Shashin 2.4 Available at WordPress.org
Beta testing is done, and Shashin 2.4 is now available for download at WordPress.org. The beta version was downloaded 54 times and no bugs were reported. For a description of the new features, see the post announcing the beta version. Russian and Dutch translations are included in the new release. Thank you to everyone who helped with the translations and with testing.
I’m almost done updating the Shashin documentation page. I’ve finished documenting the most important new features. I’ll finish the rest in the next few days.
If you encounter any problems or have any questions, please add a comment to this post.
Kite Flying at Brenton Point
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We spent Memorial Day weekend in Newport. Kai was excited to fly his kite, so we went to Brenton Point. It’s the most popular kite flying location on the island – it’s right where the Narragansett Bay meets the ocean, so it’s always windy. All you have to do to get a kite airborne is lift it off the ground. We also went down to the shore to climb on the rocks.
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The boys also had a good time with their cousins. They especially enjoyed blasting each other with the amazing, fully automatic Nerf Vulcan gun – check out the video below.
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Shashin 2.4 Beta Available
Update 5/29: Beta testing is done, and Shashin 2.4 is now available for download at WordPress.org
Shashin 2.4 has several new features that people have been asking for. It’s available on my site only as a beta release. I’ll upload it to wordpress.org after I get feedback on the beta. If you can contribute a translation, a .pot file is included.
New features:
- Support for image viewers other than Highslide, such as Lightbox, Fancybox, etc.
- Display album photos using the order you’ve set in Picasa.
- Customizable pagination of album photos.
- New settings for customizing Highslide’s borders, navigation bar, and background color/opacity.
- Dynamically set thumbnail sizes and the number of thumbnail columns to suit your WordPress theme (this means you don’t have to worry about images being too large or small if you switch to a wider or narrower theme).
- Show camera EXIF data in Highslide captions.
- Improved usability for the Shashin admin screens, with detailed examples of Shashin tags.
- Align images and groups of thumbnails to the center.
- Specify an alternate image to use as a thumbnail – this is often useful for videos.
- Includes the latest version of Highslide (4.1.4)
Download Shashin 2.4 Beta
Upload the new files, deactivate and reactivate Shashin in your plugins menu, and then go to the Shashin settings page to configure the new features. There’s help text there, which should be sufficient for most of the new features, but a few require more explanation:
- Dynamically setting thumbnail sizes: if you indicate the width of your theme’s content area in the Shashin settings menu, you can use the word “max” instead of specifying a Picasa image size in your Shashin tags. Shashin will then figure out which Picasa image size to use. This is very useful because it means you won’t have to go back and edit all your tags if you change to a wider or narrower theme in the future. For example, if the width of your theme’s content area is 610 pixels, and you use “max” with the simage tag for a single image, Shashin will pick 576 as the image size (the largest Picasa size that will fit in the available space). If you use “max” as the image size with sthumbs, srandom, or snewest, Shashin will do the math to determine the correct size for the thumbnails based on the number of columns you specified. Note that “max” doesn’t work well for photos with a portrait orientation, as the size will be applied to the height instead of the width.
- Dynamically setting the number of thumbnail columns: you can also use “max” to indicate the number of columns in sthumbs, srandom, and snewest. Shashin will figure out the number of columns based on the image size. For example, if you set the image size to 160, and your content width is 610, your thumbnails will be displayed in 3 columns. You cannot use “max” for the image size and the number of columns at the same time. Shashin needs one to be a number so it can calculate the other.
- Centering images and using alternate thumbnails: I actually slipped these in to version 2.3.5, and they are documented here.
The Shashin documentation page is not updated yet for the new features. I’ll update it after version 2.4 is out of beta.
The Institute for Nature Study in Tokyo
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The grounds at the Institute for Nature Study, near Meguro station in Tokyo, are unlike any other koen (park) or gyoen (garden) in the city. “It occupies a 200,000 square meter area with various original habitats of the Tokyo area, such as forest, marsh and ponds.”
The area around Meguro station is uneventful, but it’s worth the trip to visit the Institute’s grounds. Take even just a short walk from the entrance, and you’ll be immersed in a natural environment, with beautiful trees, marshes, turtles, and a variety of birds and other creatures. There’s one area with a large information board about the various birds and their songs, but unfortunately, they’re generally drowned out by the crows. Crows have been a major problem in Japan in recent years:
Blackouts are just one of the problems caused by an explosion in Japan’s population of crows, which have grown so numerous that they seem to compete with humans for space in this crowded nation [they often nest on electric poles]. Communities are scrambling to find ways to relocate or reduce their crow populations, as ever larger flocks of loud, ominous birds have taken over parks and nature reserves, frightening away residents.
It is a scourge straight out of Hitchcock, and the crows here look and act the part. With wing spans up to a yard and intimidating black beaks and sharp claws, Japan’s crows are bigger, more aggressive and downright scarier than those usually seen in North America.
Aside from the occasional crow calls, it’s a wonderfully peaceful place. The boys enjoyed it simply because it’s Nature: it’s a living, breathing, sometimes messy place, with various critters scurrying around. This makes it quite different from a place like the perfectly manicured Shinjuku Gyoen.
Visit the English page on the official site for location, hours, etc.
A Clash of Buildings in Tokyo
A clash of buildings, near Tamachi station
This picture shows the only run down shack I ever saw anywhere in Tokyo. It was a few blocks from our apartment, roughly halfway between the Shinagawa and Tamachi stations on the Yamanote Line. It’s most likely owned by some old-timer who refused to sell at any price. I imagine that over the years, he (or she) has watched all the concrete, steel, and glass buildings spring up around him.
It reminded me of a news story from just a few weeks before I took the picture. A man in Tokyo took several rifle shots at a new apartment building that was blocking the sunlight from reaching his house (no one was hurt).
Kai’s 1st Grade Experience in Tokyo
 Kai on his way to 1st grade, with his randoseru (Japanese backpack)
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 A notice we received when Kai started 1st grade, for a seminar to make parents comfortable with their kids walking to school without them
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While we were living in Tokyo I wrote a number of posts about all the fun Kai was having in the Japanese public school kindergarten. I never had a chance to write about the time he spent in 1st grade. Kids in Japan go to school year-round, and their school year starts in April, with only a 2 week break after finishing the previous grade.
The week before Kai started 1st grade, we got a notice in the mail from the school, inviting us to attend a seminar for parents on their children’s safety while going back and forth from home to school (a scan of the notice is above). This was the exact opposite of what such a seminar would cover in the US: they tell the parents that while it was fine for you to walk your children to school in kindergarten, you have to let them walk to school on their own in 1st grade. They patiently explain that your kids are growing up, and its time to let them start feeling independent (Tokyo is densely populated and every neighborhood has its own elementary school, so no one rides a bus). They emphasize that the streets are very safe and you will only embarrass your child if you’re seen taking him or her to school. For the walk home in the afternoon, the kids are organized into groups of about a dozen each, based on which kids live near each other, and they walk each other home. Kai’s school was only two blocks away from our apartment, so we got through it without too much anxiety 
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Walking home with their classmates is a part of Japanese kids’ socialization. The schools begin emphasizing the importance of social groups as soon as they leave kindergarten. At Kai’s kindergarten graduation, the local district superintendent gave a speech explaining to them it was time to start relying more on their friends and less on their parents.
After having a great time in kindergarten, Kai was very excited to start 1st grade. The first task for us was investing (and I do mean investing) in his randoseru:
A randoseru is a firm-sided backpack made of stitched firm leather… The randoseru is the most universal and recognizable feature of the Japanese school uniform and is considered symbolic of the virtues necessary to obtain a good education—unity, discipline, hard work and dedication. Traditionally, the randoseru is red in colour for girls, black for boys… Traditionally given to a child upon beginning their first year at school, the randoseru’s materials and workmanship are designed to allow the backpack to endure the child’s entire elementary education (six years)… The randoseru’s durability and significance is reflected in its cost: a new randoseru made of genuine leather can carry a pricetag of over 30,000 yen, almost 300 US dollars…
The incoming 2nd grade class performing at the ceremony marking the start of the school year
The ceremony marking the start of the school year was fun. The video clip on the right is the incoming 2nd grade class playing their pianicas. I was impressed at how well they played – they’re only 7 years old. Kai still has his pianica, and he and Eidan occasionally fool around with it.
Unfortunately, Kai’s excitement turned to misery after just a few days in 1st grade. American elementary schools gradually increase the academic rigor from grade to grade. In Japan, everything is fun and games through kindergarten, and then they bring the hammer down in 1st grade. While kindergarten was mainly focused on fun arts and crafts, in 1st grade Kai was stuck behind a desk all day, listening to a teacher talk in a language he didn’t understand. It was an especially tough transition for him because, while he had two friends in kindergarten who spoke English, no one in his 1st grade class knew any English. The school was supposed to assign him a Japanese tutor, but for some reason they had trouble finding someone. The one bright spot for him was English class, which had an American teacher he liked, and it was the one place he felt like he knew what was going on.
His misery in 1st grade was one of the reasons I came back to the US with the boys about a month earlier than planned (the other reason was that Maria was going to be traveling a lot for her work). That meant Kai was able to re-join his old kindergarten class here for the last few weeks of the American school year. So he’s the proud owner of two kindergarten diplomas from two different countries.
Tokyo Station
Tokyo station at night
Tokyo has over 450 subway and rail stations, so for one to bear the name “Tokyo Station,” it has to be something special. Tokyo station is one of the oldest in the city, and with over 3,000 trains passing through it every day, it’s the busiest rail station in the country (in terms of trains, not passengers – that distinction belongs to Shinjuku station, with an average of over 3.6 million passengers per day). It’s located near the Imperial Palace and the busy Ginza district.
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When we were living in Tokyo, Maria’s office was a short walk from Tokyo station. The boys and I would occasionally meet her there for dinner, in one of the many restaurants in the endless, sprawling underground complex below the station, or in the Marunouchi Oazo shopping center across the street (home of Com Pho, which I wrote about a while back). JAXA (Japan’s space agency) maintains a small, free museum in Marunouchi Oazo. It was a favorite hangout for the boys and I whenever we had to wait for Maria.
Tokyo station’s western facade, pictured above, is one of just a precious few significant pre-war structures still standing in Tokyo:
Tokyo Station opened on December 18, 1914… In 1921, Prime Minister Hara Takashi was assassinated at the south gates… Much of the station was destroyed in two B-29 firebombings on May 25 and June 25, 1945. These bombings shattered the impressive glass domes. The station was quickly rebuilt within the year, but simple angular roofs were built in place of the domes, and the restored building was only two stories tall instead of three… The main station facade on the western side of the station is brick-built, surviving from the time when the station opened… It is the main intercity rail terminal in Tokyo, the busiest station in Japan in terms of number of trains per day (over 3,000), and the eighth-busiest in Japan in terms of passenger throughput…The whole complex is linked by an extensive system of underground passageways which merge with surrounding commercial buildings and shopping centres.
Seeing the New Star Trek Movie with Kai Tonight
When I was a kid, watching Star Trek was a bonding experience for my mother and I (they were re-runs for her, but new to me). The best episodes were thought-provoking, which she liked, not to mention the then-young and handsome William Shatner. I don’t recall exactly what I liked about the show back then, but I do remember especially enjoying it because my mom watched it with me. I also remember my first experience being among an excited crowd, waiting in a big long movie line with her when I was 9, to see the first Trek film on opening night. But I’ve tried to forget the movie itself, being bored to the point of tears as I watched it drag on, waiting in vain for something – anything – interesting to happen (2+ hours is a long time to be bored and stuck in a chair at that age).
Kai and I are going to see the new Trek movie for its opening night tonight, and I don’t think he needs to worry about being bored. If anything, he’ll need to worry about sensory overload, as it looks like it’s action packed. It also has an impressive 96% score on the tomatometer.
Writing this post reminded me of a review I read years ago when the 1st season of the original Star Trek came out on DVD. The review is unusual – it’s as much about the reviewer’s relationship with his father as it is about the show. It’s touching, and reading it was what made me remember my childhood experiences watching the show with my mother (although she’s nothing like the curmudgeon this guy’s father was). The reviewer also perfectly captures what made the original series so iconic: it definitely wasn’t the cheesy sets and effects; it was the actors and the friendship of the 3 main characters. I’m going to reprint most of his review here, just in case it disappears from the web someday.
My father hated television so much, he used to keep the TV in the closet. He put it on a rolling cart, so if you got the urge to watch, let’s say, Mama’s Family or Sheriff Lobo, you had to drag it out of its tiny, dark, sport-jacked filled home, position it in front of the couch and then plug it in. Actually, that was always the easy part. The hard part was unplugging the set and rolling it back into the closet when you were done…
Luckily, this didn’t affect my life too greatly, since my parents had just gotten divorced and my father had only weekend visitation (the rest of the time I lived with my mother, who put the TV in its rightful place, living room front and center, where I would stare at MTV for hours waiting for Journey’s Separate Ways video). Anyway, paternal duty mixed with the guilt of turning his son into a latchkey kid, compelled my father to do whatever I wanted come Saturday and Sunday. Most of my weekend desires were innocuous, but there was one thing he was loath to do: drive back to his apartment by 5pm so I could watch Star Trek. This, of course, involved not just watching Star Trek, but me dragging the television out of the closet, positioning it in front of the couch and plugging it in so I could watch Star Trek. Then, right after the Desilu logo faded, I had to unplug the set and roll it back into the closet. My father would begrudgingly watch with me, but after about a year, something unexpected happened (that is to say, it was unexpected if you knew my father): he got hooked. He wanted to watch Star Trek as much as I did. In fact, as I remember, every once in a while he would even take it upon himself to drag the TV out of the closet, position it in front of the couch and plug it in. Who says sons don’t influence their fathers?
I’m not sure what part of the show intrigued him. Although he liked science fiction, I figured his hatred for television would have cancelled that out. My guess is, some of the better episodes reeled him in… First season shows like Balance of Terror, The Conscience of the King, The City on the Edge of Forever and The Corbomite Maneuver rose to the level of serious sci-fi and were about as smart as the genre got, at least on television.
Plus, and this is probably what made my father such a fan, the performances were immediately iconic. William Shatner’s body language and line deliveries seemed less like acting and more like performing some exotic new dance. But he imbued Kirk with not only a swagger, but a sense of humor that undercut and made entertaining the somber idea that he was responsible for over 400 people in what could very well turn out to be an intergalactic space casket.
As for Spock… Leonard Nimoy is just so damn Spock, it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role, which is the very definition of great casting and great acting… Nimoy was just tall enough, just thin enough and just odd-enough looking that had he not played Spock, he would have been relegated to portraying stoic Russian submarine commanders and mysterious strangers. His amazing trick was that, over the course of the series, he was able to parcel out little packets of humanity to what is essentially an inhuman character so by the end, he was more interesting and three-dimensional than most people on television…
Dr. McCoy had two functions… First, he was the sarcastic and rather pissy ying to Spock’s logical yang. But the good doctor also served as the audience surrogate. Of all the characters on the show, McCoy acted much like we would if we had to serve on a starship (I always enjoyed the notion that the transporter creeped him out and he didn’t completely trust it). The show never gave DeForest Kelley a particularly large reservoir of character history to draw upon, but he made McCoy’s three basic personality traits pretty damn terrific: ornery sarcasm (“I’m a doctor, not a fill-in-the-blank!”), disbelief (used whenever Spock said anything overly Spockish) and a neutral, genial absence of ornery sarcasm or disbelief. When combined, Kirk, Spock and McCoy comprised the most entertaining, non-pornographic threesome ever to take up precious space in the pop culture universe…
There came a point when my father and I so enjoyed Star Trek that when the films opened, he would skip work and I would skip school and together we’d go see Kirk and company’s newest big-screen adventure. Star Trek lasted long enough to spawn ten movies and, I believe, 640 television series, so unfortunately the show outlasted my dad. But Star Trek will always hold an everlasting place in my heart and in the heart of my father, who hopefully is exploring strange new worlds on his own celestial version of the Enterprise.
Tonight Kai and I will see how the new cast measures up, and someday down the road, seeing the movie with me on opening night might be a fond memory for him too.
Deko Boko 1.2 Available
Deko Boko is a WordPress contact form plugin. You can add any optional or required fields you want to the contact form, simply using HTML. It includes a “CC Me” option, it uses reCAPTCHA for handling spam, and it protects against XSS and email header injection attacks.
New in version 1.2:
- You can have Deko Boko load its stylesheet only on pages where you use the Deko Boko contact form, so it won’t be loaded unnecessarily on other pages.
- Localization support: a dekoboko.pot file is included to enable translations to other languages.
- If you want to make a custom contact form, a template is included to get you started.
- If you want to customize the dekoboko.css stylesheet, you can place it in your active theme folder, and Deko Boko will find it there (that way you won’t lose your stylesheet customizations when upgrading Deko Boko).
- Uninstall option.
- Uses a nonce field for additional security.
You can download Deko Boko from wordpress.org.
Important note to upgraders: you will need to deactivate and then reactivate Deko Boko after you upload the new files. Also, the contact form now uses a nonce field for additional security. If you have made your own contact form template, you will need to add a nonce hidden input field, like this:
<?php wp_nonce_field('dekoboko_nonce', 'dekoboko_nonce'); ?>
Update 5/12: I’ve released a bug fix, version 1.2.1. It fixes an installation bug: Deko Boko wasn’t installing properly if you didn’t already have the WP-reCAPTCHA plugin installed. It will now install correctly with or without WP-reCAPTCHA already installed.
You are currently browsing the Nothing But Words blog archives for May, 2009.
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Mike's Tweets
- I've never heard of this band, but they have an original and good interpretation of a certain favorite song of mine: http://bit.ly/cjNmfP 2010-07-16
- The real reason we went to Tokyo: Ultraman, Gundam, and Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers) http://twitpic.com/242jvh 2010-07-10
- Read "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea" on the flight home. Amazing and terrifying. Here's a good review: http://bit.ly/cBjujO 2010-07-10
- Back on the east coast after a long but not too horrible flight. Just uploaded more Tokyo pictures http://bit.ly/9EkFMA 2010-07-10
- Last meal in Tokyo :-( some delicious ramen http://twitpic.com/23hhq9 2010-07-08
- More updates...
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Random Pictures
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- 22 Jul 05 - New Blog Title
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- 21 Apr 04 - Phonatic.org status
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