Sunrise over Takadanobaba

I did not say it was easy to see, but if you look the sun is there. The sunrise always comes. The clouds are moving quickly. Here on the 15th floor with my desk facing my sliding glass door which leads to my balcony, I have never had a better view day after day. The freedom that is in the clouds unfolds itself before me. Freedom is being able to choose when you sleep and when you look at the sky.

Adam Markus
July 3, 2008

How most people find this blog

Most people find this blog by doing a Google search on "July 4th poetry" or "July 4th poems" or on "Marshmallow Diet." As to the latter topic, I wish such a thing really existed because I could use it. As to the former, the last one I experienced in the US was 2001. The 4th of July in that part of Japan I live in, the part not occupied by US military, is just another day. I sometimes think about doing something on the 4th, but the only thing that really occurs to me is to write poems about an America that never was and will likely not be. It exists only in my head, the debris of a undergraduate and graduate level education in political philosophy: A Socratic flâneur. Though to confess, I am a coward who no doubt would have taken exile over hemlock. Or perhaps I have done that already.

Adam Markus
July 4, 2008

The Dream of the Ticket

I am sitting in my uncle's seat in first class on a airplane. My uncle will be coming soon and I have to get out of his seat so that I can go catch my flight. He is a politician and has someplace important to go to, but seems to have wanted me to sit in his seat first. I put the seat back in the upright position, exit the airplane, and look at my ticket to see what gate I have to go to.

The ticket in my hand is for a flight in two weeks to Chicago and I can't find my ticket for today's flight. I can't even remember where I will be going today or at what time. I may have missed my flight. It is now 20:00.

I am not panicked because I have my ANA millage card and I know I bought the ticket online. I decide to go to the ticket counter and retrieve all the necessary information using my millage card.

Now that I have plan, I know everything will be fine. However, I begin to panic because there is no ticket counter and no one seems to be able to help me. Actually everything appears to be closed and the few people who are around ignore me. I become simultaneously annoyed and desperate. At this point I wake up and reassure myself that this dream could never happen to me: I am in control. I begin checking all details of my upcoming appointments. Even now, I worry that I have forgotten some small detail without which all my plans will come to nothing.

-Adam
March 17, 2008

Dear Franks

The Gentle Art of Being Hated

I find myself now in a situation where I regularly encounter people from my recent past who hate me. They have their reasons. To be honest, I don't like them either. So we see each other at public functions where we are both there for professional reasons. There is no danger of an angry encounter occurring because we are too civilized and too self-interested for that to happen.

Yet there is a tension that is enhanced by the fact that I sit at the front of the room and they sit at the back. I am being watched and they have to look at me.

Who suffers more?

I suspect (and hope) they do because they are, no doubt worrying, that I am going to muscle-in on what they have long perceived as their territory. I think they are wrong about it being their territory, but I certainly am there. It must bother them to have to look at the head of the hated one. I hope so. At this point I am largely free of them except at such events. If only we could become strangers, but memory is not that kind and they are unlikely to be blinded.

Long ago, as the result of childhood taunts, I developed a fairly thick skin for animosity directed towards me. I can look straight through those I no longer wish to engage with and simultaneously generate the necessary disdain. This requires little energy on my part. It has become an instinctive survival strategy for someone who wishes neither to hide or to fight.

The cycle of these public non-meetings will continue for the foreseeable future. I am already used to it.

-Adam Markus 9/29/07

Everything Changes

To my loyal readers (Akiko & Mom),

Sorry for the disruptive move to the new blog, but business is business and pleasure is pleasure. I moved everything but your kind comments here. I am too lazy to do that. Sorry.

To everyone else. If you are looking for my comments on admissions counseling, go here. This blog is just about the rest of me.

Cheers,
Adam

A mask of refreshment

There is nothing like a refreshing mask. The Wisconsin Cap is just there for the sake of your amusement. Note the tank top, it is old and yet still fits. Did I shrink? Did it grow? Ah, sweet mysteries of life. No day is dull unless you are.

ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE WHEN YOU GO ON VACATION

Akiko and I got out of Tokyo for a couple of days. No internet, no TV, no newspapers. Just hung out in a cabin, hiked, and relaxed.

What happens? George the Idiot goes ahead and makes sure that his buddy wouldn't have to be in jail. Commuting a sentence is essentially saying: His guilt is not the issue, but the Scouter should not suffer. What is guilt without punishment? A $250,000 fine that his friends will pay for him? Give me a break. And no Jewish mother jokes please...

From the viewpoint of politics, I don't blame Bush for doing this. Since everyone who hates him already just hates him for one more reason, he does not have to worry about the public at large. Instead he just needs to play to his base: THE V P (Read the Washington Post Series on the VP!). No really, he is throwing the Republican base a bone, albeit a really small one, to make up for the fact that they now hate him because of his position on immigration. That said, I am still disgusted.

Now how about some photos from our vacation in Izumigo (Japanese site)!

1. The First No Hunting Sign I have ever seen in Japan:


Photo by Akiko


2. When "onry" local service is available:

Photo by Akiko

3. I was subject to a sudden attack of the muses:

Photo by Akiko


4. I grilled my first rice ball and took a really bad photo:


Photo by Adam

5. We also found time to enjoy the scenery on a long hike today:

Photo by Adam

Now that we feel relaxed, we have the energy to get stressed out again.


Adam

アダム マーカス： Adam Markus or Adam Marcus?

A story.

It was about 10am last Monday when I received the first call on Skype. I had just turned on my computer. It was from SUZUKI999.
“ もしもし、あの、アダム　マーカスさんのお宅ですか？“
(“Hello is this the honorable Adam Markus?”)
“はい、アダムです。どなたですか？”
(“Yes, this is Adam. Who is this?”)
“やった！日本語がとてもおじょうずですね。ぼく、あなたのファンなんです…
(“This is amazing. Your Japanese is so good. I am your fan.”)
I understood what the guy was saying up to this point then it all became a blur of words. Some I could pick-up: ジェイソン　(Jason, he actually saying this over and over again) ホラー　(Horror) 、シリーズ（Series)、監督（Director)、１３日の金曜日（Friday the 13th)、すずき　(Suzuki, a last name).　To be honest, I was in a bit of a haze when the guy called. I was just waking up, had not even had my first espresso of the morning. I rarely work on Mondays and this was no exception. So this guy kept on talking for a couple more minutes before I said that I was sorry, but had no idea what he was talking about. I asked him if he spoke English at which point he hung up.

I really had no idea what to make of this. It did not sound like the usual sales call that I either treat as Japanese practice or end as quickly as possible. I felt in some sense violated: Where did this guy get my skype address? From my blog? What was he talking about? The whole thing did not make any sense to me. It kind of made me nervous: There is some freak in Japan, possibly even in Tokyo, who wants to talk me.　It was a bit scary, really.　I decided to drink an espresso and try to prevent myself from descending into paranoid worry, but I checked the front door to make sure that Akiko had locked both locks when she left for work.

It must have been about half an hour later when I received the second call. This one was from NaomiT. “Hello, I’m sorry to bother you, Mr. Markus, but my friend Toru Suzuki can’t speak English, so he asked me to call you. My name is Naomi.” She sounded a little nervous, but her English was close to native level. She sounded young, but that may have been my imagination.

“Hi, ah, can I ask what this is regarding?” I was not about to say much till I understand, what was going on.

“Well, my friend Toru really liked JASON GOES TO HELL and when he discovered your blog he found you were living in Tokyo and just wanted to talk to you. He wanted to let you know that JASON GOES TO HELL is his favorite Friday the 13th Movie.”

At the time, I was not sure which phone call confused me more. All I knew is that both of them talked about Jason and Friday the 13th. I was not really sure what my blog had to do with that. I decided to say nothing and let her do the talking.

“Yes, I see.”

“He is very sorry for calling, but you are his favorite director and was just so excited to find that you were living in Japan and on skype. I guess many of your fans must bother you.”

At this point, I realized Toru was either confusing me with someone else or Toru and Naomi were scam artists of some sort. The scam angle did not make sense. Confusion did. This lead me to make one of those split second decisions, play along or clarify. I decided to see where this was going.

“Actually no. The fans of my blog occasionally send me an email, but no one has called me before. Did you like my blog?”

“Well to be honest, I have not looked at. Toru called me and sent me your skype address. Sorry, my boss is coming, I have to go.”

NaomiT was gone and I had a small mystery.

Google is a wonderful thing. It took me about a minute to figure out what had happened. I did a search on the film JASON GOES TO HELL, and discovered that Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993) was directed by Adam Marcus. I then did a google search on アダム マーカス and discovered that both of us came up. There is no fundamental difference between Markus and Marcus as a last name ("Marx" is a Germanized form of "Mordechai" (and so are "Mark", "Markus", "Marcuse" etc.) and could be either the father's name or a family name). In any event, Adam Marcus and I shared a similar name that becomes the same in Japanese.

For a moment, I thought about the possibilities for taking advantage of this with Toru and with Naomi, but such juvenile impulses, while no doubt amusing, were not worth the risk. After all, as Adam Markus, graduate admissions counselor and all around mostly responsible and honest guy, I had my reputation to think of. Instead, I decided to chat with Toru using skype’s instant messenger functions.

ADAMPREP: HI TORU. I TALKED TO NAOMI

SUZUKI999: HI ADAM. SHE TOLD ME.

ADAMPREP: I AM NOT ADAM MARCUS.

SUZUKI999: ?

ADAMPREP: MY NAME IS ADAM MARKUS, NOT ADAM MARCUS.

SUZUKI999: ?

ADAMPREP: BOKU WA MARKUS DESU, MARCUS JA NAI
(I am Markus, not Marcus)

SUZUKI999: MARCUS?

ADAMPREP: ADAM MARCUS TO BOKU WA CHIGAU HITO DESU
(Adam Marcus and I are not the same)

SUZUKI999: WAKARIMASHITA. GOMEN NASAI. HAZUKASHII DESU.
(I understand. I am sorry. This is embarrassing.)

ADAMPREP: TONDEMONAI. OMOSHIROI DESU. MAE NI DENWA O MOTATTATOKI, ADAM MARCUS GA DAREKA WAKARIMASENDESHITA. DEMO IMA WA WAKARIMASU.
(No problem. It is interesting. Before you called, I did not know of Adam Marcus, but now I know.

We kept on chatting for a couple of minutes and that was the last I heard from SUZUKI999, not to mention NaomiT.

After we chatted, I decided to investigate Adam Marcus a little bit. To be honest, my "namesake’s" career did not really appear to be flourishing at least if measured by films made. In addition to JASON GOES TO HELL (1993), he directed his big movie Let It Snow (2001) and appears to have something called Black Autumn under development. He appears to have some development deals, but this guy’s career seemed to reach its pinnacle in 2001.

I also discovered, and this is truly odd, that we were both born in 1968.

I thought about his dates and mine and wondered if there was a deeper connection.

1993 was not particularly good year for me. In fact it was the worst year of life. I took my MA from the PhD program I was in and had no idea what to do with my life and was adrift. On the other hand, 1993 was a great year for Adam Marcus.

2001 was a good year for both of us, I returned to Japan and began my career as a graduate admissions counselor and Adam Marcus released his greatest film to date. However there is a difference, I was entering my career that has continued to develop and he appears to have been (at least at this point) at his zenith. I can’t imagine spending the last six years working on film development deals as particularly joyful, whatever its financial rewards might be.

Could it be that some unknown principle was at work. Though our names are not the same, is some sort of karmic distributive scale in operation? If he releases Black Autumn and it is a big hit, what happens to me? What difference does a k or c make?

There are, no doubt, other biographical factors to consider other than those I know of, but the whole things leaves me a bit worried.

Additionally, he appears to not exactly be a thin guy either:

The Photographic Evidence:
Adam Marcus






















Me (Adam Markus):



Finally, for the record, I have seen neither of his films. Actually, I don't like horror movies. I might try to see his other movie though, actually Elvis Mitchell kind of liked it.

-Adam Markus

How to read a resume

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A VERY LONG ENTRY.

When I have done hiring, I try to take apart resumes like I do below. It does not always eliminate problems. Life is messy and hiring is most certainly not one of the cleaner parts of it.

We all learn how to write resumes to some degree or another, but how many of us really learn to read them?

What follows is my attempt to read my own resume. I would be happy to read someone else’s resume, so feel free to submit your resume for this purpose.

Please keep in mind that I will not deal with stylistic issues so much because as an HTML novice, I don’t know how to make this look good enough to comment on those aspects here.

A version of this resume was used for my application to the University of London LLM program, so keep in mind that I had to (1) Explain my main job which is not in the law field and (2) emphasize everything in my background that related to the law.

My comments however are NOT from the viewpoint of an admissions officer, but from the viewpoint of someone who has been regularly doing hiring since the 1990s and hiring admission counselors since 2004. My Comments are in red.

ADAM CHARLES MARKUS

adammarkus@gmail.com

Professional email address, not something like Cool.Dude@gmail.com. Anytime I see an email address that looks unprofessional, unless the person is some sort of artist, I usually just want to trash it.

(Assume that if this was a “real resume it would have additional contact info)

EDUCATION

Master of Arts in Political Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison, May 1993, GPA: 3.7

This guy has been out of school for a long time. His GPA is OK, I guess this must be an academic CV because otherwise there is no reason to have grades here.

Bachelor of Arts in Politics, University of California, Santa Cruz, June 1989, GPA: 3.7

Now I can figure out how old this guy is. He graduated from college in 1989, so 1989-22 is 1967. He must be 40 (Well actually I graduated a year earlier, but many people take 5 or more years to graduate so I could be anywhere from 40-42 because no one except me graduated from Santa Cruz early, well most likely no one else).

Now the he have established that he is no spring chicken nor a retiree, we can also determine that he probably entered his Master's program in 1991 because it takes two years to graduate from most MA programs. It is possible that he did some sort of ABD thing like his fellow UW Madison alum, but given the dates, unlikely. Once we check things below we see that he did in fact attend for two years.

Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA), University of Cambridge, September 2001

Smart, he listed this unsexy, but potentially useful certificate after his real degrees

Japanese Language Proficiency Certificate, Level 4 (Basic), Japan Foundation, February 2001

Well OK, so this means the guy can probably order a cup of a coffee in Japanese, but given that it was 6! years ago and he has been in Japan continuously since then, he either has not made much progress in this area or did not think it was important enough to pursue. Given the dates, at least it is an indication that he tried to learn something hard since leaving school.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Associate Director, Academic Counseling Department

He is not giving a full breakdown of his titles at this company because he must not have started with this title. I will need to ask him about it if I interview him.

The Princeton Review of Japan, Tokyo, Japan, 11/01-8/07 (Company became Agos, 4/07)

Whatever follows, I know that this guy was able to keep working at the same place for over 5.5 years. Given the relatively short length of employment at all his prior positions, this eliminates my concern that this guy is a serial job jumper/hopper.

Job jumpers (moves from job to job on an annual or even bi-annual basis over 6 years or more) come in all shapes and sizes. As a former one, I know. Job jumpers don't always worry me because I usually need to hire people with international experience who are not very conventional. The more conventional, the less likely they will possess the kind of mental flexibility I looked for in an admissions counselor. On the other hand, when I was hiring for a payment processor at Kaplan, I wanted someone with a strong focused background in accounting.

If I was hiring for a senior management position I would stay away from hiring anyone who was a pure job jumper, but I would be equally concerned about hiring a "company man." From my perspective if someone has drunk from the same company fountain for ten years or more after college, I would probably avoid hiring him or her into a new industry because the amount of unlearning they would have to do would without benefit of an intensive training program, but it would take years and the potential damage he or she could do might never justify it. Such people frequently test the limits of the efficacy of re-education.

-Recognized as one of Japan’s leading graduate admissions counselors, my views on an ethical approach to counseling were recently presented extensively in the Winter 2006 issue of Japan Inc, a quarterly business magazine

OK. This guy is telling us he is at the top of his field and is providing some sort of evidence for it. Can't be certain whether I should believe him, but at least I know he takes his job seriously and probably has a good opinion of himself.

-Application counseling for Japanese and resident foreigners applying to overseas MBA, LLM & other graduate programs

-Teach essay and resume writing skills, admissions strategy, and effective interview techniques

At least he is stating very clearly what he does in the above two points.

-Conduct research on programs through interviews with admissions officers, students, campus visits, and Tokyo based events for advising clients

He talks, he travels, he reports.

-Proposed, implemented, and updated research project to provide detailed information on US & UK Master of Law programs through reviewing school website and surveying admission program staff, which resulted in an increased emphasis on the LLM track and a further development of relations with law schools

This is an accomplishment and as long as this is being provided to someone in his industry they will probably get it, but, if this were being sent to a reader outside his industry, it might as well be written in Martian.

-Prepare and conduct marketing presentations to potential clients

He is not overly focusing on his sales and marketing role. Assuming he is not trying to get a job in sales or marketing that is OK. At least I know he can make presentations and stand in front of an audience.

-Hire, manage and train counselors

He might have included some data on this, otherwise if I interview him, I will certainly ask him about this to determine how much time he spends doing it, what he does, and whether he is good at it or not.

-Handle budgeting and all other administrative operations pertaining to English language counseling services

He is not disclosing any numbers here, but we get the impression that he can handle the back end of management in addition to the front.

English Teacher and Consultant, Tokyo, Japan, 12/01-10/03

-Taught professional and academic English skills for Temple University Japan and ISS, a major translation/interpretation school

-Develop teacher training materials and class curriculum

I guess he used the CELTA mentioned above. He actually has lots of teaching experience if we add up everything he has been doing from grad school on. It looks like he stopped teaching, I wonder if he became a regular employee at Princeton Review sometime around the end of 2003.

Sr. Manager, Sales & Online Marketing, International Programs

Kaplan Inc., New York City,

He worked at the biggest test prep company in the US whose biggest competitor is the Princeton Review. Where was he working till March 2007? Maybe he knows something about the test prep industry.

7/99-3/01

History time: This guy looks like he was a victim of the IT Bubble. What a three strikes your out title- middle manager, marketing, and online. Note the gap in employment between this time and his job in Japan. What was he doing? He could say he was traveling and obtained his CELTA, if pressed he might mention taking full advantage of NYC's free cultural activities. What a nice vacation! Thank you New York!

-Marketed and sold English language and test preparation courses to international clients

-Developed individualized long term study plans involving academic English and test preparation for clients

-Created & implemented online marketing strategy & email based sales system to increase direct enrollments & reduce customer acquisition costs

-Conducted extensive research on domestic and international competition for senior management; Analyzed the pricing of English language programs in Australia, Canada, US & UK; Presented a report on the impact of US student visa restrictions on sales

Well OK, the title and the responsibilities above are in some sort of agreement with each other.

-Managed and substantially revised student visa processes and procedures nationwide; recruited and trained student visa expert & admissions staff

-Hired, trained, and supervised sales and admissions staff

These two items indicate that he had major responsibilities not directly tied to his core function. Seems like a pretty flexible guy.

-Led negotiations and implemented plan for the outsourcing of international mailing

For anyone who knows this guy's industry, international education, knows that international mailing is a major cost. Here this means sending materials to prospects and bulk materials to agents. (You can be pretty sure that if anyone at the University of London even bothered reading this, they would get it because their whole operation involves mailing materials to students).

International Representatives Coordinator

University of California Berkeley Extension,

I bet he has some stories about working at Berkeley. Maybe I should invite him out for a coffee.

8/97-5/99

-Coordinated world wide sales network of representatives responsible for $5,000,000 in revenue

FINALLY A REAL NUMBER!!! I guess he either can't give or does not want to disclose the numbers for the private companies he worked for. Makes sense really because as a public institution Berkeley would have to disclose this sort of information.

-Sold English language and professional training programs to international clients

-Served as liaison for international student programs for web related marketing

-Supervised clerical assistants for mail and email based brochure fulfillment

There is a kind of consistency between the jobs he was doing at Kaplan and Berkeley, so while he clearly jumped organizationally and geographically, he also appears to have taken on greater responsibilities in a position in the international education business.

Administrative Assistant, Hearst Museum of Anthropology

University of California, Berkeley, 11/97-5/98

-Design and maintenance of research databases for a variety of academic projects

OK. The guy moves back to the US and does a TEMP job. Certainly looks like it. He worked in a Museum at UCB! If I interview him, I will ask him about it just to see if he has any way of making it sound good. Oh, on second thought, I guess the bullet point above is that.

English Instructor, International Education Services, Tokyo, Japan, 2/95-3/97

-Taught English conversation, overseas work/study preparation & business skills to corporate clients & government officials

-Taught English conversation to Junior High and elementary school students

-Created customized instructional materials and edited international documents for Japanese clients

Goes to Japan about a year and half after finishing graduate school. Stays for two years and comes back to Berkeley, leaves there after about two years and moves to New York, leaves New York in 2001 and has been in Japan since then. One thing is clear, this guy was moving around very often between 1989 and 2001. At least he settled down by his mid-30s. Seems much more stable now.

Patent Prosecution Assistant, Office of Technology Transfer

University of California, Office of the President, Oakland, California 4/94-12/94

-Handled documents related to patent prosecution including the preparation of routine documents to researchers and patent lawyers

Sounds like he was doing some really boring paralegal work.

Teaching Assistant, Department of Political Science,

University of Wisconsin, Madison, 9/91-5/93

-Led discussion sections and graded papers and exams for political theory and comparative political science courses

Research Assistant, Department of Political Science

University of Wisconsin, Madison, 6/92-8/92

-Researched and prepared an extensive scholarly bibliography

When I look at the above two jobs, I know that he was actually in the PhD program because someone in a terminal masters degree at a major American public university would be highly unlikely to get RA and TA jobs.

Paralegal, Commercial Law & Bankruptcy Dept.

Jenner & Block, Chicago, Illinois, 9/89-5/91

-Handled complex legal bills on behalf of the Trustee in large bankruptcies which required extensive knowledge of all legal work performed in order to prepare sufficient documentation to obtain approval by the court

-Prepared routine documents for the court and parties concerned in bankruptcy cases and in civil and criminal suits

-Assist attorneys with case citation and non-legal research

First job out of college. The first item sounds interesting, I wonder what preparing those bills involved. I bet he has some solid basic understanding of how a corporate law firm worked a decade ago. For some reason he did not become a lawyer.

Research Assistant, Silicon Valley Research Group

University of California, Santa Cruz, 1/89-6/89

-Conducted oral and written surveys of American machine-tool firms as part of an international study

God that is exciting, but clearly he telling us that he developed research skills in college.

PUBLICATIONS

“Spinning Our Paranoid Wheels” (a review of The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State) in Response, A Contemporary Jewish Review, Spring/Summer 1994, pages 34-36.

“Heidegger’s Silence” in Response, A Contemporary Jewish Review, Spring 1992, pages 24-31.

I bet he is Jewish.

OTHER EXPERIENCE

Editor, Leviathan, University of California, Santa Cruz, 6/87-2/89

-Established a Women’s Section of the paper resulting in increase of contributors by more than 50%

-Paper received Columbia Student Journalism Awards under my editorship for articles published in 1988 and 1989

OK, so I can tell that he is proud of this because it could easily have been cut. I think he is trying to tell us that he has had some sort of management/editorial experience since his college days. Maybe the first point is designed to make women think he is an enlightened guy and clearly the last point is designed to make everyone understand that is some sort of prestigious award. At least the "Columbia" sounds that way.

OK. Now that I ripped myself apart, well at least partially, who wants to go next?

My evil twin: ACE

My evil twin, ACE, is a bit of a thug. If a debt needs to be collected, if someone has taken advantage of me, if a wrong needs to righted, ACE takes care of it. While both ACE and I loved my maternal grandfather, who, prior to our birth, owned an illegal sports book in East Chicago, it was ACE who decided to follow in the family tradition. That said, he decided not to go into business with an Italian American organization the way my grandfather did. ACE also knows how to have a good time and compared to nice bookish Adam, ACE can be a lot of fun. He is a lousy singer, but loves karaoke. He also has been known to drink too much at weddings and wakes and elsewhere. My wife, Akiko, lets him come over, but she always tells me when it is time for him to leave. She actually likes ACE and made the image above for his as yet unreleased greatest hits album. If you would like to arrange a meeting with ACE, please let me know in advance because he is a busy guy and, like Holly Golightly, is frequently traveling.

Tank Top Philosophy

I started wearing tank tops, seven years ago, during my second summer in New York City. They keep me cool or at least cooler than any other kind of t-shirt. I am no longer living in New York City, but I am still wearing tank tops or as my brother likes to say, wife beaters. The funny thing is that it is wife who suggested I start wearing them.

Actually I would say that my conversion to the tank top, an item of apparel that I am now wholly committed to, represents a fundamental change. I was always the sort of person who possessed such a strong preconception of what I would and would not wear. And since I have always been overweight I long had the very common tendency among the fat to try to cover up my body as though a loose shirt would somehow make me look thinner. In addition, I am a snob and always associated tank tops with working class slobs, not with middle class Jewish intellectuals like myself. But all of this has changed. Perhaps the fact that my tank tops are branded by Ralph Lauren or Banana Republic, somehow mitigates the snob issue, but still a white tank top is a white tank top even if it is ribbed and freshly laundered. Of course only about half of my tank tops are white. The rest are gray, brown, black, blue, and dark green.

I wear tank tops now because I am no longer attempting to hide my body. It is whatever it is and I endeavor to make it better. Secondly and this is actually fundamental, it was my wife who suggested I wear them. She has always accepted me for who I am and in fact has made me feel good about my body in a way that no one else ever did. Sometimes liberation from ones prejudices comes from within, but sometimes it really takes another person to make you recognize life’s alternatives.

MY TWISTED IDEA OF FUN PART 2

Is there anything you really regret?

I think to myself: YES!

I regret that I did not study Latin. So over the next couple of years, I have decided to try and make up for that. Why Latin? Without it, I will never really be able to master Roman Law (big shock) and hence I consider it an important academic skill for me to develop. Also I want to be able to read Roman authors, especially Catullus, in the original Latin. I also consider this a significant hold in my education as a Western intellectual. I would like to learn Ancient Greek too, but I think it will have to wait for a decade or more. Latin is a dead language in as much as you can't speak it with very many people, but it lives within the languages of the West and hence studying it will provide me with further cognates for dealing with the living Romance Languages. Finally, you never know when you will have to meet the Pope.


http://adam-markus.blogspot.com/

Bangkok Sirroco Bar

I am ready to go back there for a drink.

MY TWISTED IDEA OF FUN

For a couple of years I had been looking for the right part-time graduate program. I finished my Masters in Political Science at University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1993 and with the exception of taking a CELTA and studying for Japanese, my education for the last fourteen years has been solely based on my reading choices. This is not to be despised or even apologized for because I have always regularly read hard academic books and have continuously developed my intellect. I have spent much of my life living in my head and a certainly large portion of that time is dedicated to thinking about philosophy, political theory, politics, law, religion, history, and literature. Given that list of subjects, it is clear enough that I have had no clear overall focus. For, perhaps, the first ten years after grad school I was simply not even interested in focusing on an academic discipline. Given the fact that I started by Masters at age 23 and finished by age 25 and also graduated from undergrad a year early at age 21, it is no surprise that I was tired with school.

However after a couple of years working as an admissions counselor, I was ready to go back, but not full-time. Frankly, I am committed to my profession as a counselor and was not looking for an academic program that would make that career impossible. I am good at what I do professionally, take great pride in it, and doubt seriously the advantage of leaving that career behind. Hence I started looking for part-time graduate program in my core field of political theory. No such part-time or distance program at what I would consider to be a good school exists. I came close to applying to one part-time PhD program in Japan, but decided that the topic I was planning to focus on was simply not something I could be passionate about. Another year went by and then suddenly I found it.

A disclaimer: I am not lawyer. Given my experience working as a paralegal in both bankruptcy and patent law as well as having a brother and two very close friends (my lifelong best friend and my best friend from my graduate school days) who are lawyers, I know that this is a well informed choice. On the other hand, legal theory and history have interested me since college. This area of scholarship was constantly overlapping with my core interests in the study of politics. Additionally, in the last couple of years, my interest in legal theory and history continued to grow especially when I started to lectures from the University of Chicago faculty and the Federalist Society ( I will write about my favorite podcasts in another post). At the same time I became interested in understanding legal history and theory more systematically.

Earlier this year, I began the latest chapter in my twisted idea of fun.
I started studying part-time for Postgraduate Diploma in Laws and assuming I get through it, I will also take an LLM at the University of London's External Programme. I am not planning to learn anything practical. I am planning on studying the history of law and legal theory. My first course is Western European Legal History. Sometime in 2008, I will move to legal and judicial theory. Assuming I stay on something like a regular study schedule I should be able to get an LLM by 2010.

My fun really began in earnest in May. I am reading mostly about the impact of Roman Law on the West. Based on what I can gather, I may be the only student in the External Programme studying this subject because no one has ever taken an exam in it before (they report the results and give the questions for all past exams) and when I tried to find anyone among the registered students who was taking this course, I could find no one. It is lonely in a way, but to be honest I did not really expect to be part of a learning community. Instead I simply want to obtain mastery of the subject in order to reinvigorate my intellectual foundations. Maybe after I finish the LLM, I will about doing a PhD in intellectual history or political theory, but at the moment, all I want to do is have fun with this.

ぼくは、アダム マーカスです。

Or am I Adam Charles Markus. Anyway, either way works for me. アダム　マーカス is actually my legally registered Japanese name in Japan. I decided to drop my middle name, "Charles," well, because I don't like it much. The name Charles always struck me as old and additionally I always felt that it would make people associate me with Charlie Brown. And actually, my wife, Akiko aka Lucy, certainly thinks of me that way.

For the record, my Hebrew name is Adam Ben Baruch, "Adam Son of Blessing." My father's Hebrew name is Baruch, whereas his actual name is Bruce. My parents named their sons Adam and Josh, so actually our names are the same in English and Hebrew.

Ultimately though, I go by Adam Markus. The only problem is that half the time people my first name is last name. I have gotten used to this confusion. When I am called Markus, I start to feel like an ancient Roman, but more about that later.