My Rio MP3 player is no longer working. For almost two years, this great little gadget has been my music machine.
About a year ago, I got a letter from the company that makes the Rio, telling me they were going to be sending me a replacement power charger (for the rechargeable battery) because there were reports of people inadvertently sticking the power plug in the USB hole and frying the device. At the time, I remember thinking that someone would have to be an idiot to put the plug in the wrong hole. Today, I was that idiot. In my haste to plug in the charger as I rushed out to work, I ever so briefly put the power cord in the wrong end before realizing what I was doing. It wasn’t until later when I tried to listen to some tunes that I found my poor Rio now makes only a radio static-like buzzing sound.
I never did get that idiot-proof replacement power adapter they told me they were sending. I’m sure there’s a liability issue here somewhere.
Month: December 2002
A Road In Italy
Great photo on the Mirror Project. I want to be there right now, on a bike.
Chopstick Fiasco
The above picture was taken in 1981 during a family trip to Japan. Though my Grandpa and I shared impeccable taste in fashion, we definitely did not share skills with the chopsticks. Having lived the first thirty years of his life in Japan, he was a pro. I, on the other hand, can be seen using a crude scrape and shovel method. And look at the hand position! The chopsticks look like they’re upside-down.
After my embarrassing display of ineptness during that trip to Japan, I was promptly enrolled at the International Academy for the Development of Gifted Foreign Chopstick Users where, after years of stern tutelage that pushed me to my physical and emotional limits, I became the celebrated and much-honored chopstick master that I am today.
Merry Christmas
It’s a working holiday here in Japan. I’ve opened my presents, talked with family back home, and now I’m hauling my hungover ass off to work.
Christmas Eve Karaoke Photos
What to do on Christmas Eve in Japan? Why, sing karaoke, of course.
The One I Didn’t Eat
I had a Christmas Eve feast of raw fish.
A student of mine took me out to a sushi restaurant for dinner. It was a good restaurant, and they served an enormous and well-prepared meal of serious sashimi. I’ve been enjoying sushi during my time in Japan, but it’s been fairly tame as far as raw fish goes — mostly salmon and tuna. Last night I took the plunge and braved what seemed like a never ending parade of creatures from the deep.
The dinner was an extreme exercise in will power — I was determined to eat it all. And I did, except for the creature pictured above.
A little background. When I first visited Japan, I was thirteen years old and a very picky eater. I survived mostly on rice during the weeks my family traveled around the county. Although I’ve become much more willing to try new foods, I still don’t venture too far afield when it comes to edibles that once were alive. But last night I wanted to give it my all.
I tried octopus, squid, various types of fish, clams in miso soup, sea urchin and still more that I didn’t get the names of. I even ate the shrimp that was still moving (I’m not kidding) when I put it in my mouth. And when they presented the flash-fried head of that very same moving shrimp, I was going to eat it to. No, I wasn’t. Yes, I was. No, I wasn’t. Yes, I was.
In the end, I just couldn’t. So I left one little critter behind and apologized profusely. Even with that one failure, though, I’m fairly impressed with what I managed to put down last night.
Driving Mass Media
At least two recent events — the Trent Lott controversy and the Henry Kissenger debacle — highlight just how asleep at the wheel the mainstream media has become. But they also show that a vibrant and growing online community is becoming more and more influential in providing a true national discussion.
As Arianna Huffington points out in her recent Salon.com column, it was a community of bloggers who kept discussion and coverage of these events in play. But unlike traditional media, the discussion came up from the bottom rather than being dictated — or neglected — from the top. This is what Cokie Roberts was so worried about.
As mainstream news continues it’s transformation into entertainment and corporate propaganda, real news, information and perspective is bubbling up from below.
Counter Intelligence
Denver’s police department has been gathering and maintaining intelligence information on local citizens for decades. In recent years, the information was transferred from index cards to a computer program developed by Orion Scientific Systems.
Controversy erupted after files were leaked, showing the department had been tracking political and social activists, and had been classifying some of them as “criminal extremists.”
Going Electronic, Denver Reveals Long-Term Surveillance
Working under the direction of the Denver police intelligence bureau secretary, officers classified organizations like the American Friends Service Committee as “criminal extremist” groups, one of the choices offered in a pull-down menu by the software.
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The police said that each officer had used his own judgment in characterizing a group and that it had often been labeled “criminal extremist” because it did not seem to fit any other choices.
Other police departments — including New York City’s — use the Orion system. Orion says the “criminal extremist” classification has been removed from the program. Perhaps it’s been replaced by “Arab.”
If surveillance systems like this have been in place for so long, it’s frightening to think what’s being developed, used and abused now. Law enforcement agencies need to be able to gather certain types of information, but the danger has always been in the abuse of systems when appropriate safeguards aren’t put in place.
On a brighter note, there are those who are stepping up to the plate to protest excessive spying. Let’s hear it for librarians!
Cities Say No to Federal Snooping
Fearing that the Patriot Act will curtail Americans’ civil rights, municipalities across the country are passing resolutions to repudiate the legislation and protect their residents from a perceived abuse of authority by the federal government.
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Another group to vehemently oppose the act has been librarians. They are now required to divulge patrons’ book-borrowing and Internet-surfing habits to federal investigators and are prohibited from making such requests public.
In retaliation, some librarians have called special meetings to educate their communities about the Patriot Act’s implications. Others now routinely purge borrowing records and Internet caches. One former librarian devised a series of technically legal signs to warn patrons of FBI snooping.
Snow Day
Hakuba 47 area, boarding down a gully with Al and Scott.
I Went To Phuket
This is my second “funny language” post this week. I really don’t want to come across as mocking my students and others who are speaking a second language. It’s not an easy process, and mistakes and difficulties are a part of that process. But sometimes you just have to laugh (politely, behind their backs).
Someone in the educational resources department decided our students needed to learn how to say, “I went to Phuket.” Right, it’s not really pronounced that way, but how’s a beginning student to know that? I spent some time in class tonight correcting one student who just couldn’t manage to get the pronunciation right. And spent a lot of time trying not to laugh.