Arrogant or Insecure? Hitching Rides with Buddha

Will Ferguson likes to ask the helpful yet hapless Japanese who offered him a ride, if Japanese people are arrogant or insecure. Most said insecure, some said arrogant and insecure. Finally he encountered Katsuya-san.

"Arrogant or insecure? Or?" He looked at me as if to say, Well, there's your problem. Perhaps the problem is in the question itself. "We Japanese," he said confidently, "are not arrogant or insecure, we are both. You know, it is possible to be insecure in a very arrogant way - and vice versa. Look at America. I have always thought that you Americans manager to be dumb in a very smart way. Very smart." (Note: Will is Canadian)

I initially thought he asked this in retaliation for all the "harros" and "zis is a ben" announcements by annoying brats and "Japanese is number one" comments from the equally annoying adults. He also likes to retaliate to patronising xenophrobes who compliment him on his people's (apparently all white people are Americans) girth, by coolly replying that it wasn't because they, meaning the Americans are big, but that the Japanese are ...

Maybe Will asked the question because he considered the Japanese a paradox. They politely, hospitably treat Will and include him in the group, and yet remind him now and then that he is a foreigner, that he is different. Will will always be an outsider looking in, no matter when he is carrying the shrine with them, soaking in the bath with them, or even singing "Diane" in the Karaoke with them.

I have to say that Will himself is a paradox, he resents the invisible wall and yet he also takes advantage of it as well. He doesn't mind freeloading on the free rides, the free food the drivers ply on him and even sneaks into a bar behind a group of salarymen, hopeful that they would notice and include his horny self in their play. He did succeed, but he did not manage to touch a free thigh, because the salarymen were only interested in drinking, singing, bitching about office politics (conveniently whoever was on in attendance) and in the vice senior supervisor's (he is higher ranked than the senior vice supervisor, don't ask me why) case, promoting everyone, even Will.

One of the funniest incidents in the book occurred when the very pissed (do not read: angry) inn manager in Hokkaido, Mr Saito, became very worried that Will would not be able to sucker anyone into giving him a ride (disregarding the fact that Will had already made it across land and water all the way from Kyushu to Hokkaido). In fact it is quite ironic how all the Japanese drivers who stopped for William are adamnant that other Japanese people would not stop for him. Mr Saito scrawled drunkenly on a cardboard, this message in gradually smaller script:

HELLO EVERYONE!

I AM WILLY FROM AMERICA.

I CAN SPEAK JAPANESE A LITTLE.

PLEASE TAKE ME TO SAPPORO.

I AM AN ENGLISH TEACHER.

I CAME ALL THE WAY FROM KYUSHU.

REALLY, I DID.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

I AM SORRY TO BOTHER YOU

let's be international friends!

The title was concepted from the Zen saying "If you meet Buddha on the road, kill him." According to the Ordinary Mind website, The idea was that the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, realised upon enlightenment that all beings are Buddhas, while the road is two-fold; the road outside where the road outside where we look outside ourselves for the ones who have all the answers, and the inner mind road, where we set up all the "shoulds" we must obey to turn ourselves into the Buddhas we don't believe we already are, but think we must become.

So "killing the Buddha" means killing or wiping out this fantasy image, and "the road" is two fold: the road outside where we look outside ourselves for the ones who have all the answers, and the inner mind road, where we set up all the "shoulds" we must obey to turn ourselves into the Buddhas we don't believe we already are, but think we must become.

Living without the omnipresent China

With the recent furore over China's dubious milk products, Yours Truly (who is very bored and about to do the "Cocker Spaniel" act) pondered on the mystery of human cheese, soya cheese (she is truly cheesy), and now she has read "A Year without 'Made in China': One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy" by Sara Bongiorni.

She, husband Kevin, son Wes, and daughter Sofie, embarked on a year-long crazy adventure of literally, trying to continue American consumerism while boycotting Chinese products and Walmart (her great hate for destroying family-run shops, landscape with their empty storefronts, and squeezing vendors) in 2005.

I would say it was a beautiful ideal, but an ideal it is. It is certainly not infallible, when Sara had to cajole her sister-in-law to circumvate her rebellious husband's demand of a play pool for the kids by giving him one China-made on his birthday. Often even when the product does not come from China, the box it came in was from China. And does one consider "Made in Hongkong" as "Made in China"? These were some of the many "trying" issues they encountered while crippled for gift ideas, resorted to a Mexican pinata, a tiny German doll and Taiwanese swords etc.

Apparently gifts, even though China-made, are acceptable, even very appreciated by the family. In fact the biggest obstacles often happen on the toy front. The children even subconsicously "monkey see, monkey do" copied their mother, by picking up toys in the shop and frown while saying "China". The irony was not lost on Kevin, when Sara's narration of her toy-starved children's antics at the mall to her friend, who cried and gathered up all the abandoned toys left in an empty hurricane shelter, and gifted them to her kids.

"Well, that's just great," he says. "We've become a charity for deprived children".

Like Sara concluded herself at the end of the year long adventure: "But is a lifelong China boycott what I really want? I am not at all certain that it is. On the one hand, it's been satisfying to learn firsthand that China really hasn't taken over the planet, or our lives, at least no entirely, although sometimes it looked that way, especially in the toy and electronics aisles and at the shoe store. Of course, we're not out of the woods yet. I have a feeling China is just getting started when it comes to world domination.

On the other hand, we have a broken blender, a stuck kitchen drawer and a television that's fading fast, all problems that seem to demand Chinese solutions, We are still boiling water for coffee in the mornings because we don't have a coffeemaker, and if we don't give up the boycott then maybe we never will. Lots of little things in life come from China: birthday candles, squirt guns, light swords. These are small, inconsequential things that cannot properly be described as important, but I'm not sure I'd like to live my entire life without them..."

Be Cheap, Be Creative 1 - Build your own Laser Tag

Wish one of the kiddos had done this at the Science Conference. The closest one I saw that is related to this was the velocity powered laser pointer.

Andrew Walbran (I seriously recommend you guys check out his website and other projects as well) has built his homemade laser tag. What you need appears to be a toy gun, laser diode, a PIC16F628A microcontroller and some misc. components.

Check out full details here, on creating your own Laser Tag.

Birthday Bento (also Happy Belated to Husky)

Well, turns out the birthday cake was a disaster, as usual. :) Rather than turning out like a cookie as always, now it suited the Midsummer Autumn theme by resembling a giant mooncake, or so I was told.

But these are the pictures from the bento I made for the picnic which we later got rained and "anted" on.

There is NO such Thing as Safe Searching

Yesterday I was searching for something on Google. The search results returned several legitimate looking sites. As is my usual won, I opened the first few under new tabs, and one of them actually directed me to another site where I was unwittingly attacked. My *ahem* blocked it and told me about it. However I do not trust that it has been resolved and have changed my passwords. Btw, I was using Firefox (a colleague has advised that I use a plugin together with Firefox to make it safer).

I decided to read up on it.

Guess what? This is what Jon Swartz and Byron Acohido said on USA TODAY in their 31st March 2008 article "Google Searchers could end up with a new type of Bug":

Cybercrooks are manipulating the computer code used to put the pizazz in millions of websites in hopes of taking over unsuspecting consumers' PCs.
The vulnerability occurs when someone does a Google search, then clicks on a result that has been secretly tainted by hackers. They will usually be taken to the Web page they expect. But at the same time, they are invisibly redirected to a computer server that installs a hidden program.
This program enables hackers to use the PC to spread spam and carry out scams. Typically, it also lets the attacker embed a keystroke logger, which collects and transmits your passwords and any other sensitive data you type online.
Any website indexed by Google (GOOG) that fails to carefully handle JavaScript — the coding that activates many cool Web features, such as changing the color of a button when someone mouses over it — is a potential target. That's seven in 10 sites, says tech security firm WhiteHat Security. Hackers have discovered ways to trick the website application to run malicious JavaScripts.
"We're in a phase where one or two smart guys are attacking a few dozen major websites," says David Dewey, manager of IBM's X-Force security division. "In the next few weeks I would expect to see copycats attacking hundreds of high-profile websites."

Attackers have secretly corrupted Google results that direct traffic to Wired, CNet, TV.com, USATODAY.com, ZDNet Asia, History.com and many universities, says Dancho Danchev, a Netherlands-based security researcher, and Finjan Software, an Israeli security firm.
Most Google search results are safe. But in March alone Dewey and other security researchers found several hundred thousand corrupted Web pages returned in common Google search queries. They fear crime groups have just begun to take advantage.
Google issued a statement saying it is helping affected websites fix the problem and is also developing new tools "to detect and block" malicious Web pages.
Security experts say consumers can protect themselves by keeping anti-virus subscriptions and software updates current. Running an anti-virus scan may help repair infected PCs, although more serious fixes may be necessary.
Spokespeople for USATODAY.com and Wired said each blocked the attacks as soon as they were discovered. CNet, owner of TV.com and ZDNet Asia, declined to comment. History.com did not respond to queries.
"It should be the responsibility of the website operators to stop exposing people to risk as soon as possible," says Billy Hoffman, a security researcher at Hewlett-Packard. Gail Hillebrand, senior attorney at Consumers Union, agrees.
Attackers have taken advantage of JavaScript before, but usually on individual sites. The search engine trick — which has been focused on Google, though it could work on Yahoo and MSN search engines — is new, Danchev says.
Attackers are thrilled "to capture even a small percent of the traffic" of a big site, Finjan's Yuval Ben-Itzhak says.