Ad Hominem

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

This is an interesting thing. I have finally found a word that describes one of my biggest pet-peeves with people.

for those whom don't know what this word means, and don't want to click the above link, allow me to sum up; Ad Hominem is when someone responds to an argument with an attack on a person's character or personal traits, rather than giving any reasonable counter-argument;

"I think abortion is bad because it is murdering children."

"Well, that's because you are a Republican."

Being a Republican doesn't make abortion good or bad. It has, in fact no bearing at all on the case stated by the person starting the argument. The problem is; if person A is, indeed, a Republican, what can he/she say? No? The argument is therefore stopped and person B "won"... but not for any good reason.

Why Guy, you may ask, did you post this in your Blog?

I'll tell you,

Ad Hominem is Latin for "argument to the man" or "argument against the man"...

More importantly it's Latin... Which has been dead for a looooooong time... this means that people were arguing Ad Hominem 2000 years ago.

No matter how many cars and planes and spaceships we have, humans haven't gotten any more complex in at least 2,000 years.

--Hominamiha!

And it's all well and truly over... Part one

Two things happened this weekend, and I want to talk about both of them in detail... But I haven't the time this morning, so I'll talk about the part that is easiest.

On Monday (Which was a national holiday here), I tested for NiiDan (Second Degree Black Belt) in Kyudo in the Capital. I passed (There were three from my dojo there, and I was the only one that passed). I am now, officially a NiiDan in Kyudo.

The important thing is; all of this struggling to get to the next test is over. The next test is in late May, after we return from Japan. Thus I can't test for SanDan (Third Degree Black Belt) From this point forward I can just maintain my skill. But it means no more struggling.

--Niidan

Beating the system

for the last three years I have had a real problem with Blogger. A long time ago it detected that I was in Japan and it decided to make all of my controls in Japanese.

With some fenagling, I figured out where the language section was and managed to switch it back...

But then it decided to cycle my computer's cookies. Which means that every month or so it "forgets" that I set it for English, notices I'm in Japan, and gives me all of my controls in Japanese... again.

I have to admit this has led me to not post as much... mostly because it's a real pain to figure out what all the controls mean (Remember folks, Japanese is one of the most difficult languages to read...)

Well, somewhere along the line I started using Google documents. I uploaded many of my projects to it so I could work on them anywhere.

Well, somewhere along the line, Google bought Blogspot... so my Blog suddenly appeared in my Google Docs mainpage...

In English... :D

I just discovered that using my Google Docs mainpage I can get to my blog without having to login (Which is good, I never remember which password I used for my blog, and since "Aabh" was taken, I had to login as "Aabhnormal" or "Aabhsent" or some other name which I never remember as well). AND it's all in English... an amazing accomplishment.

In other news; I go for my 2nd degree Black Belt in Kyudo (Niidan) on Monday... It's the last test I'll be able to take here in Japan (The next test opportunity will be a month after I return to America)...

I do have stories... but I've been archiving them to my "Memories" file, where I have been putting the kids real names in -I don't want to remember them as "Genki-chan" in 10 years- but since I've been doing that, I have to convert them back to post them here...

Time until NiiDan: 6 days
Time until End of school : 4 months
Time until Return to America: 5 months

The Telling of My Life

So, around about 2002 I decided that I would start trying to dig up any memories I had about my life and write them down. This was prompted by my sister and I doing my Genaology work. I had all of these people in my history who were simply names, a birth date and a death date. But we ran into one person whose letters had been preserved in a book. I thought how wonderful it was to actually read about him. He was a real human.

So, I started writing all of my memories down in hopes that 200 or 400 years from now my GGGGGGGGGGGGGgrandwhatever would find out that I too, led a boring life and all was right with the world.

When mom died and I realized I really didn't know a whole lot about her life before me, I was spurred to write more, so that my children might know about my life before them, if they were so inclined.

By complete error, however, I left the document in America. Much to my chagrin.

So I started a new one here in Japan, and I guess I'll just merge them together when I get home.

I had a stroke of inspiration, however, and decided to copy the stories I have told here on my blog into this file, changing the names back to their real names so that I will always remember them (I can't post them on a public blog)

I just finished copying all of them over from here, and, in combination with what I have already written over the last 3 years, the file is now a whopping 67,810 words long, some 125 pages in Word... This is not including the stuff I wrote in America that needs to be merged in...

MAN I am long-winded.

I take a certain amount of pride in knowing that somewhere, in the deeep, dark future, my ancestors will be put to sleep by my writings :D

-memememememememememememememememememe

A great Man...

Has passed. Michael Chricton, author of Jurssic Park and Andromeda Strain, died from cancer Tuesday.

He was an accomplished author, and director, writing Andromeda Strain while still in medical school.

But he was also an amazing storyteller, and that is what I admired.

He will be missed.

Okay, last political message...

I am a patriot.

When my government says: "Honest, we had a reason to invade another country... and it wasn't oil! And no, we won't show you what that reason was, it's Top Secret! Stop saying it was Oil! Yes, we are making money off of Iraqi oil, but that wasn't the reason!

"I know we have made a lot of other blunders and have been caught lying in the past to you, in this case -honest- we didn't lie." That makes me stop and worry.

When they add; "Believe us or you are not a patriot!" I get scared.

And, really, you should, too.