New Blog Created

I just created a new blog to cronicle my Japan trip. It's at http://r3dinsapporo.blogspot.com check it out sometime.. I'll try to update it more frequently then this one! The neat thing here is that I can post pics now!

Ok time to start posting!

~J out

Update 10 days

Back from camping in the Pacific Northwestern Coast and it was "brisk" to say the least. What a trip! The details of the trip are astounding, briefly, it was a twisted adventure full of romance, fear, and excitement. Topped by a cold atmosphere that made every morsil of heat enjoyable. Apparently as we were freezing, our parents in the valley were toasting! Luck was on our side!

10 days to go and the stop has been pulled and now comes the ride of a lifetime!

~J out

a view from beyond

A world of blunders today. For starters the dupl room was getting a fresh coat of paint and I've been suffering the fumes. Not to worry, I'm fine... for the most part anyway.

Lately I've been reading this great book about sailing around the world. It got me dreaming again, which is a mistake, only because my dreams are usually bigger then my reality... mmm. things might change though who knows. I get criticized about it on a regular basis from my partner and girlfriend. She tells me basically to look forward and to not always look up or down which I constantly do with my faviorite game, "what to do after a lifetime of education."

Recently, as I've posted before, i've been looking at jobs elsewhere beyond the U.S.A. and have found promising jobs that pay decent wages in Countries like Japan, Korea, and China. Here's the catch though, my "world" or those in it see this as a bad sign and warn me that maybe the good 'ole U.S. of A is better then I give credit for. Here's the deal:

Ex pat is in me no matter what. When I went to Mexico on a band trip I wanted to move there and start a small business and live in Porta Vallarta for life. Me and this other guy already had our flat staked out and out business set. That was just one or two weeks in Mexico... That was a great trip....

I'm going to go live in Japan now, my fantasy for years, 7 or 8 to be exact. I can't recall when my Japan-drive for knowledge started or how it started, only that the history and culture attracted me! At first it was pop culture that drove me, but then the deep significant culture and writtings of an intelligent race, centuries ahead of it's time, deep into the 15th c. captivated me and now I'm dead set on meeting a group and asking questions about their life and how America and the 21st centure has revolutionized it. Perhaps a deep thought provoking thesis will be born out of this grand experience. Perhaps my view of everyday life in Japan will be warped. Whatever the case is, i'm excited. What do I expect from these people? nothing. No reactions or deep thoughts on their past. So what am I excited about? I'm excited to see a nation move, from a sociologist's perspective. I took an intro to sociology and i've been hooked on how people interact. Japan to me is an unique country that is , in one way all asia and in another not asia at all. Its an island that is protected from the ties of deep asian historical culture and poverty and it is an island that has developed its own everything. Peace and Politics are different and the Right Left argument will be interesting to hear. What is Japan's view of "America's war" and will it break the peace accord. All this and more, I plan to seek out. I feel that my duty as a college student is to explore, ask questions, and learn about a country that has a longer history then America with more traditions to boot, but yet, embraces modernity whole heartedly. Whatever the result of my trip, it'll affect my view of this world.

~J

work'n part time allowed!

Apparently I can work part time for about 25 hours as a student in Japan. There are rules however...

-According to the Student Visa office: Foreign students cannot engage in part-time work at an entertainment or entertainment-related establishment. Meaning that I can't play the hotshot bar tender like Tom Cruze at some Jap bar...
-If a foreign student is discovered working in such a place, he or she will be punished for engaging in an illegal extra activity and will be liable for deportation. Mmm sounds serious.. so what might these dins of iniquity be?

Places classified as such are as follows:
1.Cabarets, nightclubs, dance halls, bars that require staff to entertain customers and eat and drink with them, pachinko parlors, mahjong parlors, game centers, private-room bathhouses, strip clubs, peep shows, love hotels, pornographic bookstores, private room massage parlors.

Whoa ok... is that it? Nope there's more!

2.Foreign students are not permitted to work in places that (a) require staff, such as hostesses, to entertain customers, (b) are dark (with an illumination of less than 10 lux), and (c) are narrow (less than 5 square meters per customer seat) or otherwise difficult to see.

What? I can't work in dim lighting or in a tight place? Wait a minute... isn't most of Japan narrow and dim at night? I guess this will be harder then I thought.. jeeez.... Tough rules, but that's not all from what I found out... check this out: Once you've found a joint to work at....>

"Foreign students...(are) not allowed to seek or accept employment unless they have official permission to do so from a regional immigration bureau... Once you receive permission, this part-time work is defined and referred to as an extra activity."

Yeesh! so I got go to some Hokkaido Offical looking guy and ask him first if I can work, BEFORE I even start looking for a job. In the words of Marty McFly, "This is heavy"

And I thought it was tough to get a J.O.B. in America!

~J out

Home in a couple weeks->

Working in Sushi land

I've been pondering life after college and have come up with __blanks__ ,but after recent discovery have found new careers teaching english in Japan.

This isn't some big revelation for me, i've been thinking about teaching english for years now. However.... Making it come true or even looking at applications is another league away for me, yet, lately i've been filling them out and hitting "cancel" at the last minute. Why? dunno... it's wierd for me to do such a thing. I'm kinda in a time when I should be applying for everything and I don't because I wanna just finish the degree, but then the job comes after right? Recommended Result: I should just apply and have 'em tell me that it's too early.

Anyway, which company should one apply to? Everyone I've ever talked to or met has worked for J.E.T. and well JET is not on my big "pri one" list. I know JET's "ins" and "outs" and salary and contract limits and year long application proceedures and, well, is there any alternative(s)? answer: apparently YES.

In fact there are about 4 or 5 big ones like AEON, GEOS, NOVA, and others. All offering inticing incentives to young knownothings and inexperienced kids ... like ME! to come and work in their english teaching sweat shops to teach english sense for Japanense cents. Now as my date approaches fer leaving the freedom bird for the dragon head (Hokkaido), SEPT 6th, I wonder if i'll be motivated to visit these temples of linguistic apptitute and request applications and advice.

ok well listen up then self!

Self in the future:
Young one who is sitting on a futon or in a chair in a lab right now; If you stumble across this entry in your bookmarks then me, who is in the past by then, is telling you now to get off your A@$ and visit a NOVA center or an AEON center or some center NOW! Talk with them! Get informed!

I understand that my life is governed by some holy fate, but until that future is revealed to me then I will worry till i'm sick about what comes after this pleasent life as an occupational student. May God bless this opportunity, if not make it fail hard enough for me to not visit Japan again!

~j out

Passport approved

Today I got my passport in the mail stamped with a Japanese visa good for one year and multiple entries allowed!

Groovy..! one step closer to the dream... O_o*

Money

Like the song by Pink Floyd, money is a drag... Thinking about this trip to Japan and trying to finance it is a battle of wit.. I'm not rich and to "make it happen" I feel like getting into tremendous debt is the best way to do this then to ask for money from my parents.

Thats the reality of life I suppose.. More and more I feel people on the phone, either at my school or the loan office are more like computers then the one I'm typing on. Dead lines are deadlines, no mercy, and if you don't get it paid off by then, then your tossed through the school's meat grinders that chew up your hope of a B.A. Degree or the loan offices' neckbreakers Lenny and Bruno who'll break your leg for every penny you got.

Life's getting rough and I haven't even entered "the real world" yet. o_O !

The first day of August

I've experienced 21 "first days of august" and it is a time of happiness and sometimes remorse. Reason is.. August is the last month till school. Now some think school is a drag, and sometimes it is, but I like it.. It gives you things to do and think about... I haven't researched a thing while on summer break and I can't wait for the next challenge...

That isn't the only reason that the 1st is so special, its also because this september I'll be on a new and great adventure.. "I'M GOING TO JAPAN!" yep'ers... They'll be so much to do and see, I know it.. I'm beside myself trying to figure it all out... I should relax and tell myself "it's all right, just go with the flow" but man is it stinking exciting!

I'm thinking of making a separate blog for it... I'm going to have my lappy (laptop) which I want to upgrade, but cannot afford it... It's still a good machine, but it's slower on some programs.. I don't use it to game or anything, but since I fried my other machine this is my only computer. I guess this is it.. Whoa.. can't handle the rush it brings me..!!!!

New Background..

I just figgured out how to manipulate by blog so I think I'll dink around and see if I can't come up with something cool...

Do as you please...

Been awhile since I posted, but take a look..

According to a news report by The Second Amendment Foundation Online The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana yesterday afternoon issued a temporary restraining order on behalf of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and National Rifle Association ( NRA), bringing an end to firearm seizures from citizens living in and around New Orleans. Read about it >>here<<

The Argument was that seizing guns from recent victims of Katrina was essentially hindering their 2nd amendment right to own a gun (assume ably for self-protection). Now I support everyone’s right to a gun, what I do not support is everyone’s right to the do-as-they-please cult.

This begs the question... Who’s at fault here? Answer: Everybody who joined the did as they pleased cult…

"who are they?" you might ask.. They're the people who are seizing the guns, the people who used their guns to vandal flooded houses, AND they're the people who overly defended their house from rescue workers (who were trying to bring them to safety IN HELICOPTERS) sighting that they were not going to evacuate and you couldn't make them... *bang* *bang*

Come on now… here’s a question gun owners and right protection agencies: are there right times to pull a gun out, seize a gun, or shoot someone and are there wrong times? Answer: you with the gun… you choose.

The law says you have the right to a gun, but you don’t have the right to take the law into your own hands with that gun… I hope the people getting their guns back won’t retaliate and form the New Orleans Confederacy, but if they do you can be sure they won't review their local gun laws…

~That is all~

Feel good

Oi...

I just finished my Samurai Armor!! oh yeah... feels good..

one more day till Spring break so I feel good...

Listening to Buddha Brand so.. no political rant today, because it's all good..!

~R3D

Three years later

Ok so I know where I was when Shock and Awe happened.. I was in a chemistry class watching Baghdad light up like a roman candle. No one knew what would happen afterwards...

I'll admit I haven't read Cobra 2 yet, but I will read it soon. The truth is according to MSNBC's Meet the Press:

"Exactly three years later, millions have voted in free elections and a parliament have been seated. But 2,300 Americans have been killed, more than 17,000 wounded and injured. The war is costing $150 million dollars a day and there are still 130,000 Americans on the ground."

If you didn't watch the interview last sunday you didn't miss much except for a few sound bites from Gen. Casey. A few I found interesting was:

"I wouldn’t categorize Swarmer as a major combat operation. It was an operation to go out into a almost uninhabited area."

"if he [the enemy] is dumb enough to mass again like he, like he did in Fallujah, then, you know, he’ll have to bear the consequences."

"I think people need to, to put this in a little bit more perspective and not think so much about what they’ve seen on television over the last three weeks, and think about what’s been going on here over the last three years."

"...the levels of participation increased, the levels of violence decreased..."

(earlier interview) “By this time next year... Assuming that the political process continues to go positively, and the Sunni are included in the political process, and the Iraqi army continues to progress and develop as we think it will, we should be able to take some fairly substantial reductions in the size of our forces.”

"I don’t want to sugar-coat it, the situation here is fragile"

Situation Fragile is an understatement really... just google "iraq" and you'll see that many assumptions about Iraq are wrong and we should of left years ago...

~R3D

Protest in Portland

There was a protest is Portland today... I went and thought is was pretty good. I only watched it for a little bit, but am glad to see people stand up and speak out against people who do not have the interests of the people at heart...

Maybe i'm just another liberal democrat.. maybe not..

I identify with the independents. I'm neither a hardline D or R. I like some of both. I also share the views of the liberitarians, green party, and other ideologies...

If it were up to me (and it's not) I would put an end to this "craps style" take all election process and set it up with percentages. For example, instead of Texas always being a R. State, it would be 90% for R and 10 % D(Austin is pretty much a D town).

Well hopefully people will get hip and vote the right guy in for their state that takes power away from the Bush Dynasty.

~R3D

excerpt from a economics test

thought it was an interesting thought...

Q. How does society gain or lose from this change in market structure?

A. The United States market is said to be changing everyday. In America’s production era (1910-1970) the economy was heavenly depended on skilled blue collar workers. However, new firms from outside the country, who have lower marginal private costs, have forced US industries to compete to the point that they have to find cheaper labor and thus force manufacturing plants in the US to shutdown and fire skilled laborers. On the other hand, America is very dynamic and in most cases jobs just get shifted from the tangible industry to the service industry.

Some economists have said that this solution is best for America, but the solution is only somewhat good. The manufacturing job to service job switch is entirely depended on the worker. If workers cannot afford retraining (and there is no government support to retrain workers) then the plan is flawed. Also, the desire to change jobs is alarming too. From a purely economic stand point, the switch of labor industries is pretty straight forward, but from a worker who is in his mid to late 40’s, who had a pension, 401k, etc. that is now unemployed; there is no solution for him.

Often manufacturing industries just layoff employees and never call them back. In Georgia, unemployment was at an all time low. Recently, KIA agreed to build a 1.2 million dollar plant in Georgia which would re-employ 2,500 previous workers who did not switch careers to the service industry. The move was said to be a step in the right position; yet, the deal came with serious draw backs for Georgia’s state government which granted next to nothing in taxes in order for the deal to take place. The question this brings up is that while jobs are changing and the market becomes more and more “globalized” the repercussions might out weigh the benefits.

As for whether society will benefit or loose from more firms entering the US market is based upon whether or not Americans’ income will not be able to afford the products due to large-scale unemployment, age discrimination, loss of 401ks, increasing tuition for community colleges for re-training, etc. If we are to make this transition so that society will benefit, then we must address ways to help the American help the economy by providing him with some financial security.

That's all I could muster for that question.. I truely believe that waiting 10 years for the U.S. economy to just "flip" to a service based work force is too long... Action is needed now! what can the government do?

(after ending this war on terror)

1. Start assisting workers who have been layed off to retrain by offering tuition breaks at state community colleges,
2. Give incentives for business owners to hire re-trained workers,
3. stop trying to figure out "mobile retirement plans" and "mobile healthcare packages" and start giving incentives to American businesses to keep their retirement packages, healthcare, etc. (i.e. Make it affordable for the Business and the employee)
4. Protect American workers... help those who have lost a job to India/China.
5. Stop saying it will fix itself, you know it's wrong so stop doing it...

There is more too, just open your ears for a minute and people will help you.. Toyota has a slogan, "Buy Toyota parts to keep your Toyota a Toyota." Well I say, "buy/sell American goods to keep your American Business an American business!!!"

~R3D

Happy Saint Patties day...


Today I was finishing up my samurai armor project for an Art Class and one of the things I was making was a samurai helmet. Well to make it I decided on a variety of things, including a bicycle helmet, but I ended up using an old East German WW2 helmet. It was thin steal and I thought it was going to be easy to drill through. However, that gosh darn helmet took the abuse of three drillbits and one cobalt bit and not one hole was made... dang...

I ended up torching it and eventually made a hole, but if you ever run into a whacko with a drill, grab a commy/east german helmet to protect you!!

News today was same ole same ole.. Hopefully things will slowdown soon and I can get back to posting, emailing, and working on fun stuff...


~R3D..

The world around me

Yesterday I saw something that was interesting...

In the Economics classroom, the chairs were arranged differently that day. All of them were lined up in rows. Typically the chairs are lined up with a few on the side of each wall facing each other and then a couple of them in the middle sort of facing the front. What was interesting was when students entered the room and saw the arrangement they spent 5 or so minutes re-arranging the chairs to the exact way they had them before..... Weird huh? Perhaps not. Just interesting...

what's going on today?

According to UNIRIN News, bird flew has been confirmed in Afghanistan in six samples of birds.
The strain was only found in birds, which means no human cases... yet. That doesn't stop Afghanistan from ordering the slaughter of all chickens to prevent it from spreading... While this kind of responce is effective, there is better ways to help rid your nation of bird flu like washing your hands everyday.

My take on Bird Flu is that it's a problem, but a reason to go to war over. However a war on disease would atleast have a better outcome then this endlist war on Terrorism. The real terror is showing up too late to help it any further or even worse not doing anything at all.

After the Earthquake in Pakistan, America tried to rally forces from around the area to help out, but they were uneffective. In fact, we didn't make it a #1 priority. The result is that people who lived in the mountains recieved aid from al-Qa'ida. Turns out there was a local training camp near by and the recruits were dispached to help victems with food, water, and aid...

Showing up late and not tackling small problems like Avian Flew OVER THERE will result in a worse problem when it reaches here.

good times!

~R3D

Day 1 Imagine

Today I was looking at cars in Britain. They have this diesel technology that Americans will most likely never have. Particularly, this turbo diesel design I'm attracted too. Perhaps if things weren't so expensive I wouldn't have to search for another car... Bush and his stupid energy policy!

Ya know, in the year 2000 (B.9/11), Bush talked about alternative resources.. yeah that's right, in fact he's talked about alt. energy for years and nothing has come from it. You think "flex-fuel" is a solution? hah! no way... that takes almost twice the energy to produce.. Get off of it. The war on terror is the war on ideological differences on oil policies and the greedy men who hold the oil card close to them.

What is Persia without oil anyway? Answer: it used to be a rich and vibrant place who traded in Gold, Spices, Silver, and other exotic things. Ever wonder what Osama Bin Laddin's dream is? His dream is to restore a broken world that used to rule the middle kingdom of Europe and West Asia.

This stuff about Iran is another hoot. Sure, Iran is a threat and their capibilities to produce Nukes might come around in say 10-15 years... OMG!! Yeah, I forgot in 10-15 years we'll either own the middle east or start a massive religious civilwar between the three tribes. I say that first Russia needs to think about what is worse: Trading enriched uranian with a crazy theocracy or maybe trading that uranium with someone else. Who knows...

We'll see next week when all hell breaks loose in the SC. Good luck.. Bolton! You'll need it..

Also big in the global news today:

The United Nations General Assembly just passed a new resolution creating a new (more efficent) Human Rights Council. 170 countries voted in favor with 4 opposed and a few abstaintions. Get this... the U.S.A. voted "No" yep... what was Bolton's responce?

"We did not have sufficient confidence in this text to be able to say that the Human Rights Council would be better than its predecessor. That said, the United States will work cooperatively with other Member States to make the Council as strong and effective as it can be." (see here)

Yeah right.. Over how many years of work did Kofi Annan put into this and the U.S. doesn't agree that it has "sufficient confidence" HAH! give me a break. What Bolton is saying is that he's displeased with the voting of members into the council. He said that the Resolution didn't include Annan's proposal for a 2/3 majority vote from the member states to elect it's 47 member board of directors.

Voting proceedures? really? Sure corrupt governments do corrupt things all the time, but come on Bolton stick up for helping the world for once! Turn off the one way phone like to Carl Rove and Condoleezza Rice and think about what the heck you're doing... Save the people, not the politics...

That's all for now

~R3D