chris jordan ’s photographs are quite amazing. I would love to see them in person. Really makes you think.

… and it looks like this is going to work! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! This is a test post - I grabbed my lat/lon while out running errands and entered it for the location.

I had a great time last night, and nearly all the things I had up for grabs were claimed! All in all, a success. I’ve posted some photos on flickr. I’m now in love with Flickr, by the way.

(these two photos by yutai)

I have a list of items that have been claimed but were not taken by the end of the night:

• Alvaro - Guitar
• Joe - Delta 44, ‘Sarita’ painting
• Yutai - Drum machines, mixer, microphone, gold frame
• Fong! - Rug, shelf unit thing, Tron slipmats
• Ryan - Pink trashcan, belt sander, skateboard
• Tony - Stereo receiver, croquet set, shoes
• Cyrelle - Robots, Lamp, Shelf unit
• David - Snowboard, boots, MIDI controller
• Hernan - Longboard
• Rue - Bench thing, Sarah painting
• Audrey - Jeremy Fish print
• Mayu - Computer desk

Hopefully you all can pick up the stuff next weekend and maybe give me a hand moving the remaining stuff into storage ;)

Most of you know that for the past couple years I’ve given up using my “real signature” on credit card receipts. Depending on my mood at the moment, I might create a lovely landscape of barking kittens and turtle doves, or a rockin’ pickle party right there on the dotted line. The other day as I doodled a shoe sailing along an ocean of squiggly lines instead of my name, I wondered what happens to these after I hand them back to the cashier. Obviously nothing is in place to check their validity after the cashier asks to make sure that a floating boot is indeed my real signature. Very rarely am I asked for a photo ID, or even to show the back of my card – and even in those cases no one has denied me the pleasure of covering my receipt in peanut-shaped airplanes. What is the purpose of collecting a signature at all anymore if it doesn’t seem to mean anything?

I asked the internet. As I suspected, I’m not the only one wondering about this. First, some background facts:

The signature, required only for “card-present” sales, of course, is one of several fraud-prevention features built into the process of making a credit card purchase. The idea is that the clerk compares your signature (from your card or photo ID) to the one you just made on the receipt, but thats just never happened for me. This signing of credit card receipts seems even more strange when paying by credit card at a restaurant.

According to Visa, the signature on the back of your card is not solely to give the cashier a signature to check against the receipt, but to bind you to the terms of your contract with the credit company / bank. Also, the popular “trick” of writing SEE ID in the signature box apparently doesn’t fly. You’re still supposed to sign the card.

Fine, I’ll sign the card.

This guy also wrote up a nice article complete with photos of his “signatures” he used to test the value of a proper credit card receipt signature. After this I’m beginning to wonder if all my purchases in the past few years are technically invalid… Are they?

Hello everyone! I have only a few minutes to write a quick note, but I wanted to let you all know that I have landed safely in Narita and am about to get on a train to Tokyo. I almost lost my camera but it survived so photos will come shortly…

Update!

I’m now sitting in my room at Hotel Hikari after roaming around lost for a while, which was way more fun than it sounds. I booked two nights here and am glad I did because it seems like a very good location from which to explore for a bit. Tomorrow: electric razor shopping and a visit with Kiyomi!

I just arrived at the olympic youth memorial center (?) in yoyogi (shinjuku area) to try and book a room at the youth hostel here, but they are closed until 5pm so I have some time to kill… So far, it looks like Hotel Hikari is going to end up having been much nicer, so I will likely only stay the night here. It is very close to some recommended spots in Shinjuku and Shibuya, though, so that is good. As soon as I arrived at the center, two young japanese girls asked if I would do an interview with them for a school project about high school in the US, so I answered some questions. They told me that this is a popular spot for backpackers visiting Tokyo even though it is rather deserted today. Maybe when the hostel opens up I’ll run into some others.

A few hours later…
The Yoyogi hostel wouldn’t take me as they were all booked, so they sent me to Tokyo International (the other major hostel in Tokyo, right near central tokyo and the tokyo dome). I finally found it with the help of some friendly japanese folks, but they too turned me down. They suggested the Sakura Hotel which is only two subway stops away. I got to the station closest to it (Jimbocho) but was having a hell of a time finding it, so I stopped to ask the staff at an empty restaurant. They didn’t know where it was, but went so far out of their way to help I was blown away: one guy ran down the street and photocopied a detailed map of the area and drew a line for me indicating exactly how to get there. I thanked him profusely and went on my way, but my legendary sense of direction failed me and I was once again lost. I stopped again, this time at a copy shop. The two guys there busted out the giant blueprint style city map and made two massive photocopies of it and gave me practically footstep-by-footstep directions. I can’t believe how incredibly nice and helpful every single person has been so far. I finally found the Hotel and booked one night in a shared room, which ended up being cold and noisy. I am now back in the Hikari Hotel for 4 nights which is far cheaper (3300Y/night for a single room), cleaner, quieter, has free wifi, and I think in a nicer location. They even gave me the exact same room I was in the other night.

Yesterday I visited Akihabara to see the giant electronics store there. It is supposedly the largest in Tokyo, and it certainly is huge. The place is 8 storeys tall and occupies an entire city block. They have entire floors dedicated to cell phones, computers, video games, TVs and all sorts of home appliances. I found a cheapo headset to use with Skype for about $6US, but almost everything there is either the same price or more than it is at home. On the streets around there I saw some good deals on cameras and computers, though. While I was walking around there I found a similarly huge music equipment store and spent a couple hours playing every instrument I could get my hands on. The highlight of my day was rocking out on the drums for a while (the place wasn’t crowded at all! I got to play for about 40 minutes).