Interestingness Rediscovered

Generation gap

Going through the ritual Redditting, I stumbled upon this rant.
It is long, but I quote anyway. One of the greatest piece written about the have's and have-not's.

As 33 year old with a high IQ and no future, I just want to thank the baby boomers for totally and completely fucking over what could have been the greatest country ever. The whole time I was growing up no one ever said anything about oil. No one ever said anything about foreign manufacturing. No one ever said anything about non-linear population growth. No one ever said anything about Topsoil. No one ever said anything about illegal aliens. No one ever said anything about preparation for anything that might come our way. No, the sad truth is that the boomers grew up in unprecedented wealth and security and blissfully burned more oil, energy, topsoil and whatever else you can regretfully burn than any generation since the beginning of known history. These are the assholes who told us to “get good grades” and everything will be awesome. Guess what dad, no amount of straight A’s are going to help when the shit hits the fan. You just enjoy your retirement in the million dollar piece of shit house you own. And when the illegal aliens and poor white trash are tearing this country a new one in the next civil war, you just pat yourself on the back and tell yourself that you were a great parent.

I had a vague expectation that the United States stays generation-resentment free compared to my home country Japan (there is not even a resentment - the whole atmosphere has been degraded into an apathy, disillusioned state. You grow up resenting your over-suppressing dad hoping one day you'll get revenge. 20 years later you realize you dad is bed-ridden in a nurse home, playing the victim role 24 hours a day, and sucking up all the pensions, including your contribution, to the grave).
Living in Taiwan, I slowly started to realize this suppressed anger, this fundamental hopelessness, have been shared by everybody, regardless of their regions, maybe except for coastal China and India middle class.
So far I have welcomed this reality, which on the positive side forces one to be independent, but probably because I spent the bulk of my childhood in the 70s and 80s. I know what it means not to worry about the future, food, and happiness. I tasted them more than enough,  knew the pros and cons of "protected" life, and got out of it on my own choice. I was spoiled - took everything for granted - and is now on the way to be a better person.
I seriously have no idea what I would be like if I am under 20 now.

Weinland-Yutani

...is the evil company behind all the conspiracies in the Alien series.
The "Yutani" part refers to a supposedly American Japanese, John Yutani.
But where are the Japanese sign?

• In Alien, the magazine that gets shoved into Sigourney Weaver's mouth by Iam Holm is a Japanese tabloid magazine, Heibon Punch.
• In Alien3, the spaceship at the beginning of the movie shows some Chinese characters (numbers).

Hmm.
Ridley Scott follows up with more Japanese reference in the Blade Runner, tries again with the Black Rain and reportedly got sick of the beaurocracy involved with the Japanese government and decided never to film in Japan. Which was good, because the non-dystopia part in Black Rain was filled with misunderstandings and superstitions.

• Japanese yakuza boss speaks English fluently.
• Japanese cop draws caligraphy while is off-duty.
• Japanese roads were filled with bicycles. Hmm.
• Japanese yakuza rides motorcycles with a Japanese sword in the other hand.

Hmm.

Inflation wave is coming

I used to think that inflation, deflation, and all other economical jargons are created to feed jobs for the huge industry trying to analyze, consult, debate the basic human activities - make money, get food, go for a vacation in Bermuda.
Suddenly the long-forgotten word "inflation" is creeping up my sleeve. Why? Because the newspapers are awash with the oil peak and price surge in China? No. It is because:

• My favorite beef noodle restaurant stopped offering the noodle set (20% discount).
• The size of the milk tea in my breakfast menu became smaller.
• Taxi drivers started lamenting why they are going to die within a month due to slow business (they used to lament about the lack of hope in their life).

The economists at least did one remarkable job. They gave a keyword, inflation, to this frightening phenomenon, which gives us a masochistic assurance - don't worry, it's all about inflation. Wow! it really opened my eyes!
I don't care how the housing prices or stock market go up and down because most of the "victims" were in that party to play a high-risk game. They might be losers, but they did it on their own choice.
But the food price? Excuse me, I want out!
Jim Rogers might be chuckling at around the dark corner. I told you so.

Craigslist

I never used Craigslist for its original purpose. For me it is an online comedy channel, same as CollegeHumor and Cracked.

Advice for woman seeking $500k+ earning man
Advice seeker:

I'm a beautiful (spectacularly beautiful) 25 year old girl. I'm articulate and classy. I'm not from New York. I'm looking to get married to a guy who makes at
least half a million a year.

First reply:

Your offer, from the prospective of a guy like me, is plain and simple a
cr@ppy business deal. Here's why. Cutting through all the B.S., what you
suggest is a simple trade: you bring your looks to the party and I bring
my money. Fine, simple. But here's the rub, your looks will fade and my
money will likely continue into perpetuity...in fact, it is very likely
that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won't
be getting any more beautiful!

Second reply:

The culprit, I believe, may be that you are also looking for qualities aside from money - such as looks, personality, and a sense of humor. However, men who have those qualities learn at an early age that they do not need money to attract quality women. As the saying goes, if you can get the milk for free, why pay up for the cow?

I love the second reply. Absolute truth wrapped up in a crude sense of humor.

Online learning

I used to think that getting into a university, especially that of the US, is an extremely tough act, enough to spawn a small publishing  as well as consulting industry, dedicated to GRE, TOEFL, GMAT, essays, interview, whatever.
Recently I have been considering taking a certificate or degree related to my speciality, technical communication, and sent out several inquiries to universities offering distance learning.
One graphic design university immediately sent me a catalog by email. Not the brochure. A thick, dictionary-like catalog, beautifully designed. The one that you can spot in a soap opera, when the girl is invited to her prospect's apartment for the first time. The one that is placed on the transparent coffee table next to the Spanish sofa, carefully arranged to give a "rough-handling" atmosphere but always the title facing the guest.
The catalog was followed up by a personal email (= only my email address in the "To" bar), an invitation to a speech by an alumni held in Taipei, and a DVD showing full details of glorious campus life.
And I have not even started formal application. Too, too bad I stopped considering graphic design.
Another university, technical writing course, gave a detailed reply to my inquiry on the next day, which was Sunday. The professor himself filled in all the information.
These are only two cases, but I suspect the tide has already been reversed. Less applicant, more university. Or the international students are becoming the primal source of their income.
I found out that the certificate courses might provide an ideal step toward full Graduate degree. In the ideal case,

• Reasonable tuition
• Short period of time (one or two years)
• Equal educational level (sharing classes with the graduate students)
• Lower admission requirements
• The credits can contribute to the master's course

Then and Now

Botched plastic surgery
Pre-fame and post-fame
Pre-photoshop and post-photoshop (Portfolio-composite)
Child star gone bad

The end of the cheap oil

News of oil price surge is nothing common these days. This is a no-return trend, whether people like it or not, just like globalization and global warming. These three phenomenon are intertwined and have the same root cause: limitless desire of lower to middle class people.
Jim Rodgers is one of the prominent advocates of preparing for peak oil, from pure investment opportunity point of view. He has been describing the trend in interviews and books (Hot Commodities) when few people, including the media, were listening to him.

I must admit that I find the press's behavior curious. They interview people like me because we're supposed to know things that they don't know, and then when we hand them news they can use they turn contentious.
Hot Commodity

Another useful insights have been provided by Matthew Simmons.
Thomas L.Friedman is frantically shouting that we should all go green. A well-made documentary on oil peak is updated on Youtube.

My guess - what will happen in the post-peak oil era

• The word "Peak oil" will become obsolete, since it becomes the fact.
• Amtrak stock soars, and people start to travel by train in the US
• Owning a car becomes even more of a luxury and sign of richness in Asia. Mercedes, BMW, Lexus will never become extinct.
• Every city becomes overcrowded, since people can no more afford long commute and start living close to the office. Few people convert their countryside home to their offices - staying alone in a house for whole day is not considered a luxury.
• Hong Kong and Singapore finally stops freezing the offices in the summer

Lust, Caution

Ang Lee's latest work is a beautifully filmed love story hidden under the layer or revenge, dignity, patriotism, and yes, lust. The movie feels a bit dull during the backstory scenes where I felt too much explanations were going, but overall the movie is in a word, classy.
Definitely worth the admission price, though in Taipei crowds were laughing and cheering at unexpected places, where I didn't find particularly funny - it is interesting to see how the same scene induces different reactions.
Apparently the sex scenes are not censored in Taiwan, probably paying respect to the Taiwanese director's vision - several minutes of one of the most brutal and passionate love making scenes in movie history, I guess.