Command Zero

Yeesh. A whole month without an post. Embarrassing. Around the last time I posted we had just moved into our new apartment, after finally getting our Web access. I’ve complained about the quality of ISP service in the States, but I really didn’t know what I was in for here in Japan. First, we had to find a company willing to give us service. We live in a city. Not up in the mountains. Not on a farm. We’re in a fairly large city, nestled between two major cities. There are phone lines and cables criss-crossing down the middle of our street, obscuring the sky. Well, to get cable or fiber-optic service, our entire building would need to be wired. It’s not worth it to them to string a wire our way.

So we applied for ADSL. It would take them a week just to get around to looking at our application, and another 10 days or so before they could tell us if we were even able to get ADSL service. To top that off, the guy who took our first application neglected to send a confirmation form to The Wife’s mother’s apartment (where we were saying) instead of to our new apartment (where we were not staying). When this form went unanswered, our application was made null and void and we had to reapply.

Anyway, after many tears, we finally got service and were able to move.

This weekend we are going to an onsen resort for our babymoon. We have a upper-floor, ocean-view room with a rotenburo, which is a personal outdoor tub. We’ll have a multi-course Japanese meal served to us in our room. I am hoping to enjoy every moment to its fullest.

And, as you can see (if you’ve been here before), I’ve changed the design of the blog once again. This is Hemingway from Warpspire. I like how simple and clean it is. I might twiddle with it a bit, but it could last a while, I think.

Time marches on. Our move to our new apartment becomes imminent, as does the birth of our son. “Genki,” our boy’s in utero name, is more and more active each day. Each night before The Wife goes to sleep (and I begin work), I give him a talking to through her expanding belly. He most often responds by squirming and poking at us. As familiar as I am with the whole process of baby-making, these reminders that there is a living, breathing little animal inside my wife’s body never fail to amaze and confuse me (and even freak me out a little). Nonetheless it is also quite a rush to know that he is preparing himself to pop out (yes, yes, I know it’s not that easy) and meet us.

We had several names picked out for the baby if it was a girl, which meant, of course, that we would be having a boy. We’d like a name that works well in Japanese and in English, but do not want to choose from the usual pool that satisfies both requirements (think “Ken”). It doesn’t necessarily need to be an actual English (or Japanese) name, just understandable and easy enough to pronounce and assign gender to for both cultures. Early forerunners were “Kio” (sounded like a girl), “Luka” (I got tired of it; sounded a little trendy) and “Noah” (also too trendy). “Kai” has been topping the list lately. I find “Kai” rolls off the tongue a little better, but I’m not entirely convinced that I love it. I still have trouble seeing myself having a little boy, let alone one with a name. Time will tell. I think we will wait until he is born and then see if one name suits him better than the other.

Reading up about Li’l Abner’s the Schmoo at Wikipedia, I can across this series of the Skeletal Systems of 22 past and present cartoon characters. Very funny and disturbing.

[Update 9.1] And the Koreans take it one step further! (via Veer.)