Shinko Ojisan and the delicious green peppers

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Celebrated the New Year in Okinawa, Japan.

A commercial maybe not seen in the U.S. Brad Pitt in a commercial for a Japanese cellphone provider.

Mom and Yuzuki

Beware of scam artists/ spoof emails when using ebay or craigslist.

So I'm using ebay for the first time to sell an item and the winner was a user in Nigeria. I did some research before agreeing to send anything and the emails are all fakes. Here are two of many that I have received from the winning bidder. Be careful out there. Spelling errors usually are a sign that they're not real.

Spoof email # 1

Dear john.hayato,

      
         We are to let you know that the payment made by our client ,for your eBay item is confirmed and it has been deducted from the buyer's account which will be credited into your account as soon as you provide us with the transfer information.
         We have received the money which is pending in our database and we will like you to provide us with the following information as requested by PayPal for verification to protect their customers from fraudulent business transactions.

         Kindly make the transfer progress within 48 hours in order to release the money into your account for the transaction as we can not accommodate any form of misappropriations and we have a reputation to protect and do all that is possible to
increase our business relationship with the international PayPal,
Worldwide.

         As soon as you notify us about the package shipping status, we shall
deposit the said amount into your account immediately.
         The address you are requested to ship the item to has been confirmed by us.

This is as a result of new safety measures that has just been adopted by us to safeguard all our customers against any internet act. 

 

Thank you for using PayPal online services,

PayPal Team.        

Spoof email #2

Dear john.hayato ,

     It is important we know the status of the item bought otherwise, legal action may be taken against you since you refused to ship out the item bought from you from eBay by the buyer over time.

    We believed you entered into agreement by confirming the payment made to you by your buyer through PayPal, and by non response to the payment confirmation made to your account you have violate the eBay and PayPal agreement. However the buyer has already contacted us in other to make report about your non response.We are ensuring to make PayPal a safer place, therefore we need to set confidence on our users.
 
    We want you to get the item shipped in the next 2 days  and forward the Shipment Tracking Number to us for verification and we will release the money to your account immediately ... If we do not received the  Shipment requirement within the specific time limit, We will have to Suspended and Vold your Paypal account and   forward your PayPal Registration Name and Address to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)  for legal action to be taken .

    We request for the valid shipment info and the Tracking Number to prove postage of the item in less than 48 hours and we will fund the money into your account or face the consequences of LEGAL ACTION.

     This is done in other to protect both the seller and buyer.

------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ -------------------------
 
Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team
------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ -------------------------

PayPal page.

PayPal Email ID: PP304

Baachan part 1

A short explanation of what's going on.

Hi everybody,
As many of you know I am doing Ironman New Zealand in March 2009. Another tidbit of information you may be familiar with is that I raise money once a year for a charity in conjunction with a race. For 2009, I am raising money for the New Zealand Cystic Fibrosis organization, Breath4CF. Here is my fundraising page:
http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/johnhayatobranderhorst/

Union Square in SF

Cupcake from Tammy

My roommate, Tammy, left a cupcake and card

Christmas relay race

Over the weekend, I participated in a Christmas relay where there were teams of four people each running 4.5 miles. My triathlon club had 2 teams and we had a very enjoyable time even though the weather wouldn't exactly cooperate. It turned out to be quite the nail biter as we finished just a few seconds apart. I was the third leg on my team and ran the loop in about 28/29 minutes.

Hope you have a "Peace"ful 2009!

Friday night full moon

Here's an article I read at InformationWeek. It may help you save a couple bucks while you shop during the holidays.

Six Great Ways To Save On Holiday Shopping

Posted by Allen Stern, Dec 7, 2008 09:02 PM

Most people that know me know that I am a deal hunter. I've been this way for years and refuse to shop online without some sort of discount code. Here are six methods I use to save money when shopping online. I hope you find them beneficial during this holiday season.

FatWallet -- This is my absolute favorite resource online for finding discounts for online purchases. I've been a member of its forum for many years and still find it valuable today. FatWallet has two areas I'd suggest you spend time looking at. First it has a community where forum members post discount codes and other sales from across the Web. The other part of FatWallet is the cashback list where, when you start your purchase at FatWallet for a listed merchant, FatWallet pays you. I've received several hundred dollars over the past few years.

Other great discount forums include SlickDeals and Spoofee. Both have forums but also offer a simple view into the best deals of the day via their home page. I always suggest checking both each morning to see if a hot deal appeals to you as you want to grab the deals as early as possible.

Amazon Gold Box -- Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) offers a variety of deals each day in its "Gold Box". This can always be hit or miss, but is worth a daily look. Deals are typically available in a variety of Amazon categories.

WhichBudget -- This is a great resource when traveling. Basically what WhichBudget allows you to do is find budget airlines for your travel destinations. The service is free to use and saved me several hundred dollars during my last trip to Europe. WhichBudget has airlines and travel discounts for more than 100 countries. Sometimes WhichBudget can be great to find a one-day trip during a holiday vacation. They just launched a Facebook application, making it even easier to find flights.

Microsoft Live Cashback Search -- Depending on how good of a searcher you are, you can find some very good cashback deals on the Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Live Cashback Search. There have been reports of 35% cashback on eBay (NSDQ: EBAY) along with many other merchants. Microsoft is currently testing an immediate cashback program with eBay, but the majority of the cashback selections will take 60 days to complete.

ExpertFlyer -- This is a bit of niche discount, but for anyone in your life who travels a lot, it's well worth it. Basically what ExpertFlyer does is help you travel in the air smarter. The service helps you find the best pricing (which sometimes means splitting up a ticket) along with the best seat. There's also extensive help with finding ways to use your airline miles to get the most out of them. Currently, ExpertFlyer offers a holiday gift certificate for $20 off the normal price.

Kappa maki

When I order a cucumber roll, please don't "American size" it. If I
order something as simple as that, keep it simple!

Hilarious!

Funny because there's points that actually remind me of Japan.

Christmas Spirit. Rocking a pink shirt with green sweater. And of course the red Starbucks cup.

Disclaimer: I don't work for Starbucks, I just drink a lot of their coffee.

Lately I've been getting quite a few unknown numbers calling me. I usually don't answer them as I don't feel like talking with somebody I don't know who wants me to sign up for something, pay money to something, tell me my Acura is late for its tuneup (I don't own a car)... so I now instead google the number after I get a call. It's worked wonders as there are a couple sites out there that are providing forums for this type of problem. Surprisingly quite a few people have received calls from the same numbers I receive calls from. So next time you don't recognize the number, don't answer it, and just google it. Chances are it's some sort of telemarketer.

Who needs a job? I know where you can go? Read on...
"Our problem is that everybody thinks that it’s a cold, miserable place to live. They’re wrong, of course. But North Dakota is a pretty well-kept secret."
BOB STENEHJEM, Republican State Senate leader, on the difficulty attracting workers to fill a surplus of jobs in his state.

In Japan, I didn't hear of this issue very often but it's good to see some reform happening (baby steps yall)
What disturbs me is they take measures to prevent fraudulent cases but what if the Japanese dude says it isn't his kid? Will they do the DNA testing on him or is the kid just screwed.
Article was found in the IHT. Or read the original here:

Japan extends citizenship to out-of-wedlock babies
The Associated Press
Friday, December 5, 2008
TOKYO: Japan approved a law Friday that will grant citizenship to all children born out of wedlock to Japanese fathers who acknowledge them, regardless of the nationality of their mothers. All children of Japanese women are automatically granted citizenship. Before Friday's revision, however, those born out of wedlock to foreign women could claim citizenship only if their Japanese fathers acknowledged paternity before the birth or later married their mothers. The new law expands the ability of those children to claim citizenship, stating that they need only to be acknowledged by their fathers before a claim is filed.To prevent fraudulent claims, the law stipulates that violators will be fined of up to 200,000 yen($2,170) or sentenced to one year in prison. The law also requires the government to study the feasibility of introducing DNA testing.
The revision came after 10 children born to unmarried Japanese men and Filipino women demanded citizenship. In June, Japan's top court ruled in their favor, saying that the previous restrictions on citizenship violated constitutional guarantees of equality.
The plaintiffs are among the offspring of thousands of Filipino women who came to Japan as entertainers beginning the 1970s. Many had children with Japanese men who already had wives. The suits were filed in two waves in 2003 and 2005 by their Filipino mothers who had proved the fathers of their children were Japanese. There are no reliable data on the number of Japanese-Filipino children, with experts estimating there may be anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000. Nationality in Japan is determined solely by bloodline, not place of birth, though foreigners may apply to become citizens. Japan has long been reluctant to host outsiders or grant them nationality for fear of disrupting its tightly knit society. Despite increasing immigration, foreigners still make up less than 2 percent of Japan's population of 128 million, compared to 12 percent in the United States.

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Tis the season

Embarcadero buildings all lit up

Sacramento Kings game

Watching the Kings play the Mavericks with Uncle John, Kyle, and Kaleb.

I like any art that has spam in it.

Run to feed the hungry results

Ran a Thanksgiving race with Uncle John and family and here are the results. Great day for a run and we all had fun.

Just got some video footage of the City Chase Nationals courtesy of City Chase. Apparently more video to come. Pat and I are in it quite a bit. :)

my iphoneme and my iphone's video

Beware of tigers in hay mazes.

Roe V Wade

Roe V Wade
Originally uploaded by john hayato

My newest shirt that I got at shirt.woot.com

getting my mani/pedi :)

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

My cool new watch
www.tokyoflash.com
my cool new watchtokyoflash.com

Stretching: The Truth

There was an article in the New York times at the end of Oct. stating the cons to static stretching and explaining proper stretching techniques (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/sports/playmagazine/112pewarm.html)

Here is a video that I just found showing the stretches. Stay safe and injury free; something I have trouble doing.

お久しぶりね日本語のビデオ

Time for Bed.
Holding my breathIt's so hard to do

Will it rain?

Sometimes you just want a Yes or No answer regarding the weather. And this website gives it to you.
http://umbrellatoday.com

Masters swimming

Well, as you all know, I am going to be giving Ironman New Zealand a go in March 2009. So I'm getting serious about it by formally getting a coach and training program along with really focusing on my swim which is my worst event of the 3. Yesterday I got up at 5 so that I could give Masters swimming a try. What I didn't know is there are IM workouts during the hour of swimming which include the butterfly, backstroke, and breast along with freestyle. I have never done the butterfly stroke and after flopping my self 25 yards down the lane, I thought I was going to drown. But the coach was very understanding and explained to me the technique along with how to make my other strokes more efficient. I look forward to getting better at swimming but waking up at 5 am is something I'm not excited about.

In California Prop 8 overturned Gays' rights to marry. It was a close contest with the result being 52-48. I was part of the 48% hoping that my gay friends would have the same rights as me. Not sure if this is truly ironic but I read/heard/saw somewhere stating that Obama supporters coming out in such large numbers ended up hurting Prop 8. It turns out that 70% of African Americans voted yes on Prop 8 and this election not only brought out a record number of voters but also minority voters.

Apparently I'm gender neutral in my writing.

http://www.genderanalyzer.com

Gchat has video function

So Google is looking to be more competitive with its IM within Gmail. They've recently offered the ability to communicate within the Gmail page via video with your chat buddies. All it requires is a plugin and BAM, you're good to go. For some of you, you can just go to settings and find it either under the chat title or labs. I'm not sure because I had to search for the plugin via google as it wasn't available as simply I would have hoped. But I have enjoyed the additional options available while chatting. It's all about multitasking.

Will.I.Am: It's A New Day

OMGoodness

Please don't call me an elitist. I don't feel good about my current feelings BUT...
I just used a Starbucks restroom after a homeless guy and thought I was going to throw up.
The potent smell that lingered and it wasn't from his bowel movements, it was the odor.
It just stayed and took over the bathroom. I'm going to have bad dreams tonight.

Summing it up

Dear Red States:

If you manage to steal this election too, we've decided we're leaving.
We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue
States with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes California ,
Hawaii , Oregon , Washington , Minnesota , Wisconsin , Michigan ,
Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be
beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new
country of New California .

To sum up briefly:

You get Oklahoma, Texas, and all the slave states.
We get stem cell research and the best beaches.

We get the Statue of Liberty .
You get Dollywood.

We get Intel and Microsoft.
You get WorldCom.

We get Harvard.
You get Oral Roberts University.

We get 85% of America 's venture capital and entrepreneurs.
You get Alabama .

You get Alito, Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas; we get Souter, Breyer,
Stephens, and Ginsberg, and Kennedy can have his choice;

We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states
pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22% lower than the Christian
Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families, and you get a bunch of
single moms.

Please be aware that we will be pro-choice and anti-unnecessary wars,
and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq. If you need
people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're
apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they
don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets
coming home. We do wish you every success in your quest for victory in
Iraq , and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend
our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have 80% of the country's fresh
water, more than 90% of the pineapple and lettuce, 92% of the nation's
fresh fruit, 95% of America 's quality wines, 90% of all cheese, 90%
of the high tech industry, 95% of the corn and soybeans (thanks Iowa
!), most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias
and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford , Cal
Tech and MIT. We acknowledge that we will hate to lose pecans and
peaches, but some sacrifices have to be made.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88%
of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92% of
all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100% of the tornadoes, 90% of the
hurricanes, 99% of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all
televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, and Bob Jones University.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite , thank you.

Additionally, 38% of those in the Red states believe Jonah was
actually swallowed by a whale, 62% believe life is sacred unless we're
discussing the war, the death penalty or gun laws, 44% say that
evolution is only a theory, 53% believe that Saddam was involved in
9/11 and 61% of you believe you are people with higher morals then we
blue staters. After we leave, you can elect Sarah Palin to any office
that your heart desires - who knows, maybe having a politician in
national office who believes that demons and witches have infested
different parts of the country might work out. We hope so, for your
sake.

Good luck to you all,

Your Blue State Friends

happy halloween

closest i'm coming to a halloween costume this year is this shirt.

Voting is sexy.

ended up only waiting 25 min.

Long line to vote

at this point it will supposedly take 1-2 hours

McCain-Obama Dance-Off

I wish I could dance like Obama and McCain. Palin got some moves too.

Many of you watched at least one of the debates that took place between John McCain and Barack Obama and your decision has all ready been decided (at least I hope you're voting.) But most of you who I've spoken to missed out on the speeches given at the Alfred E. Smith charity dinner. It was an opportunity to hear both presidential candidates roast each other for a rare night of self deprecating jokes as opposed to the usual campaign jabs. Barack Obama, asserting that his own "greatest strength would be my humility," dispelled rumors that he was born in a manger, saying he "was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-El, to save the planet Earth." John McCain asserted that "Joe the Plumber" would indeed be hit by higher taxes under an Obama administration, as the now-famous pipe-fitter had "recently signed a very lucrative contract with a wealthy couple to handle all the work on all seven of their houses."

Follow-up to the mail goggles post. Decided to send an email around 11:45 Friday night and this is what happened:

I'm good at crash landings :)


championship day 1 from http://citychase.vox.com/

I promise to vote :) I will be walking to the polling station. No absentee for me, I'm 100% present.

Gmail functions
If you know me and we haven't spoken in ages, chances are we have at least communicated via email, text, or some social networking service (Facebook, LinkedIn...) I have all my emails forwarded to one address to save time and password headaches but with all that information piling up in one place it can be hard to parse thru it and focus on the urgent/ work emails. Like many of you, I use Gmail as my main email provider and have been very happy. First things first, threading of emails has been a life saver for me as it keeps most of my emails together and I don't have to search through them as much to find an email that I'm looking for. But this posting is about something else rather than the functions that are great but boring... If any of you are interested, there are many applications that Google is coming up with to make your email experience more efficient and easy to use. Just go to the settings link on the top right and then click on labs. A bunch of choices are there for you whether they be fun options or "serious" ones. One that I learned about this week is called Mail Goggles. How many of you have ever drunk dialed somebody at a time you shouldn't be making phone calls or called somebody you shouldn't be calling? Yeah, me too. In this day and age, you now have to worry about drunk texting or drunk emailing. One of Google's engineers decided to tackle that issue. "When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you're really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you're in the right state of mind?"

Just downloaded a widget so I can quickly and easily post to my blog from my desktop. The widget sits in/on my dashboard on my MacBook. Not a function that I will necessarily use often since it appears the most I can do is BOLD or italicize text. No changing font size or embedding pictures or videos. So now I can upload blogs from my desktop, my phone, and via email. It is becoming clear that if anything happens or there is breaking news in my life, there is a possibility that you will know about it seconds after I do. Especially if you subscribe to this blog via a RSS feed. Or if I call or email you about it. 

Skydiving Buddies!
We did not look this happy after jumping out of the plane.

Do you currently belong to a gym? Well, over the course of the last 5 years I've belonged to a salt-water "spa" that had a pool, an expensive gym in downtown SF, and a cheap one close to my apartment. And now I find myself strongly considering joining a pool downtown that is a bit pricey but probably worth it. When I belonged to the spa and expensive gym, I would go 4-5 times a week b/c I knew that I had to make it worth the money. Since joining the cheap one, I think I've gone 3, maybe 4 times in as many months. What's funny is that a lot of people belong to the cheap gym and hardly ever go. Talk about a sweet business model! Most of my friends who belong to the gym actually belong to other gyms also but won't cancel the membership because of its price. So I'm at a crossroads, do I cancel my membership and join one that I'll actually go to. The expensive gym, although pricey, was really nice and had a pool. Of course I worked closer to it before than I currently do and that was a huge reason for me canceling. I'm leaning toward just keeping my current membership and joining the pool as I need to start working on my swimming in preparation for Ironman New Zealand.

natsukashiiiiiiii. :)

Lovely article about rednecks voting for Obama... all 2 of them. Some funny quotes... by the way I'm asian, not oriental. Some of the comments are funny, too. My buddy Derrek esp. liked from the comment section, "This election is a major IQ test for all Americans. If McSame/Falin win this election, the world will know there are more Stupid Americans than Intelligent Americans. OBAMA/BIDEN 08 for the best interest for all Americans."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, October 21, 2008 (SF Chronicle)
'Rednecks for Obama' defy conventional wisdom
Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer

(10-21) 04:00 PDT Rolla, Mo. -- Les Spencer is an atypical Barack Obama
supporter. He's a redneck. His buddy Tony Viessman calls himself one, too.
Without accessing their inner Jeff Foxworthy, they define redneck as
hardworking guys who like to hunt, fish, and maybe pop a beer or two.
"I hunt squirrels, too," Spencer said, in between drags of bummed Pall
Malls on Viessman's back porch. "And I like eating turtles."
Spencer and Viessman comprise the sum total of the Rolla,
Mo.-born-and-bred "Rednecks for Obama." Unaffiliated with the Obama
campaign, it's a home-grown shtick the two retirees invented to address
what may be Obama's most serious challenge in becoming commander in chief:
winning - or at least not totally losing - the "redneck" vote...

The rest of the article can be found here along with comments

People waiting in line for the new google phone. too bad it's tmobile. think I might just get the iphone.

After pretty much a month of traveling, I am now back in SF and will be for at least 3 whole weeks. From Sept. 21 to Oct. 19, I visited Tokyo, Okinawa, New Orleans, Boone North Carolina, and Toledo Ohio. I had the pleasure of working, visiting family & friends, and racing during the past month and now find myself in the ever comfortable place called home. Half the time I was jet-lagged and the other half found me with allergy issues or colds. But still a wonderful time.
After visiting my sister and her fam in North Carolina and Derek & Kerrie in Toledo, I now have house envy, car envy, marriage envy, 9-5 job envy, changing of the seasons envy... you get the picture. Well, that envy is slowly subsiding as I get back into my routine here in SF. The house can wait and will have to as I don't have $600,000 to invest in a studio apt. overlooking another building. The car would totally be a pain as parking is atrocious and marriage is definitely something that can wait. I kinda work 9-5 right now... I'm at least awake during those hours. The leaves changing colors were beautiful but watching my dad rake all of them up everyday and also, my allergies were going crazy, sneezing, coughing, runny nose, itchy eyes... let me think that I like always green trees.
I'll try to upload pics of my adventures but if you can't wait, feel free to check out my flickr page. There is a link to it on the right hand side of the blog.

championship day 1 from http://citychase.vox.com/



championship day 1boot camp from http://citychase.vox.com/


championship day 1boot camp from http://citychase.vox.com/


championship day 1boot camp from http://citychase.vox.com/


championship day 1Championshis Day 1raising money from http://citychase.vox.com/


championship day 1Hanted Vampite Tour from http://citychase.vox.com/


championship day 2Skydive from http://citychase.vox.com/

championship day 2Skydive from http://citychase.vox.com/


championship day 1 from http://citychase.vox.com/


championship day 2iron chef from http://citychase.vox.com/


championship day 2Mardi Gras from http://citychase.vox.com/


championship day 2Mardi Gras from http://citychase.vox.com/


championship day 2Gator Carry from http://citychase.vox.com/


championship day 2Gator Carry from http://citychase.vox.com/

Reading with Yumeno. Yuzu is also in the video and Friday was the first time I met him. He was born a month after I left back in 2006.

Here are some pictures and a video from my run in Tokyo. I was there for 4 days and ran around the Imperial Palace on 3 of the 4 mornings. It was a 5 kilometer loop with a moat, lots of police, crows, and other people exercising.