Kei is the Way

I love bikes. I really, really do. I'm still a daily commuter to work and back, try to ride for many of my errands that don't involve things like full sheets of plywood, go on mountain bike rides, bomb down forest service roads on my gravel bike, go bike camping and on the occasional road ride. They are my favorite mode of transportation, and probably always will be. But Kei trucks are awesome.

Caitlin and I went to Japan last spring on a trip with our niece, Teagan - it's hard to believe it's been almost a year - and genuinely fell in love with the country and culture. Everything from the food to the landscape to the amazing museums was truly enjoyable. And everywhere we would see these cute little trucks that I'd kinda heard of before, but got to see in action on the streets of Japan.

Called Kei trucks (an abbreviation of the Japanese word "keitora" for the class of vehicle), they are small utility vehicles that are widely used in the agricultural sector of Japan. They're meant to haul vegetables, fish, dirt, etc. around some of the rugged landscapes in the country. Because of the taxation schedule in Japan on vehicles that I won't go into full detail here, they are limited to 660cc for the engine, and have some restrictions on the physical size of the vehicle. Which means they are tiny, tough little trucks (or enclosed vans) that are very inexpensive. The sides of the bed fold down to make it a flatbed, and they are largely all-time 4WD. If you want the full treatment, this short documentary about them is what I often refer people to when they have questions (it's taken from a 30 minute show that appears to be behind a paywall now).

I became obsessed with them when we returned from Japan, and started reading up on how I might be able to procure one and watching all the YouTube channels that share about how fun they are. And then the local Nissan dealership that is a couple blocks from my house imported a 1996 Honda Acty and plopped it right where I could pass by it whenever I was driving somewhere for work. I finally told Caitlin that we should just go test drive it - after all, maybe they suck to drive, right? Ha. I can't say I've ever really enjoyed driving a vehicle until I got in that thing. We toodled around our neighborhood, snapped some photos in front of the house for posterity, and it was then that I knew I was doomed.

The literal moment I knew I was doomed.

That one was a bit overpriced for its condition and mileage and had dealer fees, so I started trolling Facebook Marketplace/craigslist to keep an eye out for something in our price range. We'd recently inherited some money from my late grandfather's estate that I was able to put towards this (thanks, Grandpa Jerry!). I finally found one last October that met my criteria for low enough miles and price, but it happened to be in Preston, Idaho. That is a serious haul from Missoula - about 6.5 hours drive via the interstate - and I wasn't really willing to make a trip that far just for this; however, I had a work trip planned to Provo, Utah for a maker conference, and we were going to drive to bring exhibits and activities to present. Preston is basically on that route.

So, my boss agreed to drop me off on the way back to pick up this fine 1997 Honda Acty from a very confused and very nice mormon guy who bought the truck from someone else that imported it, but had kids and other life obligations and needed to sell it cheap. He was blown away that I was going to drive it back to Missoula - max speed on mine is about 55 or 60 mph, and they are not legal to drive on the interstate. I had a really fun time driving the backroads of Idaho very slowly and made it back in a record 10 hours. It was a great way to see parts of that gorgeous state that I would not have been to otherwise (excuse the crappy phone handling in this video, it is hard to drive and film at the same time in one of these...)

My new whip on the drive back from ID.

Since purchasing it I've of course tinkered with everything I could, from steering bushings to timing/water pump, engine mounts and coolant flush and new wheels. It came with a full box of parts to do most of this maintenance that the previous owner never got around to. It's great to have a vehicle that is extremely straightforward to maintain with a minimum of hand tools. It's almost as easy to work on as my motorcycle. I can throw a full sheet of plywood or large amount of dimensional lumber in the back for projects for home or work. It's a right hand drive, which didn't take as long to get used to as I thought it might (I've driven RHD in Japan and New Zealand both). It's a manual transmission, which I learned to drive a long time ago and really enjoy - I prefer manual to automatic transmission in fact. It can fit anywhere, and there's a lot of times that I can squeeze into a spot that big trucks can't. 

Custom, bruh.

There are very few safety features (no airbags), there isn't air conditioning, it drives extremely slow with very little getup, doesn't have a Hemi, can't tow worth beans and rides like a truck, and I love everything about it. It's practical in all of the ways that I want a vehicle to be, and impractical in all of the ways that I don't care about. If you yourself are looking for a mid-life crisis vehicle, Kei is truly the way!

Freight Elevator April Fools

April Fools' Day can be downright terrible sometimes - can't say I'm a fan of mean pranks that ruin someone's day or make them feel miserable or small. BUT, I appreciate ridiculousness and hilarity as much as the next person - maybe even a bit more.

For the past three years, we have taken an hour out of our April 1st workday at my science museum - which is located within our local library - to inhabit the staff freight elevator and serve treats, dress up in costume, and in general have fun. This is all thanks to a brilliant inspiration from my former coworker Evan, and we've carried on the tradition to make it an annual thing. This elevator is only usable by building staff from a variety of organizations in our complex, though maybe someday we'll be allowed to expand into the public-serving elevators...

In 2023, we had an "Alice in Wonderland" theme, wherein I dressed up as the Mad Hatter, and coworkers also wore appropriate tea-time attire. We served hot tea, English biscuits baked by my wife, and read sections of "Alice in Wonderland" to freight elevator riders. 

Last year, my coworker Caitlin and I chose to host a one-off session of our spoof podcast Carrot Chat in the elevator, reading bad AI haiku about carrots and "interviewing" riders on their carrot preferences. We served carrot cake and coffee, and decorated the elevator with our "carrotphernelia". Carrot Chat was a COVID-induced experimental podcast pushing the boundaries of all things carrot-related. More on that in a future post.

This year, we decided to up our game and theme the elevator ride around Roald Dahl's book, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator - the sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I dressed as Willy Wonka, and rigged a Raspberry Pi computer to trigger this final scene on an in-elevator projector from the original Gene Wilder Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film. It was fun to 3D print and recreate the button from the film and learn how to get a Raspberry Pi to play a section of an .mp4 on a button press. We served Wonka candies, and encouraged all elevator riders to "Take a Ride on the Wonkavator". We even had some library staff print out their digital Golden Ticket invitation to our prank!

Willy Wonka and Augustus Gloop

All in all, this has been a worthwhile exercise in hilarity and levity - something we all need in the current world we live in. 

New Beginnings

Sunset at Mt. Takao in Japan, spring 2024

I'm not sure how to start this post, so I'll just jump right into it: I'm sick of social media and short-form content that adds nothing to our understanding. A few years ago, I mostly gave up social media interactions because it was only making me miserable. With the state of the U.S. and how toxic Facebook had become, it just wasn't for me. I still keep my Meta accounts to engage with work, and use Facebook Marketplace because it is marginally better than craigslist, but otherwise don't want to watch AI bots fight with each other or see a bunch of garbage ads rather than the photos and posts of people that I love.

I used to blog pretty regularly when living in France and spending a lot of time writing for Universe Today in the mid aughts. It would have been easy to just restart anew with another blog since the last post here was in 2008. But, I already restarted this blog from a prior iteration. So, in the interest of keeping things all in one place, I just combined the very old one (To the Extent that it's Absurd) into this one, and will reboot things once again. If you want to see how dumb I was in my 20s, simply scroll down and you won't be disappointed! 

Not everyone needs some sort of digital presence to be important or anything, but I have missed sharing about my life and interesting things that I've been up to, and connections to friends and family that are far-flung. Several friends have actually told me that they miss my posts on Facebook or Instagram about my life, so my intent here is to post roughly every week and share projects, ideas, photos, etc. I know that blogs are a bit more "one-way" in terms of interaction and engagement than other forms of social media, but I'm okay with that - I don't need everyone's "take" on every single bit of my life that I choose to share anyways. Who does?

This blog has no other theme or express purpose other than being a place where I can share things I find interesting with people who might also have interest, and a creative outlet for things I get up to during my work and leisure time. As a recovering English major, long-form content is something that I deeply enjoy both creating and consuming. I make no commitment to any sort of "upload schedule" and will take a page out of the Quaker philosophy of sharing when I feel motivated to do so.

I know the feeling...

From xkcd:

Wow

From Cassini. Wow. Just freaking wow.

Go and Ask

Cosmic Variance is currently taking questions about Quantum Theory so as to explain it in a way that is easily understandable. I urge you to go and ask all of your burning questions about said theory. I doubt they'd appreciate stuff like, "What the F*^K does it all mean, anyway?" but maybe more specific things like "Why was Schroedinger all obsessed with killing cats?"

Pictures

I just got all my pictures from my tour developed onto some CDs. I'll post a little journal with them here sometime in the near or not-so-near future, but if you do the stupid Facebook thingy, I have a lot of them over there. Here's one that turned out really well, though, for your viewing pleasure.