Last month’s 30th annual Samba carnival in Asakusa, from The Japan Times. I’ve only ever seen photos, so this was a good way to get a feel of the atmosphere (and the weirdness of the floats).
Category: Links
Link posts, mostly old and imported from my other sites over the years (e.g. Tumblr)
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➟ Bi King Whopper promo in Japan
An all-you-can-eat Whopper deal for the price of a meal with fries and a drink. Time limit: 30 minutes. Fun fact: buffet-style concepts are called “Viking” in Japan, and “V” is usually mapped to a “B” sound, hence the name. -
➟ The Japanese work environment
While we are working, conversations must be something related with the work. Personal chatting among colleagues is basically considered inappropriate. For shops, sales persons should not take a seat. They’ll always stand and ready to bow when customers enter the store. Sales person sitting on a chair gives customers goofing impressions? I don’t know, but I have never seen any cashier sitting at a check out counter at supermarket in Japan.In this summer, I’ve traveled Sydney (Australia), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Brussels (Belgium), Venice and Florence (Italy) but I have seen shop workers always chatting with colleagues even if there are customers in the store. I’ve seen many people from all these cities working much more relaxed than Japanese people.Much of the post is about how hard it is for Japanese workers to take long vacations of more than five days. I started out feeling it was a uniquely Japanese problem, but it really isn’t too different here. At the very least, we aren’t prevented from having personal conversations in the workplace. -
➟ We’re here on Earth to fart around
Dave Caolo:
Eventually, I realized something significant: I never did what I was doing. For example, when I got dressed in the morning, I didn’t get dressed. Instead, I spent that time filtering much incoming stimuli: The TV, email, my children’s progress towards getting ready for school and so on. My mind wasn’t on what was happening: Selecting clothing. Buttoning a shirt. Tying a shoe. Tightening a belt.
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With the problem identified, I worked on eliminating it. In the morning, I turned off the TV and the computer and just got dressed. I even told myself, “I’m getting dressed.” It was nice! I found that I appreciate that I have the motor skills required to dress myself. I found that I have nice clothes. I found that my backyard looks nice in the morning through the bedroom window, and I can look down on the berry patch and rhubarb plants.
Great post about our culture of compulsive multitasking. I’ve noticed I try to make my time “more useful” by listening to podcasts while doing other things, or continuously processing (sorting) information for now or later, optimizing task flows, and so on. Before we’re done doing one thing, we’re already mentally doing another, and it is tiring. But it seems necessary. I’m beginning to think what’s really necessary is doing the current thing well and enjoying it. Even if you have a naturally multitasking brain (or think you do), this change of state could be a refreshing thing to try.
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➟ Satoshi Kon’s last words
One of my all-time favorite film directors passed away two days ago at the age of 46. It didn’t matter that he worked with animation, but his original ideas were a perfect fit for the medium. Millennium Actress is easily in my top ten list, right alongside the Hitchcocks, Kurosawas, and Allens.
This was his farewell to the world.
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➟ Cee-Lo’s "Fuck You"
This super-catchy song by Cee-Lo Green of Gnarls Barkley fame is this year’s “Hey Ya”, mark my words. You’re going to hear it sung out of car windows, college dorms, dive bars, and there’s nothing feeble attempts at radio censorship can do about it. For everyone under 20 right now, YouTube IS radio.
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➟ Star Trek’s iPad-like designs
Not the freshest link on the internet by this point, but a really fantastic story about how budget constraints and creativity led to the creation of touch and screen-based control panels on the Enterprise, 23 years ago.
Update: More awesome PADD screenshots here, including Facetime and image manipulation apps.
Link [arstechnica.com]
sangsara.net 