04.30.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:30 am by Max
Time for a few links.
1. Serendipity led me to this ironic little video.
2. In life, there are those nagging little questions that stay with you for years. More than a few internet searches have led me to this great website. The columns are well written, witty, and humorous.
3. For offbeat news, check out these two news archives: here (1) and here (2).
4. The BBC has a terrific free self-study language site.
5. I’ve started my own BodySpace profile.
6. Occasionally, I find that Ask.com delivers better search results than Google, especially when it comes to natural language searches.
That ought to be enough for now.
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04.26.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:53 pm by Max
A head wound was sustained in this domicile tonight.
More specifically, a wound to my head.
I was engaged in one of my nightly rough-and-tumble sessions with Milo when it happened. In the seconds leading up to the accident, I was lying prone on the ground, waiting for Milo to come over to me, at which point I would grab him and hold him over my head, smiling and kissing him and eliciting the standard Miloesque repertoire of shrieks and giggles.
Suddenly, I felt the blunt force of a blow strike my left temple. I was doubled over in pain, shouting out loud. What I think happened is Milo tripped and fell—headfirst—onto my noggin. Milo didn’t appear to be hurt, but as he looked at me in horror—so loudly was I shrieking—he too began to cry. Why did Milo go unscathed? Shiho says babies have ishi atama—or “heads of stone.”
This event kind of put a damper on my evening. I didn’t get in the bath with the kids. And I won’t go for a walk tonight. I just want this wound to heal. Anyway, it’s all in a day’s work as a dad. And the pain felt good. Seeing that bodybuilding is one of my passions, this observation should come as no surprise. I like pain. Up to a certain extent, of course. I wouldn’t like to have bamboo splints shoved up my urethra.
See the photo evidence here. Note that the camera lies. The injury looks much worse in real life.
In the way of TV, I am currently watching Season Four of the Fox Network’s show named 24. Hats off to Iranian-American actress, Shohreh Aghdashloo, who plays the role of a terrorist’s wife. Her eyes perfectly capture the single-minded fervor of fanatacism. I’m no good at acting myself, but I can be the judge of good acting. And good actors have complete mastery of the “windows to the soul.”
While we’re on the topic, it’s worth mentioning one actress who has really stunning eyes. While she’s not a bad actor, I don’t think she’s such a terrific actor (even though I’ve only seen her in one film). Nevertheless, I feel John Carpenter’s 1988 film They Live is worth your time if only so that you get a gander of Meg Foster’s hypnotic eyes.
Time to wind down the evening.
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04.23.07
Posted in Corporate Malefeasance at 12:38 am by Max
Also entitled, “How They Fool You: Part 2.”
Another act of corporate deceit worth mentioning is common among food manufacturers. Many manufacturers of processed food aim to mislead the public into thinking their products are healthy.
Take this example of “Snack Pan” (“pan” is the Japanese word for bread), offered by the bakery company named Pasco. On the front of the plastic package we learn that this bread contains DHA, a substance which is an essential part of a healthy diet. Hmm, sounds good. Bread with DHA. Why not buy it? Yeah. Everyone wants to be healthier.
Whoa! Wait a minute. Don’t forget to read the list of ingredients on the back of the package, you gullible schmuck. I thought you were a careful, cautious consumer who didn’t take manufacturers’ claims at face value. But no-o-o! It turns out you’re just a crazed, cock-hungry whore who gleefully swallows the jism of commercial deception every time it’s pumped down your throat.
There is next to nothing healthy about this bread. I won’t even get into the fact that it contains high-glycemic refined flour and other sweeteners. The criminal act in question here is that this bread is contaminated with toxic trans fats. Read up about trans fats if you don’t know much about them. (Japan is obviously behind in the worldwide consumer battle against trans fats.)
How can Pasco expect us to be so dumb? How can they try to pitch their product as healthy? How can they care so little about their customers? If Pasco wants to sell shitty bread, fine. But don’t you try to label it as healthy.
You fuckers.
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04.22.07
Posted in Corporate Malefeasance at 2:20 am by Max
As I’ve mentioned before, it bothers me when corporations, by nature in the game only to make money, try to pass off their self interest as something nobler.
Take this recent ad for a major bank. The bank, HSBC, is telling us that it cares about the environment and is concerned about carbon emissions. For its efforts to save trees and reduce waste via its paperless banking scheme, the bank is giving itself a congratulatory pat on the back . Prospective customers are encouraged to bank with this institution because it cares about the environment.
Horseshit! HSBC will save loads of lucre by encouraging paperless banking. Paperless banking means less money spent on printers, paper and printing ink; less money spent on employee labor to stuff and post the envelopes; and of course less money spent on postage. It’s in the bank’s own interest to go paperless. It’s all about the bottom line.
Call me a cynic, but I think I’m seeing things the way they are.
I do want to say, however, that despite HSBC’s disingenuous sales pitch, I think paperless banking is a good way to go for bank customers. Not only is it better for the environment, it is considerably more secure (no statements in the mail for identity thieves to steal). Just pray that a hacker can’t penetrate your bank’s online defenses, and be sure to guard carefully your login ID and password.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 2:10 am by Max
There are lots of new developments with the kids lately. Just coming home from work after an absence of several hours, I often notice one of the boys making a new facial expression or displaying a new skill. We’re being pretty diligent about recording their feats on video, so you will eventually be able to see firsthand the changes that are going on.
Mickey and Milo have begun to fight with each other. For example, they both get it in their heads that they want the same toy, and then a tug-of-war ensues, with one or both of them crying. Milo sometimes pushes Mickey down on the floor. Each twin retaliates by “hitting” the other on the head—it’s more like a firm patting, and the one being patted doesn’t usually mind.
Mickey will hit us parents, too. He hit Mommy the other day when, in an effort to wean him off one of his dependencies, she removed his pacifier from his mouth. He tried to hit me today when I wouldn’t let him play on my chair—“I have to eat, darn it!” I told myself.
Mickey presents us with the classical example of tantrums. Not too long ago, I tried to take half of the food from Mickey’s plate and give it to Milo, who had none, but Mickey began shouting and threw down his plate of food. When he doesn’t get his way, Mickey will sometimes lie face down on the floor and bump his head (not exactly softly, either); Milo will just lie on the floor and cry.
At other times they love to play together and chase each other around the apartment. Following the cue from a Teletubbies video, in addition to prompting from Mommy, they like to give each other a “bi-i-i-g hug” now and then. They like to give/share food as well. Mickey handed a plate of bite-sized pancake pieces to Milo, and both the twins like to put food in my mouth—and other people’s mouths as well! (I have a theory that food sharing must be part of the human genetic makeup; the urge to share food starts very early on in childhood and I suspect it is common to all cultures.) Finally, recently, when I was wiping Mickey’s bum, Milo sat beside me, yanked baby wipes from the baby wipe pack, and handed them to me one by one.
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04.15.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:37 pm by Max
Kevin wrote a short diatribe against cell phones. I agree with him on most points. As to where I disagree, you can read my comments on his post.
I’m all too happy to live my life cell-phone-less. Here are the reasons.
1. Cell phones are an additional source of stress because they’re an extra appendage to manage. (I already have enough appendages to manage.) Recharging and discharging the batteries, remembering to bring the damn thing with you, turning the phone on and off all the time, managing the list of stored names and numbers, learning how to use the phone’s multifarious functions, puching undersize keys with my oversize (because I’m a honky) thumb, not to mention paying the monthly bill. Who wants to invest the time and energy in managing cell phones?
2. I don’t like being “on” all the time. I love computers and information technology. I hate the idea of having to be available all the time. I enjoy my time alone during the walk to work, when I’m on the train, and whatnot. And because you’re always “on” when you have a cell phone, the pace of your life increases. I’m not an ER doctor; I don’t need to be on call.
3. I like being the odd man out. Besides my wife, I’m the only person over 19 I know here in Japan who gets by without a cell phone. Admittedly, there are some situations when it’d be handy to have a cell phone, such as when we’re in the car and we want to call grandma at home. But overall, being cell phone free is the thing for me.
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04.10.07
Posted in Family/Friends Video at 10:31 pm by Max
Watch a video of Shiho when she was just a spring chicken. This editing job, made (like all of my previous videos) with Ulead VideoStudio, is my best piece of work so far. It features title pages, subtitles, fade-ins and fade-outs, and consists of several video clips seamlessly integrated into one.
There is a mistake, however, with the second title page. Instead of “Mickey with Shiho’s paternal grandparents,” it should read, “Mickey and Milo with Shiho’s paternal grandparents.” See the video here on YouTube or else click on the thumbnail below to watch it on this server. YouTube seems to be working better for me these days.
I’ve had quite a bit of time off recently. My base salary is calculated at 21 teaching hours per week, but for several weeks now my hours have been under par—and I still get my base salary. For one or two weeks, I only worked about five hours! I’ve enjoyed the time off. I’ve spent a lot of quality time with my kids. We played a lot at home and took a lot of nice walks together. Now that time has come to an end. Kindergarten and university classes are starting up again. I’m getting ready for the grind.
I’m enjoying life these days. I have a lot going for me. I try to appreciate what I have, because so many people have so much less. A recent National Geographic article declares that there are currently more than 850 million hungry people in the world—people who can’t meet their minimum daily caloric requirements.
I try to empathize with people when they complain a lot about petty things, such as a stain on their pants or minor aches and pains. But another part of me wants to shake them and tell them how lucky they are to have it all. Damn it, more than 850 million hungry people? This is the kind of thing I try to remember when I myself am complaining about something petty. We who are well fed and well clothed really need to remind ourselves about how geography is an accident, and we shouldn’t feel so bad about our petty little problems. Yes, I do put my money where my mouth is. I currently sponsor two children from Third World countries. I want to help even more needy people. Maybe it sounds like I’m preaching, but so be it. Too many of us (myself included) are too wrapped up in our self-centered worlds.
Today we came home and found in the mail slot a flyer for a pizza delivery place. I suddenly felt in the mood for pizza. Shiho ordered a small Queen Margherita pizza and I ordered a medium pizza with pepperoni and Italian sausage (for some reason it was called Italian Light). Damn good; I wolfed mine in two sittings. I really needed the calories. Time now to burn some of those calories off again; time to go for my second walk of the day. I plan to have a kick-ass weightlifting session tomorrow.
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04.09.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:10 pm by Max
We had some sun after a thunderstorm this morning, so before heading to the gym I stepped out to snap a few pictures. The photos show the scenery along the river that runs right in front of our apartment building. It’s actually a pretty nice river, home to several species of waterfowl. It’s too damn bad that people chuck so much bloody garbage in it. Empty bottles, plastic bags, household garbage, unwanted bicycles, abandoned motor scooters, you name it. Japan isn’t the spotlessly clean country you may have thought it was. Maybe I ought to organize weekly cleaning brigades.
Have a look at the gallery of today’s photos. (This link won’t be available indefinitely.)
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04.05.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:25 pm by Max
If I taught a linguistics course, I would include a discussion of semantic ambiguities such as the following:
A bear and a rabbit are taking a dump in the woods. The bear asks the rabbit, “Do you have a problem with shit sticking to your fur?”
The rabbit answers, “No, not really.”
The bear then replies, “OK, then,” after which he grabs the rabbit and uses it to wipe his huge ursine ass.
Today my student asked me in Japanese, “Saikin anata-no mai bumu nan desuka?” In English, this would render as, “What kind of hobbies or activities are you into nowadays?”
What interested me was the new slang term “mai bumu.” This is a corruption of the English “my boom,” and is used to mean a hobby that you currently find enjoyable. I had never heard the expression before, but I can guess where it comes from. “Boom” in English is used to refer to periods of high activity, such as a baby boom or economic boom. It’s weird how the Japanese language corrupts English words. I’ve heard that people think it’s cool or fashionable to use loan words; therein lies part of the impetus for making new loan words. Except that “my boom” isn’t even an English expression. Maybe an example of a similar phenomenon in English is when we say “nom de plume,” whereas the French don’t even say this—they say “nom de guerre.” The Japanese do this kind of thing, though, on a far larger scale than do native speakers of English.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 2:07 am by Max
In a Time magazine article written a few months ago, I read about Ali Khurshid, a student of architecture who lives in Pakistan. He takes some pretty interesting photos.
I liked Khurshid’s comments about what constitutes a good photo. To quote Time:
As for Khurshid, he judges a picture’s quality by its use of light and spontaneity—“by the fact that one moment later it would have all gone,” he says.
I don’t know enough about lighting to comment on that part, but I fully agree with the spontaneity part. Of all the photos I’ve taken, my favorite ones are the most spontaneous ones A fleeting moment of magic captured forever. Sometimes I like my subjects to pose for photos, but at other times I like to catch them unawares. At those times, I don’t like it when the subject becomes aware of me trying to take a picture and then faces the lens and puts on his/her standard posing mask. I love spontaneous photos like this.
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