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Sunday, November 16th, 2008
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The Internet seems to be a place where people can be quite honest-- by expressing themselves in double speak. That is, people are either unintentionally honest, or they self-righteously hide what they really mean with a few key phrases. For example:
1) "I don't like PC/society is too PC/Stop being too PC." Very often, this is a key phrase for, I want to be a jerk/dick/rude bastard, but can't. Therefore people are all PC. It's not my fault. My favorite example of this was a forum I went to where a person complained about getting fired because he told customer she was being stupid about a product. Then he went ahead and claimed "society is too PC!". Right. He's a fuckwit.
2) "I'm not a racist but..." This statement is very often followed by a phrase that is VERY racist.
3) "I'm not a bigot but..." This statement is very often followed by a phrase that is VERY bigoted.
4) "I don't mean to pry..." This statement is very often followed by VERY prying questions.
5) "No offense, dude..." This statement is very often followed by something VERY offensive. To add to this, the questioner will get mad if you DO take offense because, you know, no offense dude!
6) "Children should be disciplined more..." This is a tricky one, but I often get the impression that it means that the person is very angry with the way people behave, and if people were beaten more as children, everybody would act more to suit that person's convenience.
7) "Government shouldn't decide for my healthcare/government should stay out of my life/there's too much welfare/there's too much public money thrown around." Ah, a political statement. If we're talking Americans, then I noticed this is actually code for: government should stay out of my life where it's inconvenient. However, it also means, "I refuse to pay for other people's stuff, but when disaster strikes me, government should give ME money, not the other guy." I've seen so many Internet discussions where so-called conservatives or libertarians decry government spending on things like "welfare" but then go on to say that the money should go into, for instance, "more prisons" or some such. I.E., something for them and their beliefs. As a historian with some knowledge of labels, I am leery of people claiming to be "conservative" (more so than I am of people claiming to be "liberal") because I don't often get a feeling they know what it means. There's a prestige, an intellectual and ruggedly independent gloss to "I prefer small government" pronouncements, but the people who say them very rarely know what that implies too.
8) "He has the right to free speech!/I have the right to free speech!" This very often translates to: I want to say whatever I want AND you have no right to respond. Seems like people think "free speech" goes in one direction. I have been reading how people who get angry at Michael Savage's dumb comments about autism are violating his right to free speech. Funnily enough, these are the same people who get mad when somebody says something they don't agree with. A gay person talks about his or her right to get married and these same people scream that their "values" are being threatened. Um, I guess "Free speech" isn't a universal value. So really, "you're violating my right to free speech" really just means "shut up."
9) "Racism is a universal thing, the Japanese/Chinese/etc... are very racist." I actually hear this quite a lot. It usually means "therefore I have every right to be racist."
10) "University professors are all liberal/evil/hate America/etc..." I have intimate knowledge of this. It often means, "smarter people than me are making things confusing and/or are saying things I don't agree with.
11) "People are all sheep, they should think for themselves"! I like this one. If you listen to what people who say this really means, what they're actually trying to say is: "They should agree with ME."
There's more, I'm sure. Feel free to add your own! The bottom line... I hate the Internet, honestly. It's why I tend to stay away from it a lot more these days. I am no longer a regular of ANY forum and have abandoned most fandoms. I've always felt that the reason why people are more obnoxiously opinionated, more ridiculously self-righteous, and more nauseatingly self-centered online is because going online is an essentially isolated, self-centered experience. People don't think of the Internet as TRULY public space with demands of civility. In public, face to face encounters tend to demand that we place a veneer over ourselves, but when we go online, we are essentially alone. Further, people gravitate to locations and people online that CONFIRM their value systems. Like finds like online, and I often feel that instead being a truly expansive medium, the Internet can be limiting because all you try to find are people with the requisite number of comforting similarities. Basically, nobody goes online to change their convictions of something-- people go online already convinced. They simply seek reassurance.
It's why the need for "double speak". People fundamentally believe they are right and are good people. Whether double speak is intentional or not, people try to present themselves as being rational, polite, and intelligent. And indeed, such is the nature of Internet speech patterns, I notice that people very often present themselves as the LAST or the ONLY rational, polite, and intelligent people or persons in a declining society. Very often, people don't use "double speak" maliciously too. They genuinely believe themselves.
Amiel: misanthrope.
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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Tuesday, January 1st, 2008
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What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?
Driven across several hundred miles of America. I've never done anything remotely like that. I've also been to an academic conference for the first time.
Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I didn't make any and never make any.
Did anyone close to you give birth?
Not that I know of.
Did anyone close to you die?
Nope.
What countries did you visit?
This sounds very funny, but the Philippines.
What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
A good PC.
What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Um... Dec 7 a day that will live in infamy?
What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I got published in a scholarly journal and I went to said conference. And I discovered cold fusion, but I'm keeping it to myself. So there.
What was your biggest failure?
Not working faster on my language requirement.
What was the best thing you bought?
A sword.
Whose behavior merited celebration?
I think Mary does, 'cause she moved here and, while she often goes nuts, she's doing really well.
Where did most of your money go?
Into groceries, damnit. Also to said conference. That DAMN conference.
What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Nothing, really.
What song will always remind you of 2007?
I've listened to a few songs over this year, but the two sticking in my mind right now are Colors of the Wind in Pocahantas (Woohoo! Nerd!) and Weird Al Yankovic's White And Nerdy.
Compared to this time last year, are you:
happier or sadder? I'm happier. I am now sort of deadly with a sword AND a dagger. Imagine that.
thinner or fatter? Thinner and much fitter, to my incredible amazement.
richer or poorer? About the same, actually.
What do you wish you'd done more of?
Dunno... fiction writing. More sword stuff.
What do you wish you'd done less of?
Teaching. Always teaching.
How will you be spending Christmas?
Next year? No clue.
Did you fall in love in 2007?
Yes, I did. I bought my sword.
How many one-night stands?
Well, I didn't sleep with the sword.
What were your favorite TV programs?
The Simpsons. And Harvey Birdman.
Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
PAOLO. MAY HE BURN.... BURN.... BURN....
What was the best book you read?
The Guide To Getting It On.
What was your greatest musical discovery?
Peter Gabriel.
What did you want and get?
For Mary to come here, and I got it!
What did you want and not get?
A steel sword.
What were your favorite films of this year?
Extended version of Kingdom of Heaven.
What did you do on your birthday?
Jacked off.
How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Whatever I could afford.
What kept you sane?
I really didn't go insane or came close to it, so there was no need for me to "keep sane".
Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Stephen Colbert. As Phil Ken Sebben. Ha HA! Dangly parts...
What political issue stirred you the most?
Benazir Bhutto buying the farm.
Who did you miss?
I miss my family, friends in the Philippines, my wonderful PC, and Manila shopping malls.
Who was the best new person you met?
Michael Cullinane, who will help my career. I think.
Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007:
Use your weight when grappling and don't be afraid to push your presence and release aggression. Also, don't get into an armbar, because that really sucks.
Quote song lyrics that sum up your year:
I want to sex you up.
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Comments: Read 10 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, September 12th, 2007
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Long time no post! What a change. For the record, I just drove 2,400+ miles from Houston, Texas, to Eugene, Oregon. I passed through a big chunk of Texas, a small part of New Mexico, Arizona, California, and about half of Oregon. I have never done anything like that before. That is an understatement. I had a permit, I got one just for this, and I drove about half of this trip. Mary drove the other half. I have never driven past 100kmh in the Philippines, and the speed limit in Texas was about 80mph, or 130kmh. I never realized how angular momentum could wreak havoc on cornering and turning at that speed. Also, as a matter of perspective, driving about 1,500 miles takes me to Hiroshima, Japan or Pusan, in Korea. 2,400 miles takes me to someplace in trans-Siberian, Russia or even halfway to America across the Pacific Ocean.
America, to put it mildly, is a HUGE country. Not as large as Russia, true, but still. Texas is the size of a LARGE country. And I encountered so many people too. There were some... interesting towns in Texas where I first looked to see if there were Hispanics in the restaurant before entering, given the unfriendly looks the white people were giving me. On the other hand, there were some towns in California where everybody spoke Spanish. Oddly enough, the Hispanics I met in New Mexico and Arizona seemed far more Americanized than those I met in Northern California.
Also, there is apparently a Dairy Queen every 40 miles in the American Southwest. I commented that Dairy Queens seemed, well, rather redneck to me, and I was told here by my friends that that is a redundancy in terms. However, in Northern California, there seemed to be a college every 40 miles.
The desert is hot. But I complained about false advertising. My idea of a desert is dunes, camels, Omar Sharif, and guys in burnooses chanting Allah Akbar. A friend here told me I was more likely to hear chanting in Detroit. Cacti are nice though. Also, the sheer desolation of a desert is shocking. There were stretches of wasteland and emptiness to make T.H. Elliot proud. I come from the Philippines, a country barely the size of New York State but with 80 million people. There is NOWHERE you can go in the Philippines, even the jungle, where you won't find people. Some of these stretches of land were owned by people too, and god knows what you want to do with 40 square miles of saguaro cactus.
What was equally startling was how major cities would materialize out of nowhere in the desert. After miles of desolation you suddenly arrive in Phoenix, Arizona, fifth largest city in the Union. It's incredibly bad poetry (or purple prose), but the city really does seem to rise out of the heat like a phoenix. There are some small cities in America which are drearily depressing though. Dairy Queens, Jiffy Lubes, and endless rows of motels from the freeway. You turn into them and it's not much better.
Still, the size, prosperity, and scale of America is daunting. How can anybody think that you can bring a country like this down with just a handful of bombings. Bin Laden is truly, insanely deluded. I only saw a tiny bit of it and I already saw such variety. How can anybody blithely dismiss America in a couple of words, thinking the country can be easily encapsulated and summarized. This country has strengths just by its size and just by the number of its people. And there were so many different kinds of Americans too. Some, I assume, can be said to be more American than others, but something tells me that this country has the cultural and physical room for them all.
It's so different from the Philippines too. Metro Manila is a sprawling urban hell of about 11,000,000 people. New York has 8. However, America has so many large, prosperous, advanced, and commercialized cities all over, linking the country together. America is just... so much.
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Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
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Saturday, November 4th, 2006
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So now I'm in America, and will be for quite a while, there are a few things I'd like to do or try. This list is in no particular order:
1) I want to eat Spam. I mean real Spam. This should be in the past tense since I've actually done that and guess what? It tastes EXACTLY like Maling. Revenge of the de-colonized?
2) Go to Las Vegas. Come on, it's Las Vegas. Reno comes at a distant second. Interestingly, I've been to Atlantic City. How's that for North American Crass for you?
3) Watch a Sarah McLachlan concert. Because she is Sarah and I bow to her in abject unworthiness. May she grace us with her melodious Canadian presence!
4) Watch an IMAX movie. That must be something. I'd love to get motion sickness in a movie theater just by watching a pod of whales.
5) Watch Sheryl Crow in concert. She's in her 40s and still rocks.
( There are 35 of these things )
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Comments: Read 13 or Add Your Own.
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So, here I am again with one of my wild and wacky student re-enactments! I've gotten much better at these over the years, so I've been able to refine them to make them more flexible, somewhat safer, more controlled, and also more educational.
( Roma Invicta! WARNING: Pictures under the cut )
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Comments: Add Your Own.
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Friday, October 7th, 2005
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So at the end of every semester--with the exception of one-- I have usually staged some form of historical re-enactment cum insanity for my amusement and that of my students. It's also supposed to have some educational value. I've been very good about the educational part, except with this one.
In any case, this semester, just this evening, I staged Gladiatorial Games involving animal fights, chariot races, the big group combat and invidual combats. I had them choreograph the fight sequences for safety this time. It was a hoot.
I apologize for the quality of the pictures, but the light wasn't all that good and my camera is rather puny.
These are the individual combatants. Surprisingly, most of these costumes--I mandated a shoestring budget--are historically accurate. You can see three Retarii and one Secutor, among others.
( More Pictures Under the Cut-- Warning, Large )
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Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
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Happy 20th Birthday, gorgeous girl! Here's to no longer being a teen-ager! Here's 20 candles for you to blow out! I'd have supplied cake, but I don't bake... aaaw!
     
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, March 16th, 2005
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| Time: | 11:25 am. |
| Mood: | accomplished. |
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At the end of every semester, I always stage some sort of special activity. For all intents and purposes, it serves as my finals. I get bored with papers myself, so I always make sure that this special activity is something completely whacked. The last time, I had a Phalanx Re-Enactment, where my students basically went to war armed with spears and shields. This semester I staged what you Americans would probably call a Rennaissance Faire.
I've seen Renn Faires online, and I am aware of the SCA, so I figured I'd do something like that too. The students had to show up in costume with a low budget cap (to force them to be creative) and they had to do several things. There was a mock-tournament where knights fought for their ladies (the ladies got bonus points if the knight won), there were minstrelry contests, puppet shows, morality plays and cooking contests (I had to taste 49 medieval dishes). All in all, it was a lot of fun.
I'll do this again next semester, with some changes. Anyway, below are some pictures of the event, if you are interested. All of the costumes you see are home made with budgets of about $40.
( Pictures )
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Comments: Read 11 or Add Your Own.
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