Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Saturday, November 26, 2016
Saturday, September 17, 2016
Cancer and Chemotherapy Interview with Mark Fonseca Rendeiro
Mark Fonseca Rendeiro interviewed me for his podcast Citizen Reporter.
We discussed the brutal side effects of chemotherapy for terminal cancer, looking after kids when you're dying, trying to keep things together when you are in the worst pain imaginable. Enjoy.
Please take a listen and leave a comment on his blog:
http://citizenreporter.org/2016/09/ctrp486/
We discussed the brutal side effects of chemotherapy for terminal cancer, looking after kids when you're dying, trying to keep things together when you are in the worst pain imaginable. Enjoy.
Please take a listen and leave a comment on his blog:
http://citizenreporter.org/2016/09/ctrp486/
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Cancer Q&A: Part 2
[Transcript kindly provided by Ivan Vanzaj and Osama Seghol]
Hi this is video update number 4, this is the second part of the Q&A. Part 1 is here: http://karamoon.blogspot.jp/2016/09/cancer-q-part-1.html
I asked people what were the questions they wanted me to answer. Thank you for
all your great questions. My friend Jacinta, friend and mentor, sent me lots of
very big, deep questions. So I'm going to do a whole video just on that later on.
For now I'm going to continue on questions I started answering in a previous
video for Angela, "Do's and Don'ts on having Cancer".
The basic do for any cancer or any other crisis. It's a three-step system that
will get you through any problem on earth. And it's disgusting we don't teach
this to children really. [Getting a bit upset now.]
[1:10]
The three steps are:
Number 1: Don't worry alone. This means you tell people what's going on to the
best of your ability. If you're not someone who can tell people what's going on,
then you trick yourself into pretending you're one of those people. Okay.
Don't worry alone, tell some people. It makes it much better. Choose people
carefully who you tell, try and tell the most helpful people first. Tell them if
you'd like them to tell other people. That helps a lot as well. It's very very
tiring to explain to people who either don't know your situation or only know a
little bit of your situation. When they message you or talk, they're asking
about your plans for the summer holiday, and you have to say:
"Well, I just found out I've got cancer, so all plans are off".
[1:59]
Number 2: Get the right information. This is so important. You ask your doctors, your
oncologist (cancer specialist), the surgeons, you have to be careful with the
surgeons, aggressively ask lots and lots and lots of questions:
- What are the alternatives to the surgery?
- What is the purpose of the surgery?
- Is it to cure the cancer or slow it down?
- Is it exploratory surgery to find out other stuff that's going inside?
You need to be asking those questions. In the UK we are very lucky to have so
many wonderful cancer charities that have really informative websites and book
clubs and books they can give you. Call up the cancer charities, ask them lots
of questions, or ask the doctor. Because it makes a huge difference.
[2:53]
Step number 3: Make a plan. If you're someone who doesn't make plans, you have
to trick yourself into pretending you're someone who makes plans. You have to
say to yourself, if there was someone else telling me I have to make a plan,
what would my plan be. Because planning has been proven beyond anything else to
effect the outcomes of any situation, even bad plans. Even plans that have to be
changed immediately. Just the action of making a plan will help you see if
you've got the right information or not. Actually, making a plan might calm you
down.
So those are the three steps, they should be taught to all children everywhere.
It is pathetic we don't teach that to kids. If I had learned that system as a kid,
so much heartbreak and suffering would've been spared to me.
Now a big DON'T. Do not fall for so called alternative cures. There's one way to
cure cancer basically, which is surgery. It's not very nice. When you do surgery
(for cancer) you take what's called a margin. They take out the cancer and a bit
around it so they're damaging healthy tissue.
That's my daughter appearing in the background. "Hello Jessica". My son Edwards
is going to say hello as well.
Edward: Hello. Please help daddy spread the three steps so there are no
children except me know that.
[Laughs, ok, Edward, take Jessica and go play in the room please]
[4:50]
A big Don't is don't fall for alternative cures because there are none. Cancer
is cured basically by surgery. In some early cancers it can be cured by
chemotherapy or radiation. In some early cancers or in some situations where
surgery can't be used, because of the condition of the patient, there are non
surgical methods. They are very very specific to your situation. But you might
be lucky, well, lucky or unlucky, depending on how you're looking at it. With
liver cancer, for example, there are ways of doing the surgery by using highly
pinpointed radiation which is different from radiation therapy. It's called
Gamma-knife or Cyber knife. They have 95 different rays of concentrated radio
energy going into your liver and trying to destroy the tumor. Only can be used
if there's one small tumor basically and particularly if the cancer hasn't
spread somewhere else. But, cancer is cured by surgery. Cancer is slowed down by
chemotherapy. In some cases cancer can be shrunk by chemotherapy. Radiation
treatment works for somethings as well. They are all unpleasant obviously, very
unpleasant. But they work, they're proven to work.
[6:33]
The real proof beyond anything else is that life expectancy for people with
cancer who are receiving these treatments, has been going up year on year on
year, as these treatments improve. These treatments basically improve every 12,
well they are improving all the time, but not for the patients. They are
improving in testing. And basically every year, a country would publish new
guidelines on how to cure cancer. These are called protocols. That's why cancer
research is so important.
[7:13]
A lot of research is obviously funded by drug companies. You can say it's a bit
suspect. What I think is suspect is the direction of the research. Because
they're always trying to... they are obviously going to focus on medicines that
people are going to be taking for a long time. These are effective, but a long
time. And that's a shame because there might be some very effective treatments
that are quite short. In fact, I'm having one of them. I'm having two
experimental treatments. These are not alternative treatments. They're
experimental treatments. There's clinical evidence in labs that they work. Not
anecdotal evidence, but clinical evidence. As in they get some cancer out of
people, put in test tubes, you know, and animal tests as well. And this stuff
works.
I'm having two treatments, one which is very expensive and complex called
immunotherapy. I'm having my first immunotherapy session on Friday. Two weeks
ago they took some of my blood, and they're using my own blood to make a
customized cancer treatment for me. In fact, they're going to try and make two.
One is the immunotherapy called Auto Logos Immune Enhancement Therapy (ALIET),
which is a very complex thing. They take out the blood, two weeks of playing
around with it in a lab, making the white blood cells stronger to then put back
in your body as a drip. So I'm gonna go on Friday, and just spend 30 minutes;
I'll be sat on a bed or lying on a bed for 30 minutes, and they put this drip in
of my own white blood cells going back into my body. And they will hopefully
have effectively programmed them to attack the cancer. And then they also going
to try to make another type of immunotherapy which is a vaccine, like a cancer
vaccine. That's what the fund raising is for.
So, thank you for the donations. It makes a massive difference. Please tell people
you've donated, because it turns one donation into two, three, four, even more, and
makes me feel very good as well.
[9:37]
That's the very complex and expensive treatment. In English pounds it's
basically about 15 thousand pounds for a cycle of 6 treatments or might even
work out a bit more because it's some setup costs for each thing. And it's hard
to predict the cost because they basically do as much as they can in the lab.
So, they don't really know the cost until they do it. I mean, they are putting
in a lot of work. They are not asking money for nothing.
I'm having another treatment which is a very very simple treatment, and very
cheap treatment. It has some clinical evidence. It has evidence that it worked
for people who have other treatments. The reason it's hard to prove these kinds
of treatments, it's that usually you have them with something like chemotherapy.
It's very hard to say if there is a positive effect or if it is from this
treatment or is it from chemotherapy.
[10:37]
So, I'm having a treatment called hyperthermia, localized hyperthermia therapy.
Where they use radio waves to heat up the areas of the body with the cancer.
So, for me, it's targeted at the abdomen where my cancer mainly is. And it's
cheap, and easy to do. But there is no motivation for a drug company to do a
massive trial. Even for the companies that make the machines. It's not an
expensive machine. It's a simple treatment. You go in, they put some gel on
your body, like for me on the abdomen, where the radio waves are going to be put
it. And you lie there for 40 minutes. It's very boring because you can't...
well, they say you can use your ipod... mp3 player or whatever. But they say it
might get destroyed by the radio frequency stuff. I might try it with a very
long pair of headphones that can be put on the other side of the room. But
possibly, the headphones wire would act as an antenna, and it would make it even
worse. I think, I really don't want to risk my ipod because it's been a big life
line to me at the moment.
So, this is a very simple treatment that you think would be available for
everyone. It's a treatment that seems to help people who are having
chemotherapy. Because the heat in your body induced by this machine damages the
cancer cells. Also if you have a large tumor, it's very difficult for the
chemotherapy to get into the center of the tumor because the blood supply is
bad. If you heat up the cells... within 24 hours of therapy, then it can really
help a lot. [phone ringing...]
I'm going to finish up this video now, and do another one in a few minutes.
[Transcript kindly provided by Ivan Vanzaj and Osama Seghol]
Hi this is video update number 4, this is the second part of the Q&A. Part 1 is here: http://karamoon.blogspot.jp/2016/09/cancer-q-part-1.html
I asked people what were the questions they wanted me to answer. Thank you for
all your great questions. My friend Jacinta, friend and mentor, sent me lots of
very big, deep questions. So I'm going to do a whole video just on that later on.
For now I'm going to continue on questions I started answering in a previous
video for Angela, "Do's and Don'ts on having Cancer".
The basic do for any cancer or any other crisis. It's a three-step system that
will get you through any problem on earth. And it's disgusting we don't teach
this to children really. [Getting a bit upset now.]
[1:10]
The three steps are:
Number 1: Don't worry alone. This means you tell people what's going on to the
best of your ability. If you're not someone who can tell people what's going on,
then you trick yourself into pretending you're one of those people. Okay.
Don't worry alone, tell some people. It makes it much better. Choose people
carefully who you tell, try and tell the most helpful people first. Tell them if
you'd like them to tell other people. That helps a lot as well. It's very very
tiring to explain to people who either don't know your situation or only know a
little bit of your situation. When they message you or talk, they're asking
about your plans for the summer holiday, and you have to say:
"Well, I just found out I've got cancer, so all plans are off".
[1:59]
Number 2: Get the right information. This is so important. You ask your doctors, your
oncologist (cancer specialist), the surgeons, you have to be careful with the
surgeons, aggressively ask lots and lots and lots of questions:
- What are the alternatives to the surgery?
- What is the purpose of the surgery?
- Is it to cure the cancer or slow it down?
- Is it exploratory surgery to find out other stuff that's going inside?
You need to be asking those questions. In the UK we are very lucky to have so
many wonderful cancer charities that have really informative websites and book
clubs and books they can give you. Call up the cancer charities, ask them lots
of questions, or ask the doctor. Because it makes a huge difference.
[2:53]
Step number 3: Make a plan. If you're someone who doesn't make plans, you have
to trick yourself into pretending you're someone who makes plans. You have to
say to yourself, if there was someone else telling me I have to make a plan,
what would my plan be. Because planning has been proven beyond anything else to
effect the outcomes of any situation, even bad plans. Even plans that have to be
changed immediately. Just the action of making a plan will help you see if
you've got the right information or not. Actually, making a plan might calm you
down.
So those are the three steps, they should be taught to all children everywhere.
It is pathetic we don't teach that to kids. If I had learned that system as a kid,
so much heartbreak and suffering would've been spared to me.
Now a big DON'T. Do not fall for so called alternative cures. There's one way to
cure cancer basically, which is surgery. It's not very nice. When you do surgery
(for cancer) you take what's called a margin. They take out the cancer and a bit
around it so they're damaging healthy tissue.
That's my daughter appearing in the background. "Hello Jessica". My son Edwards
is going to say hello as well.
Edward: Hello. Please help daddy spread the three steps so there are no
children except me know that.
[Laughs, ok, Edward, take Jessica and go play in the room please]
[4:50]
A big Don't is don't fall for alternative cures because there are none. Cancer
is cured basically by surgery. In some early cancers it can be cured by
chemotherapy or radiation. In some early cancers or in some situations where
surgery can't be used, because of the condition of the patient, there are non
surgical methods. They are very very specific to your situation. But you might
be lucky, well, lucky or unlucky, depending on how you're looking at it. With
liver cancer, for example, there are ways of doing the surgery by using highly
pinpointed radiation which is different from radiation therapy. It's called
Gamma-knife or Cyber knife. They have 95 different rays of concentrated radio
energy going into your liver and trying to destroy the tumor. Only can be used
if there's one small tumor basically and particularly if the cancer hasn't
spread somewhere else. But, cancer is cured by surgery. Cancer is slowed down by
chemotherapy. In some cases cancer can be shrunk by chemotherapy. Radiation
treatment works for somethings as well. They are all unpleasant obviously, very
unpleasant. But they work, they're proven to work.
[6:33]
The real proof beyond anything else is that life expectancy for people with
cancer who are receiving these treatments, has been going up year on year on
year, as these treatments improve. These treatments basically improve every 12,
well they are improving all the time, but not for the patients. They are
improving in testing. And basically every year, a country would publish new
guidelines on how to cure cancer. These are called protocols. That's why cancer
research is so important.
[7:13]
A lot of research is obviously funded by drug companies. You can say it's a bit
suspect. What I think is suspect is the direction of the research. Because
they're always trying to... they are obviously going to focus on medicines that
people are going to be taking for a long time. These are effective, but a long
time. And that's a shame because there might be some very effective treatments
that are quite short. In fact, I'm having one of them. I'm having two
experimental treatments. These are not alternative treatments. They're
experimental treatments. There's clinical evidence in labs that they work. Not
anecdotal evidence, but clinical evidence. As in they get some cancer out of
people, put in test tubes, you know, and animal tests as well. And this stuff
works.
I'm having two treatments, one which is very expensive and complex called
immunotherapy. I'm having my first immunotherapy session on Friday. Two weeks
ago they took some of my blood, and they're using my own blood to make a
customized cancer treatment for me. In fact, they're going to try and make two.
One is the immunotherapy called Auto Logos Immune Enhancement Therapy (ALIET),
which is a very complex thing. They take out the blood, two weeks of playing
around with it in a lab, making the white blood cells stronger to then put back
in your body as a drip. So I'm gonna go on Friday, and just spend 30 minutes;
I'll be sat on a bed or lying on a bed for 30 minutes, and they put this drip in
of my own white blood cells going back into my body. And they will hopefully
have effectively programmed them to attack the cancer. And then they also going
to try to make another type of immunotherapy which is a vaccine, like a cancer
vaccine. That's what the fund raising is for.
So, thank you for the donations. It makes a massive difference. Please tell people
you've donated, because it turns one donation into two, three, four, even more, and
makes me feel very good as well.
[9:37]
That's the very complex and expensive treatment. In English pounds it's
basically about 15 thousand pounds for a cycle of 6 treatments or might even
work out a bit more because it's some setup costs for each thing. And it's hard
to predict the cost because they basically do as much as they can in the lab.
So, they don't really know the cost until they do it. I mean, they are putting
in a lot of work. They are not asking money for nothing.
I'm having another treatment which is a very very simple treatment, and very
cheap treatment. It has some clinical evidence. It has evidence that it worked
for people who have other treatments. The reason it's hard to prove these kinds
of treatments, it's that usually you have them with something like chemotherapy.
It's very hard to say if there is a positive effect or if it is from this
treatment or is it from chemotherapy.
[10:37]
So, I'm having a treatment called hyperthermia, localized hyperthermia therapy.
Where they use radio waves to heat up the areas of the body with the cancer.
So, for me, it's targeted at the abdomen where my cancer mainly is. And it's
cheap, and easy to do. But there is no motivation for a drug company to do a
massive trial. Even for the companies that make the machines. It's not an
expensive machine. It's a simple treatment. You go in, they put some gel on
your body, like for me on the abdomen, where the radio waves are going to be put
it. And you lie there for 40 minutes. It's very boring because you can't...
well, they say you can use your ipod... mp3 player or whatever. But they say it
might get destroyed by the radio frequency stuff. I might try it with a very
long pair of headphones that can be put on the other side of the room. But
possibly, the headphones wire would act as an antenna, and it would make it even
worse. I think, I really don't want to risk my ipod because it's been a big life
line to me at the moment.
So, this is a very simple treatment that you think would be available for
everyone. It's a treatment that seems to help people who are having
chemotherapy. Because the heat in your body induced by this machine damages the
cancer cells. Also if you have a large tumor, it's very difficult for the
chemotherapy to get into the center of the tumor because the blood supply is
bad. If you heat up the cells... within 24 hours of therapy, then it can really
help a lot. [phone ringing...]
I'm going to finish up this video now, and do another one in a few minutes.
[Transcript kindly provided by Ivan Vanzaj and Osama Seghol]
Cancer Q&A: Part 1
[Transcript kindly provided by Ivan Vanzaj and Osama Seghol]
[00:00]
Hi this is cancer update video number 3.
I've just had my second dose of chemotherapy, the side effects are starting to
kick in. They usually come two days after you've finished the chemo, so I'm
recording this on Tuesday evening Tokyo time, and I had my chemo Saturday
4 o'clock I think, so it's 48 hours, so that finished on Monday 4 o'clock,
and it takes two days for the poison to get out of your body.
[00:57]
The reason I'm hiccuping a lot is, it's one of the side effects. Actually it's
not a side effect of the chemotherapy; it's a side effect of one of the drugs
that you take to minimise the other side effects [laughs]. One of the very
common side effects of chemotherapy is vomiting. Because I have very low vomit
threshold which means I vomit very easily, I've been given the strongest anti-
vomit drugs before, during and after the chemotherapy. And one of those drugs'
side effects is persistent hiccups, which means hiccups that last over an hour.
At the moment the hiccups are not painful, they're just very annoying. Last time
when I had the hiccups I had very very extreme pain because every time I
hiccup... (some acid damage happened in my oesophagus, but that acid damage
seems to have healed up). As you can see I've got a skin rash. That's not a side
effect of the chemotherapy. That's a side effect of drug that goes along with
the chemotherapy to help it work better. That skin rash is from my first
chemotherapy which was two weeks ago which was much much much worse than it is
now. It was, 24 hours of pain, terrible burning pain. I couldn't even sleep.
Yes, gash on my head is just because I just had to take very strong pills last
night that made me dizzy, and I fell over and gashed my head open which is not
good.
[02:41]
This video is just going to be questions and answers really because lots of
people have asked me very good questions. So, it's going to be in random order.
I'll do my best, I know I'm speaking fast; I may slow my speech down a bit to be
clear especially with these hiccups. I haven't got the camera in a great
position either.
So, my friend Emily asked how am I feeling, and what was my life like before
getting the cancer diagnosis? I'm feeling okay, really; physically anyway. I've
got these side effects. At the moment the only side effects I'm getting from the
chemo, as of this side effect today is like nerve damage in my mouth and tongue,
lining of my mouth, gums and teeth. Which means if I have a cold drink it's
very painful. That kind of thing. I don't know why my lip looks odd, but other
than that I'm feeling physically okay. Emotionally, I don't know, I guess I'm
okay as well [laughs]. I literally don't remember a lot of my life before
cancer. The memories have just been eclipsed by all of this. At the moment my
life is cancer 24 hours, really. When I'm awake there's always something cancer
related going on. It's quite an effort just to take care of myself on a daily
basis. Especially making sure I eat and I drink enough. I need to hydrate a
lot. Especially after the chemo. It might possibly help flush out the chemo,
stuff like that. I don't know if that's true for my chemo, but it will
definitely flush out some of these anti side effect drugs. Just to give you a
very rough idea; days immediately after chemo, I'm taking 24 pills spread over
three days, different pills. A lot of stuff, really. So getting it flushed out
of my system is going to be a good thing. So just remembering to take the
pills, I have to write a diary of the food and drink I have, and when I have it,
because if I don't, I often just don't eat because when I get hungry I
emotionally don't have an appetite. So thanks for that question Emily. Emily is
a dear school friend. Recently got back in touch with her after being out of
touch for 18 years, really. She's been lovely, she's made a couple of sweet
videos for me. I hated school, and she was one of the people who made it
bearable for me. So I really appreciate her friendship so much. It was just
great to get back in touch with her. And she seems to be doing really well, has
lovely kinds and that kind of stuff.
[06:23]
My friend Angela asked a lot of good questions, some of which I'm going to
answer in this one and some in a later video.
One thing she said: What support that I've been getting means the most to me?
That's a difficult question because I've been getting a lot of support, and it
all means so much! The thing that really means a lot is people watching these
videos, and if you can comment either on YouTube or when I post them on
Facebook, and if you can share these videos, that's really good.
The biggest practical support, which I said in a previous video, is when people
write on Facebook or elsewhere that they've donated to the cancer fund. Because,
melodramatic as that seems, that cancer fund is a chance for me to either buy my
life, can help me live quite a bit longer. Or, if it doesn't, it will still
probably improve the quality of my life because it's paying for immunotherapy
that boosts your immune system. Chemotherapy destroys your immune system.
So anything that boosts my immune system would mean I'm less likely to get the
infections that cause a lot of problems, cause people to stop taking
chemotherapy sometimes. Whenever anyone writes on Facebook they've made a
donation I see their friends or family members making other donations, who
don't know me, make other donations. So the donations, obviously is the
financial support, but also every time I see a donation it makes me very very
happy. Because it's just amazing people, especially people I don't know. You
know, donating their money. It's just incredible. So that's helped a lot, the
messages help a lot, the comments on Facebook help. I've generally been very
anti-Facebook in the past [laughs], but at the moment it's been a huge thing. My
family are not such a support, because it's very tough for them. They're
going through hell as well. They often feel there's nothing practical for them
to do. My kids are a huge support because my son, who is 7, Edwards, he does
understand what's happening. He does understand I might not be around for a lot
longer. So, he has been very supportive. My daughter Jessica, she is almost 3,
and she just continues regardless. And that's fantastic. She's full of energy,
and she's been growing up very very quickly. That's lovely to see, especially
her language skills.
[09:15]
Angela also asked about, and also other people: What are the do's and don'ts for
when you have cancer? I'd say the first big kind of thing you must do, if you
have a friend or family member with cancer, is tell them this: "You must be
clear on what your situation is. Really really ask the doctor questions, proper
questions, write them down before you go into the meetings because your mind
will go blank regardless of how clear headed you usually are." When I was going
into the first meetings, I would write 15-20 questions down. Literally sit
through, and tick them off when I asked, and wouldn't leave till I asked them
all. And the doctors, at least the UK doctors are very happy to answer all the
questions. And most of my Japanese doctors have been happy to answer the
questions as well. And I write down their answer, and if I feel like I don't
understand them, I ask them again.
It is so clear to me that a lot of people with cancer do not understand their
diagnosis. They don't understand like, what it really means, what cancer they
exactly have, they don't understand things like when cancer spreads from one
place to another, you don't have a second type of cancer. You've got the same
type of cancer in another place. So, I originally had bowel cancer that has
spread to my liver. I do not have liver cancer. I have bowel cancer and secondary
bowel cancer of the liver. Now the reason that is so relevant is because when you
tell people you have cancer of the liver, they might say: "Ah, I heard about
this great treatment, blah, blah, blah...", and you look into it, and it can't
be used for you because you don't have liver cancer. You have cancer that has
spread to the liver. If you have breast cancer that spreads to your lungs, it's
very different from having lung cancer that's caused by smoking or something
else, and it spreads somewhere else.
Very very important to understand the staging. Currently cancers are divided
into 4 stages. Different aspects of the cancer, especially spread, are given
different stages as well. So understanding the staging, you know, stage 1 -- very
early stage cancer. Many many stage 1 cancers can be cured. Stage 2 -- I think
that means its spread locally in that organ. Stage 1 cancer might be one tumor
in the lung, stage 2 might be several tumors in the lung. Stage 3 -- it's spread
outside of the lungs, but still kind of local. Stage 4: it's spread to distant
organs. My cancer is stage 4. A lot of stage 4 cancers are terminal; meaning they
can't be cured. Some stage 4 cancers, if you have chemotherapy, they can shrink
down the tumors enough, and even some of the tumors in lymph-nodes might even go
completely, and it could change into early stage 4 or even stage 3 or even
curable. You can have a cancer start at liver, spread somewhere else, and the
chemotherapy shrinks it down enough that you have liver surgery and have your
cancer cured, which is fantastic.
[12:38]
But if you did have or told you have cancer or family friend or member has
cancer, understand that when you reading about other people talking about their
cancers, especially if they have miraculous cancer cures; all that stuff is
basically nonsense. It almost always comes from them not understanding their
cancer. Also not understanding the treatment they're having, and the purpose of
their treatment because it's very different to have treatment that is curative --
so they are trying to cure you. Or treatment that is trying to slow down a
cancer, maybe (unclear, helped by?) other treatment options. Or treatment that
is designed to stop the cancer coming back. So someone has chemotherapy, and
they're able to have surgery, they're often told to have more chemotherapy
because, it really does you a lot of good because it prevents cancer from coming
back. So you often hear these miraculous stories of someone saying: "I stopped
my chemotherapy because the side effects are so bad, and I went for a natural
cure and started chewing wine leaves or some nonsense like that, and I'm now
cancer free". Well, that person, their cancer is cured by the surgery, and
helped a lot by the original chemotherapy, and the doctors as a preventative
measure were recommending more chemotherapy which the person refused. And often
people who have their cancer cured by surgery, for some of them it doesn't come
back without having chemo, which is fantastic. It has nothing to do with chewing
wine leaves or whatever nonsense they come up with. So, when you read this stuff
on the internet, it is just nonsense.
[14:30]
So, thank you so much for listening. Please
go to the fund raising page and make a small donation if you can because it
makes a huge help for me. Okay, thank you for listening, please share this video,
and please leave a comment. Thanks!
Part 2 of this Q&A is here: http://karamoon.blogspot.jp/2016/09/cancer-q-part-2.html
[Transcript kindly provided by Ivan Vanzaj and Osama Seghol]
[00:00]
Hi this is cancer update video number 3.
I've just had my second dose of chemotherapy, the side effects are starting to
kick in. They usually come two days after you've finished the chemo, so I'm
recording this on Tuesday evening Tokyo time, and I had my chemo Saturday
4 o'clock I think, so it's 48 hours, so that finished on Monday 4 o'clock,
and it takes two days for the poison to get out of your body.
[00:57]
The reason I'm hiccuping a lot is, it's one of the side effects. Actually it's
not a side effect of the chemotherapy; it's a side effect of one of the drugs
that you take to minimise the other side effects [laughs]. One of the very
common side effects of chemotherapy is vomiting. Because I have very low vomit
threshold which means I vomit very easily, I've been given the strongest anti-
vomit drugs before, during and after the chemotherapy. And one of those drugs'
side effects is persistent hiccups, which means hiccups that last over an hour.
At the moment the hiccups are not painful, they're just very annoying. Last time
when I had the hiccups I had very very extreme pain because every time I
hiccup... (some acid damage happened in my oesophagus, but that acid damage
seems to have healed up). As you can see I've got a skin rash. That's not a side
effect of the chemotherapy. That's a side effect of drug that goes along with
the chemotherapy to help it work better. That skin rash is from my first
chemotherapy which was two weeks ago which was much much much worse than it is
now. It was, 24 hours of pain, terrible burning pain. I couldn't even sleep.
Yes, gash on my head is just because I just had to take very strong pills last
night that made me dizzy, and I fell over and gashed my head open which is not
good.
[02:41]
This video is just going to be questions and answers really because lots of
people have asked me very good questions. So, it's going to be in random order.
I'll do my best, I know I'm speaking fast; I may slow my speech down a bit to be
clear especially with these hiccups. I haven't got the camera in a great
position either.
So, my friend Emily asked how am I feeling, and what was my life like before
getting the cancer diagnosis? I'm feeling okay, really; physically anyway. I've
got these side effects. At the moment the only side effects I'm getting from the
chemo, as of this side effect today is like nerve damage in my mouth and tongue,
lining of my mouth, gums and teeth. Which means if I have a cold drink it's
very painful. That kind of thing. I don't know why my lip looks odd, but other
than that I'm feeling physically okay. Emotionally, I don't know, I guess I'm
okay as well [laughs]. I literally don't remember a lot of my life before
cancer. The memories have just been eclipsed by all of this. At the moment my
life is cancer 24 hours, really. When I'm awake there's always something cancer
related going on. It's quite an effort just to take care of myself on a daily
basis. Especially making sure I eat and I drink enough. I need to hydrate a
lot. Especially after the chemo. It might possibly help flush out the chemo,
stuff like that. I don't know if that's true for my chemo, but it will
definitely flush out some of these anti side effect drugs. Just to give you a
very rough idea; days immediately after chemo, I'm taking 24 pills spread over
three days, different pills. A lot of stuff, really. So getting it flushed out
of my system is going to be a good thing. So just remembering to take the
pills, I have to write a diary of the food and drink I have, and when I have it,
because if I don't, I often just don't eat because when I get hungry I
emotionally don't have an appetite. So thanks for that question Emily. Emily is
a dear school friend. Recently got back in touch with her after being out of
touch for 18 years, really. She's been lovely, she's made a couple of sweet
videos for me. I hated school, and she was one of the people who made it
bearable for me. So I really appreciate her friendship so much. It was just
great to get back in touch with her. And she seems to be doing really well, has
lovely kinds and that kind of stuff.
[06:23]
My friend Angela asked a lot of good questions, some of which I'm going to
answer in this one and some in a later video.
One thing she said: What support that I've been getting means the most to me?
That's a difficult question because I've been getting a lot of support, and it
all means so much! The thing that really means a lot is people watching these
videos, and if you can comment either on YouTube or when I post them on
Facebook, and if you can share these videos, that's really good.
The biggest practical support, which I said in a previous video, is when people
write on Facebook or elsewhere that they've donated to the cancer fund. Because,
melodramatic as that seems, that cancer fund is a chance for me to either buy my
life, can help me live quite a bit longer. Or, if it doesn't, it will still
probably improve the quality of my life because it's paying for immunotherapy
that boosts your immune system. Chemotherapy destroys your immune system.
So anything that boosts my immune system would mean I'm less likely to get the
infections that cause a lot of problems, cause people to stop taking
chemotherapy sometimes. Whenever anyone writes on Facebook they've made a
donation I see their friends or family members making other donations, who
don't know me, make other donations. So the donations, obviously is the
financial support, but also every time I see a donation it makes me very very
happy. Because it's just amazing people, especially people I don't know. You
know, donating their money. It's just incredible. So that's helped a lot, the
messages help a lot, the comments on Facebook help. I've generally been very
anti-Facebook in the past [laughs], but at the moment it's been a huge thing. My
family are not such a support, because it's very tough for them. They're
going through hell as well. They often feel there's nothing practical for them
to do. My kids are a huge support because my son, who is 7, Edwards, he does
understand what's happening. He does understand I might not be around for a lot
longer. So, he has been very supportive. My daughter Jessica, she is almost 3,
and she just continues regardless. And that's fantastic. She's full of energy,
and she's been growing up very very quickly. That's lovely to see, especially
her language skills.
[09:15]
Angela also asked about, and also other people: What are the do's and don'ts for
when you have cancer? I'd say the first big kind of thing you must do, if you
have a friend or family member with cancer, is tell them this: "You must be
clear on what your situation is. Really really ask the doctor questions, proper
questions, write them down before you go into the meetings because your mind
will go blank regardless of how clear headed you usually are." When I was going
into the first meetings, I would write 15-20 questions down. Literally sit
through, and tick them off when I asked, and wouldn't leave till I asked them
all. And the doctors, at least the UK doctors are very happy to answer all the
questions. And most of my Japanese doctors have been happy to answer the
questions as well. And I write down their answer, and if I feel like I don't
understand them, I ask them again.
It is so clear to me that a lot of people with cancer do not understand their
diagnosis. They don't understand like, what it really means, what cancer they
exactly have, they don't understand things like when cancer spreads from one
place to another, you don't have a second type of cancer. You've got the same
type of cancer in another place. So, I originally had bowel cancer that has
spread to my liver. I do not have liver cancer. I have bowel cancer and secondary
bowel cancer of the liver. Now the reason that is so relevant is because when you
tell people you have cancer of the liver, they might say: "Ah, I heard about
this great treatment, blah, blah, blah...", and you look into it, and it can't
be used for you because you don't have liver cancer. You have cancer that has
spread to the liver. If you have breast cancer that spreads to your lungs, it's
very different from having lung cancer that's caused by smoking or something
else, and it spreads somewhere else.
Very very important to understand the staging. Currently cancers are divided
into 4 stages. Different aspects of the cancer, especially spread, are given
different stages as well. So understanding the staging, you know, stage 1 -- very
early stage cancer. Many many stage 1 cancers can be cured. Stage 2 -- I think
that means its spread locally in that organ. Stage 1 cancer might be one tumor
in the lung, stage 2 might be several tumors in the lung. Stage 3 -- it's spread
outside of the lungs, but still kind of local. Stage 4: it's spread to distant
organs. My cancer is stage 4. A lot of stage 4 cancers are terminal; meaning they
can't be cured. Some stage 4 cancers, if you have chemotherapy, they can shrink
down the tumors enough, and even some of the tumors in lymph-nodes might even go
completely, and it could change into early stage 4 or even stage 3 or even
curable. You can have a cancer start at liver, spread somewhere else, and the
chemotherapy shrinks it down enough that you have liver surgery and have your
cancer cured, which is fantastic.
[12:38]
But if you did have or told you have cancer or family friend or member has
cancer, understand that when you reading about other people talking about their
cancers, especially if they have miraculous cancer cures; all that stuff is
basically nonsense. It almost always comes from them not understanding their
cancer. Also not understanding the treatment they're having, and the purpose of
their treatment because it's very different to have treatment that is curative --
so they are trying to cure you. Or treatment that is trying to slow down a
cancer, maybe (unclear, helped by?) other treatment options. Or treatment that
is designed to stop the cancer coming back. So someone has chemotherapy, and
they're able to have surgery, they're often told to have more chemotherapy
because, it really does you a lot of good because it prevents cancer from coming
back. So you often hear these miraculous stories of someone saying: "I stopped
my chemotherapy because the side effects are so bad, and I went for a natural
cure and started chewing wine leaves or some nonsense like that, and I'm now
cancer free". Well, that person, their cancer is cured by the surgery, and
helped a lot by the original chemotherapy, and the doctors as a preventative
measure were recommending more chemotherapy which the person refused. And often
people who have their cancer cured by surgery, for some of them it doesn't come
back without having chemo, which is fantastic. It has nothing to do with chewing
wine leaves or whatever nonsense they come up with. So, when you read this stuff
on the internet, it is just nonsense.
[14:30]
So, thank you so much for listening. Please
go to the fund raising page and make a small donation if you can because it
makes a huge help for me. Okay, thank you for listening, please share this video,
and please leave a comment. Thanks!
Part 2 of this Q&A is here: http://karamoon.blogspot.jp/2016/09/cancer-q-part-2.html
[Transcript kindly provided by Ivan Vanzaj and Osama Seghol]
Thursday, September 01, 2016
I have terminal cancer.
I had a large cancer (4cm) removed from my bowel 4 weeks ago.
I had a large cancer (4cm) removed from my bowel 4 weeks ago.
This was not cancer treatment, it was just to stop my bowel getting blocked, which is a fatal condition.
It was not possible for the surgeon to reconnect my bowel because there so much cancer in my body.
My recovery has been slower than expected. I had pneumonia after my surgery, and my intestines took many days to start working.
I had a second operation to put a tube between my shoulder and heart, for the chemotherapy.
My cancer is terminal, it cannot be cured. The average survival time is just 5-7 months
Generally chemotherapy is the best way to slow down cancer and extend life. It often gives people an extra 6-12 months of life.
But some research has shown chemotherapy on its on doesn't work for my cancer, because my cancer has spread to a membrane called the peritoneum. This is a type of internal skin that protects the organs of the abdomen.
So I need very advanced treatment to help the chemotherapy work, namely immunotherapy. This could give me longer to live.
Living longer means more time with my children. But it also means the chance of more treatment. Cancer treatment improves every year.
But can I live long enough to try the newest treatments?
Immunotherapy is a way of attacking cancer directly, using the body's immune system. The immune system can't usually attack cancer, it needs a lot of help and training. That's what immunotherapy does.
Immunotherapy is very expensive. I need about 15,500 UK pounds (2,000,000 Yen) for the first cycle of treatment. But my sister has already raised 12,000 pounds, so we are very close.
Can you help me? Can you make a donation, even if you've already donated? Even a small donation helps a lot because other people see it and it makes them want to donate too.
Please visit this page:
https://www.gofundme.com/2hk6vqk
Matthew (Karamoon)
It was not possible for the surgeon to reconnect my bowel because there so much cancer in my body.
My recovery has been slower than expected. I had pneumonia after my surgery, and my intestines took many days to start working.
I had a second operation to put a tube between my shoulder and heart, for the chemotherapy.
My cancer is terminal, it cannot be cured. The average survival time is just 5-7 months
Generally chemotherapy is the best way to slow down cancer and extend life. It often gives people an extra 6-12 months of life.
But some research has shown chemotherapy on its on doesn't work for my cancer, because my cancer has spread to a membrane called the peritoneum. This is a type of internal skin that protects the organs of the abdomen.
So I need very advanced treatment to help the chemotherapy work, namely immunotherapy. This could give me longer to live.
Living longer means more time with my children. But it also means the chance of more treatment. Cancer treatment improves every year.
But can I live long enough to try the newest treatments?
Immunotherapy is a way of attacking cancer directly, using the body's immune system. The immune system can't usually attack cancer, it needs a lot of help and training. That's what immunotherapy does.
Immunotherapy is very expensive. I need about 15,500 UK pounds (2,000,000 Yen) for the first cycle of treatment. But my sister has already raised 12,000 pounds, so we are very close.
Can you help me? Can you make a donation, even if you've already donated? Even a small donation helps a lot because other people see it and it makes them want to donate too.
Please visit this page:
https://www.gofundme.com/2hk6vqk
Matthew (Karamoon)
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Citizen Reporter Podast by Mark Fonseca Rendeiro
My dear friend Mark Fonseca Rendeiro recorded a podcast episode about my terminal cancer. Please take a listen and leave a comment on his blog:
http://citizenreporter.org/2016/08/ctrp485-karamoon/
http://citizenreporter.org/2016/08/ctrp485-karamoon/
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Eben Upton Raspberry Pi Interview
If you only do yourself one favor this week, listen to Leila Johnston and Roo Reynolds interviewing Eben Upton about the Raspberry Pi computer.
The Raspberry Pi is a credit card-sized PC running Linux. It costs 25 USD for the basic model and 35 USD for the model with networking.
Eben Upton is co-founder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, as well as Technical Director at Broadcom, the company that makes most of the chips in the Raspberry Pi computer.
This is one of the best interviews I've heard recently, due to the questions as much as the answers. Upton begins by discussing the current backlog of orders and the process of getting CE and FCC certification. These certifications require that the Raspberry Pi does not radiate too much RF and also that it is not unduly affected by RF radiation from other devices. He then goes on to talk about the charitable aims of the Raspberry Pi Foundation and how the foundation is set up, including the safeguards that are in place to prevent the trustees profiting from Raspberry Pi.
Upton talks about his experiences at the Cambridge University Computer Lab during a time when the number and quality of applicants was rapidly declining. Upton believes that the reason for this decline is that young people had less access to programmable hardware than he and his generation had. Upton recounts learning to program and hack his first computer, a BBC Micro Model A. Having to write his own mouse driver at the age of 12 exposed him to assembly language and low-level hardware issues.
Next Upton describes the pipeline of programmers that 8bit computers created and he goes on to explain how the arrival of 16bit games consoles such as the Sega Megadrive and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System cut off the pipeline because they had such a competitive advantage over 16bit general-purpose computers like the Commodore Amiga and the Atari ST.
Upton goes on to talk about the Raspberry Pi's relationship with gaming, and mentions some technical issues such as the video capabilities and the lack of VGA support
Upton then explains Broadcom's relationship with the Raspberry Pi and the key issues of balancing openness, price and performance.
The interview ends with Eben Upton expressing his hope that the Raspberry Pi will have a transformative effect on industry in the UK.
http://shiftrunstop.co.uk/2012/04/19/episode-62-dr-eben-upton-and-the-raspberry-pi/
The Raspberry Pi is a credit card-sized PC running Linux. It costs 25 USD for the basic model and 35 USD for the model with networking.
Eben Upton is co-founder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, as well as Technical Director at Broadcom, the company that makes most of the chips in the Raspberry Pi computer.
This is one of the best interviews I've heard recently, due to the questions as much as the answers. Upton begins by discussing the current backlog of orders and the process of getting CE and FCC certification. These certifications require that the Raspberry Pi does not radiate too much RF and also that it is not unduly affected by RF radiation from other devices. He then goes on to talk about the charitable aims of the Raspberry Pi Foundation and how the foundation is set up, including the safeguards that are in place to prevent the trustees profiting from Raspberry Pi.
Upton talks about his experiences at the Cambridge University Computer Lab during a time when the number and quality of applicants was rapidly declining. Upton believes that the reason for this decline is that young people had less access to programmable hardware than he and his generation had. Upton recounts learning to program and hack his first computer, a BBC Micro Model A. Having to write his own mouse driver at the age of 12 exposed him to assembly language and low-level hardware issues.
Next Upton describes the pipeline of programmers that 8bit computers created and he goes on to explain how the arrival of 16bit games consoles such as the Sega Megadrive and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System cut off the pipeline because they had such a competitive advantage over 16bit general-purpose computers like the Commodore Amiga and the Atari ST.
Upton goes on to talk about the Raspberry Pi's relationship with gaming, and mentions some technical issues such as the video capabilities and the lack of VGA support
Upton then explains Broadcom's relationship with the Raspberry Pi and the key issues of balancing openness, price and performance.
The interview ends with Eben Upton expressing his hope that the Raspberry Pi will have a transformative effect on industry in the UK.
http://shiftrunstop.co.uk/2012/04/19/episode-62-dr-eben-upton-and-the-raspberry-pi/
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Marching Into March 2012
Quick life update: Lots of good stuff happening in my life at the moment, mainly due to Jim Grisanzio http://jimgrisanzio.com and Jacinta http://nytrist.com It's funny to think that the phrase "life coach" would have made me vomit blood just a few months ago...
Scott Lockman recently told me about something called "Grasshopper Pie". Sounds pretty grim but I'm still going to make one.
Scott Lockman recently told me about something called "Grasshopper Pie". Sounds pretty grim but I'm still going to make one.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Best Japanese Textbooks
Over the years I've read hundreds of Japanese textbooks but one stands out as being the best Japanese textbook for beginners. There really is no better Japanese textbook for beginners than "Read Japanese Today" by Len Walsh. It is so beautifully written that even if you aren't intending to learn Japanese you should read it just to see how good a language textbook can be.
Before you buy Read Japanese Today make sure you take a look at this review:
http://www.bestjapanesetextbooks.com/read-japanese-today/
Before you buy Read Japanese Today make sure you take a look at this review:
http://www.bestjapanesetextbooks.com/read-japanese-today/
Thursday, November 24, 2011
The Card Cheat: Goodbye America
When things go away we forget them. America is starting to go away, and we are starting to forget all about it. Strange, but true.
Many people have commented on the situation in the US but few seem to understand just how bad it is. The US economy has been in serious difficulty since 2007. Indeed, it has been argued that this is the longest recession in US history as the Great Depression lasted "only" about 40 months.
In the mainstream media, it is frequently claimed that the US economy will be overtaken by that of China, India or Europe. Differing figures are giving by the IMF, the World Bank and the CIA but they all agree that the US is going to fall a couple of places. They are mistaken. The economic system in the US is inherently unstable because it relies on pretending that everything is ok. Once things start to unravel, people rapidly lose confidence, share prices fall, currencies collapse and assets are sold off. With this in mind, I predict that the US will fall into 10th place within a few years.
Many people have commented on the situation in the US but few seem to understand just how bad it is. The US economy has been in serious difficulty since 2007. Indeed, it has been argued that this is the longest recession in US history as the Great Depression lasted "only" about 40 months.
In the mainstream media, it is frequently claimed that the US economy will be overtaken by that of China, India or Europe. Differing figures are giving by the IMF, the World Bank and the CIA but they all agree that the US is going to fall a couple of places. They are mistaken. The economic system in the US is inherently unstable because it relies on pretending that everything is ok. Once things start to unravel, people rapidly lose confidence, share prices fall, currencies collapse and assets are sold off. With this in mind, I predict that the US will fall into 10th place within a few years.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Learn Travel Japanese Quickly
If you want to quickly learn travel Japanese it's worth trying out the 10-dollar Japanese language course from Sulantra.
Sulantra focuses on "Survival Language Training" so that you learn the right travel Japanese phrases and vocabulary to get yourself out of difficult situations while traveling in Japan. If you're planning to go to Japan you should do the Japanese course 30 days before you are due to leave. That way all the important Japanese words and phrases will be fresh in your mind when you arrive.
It's very convenient to be able to just log in any time to the Sulantra Japanese course and start studying. Although I've lived in Japan for a long time I've been going through the course because there are so many gaps in my Japanese vocabulary such as medical terms or the necessary phrases to rent a car.
Sulantra focuses on "Survival Language Training" so that you learn the right travel Japanese phrases and vocabulary to get yourself out of difficult situations while traveling in Japan. If you're planning to go to Japan you should do the Japanese course 30 days before you are due to leave. That way all the important Japanese words and phrases will be fresh in your mind when you arrive.
It's very convenient to be able to just log in any time to the Sulantra Japanese course and start studying. Although I've lived in Japan for a long time I've been going through the course because there are so many gaps in my Japanese vocabulary such as medical terms or the necessary phrases to rent a car.
Monday, August 01, 2011
Technology and Language
It's funny how ubiquitous technology has changed the meaning of various words, phrases and acronyms. I remember when:
(1) A "PDA" was a Public Display of Aggression.
(2) A "window" was a transparent device enabling you to see the scum in the streets without having to smell them.
(3) "Ruby" was a type of Tuesday.
(4) BASIC stood for "Basically, After Sex I Cringe"
(5) A "relational database management system" was a plastic box on your desk that held record cards detailing distant relatives you were planning to stalk.
(6) A "server" was someone exploited by the service industry; they were so unimportant they didn't even have a name.
(7) "Hypertext" refered to sophisticated, non-linear, branching text systems allowing transclusion, high-resolution linking, view control, side-by-side comparison and versioning, not the crappy Web we have now.
(8) A "Mouse" was something dropped down the blouses of female guests when they had outstayed their welcome.
(9) "FTP" stood for "FTP The Pr0n".
(10) An "Eigen value" was the ratio of West German GDP to sales of blue denim jackets and Elton John singles.
(11) "Garbage Collection" referred to books and articles by Nicholas Negroponte.
(12) A "hashing algorithm" was a technique to maximize the narcotic effects of cannabis, often utilizing a euphonium.
(13) "Polymorphism" was my friend Polly after she bought a Wonderbra.
(14) "Duck typing" was something you occasionally saw in the early hours of the morning when the ducks, thinking all humans were still in bed, used their Panasonic Toughbooks.
(15) "Packet switching" was a technique that allowed you to steal your neighbor's mail. (well, maybe that hasn't changed).
(1) A "PDA" was a Public Display of Aggression.
(2) A "window" was a transparent device enabling you to see the scum in the streets without having to smell them.
(3) "Ruby" was a type of Tuesday.
(4) BASIC stood for "Basically, After Sex I Cringe"
(5) A "relational database management system" was a plastic box on your desk that held record cards detailing distant relatives you were planning to stalk.
(6) A "server" was someone exploited by the service industry; they were so unimportant they didn't even have a name.
(7) "Hypertext" refered to sophisticated, non-linear, branching text systems allowing transclusion, high-resolution linking, view control, side-by-side comparison and versioning, not the crappy Web we have now.
(8) A "Mouse" was something dropped down the blouses of female guests when they had outstayed their welcome.
(9) "FTP" stood for "FTP The Pr0n".
(10) An "Eigen value" was the ratio of West German GDP to sales of blue denim jackets and Elton John singles.
(11) "Garbage Collection" referred to books and articles by Nicholas Negroponte.
(12) A "hashing algorithm" was a technique to maximize the narcotic effects of cannabis, often utilizing a euphonium.
(13) "Polymorphism" was my friend Polly after she bought a Wonderbra.
(14) "Duck typing" was something you occasionally saw in the early hours of the morning when the ducks, thinking all humans were still in bed, used their Panasonic Toughbooks.
(15) "Packet switching" was a technique that allowed you to steal your neighbor's mail. (well, maybe that hasn't changed).
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Rudie Can't Fail: The Continuing Saga of Karamoon
Yesterday I tried to remember the order of 30 shuffled playing cards. I only made 3 mistakes so I'm extremely satisfied with the progress I've been making; a few months ago I'd have struggled to remember more than 7 cards. I'm now about halfway through memorizing 100 people and their actions which I will use to remember numbers. The system I'm using is called The DOMINIC System. It was invented by Dominic O'Brien and is a bit like the Major System.
In a couple of week's time I'll be beginning a new life. More on that soon.
In a couple of week's time I'll be beginning a new life. More on that soon.
Saturday, April 09, 2011
Somebody Got Murdered (By TEPCO)
I heard that TEPCO had someone killed a few years ago. The victim was a woman working for TEPCO who is alleged to have been about to reveal something grave before she was killed. Anyone have details on this?
Friday, April 01, 2011
Indonesian Indie Music
If Music Could Talk
Scottlo, who I consider to be my main teacher at the moment, recommended that I listen to an Indonesian mix tape called "Perempuan". As the name suggests (at least to those who understand Indonesian), all the songs feature female vocalists.
It's a great mix of music, but three tracks stand out:
"The Tears Never Stop Until I Close My Eyes" by Sarin
"Lagu Hujan" by Amazing In Bed (originally by Koil)
"For Now" by The Wispy Hummers
I'm still waiting for Scottlo to talk about Southeast Asia, and Thailand in particular...
You can, and should, listen to Scottlo here:
http://www.tokyocalling.org
You can download the mix tape here:
http://hujanrekords.wordpress.com/2011/01/01/hujan011-indonesian-netlabel-union-various-artists-netlabel-mixtape-perempuan/
Scottlo, who I consider to be my main teacher at the moment, recommended that I listen to an Indonesian mix tape called "Perempuan". As the name suggests (at least to those who understand Indonesian), all the songs feature female vocalists.
It's a great mix of music, but three tracks stand out:
"The Tears Never Stop Until I Close My Eyes" by Sarin
"Lagu Hujan" by Amazing In Bed (originally by Koil)
"For Now" by The Wispy Hummers
I'm still waiting for Scottlo to talk about Southeast Asia, and Thailand in particular...
You can, and should, listen to Scottlo here:
http://www.tokyocalling.org
You can download the mix tape here:
http://hujanrekords.wordpress.com/2011/01/01/hujan011-indonesian-netlabel-union-various-artists-netlabel-mixtape-perempuan/
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Lost In The Supermarket
There's nothing "super" about supermarkets. They are in fact, the opposite of "super".
Some basic questions:
Where does the food in the supermarket come from?
How far does the have to travel in order to reach my local supermarket?
How much energy is required for this journey?
In emergency situations where time is of the essence, can the food be moved faster?
In emergency situations where fuel is of the essence, can the food be moved more efficiently?
If I panic-buy all the monkey food at my local supermarket, does this mean that a child in Sendai can't feed her pet monkey?
Some basic questions:
Where does the food in the supermarket come from?
How far does the have to travel in order to reach my local supermarket?
How much energy is required for this journey?
In emergency situations where time is of the essence, can the food be moved faster?
In emergency situations where fuel is of the essence, can the food be moved more efficiently?
If I panic-buy all the monkey food at my local supermarket, does this mean that a child in Sendai can't feed her pet monkey?
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Nuclear Japan Who's Who
Rationale
I intend this post to serve as a reference to interested parties, providing only the most basic of information. I shall endeavor to keep opinion to a minimum.
The Elements
Uranium
Atomic weight 238.02891 grams per mole, atomic number 92, phone number 555-HOT-STUFF, uranium-238 can be used as a nuclear fuel when it is enriched with 3 % uranium-235, a more unstable isotope.
Plutonium
Contrary to popular belief, plutonium does not come from disgraced ex-planet Pluto. With an atomic weight of 244 grams per mole, an atomic number of 94 and a phone number that is unlisted, plutonium has a deservedly bad reputation. It's used by reactor 3 at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station that was hit the tsunami.
Iodine
During nuclear accidents and explosions any iodine that's lying around becomes radioactive. If people eat or drink the radioactive iodine, or breathe it in, it can be absorbed by the body and result in thyroid cancer. This only happens if your body is in need of iodine. This can be prevented by taking potassium-iodide or potassium-iodate tablets, or by eating iodein-rich foods such as seaweed. The British embassy in Tokyo has been distributing potassium-iodate tablets to people who can prove they are British citizens.
Cesium
The radioisotopes of cesium present a high health risk during and after nuclear accidents. Cesium's radioactive isotopes don't accumulate in the body but they do accumulate in fruits and vegetables. Best avoided if possible.
The Radiation
Alpha Particles
These can be thought of as helium nuclei with both electrons missing. If someone tells you that alpha particles are not dangerous because they are non-penetrating just punch the person in the side of their jaw at a 45 degree angle to the X, Y and Z planes. When alpha particles are ingested or inhaled they about 20 times more dangerous than beta and gamma radiation.
Beta Particles
High-energy electrons or positrons traveling at high speeds, beta particles have a medium ability to penetrate, and a medium ability to ionize, when compared to alpha and gamma radiation. Nobody likes Mr Average.
Gamma Rays
What most people think of as "nuclear radiation". Gamma rays are very high frequency waves that are released when subatomic particles do things. Blocking gamma rays requires thick, dense barriers such as concrete blocks or packed earth.
The Companies
TEPCO
The Tokyo Electric Power Company has a history of covering up nuclear accidents. TEPCO has admitted that over the 25-year period from 1977 to 2002 they lied more than 200 times to the authorities.
General Electric
The US company that built three of the six light water reactors at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station. They also make nuclear weapons. Nice work if you can get it. Here's an ABC News article about problems with design of the reactors and their containment systems:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fukushima-mark-nuclear-reactor-design-caused-ge-scientist/story?id=13141287
Hitachi
Hitachi built reactor number 4. Read into that what you will.
Toshiba
Toshiba built reactors number 3 and 5, and supplied most of the equipment for the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station including the cooling pumps.
The People
The "Fukushima 50"
The Fukushima 50 refers to a group of about 200 TEPCO workers, police, firemen and others who are working at Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station to deal with the numerous incidents that are occurring there.
Naoto Kan
Being president of Japan must be tough during times of crisis. On a good day, the Japanese government is lazy, ignorant, incompetent and corrupt. There haven't been any good days since the earthquake.
John Beddington
The UK Government's Chief Scientific Adviser. He sometimes chats with the UK ambassador to Japan. Read one of his conversations here:
http://ukinjapan.fco.gov.uk/en/news/?view=News&id=569052582
Akio Komori
Foreign media have been focusing on the fact that Komri, managing director of TEPCO, cried when leaving a press conference. Crying at press conference is a standard operating procedure in Japan so I wouldn't read too much into it.
Dr Masashi Goto,
Goto designed the reactor containment vessels while working as an engineer for Toshiba. Shortly after the earthquake he gave a lecture at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan explaining why he thought the situation was much worse than TEPCO had made out.
Josef Oehmen
Oehmen was the author of a (fake?)letter asserting that Fukushima Dai-Ichi posed no threat to the public. It went viral the day after the earthquake but was quite quickly by myself and others.
http://geniusnow.com/2011/03/15/the-strange-case-of-josef-oehmen/
Keely Fujiyama
When UK tabloid newspaper The Sun published a bizzare apocalyptic account of the situation in Tokyo by Keely Fujiyama, several people in the Twattersphere suggested Fujiyama may have been a fabrication. I can reveal that she is in fact, a real person. She was born in Nottinghamshire, UK in 1975 and married Ryu Fujiyama in 2002. She may have a famous sister. More information will be released shortly...
Taro Kono
Japanese MP who Wikileaks has revealed, expressed serious concern about the safety of Japan's nuclear power industry during dinner with a US official in 2008. Read the leaked cable here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/175295
I intend this post to serve as a reference to interested parties, providing only the most basic of information. I shall endeavor to keep opinion to a minimum.
The Elements
Uranium
Atomic weight 238.02891 grams per mole, atomic number 92, phone number 555-HOT-STUFF, uranium-238 can be used as a nuclear fuel when it is enriched with 3 % uranium-235, a more unstable isotope.
Plutonium
Contrary to popular belief, plutonium does not come from disgraced ex-planet Pluto. With an atomic weight of 244 grams per mole, an atomic number of 94 and a phone number that is unlisted, plutonium has a deservedly bad reputation. It's used by reactor 3 at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station that was hit the tsunami.
Iodine
During nuclear accidents and explosions any iodine that's lying around becomes radioactive. If people eat or drink the radioactive iodine, or breathe it in, it can be absorbed by the body and result in thyroid cancer. This only happens if your body is in need of iodine. This can be prevented by taking potassium-iodide or potassium-iodate tablets, or by eating iodein-rich foods such as seaweed. The British embassy in Tokyo has been distributing potassium-iodate tablets to people who can prove they are British citizens.
Cesium
The radioisotopes of cesium present a high health risk during and after nuclear accidents. Cesium's radioactive isotopes don't accumulate in the body but they do accumulate in fruits and vegetables. Best avoided if possible.
The Radiation
Alpha Particles
These can be thought of as helium nuclei with both electrons missing. If someone tells you that alpha particles are not dangerous because they are non-penetrating just punch the person in the side of their jaw at a 45 degree angle to the X, Y and Z planes. When alpha particles are ingested or inhaled they about 20 times more dangerous than beta and gamma radiation.
Beta Particles
High-energy electrons or positrons traveling at high speeds, beta particles have a medium ability to penetrate, and a medium ability to ionize, when compared to alpha and gamma radiation. Nobody likes Mr Average.
Gamma Rays
What most people think of as "nuclear radiation". Gamma rays are very high frequency waves that are released when subatomic particles do things. Blocking gamma rays requires thick, dense barriers such as concrete blocks or packed earth.
The Companies
TEPCO
The Tokyo Electric Power Company has a history of covering up nuclear accidents. TEPCO has admitted that over the 25-year period from 1977 to 2002 they lied more than 200 times to the authorities.
General Electric
The US company that built three of the six light water reactors at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station. They also make nuclear weapons. Nice work if you can get it. Here's an ABC News article about problems with design of the reactors and their containment systems:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fukushima-mark-nuclear-reactor-design-caused-ge-scientist/story?id=13141287
Hitachi
Hitachi built reactor number 4. Read into that what you will.
Toshiba
Toshiba built reactors number 3 and 5, and supplied most of the equipment for the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station including the cooling pumps.
The People
The "Fukushima 50"
The Fukushima 50 refers to a group of about 200 TEPCO workers, police, firemen and others who are working at Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station to deal with the numerous incidents that are occurring there.
Naoto Kan
Being president of Japan must be tough during times of crisis. On a good day, the Japanese government is lazy, ignorant, incompetent and corrupt. There haven't been any good days since the earthquake.
John Beddington
The UK Government's Chief Scientific Adviser. He sometimes chats with the UK ambassador to Japan. Read one of his conversations here:
http://ukinjapan.fco.gov.uk/en/news/?view=News&id=569052582
Akio Komori
Foreign media have been focusing on the fact that Komri, managing director of TEPCO, cried when leaving a press conference. Crying at press conference is a standard operating procedure in Japan so I wouldn't read too much into it.
Dr Masashi Goto,
Goto designed the reactor containment vessels while working as an engineer for Toshiba. Shortly after the earthquake he gave a lecture at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan explaining why he thought the situation was much worse than TEPCO had made out.
Josef Oehmen
Oehmen was the author of a (fake?)letter asserting that Fukushima Dai-Ichi posed no threat to the public. It went viral the day after the earthquake but was quite quickly by myself and others.
http://geniusnow.com/2011/03/15/the-strange-case-of-josef-oehmen/
Keely Fujiyama
When UK tabloid newspaper The Sun published a bizzare apocalyptic account of the situation in Tokyo by Keely Fujiyama, several people in the Twattersphere suggested Fujiyama may have been a fabrication. I can reveal that she is in fact, a real person. She was born in Nottinghamshire, UK in 1975 and married Ryu Fujiyama in 2002. She may have a famous sister. More information will be released shortly...
Taro Kono
Japanese MP who Wikileaks has revealed, expressed serious concern about the safety of Japan's nuclear power industry during dinner with a US official in 2008. Read the leaked cable here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/175295
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
How Can Hackers Help the Quake Victims?
Over the past few days members and friends of Tokyo hackerspace have been discussing the best way to help the earthquake victims in northern Japan. We now have a clear plan, but we need some cash. Please donate if you can:
http://www.tokyohackerspace.org/en/japan-in-crisis
http://www.tokyohackerspace.org/en/japan-in-crisis
Japan Earthquake Update
Despite what the timestamp may say, I'm writing this on Wednesday afternoon, 4 days after the huge earthquake in northern Japan.
Here is the current situation as I see it, written in micro-paragraphs for the Twatter/Facebook generation:
There continue to be problems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station. There may be problems at other nuclear power stations, but none has been reported recently.
There's been a lot of hype/disinformation in the Twattersphere. Interestingly, at least among the people I follow on the web, there has been as much calm-mongering as there has been scaremongering. I find this type of head-in-the-sand response very upsetting.
The information provided by the axis-of-stupidity(Japanese government, NHK and TEPCO) has been worse than useless. They are largely the ones to blame for any hype in foreign media. They have talked in vague generalities that frequently don't make any sense at all. I'm never one to defend the shit-for-brains BBC, but at least they've talked to a variety of "experts" about the unfolding situation.
Due to the fact I'm quite far from the nuclear reactors in Fukushima, I'm not really very concerned about the acute effects of radiation. The general concensus, if you can call it that, is that the radioactive isotopes produced in the even of a major fuckstorm would have relatively short half-lives and therefore pose little risk to people in Tokyo.
The chronic effects of increased radiation are a different matter. Tokyo is my home and I would like to remain here for the foreseeable future. I'm concerned that background radiation here might rise significantly and remain high for months or even years. The authorities in Japan don't seem to believe "Honesty is the best policy" so without purchasing a Geiger counter and using it to check food and water, it would be hard to know if we're being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation.
Many of the key issues regarding the short-term outlook here are not being addressed by anyone. I'll post a list of the key issues(as I see them) later today.
Here is the current situation as I see it, written in micro-paragraphs for the Twatter/Facebook generation:
There continue to be problems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station. There may be problems at other nuclear power stations, but none has been reported recently.
There's been a lot of hype/disinformation in the Twattersphere. Interestingly, at least among the people I follow on the web, there has been as much calm-mongering as there has been scaremongering. I find this type of head-in-the-sand response very upsetting.
The information provided by the axis-of-stupidity(Japanese government, NHK and TEPCO) has been worse than useless. They are largely the ones to blame for any hype in foreign media. They have talked in vague generalities that frequently don't make any sense at all. I'm never one to defend the shit-for-brains BBC, but at least they've talked to a variety of "experts" about the unfolding situation.
Due to the fact I'm quite far from the nuclear reactors in Fukushima, I'm not really very concerned about the acute effects of radiation. The general concensus, if you can call it that, is that the radioactive isotopes produced in the even of a major fuckstorm would have relatively short half-lives and therefore pose little risk to people in Tokyo.
The chronic effects of increased radiation are a different matter. Tokyo is my home and I would like to remain here for the foreseeable future. I'm concerned that background radiation here might rise significantly and remain high for months or even years. The authorities in Japan don't seem to believe "Honesty is the best policy" so without purchasing a Geiger counter and using it to check food and water, it would be hard to know if we're being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation.
Many of the key issues regarding the short-term outlook here are not being addressed by anyone. I'll post a list of the key issues(as I see them) later today.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Friends Don't Let Friends Read Josef Oehmen
Many people, including some I know personally, have been linking to an article by Josef Oehmen that explains why Japan's nuclear reactors are entirely safe, and will remain so, despite the recent earthquake, tsunami and aftershocks.
Here is a quote from the MIT website:
Here is a quote from the MIT website:
Josef is the author of the essay “Why I’m not worried about Japan’s nuclear reactors”. It was an email he sent to his family in Japan. When his cousin posted it on his blog, it went viral.
Josef is working hard with a team from MIT to provide an appropriate response to the interest the post has generated. The original blog will be migrated to an MIT site, managed by a team of experts from MIT's Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. The link will be posted here when it becomes available.
Josef is not a nuclear scientist or engineer. He is a mechanical engineer by training, working on product development processes with MIT's Lean Advancement Initiative and the MIT-KFUPM Center for Clean Water and Energy.
Please direct all media inquiries to MIT's News Office.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Fukushima Nuclear Spring
The situation here in Tokyo is becoming very grave indeed. I managed to get quite a lot of food and drink today but I couldn't get batteries, lights, candles or medical supplies. I can't imagine supermarkets and chemists reopening in the next few days, but just in case I'll go out tomorrow to see if I can get some iodine tablets and other medicines.
I'm about 220 km from Fukushima where the reactors are located which sounds quite far but really isn't when you are considering the movement of radioactive dust and water. Although I have a few hand tools and some basic materials I don't think it would be possible to seal my house against fallout. The nearest DIY store is about a hour on foot, and is very unlikely to be open.
Here are a couple of practical links for people in the Kanto area of Japan.
How to build a fallout meter:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kearny_Fallout_Meter
Very practical book on dealing with aftereffects of nuclear accidents:
http://www.nukepills.com/docs/nuclear_war_survival_skills.pdf
Another book on surviving nuclear accidents is "Life After Doomsday". It's available on BitTorrent or eBook websites like http://www.ebookee.com
Here is some info on previous cover-ups of nuclear disasters in Japan:
http://cnic.jp/english/newsletter/nit92/
I'm about 220 km from Fukushima where the reactors are located which sounds quite far but really isn't when you are considering the movement of radioactive dust and water. Although I have a few hand tools and some basic materials I don't think it would be possible to seal my house against fallout. The nearest DIY store is about a hour on foot, and is very unlikely to be open.
Here are a couple of practical links for people in the Kanto area of Japan.
How to build a fallout meter:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kearny_Fallout_Meter
Very practical book on dealing with aftereffects of nuclear accidents:
http://www.nukepills.com/docs/nuclear_war_survival_skills.pdf
Another book on surviving nuclear accidents is "Life After Doomsday". It's available on BitTorrent or eBook websites like http://www.ebookee.com
Here is some info on previous cover-ups of nuclear disasters in Japan:
http://cnic.jp/english/newsletter/nit92/
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: How To Survive
IMMEDIATE ACTION: Prepare enough food and supplies for at least a week, longer if you can.
This is not a wait-and-see situation. If we assume that there will be no more major earthquakes, and no worsening of the situation surrounding Fukushima Dai-ishi nuclear power station, it is still likely that the Kanto region of Japan will suffer food shortages.
Some causes of food shortages:
(1) People panicking and buying up all the food. :)
(2) Existing food in Japan failing to reach supermarkets due to lack of fuel etc.
(3) A cessation of food imports. (Japan imports more than half of its food).
Something else to consider: if the nuclear situation worsens, it may not be possible to leave your house(or homestead, as you will learn to call it) for days or even weeks.
My homestead strategy is to stock up on foods that keep well and that I would usually eat. If, as I very much hope, there proves to be no food shortages, I won't have a lot of strange food on my hands.
While there is fresh food in the supermarket, I strongly recommend only eating fresh food, my thinking being that you might not get a chance to eat fresh food for a few days or weeks, so make the most of it while you can.
When buying food aim for 4 things: food that doesn't require lots of water to digest, food that is nutritious, food that is high in calories and food that makes you feel good. Buy a wide selection of spices and sauces as you might be eating the same food several days in a row.
Canned food is great because it can be eaten cold in an emergency and doesn't require water. Dried food such as pasta keeps well, but requires water to cook. On the topic of pasta, here's how you cook it: don't boil and then drain it. Instead, just leave it in a covered saucepan of very hot water until it softens. If you expect water shortages, ensure that you use the water for soup once the pasta is soft enough.
Good luck.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Death Or Glory: The Earthquake
Having quite a tough night, what with all the death around here and everything. I'm on the western side of Tokyo; there doesn't seem to have been any damage here so far. The death toll is currently 350 but it's going to go to at least several thousand, assuming nothing more happens. I guess most deaths will be a result of the tsunami, not the quake itself.
There have been serious aftershocks in other parts of japan. The earthquake warning system here is predicting the quakes but the predictions about epicentre locations are not accurate.
I've been sleeping in my clothes, with three bug-out bags next to my futon. Obviously my main concern is my book collection....
Good night, and hopefully not good bye.
Karamoon, Tokyo.
There have been serious aftershocks in other parts of japan. The earthquake warning system here is predicting the quakes but the predictions about epicentre locations are not accurate.
I've been sleeping in my clothes, with three bug-out bags next to my futon. Obviously my main concern is my book collection....
Good night, and hopefully not good bye.
Karamoon, Tokyo.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Magnificent Seven
In order to get somewhere useful once your brain has suffered sustained attack in the form of industrialized education, one possible approach is to learn from people who were able to get somewhere useful, or people who at least were well on the way. Here are seven people who will be my teachers for the foreseeable future.
Ted Nelson
Still fighting, almost winning.
Mister Rogers
A man of immeasurable power.
Alan Kay
Angry, intelligent and doing something about it
R. Buckminster Fuller
Look for pressing problems, the solutions to which would make things much better for everyone.
Doug Engelbart
We can find better ways to do things, and then apply the methodologies, languages and tools to themselves.
F. M. Alexander
We must look at how we do things, not just what we do. In order to do this we need to pause.
Leonardo da Vinci
Train the senses. Study the art of science. Study the science of art. Understand that everything is connected to everything else.
Ted Nelson
Still fighting, almost winning.
Mister Rogers
A man of immeasurable power.
Alan Kay
Angry, intelligent and doing something about it
R. Buckminster Fuller
Look for pressing problems, the solutions to which would make things much better for everyone.
Doug Engelbart
We can find better ways to do things, and then apply the methodologies, languages and tools to themselves.
F. M. Alexander
We must look at how we do things, not just what we do. In order to do this we need to pause.
Leonardo da Vinci
Train the senses. Study the art of science. Study the science of art. Understand that everything is connected to everything else.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
I'm So Bored Of The USA
I have some small but significant progress to report. I'm memorized all 50 US states and state capitals. The names of all the states took 10 minutes to remember. I found the state capitals to be much harder, they took almost 20 minutes.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Career Opportunities
Dear Reader, I hope you are impressed that I continue to use Clash songs as my blog post titles...
Recently I've been thinking about what to do with my life. Here are some of the options:
(1) Become a Memory Man.
(2) Teach Tai-chi.(I'd have to learn it first, obviously)
(3) Teach study skills and memory techniques to children and adults.(but nobody in between)
(4) Go into space.
(5) Become a card sharp.(but I'm concerned about the passive smoking)
(6) Write and direct a film.
(7) Write and publish a novel.
Please leave your advice as a comment. Thanks.
Recently I've been thinking about what to do with my life. Here are some of the options:
(1) Become a Memory Man.
(2) Teach Tai-chi.(I'd have to learn it first, obviously)
(3) Teach study skills and memory techniques to children and adults.(but nobody in between)
(4) Go into space.
(5) Become a card sharp.(but I'm concerned about the passive smoking)
(6) Write and direct a film.
(7) Write and publish a novel.
Please leave your advice as a comment. Thanks.
Friday, February 04, 2011
Complete Control
It's high time that I took complete control of my life. Sadly this is not going to happen but I am endeavoring to take control of my mind.
I intend to memorize the first 101 digits of the number Pi, the first 50 digits of which are 3.1415 9265 3589 7932 3846 2643 3832 7950 2884 1971 6939 9375 10. I also intend to develop the ability to memorize a shuffled deck of cards.
I intend to memorize the first 101 digits of the number Pi, the first 50 digits of which are 3.1415 9265 3589 7932 3846 2643 3832 7950 2884 1971 6939 9375 10. I also intend to develop the ability to memorize a shuffled deck of cards.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Rock the Casbah
I've recently started another blog, Song Secrets, which explores the many hidden themes and messages in songs. It's very likely that someone will try to get the blog shut down soon, so read it while you have the chance:
http://www.songsecrets.blogspot.com
http://www.songsecrets.blogspot.com
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Train In Vain
I've recently found myself traveling by train rather regularly. And what do trains mean, dear reader? That's right, trains mean podcasts. I've been listening to Shift Run Stop, Retrobits, CompuCast and SpyCast.
http://www.shiftrunstop.co.uk
http://www.retrobits.com
http://computersciencepodcast.com/
http://www.spymuseum.org/from-spy/spycast
I'm going to try hard to use a Clash song title for each of my blog posts in 2011.
http://www.shiftrunstop.co.uk
http://www.retrobits.com
http://computersciencepodcast.com/
http://www.spymuseum.org/from-spy/spycast
I'm going to try hard to use a Clash song title for each of my blog posts in 2011.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Tokyo Calling, Take Two
Tokyo Calling, Japan's first podcast, has returned, under the name "Tokyo Calling: Take Two". It's still at the old URL http://www.tokyocalling.org but the tone has changed somewhat.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Japan Podcast
Next week I will be launching the Japan podcast with Terri MacMillan. We will be putting out episodes at the rate of one or two a week, at least until the end of the year.
The podcast is mainly aimed at people outside of Japan who want to know more about Japanese culture or people who are planning to come to Japan. I hope, however, that Japanese people with a high level of English will find the podcast useful as well.
The episodes will be about 15 minutes long although some topics will span several episodes. The episodes will be available from the site as well as iTunes.
http://www.japanpodcast.net
http://twitter.com/japanpodcast
The podcast is mainly aimed at people outside of Japan who want to know more about Japanese culture or people who are planning to come to Japan. I hope, however, that Japanese people with a high level of English will find the podcast useful as well.
The episodes will be about 15 minutes long although some topics will span several episodes. The episodes will be available from the site as well as iTunes.
http://www.japanpodcast.net
http://twitter.com/japanpodcast
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Hot Tub Girl-On-Girl Video
I made another animation. It's called Hot Tub. I think you'll like it.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/dv_assets/plot_template_lang3.swf?movie_id=412597
http://s3.amazonaws.com/dv_assets/plot_template_lang3.swf?movie_id=412597
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Blogging About Blogs
I've started looking for, and reading, blogs of people who have recently moved to Japan. This is far more interesting than reading blogs of people who have been here for a long time, especially if the bloggers live in Tokyo. Tokyo is a wonderful place, but it does tend to fuck you up, in that it weakens your character and makes you lazy. Reading blogs written by people who have just got here is very refreshing, and has given me a much-needed energy boost.
A couple of great blogs I've found are "Hello Sandwich" and "The Get-Go Tokyo".
http://hellosandwich.blogspot.com/
Hello Sandwich is written by Ebony, who lives in Shimokitazawa. The blog deals mainly with Japanese design, and is packed with great photos of cool things and places.
http://thegetgo-tokyo.blogspot.com/
The Get-Go Tokyo is written by Gaby, a young British woman who is a pre-school teacher in Tokyo. Full of great insights into getting your shit together in Japan.
A couple of great blogs I've found are "Hello Sandwich" and "The Get-Go Tokyo".
http://hellosandwich.blogspot.com/
Hello Sandwich is written by Ebony, who lives in Shimokitazawa. The blog deals mainly with Japanese design, and is packed with great photos of cool things and places.
http://thegetgo-tokyo.blogspot.com/
The Get-Go Tokyo is written by Gaby, a young British woman who is a pre-school teacher in Tokyo. Full of great insights into getting your shit together in Japan.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Welcome To The Cheap Seats
Went to Ikea. Ate silly Swedish food in the cafeteria. A Japanese girl was trying, exceedingly badly, to sing western jazz songs. By some miracle I had left my suicide pills at home, if I had had them with me I would have downed the whole lot. Sometimes Japan does its best to kill me.
While wondering round Ikea, looking at the shit for sale, I was struck by the similarities between Northern Europe and Japan. They are quite similar. That is all. Sorry, Ikea wiped my brain.
While wondering round Ikea, looking at the shit for sale, I was struck by the similarities between Northern Europe and Japan. They are quite similar. That is all. Sorry, Ikea wiped my brain.
Monday, June 28, 2010
I Should Cocoa
My friend Alex Brooke (http://learnjapanesepod.com/) has started an iPhone development group at Tokyo Hackerspace. Despite not having an iPhone, I decided to join. Both my Macs are too old to run the iPhone SDK so I've just been doing Cocoa programming for the Mac, as opposed to Cocoa-Touch programming for the iPhone.
Much as I hate Apple, the iPhone, the iPad and Steve "cunt" Jobs, I must admit Objective-C is a very reasonably language, and Cocoa isn't as lame as it could be.
Much as I hate Apple, the iPhone, the iPad and Steve "cunt" Jobs, I must admit Objective-C is a very reasonably language, and Cocoa isn't as lame as it could be.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Linux Is Freedom
I've made a video about Linux. I hope it's everything you've ever wished for.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/dv_assets/plot_template_lang3.swf?movie_id=412581
http://s3.amazonaws.com/dv_assets/plot_template_lang3.swf?movie_id=412581
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Firefox Rocks
I've made a short video about the Firefox browser.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/dv_assets/plot_template_lang3.swf?movie_id=412579
http://s3.amazonaws.com/dv_assets/plot_template_lang3.swf?movie_id=412579
Friday, May 21, 2010
BarCamp Tokyo 2010 Winter-Spring
Somehow, a year has passed since I(and many others) put together Tokyo BarCamp: As We May Think. The BarCamp was epic. I met a whole bunch of good people, a hackerspace was started, and I decided to stay in Japan..
Next week 120 BarCampers will meet up at the Oracle HQ in Aoyama. I've no idea what will happen but I'm quietly confident that it won't suck too much.
There will be BarCamp related stuff to see here:
http://www.2jpn.com/tokyo-barcamp/
Next week 120 BarCampers will meet up at the Oracle HQ in Aoyama. I've no idea what will happen but I'm quietly confident that it won't suck too much.
There will be BarCamp related stuff to see here:
http://www.2jpn.com/tokyo-barcamp/
Monday, November 09, 2009
Trip to Seoul
Arrived in Seoul for BarCamp Seoul 4, which is taking place tomorrow. Flying from Tokyo Haneda airport was so much more pleasant than flying from Tokyo Narita airport. Partly this was because Haneda airport is actually in Tokyo, unlike Narita airport which is in Chiba.
I took the subway from Gimpo airport to Seoul station and then walked to the Millennium Hilton hotel. The subway in Seoul is cheap, clean and not very crowded. The announcements are in Korean, English and Japanese, as are many of the signs.
The Millennium Hilton hotel is as expensive as it is cheap. Expensive hotels often look cheap because they are full of cheap, crappy people. My room was on the executive floor, because I'm an executive. I was dressed as a tramp, but I was still allowed in. The girl working at the executive reception swiped my credit card many times when I checked in. In the end it either worked or she gave up, so I was able to check in and go to my room.
As I was unpacking my stuff there was as knock on the door of my hotel room. It was a guy bringing me some chocolates and grapes. Very strange. I ate the chocolates, threw away the grapes, and proceeded to the executive lounge in order to use the Net and get some free drinks. As one might have expected, there was nothing "executive" about the people in the executive lounge. Scum.
http://barcamp.org/BarCampSeoul4
I took the subway from Gimpo airport to Seoul station and then walked to the Millennium Hilton hotel. The subway in Seoul is cheap, clean and not very crowded. The announcements are in Korean, English and Japanese, as are many of the signs.
The Millennium Hilton hotel is as expensive as it is cheap. Expensive hotels often look cheap because they are full of cheap, crappy people. My room was on the executive floor, because I'm an executive. I was dressed as a tramp, but I was still allowed in. The girl working at the executive reception swiped my credit card many times when I checked in. In the end it either worked or she gave up, so I was able to check in and go to my room.
As I was unpacking my stuff there was as knock on the door of my hotel room. It was a guy bringing me some chocolates and grapes. Very strange. I ate the chocolates, threw away the grapes, and proceeded to the executive lounge in order to use the Net and get some free drinks. As one might have expected, there was nothing "executive" about the people in the executive lounge. Scum.
http://barcamp.org/BarCampSeoul4
Monday, October 05, 2009
The Most Dismal Of Sciences
Computer Science (sic) is utterly pathetic. Alan Kay once said something like "If a physicist was unaware of the work of Newton, he/she would be beaten to death with an apple". I wish the same could be said of ignorant computer scientists.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Adrian Cheok's Mixed Reality Lab at Keio
This morning I visited the Mixed Reality Lab at Keio university, run by professor Adrian Cheok. I was invited along by David Sonntag, who was making the visit with Kenneth Boff, principle scientist at the Georgia Tech Tennenbaum Institute. Paul Cohen from http://sonicviz.com/ and Jonathan Coopersmith, Fulbright lecturer from the Tokyo Institute of Technology also joined the visit.
We were given demonstrations of a variety of projects involving augmented reality including:
Human Pacman
A pacman game played outside by people wearing AR HUDs.
Babbage Cabbage
A living display capable of showing slow changes in data trends though the medium of color-changing plants.
Petino
A tactile device for augmenting children's social networks, while providing parental supervision and control.
Kitchen Media
A research project aiming at developing augmentation devices for use in the kitchen.
Wiz Qubes
A augmented story book system in which the child interacts with a computerized book using physical blocks.
Age Invaders
A space invaders game resembling Dance-Dance-Revolution in which elderly people can play with their family from a remote location.
I was very impressed by Adrian's team, it was clear that the lab is made up of a very wide rage of people from a variety of backgrounds, it's not just a bunch of techies. I plan to visit the lab in the near future to give a presentation on some the of the tech stuff I'm involved with, such at the Tokyo Hackerspace.
We were given demonstrations of a variety of projects involving augmented reality including:
Human Pacman
A pacman game played outside by people wearing AR HUDs.
Babbage Cabbage
A living display capable of showing slow changes in data trends though the medium of color-changing plants.
Petino
A tactile device for augmenting children's social networks, while providing parental supervision and control.
Kitchen Media
A research project aiming at developing augmentation devices for use in the kitchen.
Wiz Qubes
A augmented story book system in which the child interacts with a computerized book using physical blocks.
Age Invaders
A space invaders game resembling Dance-Dance-Revolution in which elderly people can play with their family from a remote location.
I was very impressed by Adrian's team, it was clear that the lab is made up of a very wide rage of people from a variety of backgrounds, it's not just a bunch of techies. I plan to visit the lab in the near future to give a presentation on some the of the tech stuff I'm involved with, such at the Tokyo Hackerspace.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Tokyo BarCamp Happened...
Tokyo BarCamp 2006 "As We May Think" still seems like a dream, but there are quite a few photos online that seem to suggest it really did take place: www.flickr.com/groups/barcamptokyo/
I'm trying not to think too much about what went well and what could have been better at BarCamp. I just think we need to do loads more stuff. There should be worth-while something happening every day of the week in Tokyo. Tokyo is big, and there are plenty of cool people in and around Tokyo who are doing cool things so there's really no excuse for slackness.
I'm trying not to think too much about what went well and what could have been better at BarCamp. I just think we need to do loads more stuff. There should be worth-while something happening every day of the week in Tokyo. Tokyo is big, and there are plenty of cool people in and around Tokyo who are doing cool things so there's really no excuse for slackness.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Tokyo BarCamp: Location And Date Confirmed!
I'm exceedingly pleased to announce that Sun Microsystems will be hosting Tokyo BarCamp on Saturday, 16th May. Places are very limited so please sign up here: Tokyo BarCamp When you sign up please include a link so we can contact you directly. Alternatively you can email me daac2000(at)yahoo(dot)com
Many thanks to Jim Grisanzio and Shoji Haraguchi who will be our hosts are Sun. Also thanks to all our other sponsors who are helping to make Tokyo BarCamp 2009 a reality.
Many thanks to Jim Grisanzio and Shoji Haraguchi who will be our hosts are Sun. Also thanks to all our other sponsors who are helping to make Tokyo BarCamp 2009 a reality.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Tokyo Barcamp 2009: As We May Think
The theme for Tokyo Barcamp is "As We May Think". Participate in Tokyo BarCamp, exploring the future of technology and how we might use it to augment every aspect of our lives.
"As We May Think" is a seminal essay by Vannevar Bush written in 1945. You can read it here: As We May Think I strongly suggest you do. Here are some more resources:
Videos you probably ought to watch
The Web That Wasn't Google Tech Talk by Alex Wright
Hyperland 1990 BBC programme by Douglas Adams about emerging Internet
The Demo The mother of all demos by Doug Engelbart
Transclusion: Fixing Electronic Literature Google Tech Talk by Ted Nelson
Starfire 1994 Sun Mircrosystems concept video.
Douglas Engelbart Doug Engelbart interviewed at Google.
The Politics of Internet Software Ted Nelson talk at the Oxford Internet Institute
Books you probably ought to read:
Geeks Bearing Gifts by Ted Nelson
Tools For Thought by Howard Reingold
Literary Machines by Ted Nelson
Virtual Communities by Howard Reingold
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy
Glut: The Deep History of Information Science by Alex Wright
From Memex to Hypertext: Vannevar Bush and the Mind's Machine by James M. Nyce and Paul Kahn
"As We May Think" is a seminal essay by Vannevar Bush written in 1945. You can read it here: As We May Think I strongly suggest you do. Here are some more resources:
Videos you probably ought to watch
The Web That Wasn't Google Tech Talk by Alex Wright
Hyperland 1990 BBC programme by Douglas Adams about emerging Internet
The Demo The mother of all demos by Doug Engelbart
Transclusion: Fixing Electronic Literature Google Tech Talk by Ted Nelson
Starfire 1994 Sun Mircrosystems concept video.
Douglas Engelbart Doug Engelbart interviewed at Google.
The Politics of Internet Software Ted Nelson talk at the Oxford Internet Institute
Books you probably ought to read:
Geeks Bearing Gifts by Ted Nelson
Tools For Thought by Howard Reingold
Literary Machines by Ted Nelson
Virtual Communities by Howard Reingold
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy
Glut: The Deep History of Information Science by Alex Wright
From Memex to Hypertext: Vannevar Bush and the Mind's Machine by James M. Nyce and Paul Kahn
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Tokyo Barcamp Brain Dump
Some wikipedia articles that you should read in order to understand the concept of BarCamp:
BarCamp
Unconference
Foo Camp
Open Space Technology
Self-organization
Emergence
Temporary Autonomous Zone
BarCamp
Unconference
Foo Camp
Open Space Technology
Self-organization
Emergence
Temporary Autonomous Zone
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The Four Principles and The One Law
Are you still struggling to understand the concept of Barcamp? Maybe understanding Open Space Technology will help:
The four principles of Open Space Technology:
If at any time during our time together you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your two feet. Go to some other place where you may learn and contribute.
The four principles of Open Space Technology:
- Whoever comes is the right people: this alerts the participants that attendees of a session class as "right" simply because they care to attend
- Whatever happens is the only thing that could have: this tells the attendees to pay attention to events of the moment, instead of worrying about what could possibly happen
- Whenever it starts is the right time: clarifies the lack of any given schedule or structure and emphasizes creativity and innovation
- When it's over, it's over: encourages the participants not to waste time, but to move on to something else when the fruitful discussion ends
If at any time during our time together you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your two feet. Go to some other place where you may learn and contribute.
Monday, March 16, 2009
You Are Standing In A Wiki. What Now?
There's been a great deal of interest in Tokyo barcamp but some people still seem to be confused about what it exactly is and how it differs from regular tech events.
One way of thinking about barcamp is to imagine yourself standing inside a wiki. You want to learn, teach and discuss. Barcamp provides you with a small amount of structure in order to facilitate the sharing of knowledge, skills, opinions and ideas. What makes barcamp so different though is that you can "edit" barcamp in the same way that you can edit a wiki. Think about that for a while...
When a group of enthusiastic, open-minded and knowledgeable people are in a small space together for an extended period of time, amazing things tend to happen. Difficult problems are solved, projects are born, minds are expanded. The whole is far, far greater than the sum of the parts. This is the real-world manifestation of Web 2.0. This is self-organization. This is emergence. This is the most intense thing you will ever experience.
One way of thinking about barcamp is to imagine yourself standing inside a wiki. You want to learn, teach and discuss. Barcamp provides you with a small amount of structure in order to facilitate the sharing of knowledge, skills, opinions and ideas. What makes barcamp so different though is that you can "edit" barcamp in the same way that you can edit a wiki. Think about that for a while...
When a group of enthusiastic, open-minded and knowledgeable people are in a small space together for an extended period of time, amazing things tend to happen. Difficult problems are solved, projects are born, minds are expanded. The whole is far, far greater than the sum of the parts. This is the real-world manifestation of Web 2.0. This is self-organization. This is emergence. This is the most intense thing you will ever experience.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Bar Camp Tokyo 2009
I've decided to organize a Bar Camp in Tokyo for late May. (See the entry Wikipedia for background on Bar Camp).
Please sign up here if you want to attend: Tokyo BarCamp
You can follow Tokyo Barcamp on Twatter: www.twitter.com/tokyobarcamp
Bar Camp differs from other tech conferences in that everyone must participate. There are no presentations/workshops/discussions scheduled in advance, instead attendees sign up to do events on the day, usually by writing their events on huge pieces of paper on the walls. Also, Bar Camp is free.
At Tokyo Bar Camp expect presentations/workshops/discussions on blogging, podcasting, Perl, AJAX, the theory of hypertext, web spidering, smart mobs, wiki, Ruby-On-Rails, wearable computers, augmented reality, startups, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Web 4.0, the maker revolution and maybe even teledildonics.
Please sign up here if you want to attend: Tokyo BarCamp
You can follow Tokyo Barcamp on Twatter: www.twitter.com/tokyobarcamp
Bar Camp differs from other tech conferences in that everyone must participate. There are no presentations/workshops/discussions scheduled in advance, instead attendees sign up to do events on the day, usually by writing their events on huge pieces of paper on the walls. Also, Bar Camp is free.
At Tokyo Bar Camp expect presentations/workshops/discussions on blogging, podcasting, Perl, AJAX, the theory of hypertext, web spidering, smart mobs, wiki, Ruby-On-Rails, wearable computers, augmented reality, startups, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Web 4.0, the maker revolution and maybe even teledildonics.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
A Change Of Focus
Although I will still follow infosec, my main focus from this point on will be building Web 4.0. Somebody has to. The Web is too important to leave to a bunch of dickheads who think Starbucks is cool...
I aim to start with a Web 4.0 Intranet, possibly something running over a Bluetooth PAN. Anyone want to give me some startup money?
I aim to start with a Web 4.0 Intranet, possibly something running over a Bluetooth PAN. Anyone want to give me some startup money?
Friday, March 13, 2009
Tame Goes Wild
For no particular reason I found myself revisiting Tame Goes Wild, one of the best websites I've ever seen. It is simply huge. And very well written. And full of practical information. And it contains 15,825 photos that Joseph Tame has taken over the past 20 years. And it makes me feel very jealous. If I can turn this jealousy into action I might be able to turn Tokyo Robotnik into something decent. (although I'll make sure it doesn't lose its harshness)
Someone (that British twat from Wired and the EFF, I think) once said that you should never look at the Web when trying to do something constructive because you will always find thousands of people who have done it already, and much better than you could ever hope to. Another way of putting it is that the Web is so big that it makes everyone feel small. Thanks a lot, Joseph Tame...
Someone (that British twat from Wired and the EFF, I think) once said that you should never look at the Web when trying to do something constructive because you will always find thousands of people who have done it already, and much better than you could ever hope to. Another way of putting it is that the Web is so big that it makes everyone feel small. Thanks a lot, Joseph Tame...
Thursday, March 12, 2009
More Twattering
I seem to be spending more time on Twitter. This is clearly a bad thing. AFAIK, there is no way to receive SMS on Japanese mobile phones. Does anyone know of a gateway that I can use?
Follow me on Twitter, if you really have nothing better to do:
www.twitter.com/karamoon
Follow me on Twitter, if you really have nothing better to do:
www.twitter.com/karamoon
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Photos From Afghanistan
Tokyo-based photographer Gianni Giosue took these photos in Afghanistan:
www.gaia-photos.com/afghanistan-circus-for-children/
www.gaia-photos.com/afghanistan-circus-for-children/
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Staying Safe On And Off Line
The EFF have built a great website about how to be more secure when using computers. The best thing is that it's aimed at beginners.
https://ssd.eff.org
https://ssd.eff.org
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Reading List
Seven books I intend to read soon. I don't own any of them so if you have them and are in Japan please lend them to me!
The Laurie Lee Trilogy
"Cider With Rosie", "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" and "A Moment Of War"
I always think of Laurie Lee as being someone you read at school for GCSE/O-Level English Literature. Cider With Rosie is also a favourite of English Language schools, in fact, I first heard of it when a Spanish home-stay student living with my family was reading it as part of her summer English course. Having said that, My friend Damon Coulter sungypsy.wordpress.com/ swears by Lee so I think I'll probably like his stuff a lot. Lee seems to have lived quite an incredible life, although not quite as incredible as my own.
"The Seven Pillars Of Wisdom" by T. E. Lawrence
Laurence Of Arabia's autobiography. This is probably the book I am most looking forward to reading at the moment. I'm also looking forward to dragging my family into the desert in a few years time to ride on camels, navigate by the stars, look at mirages and generally pretend we are in a Tintin story.
"A Murder Of Quality" by John le Carré
This is le Carré's second novel. I've recently re-read his first: "Call For The Dead". His early stuff is simply amazing. It's a pity his recent novels are junk.
"The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp" by William Henry Davies
I remember hearing extracts of this being read on the Mark And Lard Show on BBC Radio One in the late 1990's. One extract I remember very clearly is when the author got his foot crushed while jumping onto the back of a freight train in the USA.
The Human Cougar by Lloyd Morain
Morain's hard-to-find book on drifters, hobos and wanderers. I've heard it's a real gem.
The Laurie Lee Trilogy
"Cider With Rosie", "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" and "A Moment Of War"
I always think of Laurie Lee as being someone you read at school for GCSE/O-Level English Literature. Cider With Rosie is also a favourite of English Language schools, in fact, I first heard of it when a Spanish home-stay student living with my family was reading it as part of her summer English course. Having said that, My friend Damon Coulter sungypsy.wordpress.com/ swears by Lee so I think I'll probably like his stuff a lot. Lee seems to have lived quite an incredible life, although not quite as incredible as my own.
"The Seven Pillars Of Wisdom" by T. E. Lawrence
Laurence Of Arabia's autobiography. This is probably the book I am most looking forward to reading at the moment. I'm also looking forward to dragging my family into the desert in a few years time to ride on camels, navigate by the stars, look at mirages and generally pretend we are in a Tintin story.
"A Murder Of Quality" by John le Carré
This is le Carré's second novel. I've recently re-read his first: "Call For The Dead". His early stuff is simply amazing. It's a pity his recent novels are junk.
"The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp" by William Henry Davies
I remember hearing extracts of this being read on the Mark And Lard Show on BBC Radio One in the late 1990's. One extract I remember very clearly is when the author got his foot crushed while jumping onto the back of a freight train in the USA.
The Human Cougar by Lloyd Morain
Morain's hard-to-find book on drifters, hobos and wanderers. I've heard it's a real gem.
Monday, March 02, 2009
Thank Fuck It's Not Friday
Between my two Japanese lessons I had lunch at T.G.I. Friday's. Fuck. Very, very, very grim indeed. I feel so sorry for the staff, they are forced to dress and act like simpletons. I took lunch with a Korean friend called Jasmine and Li, her Chinese friend. I struggled to keep up with the conversation as the two of them speak much better Japanese than me. Jasmine spent several years living in Hong Kong and mainland China so Jasmine and Li's lingua franca is Mandarin, not English. Our conversation was thus a mixture of Japanese and Mandarin, with very little English. I had to think so hard that my brain bled.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Goodbye Windows
This evening I read an article entitled "10 Things Windows 7 Must Do To Succeed". I find it amazing that people still talk about Windows. The only thing Windows needs to do is fuck-off-and-die, as soon as possible.
While Windows is probably one of the worst pieces of software ever created, I strongly believe that all other popular OSes are also pretty crappy, although Mac OS X and Linux are certainly the worst. I just wish Windows would go away so we can focus on everything that's wrong with current OS architecture and UI.
While Windows is probably one of the worst pieces of software ever created, I strongly believe that all other popular OSes are also pretty crappy, although Mac OS X and Linux are certainly the worst. I just wish Windows would go away so we can focus on everything that's wrong with current OS architecture and UI.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Reverend Billy on Off The Hook
Listened to the Reverend Billy being interviewed on Off The Hook. A few months ago I watched his documentary "What Would Jesus Buy?" on Google Video Great stuff.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Second Life, Second Wife
As a result of listening to Scott Lockman's fascinating podcast "Meet Scottlo Scorbal" I've been thinking about Second Life a lot recently.
http://meetscottloscorbal.blogspot.com
I don't have a computer that can run the SL client, but I hope to buy or build one soon.
http://meetscottloscorbal.blogspot.com
I don't have a computer that can run the SL client, but I hope to buy or build one soon.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Me Needs Meades
Taught all day. One of my lessons consisted of watching a Jonathan Meades program "Absentee Landlord" with one of my students. I sometimes think I'm the luckiest person alive.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tokyo Calling, Over And Out
Just got the rather shocking news that Scott Lockman has decided not to continue his podcast "Tokyo Calling":
It saddens me deeply to think that there will be no more episodes of Tokyo Calling. It has had a huge influence on me over the past few years. On the other hand, it's great the Scott has ended on such a high note.
It has been a pleasure and a privilege to bring you this little audio thing for the past four years. I've decided to finally end the wonderful ride to pursue other interests.
It saddens me deeply to think that there will be no more episodes of Tokyo Calling. It has had a huge influence on me over the past few years. On the other hand, it's great the Scott has ended on such a high note.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
I, Robert
Started reading Asimov's "I, Robot", probably for the sixth time. It is my sincere hope that Asimov will be remembered as a clumsy and dull writer.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
First Day Of Spring
The weather was lovely today, about 20 degrees centigrade. In such good weather it seemed appropriate to stay indoors so I watched several episodes of "The Computer Chronicles" on Google Video. In the afternoon I took a walk into the "real" Japan to meet a couple of friends. We chatted for several hours about the technology industry, focusing on the concepts of built-in obsolescence and perceived obsolescence.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Tuck My Life
I spent several hours this evening reading www.fmylife.com/ It made me feel quite a bit better about myself.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Forensics Can Be Fun
My experiences with technology tend to be negative, so I'm usually overjoyed when something actually works. Today I was able recover my photos of Thailand from a corrupted memory card using some straightforward forensics software. I am as surprised as I am happy...
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Insight Of Japan
My friend Tomoko has started a new blog to help people who are learning Japanese:
http://insightofjapantomoko.blogspot.com/
http://insightofjapantomoko.blogspot.com/
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Bullet In The Head
Taught kids this morning. Had lunch with my friend and her lovely 3-year-old daughter. Afterwards I felt happy, so I watched some stuff about the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes: video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7106504922469354610
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockwell_shooting
The incident was investigated by the Independent(sic) Police Complaints Commission, which is rather odd as de Menzezes was shot by special forces, not police. Needless to say, I no longer feel happy and probably never will again.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockwell_shooting
The incident was investigated by the Independent(sic) Police Complaints Commission, which is rather odd as de Menzezes was shot by special forces, not police. Needless to say, I no longer feel happy and probably never will again.
Thursday, January 08, 2009
The Cuckoo's Egg
Started reading "The Cuckoo's Egg" by Cliff Stoll. I tend to agree with everyone else, it really is one of the most exciting books on computer security ever written...
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Don't Be Afraid Of The Light
We are told that it is darkness, and that entering it will result in unspeakable woe. The nature of the woe is not even hinted at, I guess this is why it is "unspeakable woe".
To go as far as to say that the darkness is actually light, and that what we are living in is darkness, to say that we should all plunge into the light and find salvation within it... Talk of these ideas in forbidden.
To go as far as to say that the darkness is actually light, and that what we are living in is darkness, to say that we should all plunge into the light and find salvation within it... Talk of these ideas in forbidden.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Resorting To The Resort
For some reason I was compelled to telnet to "The Resort", a virtual community from the days before the web.
If you've never telnetted to anything before, now is the time to start:
In Windoze: Hit Start, click "Run" then type "cmd" and hit return. This will open a command prompt. Type "telnet resort.org:2323"
In Mac OS X: Open a terminal window and type "telnet resort.org:2323"
In Linux open a text shell such as bash and type "telnet resort.org:2323"
Enjoy.
If you've never telnetted to anything before, now is the time to start:
In Windoze: Hit Start, click "Run" then type "cmd" and hit return. This will open a command prompt. Type "telnet resort.org:2323"
In Mac OS X: Open a terminal window and type "telnet resort.org:2323"
In Linux open a text shell such as bash and type "telnet resort.org:2323"
Enjoy.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Finding Japan: Last Episode
Christopher has posted the final episode of his podcast: Finding Japan. Well worth a listen.
www.findingjapan.com/2009/01/04/347/
www.findingjapan.com/2009/01/04/347/
Saturday, January 03, 2009
The Cheshire Catalyst Makes Me Want To Die
Well, it's not really Richard Cheshire who makes me want to die, it's actually his writing. Cheshire's writing is evil. There's no other word for it. Read his articles in 2600, read his website, and you too will want to die.
http://cheshirecatalyst.com
I particularly recommend his coffee stories. They take you beyond death.
http://cheshirecatalyst.com/coffee.html
http://cheshirecatalyst.com
I particularly recommend his coffee stories. They take you beyond death.
http://cheshirecatalyst.com/coffee.html
Friday, January 02, 2009
Hackers: Bystanders Of The Computer Revolution
Currently reading "Hackers: Heroes Of The Computer Revolution" by Steven Levy. It's not very good.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Rogue Trader 88888
Watched "Rogue Trader", the true story of Nick Leeson, a Singapore trader for Barings Bank. Leeson started to secretly trade for the bank in an effort to cover up a mistake that one of his colleagues had made. Needless to say, the consequences were as disastrous as they were hilarious...
Rogue Trader is a very cheap film with a made-for-tv feel, but the story is engrossing and the lead is played by Ewan McGregor who manages to add a little quality to the film. Watch it now.
Nick Leeson now tours the UK, telling people how to crash the banking system. You can book him at www.NickLeeson.com
Rogue Trader is a very cheap film with a made-for-tv feel, but the story is engrossing and the lead is played by Ewan McGregor who manages to add a little quality to the film. Watch it now.
Nick Leeson now tours the UK, telling people how to crash the banking system. You can book him at www.NickLeeson.com
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Reading Day
Spent almost all day reading "Revolution In The Valley" by Andy Hertzfeld. It consists of a series of anecdotes about the making of the Apple Mac. The reader is given the clear impression that Steve Jobs is a fucking psycho.
I've recently realized that I'm surprisingly poorly read where computer history and culture. In the near future I intend to read "Insanely Great: Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything " and "Crypto: Secrecy and Privacy in the New Cold War" by Steven Levy, and "Accidental Empires": How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition and Still Can't Get a Date" by Robert X. Cringely. Are there any other books on the history and culture of computing that I should read?
I've recently realized that I'm surprisingly poorly read where computer history and culture. In the near future I intend to read "Insanely Great: Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything " and "Crypto: Secrecy and Privacy in the New Cold War" by Steven Levy, and "Accidental Empires": How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition and Still Can't Get a Date" by Robert X. Cringely. Are there any other books on the history and culture of computing that I should read?
Sunday, December 28, 2008
The Jonathan Meades Collection
I received the Jonathan Meades Collection today. It consists of three dvds, containing a total of eleven programmes, every second of which is genius.
Severn Heaven
In Search Of Bohemia
Get High
Belgium
Remember The Future
The Absentee Landlord
Double Dutch
Fast Food
Father To The Man
Magnetic North
Severn Heaven
In Search Of Bohemia
Get High
Belgium
Remember The Future
The Absentee Landlord
Double Dutch
Fast Food
Father To The Man
Magnetic North
Friday, December 26, 2008
Hacking At Random: Call For Papers
A call for papers has been give for "Hacking At Random".
https://www.har2009.org/
While trawling YouTube I came across a moving impromptu performance by RATM:
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=CYwzW2QFnwo
https://www.har2009.org/
While trawling YouTube I came across a moving impromptu performance by RATM:
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=CYwzW2QFnwo
History And Culture
A relative sent me three books on computer history/culture for Christmas. "The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage" by Cliff Stoll, "Revolution In The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made" by Andy Hertzfeld, and "Hackers: Heroes Of The Computer Revolution" by Steven Levy.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Karamoon's Kristmas Address, 2008
I, Karamoon, condemn the world in the strongest terms possible. I guess that's enough...
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Earthships For Breakfast
Breakfast with Ben and Chi-chan. We talked a lot about Earthships and the possibilities of building them in Japan.
A brief guide to Earthships:
(1) Earthships use passive-solar heating.
(2) Earthships use thermal mass, in the form of very thick walls which hold heat.
(3) Thermal mass is significantly different from insulation.
(4) Earthships do not require any connection to infrastructure.
(5) Earthships are the future and the past.
(6) www.EarthShip.net
A brief guide to Earthships:
(1) Earthships use passive-solar heating.
(2) Earthships use thermal mass, in the form of very thick walls which hold heat.
(3) Thermal mass is significantly different from insulation.
(4) Earthships do not require any connection to infrastructure.
(5) Earthships are the future and the past.
(6) www.EarthShip.net
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Vincent Van Gough, Vincent Can Cough
Watched a documentary series about the life of Vincent Van Gough. The documentary claimed to be based on letters Vincent wrote to his brother Theo. It made Van Gough out to be a drunk pervert, which he may well have been.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
The Pinkest Of Cows
Watched "The Corporation" with Alex. In the evening we went to "The Pink Cow", a popular gaijin hangout in Shibuya. It was my first time to The Pink Cow, and I was semi-impressed. It was expensive and a bit smoky, but it was slightly better than I expected.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
All The President's Pen
Watched "All The President's Men" for the first time. Overall it's very good, but it's let down by poor acting. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman can only be described as lame.
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level Three
Took level three of the Japanese Language Proficiency Exam. I hadn't studied much so I didn't have any chance of passing but I was happy to find that the listening section wasn't so tough. The test was held at several sites across Japan. I took it at a campus of Tokyo University. The campus was swarming with French. They were simply everywhere. Being French they were instantly recognizable. They were all wearing blue jeans, brown shoes and leather jackets...
After the text I ate "soup curry" in Shimokitazawa. It was rubbish but as I had walked for two hours in order to find a restaurant that looked inviting, I told myself that it wasn't so bad.
In the evening I borrowed "All The President's Men", "The Conversation", "Take The Money And Run" and "The Front" from the DVD rental shop. I also borrowed the first DVD for Miami Vice.
After the text I ate "soup curry" in Shimokitazawa. It was rubbish but as I had walked for two hours in order to find a restaurant that looked inviting, I told myself that it wasn't so bad.
In the evening I borrowed "All The President's Men", "The Conversation", "Take The Money And Run" and "The Front" from the DVD rental shop. I also borrowed the first DVD for Miami Vice.
Friday, December 05, 2008
Keep It Miyashita
Bumped into a friend and her daughter in the local Indian restaurant. This kind of thing never happens in Japan. They joined me and Chichan for lunch. We talked about hard-to-diagnose blood-borne diseases and we ate curry.
Hung out in Shibuya. There was a very small protest against Nike consisting of about 20 protesters and 50 police. Nike have bought a small park in Shibuya and plan to destroy it. Currently there are a bunch of homeless people living there, and poor people like me hang out there drinking cans of tea from vending machines because we can't afford to go to cafes.
More info here, but only in Japanese: minnanokouenn.blogspot.com
Hung out in Shibuya. There was a very small protest against Nike consisting of about 20 protesters and 50 police. Nike have bought a small park in Shibuya and plan to destroy it. Currently there are a bunch of homeless people living there, and poor people like me hang out there drinking cans of tea from vending machines because we can't afford to go to cafes.
More info here, but only in Japanese: minnanokouenn.blogspot.com
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Security Resources
Here are some security resources that I have found to be of the highest quality.
Websites:
www.lightbluetouchpaper.com
www.crypto.com/blog
www.doxpara.com
www.phrack.org
www.renderlab.net
www.churchofwifi.net
Non-technical Books
"Secrets And Lies" by Bruce Schneiner
If you buy one book on security, get this one.
"Beyond Fear" by Bruce Schneiner
If you buy two books on security, get this along with the above...
"The Art Of Deception" by Kevin Mitnik
"Hackers' Handbook 3.0" By Dr. K
Semi-technical Books
"Security Engineering" by Ross Anderson
"Hacking Exposed Series" by various authors
"The Best of 2600: A Hacker Odyssey" edited by Emmanuel Goldstein
Technical Books
"Applied Cryptography" by Bruce Schneiner
"Hacking: The Art Of Exploitation" by Jon Erickson
I also recommend attending the CCC in Berln and HOPE in New York. See www.ccc.de and www.hope.net for details.
If you are in Tokyo come along to a Tokyo 2600 meeting. www.tokyo2600.net
Websites:
www.lightbluetouchpaper.com
www.crypto.com/blog
www.doxpara.com
www.phrack.org
www.renderlab.net
www.churchofwifi.net
Non-technical Books
"Secrets And Lies" by Bruce Schneiner
If you buy one book on security, get this one.
"Beyond Fear" by Bruce Schneiner
If you buy two books on security, get this along with the above...
"The Art Of Deception" by Kevin Mitnik
"Hackers' Handbook 3.0" By Dr. K
Semi-technical Books
"Security Engineering" by Ross Anderson
"Hacking Exposed Series" by various authors
"The Best of 2600: A Hacker Odyssey" edited by Emmanuel Goldstein
Technical Books
"Applied Cryptography" by Bruce Schneiner
"Hacking: The Art Of Exploitation" by Jon Erickson
I also recommend attending the CCC in Berln and HOPE in New York. See www.ccc.de and www.hope.net for details.
If you are in Tokyo come along to a Tokyo 2600 meeting. www.tokyo2600.net
Monday, December 01, 2008
Learn Japanese Pod
Anyone wanting to learn Japanese should listen to the Learn Japanese Podcast by Alex Brooke.
The main site is here: learnjapanesepod.com
Episodes can be downloaded here: japanese.libsyn.com
The forums are here: learnjapanesepod.com/forums
The main site is here: learnjapanesepod.com
Episodes can be downloaded here: japanese.libsyn.com
The forums are here: learnjapanesepod.com/forums
Friday, November 07, 2008
DVD Bonanza
It was poor-peoples' day at the DVD rental place(200 yen per dvd) so I borrowed a bunch of films.
"Mister Lonely" directed by Harmony Korine, "Modern Times" directed by Charlie Chaplin, "Coffee And Cigarettes" directed by Jim Jarmusch, "Naqoyqatsi: Life As War" directed by Godfrey Reggio and "The Sting" directed by George Roy Hill.
I watched Mister Lonely in the evening. The story is irresistible; a Michael Jackson lookalike living in Paris meets a Marilyn Monroe lookalike who invites him to live in a commune for lookalikes in the Highlands of Scotland. It's the type of film I could watch for the rest of my life. In fact, I think I will.
"Mister Lonely" directed by Harmony Korine, "Modern Times" directed by Charlie Chaplin, "Coffee And Cigarettes" directed by Jim Jarmusch, "Naqoyqatsi: Life As War" directed by Godfrey Reggio and "The Sting" directed by George Roy Hill.
I watched Mister Lonely in the evening. The story is irresistible; a Michael Jackson lookalike living in Paris meets a Marilyn Monroe lookalike who invites him to live in a commune for lookalikes in the Highlands of Scotland. It's the type of film I could watch for the rest of my life. In fact, I think I will.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Terrie Lloyd Talk
A businessman called Terrie Llyod gave a talk at the Tokyo PC Users Group. I love attending the meetings, it's like being in a Glengarry, Glen Ross. Everyone is so desperate. There was even a mineral water salesman. When he introduced himself he tried to sell mineral water. There were two clowns who claimed to be getting energy from hydrogen. It's all so funny yet so tragically sad, like Japan.
Llyod's talk was about starting software companies in Japan, then selling them to foreigners. Someone should tell him that there's already too much software.
Llyod's talk was about starting software companies in Japan, then selling them to foreigners. Someone should tell him that there's already too much software.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Before The Devil Knows You're Dead
The first of the month is cheap cinema day in Japan so I watched some cheap cinema in Ebisu.
Ebisu is a lovely place, close to Shibuya but very different in character. Before watching the film I went to Good Day Books. Although I have many books, I felt it necessary to buy some more. Buying books at Good Day Books is very unpleasant for several reasons. The books are expensive, their condition is poor and most of them are trashy novels which the dumb Americans here read. The main reason that shopping at Good Day Books is so unpleasant is that the owner is a total, utter, fucking cunt.
Despite the above, I bought "Secrets And Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World" by Bruce Schneier and "Call For The Dead" by John Le Carre.
The cheap cinema I watched was "Before The Devil Knows You're Dead", directed by Sidney Lumet. Good, but grim.
Ebisu is a lovely place, close to Shibuya but very different in character. Before watching the film I went to Good Day Books. Although I have many books, I felt it necessary to buy some more. Buying books at Good Day Books is very unpleasant for several reasons. The books are expensive, their condition is poor and most of them are trashy novels which the dumb Americans here read. The main reason that shopping at Good Day Books is so unpleasant is that the owner is a total, utter, fucking cunt.
Despite the above, I bought "Secrets And Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World" by Bruce Schneier and "Call For The Dead" by John Le Carre.
The cheap cinema I watched was "Before The Devil Knows You're Dead", directed by Sidney Lumet. Good, but grim.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
I Ain't Gonna Work On Maggie's Farm No More
My last English lesson at the community centre. It was also my last early morning lesson. From this point on I don't need to teach before 10 am.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Goodbye, Cruel Beard
Today I shaved my beard off in preparation for going to Thailand on Friday. It feels strange. When I return from Thailand I shall re-beard and I vow that I shall never be beardless again.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Surprisingly Busy
Spent the day studying Japanese, watching Ted Nelson lectures and reading early James Bond novels. In between all this I somehow managed to teach English and go running.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Picnic In The Park
Met up with some people from the Learn Japanese Podcast for a picnic in Yoyogi park. There were about 10 of us at the picnic and I think everyone had a great time.
After the picnic some of us went for a meal in a Japanese pub. We will be having monthly meetings from now on so I should be able to find some people to help out with my film and other projects that I want to do.
The Learn Japanese Podcast is really rather good so if you want to learn some conversational Japanese check it out:
www.LearnJapanesePod.com
After the picnic some of us went for a meal in a Japanese pub. We will be having monthly meetings from now on so I should be able to find some people to help out with my film and other projects that I want to do.
The Learn Japanese Podcast is really rather good so if you want to learn some conversational Japanese check it out:
www.LearnJapanesePod.com
Friday, September 12, 2008
Climbing Tou-no-dake
Walked up a mountain in Tanzawa, an area of Kanagawa prefecture. Tou-no-dake is 1,491 m (4,891 ft) and walking up it was a perfect way of reminding myself that I am very unfit.
Walking up mountains is best done alone, regardless of any safety concerns you may have. I was walking in the afternoon so the mountain was deserted, allowing me to feel I was deep in the wilderness, even though I wasn't far from houses, roads and vending machines.
As I started making my way down the mountain the sun set. I had a couple of torches with me but chose not to use them. Walking down in the dark was quite difficult but very exciting. I could hear snakes slithering away from me and also Japanese mountain leeches dropping from the trees.
I think I'm pretty much hooked on mountain walking now, so expect more of the same in the future.
Walking up mountains is best done alone, regardless of any safety concerns you may have. I was walking in the afternoon so the mountain was deserted, allowing me to feel I was deep in the wilderness, even though I wasn't far from houses, roads and vending machines.
As I started making my way down the mountain the sun set. I had a couple of torches with me but chose not to use them. Walking down in the dark was quite difficult but very exciting. I could hear snakes slithering away from me and also Japanese mountain leeches dropping from the trees.
I think I'm pretty much hooked on mountain walking now, so expect more of the same in the future.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Climbing Oyama
Walked up Oyama in Kanagawa prefecture. It's only 1,252 metres, but I still found it quite challenging. Fuji is 3,776 metres, so I have a lot of training to do if I want to make it up Fuji any time soon.
Wikipedia entry
Wikipedia entry
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