Monthly Archive for November, 2007

Letters to Nana 3

Published
by
aaron
on November 16, 2007
in Letters to Nana
. 2 Comments

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This is the third letter in the series of letters to my Nana In which I review a paper I had written for a seminar several weeks ago concerning getting to know Japan.

Unfortunately, I am a rambling mess. Hopefully this at least gets us thinking about some ideological differences between how ‘Western’ notions of the individuals are different than those of the Japanese. Fear not, there are many more rambling entries to come I’m sure. (Also, here is a blog post on this same topic that I hope might clarify a few things I’m trying to get at.)

There is also some discussion of my upcoming backpacking trip through the Kansai (Mid-west) area of Japan.

 
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On Freedom of Will

Published
by
aaron
on November 15, 2007
in books, language, recommendations and thoughts on...
. 1 Comment

Warning: Long and Convoluted Reading Ahead

What is freedom really? What does a person mean when they say their freedom is impeded upon? What do we mean when we talk of government (the verb, not the noun)?

This of course relates to the most “Introductory” of “Intro” questions “Are we as human beings in control of our own will, or are we determined by our biologies, god or some other higher control?”. I would say that how you answer this question relates entirely to several issues we’ve touched on so far. Namely, the question of ’something rather than nothing’, and the majority of the ‘A Cat Named Schrodinger‘ series that looks at epistemological foundations.

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A podcast I’ve been listening to for some time now is Philosophy Bites, which is a short philosophy podcast that is very well produced and well presented. As an aside, far too often ‘philosophy’ podcasts, blogs, etc. are too whimsical, mild and broad (the present company included!). Bites is a short and concise presentation of an idea or notion or thinker often by someone who has committed a great deal of their own work to the topic at hand. I highly recommend this as it stays true to the tradition and the academic pursuit itself, in the format of a kind of interview or seminar.

On a recent edition of Philosophy Bites was Quentin Skinner and his attempt to define the state by way of Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan. The reason I bring this particular discussion up is not for any specific contention with Hobbes, or Skinner’s interpretation, but that it is all together a typical and well presented view of ‘the State’ and what we typically think it means ‘to be governed’ thereby making a case for how we typically view the notion of freedom, and freedom of will.

Hobbes is the grandfather of the liberal democracy, and furthermore this idea of Leviathan is the foundation of all social and political philosophy thereafter. Also, for the upcoming Letters to Nana I’ll be discussing the idea of ‘Social Contract‘ and ‘State of Nature‘ at length, and this might help with some clarification. (Although, saying that it is by no means required listening. These are very accessible ideas!)

… Continue reading ‘On Freedom of Will’

tumblr: The Blue and Brown Crumpled Balls of Papers

Published
by
aaron
on November 14, 2007
in recommendations and tools
. 0 Comments

You may or may not know of The Blue and Brown Crumpled Balls of Papers, an aggregate of junk from RSS feeds, and/or any other item of interest one might find at random. I only suggest this out of hope that you might find it somewhat stimulating in your quest to ward ‘the boredom’ off.

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this is powered entirely by ‘tumblr‘, one of the easiest and (just recently updated) slick-looking tumble-log interfaces I’ve come across. Not only will it import any feeds from your Twitter, or blog, it also works seamlessly with Google Reader’s Shared Items (see the post on Google Reader if you missed it).

This is an easy way to keep track of items of interest, and share them in a larger space. It’s also a great ‘lazy blogger’ tool. Do you have friends (or family) who send you endless ‘FWD:’ emails? Random pictures or embedded youtube clips on your myspace? Instead of putting them in your ‘almost spam’ folder, try recommending a tumble-log instead. I’m fairly sure tumblr is a perfect tool for them, free, easy, and it makes your junk look half-presentable.

Support the Writers Guild Strike

Published
by
aaron
on November 8, 2007
in thoughts on...
. 3 Comments

Prepare yourself for several weeks/months of horrible reality television, and crappy crappy movies. Man the interwebs, torrents full-speed ahead.

The WGA, or Writers Guild of America is the figure head of two unions; the Writers Guild of America East, and Writers Guild of America West. Both of which, as the single front ‘WGA’, are on strike.

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As the title might suggest, if you’re looking for an un-biased perspective on the strike, you’ve probably come to the wrong place. Not only because I don’t think there is such a thing as a truly objective perspective (see the ongoing Cat Named Schrödinger series) but also because I feel like I’m watching the superbowl, or federal election, or some other huge spectacular event. Two of my favourite things in the world; Socialism and New Media are hard at work as we speak.

… Continue reading ‘Support the Writers Guild Strike’

Letters to Nana 2

Published
by
aaron
on November 6, 2007
in Letters to Nana
. 0 Comments

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This is the second letter in a series of letters to my Nana.

In which, there is some discussion of my being sick, and how children are a bit dirty. Also, a teaser of my discussion of social and political theories of the Japanese social system.

As well, Don, my brother-in-law-but-not-really-in-law is visiting me for a month, and there is some discussion of him sharing limited space with me, what we’ve done over the weekend including the Daidogei festival in Shizuoka (which is near Hamamatsu), and what our travelling plans are for November.

 
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WWOOF - Willing Workers on Organic Farms

Published
by
aaron
on November 5, 2007
in japan and travel
. 0 Comments

In looking for inexpensive ways to live, eat and survive in Japan while travelling or on my weekend’s downtime, I’ve discovered the WWOOF organization. Now known as “World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms”, WWOOF is a membership based group of farms and workers who have an interest in trading man-power for food and shelter.

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I’ve heard of WWOOF from friends in Canada, but was surprised that my friend Rhonda from Australia, ad fellow English teacher here in Japan, has been involved with them for the several months she’s been here. I had no idea that Japan had such a large population of independent farmers. Of course, it makes sense that there would be more independent than not, and more organically grown food than not, but one typically thinks of Japan as ‘uber-industrialised’ and therefore more ‘factory-farm’ oriented. Apparently, this is not at all the case. Perhaps, given the small land space, there is more opportunity for those farms with smaller areas.

A membership to WWOOF costs 5,500 Yen and lasts for a year. Each host has specific rules and regulations, but are all nicely organized and catalogued on the main WWOOFJapan website. If you plan on travelling Japan this might be a nice way to do some tourist-y things, and take a day or two to work in the dirt, get fed and well rested. Also, if you already live here, it might be a nice idea to take a few weekends away from the concrete and Rhonda recommends that it’s a wonderful way to learn Japanese.