Bumblebee! No!

Oh no! Poor Bumblebee! Finally we’ve found a villainous presence worse than Megatron himself - this guy is just plain evil!

Want to be nobility?

Fo’ real Holmes!

Nobility, man!

Decisions, decisions…

I’ve got a date tomorrow, two midterms and two interviews to study for - oh, and I have job apps due tomorrow at midnight.

Overloaded much?

Sang tonight in Gaston to a pretty forgiving crowd. One assumes most of them were parents; I don’t know who else would be crazy enough to pay the money necessary to get a ticket… And now, off a high like that, I’m expected to do job apps?

I’ve cleaned my room, watched several episodes of Babylon 5 (I’m on Season 5!), and now I’m faced with the ultimatum: I’m out of other things to do. Better get down to it.

For the rest of you, enjoy the link of the night. It’s a wonderful showing of humanity’s strengths… Or just a funny read.

That is all.

And let that be a lesson to all you iPhone users!

Check out this link.

WOW are the airlines behind the times. Gee - could that be related to why they’re ALL GOING BANKRUPT?* Sounds like someone’s been a protected industry for a little too long…

(*Excepting those two or three who’re staying afloat…)

Link of the Night: Blog of awesomeness…

So a co-worker directed me to this blog today. I found a lot of links there that I wanted to put up… But I also pretty much realized that I wanted to put them ALL up. So this is today’s ironically-named “Link of the Night”.

Orson also pointed me here. I don’t find it as funny as he does, but I have to admit that it’s kind of entertaining. Kinda interesting to see a company using marketing that makes fun of the need for their product, and doubly interesting to see how these women view the product and their need for it. The whole thing strikes me as a REALLY clever way to do marketing research and market your product for little cost at the same time…

Of course, there are a bunch of guys on there too. Funny how all their suggestions involve the condoms being too small for them… Way to be mature guys.

Blast from the (not-so-distant) past?

So I have a sticky on my desktop. I created this sticky back when I was in Japan and was too busy to actually post things on this blog. We all remember those times, right? Oh irony of ironies - a dry spell during the period in which the blog was actually supposed to be used.

Not that I’ve gotten around to finishing the blog since then… That’s another thing that’s on the list for “after I outrun real life”.

In the interests of getting that list of links off my desktop, this post will cover the basics.

First off: “You know you’ve been in Japan too long when…”. While I don’t really like the Author’s site, I did (and still do) find myself doing many of the things he describe. Perhaps the rest would have come with more time?

Second: Arudou Debito’s view of the word “Gaijin” and its connotations. Debito is… Unique. From what I’ve read of his work, he tends to take things VERY personally. He also seems to have some kind of “manifest destiny” complex. I agree completely that Japan is discriminatory and two-faced about the question of so-called “Japanese Superiority”, and to be honest I agree with the principle that countries allowing naturalization of foreigners have an obligation to afford those citizens equal rights. Debito’s actions, however, show a flagrant disrespect for Japanese cultural norms and a serious misunderstanding of the Japanese world-view. He’s treating Japan like his own private US, while waving the “I have a right to live wherever I want and to all my rights wherever I am!” card as much as possible (any one else notice how the first thing he does when he hits something he doesn’t like is run to the US consulate?). News flash, Debito - that’s an AMERICAN ideal. According to the Japanese, you really don’t… Who are you to say they’re wrong?

But I digress. His comments about “Gaijin” vs “Gaikokujin” follow similar patterns, though. I mean - I know I can’t really talk about the long-term effects of “Gaijinism” given the short duration of my stay, but I think he once again misunderstands Japanese culture. I mean - granted, it IS technically a form of racism, but the Japanese don’t see it that way. They see it as distinguishing “in” from “out” verbally. It’s not really racism in the way we Americans use it so much as it’s Xenophobia, nationalism, and lingering isolationism. Part of the Japanese worldview seems to be an ever-present sense of “being Japanese”, and to the extent that the word is used to satisfy this part of the worldview, yes an indian in India can be “gaijin” in his own country to a Japanese tourist. I don’t think that’s necessarily wrong except to the American way of seeing things. My problems with the word arise when it’s used to foster genuine racism or when it fails to recognize naturalized Japanese citizens as part of the “in” group - I feel the distinction is important.

Third:

I laughed about this one for like… 30 minutes. It’s so true, too. All my friends - and I DO mean all my friends - have Macs now. So much for the “underdog”. Apple’s gone and become the NEW evil empire. Then I found this one:

Which is just plain awesome. Fourth (And I had to dig for this link…): The Defense Ministry’s moved to using manga to explain their defense policies. Apparently the whole idea of a Defense Ministry and defending themselves is so new to the Japanese that they need pictures to help them understand?That was a low blow. I actually think the manga is a pretty creative idea. America could probably use some of that kind of creativity.Also in the Wai-Wai section of Mainichi (albeit this week) comes these gems:
-Japan’s Celebrity Cannibal
-Deep thoughts on sex and gender from the Japanese
-Said thoughts seem to be a theme this week…

Fifth: More crazy “news”. That’ll show ‘em kid. Especially when they mix it into EVERYONE’S salad, and you wind up answering the age old question “how do I taste?”

Sixth: Summertime in Japan. Guess they really DO like crowding? Sub-headline: “Hundreds die as the ‘Baby Ruth in the pool’ trick turns deadly…”

Seventh: Apparently you really CAN live in the mall. This guy did. What does that say about mall security that they didn’t notice him dragging a kitchen hutch into the bowels of the mall? It’s not like he could have asked them to deliver it there.

Finally: I think I meant to read these two and never got around to it. Someone want to give me spark notes? They look interesting… For all you history buffs out there.

Aren’t you glad I’m done? Me too.