Hokuriku Robocon 2005

Kanazawa Technical College just hosted the Hokuriku region Robocon 2005. It's a competition for Technical Junior Colleges in the area.

• I believe each school is allowed to enter two teams.
• Each team had to make two robots.
• One was designed to pass through an obstacle course and the other was designed to climb a wall.
• The competition was a head-to-head round-robin single elimination format.
• The races were a relay format so that the first robot had to "hand" off a baton to the second robot.
• The robots' goal was to insert the baton into a hole at the top of the wall.
• The first robot to achieve that goal or make it closest to finishing the goal would win.
• The winner would move on to the National Robocon in Tokyo this December.
• Three additional teams would be chosen to advanced based on votes from a panel of judges.

The English department went to join a small number of genki students to cheer on the robot teams. It was a fantastic event. All of the teams obviously worked very hard to create unique robots to accomplish the tasks.

KTC's "B Team" was lucky to make the cut because they had the only robot to successfully climb the wall and insert the baton into the hole.

Gotta get organized for the wedding...

I spoke with my folks this past weekend. I had more pent-up stress than I knew about. They offered some great advice. I gotta remember my place in this whole thing. My priority is to support Hyun-joo with her decisions and to make the planning process easier - no matter what. We also can't hope to make everyone happy at all times. We just have to plan something that we'll be happy with and hope will be fun and let folks do their own thing. Ultimately, there's not much to be worried about. I know both families well enough that I'm confident that nothing psycho will happen. And as long as Hyun-joo and I are there for the ceremony, it'll happen.



There is a lot to think about, but we just have get things prioritized and organized. The wedding planner is next. I was saying that we'll have to try and find someone who can be sensitive to the fact that we're not tourists and we don't want a tourist's wedding. But I think that'll prove to be difficult.



Ultimately the distance and time zone differences are the most difficult right now. I wonder how that'll play out over the next few weeks.

Get ready for the winter!? (with a snowball fight)

Bring it on! This little Shockwave-powered game let's you run around in the snow and kick some a$$, no matter what season it is!

Tateyama

(click on the pix above to see more!)

Adam, Katya and I went hiking this past Thursday. We had the day off, but it felt like playing hookey. We left fairly early in the morning to try and beat the traffic and get a head start. We were headed to an area that Adam likes to go off piste. Tateyama is listed in the Lonely Planet Hiking guide and there's a full-day loop that traverses a wonderful ridgeline that's entirely above tree line. We lucked out with some fantastic weather. We even caught a rare glipse of Mt. Fuji. I highly recommend the hike in good weather.

The Wedding Planner

What do we want of a wedding planner?

• getting photographer & videographer, justice of peace, flowers, musicians, translators
• pre-wedding activities: tee times, suggestions for acommodations for other guests
• arranging the rehersal dinner
• arranging reception and setting up, caterers, etc...
• formal wear shop for guys, HJ will take care of bridal shop stuff
• wedding ceremony: getting place and setting up
• wedding: be there to handle immediate needs
• legal stuff: marriage license, public use permits, etc.
• some one who can handle an "international" wedding planning

How much for a wedding planner?
What "special things" do we want for the wedding?

• bi-lingual justice of the peace
• translators to be around before and during the wedding
• a "Korean" segment of the wedding that we'll arrange
• Korean food in a buffet setting

Where will the wedding and reception be? Outdoors preferably and until when?
How many people? 60 people at Hale Lele.
Yon-ju

Wedding: Found a Place?!!

Good news! Hyun-joo and I might have found a place for our families, wedding, and reception! It's called the Hale Lele and it'll sleep everyone in our families (we hope) and will acommodate up to 60 people in the reception. We're considering the idea of having a follow-up "wedding party" for those who can't be fit into the reception. Jury's still out on that one.



Now we just need to book the dates with a deposit, call the wedding planner, and so forth. Whew. Keeping our fingers crossed.