Over many years now I’ve heard just about all the moral majority come out in some form or another against just about everything. If they did like someone who said the sun came up in the east they would say no, it comes up in the west cos we the sinner just got the direction wrong.
Where it gets to me is that I hear all these people going on and on about the ‘gays’. For some very odd reason the moral majority seem to think its there right to tell us what to do and how we should behave.
See the thing is I spend about zero-1 minutes per week thinking I should be telling the heterosexual world how to live there lives. Conversely thou I do spend a lot of my media consumption time reading about how unfaithful they are to there wife's etc. I only say alot because it seems to be in the media all the time, oddly because it happens a lot. The political headliners seem to spend an inordinate amount of time condemning my life upon which I had no choice in, also seem to be the ones who go off and get caught up on all sorts of scandals' which they did have a choice in.
So the next time you hear someone going on and constantly on about the homosexual agenda, just take a look at how well they are doing with the heterosexual agenda.
As I said, I spend no time telling other people how they should live there lives, so why should theyyou be interested in how I live mine. Are they really that bored?
Well its here. My final sleep before leaving Japan! I’m spent the 36 hours in Kyoto on a mission to decompress brain and get a bit of zen back into my life.
Its going well! News from Oz at about 2pm Japan time that Tonto has arrived safely and was now at Eastern Creek in row 4! (yes it does sound abit like a cell block).
Headed of to Nanzenji then to start the disengaging mental gears. Today a call with Tonto carer and confirmation that all is very well, so off for more relax!
Been up the top of Mt Hiei (Hieizn) wandering in gardens, Sugi forests and temples. Finished the day with a soak in the pool to restore body temperature to normal and dinner with a friend in town.
I have one more morning left which will be at Daitokuji which has many famous Zen temples and is basically ‘hardcore’ Zen! I’m ready for it now, mental gears are free spinning, the internal mental voice is just a whisper if at all (and I’m not hearing voices – Yet). The bell at the nearby temple is just ringing in 9pm and its a perfect synergy to the calming energy that pervades through Kyoto.
The time of year is perfect as well as the main summer holiday rush is over so the crowds are gone, everything has been at peaceful pace, just what a tired soul needs.
I was asked today if I leave with any regrets, and I’ve been asked by many will I miss Japan.
It really is happening! I had my last day at work on Friday. The plan was to leave at 5pm, but fate would have it that I walked out the door at 7pm to no fanfare.
But it was good! I had a nice lunch with the team that I really like. Rather impromtu but worked out really nice in the end.
A good thing was that leaving so late, and I was still actually doing stuff at 10pm was that I leave knowing one of my long term projects went into production and worked! It was a nice was to leave actually. Thou to be accurate I'm not actually leaving the job, I'm just going to be doing it from a different office now.
The apartment is a bit of a war zone now as there are cardboard box's everywhere. Tonto and I head off to the vet tomorrow for his final checks and vet certs then he flys the 31st the same day the apartment is packed up. Rather a good result as I was not looking forward to the idea of being in the house without him. He has become very much a fixture.
i'm off to Kyoto on Wednesday for some major time out and zening out in the gardens and temples. Its a nice way for me to leave as I've always had a love of Kyoto and it will be good to leave from a place I've enjoyed so much. It will set the stage correctly!
Its almost official now! I'm leaving Japan after 4 years and 11 months, almost to the day!
My last day here will be 3rd Sept 2010. I'm spending the last few days in one of my favourite places. Kyoto.
Going to spend a few days there chilling down at the temples and gardens just putting everything back into place.
Tonto flys on the 31st of Aug and I'm going to miss him alot as he has to spend 30 days in quarantine. The paperwork to get him there is taking up half of my moving binder, but I could never leave him behind! He know something is up as his crate has been in the apartment for a while now!
so if I don't write again, see you from the southern hemisphere!
LIttle after the fact, but I got myself an Ipad. Had been thinking about this well before Apple actually annouced it and when they did I wanted one. I got mine via a forwarding company I use in the US and it worked really well. Oddly I could track my Ipad via the apple store coming from China to the US to Tokyo. Go figure that. Wonder if I can get the airmiles for that.
So whats it like. Well to be honest a little heavier than I expected, the whole curve back hides alot. But I'm getting used to that. Functionally whats its like. Well lets start with I'm a huge internect connected person. I don't buy news papers and get all my news from the net. Well for thats its totally amazing! Push, swipe and click and I have my news of the day. My favorite apps so far is Newswiper as it lets me read all sorts of news feeds for that. The dedicated apps are good as well. USA Today is nice, and WSJ is almost worth a subscription.
In other things the always on thing is great. Want to look up something goto Wikipanion and get full wikipedia in great format. Love that.
take notes with it, getting used to that as well.
Email, well its not doing well with my main account, but I do love the gmail access. Bento the database, wonderful, but no PC translate, not sure on that yet. IM, getting used to it. But overall I do love it. The stuff on it so far works well and I can't see where there is going to take us with media going forward. What if really love is that it's just there. Its a real internet applicance and its does it really well.
When they sort out the IMAP push events for normal email accounts it will be an amazing family tool and I'd buy one for my parents in a second. (i'd have to work out the whole remote access issue, but then a 3g version could just do the trick here.)
I take my hat off to Apple here they have created a device that those of us in IT didn't think we needed as touch has failed before, but this device well its one for the rest of us. Sure some of the setup for email may be a little tricky and there are many options on what would work best here) but overall this is a killer device. The applications it has so far turn the internet into just a source of information that is presented to the user in an understandable way. I can't wait to see the applications that will come out in the next few months to really take advantage of this new platform.
Look as an It professional I see that Apple are creating a walled environment for the applications, but I also have to take into account people like my parents who are starting to use the internet and having it packaged in such an accessible way can't be that bad.
