So, in browsing other blogs today, I came across a google adwords ad with the title:
"god can change your life - see how"
I was taken aback at the sheer ridiculousness of this statement.
I suppose the ad was written for some christian organization, but man, whosever rhetoric it is, they are clearly not thinking it through.
if god is all-powerful and all-pervasive, there is NO WAY god is not already in your life.
and if god is already all around you, what would you need to change your life for?
people often, in my observation, justify the things that THEY want and desire for themselves as being something that "god wants".
if god is everywhere, in every thing, then everything is already what god wants, exactly as it is.
now if they had said - "awareness of god will change your life", then that has some meaning.
but still I am not convinced that they have this concept down either...
Sunday, November 2, 2008
zomg
I am back in Japan.
And drinking milk.
And I love it.
What the heck?
It really does seem pretty incongruent that one of my must have experiences in a country in Asia would be a dairy product.
Traditionally, Japan hasn't really had a cuisine that used any dairy at all.
But nowadays certainly things are different.
I don't know if people drink nearly as much milk per person here as they do in the western world, but they do drink it, and it is common enough to appear at every convenience store.
The milk here comes from Hokkaido, and I don't know if they are just happier cows or what, but the creaminess is undeniable.
It tastes sooo much better than the milk back home!
as they say in the otaku culture over here...moe~~~~!
And drinking milk.
And I love it.
What the heck?
It really does seem pretty incongruent that one of my must have experiences in a country in Asia would be a dairy product.
Traditionally, Japan hasn't really had a cuisine that used any dairy at all.
But nowadays certainly things are different.
I don't know if people drink nearly as much milk per person here as they do in the western world, but they do drink it, and it is common enough to appear at every convenience store.
The milk here comes from Hokkaido, and I don't know if they are just happier cows or what, but the creaminess is undeniable.
It tastes sooo much better than the milk back home!
as they say in the otaku culture over here...moe~~~~!
Monday, August 25, 2008
11th hour
...and I'm going to Burn.
Both other years I have gone to the playa have involved significant preparation, and up till yesterday I was certain that I was not going to go this year.
But last Friday I got offered a free ticket, and although I hesitated at first due to lack of preparation and a billion things to do back home, over the weekend I realized that I can use the expansion.
Besides, I have been wanting to take a small trip anyways...
Interestingly enough, a big motivating factor for me this time is that I am going alone.
I plan to camp with my boss when I get there, but the drive there and back will be me alone with my own space for how ever many hours per direction.
That rules.
I feel like 1) striking out on my own and 2) having the time to myself are elements that I can really use right now, especially since I feel like I have decent amount of internal "sorting" to do.
Of course, it will be amazing being at BM and the Friday lineup at OT is worth going for alone, but I am really looking forward to the road trip with my own company!
And it is interesting to do something like this with supremely minimal preparation - this time it's only me, my tent, and some water and solid-state food...
Both other years I have gone to the playa have involved significant preparation, and up till yesterday I was certain that I was not going to go this year.
But last Friday I got offered a free ticket, and although I hesitated at first due to lack of preparation and a billion things to do back home, over the weekend I realized that I can use the expansion.
Besides, I have been wanting to take a small trip anyways...
Interestingly enough, a big motivating factor for me this time is that I am going alone.
I plan to camp with my boss when I get there, but the drive there and back will be me alone with my own space for how ever many hours per direction.
That rules.
I feel like 1) striking out on my own and 2) having the time to myself are elements that I can really use right now, especially since I feel like I have decent amount of internal "sorting" to do.
Of course, it will be amazing being at BM and the Friday lineup at OT is worth going for alone, but I am really looking forward to the road trip with my own company!
And it is interesting to do something like this with supremely minimal preparation - this time it's only me, my tent, and some water and solid-state food...
Saturday, August 23, 2008
japanese lessons
Amazing how lessons can come from the places you least expect.
In this case, I have been learning essential lessons about my relationship with Japan but through posts on the humor blog stuffwhitepeoplelike.com.
The blog itself is indeed what I anticipated - I have been there before, and it has a brand of half-true intercultural humor that I find quite amusing. But where I really found benefits was in the comments section for the post on (surprise) Japan. (post is here: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/07/58-japan/)
The post has 28 pages of comments attached to it from a wide swath of internet denizens. There were clear racial bigots who posted things like “f**ck japan; [insert racial slur]” or “remember pearl harbor”, but ignoring those, there was actually alot of content from people who had actually had contact with Japan in varying levels.
People who fit that description ranged in their degree of contact with the culture, but I found that I had alot to learn about the way that I relate to Japan through the way they described their own experiences.
And not all were good experiences.
One thing that was especially helpful was to be able to suss out the things that do not jive for me in Japan.
Some things I learned:
I have had a tendency to avoid other foreigners in Japan (besides my own friends and acquaintances) -- even to the point of being rude occasionally. This is not limited to me. Other foreigners have this same experience. Many of those posting on the site spoke of these actions stemming from wanting to be the only foreigner with an exclusive “special” knowledge of Japan, or assuming that other foreigners were simply of the type that come to Japan with no knowledge or interest in the culture and just want to party and bed Japanese girls (aka the Roppongi crowd) or the recent third stereotype of the anime nerd who gets into Japan because of Inuyasha but really knows nothing about Japan. All of these thoughts patterns about foreigner also exist for me, and it was eye-opening to have them brought to the foreground (where they are clearly ridiculous!). It turns out that I have indeed had a pattern of internally denying other foreigner’s experiences of Japan as invalid, and mine as superior because I have an advanced knowledge of the language and familiarity with the culture. Now that I see this, I want to dispel this assumption so that I may connect with more people around the world. For sure, those stereotypes DO exist and in reality I DO have a great deal of linguistic prowess in Japanese and a knowledge of Japan. But really those things are irrelevant - in the end we are just people; as blogger TG puts it, “we need to remember there is a bigger team behind that - the human team - that we all belong to”.
Although I love being in Japan, and living there for a time would give me a prime opportunity to further hone my language skills even more than they already are as well as give me much joy in the experience of being there, I don’t think that it could be a permanent move. For as much as Japan has a beautiful culture in many ways, there are ways in which it is really hard to live in (such as absolutely insane working hours and heavy social obligations) and especially so for foreigners. The governmental rules are labyrinthine, and when you live in Japan permanently you lose the foreigner sheen, cuteness, and “gaijin privilege” that allow you to ignore many of the social rules. Many others outlined this point, and though I was already feeling it internally, the feeling was given shape by reading the blog comments here. I am most definitely interested in a permanent move abroad, but in all likelihood it will not be to Japan (strange for a Japanese major!)
and even more, but I would need to sort through it to vocalize...
In this case, I have been learning essential lessons about my relationship with Japan but through posts on the humor blog stuffwhitepeoplelike.com.
The blog itself is indeed what I anticipated - I have been there before, and it has a brand of half-true intercultural humor that I find quite amusing. But where I really found benefits was in the comments section for the post on (surprise) Japan. (post is here: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/07/58-japan/)
The post has 28 pages of comments attached to it from a wide swath of internet denizens. There were clear racial bigots who posted things like “f**ck japan; [insert racial slur]” or “remember pearl harbor”, but ignoring those, there was actually alot of content from people who had actually had contact with Japan in varying levels.
People who fit that description ranged in their degree of contact with the culture, but I found that I had alot to learn about the way that I relate to Japan through the way they described their own experiences.
And not all were good experiences.
One thing that was especially helpful was to be able to suss out the things that do not jive for me in Japan.
Some things I learned:
I have had a tendency to avoid other foreigners in Japan (besides my own friends and acquaintances) -- even to the point of being rude occasionally. This is not limited to me. Other foreigners have this same experience. Many of those posting on the site spoke of these actions stemming from wanting to be the only foreigner with an exclusive “special” knowledge of Japan, or assuming that other foreigners were simply of the type that come to Japan with no knowledge or interest in the culture and just want to party and bed Japanese girls (aka the Roppongi crowd) or the recent third stereotype of the anime nerd who gets into Japan because of Inuyasha but really knows nothing about Japan. All of these thoughts patterns about foreigner also exist for me, and it was eye-opening to have them brought to the foreground (where they are clearly ridiculous!). It turns out that I have indeed had a pattern of internally denying other foreigner’s experiences of Japan as invalid, and mine as superior because I have an advanced knowledge of the language and familiarity with the culture. Now that I see this, I want to dispel this assumption so that I may connect with more people around the world. For sure, those stereotypes DO exist and in reality I DO have a great deal of linguistic prowess in Japanese and a knowledge of Japan. But really those things are irrelevant - in the end we are just people; as blogger TG puts it, “we need to remember there is a bigger team behind that - the human team - that we all belong to”.
Although I love being in Japan, and living there for a time would give me a prime opportunity to further hone my language skills even more than they already are as well as give me much joy in the experience of being there, I don’t think that it could be a permanent move. For as much as Japan has a beautiful culture in many ways, there are ways in which it is really hard to live in (such as absolutely insane working hours and heavy social obligations) and especially so for foreigners. The governmental rules are labyrinthine, and when you live in Japan permanently you lose the foreigner sheen, cuteness, and “gaijin privilege” that allow you to ignore many of the social rules. Many others outlined this point, and though I was already feeling it internally, the feeling was given shape by reading the blog comments here. I am most definitely interested in a permanent move abroad, but in all likelihood it will not be to Japan (strange for a Japanese major!)
and even more, but I would need to sort through it to vocalize...
Friday, August 22, 2008
supernational
I have felt for a long time that unlike many of my peers in the places I have lived, I do not really "belong" in any given culture.
Although born and raised (mostly) in California, it feels no more like home than any of the other places I've been or visited, and actually in a great many ways LESS so than others.
I feel very confident and at ease spending extended amounts of time in Japan, and I clearly don't "fit in" there - I am a blond foreigner and stand out more than if I had an arrow pointing at my head while walking through crowds, even in (relatively) cosmopolitan Tokyo.
But I also feel vibrant and satisfied in Europe, both through my experiences living in France and the UK and travels to Munich and Amsterdam.
So I suppose in the end, I am free to pick and choose where I want to live based on whatever criteria is good for me. So there are certainly many positives.
On the other hand, I never get to feel that sense of "home" that others seems to get so easily.
I was never sure what to call this phenomenon, but have found some others throughout the years that share in this same experience. Some of them I met in Lycée in France. Others through my Japanese classes at San Francisco State University. And even through work, as we have international offices at my company.
I found, recently, a blogger online who refers to himself as TG (I think it is short for Tokyo Godfather). He is himself another one of my archetype, and he calls those of us who find ourselves always between cultures "supernationals", and those who are able to be completely at home in one location "domestics".
His blog is here: http://blogger2.earthwalkersmag.com/
He expresses both the pain and joy of this state beautifully in his writings, and I can directly relate to much of what he has to say.
I stumbled upon this site while browsing an entry regarding Japan on the humor blog stuffwhitepeoplelike.com. The article is - as the others on the site - poigniant and amusing, but what really interested me were the comments. I want to write about that as well, but in a forthcoming entry. In these comments, I found one by this blogger TG (at http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/07/58-japan/?cp=11#comment-13176), and I was instantly moved and hooked by his mention of the supernational.
Where does this leave me?
Well, I have a label I can apply to myself.
But more than that, it gives a shape of sorts to some of the kindred-spirit-ness I have felt in others who explore cultures and their differences around the world.
Although born and raised (mostly) in California, it feels no more like home than any of the other places I've been or visited, and actually in a great many ways LESS so than others.
I feel very confident and at ease spending extended amounts of time in Japan, and I clearly don't "fit in" there - I am a blond foreigner and stand out more than if I had an arrow pointing at my head while walking through crowds, even in (relatively) cosmopolitan Tokyo.
But I also feel vibrant and satisfied in Europe, both through my experiences living in France and the UK and travels to Munich and Amsterdam.
So I suppose in the end, I am free to pick and choose where I want to live based on whatever criteria is good for me. So there are certainly many positives.
On the other hand, I never get to feel that sense of "home" that others seems to get so easily.
I was never sure what to call this phenomenon, but have found some others throughout the years that share in this same experience. Some of them I met in Lycée in France. Others through my Japanese classes at San Francisco State University. And even through work, as we have international offices at my company.
I found, recently, a blogger online who refers to himself as TG (I think it is short for Tokyo Godfather). He is himself another one of my archetype, and he calls those of us who find ourselves always between cultures "supernationals", and those who are able to be completely at home in one location "domestics".
His blog is here: http://blogger2.earthwalkersmag.com/
He expresses both the pain and joy of this state beautifully in his writings, and I can directly relate to much of what he has to say.
I stumbled upon this site while browsing an entry regarding Japan on the humor blog stuffwhitepeoplelike.com. The article is - as the others on the site - poigniant and amusing, but what really interested me were the comments. I want to write about that as well, but in a forthcoming entry. In these comments, I found one by this blogger TG (at http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/07/58-japan/?cp=11#comment-13176), and I was instantly moved and hooked by his mention of the supernational.
Where does this leave me?
Well, I have a label I can apply to myself.
But more than that, it gives a shape of sorts to some of the kindred-spirit-ness I have felt in others who explore cultures and their differences around the world.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
butter
"Ouille. Mon oeil est au beurre."
found this on a Japanese t-shirt walking (stumbling) through Ebisu tonight.
so it would translate to -
"Ouch, my eye is in butter!?!"
wtf??
found this on a Japanese t-shirt walking (stumbling) through Ebisu tonight.
so it would translate to -
"Ouch, my eye is in butter!?!"
wtf??
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
la politesse
I re-realized an important truth (for me!) today while sitting in a Dotour coffee shop somewhere in Meguro-ku.
Being polite an courteous is much, much more about one's own inner state than it is about other people.
This sounds weird at first, but since-
a) the way you feel internally determines what reality you create
b) what you give out energetically to the world is what you receive back
- then it makes quite a bit of sense!
Not that I am always polite - I can be a rude asshole sometimes.
But I have noticed that when I am gentle towards people I interact with, it makes _me_ feel good. In fact, I am certain that I get more out of the actions I take in that way than they do!
Being polite an courteous is much, much more about one's own inner state than it is about other people.
This sounds weird at first, but since-
a) the way you feel internally determines what reality you create
b) what you give out energetically to the world is what you receive back
- then it makes quite a bit of sense!
Not that I am always polite - I can be a rude asshole sometimes.
But I have noticed that when I am gentle towards people I interact with, it makes _me_ feel good. In fact, I am certain that I get more out of the actions I take in that way than they do!
Monday, June 16, 2008
Kusudama
Look what was sent to me from a cool friend I met on Facebook!
Holy crap - paper art!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
A place for (some) stuff
Woo hoo!
One of the biggest fears I had in dealing with the mountain of stuff in the post below was what to do with all the VHS cassettes I had accumulated over the years and will NEVER watch due to changes in tech etc...
But I did a search for a way to deal with these, and actually found a place in San Francisco that _recycles_ them. Holy crap!
Man, I'm really happy about these guys:
Granted, they do charge, and it cost me one yuppie food stamp ($20) to get them to take both all of my VHS tapes and an old printer, but they said that they take out the toxic portions and dispose of them separately and then take the plastic and make things like rolly carts and other fun plastic things.
That is some weight off of my back, but my crusade against physical media continues!
Monday, May 26, 2008
stuff
dear lord, what are we going to do with all of it?
There is so much stuff.
I was cleaning out some things left behind in the garage of a previous house yesterday, and one of the big items in there was an entire crate of VHS video cassettes.
These are now useless, outmoded, and take up a ton of space not to mention the amounts of petroleum, chemicals and energy that went into their manufacture. They are not resaleable, or even donateable, and as far as I know you can't even recycle them.
So what is left - the dump? They will take a very long time to biodegrade. A VERY long time. I'm sure that by the time they do, no one will be using physical media for video. At all.
Which is honestly the way it NEEDS to be.
Eventually, DVDs will become outdated, and even if they didn't there are tons of them sitting around unwanted and unwatched even now. Millions of pounds of packaging.
Seeing this pile of poly plastics in front of me really made me quite upset about our use of resources.
As did the pile of left over mail from when I used to live there.
Bill after bill, catalogs, mountains of junk mail that was never looked at or had a purpose.
All made by deforesting are planet.
If there ever was a blight on this world it is certainly physical media.
I don't really like reading off of a screen all that much - but when you consider what it takes out of the world, even paper needs to go.
Come on people (including myself) - technology can totally solve this issue.
Maybe the Amazon Kindle will do well??
There is so much stuff.
I was cleaning out some things left behind in the garage of a previous house yesterday, and one of the big items in there was an entire crate of VHS video cassettes.
These are now useless, outmoded, and take up a ton of space not to mention the amounts of petroleum, chemicals and energy that went into their manufacture. They are not resaleable, or even donateable, and as far as I know you can't even recycle them.
So what is left - the dump? They will take a very long time to biodegrade. A VERY long time. I'm sure that by the time they do, no one will be using physical media for video. At all.
Which is honestly the way it NEEDS to be.
Eventually, DVDs will become outdated, and even if they didn't there are tons of them sitting around unwanted and unwatched even now. Millions of pounds of packaging.
Seeing this pile of poly plastics in front of me really made me quite upset about our use of resources.
As did the pile of left over mail from when I used to live there.
Bill after bill, catalogs, mountains of junk mail that was never looked at or had a purpose.
All made by deforesting are planet.
If there ever was a blight on this world it is certainly physical media.
I don't really like reading off of a screen all that much - but when you consider what it takes out of the world, even paper needs to go.
Come on people (including myself) - technology can totally solve this issue.
Maybe the Amazon Kindle will do well??
Saturday, May 24, 2008
But of course...
...google is ready for this sort of usage - the login sceen for
blogger asks me if I want to 'remember this iPhone'...
blogger asks me if I want to 'remember this iPhone'...
Meta
How weird and wonderful the world is becoming...
I have just really set up a blog from a coffee shop without a standard
"computer" ( I used my iPhone ).
Of course it could be argued that this is technically a computer - and
it is - but it is radically different than a standard desktop etc.
The sort of device freedom afforded by this thing is truely
revolutionary - yet at the same time is entirely normal in the
evolution of tech. This HAD to happen eventually. It doesn't really
sink in until you have one of these things, but -
- the Internet is MEANT to be used from anywhere
- email SHOULD be as ubiquitous and readily available as SMS text
messaging
- sites like Yelp and google maps only really come alive when you can
access them from a street corner
I think this is what they call "convergence" =)
It's not without hiccups (I am composing this in the iphone mail
client as the blogger editor doesn't quite work properly under the
iPhone 1.0 OS), but it is a huge leap forward.
And hell - I did register and do all setup on a new blog - in the palm
of my hand!
Genesis
Ok so this is gonna be new...
I have a blog site for my musical pursuits at
already, but I need something for more general life posts so here it is.
I am an sf resident, dj, producer, geek, and have also been studying
japanese for a looong time.
So much so that I have combined this with my tech fetish and now do
Japanese tech support for a living at a company called Xinet.
It rocks!
But I wanted to post insights in this realm somewhere, so hopefully
they will find a home here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
