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Messages - Syna

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61
General Discussion / Re: The $%*! frustration thread
« on: December 03, 2011, 01:46:49 pm »
Seconding Saj, too-- the Spanish you're maligning is, in actuality, one of the easiest languages in the world to learn-- THE easiest, apparently, for English-speakers!-- and vastly easier than English by any rubric.

Americans, for cultural and geographic reasons, don't develop their language-accumulating skills as strongly as people in other countries. I once taught Korean kids ESL. If you think English to Spanish is hard, try Korean to freaking English -- it's insane. Yet they managed it brilliantly and were typically better writers than most English-speakers I've taught-- not only through their insane work ethic, but through early exposure to other languages (and English, through the culture industry).

Language is, furthermore, not a model that merely describes objective reality. It actually actively shapes the reality we see in fascinating ways, as this video about the Himba tribe will show. "Der" and "dem" and "des", within the broader context of the language, become intricacies that can convey great subtlety. A good way of appreciating this is reading Spanish literature in translation, and then the original thing -- that tends to drive home how much is lost. If we merged all languages to one, this fascinating variety wouldn't exist...

That said, the whole gender thing in language totally wigs me out, too. I've been meaning to see if any studies have been done on the romance languages & gender perception but I haven't managed it yet...

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General Discussion / Re: The $%*! frustration thread
« on: December 02, 2011, 11:46:08 pm »
Two of my beloved roommates, who are a couple, have declared their intention to find a house for themselves, thus splitting up our proud cadre of five. We've lived together for as many years, since 2006, and we all placed such stock in each other, such faith in our friendship together and our times together. They are my second family, and this feels like a breakup, if an amicable one.

These friends intend to buy a house in the neighborhood we're living in, so in some ways, it's like a more permanent foundation for our friendship. Wherever I go in the next years, they will, more than likely, be here in the East End for me to visit. But the spontaneous good times are gone-- the random heart-to-hearts, the easy dinners cooked together, the group parties, the endless in-jokes. We will now have a more conventional friendship where we won't see each other unless we visit. And I can't help but feel a little mortified. My friends are no traditional married couple by any reckoning, but this is a step in the direction of becoming more domestic. Settling down is not in my foreseeable future, and I hope that we can have much in common regardless of the fork in our paths. I hope we can remain close. Friends moving away is a reality for our generation, and some of mine I have remained by my side, but others have definitely drifted away. The thought of the latter happening upsets me.

I try to embrace change. Eulogy in greek is eu logia, a "speech of goodness." When you mourn something's passing, you mourn the beauty of what it was, and so part of embracing change is embracing the sadness it brings wholeheartedly. There is much to come, more wonder and beauty than I could possibly imagine, including moments with these friends, but much is being lost. I'll do my best to experience every aspect of what is happening, for its own sake, and for its own terms. 

63
General Discussion / Re: Stuff you LOVE, baby
« on: December 02, 2011, 03:02:26 pm »
I agree with you there. The whole holiday season, from Halloween to New Year's, feels unlike the rest of the year--more special and glowing with a human warmth otherwise unseen. It's easy enough to lose sight of that, both in daily routines and in the crass consumerism of the season, but it's also easy enough not to lose sight of that.

Indeed. I think it could be traced back to times where the winter was something very much to be feared, and people spent much time indoors; the winter festivals were something to do with the time, something to look forward to. I think that's why I love them so much... I love the idea that human warmth, community, and custom can give you something to look forward to even in the cold and darkness.

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General Discussion / Re: Stuff you LOVE, baby
« on: December 01, 2011, 08:49:21 pm »
...so Thought just won at Chrono Compendium. Pack up everyone. It's over.

(Tushantin, you get second prize for the awesome picture.)

65
General Discussion / Re: Stuff you LOVE, baby
« on: December 01, 2011, 04:37:30 pm »
And who doesn't love old guys flying drunkenly through the sky, I wonder!

(Charlemagne! That's crazy. I'd heard of a few other analogues but not that one!)

66
General Discussion / Re: Stuff you LOVE, baby
« on: December 01, 2011, 12:46:46 pm »
I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!

It's really the only time I feel I experience any kind of truly meaningful community ritual in our culture. (Hallowe'en and Mardi Gras, perhaps, are other contenders, but those two holidays don't have the same feeling of communality.) I may not be a Christian, but I love the Nativity story, I love singing the hymns*, I can tolerate the Christmas services I'm forced to attend**, I love good Christmas specials (Muppet Christmas Carol!), I love eggnog and hot chocolate and cider-rum, I love pretty holly wreaths and greenery, etc.  

Christmas forces me to look consumerism, Dominionism, and cliche in the eye, but I like the idea of triumphing over it with beauty, good taste, a sense of sanctity, and good spirits! Peace on earth & good will toward men. I don't celebrate the birth of my saviour, but I can sure as hell celebrate that-- and a good Story.

* Though I discreetly change the "he" pronouns to "she" while singing them. What can I say, I'm a troll like that.
** I do have to resist the urge to say "Bacchus himself has liberated me!" during the Nicene Creed. Again. I'm a total troll.
*** Also, for your edification, apparently the myths of Saint Nicholas were based on myths of Odin and the Wild Hunt. This blows my mind. If you ever happen to feel that the magic of Christmas has been bought and sold via an insidiously jolly and saccharine red-faced man, just imagine Odin on his eight-legged horse drunk of his gourd and leading a pack of ferocious ghosts!


67
General Discussion / Re: Stuff you hate
« on: November 29, 2011, 02:15:03 am »
Just a simple thing to contemplate on: While a man opening the door for a woman may look chivalrous in nature, it may actually be out of kindness and emotional generosity towards a stranger. Perhaps he does that for both men and women? How would you recognize chivalry from a courteous one?

That's exactly my point -- I don't know, and I prefer to err on the side of charity and politeness. So in the case of things like door-opening I tend to be generous in my assumption that they are motivated by courtesy. In the case of males trying to lift things for me, that's more obviously something they do because I'm female; though even in that case, in the rare situation that I am genuinely struggling (usually because I'm not as tall as they are and the object is bulky) I will of course be grateful for their offer.

However, often chivalry is just the default, as in the case of the man who thought I couldn't load my barbell on my own, even though I was carrying the weight capably. In those cases I feel the best outcome is gently refusing to let them help, which will hopefully implicitly point to their benevolent sexism.

68
General Discussion / Re: Park Your Amusements Here
« on: November 28, 2011, 08:44:08 pm »
Ugly Renaissance Babies.

I admit, I like snarky humour more than I should, but that aside, it is refreshing to see the Renaissance not being held as "teh best of evers."

This is yet another example of the great boon tumblr provides humanity. Where else could all the ugly Renaissance babies be catalogued???

Also, I just choked on my coffee.

69
General Discussion / Re: Stuff you hate
« on: November 28, 2011, 03:29:01 pm »
People are so quick to assume that females are weak, and I rather suspect that it's because sexism is so ubiquitously entrenched that they think so, rather than that they're just lying fools who knowingly participate in a sexist culture and then spout lies to deny their crimes. (There are some of the latter, but I think the former are far more numerous.)

I agree, and my experiences with chivalrous attitudes has made me consider this issue closely a number of times. When a male performs a chivalrous act, and an act which is very explicitly performed because I am female and cannot be interpreted as mere generosity, I have often been at a loss for how to respond. Most of the time these males really do not mean it in any kind of patronizing way. I don't even think they consider females inferior, much of the time -- they are just mistaken about our capabilities, or want to show respect in a way they do not recognize as dysfunctional, or want to validate their identities as males to society at large.

To that end I tend to let go of actions like someone's opening the door for me or pulling out a chair. Such actions could be theoretically performed for anyone and any method I'd have of stopping these would likely be blanketly alienating. By way of rebelling against it, however, I often hold open the door for whoever is behind me and of course if their hands are not free or are otherwise incapacitated. When someone tries to pick something up for me, however, or help me with something, I tend to smile and say no thanks. (This has happened, hilariously, when I'm in the process of loading up a barbell -- it's like, yes dude, I can pick this up, in fact, I plan on lifting three or five times as much, thanks!) Of yet no one has reacted defensively (and a couple of times, they have been kind and apologetic about it), so I think this is probably effective. It neither implicates the male directly nor seems ungrateful for the part of his gesture which is simply motivated by kindness.

It's difficult, though. Though chivalry is a complex topic, I do think most of its manifestations are sexist, and resisting it seems to evoke the most defensive and stubborn anti-feminism..

70
General Discussion / Re: Personality Discussion and Advice
« on: November 28, 2011, 03:07:52 pm »
I'd like to post a more substantial, introspective thing here later, but for now:

I have a tendency to dart around. I get quite impatient with walking, so I either walk very quickly or go place to place in little sprints. I suppose this is great for my long-term health, but it irritates people when they have to walk alongside me!

71
General Discussion / Re: The $%*! frustration thread
« on: November 28, 2011, 03:05:35 pm »
The use of that image is incredibly disturbing, J. Not only for its headlessness, but for how downright creepy the angle on a photo which is at least meant to look candid, as though the person was taking a casual stroll. (In short she may well have consented to the photo, but it certainly strikes one as if it were taken clandestinely.) If such a picture had been taken of a thinner woman, many would rightfully call it exploitative and leering, because exploitative and leering it happens to be.

72
like I said, there's still room to shuffle things around. or did someone else suggest the three gurus on sun/star/moon respectively?

Oh, it's the latter. Someone classified Sun/Star/Moon as the Gurus. I liked the idea in theory but in practice I did not feel it cohered. I think the Star and Sun work very well as we've been discussing them and thought we might take the chance to include another character alongside the Dreamstone.

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indeed. I just felt that since we wanted a bit more representation from prehistory and the future, that the chrono trigger and dreamstone would do nicely.

I think it's a great idea.

73
A quick thought pending some substantive discussion on the Guru & Empress issues:

Would it be possible to combine Dreamstone with a character, just to go with a similar schtick for the Sun, Moon, and Star cards? Just a thought. I imagined that Queen Zeal might fit and would be a way of merging the two ideas, but that does color the card a bit negatively & she doesn't encompass all of what Dreamstone connotes. On the other hand, you do get a bit of the "possibly nightmarish 'valley of the shadow of death' period" meaning a little more emphatically.

I'm backtracking a bit on the Black Omen because: 1) it is optional content, after all (and doesn't have the compelling reasons for including Mother Brain), and 2) it strikes me as a little symmetrically off to have the Star and Sun depicted with characters and the Moon to be a place. I don't agree with the placement of the Gurus in those three positions for appropriateness reasons, but it was a really nice idea to have the three cards relate to each other.

I like the idea of depicting "trans-period" entities in the time where you encounter them (The Chrono Trigger & Belthasar in the Future, Melchior in the Present, etc.). I am also quite comfortable with Lavos as Death & The Chrono Trigger as Judgment. In the case of Death perhaps we can emphasize somehow that Lavos was the catalyst for the adventure & human evolution, etc. to offset the negative qualities.

Just some ideas, feel free to discard! I don't want to make this TOO complicated, and it's a minor point.

74
General Discussion / Re: Stuff you hate
« on: November 26, 2011, 02:39:17 pm »
I'm really glad to see more people noticing things like this. Even in the past ten years, if I can attempt to correct for my higher level of sensitivity now relative to then, these heights of awareness seemed to be firmly in the province of academics and political activists. I think, to the extent my observation is valid, we can credit the Internet for popularizing the facts and notions of the sexual equality movement to people who aren't explicitly dedicated to the cause already. (I don't know your level of involvement with the pursuit of sexual equality, Syna, so I don't know if that applies to you specifically.)

Well, I was a feminist* throughout my teens -- it was quite impossible to survive without some feminism to bolster me in an environment that was rather condescending towards the idea -- but ten years ago was about when I began to study issues surrounding sexual equality in earnest, so I'm not sure how I would fit into your observation. My early interest in queer issues probably set me apart from the beginning, tbh. 

But I certainly hope that the Internet has popularized these insights! I do know more women who are willing to talk about sexual equality than before-- when I began college, for instance, many would downplay the issues... and I think I've read that more women than ever are into strength-training, after years and years of certain fitness gurus harping on about how effective it can be. Now, the strength-training line has often been sold with statements like "you WON'T bulk up" and "this is the best way to lose fat," but I do notice that while many women adopt the exercise based on an interest in aesthetics, they continue because it makes them feel awesome.

It's curious, though. I knew intellectually that cultural mechanisms like chivalry were, in part, methods by which females were encouraged to fulfill weak role, and I had enough awareness of anthropology to recognize that the domestic tasks expected of lower-class women throughout history actually required quite a bit of strength. But these awarenesses were not internalized until I began lifting weights as an exercise. I just did not ever expect that I'd be strong. Nothing replaces experience when it comes to how you instinctually assess a situation, I suppose.

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The effect is small, with respect to the number of people with higher sensitivity relative to the vast size of the total population, but distinctly apparent.

Right-- difficult to assess how mainstream it is. Again looking at strength-training as a microcosm, I'm still the only woman lifting any substantial amount of weight in my gym a good 95% of the time. (And my "substantial amount" is still squarely in novice-to-intermediate territory.)

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Another possibility is that I've got it backwards--that more people have thought this way for a while (though it raises the question of "Since when, and whence the change?") and the Internet simply brings to our attention this higher level of commitment than is reported in the media.

Either way, I certainly hope it's a signal of some kind of cultural momentum.

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Anyhow, both of those remarks of yours are fierce keen...worth study and affirmation! The bit about feeling strong is just perhaps the most conspicuous aspect of a much bigger treasure trove: the power of learning to delight in one's own body, something that the world's major religions and most cultures have tried very hard to suppress in females. Enjoying your body, using it, understanding its abilities, extents, and sensations...that's a huge part of human identity, and crucial both for our personal development and social interaction.

Thank you, and I am gratified to see that you understand what's at stake. The female body is so fought over, regulated, and politicized that learning how to inhabit it is one of the greatest triumphs against sexism one can make, imho. I was in fact a textbook case of mind-body disconnection for a very long time (partially by my own fairly cerebral and pretty clumsy nature, and partially due to gender dysphoria, which was largely a reaction to sexism). I'm sure that many other females have similar issues, and I wish that they were addressed more openly. I suppose it's a great deal harder to talk about than abortion, but it is no less significant a topic, I think!

75
General Discussion / Re: Stuff you hate
« on: November 26, 2011, 01:50:22 pm »
RW, much of what you said about the oppression of atheists is quite applicable to people who participate in minority "faiths" or who don't relate to mainstream religious universe (of which atheism is, make no question, actually part and parcel). Without diminishing the excellent points you've made with regard to where you, and others on the board, are standing, and without diminishing your post's value as a way of empathizing with what I consider to be a completely legitimate worldview, I want to gently suggest that presuming that everyone falls onto one side or another on the fence is not a good presumption and is probably an obstacle to the cultural traction of atheist causes.  

For various reasons, I don't object to most of Zeality's tactics. I am a die-hard Blakean. "Without contraries there is no progression." I admire strong and vivid personalities and convictions, and, more than anything, imaginative vision, even if I would rebel and resist if that vision were ever forced upon me. You could say that I value these things more than correctness, at least as it's conceived of by Enlightenment-influenced Western minds. But I can see where tactics like his, and that of other atheists, stand contrary to their many laudable goals, so I feel the need to make this point.

The framework that atheists invoke with respect to the oppression of religion is highly specific to our culture. It is useful in that it reveals certain important tensions and presents certain battles that must be fought -- such as maintaining the intellectual rigor of the sciences and resisting rampant pseudoscience. (As someone whose high school curriculum included mandatory rants against evolutionary theory, I do understand how vital it is that such battles are uncompromisingly fought.) It is certainly useful in that it allows atheists to cope with a culture that can be violently hostile toward their perspective. It is even occasionally useful when applied to non-Western countries. However, like all frameworks, it is limited by our perceptual stance, and it excludes much; most of the universe, in fact.  

I am not a secular humanist nor a believer. I just don't play the "religious or no" game. I am far more interested in psyche, aesthetics, culture, and experiences than abstract philosophy -- and in the latter case I hold that the only truly reasonable stance is Robert Anton Wilson-esque agnosticism. I'm not going to go into my complex worldview here, but suffice to say there is no way I can fit in that theist-versus-atheist framework you're describing. No possible way -- not without truly Procrustean amounts of reductivism, anyway. I would venture to presume that many on this forum feel the same -- Bekkler and xcalibur the Deists, Tushantin my fellow Something Else Entirely, and even, perhaps, Thought the Christian. We are in the good company of the majority of humans throughout history.

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