Tag Archives: miles

Miles Returns to Japan

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Whew. Come back from the Scott’s, throw some laundry in the washer, it’s 4 AM. Jump on my bike to get some Chi Kung liniment from Quenton, who lives about 3 miles away. Get back to the house at 5 AM. Throw the clothes in the dryer and start packing. Get stuff packed except for the drying clothes, it’s 6:30 AM. Have to leave for the airport by 7. In lieu of sleep, I will take a hot bath!

My dad pounding on the bathroom door.

“Miles, we’re falling into a pattern of lateness here.”

An old joke.

“You go right on thinking like that!”

Another old joke.

Out of the tub, down the stairs, I’m wearing a towel and dammit I packed all my shorts at the bottom of the suitcase. Looks like I’m goin’ commando today! Aw, yeah!

I take a broke-ass prop plane from PDX to Seattle International, then scramble from GATE N to GATE S. One-car underground trains; National guard troops patrolling everywhere in cammies, web belt, canteen, handgun; the direct route to gate S is inacessible due to construction. I take an escalator up and check the exploded-view, isometric map of the airport until I find a train. We’ve got Freeman! A few zigs and zags and an hour later, I’m on a 747 to Narita.

Get off in Tokyo. I’ve been feeling the fear in my chest, mostly, on the plane, that Immigration will not let me through. I’m re-entering japan on a tourist visa; I left when my previous tourist visa expired. Technically this is legal and allowed — the US has a special agreement with Japan about these visas — but in actuality, Immigration can become paranoid that Americans are working without bothering to get a work visa, and send you back.

I put TRAIN AIKIDO on my “reason for visit” form. I’ve got my Gi in my suitcase, a few aikido books in my carry-on bag. If needs be I will throw the black-uniformed Immigration guy to the ground to prove my the depth of my study.

He looks at the form, looks at me over the counter.

“Aikido?”
“Hai, hai, Aikido!”
He grins and strikes a karate pose.
“Oh, Karate! Shotokan des ka?”
“Hai. Aikido… muzukashii”
“yeah, but it’s… uh… omoshiroi. No, tanoshii.” Was he in his high school’s martial arts club?
“blah blah Submission[in english]”

He’s talking about submission holds. I tell him maybe not so much submission holds as throws.

He waves me past the counter.

Ha!

I stride out of the airport with victory in my ears… it’s that one song from Half-Life, the one after you put the satellite in orbit.

Miles Visits and Scott Angers His Coworkers

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Time: 3:48am (press return). Miles has just left my house. Around 9pm tonight (yesterday) Annie checked out a car, and we picked up Miles and Zach (and KT) at KT’s house. On the way to Gustav’s, Miles started telling a story about his housemates which he was only able to finish by the time we left Gustav’s two hours later. We dropped KT off, and Miles suggested renting The Original Kings of Comedy, which we all watched at my house, and were greatly amused by. We had a great time, and were sad to see Miles go. Zach asked if he could crash here for the night, which we agreed to, and I said he could sleep in the middle bedroom (where our computers are set up) after I checked my email.

Now Zach is sleeping in the basement, and I’m still sitting at my computer because I have work to do. I knew this might happen, since Steve and I had a demo assigned to us at a meeting today, which is due tomorrow (today) at 9am (5 hours from now). But since Miles was only in town for one day, I decided to hang out with him and run the risk of coming home to a pile of work needing to be done.

Now I’m facing the same decision I faced so many times in college: With five hours until the project is due, is it better to work now and get three hours of sleep at the end, or sleep now and get up in three hours to do the work? Or is it better to post to KillingMachines and avoid the decision altogether?

Flexcar is Awesome

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Recently, Annie decided that she wanted to sign up for this car-sharing program she’d heard of. They’re called FlexCar, and the basic idea is that you pay a monthly fee, and then you gain access to a pool of cars that you share with other members. I wasn’t that impressed with the idea, but Annie was convinced it would be useful, since we can’t afford a car right now, so she checked it out and ended up signing up.

Well, I have to admit, the program is pretty cool. You don’t pay for gas (your monthly fee, which is something like $10 covers that). You have a monthly fee, and then you pay $2 per hour, and 40 cents per mile. So as long as you’re staying inside the city and only checking it out for a few hours, it’s usually pretty cheap. And the cars are easily available. They’re scattered around the city in little parking lots that they lease a space in, and there’s a little lockbox for the key. There’s one car about 9 blocks from us, and another about 15 blocks away, and so far, we’ve never had any trouble getting a car when we needed it, even if we were only reserving it a couple hours in advance.

It’s very nice having a car available when you need it, without having to worry about maintenance or insurance and stuff. We keep finding uses for it. Tonight we’re taking a car for a few hours to go out with Miles while he’s in town, and we’re picking up our friends. This weekend, we’re going to check one out to get some groceries and check out housing in the Hawthorne district. Last night we checked out a car to get dinner and see a movie (Down From The Mountain, a documentary about the music in O Brother, Where Art Thou?… it was awesome).

Best. Fanmail. Ever.

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“I know of no other strip that quotes Milton and Ruby in successive panels.”
– random reader of Isometric

Hee, hee. Best. Fan mail. ever. Must gloat!

Also, I had one of those Horrible Revelations I live for: Isometric only has one kind of joke. It’s simple exaggeration, blowing things up to giant size.

For example, take the idea of bread. Make an Isometric. The giant sentient yeast that took over the world!! OH GOD THE BREAD IS OUT OF CONTROL SAVE US JESUS!! IT IS YOUR OWN FAULT MORTALS FOR FORGETTING THE WAYS OF THE UNLEAVENED. etc.

It’s dead simple, almost mechanical. I also reverse it sometimes, shrink things down. Take the idea of Godzilla. OH NO GODZILLA IS ATTACKING! What, again? This always happens when you leave the lid of the Giant Reptile Treats! Hey, don’t get on my case when you can’t even pick up your socks off the floor! Why, you! Are you calling me a slob, when you– etc.