Bleaker and Bleaker

The New York Times announced 5 percent pay cut. Hopefully, it's a temporary measure (but I don't think it would be back to the normal pay standard, from my experience).

It is interesting that the New York Times itself published the pay cut story. It is not the case of the Japanese newspaper industry, which is incredibly exclusive. Japanese newspapers never tell stories which are not favorable to them. So, we (outsiders) don't know what is really going on in the Japanese newspaper industry.

Japanese B Cuisine Party II

Oops, I forgot to take photos of food again. Well, that's OK. Everyone seems to enjoy my food, that's good, or they pretended? Nay, it was fun, anyway, gossipping :) Out agreement tonight is that we need to have this kind of meeting more. Yeah, indeed.

Decent Indian Food

Finally, S cooked decent Indian food for us. It was chicken curry, mm, tasty. Greasy, but it was really good. Thanks, S!

Good or Bad

Maybe, this is good news, at least for a while. A newspaper's life was saved. But this private-equity firm which bought the paper is expected to implement tough cost reduction, well, in plain English, fire employees. Geez, the newspaper industry is creating more and more jobless people.

Chain Killing Papers

Another paper stopped publishing the hardcopy edition (The paper stays alive in the form of online newspaper). Hearst killed the Seattle Post-Intelligencer because it didn't find a buyer (Who could buy a paper amid this financial crisis, anyway?!).

It is gloomy that newspapers are shutting down almost every week? I wonder what the newspaper industry will look like at the end of this year.

Another Death

The Tuscon Citizen will publish its final issue this Saturday :( The circumstances of newspapers this country are really, really bleak.

Viva Jon Stewart!

Yeah, Jon Stewart took advantage of that this faceoff took place in his program, however, he did a great job. He knows he is influential (and in my opinion, he's sexy). In fact, he forced CNN to cancel Crossfire in the past. Yeah, that battlefield was in CNN, not Comedy Central. Jon Stewart is good.

Financial Crisis 102

Today's New York Times carries graphics of "A High-Risk Formula," which explains the financial system based on housing loans. It is as helpful as the Crisis of Credit on yesterday's entry to understand what is going on today.

Financial Crisis 101

This explains the current credit crisis in a very understandable way. Well made!

Fun Presentation Marathon

Yeah, I like standing in front of people, talking.

I gave a 10-minute presentation in class (160 teenage students) about the Japanese media. Well, half of them may have got bored. Who cares? But I got good feedback from some students. Yes, they made my day.

It was actually a relay of presentations. Five Ph.D. students including me talked about the media in their home countries. I was organizing the "show." I'm glad it turned out to be informative and enjoyable for both students and the presenters. In fact, it was fun!

Snow Storm?!

Man, it started snowing in the afternoon. Geez, I have class at 4. I don't want to go outside under this horrible weather :(

Snow & Gray Sky

It's been freezing since this morning. I've been shut myself up in my room with the heater on. I usually don't turn on the heater because this apartment is normally warm because it receives heat from downstairs and next door neighbors.

Anyway, I need to stay at home today, sitting in front of my computer and writing a paper. Yeah, I know, I spent the whole day yesterday just for fun. So, I am working on my paper now.

While typing and thinking, I heard the noise of water on the street. You know, the noise which occurs when cars run over the wet street. Thinking, "Man, rain again!," I looked out the window, and realized that it was snowing. Damn, it's snow. That's why it is terribly cold here.

Sean Penn=Harvey Milk

I'm glad to see "Milk" today. It is a good movie. Probably you know by now that I haven't come across a good movie for a while. I just saw a crap a couple of days ago. Anyway, "Milk" is good.

Because I knew some part of his life (I saw a documentary of Harvey Milk before), the first two-third of the movie is kind of review for me. But it's OK. One thing that struck me is Sean Penn's line. He was asked by Dan White or someone why he fought for gay rights, and he said something like, "I dated four men in my life, and three of them killed themselves. That's our situation. Everyone has to have a right to live." My memory is correct enough, but it is a really moving line. Gay people are discriminated. Because they are gay, they are told that they are sick or whatever. And they are cornered or in the worst case they are pushed to death. Yeah, homosexual people have to have a right to live, I agree.

Sean Penn is really good. He looks like real Harvey Milk. His way of speaking, acting ... he's great. But part of me doesn't want to acknowledge that he is great because "Sean Penn" still reminds me of domestic violence. He became famous for domestic violence when he was married to Madonna. Well, I don't want to think I'm a fan of Madonna, but I acknowledge that I like her songs and respect her, in a sense, because she has been the queen of pop for 30 years. That's amazing.

Dismal Future

Mm ... the newspaper industry is in serious trouble here. Is this a future of Japanese newspapers and other countries' newspapers?! Please do not disappear until I finish my dissertation, newspapers!

How?!

This is weird. I don't understand why it gets a correct answer all the time. Am I the only person who gets tricked?! Try this.

American-English-Speaking German

Am ... Tom Cruise is miscast. This is the first thing to say. Secondly, so what? This is not entertainment, this is not documentary. What's the point? Who could identify themselves with those characters? In sum, it's another crap. Thanks, SA, for wasting two hours with me.

Anyway, Hollywood is controlled by Jewish money so that this kind of movie may not be able to be a hit.