Dec 28 2007
Archive for December, 2007
Dec 27 2007
An Open Invite
I'm turning into a workaholic hermit, it's been 47 days since I last did anything social, and I finally got paid today. Anyone in Tokyo up for drinks tomorrow night (Friday)?
I wish I had something interesting or witty to say, but all I do these days is work, go home, tag base, then go to work again.
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Dec 18 2007
Alive In Baghdad Correspondent Killed
I guess I feel an affinity for the people who put out the Alive in Baghdad vlog because they go through the same steps I do–filming, editing, subtitling, uploading–only they're a lot better at it, and they have to dodge bullets and bombs, and deal with the loss of loved ones far too often. Whenever I watch their vlog, I imagine what it would be like if it were me behind the camera. That's what I think about sometimes when I'm commuting between work and home. In another part of the world right now, there are hundreds of thousands of everyday people living in hell, thanks to our moron of a president.
Ali Shafeya Al-Moussawi, a special correspondent for the Alive In Bagdad video podcast, was killed on December 14th, 2007, two days shy of his 23rd birthday. Read the full story here , and donating a few dollars to his family won't end all the suffering in Iraq, but it might help out one grieving mother a little. For her, I'll brew myself the next few cups of coffee and send her what I save by not visiting Starbucks.
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Dec 12 2007
Maitri, mudita, karuna, and upeksanam
The Buddhist definition of true love, which to me sounds a lot like true friendship.
- Maitri: Loving kindness; the ability to make someone happy. That "someone" can be:
- Yourself
- Someone you're very fond of
- Someone you have sympathy for (I forgot to mention that one)
- A neutral person
- An enemy; someone you perceive as the cause of your suffering
- Mudita: transformation of pain
- Karuna: joy
- Upeksanam: equanimity, freedom, the opposite of imprisonment or forcing yourself on another person.
What I find interesting is what's not on the list: passion, obsession, lust, obedience, dominance, jealousy…lots of things I've known people from all over the world define as true love (especially jealousy) but to me never seemed right.
And if you don't believe it, that's OK, because there is no dogma in Buddhism. There's nothing that Buddha taught that you must believe or else be damned for all eternity. If it's true for you, then it's true.
Maitri, mudita, karuna, and upeksanam [9:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1908)
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Dec 06 2007
Crimes by foreigners on the rise in Japan
It sounds like there's at least one policeman in Tokyo who wants to attribute as many crimes as possible to foreigners, according to a comment that was left on my blog a few days ago:
…several years ago we spotted a ‘Peeping Tom’ on our balcony watching my wife undress (on the 13th floor!) She said she had been followed home from the train a few times and felt like she was being watched in the past. I chased the guy down the street, but he got away. In my statement I told the police it was a Japanese man, but they said that was impossible - a Japanese man would NEVER do such a thing. They said he must have been Filippino. I told them I’d spent much time in the Philippines and the perv definately was not Filippino. The police then told me I probably couldn’t tell a Japanese man from a Korean, so they altered my official statement to say “he was an Asian man, possibly Korean.”
I don't know why else he would claim there's no such thing as a Japanese peeping tom. All he'd have to do is check their arrest records or go to any store that sells adult DVDs and see their collection of nozokiya videos. Maybe it was his first day on the job…
Tags: crime, peeping tom, xenophobia
