Entries this day: 88Slide Dream I_hate_Japan Nihongo_shigoto Work crossing_the_rubicon dinner

88Slide

9:05am JST Tuesday 10 October 2006 (day 13348)

Around 6 October, after enjoying another great 88Slide episode, I sent this email to Noah:

Hey Noah!

I liked the pizza delivery episode!  Quite clever connection between Rachel and Blaine at the end,
and her "is this real?" comment cracked me up.  Nice.  :-)

Thanks for your hard work!

    - Rob!

Just today, he replied:

Thank YOU Rob for watchin...

People LOVE your episode, and I've been showing it in meetings as an example of our collaboration.

Any chance of doing another one soon?

Noah

Wot??? People "LOVE" my episode???

So I went back and scoped the clips from Korea. They're not *that* bad...

> People LOVE your episode, and I've been showing it in meetings as an example
> of our collaboration.

Wow!  I'm surprised and thrilled!

> Any chance of doing another one soon?

Yah; absolutely.. I just need to get my butt in gear..

----

With current North Korean events, I'm really bummed the thing didn't
turn out as planned.  Basically, when I went to the DMZ, it was my
first time there, so I didn't know what to expect.  I didn't have a
camera guy, nor a lot of time and the video I shot is like super wanky
because I didn't have the mic extension cable..

BUT then it turns out the footage I did was *NOT* actually within the
DMZ.  I was just outside the DMZ, and your show is just too good to
have such an error.

AND THEN, while I did *not* have my camera, we were taken to the Most
Perfectest Place In The Planet for a DMZ shot.  I don't know if we're
allowed to take video in that room, but I'll attach a pic.

Until your super-positive comment today, I hadn't even looked at the
video; I was so bummed about all the above.

If you can place a little "* just outside the DMZ" or something, that
would make it more accurate.

I'm attaching lo-rez versions of the best parts.

If you wanna do it with this inaccurate video, I'll send you the full
DVs.  BUT if you wanna do it fo' real, I need to go back to DMZ.
(though still not sure if I can take video at The Perfect Location)

   Peace
   - Rob!

88slide_korea.mov

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Dream

7:44am JST Tuesday 10 October 2006 (day 13348)

My dad called, and was like, "HI son, I just wanted to call and say.." and then he didn't say anything, ad I was like "hello?" and realized I should probably call *him*

because I didn't call him for his b-day and I've been feeling bad about that.

I hate Japan

12:55pm JST Tuesday 10 October 2006 (day 13348)

Some days I just fucking hate Japan. Right now is one of those days. I love individual people, once we break past the I-am-alone-in-this-crowded-train mentality, people are fun and friendly and great. But this fuckin' ¤¿¤Æ¤Þ¤¨ has got to stop.

Waiting in line for people to figure out how to use the ATMs, searching for account numbers and shit; it's like, "get your shit ready, people, before you fucking rock up to block the ATM and then look for the information you need.. get your information OUT. Ready. Get Set. Go." Don't "Go, Get Ready, Waste Time, Piss Me Off."

The ATM system in Japan rules in a lot of ways compared to the US system. It accepts currency and coins, counts them, puts them in yer account. Done. It dispenses currency and coins. It updates yer account book, so there's no question about balancing with the bank at the end of the month. In this case, a woman was transferring money to someone else's account, and the machine kept saying, "please enter the account number" as she fumbled about for it.

People take about the same amount of time at an ATM. More than 30 seconds, less than 5 minutes. So when one guy was nearing this imaginary 5 minute limit, and someone next to him leaves, HE MIGHT LEAVE SOON. It's not the case that there's always a two minute wait between ATM availability slots.

So, old man in front of the line, open your eyes and stop looking down at the floor and NOTICE that someone has left. Perhaps just look at the floor near the machines; watch people's feet.

And here's where the ¤¿¤Æ¤Þ¤¨ part comes in. The woman behind the old man saw that a machine was free, but waited about fifty bajillion milliseconds to tell him. I resisted saying anything cause I might have barked and scared everyone in the line. Wake up, old man! Don't be shy, old woman; fucking tell him to wake up!

Calm the fuck down, Rob, you fucking American.

Nihongo shigoto

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Work

4:23pm JST Tuesday 10 October 2006 (day 13348)

Really enjoyed my first three students. First two were pretty much ¥Ú¥é¥Ú¥é, and the second two had a lot to talk about, so it made the lessons pretty darn easy and seem to fly by.

Right now I'm in a surprise break because the Yamanote line is stopped, almost certainly due to a suicide.

10:28pm JST Tuesday 10 October 2006 (day 13348)

Survived work relatively well, and even got a cool bonus 40 minutes for 40 minutes less work. One of my students cancelled; he had been scheduled for an 80 minute lesson. Then in that place I taught a 40 minute lesson. I still got paid for the 80 minutes, and was even paid for the extra 40 minutes. So 500 minutes taught in only 7 hours and 20 minutes. Awesome.

Also chatted with Ami for 60 minutes. She's basically my finest student, in the 80's term of "that girl is fine"... but she's only 26, and her English doesn't allow for actual full fluency discussions, but we still have fun chatting.

I warned her to look out for guys (like me) and ways to know if a guy is trying to get sex, and ways to dissuade it. She seemed surprised and definitely appreciative of the information.

crossing the rubicon

Geologist Jay Hanson, among the first to raise the issue of a global oil crisis resulting in
population overshoot and collapse, came to the same conclusion in "The 'Longage of Critters'
Problem":

     But when the above scenario seems inevitable, the elites will simply depopulate most of the
     planet with bioweapons. When the time comes, it will be the only logical solution to their
     problem. It's a first-strike tactic that leaves built-in infrastructure and other species in
     place and allows the elites to perpetuate their own genes into the foreseeable future. 56

There is another highly significant test of whether or not what I have presented here is
true. Think back to the statement about the results of the war on drugs after 30 years. Does my
narrative scenario accord with the events since 9/11: the anthrax attacks (using spores developed by
the CIA);57the new vaccination laws and programs; the erosion of civil liberties; all the
inconsistencies in the government’s statements about what happened on 9/11 and the bogus link
between the attacks and Iraq; the sudden and nearly obsessive preoccupation with biological warfare;
the invasion of Iraq itself; the creation of a Department of Homeland Security; and the deployment
of US military personnel only in regions of the world connected to oil and gas production or
transshipment.  As Colin Campbell, founder of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil
(www.peakoil.net) has said, "The species Homo sapiens is not going to become extinct. But the
subspecies 'Petroleum Man,' most certainly is."58 Before that happens, there will, as we will
demonstrate to you, the jury, inevitably be armed conflict to seize diminishing energy resources. It
doesn't have to be this way. It shouldn't be this way. But the one thing that makes it inevitable is
the operation of the world's economic system, a psychological and ultimately moral limitation that
no political leaders and few human beings can see beyond.  I heard this reality confirmed by a major
Dutch economist speaking at a Peak Oil conference in May of 2003 who said, "It may not be profitable
to slow decline." 59 War is the most profitable business of all.



56 Jay Hanson, "The 'Longage of Critters' Problem," <dieoff.com>

57 The following are just some of the many news reports that followed this development: 
"Anthrax Spreads in Washington," FOX News, <www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,37330,00.html>; 

Steve Moore's "CIA Scientist: A Key Suspect in US Anthrax Attack," Centre for Research on 
Globalisation, <www.globalresearch.ca/articles/MOO208A.html>; 

David Ensor, "Official: CIA Uses Anthrax, But No Link to Letters," CNN,  
<www.cnn.com/2001/US/12/16/cia.anthrax/>; 

Matthew L. Wald, "CIA Denies Being Source of Anthrax," L.A. Times, December 17, 2001: 
<www.commondreams.org/headlines01/1217-02.htm>. 

58 Space constraints necessitated focusing on oil in this chapter; readers interested in more detail
about similar problems with natural gas should consult Dale Allen Pfeiffer, "Leaping Off the Natural
Gas Cliff (and a Word Concerning the Foolishness of Ethanol)," in FTW, June 21, 2002, op.  cit.; and
Randy Udall and Steve Andrews, "Methane Madness: A Natural Gas Primer," Aspen, Colorado: Community
Office for Resource Efficiency (C.O.R.E.), 2001: <www.hubbertpeak.com/gas/primer/>.

59 "Paris Peak Oil Conference Reveals Deepening Crisis," op. cit. 

- - - -

Make no mistake, the oil companies and Wall Street are banking on severe oil price spikes to fund
this short-lived development and, almost as importantly, to reduce consumption on an ad hoc basis as
people in the US find they can't afford five- or six-dollar gasoline and businesses shut down. There
are, at best, between 500 and 600 billion barrels in the Gulf, which can only be pumped at needed
rates if the investment is begun immediately and sustained over the next ten years.

Do the math, and it's clear: when will the price spikes come? Within six months to a year after the
2004 election. Not before then, if the Bush group can prevent it.

dinner

11:36pm JST Tuesday 10 October 2006 (day 13348)

Wandered around Shibuya a bit looking for an electronics store that was open, but found they all closed at 10pm. Found Softbank that will soon have the iPod+cellphones available (and I'm basically in the market for both, definitely for a phone) and talked to Miki a bit before she heads out to the US tomorrow (NC for 3 months).

Found the spaghetti restaurant that Nami took me to about 3 years ago and had never been able to find again; ended up chowing there for ¤Ê¤Ä¤«¤· purposes. I think it's the same restaurant.