Welcome Back, America

With the Democrats firmly in control of the House once again, and a close Senate race that I am hopeful will end in favor of the Democrats, the first in a series of strategic victories have been accomplished. However, it is not enough to be complacent with these victories. Instead, we must all take steps to ensure that the lessons of the past 6 years of negligence are learned, and learned well.

Periods of crisis tend to cast a harsh light on the mechanisms of governance that gave rise to them. It is by this light that the true failings of that mechanism can be seen. During the OJ Simpson trial, for instance, the politicization of the justice system and issues of race were clearly the culprits in a broken criminal justice process. Similarly, the past 6 years have been plagued by a number of crises, each with a lesson for us to learn.

The Iraq war was sold to an unwilling public on false grounds. The intelligence leading up to the invasion was incomplete, the planning was insufficient, and the public was fed complete lies as to it's execution. Originally sold as a war that would merely take a couple weeks, despite clear projections to the contrary, we are now looking at, by some estimations, 655,000 dead and, by all estimations, a political quagmire that has greatly tarnished the image of America throughout the world. Never again can we allow ourselves to take lightly the notion of going to war with another nation, nor can we give our political leaders a free pass to blatantly lie, manipulate us with fear, and commit criminal acts without being held accountable.

As scientific progress has again and again come into jeopardy due to the politicization of such issues as the teaching of evolution and stem-cell research, we clearly saw the way a decision-making body with less than even a rudimentary understanding of the field of study at stake was able to hinder scientific development. We must police ourselves to ensure that the roles of religion and political propaganda are kept separate from the scientific research that will fuel industry decades down the line, and that the proper education of our children is protected, ensuring that future generations of Americans will be prepared to compete in the world economy.

Finally, as voting scandals, smear campaigns, and bald-faced fraud have been commited in the past few elections, we as American citizens must make one thing very, very clear to the government that we allow to make decisions for us. Regardless of which side of the issue you fall on, the mechanisms of democracy are never an acceptable loss in advancing your own agenda. We've seen corporations such as Diebold provide grossly insecure voting systems, throwing the entire election process into disarray. We've seen Fox News mislabel unpopular Republicans as Democrats. There have been caging campaigns, disenfranchisement of voters in Democratic districts, and robo-calling campaigns to trick Democratic voters into thinking their own party leaders have been calling them over and over again in the middle of the night. These factors need to be removed from the equation. Corporate interests cannot be allowed to disassemble what we have worked so hard to build throughout our history. Blatant fraud cannot be allowed. The lies cannot go unexposed any longer.

In the coming years, we must not allow partisan politics to see these crises as anything other than what they truly are, horrific negligence. History must remember the Iraq war, the 2000 and 2004 elections, and the "Intelligent Design" campaign as examples of things that have gone horribly wrong in our society. We cannot forget these lessons. Changing our government to ensure that these problems do not happen again will not be easy, but the crises we have faced have thrown light onto them, and by examining those crises in profile, the solutions will present themselves. We must be free and democratic in acknowledging and repairing our own failures. I want to be proud to be an American once more.

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Green Amnesia: A Walk Through Harajuku

I know everybody has been patiently waiting for the second part of my Korea post, it's on the way soon! I had an interesting day yesterday though, so I just wanted to give everybody a little walkthrough. Days like yesterday are the reason why I really like living in Japan.

Saturday afternoon, around 1pm, the doors on the Yamanote train open, but nobody gets off. I'm forcing myself between the bodies, until I've managed to wedge myself into a roughly human-shaped space in the packed train. Bent uncomfortably at the waist, I have no choice but to try to balance myself awkwardly with two fingers on a metal bar whenever the train shudders or knocks me sideways.

I'm on my way to Harajuku to shop for some clothes. You've probably heard of it if you've read about Japan. If not, you've at least seen pictures of it. Images such as these generally originate there:



Harajuku is a center of Tokyo youth culture, and in Japan, that means fashion. In this case, that it's a variety of shops selling clothes that vary from the full costume dress seen above to cheap and used items, like jewelery mass-produced in China or Korea. Many Japanese adults are quick to distance themselves from Harajuku culture, but it is the center of movements such as the Visual Kei culture, and it is an icon of Japaneseness to the international world.

The train makes a stop at Shibuya, one of the most popular destinations on the line. A mass exodus occurs, and I am forced to step out of the train to let people past me. I climb back on, and the train, although actually still standing room only, feels absolutely empty to me. I am relieved to be able to stand up straight again. Nearby, I notice a couple. They appear to be in their early 30's, and very well dressed. With one arm the man is holding onto a pole to steady himself and with his other arm he's holding up his partner against the movements of the train while she plays the new Super Mario game on her Nintendo DS. I assure you, it is as completely adorable as it sounds.

The train stops, the voice from the platform says "Harajukuuuuu, Harajuku," and I climb down onto the platform. I exit the station and this view greets me from immediately across the street:


Navigating the crowds again doesn't appeal to me so much at this point, so I turn around and head in the other direction, towards where the Goth-Loli's usually like to play dress-up.

As I head towards Harajuku's famous bridge, I see more and more foreign faces. Harajuku is a popular tourist spot, mainly due to it's atmosphere of a twisted fashion show. Here, the cuteness that is Japan's stock in trade is juxtaposed with horror. In the name of fashion, Harajuku's rapidly evolving cultural landscape is often host to images ranging from the classically self-destructive, such as the symbolic mutilation of piercing and tattoos, to the co-opting of historical artifacts of terror, such as nazi uniforms or the swastika. This is costume play though, and the symbols, divorced of their underlying philosophies, are harmless. They are worn for effect, but this is really just shock as a fashion trend. Besides, being in Japan has long since disabled my outrage reflex, so I am content to enjoy the show.



As I step onto the bridge, I am assaulted by a Japanese group singing to promote their band. My headphones are drowned out, so I linger a bit to hear what these two are about. Perhaps under a lot of pressure, they seem uncomfortable as they fight to convert the small crowd into fans, one at a time.



I'm not that interested in their style. I move on across the bridge. Tourists are taking pictures of the assembled cosplayers, and I am envious. I want to take pictures as well, but I'm embarassed to look like another foreigner fresh off the plane. Within my head though, an argument is won, and I decide to indulge my inner tourist. Resolved to get some pictures, I scan the assembled fauna. I select two particularly exotic specimens, surrounded by a group of admirers. Somewhat abashed, I ambush my quarry and attack them with my rapid-fire request for pictures. I accidentally startle them, but without actually looking at me even once, their admirers fall away and the default peace-sign pose is assumed. I have my picture.


As I step off of the bridge, the music from the singers fades, and the first hesitant notes of the song Green Amnesia begin whispering in my ear. The concrete and steel break open and a little piece of forest appears, welcoming, before me. Unexpectedly, the gate among the trees and the music and the feeling all become uniquely mine. I am alone among many, exploring my own personal Japan. I cross the threshold of the forest, and the moment holds for six minutes and thirty-six seconds, as I walk down the long trail between the trees.



Tokyo, one of the most developed urban centers in the world, is the epitome of human achievement. It is a testament to the ingenuity and capabilities of the human race when working in cooperation. That is something I truly love. But here in this little bit of forest and history, encapsulated within the urban sprawl, I find myself absent-mindedly envisioning the time when humanity has died out and this bit of forest has begun growing up among the train tracks and concrete walkways and secret little alleys, reclaiming the city that imprisoned it.

Maybe all of Japan feels like this from time to time. The closeness of the natural world is an intrinsic part of Japanese spirituality. If you visit Miyajima island, near Hiroshima, or Nara, or even a shrine in the middle of the city, with its own tiny, domesticated bit of nature, this becomes clear. Japanese art and movies sometimes appear obsessed with two themes; kinship with, protection of, and acceptance of one's role within nature, and nuclear apocalypse. In a movie like Nausicaa, the themes are combined.

As the last notes of Green Amnesia fade, I am returned to the world along with everybody else. Flanked on either side by tourists, I feel at home holding my camera at the ready. I snap a few pictures of a traditional gathering, the title of which　roughly translates to Meiji Shrine Reverence Meeting.


I am satisfied. I head back out of the forest and begin to shop. Even as I scan the countless cheap necklaces bearing crosses, stars of david, and swastikas, get jostled by young members of fashion tribes forcing their way past me, invariably talking about how crowded the place is every single time, and yelled at by Nigerians working to bring customers into their shops, I have the feeling that this Japan and the one I just left are two different places that have, somehow, managed to co-exist here more than anywhere else. Rather than being wiped out, the natural world and Japanese spirituality have been preserved, contained, and domesticated. It's growth has been managed, but fostered, even at the pinnacle of human development.

Korean Adventure Part 1

I just got back two days ago from a grand adventure in the land of kimchi, cuteness, and computer games. Korea was ridiculously awesome. It wasn't my first time going, but I still learned a lot of new stuff about Seoul. I stayed in a really great little hostel called Kim's Guest House. Basically, for about $15 USD per night you get a nice, clean place to stay, a built in group of travellers to make friends with, and a source of advice for places to eat, visit, etc. And you can do laundry. I cannot stress enough how great of a choice this place turned out to be.

Anyway, in Korea I got to make a lot of observations. Seoul is similar to Tokyo in some ways. At least, they are both competely packed with people. However, where Tokyo is ridiculously clean and full of people mostly filling upper-level business roles (the subway is a sea of suits in the morning), Seoul is more littered and raw, and it has a wildness to it. Unfortunately, my Korean is horrible, although I can say the most basic things, but even when you speak to Koreans in english, they are much more direct. In Japan, you undergo a sort of dance of politeness, but in Korea it's straight out there.



Koreans in general seem to be a little more willing to confront one another, although also more willing to befriend you. Similar to Tokyo though, Seoul is very safe. The way shops are set up and people leave goods lieing around unattended (in one case I went to a shop with a sign detailing who to call if you wanted to make a purchase), it is clear that nobody fears theft much. When I say willing to confront, I don't mean that I've felt intimidated or unsafe at any time.

Korean daily life is pretty different from Japan. There are a lot of internet cafes in Tokyo, but not like Seoul. They're called PC Bangs there (bang meaning room), and they are everywhere. Most of them are roughly $1 USD per hour as well, so it's a pretty convenient stop. I kept seeing a weird game called Sudden Attack that was a Counterstrike clone with required registration to play, but other than that the game loadout was a mix of the regulars, such as all the flavors of Warcraft and Starcraft, and a ton of interesting Korean games such as Mabinogi.

The registration thing brings up a good point. From what I've read and found out from talking to others, it appears as if the Korean internet culture is really unique. If you don't know, Korea has the single highest rate of broadband connectivity in the world, with literally 25% of all Koreans with high-speed connections. Being a somewhat small nation, a huge number of Koreans are all on the Cyworld network, something like a 3rd or 4th generation social networking site, with tons of extras such as avatars, rooms, decorations, etc. Just to register, you have to either be a citizen or have an alien registration card. That is, in general, all members of the site will be real people with verified information. This, coupled with the near universal participation, results in a close-knit community where everybody knows everybody elses' business. My friend from Paris, whom I met during the trip, says that at one point a girl that he had been dating had gotten mad and posted something untruthful about him on her hompy (the Korean way to shorten the word homepage), and he ended up getting almost blackballed within his social network, with people he has never met before calling him up and harassing him even weeks later, after the girl he dated removed the information.

Clearly it is not without its problems, this kind of internet harassment is common in Korea, but I think the very close integration of social networking on the internet into Korean society provides a glimpse into the future. In Korea, internet savviness is common, and the utility and function of the internet as an organizer and facilitator of actual real life relationships is fully realized. In colleges in the United States, of course everybody facebooks one another, but this is like the next step. I've heard it said that a Korean person would rather go hungry than eat alone, and the internet has been fully integrated into the process of achieving this type of fundamental need for human connection.

In other aspects of Korean culture, there is a sort of fierce pride. Korea as a nation has worked to become a productive and powerful player in the international economy, and has succeeded thanks to its main corporations, Samsung and LG. As such, many Koreans are quick to talk about how great Samsung and LG are, and many drive Hyundais, a Korean car, rather than Japanese cars. Unfortunately, Korean pride often results in competition between whose company is better, Samsung versus Sony. This brings up another important point.

In Korea, anti-Japanese sentiment is fairly common. The result of both Japan's transgressions during World War II and horrible foreign policy decisions on the part of the Japanese government, namely having the Prime Minister visit the Yasukuni shrine each year, where war criminals are memorialized, there is lasting resentment on the part of the Korean people. Perhaps I will make a better update to my previous racism post in Japan to clarify the way it works, but in general, most of the Japanese I come into contact with, young people, students, and those looking to study foreign languages, harbor no resentment for Koreans. That being said, racism towards Koreans and Chinese in Japan DOES exist, in a somewhat hidden fashion. In Korea however, anger towards the Japanese is fairly common.

While out drinking, most of the Korean college students I've met have made their dislike of Japan fairly clear fairly quickly, upon hearing that I've just come from there. However, this is more of a sort of generalized dislike, and not openly acted upon in public, so I have heard from many Japanese tourists in Korea that have had perfectly good times. Despite personally getting kicked out of one club for attempting to communicate in Japanese, (something I've been assured is very rare) I've had a lot of good times out drinking in Korea as well.

Which brings me to yet another important point. The role of drinking in both Korea and Japan is something many foreigners may have trouble understanding. In Japan and Korea, people who say they don't drink do not exist. There are those who abstain of course, but there is no straight edge movement or anything like that, because drinking is a part of the social mechanism. I will go more in-depth into how it works in Japan later, but in Korea, alcohol greases the gears of the social process, and as such everybody participates. Drinking is even more vital than in Japan, and as a result many Koreans are STRONG drinkers. I consider myself a strong drinker, but in Korea its common to just sit around drinking from a glass of straight tequila. That's fierce.



One area where Korea's feeling of untamedness starts to come into play is when you go shopping. Absolutely everything MUST be bargained for. I couldn't even imagine bargaining in Japanese, but in Korea, even in the duty-free shops at the airport, I couldn't imagine not bargaining. Shopping in Korea is some of the greatest fun I've had there, and a really different experience from anything I've experienced in the US or in Japan. However, I will leave that discussion for my next blog post in the Korea series.

Sweet Merciful Lord

Why is it that wherever I go there is always some political group or other screaming through loud-speakers at 7 o'clock in the morning right under my window!? As if the constant earthquakes, the train station 40 feet from my door, and the violently loud footsteps of my neighbors weren't enough.

How to Tell When Your Boss Is Trying to Sleep With You

From Somebody Who Knows

The world's turned a bunch of times and a lot has happened since I last updated. Japan's gotten a new prime minister, the rights of Americans have once again been massively eroded, the Republican party has become the official child molestation party, and I've gotten something dangerously close to resembling a job! Oh, and my boss has been trying in increasingly desperate ways to have sex with me. But let's rewind things for a moment.

So a few weeks back, I got to play this little mini-concert for an english school that teaches through songs. It's a pretty good idea, and I'd guess it works, judging by how well some of the kids could speak. They found me on one of the many english teacher freelancer websites I've been whoring myself on, and noticed that I mentioned my ability to play guitar. Without much preparation, they brought me out and we ran through Amazing Grace for the crowd, don't ask me why that song in particular, just it was simple and I knew most of the words. I also won a tongue twister contest in Japanese just after! At any rate, I suppose the show could be considered a success, because the owner of the music school scheduled me for a full week of teaching at 2500 yen per lesson. That's a three to five lessons a day ranging from 50 minutes to an hour each at a rate of a bit over $20 US. For the first time in a LONG time I've not just broken even, but I've turned the tide of my spending!

The lessons have been fun, and the Japanese kids I have to sing for are RIDICULOUSLY adorable. The school is very far from where I live, but in response to the long commute I've developed some highly effective time usage tactics, including setting up Google reader, which I HIGHLY recommend for its ease of use aggreggating your news feeds both for viewing on the computer and formatted viewing on your mobile phone. Seriously, if you use bloglines, or any other method of collecting your feeds, you'd be doing yourself a favor to try out Google Reader as well. In addition to enabling constant satiation of my information addiction, I've been loading my psp with various podcasts, including diggnation and the penny arcade casts (they've started up again!) and every flavor of tetris available, from both NES incarnations, to the SNES Tetris and Dr. mario game.

I love me some tetris.

Moving on, either it was my highly attractive tetris rockstar skills or my charmingly retarded Japanese speaking that led my boss, in her mid-40's or so, to repeatedly try to violate me. A bulleted list draws near!

Ways to tell your boss is trying to sleep with you:

• Takes you out to lunch and acts strangely clingy and overly sad when it's time to get back to work
  
• Begins good-naturedly bumping you and touching you, all the time
• Drops hints about wanting to separate work and private relationships
  
• Puts her finger in your mouth when you yawn, unsettling you greatly
• Awkwardly attempts to interject the word sperm into conversation, perhaps under the guise of having misheard it
• Begins inviting you to very expensive dinner cruises and shows, and, bizarrely, horseback riding
• Generously offers you a place to stay
• Generously offers you a place to stay in her house
• Asks for a kiss
• Tells you she wants to sleep with you (in my case, she went one further and directly declared that some time in the near future S & M would be happening, regardless of my opinion on the matter)

This has led to quite a bit of creepiness at the workplace. She seems to generally be a good person, and, of course, I am an utter whore, but she's been coming on REALLY strong, and it's begun to creep me out a little. I found out recently from immigration that I would have no choice but to leave the country soon as part of the process of receiving a work visa. My boss's response? She immediately offered to travel with me to New York City, where we would stay in a hotel together and I would show her around. She's been overly generous and generally acting as if we are a LOT closer than we actually are. Actually, she's been acting as if I were her boyfriend. Maybe this is some type of common female boss management style and I'm just getting caught in the cultural difference here? Either way, I don't much like people sticking their fingers in my mouth while I yawn.

Combination of Awesome Explosion Special!

The past few weeks have been tough times for me. First, I basically lose a job because it actually turns out I didn't graduate from my university somehow, then I realize I don't have a table and that's why using my computer has been TOTALLY SUCKY, and then I get really hungry. Faced with such difficult circumstances, perhaps a weaker-willed man would've simply given up, thrown their proverbial hands to the proverbial sky, and resigned themselves to the unemployment, back-pain, and slow death from hunger that awaited them. Not I. I'm made of sterner stuff.

Lacking any immediate solution to not having a degree, and hence being ineligible for a work visa in Japan, I decided to sort out the desk problem first. My reasoning was that if I could use my computer comfortably, the internet would surely bless me with an answer! Immediately, I set to work:


Obviously this is the most kick-ass table ever. Patting myself on the back after a hard afternoon's work, I headed out to address the hunger issue. I found a nice little curry place, and proceeded to do what I do. Sated, I went to leave the store, but was stopped by one of the workers. What was this? A gift? For me? Why yes, I'll take this rape whistle, sir, and by god I WILL LOVE IT.


Having accepted this totally sweet rape whistle extended to me as a gift by the natives of this wonderful land, I made my way home, mind awash in a rare abundance of nutrients. Of course, when I got home the desk totally collapsed, but fuck it, I bought a real one. Oh and I still didn't get a degree or a job. The End.

Flexible Display Technology

So, this stuff has been in development for quite awhile now. I've been keeping tabs on it, but it appears that the dev process has finally culminated in some results. Here are a bunch of videos of this stuff in action. The work is handled by a sub-group of Phillips called Polymer Vision. Mostly, their site talks about business and mobile applications, but I think the obvious applications are far more interesting: stealth camouflage! There are tons of things this would be awesome for. The current implementation only has 4 shades of grey, but with full color and touch-screen technology integration, this thing is going to be freaking AWESOME.

Phillips Radius


Plastic Logic demo


Phillips e paper technology


Electronic ink display from Philips


For a little bit more background on this, it actually doesn't have a refresh rate, and hence it uses very low power. Additionally, it is perfectly visible in regular daylight conditions. I believe it is actually a changing in a pigment configuration of the material, almost? I'm not 100% certain on that. At any rate, color models have also been in development, but certain of the color elements degrade at different rates (with the most difficult element being blue, degrading within a few weeks, I believe) so until that is stabilized, flexible screens in color are not ready for release.

Here is a site with some more background, videos, and pics: here