Topics

January 14, 2010
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First, i have three topics for my report and presentation—though i have no idea what to write about for economy or politics. The presentation is definitely linguistics, about the origin of languages and how could totally unrelated languages have very similar words with similar meanings. For the report i have two, either artificial intelligence and neural networks, or philosophy, my own view on existence, in an ontological sense. Just have to choose one of them.

I realised that simply whatever i choose, it will end up a huge work to research, simply because if i want to do it well about a topic that i consider interesting, then it won’t be simple. Especially if (as in case of the linguistics stuff) i have to say it simple in the end. So i don’t care, will do all the work needed, will do it as good as i can (except if i get fed up, which i very much hope won’t happen).

A bit different topic, but it occurred to me while going to kombini for milk, that as humankind has the six degrees of separation, how many clicks could it take on Wikipedia to get from any article to any other. I really wonder.

Actually, one similar concept was invented by a mathematician with the same family name as mine, although not a relative, Paul Erdős. I think this is handy, as i can use the Erdős-number myself, with me being the center, number zero.

The male chauvinist

January 13, 2010
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It all started with a video a friend (who’s not online right now, and might mind having his/her name published) sent me, with Dick Masterson talking about his philosophy, and i find it really… intriguing that whenever i show it to a girl, the reaction is the same. One tried to tickle me to death. One started her comment with a “nice” vulgar sentence in all capitals. I’m not going to details. Still, it made me think.

When a guy stands up and preaches chauvinism, every woman, intelligent as well as brick stupid, get angry, shout, kill and so on. Now when a woman starts to preach feminism, like two highly attractive women in the Politically Incorrect talk show, intelligent guys at least say “yeah, you’re right”. (Then have a nice round in bed and prove the chauvinist theory that way. Joking here.) Of course there are guys who get angry, and smash in the face of that woman.

Actually, in the second part of the earlier linked Politially Incorrect video, some intelligent arguments can be found. Carl Jung’s anima and animus for example. Michael Moore has the point i wrote about above, of “just nod, just agree”.

If someone happened to ask my opinion, i don’t care. I don’t care about being better in this stereotypical way, i don’t place myself higher than others based on their sex (i do place people relative to myself based on my experience and opinions). It’s sure nice to hear a guy stand there and say all that stuff, simply because it sounds nice to the male inside. That doesn’t mean i think the same, it’s just pleasing. Just the way feminists’ fights are funny.

Polc

January 13, 2010
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A polcom. Leírás a folytatásban.

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Queen of the wild frontier

January 13, 2010
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In this week’s episode of the Series, here comes Kings of the Wild Frontier by ~pairofparentheses. I’m running out of comments. It’s a great pose, a nice girl, a good photo and beauty in focus.

First

January 13, 2010
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School’s not out, sorry Alice. It just started, and i’m not sure how to think about it. I surely didn’t get back to that fast enough gear for school, so it’s no surprise i’m a bit—and luckily, as for now really just a bit–behind myself (is that a huge giveaway that i always type “mysql” instead of “myself” first? yeah, this time too).

Today was fine. The presentation class is held by the center-chou (bad habit, it’s so easy to say it this way, much easier than to go around what’s her position’s exactly called, let’s say, the boss). Before i didn’t really like her… she just didn’t seem nice. But actually no worries, she’s all nice and shiny, though i’m sure she can get mean if someone goes “bad student”. But there was a lot of free time in class, i mean, it wasn’t actually free, we just weren’t doing anything worthy of mention, just going over the same stuff over and over again. I hope that’ll change later, this way i’ll have to bring something to read… (Twilight?)

The afternoon pol-eco class was about the COP15, global warming, climate change, the Climategate scandal and other related topics. It was quite interesting. Adina did a presentation about the topic first, after that talk-talk-laugh-talk. A bit too long.

Table tennis training was fun, i had a nice five o’clock white tea with home cookies and highland shortbread, but didn’t study any practically… I was instead reading papers that may relate to what i’m going to write about later this term. (Examples include one about gravity and information (pdf) and one on the ontology of non-Euclidean geometries. There are more.)

And midday for like half an hour, it was snowing. First time i see snow in Japan. It wasn’t enough to leave a mark, but still, it made me smile bright.

Starbucks Sumatra drip

January 11, 2010
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Yesterday while waiting on the (wrong) station, i sat in for a coffee, because why not, and i could sit down to read for a while comfortably. So at Starbucks 大船 (Oofuna), i got myself a mug of hot drip coffee (though i usually only drink espresso), made out of Sumatra blend. (Later the day i had another, that time from House blend, but i can’t write about that.) Actually i forgot what was its name so i had to look up the store and call them asking, which i could do, so i’m proud of myself right now. I don’t know what my next pack will be after Gold Coast, but i’m considering Sumatra as well. I must’ve looked strange, a big foreigner guy with dreadlocks, reading Twilight in japanese and taking notes about the coffee on the back of the receipt.

Sumatra was a really nice coffee to drink. It’s well roasted, as expected from an extra bold coffee. First, it has a taste like popcorns. I guess that’s the “buttery” they’re always talking about. Also a lemon-like sour taste, which makes a really nice contrast. It might’ve been just because of the drip, but felt really soft, and a bit of unexpected acidity. Every mouthful tasted somewhat different–i don’t know how that’s possible, but it really did, almost felt like some spell on it. It had the same or at least very similar aftertaste as the coffee my parents are drinking all the time. It had a very thick body, leaving a mark lasting for a surprisingly long time, but not unpleasant at all. Even though, again probably because of the drip, it felt somewhat thin. Nice choice it was for a day’s hot coffee for sure.

Starbucks Gold Coast blend

January 11, 2010
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Again a Starbucks coffee, and probably not the last. Note that i can hardly feel any smell because my nose is as dry as the nose of a dying cat, because the air in my room, although i’m humidifying it with boiling water, is as dry as i haven’t felt even in desert (been to one). I chose Gold Coast as “next one” when i bought Kenya.

Gold Coast’s steam has just the same smell as it’s main taste, strong and somewhat bitter. The dark roasting is very clear. If someone had to find something bad in it, that would be an interesting bit in the smell, which one could say is the same as the idea of children’s hated medicine.

Upon tasting it, it’s just as coffee-bitter as expected from the smell, and although its body leaves a nice feel, it’s not as thick as i would’ve thought. It doesn’t have any extreme flavours, it’s a really nice mix of coffees from all around the world, and tastes just like a coffee should. The taste itself is cold, and because of the dark roast somewhat burnt, which along with the official description mentioning Chicago, brings out the image of a burning oil barrel under a bridge. Although this sounds quite negative, the warmth of coffee and the thought that it’s all from around the equator makes it a coffee i’ll like to drink for the coming few weeks until it runs out.

What to sing?

January 11, 2010
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It’s not an easy question for me when we’re going to karaoke. There are very few people who listen to or just at least appreciate the music i listen to mostly, the usual favourite being the “recently” emerged country, indie or “myspace” pop, call it however you want. And there i go, with unlimited amounts of rock, metal, punk, alternative and all the progressive versions of these, with some electronic, a few indie songs and even those are either of a totally unknown past Chicago indie band or from the selection i got from my exchange partner there. There are a few “must do” songs, the two sure being Hot dog by Limp Bizkit and Nellie the elephant by the Toy Dolls. And there i am, with two whole songs for a whole night. Usually i start going all over my “mixed” playlist, which has songs that i love though the music’s not my favourite kind, simply because these songs tend to be more popular.

And then, a few times ago i realised one more thing. I just have to go back six years, and i can find songs that people know, or at least can sing along: six years ago was the season of blink-182, Sum 41, the Offspring or Green Day, just to mention a few. I still sometimes listen to blink, and occasionally look up a few songs of Offspring on Youtube, but it’s no more in my usual (although in the case of Offspring i’ll try to make it again so). But these are easy to sing, popular, catchy, and i don’t care if someone joins and messes it all up (i do mind that in case of my favourites, like Fear of the dark, which still i try to put on every time), and noone will hate me for singing “songs that no one knows or cares about” (even if that’s unproved by millions of plays on last.fm). Interesting to note, that although the style is quite similar, Rancid is already “underground”, no one sang along when i had Red Hot Moon last time, though that’s pretty catchy too…

Karaoke made easier.

Javított kiadás

January 11, 2010
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Egy pont volt a versenyen, amire igazán büszke vagyok. Egy fél pillanat, amire teljesen máshogy emlékszek, mintha valami másik emlékezet idézné fel. Éles, tiszta, mindenre kiterjedő emlék. A látvány még az, ami a legkevésbé teljes, egyszerűen azért, mert változik a fókusz, és csak az van. Ellenfelem legtöbbször tenyeresre adott nyesett szervát – valószínűleg ez is hozzájárult a csúfos vereséghez, mert a tenyeres nyesésem… hát nem az igazi még (meg nem esett le, hogy azért mennek magasra a visszanyesett labdák, mert a szervájában alig van spin, így lehetne pörgetni…).

Egyszer aztán sikerült normálisan visszaadnom, és nem is tudta egyből visszapörgetni, úgyhogy kicsit meg tudtam ugráltatni: egy nyesett balra ki, hadd fusson, vissza jobbra, aztán amikor azt valahogy visszapöccintette, fonákból egy olyan csattanós fajta lecsapás. (Eredetileg vissza akartam nyesni, de aztán menet közben rájöttem, hogy az neki tenyeresre menne, onnan meg vissza is tudná pörgetni, úgyhogy félúton változtattam a mozdulaton, és az ütő hegyével való visszaemelésből lett az ütő hegyével való visszapörgetés (vagy ahogy magyarul hívják a “drive”-ot – bár az about szerint inkább “loop”, de én már japglish-t beszélek).)

A srác rámnézett, és nagyjából a “akkor miért nem mindig így játszol?” vonalán kérdezett valamit, csak költőien (és vulgárisan), két szóban. Ez után kezdett el máshogy szerválni, nem tűnt fel neki, hogy az új fajtát sokkal könnyebben visszaadom…

Vonatozás, Akihabara, Kichijoji

January 11, 2010
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Ahogy jöttem haza Kamakurából, sikerült olyan vonatra szállni, ami Tokyo állomásig végig elvitt. Nagyon nem volt semmi kedvem hazajönni, amiben a szombat este nem egyszerűen blogolható eseményeinek nagy szerepe volt (maradjunk annyiban, hogy elég váratlan, és mint utóbb végiggondoltam nem feltétlen pozitív irányba csúsztak az események, volt benne előszoba, sporttáska, hajnal kettő, a többit nem akarod tudni), úgyhogy Tokyotól továbbmentem a Yamanote vonalon Akihabarába, ahol még nem jártam, pedig aki ismeri Japán “kötelező látnivalóit”, az tudja, hogy a rámhúzható sztereotípiák alapján a fél életemet ott kéne töltenem. Értem is, hogy miért.

Akihabara két emberfajtának maga a paradicsom lehet: az egyik az elektronikamániás, akinek legalább egy PS3 van az XBox és a laptop mellett, hatvankétcolos képernyő, satöbbi; a másik az otaku. Ez utóbbi akár magyarázatra is szorulhat, de én kevés vagyok definiálni. Maradjunk annyiban, hogy az életét inkább éli a mangák valóságában az ilyen hím, mint a valóságban. Hihetetlen mennyiségű szemét van nekik, csináltam néhány kiemelkedőről képet is, most töltöm a telefonról a gépre a mai fotókat, úgyhogy nem kell soká várni rájuk. Az egyik legjobb egy “nyuszibolt” címszó alatt futó rózsaszín valamilyen üzlet volt, ahol a nyusziság annyiban merült ki, hogy két, természetesen természetellenesen magas hangon nyüszögő és nagyon cuki lány régi stílusú (majdnem kínai fajta) japán öltözethez nyuszifület rakott föl, úgy állnak a kiszolgáló ablaknál). Persze az utcán is sok “maid” álldogált, nagyon alázatosan, otaku-izgatónak szánt jelek ezrével invitáltak mindenkit – valahova, hogy hova, az soha nem derült ki számomra.

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