oh I should have slept, but hell if I'm not sorry

[crankyoldman]

I was out until about 3 am last night, which was fun but it makes today kind of... difficult. Pair that with the fact the internet here keeps dipping out (likely power fluctuations from the storms yesterday) and I've been pretty slow. I don't really have much to report about last night other than it was fun seeing people, much talk was had and I am apparently "less spazzy". XD Well, I could see that, as some of these people I haven't seen since before the divorce, so that probably factors in a little. I have gotten a lot less goofy. Part of me wishes I could be more of a clown like I used to be. One step at a time I guess.

I left work early due to crazy weather. And also being tired. XD

Some links!

+ This is an interesting clump of articles. Makes me think of how people post pictures of "awful cosplays" and proceed to skewer them. I can see making criticisms of poor quality of costumes, but often it's about the appearance of the person as a whole, and I often find that kind of snark to be in poor taste. In fact, some of my favorite cosplays are less how the person themselves looks in the costume and more the craftsmanship. Especially considering how in the video game/anime fandoms most of the characters are all this sort of weird Caucasian/Japanese mix that's unattainable for most of the population.

+ Well if this isn't the most interesting political article I've read in a while. I'm going to leave this without comment so ya'll can soak it in.

~Cendri

Comments

[protect-vester.livejournal.com]

I love that political article! And how in the comments all these smart people with such different points of view come out of the woodwork... extremely delicious yum yum....

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

THAT is the kind of politics I prefer to see and why I generally try to stay the hell out of any debates; some people will call me conservative, but that's really only because I'm a 20 something that doesn't automatically hop on the Democratic bandwagon. In all reality, party doesn't matter to me, I look for a sense of personal responsibility in a politician--which usually makes them a bit on the transcendent side as far as parties go.

I mean, I really dislike the two party system for the, as the article put it, "splitting" that happens. I want more than two choices! I hate having to compromise my social beliefs for my economic ones or vice versa, because that is the real divide there.

And... that's basically all I have to say about that. Links are links and stuff that's interesting like that needs no comment until after someone's read it. XD

~Cendri

[drakonlily.livejournal.com]

Woah, bodysnarking. :/ very sad, if you ask me. It's enough to make anyone really self conscious and I suppose it's a super sad state of affairs when someone looks at you and just proclaims you the unhot one of the group. Sort of dampens your moment for at least a little while (Yea, this has happened to me before). When it's online it's more an annoyance, if you ask me. Celebrity Blogs are horrible about this "too fat" "too thin" BS.

I love coms like curvygirls and naturallythin.


And yeah, I think we've talked a few times about how Americans are no longer "American" and proud but a multitude of other things and we have no "we" culture. Also sad.

[firefly99.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. I'm not beyond making fun of terrible cosplay, but when it boils down to 'OH GOD SHE'S SO FAT LOOK AT HER HORRIBLE TEETH AND BAD SKIN' I have no sympathy for the 'snarker'. People can look nothing like the characters and still make great costumes.

Granted, there are some costumes some people probably shouldn't wear, but I still don't get why it's so awful*.

* There are some exceptions. I once found a cosplay website trying to peddle a (rather horrible looking) MGS2 Solid Snake outfit, skintight and arse-hugging as ever, which could come in 5XL SIZE. That's where I draw the line, thank you.

[firefly99.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've been meaning to link you to this (http://scrollbar.dk/events/20080509.Final.Fantasy.Night/). (Not the horrible cosplay. The drinks.)

[astralavator.livejournal.com]

I’m not sure if the vassal analogy works given what I understand of feudalism. Perhaps my textbooks were wrong but didn’t the knights play the system for the most part, now for the serf perspective I could understand. Also I’m not sure the company analogy works in either. I can see where the article is coming from to an extent but for me it ends up getting garbled in the writer’s attempt at intellectualism.

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

It depends on which era and continent you're looking at. There were times in which the knight class had most of the power, but since fiefs were organized small enough they could never become more than just a lord of an area. That's what I remember, at least, don't quote me on it. He uses loose definitions of a lot of things (judging by other articles I read). The general language didn't get muddled for me, but that's mainly because I've been reading a lot of academic articles and he's surprisingly less thick than a lot of that. XD

It's not the first time I've heard feudalism being talked to as a next step from capitalism--Neal Stephenson pretty much uses that in all his cyberpunk books (called something else, usually) as the dominant backdrop of government (interestingly, in both the US and China which were the main settings of two of my favorite books of his).

I was mainly pleased to see something where it was from a moderate perspective, and wasn't just mud slinging. XD

~Cendri

[astralavator.livejournal.com]

Well, his example about the company didn’t make much sense because an average everyday person won’t have the funding to buy himself a significant vote from a major corporation and if they did why would they waste resource buying into a company to have the company doing their lobbying rather than doing it in a more traditional way of bribing.

It seems a bit misleading to say feudalism is then next step from capitalism as didn’t capitalism lead to the end of feudalism or so my old capitalist history books say. ^_~

Not that after capitalism declines it won’t because a feudalism but it doesn’t carry the same type of implications.

[t3h-w0lfy.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I hate the "bodysnarking" thing with cosplay. In a world where it seems like more than half of all cosplayers who put effort into costumes at all are females cosplaying male characters, it's ridiculous to demand that anyone be totally accurate.
Probably the best Hiei (http://hakusho_yh.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/hiei_iv.jpg)cosplayer I've scene was a black girl wearing (really cute) bright red glasses. She actually did the hair. And it looked insane.