Thursday, April 17, 2008

Life is like a box of chocolates

I haven't written for a couple days. Been pretty busy studying for midterms. Anyway, there was a discussion panel with 4 professors yesterday about Tibet and China controversy. They said some interesting stuff, but I was pretty bored for the most part. There were a lot of Chinese grad students in the audience, and they talked way too much. I felt bad for the other Chinese, cause they probably felt embarrassed.

On May 4th, there's gonna be a big demonstration from Chinese in NYC. It's gonna be huge. Ottawa, Dublin, Melbourne each had Chinese demonstrations, with about 5000 people each. NYC is WAY bigger, so i'm guessing maybe 10,000 people will show up. Possibly way more. I can only hope they don't make themselves look bad, but probably they will. Patriotism and loyalty to your homeland is a great thing i think, but blind pride is a dangerous thing.

Anyway, the main purpose of this post is to express my amazement about how unexpected, and wild life is, and how beautiful life is because of that quality. I had originally been hoping for a summer internship working at one of the well known investment banks. Turns out, financial market goes into disaster, and it suddenly becomes very difficult to find jobs. At first I was really depressed and disillusioned, and I literally panicked. I didn't know what I would do, without finding a good job.

So, based largely on luck, I ended up joining as a summer analyst a nanotechnology and emerging technology focused investment bank, called Livingston Group through Axiom Capital. This is not what I would've asked for, but turns out, could really turn out much better than getting the jobs at the famous companies. There's 3 big reasons to happy.

1) I had always been interested in innovative and revolutionary technology. I greatly admired entrepreneurial technology companies. This job will give me a lot of exposure to these types of companies, the ones that will be the center of the world's economy for years to come.

2)The job is in manhattan and I found a place near Columbia. The manager allows me to work from home sometimes, so I plan on attending Columbia summer school classes! At Penn, all i do is take Wharton business classes that bore me to death. I have a great passion for intellectual topics, and i'll be able to sit in on some good lectures at Columbia.

3) This company turned out to be very flexible. So I asked them for an early start date, so I could have the rest of the summer to go to the Olympics! So that's exactly my plan. I'm gonna finish the internship, then go to the Olympics, and possibly witness a key moment in the history of China's rise into the modern world.

Life truly is like a box of chocolates. There are tons of surprises, that will have big impact on your life. The lesson to take away is, don't be too stressed out or depressed about sticking to some set plan. Life is not something you can map out, and expect a perfect stairway leading to success and happiness. Great things will happen to everyone, that may appear as setbacks. Life is crazy, and surprisingly, and that very quality is what makes it such a beautiful thing.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Mobs and some Hope

Well, I'm starting to get annoyed at all the recent controversy surrounding Tibet. There's been so much propaganda, and ignorance on both sides. The Chinese have gathered in huge groups, and they haven't always behaved so well. In a way, their relentless chanting and singing national anthem makes them look somewhat ignorant. It's ok for the Chinese to support their country and hope for the best, but they must recognize the issues at hand as well, which I think some people try to ignore or even deny. The Pro-Tibetan supporters have got to look at more perspective. I've seen banners that say "mass genocide in Tibet." That is the biggest lie I have heard up to now surrounding the issue. Genocide, is a systematic, deliberate, and planned destruction of a ethnicity. Certainly, there may have been a brutal crackdown 20 years ago, but "mass genocide"? Unfortunately, many people tend to respond very quickly to such rhetoric and jump to conclusions. As I posted before, there may be religious restrictions and civil rights restrictions on Tibet(which are not exclusive to Tibetans, but all Chinese), but as activists, people need to tell the truth and provide the entire picture of the situation.

Another idea I've been struggling with, is "Is it ok to use our own concept of human rights to judge another nation?" To me, people should have religious freedom and freedom of speech, which does not exist in China. So I think China should give more religious freedom to Tibet. But by using that same logic, there are tons of issues that Tibet does that would violate the free world's concept of human rights. Separation of church and state? Dalai larma certainly doesn't do that. Tibet traditionally also has a caste system, where you are born into your social class and that's that, again certainly not what we think of as the American dream.

All of the racism, propaganda, and lies from both sides is really annoying to me. But there is hope. Recently, Taiwan elected a new president who pledged to restore relations with China, promote travel, trade, economic cooperation, and friendly relationships. Just yesterday, Taiwanese Vice President had historic and landmark dialogue with China's President, the highest level of dialogue between the two rivals ever. This is a shining ray of hope. These two political rivals can finally put aside political differences, and finally meet to cooperate and building their friendly ties. The Taiwanese President may still want independence, but at least he can put aside his desires, at least temporarily, to promote peace and economic growth.

It is incredible, that these two Asian neighboors do not even have direct flight to each other. To travel from China to Taiwan or vice versa, one must fly through hong kong. It is ridiculous. Chinese investors cannot invest in Taiwan, Chinese businessman cannot live in Taiwan. The new Taiwanese president gives me great optimism, because he pledges to open up trade, establish direct flights, improve relations, establish consistent and effective dialogue, and avoid conflict.

The Taiwan strait is one of the world's most dangerous flashpoints. All it takes is one crazy man on either side to start a huge war, that could drag the USA into the war as well. Tibet is the same, all it takes is one crazy man, one foolish mob, or one stupid lie to start a huge conflict. So, I think everybody should take a lesson from what Taiwan is doing now, put aside meaningless differences, and cooperate for the benefit of everybody.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Perspective and Handpicked Videos

Hey guys! Thanks for all the comments. keep them coming, I love to hear your thoughts and opinions. The Olympic torch is now in San Francisco, and it's been receiving tons of media coverage. I've been browsing youtube for videos on the topic. Most of them aren't worth posting here, because they've just been propaganda. There is a video floating around that shows a Pro-Tibet protestor who appears to try to steal the torch away from a young girl with cancer in a wheelchair, the Pro-China supporters have been using this video as propaganda. I think it's retarded. It also appears that some Chinese agents of the government have actually been trying to encourage local Chinese students to go out and protest against the Tibetans. There's also been a lot of Pro-Tibet videos that are stupid, and don't take any kind of perspective into account. Some of the things the videos say are actually true(and some are complete lie), but just ignores the wider perspective. Anyway, I've picked out the videos that are fair, and educational.

The most important thing to note, is what perspective means. To be fair, you must take into account perspectives. I think America is a beautiful country, but I could basically go on Wikipedia, make a list of bad things about America, chant these out in the streets of a country that isn't familiar with America and make it seem like a terrible place.



I found this video extremely informative. I was a bit hesitant to post it, because I wasn't sure how fair it is. But I did some research on the man, and it turns out he's a human rights activist, environmentalist, and documentary maker who has spent significant time in Germany, China, and Africa, and has won many awards for his films. So he seems pretty credible. He only really presents one perspective, his goal is basically to clear up misconceptions about Tibet that seem to have developed in the west.



Ok. So I've noticed that a lot of westerners have been out protesting with the Tibetans. So I've been wondering about their motivation as well as their knowledge. Don't take this video for more than it is, but still interesting.



I found this interview very interesting and intelligent. This is a human rights activist against China who still carries the Olympic torch, and she cites her reasons. Some of which are positive hope, improvement in China, avoiding another cold war, celebrating the true spirit of the Olympics, etc.

It's good to see people who can be critical of some policy without losing all sense of perspective.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Tibet Controversy



I'd like to thank you viewers for your comments and remarks, really appreciate them. And I'm having a great time sharing my thoughts and perspective on different topics. I've been holding off on writing about Tibet because there's just so much to say, and because I wanted to see how the events unfold a little bit. I'm gonna try to make the issues surrounding Tibet clear. Now....where to even begin...

There have been major protests around the world against China, but it's also interesting to note that Chinese people in Britain, Germany, and Canada have had their own protests against western media that they claim have been biased and reporting unfairly. And, on this particular occasion, it's probably true. If you actually look at what happened in 2008, who is doing the violence? Tibetans mobs have killed innocent Chinese civilians, destroyed many homes, looted businesses. There's no doubt that China has, and deserves, the rap for brutal military force both against Tibetans and their own people, but on this particular occasion, that doesn't seem to be the case. The Dalai Larma himself has even said he is embarrassed of the way his people have behaved and threatened to resign if they continue the violence. It's also interesting to note that the Chinese media itself is not fair, and the Chinese people's protests(that i mentioned above) would be not acceptable in their own country! So what this means is, those same Chinese people may be proud of their country, but they're still open, willing, and looking forward to reforms like freedom of press.

My personal opinion is that the Olympics is the one truly great opportunity where all nations can put aside differences, and celebrate the human spirit. It's a great opportunity to welcome nations and to learn about Nations. Remember, in 1964, there was still global distrust and resentment against Japan for it's crimes during WWII, the having the olympics in Tokyo exposed Japan to the world and helped to bring it into the circle of allied partners and players. Today, Japan is a major trading partner and political ally.

China, had similar goals with the Olympics. They want to be accepted into the circle of allied powers to promote trade and relationship. And most of the other countries wanted to welcome it, and continue to encourage and push China towards positive reform, that's why China won the Olympics. Now, somehow, protesters and anti-china people seem to have some backward logic, that by antagonizing and isolating China, it is more likely to have positive change.

I'd also like to quickly outline the issues about Tibet. I remember I was talking with a friend once about Tibet, and I asked "If you believe Tibet deserves independence, how is that different from Hawaii?". Her response was "well, because at least Hawaiians aren't starving and in poverty." To this day, I still cringe at this ignorant statement, because China has been extremely key to Tibet's economic growth. First, people tend to have this fantasy that before China invaded Tibet, Tibet was this thriving democratic country. Tibet was extremely backward before 1950(before China invaded), never expressed democratic intent, and was basically a fundamentalist government. More importantly, the issues at controversy have never been about economics, and they shouldn't. China pours billions of dollars into Tibet every year, building schools, roads, highways, railroads, etc. The economy has, for the past 10 years, grown at 12% per year, an incredible rate, and significantly higher than the average across China. GDP is over 30 times more than it was in 1950. Life expectancy has been raised, since 1950, from 35 to almost 70 years. Infant mortality rate has dropped from 44% to less than 1%. These are tremendous advances that people ignore. So if the issue isn't about economics, what is it about?

Victoria posted an analogy of Tibet, which I think is very good. Tibet has a long history of traditions and cultures, and sadly these simply will not exist in 50 years at the current rate of change. China tends to deny it, but it's true, Tibet's lifestyle and culture will not exist in 50 years the way we have known it. Chinese businessmen are pouring into Tibet, boosting the economy, but also slowly chipping away at Tibetan lifestyle and culture. As much as America might try to preserve Native American culture, it's basically gone. Traditional African culture in America is virtually gone. It's a bit sad, but this is the way things are. So this is the central issue that Tibetans worry about. And in my opinion, economics is too strong a force. It's not like most black people are demanding to be sent back to Africa, giving up economic benefits of living in america, to celebrate culture in their homeland. Tibetan youth are going to Chinese school system, watching Chinese media, and they will simply give up their efforts one day as the youth become more and more Chinese and start choosing economic welfare over tradition. So my point is, Tibetans definitely are correct that their culture is on the brink of extinction and it's easy to see why they would be upset about it, but constant bickering, antagonizing, and extreme ideology that will never be accepted by Chinese government isn't solving the problem.

There's basically no real reason Tibet should be part of China, other than historically they have been claimed by China. But that's true of most countries. From China's point of view, they have an attitude of "give Hawaii independence, give Quebec independence, give northern ireland freedom, give Okinawa freedom, give Australian native aborigines their land back, then come talk to us." Tibet has a lot of resources that China wants, so they will never give Tibet up based on that alone. Furthermore, China has long tried to build a multinational country, and most Chinese view Tibet as one of the central ethnicities that make up China has a country(along with Han Chinese, mongolians, manchurians, muslims, etc).

Also, it's important to note that, it's not like western countries have been friendly to Tibet. Before 1950, Britain invaded Tibet, and both Britain and Russia tried to force Tibet to sign unfair treaties. Also, there's sort of a misconception that Tibet has long had independence. Tibet had been claimed by China for something like close to a thousand years, and then had about 4 decades of freedom in between before being invaded by China again.

So i've noted some of the important facts surrounding Tibet. I'll give my opinion now. I Think Tibet deserves to be able to practice their religion freely. They can practice now, but there are certain restrictions(as with all other religions in China). The Dalai Larma and the Chinese government have got to suck it up, get together, and figure out a compromise. Both sides are way too proud, and they can't even freakin sit down and talk. Last week, China said they will negotiate with the Dalai Larma if he renounces ambitions for independence, but he has thus far refused. I think you gotta be more pragmatic here because let's face it.... No foreign countries are gonna start a war with China just to free Tibet....China is never gonna give up the resources in Tibet....So you gotta realize that and do what you can to provide for the Tibetan people. Extreme ideology like demanding independence isn't getting anywhere, and doesn't give more autonomy or religious freedom. I feel for the Tibetan people, I want them to preserve their culture, but their actions are irrational and have not solved anything.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Utility of God

Well I've been showing lots of people my blog, and I'm so happy that people have been telling me it's interesting. I dunno whether they genuinely enjoy it or they are just trying to save me a broken little heart, but I'm still glad for the feedback i've been getting.

Mankind has argued for eternity about the existence of God. Today, I will officially solve this great debate. .............Ok of course i can't do that. But i'll show you a cool little exercise.

I'm gonna show you some philosophy, it's called Pascal's Wager(the mathematician). Just to clarify, utility means goodness, happiness, or value that one gets from the result of a decision.

On Christianity, there are basically 2 possibilities, god exists, and god does not exist. A person can choose to A) believe in god, B) not believe in god. That means, a total of 4 scenarios are possible. See below.

Utilities of your Choice
probability god exists=10% p(not exist)=90%
Utiltity of Choose Christianity = 100(if god exists), -1(if god does not exist)
Utility of Not Choose Christ = -100(if god exists), 0(if god does not exist)

So in the scenario you choose to be christian, and God exists, you go to heaven and get +100 utilility(or goodness).
In the scenario you choose christianity and god does not exist, you wasted some of your time, and get -1 utility.
Scenario you do not choose god and he exists, you go to hell and get -100 utility, cause it sucks to burn in hell.
Scenario you do not choose god and he does not exist, nothing happens.

Still following? I basically randomly chose the probability of God existing at 10%, you could argue it should be much higher, or lower, but lets just see what happens.

To calculate the expected Utility of being Christian = (10%)*(100) + (90%)*(-1) = 9.1
Utility of being non-christian = (10%)*(-100) + (90%)*(0) = -10

Therefore, just based on this simple exercise, Pascal argued that choosing Christ is a more rationale decision than non choosing him, based on maximizing utility. Even if we only assume God has a 10% chance of existing, the utility of taking a chance of him is much higher than the utility of not believing in him!

Now my belief is that when you choose religious preference, it should be based purely on your own beliefs, and not on expected utility. In other words, believe what your mind and your heart tells you. Use the information you have available to come to the right conclusion.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

What I Hate about the Internet

So I got my first response from a stranger, and I'm really excited about that. I hope more people that I don't know start reading this blog, and i hope they find it fun, interesting, entertaining, and educational. Also, thank you to Victoria for the insightful commentary on my last post, I will definitely address that in the near future.



Anyway, I just want to talk a little about the things I hate about the internet. First, as you can see from the video I posted, I hate all these videos about ugly/hot asian high school girls. I think some Japanese guy made this video of Korean girls. Ok they are funny......but seriously, it's pretty racist. I keep seeing all these videos of beautiful Taiwanese girls and videos of ugly korean and japanese girls. I always joke with my friends that Taiwanese girls are the hottest, but seriously, there's no significant correlation. Every country has hot and ugly girls. Why the hell do Asians express so much racism against each other? I always keep seeing "dirty jap" "dirty chinese" "dirty korean" all over the internet. The real enemy is the Indians....just kidding. But seriously, I wrote an essay on Japanese inferiority complex for one of my classes, but I think to a certain degree it applies to all the Asian nations.

In my essay, my main theme was that before WWII, Japan had successfully matched the western powers in terms of a thriving society, but they felt disgraced by the Korean and Chinese, who we're still relatively backwards compared to Japan. Japan's line during the war was something like "Japan seeks to rescue our Asian brothers from the shackles of Western imperialism," which meant colonizing taiwan and korea and modernizing them, which they did. Koreans might hate to admit it, but they are a modern society today because of Japan's imperialism, not that imperialism is morally right. So Why did Japan do this? My feeling is that they we're so proud of their achievement, but at the same time, still connected with the other Asians and felt disgraced by them, so they wanted to lift them out of their backwardness to make it seem as if Asians we're superior to the White man.

Anyway, I still think it's terrible all the racism against other Asians all over the internet. Insulting the other Asians, is not gonna make white people think you are superior...and it shouldn't make you feel better about yourself either. Sometimes I see Chinese or Koreans say to each other "you dog eater". WTF? Both of them eat dog..and what's so wrong with eating dog if that's in their culture. You're just being ignorant.

The other thing I hate about the internet, is all the pornography. A couple weeks ago I turned off Google explicit site blocker(I'm a loser, I had no idea you could turn it off) and I was hoping to find some funny picture by some crazy Japanese comedian or something, so I typed in "Japanese". Guess what, nothing but porn, go ahead, try it(with your parent's consent of course). What is up with that? The word "japanese" brings up porn before anything else? cuisine, history, culture, religion, society?

Friday, April 4, 2008

China dissident jailed

So if people leave comments on the blog, I'll try to address them and also I'd like ideas for other topics to blog about. I want to write about Tibet, but i'd like to wait and see where the current situations heads a little before i write.



CommandoCacho commented about a leading human rights activist in China being jailed. I hate to write again about politics in Asia, but there's just been so much activity over there the past couple weeks. Hu Jia is a leading human rights activist in China, fighting for Tibetan independence, AIDS awareness, environmentalism, and democracy.

I really think it's terrible that he's been sentenced to prison, because he obviously only wants the best for his country. In the Chinese constitution, there is an article that grants freedom of speech to all citizens, unfortunately there are a few restrictions, not the least of which is "subversive actions", which is purposely vague so they can charge simple things as criticism against the government. Hu Jia, basically admits that he broke the law the way it's defined, but he thinks the law itself is wrong. China really is the most complicated and hard to understand country in the world, and there's no way to predict the future. To be honest, it's a shame, because people like Hu Jia really dont' get much support in China. Ever since the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, Chinese government basically said "you guys do whatever you want, don't challenge us, and we'll guarantee you strong economic growth." Unfortunately, this is more than enough for the vast majority of Chinese citizens, thus socially important issues don't get support. To put into perspective, this is largely true in any country, including the US. Hawaiians basically we're brutally invaded by America, but the economy there has been so good, people have good lives, and nobody cares anymore.

It's important to put things in perspective. China has a long way to go in terms of human rights, but to criticize it also is a bit ignorant. Rather than looking at it at this moment in time, if one looks at the progress it's made in the past 20 years, it's easy to see they're improving, rather than getting worse. You can't blame them for where they are now, if they're making progress in their own manner. The right attitude is "we greatly welcome your improvements, but lets not get too carried away because you still have a long way to go." And to be fair, the USA has a lot of human rights problems as well.

In terms of environmentalism, and AIDS, the government is making tremendous efforts. There's huge amounts of research on being environmentally friendly in China, because the government recognizes their resources are gonna run out. There's also huge amounts of AIDS support in recent years, although AIDS is still rampant in the countryside.

Lastly about democracy, as I stated earlier, the vast majority of urban Chinese simply don't care enough because their wealth is growing. Lots of people tend to praise the 1989 democracy movement, and I sympathize with their cause as well, but realistically it was doomed to fail. They didn't get nearly enough support to mount a serious effort, and lets be honest, they weren't really advocating democracy. China consists of about 400 million urban middle class and about 800 million rural villagers. The movement wanted to give political power to the educated middle class basically, the other 800 million would've been left without anything. Also, the movement was highly divided. Half of the protestors were young middle class students who wanted to make China change more rapidly, while the other half were lower class people who thought China had changed too much already, leaving themselves at the bottom of the economic spectrum.

So, certain aspects of China are improving, with a lot of problems still remaining. Whether they will ever have democracy.....I simply can't see it happening with 800 million rural uneducated farmers. If they implement democracy, nobody's gonna give them any power. The people who fight for democracy are urban middle class, and they're certainly not about to hand over all the power to the rural farmers who are the larger majority.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Yasukuni Documentary cancelled in Japan

I posted an article about a recent documentary on Yasukuni that has been cancelled in Japan after theatre managers and the film's producers received numerous death threats. Yasukuni is a highly controversial shrine in Tokyo that honors the war dead. There is a museum that is highly revisionist, and portrays Japan as the victim of the war, rather than the aggressor. The shrine also honors 1000 Japanese soldiers who were convicted of war crimes, that's why Asian politicians are very critical of the shrine. Furthermore, Chinese, Taiwanese, and Koreans were forced to serve in the Japanese army, the women as sex slaves. One of the huge controversies of the war, is a famous competition between 2 Japanese soldiers, to see who could be the first to behead 100 people(soldier or civilian).


I’m so disappointed that the recent Yasukuni documentary was cancelled from being shown in Japan. The director, Li Ying, is a Chinese award winning film-maker who has lived in Tokyo for the past eighteen years. He was inspired to start this 10 year long project after witnessing a crowd of Japanese actually cheering during a movie where Japanese soldiers invaded Nanking, one of the most brutal and controversial battles in history. He wanted to explore the nature of bushido that still exists in Japan today. He had financial support from Japanese art societies as well as Korean groups and worked with Japanese people on the film. The filming in Yasukuni went well until they found out he was Chinese, then all hell broke loose. I think it’s a disgrace that the movie is cancelled after theatre managers and Li Ying himself received death threats. The film involves interviewing a swordmaker who actually made swords for Japanese soldiers of WWII, asking if he feels any guilt or responsibility for so many deaths. It also includes much footage of controversial topics, including Japanese people celebrating controversial issues. The daughter of a convicted Japanese war criminal even demand to have her father’s name cleared.

It should be noted that the people who so fervently opposed this film typically are die-hard right wing nationalists. And these people should be ashamed of themselves. Most Japanese, I think, have to take a lot of crap for something that isn't their fault. Many Japanese have been supportive of the film, and have called it's cancellation an attack on freedom of expression.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Dulce et Decorum

Can you finish this famous latin line?

Anyway I decided to add a column where I'll post anything of interest, importance, inspiration, or controversy that I read recently. Typically it'll be wikipedia or news articles. I posted about the recent riots in Tibet cause I think it's important, and it'll be interesting to see how it turns out.

Dulce ed Decorum est Pro Patria Mori.
In my Japanese Intellectual History class, we recently studied Bushido, the way of the warrior. This is a mentality that in my younger years, i believed in. It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. I thought on some level there was beauty in it, and I admired the likes of Samurai who gave their lives to protect their masters, and kamikaze pilots who would do anything to protect their motherland. Now, I realize there is nothing glorious about this kind of death. Alot of times, these people were simply running from troubles by committing suicide. The original writer of the poem was a British soldier in WWI, who was using sarcasm to criticize the senselessness of young boys giving up their lives. The latin phrase was used by some war monger Roman, trying to convince boys that their death in war is glorious.

I think most of the world has changed, and most people don't still subscribe to such foolishness. But I feel bad for people who are still so ignorant to believe in such thought.

I first heard and read this phrase in high school. It makes me sad, because so much of what we were taught in high school, when looking back on it, was really rich and great stuff. I'm ashamed that I didn't pay more attention back then, I was just a stupid kid. I would basically BS my way through high school. But looking back, I can have tremendous appreciation for what we studied.

To close, I will never let my schooling interfere with my education ever again.

Are You Tough Enough?



Recently I've started to get into boxing a little bit. And I love the klitschko brothers. I can't wait for Vitali's comeback fight against Sam Peter. A chess player, a PHD holder, also happens to be a 6'7 ripped heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Amazing.

In this fight, Klitschko, the white guy, took a lot of criticism. People said that because he grew up in a upper middle-class family that he wasn't as tough as people who grew up in the ghetto. People couldn't imagine a fighter who likes to play chess, who has a PhD, and who is active in philanthropy. I find this guy an inspiration because he bravely fought Lennox Lewis, the undisputed heavyweight champion, in this video despite everybody doubting his courage. In this fight, Klitschko was winning the fight according to all the judges, but was forced to stop because his eye was in such bad condition. He was clearly upset after the fight, because despite his eye being in serious condition, he wanted to continue fighting on. Toughness is not pounding one's chest and acting macho, toughness is about being able to rise to physical, mental, and emotional challenges when needed.

Hello

Well my dear friend Janet is going to Japan tomorrow and started a blog, so I decided to start a blog to keep up with what she's doing in Japan. Hopefully I can leave her insightful comments. Actually I really like intellectual topics, so maybe we'll be able to talk about them. I told her about Yasukuni, which she didn't know about. I read in the news today, that a documentary about Yasukuni visits was banned from several theaters in Japan. What happened to freedom of speech?

I named my blog "Never Save Anything for the Swim Back" as a reference to my favorite movie, and the point in my life that has given me inspiration to do everything I've done up to now. The phrase describes the metaphor of two men, who have dreams that are far out in the open ocean. One man tries to swim out to his dream, but is worried about having enough energy for the swim back to the shore and is afraid of drowning. The other man has no regrets, and saves nothing for the swim back, and thus is able to achieve his dream.