vale[ blog ] diary of the last hollow soul

Okay, this is simply hilarious. On friday i'm going home, so i started cleaning my room (again). This only means that finally i put all my clothes on the shelves and threw out the half-rotting heap of garbage. (Naturally, dish-washing is left for tomorrow.) I usually have such a pile in my room somewhere, simply because i try to keep all the junk separated (combustible, plastic etc), and i don't have enough trash cans around (or simply i'm too lazy to get out of my chair to throw away that…). Well, that that is the key. Most of the garbage is plastic or paper: packaging. I don't know how this goes in other countries, not even at home, since most of the stuff i'm buying and/or eating here were kind of natural, i didn't have to think about it. Example: Halls throat candy. I eat a lot of that nowadays, because i don't want to get ill, which goes all too easily in this time of the year (although the girl at the barbershop today told me that she was over the new flu in three days, which really means three days considering the insane level of japanese health care). Buy one: have the candies, wrapped in paper. Put that in a bag. And inside the packaging have each candy wrapped in plastic foil. Or: butter (it's not actually butter, but no idea how it's properly and usably called). Not counting the bag they hand it over, a paper box, the plastic box of the butter, and a totally useless paper sheet. Might be i'm just overreacting, but i feel like japanese would do better if they first cut the tremendous junk output (less waribashi are an example of that), and select the rest. It's all nice doing the selective trash collection, but there's still looong way to improve. (And not only the environment, i'd be happier as well, less junk.)

I don't know what are the banking agreements between Japan and the United States, considering what a fan japanese are of the US, i wouldn't be surprised if they had some pact similar to the EU-USA agreement. But i don't like this thing. Where's privacy? Is against terrorism becoming the same kind of slogan as for the socialism was in the last century? Seriously, people! At least i'm somewhat relieved that on this occasion (apparently) Hungary displayed some independence and didn't vote (exceptionally nose not in the big boys' ass), although i'd have favoured it if we'd voted against it. It's a nice thing to share banking data, okay, have the whole world data in one place, okay, one step closer to planetary union, but heck, this thing is not reciprocal! As far as news sources covered it, the States will have access to EU banking data, but EU won't have access to US data. I'm considering opening an account in some offshore bank possibly without such restraints. I hate to be monitored. Especially if i'm not even notified of that fact.
Change of subject, there's a really funny little detail about the otherwise terrible south philippines war. The islamic rebel organization is commonly abbreviated MILF. Thus, in the Philippines, MILF rebel. If you don't get what's funny about that name, Google it.

The power of America. Where is the culture that could at least withstand the amazing pressure from the States? I mean that now the world's too concentrated there. The official stars of popular music are the stars of the american scene, enough to check last.fm for the most popular bands, and in the very top, i always see those bands i've only heard the name of, but don't know how or when they popped up. Maybe, i'm just not keeping up with music news (very true, i don't really know any good global music news website that could tell me about the stuff i need—be it from Europe, Asia or America), and only know about the bands i listen to (also true). Or is it that last.fm is american as well, so they only focus on their own market, and also that users from other countries use it lot less, thus can't really be considered significant?
The same way i was wondering what's with the huge hype around Apple. The States' got tired of the Microsoft monopoly, so switched to Apple? How clever. Instead of turning in an open direction, use the even more closed computers ready-made by Apple (not to mention i don't like their user interface). Nevertheless, i considered buying an iPhone now that i became twenty, but again, no way. (For now.) I couldn't get one (luckily) in april, when i came here. I'd have bought one then, but i don't have a normal credit card, nor was of age then (here), not to mention it's expensive, so it would've been kind of troublesome. Now i was wondering if i needed it—and concluded: no. I'm not using all the features of my current small, dumb and cheap phone, why would i need the almost-computer possibilities of an iPhone? I hardly talk on the phone, and when i'm texting, i like to do it quick. It's pointless. Rather buy a new, high-end laptop next year for the sake of Starcraft 2.

I don't believe in luck… said a then-little kid in the youth camp of our church many many years ago. It struck me, and i remember it ever since (the sentence continued … i believe in Jesus Christ, but that's not the point of this post, however beautiful a creed (is this the correct word? i know it in hungarian and japanese, but not english…) it is). I agree. There's hardly an objective thing called luck. It's just us, no other thing. As displayed in for example the sixth Harry Potter book, the Half-Blood Prince, one doesn't need external boost of luck, the placebo effect will do just the same (though rather have a bottle of Felix Felicis on you if you're going to duel to death). Further proof of that is that when you're down, the world's against you as well, and vice versa.
There are times when i think what it'd be like if i stayed at home. I'd be studying programming on second year, i'd probably be researching artificial intelligence, neural networks and cloud computing, work on getting an advanced language exam in german and an intermediate in spanish, and that's kind of all of what i could think of. I absolutely have no idea. Sometimes i think that coming to Japan with this national scholarship was a mistake—but as for now, i'm happy. In april, a great thing happened to me.

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