to drive the cold winter away
Last spring I was able to go to a huge roller coaster park in Japan with some of my friends. Among the ten coasters in the park they also happen to have the world's largest wooden one; this is a view of it from the nearby Ferris wheel. I rode it once, but found that it gave me a pounding headache. Looks like I've gotten too old for wooden roller coasters. I did fine on the modern ones, though.
I might also have been more prone to headaches at the time, seeing as my parents were visiting. When my parents visited me in Japan I was usually in a state of high stress and constant sleep deprivation/exhaustion.
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Wednesdays are going to be my busy days; biweekly that means class from 9 AM to 9:30 PM, with an hour's break for lunch and dinner/transport each. And then walking 40 minutes home. Today was the first of them, and actually I found myself enjoying it. I like being busy; it makes me feel useful. Which explains why I so mercilessly over-scheduled myself while I lived in Japan; I did in fact enjoy it.
I've actually been rather lazy since coming to Scotland. I think I need to take further steps to remedy this.
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Over the vacation I had a chance for some long talks with my various family members, some of which were quite interesting.
One, with my little brother, jumped off from this Daily Show episode titled the Stockholm Syndrome, in which a Daily Show reporter is sent to Stockholm in Sweden to "learn about socialism." I am reminded about it because of this article on the causes of the American Civil War. Item number 3 of said article reminds me of this conversation because it concerns why the poor majority of residents in the Southern States at the time, who did not own slaves, supported slave-owning as an institution:
"First, Americans are wondrous optimists, looking to the upper class and expecting to join it someday. In 1860, many subsistence farmers aspired to become large slave-owners. So poor white Southerners supported slavery then, just as many low-income people support the extension of George W. Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy now."
My little brother and I were comparing the homes of the successful American rapper toured in the beginning of the Daily Show snippet to the home of the highly successful Swedish pop star toured at the end. Of further interest, aside from the extreme contrast between their lifestyles, was the fact that rap superstars count among their fans some of the poorest Americans, who live at the bottom of the American social structure and clog up US jails in disproportionate numbers. And yet the seeming hypocrisy of ultra-rich stars preaching in rhythm to those who might not even know where their next meal is coming from has no impact on their popularity whatsoever. During said conversation, my little brother made the following salient point: "people would rather have the dream of making it big rather than have everyone be a little better off." And that's the same reason people buy lottery tickets (which again are mostly bought by people who don't have the money to spare)-- statistically speaking the chances of winning are incredibly slim, and realistically speaking they're never going to get that money back and could be using it to invest in ways that will actually make their lives appreciably better.
But that doesn't matter, because maybe, maybe . . . .
What these people are spending their precious resources on, then, is something they value far more: the dream.
I'm not sure if that's uplifting or depressing. I think it's both.
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I had half an hour during my busiest busy day in which to procure dinner. I wanted to go to the Black Medicine coffee house, because its name is so cool, but I ended up wandering the wrong way. I was thinking thoughts of going into the KFC-- I was running out of time-- it would be easy to order there-- but at the last second I gave in to the terrible yellow plastic beacon of a down-at-the-heels middle eastern place with cheap battered tables and faded posters of deserts on the walls.
And glad I was to have done so. Their baba ganoush was LOVELY. And I found out that the "sh" sound at the end has a bit of a hard "g" sound in it. I am enlightened!
. . . okay, nowhere near. But I get a little closer every day!
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I found some fun and interesting things on the internet recently. Let me share them with you!
A friend who is obsessed with a cartoon show called Phineas and Ferb linked me to this episode which makes reference to Carmell Dansen. At which point I told her that about two years ago Japan discovered this song in its original Swedish. And before long ALL OF JAPAN WAS INFECTED. It caught on so hugely that every anime currently on the air (and many who just have extremely obsessive fans) was making their own version of it (Jack Sparrow's at 2.16, fyi).
The same friend taught me a new French phrase!
déjà moo - the distinct feeling that you've heard this bull before
My stock of French phrases is growing once again! I can now add this gem of wisdom to my recently-acquired "tes moeurs crapuleuses" ("your sordid morals") and "tu cherches à corrompre mon paresseux" ("you are trying to corrupt my sloth"). Thankee, Patrick O'Brian!
This picture is my current desktop walllpaper. About which I said the following:
I maybe spent a lot of time trying to achieve exactly this effect, when I was young.
Somehow managed to walk away from it unscathed; my little sister broke her collar bone trying to do it.
The problem: I always _walked_ away.
To which my adorable sister replied, "TOTALLY UNREALISTIC PICTURE. THINGS DO NOT HAPPEN THIS WAY. YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO FLY THIS WAY."
She's so cute! <3
This comic is quite adorable.
Reading through Pandora Hearts led to this string of (mostly) non-spoiler comments on Facebook:
>>Mild-mannered apparently-12-year-old SMACKDOWN!
oh Pandora Hearts. <3
>>GAH ONE QUESTION ANSWERED, 50 MORE CREATED.
>>. . . way to up the traumatic creepy, Vincent. geez.
>>TRAUMA DEALT WITH BY GROUP HUGS AND GLUTTONY.
oh gods. ::dies:: <3
>>. . . and now that they've found out it annoys you, Break, they're gonna do it ALL THE TIME. You realize this, right?
>>GAH JABBERWOCK GAH.
. . . I should have seen that coming. Or not.
When do we get to see Raven? ::mutter::
>>oh Break, you're so twisted. And how did you get here, anyway?
>>Vincent and Ada?
. . . . . . . .
OH GODS THERE IS SO MUCH THAT IS WRONG WITH THAT.
>>ADA. I think you broke Vincent.
NOT TO MENTION MY BRAIN.
>>::jawdrop::
Liam. I . . . you . . . I can't believe you did that. But.
I. I mean, wow. That was amazing.
>>FLYING KICK OF DOOM.
Thank you, Gil, you are my hero. <3
>>....Break, did you seriously just whack Gilbert on the ass with your sword?!
O_o
....yeah, you did. Wow.
In conclusion: I LOVE THIS SERIES GAAAH.