Here’s a little sci-fi/geek cheer for you all: Happy Towel Day and Happy Universal Day of the Jedi!

Towel day is a tribue to Douglas Adams, the creator of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (H2G2) – the radio series, the tv series, the book and series and the inspiration for the movie! H2G2 has been on of my favourite book series for almost a decade now.

6 years and 2 weeks ago, today, Douglas Adams died. Unfortunately, he was in the middle of his newest novel, The Salmon of Doubt. Luckily, for us fans, what he did write was published among many other short literary works of Mr. Adams in a book of the same title.

Also, today marks the 3oth anniversary of George Lucas’ Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

I remember first coming to the internet. I didn’t even have a computer! I was using WebTV, now MSNTV, which is an ISP which broadcasts internet through a reliever to your television set, rather than a computer monitor, and can be controlled with a remote control and a remote keyboard.

WEBTV was also a client (similar to a program) and as soon as you are connected, you don’t look at something similar to a desktop on a PC but, rather, the WEBTV home which includes access to several built in features: search, profiles, homepages, chat (which connected to TalkCity) and e-mail.

Despite this, there are several limitations such as the fact that you couldn’t actually download anything and there were no actual programs to use so, oftentimes, when I needed to type up a paper for school I would use WEBTV and search for a website application which functioned like a word program.

However, for someone who wasn’t a serious web user, WebTV was perfect. There was no computer or hardware to purchase or take up extra space; you could use your regular television set and simply turn off WebTV and tune into your favourite channel. You didn’t need extra programs because all of the basics were provided and your profile contained all the information and tools you needed in one hub.

However, if you wanted to expand your horizons, you were SOL. Unfortunately, I soon wanted more than just the basics and WebTV just wasn’t going to cut in anymore. I wanted to do more with my webpage but saving web content was a hassle and more trouble than it was worth because WebTV didn’t come with a hard drive. If I wanted to communicate, there were no real time options, really. I could use the built in chat or e-mail or, what I would more frequently do, was use HTML based chat such as the former sites The Park and WBS.

We kept WebTV for a while longer before eventually purchasing a PC. Sometime before we upgraded, however, an awesome new feature was added to WebTV, probably because of a merger or buyout with Microsoft: IM! And it wasn’t any crappy IM service, either; it was MSN Messenger which allowed you to communicate with any other buddy on MSN, even if there were less features supported.

This was great because now I cold have real time conversations with my friends while I was browsing the internet, sometime that was unheard of before. WebTV didn’t have the option to minimize a window or multi-task very well so this addition was absolutely ground breaking.

Granted, WebTV users like myself could use options like emoticons so our conversations were laced with letters in parentheses – like so (6) (a) and half of my replies were “What emoticon is that supposed to be?” but it did represent a huge leap forward and helped make WebTV a more viable solution for at-home internet services.

From then on, I probably spent much more time online than I should have because I could actually talk to people! MSN Messenger has since been my favourite IM service, probably because I knew it first and best. And when we did finally buy a PC, of course I had to download MSN Messenger to use on there!

For those who might be interested, I think a fair deal of issues with MSNTV have now been sorted out. Modern MSNTV has storage similar to a hard drive which makes accessing files much easier. You can also view MSWord and Adobe PDF files as well as listen to streaming music with a media player. Furthermore, the newest version of MSNTV– MSNTV2 – can be hooked up to a home network with your PC and even utilize a mouse!

All of these characteristics, old and new, make MSNTV a perfect tool for many internet users to integrate into their homes.

I haven’t experienced a lot of culture shock since being in Japan. People expect me to and they expect me to have hilarious or horror-filled stories about my time here but I just don’t. part of that has to do with our location; we are pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Like Wausau, my hometown, this is farming country. Off base, there’s a lot of countryside filled with fields. There are no shopping districts around here. No big city, no night life. People aren’t dressed outlandishly. It’s just a working community.

I’ve only ever seen 2 or so traditional Japanese buildings and one of them was a museum. Many things are constructed similar to the way I’m used to, save for the roads which are smaller. On the outside (and even the inside in many ways), Japan looks like any other place I’ve ever been.

However, I also think the lack of culture shock can be attributed to the fact that Japan is a modern country which seems to be doing its best to assimilate, to mimic the developed western-world, most specifically the United States. Perhaps, since it’s advanced in many technological areas, it’s not Japan mimicking the USA but the other way around.

Things just work in the same manner, some things are even easier and more up to date. There’s a lot of electronic things which seem to make life easier and i’ve noticed that most Japanese airports are slightly more advanced than American ones. There’s more machines and electronics and less human interaction and, surprisingly, there seems to be less computer problems. LOL

Many things are only slightly reminiscent of traditional Japanese culture. In fact, I think the one thing that still may work in a more traditional fashion is the language, which I do not speak.

Most of the differences have been geographical. Obviously, Japan is a much smaller country than the USA and more mountainous. In fact, you can even see them from our balcony. Unlike home, there are many cherry blossoms here but I’m not sure if they’re here naturally or planted on base symbolically because there’s just so many. Unfortunately, i think they look much less pretty close up than they do in pictures.

I feel a bit disappointed in my experience here but i always feel as though I am disappointing people by not having stories.

I could tell people about the hole in the ground toilets or the ones with the bidets but then I’d have to admit i’ve never used either one because I’m such a chicken.

Hopefully this all will change in a few weeks when I go to Disneyland in Tokyo with Wendy and perhaps will have the chance to do some shopping, see more traditional and more unusual characteristics of modern Japan and its people.

So if you were wondering about Japan, I haven’t much to say. I think it’s definitely difficult to experience new and exciting things in a rural area of a country which tries so hard to be like everywhere else.

I have never, in my life broken a bone. The most serious injury I’ve ever incurred was a sprained ankle. I’ve probably had more than one but I’ve only ever been to the doctor once and, yes, that did include x-rays. Aside from that and some nosebleeds, I’ve never been to the doctor for anything more serious than feeling generally crappy, needing a check up or annual pap smears.

I’ve never had major surgery though I did recently have an abscess which became infected and I had to have cut open, drained and filled in. I’ve never spent the night at a hospital, that I can remember nor have I ever caught the chicken pox, mumps, measles, mono, bronchitis or even poison ivy.

I might add that, because I’ve never had the chicken pox, I was never vaccinated until last year (on my birthday) after I was tested and found that I was not immune to it. My mother always joked about how she would put me in a room with infected children so that I might catch the chicken pox to prevent me from catching it at a higher age and the effects being more serious. I believe that my sister, Amanda, not only caught it, but caught it twice!

One might consider me pretty lucky in that respect and, I’ve come to understand, something of an unusual specimen.

However, I have been plagued over the years with 3 issues: nose bleeds, strep throat and ear aches/infections.

The aforementioned nose bleeds are not a regular occurrence anymore but I used to joke about having them in seasons which was probably pretty accurate because nose bleeds are much more common during the dry, winter months. My nose bleeds first started being an issue around the time Amanda was hospitalized and the doctors were worried that they, too, were a result of the cancer-like blood disease which she had contracted. Luckily, they were not.

They escalated to the point where I’d visited the emergency room and the walk in at the local clinic. I was simply told that I was a “bleeder” and given a sheet of instructions to try to prevent nosebleeds and, in the event that those steps didn’t work, to end them quickly. I’d heard a million different home remedies to deal with them. Of course, as the way things go, most of these tricks usually made the nose bleeds worse and, when it comes down to it, the best thing is to just hold your nose consistently closed for 15 – 20 minutes and maybe apply ice.

Strep throat and earaches haven’t bothered me in a while but I would have them consistently as a child. Many times I would cry myself to sleep because my head was pounding and my ears were burning. Usually, it was not from infection and often I was given ear drops and told to put cotton in my ear(s) which was a little to no use.

In the case of strep throat, I’d take antibiotics, I guess. I remember that one time I had some great strawberry flavoured pills which weren’t actually supposed to be flavoured but I wasn’t complaining.

In my “adult” years, my most common ailment is headaches which might actually be migraines and I regularly take over the counter and prescription medicine to remedy them. Unfortunately it doesn’t always work.

Admittedly, I am surprised I am as healthy as I am considering my less-than-healthy lifestyle but I figure I’m on par with just about any avenge American and I’d rather be happy and unhealthy than miserable and healthy.

I am American. I cannot say, with certainty, that I am proud to be American or that I love my country, but still I am American. Contrary to some belief, I do not hate it nor do I wish undue harm to the USA or its people. However, I do not wish undue harm to any country or its people so that notion is not saved solely for the country of my birth. I suppose that, in many ways, I am complacent and a bit indifferent to the country of which I am a citizen. Better than some alternatives, no?

There are some (very vocal) people who have a much more negative view of the USA. These people are both citizens who live within (and outside of) its borders are well as those who are foreign. Some of those who choose to voice their complaints have never even set foot on American soil. To me, this seems like a rash judgment. How can anyone know the inner workings of a country, a people or a government without experiencing it? But, that is not my point.

A lot of those who have a bone to pick with America feel as such because the “system” has somehow done them wrong. I cannot deny this. The “system” is not perfect; none ever is. I doubt anyone could ever be truly happy and satisfied with the system, despite his or her country of citizenship. There’s just no way to please anyway and by allowing freedom of speech, as our constitution does, allows for those who are unhappy to freely voice their discontent – a privilege which they might not have anywhere else. So while I may not be entirely happy with my country, I realize I probably have it much better than others and I’d probably come running back in a heartbeat if I had to “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.”

On the other hand, there are a lot of people who are just as outspoken when it comes to their love of and allegiance the USA. Indeed, both groups have their extremists and ignoramuses who would bring shame to the moderates of each group, respectively. These tend to be the most outspoken and, regardless of their stance, do a fair job of making the USA look bad.

Americans have always been loud (and disrespectful). Hell, the very foundation on the country was in part due/related to this specific “character trait.” Unhappy in/with England, we made a big stink out of it and eventually wound up at war with them. In fact, our civil war was just both sides of America being loud about their beliefs to the other and one might consider it “unique” in that it wasn’t over religion, like many civil wars often are. But that, again is not my topic.

Loud Americans, who are often loud in disrespectful ways, do not save this noise for only other Americans or keep it in check outside of American borders. No, Americans display this attitude to everyone, everywhere in spite of or perhaps even because of the reactions and ramifications this behaviour might receive.

Unfortunately, the view of Americans and the USA that many nations and people hold is only due to how we represent ourselves as a nation and a people and, even more unfortunately, I often see this behaviour in my fellow Americans living abroad.

I am not the most respectful person and I often make mistakes of etiquette simply by accident, because I do not think enough before I act or speak. And, sometimes I do or say things regardless of what others will think because I simply don’t care but I’ve tried to curb that mindset while in Japan. We are in someone else’s country and we have no right to be here. We are guests and it is still their land, their laws, their way.

Just because we are from “American the great, America the beautiful” doesn’t give us the right to abuse the generosity the Japanese (and countless other countries) have shown us by allowing us to have military stations here. Furthermore, we are here for their protection as much as we are here for ours. Because of restrictions we have placed on their military and arms, no matter how justified they may be, Japan (and other countries – can you say Germany?) is left defenseless against close enemies such as China which is coming into its own technologically and North Korea which is a potential threat to numerous people and nations. Recently, the political powers of Japan have expressed the desire for better self defense against these and other potential threats. Additionally, these potential threats toward Japan are only increased by American occupancy. Where Japan might not be a target or priority, attention is more focused on it because we are here.

Let us not forget that one of the most compelling reasons for the Japanese-American alliance and relations is because we owe it to them because of our previous actions. IE the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII, an act which many, including myself, find reprehensible and look upon gravely. No matter how we might have justified it at the time, I do not condone it and view it as a great mistake, a tragic mistake which ended many and ruined countless more Japanese (and may I say – indirectly – American) lives.

Just the other day, I was riding the shuttle bus home after work. Along with myself, was a group – 6 or so – of high schoolers. Now, it’s only been 3 years since I’ve graduated and I know that teenagers are among the loudest, the rudest and the most ignorant bunch of Americans there are. I know because I was one and remnants of that are still visible in my personality. However, the behaviour this particular group exhibited was beyond was is acceptable and has crossed the line into what I would consider punishable.

It started as a complaint (a very loud one, might I add, as I had my mp3 player on the entire and still could not drown them out) amongst themselves about how a bus driver had once kicked them off for dancing. Kicked off for danger which could potentially put yourself and others in bodily harm should the bus need to stop suddenly or, even worse, be involved in an accident? For behaviour that, even though your own, the driver would probably be held responsible by your ignorant American parents? GASP! NO WAY! But, as Sav says, all teenagers have a feud with bus drivers. That’s just the way of things.

But it didn’t stop there, sadly. One kid went on to explain how the others should stop fighting because whenever they did, the driver would look bad (logical, to me). The others said who cares, which led one to exclaim that they shouldn’t talk about the driver behind his back. Of course, someone replied that he probably didn’t even speak English (which, I believe he does) and went on to mimic him in poor English with a “faux oriental” accent.

To add insult to injury, the kids then labeled all the Japanese drivers (and perhaps all Japanese people) as “fucked in the head” and possibly as a result of the bombing of Hiroshima. It ensued to the point of one kid saying something along the lines of “Remember Hiroshima? Boom! You fucking retard. That’s why you’re fucked in the head.” If I were the driver, I think I’d not only kick the kids off but try to get them banned from the bus, at that point. When I say shuttle bus, it’s actually a large 15 person van but small enough that this conversation could easily be overheard by anyone.

I was close to turning around and screaming at this group, if not something worse. Didn’t they realize how ignorant they sounded? Didn’t they realize that this behaviour was the exact reason that foreigners look down upon Americans and think that we are stupid?! Fortunately, I did not yell. I did not throw anything and I most certainly did not bash in any skulls. But I wanted to. Luckily, I realize that my behaviour would not have been any better than their own and while I may not always show it, I am better than that.

Unfortunately, their behaviour is probably spawned by behaviour they see in their own parents and other adults who are equally as disrespectful and ignorant, if not worse, when it comes to Japan and Japanese people. I am so sick of anti-Japanese sentiment. Who are we to massacre these people, build a military base (one of several actually) in their country, to impose restrictions on their military, to use their restrictions and expect their compliance – all while badmouthing them and spreading racism and ignorance? Who are we to expect that our place here should go undisputed? Who the hell are we to expect safety in any country that is not our own? Who are we?

That’s right, we’re American. And all that is dishonourable about us, is only magnified amidst the militarism and patriotism which is so prevalent here. Maybe I shouldn’t talk because, as everyone so eloquently puts it, I knew what I was marrying into or maybe I really am one of the few who sees that we ought to be behaving better and be better representatives of our country when we’re abroad. It wouldn’t hurt if we did the same at home, actually, but I don’t want to be too optimistic.