Waves

[Typhoon updates are here.]

I took a drive to the ocean after work yesterday to see what (if any) effect Typhoon Man-yi was having on the ocean hereabouts. The water was a little choppy, but I imagine it's a lot worse this morning.

I'm (sadly) discovering that taking pictures in crappy weather is very difficult. Sure, the lighting is bad and what not, but the biggest obstacle is the fear of getting my camera wet! Anyway, here are a few (kinda crappy) photos of the ocean that I took yesterday. (Click to enlarge.)

An Ordinary Bummer: Typhoon Man-yi

The good news: A long weekend is approaching!

The bad news: So is a big fucking typhoon...

Details in the pics below (click to enlarge). It's really too soon to say, but it doesn't appear that typhoon Man-yi will directly hit Miyazaki (updates below). We will, however, likely get some very nasty weather, especially on Saturday.

The forecast.

A look at what's coming.

Updates to follow and, although I'm a bit paranoid about getting my cameras wet, I'll try to post some pics (if I can get some good ones).

[Images updated 7/14 2:40 pm JST; it appears that Miyazaki is going to get the worst of it around 6 pm; it's beginning to look like a direct hit again...]

[Images updated 7/14 10:45 am JST. Man-yi is one slow motherfucker! It's been pulling into Miyazaki for the last couple of hours, but hasn't really arrived yet. I'm not sure when we can expect the strongest effects, but the whole city is basically closed down today. I hope I don't run out of beer, it's at least 300 meters to the nearest vending machine! Also, I've taken (and will take) some video, but my dvd/rw is on the fritz, so I can't upload anything right now. My daughter is beginning to climb the walls...]

[Images updated 7/13 11:00 pm JST; hmm... the Japan Meteorological Agency seems to think Man-yi will veer a bit north. If so, things might not get too nasty here in Miyazaki. It's still a few hours from Kyushu, so we'll have to wait and see...]

[Images updated 7/13 4:50 pm JST; according to this Bloomberg article NHK is reporting that areas of Miyazaki are already flooded with reports of power outages and cars being blown over (although I suspect the latter was from Okinawa, not Miyazaki). The typhoon proper is still several hours away...]

[7/13 12:00 pm JST: The news out of Okinawa, which is currently being battered by Man-yi. The wind and rain are starting to pick up here in Miyazaki...]

[Images updated 7/13 11:40 am JST; things are definitely looking grimmer; possibly a direct hit. Find Miyazaki in the map below and compare it to the forecast above.]



[Images updated 7/13 6:30 am JST; hmm... looks like things have taken a turn for the worse. It seems to have picked up strength, and it's definitely passing a lot closer to Miyazaki than was forecast yesterday.]

[Images updated 5:05 pm JST]

Coloring Outside the Lines

I ask you, gentle readers, when a guy posts a picture of some coloring he did with his little girl on a rainy day, is it a) an act of pure, fatherly love, something joyous that he wants to share with the whole world; b) an act of sheer desperation, a sure sign the idiot has nothing to say so he's cynically hoping the sappiness of it all will fool his readers; or c) both of the above?



By the way, can you guess which one I did?

Wish You Were Here

The last couple of years my family lived in Winnipeg we lived on the air force base there because there were no available PMQ's available on the army base (we'd lived off-base until, I guess, it became too expensive). The elementary school I attended was just on the other side of the school's sports field. Being an army kid on an air force base wasn't always easy.

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I remember drinking with my old man and some of his old army buddies one night. I guess I must've been about 20 or 25. My dad went for a leak or something and one of his buddies leaned over the table at me and, getting all sincere, said, "You know, your old man could have gone a lot further in the army. He had too many friends, though..."

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One day my father was mowing the lawn. He was using an electric lawnmower. I think they were pretty common back in the 60's. Maybe they still are, I don't know. It was summertime, but I was in the basement shooting pucks at a concrete wall. I don't remember where my mom and sisters were. So, my dad's mowing the lawn. I can hear the electric hum of the mower as it cuts the grass. It stops, and just a moment later I hear my old man say, "Shit!" Not loudly, mind you...

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My dad loved to party. So do I. It was once a family tradition to have a party on Boxing Day, with family and friends and neighbors. I remember one year it was getting quite late and there were only a few people left at the party. My father was asleep (well, passed out) on the sofa. This guy, a neighbor who'd been sitting there the whole night drinking my old man's booze, turns to me and says, "You know, don't you, that your old man is an asshole?" This startled me a bit, so I asked him to repeat himself. He did. We were sitting near the fireplace, so my initial impulse was to club him with the poker, stuff him in, and burn him. Fortunately (for both of us), my father had taught me better. Instead, I just stood up and told him he had 30 seconds to finish his drink and get the fuck out and never come back. This loser actually had the nerve to appeal to my mother, who didn't even waste time getting details. "If my son says, get out, well then, get out." Yeah...

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So I go upstairs and outside to see what my dad is swearing about. Yikes. He's standing there with the index finger of one his hands kinda hanging there and bleeding. A lot. (I found out later that he'd turned off the mower to clean the blades. Apparently the blades of electric mowers can take a few seconds to stop after being turned off...) He pulls out a white handkerchief from his pocket, and as he's wrapping his hand he calmly asks me to to into the kitchen and get the car keys. A few seconds later I bring out the keys and he says, "Let's go for a drive." We go to the hospital and he gets his finger stitched back on. He never flinched. Not for a moment. I'll never forget it.

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My father died about 7 months before I came to Japan. He died too young (64). He never met my wife, or our daughter, or his recently born great-granddaughter (to my niece). His birthday would have been the 4th of July. My father was my biggest "fan." I remember, crying to my my mother as my father was dying, saying that I was nothing without him. Wish you were here...

Shazai ("Apology")

Choose an appropriate apology, proportional to the degree of guilt. Append "sumimasen" ["excuse me/I'm sorry"].

An interesting and informative video on shazai ("apology") in Japan. The "perpetual ojigi" is a personal favorite, but the "predominantly used by ninja" bow on one knee is also pretty cool ("be wary of approaching enemies!").



Now you too can grovel with the best!

Tagged Out...

I've been tagged by my buddy John at konichwa, bitches. I'm supposed to give eight random facts about myself and then tag eight other people. Unfortunately, I don't think I have eight friends who haven't already been tagged by some meme or another recently, so I don't think I can play along fully on this one.

I can, however, list eight random things about myself:

1. Brush with fame: Michael Chiklis (The Shield, Fantastic 4, etc.) said hello to me at Narita Airport in Tokyo about two years ago.


2. I can play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on every musical instrument known to humankind.


3. I was in grade 4 when I played my first game of organized hockey in a league in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I scored four goals and two assists. A "scout" from an "elite" team happened to see my game and invited me to play that evening with his team. My initial excitement was dampened by having to don the jersey of the hated Montreal Canadiens (I was born a Boston Bruins fan). This indignity had an adverse effect on my play, and to this day I blame the "curse of the Canadiens" for my ultimate failure to fulfill my destiny as a star player in the National Hockey League. Instead, I turned to a life of crime and debauchery which, of course, had only one logical end: teaching English at a university here in Japan. I'll see you in hell, Habs.


4. I lived in Germany for three years when I was a kid, and even attended kindergarten there. Apparently I used to make my mother sick with my habit of crossing the autobahn in order to get to the Canadian military base where my father worked. I did this because when I (4-years-old) arrived at the gate the guards would call my dad and he'd give me a ride back home... in a jeep! One day I got lost and wandered onto the American base by mistake. Paydirt! They drove me (in a jeep!) to the Canadian base, and from there my dad drove me home (in a jeep!).


5. When I was 17 I hitch-hiked from Truro, Nova Scotia to Medicine Hat, Alberta. I ran out of money in Medicine Hat, so I hung out there for a week. I hitch-hiked back to Truro when the drugs wore off and I started to get hungry.


6. I once dated a stripper (for about 6 weeks).


7. My only A+ grade in university came from a course in "existentialism". Talk about self-discovery...


8. My mother is fond of telling the following story about me: When I was about 5 she sent me to the corner store to buy a loaf of bread. I honestly don't remember this, but apparently when I found out that the store was sold out of bread I walked outside and threw the money away. I'd like to think that this story is true...

That's probably more than anyone needed (or wanted) to know about me...

Blah Blah Blah

Here's a fun game I play with my EFL students. It's called "blah blah blah" and the rules are really simple. First, pick a famous person. Any famous person will do, but don't tell anyone who you've picked! The trick is to get others to guess who your famous person is without actually speaking any English! Well, maybe a few words. All you have to do is say "blah blah blah" over and over while inserting occasional "key words" that serve as clues for other participants to guess who your famous person is. Sound confusing? Naahhh. Look at the following example:

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah freedom. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah justice blah blah blah blah blah justice. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah justice blah blah blah blah justice blah justice blah blah justice blah blah freedom. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah evil-doers blah blah blah blah justice blah blah blah freedom freedom freedom justice justice justice. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah leadership blah blah blah God blah blah blah blah blah blah leadership. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah enemies of freedom blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah freedom. Blah blah blah blah blah terror blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah terrorists blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah terrorists blah blah blah blah Islam blah blah blah Muslim blah blah blah blah blah blah kill Christians and Jews blah blah kill all Americans blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Islamic blah blah blah blah blah blah extremism blah blah blah Muslim blah blah blah blah. Blah blah freedom blah blah blah blah blah blah hate freedom blah blah blah blah justice blah blah blah freedom blah blah God blah blah blah. Freedom blah blah blah justice blah blah blah freedom blah blah blah justice blah blah blah freedom blah blah blah evil blah blah blah blah freedom blah blah blah blah blah justice.

Wasn't that fun? Did you guess who it was? Well, my students here in Japan typically guess my "famous person" after two or three lines, and they don't know any English. How did you do?

Torn

You know, if it weren't for other people, I probably wouldn't give a shit about anything. Why do you torture me so?

Actually, I'm only half-serious (or half-joking, take your pick).

I've noticed for a long time now that people (and I mean "people" generally, my friends, co-workers, etc.) seem to be much better at recognizing my faults than they are at recognizing their own. They certainly talk about mine (to me) more than I would consider polite to talk about theirs...

Queens of the Stone Age would sound a lot better with different production. As it is, I hear a lot of good ideas and no emotion. They should listen to Burning Brides.

I saw two movies on TV this week. The first, Deep Blue Sea, sucked. The scene where Samuel L. Jackson's character gets snatched by the shark during his "pep talk" was pretty cool, though. The second, The Weather Man, with Nicolas Cage and Michael Caine had some good ideas, but ended up being kinda sappy. When Cage's character had the bow and arrow aimed at the guy who "stole his wife" he should have pointed and shot his father.

I've been sucked into the plot of Lost. Severe disappointment must be on the horizon...

Forget about Oscar Wilde's comment about America, Japan is a country based on "decadence". When people look at a living creature and say, "doesn't that look yummy?", well...

Speaking of Japan, people all over the country (including me) received their "summer bonuses" (about 2-3 months salary) today, for doing nothing...

No Laughing Matter

A few weeks ago I posted this story about Patrick Knight, a death row inmate in Texas. Knight was collecting jokes with the purpose of selecting the best one to be his final statement before being executed.

Patrick Knight was executed this past Tuesday (June 26). The following is from this AP story:

Condemned prisoner Patrick Knight was executed Tuesday evening for the deaths of an Amarillo-area couple without delivering on a promise to tell a joke in his final statement.

Patrick Knight has been soliciting jokes in the mail and on a Web site, sometimes receiving as many as 20 a day, saying his humor was intended to raise the spirits of other inmates. He said he received as many as 1,300 proposals.

But when the moment came, Knight thanked God for his friends and asked for help for innocent men on death row. He named several he said were innocent. His voice shaking and nearly in tears, he said, "Not all of us are innocent, but those are."

After expressing love to some friends, he said, "I said I was going to tell a joke. Death has set me free. That's the biggest joke. I deserve this."

"And the other joke is that I am not Patrick Bryan Knight and y'all can't stop this execution now. Go ahead, I'm finished."

Nine minutes later at 6:21 p.m. CDT, he was pronounced dead.

Prison spokeswoman Michelle Lyons disputed Knight's mistaken identity claim.

"We fingerprint them when they come over," she said.

Randall County Sheriff Joel Richardson, who watched Knight die, said the joke plan seemed to be a ploy by Knight to draw attention to himself.

"Despite all the hype about his joke, it turns out he's not much of a comedian," he said. "He's simply an executed cold-blooded killer."

I wasn't going to write anything by way of comment on this, but...

"[...] I am not Patrick Bryan Knight and y'all can't stop this execution now. Go ahead, I'm finished." It seems quite possible to me that this is more than just a simple "mistaken identity claim". Patrick Knight had been on death row for 16 years. Who among us could honestly say "I'm the same person I was 16 years ago"? Was the person executed this past Tuesday in fact a "cold-blooded killer"? The only one who knows the answer to that question is Patrick Knight. It's too late to ask him now.

Meme-orandum

My good friend Glenn over at Bigezbear has tagged me with a Thinking Blogger Award. Gaze in wonder and awe:



I'm not really into this "tagging" and "meme" stuff, so my initial impulse was to jump on a plane to New Orleans and give Glenn a nice, warm Nova Scotia bitchslap (heehee, just kidding, buddy!). But then I thought about it and decided to take it as the compliment I'm sure he meant it to be. Thank you, Glenn.

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The rules of the Thinking Blogger Award are fairly simple. First you have to post the rules. Here they are:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

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Now I have to name 5 blogs I read that "make me think". Here they are (alphabetically):

So far as I know, the shadowy and mysterious Codename V doesn't know me from a hole in the wall. In fact, I can't even properly "tag" her because the has "comments" turned off. Too bad, because she's got some interesting things to say about music and movies and other stuff.

Daniel, the Guy in the Desert writes on a wide variety of topics, from the personal to the political. I've never had a problem hanging out with gay men in the "real" world, and he and Glenn have shown me that things are no different online. NOTE: Daniel says his blog is for "mature readers". I don't think he'd mind if mentioned that some of the (non-pornographic) images on his site might not be safe for work.

Emarie, the disaffected housewife, is an online friend who seems to be too busy to post much these days, but when she does write it's always thoughtful and (generally) humorous. Emarie, get yourself a-bloggin'!

Discovering my friend Maliha's blog, Lightness of Being..., has been one of my most positive (and eye-opening) experiences. Maliha is a young Muslim woman living in the US. She quite literally writes about everything (and fiction, too), and she writes it very well. She tagged me once. I'm only too happy to return the favor! ;-)

Last, but not least, is UK blogger Shit Sandwich. A veritable font of (proper!) English usage, music, and BBC programming, Shit's site is (as you may have already guessed) irreverent, but also informed and intelligent. Leave a comment and you'll be heartily welcomed by Shit and his regular readers.

I guess all that's left is to give everyone above the "good news" that they've been tagged!

In a Foul Mood

Sunday morning I woke up with some kind of kink or pinched nerve or some damned thing in my right shoulder. Sunday afternoon I went bowling with my daughter. Sunday night it felt like someone had stabbed me in the shoulder. Yesterday (Monday) morning I could barely move without screaming in agony. I was not happy. I had to cancel my morning classes. I'd never bailed on a university class before, so now I was even more unhappy. I had another class and a meeting in the afternoon, both of which I really couldn't cancel. I was extremely unhappy. End of term is rapidly approaching, so taking time off to nurse a bad shoulder is not really an option. I'm unhappy today. I suspect I'll be unhappy tomorrow...

At the Novelty Shop

This is what I thought: for the most banal event to become an adventure, you must (and this is enough) begin to recount it. This is what fools people: a man is always a teller of tales, he lives surrounded by his stories and the stories of others, he sees everything that happens to him through them; and he tries to live his own life as if he were telling a story. But you have to choose: live or tell.

--Jean Paul Sartre, Nausea (Trans. Lloyd Alexander. New York: New Directions Publishing, 1964. p. 56)

Sigh... this is the kind of crap that passes through my mind these days whenever I sit down to "blog". Although I'm essentially an existentialist myself [yes, yes, I know already!], I think Sartre was a bit of a whiny wanker. I mean, look at the title of the book I took the above quote from. Nausea. Nausea? Was he gut-punched or something? Well, yeah, but only "figuratively". Personally I've never had too much trouble telling the difference between myself and a rock on the ground (although I'll have to concede that others may have more difficulty), but if I were gut-punched (literally or figuratively), I somehow doubt that "nausea" would be the first word to spring to my lips to describe the attendant emerging sensations. More likely I would utter something involving the words "puke" or "barf". But that's just me.

I, Dork with a Camera

Self-absorbed? Me? Naaahhh...



Just killin' time...

"Unspeakable horrors from outer space paralyze the living and resurrect the dead!"

Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future. You are interested in the unknown... the mysterious. The unexplainable. That is why you are here...

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The Ruler: Plan 9? Ah, yes. Plan 9 deals with the resurrection of the dead.

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Tanna: Eros, do we *have* to kill them?
Eros: Yes.
Tanna: It seems such a waste.
Eros: Well, wouldn't it be better to kill a few now than, with their meddling, permit them to destroy the entire universe?

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Paula Trent: ...A flying saucer? You mean the kind from up there?
Jeff Trent: Yeah, either that or its counterpart.

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Air Force Captain: Visits? That would indicate visitors.

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Colonel Tom Edwards: This is the most fantastic story I've ever heard.
Jeff Trent: And every word of it's true, too.
Colonel Tom Edwards: That's the fantastic part of it.

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Eros: You do not need guns.
Jeff Trent: Maybe we think we do.

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Colonel Tom Edwards: You speak of Solaranite. But just what is it?
Eros: Take a can of your gasoline. Say this can of gasoline is the sun. Now, you spread a thin line of it to a ball, representing the earth. Now, the gasoline represents the sunlight, the sun particles. Here we saturate the ball with the gasoline, the sunlight. Then we put a flame to the ball. The flame will speedily travel around the earth, back along the line of gasoline to the can, or the sun itself. It will explode this source and spread to every place that gasoline, our sunlight, touches. Explode the sunlight here, gentlemen, you explode the universe. Explode the sunlight here and a chain reaction will occur direct to the sun itself and to all the planets that sunlight touches, to every planet in the universe. This is why you must be stopped. This is why any means must be used to stop you. In a friendly manner or as (it seems) you want it.
Lieutenant John Harper: He's mad.
Tanna: Mad? Is it mad that you destroy other people to save yourselves? You have done this. Is it mad that one country must destroy another to save themselves? You have also done this. How then is it "mad" that one planet must destroy another who threatens the very existence-...
Eros: [shoves her roughly aside] That's enough.
[to the humans]
Eros: In my land, women are for advancing the race, not for fighting man's battles.

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Jeff Trent: Modern women. They've been like that all down through the ages. Especially in a spot like this.

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Can you prove that it didn't happen? [...] Perhaps, on your way home, someone will pass you in the dark, and you will never know it... for they will be from outer space.

[From Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)]

On a Roll...

Heh, as I write this, I'm on the first page of Google results for "who is satan and where does he live?"

I cackle in your general direction...

Resistance Is Futile

"Daddy, I made these pictures for you. Here."

"Wow, thank you, sweetie, they're beautiful!"

"Really...?"

Friday Skiving Off Work Video(s): The Dolls, Then & Now

Punks? Drag queens? Punks in drag? The Stones in drag? I can't remember for certain when I first heard about The New York Dolls. Probably reading Creem or Circus... I dunno. I do remember the odd looks I got as I plopped a copy of their debut album down on the counter of the local record shop in my small hometown in Nova Scotia, back in 1973. (I was only 15, so I was still a bit sensitive about what other people thought.) And the music! "Punk" before I knew what it meant. Like "punk-Stones" or something. Sloppier than the Stones, but not as tight (if that makes any sense to you). Out of control. Incredible.

Check out this great live performance of the Dolls' "signature" tune, "Personality Crisis". Check the threads on the bass player!



Here's another great live perfomance from the old 70's show Rock Concert. Here, the band gives their audacious, jaw-dropping rendition of "Stranded in the Jungle" from their (all too) aptly named second album, Too Much Too Soon. This must be seen to be believed.



In 2004 David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain put a band together and called it the New York Dolls. They released an album in 2006, One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This. Johnny Thunders and Arthur Kane are missed dearly, but this album is really quite good. Here's a fun, irreverant number from the album, "Dance Like a Monkey". Enjoy!



Now please have a beer and... you know, have fun!

Great Google-y Moogley!

To date, my all-time favorite search-term-that-brought-somebody-here:

hot excited videos from english movies featuring women.

I'm so proud... and I know my Dad would be proud, too... not sure about Mom...

Quote(s) of the Week

Truth is simply a compliment paid to sentences seen to be paying their way.
--Richard Rorty, New York Times Magazine, 1990



(1) [An ironist] has radical and continuing doubts about the final vocabulary she currently uses, because she has been impressed by other vocabularies, vocabularies taken as final by people or books she has encountered; (2) she realizes that argument phrased in her present vocabulary can neither underwrite nor dissolve these doubts; (3) insofar as she philosophizes about her situation, she does not think that her vocabulary is closer to reality than others, that it is in touch with a power not herself.
--Richard Rorty, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, p.73

"Gay Bomb": Funny, Stupid, Offensive, or All of the Above?

This caught my attention while idly perusing the web today [Via: CathiefromCanada]:

A Berkeley watchdog organization that tracks military spending said it uncovered a strange U.S. military proposal to create a hormone bomb that could purportedly turn enemy soldiers into homosexuals and make them more interested in sex than fighting.

Leaving aside the sheer stupidity of it all for a moment, I wonder who they would trust with this "football"?

Peacocks...

I saw a few peacocks at a park today. Here are some pics. Click to enlarge.

One of these days...

One of these days I'll write a post in which I will, song by song, describe why Exile on Main St. is the greatest album in the history of the world. Until that time you'll just have to accept my very un-humble opinion on the subject (and really, if you'd just listen, you'd hear it anyway...). Dissenting views are welcome, of course, but will be treated with the scorn they deserve.

There's a new album by Richard Thompson, Sweet Warrior. that's really good. No, it's really fucking good.

I'm listening to Pearl Jam's first album, Ten. It's really fucking good, too.

So is the album In the Absence of Truth by Isis, if you like heavy stuff...

I also feel obliged to mention one of the greatest albums ever, Entertainment! by Gang of Four. If you don't know it, um, well, perhaps you should...

Air Sex: It Just Won't Go Away

First there was Air Sex: The Story. Then there was Air Sex: The Video. Now we have Air Sex in America [link via Japan Probe].

Believe me, folks, it's only an ingrained journalistic imperative to "follow through" on a story that keeps me posting about this stupidity. Well, that and the inevitable page hits...

Friday Skiving Off Work Video: Ian Hunter

Here's a great performance of a classic tune by Ian Hunter, "Once Bitten, Twice Shy", featuring the late (and great) Mick Ronson on guitar. (If you remember Mott the Hoople and still dig Ian Hunter, you might want to check out his new album, Shrunken Heads. It's a good 'un.) Please enjoy--it's Kyklops approved!



Now please have a beer and, you know, kinda chill out...

Killing in the Name of...

But what then is capital punishment but the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated it may be, can be compared? For there to be equivalence, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life.

Albert Camus, "Reflections on the Guillotine"

I came across this interesting story the other day, about Patrick Knight, an inmate in Texas who's scheduled to be executed on June 26. On August 26, 1991, Knight broke into the home of Walter and Mary Ann Werner, held them captive, and the next day drove them to another location where he shot them, execution-style, and then left their bodies in a ditch. By all accounts, Patrick Knight was (16 years ago, at least) a pretty bad character, but it's not the history of this case that makes Knight interesting...

[...] Knight is accepting jokes mailed to him on Texas' death row or e-mailed to a friend who has a Web site for him. The friend then mails him the jokes.
Knight said the joke he finds the funniest will be his final statement the evening of June 26.

As you can probably imagine, there are many people who are not amused by this.

Randall County Sheriff Joel Richardson thinks the whole idea is anything but cool. As chief deputy at the time of the Werners' killings, Richardson investigated the case and intends to witness Knight's execution. He said the Werners' family has already been through enough, and that Knight's attempt to make a joke at the execution is sick.
"The whole thing is not a joke to anybody here unless it is to him," Richardson said of Knight. "This tells you a little bit about the guy's character, anyway."

Knight himself has the following to say:

"I'm not trying to disrespect the Werners or anything like that," he told The Associated Press from death row. "I'm not trying to say I don't care what's going on. I'm about to die. I'm not going to sit here and whine and cry and moan and everything like that when I'm facing the punishment I've been given.
[...]
"I know I'm not innocent," said Knight, who believes his appeals have been exhausted. "They think they're killing me. They think they're punishing me. They've already punished me. I've already had 16 years of punishment. They're releasing me. They're letting me go. That's helping me out. That's the way I look at it."

So, there we have the basic facts, and I suppose one's reaction to them depends, more or less, on one's view of capital punishment.

Personally, I don't think there's anything especially "sick" about Knight's wish to crack a joke just before he's put to death. It's not even strange as far as I'm concerned. Some might think it undignified, I suppose, but really, what can anybody really say is "proper" behavior for a man about to be put to death? I'll tell you what I think. I think the only natural thing to do at the moment of one's murder (for this is what it surely is) is whatever it takes to avoid it. If there's no way to avoid it, well then, what fucking difference does it make what one does?

Having gone through the appeals process we can probably assume that Knight has, on countless occasions, said that he's sorry for what he's done. It's beyond me how expressing it one last time makes his death more dignified, let alone making him a better, or even reformed man. (And if anyone accepts even for a moment that this kind of last-minute expression of sorrow shows that he's been reformed, well then, what the fuck are you killing him for?) Make no mistake about it, what the state of Texas is going to do to Patrick Knight is no less "criminal" than what Knight did to his victims, the Werners.

No, I haven't forgotten about Walter and Mary Ann Werner, and I haven't forgotten that they were murdered (apparently) in cold blood by Patrick Knight. I fail to see, however, how murdering Knight, and calling it "justice", serves the Werners and their family or serves the larger society. Frankly, I'd worry about anyone who took comfort in the death of another person (I don't care who it might be or what he might have done).

Capital punishment is not a rational response to murder, and it places the condemned person into the unnatural position of consenting to be killed. This seems a bit "cruel and unusual" to me. Why don't we just call it what it is--state-sanctioned revenge, and drop all this high talk of "justice"? Patrick Knight may well be a worthless piece of shit, I really couldn't say. But if he wants to crack a joke as he's about to be executed, or dance a jig, or recite the Lord's Prayer, or cry and beg for forgiveness, or fight tooth and nail trying to escape, what's the fucking difference?

Old Faithful

I'm bored and I have nothing to say, which means that it's time to suck someone into clicking here. Yes, this link will give you a better idea about life in Japan than my (or anyone else's, for that matter) words ever could.
Please enjoy!

Y'all come back now, ya hear?

Friday Skiving Off Work Video: The Stones

Regular readers probably figured out a while ago that I'm a Stones fan. It's my blessing and my curse...

Today's video shows the Stones, circa 1995, doing a live performance of one of their classic songs, "Gimme Shelter". I have to tell you right now that I was very happy to have come across this video. The band is in top form (seriously, for any Stones era you'd care to name), and this blues-infused rendition of the song positively smokes. Keith and Ronnie in particular sound really good. Even if you hate the Stones you should really check out the brief female vocal part after the guitar solo. On fire! (I wonder how the Stones keep finding these incredible female vocalists year after year...)

Oh yeah, Jack Nicholson was at the show. He seemed to have had a good time (if that's not an endorsement, I don't know what is...).



Now please have a beer and listen to the Stones again for the first time.

Classroom AIDS

Aside from some occasional, generally un-focused griping about my students' English ability (or lack thereof), I usually try to avoid making fun of them outright. You'll have to take my word for it that the following is in no way meant to ridicule my students (really, I'm serious). It is kinda funny, though...

In an essay entitled "Watch Out for AIDS!", one of my students has informed me that, aside from the "usual precautions" one should take to avoid becoming infected with AIDS, we should "[...] also avoid having sex with the general public".

Well damn, there goes my weekend...

Rocks...

Some more photos today. (I'm swamped reading the atrocious English of my students, and can't seem to shake the feeling that, somehow, they've "infected" me. I have no will, no strength, to write anything. Weird...)

Anyway, the photos below were taken on the same day as the ones in my previous post. Although it's completely unintentional, I suppose these shots, all of "rocks", give some balance to the "clouds" of the previous post.

The four shots immediately below were taken at a park in Kitago, south of Miyazaki city (click to enlarge).









The following shots were taken in Aoshima, and feature an interesting geological formation known locally as "the Devil's Washboard" (Oni no Sentakuita).

Clouds...

I went for a Sunday drive with my family yesterday, and on the way home noticed that there were some interesting looking clouds in the sky. The four pics below were taken from the back seat of my car as we were driving home. As usual, you can click the images and they will, like magic (!), become bigger...









When we arrived home I saw some different interesting looking cloud formations. The following three pics were taken from the rear balcony of my condo.

Friday Skiving Off Work Video: Jimi

If you had to pick a single performance of a single song that encapsulated everything that rock 'n' roll is about, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better example than Jimi Hendrix's version of "Wild Thing" at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. Powerful, primal, sexual, destructive, spectacular, irreverent, spontaneous, minimal... whatever. It's all there.



Now please have a beer and smash something...

Learning Japanese (...at Least I Think So)

I've had a lot of students' homework to look at lately. I've got about 200 students, and they all write something for me most every week. It's tiring work to read it all, week in and week out. In fact, there's nothing obligating me (beyond my own sense of "doing my job") to give them any homework at all, but the result is that these days I'm tired...

On a more positive note, I have resumed, after a pause of about six years, my Japanese language studies. It's actually a source of personal embarrassment to me that, after living and working here for nine years, my Japanese ability sucks big time. Aside from sheer laziness, probably the biggest obstacle to my learning Japanese has been kanji.

Not knowing kanji means that I can't read anything in Japanese (or at least nothing substantive). Anyone who knows the abc's, for example, can pick up a newspaper and, dictionary in hand, start reading in English. This is not possible with Japanese (at least not initially). I happen to know that "宮崎" is spoken as "Miyazaki" (because I live here!). Without that knowledge, however, there is no way I could look it up in a dictionary. One has to learn the kanji, then it's meaning, then how it is spoken (and most kanji have two readings: the original Chinese reading and the later Japanese one).

Conversely, I suppose you could learn only the spoken language, which would allow you to look words up in a dictionary and from there learn the kanji. Um, after you've learned hiragana and katakana, the two alphabets that supplement kanji, that is. In this case you would simply look up "みやざき" ("mi-ya-za-ki") in order to arrive at the kanji and/or the word's meaning.

All in all, a messy business, this Japanese...

Are We Not Men?

[NOTE: This story originally appeared here.]

"Get that thumb out of your mouth right now, Joey," his mother is scolding him. "You're almost five, it's time you grew up." He liked sucking his thumb. It felt good. Eventually, though, he stopped.

-----

He's in the principal's office. He's in trouble. "Joey, Nancy says you stuck gum in her hair and that several times you've punched her on the shoulder. Is this true?" "Yes, sir." "Well, son," the principal says, "that kind of childish behavior is unacceptable. You'll be going to junior high next year, so I think it's about time you grew up and started acting like a man." "Yes, sir, I'll try."

-----

He has a black eye. His father is looking at him with a strange mixture of pity and disgust on his face. "For Christ's sake, Joe, you mean you didn't fight back?" "No, I didn't, Dad," he replies. His father thunders, "listen up, boy. No son of mine is going to be the high school punching bag. If you're going to be a man, you have to grow up and learn to fight like a man. You got that?" "Sure, Dad."

-----

He's in court. He's in trouble. A few weeks ago he got drunk and took a baseball bat to a bunch of cars in a parking lot. He's done stuff like this before. The prosecutor is speaking. "...and so, your honor, we can see a clear pattern of alcohol abuse coupled with violent, anti-social behavior..." Later, after sentencing him to probation and community service, the judge looks right at him and says, "Joseph Ryan Johnson, this is your last chance in this court. It's time to grow up, young man, or the next time I see you you'll be going to prison. Do you understand me?" "Yes, sir. Thank you."

-----

He's standing in the delivery room. His wife has just given birth to a baby boy. He's a father. He's overcome with joy, but later, as he's standing outside smoking a cigarette, his joy is replaced by terror. He's terrified of the responsibility that's just been delivered to him. He's talking out loud to himself. "Jesus H. Christ, Joey-boy, what are you gonna do now, eh? You can't fuck this one up, asshole. No siree. It's time to grow up, boy, and start acting like a man... whatever the fuck that means..."

-----

He walks into the living room and sees his four-year-old boy on the sofa watching TV. The boy is sucking his thumb. A reprimand springs to his lips, but he stifles it. He pauses for a moment, and then joins his son on the sofa.

"Hey Tommy, whatcha watchin'?"

"Spiderman. But it's finished."

"Uh huh. Let's have a talk, OK Tommy?"

"OK, Daddy."

"You know how me and Mommy are always buggin' you about sucking your thumb?"

"Yeah...?"

"I want to tell you a secret. When I was a little boy I sucked my thumb, too."

"... really...?"

"Yeah, really...."

"Why, Daddy?"

"Well, let's see..."

Tired... but a winner, by golly!

For the few friends who still drop by here (where has everyone gone?), I've been really busy the last couple of weeks, and haven't had the energy to post much of anything. Hopefully I'll come around soon.

Now for the good news! I posted a couple of weeks ago about the fiction contest over at The Moon Topples. Well, yours truly won second place in the "jury" category! I'll post my story here sometime next week, but in the meantime why don't you click here (scroll down a bit) and check out all of the great stories (including my own not-so-great one)?

Oh Canada!

Restoring the hockey world (i.e. "the known universe") to its natural order, Canada won the World Hockey Championship yesterday. Good job, boys!

Now I've Seen Everything...

This video beggars description (possibly NSFW). I'm at a loss for words...
[Via Japan Probe.]

Friday Skiving Off Work Videos: Vintage Rock and Blues

Two classic videos, both of which I've just seen for the first time.

"Tales of Brave Ulysses" by Cream. Oh my, oh my. Young men, this is how they used to rock. Holy shit. And Ginger Baker? I bow down in awe, a worm, not worthy of oiling your kick pedal. O yea, a worm, I say, unfit for the polishing of the sacred cymbals, too low to sweep the splinters from your mighty sticks...



"I Can't Quit You, Baby" by Otis Rush. Oh yeah. Vintage blues from a master. Enjoy!



Now please stop listening to crap and have a beer!

Greek of the Week: Nomos and Physis, Pt. 3

Picking up where we left off with Callicles last week, we observed that many of his ideas were indicative of a certain mood which found varying expressions in fifth century Athens.

We've already seen, in Aristophanes' Clouds, for example, the notion of holding animals up as models for "natural" human behavior. And as for nature as the basis of international relations we need not look any further than Thucydides (The History of the Peloponnesian War 5.105.2 (quoted below) and 4.61.5): in the course of trying to negotiate peace between rival Sicilian cities, Hermocrates of Syracuse warns the other delegates of the dangers of internal fighting amongst themselves while Athens sits waiting to move in (4.60). He finds the Athenian strategy to be perfectly understandable, and says that he lays no blame on those who are resolved to rule, because "it has always been human nature (for the stronger) to rule over those who submit" (πέφυκε γὰρ τὸ ἀνθρώπειον διὰ παντὸς ἄρχειν τοῦ εἴκοντος).

Continuing with Callicles, what justification, he goes on to ask, did Xerxes or his father have for invading foreign lands, if not that they were acting according to the nature of right (κατὰ φύσιν τὴν τοῦ δικαίου), indeed according to the law of nature (κατὰ νόμον γε τὸν τῆς φύσεως), though this is not a law that humans have made (483d6-e4). Here we have the first coinage of the paradoxical term "law of nature". For the sake of clarity it should be mentioned that the sense in which Callicles uses the term should not be confused with the later Stoic lex naturae ("natural law"), nor with the "laws of nature" with which modern scientists are concerned.

This formulation does have an earlier parallel in Thucydides 5.105.2 ("The Melian Dialogue") where we see the Athenians inform the Melians that he should rule who can as a matter of natural and eternal necessity:

ἡγούμεθα γὰρ τό τε θεῖον δόξῃ τὸ ἀνθρώπειον τε σαφῶς διὰ παντὸς ὑπὸ φύσεως αναγκαίας οὖ ἄν κρατῇ, ἄρχειν· καὶ ἡμεῖς οὔτε θέντες τὸν νόμον οὔτε κειμένῳ πρῶτοι χρησάμενοι, ὄντα δὲ παραλαβόντες καὶ ἐσόμενον ἐς αἰεὶ καταλείψοντες χρώμεθα αὐτῷ...

From our opinion of the gods and of human nature we hold that clearly it is a general necessity of nature to rule where one is able. We did not make this law, nor were we the first to utilize it once it was made. It existed when we received it, and it will continue to exist forever when we have left it behind...

There is no denying the similarities between the positions of Callicles and the Athenians in the Melian Dialogue. Particularly striking is the notion of some principle in nature which says that the strong rule the weak regardless of any human-made laws. It is also obvious that both positions can be reduced to one of self-interest. Where they part ways, however, (and the difference is perhaps a subtle one), is in the Athenians' lack of any appeal to a consideration of "right".

The Athenians are "realists": "we are doing this because that is just the way the world is." Callicles, on the other hand, is not arguing that just because it happens this or that way in nature it is better (he is not reducing "ought" to "is"). In his rejection of conventional in favor of natural "right" as something better and morally superior he is saying that clear thinking individuals have come to judge that what is right by nature is superior because it is the nomos of nature, it is what nature prescribes (P. Shorey, What Plato Said (1933) 154).

...

Sunsets, Mountains, Palm Trees, and a Dork with a Camera

Bleh. I'm too tired to write anything, but I'm becoming addicted to posting stuff on my blog. What to do? Hmm... I know! How about some random photos. Yeah, let's ponder the randomness of the universe, ponder the imponderable, as it were...

A sunset from the back balcony of my condo.

A different sunset, as viewed from the back balcony of my condo.

A river and some mountains, as seen from the back balcony..., heh, just kidding...

Some more mountains.

Two palm trees in front of some kind of fitness centre. Look closely enough and art will emerge... (again, I'm just kidding...).

I'm fairly certain (and I think you'll agree) that this is a dork with a camera. Have I ever mentioned that it's not easy being me?

To Hell and Back, Pt.2: Roller Coaster

This is a special post for me and a landmark post for this blog. Why? Well, because the poorly shot, badly lit, crappy video you see below is my first video uploaded to YouTube!

In the past year I've been forced to endure several "theme" parks and general amusement parks. I hate the theme parks, but the non-franchise amusement parks are not so bad. On the second day of last week's family trip we went to a small but rather well-thought out park, Kijima Amusement Park, in Beppu, Oita Prefecture. I've become something of a roller coaster fan recently, and the clip below shows the Super LS Coaster in action. I enjoyed several spins on this little coaster!



For me, though, the highlight of the trip was the ride I took on a beautiful, old-school wooden coaster called Jupiter. Of course with wooden coasters you don't have any of the gravity-defying loops and rolls ("inversions" in coaster jargon) that make steel coasters so exciting (and terrifying!). I have to tell you, though, Jupiter was one white-knuckle ride into terror! This was my first time on a wooden coaster, and I'll never forget it. This ride was absolutely bone-jarring! At every moment, through every rise, drop, and curve, I was convinced I was about to die. On top of that, it was raining! The wind and rain were battering my face, I was hurtling through space, I was scared shitless! What an experience!

To give you some idea of Jupiter's size and construction here are a few pics (click to enlarge). It's too bad that it was cloudy and rainy. These photos don't really do justice to Jupiter.