Tag: english

The male chauvinist

January 13, 2010
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It all started with a video a friend (who’s not online right now, and might mind having his/her name published) sent me, with Dick Masterson talking about his philosophy, and i find it really… intriguing that whenever i show it to a girl, the reaction is the same. One tried to tickle me to death. One started her comment with a “nice” vulgar sentence in all capitals. I’m not going to details. Still, it made me think.

When a guy stands up and preaches chauvinism, every woman, intelligent as well as brick stupid, get angry, shout, kill and so on. Now when a woman starts to preach feminism, like two highly attractive women in the Politically Incorrect talk show, intelligent guys at least say “yeah, you’re right”. (Then have a nice round in bed and prove the chauvinist theory that way. Joking here.) Of course there are guys who get angry, and smash in the face of that woman.

Actually, in the second part of the earlier linked Politially Incorrect video, some intelligent arguments can be found. Carl Jung’s anima and animus for example. Michael Moore has the point i wrote about above, of “just nod, just agree”.

If someone happened to ask my opinion, i don’t care. I don’t care about being better in this stereotypical way, i don’t place myself higher than others based on their sex (i do place people relative to myself based on my experience and opinions). It’s sure nice to hear a guy stand there and say all that stuff, simply because it sounds nice to the male inside. That doesn’t mean i think the same, it’s just pleasing. Just the way feminists’ fights are funny.

Queen of the wild frontier

January 13, 2010
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In this week’s episode of the Series, here comes Kings of the Wild Frontier by ~pairofparentheses. I’m running out of comments. It’s a great pose, a nice girl, a good photo and beauty in focus.

First

January 13, 2010
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School’s not out, sorry Alice. It just started, and i’m not sure how to think about it. I surely didn’t get back to that fast enough gear for school, so it’s no surprise i’m a bit—and luckily, as for now really just a bit–behind myself (is that a huge giveaway that i always type “mysql” instead of “myself” first? yeah, this time too).

Today was fine. The presentation class is held by the center-chou (bad habit, it’s so easy to say it this way, much easier than to go around what’s her position’s exactly called, let’s say, the boss). Before i didn’t really like her… she just didn’t seem nice. But actually no worries, she’s all nice and shiny, though i’m sure she can get mean if someone goes “bad student”. But there was a lot of free time in class, i mean, it wasn’t actually free, we just weren’t doing anything worthy of mention, just going over the same stuff over and over again. I hope that’ll change later, this way i’ll have to bring something to read… (Twilight?)

The afternoon pol-eco class was about the COP15, global warming, climate change, the Climategate scandal and other related topics. It was quite interesting. Adina did a presentation about the topic first, after that talk-talk-laugh-talk. A bit too long.

Table tennis training was fun, i had a nice five o’clock white tea with home cookies and highland shortbread, but didn’t study any practically… I was instead reading papers that may relate to what i’m going to write about later this term. (Examples include one about gravity and information (pdf) and one on the ontology of non-Euclidean geometries. There are more.)

And midday for like half an hour, it was snowing. First time i see snow in Japan. It wasn’t enough to leave a mark, but still, it made me smile bright.

Starbucks Sumatra drip

January 11, 2010
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Yesterday while waiting on the (wrong) station, i sat in for a coffee, because why not, and i could sit down to read for a while comfortably. So at Starbucks 大船 (Oofuna), i got myself a mug of hot drip coffee (though i usually only drink espresso), made out of Sumatra blend. (Later the day i had another, that time from House blend, but i can’t write about that.) Actually i forgot what was its name so i had to look up the store and call them asking, which i could do, so i’m proud of myself right now. I don’t know what my next pack will be after Gold Coast, but i’m considering Sumatra as well. I must’ve looked strange, a big foreigner guy with dreadlocks, reading Twilight in japanese and taking notes about the coffee on the back of the receipt.

Sumatra was a really nice coffee to drink. It’s well roasted, as expected from an extra bold coffee. First, it has a taste like popcorns. I guess that’s the “buttery” they’re always talking about. Also a lemon-like sour taste, which makes a really nice contrast. It might’ve been just because of the drip, but felt really soft, and a bit of unexpected acidity. Every mouthful tasted somewhat different–i don’t know how that’s possible, but it really did, almost felt like some spell on it. It had the same or at least very similar aftertaste as the coffee my parents are drinking all the time. It had a very thick body, leaving a mark lasting for a surprisingly long time, but not unpleasant at all. Even though, again probably because of the drip, it felt somewhat thin. Nice choice it was for a day’s hot coffee for sure.

Starbucks Gold Coast blend

January 11, 2010
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Again a Starbucks coffee, and probably not the last. Note that i can hardly feel any smell because my nose is as dry as the nose of a dying cat, because the air in my room, although i’m humidifying it with boiling water, is as dry as i haven’t felt even in desert (been to one). I chose Gold Coast as “next one” when i bought Kenya.

Gold Coast’s steam has just the same smell as it’s main taste, strong and somewhat bitter. The dark roasting is very clear. If someone had to find something bad in it, that would be an interesting bit in the smell, which one could say is the same as the idea of children’s hated medicine.

Upon tasting it, it’s just as coffee-bitter as expected from the smell, and although its body leaves a nice feel, it’s not as thick as i would’ve thought. It doesn’t have any extreme flavours, it’s a really nice mix of coffees from all around the world, and tastes just like a coffee should. The taste itself is cold, and because of the dark roast somewhat burnt, which along with the official description mentioning Chicago, brings out the image of a burning oil barrel under a bridge. Although this sounds quite negative, the warmth of coffee and the thought that it’s all from around the equator makes it a coffee i’ll like to drink for the coming few weeks until it runs out.

What to sing?

January 11, 2010
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It’s not an easy question for me when we’re going to karaoke. There are very few people who listen to or just at least appreciate the music i listen to mostly, the usual favourite being the “recently” emerged country, indie or “myspace” pop, call it however you want. And there i go, with unlimited amounts of rock, metal, punk, alternative and all the progressive versions of these, with some electronic, a few indie songs and even those are either of a totally unknown past Chicago indie band or from the selection i got from my exchange partner there. There are a few “must do” songs, the two sure being Hot dog by Limp Bizkit and Nellie the elephant by the Toy Dolls. And there i am, with two whole songs for a whole night. Usually i start going all over my “mixed” playlist, which has songs that i love though the music’s not my favourite kind, simply because these songs tend to be more popular.

And then, a few times ago i realised one more thing. I just have to go back six years, and i can find songs that people know, or at least can sing along: six years ago was the season of blink-182, Sum 41, the Offspring or Green Day, just to mention a few. I still sometimes listen to blink, and occasionally look up a few songs of Offspring on Youtube, but it’s no more in my usual (although in the case of Offspring i’ll try to make it again so). But these are easy to sing, popular, catchy, and i don’t care if someone joins and messes it all up (i do mind that in case of my favourites, like Fear of the dark, which still i try to put on every time), and noone will hate me for singing “songs that no one knows or cares about” (even if that’s unproved by millions of plays on last.fm). Interesting to note, that although the style is quite similar, Rancid is already “underground”, no one sang along when i had Red Hot Moon last time, though that’s pretty catchy too…

Karaoke made easier.

The day

January 11, 2010
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The relief to my panic came when my senpai texted me that our games will be much later, hers being first at earliest two pm. So i luckily got there on time, roughly one hour after the agreed time… Still i had much much time to sit and watch people playing, the whole sports hall was full of pingpong tables—at least the main floor.

I was still reading Twilight (except when i could no longer concentrate enough) when the announcer called my name for the game, which lasted way shorter than i wanted it to. Apparently i wasn’t in any appropriate mental state for a table tennis game, and that showed in the three-four missed serves each set, the stupid mistakes and the scores of course.

It was around four that we finished, and with Sasaki senpai we set off together. Kobayashi senpai was going some other way, but i was going to Kamakura (though the sun was already setting, i wanted to give it a try), and Sasaki senpai lives that way. I tried to make many photos in Kamakura, though i couldn’t get to the big Buddha statue of our spring term memorised silly conversations, because the temple it’s at was already closed that time. Still i walked around, made many photos with the built-in camera of my phone (just so you don’t expect any special quality), had one more coffee in the local Starbucks, because it was only 100 yen (second one the day, this time home blend), some really bad tasting nuts (ginnan or something like that) (the reason why i’m not going to write about the coffee, i couldn’t really feel its taste properly) from a stand near a temple, and set off home.

The morning

January 11, 2010
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I woke up at half past six in the morning. Anyone who knows my sleeping habits, probably also knows that this kind of early “morning” is not my style. I brew myself a coffee, of my new one, Gold coast (i’ll write about it later), had cereal for breakfast and left a bit early. I had to pick up a few stuff Sasaki senpai forgot in the club lockers, also to take some money from an atm, but i was still well in time. At least until Oofuna. Fujisawa open (japanese pdf), as the name suggests, was one more station further, in Fujisawa. But i was reading (still Twilight), and got off at the wrong station. Of course the name of the station was written nowhere where i could see it in time, so i was already twenty minutes late when i realised my mistake thanks to the senpais looking for me—one station away, where i thought i’d be. But it got worse. I rushed to the platform and got on the first train—which happened to be a special express (just my luck), meaning the next station it stopped was not Fujisawa, but Odawara. I was kind of in a panic, then lethargy, especially when i saw Mt Fuji nearing closer and closer from the windows—that meant i’m getting very far from where i should be. Lucky me, trains in Japan go faster, than at home. (Check on a map, where these stations are, Google or Yahoo, and you’ll get the idea.)

Shopping

January 8, 2010
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Today i went shopping. Originally i only wanted to buy myself coffee (Starbucks again, i’m being globalised), bread and maybe cornflakes, but ended up with so much stuff that it took quite an effort to carry them all home. I went to Sengawa, because i found out there’s a Starbucks there, so i checked—will write about my experiences later. Of course got my coffee, and then i went for the food (i saw a Seiyu on the way, there). I stumbled upon a place where they were selling everything under the cheapest price i’ve seen so far, so i got loads of fruit and a few veggies, meat and fish. But the bread was double the Seiyu price, so i went over there too—and ended up with bread, cornflakes, curry. And a heater. It was so cheap (under 1500 yen) that i couldn’t leave it there. It’s just perfect for my feet under the table as i’m sitting at my computer. I’ve also checked a phone shop, the iPhone offers are way more tempting than they ever were, and i’ve also seen a shoe store where they were selling my kind of shoes for 3-4000 yen (Vans, Converse, Adidas, Nike). Will have to go there back once. Somehow Sengawa seemed very lively and young to me, although it’s definitely suburbia just one street behind the station. The prices show that too. But ah, i so understand the old japanese farts stalking high-school girls. They are hot. (Of course, it means that there are plenty hot ones, but it sounds better this way.)

A little soul

January 7, 2010
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A little soul by ~Mis-shaped is the second in The Series, and not the last for sure. To look at the picture, and sure it’s worth looking at, for innumerably many reasons, among which are a cute pose, a beautiful girl, big headphones, blonde, the eyes, the legs, and of course the socks, i have to add, different colored, one huge plus point, but both are… well, just see.