(no subject)
Also not ffxi related, so should probably be in my other journal, but I want to bump the "Separated at birth" entry down a bit:
A couple of days ago, I wrote a short satirical blurb on smoking on a forum I visit. In it, I shattered Godsen's Law into a billion tiny shards, and all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put Godsen together again.* Yet what do people comment on? The fact that I mentioned that Tomokazu Seki is a smoker.
How is referencing Tomokazu Seki more significant than likening all non-smokers--2/3 of the world's population--to Adolf Hitler? Do people just not get satire anymore? I mean, I am a smoker, so satirizing smoking might seem somewhat out of character, but I thought it was pretty obvious that the blurb wasn't intended to be serious, considering that I had exactly zero valid pro-smoking arguments--and a pro-smoking argument itself is rather ludicrous. I also re-worded a Y.B. Keats poem and Churchill's famous "Never Surrender" speech to make it more obvious the blurb was meant to be satire.
*in retrospect, they shouldn't have let the horses go first.
EDIT:
Smoking
Wikipedia defines smoking thus (with the links rendered here in bold because I think it makes it funnier):
Smokingis a recreational activity in which a substance, most commonly tobacco, is burned and the smoke tasted or inhaled. This is primarily done as a form of recreational drug use, as combustion releases the active substances in drugs such as nicotine and makes them available for absorption through the lungs. It can also be done as a part of religious or non-religious rituals, to induce trances and spiritual enlightenment. The most common method of smoking today is through cigarettes, either industrially manufactured or rolled with loose tobacco and a rolling paper. Other forms, though not as common are pipes, cigars, bongs and hookahs.
WARRIORS, revive the power of the ORBS! Oh, if I only had a SLAB!
(The bit about the LIGHT WARRIORS wasn't actually in the Wikipedia article. Well, not for very long, anyways. Damned staff.)
Did you know Albert Einstein was a smoker? So was Alexander Graham Bell. Oscar Wilde? Smoker. John Wayne was a smoker, and so was Johnny Cash. Pierce Brosnan, Tomokazu Seki, John Lennon: all smokers. You know who didn't smoke? Hitler. Big non-smoker, Hitler was. You draw your own conclusions.
And yet, in this day and age, it's illegal to smoke in bars, in cars, or basically anywhere with a roof on it. In some places, you can't smoke on a city sidewalk. There are places around Riverview where you can't smoke right in front of the butt stop because there's a no-smoking sign. (This does not stop me. I enjoy smoking in front of no smoking signs. Perhaps one day I shall take a photograph.) It is more socially acceptable to urinate in public than to smoke. All because of those Hitler-loving nonsmokers lobbying our impressionable government representatives.
So friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! Take up this time-honoured and honourable tradition. Light up on the seas in the oceans, light up with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. Smoke on the beaches, smoke on the landing-grounds, smoke in the fields and streets, and smoke in the hills! Let not this great tradition pass utterly from the earth. We must form a solid, unshakeable core of smoking enthusiasts, for things fall apart when the center cannot hold, and mere anarchy is loosed upon the earth. Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as an invincible smoker's empire!
A couple of days ago, I wrote a short satirical blurb on smoking on a forum I visit. In it, I shattered Godsen's Law into a billion tiny shards, and all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put Godsen together again.* Yet what do people comment on? The fact that I mentioned that Tomokazu Seki is a smoker.
How is referencing Tomokazu Seki more significant than likening all non-smokers--2/3 of the world's population--to Adolf Hitler? Do people just not get satire anymore? I mean, I am a smoker, so satirizing smoking might seem somewhat out of character, but I thought it was pretty obvious that the blurb wasn't intended to be serious, considering that I had exactly zero valid pro-smoking arguments--and a pro-smoking argument itself is rather ludicrous. I also re-worded a Y.B. Keats poem and Churchill's famous "Never Surrender" speech to make it more obvious the blurb was meant to be satire.
*in retrospect, they shouldn't have let the horses go first.
EDIT:
Smoking
Wikipedia defines smoking thus (with the links rendered here in bold because I think it makes it funnier):
Smokingis a recreational activity in which a substance, most commonly tobacco, is burned and the smoke tasted or inhaled. This is primarily done as a form of recreational drug use, as combustion releases the active substances in drugs such as nicotine and makes them available for absorption through the lungs. It can also be done as a part of religious or non-religious rituals, to induce trances and spiritual enlightenment. The most common method of smoking today is through cigarettes, either industrially manufactured or rolled with loose tobacco and a rolling paper. Other forms, though not as common are pipes, cigars, bongs and hookahs.
WARRIORS, revive the power of the ORBS! Oh, if I only had a SLAB!
(The bit about the LIGHT WARRIORS wasn't actually in the Wikipedia article. Well, not for very long, anyways. Damned staff.)
Did you know Albert Einstein was a smoker? So was Alexander Graham Bell. Oscar Wilde? Smoker. John Wayne was a smoker, and so was Johnny Cash. Pierce Brosnan, Tomokazu Seki, John Lennon: all smokers. You know who didn't smoke? Hitler. Big non-smoker, Hitler was. You draw your own conclusions.
And yet, in this day and age, it's illegal to smoke in bars, in cars, or basically anywhere with a roof on it. In some places, you can't smoke on a city sidewalk. There are places around Riverview where you can't smoke right in front of the butt stop because there's a no-smoking sign. (This does not stop me. I enjoy smoking in front of no smoking signs. Perhaps one day I shall take a photograph.) It is more socially acceptable to urinate in public than to smoke. All because of those Hitler-loving nonsmokers lobbying our impressionable government representatives.
So friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! Take up this time-honoured and honourable tradition. Light up on the seas in the oceans, light up with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. Smoke on the beaches, smoke on the landing-grounds, smoke in the fields and streets, and smoke in the hills! Let not this great tradition pass utterly from the earth. We must form a solid, unshakeable core of smoking enthusiasts, for things fall apart when the center cannot hold, and mere anarchy is loosed upon the earth. Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as an invincible smoker's empire!