Why I Chose... Florida

Okay, so I didn't have much of a say in it. My immediate family just migrated there.

When I was a very young kid, my mother applied successfully for my sister and me both to become naturalized British Citizens, a status at least I still have to this day. It was a prelude to probably moving to England. Meanwhile, my dad had other ideas.

His father and stepmother both lived in Florida, and that's where he wanted to go. So, that's where we went.

Florida, I adore, though, at least Fort Lauderdale. Miami, not so much. Miami Beach, I like.

I like Florida for its raininess. I like that it's breezy enough that I don't have to use the air conditioning much during the summer like I do here in Georgia. And it doesn't have the ghastly pollen season, either.

I like that there's actually a walking culture both in the suburbs and cities, and that in city-adjacent neighborhoods (or even the city where I'd grown up) one can walk places and not have to have much concern about someone drunkenly mowing you down because the "sidewalk" is literally a part of the road with a solid line dividing the two.

I'd had, relatively, better dating prospects there, or at least people seemed to like me better. But then I was still in my 20's, too, so that helped.

Being a Man

I've been thinking the last few days about the word "man", and how I've been reticent to use it when taking about myself. Sex-wise, I'm a male. Gender-wise, I suppose that's the only time I may use the word "man" since it's clinical: "I'm a cisgender man." It may be because I use cisgender with it.

Otherwise, I'm a guy. I very rarely call myself a man, and O wonder why that is.

Is it a lifetime thus far of seeing images of what Western society sees as a man and somehow not feeling I'm up to that level? Is it because I tend to be very non-committal in language because there's "always something that could undo it". I tend to be rather careful with absolutes, and I suppose I may view "man" as absolute. It's rigid. It's hard.

"Guy", that's flexible enough. It evokes some sense of softness that I definitely do have.

And I suppose, Daniel Jackson, you have your answer.

In Pursuit of Sex

I had started to muse on the drive of men to have sex why they may do things the way they do, including rape  and then some more facets of this theme came up a few times last week as I was listening to podcasts.

One was about Kurdish women who had taken up arms to defend their lands against Islamic State. One of them had described conditions under them, her describing them having the women disrobe so a doctor of theirs can validate their physical virginity. Then these women who are virgins, the Islamic State leaders would have, still naked, go to a building where men would select these naked women and go off to have their way with them.

Then there was another story that had included an anecdote of men who marry underaged girls. One of the girls who had spoken of her experiences remarked that it was probably because the guy thought he would never again be able to have a wife. My thoughts veered more towards his believing he needs to be in a marriage to have sex, that he shouldn't masturbate, and that he would never be able to have sex again if he loses her.

There was yet another anecdote among the discussion of India's censorship board attempting, ultimately unsuccessfully, to ban (essentially) a film, Lipstick Under My Burkha, that they'd described as too "lady oriented". The woman describing the situation brought up the fact the board is exclusively male and that they would have no problem if the women were their definition of attractive and dressed the way they want (scantily sometimes, perhaps).

These men, it's sickening. It's sickening how these regimes they make sometimes seem to make it so they can satisfy their sexual urges under their terms whenever it is they want. It's sickening how sometimes they have such narrow views of how sex can and/or should work, and that women should have no say. I hate that some see masturbation as desperation. I hate that women in some places and some times, even in the United States, have no authority to decide what happens with their bodies.

Sometimes men suck.

Stereotypical Names

I was listening to a podcast when I heard the name René Müller, and the fact he was from Luxembourg. I was, like, that name pretty much sums up Luxembourg, doesn't it?

I'd thought about stereotypical names before, like how László Kovács is just about as Hungarian as you can get, or how during the London 2012 Olympics some commentators had opined that Bradley Wiggins was such a British name.

Sometimes at work stereotypically Jamaican names would arise, like Pauline, Angella, Claude, and Erroll.

On my way home I was trying to run some more iterations of what a stereotypical name would be for where, like, "Oh yeah, s/he's definitely *blank*.

France - Didier Dupont
Germany - Andreas Pfeiffer
India - Ranjeeta Mote
Bangladesh - Nazrul Chowdhury
Vietnam - Khanh Nguyen
Korea - JinHwa Kim
Japan - Jun Takahashi

Then there are just first names or last names I can think of that would typify a place (or, at least, I'd immediately think this person was from that place or of that place.

Iran - Azadeh
Indonesia - Wariyanto
Wales - Ioan
Ireland - Fionnula
Netherlands - Jeroen
Ethiopia - Teklemariam

Then there are places that have such common names (John Smith, Mohammad Jaffar) that one can peg it down to a language, but not necessarily a place. Then there are some, like Khan, that I'd hazard a guess to say (Pakistan), but I might not necessarily 100% hit it.

I kind of wish I knew more than I do, though. But I guess I might know enough, some might say.

It never is.

Cultural Parallels

Today at work one of my Jamaican co-workers did something I've seen many Jamaicans do: point at something with her lips.

As I'd posted it on Facebook a few of my friends made me remember that this is not Jamaica-only. I've seen other Caribbeans do it too (although, mostly Dominicans). I do recall seeing Filipinos do it too.

Nothing in this world is entirely unique; it may just be we've not discovered the other one of it. I used to think my name was pretty unique, but then it's not an uncommon name in India. It's still fairly uncommon, but not as rare as one might think.

Jupiter Jones in Jupiter Ascending was the exact genetic replica of the Abraxas matriarch. It was something that would happen eventually, but they'd no idea when it would be until they'd found her. They say individual snowflakes are unique and one-of-a-kind, but the finite atoms on this Earth will produce duplicates eventually.

I'd say, melodramatically, that nothing is special. I'll say that in my head, and say outright that everything can happen again.

Visiting a Farmer's Market

I visited the farmer's market closest to home today after church and I found it was cool as well as a bit distressing.

It was a place that brought all kinds of products from all kinds of cultures — Chinese, a little Japanese, a smidge of Korean, a lot of Vietnamese, some Thai, some South Asian, Latin American and Caribbean in general, and even some West African — under one roof. It was cool to see them, to try and decipher them and wondering which ones people really went for more regularly than others. I wondered who in there was a restaurant owner/operator/manager going there to buy ingredients for his/her latest culinary project (or just what they're doing regularly) and who was there as a person who just wanted stuff to cook the only things they know how to cook.

I saw mostly the latter, and there were a couple guesses at the former. I'd even saw some people like me who were getting produce probably because it's a little less expensive than even the bigger grocery stores…

I thought about the fact this country of the United States of America has given me the opportunity to see stuff from so many different places and be able to possibly sample of them.

But then I found myself trying not to cry because I'm just "a boring guy with no fixed cultural identity" that I can rapidly claim as my own. I have the British-Jamerican thing I give myself, and I've spoken about how people from the British side and the Jamaican side would probably have words with me about how I'm neither of those things properly. I wanted, while I was there, so badly to be the elderly probably-Chinese-or-Vietnamese (because she, unlike some others, wasn't immediately identifiable to me as one or the other) woman I'd kept patiently waiting for to notice me to be able to pass her in the narrow aisles who had stuff in her cart she was "obviously" going to use to cook her native meals she knows (me conscious simultaneously of this being an almost very American and kind of patronizing thing to think) instead of the wannabe me.

This makes me think of today's sermon about seasons, though. It really spoke to me, because I keep envying others even though they're in one season and I'm in another. I'll get to where I need to be eventually, but it's all so damn frustrating a lot of the time.

Rape/Sexual Violence/Stuff I Don't Get

I'm a fan of The Handmaid's Tale series on Hulu, and had been anticipating it since practically they'd put it up that they'd be broadcasting it. They go into a lot of heavy things, including rape.

So, this on top of, especially via the BBC World Service Africa Today podcast, hearing about "corrective rape" and just a casual rape culture in especially Africa, I've tried to fathom why these especially men (or "men", since what true man actually does that?!) feel they need to do this.

It would require a lot of reading into probably a bunch of stories that would probably make me cry and hate humans more, but I'd been mulling over some possible underlying "provokers" to "induce" a "rape culture".

That's a lot of scare quotes.

I think those cultures that really, really make masturbation taboo make a powder keg. This itself may not be a reason, because I think they might combine that with sex having to mean something (so, if they rape someone, they can get their sexual urges out of the way doing it the "proper way", but not having to care about the person; it's not legitimate sex of you don't view the "thing" with what you're copulating as anything, right? 😤).

Then they're doing it in groups, which makes them no better than their primate cousins (and even cetaceans too, I think I've read) that have their own rape gangs. And they, conceivably, don't realize consciously and thoughtfully what they're doing, either.

Then, bringing it back to the phrase "corrective rape" I'd used earlier, some people use sex like a weapon, that they use something God has given us and made it into something to shut someone up violently, or using it to meld someone to one's will (like God didn't give us free will and choice).

I'm kind of scared to research this.

In the Middle of the Deep, Deep Forest

My first anime was probably Rōnin Warriors. To this day, I remember very little of it, and looking at the Wikipedia page  I can't believe how relatively short a series it was. It felt like it went on for a long time when I was a kid.

I'd always appreciated anime and cartoons even growing into a young adult, something I still do to this day even though many anime fans would say I'm not really one because I don't watch everything they do, and a lot of the most popular anime series or movies I've not seen (Attack on Titan or Ghost in a Shell, for instance). Things just fit my tastes, and some just don't.

It's like how I've not gone out of the way to see the Underworld series, though I have watched one (that I barely remember, and am not even sure which one) because one of my fraternity brothers had a movie night in his room once.

So, exploring for anime I haven't seen and would actually like, let alone things in live action, has been difficult.

Simultaneously, I have a few things in queue on Hulu and I just haven't allocated time to watch them (notably Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works). So, I have what to watch, I just need to do it.

Humanity

We're such interesting, pesky creatures.

We have cultures that we call our own, fight over, and die for, mostly because it's just something to make ourselves feel better. We wish to define ourselves and sometimes put ourselves into corners just so we can say we have some sense of individuality (even though these corners might completely usurp that individuality).

We create foods and cook them, and then create entirely new things out of foods that have gone bad just to extend their consumability while not killing ourselves or making ourselves or others gravely or intensely ill. We have cheese, savory pies, alcohol... We've even made an art of the controlled spoiling of things to use for our own purposes: wine, certain cheeses, anti-microbials...

We have music of all sorts, and instruments of every possible type that make use of pretty much any part of the human body that can make music. Then the types of music might relate to our construction of culture, some cultures embracing certain types of music or being fiercely protective of the fact the specific culture "created" that type of music.

We carve up this planet and use it however we wish, with some of us giving a care how we use it while others say we'll make new things to take care of the problems we create (because business). We fight wars and blow up bits of the planet just to show one side the other has dominance. We create weapons to one-up each other, and sometimes hold onto these weapons fiercely in "what-if" mindsets.

We're... interesting.

The Left Hand

I tend to make a big deal in my head noticing people being left-handed. I'm left-handed myself, so it may be trying to have a commonality with other human beings.

I never really faced a stigma against my being left-handed, though I do cite how my grandfather (and, now thinking about it, occasionally my dad in the earlier years) would have me put on and tie my right shoe first. My dad has asked me sometimes why I hang clothes on hangers the way I do, and that is primarily because I'm left-handed.

When I found people actually didn't mind, I would wear watches on my right wrist, making it so much easier to put on.

I would have to remember consciously that people shake hands with their right hand (even though I think I may have extended my left on more than a few occasions out of not even thinking about it), because there are some people who consider shaking the left hand rude (or even gross, since some people believe one must wipe after using the restroom with the left hand only).

It's funny, though, that traditional place settings have the fork on the left and knife on the right, even though when eating with just a fork I see people use their right hands to manipulate their food. I have, to horror, seen some people do a reverse place setting. I've had to learn to not put drinkware on the left hand side, and to make sure the handle on teacups and coffee cups face the right (since, especially in hospitality, one wants to make things easier for people and err to the majority of your clients being right-handed). 

I have a Wikipedia page in edit/draught status where I've been amassing a list of left-hand "celebrities" as I've noticed them. There are people like Eliza Taylor who seem a little ambidextrous, but others like Barack Obama that people would recognize.

This world is interesting enough with cultural differences with left and right. I still need to read The Left Hand of Darkness.

Magnamon the Jihadist

So this is a throwback from my burgeoning adulthood, a card I'd seen from one of my all-time favorite series Digimon.

A little background for the unaware:

Digimon are digital monsters, creatures that exist in a virtual/computer world that have the ability to evolve into superior forms as their energy increases. In the case of this one, Magnamon, a specific lower-level digimon (often one called Veemon) takes hold of something called a digimental (an ancient power object, essentially) and evolves into Magnamon, one of the most powerful digimon in existence.

As a rule of anime in general, whenever there are named attacks, the attacker (often a good guy and often the leader-type) has 必殺技 (hissatsu waza, or a “sure-kill attack”), an attack that completely disarms, makes harmless, or destroys the target.

In the English versions of the cards (and in the anime dub), they've interpreted Magnamon's sure-kill attack to be "Magna Blast". For the record, though, I've included the image of an original Japanese card to show what the original name of the attack is, bringing me to the point of this post.

Anime has been a hot-button topic for a lot of people because the Japanese creators of these manga/shows often seem to have blissful ignorance of what the things they create might mean to audiences outside Japan, or how sensitive they might be to it (at least until the late 90's to early 2000's when it really took off internationally).

I mean, I don't think many Japanese had even thought about jihadism until the IS/ISIS/ISIL agent "Jihadi John" beheaded two of their citizens recently, so Magnamon's "Japanese-language" attack (even though it is, essentially, borrowed English) would barely phase them whereas the rest of the world would probably be in an uproar because of it.

Magnamon's sure-kill attack is エクストリーム・ジハード.

Literal translation into English is "Extreme Jihad."

Expansion: I have been remiss to mention the character of Magnamon is a holy warrior in the card mythology.

Racism, Insensitivity, or The Way They Are?

	Stitcher (@Stitcher)
6/18/14, 8:55 PM Is Univision's World Cup commentary racist? via @NPR stitcher.com/s?eid=34422976… #WorldCup2014

Being a Black person, I've encountered the various ways Spanish-speakers can refer to me, and the invariably non-PC way they refer to all Asians as chinos even though they may now where they're actually from and how to refer to them.

Some say the way they're talking is them being playful, like the various nicknames they give people like gordo, flaca, or morenito, but I definitely see the point of calling the players these "nicknames" or monikers instead of their names.

They should have more professionalism, though, regardless of eighteen-hour shifts.