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.

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.

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.