Thoughts on the Tea Party

I suppose it's already been said somewhere several times before, but I think the Tea Party movement will fail, due to:

1)The unwillingness of its members to become a national movement (or anything bigger than a community, maybe a district-wide movement), which destroys any real chance of creating a viable, well-funded, system/paradigm-altering third party.
2)The willingness of its members to tolerate (either actively or passively) the interview-happy nutjobs who mug for the camera during or after a media event – this might just be an unwillingness to silence the loud minority in the midst of a murmuring minority.
3)The blindness of its members to the repercussions of their beliefs and, more importantly, the actions they push for. It's like watching teenagers smoke.
4)The hypocrisy of older members, who, in order to join this movement, would have had to either support past political trends (through fervor, ignorance, or apathy) or simply allow them to happen through inaction. (I find it ironic that it took the grassroots nature of the 2010 presidential campaign for the current Tea Party to find its balls and method.)
5)The ignorance of younger members (and quite a few older ones) to the actual workings of government.
6)Its overemphasis on the “size” (meaning “scope”?) of government, the admittedly occasional assumption that numbers alone are important (the US government presides approx. 308 million people in 2010, while employing less than 2.7 million federal employees according to the census – claims of elitism would be more appropriate for a ratio like this), and the belief that it is too intrusive. The Chinese government is “too intrusive”, and to them WE look “too intrusive”.
7)Its inherent selfishness – or to put it another way, its locally-centered theory of government – which explains the first point. American society has grown more insular after the '90s, and this point might just be an evolution of that.
8)The belief that the current government has strayed too far away from the original intent of the Founding Fathers. I agree, actually, but the Founding Fathers were more concerned with trying to keep the new country above water – bad as things are, that's not the case now.
9)The belief that the financial side of the government could be run better, while admirable and accurate, would require an expansion of the section of government (the GAO, I believe) that covers it, which is inconsistent with the “smaller gov” goal.
10)The willingness to dehumanize the opposition (considering a machine consisting of 2.7 million federal employees only as the single machine of government, decrying the liberal bias inherent in media, “Liberals”, etc.) - but this is a self-absorbed problem endemic in modern society, rather than just the Tea Party movement or any one political/social faction.

Their heart's in the right place, but their actions are at odds with reality.
And, because I have some time, some suggestions:

A) Conservatism in American Politics is basically dead – you don't elect Conservatives to office anymore, you elect Republicans. Stop pretending it isn't and work with the system you have.
Aa) Same goes for Liberalism.
B) Your heart's definitely in the right place, but you're not watching oncoming traffic and the future. Start.
C) If the government really is that intrusive, change it rather than reduce it. The only things that grow better when no one's looking are wilderness and cancer – which makes a better Free Market?
D) Doesn't matter if the media has a liberal bias – telling someone they're a jerk or a genius typically won't change the fact that they're a jerk or a genius. Stop wishing for better coverage and make it yourselves – are you or aren't you civilized adults?
E) In the last 15 years or so, the nature of American media and society have interacted together to poison the political system. Educate yourselves – turn off your damn TVs, read the damn laws, and have civilized conversations with people you don't agree with.
F) Electing 15 dyed-in-the-wool Tea Party-friendly members of Congress will only stop all progression/regression and force constant stonewalling, if not encourage even more compromising of values than there already is. You will accomplish little without going national.
G) Regarding E) – C-SPAN is your friend, and so is C-SPAN2. Try to understand what you're reading or talking about.
H) Emotional reactions to problems make them worse. How often do you see relationships fixed by an angry couple yelling at each other? Or societal problems fixed by a twenty-something's blog?
Ha) And how many couples like to be characterized as always fighting? If you don't want to be characterized by the one really loud, really drunk guy, what should you do? Let him be loud and drunk when the media needs an interview?
I) Seriously. Calling everyone that doesn't agree with you a Liberal doesn't make you look smarter or right (see (Aa)). Instead, go classic! Start calling them racists, homophobes/homosexuals, communists, nazis, commu-nazis, commu-spam-nazis, commu-spam-spam-nazis, spam-commu-spam-spam-nazi-spams, conservatives, feminists (no, better not – that would make you look chauvinistic or hypocritical depending on your gender), pinheads, sheep, sheeple, Protestants, Satanists, Un-American, or even the dreaded “Whig”. Be sure to laugh at them when they look at you like you're crazy.
Ia) Speaking of which, what's this “Democrat Party” I keep hearing about? Is there a “Republic Party”?
J) NO ONE WANTS HIGH TAXES. Stop acting like this is an unrevealed truth the faceless politicians ignore. (Also, taxes are the fee you pay to call yourself a law-abiding American.)
K) There's a worldwide recession going on, deficits are going to be a given, and just because you have a job doesn't mean everyone does. No one you support will be able to fix the Budget in the short-term (without bankrupting us further on down the line), and things are never so bad that the current deficits are insurmountable – or is 2 years all it takes to stop believing in the American Spirit?
L) For the last time, he's American, and you should be ashamed if you automatically know who I'm talking about.
M) How'd YOU like to be stopped on the street and asked for your citizenship papers? (Although, if you “lose” them or “forget them at home”, try Rick's Cafe Americain.)
N) There's a saying – if everyone tells you you're drunk, you should sit. Just because you think you're right doesn't mean you are.

Yeah (sunglasses). My stomach's been acting up, so I had to take yesterday off work. Also, Rachel's cat died, and she needed a shoulder. Still need to call my grandparents. Should do that now.

Thoughts on... Teaching English

I've been teaching English in Hiroshima since October 2008. It's impressive, apparently, that I found the job after arriving in Japan (August 2008) and settling down in Yoshida. (Yoshida, Akitakata City, is roughly 45 kilometers from Hiroshima, close enough to commute but still far enough out to surprise anyone living in the city. As the number of languages in the link might indicate, no one is too surprised to see a foreigner here - no more than "hey, a new guy.") The commute is anywhere from 75 minutes (train + taxi) to 90 minutes (train + bus on an average day), but on Friday evenings it's 110 minutes (train or wait time + the 9:45 bus from the bus center 20 minutes from the office). The one thing I really don't like about the job is the commute. I gave serious thought to living in Hiroshima City (rather than Hiroshima prefecture), and there's a few apartments in Kabe that would do, but then I'd have to live apart from Rachel. So I live in Yoshida.

(Kabe is the suburb that serves as a halfway point between here and there - it's technically in Asakita Ward, but given that Kabe Station has a longer Wikipedia entry, I find it easier to just call it all "Kabe". Which is inaccurate, but oh well.)

I find the job itself difficult, with a ridiculous commute that only makes my frequent stomach problems worse. No, the work itself isn't hard, and I can count on one hand the times I've had actual problems with students (and even then, they're my fault). I enjoy working with my coworkers, and talking to people/students from different walks of life. But I have trouble adjusting to another person's pace - their likes/dislikes and interests, their rates of speech, their ways of thinking, etc. - and so my lessons tend to vary wildly in usefulness when there's more people. I can adjust fine to 1 person, up to 3-person groups, but any more and it gets difficult. Throw in a spread between the abilities of the highest and lowest students in a group (this is, very occasionally, a large gap, through no fault of the students), and I tend to start lecturing or speaking faster, to try to cram in as much lesson as possible in 40 minutes. Result: one of the main complaints against me is that I speak too quickly, and this is the main reason used to fire me...

(The full story behind February 14th being my last day is: My performance isn't as high as it needs to be, and while my circumstances include good reasons to keep me on board, after a year of plateaued improvement, it's easier to cut me than continue to employ me. ...which should come as no surprise to anyone I've talked to in the last year or so. I was originally going to be fired, and my last day was going to be Jan. 31st, but I tendered my resignation at the same time. I wanted to end on Feb. 28th, they wanted to fire me on the 31st - we compromised, and my last day is Feb. 14th. No surprise, no acrimony; it's my best "firing/quitting" yet.)

It also became a worry of mine that students weren't actually learning anything new in my lessons. About 6 months or so into the job, I started making an effort to make sure everyone learned something new. (Correcting pronunciation/sentence structure/etc. when possible, explaining the use of language in the textbooks rather than just teach it straight or through repetition, write and leave lesson notes with as much detail I can manage - the theory being that, even if I speak too quickly, someone can learn something from what I wrote... Whether or not the notes work isn't clear to me, but it's something no one's ever complained about - my handwriting notwithstanding.) People paid money to talk to me; I have to try and make sure I'm worth it.

Bearing in mind that I'm usually not very good at social things, I think I've done pretty well overall. The job has forced me to work with people, and I think I've grown considerably because of it. I look back fondly at the people I've met, and while I've always had trouble finding past successes (I can find my failures with ease, however), I at least know they're there. I have improved as an English Instructor in the time I've worked there, but I realize I don't have the innate talent to be a good teacher. I doubt if I'm a bad teacher, though.

It's actually started snowing as I write this. About what you'd expect for a town in the mountains (altitude: 120 meters?), but it's been unseasonably warm this past week. One more post coming up soon...

Thoughts on... SD Gundam game series

A new section for me, where I get to geek out! Yeah. Long time, lazy blogger - is my excuse.

So there's this TV series - anime - called "Gundam", right? Produced by Sunrise, sponsored by Bandai, usual tie-in stuff. Giant robots, piloted by military types, used as weapons of war similar to fighter jets and tanks. Good show, ran for 39 episodes? In order to fill plot holes and assign fridge logic, radar is made mostly ineffective by a certain zero-rest-mass particle that also powers compact helium-3 fusion generators - giant robots that are invisible to long-range radar, and must be confirmed by other methods. But I digress.

The original show kicked off a series that runs to this day - I find that they get more and more commercial (literally! - a certain handheld game console shows up in a recent one) as time goes on - which tries to be the "realistic" Giant Robot Show(tm) on TV. But, mecha means models, and models mean the designs are specific, which means they can by used in a video game.

This takes me to the SD Gundam series of turn-based strategy video games. I own SD Gundam G-Generation F for the Playstation, and more recently SD Gundam G-Generation SPIRITS - I'm going to review them here, for your reading pleasure.

SDGGGF was released in 2000, about when I first got a PS - in fact, it was one of my first games, the other being SRW Alpha. The gameplay was pretty basic overall, but its selling point was the inclusion of virtually every Gundam-related mecha thus far, up to and including side-stories, manga-only stories, and Turn-A Gundam. I think it was the first to include the excellent Crossbone Gundam, and gave us the rockin' Crossbone Gundam Battle Theme.

It also tied into a certain collectible card game, through which the player could construct new units using 7-digit codes found on the cards (and - very easily - online). There was also a multiplayer mode and a single unit tournament mode - both of which could be abused to gain credits (you could do an mid-game save just before winning during the multiplayer, win, then the money would go to your system save. Open up the mid-game save, and repeat...). This made the game easy in terms of unit acquisition, and thus far more about playing/grinding through the strategy part of it. Because it used two separate save types, the amount of units you could have was... pretty high.

SDGGGF suffered from a few flaws, though. There's a particular story called The Blue Destiny. The units featured in that story rely on something called the EXAM System - in the original story, this gave the pilot using it empathy on a psychic level, allowing them to seek out enemy pilots directly without having to wait for visual confirmation, very frightening if you think about it - but in-game this is simply a certain attack pattern. There is also a stage in this story, where the main character has to take out an entire (nuclear) missile base by himself. In the novel, this is accomplished relatively easily, as he is an ace pilot in a high-end Mobile Suit with a special System built into it. In the game, this is bloody near impossible (too many enemy units spread too far apart, with a time limit besides) and the player has to back him up with a battleship of some sort.

Clearly, some of the game mechanics needed work, but it was otherwise something I spent many, many hours working on - beat the game, but because there are so many distinct units it's very difficult to get 100% of them.

And then there's SD Gundam G-Generation SPIRITS, capitalized because it looks friggin' cool like that. PS2, but limited to the Universal Century series only. No G-Gundam, Gundam Wing, etc. - and Turn-A appears to be the final boss. The included units are severely limited, probably due to physical space issues, but the graphics are leaps and bounds above SDGGGF - full voice acting as well, with some limitations due to certain voicers having died (Suzuoki Hirotaka especially - yes, Starscream = TenShinHan in Japan).

The multiplayer mode has been removed, the card game code system has been removed, the tournament mode has been removed, most of the side-story units have been removed, the duo save types have been removed - it really begins to feel like they put a Dalek in charge of programming (EX-CISE! EX-CISE!), until you see what they included to make up for it. The game has been made smaller and tighter, and the capital you earn in-game is based entirely on how much damage your units do.

Virtually all units can be rebuilt into another unit once it gains enough experience (where previously, about a third were fairly limited in their rebuildings), which means it's considerably easier to fill out your database. A lot of the combinings (works out to: the schematics of units A and B combined yield the schematics of unit C), especially the ones involving Turn-A Gundam, make annoyingly little sense - example: G-3 Gundam (Magnet-coated joints to improve response time) + Zaku II = Act Zaku (high-performance Zaku w/Magnet Coating). Act Zaku can't be combined with any other unit, I think, and the only way to combine up a G-3 involves Turn-A. Of course, it's simplest to say that they _never_ made any sense in this game series...

But, again, someone in Bandai's Customer Service dept. was taking notes, and this is a much tighter game all-round. It's gameplay-centric, so the challenges are now in figuring out how to get 7 units in one place at once, so you can rack up credits with Overkill (in essence, every unit is now worth a certain amount of credits. Killing it gets you those credits. Ganging up on it gets you a bonus, as does getting a critical hit in. Doing more than double the enemy's total HP gets you another Overkill bonus, as does triple, quadruple... all the way up to ten times). Oh, and the maps are designed around Mobile Suit-scale - larger units take up more space. Battleships are now _very_ unwieldy, but they (and most other non-group unit on the map, friend or foe) slowly recover HP and EN.

Which brings me back to the Blue Destiny test of playability. The BD units now have the EXAM System as a separate transformation in addition to their Magnet Coating - meaning they go from an overpowered-for-its-time MS to a slightly-underpowered God-o'-war at a whim (balanced by the system's increased energy consumption). And this time, someone read the novelization, played the game it was based on - Yuu Kajima can now one-hit Zakus, and single-handedly take down a missile base, with the game very emphatically refusing to allow your forces to help. There is still no time limit on the system (originally necessitated because overuse would cause the MS' armor to _melt_, even in space), which means it can be switched on at the end of the player's turn for the evasion bonus alone. No complaints here!

So yeah. I rather like SDGGG SPIRITS, if only for the name. It's an awesome name - you make anything 3x more awesome by adding SPIRIT(S) to it, kinda like "Char Aznable's Personal/Customized..."