The state of gender equality in Japan can be summed up in this video of "Eigo de Asobou" or, "Let's play in English."
Here.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Stream of Consc-...Nope, Politics.
Another week has come and gone, and I don't really know what to write about now. Another stream-of-consciousness entry? Ok.
I use WolframAlpha for cool things. It's pretty cool. I only wish it had a list of functions on the side, because I don't think I'm using it to it's full capabilities yet. I do like that it includes how far the weather-station is that it pulls data from when I ask for the weather. I don't trust most weather sites because they just don't tell you that info.
Speaking of trust, and lack thereof, let's talk government, briefly. I'm a "damned liberal." As opposed to conservatives, who don't have such readily-available labels (I call discrimination!). So, obviously, I am disappointed with some of the recent happenings. I am also (still) disappointed with humans. And when you put the two of them together...ok, where to begin. Let's start with humans, for no particular reason. Well, maybe we'll start with Americans. X > 50% of the people lack the ability for long-term thinking (fancily known as delayed gratification). If our elected official isn't automatically doing well (or their party isn't) and hasn't fixed all of our problems, automatically kick him out and replaced him with someone who hasn't disappointed us yet. When they fail to fix everything, just kick them out, and elect another guy. Let's take that whole theory of mine, and label it as "A."
Next, we have politics. I just want to scream at the Democrats! Abandoning the Health Bill because they lost their supermajority by 1 seat. To roughly paraphrase from memory Jon Stewart's succinct analysis, "Hey, Democrats, you still have more senate seats...than George W. Bush ever had in the Senate when he did whatever the fuck he wanted to." (Here, you can find the clip at the bottom of this page, because I'm nice enough of a guy to look it up online). Granted, things are a little more complicated than that, Bush didn't have 100% of the opposing party always voting against him. But then, I find it hard to imagine that 100% of the republican senators fully disagree with everything Obama is doing. Hmmm... Wait a sec, I've found the secret to this game! Dear God, just put away all of your actual preferences and vote across party lines! I'm actually not kidding. Hey, Democrats, Republicans are willing to do so every single time an important vote comes up, why can't you do the same? For the love of- just forget about all of your whining on what is fair and what isn't fair, you can change those things AFTER the bill is passed and huge reform is working through. I obviously haven't read the bill, just like most Americans and portions of the government haven't, but I would imagine that a less-flawed, new system, is better than a hugely flawed, 16% of GDP behemoth (taken from wiki, and the first couple of links in google, which hopefully aren't all colluding together against us, oh critical one). You know what, while you're at it, pass through a few more bills with your supermajority. The longer you spend going back and forth over the bill, the fewer and fewer Americans will like it. So, just push it through, stop wasting time, and fix it after you are 100% sure it will take effect. You know what, people aren't going to like it at first, but I bet, if it does even half of what you are saying it will, that people will begin to like it after they are done being angry about it. In case you aren't clear, I am arguing, willingly, for Democrats to stop being the bigger person, and step (very far) down to the level of Republicans, if they want to get anything done. Just this once? Then you can go back to, oh, how did Jon Stewart put it again, something about a nurse's office and glue... Ok, take all of that and label it B.
So, in short, we have this new equation: A + B = extremely frustrating for me. Oh wait, as of this morning, there's a C! Great, now corporations can directly influence even more in our lives, now that they "have similar rights to individuals to participate in elections." So, A + B + C = over the top frustration. For Mr. Glenn Beck, in the 0.01% chance you read this blog, I just- I just miss my America. *tear* There's a whole group of people who are destroying the America I grew up in. *tear, close-up shot of watery eyes* They keep saying they are the "real America," but the real America I grew up in doesn't like guns so much or drive huge gas-guzzling cars.
Ok, that stream-of-consciousness post got really political all of a sudden. And, I'll end it there, as I've said enough on the topic for now.
End
I use WolframAlpha for cool things. It's pretty cool. I only wish it had a list of functions on the side, because I don't think I'm using it to it's full capabilities yet. I do like that it includes how far the weather-station is that it pulls data from when I ask for the weather. I don't trust most weather sites because they just don't tell you that info.
Speaking of trust, and lack thereof, let's talk government, briefly. I'm a "damned liberal." As opposed to conservatives, who don't have such readily-available labels (I call discrimination!). So, obviously, I am disappointed with some of the recent happenings. I am also (still) disappointed with humans. And when you put the two of them together...ok, where to begin. Let's start with humans, for no particular reason. Well, maybe we'll start with Americans. X > 50% of the people lack the ability for long-term thinking (fancily known as delayed gratification). If our elected official isn't automatically doing well (or their party isn't) and hasn't fixed all of our problems, automatically kick him out and replaced him with someone who hasn't disappointed us yet. When they fail to fix everything, just kick them out, and elect another guy. Let's take that whole theory of mine, and label it as "A."
Next, we have politics. I just want to scream at the Democrats! Abandoning the Health Bill because they lost their supermajority by 1 seat. To roughly paraphrase from memory Jon Stewart's succinct analysis, "Hey, Democrats, you still have more senate seats...than George W. Bush ever had in the Senate when he did whatever the fuck he wanted to." (Here, you can find the clip at the bottom of this page, because I'm nice enough of a guy to look it up online). Granted, things are a little more complicated than that, Bush didn't have 100% of the opposing party always voting against him. But then, I find it hard to imagine that 100% of the republican senators fully disagree with everything Obama is doing. Hmmm... Wait a sec, I've found the secret to this game! Dear God, just put away all of your actual preferences and vote across party lines! I'm actually not kidding. Hey, Democrats, Republicans are willing to do so every single time an important vote comes up, why can't you do the same? For the love of- just forget about all of your whining on what is fair and what isn't fair, you can change those things AFTER the bill is passed and huge reform is working through. I obviously haven't read the bill, just like most Americans and portions of the government haven't, but I would imagine that a less-flawed, new system, is better than a hugely flawed, 16% of GDP behemoth (taken from wiki, and the first couple of links in google, which hopefully aren't all colluding together against us, oh critical one). You know what, while you're at it, pass through a few more bills with your supermajority. The longer you spend going back and forth over the bill, the fewer and fewer Americans will like it. So, just push it through, stop wasting time, and fix it after you are 100% sure it will take effect. You know what, people aren't going to like it at first, but I bet, if it does even half of what you are saying it will, that people will begin to like it after they are done being angry about it. In case you aren't clear, I am arguing, willingly, for Democrats to stop being the bigger person, and step (very far) down to the level of Republicans, if they want to get anything done. Just this once? Then you can go back to, oh, how did Jon Stewart put it again, something about a nurse's office and glue... Ok, take all of that and label it B.
So, in short, we have this new equation: A + B = extremely frustrating for me. Oh wait, as of this morning, there's a C! Great, now corporations can directly influence even more in our lives, now that they "have similar rights to individuals to participate in elections." So, A + B + C = over the top frustration. For Mr. Glenn Beck, in the 0.01% chance you read this blog, I just- I just miss my America. *tear* There's a whole group of people who are destroying the America I grew up in. *tear, close-up shot of watery eyes* They keep saying they are the "real America," but the real America I grew up in doesn't like guns so much or drive huge gas-guzzling cars.
Ok, that stream-of-consciousness post got really political all of a sudden. And, I'll end it there, as I've said enough on the topic for now.
End
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Nonsense
Ladies and Gentlemen, this post is spoken for. I promised a friend of mine that the next post would be directly influenced by him. In order to protect his identity from the feral Chinese hackers who hate activists , I will not put his name, but instead use the much manlier Vagbar Korst. I will try to write this in a style different from my usual in the hopes that it will appeal to this non-named friend.
Vagbar studied manliness at the University of Man, on the Isle of Man. However, he was born so manly that he graduated on his first day of arriving, with a double-major in manthematics and philmanthropy. Accordingly, he was offered a teaching position at the university, but turned in down, as he didn't have enough time between wrasslin' alligators and boxing bears to teach. Every day he drank 3 jugs of cider, and every day he made important decisions in a confident manner.
Yes, Vagbar seemed to live a charmed life. According to the laws of manliness, which seemed to obey his every whim, he dominated in many areas.
But, his manliness came at a price. He was unabashedly aggressive. He had a tough, macho outer skin that hid his true, sensitive, unconfident, and unstable inner self. And, most tragically, he could not control that highest pinnacle of manliness, the hair on his chest.
"At this rate, he has only 9 days left to live" the doctor gravely said. Vagbar's many children, surrounding his bed, shuddered. Vagbar laughed. "His chest hair will slowly strangle him until he is unable to receive enough oxygen. And there is nothing we can do about it."
"But, can't you cut it, or tie it up somehow," a child asked.
"No, young Billy, we've tried diamond-plated chainsaws and we can't even make a dent, there is no hope. No. Hope."
Vagbar cackled at this. "Yar! When death comes, I'mma grab it by it's brittle little bones and use it's own leg to beat it. Then, I'mma take that tharn sickle and carve it an intricatedectedly (he sputtered on this polysyllabic word), intricitically- I'm gonna carve it a trashcan out of it's own bones, and put it's cloak inside, then use it as a thunderbucket!" Vagbar continued rambling, switching to even less coherent vocabulary until he was a murmur of thinly veiled threats against the grim reaper. A very manly vein of anger started popping from the side of his forehead.
8 days left. Vagbar hereby named them the 8 Days of Manliness, in which he would perform great feats of masculinity, until he defeated death as his ultimate feat. On the 1st day, he climbed Mount Everest, then jumped back to the bottom. Bored, and still with 18 hours left in the day, Vagbar proceeded to fight the mountain with one arm tied behind his back. He knocked the mountain into the pacific ocean with his left hook, and now we call that island Guam.
On the 2nd day, Vagbar wooed all of the women in the entire world, and then turned all of them down because none of them were strong enough to raise one of his children. He then had tea in the middle of the Saharan dessert, just because he could.
And so, Vagbar continued his 8 days of manliness, until every super-manly deed had been completed. He moved buildings, ate copious amounts of food and drink, wore differing types of cologne, and did incredibly foolish acts. He even forced himself into the dictionary, where his picture would be the definition for manliness for years to come. No, for eternity. No, for eternity + 1. His achievements would more than stand the test of time, they would define time.
Finally, his chest hair became too much for him, and he began to choke on that last day. Yet, his choke was manly! Wild animals all over the world heard his guttural cries and bowed their heads in his direction. Then, the moment of reckoning came. Death, on his black chariot, with his black, featureless dog, came riding towards him.
It came of wheels of pure destruction and fire! The brimstone carriage, with neatly trimmed curtains and racing decals, rushed forwards on a cushion of hot air. Death's bone-white smile, accented by all of the bones, widened.
"Finally, your time has come," it cackled. "We have been waiting for you for a long time."
"I gave your mother a long time!" Vagbar screamed his most manly of one-liners, and charged death's chariot.
{Warning, what happened here was so gruesome and manly that the author had to forgo description in order to maintain the sanity of his readers}
Vagbar held Death's pearly white fingers in one hand, while he felt the chill of its palm on his heart. He should have realized that death's leg, ripped off and used to beat it into submission, would have hidden rockets in the femur. It was Death he was dealing with, not any normal skeleton. That explosion temporarily disoriented him, and now here he was, with Death's hands on his heart.
"It's over, Vagbar, you are coming with me." The skeleton's raspy voice echoed in his skull. Vagbar hunched over, it appeared his energy was draining from his heart through death's hand. His mind churned back through the years, a flashback of epic, nay, god-like proportions. He thought about his toddler days, when he first started lifting weights in repetitive movements, like other manly men. Then, his pre-teen days, when he discarded books in favor of arm-wrestling lions. His teenage days, when he decided angst wasn't manly enough, and punched it in the gut, wounding it and giving 1/2 of the teenage population an identity crisis. He continued to think and ponder, until he realized he was drawing strength from his manly memories. He began to straighten, confident in his waxing strength. He grabbed Death's wrist and pulled it out of his chest. Then, he lifted Death and threw him into the chariot. The wheels, made of a polyurethane blend of destruction and fire, imploded with the strength of 3 atomic bombs. Minutes later, Death, regretting investing in the wheels made of a polyurethane blend of destruction and fire, landed on the ground next to Vagbar.
Vagbar looked down. "YARRRR! I win," he said. Death, too stunned to move, acceded. After awhile, it slowly crawled through the ground, back to the underworld.
Vagbar looked around. He didn't know where he was. The cold landscape around him was barren but for a few mountains in the background. Another dimension perhaps? In the end, it didn't matter, there was only one thing he knew; regardless of where he was, there were manly feats to be done, and he was gonna do them.
The, End
Vagbar studied manliness at the University of Man, on the Isle of Man. However, he was born so manly that he graduated on his first day of arriving, with a double-major in manthematics and philmanthropy. Accordingly, he was offered a teaching position at the university, but turned in down, as he didn't have enough time between wrasslin' alligators and boxing bears to teach. Every day he drank 3 jugs of cider, and every day he made important decisions in a confident manner.
Yes, Vagbar seemed to live a charmed life. According to the laws of manliness, which seemed to obey his every whim, he dominated in many areas.
But, his manliness came at a price. He was unabashedly aggressive. He had a tough, macho outer skin that hid his true, sensitive, unconfident, and unstable inner self. And, most tragically, he could not control that highest pinnacle of manliness, the hair on his chest.
"At this rate, he has only 9 days left to live" the doctor gravely said. Vagbar's many children, surrounding his bed, shuddered. Vagbar laughed. "His chest hair will slowly strangle him until he is unable to receive enough oxygen. And there is nothing we can do about it."
"But, can't you cut it, or tie it up somehow," a child asked.
"No, young Billy, we've tried diamond-plated chainsaws and we can't even make a dent, there is no hope. No. Hope."
Vagbar cackled at this. "Yar! When death comes, I'mma grab it by it's brittle little bones and use it's own leg to beat it. Then, I'mma take that tharn sickle and carve it an intricatedectedly (he sputtered on this polysyllabic word), intricitically- I'm gonna carve it a trashcan out of it's own bones, and put it's cloak inside, then use it as a thunderbucket!" Vagbar continued rambling, switching to even less coherent vocabulary until he was a murmur of thinly veiled threats against the grim reaper. A very manly vein of anger started popping from the side of his forehead.
8 days left. Vagbar hereby named them the 8 Days of Manliness, in which he would perform great feats of masculinity, until he defeated death as his ultimate feat. On the 1st day, he climbed Mount Everest, then jumped back to the bottom. Bored, and still with 18 hours left in the day, Vagbar proceeded to fight the mountain with one arm tied behind his back. He knocked the mountain into the pacific ocean with his left hook, and now we call that island Guam.
On the 2nd day, Vagbar wooed all of the women in the entire world, and then turned all of them down because none of them were strong enough to raise one of his children. He then had tea in the middle of the Saharan dessert, just because he could.
And so, Vagbar continued his 8 days of manliness, until every super-manly deed had been completed. He moved buildings, ate copious amounts of food and drink, wore differing types of cologne, and did incredibly foolish acts. He even forced himself into the dictionary, where his picture would be the definition for manliness for years to come. No, for eternity. No, for eternity + 1. His achievements would more than stand the test of time, they would define time.
Finally, his chest hair became too much for him, and he began to choke on that last day. Yet, his choke was manly! Wild animals all over the world heard his guttural cries and bowed their heads in his direction. Then, the moment of reckoning came. Death, on his black chariot, with his black, featureless dog, came riding towards him.
It came of wheels of pure destruction and fire! The brimstone carriage, with neatly trimmed curtains and racing decals, rushed forwards on a cushion of hot air. Death's bone-white smile, accented by all of the bones, widened.
"Finally, your time has come," it cackled. "We have been waiting for you for a long time."
"I gave your mother a long time!" Vagbar screamed his most manly of one-liners, and charged death's chariot.
{Warning, what happened here was so gruesome and manly that the author had to forgo description in order to maintain the sanity of his readers}
Vagbar held Death's pearly white fingers in one hand, while he felt the chill of its palm on his heart. He should have realized that death's leg, ripped off and used to beat it into submission, would have hidden rockets in the femur. It was Death he was dealing with, not any normal skeleton. That explosion temporarily disoriented him, and now here he was, with Death's hands on his heart.
"It's over, Vagbar, you are coming with me." The skeleton's raspy voice echoed in his skull. Vagbar hunched over, it appeared his energy was draining from his heart through death's hand. His mind churned back through the years, a flashback of epic, nay, god-like proportions. He thought about his toddler days, when he first started lifting weights in repetitive movements, like other manly men. Then, his pre-teen days, when he discarded books in favor of arm-wrestling lions. His teenage days, when he decided angst wasn't manly enough, and punched it in the gut, wounding it and giving 1/2 of the teenage population an identity crisis. He continued to think and ponder, until he realized he was drawing strength from his manly memories. He began to straighten, confident in his waxing strength. He grabbed Death's wrist and pulled it out of his chest. Then, he lifted Death and threw him into the chariot. The wheels, made of a polyurethane blend of destruction and fire, imploded with the strength of 3 atomic bombs. Minutes later, Death, regretting investing in the wheels made of a polyurethane blend of destruction and fire, landed on the ground next to Vagbar.
Vagbar looked down. "YARRRR! I win," he said. Death, too stunned to move, acceded. After awhile, it slowly crawled through the ground, back to the underworld.
Vagbar looked around. He didn't know where he was. The cold landscape around him was barren but for a few mountains in the background. Another dimension perhaps? In the end, it didn't matter, there was only one thing he knew; regardless of where he was, there were manly feats to be done, and he was gonna do them.
The, End
Monday, January 4, 2010
The 問題, as I see it.
In a drastic turn for this once dead and now revived (does that make it a zombie?) blog, I won't even mention a thing about Japan. I will throw in Japanese words, though, so get google set in the next tab. It seems my readership has died off, so now is the perfect time to write something a little more controversial.
The Problem with Problems.
The problem with problems is this: too many people rely on messages and morals as opposed to methods. I am thinking mostly of two areas: psychological problems and the way some religions tell us how we should live our lives. So, for example, if I am having a psychic problem, say I procrastinate too much, I think far too many people will stick with the message "I shouldn't be so lazy/I should get motivated/etc. etc. etc." that they repeat to themselves over and over, thinking it will somehow change them. Guess what, it won't. It frustrates me so much when I hear a friend or family member who is having a problem say "well, that's something I have to work on," and leave it at that. You don't know how to "work on it." Saying "I'm going to work on it" and not having a method is the equivalent of saying "I'll build a house" without the architectural plans. In order to fix things, you must have a method. And not just any method, but a psychologically approved (this means it went through rigorous meta-analysis) method. Without that, at best you will be less efficient in fixing your problem, at worst, you will make it even worse.
*Let me specify here that when I write about people who say "that's something I'll work on," I mean people who actually have identified a problem and truly want to work on it.
This concept is also extremely frustrating in the arena of religion and how it tells you to live your life. Obey the 10 commandments, listen to the stories of the apostles, do what Jesus/Muhammad would do. I am not making the argument that there aren't good messages in the stories of the bible. Some of the stories provide great narratives for an ideal of how one should live their life. BUT, again, it is providing you with a message, not a method. Be good. Don't covet thy neighbor's wife. Do this, do that, be this way, not that way. How? HOW? Us humans have this incredible amount of variation. I like pickles, Bill doesn't. Mary likes men, John likes women and men, Matt is into furry fandom. Putting aside the tangled mess of "what is it to be good?" and "what is 'right' and what is 'wrong' (which religions try, to varying degrees, to codify)," the method, the HOW, the "in what ways can I 'walk a mile in my neighbor's shoes (i.e. how can I be a compassionate human being)?'" is totally absent. In the best case scenario, people don't put much belief into religion and aren't affected by it. In the worst case scenario, people who strongly believe in their religion are doomed to never live up to the message, then "sinning," which leads to depression and/or more fervent, extremist beliefs.
I would like to take exception to Buddhism right now, because, from what I've read so far, it provides you with both a good message (extremely good, in my opinion), and methodS. There are many other religions I haven't researched or know much about, that may also fit into this category.
It seems that the main crux of my argument is this: From the message (religious texts, morals handed down by parents, etc.) alone we are unable to truly live a good life or solve a problem. We, by and large, do not have the capacity to spontaneously take the message and turn it into a good method.
*As you are reading this, oh cynical viewer hoping to catch the hyperbolic and extreme, keep in mind the following assumptions I used when writing this. 1) There are always exceptions. I am writing about a majority (X>50%) of the time. 2) Obviously people are able to live satisfying, healthy lives without needing specific methods to solve their problems. But, for those with any sort of problems in the 現在, the most efficient and least-harmful way to solve these problems is with a meta-analytically tested method. Furthermore, there is a distinction between living your life, and living your life in an optimal way for yourself and those around you (which, the author humbly thinks, is with compassion in the psychological/Buddhist sense of the word [both definitions are very close to one another]).
The Problem with Problems.
The problem with problems is this: too many people rely on messages and morals as opposed to methods. I am thinking mostly of two areas: psychological problems and the way some religions tell us how we should live our lives. So, for example, if I am having a psychic problem, say I procrastinate too much, I think far too many people will stick with the message "I shouldn't be so lazy/I should get motivated/etc. etc. etc." that they repeat to themselves over and over, thinking it will somehow change them. Guess what, it won't. It frustrates me so much when I hear a friend or family member who is having a problem say "well, that's something I have to work on," and leave it at that. You don't know how to "work on it." Saying "I'm going to work on it" and not having a method is the equivalent of saying "I'll build a house" without the architectural plans. In order to fix things, you must have a method. And not just any method, but a psychologically approved (this means it went through rigorous meta-analysis) method. Without that, at best you will be less efficient in fixing your problem, at worst, you will make it even worse.
*Let me specify here that when I write about people who say "that's something I'll work on," I mean people who actually have identified a problem and truly want to work on it.
This concept is also extremely frustrating in the arena of religion and how it tells you to live your life. Obey the 10 commandments, listen to the stories of the apostles, do what Jesus/Muhammad would do. I am not making the argument that there aren't good messages in the stories of the bible. Some of the stories provide great narratives for an ideal of how one should live their life. BUT, again, it is providing you with a message, not a method. Be good. Don't covet thy neighbor's wife. Do this, do that, be this way, not that way. How? HOW? Us humans have this incredible amount of variation. I like pickles, Bill doesn't. Mary likes men, John likes women and men, Matt is into furry fandom. Putting aside the tangled mess of "what is it to be good?" and "what is 'right' and what is 'wrong' (which religions try, to varying degrees, to codify)," the method, the HOW, the "in what ways can I 'walk a mile in my neighbor's shoes (i.e. how can I be a compassionate human being)?'" is totally absent. In the best case scenario, people don't put much belief into religion and aren't affected by it. In the worst case scenario, people who strongly believe in their religion are doomed to never live up to the message, then "sinning," which leads to depression and/or more fervent, extremist beliefs.
I would like to take exception to Buddhism right now, because, from what I've read so far, it provides you with both a good message (extremely good, in my opinion), and methodS. There are many other religions I haven't researched or know much about, that may also fit into this category.
It seems that the main crux of my argument is this: From the message (religious texts, morals handed down by parents, etc.) alone we are unable to truly live a good life or solve a problem. We, by and large, do not have the capacity to spontaneously take the message and turn it into a good method.
*As you are reading this, oh cynical viewer hoping to catch the hyperbolic and extreme, keep in mind the following assumptions I used when writing this. 1) There are always exceptions. I am writing about a majority (X>50%) of the time. 2) Obviously people are able to live satisfying, healthy lives without needing specific methods to solve their problems. But, for those with any sort of problems in the 現在, the most efficient and least-harmful way to solve these problems is with a meta-analytically tested method. Furthermore, there is a distinction between living your life, and living your life in an optimal way for yourself and those around you (which, the author humbly thinks, is with compassion in the psychological/Buddhist sense of the word [both definitions are very close to one another]).
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