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ratassfink
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Name: Jory
Country: Japan
Metro: Kobe
Birthday: 11/20/1981
Gender: Male
Interests: Philosophy, Religion, Political-economy, Language, MY WIFE & SON!
Expertise: Ranting, Annoying (with "boring" questions), Laughing at hypothetical scenarios I think up in my head without explaining them to anyone.
Occupation: English Instructor
Industry: English Instruction
Message: message meEmail: email me
AIM:  ratassfink
MSN: ratassfink@hotmail.com
Member Since:
6/27/2004
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| Taught a class, family came afterwards, and we went to the Castle for Hanami. Unfortunately, Hanami season hasn't even started yet. The sakura were still just budding. Bought some books. See how lazy facebook has made me? Oh well.... fin
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| Haven't written in this thing for a while, but I thought I could use the writing practice. At the moment, I am working on my application essays for various schools, and finding it hard to write something with a single, elaborated point. Instead, it just sounds like a bunch of different unrelated stuff about me, and my sentences either sound fragmented or like run-ons. So, to get me in the writing mood I'm reading (not really -- I'm actually listening to the audiobooks) some Michael Chabon and Jonathan Franzen, 'cause I heard about them on the Simpsons. They appeared in the episode where Moe and Lisa go to the Wordloaf festival in Vermont for some reason. Tom Wolfe and Gore Vidal were there, too. Anyway, I looked them up online and --lo and behold-- they were somewhat famous for something OTHER than appearing in the Simpsons. Between the two of them, they have won the National Book Award for fiction, the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and the Hugo, Nebula, and Sidewise awards (most by Chabon). And I only know what those are because they appeared in the Wikipedia articles about them. (j/k)
Since the last time I wrote, we went to Kyoto and USJ with our guests from Korea. Since they left, we've been mostly focusing on family life and work, and I've been having to fill out a bunch of law school application materials. Yargh.
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| Going to see a few sights... stay the night in Osaka, and then go to Universal Studios Japan.
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| California
Prop 1: High Speed Rail Bonds. Yes to investment in infrastructure, and cheap and efficient long-distance in-state transportation.
Prop 2: Standards for Confining Farm Animals. Yes for Hanika. (But also because I want to be able to eat raw eggs in California... seriously. Raw eggs on hot rice with natto, and a side of miso soup. Delicious.)
Prop 3: Children's Hospital Bonds and Grant Program: No to free money that is out of proportion to the services provided, and in a situation in which they still seem to have unused money from the last grant.
Prop 4: Waiting Period and Parental Notification Before Termination of Minor's Pregnancy: Yes.
Prop 5: Nonviolent Drug Offenses: Yes to saving money by punishing people less for nonviolent drug offenses.
Prop 6: Police and Law Enforcement Funding: Yes to securing a greater portion of the existing budget to law enforcement, without issuing new bonds or raising taxes, thereby also limiting state congress' discretionary spending on other "stuff."
Prop 7: Renewable Energy Generation: Yes to holding public power companies to the same standard as private power companies on emissions standards.
Prop 8: Eliminates Rights of Same-sex Couples to Marry: Yes again... yeesh. Although I must say the phrasing "Eliminate Rights" sounds so Draconian that it gave me pause. Couldn't they call it "Limiting" or "Clarifying the Definition of Marriage?" Just kidding... I didn't pause. I knew exactly how I would vote.
Prop 9: Criminal Justice System, Victim's Rights: Yes to allowing more input by victims on proceedings for parole, etc. and greater consideration of victims' safety for parole, etc.
Prop 10: Alternative Fuel Vehicles and Renewable Energy: No to a poorly devised and written pseudo-consumer-based incentive for alternative fuel vehicles, and free money to run a program that has no definition for success.
Prop 11: Redistricting: Yes, although I don't like the selection criteria, or process, for the committees (which is heavily biased in favor of the two major parties), I hope it will help to stop gerrymandering.
Prop 12: Veteran's Bond Act: Yes to helping veterans buy homes, and pay for the bonds themselves.
What would happen to the budget if I got my way? According to the information they sent me, by my calculations, based on their figures, it would put California about $17 billion in more debt. But almost all of that would be due to the High-Speed Railway System. If not for that, my votes would have put California about $3 billion less in debt (over time), so I'm sort of happy with that. But I think the railway is justified, seeing as it would be a major commodity for the state, and help the economy, so that possibly, potentially, maybe (although no one has said this), it could perhaps pay for itself (eventually).
Concord
Measure G: City Clerk Appointed, not Elected: Yes because clerks' jobs are quite technical and well-defined. No need to have them be elected rather than hired by city council according to their qualifications.
Measure WW: East Bay Regional Park Expansion: Yes to compensating nature for the incalculable benefits it gives us all, for free, all the time. And to keeping Concord in the rankings among America's 50 Greenest Cities.
If I get my way, all of you (except Orin) will be $500 million deeper in the hole, all because of the park project.
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| DOUBLE EDIT: Watched the VP debate. Needless to say, I thought Biden won (as a debater), but the whole thing was pretty pointless overall. Both of them were mostly just paying lipservice to the Presidential candidates they're running behind. "He voted for this..." "He voted against this..." "He said this..." Man... this election is weirdlyl lop-sided. Both sides have one strong, and one weak candidate, but on one side, they've switched positions (Biden should be Pres. Obama should be VP). Palin didn't belong in a debate with Biden, and in my opinion, neither did Obama belong in a debate with McCain (counting their respective experience, clearly neither of these pairings match up). It's really frustrating to me that both candidates of either of those parties will be in the whitehouse. I want McCain-Biden! Or Biden-McCain!
EDIT: D'oh-eth! Big mistake... LSAT is on Saturday in America. In order to synchronize the times more closely, that means that the LSAT is scheduled for this Sunday, not Saturday, in Japan. Lucky that my bus schedule still allows me to go back after taking the test.
Yessirs... I will be taking an overnight bus to Tokyo tonight, so's I'll be there in time to take my LSAT at Temple University. Thus, I will most likely be out of touch until Monday, when I get back.... and when I do get back, I have to start worrying about the GRE. :P
Also... my laptop totally crapped out (again) and won't restart anymore. I will take it to the Apple store in Tokyo to see if it can be fixed. I really hope that it can, because most of our pictures of Liam and of Korea are saved in there. If they can fix the screen but not the hard drive, maybe I can buy a cheap hard drive and just run LINUX on it. SuSE keeps updated versions for the powerPC.
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