the bouncey zone

At the moment I’m between road trips. The weekend before last we went to AnimeFest in Dallas. It was a good little vacation. The boys stayed home with their grandmother, we met up with some friends at the convention, and we stayed in a nice (though a bit overpriced) hotel. The dealers room and video rooms alone were worth the trip.

Along the way we had supper at El Fenix and lunch at Whole Paycheck – uh, I mean, Whole Foods Market. We shopped at REI twice, once to buy a travel clothesline, and a second time because their big Labor Day sale was nearing its end. I like to visit those places when in DFW. We don’t have them in OKC.

We tested the “wear 1 pack 2″ clothes packing system. Thus the clothesline. It worked pretty well, with amazingly light backpacks, but we learned two useful lessons.

First, bring clothes that can be wrung out and hung to dry without staying stretched out. Second, keep up with the nightly hand-washing if you don’t have a washing machine nearby. We still had clean clothes, but one particular shirt turned out to be dirty when it was needed.

Last weekend was Grand Assembly of Archers. It was a rainy weekend, so we didn’t bother to camp. Shooting arrows in the rain is more fun than it sounds. Next time I want to bring the crossbow.

Later this week we’re driving to Gatlinburg to visit some of Dana’s family. It’ll be a great trip. I already have two audio books lined up for the drive, beyond the usual podcasts, music, and hour upon hour of Dave Ramsey. One is “It’s Called Work for a Reason” by Larry Winget. The other is “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall.

I picked the running book because it comes universally recommended by barefoot runners. I’m not quite one of those yet, but I’ve been interested in the concept since reading Tim Ferriss’s article about his Vibram Five Fingers shoes. (I really want some of those monkey-toe shoes, but I’m still watching for the KSO model to go on sale.)

At least 3/4 of the average day I’m barefoot. I can get away with it because I’m at home with the boys. When we go outside, I just put on my trusty Chaco sandals, or my “real” shoes if we’re going somewhere fancy. They come off again when we get home. I learned this from the Japanese. No shoes tracking mud inside means a cleaner floor.

But after looking into how feet work, I noticed something interesting. I’ve always been clumsy. I trip over carpet, stumble on stairs, and generally clomp around – when wearing shoes. But when I take off the shoes, suddenly I’m much more graceful. I can change speeds in an instant and turn on a dime. “Clomp clomp clomp” turns into an everyday sort of ballet.

How this happens mechanically is simple. With shoes, my feet land heel-toe and lift off again like I’m wearing concrete. Barefoot, my feet usually land towards the middle or the front, and my step pushes off with the ball and toes. Turning, pivoting, or stretching also generally happen closer to the toes. Skin grips ground pretty well, and its sensory feedback lets me adjust posture for balance when the surface changes.

I don’t have think about it very often, it just happens. I go from gorilla to gazelle. Well, relatively speaking. I’m sure compared to any barefoot athlete I’m still clumsy. But it’s an improvement.

So I’ve almost decided that the barefoot or near-barefoot believers might be onto the right idea. If not for running outside, then at least for ordinary walking indoors.

Today I’m going to bake cookies for Scott’s pre-K class. We’re on the schedule to bring snacks tomorrow. Most likely I’ll make oatmeal cranberry cookies. Just start with any oatmeal raisin recipe, use cranberry “raisins” instead, and add some extra. The effect is subtle but tasty.

This past weekend was SoonerCon. Rather than go home Friday night and stay in the convention hotel (the Biltmore on Meridian in OKC) on Saturday, as we’ve done in the past, we decided to stay both nights next door at the Econo Lodge. It costs about half as much, so in effect we got two nights for the price of one.

We quickly learned that we would have been happier elsewhere. Our motel made the Biltmore look good, which I hadn’t thought possible. The furniture was battered, the beds were hard, the pillows were flat, the housekeeper was very rude in a right-now-or-never kind of way…

But let’s dwell on the positive. This is what I liked about that Econo Lodge:

1. Shower head produced a delightfully luxurious spray of water. Really, no sarcasm.
2. Missing alarm clock was one less thing for the baby to chew on.
3. Toast at the free continental breakfast was okay.
4. The hair dryer worked. I used it to dry out some damp clothes.
5. The window had a nice coating that kept out most of the afternoon solar heat.
6. Couldn’t hear swimming pool noises from inside the room, even though we were right next to it.
7. No need to leave a tip for the housekeeper since she didn’t actually do anything.
8. Dorm fridge!

But other than that… Next time we might stay somewhere else.

One interesting discussion panel at the convention was about how history could have gone differently in Europe. At least that was what the program guide said. Really the main focus was on the 1632 series – which I haven’t read yet – and Victorian steampunk to a lesser extent.

The authors on the panel pointed out something that had long been percolating in my own mind. People way back in history weren’t stupid. They just lacked today’s level of scientific advancement.

People have always faced many of the same basic problems. Often their solutions didn’t work very well. But sometimes they did a pretty good job. We just forget too easily when a new way comes along. We lose ideas that could prove useful later.

One concern over the ages has been how to shave. The ancient Greeks and Romans went around beardless. America’s founding fathers did it too, as did countless men between then and now. But how could they shave safely without electricity or plastic?

None of the modern shaving methods have done a fantastic job for me. My current electric razor is okay, I suppose, when I have time to use it. It takes a while.

My Mach 3 removes hair very well. After a hot shower and four passes of the razor from different directions. And a lot of nicks and painful razor burn. Also, cartridges cost about $2 each at Sam’s and last for maybe 3 shaves if I’m lucky.

So I looked into the alternatives. I read general articles that covered the basics. I asked a few older people what they knew. I spent a lot of time with Badger & Blade reading specific reviews and instructions. Last week I got on eBay…

My shiny new razor arrived in the mail Monday morning. It’s not really new. According to its date code, it was made in the first quarter of 1960. This razor was 14 years old when I was born.

It’s a twist-to-open Gillette Super Speed, part of a product line that for decades dominated the shaving market. It’s not in perfect condition, but it’s reasonably good considering its age. Here’s a picture that I took after cleaning it up a little:

(I’m using this to test how well iPhoto, Flickr, and WordPress work together. Still undecided about whether to move all of my pictures to a photo hosting service like Flickr or to continue with ZenPhoto. At least ZenPhoto needs an update, and some old stuff from Coppermine still needs to be moved over. But anyway.)

Here’s a better picture of the same basic model, as found on Badger & Blade:

I chose this type partly because it has a good reputation. More importantly, it was cheaper than buying a new one. Oh yes, they still make double edge safety razors, in places like China and India and Germany. But not here in the USA. Gillette and its competitors have moved on.

Blades can still be found. Sample packs are available, so people can try several brands to find what works best for a particular combination of razor and face. Once the ideal blade is found, it can be ordered at astonishingly low prices in hundred-blade packs. 100 blades looks a lot like a year’s supply.

I got a pack of Personna blades from Walmart to start out. By my math, it costs about a tenth as much as Mach 3 cartridges. I also got a can of Barbasol shaving cream, which I tested over the weekend in a disastrous experiment involving a free disposable razor and a motel sink.

Thus a new experiment began: Combine razor and blade, take a shower, apply the cream… Most instructions tell a beginner to start with only one pass, going with the grain. After some practice add a cross-grain pass, and then eventually try a third pass against the grain. Lather up between passes.

I skipped to three pass mode on the first session. My technique was horrible. The angle wasn’t quite right. I pressed too hard on the razor. I didn’t let the cream soak in long enough. I have 20 years of habits to unlearn.

Best shave ever.

Compared to my usual Mach 3, the ancient razor caused fewer nicks and less razor burn. My cheeks felt like the proverbial baby’s butt. I even had fun with it.

To be fair, the razor wasn’t the only variable in the experiment. It’s possible that the Mach 3 could be made less gruesome by re-lathering between passes. I’ll have to try it with some of my remaining cartridges.

But let’s guess that equalizing shaving cream usage makes the two comparable. Which is better, a great shave with a $2 blade, or a shave just like it for 20 cents? Think about this.

That brings up a question. If the double edge safety razor worked well enough for so many decades, why did the market move away from it back in the 1970s?

For starters, plastic is cheaper than metal. At the time even the double edge razors were moving towards more plastic parts. A lift-and-cut system might have worked better in theory, given such a lightweight razor.

Maybe people just didn’t want to handle those sharp double edged blades anymore. But my guess is that the big players wanted to regain a proprietary advantage.

The relevant patents had long expired. Anyone could make a razor, anyone could make a blade, and there was an excellent chance that they’d work with each other. By shifting to the modern cartridge format, they reset the clock on new patents.

Ever notice how a new wave of razor models hits the market every few years? Not all technological change is for the benefit of its users. Sometimes it’s all about profit. Never let the monopoly end.

The experiment continues. I’ll try another shave on Wednesday.

A pink eye plague is upon us. Scott got it last Saturday; over the past few days the rest of us have been getting it too. Eye drops and 3 year olds don’t mix gracefully.

So what have we been doing for the past two months?

When Blake was almost 2 weeks old we went to Alabama for his great-grandmother’s funeral. In a way he was named after her. Her name was Ruth Blake, but many simply called her Blake. She was 98. We really wanted to say goodbye in person.

Unfortunately, due to my inability to take a quick shower, we missed our Friday morning flight. The next flight was Saturday. We got to that one on time, but thanks to a series of screw-ups on Delta’s part, we ended up stuck in Atlanta. Our baggage with all of our nice clothes (except for my suit which I was wearing) was lost in the gorilla pit.

Only two Delta employees in the entire airport seemed to be worth keeping on the payroll. One tried to prod the baggage handlers into action for several hours. The other one finally just advised us to forget the suitcase, hop into our rental car, and start driving the rest of the way to Ft Payne. And so we did.

The rest of Delta’s employees generally were liars, bureaucrats, and loafers. We got to observe them doing nothing of value for hours. I was very disappointed to learn that the tornado a week later didn’t smite the Delta baggage claim area.

We missed the funeral, with much wailing and gnashing of teeth. But at least we had supper and breakfast with the living. Baby Blake met his grandparents and various cousins. Our luggage caught up with us back in Oklahoma City.

I’m not entirely sure that we would have made it to the funeral even if we had caught our original flight. That morning a large storm developed over Cincinnati, our connecting city. The next day the news channels showed the city buried in snow. That was one of the reasons we couldn’t get a later Friday flight — everyone else was rerouting through Atlanta too.

A few days later we drove to Pueblo CO to stay a week with my sister in law. It was a long, tedious drive that proved the value of an XO loaded with movies. But we were delighted to have more time with family. Scott and his 1 year old cousin Cassie got along fantastically well. At one point we overheard Scott telling her to get the car keys; they were going to take Baby Brother and “get out of here”.

In the middle of the Colorado trip I flew by myself to Connecticut for a cousin’s wedding. It went well, the bride was radiant, the groom was less of a doofus than average, and the food was very good. I had some long conversations with family.

Of course the flights coming and going were subject to many delays. There was a sudden snow storm in Colorado Springs on the way out. That made me miss my connecting flight in DFW. But unlike the idiots at Delta, American’s employees were friendly and actually knew what they were doing.

The next flight to Hartford was booked solid. So they sent me through Raleigh-Durham. At that layover there was another delay due to air traffic control. But I got there eventually.

On the way back there was another delay in DFW, causing me to arrive in CO around midnight. I used the opportunity to play a frugality game; I arranged for a very nice supper for less than $5. Not bad for an airport. My Palm and iPod kept me entertained.

Thus I wore my brand-new suit in 8 states in less than 2 weeks: Oklahoma, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Colorado, Texas, North Carolina, and Connecticut. I learned important lessons about the value of packing light and using only a carry-on bag.

We got home in time for Easter. Scott’s birthday was a few days later, along with an evening at the circus the next weekend.

Soon after was the Medieval Fair in Norman. Our soap ‘n scarves booth did better than last year. We had 5 or 6 extra adults and 1 more baby staying at our house every night for almost a week. I didn’t know our bathrooms could handle that many people.

Dana’s mother was here for a week. Half of that overlapped with the fair guests. She had a lot of fun playing with her grandsons. My kitchen was only slightly reorganized.

Last Saturday we celebrated my grandmother’s birthday and grandparents’ anniversary. Most of my mom’s side of the family met for supper in Kingfisher. Scott seized my camera and ran around taking pictures. It was a great evening, except for Scott’s sudden attack of eye snot.

And now we have pink eye.

I’m sick. It’s the Coughing Snots again. Every few hours I have to take a small pile of over-the-counter pills just to feel human again. Normally it’s not such a big deal, but I picked it up during a week-long trip to Kentucky. That made driving back a lot of fun.

Driving? To Kentucky? Yep, it really happened. Flying would have cost $1000 more.

On a Friday evening we drove from Norman OK to Joplin MO. We crashed for a few hours at the Econo Lodge, which seemed extremely spacious and luxurious after becoming accustomed to Japanese budget hotels. Then we drove to Louisville via the northern route.

Important travel tip: When making this journey, top off the gas tank in St Louis. The southern parts of Illinois and Indiana are generally devoid of anything resembling modern gas stations. The main exception is a place were two interstate highways briefly merge in Illinois, where a modest outpost of civilization can be found.

But that’ll do you a fat lot of good when you’re running on fumes in the middle of nowhere and your only alternative to a tow truck is to get a few gallons at an outrageously overpriced general store that seems to cater exclusively to desperate tourists. The guy behind me walked up with a plastic gas can.

Of course on the way back we filled up in Louisville.

Another travel tip: If there is a small child in the car, station a grownup in the back seat. Otherwise the child will scream a lot because he wants to be up front with Mommy. We learned this one on the turnpike northeast of Tulsa.

On the way back we did the whole trip in one day. We pulled out of Louisville at 6:30AM (eastern time) and rolled into Norman around 9:30PM (central). It was rough but we got home okay. That sort of drive is best split over two days.

The week in between was all family time. Dana’s sister, her husband, and their baby girl flew in from Colorado. Already there were Dana’s parents, grandmother, brother, and their dog. Dana’s grandmother turned 98 on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Scott helped her blow out the candles on her cake.

On Thanksgiving day we started the morning with Christmas-on-Thanksgiving, because we’ll be in Oklahoma for Christmas this year. Scott really understands “PRESENTS!!” now. He was very helpful with delivering them to their proper recipients, especially his little cousin. He tore into his own with an appropriate amount of zeal.

Dana’s brother gave me a big jar of Taiwanese coconut gel snacks and half a gallon of local dark beer. More people should learn from his example. I mean, no, I’m not really that much into beer. But it’s possible to give really nifty gifts that show a lot of thought without paying a fortune or filling up the house with useless stuff. Small, inexpensive, high quality, and gradually consumable… More gifts should be like that.

Speaking of which, Uncle Charlie’s Soap is just a few days from having a working online catalog! I used some vacation time to put the finishing touches on marketing text. My father-in-law helped a lot with photography. I’ll post something when the official launch happens. In the meantime, you can see us in Kingfisher on Dec 1 or in Norman on Dec 8.

My other brother-in-law (from Colorado) brought a Wii game console. It was fun, but I’m a little disappointed that it doesn’t seem to play DVDs. I like the small form factor, though, and the reactive remote controls are fascinating. My usual sources all seem to be sold out of Wii.

Another exciting piece of technology will be little Scott’s Christmas present. He’s getting his own laptop computer! But that’ll be in the next post.

In case it hasn’t been obvious lately, I’m a bit of a language nerd. I get a big kick from learning foreign languages.

If I’m not actively learning a new way to frame the world, something very basic in my personality starts to slow down and wither. I can feel myself getting older. That scares me.

Learning a new spoken language, a computer programming language, or a new set of written symbols wakes up and gives me mental energy. It makes me feel as if the clock has turned back for a little while.

On the first day at worldcon there was a panel discussing the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. The panelists were a physicist, a psychologist who is also active with the Klingon language, and an unofficial panelist who moved to the front because he plays with Lojban — a language designed to test Sapir-Whorf.

In addition there was a whole room full of fellow language nerds. We had almost 2 hours to let the conversation wander. It was great.

Japanese has been a blast. Sometime soon, while it’s still fresh in mind, I want to write up some notes about what you really need to learn for a more enjoyable visit to Japan. Also I want to describe the current state of the English language in Japan. Both of these essays are still stewing in my subconscious, so give me a few days to think.

I’d like to continue studying Japanese. But I need to change gears for a few months. So I’m starting Spanish again. For the past few years I’ve been trying to cram totally alien grammar and vocabulary (Japanese, Arabic, and a little Chinese) into my brain. Something distinctly European will be like a pleasant weekend trip to Tulsa. Easy and familiar.

Never mind if the whole world is (allegedly) learning English. So what? I already speak it as a native. English is no challenge for me. Besides, as I discovered while studying Spanish and Esperanto in high school, learning other languages actually improves my English. Comparative grammar study works both ways.

Remember the story of Babel? A unified human empire decided to build a big tower. God scrambled their languages and halted the project. The church teaches that it’s a warning against collective arrogance. We should accept that people are divided into nations with different languages because God wanted it that way. It’s all for our own good.

I understand that much. But as a language nerd, I’ve always read the story a little differently. Babel tells me this: If we get our act together, we can do anything. Even threaten the gods. Communication brings us together and gives us power. Confusion causes chaos and drives us apart.

Next time we’re going straight up that tower and off to the stars. Maybe while coming back together we’ll pick up enough wisdom to earn our new place.

(I intentionally oversimplified the standard interpretation. All the nuances could fill whole books. This link goes to a very long but interesting discussion of Babel from another perpective. It has very little to do with human languages. Also, the biblical passage is often translated into various languages for comparison.)

On a less figurative level, worldcon usually has at least one space elevator panel. I don’t recall seeing one in the schedule this year. Maybe next time.

I lost 7 pounds in Japan!

That was a fun trip. I’m already planning for next time. Maybe take Scott to see Kyoto when he’s old enough to remember it…

We’re home!

It’s 10:00 PM in Oklahoma and noon in Tokyo. My internal clock is somewhere in between. I didn’t get much sleep in flight, so I had a long nap at home.

I was thinking about the hotels where we stayed. Their idea of what is standard and what costs extra is different from in America.

Japanese hotels typically provide slippers (painfully small for my feet), yukata robes, green tea bags, a tea making device, a small refigerator, hair dryer, towels, and free internet access. No coffee maker. In the bathroom are individually wrapped razors and toothbrush/toothpaste sets. Soap, shampoo, and conditioner are in pump bottles.

Nicer hotels also offer shrink-wrapped sponges, hair brushes, and cotton kits. Some have washlets. Others have tiny bathrooms that are one step up from airplane lavatories.

Imagine a 4x6x7 foot box bolted together with the fixtures into one integrated unit with overlapping seams. All water dispensing devices share one set of water inlets and a common drain (except for the toilet flush outlet). The shower head is on a movable hose. I didn’t see any caulk, or any seams that would need it.

Actually, the bigger bathrooms in nicer hotels follow that same general pattern. They just do it on a more comfortable scale. In the small version it’s impossible to use the sink and shower at the same time.

Cheaper hotels provide the toothbrush and razor only in vending machines. Hotels that cater to backpackers sometimes make customers bring their own towels. Capsules and extreme “budget” hotels have shared bathrooms.

TV is mostly limited to free broadcast stations. A vending machine in the hall sells access cards for premium channels. Keys are left at the front desk when going out, even the purely symbolic key rings used at capsule hotels. I never saw an ice maker in any of our hotels.

It’s fairly routine to check bags at the front desk for the day, say if it’s check-out day and we want to play tourist before checking in at the next hotel. They just set the suitcases in a corner of the lobby. Possibly behind an unlocked screen, but usually not. Our suitcases were always present and unmolested when we came back.

I took several pictures of our hotel rooms and their bathrooms. I’ll sort through the ones that I haven’t uploaded yet after I sleep off some jet lag.

Packing up to leave the capsule hotel. The bed was hard, the pillow was full of pea gravel (really), and the bed needed to be about 6 inches wider. But otherwise it was quite comfortable. I’ve paid more for worse hotels in America.

The general capsule design might be good for bunks in a multiple-child bedroom. Sort of a separate private hideout for each kid.

Off to the airport! Time for a little time travel. We’ll arrive in Dallas 2 hours before we take off in Tokyo.

Our flight home is tomorrow morning. For our last night, we decided to try something new. It’s called a Capsule Hotel.

Ours is a double. That means both of us squeeze into one extra-wide capsule. It’s pretty neat. There are separate bathrooms for men and women.

Today we went back to Asakusa to buy souvenirs at the tourist fleecing district. It’s near several temples and shrines, and also one block over from the train station that we used when traveling to Nikko that first night. The place looks a lot more spacious after 2 weeks of even more crowded areas.

After checking in at the capsule place (Tokyo Kiba Hotel – 東京木場ホテル) we visited a department store across the street. Tokyo department stores are almost like American shopping malls. We bought a few more souvenirs and some things for breakfast.

Fun fact: In Japan they sell hard liquor in grocery and convenience stores.

Things that are popular in Japan:

– Convenience stores, which almost never sell gasoline
– Hello Kitty (ハローキテイ)
– Neon Genesis Evangelion (エヴァンゲリオン)
– My Neighbor Totoro, and anything else from that studio
– Snoopy
– Stitch (Lilo’s alien friend)
– Nintendo DS
– Doing things to cell phones without actually talking on them
– Things to decorate cell phones
– Trains, scooters, and bicycles
– Crazy game shows
– Selling things from vending machines, including sake, beer, cigarettes, and tickets to hot springs baths
– Fully integrated one-piece bathrooms
– Shirts that unintentionally say extremely hilarious things in English
– Pizza: Margherita (tomato-basil), corn & mayo, seafood, or Italian ham; there are very few other topping options
– Burgers: Brown gravy, no bun
– Putting sunny-side-up eggs on top of everything (burgers, pizza, salads, pasta)
– Sleeping on the train

Things that aren’t so popular:

– Paper towels (bring your own washcloth to dry hands at public toilets)
– Dr. Seuss
– Lilo, Stitch’s human friend
– American cars and motorcycles
– Soda pop in big bottles
– Benches to sit on
– David Hasselhoff

I’m sure I’ll think of more later. Actually, I’ve very surprised at how vegetarian-hostile Japanese restaurants have been. Japan is the land of rice and tofu, right? Well, they like to soak everything in strong meat broth. Then they stir in some fish flakes and sprinkle bits of meat on top. None of this will be reflected in the food’s name or description.

I know how to tell them to skip the meat in their own language — watashi wa bejiterian desu, niku o tabemasen, sakana o tabemasen, gyuuniku o tabemasen, demo tamago to chiizu ga ii desu… But they don’t seem to have a strong tradition of customizing dishes. At least I haven’t noticed many people making special requests, and I don’t feel entirely comfortable rocking the boat yet.

All of this led me to a liberating thought: It’s okay to avoid the local chow when traveling. Of course you should at least make an effort. Drop in on a local restaurant and try the food. Learn as much as you can in advance to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Be brave. Gambatte kudasai.

But if you don’t like it, or if they profoundly misunderstand your dietary needs, you don’t have to go back. Just find some pizza and be happy. The french fries at Ueno Zoo are pretty good.

One related mystery has been solved. The Japanese people tend to be very thin and healthy. I think this is because they don’t eat much and they walk a lot. Especially on stairs.

Bed time. Tomorrow will start early.

Yesterday we wandered around Jinbocho. I bought a few books meant for children of varying ages. They should be good for reading practice.

The stores also had many excellent books in English, some about buddhism and asian history. Several stores seemed to be mostly manga. But nothing that I needed at the moment.

Then we went to Roppongi, a very fashionable area. We had supper at a nice Indian restaurant in the Roppongi Hills complex. They aren’t really hills, just very tall buildings…

We walked through Roppongi to Tokyo Tower. The view was excellent from the observation level, about 50 stories up. I posted some video clips from walking around the perimeter there and on the cafe deck one level down. The “special” observation level (much higher) was closed due to weather.

Today we’re packing up to go to a different hotel. It’s supposed to have internet access too. Tomorrow we fly home.