Grab 'em by the blog again!

Welp, this blog petered out after the 2008 election, Facebook, and a number of other things. Now, with the ascension of the Tangerine Caudillo, it's time to find somewhere to let loose the rage, and my poor officemates have probably had enough.

Oddly enough, because I'll be sharing these to Facebook, I've had enough of seeing some of the BS put up there. There's a real surfeit of crap "news" stories out there, and they need to be covered. Additionally, I would like to find an outlet to post some work-related stuff, particularly because this past year my lessons have been rather scattershot and disjointed, and I would like to develop a clearer blueprint to developing my lessons. There will probably be a lot of interesting stuff in them, touching on culture and life in Japan, as well as topics that have become important to me like the environment, work-life balance, consumer consumption, and how the things we buy in one place affect people all over the world.

I will also probably be doing it will heavily intoxicated, since that's about the only way I'll make it through the next 4 to 8(god forbid, because my liver probably can't take that long) years. Cheers!

from email

testing 1,2,3

Testing

Round 2

KL Int'l airport, 6:30am

`

should've smuggled more booze into Malaysia. Only brought a decent bottle of port since the limit is 1L of anything. But customs didn't even pretend to check, they just sit at empty, roped-off check stations. I totally could've brought in 6 or 8 bottles. As it is, a lovely cabin attendant gave me flasks of cointreau, rum & cognac because we chatted during the flight. Oh, and she gave me a bottle of white wine after I told her I couldn't sleep during flights.

In other airport news, I can tolerate the French -- they're like Americans who can't speak English. But I can't abide by CDG airport security making me throw out an empty water bottle. That is only second to the lunacy of KL and Singapore, who do the security check at the gate, so you can't fill up your water bottle before boarding (and you can't put liquor in storage outside customs, hence my hesitancy to buy lots of wine only to have it confiscated at KL customs).

Ticker with live video feed of how much oil is going into the Gulf

eVolo, an architecture and design journal, had it's 2010 skyscraper competition recently. I'm rather disturbed by the winners, they created a prison in the sky (really, guys? Is this what we've come to?)

Besides that, we get some more interesting entries, such as a skyscraper that purifies polluted rivers, or underwater 'skyscrapers'.

I'd recommend Inhabit's other articles, they have more underwater buildings, among other interesting, fantastical designs.

New National Insurance rules

A year ago, the Japanese government published revised rules for work visa renewal. The most prominent change was the requirement that people show proof of national insurance when they renew. The problem is, most foreigners aren't on national insurance. Despite there being a law requiring EVERYONE to enroll, most eikaiwa (English conversation schools) did not -- and still do not -- enroll their employees. Instead, they changed the work hours to 29.5 hrs/week (by changing what counted as 'work' and what counted as unpaid 'preparation time', like walking to the classroom) to skirt these laws. Now, despite the fact that the companies who brought people in neglected to inform them of their responsibilities, workers would be punished by having to enroll in national insurance AND pay back dues on all the time they were in Japan. So, for myself, I've been in Japan 6 years and could potentially owe more than $10,000 in back insurance payments that I will have to pay if I want to continue working, despite being covered under private insurance that I was told was sufficient (my first employer, NOVA, had me enrolled in their company plan, JMA. After I changed jobs to Interac, I was covered under Interglobal, where I remain to this day). Now, I wouldn't be opposed to enrolling in Japan's national plan. what I object to is being told that I must back pay thousands of dollars because I was misinformed.

Well, since my visa expires April 8th, and the new guidelines take effect April 1st, I've been paralyzed by the fear of having to enroll. Not to mention, little to nothing was said on this topic after the initial announcement. Now, it seems, proof of enrollment will not be grounds for visa denial. At least, that's what the Japan Times says. But then again, somebody in the immigration office has it out for me (I've had 2 consecutive 1 year visas, despite having had a 3 yr one before and everyone else getting 3 yrs), so I'm sure I'll be the one who gets denied and deported.

The Legality of ALTs

Here's an interesting read on the legality of ALTs in Japan being employed by dispatch companies. It seems most things about ALTs are illegal. We'll see if things change with the new insurance rules for visa renewal (NOTE: see my next post for more on that).

Hire Bernie Madoff

After reading this interview, perhaps Madoff should be used like Frank Abagnale, Jr. and he can go to work for the SEC, since they evidently don't know what the hell they were doing. Remember, Madoff only got caught because his sons turned him in after he confessed to them.

Secondary lesson: don't teach your children to be honest if you're going to break the law.

The perfect egg

Here's a great analysis on the perfect soft- and hard-boiled egg. I just tried it out and the egg was perfect. I've still got a small peeling problem, but that's not such a big deal. The article is also a great bit of food science writing.

Next, on to julienne-en-en-ing!

Good hair

Speaking of which, this looks interesting in all sorts of ways:



Do black people really spend that much time in barbershops? I thought the whole "Barbershop" movie thing was a schtick for a movie, but perhaps not. Do all the other white people spend time socializing in barbershops and I just missed out on this?

I like the one by my house, it's very tradition 'old-man' style -- they'll cut your hair only with scissors if you ask, and you always get a hot towel and a straight razor shave on your sideburns and the nape of your neck. Japan still has good ones, and so did Spain. My last encounter in an American barbershop (circa 2005) didn't end well. SOMEbody told this guy his son was a liberal and I spent the entire haircut listening to a rant about hippies and how anyone opposing the Iraq war is a traitor to their country, all while he wielded pointy scissors about my vital arteries.

What's racist? Addendum

Updating a bit on this post about racism in Japan, we have the following clip from a Saturday evening program in Australia, called "Hey Hey It's Saturday":



I think Americans will instantly notice what's wrong here. When I went to Australia last August, it was fun to watch the evening variety shows. TV there is more akin to Spanish or Japanese television than American TV, in that there are lots of shows with minor celebrities sitting on panels. There are quiz shows, talk shows, talking head shows where the celebrities comment on news or amateur videos. The above clip is one of those.

Australian TV is interesting to Americans because there is a lot more profanity used, as well as the culture there being not nearly as politically correct. While I enjoy it because sometimes people get riled up about the wrong things, this clip was way over my line, and it was interesting to see Harry Connick, Jr. as one of the judges give the group a '0' and the short discussion that followed. The Wikipedia discussion of the event is interesting in that the Michael Jackson character is played by a man named Anand Deva (not the whitest name in the world), and that 'Jackson Jive' group was ethnically mixed, and the whole group was made of doctors.

Some points to consider:

• Australia didn't participate in the slave trade.
• Blackface wasn't used to mock blacks, as well as appropriate their culture and undermine it.
• Australia has a troubled history with regards to its Aboriginal peoples, who are kind of like American blacks and Native Americans rolled up into one unfortunate bundle.
• 'White Australia' wasn't even abandoned completely until the 1970s, allowing for more immigration from Asian countries.

The above clip also shows the 'Jackson Jive' performing on the same variety show 20 years ago, when it won the competition. It's worth keeping in mind the change from then to now. And lest we Americans decide to get on a high horse:








Which kinda leads us to this:

Gone biking

I'm cycling to Hakone today with my friends Eric and Todd. We'll stay one night in a small inn on Lake Ashino and cycle back. Should be good exercise and good fun.

Until I get back, feel free to peruse the photos on the right there, I've posted some aftermath photos of the beach from the typhoon last week, as well as some pics from hiking around Fuji Five Lakes.

Or you can watch these:

'Liar!' vs. 'You lie!'

Here's an interesting linguistic post on Rep. Joe Wilson's (R - Idiots) outburst during Obama's healthcare speech. Essentially, it boils down to Wilson's using the simple present, whereas most English speakers would use the present progressive. The blogger, Geoff Nunberg, posits that this is something Wilson probably said in his head over and over again. Not that he planned it, but his dislike of Obama being so strong, it just came out. I wonder if it isn't more of a Southern thing, like Wilson was trying to provoke Obama into a duel or something.

While we're going all linguistic on Teabaggers' asses, might as well analyze this one:


Notice the reference to Obama and then the honorific used for Bush. Evidently, this guy doesn't consider Obama to be a President of the USA. While it's common to refer to the President only by his last name, I think it's rather telling that he uses the title with one, but not the other. I can't recall ever seeing people refer to 'Bush' and then to 'President Clinton'.

(for more photos of the 9.12 march, check out Jeff Malet's photo gallery)

Talent vs. Deliberate Practice

I just listened to a fascinating talk by Geoff Colvin at RSA. He's the author of Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else. He discusses phenoms like Tiger Woods, Gary Kasparov and Mozart, and how they got to be who they are/were. There's evidently a lot of research on this, as well on what makes average people good at certain things. What Colvin puts it down to is "deliberate practice". But this isn't your normal practice.

Deliberate practice involves two aspects. First is the ability to force oneself to practice. Doing something you don't like is a bummer, doing something you like is fun. Being able to make yourself do something for hours on end, day in, day out, that's what makes Tiger Woods. As well, there has to be a goal to the practice. Colvin discusses the unpleasantness of failing at figure skating for this example. Messing up a jump in figure skating involve you landing on your tush on hard, cold ice. But great figure skaters practice the jumps they can't do. They keep hitting that ice until they get it down. Mediocre figure skaters are ones who only practice the jumps they can do. The lesson here is to aim just beyond your capabilities, at a place that's just outside your comfort zone, but not so far out that you get discouraged and give up hope.

While a lot of time is spent focusing on people at the top of their game, Colvin also talks about more mundane jobs. Like auditors. He discusses how, for most people, they eventually level off at some point, such that an auditor that has been doing the job for five years is about as good as an auditor that has been around for decades. They both have roughly the same ability to spot fraud in a company's books.

In addition, Colving discusses luck and time. One reason Tiger Woods is so great is that he's been doing his deliberate practice since he was 2. By the time he won his first Masters, he was 21. That meant he'd had 19 years of practice. Jack Nicklaus had about 13, and Arnold Palmer had 19 also, but they started golfing at 10 and 7, respectively, meaning they achieved things later in their lives. Tiger also had the luck to be born to his father, who was driven himself. Mozart's father was a noted composer and teacher, who had vowed to bring up his son to be a musician and composer.

A lot of this discussion was about business, but there are lots of possibilities when thinking about education, or when thinking about learning something yourself, and how to plan for success. Anyway, go have a listen and see what you think.

If nothing else, I'd recommend the RSA Events and Lectures to people interested in hearing new and different opinions.

On this day in history...

On this day in 1923, a large earthquake struck O-shima, the large island just to the south of where I live. The timing of the quake, when cooking fires were going to prepare lunch, combined with winds from a nearby typhoon, caused nearly 100,000 deaths in the Kanto region. To put this in perspective, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake killed 3,000, and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 killed 'hundreds'. Nearly all of Yokohama burned to the ground, as did Tokyo. The devastation in Tokyo can be seen above. This is the area that my friends Aaron and Molly stayed when they came to Tokyo. The Great Buddha in Kamakura, which I take nearly all visitors to see moved forward two feet (it weighs in at 93-tons). Reading through the list of places devastated on wikipedia, I recognize all of them, and have visited most. It's truly a reminder of how brutal nature can be, and how a perfect storm of circumstances can bring disaster.

Even worse, in the aftermath rumors blamed foreigners, mostly Koreans, for looting and robbery. Vigilante mobs attacked and killed Koreans as well as setting up checkpoints. Anyone who sounded different was attacked. This included not only Koreans and other foreigners, but people from other parts of Japan with strong accents. Police and the army attempted to protect the Koreans, but some officials were complicit in handing over Koreans to the mob. A number of civilians were prosecuted, but sentences were light and the rest were pardoned as part of the marriage ceremony of Prince Hirohito. The authorities also took advantage of the confusion to arrest and kill dissidents, such as socialists and anarchists.

Incidentally, we're about due for another giant earthquake in this area, as well as a big eruption from Mt. Fuji one of these days. They did estimates of what would happen, namely that any ash fallout from an eruption of Mt. Fuji would halt all transportation between there and Tokyo. That's around 20 million people that will be unable to drive or use mass transit. I better start stockpiling canned peaches.

(The reason the deaths were so much higher in Japan than the other disasters is that most houses were made of wood and charcoal fires were used for cooking. This combination caused a firestorm. For some reason, the Japanese didn't learn not to build things out of wood, which meant that when Curtis LeMay was set loose on Japan, we ended up with this.)

What's racist?

I was discussing the "Mr. James" ad campaign at McDonald's here in Japan with some friends (see here and here), along with whether or not it should be considered racist. I thought that yes, it was rather racist, while another American thought it was all in good fun and that I was being over-sensitive. A Japanese friend thought nothing of it, just that it was amusing.

I had a long screed written about this, but it's probably better to just get the backstory from the above two links. I wonder when is something considered racist/offensive? Does intent factor into it, or can there be unintentional offense? Not to mention the international aspect of this. If something is considered offensive in one country, does it carry over to another as well? Watch this:



It's pretty obvious who the monkey is supposed to be. But in Japan, there isn't the same derogatory association of monkeys with black people -- rather, foreigners in general are associated with apes, with pretty much the same connotations as in the USA. But, monkeys are also cute. And monkeys are also considered clever: a samurai watching a monkey bathe in a hot spring was the inspiration for onsen. So, is the Obama monkey video racist? I guess in one way yes, and in another way no. Another example of this would be the controversy over Little Black Sambo here in Japan. The drawings of an odd black boy with giant red lips and big eyes has definite historical racist connotations, but in Japan that sort of thing is just cute. Yet the book was pulled in Japan about 20 years ago because some people took offense at it.

I guess stereotypes, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. But a little sensitivity from McDonald's Japan would be nice as well.

The perils of working in Japan

I've had a pretty easy time of it here in Japan. It's not hard work, and I've had mostly positive experiences. A huge part of that is that I'm still single and thus avoid all the complications that go along with family life. Like, you know, the death of an unborn child. I don't know what I would have done in this situation, but I do know some of the people involved (not the main person, however), and I used to work for the company. I can't believe this would happen. Well, actually I can. This is how Nova was, and how many smaller companies act. Foreigners are a very vulnerable population, as we are at the mercy of our employers much of the time. Japan has very strict employment rules, so even a small slight can cause huge delays and potentially a non-renewal of your visa. I hope I never have to suffer what this guy has suffered through.

Go read.

L/km or, I'm not crazy after all!

A while ago, I was having a friendly debate with someone who always has to be right. Being the same type of person, I wasn't giving up, either. We were talking somewhere about gas mileage in cars, and I mentioned my car in high school/college. It was an old BMW with a little computer thingy on the dash that would show different types of data like the temperature, time, average speed and gas consumption. Being American, I stuck a pencil in the little hole and changed the settings from metric to US standard, something I had to do every time the battery got disconnected (or ran out of power, something I often did by leaving the headlights on).

Gas consumption fascinated me, mostly because I always got lower than the rating, and also because the metric gas consumption was listed in liters per kilometer (or 100 km, I can't quite recall). Now, this guy, let's call him M, said that was a stupid thing and couldn't possibly be right. We appealed to his French co-worker who said they measure it in km/L. I was quickly voted down and that was that.

Today I came across this story about a typo on Fox News, and lo and behold, in comments some Australians remarked how mileage in their country is measured in L/100 km, and how it makes perfect sense if you want to figure out how much is needed to go a certain distance. I'd surmise this would be useful going to the Moon or across the Outback, but not so much in suburban America.

Sadly, I won't get to lord this over M. One night he drunkenly berated me for disliking the black vans that drive around waking me up in the morning, telling me I have no rights in this country. Not hanging out with him again.

Money in, money out

I just got my hefty tax return from the government, which will allow me to pay off my shopping spree from being home. And on a whim I bought some tickets to Australia, so this summer I'll be going to visit Ana and Damien in Brisbane, with a stopover in Singapore to see a couple friends there.

So far, I'll leave Japan on July 24th, stay in singapore a couple days, then up to Kuala Lumpur, fly out on the 29th to Brisbane. I'll stay there until the 11th or 12th, then fly back to KL, stay there a day or so, over to Singapore and back to Japan on the 17th. I got the Japan-Singapore leg through ANA, and the KL-Brisbane flight is through budget carrier AirAsia. I've flown them several times before, but only on short hops around Malaysia and over to Borneo. The short trips are nice, but I wonder how they'll hold up on a 7 hr flight.

Of course, there's the small matter of getting from Singapore to KL. I'll have to look at another AirAsia hop, which would be short and moderately priced, or a $10 bus ride that isn't bad, but wastes about 9hrs all told. I also just realized that Singapore won't allow me to take alcohol through, so if my friends want anything, they're gonna have to find another supplier.