Disqus - Latest Comments for cdinwood

Re: 10 Imagined Futures as Predicted by Anime

Christina — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 22:14:26 -0000

I like the unexciting futures of Summer Wars and Dennou Coil, where you just have more exciting computing available to you. I mean, hacking causing a satellite to fall isn't the best, but for most people life is still pretty normal but a bit more convenient.

Re: Errol Morris' quiz about killer asteroids was a secret experiment to find out how fonts affect our thinking

Christina — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 05:41:51 -0000

I don't see how being the 3rd from the bottom in terms of rates of disagreement makes Comic Sans have "one of the highest rates of disagreement." It looks like one of the lower rates of disagreement, to me.

Re: Why You Shouldn’t Prepare for the JLPT

Christina — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 03:17:57 -0000

Japanese (and any language) can certainly be a big scary black hole! You seem to be attacking that black hole with RTK as your first major goalpost. I actually took 3.5 years of Japanese classes, so when I finally got to self-study (after a couple years of dutifully forgetting most of what I learned in classes), I had a lot stronger of a baseline. I think the hardest part in self-study is getting past those first hurdles of grammar and get to the point where you mostly know what a sentence means except for that one mystery word or whatever.

I never did anything like RTK, and generally did the kanji in context route (not the textbook, although I do have that), and even now learning new kanji isn't too hard for me. And there are getting to be fewer and fewer I haven't come across. It's great when you finally get to the point where you can see a new kanji compound, realize that you know the kanji individually and can work out both the approximate meaning and the pronunciation without a dictionary.

Although I'm not sure if I really fully support the AJATT method (it can be very difficult to do full immersion in a regular work environment, and I believe that teachers and classes have merit), it is a very enticing spiel.

Re: Why You Shouldn’t Prepare for the JLPT

Christina — Mon, 31 May 2010 20:53:50 -0000

I liked having the JLPT (level 2) as a collection of things that I could use as a framework for my self-study. I don't do as well without a specific well-defined goal, so having that test is what I really needed to send me on a reasonable path of actual study as opposed to goal-less dithering. I gave myself a little over a year and did no cramming, just everyday study.

In the midst of studying for the test, I got an interview with a Japanese company (my current employer!), and I think that my studying helped give me the confidence to be able to do that and be awesome. I also did other things for study, including weekly conversations with a native Japanese speaker.

Re: In Japan, You Visit A Scary Japanese Doctor 12+ Times A Year

Christina — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:14:47 -0000

My local community actually sent out packets to all of the women (above 25) in the area to get a free general women's exam. It was for once every two years, but it still seemed pretty impressive to me.

Re: In Japan, You Visit A Scary Japanese Doctor 12+ Times A Year

Christina — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:11:35 -0000

Well, a lot of people just don't go to the doctor at all. They just go to the emergency room when someone else yells at them that they're going to die if they don't. I think this is one of the (thousands of) problems with the insurance situation US.

Re: In Japan, You Visit A Scary Japanese Doctor 12+ Times A Year

Christina — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:20:59 -0000

I had a weird issue with my Jaw, and so I ended up going to the dentist at the local hospital. About 10 times. He kept making me come back in two weeks for a checkup.

However, I did get a custom mouth guard made for under 4000 yen (the NYTimes had an article claiming that the costs in the US for one of these ranges from $300 to over $1000), and the appointments ranged from 110 yen to 1110 yen, which is significantly cheaper than I would ever hope for in the US, where an average dentist appointment started at about $25. Also, if I had an appointment for 9 am, I would be brought in at 9am, and have essentially the dentist's full attention for the whole time I was there.

Also I really like the fact that if you are sick, you can just go into the doctor's office or the hospital without an appointment. As opposed to the US where you have to call for an appointment and most of the time they are like "Well, I can see you next Tuesday." There's clearly no reason to bother getting a doctor's appointment for a cold if it's going to be gone by the time you get to see the doctor.

Re: Undokai Timelapse

Christina — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:29:33 -0000

Also, being a Kyushu person, it took me far too long to realize that your Hakata was not the Hakata I was thinking of.

Re: Undokai Timelapse

Christina — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:09:48 -0000

Kitakyushu, famous for being cloudy and hence not getting nuclear-bombed (well, Kokura is, at least). Kyushu is awesome! (completely sincere)

Re: Undokai Timelapse

Christina — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 23:01:35 -0000

Definitely lucky. I am, sadly, not living in such a beautiful part of Japan, unless you have a particular fondness for steel mills and other factories. There are some nice parks around, at least.

Re: Undokai Timelapse

Christina — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:20:38 -0000

Man, your school has some nice background scenery there!

Re: Automatic heating and ovening

Christina — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 21:47:52 -0000

I don't think I ever trusted the popcorn button . . . but I haven't made microwave popcorn in a while, either.

Re: Spring in Kitakyushu

Christina — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:33:48 -0000

Yeah, not so much rain yet. Apparently next week might be rainy, though.

Re: Areas of Japan nobody cares about

Christina — Wed, 27 May 2009 22:50:01 -0000

There's a tasty tofu restaurant! And some reconstructed ruins! And barbecues! And onsen! And rice. Lots of rice. Also rice. Don't forget the rice.

Re: Windy City

Christina — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:33:01 -0000

I only ever had one umbrella in Nagasaki. I don't remember it being rainy too often when I was visiting you--maybe that's the reason I managed only with one.

Re: Coding

Christina — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:13:58 -0000

Wow, that was mostly incomprehensible. But yay visit!

Re: Cooking in Japan

Christina — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 22:16:02 -0000

Definitely more than 20 minutes. More like 45. I've never seen one only take ten . . .

Re: Work-Life Balance in Japan

Christina — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:36:06 -0000

I am currently working for a big (around 2000 total employees in offices throughout the nation) Japanese firm as a contract employee. I don't have much of a workload yet, because I just started work a couple weeks ago. However, apparently it is company policy (at least at my office) that MWF are no-overtime days. I've been leaving at 5:40ish, ten minutes after the official end of day (my train's at 5:45, so it works out that way), and I'm not the first to leave. I'm the first in my little division, but I can't guarantee that they don't leave five minutes after me. Coworker-friends I've made also claim to do very little overtime.

I'm okay with working when there's work to be done, but so far I don't really have much work, and am actually hoping to get more soon. I think I better be more pushy about getting something to do in the coming weeks so I'm not left figuring out how to entertain myself for the 6 hours of the day where I don't have any tasks to do.

One thing to note--I'm in Kyushu, not Tokyo. I can't tell you what office life is like there, even for people who work for the same company as I do. I think the lifestyle down here is a lot slower in general. My commute is all of 15 minutes (only 2 minutes of it on the train!), and it never seems like anyone's in much of a rush. Sure, it doesn't have all of the concentrated excitement that Tokyo has, but it's cheaper, quieter, and less stressful.

Re: Experiment of Catan

Christina — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:02:28 -0000

Randomly rereading this--do you think having a 30-second or 1-minute egg timer for the inbetween turn time would help? People might grumble, though.

Re: Earthquake?!

Christina — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:55:47 -0000

I have no idea what you're implying with these statements, actually. Could have helped what? Why does feeling it from far away mean?

Re: More ING Direct Referral Links Needed: Join the Waiting List

Christina — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:49:44 -0000

I'd be happy to provide links--I think I have all of mine left.