Alef Lamed’s blog

My group’s game in globalgamejam 2010 is Evil Pigeons. Simon Reisman was the Producer, Game Designer and did Sounds, Ori Peleg did the Small Assets,  Omer Nainudel did the Background, and I did the Programming. Really cool work and experience, writing a game in 48 hours (even less), except when you are looking for a bug like pygame.mixer loading sounds from non existent files without complaining. But shit happens, which is what the game is about; Get it from Global Game Jam, from saymoo, or get the sources at github.

After the last post I had a few nice things going. Visited tokyohackerspace, where I played with the chibi and got one for my “”troubles”". I’m now planning on getting another one and addon adxl345 boards to develop two things: an anti bicycle theft device and juggling balls that teach juggling. Not sure about the order, since the later is way cooler, but the former is very usable considering the rate of stolen bicycle in my personal history.
Also did a three day tour going west of tokyo, didn’t reach all the way to the tip but visited Himeji-jo (jo means castle), great karateka flashback, Kobe, including the earthquake museum, Osaka, half a day spent in den-den and got me a hhk which is my bday present from my brother and his wife, and also saw Osaka-jo and read the long history of this country that keeps reminding me of the mote in gods eye. Well, just the fighting part and fast development part. I guess they still have two arms. Finally visited Kyoto, but it was already the 29th of december so most museums and the castle were closed, to my disappointment. Returned to Tokyo, spent 21$ to see a avatar in 3d (3d is awesome), the next day found out I couldn’t take out money using my visa, some interneting revealed I hit the monthly limit of 19000 nis. Personal record! Which brings us to the What’s next department.
What’s next? I still have a few more days here. I’m not going to ski because it would be idiotic considering my funds and besides I’m not enthused.. strike that, well I am, but next time. So I have 4 days of unlimited train travel over JP and I intend to use them, at least to see nikko (a must), and probably see how far north I can go on local/rapid trains in one day. I do love to use my gps.
Then I’m going back to Oakland and then back home. That raises two issues, that of where to stay and what to do. .. . You don’t think I know, do you?

Thanks for reaching the end of my travel blog. I enjoyed writing some of the posts, and reading all of your comments, but this blog will be going back to it’s original purpose, that of writing obscure technical monologues. Have a wonderful linux-on-the-desktop year!

Tokyo is cool, but I want to go home. Ok, the language barrier is very annoying. I spent 5 days trying to get better in it – of course that’s childish, also cost me 600$ , for 15 hours of private lessons. Wakarimasen. The lessons were taken in MLC, recommended, but highly priced, and tacky 90’s style website – but you don’t pay them for web know how.

Only been around Tokyo (東京) so far – Asakusa, Imperial gardens walls (tip: don’t go on Monday, the gardens are closed. another tip:  RTFM), Ginza, Ueno, Harajuku, Shinjuku, Meguru (for MLC) and of course electric town Akihabara, been there like 4 times by now, and actually bought something (sharp’s relatively new pc-z1). That’s about 8 out of 23 wards, or ku’s, which make up the huge monstrosity known as Tokyo.

Went to a temple during the 47 ronin memorial day, people sure burn a lot of incense around here. But above all, I’ve been spending time in my room watching movies (Avatar is recommended, Afro samurai resurrection is not) and trying to decide what to do. It’s bloody cold – that’s what I hate most. Going to try and find some place to ice skate. There are excellent places to ski, so I’ve read, but I think if I’m cold now I should probably do this some other time when I’m better equipped. Also, it will probably cost a bundle (I’ll have to rent everything). I really have no idea why I came here. Pictures? go google tokyo. I have no pictures with me in them anyhow, so it won’t make much difference. Oh, I have one guy who I met in the 47 ronin temple, really cool marine living in tokyo since may, of course I lost the notebook I wrote down his facebook contact on the same day, so except for first name Christopher I have no clue how to find him (born on the year of the dragon I think – still not enough to find in facebook). So I give you the back of Christopher, if I meet him again I promise a face will be documented (or I’ll get a tatoo of his facebook / email address – I remember it’s @yahoo.com, big help), and some incense for background, and finally another nice picture I found:

For the next weeks until I leave I have some guidelines, but I think I’ll try to spend some time in a local hackerspace (called tokyohackerspace weirdly enough) and work on some stuff I want to get done. Konnichiwa y’all.

Hello from Tokyo!

I am staying in a 3-tatami room right now. To illustrate what that means, see the following video:

For 3000yen (~33$) you get this room with ac, electricity, coat hangers, mattress (comfortable), tv, really big window (ok, compared to the room), and free wireless or provided computer internet. Download speed of 1.3MB/sec for ubuntu updates (jp.archive.ubuntu.com) – I like! and this is over a wireless link in some hotel, so I expect it’s the norm rather then the exception.

Went to a restaurant yesterday, got oden, miso soup and a bowl of rice, total 270+380=650yen. And a free beer from the nice patron. After spending the flight reading about kata and how the Japanese are fucked up pursuing roles for doing everything, they call these roles/recipes for behavior/dictates kata, I’ve come to expect such behavior, but it is still exceptional.

Plans are a few, but really I don’t expect that much. I want to see tokyo, see kyoto and ride the shinkensen (bullet train). I want to see the markets, the temples, the fish market specifically, even if it requires waking up before 5am. Actually, if I take advantage of the jet lag that should be easy (woke up 3am today). And learn more japanese in the process.

I’m back in Brisbane, tried writing this in Cairns but got stuck in the picture sorting phase. Too many pictures (we pooled all the pictures from 11 people on fraser island..). My solution – start with very few pictures for now. Later I’ll try sorting them out. Despite a picture being worth a thousand words, sorting a thousand pictures takes more time then writing a thousand words summarizing those pictures (or something like that, and this is 768 words).

So what have I been up to? strangely enough, I basically followed my plan. I started at Fraser island, from which I have the rabi picture below, that was pretty cool, of course I ended up with a german speaking car, at least I can count in german now (and for the next week probably, until I forget it). Also, I have several pictures of me semi drunk attempting to look happy (no, they will not be revealed!). I did have some fun there, it is a beautiful place, and in my taste not too touristed. It was a self drive, which means 11 people with negligble experience on a 4×4 vehicle get to drive it for 3 days, free excercise included, i.e. car pushing. I got the nickname “mother” (I was the oldest guy there, but not by far), since I tended to wake everyone up early and try to get on with the day.

After that I discovered I couldn’t find my laptop charger! my world collapsed in seconds. I blacked out. After recovering in the hospital.. well no, I actually survived that, but carrying a 3 kg non working laptop is got to be a new form of torture. I managed to buy a universal transformer for it in Cairns, but I’m getting ahead. After Fraser I continued to Hervey bay, and from there to Airlie beach.

Airlie is the launching point for the Whitsundays, which is the common but not formal name for a group of islands in the south of the great barrier reef that Captain Hook believed he discovered on a Sunday, but apparently he had a calendarial error, so they are actually the whitmondays! I sailed aboard the British Defender for two days, it is an awesome yacht that tilts on the side by design when it is under full sail (single mast, two sails, front and rear, rear bigger and easier to change the heading of). The boat is 20 years old, built for racing around the world. Fun crew, great people. After that I stayed in Airlie two days more then I intended, waiting for what was supposed to be the computer’s charger (too bad video phones are not common yet – it is very hard to describe a laptop charger by phone to people who don’t use computers often), and turned out to be my *other* (touchbook) computer’s charger).

So I continued laptop-power-less, and had to go directly to Cairns, to the jewel of the trip, a most amazing three day 11 dives trip, with a chef on board – I never ate so good. Of course it cost accordingly, but well worth it. I only had 3 days remaining before my flight back to Brisbane (which was this morning), those consisted of: randomly going around cairns (1 day), going to Kuranda via sky-rail and back via train (1-day, met the first Japanese person! strangely, instead of email she offered a skype username, maybe that is more common in japan?) and lastely yesterday did a tour with a 4×4 car, that was a little mellow but pretty cool, across the Atherton tablelands. So I didn’t go to cooktown/port douglas/daintree/cape tribulation, but I’m pretty confident the rain forest in the tablelands (the area between the great dividing range and the coast mountain ranges) has the same rain forest. It is beyond my current capacity as a photographer to take good pictures of the rainforest, one interesting fact – rainforest is generally an area with at least 4.5m of rain, and a very small amount of sunlight for vegetation. There is a type of tree that requires more sunlight but likes the rain just as much, a type of pine I forget the name of, which as a result lingers and thus marks the fringes of the rainforest – a sort of edge detector.

About the pictures: The first three are from Fraser island, the next two are from the British Defender taken around the Whitsunday islands, and the next are from the pro dive trip in the Great Barrier Reef (specifically it was Flynn reef and another one near it).

The future as planned: departing tomorrow by greyhound to Rainbow beach, going to Fraser island the day after that for a self drive tour of two days, after that greyhound again airlee beach, yacht of two days in Whitsunday Islands, then north by greyhound to mission beach, 1 day there, then north further to Cairns, Pro Dive sail with diving in the reef, then a few undefined days hopefully in Daintree Rain Forest and Cape Tribulation, followed by a return by plane to Brisbane, few days there, return by plane to Sydney, final days there, and return to San Francisco on the 1st of december, and after a few days of rest and unpayed for internet I’ll be leaving for Tokyo, only to return to SF at the end of the first week of January and then to israel a few days later.

A new linux shop opened in Sydney, the first in Australia apparently, and they had free food and pretty penguins! I happily got myself a linux.conf.au 2004 baseball cap, which I hope not to lose (famous last words). Went about 1000km in two days, gradually packing the car better. Prices for camping sites are not bad, despite having two gps devices ended up navigating with paper maps. The roadside is very beautiful, staying now for two nights in Byron bay, slept here (yha, cape byron, not recommended – no special reason, just expensive for what you get) yesterday and at a camp site in myall lake area the night before. The site at Myall is recommended – 15$ for car (~4 pp), next to the lake, adaquate facilities (10 minutes by bike from beach to get a shower). It seems to have started raining at this moment, so I hope we will not regret setting up the tents instead of staying in a hostel (about half price, but not worth it if everything becomes soaked). After diving here tomorrow and seeing the lighthouse (eastern most point in Sydney, yay!) will probably head to Brisbane. After that I want to get to Cairns, I may get a car, probably a rental, since I know now that 500km/day is quite doable. Broke my “do not drink into total memory loss” of two years, but at least I only don’t remember about 10 minutes of getting into my sleeping bag, during which reportedly I was laughing, so all good fun (not). Also managed to get threatened by a guy in a shower. I am now practicing the art of not looking too long at any person unless I intend to talk to them. Possibly I should consider help. Or getting a gun. Or learning how to fight. Or just get over it – according to my travelmates in germany this just happens every day.

Montage from the linux shop that opened in North Sydney

My new bike rack

Most of this post was written a few days ago, before I left Sydney. I’m publishing it as is, the next post will contain some more information travel wise.

Got my touchbook yesterday, found a ride today, after spending some time looking for a car (two grueling hours, including 30 minutes talking to a chovinistik marocai from petah tikva – I guess an ars in former life; not a fun experience). The amount of options, including where to go and how to go there, are just too much, helpfully the guy just approached me and said now there suddenly is a place, and if I’m still interested, and that was it. The destination is Brisbane, but with stopping all along the way for Natural Parks and sites of interest. If I’ll convince the guy to continue to Cairns ma tov, otherwise I’ll catch a plane. Despite getting into the humid early hot season I prefer this to flying into Cairns (no special reason).

The solar panel appears to be charging the touchbook (I’m in a park next to Sydney University, testing it right now). No excuse yet for walking around with a folding bicycle, solar panel and two computers, but having a car means never having to say hernia.

Pictures. I apologize for the lack of order – I’m just going through the latest and putting in whatever seems to be interesting / pretty (both subjective of course)

Red Rules - The car that I'll be leaving in on Saturday together with two individualsDiving in Manly Ocean World, very expensive but where else do you get a chance to be eaten by sharks? (oh right, anywhere in the ocean - but these sharks are special!)My Dell Inspiron 1420 and the new Touchbook. But the dell doesn't come apart into a seperate tablet and keyboard.

Diving in Manly Ocean World, very expensive but where else do you get a chance to be eaten by sharks? (oh right, anywhere in the ocean - but these sharks are special!)

My Dell Inspiron 1420 and the new Touchbook. But the dell doesn't come apart into a seperate tablet and keyboard.

After 3 weeks in Manly went to see Bondi beach - manly is a longer beach, has volleyball nets, bondi is more populated and has more inland depth.

Tablet part of Touchbook opened, cannot close once the GT730 usb dongle is inserted

I won’t cover south lake tahoe, new york city, the new noisebridge hq in san francisco, my surfing attempt, both visits to the blue mountains next to sydney, nor sydney tower, sydney university campus, my bicycle getting stolen, and my gps screen becoming half visible.

Instead, let me offer you this picture. Today I tried to test the sunlinq for the first time. Got 24.4 Voltage (no load) with fullest sun, this being a particularily windy and partially cloudy day I also got 23.0 with part cloud cover, all at freshwater beach next to manly, in Sydney. The rubber cables and hooks are easy to carry and do a fine job attaching to the sunlinq to the bike. The bicycle is incedentally another Dahon, just a better model (Speed D9), got for 780 Australian Dollars at cellbikes (nice place, right next to Sydney University), and I now have a New York Kryptonite which costs 140$ and weighs 3 Kg (I had them weigh it for be before deciding to purchase). But now I’ll be sure that if the bicycle is stolen, I probably forgot to close the lock.

Sunlinq 25W on top of the Dahon Speed D9, next to a bench at Freshwater beach in Sydney. You can see the australian continent on the shopping bag (click for larger version). Helmets are mandatory in Australia.

What did I do in Burning man? got my ass kicked in the thunderdome, drank a little, smoked a little, danced a little, setup a really cool wireless router (uniquity nano station 5, highly recommended) and participated in giving cellular coverage across Black Rock City and most of the Playa. Read about the OpenBTS  in the cnet article, and at David Burgess’s blog post.

I had a whole paragraph here trying to describe what I think about burning man. But it was mostly rubbish, so I’ll just say I intend to go next year, check out the pictures below for some of the stuff I’ve seen.

Papa Legba, my camp's sticker

Interesting Status at center camp

Working on OpenBTs in our shade structure. David in front, me in the back.

See the center camp plaza and all the way from 4:30 to 7:00

Yes, that will work.

Darwin's Wedge from the Air, yes, it's big.

Many cool customes,I liked this one particularly. All credit goes to someone in Noise Bridge, sorry but I forgot the name, thank you whomever you are!

Penis shooting flames. Quite a few art cars had shooting flames. There was also a firing range for flamethrowers where you could shoot tiny status of the man.

Temple of tears burning down