GOD’s Will on US or Our Will on GOD?

*Warning this is a very long post*

I’ve been wrestling with whether or not I should post my opinion or review of the new documentary called Jesus Camp. As a “born again Christian” but also as a moderate (liberal) I find that my beliefs and morals are contradictory to the views of the so-called “Neo-Conservatives”. To understand better of what I’m about to say, I suggest first that you go to your local video rental store and rent and watch Jesus Camp.

The wiki on Jesus Camp says that it is a 2006 documentary directed by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing about a Pentecostal summer camp for children who spend their summers learning and practicing their "prophetic gifts" and being taught that they can "take back America for Christ.” According to the distributor, it "doesn't come with any prepackaged point of view" and tries to be "an honest and impartial depiction of one faction of the evangelical Christian community”. After watching it, I would agree with the first half, but the next part, the part that reads “doesn’t come with any prepackaged point of view” is only somewhat accurate. When doing any sort of religious review, opinion or points of view are make sense of what we’re seeing. How one describes “speaking in tongues” or “born again” to a non-member audience in a non-religious universal definition will always be riddled with opinion. This movie, however, left interpretation to the audience, but it was clear, if the audience was not a member of this group then it would likely be negatively shocked at the material and also would likely side with Mike Papantonio (the radio talk-show host) for his opinion that fundamentalism is too radical. On the other hand, members of this religious right would likely side with Children’s pastor Becky Fisher and praise her for being defiant while viewing this movie as a reaffirmation of why everything hinges on “keeping the faith pure.”

If it is not apparent by now, I’m talking about a clear binary schism between fundamentalists and the rest. The purely dichotomous separation has been split into self-proclaimed “neo-conservatives” or “neo-cons” and liberals/moderates. Our first “engagement” (as they could likely call it) was the 2000 election when the goal was to win 50 + 1% of the population for President Bush. Of course Carl Rove was the mastermind in finding such a constituency and converting these “sheep of Jesus” to “followers of Bush” whilst keeping inline with the faith and retaining their “moral agenda.” This all clearly reeks of politics, but oddly enough this group (at least in the film) identifies itself as completely non-political, but rather radical in keeping the morals set out by Christ. Politics aren’t the issue and making this post a commentary on politics would negate the greater truth about this group.

Fundamentalism has scarcely been herd in recent times to convey the attitudes of Americans, but rather it’s been used to characterize the extremist Islamic groups as radical and yes.. fundamental. To get a clear definition of fundamentalism, the American Heritage dictionary defines fundamentalism as “a usually religious movement or point of view characterized by a return to fundamental principles, by rigid adherence to those principles, and often by intolerance of other views and opposition to secularism.” Using this definition, the fundamentalist group talked about in this movie clearly fills this role.

The commentary on society, by the fundamentalists, says that society has sold out to secularism and has degraded the faith. Society has left morals and ethics to be defined by man’s laws and interpretations, rather then God’s laws and interpretation. Therefore we MUST turn away from the ways of man (who is weak and fickle) and go back to a time when America was pure and truly was “one nation under GOD.” For most Christians, they would agree, partly, to these claims, but the fundamentalists separate themselves out when they characterize this schism with “war-like” language… Language like “we need to fight to keep morals” or “we need to wage a war on the atheists who are corrupting the schools” or more commonly (an accentuated in the movie), “we need to train our children to be Christian Solders in God’s Army.” This ‘battle speech’ is often not endorsed by mainstream Christians (mainstream being those who do not identify with the separatist movement) and therefore, fundamentalism should be seen as outside the Christian faith as a separatist movement and independent from mainstream religion.

At this juncture when battle talk gets thrown around and the argument becomes rigidly dichotomous as “if you are not with us, then you’re against us” I find serious fault with by fellow brethren in Christ. The teachings of Christ are not to wage war with man, but to rather wage peace. This means that Jesus would rather have us love our fellow man as humans, rather then persecute humans for their choices. This means that a redefinition of the goals of Christianity is in order. Unfortunately, leaders of the our faith (with exception of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) haven't clearly defined the goals of faith to be one way or the other. For that I look to a monumental figure in the world’s religions: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) better known as Mahatma Gandhi “the great soul.” Using a Hindu spiritual leader to address the goals of Christianity is not odd or out of place in our society. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was known to have used Gandhi’s teachings on the “path of non-violence as a means of protest” to lead his peaceful protest against the injustices of racism. Gandhi, in his own defense, didn’t limit himself to being a professor of one-religion, but of all religion. Gandhi says, “I have no desire for prestige anywhere…I am a servant of Mussalmans [Muslims], Christians, Pasis, and Jews, as I am of Hindus. And a servant is in need of love, not prestige. That is assured to me so long as I remain a faithful servant.” (From M. K. Gandhi, Collected Works, 26:415) Hopefully by his own words, we can agree that if Gandhi was important to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and that Gandhi, himself, proclaimed to be a servant of Christians then maybe what he says on what the goals of faith are, should be our goals.

Gandhi says, “All well-order societies are based on the law of non-violence. I have found that life persists in the midst of destruction and, therefore, there must be a higher law then that of destruction. Only under that law would a well-ordered society be intelligible and life worth living.” Christians must take heed, especially fundamentalists, to what Gandhi is saying here. Jesus also spoke of non-violence as being the better of two paths and to never take vengeance on your own behalf. On the later he said, “19Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. 20Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 21Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” (KJV Romans 12:19-21) on taking the righteous path Jesus said, “38Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: 39But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. 41And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. 42Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.” (KJV Matthew 5:38-42).

If we are to be good servants to man and to actually follow the words of Christ, as well as take guidance from Gandhi then we should heed these words and make them our creed. Gandhi spoke of our goal to follow the law of Love, “The law of Love will work” Gandhi said, “just as the law of gravitation will work, whether we accept it or not…having flung aside the sword, there is nothing except the cup of love which I can offer to those who oppose me. It is by offering that cup that I expect to draw man close to me…It is no non-violence if we merely love those that love us. It is non-violence only when we love those that hate us. I know how difficult it is to follow this grand law of love. But are not all great and good things difficult to do? Love of the hater is the most difficult of all.” (N. K. Bose, Selections from Gandhi, p.17).

The moral compass that fundamentalists follow is one of hate and ill repute of those who are not “morally pure” but if we are to be Christians in the truest sense then we MUST rid ourselves of such battle talk and war-mongering that fundamentalists of the past have took to justify their massacres.

It is my belief that that Gandhi was right and speaking from a greater truth that LOVE CONQUERS ALL not separation. Both what Gandhi spoke of and what Jesus spoke of was not to realign government with your own views, but to make faith a personal quest. This might sound like giving your children a change to have a brain and it should sound like that. Indoctrinating your kids in hatred of homosexuals, atheists, liberals, and even moderate Christians IS WRONG and not in line with the teachings of Christ… when I read Gandhi’s teachings or read the words of Christ I see that universally faith should bring us all together. It is not our privilege to persecute non-believers, but our obligation to love everybody. THAT is what God will truly judge us for… the deeds in your lives (good and bad) maybe important to God, but he sent his only son to not judge man for his wrongs, but to help us love man for being God’s creation. The direction for Christianity and the Goals of our faith should reflect this.

God Loves his creations, God in turn loves your Gay Neighbor, Co-worker, or peer AS MUCH AS HE LOVES YOU, so love and treat your peers and people who share different opinions of you the same way you would like to be treated because in the end.

We were all created the same and are loved the same by God.

Therefore, Love one another, I believe, should be the over arching goal of Christians.

~J out

YATA! I DID IT! I'M FINISHED!

YATA I FINISHED THE FINAL EXAM!!!

This means that "SCHOOOOOOOLS OUT FOR THE SUMMER!"

Boy am I glad.. Good Semester too!

I want to thank all my instructors for putting in the hard work and effort to teach me something. I also want to thank my right hand for writing all (or most) the words in my head which were going twice as fast as my poor hand could go. Finally I want to thank GOD who generously pushed me through the semester and helped me in ways that even I don't even fully realize.

Thanks y'all.

So indeed it's true... the pulsing pain in my right hand between my thumb and my index finger and a indent mark of a pencil marks the beginning of summer. Time to take a break, enjoy the sun, and chill out (perhaps clean my room and complete some projects that have been piling up).

Today I'm going to celebrate by having lunch with my girlfriend and seeing Portland's Cinco de Mayo (May 5th for you Americanos).

Ahhhhhh

~J out

Bringing the school year to a close

May first… it is the beginning of a new month and the end of yet another semester.

At moments in which something has ended, the door has closed in a matter of speech, I feel like I should say something…something profound that makes all that struggle and anxiety worth it. The of X would be the end of this year’s spring semester. I acknowledge that it’s still finals week and I have two more to go, but I feel like it is “good enough” to give my reaction.

This semester had new perils in it like any adventure, even now as I sit in a wooden chair at the local starbucks I feel like adventurer who’s bested the lion in the safari. The peril I’m referring to is was the transitioning back to American Society. Specifically school.

Now this year I found very interesting, perhaps it’s because America radically changed and the schools are now dead-set on pounding out some issue that can’t be resolved so simply in a classroom … or … it’s because I’ve just come back from a society who (quite frankly) didn’t care about Neo-conservatism, The GWOT, or news for that matter. I remember distinctly being the only kid on my block (when I was in Sapporo) that was reading the Japan Times (provided by LC) on the subway/bus home.

I’m questioning the Japanese resilience to either A) Remain ignorant of all that or B) try to not offend by commenting on it. In fact, I felt that society felt a little better when game shows, local dramas among friends, and video games dominated the conversation. Yet this semester catapulted me back into this country who obviously has an opinion about everything.

So if I learned anything it’s a couple of things this semester…(and I’m really struggling to keep this list short!):

• Among biologists: Evolution is fact. And it has permeated through out science as being fact… and I mean ALL science including political science.
• Gender =’s women’s condition. It’s inescapable. When ever you ‘discuss’ gender, women’s issues get brought up. Especially when the overarching subject is Gender IN ASIA. It’s useless to discuss anything else, so as a guy I’ll do what all those people expect men to do… *-sigh-*
• Geopolitics has been my topic of interest since I had a brain to think with. This class didn’t disappoint either. It’s too bad that this class will be canceled until further notice, but on geopolitics the theory that “geography matters” as well as the male argument that “size matters” all are true.
• South Asia… Wow! I didn’t know anything about that place and I’ll be honest. I hesitantly signed up thinking it was about south EAST Asia and it really was SOUTH Asia meaning India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and others. This class didn’t disappoint either and now I am even more inquisitive about those nations. Good stuff about history and especially on theories on governing.

Overall opinion: Like any professor’s dream (I’m speculating) I’m filled with tons of more questions about each area. I feel now more then ever the most compelling knowledge that we’re all connected. Not like Karma, but everything from Biology to Gender to Politics to Third World Humanity… we’re all connected to everything someway and some how. We’ve integrated, evolved, and operate in what Cisco Systems call “The Human Network.” I find that absolutely fascinating and realize what (most likely) every student realizes some point in their education…

I know enough to know that I really don’t know

That’s my hopeless statement of truth. Take it for what it is. It’s not that I’ve failed in trying to learn something, or that I need to take some defeatist position here. It’s just how it is… It even has me questioning most recently

Do we really need hard facts, hard truth, or even a truth to carry on?

Maybe we do… maybe we don’t. We live not knowing a lot of hard truths and carry on ok. I’ll end there leaving you shattered and distraught that maybe what you thought was important might not me… If you really do need something to keep you going maybe this clue will help you

Save the cheerleader, save the world

~J out

remembering to dot those i's

Well today marks the first day of summer for me. Yeah "classes" are done with and there's no going back until the next semester. Of course I have finials so the victory of beating the school semester has yet to come.

I'm not saying final exams are a battle, but all students know there's a element of fighting. So the insomnia starts as I painfully write out the last report, finish off a portfolio, and study like hell.

Oh and to make things challenging... I seemed to have misplaced my glasses... So this all comes to me in the form of a blur!

~J out

The Third Sex

This week I've been fixated on the study of transgender. For a class of mine, we were to find something unique about gender in Asia and I picked (actually from my dad's suggestion) the phenomena of Transsexuals in Thailand, better known as Kathoey.

Transsexuality is a deep and complex subject and I do not fault anyone who finds it so complex that they avoid it all together. So far I've read three books and a dozen articles dealing with both Asian transsexuality and Western transsexuality and I feel even more ignorant then when I began... But for your educational value I will try to convey the basics or atleast synthesize what I've learned thus far.

The most complex, yet simple problem with the third sex is that there is no mono-lingual word like man, woman, boy, or girl that can describe the third sex. We've resorted to a plethora of singular binaries that just merge our dichotomous lingual vocabulary of gender. (i.e. man-woman, he-she, lady-boy, trans-sexual, etc. oh and 'it") This of course points to our consistent problem of trying to name "the other" or "not-man/woman."

Don't worry just yet!... the lack of a singular term may be because both normal heterosexuals, as well as, transsexuals (this being strictly Western/American society) feel that sexuality should be binary and that American transsexuals desire to be anatomically & socially feminine due to their psychological perception of themselves. Meaning that those who are transitioning sexuality to a female (or male) desire you to think they are either a man or woman, not an other.

So... the third sex calls for us to examine language, but language is more or less an extension of our culture. As Americans we naturally and force-ably ascribe gender categories as soon as we've sexed the fetus (aprx. in the 7th month). We reinforce gender by colors (blue/pink), clothes, jewelry, and how different genders speak: Language (notably pronunciations in Spanish & Japanese). The debate over gender generally falls to one question... "just who decides gender anyway?"

Some have said that it is naturally biology that makes us male or female. Specifically our sex organs or genitalia is all that's needed to concretely labeled in either group. This of course is problematic, because babies who are born hermaphrodites (having parts of both male and female genitalia) or babies who are born with defects or even special chromosomal syndromes like Klinefelter's Syndrome (KS) in boys or Turner Syndrome (TS) in girls become victims of hasty surgeries to make them "fit in" later in life.

Of course KS and TS are likely the exception and not the norm. The third sex comes from arguably somewhere deeper. Religions have poor answers in this arena, but generally we're taught that these people are weird and perhaps are products of a "sinful life." Scientists are no help either... Psychologists suggest something that happened in their childhood or perhaps the result of a hormonal imbalance at birth. Richard Totman, a social anthropologist who wrote the Third Sex, interviewed surgeons who perform sexual reassignment surgeries and they say that for most of their patients, the desire to be the opposite sex often spurs at a very young age... and perhaps developed sometime before birth.

Of course nothing has been set in concrete, we're dealing with humans after all and perhaps one may notice that humans just do not fit into all of our boxes. While perhaps our knowledge of third sex might be hotly contested (or non-existent) we should still tread lightly when passing judgment. I know that after pouring over story after story of each of these individual's past, I've realized that these are people too and progress with in this "non-purely-gay" and "certainly non-heterosexual" group may be just finding the right words to talk about who assigns gender and sexuality or what it is anyway.

On the other hand, our minds may be too corrupted to change. I know that after just minimal research I find myself questioning why I gender people in such a binary sense. We often I look at someone and say "yeah that's a boy" or "that's a girl" until I run into someone who could be either--at which time I'm baffled and think... "weird." Perhaps you do the same?

Telling these people who are like this to wear blue for boy or pink for girls just won't work. We need to find language and ultimately we just talk about it.

As for the Kathoey... my research carries on into the deep and complex world of Thailand's third sex. I suppose I am grateful to my Dad for suggesting this topic, because it opened my mind to a world that I had no clue about. Unfortunately this is likely too deep for him, because it's questioning preconceived notions of gender that are fragile and weird. That's OK... We all should look at how we definitively know that: That's a girl or that's a boy and I mean it outside what were taught. Is there a third sex? a fourth sex? a seventeenth sex? I'll leave that for you to decide for yourself... In the mean time you should be proud of who you are... maybe write "I proud to be a man", or "I'm proud to be a woman", or "I'm proud to be a ..." well you get the point...

~J out

Ego over Real Strength under Brute Strength

Man desires respect from other men and it is the goal of man to keep his worth for as long as he lives. "Worth" in this respect, if that man is a blue collar working man, means perpetulating the myth that he is as strong as he was at 22. For intellectuals, its means perpetuating the myth that you are always smarter then 22 yearolds. This is tough because image is a facade that decays fast and requires lots of effort to maintain.

In this era... America is like a middle aged man looking back and trying to show the world that it is still as strong as it's always been. Our constitution shows a time when we were spry and energetic.

What is the reality? We are mortal men. We can deny our mortality, but it constantly tarnishes our 'outer man.' In truth, as we age we lose brute strength for valuable wisdom. Wisdom is real strength. For America, when we hear "the need for change" it points to the need to realize we've changed... The working man of 2007 is not the working man of 1907. Machines have taken the place of real brute labor and working environments now need to comply with OSHA.

What if we dropped our ego and let our guard down and admitted that real men are mortal? Would we dismiss men as weak and feeble or would we come to the truth that all men are mortal? Consequently, what would happen if we let companies compete to raise the standard of the homeless and poor? What if companies competed for the best education for our young ones or the health care of America's working class? Society would experience change... social change. By admitting you are mortal you admit that the policies of America 100 years ago really do not apply to today and that society could stand a reform.

We should promote the mortality of man... Young men should realize their destiny is getting old and management should realize that middle aged men are valuable assets not liabilities.

Overall we could stand a chance to reform democracy & capitalism...change the equation to ego under real strength over brute strength... Keep an eye on the past and two feet facing forward to the future~ when this happens~ the weak will be stronger then the strong!

(This means letting the young guy pick up the paper boxes instead of trying to prove yer still a whipper-snapper!)

~J out

A Silver bullet or a silver gun?

Today the news reel is raving about what congress should do to fix gun laws,
The congress is raving to the media that, "there is no silver bullet."

That that term "silver bullet" is a unique term to America. It refers to the idea that there's no one solution to the amassing problem, but if we dive back into pop-cultural history we know it also refers to the Hollywood portrayal of the only way one kills an immortal (like a vampire). This of course begs the question right?

Is America's gun law problems, education problems, health care problems, etc... immortals? or like vampires? i.e. sucking the life blood out of the country or are these problems too big to tackle therefore being America's immortal problems?

Seems to be that if a Hollywood-based analogy works to describe our problems, then we should look to Hollywood for a solution. Underworld 1&2 told us that you just need a bigger gun with lots of silver bullets or that you need someone who was both problem and resistance (vampire & warewolf). In that movie the young man had no clue that he could survive 2 bites and had to educated as to what his destiny was.

That word educated, if anyone has taken international relations or have had to analyze the growing problems in the third world, you've heard education as being one 'silver bullet' to alleviate the world's problems. The idea has been, generally, if you educate the Africans on birth control you can curb the aids epidemic. Well why not bring that idea here?

The new quest has been for us to "prevent another Chou" how can we do that without educating people first on the existing laws or methods to protect yourself from Chou like wackos? In no way am I saying education is the silver bullet, but rather I'm saying that before we shoot up schools with problem-fixing silver bullets we should first education the shooter (perhaps someone whose been bit by both politics and problem)... whom ever that may be.

just a thought

~J out

4.20 y'all

Today is April 20th, respectfully Uncle Adolf's Birthday... really that's all I'm going to say about that.

The paper got done last night and I'm not totally sure I *want* to turn it in, but I got no choice. So here goes nothing, in the box it goes and then I'll forget about it. Sometimes you got a paper that's your baby and you just can't let it go. I mean you worry about forgetting a period or misspelling a word, etc. Maybe the next set of papers (what I'm calling "The Second Wave") will be like that... but I'm not backing down, because as the Crunch post suggested deadlines wait for no man.

Next week, "the second wave" will be more dog & pony-ish with presentations and such. I can manage presentations no problem it seems like mostly the actual sitting down and typing. They call this in grown-up circles "laziness" and well regrettably I'll have to agree.

After this weeks end... one more official week & weekend is left to type-like-the-wind. Make those points and try like hell to say something.

Whew... Ok... now that that's out there.. I feel mo~betta.

Peace out and stay groovy today in-da-SUN!

~J out

Just who is in control?

Given the current news cycle it's apparent that YOU ARE NOT IN CONTROL.

that might be a shocker and perhaps you should hear it again YOU ARE NOT IN CONTROL. Of course that doesn't add an ounce to your perception of safety or security, but it's true. Who is in control just might really not be in control, but those who we *think* are in control feel that if they relinquish the reality that they can't do anything then society will realize that WE LIVE IN A CRAAAAZY WORLD! Guess what... yep we live in a crazy world.

What are we not in control of?

• The Iraqis
• Our campus's security
• Women's bodies after the 2nd trimester

and so much more... like crazy teenagers on the freeway.

So is it finally time to take the power back as Rage Against the Machine told us? Maybe we're not realizing something. If anyone watches Planet Earth on Discovery, you might have seen the DOW Commercial that tells us that we're often missing the human element.

Ahhh the Human Element "nothing more fundamental, nothing more elemental." In this weeks events we've seen in Iraq how fundamental the Human element is, while in Virginia we see how elemental life is (when it's taken from us).

Control might just be something we comfort ourselves with... even if it's not true. That doesn't mean we can't make the right choices. If we can get over how crazy other people really are, we might find the little craziness in ourselves.

What we can do help ourselves from becoming Chou or these fundamental Iraqi terrorists is to laugh at our mistakes and our quirkiness. Those who remembered Chou said that he never laughed or engaged in conversation.

Perhaps we can't single-handily change the world to our liking (duh), but we can change ourselves and how we think and react...remember,

the truth is out there

~J out

C.RRRRUNCH!

Surfers in Malibu dream of endless summers,
Hikers in the Rocky Mountains dream of warm, mosquitoes-less, fall days,
Students dream of a once week extension on their reports...

er... what was that?

Yeah this is crunch time... The last official week and a half where fingers fly faster across black keyboards then Bruce Lee can throw fists of fury. This is the time where teacher's wait in anticipation for their anguished students to pop out something prolific in the span of a couple of days. Whether or not it's possible doesn't matter, what matters is that you turn in 10 pages of black ink, double-spaced, 1" margins, in either Times New Roman (or for real procrastinator... Arial)

For me my papers are spanned out over two weeks... This week I'm busting my but to write 10 pages for one class, of which last night I realized that there was no way to move forward without modding my original thesis. Yeah... dumb move I'm sure, but when I re-read the thing, it looked like a straight up editorial. In plain English.. you can't cite your own theory. So hopefully with this new thesis (which I'm trying to incorporate the old thesis to save work already done) I'll get something that makes since and is "with-in range" of a B.

Then... this weekend will be hell writing the paper for my gender class. "Sexuality in Thailand" will be the header, but what to say? I've narrowed down everything to two sources. Hopefully that will be enough to state something worth reading.

I'm definitely ready for summer, but first I have to survive the bombardment of school work.

~J out

Something to listen for

The recent shootings and death of 32 (33 including the gunman) is, with out a doubt, extremely disturbing for anyone who goes to school and perhaps even knows someone who has come from S.Korea or knows a foreigner who is staying here (as the gunman was Identified as a S. Korean).

In order to be extremely careful here, I wouldn't want to interject politics or any of the sort... and honestly neither should anyone else because we really don't know why the gunman did what he did. Therefore it would be my hope that neither you, me, nor the press prematurely assign blame on any one thing or any one person. What I mean is that it would easy to say that:

• (b/c he's South Korean) video games played a roll (as Jack Johnson would have us believe) or that,
  
• having a gun or coming from somewhere without guns to somewhere guns and going nuts with it had anything to do with murders.
• Or that perhaps his girlfriend had anything to influence him or totally enrage him.
  

We just don't know. It should make us students more aware of the people on our campus. A shrewed look, evil eye, or degrading remark has an impact on the people around us so we should be doubly cautious with our own words and actions... don't you agree?

So for today I would suggest everyone in our higher education system to smile at somebody, give somebody a compliment, or generally try to be nice today... do it either in respect to the people from Virgina Tech. or for yourself.

~J out

remember to laugh!

I am a human and so are you

What that means is that our lives are never perfect little boxes and nor should they be. I'm talking about the little wrinkles that make life what it is... imperfect.

Like expected deadlines are deadly in that they make the 8 hour sleeping quota a joke for us college students. All last night I was writing about the Bangladeshi war and then like a changing channels on a radio, switched to gender in India...

pages... the obsession over the amount of pages has me in a fury to make a prolific discovery fit between the 10-11 page requirement. Of course I can easily make a convincing argument in 8 pages and save the paper, but there's something to that 10 pages that make teachers think that their students will push themselves. What's the reality?

We push ourselves to an unspoken insanity by staying up late, not thinking clearly, and fragmenting our sentences like hell. We critically think about wars and gender rather then think about food so our bodies starve (not for knowledge) but for steak & baked potatoes.(mmmm)

To top all that, my clutch has finally passed on. Inching at barely 25-30 mph to the clutch doctors my car was sending me screams to help it. So this morning after a quick revision of another paper, I drove the ole subbie to the clutch doctors in hopes of a miracle. This left me with "bucky" my dad's jeep to drive to school and to work. After getting to school (which of course Dad drove) he let me use his jeep to head off to class and eventually to work. Now the concert of the day will be interesting. The plan is after I get the call (estimated at noon today) that my car is done I'll relay that message to Dad who will notify my Mom to pay for it after she gets off work @ 4pm and picks up the key. My job will be to pick Dad up @ 6ish (when I get off work) and take him home where hopefully Mom will be there with the key and both Dad and I can pick the car up at our leisure. Well that's the plan... but "actual results may vary" because as I told you in the beginning of this post...

I am a human and so are you

~J out

Slow but steady as she goes!

My car is a work horse. It takes me nearly everyday to work & school. It doesn't complain, whine, or moan. It just does its job, but recently the clutch has been slipping and my car is slowly but surely going to just not move.

Today proved most difficult as I trudged up the hill on US26 @ barely 40mph. Downhill is fine, but the car gets warm as you go uphill. So you say "just replace the clutch" well that is always more difficult then it sounds. No magic wand or fancy do-dad will reduce what must be done. There's methods to the madness, but they're all laborious and tedious as hell.

I thought this weekend I would put in my order for a nice 19" wide screen monitor for my new computer. Something big, something nice, something to write up all those papers that are due at the end of the month...but priorities are priorities. Chances are I might be working on my car over working on reports. I hope in the cosmos of things, this gives a small excuse for procrastinating... maybe not. But then again most reports can get spit out pretty quickly nowadays (after some serious wikipedia-ing... shhhh!).

The challenge now will be getting home and then doing some "Installing-a-new-clutch" research.

~J out

As if...

Perhaps it was the karma of yesterday's post that made what seemed like impossible... possible. Like the plan suggested I went through the chain of events by leaving the humdrum of work life to entering the stop-and-go zombies of commuters migrating like cattle back to their pigeon holes. After an hour of stop & go, loud music, and blasting cold air to keep my alive.. I made it home. It was no refuge, however, upon entering the house a cellphone bill was thrust at me like a dagger. $111 for last month's cellphone use. I looked through the phone numbers (all between me and my girlfriend) and asked politely "how much do I gotta pay you?" the drama exploded from there resulting in me eventually pulling down the earth flag & American flag outta the wind or at least that was the reason I gave to do it. In truth, it was me finally giving up and declaring defeat. I had nothing left to fight for that day... I was done.

I quietly ate my dinner and watched as the black caucus ripped apart another white shock jock... I didn't have any energy to say that they that in my opinion they should first examine what's on UPN 49 with all their black television shows, before they crucify another white guy on "multi-cultural issues" (read what should be called bi-cultural issues).

It wasn't long before my body quit and demanded that I rest. I slowly trudged to the refuge of my room with the lights off and collapsed in a heap on the bed. For about a solid hour I slept comfortably until Dad came rushing in asking for a copy of a DVD of his. Well copy a DVD? No prob. I awoke parts of my body so that I could function enough to get this small task out of the way, but technology was against me. My computer spat out the disks I fed it and the software popped up error messages like a little kid who refused to eat his veggies. I was flustered, tired, and didn't want to fight it. The deadline was the next morning @ 8 bells (8am) so after 2 1/2 hours of fighting I just copied the DVD's to my hard drive and went to bed at (ironically) 12:30pm roughly an half hour from the previous nights...

once again *sigh* life must love it's subtle lectures.

~J out

Tired as heck!

Perhaps the long nights and meetings has put my head into a daze. All day I've been nodding off just to wake myself up again and then get that rush of embarrassment. The answer would obviously be to get some more sleep or atleast go to bed earlier. However... that is easier then reality. The chain of events from leaving my cubicle here at work to getting to my bed is a long chain reaction that has a big possibility of just repeting yesterday's ordeal.

Where did nap time go? I remember back to a time in pre-school where they'd provided a crucial time for us young'ns to sleep... But don't think that now that I'm 22, I have some fantastic stamina!

Oh but I suppose the pain and suffering is just life telling me

"hey fool! Liv'n ain't no fairy ride... you's gotta EARN tat feel good sheeet!"

*sigh*

~J

No Post?

I can't excuse myself from not posting, but the agony of not has forced me (with limited time) to post this...

Tonight at LC will be an International Symposium that I'm very excited about. However, while this will no doubt be full of exciting and interesting ideas about Iraq, I should be researching and typing out papers that will soon be due.

I appologize if the post slowly come out. Soon finals will be over and I'll be free do lots of things like design my own website. Yes... I've been diligently researching between breaks on how to make not just a cheezy website from tripod or some web-based thing, but a real one. On top of all that is registering and stuff for next year. Oh and did I mention that I work? Yeah... busy busy 'eh? Sometimes it drives me mad.

Well I'll try to take notes and given the next opportunity I'll try to convey what the speakers tried to argue.

~J out

Alternative fuels and Taiwan

This is what I've talked about today in discussions and debates. Oh what a day. Not that much was discussed... since the sun is out not much will be talked about anywhere I guess.

Oh how the sun makes the problems go away...

atleast for now

~J

back from sping break

I'm back to the normal schedule now which means class -> (then) work.

Coming back or at least driving to school has given me an insight that is purely obvious, but not often appreciated.

Coming back to school and being in this 'intellectual atmosphere' gives me some regret over what I should have done over spring break. There in lies the problem 'eh? If I were working on paper outlines and research then it wouldn't be a break, but that flies like brick in air. The feeling of guilt over not doing what I should have and the anxiety of having to do what I must do (write papers, research, etc etc.) just builds up for overly stressed and vulnerable students.

It's almost inherent in humans to utilize 'so called break time' for it's original purpose. However, here I am stressing over what I must do in the next month. Teachers should recognize the plight of the student and devise a way to under stress us. I.e. it would be great if they could compound the guilt of not working on the papers one day and then the next let us run to the library and write up outlines and stuff... i.e. give us a break after THE BREAK.

I'm confident I'll work it out.. and... if all fails just to remember that after the first week of May it'll be over regardless. (unless I do summer sch.)

Btw.. blip with the last computer config. (it didn't boot up) so I switched the Mobo and now it works and runs really fast! :)

Good luck to Tink whose starting spring quarter.. here's the best of luck. (I got roughly a month left!)

~J out

I'm finially going to build it

I apologize for not posting over spring break. Because I do not have that one hour buffer time from commuting to class I've slacked. However I'm not inactive... a lot of stuff has been going on that needs 'post'n'

First I want to mention that I'm finally going to build my *good* PC. It won't be the fastest on the market or the best one money can buy, but it'll be good.

here's the specs: (scroll down if you don't care to the next portion)

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 524 3.06ghz
Mother board: Asus p5n32-e sli
Memory: Rendition 1 gb (2x512) 667 DDR2
Video: eVGA 7300 GT 256m PCI x16
HD: Seagate 160gb 8m 7200 SATA II
PS: generic 400 w ATX
OS1: Windows XP Pro
OS2: Ubuntu linux

that's it.. if you care further it's in a nifty Antec Case made of steel (read heavy) with the PS on the bottom, weird. The case comes with 3 big ole 120mm fans and a little 80mm vent for the gpu I guess. it's all cool when it gets built... I just gotta do it now :) pics to come..

And.... we're back: (Que to tune in)

So get this! Yesterday I had to come in to work at 11am. Last time I left the house early (too early) and I got there with over a half hour to spare so... yesterday I thought I had plenty of time. Well I didn't! You see I take US26 west and yesterday there was a big landslide at around 9am that I didn't know about. So here I am cruising up I-5 to I-405 to take the US26 and what do I see but a blocked path! Whoa. "USE ALT ROUTE" it said. What alt route? I started flipping radio channels, but it was all talk talk talk. So no luck there I had to figure something out. So I called my Dad who is in Lake O working and he suggesting taking hwy 10 to 217 to 26 so I dropped in got a map, called work to tell 'em I'd be late and off I went.

Now Hwy 10 is an OLD highway. It used to be the road that went out the farmlands of Beaverton ;) (things have since changed). So as you drive down this old highway you get this sense of "whoa I didn't know that was there" feeling. Old businesses that relied on Hwy 10 drivers look kinda beat up. The traffic that used to go through there isn't there anymore and you get this CARS Movie effect like Radiator Springs. Another part of Portland was found! However, since US26 opened back up there's no need to use Hwy 10 again. Just a old road that if you have nothing to do and have some gas (hah!) you should drive it just to see it.

Otherwise I got in a little late and when I got off it was all cleared so getting home was fine (except for the I-5 parking lot).

I felt relieved that it all happened yesterday and not the day before when I took my girlfriend to the Oregon Zoo. I can't imagine trying to find a alt route through those twisty hilly back roads... yeesh!

Anywho.. today I got two goals... building my machine and getting new goggles (glasses)! Hope I can do it all!

~J

one rough night

Yesterday I was hit my a monster of a flu or sickness. I can't even describe it other then just being "bad." It wasn't like my Kamikaze, but it took it all outta me. Now I'm just in recovery mode.

One heck of a spring break beginning 'eh?

~J

March 18th, '07 Anti-war protest Pics

So I finally uploaded some pics from the protest that I'd like to share...

First the herb man



the peaceniks in white standing still were there...



Dad having a flashback to another time...



The march underway...



There's more pics if you go to my webalbum here

check it out! Like I said it was a pretty good turn out... lots of people ages 8-80! I hope this summer they try and organize another one.

~J out

New Machine

Right now I'm building a new computer that'll be all fast and stuff... Components are rolling in ... slowly... when it's all built I'll post from it... until then. Small posts will be made via my old slow machine.

~J

BTW pics have been processed for both the white flags and the protest I just need to put them up on my webalbum

Protest De-briefing

Pictures to come... I took a total of 147. Some from the mobs, some from the groups, pics of my Dad and I, and of the march.

So how was it? Peaceful. From the time we arrived (1:30pm) to the time we left (3:30) the march progressed peacefully. Men and Women of all Ages and races showed up to support the anti-war movement. My experience and my dad's (a Vietnam vet) experience was something on the order of "wow."

I would guess about 20-30,000 showed up to protest against the Iraq war. Everyone seemed to be with the bigger peace movement, but at the same time have their own agenda like: No war in Iran, Vets against the war, Moms against the war, __X__ for peace ("X" is your occupation), and other groups. The spot seemed good for the masses that turned up, the march was great and the weather was great.

During the march, you heard mantras like:

"Peace...Now!...Peace...Now!" "Buck Fush" and others... however...

Getting home and turning on the T.V. just aggravated me. Of course the News was reporting not on the protest, but on a faction group and the massive police response. Argg! Why? Well it's news I suppose, but from what I've said here please understand that this was completely clean, safe, and fun for all ages. The point was peaceful protesting and a couple of 'rebels' made a choice to dirty that image and for what cause? Rebellion? idiots.

Here's the whole point... it's been 4 years with a lot of people dead. Technically if you look at why we're in Iraq, it's because of the alleged "WMDs".... War atrocities are happening now. The small group of Marines who killed 28 or so Iraqi civilians because they 'thought' they were terrorists are being prosecuted, Guantanamo has happened, Falluja happened, there's been a lot of stuff that has happened and little progress is to be had on the whole matter. It is time to leave and let the people settle the dirt between them. Truth be told, there isn't many arguments for keeping a military presence there. That's what the group yesterday came out (in numbers) to say and now you've heard it from me.

~J out

Friday... What R U do'n this weekend?

Got any plans? Some green beer and Irish music? Well of course there's the Kells annual bash, but what about Sunday?

Why not protest the war in Iraq?

Buzz is happening all around campus about this march in March. If you like to come down and participate or even watch it here's the info.

And with that.. be safe this St. Patty's Day!

~J out

Whoa! Busy busy

Man it's been a long time (a day) since I posted better get busy...





Well it's bright and sunny for us but for this guy...

Things could be better... Now look at this photo... Why is it that when we catch the bad guy, we take the worst photo of him? Propaganda? I mean look at our history.. Saddam, Malawi, and others... All lame photos. Now this guy and the entire federal bureau claims that this guy is the 'master mind' behind all the attacks.... right. Don't ask me, but he looks more like a New York taxi driver.

Now for some better news... Chinese news. On the long commute home yesterday I heard a NPR report that I couldn't believe. It was genius, it was great, it was communistic capitalism.

from 'All Things Considered',

Chinese consumers are using the Internet to organize themselves into powerful bargaining groups that use their large numbers to negotiate discounts on products of all kinds.
For suppliers, the lure of group-buying is they can turn a profit, even while selling at 20 to 30 percent below retail prices. For shoppers wary of fakes and shoddy goods, group-shopping offers the comfort of buying en masse.

The report interviews shoppers and suppliers, but the whole thing is organized via the Internet. Online shoppers register in with a bigger group and dates, times, & locations are posted for consumers to show up and pick what they want. A majority of them are newly minted 'middle class earners' who redecorating their new condos.

The most ironic part of this is that the group leader says that group shopping is in line with the very ideals of Chairman Mao's communist agenda. Power resides in numbers and just like working and living as a group, group shopping just takes it to the next level.

Now what would Chairman Mao think if he knew that now his communal principals were being used in the capitalistic ways?

~J out

First I'd like to Wish Christina a very happy 22nd Birthday!

--------------------------------------------------------------
Yesterday I watched an interesting story on poverty and healthcare. The Story revolved around an organization who helps cancer patients in poverish neiborhoods. Often people forget about these people and it's these people who, never in their lives, would go in for help because it would likely throw themselves into more debt. hmmm death or debt? Don't jump to conclusion so fast. Most of the poverty in these places (and likely the poor in your neiborhood) were once thriving middle class people.

• Construction workers who got a medical injury and couldn't work,
• A partner in a couple who got cancer and drained their lifesavings paying the costs,
• or family (three kids & a dog) whose father worked for a big company (HP or Bowing) and was laid off.

All these are very realistic and make up a large percentage of the poor. These 'working men & women' never have asked for a handout and plan never to in the future... so where does that leave us? Well a question needs to be ask'd... where would you be if you missed 2 paychecks? would you be poor?

~J

Covered in White Flags

Looking forward to a successful second week on the job, I was shocked to find Lewis and Clark covered in White flags. Little white flags cover the lawn with red ones in between. The Symbolism is to represent the Iraqi's that have fallen as compared to the Americans. To say the least, it's impressive.

What does this say on the Global War on Terror? The GWoT? Well I watched an interesting documentary on "our children's, children's war" last night on Discovery. A summary of the show can be seen here.

The part I got is this:

The GWoT is really %20 military fighting. A majority of it is seen in Iraq and the surrounding region, but the "terrorists" are more or less influential people who rally disgruntled citizens to let them stay and operate. What I mean is that people around the world follow what sounds right to them or what makes since. People want something solid that if they trust in it, it'll pay off. People don't want to get duped.

America (to Americans) is a different America to non-Americans. When we see 'getmo' or Guantanamo Bay be the site of heinous crimes, or when we see (more recently) Walter Reed be publicized for poor treatment of it's "clients" we shrug and let the politicians battle it out and try and forget the whole thing, or just turn off the t.v./radio. However, all of this junk is getting broadcasted to Iraq and the whole region. People are listening and when they read that America stands for "high moral values" and see this blatant act against that, what are they going to think? If a terrorist says, "see they're fakes" the people believe the terrorist and let them stay to protect them. Well if one is going to win this GWoT then it sounds like we're going to have shape up and respect the promises we made or change our message.

Double standards are not the historical American norm, some might differ and say it is. The truth is that we can't win the hearts and minds until we lead the example of "good morality and democracy" ourselves.

~j out

git'n ready for da weekend

Today is friday, but I work till 6pm.. whatever. I'm having fun! I'm not totally sure what i'll be doing this weekend only that part of it has to be some much needed shut-eye.

Most likely i'll be plugg'n away on my papers, doing research, and listening to music. I'm also working on building a computer so maybe i'll make some headway on that.

I just hope the weather doesn't stay drab all weekend~

~J out

Waiting for the world to change

On the way into school I heard a report on NPR about an artist who is singing about waiting for the world to change, rather then the popular "we gotta change the world" mantra. The artist's name is John Mayer and his philosophy is one that is likely more 'in tune' with the current generation. Here's a transcript from the NPR Interview:

John Mayer has spent 33 weeks on the music charts with what sounds like an anti-war song.

Now if we had the power to bring our neighbors home from war they would have never missed a Christmas no more ribbons on their door
But for the 29-year-old singer, "Waiting on the World to Change" turns into more of an explanation for why his generation seems so apathetic.
It's not that we don't care,We just know that the fight ain't fair So we keep on waiting Waiting on the world to change
Rather than urging people to change the world, he seems to say, there's nothing we can do.
"Look, demanding somebody do anything in this day and age is not going to fly," Mayer tells Steve Inskeep. "Kids don't even like being talked to like kids anymore, you know. 'Just give me the option and I'll think about it.'"
So instead of telling people what to do or how to think, he says, "All I want a song to do is just to kind of present an idea..."
On "Gravity," another song from his latest CD, Continuum, Mayer sings about remaining above the fray in a world of TV and blog gossip.
Gravity is working against me And gravity wants to bring me down
"I was very successful from a very early age, and I want to keep it," Mayer says.
"How do you live your life based on what you want as opposed to what you can have? I would love never having to go to rehab, love never to have to divorce, love never to — in a documentary of me — see a picture of myself spun around with a Ken Burns effect and then hear, like, 'And then things get out of control....'

Is this perhaps the 'new' face of the current "me" generation? Perhaps... As members, most of us hate being told what to do, or even worse, we hate to be spoon fed directions. When we get an iPod or PSP we figure it out before we look at the book. We don't need a 400 page manual to use Windows XP we already know how to use it. At work, you train us once how to use the software and we're off. So can this apply to anti-war protest? Sure! The previous generation asks us why we're not protesting the war, we say we are. Gen X & Y, however, uses: Blogs; forums; youtube to protest. We're not ignorant, nor do we not-care about the issues... We let John Stewart speak for us.

Personally, I agree with Mayer that new-age anti-war/non-protesters don't need to score a goal or drive home some point, or even lead some revolution single handily, they just need to take it to the 10 yard line and let us take it home.

Now run that through your (online) funken wagnal

To listen to John Mayer's songs "belief" and "gravity" just click on this link and scroll down to Live at NPR (real player or windows media req.)

~J out

"Morn'n"

"Ohaiyoo Gozaimasu"

Today is like a grey reminder that yesterday's sun was simply a tease. "ha ha ha" says the weather, "and you thought more was to come!" For me it's no biggie. I'm used to dampening the bottom of my tee-shirt with the rain that collects on glasses; I'm used to rolling up the bottom of my pants so as not to get them dirty and damp; I'm used to wearing a black fleece like it was a second skin; Ultimately, I'm used to drinking coffee like it's some Nor' westerner elixir... (well isn't it?)

By now everyone has heard that Lewis "Scooter" Libby was convicted and faces 25 yrs imprisonment. Well R. U. Surprised? I'm not. Who do you think was supposed to go down? Rove? Ha! What's important here anyway? How about the fact that NO ONE WAS CHARGED WITH LEAKING THE NAME?! Yeah... Oddly enough I thought the President said< "the one who done it is go'n 2 git it!" ... Well nobody is fooled. Even one juror came out and said most of 'em thought Scooter (btw what the hell is up with that nickname?) was a fall man for a bigger scheme. Perhaps so.

Well now that this boondoggle is over we can now get to the bigger and better stuff like Bush's eavesdropping on overseas phone calls! Oh... I guess we forgot about that 'eh?

~J out

What you should believe

In the past three days I've been exposed to very controversial stuff. We've learned as a generation (my generation) that to get what you want you need to convince others of why they too should believe this. The 'stuff' has been around for years and constantly recirculates in different forms. So I'd like to share with you just what (since Sunday) I've been asked to believe:

• The theory of Evolution and Natural Selection is very real (tue)
• Sperm is cheap (tue)
• Because we evolved from quadrupeds, we weren't meant to walk upright and especially weren't made to wear high-heels (tue)
• Noah was a rich Samaritan who survived off of drinking beer (sun)
• Noah was an outlaw after the flood (sun)
• Jesus' family tomb has been found (sun)
• Jesus & Mary we're married and had a son (sun)
• Gandhi was a short-tempered man (mon)
• Gandhi was an abusive husband (mon)
• We should become hermaphrodites to break down the Male-Female system (tue)
• We have sex because we're in an arms race (tue)
• Petco, Fedex, and Walmart are evil corporate empires (mon)
• Abortion is legal (mon)
• Abortion is illegal (mon)

Obviously there's a lot out there to believe in. No wonder we're all messed up!

~J out

PS. Liverpool lost to Barcelona... I think I'm going to cry ; (

tripping out

Today I saw on the Today show a report about adjustable rate mortgages that are "re-adjusting." In 2006, you saw a lot of mortgages readjust to rates that seem outrageous. Soon I'll be fighting to get into the game, but it's set me back as to what I should do.

Living from house to house trying to make a buck is rough. Yeah you get a payoff, but moving, taxes, and other things are always a factor. I'm 22 and I'm close to "prime" age for this risky business. There's other factors then just me... there's my close other too.

Things to think about.

The market in my area is still "booming," but it is one of the few. On the + side I'm young and I know that this whole bubble thing could re inflate in my lifetime.

Real Estate is with out a doubt the most exciting and scariest biz around. It scares me to think that soon I'll be getting my feet wet, maybe soaked, but hopefully I'll have a sense to rescue myself before I drown. The trick here to spot where stuff went right and where stuff went wrong. There's still more work to be done, but on my list of trends to watch.. I'm following all those people who bought cheap in 2001/02 with 5-6 year low interest rate loans who are now adjusting this year... hmmm. The fallout from this influx of foreclosures means that getting a loan will be harder and down-payments & payment on the principles could probably be required in the future. The times of open loop "fantasy financing" are slowly getting tied up.

Sounds to me like a "boondoggle."

~J out

Monday- A new beginning

Today is not a re-birth or anything spectacular. It's my first official day of work. After getting the job, it seems that they're ready for me today. I can only hope that whatever I got myself into, it's manageable.

Now... the first day is a weird day. It's the day that you "learn" the system and begin your training. It's the first day your employer sees what he/she just hired, it's the day you're the "new guy." The new guy... yep... where all the salty dogs lay some "wisdom" on you...

Or so they think.

I say chill out and pri 1 is learning how to do my job, pri 2 is keeping a friendly ora, pri 3 is to make sure I'm doing pri 1 & 2.

~Whoa~

~J out

Sunday Speaking Out: The Issue

This Sunday I'd like to shout out to bloggers across the world.

Little has been said over the arrest on Washington's birthday in Egypt where an Egyptian blogger Abdul Karim Suleiman was sentenced to four years in prison for messages posted on his personal website. Suleiman, who blogs under the name Kareem Amer, was a student at Cairo's al-Azhar University when he posted comments deemed by Egyptian authorities as blaspheming Islam, inciting sedition, and insulting President Hosni Mubarak. Here's his blog (in Arabic)

Now how many blogs out there criticize President G.W.Bush? A simple Google search lasting .10 seconds shows over a million sites have the words "anti-bush". Freedom of speech is more than a luxury, it's a privilege that other bloggers don't have. Blogging freely would seem like a benchmark for progress and a given among all democracies and republics... right?

Looking at the newly liberated and democratized Iraq, there are 241 blogs with 128 of them active according to Iraq Blog Count. That's awesome! According to the Suleiman article, Iran has more than 75,000 bloggers posting on the internet. So what's Egypt's hang-up? Why is Abdul being penalized in (last I checked) a republic based on English Common Law? Perhaps there is more to it then the media tells us.

What we know thus far is that the war on Terrorism is primarily ideological. A group of people who are acting under a self-serving religious authority want total control are fighting another group (that's us) who want Group A to fail. Who's left out? The people in the middle or "non-combatants". If it is true that the war is ideological, then it is a war of ideas, not of physical power or endurance. The fight should evolve to open up the public sphere and let all people express what themselves.

On the T.V. all I see is politicians tell me what the Terrorists are thinking and they're going to do if we pull out like they're the experts! I highly doubt they have interviewed and polled thousands of terrorists, or freedom fighters, or even citizens in Damascus (Syria), Tehran (Iran), Basra (S.Iraq), or Mosul (N.Iraq). In fact, where are these Iraqi's we hear about? Why aren't they on T.V. talking to Brian Williams and Tim Russart?

Truth is occupation, historically, has always been looked at negatively and left scars on societies for generations. Look at Japan after WWII, the scars are still there after 60 yrs. It's time that we step back and listen, and if we can't here anything then we need to work towards getting some noise out there to listen too. This means letting the debate happen over Arab & Persian radios, T.V.'s, and Blogs.

In Egypt, on Feb. 22nd, the noise went silent! Abdul is getting penalized, by a Republic America supports, for expressing his opinions about Islam and the government, for making some noise! and America and our congress are not going to condemn it or even acknowledge it?! What kind of pick-and-choose policy are we supporting here?

We're bogged down into trying to "address the issue"... what's the issue? The issue is not the troops redeployment, or the terrorists, or Iran, or the billions of "domino theories" and "slippery slope" arguments about withdrawing; The issue is freedom. With so much power and influence... we should fight to keep Abdul out of prison, we should fight to make Arab & Persian bloggers, and bloggers world wide, free to express themselves without the fear of being arrested and put in prison. We should fight the good fight for what Superman fought hard for:

Truth, Justice, and the American Way

Now there's a debate for congress...

~J out

Tis a drab friday indeed

The rain falls today with the gloom of a fine nor 'westerner day. Its one of those days that make you sigh and look out the window hoping for the sun to peek out over the horizon... Yet it is slow to come.

This friday (hopefully) is the last friday that'll be hanging out with nothing to do. Next week starts my job in Beaverton. I can't wait! Other then that... Nothing much more has crossed my mind today. Sort of a dull day... today.

This morning was sort of white-wash on the road. The windsheild wipers just flapped, but visability was still low.

Yep... dull day today... but the weekend is near! Please oh lord make it a good weekend!

~J out

Play the r3d's music

Wanna listen to what I listen to?

Well at the bottom of this page is an online radio sponsored by last.fm

Go ahead and click on the play button and listen in to what I like. Of course if you don't like it... you can change it.

Anyway... Last.fm remains, in my opinion, one of the last few un-commercialized online radios that just plays music.

Anyway... that's my plug... check it out, play with it, and have fun listening to R3d's music!

~J

One heck of a Yesterday

Yesterday proved to be one of the roughest days of the year.

It all started with me being cocky and thinking that I could make it to the cheap gas station on interstate whilst on fumes. Well luck was not my side and sure enough, as I inched acrossed the I-5 bridge the car stalled... I was SOL, on the I-5 bridge, at 8:40 in the morning (read rush-hour). Oh man, oh man...

So what did I do? I got out and pushed. Dad started pushing, but I thought he better drive. So I got out and pushed, and pushed, and pushed until my face was red, my legs shook, and I nearly collapsed from exhaustion. With some help from a big truck behind us we made it to the 76 on the Oregon side and filled up. However, that wasn't the end of it.

I was winded and coughing constantly. I wasn't recovering like I should... My lungs felt like they were on fire and my mind whirled. I told Dad to drive the rest of the way... I was in bad shape. I didn't know it, but I was having an asthma attack! Half way down the commute I realized that my old asthma was coming back. I had to get an inhaler, but my old inhaler was at home.

Eventually I got to the nurse at LC and recovered and quickly (after class) headed to Kaiser where I waited for three hours to get my hands on an inhaler smaller then your hand. What an ordeal. The gods musta been crazy yesterday! I just hope this bad luck doesn't follow me into the week.

~J
BTW.. Tank is at "F" and I got into school fine today!

Rain and Snow

Today's commute was horrid! Rain turned into Snow/Rain mix and made driving hard. This entered (a little bit) into the idea of alternative driving. Often I thinking about ways to beat the gas system. Either by making an alternative driving vehicle which is light weight and basic or by investigating diesel alternatives. Today, a new factor entered into my mind... rain and snow. Ultimately, no matter how many Gallons of Gas your saving, if you're wet, cold, or can't hear yourself think then you aren't having fun.

Saving a buck should be fun and so should driving. So to future car makers of light weight vehicles... know that your car (if it is to sell here in the Nor' West) it has to make it through the rain.

That's all for now

~J out

Monday Morning

Greetings all. My apologies for not posting Sunday, but I'm in the middle of some remarkable research on the Internet and Global Politics or Geopolitics. The paper I'm working on is an analysis of Kenneth Neil CUKIER's article Rich Man, Poor Man: The Geopolitics of Internet Policy Making. Basically how the world's governments are slowly seeking to implement policy governing the net. If that sounds interesting then you can read the article by clicking the link above.

In other news, after watching the Academy Awards, the fact that Al Gore now has an Oscar for his documentary just further solidifies his place as "green champion." Yep, everyone by now knows that Gas is getting closer to being obsolete, but does that mean that gasoline drivers are going to be persecuted? Well perhaps... (the following comes from a 40min commute into school)

Among most Nor' Westerners, "the Hummer" series especially the H2 and H3 aren't well received. Further among "green people" all SUV drivers (including the inscrutable soccer mom) are being criticized for filling up. Part of it has to do with green house gases as Al Gore pointed out, but some of it has to do with the price. It's no secret that in 10-20 years gas prices will be at new all time highs. It maybe then that drivers of Escalades, Ford Excursions, and Hummer H2s will be the elite class and us Subaru/Honda drivers will be the economy gas saver class.

Either case, I perceive a schism forming between the Green People & Gas Savers vs. SUV & Gas Guzzlers. I'm going to exclude construction workers who drive Fords or Chevy's because honestly if they're using their truck for it's intended purpose then there is no waste happening. What should you do then? Well this issue transcends Liberal/Conservative or Republican/Democrat because saving money (ironically) will come from conserving gas. Thus I purpose a new campaign...

Saving money by buying a diesel (for bio diesel) or switching to mixed fuels is an American step against Terrorism.

yep! If you want your boys back state-side it's time to buy a diesel and pump bio diesel over regular diesel or even make your own! And to gas cars, it's time to convert your car (even if it gets 35+ mpg) to ethanol or E85. All of this is an effort to combat terrorism and to conserve money, resources, and above all keep US Dollars in the US.

more to come as I continue to work this out on future commutes.

~J out

The JOB

The Interview came and the interview went. Generally I was shocked at what transpired (in a good way).

It all began when I found the place and walked in. I said a little prayer "if God wills it, let me have this job" and I walked in. I was greeted by the person I talked with over email. It turned out that she was the secretary and she ushered me over to the couch.

She told me it wasn't her that was going to interview me, but Mr. Bush. Mr Bush?! Urrr uhh.. Ok. A young looking guy came out in casual looking clothes (and to my relief it wasn't "The Bush") he reached out his hand and said, "Hajimemashite" or Nice to meet you (in Japanese). As you can expect, I was very shocked by this. Quickly I replied the same and he asked me (in JP) if i'd like some water. From then on it was kinda a blur, but I remember parts of it being in Japanese and some in English. I was very impressed to find someone like this guy.

He was a white guy, but he told me that his wife was Japanese from Sapporo. Whoa. He told me that he'd been reading my Sapporo blog and could relate to a lot of what I wrote there. In my mind I knew "Dang! Whatta a good 1st impression." To say the least, I was very happy with the interview.

In some ways I feel somewhat justified for the hours spent struggling to learn Japanese characters and sentence structure. I felt that after I came back from Japan, I would probably keep my skills up for a month and then slowly forget it all. That was my fear, but it seems that this job opens up avenues for my skills... a purpose! A reason to dust off the grammer books on my shelf and practice to keep those skills sharp!

I was interviewed again by two nice ladies who went over my resume, as well as, laugh and joke around (what I thought was the "chemistry test" or will this person be laidback and workable test). Both the Mr. Bush test and the Chemistry test... in my opinion, went very well.

I was told that i'd get an answer by the afternoon on friday. Sure enough, at 2:58pm I recieved a CONGRADULATIONS email. People from miles around could hear my Ego boom! I was one happy camper!

The buzz still circulates around the house and my girlfriend is proud of me which feels good.

A Victory for me and most of all I'm getting paid a rate that was more then I anticipated!

Total wait time to get a J.O.B: little over 1 month... That's the current for Portland, Or 2007.

Goodtimes!
~J out

The Interview

Today I have my first interview. It seems like ages since I've had an interview. To prepare for it this morning I decided to shave and comb my hair and dress up like I was going to some "official conference." Like war, I armed myself with a fountain pen, diamond tie, and black polished shoes. The color code for this battle was black slacks and a navy blue button down shirt.

To keep the laser guided questions from piercing deep, I tied the winsor knot on my tie and dressed down in my best black trench coat. I have no clue what to expect, I have guidelines as to as far I'll go, but I need a job.

I got one class then it's show time. The Job description seems pretty straight forward. My girlfriend reminded me to ask plenty of questions and so I'll try.

So time to ship-up, stand straight, and hope for the best.

WATASHI NI, GAMBARE!

~J

Good morning Portland

Good morning Portland, Or. It's roughly 9:22 and I'm posting on what I hope will be a regular blog a day.. blog.

Today happens to be a long day for me so I drove through morning rush hour alone listening to radio stations on my "quick pick" list: 1st 9.47 then 101.1 then 91.5 then back to 94.7. As I flipped through the stations looking for something to break the stop & go worm, it began to do the Oregon Mist.

Now I don't mind the Oregon mist it's in my blood, but what gets me is that mist that lands on your windshield and you know that if you hit the windshield wipers then it'll smear, but if you leave it the windshield gets all cloudy. Suffering, I timed my wipes so that I could maximize clarity. To say the least, driving through rush-hour is incredibly taxing and mundane.

I miss the days when I had to ride my bike (for what seemed miles) to school, dodging the little kiddies and hollering "Ohayoo Gozaimasu" to the road crews who were wrapping up a hard nights work. I'm happy I don't have to ride in fridgit weather, but since I've stopped the regular daily ride, I fear that I'm slowly gaining weight in this posh American lifestyle.

Well that about wraps it up, it's 9:30 and I gotta get to class.

~J out

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..!!!!