(no subject)
Wow. How can I have been so apathetic and hateful yesterday, and so full of things to say today? I don't know. Life is weird.
Virginia Tech Shootings
Where do I begin? Firstly, usually when things like this happen - when people of any age, but most especially my age, commit horrific acts, or when people die or are put in situations most people don't even have nightmares about, my first instinct is to think, "If I were them, how would I have reacted? How would I feel right now?" Well, the Internet in some ways is a wonderful thing, and it's possible to witness discourse as it happens. Namely? Through Facebook.
One discussion focuses on the shooter, and provides lots of commentary from students who knew Cho Seung-Hui in high school, etc. Some comments are thoughtful, but the conversation kind of dissolves into a childish fight as to whether people should blame the individual or the society that made him.
Another discussion was started by a Korean-American girl who feared that due to Cho Seung-Hui's ethnicity, there might be racism against Korean-Americans.
i'm really worried because i remember when 9/11 first happened and everyone was pointing fingers and discrimminating against anyone from the south or middle east.
now i'm afraid that people are going to start pointing fingers at our whole entire race. :l
now my parents are telling me to be careful when i go out so i don't get a random bullet to my back from some psycho who thinks all koreans are mass killers. and it's happened before with other races. victums believe just because ONE INDIVIDUAL from a certain race did something terrible, everyone who is that race are to blame.
Other Korean-Americans post messages of encouragement, saying that they have to stay positive, but some others are also afraid of the same thing. Lots of white kids leave messages saying that that's an absurd idea, and no one would ever blame an entire race for the actions of one person.
One thing I find really disturbing about the situation is people picking up on Cho Seung-Hui's apparent "dark and violent" writings as an pre-indicator for violence.
When we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare. The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of.
There are links to his plays here. I really don't find them that violent. Crass, WTFery, and poorly-written, yes. (Was this kid really an English major?) But violent? Not so much.
Using violent fiction as an excuse, or an indicator, seems lame to me. After Columbine, the excuse was violent video games. If either of these two things were indicators of being a future school shooter, then I myself would have already done it, being an author of a number of "violent stories." And as for video games, I have sniped, pistol-whipped, and set off bombs with the best of them (or the worst, as I'm not the greatest at first-person shooters).
The last thing I found interesting was eyewitness account recorded in online instant messengers. In my opinion, technology makes the world more amazing.
My Life
Work was good today. Also, there was a group of Mennonites (similar to Amish) who stood in the rotunda and sang beautifully.
Chad and I went to go see the U.S. director of Amnesty International. I was a little disappointed, because all that he did was talk about George W. Bush and post-9/11 stuff, really. I understand that the current administration has committed a lot of heinous acts, or allows them to be committed. But still, some people make it seem like no other president has ever violated the human rights of others through his orders. I'm hard-pressed to think of a president who hasn't. I guess I went there hoping to leave feeling inspired, but that didn't happen at all.
I bought groceries, which felt good. I spent some time with Antoine, Creighton, and Carolyn, which was also good even in spite of my heinous level of tiredness.
I also watched the second episode of Romeo x Juliet, which was great. I didn't go in to either of the first two episodes thinking, "I should take notes," but that's what happened both times.
Here, it is revealed that Romeo’s father, the head of the Montague clan, was the one running about the castle killing Capulets 14 years ago. His father announces, in what is a surprise to everyone (including Romeo) Romeo’s betrothal to Random Girl, Hermione.
In the original play, Romeo was in love with Rosaline before meeting Juliet. It was very clear that Romeo is very passionate with his women, and tends to fall in love quite frequently. Thus, him falling in love with Juliet at first sight wasn’t all that strange.
I find it weird that Juliet was all a-twitter upon meeting Romeo when dressed as Juliet. He already saved her as the Red Whirlwind, and she made it clear that she thought if he was a real hero, he would have saved the girl the castle guards/police were about to kill upon accusations of her being the long-lost Juliet Capulet.
Juliet is picked up by Willy and Another Dude, and it’s revealed that her cross-dressing as Odin isn’t done by choice, but rather to keep her identity hidden. The Red Whirlwind, however, is her own making. Oh wow, Juliet isn’t even aware of her status as a Capulet, and Willy promises “all will be made clear” on her sixteenth birthday.
Juliet’s nurse Cordelia is barely older than she is, and I’m fairly certain that this was the girl who fled the castle with the two-year-old Juliet when the massacre happened. Again, the nurse is young, and also slightly flighty. In the play, she’s an older woman who is constantly cracking lewd jokes to lighten the mood.
A commoner who bandages Juliet’s arm after an escapade as the Red Whirlwind reveals that under the Capulets, wealth poured out from the Keep, and helped the poor; but under the Montagues, corruption has flourished. In the play, it seemed to be just a petty feud, but here it’s overdone good family versus evil family, with Romeo just happening to be born into the “wrong” family, as opposed to both families being at fault.
Juliet’s pretty lucky that she’s flat-chested. It’d be hard to convincingly cross-dress otherwise.
Whee, in this episode Shakespeare was writing “As You Like It!”
Juliet worries that love between a noble and a commoner could never work, not even realizing the opposition between the two families.
Here is a random interlude, where the lovers meet on ruined ramparts covered in flowers. Kinda lame, but also cute.
Juliet and her friends (3 adult male care-takers: two her age, one much older, and one small boy who was very traumatized to discover that “Odin” has been a girl all along) go to a graveyard. For whatever reason, Montagues and Capulets are buried in the same cemetery. The old guy (I need to do better at picking up on people’s names) reveals to Juliet that her father, mother, and sisters were murdered by the Lord Governor Montague. Suddenly, a bunch of random guys appear and surround the group in the graveyard. They kneel before Juliet, and it then begins to rain.
Romeo is lounging on a couch in the Keep, fingering an Iris (the couple's symbol of love), and whispering Juliet’s name.
In the preview for the next episode, among other things, it shows the Red Whirlwind and Romeo crossing swords. Wheee!!
Virginia Tech Shootings
Where do I begin? Firstly, usually when things like this happen - when people of any age, but most especially my age, commit horrific acts, or when people die or are put in situations most people don't even have nightmares about, my first instinct is to think, "If I were them, how would I have reacted? How would I feel right now?" Well, the Internet in some ways is a wonderful thing, and it's possible to witness discourse as it happens. Namely? Through Facebook.
One discussion focuses on the shooter, and provides lots of commentary from students who knew Cho Seung-Hui in high school, etc. Some comments are thoughtful, but the conversation kind of dissolves into a childish fight as to whether people should blame the individual or the society that made him.
Another discussion was started by a Korean-American girl who feared that due to Cho Seung-Hui's ethnicity, there might be racism against Korean-Americans.
i'm really worried because i remember when 9/11 first happened and everyone was pointing fingers and discrimminating against anyone from the south or middle east.
now i'm afraid that people are going to start pointing fingers at our whole entire race. :l
now my parents are telling me to be careful when i go out so i don't get a random bullet to my back from some psycho who thinks all koreans are mass killers. and it's happened before with other races. victums believe just because ONE INDIVIDUAL from a certain race did something terrible, everyone who is that race are to blame.
Other Korean-Americans post messages of encouragement, saying that they have to stay positive, but some others are also afraid of the same thing. Lots of white kids leave messages saying that that's an absurd idea, and no one would ever blame an entire race for the actions of one person.
One thing I find really disturbing about the situation is people picking up on Cho Seung-Hui's apparent "dark and violent" writings as an pre-indicator for violence.
When we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare. The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of.
There are links to his plays here. I really don't find them that violent. Crass, WTFery, and poorly-written, yes. (Was this kid really an English major?) But violent? Not so much.
Using violent fiction as an excuse, or an indicator, seems lame to me. After Columbine, the excuse was violent video games. If either of these two things were indicators of being a future school shooter, then I myself would have already done it, being an author of a number of "violent stories." And as for video games, I have sniped, pistol-whipped, and set off bombs with the best of them (or the worst, as I'm not the greatest at first-person shooters).
The last thing I found interesting was eyewitness account recorded in online instant messengers. In my opinion, technology makes the world more amazing.
My Life
Work was good today. Also, there was a group of Mennonites (similar to Amish) who stood in the rotunda and sang beautifully.
Chad and I went to go see the U.S. director of Amnesty International. I was a little disappointed, because all that he did was talk about George W. Bush and post-9/11 stuff, really. I understand that the current administration has committed a lot of heinous acts, or allows them to be committed. But still, some people make it seem like no other president has ever violated the human rights of others through his orders. I'm hard-pressed to think of a president who hasn't. I guess I went there hoping to leave feeling inspired, but that didn't happen at all.
I bought groceries, which felt good. I spent some time with Antoine, Creighton, and Carolyn, which was also good even in spite of my heinous level of tiredness.
I also watched the second episode of Romeo x Juliet, which was great. I didn't go in to either of the first two episodes thinking, "I should take notes," but that's what happened both times.
Here, it is revealed that Romeo’s father, the head of the Montague clan, was the one running about the castle killing Capulets 14 years ago. His father announces, in what is a surprise to everyone (including Romeo) Romeo’s betrothal to Random Girl, Hermione.
In the original play, Romeo was in love with Rosaline before meeting Juliet. It was very clear that Romeo is very passionate with his women, and tends to fall in love quite frequently. Thus, him falling in love with Juliet at first sight wasn’t all that strange.
I find it weird that Juliet was all a-twitter upon meeting Romeo when dressed as Juliet. He already saved her as the Red Whirlwind, and she made it clear that she thought if he was a real hero, he would have saved the girl the castle guards/police were about to kill upon accusations of her being the long-lost Juliet Capulet.
Juliet is picked up by Willy and Another Dude, and it’s revealed that her cross-dressing as Odin isn’t done by choice, but rather to keep her identity hidden. The Red Whirlwind, however, is her own making. Oh wow, Juliet isn’t even aware of her status as a Capulet, and Willy promises “all will be made clear” on her sixteenth birthday.
Juliet’s nurse Cordelia is barely older than she is, and I’m fairly certain that this was the girl who fled the castle with the two-year-old Juliet when the massacre happened. Again, the nurse is young, and also slightly flighty. In the play, she’s an older woman who is constantly cracking lewd jokes to lighten the mood.
A commoner who bandages Juliet’s arm after an escapade as the Red Whirlwind reveals that under the Capulets, wealth poured out from the Keep, and helped the poor; but under the Montagues, corruption has flourished. In the play, it seemed to be just a petty feud, but here it’s overdone good family versus evil family, with Romeo just happening to be born into the “wrong” family, as opposed to both families being at fault.
Juliet’s pretty lucky that she’s flat-chested. It’d be hard to convincingly cross-dress otherwise.
Whee, in this episode Shakespeare was writing “As You Like It!”
Juliet worries that love between a noble and a commoner could never work, not even realizing the opposition between the two families.
Here is a random interlude, where the lovers meet on ruined ramparts covered in flowers. Kinda lame, but also cute.
Juliet and her friends (3 adult male care-takers: two her age, one much older, and one small boy who was very traumatized to discover that “Odin” has been a girl all along) go to a graveyard. For whatever reason, Montagues and Capulets are buried in the same cemetery. The old guy (I need to do better at picking up on people’s names) reveals to Juliet that her father, mother, and sisters were murdered by the Lord Governor Montague. Suddenly, a bunch of random guys appear and surround the group in the graveyard. They kneel before Juliet, and it then begins to rain.
Romeo is lounging on a couch in the Keep, fingering an Iris (the couple's symbol of love), and whispering Juliet’s name.
In the preview for the next episode, among other things, it shows the Red Whirlwind and Romeo crossing swords. Wheee!!