Muninn

I have understood the basic principle surrounding RSS for some time now. I understood its promise in a rather broad way and how it works on a technical level. However, just as of yesterday, when I installed and began using an “RSS browser” have I really come to appreciate the power of RSS to provide me fast access and overviews of articles from my favorite websites.

Incidentely, if you have an RSS browser or wish to add the RSS newsfeed from this site (Syndicate this site as many blogs put it) you can get it here.

If you haven’t a clue what I’m talking about but wish to learn more about RSS there is a host of articles over at O’Reilly.

I strolled in the door today and found Sayaka studying GRE vocabulary and watching some Japanese TV trivia show (its complicated). I watched it for a few minutes (I try to minimize brain rot), long enough to learn about Japan’s Train Timetable Proficiency Test. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me, given the amazing variety of tests one can take in Japan to become certified at something, but it is a perfect example of one aspect of a more general social trend which worships the acquisition of knowledge, in this case a process measured by the command over a growingly arbitrary set of atomic factlets.

This particular examination, apparently taken by an average of 2800 Japanese every year, tests a mastery of all the details of JR transportation system (trains and buses) as faithfully recorded in the monthly Timetable book one can purchase at most kiosks and convenience stores. Participants in the test are asked questions like, “Which of the trains listed below crosses stations on all three of the following lines” (the answers were train listed by code number and their departure times) and “Which of the following lunch-box meals sold at station [So and so] is the cheapest?” (the answers list four different lunch-box meals available for purchase at that station).

In an interview, the guy who runs this (I didn’t catch the organization which issues the test) admitted that the test did not, “have any considerable social value to speak of,” but this doesn’t seem to dissuade the thousands who take the test, attend cram classes in order to prepare for the test, or pay the money to take the test and compete for one of 6 levels (or the prestigious silver or gold card awards) which demonstrates their detailed knowledge of Japan’s public transportation system.

Sayaka and I went to see Terminator 3 on the recommendation of two of our friends. It was pretty much what I expected. After the movie Sayaka had an interesting idea for a Terminator 4 (which the movie sets up nicely) which amounts to a rather unusual twist on the cult success Left Behind which is a series of Christian books and movies that spawned a whole genre of biblically inspired science fiction.

The “Left Behind” series, which I was able to get a taste of through the B-Movie of that name, tells the story of unbelievers who are “left behind” after faithful Christians are suddenly removed from the world. A perceptive group among the survivors realize that they have erred in their lack of faith, become reborn Christians and try to spread word that the world has plunged into the heart of the Bible’s Revelations. They uncover the identity of the Anti-Christ (who is none other than the secretary-general of the UN) and battle against his evil blue-helmeted UN troops. In addition, they discover a range of diabolical plans for things like a unified world currency, world government, an end to starvation, and, God forbid, peace among religions.

Sayaka’s interesting twist to this idea, which I think would make for a great Terminator 4 came initially from her question of who John Conner (future leader of the “free” post-apocalyptic world in the movie’s prophecies) is suddenly in radio contact with when the world has been largely destroyed by the nuclear cataclysm launched by the “cybernetic organism” Skynet…
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On a note not altogether unrelated to the test I mentioned in my last posting, check out the world’s dullest blog and the free downloadable NaDa software. They are both very contemporary celebrations of irrelevance that border on brilliance. They also, for some reason, remind me of the stupid old joke of the Zen master who told the hot dog vender to, “Make me one with everything.”

Many of my friends know that sometime half way through my masters degree I found a renewed interest in history and theory. This has prompted a lot of new reading and re-thinking. Much of this reading involves areas of thought I have never had much exposure to while some of it is re-covering old ground. Today I read a short introductory work on Wittgenstein, a somewhat problematic figure in the field of analytical philosophy, where I spent many of my undergraduate days.

The work has left me a bit frustrated, to say the least. In addition to many other reactions I won’t share here, it made me realize the incredible lack of context which marked my undergraduate training in philosophy…
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My study of the Korean language is progressing only slowly, especially since I’m neither enrolled in any serious program of language study here nor am I in Korea where I might use the language daily. I supplement the study of various textbooks and the use of my flashcard software with a number of language exchanges with Korean friends of mine. Their patience and kind explanations have been the most crucial to my attempt to gain proficiency while I’m in Japan.

I have been using a number of textbooks of varying quality. All of them have little attached sections which introduce the culture and history of Korea itself or the city of Seoul. None of these little sections have (yet) taken up the topic of Christianity in Korea and its strong evangelistic tendencies, which, prior to my study of the Korean language, has been the feature of Korea that I took greatest notice of.

However, in two of my textbooks, Christianity does pop up indirectly in the instructive language material of the text itself, and it does so in a way I have seen in no textbook for the Japanese or Chinese languages…
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