PersonalSpaceInvader's Xanga

It's Been a Long Time

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 05:31:48 GMT

Today, I felt haunted by time. In my journal, I noted every meaningful instance of its symbols and ways that it defines my days here. Japanese punctuality and overtime. Time zones. Running late for work. Train schedules. The well-behaved classes reciting the day, date and time at the beginning of each class. The misbehaving classes ignoring the starting bell chimes and pleading for class to end early. Japanese students mastering a phrase except for its timing: "I'mfineThankyouAndyou?" Time as a distance. How long I've been away. How long I'll be home. How long I'll be away. This isn't a visit. That's some kind of artificial suspension of time. This is living.

If you have the time (do you? don't you?), take a look at my pictures, illusory captured moments. Until next time, I'm looking for my watch.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 05:11:40 GMT

Cultural exchange with my students-

Student 1: [points at me] Will Smith?
Me: [nods] I Am Legend.
Student 1: [points to self] Barry Bonds.
Me: oukii atama. ["big head"], [points to Student 2] you?
Student 2: Sammy Sosa.

I went to Osaka to see a concert and hang out in the middle of a workweek. I got pics for you. Went to the aquarium. Wonder is a great feeling.

I can't really bring my thoughts together right now. I'm bored. I'm excited about Obama. Donated earlier today. I'm dumbstruck by how well things are going for me in Japan-- things I thought I would never get right. I'm disappointed in how I spend my free time at work. I'm looking forward to going snowboarding on a school trip tomorrow. I'm tired of going places. I'm anxious when I'm in my apartment by myself, searching for a distraction.

"What are you supposed to say on the end of records? I don't know. YEAHHHHH! Whoo! Yeah! Mashed potatoes. Applesauce. Buttery biscuits. And I get lost. Yesyesyesy'all."

Lanky Halfricans for Obama

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 09:43:42 GMT

MLK Day isn't celebrated here in Japan, but Obama's speech gave me my fill. Read it.

True Story!

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 05:19:15 GMT

Half of 26-Year-Old's Memories Nintendo Related

Rambaloney

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 12:07:51 GMT

I'm going to attempt to mash up a lot of thoughts that have accumulated over the years into a theory about influencing people. I have a lot of free time at work to think about these things. <shrugs> Please, enjoy!

People influence people. We know this. However, we're not completely comfortable with viewing ourselves as influenced by others. So, what's the best way to influence people?
Without them knowing. You probably already knew that. Because people don't like to think of themselves as influenced by others, they may often reject an idea just because they don't recognize it as their own. This is especially true if it's an idea they initially feel some apprehension towards. So, if you can lead a person towards an idea, he'll be more likely to pick it up believing its his own.
We've probably all done that to someone and had that done to us with varying degrees of awareness of what we were doing and having done to us.

OK, now, how do we influence people without them knowing it? Well, we can consciously harness the ways we usually unconsciously influence people. One way we do this is by recognizing how people bring out aspects of other people. I think we're still not discussing anything new here. So, just be patient.

You've noticed how some people bring out different sides of you. Sometimes, you notice it most of all when that person isn't available to you anymore. We miss not just the person, but we miss ourselves with that person. We miss the person we are with that person. Now, you can think of that in two different ways.
1) That other person actually holds that other side of us. Like, we are distributed among the people we know. Social psych tends to frame it that way from what I can remember by listing people as different roles. Ex. Ann is a mother. Ann is a daughter. Ann is a wife. Ann is a boss. This frame separates the individual from these aspects, which is interesting, but may not be useful. So...

2) The access to these different aspects of ourselves is distributed. Maybe, in a similar way to how we can understand memories to work. Memories are there, sitting in our brains, not doing much until they are called on. You hear a song and all of a sudden you remember a specific time in high school. Or you smell something and think of a particular Sunday. Somebody says a name ayou haven't heard in years and an entire person reappears.
Think of your complete self in that way. Other people can hold access to other aspects of ourselves. It's not an exclusive access though. Someone new can call the same number and get that side of ourselves on the phone.
We can go further and say that we distributed to other people our permission to those sides of ourselves. Like, maybe I handed to you the phone number to goofball Skinny. And either I don't know that number myself or I pretend like I don't. I apologize.

Rolling on. I think there are two contradictory ways to bring out other sides of people:

1) Demonstrate what you want and encourage it in the other person. You are a cheerleading mirror. You show it's safe to show that side and the other person may try to match you.

2) Claim a role and the other person gets pushed into a different corresponding role.

You can probably think of examples of these in your life and in the world around you. The differences between how these two ways are applied are subtle, but their results are very different. You don't want to mean to do one and find you did the other.

Extra Crispy Christmas

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 00:31:28 GMT

Merry Christmas!
    I have the internet radio pumping out holiday tunes. I'm waiting for my family to appear on Skype, so I can unwrap my remaining gifts with them. I promised not to open them until then, well, some of them. I opened up and started Super Mario Galaxy already, of course.

    I've let Xmas sneak up on me purposely. Stayed busy so as not to miss home. I've already been through a series of lil' Xmas parties and there's another one tonight. Let me tell you about Christmas in Japan. You may not believe everything I tell you, but I swear to Santa it's true.

    In Japan, Christmas isn't really a family holiday. New Year's is. So, it's kind of switched around from what I'm used to. Christmas is more of a romantic holiday like Valentine's Day or spent with friends. So, there isn't the familiar shopping spree, but the stores and downtown are decorated and I've been hearing holiday tunes since November. I was once in the combini and after hearing Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Chrismtas Is You" the radio dj, in English, wished me "a very romantic Christmas".
Christmas Eve is the important day they have off. What do you think of when you think of Christmas? How do you traditionally spend it? Maybe you go to a midnight mass. Maybe you have a turkey or a big ham dinner.
The Japanese eat KFC.

Oh yes. I've been to two Christmas parties at which the most essential elements were some fried chicken and biscuits from KFC. In fact, KFC is seen as so inseparable from the Christmas experience here that people make reservations at KFC. Good luck eating their special Christmas meal without it. Last night, I went to KFC with some people and was told by the manager as soon as we entered that they had no more fried chicken and biscuits. There must have been some KFC marketing dept. genius back in the day. There are a number of theories as to how KFC tied up the Xmas meal market in Japan and you can look them up for yourself. I'll be writing my gift list to Colonel Sanders.

Here's something completely unrelated, but hilarious. It's a video mash-up of Barney the Purple Dinosaur and Tupac.   There is much cursing. Enjoy!

I miss you! Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Stopping for a beer and appreciating the view

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 03:06:24 GMT

I finally caught up on my backlog of photos! Feast your eyes on Sports Day, Kyoto, and Kanazawa.

Also, here's the new blog of a friend of mine here.

Edit: Thanks. The photo link is fixed now and will take you to the 1st photo in the latest batch.

How Dare You Say Such a Thing to Me!

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:36:21 GMT

Here are some aerobic training/ English learning/ Self-defense instruction videos!

They don't make any more sense to me than they do to you. These videos are being passed around among the JETs. They include a hilarious mugging and people happily saying the word diarrhea.

It wasn't funny at the time

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 04:16:22 GMT

This happened to me back in September. And I wrote about it elsewhere then. I thought you all might enjoy a chuckle at my expense. So, without further adieu, my rant on Japanese toilets:

You got the traditional ones for people who insist on shitting like their ancestors.

Then, you got the one in my apartment that has a small wash basin which somehow replaces having any bathroom sink or medicine cabinet.

And then you got the Buck Rogers 24th Century contraption. They got this type at my school. 18 buttons and a remote control. Wha-? Why? All well and good you would think. "Seat-warmer? Remote? Wow. These people think of everything, even the things that never needed thinking. If only someone could see me. They'd say now I'm "shittin' in style." That is until I'm in one stall and another guy is in another stall. And I'm handling my biz and not pressing any buttons, but my neighbor starts pressing buttons on his remote that activate my toilet. And now my toilet's doing things a toilet never, ever should.

Signs That You May Be in Japan

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 01:35:33 GMT

I just found an article online that tries to be much funnier than it actually is, but I can't argue with how true it is. It's a pretty good summary of some of the day-to-day differences between Japan and America.