Fluency:

Forest Oceanic’s Spotify Artist’s Page

Forest Oceanic invites the listener on a journey, exploring soundscapes that evoke the familiar while looking toward the horizon, mapping memory, a cartographer of melody and rhythm where the land meets the water.

Playing with harmony and instrumentation, manipulating the space between lush, orchestral arrangements and the breathing of melodic lines, Forest Oceanic travels through genre, collecting sonic souvenirs and carefully placing them in his backpack, keeping them for a game of show and tell.

California based artist Forest Oceanic began exploring music at an early age, developing a love for different musical styles and genres, ranging from Bach and top 40 to global folk. He expanded his musical horizons in college, singing in the choir in addition to further developing his piano skills. His interest in culture and language dovetails with his curiosity in and appreciation of global sounds.

Description of the Single, “Moonrise Fox,” on Bandcamp:

An eclectic blend of deep synths and kabuki-inspired instrumentation, new and ancient sounds together form moonlight, fox, and forest with agile and luminous harmonies and a living rhythmic bass, accentuated with the deep reverberations of taiko drums.

PacificusPlays YouTube About Page

Tired of the same old achievement-hunting, hype-folk streams? Do you love strategy and builder games like Paradox's EU4, CK3, and HoI 4, Creative Assembly's TW Rome 2 and TW Napoleon? How about some Anno 1800?

Want to watch a streamer who is invested in getting immersed in the emergent world and storytelling envisioned by the game designers themselves?

You may have found your home here with Pacificus Plays!

Pacificus Plays’ goal is to create a stream where the gameplay is a journey to be enjoyed. The community should be a safe space, a refuge from the cares of the everyday workaday world, a journey into story. Listen and/or watch his videos in the background as ambient noise while you work or complete chores, revel in the expanding decision trees on the big screen, or even put on a playlist on in the background as you fall asleep--whatever works best for you!

Pacificus Plays, where wholesome strategy goodness is baked right in!

Reportage. “France Uneasy as Fitch, Standard & Poor’s Adjust Outlook, Credit Rating”, December 16, 2011

As the Eurozone crisis continues, ratings agency Fitch adjusts its outlook for France from stable to negative, and Standard & Poor's is expected to downgrade its rating of France's AAA credit, possibly within days.

Reports from Fitch state that France's commitments to European financial security put it more at risk to suffer negatively from the most recent developments across the Eurozone.  France is the second-biggest backer of the European Financial Stability Facility, the mechanism created to help bail out European nations if a major financial event were to occur.  The UK and the US, countries whose influence on the Eurozone is also considerable, are not as intimately involved with the Euro's stability. Fitch has also stated that France's outlook would not change, “in the absence of a material adverse shock, most likely associated with dramatic worsening of the Eurozone crisis.”

Fitch reaffirmed France's AAA credit rating—the highest rating possible.  However, the change in outlook from stable to negative could mean a possible downgrade from the optimal rating at any time within the next two years.  Eurozone countries which have been put on negative watch within the past week include Belgium, Cyprus, Ireland, Italy, Slovenia, and Spain, meaning that the credit ratings for those countries can possibly be downgraded within the next three months.

It is also feared that Standard & Poor's will downgrade France's credit rating.  If any of the major ratings agencies reduces France's AAA standing, it will be more difficult for the country to raise funds in financial markets and it will be more expensive for the country to refinance its debt in the coming year.  Considering how other, more seriously debt-ridden Euro countries look to France for assistance, a reduction of France's credit rating would be a serious blow to European governments struggling to stem the tide of recession that hangs over the continent.

CONTINUED NEGATIVE GROWTH PROJECTED, FRANCE EDGES CLOSER TO RECESSION

Insee, the French National Institute of Statistics, projects that if France has another trimester of negative growth, the country will enter into a recession.  If the beginning of 2012 continues the trend of negative growth demonstrated at the end of 2011, it will be the second time since 2008 that France will have entered into a recession.  Previous to 2008, France experienced a recession from 1974-1975 due to US President Nixon's decision to take the dollar off the gold standard, in conjunction with the global rise of oil prices; and from 1992-1993, when France fell victim to currency speculation right before to its transition to the Euro.

The lack of agreement at a European summit earlier this month which had the goal of fixing the European debt crisis—now in its third year—puts more pressure on European leaders to find a solution.  The UK stood apart from the rest of its European counterparts at the summit which took place on December 9, and this discord is part of the atmosphere which makes ratings organizations like Fitch and its counterparts like Standard & Poor's, noticeably wary.

France suffering a downgrade either in credit rating or in outlook can have immediate and far-ranging effects. Similar downgrades to the credit rating of other major countries were the primary cause for six world-wide stock market drops in 2011.

Copywriting, Informative SEO.

METRO VALUE PASS

The Value Pass offers you all the flexibility and value you could ask for when navigating the City of Light.  These passes are available to purchase to use for 1, 2, 3, or 5 consecutive days.  The Value Pass, otherwise known as the Tourist Multi-Pass, allows you the convenience of choosing a pass which is valid for either: Zones 1 -3, which covers the center of Paris, as well as the inner suburbs; or valid for Zones 1 -5, which encompasses all of Paris, including the outer suburbs and both Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports.   The Value Pass is an easy way for you to go from the Notre Dame to the Moulin Rouge, from the Tuileries to Montmartre, without the hassle associated with taxis. 

Within Zones 1 - 3, you can visit famous landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay and the Champs-Elysées.  If you include Zones 4 and 5, you can travel out to the the suburbs, including both airports (both Charles de Gaulle and Orly) and attractions like Disneyland Paris.

The Value Pass also allows you to choose how many days you want to travel, so you don't have to worry about paying for days you might not use, while at the same time offering you the convenience of paying for travel days ahead of time.

Since the pass is priced per day, you don't have to keep track of how many trips you have taken--its use is unlimited.  As an added benefit, purchasing the [hidden] affords you the opportunity to take advantage of discounts offered by partners, as well as the ability to arrive at major landmarks without having to negotiate through traffic or tourists. 

See Paris like a Parisian would--purchase the Value Pass, and enjoy the City of Light as it is meant to be enjoyed.

HOW TO USE A COUPON CODE

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Shopping with Smith and Co., you can look up items by year, make, and model using their easy-to-navigate website.  Smith and Co.’s inventory is updated daily, so you can be sure that you have instant access to information regarding whether a part you need is in stock. 

When you use a ClipSave’s coupon code, you can combine the convenience of online shopping with the additional savings coupons typically offer.  These easy to use coupons give you a shot at instant savings without having to go through the hassle of processing and waiting for a rebate to be credited to you.  Just enter the coupon code in the appropriate box at checkout, and your purchase is complete, at even less cost to you than you might have thought!

Academic and Research Writing. Excerpt from paper: “The Consolidation of South Korean Democracy”

The position that regionalism is widespread and that its effects are largely deleterious is important to examine.  One may even posit that it is a central issue in the question of whether or not Korea's democratic consolidation will be successful, and if it is, how long it would take to arrive at that destination.  Samuel S. Kim makes a compelling argument that such regionalism is endemic in Korea's political landscape, and that it is perhaps the most important issue that must be addressed in order for consolidation to continue:

...Korea is still far from being a consolidated democracy.  It has yet to experience the requisite normative, institutional, and behavioral transformations required to become a mature liberal democracy.  The most significant impediment to Korea's progress toward consolidation may be the deeply embedded politics of fragmentation (emphasis mine).  Chronically plagued by fratricidal regional factionalism, searing labor-management conflict, and right/left ideological cleavages, South Korea has yet to be  geographically, socially, culturally, and politically unified within its own borders.[1]

As for the causes of such "politics of fragmentation", which I will reduce here to the politics of regionalism, there is the view introduced earlier and elucidated by David C. Kang, that proposes that the absence of thoroughly institutionalized and issue based national parties has channeled voter interests to those which can be classified as regional concerns, and that regional politics, expressed as the voting patterns in support of officials who may be believed as serving local interests, serves as an alternate avenue for an otherwise effectively dispossessed electorate.[2]  Kyong-Ryung Seong echoes this sentiment in stating that this strong regionalism in Korean politics precludes consolidation because it reduces the level of political competition based on rational debates and policy differences, that it deepens regional rivalry and vaults regional concerns over national ones, and that most importantly its hinders interregional cooperation and the decentralization of government.[3]  Seong's argument argues that democratic consolidation hindered by this regionalism expressed through "intense political competition" and the unstable nature of party politics in Korea.[4]  However, scholar David C. Kang, whose work was encountered earlier regarding party politics, makes the argument that the accusation of regionalism is an ineffective one, a "straw man" argument.  Kang posits that voting behavior is a reflection of pragmatic choices regarding the furthering of certain goals of particular constituencies, and the controversy surrounding regionalism in Korean politics is better reframed as nothing particularly unusual--that voters from certain economic and geographic regions will tend to vote in a way that is reflective of concerns paramount in the minds of the voters grouped together in terms of geography is no cause for alarm: "Regional voting, then, is not a matter of concern for Korean democracy.  It simply demonstrates that, to date, voters see the overwhelming issue as advancing their interests by a favorite-son candidate with a well-developed personal network and political machine.  As time goes on, other, more substantive issues may emerge."[5]  Kang expands his argument by stating that this regionalism is the result of weakly institutionalized parties:

The institutional structure as it currently exists is a mix of organized, money-based political machines that return the vote....The party leadership controls candidate lists and fundraising, and has centralized control.  This leads to a choice to either go along with the party leader or strike out individually; without the organization or resources of the party, there is little room for internal reform.  From this perspective, Korean regionalism might be represented as a function of weakly institutionalized parties...[6]

What are the forces then, which could have the possibility of counteracting what has been deemed an institutional weakness of party politics and the fragmentation of Korean politics?  This paper's position is that the strength of the state bureaucracy and the activity of civil society in Korea today act as a unifying counterweight to the divisive effects of regionalism and weakly institutionalized party politics.

[1] Samuel S. Kim, "Korea's Democratization in the Global-Local Nexus," in Korea's Democratization, ed. Samuel S. Kim, 4.

[2] David C. Kang, "The Institutional Foundations of Korean Politics," 95.

[3] Kyoung-Ryung Seong, "Delayed Decentralization and Democratic Consolidation," in Institutional Reform and Democratic Consolidation in Korea, ed. Larry Diamond and Doh Chull Shin, 136-137.

[4] Ibid., 130.

[5] David C. Kang, "Regional Politics and Democratic Consolidation in Korea," in Korea's Democratization, ed. Samuel S. Kim, 175.

[6] Ibid., 179.

Academic and Research Writing. Excerpt from paper: “Stomaching Discipline and Conformity: Military Influence on the Civilian Conservation Corps, Mission La Purisima.” The following excerpt references video interviews of the men who were camp enrollees in the 1940’s:

Paul M. Martinez, who enrolled for two consecutive six month periods, both at Camp La Purisima, echoes the sentiments of O'Mara.  His personal recollection of his time at the camp spoke more directly about the discipline which he gained from his experience, again with a strong military flavor:

[My experience at the camp] made me more of a man….[I learned] lots of discipline which I didn't have.  [I] learned a lot about the army rules and regulations—it's a lot like the army—I didn't know what it was, but we dressed like soldiers, we saluted the flag, reveille in the morning, retreat at night…flag brought down in the evening, raised in the morning.  We all dressed in our uniforms, like the army does.  When I went to the service myself later on, I knew all the procedures in the army that they taught me.

What is interesting about Martinez' account was the near ignorance of the process of acclimation to military protocol.  He says, "I didn't know what it was," but then subsequently explains that they "dressed like soldiers".  This may be indicative of his growing realization of the military structure in the camps, even if there may have been an initial ignorance of the origins of the daily routine.  Still, this particular statement emphasizes that the influence of the army was clear and pronounced, and not merely an ideological shadow.  Martinez' account also testifies to the regulation of time in a military manner in symbolic, ceremonial terms—reveille and retreat.  His mention of army uniforms will be examined later in a discussion of the importance of conformity in the camps.  In the following quote, Martinez states that his understanding of discipline also inherently carried with it an understanding of hierarchy—a vital component of military organization: "Discipline—I knew who was the boss.  Before, I thought I was the boss, but I was a little kid."  Illustrated here is the understanding that in Martinez' estimation, discipline was also tied into a deference to authority.  Discipline could here be understood not only as completing one's tasks even in opposition to one's will, but also completing one's tasks in deference to one's superior—an interpretation which lends itself easily to a military mindset.  Discipline was not only oriented towards the self and with regard to one's will, but also fashioned in a manner which would be understood as a mode of action in deference to an outside authority.  In a quote from enrollee Art South of Company 2950—the "twin camp" at the Lompoc site which focused more on construction tasks than Company 1951, the company which was in charge of the reconstruction of the Mission La Purisima itself—the interconnectedness of discipline and authority was underlined: "I was a 17 year old kid full of, you know, vinegar and all that kind of stuff….You know when you learn discipline and you learn authority.  When you're in command or enrolled in something like that, you learn—you can learn a lot in school but you don't really learn how the other half has to toe the line".  Again, discipline was here connected with an outside authority.  There is, within the same breath, the juxtaposition of being an active distributor of discipline as well as its disciple.  South regards non-academic discipline as being distinct from that learned within the classroom, and one can see that in South's view, non-academic discipline carried with it a distinct edge over that of academic discipline as being in some way more illustrative of larger communal relationships.

Poetry. Tanka: Love Locked the Ocean’s Eyes

Love locked the ocean’s

eyes to the adjacent shore

so cartography

could show transiting eons

as lines of conversation.