October 29, 2017
Blue Orchid (afterword)
Just to clarify the timeline, the afterword chronologically follows the preface. Thus the narrative contains Hyouchuu's story nested within Kyoukei's.
Labels: 12 kingdoms, hisho
October 26, 2017
Cool it
My workaround for the past year or so was to douse the motor with WD-40 and silicon spray every few weeks. But the bearings got so worn out that even when the motor spun up, avoiding the dreaded "Fan error" BIOS message, it sounded like an old lawnmower on its last legs.
Not to mention that the cooling efficiency went way down, turning the palmrest into a hand warmer.
Thankfully, refurbished Thinkpad fan and heatsink units can be had for around ten bucks (the T42 switched heatsink designs somewhere along the line so getting the right model matters; it can't be jury-rigged like the keyboard).
After removing enough screws to pop off the top bezel (the number of screws holding a piece of electronic equipment together is a good proxy for how old it is), the only onerous chore was blotting up all the accumulated oil. But it cleaned up nicely and the replacement heatsink fit perfectly.
I applied probably too much MX-4 thermal compound and screwed everything back together, only ending up with one extra screw (a broken thread) and piece of plastic that I couldn't figure out where it the world it belonged.
I got a "Fan error" the first time I powered it on. Removing the keyboard and spinning the fan with my finger did the trick. I imagine it'd been sitting in a warehouse for a decade and needed a nudge to the rotor awaken it from its long slumber. The fan is quiet and CPU temperature is "nominal."
In fact, the palmrest is so much cooler now I suspect the thermal compound dried out more than a few years ago (removing the heatsink from the CPU required zero effort), turning the CPU into a space heater, which in turn cooked the fan bearings.
The Thinkpad still faces the same problems as my old Windows 95 machine. It runs fine but is short on hard disc space and struggles to handle basic browsing tasks. Office isn't an issue, but some websites can take minutes to fully load. HD video and HTML5 kill it dead in its tracks.
But like my equally ancient Ford, I'm driving this faithful old clunker until the wheels fall off (not literally, I hope).
Related posts
MS-DOS at 30
Antique repair
The accidental standard
Back to the digital future
Labels: computers, tech history, technology
October 22, 2017
Blue Orchid (8)
The shusei (朱旌), also known as koushu (黄朱), are further classified as shushi (yaboku and yojuu hunters), goushi (guides and bodyguards for the Shouzan), and shumin (traveling entertainers and peddlers with no fixed place of abode).
More about the names of the Yellow Sea guilds here.
More about the names of the Yellow Sea guilds here.
Labels: 12 kingdoms, hisho
October 19, 2017
Big junk day
Heart-warming movies like Always that take place in the post-war period dependably include a character who is the first in the neighborhood to buy the latest electronic gadget or appliance.
In the first movie, the dad (top right) is the first on the block to buy a B&W television. In the third installment, he's the first on the block to buy a color television (which would have cost the equivalent of several thousand dollars).
The inevitable problem in a country where storage space (like garages) is in very short supply is what to do with the old stuff. The answer: So dai gomi hi (粗大ごみ日) or "Big junk day." It's the day on which large pieces of refuse may be legally discarded in designated areas.
"Big Junk Day" produced a mountain of stuff in the central plaza of the apartment complex where I lived in Osaka. The first scavengers on the scene were the used appliance retailers, a great source for warrantied refurbished appliances on a budget (delivery included!).
If you don't mind crawling through the junk to get at the good stuff, you might come away with a prize. Courtesy of Hiroyuki Kitazawa, here's a more modest dai gomi collection. Cities that don't have a specific day will often haul stuff away for a nominal fee.
Labels: environmentalism, japan, japanese culture, politics
October 15, 2017
Blue Orchid (7)
In Embracing Defeat, John Dower documents the orgy of corruption and looting that took place in Japan during the few shorts weeks after Hirohito's public address announcing the surrender and before the post-war Occupation formally began.
During the Occupation, all that loot spilled onto the black market, which was made worse by the efforts of the Occupation forces to suppress it (as with Prohibition and organized crime, the yakuza was reborn during this era).
Recall from Poseidon of the East that the emperor indeed has no interest in the bureaucracy. But his willingness to delegate will prove a very successful approach to governance.
The emperor's loyal soldiers and sailors seemed to have metamorphosed overnight into symbols of the worst sort of egoism and atomization. Officers as well as enlisted men engaged in looting, sometimes on a grand scale, and police reports expressed fear that public disgust would extend upward to "grave distrust, frustration, and antipathy toward military and civilian leaders," even "hatred of the military" in general.
During the Occupation, all that loot spilled onto the black market, which was made worse by the efforts of the Occupation forces to suppress it (as with Prohibition and organized crime, the yakuza was reborn during this era).
Recall from Poseidon of the East that the emperor indeed has no interest in the bureaucracy. But his willingness to delegate will prove a very successful approach to governance.
Labels: 12 kingdoms, hisho, history, ww2, yakuza
October 12, 2017
Logan
I'm sure that somewhere along the line, the final cut of Logan was heavily influenced by Deadpool, which proved that a decidedly not family-friendly superhero flick could find a niche and deliver healthy box offices receipts.
And, as with Deadpool, it mostly works. Which isn't to say that being dark and gritty for its own sake (for ART!!!) is necessarily a good thing. I imagine Disney will keep things in check. I actually found the cussing less objectionable than the non-stop killing of "redshirts."
Nothing is more morally weird than the way the MPAA rates movies.
I'm not a devotee of superhero movies, so I don't have a long list to compare and contrast. But Logan is better than most. Though on an absolute scale it's still not very good, especially compared to Deadpool and Wonder Woman.
Logan is redeemed by Wolverine being so broken down he's almost "normal." Unfortunately, the plot of Logan was old when The X-Files did it to death—
(Logan perhaps works best as a clever way to reboot the franchise, though I don't get why they clumsily set it in the "near future." By the time those kids grow up it will be the near future and time to start rolling sequels off the assembly line.)
In the process, Logan makes clear how more interesting the whole series might have been had Jackman's Wolverine that vulnerable all along. And had Patrick Stewart's Charles Xavier been that unstable from the start (the same way Stewart's manic Picard in Star Trek: First Contact is so refreshing).
And how much Wolverine not having to share the stage with a crowd of other heroes-in-tights improves the drama. Alas, comic book franchises these days are all about the "universe" of characters occupying them, which can't help but get unbelievably stupid in very short order.
Okay, so the R-rated superhero flick is now a thing (although anime has been doing it for ages). But here's another variation on a theme for the superhero franchises to test out (at the end of their run).
As with Logan, invent some alternate universe where all the rest of the boring superheros have been killed off except for the actually interesting (and vaguely plausible) one. Then let him deal with a world where all of the supervillains have been killed off too.
And, as with Deadpool, it mostly works. Which isn't to say that being dark and gritty for its own sake (for ART!!!) is necessarily a good thing. I imagine Disney will keep things in check. I actually found the cussing less objectionable than the non-stop killing of "redshirts."
Nothing is more morally weird than the way the MPAA rates movies.
I'm not a devotee of superhero movies, so I don't have a long list to compare and contrast. But Logan is better than most. Though on an absolute scale it's still not very good, especially compared to Deadpool and Wonder Woman.
Logan is redeemed by Wolverine being so broken down he's almost "normal." Unfortunately, the plot of Logan was old when The X-Files did it to death—
(Logan perhaps works best as a clever way to reboot the franchise, though I don't get why they clumsily set it in the "near future." By the time those kids grow up it will be the near future and time to start rolling sequels off the assembly line.)
In the process, Logan makes clear how more interesting the whole series might have been had Jackman's Wolverine that vulnerable all along. And had Patrick Stewart's Charles Xavier been that unstable from the start (the same way Stewart's manic Picard in Star Trek: First Contact is so refreshing).
And how much Wolverine not having to share the stage with a crowd of other heroes-in-tights improves the drama. Alas, comic book franchises these days are all about the "universe" of characters occupying them, which can't help but get unbelievably stupid in very short order.
Okay, so the R-rated superhero flick is now a thing (although anime has been doing it for ages). But here's another variation on a theme for the superhero franchises to test out (at the end of their run).
As with Logan, invent some alternate universe where all the rest of the boring superheros have been killed off except for the actually interesting (and vaguely plausible) one. Then let him deal with a world where all of the supervillains have been killed off too.
Labels: ghost in the shell, manga, movie reviews, superhero, thinking about writing
October 08, 2017
Blue Orchid (6)
The author uses a curious idiom in this chapter: 「梨の礫」 (nashi no subute). Literally, "a pear's small stones." It means to get no response to an action, which I translated as "hitting a brick wall" (p. 247).
In this case, nashi (梨) is an ateji (当て字), a written kanji assigned to a word based on how it is read aloud (the phoneme), not the meaning.
Perhaps the most common ateji known around the world is sushi (寿司). Its kanji, meaning "longevity" and "political administration," have nothing to do with fish or even food.
A little online research reveals that nashi should logically be written 「無し」 or "none, without any." Thus the expression literally means "no small stones." Throw small stones at a big problem and you'll get no response.
As the result of a semantic substitution or a malapropism that caught on, the adverb nashi was replaced by a noun ("pear") that is its homonymic equivalent but whose literal meaning is nonsensical.
To be sure, all languages, no less English, are plagued by such idioms and colloquial expressions. Off the top of my head (not the bottom or the side):
And when you're done, be sure to put the cat back in the bag.
In this case, nashi (梨) is an ateji (当て字), a written kanji assigned to a word based on how it is read aloud (the phoneme), not the meaning.
Perhaps the most common ateji known around the world is sushi (寿司). Its kanji, meaning "longevity" and "political administration," have nothing to do with fish or even food.
A little online research reveals that nashi should logically be written 「無し」 or "none, without any." Thus the expression literally means "no small stones." Throw small stones at a big problem and you'll get no response.
As the result of a semantic substitution or a malapropism that caught on, the adverb nashi was replaced by a noun ("pear") that is its homonymic equivalent but whose literal meaning is nonsensical.
To be sure, all languages, no less English, are plagued by such idioms and colloquial expressions. Off the top of my head (not the bottom or the side):
"head over heels" (not "heels over head"?)
"pull one's leg"
"drunk as a skunk"
"as all get out"
And when you're done, be sure to put the cat back in the bag.
Labels: 12 kingdoms, hisho, japanese, language
October 05, 2017
"Shogun" revisited (4/4)
What struck me the most forcefully when I started rewatching Shogun for the first time in almost 40 years is how politically incorrect it is starting out. And I don't mean the silly Orientalism that You Only Live Twice revels in (though there is plenty of that).
No sooner has Chamberlain's Blackthorne run his ship aground in the "Japans" but his ego collides with every human obstacle in literal spitting (and pissing) distance. In the process, determined to repay every slight and assert his authority, he makes life much worse for himself and his men.
However he may realize that he is a stranger in a strange land, it takes him too long to grasp how the balance of power has shifted, that he has no power and no authority except that which is granted to him.
In any early scene, the hugely enjoyable John Rhys-Davies (his part isn't nearly big enough) commiserates with him in a hilariously vulgar rant. I doubt that any network would broadcast such a soliloquy of racial slurs over the air today.
This is not vulgarity for its own sake. In Blackthorne, Clavell creates a character arc comparable to Clint Eastwood's Walt Kowalski in Gran Torino and even Andrew Garfield's Rodrigues in Silence (though at opposite ends of the civility and introspection spectrums).
All three men find themselves at war with an image of themselves that cannot survive a changing environment, with the moral stakes raised all the higher when the fate of third parties become dependent on their actions.
In both Silence and Shogun, the well-being of their colleagues, and then the lives of villagers unknown to them, are used to extort from them external changes in behavior (in Japanese, tatemae) that eventually become incorporated into their characters (honne).
The English translation of Shusaku Endo's novel was published in 1969, which leads me to believe Clavell was familiar with it when writing Shogun.
There was literally no going back for Blackthorne. He had to adapt or be crushed underfoot, because the new world was not going to adapt to suit his whims. By the end of the story, his sense of who he is as an Englishman will have been taken apart and remade in Japanese terms.
The striking nature of his transformation is illustrated when he is briefly reunited with his old crew. They haven't changed. They can't even imaging changing. The differences are stark. They have literally grown worlds apart. He can't leave their presence and get back to "Japan" fast enough.
Like Rodrigues in Silence, this is a transformation resisted, negotiated, and then embraced. In Blackthorne's case, however, he does so largely on his own terms and not at the point of a sword.
A big disappointment of Shogun is that so much happened after the miniseries ends. As a retainer of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Adams fought at Sekigahara, he negotiated trading rights with the Dutch and the East India Company, and captained several voyages to the Phillipines.
As the fictional Father Alvito predicts, Will Adams never returned to England. He died in 1620, leaving behind families in both countries. Adams is buried outside Nagasaki, where his grave marker still exists. Richard Cocks of the East India Company recorded in his diary,
Two and a half centuries later, another man from the British Isles, the Scotsman Thomas Glover, moved to Japan. In 1859, he established himself in Nagasaki and became a key arms dealer supplying guns and warships to the Satsuma and Choshu domains in their successful revolt against the shogunate.
Glover went on to contribute significantly to the industrialization of Japan during the Meiji period. Unlike Adams, he couldn't be made the hatamoto of a shogun who no longer existed. He was instead awarded the Order of the Rising Sun. Like Adams, he was also buried in Nagasaki.
And thus did two subjects of the Queen of England help shape the future of Japan.
No sooner has Chamberlain's Blackthorne run his ship aground in the "Japans" but his ego collides with every human obstacle in literal spitting (and pissing) distance. In the process, determined to repay every slight and assert his authority, he makes life much worse for himself and his men.
However he may realize that he is a stranger in a strange land, it takes him too long to grasp how the balance of power has shifted, that he has no power and no authority except that which is granted to him.
In any early scene, the hugely enjoyable John Rhys-Davies (his part isn't nearly big enough) commiserates with him in a hilariously vulgar rant. I doubt that any network would broadcast such a soliloquy of racial slurs over the air today.This is not vulgarity for its own sake. In Blackthorne, Clavell creates a character arc comparable to Clint Eastwood's Walt Kowalski in Gran Torino and even Andrew Garfield's Rodrigues in Silence (though at opposite ends of the civility and introspection spectrums).
All three men find themselves at war with an image of themselves that cannot survive a changing environment, with the moral stakes raised all the higher when the fate of third parties become dependent on their actions.
In both Silence and Shogun, the well-being of their colleagues, and then the lives of villagers unknown to them, are used to extort from them external changes in behavior (in Japanese, tatemae) that eventually become incorporated into their characters (honne).
The English translation of Shusaku Endo's novel was published in 1969, which leads me to believe Clavell was familiar with it when writing Shogun.
The striking nature of his transformation is illustrated when he is briefly reunited with his old crew. They haven't changed. They can't even imaging changing. The differences are stark. They have literally grown worlds apart. He can't leave their presence and get back to "Japan" fast enough.
Like Rodrigues in Silence, this is a transformation resisted, negotiated, and then embraced. In Blackthorne's case, however, he does so largely on his own terms and not at the point of a sword.
A big disappointment of Shogun is that so much happened after the miniseries ends. As a retainer of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Adams fought at Sekigahara, he negotiated trading rights with the Dutch and the East India Company, and captained several voyages to the Phillipines.
As the fictional Father Alvito predicts, Will Adams never returned to England. He died in 1620, leaving behind families in both countries. Adams is buried outside Nagasaki, where his grave marker still exists. Richard Cocks of the East India Company recorded in his diary,
I cannot but be sorrowfull for the loss of such a man as Capt William Adams, he having been in such favour with two [shoguns] of Japan as never any Christian in these part of the world.
Glover went on to contribute significantly to the industrialization of Japan during the Meiji period. Unlike Adams, he couldn't be made the hatamoto of a shogun who no longer existed. He was instead awarded the Order of the Rising Sun. Like Adams, he was also buried in Nagasaki.
And thus did two subjects of the Queen of England help shape the future of Japan.
Related posts
Shogun revisited (1)
Techno-orientalism
Dances with Samurai
Japan made in Hollywood
Labels: history, japanese culture, movies about japan, shogun, social studies
October 01, 2017
Blue Orchid (5)
The roboku (路木) is the riboku located at the heart of the Imperial Palace. The riboku is first described in chapter 53 of Shadow of the Moon. New species of plants can essentially be bioengineered via the roboku. In the wild, they also spontaneously evolve new plants and flowers on their own, as Rangyoku explains in chapter 33 of A Thousand Leagues of Wind.
Labels: 12 kingdoms, hisho