badmigraine
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Posts posted by badmigraine
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Even as a boarder, I cannot long resist the lure of moguls and hot-dog skiing!
It's been less than 6 months since my operation, and not only was I bashing the moguls in Fukushima-ken on my new board last weekend, but I still have over 10 Darvocets left.
Highly recommended!
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I tore my right medial meniscus moguling at Naeba. That was on a snowboard though.
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It's fairly sarcastic with a healthy sprinkling of sexual and bathroom-type humor. Some find it funny, others don't like it. Same as any other show.
The real issue is the politicizing of the FCC (the government agency that controls broadcasting), and the vagueness/lack of definition in FCC regulations of what is "indecent".
As for the politicizing of the FCC, the current chairman is Colin Powell's son. Now how do you think he got THAT job? The current administration has strong ties to the Christian right and Bush is a born-again Christian who speaks to Jesus in the White House. Therefore, it's no surprise that many accuse the Bush administration of using the FCC to play up to Christian conservatives and other pollyanna types, for votes, in this election year.
As for the vagueness in the regulations, it is sad and true. There is no clear definition of what is "indecent", so broadcasters have to try to guess. If they guess wrong, then after the fact they face huge fines, often amounting to millions of dollars.
This has a chilling effect on free speech. If the government is going to censor certain speech over the airwaves with the threat of millions in fines, then there needs to be a clear definition of what is obscene, or the right to challenge the FCC determination of obscenity in court. As it stands now, there is no definition (the one now being used by the FCC was struck in another context as unconstitutional due to vagueness).
Underneath all of this is the fact that the FCC does not currently regulate cable TV or satellite radio. So shows on those channels are free to say whatever they want.
The practical result is absurd. A broadcast company like Infinity or Clear Channel may have to pay $3M in fines for broadcasting the F word, whereas you can hear it 50 times on cable TV or satellite radio and it is perfectly legal.
Also, the standard of indecency that is favored by most of the Americans who would impose it is very uptight and priggish by international standards.
MY OPINION
Frankly speaking, dirty words and breasts on TV should not be grounds for million-dollar fines. If people don't like it or find the content unsuitable for their kids, they can just turn off the TV or radio, or change channels. And if there are going to be laws prohitibing certain kinds of speech, why then we need to amend the US Constitution, which sets up "freedom of speech" as one of the most amazingly great things about the US, a country formed by people who fled government oppression of religion and personal viewpoints.
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It is indeed a silly question. There are others on the same form, asking if you're a drug dealer, etc.
Nobody expects those intending acts of terrorism to check the "yes" box. Naturally, they check the "no" box.
But when later they are found (such determination by the immigration service could occur while the alien is inside or outside the US) to have entered the US intending an act of terrorism (that may not have even actually occurred, for whatever reason), then they are presumptively guilty of visa fraud...because they lied on their application.
This has several consequences, not the least of which is quick deportation and/or denial of future entry. They can be legally and summarily removed from the US and/or blocked from entering it.
We may ask why this is necessary. One reason is that any separate proceeding in another country and/or in the US for an inchoate or completed act of terrorism may or may not produce a timely verdict or disposition leading to deportation from the US and/or denial of entry. In reality, such proceedings could take years, result in a acquittal on a technicality or mistrial, lack of evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, etc.
Therefore it's a major added convenience to be able to say, Whatever happens in your other proceedings, we the immigration service have determined based on our own rules of evidence and procedure that you have committed visa fraud, so now we don't have to let you in. End of story.
It all sounds a bit convoluted and absurd, but that's the way it works, folks.
Think of OJ Simpson being acquitted of murder in the criminal case, then found liable for wrongful death in the civil case. Did the Law say whether OJ killed his wife or not? It said both. Different proceedings, different rules of evidence and procedure, different standards of proof.
I'm not defending the US immigration regime. In fact I find it prohibitively complex, disastrously ineffecient and wasteful, insanely arbitrary and fully fricked-up by rule, regulation and the low quality of its front-line enforcement personnel. It's sputtering on the verge of collapse...just exactly where it has been for decades, and where it will always be.
What do you expect from a country with giant porous borders, where you get to be a citizen and have a passport 5 years after first entering it.
Try that in Japan.
I am merely explaining the rationale for the silly question. OK?
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Mogs, you might want to talk to the realtor and/or owner right now...unless you have some written record of their acknowledgment of the condition, the vid might not be enough! Easier to handle it now.
I don't think you'd want new tatami even if they offered it, right? You might want to keep the old tatami in there, so you don't have to buy new ones on the way out...
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Me too, Ocean. All sweetness and light.
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I don't think licensing would help.
They're required to drive cars, but we still have lots of car accidents. And lots of people violating the traffic laws, speeding, doing rolling stops, playing with radios or driving drunk.
There's fake licenses, licensed drivers who are visually or aurally impaired...old drivers, hyper drivers, drivers with guns in the glove box. Drivers falling asleep, drivers racing on canyon roads, drivers eating food or talking on cell phones...
The license doesn't protect you against anything.
All you have to do is pass a test virtually anybody can pass, then you go and do what you want. The only thing regulating your behavior is common sense and cops.
I doubt it would change skiing/boarding for the better.
Not only would it be an annoying hassle to have to take a test and get/carry a license on the slopes, but would we then have slope cops enforcing the "rules", which would likely move from a suggested code to inflexible requirements? Fines for infractions of rules? Speed limits on slopes? Inflexible off-piste rules?
Fake licenses? Waiting in line or making appointments for licensing tests?
Different licensing regimes for kids, teens, adults, seniors?
Sorry, but this doesn't sound like a good idea at all.
I like it the way it is now, where you use your common sense. You have to learn. This is your Life. The government or a licensing body isn't going to fix this problem.
It wasn't too long ago that some resorts in Japan required snowboarders to pay money and take a test before being allowed to board the resort. I don't recall anybody being happy about that. It proved nothing, and served only to separate riders from 1,000 yen. Does anybody really want to go back to those days?
Some resorts in the US and Canada post ski patrollers in areas where the resort wants you to slow down. There are banners and everying, "slow down"! Even in those places, the patrol is kept busy chasing down and scolding/penalizing people who didn't slow down.
And every one of them had their reasons.
"I didn't see the signs..."
"I came through here yesterday, and there were no such signs..."
"There's nobody else around, what difference does it make if I go fast...?"
"I'm good enough that I'm in control at the speed I was traveling..."
Hey, it may even have happened to YOU. I know I've been yelled at to Slow Down in those places.
Here we see the difficulty and the extent of the problem. You get people having a blast hurtling down a hill on planks, and now you want them to be careful and take care of every other person around, regardless of their skill level or level of belligerent idiocy.
The answer is as I already posted: you're on notice that people could do anything on the slopes, so be careful and ride accordingly.
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The Skier's Code...what a lark. Its practical effect is no more than well-intentioned playground rules that can be used to pull your ticket if the operator feels so inclined.
Many don't know the Code, or knowing it, don't follow it.
Many sporadically follow it but forget about it in order to complete a particularly satisfying high-speed maneuver or take advantage of a snow stash or terrain feature. It's natural to blank on certain rules when having exciting experiences.
And then there are the drinkers, like Mogski...
Look, even if the Court of International Justice in the Hague affirms one interpretation of the Skier's Code or another, what difference does it make to that spiral fracture, to that 12-year-old lying there with his tooth knocked out, or--if you're lucky--that unsightly gouge in your topsheet?
If you don't know how to minimize the risk of collision, or if you think a Code eliminates the need to check what could happen to your line at speed, then you might want to re-think your hobby.
This thread reminds me of threads on motorcycle BBSs, where some canyon-carver or cafe racer goes on record complaining about bad car drivers swerving across lines, and/or being "too good for accidents to happen to me".
They're right...somebody broke the rule...but look at the consequences. You KNEW this could happen.
You can be the best ever, but still get taken out by another's mistake.
Why put your own safety in the hands of a bunch of unknown skiers and boarders?
Here's the real skiers' code:
Anybody might do anything on the slopes at any given time. You've known this for ages, you're on formal notice, so watch out.
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THINGS YOU REALLY DON'T WANT YOUR EMPLOYER TO KNOW
In an average day at the office, you will spend over 4.5 hours looking at the Internet, 1.5 hours eating and excreting waste products, and only 2.0 hours working.
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Looks like they're possibly going after cable TV and satellite radio next.
If you connect the dots in this election year, it seems the Bush re-election strategy is becoming clearer. They appear to have accepted that they will not get many swing votes from Democratic-leaning Republicans, and are now focusing on wooing the religious right and arch-conservative or WASPy constituency.
1.
Coming out in the news guns blazing against gay marriage,
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Co-opting the FCC (lapdog of zillionaire corporations who get a free [OK, not free, they have to make big campaign contributions in Washington] license to profit from/sell the public airwaves) into a Puritanical attempt to enforce a kind of mythical, lily-white 1950s-type morality,
3.
A new "war on drugs" initiative (From today's CNN: WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush, preparing to unveil an anti-drug strategy, on Saturday championed his budget proposals to increase drug testing in schools, help more communities run prevention programs and pay for treatment through religious groups for more low-income addicts...).
Huh? Pay for treatment through religious groups for more low-income addicts?
What?!
I wonder, will any of these "religious groups" be Muslim? They ought to be. I think the Taliban were so anti-drug that you'd be stoned to death (no pun intended).
Watch for more clear messages from Washington designed to pull Democratic religious votes to the Republican camp.
Politics.
YUCK.
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I like the Japanese TV shows and movies where for example they're supposed to be in New York City, they go into a bar, and the bartender is an Aussie or a guy with a German accent. Or a bunch of American street rappers speak as if they are from Kenya, not Compton or Oakland.
Or there is a scene set in a "cool, happening" Tokyo dance club, where the camera pans to show some older corporate TV producer's idea of what young people must look/act like in such places. There'll be an impossible mix of reggae, hip-hop, trancer, Harley-Davidson and Uniqlo-style "clubbers" all in the same room, with photogenic, attitude-laden foreigners talking to cool, sunglass-wearing Japanese. Just as weird as the "club/bar" in Beverly Hills 90210. All the while the lead characters carry on a normal conversation in low tones, as if the club speakers aren't really blaring at 110 decibels.
I used to club 2-3 times a week and even with earplugs my ears were ringing at the end of it all. It was all I could manage to scream into my g/f's ear "WANT ANOTHER MALIBU COKE?" and have her get it.
Imagine talking into your pal's ear using your bar/club voice, but doing it on the street or in a konbini. He would leap away, covering his ear and yelling OW!!!
It's all relative, boys, all relative.
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Great call to do this, Plucks. This kind of thing is best done sooner rather than later! Congratulations.
Where have you been keeping that Wrangler during your Japan gig?
How about a camper van as opposed to an RV? Smaller, better gas mileage, cheaper to buy a used one, and less obtrusive if you want to park/sleep in a grocery store lot in the middle of nowhere.
I'm at the end of a 1.5 year "vacation" that began with Tokyo job frustration and missing my country/my family. It was well worth it, and now that I am going back into the "world of work" I have a different perspective on things. Of course 3 hours at my old desk will probably erase all that, but at least I found I have a place I can always go back to and just be Me.
If I have the chance to do it again--and this may be hard now that my wife is pregnant--I would be more deliberate about how I spend my time. It was too easy for me to fall into a kind of college-student lifestyle of hanging out, wakeboarding, drinking with family, reading books all the time and working out.
These are all great things, but when my small pile of savings ran out and I had to start looking for another job like the one I left, I wished that I had spent less time aimlessly basking in the pleasure of being back here, and been a bit more diligent about pursuing the Next Thing, whatever it might be.
You've got some great ideas, the PhD, the surf distribution center. All I can tell you, as a man at the end of what was probably my last Long Vacation, is, WORK 'EM!
A final note to myself: why is it that I'll bust a** for a company I don't care about, doing things I really hate, flogging my brain into action day after day and even on weekends focusing on spreadsheets and contracts and meetings, to the exclusion of health, family and recreation...and then when I get a 16-month chance to follow a dream, I let the days flow by in an endless river of idle pleasure?
ANSWER: I'm lazy, very lazy. I can't motivate myself the way others can motivate me.
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_Cheese, I do also despise American lawyers, but why did you let them off so easy? They're much worse than you describe...
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deebs, it this move still an option? Was it pushed back from first quarter?
Sounds like a great plan.
My dream would be to live in Italy. I wonder how much that costs.
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It's all smoke and mirrors, boys, all a big sellout joke of the one and only party in the US - the Business Party.
Have you really looked at these candidates as people, and as "policymakers"? Sheesh. Is this the best America can offer? Human corporations who persist thanks to corporate donations and a team of media advisers constantly trying out new spiels on the largely complacent, unsuspecting public?
Not that it's ever been much different, in this country or others. It's just this election year hoopla that makes me want to puke. A load of nonsense.
What kind of person grows up wanting to be a politician?
Could it be a particularly hollow, sniveling variant of the type of person who grows up wanting a government job where you get to wear a costume and tell people what to do (judge, cop, etc.)?
I think so.
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Which "Office" character am I?
Clippy, the MS Word assistant in the shape of a paperclip with eyeballs.
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I'm not making any ski trips with an infant in tow!!
I'll get a party pass from the wife and head up alone to meet you.
Wife doesn't even want to see a ski resort unless she is free to relax there. Changing diapers while hubby skis is a flat out NO from her.
Result: I get a party pass to go alone!
You should angle for the same!! As much as I like your kid, I don't want him interfering when I borrow his Daddy for skiing!
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As for Kanagawa, that sounds nice and we're watching a テレビドラマ right now set near Kamakura. It would be a nice place to live.
But I am a sellout. I can easily forgo it for a 10-minute commute and the proximity to the wife's shinkansen service...these are the high points we've set up in this artificial game. We're going to Japan, to buy a house in the US. Yeah. It makes a lot of sense.
The phone's off the hook
No one knows where we are
It's a long time since I drank champagne
The ocean is blue
As blue as your eyes
I'm gonna take it with me when I go
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Having seen the chaos that reigns in our favorite employer, not to mention my current US employer and the US Immigration Service as well, it is indeed difficult to believe that anyone is going to notice tax debt from some ward 2 years ago.
But then, just watch.
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db, how well I know THAT feeling. Let sleeping dogs lie.
I'm just going to set the rent allowance at the actual rent amount and be done with it.
Nice to become a millionaire again, even if it is only in Yen.
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*sigh*...Quote:****ing idiot.
I was hoping you wouldn't say that.
It's a money thing and a childbirth thing (not me, my wife!). It's not going to be the same as the old bachelor days, that's for sure!
At least I had a good run...made it to 40 before getting hitched.
Ta for the tax lesson. Must the portion of compensation designated on my pay slip as "housing allowance" all be spent on rent?
For example, if I tell the company to set my housing allowance at 200 per month, and that is what shows on my pay slip, but I actually only pay 150 per month in rent, is the unused-for-housing 50 still non-taxable?
Put another way, is the determinant "actual rent", or is it "formal allocation on payslip"?
I think on the US side, the entire portion designated as housing allowance might be eligible for the foreign housing exclusion, even if not all used for housing-related expenses...I better check that out on the IRS website.
Cheers! See you all in lovely Tokyo then. Fresh air, open spaces! I can bring my Ford Expedition, right?
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Mogs, how did you swing this one?!
Mileage ticket?
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OK, I'm moving back to Tokyo in a month or two. Got another company job.
They offered me a salary amount, then said that I can designate a portion of it as housing (rent) allowance.
I believe this has tax consequences, but I'm not exactly sure how. Anyone got advice on how to handle this?
Could it be that the housing allowance part is not taxed as salary/income?
Throbbing
in General off-topic discussions
Posted
I gave up drinking at the end of last summer in Michigan. Unfortunately, that left me with nothing but the self-loathing, so I had to take it up again as a hobby.