Environment World

I´m back for a new review of an audible book. This audible book was decided on the recommendation of someone I will not state in this review, Oprah Winfrey (not to mention names). This was a book that was on the Oprah´s picks list and I thought that I could do worse then going with that recommendation, on hindsight I dont think I could have done worse. As the opening lines of this review may let on to the astute reader (you know who you are), this review won´t be very positive. I suppose that there where enough positive aspects to permit me to finish the book. I hope I can convey those points.

The Corrections

Authored by Jonathan Franzen

Read by Dylan Baker

Is this what middle America wants to be? I don’t really know what the heartland wants to be. I don’t know if I want to know if this is what I will find there. This story is a look at an American dysfunctional family from the mid-west. The family is statistically sound with three children, 2 boys and a daddy´s girl, now adults. A mother that is a servant to her domineering inventor engineer husband. The father that is stubborn in not the nicest way. There are few facets to the story that make it interesting to me and my expectations of a novel. The kids (now adults) have their own lives to live and are fiercely protective of their individuality but it looks like they could all use some help to discover common sense. One son, an unskilled writer trying to fulfill the promise of his doctoral degree, finds himself in Eastern Europe, but not to worry the story is not a spy thriller. His sister, the highly skilled chef, is so fiercely competitive that she misses a few steps in life, but nothing really interesting. Their brother, the oldest, the rock of the family is such a bastard to the family he came from but so giving to family of his making. The mother finally comes to some grips in life after her husband is out of the day-to-day part of her life (did I say too much?). The husband is, of course, the cause of everyone´s woes (as men are apt to be). Throw in some sexual confusion and you´ve got the making of an Oprah recommendation. I wouldn´t call the book predictable but it also didn´t offer any new elements to sink a set of teeth into, even false teeth.

Probably the only reason I finished the book was the narration of Dylan Baker. Some people are very good at telling stories or jokes. They know how to keep you memorized in the narration with well-timed pauses or changing of the tempo. Dylan is this good storyteller. The other aspects of the story were lacking compared to his telling of the story. I found the story pretty predictable but not in a far reaching sort of way. In better English, I wouldn´t be able to tell you what will happen at the end but once I started the second to last chapter I had the end figured out.

I´m down on the story but I guess what I disliked the most were the characters. I´m not a fan of the American mid-west and the thinking that comes from there. The “matter of fact&quote, this is the “right way of thinking” thinking. As if there were a right or wrong way. Sure there are wrong ways that are common in all culture, sticking body parts into flames comes to mind. But that the retired go to this place and not to that place is not one of them.

Good points:

The story-telling was enjoyable. I´m much too young to know radio dramas but this gave you a strong hint on why they were so popular. Even a bad story can have a charm when read aloud by a gifted orator. Maybe I was deprived of that and I´m trying to make up for it now.

Bad points:

Didn´t like the characters, the situations they got themselves into had no relation in my life. I found that I had no sympathy for the mother, or father or anyone.



It´ll take some convincing for me to get another audiobook written by Jonathan Franzen. What will it take to listen to another audiobook read by Dylan Baker, I´m looking at www.audible.com now.

Once upon a time there was a kingdom, called Blogland whose whole population was happy and content blogging. You see, they think they found an answer to Life the Universe, and Everything^tm and it wasnt 42. It was blogging. If they all blogged, the reasoning was, that they could come up with the complete works of William Shakespeare. Their system of commerce was built on blogging. So they blogged all day and they blogged all night, they blogged to eat and they blogged to shit, they even blogged for sex. This, of course is a mythical land being as they are happy and content and blogging for sex never works (the keyboard gets sticky). They all knew how to express themselves but not to use the rights others had fought and died for. Their rights arent being stripped away in the name of defense. I digress, topic for another day.

Did the answer fail to answer?

If we take a sentence or just a word from each person wouldnt we come with volumes of classics; Dickens, Shakespeare, even Stephen King should be in there somewhere (probably chasing Shakespeare with a Buick). Maybe they did it? What gauge of measure would we use to decide that the bloggers in Blogland did it? Ever since I became more interested in my blog I have been taking the chance to read other blogs. Some are very articulate and some others are the product of sick minds, and others are plain bland (this one comes to mind). There is so much energy being put on the Net I wonder does it every get reclaimed? Maybe readers reclaim the energy, I dont know. This is so stream of consciousness that I not really thing but just trying to see if my subconscious knows something that it´s not telling me. This whole blog thing started for me as an experiment, to see if I could have a conversation with a word-processor program. It has proved to be possible and I get the answers that to want to get, the answers I give me.



Lets go back to the million monkeys bloggers in Blogland.

Theyre expending great amounts of energy banging at keyboards. Typing gibberish like “rhgoireughirughiguq08oiwu24uhq4jihosj”. A big problem speaking a language that was indirectly influenced by the Romans, in writing we have spaces to separate words while the presiding gibberish had none. There are cultures that get along fine without these spaces, at no time resembling gibberish. Japanese is one 通り過ぎることができて嬉しい。 I think that says Glad you could come by or something about a bloggers butt. If we were more acclimated to this manner of writing maybe the bloggers already did it and we just discounted it as gibberish. Maybe the problem isnt spacing but that its too easy to re-write anothers work. They may be inventing a new language that will replace all languages before.



The people of Blogland have some similarities with monkey, one of which is the smell (too busy to shower as they must blog for sex). They and I are both banging on this keyboard device with no clear idea of when the finish will be, if it will end good or bad. Maybe the bloggers of Blogland and the monkeys shouldnt know when they are done, they may surprise us all with what they come up next.



We’ve all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.”

- Robert Wilensky UCB

I concede defeat, I haven’t the necessary skills to perform the task I would like. I … I …. am not a graphics person. There I said it. I cannot make icons for this site that satisfy my wants. I give up. That’s pretty hard for me actually but after beating my head to a bloody pulp against a wall I know when to call it a day (I hope). If anyone out the can come up with graphic images to convey the simple. but elusive, site navigation bar. I would be very happy. Remember, a happy Peter can make the world a happy place. 8^)

Sorry, that rant was born of simple frustration. I’m better now, I still can’t come up up with the skill to create what´s in my head by I can get over that. I guess I got a few thing on my mind. eh, whatareyougonnado?

Update 10/21

Not more crying and bitching but the new button satisfies my aesthetic senses (for now). If you’ve got something better please let me know.

I had a good scare yesterday. Something I won’t forget for a long time. I caught a virus of some sort, a regular bug that caused a fever and stomach nausea. In my case I lost the ability to walk for a day. Woke up the night before at about 4:00 a.m. needing to pee and I found that I couldn’t stand. It seems that the fever from the virus was affecting my MS which was affecting my legs in a severe manner.

My live in girlfriend, Makoto, was so kind and helpful. She was as freaked out as I was but it didn’t stop her from helping me achieve my prime objective, get to the toilet and pee (me not her). I have a desk chair on wheels so her idea, a good one with the fact I outweigh her by 25 kg, was to get my ass into the chair and wheel me to the toilet. It worked fine and I am happy to report that no animals were hurt or killed in the making of this urination. During the day we went to a Japanese hospital and with translation by Makoto I told the doctor to give me steriods. He did and we left shortly afterwards.

I’m feeling much better today with mobility returning but still freaked out. Is this my future? To not walk? I think I can deal with that fact but it would be difficult here in Tokyo. Many train lines in Tokyo have antiquated subway station lacking any means for the disabled to get to a train without getting some person to carry a wheelchair up/down stairs. My apartment is pretty typical where there are elevated floors so the plumbing can connect separate water rooms (shower and toilet) under the floor. I am in the job market now so I have to be careful that the place of work has elevators and a modern train station nearby. I plan to move so I’ll have those new considerations to mind to. All to be ready for the day I get into the chair to stay.

I watched the television in amazement at the carnage and devastation caused by the bomb blast of 2002/20/12. I could not believe that this would happen on such a place as Bali. Bali is a very spiritual place with a body of inhabitants that welcome the world with open arms and friendly smiles. I offer my condolences to the families that lost someone dear to them on this day. I also ask the world not to blame the people of Bali, this was the work of outsiders using the popularity of Bali to foreigners to strike at their perceived enemies. The attackers are a people of hate and use that hate to spread fear. I hope they will be brought to fair justice and that innocent people don´t pay for those justices with they´re lives.


My heart goes out to those who lost someone.

I watched the television in amazement at the carnage and devastation caused by the bomb blast of 2002/20/12. I could not believe that this would happen on such a place as Bali. Bali is a very spiritual place with a body of inhabitants that welcome the world with open arms and friendly smiles. I offer my condolences to the families that lost someone dear to them on this day. I also ask the world not to blame the people of Bali, this was the work of outsiders using the popularity of Bali to foreigners to strike at their perceived enemies. The attackers are a people of hate and use that hate to spread fear. I hope they will be brought to fair justice and that innocent people don´t pay for those justices with they´re lives.

My heart goes out to those who lost someone.

Nikko Japan is a place of natural beauty that will help a person forget about the city, a city such as Tokyo. The place possesses waterfalls, temples, and shrines. Nikko is the last resting place of Tokugawa Ieyasu. From NewsonJapan.com:

“The Toshogu Shrine was built for Tokugawa Ieyasu after his death. It contains the mausoleum of Ieyasu who is one of the most important figures in Japanese history, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate that lasted for over 250 years until 1867.”

This was the time that Japan had closed itself from the world. This shrine is also the birthplace of the 3 monkeys, See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil. What follows is the not so positive view of a positive thinking American living in Tokyo.

There are two ways to get to Nikko, one is on the JR which involves a switch to the local trains or with the Tobu lines from Asakusa which offers direct service to Nikko. The Tobu comes in two different flavors, the special Kegon at 2,740 ¥ or the Standard at 1320 ¥. If your 184 cm or taller I highly recommend the Kegon. We got there late and took the Standard and I suffered 2 hours of real discomfort. We knew better for the return trip and took the Kegon, dirty but better comfort. After a mediocre overpriced lunch it was time to wait for the bus. After an hour it was finally time to go. We wanted to go to the Keigo falls which turned into a 2 1/2 hour uncomfortable bus ride. Again the seats were not set up for someone tall so discomfort was the theme for the day. The falls were a treat to see but that all we got to see with the bus trip and the waiting for the bus taking 5 hours of our day there wasnt time to see anything else. As beautiful as this place is I do not recommend a trip there. If you are planning a trip there be forewarned; this place is all about the contents of your wallet. They don’t try to give you value for those contents. Everything had a sticker price that was comparable in price to a price in Tokyo, sometimes more. I don’t want to describe a trip to the inner ring of hell. It wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t that good either. This review had a few things to say and they weren’t all nice. The bus would be a great way to get around if it was convenient to get around the place. It’s not. Here we are waiting for the bus for over an hour in the cold.

I know this review is light on details but if you can’t say anything nice… See it once and never again is my recommendation for a trip to Nikko. Here are a few pictures to remind me of the misadventure spending a day there was.

I haven’t written anything that comes close to being a mission statement for this weblog. I’m not sure why I should even call it a mission statement but it does sound important, nor is a requirement for a weblog or for any document, but I will feel better with a definition in place. I will attempt to write this definition today. A statement that describes what this weblog is attempting to accomplish, to create, and/or to add to our collective conscience. This weblog, this spot on the ‘net, is for me to get some writing practice. It is to announce to friends and family that I am alive and probably in need of money. This site is to experiment with having a conversation with complete strangers on my forum.

Writing
The best way to improve writing skills is to write (I read that somewhere). It seems that the last time I did writing from a creative angle was when I was in high school, many years ago. I do some writing in my job but those are technical reports, bound by the constraints of a technical report. In high school I enjoyed writing book reports, short stories, and just free flowing thoughts onto paper. Ah paper, those were the good old days. In the old days I remember using paper and not having a software program correcting every spelling error I made. I made 3 errors just typing that sentence. With much needed practice I may be able to cut that statistic down to 2 errors (yes, I dream big). With practice I may be able to hold a thought for more than a paragraph. With practice I may improve my poor typing skills to the level I had in my days in the army. 40 wpm is not great but it’s better than my present -5 wpm (yes I’m actually erasing years of past work). With practice this may get easy.

Family and friends
I have a few. I have immediate family in the US (New Jersey and Florida). I have friends in New Jersey, in Japan, even in Singapore. Instead of trying to keep in touch with everyone (which I’m very bad at), I can keep this site and update it with news and notes and put the burden of responsibility on their shoulders to keep up with me. Yes it is the easy way out but I am in favor of the “easy way”. If someone asks me, “Do you want the easy way or the hard way?” I take the easy way every time; I’m just like that. That is in total disagreement with my mother who thinks I take the hard way every time, or is that my girlfriend? If you are wondering to yourself, “Does he need money?” Not for anything important but if you want to contribute there’s the donate button. That’s only there to help subsidize my Internet connection. In Japan ADSL is cheap, maybe the cheapest in the world but it ain’t free.

Conversations
This is a bit of an odd feeling. Talking to a word processor program about whatever is on my mind at the moment. This is while I know that everyone is looking over my shoulder. I figure that if I can keep the conversation pointed at one person then everyone that reads this will think they’re the one person. In actuality the one person I’m writing this to is my evil twin. Raul. If I speak in soothing tones to Raul (and he reads this page) then he stays quite and won’t make a fool of me. He has dressed in a gorilla costume and chased people at the zoo and worse. It’s always difficult to explain to the police that it wasn’t me but my evil twin Raul. No, no Raul, it’s ok, these people don’t want to hurt you. They’re your friends. NO Raul, not the gorilla costume, don’t put it back on, stop Raul, stop…

A promise
I am grateful for the opportunity to grace your web browser and I will try to maintain some modicum of integrity as I vomit my mental rambling to your screen. In fact I will go so far as to try to respect your screen and not to lie or cheat you in any way (and keep the vomit to a minimum). Thank you for your time and I hope this will be a long friendship between us.

I have noticed that my Asia weblog does not contain much information on Asia. I don´t know why that is, I have been here for nearly 4 years and I don´t think that´s long enough to be oblivious of my surroundings. I think it´s that Im too lazy to jot down mental notes. The notes that are well worth putting to “paper” are generally born of anger and if you cant say anything nice

This is a very large city (the largest) with a HUGE population (the hugest). You can find anything you want here; they say getting there is half the fun well in Tokyo getting there can be a most of the work. I walk with the assistance of a cane and the crowds can be very unforgiving for people that are “in the way”. That is probably not the case but it feels like that sometimes. When I am exiting a crowded train and get pushed from behind, anger is my first reaction. When elevators and escalators are seldom where they would be convenient (if at all), dont like that either. Summers in Tokyo are unbearable because of the heat. The summers get to everyone and that makes it doubly unbearable. I really like fall and spring in Japan and they make up for the summers, but only barely. That´s the bad, the good are the individuals I encounter each day. The food is fantastic. The convenience in shopping, getting around in Tokyo (besides the escalators/elevators) and general availability to do something different/interesting when you want to. My girlfriend was born in this town as were everyone in her immediate family. That says this place is not all bad.

I hope that in the future I can come up with more particulars about this place I call home. Don´t worry it won´t be all bad.

This is my first attempt to write a readable (by you) serious review of a read (by me) audible book I have just finished. In this review I will use the familiar term read rather than listened to because it sounds, well familiar. The book that is subject to my first stab at this review stuff is

21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com

Authored by Mike Daisy

Read by Mike Daisy

I found this to be entertaining and informative read. I wasnt part of the dot com frenzy so Im very ignorant of the excesses that took place. I cant help but wonder if Tokyo was the boring place to be during the gold rush or a safe haven.

One thing about this format is that you must like the narrator if you are to enjoy the book. It could be said that War and Peace would have a different feel if Elmer Fudd read it. Mike Daisy doesnt have the rich vocal talents of a character like Elmer but since the book is written in his perspective his voice fits well. His acting experience/training was very helpful in getting his point across and bringing life to the other characters in his life. Listening to his voice for 6 hours and 40 min was not difficult. He is a flake and flakes are never difficult to listen to. Ok, ok he is the exception. His voice, as in his writing, has humor that will cause you to smile on a subway car during the commute to work. His criticisms of his job at Amazon, and of himself, are to be taken with a grain of salt. Like I said, he is a flake. He admits this fact with pride. Amazon is a company that realized how to get the most of it workforce of flakes. It knew that its success dependent on its flakey workforce. It was very good at getting everything it could (can?); hence its success in the commercial world. The company does not produce a product; it just sells other products by adding value to the transaction. The convenience of shopping in your underwear is the added value and should never be downplayed. You need a staff dedicated to the idea of online commerce to enable the consumer to shop in their undies. I have no affiliation with Amazon except the stuff you see on the front page. Mike has a respect of and is in awe of the company (and founder Jeff) but many factors contribute to a falling out between Mike and Amazon. The book almost reads like a love story without bodily fluids (well some).



I like 21 Dog Years, I like Mike, and I like smiling on Tokyo subway trains during the morning commute to work.



Update: 06 - 11 - 02

Just found this about a show that Mr. Daisey is putting on about the subject matter in this book.