Your Japanese word of the week is...

"akeome" あけおめ which is really just a shortened form of 明けましておめでとう which functionally means "Happy New Year!!" And I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season.

For me, 2010 represents the real-world test of the past few years of prep. I'll be finishing school then looking for work and Pacific Spirit Wado Kai will be growing its student base and technical level. A lot (actually, almost all) of what I've been doing the past few years have led up to this point and while it's certainly not the end, everyone likes a good start =)

Besides that, I said last week that I'd try to put up some HDR's of the Festival Of Lights pics but for some reason they weren't turning out that well. Instead, I've just tone mapped two of them.

 

The last thing for the first post of 2010 is a look at Popular Science's Best Of What's New 2009.  It's inevitable that everyone thinks technology can't possibly improve ("Something better than a telegram?!  Impossible" or if you've seen Avatar), it's a great look at what kinds of things are in store for the future.  Understandly, a lot of these are hideously expensive but in a few years time, they'll be more ubiquitous and affordable.  Best of all, some of these things are simply new approaches to old solutions to prove that old dogs can indeed learn new tricks.

 
Here are my top 5 from their list of 100.
 

X-Flex Bombproof wallpaper

No really.  It's a rollable sheet of Kevlar sandwiched by elastic polymer with an adhesive backing so you can literally stick it to your wall.  Developed along with the US Army, it withstands impacts and helps keep walls intact after impacts.  While it does say bombproof, it could very easily be applied to homes in hurricane threatened areas not only to add structural strength, but to help keep debris out.

 

Diverging Diamond Interchange

A rather simple yet effective way of managing traffic flow, this intersection was put into place this past year in Missouri and it not only reduced the number of traffic accidents, it sped up the flow.  It works by switching the traffic lanes at the overpass (see the two X's on either side of the green highway).  This allows cars to both exit and enter the highway without having to make left turns across an opposing lane.  After the overpass, the lanes switch back and it's traffic as normal.

 

Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D W1

Humans see in 3D because we have two eyes each seeing a slightly different image.  The brain puts these images together to sense depth and it's this depth perception that creates a 3D image.  This camera take 3D pictures by using two lenses and image sensors spaced 3 inches apart, mimicking human eyes.  It can even playback images on the screen in 3D by flashing the images separately to each eye.  Then there's 3D picture frames and computer software (with or without 3D glasses) so you can show them to your friends...

 

China Central Television (CCTV) Headquarters

A refreshing break from the skyscraper race, the CCTV building is a neat architectural design.  Conceived as a continuous shape (there's another L shaped corner on the ground pointed away from us), it's an amazing engineering feat to build.  Built in an area threatened by earthquakes, the problem was not producing a building strong enough (which would shake itself apart), but rather strategically weak enough to dissipate earthquake forces (so it sways like an antenna) yet still strong enough to hold up the shape.  The result is the diamond lattice structure where the number of numbers is higher in areas that require lots of strength and lesser in areas that don't.  Then they made it visible for an attractive form following function design.

 

PS- This image, being an HDR shot of the CCTV building, fills my promise of something HDR in this post heh...

 

Lastly,

Google Wave

In Google's bid to take over the world, they've reinvented nearly everything and then made it accessible to all, by all.  With Wave, they've taken online communication and merged it all into one interface.  Part email, part instant messaging, part document sharing, each wave is an open conversation where users can contribute seemlessly.  Start a new wave, invite the friends you want to speak with, and type in an email.  If they're offline, they can read it later; if they're online, they can response in real time messaging even responding to specific parts of the message.  Invite friends to join later and they're immediately privy to the entire wave, with a playback feature that shows the history of changes (much like Adobe's Buzzword).  It's even hooked up to Blogger (since Google owns Blogger) and you can posted pictures directly from your wave and then comments will show up instantly.  They've also made it open source so it will continue to expand as people develop new applications for it.

 

The most impressive part is that they've made all this work real time.  Type and people can watch you type letter by letter, so there's no waiting and wondering.  Even picture thumbnails show up instantly.

 

I'm not a big fan of being plugged in all the time (I loathe people who constantly text unrelated crap despite being at dinner with their friends), but I do love the streamlining of all the various communications type into one interface.

 

So thanks for reading this past 2009 and keep checking back in 2010 =)

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"hikari" 光 which means light or ray (of light).  And this being the Christmas season, festive lights are everywhere.  Such as the VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver.  It's really a rather nice garden with a huge variety of plant life and every winter many of the plants are draped in lights to celebrate the holiday season.  This year, me and my dad braved the cold to check it out. 

As you can see, a lot of the setups are quite nice- like this tree with "balls" of LED's hanging off them like ornaments.

And then, posted along the various paths, are hot chocolate shacks and some tents with heaters for a brief respite from the cold.

They also had a neat model train display near the gift shop.  And, being a model, it lends itself to some more tilt-shift heh.....

Also, the new Windows Live Photo Gallery that comes with Windows 7 is actually quite good in terms of minor post processing of photos.  I was quite surprised when I fired it up because it really adds a lot of accessibility to a variety of changes you can make to your photos.

Lastly, being a night scene, I shot a few HDR's so when I get around to compiling and tone mapping them, they'll be up here.  Check back soon and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"kumiawase" 組み合わせ which means combination/pairing.  I actually just picked this word up watching Best Motoring, an awesome monthly DVD-zine that has racing drivers testing new cars.  Less awesome is the fact that it's all in Japanese but that's ok, I persevere and get as much as I can out of it.  Like this new word.

But it actually turns out to work quite well because this week, I discovered Mike Stimpson and his site RedBubble.com, which specializes in Lego.

Most specifically, he's combined (see how I transitioned there?? heh) Lego with some of the most famous photographs in history to produce recreations, which you can find on his Flickr page.

To give you an idea of what he's done, here's an example that I'm sure everyone will recognize.

The key to making pictures work (as Stimpson so dutifully describes in his Flickr descriptions) is the lighting, which has to be done in such away as to reproduce the lighting found in the original.  Luckily, Stimpson usually provides a picture of the setup to show just how much thought goes into each shot.

In other news, congrats to all those who graded at PSWK's last grading of 2009!

Lastly, I hope everyone has a very happy holiday season and thanks for checking into the blog all this year =)

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"matomeru" まとめる, to compile.  Some of you may remember it was almost a year ago that, for Christmas, I bought myself a new camera.  Then I took it all over taking pictures, the two big ones being my travels around Japan and to Hawaii.

So, to celebrate it's one year, I've put together this compilation of some of my favourites pics from this past year.

I should preface this with a note that it seems like Windows MovieMaker turns up the saturation and it's noticeable in the really deep reds and oranges in the pictures.  I didn't do this and the pictures certainly don't look like that on my computer, but there's not much I can do about that.

Anyways, the song is "Giving Up The Ghost", by DJ Shadow.

Enjoy!

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"yatta" やった which translate roughly into "I did it!/Yes!!".  No really- It's the past tense form of "yaru" やる which means "to do".  It's generally heard in a slightly childish way once you've accomplished something.  Here's some examples of when you can use it.

1- I'm finished first term and am now on holidays to January ____ (I actually don't know the date I'm supposed to go back to school heh)...  Plans for the holidays??  Relaxing haha....  and spend my first Christmas home in two years.

2- In our bio class, we, in groups of 4, had to design an activity that could be used in a high school class.  I helped my group make these cut out flower pieces which the students would label, colour, and assemble.  Then we made a presentation to show the class how we'd run the activity and everyone did it.  Surprisingly, it was quite a hit......  I supposed there's something everyone likes about personalizing and assembling things.

3- I think this one speaks for itself.  I've never done a regular 3x3 Rubik's Cube, let alone a 5x5 Rubik's Cube (aka- Professor's Cube).  It took me 2 days, 3 restarts, and a few Google hints to solve.  A far cry from some of those 2 minute speed-solvers...  but, with time heh.... 

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"keikaku suru" 計画する which means "to plan".  If memory serves me right, this is more about planning projects and "things", as opposed to planning a schedule.  So using this to ask if someone has any "plans" isn't really correct.

In my case, however, it does sort of work since I've been doing a lot of lesson planning for various assignments.  Lesson planning is interesting in that detailed planning is highly encouraged and it's something all teachers do, yet the degree they do it do varies.  Some get away with nothing but a scribble on a napkin while others have every minute of every class figured out.

In some ways, the analogy I was given on my first day of practicum explains it best- it's like learning to drive.  It doesn't matter if everyone you see eats a donut, adjusts the radio, and talks on the phone while make a left turn.  It doesn't even matter that they shouldn't be doing that.  The point is that, as a new driver, you should do everything you're expected to and as thoroughly as possible.  There will come a point when you've proven to yourself that you can handle the task and, from then on, you can adjust it to fit your needs.

Case in point- right now when I plan lessons, I write down approximations for how much time I think it'll take students to do things.  But really, I have no idea how quickly or slowly students will do certain things and it's really easy to over or underestimate them.  And so, I take it easy and err on the side of too much, just in case.  But even during the two weeks, you get a feel for the classes and the students and eventually, you know right away whether one activity will take 15 minutes or 50.

Case 2- I don't really remember what this box held when I took the picture, but from what it says, it looks like bite-size pieces of mochi (gelatinous rice).  Probably given to me some time around New Year's, since that's when mochi's consumed.  Anyway, the point is, maybe they should've planned some time to get the English checked??  Har har =P

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"atsumaru" 集まる which means to gather/collect.  And it can apply to anything- people, coins, stamps...  assignments hah....

Like I said last week, all I've been doing lately is homework but I'm glad to say I'm still alive and the brunt of the work is done.  And whatever I have left should be, compared to what I just did, a walk in the park.

I don't have much else to add cuz I didn't do anything else all week but I will say that since I now have a bit more spare time, I'm collecting something else as we speak.

What exactly I won't say, but you'll see in a few weeks =)