Silver Case

Unappreciated

Michael Slater — Sun, 13 May 2012 10:37:15 +0000

Luke attended his Japanese friend Takumi’s birthday. All the kids want to play and get their treats.

Takumi’s mom gave each kid a handmade gift bag built from newspaper. All the moms were duly impressed. I don’t think it made the slightest impression on the kids though. Ingrates.

I think I broke my toe

Michael Slater — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 16:25:01 +0000

Was pulling a wagon-load of kids around the park with my BMX today. Crashed them into some playground equipment (Luke was the victim — was screaming bloody murder about his leg). I don’t know what I did at the same time, but all I know now is that my toe is getting bigger and bigger and more and more purple. Damn. As long as I don’t wear shoes or walk, it’s fine.

This is an historic moment I suppose — I almost made it to age forty without breaking a bone!

Mobile posting

Michael Slater — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 04:46:56 +0000

The WordPress official app is a buggy piece of crap. So am trying out an (expensive) app called blogpress.

Gratuitous picture of my breakfast to test the picture function. Think it sticks the photo on my Flickr account.

Update: there is no control over categorization from inside BlogPress it seems.

Location:Thomson Rd,,Singapore

Tandem coming

Michael Slater — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 02:37:49 +0000

Renold Yip just informed me that he’s in the middle of building the custom front-rack for the custom tandem I ordered for Luke and I from Da Vinci. Hopefully it all arrives about the time Luke’s school holidays start. If not sooner.

The fork blades of the tandem are monstrous!

I’m alive, just busy. And almost forty……

Michael Slater — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:11:10 +0000

Haven’t messed with this site in ages. Just logged back in to find spam-encrusted comments and an out-of-date wordpress install that took some ssh shell battering to get running again. This won’t help my Klout Score.

Anyway, what’s been going on ?

An almost-seven year old son
Work
Building bikes

Doesn’t sound like much, but it’s keeping me busy.

I’m alive, just busy

Michael Slater — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 13:52:45 +0000

A new lizard patrolling my garden’s sweet potato leaves

This has been a busy year-to-date, and now it’s 2/3rds over.

(Finally) finished Ling’s bike
Luke starts first grade(!) on Wednesday.
My custom bicycle shop (retail and asian-wide distribution) is open for business
Had a good week of Japanese language practice last month
Been cycling a lot in anticipation of some races in 4q11
Congratulations on my new cousin Michaela
Hopefully finish the frame of my 650b randonneur bike during the next month
etc

Japan Update

Michael Slater — Sat, 07 May 2011 13:13:20 +0000

2011 has been scandalously busy, with work and projects both secret and non-secret.

One project I’ve been grinding on is my Japanese. I’ve earned my third badge now, recently, after completing my “Adjectival Expressions 95 Within 10 Minutes” on 22April. Wheee

Singapore Airlines whacked fares to Japan recently. We scored three tickets for $398each, so we’ll be going up on 15May and staying through Saturday. Got a decent rate at the Peninsula. We’re all set. It’s going to be great for me, because I’ll get a lot of extra real-world Jap practice, I’ll get to work daily with Kitani Sensei face-to-face, rather than Skype, and then coincidentally I’ll be their for the Tokyo Lingual “school barbecue” at a koen near Shinjuku. Will be nice to get out of Singapore for a few days.

Spent most of the hot afternoon doing back-dated paperwork. This evening I decided to re-remember my katakana. It always drives me nuts to not read it well when I am in Japan (lots of signage is in it). It only took me about an hour with flashcards to memorize it (there are how many? 45?). It seems quite quick, so I guess some of the neurons I taught long ago didn’t fully-forget after-all. Sort of like when I use morse code, it somehow comes back through the muck in my head.

I also bought #quakebook for Ling’s Kindle. (So should everyone else!)

I was nervous Shannon was becoming a Horsey Lady

Michael Slater — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:25:01 +0000

But now we’re starting to fear she’s becoming a Monkey Freak.

Shannon doesn’t believe us

Michael Slater — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 00:05:55 +0000

that monkeys are nasty little buggers

The people demand to know….

Michael Slater — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:33:19 +0000

…who is ‘Larry from France‘?

we have reason to believe he may have a nom de guerre, “French Laurence”

Beast-Master Crane

Michael Slater — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 01:12:04 +0000

Saw this demented crane along the CTE expressway last week. They’re widening the expressway, and this location is right around a canal. So I reckon they’re using this to set up a bridge portion of the extension.

I think I realized why this crane is so demented. Not because the pieces it’s lifting are absurdly heavy (although they probably are), but because the crane has to massively cantilever out over the canal.

Generation Z’s perspective on rock music

Michael Slater — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:21:42 +0000

When I took Luke to school today, BBC was on the radio. He asked if I could turn it off “and play music instead. Rock music.”

Sure, ok, so I switched to my iPod.

Just so happened that the first song up was Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused.” Oh perfect, I though, just what he asked for.

After a minute, “Dad, can you change this to rock music, not this?” Led Zeppelin isn’t rock music anymore?

So I flipped ahead randomly, through Barry White (no), McKoy Turner (definitely No), and others until I landed on Stevie Ray Vaughn song (“Tightrope”).

“Yes!” announced Luke. That was proper rock music.

So what does this mean? Led Zepplin is to Luke as Buddy Holly is to me???

Rock Scissors Skynet

Michael Slater — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 00:38:07 +0000

I had more ties than losses or wins. But the game is so boring that I don’t feel like playing more to make the results more statistically solid. So maybe the computer has a 1-2-3-4% edge. zzzzzz We’re not playing for money, and the game isn’t entertaining, so not much for me to do here.

Apparently said without irony?

Michael Slater — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:59:58 +0000

Piece of shit White Supremacist shot.

Eulogies included:

“He was the kind of guy who could and did get along with everyone,” said Bill Roper, head of Arkansas-based White Revolution.

Face Blindness

Michael Slater — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:50:38 +0000

I’m terrible with faces and, especially, names. So I am very surprised that I scored slightly above average on the (slightly creepy) Cambridge Face Memory Test.