Electric Ladyland

climate conscious

today was a good day.  i went to see an inconvenient truth and switched to green power.  that was easy and not that expensive either!  also found this cute video of al gore as the president on SNL.  very funny except for the part when you sit back and think "why god, why did we have to end up with bush instead?"

if you can read this

then you should sign this petition and read up on net neutrality.  the more i read about this issue the more it pisses me off.  nothing is more antithetical to the spirit of the internet.  it makes me mad and it should make you mad too.

check out the video below for a quick, easily understandable primer.  thanks to nten for making me aware of this issue through the sessions at this year's nten conference as well as last week's free webinar on the aol/goodmail controversy on letting people pay for preferential access to your inbox without your having a say in the matter.  i think if more people knew what was going on they'd be really upset at what the telcos are trying to get away with.

gadgetitis

geek biorhythms do exist.  if you're a geek by trade this is even more true.  devoting your energy towards work-related geek ventures by day, sometimes you have no battery power left for private geek pursuits in your off hours.  it comes and it goes, though.

this is definitely a geekend for me.  i think it started when my friends and i went to the flagship apple store's opening last friday and one of them bought a white macbook.  i did a little advance recon for my dad, who's considering upgrading his ibook to something new.  i'm recommending the white macbook but my email-and-word-processing-only father wants to find an excuse to get the macbook pro.  it's so sexy.  i understand.  no, really, i do.  sometimes you want to buy something even without having a legitimate reason to do so.  and sometimes your impulsive instincts end up paying off in unexpected ways!

take the pink razr i suddenly bought on wednesday.  i started the day grumbling as usual at my more than two year old sanyo clamshell phone which was all banged up and extra bulky because of the extended life battery i had bought for it.  i hated its text messaging function (you have to get on the web even to open up the mail program?!  how retarded is that?!) and more people were starting to text message me (hey, only 5 years behind japan, where i was doing this all the time with my friends in 2001, sigh...) so i was getting steadily more aggravated by its poor software design, which didn't even integrate the text messaging address book with the phone's built-in address book (now really -- wtf?!).  and the freakin' phone wouldn't even display the time if it were cut off from the network.  that happens a lot in new york when you're in the subway  because they still haven't wired it unlike in... japan!

speaking of japan, i went back there for a visit last fall.  during my stay i rented a very attractive cell phone that took great photos and did great bilingual text messaging.  that was fun while it lasted but boy did i come down hard when i came home to my boring, clunky cell phone.  finally, after months and months of griping, i pounced.  switched to t-mobile and got myself a sexy sexy pink razr.  ow!

i am beginning to love this phone more than is proper.  reasons why:

• the text messaging software integrates with the built-in address book (duh)
• you can compose messages while cut off from the network, sending them automatically when it becomes available again (duh again)
• it has a cute little animation for when messages arrive
• naughty pink satin wallpaper
• you almost want to dance to the ringtones
• far better camera.  not as good as my casio exilim, of course, but it may come in handy on occasion.  no snapshot sound when you take the picture unlike with the cell phones in japan, where they've got a bit of a panchira photography problem
• AIM built in.  you can get into yahoo messenger via the web too
• far better browser -- i can actually read my gmail, personal mail, etc etc.  don't usually need this but when i do, it's a real help.  this alone proves to me that i don't really need a full solution like the treo.  i've got internet access practically all the time as it is.  having this available on occasion is good enough for me
• i did find a way to have it notify me when email comes into any of my accounts.  it doesn't seem to actually display the email, though, so this may end up being more annoying than helpful
• are you ready for this?  it syncs with my powerbook g4's address book and ical perfectly using bluetooth & isync!  there's also file transfer available.  i'm going to check this out later
  
• i could even configure my powerbook to use the razr as a modem while traveling in a pinch if i had to.  that's an extra fee i'd have to pay t-mobile so i'll pass for now, but it's nice to know that feature's there
• external bluetooth headset (i'm going to try this out today) -- in pink, of course

i know there will be plenty more features and reasons why i adore this cell phone but for now i am one very happy geek.  i guess that's one of the benefits of waiting so long to upgrade (2 1/2 years in this case).  once you do it's a major step up.  man, i'm in heaven right now.

someone else wrote a favorable review of the razr's integration with the mac OS if you're interested in reading on...

welcome to japan. we're gonna take your mug shot now.

this just in:  japan is going to fingerprint and photograph all foreigners arriving in japan.  i gather this is not part of the yokoso! campaign to welcome us all to the land of the rising sun?  i got my photo and fingerprint taken for my alien registration card when i lived there and found that a bit off, but doing the same to even tourists?  come on people. 

not the usual text message

i wake up this morning and on my way out the door i check my phone.  there's a text message from one of my best friends.  she's got a job in palau.  ever heard of palau?  i hadn't either until she applied for the thing.  go girl!  who's the rock star!?

it's a new york thing

there is in fact a band named sam champion.  gotta love it.  for those of you who have no idea what this is about, the real sam champion is a local weatherman on ABC.

doldrums

what's this?  knock it off!  i'm trying to have a birthday celebration for my dad this weekend!  grr...

japan's changing demographics

found this article off the japan society home page today.  japan is in for a demographic rollercoaster ride -- that is, soon to be hurtling down from its peak towards god knows what.  this we all knew for a long time but now the government is talking about it more.  with reports and statistics, oh my:

Late last month, the Council on Fiscal and Economic Policy, headed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, released an interim report on the government's global strategy to reinvigorate the economy, which calls for the acceptance of foreign workers in fields that are not currently open to them, to help maintain high economic growth in light of the low birth rate and the graying of society. The global strategy is to be finalized this month.  [...]

According to the interim report, the government should review the types of jobs open to foreign nationals and allow greater flexibility to hire foreigners in service fields, such as the nursing-care industry, as demand for workers in such areas has increased because of the graying of society. The report also calls on the government to establish an environment that will attract more foreign workers. In mid-May, the council will draw up guidelines for a system to increase the number of foreigners employed in Japan.

The council's call to allow more foreigners to work in Japan highlights its deepening concerns over the possibility of maintaining high economic growth without allowing more foreigners to land jobs here. According to estimates by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, by 2030 the number of workers will drop by about 10 million from its current level to about 56 million.

i was talking about this with my study partner over the weekend.  i've noticed some interesting opportunities for jobs and full graduate scholarships over in japan recently and one even came right out and said that they were trying harder than before because they were noticing an alarming decrease in the number of japan experts from other countries.  marc sagely pointed out that it probably has to do with china's rise and everyone rushing to learn mandarin -- japan is going to have to stay competitive.  this is somewhat separate from the general immigration issue, i know, but still interesting in terms of what opportunities may open up for non-japanese people wanting to work and live in japan in the future.

back to the article i was reading just now, though... there's no denying public concern about the idea of letting large numbers of non-japanese into the country.  this is actually quite mild compared to things i've heard elsewhere:

Kawasaki also indicated concerns that a rise in foreign workers would reduce employment opportunities and lower salary levels for Japanese. Experts point out that if the government decides to allow greater numbers of foreigners into the country, it must first take measures to prevent public discord or disorder that could result from cultural differences. The council's interim report says the government will map out general guidelines this year for solving potential problems foreign workers might face, in areas such as health and education, as well as measures to prevent friction between Japanese and foreigners.

gotta watch out for those wa-breakers!  this is why the japanese government elected to bring nikkei brazilians and peruvians over the last time they needed foreign labor.  at the time they thought anyone with japanese blood would automatically be more compatible with japanese society.  (would france ever institute such a program to get us french-americans to come live and work there?  if they have i don't know anything about it.)  didn't quite turn out that way. although some did find the experience meaningful others felt alienated (see this book if you really want to get into it).  now japan looking at ways to increase the birth rate and see whether or not seniors and young people can't participate in the labor force more than they have up until now.

gonna be a long haul till they work this one out...  i'll be interested to see what dialogues and proposals come up in the process.  i wonder what minister aso (of the ministry of foreign affairs... also a possible koizumi successor as prime minister) will propose.  i met him two years ago at a JETAA luncheon and found him very cagey but also very suave and articulate when talking about the future of JET alums and the JET program. 

taking it down a notch

hey.

don't have much to report.  as i told my roommate when she dropped by for a little while between saturday engagements, i've done nothing today.

bupkus.

well, that was my day until around 5 o'clock or so, when i got a mild whiff of ambition and then spent a few moments organizing my finances and cleaning the bathroom.  other than that, not really anything.

oh, i did just finish reading american vertigo by bernard-henri levy.  that was an excellent read.  saw him on the daily show last month and found him so articulate that i thought i'd like to check out one of his books.  i think i'll look for an earlier work of his, who killed daniel pearl?, next.  good writing, real meaty intellectual stuff you can chew on.  stuff that expands your mind instead of making you feel comfortable about what you've already learned.

so yeah, i guess i did that.  and now i'll probably go watch samurai rebellion since i've got it home from netflix.  other than that, mmm, yeah.  taking it easy.  it's just as well since i kind of wore myself out in d.c. and at work this past week and next weekend i'll be escorting dad around town for his 60th birthday festivities. more active times will come around in a bit.  for now, though, i'm gonna take it easy.

overly privy

i hadn't noticed much on the drama front between buffy and biff lately, but it's back tonight.  i had an inkling a few hours ago when i heard someone swear loudly in the hallway outside our door.  now buff's back on the phone with biffy having another discussion and there's some serious TMI coming through the wall.  good lord.  i don't really want to know who put what where.  now that they've broken up can't they just be done with it?