The Kennedy Center was abuzz last night with yet another red carpet event–who needs LA when you’ve got the glitterati visiting DC every week?  The Honors went to Bruce Springsteen, Robert De Niro, Mel Brooks, Grace Bumbry, and Dave Brubeck.  Attendees included everyone from Eddie Vedder to Nancy Pelosi to Mikhail Baryshnikov. 

Of course, the First Couple were in attendance looking glam as ever.  At the reception, Obama showed some respect, saying “On a day like this remember, I’m the president, but he’s the Boss.” 

Lovely, as usual! (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst, US Politics Entertainment)

Hillary's in heaven--who wouldn't be when sandwiched between the Taxi Driver and the Boss! (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

Just remember who the REAL Boss is... (AFP/Mandel Ngan)

Even Wonder Woman made an appearance! (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

MODOC and FLODOC-Mayor and First Lady of the District of Columbia, of course! (Kris Connor/Getty Images)

My kind of hook…JHEEEZ!

http://lonelymachines.org/images/halflife/alyx_kleiner.jpg

Sex sells, and there is no shortage of sexualized women represented in video games today. This might come as no surprise given the fact that gamers are often thought of as socially awkward troglodytes who, unable to attract attention from members of the opposite sex, are quick to settle for the mentally impaired but physically idealized representations of women in video games. It probably doesn’t help that many of the most successful games are produced in Japan, which, by now, should be notorious for maintaining a less-than-ideal position on the woman question (the gaming and human-rights world has been abuzz lately over Japan’s production of simulated rape scenarios in video games, for example). Rather than commiserate on the abundance of backward representations of women in video games, however, I would like to take a moment to praise those developers that have opted to take the progressive road.

Beginning with the “OMG WTF” revelation that Metroid’s Samus Aran is, in fact, a woman, a handful of developers have chosen to emphasize intangible attributes such as courage and strength in women in video games over looks. Not only does this defy conventional gender roles, but it offers more complex and comprehensive representations of women as human beings capable of the same moments of emotional insecurity but also forceful assertiveness as men, providing female gamers with NPCs and protagonists with whom they can identify more readily and male gamers with a more accurate portrayal of women’s complexity that is far from the unidimensional, animated blow-up dolls that have graced the world of gaming in recent years (I’m looking at you Team Ninja, makers of the Dead or Alive series).

A more positive and progressive portrayal of women in gaming is not an end in and of itself; practical changes have to be implemented in the real world before the physical presence of patriarchy–let alone its shadow–dissipates. However, I am reminded of ballets such as The Red Detachment of Women and The White-Haired Girl that were commissioned during China’s Cultural Revolution and featured powerful female protagonists in the realm of culture in an attempt to substantiate the changes that were being implemented throughout society and can only hope that the presence of characters such as Alyx Vance (Half-Life 2) and Jade (Beyond Good and Evil) help prepare us or even serve as a catalyst for the needed changes in our perspectives on gender and sex.

An interesting tidbit about many of today and yesterday’s more fully-rounded heroines is that they often star in games with broader progressive tendencies. In the case of Alyx, she is a part of the human resistance against an Orwellian alien occupation of Earth. Jade is a journalist thrown into a movement to uncover an insidious government plot. The Boss (Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater) is set in a series aimed at exploring blind obedience in soldiers and the threat of nuclear proliferation. These are not women fighting the everyday fight, but women caught up in a moment of crisis. Perhaps this is what makes their behavior tolerable in the eyes of the gaming public, though I hope this is not the case. Admittedly, most games do not attempt to recreate the everyday experience; after all, this is what many of us are escaping from when we pick up our controllers and power up our consoles. However, with games like Heavy Rain approaching that seem to offer female protagonists acting heroically in more mundane situations, we’ll just have to wait and see if progressive portrayals are necessarily tied to underlying progressive themes for the time being.

For further reading, I recommend the following links:

Top 5 Most Attractive, Non-Sexualized Women in Games

Women Aren’t Vending Machines: How Video Games Perpetuate the Commodity Model of Sex

I woke up this morning with a blinding headache and that was all I could feel.  Everything else was numb to me, and I was worried that I wasn’t dealing with all of this in a healthy way.  Several times yesterday I was on the verge of tears but could never seem to just sit down and cry about all of this.  Not even when my best friend gave me a big hug and pet my head in that so comforting way that always seems to make me cry.  Not even then.  That scared me.

Now, I’m fucking angry.

Gaynip:

You both broke my heart today. There is no lessening of these hard feelings. I’m sorry you feel the way you do. I’m not sorry for who I am.  I have no problems communicating my feelings via the written word. If you didn’t think you could clearly express yourself, you should have called me. You didn’t. This says a lot to me.  Call me when I’m not such a disappointment to you anymore. Call me, when you can say, “I love you” and mean that wholeheartedly.

Step-Mom/Parents:

You are not the only one with hurt feelings. If you have no problem communicating, than I’ll assume you meant to hurt me. I feel alot of hate in your words. Correct me if I’m wrong about that. I understand you’re disappointed that I haven’t imbraced your homosexuality. I am also the same person I always was and wish you wouldn’t think so negatively of me.

Where do I even start with that?  She has hurt feelings?  How fucking selfish can two people really be?  What do they have to be hurt about?  Nothing.  It’s their own hatred, their own bigotry their own close mindedness about sexuality that makes them feel hurt.  Like I’ve become gay as some kind of “fuck you” to them.  If anything, I tried really, really, REALLY hard to be straight.  I mean, honestly, I gave it 110%.

How about how I feel?

“Say there, Gaynip, I want to talk to you.  I just want you to know that if you are a lesbian, I will tie you to a chair in the basement and won’t let you out until you promise to like men again.”

He told me that when I was 15 years old.  I didn’t even know I was gay when I was 15, but I would come home crying because kids at school thought I was gay (how perceptive) and would bully me.  Instead of the comforting hug and kiss that I could have used, he threatened me instead.

When I was in college, a girl kissed me and then got a little obsessed with me.  I was away interning at a radio station about 7 hours from home and the girl called and called, apparently once at 3am.  My Dad called me up and asked me point blank if I was a lesbian.  I said “no”.  I didn’t think I was, I thought it was that whole “It’s college, everyone experiments here.” and so I promised I wasn’t.  He literally made me promise on my life that I wasn’t some “dyke”.  He reiterated the previous claims of the basement/chair punishment.

“You know what?  It’s okay to be gay, so long as you never, ever, act on it.  You push it deep down inside of you and cover it up with loads of heterosexual activities because that’s what God would want.”

Okay, I admit I was curious enough once to ask Dutchess what he meant by that, what did she do that I didn’t.  ”I have sex with men.  That’s about it.  I do the same thing you do, only no girls.  I suppose he meant breeding?  I don’t plan to do that either…so…”  Jesus Christ, Dad.

I have to live with these memories and these words for the rest of my life.  I have to live with the idea that my sister and now my “good” set of parents want nothing to do with me because of something I can’t control.  What makes me insane about all of this is that my parents are Christian and are always saying things like, “You should forgive people, that’s what Jesus says to do.”  What about that whole, “Judge not lest ye be judged?” or “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” or “Good will towards your fellow man.”

Or how about when your sister, who is bisexual tells you “You’re not Christian because you’re a lesbian.”  I’m sorry, was there a separate set of rules for the bisexuals that I missed?  As long as I screw a guy now and the, God will be cool with the girl-on-girl action?  Hello, loophole.

Sometime during the writing of this blog I decided to bravely call  home (probably because Dutchess was here to support me)…

I have needed to call and scream at my parents for years.  They have been absolutely terrible to me growing up and nothing I have ever done has ever been good enough (“You know what would have made this day really special?  If you had graduated with honours.”  My Dad @ my College graduation in front of all my friends.).  They have threatened me, cursed me, screamed at me and frankly the other set of parents beat me like a human piñata as a kid.  I have always been a meek person, terrified of confrontation and always did exactly as I was told…not today…

During the phone call my step-mom said:

• I’m a selfish person who never listens to/thinks of anyone but myself.
• Their feelings are hurt too, not just mine.
• They need time to “come around” to my homosexuality.
• “…It would make me more comfortable” when I asked if they would have rather I’d been miserable my entire life…this after a considerable pause.
• “You know our views on homosexuality” when I reminded her that Dad threatened to tie me up, to force down my homosexuality.
• She screamed at the top of her lungs, something I’ve only seen/heard her do twice in the 12 years she’s been in our family.
• “You’re closing the door on this communication, not me.  I meant don’t call home in a good way.”  Wow…
• “You’re making me feel like shit right now.”  ”GOOD!”  ”See, you hate me.”  ”No, I’m frustrated.  I don’t care that you feel like shit, that’s how you make me feel all the time.”

AND the PIECE DE RESISTANCE …the reason why she’s SO upset that I’m gay is… <DRUM ROLL>

“I won’t ever get to make you a wedding dress.”

My reply.  ”Boo freakin’ hoo.  It’s not my problem that Elspeth ran off and got married at some JP, so you don’t get to make anyone a dress.”  What I wanted to say?  ”FUCK YOU”

I ended the phone call with,

“Yes I’m glad that you feel bad.  You and Dad have made me feel like shit my whole life, that nothing I’ve ever done is good enough.  That my Dad would tie me to a chair, or that I should be miserable with who I am because it makes you uncomfortable.  And you know what, my doctor thinks I should see a psychiatrist because my family is fucking* me up.”

It ended with her hanging up on me.

*I’ve never sword at/to/in front of my parents ever.

The crazy thing is, I feel really good.  She hung up, I put the phone down and I was absolutely shaking like a leaf.  Dutchess was worried that I still hadn’t cried but after a really big hug and some “I love you’s” both of us were in tears.  ”You love me no matter what, even when I do something stupid like the time I had sex with Whores’a'Lot.”  This had both of us laughing through our tears and I feel much better.

I have to say thank you to my friends, I do.

First and foremost to Dutchess because she’s always been there for me, through thick and thin.  She’s the only person in this world that I know I would do absolutely anything for and I love her just like a sister.  Not my sister, because she’s a bitch.  But a good sister.  The kind who brushes your hair and the type who leaves you in the capable claws of the Baroness because she knows you have a thing for older women.  We’ve had so many good times, even her family embraces me…the way her mom makes playful lesbian jokes and punches me in the arm (like a lesbian…just sayin’ Bingo Bear!!  Looove you) or the time D’s Dad made me drink bad orange juice because he’s cheap and bought frozen/unfrozen/frozen juice for 5 cents a pop.  My intestines have never been the same.

Or Cortejo, who surprises me with her understanding and compassion, as we have only been friends for a short time.  Who said “C’mon over” and then cheered me up with tea and a very amusing daughter who didn’t find it funny I would name a cow “Prime Rib” because she’s a vegetarian this week.  Or who isn’t annoyed that I can talk, talk, talk, talk, talk the ears off a cob of corn.

Office Mom and Random who’ve offered to adopt me and let me sleep in their basement.  Who offered to steal the space heaters from work to keep me warm in said basement.  That’s love.

To Leh, for offering to get me drunk on a bottle of champagne because she can be “fancy sometimes too”.

Shane…my newest friend, my evil wonder twin.  Form of RAINBOW UNICORN…what makes us evil?  Instead of protecting virgins, we’ll corrupt ‘em.  Both funny and accurate.  In all seriousness, she was completely there for me yesterday and despite being very angry on my behalf, tried to play devil’s advocate.  A hard thing to do, because she agreed that the ‘rents were assholes.

Ulrik…he’s probably my youngest friend but so wise.  How can you not love a guy who can work the word “obtuse” correctly into a sentence.  Offered to talk about it with me on the phone on his afternoon off from work.

The Boss.  Gave me the day off work and found a replacement for me because I called and said “Here’s what happened…I feel okay now but I’m scared I’ll wake up tomorrow a complete wreck.”  He offered to always be someone to talk to.  God Bless his little bald head.

Maverick, who okay wasn’t here for any of this but who’s always opened the doors of his home to me, left a place at the supper table and a helpful friend on all things military, D&D and because once he told Dutchess, “Oh no, she’s as queer as a bottle of chips” and made me laugh til I cried.

To anyone who’s read this blog or yesterday’s and gave any support (here or via Cortejo’s musings).

If I forgot anyone, I’m sorry.  I love you all and your support during all of this has been immeasurable in it’s meaning to me.

Here’s to the friends to whom I love with my whole heart, and whom love me with theirs despite all our faults, quirks, foibles and whether it be Earl or Pearl we bring to bed.

A quick poll…

I have recently attended concerts by both U2 and Bruce Springsteen.  I thought I’d take a post to to a compare/contrast of the two concerts.  Now before we even start, let me just say that I am a much bigger fan of U2 than I’ll ever be of the Boss.

Location:

• U2- Sold out Soldier Field in Chicago in the first minute of their ticket sales.  They added another day and sold that one out, too.
• Springsteen- Almost sold out (?) the Palace at Auburn Hills near Detroit.

Opening act:

• U2- At Soldier Field they had Snow Patrol (known for Chasing Cars).  In other locations they had Elbow, the Kaiser Chefs, Muse, and the Black Eyed Peas.  It is fun to tell friends smugly that “Your favorite band opened for mine.”
• Springsteen- None.  And it was just as well because it started almost 45 minutes late.

Main audience:

• U2- A huge variety from toddlers to elderly people.
• Springsteen- One of the first things that I noticed at the concert was the audience.  Like the U2, a good amount of variety.  Unlike at the U2 concert, people didn’t have the decency to smoke their pot AFTER the show but DURING.  A lot of dancing, stoned 60 year-olds and slightly cockeyed people.

Set:

• U2- The famous and impressive beast known as “the Space Ship” and “the Claw”.  Every person in the arena could see everything that was going on due to a huge screen that lowered throughout the concert.  It had a large ring that encircled part of the crowd and two rotated legs stretched out from the main stage to the outer ring.
• Springsteen- “The Claw” wouldn’t fit in the Palace at Auburn Hills, so a much smaller stage held the E-Street Band.  There wasn’t a good view from where I sat and there wasn’t a screen conveniently located for me.

People on stage:

• U2- Four people: Bono, Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen, Jr.
• Springsteen- Bruce and his huge band including the coolest sax player ever.  Some 11 members.

Setlist:

• U2
• Springsteen

Songs:

• U2- Atmospheric, ascending, spiritual, and heartfelt.  I sang along with 18 out of 23 songs.
• Springsteen- Nostalgic, hopeful.  Stephen Foster and Bob Seger covers.  I knew about 5 out of 28.  He performed the entire album Born to Run.  The problem with the lyrics of Springsteen for me is the sense of trying to rise above your surroundings.  He’s now sixty years old.  How long can you sing about leaving the badlands and finding the promise land and still mean it?

Social justice:

• U2- A chunk of the performance was dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi including the song Walk On, which was originally written for her.  Sunday Bloody Sunday was dedicated to the people of Iran who were cheated out of a fair election.
• Springsteen- Gave a shout out to a local organization that does something to help the local poor.  I really don’t remember much besides that.

Energy:

• U2- U2, as a band, is at its prime.  They are churning out awesome music and have been for about thirty years now.  Their live performance was amazing, too.  Bono ran around the entirety of his set, and then again with a small child while singing.  It doesn’t get much better than that.  They started with a European leg, then a U.S. leg, then added another leg to each continent.
• Springsteen-  He forgot what state he was in…  He greeted Ohio with gusto until a while in when his guitarist told him where he was.  He replied with “I’ve been waiting 40 years to f*** that one up!”  But he then put on a three hour long concert.  Touring must do funny things to the brain.

To me, the U2 concert was pure ecstasy.  The Springsteen concert was cool, but after seeing a perfect concert from U2, I was a little disappointed.  If I was as big a fan of Springsteen as I am of U2, I probably would have loved it as much.  That being said, the Boss is still awesome.

Overall, I think the U2 concert will go down as the happiest night of my life and the Springsteen concert won’t be as monumental for me.

Shivaji Rao Gaekwad (born on 12 December 1950),[1] professionally known by his stage name Rajinikanth (Tamil: ரஜினிகாந்த்; Kannada: ರಜನೀಕಾಂತ್; Marathi: रजनीकांत), is an Indian film actor. He received India’s third highest honour, the Padma Bhushan, for his contribution to Indian cinema.[2] He is best known for his mass popularity and appeal, largely drawn from his mannerisms and stylized delivery of dialogue in films. Other than acting, Rajinikanth worked as a screenwriter, film producer, and also a playback singer. Apart from his film career, he is a philanthropist and also serves as an influence in the politics of Tamil Nadu.

Rajinikanth debuted as an actor in 1975 under the direction of K. Balachander in supporting roles. He was later favoured in portraying antagonistic characters and gradually rose to acting in lead roles. After the release of his 1978 film Bhairavi, he became known as the “super star” of Tamil cinema, which was the title given to him by film Producer Director Oscar Movies M.Bhaskar [3] and till this date used by many people to refer to him.[4][5] He also appeared in the cinemas of other nations, including American cinema. He was paid Rs. 26 crores for Sivaji: The Boss, making him the highest paid actor in Asia after Jackie Chan.[6][7]

To Join Rajin fans Team Join Rajini fans Team

This morning I was about to put a CD in the car stereo when a song came on the radio that made me pause and grin. It was Bruce Springsteen singing “Santa Clause is Coming to Town,” and I smiled because the song reminded me of Lora.

Lora was a humor editor at the old Gibson Greetings when I worked there as a writer. She was a few years older than me (mid-40s at the time, I think), short and pleasantly round, with a face like a Scandinavian Christmas elf.

Lora was a character in a lot of ways, but what I loved in particular was her annual Christmas tradition. Lora listened to WEBN, one of our local rock stations, on headphones at her desk as she read humor card submissions. There came a time each November or December when Lara heard Springsteen’s Santa song for the first time that year. At that point she would don a braided, stuffed fabric door wreath like a turban and go dancing through the editorial department, announcing to everyone that the Christmas season had officially begun!

The thick, padded wreath made her look like one of the magi in a headdress, which wasn’t such a bad holiday image, either. Once, we were going down to the cafeteria for something, and Lora decided to wear her wreath. It was disconcerting how few people saw any humor in it. In fact, dour souls in the hallways actually scowled at her. Lora didn’t really seem to care.

Lora passed away about ten years ago. She’d been let go in one of the massive layoffs that struck Gibson in the 90s, and she never really recovered. She stagnated at home, smoking and eating too much of all the wrong foods (she had severe diabetes). She succumbed on the operating table during heart surgery. She’d been gone from Gibson a few years by that time, but the loss was felt and lamented.

I’m not certain, but I think she didn’t take her stuffed Christmas wreath with her when she was let go. I always wondered what became of it. It doesn’t matter. Whenever I hear The Boss’s gritty version of “Santa Clause is Coming to Town,” I see Lora dancing again. She’s still short and plump, but she’s lighter on her feet than she ever was as she strutted through the maze of cubicles. Her crown is still the wreath of stuffed, braided calico, but she shimmers as if she were crowned with The Star and the gold and jewels of the Wise Men who followed it.

Hey, Lora! I guess the Christmas season officially began this morning.

So, this week (well, the first half of it at any rate), has turned out to be Dedicated to My Third Years. Wednesday’s memory reflects this theme, and so I get to feature all of our usual suspects. Additionally, we can probably add a few more to our growing Character List.

~So, let’s get started.~

* New Character: Tatsuki’s Sister
Tatsuski (not his real name) was a student that I taught for about two years. He was a second year when I arrived in Japan, and one of the more memorable ones to have come and gone. His English was one of the best in the school, and he had the most incorrigible, mischievous personalities I’ve ever come across. He was fond of putting together strange sentences using the day’s grammar point. For example, when we studied ~isn’t it? (It’s really hot today, isn’t it?), he came up with: I’m dead, aren’t I?

Anyway, his sister is two years younger than him, and although there are differences in their personalities, they resemble each other to a remarkable degree. Both are really hardcore kendo athletes, both enjoy English, both can’t stop talking or vital organs start to shut down… She’s on my list of Students I Especially Like right now because she gave a speech at the Culture Festival about how she wants to be an English teacher because I make the language look so cool. Did I also mention that she’s a natural politician? Anyway, she came up and talked to me about this before class today and it was a really cute conversation.

* The Boss wants to be a girl
Or, at least, that’s what he said when we split up into girls vs. boys teams to play Jeopardy. I have no idea why he felt this way, but then he proceeded to make a joke out of it for the entire class period. All I had to do was call him Ms. Boss, and he’d start to flutter his eyelashes and speak in a really high-pitched voice. In the States, no respectable adolescent dude would be caught dead pretending to be a girl. That’s just asking for grief. In Japan, though, they have some very different ideas about gender roles and behaviors, and so it was all just fun. I am easily amused; his antics made ME laugh and thus derailed class several times.

* Macho Man is Super Macho
He challenged me to an arm wrestling match after class today and I lost. -_-;; I think he’s been training for an upcoming track competition, whereas I have been dancing to Chris Brown and Jay Sean. I’m kind of happy that he won, though, because I think he can savor the victory more than I can. Macho Man is also hilarious. Purely, simply, and unabashedly hilarious. I recently taught him the extremely natural and youthful greeting of: “What’s up?” “Nothing much.” and we use it ALL THE TIME. He must’ve said it to me five times today.

* New Character: The Policeman
Also a third year! He is one of The Savant’s best friends (although The Savant has recently made the claim that, “I don’t have any friends. I am mysterious. I make people happy. I am alone.” The Savant lies a lot.), and is probably one of the better kendo athletes in the prefecture. He wants to be a police officer when he grows up, hence the nickname.

The Policeman often makes me laugh because when he’s surprised in class, he will often blurt out random and hilarious English. Once, the students were given the task of memorizing the sentence, “I saw a lady at a restaurant who was touching her earlobe.” The JTE called on him to recite it, and he was so shocked at being picked that he instead gave us the sentence, “I saw a lady at a restaurant who was touching her people.” That made me happier than almost anything else ever.

Today, the sentence they had to recite was, “It’s important to give others both our time and skills.” He managed to say it without any problems, but when they were practicing, I taught him the phrase, “I have skills.” Or, perhaps, more appropriately, “I have skillz.” He liked it. A lot. For the rest of English class (and according to other teachers, for the rest of the day) he kept repeating it whenever he did something. Completed math test: “I have skillz.” Won a basketball game: “I have skillz.” Tracked the path of the sun: “I have skillz.”

The Policeman. Skillz. He has them.

*Mary Sunshine
In addition to almost falling asleep on me before class started (and stealing my scarf because she was cold), she’s asked me to teach her a dance like the one that I did at the Culture Festival. So, that’s what we started to do during lunch recess. The other students are curious – I can tell that some of the others want to learn, but they’re really hesitant and shy about it. I dream big, and so I kind of have hopes of starting a lunchtime dance group. I have no idea if this could actually happen, but I won’t know unless I try. At any rate, right now it’s me and Mary Sunshine, and I can say honestly that she has promise. I think we’ll be able to get a routine down by the end of December.

*The Student Government President
Chose yesterday to reiterate, in front of The Awesome (and Terrified) Vice Principal why I am an M in the S and M division of relationships as determined by the Japanese. I must remember to thank her for the sudden drop in dignity that I experienced. -_-

And last but certainly not least … The Savant
The Savant really is one of a kind. The degree to which we have been interacting this year has been rewarding, and although I don’t understand why this year I have earned his attention, I’m glad that he’s deciding to give it. We got into a really interesting conversation during cleaning time yesterday about Christmas traditions, where Christmas came from, and how it’s celebrated differently in Japan and the States. Then we got into a debate about why he’s not perfect. That really is the golden thread that runs through every conversation we have and gives substance to the tapestry of our interactions.

Aaaaand…. all of these varied and intense interactions with my third years came to a stunning conclusion during music class. My Japanese Sister’s computer has been acting strange, and so she asked if I could come by during the class and show the students a music video for The Beatles’s Hey Jude.

When I walked into the classroom? You guessed it. Everyone turned to the door and said, HEY JUUUUUUUUULIE!

Can’t you feel the love?

A beautiful and blinding morning
The world outside begins to breathe

So, I’ve been having some problems pulling out one memory from Tuesday. Nothing especially significant happened, and I feel like some of my memories are starting to get a little repetitive.

But, choose I must, and so this is what I’ve come up with: The Boss has been feisty this week. It must be because of his birthday. Also, Hyde can be drawn into one-on-one conversations. (Okay, so maybe that’s two memories. But, they’re related, I swear.)

Tuesday, my third years were all in one class together for English (instead of two separate ones, the way that it’s usually done). It’s hard to do a lot of activities when there are 32 children in a single classroom, and so it was more of a reading day. (Not the most riveting of classes, but, hey, it has to be done.)

So, I was up at the front of the room, reading about Nishioka Keiji, this Japanese man who went to Bhutan and taught the locals how to grow Japanese vegetables. As we were going through our reading practice (I read, they repeat, I read, they repeat…), I noticed that The Boss was getting louder and louder. Then, when we got to the part of the practice where the kids and I had to read at the same time and they had to try to keep up with me, I got the sense that he was actually competing with me. This eventually morphed into an actual competition, with him skipping entire sentences and the claiming that I was adding more words just so that I could look like “I was better at English than him or something.”

The whole thing was very cute, and quite fun. I like The Boss because his English is always loud and somewhat incomplete, but I still know exactly what he’s talking about. He is also known for getting stuck on a single phrase and just … you know, repeating it ad nauseum. Yesterday’s phrase was “I have COMMENTS,” which was tossed out every forty-five seconds or so (even in the middle of the reading).

I think that the scene stands out in my mind because he isn’t always so communicative, and I always enjoy it when previously quiet or uninterested students suddenly decide that they want to interact with me (regardless of what English we use). I had a similar interaction with Hyde after school. I was leaving for the day so that I could visit Friday’s elementary school and talk to the teachers there, and I saw that he was looking at a cooking magazine. I couldn’t resist, and so I stopped by briefly to chat with him about the desserts. He is a self-professed “shy boy,” and so I was entertained and really pleased when he started talking to me about his favorite desserts. I told him that I like spicy chocolate and that blew his mind so much that he actually asked me questions about it. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: questions from shy students are worth their weight in gold.

And… there you have it. Tuesdsay, The Boss was loud and Hyde and I talked about dessert. Small things to be sure, but fun nonetheless.

Roughly a week or two ago (time’s flying by these days), I became GM of my guild, completing a process of going from long time member to being part of our loot council (which I always pretended to be in my own mind; I probably had a 85% correct guess rate at who got what, heh) that took place in the past 2ish months.

One concern I have: My availability. I work 8-5 Monday through Friday; when I get home, I take a bit to unwind, do some excercise, chores, etc. I’m usually doing good to be in game by 7PM, which is just over a hour before raid invites go out. I’m expecting that hour to become hell between trying to juggle between guild management (aka tells coming from every which way), my own raid prep (which generally consists of doing dailies to acquire gold for consumables and repairs), plus whatever else may be going on. Initially I wasn’t too concerned about availability, because one of our officers used to be online during a good portion of the weekdays while I was at work, so we had coverage for that. His work schedule has changed, though, so that amount of time he was available will be all but gone. Another long-time officer is calling it quits for now; being he’s occupied with his work and study, it’s totally cool. Good to see priorities take precedence over this silly (but oh so fun and addictive) timesink we call WoW.

Another concern: My knowledge of ALL game mechanics. I feel fairly well versed with most all the finer points of raiding, but I’ve been prone to miss/forget things (Hey our hunters can misdirect those loose mobs that gibbed the healer that last attempt). This brings me to a conflict in leadership styles; my initial reaction to the made up scenario I described would be that our hunters know well enough when and how to use misdirect that I shouldn’t have to tell them when. On the flip side, maybe I should be, so that what’s going on is clear. I’ve got a guild full of solid players, though, so any gaps in my knowledge of classes/mechanics should be easily covered. I simply hope that if such gaps are exposed that folks aren’t like “Wow, for a GM you’re a dumbass”.

I would be lying if I said there wasn’t a degree of nervousness at this point. I can’t honestly remember the last time I was in a position where I was asked to lead a group of folks. I think we just need to get after some content today and that should help clear up the nerves some.

The goal I have in mind for the guild at this time is to work on and (hopefully) complete heroic ToC 25. The burning question as of late, though, is what to do when we don’t have enough folks to work on it. I place part of the blame on ToC itself: At this point, our guild can clear 25 normal ToC in a hour. Heroic 10 man takes about a hour, while regular 10 man…heh, our record so far is 18 minutes, based on my flask timer. As burned out as I was getting with Ulduar…I miss having a “real” raid instance. I hope like hell Blizzard takes note of the general disdain most of us have for the ToC design; sure, on paper, a raid with NO TRASH sounds like nirvana to some (one loot pinata boss after another), but having seen it in execution…no thanks. Easy for me to say, being I don’t need a single drop from anything at this point save for heroic ToC 25.

Easy to pin the tail on the donkey known as ToC, though. Looking forward to ICC, though…we’re going to need more folks. Simple as that. Night after night of only having 20-22 folks on come raid time just won’t cut it anymore. Folks are tiring of having to wait for us (officers) to figure out what we’re going to do (rather than what’s posted on the calendar) due to lack of able bodies (raiders). I enjoy challenging raids, so I want to pursue progression over faceroll farm content where the difficulty lies in staying awake the entire raid. Reminds me of T7 content…although we fortunately had Sarth 3D, which was tough at the time but manageable (and a neatly designed encounter, imo).

All the rambling aside, this looks to be trying (but interesting) times for the guild. With the holiday season upon us, folks are taking interest in new games, and I’m down with that. You’ve also got holiday travel and college/HS finals coming up, so I don’t expect some miraculous attendance turnaround in the near future. Despite this bit of doom-and-gloom, I’m feeling somewhat optimistic that come 3.3, ICC *should* revitalize a lot of folks for raiding. I know it will for me (doesn’t hurt that our T10 is pretty cool looking ).

WTB [Moar Optimism], plus patch 3.3. PST.

…. has nothing directly to do with this post. I just like it.

Monday’s memory is somewhat difficult to decide upon. On one hand, it was The Boss’s birthday, and we had a really hilarious moment in English class when he was trying to get tribute out of me and The Savant started telling rampant lies about his own birth experience. It went along the lines of something like this:

The Boss:    Julie, it’s my birthday.
Me:               (Deliberately making fun of his accent.) Your bath day? You only bathe once a year? That’s gross.
The Boss:   NO. BIRTHDAY. BIRTH. DAY.
Me:               Bath day???
The Boss:   JULIE. 15 YEARS AGO. MY MOTHER …. BIG PAIN.  THEN, ME.
The Savant:  I was born in South Africa.

This eventually lead to a discussion about how when I turned fifteen, I got my learner’s permit. I then baited the kids and asked who would be the most dangerous driver in the class (90% answered it would be The Boss). I was surprised, because we ended up taking up about five minutes of class time with our shenanigans, but The JTE was cool with it. She continually surprises me.

Monday was also noteworthy because I had a lovely dinner with a good friend of mine. He and I came to Japan at the same time (almost four years ago… yikes), and he’s going to be heading back to the States at the end of this week. It will be strange to be in Japan and not have the option of going to see him in Kobe (where he’s been living for about a year and a half), but I suppose this is the nature of, well, the universe. People are always going to have things that they need to do, and will always be flowing in and out of each others’ lives. Still, it doesn’t really feel like it’s “goodbye” for us, so that makes the process easier this time around.

And as for the rest of the week – rampant work and activity. I have a heavy class schedule through Friday, am going to Nagoya on Saturday, and have (you guessed it) another festival on Sunday. Luckily, Monday is a holiday, and so that will be my “real weekend” day.

Oh, fall in Japan. There’s nothing quite like it.

“Do you remember the times that we used to have?”

Se atreverá Bruce a volver dar un concierto en Santiago tras la que le montaron en el último?
Ojalá.

Yesterday I was riding in a car with my friends Ty and Chris. Everyone knows Ty and has called him Tito since high school. One time his dad f*cked up and called him T-Bone. Luckily it never stuck. In college, Ty proclaimed himself as the Spoon and then eventually the Mayor. This came after he Youtubed three hours of old McDonald’s commercials featuring Mayor McCheese. He loved it. These days, I call him Ty D but he prefers T. Jackson or The Hate F*ck (it was his facebook name until it was censored) or The Ol’ Boy. Whatever you call him, he is a lovely and fair skinned gentleman.

Chris, who was also in the car, was once known as Dolph Lundgren after his uncanny resemblance to the Siberian Bull from the movie Rocky IV. Recently and unknowingly he was nicknamed Carrots by my wife, J-Dubs. J-Dubs has been called Wooten or Hot Pants and J Maz.  She has a myriad of friends like Skirt Steak and Droopy Nipple. Droopy Nipple used to work at Applebee’s where she rated highest in customer satisfaction. Apparently, her tips reflected her performance and she became known as Boosty Tipple or BT for short which evolved into Burny Tits and then Swink.

My other friend is Sizzle Bok who dressed as a Mexican named Johnny Gomez for a costume party. My brother is Milhouse, Milkill, Milshoe, Shoe, Shoehouse, Millie and, from a misspelling on his high school letter jacket, Millhouse.  I know Jim Jam and Rik.  I have a friend Jake the Snake.  One named J. Pa. and Blum (sounds like bloom).  Blum hangs out with Nelson and Steve B.  Gary is one.  Teens is another.  Goldy, Chesty and Slitty Wrists.  S Mas and his son, X Mas.  J Leezy for sheezy.  Drary.  The Boss, Champ or Curty.  Petey and Wheels and Lamby Poo.  Jay Nev. Teddy Po.  I saw J.R. Swish on TV.  Oh, and for me…they call me Wolsamnoraa (not really, though) which is part Russian and, as I found out today from my mother and her husband, Papa Paul, part French which translates as Special Boy.  And that’s all I can think of right now.  Did I miss one?  Fill me in.

This is where I got the name McStainy. My dry cleaner, Mr. Wong, is such a goof.

uff marron – news & views? getting no work done here! oh well, no fieldwork materials! bonus.

obvious tune for the evening: ‘Born in the USA’, Bruce Springsteen

Nova participação do “The Bo$$”, desta vez com The Clipse e Pharrel, na versão remix da música “I’m Good”. Rick Ross com certeza acrescentou com sua voz e seu flow mais pesados, dando um toque de qualidade ao som. “The Clipse” é a dupla de hip hop formada pelos rappers Malice e Pusha T e estão na atividade desde 1992, sob a produção de Pharrel Williams. A música é boa, vale a pena conferir. Check this out! Letra da música.

Diva…like that’s a BAD thing.

Perfectionist. Uncompromising. High Standards. Ruthless. Loving. Icon. An Original Fashionista. Envied. Emulated.

The Boss.

In 1973 George M Steinbrenner III lead a group of investors who purchased the New York Yankees for 10mm from CBS.  Since that day the Yankees and the city of New York have never been the same.  A francise worth 10mm was transformed into a 1.2 billion dollar enterprise.   There has been one stadium renovation  and one entirely new state of the art ball park built in the Bronx.    There has been the formation a of sports network.   Countless hiring and firings of managers.   One suspension.  Endless controversy and most importantly 11 pennants and 6 world series titles.   This period has been rocky, explosive, exacerbating, trying, glorious, magical and iconic all at same time.   The only constant during this wonderful chaos was George himself and the city of New York. 

Like any marriage the relationship between George Steinbrenner and this town has had its up and downs.   There have been times where he was hated for his antics with Billy Martin, and the  firing of Yogi which sent him away from the Yankees for far too long.   This was countered by the periods where he was appreciated for his drive to win and willingness to put his wallet on the line to achieve that goal.   In a time when “average is not only satisfactory but actually prefered, George gave his troops the ultimatum that winning the World Series was the only acceptable thing.  He is a microcosm representing the city for which his beloved Yankees play.  He is a New Yorker.   Sometimes petulant, fiery, spoiled, but always moving.   Always  striving, taking risks, and living at that franetic pace which seperates us from the country.   In many ways George is a living example of the best and the worst of New York and the people who call it home.   “If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere” is not just a line in a song to New Yorkers, but something worn as a badge of honor, and his Yankees measure their worth in championships.  He is and all or none type of guy in a cut throat city were its kill or be killed.   New York is at times bigger than life, and the Yankees under Steinbrenners control have been the same.

George M Steinbrenner III has suffered numerous health problems over the last few years.   His family is attempting to treat his demise with as much respect as possible.  They guard his condition and appearance with as much zeal as he showed owning the francise.   Hal and Hank, his two sons are now the face the ownership.   The Boss rarely leaves Tampa and has been conspicuously absent from the new stadium and the playoffs.   Never was it more apparent than when the Yankees  showered themselves with champagne after beating the Angels.   Something was missing without him.   Tonight before game one of the World Series, Mr Steinbrenner is going to attempt to make it to his new stadium.   For possibly his last time the man born on the 4th of July is going to try and lead his troops into battle for the thing he holds most dear, a world series title.   He will problably be a shadow of his old self, hidden behind oversized shades which hide his frailty, but he still will be “The Boss”.   Whether you love or hate him it would be appropriate to stand and cheer him tonight.   A chapter of our youth and our city is coming to close.  Just like New York it hasn’t always been perfect but it has always been larger than life.   I’m a sucker for happy endings.   I’m hoping the last line reads like happily ever after with the Yankees 27th championship.   Thanks George for nothing else but being one of us, a true New Yorker till the end.

-Six

Nick: is this a recent album?

nope, it’s from 1982, it was his sixth.

well, I don’t know if all his albums are like that because I haven’t listened to him a lot…

well you must know some of his albums, cause the first ones I ever heard were the two you own.

heh, ok I guess I do know that they don’t all sound like this.

this is extremely dreary, and all the song’s are the same.

lyrically, melodically, they’re all the same.

it’s pretty boring.

when you hear the first number you think, ‘oh that’s nice’.

but then it just gets…..on you.

I’d never buy this, maybe if he spread the songs out over a number of albums.

they should put a health warning on the cover.

or at least give away free antidepressants with it.

I’ve heard a lot of negative and depressive music, but this is the ultimate.

well these were originally intended to just be demos, versions were recorded with the E Street Band, but everyone agreed the demos had a feel that couldn’t be bettered.

well then everyone messed up.

Phah! I’m not even gonna bother defending this one. You know.

http://www.myspace.com/brucespringsteen

Echt waar, het is niet anders. Er rest me dan ook niets meer dan te dromen over mijn terugkeer maar voor nu sluit ik me aan bij de woorden die Herman Brood letterlijk ter uitvoering. bracht

And now the end is near
And so we face the final curtain
My friends I say it clear
I’ll state my case of which I’m certain
I’ve loved this holiday full
We’ve travelled each and every highroad
And more much more than this
We did it our way

Thank you all for everything, till we meet again!

InsAllah

The November newsletter from the Save A Valuable Employee (SAVE) Program. Included in this issue are an article on financial stress and losing sleep, another on internet addiction, one about self-motivation and exercise, and more…

(If the print is too small on your screen hit ‘Ctrl +’ to enlarge.)