marusaia

Musings

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:29:17 GMT

Senator Edward Moore Kennedy, better known as Ted Kennedy, a member of the United States Senate since 1963, one of the last great liberal lions, and the last of the Kennedy brothers, has died tonight. May God rest his soul, for he has surely earned it, with all the years of hard work, aspirations, disappointments, setbacks, and comebacks.

Ted Kennedy lived through more history than many of his colleagues ever learned, and played a role in the making of much of that history. He was elected to his brother John's old seat in 1962. He struggled all his life with the tragedy and elusive grandeur that surrounds the Kennedy name. In the mid 60s, he was in a plane crash; a fellow Senator dragged him out of the wreckage and he survived, although he was bothered ever after by the piercing his lung had sustained in the crash. He lost two brothers in five years, John in 1963 and Robert in 1968. There were many times that he could have been President; indeed, many thought he should have been President, both for his own talent and to finish the work his brothers had left undone. In 1968, Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago and several other leaders of the Democratic Party asked him to run at the Convention against Hubert Humphrey, to take his brother's place. He refused. Many people assumed he would run in 1972, and once again give Richard Nixon nightmares of the Kennedy name. When he did not, they felt sure he would run in 1976, but he did not run then either. He seems to have felt burdened by his brothers, burdened by destiny. Perhaps he thought that if he reached for the same prize both brothers had sought, he would share their fate. And who can blame him? Particularly since his brother Robert's large family had been put into his care after his brother's death. When he finally did run, in 1980 against Jimmy Carter, it was an uphill battle against all odds, and ultimately he did not prevail. Perhaps the world would be different if he had prevailed, in the primary and in the general election, and perhaps the world would be better too. In the face of defeat, he gave himself to his work, immersing himself in committee work and the crafting of legislation. There were more crises, more setbacks, more failures, yet he persevered through all of them somehow, and every time made a comeback.

It is hard, writing this, to believe he is truly gone. Ted Kennedy was a fixture of the nation's political life for over two generations. He was part of the history of the Senate even while he was still living. The world changed around him, yet he remained much the same. God only knows how many people were fostered into politics by him, and how many more were inspired by his example.

To be fair, Ted Kennedy was not a perfect man. But he does not need to be to have our respect. Unlike other men who served long years in the Senate, such as Strom Thurmond or Jesse Helmes, Ted Kennedy will be remembered because of what he built, and what he spoke out for. For over thirty years he pushed the argument that in America, in this day and age, everyone should have health care. The tides have gone up and down and up and down and up again with that argument, and all the while, whether he was winning or losing, Ted Kennedy was there, pushing for it. He spent decades trying to get justice for the people of Northern Ireland, who have suffered dreadfully at the hands of the United Kingdom through the years. He consistently supported increasing the minimum wage.

The 2008 campaign was, it turns out, the last ride of Ted Kennedy. Oddly enough, his speech at the Democratic National Convention was the first time I had seen him give a speech. I was entranced. It was not so much the words he was saying, but the knowledge that this man had seen it all in his lifetime, and still had the fight to carry on, even though he was in cancer treatment then and probably in a great deal of pain. He never let it on. He was still talking about the future, talking about the grand things that would be done in the Congress the next year. It was said of him that he never let illness, or anything else, get in the way of his work. He could have been coughing up a lung, and he would still appear on the Senate floor for a speech or a vote.

Ted Kennedy, who was 77, was the only one of the Kennedy brothers to die a peaceful death. His eldest brother, Joe Jr., was shot down by German artillery during World War II. John, the luckiest of them all (he was given the Last Rites on four separate occasions), was assassinated. So was Robert. Compared to them, particularly John and Robert, Ted seems much smaller than they were. Perhaps this is because he was the youngest brother, or perhaps it is because John and Robert were killed while still young, their fires undimmed by age and disappointment. Yet even if Ted Kennedy were the smallest of the Kennedy brothers, he still stands tall as a giant among the petty and cringing figures that pass for statesmen today. I do not know if we will ever see his like, or the like of his brothers, again. The new generation of Kennedys seems in many ways a pale mockery of all that was and all that could have been. But it is well, in this difficult time, to remember what it was that made the Kennedy brothers great. They carried in them a sense of responsibility, a sense that they all owed something to their country. They were the sons of great wealth -- their father had made millions in the stock market -- and yet never developed the sense of entitlement that so often afflicts the sons of great wealth. Rather, they felt that everyone had a responsibility to serve their country, and because they had been born wealthy, they had a responsibility to give more of themselves to their country than other men. And give they did. John gave service to his country twice, once in the Navy during World War II and later in politics. His service in the Navy nearly killed him, and his service in politics did kill him. Robert served his country first as a counsel to Senate committees, then as his brother's Attorney General, then as Senator from New York, and then as a man who would be President. He gave and gave and gave of himself, until he gave his life. And last of all there was Ted, who served long years in the Senate, always being torn between people's expectation that he run for President and his own belief that he was unsuited to it. It is ironic that it was the descendants of a poor Irish immigrant who best embodied the principle of noblesse oblige, of service to the nation, while so many of the rest of us have forgotten it.

I have no words left, and in fact have spoken too long on this matter. I will only say this much more: god speed, Ted Kennedy.

And so it begins... (and Black Lagoon questions at the end)

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:49:27 GMT

... another three day descent into madness, sleep deprivation (well, more than usual), and walking around dressed up like fictional characters. Yes, my friends, convention season is upon us, and I am about to go down to Sakuracon tomorrow. It should be fun. It helps my mood immensely that I have lately, almost by coincidence, been getting back into watching AMVs. And Hellsing Ultimate. Gotta love it.

But most of all, there is my touchstone, my all time favorite, the thing that surpasses and outdays practically everything in my book.

Black Lagoon.

I love Revy so damn much. She's amazingly hot, of course, and the fact that she's incredibly dangerous and could kick my ass eighty-five ways to Sunday makes her even more hot. But it's more than that. She has a way about her, a don't-give-a-damn attitude, a free spiritedness, a willingness to take whatever life throws at her and persevere in spite of it. I admire that. At the same time she has a tragic air about her as well, the air of someone who has suffered immensely and endured far more than I ever likely will. And yet she rejects pity. She doesn't usually make a habit of pitying herself, and doesn't take it from others.

Her and Rock are an awesome couple. At least, they are in my head. Rei Hiroe (the author) has been making hints in that direction for some time now, but it's all been kept very quiet, which rather frustrates me. I don't want to see them being all lovey-dovey; that would defeat the point of the show, and in any case would break character in all kinds of ways. At the same time though I'd like to see a little bit more than a hint every chapter or two. Ultimately, I guess, I'd like to know if I'm just imagining things, or if I and everyone else who noticed this really were right all along. And her childhood. Revy's youth is a great mystery. Again we've had little hints here and there. We know she grew up poor in Mott Street in New York City's Chinatown. We know she committed her first murder at 14. We know that she racked up quite a record with the NYPD before she skipped the country and relocated to warmer climates. We know people at the NYC 27th Precinct still remember her (crossover with Law and Order anyone? I'd like to see what Goren thought of her, lol...). We're pretty sure that while she taught herself how to shoot, it was Boss Chang who taught her the two-fisted gun fu that she uses with such beautiful deadliness. I, for one, would like to know what the hell went on with her in her younger years. Was she always an orphan, or did she have parents once? Who is that man with the pillow over his face, the first man she ever killed? Was it just a random killing or was there a dark purpose to it, or was it vengeance for something? What did she do to make the hardbitten cops of the 27th precinct remember a teenage hoodlum from Chinatown? Teenage hoodlums from Chinatown are usually a dime a dozen. Which leads one to believe that she must have done something more, something to distinguish herself from your run of the mill, garden variety punk. And how the hell did she meet Boss Chang anyway, and how did she come to learn gun fu from him? So many questions...

... which, I suppose, is what fan fiction is for. XD I'd rather not write it out, but at the same time I don't know that Hiroe will ever actually get around to it. So in the meantime that he doesn't, I'll probably end up writing my own speculations. That is, when I'm not working on my own creative projects :D

And now, I'm freaking tired. I should be sleeping. I've gotta get up at 7pm if I'm gonna catch the train tomorrow, and if I don't catch the train I'm, well, kinda boned. Not badly, I suppose, but it would be a pain.

Black Lagoon euphoria keeps me awake. It always does. Maybe I can persuade my body that it needs to sleep, and my mind can be filled with dreams of a glorious, violent heroine, drenched in blood and sweat and gunsmoke, a hurricane of passion and fury and sorrow and pathos. It was my housemate who once said that if I met her I would kiss her, even if she wound up shooting me afterwards. Thinking back on it, I'd have to agree with him. It's one of those things that demands to be done, even if it looks as crazy as jumping off a cliff.

Now, for the Black Lagoon question, to all the people who read this who have seen/cared about Black Lagoon, a completely hypothetical question for you:

Casting call for a live action Black Lagoon movie, with John Woo and Quentin Tarantino to direct! If you were to pick the cast, who would you pick?

My own answer: I think it'd probably have to be mostly a cast of unknowns, like Star Wars was back in the 70s. I'd probably have to go to New York City and wander around Chinatown to find someone who could play Revy... the closest I can think of among established actresses is Zhang Ziyi. As my housemates have said many a time, she seems to be really good at playing crazy sluts, and while Revy isn't exactly a slut (at least not anymore... she did work for Rowan "Jackpot" Pigeon, heheh) she definitely has a fairly large helping of crazy. The only problem with Zhang Ziyi is her English. Revy speaks English as her native tongue. It would take a hell of a lot of voice training to get Zhang Ziyi to sound like a New Yorker. Anyway, tell me what you think!

post-election analysis

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:25:08 GMT

Okay, so it was a very good night last night. I now feel satisfied that America doesn't fuck up everything it touches and that maybe, just maybe we have a chance of getting this stuff right now.

Barack Obama completely thumped John McCain in the electoral vote, winning now by 349 electoral votes to 162 for McCain, with 26 votes currently unassigned due to the closeness of the race in Missouri and North Carolina. He also won the popular vote by 52.4% to 46.3%, with 1.3% divided among third party candidates. Pretty good work, I'd say. A lot of people, particularly in places like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and the upper Midwest, have said that if Obama was white, he would have had this thing in the bag months ago. As it is, he had it in the bag anyway. Whatever people who are still afraid of him may think, I think they will be proven wrong. Or proven right, but not how they think. Diana believes that the average American wants everything to improve without having to sacrifice anything for it, for things to get better without anything actually changing. Of course this is impossible, and Obama knows this; he just called for a new spirit of sacrifice for the greater good in his victory speech last night.

All I know for sure is that, somewhere, the spirits of Jack Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy are smiling and tears are streaming down their ghostly faces.

That said, a mountain of work still needs to be done. The Republican Party, as presently constituted, will not die an easy death. The radical wing of the party will probably gain more influence; I would rather this didn't happen, but it's something that I and everyone else has to prepare for.

As far as specific results on the down ticket races, some of them were very disappointing. Gary Trauner didn't win in Wyoming, which sucks. Bob Lord, Judy Baker, Joe Garcia, and Dennis Shulman seem to have all lost. Charlie Brown in CA-04 is stuck in an extremely close race. Dan Maffei and Eric Massa did both win in New York though. The biggest, and most pleasant, surprise of the night (apart from the enormity of Obama's victory) was that the voters of Idaho's first district elected Walt Minnick, the Democratic candidate, as their new representative. This is mildly personal for me. My grandmother grew up in Post Falls, a village in Northern Idaho. This place is also where the Aryan Nations camped out in the 90s. It is vindicating to see that this place has, maybe, begun to turn around.

Senate races are crazy business. Al Franken and Jeff Merkley might still win, but it will probably be close, although Minnesota will be closer than Oregon. The populous counties in Oregon still have to finish counting their votes. Jeanne Shaheen, Kay Hagan, and the two Udall boys all won. Lunsford and Musgrove lost. Martin may have to face Chambliss in a runoff election in December.

Oh, and Alaska seems to have decided that it wants to be the new capital of crazy people. WTF mates? You seem to have reelected one convicted felon to the Senate, and another one to the House of Representatives, and your governor is a woman who believes that the end of the world is coming and that this is a good thing! WTF mate?! I mean, sure, vote for who you want to, but good god, against a rogues gallery like that, we still lost? I realize Ted Stevens is an incumbent and brings home the bacon in spades, but for heaven's sake, the man was convicted! Does that mean nothing?! *fumes* ... okay, Alaska ain't as bad as all that. Realistically that Congressman and Senator were incumbents of extremely long standing, but still...

Anyway, more later.

and now for the bigger thing that happens in November...

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 09:14:24 GMT

SO! Who all's doing Nanowrimo this year? *looks out into the crowd hopefully*

You don't have to be doing it at full tilt, goodness knows I'm not. But at the very least, all us writing buddies ought to get back into the old novel writing mode. It's been far too long since we were all working on something, together, with the singleness of purpose that we felt in the past. No excuses now. I know I've been a less than stellar example/participant/fellow writer in the past, but those days are gone. Let's get out and DO THIS THING!

And to all of you who are new to Nanowrimo? Best of luck, go get it! YOU CAN DO IT!

*goes back to working on his own novel that he should really be working more on than he is, heheh*

a funny string of sentences

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 01:33:31 GMT

Before our roleplay session today, I had to clean the kitchen so that there was room to make tonight's dinner. As I was finishing up and Diana was starting to make potato soup, this is what I said:

Me: "Well, it turns out that this kitchen is only mostly clean. There's a big difference between mostly clean and all clean.

Now mostly clean is slightly dirty, but with all clean, there's really only one thing you can do with all clean.

You pull out some pots and make a new mess."

Diana: *giggles*

Black Lagoon - insert incomprehensible fanboyish sputtering here

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 08:37:08 GMT

gjkjgajghdkjagkasdjhgdgdkkjaldsjkjaajk

Black Lagoon novel! Black Lagoon third season! Black Lagoon scanlations!

Why haven't I been paying closer attention to this fandom? Why? I love it so!

Realistically, the novel may not be as good as I'd hope it to be; the English translation, if we ever get it, will almost certainly be no great shakes. Even the Twelve Kingdoms English novel was a little bit iffy in spots, even if over all it was spot on. On the other hand this is an excellent incentive to improve my Japanese...

And the idea of a third season of Black Lagoon just warms my fanboy heart. Warms it, I tell ya!~

A public service announcement: a large amount of Black Lagoon manga is found in scanlated form at OneManga.com, if anybody didn't know already.

I love this stuff so much. XD

DAMN IT! I could have bought that novel while I was in Japaaaaaaan XDDD

Oh well, Kinokuniya might have it. They have the Black Lagoon manga in Japanese, why not the novel? And otherwise there's always the internet...

Robert Kennedy, 1925-1968

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 04:35:28 GMT

Forty years ago last June 5th, very early in the AM hours, Senator Robert Kennedy of New York, brother of President John Kennedy and candidate for President himself, was shot in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. About a day later, he was dead. He deserves to be remembered.

We will never know quite what the Robert Kennedy Administration would have looked like, but if it were anything like how Robert Kennedy talked on the campaign trail, America and the world would both be very different places. Unlike most politicians, I believe that Robert Kennedy meant the things he said, and that he would have acted on them had he been elected. He was a kind of politician who is all too rare, who tells people uncomfortable truths instead of what they want to hear. Hardly anybody, if anyone at all, does that today.

He did not dissemble about the equal necessity for an end to the riots that plagued the 60s and the racial injustice that motivated them. He told college students that by rights they should be off fighting in Vietnam with all the kids who didn't go to college, and that it was morally reprehensible that they were not, particularly if they supported the war. He upbraided people all over the country about the plight of the poorest American citizens, and asked them why they could still allow this to happen, in the twentieth century, in the richest, most powerful country in the world. His basic political philosophy has been summed up as "take your foot off the other guy's throat." It's so simple one would think it was obvious, and yet even to this day millions of people seem all too willing to keep their feet on other peoples' throats, at home and abroad.

The way Kennedy attracted people to his banner was truly extraordinary. He did not merely have the support of the black community; the black community followed him, almost to a man, in the primary season, and his popularity was so great that he was known among blacks as "the blue eyed soul brother." He was so loved by Native Americans that the tribes of the nation gave him an Indian name, "Brave Heart," for all he had done for them as Attorney General and Senator. He was friend with Hispanic civil rights activist and labor organizer Cesar Chavez, and when he passed in a motorcade through Hispanic neighborhoods, he was greeted with cries of "Viva Kennedy!" There is little doubt in my mind that had he been the nominee, all these groups would have come out and voted for him in unprecedented numbers. Yet he did not stop there. Surprisingly, and yet not, he was liked by the "backlash voters." These were a combination of mostly first- and second-generation Eastern European Americans and poor white Southerners from Appalachia who had migrated to the Midwest looking for jobs, who were part of the traditional Democratic coalition, were socially conservative but economically populist, who were disaffected with the way the Democratic Party had been going in recent years, and voted for George Wallace in the Democratic primaries of 64 and 72 and the general election of 68. He also appealed to the ordinary Midwestern farmers of Nebraska, who appreciated his honestly, plain speaking, and Midwestern habits and sense of humor. More than anyone else, I believe, Robert Kennedy had the power to reunite the country in 1968. Even against every lie, slander, and smear that the Nixon campaign would have mustered against him, I have little doubt that Kennedy would have won, quite possibly in a massive landslide.

But it is little use saying, "Robert Kennedy would have won," or "Robert Kennedy would have done this or that," since, to our everlasting loss, he is dead and buried in Arlington National Cemetery these forty years, and he is not about to rise from the grave like Jesus Christ. We can remember, though, who Robert Kennedy was, and what he said and stood for. He was a man who believed that America had an obligation to keep the promises it made, that this is the land of the free and a land of opportunity for all. He believed that we all have a responsibility to do right, and to be prepared to sacrifice for it. He believed in taking our feet off the other peoples' throats, of making sure that the forgotten men and women of this country do not remain forgotten in the ghettos and barrios and impoverished valleys and reservations. He believed that somehow, just maybe, it was possible that the things that unite us all as human beings were greater than those that divide us. I think that's what he believed. It's certainly what I believe, idealistic fool that I am. But as one friend told me recently, after seeing the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum and Memorial, that I am not the inheritor of my forefathers' and my country's sins, but "the hope of the world." That meant so much to me. We cannot change the past, nor can we fully escape it, but we can, if we try very hard, change ourselves, and a little bit of the future with us. Robert Kennedy tried that, and so will I.

It may not be right to make heroes or saints out of people, and I hope I have not done so. Robert Kennedy was not perfect. He was wrong about Joe McCarthy, he was mostly wrong about Communism, he was wrong about the Vietnam War for years. Yet I believe that he was truly a great man, more than the ruthless opportunist people claimed he was. People said that he was just banking on his brother's name and his father's money, but in my opinion he was even greater than JFK, and if he had wanted to just bank on his father's money, he would have, in his own words, just sat by his pool for the rest of his days. Here is a man who really did things for people, and was prepared to take the heat for it. So I hope that I am not lionizing him too much when I say that he is truly someone worthy of emulation.

Here's Robert Kennedy, in his own words, from a speech he gave in 1968.

“Our gross national product is now over 800 billion dollars. But that GNP, if we judge the country by that, counts air pollution, cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwoods and the loss of our natural wonders. It counts napalm, nuclear weapons, and armored cars for police to fight riots in cities. It counts rifles and knives and television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to children.”

“Yet, the GNP does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not count the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither wit nor courage, neither wisdom or learning, neither compassion or devotion to country. It measures everything except that which makes life worthwhile.”

Zetsubou-Sensei vs. Kemonozume, presented by Marusaia

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 02:00:04 GMT

You can find a lot of weird, interesting, and funny stuff on Youtube. This is one such thing. It's a mashup of the Sayounara Zetsubou-sensei opening animation and the Kemonozume opening theme song. It's a surprisingly good match. The song and the images match up nicely, and both of them (to me at least) evoke the flavor of pre-World War II Showa Japan, a world that had a foot in two centuries, a world that was a madcap blend of kimono and suits, shamisen and jazz music, katana and trains. Pre-war Showa fascinates me. It's a world that, looking back on it, seems beautiful, melancholy, flashy, and understated all at once, and the fact that the era was such a mix of old and new only adds to the fascination. It's no wonder I'm writing fiction based in the period.

Anwyay, here it is. minako134, this is for you! Doesn't it fit well? Heheh, watching this is making me really want to see Sayounara Zetsubou-sensei. Time to finally take your advice XD

This isn't mine. You can see the original and comment on it here

In Memory of a Great Man

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:22:32 GMT

After some thought, I've decided to write something brief on the topic of Gary Gygax's death.

Gary Gygax was born in 1938, and died this last Tuesday, March 4, 2008, at the age of 69. To a very large extent, he is the one we all have to thank for developing the D&D roleplaying game. Without him, it's anybody's guess if the game would have come about or not, and it's anybody's good guess if the roleplaying genre in general would have developed. All things considered, even if we don't know it, many of us owe a lot to the crazy guy who thought up the idea of combining fantasy novels with tabletop wargaming in the late 60s. Here was a man who did something amazing.

Gygax cut his teeth on fantasy and science fiction novels, enjoyed them throughout his life, and wrote a few of them himself over the years. While I have no way to vouch for whether they were good or not, and while some of you may not be big fans of D&D, here is a man who is truly inspiring: he went out and lived his dream, grabbed it with both hands and lived it. How many people can say they have pursued their dreams as he did? He loved gaming, he was obsessed with gaming, so therefore, he tried to go into business as a gamer. He didn't always succeed, but he did well for himself. He also never stopped playing, never left the hobby that had so inspired him. Even though his health had been in decline for the last several years, he had been gaming actively up until January of this year. Here was a man who would not be kept down by anything.

In his own words: "I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else."

Go well, Gary Gygax. You've certainly had an effect.

Weird Stuff Spam

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:33:42 GMT

Phoenix Wrong: No Shit Sherlock flash video from New Grounds. Two things: Numa Numa, and the 4chan Dio WRYYYYYYYYYYYYY flash video audio. THIS MAKES IT WORTH WATCHING, DAMMIT~!

Phoenix Wrong 3 flash video from New Grounds. Got soem funny stuff in it. Ted Stevens once again rears his head in the world of internet jokedom (because, after all, "The Internet isn't something you dump something on, it's not a big truck, the internet is a series of tubes." I'm sorry, whether the man's idea was right or not, that line has to be one of the funniest I've ever heard.

MUDAH DA! This is the original Jojo's Bizarre Adventure flash video from 4chan that started it all (I think...). It may not make much sense if you've seen Jojo's...

A Fast Food Public Service Announcement

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 05:55:36 GMT

Fun fact about the menu at Wendy's: the Baconator hamburger sandwich is made of a bun, two quarter pound beef patties, two slices of American cheese, six strips of bacon, mayonnaise, and ketchup. It could easily be called by the alias of "Heart Attack in a Bun." In fact, I think the healthiest thing in that sandwich would have to be the ketchup, because it sure isn't the mayonnaise or the bacon (the beef and the cheese hold marginal positions, and the bun is omitted because it probably has next to no nutritional value anyway).

Another fun fact: the next time you're at Wendy's and short on cash (or at Wendy's in general), instead of ordering a double or triple patty burger, order several burgers off the dollar menu. It's cheaper, and you end up getting more food in the end. For the amount of money it takes to buy a 3/4 pounder hamburger at Wendy's, you can get four double stacks at 99 cents each, and you can get all the usual fixings on the double stacks that you could get on a regular burger. So unless you've got a real hankering for chicken burgers (or even if you do, I think they're on the dollar menu somewhere), the dollar menu is the way to go.

That's about it for the moment. Just thought I'd share all that. I imagine a lot of the people on my f-list don't always have a lot of money (or would rather spend their money on something besides food), so I figured you'd all appreciate a money-saving device for the next time you're at a burger joint.

漢字

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 09:03:56 GMT

松江

雫

金多郎

金多朗

徳川

politics

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 23:24:38 GMT

So, this last Saturday I went to the Washington state Democratic party caucuses held up at Western's campus and cast my vote for the delegates who will elect other delegates who will elect other delegates still, who will finally, eventually elect the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States. It was a confusing process, frought with madness and rules lawyering. Ultimately, it was a rather interesting and gratifying process, even if it did take a very long time.

And yet, I feel nervous and introspective, and as I reflect on the events of last Saturday (and the preceding year and a half, or for that matter, the last three years, since I and many others started thinking about the 2008 presidential election as soon as the 2004 election was over)... as I reflect on the events of the foregoing period, I wonder if I cast my vote wisely.

This kind of introspection and second-guessing is nothing new for me, really. It's pretty much standard procedure in everything I do, whether it's taking a trip to Seattle or doing something extremely important. In this case, though, I think a little introspection would not be a bad idea, given that voting is one of the few times people in this country can make their opinions known directly and relatively accurately. Certainly this presidential election is at least as if not more important than the last two.

In a nutshell, my dilemma is, which Democratic candidate do I want to be president? It is not such a clear question as it seems. Both candidates have some degree of merit to them, and both of them have traits that make me want to never have anything to do with them. Barack Obama, as my friend Justin pointed out, hsa been rather vague on specifics, arguably in the same way that Woodrow Wilson was in 1912. He is probably the only person in the Senate who has appeared on a stage with both Bernie Sanders (an independent socialist) and Joe Lieberman (an I-can't-believe-he's-not-Republican Democrat). Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing I am not sure. One of Obama's greatest traits is that, more than anyone else in politics today, he seems to be a conciliator, the type of man who can get a bunch of people who don't like him to actually listen to him, and the type of man who can get a bunch of people who disagree to come up with something they can agree on. As much as people say he is inexperienced, he really isn't, no more than anyone else. Hillary Clinton, by contrast, has served eight years in the US Senate (you can argue that her years as Bill Clinton's wife count, but her role was entirely informal then). John Edwards served only one term in the Senate. Obama, by contrast, has served four years in the US Senate and eight years prior in the Illinois State Legislature. In any event, it matters little; all of them have spent less time in public office than John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee.

Then we have Hillary Clinton. My impressions of Clinton have not been favorable, for someone who grew up in the 90s. My perception of her is that she is an equivocator, something of a coward, and someone who is willing to renegotiate everything she supposedly stands for. The clincher, for me, was the fact that she not only voted to invade Iraq (which even at the time was a sketchy premise) but has never apologized for making that mistake. And a mistake it was. Clinton can talk all she likes about establishing a universal health care system (ha ha), but that system could have been built and funded many times over with the money the US has pissed away in Iraq. Personally, I would rather be $9 trillion in debt and have socialized medicine than be $9 trillion in debt, stuck occupying a distant country, with the consequence of everybody hating your guts. And yet, somehow, in spite of all this, Hillary Clinton is perceived in some quarters as more reliable than Obama. For some reason which I do not entirely understand, she is getting the blue collar vote and the Hispanic vote and the women's vote in droves.

And then there is the matter of the process of the nomination. Paul Krugman, a man whose opinion I generally respect, wrote today in the New York Times op-ed page that he preferred Clinton to Obama, but that he nonetheless thought both would be fine candidates. However, what he was disturbed by was the tendency of supporters of one candidate to not wish to support the other should the other be nominated. He observes this mostly among Obama supporters. I must admit this is true to some extent in my case. While I would probably vote for Clinton were she nominated, it would feel like swallowing medicine, and I do not particularly trust her. Krugman also feels that the Obama "movement" is becoming a cult of personality. He is not the first person to make this charge, and I wonder at times if there is some truth to it. For myself, I will say that I am hungry for a hero, a person who will rule justly and wisely. I feel that this country has not had such a person in a very long time, and that it needs such people, not only in the presidency, but in as many positions in the government as possible.

And yet, a part of me also feels that politicians shouldn't have to be heroes. The age of heroes, for good or ill, seems to be over. They're the kind of people you read about in novels and history books or play as in videogames and tabletop RPGs. They're not the kind of people that get elected to public office, or if they are, it seems to be very rare.

I will probably be going through this back-and-forth with myself for the next several months. I will say that Mr. Krugman is right on one point: the Clinton hating should drop down. Obama, if he wins, should win on his own merits. He should win he was truly better, not because Clinton was worse.

Treat others as you would wish to be treated... it's an old adage, but I'd say it's still true.

For the record, I have been and for the foreseeable future will be supporting Obama, on the grounds that he actually seems to think instead of following prepackaged policy scripts, and on the related note that he seems far more genuine. This is not to say I still do not have my doubts, but for now, he's my candidate. And, if push comes to shove, I would almost certainly vote for Clinton in the general election.

Now for something fun!

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 09:02:55 GMT

So here's a variation on a meme I've seen floating around on LJ. I'm going to list the first few lines of my favorite ten or so songs, instead of the ten that show up on a random selection off of my iTunes. See if you can guess what they are!

01. "I never really feel quite right / I don't know why, all I know is something's wrong / every time I look at you you seem so alive / tell me how do you do it / walk me through it / I'm following every footstep."
02. "As I was going over the far-famed Kerry mountains / I met with Captain Farrell and his money he was counting / I first produced my pistol and I then produced my rapier / said 'stand and deliver, for you are a bold deceiver!'"
03. "Yozora o miage hitori / houkiboshi o mita no / isshun de hajikete wa / kiete shimatta kedo / anata no koto omou to / mune ga itaku naru no / ima sugu aitai yo / dakedo sora wa tobenai kara"
04. "I like big butts and I cannot lie / you other brothers can't deny / that when a girl walks in with a itty-bitty waist / and a ROUND thing in your face / I get sprung!"
05. "Goku tama ni, boku tama ni / yume ni yabureru hito no kakera ga / yama no you ni mieru / kami-sama ni, hotoke-sama ni / sugari naiteru hito no kakera ga / yama no you ni mieru"
06. "Akaku nijimu taiyou wa subete o / terashitekita ima mo mukashi mo / kono yuuyami ni egaiteru souzou wa / hatashite kono te ni oenai mono na no ka"
07. "So one two three take my hand and come with me because you look so fine that I really wanna make you mine / I said you look so fine that I really wanna make you mine / oh four five six come on and get your kicks now you don't need the money when you look like that do ya honey?"
08. "Cultivate your hunger before you idealize. Motivate your anger to make them all realize. Climbing the mountain, never coming down. Break into the contents, never falling down.
09. "Kirameite yurameite aoki yume maihanatsu Hana moeyuku"
10. "I'm lying in bed, I'm in room 26, thinking on things that I've done Like drinking with squadies and bulling my boots, I'm counting the medals I've won."

There, I actually came up with ten of them! Guess names and artists. Have fun!

Snatch

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 08:28:09 GMT

*in British accent* "I fucking hate Pikeys!"

I actually do not hate Pikeys, or the Irish Travellers as they are more commonly known. This is merely a reference to Guy Ritchie's 2000 film "Snatch." It is awesome. Everybody should see it. It is a kick in the goddamn pants. The characters in it are brilliant, like an Englishman named "Turkish" who promotes underground boxing, a sweet-talking, tattoo-sporting Irish Traveller, and a crazy goddamn Russian arms dealer.

This isn't much of a review, because I'm tired right now. I'll just say that it's an awesome movie. And I recommend it wholeheartedly. It is very funny, in a somewhat macabre sort of way. Well worth watching.

Roleplay fun

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 02:52:28 GMT

We just played through most of the dungeon of "The Sons of Gruumsh" today. We were playing for something like seven or eight hours. It was great fun.

There were a couple of golden lines, like:

The Ghael Eladrin (an elf celestial): "Come and meet your doom, you foul pig-faced halfmen!" (referring to the orcs)

The half-elf Paladin: "May the Loyal Fury guide my hands against your orcish devilry!" (right before he used smite on the boss)

Just sharing. :D

To explain the references... the game takes place in the world of Faerun, aka the Forgotten Realms. "Pig-faced halfmen" refers to the fact that orcs in D&D are frequently described as having faces that look like somewhat like pigs. "The Loyal Fury" is a name given to Torm, god of duty, loyalty, obedience, and paladins. My character is a devotee of his.

Street Fighter IV and Chun-li

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 23:37:59 GMT

SFIV is coming out soon... and Chun-li's thighs are still safe. They are still the same huge, thick, lovely, voluminous thighs that she had back in Street Fighter II.

As a Chun-li fan, and a fan of Chun-li's thighs, this makes me happy. Only problem now is figuring out which platform SFIV is going to be on...

Still though... Chun-li's thighs are serious business, man!

Hah, and the comments are hilarious...

"I would not be surprised if thighs are the new boobs!" Agreed! At the very least, they work on Chun-li.

Hmm... I wonder if the fact that I'm agreeing with all of this should bother me... heh, probably not. I gave up being sane a while ago.

Merry Christmas!

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 06:26:53 GMT

As it is a little after 10 PM here on the Pacific coast, and many of you are already in/past Christmas day, I wanted to wish you all a merry Christmas. I wish you all the best of everything as the year draws to a close and the new one is about to begin. I wish you all happiness, and hope that your new beginnings go well. This is, after all, a time of renewal. The world (at least north of the equator) is at its coldest now, and the days are short, but now the days begin to grow longer again... and for those who live south of the equator, you guys have cooler weather to look forward to, though from what you've said you'll enjoy it ;)

Anyway, I wish you all a merry Christmas, and all the best in the New Year!

Fröhliche Weihnachten, und alles gut gewünscht.

メリ　クリスマス！　青春の日をおめでとう！

Heh, it's probably not "omedetou," but whatever! I feel happy and sentimental! It is Christmas! Tell someone you love them and care about them! Give a gift, even if it's something little!

EDIT: It occurs to me that what I wrote wasn't the word for New Year's at all. That's 新春、 shinshuu, literally "new spring." What I wrote was 青春、seishun, Maito Gai's infamous phrase for "springtime of youth!"

Well... on second though, congratulating people on their springtime of youth is a good thing too... :D

Win

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:34:40 GMT

Well, all results are now in. I received a C in Japanese 201, a B in German 401, and an A in Professor Wright's ancient Japanese history course, as well as a passing grade in the Kanji course. This leaves me with an overall gpa for the quarter of 3.0. Not my best ever, but I am happy with it. Things could certainly have gone better in Japanese, but all things considered I think everything went well.

On another note, minako134 got me a Christmas present. It is sometimes amazing how well people understand me. Then again, in her case, I shouldn't be too surprised, since we share many of the same "vices." :D

Man's Ruin: Geek Culture by *spacecoyote on deviant ART

Hmm, I do believe all of those things have a little bit of my soul. Computers, check... children's card games (XD), check, somewhat... video games, check, somewhat... gaming, major check!... caffeinated sodas (Mountain Dew and Pepsi, I'm looking at you!), uber check... catgirls in bikinis... do you honestly need to ask?

ぼくがかつ！ I win!

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:27:19 GMT

Well, it is done, finally. I have completed all of my final exams and projects for this quarter. I think I even did well on them, and maybe even better than well. Even after three years at this I can't really predict what I did well on and what I crashed and burned at, but I am sure I passed the Kanji class. It took retakes on several of the quizzes, but I did it. I even passed the final exam for that class, and the last two quizzes I needed to retake, on the first try. That really made me happy.

The Japanese 201 final went well too. I smoked the kanji and dictation sections, and I think I got most of the grammar section all right. I can say with a fair degree of certainty that I can construct keigo sentences now, in both exalting and humble forms... but whether I can remember the exact circumstance in which I need to use this or that form is another matter entirely. I also know the giving and receiving verbs better than I did the first time I was tested on them... I think I got that part alright. I'll find out next Thursday at the latest... and it probably will be then too, unless Professor Deguchi was really quick about grading them. He might have been for all I know... he said something about going to Japan for a visit over break.

And then, last of all, there was Ancient Japanese History with Professor Diana Wright. Professor Wright is well known for being a hard ass, but curiously I've never had problems with her. While she can be a hard ass, it's not usually in a way that bothers me. However, her standards are very high, so I was nervous about the exam. I think I did well on it, but again, I'll know for sure sometime next week.

Slightly related piece of news: the film Eijanaika by Shohei Imamura is awesome, crazy, and made of win. It is a fun show. It's got its depressing moments, but the rest of it is so funny that it more than makes up for it. Heartily recommended.

Question to the world at large... what happened to Radioblogclub? I went to what I thought was their website today to listen to music, and I got some page that didn't look right. Have they been bought out or shut down or something? What happened? I want my free online music!

EDIT

Also, what with one thing and another, I am beginning to doubt whether I'll be able to go to Japan on study abroad this spring. I still intend to go, one way or another... so in the end I will probably spend the same amount, just in different places. I dunno, it kinda bothers me that I dropped the ball on this one. I'll try and see if I can still get over there in spring, but given that the official deadline was November 1st, and that there was a lot of important stuff that needed to be turned in then that I didn't realize I needed to turn in until the 29th or so (yay for not checking e-mail accounts + e-mails from universities going into junkmail... wtf really?!)... I am just doubtful that it is still possible at this point. It really does make me sad. I had been having second thoughts about it earlier on in the quarter, but by the time I put the application in I had decided I would go for it, and I would be happy with the result whether I got in or not. It's not like I'll be suffering horribly if I just spend the month of June in Japan instead of spring quarter and June and July... it's just the idea of not getting in for such trivial reasons that rankles me. Anyway, enough whining. Time to start acting. I'll check around over the break and at the start of next quarter, before I start feeling ridiculously busy and overworked for a change. And I will tell myself that it's okay if I don't go. A lot of people who are interested in Japan don't spend a quarter of college there. It would be a good experience, but ultimately I can get that experience in other ways. Like graduate school. Hey, there's a mildly intimidating notion... if he weren't so serious my dad would laugh in my face if I said I wanted to get a Masters in history or anthropology or something like that in Japan. But anyhow, that's a decision that's still miles down the road. I cannot plan my whole life out down to a T, after all. At best I can have a general idea of what I want to be doing with my life, and go in that direction. Yeah, I know, "no kidding pal," but it's sometimes hard to make yourself believe this things, especially when you were brought up with the idea of "you work for a company for forty years, you get a gold watch and a pension, and you retire." That's rather boring, and the only way you can do that nowadays pretty much is to work in civil service.

So yeah... weird stuff happening, still enjoying the same kind of life I've been living since I started going to college. After one quarter off campus, I can say that it feels more difficult than living on campus, yet it does have its fine points.

Also, I've been feeling on the verge of some kind of change lately. What exactly it is, who knows... it's just that for a while now I feel as though I've been desperately trying to avoid change, even though I know that to not change is impossible. Hmm. It is sometimes very difficult to accept yourself as you are, to be able to be completely honest with yourself and say, "these are my good points, these are my flaws, they are both a part of me, and I accept all of them." It is very paradoxical that you first have to accept what you don't like about yourself if you want to have any chance of changing it... and, so I'm told, once you've accepted whatever it is, most of the problems associated with it go away anyway.

wow

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 09:13:31 GMT

So AMV Hell 4 is awesome. I haven't even finished it yet, but it has enough "WHAT?" moments to last a long time. Now with 50% more tastelessness and awesome, AMV Hell 4 -- get it now, it's the last in the series (or so they say).

As tasteless goes... well, they totally went there. Multiple times. Sometimes it wasn't even funny but it usually was.

Oh yeah... for those who care, Death Note spoilers. I don't give a damn. All I wanted to know is the ending, and AMV Hell 4 suffices for that.

EDIT: AAAAAAARGH, THE LION KING! WHY?! WHO DECIDED IT WAS RETRO DISNEY YEAR? WHAT THE DEUCE? I DO NOT UNDERSTAAAAAAAND!

Um, yeah. I don't mind the Lion King, really. It was one of Disney's better recent projects. But seriously, why so much in AMV Hell 4?

On the other hand, a metric ass load of Berserk footage... funny. Also lots of Lucky Star which is good.

DAMN YOU LIGHT YAGAMI! DAMN YOU! YOU BASTARD! GOD-MODDER! I HOPE YOUR SOUL BURNS IN SEVEN HELLS, BECAUSE ONE IS TOO SMALL FOR YOU! And to the author... screw you, jerk. Did you have to kill the best female protagonist in the story? I don't remember Ray Pember's wife's name, but I remember that she was cool and that I liked her, and you disposed of her far too easily. It's shows like Death Note that make me not believe in the death penalty anymore. No one should have that kind of power... especially upper middle class over-achievers with warped senses of justice and sociopathic/psychopathic tendencies. And you, author... I'm not through with you. Thanks for not providing any truly intelligent female supporting character, jackass... although the ending made up for it a little. Maybe.

On a lighter note... so Walter Lippmann (muckraker journalist) goes to buy a bra for his wife. The lady at the counter, not recognizing him, says, "we've got three kinds, the Karl Marx, the Josef Stalin, and the Walter Lippmann." Lippmann, surprised, asks the saleswoman to describe them. She says, "Well, the Karl Marx advocates the observable and the Josef Stalin lifts up the masses."

Lippmann asks, "Then what does the Walter Lippmann do?"

The saleswoman says, "Well, the Lippmann makes mountains out of molehills."

Or something like that. I can't remember the exact words, and I'm sure the Karl Marx one is wrong... not even sure it's Karl Marx, but whatever. I needed something to lighten the mood.

WHAT?!~

Okay, I hereby warn you all... this is pretty tasteless stuff sometimes. It's nothing I find horribly offensive, but those with gentler sensibilities or the inability to look at misfortune from a humorous perspective will find it offensive. Not for the Politically Correct, I would imagine.

Shakeshakeshake...shakeshakeshake... shake yo' booty~

I love Grenadier. I need to buy that series sometime. It's silly, it's boobtastic, it never pretends to be more than what it is... well maybe a little... but really it's a fine excuse to watch a hot chick with massive boobs get in gunfights, and do super awesome special fast reloads of her revolver... with bullets that she kept between her boobs... yeah... it's weird that way...

Okay, almost done now... seriously, I need to sleep.

... well, that was it. Probably for good now.

Good times, and good memories.

エーエムヴィヘル。

気をつけてね。

わたしたちは、このチームワークをわすれない。

本当にすごいだった。

じゃあ、さらば。あばよね。

I hear they sell bottled insanity in Japan these days... and yes, I am a fanboy

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 05:50:55 GMT

Wow. I just watched one of the funniest anime movies I've seen in a long time. It's "Paprika" by Satoshi Kon. If you haven't seen it already, you SHOULD! Seriously, the man has done nothing but improve. "Millennium Actress" was awesome. "Tokyo Godfathers" was awesome. People say "Perfect Blue" was awesome, but it looks a bit much for me, even now. And I've heard numerous good things about "Paranoia Agent," not least of which are that the opening animation and theme song (as well as the rest of it) is total crack.

But yeah... wow... the show is madness inducing. I wish I'd seen it in theaters. That would have been awesome. As it was seeing it on a big screen was great. The animation was amazing, and the main character was a cute, perky, and spunky Japanese superhero girl. In other words, made of win.

The great thing about Satoshi Kon is that he likes to bend reality a little in his movies. He did it a lot with Millennium Actress. Massive yays for jumping from the present to 1930s Japan in the winter to somewhere in Manchuria to Japan in the early Sengoku Jidai. Awesome. It happened a little in Tokyo Godfathers, but not near as much. Just a little tweaking here and there, like "That's way too improbable to actually happen!" But life is full of improbable things, so who's to say it can't?

Hayao Miyazaki can retire safely, I think. His presence in movie-making will be greatly missed, but there are plenty of great hands to pick up where he left off.

But yeah, back to Paprika. Crack, insanity, philosophy, psychology, technology, and more acid trip induced animation sequences than you can count. It might just surpass FLCL and Gankutsuou in that factor, and yet it kind of still makes sense. Anyway, full of win and awesome. Heartily recommended, multiple times.

Disappointment

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 09:59:11 GMT

It's not that there aren't heroes, it's just that they all have flaws, and sometimes those flaws get the better of them. That happened to Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela and a man who in the past I had a high degree of respect for. Here was a man who was doing good for the people of his country, who was beginning to open up the politics of his country, who was defying the power of the rich and the powerful. The United States government quietly approved of an attempt to violently remove him from power, and when that attempt crashed and burned in a fiery pit of flame, the US was left looking rather silly indeed. Here was a man who was not afraid to go his own way and to not follow the United States' every single whim. Here was a man who was spreading money and resources around to the 80% or so of the country that wasn't middle class or better.

And here, now, is the man who was last seen trying to remove the term limit laws that he and his supporters had originally put in place and attempting to put in laws that would make it easier to declare national states of emergency. Oops.

Hubris is a damned nasty thing. I hope that's all this was, but even if it is all that it was, it's still pretty bad. Real smooth, Chavez. You've probably just offended a large chunk of your supporters both in Venezuela and out who want to see civil rights and civil liberties still in existence, who when they say socialism and democracy are the wave of the future, the democracy is equally if not more important than the socialism.

On the other hand, I must admit that what Mr. Chavez is asking for is nothing that we haven't had in this country, now or in the past... and our presidents didn't ask for it. Oops!

Alright, it is true that we have term limits now for the President. Do we have them for anything else? No. And I would guess that the theoretical capacity of the American President to declare national emergency and suspend civil liberties is about as draconian as the capacity the Venezuelan President would have had to do the same things (I say "theoretical" because if I recall correctly there is no actual legal basis in the Constitution for things like declaring martial law... probably because the Framers never intended it to happen, ever).

Still, before I get any further into the "blame America first" rant that seems to be brewing, I will say "good on the Venezuelan populace for acting as a democracy and voting down something that seems to be a bad idea." The powerful always need to be reminded of their own fallibility, even when they are generally acting for good. It was the same with Franklin Roosevelt. He tried packing the Supreme Court with people who agreed with him, and that attempt failed miserably. I think he learned something from the experience. I hope Mr. Chavez does the same, since it would be a damned shame to see him turn into a brass-hat dictator.

So much classic crack!

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:56:26 GMT

Gad! The Seventies are back and they're back in style!

This is, apparently, a very, VERY early Gainax anime called "Blazing Transfer Student" (Japanese: Honou no Tenkousei). It is awesome and absurd, and I actually had the good fortune to watch the first episode of it at an anime club in Seattle once. The story is ridiculous and utterly unbelievable, but it is very cool, and looking at it you can see where crazy things like FLCL came from.

Just wanted to share. Have fun.

Funny and sad

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 08:51:55 GMT

I happened across the entry for "Azumanga Daioh" on Wikipedia, and it said in there that, apparently, someone made a hoax saying that there would be a live action series. Here's the full text:

After the animated series ended, there was a hoax announcement of a live-action adaptation, as being created by the Tokyo Broadcasting System and Suntory and which would be named either Azudorama Da Yo! or Azumanga Daioh: The Drama. Professional-looking promotional material and photos were prepared and presented on the internet with "actresses" who closely resembled their animated counterparts.

This had me going, "Awww... and I would've totally watched it too!" Even the title is funny! Azudorama Da Yo!

Ah, more nostalgia... and it's time for me to sleep.