Thoughts
It has been a while since I've written. I would like to claim being busy as an excuse, but that would be a half-truth as it seems the only thing I have been busy with is laziness. The break was much needed and enjoyed though. The misgivings of moving and changing and returning to a place that doesn't seem to be moving or changing were at the same time less of a problem but impacted me more than I expected them to. Regardless, it was marvelous to see friends again. Unfortunately, with all the fanfare given it, Aku Ender and I were unable to have our sparring match, due in part to my newest weight loss method, the flu. With the flu you can lose up to ten pounds in a day¹.

I have been struggling the last couple of days trying to find the words to best describe the return trip. The first thing that comes to mind is the cup-holders on the shopping carts and the hordes of overweight people. It may have seemed there were more because we've been in Japan a full year without being in the States. Also, after going through airport security I just wanted to say, "Remove the stake from your back orifice." It is not that I disagree with security, it is that I do not believe any of the security they are currently enacting actually stops more than the previous security methods. Even the measures to fingerprint do not make much sense to me. The attacks of the eleventh of September were carried out by passengers with legitimate passports and no weapons, even if all current security methods were in place, it is my opinion the attacks would have still occurred. The new security business boom has actually hampered real security and deals in inconvenience and sentimentality; if you feel safer after they have prodded into your private life, then they have done their job. It is not like we actually have a right to privacy, but it would be nice not to have people checking your credit rating and giving it to the FBI without telling you. Seriously, what terrorist is going to be buying things on credit cards? Credit cards are quite traceable, cash is not, so why do we check credit rating on ticket purchases? Sigh, but it is a win-win situation, tell people you are stopping plots and as long as they are not actually occurring, no one can really prove you wrong.

Anyway, besides those security misgivings and the cup-holders on the shopping carts, I really enjoyed being back with family and friends. We had 17 people at The Wife's parents' house, all family. We took several trips up to GR for to see friends as well. The Wife hung out quite a bit with her good friend T, who just had a baby. The first time we saw it, The Wife flipped out. It was amusing, as was watching The Wife work through it. I would have liked to stay and chat with T and her husband L, but they have two cats which disagree with my respiratory system. I had some good talks with some of my exprofessors and asked them for advice. One of them gave me a website that deals in old and out of print books, abebooks. I checked it out, it is pretty nifty. He suggested I look a book entitled The Chinese Black Chamber which is about a US Cryptographer that sets up a cryptoservice for the Chinese pre World War II. It isn't very technical, but he suggested it because I mentioned I was interested in the crossover between cryptography and linguistics.

I'm still trying to sort through everything that happened during our vacation, but I had a fun time just relaxing, but I'm ready to get back into things. Oh, The Wife has a book for teaching oneself Old English, so we'll both be playing around with that I think.

We went to Kyoto, in specific, Gion, on Sunday and wandered through that part of the city. I took some pictures of a Maiko and we stumbled into an independent art musuem and gallery. Next time we are in the area I am going to take a picture of the sign out front which said something to the effect of, The store opens when I open it, and closes when I get tired.

I've got to stop. More later.

1. Some side effects may occur.