The perfect topic on NPR's Talk of the Nation Wednesday. why can't Americans join in the enthusiasm of soccer?

Last night at the hash everyone who had tickets to the world cup had to drink. Of course with all the Brits, Kiwis, and every other nationality that isn't American, most people wanted to go, only about nine of us had them, and I was the only one who didn't know what teams I was going to see.

I had a mini-conversation about the topic last week with a group of various Europeans, and I am sure the topic will come up again (and again and again) through the next two(?) weeks.

I personally do not have anything against soccer. I can't get excited about it as other people do however because I just can't recognize the skill to a level that makes it interesting for me. I played football. I played on the line. Now, when I watch a football game, even if there is no touchdown, or no yards are gained, I can still enjoy it if there is one excellent block in the play. Of course the only way I can recognize a good block is because I have played it myself. For some reason, I love to watch people running around in circles on a track. Why? Because I did it myself and understand it somewhat (not there is so much to understand). I should point out of course, that I could care less about baseball, hockey, basketball, and often pro football. Come to think of it, I like soccer just as much, if not better than most "American" sports.

They made a few interesting points on the show, only one of which I will give you. --- Most other American sports favor athletes who look like superheroes. Soccer on the other hand favors girly-men.

I'm pretty much devouring A Mind At A Time. I would love to write my reaction to it on a day-to-day basis as I move through it, unfortunately I found I have a deficiency in that area.

I haven't been able to get up early the last two days... of course Thursday is always a lost cause because the hash is on Wednesday.

Posted by bastish at 11:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have to put the Japanese study on hold for a couple days already. A Mind At A Time came from Amazon today. Maybe it's because I am getting tired of reading computer or business related books, which I have been for the past three years. Maybe it's because I see in this book a chance to finally understand myself, but I am pretty excited about this book.

Having graduated from high-school 8th from the bottom of my class (I wonder if mom and dad ever knew that...) I felt like a lot of people thought I was pretty much a looser. I didn't think so myself of course... the fact that I was able to do as well as I did with as little work as I did doesn't say much for my work ethic I guess, but in a way it showed me that I was not an idiot. What really baffles me now, as I look back, is that no one (even myself) realized the things I was doing great at. Certainly no one encouraged me to follow them. The focus was always on the things I didn't care about, and thus did poorly at.

For instance, I probably spent more time on drawing when I was a kid than any other single activity. Yet, there was never a real effort to encourage me to develop that, or even the general "artistic" theme. Granted, the sole reason for my high-school to exist was to push people into the ministry, and they could have cared less about art, but still, as much time as I spent on that you would think someone would have noticed that I was good, and encouraged me to do it more. Instead, I can only remember people telling me to stop. (mostly during algebra class). In fact there was one time in 5th grade when I was forbidden to draw for a year, and I was banned from having a paper and pencil in my room. Now that I am in Japan and have had a chance to see how popular pornographic cartoons are, I have too wonder how successful I might have become had I been encourage to draw more naked ladies instead.

In high-school, I didn't find what I excelled at until the end of Junior year, although from the beginning I had no shortage of people pointing out my apparent weaknesses. I was not a star athlete, although once I discovered how much fun it was to run around in circles until I couldn't feel my limbs during my Junior year track debut, I became much more interested and much better at any sport I tried. I think what I found so appealing about track was that it was a struggle against myself. Only. As long as I could get my best time yet, it didn't matter what the guy with legs six inches longer than mine (Jon) could do.

In high-school though, the biggest surprise for me was my ability to learn a foreign language with less struggle than most people. I remember one letter that went home from my Latin teacher telling my dad, "Kevin must have some abilities, languages just isn't one of them." I guess I had just never met any women from old Rome that caught my attention. Instead I met Maria, a Swede, and after studying Swedish, found that foreign languages are actually interesting. I went from being ranked dead last in German, to being among the top students. And even compared to the students who had better grades than I did, I could converse and express (basic) abstract idea circles around them. They were better at memorizing verb endings for the quiz, but take my word for it, having the perfect noun form is worthless if you can't build visualize the idea in the target language. I didn't even see it as a "gift" then. It was not until I actually came to Japan and saw that some people studied just as much as I did (a lot more than I ever did for anything in high-school) and just couldn't get it.

Yet, even then, I can think of no one other than my advisor at U of M that said anything more encouraging than "What can you do with that?".

Anyway, to round it up, I think the reason I am so excited about reading this book now, is that my biggest regret from when I was younger, was not exploring the ideas Dr. Levine puts forward. I never really stopped to say, "Hey let's see what I am good at and concentrate on that". I never knew it was an option.

Posted by bastish at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thanks be to Bruce Pee for taking over the hash flash for much of the night. I was hoping to get some variety. It is hard though when every hash looks the same. If I ever miss a week, I will just use photos from a year ago and no one will notice the difference.

Posted by bastish at 05:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I hear that Sept 11 is (or has been) winding down in the US, as headlines and news reports talk about returning to normal. I don't have CNN here in Japan, but from the report I heard at Christmas time, the number of hand-made gifts increased greatly this year because so many people where glued to their TV watching the War on Terror. Other than this, I don't really have a gauge to know what it's like there... (I'm just now listening to the archived "live coverage")

I noticed something interesting today though... I have been looking back through past topics in NPR's Talk of the Nation. Here are some of the topics from August 2001...

• New Rules for Driving


• The Art of the Talk Show


• Dog Parks


• Twins


• Sharks


• Boomer Bashing


• Ssssnakes

Of course I haven't listened to any of these, they my be hard-hitting, but it is interesting to note that the next topic that come close after Sept 11, is Annual Bird Show/ Christmas Bird Count on Dec 28. (Friday is always science related).

January seems to be returning to frivolity with Salary Cap Good For Sports?, and then BEAUTY CONTESTS Feb 3. The Art of Courtship report is excusable because it is Feb 14. There few other topics as uncompelling as these between Sept 11 and today... certainly nothing like Ssssnakes.

By the way, I hear a lot of people talking about where they were when they heard the news, and I don't know if anyone cares, but being in Japan of course, without CNN, I'll tell you what I was doing.

It would have been around 9 or 10 pm here. I was sitting at my desk at work and Bryan (my boss) got a call from his brother in the US. Of course there is no TV there, so all we could do to "follow" it was reload the top page of cnn.com every 10 minutes or so. They had streaming coverage, but they were getting so much traffic they had to replace the top page, which is full of images usually, with a simple text only html file (I think there may have been one photo). I couldn't connect to see the video stream, so I stuck to the text stuff.

I rode the next to last train home, and of course no one else on the train knew what was happening. I turned on the TV when I got home and found only one news show talking about it, but they talked more about what the World Trade Center was, rather than the attack. The next day too, I heard very little about it. I never overheard any Japanese people talking about it, and (although I know they were) it appeared that no one here was even aware.

I myself was not as affected as everyone in the US appears to have been. I didn't feel anger, or sadness really, but I did (and do) feel sick that this could happen when I actually think about it... beyond the news reports. For instance, (what really brought this up today) I was reading Fighting to Live as the Towers Died on the New York Times web site. They pack a a lot of dramatic and horrible stories of individuals into 8 pages. It's interesting and sad to read. But for me, to really think about it... beyond the news reports, you have to just take one of the personal stories from one of the eight pages. Any story would do. I picked one at random.

"I can't go anywhere because they told us not to move," Ivhan Carpio, a Windows worker, said in a message he left on his cousin's answering machine. "I have to wait for the firefighters."

Now spend the rest of the time it would normally take you to finish reading the article, and concentrate on imagining that it was your cousin, or brother, or son who left that message on your machine.

I was telling someone the other day, that what would really scare me a lot more than a threat to blow up the Statue of Liberty, would be a threat to attack a random small Mideastern city. As it is now, I am fairly confident that my family is safe... after all, why the heck would a terrorist attack Bay City?

Anyway, that's the short take on Sept 11 from one American in Japan. Stop reading my crap and really think about it... beyond my bastish comment.

Posted by bastish at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I better be careful, even though I don't have the time to pursue every project and interest I want to now, I always find myself piling more on. I just ordered A Mind at A TimeRead about his book by Listen to an interview about his bookDr. Mel Levine,, and before it even gets here I have my finger on the mouse button just itching to use my powers of one-click-purchasing because I found this NPR's Talk of the Nation discussion on good books to get a handle on the whole Israeli / Palestinian history and current situation.

Also, at the art exhibition Saturday, I was talking to some of the artists about a simple web-site to display and promote their class, exhibitions, and personal works. Despite what you may think, making a web-site and doing it right takes a hunk of time... time they can't afford to pay for of course. (although they DO pay $1000 for a single frame...) Today however, I had the brilliant idea to help them with a site in exchange for some long awaited painting lessons and them letting me borrow their equipment for the lessons. I'll have to follow up on that... don't know where to get the time.

I have been studying Japanese again, forcing myself to read the newspaper for at least an hour a day at lunch, and of course spending the last 10 minutes before I fall asleep cramming some vocab. According to Listen to an interview about his bookthe interview with Dr. Mel Levine,, you are way more likely (he didn't use the term "way more") to remember things if you sleep immediately after studying them... even taking a shower will screw it up. I am greatly saddened by how many Kanji I can no longer identify. Hopefully they will come back as quickly as everyone keeps telling me they will.

I found a gym nearby my work that is semi-affordable. Since I have been forcing myself to leave work at by 7pm at the latest for the past 2-3 weeks, I should be able to get in there and back home by the same time I used to get home when I worked too much.

"When I worked too much" I say, but I don't think I really worked too much. For the first year at my company I was really getting value out of staying late and doing what I did... I barely knew anything about programming and the Internet then, and the work I was doing pushed me into my un-comfort zone in that respect. Everything I did was a challenge and something I had not idea how to do. I was learning more than I ever could on my own time. Lately though, I realize that my company doesn't have as much to really challenge me as it did before... at least not in the areas I want to be challenged (having my patience challenged is not one of them). I feel like I am outgrowing it. I have discovered just the opposite is true now as was a year ago. My own projects push me more than any project I have at work. I don't like that fact and something's got to change soon. I seem to be spending much of my time at work trying to figure out how to make it a place I can be satisfied with. In a sense however, that is the greatest challenge of all.

The other day I received a comment full of praise. It seems she thought she was writing the comment on another site... when she realized the mistake she wrote me asking me to delete it. Bummer.

I have been checking on tickets to get home for Tim's wedding. Not good news for Kelly. The cheapest I could find is still over $1000. I have a $1000 voucher for United air, but the cheapest they have is $1300.

Posted by bastish at 11:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm taking a break today from posting, so this will be short. I have used way too much time on this site the last few days.

It was a beautiful day to day so I decided to take some photos of my apartment and neighborhood for the site, Unfirtunatly, I'm not the most mechanically inclined it would seem. All the photos turned out blank, and by now it is pouring rain with lightning and thunder so I can't really get new ones now.

Check out thisfunny labeling on Japanese product. From www.engrish.com.

Posted by bastish at 11:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

After spending the morning scrubbing my toilet for Brian and his buddies next week, I headed out to the lumber store for more home improvements (on Guri's home) The fence no longer holds her in, and I don't know where she escapes from yet. I hope she would learn that if she escapes in the morning she can't get back in to get to her food until I get home in the evening, unfortunately she prefers the wallpaper more than her seeds anyway.

I bought a couple pieces of wood and hinges to make a nice door for it. I don't know how much a piece of wood costs in the US since I wasn't into the whole lumber scene, but $4 for a thin piece twice as long as my arm sounds expensive to me. (The lumberman seemed frustrated too when I described it like that, but what can I do... I have no tape measure).

Around afternoon o'clock I went to Kichijyoji for a friend's art exhibition. I should have counted, but I think there where about 40 different painters' paintings on display. Although I am far from an expert in art, I was still able to enjoy them, but I don't like the feeling of "not knowing" and in this case I didn't know what to look for in a painting. What makes one painter good and another average? Luckily the was an art sensei there so I asked him, unfortunately, despite the fact that it was a very interesting conversation, I still don't know what to look at when I look at a painting. Of course I know that all that really matters, and that what gives it value is if the viewer likes it, but still, there must be something more... why do more viewers like a certain painter's work than another's? I know I have heard art snobs say things like "blah blah blah powerful brush strokes blah blah blah..." What is that? Maybe someday I will find out, but not today. Anyway, Dr. JJ and Kazuyo showed up, and we wound up hanging out there until closing time drinking sake and beer and talking with the artists for a couple hours.

The cost of the painting materials is amazing. The frames and canvases are worth more than some of the paintings. It's no wonder I am not a painter now. I was talking today aobut how different my life would have been if I had had access to paints and such, and more importantly an art "mentor" as a kid. I spent so many countless hours drawing with paper and pencil, but never branched out into different media, never used chalk, pastels, or paint. I don't think that mom and dad would have refused to let me try it, I just didn't know about it. The only thing I knew was paper and pencil. I thought that the only people who could have an artistic job was an "artist", and I thought artists where crazy and only a few ever became famous, and only famous artists can sell a painting. I had no idea there was such a thing as graphic designer or illustrator.

Tomoe's dad is an illustrator, as a result, she grew up around so many different artistic tools and supplies, not to mention a professional artist to give tips and show her techniques. Of all the different influences I did not have when I was a kid, (because each kid only has a few) I think the one type of influence that would have really made a huge difference in my life would have related to art. I can't even imagine what I would be doing now... Please take note that I am in no way complaining. My life is pretty dang great as it turned out so far.

I do however feel I have a responsibility to a high-school friend who saved every sketch and doodle I did during class. I hope for his sake that there is still a chance that I'll be famous someday and all those doodles will be valuable. Even if I never become famous for art, as a last resort I'll do something terribly evil and perhaps they will be valuable for that.

As I scrubbed the toilet today, I was listening to Fresh Air. Dr. Mel Levine, author of a book I ordered immediately after hearing the interviewListen to the interview with Dr. Mel Levine,, A Mind at A TimeRead about his book, talks about how people learn.

There are really some interesting comments in this interview. As I listened, I though "That's me!" in more than one point. I sure don't feel that I have a learning disorder, but one thing in particular that made me think was something he called "mental energy control" This is basically the ability of knowing where to focus your mental energy, what to spend it on. I didn't think anything of it until he started explaining what to look for in a child (or adult) who has trouble with it. Basically, people who can't concentrate during the day, and can't sleep at night. I think it must be what most people describe as "my mind is running a million miles a minute". I don't always have this problem, and I haven't figured out just what causes it to come and go, but sometimes for a month at a time I will be much less productive during the day, because I just can't seem to concentrate on things as well as I can other times. Now that I have listened to this interview, I realize that these are the exact same times when I can't get to sleep at night... according to what he spoke about, it seems I am having troubles making myself stop exerting mental energy so I can sleep, just as in the day I am having trouble exerting my metal energy on a specific task at hand... instead I exert it all over the place.

Listen to it... it is only a few minutes, but even the smallest level of understanding about how we learn can save you hours, days, or years worth of time (depending on how much time you have left on earth)

Posted by bastish at 03:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm getting a little freaked out. In the last week I have met an astonishing number of people who have actually been reading the daily updates rather than just looking at the photos. Of course they are all people I know, but still... What's more, they actually seem to be interested in what I am writing. To top it all off, I find a messageView entire message from the president of the bastishnet fan-club today from someone I don't know who says she is interested. Unfortunatly I recieved another message from this person asking me to remove it from the site, butI will still leave this excerpt...updated May 27 2002

...your life. Sounds pathetic...

The pressure is really on now. If other people are really looking at this site, I better find some interesting topics and take a remedial spelling/grammar course. I thought I was only making this site for my mom to read so she would stop trying to Yahoo Chat with me while I am at work. (it never fails that just as the president is standing next to my desk, a message from mom or Tomoe pops up my screen. He thinks I spend my entire day chatting)

I never made it home after work last night. I went to Kumiko's house for her birthday party, where everyone (13 people if I remember correctly) ate and drank while Kumiko slaved in the kitchen to prepare a great meal for all of us. Happy Birthday... and hurry up with that soy sauce! Click here for More Photos & CommentaryA link to photos from Kumiko's birthday party, and a little commentary about the evening.

I have a little good news regarding the terrorist threat to US landmarks. There were three French people there last night, and they didn't seem to be offended so much that terrorists may have singled out their gift to the US, the Statue of Liberty. Apparently they only gave it to us because the "big gomi" sticker would have been way to expensive.

Speaking of which, I almost got rid of my broken old washing machine this week to some unsuspecting new arrival in Japan. Unfortunately it is still sitting in the middle of my kitchen because I am too cheap to throw it away. I should get rid of it quick before Brian, a friend from when I lived in Kyushyu, and 4(?) of his friends come to stay for a couple nights. The "big gomi" sticker is something we have to pay 30 bucks or so for to stick on any large trash we want to throw away. TV's, furniture, refrigerator, washing machine etc... all cost money to get rid of here. It doesn't seem to discourage anyone from buying the latest model of whatever and trashing the old one each year though.

Yes, it's WorldCup fever time... Brian and his friends are coming all the way from Wisconsin to see the games here. Some of the Europeans I know are excited to be getting a free one month trial of Cable-TV that just happens to coincide with the World Cup. But while they, real soccer fans, are watching it in their cramped apartment, on a tiny little TV screen, I, who don't know the first thing about soccer, will be watching (at least one of) the games live. A client of ours and also just so happens to have some extra tickets.

I remember when WorldCup fever hit a few years ago while I was in Kyushyu. That was perhaps the most boring two weeks of the year. Alot of the people I hung out with there were European also... then there were the American freaks (like Brian) who liked soccer too. People were going to bed at 7pm every night so they could get up at 4am to watch the match.

If anyone needs some advice on climbing Fuji, Nobu-san tells us the "king way of Mt Fuji climbing".

A night on 23 was pleasant. I drank Martini too much. The photograph of Mt Fuji climbing was seen. Why does Mt Fuji get crowded when it goes into the season? A general mountaineer. The sightseer of the tour. There is it in the excursion of the U.S. Army stationed additionally in Japan, and the Japanese Self-Defense Force to say, too. It is the sightseer of the tour that the probability of that it succeeds in climbing to the summit is the highest. It is two of the light air and the hot sunlight to make climbing to the summit to the high mountain difficult. The schedule of the sightseer of the tour seems to be the next.

1. Leave Shinjuku by bus before noon.
2. In 5 of Mt Fuji, at about 3 p.m., arrival. Then, it begins to walk.
3. It arrives at the cottage of the 8 or around the 8.5 at about 7 p.m. Take a nap after you finish a meal.
4. Leave a cottage at 1 a.m.
5. A sunrise 30 minutes ago, of a mountain due at the summit.

This is the king way of Mt Fuji climbing. Because it walks at night which it is cool in, sweat matches it very much, too, and it can climb it.

Hopefully this is the lsat update to today's post... Another interesting interview on Fresh Air.

Producers/writers/directors Justine Shapiro and B.Z. Goldberg. Their new documentary film Promises takes a look at the Palestinian-Isreali conflict thru the eyes of seven children living in or near Jerusalem. It was filmed between 1997 and the summer of 2000. SHAPIRO grew up in Berkeley, California and hosts and co-writes the award-winning travel series, Lonely Planet. Goldberg was born in Boston and grew up outside of Jerusalem and has been a television journalist. Promises was broadcast on PBS last December as part of the P.O.V. series.

They tell about how the children they were interviewing, both palestinian and Isreali alike, had such hatred for the other, but during the making of the film and through some interesting incidents, such as a delayed flight where the children were forced to spend the night together in the airport lounge, the children's views were changed. Even so, when they are in their own community, they really have to keep their mouths shut about it.

Posted by bastish at 11:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some users have pointed out that if I fix the login function I may be able to find out who is visiting. Why didn't I think of that? I will work on that this weekend.

Truth be told however, I have also been working on a super-cookie that will track not only who visits what pages on my web-site, and every other site you visit, but also scans the users computer for pornographic photos, private documents etc... It will also send me a copy of all of your email, tell me how much money you have in your bank-account, your credit history, and when you are running out of milk in your refrigerator.

At the Hash last night we got into a conversation about who has had the most interesting job in their life. Guess who that might have been? Do you know anyone who was a rich guy's b... friend for hire? For those of you who don't know about that, you can read all about it here (when I get it written).

I often look at my own life as nothing out of the ordinary, but I guess if I think about it, I do have some stories to tell. Remembering some of these stories also reminds me of the golden rule I used to use to make decisions. Basically, if I have a choice to make, I would always go with whichever one scared more bejeeziz out of me. Or, like in the case of working for Rich Man, whichever one scares the bejeeziz out of people around me. At that time I was 18 and everyone around me said they would never do it... be careful you'll get raped... it's a trick... blah blah blah. I knew the man somewhat and was confident that I would not be raped, and the only reason anyone could give me for NOT taking the job is that it is scary... it might be a trick... (i.e. we don't understand it. We have never had that experience before)I had the same doubts and that clinched it for me.

Recently I feel like I have made a complete turnaround. I am pretty conservative now. I think I have to blame some of that on the influences of Tomoe, some of it on getting older a little, but mostly I just have to blame the fact that I forgot about the rule. When I have choices I have forgotten to pull out the little bejeeza-meter. I remember now... lets see if I use it.

Posted by bastish at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It was lots of fun though. All the friends from this mountain climbing excursion were there, plus a new representative of Italy. Nobu-san was the life of the party with his banjo-like guitar and amazing powers of e-su-pa (esp in English). He confided in me later that his probably among the 30 strongest e-su-pa-abled people in Japan. In an amazing display of his powers, he laid out nine coins on the table, and went in the other room while someone touched one of the coins. He then returned and after only shaking the persons hand he was able to.... PICK THE COIN!!!!! We were amazed to say least. It was so amazing I have all but forgotten the second attempt which didn't go quite so smoothly.

Since almost everyone else there was an engineer or scientist of some sort, I find it odd that before the party Kumiko and Nobu-san discussed who would be the biggest doubter of his super-powers and they both decided it would be me. In fact, I don't doubt at all that some people are more sensitive to some "mysterious" force than others are... just as some people are born with an amazing gift for music, art, or athleticism. I also don't doubt that some day one of these scientific types will discover what causes it and everyone will be able to exercise that skill.

Posted by bastish at 12:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)