Sitemeter

I've added Sitemeter to the sidebar. It keeps track of traffic on this site but it's cool because anyone can check it.

A referral page is a site that redirected someone here. For example, if you follow a link to this site from Facebook, I can check my referral page and see that. Also, if you search for something on Google and my site comes up, I can not only see Google.com as a referral site, I can see for what was being searched. So here are some Google searches that get my site as a result:

kamo river photo

no 1 travel japan

pizzaria em kyowa

"under $3" visa

US government nagoya jobs

phi phi guesthouse

American Fascism-Lite

The 10 steps that all fascist states take according to Naomi Wolf:

1. Invoke an internal and external threat
2. Establish secret prisons
3. Develop a paramilitary force
4. Surveil ordinary citizens
5. Infiltrate citizens' groups
6. Arbitrarily detain and release citizens
7. Target key individuals
8. Restrict the press
9. Cast criticism as "espionage" and dissent as "treason"
10. Subvert the rule of law

Now, this is a pretty good list. If we are actually seeing these things in America, we should be worried regardless of the causes. She claims that while we have seen some of these things in the past, never before have they all been in effect simultaneously like they are now. For example, Lincoln suspended writs of Habeas Corpus during the Civil War and we have faced very real threats before, both external and internal.

I love conspiracy theories so I got sucked into this book, but a few of these items don't really stand up to scrutiny. I don't see a paramilitary force like Ms. Wolf does. I don't think you can compare Hitler's SA or SS and Mussolini's Arditi to Blackwater. Hitler's Storm Division (known before 1921 as the "Gymnastics and Sports Section") assaulted perceived enemies of the Nazis, harassed Jews, brawled in meeting halls, and destroyed Jewish businesses on the famous Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). It was a way for the Nazi leadership to intimidate the German people without responsibility for the violence. The SS was created as a paramilitary force, answerable to Hitler and not the German people. This is not Blackwater. Blackwater is terrifying and should be dismantled for different reasons. It's not the SS.

Blackwater is a contractor to the State Department in Iraq (they actually have operations in 9 countries, including the USA) and do things like protect diplomats and support American troops. They are civilians, so they're not subject to military tribunals. Right before the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) dissolved in 2004, it declared Special Order 17 which prevents all US troops and contractors from being subject to Iraqi laws. So, the question is: What laws are Blackwater subject to? Who has the authority to try them for crimes? Well, I'm not sure. But lawsuits have been brought against Blackwater by Iraqis and Americans alike and are now being tried in US courts. But all of this is different from the extra-legal status of the SS. I don't buy that they're comparable. If they are comparable, then it's only from Iraq's point of view. Actually, from an Iraqi point of view, that comparison is probably spot on.

Naomi Wolf doesn't make the mistake of declaring fascism in America. She holds back and says that we have "symptoms" of fascism, but that we're not quite there. It's more like fascism-lite. We have tolerably weak versions of these 10 symptoms and that's why its dangerous to our democracy. I don't think Americans would stand for a paramilitary force patrolling our streets, but we will tolerate a paramilitary force patrolling the streets of Baghdad. We wouldn't tolerate torture in the Medieval sense, but it seems like we will allow torture-lite. I guess it's just up to Americans to decide where to draw a line.

Technorati tags: Naomi Wolf, The End of America, American Fascism, Blackwater

Subversive tendencies

Thanks for the comment Bruce. With your support I'm going ahead with this nonsense.

It's the day after Christmas and thank Jesus because now the public libraries are open again. I walked downtown today to pick up Naomi Wolf's book "The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot" and a book on how to teach yourself Arabic. I requested that Naomi Wolf book from the Western Mass library system after seeing her on the Colbert Report earlier this year (the YouTube link follows this post). While Ms. Wolf strikes me as a little nuts, her message sucked me right in. Unfortunately the only library in the Western Mass system to have a copy was in Amherst and there was a waiting list.

Daniela and I decided on Christmas Day to learn Arabic together, so I picked up a book with some CDs at the same time (I'm not going to stop learning Japanese, I'm just going to add Arabic to what I'm doing and I know how ridiculous that is). So, after leaving the library I stopped in at the Greenfield Farmer's Market to buy some green tea. While I was fumbling with my wallet at checkout, the girl at the register noticed both of my books: Introduction to Arabic and "The End of America." Yeah, that's right. I'm UP to stuff.

On Christmas Day, Daniela and I compromised on how to celebrate. We acknowledged Jesus Christ's divinity by eating Chinese food. That's your traditional Catholic/Jewish Christmas. While we walked down to the China Gourmet, we talked about Christian holidays (among other things). I said that they were actually a collection of pagan holidays and customs co-opted by Christians in order to teach and spread Christianity to pagan cultures. For example, both the hanging of mistletoe and the Christmas tree were pagan German traditions. Saint Boniface used the fir tree's triangular shape to help teach pagan Germans about Christ and they learned to revere it as a symbol as they had previously revered the Oak tree. December 25th was chosen as Christ's date of birth in the 3rd century because pagan Romans and Persians celebrated sun festivals around the same time. So, Christian traditions are actually a collection of pagan traditions subverted and redefined. We thought it was interesting. That's all.

Technorati tags: Naomi Wolf, The End of America, Christmas, Pagan

Naomi Wolf on the Colbert Report

エンキョリレンアイ

I decided to bite off way more than I can chew: I have begun reading a novel in Japanese. The novel I chose was written by Rui Kodemari (小手鞠 るい) and I just figured out that the title means "The Long-Distance Relationship" (エンキョリレンアイ).

I bought the book at a Good Will in Ashland, Oregon for a dollar. It was the only novel in Japanese and I thought that at some point I could use it to study. At that point, I had no idea what it was about. I can follow the plot, but the more abstract the sentences become the less I'm able to understand them. Some of the metaphors are giving me a real problem. I think she compared this guy's smile to light filtering through the leaves of trees, but I can't be sure.

It seems to be a trashy love novel. I'm cool with that. A love novel still trumps the children's programming that I watched in Japan. I remember at least one cartoon about a village of vegetables and a village of fruit (separated by a river) who learn that a healthy diet consists of cannibalizing residents of both places...

This novel is about a young woman looking back at the origins of her relationship with someone who may or may not be a foreigner (the "voice" as she keeps referring to him). I guess he's in New York and she's in Tokyo (it hasn't been said yet but that's what is implied on the jacket) and she met him while working part-time in a bookstore in Kyoto.

I'm only 12 or 13 pages in...

I guess none of this merits a post. Dammit.

This weekend to Christmas

Last night I got a beer with Tracy at the Pint and picked up a job application. I thought I could do something part-time before I left for Vegas in early February. I don't really need the money but I thought it would be fun to do something outside of my routine.



I told Tracy my plans last night about taking the Foreign Service Exam and she tried her best to scare me out of it. She was supportive in the end, but she told me about her friend Mark who currently works in Yerevan, Armenia for the State Department. He went to Georgetown's School of Foreign Service and was one of the few people from his class to pass the test. If his friends who took the test, and had been preparing for four years to take it, couldn't pass it what chance do I have? An additional concern of mine is that he took the written test in March but didn't get the oral assessment until September. I wasn't expecting such a long wait between taking the test and getting an interview. It's not a problem because I think this is what I really want to do, but if I can expect a similar wait, I should be taking that test as soon as possible. I don't want to take the test at the end of my time in Las Vegas and then have an additional 7 months to wait for an interview.

Unrelated: I went to the Salvation Army yesterday and bought a pair of pants. This isn't interesting, but I think I donated the pants that I bought.

Change of plans

Nothing is set in stone yet, but I don't think I'm going to return to Japan to teach English. I love learning Japanese, I love the food, I love the people, but I don't love teaching English and that's the problem. Also, teaching abroad is a very temporary solution to the problems that I'm having. I don't see anything long-term in this job (unless I got a job teaching at a Japanese university or returned to the US and taught Japanese in an American one), and I think that's becoming more important to me.

When I returned from Japan in May, I didn't have a job, I had spent quite a bit of the money I had saved (albeit to travel through nine countries), and I had no idea what to do with my life. If I leave again, I'm only going to return to this same spot in a year or two. I'll be 28, have a little money saved up, but still be without a career or even long-term goals.

So, as of right now, here is my new plan: move out to Las Vegas with Daniela and work in her aunt's bakery, while I study to take the Foreign Service Officer Exam. That's the test you take to get a job working in an American embassy abroad. I would be abroad, I would be learning a new language, and there's potentially a career in it. More to come as I figure this out.

Post-Japan plans?

First, try some of these:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

16. In American education, which of the following issues or policies has generated the LEAST amount of controversy?

(A) School vouchers
(B) School busing
(C) Local control over the curriculum
(D) National, standardized high school exit exams

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

34. An administrator with overall responsibility for all administrative operations in a large operating agency is considering organizing the agency's personnel office around either of the following two alternative concepts:

Alternative I: A corps of specialists for each branch of personnel subject matter, whose skills, counsel, or work products are coordinated only by the agency personnel officer

Alternative II: A crew of so-called "personnel generalists," who individually work with particular segments of the organization but deal with all subspecialties of the personnel function

Of the following, the one that is the biggest drawback of Alternative I, as compared with Alternative II, is that

(A) training and employee relations work call for education, interests, and talents that differ from those required for classification and compensation work.
(B) personnel office staff may develop only superficial familiarity with the specialized areas to which they have been assigned.
(C) supervisors may fail to get continuing, overall personnel advice on an integrated basis.
(D) the personnel specialists are likely to become so interested in and identified with the operating view as to particular cases that they lose their professional objectivity and become merely advocates of what some supervisor wants.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

68. Native Americans have been much admired for their skill at arts and crafts and at artistic design, but are seldom given adequate credit for their intellectual achievements. All of the following are Native Americans who are correctly paired with their achievements EXCEPT

(A) Sequoya--developer of the Cherokee phonetic alphabet and creator of a literate Indian nation
(B) General Eli Parker--civil engineer and draftsman of the articles of Lee's surrender at Appomattox
(C) George Caitlin--author and artist
(D) Dr. Charles Eastman--physician, YMCA director, organizer of Boys Scouts and Camp Fire Girls

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

These three questions were taken from Arco's "Master the American Foreign Service Officer Exam" test prep guide. I took the diagnostic test last month and got 17 out of 49 wrong. Not a great start. I took the first of three full practice tests a day later and scored similarly: 60 out of 180 wrong. Studying a little bit seems like a good idea.

Passing the Foreign Service Officer Exam is a necessary step in getting a job in an embassy. I have enjoyed living outside of the U.S. but teaching English isn't what I want to be doing in 10 years. Working in an embassy seems like a desirable alternative. I'm learning about what I would be expected to do for the Foreign Service (I must choose from one of the five specializations) and how feasible a career would be. I have two main reservations. First, I would be representing the U.S. government abroad and I hate the Bush administration. On the bright side, Bush doesn't have much longer in office. And secondly, as an officer, I would be expected to accept any assignment handed down, which means that I could be assigned to Baghdad as early as 2009.

But first, the test:

The test is divided into English and Knowledge-based questions. There are 110 questions in the English section and you are allotted an hour to finish them. The Knowledge section consists of 70 questions, but you're given an unnecessarily long 2 hours. This doesn't include the time required for a personality test and an essay section. The test guide I picked up says very little about the essay.

After reading through two books on English grammar and usage, I significantly improved upon my test score (48 out of 180 wrong). I'm currently rereading some Economics textbooks from college, after which I'll take the last practice test and hopefully see a little further improvement. I'm not in a rush though, as I'll have plenty of time while in Las Vegas to study and read up on the Foreign Service.

The answer to each question is C.

Technorati tags: Foreign Service Exam, Department of State, Arco, Embassy

りんご - "旅"

Japanese rap. The name of the band is Apple and the song is "Traveler." I think.

つしまみれ - "エアコンのリモコン"

A Japanese pop band that I like.

The past week

I'm currently at Daniela's apartment in Cambridge. I've always loved this area. Harvard Square has everything you could want: over-priced restaurants, punks hanging around the station, beggars, and pretentious students blocking the sidewalk. There's also a grocery store on Broadway, a movie theater nearby, Pinocchio's, and plenty of used bookstores. I was just reading 'Bend Sinister' on Daniela's broken couch while she took a post-breakfast nap in the other room. The couch should have spring-laden supports under the cushions, but the furthest one back has snapped in half, so you sink into the couch when you sit on it. It seems more like a rectangular bean bag chair now than an actual couch.

Why have I been in Cambridge for a week and how did I get here? Good question. Daniela had reserved Zipcars for my birthday and for the following Friday, unsure of which day she would actually drive out to see me. She wound up driving out to Greenfield on the 28th, the day before my birthday, but then forgot to cancel the Zipcar she had reserved for the weekend. If you try to cancel your Zipcar reservation within 24 hours they charge you the full cost anyway, so she drove out to Greenfield a second time, twice within 3 days. We hung out in Greenfield on Friday night and Saturday afternoon -- playing a little guitar hero, watching some Arrested Development, probably blazing although I can't remember, and waiting for a guy to buy some of our old furniture from the North End. I decided to come back with her to Cambridge and to stay until Monday morning (the 3rd). That was almost a week ago.

Daniela is still working at Dana Farber (although her last day is at the end of December) so I've had to keep myself busy during the day. On Monday I went to the Museum of Fine Arts to see the ukiyo-e paintings currently on display. As always, I was able to get in for free using my Brandeis student ID. That was key in deciding how I would spend my day by the way. Not receiving a regular paycheck makes doing things for free all the more appealing. I spent Tuesday reading 'The Time-Traveler's Wife' because Daniela was hosting a book club meeting that night and I wanted to participate. I only got through the first 100 pages (it wasn't a great book), but meeting Daniela's friends was cool and Daniela had bought a ton of food. There may have been 10 of us, but I was the only guy in attendance. I forced everyone in the room to agree with me by challenging them to arm-wrestling matches.

On Thursday I returned to the MFA and spent most of my time looking at Roman and Greek art. Thursday was the third night of Hannukah and Dave and Kelly decided to throw a party at their place in Brookline. Daniela brought matzoh ball soup, Vanessa made rugulah, and we made latkes. Add wine and dreidels for best results.

Based on my own experience, Jews simply cannot win at dreidel when goyim are playing. When we played during college, the only two non-Jews playing (Conor and I) easily dominated. Wait... was Santosh playing with us that time? I can't remember now. Anyway. This year, the first two people to be eliminated were Daniela and Dave. The only two Jews. Maybe it's some kind of cosmic lesson about humility. The lessons learned from playing dreidel are reserved for Jews only. I take pride in the fact that I was the third person out though. I guess after ACTUAL Jews, I was the next most-Jewish. God's people? Count me in. Or close anyway.

Last night Dana Farber held a holiday party at some hotel downtown. I had already met a few of Daniela's friends from work (Michaela, Katie, and Mara) but it was still intimidating. It shouldn't have been. All of her co-workers are great. It's actually kind of weird. Not a jackass in the bunch. I was drinking whiskey on the rocks all night. Now, that sounds like a manly drink (or so I was told several times throughout the night) but that's not at all why whiskey is my drink. In Japan, it was the most cost-efficient thing you could drink at a bar. Beer was usually expensive (or at least more so than liquor or sake) but there were quite a few cheap domestic whiskeys. So I've carried it back with me, and now I give off that man's man vibe (the beard helps) a little bit better. Dancing like a butterfly doesn't help that image, but I do like to dance. After D and I lost our buzzes and got tired and sweaty enough for one night, we turned in.

Actually, I just thought of an anecdote. Daniela's co-worker has a friend that said a lot of really nice things about me before we even met. "Oh, Benn looks really funny and clever, and you can just tell he's a great guy. The kind of guy I would like to marry. Do you think he would marry me?" Or something like that. It was like, funny and creepy only because she had never actually met me before. So, Daniela got a rape whistle from work, and I decided to wear it to the party in case this girl cornered me. It feels kind of mean now, but everyone who saw the whistle and asked about it thought it was pretty funny.

We'll probably finish the rest of this ficus (Seriously, this is great stuff) and catch a movie tonight. Expect me back in Greenfield on Monday.

Technorati tags: Hannukah, Cambridge, Dana Farber, Book Club

Greenfield Buzkashi Team

Today I came across the BBC's Day in Pictures page. While most of the pictures made me feel warm and fuzzy inside, I found something truly spectacular in picture 4. Apparently this is the season for Buzkashi in the steppes of central Asia and Afghanistan. What is Buzkashi you ask? Only the most rad game that side of the Urals.

From what I've gathered, two teams of mounted players try to throw a mangled goat carcass into a circle drawn in the sand (the "Circle of Justice"). Wikipedia says: "Competition is typically fierce, as other players may use any force short of tripping the horse in order to thwart scoring attempts... Games can last for several days, and the winning team receives a prize, not necessarily money, as a reward for their win." GAMES CAN LAST FOR SEVERAL DAYS! Without sleep, naturally. Real men don't take breaks from sport. So if you can picture it: two teams of mounted men, armed with riding crops and whatever else they have, beating each other unmercifully while trying to throw a headless goat carcass into the end zone. Afghanistan: where men are still allowed to be men.

If you're trying to picture what kind of a prize would be worthy of that sport, I have your answer. In Afghanistan this prize is usually a bathtub full of virgin blood in which the winners are allowed to bathe (in ancient times, it was usually the losing team's virginal daughters that filled the tub). In Uzbekistan, the prize is to be torn limb from limb by wild horses (a great honor). In Kyrgyzstan, they find out who has the largest scrotum on the losing team, and then the leading scorer of the winning team gets to tear his opponent's testicles clean off with his teeth. In the purer form of the game no anesthesia is used, but today some opt for it because the pain is unimaginable.

So, I would like to announce the creation of the Greenfield Buzkashi Team. It's going to be an intramural team and we'll hold tryouts at some point in December. You are to show up in Beacon Field with your own horse (as horses for this sport can run between $5,000 and $10,000 I simply cannot provide for everyone who wants to play) and riding crop. Pads are frowned upon. I'm going to get some jerseys made up, which I think will feature a flaming goat skull bleeding from its eyes. And, I don't think a goat skull is a terrible mascot for Greenfield either. Our high school is the Green Wave despite the fact that we're 100 miles from the ocean. At least we have goats. I think. It can't be too hard to get one to bleed from its eyes while on fire.

Technorati tags: Buzkashi, Afghanistan, Mounted Sports, Badass

Takesies Backsies

Dear Benjamin,

Thank you for your email. We are delighted to inform you that since you have Intermediate Japanese skills, we are able to accommodate your start date to December.

Please note that if you decided to come in December, we cannot guarantee your location. This is due to the fact that you would most probably be covering a vacancy arisen due to unforeseen circumstances (i.e. teachers having to go back home due to family emergencies and so on)

Naturally, at the end of your first contract (March 20089 and pending satisfactory performance and your wish to renew, you would be able to move to a different area in Japan, perhaps closer to your original preferences.

If you are happy with this arrangement, I would be grateful if you could email your documents as soon as possible. It currently takes approximately 26 working days to obtain a certificate of eligibility, and training is set for December 18th, so we are running out of time. (We also have an early January training session)

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind Regards,

X

So, nevermind then. December is an option and I've already told Interac that I'll take it.

NOVA's non-future

A lot of coverage has been dedicated to NOVA at the Japan Times. For a fluff piece on how faculty and staff plan on coping with the school closings, see this article (Jisu Oh is slammin' like a late night snack).

A friend of mine in Japan, a former student, said this two weeks ago:

"Well, I went to Nova 2 days ago, 17th Oct and at that time all classes were closed. But when I got there, Nova staffs were there and they told me that it could be open in 2 days, so keep coming. Anyway, today it was supposed to be open as they said and I called Nova to make sure that it was open. But it’s kept close and nobody was still sure from when all classes would be open like before. It might be open tomorrow, but who knows it? So we’ve been recommended to call the school whenever we plan to go. It really sucks.

Anyway, since that time, I haven’t seen any of the Nova teachers, so I really don’t know what they are all doing. But I can imagine they are sad, disappointed, worried, disturbed and upset. In fact, they have that serious problem to live here."

I talked to an Australian friend of mine on October 26th and she said the following when I asked her about the closings:

"I am sad to leave.. and particularly with how this all ended.. i didn't even have a chance to say a proper goodbye to many of the students.

Actually, to give you the most updated news.. today they have just closed the doors on Nova. So now, no one can go to work even if they want to. Basically the president of the company has just been fired (no idea why it has taken this long for it to happen) and now Nova is in the hands of the jap govt. It'll probably be closed for the next 10 days. I dont think there's anything we can do but to wait and see..."

So things haven't been going well. Brucie was accepted, deferred, and then told to forget about coming. That sucks but it looks like he avoided a huge pain in the ass by missing all of this. As did I by the way. For those of you who haven't been following this, the METI in Japan accused NOVA of breaking Japanese contract law and ordered them to stop signing up new students. Signing up new students is how NOVA makes almost all of its cash, so in a short amount of time they had serious cash flow problems. They started paying all their employees late, and then recently, not at all. To compound their problems, the former CEO Sahashi Nozomu, just decided to disappear when all these problems surfaced. A week or two ago the senior most executives at NOVA all quit over their inability to even get a hold of the guy. The Japanese government has stepped in and assumed control of NOVA to try and reach a settlement with its former employees. I can't be bothered to look online for breaking news so that's all I've got.

I'm... disappointed?

I just received this:

Dear Benjamin,

Interac Co., Ltd. takes great pleasure in offering you a position as a
Language Instructor. Detailed instructions about how to proceed from this
point are outlined below.

PROCEDURE... blah blah blah blah

The letter then goes ON AND ON about what I have to do next. While I'm happy that they've offered me a job, it isn't the job I wanted anymore. The letter says my start date is April 2008, not December of this year like I wanted. The job is for their base salary of 250,000 yen/month, not the 260,000 yen/mo like I requested at the interview (which isn't a problem but I'm WORTH it). My salary could still increase a little bit if I get placed in a 'hard to fill' location. That means the boonies from what I was told, but I would be fine with that...

So! I've set the very arbitrary goal for myself of speaking fluent Japanese. That means that I should take this job and get back to Japan. But I don't know how excited I am at the prospect of returning to Japan to teach. I mean, it's not terrible or anything, but I don't think its preferable to anything else I could be doing either. It's just a job.

Sigh.

How much does 0% cost anyway?

I downloaded this weekend's Meet the Press podcast, which was an interview with presidential candidate Chris Dodd. For those who don't know, Chris Dodd is the senior Senator from Connecticut who has more than a passing resemblance to Boss Nass. It's really in the eyebrows and chin in my opinion...

Anywho, thanks to the interview, I now know how much of an asshole Chris Dodd is. Luckily he's polling 0% nationally according to Public Opinion Strategies (cited in the show). When Tim Russert asked him about his numbers, he said "there's room to grow" and then explained that success really depends on how much money you're able to raise, etc; Valid points. However, Russert should have pointed out that according to that same poll, Stephen Colbert, who's currently spending nothing and is only running in South Carolina, is currently whipping his ass with 2.3% of the potential vote.

That's not why he's an asshole though (although indicative). When Tim Russert asked him about his voting record, he came up with nothing but lame excuses and contradictory statements. Tim asked him why, since he now wants to withdraw our troops by 2009, he voted for the war in the first place. Tim then played his speech before Congress on Oct 9, 2002 (before the war vote), where he said: "there's no question that Iraq poses biological and chemical weapons, that's not in doubt, and that he seeks to acquire additional weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons. That's not in debate. I also agree with President Bush that Saddam Hussein is a threat to peace and must be disarmed." Dodd defended himself by saying that his focus in that speech was on searching for the weapons. He added that he regretted that vote and wished he could take it back. Fine. So Tim asked him why then, in July of 2005, he was still giving speeches supporting the president and the war? And why in February of 2006, he said he didn't want to impose deadlines on the president. Dodd defended himself by saying that on September 28, 2004 he said just the opposite. That was supposed to exculpate him I suppose. He said that NOW he thinks its going very poorly and he wants to "change direction." Riiiight. So, in 2002 war was good, in 2004 it wasn't, in 2005 and 2006 it was, and now it isn't again.

Tim asked him if the troops had all died in vain and he said of course not. Then Tim again played a clip from some speech he gave where he said: "all that loss for WHAT?" Tim again put the question to him, and he said that the soldiers have "create[d] some space... in Iraq... for them to come together so that the nation has a chance in succeeding." And are they reconciling their differences? Nope.

He then played a clip from April of 2007 where Dodd said the war was about oil. Tim said he thought it was interesting that he had never said that publicly before 2007 and asked him if he always thought that was true. Yes, he thought it was true. "Why then did you wait until this year to say that?" Replied Dodd: "... good question."

He also threw out the number of Iraqi casualties at 80-100,000. Where the fuck did he come up with that? Even the president's own conservative estimates are higher than 200,000. Who the fuck is this guy?

I guess it just comes back to the fact that Connecticut sucks. And not, as Luke pointed out, that northwestern part of Connecticut that looks a lot like western Massachusetts. The part of Connecticut that the rest of us just drive through on our way to New York and probably elected Chris Dodd. You guys suck.

Work in progress...

OK. Haloscan ate my title and Technorati isn't pinging my site. On the plus side, I am now using Haloscan for my comments and it doesn't require you to register with Blogger first. I expect problems with spam and old comments don't show up anymore.

If you click on the post heading, you can open a unique page for that post along with all of its comments.

Let me know if this is worse or better.

haloscan problems...

anyone have any success with installing haloscan comments? it's eating my header...

Maintenance...

Technorati Profile

Alright. Spiders on their way...

My endorsement

Well, the primaries are quickly approaching and its about time that the good people at my blog (me) handed down their (my) endorsement. Since I don't live in South Carolina, my options aren't that great. My real favorite in this campaign is Ron Paul, the Republican from Texas. In addition to being adorable, he wants to reduce the government to half its size and eliminate, among other things, the departments of homeland security and education, and the IRS. But Ron Paul, like Ralph Nader, doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell. That didn't stop me from voting for Nader in 2000 (that's right mother fuckers. And as a Massachusetts voter, I didn't cost anyone the election), but right now I'm not voting. Only endorsing.

So, I'm endorsing Bill Clinton as Ambassador to the World. I don't really give a shit about Hillary but it's clear that without really fucking up somewhere, she's gonna trounce Obama in the primaries. In a recent trip to the UK, Clinton said he thought his best role in a Hillary administration would be to be "ambassador to the world." I like the sound of that.

Clinton said "I'd be of most use to [Hillary] doing something to try to help restore America's standing in the world and build more allies and get us to work together again." Amen. I guess when it comes down to it, the things I care most about are:

1. Getting US troops home as fast as possible (that includes from places like South Korea, Japan, and wherever the fuck else we happen to have them).

2. Improving our relationship with the rest of planet Earth, who, right now, happen to hate us.

3. Reducing the size and scope of the government.

4. Promoting very liberal social values.

5. Finding a cheap flight to Japan.

Bill and Hillary can promote that liberal social agenda, as well as improve our relationship with the rest of the world. Hillary isn't pulling those troops out of Iraq anytime soon and she's probably gonna increase what the government can do (Hillarycare 2.0?). But, I'm only really endorsing Bill right now, not Hillary. I think in light of a Turkish invasion of northern Iraq, a tactical air strike by Israel inside of Syria, a Putin visit to Iran where he said they should watch each other's backs, a Taiwanese bid to join the UN as an independent country, a nuclear and untrustworthy North Korea, the current war in Iraq, a planned invasion of Iran (is that going to happen or what?), and a planned anti-missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, someone needs to handle our international affairs a little bit better.

I'm Pro-Monkey Murder

I'm not, you understand, pro-murdering monkeys. I'm pro-monkey murder. Murdering monkeys are what they apparently have in India. Taking the monkeys in India and murdering them is what I'm advocating.

According to this article, as well as the BBC World Service podcast, a top politician in New Delhi was murdered by monkeys on Saturday. What the world service reported was that he was likely trying to scare the monkeys away and fell to his death. The online version however, said he was "trying to fight off the monkeys," who at that point had probably armed themselves with utensils from his house and tied up his family. The monkeys were probably looking for drug money and valuables they could carry away, but became unreasonable when he tried to negotiate with them.

Now, I'm not advocating monkey murder because I just so happen to be the victim of an isolated monkey attack AND mugging, ... actually, that's exactly why I'm advocating monkey murder. Yes. Other than that I don't think I would have a single problem with monkeys. They could have murdered and eaten every politician in Asia without a response from me, but they have crossed a line. When that monkey went screeching berserk and clawed at my leg, I screamed out and completely embarrassed myself. A family of Indian people behind me started laughing and Luke probably considered me a total pussy. I won't be happy until there is a pile of burning monkey bodies SOMEWHERE in the world. But I digress.

The article makes it sound like the authorities in India, and especially in New Delhi, are wringing their hands over how to get rid of all these monkeys. Monkey catchers have been employed to little effect. Poisoning them has only led to poison-resistant strains of killer monkeys. If the article on the BBC website is to be believed, they have even considered training "bands of larger, more ferocious langur monkeys to go after the smaller groups of Rhesus macaques." That's not a joke by the way. That's what the BBC actually reported. India, I beg you: do not go down that road.

Langur monkeys, pictured here:


raise their own set of problems. First of all, power-sharing. You think these ferocious langurs are going to work for bananas? You think they haven't already figured out what you'll do with them when the job is done? These guys aren't as dumb as they look. Secondly, like it or not, occupying armies rape things. After World War II, Japan actually had government-sponsored whore houses (the famous comfort women) to discourage American GIs from rape. That's not funny at all. That's just a fact. Now picture an army of sex-crazed violent monkey-murdering langurs running around New Delhi with unlimited access to Cocaine and pornography. I don't even wanna think about it.

My advice to India: do what your forebears did. Chop off their little monkey heads and make brain stew. You can even throw a party for visiting heads of state and serve it as a local delicacy. Its gotta be true, they did it in Indiana Jones: Temple of Doom. Harrison Mother Fucking Ford. Or, create a Ministry of Monkey Murder in the government answerable directly to the president, with a modest budget and a small group of reliable people.

Mr. Singh: Hey. A fucking monkey shit on the hood of my car again.
Minister of MM: We're on it sir.
Mr. Singh: I shouldn't even have to ask. You know this.
Minister of MM: We could do a little better with some more pornography sir. Those monkeys love that pornography.

"My God, what have I become?"
If you want to see more blog posts about this exact same thing that aren't funny, try this guy's modest effort. You suck guy. Also, someone who can't spell 'marauding' and loves alliteration posted here. They did not find this nearly as funny as I did.

Technorati tags: New Delhi, Monkeys, Murder, S.S. Bajwa

*Very* well, thanks for asking

I had my interview with Interac on Saturday afternoon. Daniela and I were able to borrow Louisa's car (thanks again Lou) the night before, which made getting all the way out to Revere quite easy. I guess Interac really goes out of its way to save a few bucks, because it was quite an inconvenient location. If you depend on public transportation, then you would have been disappointed to find out that no bus, subway or commuter rail line goes anywhere near the Marriott in Revere (although after emailing the hotel, I found out they have a free shuttle service to the airport).

The people I was interviewing with were pretty green. There were four guys, including myself, and a girl who seemed pretty smart. I don't know how she would be as an English teacher, but she seemed much brighter than the other guys there. When asked 'Why Japan?' the other three guys gave very generic and lame answers ('No I've never been to Japan and no, I don't speak any Japanese, but I'm REALLY interested in Japan.' or 'Well, I want to teach English in Japan because I come from a family of teachers'), but she said that she had been studying Japanese on her own for a little while, had been there on vacation before, and wanted to be in a big city where she could soak up the funky Japanese fashion (she had chosen fashion as a career). For the record, I said that I wanted to go back to Japan because I had loved living there and felt like immersion was the only way I was going to get my Japanese to a high enough level.

The interview took about 4 hours and looked something like this:

8:50am - Meet in the lobby of the hotel
9:00 - 12:00pm - General information session, grammar and personality tests
12:00 - 12:30pm - Short break before the personal interviews
12:30 - 1:15pm - Interview slot 1
1:30 - 2:15pm - Interview slot 2
2:30 - 3:15pm - Interview slot 3
3:30 - 4:15pm - Interview slot 4
4:30 - 5:15pm - Interview slot 5

The information session lasted about 3 hours, but included a personality test (15 min.) and a grammar test (15 min.). After that, we had to schedule personal interviews in one of 5 time slots, which were about 45 minutes in length. Because I had been the first person to show up that day, I got to pick my time slot first. That was huge. Daniela had dropped me off just before 9am and the last personal interview was scheduled for 4:30pm. I felt bad for the kid that showed up to the interview 5 minutes late, because thanks to that, he had to find something to do for 4 hours before he could finish his interview. I was done and on my way back home with D by 1:15 or 1:30pm.

Oh yeah! That reminds me of something Daniela noticed. Why is there a toll on the Tobin bridge only for inbound traffic? It's like the city of Boston is trying to discourage people from the North Shore from coming downtown.

Because of all the NOVA employees who are jumping ship right now, getting back to Japan is going to be a little harder than I thought. While I'm pretty confident that I'll be offered this job, there may not be any openings in December like I wanted. I may have to wait until April, in which case I should apply to JET as well, which would be the exact same job and start date but with a slightly larger paycheck (from 260,000 to 300,000 yen a month). I know Brucie is having problems with NOVA. They offered him a job and then pushed back his start date thanks to all the problems they're having right now. One of the guys I interviewed with at Interac is going through the same thing. Good luck to everyone who is dealing with that. And I'll say again that I predict NOVA bounces back. I'm sticking to my guns.

Technorati tags: Interac, Interview, Japan, Teaching English

An objective comparison

While still a student in middle school, my aunt Monique bought me a Hole CD (which she was NOT happy about, understandably, as Hole is shit) that I had wanted for my birthday. I've occasionally had lapses in my better judgment, but one CD that I bought around the same time and recently rediscovered was Marilyn Manson's 1996 album antichrist svperstar. It's not that particular album that I want to defend right now, but Marilyn Manson as an artist. After listening to antichrist svperstar again, I realized that I hadn't actually seen or heard anything from Manson in a long time. It probably doesn't help that I don't watch TV anymore, but I think it's fair to assume that he has fallen off the radar for most of us. So I decided to catch up a little bit on this lovely Columbus Day and found that Marilyn Manson rocks harder than ever.

While I like the band's original material, I prefer their covers. "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" is what got Manson into our collective consciousness in the first place, and I still think that their version is great. What made the strongest impression on me when I first heard it back in middle school, was the juxtaposition of the whispered parts with the angst-ridden screaming. It was completely haunting. I distinctly remember watching top 10 countdowns on MTV (a thing of the past) before going on a bike ride with my friend Mike, and then repeating over and over in my head parts of the song. Specifically the part of the song where he is under a bright green light with clocks fastened to his head, and he's whispering the chorus in a very guttural way. The Manson sound is powerful (even if you find him and his presentation corny) and I think it's more than just a way to steal the song away into your brain.

So that brings me to what this post is about. I found two Manson covers (from 2001 and 2004) that I hadn't previously heard. In 2001, for the Not Another Teen Movie soundtrack, Manson recorded a cover of "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell, and in 2004 Manson covered Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus." I've now listened to these two songs about a dozen times each (just today) and I'm prepared to defend one of them against the original and its other versions. I think I like "Tainted Love" better and until watching that video I had never really understood Marilyn Manson's sex appeal. After all, I don't think there's anything particularly sexy or sexual in his earlier stuff. Manson's more recent videos have a lot more sex in them, and for the same reasons that I find gothic chicks hot I find Manson himself,... well, hot, I guess. The more so because he does that look particularly well. Despite how much I like the song, I'll use "Personal Jesus" instead because there are four versions that are available on YouTube, and I've included two of them below.

Depeche Mode wrote the song for their 1989 album Violator, and it became their 23rd single in the UK. The song was inspired by Priscilla Presley's book "Elvis and Me" and according to writer Martin Gore: "It's a song about being a Jesus for somebody else, someone to give you hope and care. It's about how Elvis was her man and her mentor and how often that happens in love relationships; how everybody's heart is like a god in some way, and that's not a very balanced view of someone, is it?" It had fantastic success and has since been covered by (among others): Lollipop Lust Kill, Tori Amos, Johnny Cash, and Marilyn Manson.

The focus in the Depeche Mode video is clearly on the sexual nature of the song, like Martin Gore points out. The band rides into a dusty town on horses, and then fucks down at the local whorehouse. The panting during the bridge in the video is a personal highlight.

Now, the focus in the Manson video (co-directed by Manson) changes quite a bit. You can't deny that there are a lot of sexual images (including a woman masturbating in a confessional, and nipples! [3:00]), but there seems to be more going on than in the Depeche Mode version. If Gore is right about love relationships, then Manson is expanding that to include hero-worship (especially of politicians), littering his video with images of Stalin, Hitler, Gandhi, Mussolini, and Kennedy (as well as much lesser figures like George W. Bush [0:56]). I think he kind of beats us over the head with his point, and the essential message remains the same. The fact that it's Manson covering this song is perfect though. While I think Manson rocks, and I would throw my vagina at him (like he implied Lindsay Lohan did in a recent interview), who honestly would be prepared to make him their Jesus? The fact that he casts himself in the role of your personal Jesus is great for reasons that should be obvious.

Aside from the addition of distortion, little of the actual song was changed in the Manson version. The instruments do change the overall feel of the song and I love those single high guitar chords. In the same way, Johnny Cash truly made it his own, but unlike the Depeche Mode and Manson versions, the Johnny Cash one is just boring. That goes double for the Lollipop Lust Kill version. All the notes are there, but it sounds like noise.

I have more to say but it's already 9:49 here in Massachusetts and I'm bored of writing about this song. Manson remains busy. Click on the following link for a live cover of Justin Timberlake's What Goes Around Comes Around for Radio 1. Not sure if I like it yet. I don't think so.

Technorati tags: Marilyn Manson, Depeche Mode, Personal Jesus, Cover songs

Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus

Marilyn Manson - Personal Jesus

The mural

It's not quite done yet, but here's what I've painted so far. I actually stole the design from some site online which used a photo of Mifune Toshiro as its inspiration (he was a Japanese actor who starred in many Kurosawa Akira films). Having more time and energy I would have done a sketch from the photo myself and it OBVIOUSLY would have looked better. But this was more of a trial project. My mom wants a Victorian-style woman painted on a wall in her hallway and my dad has already set aside a giant space in another part of the cellar for me to paint. I guess if I can free up the time (let me just check my schedule...) I'll paint more and then post those as well. Feedback would be appreciated. But keep in mind that I'm an artist, and I'm sensitive about my shit...

Why don't women do that here?

I was just cracking up over an article I found through Mari's Blog (Mari is a Japanese girl writing in English, and includes lots of links to Japanese pop culture stuff). One of the articles she just linked to was titled "You've Been In Japan Too Long When..." and that sentence was finished with: ...you are not surprised to wake up in the morning and find that the woman who stayed over last night has completely cleaned your apartment, even though you'll probably never ever meet her again. This actually came up quite a few times in conversations I had with other teachers at NOVA. My friend from the Philly area once took a girl home for a fling, and in the morning discovered she had sewed up a hole in his pants while he was sleeping. She knew full well that it was a fling (at least, that's how he told the story...), but I guess that's just something girls do there.

山椒大夫 (1954)

Another movie recommendation. Mizoguchi Kenji's "Sansho Daiyu" (or, in English, "Sansho the Bailiff"). This film takes place in the late-Heian era (maybe around 1000 or 1100 AD) and centers around a former daimyo's (feudal lord) family. In a retelling of a classic Japanese story, this daimyo intentionally disobeys an order from the government and loses his office. He is banished and his family is left to fend for themselves. While traveling along a road, his wife and two children are kidnapped, separated, and sold into slavery (the scene where the family is captured is quite intense). Life gets worse for everyone involved but its beautifully directed and there's a humanistic message.

Update to my Interac application

I had a phone interview with Interac (maybe two weeks ago) and I was told that I would receive a formal invitation to attend their recruiting seminar in New York. Apparently it took them two weeks to get around to sending me a mass email with details of the interview. It starts at 9am ("sharp" according to the email) and lasts like 4 fucking hours. In addition to suffering through their sales pitch about living in Japan I have to deliver a 5-minute presentation. The guidelines are as follows:

GUIDELINES FOR VIDEO INTERVIEW (to be video-taped during interview)


The five minute demonstration must contain ALL of these three components:


1) Greet an imaginary class of Junior High School age (12 to 15 years) Japanese School Children. (One minute).

2) Deliver a one-minute self-introduction and describe your strengths in relation to teaching. It is encouraged that you do this in Japanese if it is possible. (One minute).

3) Drill an imaginary group of Elementary School age Japanese Children. Choose one of the following topics:


1. Numbers 1-5

2. Days of the Week.

3. Colors


The total presentation should be not exceed 5 minutes in duration. We have included details and tips that will help you present a perfect demonstration lesson. They are outlined in the attachment. Please contact us immediately if you are unable to open the attachment.

Sounds like a snap but you know how much it sucks to do this kind of shit for an interview. I think I'm gonna go with numbers because there are handy songs available. One little, two little, three little fingers, four little.... oh wait. For that song to work I would need to go as high as ten. Am I limited to 5? Ummmm... let me think this through...

66.5 by 82 inches

I've been inspired to paint a mural in my dad's basement. Pictures will be produced when its finished but Daniela has to see it before anyone else can.

So disappointed...

If the thought of putting classic literature and poetry on an iPod doesn't do it for you, just skip this one.

I found a website, Librivox, that provides free audio recordings of books. After a little searching I also found readings from the work of some of my favorite poets. I was THRILLED to find, what I thought, was a way to put poetry onto my iPod and then listen to it while running. Try to imagine how let down I was when I found out that all the recordings were done by volunteers and these volunteers had some of the worst, nasally voices ever recorded. Oh man. Returning to one of my favorite sites online, The Gutenberg Project, I found they now also carry sound recordings and often there will be multiple recordings for one book. At least that affords some selection. Would you rather hear Songs of Innocence and Experience read by the guy who did the voice for Snuffalufagus or the guy who did the voice for Yoda?

女が階段を上る時

Thanks to Netflix and the Criterion Collection I've been watching a lot of old Japanese movies lately and I have some recommendations. I just finished 女が階段を上る時, or 'When a Woman Ascends the Stairs,' in its translation. The story involves a Ginza bar hostess in the years following World War II. She's a widow of 30 and her impeccable character makes her an anachronism in, what was then, modern Tokyo. I wouldn't normally post my thoughts on a movie from the 1960s but some idiot from Chicago posted his thoughts on IMDb and I had no one to argue with. 'Wallabee Champ' thought: "The biggest [flaw] is there's no actual drama, because the main character doesn't face any adversity. She's just a whiny woman who's upset with her lot in life, but too unmotivated to change it, and instead mopes around a lot." No. Totally wrong. I don't even know where to begin with why that statement is shit. I'm guessing that if Godzilla doesn't knock down the city, 'Wallabee Champ' won't register the adversity. The adversity in the film comes from working a job she hates (where she has to entertain and flatter people who are depraved and selfish) because its necessary, while trying to preserve her own dignity. I found that despite being a movie about a Japanese bar hostess in post-war Japan, I could totally relate to what she was living through. How do you define who you are and then preserve that in the face of modern society and its compromises?

In addition to this, I would recommend every movie directed by Kurosawa Akira (start with the more famous samurai films but don't skip Ikiru), the three films about the life of Miyamoto Musashi directed by Inagaki Hiroshi, and a bunch of other films that I'd be happy to elaborate on if anyone is interested. And a bunch of anime too.

Financial Advice

I want to write a long and thorough post later, but the gist of what I want to say is this: buying stock in NOVA is probably a good idea.

Taxes... 5 months late

I'm now filling out my taxes for the fiscal year 2006. I'm not actually late since I applied for an extension while I was traveling. If you've never needed an extension before, it gives you until October 15th to get your shit together.

While I was in Malaysia I met this girl who taught in Japan for three years and she told me which forms I would eventually need to file. I'm filling out a 1040 like everyone else (I have to use an arbitrary exchange rate and put all of my yen earnings into dollars), but on top of that I'm filling out a 2555 form, which allows me to exempt up to $82,400 of my earnings from taxes in the US. So, if you're thinking about working abroad, know that you won't need to pay taxes back home. I wish I could just call the IRS and tell them how much I earned, much less than $82,400, and they could just let me go. It's going to take me hours to read through the IRS website and figure this out with the ultimate result (a foregone conclusion) that I won't owe a penny. Can't we just skip everything in between guys?

By the way that girl I met in Malaysia was a total bitch. The second she told me she went to Wellesley I knew it was going to be a pissing contest. I was at an early disadvantage because I told her I taught at NOVA (JET being a much better choice), but I recovered some ground when I found out I was a few years younger than she was. She had found a better deal on her hotel room and rubbed in that it was a single. I played that off like she was being antisocial and told her making friends is the best part of traveling. I think in the end I won. After all, I'm me. There's nothing she could have said to recover from that.

Voodoo Chile Blues

I wrote back to the WinBe school and told them I needed an additional week to decide whether I would accept their offer or not. I explicitly told them that I had an interview at another school and without hearing their offer I'm not prepared to decide. I'm not sure if that will fly or not, but reading something in their contract is what made me go this route.

An Instructor who breaks the contract without an unavoidable reason (as defined through consultation with the Japanese Labour Law Bureau: Roodou Kijun Kantokusho), may find themselves the subject of legal proceedings in Tokyo Civil Court to recover costs incurred by WinBe as a consequence of the Instructor’s actions.　

I don't know what costs the school will incur if I say 'yes' but that scared me into being a little bit more thoughtful in my dealings with them. Hopefully I'll hear back from someone at Interac this week and then I can make a decision.

Details of the job

I just finished reading over the contract and rules and regulations. OK, so here's what WinBe entails and how it compares to NOVA:

My paychecks at NOVA were all over the place. The last three months I was in Japan I worked a ton of overtime and my paychecks reflected that. For the first 9 months I was there, I think I missed at least one day of work each month though, so those paychecks also reflected that. When all was said and done I made 2,623,605 yen that year. Because I left NOVA halfway through January and only started getting paid on the 9th or 10th of February 2006, I was almost a full month short of a year in days actually worked. OK, so if I count that 2,623,605 as 11 months it's about 238,500 yen a month. That's the number I'll use for comparison.

So WinBe pays 250,000 each month, but the hours are worse. I was only on a 34 hour week at NOVA and it'll be a full 40 at WinBe. Not actually 40 though since I think an hour for lunch is included in that 40. On the positive side, I'll either get Saturday/Sunday or Sunday/Monday off instead of Wednesday/Thursday like I had at NOVA. Having Friday and Saturday night off makes a huge difference in your options.

The school I get assigned to will pay 20,000 for my moving costs and if I stay until the end of my contract, I'll get a 100,000 yen bonus (assuming I don't miss more than 7 days of work outside of regular holidays).

At NOVA, I got two weeks of vacation time. That sucked cock. Big hard cock. I'll get somewhere around 5 weeks at WinBe, but I can't choose the time off. I get Christmas/New Year's off, Golden Week (a Japanese holiday in May) and Obon (in August).

Unlike at NOVA, I'll be expected to contribute to sales. This may be one of the worst parts of this new job. Plus, WinBe has a lame incentive thing where if you get 30 new students to sign up, they give you another bonus of 100,000 yen. I can already see how lame that's going to be. Acting like I really want these timid Japanese house wives to sign a contract because English is fun. Shit like that. Oh man I don't want to do that.


Actually, the more I look over this contract the more it looks just like NOVA and the more I don't want to say 'yes.' I recently gave Bruce good advice which was to go ahead and say 'yes' to NOVA and then if he hears back from a better company, just write them an email saying you changed your mind. I think that's how I might handle this. Write WinBe back, say I would love to work there, and then just pretend like that didn't happen if Interac calls me back. Hmmmm....

Hmmmm... do I go back to Japan?

I received the following email this morning:

Dear Mr.Egan,

I enjoyed speaking with you and believe that you would be quite successful
as an instructor at WinBe. Therefore, we would like to offer you a teaching
position.

I have attached a copy of a sample contract, along with a copy of our rules
and regulations. Please read over them carefully and provide us with an
answer by September 3rd.

If you have any questions or concerns, you may call us at ## #### #### or
send me an email to this address.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
----- ---------
Human Resources
WinBe English School

Sooooooo... return to Japan or not? If anyone has any advice one way or the other feel free to let me know. I changed the settings for this blog and now you don't have to be a registered member to post comments. I think.

Is 10:30 AM JST good for you?

I applied to the WinBe School in Japan at some point before August 20th. I think I submitted a resume through Gaijinpot, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I got an email on the 20th from someone at WinBe asking me when would be a good time to call for a quick chat on the phone. I told her any weekday between 2 and 6pm would be best. She wrote me back informing me that in Japan that's between 3 and 7am and their school wasn't open during those hours. Ah. I asked when the school WAS open. She said between 9:00pm and 6:30am, EST. I'm usually asleep by 9:30 now (the payoff is that I get to watch the sunrise), but I figured I could tough it out for one night. So I got an email from WinBe on Sunday night (Monday morning in Japan) telling me to expect a call on Tuesday night (Wednesday morning in Japan).

Not much to report really. The phone call went fine, much like the one with Geos did. The woman I spoke with obviously hadn't seen my resume. She wanted to know, in three adjectives, what my old students in Japan would say about me. I went with 'patient, dedicated, and kind' instead of 'sex-driven, alcoholic, and fueled by rage.' I thought using 'kind' was a good choice since most students I had in Japan described everything as 'kind' thanks to their limited vocabularies. She asked me to scan and forward her a letter of recommendation which isn't a problem. The earliest I can be in Japan through them is late November. It takes a minimum of 2 to 3 months to get my visa paperwork sorted out. When asked for a location preference (this school has branches throughout Japan and will probably look a lot like NOVA did) I gave southern Honshu or Kyushu as an answer. She told me that the only branch they were hiring for right now was Saitama and I told her Saitama sounded magical.


I don't know much about Saitama but it's a large city and about 45 minutes from Tokyo. It would put me closer to my old roommate David, who has returned to Japan and now works in Tochigi. The picture above is a view of Mt. Fuji from the area.

I don't know if this is going to lead to anything but unless Interac calls me back soon, it looks like my only serious lead.

Confrontation online and disheartening results

So I was a little hurt after receiving that email from Geos. Getting rejected by the two least competitive schools in Japan doesn't do wonders for your confidence. I mean, I did a bang-up job in Japan, so why the lack of love now? I was determined to at least get an honest answer out of Geos so I wrote them the following email:

Dear Mr. Avoine:

While I understand the need for a non-specific rejection, I simply refuse to believe that you wouldn't be interested in additional teachers. I am aware of the problems that all of the English conversation schools have in keeping fully staffed. Given the demand in Japan for native speakers and the unfortunate insufficient supply, it would make sense to at least keep my application on file for a time when positions became available.

I have just received a similar rejection from NOVA, for whom I worked for a year. I believe that someone from Geos called NOVA to inquire about my employment there and someone from NOVA said something untrue. I state it again: untrue.

I had a wonderful working relationship with everyone at NOVA, none more so than the students, but for one incident with a superior who was very rude to me, repeatedly, and who received similar treatment from me on one occasion. I refuse to believe that someone as qualified as I am (with a year of experience in Japan already) wouldn't be able to make your final cut.

I would love the opportunity to explain the situation that I was unfortunately a part of in Japan, especially as... BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH

To which Mr. Avoine promptly responded:

Dear Mr Egan

Thank you for your message.

No-one from the GEOS office contacted Nova regarding your application or history with them. That is something we reserve for the final stages of the hiring process, not at this stage of screening. And, I almost hate to add, they would not be a source we would take very seriously anyway.

Once again, thank you for your interest in GEOS. I wish you the best in securing a suitable position in Japan.

Sincerely,

Michel Avoine
Recruitment/Training Coordinator
GEOS Language Corporation, Vancouver

Ouch. I made sure to follow-up with an apology for my accusation and thanked him like a good little applicant. Damn. I guess I just got rejected. Daniela and I came up with a bunch of great reasons why they might not have wanted me, but it doesn't really matter.

So! I've been applying to other jobs in Japan (there is no lack of schools looking for teachers) but I feel very underwhelming as an applicant. I asked my friend Sunshine (a NOVA co-worker) who she returned to Japan through and she gave me the names of two companies that place ALTs: Altia and Interac. I applied to Interac and got an encouraging response. In addition, I've been applying to jobs through Gaijinpot, which feels like the English teacher's Monster.com. And just like Monster.com I expect a whole lotta nothing from them. One nice part of applying through Gaijinpot is that they send you an automatically-generated email after you send your online resume to someone. It confirms that you applied for job #12345 and it tells you how many other resumes have been sent for that same job. I found four jobs that sounded good and found out that 7, 159, 20, and 57 other resumes had already been sent. SIGH. Looking for a job sucks.

A conspiracy!

Dear Mr Egan

Thank you for your interest in a position with GEOS in Japan.

Your application was reviewed by the hiring officer for your area. I regret that the application was unsuccessful and the officer declined to proceed with a formal interview. Please understand that we receive nearly 5,000 applications every year for about 200-250 positions, so competition for these positions can be very severe.

Once again, thank you for considering GEOS. I wish you the best in your future endeavours.

Sincerely,

Michel Avoine
Personnel Coordinator
GEOS Language Corporation, Vancouver

What a bunch of bitter little bitches they have at NOVA! I had a phone interview yesterday with someone at Geos and today they sent me this email. I'm still interested in returning to Japan but now I have be a little bit more clever about it. I have to either pretend like I never worked for NOVA or I have to apply to a place that's not gonna call them and check up on me.

It's a challenge!

oooOOOh SNAP!

NOVA was taking its sweet time in getting back to me, so last night I thought I'd confront them with an email. I mailed the Boston office this:


NOVA Recruiting Group:

I haven't heard back from anyone and I was wondering where we were in the application process. Is there any additional information you need from me?

Hope all is well,

Benjamin Egan


They replied by early this morning with:


August 8, 2007

Dear Mr.Egan,

Thank you for your re-application with Nova Corporation. Re-employment is based on previous work evaluations. Your personnel file was reviewed in Japan and the Boston Office was informed that we are unable to consider you for re-employment.

The Nova Corporation Boston Office team would like to take this opportunity to wish you all the best in your job search in the future.


Sincerely,


Nova Group Boston
535 Boylston St, Ste 204
Boston, MA 02116
617-437-7977


OH!! I had no real desire to return to NOVA but now, with a Geos application in the works, I'm worried that someone is gonna call NOVA and they're gonna badmouth me. I have no doubt that I got rejected thanks to this conversation. Oh well. I sent another email to the Boston office just a minute ago asking for an explanation. Honesty would be awesome. I'd love to post it.

Housekeeping on a Tuesday

I uploaded the rest of the pictures that Luke and I took in Nepal and India. It took me 2 months, but I got around to it.

I'm also putting them in chronological order and adding comments so they make a little bit more sense.

Important Anniversaries

Where were you 62 years ago? I've given it a lot of thought and we were wrong. We never should have dropped those bombs. Conventional wisdom aside, Japan wasn't prepared to fight any longer. The U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey corroborates this. According to McClain, the army estimates of a 1,000,000 US casualties upon invasion were completely made up. The real estimates produced put the number closer to 30,000.

Some also defend Hiroshima on the grounds that between 80,000 and 200,000 died in the Tokyo fire bombings of the previous year. Those were conventional weapons and the number killed was significantly larger than Hiroshima's 140,000. Far more than Nagasaki's 74,000. They were unnecessary deaths. That's why it was wrong.

Japanese gameshows are brilliant

Game show clips of Silent Library, Human Tetris 1, Human Tetris 2, and the Hot Water/Tits Game.

In the Hot Water/Tits Game they announce that the water is 51 degrees Celsius, which is about 124 in Fahrenheit.

Having kids? Teach 'em self-control for the best results

Found this article online. Since a lot of my friends are getting engaged, married, and knocked up now, let me weigh in with some child-rearing advice. According to the link above, children who are able to exercise self-control are more likely to get better SAT scores in high school, be less likely to have drug addiction problems at 32 and be less likely to become bullies.

GEOS' reply on August 1, 2007

I got this today from GEOS:

Dear Mr Egan

Thank you for your interest in GEOS.

We need to collect a little more information to complete your application before forwarding it for final review. Please call between 9am and 5 pm (Pacific Time) by August 7th (Tuesday). Please note that our office will be closed for a public holiday on August 6th. The call will take approximately 5-10 minutes. Our toll-free number is 1-877-584-4367.

I have also attached a document which may answer some of your questions about working for GEOS in Japan. Please take the time to read it before placing the call. Your Application ID number is ##-###. Finally, please note that the four main recruitment centers in North America are New York City, Toronto, San Francisco, and Vancouver. We will also be recruiting in Dallas in October. We regret that no interviews are held outside of these locations.

We look forward to hearing from you.

I'll make the call when I'm good and ready. Am I really ready to return to Japan?

"...the world's cities painted with sound."

A few weeks ago I finished Italo Calvino's novel Invisible Cities. The book is centered around a fictionalized series of conversations that take place between the Mongol emperor, Kublai Khan, and the explorer Marco Polo. Polo has been hired by the great Khan to travel around his empire and describe to him its cities. Kublai Khan, with few years left, wants to understand the empire he has created, and of all his advisers he shows the most interest in the stories Polo has to tell. The book contains the descriptions of 55 cities but fairly quickly the Khan realizes that Polo is actually describing the same city over and over again. I'm not sure how far I can go into explaining the plot of a book before I begin to ruin it, so I'll stop there since it's irrelevant to what I want to say anyway (plus, for much better plot summaries go here or here).

After I finished the book I went online to see if I could find a relevant discussion group and stumbled onto something even better. An electronic music label, Fällt, has created something called the Invisible Cities Project. Artists in 24 different cities around the world were asked to make 5-minute field recordings in order to paint pictures of those cities using sound. I listened to a few of them and think the idea is brilliant, even if the execution on a few fell flat.

The Invisible Cities Project can be found on the Fällt website or simply follow this link. If you use the link provided, the recordings can be found by clicking on the grid about halfway down the page on the right. The Moscow and Delhi recordings were cool, not so much for Tokyo.

I'm motherfucking rich!

You see this graph? You know what this means? It means I'm motherfucking rich.

This is the yen-dollar exchange rate for the past three months. This number drove me nuts while I was traveling because my yen-denominated account kept shrinking and I wasn't even getting high for it. Now its on a rebound and at least this guy thinks it will continue to get stronger.

Right now I have all of my money in three very inconvenient places. I have my Citizens bank account in Boston, a wad of Thai bhat that I haven't converted back to dollars yet, and my Citibank Japan account (denominated in yen) that I was able to draw funds from at ATMs in Asia (very convenient if you ignore the 3% transaction fee for doing so).

A 4% appreciation in the yen doesn't mean much to someone like me (I think I have an extra $56 in my account now) but it's like getting free money and that rocks. You would think with a background in Economics from a respectable university I would fully understand why this is happening to the yen, but I don't. It makes me feel better to know that very few other people do either. Reading online financial opinions from February and March, this wasn't something everyone agreed upon. I hope it lasts.

Drug busts, a murder, and the METI

is in trouble! But what else is new?

I spent the entire day yesterday in front of this computer. Most of that time was spent reformatting this blog but I also had time to do some Japan-related searching. I have been in the dark about what's been going on in Japan, and specifically what's been happening to NOVA since I quit on January 13th. On June 13th, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry imposed a 6-month ban on NOVA, preventing it from signing up new students to contracts longer than 1 year (this is aimed at the core of NOVA's business since 90% of their revenue come from new contracts). The sanctions are in response to NOVA policies for refunds on canceled contracts. There is a law in Japan that says you have eight days to cancel contracts without penalties but NOVA claims this law doesn't apply to them. That's where the problem seems to lie from what I've read. Officials at the ministry described NOVA as "organized and malicious" and have received over 7,000 complaints against the company since 1996.

Unrelated, shortly after I left Japan 7 NOVA employees were charged with possession (of cocaine and marijuana) in the Tokyo area. This was all over the national media. The charges result from a drug bust made back in November, while I was still an employee but safely in Nagoya and drug-free. I remember hearing about this at work and it seemed like nothing was going to happen to them. They might still get off but NOVA's instructors aren't new to drug charges. In response to the charges against two teachers in 1994, NOVA started its drug-testing policy. This was fought in court but before I went to Japan I remember I had to sign a form that said I would consent to be tested. According to the union, no instructors were ever required to take a drug test.

Additionally, on March 27 of this year, a 22-year old NOVA employee, Lindsay Ann Hawker, was found murdered in a sand-filled bathtub in Chiba. The police suspect one of her students but he remains at large.

Financially, the company is in rough shape but that's not new. I looked up the following data on Yahoo! Finance this morning. The company's stock has been on a steady slide since at least 2 years ago. When the news of NOVA's most recent troubles was released, the stock tumbled 25% in just a few days.

So what does all this mean? Everyone who maintains a blog is predicting the end of NOVA. They say all of this is irrefutable proof the company is fucked. One guy advised all current employees to not even bother quitting, but to just not return and start looking for another job immediately. I think everyone needs to calm the fuck down. I'm not sure what the steady slide in NOVA's share price means, other than it's a great time to buy if NOVA doesn't go under. As for the the sanctions against NOVA, they're only for 6 months and they can still sign up students as long as the contracts are for less than one year. I know NOVA has recently opened schools in Taiwan and earlier this year some spokesman for the company said they have plans for mainland Chinese schools as well. This is a lot of bad press all at one time, but I don't think I should cross NOVA off of my list of places to apply to.