthday cake?

Proud parents... :)

A new Japan

Just like how a phoenix is reborn from her own burning ashes, the recent disaster in Japan gives her a chance to be reborn. Since the economic bubble burst, Japan has been crawling along, without a definite direction. Now is the chance for Japan to start over again, to build up herself from her ashes towards a new Japan.

Will Japan ever be able to regain her status as the second largest economy in the world? I am afraid not, for she simply does not have the resources to do so. Coupled with a declining birth rate, Japan simply will not be able to regain that status. But that does not mean the end of Japan. Japan needs to find a new niche area for herself, a new role in the international community, economically, socially and politically. She needs to redefine her relations with other countries, especially rising countries like China and India.

New place (for the time being)

We have more or less settled down in our new place (for a year) after moving to Japan. It is a very nice place, by Japanese standards, though of course a small place by Singaporean ones.

First dinner at the new place.

A long trip

2010 was the year of travels for me. 2011 will be a single long trip lasting from end of March this year till March next year. Yet again, my job is taking me away from Singapore as I embark on this long trip tomorrow. But all that travelling is a nurturing experience as well, broadening my perspective.

Wish me good luck as I venture into the land of the rising sun, at a time when people are avoiding it due to the radiation scare following the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. But I have confidence in the Japanese people and know that things will turn out fine.

Successful install of Fedora 14

Okay, I know it is a bit late since Fedora 14 has been out for some time (in fact, Fedora 15 is due to be released in May), but I have finally managed to install Fedora 14 on my Toshiba Satellite A505-S6040 laptop.

I used the x86_64 version, and had to separately compile the kernel module for my wireless (RTL8191SE, search for the RTL8192SE_PCI driver on Realtek's website). I also installed the proprietary Nvidia drivers.

So far, the only glitch is the computer hanging due to high CPU temperature, but that was before I installed lm-sensors. Don't know if lm-sensors help, since I have yet to stress the CPU.


Get Fedora 14 here.
Get Fedora 15 Alpha here.

Over-reacting to the Japanese disaster

I am sure we all have heard news of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, as well as the resulting Fukushima Number One Nuclear Plant incident. I really like the way NHK reported the situation as things developed. NHK's reports were factual and sought to capture the general situation in the disaster area.

Some (if not most) foreign media, however, seemed to drift towards "awe and shock", showing scenes of disaster and wreakage, and predicting "doomsday scenarios" out of the nuclear incident. By capturing the most shocking images of the disaster area and giving the worst-case scenarios for the nuclear incidents, these foreign media drive the international community towards thinking that things are worse than what is actually the case. I just hope that business with Japan and tourism to Japan do not suffer unnecessarily as a result of such over-reaction.

The Japanese government know the power of the Internet and modern media. I don't think they will ever distort the truth or try to hide it, since with the Internet so pervasive nowadays, information is so readily available that any distortion of the truth or hiding of it will surely come to light soon enough. I think we can trust the Japanese authorities to report whatever information they have as it comes to them and they can make sense of it. Jumping to our own conclusions based on scanty information may be over-reacting as well.

So stay calm, look at things objectively, don't base your thinking on scanty information. If you are planning a trip to Japan, especially to the western areas (like Osaka and Kyoto), I don't see why you should worry. Even life in Tokyo has more or less recovered, save for the planned power outages that you have to live with for the time being.

A salute to Fukushima 50

A salute to the people (known as the "Fukushima 50") working under radiation danger at Fukushima Number One Nuclear Plant. They know the dangers that they are putting themselves under, yet they soldier on to try and save the situation to prevent it from escalating into a full-blown disaster. They are willing to sacrifice their lives so that they prevent more lives from being lost. And also to the members of the fire department, police and Japan Self-Defence Force, who place themselves in danger to cool the nuclear reactors using desperate measures. When the situation appears, they stepped up to answer it. That's what duty is.

A salute to the Japanese

Even after the devastating earthquake and tsunami of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, the Japanese people have shown extreme calm and stoicism. There is no looting; people queue up to buy food and pay for their food, even though the foodstuff is placed in the open with insufficient staff to guard against looters. People queue for limited supply of fresh water, people queue for limited supply of fuel (for cars, heaters, generators). There is no panic in spite of the scale of the disaster.

While the situation at Fukushima Number 1 Nuclear Plant has not improved significantly at present, I think we should note how much worse the situation could have been, if not for the efforts put in by the Japanese people to contain the situation. Desperate measures to use sea water to cool the reactors, and even using helicopters to dump sea water onto the reactors, might just have bought us enough time to prevent a full-scale nuclear disaster.

Working closely with the electric companies, Japan has been able to sustain the operations of key infrastructure to maintain core functions throughout the country, at a time when electricity is in short supply following the shutdown of nuclear reactors after the earthquake. The Japanese people have shown willingness to cooperate with this decision and do their part to save electricity so that electricity can be diverted to areas that need it.

What remains to be done is to get supplies to the victims, and with the opening of the airport at Sendai, there seems to be hope that this will not be long. The JMSDF should seriously work with the JGSDF to explore how it can deploy heavy machinery from the sea onto shore for those coastal areas cut off by land routes. The use of helicopters is not a long-term solution. JMSDF should be looking at the use of landing ships to send machinery ashore to help clear the rubble and send supplies to victims trapped.

This disaster may have been the worst in Japan during recent years, but it has shown us that the Japanese people are resilient and their ability to work together towards a greater good instead of just caring for their own selfish needs. Let us do what we can to help them pull through this.

2011 Sendai Earthquake

11 March 2011, at Japan time 1446hrs (GMT 0546Z), an earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of northeastern Japan. The magnitude of the earthquake was 9.0 (revised upwards from the original assessment of 8.9) and caused some damage in northeastern Japan (specifically Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima prefectures, though areas in Aomori, and as far south as Kanagawa were affected). Shortly after, huge tsunami waves up to 10m in height crashed onto the coastal areas of northeastern Honshu (largest main island of Japan) causing widespread devastation, leveling whole towns. Coupled with this disaster was a nuclear incident at Fukushima Number 1 nuclear plant, where cooling systems of the nuclear reactors started to fail and radiation leaked into the environment.

This is the largest earthquake to have ever hit Japan since records were kept, and coupled with the tsunami and nuclear incidents, the largest scale disaster in recent years. The images of the devastation and the victims are heart-wrenching. It will take years for Japan to recover from this disaster. Even now, rescue operations are on-going and people are trying to contain the situation at the nuclear plant. Let's try to do what we can to help them.

Some miscellaneous quotes

A collection of miscellaneous quotes (whether my own, or picked up from somewhere) that I jotted down back when I was in school many years ago.
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"The one thing in this world that money cannot buy is 'true' - true thoughts, true feelings, true love, true happiness, true courage, etc. All those things that come from the heart."

"When in command, command."

"It is not only the ending point that counts. The journey towards getting there is also as important."

"Life is the scent of the flowers by the road, the sound of children laughing at the playground, the chips of the birds, the whisper of the wind, the pitter-patter of the raindrops, a good book, a call from a friend, a smile, a hug, a couple holding hands, a drive in the countryside. All the little things in life, eventually adds up."

"No man is perfect, but no one ever said we cannot try."

"Fresh air is not hard to find. It is people who appreciate it that are."

"A road that is narrow and rough may be hard to walk, but if we can follow it till the end, and reach our destination, we will come to earn a pride in walking that road."

"In following a set of rules/principles, we show integrity. And in recognition of our integrity, we earn honour. And with honour, comes the pride we have in ourselves."

"One hour of laze today and two hours of work tomorrow only makes a lazy person."

"Work which can be done today, should be done today. Work which can be done tomorrow, should be done today too if possible. Work which could have been done yesterday, should have been done."