The Public Thoughts

Obama '08

2008-11-04T12:08:18Z

Lots I could say about today. Both my rationality and my emotions are kind of running high about the whole thing. But I'll just say...

...god damn it America make the right choice.

Denver Convention

2008-06-26T05:32:15Z

Every now and then, it seems that some brilliant Democrat will come up with an idea that will actually make it possible to lose the election in November.

Case in point: The Denver convention is going to be the "Greenest Show on Earth". Really? Political conventions are an exercise in flashiness and excess...isn't "being green" all about restraint? I guess not. This whole move is proving what I've thought for a long time: that being green is more a status symbol than anything else; a benefit enjoyed by those who have the money to pay extra for everything. While the DNC spends all this extra money in pursuit of an image, the "average folk" it represents are all tightening their belts. I applaud the effort to help the environment, but I think making such a huge deal out of it is counter-productive. The convention should be about boosting the candidate, not proving how "green" you are.

They'll also be using primarily union-made goods. I don't like it, but I understand coddling the unions and buying all American-made stuff for the convention. It is politics after all, coddling is part of it. I also understand the coddling of the green movement since the Republicans (outside of California) seem incapable of accepting basic environmental decency. But, what angers me most about this whole thing, is that the Democrats will also be coddling the health-nut wing of the party in their convention (from the article):

No fried food. And, on the theory that nutritious food is more vibrant, each meal should include "at least three of the following colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white." (Garnishes don't count.) At least 70% of ingredients should be organic or grown locally, to minimize emissions from fuel burned during transportation.

Democrats say the point is to build habits that will endure long after the convention. To that end, the city has staged "greening workshops" attended by hundreds of caterers, restaurant owners and hotel managers. "It's the new patriotism," [Denver] Mayor Hickenlooper says.

Part of this is that I just can't stand the lack of rationality present in the health foods and organic foods movement...but come on, Democrats don't like fried food? I guess I'm a Republican. Seriously, why bring the fat issue into it? It's a lifestyle choice, it's got nothing to do with politics. Democrats are supposed to be the party that is more accepting of people's lifestyles anyway. I'm sorry, but fried food is tasty and many Americans of all walks of life agree on this point...whoever made this decision is an idiot because Republicans will tear this apart as the convention nears.

Also, "it's the new patriotism"? Thank you, Mayor of Denver, you have perfectly illsutrated why our country will never solve any major problems. Any important issue is taken from its base goal and twisted into a label to be worn by those who use that issue to define themselves. I'm currently unable to express my anger at this statement in a coherent way, so I'll end it that.

Japan, will you let me stay a few more years? Even though you have your own problems and annoyances, for some reason it just doesn't bother me as much.

I never thought I'd say it but......

2008-06-04T09:22:40Z

Thanks, Drudge

Windows Vista Source Code

2008-04-07T00:54:08Z

Brilliant.

Florida and Michigan

2008-03-13T08:20:44Z

I can't imagine a more ridiculous scenario than the impending train wreck that is the Florida and Michigan primaries. Every single option is bad and will lead to voters feeling disenfranchised and whichever candidate loses will make a huge stink that they lost because the voting was unfair in Florida and Michigan. Especially Florida. Do those politicians in Florida honestly think they can smoothly conduct a snap election after what happened in 2000? If Florida does a mail-in election there will be race riots when it's learned that (big surprise), someone in Florida tried to make it hard for a black person to vote. Race riots lead to Obama becoming less popular and a polarized nation. He loses the presidency and his candidacy will be remembered for the polarizing effect it had, which is tragic since that is the complete opposite of what he stands for.

Whatever the decision is it will hurt the Democratic party and the nominee's ability to win the presidency. Nice going Florida and Michigan's state legislature for trying to say "fuck you" to every other state in the union.

What a Mess

2008-03-10T00:26:16Z

It's nice to see the Democratic primary is actually a real contest this year; it's Democracy in action. However, there's a huge drawback: The Republican primary is not a contest and John McCain is already raising money for the general election, while Hillary Clinton is going to try and undermine Obama (the likely nominee) every single day until August.

I think this opinion piece explains it pretty clearly:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/07/opinion/main3916817.shtml?source=mostpop_story

"Pennsylvania is a swing state that Democrats will almost certainly need to win in November, and Clinton will spend seven weeks and millions of dollars there making the case that Obama is unfit to set foot in the White House. You couldn't create a more damaging scenario if you tried."

To me, Obama's policies are basically the same as hers. However, he has eloquence and charisma and she doesn't. He has a fresh slate and she doesn't. He has a solid numerical advantage in delegates and she doesn't. Yet she plows on in this race, thereby undermining her own party. I realize she wants her name to be in the history books as "first female US president", but seriously...the idea that she would want McCain to win this year so she can swing in and try again in 2012 is absolutely repulsive. Ruthlessness to that degree reminds me of a lovely fellow named Karl Rove.

::sigh::
Four more years of the raging elephant beast?

Change

2008-02-14T07:02:12Z

This sums it up really nicely:

[David Wilhelm, former DNC chairman] said the Democrats could never win a contest about experience over Sen. John McCain, the likely Republican nominee, but could win — with Obama — an election that was framed around change.

(Article)

Microsoft

2008-02-04T02:35:50Z

Does it seem to anyone else that lately Microsoft's only ambition is to bring down Google and Apple, now matter how much it hurts their own company? Microsoft seems to feel they need to be at the top of everything in the computing world and is now so obsessed with web search and "Zunes" that they can't make even a halfway decent operating system. Maybe they should pour those billions they'd use to buy Yahoo into developing a halfway competent sequel to Vista, which is possibly a bigger piece of shit than Windows ME was.

Note to Microsoft: You can't topple Google. Google does web search, you develop operating systems...remember?

Take that every other country in the world

2008-01-08T08:07:30Z

Anyone who knows me well is surely aware that I keep up with business and financial news like nothing else because it's obviously the most important thing going on in the world. I now have a new-found respect for a publication called "Investor's Business Daily" after reading this wonderful article which explains why America is number 1.

To summarize, The US is the happiest country in the world because:

Americans are (a lot) richer than even other industrialized nations, much less all those unmentionable other countries.
Americans buy more
Americans have the biggest houses (presumably to put all the extraneous crap we buy).
Jobs are abundant in America
Teenage drug use/pregnency is down, smoking, and drinking are decreasing
Divorce rate is low
Americans are more religious

The first two are irrelevant and the remaining reasons aren't even true, much less supreme indicators of happiness for the average person.

Other gems from the article include suggesting that making babies is not something that "gloomy, depressed nations" (AKA everywhere but the US) want to do. Nevermind that developing countries have much higher birthrates than developed countries.

On top of that, the author seems to be saying that only "happy" people have sex. It's not like biology dictates that basically all humans want sex. I think the conservative line of thinking gets really sticky here because I'm sure the kind of person who wrote this trash would also say that pre-marital sex was a sign of non-religiousness, and also that non-religiousness is a sign of depression...so how exactly is it that said pre-marital sex can be had since the people are obviously not happy. They've just divided by zero in their logic.

Well played, Investor's Business Daily. Keep it coming.

Cool Nerd King

2007-09-09T06:55:53Z

6-14

2007-06-14T14:21:18Z

Virginia Tech

2007-04-18T05:42:41Z

I can't work today. For the last few hours I've just been reading news or just staring at my screen. Every aspect of this situation is sickening. Five years of college classes...I can't even fathom the idea of some kid just walking in and shooting up a class. And to think, tragedy like this happens in Iraq basically every day.

I've learned from Sept 11th (as well as past school shootings) that authority figures develop a paranoid parent complex in the wake of a tragedy which causes them to make stupid decisions that may have a lasting negative impact. Less ethical authority figures may try to capitalize on the tragedy to promote their own pet cause (ooooh, South Korean? This'll be great for pushing my anti-immigration laws). I can't wait to see what kind of sweeping reforms are enacted in the next few days to "protect the (college-aged) children".

By the way, don't forget to check his winamp playlist...the music made him do it!

Update: new NIN album

2007-03-19T06:30:40Z

Although I often make mistakes in my assumptions...this is one time I was really pretty sure I was right.

I stand corrected; Trent Reznor has produced an album three years early.
Nine Inch Nails: Year Zero

The album is a concept album that is supposed to take place in a future dystopian world...in particular this world features a American pseudo-theocratic dictatorship that gains legitimacy due to people's overwhelming fear of terrorism. The nature of "everyday life" in this world can be read about in-depth through some ingenious webpages. Here's a list of those pages...all in all around 2 hours worth of reading material. Oh, and some of the websites require you to solve puzzles.

I think the detail of the world is pretty impressive. If you like sci-fi-esque stories about future dystopia or an ultra-evil America ruled by the religious right, you should definitely check out the websites.

The album itself, from what I've heard, is very noisy...not at all like With Teeth. I'm looking forward to it a lot. Best part is, of course, the accompanying tour...they play Japan in two months.

NIN: Hot Sexy Dance Music

2006-12-18T07:12:37Z

WTF?

Reznor claims he's done writing a new album. Yea, I've heard that before. He's about 3 and a half years too early. I'll believe it when I see cover art and a release date on amazon.

Aim for the head!!!

2006-11-09T02:07:44Z

Two years ago, the elephant was rampaging as strong as ever...but now the beast has been brought to it's knees.

It's been a wonderful few days. Hello, Senate and House. Goodbye, Rumsfeld. I think the best summation of the last few days can be found on James' blog

It's exciting to watch

2006-11-08T03:02:22Z

It's mid-day here on the 8th. Luckily, I only have one class today and it's already over...the rest of the day will be spent refreshing my web browser on a variety of pages tracking the election. It's very exciting to watch this election, particular because I can't remember an election where the Democrats weren't getting beaten.

I'm so glad to see the asshat Rick Santorum is gone. I'll miss his comparisons of homosexuality to beastiality and incest. I'll really miss his attempts to justify the Iraq war using Lord of the Rings references.

Election Day

2006-11-07T00:45:50Z

Periodically, about every 6 years, Election Day falls on my birthday. They seem to often be important elections.

Last time there was an election on my birthday was in 2000; I turned 18. I was thrilled to be voting since I was technically the youngest eligible voter...but the results seemed so unimportant at the time. In retrospect, knowing how close that election was has only become more painful in time with the innumerable horrible choices George Bush and his administration have made. So, I have to say I'm happy to see that this election seems to be mostly a referendum on their absolute failures "abroad and at home".

Needless to say, I'm hoping for better results this time around. The ideal gift today would be seeing the Republicans get their asses kicked to the curb in both houses of Congress, as well as in the Ohio offices that have been long dominated by the rampaging elephant beast.

Not just a tool, but an idiot

2006-10-31T01:08:56Z

"Will Dems Fizzle Out?"...whatever you say Matt Drudge, you Republican tool.

threeeyes @ 2006-10-18T11:09:00

2006-10-18T02:14:35Z

Shameless southern republicans at it again.

This is only the first step...

2006-09-29T06:20:34Z

http://www.livescience.com/technology/060928_power_suit.html

threeeyes @ 2006-08-29T14:19:00

2006-08-29T05:30:31Z

I will be posting journal entries related to my time in Japan under a new user, a journal that will have a (slightly) larger readership. I'm not deleting this journal, and will probably still post comments to other journals as threeeyes and will probably still occasionally post in this journal about things wholly-unrelated to Japan.

I plan to eventually move my Japan blog to my own site, but for now I'm on the internet only at my school and can't justify creating an entire website while getting paid. This will probably not happen for at least 6 weeks, as it will likely be 4 weeks before I have internet in my house. So...for now, check out ujiyamada

I really enjoyed the "Risky sendoff" as I believe it was called. I'm looking forward to another such gathering in two (or maybe three) years.

And so it begins

2006-08-10T03:39:16Z

Well, here I am. Day 1 at my school. The jet lag is still having a rather severe effect on me. It may be a week before it wears off. My house only has air conditioning on the first floor. The second floor is as hot as an attic and unfortunately that's where I'm supposed to sleep. So I've decided to move my sleeping quarters downstairs for awhile until it cools off. I hope that the phone and internet at my house will be working soon. I'm currently writing from my school. It's Summer vacation so I don't have a whole lot to do. Soon enough I'll post some pictures.

I signed up for this experience hoping to be immersed. I got my wish. Although I didn't think I'd feel this way, I'm currently a little overwhelmed about being the only non-Japanese person in the entire school. I wouldn't call it homesickness, but a fear of being an inadequate communicator and therefore an inadequate teacher. But I imagine that this feeling is natural at first and I'm convinced that this feeling will pass fairly quickly since this is what I was hoping for. My Japanese listening ability has improved more in the last few days than in the past year.

My school sits atop a mini-mountain on the southern end of Ise city (population of about 100,000). From the top of the school I have a tremendous view of the mountains that are just a little further south of where I am. The city is home to the most famous Shinto shrine in all of Japan...as to why it's the most famous I'll get back to you on that. When I leave today I'm going to take my bike and have my first exploration and hopefully purchase dinner, a detailed map of the area, and an alarm clock (due to jet lag I've been waking up "naturally" at 5:00 or 6:00AM, but this can only last for so long).

Faltering at the last minute

2006-05-10T04:12:10Z

I'm amazed how many of the people I know are graduating this year; both from the Northeast crew and the Southwest crew. Every one of the seven people I befriended in my first year Japanese class ended up finding themselves on track to graduate in 2006...the odd part about this is that only two of them graduated high school the same year as me. One of us dropped out last year (hopefully to return and finish soon), another faltered and now may be done this time next year, and strangely the rest of us all came fairly close to faltering within the last year.

Fall 2005 was my dangerous semester. I spent the better part of it playing old Final Fantasy games and religiously improving my completion time on Metroid: Zero Mission (I had it down to a shade over 31 minutes, two minutes shy of the "world record"). My desire to go to class was further hindered by my skin problem. The condition was getting worse everyday, especially on my face where it was borderline out-of-control. Going out in public becomes less desirable when you can't stay somewhere for any length of time without leaving a visible trace of your own skin flakes and probably some blood too. Add on to this the fact that one of the medicines given to me to treat it (a shot of steroids...) not only didn't work but prevented me from sleeping for more than 3 hours at a time at any point in the day. Lastly, that senior-inspired crushing of ones motivation did the final blow and I ended up with an amusing semester GPA of 2.0 comprised of three pairs that average to 2.0: (A, F), (A, F), (B, D). I failed two classes, both of which I needed for graduation. If I had gotten a 3rd 'F' instead of a 'D', I wouldn't have been able to graduate this semester (Even though a 'D' is basically considered failing, you don't have to retake a class here unless you get an 'F').

That class that saved me with a D: Software Engineering. I like the theory a lot, but this class should be renamed to "Diagrams: Hard to read, harder to draw". Basically you plan out a bunch of programs that you'll never actually make using special diagrams called UML. For me, UML = me angry. The rules for UML diagrams are more complicated than the rules for actual programming languages, they are also less systematic. Apparently a lot of CS people get paid to do this shit, spend 8 hours a day drawing out programs, discussing it in committees, discussing it with bosses, and then giving them to "cheap Asian labor" to write. I understand that everyone works differently, but I absolutely cannot design a program any other way except by writing it; the design presents itself naturally through that process. It's like Math: you absolutely cannot learn Math by just reading the book, you have to do the problems or it's just not going to happen. So ultimately, by drawing some fucking pictures the last two weeks of last semester I earned my nice shiny 'D'.

Things are much better now and I'm (mostly) pleased with my work this semester. Leizel, who did excellent last semester, seems to be faltering for this one though. She spent the first half of the semester reading internet forums about the JET program interview process, worrying frantically about their unconventional interview style. Now that we've both been accepted, she shifted her focus from just the interview to absolutely anything a JET could possibly want to know before going. She's read the 100+ page manual three times. It seems the combined fact of being a senior, knowing a future job has been secured, and being slightly addicted to the internet has caused an almost complete evaporation of motivation. This has happened to basically everyone else from that original group from first year Japanese. Kind of strange.

More about the Tool album soon. I haven't listened to it too much in the last few days because if I do my mental energy goes towards trying to figure out lyrics instead of my work.

The Great Eye is ever watchful...

2006-05-05T06:46:48Z

Today I attended my final undergraduate college class. As I was walking out of the KSU Math and Computer Science building for (almost) the last time contemplating this fact, I noticed something strange: my car was gone. My experience at Kent State has been incredibly enjoyable and enlightening, but my nemesis throughout that good experience, KSU Parking Services, finally got me in the end. For this grand finale, they put the tickets away and brought out the tow truck. The situation clearly called for it; my class is from 7:00pm - 8:15pm and I can assure you the parking lot at the Math & CS building is full at that time of night. Since I don't have a pass for the lot, I even parked in one of the six empty meter spaces which can only be set to an 60 minutes; my class is 75 minutes. In that 15 minute window, a parking services ~~employee~~ ninja had my car towed. They are famous for this kind of shit. Utter disdain for parking services is possibly the most guaranteed conversation starter between any KSU students. It doesn't seem to matter how short ones stay is in a parking space or what time it is (people seriously get tickets at 1:00am). I could complain for paragraphs (this is livejournal after all) because the list of problems with this organization is almost endless.

A more reasonable post will follow within the next few days regarding my (very favorable) impression of the new Tool album. Maybe I'll mention some irrelevant details about what I'll be doing after graduation too.

History quiz-like posting

2006-04-08T09:58:52Z

Look up your birthday (without the year) on Wikipedia and list 3 of the most notable events, births, and deaths that occur on your birthday.

Events

1910 - The first air freight shipment (from Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio) is undertaken by the Wright Brothers and department store owner Max Moorehouse.
1917 - Russian Revolution: In Petrograd, Russia, Bolshevik leaders Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky lead revolutionaries in overthrowing the Provisional Government. (This is recorded as happening on October 25th because Russia was using the Julian calendar. Had they been using the Gregorian calendar, which they switched to a few months later, it would've been on November 7th.)
2000 - U.S. presidential election, Republican Texas Governor George W. Bush defeats Democrat Vice President Al Gore, but the final outcome is not known for over a month because of disputed votes in Florida. (This was my 18th birthday, if I'd been born a day later I would've had to wait four years to vote in a presidential election. My birthday falls on a presidential election every 28 years, and ironically it's a popular day to elect war presidents: Wilson, Roosevelt, Nixon, and Bush)

Births

1851 - Chris von der Ahe, German-American entrepreneur (he owned a major league baseball team called the "Cincinnati Porkers"...)
1918 - Billy Graham, American evangelist (ugh)
1927 - Hiroshi Yamauchi, Nintendo President from 1949 to 2002 (I was not aware that Nintendo had a long history before Miyamoto created Donkey Kong and Mario.)

Deaths

1837 - Elijah P. Lovejoy, American abolitionist (killed by a pro-slavery mob)
1913 - Alfred Russel Wallace, British naturalist and biologist (the almost-father of evolution).
1944 - Richard Sorge, Soviet spy in Germany and Japan