BlogHer '06

As some of you may know, I'll be attending a conference for women bloggers at the end of July. A recent article sheds light on BlogHer's purpose and appeal.

Vancouver & Seattle Highlights

Finally! Home at last. Memorable moments and revelations from my trip:

• First trip to Canada. I was only in the country for a total of 24 hours, but it still counts. My first encounter with the country's inhabitants came as I was walking with my friend Sohko across the street discussing my lack of Canadian coinage to pay for the bus--a Canadian guy overheard our conversation, stops us on the other side of the street, and hands me the $2.25CAN I need. And he walks off before I can even really thank him. Conclusion: Canadians are officially the friendliest people in the world.
• On the bus ride up to Vancouver, I became friends with two Japanese girls who looked so lost that I abandoned any thought of improving their English by pretending to be American. You should've seen the looks on their faces when I busted out the tongue of the motherland--it would've made a winning MastercCard commercial.) I gave them my email address and they wrote me today! We're going to hang out once I'm settled in Seattle. Yatta!
• Re-entering the U.S. from Canada, our crossing was delayed by border control who insisted on questioning and checking the bags of the only woman carrying a Mexican passport. This was after she was fingerprinted and photographed in a thoroughly unkind fashion. As the rest of us look on, I hear a woman with a heavy Southern accent say, "I don't care what they have to do, as long as they keep us safe." This comment was almost enough to make me ditch the bus and stay in Canada.
• Walked around the Capitol Hill area in Seattle (for the first time!) with Josh. I've now located two specific areas I want to live in the city, and the northern end of Broadway on Capitol HIll is definitely one of them. The independent bookstore we visited was especially awesome. The coffee shops also look very promising. Now, if I can find a swanky studio up there for under $900...
• Seattle is awesome. Proof of this statement is the jazz club Josh took Mark and I to the last night I was in town. It was Monday and they were hosting a sort of open mic night. Anyone could just sign up and be accompanied by an amazing trio of jazz musicians on bass, piano, and drums. Makes me want to practice My Favorite Things all over again, just so I can join them! (Shout out to any ASIJ Vocal Jazz '02 folks reading this.) Tula'sboth had it for dinner before starting their shift. As a former waitress, I know that's the best endorsement a dish can have. also has amazing food at pretty reasonable prices--I highly recommend the spaghetti bolognese. The nice waiter recommended it by saying he and the manager
• My cab driver from downtown to the SeaTac airport started lecturing me about the virtues of arranged marraige after learning about my currently-unmarried status. After a while I pointed at the open window and mouthed, "I can't hear you! Sorry!" This does not bode well for the Seattle taxi scene--the last time I was in a cab (with fellow McK BA Class of '06 Jon McClain!) in Seattle, we got in an accident on the highway. I'm not saying it was our driver's fault, but the trend is disturbing...
• V for Vendetta kicks ass. Go see it before it leaves the theaters. But under no circumstances should you imdb or google this film before then. The mystery man is much more sexy if you don't know his identity or what he actually looks like. Believe me.
• The flight from Seattle to Tokyo is only 9.5 hours! Woot!!!!

And now, time for some rice and fermented soy bean and raw egg for brekkie.

P.S.

I'm in Seattle right now, staying with Josh and doing some prelim apartment-hunting. For the past two days I was in Vancouver, visiting Sohko. Before that I was in New York with the parentals. On Tuesday, I'll fly back to Tokyo and (hopefully) soon thereafter end the blogging delinquency that has plagued this corner of the web as of late!

Doing our homework on corn-based ethanol

Everyone is psyched about the prospect of using corn and making ethanol as a substitute for oil... but perhaps we're jumping the gun a bit? From the Times blog On the Table:

The way we grow corn in this country consumes tremendous quantities of fossil fuel. Corn receives more synthetic fertilizer than any other crop, and that fertilizer is made from fossil fuels — mostly
natural gas. Corn also receives more pesticide than any other crop, and most of that pesticide is made from petroleum. To plow or disc the cornfields, plant the seed, spray the corn and harvest it takes large amounts of diesel fuel, and to dry the corn after harvest requires natural gas. So by the time your “green” raw material arrives at the ethanol plant, it is already drenched in fossil fuel.
Every bushel of corn grown in America has consumed the equivalent of between a third and a half gallon of gasoline.

It ain't easy being green. But we need to do our homework before investing lots of money and resources into an alternative that sounds good on paper but contributes just as heavily to ruining the environment.

And, scene...

If

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you

But make allowance for their doubting too,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,

If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much,

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

eating stone

Bizarre.

Hybridized Spaces

Jory over at Pause has a very insightful piece about blogging, in which she writes:

Blogging helped me identify others in "hybridized spaces" and to build my own hybridized space.

So true. A blog can be anything an individual wants it to be; a beautiful bastard child of talents and interests, quirks and charms. This summer while I'm home in Tokyo, I'm hoping to upgrade this blog so that it can better reflect what I want my online space to be. I'd like to build a comprehensive travel guide for downtown Tokyo on a budget (and I mean a serious budget, like college student-sized), write more about East Asian politics, and Sino-Japanese relations in particular; write book reviews; chronicle my travels with McKinsey... there's a potential for a lot of expansion, and I figure this summer will be the opportune time to do it. Plus, I'm planning on truly getting inspired by going to the BlogHer conference in July. (Thanks to the boyfriend for indulging me by stopping by in San Juan for two days on our road trip so that I can get in touch with my rapidly-enlarging inner nerd.)

In short, please stay tuned! Change is afoot in this tiny corner of the web.

Seamless Surveillance

I'm one of those people who is fundamentally mistrustful of government. But the current administration's repeated displays of incompetence and arrogance have brought my cynicism to a whole new plane of Christ-what-are-they-going-to-try-and-pull-next? Thankfully, it seems that I'm not the only one with doubts about government intentions, especially when it comes to the so-called war on terrorism and what that means for civil liberties and privacy. According to a recently conducted Gallup poll, two-thirds of Americans "are concerned that the [NSA's] monitoring may signal other, not-yet-disclosed efforts to gather information on the general public."

The Washington Post's William Arkin takes the issue one step further by asking whether the surveillance that Bush so righteously defends isn't just the tip of the iceberg--are we headed towards a "new seamless surveillance culture" in which the government tracks everything we do and combs it for terrorist tendencies, hauling you into the police station if you eat too much hummus, went on a trip to Saudi Arabia, or frequently dial phone numbers in Indonesia?

In today's post 9/11 we've-got-to-give-up-some-liberties-to-fight-terrorism-world, the expectation is
being created though that it is normal then for the government to churn through the phone records and Email headers and credit card receipts and bank records of EVERYONE for tip-offs and triggers. What started as an expectation that individuals already of interest to the law enforcement agencies had no expectation that their records were private has digitally expanded to the expectation that no one's records are private.

It's all about the military, even in East Asia

The Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun published an op-ed on the new security treaty between Japan and the U.S., criticizing its emphasis on "military cooperation above any other form of two-way assistance." And spotlighting military cooperation is sure to piss off Japan's Asian neighbors:

For Japan to allay the apprehension of its Asian neighbors and get the public to support the outcome of the talks, the government must indicate a diplomatic strategy as a part of an insurance package against a military emergency. Since Japan lacks such a diplomatic strategy, its agreement with the United States on the realignment of U.S. forces may only provoke its Asian neighbors and fan their suspicions, no matter what picture of cooperation Japan may paint of its military alliance.

No alliance can exist without military cooperation, but an alliance that is propelled by military cooperation is a very dangerous thing.

This is just another indication that the Bush administration is unwilling to use diplomatic, economic, and other avenues to reach its strategic objectives, whether it be containing China or fighting terrorism. It's unfortunate that Japanese politicians, after all these years since the Occupation, have yet to grow a backbone and sign an agreement that reflects Japan's interests as well as America's.

On the Table at the Times

Political blogs are fun. And food is tasty. So what could be better than a political food blog? (Well, many things, clearly, but you get the idea.) The Times has a new blog in its Opinion section by Michael Pollan, who since May 7th has been posting thought-provoking and fascinating pieces about the stuff we eat here in America. In his first post, he provided a survey of what's going on in food journalism and the hot topics, and touched upon the fundamentally unsustainable nature of the current food supply chain:

“Unsustainable” also means a system can’t go on indefinitely paying the costs of doing business as it has been doing. In the case of the industrial food chain, that includes the cost to the treasury ($88 billion in agricultural subsidies over the last five years); to the environment (water and air pollution, especially from our factory animal farms); and to the public health. Cheap food, it turns out, is unbelievably expensive. Many of the costs of cheap food are invisible to us, but they will soon force themselves onto our attention. Take energy, for example. The industrial food system is at bottom a system founded on cheap fossil fuel, which we depend on to grow the crops (the fertilizers and pesticides are made from petroleum), process the food, and then ship it hither and yon. Fully a fifth of the fossil fuel we consume in America goes to feeding ourselves, more than we devote to personal transportation. (Unfortunately the industrial organic food chain guzzles nearly as much fossil fuel as the nonorganic.) If the era of cheap energy is really drawing to a close, as it appears, so will the era of cheap industrial food.

I will readily admit ignorance on the relationship between oil and food until I read this blog. He goes on to discuss the elitism of eating well in America ($1 will buy you 1,200 calories worth of processed food but only 875 calories of fresh produce), the alternative/sustainable food revolution, and the need to end corn subsidies once and for all.
Next time I'm at the book store, I'll be picking up a copy of Pollan's new book, The Omnivore's Dilemma.

"I like blogs, but..."

Thomas Friedman at the Times on blogs:

I like blogs, but the only bloggers who appeal to me are those who do reporting and aren't just sitting at home in their pajamas firing off digital mortars.

Did you get the memo? Bloggers aren't just journalists anymore. That's the beauty of it. Now, I can get my news from you and the everyday dude in Jerusalem who updates his web log for kicks and to let his American relatives know that he hasn't been killed by a suicide bomber. As for sitting in our pajamas--I'd bet my computer (shitty though it may be after sticking with me throughout the bright college years) that you've written a lot of your Pulitzer-prize-winning work while wearing nightwear. And digital mortars makes it sounds like bloggers only write to destroy. Quite the contrary. Just like you, bloggers are writing original web content every single day. We may not be winning prizes, but I think we can do without the condescension.
...
Note: I actually think Friedman is a good journalist and writer (though I also think he has a tendency towards over-simplification, as exemplified in his opinion above.) I just took offense at his crack against my new hobby and all the fine blogfolk out there, and felt the need to hit back.

Who was this Samuel Wells Williams character, anyway?

I awoke to an email from the chair of the East Asian Studies Council this morning. In my rather dazed state it took a while to figure out what it was telling me, but the bottom line is yours truly is one of the two recipients of this year's Williams Prize in East Asian Studies at Yale! (The selection pool is papers written by seniors in the current year on any Chinese, Japanese, or Korean subject.)

I wrote my advisor, feisty emeritus professor and modern Taiwanese/Chinese historian/historiographer Beatrice Bartlett, with the news. Her reply--as always, she's not one to mince words!--said simply:

Congratulations! That's great! Now - the prize was named for Samuel Wells Williams. Do you know who he was?!?

A good question indeed. I wikipedia-ed the prize's namesake and found the following:

Samuel Wells Williams (衛三畏;22nd September 1812-1884) was linguist and diplomat of United States of America. He was born in Utica, New York and studied at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. On graduation he was elected as a Professor of the Institute. On the June 15, 1833, and still in his Twenties, he sailed for China to take charge of the Printing Press of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions at Guangdong, China. In 1837 he sailed on the Morrison to Japan. Officially this trip was to return some stranded Japanese sailors, but it was also an attempt to open Japan to American trade. On November 20 1845 he married Sarah Walworth. From 1848 to 1851 Williams was the editor of the Chinese Repository, a leading Western journal published in China. In 1853 he was attached to Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry expedition to Japan. In 1855 he was appointed Secretary of the United States Legation to China. In 1860 he was appointed chargé d'affaires for the United States in Beijing. He resigned his position on October 25, 1876, 43 years to the day that he first landed at Guangzhou in 1833. He wrote A Tonic Dictionary Of The Chinese Language In The Canton Dialect (英華分韻撮要) in 1856. He returned to the United States of America in 1877 and became the first Professor of Chinese in the United States at Yale University.

Wow. After reading that, I feel doubly honored...and feel doubly unworthy. But a big, heartfelt xiexie/arigato to everyone who helped me along the way. I would've gone crazy without you!

So many places to go...

Following Jon's example--countries I've been to:



create your own visited countries map

So many places to go... so little time!

Done.

Well, that's it. I am now officially done with college.

Cheers!

My New Rimowa Salsa 22" Cabin Trolley

I really should be studying for my Accounting final... but I just wanted to share my excitement! My new carry-on suitcase arrived today. It's 'Made in Europe' by a German company named Rimowa, and constructed of virtually indestructible polycarbonate. (Think a not-as-rigid version of those hard-shell suitcases.) On Shino's recommendation, I got the bright red one, and it is snazzy! Weighing in at just 6.3 lbs, it is also one of the lightest suitcases around! After a few test runs around the apartment, it seems wonderful--feather-light and a shade that stands out without being too ostentatious. (They also come in dark blue, silver, and gold. But I think red's the cutest.) Anyone who'll be travelling a lot--I'm talking to you, fellow McKinsey BAs!--should invest in one. They're a bit pricey but will last a good long time, and come up with a 5 year limited guarantee. My mom's had a bigger one for several years now and can't say enough good things.
...
Currently, LuggagePros is doing a sale that will get you 15% off on any Rimowa Salsa suitcase. Just enter the promo code "Rimowa" before checking out. And no, they're not paying me to advertise for them--I was just impressed by their timeliness and customer service.

House Speaker: Oil prices "disconnected from supply and demand"

The New York Times interviewed the Republican Speaker of the House, J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, for their article on the on-going political manuevering over high gas prices:

Mr. Hastert said Republicans wanted to make certain that Americans were not victims of price manipulation. The increases appear "disconnected from supply and demand," he said, adding, "We need to know why that is happening."

How do these idiots ever stay in office?

Just a few clicks on the NPR website tells us the following:

The biggest factor in rising costs is the price of crude oil, followed by the cost of refining.

If a gallon of gasoline costs $2.90 (this week's average, according to the Energy Department), crude oil accounts for about $1.60. The cost of crude oil on the futures market has risen about 33 percent in the last year. This reflects supply problems in such places as Nigeria, Iraq and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the threat of supply problems in Iran.
...
In January 2003, before the U.S. invasion, Iraq produced 2.5 million barrels of oil per day. Production fell sharply during the invasion, and recovered to as much as 2.3 million barrels per day in 2004. Last year, however, Iraq rarely produced as much as 2 million barrels a day. And in January of this year, daily production was only 1.6 million barrels. By itself, this would not be a huge loss to the world market. But coupled with supply problems in Nigeria, Venezuela and the Gulf of Mexico, it doesn't help.

Add to this the ever-growing appetites of China and India for energy, and you'll see, Mr. Halstert, it's actually all about supply and demand.

Photos from the Land of Gloriously Mixed Signals

Check out this kick-ass blog which features beautiful photos of Japan. I particularly liked the one below, "Young Woman in Synthetic Fur." I've included Jeremy's caption as well:

I love Japan, a land of gloriously mixed signals. This beautiful young woman looks like she could be off to a ball — until you notice the punkiness of her coiffure, the distinctly SM suggestion of her outfit, and that her stole, far from mink, looks like it once covered the front seat of a 1970s muscle car.

Or another photo from his recent trip to the mountainous area of Nikko:


I'm also loving the sleek design of the site--which he hand-coded himself! (I swear to God, one of these days, I have to learn how to do that...)

Unfortunately, the photos make me homesick, so I can't linger on the site too long. But y'all should take a look at his gallery. Only one more month till I'm back in Tokyo! (Yatta--!)

Happy [Belated] Equal Pay Day

Ladies, did you miss the party? This past Tuesday was Equal Pay Day! This awesome holiday marks "how far into the year the average woman must work to earn as much as a man earned by the end of the previous year."

For the record, the date is calculated based by comparing the wages of women and men employed full-time--so it can't be explained away by the unpaid hours of at-home moms or part-timers. And even more astonishingly, it hasn't moved to a substantially earlier point in the year for an entire decade!

If this isn't enough to piss off everyone (not just women) reading this, then check out WageProject.org for more. It includes a calculator so women can compare their salaries (which on average are about 1/4 lower than their male counterparts) with men who work in the same industry in the same geographic area.

Now I'm going to try and curb the anger welling up inside of me and let you know there are dissenters out there who say "those who still cite women's 76 cents for every male dollar as evidence of sexism fail to take into account the underlying role of personal choice. The "wage gap" is not so much about employers discriminating against women as about women making discriminating choices in the labor market." As evidence of this, however, the site says, "...women gravitate to sectors of the economy that compensate workers at lower levels... For example, fewer women have chosen to enter such technical fields as computer sciences, math and science teaching, medicine, law and engineering. In 1998, women earned only 26.7 percent of computer science degrees."

An interesting argument. I don't buy it--because isn't the lack of gender parity in the sciences also a problem?

Finally, let me put it out there that I'm not ranting about this because it's an issue I personally have faced, but because I believe it's something this country (and many others! read: Japan) has been ignoring for far too long. So take a minute check out WaPo's article on what we can do about this unacceptable state of affairs.

Sunday night reading list

Historiography as cartoon.

Views on immigration from West Hollywood.

God, that looks so tasty.

Having bad short-term memory sucks.

Grannies in NYC: Let us die in Iraq instead.