Lessee, I'll start off with two links:
1.
Reclaim Land, a multimedia project done by 4 local journalism students
- I was really wowed by the smoothness of the site and the well-written articles richly endowed with photos. Many essays on local Interesting Places have far too few images for my liking, but I was more than pleased with this. For starters, check out the
ad-hoc vegetable garden/hangout area confidently tucked between some HDB flats and a longkang. I've gone past it with
rh89 and once on my own before; it's quite literally heartwarming to see it all - not just the refreshing sight of vegetable plots and its delightfully natural, haphazard arrangement, but to see elderly folks doing what they really want to do without being dictated by their children or a home or the government. I can only hope I'll still be as sane when I'm that age.
What's even more refreshing about the site is that it isn't the usual nostalgia/abandoned-places focus (NTTAWWT) but looks at these spaces from the perspective of urban planning and the extent to which authorities and citizens define the use of space around them. Now the only thing I hope is that they have more to come, but then again it's a school project so maybe it'll remain static after this. Someone should fund them or something, dammit.
2.
Conflict and convergence - a node on Everything2.
I actually stumbled upon this while randomly typing in depressing words into E2 before and while I visited the States just to see how high the emo meter went, so it's pretty "old" even to me right now but I've left it open as the first tab in FF* for more than two months now. A number of the articles in that series are sort of personal and a bit crazy-sounding at times - it is the author's personal mythology, after all - but I don't quite care because I realize I've been helped more than I'd like to admit by flipping back to a few select ones when everything seems lousy.
I like reading the linked one for its simplicity (as lengthy as it may seem) and how it inexplicably snaps me awake when I really need it. Sure, it sounds like Psychology/Philosophy 101 and there have been numerous self-help book authors who've written about the same thing more eloquently over the ages, but I appreciate the unabashed nature of this piece and well, I favour the unexpected encounter with a sympathetic stranger on a rainy old street corner on a bad day, as opposed to a pre-arranged conference with smart people in good clothes. (It's also far easier than picking up a self-help book, I'm afraid I have a terrible allergy - I can't bring myself to look at the cover of that musty old Seven Habits of Highly Effective People on my brother's bookshelf, typing the title itself makes me feel sick. Urgh.)
I know the 1.867 of you who clicked on that (and are hopefully still bothering to read this) probably insta-closed the tab seeing how it started with italicized, hippie/pop-psychology type of quotes and ended with tl;dr (neither being entirely inaccurate assessments), so I'll quote a few lines I like, mostly from the second half.
You cannot be right if you deny the same to others or if you impose upon their personal reality.
Because of the inability to accept that our personal realities are equally valid within the individual context we have great difficulty in "opening ourselves up" to others.
Your life is a work in progress and you have limited control over where it goes. Outside influences and events keep us from ever maintaining complete control over the direction of our lives, but we can maintain complete control over our perception of it.
Our problem with understanding is derived from our inability to truly listen to each other. Much of the time we are filtering what others say and hearing only what we want to hear. Many of us have tried to explain an aspect of our life or beliefs to someone and had them sit quietly until they heard something they could relate to and then interjected "Aha!" They were listening for validation of their own beliefs in what you said about yours and not really hearing anything else. A similar thing happens when a public figure whose beliefs and actions you do not agree with speaks and you wait anxiously for them to make a mistake so you can pounce on them.
Hm...
In order to truly understand and accept others as independent and unique universes with their own truths and their own realities, we must be able to deconstruct our own personal mythologies. [...] To do this we must sidestep dogma and embrace the fact that our beliefs may be less than acceptable as truth to others. We must submit ourselves to criticism instead of venting our criticism on others. Without being willing or able to deconstruct our own mythologies, we have no right to deconstruct the beliefs of others. In essence, we must accept that we are wrong before we can be right.
The others in the series I found helpful in part or otherwise:
Ripples and relationships,
The art of reinterpretation,
Alternatives to breaking up a relationship (I bet you're misunderstanding things right now, huh?) and
A dance on the dark side (DON' STOP DANCIN', BRUZZARS!) k I'll stop now :|
*Speaking of which, I finally upgraded to FF3, and still do not like the awesomebar, but whatever. Now if only I can get my very handy and wonderful LJ update addon to work :(
Other than that:
3. Have been listening to some Mayumi Kojima recently after my fellow chatroom lurker Ringo-junkie friend said it's like Shiina without less rock and more pop and jazz. I kind of like it in general, although after listening to more of her later stuff it kind of sounds like rather generic jazz with Japanese lyrics. I might be more crazy over it if some of it didn't sound kind of familiar; also it's not as energetic and flamboyant (if that isn't a bit of an overstatement, I dunno) as Katteni Shiyagare. But it's nice. Personally, I cannot stop listening to
Waiwaiwai, because I was intrigued at how oddly off-key it sounded at first (also: pigs racing? I thought it was dogs all the while :|) I was wondering why "Poltergeist" ranked so high on last.fm, and whaddaya know, it was an anime OP....
4. ...for Ghost Hound, the connection which I swear I didn't know until I started watching the show on Thursday. Marathoned it through to Friday afternoon. I wrote in MAL: it could've been better, could've been worse.
I wasn't particularly impressed, but it wasn't unwatchable (although I still think it would've been five billion times better with Kishida designs) To be honest, I thought Lain actually did a far better, nuanced depiction of "alternative mental states", even with its same long expositions about psychology/whatever wedged in in a way that I don't really care much for. For both reasons, I still haven't gone past the middle of Lain... I ought to try it with subtitles :|
Anyway, what I did like about GH is that the main characters didn't seem all that stereotyped to me - I found Masayuki most interesting; his vivacious side actually complementary with his insecurities and 'less savoury qualities', not the whole picture or a mere veneer. I was actually cheering on the main characters' friendship, I enjoyed that.
Still think the last episode was a joke though.
And I would've liked more on Miyako :(
5. Also checked out the first volume of the DMC manga. I think I'll try the anime. TBH I'm not really finding it all that amusing, but that might be because I actually don't like metal omgplzdon'tkillme.
6. WHAT THE HELL AKIRA, WHAT THE HELL
Sorry, had to say that. Eden 05 had nice animation (Akira's frustration at the chicken-wire mesh and the irate NEET) but I don't remember seeing any particularly notable names, I guess some new talent-bombs have come up and I don't recognize them because I don't follow sakuga n00z much any more. Either that, or it was storyboarded much earlier and everyone had more time (but then, why the multiple storyboarders? I was under the impression that happens when time is short) I'd prolly find the answer on 2ch, which means I won't bother.
7. I've been writing this since 4:00am. I do need to get out more, don't I? YesIdo. Happy holidays everyone~