Adam Schabtach's Blog
…two new modular origami books by Tomoko Fuse, Unit Origami Wonderland and Unit Origami Fantasy. They’re the same format and layout as Unit Origami Essence, which I picked up here last year. As far as I know they’re not available in English, although I did run across Japanese versions of a couple of her books which I have in English editions.
It’s 5:21AM Kyoto time and I’m more alert than I was at around 7:00PM yesterday when I wrote the previous post. I thought I’d post some random observations before we head out for the day. There’s a show on TV that seems to be about the handwriting practices of the elderly, or about some sort of social club for the literate elderly, or possibly about elderly people who enjoy both handwriting and doing laundry.
The TV programming seems to have fewer strange (strange to Western eyes, anyway) game shows on than usual. It could be that we’re not finding the right channels, but I suspect it has more to do with a general edict from the government that people observe “self-restraint”, i.e. some amount of sombre respect for the tens of thousands lost in the tsunami. This was described in a recent J-List mailing, and I have to agree with the author that it’s not a good idea. Yes, it is entirely appropriate to show respect for the departed and the displaced, but on the other hand Japan has some serious economic challenges on its hands, and it’s not going to help the economy at all if people are sitting at home trying to be respectful rather than out spending money in restaurants and on consumer goods.
We’re in Japan for our yearly vacation. Our original plans, made nearly a year ago, involved spending about 2.5 weeks here. We were going to spend about a week in Tokyo, a few days in Kobe, and another week in Kyoto. Then, as you may have heard, there was a big earthquake, a tsunami, and a still-unresolved mess involving several damaged nuclear power plants. That started on March 11 and we were scheduled to fly to Tokyo on March 31. Skipping over the details, we eventually decided to shorten the trip and spend a week in Kyoto, which is 300 miles away from Fukushima and hence unaffected by aftershocks, power outages, and ongoing concerns about radiation leaks and other unfortunate events.
Make of this what you will.
As Chris announced today on his blog, Audio Damage is branching out. Specifically we’re starting to design and manufacture modules for the Euro-Rack modular synthesizer format. Our first product will be a 2-in/2-out USB1.1 class-compliant audio interface. It’s compatible with the iPad, so you can use it to conveniently add just about any iPad audio app to your Euro-Rack modular rig. Of course it will also work with a laptop or desktop computer. Hence you can use it as a convenient way to route audio between your DAW (or other audio software) and your modular. It also has DC-coupled outputs so you can use it to control your modular with software like the Silent Way suite from Expert Sleepers or Volta by MOTU, or by generating signals via your own devising with something like Max/MSP or Reaktor.
Seriously, Adobe, between updates to your Flash player (which frequently go awry and cause my system to hang) and updates to Acrobat Reader, you’re wasting a noticeable amount of my time. I think I’m going to dump Acrobat Reader and look for viable replacements. I know that they must be out there; Goodreader on the iPad is already a better way to read PDFs than your product.
It’s a bit startling to see how much time has gone by since my last post here. I’ve been distracted by work–both businesses have been very busy–and by the slowly unfolding and worsening news from Japan, and as a result haven’t found the inclination to post anything, I guess.
Anyway: I found Chris’s “experiments” videos inspiring; here’s the latest (and last, he says) if you haven’t seen them:
As a result I’ve been thinking about setting up similar systems for similar endeavors, but haven’t actually gotten to the point of doing anything. I spent most of the recent weekend doing origami, swapping out the main hard drive in my music PC (the old one was annoyingly noisy), and staring into space. At some point, while perusing Pink Tentacle, I ran across this video by World Order, a Japanese music/dance group:
(Watch both of those in a bigger format if you can; my blog restricts images to a width of 450px but both videos are available in HD.) Genki Sudo, the leader, left this comment below the video:
There’s a sombre but well-written article at the Washington Post site about changes in Tokyo in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami, and the ongoing possibility of radiation from the nuclear plants. I’m sure that, with time, Tokyo will rebound from these catastrophes; the same cannot be said of the smaller towns that were completely destroyed by the tsunami. Still, it makes me sad to think of the dimming–speaking both figuratively and literally–of such a beautiful, radiant city.
My heart goes out to the country of Japan and to its people. I cannot express how much I am saddened by the tragic events that have unfolded over the last several days.
(If anyone knows the name of the artist who drew this, leave me a comment so that I can provide credit. I swiped it from the J-List Facebook page.)
I’ve been trying to think of something to say in a post about the earthquake, and words have essentially failed me. What can be said about a natural disaster that has claimed at least 10,000 lives, particularly when it has happened in a country that feels to me as much like home–maybe more so–than my own?
I am happy to say that I’ve made contact with the few people there that I know personally, and they are all safe and well.
Of all of the images and videos I’ve watched, I believe that this set of satellite photos most vividly illustrates the nature and intensity of the destruction caused by the tsunami. It overlays images of the same areas, before and after the earthquake, with a movable divider that lets you compare them.