I've been very busy and decidedly ill, but I wanted to get this out before I forgot about it (however temporarily, as these are very persistent issues).
There's been a lot of drama on deviantART lately (oh snap, not another entry about that darn place, but hey, it's a site I visit on a very regular basis; I can't help but have some opinions about it, right?). There seems to be a growing uprising against things being posted that aren't "art." As usual, this is a very contentious topic because of the very subjective definitions of the word. I will agree vehemently with those hoping to purge the site of "mySpace photos" and artthefted things, because, after all, deviantART was never meant to be Photobucket. But what's all this nonsense rallying for prosecution against those who post "ships of MORTAL ENEMIES and characters who have never even met each other or have had existing relationships with the opposite sex"?
I can understand the dislike, trust me. I consider myself quite a bit of a fantard in various fandoms, but my main complaint against almost every fandom I find myself a part of is the other fans. The overzealous, "psychotic" fangirls (and boys) that parade their fandom and most annoyingly, their fanpairings, all over the place. I've always been for the idea that everyone has their own ideas and they can do whatever it is that floats their boat. Therefore, it's their own business if they want to slash every character from every series they've seen with each other, or if they want to introduce a thousand Mary Sues to fulfill their own fantasies. "I may not like what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." That was Voltaire, right? Well, in the same vein:
I MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU DRAW, BUT I'LL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO DRAW IT.
I think the main problem with all of this is devianART's "today's popular" system that displays some of the days' most favorite'd or commented pieces on the front page. Because some fandoms have grown to outrageous sizes, it's not surprising to see artwork that represent these series over and over (and over) again on the front page, often with ideas and pairings that disturb or offend others within and outside of the fandom. (Specifically, I've seen a lot of people hating on Akuroku for Kingdom Hearts and Sasunaru for Naruto because they appear so often, although I'm pretty sure I've seen a lot more Sasusaku action on the front page).
Personally, this doesn't really bother me that much. I used to vehemently disapprove of Akuroku, but as long as the artwork featured on the front page was well-rendered and executed, I was fine with it. I absolutely hate LxLight, but once again, if it showed up on the front page and was pretty, then fine, whatever -- whatever floats people's boats. But I know a lot of people would still prefer not to see that kind of stuff if they could help it.
The general solution would be "if you don't like it, don't look" right? But with how deviantART currently handles their front page, it can't be avoided. So my idea would be to have some sort of filtering system for the front page. If you don't like anime, filter out all the anime-related categories. Find furries offensive? Filter out the anthropomorphic stuff. Maybe that'll stop some of the crazy hate-journals and stamps going around. Of course, this isn't a catch-all solution. Naturally, a big portion of the people that hate on some of the targeted artwork consider themselves part of the fandom itself and it would be unreasonable to expect them to filter away such broad categories, but really... for those people, I think the only solution would be to suck it up and grow some tolerance. There's already too little of it in the world.
Anyway, yeah. Those are my two cents on that drama. But once again just to clarify, my moral protection only extends to people shipping unpopular ships, not all the teeny boppers posting their webcam pictures with no real thought or artistic value or the silly folk who think it's all right to post official artwork and think that no one will notice. That's one of those "come on guys, have a little common sense" kind of things. All the same though, I severely doubt that deviantART will be taking any action against any of these people any time soon. After all, having a high number of "deviations" is something for them to boast, nevermind that many of them shouldn't be counted as legitimate pieces of art.
Oh well.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Maybe I'm Also Arrogant For Writing This
I hate it when people profess their intolerance for people who do certain things. This entire entry will probably come off as rather hypocritical then and maybe this statement of self-defense means absolutely nothing, but here goes anyway. I wouldn't say I'm "intolerant" of these people, as I've never said a word against them until now and because I probably won't think too much less of a person if they do it, but it just irks me. ...Anyway.
This is a growing trend on sites that garner a significant population from various subcultures. Example one: deviantART. I have lost count of the number of journal entries, stamps, clubs, and deviation descriptions that will right out write off anyone who uses (or attempts to use) Japanese (or Wapanese -- but the first Urban Dictionary definition offends me, by the by). I can understand why so many people would be annoyed, especially with the anime subculture having grown (and still growing) so rapidly, thus population all corners of the Internet with crazy fangirls and boys who entertain and amuse themselves with uses of words like "kawaii," "sugoi," "baka," "gomen," "-chan," "-kun," "-sama," and "ne." I understand this would be even more annoying for people that do not consider themselves members of the subculture and have been forced to learn the meaning of these words through mass overusage. And even though I do consider myself part of this subculture, I'd be lying if I told you it didn't annoy me sometimes. I will probably punch you in the face if you call me "Kiri-chan."
But is there really a reason to rally against them as harshly as so many people have? Most of the kids using the terms are 12-15 and feel a little special for knowing what they are. It's like a (not-so) secret language they can use amongst friends and other people that "understand" them (I think a recent installment of ANN's Hey Answerman! used this analogy). It's just that the "in-group" is so ridiculously large now that there's lots of overspill. However, most of these kids outgrow it by the time they hit 16 or 17. I would also be lying to you if I said that I've never been guilty of using some of those words (more on this later) -- I'm sure hunting down archives of forum posts I made five or six years ago would harvest a decent crop of silly Japanese terms, but come on. Let kids have their fun.
Really, I think it's a little arrogant and elitist to come down so hard on them. I don't think any of the people using the words are "trying to be Japanese" or "rejecting their actual heritage." There's no need to be so offended by the use of harmless words, especially if you already know what they mean. As the subculture expands, the words have become such a normal occurrence that they might as well be up there with other subculture-spawned terms like "lol," "iawtc," or "n00b." Some people will also rag on the l337 subculture's butchering of various English words, but despite the fact that I just wrote an entry ranting about the general disregarding of our language, I don't think that the usage of 1337 terms correlates directly to not knowing spelling and grammar worth a shit. Likewise, usage of miscellaneous Japanese terms does not mean they don't know the English equivalents or are trying to be Japanese. I don't even think they're trying to be "cool" or "cute." They're just having fun.
I like the Japanese language a lot. I think it flows very well and would love to actually sit down and learn it some day. I generally believe that I've picked up a decent slice of vocabulary and while I've outgrown using random terms online, I've begun weaving some words into my everyday verbal speech along with Spanish, which I've come to appreciate a lot more now that I've stopping taking classes for it. So frequently, I find myself responding "¿qué?" or "nanda?" instead of "what?" using "¿quien es?" and "¿qué es eso?" instead of "who is it?" and "what's that?" and "doko desu ka?" for "where is it?" I also seem to use "sou" and "sou desu" a lot for simple agreement and both "shirimasen" and "yo no sé" for "I don't know."
And I wonder, would people also consider this pretentious of me? Am I trying to be Japanese or Spanish? I don't really think so. I just enjoy using the languages, even if I'm not very proficient in either. It makes me smile when my brother and I can converse in Spanish, even if they're just little phrases that we banter back and forth ("No sé!" "¿Por qué no sé?" "No sé porque no sé! D:"). And yes, there is a little bit of enjoyment that comes when people around us don't understand what we're saying. It's like an in-joke and everyone loves being a part of something like that, right? But yeah, one of these days, I half expect some asshole to come up to me and tell me I'm not Japanese and therefore should not be using random bits and pieces of phrases.
The only thing I can sort of understand confronting someone about is incorrect usage of grammar. By all means, if I am killing the poor language's grammar, please inform me of this. Preferably in a civil and polite manner. But maybe that's just me and my I-love-grammar nonsense.
I wanted to extend the general concept of this entry (railing against certain people for doing certain things that really shouldn't be that big of a deal) to something else in the advanced text-based roleplaying community, but I'm all tired of writing now. Maybe later. In the meantime, people, really. Stop giving the kids such a hard time. Why do you think they're so many emokids these days anyway?
This is a growing trend on sites that garner a significant population from various subcultures. Example one: deviantART. I have lost count of the number of journal entries, stamps, clubs, and deviation descriptions that will right out write off anyone who uses (or attempts to use) Japanese (or Wapanese -- but the first Urban Dictionary definition offends me, by the by). I can understand why so many people would be annoyed, especially with the anime subculture having grown (and still growing) so rapidly, thus population all corners of the Internet with crazy fangirls and boys who entertain and amuse themselves with uses of words like "kawaii," "sugoi," "baka," "gomen," "-chan," "-kun," "-sama," and "ne." I understand this would be even more annoying for people that do not consider themselves members of the subculture and have been forced to learn the meaning of these words through mass overusage. And even though I do consider myself part of this subculture, I'd be lying if I told you it didn't annoy me sometimes. I will probably punch you in the face if you call me "Kiri-chan."
But is there really a reason to rally against them as harshly as so many people have? Most of the kids using the terms are 12-15 and feel a little special for knowing what they are. It's like a (not-so) secret language they can use amongst friends and other people that "understand" them (I think a recent installment of ANN's Hey Answerman! used this analogy). It's just that the "in-group" is so ridiculously large now that there's lots of overspill. However, most of these kids outgrow it by the time they hit 16 or 17. I would also be lying to you if I said that I've never been guilty of using some of those words (more on this later) -- I'm sure hunting down archives of forum posts I made five or six years ago would harvest a decent crop of silly Japanese terms, but come on. Let kids have their fun.
Really, I think it's a little arrogant and elitist to come down so hard on them. I don't think any of the people using the words are "trying to be Japanese" or "rejecting their actual heritage." There's no need to be so offended by the use of harmless words, especially if you already know what they mean. As the subculture expands, the words have become such a normal occurrence that they might as well be up there with other subculture-spawned terms like "lol," "iawtc," or "n00b." Some people will also rag on the l337 subculture's butchering of various English words, but despite the fact that I just wrote an entry ranting about the general disregarding of our language, I don't think that the usage of 1337 terms correlates directly to not knowing spelling and grammar worth a shit. Likewise, usage of miscellaneous Japanese terms does not mean they don't know the English equivalents or are trying to be Japanese. I don't even think they're trying to be "cool" or "cute." They're just having fun.
I like the Japanese language a lot. I think it flows very well and would love to actually sit down and learn it some day. I generally believe that I've picked up a decent slice of vocabulary and while I've outgrown using random terms online, I've begun weaving some words into my everyday verbal speech along with Spanish, which I've come to appreciate a lot more now that I've stopping taking classes for it. So frequently, I find myself responding "¿qué?" or "nanda?" instead of "what?" using "¿quien es?" and "¿qué es eso?" instead of "who is it?" and "what's that?" and "doko desu ka?" for "where is it?" I also seem to use "sou" and "sou desu" a lot for simple agreement and both "shirimasen" and "yo no sé" for "I don't know."
And I wonder, would people also consider this pretentious of me? Am I trying to be Japanese or Spanish? I don't really think so. I just enjoy using the languages, even if I'm not very proficient in either. It makes me smile when my brother and I can converse in Spanish, even if they're just little phrases that we banter back and forth ("No sé!" "¿Por qué no sé?" "No sé porque no sé! D:"). And yes, there is a little bit of enjoyment that comes when people around us don't understand what we're saying. It's like an in-joke and everyone loves being a part of something like that, right? But yeah, one of these days, I half expect some asshole to come up to me and tell me I'm not Japanese and therefore should not be using random bits and pieces of phrases.
The only thing I can sort of understand confronting someone about is incorrect usage of grammar. By all means, if I am killing the poor language's grammar, please inform me of this. Preferably in a civil and polite manner. But maybe that's just me and my I-love-grammar nonsense.
I wanted to extend the general concept of this entry (railing against certain people for doing certain things that really shouldn't be that big of a deal) to something else in the advanced text-based roleplaying community, but I'm all tired of writing now. Maybe later. In the meantime, people, really. Stop giving the kids such a hard time. Why do you think they're so many emokids these days anyway?
An Edumacated Nation
Every day, I think of about ten things I could write about. Unfortunately, I know how long-winded I can get about pretty much everything and so I put it off because I really do have other things to do. But anyway, I suppose since I'm actually bothering to sit down to write an entry now, I should shut up with the intro and just get to what I wanted to talk about.
Can someone please explain to me why so many people I meet seem so utterly uneducated? I know it's stereotypical to say that those in the "artkid" category are utter failures at mathematics and the mathematical sciences (chemistry and especially physics), but the more of them I meet, the more I've come to think this is true to a ridiculous degree. This past quarter, on more than one occasion, my design professor had to explain to the class how to arrive at your area based on the dimensions of your paper. ...The entire time, I was like... "Are you shitting me?" Width times height equals area. Christ, a fifth grader could tell you that! You're telling this to college kids? Are you shitting me? But really, I know it isn't even just the artkids. Pretty much anyone who isn't majoring in a math/science field is prone to these instances of proven ignorance.
Some information leaves you as soon as the tests are over. I know this and am guilty of it myself. A ton of material I learn for an exam and then will never be able to recall it again. However, there is a lot of stuff I think that everyone should just know. Forever. No matter how long it's been. Finding the area of a rectangle is one of those things, right up there with knowing that Europe is a continent. I don't understand how people -- people who have graduated high school, or hell, people who've graduated elementary school -- could not know these things. Part of me feels a little arrogant for ragging on people like this; after all, I have always been a "math nerd" and "artkid" simultaneously and I've taken three levels of Calculus, but really now... the area of a rectangle!
Math and science aside, I love English. I admit that it's a messed up language, has more exceptions than rules, and is probably the most difficult language in the world to learn, but I love it anyway. And so I love grammar, spelling, and punctuation, and cry a little on the inside every time I see it butchered beyond recognition. Public, private, or home school education -- every American kid should have at least twelve years of schooling in the English language behind them. There is absolutely no reason a twenty-two year old woman should write like this (and yes, this is a very ironic quote):
"this person isnt too smart now are they or do they believe we are that stupid but yes that pose does look fermalure"
Fermalure ≠ familiar. This seriously made me so sad. Not to mention the subject/verb disagreement and lack of punctuation. I understand this is the Internet. Typos happen and laziness happens, but for the latter argument... I really don't think it takes all that much effort to capitalize words when you should and tap in a comma now and again. It also won't kill anyone to throw in a space between sentences, y'know? There is only so much laziness that can occur before sentences become utterly unreadable. This is particularly frustrating when you're taking commissions... and you can't understand anything your commissioner has to say. My brother jokes that maybe English isn't these peoples' first language, but I know of many Europeans and Asians for which this statement is actually true and their English is impeccable.
I find it incredibly sad that I know French, Malaysian, Romanian, and Norwegian people whose grasp of the English language is ten times better than actual Americans (or British people, even). How is it that they're able to have such an amazing handle on not only their own language, but usually three or four other languages? And the majority of Americans can't even grasp their own? Why can't most people -- this isn't even my own age group I'm talking about, it's everyone, your brother, your mother, and your granduncle -- remember the distance between they're, there, and their? Here/hear? Then/than? Accept/except? Maybe some things are minor, like who/whom. Very few people ever seem able to grasp that difference, but the others shouldn't be that hard.
And there should never, EVER be a reason that any should spell "familiar" as "fermalure." Never. I don't even care if you're dyslexic because I know a dyslexic girl and even she doesn't butcher words like that. Firefox has a built in spell check. For the love of all that's good, use it.
It frustrates me to no end. Communication has always been vital, but I think it's become more and more important these days because it's become so easy. It all goes back to the Internet thing. If you can't communicate, you should be in deep shit. So why can't so many people communicate in a way that I can understand them?
Sometimes, it makes me think like they overemphasize education because obviously thousands of people have been able to get by without retaining what I would consider to be an average education, but I really don't want to believe that. And they're in good positions even. Successful small business owners, programmers, entrepreneurs, and the like. None of them can spell. None of them know where to put their commas. None of them know the difference between "your" and "you're." And if they do, they don't care.
I don't think our education system is that bad. I went to public school for twelve years and while I'd admit that it wasn't the most amazing experience and that I've had my share of very shitty teachers, I've also had some amazing teachers (particularly English teachers) and I know I've learned a lot and have been inspired to learn a lot. Unfortunately, a vast majority of students, including my classmates in honors and AP classes, did not seem to care much about a lot of things. And these are the kids that will be your doctors and your lawyers. Maybe you really don't need perfect grammar to get by in these or any profession, but is that really an excuse to disregard your own language completely?
So yeah. I'd like to give most people the benefit of the doubt and say they're at least averagely intelligent human beings. Even that blonde in the YouTube video up there. But then why, why if you are civilized and educated, you can not type me a coherent sentence so that I may respond to you in an efficient manner without rereading what you wrote a half dozen times?
...That is all for now.
Can someone please explain to me why so many people I meet seem so utterly uneducated? I know it's stereotypical to say that those in the "artkid" category are utter failures at mathematics and the mathematical sciences (chemistry and especially physics), but the more of them I meet, the more I've come to think this is true to a ridiculous degree. This past quarter, on more than one occasion, my design professor had to explain to the class how to arrive at your area based on the dimensions of your paper. ...The entire time, I was like... "Are you shitting me?" Width times height equals area. Christ, a fifth grader could tell you that! You're telling this to college kids? Are you shitting me? But really, I know it isn't even just the artkids. Pretty much anyone who isn't majoring in a math/science field is prone to these instances of proven ignorance.
Some information leaves you as soon as the tests are over. I know this and am guilty of it myself. A ton of material I learn for an exam and then will never be able to recall it again. However, there is a lot of stuff I think that everyone should just know. Forever. No matter how long it's been. Finding the area of a rectangle is one of those things, right up there with knowing that Europe is a continent. I don't understand how people -- people who have graduated high school, or hell, people who've graduated elementary school -- could not know these things. Part of me feels a little arrogant for ragging on people like this; after all, I have always been a "math nerd" and "artkid" simultaneously and I've taken three levels of Calculus, but really now... the area of a rectangle!
Math and science aside, I love English. I admit that it's a messed up language, has more exceptions than rules, and is probably the most difficult language in the world to learn, but I love it anyway. And so I love grammar, spelling, and punctuation, and cry a little on the inside every time I see it butchered beyond recognition. Public, private, or home school education -- every American kid should have at least twelve years of schooling in the English language behind them. There is absolutely no reason a twenty-two year old woman should write like this (and yes, this is a very ironic quote):
"this person isnt too smart now are they or do they believe we are that stupid but yes that pose does look fermalure"
Fermalure ≠ familiar. This seriously made me so sad. Not to mention the subject/verb disagreement and lack of punctuation. I understand this is the Internet. Typos happen and laziness happens, but for the latter argument... I really don't think it takes all that much effort to capitalize words when you should and tap in a comma now and again. It also won't kill anyone to throw in a space between sentences, y'know? There is only so much laziness that can occur before sentences become utterly unreadable. This is particularly frustrating when you're taking commissions... and you can't understand anything your commissioner has to say. My brother jokes that maybe English isn't these peoples' first language, but I know of many Europeans and Asians for which this statement is actually true and their English is impeccable.
I find it incredibly sad that I know French, Malaysian, Romanian, and Norwegian people whose grasp of the English language is ten times better than actual Americans (or British people, even). How is it that they're able to have such an amazing handle on not only their own language, but usually three or four other languages? And the majority of Americans can't even grasp their own? Why can't most people -- this isn't even my own age group I'm talking about, it's everyone, your brother, your mother, and your granduncle -- remember the distance between they're, there, and their? Here/hear? Then/than? Accept/except? Maybe some things are minor, like who/whom. Very few people ever seem able to grasp that difference, but the others shouldn't be that hard.
And there should never, EVER be a reason that any should spell "familiar" as "fermalure." Never. I don't even care if you're dyslexic because I know a dyslexic girl and even she doesn't butcher words like that. Firefox has a built in spell check. For the love of all that's good, use it.
It frustrates me to no end. Communication has always been vital, but I think it's become more and more important these days because it's become so easy. It all goes back to the Internet thing. If you can't communicate, you should be in deep shit. So why can't so many people communicate in a way that I can understand them?
Sometimes, it makes me think like they overemphasize education because obviously thousands of people have been able to get by without retaining what I would consider to be an average education, but I really don't want to believe that. And they're in good positions even. Successful small business owners, programmers, entrepreneurs, and the like. None of them can spell. None of them know where to put their commas. None of them know the difference between "your" and "you're." And if they do, they don't care.
I don't think our education system is that bad. I went to public school for twelve years and while I'd admit that it wasn't the most amazing experience and that I've had my share of very shitty teachers, I've also had some amazing teachers (particularly English teachers) and I know I've learned a lot and have been inspired to learn a lot. Unfortunately, a vast majority of students, including my classmates in honors and AP classes, did not seem to care much about a lot of things. And these are the kids that will be your doctors and your lawyers. Maybe you really don't need perfect grammar to get by in these or any profession, but is that really an excuse to disregard your own language completely?
So yeah. I'd like to give most people the benefit of the doubt and say they're at least averagely intelligent human beings. Even that blonde in the YouTube video up there. But then why, why if you are civilized and educated, you can not type me a coherent sentence so that I may respond to you in an efficient manner without rereading what you wrote a half dozen times?
...That is all for now.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Black Fridays and Dark Sundays
I think anti-consumerism is silly.
Maybe people spend a lot of time fussing over material things and maybe businesses "take advantage" of this to sell them things, but really... what does that have to do with you? Some people call certain things "frivolous." Luxury cars, expensive jewelry, fancy electronic gadgets and the like have been known to fall into this category. There are very few things that a person actually needs. We need food and water, shelter and warmth. For most people in this country (happy Thanksgiving, guys), these necessities come pretty easily. So technically, maybe everything else can be termed as "frivolous."
I think the main argument goes back to that being thankful thing. We have all this and the rest of the world doesn't, so maybe we should feel bad for spending our money on video games and shiny things that make noises when you wave at it. We should be saving the world, right? ...A lot of good that's doing us. But avoiding the topic of political debate, it is very natural for people to not want to worry about others and only take care of themselves. This doesn't really make them selfish or uncaring to the less fortunate; it just makes them human. In the modern world, with so many things available to us, what we perceive to be necessary changes. This isn't a bad thing. It's just how things go.
So people want stuff. They want all the toys and the wide-screen plasma TVs and the robot dogs and so on. I kind of want a DS Lite for myself. Necessary for survival? Nah. In fact, it's probably better if I don't get one so I don't distract myself from working on the various projects I should be working on, but do I still want it? Sure. Am I going to buy one? Maybe if the holiday season doesn't yield one for me. But the point is that there isn't much wrong with wanting a crimson and black DS Lite.
Maybe that $130 can go to a charity. Or maybe I just shouldn't be so invested in something so material. Yes, getting one would make me happy. So what? Any number of things can make people happy. I doubt very much that most people are only happy with material things and they have nothing else of value. Winning the lottery would make me happy because I could buy lots of stuff. But I could also travel -- traveling is not materialistic, but also requires money. I could also donate. I'm a pretty decent person, probably, so that would make me happy too. So really, does it matter that buying a DS Lite would make me happy too?
So Black Friday is tomorrow and consequently, so is Buy Nothing Day. Pointless. The holiday season will always involve lots of buying. People want things. PEOPLE WANT THINGS! I don't understand why this is such an outrage. For this, I think a lot of people just jump on the bandwagon because it's become pretty damn cool to rebel against society and The Man, whoever that is. Live life how you want, but if you're rebelling just to rebel, then you're still being controlled.
I read an article on the New York Times this summer about people who pretty much make dumpster diving their primary source of new things -- food, furniture, you name it. This is pretty awesome and I think it's really amazing that people can find all this stuff in the trash. But as a statement against consumerism? Not so much. I kind of just see it as being really frugal. They're still getting material things, they just aren't paying for it. And that probably makes them really happy too.
So tomorrow, I might be showing up at Fry's at five in the morning so I can nab a 500 gig external for $80 and maybe a couple of free (after rebate) flash drives. It's sort of ironic, really. Black Friday is sales everywhere. They claim you save money, but you're really not because you wouldn't have bought anything in the first place if they hadn't been so cheap. So in the end, you're still down the cash... but you got some cool stuff too. It's an excuse, I guess, to unleash that inner materialistic bastard in all of us. But I still don't think that's a bad thing.
I mean. We keep businesses in business and people in their jobs, right? And it isn't like you can't still enjoy a sunset or something. Anyway, these sorts of opinions always sound better in my head. I ramble too long and feel kinda dumb writing about them after a while.
Good luck shopping tomorrow, guys. Rock those long lines. (Don't forget about Cyber Monday either. Get ready to watch Amazon.com fall off from server load!)
Maybe people spend a lot of time fussing over material things and maybe businesses "take advantage" of this to sell them things, but really... what does that have to do with you? Some people call certain things "frivolous." Luxury cars, expensive jewelry, fancy electronic gadgets and the like have been known to fall into this category. There are very few things that a person actually needs. We need food and water, shelter and warmth. For most people in this country (happy Thanksgiving, guys), these necessities come pretty easily. So technically, maybe everything else can be termed as "frivolous."
I think the main argument goes back to that being thankful thing. We have all this and the rest of the world doesn't, so maybe we should feel bad for spending our money on video games and shiny things that make noises when you wave at it. We should be saving the world, right? ...A lot of good that's doing us. But avoiding the topic of political debate, it is very natural for people to not want to worry about others and only take care of themselves. This doesn't really make them selfish or uncaring to the less fortunate; it just makes them human. In the modern world, with so many things available to us, what we perceive to be necessary changes. This isn't a bad thing. It's just how things go.
So people want stuff. They want all the toys and the wide-screen plasma TVs and the robot dogs and so on. I kind of want a DS Lite for myself. Necessary for survival? Nah. In fact, it's probably better if I don't get one so I don't distract myself from working on the various projects I should be working on, but do I still want it? Sure. Am I going to buy one? Maybe if the holiday season doesn't yield one for me. But the point is that there isn't much wrong with wanting a crimson and black DS Lite.
Maybe that $130 can go to a charity. Or maybe I just shouldn't be so invested in something so material. Yes, getting one would make me happy. So what? Any number of things can make people happy. I doubt very much that most people are only happy with material things and they have nothing else of value. Winning the lottery would make me happy because I could buy lots of stuff. But I could also travel -- traveling is not materialistic, but also requires money. I could also donate. I'm a pretty decent person, probably, so that would make me happy too. So really, does it matter that buying a DS Lite would make me happy too?
So Black Friday is tomorrow and consequently, so is Buy Nothing Day. Pointless. The holiday season will always involve lots of buying. People want things. PEOPLE WANT THINGS! I don't understand why this is such an outrage. For this, I think a lot of people just jump on the bandwagon because it's become pretty damn cool to rebel against society and The Man, whoever that is. Live life how you want, but if you're rebelling just to rebel, then you're still being controlled.
I read an article on the New York Times this summer about people who pretty much make dumpster diving their primary source of new things -- food, furniture, you name it. This is pretty awesome and I think it's really amazing that people can find all this stuff in the trash. But as a statement against consumerism? Not so much. I kind of just see it as being really frugal. They're still getting material things, they just aren't paying for it. And that probably makes them really happy too.
So tomorrow, I might be showing up at Fry's at five in the morning so I can nab a 500 gig external for $80 and maybe a couple of free (after rebate) flash drives. It's sort of ironic, really. Black Friday is sales everywhere. They claim you save money, but you're really not because you wouldn't have bought anything in the first place if they hadn't been so cheap. So in the end, you're still down the cash... but you got some cool stuff too. It's an excuse, I guess, to unleash that inner materialistic bastard in all of us. But I still don't think that's a bad thing.
I mean. We keep businesses in business and people in their jobs, right? And it isn't like you can't still enjoy a sunset or something. Anyway, these sorts of opinions always sound better in my head. I ramble too long and feel kinda dumb writing about them after a while.
Good luck shopping tomorrow, guys. Rock those long lines. (Don't forget about Cyber Monday either. Get ready to watch Amazon.com fall off from server load!)
Thursday, October 25, 2007
It all started to not make sense
I started this blog as an afterthought after writing the post that I posted first. And then I figured, I've always kept my opinions undisclosed for the most part to avoid sparking debate because I hate conflict and roundabout arguments with stubborn people, maybe I should just let all of that out somewhere. It's easier to ignore the troublemakers on the internets, after all.
But I keep up with tons of things online and a blog is another burden, regardless of how much I could potentially write. I don't get around to it. This is still there though, waiting for something to happen. I actually had a list of topics somewhere for when I did find myself bored and wanting to ramble about something, but that hasn't happened yet. There's always something else to do. Oh well. I guess it's still in a state of "we'll see."
So, we'll see.
But I keep up with tons of things online and a blog is another burden, regardless of how much I could potentially write. I don't get around to it. This is still there though, waiting for something to happen. I actually had a list of topics somewhere for when I did find myself bored and wanting to ramble about something, but that hasn't happened yet. There's always something else to do. Oh well. I guess it's still in a state of "we'll see."
So, we'll see.
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