NOTE: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — ¹/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2000 — full exif
Anthony Reading a Story
in English

When Anthony started first grade last April, he couldn't read or write much Japanese, but since then he uses it every day in school, so now is quite proficient at both reading and writing. In fact, part of his homework is that he has to write a diary entry every day, in Japanese, such as this one from last week:

“Pencil”
Anthony's diary for Nov 4, 2009

It's titled Pencil, and reads: “The pencil I used from the first semester until now has become small. It can't be used anymore. “It's time to part ways”, I said. My little pencil buddy certainly liked me, I think.”

I've given other diary examples before, such as these from September. It's a fantastic idea that not only offers writing practice, but promotes independent thought and experience on how to formulate and express those thoughts in writing (a skill that many college kids in America don't have; back when I was in college and being a computer geek with access to a printer at a time when it was rare, I used to type my friends' reports for them, and without exception their writing was horrid).

As I wrote four years ago in “How to Raise a Bilingual Child”, I've taken a very soft approach with Anthony's English, knowing that it's the subordinate language of his environment and that he could get by perfectly well even if he snubbed his nose at learning it. The soft approach and yearly visits to The States have turned out very well, and he's as fluent in English speech and comprehension as any of his peers in America.

Reading and writing are a different matter. I've been very gingerly pushing the idea of him learning to read English more, but he's not been receptive to it at all. This, combined with an innate laziness on my part and a crushing amount of other stuff on my plate, and it's something I've let slip just a bit too long.

So it turns out today that 14 of 30 kids in his class stayed home with the swine flu, so the school canceled his class for the rest of the week and he came home early. I decided to use the opportunity to try English reading again, and when he said he wanted to play a computer game, I suggested that he could play as long as he wanted..... but that we'd sit with the English stuff for an equal amount of time once he was done.

An hour 11 minutes later he decided he was done with the game, so I pulled out a Hooked on Phonics set I had bought years ago, targeted at teaching a kindergartener to read. The first few pages are just to make sure the kid can recognize all the letters and the sounds they make, and he struggled even with that. It's something Anthony's two oldest cousins could already do at age three, but, then again, they had only one language to deal with.

After a half hour he was getting frustrated (and who blames him... it's not fun), so we paused for a snack, and then tried again, and it was much easier. Then we could finally move to the real stuff, where he could learn real words (at, cat, hat, mat, bat, fat, etc.). After two pages of that, suddenly, there was a story... a two page story, and he could read the whole thing by himself.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 34 mm — ¹/80 sec, f/4, ISO 2200 — full exif
So Thrilling
that I had to grab my camera

He was very proud, and also excited at the prospect that he could read. He wanted to read it again, and did so several times...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250 — full exif

He also read the story to Mommy, which is when I took the lead picture of this post.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — ¹/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2000 — full exif
Pride!

After dinner, while I was writing up my previous post about our trip to Disneyland and starting work on this post, he was writing his diary entry for the day....

“English”
Anthony's diary for today

It reads: “Today while studying English, for the first time I could suddenly read a bit. From now I'll read the book. (That is, he'll now transcribe the story, which he then did – with a minor Japanese misspelling – in its entirety).

NOTE: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.

After our Evening at Tokyo Disneyland, we awoke the next morning to find this view from the hotel window....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 130 mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hints of Magic
an empty parking lot

After checking out of the hotel, we headed over to Disneyland to see it for the first time in the daylight. Fumie and Anthony got ear-head-things, Fumie's with a Minny bow, and Anthony's with a Wizard's hat (from Fantasia, the first film my folks ever took me to)....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 34 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/13, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pair of Mice

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 38 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
The Adventure Begins

Lines early on had hour-long wait times, but we'd read about the “fastpass” system that allows you to get a ticket that reserves a spot for later to an expedited line. It doesn't get you in any more quickly, but allows you to spend the wait doing other things beside standing in line.... or so I thought.

The wait for the Space Mountain in-the-dark roller coaster was an hour when we first got there. Having done it the previous night (waiting only 45 minutes!) and really enjoyed it, Anthony wanted to do it again, so, we got the fastpass thing..... only to find out we could actually use it after about three hours, and couldn't use any fastpass again until then. (Fast-forward to then, by the time we could use it again, the reservations were for 9pm, long after we had to leave, so for us it turned out to be a one-time-only thing.)

Wait for the Autotopia was only 20 minutes, so we did that, allowing me to try to get some photos in the presence of actual light this time....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 18 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pedal to the Metal
at 3.7mph

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 18 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Vigilant of the Competition

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 120 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/5.3, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos
Way Cool Dude, Dude

While eating lunch, this guy was at the facing table with his family, and I was struck by how mainstream normal his wife and kids looked compared to his 60s hippy motif. I was really perplexed by the wide gap until after a long while it dawned on me: he was dressed up as a pirate, like Johnny Depp in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (for which Depp was paid on the order of $50,000,000 so far, but I digress).

A lot of people, kids and adults, get the clip-on ears like Fumie and Anthony (magnitudes more than I remember in the California Disneyland 10 years ago), but because this was Halloween season, customers were allowed to dress up in full costume, so long as it was a character from a Disney film or park attraction. And boy, did they ever!

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 90 mm — ¹/1000 sec, f/5.3, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Typical Park Visitors

When we first arrived the previous night, I didn't make the connection to Halloween and thought that perhaps Disneyland was just a magnet for folks who liked to dress up all fancy and frilly, like this polite couple I met on a train. I was somewhat relieved to realize the Halloween connection.... somewhat.

Most people who dressed up did so way over the top, so the relatively subtle costume of the pirate guy totally caught me off guard, and for 20 minutes I thought it was really his style.

Here are a few more park visitors....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 150 mm — ¹/640 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
King Mickey and his Pages

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 82 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/5, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Yellow Idunno Taking Photo of White Idunno

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 200 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Regal

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 52 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/5, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Incontinent Duck?
Pirate in the background is just a bonus

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 200 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Blue Idunno

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 95 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/5.3, ISO 2200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hawaiian Mickey?

Dressed-up park patrons exceeded dressed-up staff by several orders of magnitude in number, and often in complexity and ornateness. It was often difficult at first glance to tell whether a well-done costume was park patron or park staff, but we soon figured out that those carrying cameras or anything else out of character were customers.

As it got later, lines got longer, stretching past two hours, so we ended up trying whatever seemed to have a shorter line, almost regardless of what it was. We saw one building whose attraction was big enough that it was among those with an electronic sign indicating the wait, and that the wait was a shockingly scant 10 minutes, so having no idea what it was, we entered.

It was wonderful. It turns out that it was the 3D movie experience “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience” (related to the 1989 movie Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, which I saw back then and recall it as being funny and cute). This Disney attraction was the first 3D movie I'd ever seen, and it was fantastic. Fumie and Anthony also enjoyed it very much. Highly recommend.

(Now that I think about it, while doing my undergraduate at Kent, for some kind of class on presentations or media or something, I presented a 3D slideshow. I mounted two cameras next to each other on a board, loaded them with slide film, and took various shots around the campus. For the presentation I placed polarizing filters in front of the projector lenses, and give the class members polarized-lens glasses. Hmmm, I seem to remember getting the glasses from my high-school physics teacher, so maybe this was for a high-school class. I overlapped the two for several years, so now I get confused about what was what. Anyway, I don't remember much about the slideshow, so I'll manufacture the memory that the 3D effect was really cool. 🙂 )

The line for the Dumbo ride was “only” 45 minutes, and Anthony wanted to try it, so he got in line with Fumie. The wait was excruciatingly slow because while the ride lasted for only 1½ minutes, it took a full four minutes to get people set up between rides, so the lack of activity made glaciers feel dynamic and exciting.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 18 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/3.5, ISO 3200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Finally Boarding The Dumbo Jet

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 170 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Worth the Wait
perhaps

As the deadline approached for our return to Kyoto, the possibilities dwindled to almost nothing, but we eventually found one attraction devoid of all customers due to an impending parade of some kind: Country Bear Jamboree. Its overwhelming appeal was that the wait was only 15 minutes (when the next show would start), so we sat alone for 14 minutes in the waiting room. Just before it started, a mother showed up with her toddler, and together the five of us filed into the theater designed for hundreds.

Nikon D700 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/160 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Animatronic Singing Bears

Seven-year-old Anthony was on the older edge of the target audience, I think. Fumie and I took the opportunity to rest.

Then we made our way out to train station and headed home...

Nikon D700 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/100 sec, f/1.4, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos
One of the Many Underground Passageways at
Tokyo Station

Nikon D700 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/100 sec, f/3.2, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Snoozing at 254kph
on a bullet train 30 minutes out of Tokyo

The lines were long and the crowds, er, crowded, but it could have been much, much worse. Consider the view of the parking lot from our hotel window in the morning, showing overflow parking #5 or the like:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 36 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/13, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
No Overflow
October 30, 2009

Now consider the same location as seen on Google Maps on Dec 31, 2007:

Overflow!
From Google Maps, December 31, 2007

Yikes. Visit the map and pan over to the park, and judging from the ant-like groups of people one can see, the crowds that day seemed comparable to what we experienced, though part of that might be some creative editing of the satellite photos (they're clearly edited, as this Photoshop disaster illustrates).

We'd chosen to go when we did — a Thursday evening and Friday day — because Anthony's school was out for something school specific that Friday, and so most other kids across the country would still be in school (and, the point being, not in line in front of us at Disneyland).

I just couldn't imagine going on a weekend or holiday. If you use the “Historical Imagery” feature of Google Earth, you'll find views with shockingly more people.

It was a good trip and I'm glad to have it under my belt, but the next time Anthony has a day off from school that most other kids don't, we'll likely head to the much-closer KidZania instead.

NOTE: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.

So, yesterday's post about the start of a short overnight trip to Tokyo Disneyland ended with us arriving at the train station. The station is “right at the entrance”, but as with all distances in a Disneyland, things are relative, and it was a fair hike...

Nikon D700 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/250 sec, f/3.5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hiking Toward Disneyland

I should point out up front that I do realize that the picture quality in today's post is hovering somewhere around “pathetic”. We arrived at night and it was quite dark, and I didn't have my good lenses with me (due to our hotel, which was also pathetic; more on that later). I did try using my Sigma 30mm f/1.4, but it was generally so dark that I couldn't see to focus. This wouldn't have been a problem before the D700 and its amazing low-light prowess because I simply wouldn't have bothered with the camera, but now that I have hope even in darkness like this, I need to work on my technique to make the best of it. Put another way, the limiting factor in these situations used to be the equipment, but now it's me. It's always been me, but it sounds more dramatic to pretend it used to be the equipment.

Anyway, I mostly just wanted to document for our family memory what I knew a modern trip to Disneyland means for any family: a wonderfully fun experience for the kid, and a hellatious experience for the parents.

Nikon D700 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/50 sec, f/3.5, ISO 4000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Entrance

Nikon D700 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — 0.3 sec, f/3.5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Start of the “Parade of Lights”
or some such nonsense

We got there right at the 7:30pm start for the evening parade. Of course, we should have gotten there hours earlier if we wanted to watch it from a reasonable vantage, but we got lucky, and with the help of a patch of flowers where people couldn't stand, we found a place from where we could see it fairly well...

Nikon D700 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/40 sec, f/3.5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Whoopee

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 50 mm — ¹/20 sec, f/4.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
There Goes Nemo
Hey, even I know that one!

The photo above is pretty amazing, I think, for its sharpness at 1/20th of a second at 50mm. Yes, the lens has VR stabilization, but I had a seven-year-old child sitting on my shoulders, so I think they sort of cancel each other out. 🙂

Anthony has seen a bunch of Disney films, but is not “into” it much, so he eventually got bored, so we moved off to try some rides and attractions. The first we came across was the Star-Wars adventure “Star Tours”, where you sit in what's supposed to be a big shuttle craft, and the room shakes and moves and pitches to the view projected up front, giving the strong feeling that you're actually in a moving vehicle.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 18 mm — ¹/5 sec, f/3.5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Checking Out R2-D2
on the way to the ride

What was most amazing about this was that the long and twisty pathway from the entrance to the actual attraction — designed to be as long as possible to hold as many people in line as possible — was completely empty. I'm sure that it could have easily accommodated 1,000 people in line, but since everyone was watching the parade, we just strolled right through. I almost felt guilty stopping to check out the stuff they put along the way in an attempt to distract you from how long you've been waiting.

Anyway, the ride itself was fun, though Anthony was a bit scared at first, not sure whether it was real.

The next thing we tried was the Autotopia, which is my fondest memory from when my folks took us to Disneyland (in California) when I was 10. Sadly, the thing that made it most fun – smashing into the cars ahead and behind – was not possible here, due to proximity sensors that cut the engine if you got within 15 feet or so of another car.

Still, as one might expect, Anthony enjoyed it immensely....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 18 mm — ¹/6 sec, f/3.5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Starting Out
on parallel lanes, as kindly arranged by the staff

Nikon D700 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/125 sec, f/2, ISO 5000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Serious Business
for the driver

He did that a few times, but with the parade over, the wait was getting longer and longer. Eventually we wandered around and found a little roller-coaster tucked into a far corner of ToonTown that had no wait at all.

Nikon D700 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/8 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
First Roller-Coaster Ride
with that great Tck-Tck-Tck-Tck ratchet sound as you're brought to the top of the first hill

Nikon D700 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/25 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Photography for Dummies
on a flying roller-coaster

Anthony loved it.

Like I said, it was really empty in this off-the-main-drag corner of the park. We'd had the whole coaster to ourselves, and as we pulled into the “station”, only two people were waiting. I thought we'd just go again, but the moronic robot staff said no.... we had to get out, walk all the way around through the entrance and the long twisty passageway designed to keep 500 people placated while in line, then wait for the next coaster to arrive. Ridiculous.

The coaster that arrived when we got there again was empty... they'd rather run an empty coaster than to let people actually enjoy it. I guess the whole concept of “enjoyment without waiting” is antithesis to the whole Disneyland experience (and, indeed, we didn't run into this “problem” again during our two-day visit to the park).

We rode (and ran) several times, and one last time I stayed behind to try to get a picture. I could barely see to focus (there was no way auto-focus would work), so I just took a guess.... and failed. But you can still get a sense of the joy in Anthony's face, in the front car with Mommy...

Nikon D700 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/100 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Nikon D700 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/25 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Swoosh
if you look carefully, you can actually see him in this one as well

Eventually the park closed, and we took the monorail the five-minute ride to one of the on-site hotels. The five-minute ride cost the same as an hour-plus train ride from Kyoto to Osaka.

Nikon D700 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/250 sec, f/2, ISO 1400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Up Way Past His Bed Time

We stayed at the Disneyland Hilton, which provides very slow service, rooms that aren't too run down, and prices that are 5× what they would be anywhere else.

Fumie had reserved a room that was supposed to be some kind of magical experience for kids, and indeed the elevator lobby had some interesting scenes painted on the walls. The room extras left a bit to be desired, though, with the highlight being this black box on the wall with a big rubber/wood “key”...

Nikon D700 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/250 sec, f/2, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
About To Get Magical

When inserted and turned, the shamrock lights up and a bell chimes.

Nikon D700 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/250 sec, f/2, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Magical!
( not )

Woohoo. The big orange shirt-jammies thing was also provided, and he liked that, too.

Anyway, most any hotel in the world will allow you to store your bags after you check out, such as if you wanted to visit Disneyland without all your luggage before heading home. The Disneyland Hilton does not provide this service, at any price; I guess with a room rate of “only” $450/night for a semi-shabby room, they feel we should count ourselves lucky merely to be there. (Rolls eyes). I grew up at a time when a hotel was $20, so that's sort of my benchmark, and my head spins thinking about spending $450 for a week, much less a day, and it just about explodes when I compare the slightly-below-bland room we got here with, say, the less expensive and 1,000× better “Deluxe Executive Suite” at the Four Seasons in Whistler, Canada that we stayed at last year.

Sigh. Anyway, knowing that I'd have to schlep all the luggage around the park the next day, I went light on camera stuff, bringing only my D700 (without the vertical grip that I normally keep on it), the 18-200VR lens that I hadn't used since a camping trip a year ago May, and the aforementioned Sigma 30mm f/1.4.

NOTE: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.

So, I'm finally starting to get settled back down after getting a new computer and completely rearranging the physical and electrical layout of my home office and home network (the latter with Apple's AirPort Extreme, the best consumer router I have ever seen, by orders of magnitude). I've still got a ways to go, but at least I'm up with Lightroom and processing photos again.

A week ago we went on a short overnight trip... here are some photos on the way there...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 70 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 5000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Waiting for the Bullet Train
Shinkansen Platform #12, Kyoto Station

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 80 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/5, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
Trying To Get a Better View

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 105 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/5.3, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
Here It Comes
but he's looking the wrong way!

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 18 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/5, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ahhh, One From Each Direction
crossing right in front, no less

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 18 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/5, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Three Little Ice Creams
At 245kph (150mph)

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 48 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/5, ISO 3200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Letting it Thaw a Bit

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 18 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/5, ISO 4000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Changing Trains
at one of the largest, most busy train stations in the world

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 75 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
People Mover

Nikon D700 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/250 sec, f/3.5, ISO 3200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Passing Time on Another Train
drawing a Star-Wars-esq galactic battle

Nikon D700 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/250 sec, f/3.5, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Exiting at the Destination Station

I'll leave it for the next post to reveal our final destination, though I've left subtle clues in this post that only the most attentive, intelligent, and good-looking readers will have any hope of deciphering.

NOTE: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.

So, I'm still getting set up and settled in with my new Mac, and thought I'd share one item I came across. I found that a smattering of web sites were very sluggish — hanging when trying to resolve their names or fetch pages and such — with both Firefox and Safari on the new Mac, while at the same time they were fine from my Windows box.

I'm not sure how I figured it out, but I found that in Firefox's about:config manual settings area, if I change network.dns.disableIPv6 from the default false to true, everything was fine in Firefox. I generally don't use Safari, so am not sure whether it has similar configurations.

I'm not a network engineer and this is not my area of knowledge, so I don't know whether this relates to my computer, my home network/router, or my ISP, but it solved sporadic problems I was seeing on both my Mac Pro hard-wired desktop and WiFi-connected MacBook laptop.

There are some Mac annoyances that I have not figured out, so I'll list them here to solicit ideas..

• I can't figure out how to put a border around a Terminal window. OSX currently provides a drop shadow to isolate it from whatever it's above, but it's invisible if the background color of the Terminal is black, and the window it's partially over is also black (such as when two Terminal windows overlap). This is maddening... you can't see where one window ends and another begins. Being able to set a 1px border around the window would completely solve everything, but they don't seem to allow for it. Maybe I should run xterms, which have allowed for it for almost 20 years.

• Every time I download something and try to install it, I get the pablum "you downloaded this from the Internet... did you ask your Mommy and Daddy whether it's okay to run it?" dialog. Is there a way to tell OSX that I'm a big boy and disable this annoyance?

• You can cancel out of most dialogs in Windows by pressing the ESC key, a convenience I've grown to enjoy. Is there some kind of magic setting in OSX that enables this behavior?

Thoughts on any of these, or other tips and tricks, would be appreciated.