The reason it affects so many including myself at times is that the internet is a perfect example of Pavlov’s Dogs Expieriments. You may recall that is when– Dr. Pavlov would ring a bell every time he fed some lab dogs food.  He then found out that he could make them salivate after a while just ringing a bell with no food given. Further and more interesting is the fact that  if he rang the bell but did  not every time he feed them the salivation response for the bell ring would even be stronger. This fact maybe why the internet may be so addictive. You may not find what you want every time you look on the internet so the desire and response to go to the Internet is even stronger. This is the same pavlov training as when he rang a bell not all the time and found that dogs response was the stronger than if he rang the bell everytime they received food. You may not find the answer and be rewarded on the first search or the romance you want on the dating site or the nice person to chat with. All of  this is intermittent so the pavolvian response is strong. Take facebook for example you do not get a message everytime you look….but the fact that you will eventually get a message or comment keeps you coming back. Strong Pavolivian Training here.

Now what prompted me to write about this was an interesting device I saw on YouTube. This thing may solve all our romance problems across the world. The Japanese have now invented a device which allows you to kiss someone across the internet. WOW think of the possibilities from here ……

My thoughts on this are pretty simple. What is this? Are we starting to all live in a virtual world where human to human contact is no longer needed?  Perhaps we are. So my worry as a Plastic Surgeon is if we no longer have to actually see each other in person then appearance may not matter so much anymore ?  If you are only meeting people virtually , or living in the internet world then the computer can take your image and project any one you want it to. It can turn a guy into a girl as far as the other side of the connection will see. So my fear is will I have a job in few years???

Well I am saying this in half jest but looks like we are heading there.

If you do not believe me check out this YouTube Video.

Check Out Video here.

Doctor808

Akhihabara also known as Electric City or Otaku town is famous because of the electronic industry and animae (animated characters like sailor moon) that fills the town. An Otaku used to be a derogatory word which was a negative description for some weird computer geek. These Otaku were famous for anti -social behavior and living in computer world. A entire section of Tokyo has developed about this. Most famous is the maids cafe s in the area. To understand this you really have to see that. I have been and what it basically is cute very young japanese girls dressed as 19th century maids or some modification of that who greet you as “Master” and serve you in such a way. They have coffee cake and play games like rock -paper -scissors. They also get on the stage and sing songs laugh etc with all the Otaku’s in the crowd.

It seems many of these true Otaku’s do not have much human interaction,  so when they come to the maid cafe’s its a real treat. I noted some very very strange people there and not just young men or older men but some woman. One in fact was talking to herself an obvious mentally ill individual and another male had pictures of all the maids on his hat and seemed to be a regular. Very strange indeed. Well the maid cafe is I believe is an out growth of this entire virtual world of computers. In this world you can be somewhat anything you want and I have spent some time reading blogs and other venues and actually myself developed an entire virtual world “plastic surgery isle” a few years ago as part of a project and fun too. I owened a cafe called Hell’s cafe and had a staff of 14 Japanese Waitresses all virtual in a 3 d world. It was quite fascinating actually and I think the internet will advance to that more later. I stopped the project as it was clear we it would show not profit as an advertising venue just yet. I believe it will later.

Virtual Plastic Surgery World Created by me 2007

Sometimes I see things on the internet which are rather sad and I see people who are escape and live so much in the internet they loose touch with normal values and etiquette. Its easy to do because of what may be perceived as a shield of anonymity.

The use of such shield brings out certain characteristics I believe which are somewhere in core. The bad side of this is there is no true anonymity on the internet and all information can and at times is found. Employers such as myself will many times look up information on people who apply for a job on the internet and we are not just talking about a google search, there are very sophisticated programs which will search and find out much what appears to be hidden information.

Well that aside there is so much to come in the future of virtual worlds and Akehabara , Japan is one place it will be seen to grow,

The meaning for plastic surgery is yet to be seen but my early experiment was enlightening. I will eventually start again into this venue but for now we need to stick to more traditional web marketing.

As soon as I can will be bringing you more information about vairous meetings we have planned both for the Web Development Firm and Plastic Surgery Practice. As example we have another meeting in Tokyo next week for cosmetic surgery where we will be launching a new web based product one of AiMiYo’s programmers has recently finished. We have two more meetings plannned this summer primarily for the web company but in the fall its back to China for a cosmetic surgery conference.

Seems my name has become some what known in China as a teacher of cosmetic surgery. This picture of a chinese web site below has me featured but as far as what it says I have no idea.

Dr Pasquale Featured In China

Speaking of China there simply is not enough time to write about that place in my schedule yet I have so many photos and events there to discuss.

I promise in the future I will write more detail , yet for now I will simply say as far as cosmetic surgery goes—-look east its going to be a huge wave coming. As this society grows more affluent consumer demand is growing for such services.

Our plastic surgery chinese web is developed and completed.

Well that is all I have time for now. I have to get ready for the Japanese conference next week.

Until next time

Doctor808

Dr. Michael Pasquale CEO AiMIYO LTD

Well I have been exceptionally busy over these holidays with some business issues other than Plastic Surgery. The office has been closed which has given me some time to put into my web development business personally rather than delegate. As many of you know and as my title of this blog states I am web designer and Internet geek. The team I have assembled and our web company is very unique. From the start we decided one of our area of expertise would be multilingual web sites. I would also add another important point which is that we believe that multilingual is not enough. A translation of a web page is not enough   because what is a web site  but a sales and marketing doorway. Even if the company we represent is not a classical sales of products type company,  it is still about sales. This means any company wants the web site we build to represent them in a most positive light. So in that sense it is selling an image to the viewer.

As I mentioned, multicultural- not simply translation of language. So what I mean by that is when we put a companies words into another language we do not just translate the words , but make the cultural message adjust to our audience as well. This is very important because the sensibilities of the Chinese for example , may not be the same as the French so the way material is presented may change , not just the words.

When we design a web site for different languages  our company AiMiYo LTD has the translation staff and the design staff from the culture (country ) on board with us  as a team approach. This multilingual, multicultural team is what makes our web sites different I believe. Please follow us as this grows. We are now building our new company web site at www.aimiyo.com for english, and in Japanese at www.aimiyo.jp. We will be adding languages over the next year such as Chinese , Korean , French and other  European languages as well.

Until next time

doctor808

Recently,  I hijacked my cosmetic surgery friend’s ( in Tokyo)  –Mixi.jp  account. I did this for various reasons , one being that since I have a web development firm that works in all cultures and languages I wanted to gain an understanding of this. Secondly,  its very hard to get your own mixi.jp account unless you have a Japanese cell phone so I just stole his. Sorry Taka.

Mixi by the way is a Facebook on steroids , for those of you who want some understanding of this. It has a login page which list , your profile , friends and what your friends are saying in their blogs. The blog summary  is a very popular item. If you see something interesting you can click and follow that persons journal. There is one the big differences I noticed between the myspace type things and the facebooks of the world and Mixi. The Japanese take their blogs very seriously and there are millions of them. Many Japanese house wives entire world seem to be blog-o-centric.

One other thing I noted is that “everyone is paranoid” which means that not only are the internal security controls very tight,  but most people unlike Face book or Myspace will not put their own picture up. Its Iconic images or many men for example will have woman’s pictures as theirs probably of some models. Also of course there are  the Japanese Pokeman type images seen,  as well as flowers , fruits vegetables etc. This makes it difficult to tell who you are clicking on. In my case its even more difficult because I do not read Hiragana, Katakana or Kanji,  as of this date. So I spend half my time with translation software trying to guess what they are saying. This can be most difficult. Take for example the case of a place called First Kitchen which is a food store in Japan. The Japanese have a funny habit of abbreviating many things so they shorten the words– like Family Mart becomes Fami-ma. Well according to some sources First Kitchen becomes ” fukkin” when they speak abbreviated format. So as you are reading someone’s blog it is feasible that they say ” My friend and I went fukkin”. Sorry for that,  but it illustrates my point of possible miscommunication very well. So when I translate I do not get the full meaning of the blogs.

最初の台所  or  パイズリ I apologize to those offended,  but I think I have this right.

I am also informing you that unless you know Japanese well you probally will not make any friends. I have two friends, my  Japanese web designer and someone who I have no idea or what they are.

The other interesting thing is you can see who visited your page unlike facebook or myspace. I for example was like an elephant in a china shop clicked around not even know what I was clicking and someone told me their friend asked them why I left my footprint? Perhaps they thought I was a trouble maker?  At any rate I suppose one must be senistive to these issues.

Overall I like this mixi. From a web development point of view I did see some advertisments from some cosmetic surgeons and other things. I dont know if viral type marketing like one can see in Youtube or Myspace is possible. Yet I think is see some value but not like in American Social Media.

I have not discussed with my Japanese associate yet but at some point we will find an answer with regard to using Mixi.jp as a marketing tool for our clients. As far as plastic surgery marketing–well like I said I did see two Japanese cosmetic surgeons advertise. I will keep you updated in any significant issues of Mixi but dont expect much until I can learn more Japanese language.

Doctor 808

This is one route there are many path

As mentioned I will keep you abreast of my training progress. Today was an excellent day to incorporate into to my training schedule. I do not care for jogging or running so I need cardio work out another way. One is the monster stair master, which I am up to 15 minutes at level 10 now. Yet I like a more enduring type of cardio which is more pleasant. So today  I added another exercise to my weekly regiment. I cannot train Muay Thai on Tuesdays and Thursdays because I go to my Japanese class, so I decided to Bicycle to work. This will be between 5 and 8 miles one way depending on what route is taken.  The total time is about 45 minutes at a good clip. So riding to work, then to Japanese class and then to home is about 12 or 13 miles and takes a total time of 2 hours. This is because of significant hills.

The hills are fun and one must use their body weight to get up these hills. I am no Lance Armstrong,  but I  can take a hill fairly well. The cardio from this adds color to your skin and gives one the very healthy appearance as the blood vessels dilate up.

One thing that I note about such a ride is that you notice so much more around you then when driving in a car. Especially here in Hawaii the air is so fresh and evening is so peaceful with tropical breeze blowing. We will add this to our weekly routine.

Doctor808

First let me review the first leg of the journey and share with you how I do these trips and maybe you can learn from my misadventures. Well I like Japan Airlines, service is good, movies are good and I have never had a problem in  the years I have flown with them. My wife likes them as well and since she makes most travel arrangements we do that one. In trips where she does not go she still does that one for me. 

When I travel I always wear shoes that can come on and off quickly because of security here in the USA. They always make us take off ours shoes. So I have serveral sets of shoes which are like slippers designed much like operating room shoes. These are pictured below. These shoes are made in Italy. I use them in the operating room as well for my plastic surgery cases.

Shoes in TSA basket for X-Ray

These are easy to slip on and off.  They are comfortable to wear and you can take them off easy during the plane ride easy as well. These surgeon shoes can be ordered online. Then  we get inspected by the TSA guy as shown looking at my stuff with blue gloves on. The line went quickly and then on to Japan. I fall asleep or watch movies is how I kill time. I like to stay over at least a night or two in Japan to break up the long flight to Thailand. I like Japan for the food and culture so I soak that up when there. I have very good plastic surgery buddy in Tokyo as well, so we usually visit.

The Narita express is the train from Narita airport to Shinjuku Station as I like to stay near there. Easy access to many places from Shinjuku. It takes about 90 minutes to get to Shinjuku. When you leave the Shinjuku station the sounds are city and rush of people all around. I like that!

sign in Japan

Well Japan is excellent place for observing people trying new food and looking at a culture which is really different than the west. One minute you will see kimono clad woman and the next thing you will see a Obama Costume hanging in store. I could write about Japan for ever as its so Henano!

Obama Costume in Shinjuku Store

Muay Thai Fight Thailand

I have tickets , passport and laptop. I have clothes clean underwear and what I need for living. Ok i think I am ready .

Well what I need to do when I travel is three things

1. Learn new techniques or discuss old ones with plastic surgery colleagues in other parts of the world.

2. Spend time working online with my web development company, serveral meetings planned in Thailand to hire some new employees. 

3. Check out some new gyms for Muay Thai training and attend my regular gym in Thailand.

A cosmetic surgeon in Korea who does botox in chin "a chemical chin implant?"

Many of my staff say well the doctor is on “vacation”. This is certainly not true , as all my travel is working time away from the office. I own a web development company so I spend much of my time meeting with people about this. I spend  time planning , catching up on company emails, with clients and our company employees around the world.  The techniques I learn about I bring back to my practice such as the one I learned from the above Korean cosmetic surgeon which is to place a small amount of botox in the mentalis muscles which relaxes it can gives the appearance of a larger chin. Thus a “chemical chin implant” . So these journeys are always helpful to my patients here in Hawaii.

Crowded Streets from High Rise View

This journey will be a little different in that I will write about my travel in detail on this blog and perhaps it can be if some use to other travelers. The secret to good travel in my mind is to continue learning and what i do most days here in Hawaii only in a different location. You become refreshed and your mind is stimulated. I suppose others take the complete vacation , get away approach to travel but somehow I have never been able to do that, I start to feel guilty i suppose. My way to travel works for me. 

Well now I have last minute things to get done as I leave in less than 15 hours. I will let you know as I go along.

doctor 808

My Kru Doug Owens

My Muay Thai coach is a funny guy. It is 4:30 pm and I am on my way to my Japanese Language class and I see I have a voice mail on my iphone. I check that voice mail and its my coach. ….  “Give me a call”   -Ok I call him back and only a few words were said..”Doc I want you to fight next month”.  I answer : “Ok coach no problem” ,  that means I have 6 weeks to really turn on the training….6 weeks plenty of time.

Coach : ” how much you weigh now? “   “I weigh 190 lbs coach”- at 5 feet 10 inches…..not bad, but I fight at 180lbs. Next thing he says is  “ok doc lose ten pounds I want  you to fight at 180″ .

Thats easy I think,  ten pounds in 6 weeks not hard ?  Plenty of time , get ready for fight next month, June is 4 weeks away and the fight is about 6 weeks away. Right?

Now for the surprise. The inevitable twist in plot or the turn in events. I failed to notice one thing,  today is April 31st !!  So here it comes  ”Oh doc the fight is in 9 days , you know next month is May”–great great great—that is insane to get ready for a fight in 9 days. I mean when I was 20 maybe , but at my age now —-its going to be a challenge.  I have to lose ten punds in 6 or 7 days. @#$%^&*()_+!!

Let me think. What is ten poiunds?

Well here are two pictures. which come to mind.

Fighting weight of 180 lbs

The above picture is what I look like when I am in  fighting shape. The picture below is what  I look when I am fat like now–So I think the idea is to look like the guy above rather that the guy below—all in less than 9 days according to my Kru. He is a funny guy indeed!!

Me now at 190lbs

Coach being patient-Mr Nice