Links I Clicked on Today

Build Your Own Wind Turbine

Ever wanted to build your own wind turbine to generate electricity? This seems way too complicated for me and I'm not sure I get enough wind to make it worthwhile. But I thought I would put it out there for you!

Movies of Japan

Thanks to my sister for sending me this awesome link. Here are a bunch of videos about life in Japan. When I went to the site there was a picture of people making yakitori on the front page. I LOVE yakitori. I think it's my favorite Japanese food. I make it once in a while but it's never as good as getting it from a festival vendor.

U.S. Independence Revocation

Leave it to John Cleese. Thanks to Marissa for this hilarious link.

Fast Drinker

Ahh, the crazy Japanese game shows. Watch a guy drink an entire bottle of water (it looks like maybe 2 liters?) in less than 5 seconds.

Rainbow Flag Part 1
Rainbow Flag Part 2

The flag isn't even up for gay reasons! What has this county come to when people are so offended by a simple rainbow? Do they get up in arms at the world when a natural rainbow is created by the refraction of sunlight after a rain shower?? This is just absurd. But I congratulate the proprietors of the Inn who are taking a stand and have vowed to keep flying the flag. There is potential danger in that and it takes courage to make a stand when it doesn't even seem to be your own fight.

Visualize WiFi Networks

This awesome device is a camera that scans the interior of a room for wireless signals and then it creates an image out of the wireless signal and projects that onto a wall (or other surface). This looks totally awesome!!

Legal Documents for Same-Sex Couples

This site is a great resource for same-sex couples who cannot have a legal marriage or civil union. There are a number of legal ways to gain similar rights as married couples.

Organic Bakery in Barcelona

God I love bread! And Barcelona. And the idea of Organic. This place is ideal for me!! I want to go back to Barcelona ... it was awesome there!

Zero-Emission Boeing Plane

I love how the headline says "Zero-Emission" yet the second sentence of the article says "The only emissions from such a plane would be water vapor." Umm, that doesn't equal zero emissions does it? It would be cool though to have an eco-freindly airplane. But is it going to happen in our lifetime? I don't know ... Maybe they can combine fuel cell technology with solar and wind energy. Solar power can be used to generate electricity that can be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Then the hydrogen and oxygen can be combusted to propel the aircraft. The movement of the craft can spin wind turbines attached the wings, thus adding more electricity into the mix to power on-board systems and the water-splitting aparatus. The water generated from the reaction between oxygen and hydrogen can be captured and recycled in a never ending loop. What do you think? could it ever work? I doubt it. The amount of electricity needed and the volume of water are probably too high. But it's an interesting idea.

101 Lessons for Project Management

This looks like a great list. I looked through a couple and they make sense. I intend to go through all (or most) of these at some point. To a certain degree I want to say that it is generally common sense stuff, but I guess it is good to have it written out somewhere for reference.

Internet Anonymity (sort of)

So I think it's interesting all the stuff we can do on the internet in a somewhat anonymous way. Searching on google and reading webpages and such seem to be pretty anonymous. But you know, there is a way to see who visits your site (sort of). Everyone who is connected to the internet has an IP address that is broadcasted while they surf. Of course, there are tools for hiding IP addresses but I'm guessing that few people use them or know about them. The IP address sometimes says a lot about people. And there are services that can tell you even more.

For example, I'm using Site Meter on my site to see how many people are visiting my blog. I can check who has visited but all I see is an IP address, which sometimes tells me where the person is located. It also tells me what site they were looking at before they clicked through to my site. It also sometimes says where they go when they leave my site. I think it's really interesting to see all this. There are a bunch of people who have looked at my site and I have no idea who a lot of them are!

For example, today, at about 4 pm, someone in Mitaka (in Tokyo, Japan) visited my site. This person got to my site by searching for "ASIJ" at Technorati. I have no idea who this person is, but I appear to have 2 connections to them. I lived in Mitaka when I was in Japan and I went to ASIJ (which I'm assuming this person did as well). That's pretty neat!

Another example is someone from Baltimore, Maryland and another from Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Both of these people use Comcast internet and they have visited my site a number of times. I would love to find out who these people are because it intrigues me very much! So if you're one of those anonymous users out there checking my blog, I want to say THANKS for taking a gander, and feel free to leave me a message sometime and let me know who you are and whether you like my site!!

(I was just checking the visits to my site again and I'm thinking that maybe the Pottstown person is actually my sister, but she lives in Philly. So I'm not quite sure how it determines where you are located ...)

Samrat

Ahhh, Samrat. Those of you who have been to a Samrat already know the divine pleasure that can be found there. Butter Chicken, Malai Kofta, mmmmm.... so tasty.

Anyway, I am trying to keep my posts sequential in time. I can hardly remember anything that happened during the middle part of freshman year. I can remember a couple things in the beginning of the year and a number of things towards the end of the year (which I will definitely get to) but not much in between. Then after freshman year I have a bunch of memories that I don't know when they happened and then I have a bunch from certain years. Isn't it strange how they work?

Anyway, back to Samrat because this is something I can remember from freshman year. Samrat in Kichijoji used to be upstairs somewhere, I don't remember exactly where, but I remember Aria and Adair and maybe Siv and Jen taking me there. I was terrified! I hadn't been out of the States for very long and all I was used to back home was pizza, cheesesteaks, mexican food (tacos and fajitas) and italian food. I ate some Japanese foods from when I had lived in Japan before but I didn't even eat Chinese or anything else like that. I was not very adventurous at that time in my life. The first few times we went to Samrat, I could not even order anything. Indian food??? Completely unheard of in my universe!! I don't remember what I did for food those times. Maybe I had already eaten or something, I don't remember, but I do remember having no interest in tasting the food. I believe the first thing I tried was a samosa filled with potato and peas and spices. I remember it being really spicy but tasting pretty good otherwise. Mind you, I didn't eat a lot of spicy foods back then either (I don't really now, but I can stand quite a bit more heat than in those days). Something I remember strongly is Aria telling me that whenever she went to Samrat, her braces would get stained. She had that opaque kind that was ceramic or something. I'm not exactly sure. Anyway, she complained about whenever she went there she and Adair would get butter chicken and it would turn the braces yellow or orange. This is how I can remember that Aria and Adair weren't always vegetarians. That soon changed and then the fun began trying to find places where everyone could find something to eat ... but I digress.

Eventually, after all the peer pressure to try the food, I started eating and enjoying the curries and other food at Samrat. I came to absolutely love it and to this day Indian food is one of my favorite cuisines of all time. Aria and I used to go to Samrat and order the Malai Kofta (after she became a vegetarian) and consume it in silent bliss. It is so delicious. Sometimes we would go for the lunch special and for 890 yen get 2 curries and unlimited naan and rice. Of course, to get the naan and rice you had to ask a waiter for it and they generally kept out of sight during lunch time so you couldn't even ask for it! Oh yeah, I think it included a drink too maybe. Lassi was of course my favorite (the sweet variety). I can remember many a lunch or dinner (or really really late dinner in Roppongi...) at Samrat. I've never been able to find its equal anywhere else with regard to quality although I have eaten my fair share of Indian food.

Here in the States, all-you-can-eat indian lunch buffets are quite popular, although there aren't any good ones near our new house. Our favorite was in Delaware right across the street from my apartment. We went there WAY too often! I think lunch was $7 or something like that and you could get an ENORMOUS amount of food! And there wasn't a single thing there that I didn't enjoy. That doesn't happen very often at restaurants.

Well, I've babbled long enough about Samrat and Indian food. I'll have another story later about another Indian restaurant.

Links I Clicked on Today

Pluto Not A Planet

All I can say is woop-deee-friggin-doo. Who cares? I still don't get the purpose of the space program. Sure it's "cool" but is it really necessary to spend billions of dollars on this sort of thing?!?!? I think we should focus our attention back onto the only planet that really matters and try to fix the problems here first.

Hikaru Plays Nintendo DS

How many of you knew or know Hikaru? I did when I was in High School. Of course we weren't best friends or anything so we haven't kept in touch, but sometimes I wish I had somehow kept in touch with her. Yeah she's super famous, but she's also just a great person. This article (although not really focussed on her that much) shows that she has a fun-loving spirit which is just awesome. She also did some commercials for the Nintendo DS which is also awesome. (I have one by the way!)

Hikaru Tetris Video

And here's a complete video of the battle!! She beat 26 out of 30 contestants! Pretty impressive!!

A Government With A Budget SURPLUS!!

So the federal government can't do it, but MY city (Philadelphia) can!! But of course, the article says that the money will be spent pretty quickly. Who wants to bet that it is spent on frivolous things? Now why can't they find a way to save and invest it so that it can become a large sum of money to be used for something like, oh I don't know, improving the public transportation system in the city? Well, maybe we'll be surprised by what they spend it on but it'll probably be something stupid.

Nintendo Apron

This would be really cool if the girl wasn't so scary looking. Have you noticed yet that I like Nintendo?? I would totally use an apron like this one.

Arrested for using a PSP?

Links I Clicked on Today

Straight Woman denied Domestic Partner Benefits

This is ridiculous. Although the domestic partner law was implemented initially to extend rights to same-sex couples, there is no reason it can't work for straight couples as well. Why say that someone has to be married in order to enjoy the benefits? What are the excuses for not allowing it? Perhaps the two people aren't really romantically involved and are actually just roommates. Well, is that really so horrible? I mean, they COULD be married, and they can't get benefits for more than one partner, so what's the big deal? I just don't get it ...

Special Itunes Feature

This is pretty darn cool if you use iTunes a lot!

First Civil Union Dissolved

This is sad, but these things happen. Still, if you look at the last sentence of the article, it looks like only about 1% of civil unions in Vermont have been "dissolved." This is a much better success rate than our straight brethren (what is it, 50% of marriages end in divorce???).

Slight Change in Purpose

So you've probably noticed that my blog has taken a bit of a twist. Let's just say it's easier to make posts of links every day than memories of Japan. Those take a little longer to write. I'm going to continue doing my links of the day if people enjoy them at all. Let me know what you think. I'm going to intersperse other little things, including memories of Japan and possibly some current experiences too! I'm also hoping to start posting some photo-essay type things, but I've got to get some good ones first. Anyway, I hope you're enjoying what's been going on so far on my blog. I'll try to keep your interest. If there's anything else you'd like to see me post about, just let me know. If you see good links feel free to send them to me and I'll post them up here if I like them!

Links I Clicked on Today

New Solar Cells

This is awesome! I can't wait until solar power becomes cheap and mainstream. Of course, there is always the issue of the reliability of solar, but if we supplement it with wind power that directs power to a grid and also use batteries to store unneeded solar power, we could probably be fine without fossil fuels, hydro and nuclear (ugghh I shudder at the idea of nuclear but apparently it's making a comeback).

Super Smash Flash

If you've ever played Super Smash Bros Melee for the Game Cube, you'll be excited by this Flash version of it. Check it out.

Links I Clicked on Today

Shovel Snow In Winter to Cool Your House in Summer

Interesting but utterly useless link. Any place that gets enough snow to actually make this work, doesn't need air conditioning in the summer!! But kind of a neat idea anyway. It's always good to have ideas that would cut back on the use of fossil fuel generated electricity. However, you also have to consider if everyone did this then all the snow melt that would usually end up in streams and rivers and lakes would be trapped until the end of the summer. I think you would cause more problems than you would solve. Still worth a quick read though.

The Future Is Now: 3D TV

This is going to be so cool when it is more mainstream (i.e. affordable)!! This kind of reminds me of the movie Minority Report where there are television screens with advertisements that scan your retina, know who you are, and speak to you directly. Creepy, huh?

Bring Your Own Bag

If you're the kind of person who cares enough to take your own bags to the grocery store, you'll understand what the article means when it explains feeling pissed when you realize you've forgotten to bring your bags from home. Chad and I try to bring our own bags sometimes. I'd like to do it all the time, but the looks you get from people are kind of annoying. If there is someone there doing the bagging, it's kind of awkward to ask "Would you use these bags please?" At a place like Whole Foods, it isn't really a problem, but at the local ACME, well, let's just say it doesn't happen very often there. We need something here like in Ireland where all plastic bags are 5 cents or something. So if you use their bags you have to pay but if you bring your own you don't. While 5 cents isn't that much, I think more people would actually stop and think about it. It wouldn't matter to some people who just don't care how much they spend, but to the majority of us, it would probably be just enough deterrent to convince us to bring our own bags.

Japanese/Asian Inspired Furniture

As I've said in my blog before I absolutely love Japanese aesthetics. This website has a lot of good examples of traditional Japanese-style furniture. My parents have a step tansu in their house and I adore it. I've love a bunch of Japanese style furniture in my house. Too bad it's generally too damn expensive for me. Ikea all the way baby!

Google Gives Free Wi-fi

Someday all wi-fi will be free everywhere (maybe) and it will be pretty cool. People will worry about identity theft and the privacy of their information if everything is just floating through the air but I still think it'd be cool to have free wireless internet everywhere.

Links I Clicked on Today

Here are today's links.

Cell Phone WIth No Buttons

This is pretty damn cool. I love technology, especially cell phones and this just sounds insane. I'd love to get my hands on one of these and try it out. It's amazing how much innovation has come around since I was born. I can't even imagine what it will be like in another 25 years!!

Gotta Love Japanese Men

Can you imagine an American guy with a bag like this? This is absolutely unreal, and totally Japanese! You see this kind of thing all the time there. It is strange because while the Japanese society can be very traditional and uptight about their lives, guys can walk around with bags like this in Harajuku or Shibuya and no one seems to care.

Huge 13-year old

This 13-year old baseball player is over 6 and a half feet tall! Just incredible. I wonder if he gets bullied, or if other kids think it's cool. Would anyone be stupid enough to try and bully him around???

Inspirational Sustainable Energy Awards

Sutainability, sustainability, sustainability. You're likely to see this theme come up often on my blog. This is almost a religion for me, although at this point in my life I am just reading about it all the time and thinking about it and not actually practicing very much. But everyone will come to discover that sustainability is the key and it should be on everyone's mind.

Dream Up a Killer App

I wish I could come up with a really awesome idea and win some Mac prizes. I feel like I'm always wishing there was a program that did such-and-such but now when it counts I can't think of any. I hate it when that happens. Know what else I hate? When I'm working at the computer and think of something I want to look up on the internet. I click my Firefox icon and by the time the program loads up, I can't remember what I wanted to look up!! What is wrong with me?!

ASIJ New Student Orientation

This post will show you what my first experience at my new school was like.

We met in the park next to the school, Nogawa Koen. We had food there and introductions. We went to the school and filled out our class schedules. One of the things we had to do was to get tested for placement into foreign language classes. My language was spanish, so I was tested with a group of others (Yael, Brad, Yuki, and I don't remember who else) by Javier Fernandez. If you don't know who this man is, let's just say he's like a spanish Napoleon! That is probably the easiest way to describe him. Although it may not be entirely accurate. Anyway, he tested us by asking us to conjugate verbs and such. I can remember that every single one of us had to conjugate the verb "tener" which means "to have."

Javier - "Tener"
Andrew - "Yo tengo, tu tien-"
Javier - "NO NO NO NO NO, it's TEngo, not tengo!"
Andrew - thinks to himself "He's saying the same exact thing!?!?!"
Javier - "The T in tengo is a hard T, you do not pronounce it like a D. Try it again"
Andrew - "Yo TEngo ... tu tienes, usted tiene, nosotros tenemos, ellos tienen."
Javier - "That's better."

Everyone had the same experience with him and walked out thinking "What the hell is wrong with that guy?" Most of us were placed into Spanish 2 and ended up taking it together, but that will be a post for another day!

Anyway, after all the stuff with classes, they told us we would be going on a scavenger hunt around Tokyo! That sounded like fun, but I hadn't been out and about yet so it was a bit daunting. At this point I should mention that there was a girl named Lauren at the orientation that I was somewhat attracted to. Remember (if you already knew) that at that point in my life I considered myself to be "bi" and was sometimes attracted to girls. Well anyway, we started on this scavenger hunt and I don't remember all the details, but I know that we went to Kichijoji and were wandering around there. Lauren and I were flirting a bit and at one point, she grabbed me and pulled me out of the street because a car was coming at me. She totally saved my life! Haha, probably not but that's how I felt at the time. Now Lauren had made friends with this other girl named Candy. Candy was psycho but I thought she was nice. After Kichijoji we ended up in Shibuya. Lauren and I ended up walking around holding hands for a while. This was my first time walking around in the city since the last time I had lived in Japan when I was about 9 or 10 years old. It was pretty fun. Anyway, Candy got on my case about Lauren, telling me something about how she liked me but that I should be bold enough to make the first move or something. That's when I started holding her hand. At that time, holding hands was kind of a big deal (at least for me it was when I was in middle school). After Shubuya, we ended up at a house party for all the new students. I believe it was hosted at Connor's house. Most of the students had been in JApan for a while and lived downtown, which is where the party was. The house we were in was huge and was not typical of the way a Japanese person would live at all. I found this to be quite common in the ASIJ community, although most of my friends lived much more like real Japanese people do, in small apartments or houses. Anyway, the counselors (Mr. Bradley, Mr. Olsen, and ... not sure who else) were there along with a number of students who lived out by school. I had told them that I would need a ride back to the school area because that's where we were living. Then, later in the evening, a bunch of people I had been hanging out with during the day came up and said they were going to Roppongi and did I want to come. "What is Roppongi?" I asked. They said it was where all the bars were. This totally confused me because I was entering 9th grade and coming from the States. "Bars?" Anyway, I wanted to go because Lauren was going, but I didn't know how I would get home. Remember that I had only been in Tokyo for about 2 days at this point. I had no clue about train systems or anything. I didn't even know where I was except that I was far away from home. A bunch of the other people said they knew how to get me home so I should just come. Well, I was the type to easily succomb to peer pressure, so I decided to go along.

We walked (seemingly forever) from the house to Roppongi. Nobody really knew where to go because they had only been there once before, and some of them never, like me. We ended up at this Australian bar. I forget the name of it but someone had given us a flyer. We went in and everyone ordered drinks (I didn't because I was terrified of drinking underage). The guy at the bar said something like "I'm not totally sure what the law is here, but I don't think you guys are old enough to drink." Now you should be thinking to youself two things right now. Number 1, Why the hell didn't the bartender know what the legal drinking age was?? and Number 2, OF COURSE WE WERE TOO YOUNG TO DRINK! You're talking about a bunch of 14 year olds out in a bar!!!

One of us said "Well someone on the street gave us this flyer and told us to come, so we thought it would be okay." The bartender said "Well I guess it's okay then" and served drinks. Of course, he brought them over (mostly screwdrivers because no one knew the names of any other drinks) and as soon as he put them down, someone dropped theirs and broke the glass and spilled it all over the table. How embarrassing! To be drinking illegally and then to break a glass!! The bartender came over and brought a new one for free and cleaned up the spill. It was crazy. At this point, Lauren and Candy left to see if there was a better place. They came back and said there was a cool place down the street. We followed them down to Club Peace. I wonder if Club Peace is still there ... Anyway, we went in there and it was okay, I guess. People kept drinking while I just sat around and talked and such. I remember there was a bowl of popcorn or something and when we got to the bottom of it we found a sealed condom placed there. It was a bit bizarre. After a while, Lauren and the others got pretty wasted. Lauren was all over me and finally started kissing me. We kissed for a long time. This was the first time I had ever "made out" or "french kissed" with someone if you know what I mean (of course you know what I mean!). Pretty nutso. Anyway, at one point Lauren decided she had to go home in order to catch the last train. I, of course, also needed to leave in order to take the train home. Lauren said she could get me to Shinjuku and then would take a different train home. I knew how to get home from Shinjuku (just look for the orange train!) so I was thankful. We took the train together and I got home fine. I don't think my dad was really that worried about me, which is good. Well that was my first real experience in Tokyo and what an experience it was! I wish I could remember more details, but this is all I could come up with. Those of you who know Lauren and Candy will appreciate this more I think. You know who else went out with us that first night? Yael and Patrick. I'm not sure who else went though.

Links I Clicked on Today

Beautiful Subways

I bet you never thought subways should be described as "beautiful." Well you might think differently after seeing this website. I think that a strong subway system is the key for any city to function well. I've experience three great subway systems so far: Tokyo, Barcelona, and New York. Tokyo?? Well, you don't really have to explain it. Once you go there and see, you'll be amazed. You can get practically ANYWHERE on either the train or subway. They are efficient, generally clean, and relatively inespensive. Barcelona has a great system too and it is pretty easy to use and to get places. The cost is also reasonable. New York's is definitely convenient for getting places and I believe it is relatively inexpensive as well. It might not be as clean and "welcoming" as some of the other systems, but I think New York would fall apart without it. Now in Philadelphia, we have subways. But we have one subway line that runs in a straight line directly through the middle of the city. There are also a couple lines that are subways inside the city but then go aboveground further outside the city. These two run perpendicular the first one I mentioned and are in exactly the same place. So basically, we have a subway/train system in center city philadelphia that looks like a cross. They are decent to use and relatively inexpensive, but you can't get anywhere inside the city using them! Of course, the city isn't huge so you can walk most places if you really want to, but where I lived in Center City was on the opposite side of center city as the Italian Market where I liked going. It took half an hour to walk there and there was no other way to get there other than driving. And driving is barely an option because I always had to park 4 or 5 blocks from where I lived and then 4 or 5 blocks from where I was going. It was useless. Anyway, take a look at the photos at this link.

New Renewable Energy with more than 100% efficiency??

Steorn's Website

This is absolutely mind-blowing! Is this even possible? If so, what does it mean for our future? We could have an unlimited power supply without causing global climate change, without getting oil from the middle east, without installing drill rigs in Alask, off the coast of California, etc. That sounds like a miracle! But at the the same time, I have to ask myself, what would a society with unlimited free energy do with all that power? Would we be immediately change to being good stewards of the earth and take care of it? Would it become Utopia? Or would we take the opportunity offered by all that energy and just find more ways to exploit natural resources? Everyone should watch this video and check out their website. I want to know what everyone thinks. This may be totally bogus and nothing will ever come of it, but if not ... I'm not sure how to respond.

Are you kidding me?? Bacteria-eating Viruses on our food?

Now I'm all for taking advantage of nature's own defenses rather than using man-made products, such as insecticides, etc. However, putting bacteria-eating viruses on food just seems insane! How many thousands of years have people lived without this kind of thing? This may work out because it is probably better to use viruses to kill bacteria than antibiotics (problems with antibiotics=stronger bacteria) but bacteria may evolve to be able to avoid the viruses. Or worse yet, viruses may evolve to eat HUMANS instead of bacteria? Anyone think of that? It's not likely, but you never know! Anyway, I'm not totally against it but it is a bit scary don't you think?

Tour of Green Toronto

This looks like fun! I'd love to take a tour of all the "green" spots in a city. Of course in Philly, it would be a VERY short trip. Although maybe I would be surprised!

Links I Clicked on Today

Here are some more links. I've got something else to post but I don't have time tonight so I'll probably post it tomorrow.

Cincinnati Pro-Gay Law 1
Cincinnati Pro-Gay Law 2

So, in the first article, the name of the group that is trying to block anti-discrimination against LGBT people is called "Equal Rights Not Special Rights". However, if you look at the second article, it explains what exactly the city of Cincinnati added to its anti-discrimination law: "sexual orientation or transgendered status". Sexual orientation applies to EVERYONE and the combination of "gender" from the previous law and "transgendered status" which was added now applies to EVERYONE. By adding these items to the list of traits that cannot be used for discrimnation in housing, employment, etc. you are in fact reducing the amount of "special rightS" and actually increasing "equal rights." By adding sexual orientation, straight people are also protected from gay business owners or housing officials who might want to discriminate against them. Don't you think? Why are people so stupid sometimes???

Earth Embassy

This looks pretty interesting. I found the link on Adair's blog I haven't spent a lot of time looking through the site, but anything environmental and anything Japan are ok by me!!

Links I Clicked on Today

Here are some links I clicked on today (with commentary, of course)

FairyTale Bundt Pan
I want this!

Generate your own Wind Energy At Home!!

Why can't we have renewable energy on a larger scale? It seems to make perfect sense, yet those in power can't seem to get a grip on reality. Can anyone say greedy oil tycoons? Chad and I are switching to 100% wind generated power from our electric company, PECO. We have to pay an additional 2.54 cents per kilowatt hour we use. I don't mind paying this small amount because we are usually between 200 and 300 kWh and that corresponds to less than an additional $10 per month. However, shouldn't I be paying LESS for something that is essentially in unlimited supply and that is better for the environment overall? I just don't get it.

Build your own house!

I want to buy a piece of land up in the mountains somewhere and build my own house (sort of). This company will sell you a shell of a house and you then need to do (or have done) all the interior stuff such as insulation, plumbing, electric, etc. Apparently it can be much cheaper doing it this way than buying an already-built home. Sounds like fun!

The Meatrix 2!!

If you ever saw the "meatrix" when it first came out, then you'll be excited to see this one too! Even though I watch these things and sympathize, I still can't give up meat. And not only do I eat meat, I buy whatever is cheapest at the local grocery store. Am I a terrible person for not making sure I buy "free range" and "organic" and all that stuff? I would love to, but it is just so cost prohibitive. I just wish the free range and other environmentally responsible farmers were subsidized as heavily as say, the soybean and corn farmers who grow genetically engineered foods. Or maybe as much as the oil industry is subsidized. That would be fantastic! Give the "good guys" a chance to actually compete in the marketplace.

Republicans walk out on Gay awards

Ummm, what? This is just stupid.

Buying Local

Here's another farm-related article. It would be great if everyone's food was produced right around the corner, rather than thousands of miles away. Will it ever happen? Probably not until all civilization on earth is extinguished and we start over from scratch. But I've been known to be wrong in the past (though I don't enjoy admitting it).

First Memory of Japan

I thought I would share one of my first memories of high school in Japan.

My dad and I went to Tokyo before my mom did and we were there for a couple weeks without her. She stayed back in the States to help my sister move in to her dorm room at the University of Delaware. On our trip over to Japan, we flew from Philadelphia to San Francisco and then San Francisco to Narita. Well when we got to our gate at San Fransisco to wait for boarding, I saw this guy at the gate who I thought was really cute. My first thought was "Wow, he looks like JTT" and I couldn't stop staring at him. So then I got on the plane and didn't think I would see him again. But we got to Narita and we were waiting for our suitcases at baggage claim and I noticed him standing on the other side of the carousel from me. I got really excited and just kept staring at him. I started wondering if he would be going to my school since he was clearly a foreigner and appeared to be about my age.

So as soon as school started, I started looking for this guy. I was hoping and hoping I would see him but a few days (or maybe even weeks) went by and I gave up hope of ever seeing him again. Does this ever happen to anyone else? You see someone and feel like you have a connection with them (possibly just because you are attracted to them, but sometimes there are other reasons) and then you never see them again and it just feels so bizarre. Well, anyway, as I was saying, I had given up hope of seeing him when one day I was hanging out in the cafeteria near the Kiosk. All of a sudden I looked up, and who did I see? Mystery JTT-lookalike guy. As it turned out, he was a middle school student and that is why I hadn't seen him around the high school. Of course from that point on he became somewhat of an obsession of mine and many of you already know who it is I refer to. There are a variety of things I could call him, but my favorite has always been Nasu. What a huge part of my high school life he was, although never as big a part as I would have liked!!

That is one of my first and strongest memories from High School in Japan. This one is somewhat equal to my memory of new student orientation but I'll save that one for another day.

Links I Clicked on Today

Here are some links I clicked on today.

J.K. Rowling Makes a Lot of Money!!

Can you imagine making that much money? I can and I think it would be awesome! Whenever I see this kind of story, I think to myself, "What can I do that will make me rich quick and forever?" and I never have an answer for myself. Totally sucks.

An article about gay marriage in New Jersey

This would be pretty cool if it works out. Why are people so terrified of same-sex marriages? This is my favorite quote from the article: "If we get to an imminent threat, if we get to the point where marriage is going to be decided by the court, shouldn't we get to weigh in an issue of such magnitude?" Imminent threat? Like gay marriage becoming legal is going to cause a bunch of death and destruction around the world? Give me a freaking break!

Got any ugly sheep?

WHAT??? This article is just hysterical. If only THIS was the sort of thing we worried about in this country instead of stupid stuff like the previous link. Sheesh.

Here is a picture of Chad with his FIVE sisters from yesterday's party. FIVE SISTERS? INSANE! That is way too many sisters for any one person to have in my humble opinion.

On another note, it's funny how excited Marissa was by sitemeter. Haha. Marissa's the best. Check out her family's awesome tintypes at shpammy.blogspot.com

Taxes, Welfare, etc.

So we had dinner at Chad's family's house in Delaware today. We go there pretty regularly for parties. Today we were talking to Chad's Aunt Beth about her job. She works for Montgomery County (where we live). Her job involves determining whether people are eligible to get child care money from the county. This generally involves paying for child care while parents are at work. Often it might be a single parent raising children on their own with no help from the other parent (i.e. no child support money coming in). The money to pay for all this comes from the State (in other words, this is part of the taxes I pay by living in Pennsylvania). Now I am not against this sort of thing. I think it is appropriate for people who are fortunate enough to have good jobs should help fund government programs to help those less fortunate than us. However, I hear stories from Aunt Beth about how people basically abuse the system and might just be lazy but are getting child care money from the county because they are eligible under the law. To me this is just rude and it bugs me a bit. So I guess the question becomes, how can we have a system like this that is actually just and fair to all involved and that actually functions to get people back on their feet and become successul? I'd love to hear opinions on this and other types of government programs, such as welfare, that help low income people using higher income people's taxes. I'm not opposed to these in principal, but I just hope it isn't making some people lazy. You know? If someone has a truly legitimate reason for needing help, then there needs to be government to support them. But if there are people who just think it's easier to live poor and get help from the government, then I think that is wrong. Apparently for this child care program in Montgomery county, the people who are eligible only have to work 20 hours per week to get child care support. What about all the families where there are two parents who both work 40 hours per week or more and whose taxes from working those jobs is going to support these other people? I don't know, it just seems somewhat strange to me.

My next car

I'm thinking about getting one of these when they come out. Hahaha. Can you imagine 330 mpg???

http://www.acceleratedcomposites.com/

Description

So, you're probably wondering about the name of my blog, "Sakura me". For those of you out there who speak some Japanese you'll know that Sakura means cherry blossom which is something that all Japanese adore. And if you know the word sakura, then hopefully you read the word "me" as the Japanese would (in other words, this is not the particle meaning myself, such as in "do you love me?") and know that it means eye or eyes. To me, "Sakura me", translated as Cherry Blossom Eyes, is a representation of my love for Japanese aesthetics and for many other parts of the Japanese culture. As many reading will know, I lived in Japan for a number of years, including all 4 years of High School and it was probably the best experience of my life. Of course part of that was because High School is somewhat carefree. I mean, my parents paid for everything and my mom cooked dinner for me and all that, so I never had to worry about money. It was also a dream for me to be able to go anywhere on my own. Coming from the world of the automobile, I found sudden freedom in the lack of a need for a personal motor vehicle. Biking, walking, and taking trains and buses gave me more freedom than I ever imagined in my 14 years up to that point. My parents and sister point out to me often that it wasn't as fun for them to live in Japan because they had to work or keep house and that is a whole different life than the one I led. However, I'm certain that a great deal of my happiness stemmed from the incredible change of lifestyle I encountered after moving there. In addition, anyone fortunate enough to attend a school such as ASIJ (the American School in Japan) knows how important it is to go to school in such a warm environment. Some of you out there who went to ASIJ may be rolling your eyes at this, but if you never attended a public school in the States, then you cannot understand my meaning. In Abington (which, by the way, is in no way a bad school district like some in inner cities), I had to worry about getting to class on time after lunch since there was so often a fight in the stairway and you couldn't get by. I had to worry about the way I acted for fear of retaliation from those who hated anyone that was different, even if I didn't do anything to them. ASIJ was a whole different world full of possibilities. I remember that soon after getting to Japan, my father and I had a meeting with Mr. Bradley, one of the High School counselors. We probably talked about how difficult my junior high school experience had been in the U.S. Mr. Bradley said that he had never witnessed or heard of a fight breaking out at school (by fight I mean where blood is drawn, of course). This was music to my ears. I didn't even know such a thing was possible. You can start to see how much of an impact moving to Japan had on me and thus why I had to choose a Japan-related theme for my blog. I plan to post here some of my memories of that far away land, as well as new things that happen in my life. I don't pretend to be a philosopher, or a good writer, or anything like that, so don't get your hopes up for eloquent prose or any such nonsense. Hopefully some of what I say will be meaningful to you. This blog will have served its purpose if I bring a tear to your eye or a smile to your lips from time to time.

Intro To My Blog

I never thought I would start my own blog. I don't even like the word blog. It reminds me of the bog of eternal stench from the Princess Bride (one of the best movies of all time) which is not a pleasant association. I've had a xanga site that I, umm, wasn't great at keeping up with. So who knows if this is going to work out and become anything or not, but I'm going to give it a try. I have opinions and ideas and I love to share cool things with people, so why not, right? Wish me luck everyone and fasten your seatbelts, because it's going to be a bumpy ride!