Growing old

I'll turn 53 this coming week. I stopped celebrating my birthday a long time ago. It's become just another reminder that I'm not young anymore. The body can't do the things it used to. But I'm not depressed. I view being 50-something as just another phase in my life. On the positive side, I'll soon be eligible for those senior citizen discounts. ;)

My cat continues his recovery and is almost back to his old self. My wife and I know he won't be around forever and neither will we, for that matter. So it's important to enjoy our time together. When my mother died ten years ago, I was 3000 miles away and never got a chance to say goodbye. There were so many things I wanted to say to her. But it was too late. You should never take for granted the people (and animals) you care about the most.

Neat program

I found a neat little program on the internet. It converts simple Japanese characters into the more complex Kanji. I just type the Japanese word on my keyboard. If, for example, I type "neko" which is the word for cat (see first line in screenshot), it appears on the screen in simple Japanese characters (hiragana). I can then highlight the word and change it into Kanji. I was able to write a couple of emails to someone in Japan using this program. Of course you have to know Japanese to begin with.

DDR540

Managed to get the TeamGroup memory up to 270MHz with 2-2-2-5 timings which was my immediate objective. This RAM requires a lot of voltage to get that high (around 3.8v). But my Mushkin Level 2's are the same way. Obviously I would not recommend running 24/7 at 3.8v. But this is testing to determine the limits of the RAM.

TeamGroup testing

Been testing the TeamGroup Treem BH-5 memory I recently bought. Seems pretty stable, but it doesn't clock as high as my BH-6. Been able to complete SuperPi 32M at 268MHz, but I needed 3.7v! Was able to use fairly tight timings though. Not sure if the sticks will make it to 270 in 32M, but I'll keep testing. Using orange slots on Expert board. I tried both the orange and yellow slots. The orange are better (higher overclock). This RAM seems to be on a par with my Mushkin Level 2's. Might make good day-to-day memory running at 3.48v and 260MHz.

On another note, my cat ate solid food last night and again this morning, so both my wife and I are very happy. He hates the medicine we give him, but I think it's helping him. We know he has a long road to full recovery. But we are willing to do whatever it takes.

Back home

Our cat is back home. The vet gave the OK. He seems to be responding a little to his medicine. He looks weak and tired this evening. But at least he's home with the people who love him. He has to start eating and drinking on his own, otherwise we'll have to take him back to the vet for IV nourishment. I hope we don't have to do that. I'm just going to take it one day at a time.

TeamGroup

I was able to purchase TeamGroup Treem BH-5 through a local distributor. Have not had a chance to test it yet. Will post results when I do.

Visit

I got to see my cat briefly today. He seems okay. His eyes are alert and he seems to have a lot of strength left in him. But we took him to a specialist who said he has a heart condition and that his prognosis is poor. It's very difficult for both me and my wife to hear this. He's like our child. He's going to be spending several more days in the vet hospital undergoing treatment. If there's no medical hope left, I want him to spend his final days at home where he's loved. I think the worst thing in the world (for either animals or humans) is to pass away feeling alone and abandoned. I've owned a number of pets in my lifetime. But I've never felt so attached to an animal like I have to this guy. He's got personality and spunk. All I can do now is pray for his recovery.

More testing

I spent most of the weekend testing my newly-acquired BH-6 on the DFI Expert board. Very pleased with the results. Runs at 270MHz or better (2-2-2-5) with every multiplier I've used. DDR540 is the Holy Grail for people with BH-5/BH-6/UTT.

New RAM

My cat has to spend the weekend at the vet's. Because he wasn't eating, they wanted to feed him with an IV. On Monday he'll get an EKG. His liver and kidneys are okay.

To get my mind off of that for a little while, I started testing the used Corsair BH-6 I recently acquired. Seems to be very good. The sticks can do 273MHz in SuperPi 32M with 3.72v on the DFI Expert board.

Praying

Our cat is spending the night at the vet's office. He wasn't eating much, so we got worried. The vet says he has an enlarged heart. Test results are pending. I'm hoping medicine can help him. I was doing some reading on the net about pet heart conditions. Didn't like what I read. He acts fairly normal, but he hasn't been eating. I asked God to help him. I'm not a very religious person, but I'm praying our cat will be with us for a few more years. I love him so much.

Anniversary

My blog is a week old. Thanks to those of you who've stopped by and left comments.

Sold my Opteron 146. I'm thinking of getting a dual-core chip, but haven't made a final decision. In the meantime, I bought my wife a new rice cooker, a Zojirushi which is supposed to be one of the best brands. My wife has been using a cooker she's had for 30 years! She says it has sentimental value. She bought it when she first came to America.

I also ordered more CD's from Japan, including one with music played on the Tsugaru Shamisen (see photo above). It's an old-fashioned instrument that's enjoying a comeback, thanks to people like the Yoshida Brothers. The CD I bought features performances by Kinoshita Shinichi who's one of the modern-day masters of the shamisen. Tsugaru is a region in the northern end of Honshu, Japan's main island. I also got a Futaba Yoriko CD. Futaba is one of the grand dames of Enka music. Some of the younger female Enka singers consider her a mentor. One of her specialties is rokyoku which is a type of narrative singing, usually accompanied by the shamisen. It's a dying artform in Japan. I have a Fuji Ayako CD that has a song in which both she and Futaba sing. The song title is Minato Komori Uta (harbor lullaby) and is based on the Madame Butterfly story. It's a very moving song.

No regrets

It's now been a couple of weeks since I stepped down as a forum moderator. To be honest, I don't have any regrets about my decision. I do miss some of the people at that forum. But cyberspace is big and there are plenty of other places where I can meet those who matter to me, including here.

Rendering

A company called LightWork made a program for testing rendering speed. It's no longer available from the company. But if you google around you might be able to find it.

Tried more overclocking with dry ice today, this time with my Opteron 148. Unfortunately it has the cold bug. It won't boot into Windows with HTT at 300 or higher and temps colder than -20C. Tried using the multiprocessor tweak and setting VCore as high as 1.8v. Could get into Windows that way, but then I would get a freeze-up after less than a minute. Sadly a lot of chips coming out now are cold-bugged.

Also tested my FX-57 with air-cooling. Was able to run SuperPi at 3150MHz. But it's not Prime stable at that speed. Running Prime now at 3050MHz with VCore at 1.58v. Seems to be okay. But load temps are high (58-60C). I can't stress enough the importance of getting a system Prime-stable. SuperPi is fun. But Prime is a much better stability testing tool.

Kouhaku

Finally got a chance to watch Japan's 2005 Kouhaku concert. Thanks gocchin for sending me a copy. ^_^ It was a very entertaining program. And some of my favorite singers, including Fuji Ayako and Sakamoto Fuyumi, performed.

Every New Year's Eve, NHK Television in Japan airs a program called Kouhaku Uta Gassen (Red & White Song Battle). This is a four and a half hour show featuring Japan's top singers. Many music genres are represented; Enka, pop, rock, folk, etc. Kouhaku is a competition pitting all the female singers (red) against all the male singers (white). At the end of the show, one side is voted the winner. On New Year's Eve 2005, the men came out on top. Millions of people in Japan usher in the new year watching this program. Although Kouhaku is not as popular as it used to be, it's still pretty big. I'm told it's the highest rated show in the history of TV. Part of the fun of watching is deciding for yourself who was better, the men or the women. In Japan, you haven't made it as a singer until you've been invited to perform at Kouhaku.

Journalism

I work in the television industry. I'm a news producer at a local station. Basically it's my job to put together the station's late night newscast. I decide which stories are aired, the order in which they're aired and which anchor reads which story. I have a great deal of input as far as content is concerned. I've been doing this for 25 years.

The industry has changed a lot. When I first started in the business, many people were inspired by Watergate to become journalists. Back then, people wanted to expose corruption and make a difference in the world. Now, most television reporters just want to get their faces on air. When you talk to young people nowadays, the only thing they want to know is how much money they can make working in television news. It's really sad.

A lot of people I've worked with over the years are now at the networks, reporting news to the nation. It always amazes me to see them on national TV because I didn't think most of them had much ability. I know that may sound like jealousy. But I think you will find other longtime television people who would agree with me. The overall quality of network news is a far cry from what it was 20-30 years ago. Journalism, for the most part, is dead.

Pasta

The other important member of our family. His name is Pasta. We love him very much.

Blog fixed

I've fixed all the pics in my blog. I was having trouble uploading them. Then I suddenly realized that the blog editor doesn't fully support the Opera browser I was using. Doh. Anyway, I switched to Firefox and everything is okay now. You see, I'm still working on computer problems. ;) I used to be a big Firefox fan, but I prefer Opera now because I like the features and speed. Those who know me know that computer speed is very important to me.

Moving on

A number of people have inquired about my decision to step down as a moderator at a computer forum and leave. It means a lot to me that they care enough to ask. I made a lot of good friends at that forum. There was no single reason behind my decision to leave, and I really don't want to get into any specifics because I consider that all part of the past now. I just felt it was time to move on. And I want to make it clear that the decision to leave was mine and mine alone. I did feel some sadness. That forum had been my cyber-home for the past two years. But I'll be honest in saying that I also felt a real sense of relief after I left. Sometimes making a fresh start is the best thing a person can do. As for my future plans, well, I have none at the moment. I'm enjoying my independence. I will probably spend more time with my wife, tending to my garden and listening to music.

The most important person in my life

This is a picture of my wife taken in Italy a few years ago. Our son was studying in Florence, so we thought it was the perfect excuse to visit Tuscany. The photo was taken at a pottery shop in the town of Impruneta which is south of Florence. Impruneta is famous for its terracotta pots, another one of my favorite things. The man in the photo is the owner of the shop. Very nice person. I could spend the rest of my life in Tuscany. My wife takes good care of me. I'm so lucky I met her.

Favorite things

Today a look at some of my favorite things. One of my hobbies is growing peonies, the queen of all flowers. My late father was a professional gardener and my late mother grew flowers and arranged them the traditional Japanese way known as Ikebana. I didn't have much interest in gardening when I was young. But after my mother died I started growing flowers. Maybe it's my way of remembering her and my father. I need to spend more time in the garden this year. I was obsessed with computers last year and neglected my flowers. Peonies take a long time to settle in. But it's worth the wait because the flowers are glorious. The one pictured above is called High Noon. Yellow peonies are among the best.

Amara

My granddaughter, Amara. She's a cutie. Sadly, her parents are already divorced. She is living with her mother and new father in Australia right now. I'm told they plan to come back to America at some point.

Aya-chan

I love Japanese music and one of my favorite singers is Fuji Ayako, or Aya-chan as she's known by her fans. Ayako is her first name. The Japanese always identify themselves by their last name first. Aya-chan's music helps me relax. She has a lovely voice. She is from Akita province in Japan, an area known for beautiful women. The Japanese have a term, "Akita Bijin" (Akita beauties). Some say the beauty comes from the cold climate and the water in Akita. Aya-chan has light-colored skin and dreamy eyes that can melt a man's heart.

Fuji Ayako is an Enka singer. Enka is difficult to describe. Some have called it Japan's version of country music because many of the songs deal with lost love. My parents used to listen to it all the time. When I was young I didn't care for it that much. But as I got older, the music had a stronger pull on me. Now, like my parents, I listen to it all the time. Funny isn't it how people often grow up to be like their parents. Not always a bad thing, I might add.

Overclocking

One of my hobbies is overclocking microprocessors to see how fast they can run. The colder you can get the CPU, the higher it will overclock. I usually use a program called SuperPi to measure how fast the processor is running. SuperPi was developed by researchers at Tokyo University. Number-crunching speed is always a good indicator of how fast a system is.

Dry ice cooling

Dry ice cooling. What can I say. I'm crazy. ;)