Wednesday, October 29
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Ripper Television [commentary] I had this one friend who never understood why people went to strip clubs. I can still remember his desperate voice: "Man, it's just a tease. You never can get off. They just get you really horny then you go home." I could understand what he was saying but I never agreed---that is until recently. I haven't been to a strip club for a long time but I have been watching television for a long time, and it's becoming increasingly apparent that television and strip clubs grow more similar by the season. I can't watch any shows from drama to reality to sitcom without having some hot tease staring me in the face. Television is filled with sultry or just plain beautiful women. It particularly pees me off when they appear on reality television shows. Yah that's reality. I'm a ham for a pretty face and when the show is done, I'm left a little unsatisfied.
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Sunday, October 26
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Fortune Telling Campaigns [commentary] The race for governor of Toronto and ward council representitive is happening now, and one of the things I've noticed is the number of campaigns that are gunning the word "change." Wow, thank-you fortune cookie horroscope; it's all clear now: Vote for me and this month you will see many changes. Sure, many of the politicians do outline--albiet briefly--what they are going to do, but the brunt of their persuasion lies on change. They are throwing around this generality becuase they know people have issues and problems. What issues and problems? Heck if they know! These politicians don't have a clue, so they hope that by merely saying things will change, they will include everyone who is fed up with something.
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Saturday, October 11
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School update [journal] I'm doing much better than I thought I would. Give thanks to enjoyment maybe, but I've had nothing but 100 percents on everything so far and we're close to halfway done.
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Wednesday, October 8
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Professional Rock, Paper, Scissors [link] I was at the Guvernment website to look for Peaches tickets when I chanced upon the World Rock, Paper, Scissors Championships. Assuming it was a fancy title for something else (maybe dj scratching) I investigated and then found out there really is a professional world out there about rock, paper, scissors. They have strategy, rules and psychology. It's a full blown thing that is taken seriously. I tried to reserve judgement since I was into professional video games, but I found myself making jokes about it. Anyways, here is the clicky to their site.
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Saturday, October 4
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Joe's going tech [journal] Recently I bought a cell phone ( Sony Ericsoon T310) and now I might be getting a lap top ( IBM thinkpad r40). I feel all grown up (which means, I feel poor now).
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Friday, October 3
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Lost in Translation [journal] I saw Lost in Translation a few days ago. It was a great movie even though it probably didn't accurately present to us Japan. I had to write a multicultural essay on it and here's chunks of my work: Lost in Translation focuses on two North Americans temporarily living in Japan. It is a story about an aging movie star prostituting his last inkling of fame to advertise a Japanese whisky; it is about a lonely newlywed wife who married a career obsessed husband. In this foreign city they share a mutual insomnia and the story of their life. They share it in the cocktail lounges, the karaoke bar and sushi restaurants of Japan. Through this, the audience is shown behavioural norms of Japan and how cultural identity can be created from a culture of two.Here's a major chunk of my paragraph talking about behavioural norms: There is one scene in the movie that epitomizes the behavioural norms theme seen throughout the movie. It involved the director of a commercial, who was expressive, passionate and talkative. He described in Japanese to Bob Harris (the actor) exactly what he wanted Harris to do. After a minute of exaggerated Japanese explanation, the English translator said to Harris, "He wants you to turn to the camera." As beautiful, detailed and ancient as Japan is, the viewer as a stranger will only absorb so little. When we are shown the many Japanese behavioural norms, it is not so much lost in translation, like the director's instructions, as it is lost in depiction. That is, when they show rows of Japanese women and men thanking Mr. Harris (for no apparent reason at all except for allowing himself to be thanked) and bowing their heads, we laugh because we take it as a small part of what really is a deeper traditional and behavioural norm we know nothing about. When we see an effeminate talk show host making hearts with his fingers and doing little dances we laugh. We laugh because we see it as a peculiar exotic dance and a strange way of behaving. We don't see it as the evolution of Japanese tradition. Here's a bit about my cultural identity paragraph: They disagree with the values at home, they feel distant from the group they are a part of and they don't understand themselves. Now placed in Japan, a foreign country, this confusion is only accentuated. The strangeness of Japan is a looking glass into the strangeness of their lives. However, they eventually find salvation through each other by creating a subculture of two.I enjoyed writing this essay, but what I really wanted was to have complete control with it. I wanted to write a movie review, but I was constrained to writing about cultural identity and behavioural norms! If you enjoyed the movie a good interview with Sophia Coppola (the director) can be found HERE.
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Thursday, October 2
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America [journal] Now that I've been going to school in Buffalo I've got to say the biggest change is the scale you're evaluated by. An American A is 90 percent and up, a B 80 to 90, a C 70 to 80, a D 60 to 70 and an F 50 to 60. Also they don't have such a thing as an A+. I've always hated school, especially in university when I was forced to major in Science, so my marks were always only what was needed. Being at this school has changed my outlook on school. I'm thoroughly enjoying learning and therefore my marks are great now. I'm getting all A pluses if they existed, and for the first time I'm sort of feeling guilty for my marks. My good friend I've met there got a B on one of her essay's and she was really down, and I knew she was going to ask what I got. I finally understood why some people don't like telling their marks, even when it's high. I mean you can't win. You get high marks and it feels bad to share, you get low marks and it feels bad to share. You can't win with this school thing.
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Lavalife [link] Have you ever visited that lavalife website? The first time I visited as a guest I was very disappointed at the lack of people there. Anyways, I was just doing my hotmail recently and I noticed how the lavalife ads had changed. They used to have cute artsy cartoon characters of good looking people from all races and subcultures, now they have model like white people in two-piece swim suits or one-piece swim shorts. So I decided to check out the website again. Lo and behold they are doing a lot better. That makes me a little sad how the other ad campaign couldn't or didn't succeed. Success came when they bent to the dominant majority class.
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