i don't know if this makes me king of dorks, but while studying in japan (right now) i had 4 girls approach me at the same time to ask if i was searching for a girlfriend...
so fear not, my fellow nerds and geeks! there is hope!
"for $1 I can get a dvd of a tv show series that has 4 episodes on it"
yea verily you are smoking ye olde crackpipe
or are you piiiiirating that DVD, in which case why are you paying??
your post made me think of an interesting cultural thing about japan i heard here (in japan)
typing was always considered "women's work" so when computers came about, and computers were equated with typing, so computers became "women's tools" by extension
only recently have computers become popular with men...one reason is that cute girls are featured on the covers of many computer magazines...much like hot rod magazines in the states
except personally i prefer the girls in the computer magazines
One thing I wanted to try once to piss off Microsoft was to get a picture of some swarthy Latino guy with his shirt off, and post a caption saying, "This is Amil. Isn't he hot?"
well, to be fair there ARE headsets available...i know whenever i used to call my parents once a week with my cellphone from uni, i'd use a hands-free so i could work on my gamin-err...homework
you don't need the cell on your head to talk, so this frees up the phone itself for taking pictures
George Washington, America's first president, signed Thanksgiving Day into existence...he made it obviously a Christian day of thanking God..it originally was NOT the "yay settlers!" day it has become
"And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions"
there is literally NOTHING in his proclamation of thanksgiving about the Pilgrims, or any other settler group...TAKE THAT MY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER!!
"What I CAN fault you for is judging other people based on their personal tastes."
which was preceded by "this is about you being a dick who can't understand that different people have different tastes, and then somehow thinking that your tastes are superior to everybody elses."
pot? kettle? black?
this is why defending a 'there is no absolute truth' viewpoint is impossible
ah, but you forget that it is the united STATES -- 50 countries working together
sounds like the UN, and china only gets one vote in the security council there, while being the most populous country by a good 750 million or so, i think...would you want chinese citizens' voices to count more than yours in the security council? (please play along that the UN matters to the US for a minute before you respond to this)
i'm not endorsing this as a good idea, but, you say something: "We've got the biggest military, and that equates to what?"
and then you actually ASK about diplomatic power? you can't beat "agree with us or we'll nuke you" which the US could literally DO
and apparently the rest of the world's "don't attack iraq" diplomacy didn't work! the US still got it's way! sure SEEMS like the US is more powerful...
i reiterate, i don't like what the US did in iraq, but i felt like answering your questions ^_^
hey this is only half tongue in cheek, that i post this...
i'm living in japan right now (i'm american)
be prepared to have japanese people NEVER sit with you on the bus, even when there's nowhere else to sit (is this good or bad? it could go either way)
they will hardly talk to you
they will yell "foreigner go home!"
if you are american, be prepared for a much shittier lifestyle (small home, expensive EVERYthing -- plan on a over $4 per gallon of gas, be prepared for outrageously expensive cars, be prepared for expensive cellphones with most features you can't use because you can't read japanese
try $2000+ for a DESKTOP that my $1000 box severely trounces in power -- and i bought it over two years ago from -DELL- (and it still is better than the japanese computers)!
america is ahead of japan in computing...make no mistakes about it...i am here...i see it...
i have been told repeatedly that i should just use internet cafes instead of getting net for myself...by neighbors, etc...internet cafes are around five dollars an hour...noone thinks internet is important here ^_^
of course i'm only posting the shitty things about japan, but don't imagine as a fanboy that japan is this motherland of amazingness
that being said, i suggest you move here! japan has beautiful nature (way more than half the country is uninhabited) and you could kick your technology habit!
oh yeah, japanese politics is about the same as american...same corporate corruption
or how about that the current prime minister is accused of raping two women in college, and then moving to England for a few years after settling out of court...if you can read japanese, http://www.pressnet.tv/log/view/3758 is a good place to go to read about it (of course, if you read japanese, you probably are in japan...
and i would suggest their economy is not looking any brighter until the old men in power stop helping out their buddies who are in power, and start caring about the people (sound familiar *cough*US*cough*)
expect japan to be a more and more costly place to live with less and less income...a social security-esque system that is failing because the birthrate is below 2, so the population is aging, and there will be no way to pay all the national pensions that all are due
oh yeah, japan's neighbors include china and north fucking korea
i could go on, but i'll stop, and encourage you once again, please come and live in japan! you will love it!
ps i actually DO love it here ^_^ i just wouldn't want you to come here with false hopes or anything!
if you ever bother to read EULAs, you'd see that you are agreeing to the spyware...it never just magically installs crap it's not supposed to, or the company would be sued all over the place...
now NO way should someone be allowed to say 'but the EULA is so long, that's not fair whine whine bitch bitch'...next time you get house insurance...when your house burns down demand that they buy you an island somewhere, then claim that you thought that was covered, and then whine whine bitch bitch the contract was too long
ignorance is no excuse, as is said in the US's system of laws...and since we're discussing a USican, Ron Paul, i feel that is relevant
or maybe i'm just trolling...i'll let the mods decide ^_^
wow who woulda guessed that my small hometown of Victoria, TX would make it in slashdot!
indeed, Ron Paul (who represents Victoria city and county, among other places) is EXTREMELY popular there...victoria is a VERY conservative town...apparently conservative enough to make people from california "hate" the town, as i've been told...but i've never noticed anything like that...
anyways, through EFFs frequent letters you can send to your representatives, i have contacted ron paul on numerous occasions...most slashdotters would LOVE mr paul (except for maybe this spyware issue)...anyways, here's some of his track record in voting and other stuff...
he's on record as saying that the war on drugs has harmed civil rights
*goes off to find more information*
well i can't seem to find much of a voting record on what i'm looking for aside from http://www.issues2000.org/TX/Ron_Paul.htm but i can say that in the emails i've sent, i always receive responses back saying stuff like 'i oppose making p2p illegal' etc
as obviated by the fact that he is a libertarian, he STRONGLY defends civil rights...
i get the feeling that he is a VERY well informed representative, and now that i've made a new 'slashdot campaign' for him... ^_^
he is one who is genuinely on 'our side' in the technology front, i believe
but i mean, what is modern? is modern when other people are copying you? i think so...
if you ask people what is the most modern country, i would assume the majority would have to say america, as america has all the "necessities" as people would argue them to be (indoor plumbing, etc.) while at the same time being to a certain extent a technological leader (please don't argue with this one...america is in many aspects more technologically advanced -- except with cellphones -- in the sense that technology is readily available to most people)
despite all the hatred towards america -- esp my home state of texas (thanks bush), i would argue that america became fully modern in the, well, -modern- sense of the word...in 15 years i expect many of the world's fashion trends will come from japan, where i am right now, and i have to say much of what i see college students wearing is amazing, how they can pull it off...
so perhaps then you could consider japan more modern, and thus an older country by this definition...
of course by no means is usa an "old country" by any standard of length of time from birth...
and i would also argue that in ancient egypt they had paper, but that is irrelevant...so much also is who started the industrial revolution...it is who has -finished- the revolution as of now...
oh well, obviously i am an american, and therefore i obviously am a pig-dog...
i should get modded up for the previous sentence for 'insightful' ^_^
today i had a professor tell me that some french person back in the day made some quote about how america was the oldest country, because it was the first to modernize...
say what you will about how open to interpretation that quote is, but i thought it was a pretty neat quote to put in to the/. record
please tell me, what the hell was bush supposed to do? stand in front of the towers and say "i am the keeper of the sacred flame of Udun...YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!" ???
Slashdot Mirror
i am in japan right now, so i can speak from experience
when i came, i could not read manga...
a few months later, i have read over 30 volumes of manga and have no problems
my professors are surprised at my rapid progression in literacy
so, in short, manga can make you literate (grammatically and to a certain extent, kanji-speaking)
kekekeke is a korean laugh you insensitive clod!
i don't know if this makes me king of dorks, but while studying in japan (right now) i had 4 girls approach me at the same time to ask if i was searching for a girlfriend...
so fear not, my fellow nerds and geeks! there is hope!
good lord, for someone who watches their local news every night, and watches The Daily Show with John Stewart, their TV watching bill would come to
30 days * $3 = $90 for local news!!
then we have 20 episodes of The Daily Show a month, which comes to $60
even with a 33ish% discount (it would come to $100), you still would be paying more than I pay for cable...
i'd rather just pay my 40 bucks for cable...
"for $1 I can get a dvd of a tv show series that has 4 episodes on it" yea verily you are smoking ye olde crackpipe or are you piiiiirating that DVD, in which case why are you paying??
your post made me think of an interesting cultural thing about japan i heard here (in japan)
typing was always considered "women's work" so when computers came about, and computers were equated with typing, so computers became "women's tools" by extension
only recently have computers become popular with men...one reason is that cute girls are featured on the covers of many computer magazines...much like hot rod magazines in the states
except personally i prefer the girls in the computer magazines
One thing I wanted to try once to piss off Microsoft was to get a picture of some swarthy Latino guy with his shirt off, and post a caption saying, "This is Amil. Isn't he hot?"
I really, really don't get it...
"I'm tired of all these federal officials who insist on being anonymous and hidden."
was this said in jest, since you posted AC? ^_^
and it always sucks when you post an entry with html formatting by accident, and you lose all your pretty carriage returns
well, to be fair there ARE headsets available...i know whenever i used to call my parents once a week with my cellphone from uni, i'd use a hands-free so i could work on my gamin-err...homework you don't need the cell on your head to talk, so this frees up the phone itself for taking pictures
now THIS post will probably get me a justly-deserved flame-bait rating, but
i don't listen to that guy...how does the joke go?
what's the difference between rush limbaugh and the hindenburg??
one's a big fat nazi windbag, and the other's a blimp
if this message came across as 'w00t g0d' or something like that, it was not supposed to...
'I would have used "Abyss Director" or "Aliens Director" or "Terminator 1/2 Director"'
wait, i'm confused again...was Terminator 1/2 BEFORE or AFTER Terminator 1??
George Washington, America's first president, signed Thanksgiving Day into existence...he made it obviously a Christian day of thanking God..it originally was NOT the "yay settlers!" day it has become
i think the most relevant statement in his 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation when he created Thanksgiving Day is:
"And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions"
there is literally NOTHING in his proclamation of thanksgiving about the Pilgrims, or any other settler group...TAKE THAT MY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER!!
i hope you're not joking...that is the single Baddest Ass thing i've ever heard
"how to make -R and -RW types of media"
you forgot +R and +RW
God i love pointing out hypocrisy:
"What I CAN fault you for is judging other people based on their personal tastes."
which was preceded by
"this is about you being a dick who can't understand that different people have different tastes, and then somehow thinking that your tastes are superior to everybody elses."
pot? kettle? black?
this is why defending a 'there is no absolute truth' viewpoint is impossible
"It should always be that 1 citizen = 1 vote"
ah, but you forget that it is the united STATES -- 50 countries working together
sounds like the UN, and china only gets one vote in the security council there, while being the most populous country by a good 750 million or so, i think...would you want chinese citizens' voices to count more than yours in the security council? (please play along that the UN matters to the US for a minute before you respond to this)
i'm not endorsing this as a good idea, but, you say something:
"We've got the biggest military, and that equates to what?"
and then you actually ASK about diplomatic power? you can't beat "agree with us or we'll nuke you" which the US could literally DO
and apparently the rest of the world's "don't attack iraq" diplomacy didn't work! the US still got it's way! sure SEEMS like the US is more powerful...
i reiterate, i don't like what the US did in iraq, but i felt like answering your questions ^_^
hey this is only half tongue in cheek, that i post this...
i'm living in japan right now (i'm american)
be prepared to have japanese people NEVER sit with you on the bus, even when there's nowhere else to sit (is this good or bad? it could go either way)
they will hardly talk to you
they will yell "foreigner go home!"
if you are american, be prepared for a much shittier lifestyle (small home, expensive EVERYthing -- plan on a over $4 per gallon of gas, be prepared for outrageously expensive cars, be prepared for expensive cellphones with most features you can't use because you can't read japanese
try $2000+ for a DESKTOP that my $1000 box severely trounces in power -- and i bought it over two years ago from -DELL- (and it still is better than the japanese computers)!
america is ahead of japan in computing...make no mistakes about it...i am here...i see it...
i have been told repeatedly that i should just use internet cafes instead of getting net for myself...by neighbors, etc...internet cafes are around five dollars an hour...noone thinks internet is important here ^_^
of course i'm only posting the shitty things about japan, but don't imagine as a fanboy that japan is this motherland of amazingness
that being said, i suggest you move here! japan has beautiful nature (way more than half the country is uninhabited) and you could kick your technology habit!
oh yeah, japanese politics is about the same as american...same corporate corruption
or how about that the current prime minister is accused of raping two women in college, and then moving to England for a few years after settling out of court...if you can read japanese, http://www.pressnet.tv/log/view/3758 is a good place to go to read about it (of course, if you read japanese, you probably are in japan...
and i would suggest their economy is not looking any brighter until the old men in power stop helping out their buddies who are in power, and start caring about the people (sound familiar *cough*US*cough*)
expect japan to be a more and more costly place to live with less and less income...a social security-esque system that is failing because the birthrate is below 2, so the population is aging, and there will be no way to pay all the national pensions that all are due
oh yeah, japan's neighbors include china and north fucking korea
i could go on, but i'll stop, and encourage you once again, please come and live in japan! you will love it!
ps i actually DO love it here ^_^ i just wouldn't want you to come here with false hopes or anything!
if you ever bother to read EULAs, you'd see that you are agreeing to the spyware...it never just magically installs crap it's not supposed to, or the company would be sued all over the place...
now NO way should someone be allowed to say 'but the EULA is so long, that's not fair whine whine bitch bitch'...next time you get house insurance...when your house burns down demand that they buy you an island somewhere, then claim that you thought that was covered, and then whine whine bitch bitch the contract was too long
ignorance is no excuse, as is said in the US's system of laws...and since we're discussing a USican, Ron Paul, i feel that is relevant
or maybe i'm just trolling...i'll let the mods decide ^_^
wow who woulda guessed that my small hometown of Victoria, TX would make it in slashdot!
indeed, Ron Paul (who represents Victoria city and county, among other places) is EXTREMELY popular there...victoria is a VERY conservative town...apparently conservative enough to make people from california "hate" the town, as i've been told...but i've never noticed anything like that...
anyways, through EFFs frequent letters you can send to your representatives, i have contacted ron paul on numerous occasions...most slashdotters would LOVE mr paul (except for maybe this spyware issue)...anyways, here's some of his track record in voting and other stuff...
he's on record as saying that the war on drugs has harmed civil rights
*goes off to find more information*
well i can't seem to find much of a voting record on what i'm looking for aside from http://www.issues2000.org/TX/Ron_Paul.htm but i can say that in the emails i've sent, i always receive responses back saying stuff like 'i oppose making p2p illegal' etc
as obviated by the fact that he is a libertarian, he STRONGLY defends civil rights...
i get the feeling that he is a VERY well informed representative, and now that i've made a new 'slashdot campaign' for him... ^_^
he is one who is genuinely on 'our side' in the technology front, i believe
but i mean, what is modern? is modern when other people are copying you? i think so...
if you ask people what is the most modern country, i would assume the majority would have to say america, as america has all the "necessities" as people would argue them to be (indoor plumbing, etc.) while at the same time being to a certain extent a technological leader (please don't argue with this one...america is in many aspects more technologically advanced -- except with cellphones -- in the sense that technology is readily available to most people)
despite all the hatred towards america -- esp my home state of texas (thanks bush), i would argue that america became fully modern in the, well, -modern- sense of the word...in 15 years i expect many of the world's fashion trends will come from japan, where i am right now, and i have to say much of what i see college students wearing is amazing, how they can pull it off...
so perhaps then you could consider japan more modern, and thus an older country by this definition...
of course by no means is usa an "old country" by any standard of length of time from birth...
and i would also argue that in ancient egypt they had paper, but that is irrelevant...so much also is who started the industrial revolution...it is who has -finished- the revolution as of now...
oh well, obviously i am an american, and therefore i obviously am a pig-dog...
i should get modded up for the previous sentence for 'insightful' ^_^
you seem to have missed the ILLEGAL part of 'illegal immigrants'
today i had a professor tell me that some french person back in the day made some quote about how america was the oldest country, because it was the first to modernize...
/. record
say what you will about how open to interpretation that quote is, but i thought it was a pretty neat quote to put in to the
please tell me, what the hell was bush supposed to do? stand in front of the towers and say "i am the keeper of the sacred flame of Udun...YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!" ???