• Learn to carve on snowboard – Caught 10 fish in Michigan!
• Read 5 books – Wore a cheesehead to a Packers game at Lambeau Field!
• Redo this blog using Django – Visited Singapore!
• Post one song a month – Visited India!

As you can see, I’ve achieved all my resolutions–and all in the month of September. Srsly, I was at home like 5 days this month (of course, that doesn’t excuse me from not making progress on resolutions any other month). Nothing like pushing myself out of my comfort zone to re-affirm how awkward I really can be, but it has been an experience. Met and reconnected with kind, cool, and interesting people. In Michigan, I had my first taste of freshly caught perch. For India, I have a soundtrack to press bits and pieces of it into my brain (thanks to Chris’ recommendation Toro y Moi). I could write a very long post about everything, but attention span is a precious thing. It’s good to be home again.

Mr. Smartypants

I found the Step Input Keyboard to be pretty darn useful to create the drums, bass, and keyboard tracks–and a nice refresher for piano notation basics. It allows for razor-sharp syncing of tracks, which is something I’ve been pretty scrappy about in the past.

And then to cover for my very limited guitar skills, there’s an endless number of options to tweak guitar sounds with virtual mic-and-amp settings. I’m a personal fan of the airy Surf effect.

Another problem I’ve always had is low volume on the final-ish mp3. I’ve gone searching on a few Logic Pro threads, and unfortunately, there is no magic trick to fix this. Apparently it’s a skill I need to learn, initially recording at appropriate levels and using just the right amount of limiter and compressor magic. But for now, I tried using the Gain Utility and Adaptive Limiter to bump levels up.

There is definitely some distortion in this recording, but it is louder. Hopefully, I will get good at it and be able to improve the quality of future recordings.

all the time

• Learn to carve on snowboard – Getting there
• Listen better – Always a work in progress
• Read more books (got a few for Christmas) – Only got around to finishing one and it was about sushi. And it was delicious.
• Absorb more Grizzly Bear – Uh huh. This isn’t really a resolution.
• Train self to not get sick on shuttle when reading/laptopping – Done! I’m blogging right now from shuttle and no puke in sight!
• Make more music with Mark and Merry – Not really
• Make chinchillas Google Doodle-worthy – Fail (but Merry and I did make a website dedicated to them).

So basically, I didn’t do so good last year. For whatever reason, making resolutions and seeing them through feels more important to me this year. Maybe because last year had its ups and downs–more downs than I was accustomed to in previous years. And while I can’t control some downs (e.g., people on shuttle having no sense of personal space), I can control some ups. Again, I will omit exercising more and eating healthier. The unusually empty salad section at my local supermarket suggests these kind of resolutions are common.

• Learn to carve on snowboard – I’ve  already committed myself to more falls and flips and bruises to get there. No turning back now.
• Read 5 books – The pile grows. Must incorporate reading more regularly.
• Redo this blog using Django – Might even remove the intro Flash page. Even I find it annoying now. I did put in some effort to make it some two years ago, but I think it is time to retire it.
• Post one song a month – Inspired by Kolina’s Project 52, this is my lame Project…12. Whether it’s with Mark and Merry or on my own, I want to get back into making music. And if it is just me, the first few will probably be restricted to keyboard and vocals as my splinted finger don’t do so well on those stringed instruments.

Happy New Year!

• If you’re not particular about staying in a ryokan (which would be awesome if I wasn’t a cheapo), Orbitz has great airfare/hotel deals. Staying at a large hotel may also increase the likelihood of staff being able to switch to English when they realize how badly you speak Japanese (okay okay, maybe you don’t–but I do). And book a few months in advance to get the good deals!

• Don’t go during peak season (read more about when to travel to Japan). During Golden Week, the Narita Express train from Tokyo back to the airport was a little more expensive than normal. It’s actually discounted during off-peak season. As I expected, visiting popular getaways outside of Tokyo during Golden Week, like Hakone, was a very busy time. I expected Tokyo itself to be less crowded since I read locals tend to travel away during this time, but tourist attractions like Ueno Park were still completely packed.

• Bring medicine in case you get sick. You know what works for you. Going to the local store and trying to figure out which pharmaceuticals you need and how to take them can be challenging if you don’t understand Japanese characters. But if you find yourself in this situation, hopefully the store clerk can help you (get that phrase book out).

• Get the Suica and N’Ex deal at the airport (take escalator to floor below baggage claim to find the JR ticket office).
  • Your purchase includes a ticket on the Narita Express to your Tokyo destination (find out which stop is closest to your lodging beforehand), a pre-loaded Suica card to ride most trains and subways in Tokyo, and a comprehensive map of the subway and train lines that are covered.
  • You’re supposed to return the Suica card when you leave Japan. When you do, they will return the 500 yen deposit on it, as well as any remaining funds, minus the 210 yen processing fee. If your card has less than 210 yen (not counting the 500 yen deposit), that will be your processing fee (discount!).
  • If you don’t use your Suica card within 10 years, it becomes invalid…that part’s just funny.

• Grab whatever English maps you can find. Usually, they are near or inside ticket offices or visitor information centers at major train stations.

• If you’re going to Kyoto, you definitely need more than a day. I signed up for an overnight deal since just paying for the roundtrip train ticket would’ve been more. But Kyoto would probably be best explored over the course of two to three days.

• If you’re going to Hakone, get the Hakone Free Pass (can be purchased at the Odawara Line ticket office at the Shinjuku station) and opt for the slightly more expensive Romancecar. We took the regular “express” train, which felt like being on a subway for over two hours. Can be done in a day, but staying overnight at a hot springs resort would’ve been nice.

• If you’re planning to visit lots of places outside of Tokyo, the Japan Rail Pass might save you some money. I didn’t do this since we only went to Kyoto and Hakone in addition to exploring Tokyo, which was plenty for our 10-day visit.

• Buy/borrow a Japanese phrase book. I borrowed my sister‘s old version of Barron’s Japanese at a Glance, which was very useful. The ones with Japanese characters are good. If you think you’re going to butcher the pronunciation, just point to what you want to say. Here’s a bare minimum list of phrases that we found useful (note the “u” following “s” is usually silent):

And if you haven’t seen them yet, we have over 300 pictures of Japan up (as if this post wasn’t long enough already=).

Happy New Year!

As for Australia, a week was nowhere near enough time to take it all in. We first stayed in Surfers Paradise, which felt a lot like a busy, touristy part of California/Florida. The second half of our trip was spent in Airlie Beach on the Whitsunday Coast, which still felt a little touristy but had more of a small town, tropical atmosphere like parts of Hawaii. Overall, pretty scenery, cute animals, and friendly peopar with lovely accents. Definitely one of my favorite vacations thus far. I shall be back to explore more.

Some highlights:

• Petting/feeding kangaroos and wallabies at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary
• Waking/cracking up to the sound of kookaburras at the Airlie Cove Resort
• Spotting a whale while en route to the Great Barrier Reef
• Scuba diving for the first time at the Great Barrier Reef and not getting eaten by sharks
• Kayaking around Daydream Island. We spotted a turtle in the water and a couple of wallabies on a nearby beach. And we didn’t get eaten by sharks.

Some lowlights:

• Pretty bad service at Sayas Mexican Restaurant in Surfers Paradise
• Losing my pedometer at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary
• Some difficulty finding/securing lodging our last night in Brisbane
• Airport security examining contents from my backpack very slowly and then asking what my dental floss was for

Some things we learned whilst in Australia:

• Pedestrians do NOT have right of way
• Paying for food and activities was similar to what you’d spend in California
• A common greeting: “How ya going?”
• A common response: “No worries.”
• Appetizers are called entrees
• Pharmacies are called chemists
• Liquor stores are called bottle shops

And finally, pictures to tell the rest of the story.

First, you must find a proper place to do your business, out of harm’s way and other peopar’s view. This deer fails.

And then you are just exposed. To bears. And mosquitoes. If you are like me, they will jump on any opportunity to latch onto that precious bit of flesh you didn’t chemicalize with DEET. In my case this time, my left leg.

Another problem with no toilet? Ever had to wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom? Now imagine having this urge out in the woods on a very cold, very dark night, with only a headlamp to guide your way through The Blair Witch Project. And then there are the bears. And Jeebus knows what else. I’m confident I’m not the only one who decided to hold it until morning.

But waking up and splashing the morning out of my eyes in this?

Ha-mazing.

(Thanks to Nelson and Reid for letting me use their photos! My pictures didn’t make the cut for this blog post.)