It Never Stops, Still Going Hot, it's a Stingray

One of things I love most about being back stateside is working on motorcycle in the garage with the radio blaring rock n' roll. I didn't listen to the radio too much in Japan, but now that I'm back in the States, if I have wrench in my hand I've got rock in my ears.

It was during a wrenching session that I heard a totally insane song called "Stingray." I had no idea who sang it and I had no idea what in the hell the rockers were saying-- except for the word "stingray" haunting the chorus.

I kept singing that one damn word over and over in my head. There was something primal and vicious about the way the singer said that brutal word. Stingray, the word triggered so many images in my mind: a Corvette muscle car; a graceful terror of the sea; and just the pure sleekness and danger inherent in the word itself. A true word, one that expresses its meaning in a vacuum.

I spent the better part of an afternoon searching the web for the song. I came up with some bizarre results, mostly from the 80's when oceanic exploration and imagery ran rampant through American culture. After hours of surfing the stingray-less waters of Internet music charts, my fascination only grew.

Later on the evening whilst playing pool (the game of kings) with my buddies from work, I named my two man team "Stingray." My partner wasn't too thrilled about the moniker at the time, but after we swept the floor with the competition the name stuck. There's something 50's about it, something 80's about it, something hinting into the unknown future about it.

My friend was picking songs at the digital jukebox so I asked him to search for a song called "Stingray." He found it. Static X sings the song, and team Stingray marches the green felt of the pool table to its terrifying refrain.



The video really ties the song together, like a nice rug. It has all the elements needed in a kick-ass hard rock video: a psycho styled lead singer, a trollish bassist, a smoking hot and highly temperamental babe, a muscle car, hints of sex; all set in an abandoned crack house. High octane, neo-primordial symbols of chaos, destruction, danger, and coarse toughness. When I listen to the song I redline the throttle in my brain and I feel every surging blood cell speed through my tense muscles. That's what rock n' roll is about: venting the will to power--the ultimate aim of every organism.

Hawgs of Texas

This past April my father and I headed down to south Texas for the annual "Hawgs of Texas" motorcycle rally held at Welch Park at Somerville Lake. It was a wild time full of the 3 B's: bikes, babes, and beer. An amazing time was had by all despite the turd-floater rain on Friday night. It was my first motorcycle rally and one that is tough to beat-- at least as far as the second B is concerned. Below is video I made from the "clean" pictures of the rally. Enjoy... and next year leave your golf carts at home.



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As a side note, I'm very disappointed with YouTube and the greedy music industry for muting all videos using unlicensed music. I originally set the video to The Doors "Roadhouse Blues," an amazing song that fully captured the mood and atmosphere of the rally. However, when I uploaded the video with "Roadhouse Blues" onto YouTube it was muted. YouTube sent me an email saying a violated a copyright. What a load of bullshit. I could understand if I was making money off the video but I'm not. This is just another example of the music industry cracking down on audiophiles with the hopes that the public will spend $18 on a CD with only one or two decent songs on it instead of listening to, or downloading, those songs freely on the internet. Shame on you Warner.

Book Smarts Podcast

My first semester as a Texas Tech student wrapped up nicely and I have a slew of new skills for display, both in the classroom and here on my blog. The final project for my Instructional Theory and Design class called for a learning podcast for classroom use. My podcast aims at improving reading comprehension and enjoyment by teaching people how to read better using their hands.

I chose to illustrate a learning strategy because I think teachers spend to much time assigning homework and not enough time teaching students how to improve the skills needed to complete it. A study found that less than 10% of teaching time is spent teaching students how to improve their skills in a given area. With that said, please enjoy my prize-winning podcast dedicated to helping you read better.



This podcast was entered into the Texas Tech podcast tournament open to all students and spearheaded by the Colleges of English and Education. Six winners were chosen from the thirty plus entries to move on to the Digital Sandbox podcasting tournament which is being held this summer. I'm very pleased that my podcast, as monotonous as it is, was chosen for advancement. If you have iTunes you can listen to and watch the other entries on Texas Tech's iTunes University page.

Compost Happens (and smells like $hit)

I've got a wooden box in my backyard that smells like shit. No, I'm not talking about the outhouse, I'm talking about my compost pile. Even though composting is a stinky hobby, it gives me great satisfaction knowing that I'm keeping reusable stuff out of the landfill.

I had the idea of starting a compost pile while working in the kitchen at my part time job. Over the course of a lunch rush a lot of little bits of food fall on the floor which get swept up and thrown in the dumpster. Tired of seeing all this food go to waste, one day after sweeping the line I put all that waste into an empty pickle bucket, closed the air-tight lid on it, and brought it home for composting.

Composting the process of decomposing organic matter in a controlled way. Decomposition happens naturally in forests and other wild places, but in the city it takes a little effort on our part to occur. The goal of composting is to combine left-over organic matter so that it creates bio-matter, a scientific term for good dirt, which can then be reincorporated into the ecosystem to help plants grow harder, better, faster, and stronger. In a way, compost (the finished product of composting) is like a nutrient rich super fertilizer that can be used with almost any planting application.

I left the bucket on the porch for about week while I went around town gathering discarded shipping pallets that most businesses toss by their dumpsters. After gathering enough pallets I set to work breaking them apart, cutting the pieces to size and building the frame and side slats. Using discarded pallets as material for a compost pile is not only free, but it also keeps those pallets out the landfill as well. It's reusing wood to help reuse organic matter.

My compost pile roughly measures 3' x 3' x 3', and has slatted sides and a chicken-wire back which helps with air flow (an extremely important ingredient in composting). It only took an afternoon to complete the build and only required a hammer, nails, and circular saw for construction. Later I'll hinge the side so I can easily access the finished compost.

Ingredients

There is a whole science to composting which can be intimidating if you lose sight of the fact that you're just making dirt, albeit super dirt. Ideally, a compost pile should have a 3:1 ratio of carbon to nitrogen. Carbon materials (browns) include: dry grass clippings, dry leaves, sawdust, hay, paper, and cornstalks, just to name a few. Some of these materials are difficult to find in the home but should be included in a good batch of compost. To boost the carbon matter in my pile I use sawdust, shredded office paper, and collected dry leaves.

The nitrogen (greens) half of the ratio is much easier to come by in the common home. Most vegetable and fruit wastes work great for composting, but stay away from meats and dairy products. Another great source of nitrogen matter is coffee grinds and tea leaves, as they decompose quickly and are fine in consistency. A general rule in composting is to break the matter down into as small of bits as possible so that beneficial bacteria have plenty of raw surface area to attack. So any matter you use in your compost, whether it is a carbon or a nitrogen, should be chopped into small bits. No one wants clumpy compost.

So far in my compost mix I have grass clippings, sawdust, leaves, and office paper, balanced with waste food from the restaurant which includes plenty of veggies and some bread. I also added dirt to give the mix consistency and some earthworms from the tackle shop, though the worms aren't required. Along with adding food to the pile, I turn it each day with a pitchfork (which adds to the "I'm a farmer, I work the earth" mentality) and add water to the pile.

Although I've only been composting for a week now, there's already a variety of insects like flies, ants, and worms dwelling in my pile that aid the decomposition process. A compost pile is a miniature and controlled ecosystem in itself, and I'm happy to give these beings a free source of food. Composting places me in symbiotic relationship with the material in the pile and the beings it feeds.

If you're tired of filling landfills with food scraps and grass mulch, I highly recommend composting. All these materials we usually throw away can be used to create nutrient rich planting soil which reincorporates waste into the ecosystem in a beneficial manner. Sure the process may be a little stinky, but it definitely smells better than a landfill.
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If you're interested in composting check out the compost manual.

地球は僕の下に

後三ヶ月、新しい好きな歌を見つけた。今月の好きな歌は８０’ｓの音楽です。テレビでこのビデオを見た時にすごく元気くなりました。歌の名前はMajor Tom Coming Home、ピター・シリングが歌う.ピター・シリングはドイツ人ですから、最初にドイツ語原文の歌を聞きます。このビデオを楽しんで下さい！



すごいだいよね！声うまい、うまい、うまい。

次に英語の訳を聞きましょう！



素晴らしいーーい歌！皆さんこの歌を忘れないよ。僕がドイツ語ぜんぜん分かりませんだけど最初のビデオのほうが好きです。あなたはどちのほうが好き？
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もしい日本語を読めなればそれは大丈夫ですよ。その上僕があまり日本語書きません。

On the Behavior and Health of Organisms

My Instructional Theory and Design class keeps me pretty busy these days making photo-essays and narrating videos on educational theories. The following video deals with the theories of B.F. Skinner, the lead figure in psychological behaviorism.

Skinner is a polarizing figure among educators because his research and subsequent theories focus solely on observable behaviors, and the powerful role reinforcement plays in shaping those behaviors. Skinner's theory in a nutshell (or in a "skinner bed") follows these lines: to achieve a desired behavior it is essential that proper reinforcements are used to encourage the behavior.

Skinner's research was interesting to say the least. His experimental animal of choice was the common pigeon; the "fresher" the better. He also experimented using rats, but he really loved his pigeons. Based on his studies he found that if you reward desired behaviors the organism will continue to do them because of the positive consequences. The question is knowing which reinforcements will motivate the behavior. Skinner solved this tough question simply by depriving the pigeons of food until they were operating at 80% of their normal body weight. I suppose after a good starving any animal would peck a dot or push a lever for a bite.

Skinner's theory of behavior makes perfect sense; the problem is figuring out what kind of reinforcement will allow students to reach the teacher's behavioral aims. In the following video I try to show how Skinner's theory operates, but I also ask an important question which I do not feel Skinner ever answered, namely: what makes a reinforcement positive?



In the video, the behavior I'm struggling with is studying. The cigarette acts as my positive reinforcement (or reward) for my work. Skinner's analysis of the video would stop here. What I seek to show in the following pictures is that my positive reinforcement actually interferes with the behavior it is supposed to encourage--the studying. Not only that, an addictive behavior begins to form: smoking, which not only interferes with the studying behavior, but has aversive consequences upon my health (the coughing). Now I need a need a positive reinforcement to counteract the smoking behavior which was meant to encourage my study behavior. And the cycle continues.

My conclusion: positive reinforcement must encourage the desired behavior and be healthy for organism doing the behavior; otherwise the adverse side-effects of the reinforcement interfere with the desired behavior (along with poisoning the organism). Of course Skinner never had to worry about figuring out what kind of reinforcement to use; he just deprived his subjects of food, and for some reason I don't think school districts would go along with that kind of teaching method.
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I like this picture because Skinner actually made a pigeon-guided bomb for the U.S. Military. The "pigeon-guided bomb" proposal was rejected; but its development demonstrated Skinner's awesome ability to shape pigeon behavior. Imagine a world with pigeon-guided bombs...

Washinomiya Shrine: Animated Animism

What I loved best about visiting Japan's shinto shrines was that everyone's welcome. It doesn't matter what you believe or what you're praying for; you may not even know what god you're praying to anyways. That's the beauty of shinto: everything has a spirit, real or fictional. And that brings me to this piece I wrote almost a year ago about the amazing happenings at Washinomiya Shrine, the oldest shrine in the Tokyo area which was only a 6 minute walk away from my apartment. I sent this piece to the editors of two of Japan's leading English newspapers and never heard back from them. So finally, after almost a year of procrastination, I'm publishing the piece myself for my greatest fans.

Anime Craze Enriches Small Town Washimiya
J. N. Burrus


On April 6, 2008 over 4000 anime fans gathered at Washinomiya Shrine to walk in the fictional footsteps and meet the real life voices behind the Hiiragi sisters, the lead characters in the smash anime/manga Lucky Star. The event was held at the shrine but organized by the Washimiya Chamber of Commerce. The festivities came after Mayor Kenji Honda made the sisters “special town residents,” solidifying relations with the anime series and easing the locals’ anxiety about the visiting fans and cosplayers. The huge event brought devoted members of the anime sub-culture to the conservative small town that is relishing the attention, and the business.

“Washinomiya Shrine is a sanctuary for anime fans,” said Lucky Star fan Masashi Yamada, 29, an apprentice kimono maker from Washimiya, Saitama. Yamada was thrilled to see so many fellow fans welcomed to his local shrine. The event celebrated the animated sisters’ official, albeit special, residency status. The mayor’s gift of citizenship signals a new milestone in the unfolding relationship between the townspeople and fans. The same fans that were once thought strange and stereotyped as otaku are now welcomed by city officials and marketed to by businesses lining the roads to the shrine.

Visits to the shrine skyrocketed after the popular anime magazine Newtype released an article detailing how to reach various Lucky Star locales around Saitama in August of last year. The article called the locales “holy places” and Washinomiya Shrine is, hands down, the holiest place of all. Though most at this latest Lucky Star event hailed from the Tokyo area, some fervent fans made pilgrimages from Osaka, Fukuoaka, and even Hokkaido to attend.

Long before becoming the home of the fictional Hiiragi sisters, Washinomiya Shrine was famous for being the oldest Shinto shrine in the Kanto region and home to Saibara Kagura, a Heinan period ritual dance that is designated an important national cultural property.

At first the townspeople didn’t know what to make of the “strange” anime pilgrims drawing cartoons of big-eyed girls on the shrine’s prayer tablets. Every so often a handy fan will make a mega prayer tablet and fill the thing full of high quality work. These pieces are true works of religious art, most of them at least.

While the prayer tablet manga adds a modern touch to the ancient shrine, not all the pilgrims express their fandom with markers and wood. After all, an anime sanctuary without cosplayers is like a church without a choir. The cosplayers (people dressed in costumes playing like they’re anime characters) show up wearing red school girl uniforms and neon pink, blue, and purple hair just like the Hiiragi sisters and their animated friends.

Despite the appearance and practices of the fans, the locals are warming up to them, or at least to their wallets. Tape a Lucky Star poster on your shop window and watch business boom.

In a highly successful move, the town Chamber of Commerce printed up 10,000 crisp color copies of the Hiiragi sister’s “special residency certificate,” put them in a Lucky Star poly-folder and sold them for 300 yen a pop. The certificates went on sale just before Sunday’s event outside Washimiya Town Hall. Commerce head Shozo Suzuki said that on the first day alone 2,763 copies were sold raking in 828,900 yen. 1,000 more copies were sold before lunch the following Monday to late coming fans. [That's $11,000!] Sales will continue until all 10,000 certificates find homes.

Washinomiya Shrine has never been so active. The first Lucky Star event held in December gave fans their first chance to meet the Lucky Star voice actors. This first event brought over 3500 people to the shrine and helped spread the shrine’s name around just in time for the 2008 New Year’s celebration. Suzuki stated that over 300,000 people worshiped at the shrine this past New Year; almost four times the previous year’s 80,000 visitors. 2008’s New Year’s attendance is especially staggering considering the town’s population only sits at 34,866 people.

The influx of visitors to the town’s greatest (and only) landmark worried townspeople at first but shrine priest Hideo Watanabe said they haven’t had any problems with the non-traditional visitors. Just the opposite is happening, instead of bringing problems and worries to town, anime pilgrims bring prosperity and a sense of unity to the shrine and the surrounding community. Watanabe is glad Lucky Star fans feel welcome at the shrine because “a shrine is supposed to be a safe place for all people.”

Watanabe had no theological hang-ups about the secular event held on shrine grounds as "the most important thing,” he said with a glowing grin, “is that people are visiting the shrine and learning about its long history. That’s good for the heart.”

His words were right on target. Throughout the day I spoke with many fans that aside from being Lucky Star aficionados have also become shrine historians and armchair Shinto theologians. Local fan Masashi Yamada gave me a tour of the shrine where he told me the details about everything, from the shrine’s ancient ritual dances to the gnarled old trees planted by rulers past.

While showing me around the shrine Yamada also told me his interesting anime theology. “In the West,” he explained, “you have the word ‘animism’ which means that everything, rocks and trees and so on have spirits. That’s what Shinto teaches. Anime works the same way because it makes still images move, it gives them life and spirit.” Yamada doesn’t just watch anime; he engages it in depth.

Yamada is not the only one expanding his knowledge. On the organizational side of the event, Suzuki of the Chamber of Commerce said the shrine’s growing popularity among the anime community inspired him to start reading the comics too. Everyone is curious about what is happening at the shrine - both in the comics and in real life.

The Lucky Star events held at Washinomiya Shrine mix Japan’s modern anime culture with its traditional cultural heritage like no place else. The encounter between these two worlds enriches, both financially and spiritually, anyone who is willing to look past stereotypes and open their mind to something different.

Washimiya machi is located in northern Saitama just one hour north of Tokyo on the Utsunomiya Line. At Kuki, transfer to the Tobu line and get off at Washinomiya station, the first stop after the transfer. Washinomiya Shrine is a ten minute walk from Washinomiya Station on the Tobu Line.

To learn more about Washinomiya Shrine and its Kagura dances be sure to visit the shrine museum located on the second floor of the town library located across from Town Hall.

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Here's a video showing all the Lucky Star "ema" boards. These boards are bought for 1,000 yen ($10) and are traditionally used for writing prayers on. The boards are left at the shrine keeping one's prayers close the gods. In the case of Lucky Star fans, many of them use them to draw their favorite characters. See, real or fictional, everything has spirit.