Miyakojima Track and Field Competition

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in a general track event here in Miyako. This place isn't called 'sports island' for nothing.

I ran in a 4x100m relay, which suited me just fine. Another ALT competed in the 400m and 4x400m relay, while one more of us competed in the long jump and triple jump.

We didn't set any records, but we had a pretty good showing (note to self: get track spikes). I'm looking forward to next year's event-- we're going to get some training done in the meantime.

A DIY Era, Part 1: Building a PC

EDIT: Hey, I'm not sure why the pictures don't open in a separate window when you click on them-- screw it. Also, the formatting, font, and font size seem to vary throughout the document. What I see when I type in the Blogger editor and the actual output are different.

Like the vast majority of modern young men, I enjoyed David Fincher's Fight Club because I felt that it spoke to me. I liked it so much that I, like so many others, even went so far as to read the original novel by Palahniuk (no one ever, ever did that). But perhaps it will strike you as strange that my favorite scene, rather than one with vandalismor a monologue or combat, is the one in which the narrator and Tyler drive down a dark, rainy highway with two other Project Mayhem dudes in the backseat.

Narrator: [Tyler steers the car into the opposite lane and accelerates] What are you doing?
Tyler Durden: Guys, what would you wish you'd done before you died?
Ricky: Paint a self-portrait.

The Mechanic: Build a house.
Tyler Durden: [to Narrator] And you?
Narrator: I don't know. Turn the wheel now, come on!
Tyler Durden: You have to know the answer to this question! If you died right now, how would you feel about your life?
Narrator: I don't know, I wouldn't feel anything good about my life, is that what you want to hear me say? Fine. Come on!
Tyler Durden: Not good enough.

I like this scene because I deliberately bypass the main content of it. I can't enjoy the narrator's whinging ('whinging') has supplanted 'whining' in my vocabulary). No, I like the responses from Ricky and the mechanic. They name tasks that are both substantial and mundane. They make absolutely no claim as to the quality of their work. They're just going to do it. Or would do it if given the chance. Or will do it as soon as possible lest they die soon. I was totally sidetracked by this scene and subsequently missed much of the film due to deep consideration of the question. I thought about the sorts of things I'd like to accomplish myself. One of those things was traveling on the Trans-Siberian railroad. Another is building a computer.

I've finished one of those so far. Russia sure is cold, and there isn't a whole lot to see from the window other than a great expanse of-------
Nay, I built a computer.

Utterly talked into it by friends (2) and family (1), my goal was to inexpensively construct a desktop PC with fundamental components purchased from an online computer parts store. Here's what I got:

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition CPU

Foxconn A7DA-S 3.0 Motherboard

4 GB of DDR3 RAM

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB

some DVD drive...some hard disk drive...

White case with soothing blue LED on front panel; is otherwise generic and has a 450W PSU

By far the most challenging task was doing the research on parts compatibility and power. I wanted a machine that would function harmoniously and offer good cost/performance. Much was learned about computers before I finally arrived at the above configuration...

Getting the parts was painless because most businesses in Japan offer cash-on-delivery and shipping is absurdly fast, even when moving things out here to Miyako.

Building the thing itself was mostly smooth and uneventful. I had some trouble fitting the motherboard-video card combination into the case (jiggling the boards and whatnot to get them situated was pretty nerve-racking). But anyway, pictures:

The CPU (AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition) uses the Socket AM3-type of motherboard-CPU coupling armature interface (keep your wig on-- as a philosophy major I'm qualified and licensed to make up terms as needed).

The Foxconn A7DA-S 3.0 motherboard has the appropriate socket. I believe it also supports Sockets AM2 and AM2+ (is that the same as AM3? I think I saw that somewhere...). It can also rock the DDR3 RAM, a feature of which I took advantage. <-- Do we go so far as to risk awkward sentence formulations just to avoid the commonplace but proscribed ending of a sentence with a preposition? I do sometimes.

The GPU (Sapphire ATI RADEON HD4870 1GB): The card was probably the most difficult thing to decide upon (gah!). I chose this one because it isn't the most powerful card on the market this year, but it offers great performance on all games at far higher resolutions than I intend to run. I love high-definition as much as the next guy, but if I can run 60 fps on nearly anything at 1680x1050, I'm more than happy. I intend to keep the adequate-yet-modest LCD I have now for a while yet, and until I change the display, a better card would be overkill. Also, the HD4870 seemed to be where the performance return from getting a higher end card began to drop off sharply while the increase in price did not. In other words, I think the HD 4870 was the sweet spot of value when I made the purchase. Of course, you may notice that I did get the 1 GB version; apparently the memory helps when you're dealing with lots of textures. If it becomes a necessity next year, I'll grab another 4870 (even cheaper by then) and do some Crossfire action.

I seated the GPU into the PCI-E slot without incident. This particular card is something of a beast, requiring two connections to the PSU rather than drawing power from the motherboard via the PCI-E connection. There is a hot, masked CG babe on the card as well. My friend says she makes the processors run faster.

Installing the CPU was a lot easier than I expected. It's somewhat taxing because you are conscious of how fragile and crucial the CPU is but nevertheless have to secure it in a high-tension retaining device and then install a (possibly) massive heatsink-fan assembly on it. And the pins...so many... Fortunately, the CPU dropped into place effortlessly once the pins were lined up with the socket (motherboard-CPU coupling armature interface). I could feel slight resistance as I pulled the retaining arm down to secure the CPU, but it wasn't particularly concerning. The original AMD heatsink-fan came prepared with a patch of heat transfer paste, and I merely had to remove the plastic film on it before setting the whole thing against the CPU.

In a rustily ironic turn of events, one week after finishing the system, I went poking around the inside of the running computer to gather cables so they wouldn't get caught in the fans only to succeed in making a cable leap into the CPU fan, thereby chipping a blade and rendering my computer the sonic equivalent of an air compressor.

I deserve it. Moving on...

The silver lining here is that I ended up buying a replacement heatsink-fan setup for the CPU that works much better than the stock one (CPU temperature now sits at about 34 C instead of 45 C). It's a Cooler Master-- it has a larger fan, massive heat sink, and the four copper pipes running through actually contact the CPU itself by being flush with the base of the assembly. I put some extra heat paste on there to fill in the tiny gaps where the pipes cut through the base. It's been working great so far.

Anyway, I connected all of the SATA junk, power cables, and whatnot (but only after first trying to start it without plugging in the CPU power cable-- it didn't run very fast then). Connecting the small connectors from the hard disk activity light, the soft power and reset switches, et al. was sort of mendoukusai, but the helpful labeling of everything made sense. I turned it on, heard the test beep, got the BIOS screen, and enjoyed the mellow satisfaction of having built a computer.

First I installed Windows 7 RC, but I found out that the version of 7 that I had downloaded in the summer was the 32-bit one (limiting me to 3.3 GB of RAM or whatever) and the drivers that came with my computer parts weren't working perfectly. I had Vista on it shortly thereafter and got everything in order. I think playing Team Fortress 2 was the first thing I did. It ran well. I was pleased.

Naturally, I was curious about the limits of the machine. I installed Oblivion and it ran absurdly fast-- it had that strange (to me) look that high FPS motion creates. Awesome. It froze once or twice in the two hours I played, but it seemed to work well when it worked. I downloaded the single player demo for Crysis for the next test. The first run caused the computer to freeze during the opening skydiving sequence (just before the player hits the water). A second try yielded better results-- 45+ FPS. As I mused to myself about how mediocre the shooting was and the in-game dawn broke, the screen suddenly went black. The computer's fans were quiet, and no light came from the mouse, keyboard, or front panel. It was a complete power failure likely caused by the weak-ass Scythe PSU included with the case. I think. I have no proof. Some time afterward I decided to break the CPU fan as described above.

Acting on my feeling, I selected a new PSU (Kurotoshikou 650W) when I ordered the replacement heat sink fan. It rocks; it's got two 12V rails wielding 30A. People who say you shouldn't cut costs by getting a cheap PSU are right.

Since the installation of the new PSU and heatsink-fan, I've had absolutely no problems with stability. Oblivion crashes to desktop from time to time, but that's probably more to do with the volatile combination of mods I'm running to make it look and play better rather than the machine itself. I ran Crysis on 1680x1050 at very high settings just to see what would happen. Sure enough, I managed to slow the framerate to 4-player Goldeneye levels (not so low as 4-player Perfect Dark), but only at first. Once the game got moving, it was quite playable. I'll take it. That's one life goal accomplished...

TL;DR: I ALWAYS WANTED TO BUILD A COMPUTER. I HAVE NOW DONE IT; IT IS AWESOME.

Next time, Letters from Novosibirsk

OR

A DIY Era, Part 2: Painting a Motorcycle...

One is slightly more likely than the other.

Battlefield 1943 and Provoked Thoughts

What it do--

I'll save the details for another post, but I've found most of my recent physical disc game purchases have been pretty underwhelming (Red Faction: Guerrilla and Left 4 Dead, I'm looking at you.). And I still hate Halo 3 as much as ever despite it being our (Miyako crew's) community standard.

On the other hand, the offerings found on the Xbox Live Arcade shine time and time again. In terms of value/expense, the downloadable games are far superior to the 60 USD releases, and Battlefield 1943 (1200 Microsoft Points, 15 USD) is a prime example. Halo3: ODST is a prime example of the opposite.

Battlefield 1943 does little, if anything, that is new. However, it does a lot of small things right, and these small excellencies come together to make a consistently enjoyable experience. In no particularly significant order, I'll mention a few of my favorite aspects.

Unlimited/recharging ammo is a great feature. It's one less (trivial) thing to worry about, and it doesn't detract from the game. While it may sound like a game-killer to have unlimited rifle grenades, for example, the recharging ammo dynamic actually prevents it from ever becoming a problem (shoot, reload, shoot, wait for recharge). Recharging ammo also helps keep up the pace of the game as players need not take time to seek out supply drops.

The same goes for regenerating health. While many people complain about recharging health, I think it makes combat much more interesting (the implementation of medics notwithstanding). Having non-regenerating health typically goes hand in hand with having too much health and being able to take a ridiculous amount of damage (which is utterly reviled among my gaming crew) or being killed by a stubbed toe after a lengthy battle that wore you down slowly. Neither of these are game-breakers, but regenerating health has substantial gameplay advantages. It's not several small amounts of damage that will bring a target down-- you have to think about your attack and make sure you hit hard when you have the chance (whether it's from you maneuvering intelligently or the target making an error). Further, there's no gray area where you're at 40-70% health and are not sure whether to risk an attack or retreat for a health refill. With recharging health, you're either scrapping for cover or ready to go on the offensive. I can see how people would get some gameplay out of quantified health, but I find that recharging health improves the pace of a fight.

DICE/EA's single best move may be the Coral Sea Air Superiority game mode. Before its introduction, players who dedicated themselves to flying airplanes would sit at the home base runways and wait for planes to spawn. In short, it was a waste of manpower. With the addition of Coral Sea, the flyboys gained an outlet. I noticed that the intensity (and overall fun) of the ground game concurrently increased. Now planes in Conquest mode are more or less used as a way to rocket over to a capture point and parachute down to glory. They even sit unused in many games.

The three classes (Scout/Sniper, Infantry/Antitank, and Rifleman/Rifleman) appear to be used pretty evenly among players. More interesting, however, is how their abilities play out offensively and defensively. While I play as every class, I favor the scout because I like the demolition charges. Choosing a capture point to defend, scattering charges around it, and retiring to a hiding place some distance away to watch over it (with eyes downrange and detonator in hand) is a great role for the solitary player.

The HUD system is great for this style of combined arms wargame. The player has a radar on which enemies appear only when spotted (hit) by you/your teammates or when firing themselves. Relevant icons also appear on the field of view, tracking targets through brush. Most impressively, though, is how the marking icons fade from view or gradually fail to track the targets as they move away or pass behind obstructions. It's a great system that I think DICE should retain; the stealthy players get a fair shake while everyone else gets into the action with minimal frustration.

While I'd like to see more than 4 maps (3 that I actually play), even more players than 24, and a way to stay on the same team as your friends, BF1943 is probably the best value on Xbox Live. Except for Carcassonne.

Motorcycle stuff...

EDIT: I wrote this in Word and copy-pasted it here. The formatting is schizo and I refuse to change it.

I’ve had motorcycles on the brain for a while now, but never before has the fever burned so insistently. Bikes are literally all I think about these days. Providing that my love of motorcycling doesn’t displace my love of guitars, the panoply of my dedicated hobbies will paint me as a totally rad dude.

I’d been thinking of replacing the Hornet since I had the experience of riding a 400 in driving school. I think I finally came to my (financial) senses this week, or at least I’ve been able to convince myself that the Hornet is worth hanging on to. I’ve been doing a little reading on the 250 Hornet and the CB400 standard bike. Apparently (and this is anything but unexpected) Japan has restrictions on the amount of power middle class (chuugata) bikes can have (not just a limitation on displacement), meaning that the difference in displacement between my 250 and a 400 doesn’t actually lead to a large difference in power between the engines. Admittedly, I’m not knowledgeable on this topic yet and expect that there are severely diminishing returns when you increase an engine’s displacement to increase the power, but I anticipated a greater difference in power between the Hornet and a CB400 than a mere 8-10 hp (citation needed). Torque is much more kicky on the 400, of course. I’m still hunting for more information on this issue…

Anyway, I’m currently in the midst of a renaissance with my bike, the Hornet. I was sort of down about it a few months ago when I got around to replacing its fat-ass rear tire (180 on a 250?!). It’s just goddamn expensive. Also, I put slight scrapes on both sides of the tank that detract from its appearance significantly (update: I totally cratered the tank on a curb while racing the other day; no punctures, though). The wheels and rear sprocket are filthy with road grime, brake dust, and thrown-off chain grease, and the rust damage continues to creep. It’s a pain in the ass to work on anything without a center stand, so I’m checking the internets for one right now. I’d love to spend a weekend cleaning the thing…

Now I love the green machine. The current renaissance is a product of my constant reading about bikes. In comparing the Hornet to its potential replacements, I unwittingly learned more news about it. And the news is good.

First, I think I’ve got an early Hornet, maybe as early as 1996. It was received extremely positively (citation needed), and it’s cool to be riding an original.

Second, as I briefly mentioned before, the engine is pretty rocking for a 250. The 249 cubic centimeter motor gets over 24 Nm of torque (11,000 rpm) and 40 hp (at 14,000 rpm). Why did I just name those figures in metric and Imperial units? I don’t know—it just seemed more tangible to me than using one system or the other. Anyway, this engine is meant to scream. It redlines at 16,000 RPM and doesn’t even get busy (and this was news to me) until 10,000 rpm. OK, I knew that running higher revs would produce more power generally (thank you), but going over 10,000 had always just seemed excessive to me. I usually kept the machine turning slowly as I went about town thinking that it would save gas and prolong the life of the engine. However, my mileage driving that way was about 180km before reserve. Last week, when I tried running the machine at higher average rpm (and with more playful power), I got 220 km before reserve. I’m still trying to sort that out (and repeat the experiment), but I think that this engine is meant to be run faster than I had been running it. In short, the bike has a lot of power that I wasn’t effectively utilizing. Also, while it has a high pitched whine at low (>8000) rpm, the timbre radically changes to an absolute scream when opening the throttle. It’s easy to visualize air and exhaust racing through the system.

Third, I am now dead certain that the (a?) previous owner did some custom work on the appearance of the bike. Unlike stock Hornets, my bike doesn’t have the jagged Hornet logo painted on the sides of the tank. Instead it’s got chrome automotive letters spelling ‘HORNET’ running along the sides. Also, the green paint is chipping in places, revealing a layer of silver underneath. Why is this good news? I’ve been thinking about painting the Hornet, and I wasn’t certain whether the plastic parts could be easily painted; apparently it’s not a problem. I’m considering black and white right now, but I’m going to draw up a few designs. A new coat of paint would help cover the tank scrapes and give me reason to remove those chrome letters. They are odious.

Anyway, it’s an exciting time for motorcycling. I recently got riding shoes and gloves, so I’m pretty excited about the next track day when I can show off my latest fashions and subsequently get destroyed on the time trial.

Movies and music

Yo, I just watched this film, Hotel Venus, and while I'm not writing a review here, I do want to mention that it is pretty interesting in several ways. It's a joint Korean-Japanese production with lots of talent from both countries. In a leading role is SMAP dude and Korea-phile Tsuyoshi Kusanagi as a tap-dancing dude who can't advance his life past a traumatic experience in which-- well, no spoilers (Not because I care, but because I'm lazy.). Anyway, a bunch of troubled, crazy folks with mundanely appropriate nicknames ('Doctor' for the drunk physician, 'Boy' for the young man trying to prove he's tough, etc.) live in this hotel owned by an androgynous old person called 'Venus' (which when pronounced in Korean sounds like 'penis'; my observation was not appreciated by fellow viewers) and generally operated by Kusanagi's character.

Anyway, the monochromatic film is pretty slow at the start, but it does eventually become rather interesting in a hopeless way. Basically, shit pans out for some of the characters, but not all of them (i.e. being unable to change things that are out of their control), and isolation between people is the dominant theme. I don't speak Korean, so I had to awkwardly follow the Japanese subtitles, but my attention was sufficiently captured by the performances of the entire cast. And there was Miki Nakatani.

Also, in other news: We're planning a little live musical performance of sorts for next month, so I have been learning a few new tunes. I mention this now because we encountered a real gem of a song while watching Hotel Venus. It's called "These Days," and it is performed by Love Psychedelico.

Miyako Victory Lap

Guess who's back to terrorize the highways.

Forcing self to write

August has been rough. Due to the sheer glut of things worth writing/lamenting about that have passed, I will not be addressing the gritty details of this month anytime soon. Key words include spending 200,000 yen, not being able to legally drive, girl problems, typhoon-induced rust on my bike, sprained ankle, stripped screws, and RROD-ed 360.

However, I did get this today (which I am pretty happy about):

The yellow Honda Urban Rain Suit

I know I haven't written anything in about...forever, but I just got a hot new keyboard and it's going to make typing a lot easier. Back shortly.

Final Answer?

Remember the manzai lunch?

Here the shougakkou 4th graders perform an impromptu game-show style quiz for everyone's post-lunch entertainment.

Sega Outrun: Miyako

Video game box art?

Sure, the island is small, but it looks like this. No complaints from this guy.