spacetravelsacrime

The Cost

2011-06-27T15:12:00.002+09:00

You might have noticed that I was out for a bit. I wonder if something happened over here? I don't remember. In any case, here is an interesting piece about how much it costs to provide air-conditioning in Afghanistan. Reading this, a lot of things seem absurd to me. I feel bad telling a poor soldier serving in Afghanistan to just deal with the heat, but..... I tell hundreds of teenagers to deal with unheated, unair-conditioned schools every day. It isn't Afghanistan though.

One thing that always strikes me about going back to America is the absurd use of air-conditioning. It might just be my mother's house. It probably has a lot to do with the way we build our houses. But it all seems like a bit much to me. My house now in Kyoto, which is notoriously hot in the summer, has two air-conditioners which I never use. Their filters are still sitting out from when I cleaned them. I use a fan and carry a towel around with me. That is about it. When you think about all of the things our world has to go through for power, air-conditioning and dryers and the like start to seem a bit frivolous. Especially when we are cutting the social safety net to threads at home so people can have air-conditioning somewhere where most of the country doesn't think we still need to be.

Kyoto: Fortress of Solitude

2011-03-17T09:34:00.012+09:00

Most people who live in Kyoto realize that any tsunami big enough to tackle our city would be big enough to destroy the rest of the earth so there is really no point in fretting over it. However, a lot of our family members and friends don't live here and have been expressing a reasonable amount of concern over the issue. I am making this so that you can pass it on to them.

When the location for the new capital was being scouted in the 700s, court geomancers remarked that the city was well protected in the northwest by Atagosan and in the northeast by Hieizan two mountains that tower over the city today. The mountains are part of several groups of mountains, Higashiyama, Nishiyama and Kitayama, that surround the city on three side creating the Yamashiro Basin which is listed by Wikipedia as having an average elevation of around 1,000 meters. But that is a bit misleading. A good portion of the city itself is at an average elevation of around 86 meters forming a basin known as a 'bonchi.'

Here is a very good map with certain points marked by elevation. My apartment is directly across the street from number 1 on this map.

Two major rivers run through the city and feed into the Yodo River which flows on to Osaka and into Osaka Bay which opens onto the Inland Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

It is roughly 30 miles between Osaka and Kyoto.
Just to speculate, A tsunami would have to come into Osaka Bay, over the city of Osaka-a substantial metropolis-up the Yodo River for 30 miles climbing close to 100 meters in elevation to damage Kyoto. I don't want to tempt fate, but that is highly unlikely. Or, a Tsunami could begin in the Sea of Japan, scale a mountain range and attack from the north. Also highly unlikely.

If you are unfamiliar with the area, please note that the large body of water you sea directly to the east of Kyoto (although not on these maps) is Biwako, the largest lake in Japan. It is not connected to the sea.

Now, all of this is not to say that there is no worry of earthquakes in Kyoto. There are fault lines in the city. But that applies to anywhere in Japan. We also have a lot of green space, a large aquifer, no high rise buildings (not that high rises are dangerous and smaller ones are safe necessarily) and many broad streets.

One further note for those not familiar with Japanese geography.

We live in Kansai. Or, the area on this map labled 'Kinki.' You can stop laughing now. You should see the shirts that say "All Kinki Girl's Softball Tournament." The earthquake happened in Tohoku. Tokyo is in Kanto. We are over 500km away from the damage. Which is the hardest part really.

Thank you for your concern and I hope this makes you feel better.

(if there are any mistakes in my data, please let me know. there were lots of conflicting average elevations)

Update: Limbaugh Still Stupid

2011-03-16T14:32:00.003+09:00

Here Rush Limbaugh makes fun of Japanese refugees for recycling in their shelter. His caller thinks it is pretty funny. That conversation doesn't hurt my feelings or anything, it just shows the divide in the world views going on. Not between Japan and America but between the ignorant people who participate in this dialogue. It took me a second to think about why it would seem odd for people in a shelter to divide their garbage. Everyone does it every day in Japan. I imagine it makes life a lot more livable in the shelter. It would make sense to get quickly decaying things like fish bones and orange peels out of an enclosed place packed with people and to take bulkier but non-rotting items like cans and containers out later. But I forgot what I always forget about Rush world, it is for exceptionally lazy people. Where putting one thing in one box and another in the box next to it is oppressive labor.

To understand their further joke about it being ironic that a country making electric cars would have thousands of people killed in a natural disaster- wait I will give you a second to stop laughing at how funny that is- would require slithering into a world view almost too low to penetrate. I would wager that most people that are environmentalists, don't believe in a deity that meets out ironic punishment by angry destruction. I have never met anyone, besides the most borderline kook, who even uses the word Gaia seriously. Whatever. All they have done, as usual, is place their view over a supposed liberal one and then comment on how it seems odd. Yes it does, because we don't think like that. In Sendai there is a large porpoise killing operation and shark fin fishery. I strongly oppose those things but I don't feel any sense of relief that the people involved in it are suffering. That isn't fair. I haven't seen any commentary from the radical left- to the extent that that exists- saying that anyone feels that it is, and I am on their mailing lists.

Until I am re-exposed to him, I often forget who truly stupid and gutless, metaphorically, that Limbaugh is. What an undeserving person of a public voice. What a loser dressed up like he won.

Earthquake Proof Housing-For Poor People

2011-03-14T11:03:00.002+09:00

Since most of the world is poor people, this National Geographic piece is filled with useful information. This is actually what I majored in in college and would still like to be doing. Anyway. I think this is how we should be thinking about architecture and urban planning going forwards, as we all get Third Worlded.

It Wasn't Not Capitalism!

2011-03-08T12:10:00.002+09:00

Thank you David Cay Johnston for pointing out what anyone with a cursory interest in economics- which we all should have as we are pulled around by it- should understand; that once you pay public workers, be that in benefits or wages, the money is theirs, not still yours.

Is it that hard to understand? If you go to a Yankees game once, you can not forever claim that A-Rod is taking Madonna on dates with your money. Bill Gates isn't giving out vaccinations with your money. You paid for a service they supplied, which they negotiated a contract to work for, it is their money. Is that difficult?

To not understand this simple point is either willful ignorance or a deep misunderstanding of the economic system which you claim to be so strongly allied with.

If you skip the whole article, I will point out what shouldn't need pointing out; health benefits and vacation days are not presents from your boss, they are compensation. Workers negotiate a mixture of salary and benefits and that becomes the conditions that they work under. To pretend that it is the bosses magnanimity that grants vacation and benefits is insulting. But, what really is new there. The new, angry conservative makes their bones in the insulting. They wallow in it like a dog on a rotting corpse and then prance around talking about how good they smell.

If we are to believe that corporate CEO's wages must be kept high to insure interest in the position from qualified people, are we supposed to think that the government wants to discourage qualified teachers and public workers? Almost assuredly, they do. Or just want to roll the dice on getting them on the cheap, which is the situation I am in.

Yet again, there is no internal logic in the conservative position.

Train in Vain

2011-03-04T15:24:00.003+09:00

I think this is only 100% correct. I couldn't get George Will's absurd piece about trains being unAmerican, but then again I am so confused on what exactly is unAmerican and what isn't anymore. To me, trains are not only a part of my everyday life, but are much more democratic than flying. Flying to me, feels like being contained in a giant, terrifying pre-school. It seems the exact opposite of freedom.

JR just built a new Shinkansen line direct from Kagoshima to Kansai. It opens next week. My wife's grandfather, a lifelong JR employee, has a ticket on the first run. It is a strangely emotional thing. Think about how wonderful this is though; when I go to Kagoshima for summer break, all I have to do is walk down the street for ten minutes. Get on the subway for Kyoto Station. Ride that for about ten minutes. Buy a $150 ticket for the next train available. Walk on, sit down, read a book, drink a beer, watch the world go by and walk off a few hours later on another island at the bottom of the country. No IDs. No metal detectors. No tiny seat. No terror. No delays (probably.) What is this conservative hang-up about trains? It seems arbitrary, like the whole vindictive styrofoam thing. It probably has bigger meaning though.

Trains. Make them. Build them. Ride them. Please. Florida, I am looking at you here.

Interesting Names Update

2011-03-04T12:35:00.003+09:00

Yesterday I was looking back over old school related blog posts. Wow. Anyway, I realized I hadn't done an update of unusual surnames at this school in the two years that I have been here. If you have missed out on it, I have a minor, unexplained obsession with Japanese last names; especially crazy ones.

I'll just give you a brief recap of why Japanese surnames are so varied. With the exception of the very powerful, Japanese didn't have last names until the fall of the feudal system in the 1860s. Under the Meiji they were told to give themselves last names. That hasn't been enough generations for the rarer names to eleminate themselves. That sounds ominous.

One category I am getting stricter on is the combination of a place specifier, i.e. 原、谷、山, plus a qualifier for it. Because, really you could stick any two kanji together and some are going to sound rarer to others.

Under the category of easy to read but strange, we have the all-time champion, now, at this school:

上圡：　Uedo. I have never seen another Uedo and was convinced it must have some crazy reading. Nope. Uedo.

We also have 龍：　Ryu. But as a last name. Is that odd? It seems so to me. "Hello, my name is dragon. Fuck you."

There are two brothers both named 薬師寺：　Yakushiji. Which is a famous temple in Nara. Other teachers say it isn't so rare, but I have yet to find any others.

There is a 2nd year named 島子：　Shimako. Very easy to read. I want that last name. 'Island Child.' Not bad.

There is a 征禄：　Seiroku. Never seen that before.

There are two sisters with a slightly unfortunate reading of their last name　槍山：　Yariyama.

Maybe related, maybe not, we have a young lady named 泊：　Tomari.

Outstandingly bad-assed name 三星：　　Mitsuboshi. 'Three Stars.' Maybe they can grow up to be a chef.

Possible rare name champion 伝宝：Denpo. Here is the thing; Those aren't even the actual kanji for her name. The real kanji won't come up in any computer or cell phone, even if you look under other readings. They have to be written out by hand, so she just uses these.

There is a 古舘：　Furutate. Which you don't see very often.

We have 中条：　Chujyo. Whow is as unique as his name.

The 3rd year teachers have my grade book right now, so I will have to come back with more later.

Huckaboo

2011-03-03T15:02:00.004+09:00

I wanted to talk about how Mike Huckabee's defense that saying that President Obama had grown up in Kenya had been a slip of a tongue had no internal logic, but Media Matters beat me to it. And why not, that's their J-O-B.

Think about it. What if I said, "Mike Huckabee clearly has an issue with white people after growing up in a township in aparthied era South Africa idolizing Nelson Mandela and dreaming of playing rugby. Wait. Did I say South Africa? A slip of the tongue. I meant 'Arkansas.'"

But nothing makes sense if you change it to say Arkansas. Except for the apartheid. Hahahaha. I kid. Nothing about his statement makes sense when you switch Indonesia for Kenya. Also, it leaves out the huge central element of him growing up with his father and grandfather, which he didn't. Isn't it a giant detail of the President's life that he grew up without a father? Doesn't saying that you meant to say that he spent time in Indonesia have to be coupled with the fact that you know he was estranged from his father? Nothing in that argument makes sense.

What does make sense is that Mike Huckabee is a bit more despicable than I thought him to be. I think this indicates that he knows exactly what he is up to and who he is appealing too. He will now run around the Right Wing stupidverse saying how everyone is just blowing this whole thing out of proportion around poor ole Huck. His audience already got what they wanted out of it. The corrections don't matter.

I want to talk about this in more detail at some point. I think FOX caught on to this a while back. It doesn't matter at all what you say. You put out the storyline you want. Lightly correct it later and keep going. No one who wants to believe it will heed the correction.

UPDATE:

Here is an even better piece on it describing how thoroughly stupid Huckabee's take is. I find it very hard to see it as anything other than a thinly veiled call to racism. What is this odd conservative obsession with Churchill anyway? I remember it being written about during the Bush presidency but what is there in it? President Obama moved a Churchill bust and installed a Lincoln bust. We all know that he would be criticized for doing the opposite as well. Does Huckabee find something wrong with Lincoln? Does anyone in England really care? Try this headline on:

Democrat Pres. Bows to Europe, Replaces American Hero with Foreign Leader.

Tell me that they wouldn't run that in a heartbeat and that would be the issue of the day. Then if he switched them back they would go on about what a weak flip-flopper he was. As a member of the Left, I think we should just push what children Conservatives are. What little babies. Ignorant, whiny little babies.

Oh. I forgot. Is Huckabee, in his book, saying that the American story isn't one of aligning ourselves with freedom seeking people everywhere? Are we not the City on the Hill. Maybe I misunderstood. Our sympathies should lie with the British Empire. The worst elements of the British Empire. That is 'our story' as Americans. Weird.

Hirakata, You're Cut Pat II

2011-03-02T13:03:00.004+09:00

This was to be the thrust of the last thing but I got off track when I went to scan pages out of the text book.

Last month Hirakata City, only 40 minutes from my house instead of an hour and 40, had openings for 6 new ALT jobs. Hirakata does direct hire and not dispatch. Direct hire provides a steady salary instead of paying by the day and cuts out the middleman, gaijin wrangling, useless companies. Companies like mine. It would have also been a $300 a month raise and a paycheck for the summer break which I am not paid for. On the downside, I very much love my school now and was not anxious to change.

But these things become a matter of ego don't they? Even if a girl you don't like tells you you are ugly it still ratchets down your confidence. So I went to apply on the last day they were accepting applications, sneaking out of school and returning to the campus where I was an exchange student in 1999, now converted into public buildings.

The process worked like this; One submits an application at the board of education. This office is n the old Kansai Gaidai administration building, which was a nice building. ( It has been Japanese officeized. I would spend time on this but that is not the point of the piece. Just imagine putting a lot of dusty cardboard boxes full of useless paper in random corners, hanging up a lot of public service posters, and carting in busted up old metal office desks. There.) After
this application is received you are given a number. I was N17. I was told that there would be a test at 10am the following Thursday and an interview on the Monday following that at a time that would be specified at the test. Why is when these occur important? As I said earlier, I work dispatch. Most people with my job do. We are paid by the day and get no personal days. At my company if we don't miss any days in a month and aren't late or have to leave early we get a $100 bonus at the end of the month. Taking days off for this process, including dropping off the application, would cost me $460. This is a large barrier to even applying. Who is it not a barrier for? People with irregular work. I think there is probably a pool of good teachers who don't have regular work, but you are limiting the field. How did I get around this? I am brazen. I just left work to drop off the application. On the day of the test I had a full schedule of classes but I met with the teachers and told them the situation and asked them not to mention anything. The day of the interview, I thought I was pushing it a little so I informed the vice-principal and all of the teachers that I would be out in the morning. I sent my work a mail detailing the situation. I will elaborate on this a bit later. (If someone from my company or the school board reads this, this is a work of fantasy. )

I say all of this because all through the process, on both sides; or employers and or prospective employers, we aren't really treated like full humans. Every marathon or grappling competition I have taken part in has been on a Sunday as most people work during the week. he school board doesn't want to work on the weekend so they put the burden, the financial burden on us. Should I point out again how much less money we make than these people?

The weekend before the test, I took the GRE as my 5-year window had expired. As usual with me, I did very well on the verbal- 97%- and barely passable on the quantitative- 30%. I had a total score of 1,200, which isn't terrible. I wanted a 6 on the essay but I got a 5. The Hirakata test was scheduled for an hour in the old reception hall at Kansai Gaidai. I remembered are welcome party there in 1999 when Tanimoto Gakucho sang "Old Susanna" for the Alabama contingent. Odd to be here now hoping for a $300 a month raise. After having took the GRE the test was pedestrian. I finished in about 20 minutes and went back through the whole thing about 3 times. There was very little math and it was basic compared to the GRE. The grammar was so easy as to be laughable. There was an essay section that was remarkable only in its limit to 700 words. I might be guilty of overconfidence but I have the GRE and its very real scores to show me the level I was preforming at.

My interview was scheduled for the following Monday at 10am. We were separated into groups of 6 and told that it would be a group interview. We would need to answer the first question in Japanese and give a 3 minute demonstration lesson on our assigned topic. Our group was assigned the relative clause. The example sentence was "The scientist who wrote 'Silent Spring' was Rachel Carson." I think that this is a terrible example sentence. If you are just introducing this grammar, you have to explain 'scientist', that 'Silent Spring' is a book and that 'Rachel Carson' is someone's name. In 3 minutes.

There is a lot to unpack in this. First, the tendency in Japanese society towards the simplistically maudlin is well documented. I am not saying that to be a jerk. I like it sometimes. However we are given these strange examples all the time because they are thought of as touching, or at least echo something that older teachers knew of when they were younger. As I pointed out in my last post, I don't think you should saddle knew grammar with new words and distracting tidbits. Again, this is to be a 3 minute lesson.

The instructions were vague as to whether we had to teach this sentence or the grammar that it was an example of. I had been through a large teachers office fight about this grammar earlier in the year and had then done a demo lesson of it for the Higashi Osaka Board of Education that had won a (meaningless) first prize. I decided to go with the method that I used there as it brings students to this grammar through language that they already know.

"There are a lot of students at this school. Mia is a girl. Mia plays soccer. Mia is the girl who plays soccer." The sentences in bold I had printed out and laminated. I also had printed out and laminated two pictures of girls. All of my materials were magnetized so I could stick them on the board. One playing soccer, one playing basketball. I then ask "Who is Mia?" Everyone gets it pretty quickly. I don't explain that 'a' becomes 'the' immediately, but I don't think it is that important. Other applicants did. Once the students get this I move on. "Takeshi is a boy. Takeshi plays piano. Takeshi is the boy who plays piano." Again, picture of two boys. "Who is Takeshi?" I don't think mine is the only effective method, but I have decided out it after years of teaching this grammar. It seems the quickest path to being able to understand what this point is trying to get across.

Other candidates taught the Rachel Carson sentence. Not all of them did. I would say that 4 out of the 6 applicants had below average lessons. 3 of them used up their time writing the grammar out long hand on the marker board. I would say that, in my opinion, one other lesson was good. Three other lessons had major, major issues. The remaining lesson was not well conceived but well prepared and presented, if that makes any sense.

I should backtrack for a minute and say that the interview was before the demo lessons. We were asked to give a self-introduction in Japanese. The overall level was pretty low, but whatever. We were then questioned by a panel of people from the board of education and our answers were translated by an older gentleman who did, I must say, an atrocious job. One other person being interviewed is completing his master's degree in education, I believe. That was translated as "He hopes to master teaching." A lot of information was cut out of the answers. I remember thinking it was a little humorous and not being able to tell if he was editing for brevity or out of ignorance. I was asked a question by one other member of the panel whose English pronunciation I couldn't quite get. I had to ask him to repeat himself. He looked disturbed and had already started his stopwatch.

There were two other groups of 6. So 18 people up for 6 jobs. Going just by my group, and I understand that my viewpoint is self-serving and biased, there were 2 people who I would have given the job to. Two that I really wouldn't and two that...whatever. Assuming that applied across all groups, the numbers work out to six jobs. With confidence I sat back and waited for my letter of acceptance to come.

But you already know what happened don't you. On the expected day, I went home early and opened the letter. "You are the 11th out of 18 applicants. You were not selected for employment." Questions abound. I don't think anyone is required to give me a job, but I am curious how the selection worked.

My real concern in all of this is; How are teachers selected?
It is a mystery. There is no standardization and it all seems so random. A lot of garbage teachers have great jobs. A lot of great teachers have to scramble to make a buck. The arbitrariness of it all is a different form of torture. Was I not selected because of my test score? Was my lesson flawed? Did my interview rub someone the wrong way? I won't ever know, but I do know that the people making the selections know very little about how to do the job. That can't be a good process.

I have an idea. I think it is a good idea. It will never be implemented.

Have prospective ALTs for Osaka take the GRE. Have the scores submitted to the BOE to a general pool. Weight verbal and essay scores over math. Have 1,000 be a cutoff, and a 4 on the essay. Have this pool submit a CV and 2 letters of recommendation from former schools. If they have no experience, then from former employers. Then have them come in for interviews and demo lessons. Have these scheduled on evenings or weekends to allow everyone to participate. Have the panel that considers applicants include current English teachers.

Additionally, give this pool of teachers a path to being licensed. Have them take the JLPT. Provide them a way to advance. In the state it is now, the education system is creating a system that is both unstable and stagnating. Teachers don't advance for being good at their jobs and aren't fired for being bad. There is no difference. It is all arbitrary.

I reiterate that I think none of this will happen. If Japan is willing to take any constructive steps, then I hope they decide to get rid of English education entirely at the junior-high level because it is a false promise for everyone and a joke in practice.

Hirakata, You're Cut. Part 1.

2011-03-02T09:22:00.010+09:00

I don't think I have made much of a secret of my new (year-old?) decision that the best course for Japan was to give up on English education, at least at the junior high level. My reasoning behind this decision, again for the record, is that it doesn't help to do something half-assed and then rate it and judge the results as if it was being done appropriately. In fact, I think more damage is being done by teaching English than the benefits gained from it.

Let me quickly run through my main points regarding this issue.

1. Most English teachers can't speak English. That is just the reality of the situation and everyone knows it. This situation would not be tolerated for any other subject.

2. English programs are controlled by bureaucrats at city hall, not by English educators. This generally means that they try to get things done on the cheap with more attention paid to appearances than results. This applies to lots of things everywhere, however.

3. The teaching methods are outdated. Most teachers still use the Grammar Translation Method, which went out in Western schools in the 1960's and was being criticized in the 19th century. In fact most text books only really lend themselves to this method. More modern teachers use ESL methods, but ones usually geared towards college students.

4. Whither the ALT? My job is a cipher. Sorry to say it. It doesn't have to be that way. I am reminded of a passage in Jarhead, where the author describes the military having no idea how to use snipers in the First Gulf War, so they would just be told to 'go do something.' I think that I have been able to turn this vagueness into something constructive but it is a bit like needing to build a dam and settling for dropping a boulder in the river.

5. Japanese society is still too immature in its approach to an international society. Again, I am sorry if that sounds vague and general and insulting. Let me tell you a story. I was called in to an impromptu meeting with some very high-ups in the city's education department. They began asking my opinions on different things regarding the English program. I was a little off guard, but thrilled with the opportunity. I began by saying, "As you know, Higashi Osaka has the lowest scores in the country." I was immediately stopped and told, "We don't care about that. Japanese people can't speak English. We were just thinking that maybe on Wednesday afternoons we could have a program were moms came to the school to play with their kids in English. Whadda ya think?" A completely normal answer to a question in English in class is "I don't know what you are saying, I am Japanese!" Television constantly hammers in ideas that the world is divided into Japan and Gaikoku. People in Gaikoku all speak English. To be Japanese is to not be a part of that. I am probably going a little far afield with this one, so I will get back on track.

6. The only text books allowed have to be made by Japanese companies. And they suck. We are not allowed to use the decent ones made by Oxford, or any other company.

7. The high school entrance exams are flawed. Deeply. And that is the endgame of all of junior high.

Let's look at a page from the text book for 2nd years. I won't get sued if I name it will I? It is New Crown. If you make this text book I am here to tell you that, as many hours as you might have put in, your product is garbage.

This page is in some ways an aberration. My objections to it are largely philosophical/political. First: Have a gander.

You can see my notes on the subject. Remark on the lovely handwriting. It would be nice to get some fresh eyes on the subject. What problems do you see? Or is it solid and I am a crank? That is possible.

My large issue with this is the whole "foreign people" angle. Not just because I am a "foreign people" but because what this is trying to convey only really makes sense in Japanese. That is a larger problem with these books, if you don't understand Japanese, it is hard to grasp them. The priority is not to teach speakable English but to reinforce Japanese. Which seems an odd goal for a foreign language textbook.

Of course, the word they want to say is "gaikokujin." The letter writer wants to teach Japanese to "gaikokujin." But how can this be clear to a world that doesn't divide itself into Japan and everyone else? I would contend that there is a large amount of people in Japan who would be very surprised that that isn't how the rest of the world thinks of things.

Scan down to the last sentence. In the future, just thinking about it in English, where does this person want to go? Do they want to go to Korea or Australia? I don't know. Do they want to stay in Japan, which is foreign to 98% of the world? Probably not, but I don't know. What group of people will they be teaching? Will they go to America and teach Japanese to Brazilians? There is no way to know. Usually other teachers' eyes glaze over when I talk about this page, but I can't understand how you don't consider these things. If they want to teach Japanese to foreign people, and they want to go to a foreign country and do this, do they mean the people of that country or non-natives who have come there? It seems peculiarly awkward to me.

The real trouble is that the people who gave the okay to this never had to consider it because they all knew exactly what they meant because they thought about it in Japanese. Japanese is a language that is in no way related to English. This becomes an overarching problem in these books.

On a brief side-note: As an American teaching in Japan I have refused to teach this lesson. I think it is rotten. Of all of the times that I have had to teach Japanese children about their own history and culture to then be forced to put stuff like this into their heads seems insulting. I know that most will take that as an overreaction, but I have to fight for every ounce of respect I get in the schools I teach in and I won't surrender it lightly to text book authors who put very little consideration into the matter from quite a great distance. I had to explain to a Japanese teacher, who has job security and bonuses, what the difference between a temple and a shrine was when he couldn't answer students' questions about it. I had to teach elementary school kids what Setsubun was because they didn't celebrate it at home. I should point out that the Japanese teacher's approach matters a lot in this lesson as well. When I have done this class, some teachers have used me as an example. You have to think about what you are teaching when you are teaching.

In my opinion the lesson would be more effective with the sentence, "I would like to go to another country and teach Japanese." What country they are going to is a little vague, but it is somewhere that is not where they are now and it carries little of the pejorative aftertaste.

If you are new to Japanese textbooks, this will be your introduction to the puzzling practice of beginning an inordinate number of sentences with "So", "And", "But," and other things we are taught to not begin sentences with.

Let's look at another page from the same book.

Certainly I don't object to the subject matter. It was my major in college for Christ's sake. I applaud the effort of discussing environmental issues in junior high. What's my beef then? This is indicative of two other major issues in these books. First, there is a group of social issues that they are compelled to address: Ainu, Okinawa, guide dogs, landmines and the environment, to name a selection. The problem is that they do it in such a ham-handed way. Second, the books introduce way too much superfluous information in a subject that is already overwhelming for kids. It is hard to separate what is important from what is filling. Again, if you are familiar with Japanese, you will recognize the influence.

Let me point out here, when considering these two pages, that most students will struggle to answer the question "How are you?" A good number of them can't write their names in English. The majority of kids doing this chapter right now have trouble with "I play. You play. He/She/It/ plays." What are they supposed to do with this?

Look at this page. What is the focus of the lesson? What grammar is being taught here? Can you figure it out? Any luck? The answer is comparatives. In this case "good, better, best." This is the introduction to the concept. Most new grammar points are taught this way in Japanese schools. This mass of disparate information will be shown to 14 year-olds who haven't mastered any basics. Some rules about the grammar will be quoted to them. These rules might be accurate or they might be something someone told the teacher once. The students will then read the passage out loud and then copy the whole thing in their notebook. Now they will be expected to know it forever.

I have no confidence in this method. I don't think mine is perfect, but here is how I did the lesson. I made a Powerpoint presentation with sets of pictures of three things. "Fuji is tall. Denali is taller. Everest is the tallest." "The dog is big. The cow is bigger. The elephant is the biggest." Once the students got the pattern- and it is the pattern that is important here, not the grammar rule-we changed it into a game. I also made sure they understood why 'the' is used for the superlative. I would show the first slide. "Kamakura." They would guess. "Kamakura is old." "Kyoto is older." "Nara is the oldest." After about 5 minutes even the lower level classes would get it. The game went on for 30-40 minutes. If I went to classes more than once a week, I would come back to this game for 1o minutes or so once a week.

This kind of lesson is known in Japanese schools as "a game." Games are what people like me are in schools to do. Real lessons involve sitting around and copying dialogues out of textbooks. You know, real learning. Our school is lucky to have a ton of laptops, projectors and screens. I would estimate that, including me, about 5 teachers use them. 5 out of 70+. A lot of older teachers are either amazed that someone can use Powerpoint, ashamed that this kind of goofing off is allowed in schools, or both.

As a teacher, another objection I have with this lesson is how many irrelevant things I would have to teach to do this dialogue. Do the authors consider this? I am all for conversations about outside stuff, and going off topic, but this isn't easy for the students. I have to explain: roof, sand,surface, degrees, heat islands, fight, green, and regular, just to get through this page. Again, to kids who can't answer "How are you?"

What did all of this have to do with Hirakata? Let's take a break and I will get there.

The (Red) Welfare State

2011-02-23T11:03:00.002+09:00

Back to what I was saying before. I am starting to think that we should let the red states secede. If they did, it certainly appears that they couldn't succeed (thank you) as their policies are failures. Here are conservatives again whining about Wisconisn while failing to smyte the bee what bit them in thou own bonnett. Or something like that.

Good On You Packers

2011-02-18T13:17:00.002+09:00

I am constantly going on about pro-athletes having strong unions and expecting fans to understand but not coming out to support other unions. Unions that strengthen the middle class so that they can afford to be fans. I think MLB owes teachers and garbage men a sympathy strike or two. That is why it was great this week to see the Packers, if not as an orginzation than as individuals, come out and support public workers in Wisconsin. It is truly remarkable that Green Bay is a publicly owned team that just won the Super Bowl. I like it.

New Banksy

2011-02-17T10:45:00.001+09:00

Banksy has some new LA stuff up. Is this his Oscar push?

All Hail Rail

2011-02-16T13:37:00.002+09:00

I am not very happy about the new (Republican) budget that President Obama has proposed. I am excited about the $53 billion plan for high speed rail. I could make a passioned defense for why we need this. But I am going to save us both time. All I will do is point you in the direction of this. As an urban planning major in the New College at UofA I could have told you about this 12 years ago, but why spoil the surprise. If it was up to my master plan we would just ride golf carts through town, drive whatever the f we want on interstates and take sailing ships across oceans. But I am a romantic. Why get laid with a stranger on a train when you can listen to talk radio alone in your car? Right middle age Republican men?

Of course, conservative means never having to plan ahead so most of this plan will probably be torpedoed. Solar power torpedoed. This is the kind of stuff that a future middle class needs.

Crank That Should Be Yanked

2011-02-15T14:43:00.002+09:00

By now I am sure you have all seen chief moron and snake-oil salesman Glenn Beck getting the state fair crowd all riled up over Egypt.

I understand it is a bunch of ignorant blather from someone who's personal motto is "them books is wrong." Nevertheless I tried to use it as a jumping off point to figure out if their was any kind of internal logic to this thing as it obviously is untethered from reality. Of course it has been commented on to death and there really isn't much to be added to a long balloon shaped into a floating question mark by a sad clown but....

Let's just examine a tiny bit of his hypothesis. We will leave the part about the Muslim caliphate taking over Europe. We will wait on Russia rushing back from the dead to reclaim all of the satellite countries around it becoming, what exactly? The USSR II? I want to look very narrowly at Beck's contention that Australia will fall under the control of China. Maybe New Zealand. Forgive me if I misquote anything here, I can't seem to find a transcript.

Beck uses the vague word "control." China will control Australia. I hope I am not being racist when I say this is fairly insulting to Australians. How will Australia be controlled? Is this a military form of control? How would that make sense? How would it be done? Australia is a huge country. A continent in fact. It is sparsely populated and spread out. Would the Chinese army come in boats? Would a Chinese army large enough to occupy the continent of Australia, go to Australia in boats? How long would that take? They would need to be fed the whole time as well. Would they sail past Japan and the U.S. bases in Okinawa? Then they would just turn south and have clear sailing? I supposes Australia puts up no fight. That they are no match for hoards of Chinese transport vessels. Maybe there is a vanguard of....? What exactly. And while this giant Chinese invasion fleet is off to capture Australia, what happens back in China? Sure it could probably be kept out of the news, but a force big enough to occupy a continent would have to be replaced or covered for as China has huge, vast borders that need to be protected. Can China make enough food to support this force? Can they be fed while destroying then occupying Australia? What will they do when they have Australia? Govern the Australians? Isn't that, again, a little insulting? Would Paul Hogan and the ghost of Steve Irwin put up with that? Would China use their manpower pursuing rebels through desert and bush? To what end? For what benefit? Who knows?

Beck never bothered to think this through, surely. Maybe he war gamed over a Risk board. I think his next quote gives away that he was just making it up and went. Just after declaring that the continent of Australia would be under control of the Chinese, he adds, "Maybe New Zealand." Why maybe? Why? Really? If they come all the way for Australia. Take it over. Occupy it. What is stopping them from taking New Zealand too? Gandalf? Maori dancing the Haka? Jonah Lomu? Again, I think New Zealand would be a terribly difficult country to take over and then occupy, but if you can do it to Australia then can't you do it there?

I think the real tip-off is he said it because it sounded like the better way to end the sentence. It sounded more like his side-show patter to say, "Maybe New Zealand." Then to say, "If they took over Australia, one would suspect that New Zealand would follow." I think this is the key to the whole thing. He is just making up stuff that is easy to say. In fact, he is just saying it because it is easy. Beck has already made the decision to not be a serious person and to say whatever garbage gets people to look at him. It sounds better, and more threatening in a mysterious way to dangle, "Maybe New Zealand" the to think through what any of this would involve.

Maybe he meant Australia would be under the economic control of China. Ok, but what of it? China is the number two economy in the world and we buy tons of goods from them. Possibly he meant cultural? So what? More Lo Mein. He didn't mean anything except for "Give me your money suckers."

To add onto this vacuous masturbation fest, deeply hurt Glenn Beck came out a few days later and begged for a hug from mommy in this abysmal hissy fit. Again, I don't have the transcript, and I can't turn on the sound at work, but it was another eruption of stupid. Except that this time Beck said that everyone had proved him right because they said he was wrong and then reported on things that he didn't like. I don't watch much Beck, pretty much for the same reason I don't watch Full House or read Nevada prostitution brochures, so I was a little taken a back at what a horrible person he was. Beck who has never had the courage to stand up for anything, certainly never the guts to take it to the streets (for the record I don't find being a privileged millionaire and setting up a sponsored rally while wearing a bullet proof vest to be any sort of valour) ridiculing a Egyptian protester for having the audacity to be misunderstood by Glenn Beck. What a misguided person she must be for knowing that sometimes you have to work with people who don't have all of the same values as you to achieve goals that you mutually desire. How mistaken she is. That would be like Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich both being against the war. Impossible. That would almost be like the Nation of Islam and Jews both being for civil rights. Why do the Jewish people love Elijah Muhammed so much?

John Baez has a list of what constitutes a crank.

Hmmmm. If the shoe fits, take over Australia with the Chinese army.

The Great State of.....

2011-02-15T13:41:00.003+09:00

A list of the states with the worst eating habits was released this week. I don't think it means that they let their dogs lick their plates or that they keep their elbows on the table. See the study for the methodology. I would wager that if you guessed the top ten you would not be far off. Seven out of ten probably.

While we are on it, here is a list of states by obesity levels. Again, no real surprises. Although I will make a slight exception for Louisiana because there is so much good food to eat. However, that is probably not the root of the problem. Especially in Baton Rouge or Slidell.

And then there is this: a list of divorce rates by state. This data is from 2009. And here is a ranking of teen pregnancy rates by state. Scroll down to page 13-14.

Here are the 2009 STD rates by state. Here are the 2009 crime rankings.

Here is the chart that I really feel tells an important story.

Here is a map of the states that went Obama/Biden in 2008.

And here is a historical map.

Finally, here is one of my favorite cognitive biases.

I am not going to bother tying together the threads on this one. I think you get it. But then we should ask, who's opinions are overrepresented in the media and in the power structure? Why is that? Why do we have to give in on everything to people who seem to be wrong about everything?

One statistical note: Population is not evenly distributed and we should be careful of that because even when dealing with things on a per capita basis, it doesn't tell the whole story. Smaller states are bound to swing wild sometimes.

Given that, here is a list of states by 2007 population data. And by population density.

Computer Canasta

2011-02-10T10:47:00.003+09:00

As all three of you who follow this blog are well aware, I have a bit of a canasta problem. I don't mean my recent problem of losing every hand to DLB, no, a problem that predates that. A problem that began around the family dining table, carted back from somewhere out West on a dare from my Dad, the table, not the problem, and nurtured in many a borrowed dorm room. I have a mild addiction to the game of canasta. Its combination of luck and strategy of braggadocio and humbling retribution. Its symmetry of odd numbers. In Japan, outside of a small group trapped in a house during a typhoon, I have found no one to play canasta with. In comes the iPod. Now, I can play canasta whenever I want.

This brings its own issues however, it isn't the loss of conversation that a real human game brings, although that detracts from the experience, it is the absolute boneheaded way that your partner plays and the fact that their method can't be corrected through personal rebuke.

To be fair, I have noticed the same strategies from human opponents in Internet canasta; the same get the canasta and get out dash to the exit. To me the slowly building deck, the pot of soup that only one person will get to eat, is the fun of the game. Once you meet the challenge of melding and then get that deck, it is your obligation to stretch out the game and milk the other team for everything they have. Not so, says my digital teammate. The real challenge when you get up to melding 120 points is the meld itself. I can't see the logic in being roughly 1,000 points away from a victory, getting the difficult meld, getting a huge deck, having the other team in the position of every discard being a donation to your team fund, but deciding to go out after one canasta. A canasta that doesn't put you over the 5,000 point mark for the win. Now you have to struggle to meld 120 again and have no idea if you will get to pick up the deck.

Maybe it is the rule that you can go out with one canasta, natural or not. I am not a fan of that rule. I say two canastas where one must be natural is the only way to play. It makes for a more strategic game. Maybe it is just flawed programming. My teammate has been known to through a deuce on 6 eights for an unnatural and discard the eight in their hand on the same play. Or two lay down 3 sixes, which the opponent doesn't have, and then discard a Jack, which gives the other side a natural canasta.

Oh, well. That's what happens when you build robot people. Take that science!

Kick Ass

2011-02-09T16:18:00.002+09:00

I finally got a chance to see Kick Ass in a tiny, alternative movie theater in an upscale department store in Kyoto. I don't have many deep thoughts on it. I liked it. Natsuki's comment was, "I liked it. It was pretty shallow." I am not sure if those two quotes are connected by anything. What I did like about the movie was that it began with an interesting question and then answered it in a very real and understandable way.

The question was, "If super heroes are so popular, why don't more people try and be a super hero." The question was later answered by saying, and showing, that people don't because they find that they have people they care about and who care about them. That all of us have a responsibility to those people that would generally preclude running around and inviting death. It was no great coincidence that once the hero figured out that he like shagging his (insanely hot) girlfriend that he quickly lost the super hero bug. I thought where the movie succeeded was in showing the desire for super heroes not as a stupid fantasy, or a comical fantasy but, at its very heart, as a juvenile fantasy.

Whither Come the Tides?

2011-02-09T16:04:00.002+09:00

I know this has been covered to death. It has been covered like a sore knee with icey hot. It has been covered like a (reference to a Japanese genre of porn film removed by publisher.) However this give me an opportunity to reference one of my favorite blogs, Bad Astronomy, which you might or might not be familiar with, but you should be now.

Bad Astronomy on the ridiculous, ridiculous, O'Reilly argument that the tides prove God's existence. I think the worst part of his contention was how pleased he looked with it. Being content with a thought so incompletely form is a small window into how actually ignorant O'Reilly himself is.

Further, I notice that O'Reilly always uses the construction, "Never any miscommunication." Each time he makes his assertion. Is there an underlying reason for this?

Lower the Retirement Age

2011-02-09T15:38:00.002+09:00

If you have missed out on it for the last few months, James Galbraith has been talking up his plan to lower the retirement age. Most headlines that you can find on the subject characterize the plan as "radical." I can't see it as anything other than practical and am left scratching my head over why it is anything other than the prevailing belief. I am no genius economist, but this certainly doesn't fall into the "wow, I never thought of that category."

The central premise here is that lowering the retirement age clears off a section of the job market that young people in need of jobs can move in and fill, while older people, eager to retire can find their way out. It seems elementary to me. I don't know why it is radical and raising the age is a serious consideration. Actually, I do, it is because our dialogue can only function one way in America. Whether conscious or not, if it involves sacrifice and suffering to the middle class and below it is serious. If it requires anything of the upper classes, it is radical.

Something else important to notice in this conversation is that the "Life expectancy keeps rising" meme is only true of the white collar, upper classes. People with hard jobs and little or no medical coverage are not living longer. So they should suck it up and work two more painful years and then shut up and die with sub-standard health coverage and no end of life care discussions with their doctor.

Total Employment

2011-02-07T15:38:00.002+09:00

This is something to think on. I am pretty much in agreement on all counts. I think the most telling thing is the owner.manager belief that wages are paid to get you to show up and that is the obligation, not that we are in it together to create a stable society and without solid wages, their businesses will eventually suffer. They just get trained to squeeze the dry rag and complain that it isn't wet like it used to be.

UFC 126: Storm the Tower

2011-02-05T23:05:00.002+09:00

Through a blaring chorus of "Rock the Casbah" played by a rental mariachi band, commissioner Dana White ambled to the podium in a Peace in the Middle East retro t-shirt and $900 jeans. "The show must go on." He declared with all the earnestness of the Israeli delegation at the Munich Olympics.

Kingsbury vs. Romero:

Romero has a great sub record against lesser competition. Kingsbury has been an up and comer for a while but doesn't impress me that much. Could go either way. Kingsbury should out-wrestle Romero, but I would like a crazy leg-lock. So, Romero by sub in the 1st.

Taylor vs. Ruediger:

Ruedigar had a lot of success in lower organizations but has done nothing but make a joke out of himself at this level. If you can't make weight for a fight, it means something is wrong with how you are approaching the game. While it would be fun to see a sub upset, it is hard to get behind a guy who would rather get a colonic than control his eating. Taylor by TKO in the 3rd.

Pierce vs. Robertson:

Pierce is a very good fighter. I don't see him losing this. The end.

Cerrone vs. Kelly

I think this is a bad style/size match-up for Kelly. While he can be a little fireball on the ground- posturing up in guard and whaling on guys- that is the exact wrong technique against Cerrone, who is always happy to triangle somebody. I think this is a good, back-and-forth battle, but I think Cerrone gets a sub in the 3rd.

Yamamoto vs. Johnson

Linearly, Yamamoto Kid should be my compatriot as he is a product of the same Gym. I have never been a big fan, however. What Kid brings, or brought, to the table is incredible athleticism, double plus power and excellent wrestling. But he has been injured and cowed and aged. What does he still have. Kid is always capable of getting the KO, but can he still pull the trigger? I am calling Mighty Mouse for the upset here. Probably on decision with lots of good striking exchanges.

Mendes vs. Omigawa:

What are they trying to do here? I really don't get it. If the goal is to wreck Omigawa on his return then I think they picked the right match-up. The real crucible for most Japanese fighters coming over is the level of wrestling in the U.S. There just isn't a comparable comparison in Japan. Omigawa is good. Very good. He has clean striking and a solid top game. He still has good judo balance. But he can be taken down. He will be taken down. I would love to see him win, but I have to call Mendes by decision.

Torres vs. Banuelos:

I do not hide my love for Miguel Torres. There was a time, not long ago, that I thought he was in the running for best P4P in the world. He fell off, but I hope he is on his way back. Banuelos can be entertaining, but I don't see him doing that much. I think Torres hurts him with the jab and takes advantage for a sub in the 2nd.

Ellenberger vs. Rocha:

I still can't get that interested in Ellenberger. That doesn't mean he is bad. He packs a lot of power, and knocks fools out. Maybe I will change my mind about him. I love Rocha's resume, but, as usual, it is not at this level of competition. I would love for him to bust out a knee-bar, but the positioning required to get to a knee-bar would probably mean that Ellenberger would get a chance to brain him. Ellenberger for 1st round KO.

Bader vs. Jones

Who isn't excited about this one? Jones, who channels Tony Jah, squaring off against the real life Ram-Man. These guys are both for real, they are both undefeated(really) and they can both make just about anything happen. Bader can take Jones down or he can knock him out. Jones could through Bader down on the mat and elbow out his orbital. Who knows? As a fight fan I am geeked. I will call it for Jones by TKO in the 2nd, but I have no clue.

Griffin vs. Franklin:

Another great match-up. Both of these guys are grinders with tons of stamina and a huge amount of fight experience. Franklin is the better striker. The ground game is probably a wash. Griffin has the size and strength. I think they both get pretty beat up. I think this looks a lot like Franklin's Loiseau fight, but with some more time on the ground. I don't know how how to call it. I am going a little more for Griffin, but I see Franklin's striking landing more. I would imagine, Franklin has worked on countering Griffin's kicks, which are effective. Err... Franklin by narrow decision.

Silva vs. Belfort:

There is one factor for me in this fight; Belfort's long layoff. A year out of the ring is just too much. Does he have the kind of striking to put Silva out? Absolutely. Belfort has great hands. One of a kind hands. But when has Silva looked that vulnerable? Against Sonnen? A lot of that, aside from the rib injury, can be explained by Sonnen's excellent take-down ability that was making Silva reticent. People are saying that SilvaBelfort's BJJ or wrestling is at a level to threaten Silva. I think Silva lands accurate strikes and gets the KO late in the 3rd or early in the 4th.

Rush is as Dumb as Usual

2011-02-04T11:04:00.002+09:00

You don't need me to tell you that what is happening in Egypt is important. Exceedingly important. You also don't need me to tell you that the conservative press is failing miserably in trying to report on it. Their first issue is that they start from their decided upon storyline and then try to cram everything into it until it works. But it never really does. Sometimes the mismatched corners stand out like a roll of fat under Rush Limbaugh's tight golf shirt. Sometimes it pours out like Glenn Beck's tenuous grip on reality. We have Glenn Beck telling us that the demonstrators are communists. But of course he would. We have Sean Hannity saying that this is a democratic revolution like Iraq. What?

It is hard for the Right. Democracy is a buzz word for them. But that is all it is. The real ground work of democracy is something they don't want anywhere near. So we have a democratic uprising, which should be good. But it is against as US client state. Hmmm. If the president were Republican it would be easy to back the dictator, but with a Democrat in power...hmmmm....The Right enjoys big shows of military power, but they hate Arabs and followers of Islam. Errr... What to do, what to do? Protesters, unless they are fake CIA hires or real American rubes, are stinky and creepy and something less than human, but everyone involved here is a light shade of brown anyway. Confusion.

So Rush gets on-air again today and proves the difference between himself and real journalists; journalists who are being beaten and stabbed and kidnapped and threatened with death right now. Journalists being kidnapped is a joke. Journalists dying is a joke. The next question- why are journalists being targeted- which occurred immediately to real journalist Nicholas Kristoff, was never even contemplated. Given the violence yesterday, I would assume it is because the government and the police plan to violently crush the demonstrators and don't want the story to get out. As a fan of real democracy that terrifies me. Does it terrify Rush Limbaugh. Not as much as the anal cyst that helped him stay out of Vietnam. Or should I say, not as much as fighting in Vietnam. But we shouldn't be surprised, the Right-Wing press is full of cowards who sell their sociopathy as strong will and resolution. They also wouldn't last a second on a rooftop there, even with Anderson Cooper there to hold their hand through it.

I Tolds You So

2011-01-17T11:05:00.003+09:00

There really isn't much further need for commentary on the failed assassination, accomplished mass murder in Arizona last weekend. So I am just going to put it into a broader list of things that, while in their specifics were unforeseeable, were completely and totally predictable. This is political in the sense that it is acting out a familiar scene of conservatives creating a bad situation and then exclaiming "Who could have known?" While decrying as political any explanation of exactly why they not only could have known, but indeed should have known. I won't even be so esoteric as to include the financial boondoggle in this list, though it certainly belongs.

Let's oversimplify this:

Anti-war people on the Left before the latest Iraq war:

Don't start a war, it will lead to unknown suffering and unacceptable civilian deaths.

Pro-war right and status quo Left:

Stop being silly. Our military is so great no one ever really dies and you just want to rain on our parade.

100,000 plus Civilians die. Thousands of American service men and women die.

Anti-war:

See, that is why we don't start wars.

Pro-war:

Stop being so naive. Don't you know that you can't have a war without damage. You babies.

Anti-war:

That is why we said it was a bad idea.

Pro-War:

Stop playing politics.

Left:

We have to regulate oil and coal so that accidents won't happen which will endanger lives and the environment.

Right:

You jerks, nobody running a company is that heartless. Regulation is overkill and oppressive to business.

Accidents happen. People die.

Left:

That is why we want regulation.

Right:

Stop playing politics.

Left:

It isn't acceptable to couple violent rhetoric with encouragement of personal displays of firearms at public events. It is a dangerous mixture that you can't put the lid back on.

Right:

You whiny babies. Why do you hate the American people so much? Why do you slander us like this.

The lid comes off.

Right:

You just want to score political points. This is both no one's fault and everyone's fault. Who could have known.

WTF

2011-01-12T12:36:00.002+09:00

At some point after Morning Sedition had ridden the mine car off down the tunnel, after I had attempted to call into their last show, talked to their producers and had my phone card run out, after I had struggled to follow one of the amiable Marc's weak signals broadcast from his garage, I stopped paying attention. Iturned back around this weekend to find that Marc Maron, forever not looking for a New England, has the number one rated comedy podcast on iTunes. Good for him, he deserves it. Marc Maron is a good radio broadcaster, and I don't dole that out lightly. I am now hooked on the show and am looking forward to my ride home from work so that I can continue it. For all of us who continue to take our careers out fishing and shoot them in the back so that we can stride the imaginary high road, Marc has already collapsed near the finish line.

Austarlian Floods

2011-01-11T14:25:00.001+09:00

I have seen this business happen in both hurricanes and typhoons. That is why peole like homeboy with his umbrella and truck snorkle make me nuts. Don't fuck around with that shit.

Things I Forgot

2011-01-10T20:38:00.002+09:00

This was obviously the Song of the Year that I forgot.

Brahman and Ego-Wrappin: Sure Shot

I was about to recommend Bad Science for book of the year, but it came out in 2008. I read a ton of books this year, but I don't think they came out this year. I am partway through both The Big Short and Packing for Mars. Let's go with those.

In replacement for Wave of the Year, I will go with wrecking a large Brazilian guy for an 11-0 win in the first BJJ competition held in Heian Jingu.

End of the Year

2011-01-08T09:28:00.003+09:00

I was in Florida for the holidays with 900 family members so I didn't get a chance to do an end of the year list. The thing is, living in Japan, I am never sure if the things I am exposed to in a year sync up with the American year. Also my memory doesn't conform to a year. I should make a list in real time. Nevertheless.

Songs of the Year

I don't have my ear to the underground anymore, so these are pretty mainstream.

Just a Band- Ha-He

Internet meme, but it couldn't be any better.

Cee Lo Green- Fuck You

I have been critical of Cee Lo in the past, but he killed it with this new album.

La Roux- Bulletproof

When it comes to pop music, I have made my case known: I am a sucker for a good chorus.

That being said, I still haven't listened to the new Big Boi or the Roots or anything else good.

Show of the Year

I went to a lot of good shows this year but none beat Superchunk at the Metro. Surreal seeing them again after 16 years, with their kids and in my neighborhood for an outrageous price.

Wave of the Year

I had no good waves this year, however I spent the morning before my wedding surfing with a bunch of friends, so that was cool.

Movie of the Year

What movies were this year? I am going to go with---

Exit Through the Gift Shop

This movie is so good and also has the best title of all time

Inception

Has a movie ever looked this good and been this good? Peerless.

Toy Story 3

I saw it in Japanese and it still ripped my heart out.

I saw The Social Network, Ghost Writer and The Town on planes so I need to call a do over on them.

Book of the Year

I don't know. I read a bunch. Born to Run was written like a magazine article, but it sticks out in my mind.

TV of the Year

Treme. Hands down. No contest. Eat lunch at Lil' Dizzy's Cafe.
Call me crazy.

The Semicolon

2010-12-20T12:58:00.001+09:00

This is really, very, very good.

I Really Hope This Worked

2010-12-17T14:43:00.001+09:00

Maybe it did. Maybe it didn't.

Lori Nix

2010-12-17T13:26:00.001+09:00

This stuff is pretty rad. It looks like both the world that I want to live in and am absolutely terrified of.

Racism and the Ebizo Incident

2010-12-13T14:02:00.007+09:00

If you are familiar with the news in Japan, you will be aware that it is a country with a lot of free time on its hands. The biggest story of the late summer/early fall period was the monkey on the loose in Shizuoka, biting grannies and running from police. Now the winter has its own saga, with the fall colors now gone, Kabuki golden boy Ichikawa Ebizo has now risen to a higher stage.

What has he done to be on the news, morning noon and night for over two weeks? Nobel Prize? No, try again. Cure for cancer? Too easy. Iditarod, not even. Got drunk and then was beaten at a bar. Bingo! This nonsense has not just been news, but has been the only news for the last three weeks. Why? I can develop theories but not give answers.

I don't really care about Ebizo. I only know that he is a guy that comes on TV and speaks with fake gravity and people are supposed to be impressed by him. He may in fact be the once in a generation kabuki preformer that his supporters claim, but how would we know when his is the only family allowed to have once in a generation kabuki performers and he is the son? Wouldn't it stand to reason that that is what he would be held to be?

My concern is that now that his partner in this violence- I hesitate to say attacker because, who knows- has been found, I am worried for where the coverage will, and has already turned.

The 26 year-old yakuza lacky turns out to have an American father. Shame, shame. I have no heard him described twice in the news as looking like Bob Sapp.

Here is a photo of Bobb Sapp:

Okay. Now here is a photo of Ebizo's alleged attacker, Ito Lion:

Alright. You got the resemblance there right? Check it again, just to make sure. Now here is a picture of the alleged victim, Kabuki god Ebizo:

Now, if forced to, just looking at these pictures, if you had to give police a description of alleged attacker Ito Lion, which man would you say he most resembled? Remember, Tiger Woods is not an option. Now, I will be honest, in his arrest pictures, Ito looks a bit more like a mope. He has put on some weight and has the hang dog look of a wannabe gangster. I know that look because I teach Japanese kids. It is very different from the look of a wannabe gangster in America. His whole body language says, "young Japanese kid gone wrong" to me. But that is not the context I have seen in the news.

Again, I might be reading this wrong. There is a lot of coverage that I have not watched. However, yesterday morning the panel discussion news involved a former model whose credentials were that one of her parents was Japanese while the other was American. They also had that ubiquitous Italian guy on. I might be constructing the racist dialogue in my own mind. I just wonder if the stroyline will ever run, "What is wrong with our country when a poor little kid with American and Japanese heritage gets sucked into our nasty Japanese underworld that eats wayward highschoolers and spits out their bones while being largely ignored by our justice system and public." I don't think we are going to hear that one.

Assange vs. Libby

2010-12-13T13:46:00.001+09:00

May I ask a question, that I am sure has already been asked in you rown brain, if not in numerous media sources that I haven't seen? If the media and government are so put out over Julian Assange and want him to hang for his transgressions, then they must be just as furious over the Bush Administrations outing of Valerie Plame. Oh. What, they aren't?

Oh, wait, Democratic Underground is on it.

Rubio for Prez?

2010-12-13T13:42:00.003+09:00

While I am on the subject of bias, here is an article on the tax cuts. And here is a logical fallcy that I think it illustrates.

It is two years down the road and there is a lot of dusty ground in between, but is everyone really going to turn out to fight for Obama again? The kind of fight that will get him Florida again? Or North Carolina or Virginia? How are we going to pull off a Democrat for President when the President won't be a Democrat. If, after 2 years in the Senate, the decide to run Marco Rubio for the Republican nomination, what are we going to do? I am putting the long money on him. Mark it down now. Not that I want him to win.

Our National Survivor Bias

2010-12-13T12:17:00.003+09:00

The question has been posed about post World War II America; that our resounding success in winning that war adversely affected our post war foreign policy. That we took the lesson to be that since we won a huge war, huge wars could help solve world problems, like in Korea or Vietnam. Japan, on the other hand, go the opposite idea; Man war is a bunch of garbage. Don't misunderstand, I am thrilled America won and Japan lost, but, even though I lead off with this paragraph, I don't mean to talk about post-war foreign policy.

It seems that our current national dialogue is at a bit of a distance from where our dialogue as people is. It is starting to seep through somewhat, but not with the urgency and fury that it needs to. As to why, the answer seems quite simple to my mind, the governing class in our country, both the press and the politicians are burdened with a gigantic survivorship bias. I Imagine most of you are familiar with the term, but let me give a brief summation. Let us suppose that a commander orders 20 men to invade an enemy bunker. This invasion leads to a complete destruction of the bunker and only one dead soldier from the 20 person team. An amazingly successful endeavor. Unless you are the one soldier who was shot through the head running up the hill. From his standpoint, rapidly ascending to the spirit world, it seems like a gigantic waste and a terrible order, but we will never hear his side of things. We will only hear from the guys who survived, how it was tough going until they made it over the rise. How it was sad to lose one guy, but they knew that they would make it. They just had a feeling. Of course, that one guy had that feeling to, until he felt nothing.

In business survivorship bias is often discussed in relation to figures that omit failures. Let's say there is a new shopping mall and it has 5 stores that are making 20% more profits than the mom and pop stores that were on Main street. Well, this shopping mall must be miraculous. What if we knew that there used to be 15 stores in the shopping mall and that 10 of them went bankrupt? That shopping mall wouldn't seem so magical then.

How am I applying this to our national discussion? Think about how rife every national conversation we have is with survivorship bias. Even the passionate speech given by the television host or the brave actions of a lone congressperson are only a hazy refraction of what is really happening. They can, at best, empathize. By the very nature of the job, no one who delivers our nightly news is being adversely effected by the economy. In fact, they are probably at the apex of an upward course. Of course they feel that success is a by-product of their own hard work, and it is to a large degree. It is also luck and favor and timing. Our representatives as well, are, again by the nature of their jobs, successful. Without question, it was a high risk proposition and some candidates wipe out completely and disappear, but there are no poor representatives. Senators have a high paying job for 6 years and representatives in the house for 2. To many of us that is a dream. I would gladly settle for 2 years at a hundred thousand dollars. It is beyond my wildest imagination.

How can we expect decisions to be made on our behalf, and a dialogue to happen to our benefit when there is no real way for the people in charge of those decisions and that dialogue to understand the situation? On television poor people seem like an aberration and should, without question, be apologetic about their situation. The homeless might be a sad situation, but what mistakes did they make to get there? Not any mistakes that a TV host or a politician would make.

I am a school teacher, and I don't want to just speak for me, but I know that no one in the government or on TV works ten times harder than I do. I am sure they work hard, but the nature of my jobs ensure that no one outside coal miners and infantrymen work harder than I do. That applies to a lot of people out there. However, everyone on TV and in the government makes ten times what I do or more. How can we expect a fair conversation to happen under those circumstances?

We can't.

UFC:124 Cosmonaut

2010-12-12T00:23:00.002+09:00

UFC Commisioner Dana White rolled to the podium in a creaky wheelchair, with a tossled wig and a homemade wrestling club sweat suit. He was drinking a bottle of scotch and crying over a photo of Dave Schultz. "Let the games begin" he said, cracking a slight smile and projecting a graph of the tax cuts from a projector mounted to the metal frame of his wheelchair.

Makdessi vs. Audinwood

I don't know much. Makdessi is a kickboxer. I think Audinwood wins a decision by fighting MMA.

Bongfeldt vs. Nadal

Don't know much about the water bong or his opponent either. Bongfeldt is on quite a streak and has armabarred TJ Grant, so let's say Bongfeldt by sub in the 1st.

Riddle vs. Pierson

I haven't been sold on Riddle, but he is reaching that point now. Another stand-out wrestler who can hit really hard. Pierson has been on a knocking fools out roll, but Riddle has fought his whole career in the UFC and only has one loss. I put that as a check in his column. Riddle by decision.

Hazelett vs. Bocek

The guy I said I would stop picking against vs. the guy I can't pick against. Hazelett, who I love for so many reason, but mainly for his sick, sick jiu-jitsu game is moving down to 155. I don't know if the cut has hurt him or will make him into a huge, lanky opponent. Bocek is a great submisiion grappler and if Hazelett has been weakened by dropping weight, Bocek will be able to tire him out, but I think Hazelett's length and savvy make for a tough fight and he notches an exciting sub in the 2nd.

Almeida vs. Grant

I really like Almeida as a fighter. He is quite the dynamic sub guy. I am a little worried that the game is passing him by thought. TJ Grant can wrestle and submit. It should be a good fight, but I am calling Grant for the upset here, with a TKO in the 3rd after Almeida gets worn down.

Miller vs. Doerkson

Miller all the way, 100% with no reservations. He grabs hold of something and rips it off in the 1st.

Struve vs. McCorkle

Props to both guys for being amusing. Both are interesting stories in and of themselves. I certainly want both to do well, but I see more ways to win for Struve. Even if McCorkle can get and hold top position, I think Struve figures out a way to sub him. Struve by sub in the 2nd.

Stevenson vs. Danzig

I like both of these guys, but I like Mac Danzig more. Why? He also works as a photographer and is a Vegan. Stevenson is very likable as well. They are both good fighters who are on up and down kiddie roller coasters. One of them will probably be cut. Danzig has a much smaller frame for this weight class and doesn't have the raw strength of Stevenson. He does have a better boxing game and some good ground-work. I can see Danzig getting a decision, but I think it is much more likely that Stevenson pounds his way to a TKO in the 3rd.

Miller vs. Oliveira

This is the real fight of the night for me. Oliveira is supposed to be the next Jose Aldo, only a little bigger. Cool. I love a leg kicking jiu-jitsu phenom. However, as I have said, I am a 100% bus driver for the Miller brothers. I think that Jim Miller is a huge test for Oliviera and if he clears this hurdle he will have proved himself. Miller is he real deal. A tough, tough fighter. He might have already reached his ceiling, but on his best nights he can give anyone a beating. I think Miller fights to a hard won decision.

Alves vs. Howard

In a battle of two sluggers, anyone can win. I would not be dissappointed if Howard's free swinging, heel hooking game paid off. However, I think that Alves's style is a hard one to hang with unless you have some serious take-downs. Howard does not. Alves will batter his legs and stay on his feet to earn a TKO in the 3rd.

St. Pierre vs. Koscheck

I don't hate Koscheck. I think he is excessively talented and has worked very hard to get where he is. He has great takedowns and a hard, hard right hand. His foibles have been much discussed. Mainly, he closes his eyes and jumps in when striking. It gets him knocked out. Will that be what gets him this time? I don't know but something will. Let's be honest, Koscheck has a chance to win this fight. Even if he is just failing, a big right hand can disorient anyone and Koscheck can certainly follow up with a huge takedown and a savage beating. But GSP just has too many ways to win and he mixes them all together so well. I think GSP will try hard to finish this fight, but I am not sure if he will. Let's say GSP by a sub in the 4th.

And there you have it.

Weakness

2010-12-10T16:20:00.003+09:00

I hate to say it and I have held off for a while. I didn't want to be a reactionary malcontent who went boo-hooing off to his room when he didn't get his way, but I am in camp with these guys. I am having a very rough time supporting President Obama right now. If I had wanted Republican policies implemented, I would have voted Republican. I voted for Obama, not because I thought it would be an easy run and because I wanted him to do everything I wanted and leave me completely pleased, but because I thought he would fight. I thought he would fight for us the way we fought for him. Sadly, this week, he has shown that he has no inclination to do that and his administration sees it as their role to scold us, who supported him.

It is possible that the staff in the White House are so much smarter than me that I can't see the high-level manoeuvring that they are up to, but I doubt it. If you extend the god-awful Bush tax cuts that you campaigned against for the next two years then what do you expect to happen if the Republicans get back in power? They are the eternal tax cuts. They are the tax rates that we have always had. They are unchangeable, unless they are lowered. At the cost of our Social Security of course.

Politically, they are also terrible. They aren't the Bush tax cuts anymore, they are the Obama tax cuts. Make no mistake about it. At a time when people can't even afford to stay in their homes, this ransom will be paid to millionaires and they will still complain about the socialists and Marxists on their doorstep. I have said it before and I will keep saying it; They already hate you. They will always hate you. Nothing you do will please them, at least outwardly.

The White House tells us that it would be cruel to end unemployment benefits, and I agree, but why did we connect these issues? Fight and win on the issues because they are right. Make the Republicans stand up against the unemployed and the middle-class, not because we like to stand around and watch a dust-up but because we have to change the way things work. Ronald Reagan extended unemployment benefits for God's sake. Maybe next we can give the Republicans Star Wars to get them to sign on to START. It doesn't make sense. We win on the issues when we fight for them. John Boehner said on TV that he would vote for the middle class cuts if that is all that was offered. Show that clip until he gives.

Aside from politics it is terrible policy by the Obama Administration; stashing funds that could be being used to rebuild our economy in the safes of millionaires who already have enough. Let me state this again as well: Rich people don't create jobs, demand creates jobs. Did the decade of Bush tax cuts, shoved through in reconciliation, inspire our betters to scatter gold dust amongst the masses?

I hate it, but it is clear that our President, who I love and support, does not think like us and is not going to fight for us. I hate saying it and I hate it being true. What could he do? Fire Geitner as soon as possible. Fire Larry Summers. Fire Ben Bernanke. Why talk change and enforce establishment? I don't get it. If you are looking for good people who are already in the public eye, what is the matter with Stiglitz and Krugman, or Spitzer for Christ's sake. In this economy do we have time to worry about who he is paying for sex? I don't care.

I am scared of a lot of things: sharks, planes, debt, this guy at my gym. But there is one thing you should never be scared of, doing the right thing. You would think that the first post Spike Lee president would get that.

Why are Manga Characters White?

2010-12-06T11:03:00.002+09:00

I get asked this question not infrequently. Here is a good explanation, which is similar to the one I usually give. My usual answer is that they just look white to you but that most people don't think of themselves as stereotypes.

The Real Pound Problem

2010-12-03T10:10:00.002+09:00

For those who wonder why I go apeshit at the waste of paper that is Amy Chavez's defecation of a column, here is an interesting piece on Ezra Pound and the Japan Times. Should they really have worked for the same paper?

Abortion and the Economy

2010-12-03T10:01:00.002+09:00

While all of the pro-life Republicans are crowing about their ability to turn of the spigot on unemployment benefits, condemning families to a joyless Christmas of stress and tension and promoting an economy that smashes the lower classes to benefit the upper, are they thinking about the consequences? I am looking for numbers, but I have to think that there are a good deal of families who find that a pregnancy is not a viable economic option right now. There are many factors in abortion but a family in crisis seems as prominent a reason as any to not have a child. Did they pause to think about that? If you really want to lower abortion rates, isn't a stable economy, along with education and access to health care, the best way to achieve them? Just questions on my part.

The New Site

2010-12-03T10:00:00.001+09:00

Should I even call it that. I started a different site that is more focused on photography and writing and will hopefully grow to invovle other people's work. It took me a bit to get up and running which meant I was doing less here. I don't plan on stopping this blog as it is something completely different. Please check out the new on as well at spacetravelsacrime.com

Andy Irons

2010-12-03T09:54:00.002+09:00

Here is a good piece on some aspects of the life of Andy Irons. It is always a frustrating mystery to me reading about the downfall of people who seem to have absolutely everything. But that is too easy a comment, isn't it? I don't know what he had or didn't. I can't know what was going on in his head. In Japan, everywhere probably, but that is where I am, there is a strong tendency to look at successful people and talk about how great their lives are. I always say, more forcefully now that this conversation happens in my house, "We don't know. You don't know. What happens in people's lives isn't always great and being rich doesn't always make them happy." If I got paid to surf everyday and was one of the best in the world at it I would be so insanely happy that I wouldn't even hate Limp Bizkit. But then again, that is easy for me to say as I am completely broke and don't even get to surf poorly anymore. I suppose it is a lesson in the gap between what you can see and the reality, although Irons seems to have been showing us the truth about himself for a while. Nevertheless, he was a surfer, a great one at that, and I am sad to see him go.

UFC: 123 Sleep

2010-11-20T22:19:00.002+09:00

Commissioner White was joined on stage by Majority Leader Harry Reid, who took a shot of Jose Cuervo and then dropped a deuce like he was GG Allin.

Kelly vs. O'Brien

O'Brien is here to lose. It is always possible that he wins, but not really. Kelly by GNP TKO in the 2nd.

Parisyan vs. Hallman

One guy who I never thought we would see back takes on another guy that I never asked to see back. Parisyan was one of the most exciting fighters in the sport right before it blew up. But his brain blew up before he could ride the shock-wave to stardom and security. Parisyan is an epic flake. He has put on some of the most watchable fights in history but he lost his grip to panic attacks and pain killers. Hallman has been in the sport since my first year of college. He has two wins over Matt Hughes and a surprsing record for someone no one has ever heard of. If Parisyan is in control of his faculties, I think he wins this on decision. But he isn't someone you can count on anymore. Hallman by boring, boring decision.

Barbosa vs. Lullo

Lullo is here to be a kicking bag for Barbosa, who will take the fight by KO in the 1st.

Davis vs. Boetsch

Boetsch beatdown of David Heath is still epic, and he is a barbarian, but Phil Davis's wrestling is just out of his reach. A big haymaker could end the fight for Davis, but I think his wrestling and Heath's conditioning lead to a TKO in the 3rd.

Griffin vs. Lentz

Both are good fighters. Neither will be champion. I think Griffin's superior wrestling and pace take over and give him the decision.

Foster vs. Brown

I have long discussed my affection for Brown's emergence as a pissy folk legend. I like taking him in fights, but he is infinitely beatable. There is no glaring differences in these two fighters ability levels, but there is a difference in what their abilities are. Foster can out wrestle Brown, and that matters. I would love to see Brown endure and turn this into a real scrap, but I think Foster probably takes him down and holds him there until he gets tired resulting in.....hmmm..a TKO in the 3rd?

Sotiropoulos vs. Lauzon

Now here is a fight I am interested in. This could be one of the better fights you see this season. Neither guy is a gifted athlete but they are both very good fighters. I have Purebred love for Sotiropoulos and I have crazy person respect for Lauzon. Neither look like fighters but they are both out to beat the stew out of each other. In the end, I think Sotiropoulos is just a little bit better and will get the sub in the 3rd. Who knows though.

Harris vs. Goncalves

Goncalves is from Chute Box and has a great record. But in Brazil. Harris has been winning, and winning well on the big stage. I think that carries him through and he gets a TKO in the 1st.

Simpson vs. Munoz

Two wrestlers going out and punching. Both of these guys were super high level collegiate wrestlers but they have been so-so in MMA. I don't have a real dog in this fight. Either can be knocked out. I think Munoz is a little more well rounded now, so let's say he gets the TKO in the 2nd.

Penn vs. Hughes

And now we come down to it. There is no secret here, Penn is one of my favorite fighters of all time and I can't stand Matt Hughes. Both of their previous fights are some of my favorites of all time. How to call this one? I think that Penn has progressed past Hughes but he has also gotten flakier. He can't be counted on. It all depends on his mental and physical condition. Hughes' size is still a bit of an issue, but not exceedingly. Penn's striking is leagues beyond Hughes. I don't think Penn can be taken down that easily. I worry that he is still having training camp with his cronies and not really pushing his boundaries. Hughes seems to be feeling it lately and hasn't regresse as much as I thought he would. If Penn comes in sharp and not completely without a gameplan like in his last fight, I think he out strikes Hughes for a KO in the 2nd.

Jackson vs. Machida

Speaking of flakes, witness Rampage Jackson. I have no faith in his predictability. He has a ton of skills and talent. His submission and striking defense are top notch. Striking defense with the exception of defending leg kicks. He just doesn't do it. He has knock-out power in both hands and covers up well. I just don't think he can compete with a focused Machida. Jackson has already sowed the excuse seeds saying that Machida's movement isn't fighting. Then make him stop moving Rampage. Machida will move in and out and take Rampage's legs away. He will land to the body and get a few trip take downs. I think Jackson tires and gets TKOd in the 3rd. I would like to see five rounds of this one.

I would love to watch this live but I will be playing Arashi covers on the school ground. Boo.

Conservatives Are Toddlers. Junior High Schoolers at Best.

2010-11-19T10:20:00.003+09:00

I went to junior high with this kid named Sonny. He was a dick. A real dick. If it was now me instead of then me, Sonny would have worn a broken nose for graduation, instead then me just shut up and endured him. One day he came up to me at my locker. I was wearing a "49ers: Super Bowl Champions" T-shirt. I apologize, I liked Steve Young. "You know why I hate that shirt?" I was slightly confused but expected some absurdly firm voicing of a sports rivalry inherited from his parents. "Because you're wearing it." Even as a 13 year-old I think I was taken aback at how silly this was. What I was really receiving was an advanced course in conservative politics.

Witness this. I grew up in a conservative house, but what we watched on TV was Cousteau and Cosmos. Nova and National Geographic. Something has changed. The idea of playing for a team, for having a side is more powerful than even your own interests. I mean interests as personal, not just economic or political. The majority of conservatives aren't against doing anything about global climate change because of anything in the science or any fake controversy. They oppose it because it is a Democratic issue.

This is frustrating. Exceedingly frustrating but it is also freeing in a sense that I wish the national party would get. As a teenager, once I realized Sonny was fundamentally deranged, I could go about feeling however I wanted about him. I could act however I wanted because his baseline hate for me was established. No matter who the Democratic nominee for president is, they will be reviled as the most liberal ever. No matter who the nominee is, their past will be questioned without regard to truth. No matter who the Democratic leader is, they will be lambasted as a tyrant and no matter what the Democrats propose, it will be shot down as the vanguard of a progressive takeover. So fuck it. If whoever you nominate is going to be the most liberal, nominate the most liberal. If every bit of legislation is running interference for a new progressive age, let's bring it about. Having an opposition that has already decided to hate you isn't all bad, it is just them showing you their hand.

David Broder is a Homicidal Maniac

2010-11-16T10:59:00.004+09:00

I had been meaning to mention it for a bit. I am late to the party of course. I usually picture David Broder as a borderline dementia adled outpatient crossing his legs in an antique easy chair, smoking an old pipe in his perfectly pressed suit and smiling slightly while he shits his adult diaper as the pundits gathered in his parlour applaud. Now I picture him in smeared clown make-up, holding a butcher's knife while blood drips out the corners of his mouth.

Why? This article. You have probably seen it already. Broder begs for a war, (that he is absolutely in no way advocating, of course but wouldn't it be great) against Iran because it would...and wait for it here....stimulate the economy. However, Mr. Broder isn't a big fan of the stimulus. Now, how would a war help the economy? You got it, by introducing large amounts of government spending to employ the un and underemployed and get them working thereby circulating money back into the larger economy. One might think that a larger stimulus package could do this with out murdering innocent people, funding shifty contractors and killing American service people. Yes, but then you wouldn't be the Dean of the Washington Press Corps and you wouldn't have a stainless steel hard-on for death, destruction and power. In any sane environment Broder would be quickly shuffled into a back room and fed his pap from a wooden spoon and rocked to sleep by paid professionals. In the Washington press corps, he is fellated and hailed. He is a maniac, and homicidal to boot.

Welfare States

2010-11-16T09:57:00.003+09:00

As usual, my apologies for being internetaly non-present. I have been super busy and am working on updating this website. We'll see.

A confluence. In this New York Daily News article, the Right's absurd canard about liberal states being welfare havens is called into question yet again, showing that Sarah Palin's oil rich Alaska takes $1.84 in federal funds for every dollar it puts into federal taxes. This pattern is repeated over and over again in Republican welfare states, while lefty cesspools like New York and California 79 cents and 78 cents respectively.

I first became aware of this phenomena during Senator Kerry's run for president. As he was from the much maligned imaginary state of "Taxachussettes", some brave investigator sought to look up their tax burden. This led to a list of what states paid in federal taxes compared to what they received in federal money. The most recent documentation that I have been able to find is from 2005 and it shows the same patterns. Namely, that liberal states support conservative states who then shout and complain about them. Among southern states, the only two that carry their own weight are Texas and Florida. Florida varies from year to year in these things depending largely on the hurricane season. I would imagine Texas comes in fine due to oil and being really gigantic. But that is just speculation.

If the import of this data doesn't strike you at first just picture the conservative babies in their old fashioned cloth diapers, constantly pooping and crying in their own mess, faces red and arms flailing, until big, liberal mommy comes to change them and they squirm and cry even more, but the adult does the changing that has to be done and the baby goes back to repeat the process.

Which brings us to Emperor Rick Perry of Texas who is making noise about seceding from Medicaid. This is one area where I have definitely seen my political opinion change over the years. Before, I would have argued for the importance of maintaining or national unity. Now, although I acknowledge its dangers, I feel that maybe states should be allowed to go their own way so that we can then stand back and laugh at them. Not that I want to see people in Texas suffer, as they most certainly would without Medicaid, but I feel that the radical conservative agenda is simply not feasible and is only functioning due to the largess of the liberal states. I say we provide an army to defend you from invading countries, help with your interstates and after that Texas...Have at it. One thing the national government could provide was free moving vans for everyone who wanted to leave. This includes South Carolina and Kentucky and every other state that wants to complain about the federal government while sucking it dry for every last cent to keep its failed ideology alive.

The Tinkerbell Effect

2010-11-01T14:35:00.002+09:00

It has been commented on recently, though I suspect the feeling has been around before, that what we are undergoing now is not just a conflict of political differences but rather a competition of divergent realities. I tend to think that I am on the side of the actual world but it is worth reviewing The Tinkerbell Effect and pondering whether what is happening, most notably with the Tea Party revelers, is a refusal to acquiesce to larger systems that the rest of society accepts. I don't pose the question to make them sound heroic. I believe they are very much not. That being said, what happens to our understanding of our society when some of us refuse to even acknowledge its right to exist? Additionally, isn't it great that economics and other social sciences come up with such great terms?

They Still Won't Get It

2010-11-01T13:25:00.002+09:00

Politico have shown themselves the leaders of completely not getting the appeal and the reach of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. They don't set themselves up as completely indignant and dismissive like those on the Right do. However, the status quo media fail to understand The Daily Show because of all of the things that make them fail in general. The Daily Show has for at least a decade now been the best media criticism on TV. While Howard Kurtz was spitting Beltway wisdom and conservative talking points on CNN and Fox was pitting Cal Thomas against Mara Liasson, John Stewart was calling the system out at large for what it is, a product of its own solipsism and a prisoner of its love affair with itself. Politico reveals that they can't see this in any other context than Left versus Right in a battle that is waged for their own entertainment. I don't hail John Stewart as a visionary saviour. In fact I disagree with his emphasis on cordiality, as I insist that rationality is the more important priority. I think that demons should be demonized and there are times to panic. Nevertheless, the media at large can't find a way to take him seriously because he has steadily refused to play their game and worked actively to ruin it for them. What Politico, and others like them, miss is that the vast amounts of people who showed up in D.C. over the weekend are rooting for the demise of this very same media. There is no way that they could run the headline "Hundreds of Thousands Find Us Contemptible." So they talk about the political effect. The don't understand that carrying signs that are a commentary on the banalness of our mainstream political discourse is a way to upbraid them and unravel them at the same time so they treat it as light comedy. As I stated before, I don't necessarily march in lockstep with John Stewart and I think he goes a little heavy on the idea of civility, but the speech that he gave was absolutely right in illustrating everything that the kind of people at Politico get wrong everyday.

UFC 121: The Sound of Mariachi Bands

2010-10-23T21:42:00.009+09:00

UFC comissioner Dana White whizzed to the podium on a broom and began a power point presentation on civilian deaths in Baghdad sporting a Tuf Enuf polo shirt. He cackled and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

I apologize if I have titled another UFC with that name, however. On to the fights.

Yang vs. Camozzi

When I claim lack of evidence and throw my hands up, doesn't lend any less credence to the pick. I will have to throw all of the numbers in a spread sheet at some point and see if they meet statistical significance. I doubt it. Old .05, you shady mother. Who are these people? I have seen one fight, but wasn't moved enough to remember. Yang by being Asian in the 1st.

Yvel vs. Madsen

Yvel has always had some degree of talent, but it was incomplete and came in spells. He is also someone who has never seemed to take his career too seriously. I don't think that much of Madsen either, but Yvel has showed us nothing as of late. Madsen by TKO in the 2nd.

Stout vs. Taylor

There is a lot too like about this fight. Some might favor it because it is as close as one can get to a guarantee of a stand-up battle. That is not my reasoning, but it bears somewhat on it. I like this fight because both Stout and Taylor are technically good at what they do. They are both stand-up specialists, but they specialize there because they are skilled at it. In the end, I think that Stout has the variety of techniques and the creativity of implementation to get him a KO in the 3rd. Should be a good one.

Guymon vs Roberts

I must apologize, but neither guy has ever done it for me. I appreciate Guymon's battle against depression and his openness about the situation, but as a fighter, he has never been impressive. Robert's has a great record against low level guys and a medicore one against medicore guys. Guymon is much of the same. I go with Guymon by decision here, but I don't really care or claim any insight.

Cote vs Lawlor

Lawlor has been more entrance than results lately. Then again, my favorite fighter ever is Sudo Genki, so how can I fault him for that. Cote is a tough guy but is coming off of a serious knee injury. I don't count Cote out of most fights and I don't bet on Lawlor. Somehow though, I can't trust that knee injury and I think Lawlor wrestles for the split decision.

McGee vs. Jensen

This is becoming a theme here, but I don't think much of either guy here. Not personally of course, they are enchanting gentlemen. It is my belief that the last season of TUF, which McGee won, was Nick Ring's to lose, and after he dropped out with an injury, the results were slightly invalid. Not that McGee didn't earn it, I just don't think he is the strongest champion they could have had. Jensen has been fighting for 13 years and has a decent record. He isn't great, but I am picking him here. Why? I am waiting to see McGee in real competition before deciding on who he is as a fighter. Jensen by sub in the 1st.

Schaub vs. Gonzaga

I was a Gonzaga backer. I was sold. I am not asking for a refund, but I am don't believe in the product so much anymore. What you can never predict about a fighter is how he is going to react to getting hit in the face, and Gonzaga doesn't react well. He is insanely talented and has the tools to be a champion, but he is incomplete in a heavy weight division that is improving by the season. I like Schaub. I like that his striking is disciplined and his athleticism isn't theoretical. He can fire a straight jab and a good 1-2. I am picking Schaub by KO in the 1st.

Ortiz vs. Hamill

I never rode the Ortiz hype train. I never rode it either way. I always liked him as a fighter but was neutral on his shenanigans. Some people might forget the way he ran his division not that many years ago. WHen Hamill first showed up on the scene, i thought he was the new Koscheck at 205. He hasn't quite grown into what I expected, but I certainly think he defeated Bisping and I can see him knocking off plenty of other guys. He hits messy, but hard and he can wrestle. He has a tendency to get hurt though, and express it in weird ways. It seems to really take him out of a fight. One advantage I can see Tito having here is on the ground with submissions. If you can remember the nasty triangle/armbar he threw on Machida, at the end of their bought, then you can surely see ways for Hamill to lose. Nevertheless I am taking Hamill by TKO in the 3rd because I no longer trust Tito's health or his mental state.

Thiago vs. Sanchez

Sanchez is back with Greg Jackson, but is he back to being a guy I would never bet against? No. But Thiago is. Yes he is coming of a loss but he has rugged striking and real grappling and I see him as a hard match-up for Sanchez. If Diago is back to being the cardio robot, mentally focused fighter that he used to be, he can scarmble and threaten to get a decision, but I find Thiago to be mentally and physically tough and I think he is just not the right opponent for Sanchez. Thiago by decision.

Shields vs. Kampmann

I hate it when they match-up guys that I usually would pick against anyone else. Shields is finally in the big show and looking for a title run. I was calling for the ascendancy of Kampmann as soon as he came on the scene, but injuries have set him back. Kampmann's calling card has always been that he was a high level striker who could represent on the ground. Of course he was representing against Drew Mcfedries. Shileds has always been a guy that I thought was far better than people gave him credit for. Lately they have been giving him the credit. Now I think he is a fighter who gets just the right amount of credit. I can see Kampmann hanging in on the ground enough to get back up and get in his shots, but Shields has never shown that much of a chin deficiency. After Shields' defeat of Dan Henderson, I think I am going to have to go with him by decision.

Lesnar vs. Velasquez

I should be clear from the outset, I don't want Lesnar to win. I don't like him as a fighter or as a person. He has been less intolerable lately, but it is hard to make up for years of homophobia, attitude and ass-hattery. That shouldn't prejudice my ability to look at the fight, but it definitely colors my tone. Clearly I am not the only one who feels this way and many hard-core fans will strain to find reasons why it is clear that Velasquez will take this one running away. Whether it is his stamina or his heart or his kick-boxing skills. As usual, what people seem to forget about stamina is that it seems to go away quickly when you are getting beat on and hurting from it. If Lesnar can hold Cain down and drill him with his cannonball appendages that I think we might see Velasquez's vaunted stamina wane.

Lesnar is certainly progressing by leaps and bounds as a fighter. We have to be fair and attribute this to the hard work that he has been willing to put in and a very strong drive to maintain as champion. I respect him much more than I used to. What worries me about Lesnar, as a fighter, is something I mentioned in reference to Gonzaga earlier. He seems to have bad reactions to getting punched. It was amazing that he was able to survive Carwin's barrage in his last fight, but he reacted in lots of self defeating ways. Namely by curling up on he ground and waiting.

A strategy I would like to see for Velasquez is just jabbing and taking other punches that come while moving and avoiding take-downs in the first. I would like him to throw leg-kicks, but only at the end of punch combinations. And even then, not ambitious kicks but hard and precise. If he could stay with this in the second, Lesnar's legs might start to go on him and then Cain could be more aggressive with less power in Brock's shots. The big threat for Velasquez is that Lesnar has face-melting power in every punch and an incredible reach so that he can end the fight quickly even from awkward positions.

There is a lot we don't know about how this fight will play out, and that makes it interesting. I am calling a Velasquez TKO victory in the early 4th. Who knows.

Take it to the Dean's office.

A Diplomat in Japan

2010-10-21T14:30:00.004+09:00

I just finished reading Sir Ernest Satow's A Diplomat in Japan. It is not a breathtaking piece of literature, but a highly informative, if slightly skewed, window into the fall of the bakufu in Japan. His is certainly an exceptional story, coming to Japan in 1862 as a student translator with the British legation. He ended up mastering the language and being present at the most critical moment in the making of modern Japan.

Satow's view of the world is certainly as a man of privilege and power. He isn't insufferable but could surely be termed a man of his times. However, he isn't a blathering racist or an uptight pawn of the empire. He is a member of the elite, interacting with other elites in fairly extraordinary circumstances. The book was a good companion piece to the insanely popular NHK historical drama Ryoma Den, which I have been watching, pretty much, of my own free will. Although Satow only mentions Ryoma once, and that by his hilarious pseudonym, Saidani Umetaro, characters from the drama suck as Kido and Saigo show up frequently and as actual humans.

My real interest in the book was twofold. First, seeing the area that I live in and indeed the Japan of that time through Satow's eyes was incredible. The moment he crossed the mountains from Uji to Fushimi and caught sight of the Kyoto that he was forbidden to enter certainly made me ache for a time machine. One of my favorite things about the area that I live in is it isn't too hard to picture what he saw. I could probably set out this weekend and find the hill.

But at last we reached the summit, and gained a magnificent view of the great plain below, in the centre of which lies the mysterious and jealously guarded Kioto, like a Japanese Mecca, in which it was death for the heathen foreigner to set his foot. pg. 266

Second, wait, Let me pause before going into this reasoning to say that I am very skeptical of picking out little things in history, connecting them to the present and declaring that they are representative of any national character. Nevertheless there are chords that stretch through a culture and things in the past that have made or present will still be able to be seen in our future in a way that tomes like Gunfighter Nation illuminate for us. These kind of anecdotes dot the narrative laid down and one can only picture Satow coming on these scenes anew and not being able to see them manifest in our present.

For the idea then entertained by every Japanese was that the ford of the stream was too great for a boat to live in it, and that a bridge was impossible. As it has since been successfully bridged, the probability is that this belief was purposely inculcated. pg. 234

For anyone who has lost hours in modern Japan having explained to them how something completely feasible is utterly impossible, I think this will ring true.

It seemed curious...that the common people should be ready to obey him, but the Japanese...had a great appetite for being governed, and were ready to submit to anyone who claimed authority over them. pg 357.

Controversial. Possibly racialist. Up for debate? I should point out that he is referring to the "lower classes" here, not the samurai who, as befits the origin of their name, would submit to being governed, but would also kill to not be governed. Marinate on it.

A wretched being, who had been to the Untied States and had picked up a few words of low English was put... to wait on me, as if I was so ignorant of Japanese as to need an interpreter. It was explained that he was the only one of the clan who understood European manners. pg. 277

There is a lot going on here. I rather enjoy Satow's arrogance in this respect. He began his training in classical Chinese and was charged with translating documents from the Mikado and the Shogun. So, some samurai's throw a guy in front of him who speaks some sailors English in an attempt to communicate. I won't pin this one on the Japanese, this happens to me frequently in America when older gentleman who used to serve in the Navy gleefully give me their repertoire of Japanese. Classical it ain't. This passage also illustrates a trend I saw a good deal of as an exchange student and then as a friend of exchange students in the US. Often, new speakers of a language pick up the speaking habits of their cohort. And why wouldn't they? My Japanese is certainly shaped by playing football and spending a lot of time in fighting gyms. The only issue I have is when people aren't cognizant of this phenomenon and assume that a limited understanding on their part shapes the whole on the other. This is a bit of a stretch in the discussion, but the teacher next to me just asked, "Foreign people who come to Japan really like Japanese food don't they?" My completely non-entertaining response was that people who chose to visit Japan had an inherit bias to liking Japanese food, being willing to try new foods, and saying nice things as they were in another country. Swinging back to the original point, often, especially in my line of work, a person who has some foreign contact, whatever that might mean, is put in charge of handling you as you are foreign and can't interact on the same level with Japanese people. It doesn't matter if you are a professional in a world of professionals and the person placed in charge of you was a hard drinking working holiday visa college drop-out.

What the Kaga people feared was that this would lead to its being taken away from them by the Tycoon's government... But they did not venture to say this openly, and alleged therefore various other excuses, such as the inhabitants were not accustomed to see foreigners... pg. 248

Do I need to elaborate on this one? If you have ever tried to rent an apartment, or get a credit card or change your car title or buy an iPhone in Japan you will get a taste of this. You definitely will if you work in the bureaucracy. I have said before that Japan is the biggest nation of excuse makers I can think of. But, to some extent, they have had to be as responsibility is a hot potato time bomb that one has to distribute quickly and then back slowly away from until it is safe to start running.

TV Lies?

2010-10-20T08:47:00.004+09:00

The wife and I have an ongoing.....discussion, shall we say, about the amount that TV, especially Japanese TV lies to you. I contend that the amount is somewhere between always and most of the time. Her contention is that that would be bad so it would be surprising if that wer to happen. By singalling out Japanese TV you may think that I am letting American TV off the hook. I am not, but we live in Japan and the exposure that we both have to American TV is usually trying to force her to watch Treme while she struggles to stay awake or of renting Lost on DVD.

If you have never witnessed Japanese TV you are probably picturing the kind of shows that become notorious in the US. Men seeing who can drink beer in a sauna until they die. Doe-eyed, dyed blonds in pink maid outfits up to no good. Absurd obstacle courses. Those programs must exist, but they aren't the staple of prime time viewing. What is the mainstay of Japanese television is a constant barrage of the same recycled celebrities providing inane commentary on everything that they either don't know about or I don't care about. If you follow martial arts at all you will be familiar with a dynamic. Often for a kick-boxing match the commentary team will be a retired baseball player and a model. They will provide critical information such as, "He is big." Or "He looks mean." Often the model will cry win the man they had tauted to win, but was weaker all along loses. They people are called "talent." This wasn't meant to be ironic. The main qualification seems to be, and yes I will go ahead and finish the though just for forms sake, is to have no talent. You will have a sure hit on your hands if a pop band that can neither dance nor sing, much less play any instruments, hosts a cooking show where they don't really cook.

I had avoided Japanese television for years because it works my nerves as well as rotting my brains. I avoided it until I got married and I could no longer avoid it. My wife, being Japanese, will feel terrible and alone if not plugged into the hive mind. That is largely what television in Japan is. There are only four or so channels and the same people are on all of them everyday. Literally. The real literally, not the figurative one. I should state that I don't mean this as an insult to my wife. I don't like her viewing choices, but, if we were in America, I would certainly feel left out if I didn't watch football on Sunday's and March Madness and everything else that is sewed tenderly into the fabric of our society. It would be normal.

As TV is TV, it is in the habit of lying. The truth is shaped to form the storyline as following reality can get messy. I could just sit back and scoff at all of this ironically, but in Japan, the storyline guides society. There aren't those who prefer MSNBC to FOX or who like HBO and AMC shows and forgo CSI:Miami. It is THE storyline for the nation. It is THE way the world works. And it is an absurd fable.

Last night I experienced a prime example. For some reason at my house we end up watching the same show most Tuesday's. Neither of us like this show. We never say, "I really want to watch that show." We never change or plans to see it or check what channel it is on. It just happens. Cafes usually have Tuesdays off. I am home. She is home. Whatever the cause. The show itself is awful. I am not sure how to translate it accurately in English. It is, according to the title, about witches. But not how we would envision them. Maybe magical princesses. It usually involves a lady in her mid forties who had a run of bad luck, got fat, and then lost the weight. They story will have a few amusing turns and people will call the hero names and she will try really hard, often coming up with a ridiculous diet or exercise program, and then she will triumph in the end. The show climaxes with the witch coming on stage in a soft, white, Warren Beatty like light, where the panelists of cross-dressers, comedians and washed-up pop stars can faun over them.

Yesterday featured a chubby girl who was watching TV and decided she wanted an American boyfriend so she moved to America. While there, in New York City of course, she found the perfect guy, wrote a manga about him, fell in love and got married. Everyone was amazed. She also dropped 20 or so pounds in the process. They showed a picture of her and her husband and told everyone how her manga was more popular than Harry Potter in America. I was sitting at the computer studying kanji and smelled something fishy, not just from y kitchen. During the whole story I had been voicing my disapproval, saying that someone who moved to America to get a boyfriend was pathetic and should be embarrassed to admit to it on TV. When the statement was made about the popularity of her manga, I immediately realized that that made the story verifiable and decided to check it out. Five seconds on Google later, I came up with this. This is an interesting story, but it is surely not the same thing. The wife was taken aback, my exposure of the falsehood of the storyline was rendered such, "So she is really famous!"
"Well, she is in the newspaper." I answered. "But look at the story. She was homeless and she got divorced and she was an exchange student, not just a boyfriend hunter. The story isn't true. It was much more textured and said a lot about the artists grit and the nature of trying to make it in America. It had all been sanitized into a vapid love story that only played to Japanese conceptions. Look, she says that American college was harder than Japanese college." I laughed, knowing the truth and being glad that the lady had realized it. "You just love to make fun of Japan!" I could pursue that argument, but rather I make the declaration, Japan just loves to make a fool of itself.

Don't Blame JET

2010-10-12T11:58:00.002+09:00

Well, the title was fortunate because I don't. Apparently there has been some uproar over the recent opinion piece by Debito Arudou. Who could have seen this? Before I weigh in, two points.

1. I generally like Debito even though I think he writes like a clod and might be a miserable bore to hang out with. I often say that complaining is the first step in a democracy and I think he is doing some serious stamina training on that first step. But if he didn't, who is?

2. There seems to be a particular rhetorical trait of my generation, or maybe it is of every generation and I just came to understand it as I grew into making arguments. I am not sure what to call this thing, this pattern, this discussive course. It goes something like this, "I don't agree with one hundred percent of what you are saying and I can find some small pieces that might or might not be flawed based largely on my opinion and the way I understand a few facts so your argument and how you feel must therefore be wrong." I think that part of this arose from a culture, internet and pre-internet, that found people rewarded for having "a take" more than having an opinion. For having something to say more than having actually, something to say. But that is just my observation.

Here is Debito-san's article on the JET Programme, of which, I am an illustrious alumni.

Where Debito goes wrong, as I have observed before, is that there are many different classroom environments than the one's he describes. Most teachers tell kids, "It is okay to make a mistake." Most classrooms are very forgiving. The real issue is that the Monbusho, the school boards, the schools and the individual teachers have no idea what they want from English education or from ALTs. The whole system in constrained by the racialist view that non-Japanese can't be real teachers and so the curriculum and approach are in the hands of people who may or may not be able to speak English. Most English teachers I have met have never been out of the country. Most high level English speakers I have met, would never be permitted to be teachers and would have been hard pressed to get into the system and to have spent time abroad.

I am glad that Debito points out that JET isn't necessarily about education. True and true. It know has alumni in government and business around the world. I am one of the few exceptions that stayed the course and went broke doing so. JET has never been about bringing in good teachers or shaping good teachers, although it does sometimes by accident.

As I have said before, under the current approach, and that is an important caveat, I think English should be done away with as a subject in junior high. It can have a meaning and a purpose, but right now, it is rudderless and foundering.

Here are a sampling or responses. I am not calling them wrong or right. As we all know; Every situation is different.

Two Weeks

2010-10-12T10:08:00.002+09:00

Two weeks between postings is becoming regular and is ridiculous. A large byproduct of being married is that, while you still have a lot of free time at night, it isn't free time sitting around writing about stuff. Maybe it is just harder to concentrate, maybe it is because writing is a lonely game anyway. Who knows. In the mean time, Alabama lost, America tied, the Braves barely made the playoffs and are trying to bail out. I have gotten into several fights in the teachers room and then made up. It is hot everyday in October and I am being stung my mosquitoes. I have also completely given up on the Japanese educational system. Oh yes, I am also very busy at school and the computing situation has changed for the worse.

Japanese Education: For the Loss

2010-09-29T10:39:00.005+09:00

Think about a school. All of the subjects that are taught and the teachers and students that work there. It is a junior high. Now picture a subject. Let's go with math. It is a big school so we will say that there are twelve math teachers. Eleven of these teachers have a reasonable exposure to math. One of them can do trigonometry. Some of them can multiply fractions. The majority of them know some simple algebra and all of their work has to be checked by the twelfth teacher who is completely proficient in the discipline of math. This teacher might make a mistake or two, but they know how to check on it and correct it and they understand the underlying principals involved. Not only can they do calculus and trig, but they use it in their life daily. The other teachers pretty much forget about math the second they leave the classroom. They don't read math books, or watch math on TV or navigate ships or moonlight as accountant. The one teacher who is capable of all this stuff, what do we figure about them? Are they the head of the department, or responsible for lesson planning? Do they get paid a higher salary? Are they tasked with making sure that the teachers who are weaker in the subject, much weaker in some cases, get up to speed and that their classes are imparting the correct information? Do they get bonuses like the other teachers? Is their job secure? If they find that some teachers are teaching students that 2 +2 =5 or that 20% of 100 is 33, do they have the ability to solve that issue and get things back on track? If the answer to all of these questions was a resounding belly laugh of a "no" would you be surprised? You should be. It would be absurd. Imagine the whole country hanging their heads and wondering why their math scores were so low and that their economy had been passed by China. Now, change the word "math" to "English" and substitute whatever you like for the equations. That is everyday that I am at work.

I am not saying this to aggrandize myself, although I think that I am good at my job, or to blow of some steam, even though the pot has boiled out and over and is burning through now that the last drop has evaporated. I want people to understand what a backwards, counterproductive, self-defeating system English education in Japan is. It is, not to put too fine a point on it, ridiculous. Laughable. A farce.

It is test time here at the junior high. It has been going to be test time for the last half of this week since the schedule was made at the beginning of the school year. This means that with an English listening test happening first thing Wednesday morning, English teachers will be scrambling to throw something together about four in the afternoon on Tuesday.

It has just occurred to me that before telling you about the listening test debacle of yesterday, I should first take you on a tour of how the listening test is recorded. I will substitute our hypothetical math teacher with me, a somewhat hypothetical English teacher at the largest junior high in Osaka prefecture. Look it up. One of my jobs at school is to provide the voice on the listening test. Why? Because I can actually speak English. Not that every teacher can't. Some can, surprisingly. Usually a script is handed to me as we walk into the recording room and I realize how fraught it is with awkward or even mistaken English which I try to correct on the fly. The recording room here is like the recording room in most junior highs I have been in, a small, dusty room with stacks and stacks of unused, expensive equipment lining the walls and piled on the floor in boxes and cases, left sitting where they were brought of the truck. There is always a large soundboard, like in a radio station with an MD player and other audio equipment attached. Dust covers this pricey table as no one has touched it. Cardboard covers the inside of the windows but the sound of balls whacking of of the fencing on the outside echoes. Through this room is a door to a smaller room, like a closet where stacks of unused audio equipment, mixers and mic-stands and chords, take up the majority of the space. In the corner behind the door is an old desk, with its metal drawer smashed in. On the desk sit two VCRs, a mic and a small, two-channel, audio mixer. The VCR on the bottom is used for playing an old tape that someone made years ago of hand drawn letters on a piece of poster board that read "Listening Test" in Japanese. A line runs through the middle of the tape when it plays but sometimes it bounces up or down. It dances around and turns to a covering of static. Sometimes it disappears. The video output of the bottom VCR feeds into the top VCR which is there to record this image over and over for as long as it takes to degrade into nothing and then someone will wonder how to make a new one and probably rig it up just like this tape was in the first place. The little mixer and Mic, one you would probably pick up for your home karaoke set, has an RCA out which goes into the audio in of the top VCR so that its audio is recorded over the slowly dying video image. That is how we record listening tests. When it is finished and the time for the test has come, the tape is transferred to another VCR which broadcasts to all of the TVs in the school. It is much the same system that we used when I was a junior high school student and we found that we could record 1970s funk songs over TV ministers and laugh as they coincidentally jumped and pranced in time to the music. That was at least twenty years ago. But it isn't the worst that I have seen. At my last school they would carry cassette decks into the recording room, set them on the mixing board and record the test into the little mic embedded next to the speaker, as tens of thousands of dollars of equipment set unused in boxes on the floor.

I have tried to change these practices wherever I have been. The other teachers look at me as if I just suggested that viruses were caused by germs and not seasonal temperature changes and revert back to their old ways as soon as I turn my back like children sneaking cookies from the jar.

I was surprised last week when the older lady who teaches the third years, let's call her "T-sensei", asked me to make the listening test. She is one of two third year English teachers. The other is younger and went to college in America and, for the most part, teaches English very well. I praised him highly to our principal last year, and now he is the head English teacher and a year or two younger than me. Let's call him "O-sensei." I don't mind making the test. I was glad that they think enough of me to find me capable. However, I teach every class in the school, all 28 of them. All 1,053 students. When making a test it is very difficult for me to dead reckon the general ability level and what material has been covered in which class and so on, so I asked what was to be included. It was determined by T-sensei that there would be ten questions; four pertaining to "_______makes me______." Four on the subject of "______is called ______" The last two would be about how to give directions regarding trains. I prepared a rough draft and showed it to T-sensei on Monday.
"Hmmm. mmmm. It would be nice to have pictures."
"Ok."
"Hmmmmmm."
"Yes."
"Let's not do ten let's do eight."
"Eight total questions?"
"Yes, let's do two on 'make' two on 'is called' two on directions and the last four on the present perfect tense."
"So ten questions total?"
"Yes, eight."
"Two plus two plus two plus four. Ten"
"Yes. Here are some examples in the book."

Needless to say this conversation between two professional English teachers took place in Japanese because one of them would have found it impossible in English. I ran out of time on Monday and was left having to skip a first year class to clear time to make it on Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday morning on the staircase T-sensei says to me, "I am thinking we should make the listening test easier this time. Their level isn't so high." That was okay with me, however all I have ever seen of their English tests is the script I am given to read. I have never seen the answer sheet that the students will read from or the grading system that will evaluate and process it. In this vacuum, I made the test, skipping two hours of classes, going over the teacher's edition of the text books, which I am not in possession of as non-Japanese are not usually issued teacher's editions and importing lots of pictures for the answer sheet as requested. I attempted to adjust the dialogues to subjects we had touched on in class. For example, instead of "I have a dog who is fat and white, but we call him 'Pochi.' Do you like foreign countries Ratna?" Or whatever oddness usually surfaces, I made the statement, "His name is Obama, but I call him Mr. President." As we had talked about in class how it is rude to call a head of state "Obama."

It was a very nice looking test. I returned to my desk, satisfied, with final drafts copied and scripts prepared. Not being able to locate T-sensei, I saw O-sensei at his desk. I brought the test over. We are on fairly good terms.
"Here is the test I came up with, tell me if anything needs to be changed."
(Again, this is all in Japanese. This teacher is the head of the English department but cannot converse in the language without a great deal of patience.)

He hung his head in his hands. "This won't work. This is no good. I can't understand it."
"In what respect?"
"What is this question asking? I don't understand. The students will never figure it out. This. It is too easy."
"Is it too easy or too hard?"
"I don't understand it."
I was fairly upset. "Then don't use it. Make a new one, but don't ask me to make a new one as the only guidelines I had were issued by you."
"I don't know anything about that. Who told you to do what?"
"T-sensei."
"What did she say?"
"She gave me a rough outline and some examples."
"It won't work."
"I am sorry. I am not in class everyday. I don't know their level."
"It isn't a level problem, it is a test making problem."
"Then don't use it. Make a new one. It won't hurt my feelings if you throw it out, but you can't asks me to make something and give me no information on what you want or need and then say it isn't what you wanted because I don't know what you want."
"Maybe we can use the middle two questions if we change the answers."
"I am not asking you to use my test to make me happy. I don't care. I have other things I could have been doing. If I am not helping you I have other work to do."

I will spare you the remainder, but anyone who has been in a Japanese conversation understands that the degree of forward progress is better measured with sundials and farmer's almanacs. It was agreed that it was T-sensei's job to make the test, and not mine. That I am here to help rather than to contribute and that they would call me when it was time to record.

It was now three in the afternoon and the second year teacher who had set-up a time with me the week before stopped by my desk and we went over the script and recorded without a hitch. Around 4:30 the first years teachers came to find me and asked if I could record. This was the first I had heard from them, but that had been expected. The teacher in charge of the listening test is fresh out of college and had never recorded anything before. I am not sure I have ever heard him speak English and I had to show him how to work the double VCR dubbing system. Going in to each recording I always tell the teachers that we are going to knock it out in one take. Partially to encourage them. Partially because the room is small and sweltering and smells like dust. But really, mainly, because I worked for years in radio and adults stumbling over a 5 minute script makes me bleed internally. Teachers whose job is to speak in front of 40 teenagers every day saying that they are nervous when presented with a mic strikes me as foolish.

Halfway through the script, the young teacher began a panic-stricken motion for me to stop. "I forgot that we never taught them question three." It had to do with "Where" and no one could remember if they knew "where" and it was supposed that maybe they learned it in elementary school, or not. As a picture of a cat was already on the answer sheet I suggested that we just ask "Do you like cats?" Everyone chuckled and then considered scrapping the whole thing and rerecording me doing a self introduction. It was now 5pm and I am supposed to leave by 5:15. No third year teachers are in the office. The questions are changed, we go in, knock it out and it everything we recorded disappears from the cassette tape. It takes a while but I find it, an oddity of cassette tapes that things can be lost on them. It is now 5:10.

I find T-sensei in the hall, checking whether students memorized sections of the book that they never understood the meaning of. I ask her if we can record and she cobbles together the scraps of paper that are now the listening test. I glance over them. I realize that some sections involve a part A and a part B so that I will need her to record with me. As we sit down to record she tells me she hasn't come up with questions so I will just have to make them up as we go. Fortunately I am a pro. Halfway through she ask that I stop the recording.
"What happened?"
"You forgot to say 'Number 2'"
"No, I think I said it."
"You didn't. We have to go back and record it again."
"I am pretty sure I said it, but we will check."

After rewinding at restarting, it is there "Number 2" and we are off again. As usual, the script is awkward and flawed. I will try to represent the last question to the best of my ability,

"Mr. Kato has visited Australia and India but he has never been to any other country. How many foreign countries had Mr. Kato visited?"

To me this sounds like a trick question involving a Mr. Kato who happens to have dual citizenship with Australia and India but a strong dislike of travel. T-sensei couldn't understand the issue. It strikes me as a very Japanese question involving several assumptions that could just as easily be not true and an clumsy use of "foreign" which can only be used to solve the problem by making sure that Mr. Kato is Japanese and that other countries only exist in relation to Japan. Maybe I am overthinking it.

It is now past 5:30 and I get my things to leave. This is an tricky point too. It states in my contract that I have to leave by 5:15. Sometimes I stick around when I am helping with soccer or working on something, but I usually take off. Mainly because there is nothing to be done. But it is a barrier. Japanese teachers, in my experience, are terrible managers of time and take great pride in how busy they are and how late they stay at work. So my time being wasted and mismanaged and under-utilized, shouldn't make me angry when I view it as a waste, I should feel satisfied that I did less than I could have and think up ways to do things more inefficiently and cause myself to stay later garnering more respect.

Sometime this week there will be a TV show where experts wonder how it could be that Japan is slipping. How could it be?

UFC 119: St. James Infirmary

2010-09-25T23:18:00.002+09:00

Commissioner White rode to the podium on a plastic toy firetruck carry a go cup full of Micehlob and declared, "We may have left Iraq, but bitches still be dying" He fell off sideways, losing his top hat, beer coating his AC/DC t-shirt and denim vest.

Tavares vs. Audinwood

Hard to care. Not enough data. Tavares has tried to derail his promising career. A toss-up. Tavares by split decision.

Hunt vs. McCorkle

What people tend to forget in their jaded critiques and professional observations is that Pride was really fun to watch. Fun. And the big, fat jester in the middle of it all, atomic butt dropping Fedor and eating Cro-Cop high kicks like they were tasty cakes, was Mark Hunt. He was also a very skilled striker with nothing to offer on the ground. I like the guy and I want him to do well. I also think his striking is levels above McCorkle. Hunt by KO round 1.

Grant vs. Paulino

Again, not really enough data. We have been hearing about Grant for a while and he shows some promise and a nice single leg. I think it gets him the decision over Paulino.

Lowe vs. Lopez.

Really? Lowe should lose based on his belly-button tattoo. Lopez's record in indicative of nothing. So he beat The Gooch. So what? Errrrr. Lowe by decision.

Mitrione vs. Beltran

I enjoy Beltran, but he is particularly good. Mitrione has actually been fairly impressive. I like his hands. I think he gets the KO in round 2.

Dollaway vs. Doerksen

Which is worse, Dollaway"s sub defense or Doerksen's chin. That is the real battle here, and I don't really care. I have little faith in either. Let's say Dollaway by TKO in the 3rd.

Stephens vs. Guillard

I tried to dislike Guillard for a while, but he is fun to watch. He is also a fellow Gulf Coaster, and a gifted liver puncher. Stephens is a mean little bastard. I would like to think that being at Jackson's will help Guillard develop a plan and fight smart, but has that worked for Cerrone or Jardine? No, not really. However, Guillard's true weakness is sub-defense. Will Stephens threaten him there. This will be a real test of Guillard's chin. Hard to call. Stephens by KO in the 3rd.

Dunham vs. Sherk

I have missed out on the Dunham hype train and I briefly rode the Sherk hate train. I think Dunham is a little overvalued right now, and Sherk is undervalued. But, Sherk has been on the shelf for too long and I rate that pretty high against people. Dunham by decision.

Serra vs. Lytle

I love both of these guys and I think people are a little too cynical about their careers. Enjoy them for what they are. This is an awkward match-up for Lytle, whose skills I respect as much as anyone fighting. Serra is hard to KO and can hit back, hard. Serra is almost impossible to submit and is good at regaining position. I think this goes to a split decision in favor of Serra. I am looking forward to it unabashedly.

Nogueira vs. Bader

I wouldn't say that either of these guys as at a cross roads, but I could say their careers could take either path. What? Nogueira can prove that he deserves his reputation and that he can hover around the top. Bader can prove that his talent will be fulfilled and he can hang at the top. I think there are major holes in Nogueira's game, mainly his defense. I think Bader is a better physical talent. But, I need this fight for Bader to prove it to me. I am picking to Nogueira to get a clever sub in the 3rd.

Mir vs. Flipovic

Is it bad form to say I don't care? Not that I don't care about the fight, I am excited to watch it. However, it doesn't really matter to me who wins. I think Mir has the better shot, but he alternates between solid game plans and brain death. Cro-Cop seems to have had his intimidating uber talent sucked out of him. I would like to see Cro-Cop win, but I don't know how that unfolds. I don't know if his sprawl is still there. I think he can tag Mir on the feet though. Mir seems to love his boxing, but we'll see. Cro-Cop's sub defense has always been sufficient, but he is aging and Mir is much stronger. Errr....I don't know. I am going to call Flipovic by fracturing of Mir's orbital bone with a straight left in the 2nd. How's that?

Take it to the fake bank.

I-10 in NOLA

2010-09-23T10:07:00.004+09:00

Here are some articles on the plan that David brought up. I will have to do some more reading on it. Having not lived there it is hard for me to really weigh in, but I am generally in favor of this kind of thing. When I lived in the Jackson Ward in Richmond a lot of older residents, and younger residents in the know, talked about the way the neighborhood was before they ran the interstate through the middle of it and put an on ramp like a stake in its heart. Around the period of time that interstates were going up, the thinking about planning was rather obtuse.

Update: I just found this Facebook group related to the issue. Maybe they will be the place to get updates. However, their latest status is just an add for working stay at home moms, so....

Treme

2010-09-22T11:27:00.003+09:00

I finally got a chance to sit down and start watching Treme this week. It took me a while, but Natsuki was at her folks for the week and I don't have enough money to pay my gym fees, so I figured it would be a good chance.

I am going ahead and writing this as a half-assed post now since if I wait until I have time to give all of my thoughts I won't come out with anything until the last episode of season 5 in which NOLA Actual takes off into space with Kermit Ruffins sparkin' a J off of the exhaust.

First, let me single out the Times-Picayune's superb "Treme Explained" which is an essential companion to the show, even if you know the city well.

The Wire touched a special place in my heart, not just because it was exceptional television, as almost everyone acknowledges, but also because it was an homage and a eulogy for the great city of Baltimore that had impacted me so much as a kid visiting there and as a proxy for Richmond which I lived in the worst neighborhoods of as a young adult. It seemed to be about people I knew and spoke in a language that I understood.

Treme is a thicker stew as I already find myself loving it and yet have to question whether my affection for New Orleans is just a hackneyed reaction to a real tragedy. An effection maybe. I am definitely on record before the storm of declaring my hate for the city and my lack of a desire to be there. That is true, and looking back, I feel justified. Growing up on the Gulf Coast, New Orleans was like the brother that I didn't want to share the back seat with. However, it turns out, if said brother was torn from your home and unable to be found, you would miss them terribly and want more than anything to hold them close. Let me explain. I have been going to New Orleans since I was a little kid as my Godfather and his family are from Slidell. They live in a house on stilts in the swamp and say thing like "butta" and "watta" and eat cabbage even with worms crawling out of it. They are Cajuns; sturdy and round. We used to drive into the city for Mardi Gras and I can remember rolling through Algiers in the early '80s with a pistol on the front seat. Country paranoia or shameful reality, the city loomed. We would still stand on the parade route and soak in the sights and the sounds most of all. In Northwest Florida the doctors all have Carnival paintings on their office walls and are members of a Crewe that they bought or influenced their ways into. Hippies drive over to get high at Jazz Fest and rednecks to get drunk on Bourbon. Punks? New Orleans had nothing for us except for kids who enjoy playing at being homeless. So I tired of New Orleans. It was a rich fantasy and a drunk's toilet. At 15 they wouldn't let me check into a motel that I had reserved and so I spent all day at the fairgrounds after a downpour in a flooded muddy field with 90,000 other music fans trying to pull pizza boxes out of the garbage to sit on. New Orleans was parking lots and underpasses and interstates and gas stations with bullet proof windows where men with bottles in bags lurked just outside of the brightest lights. It was one wrong turn from being in more trouble than you felt like being in and panhandlers getting it in their head that you weren't poor just because you were white. Or white panhandlers thinking you might give up some change since you were young. It was being stuck all night, tired in Jackson Square while GG Allin played one of his last shows and his fans came out and made fun of us for not looking like them. That New Orleans never did much for me. The one where the police might kill you instead of the criminals.

Of course there were other times like when I went to see Bela Fleck in a park and Pensacola and Rebirth opened up. It was probably the best live music I have ever heard, but it was tennis tanned, khaki-shorted doctor's wives who lined up to dance behind them. There was also the empty, sunny New Orleans on the day after Christmas at Cafe Du Monde. Row after row of buildings making neighborhoods, full of people who knew each other. There was running into Winona Ryder in a used clothes store and finding a Crucial Youth record in a bin on some back street in Iberville.

Let me be specific, I didn't resent New Orleans for being dirty and poor and dangerous. I resented it for being idolized by people who didn't have to endure its dirty and poor and dangerous. Under those circumstances, it is no wonder that New Orleans doesn't love outsiders and tourists. Nowhere on the Gulf Coast does. We don't in Northwest Florida. Just give us your money and get back on the bus heading North. But New Orleans has done better than the rest of us in keeping its soul. It has had to be hard and cold at times. Making outsiders feel like they are on the outside, anyway, good for them.

And then my friends lived there. And then the storm came. And I won't lie and say there wasn't a part of me like Bill Clinton who cried on 911, partly because of the awfulness and partly because it didn't happen when he could have done something about it. Florida, so ready for the hurricane, so prepared will never be remembered for how it handled the big one. New Orleans will be loved and strangled and almost destroyed and certainly vilified for how it lost. So now, like the bother of a stolen child I can only love it while I still hate driving around under the interstate and the neighborhoods that can go from bad to worse and hearing about how drunk somebody got on Bourbon.

Back to the show itself. It makes the point that The Wire couldn't and that is more complicated in New Orleans anyway: The city is fueled by and unique because of the culture of the lower-classes who live there and are unwanted by the power structure except to the extent that they bring tourist dollars to the city which is fueled by and unique because of the culture of the lower-classes who live there and are unwanted by the power structure except to the extent that they bring tourist dollars to the city..... and on and on.

So far, the music has been exceptional and the amount of times that I have said "Hey, there's _______ where I saw_______ play." has been enjoyable. With few exceptions it has felt real to me, but I am only a visitor. There are lots of dynamics that I would like to see discussed but the scope of the show is limited and I think that is to good effect. There has been no game changing character like Omar Little to appear yet, but this is a different kind of show. Khandi Alexander is wonderful and has a real kind of strength. I have also enjoyed the Delmond Lambreaux character showing a very real divide between "serious jazz cats" and their feelings about the city's vernacular canon. Also, mad props for showing Galactic going off at d.b.a.

The Warning

2010-09-22T11:17:00.002+09:00

Not posting in two weeks seems egregious. If only I knew that I wasn't posting while I wasn't posting, then I probably would have posted. Nevertheless.

A warning came down from the company. I don't listen to my company, ever, so it really doesn't matter. They say that the Board of Education has a way of seeing what everyone who uses the internet at school is looking at so that we should be careful and only use the internet for school related purposes. Hmmm. While I don't doubt that being able to remotely track a computers history, or even being able to watch a screen in real time is a reality, in fact I know it is, let's examine the reality of the situation.

I work at a school with at least 73 teachers. Right now five computers that are connected to the internet at the computer station are open and running. In addition we have about 25 laptops that are available for teachers to use at their desks and WI-FI that runs through the whole school. Add to that teachers personnel computers at their desks and the numerous teachers that use their iPhones off of the WI-FI. That is one school around 43 or so in the school district. Are we to believe that one person employed full time could even keep up with the activity at this school? Are we further to believe that they could interpret what was actual use and what was useless. I sometimes mail other teachers using Facebook to ask about lesson plans. I sometimes use Gmail and ask about school and then an unrelated question or two. Sometimes when I am using Wikipedia to research a grammar point I stray off topic but end up learning more that I talk about in class. Some teachers use the computers to watch basketball. Then again, they are basketball coaches. Are we really to believe that one person can not only see all of this information but also analyze it? Is there a team of 40 or so people just doing this at the school board? If so, does the money wasted there not eclipse, by far, any productivity lapses by internet surfing teachers? I suppose my real question is; Why they gots to play me for a stupid?

Economics 1010101010101

2010-09-09T13:24:00.002+09:00

I think that this article is well in the right of it. I was fortunate in my choice of college departments in many ways. One of which was that the thinking on economics was deep and varied. Often people treat economics as if it were math, even though it just involves math. Economics also involve human psychology and morals. Next door to my department was the business school, which had a monster of a new building paid for by alumni. I was somewhat repulsed by it, although to be fair it had a nice atrium. Occasionally I ventured into their basement to use their vending machines which, unlike their economic thinking, were more varied and complex than ours. In the basement study are hung pictures of Vince Lombardi employing people to win, although in a vastly different context. The people from this business department probably weren't stupid, but when our paths did cross I found their thinking on economic issues, among other things, quite oversimplified and robotic. Not that they were ignorant, but that they had been given lots and lots of very shallow information.

To extend the shovel analogy, mightn't it also be that a wealthy person could buy up all of the shovel supply and offer to rent them out at high rates to the poor people who couldn't afford them? Always keeping the shovels a step out of their grasp. Or, isn't it also likely that the same individual or conglomerate would offer to sell the shovels to poor people during storms, but on a loan payment basis and at a high rate of interest? Therefore to make their rent and other needs for the month, poor people would be forced to buy the shovels to dig out of the snow and then be saddled with payments for an object they won't always be in need of. Maybe the same or another individual could get them in debt on fans in the summer and rakes in the fall and allergy medicine in the spring. All things that the rich would have in abundance and chide the poor for not making do without. That is economics too. What if a neighborhood of poor people decided to go in together and buy one shovel for the neighborhood and set-up a rotation of shovelers to free everyone from the snow at a low cost? What if the powerful shovel interest influenced lawmakers to ban these kind of organizations and a PR firm to taint them as socialist? It sounds absurd, but it isn't far off of reality. Keep in mind that we have seeds that are sold to farmers that intentionally won't generate new seeds so that the farmer has to buy seeds again the next year. We have underprivileged homeowner organizations like ACORN destroyed through the media and congress. These are economic issues. I could go on and on, and I am sure you could to. It just goes to show again that knowledge of something is not mastery of it, or even complex understanding.

The JET Issue

2010-09-09T11:12:00.006+09:00

I must be back to work because we are back to Debito Arudo columns. This one is especially applicable however. As a former JET who would cut off a pinky to get back on the gravy train that gave me envelopes full of tax free cash, a subsidized apartment and a seemingly endless supply of badusi, you might expect me to be a vocal advocate for the program. Well.... Then again as a frustrated educator who believes that Japan should throw its English program out with the bathwater and into the sewer you might think I would be calling for torching the program....not really. There is more I want to talk about in this article than the survival of the JET program. To sum up the topic quickly, JET brings some rotten people to Japan. It brings a lot of lazy people and drunk people and immature people. It is also responsible for everything I either have or don't have, most of my friends and surely my marriage and everything that came along the way. It is, in the end, a great tool for soft power, placing people with Japanese sympathies in various positions all over the world. Don't give that sentence another reading. But, it does that too.

The real issue here is what Debito has to say about English learning in Japan and the fact that he is 88% correct. And where he isn't correct he isn't exactly wrong.

The point is made that many JETs aren't trained English teachers. This is very true, and it could be a problem if they were often called upon to be teachers. Sadly, this is usually just a cudgel for Japanese teachers to ridicule them with (do you ridicule people with cudgles?) even though the teachers have very little real training themselves, especially in teaching English. Most teachers that I have encountered are still stuck in the grammar translation method of teaching, which disappeared along with Latin classes in the West. If they were asked, though, most teachers wouldn't even know that this is the method they were using. They would just think of it as teaching. It might be hard for you to picture a class in Japan, but just imagine it as somewhere between algebra and Latin, being written on the board and described by someone who has a loose grip on the subject to students who have neither clue nor interest. It is amazingly counterproductive.

On my first day as an ALT the superintendent of schools told me "Please tell us how to make our education system better." That was nine years ago and no one has listened once. I had a conference with all of the English teachers this year and typed up a list of what we should concentrate on. Everyone thought it was great that I could write in Japanese, but nothing has changed.

One thing that has changed is that the teachers are no longer as dead set against ALTs as they used to be. Some here and there are and there are still a lot of stereotypes and generalizations ingrained in the school system as a whole, but most seem more accepting these days. I am still often told, however, that there used to be "some problems" with an ALT in the past. I sometimes ask "You mean like the problems with Japanese teachers?" Which could mean the one who was selling drugs in a hotel room, or the one who was caught in the school pool with the girl's soccer team or the one who was drunk driving or the one who killed the kid in judo class and on and on. But as we know, these are different things. Japanese people operate as individuals and foreginers are a monolith.

This is not just a bitter jab, this has to do with a failure of the overall system. As Arudo correctly points out, "Now add the back-beat of Japan's crappy social science." Agreed and super agreed. I have often said that non-Japanese are not here to teach English we are here to teach Japanese. How do I mean that? We are here to reinforce how English and foreignness are separate from what the kids in class are learning to be, Japanese and Japanese. The prevailing Japanese view is that nationality and ethnicity are fundamentally inseparable. We can engage in cultural exchange but only in so far as it is illustrating differences. That is where I rock the boat slightly. I usually try to point out in class that I don't understand what "gaijin" means and that we grow up eating rice too, we just have more kinds. My most repeated phrase is "I don't know, it depends on the person." Which seems to be almost ungraspable, even to adults. I don't know what Americans eat for breakfast, because I usually don't go to my neighbor's for breakfast, much less a stranger's house. I can only answer for my family. That kind of thing. In this atmosphere, it is very hard for kids to see English as something that they can do just as well as anyone else learning a language. English is crazy and separate and bears on them very little.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fault I find with television in the whole dynamic. I blame Japanese TV for many things I find repellent. This is not to single out Japanese TV in the world, but to single it out in Japan. What you need to understand is that TV in Japan has about 4 channels, so everyone is pretty much watching the same thing. These channels are all populated by the same people, as the same 'talent' are on every show, every day in Japan. Non-Japanese show up from time to time but they fall into two general categories, comic relief and strange gaijin. If you struggle awkwardly in social situations and misuse the language, like Bobby, you are comic relief and beloved. If you speak Japanese fluently and have an opinion, you are strange gaijin. Maybe there is a small third party of those fluent in Japanese that play the game well and talk about how great Japan is and how there are no problems anywhere like this muppet, who I used to have an email exchange with and now makes me scour in shame. But maybe I am not being fair.

In any case, in this environment, the kids see most things in the context of the TV that is on at their house constantly, they struggle to view ALTs as teachers or even as adults. They are assumed,by both teachers and students to be the comic relief. This isn't said explicitly, but it is reinforced constantly. At meetings, it is usually coached as "ALTs are here to expose the kids to English so you should have upbeat and fun classes." Or by teachers as "Today the ALT is here, so let's play a game." I once taught at a school where I was told, "Our image is that foreigners smile a lot, so you should smile more." I never went back. I was told at my school now, "Your job is to stand there and smile and speak English." This was a large fight. I have many more stories but I am sure I have had it relatively good.

In the excellent, "You Gotta Have Wa" by Robert Whiting, which I consider and essential text on Japan, the author illustrates the practice of bringing average or failed American baseball players to play in the Japanese league. Their role is to continue to be average, be hyped as saviours and then to be blamed for all of the teams struggles and then be sent packing and told they are great disappointments. I think a lot of that is what has been going on with ALTs. It is easier to talk about the problems with them and their lack of certification and how they use the internet at work than to look at the internal problems weighing down the halfhearted attempts to teach English. It is easier to invest your hope in someone and then send them home like you burn your good luck charms at the end of every year.

The only place where I think Arudo gets it partly wrong is his image of the Japanese classroom. It might still hold true some places, but most I have worked in, failure isn't punished at all. Not even enough in my opinion. Answering, "I don't know, I don't speak English." Is often acceptable and the height of humor. "This is Japan." Is also a popular one. Failure is not only accepted it is expected. As I have asked many times, "What happens if you show up to a Japanese school and fail every test and never turn in your homework? You graduate."

It is a large issue that I could write on for a while, but debating JET is just another why that Japanese education can avoid debating itself. Last question: Of all of the board of education, school-wide and English teacher meetings I have been in over the years, how many times has a native English teacher been asked, "What can we do better?" Do I even have to tell you the answer? Zero. Do you think the cowboys ask the rodeo clowns how to ride a bull?

Further Adventures in Edumucation

2010-09-09T11:04:00.002+09:00

Here is a stat the surprised me. As much as I take issue with aspects of the Japanese education system, I never thought that funding was one of them. The amount of funding directed at me, sure. I would like to see these stats laid out more, to see if there is anything behind them or any other way they can be read. I always think of Japanese schools as rolling around in money and just being dingy as a style choice. The part at the end about high private spending rings true, however.

I Give

2010-09-08T22:37:00.002+09:00

I used to front on Cee-Lo. I even had a line in a song that declared, "Cee-Lo, you look like your butt 's soft, is that how you really sing or did someone cut your nuts off?" Which in a fairer world would go down in rap history, but that is a selfish digression. Like millions of others I enjoyed Gnarls Barkley, but I gave most of the credit to Danger Mouse, who I had always been sweet on. However. However, Cee-Lo, you have done it. You have turned the tide. Me who hasn't liked anything he has heard in forever decree this day: F'ing masterpiece my friend.

He is killing it, in case you didn't notice. This is one of those moments I miss having a radio show and being out of my mind over a terrible person so I could just play this over and over.

Speaking of music, Ed recently reminded me of Brother Ali whom I had liked and forgotten about. He is quite good.

It is Feeling Cold and Hot

2010-09-03T09:41:00.003+09:00

Back at school with broken air conditioners and little to do except grade papers that are either blank or make little sense. I often bemoan the state of English education in Japan and then I always forget the examples. Here I am back at school grading the kids summer reports on retaurants in their neghborhood and I am clutching a hndful of examples. Here are two. And kkep in mind that they are two of the best, the most comprehensible. Most kids didn't even bother.

1. Restaurant name is Coco's. There is Nakashingai. Best food is package ware hamburger and caramel christean. Those is very delicious. Those is wester food here. Package ware hamburger is brand-new. So, it is delicious. Caramel christean is caramel ice cream and caramel sauce. It is feeling cold and hot! -end-

2. The parfait is dellcious. The glass in the drink bar is beautiful. Atmosphere is good. It is early for a moment to come. European food specialty. You only have to go to go.

These are 3rd year students who have had English class everyday for 2 and a half years. These two are in the top 95% of the essays I read. Do you understand why I think we should stop doing English in Japan. What is the point if this is the result?

A New Challenge?

2010-08-30T00:48:00.003+09:00

Japan never fails. Monkey disaster again. Oh, and it gets worse. This was the big news this week, prompting Ed's wife to state, "Japan is a peaceful place." Indeed. My favorite quote was the old lady on the news saying, "Then there was a monkey in my house and I thought 'Why is there a monkey in my house?' And then it bit my leg, so I hit it in the head, but it kept biting me." Quality.

In other Japan news, This shit about pissed me off. I won't go on about it for too long, but with all the bullshit that foreigners ge there about their manners and lack of them and their general barbarianatude, some conduct that would never be acceptable in civilized countries is completely okay here. Number one on my list, being a drunk guy in public making a big nuisance of yourself and having nobody say anything about it. It doesn't always result in needless death, but it could. Sometimes America being violent and having dangerous consequences seems like a good thing to me. Oh, I'm going to go hang around downtown shit faced and sleep wherever I fall down and stumble around the train station and see how that works out. At best, it works out in having no wallet anymore. And it fucking well should.

I Can't Say It

2010-08-30T00:27:00.004+09:00

There was a super rad article in the NYT today on language. I am not going to comment to deeply on this as it is not really my field and there other people much more knowledgeable o the subject than me. I decided on this policy when I said to a tall blond lady at a party over a beer that I was interested in linguistics and had a fondness for Chomsky. She proceeded to destroy my brain with contrary evidence from MRI imaging and a funny thing called science. Who knows, she may have been full of shit, but I would have had no way to verify that. I think that the author of this piece is largely right, of course he is, in saying that language is a thing in your brain that is constantly effecting how you perceive things. It has to be. In my experience I know that I am not the same person in Japanese that I am in English. I would never dream of telling someone to "ganbare" in English. Or that they must be "otsukaresama." Those things are ridiculous to even contemplate in any other setting.
Articles and papers and books will often prattle on about how the distinctive element of Japanese is its hierarchical structure. I care as much about this discussion as I do about every book on Japanese architecture that talks about how gloriously "vague" everything is. (insert empty hand making masturbating motion here.) Vague is just a word that was thought up to make something boring and common sound like a topic for discussion. Yes, your futon can go in the closet and then it isn't really a bedroom is it? There, we settled it. That isn't vague, it is a closet with a futon in it. Now it is out. Now it is in again. Get it?

I also spend a good deal of time explaining to Japanese people that English has a hierarchy too, it just isn't taught to us concretely in our school systems. Or, more importantly, isn't taught to them in theirs. But everyone knows that you wouldn't say to one's boss, "That's some fucked up shit right there!" Rather you might suggest, "The quarterly reports seem to indicate a downturn." I can remember being firmly scolded for telling my neighbor "bull" when I wanted to represent the opposite side of an argument to them. Of course I didn't know that I wanted to represent the opposite side of an argument, I thought that what they were saying was "bull" until my mother corrected me.

But where were we...Oh, yes. My two favorite tidbits of Japanese that I think say a lot about the country and its people are:

1. The grammatical structure for "making" someone do something and "letting" them do something are exactly the same. （。。。させる）　　For example, a teacher will often say to me about a lesson plan, "Then you will let the students pronounce the vocabulary." Okay, I'll let them do it all they want.

2. The word for being "wrong" and "different" are the same word. （違う）　If you ever wanted something stereotypically Japanese, there it is right there.

I was trying to explain this article to my wife, who is Japanese and speaks no English. I was having to convert everything into Japanese and then flesh out the arguments. "For example, people say different words for the same colors or the same words for different colors." "What do you mean?" "Well, in Japan you call the traffic light for go 'blue.'" "And?" "Well, it is green." "No it isn't." And so on.

UFC 118: Walking to New Orleans

2010-08-28T21:52:00.002+09:00

As Fats Domino played over a montage of Shep Smith weeping on an I-10 overpass, Commissioner Dana White pulled his nuts out the side of his replica 1980's soccer shorts and laughed at you.

Pierce vs. Alves

As Alves fights out of Nova Uniao and has a stellar record, I would love to see him win, I think Pierce's wrestling and top control will get him the decision.

Osipczak vs. Soto

Osipczak has been a complete surprise to me, but I very much like the way he fights. Neither of these fighters has a record long enough to make any real judgments. I think Osipzack has the better package and I go with him for the decision.

Miller vs. Salter

Every time I swear that you should never bet against a Miller the way you should never bet against a Diaz, and here Dan Miller has given us three straight loses. He has fought some good competition, losing to Maia, Sonnen and Bisping, but he has lost by fighting with his head up his ass. Does anyone believe that Bisping had much to offer him on the ground. I very much want Miller to right his own ship here, but Salter, also a wrestler, is a rough match-up for him. Salter also fights out of Birmingham, so I should be yelling a big roll tide for him. Still, desperation is the mother of the ass-kick and I call Miller by violent sub in the 1st.

Winner vs. Lentz

I am a fan of Winner's striking and I somehow feel like he is more of a known commodity, even though his record is sparse. But look at Lentz's record. The Carnie has been rolling. I feel that I must take him for the decision here. Should be a well fought fight, I am looking forward to it.

Lauzon vs. Ruedigar

I have always been a fan of Joe Lauzon. He illustrates one of the truths I have learned in MMA, sometimes the goof looking mother fucker will rip your head off. Lauzon is a very talented grappler. Is Ruedigar a fighter who can move beyond his ridiculous and embarrassing appearance on TUF? He has a surprisingly robust record as of late. Of course, the competition hasn't been top level. I don't see Lauzon losing this one. I think he gets the better of striking and the scrambles and subs Ruedigar in the 3rd.

Diaz vs. Davis

Again, two fighters I like. However, you know the rules, Never bet against a Diaz. And I won't. Nate's boxing isn't quite where his older brother's is, but it is good. No doubt Davis is more technical and Diaz can be obtusely flat footed and will commit to wars that aren't his to fight, but I don't think he will be knocked out and I know he won't be subbed. I think this is a hard fight for Davis and Diaz's reach will wear on him and he will fall to a sub in the 3rd.

Maia vs. Miranda

It will be interesting to see how Maia bounces back from the oddness that befell his title tilt with Anderson Silva. Miranda is no slouch but Maia is one of those guys whose main skill is so far beyond everyone else that I have to call him for the sub in the 1st.

Florian vs. Maynard

Maynard is a strange case, he isn't a super fighter in any respect but he is good enough that I could see him beating anyone in his weight class. Yes, that includes Penn. Maynard is very big for the weight and strong. He punches hard if not well and can control from the top. In the end, I think that Florian's package of skills will be too much for him. Florian can take angles and work form the outside. He will hurt Maynard with strikes and fight through his wrestling. Florian should be able to hurt Maynard enough that his stamina will become a problem. I see Florian taking a bloody decision.

Couture vs. Toney

What is there to say about this really. Toney was a great boxer. His actual punching is probably better than anyone who has ever stepped in the octagon. No, I know it is. But has he showed any real dedication to this fight? Look at him. Look at the guy training him. The second he was introduced as "someone who trains the government and the FBI in defensive techniques" I knew Toney was done. Their is nothing to be gained in a pre-Royce Gracie mindset. The ground work they showed him working was amateur level and won't even buy him a second in the big leagues. Can anyone win with a good (or bad) punch in four once gloves at any second? Absolutely. Is that the only chance Toney has? Absolutely. He isn't even a real boxer anymore. I will be interested in this match, but strictly for laughs. Couture by Toney surrender in the first.

Edgar vs. Penn

Let's get this straight from the start, in no way to I believe Frankie Edgar one their title fight. I don't even think he came close. It was an exhibition of judging at, if not its worst, its very bad. I was an Edgar supporter, and I suppose I still am, but the whole thing seems fake to me. The idea that we have to accept something as real which we can see as wrong. So, in the sense that Edgar can repeat his(admittedly sensible) strategy of saying outside and dashing around firing at volume, and if the judges again ignore effective counter striking, then Edgar has a chance of retaining his title. It should also be noted, and not to make excuses for him, that Penn came out flat in his last fight. Who knows what happens in the mind and training of BJ Penn, but I think he comes out and Fs up Edgar and hurts him and gets the sub in the 4th.

But what do I know.

Tokyo!!

2010-08-28T17:39:00.002+09:00

If you know me, and there is a small chance you might, you know that I uphold the grand tradition of Kanto/Kansai static. And not without a basis, I have seldom had a good experience in Tokyo. No CHUDs have ever approached me, but I am quick, elusive, and crafty. This time however, the benefits of marriage came to fruition and I had a bit of a better experience with my native tour guide.

People ask about the fights when you are married. We don't fight much, but a recurring one goes something like this, "I don't care where we eat, I just don't want to keep walking around talking about it in this 100 degree heat." So that is how two Kansai residents found themselves in an all you can eat okonomiyaki place in Harajuku.

It was a good call.

This is Harajuku

Gwen Stefani nowhere to be found.

The Tokyo subway map in all of its glory.

Tokyo tower versus the moon from Roppongi Hills.

It is Japan after all.

Usually the crowd attracts itself and you just have to move somewhere that they forgot.

I think this sentiment is both accurate and says a lot. This approach will get you far in life in Japan.

The National Art Museum

2010-08-28T17:07:00.003+09:00

I had to run up to Tokyo earlier this week. The up side was that I had some free time and got to go to The National Art Center. I had been told that it was an Ando Tadao creation. It was only after I had gotten home that I found out it was designed by the late Kurokawa Kisho, whose books had propelled me through my college architecture classes. One of Kurokawa's quotes that always stuck with me was his saying that when he sits down to conceive of a building he draws out the door handles at the same time he plans the overall layout. That attention to detail shows in all of his buildings including this one.

This fairly normal apartment building is directly next to the museum complex. It looks like it was probably there since before construction began. Can you imagine your good fortune to have this be the view off the back of your balcony?

The museum is part of a larger complex which features a policy school.

The majority of the building has this curved texture that has the natural feel that Kurokawa went for.

Fortunately they were having a Man Ray exhibit as well.

This are actually transitions well into the Roppongi Hills complex. My main concerns when writing papers for my urban planning degree dealt with what is an area when it wasn't built for consumers, and how can it be approached. Strangely, this section of Tokyo does a good job of addressing that question. Roppongi Hills is essentially a shopping mall with a tuxedo on it. But it works. It is an interesting place and can be experienced without being a consumer. It also lends itself to the neighborhood as a whole.

I believe that all of the chairs in the museum where designed by several prominent Scandinavian designers. They sit nice.

Kurokawa, you are dead, but lots of dead people built less good buildings than you.

Fujinomiya Gogome 6PM

2010-08-23T18:35:00.005+09:00

This is the sky from halfway up Mt. Fuji.

I would have to say that the sky, both night and day, was the greatest thing about the hike. The peak and its eerie fog that shrouded everything like a thought starved horror movie and thinned to reveal a giant volcanic crater, and the way the light showed that every dark barrier you had been pitted against was actually red volcanic sand, would have been moments of epiphany if not for the onset of hypothermia, real or imagined, and the insensitivity of my travel companions. Climbing a mountain is a truly revolutionary folly.

A Little Arjy-Bargy Goes a Long Way

2010-08-23T18:08:00.003+09:00

I have read and watched a fair amount about hooliganism, yet I don't feel that it is something that I can really get a handle on. It is a discussion that I have frequently with my British band-mates, who are fellow fans of the footy. America is a terribly violent nation in so many ways and our sporting culture verges on the cromagnon at times. How then have we seemingly avoided this tumor of numskullery? Is our senseless violence already sated in gang warfare, racial hatred and school shootings? I am not going to pose any theories just state the question. I had the good fortune to attend the University of Alabama, whose football rivalry with Auburn University is often described as the largest sports blood feud in America. I attended several Iron Bowls, and while they were raucous affairs, complete with a temporary jail within the stadium, neither team had factions seeking out violence. Most of the police presence was to protect drunken fans from themselves. I don't know if I am more surprised that this dark undercurrent lies in British society or that it has never reared its head in ours.

Florida

2010-08-22T17:46:00.003+09:00

Florida requires lots of dredging equipment. It is what makes a barrier island into a harbor.

If all you looked at was this photo, not much would have changed since I was growing up.

But then you have this "Peter Boss abortion." As Wes F. put it.

This line of waves is just from the tide running. This is about 10 feet off of the beach, at most. And people wonder how tourists drown every year.

Deep Water Horizon power pack.

When I was a little kid, I though the jetties were a natural formation.

Sea life with oil?

Campamus. Scenes from AICL 2010

2010-08-08T05:05:00.003+09:00

I got a new camera as a wedding present. I am trying it out. I am sure it will change my life like the new J Crew catalog.

Two super geniuses at work.

Commander Dan

Captain Mustache

Ms. Mustache

Princess Hotstuff

Ghost of Dave Kyser

The Mush

Micah and John

Old Yankee

Dr. Foxy

Dance Wars

Mr.Me

M.Bensey

DJ Wooly Willy

Our Mikoshi

Dirty Hippy

Eco Dorm

George Going Beefcake

Musical

Jeff and Juno

Gion Matsuri: Procession Part II

2010-08-08T04:44:00.002+09:00

An interesting component of the Gion Matsuri is that it features tapestries that look distinctly as if they aren't from the Far East. They aren't. As Kyoto was the center of Buddhism in Japan and Buddhism was the center of trade in the Eastern world, Kyoto was a center of trade. Many tapestriess and carpets came from Persia and India. Some displayed on these floats are hundreds and hundreds of years old.

The men perched on the front of the float coordinate the men who pull the ropes. The large wooden blocks are the brakes. The men walking alongside use the wood that is strapped to the undercarriage to steer the float around corners. Inside the float are statues and a crew who ring bells and play drums and flutes. On the roof are the guys who keep the top portion stable.

These ropes hanging down are attached to bells.

Fune Boko, or Boat Float, is one of my favorites every year. It is what it says it is.

I'm on a boat! (float)

It is Kyoto after all.

I believe that this gentleman was the president of the hotel across the street and was presenting something to each float.

More later.

Gion Matsuri: Procession-Part One

2010-07-18T18:08:00.003+09:00

This was the first year since I have been in Kyoto that this part of the matsuri fell on a weekend. Not that it would have mattered this summer as I am on 'vacation.'

Gion Matsuri: Yoiyama

2010-07-18T17:41:00.003+09:00

The nights leading up to the parade at Gion Matsuri are known as Yoiyoiyoiyama, Yoiyoiyama and Yoiyama. It rained through the first two but cleared up for one good night wandering around town looking at the yamaboko.

Here Keiko helps Natsuki put on a yukata for the first time since junior high.

Part of the Gion Matsuri is known as the Byobu Matsuri, where people open up their private collections and their homes.

There is a lot of garbage. Armando and Natsuki frolicked among it.

This is Fune Boko. Which is a Hoko that looks like a boat.

Fish, take warning, run from Japan.

UFC 116: To Kill a Mockingbird

2010-07-04T01:38:00.002+09:00

(the 'a' key barely works on this keyboard. sorry)

Commissioner Dana White stumbled towards the podium with his fly down and a t-shirt with picture of Christopher Hitchens smoking a cigarette. As he chuckled to himself a slight stream of champagne slid from his nose.

Madsen vs. Vemola

Yeah, this undercard is a real grab-bag. Light it on fire and stomp on it. A lot of guys with good records in small promotions vs. guys with middling records in big promotions. There just isn't enough data. I think Vemola might be more talented but Madsen has more UFC experience. Let's say Madsen by TKO in the 2nd.

Roberts vs. Petz

Again, what do we really know? I am going Roberts by decision.

Harris vs. Branch

Harris is a real dogged fighter. Good take-downs and top control. He will probably win but I am going to call a surprise sub for Branch in the 1st. Interesting.

Grove vs. Reljic

Two super talented guys with big holes in their games. Reljic's being injury and subsequent lay-off, which makes me question him. Grove who's lack of beard is epic. I really love Grove's game but you just can't bet on Glass Joe. Reljic by KO in the 2nd after being out fought by Grove.

Romero vs. Petruzelli

One of the strnge things about operating on the fringes of the MMA world is that I realistically know that Seth Petruzelli could come into my gym and kick my and everyone else's ass (as long as Enson wasn't there) however, come on....whatever. Romero by decision.

Schaub vs. Tschurer

Schaub is a fighter I am actually interested in. His boxing is still a little robotic but not in so bad a way. He throws straight punches and has a good one two with some decent head movement. He is also a very good, strong athlete. I got Schaub by TKO in the 3rd.

Sotiropoulos vs. Pellegrino

Damn. Two fighters I really like. Pellegrino has really impressed with his improvement. He isn't great at anything but he is tough as hell. He fought Alberto Crane with a hole in his mouth. I really pull for the guy. But. But. Sotiropoulos reps Purebred hard. Is that enough to make me pick him? Probably. He first stood out to me on TUF when he kind of ignored everything that was going on and took the training and woke up early to run sprints in the yard. That is the kind of fighter to watch. In his last fight Sotiropoulos ran a grappling train on Joe Stevenson, who is no slouch. I am very excited to watch this and it could go any myriad of ways. I see Sotiropoulos getting taken down but winning the scrambles and getting some good body triangles and taking the back for a positional decision.

Bonnar vs. Soszynski

No offense, but who cares? Soszynski by clinching to decision. Two good guys who aren't relevant anymore.

Lytle vs. Brown

I have never hid my love for Chris Lytle. Bad tattoo. Fireman. Good boxer. Great grappler, but only in secret. I also appreciate Brown and his strange folk hero status. Brown is tough but Lytle is way better technically. If Lytle fights dumb, which he sometimes does on purpose, Brown can find a way to when. Let's hope he decides to bust out his grappling and submits Brown in the 1st.

Akiyama vs. Leben

Now we are talking. Too bad Wanderlei's body fell apart before this fight leaving the Cat Smasher to come in on a quick two week turnaround. Leben can win any fight he is in by having a steel head and real power in his hands. Akiyama is small for the weight class but excessively talented. He is better boxer and great in the clinch. He is stronger and better on the ground. I got Akiyama by sub in the 3rd.

Lesnar vs. Carwin

i should decide on the merits of the fight, but Brock Lesnar, while being immensely gifted is a bigot and a moron. Can't play with him. Can't win with him. There are a lot of unknowns in this one as well. Neither guy has been tested as much as we need to make a verdict on them. If Carwin come out and stops a double leg, then it is on. Carwin has sick, sick power. Does Lesnar have a chin? Who knows? Carwin by KO in the 1st.

Take it to the office kids.

Lara Logan: Voice of Our Betters

2010-07-01T23:49:00.002+09:00

I assume most people have been following the uproar over Gen. McChrystal's ridiculousness. What has been more ridiculous is the has been the claws of the media reaching out for Michael Hastings (a high school classmate of a friend of mine's by the way.) The guy did nothing wrong accept for witness something important and then talk about it and he was pilloried as if he had shat on the carpet. Of course, during a war where we aren't allowed to see dead bodies I assume that pointing out anything is a hard party foul, and what are our current elite if not hard partiers. I could go on about this for a while, but I think that Matt Taibbi and Cenk Uyger pretty much covered all of the bases for me.

A slightly bothersome element of all this is that Lara Logan has had her strong points in covering the Iraq war, but I think for some social climbing is what got them to the dance and they are determined that it is going to get them to the hotel room afterward. Again, it is how we select our elite that is at fault. If you put yourself out there as a clutcher and a grabber, someone is going to toss you a coattail. If you are good at being ignorant at the right times, you will be well fed. Another confirmation of what we already know. The system is not just broken, it is decripit and infested.

Garra

2010-07-01T23:48:00.000+09:00

Here is a great article on Uruguay and the World Cup.

A Brazilian

2010-06-26T17:31:00.002+09:00

I have always wondered about this and never gotten a real answer. This comes close but doesn't really tell us why.

Rub It in

2010-06-26T16:11:00.003+09:00

If you didn't know, that is where I grew up. Although there is no place called "Destin Beach." Maybe he meant to say "From the beach in Destin." But I wander from the topic. This isn't just near where I grew up, or like where I grew up. Nope, this is it. I can tell you how to get to that spot on bicycle from the batch plant on Joe's Bayou. That is local. Or should I say, that is hitting close to home.

I suppose this video has been making the rounds recently. The reason it is so popular, I would guess, is that it features an irresponsible mother allowing her children to swim in an oil spill. That is pretty dumb, but it isn't the dumbest thing I have seen on that very beach. Tourists swim when red flags are out and snow birds jump in in the dead of winter. Spring breakers take videos from their hotel rooms of people swimming with sharks, unaware that they are present, and laugh. This of course before they get drunk and fall off of balconies. I figure these people paid for their vacation and are by God determined to have them. I don't like them but I can understand them. Driving down to the Gulf is one of the vacations that fit into their budgets. They save up and they come down and they want to buy cheap t-shirts and splash in the water. Sharks and currents and temperature and oil be damned.

(A brief aside to this woman's raw stupidity: For a brief few years when I was young, the house next to ours was rented to a bunch of real south Alabama rednecks. The older brother would practice juggling hatchets in the front yard and they all had ADD and wanted to grow up to be Baptist preachers. One day the youngest son, threw a rock, which must have been when they rebuilt the street because we don't have rocks in Florida, and hit me in the eye. I ended up in the hospital and sported an eye patch for a week or so. But, as I lay their collapsed and crying, the father ran out of the house and said in all earnestness, "Rub some sand in it." So no this woman doesn't surprise me.)

But there is dumber by far than any of these things going on in this video and sadder by a long shot. As the Michael Jackson movie says, "This is It." This is what years of saying no to drilling and "Save our Shores" gets you in the end. No more cutting school to head to the beach. No more welcome home shrimp boils or church fish fries. No more saying to people, "Yeah, this is a nice beach, but I am spoiled, mine is the best in the world." No more "hey look there are dolphins out today." Or giant manta rays. Because, even the most ardent, carbon conserving environmentalist can have that part of their lives cut out like a rotten wisdom tooth if someone else, someone with more power is willing to gamble all of those things for a private jet and a yacht to race.

My grandmother always talked about how it wasn't as rough for them during the Depression because they always had the Gulf. It wasn't like the economy was going to stop them from catching fish. So people with enough pluck and mobility moved to Destin and started over, or at least got by. And now, in our new Depression? Well, our patrimony was confiscated and sold on credit to people who didn't need it anyway. I have always argued that even though I believe in cost benefit analysis and environmental economics, I am, when it comes down to it, a Sand County Almanac environmentalist. Water parks aren't fun for me and I don't mind a long walk if there is something to see. I don't think I am that special in this respect. I just wish people with power would realize that oil spills aren't an excuse to stop drilling, they are a reason. That pollution isn't a silly buzzwords that hippies mutter between joints, it is something that gets in the way of our weddings and our homecomings and our funerals and our church benefits and our jobs and our futures.

If someone told people that they had to burn a sea turtle or shoot a dolphin to get their SUV to start they wouldn't have the guts to do it, but Americans are cowards by proxy, we are good at a distance. I can't understand that abstraction but I am sure I have made it myself. Me, who doesn't own a car but will fly across the Pacific and throw away plastic bags. Maybe I should do my penance and walk down to the river and strangle a duck. "Just rub it in." She says laughing.

Maradonna - Live is Life

2010-06-26T15:55:00.001+09:00

You know, for all the ways that this guy is a ridiculous boor, I have to think that we are better off having him around. What a nutter.

And here he is at 45, doing it again.

One Goal

2010-06-26T15:33:00.003+09:00

I'm guessing you have already seen this. It is pretty amazing. I was watching in the middle of the night at my house. The stream went out and I could only get one in Arabic. The announcer fell silent during the goal and the point didn't go up on the scoreboard so I thought it was going to be disallowed. I called Ed who's stream was 3 minutes late and so had no idea what I was talking about.

I will agree with what I said before, a hard task I know to confirm yourself, and state that I don't believe in the idea of a "national character" but that something like that is expressed by teams in the World Cup. I am again glad at the face that the USMNT presents. Before I commented on their diversity and back stories but again, a real American playing style is showing itself. Hard charging, direct, and tenacious. I do think their is something to the way teams like Italy, France and to a certain degree England have crumbled mentally and emotionally while the USA in the face of reffing miscues and defensive blunders have remained mentally strong and fought back. The U.S. brand of football gets citicesed as not technical or creative, but I like it. It is the kind of football I grew up playing and the way I tell people to play. I think it is a style.

I should point out that despite the reactions in the USA being moving, when I talk about wanting the USMNT to gain respect, really don't care so much about within the US, although that is nice, I want football fans around the world to understand how the game is played in The States. Moreover, that it is played in The States.

USA vs. Slovenia

2010-06-18T16:52:00.002+09:00

So much free time, so little bloggeration. Could it be the overtaking of secret projects. The undertaking? Who knows. Could it be that I am avoiding writing about BP and the Gulf so I can avoid thinking about it? Sounds promising. Fortunately we are deep in the thrall of the World Cup, the good old Mundial. And here I sit with something approximating month long jet lag from watching too much of the bouncing, bouncing ball.

There are many disparate opinions out there on the USMNT's performance against jolly old England. I was happy with the dog fight. What was expected? Pretty soccer. No. That wasn't ever happening. People will protest that Onyewu was coming too far out of the goal, but with all the randomness involved, who knows? He was also stopping plays from developing. The British press, ready to lionize its....lions, instead retreated into their misery, attributing the entire debacle to their keeper. But it wasn't poor Green and his kitchen mitts. Was it not Gerrard who let Deuce jerk him like a chicken to get that meandering shot off? It was. Lion indeed.

Next up, Slovenia. I small Slavic country that plays a lot like the Americans, only slower and with less size and power. Don't mistake me, they can win. Anyone can win. We have seen how this tournament is going. There is a large outcry for Torres's inclusion in the starting 11. I count myself among that chorus, but I see the arguments to stick with Clark. If Slovenia goes up a goal early, they will park the bus, but the Club on it, poor sand in the gas tank and put it up on cinder blocks. No fun for anyone.

Against this kind of defense, Dempsey's ball control and ability to take on defenders will be front and center. Donovan can take on defenders but it is usually at speed and I don't know how much space will be created. I would like to see Buddle in and taking shots on goal, but Altidore has showed the ability to run past stationery center-backs.

I will have to run directly from our show tonight to some bar to catch the game. I am just looking to get through the show and go. I think that the USA should be able to pull this off, but you never know when your opposition has a strong keeper and a disciplined defense. If the USA can get this, I like their chances to go for goal differential against Algeria while England faces Slovenia.

I want to start referring to Torres as "Pocket Xaxi." Is that okay? Give me the credit. Let's do this.

Showtime!

2010-06-13T02:25:00.002+09:00

Well, here we are. The rosters are out. The chips are bought. I think I am staying in so that I don't weep in front of strangers which ever way this goes. This is a hard emotional attachment to explain but I very clearly remember its beginning, jumping up and down on my couch in 1994 as the USA dropped Columbia. It was the most American I had ever felt and I loved yelling for my country and meaning it.

I was fortunate enough to be in the stadium in Suwon in 2002 when Portugal fell and I sulked through 2006. And here it is. The U.S. versus England. It doesn't determine the whole cup. It doesn't mean everything. When Ed and I got back from Korea, full of all the exhilaration of history, our English friend brushed it off, "But that was just a fluke really, wasn't it?" Of course my stake in this game isn't so petty, but it would be nice for those of us who grew up playing the game to not have to put up with condescension and derision from those who grew up watching it on TV and therefore feel more knowledgeable. Hubris is a fat straw and it is usually America that is having to bend over and suck hard at it. Not in this case. I, as usual, wish the English team well. I very much want them to win the World Cup. I think bursting their little bubble will be just the thing to put them over the edge.

My prediction?

USA 2 England 1

It could go any myriad of ways. It could get sloppy and out of control. It could very easily be a tie. Somehow I just see it happening.

Prepare your stanky leg.

A Goal, A Ghost

2010-06-12T16:00:00.002+09:00

A great piece by ESPN.

Why the World Cup Matters

2010-06-11T19:37:00.004+09:00

Although I have been thinking on this for a bit, I am going to write it in a hurry. Why? Out the door soon for Mexico vs. South Africa.

In its construction I think it is mostly a list of reasons why I shouldn't love the World Cup. I think that asking the global south to fund a circus to entertain the global north, especially when it is being hosted by the country with the highest income gap in the world, is unconscionable. I have said before that the confines of saying one is from a certain nation are being strained in this age. I also disagree with overhyping national characters which have little bearing on reality.

Then why do I like, no, love and support the World Cup? Especially considering that I am fairly lukewarm when it comes to the Olympics with all of its housewife pandering pageantry and niche sports emerging from hibernation. I don't mean to insult the Olympics. At times I love them and I certainly enjoyed attending them in Atlanta. I think there is something to be said for the World Cup only featuring one sport. And that sport truly being a world sport. Even with its travel teams and development schools soccer is a game that can be played by poor people as well as rich people anywhere anytime. All you need is a ball or some friends with a ball. It is truly a sport that requires no explanation on most corners of the earth. Those corners turn their attention every four years to the World Cup.

How does that take the event beyond mere spectacle? Even though I discount the idea of a national character, some degree of said non-existent substance starts to emerge in the development of a nation side. Why? Good question. Because each country is responsible for developing its own talent and hiring a manager and administrating the program. So we find things like a Japanese side who seem so reluctant to take a shot without asking for permission. Or a South Korean team who would rather play in a turban of gauze covered in blood than lose to the US. We have the historic German teams who played with robotic precision and Brazilian squads filled with former street kids winking at there own cleverness. A national soccer team presents a face for the country and where they are at that point in time. A face that is different than the one presented by the political leadership or the national media. The only reason I know that Germany's immigration laws have begun to get more reasonable is that they now have the children of Turkish immigrants playing for their team. Was it not the drama of a North African Arab leading France, who had been resistant to people like him even existing, that lead his country to the championship?

That is the overwhelming reason that I love the team that represents my country. I love that their last names are not only Donovan and Dempsey but Torres, Bocanegra, Onyewu and Altidore. I am very happy that is the America that the rest of the world will be looking at for the next few weeks. An American team who is know for coming out and playing hard for 90 minutes and giving everything they have, not stopping to flop and not afraid to bleed. I am ecstatic that one of the greatest stars America has ever produced comes from a trailer park in Nacogdoches. I am thrilled that one of our forwards left his starting position in England to make sure his family in Haiti were all accounted for. I am very glad that our starting center back was forced to stay in college by his Nigerian immigrant parents.

Often as Americans we are represented abroad by politicians who don't speak for us and represented by movies whose characters don't represent us. Our professional athletes to a large degree have reached such upper levels of class that they no longer resemble humans. For a few weeks every four year I feel that there are a group of guys out there who do, in some way, speak for me. Is that ridiculous?

I would be remiss in not pointing out that I feel the same thing applies to other teams. Who better displays the perilous state of Honduran politics than their football team, and who isn't touched when their fans said to US fans after both had qualified to go to the World Cup, "Let's go there together."? Who can hate Didier Drogba, who was born in France but fiercely stands up for his heritage in Cote d'Ivoire, giving significant amounts of his fortune to build hospitals? Does it not invoke history to ponder why the Australian team has so many Croats playing for it? I love the World Cup completely and unapologetically. So should you.

World Cup: Players to Watch

2010-06-10T22:07:00.005+09:00

I suppose it would be easy to draw up a list of super stars and say "Follow them!" However, I want to single out a few players that I will be excited to watch and possibly you will help me keep track of their exploits. Should I try for eleven since that is a good soccer number? Okay, but it won't be by position.

(A brief note: The computer I mainly used is unable to produce sound, so I hadn't noticed DMX's excessively homophobic track over the Taiwo clip. DMX is a moron.)

1.　Taye Taiwo- Nigeria LB

I am really high on this left footed left back. I am partial to speed players with booming shots. He also takes free kicks. Pundits moan the dearth of African creativity, but I find running straight past people to be rather clever. He plays for Marseilles.

2. Giovanni Dos Santos- Mexico MF

Again, speed kills and I seem to be a sucker for it. Watch this guy destroy France. It will happen. This 21 year-old plies his trade at Galatasaray.

3. Tim Cahill- Australia MF

He is labeled as a midfielder but will probably play as a withdrawn striker. I hate this guy so much when I don't want his team to win, but doesn't that mean he is a good player? Cahill plays with the mental attitude, the tenacity and drive that I wish every footballer had. Would he not fit in perfectly on the American team? Wait for him to get a goal just from always showing up wherever the ball is. Also, quality tattoos. Play at Everton.

4. Zeljko Brkic- Serbia Keeper

But wait, he didn't make the team!!! For shame. I saw this guy play live against Japan and he was some freakish keeper android. His goal kicks were literally played as set pieces around the other teams penalty box. I was very much looking forward to watching him get robotic. Maybe you can catch him at FK Vojvodina.

5. Marcus Tulio Tanaka- Japan DF

How much more ruckus can this F'r cause? He scores against England and then score for England against Japan later in the same game. Then he flying knees Africa's greatest hope straight onto the surgery table. He is a bull in a China shop and that is what Japan needs as the rest of the players are trying to wrap the China properly and fit it delicately into a gift bag. He plays up the road at Nagoya Grampus.

6. Mesut Ozil- Germany MF

Look at the name again. Now look at the country. Something has changed. Yes, in fact the immigration laws of Germany have changed making people born in Germany of Turkish heritage into the real Germans that they are. So now people who would have played for Turkey can play for Germany. As much as I hate to root for the bastards, watch this kid burn. He is going to be a star. Straight out of Werder Bremen.

7. Kevin Prince Boateng- Ghana FW

Speaking of Germany, Boateng grew up in Germany, the son of immigrants from Ghana and choose to play for his parents country after playing for Germany's youth squad. Not so odd you say. However, his brother remains a player on the German World Cup squad. Curious. More dramatic still, it was Boateng who took out German uber captain Michael Ballack, rendering him unable to play in any more World Cups. Drama from the man from Portsmouth.

8. Jong Tae-Se North Korea FW

They call him "The People's Rooney." Not just because he is built like an Asian brick layer, but because he also likes to lay bricks. In fact he pledges to score a goal a game at this tournament. Unfortunately North Korea's entire strategy consists of parking the bus and throwing away the keys. Jong plays ball for Kawasaki Frontale. Why? Because he was born and raised in Nagoya. He went to college in Japan as well. But it was a North Korean college. Since his parent are Korean immigrants, he could not become a Japanese citizen so he took North Korea's offer. Curious.

9. Park Ji Sung- South Korea MF

Speaking of a divided Korea, here is a real super star popping up on the list. Sorry, but Park Ji Sung is probably my favorite player in the world right now and I would be remiss in leaving him out. Nicknamed "Third Lung", Park is all over the pitch, all the time. He is tireless and speedy. He has abbout the best work rate I have ever seen in the game and plays all out. I love the dude and there is no need to point out that he plays for Man. U.

10. Wilson Palacios- Honduras MF

He is a big, reckless defensive midfielder who sometimes gets his team in trouble by flat out running over dudes. Witness Nani in the penalty box. As an American I feel some responsibility to pull for Honduras. Not that it is a chore, but that somehow we are in this together. Honduras might have more technical ability but he symbolizes the effort and drive that I love about CONCACAF. Watch him knock fools around for the Tottenham Hotspur.

11. Neven Subotic- Serbia DF

Two Serbs on one list! An inherent bias. The only thing about this Serb, other than that he actually made the squad is that he is an American. Well, pretty much. He could have been and maybe his paperwork is. Although he wasn't born in the U.S.(He was actually born in Bosnia) he grew up there and was discovered there, playing football in a park, much like Jozy Altidore. Subotic came up through the U.S. system and played for the under 20 team. He is now one of the more sought after defenders in Europe. He will always be the fish that slipped of the hook. I can't be mad at the guy for feeling he wants to play for his parents country, but it would have been great to have him. For now he plays his club ball at Borussia Dortmund.

My 5 Favorite Types of Goals

2010-06-09T23:58:00.008+09:00

With the World Cup upon us, there are many subjects I would like to tackle (all ball, of course) but I am being outdone on many different fronts. Again, I must recommend The Shin Guardian as the absolute best blog out there right now. Their review of England vs. USA tactics is light years beyond anything that CNNSI or ESPN, both of which I am a fan of, are even considering right now.

There are a lot of lists out there of best goals floating around out there. I want to do a little different take on that theme. I want to present my 5 Favorite Types of Goals. We can call them out when they show up in the WC. You can also tell me why I am wrong and which kinds you prefer. No one ever really takes me up on this kind of participation however.

Let's begin from my favorite at #1

#1 Balls Out Counter Attack

Is it any coincidence that this is the kind of goal that my beloved USMNT specializes in? Probably. Why is this my favorite? I think because the kind of soccer that I prefer is all-out effort soccer. Trying to play defense and get numbers and then burn. It also requires good passing, but not subtle passing. Also, watching live, it takes a few seconds to transpire and builds up to a will it happen or won't it moment. Lovely.

#2 Long Range Bomb

Do I even have to qualify this? Who doesn't like this stuff. I worry that maybe it is a little to American, like always wanting fireworks after the home run. Yet, in baseball I prefer the well laid bunt. No, I think shots like this are wonderful because they require rare ability and sick confidence. "Here I am 25 yard out with a few guys in front of me and the keeper in the goal. Why wouldn't I shoot?" Lovely.

#3 WTF!?

"Now, that is just a long range bomb," you might protest. But, no. You would be wrong. It is just that these kinds of goals generally have to take place at distance as there is no real room for them to happen in the box. Too many dudes to spoil the funk. Excessive taint of normalcy. Plus, they aren't bombs. They were just goals taken by guys who are sure that the rules of the universe are optional and for who "I just thought I'd give it a try" is a creed. Good on you fellows. Lovely.

#4 Miserable Failure Own Goals

Who doesn't love them? Remind me to tell you about mine some day. Not my fault. Jeff Agoos? All his fault. Lovely.

#5 Chilavert!!!!!

Who didn't love this complete bad-ass straight outta Paraguay. Sadly he is retired from the world of football but he graced it for long enough to leave us spell-bound. Take that every other keeper ever! Lovely.

Not Even I Can Endorse This

2010-06-03T19:13:00.002+09:00

I saw an add for this in a station or on a train somewhere last week, and thought "that can't be true." Apparently it was. How, in any way, even by my lax moral standards can this be considered okay?

U.S. History

2010-06-03T18:58:00.002+09:00

Here is an essential read on the history of the USA in the World Cup. Complete with rad photo.

Hatoyama: Whither Though Goest

2010-06-03T18:42:00.003+09:00

You would have thought that the earth stopped spinning and the sun had failed to rise and the overenthusiastic reaction to Prime Minister Hatoyama's resignation yesterday. Wait, no, that was in some bizzaro universe where Japanese people care about politics and Japanese politicians care about people. Here, in reality, neither of these things are true. Japanese people care about shopping and Japanese politicians care about preserving a largely hereditary hierarchy. If you will remember 8 months ago, after the elections I stated that I didn't think it would really matter. I could get a little excited that the dam in Gunma was suspended and that Futenma might be halted. Also there was slight talk about immigration reform, but really, what is going to change. Very little changes very slowly in Japan. Hatoyama, who received payments of $175,000 a month from his mother to support his political career was a soft child of privilege who had little business running his country. His successor? Lather, rinse, repeat. If it was truly the Futenma issue that brought him down then wasn't he toppling anyway? If the U.S. military can boss you around in your own country, are you the leader? As I have said to anyone who asks, bases in Okinawa, Futenma included, aren't really a U.S. versus Japan issue as much as they are a Tokyo versus Okinawa issue. If Tokyo wants the bases, put them in Tokyo, if not have the courage to say no to the Americans.

When any leader leaves, the speculation begins over who might replace them. I don't care. It will just be a copy of a copy of a copy until something actually changes.

UFC: 114 Turn to Stone

2010-05-29T23:44:00.002+09:00

Dana White, Commissioner, walked to the stage holding and oil soaked egret by its scrawny neck. "Black on black crime!" He declared, strangling the egret, its eyes bugging and, finally, relaxing.

Forbes vs. Jensen

No interest. Jensen by decision.

Riley vs. Brammer

Riley is entertaining but can be his own worst enemy. Riley by decision.

Guillard vs. Lowe

Guillard can be submitted like an application. But that doesn't happen here. Guillard by 2nd round KO.

Cane vs. Diabate

Most people are saying Cane, but he has disappointed before. Does that mean that Diabate hasn't? No, but I am taking him anyway. I like his striking. Diabate by 3rd round TKO.

Escudero vs. Lauzon

If you haven't been following the gossip, Dan Lauzon's brother and the rest of his camp gave him the boot last week because they don't think he takes fighting seriously. That is a rough break. I wouldn't have picked him anyway. Escudero wrestles him to smithereens and hurts him for a 2nd round TKO.

Abdullah vs. Kim

I am a big fan of both guys. Abdullah really emerged from nowhere to be a real, old-school striker. He also displayed a surprising nack to survive, and win, on the ground. I just can't see how Kim is a good match-up for him though. Kim is a strong, tough guy who will get take downs and will hold his position and not get arm-barred. I would be just as happy to see either guy win, but I have to go with Kim for a TKO in the 3rd.

Sanchez vs. Hathaway

Yes! That isn't my enthusiasm, just the excess remnants of Diego's. Yes! Sanchez moves back up a weight class and will win a decision because he will out scramble, out position and out pace Hathaway who is a decent fighter. Sanchez by decision.

Duffee vs. Russow

Apparently the UFC wants to hype Duffee. His win streak continues. Duffee by 1st round
TKO.

Nogueira vs. Brilz

The strange thing is, Brilz record ain't that bad. However, Nog really seems to be in the zone lately. I think he takes this win with only a small struggle, but remember, he is the fighter that launched Sokudjo by becoming his KO victim. Brilz is perfectly capable of hurting him. But I think Nogueira gets the KO in the 3rd after a good fight.

Bisping vs. Miller

I say it every time, I just don't believe in Bisping. It isn't that I don't find him likable or that I haven't been impressed by his ability to regain guard or his stamina. There is a lot to like about Bisping. But whatever it is that makes me never bet against a Diaz makes me never bet for Bisping. I just don't think he has it all together. Strangely I have a Diaz corollary rule; I also never bet against a Miller. True, they do lose, but that isn't the crux of the rule. Neither Jim nor Dan are guys that I count out of any match. Did Dan get out wrestled by Chael Sonnen and out struck by Damian Meia? Yes. Will that change my mind? No. I also usually go against fighters that can't put in a good camp. Miller's unfortunate situation with an ill child has to be trying for him. It must be difficult. I count all of this against him but then must make the pick for him do to the rare crushing sub power he has that Bisping will never taste as hard as he might work. Miller by sub in the 2nd.

Jackson vs. Evans

And we come down to it. Culturally I align with Jackson. We come from similar places and he talks like the kids from my school talk. Also, on a time line of my involvement with the sort I align with Jackson as he was ruling Japan when I got here. However, I agree to a certain degree with Rashad Evans critique of Rampage; he does play knowingly, to some degree, a stereotyped character of a Southern black man. I would make sure to include in that statement that Jackson is clearly very intelligent as the fool he makes out of this act often isn't him even when it sounds that way on first listen. I still remember his answer to the reporters question when he was fighting in Pride, "Where do you think you will be in 5 years?" "Well, I am 23 right now, so I reckon that will put me at about 28 in 5 years." But then he also had incidents where he molested reporters who didn't know they were allowed to say, "Stop!" He is also clearly nuts as the story of his religious conversion and his runaway monster truck episode make clear. There was a time when I loved Rampage completely but these parts of him have soured on me and I only like him in bits now. One bit I didn't like was the lazy and petulant coach that also riled Rashad Evans. I usually back a fighter that I feel trains better and it is no question here that that is Rashad Evans. Who has more actual skill? It would probably be Jackson, even though Evans is a bit quicker in hand speed. The only issue, and it has always been the issue, is that Rampage Jackson is one of the streakiest fighters out there. He has excellent boxing defense. He has excellent submission defense and defensive wrestling. He has a great chin and natural power. I have said here before that Evans, while a wrestler, wrestles poorly in MMA and wears himself down trying to push people around the cage. Jackson has notoriously absent leg-kick defense. All things being even, I would take Jackson to win and not trust Evans chin. I don't trust Evan's chin still, but the only we evidence we have that Jackson trained well was the UFC program that also convinced people that Dan Hardy could fight GSP. I can't stake anything on Jackson's consistency as there is none. If he comes out and fights to his potential, then he wins going away. I can't guarantee it so I go with someone who I know put in the time. Evans by split decision.

There it is, plug up an oil spill with it.

The Shin Guardian

2010-05-29T21:39:00.002+09:00

I don't know if anyone has noticed but The Shin Guardian has been 100% the best footy site in the lead up to the World Cup. This kind of article is exactly what is missing from...everywhere. There has been a dearth of writing like this since Paul Zimmerman had his stroke. Of course it stands out that there is no copy editor, but what can you do? I also enjoy this article because formation is something that is hard to evaluate on TV but really comes through live. It is also something, I feel, that the USMNT does very well. They usually are diligent at keeping their shape and then going forward out of it. Great piece.

Randtastic

2010-05-27T09:22:00.002+09:00

I am very late with this. Piling on after the whistle and whatnot. Rachel Maddow summed it up pretty well. That is, of course, one of the perks of being a media personality; you get first dibs at summing things up.

I have been an anti-proponent of Libertarianism (look, I won't even spell it right.) Since I attended a presidential debate in college. It wasn't really a presidential debate, I don't think the candidates bother with Alabama, it was a debate by proxy with the candidates representatives on campus standing in for their ideas. The Republicans were a hilarious farce with their man speaking in this crazy, over the top, Southern accent, being every bit Truman Capote and all that that infers. The Libertarians spoke loudly but made no sense, and this is largely the impression I have had of them since then. I remember when being questioned about their environmental policies, they contended that everything could be taken care of after the fact by lawsuits, like if someone threw garbage on your lawn. It was proposed to them that maybe a regulation saying that you can't throw garbage on other people's lawns might stop people in advance. No, they protested, it wouldn't. I have found their ideology to have about this depth since and have largely written them off as a party for teenage boys.

Nothing Rand Paul has said has convinced me otherwise. Libertarianism has become the portable umbrella for those who are too ignorant to read the radar map; they know they can just pop it out whenever they are in trouble. No thought ever seems to run too deep. I won't dwell on what Paul said as it has already been well covered. Here is the question I would have asked him. "Who enforces the rules when a disallowed group tries to do business where they are prohibited?" For example, in Rand Paul's world, private businesses can bar black people from patronizing them. If unwanted parties patronize that business, let's picture a restaurant, and the owner objects but they refuse to leave, do the owners call the police? Then, if the police respond, is it their obligation to kick the people out of the restaurant? Then it is the government endorsing the discrimination. Do Libertarians just not think that far down the road, or do they actually not care. Would it be acceptable to have our police enforcing private discrimination.

Another brief note. Japan has no laws guaranteeing human rights. It is completely legal to say that a group of people aren't allowed to live in a building or eat in a restaurant based on whatever. I have to get approval and have a sponsor to rent an apartment as a foreigner. When I call to inquire about a place to rent I am asked "Where are you from? That might be a problem." I have been refused credit cards and phones on the grounds that I am not Japanese. There are hotels that refuse to deal with non-Japanese. Does Rand Paul find this acceptable? I don't. I think it is just an easy argument for people who are more comfortable with racism and discrimination than they would be with stamping it out.

Cech it Out

2010-05-27T09:04:00.002+09:00

Get it? Haha. Do I care that the US lost 4-2? No. I would have preferred that they win as it would mean that individuals were playing better, but that is all this game really was, a final test of specific individuals to see whether they would make the flight to South Africa or not. I still haven't gotten to watch the game so it is hard for me to say. I will conject that Onyewu's missed header that allowed a goal was probably more an issue with in-game timing as opposed to ability. I am 99% sure that the USMNT training staff measure things like vertical jump when they hold camps at that they have Gooch's records from before and after his injury. If there was a large discrepancy, it would have been noted. The same for his running speed. So when Grant Wahl, who I like very much, remarks that his running looks different, or that his jump might not have recovered, I would consider it only in terms of what the actual numbers say about his physical well being.

All of that being said, the final roster is out.

I am a bit surprised that Ching didn't make it. I have never big a big supporter of his but I recently rewatched some Gold Cup games, and he does do the little things extremely well. He just isn't fast. I do believe in the need for fast players, especially the way the US plays. I would have liked to seen Bedoya in, but it wasn't like he had a right to the spot. Buddle and Gomez are great stories and I think they can both score on the big stage. I am very excited.

We Are Here

2010-05-19T19:57:00.003+09:00

I would like to fully endorse this collaboration between Brahman and Ego-Wrappin which is the best new Japanese music, all be it from old sources, that I have heard in a while. I was in a record store in Yokohama yesterday and had to stop and ask, "What is this?" Rad. It reminds me of Pee. The band, not the liquid.

Daitokoji

2010-05-19T19:49:00.006+09:00

A photo I took in college hung on my wall in Miyazaki the entire time I lived there, no matter the apartment. It became faded and curled and we when I left my window open during a typhoon. It was of a long stone path through a green thicket of bamboo with bamboo railing increasing the effect of distance, focusing it towards a mossy gate. I could remember going there in college. I could remember taking the picture. I remembered the bus stop I waited at changing to the train and I could remember the stone wall outside. I just couldn't remember where I had taken the picture. There was a time when I could but it went away. Then, the other day, it popped into my head.

Daitokuji is a complex of temples in Kita-ku near the more famous Ginkakuji. It was the haunt of the tea master Sen-no-Rikyu who funded its rebuilding. It is also where he comitted seppuku after being commanded to by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. A statue of Rikyu had been erected on the main gate of the temple and Hideyoshi was not happy about having to walk under it.

Daitokuji is a large complex filled with small subtemples. The one that haunted my memory was the Kotoin. The construction of the Kotoin is a prime example of what happens when Japan goes right. It is not that large a temple but it uses all of its space to great effect. The second gate, pictured below open onto a bamboo grove and takes a hard right turn, engulfing one in green.

This hard turn helps construct one of the best views in Kyoto. The picture which lived on my wall.

The distance is misleading. It isn't that long a walk, but everything works to stretch it out in the mind. Perfectly executed. Even the hand rail is exquisite.

The Kotoin was the territory of Rikyu's understudy Sansai who was also a powerful samurai. While in Kitaku, I would have to say that this room is a prime example of Higashiyama Bunka. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Does this hallway qualify as engawa? I think so. I am partial to it.

This is the garden. The stone lamp is said to be a present from Sen-no-Rikyu.

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The colors on this tree seemed striking, not only for being out of season.

This is Sansai, and his Catholic wife Gracia.

Izumo-no-Okuni, the founder of Kabuki who danced on the shoals of the Kamo river because they weren't taxed, is buried here. Her statue is the one by Shijo Ohashi, if you were wondering.

These tea ceremony basins are designed intentionally low so that the participants will have to supplicate themselves. I believe this is the stone that was supposed to have been taken from Korea.

The Permeable Cone!

2010-05-12T22:31:00.001+09:00

This is a pretty F'ing rad idea and just simple enough that it won't be tried. Of course it might not work and this could be attempted right now. But, of course, it is one of those ideas that might work but well, um, we really can't do it. Why? I don't know.

The First Cut is the Deepest

2010-05-12T13:07:00.003+09:00

The preliminary USMNT roster came out today and Charlie Davies wasn't on it. Neither were Frankie Hejduk or Brian McBride. That takes care of all of the special choices for the lovers the dreamers and me. Coach Bradley has much more hanging on this World Cup than business casual fans like me and he gets paid to make the choices most of us don't want to make.

I was going to write a bit today on what I thought the criteria for Davies inclusion in the team should be. My standard would have been if he could run hard for 15 minutes I would take him. That is if his running hard was at his old speed. I thought if that was the case he would always be good at the end of a desperate game. He can definitely go get the ball. I will assume that the coaching staff is looking at pretty much the same stuff and, to be fair, Davies own club team won't clear him to play. Also, his risk of reinjury is very high at this stage. It happens all to frequently. People work hard to get back and their bodies aren't used to straining after the time off and try to cover for the injured part and you end up with pulled hamstrings and ruptured tendons. I was really pulling for Davies and I think he represents the U.S.'s best hope at staging upsets, but I am also a realist. It might have been nice to bring him along as kind of a talisman. However, I am confident he will have a great future with the USMNT.

I also wanted Hejduk to be included as an option out of the defense. I love the fury he plays with and if the speed was still there, I would have taken him. Maybe it isn't. Now, I am pulling for Hercules Gomez. Leading the Mexican league in goals is no small feat. Edson Buddle is a great story. If Eddie Johnson could ever get it together he posses prodigious talent. I wish I knew more about Bedoya. I would be very happy to see Beasely return to form. He is a lot for slower teams to handle when he is on. He is a persistent nuisance on offense and defense and he can make the difference in big games.

I am very stoked for the World Cup and I look forward to spending June sleeping late or waking up early.

Update: Here is The Guardian's treatment of the England team. I wish the U.S. would put out something like this.

Bubble Watch

2010-05-10T20:32:00.003+09:00

There are a lot of pieces out now on who will make the cut for the USMNT. I have read all of them that I can get my hands on. This is my favorite so far, because it seems aims at true soccer geeks like.....me. Although I did read another that suggested that McBride be a selection at forward just in case. I assume that would be the same argument I used to make for Teddy Sheringham, but you can see England isn't going to include him. I would have to agree with the Hejduk pick. Has the guy seemed to slow down at all?