iPod touch gets hi-res

I like my iPod touch. I'm sure everyone does. I'm also sure that anyone living in Colorado that has an iPod touch or iPhone was disappointed to find out that they had to be online to use maps for hiking or camping (via Google Maps). Since you will probably not find a wifi hotspot in the middle of the mountain wilderness, this kind of sucks. I did find a way, though, with a little internet research.
The program is for Mac (sorry PC users, though I think there is a way you can do this) and is called Filemark Maker. If you have some high-res picture or pdf's you want to view on your iPod without the iPod downgrading the resolution to illegibility, do this: have your files you want to view ready, download Filemark Maker, drag your file onto the Filemark Maker application (just as you downloaded it), save the url it gives you to your bookmarks in Safari (it opens automatically when you drag the file on, have your iPod connect and make sure the box for "Sync Safari Bookmarks" is check under the INFO tab of your iPod menu in iTunes, and sync! Voila, you can now see these files in their full glory from your Safari browser on your iPod/iPhone.

Update July 27th, 2008

I am happy to say that we are pretty much at home here in Colorado. We have a good feel for the surrounding stores, things are all settled in the apartment, and we have been having a good time. Yesterday, we went over to a friend's house I haven't seen in about 3 years. A friend of mine from the JET Programme in Japan, Glenn, lives in the Denver area, so our families got together at his place for some great Korean-style barbeque and a relaxing Saturday afternoon-evening in the backyard. We all had a lot of fun and they made so much great food. I'm sure I'll make some good friends when school starts, but it always feels good to come to a new place and have some friends waiting.

We have loaded up on lots of new, fun little tech-toys in the past two weeks. I am writting this blog from my new 13" Macbook (required for school) over the wireless network setup in our apartment. Love the Mac, and not just because it looks cool. It's fast (2.4 Mhz dual-core), the keyboard is tight and crisp, and the screen looks great. My only complaint is that it's a little warm on my lap, but I've never really used a laptop before.
We also got a free iPod touch (8GB) and a free HP Printer/Scanner with the computer through Apple Rebates (the checks for which I received about 4 days after I filed them online!!). The iPod touch is awesome; Ritsuko and I both love being able to just sit on the coach and browse the internet (over the wifi network in our apartment), check email, or whatever.
One more toy we got was this great GE Skype Phone from Walmart. It's a cordless phone that you can use as both a normal phone (with your landline) and as a Skype phone (via a USB cable that plugs into your computer). The quality is as good as any cellphone, it's easy to select your Skype contacts on the phone's screen, and it even has a jack for a headset for those long conversations. I definitely recommend it (just follow the link above; there's an older model that looks similar but isn't as good, so watch out).

We seemed to have landed in a pretty convenient area of town. Just a block away is one of the best schools in the state (Cherry Creek Challenge School), a Korean supermarket called "Har Mart" which is just as big as any normal supermarket but carries Korean and Japanese food. There's also the Whole Foods store not too far away, Walmarts, Home Depots, etc. all within a couple of miles, and easy access to the highways. I can't imagine a better place to be for only $800 a month.

About the Cherry Creek Challenge School: it's just around the block and is a magnet school for K-8th grades. We are in the district, the this school requires applications and and interview/assessment. They have certain standards expect of the students, including the kindergarteners, so we have to get on Masashi's ABC's and 123's with him! He's actually doing well with all that: he plays this game on the internet and does great with the alphabet and pronuncing the letters and sounds they make.

Next week we are off to Yellowstone for a little camping, and the week after that I start dental school! Hope the money lasts until I get the student loan infusion!

In Denver

We arrived in Denver on July 16th after a fun-filled adventure across 1200 miles of middle America. Ritsuko and I moved everything into the apartment (with Masashi's help, of course), and just finished yesterday the last of our cleaning. The apartment is nice, but not without some minor problems (one of which is having not been cleaned very well). We put in new blinds and steamcleaned all of the carpet, so everything is nearly perfect. We wish the apartment had windows on opposite walls (to let the air move straight through), but it seems that most apartments around here are built in blocks of four and only have windows on adjacent walls. All in all, though, it's really nice, the pool is wonderful, and the location is very convenient.

Dental school doesn't start for another month, so we have had plenty of time to explore. There is a great Wholefoods store not to far away, and Ritsuko is simply in love with it. We drove up to Mt. Evans the other day, which was awesome, and today we're going to try lunch at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant. Here are some pictures on Mt. Evans at the top and near Summit Lake.

The Big Move

I've planned out our route, complete with stopping points, to our new home in Colorado.
Check it out here.
At over 1200 miles, it's going to be a pretty exciting trip!
Oh, and this trip will be a two and a half day thing. We will stop at a hotel in both Missouri and Kansas.

Dental School Application and Enrollment Statistics: 2006

This is chapter 3 out of the 2007 "ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools" entitled Deciding Where to Apply is both informative and interesting. It includes gender, racial, and ethnicity data about each school (when supplied) as well as average DAT and GPA scores, minimum prerequisites, and from which state/province/territory the enrolled at each school came from.

Here is a list of all the 2007 "ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools" chapters I could find:

Introduction
Chapter 2: Applying to Dental School (mirror)
Chapter 3: Deciding Where to Apply (mirror)
Chapter 4: Financing Your Dental Eduction


If you can find links for any other chapters, please let me know. I just searched for these in Google, as the ADEA doesn't seem to have any clear links on there page.

As ADEA will wipe out these links when the 2009 book comes out, the files with statistics in them have been archived for posterity with the "mirror" links above.

For all you pre-dents and dental students alike, happy data browsing!

Japan's Miltary: Lessons for America

Last night, Ritsuko and I watched a great program on PBS about Japan's military forces. The show, called "Japan's About-Face," look and the history of the Japanese military and Japan's modern issues in balancing it's pacifist constitution and desire for security. This program was very well done and very interested, definitely recommended for anyone interested in Asian and/or Japanese politics.

It was interesting to see this show about Japan's Self-Defense Force, or Jieitai in Japanese, considering I lived on the island that is home to many of the Jieitai forces. Despite living in Hokkaido and even having a student who was a jieitai sharpshooter, I really knew very little about Japan's military. As the PBS program points out, the Jieitai does a really good job of keeping a low profile. I never saw a uniform the whole time I was in Sapporo, and only a few times when I was in Asahikawa. Of course I had met some people in the Jieitai, and I think they were just as proud to be serving their country as any American military person, but if they didn't say anything you would never have any idea that these guys were trained soldiers! It was a very different experience from what we in American experience with our military. No parades, no aggrandizing, no Semper Fi license plates; just men and women quietly devoted to protecting their country.

I believe that being in the military is just like any other job, just potential more dangerous. Every thinking, productive, non-criminal man, woman, and child is doing something to make our country a better place, not just the men and women in uniform. No one in our present voluntary military can compare their service to those people conscripted by the government in years past. No one is selflessly dying for their country (no one should); every single military man and woman chose to enter the armed forces and is paid and given benifits for their service. It is a job, plan and simple. It is dangerous, but so are many other jobs. It protects our country, but so do many other jobs (think of all the computer geeks making big bucks in Silicon Valley: the big taxes they and all all other successful American businesses pay make all those Humvees and Blackhawks possible). If we could step back and stop idolizing our military and culture of aggression, maybe we could think more clearly about the military choices we make throughout the world. Despite it's past and somewhat uncertain future, I think we should be learning from the Japanese Jieitai, not the other way around.

Obamacans

This article in the San Francisco Chronicle basically sums up all the reasons why I will most likely vote for Obama in the fall: the Republican Party is a meaningless stump for social conservatives and needs to die, Obama can do no more harm fiscally to the United States than the Republicans have (will probably do much less, actually), and his respect for individual rights will do this country a lot of good. So put me on the Obamacan list; hopefully an Obama win will help libertarians take back the Republican party while still moving the country forward with a new, charismatic president.

Holiday Week

Last week (June 30-July 4) was a "shutdown" week for our plant, so I had plenty of time to hang out with the family and start getting ready for the big move. Let's see, what happened...
June 27th: Masashi spent the night at Grandma's for the first time. They went to see "Wall-E" and went out to eat at a local Japanese restaurant. Masa had a great time and Ritsuko and I were able to have a nice, quiet dinner together. I later went over to my friend's place for a some drinks.
June 28th: Ritsuko's last day at the Japanese school. Masa went with Grandma up to my parents' lake place. I went down to Cincinnati for a last get-together with some friends. Great time.
July 1st: Nomikai (drinking party) with friends from the Japanese school. Our boss, Tamura-san, treated us (Ritsuko, myself, other co-workers) to great beer and food at J.K. O'Donnel's in downtown Fort Wayne. I really wish we could have stayed out longer, but I could only leave Masa with my sister for so long (she did not have the week off work).
July 2nd: My parents took Risuko and I out for dinner. We were going to go to Cork and Cleaver, but due to a power outage we went to Club Soda instead. I'm sure Cork and Cleaver would have been good, but Club Soda was wonderful. The food was excellent, and we had a great time.
July 4th: We went to a friend's place for a barbecue. They have two kids about Masa's age, so he was able to play while we made food and talked. It was a lot of fun. After we got home around 6, I went over to a couple of different friends' places for a bit, then Masashi and I went to watch the fireworks. We walked from our apartment to some nearby soccer fields where we had a PERFECT view of all the fireworks. We were so close that we could even hear the radio announcer and orchestra music, but there was practically no one there as the road into the soccer fields is closed and locked at night. The fireworks were the best I've ever seen in Fort Wayne, too.
July 5th: Instead of using our gift certificates to go out to eat at some fancy restaurant (we are sick of eating out), Ritsuko, Masashi, and I took a road trip up to Detroit to shop for new furniture at IKEA. We got a new, smaller computer desk, a new dining set, some chairs, shelves, and a bunch of little things (glasses, cooking stuff, etc.). Masa was fine despite spending the whole day in either the car or IKEA, and Ritsuko and I were able to get most of the stuff we will need for our new place in Denver.
July 6th: We all went up to my parents' lake place for a day of swimming and barbecue. It was a beautiful day and we all had a great time.
All the rest of the time over this week was spent packing. We've got most of our stuff pack; just need to put the dishes, the remaining clothing, and a bunch of little stuff away. Got our hotels booked, too: we're going to go all the way to Columbia, MO on the first day and then Colby, KS the second. This will put us in Denver around noon on the 16th.

Now, I'm back at work looking at a digital pile of stuff I don't feel like doing. Only one more week...