Monthly Archives

Already : Hatachi Monthly Archives

« February 2003 · Archive Home · April 2003 »

fox (for entertainment only) news Friday March 28

has the whole world gone mad?

we all knew that fox news was bunk, but this, well, in the words of old strong bad, "'dis one takes da cake." not that i watch much television, but this is my public decree that i will never watch fox again (except for the simpsons).

i have twin boobs Tuesday March 25

there's a blog project out there called the blog twinning project. i only learned this when i looked through my referrer logs and noticed a vistor had come to my site from there, and i wondered why. usually, most of my "random" links come from either misguided search engine keyphrases (like, "hatachi" for "hitachi"), or from blogsnob hits.

however, when i clicked through on the referrer log, this page came up. the twinning project's header is bringing people together, whether they like it or not, and they certainly have done that: my weblog twin is a page entitled "the breast chronicles" (no, it's not porn).

i did a little investigation on the twinning site, and they say that blogs are twinned based on which other blogs readers feel are similar. so i started reading the breast chronicles, and i quickly realized that this site is not like mine. so again, i ask, why did i get paired (by three people, mind you) with a boob blog?

mono and war Sunday March 23

cara got mono. and strep. and i think that i'm next, but i think that such a thing would be perfectly timed given that it is spring break. however, it has been almost a week since she fell ill, and i still have no symptoms. i have a head cold, but that's totally independent of mono symptoms.

other than that, there's a lot of things on my mind, and it is wrong of me not to have collected thoughts here sooner.

regan, reva, and i went to merry ann's diner last thursday night for coffee and food. i was trying to make up for the worst cup of coffee i've ever had™, i ordered some mighty-fine chili, french fries (i mean, uh, freedom fries), and some so-so coffee. merry ann's usually does better, but i'll take what i can get in this time of strife and war. one must learn to make sacrifices for the country, and i am sure that the good coffee beans of the world are supporting our troops. i should be so selfish to think that i deserve good coffee while our boys are out in the name of freedom.

man, i thought i was going to do better than that. i thought it would take me at least a page or so to get into it about the war.

i disapprove of war.

i think that that perspective is tired, though. you've heard the liberal college student approach before. you don't want to hear it, so i'll put a new twist on it. you might even learn something, as i did at this fine institution.

currently i am enrolled in ealc 328, which is called "japan at war and peace", and it is taught by professor david goodman of the ealc department. in this class, we have covered japanese history as it pertains to world war ii. no, we don't talk about how many planes were bombing pearl harbor, and no, we don't cover "key battles" like okinawa or anything like that -- this isn't a class for war nuts. it's a class about why world war ii played out the way it did in the pacific, and how japan has recreated the war after the fact in attempts to hide its truths. i'm reading a fictional book at the moment about a man who was in hiroshima at the time of the atomic bombing, but my interest in this post is on japan, not the united states.

japan was "invaded" by westerners in the mid-nineteenth century. for literally ages, it was a closed-off nation, one that did not exist as a "nation" in terms of the world solely because as an island, no one knew about it, and no one left the island (save china). however, the west started coming in, and it was clear to japan that if it didn't do something fast, people were going to start carving up the island for other nations (reference the native americans and western explorers).

so then this emperor meiji gets into power, and he essentially starts setting up a government to re-create japan. at first, the japanese mass-imported western styles, literature, and ideas. then, after the japanese had a grip on their country, they decided that although the west had been key in their societal development, that they had reached the top of the plateau. they applauded themselves for being able to climb as a civilization in only fifty years, and they applauded that they had warred with china in 1895, russia in 1905, and won both.

they then proverbially extended their middle finger to other nations and said, "yeah, what's up? we're a real country now, so don't try and step to us unless you want to have your kneecaps busted in." they took to western imperialism well, and it wasn't before long before the japanese military presence in shanghai and china was quite large -- cue the chinese communist revolution -- and then you've got a "westernized" nation who's losing out with the inability to continue to make money off of china.

japan felt, via their skirmish with china around 1900, though, that they were superior to china. in fact, they (the leaders, at least) felt they were superior to asia, and they felt that they were the west's gateway to the orient. if they acted in this fashion, they'd be in a great position of economic, military, and political power in the west in acting as a broker to the east.

japan, circa 1939: a country that has been building up strength for years. a country that had recent military success (they began invading china in the late 30s). a country whose recent military action succeeded so quickly that they moved on to other countries, proclaiming the entire way that they were the natural leaders of the pacific rim. they were taking that position because they "owned" it, e.g., japan had developed such power, and none of the others in asia had, so didn't that mean that they were the natural leaders? didn't that mean the yamato race was superior in thought, engineering, and politics? economics? japan, as a homogenous population, was patriotic. japan occupied most of the pacific rim by 1941. they then proceeded east to hawaii, and we know where that went. but we need not get into the japanese leaders' thought-pattern flaws in this post. essentially, they did not know how to lose because losing meant that everything that had thought, or at least, been told to think, was wrong. losing the war meant invalidating everything, and since they had always been successful before, there were no doubts about the war almost right up until the end. sure, the military leaders knew -- but they kept waiting for a key victory as a means to negotiate a conditional surrender with the united states. if they surrendered conditionally, they'd probably get to keep asia, and then they could have gotten seven armies on their next turn they'd still have "won".

the united states, present day: we are a country who had phenomenal military success in iraq in 1991, a country who relies on a key natural resource from the country it is provoking militarily, a country whose leaders believe that they are right in this action, and a country who believes that it is their natural job to police the rest of the world. if, for any reason, a country does not abide by america's ways, however, the country will invade them and oust their leader. they will then install a government that is friendly to america. but isn't american capitalism, freedom, and diversity the natural way? isn't it the best way? look at our success with it: we are the most advanced nation in the world economically and militarily, and how did we get that way? doesn't that mean that we know best? it's not by chance: it is because we know our stuff. our freedom makes us strong.

if we became the defeated nation, should i be surprised when it is us who will refuse to surrender, who will die for the freedom we so believe in? i may have the freedom to say this piece here, and i may have the freedom to march down the street in protest-- but my protests will do nothing to pull the hundreds of thousands (millions?) away from their boob-tubes, sucking up every syllable that cnn deems worthy.

the rhetoric of freedom is one that is used to control almost as much as it is to provoke patriotism, and i think that while our nation is great, we are not the natural best. we should mind our own problems. (how much money is being spent on war? why is the university operating on an unexpected 8 percent budget cut?)

we are too proud to accept that even we could be defeated. even in the face of defeat, when the country is cranking out propoganda to keep the war machine running to defend our great freedom, will it take only one nuclear weapon? or will it take two, as it did in japan, to finally allow us to realize that worldly imperialism is dead, and that the nathan playing risk empires only suffer the consequences of other nations' alliances to reduce the strength of the "on top" powerhouse?

who is to say that america itself could not be defeated against an alliance of nations who felt that we were their common evil? but truly, the first-world countries of the world would never turn against us, would they? someone get france, russia, and germany on the line.

spring break plans Wednesday March 19

so i've been running in circles so much that i haven't sat down and made time for my baby, my website. i've been cheating on you, pitchpipe.org. wpgu.com is my new mistress, and i have to give her a makeover before april 1st. no, i'm not back-burnering you baby, it's just i have a job to do.

anyway, it's time for mark's spring break plans:

• see guster. they're coming to chicago and st. louis. if i can't make time for them, then what kind of person am i?


• go home. i need an occasional influx of china palace buffet, pietro's pizza, dachshund, and rents to keep myself going strong. nate, what are your exact salt lake plans now?


• redesign wpgu.com. i inherited this task. stuff happens.


• sell my soul to erik white. for those of you who know erik, you may be well-aware that the man knows what he's doing with computers -- so much that he's subcontracting me to work on a project for him. but i'm not allowed to talk about it. when we're the next big IPO, then i'll tell you all abo-- wait, it's not 1999 anymore; nevermind.


• read ahead. the idea i have is that if i move ahead in all my classes, i'll have time to pleasure-read. right. but, i have to finish regan's book before the end of the semester.

sigh Monday March 17

this is another "please-come-back-soon-because-i-promise-and-i-really-mean-it-this-time" post. i have to work with class and work today until five, and after that i promise to tell you all about my weekend. there are some new pictures up, however, so check those out.

breaking my heart Thursday March 13

naomi, without even knowing it, broke my heart online today. we were talking about nathan going to leaving for law school in fall. then she said:

Talitha3182: after many years, they are all gone

the final decision Sunday March 9

i have decided to go to japan for an entire year for the purposes of studying abroad. after consulting my parents, my friends, and of course, making a necessary withdrawl from the bank of nate, i have come to the following conclusions on studying abroad for a full year:

• if i do not go, i will not have the opportunity to do so later on the same terms. if i return to japan again after graduation, i will face the costs of living on my own; i will have no student loans, scholarships, or parental support. therefore, it would be advantageous to master japanese by residing there while still maintaining student status.
• if i go for a semester on the senshuu university program, i will be repeating the kind of program i have done before, and while the actual language program may benefit my japanese immensely, i am not intending to studying abroad for language purposes only.
• todd will theoretically have an easier time finding a full-year roommate as opposed to a roommate that will occupy fall-only. the converse of this is that todd and i will not live together in a two-bedroom apartment; something we have decided would be a lot of fun and quite an extension of our allen 41 bachelor pad.
• if this experience does not open any doors for me, i do not see any other doors closing merely as an act of going. there are, of course, issues of place-time, i.e., if i were here, i would be in the right place for something, but the same could be said of anywhere.
• most of the people i know are on the five-year plan, so when i return to uiuc, i can reasonably assume that i will not be missing as many people. and if i am, then that is something i need to deal with; so far, i am an expert at detachment. i still can't determine whether or not that's a good thing. moreover, the people i really care about should be solid enough of friends that time/distance stand no issue. reference jon hutcheson.
• nathan will in law school next year, and therefore even if i did not go, i wouldn't see him. he alone would not be enough to hold me back, but it is a factor (combined with (3), the lease that nathan and i have already signed.)

this is all i can think of right now, but these are the major points that are in my mind in making this decision. years from now, if i ever were to ask, "what was i thinking?!", i will have the logical, appropriate answers. in life, often all i seek are explanations; understanding. i will have it, and that is pleasing to me.

yuck

as seen on an away message:

grainger from dawn till dawn

reason enough to transfer from ece.

dammit Tuesday March 4

the study abroad office notified me this morning that the program at ICU is a year-long program only; they were mistaken. therefore, i will either be studying abroad for a year, not at all, or finding a different program (unlikely). what to do?

round two Saturday March 1

todd mentioned the other day that when i get sick, i tend to get sick for much longer than anyone else he knows. hopefully, my t-cells are happy enough; but i really could have gone without yesterday.

thursday, charlotte and i went to o'charley's for lunch; i ordered a blackened chicken salad kind of thing, and only as i was finishing the last couple bites did i notice that i couple of the finely-cut pieces of chicken were slightly uncooked.

this didn't become a problem until yesterday, where i had a fever, felt like death, and even yakked the only thing in my stomach: water. however, i laid down after that, and i was out cold by 11:30pm. this morning i woke up, went back to bed, rolled around, and so on; it's 2:30pm and i feel fine. it's those 24-hour things, i'll take one anyday over the month-long phlegm-in-mark's-chest condition that is still persisting. now that the food issue is out of the way, we'll work on getting the rest of this phlegm out.