Every so often when the wife and I are in the car for an extended period the radio is turned on as a way to add a bit of coherent background noise to the journey. Unlike the radio stations I would listen to while growing up in Canada, a Japanese station can completely change it's genre from one hour to the next. This happened today on the way to the train station, and the stark difference between the type of radio I grew up with and the type of radio that exists today in this part of the country brought to mind a number of questions, the first of which asked who could follow along with the ever-changing genres? The second question focused more on the content of the songs and why incredibly explicit language isn't cleaned up before being broadcast at 8:30 in the morning.
It's The Principle Of The Matter
I've slowly been talking to people about my rather ambitious goal to help people maintain an online presence long after our bodies have died and turned to dust. I want to help people record their thoughts and ideas for all eternity with the initial goal to provide a central place for notes, ideas, and other interesting facets for a thousand years; or 10 Centuries. How can I do this, though? I've mentioned before that, given the opportunity, I would likely not want to live longer than 800 years in total. How can a project I started at the age of 33 continue forever? It's a valid question, and one that I hope to address here with a single word.
Votes Count
Japan held it's second federal election in the last five years today with the previously ejected party winning the lion's share of parliament for the next half-decade1. Not being a citizen of the country, I couldn't cast my vote. Not that it would have made much of a difference, either, as the party that I feel had the most rational and thought-out platform to carry Japan into the future is far too small to have a representative in my district. Perhaps in the future there will be some better representation, and hopefully they will start to gain some traction. One area where I don't see a lot of traction, though, is with the nation's youth taking an active role in representative democracy.
Five Years Ago
Five years ago I waved goodbye to Canada for the last time, my sights set firmly on the golden shores of the far eastern nation of the rising sun. It's hard to believe so much time has passed since then. I lived in Vancouver for five years to the day, and have lived in Japan for longer. In this time I've grown a great deal, learning as I go, and have come to the conclusion many times that I will be happier living in Japan than Canada. Language barriers be damned, there really is not much for me in the nation I once called my home. I still like Canada as a nation, and would gladly visit from time to time. But Canada is no longer my home. It's here, where I have had the desire to live since I was 12 years old and largely ignorant of the country, its history, its people, and its culture.
You Sign One Petition ...
The time has come to abstain from all future online petitions. The spam is getting ridiculous and, while it's very easy to add a filter, I've stopped myself just to see how the tone of the organization would change if they met any degree of success. So it should come as no surprise that the group in question, OpenMedia.ca, has gone from being a well-intentioned collection of individuals to a group of alarmists who believe The Man is out to get them.
