07 December 2009

Symbolic Analyst

Original photo from Wired Magazine

I don't know when this happened,
but it seems that Penny Arcade is producing a webTV show. So far only the two part "pilot" episode has been made. It mostly sets up the premise of the show and goes over the things like how they understand their success, PAX and the birth of Jerry Holkins' daughter. If it wasn't for the fact that these guys are so humble and professional about their work, I'd be quite jealous of their success. But honestly, they're just fantastic people who happen to be living the nerd dream. I've thoroughly enjoyed the PennyArcade PodCast and really look forward to seeing more the show.

What I think was a really great message to me was that when they said on the show that they fully admit how lucky they are. There are a lot of guys that move in together, not attend college and try to start a business together and fail miserably. There are many who want to make it out there as a webcomic artist, and don't nearly have the fame as these two guys. What they have been able to do can not be replicated.

I've been really filling out my literature of great sociological writings and my gallery of references have increased immeasurably. One of which would be Robert Reich's "The Work of Nations" and his understanding of new globalized labor. In his work he describes one of the key professions of our age as the "Symbolic Analyst". Succinctly, Reich understands the profession to include a new exchange of information on a global scale.

...symbolic analytic services can be traded worldwide and thus must compete with foreign providers even in the American market. But they do not enter world commerce as standardized things. Traded instead are the manipulations of symbols - data, words, oral and visual representations. (1993:177)

I wouldn't assume the intention of the folks at Penny Arcade, but in a very organic way, these guys are doing just that. They have mananged to find a work around the tradition system of exchange of education for work, and work for resources, and have made a business out of grasping the nerd world around them and delivering it to a stable audience. They have created a nerd language and capture the experience in a way that is entertaining and meaningful. What is truly remarkable is that they have overcome many of the former blocks to such success.

I think the major component which has allowed this to happen would be the recent cheapness of wide reaching media. We are now in a time when one could reach a very wide audience over the Internet with a personal website with very little in terms of start up financing. I think this is the key component to understanding globalized work. Not to dispute Reich's work, but I think the profession of "symbolic analyst" has always existed; what is different now is that it is much easier for people of modest income to become one where before, one had to be very well placed and very wealthy.

Before, an aspiring comic artist to get out of distributing their comic outside of photocopies sold at the record store would have to appease the publishers at a comic book company or a newspaper. Many times this would require a vetting process and over time only artist who went to expensive art schools or were able to finance themselves would be able to get into the business. Even then, there were influenced by the whim of the publishers, a biased concept of acceptable material, and coerced product placement. Even famous and talented comic writers like Alan Moore, had his fair share of problems with publishers.

With Internet comics, there is less of these constraints and, an audience is generated commonly on the quality of their work. That being said, there are a lot of comics out there, and I would say a great majority of which are very poorly done. Below is a small list of comics that I have thoroughly enjoyed and is produced very well.

Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell: A British comic artist who has a very unique fantasy setting and some excellent character development. The art is very well done with a mix of beautifully detailed work and simple caricatures which don't end up too much like "Teen Titans" in the style.

XKCD by Randall Munroe: An American comic artist who mostly works in stick figures but manages to do them with a certain style and gets by with very witty jokes based on science and nerd relationships. Occasionally he has some objectionable opinions on women, but often they capture perfectly the issues of human interaction in our world today.

Shortpacked by David Willis
: Shortpacked is a spin off comic which is part of an entire "Walkyverse" I have not had the time or ability to read the other comics David made, but I am told they were quite impressive. I think what I like most about this comic is the honest representation of working retail.

Hark, a vagrant by Kate Beaton
: I'm afraid that I have have fallen in love with a women I have never met. Kate Beaton a Canadian comic artist writes a fantastically funny comic on history and literature. Her references to Canadian history are often great and force me to do a bit of research on the great white north. I think her subtle touches on facial expressions works well with the perfectly set up dialog. Byron's face at the end of this comic makes me laugh everything I look at it.

There are others of course, especially ones that I haven't had the time or inclination to read for whatever reason, but as a whole there is something unique about this business of web based comics.

22 November 2009

Christmas wishlist

So it's the time of year when we have things that we want, but the realities of finance and responsible spending preclude our ability to get them. This post is my personal "fantasy wishlist" of things I'd like but realistically would feel guilty spending the money to acquire.

A New Gaming Laptop
The Toshiba Qosmio is really tempting. I've been really tempted to get a few PC games lately and I have never really had a decent gaming computer. DragonAge: Origins has been getting alot of good reviews and I've been very tempted by previews of Starcraft II and Mass Effect II. I've often really liked Toshiba computers and this one in particular have a few features that light up the geek in me. Things like solid state hard drives, multitouch track pads, and light up keyboards are really cool. Unfortunately I already have a Netbook and a dedicated work laptop that I use very much. A third computer would be a bit overboard in luxuries.

A Smartphone
Now that I'm a professional academic always on the go, I've found that I have a need to stay connected 24 hours and have the ability to access information while I'm traveling between WiFi zones. OK, that's mostly a lie. I mostly want a toy that I can play around with Android 2.0 software because I love Google so much and use everything they have (send me a Google Wave invite please.) I've heard alot of good things about the new Droid phone and my Verizon plan is up for a phone upgrade in January. Although this would mean an additional 30 dollars a month in service charges and that I'll be "that guy" that has all these crazy gadgets on his phone. Right now I have the Juke I love it because it's small, red and flips out like a switchblade. How much more phone do I really need.

New Wheels
Right now I my mode of transportation is through my feet. (Or riding The Bus) The idea of having something I can ride to the beach is very tempting. Zipping along on my little two wheeled thing might be fun and appropriate for my new island life. Also there is the raging desire to get an El Camino. For some reason I've been really interested in getting a muscle car, and one with a truck bed would be infinitely useful. (Also it's a freaking El Camino, that's just coolness on four wheels.) But to be honest the cost of gas, parking and other environmental factors are not optimal. I should just get a beach cruiser bike and get awesome abs from all the working out I could be doing.

29 October 2009

Japanaphile


The above photo is cropped from the controversial photo of Hanna Montana doing that slanty eyes thing people used to do to me when I was in elementary school.

For those not in the know, the word "weeaboo" was the replacement word for "wapanese" after the world "wapanese" was used so often to insult other users on various online message boards, a filter was set up to block it. The word "weeaboo" itself is a reference to a fairly funny web comic "Perry Bible Fellowship".

I'm not entirely sure, but there seems to be a fairly large taboo with folks who are not Japanese (by ethnicity or nationality) who are highly interested in Japanese people and things. This "anti-weeaboo" sentiment is so strong it creeps in to mainstream media pretty often. The following video is from the new DLC of GTAIV, and although it is a satire of the Japanese animation industry, I feel that it strongly looks down upon the audience of the people interested in such media.



This video seems to be able to be insulting on two fronts.

First, it makes an extremely unfair generalization of Japanese animation as only poorly produced, over sexualized marketing tools. Almost in turn insulting the Japanese as a people as strange others who live weird lives and have weird interests. Reinforcing the long standing tradition of creating the Japanese as the exotic other.

Secondly, it insults the various people who are have an interests in Japanese animation. That surely we can't control what those strange Japanese people make, but why would red blooded Americans want to watch such things unless they were weird too.

This cuts across all facets of life from academic research (Why is that white woman studying geisha?) , political interests (What does that white guy think he's doing in the Japanese Embassy?), dating preferences (Rice Queens), travel (Another trip to Tokyo?) , and consumption ($500 dollars for a sword?) . It seems that there is constantly a strong rejection of people who are interested in Japanese related subjects. (or even just Asia as a whole.) So its a strange line to walk along, would people be more or less forgiving if Miley Cyrus was doing that slanty eyed thing because she wanted to be more Asian. Is it equally racist to love another people's lifestyle?

18 October 2009

RFID chips


The use of RFID chips are hardly a new or incredible issue, but it is interesting to see this potentially dangerous technology being used to such a high degree without really knowing how it really works. Several tests at DefCon have shown that it is possible to make a long range reader that extends as far as 2 to 3 feet, and Mythbusters were barred from ever haveing a show on how to hack an RFID chip by several major corporations in cooperations with government agencies. At the same time, more and more companies are using RFID chips, even dermal implantation for clubs.

The video below from the blog Gizmodo shows a very interesting way of studying the range of an RFID chip.

Immaterials: the ghost in the field from timo on Vimeo.



I used to use a Metro Smart card to get around Washington DC and it felt really cool to wave the card to get through the toll gates. There is something very cool about RFID technology that appeals to our generation. Perhaps it's part of the current technological trend of wireless fetishism. We seem to love the idea of having something connect to something else without the need of cables. Perhaps there is a psychological relationship of cables as tethering our technology, when now we attribute "freedom" with having no strings attached to anything. The idea of being bound to anything by physical cords feels trapping, and wireless connections feel free. This relationship of freedom with physical bindings is obviously problematic. This is perhaps from a rejection of an obsolete idea of bondage. The traditional idea of bondage is to be subservient to a particular location. I believe in our desire to escape from any form of locational bondage, we have in turn created a new form of bondage. When I first got my mobile phone, I didn't realize that I was beginning a relationship of bondage. We tend to equate mobile phones with freedom, but for me it meant that no matter where I was, I was on call and reachable. Having a wireless connection didn't free me from physical bondage, it made the chain longer. At least when we were operating in the traditional idea, one could know when they had escaped bondage. Now when our responsibilities can contact us from very far away, we never really are free from their control and really only are "free" at their courtesy for our privacy and personal time.

This is not only a theoretical idea of post-post-modern terms of bondage, but has relevant questions for our age. Say if I a government contractor is assigned a government run blackberry. Do I bill my office for the time I have the devise on? Must I set up a schedule of when I'm on call? Am I beholden to answer my blackberry at any time? Are there different charges if it's an emergency? Can I refuse to carry a blackberry without worry of being replaced?

Back to RFID chips, how much personal choice will there be on implantation? Will there be laws prohibiting covert readers? Would wearing an RFID shield be a violation of federal laws like covering license plates or refusal to show ID? I admit that I think RFID chips have great potential and I enjoy it as a technology, but I wonder if we are moving too fast in its use before we really understand the where this is all going.

13 October 2009

Otaku Politics

source photo from MSN

Danny Choo a man I'm extremely jealous of posted a short article concerning THE GREATEST PM THAT EVER EXISTED! (I know I know, he's sexist, a nationalist, friends with "W", and won't recognize his son Yoshinaga Miyamoto, but somehow all is forgiven)

In this article on Koizumi's involvement with the production of the new Ultraman movie, Danny had this to say about the issue of adult interests in anime.

Its things like this which many folks who are not into Japanese culture don't understand and I get asked a lot in interviews by reporters - things like:-
Why do grown Japanese men still watch anime - I used to watch cartoons as a kid but only until I was 12.

Well for a start, folks like this interpret the world on what they consider to be standards that they set themselves. Just because they "don't", they expect others "to not" and anybody who "does" is strange by their definition. What surprises me is that some reporters who should have open minds (to enable them to convey an unbiased message) have the most narrowest minds one can possibly imagine.

Being the type of person that I am, I am often questioned on my abnormal behavior and tastes. I am often quietly offended at other people's concept of what is standard. I once saw a presentation by one of my favorite comicbook writers Marjane Satrapi who commented up until a few years ago she thought that comics were only for children and addled minded adults. It wasn't until she discovered the French "New Wave" comic style in which she realized that this was a uniquely powerful form of literature. For me that is how I normalize my love of comics and cartoons. If being a nerd was a counter culture movement, my call to arms would be "medium not genre". In my experience many who are not fans seems to think that all comics and cartoons have the same themes and any selection of such are representative of the whole. As if you could judge all animation on loonytoons, or all comics on Batman. Not to say that either are bad, but they do not account for all there is to be had in the world. I have experienced too many great works using this medium to make any generalizations on it's credibility. There are plenty of bad stuff out there in all things. Much like there are bad country songs and good country songs, bad vampire novels and good vampire novels, bad landscape oil paintings and good landscape oil paintings. We tend to be very quick to judge others on their interests based on our limited experience of that interests. Perhaps there is nothing unique to nerds about this, but it is interesting to note the social stigma commonly associated with it.

01 October 2009

Nerd Tech


When I was in highschool I read the opening to a book on Tombraider. I don't remember what kind of book it was, but I seem to recall it was more than just a strategy guide. The introduction posed the idea that much of what we have gained now in technological innovations are often inspired by fantastic dreams of their creators. For instance the desire to build robots are a certain type is not ever purely out of functional or pragmatic reasons, but from literature the inventor read as a child which sparked a personal obsession. In short, childhood dreams, often turn into adult innovation.

I'm a huge fan of Josh Whedon's Firefly. Many of the commentary on the social world throughout the show speaks to me. It was the type of Sci-Fi I like, I could spend hours discussing ideas of the whole 'verse from the hierarchy of companion guilds, Alliance politics, or core world/outer rim distinctions. That was the beauty of it, it was a large enough world in which we geeks can wallow in its richness and opened the door to greater inquiries.

So Google just released a new bit of software which they call "Google Wave". I am a shameless fan of Google products. I think they're often well designed and is seriously breaking the traditional use of technology by companies. Obviously anyone who is also a fan of Firefly knows the insignificant mention of the core planet technology they also called waves.



I think this was the only mention of how a "wave" worked. I still think in the Firefly 'verse, computer technology was returning to a "mainframe" model. Basically the tablet which young Simon was using is just a device which communicates to a local mainframe for computing power. From the conversation this could be one that serves the entire district. The bulk of the technology that accesses the mainframe gains a sort of timeshare on the processing power. I can imagine Simon's wave was particularly large and taxed the mainframe so much that it "shorted out" anything else that was tapping into the mainframe, like Mr. Tam's office computer. I can only guess that a "dedicated sourebox" would be a dedicated source of processing power to the mainframe just for Simon. Perhaps even switching over to other mainframes throughout the city if the local one didn't allow enough power. Like the difference between buying a condo and buying a timeshare. This would allow Simon greater processing power and an always on connection which with Simon's skills also allow him access to other mainframes throughout the city.

ok enough geeking. (seriously get me started on talking about AR and you'll be here for hours.)

With the popularity of light computers such as netbooks, pocket computers, and cloud computing this may be where we are going towards. I can't wait to be sending waves on my netbook accessing the school WiFi on the campus courtyard.

29 September 2009

Nerd Insecurity


Monday's xkcd comic really touched into a personal insecurity of mine; and judging from the xkcd forum discussion, I have quite a bit of company in this issue. I found it quite interesting that there were discussions on both camps on men that felt similarly paranoid about being outed as creepy, and girls assuring guys that short of unwelcome touching or hideously poor hygiene its really ok to approach women.

Riding around the metro myself I do try to be a friendly person. I genuinely don't try to hit on random strangers and infact I find it most difficult if I personally find the other person to be quite attractive. It's easier if I'm making friendly conversation with someone I feel relatively neutral about; but with someone really hot, I get paranoid and second guess my intentions. Something in my mind goes a bit like this.

"Wow she's really hot. I'd like to get to know her."
"You pig, all you want is to get in her pants."
"Well... that's not all I want, I think she's really interesting."
"Well get to know that part and ignore that part for now."
"That's not fair, that's part of the attraction too I can't just drop that under some pretension to be a gentlemen. That's lying and lying is a horrible way to start any relationship."
"Then you do just want to get in her pants after all...

Honestly, it goes on and on like that in my head with every attractive person I meet.

I wonder if nerds are the only ones paranoid about being creepy. I personally attribute it to not wanting to be either the creepy guy who obviously looks emotionally instable, or the jerk who is so aggressive they don't care about treating women like objects and even if they get rejected 19 times out of 20, there is still that one girl that goes for it anyway. This middle ground of acceptable behavior is difficult and even the borders of scale are problematic.

One, people are pretty forgiving of poor social skills. I always forget that. Most people don't have great charm themselves and are willing to accept a modicum of baggage and insecurities in others.

Two, I'm unjustly jealous of the jerk. I disapprove of the behavior, but deep down envy the attention it gets, even if it's purely out of frequency. This idea also treats women like objects in its own way, it takes the agency out of women and places them as merely victims of the ploys of jerks. People make their own choices, men or women, and more often than not they make poor ones and usually because of how they are inside and not through coercion.

But seriously, Rihanna, you are too beautiful, smart and talented to waste time on those losers. Why can't you give me the chance to show you what a true loving and supportive relationship is all about.

25 September 2009

marketing to women



Often I write about sexism in game marketing, so I'll try not to beat a dead horse. Although this is a joke I often feel that this is actually how some people feel games should be marketed to girl/women.

Not that games like cooking mama isn't fun, I just don't think there is any reason to market is as a "Girls" game. I think it is a very good gender neutral game, that both men and women can enjoy. Then again I think and know women that genuinely enjoy playing Halo. (and not to impress boys or to humiliate them.)

Another interesting tactic for marketing things to women is the use of magic. TV troupes has an excellent article on "Clark's Law for Girls' Toys". There are several DS and Wii games out there targeted towards young girls and all of a sudden your stylus or Wii-mote is a wand, yet for boys the Wii-mote uses advance gyroscopic computing.

The point is, efforts to have unsubtle marketing for women mostly comes out as crass and often humiliating. Now not all companies do this, "Pony Friends" is a relatively respectful game. Yes the target market is for little girls that love horseys and such, but you're not feeding the horse magic jelly beans or showering it with magical rainbows. You're picking out crap caught in the hoof, which from my friends who do ride horses is a fairly important and vital part of horse care. People will play games out of interests, and well made games that are fun to play will attract more people; no amount of marketing can cover that or impress more girls or boys to play them.

14 September 2009

Science


Right now I'm taking the required SOC 606 course on Research Methods and Design. It's one of those courses that everyone that does research goes over and the student's eyes glaze over at the thought of it. Not surprising being that the same cases are often dragged out, Nazi experiments, USPHS racial profiling, Crazy Voyeurs, and of course Yalies and Cardinals doing stupid stuff. Students tend to zone out and tell themselves "yeah yeah, whatever, I'm not a psycho, I'd never do such a thing." (Obviously they should listen better, being that the findings of the last two would prove them wrong.)

I don't think I genuinely enjoy the course, (The idea of reading the CFR or the Belmont report for the 20th time doesn't fill me with glee.) but it does give me a moment of reflection on the the whole process of the scientific method. I like questioning the idea of science. Much like religious faith, I think one's personal relationship with the work of science benefits from a bit of questioning. Its not that I don't believe in science, but I do desire to question its worth.

I've been playing Rock Band lately and have tried to not embarrass myself too much with singing the lyrics to "Still Alive". But with close examination of the song, I really think it has a very interesting message about the idea of science.

We do what we must
because we can.
For the good of all of us.
Except the ones who are dead.
But there's no sense crying over every mistake.
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.
And the Science gets done.
And you make a neat gun.
For the people who are still alive.

Really interesting lines put into the perspective of understanding the legacy of Science. In my favorite sociological book ever, Dr. Donna Haraway explains that science has a very strong messiah mythology. In this includes one of the title characters the OncoMouse, and how we continuously sacrifice it to save us from the sins of humanity.

Although I don't often think of science in this way, I would say we still need to challenge this notion of the validity of scientific research and understand that in its essence all scientific research involves this mythology in some form or another. Science is an emotional part of the curiosity of being human and hopefully for the benefit "for the people who are still alive."

10 September 2009

Cyberpunk



My friend from Cyberpunk Review and I once had a very interesting conversation over coffee on this idea we called transnational cultural feedback. (He was a systems analyst and I'm a sociologist so I guess that's logical.) Basically it's the phenomenon of constant generational exchange of culture between various countries where not only do we have one country imitating the other, but the other country imitating the imitation. This interests me in the nature of the conduits which allow for this transfer of culture. Who are the people carrying this culture between nations, and why and what meaning does this culture mean to the carrier. In terms of Pierre Bourdieu, the imitation of culture from one nation to another implies a relationship of reverence to that original culture. Value is attributed to the lifestyle and is imitated in an effort to gain similar status. Continued transfers back and forth implies a shifting of value reverence and activity between the nations.

Obviously the example I would pick out as an excellent case study would be between Japan and the US. Some would say that much of early inspirations of cyberpunk was born out of the heady days of the cold war during the Reagen administration. Fears of nuclear war eminent and a sudden realization of impotence to the frightening rise of Japanese technology. Cyberpunk captured the "what if" scenarios of technology on the human condition and more often than not high technology meant Japan. So many of the technological horror movies (The Terminator) may at least subconsciously derive from fears of Japanese technology.

What is strange is now with the Japanese interests with western culture including science fiction, much of that is in the sub-conscience of the Japanese as well. So when we see a technology research company call themselves cyberdyne and built a powered suit named HAL, we have to pause to think of why such an homage is paid to Western literature. (Read more about HAL here.)

03 September 2009

Gamer's Girl

This is perhaps a bit metaphysical but bear with me while I do a blog post on a blog.

There has been quite a bit of discussion on the role of gender and gamers and if playing video games has been a predominately male activity. Should there be games created to reach out to women, (Are such games appropriate or just humiliating?) Are female gamers a new phenomenon or have they always been there all along? Do girls consume games differently than men? Most of the time girl gamers are depicted fairly poorly enforcing stereotypes that girls of any value sexy and interested in what you're interested in. However, there are sources that are trying to bring some seriousness to the idea.

Gamer's Girl is a blog which describes itself as such.
The Gamer's Girl Blog is meant to share stories of humor, support, and wisdom to those who date, have fallen in love with, or are married to a gamer. Much like being a house wife or soldier's wife, being involved with a gamer has its own set of rules, rewards, and challenges.

First of all, I've flipped through a few issues of Military Spouse. There are quite a few inconsistencies of experience and assumptions on the family dynamic and for me acts more as a manual for mythical social norms, than a support magazine. Then again I'm not a a housewife with a husband in Iraq for the third time, so I am unfairly biased. For those who need to seek out a support group even intellectually it does work for those who seek it.

The blog is quite new but seems to be able to update more often than my blog so I must give credit there. Gamer's Girl is about sharing the often comical pros and cons of being in a relationship with a gamer. Most of the time this discussion is quite short and ends up with the same tired joke of men choosing the comfort of games rather than relationships.

This blog brings up important points on the personal experiences of these relationship and tries to not cast it in such black and white terms. I'm quite interested in the blog already and I intend to pay close attention to how it continues to grow.

30 August 2009

Japanese Elections



Only the Japanese would use music from the "Terminator" movies in their election coverage. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it does give an interesting example of the use of culture for symbolic meaning. How do we indicate to the people instantly that something important is going on? For years we had used strict rituals, dress, and displays of wealth as an indicator of importance to any event. The use of "important sounding" music regardless of the cultural source may be another one. (Although it reminds me of the use of the color red for the Communist or the Nazi parties.) We have to pay attention to these tools of solidarity because they have meaning as to how we understand what cultural cues become important. As we become more aware of our diversity in occupation and lifestyle and the reach of masses of humanity becomes larger, the key elements of organic solidarity become more and more complicated. Perhaps now the only things we can unite under are Coke-Cola, McDonalds, and Hollywood movie references.

Seriously though in case you haven't heard the news. The "Democratic Party of Japan" DPJ has won in a landslide victory gaining 308 seats in the house of Representatives. This is an amazing change for the Japanese as a political system. In true Japanese fashion "Rozen Aso" has resigned his position as PM. This will change the political environment in Japan and balance a decades long rule of of the "Liberal Democratic Party" LDP. I don't know much about the new PM Yukio Hatoyama other than the fact that his grandfather was also a form PM. (Seriously Japan, there is some caste system of elites or what?)

Another interesting turnout was the 9 seats for the "Japanese Communist Party" JCP. I was talking to a fellow Graduate student in my department of the progress of the communist movement in Japan. What I find interesting is that of all the countries I can think of, I think Japan would be most likely to be amicable to a communist state. Typically most Japanese have no essential distrust of monopolies or government run services. Your average Japanese person wouldn't know that Japan Rail is now a private company and not a government run system. I think if anyone is at all interested in seeing new things happen in the field of Communist revolutions, Japan would be a place to look. I feel there are similar conditions going on in Japan which Marx may have seen going on in Germany.

25 August 2009

Hikikomori

Hikikomori from Will on Vimeo.


Probably a topic which will come across pretty often, but always interesting to re-investigate are the hikikomori and otaku phenomenon in Japan. Perhaps no accident my Graduate mentor had completed his thesis on the Hikikomori phenomenon. His blog on the topic can be found here. I'm quite impressed with his work and it looks like he's living the dream being a recipient of the prestigious Crown Prince Akihito Scholarship. (Someday I'll get there...)

The video above is a fairly good mini documentary on this topic in Japan from the blog Japanator. One of the things that caught me right away was the perception of men in Japan associated with hikikomori.
So maybe males are more likely to be 'hikikomori' because they are weak weaker than females.

Definitely a perception different from Americans where very few American men would admit men are weaker than females. It seems this cross-national disparity of masculinity between Japan and men from other nations.
...the Japanese... shy boy... dakara(therefore)... (some hand gestures indicating aggressive ) no no... but Italians and Americans... not shy

The stereotype of different degrees of manliness between nations have heavy suggestions of various themes of sublimation between nations.

Also there are the strong themes of isolationism and loneliness commented on in this video. I find it interesting that there are several references in which this is attributed to the prevalence of technology. Freud would have agreed with this sentiment of technology a product of civilization as an enabler of loneliness and personal dissatisfaction stating that "...there then no positive gain in pleasure, no unequivocal increase in my feeling of happiness, if I can, as often as I please, hear the voice of a child of mine who is living hundreds of miles away..." (Freud; 1931 38-39) Here he states that the technology of the phone has made it palatable for his child to live far away and give the illusion that an intimate human connection is still possible despite the distance.

As for solutions a few programs are in effect to solve this problem which affects the working force of Japan. (Which affects issues of immigration) However, many of them are very patronizing and shame the people with the sickness. The Television show "Welcome to the NHK" an anime show delving into the problems of NEETs and Hikikomori seems to have the disturbing message in which these folks are merely the products of enablers who allow them to waste away, the solution of course is to cut this line of support and force them out of their situation through starvation. The problem of course like any illness like the flu, addiction or depression, the greatest help is through the support of others and never through further isolation.

17 August 2009

loneliness

First of all, a bit of housekeeping; I am currently enrolled in the MA program at the University of Hawai'i Manoa. I'm quite excited about this being that this means I'm going to be able to pursue my passion as a sociologist. Hopefully this will reflect in greater quantity and and quality of work in this blog.

With moving in and limited access to the lifeblood of mine that is the internet, I've had alot of time on my hands to look over a few of the things I have downloaded and never gotten around to consuming.

Lililicious an excellent scanlation team has a few of Ebine Yamaji's work translated into English. Being that this novel is not likely to be picked up by any of the US publishers, this is perhaps the only way her work will reach an English audience. Hopefully this will drum up enough attention for a US publisher to pick up her work.

I finally got the time to finish "Free Soul" this morning. This was an excellent story that gracefully reaches out to troubles we all have about love, relationships, parents and careers. I find myself reflecting on my own insecurities about relationships and self image and find some strong emotional bond between myself and the Keito. In an interview with Ebine Yamaji, she discloses that it was "more fun to write about two girls"
Up to that point, I had never really enjoyed telling straight love stories. I just felt that my heart wasn't into it - I didn't get the same feeling of satisfaction from working on them. But once I produced a girl-meets-girl piece, I just realized that it was so much fun - I loved it! So, actually, recently I've been thinking to myself that if I try to approach working on straight love stories the same way that I do gay ones, then they may go better (laughs).

I wonder how common this concept is to people. I find myself agreeing with her sentiment, but I wonder why I do, and what goes on in the minds of those who don't feel the same way. Are there events or experiences which lend themselves to be able to see relationships beyond the gender borders. Or even which perspective has the blinders on? Those too caught up in fixed ideas of gender to see the relationship or those too caught up in the relationship to see the gender?

One of the things I have found distinctly different between the US and Japan is the idea of romantic friendship. Americans now have difficulty reading Tennyson's "In Memoriam A.H.H" without finding it extremely "gay". However, I find many people of the same sex able to openly hold hands or show some physical affection without raising any real suspicion. I once found one of my male students sitting in the lap of another male student all the while one was casually stroking the other one's chin. When I asked why he was doing that, he replied that it was "interestingly pointy". What the "civilized" world finds appropriate in terms of public displays of affection between humans are odd and inconsistent. Perhaps there needs to be more study into how such changes in shame and love came to be. One thing seems to be clear in my mind is as we further curtail and compartmentalize appropriateness in intimacy this seems to create nothing but loneliness.

22 July 2009

Turning Japanese


Above is a recording of an excellent interview with my personal role model George Takei. There's this other guy too, but I don't know what's the deal with him.

Growing up as an Asian-American in the 80's I didn't have many asian role models on TV. It was mostly just George Takei and Martin Yan. (This may explain why I like cooking and Sci-Fi so much.)

Although it seems that even today a more progressive and racially sensitive age in which we live in, there are still paltry examples of asians in the media. What's more it seems that must be a deficit of Asian-Americans in Southern California, becuase white people are taking the burden of playing asian roles. Everyone from Goku in the Dragonball Z movie to the problematic casting choices of "Avatar the Last Airbender", or the odd casting of Jake Gyllenhaall as the Prince of Persia. Of course good news is that there are groups now that make definate strides in turning this around.

Of course the interesting issue for me wouldn't be in terms of just policy changes, but something more subtle such as actual perceptions. As much as I sometimes fancy the idea of changing perceptions, I often come into the conundrum of who has authority on what is the "right" perception. What is seemingly straightforward can become quite grey in practice. My friend's mother once acused her daughter of "Japing out on her" and she was shocked that her mother was using such language. Although to her defense, it wasn't that long ago that such terms were not taboo. These terms and perceptions of Asia do not exist in a vacuum but are heavily contextual in the events of the time. How we deem them as appropriate or not must always be in context of the country's military and economic relationship.

30 June 2009

Women's work

The interaction of how we are to understand each other and the values that run between nations and perceived nations is at the heart of what I research. Transnational perceptions focused on "nerd culture" is a rather narrow field, but I find there is often quite a bit to study when I keep my eyes open. This article on Lee Si-kap's collection of 85 satellite dishes to satisfy his Vietnamese bride, Bui Thi Huang, sets up an interesting picture of transnational ideas of gender.


"In recent years, the South Korean countryside has had an influx of brides from
poorer countries like Vietnam, China and the Philippines. Like Ms. Bui, they
marry South Korean farmers who have difficulty finding a spouse because so many
young Korean women have rejected rural life and migrated to cities."


There is an incredible amount of fascinating things going on here all at once in this phenomenon. First of all I wonder how it is that women in Korea have a greater ability to move away from their rural town into the cities. Is it easier for women to find work in the city than men? Is it difficult for women to find work in rural towns? I wonder if it is heavily pragmatic as this, or is it overlayed by symbolic ideas of men as "country boys" and women as "uptown girls" as portrayed in the US through shows like "Green Acres". The idea of a single women living the city is a long standing mythology which has existed as far back as "Ars Amatoria" by Ovid, with even then carried the same feeling to disdain/admiration.


Then on top of this, is the idea of finding women from "poorer countries" and having them move to South Korea to become wives plays an interesting role of how these men must perceive these women and what they represent for them and for their home country. As this linked article put:



The rising status of women in the United States sent American men who were
searching for more traditional wives to Russia in the 1990s.


Again the product of greater mobility and economic independence for women becomes a punishment for men who desire more "traditional" wives. So as these women move to greater positions in the world, men are left in the dust. It's a strange antagonising of progress for women that seems to unfairly bring guilt to women who want to move up in the world through the limited avenues available to them, and at the same time draws sympathy for men who are unwilling to change with the times. This is similar to the problematic solution presented by Betty Friedan of hiring maids and nannys (from poorer nations) to do the women's work while affluent wives build a career outside the home. If we are to truly understand how gender roles are changing and improving, we must pay close attention to how this is changing as a whole system. Having some women improve their lives to have their previous roles replaced by women of poorer nations may not be the path we are looking for in dramatically changing gender roles in society.

19 June 2009

What makes a man a man?

(image from "七人の侍" 1954)

The Mainichi has an article on "reki-jo" (歴-女?), This seems to be a new boom and I've never heard the term before. The very end brings up an interesting commentary on what is going on with genders roles in Japan.

Tetsuaki Higashida from the Dentsu Communication Institute suggests that women are attracted to the masculinity of these warlords, compared to the more passive modern men that they know. "Gender role reversals have been taking place, with men cooking and women playing golf," he says. "It's not unacceptable nowadays for women to take an interest in warlords, which used to be an area of interest reserved for men."


The Dentsu Communication Institute is the think tank wing of The Dentsu Group who probably provided the data for this study. Most of the research I've seen them do usually concerns studies of social networking in Japan.

This idea of "gender role reversals" reflects this article from The Slate on "Grass Eating Boys" (草食女子) Personally in my experience, Japanese men tend to be rather stuck in 1970's America's idea of masculinity. Although it doesn't surprise me that the younger generation has rejected this idea of masculinity and is starting to prefer the opposite.

How are we to understand masculinity? I don't think there is such a strict bi-polar system of Samurai vs. "grass eating boys", or even a sliding scale in between. I wonder what forces are coercing these rigid forms of identity. Before I get too deep into gender, I'll just leave it off with a video about the modern Samurai.

14 June 2009

East vs. West

Japan is a very "brand conscious" country. I know more women in the US who have never heard of Vera Wang and Hermes than in Japan by far; and you'd never see a man walk around town in a $800 Yves Saint Laurent bag.

Japundit, has a link to an article on the new Sanrio brand tartan being released. Yamanashi, the prefecture where I lived for awhile was the birthplace of the Yamanashi Silk Center, which was the company the later became Sanrio in the 1970's when the company figured out that printing cute pictures on their clothes sold better. Now that the silk industry of Yamanashi has completely bottemed out in recent years, this connection has long been forgotten.

What I find interesting here from a transnational standpoint was this comment here by Yuko Yamaguchi

Yuko Yamaguchi, the Hello Kitty designer since 1980, said the British capital was chosen as the feline's home because "London was the place Japanese girls admired in the 1970s."

Britain was a nation of fairy tales for Japanese girls who read "Alice in Wonderland" and the "Tale of Peter Rabbit," she said.


The ways in which certain cultures and our association with how we perceive certain nations is a fascinating thing to study. As Ai Yazawa has shown us, many Japanese folks today still admire western fetishes as a mark of cool and trendy things. In her work "Paradise Kiss" many of the main characters take on "western" nicknames in an interest to sound exotic and otherworldly. Many people thought it was really cool that a guy that looked in many ways like a Japanese person, had a cool name like "Charles". On the other side of the pond, many people in the US and the UK see anything Japanese as the height of fashion and culture. Japanese things permeate almost everything in the US to give it "added value" or a flair of the exotic. At the same time in both cases this admiration of a national culture has nothing to do with the nation itself, but our association with being something other than we are. These associations reestablish global bounderies that places like the UK, the US and Japan remain as the other, and keep them as exotic distant lands. Despite cheaper transportation and communication between such nations, the distance between them is still far far away in the minds of its people.

11 June 2009

gifts and violence

Yesterday I was in an antiques store in Leesburg, VA with some friends and I saw a beautiful Obi draped over a bench near the register. I could tell from the fact that the embroidery ran all along the length of the obi on both sides, it was pre World War II. There was hardly any discoloration and it was in excellent condition in which the colors were still very bold and pronounced.

The owner of the store said that it was once a gift to a Four Star General who had served in Japan during World War II and was brought back here to Virginia. After the man died, the properties of his estate was sold and this store had acquired quite a few of his items.

Obviously I could be falling for the oldest trick in selling. Tell an interesting story about the thing and suddenly customers will want it. Not to far away in the store were some brass bowls from China which were obviously made in China for tourist to buy. Separated merely by time and space the same occurrence could be happening to me.

But regardless, if it was true, it's an interesting thought on the travels of this piece of garment. The exchanging of hands from Japan to the US, the history of the cloth and it's symbolism as a gift to a US General. There are layers of meaning which cuts across different cross sections of class, nations, gender and race. Is there a significance to the giving of a woman's clothes as a gift to a General to mark the end of a war?

The collection of souvenirs of war service reminds me of a story my aunt once said of a man who was in service in Vietnam for a number of years. This man was struck by the beauty of the Vietnamese "áo dài" and wanted to take one home for his wife to wear. Now there are two parts to an áo dài, the top dress-like part which is similar to a Cheongsam has a slit which will typically go to about an inch above the hips. The man not knowing much about how an áo dài is worn only bought this part and forgot the crucial set of pants which go with it. When the man brought the dress home his wife was quite shocked about how revealing it was and was suspicious of her husbands endless praise on how beautiful it looked on the local women in Vietnam (and their sense of modesty.) So here we have an interesting scenario of the formulation of an intellectual intersection in concepts of gender between the husband, the wife and the women of Vietnam.

What meaning did the giver attribute to such a gift and what meaning did either military person take with him on receiving the gift. Did the gift have meaning for himself, or was it thought of only as a gift for a woman? The weight of these things hang on my head as I think of this obi now draped over a bench in some sleepy antiques store in Leesburg and I wonder who will pay the 450 to buy it and what meaning that buyer will give it.

07 June 2009

Japanese Cultural Revolution

I have always felt that "Razor Ramon Hard Gay" was a champion for social change. This is especially true with his encouragement that even yankī aren't too cool to honor their father. Although he seemed like another crazy comedian stereotyping "homosexual behavior", I've felt that there was more going on under that pleather biker cap.

One of the toughest parts of being an English teacher in Japan is seeing a lot of really sweet kids run their lives into the ground. It's half their own doing, but society has some of the blame too. I've found myself on occasion arguing with teachers that we can't just give up on these kids now and label them as hopeless at 12. I know enough about child development to know that giving up on such kids at this age is the worst anyone can do to harm a whole life. But there is a culturally encouraged tradition in Japan to cast off people who are deemed "unworthy".

This is why it makes me really happy to see men like Yu Waki try to make an effort to turn things around for Japan.
The Mainichi has a fairly good article on his work, and his book can be found here. The Japanese have a strange comfortable attitude about their organized crime popularly known as the "Yakuza". Someone once told me that they are the modern day representation of the Samurai clans. Although for the few more powerful families this may be factually true, I think it's a dangerous and manipulative myth in which the gangs put out. If you want to know more about the Yakuza, I'd suggest Tendo Shoko's book Yakuza Moon: Memiors of a Gangster's Daughter, and Robert Whiting's book Tokyo Underground: the Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan. I actually sat in on a presentation by Hiroyuki Suzuki on his efforts of rehabilitation of members of the Yakuza. It's more of a chirstian based effort, but his movie "Jesus is my Boss" is pretty interesting to watch despite the low production values. I think small movements like this will inch Japan towards real social change that is rooted in the community and culture of Japan and not merely an acquisition of western ideas of social progress.

20 May 2009

morality


Over the weekend, I was in my hometown with my brother which has put me in my high school mentality. I spent the weekend playing games with my brother on his X-Box 360 on our ridiculously huge HDTV.

I played "Mirror's Edge" for the first time, and found it to be a very fun game despite various criticisms. Although that being said, it is a very challenging game. If you don't like games that have a great deal of trial and error, then you might not like the game. I like to think of myself as a gamer who is not as frustrated with impossibly hard games. The game has a great visual feel and the controls feel very natural once you get used to it. I really like the use of color in the game the layout of various levels.

For those unfamiliar with the game, "Mirror's Edge" is about an underground courier service which has become the last remaining unmonitored form of communication in a Orwellian future police state. You play the character Faith who has to run, jump and climb like Jackie Chan to get from point to point to complete various missions. The game also allows you to steal people's guns and turn around and shoot them, however, with a gun in your hand you run slower, and inhibits your ability to climb. In an entire jungle of games in which the only strategy are different means of killing people, "Mirror's Edge" offers a refreshing solution which doesn't envolve killing.

This is where I find there is a great example of moral choice. Shooting people is not required to complete the game, nor are you blatantly rewarded for being a goody-two-shoes other than getting an out of story based achievement award. This is quite different from the other morality driven decisions in games in which there are active consequences in your actions. For me, this attempt to consider moral choices merely operates on the preconventional level of Kohlberg's moral stages. A gamer will do a morally upright action within the game for the purpose of some direct reward. There is no moral education, and people tend to do different actions just to see what would happen. However, in games like "Metal Gear Solid", or "Mirror's Edge" the gamer must chose whether or not to kill someone. They don't have to, and they won't be rewarded directly for not doing so. In fact the game doesn't seem to care either way, the choice is ultimately on you. This for me reaches a Postconvential level of moral reasoning because it is only up to the judgement of how the player feels is morally correct. In the end Postconventional moral reasoning for me relies on the idea of what one does when there is no one there to judge you.

09 May 2009

Social litmus

I've always felt the most interesting part of the Star Trek universe was its ability to be a constantly evolving world to match the way we see our own world. Gene Roddenberry did not just want to make a "wagon train to the stars", but take the social issues of our time and transpose them to theirs. For the sixties, it was a phenomenally delicate approach to understanding issues of race, nation states, the cold war, and the human psyche. Subsequently, the movies and the later shows of "Star Trek the Next Generation", "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager" added newer layers which consistently matched many of the social issues topical to the time. I have often used the Cardassian/Bajoran strife to explain the Balkan wars or the other way around depending on the audience. Deep Space Nine's Producer himself said that "The Kurds, the Palestinians, the Jews in the 1940s, or the boat people from Haiti; unfortunately, the homeless and terrorism are problems in every age." As the means in which the public understood thier own world changed, Star Trek changed with it.

So what does this new movie have to say about our times now? I noticed an interesting theme emerging in this movie. This was a movie which developed and molded the characters of Spock and Kirk in fascinating ways. Again and again I saw the theme of men set apart from their family and their home. These were two men confused by the conflict of their past and adrift in a world of rituals. I find it interesting that this message would speak so powerfully to our generation. We live in a world of odd preconceived notions of normality and patterns. Many of us has convinced ourselves that there are only a few avenues towards success in life, and if we had missed out on those tracks, then we deserve no better than to be kicked to the curb by those who found the course. Excellence has become a standard, which was never meant to be for all, so a majority of people who find themselves "sub-excellent" feel lost and confused. What I think the story of this new Star Trek movie has shown us, is that these roads of predestination are completely artificial and carry as much authority as people give it. The roads to our future are uncharted, and the rules and models created by the sages of the past don't work anymore. In short, "to boldly go where no man has gone before."

02 May 2009

Masculinity

Now that I'm working in a military office, I'm getting more and more tired of the alpha male attitude with problems. I once walked in on an army Sergent banging at the copying machine, threatening to bring in explosives to "fix it". The conversation went like this (Names changed to protect the innocent.)

SGT Turgidson: What this copier needs is some C4 to clear this jam.
Nesuphyn: I think this may be the rare cases in which explosives may not solve the problem.
SGT Turgidson: Son, in my experience explosives can solve any problem.
Nesuphyn: I don't see how that could be the case.
SGT Turgidson: If the copier gets blown up, Xerox will replace it, that's how it worked in the Sandbox.
Nesuphyn: I think I'm going to get some coffee.
(Nesuphyn exit stage left goes to cry into coffee.)

But in all fairness it seems that nerds have their fair share of aggression against technology. Gizmodo led me to this wonderful video on YouTube of a guy stabbing a Mac Air. I'll take a moment to be a racist and point out that this is an affluent white man destroying an $1800 product to prove how much of a sucker he was like his 6 other friends who also bought an $1800 computer.

Whew, OK, I'm better now.

So what's with the rage? (and not just white folks) We are often bombarded with staggeringly oppressive images of violence which is often open linked to being masculine. Yet our day to day lives are mostly quiet and heavily controlled by social norms and civilized affluence. I wonder what that does to the psyche and if that cognitive dissonance causes problems to our ability to be civilized people.
What I find disturbing, is that this use of violence is an excellent marketing tool. Manly men are rough with our toys so we "are forced" to buy better and bigger toys. I use the Sumsung Juke as my cellphone. One of my "manlier" friends sneered at me and said "Wait until the spring breaks". I don't think it need a phone that is piece of solid metal for it to last a few years. I've been using this phone for over a year, and still works fine. I take care of my things, use it for its purpose, and treat it with respect. I know a cellphone is considered a throw away product these days, but I still treat mine as something I shouldn't take for granted. I worry about how we men are convinced what it means to be a man, and at the same time this culture of masculinity just happens to make us better consumers.

29 April 2009

Homosexuality


Both Kotaku and Penny-Arcade has brought an interesting issue to the forfront on homosexuality and gaming culture. Of course for many people the nail in the coffin for this issue was stated by BioWare's community manager Sean Dahlberg on the issue of the words "homosexual", "lesbian" and "gay" being censored on the boards.
As I have stated before, these are terms that do not exist in Star
Wars.
Thread closed.
I don't claim to have authority on what does or does not exist in the Star Wars universe. I'm no expert on the Star Wars universe, however, from a fan perspective the idea of homosexuality is interesting. For the longest time adolescent kids (and adolescent minded adults) have ignorantly used the idea of homosexuality as a demeaning term for someone which often has nothing to do with sexuality. The thought of calling someone "gay" was not necessarily to imply they were attracted to someone of a common gender, but was someone of lesser values. This becomes a problem when this parlance is used and the people do not think of the implications on actual homosexuality. Much like the problem with the World of Warcraft ban on the GLBT guild, the concern was misrouted away from actual homosexuals, but more on the use of homosexual terms outside its context.

I often wonder if there is something intrinsically different about “nerd communities” or if it’s just the same as the rest of society, merely with a different flavor. I’d like to think that nerds are more sympathetic to diverse people and walks of life, but I find equal evidence for and against this theory.

25 April 2009

Japanese Fashion

My younger brother is graduating from college in a month, which happens to be during the month of his birthday. I figured I'd get him a really cool gift that he'd appreciate. (Usually I get him a game or something, but this year I wanted to get him something a bit more mature.)

Tokyo Flash is a website based in Okinawa (confusing I know) who sells all kinds of Japanese goods. Most famously for their really unique LED watches. They usually incorporate some unique way of displaying the time. My brother picked out the "Barcode" watch which was probably a good choice being that it was very different looking, but the display didn't seem difficult to learn.

One thing I have to say is that I love EMS shipping. I placed the order on Wednesday morning expecting not to see it till next week, but it just came this morning. I can barely get stuff from NewYork based stores that fast.


The box looks pretty cool, the photo makes it look a little cheap, but there is a cool embossing of of a dragon on the top and photos of "club people" around the sides.


It's a fairly hefty watch, but in a good way. All the pieces feel really solid and would be comparable to a watch by Tag Heuer or Diesel. It's not a fine timepiece by any means, but it definitely looks cool and doesn't feel like a cheap costume watch.

The watch came with batteries and was set to Japanese time. It wasn't too difficult to reset the time. The left most bar represents 5 hours of time, the second bar represents 1 hour. Then two right bars represent the 10's and 1's place for the minutes. A random animation lights up when you press the button on the side then the time is displayed. If you press it again, the date is displayed, then a third time the day of the week is displayed. In the photo above the time reads 10:47 am. The watch can also be set to either 12 hour time or 24 hour time.

This is a really cool watch, and if I didn't love my Skagen so much, I'd be really jealous.

23 April 2009

Japanese food


The Mainichi Daily News has just posted this year's Ekiben of the Year.

I freaking love ekiben, they're so good and give a little taste of the local area as you're riding the train. These things are usually pretty well made being that it only takes a few bad incidents and then no one wants to eat your ekiben.

The idea of a boxed lunch is interesting in terms of culture. In America, box lunches are usually considered cheap things to eat on the go, and are poorly made for mass consumption. While this does occur in box lunches in Japan, the idea of a high-end box lunch also exist. They're usally made locally in small batches fresh for that day, and can only be found at a specific station. For many casual travelers around Japan, these local ekibens become the gateway to spurring tourism for some of the more unknown parts of Japan.

I've been reading the manga Oishinbo (美 味しんぼ), Viz just released themed volumes of the translation of this monster of a comic. Its been in print in Japan since 1983 and is still being written. To the Japanese, food is a very common topic. Many Japanese folks don't like to talk about controversial subjects, so most of the time you end up talking about food or the weather. Oishinbo takes this idea and explores how crazy the Japanese get over food and how much one can talk about food and the subtlety of different foods Japan has to offer. But there is more going on here than just food, it's the selling of Japan as a creditable culture. Back when this comic was first being published, the spread of westernization was driveing Japanese culture into oblivion. Japanese were getting more and more excited about western culture and losing sight of thier own. Oishinbo was a manga which attempted to convince Japanese readers, that Japanese culture is worth something, and if people didn't pay attention to it, it could disappear forever.