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![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ragnell |
| 2009-11-07 05:00 |
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It's is a very bad idea to listen to lyrics.
Dear Mary J Blige
What does a man buying a woman material things have to do with her falling in love with him and him treating her like a woman? Since when were love, identity, and sexuality for sale? Since when could they be bought with shoes and a bag?
Also wth is up "Now I only want to do what you tell me to." Like? What the hell? Who owns your sexuality here? Or is this more about a woman's place? Huh?
**feels ridiculous for having the music for going on 2 years now and only just having the lyrics pop out**
Ok. I'm gong to bed. I must have my head screwed on wrong. Cause I'm all "Shake down, I'm robbing you for your love, don't put up a fight." Just keeps making me go WHAT THE BLEEPING F*CK??.
So clearly it is not that the world is filled with messed up messages about human interaction and just that my brain's wired weird and somehow sleep will fix that. Or maybe just closing my eyes and being horizontal.
It's magic.
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| ragnell |
| 2009-11-06 05:00 |
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| ragnell |
| 2009-11-05 05:01 |
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I feel mean, or rather I was feeling mean. When I heard about the newly married couple stranded in Germany because Expedia.com told them they wouldn't need visas for Russia; I couldn't help pondering Americans and international travel and lack of awareness. I just couldn't. I've been traveling since I was a baby and there's a hard edge of privilege there of 'How could you not double check that???!'. It's possibly also blended with "America is Not Rome!" and also "Are you a Commonwealth citizen? No. Is Russia a Commonwealth nation? No. Then WTF?"
But I felt much less mean when I heard that once the whole hullabaloo fermented, Expedia compounded matters by not switching their tickets over to any other destination, refusing them emergency visa assistance that was within their power to do and only paying a third of their overnight hotel stay while things were sorted out.
So many thoughts in my head, chief of which is 'always get a name'. It can be difficult to remember, I know, because for many things it won't much matter. But someone stating in an authoritative manner their expertise on a subject where you know nothing - demands writing down a name and the time and date of the call.
The other thought in my head the more I thought about things? Expedia's greed. Booking a flight to a country that requires a visa, without knowing whether or not the customers have the visa and then making that booking nonrefundable? That's not customer service. That's a con game.
Somehow or the other business practices have forgotten the concept of the repeat loyal customer and just go for "fleece 'em while they're standing still" as if the customer base is so huge, the market so big, that it doesn't matter how many people they piss off and cheat, there are more newbies waiting in the wings. This business practice seems even more irrational to me in this age of iPhone, Twitter, Facebook & Blogs. A company's name can get out there, and gain a disreputable notoriety in a matter of hours, given the right organized base. Who is actually big enough to withstand that? I mean if even Amazon went "Oh crap, we just shot ourselves in the foot with a lavender gun"; Can Expedia really afford to have twenty-somethings associating them with horrible trips, international abandonment & strandedness and mean officials who make brides cry?
Really?
That's their marketing plan?
ETA: My mother just mentioned how in countries outside of the US, one can't even get a ticket bought (to the US) without proof of a US Visa.
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Do. Not. Read. Boy's Love Fandom Thoughts On Rape In BL & Yaoi.
Just don't.
*shudders*
It's like a convention of Polanski fans.
( Memorable WTF Statements )
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| ragnell |
| 2009-11-04 05:00 |
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| ragnell |
| 2009-11-03 05:00 |
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Haven't read all your comments, I am sure someone has pointed out that part of the reason the Japanese elements disappear is that the Japanese elements are seen, by a lot of those consuming the animan(ga/hwa/hua) as fantasy elements already; due to them seeing the characters as white.
So of course it's noteworthy when someone brings (back) the Japanese culture to fanworks. And of course they feel perfectly validated transferring the stories of the, in their minds, white characters to a (white) setting that is more comfortable and pleasing for them.
I just flat out do not read fanfic anymore, have cut it out of how I fan, because it tends to immediately drop the characters of colour into background flavour and/or erase the non white history of the piece completely.
Having intentionally thrown myself into anime this time around (as opposed to a more passive interaction as a child) I'm even more aware of how intentional the ignoring of the Japanese(and other Asian) cultures is; The Tale Of Gengii comes up as legend being quoted in other works via style or plot (sometimes even in the author notes). The various periods of Dynasty for each country in that region also come up - at least, in scanlations. I've observed that American English publishing rights via varied publishing houses, come with a white-washing and American culturalizing 'for a broader audience' or 'to make it more relevant' that neatly slots the Japanese culture that cannot be cut and Ameri-culture grafted on, into odd elements, leaving them to become aligned with whatever supernatural or fantastical elements also occur in the genre as a whole, if not in that specific work.
I've had it explained to me, that for the most part, voice work acting for dub is a chicken scratch industry where part of the Americanized voices is failure to act and part of it is bad direction in attempts to convey dialects and locality accents which ends up further giving the impression of whiteness; because of the underlying 'white is the default' alongside familiar Midwestern and East Coast, Surfer Californian & upper crust British accents. (And yes I know that a British accent doesn't automatically mean white. But I also know that Britain has more than one accent in the first place).
For my own part I've observed a difference in translation of intent in dialogue, such that character traits come across as American exceptionalism and NOT as traditional Japanese virtues. But I've done some reading lately that makes me think that while industry neglect or lack of talent and funds may well be a factor, a likelier or heavier factor is, again, intentional (and likely very much taking advantage of any neglect). Because anime and manga are brought to the US to be consumed, and marketers have determined and actually have a stake in perpetuating 'everyone in the world is just like the US, but with a few quirks'; because it makes things simple and the simpler a thing is, the more easily it can be consumed.
Thus essential Asianess, whether it is Japaneseness, Koreaness, Chineseness, and others, etc... is presented as similar to Midwesterness, East Coastness, Southerness etc... a geographic peculiarity with local legends and quirks that is essentially American.
This is not a new tactic. The British Empire thrived on this; women making saris into 'sari cloth' and having their very British dresses made from it. The spices of the region becoming a peculiarity of some British taste, vs it being the cooking hand of a completely different culture, etc. It is Colonialism plain and simple; though instead of the header 'We Will Make Them Just Like Us', it is put across as 'They Are Already Just Like Us'.
A Colonialism of the mind is much more palatable than occupation and enslavement of a native population. Let those thought of as 'Others' be seen to 'freely' give you their resources; via treaties, loan agreements, the building blocks of a global free market etc... Let those who are under your rule think of those resources as their right, thereby creating the market's need and sustaining your current practices.
All that is left, is to marginalize the voices who do not believe the creative endeavours of another culture are theirs to exploit as they will. Have them mocked as taking things too seriously, being too PC, being over sensitive.
---
And now an aside: For those who will want to comment to me that I am being too oversensitive, too PC, taking things way too seriously, it's just anime and wow, look at how I'm claiming some kind of conspiracy - I say this. Capitalism does not need to be a conspiracy as it is already a well established THEORY (of economics), with several schools (and schools of thought), and many published works. It has fermented rebellion and overthrown dynasties. It has condoned slavery. It has started wars and prolonged occupations to. this. day. Why on earth would I claim such a thing was a SECRET?
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| ragnell |
| 2009-11-02 05:00 |
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| ragnell |
| 2009-11-01 05:00 |
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It is late. I am in pain, would like to sleep but can't. And something flits across my surf of the internet and turns into one of those last straws.
Here's the deal, the next time someone says "It's not like I'm a Nazi wanting to exterminate the Jews / It's not like I'm a KKK member / It's not like I'm __ insert whatever extreme hate group they want to use to benchmark their own isms__"; the next time someone says something like that? I suggest your reply be this.
"Yeah, it's not like an abusive spouse is a serial murderer; it's not like a violent cop is Josef Mengele; it's not like a school yard bully is someone who abuses and kills dogs!"
Cause what they're doing is another form of Oppression Olympics. Only the competitors are the actual oppressors. And they believe they or whomever they're defending didn't even get the bronze; so why are you even saying anything? So it's a good idea, to at least state publicly what the fuck it is they're doing with their twisted logic.
Cause seriously?
"It's a Halloween costume, is not like someone kidnapped you and placed you in a living SAW movie." Is someone who is not you, trying to measure your pain, heartache, discomfort and rage. And y'know, doctors can't even do that shit. That's why they came up with the frigging PAIN SCALE (it is a clearer way of taking the patient's word for it). So a non medically trained person definitely needs to SHUT. THE FUCK. UP. And if they are medically trained, they do not deserve their licence.
And before someone comes and tells me how white people/ straight people/cis people/able bodied have pain too; Y'know what? a) I don't care and b) not like in my (or your) head they don't. They don't feel the personalized, history compounding experience that is mental scar tissue on me or you.*
Cause again? Benchmarking? IS IGNORANT.
The fibromyalgia having individual, does not compare his or hir or her discomfort to the chemotherapy cancer patient. The person with the broken leg, does not compare themselves to the person who had to have invasive surgery. When physical pains are understood at least part of the time as individual and unique in both circumstance and person it is pure willful ignorance to think psychological pain doesn't as well.
[Current pain due to lack of social justice: immeasurable]
______________________________________
* This statement is about what they lack to assess things. A lack that often has them deciding on what is or is not painful based on what they feel, all cocooned in the cottonwool of said lack.
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Despite my grumps and bad mood, I realize I've let something slip in error.
Happy New Year, Blessed Sahmain
All of my pagan flisters and who knows, possibly some lurkers too.
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| ragnell |
| 2009-10-31 04:00 |
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So...
Figured out why I was so drained and depressed last night. My littlest brother's called me every night this week to chat and I could hear the house mess in the background behind him. That added to my dislike of the phone and not really being all that chatty on a daily basis (it's a spoon thing) likely led to low energy, drained feelings and emotions -> la la la depression.
Mentioned this to my mom to ask her to get him to email me. But she pointed out that he doesn't get much attention from his other siblings because they're teenagers and he's not. And despite my 'omfg' of last night concerning his animals, he got up on his own this morning, and fed them all and watered them all and cleaned the bird cage and took his dog out to do his business. And apparently told mom that I had put him on a schedule.
I definitely need to figure out now, how to balance my introvertedness and spoon juggling with positive effects of my presence on littlest brother who's all 'I haz a sister and she luuuuuubs me.'
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NuKirk apologises to the wrong Orion. On the one hand I'm glad someone decided 'Yeah, let us NOT put that into our final product'. On the other hand, it got filmed.
And I post about it here just as a reminder to myself of why I do not want to get involved in NuTrek fandom past a few icons.
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| ragnell |
| 2009-10-30 04:00 |
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Likely distractions from pain and emotional drain and energy issues ( I ordered out, did not decide to starve until I could cook tomorrow and feel better now.)
Like I mentioned before, I like small spaces and read Tiny House, Small House blogs. But I've found myself thinking two things a lot in the past few days as I was getting re-caught up in that section of the blogsphere. None of these houses are designed with disabilities in mind. Apparently if you are disabled it is just too bad for you that so many house plans & designs involve loft bedrooms, no wheel chair or even cane manueverability and the thing that bugged me the most - absolutely no disabled access into the damn house in the first place.
All this thought on maximizing space and dual purpose this and how a person lives that, and green living and energy conservation, and tens upon tens of STAIRS.
The second thing I noticed is how very few people of colour I see involved in the small house movement who aren't 'Those poor people in Brownilla Country Where It's Hot'. White people; get back to basics, pare down, have a small house movement and live less cluttered and ostentatious lives. Non white people are just poor, the dear things.
The thought's been floating around and around in my head that you have to be 'white' and 'privileged' and 'well off' to live a simple life that's called a simple life and not the result of lack of effort & ambition. And when someone on a blog challenged the cost of workshops to learn how to build these tiny houses, they got dogpiled on and told that such and such deserves to be able to make enough to mind his family, and it's a service not something free and there's nothing wrong with making money.
Just like I have no doubt they'd stutter and stammer and stare if someone pointed out all the houses being oohed and awwhed over are impractical for those with disabilities
I also discovered this week that the American West had a culture, a sheep rancher culture, that created caravans that were structurally a lot like Rom Caravans of the early 19th century. And considering that the caravans had a European start, it does make sense that the style would go along with European immigrants attempting to 'settle' the West. (One of these days I need to write out my thoughts on confusion on how a land can be settled that already has people on it. Since I was small I've been confused about the Louisiana and Alaskan purchases because how can you sell something you don't own?)
But back to the 'Small House Movement' - where 'Gypsy Caravans' are showed off, with plans and designs, as possible 'Studios' and 'Meditation Rooms' (Isn't that a clash of appropriations) and 'Play Houses'. They're carved and brightly painted and beautiful and stolen.
What's yours is mine and what's mine is mine. The melting pot. Everything must go in to be shared with everyone. Except the things we the powerful keep for ourselves as precious to us.
American the pickpocket, the hug and handshake to welcome you to the fold, that robs you shamelessly at the same time. And isn't it quaint you thought your belongings were only for you and not meant to be picked over like wares at a fleamarket with certain less 'shiny' things insultingly marked down.
They're not fully formed yet, my thoughts on the specific rejections and the specific acceptance that is co-option and dilution and secularism. But I'm beginning to understand some of my exhaustion.
There's only so much 'don't think about it' a person can do, right?
And there's only so much one can take, to see the death of a pregnant mouse get more sympathy than the tasering of a pregnant brown woman.
Hmmm. I think I need richer and more filling than what I currently have, to feed my soul. Actually I think I'm tired of picking glass out of my mental vittles.
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| ragnell |
| 2009-10-29 04:00 |
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Should still be sleeping, but my mother called over an email I exhaustedly typed to her last night about Bank of America Shenanigans. While talking to her I found my own notes and realized the reason I didn't go through with switching banks is because the plumber invasion happened and I'd been unable to think beyond the basics.
I'm not gonna rush around like crazy right now though because I'm exhausted and in pain and liable to make a mistake
But so far MECU looks viable - though it won't enable me to have a second account primarily for online transactions.
ETA: I appreciate that my mom -made- herself get off the phone, because she realized all she'd be doing is cussing about the state of things and I didn't need the stress. Unfortunately I still feel stressed that stuff happened because I wasn't in a place to stay on top of things. And now I can't go back to sleep because my stomach's in a knot.
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| ragnell |
| 2009-10-28 04:01 |
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My little thoughts on performance of gender, possible owning of desire and how that might be playing out in the Twilight Series thus that it attracts teen female fans - has been picked up round and about and also on LJ's Meta-fandom and I've had two idiotic comments.
One telling me that Jacob was the nice safe boy and that couldn't possibly be racist. And another blubbering something about motherhood and hateful single feminists.
Y'know, Meta-fandom should probably do whiney privileged white women (and other malcontents) the favour of letting them know their ignorance is not going to be appreciated at the linked site.
Two comments of shite is more than my blood pressure needs to handle.
Actually it's three. The first commenter claimed to disagree with me, then agreed with everything I said and started talking about points not under the topic of discussion. It was either a poor attempt at a strawman, or a serious inability in the process of analytical thinking.
ETA: And the race comment and the 'you single feminist bitch' comment are BOTH from 24.228.89.97, if your LJ really is bicrim.livejournal.com you sure aren't classy. I'd say New Jersey sure can grow 'em - but I know cool people from New Jersey and everything has aberrations. And who knows, it might be a mask.
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| ragnell |
| 2009-10-27 04:00 |
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Look, if you put the word 'Ghetto' into your title (60 Black Ghetto Names), and then claim the list contained therein your video 'Is not racist. It's only a joke' - It's racist, ok. It is. And you're just trying to get by.
If you write the name D'Neijah is: a lovely, traditional African name from the exotic African ethnicity -- You may not be racist. But you're sure as hell IGNORANT.
If you think that you don't want to give other people (teachers, child's eventual friends etc) a hard time learning your child's name and stumbling over it -- You have somehow become the parent of the world and not your own offspring. How'd that happen?
If you think D'Neijah: Will be hell with computer scanned forms because there's no place to put an apostrophe so such a name will cause the. entire. world. problems. You are suffering from a severe lack of imagination. Oh yeah, you're also racist.
If you think D'Neijah: Sounds like a black name, not that there's anything wrong with that. Except, it has to sound like VAGINA and who would name their child that? -- Get thee behind me honkey.
If you write the name D'Neijah is: ... a terrible name. It's right up there with all the other names that sound like women make them up at the spur of the moment! Where on earth do people think up these new names? I tend to think they are high on something when they do! I can't imagine calling a baby by that name or others like it, plus the fact of going through life with people trying to pronounce them! -- Congratulations Racist McRacist Pants! You have won Racist Lotto! Feel free to pick up your hood and sheet at any time, because if that's the only racist you can see, that's the way the world needs to dress you up for the clarification of others (so they can avoid your ass).
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