Category: general

Hate her, hate her, HATE. HER.

Global Voices Online has been abuzz lately with discussions of MSN Spaces’ Chinese blog service, and how it censors words like “freedom” in blog titles. Rebecca MacKinnon has been especially prolific on the subject, with the following posts:

China Update: more on blog registration and censorship 6/12

Microsoft has launched a Chinese-language version of it’s Spaces blog hosting service, and guess what? Users are banned from using the word “democracy” and other politically sensitive words to label their blogs – although it does appear possible to use those words within blog posts, for now. (As noted in my interview with Isaac Mao, people who set up blogs under this service don’t have to register with the authorities because MSN is already obliging the government by policing their content.) But then, MSN is already in the censorship game even in the U.S., as Boing Boing discovered soon after the service’s launch.

My response to Scoble [on her own blog] 6/14

I lived in China for nine years straight as a journalist, and if you add up other times I’ve lived there it comes to nearly 12. I don’t know what students and professors Scoble met with, and what context he met them in. But to state that Chinese students and professors have an “anti-free-speech stance” is the biggest pile of horseshit about China I’ve come across in quite some time. And believe me, there are a great many such piles out there these days.

In my experience, most Chinese, like all other human beings I’ve ever met, would very much like to have freedom of speech. This goes for students, professors, workers, farmers, retirees, religious practitioners, and even many government officials. Many said so to me in on-the-record interviews. Many more told me so privately, in trusted confidence over beers (or something stronger) among friends.

What they don’t want is to lose their jobs and educational opportunities by pushing too hard at the restrictions their government has placed on their ability to speak. They work within the bounds of the possible, and since people in China can say a lot more now than they were allowed to say 20 years ago, most take the long-term view.

How To Hack Chinese MSN Spaces to Use Banned Words 6/15

Thanks to Bennett Haselton of Peacefire.org for the following public service instructions for Chinese users wanting to circumvent the word filters on MSN Spaces China to put e.g. “democracy” in the title of their blogs.

[…]

WARNING! Even though you can use these instructions to insert banned words into the title of your Chinese blog, Internet access in China is still monitored and controlled by the government. If you use these instructions to post banned material, you should not publish your blog from an Internet terminal where your actions could be traced back to you personally, and you should not publish anything on your blog that could be used to identify you. You should also use a HotMail.com address that doesn’t identify you by your real name (create a new HotMail.com account if necessary).

Screenshots of Censorship 6/16

Some Chinese bloggers have said that they were able to set up Chinese language MSN Spaces blogs using the “forbidden” political words. To clarify the situation I tried to set up my own freedom loving Chinese blog. I went into the MSN Spaces Chinese interface at: http://spaces.msn.com/?mkt=zh-cn, and tried to set up a blog titled 我?言?自由人?和民主, which means “I love freedom of speech, human rights, and democracy.”

Chinese Bloggers on Censorship, MSN, Etc. 6/17

One thing many people may not realize is that Microsoft has a long history of p.r. problems in China, and that the “anti-Microsoft monopoly” sentiment is very strong both in parts of the Chinese government bureaucracy (who don’t want to be overly dependent on foreign software and thus prefer Linux-based systems for national security reasons) as well as amongst independent Chinese techies and bloggers who are concerned about the concentration of too much power in one foreign software company – which many believe is stifling the emergence of a homegrown software industry.

I have to say, her argument against Microsoft’s Scoble makes sense:

I agree with Scoble: no outsiders, including Microsoft, can force China to change. But nobody’s asking Microsoft to force China to do anything. The issue is whether Microsoft should be collaborating with the Chinese regime as it builds an increasingly sophisticated system of Internet censorship and control. (See this ONI report for lots of details on that system.) Declining to collaborate with this system is not “forcing the Chinese into a position they don’t believe in.” Declining to collaborate would be the only way to show that your stated belief in free speech is more than 空?: empty words. If you believe that Chinese people deserve the same respect as Americans, then please put your money where your mouth is.

This is an interesting situation to watch develop. In the meantime, won’t you join me (and others) in boycotting MSN Spaces? There’s no good reason to use the service, anyway.

[Please excuse the question marks in the Chinese characters in this post. When I switch to WordPress, hopefully I will be able to display all characters correctly. As it is now, if I change the charset to UTF-8, all my Japanese posts come out wonky, so I’m not going to mess with it until the shift.]

John Hewitt has some advice for me.

If you want to have a career as a freelance writer, you need to view it as a business.

Freelance writing involves making sales. Being a salesperson means risking rejection.

There will always be better writers than you, and there will always be writers who are worse than you but make more money. Concentrate on your own career.

There’s plenty more great stuff in the article. And after that one, Hewitt goes on to write another one, this time filled with handy business tips:

Always keep a calendar. It should include such things as a writing schedule, upcoming meetings, assignment deadlines, submission response dates (expected replies), upcoming payments, upcoming publication dates and tax deadlines.

Track all of your submissions and replies. You can use a program such as Microsoft Outlook or simply keep a notebook or planner. There are plenty of planning / scheduling books at any large bookstore. Look around until you find one that seems to suit you. Read a book about time management while you are there. Time management is crucial for professional writers.

Start a filing system. Keep copies of all of your manuscripts and publications. Keep research files on the topics you write about. Keep all of your receipts and invoices. Keep all of your tax records.

Sid posted today:

The Mainichi Shimbun has a special today about the lost articles of Pulitzer Prize-winner George Weller – the first Western journalist to see Nagasaki after the nuclear bombing 60 years ago. Weller snuck in despite a Gen. MacArthur ban, and wrote 25,000 words detailing what he saw. He sent them to Tokyo by hand, where the military refused to release or return them. Weller thought they were lost forever, but his son, Andrew, found carbon copies a year ago in his father’s Rome apartment.

An Editor & Publisher article quotes Weller’s son saying that Weller thought he was censored because MacArthur wanted all the credit for winning the war, while others suggest the U.S. didn’t want details of the horrific effects of radiation affecting world opinion. At the time, the standard line was that anyone not killed in the blast of the bombs was fine – there was no such thing as radiation sickness, which Weller named “disease X” in the pieces.

The Mainichi has four of the articles online. The second and fourth go into disturbing detail about what’s happening to the people who “survived” the blast.

It’s not an unheard of comparison (hell, George Lucas made it quite blatantly) but Neal Stephenson gets there in an odd way. It’s like the article starts out being about one thing, but by the end, it’s a political statement.

There could be some merit to the idea that the American dream is to be able to “veg out”, but Stephenson’s conclusion assumes that eventually no one will want to “geek out”. We’ve still got plenty of geeks…people who find vegging out boring. I, personally, prefer a mix of both.

Because of that, while I found the majority of the article somewhat interesting, the ending smacked to me of yet another doomsday-for-America prophecy.

You know, the kind of tired rhetoric that people who hate America can veg out to ;>

I watched episode 95 yesterday, and will watch 96 shortly. Something very very cool happened in episode 95 re: the redemption of Kashiwaba.

Coach Nishio showed up, recovered from his collapse. It was looking like the gig was up; Kashiwaba wouldn’t have the chance to exact his revenge after all.

But Nishio said he wasn’t coming back to coach the team. He said he wasn’t a good coach; that because of him, many players had left the team without realizing their true potential; that Kashiwaba had gone further than he’d thought possible; and that it took a real coach to get to the Koushien.

Then he said:

“I’m counting on you, Kashiwaba Eijirou.”

!!!!!!!!!!!!

I literally gasped and clapped my hands over my heart. “He knows!” I cried. “He knows!”

Now, it’s all in Kashiwaba’s hands…!

This is funny. (Via BoingBoing.)

Japan firm claims world’s largest gold bullion bar

Japan’s Mitsubishi Materials Corp. says it has produced the world’s biggest gold bullion bar, a 250-kg block worth about $3.44 billion at current prices.

How? Through alchemy? I mean, did they artificially create gold in a laboratory, or is it just extremely difficult to get existing gold to form into a bar?

Yes, I really am this ignorant!

I have always, for as long as I remember, had trouble discussing things with people.

When I was in my first year of college, my friend Stephan was talking with me and my boyfriend Chris about women in the military. I actually don’t remember what his position was; it had something to do with women being fighter pilots, but I can’t remember if he was for or against.

I honestly hadn’t thought about the issue much. I felt in my gut that what he was saying was wrong, but I couldn’t find any real arguments to back myself up. I got flustered, and finally just ended up walking away from the table. Later, Chris told me that Stephan had said to him, “I couldn’t put up with that.”

That pissed me off, but I knew he was right.

Since that time, I’ve had many other discussions go sour. I always seem to get to a point where I don’t feel like further discussion is going to do anything for me. And the other person’s arguments seem to build up higher and higher, oppressing me. It’s happened with Sam, leading to quite a few fights that fortunately didn’t end our friendship, and it’s happened with AJ, and it’s happened with other people who may not have even realized it was happening, because as I’ve noticed this about myself I’ve tried to hide how touchy I am about my opinions.

But hiding it isn’t working; I just get even more upset.

I always tell myself that the solution is to learn more so that I’m able to discuss my opinions in an informed way. But the majority of my opinions are based on emotion; it feels fake to go and search for facts that justify my feelings.

The better route, I guess, is to mistrust my opinions unless I know a lot about the subject already.

But this doesn’t cover my opinions about entertainment. When people say they don’t like something that I do like, I tend to want that to be the end of the discussion. I don’t want to hear them list all the reasons why they don’t like it, because that feels to me like they are dumping on me. Since my opinions are emotion-based, and entertainment is largely something that speaks to who we are as individuals, it feels almost like a personal attack when someone explains to me in detail why something I like isn’t any good.

This is something I’m going to have to fix about myself.

It’s pointless to get worked up over stuff like this. The other person does not mean to insult me by saying they don’t like what I like. They don’t see in it what I see. They’re not me. I can’t expect them to know how much things mean to me. I can’t ask people to censor themselves to spare my feelings.

I am going to have to change my attitude…if I can only figure out how.

That’s so ridiculous to say; it’s not like anyone likes cancer. But it’s all I can think of to describe what I’m feeling right now.

I’ve mostly overcome my own resentment about what cancer did to me, though that hollow ache will probably be with me for the rest of my life. But just because my cancer is gone, hopefully never to return, it doesn’t mean all is well. Cancer is still out there hurting so many people. So many people aren’t anywhere near as lucky as me.

All that happened to me was infertility. Look what happened to this family:

Susan [Torres] had first developed melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, as a teenager in Houston, but had been cancer-free for nearly nine years.

So when Susan began to have headaches and nausea early last month, Torres says, there was no reason to suspect it was anything more than the miseries of early pregnancy. On May 6, the couple made an emergency room visit, where Susan was rehydrated, fed some bland crackers and sent home to rest.

The next night, while he was feeding Susan, “she just stopped,” Torres says. Using techniques he had learned as a lifeguard, Torres restarted his wife’s breathing. Emergency medical technicians arrived in minutes. Four hours later, a still-dazed Torres was standing outside an operating room and hearing from a neurosurgeon that cancer had invaded Susan’s brain.

A day after, when it was clear Susan had survived surgery, Torres faced an agonizing choice: keeping his wife on life support, with a slim chance of producing a live though perhaps disabled baby, or allowing her to die.

Unspoken, but hovering like a cloud: Picking the first option would be hugely costly. He’d be ground down by unimaginable debt. The couple has health insurance but expects it will cover only a fraction of the cost, currently running at least $7,500 a day, he says.

It’s just so horrible…and it’s scary, too, that her cancer came back after 9 whole years.

I hate cancer. I just hate it.

So, while watching my Kyo Kara Maoh! DVD 1 from Amazon.com, I was horrified to see Conrad introduce himself as “Conrart”.

Conrart?!?!?

There is a line a little later where he tells Yuuri that people familiar with English have an easier time saying “Conrad”, and that Yuuri should feel free to call him that. I was aware of this line, and I started to wonder if that line’s existence was the only reason for the bizarro Geneon spelling. (The fansubbers didn’t do anything with that.)

However, I’m checking out NHK’s Kyou Kara Maou character page, and it lists Conrad’s name as:

コンラッド（ウェラ卿コンラート）
Konraddo (Wera-kyou Konraato)

So that would be two different spellings of his given name. The first is obviously Conrad, and the second?

Err…Conrart it is, then…

Seriously, they do use a long /a/ sound to get the English /r/. (Japanese /r/s are pronounced at the front of the mouth, just like our /l/.)

So, apparently Geneon wasn’t just making shit up.

So.

Yuuri’s dad, mom, and brother all know he’s the Maou. They don’t tell him anything about it, or give him any chance to prepare.

Murata knows he’s the Maou. He doesn’t say anything either. In fact, even when it’s revealed that Murata is the Great Sage, he doesn’t come completely clean, and often works subtle political machinations behind Yuuri’s back.

Conrad doesn’t say anything about Yuuri having Julia’s soul, until Adelbert is about to kill Yuuri–and then it’s only out of desperation. On the one hand, I can understand his reticence, but on the other, dude.

The three brothers all seem to prefer to sweep Stoffel under the rug rather than explain what happened with him to Yuuri. The same goes for Huber. Yuuri gets his information in very roundabout ways, when he could easily get it from the principal players.

Everyone seems to have a “protect Yuuri” complex. His brother certainly does, as evidenced by episode 42. Wolfram does. Conrad had one in the worst way–he confessed to Leila that he thought he was the only one who could protect Yuuri, but that after being at his side for so long he realized that it was actually Yuuri protecting him. (Jury’s still out on whether or not his complex is actually over, though ;>) And Murata does, to the point that he is willing to disobey the will of the Shinou/Original King/whatever you want to call that guy. (Though I think Murata gets a kick out of “disobeying”, anyway. After all, he was the Shinou’s contemporary. It’s kind of hard to suddenly be subservient to someone who was essentially your college roommate.)

What Yuuri has shown time and time again is that he is more than capable of dealing with problems himself. He was chosen as the Maou for a reason, after all. What he needs is support and information, not people who pretend to go along with his ideas and then run their own schemes behind his back.

In a way, I feel like all of these people are using Yuuri. Murata especially. They’re trying to keep him innocent. Perhaps to guarantee the purity of his rage–the only thing that has been shown to release his Maryoku. Some might say they don’t think he’s capable of dealing with things (Wolfram calls him a “wimp”). Some might think that he’s a pushover and try to deal with everything without having to involve him. But the court at Blood Pledge Castle needs to be careful not to turn into a bunch of Stoffels ;P

Fortunately, Yuuri doesn’t put up with this kind of thing. It may take him longer to get to Murata than to the others, but it will happen, damn it.

Of course, the fact that he keeps travelling from one world to the other doesn’t really help him get a good foothold in either place.

Mmmh…Kyou Kara Maou 44 was kind of disappointing after 42 and 43. I’m not really into the whole “wise child”/”800 year old person who looks like a child” thing to begin with, but this was such a filler episode. 43 was, too, but I dunno, it was more interesting. Plus, it wasn’t totally random. Also, it didn’t feature Conrad running around pointlessly.

(I have to say, it is weird to watch filler episodes with Conrad acting like nothing ever happened.)

I may go back and watch 42 again, though :> Because it was cool!

I mean, we finally get to meet Yuuri’s brother Shori. (Should I just give in and spell it “Yuri” like everyone else does now?) And Shori is very cool, and he knows what’s really going on, and he’s set to be the next Maou of Earth…

Bob, the current Maou of Earth (what is it with guys named Bob?), met the brothers when they were young, and told them that he was a friend of the Shibuya family’s from long before the two of them were born. What does this mean? :D And he told Shori that Shori could be in a position to help Yuuri, who would have to go to a faraway land and face dangers and difficult decisions, if Shori would succeed Bob as Maou of Earth. Is there something particularly special about the Shibuya family that we don’t know yet? :D :D :D

Plus, we got to see some humanization of Murata Ken, what with Dr. Rodriguez showing up and all. (I still say the good doctor didn’t do poor Ken any favors. “Chase the sun,” he says. “Try to be the moon,” he says. Well, what if the sun is chasing someone else? Ever think of that?! I mean, isn’t it a little creepy the way Murata keeps telling the Shinou “I like Shibuya” in that cold, serious voice? …Ahem.)

You can see how after so much new information, it was a little off-putting to watch an episode about a baby who wanders off so everyone has to freak out and look for her (gee, that plot’s never been done before), and then positively annoying to watch an episode involving nothing but a shrine priestess acting out.

Here’s hoping for more cool plot stuff in episode 45.

Just watched the end of Friends season 6–the two-parter where Chandler’s trying to trick Monica into thinking he doesn’t ever want to get married, so she’ll be surprised when he proposes, only Richard shows up at the most inopportune moment and tells Monica he still loves her, and wants to marry her.

“Fair would be if you wanted to marry me then, or if Chandler wanted to marry me now. Nothing about this is fair. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.”

But it all turns out right in the end–without even a cliffhanger this time! And they cry and say how much they love each other and kiss and get engaged…I was totally in tears, just like the first time I saw it.

Man, I’m such a sap :> But…Monica and Chandler!

:)

Everyone made a big deal in this episode about how Huber and Nikola’s baby had Maryoku (demon magic). Apparently there was an ancient legend that sometimes a child born to a human and a Mazoku would have amazing Maryoku. Except for the legend, this was unheard of–Conrad and Yozak, for example, don’t have any magical powers. Murata stated that he’d never actually seen such a child, in all his 800 years.

Uhhh…Yuuri was born to a Mazoku father and a human mother, and he’s got freakishly strong Maryoku.

Does he just not count because his soul used to belong to a full-blooded Mazoku?

Or have they just conveniently not mentioned that oh yeah, his mom’s a Mazoku too?