私のブログは新しいアドレスで見えます。www.johnhayato.comをご覧ください。

This blog can now be found at
www.johnhayato.com

沖縄の親戚

ちえこ、私のいとこ、はこのメールを送ってくれた。写真を見ると、ちょー懐かしい。
” はいさい(^-^)/
昨日は ウークイ でした。子供達も、上手に　うちかび うさぎてました。”

＊＊＊日本人のため、【うーくい】ー　旧盆の最終日に行われる先祖霊送りの儀式のこと。夜遅くに仏壇の前に家族、親族が集まり、線香をあげ、打ち紙 (うちかび)を焚くなどして、先祖の霊をお送りする。ウンケー(お迎え)と並び、重要な儀式である。この日、エイサーが行われる。

Gmail's down, OH NOOOOOOOO!

So Google's been down for a little while now and it appears nobody knows why. My twitter feed is filled with people letting me know that they can't access gmail or gchat but that's basically all they're saying. I googled "why is google down" and that brought up mostly results having to do with old news. So then I decided to try out a couple of real-time search engines; OneRiot, Collecta, and Scoopler. Most of the results appear to be from twitter and they seem to be focusing on people not accessing gmail but nobody seems to be telling me anything besides the fact that they can't get on. This is where I feel there's a problem. I do find it comforting that I'm not the only one with this problem but I'm annoyed that I can't find actual news. I'm surprised Google hasn't come out with information on their blog as the popularity of real-time search provides an opportunity for a lot of mis-information to be spread. Oh well, was hoping that somewhere I would be able to find the answer to my question but it looks like I'll just have to wait. Patience is something that has gone by the wayside as technology has gotten faster and faster. Not only technology, I guess: everthing. I wonder who we told about #FAILS before twitter and SNS came along. Did we call people or just do something else? Here's some screenshots of my results:

One Riot:

Scoopler:

Collecta:

Twitter Trending Topics: Appears Google really isn't that big of a deal

I've officially signed up for 2010 Ironman Canada. Have to sign up a year in advance as it sells out within a day of opening up.

Skymark considering flights from Okinawa to Taiwan

This could be huge as I'm all about more ways to get to Okinawa. Flying via Japan can be costly and time-consuming. Right now China Air has flights to Okinawa from Taiwan but if Japan's largest discount carrier starts offering int'l flights, that could be a good sign for more opportunities to get good deals and also more time options. Skymark is also considering flights to South Korea, the Philippines, or Hong Kong.

Last week I spent a couple days in Chicago for a JETAA National conference. I arrived a bit early so I decided to venture out and check out the Art Institute. There was a lot to see and some of it was typical of most big city museums, art by famous people... There were a couple pieces that made me think that even I could become famous as I didn't get how the piece was considered art. A canvas with nothing but orange on it doesn't seem so creative. There was one area where as I was walking to it, a lady walked in and immediately walked out mumbling under her breath, "I don't do clowns." This should have let me know that this area wasn't for me as I don't do disturbing/scary and clowns are scary. Well, I went in and it freaked me out. Luckily I had the frame of mind to record it and give you a chance to see what I saw.

So after a long, long break from contributing to Okioki.net, it looks like we’re back at it. Thanks to Pat, some new content has been uploaded to the site. Basically if you’re interested in any news relating to Okinawa, then we’re hoping that this is one of the sites you’ll go to. The contributors to the site are passionate about Okinawa and will do our best to keep it updated and interesting. Also, if you want a tour guide of Okinawa, please feel free to pay my way and I’ll take care of you while we’re there So if you got a minute, go check out www.okioki.net

www.okioki.net は沖縄についてのウェブサイトです。英語で記事を書きますけど、どうぞ見てください。

By the way the day began I thought that it was going to be great. Had some quality meetings today regarding moving forward on some web ideas, great networking, and made the choice to purchase a car that is pretty sweet. But then I got home and it all went to... First letter I open and guess what, I have to report for jury duty next week. Second letter and whoopee, my mileage from my trip to New Zealand won't be credited. Here's the nail in the coffin; I spent over 45 min. on the phone with AT&T and 2Wire customer service trying to get my lovely internet working at my apartment. The instructions for setting up internet are really straight forward but apparently the person who wrote the instructions has never actually set up internet at his or her place... that's my take. So after 45 minutes of doing everything they told me to do, it appears that they want me to be home from 8 am - 8 pm on a certain day next week but that just happens to coincide with the day I get to go to court. Looks like this saga may last a bit longer than I thought it would. It's only 5 pm and hopefully a good tough M2 class will work out my aggression. I try not to blog about displeasing personal topics but sometimes you just need to release the tension via whatever you have. In my case, the internet. Serenity now, serenity now... don't want to pull a kramer.

Match.com, here's a business model for you

After 2 years of my Match.com profile being set on ‘invisible’ I decided to take a look at it and make some updates. I got interested in different dating sites due to various iphone apps for meeting people. My intentions weren’t/aren’t to meet the one but more to check out the UI’s and different functions available within the iphone apps. While I’m open to online dating, I’ve found that there’s a couple of barriers for me that hinder meeting someone. First reason I’m not completely sold on online dating is that I’m still being introduced to ladies through friends and social groups who know me quite well. Secondly, I don’t like the business models.

I guess part of it is that I’m still quite happy meeting people through friends which makes me lazy when it comes to putting in real time and effort into meeting a woman via the internet. That being said, I do enjoy checking out the match.com iphone app and who knows, maybe I’ll meet somebody. There really are a ton of people using it. Now comes the business model issue that I referred to: I’m what I consider a “casual online dating site checker” I look at who’s viewed me, winked… every once in a while but I still am very much meeting people through other avenues. So I’m not willing to pay a monthly subscription to communicate with somebody or see who’s emailed me… thus far, the emails have been from people who don’t have profile pics up and yes, that’s a deal-breaker for me. I would be more interested in Match.com if they started offering a micro-transaction type model for those of us who every once in a while want to email/ wink… then we could be charged per wink or per email. How about charging me a dollar for every email and $.25 per wink? That would definitely make people think longer before winking at every Joe Schmo they see. And if you’re wondering if this type of model is profitable, I’d say it is. Just look at the revenues that gaming/virtual worlds are pulling in via micro-transaction models.

I chose Match.com as an example because I haven’t bothered using any other sites and with dating sites, there needs to be a large pool of people using the site and they seem to be the biggest.

*Disclaimer: I don’t work for any dating sites. I’m actually happily single and blessed/humbled to have wonderful friends who feel I’m a good enough guy to introduce to their other friends

**Just a note: This isn’t going to become a blog about dating as I don’t write about my personal relationships. My Facebook status will not be showing single, complicate, dating… nor will ever unless I start dating Jessica Alba.

Hi friends and family,

If you regularly check this blog, please note that I will be transferring everything to johnhayato.com or johnbranderhorst.com both of which will go to the same place.

Cheers :)

I'm not sure if it bothers you but when you leave a message for somebody, you're always left waiting for that stupid beep before you're able to talk. David Pogue, NY Times Columnist who focuses on tech, has decided enough is enough and that the extra long message forced upon us by the carriers so that they can make more money has to go. Here's a quote by him.

"Suppose you call my cell to leave me a message. First you hear my own voice: "Hi, it's David Pogue. Leave a message, and I'll get back to you" — and THEN you hear a 15-second canned carrier message. ... These messages are outrageous for two reasons. First, they waste your time. Good heavens: it's 2009. WE KNOW WHAT TO DO AT THE BEEP. ... Second, we're PAYING for these messages. These little 15-second waits add up — bigtime. If Verizon's 70 million customers leave or check messages twice a weekday, Verizon rakes in about $620 million a year. That's your money."

— NYT columnist David Pogue mobilizes a "Take Back the Beep" campaign to press cell-phone carriers to get rid of the superfluous voicemail instructions that play before a caller is allowed to leave a message.

Below is a question and answer regarding robots and the issue of robots disobeying orders/doing unethical actions... I think I've seen too many movies as I read the answer as Asimov blah blah blah oh my God, the robot is killing my dog. Ok, so maybe I made up that last part of I'm jaded after seeing Will Smith have to take on the whole robot force in iRobot. For now, I'll vacuum my floors, pick up heave objects, and figure out what's logical on my own.

Q: Do you envision robots ever disobeying military orders on the battlefield to "do the right thing?" If so, under what circumstances?

A: Asimov originated the use of ethical restraint in robots many years ago and presented all the quandaries that it can generate. In our prototype ethical governor (and in the design itself) we do provide the robot with the right to refuse an order it deems unethical. It must provide some explanation as to why it has refused such an order. With some reluctance, we have engineered a human override capability into the system, but one which forces the operator to explicitly assume responsibility for any ethical infractions that might result as a consequence of such an override.

— Ronald C. Arkin, director of the Mobile Robot Laboratory at Georgia Tech, who is working on programming ethical behavior into military robots.

2009 Triathlon Season

Nutrition Nutrition Nutrition

Went to a talk about nutrition with a focus on endurance athletes. Some things I took away from it was:
1) That I don't eat enough - Eat within an hour of waking and every 3 to 4 hours, ie. snacks :)
2) I don't eat the right foods. Bacon falls under fat and not proteins :( Spam is also not a good choice.
3) Make sure I take in both carbohydrates and proteins when I eat.
4) Whatever my daily caloric intake should be (ie. 2000), what I eat during exercising doesn't count towards it.
5) I asked about vitamins, pills, etc. that people take daily. Here is what I got from everybody: Multi-vitamin - a basic, generic one
Omega 3 fatty - fish oil or flax seed...
Vitamin e
Glucosamine

There were other good tidbits and I'll update this list as I remember them. Also, please feel free to comment.

Uh oh, calves are totally rock hard

Uh oh, calves are totally rock hard
Originally uploaded by john hayato

Usually I'm smiling at the end of races but all I could muster up was a grimace as the cramping took over my whole lower half of my body.

2009 Vineman 70.3 Race Report

The Vineman 70.3 race report was tentatively titled, “How it all came together.”

I thought google mapping the directions up to my cabin was a good omen when the distance was listed as 70.3 mile. But that was before I actually started the race, which became “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”

Expectations were set high for my last tri of the season but alas, a sub 5 half IM will have to wait until next year. My swim actually was good (for me) and I really enjoyed the 16 min. return portion of the loop after an agonizing 20 minutes going upstream. It was eerily quiet exiting the water as there were people lining up on both sides but not a soul cheering except my buddy Rahim who was surprised to see me strip my wetsuit off and throw it at him so that I wouldn’t get all my clothes in the swim bag wet.

My bike is something I’ve been working on quite a bit lately and it showed in my 56 mile split of 2:33. Anybody else lose a water bottle within the first couple of minutes? For me it was bye bye Carbo Pro but luckily I had 5 gels taped to my top tube along with a couple of salt pills. I was very happy with my bike but had to stop once b/c I thought I’d flatted but it turned out my back brake was rubbing and I was one of the lucky ones who went through the tree area before the fire dept. closed off the street for a bit. Towards the end of the bike my quads started to tighten up a little but I thought that it would loosen up once I started running.

So off the bike I went and before mile one, both my quads and hamstrings cramped up so much that walking became an issue. I contemplated DNFing but as it was a nice day and I knew that the under 29 females would be on their return trip on the run, I decided to give walking a go with the hopes of jogging as my legs loosened up. I ended up doing this awkward shuffle over the next 12 miles as I popped salt tablets like candy. It was awesome to see so many PacBikes & GGTC athletes and Thank You for the cheering and motivation as you passed me ;)

This race was my hardest tri in 4 years as physically and mentally I was spent. I managed to run through the finisher’s chute due to all the cheers but as soon as I finished I collapsed with cramps from my groin down. It must have been a funny sight as volunteers are trying to move me out of the way while people cheering were yelling at them to spray water on me and massage my legs. I don’t really recall too much of it but after about 10 min. they carried me over to the med tent. So that’s how my 2009 tri season ended. It’s been great and I look forward to challenging myself next year and hopefully breaking the elusive 5 hour mark. I ended up doing the race in 5:26. I’m exhausted and will now focus on a couple running races for the rest of the year. In Oct. I will be doing the Chicago Marathon and in Dec. the NorthFace 50 miler.

Happy Birthday Oma from John hayato Branderhorst on Vimeo.

Finding Nemo - Just Keep Swimming

I think this will be my mantra during the swim portion of my next race. I'm fairly slow at the swim so maybe this will help me to push forward :)

Yesterday was my 3rd race in 3 weeks and I definitely wasn't looking forward to waking up at 4:30 am again. I wasn't in a huge rush to get to the race as I heard that we would have a PacBikes' (team I race with) rack but apparently we didn't so Chris and I set up next to each other. I thought that was smart as I knew that his bike would be gone which would give me plenty of room to get my wetsuit off and have a quick transition. After spending 24 minutes in the water I finally made it ashore along with some fast women and slow 24-29 year old dudes. One thing that got me riled up was that somebody had tied the balloon that i had on the rack to my bike so that when I started running with my bike along came the balloon. I ripped it off and proceeded to get a slap in the face from the headwind that I wasn't expecting. Two weeks ago a group of us rode the course and at the start was a very nice tailwind. Oh well, I buckled down and managed to get the bike course done in 1:03 which rocks considering I was having shifting issues. As soon as I started the run I could tell that it was going to be tough. My lower right back area started cramping (as it did last week also) but thinking that all I had to do was run for sub 40 min. then it would all be over. I proceeded to get the first 5 km done in about 20 min. and then everything went to shit. My stomach started cramping and the miles never seemed to end. A couple of older (35-39) guys passed me and I tried to keep up but at mile 6 I figured out that the race wasn't almost done and started to have some "wall" issues. It was supposed to be a 6.2 mile run but due to mismarkings, the final distance was closer to 7.4 miles. The run ended up taking me 48 min. It was really awesome seeing friends on the course and I really pushed myself to not only catch up with my Chris but also not get caught by Jim or any of our fast pacbikes women. In the end I finished the race in 2:19 which was good enough for 9th AG, 61st OA. I look forward to having it all come together at Vineman.