I am not being paid to get you to watch Battlestar

Another boring 3 day weekend. I was supposed to go to Yokohama (which is not that far from Tokyo) but those plans got put off after I put of other plans to go to Izu. So I worked on my project and stuck around to watch the F1 race and the season opener of Battlestar Galactica.

This was a rather boring F1 race really. A bunch of us were going to go down and see it because it is in Japan, but it was also too far from Tokyo. Instead we found a sport bar where the race was going to be shown. Slowly the bar filled up and I realized that I may have been the only American there (I went with some Eastern European friends). At least no one accused me of liking NASCAR. Through most of the race it looked as Schumacher would win the race, but he blew his engine. The entire packed bar cheered… except the one guy wearing a Ferrari shirt (he may have been crying). I forgot to bring my Renault shirt… or to bring a pack of Mild Sevens (even though I don’t smoke). It was a good day though, Renault and Alonso are all but assured of winning now (with one final race).

Now Battlestar Galactica did have a spat of poor episodes last season, about 6 or 7, but the season final was awesome. It was a tall order for the season opener which more than fit the bill. What a great show, I’m glad that they are bringing Cally to be a more visible character. Also Tigh is really starting to evolve better too. Besides all this the show is great because it deals with issues, which is something that good sci-fi does. The Cylons now are “sympathetic” to the humans and they are going to work with the humans to make a better society. Viewers are rolling their eyes at that which is exactly what the viewers are supposed to. Think about the implications though. The fictional Cylons are not the only power that have invaded a country, formed a “secret” police of collaborators, and claimed that their conquering another country is for the greater good (a good that will not be seen now but further on in history). Maybe it is because I think o myself as a postmodernist but there are definite real world implications here. For those who have not seen this series it is hands down the best thing on TV right now, and no so much hands down one of the best shows ever.

In other news for my final project I have to use Nonaka’s Knowledge Creation theories as a basis of the paper and presentation. I have encountered a problem with this, while the idea of his knowledge creation theory is interesting and may be partially correct, his ideas as a whole right now are bunk. His material is poorly written. He outlines something and makes a conclusion on it with describing how that conclusion came about. Simply put he is saying that other people are wrong because they are wrong. He also makes a claim that this is a TOE (theory of everything) though he does not explicitly say this. What he says instead is that Knowledge Creation is the sole reason for this and offers proof that has since been refuted (most of the readings are over 10 years old). So I’m in a bind because I don’t know him very well. I’m going to meet with him next week and feel him out. What my final project may be is what us postmodernists do best, tear it apart. Though I have done this before in this program and got slammed for it (not because I did poor research but because I disagreed with the professor to his own admission). So I’ll have to wait and see, though I may tear it apart anyway.