If you’re going to be a winning poker player, you must be mastered in the art of deception. And, depending on how good your opponents are, we’re talking deception on many levels. Of course, most winning players are looking for easy money, and playing against people who think about the game and their opponents on any other level than a basic one is a good way to bog down the whole money-making process. So, it’s often just come as you are at the money tables. By this, I mean straightforward ABC poker with a little deception thrown in to throw off any other sharks that might be lurking in the game you’re playing.



But, if you think about it, good poker players are natural born deceivers. No, I don’t mean to imply they’re all of questionable character. Not at all. But, if you’re naturally good at keeping secrets and manipulating others, poker tables are some of the best places I can think of to put such skills to use.



To say that someone is difficult to read, or is just plain unreadable is to say that the person is deeper than most, having many layers that need to be peeled away before discovering his or her true essence. Of course, if you’re a beat cop, you probably need to do a lot of generalizing in order to do your job efficiently. Sitting in a patrol car and trying to think of ways the guy in a business suit walking down this side of the street might be planning some fuckery, while ignoring the guy with tattoos on his neck and fingers, carrying a backpack, and peering into random car windows on the other side of the street is not good police work.



Labeling you’re your peers is a difficult endeavor at best. I mean, how can you feel confidently that you’ve got someone all figured out if that person is your peer? He or she is supposed to be your equal, right? If you think you’ve got the ability to ‘read’ this person like a book, aren’t you really saying that you somehow have an advantage over him or her? Maybe you do have an advantage, possibly through experience.



But what about someone who was once your friend? Or lover? I mean, unless you’re the kind of person who chooses friends or romantic partners based on their susceptibility to being manipulated or deceived, you likely thought at one point that your friends and lovers had at least as much depth and substance as you.



Am I wrong here?



If I’m right, then what the hell gets into some people to make them think they’ve got their friends or lovers all figured out? Isn’t that just the height of arrogance?



Isn’t it?

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Now that I’ve settled up with a certain someone and the direction my life will be heading in is a bit clearer than before, I’ve come to realize how much I’m in dire need of a major plan or two.


 
The goal has always been to become my own boss, meaning self-employed. Lots of people dream this, but few ever even get into the planning stage. I’m now fully aware that I’m in danger of becoming one of these people. I’m reminded of the lyrics of a cheesy heavy metal song from my school days:
 

 
We see the light of those who find
A world has passed them by
To late to save a dream that’s growing cold
 


 
Strange how a song that once inspired me now causes me to feel a bit depressed, partially because it reminds me that I’ve taken on a few years since the days when those lyrics used to blare through my car stereo’s speakers, and partially because I haven’t quite chased the dream with as much vigor as I’d imagined I would.
 

 

No, it’s not too late. In fact, some will say it’s never too late. I don’t know about never, but I do know that it’s time to get serious or GTFO.

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In Japan, the Emperor’s birthday (December 23rd) is a holiday, so lots of westerners living here take advantage of the day to have their Christmas celebrations since they’ll likely be working on the 25th.



I have both days off. Well, the 23rd has come and gone already, and Christmas is tomorrow. To be honest, I haven’t thought much of Christmas since I was 20. In my early 20’s, I usually worked jobs that required me to have a Christmas-day shift, and sometimes a graveyard shift at that. Even though I tried to spend a little time with my family on those occasions, I never seemed to feel I was missing out on the holiday that was much more special to me in my schoolboy years.



After moving to Portland, OR when I was 25, I found myself usually joining the big Christmas Eve gathering at my aunt’s and uncle’s house. In those years, I kind of felt reinvigorated with the spirit of the holiday. My aunt would play guitar and sing Christmas songs in her beautiful voice while everyone sang along. Basically, in the middle of the party, there was a candlelit Christmas service for 30 minutes or so. I say was, but they’re still doing it these years.



So, tonight I sit here in my room in south Tokyo thinking about what Christmas means to me. On Christmas Eve in Japan, young couples get together and go out, often to romantic places. The holiday has a Valentine’s Day feel to it. I’m sure if I stepped out into the evening right now, I’d see a fair number of couples going in and out of the local train station. And, even though I’m separated by the largest continent in the world from my special someone, I don’t feel like I’m missing out on Christmas in Japan. Don’t get me wrong, I want to be with her more than anything right now. But, that’s got nothing to do with any holiday.



I do feel like I’m missing out on something else, though. My mother and father, aunts and uncles… They’re not young anymore. How many more chances will there be for us to have Christmas together? I know my mother and father miss me and would love to have me back in the States with them for the holidays.



For so many years, I’ve been able to take a pass on family Christmas gatherings without much guilt or too many feelings of sadness.



This year is different, though. I think I might make a New Year’s resolution about next year’s Christmas.

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Today, while browsing the IMDb website for a movie to recommend to a friend, I decided to give her a link to Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon, an all-time favorite from my childhood. Needless to say, I was a bit more than just disappointed when I saw that a remake is in the works.



Let me tell you about my love for the movie, The Last Dragon. When I was a kid, I saw this movie in a theater and loved it. The then-modern Motown soundtrack, the cheesy comedy, the kung fu action… It was the best! When it finally hit video, I dubbed a VHS copy (before Macrovision) and watched it every day for probably 6 months straight.



I don’t know why I was so obsessed with the film, but there were a lot of things to like. The gorgeous Vanity as TV host Laura Charles, The comedic shenanigans of kick-ass kung fu guru Glen Eaton, the non-stop music…But most of all, you had to love Sho’nuff, played by Julius J. Carry III, an excellent character actor who was also great in the TV show Brisco County Jr. with Bruce Campbell. Carry has a couple of scene-stealing moments where you just have to rewind and watch him again. Sadly enough, I learned that he passed away from pancreatic cancer last year while checking out his wikipedia page.



The film actually has two bad guys, who unite toward the end to do away with the main character “Bruce” Leroy Green, played by a guy named Taimak, who didn’t go on to bigger and better things. Christopher Murney was also quite good as the main bad guy, Eddie Arkadian.



Anyway, enough with that…



What I really want to say is, Hollywood, would you please stop fucking up every single classic cult movie you can with remakes? I don’t care if you get Samuel Jackson involved, I don’t care who produces or directs the movies, enough already!



Let’s see some originality, for fuck sake!

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Every magic trick consists of three parts, or acts…



The first part is called The Pledge.



The second part is called The Turn. The magician takes the ordinary something…
And makes it do something extraordinary.



Now you’re looking for the secret.
But you won’t find it because, of course, you’re not really looking. You don’t want to know.



You want to be fooled.

- Michael Caine as Cutter, from the movie The Prestige



In the late 1800s, Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison vied for supremacy in the electrical power generation business. Edison tried to publicly discredit Tesla on several occasions by offering demonstrations of how supposedly dangerous Tesla’s AC (alternating current) electric power distribution was. In some cases, animals were electrocuted to death to make the point. In the end, however, Tesla’s AC won out and became the standard in electric power distribution.



Who cares, right? Most people don’t know how the electricity they use every day is generated, nor do they want to. They just pay the electric bill each month and service continues, allowing them to watch TV, check out internet porn, whatever…



Dropping a check in the mail, or having the funds electronically transferred each month and expecting continued, uninterrupted service is like offering a prayer or a sacrifice to some god in order to carry on a comfortable existence. I mean, if the folks at your local power generation facility decide not to keep electricity flowing to your residence at some point, regardless of your timely payment, what are you going to do about it? Those people at the power plant might as well be gods to you.



So how do people carry on and not go crazy worrying about whether or not they’ll have electricity to use whenever they need it? Well, we all know the answer to that one: Faith. Faith in our local energy providers to keep us adequately supplied. Having faith is much easier than trying to learn and understand what makes the world go ’round or the universe do it’s neverending cosmic dance.


The movie The Prestige tells the story of two rival magicians vying to become London’s premier illusionist. Throughout the story, it’s not clear who’s supposed to be the good guy and who’s supposed to be the bad one, and by the end of the story we learn that good and bad has nothing to do with any of it. No morality tale here, just a story of obsession and the fragility of the human heart.


One character is all about being the best. Everything he does, he does for the sake of perfecting his craft. The other is all about fame. He knows that by amazing people, he’ll inspire wonder and give people a reason to believe that the world is a mysterious place and the puzzling nature of its workings inextricable. He knows that most of his audience gets by on faith, not reason, and with this he hopes to achieve a godlike status.



The final scene’s dialogue is a bit philosophy-laden (though not complicated) and thought-provoking. One of the magicians states that his whole raison d’etre was just to see the look on people’s faces when the final trick is carried off. People want escape, and magic is the perfect vehicle for it. The audience forgets all about how cold and miserable the real world can be, and for a moment are filled with wonder. We love thinking about the possibilities, usually more so than finding out concrete answers.



You might say that certain people, like doctors or scientists and engineers are more concerned with finding the answers than dwelling on the possibilities. Even the great physicist and Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman said, with regard to his love of theoretical physics, “The kick is in the Discovery” (of how things work). But, I’m willing to bet (if I could even do such a thing) that scientists like him always get a kick out of discovering things because newly-discovered knowledge always opens up a whole new realm of possibilities. Let’s face it, we’re usually more intrigued by the possibilities than we are with simple truths. Facts are cold and hard while possibilities are warm and inviting.


So, that’s what you get with The Prestige, a slightly philosophical movie that intrigues and entertains. You have two rivals: one who is concerned with perfecting his craft and truly becoming the best magician he can be, and one who is obsessed with convincing everyone that he is the best, regardless of his actual talents. Of course, there’s some of each character in all of us.



If you haven’t seen it yet, this movie is definitely worth your time.

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Came across this post on my Wordpress dashboard. Apparently Daniel Florien is a guy who used to be a hardcore Christian, but now has a blog dedicated to “figuring out what it means to be an unbeliever and skeptic.” Having been an unbeliever for many years, I guess I’m not sure if I’ll find visiting his blog “Unreasonable Faith” on a regular basis a worthwhile endeavor or not, but the first post I’ve checked out there is pretty good.

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Ever since I bought my Nikon DSLR, I shoot around Tokyo every chance I get. Today, I worked in Ikebukuro and took advantage of the building’s rooftop access for the purpose of getting some good shots from up high. I’m sure I’ll be putting all of the best ones into a piece for 7:10 in the near future, but for now, I’ve included a few in this here post.

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So, America has elected its first African-American president. That’s something I always heard would never happen growing up. But it has, and that’s pretty fucking cool. I can’t deny that. But, I also can’t deny that I’m not feeling too good about America’s position in the world, for now and in the future. Yeah, Mr. Obama’s election got everybody feeling positive for a little bit, but national economies that were mighty last year are starting to circle the drain and America itself saw staggering job losses last month. Things aren’t looking up and there aren’t too many people who are thinking that things are going to start turning around anytime soon after the inauguration.



I’d like to say something more positive here about how I believe in America and that it will pull through and regain its position at the top of the heap and all that, but I spent most of the last decade watching the country tank and frankly, have spent the better portion of my adult life experiencing just what it feels like to witness my homeland become broken and withered while people of other countries around the world came to hate us more than they ever have.



How did it get so bad? Why did we let it? Was there ever really any way we could’ve stopped it? I guess I don’t think that we could have. Ten years ago, everybody could see that America was losing its edge. China was already angling to gain a foothold in the Middle East by opening up oil fields in countries that were more willing to do business with them than US. I guess the powers that be (your guess about who they are is as good as mine) in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, saw the inevitable truth that America was about to begin a long, steady slide into mediocrity and they decided to have a fire sale, making a lot of people who were already ridiculously wealthy even wealthier.



Does this mean that I feel completely hopeless? Hell no. I’m not worried about myself; I’ve always taken care of Number One. But, as the future unfolds and the shape of the world changes, I can’t help but feel a little sad about what has become of the country where I was born and raised. Where are things headed for America? I know I have no ideas. But, what I do know is that way too many of its citizens are playing out the helpless victim role. It has become sickening.



Recently, someone asked a group of us living here in Japan, What has living in Japan taught you about yourself? Well, I’m not 100% sure about the answer to that question yet. But, I do know what it has taught me about my own country. Mostly because I see the same thing happening here. I used to think it was the collective spirit of the people of a nation that made that nation mighty. Now I know differently.

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As you may know, I’ve started a new series (with unpredictable, sporadic installments) here called “Japan Caught on a Cheap Digital Camera.” Well, as promised (or threatened, depending on your point of view), here are more of the photos that I’ve taken with my cheap-ass camera in the last couple of years.

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A favorite poem of mine is “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. Most people who know this poem rarely recall it in its entirety, but can usually recite at least a few lines from the final portion, which goes like

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

It seems to be the most moving and meaningful part of the poem for most people, and while I appreciate the thought-provoking power contained within these lines, I’ve always been intrigued by the first part, which goes like

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Take a moment to soak in these lines, especially the part

…And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler…

Did Frost mean travel along two separate paths simultaneously?



While quantum physics theory was still in its early stage of development at the time of this poem’s publication (1916), and the infamous Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics, which implies that “unobserved” particles exist in a superpositon of quantum states, or more meaningfully, they exist in multiple realities sumultaneously, had not been revealed to the world yet, I can only imagine that Frost considered the idea of parallel universes or alternate realities at least briefly when composing these lines.



Or, maybe I’m just a friggin’ geek. Whatever.



Even before majoring in physics at university and in graduate school, I’d always been fascinated by the study of quantum realities and time travel. Yeah, yeah… I know most people who’ve never studied quantum mechanics think the idea of a superposition of multiple realities sounds like science fiction, but it is accepted scientific theory and has some strange-sounding interpretations that come along with it. I won’t go into details here, but you can read the great introduction to quantum physics for the layperson, “In Search of Schroedinger’s Cat” by John Gribbin.



Anyway, having thought a bit lately about roads and roads not taken, I’ve been wondering if there is a me somewhere who took a different path than the one I did, existing now in an alternate reality I can only imagine. And, if there is, is he wondering about the me that exists here and now writing this post? Whoa! Wait a minute… There are people in this world who are wondering if the ones they long for, but are far away, are thinking of them right now, and I’m wondering if some other version of me is thinking of me? Holy shit! That’s wrong somehow. But, anyway…



It’s funny how I hadn’t thought much about this stuff in the last year or so, but starting about a month ago, it’s been on my mind. Too much free time? Hell no; I’ve been as busy as ever with moving, changing positions at work, hanging out with friends, dating… Who knows, maybe I’m longing for some down time. Maybe some action at a distance has occurred and an alternate version of me is communicating with me somehow. Maybe it’s a plea for help from a me that is about to have his timeline erased. Jeez! I just gave myself the creeps…



Well, as luck, or fate, or the sheer randomness of the movements of the universe would have it, I came across a post by Tokyo Cowgirl that seemed to touch on the theme of roads not taken and it resonated with what had been going through my mind for the last several weeks. Being someone that is most often excited by the questions more than the answers (though I am uncommonly tenacious in seeking the answers once I commit myself to solving a problem), I enjoy thought-provoking stories, statements, whatever…



So, being all fired up again about alternate realities and time travel, I busted out my copy of “Primer” and watched it for the somewhere-between-40th-and-50th time. Have you seen this movie? It’s an indie that won big at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and is likely the most powerful science fiction flick ever made. And, it was made on a $7000 budget with no special effects. Yeah, you have to put on your thinking cap for this one, but hey, you’ve got to pull it out of storage sometimes anyway; the moths have been at it.



So, now you ask, Has all this been just leading up to a movie recommendation? Well, maybe, maybe not. Either way, if you’re going to read any more of what I have to say on this subject, it might be better if you’ve watched “Primer” first.



Maybe next time, I’ll get into divergence points…



Update: This post has been updated at 7:10 to Tokyo

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