October 20, 2004

Literary Analysis

I'm taking a Japanese Literature course, and so many times I get frustrated and bored in the course because I don't see the kind of stuff that I think should be happening in a Literature course. In fact, I don't see the stuff that the teacher says should be happening in her course either.

The professor emphasized how literary analyses of the works we're reading should be based primarily on the text. I agree with this. I consider myself quite a literalist when it comes to analysis of literature, so I look at sentence structures, word and phrase choices, and just general linguistic elements in the work.

Today, one student in class was discussing about a story where some kid wanted to be like a bird and fly up and away and such. OK, all good and dandy, but then he was going on and on about some birdman in Chinese culture and mythology. OK, now where the shit is the relation to the text? What's the feathered freak telling us about the work other than maybe the author had an inkling of a thought about some foul. Another analysis was talking about poems that kind of have themes similar to the story. OK, what does that do to help us understand the text better? Discussions about the meaning of certain black birds in different cultures ensued later, and I was thoroughly begaffled at the ridiculous pollution of ideas that could do nothing but make awkward assumptions about what the author may have thought.

Look, folks, literary works are timeless classics, right? There's no need for culture, or writers' backgrounds, or religious blibble here and there. All that's fine and dandy to add spice to your sugar, but you gotta fill your cup with some solid Joe that can thrive in any sort of context.

No one should need to be an intellectual snob with an over-used Google Search button to fully enjoy literature.

Posted by Ivan at 11:49 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 19, 2004

Junipero Serra

In the late 1700's, Spain's control over California was basically a bunch of guys in Mexico City yelling into the wind trying to get people hundreds of miles away to do what they want. California, if taken from either the north by the Russians (or British?) or the east by the Americans was an uncontrolled plot of land that was ripe for imperial grabbing. So, to legitimize its ownership of California, Spain had to have some way to create a presence in the land.

Unlike in East Coast America, where New England was flooded with pilgrims and such from Europe, Spain did not have a large insurgence of Spanish coming into the New World. Thus, the problem was: how can Spain colonize this huge plot of land full of all these native peoples with only a limited number of Spanish? The strategy would eventually becoming a three-tiered approach: presidios, pueblos, and missions.

Presidios: forts where soldiers were housed. Pueblos: grew food for the presidios, which also served the purpose of converting Indians to "civilized men." Missions: the only communities that actually (unexpectedly) succeeded by converting Indians to Catholicism and that were operated by Spanish priests. It was Junipero Serra who would establish a solid missionary system in California.

Serra studied philosophy and theology back in old Spain, and had a hankerin' to do some wild-man conversion and to someday become a martyr. In 1749, he got his chance and left for New Spain to be a missionary. Although he was on orders from Spain, Serra would not see his purpose to be under the state--but rather he saw himself to be on orders from God. So one might say that Spain never really held control of California.

Nevertheless, Serra's establishment of the missions would be the closest thing to Spanish colonization. Missions had multiple functions. Although he pueblos were made to be agricultural centers, the missions would eventually produce more food and house more people. Also, Indians would learn agricultural and industrial skills along with Spanish culture. Traditional culture would be hard-hit, but complete assimilation into an European lifestyle was rare. What resulted was rather a blend of indigenous and Spanish culture, much like the population of the missions.

It was thus these missions, brought on by the work of Junipero Serra, that would effect the cultures and cut Spain into the lives of the native Californians.

Posted by Ivan at 08:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Bear Flag Revolt

In somewhere mid-1840's--that's somewhere before the Gold Rush and after the independence and annexation of Texas--was The Bear Flag Revolt in California.

By the 1840's, more and more American settlers started to trickle in to Mexican California. General Jose Castro from the Mexican army had become restless seeing this subtly slow invasion by the Americans. At the same time, John Fremont, a dude set about to make maps for the U.S. had come into California despite lack of approval by Castro or Mexico. Along his wanderings, he was eventually met by a messenger from Washington that informed him of rising conflicts between the U.S. and Mexico. With that, Fremont headed through California, towards Sonoma and gathering a following to build an insurrection. Worried that Castro was in plots to exodize the American settlers out of California, it was easy to convince more followers. When at Sonoma, they placed General Vallejo--a prominent landowner who was given substantial portions of land by Mexico--under arrest. And there, they made a pretty little rag-tag flag with a bear (that looked like a pig), a star, and a red stripe. Thus was the Bear Flag Revolt.

Meanwhile, border disputes over Texas and which river American territory ended at was a-ruffle. When Mexican soldiers crossed the Rio Grande to assert its control over Mexico's believed border lines, America declared war. News reached Commodore Sloat, who had been given orders to take California (reminds me of a Propellerheads song) if war broke out. Heading to Monterey Bay, Sloat learned of what Fremont had done in Sonoma with the Bear Flag Party. Basically, California was an independent state (under the Bear Flag, for about one month!), and Sloat took the chance and declared California a state of the United States--much like how Texas was annexed.

Thus was The Bear Flag Revolt and the birth of the State of California.

Posted by Ivan at 07:22 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 18, 2004

Beware the American Children

Helping my Japanese friend choose a costume for Halloween. And looking through a Japanense website with costumes, I discover they've got sections for Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Halloween, Christmas, and American Child! WTF? Since when did American Children become its own section of freaky ghouls and goblins?

Posted by Ivan at 11:20 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 17, 2004

Random Word: Robot

Robot.

Destroy! Destroy! Eating out human brains. Collaboration with the human slaves to help progress Earthen (erg, terrestrial) evolution. Japanese. I, for one, welcome our new robot masters. Lying robots. Sexbots. Purposeless robots = humans? Overanalytical robots that cause the collapse of robot society. Non-sentient robots that believe they are sentient. Cooking robots that can imitate the artistry of a good chef. Robots with bad hair days. Why are the Autobots and Decepticons always fighting, anyways? If computers begin to become smaller and smaller, we'll have less "stuff" around all the time but more information lugging around on us. Will all that information be too heavy a burden on our mental weights? I have a heavy backpack: I'm always lugging around too much knowledge!

Posted by Ivan at 11:10 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 16, 2004

Speedy Nun

Driving across the bridge from San Francisco this morning, I saw a nun driving a golden Honda Civic. She was going at godspeed.

Posted by Ivan at 01:52 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 15, 2004

Beckham Infects PC's

Reuters reports that:
Virus writers are attempting to take over computer users' PCs by enticing them to click on a malicious programme masquerading as lurid photos of England soccer captain David Beckham.


And in other news, every girl in Japan's computer stops working. Disaster!

Posted by Ivan at 12:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Random Word: Knight

Knight.

Horse. Steel clad armor chasing after the princess. She's frightened because he's got bad breath. Medieval cart racing, coupled with knights with goatees and mullets. A knight in China, being wooped by Kung fu masters. Knight Rider. Knights battling little green alien men, deflecting lasers with their shields, and ramming into space ships. Kamikaze knight maneuvers. The aliens are begaffled by the onslaught of Quixotish heroism but just end up destroying the entire planet. But before that, the Knights are able to construct a Medieval Spaceship (think steel version of SpaceShipOne) and shoot their own lasers back at the aliens. Turns out, the aliens are minions of the Dragon Lord and use blazing hot Solar Magma attacks that scorch the Knight Ship. Blasted Dragon Lord.

Posted by Ivan at 12:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 13, 2004

Random Word: Apple

Apple.

Machintosh. Sweet. Red. Worms. Core. Seed. Skin. Crunchy. Hard. Shiny. Sunshine. Fields on a nice summer day. Rolling hills. Upside-down skies. Bees. Dripping juices. Dirty mud. Old beat-up farm trucks. Dirt roads. Annoying dirt in your eyes and nose and mouth and teeth. Japanese with bad teeth. Japanese with bad teeth eating apples. Banana. Orange. Pear impersonators. Or pears are apple wannabes. Fruitologists. Persimmons. Apple tree. Earthquakes. Tsunami waves. Freakin' why am I thinking about Japan again? Short mini-skirts. Apple!!! Apple juice. Caraffe. Denny's.

How do I know when to stop? Hmm...

Posted by Ivan at 11:28 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Random Word: Boomerang

Boomerang.

Australians. The Return. The Return of the King. Hiccups. Throwing in vain. Giant boomerang spaceships. Not peanuts, but V-nuts. Spin City. Kangaroos. Kangaroos with capes on. Kangaroos with capes and Zorro masks on. Returning Fox theory. Return to Sender. Lethal and Destructive countermeasures.

This is kinda strange.

Posted by Ivan at 11:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Cars as Horses

In a not unrelated tangent, while driving to school today (something that has been becoming more dreadful with each passing day), I imagined each car on the road to be a horse. Imagine an army of horses all galloping along on the freeway. And then when someone cuts you off, you can immediately pull out your rifle to give him a shot or two.

Then, as driving past several residential areas, it was funny seeing all the parked horses next to the sidewalks.

A horse commute would be great: I wouldn't feel like I was stuck in a box on the road all the time.

Posted by Ivan at 11:17 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Random Word Blogging

In an attempt to poke more good delicacies from my brain, I've devised a plan on increasing creativity. Using a random word generator, I will write something about some word.

I will do this on a semi-regular basis, as time permits.

Posted by Ivan at 11:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 11, 2004

10% Don't Want to Risk Getting Spam

From, The Onion:



Bwahaha!

Posted by Ivan at 07:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 10, 2004

Kerry Does Football

Now, that's funny.

I especially like this picture.

=)

Posted by Ivan at 11:41 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Poor Fruitarians

Today, while putting up my laundry to dry in the backyard (hey, I'm Chinese), I heard a little thud nearby. Turned out to be a persimmon from our tree in the yard. Looking at the poorly fated fumbled fruit, I began to feel sorry for--no not the fruit, but--those folks who're Fruitarians who only eat fruit that have fallen on its own.

Those folks must eat a lot of bruised fruit.

Posted by Ivan at 12:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 09, 2004

Hackin' and Crackin' Reality

I stumbled onto a fascinating site on Reality Cracking while doing some research on body language.

A quote from the introduction:
Reality cracking is a matter of observation and knowledge, balance and wit, it's very important to avoid taking ourselves too seriously... a common disease. Watch, work, send your findings... and avoid the ever lurking risks to fall into the 'weird-religious-nutty' or into the 'ideologically excessive-obsessed' patterns.
I'm not necessarily an anti-consumerist, per se--a few of the essays are interesting and enlightening. I like one titled Reversing Stress:
Learn the 'carpe diem' techniques from little kids, watch how they live every moment for the pleasure of that moment and try to learn it.


Posted by Ivan at 04:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 03, 2004

Top Ten Signs That You Went Study Abroad in Japan

  1. You've got プリクラ (purikura, small sticker pictures) taken with you and some cute girl stuck on at least one of your electronic devices.
  2. You know what the hell SMAP's "世界に一つだけの花" is! Shit!
  3. You're sorely disappointed that girls around you aren't wearing mini-skirts and high-heeled boots all of the time.
  4. You can actually greet with something other than Konnichiwa to Japanese when you meet them.
  5. You realize that Americans are pretty fuckin' fat.
  6. You've got some sort of cute toy dangling from your cellphone, even if you're a guy--and you're not necessarily gay.
  7. You bow when you say goodbye to people on the phone.
  8. You know that there are vending machines in Love Hotel rooms--and you know what they sell.
  9. You have at least one crazy-assed 飲み放題 (nomihoudai, all you can drink bar) story.
  10. You know that somewhere on that island is at least one of your baby kids!
Brought to you by the demented ヤバいバン himself!

Posted by Ivan at 09:27 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack