For this assignment, we were asked to register for a free online social service such as Tumblr, Blogger, LiveJournal, etc. and examine the service in terms of its Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. However, I already have two LiveJournal accounts (although relatively inactive), and therefore chose to post the assignment here, in one of them, rather than starting another blog/social service. I would like to take the rest of this blog entry to explore the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy of LiveJournal.com:

To begin, I would like to preface this entry by mentioning that I had created this particular LiveJournal (LJ) account roughly two years ago to date. At the time, LJ was still owned by Six Apart, a San Francisco-based software company, which had previously purchased the site from its founder, Brad Fitzpatrick. However, shortly after I stopped posting to the blog (roughly half a year later in December, 2007), LJ was sold to SUP -- an online based media company operating out of Moscow, Russia. Despite Russian ownership, the vast majority of LJ users (roughly seventy percent) are American, and I must admit -- however shallow/misguided it may seem -- that I am slightly uncomfortable with the current ownership, but that is a personal matter.

To date, under the current SUP ownership, the current Terms of Service and Privacy Policy for LJ can be found at http://www.livejournal.com/legal/tos.bml and http://www.livejournal.com/legal/privacy.bml , respectively. Overall, the Terms of Service (TOS) and Privacy Policy (PP) contain content similar to other free Internet social services -- nothing entirely out of the ordinary. The User of an LJ account has the right to access and upload stories, pictures, and links to a free Internet blogging service for free and using a simple, facilitated interface (the User does not need knowledge of html programming in order to post to their LJ account) as long as that material does not violate the TOS. According to the TOS, an LJ user owns all copyright and ownership of posted material, and LJ claims "no ownership or control" over any user content.

Despite the TOS declaring that the user owns all of their content, LJ retains the rights to terminate a User's account, password, content, etc., "for any reason." Furthermore, LJ can discontinue its provision of service without warning/user permission. Most importantly, LJ retains the right to change its TOS and PP at any time, without specifically notifying the User. The User is responsible for checking the site of their own accord and keeping themselves up-to-date. Should the TOS/PP change, the User has no say in the matter, but it simply expected to comply. Assuming the LJ staff do not abuse this, it makes sense to alter the TOS/PP to avoid unneccessary lawsuits.

I find it interesting that while there is a short paragraph or two regarding the rights of the User to post what he/she wants (LJ mentions that it will not censor User content), it still has a rather lengthy set of clauses in its TOS that allow LJ to delete an entry/account based on a great many forms of content, such as content that is “unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamaroty, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive to another’s privacy, hateful” or “otherwise objectionable.”

According to Shirky, the popularity of LJ is based on its meeting the three criteria of "promise," "tool," and "bargain." In the case of LJ, the promise is that the User will be offered free Internet hosting for blog content utilizing an easy-to-use interface and friend network. The "tool" is the journal itself, and then the "bargain" (I think) is the prestige LJ earns with popularity, as well as the money generated from selling ads/the company to other buyers (as evidenced by the multiple change of company ownership). According to the PP, LJ has the right to aggregate non-personally-identifiable user information and share it "with [its] business partners or others." LJ retains the right to "use [the User's] personal information where it is necessary," and while offering broad examples of uses of said information, does not go into detail or specifics.

Overall, I feel that the TOS and PP are pretty fair. I really like the fact that the User owns his/her content posted, unlike other sites such as YouTube.com. That said, I am not sure if I will return to adding new material to this blog -- for the concern about ownership but mostly due to a lack of time and dedication.

It's really hard to get motivated to update this thing because it's really such a large production, especially with the 23489398457 pictures. So you guys get the short end of the stick today: no pictures. So here's today's lazy update: a crappy short, cheesy video I made of Keita and Lane from the Shorinji Kempo club as they duked it out after practice one day. Beware, there's music. The video is of Keita vs. Lane after Shorinji Kempo practice at Sophia University. Keita is using a mix of Shorinji Kempo and Kickboxing, and Lane is using Tae Kwon Do. The background music is "Everlong," from The Foo Fighters -- I TAKE NO CREDIT FOR THE MUSIC. Yes, it's a cheesy video with a cheesy fit, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Enjoy.

We (Cameron, Kelly, and myself) decided that we owed it to Japan to go and see Tokyo Tower, which turned out to be not very exciting at all. Firstly, the main observation deck is at a lower altitude than most new rollercoasters (not very impressive). Secondly, it's this hideous shade of orange-red. All of it. Except for the Tokyo Towaa mascot which is pink and looks more like some sort of . . . um. . . specific body part than a tower (as pointed out by Cameron). Thirdly, it's a complete ripoff of the Eiffel Tower. Honestly Japan. Couldn't you be more creative? Your tower is boring! Fourthly, Tokyo Tower was designed to give you an amazing sky view of Tokyo, but the designers must have forgotten to take into account the fact that Tokyo has as many sunny days as Buffalo or fewer! Most of the skyscrapers were clouded in mist, and it's popular knowledge that you can almost never see Mt. Fuji from the Tower (although that's it's big selling point). There was a 40(?) minute wait to get into the building, and then another 20 minute wait to get to the elevator that would take you up to the first observation deck (for a fee of roughly $7USD). If you wanted to go to the second observation deck (more or less twice the altitude of the first deck) you needed to pay another $6USD); we decided we'd only go to the first deck. We found out later that if you chose to take the stairs to the top of the tower, you don't need to pay. Maybe some day I'll try it.

At any rate, once you make it to the first observation deck, you can walk from window to window and take pictures all you like, provided you can squeeze your way past the tons of Japanese tourists. (Actually, it wasn't that bad, since I was taller than alot of them, anyway. xD) There are also a few "look-down" glass panels in the floor for those of you who, unlike me, don't get queasy at the sight of heights.

I'd like to take this time to mention the sneakiness of the Japanese and their consumerist culture. You wait for over an hour in lines, walk for another 40 minutes taking pictures of Tokyo, and then are expected to either A) wait another 30 minutes to take the escalator back to the ground level, or B) walk down the 600+ steps yourself. Either way, there are no benches in the Tower. Anywhere. Except in the tiny, overpriced cafe in the observation deck. THANK YOU, JAPAN. I was in agony by this point, not wearing the most comfortable of shoes. Even when you eventually DO get to the bottom, you have to walk to the nearest train station (10 minute walk away) and then commute the 2-hour commute home. Needless to say that when I finally did get home, I never wanted to walk again.

( At any rate, here are the pics from the day. You may notice that there aren't as many of them as usual, but I figured that you'd get sick of seeing the Tokyo skyline over and over. )

Wow. It's sad when you stop updating for so long that your friends have updated at least three times in your absense. So I'll update in chronological order. Back to the first week-and-a-half of school (yes, I'm that far behind, SORRY!): It was freshman week, and so every single club on campus was out every day from morning until late afternoon trying to recruit members on campus. And by reruiting, I don't just mean walking around with signs and handing out fliers. I mean if they saw you, they literally JUMPED ON YOU. Kelly and I couldn't escape the kids with flyers. We even tried looking busy, avoiding eye contact -- NOTHING WORKED. It was terrifying. But anyway, in Japan, circles and clubs are taken very seriously -- most students don't belong to more than one or two, and they dedicate most of their time to said club. Needless to say, I joined two off the bat. xD Kelly and I both joined the "Arukou" Club, or the "Walking Club." The name sounded really lame, I know. But when we saw pics from the club's past activities and saw where they went walking to we decided that it was really interesting. Basically, this club pics a location and goes walking all day, stopping at famous sites and explaining their historical importance, then finishes up the day with dinner and karaoke. The first walking outing we went to wasn't too long in terms of distance: we started from Ochanomizu Station and walked around, eventually ending up at Yotsuya Station (the station near school). Along the way, we walked past an amusement park, took a break in a playground, ate lunch in a park, saw a Japanese schoolboy shamelessly walking down the street without pants (and no, sadly, I didn't get a picture of him), and ate dinner at a restaurant called "Tengu," named after the traditional Japanese demon. Japanese dinner parties are kinda like buffets, where everything is just placed in the center of the table and you take what you want and put it on your place. The main dish was sukiyaki, which I had never had, and was extremely reluctant to try. The reason for this being, for those of you who don't know, the method of eating sukiyaki. Basically, you put beef and vegetables into a giant pot on the table and slowly cook them (via a heater under the pot). While this is cooking, you take a small bowl given to you and a raw egg, which you proceed to crack into your bowl and stir into a relatively smooth consistency. Yes, RAW egg. Looked totally gross. When the meat and vegetables are done cooking, you put a some in your raw egg, stir it around, and then eat it. By this point everything was brown and yellow and looked GROSS. Turns out it was delicious. @_@ I'll never understand this country. I ended up having seconds. But anyway, we finished up the night with karaoke, which was super-fun.

( Here are the pics. : P )

On day 6 Kelly and I started off the day by going to the English 12:00 Easter Mass at St. Ignasius Church, the Church located next to Sophia University. It was utterly mobbed, and needless to say, we didn't get a seat. I don't know what I was thinking, except something along the lines of, This is Japan! How many Catholics can there be??. The Church was packed to overflowing, which was doubly surprising considering how dry and dull the pastor was (not to mention senile). It was hot and stuffy, and then there were two Baptisms after the homily, so Kelly (who never goes to Mass) starting antsing and pouting and scowling and I was so embarrassed I suggested we leave after Communion, which we did, but it was SO unbelievably hard to get out of the Church with all those people packed in it. After Church, we decided to go to Harajuku b/c Kelly had wanted to go and Harajuku is famous for the gothic frilly dresses that Kelly loves. On the way there, we ran into Reuben, a Mexican exchange student we had become friends with, whom we invited along with us.

Harajuku is known as the section of Tokyo for the young and hip, full of designer stores and nightclubs, so it makes sense that all you see are bright signs, huge streets, and THOUSANDS of people trying to walk them. The three of us walked around for a good hour, just looking at the buildings (and the people) but not daring to walk into any of the stores due to their outlandishly expensive prices (we're talking $99+ for a shirt). Eventually Reuben suggested that we walk through this park he had walked through the other day, saying it was beautiful and worth the walk, so we went. (For those of you who know what I'm talking about, we totally walked past the NHK on the way to the park [there are pics below].)

At any rate the park was amazing. It was huge, beautiful, and in peak cherry blossom season. Turns out it was the last day of hanami (flower-watching) at Yoyogi Park (the name of the place), so it was filled with groups of people picnicking, partying, and performing throughout the park (I got some GREAT pics). The walk was amazing, the weather was perfect, and we all had a great time. There was one inicident that involved a girl running her bike into me. xD We had stopped to look at something and had been chatting for about 5 minutes or so when I felt something ram into my thigh and I saw a girl fly past me and land on the cement. I didn't realize until after I helped her up and asked "Daijoubu?" over and over that she had run her bike into me. Her mom came running up and apologized to me over and over (in Japanese), all the while telling her daughter in a stern voice not to cry. I kept telling her I was alright and that I understood that these things happen (in Japanese), but she was still apologizing and yelling at her daughter (who had a scraped knee). I felt so bad for the girl. >< We found the family across the park later in the day, so I managed to innocently sneak a picture of the girl and her bike (see below) xD.

Later on, we were walking past some fountains when we found a group of Japanese men playing frisbee. They looked like they were having so much fun, so I said, "Oh man, I wanna play Frisbee." Reuben was like, "So? Ask 'em to play." So I did. Sorta. In bad Japanese. But they got the idea, and Kelly and I played and we were all laughing (including the Japanese men) and having a really great time. We eventually thanked them and left. It was awesome. xD It felt so good to hang out with Japanese people and act like there wasn't a huge language barrier between us. But anyway. . .

We eventually left the park, Kelly slightly dissappointed that we never found those frilly gothy dresses of hers. As we were about to cross the bridge into the station, we finally found them. And took pictures. xD There weren't many people in costumes as it was late afternoon and most of them had left, but there were still enough to take some decent pictures.

( Here are the pics for the day. You know the drill. Don't view if your Internet can't handle heavy imagery. : P )
More to come soon!

Kelly and I were unable to decide what to do that day, and since we had slept in we weren't sure if we wanted to go very far for sightseeing. We ended up deciding on Asakusa, famous for its temples (and its past history as Tokyo's pleasure quarters xD).

When you first get to Asakusa and climb up the steps from the subway, you see the same pattern of skyscrapers and concrete buildings that have become such a familiar Tokyo sight. Walk left a block, however, and cross the street, and it's a whole new world. Walk through the huge entryway gate, and you're surrounding by rows and rows of stalls and shop selling traditional (and some not-so-traditional) goods by the billions. Seriously. Scroll down to see the pictures if you don't believe me. You can buy everything from traditional Japanese kimono (and by kimono, I mean it in the Japanese sense in which it means entire outfits and traditional wardrobes) to Spongebob Squarepants phone charms. The rows of stalls are lined with fake cherry blossom branches in some places and rows of white paper lanterns in others. The rows themselves are so crowded with people that you can barely walk. This is something I've known but never truly realized until I got to Japan -- the Japanese are a very impatient people. They seriously won't wait for people to move if they're walking slowly, they'll push them aside forcefully, shoving their way through the elderly and children alike. They can't just wait the FIVE WHOLE SECONDS it would take to WAIT, nooooooOOOOOOOooooooo, they have to resort to pushing.

As we walked down the stalls, Kelly and I found a dango-seller. I don't really remember what dango is. But it looks like balls of something skewered on a stick, roasted, and sold dipped in something. Go wiki it is you're bored. But I can eat it! I found Japanese food I could eat! It was good, although it made me thirsty afterwards. Good thing you can find vending machines everywhere (see pic farther down the page).

When we finally fought our way through the crowded street stalls, we saw that there was a giant Buddhist temple (and yes, there were so many people and we were so concentrated on walking that we didn't even see the temple until we were walking through its entryway, despite its enormous size). It was mostly the same as the other temple: you walk past an incense burner, rinse your mouth and hands at a fountain (and no, mom, I didn't do it, don't worry), walk up the stairs, throw money into the box, clap your hands, pray, etc. Only this one was HUGE. I think I threw like, 50 yen in there ($.40). xD I'm terrible. But anyway, I prayed that I wouldn't spend my money too wastefully while I was here. We'll see how that works out.

( At any rate, here are some pictures. Please do not click if you don't have a strong Internet connection. )

Well, I have lots more catching up to do with entries, so please be patient! I have lots more to come soon. <3

Japan is messed up. Amazingly so. In a good way? I don't know where to start, really. I guess I'll start with the plane ride. I hadn't been sleeping for nights before because I was sick, and so I thought I'd be able to sleep through the plane ride. You know, the 13-hour segment after the transfer to Chigaco. But no. I didn't sleep at all. I was bored out of my mind, having finished all reading material I had brought along. I ended up just turning on the TV on the seat in front of me and watching movies. I ended up watching some messed up movie about the Mayans and death, another about a character in a novel that comes to life, and Marie Antoinette (three times). Long story short, we finally get there and disembark. Getting through customs wasn't bad, er, the people we had to show our passports to was a long line, but then we got our luggage (fortunately mine wasn't lost) and went to customs. I went through all the worry and hassle about trying to get my drugs into Japan -- I was worried sick -- and then they didn't even open my bags. They were just like "pasupotto?" And I was like "*blink* okay?" and it was over. >< I can't believe they made me worry for nothing. BAH.

When we got through customs, students from Sophia University met us there -- mine was Aya Matsumoto, the cutest, most hyper Japanese girl you will ever meet. She was extremely kind and patient, and she helped me to take all my luggage the two-plus hour ride to my apt. Turns out she has the same birthday as me, and she's also my Japanese "Sophia buddy" or something. I really want to get her something nice from home before I leave -- she's really fantastic. She even helped me with my commuter pass the second day. I owe her a lot.

The phone that my family (and eventually myself) paid extra money does not work in Japan, even though we spent that money b/c they assured us that it would. I didn't get to call my mom for 5 or so hours after I got in and settled (and I had to take the time to set up my Internet to Skype her for that). I was worried that she was gonna kill me, but dad picked up and when I told him how I couldn't call him he was like "Oh, oh well." And here I was expecting a lecture about using payphones.

But anyway, the JR train we took from Narita airport was freaky beyond measure. Everytime the airlocks went on or off, it sounded like a woman sighing heavily. In a provocative fashion. The first few times I kept looking around to see who was making that noise before I realized it was the door.

My apartment has polished hardwood floors, but burlap-resembling walls (some sort of canvas). I was like. . . . burlap?? It must've been that they spent too much money on the floors or something. There's a mini-fridge and my own medicine cabinet, toilet, and sink, which is really nice. I don't mind sharing baths, but sharing toilets are something I prefer not to do. My bed is a foot off the ground, and 85 layers high. I had no idea how to assemble it. The lady comes in and (using Aya for a translator), shows me the pile of bedding and says "You know Japanese bed?" and then leaves. I was like. . . "Huh??" I think maybe I figured it out? I think? I messed up halfway through and had to redo the layers I had already done, and considering it was one in the morning and I had just unpacked all of my things, that completely wore me out. I also have a giant sliding window that opens right onto the lawn, which sucks, b/c I can never leave it open for fear of bugs and buglars (there is no screen). Anyway, I eventually went to bad that night, but only slept for about an hour, I have no idea why. I just wasn't tired, even without sleeping on the plane.

The next morning, get out of bed at 8:15, thinking I'd be really early to get ready and go to Sophia University's exchange student orientation. I get up and hear a knocking at my door. It's Kelly, dressed and going, "It's 10:30." We had planned to leave at 10:00. I was like, "WHAT? No it's not! *checks clock* See?" She responded with, "No, it's 10:30. Check your computer." Turns out she was right. I guess American alarm clocks don't work in Japan. I mean, they work persay, but there must be a voltage issue or something b/c it clocks time much too slowly. At any rate, I fly into the shower, worried that I'd be late, and grateful that I had unpacked and left everything for the morning out the night before. There is no hot water. I mean, not even cold water. It was COLDER THAN MY SINK FAUCET TAP. I was wondering if I had broke it, but then I ran out of time and ended up just washing my hair. Which was absolutely EXCRUCIATING in that cold. It was horrible. I swear, if I have the same problem tomorrow, I'm walking over to Kelly's place and using hers (I got to hear her complain of the steam in hers -- I was so jealous ><). Also, the lack of toilet paper was initially very distressing. I mean, I wasn't expecting it in public places, but there wasn't any in my apartment and it took me a whole 24 hours to find a store (in the middle of the city, nowhere NEAR my apt.) that sold any, and they had like, 4 packs of two rolls. I'm terrified. I at least want some for the apt, really.

We ended up making it to the orientation three hours early. I'm really very surprised. We got there on the first try; we managed to navigate the world's largest and most populated subway station and make all our connections. I applaud myself. We walked around for a bit, found an awesome bookstore, and I bought Kekkaishi volumes 10-12, Bleach 26 (for Jeff), and PMK 4. I HAVE self-control, damnit. I do! *sobs* It wasn't so bad, though, since manga that's $10.00 plus tax at home was about $3.50 total here. It's okay that I can't read half of it. xD I can still tell what's going on!

But anyway, we get to orientation, blah blah blah. The campus was really pretty. There were trees and cherry trees everywhere, and a GORGEOUS Japanese garden around the inner chapel (it was fenced off, so I didn't get pics of it). The campus feels bigger than Canisius, even though it's not spread out like Canisius' campus is. Maybe that's b/c each building is 7+ stories tall (there's a library SKYSCRAPER). There are trees, courtyards, and buildings lining the main parkway and it's really quite nice. At the orientation, we were lectured and told about the school and Church (turns out there's a 12:00pm Sunday English Mass, which is awesome) and given our schedules. Turns out all but one of my planned classes overlaps with Japanese 1, the two classes of which are at the SAME TIME. Who does that? HORRIBLE PLANNING. So now I may not get a DMA elective and I need to pick another HON seminar equlivalent course. Argh. I have a few days to decide, though. I'll see what I can do.

After orientation and the buying of our student commuter pass (which cost about $180, but that's another story), Kelly and I decided that we were hungry. I mean, I guess I noticed that I hadn't eaten dinner the night before (I had too much stuff to do), breakfast that morning (no time b/c I thought we'd be late for orientation, or lunch (b/c we were walking around waiting for orientation). More like Kelly noticed that she was hungry and then I was like. . . "Oh, right." We decided to walk around until we found someplace to eat that wasn't a bar, b/c I wasn't ready for that. I mean, seeing as I didn't know Japanese and had left my phrasebook at home, I wanted a place with picture menus so I could just point. The first such place we came across was a restaurant called Jonathon's (it's a very popular chain in Japan) and went in. We managed to get a table and after making up our minds and waiting realized that we needed to call the waitress over. I ended up ordering (in Japanese) and telling her that I was fine with water. I am semi-proud of myself for remembering that. xD I got noodles with some sort of crab sauce on top. It was delicious. I must've been hungry or something, b/c I ate most of it. Speaking of which, I love how in Japanese restaurants, meals are MEAL-SIZED, none of the American "three meals into one serving" meals, if you know what I mean. American restaurants always serve too much food -- I usually get at least 1-2 moe meals out of them. Here the food was proportioned much better. After waiting for another couple to leave so that we could see how they paid for dinner, we paid and left.

On the way back to the JR station (the main train line in Tokyo) we found the toilet paper. I also got some dish soap for hand washing b/c I couldn't find hand soap in any of the little stores we'd tried thus far and I really wanted to wash my hands after using the bathroom. We found just about everything EXCEPT hand soap and toilet paper before. And I bought myself some silverware before coming back here to type this.

Hmmmmm, I don't know what else to add, really. Except maybe some things I've noticed about Japan:

-Practically NO ONE uses collapsible umbrellas -- they use the normal long ones and end up sticking them in the racks outside of stores. I felt so out of place. I swear, I saw ONE Japanese lady with a collapsible umbrella. Everyone else had the normal ones.
-People love to jaywalk and both people and cars alike seem to have no problem being in the street or crosswalk at the same time (the cars just either avoid the pedestrians or swerve around them).
-I don't know how many of you knew this (I did before coming) but they serve wet (sometimes hot) towels with meals at restaurants, and you can stay as long as you like (providing you've ordered something). You call the waiter/waitress, they don't come to you.

( Here are the pics from today (the second day). WARNING. EXTREMELY IMAGE HEAVY. NO NOT CLICK IF YOU'RE USING A WEAK INTERNET CONNECTION. )

I hope that I will make it to Japan in April, and if I do, here is where I will post my pictures and write about my adventures.