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spauldo
I still maintain my boycott of Amazon over the one-click patent.
It's a hassle to buy stuff online without using Amazon. The patent expired years ago. Probably no other person is still boycotting them over it (not that it was ever an effective boycott in the first place). But I just can't bring myself to buy from them.
Writing. Specifically, tech writing. I've got an intuitive sense for it, but other than business communication and the occasional bit of internal documentation I don't have any desire to do it professionally.
I get along great with our tech writer, though, since I'm the only other person at the company who can hold a discussion about the Oxford comma.
It's a bit more complicated, really. The islands weren't usually politically united. China lost actual control of the Ryukyu kingdom well before the first Sino-Japanese war, but maintained a claim on it for quite some time.
The US took over administration during WWII and converted many of the Japanese bases to American ones. The US doesn't claim any of the islands anymore and has closed some installations, but a lot of bases are still active. The US is responsible for Japan's defense. Japan would rather have the bases in Okinawa rather than in mainland Japan (although there are a few bases there as well), which a lot of Okinawans feel is unfair. Okinawa is very well placed strategically though and Japanese people don't like foreigners (sort of... It's weird), so don't expect the situation to change any time soon.
BTW, if you ever want to visit Japan, Okinawa's a great option. It's beautiful there and it's not hard to get by on just English.
He followed me home, mommy, can we keep him?
No, dear, it's against the law now.