my Similie for my being on the East Coast

It's like trying to start your own golf course in the middle of the Gobi (desert).
You need water to make a green;- yet it keeps evaporating. --- AMK

Nukes from North Korea & Kidnapped Japanese women and kids

"North Korea in February 2007 agreed with the U.S., China, Russia, Japan and South Korea to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for 1 million metric tons of fuel oil, or equivalent aid, and normalized diplomatic ties with the U.S. and Japan.
Japan has said it won't share the cost of energy assistance until North Korea accounts for Japanese citizens it kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s. "

From Bloomberg.com website: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?id=20601101&sid=akPkZnXiPgFE&refer=japan

North Korea kidnapped several Japanese women and children by boat from the coastlines of northern Japan. These women and children were forced to live in North Korea so that the North Koreans could learn to speak the Japanese language & infiltrate Japan. I heard this story as one of my many Japanese adopted cousins was abducted at age 12.

Additionally, the U.S. has not taken North Korea off the list of countries that support terrorism;-due to North Korea's failure to provide a Declaration of their Nuclear usage to the U.S.

Iron Ore for 65%more

Due to potentially inferior Steel product from China and China's high demand for more iron ore;- Japan's Nippon Steel & JFE and Sout Korea's Posco have agreed to pay Brazilian company Vale (VALE5.SA) 65% more for their Iron Ore in fiscal year 2008-2009 .
http://www.forbes.com/markets/equities/2008/02/18/japan-iron-ore-markets-equity-cx_vk_0218markets04.html
The Nikkei Japanese stock exchange reached its 2 week high. And, this lead to the pinnacle of Brazilian stock market in its most recent month, as Vale is heavily traded on the Bovespa index .BVSP of the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange. Brazilian currency also gained on the U.S. dollar.

"Japanese stocks climbed to a two-week high on Tuesday as trading houses such as
Itochu Corp rose on strong metals prices and big-name exporters were snapped up
by individual investors."

From website: http://www.reuters.com/article/hotStocksNews/idUSTKU00304120080219

Nippon Steel: - 2nd in the world for steel manufacturing
JFE Steel:- 3rd in the in the world for steel manufacturing
Takenaka Corporation:- One of Japan's top 5 contracting/ building firms

New: Africa Energy Comission- as Raw a field as it gets

Most of us know that this was bound to happen. It was just a question of when.
Everyone in the Japan, U.S., Germany, etc. scrambling to set up functional infrastructure, transportation systems, and working on African development in numerous African countires knows that energy is important.

What is more important is that it is in the hands of African people. Like the troubled oil industry in African regions;- an alternative energy dictatorship could become potentially beyond heinous to the people in Africa who already have expensive health care costs just to stay alive. There is an enourmous amount of physical labor involved in setting up solar collector fields, alge ponds for bio-fuels, as well as other inexpensive solar collector and energy sources to put lights in African schools for children to learn.

Today: AFREC is the newly formed African Energy Comission

About 30 energy ministers from African Union countries are in Algiers for the meeting. They have been joined by representatives from other regional and international energy groups, as well as international financial institutions.

From: website- http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h3WnzdNpBOVhMGGhFpBfnHcGkErQ

AFREC is formed just in time for discussion at the Third International Solar Conference.

U.S. Missile Launch: Toxic Fuel could impact Earth

The multimillion dollar L-21 is a U.S. satellite that could re-enter the earth's atmosphere as lethal gaseous space junk bomb. The non-navigable reconaissance satellite contains approximately 1,000 pounds (454 kg) of lethal hydrazine fuel that could impact the earth and cover the area of a small cityblock. Additionally;- any onboard information can be destroyed with a missile.

The missile launch must happen in the next week, and may be considered a show of U.S. missile capabilities to the Chinese who executed a similar missile-satellite action last year.

I'm still single

I'm still single
Originally uploaded by angela kneale

It's Valentine's Day! And, I suppose I have the pieces to a nice day alone. Though, I did get 1 sms Valentine from a sound engineer in D.C. @ midnight.
Hugs...


1. Amy's Roasted Vegetable pizza -no cheese with shiitake muchroom, roasted red pepper, and sweet onion @$7.00 at Wegmans, Tops, Acme, Superfresh

2. Kosher Wine: Recanati from Galilee, Israel- the Yasmin 2006 white is Kosher and 65% Emerald Riesling, 20% Savignon Blanc, 15% French Columbard. I got this bottle at Red Feet Wine in Ithaca, NY appx $15.00

3. Piano Keys: Yamaha digital stage piano

4. Piano Music: one of my favorites to play...Brahms Paganini Variations Urtext edition $30.00

5. Reason I no longer date: Stained Glass Heart given to me by after nerve wracking presentation where his sports car could have killed me as I crossed the street, he slammed on the brakes, jumped out of the car and gave me this piece of art (all in between my crossing the street from my car to my house years ago). Cost: Priceless

Valentine's Day Conception: November 15-24

Do you have a birthday that is approximately 9 months away from Valentine's Day?
This would be appx. November 15 to 24th. Seemed like mom & dad were aiming for having a Thanksgiving babe. Or was is just a Valentine's day conception.
I'm one of these kids, I was conceived on Valentine's day... I've met a couple others... who else is out there?

Jammy Trend from Japan: Puchi Puchi (say it Poochy Poochy)

Ïnfinate Bubble Wrap Hot Trend... You can carry it around and punch the bubble wrap simulated buttons all day! and then, it makes a sound like a dog bark or a game sound of achievement. They're about $12 USD. Click on the above link to see the commercial, feel the song and then order your "puchi puchi"!
I'm groovin to: I want a puchi puchi... gimme your puchi puchi... I like my puchi puchi...

also... see a review of puchipuchi in English

I took the Middle Path

"Inspired by Buddhism, this philosophy stresses the "middle path" as an overriding principle for appropriate conduct and way of life of all people, at individual, community, business and government levels.Sufficiency means moderation, reasonableness and resilience to rapid changes."

From: International Herald Tribune "The wisdom of the 'middle path' Honor fit for a king"
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/25/opinion/edanand.php
-

My mother always, always told me to take the middle path for as long as I can remember. I was raised with Shojin ryori values before I knew anything about animal rights and veganism. The U.S. nuked Japan and it directly & severly impacted my life by the time I was 7.
Despite my growing up as a baptized & confirmed Lutheran (The St. John's Evangelical Lutheran church were the racist community values that taught me self-hatred due to my race & ethnicity;- though I had to show community participation as part of this lifelong cultural exchange.)

Here's the article about an action from a decade ago about my then "questionable & radical" behavior.

Changes with Angle

Here are a couple of photos of yours truly. I look so different depending on angle. The B&W was taken by myself up close. The one of me in the red was taken by Diana from afar. They say bi-racial photos are difficult to capture because we look different from every angle!

Thirteen Minutes

Positvely wonderful: Thirteen Minutes magazine popped out at me on the newstand for a change with the music coverage in it's recent issue. That is more specifically, Vol. 2 Issue 3 for $5.99 + tax at the local Borders.
includes in the Music feature issue: Mary Digby, Gackt Oshiro, and Ayumi Hamasaki Also, there are many articles written by Asian Americans, And it offers a refreshing change of featuring Asian influenced models.

Though, I admit I was cringing each time I flipped through Thirteen Minutes magazine the page to see a starkly Aryan European model. I think it's bad enough that completely white people try to pass themselves off as exotic, let alone their latest development in saying that they are Asian and bully their way through a completely mispronounced reading of romaji for Tibetan, Japanese, Chinese and declaring that they are capable of understanding everything Asian. No I don't necessarily mean the models, I mean their subclades of modern fashion and "progressive" acceptance.

Let's delve into culture further and please attend an NYU opening of Kip Fulbeck's the Hapa Project coming next month. I am a halvsie and I am disgusted with the gross racism that is directed at me. Go get a clue at NYU.

you understand...spooks

The other night, yes after 33 years on the planet, I was talking to a man who seemed to fully understand my sentence: "My dad used to run spooks."
He told me to tell my father thank-you, because he wouldn't be alive as a high-calibur person if it weren't for some of the work my father did.This stranger who said thanks is a competant engineer/builder/marksman/beyond master-diver, etc.

Everyone else just thinks I'm crazy.

Recent Movie Review...

Mad Money- super movie for women of all ages to watch. Feel good crime movie of women improving their lives by ripping off the National Treasury of worthless paper that
is taken out of circulation.
National Treasure- Tried to watch it... got a phone call
seemed like an interesting puzzle table tale with a nice gold city carved in the ending. Somehow it was like deja vu and other treasure seeking movies I've seen.
Rambo- This time it was completely realistic. Really.
Untraceable- Grotesque and somewhat like X-files without the sound effects, similar story line with a rampant murderer.
Atonement- Beautiful movie and story (minus the war images). Tasteful & well done.
Cloverfield- Just short of being better than seeing the filming of a nuclear bomb dropped on Manhattan. This was a downer with killer effects.
Meet the Spartans- Nice compliment to seeing the intense Rambo flick. Light, airy with attractive people and blurred crotch shots. Somebody had fun making this one...and politically even-handed with Ellen DeGeneres and G.W. Bush characters going to the Pit of Death.
There will be blood- Long arse, down to earth, oil prospecting, dirty/clean business story of success. A good make out session, plotting time, just kick back and go...though no waves of hysteria.

Reasons to Hate Everyone

I love you I love you mwah mewah mwah xoxoxo

I've gotten so sick of hearing the tired war comments of reasons why people hate me because i'm direct descent of an Imperial Japanese family... here is a list (to be updated) that I should hate everyone around me...

1. Americans because they Dropped Nuclear bombs on Japan and have affected my health for the rest of my life.

2. Russians for putting my Japanese uncle in Siberian prison camp where he was 1% of total survivors of 1200 Japanese.

2. Koreans for constantly antagonizing, stalking, and harassing me on the East Coast (not to mention war problems with Japan and U.S. --- my great uncle Jo was a tank commander in the Korean war).

3. Japanese for bombing Pearl Harbor (my great uncle eddie was in the Navy and at Pearl harbor at that time... he makes an effort to be civil with my Japanese mother)

4. Chinese... for nearly breaking my arm when I visited a Jook Lum studio in Philly's China town with a musical colleague who does his Praying Mantis style there.

5. American particularly white men (see note*) for always taking from me and never outrightly helping me. They always take more money and time from me than I can afford... and then not to mention the humiliation of the fact that they then do nothing to help and everything to see my demise.
note*: I'm not speaking of the run of the mill beer drinker... I mean more like the political affectors & large entrepreneurial personalities.

Enough for now before I create a list of high-end names that have adversely impacted my life here in the States not including my calls to the ATF, RAIIN.org, Homeland Security, etc. etc. . And then i'm expected to live like a normal person.... so I ask... with what besides my arse?

Valentine's PAC Sun Tour- Ny Area

What: The Audition featuring Envy On the Coast / Danger Radio / Another Day
Where: The Loft Poughkeepsie, NY
When: Thu, 02/14/08 06:30 PM

I purchased a Hurley bag that says Hurley all over it and in freezer pop colors this weekend and was given the PAC Tour Cd sampler and told I could get tickets for this week. Apparently, with some rumor that they would be stopping in & nearby the local Ithaca store.

aaaargh... though just checking the Pac Sun site reminded me that I left my Billabong bikini at the gym...ooops.

Rambo & Untraceable- Please don't support Violence

Over the weekend I caught up on movies with the wretchedly disgusting Untraceable only paralelled by the recent release of Rambo in grotesque violence. Though even after being invited to and attending a talk given by a Burmese monk on Burma at Cornell University (approximately the same time when Japanese reporter Kenji Nagai was killed); - at least Rambo is somewhat progressive in communicating how brutal Burma can be. see an example of real-life footage on Kenji Nagai Though, my Japanese upbringing still tells me that I should not support violence. It is still a hyper politically charged issue to financially support violence in any way. It's not a matter of "turning-away" so much as it is a matter of cutting of financial support that sustains that environment.
Boycotts are normal in the consumer world. In the political & financial world of global commerce the same type of "boycott" action is taking by cutting funding to those terse and ill regions. There is still more that can be done; - none of which is a humane approach to solving the problem. Like rat poison;- people are affected by everything they come in contact with. Weather it kills the enemy or weakens them;- everything is fair in war. Cutting funding to the plight is the best action in entirety. I can also speak from personal experience on that here in the U.S. however- it is an entirely different and seperate matter from attending a talk on Burma. During the talk provided by the Burmese monk, I was thankful that my exposure to Asian languages helped me understand the talk more than what the translator presented to us in English. Somehow all those nuances are lost and people get the "soundbite"version of what is going on without the descript storytelling impacting them at the time of the talk. Then you couple that with some photos after a 2 hr. session and you have one long-arse version of a Cnn report. I'll clean up this article in a bit.

The Mach 5 - a first in anime from Japan to the U.S.

The original Japanese anime entitled "Mach GoGoGo" was created with inspiration from Viva Las Vegas and Goldfinger and imported to the U.S. as "Speed Racer". I grew up in the States watching Speedracer as a kid, watched the 3am MTV version while in College eating spaghetti after piano practice because the building closed, and just can't wait to see the Speed Racer movie!

Speed Racer Pages:
About Speedracer
Official Speedracer Site: www.speedracer.com
http://home.alphalink.com.au/~roglen/speed.htm
http://www.rassi.com/speed-racer.html

High Performance Hybrids

Still a far cry from 007's, the James Bond amphibious Lotus Esprit; the Lotus Exige is a Real-live-ready-2-drive Hybrid of Interest...

"And Lotus does it with a 1.8-liter inline-4 that gives you the kind of great fuel economy you'd expect from a Prius."

From : Driver Review of Lotus Exige 2008 at Edmunds

Grand Prix racing season is upon us and the closest race track to this blogger in Watkins Glen, NY will have its first major race June 3-6, 2008.

"Lotus is credited with making the mid-engined layout popular for Indycars, developing the first monocoque Formula 1 chassis, and the integration of the engine and transaxle as chassis components. Lotus was also among the pioneers in Formula 1 in adding wings and shaping the undersurface of the car to create downforce, as well as the first to move radiators to the sides in the car to aid in aerodynamic performance, and inventing active suspension."

From Wikipedia entry on Lotus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Cars

Links
2008 Exige S 240: concept carz : wikipedia link : Edmunds
2008 USA Exige S 220
2008 UK Exige S 220

Lotus 265E

"The new 265E version is powered by the same-old supercharged Toyota engine as the familiar Exige S, but this time runs on bio-ethanol meaning around 70% less carbon dioxide emissions and 44bhp more go. Sounds virtuous? Well as 0-60mph arrives in 3.88 seconds and the top speed is a hugely illegal 158mph your virtue may be in jeopardy. Your honour."

From: Greener Machine blog at www.greenermachine.com

Get more online about the Saving 4 Change:

$"2.80 per gallon currently is a “psychological turning point for consumers,” says David Tompkins, executive director of business solutions at Edmund"

From: Edmunds Blog:
Yet I wonder why people have cars if they all have to scrape to fill the gastank? Next: Price tag of the Exige...

Lotus Sport Exige (243 HP): 15 in production at appx. $80,000.00 USD
About Lotus

The Company (Group Lotus) also acts as an engineering consultancy, providing engineering development - particularly of suspension - for other car manufacturers. The lesser known Powertrain department is responsible for the design and development of the 4 cylinder engine found in many of GM's Vauxhall, Opel, Saab, and possibly some Saturn cars. It should however be noted that the current Lotus Elise and Exige models use the 1.8L VVTL-i I4 from Toyota's late Celica GT-S and the Matrix XRS.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Cars

The Exige 265E is a factory-built Exige S optimized to run on E85, comprised of 85% ethanol. The higher octane of this biofuel allows a higher compression ratio and/or more supercharger boost. Lotus says it has no intention to build the 265E (E for Experimental) as a production car, and that it is simply a biofuels demonstrator. According to Lotus, the Exige 265E model has the following specifications:

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Exige


Additional Link Credits:
Hemmings Auto Blogs
QV500.com

Porsche Panamera

J-Pop for February

It's rare to see a popular Japanese face (bijin) here on the East Coast USA.
There is such a density of people of Korean and Chinese descent on the East Coast of the USA that most people who haven't had exposure or travel to Japanese culture, beauty, aesthetic assume that all people of Asiatic peoples are the same (see list of Asian Nations).

So, without further adieu;- here's a list of "must-know bands" from this month's Shojo Beat Please comment with other suggestions!

Asian Kung Fu Generation
L'Arc~en~Ciel
Every Little Thing
SMAP
Utada Hikaru
M-flowDragon Ash
Crystal Kay

Consulting - to get paid or give away?

Yesterday I attended a "logo meeting" for a new and upcoming not-for-profit entity.
More specifically for a group of artists in the field of movement & dance. I was the only non-white person present despite my stressed out bleached hair and colored contacts. Their designer was present and after the meeting was over, (mind my personal comment;)- a typical white male with a ponytail who just took a word that means "One body" and visually turned it into the name of an Irish woman who is called grandmother in German. I don't care how the white male consultant "looks". I've met many male "designers" who seem to think that they are doing right by everyone. In anycase, after the meeting I wanted to unjoin entirely from the very white mindset that dominated the day. Yet at this point to give my professional opinion (as i have done professional business entity creation) is costing me (not them) my time as a mixed-race woman. To give away? or can i afford my opinion?

help.