Wednesday July 16, 2008 at 16:42
Interesting NYT article on Buddhism’s decline in Japan. Even more interesting is that the lead photo appears—I’m serious—to have been taken in my mother-in-law’s house.
The father of the priest in the photo was famous for driving a Porsche (he used to hire the test track at the driving school behind the house to do so); aside from the occasional BMW almost everything on the road in Akita is domestically built. I’m not sure what his son drives (obviously it’s something modest when he’s out on business), but I have an outstanding invitation from him to go out for drinks sometime.
Wednesday July 16, 2008 at 11:12
Oh Buddha, Give Me a Break
There are some facts scattered among the sweeping generalizations, sure; my problem with it is rather its creepiness. It just feels clammy, seedy, sordid.
JapanSoc
Wednesday July 16, 2008 at 10:07
Sunday July 13, 2008 at 21:08
Americans Adopting the Worst Elements of Japanese Journalism and Academia
…namely, writing a bunch of unfounded, unsubstantiated anecdotal arse that has no basis in reality.
JapanSoc
Friday July 11, 2008 at 12:25
Friday July 11, 2008 at 10:32
"Understanding the Yugen Element in the waffle waffle waffle..."
Another word I recommend readers learn is “kougan”, which means “bollocks”.
JapanSoc
Friday July 11, 2008 at 9:26
Emperor publishes study on tanuki crap
Yep, Emperor Akihito has been sifting tanuki poop from the Palace grounds and analysing it.
The last few male generations of the Japanese royal family seem to have shared a scholarly bent; Hirohito had a passion for marine biology, Akihito had apparently published some 30 papers on gobies prior to his foray into tanuki excrement, and Naruhito famously studied inland waterways (principally the Thames) at Oxford.
JapanSoc
Thursday July 10, 2008 at 16:23
Aurora open source mixer/control surface
Nice. I’m still not sure whether I need something like this; I tend to program mixing changes, but hardware would probably make it easier and more intuitive.
JapanSoc
Thursday July 10, 2008 at 11:18
Monday July 07, 2008 at 11:11
White noise to calm the troubled heart
Emotionally, I haven’t been feeling too pleasant recently. It’s partly a side effect of writing songs, a process which for me doesn’t take place in my comfort zone if done correctly. In other words, stuff written in a state of contentment tends to come out as crap and, more importantly, lacking enough impetus to finish it in search of resolution.
I was catching up on news at my desk this morning, still on the rollercoaster, and came across this by Dan Benjamin on the benefits of white noise versus silence. I’m listening to simplynoise.com at the moment and I do find it therapeutic, to a degree. One of the stated benefits is masking tinnitus, which in a way is analogous to what I need it for—though the signal I want to mask is the chattering gears of my imagination.
JapanSoc
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