Back when my husband and I first arrived in Japan, we enjoyed playing Trivial Pursuit. We had the original version before it had been dumbed down as well as a couple of expansions. Though we liked playing it, there were a few problems. One was that I was seriously handicapped when it came to sports categories. I don't like sports and I don't know anything about them.
My cluelessness about sports inspired a running joke that is still going to this day. Any time a question about sports came up and I had no decent guess, I'd always say "Pete Rose". It didn't matter what sport the question was about, hockey, horse racing, football, I'd pause and think hard then answer "Pete Rose." Even now, if a sport comes up, I'll ask my husband something like, 'you know who is the highest scoring basketball player in history is?' And he'll reply with, "Pete Rose?"
Besides my sports ignorance making it damn near impossible for me to win a game (I'd spend half the game getting the last wedge), we also had problems playing with our friends because the game was so America-centric. The friends we attempted to play the game with were from England and Australia and there was no way they would or should know all of the pop culture, historical, and sports facts. We tried playing in teams to balance this, but it really wasn't much fun for our friends who didn't know silly things like who played Frank Burns on M*A*S*H. I'm guessing the British editions must include things like who played General Melchett on Black Adder. These are examples of the types of questions that are easy for those in the culture, but nearly impossible for those outside of it.
There is a web site called Mental Floss which has a lot of different articles, quizzes, etc. I've actually known about Mental Floss for quite some time as their articles were often featured on blogcritics (which I used to write for, but it's rather fallen by the wayside since my old blog passed away). Recently, I came across some pop culture quizzes through Mental Floss which reminded me of playing Trivial Pursuit. The first quiz I tried was about Milhouse on the Simpsons and I did very badly despite watching the show a fair amount. I guess I just don't pay attention to Milhouse, though I suspect that's part of his overall problem in life. (I hope that I retain some of my Simpsons credibility though when I say that I got 100% on the Troy McClure Film or Actual Terrible Movie quiz.)
One of the other quizzes is the "George Costanza Candy Identification Quiz". This one shows you various candy bars without their wrappers and you're supposed to try and identify the bars by their external appearance alone. They aren't bitten into or cut apart so you cannot see the interior of the bars. I was rather spooked to see that I got 100%. I didn't realize I was that into candy bars when I was a kid, but I guess I must have eaten more than I recall. I'm going to blame Halloween and trick or treating literally for hours. I guess getting so much candy that we had to empty out our bags into shopping bags in the car so they weren't too heavy to carry meant we got an awful lot of candy experience.
My husband did a few of the quizzes as well. He scored perfectly on things like naming all of the Democratic and Republican candidates who took part in the first presidential debates for the current election. He also was able to name all of the current supreme court justices and did very well on a quiz about what happened to a variety of presidents after they left office. Given that I knew all the candy bars and fake movies made by a character on the Simpsons and he knew all this political stuff, there was almost certainly more between me and victory at Trivial Pursuit than just a sports wedge.
Showing posts with label Internet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Internet. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Why do I always have to be the bad guy?
On multiple family-based comedies produced in the U.S. (The Simpsons and Roseanne spring to mind), there is a theme of one parent wanting to be popular or well-liked while the other, usually the mother, has to mete out discipline and try to instill a sense of balance rather than cater to their children's raging ids. In such cases, the mother has to be the bad guy who talks about unpleasant realities and consequences while Dad gets to be seen more as one of the kids.
As of late, I've started to feel a lot like my role when talking about Japan is one of being the bad guy. I try (very hard) to be balanced about life in Japan and to present both the yin and the yang of life here. When I talk about something positive, it doesn't mean that I see Japan as a flawless paradise. When I talk about something negative, it doesn't mean I hate Japan and see it as all dark and terrible. Unfortunately, my experiences with my former blog (and as of late, as a commenter on Digg) leave me with the impression that no matter what I say, someone is going to see my comments as painting things in black or white. Every comment or post is viewed in isolation rather than as part of my overall dialog about life (which I just happen to live in Japan). You'd think that my former blog readers would have known better, but some people seem to only focus on points they can argue with rather than on what is actually being said in an entire piece (or an entire blog). These people used to bug the hell out of me and I'm glad to have left them behind when I abandoned my old blog.
In most instances (particularly on Digg), I run across people who have never been to Japan or have only been here as tourists and have a fantasy image of it. In fact, sometimes I think that they cling to the notion of it being a superior society because it fulfills some need to believe there's a Utopian existence somewhere in the real world that they could live in if they just could find a way. I think others just enjoy imbuing Japan with whatever personal narrative suits their favored image of it. Because the overwhelming view of Japan is an unfairly positive one, I more often than not play the bad guy. I'm the parent who says the tooth fairy and Santa Claus aren't real. I'm the one who says that Japanese people aren't all polite and refined and that its not a safe place where you can leave your wallet lying around and no one will steal it. I get to be the one to break the news that the socialized medical care program is frequently abused and on occasion women die or give birth in ambulances because they are refused at hospitals.
I've realized as of late that the overwhelmingly positive (and exceptionally naive) view that many Westerners have of Japan forces me to one side of the topic when I get involved in discussions. That is, by others being polarized in a highly positive fashion, I can only add balance by focusing on the negative. I don't add such comments to discussions to harsh anyone's Japanophilic buzz, mind you. I do it because I think holding an idealized notion of any real place on earth tends to make people dislike their current circumstances and demonize their own culture's weaknesses more. Ultimately, those fantasies which are fueled by tons of pro-Japan PR doled out by news agencies both in Japan and abroad, are adding to an imbalanced view of life in general. The truth is that things are both good and bad in nearly every developed country.
Americans in particular seem inclined to focus excessively on America's bad points and Japan's good points. I'm guessing this is both a counter-balance to the rhetoric of neoconservatives and their ilk and buying into the heavily prejudiced world-wide view of the U.S. a dangerous place full of fat, stupid, mono-lingual, unworldly, materialistic people. This is a view which is espoused by those with no or little first-hand experience of the U.S. for the most part, though disillusioned Americans say such things as well. The irony is, of course, that Americans bad-mouthing other Americans never see themselves in the portrait of the ugly American that they themselves assist in painting. If every American can't see himself or herself as a part of these stereotypes, exactly who is fitting into them? The answer is no one.
Talking about both the positive and the negative is important so that people accept that life is never perfect and that the grass is always greener thinking is ultimately defeating and fruitless. Also, any discussion which is polarized lowers the discourse on both sides and fails to educate or be meaningful. For instance, those who badmouth the U.S. are only polarizing the discussion in the same way I noted earlier. If you see the U.S. as all negative, you force its defenders to talk about the parts that are all positive and invite jingoism and nationalism into the discussion. And finally, in regards to the way I comment about Japan, from a practical viewpoint, I'm also hoping to mitigate some rude awakenings for the handful of dreamers who ever actually make it over here to live for an extended time.
I've decided, however, that I don't like playing the role of "balancer" when it's frequently forcing me to focus on the negative because it in turn makes me dwell on the negative. I've spent years actively (and sometimes painfully) cultivating a less pessimistic character and a balanced spirit and I believe I'm undermining my efforts by trying to educate people who are not only ignorant of reality, but unreceptive to talk of it. In other words, if they want to keep believing in the Easter Bunny, I'm not going to fight them about it anymore. In retrospect, I have to question why I ever even tried. I'm guessing it leads back to some issues I've had for a long time regarding feeling it's somehow my responsibility to toss the ice cold water of reality into people's faces. However, I do believe it also has a lot to do with a sense of disliking polarized and ignorant views, but that sense isn't serving me very well, so it's time to stop catering to it.
To this end, on the Internet at large, I'm going to stop commenting on the highly-skewed articles that are present in abundance and coaxing people out of their romantic notions of Japan. On this blog, I'm going to do what I've always done which is talk about both the good and the bad and try to view things in a balanced fashion as it suits the sort of person I want to be. Of course, not every positive has a serious negative and not every negative has a serious positive so some posts will skew one way or another, but, on the whole, I'll endeavor (as I always have) to neither glorify nor demonize life in Japan, or anywhere else.
And, I guess I really should stay away from Digg.
As of late, I've started to feel a lot like my role when talking about Japan is one of being the bad guy. I try (very hard) to be balanced about life in Japan and to present both the yin and the yang of life here. When I talk about something positive, it doesn't mean that I see Japan as a flawless paradise. When I talk about something negative, it doesn't mean I hate Japan and see it as all dark and terrible. Unfortunately, my experiences with my former blog (and as of late, as a commenter on Digg) leave me with the impression that no matter what I say, someone is going to see my comments as painting things in black or white. Every comment or post is viewed in isolation rather than as part of my overall dialog about life (which I just happen to live in Japan). You'd think that my former blog readers would have known better, but some people seem to only focus on points they can argue with rather than on what is actually being said in an entire piece (or an entire blog). These people used to bug the hell out of me and I'm glad to have left them behind when I abandoned my old blog.
In most instances (particularly on Digg), I run across people who have never been to Japan or have only been here as tourists and have a fantasy image of it. In fact, sometimes I think that they cling to the notion of it being a superior society because it fulfills some need to believe there's a Utopian existence somewhere in the real world that they could live in if they just could find a way. I think others just enjoy imbuing Japan with whatever personal narrative suits their favored image of it. Because the overwhelming view of Japan is an unfairly positive one, I more often than not play the bad guy. I'm the parent who says the tooth fairy and Santa Claus aren't real. I'm the one who says that Japanese people aren't all polite and refined and that its not a safe place where you can leave your wallet lying around and no one will steal it. I get to be the one to break the news that the socialized medical care program is frequently abused and on occasion women die or give birth in ambulances because they are refused at hospitals.
I've realized as of late that the overwhelmingly positive (and exceptionally naive) view that many Westerners have of Japan forces me to one side of the topic when I get involved in discussions. That is, by others being polarized in a highly positive fashion, I can only add balance by focusing on the negative. I don't add such comments to discussions to harsh anyone's Japanophilic buzz, mind you. I do it because I think holding an idealized notion of any real place on earth tends to make people dislike their current circumstances and demonize their own culture's weaknesses more. Ultimately, those fantasies which are fueled by tons of pro-Japan PR doled out by news agencies both in Japan and abroad, are adding to an imbalanced view of life in general. The truth is that things are both good and bad in nearly every developed country.
Americans in particular seem inclined to focus excessively on America's bad points and Japan's good points. I'm guessing this is both a counter-balance to the rhetoric of neoconservatives and their ilk and buying into the heavily prejudiced world-wide view of the U.S. a dangerous place full of fat, stupid, mono-lingual, unworldly, materialistic people. This is a view which is espoused by those with no or little first-hand experience of the U.S. for the most part, though disillusioned Americans say such things as well. The irony is, of course, that Americans bad-mouthing other Americans never see themselves in the portrait of the ugly American that they themselves assist in painting. If every American can't see himself or herself as a part of these stereotypes, exactly who is fitting into them? The answer is no one.
Talking about both the positive and the negative is important so that people accept that life is never perfect and that the grass is always greener thinking is ultimately defeating and fruitless. Also, any discussion which is polarized lowers the discourse on both sides and fails to educate or be meaningful. For instance, those who badmouth the U.S. are only polarizing the discussion in the same way I noted earlier. If you see the U.S. as all negative, you force its defenders to talk about the parts that are all positive and invite jingoism and nationalism into the discussion. And finally, in regards to the way I comment about Japan, from a practical viewpoint, I'm also hoping to mitigate some rude awakenings for the handful of dreamers who ever actually make it over here to live for an extended time.
I've decided, however, that I don't like playing the role of "balancer" when it's frequently forcing me to focus on the negative because it in turn makes me dwell on the negative. I've spent years actively (and sometimes painfully) cultivating a less pessimistic character and a balanced spirit and I believe I'm undermining my efforts by trying to educate people who are not only ignorant of reality, but unreceptive to talk of it. In other words, if they want to keep believing in the Easter Bunny, I'm not going to fight them about it anymore. In retrospect, I have to question why I ever even tried. I'm guessing it leads back to some issues I've had for a long time regarding feeling it's somehow my responsibility to toss the ice cold water of reality into people's faces. However, I do believe it also has a lot to do with a sense of disliking polarized and ignorant views, but that sense isn't serving me very well, so it's time to stop catering to it.
To this end, on the Internet at large, I'm going to stop commenting on the highly-skewed articles that are present in abundance and coaxing people out of their romantic notions of Japan. On this blog, I'm going to do what I've always done which is talk about both the good and the bad and try to view things in a balanced fashion as it suits the sort of person I want to be. Of course, not every positive has a serious negative and not every negative has a serious positive so some posts will skew one way or another, but, on the whole, I'll endeavor (as I always have) to neither glorify nor demonize life in Japan, or anywhere else.
And, I guess I really should stay away from Digg.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Web Whores
(A brief aside: If I used Google AdSense ads, I shudder to think what sort of advertisements would be scrolling along my blog with this post title.)
I don't consider myself an Internet addict. I feel that is important before I say that I am a registered member at Digg. I peruse the first page or two of stories and read any of interest about 3-5 times a week depending on how much free time I have and how often I'm shackled to my computer doing phone work. However, I don't make it a point to check it all the time nor do I vote on most articles. Occasionally, I'll make a comment and read other comments on articles of interest. I feel the need to clarify my habits in this regard because, if you know Digg's community, you know that it is full of people who appear to spend every waking moment glued to the screen writing comments and digging or burying every listed article. What I'm saying is, I'm not one of these people.
As is the case with most people, I have areas of interest and my attention gravitates more often to those than other articles. Fortunately, Digg allows you to filter by topic so I can avoid the approximately 50,000 pro-Obama articles that get "Dugg" every day and anything about sports. It's not that I have anything against Obama, but the articles are all the same and the bias of the commenters is transparent. Nothing is added to the conversation in that area.
I do take an interest in some of the Japan articles. In particular, the PR pieces which are churned out by legitimate news sources pique my interest and often incite me to comment. It's shocking how often NPR or the Washington Post will regurgitate some bit of drivel which paints an aspect of Japanese life as utopia incarnate. One would hope and expect such news sources to provide a balanced view or at the very least investigate to make sure the story included all the details of the situation. Unfortunately, the stories appear to be direct from the Japan tourist board or political offices and tend to be quite one-sided.
While I don't want to Japan bash, I also get irritated when one of these articles gets 500 comments from people who don't know any better saying they want to live in Japan and that Japan is so much more enlightened than the U.S. A month or so ago, one of these sorts of pieces was about the health care system and how it was so cheap under the socialized medical system that physicians couldn't make enough money on certain procedures like stitching up a wound. The article made it appear as though you could skip into any doctor's office and drop a few coins on the desk and receive expert health care for the price of a cup of coffee at Starbucks. There's no mention of the fact that you wait in a cattle call room for hours or that the doctor doesn't pay any attention to you and spends 2-5 minutes with each patient nor that they prescribe a cavalcade of medications arbitrarily to get more of your money as they own part of the pharmacy you're likely to get your script filled at.
When I encounter these fantasy articles, I read through the comments to see if anyone else has already spun the article's misleading statements into something resembling reality. Often times, it seems I find someone who says something to the effect of 'I've been blogging about Japan for x years and I talk about topics like this all the time,' and then they link to their blogs. This is what I call "web whoring". These people are so desperate for an audience that they troll high traffic sites looking for ways to insert links to their blogs. And, to be clear about this, it isn't only those who do Japan-based blogs. A lot of people do this sort of transparent self-advertising in all areas.
While it's annoying to encounter thinly-veiled spam (or attention-seeking), what irritates me more is that some web sites will not post any comment with a link in it (even a very appropriate one) due to this behavior. I once posted a link to a specific recipe for a sugar-free dessert in a comment I made on someone else's web site about sugar-free cooking and my comment was rejected, no doubt because so many people use comments as advertisements. I wasn't even trying to draw traffic to my (former) site as I didn't have a cooking blog anyway and the audience wasn't the sort that would have stuck with me.
To me, the best way to draw traffic to your site is to make really good comments on other people's blogs that embed a link to your site via your name. It's unobtrusive and people who are intrigued by your viewpoint can choose to click on your name and see what you've got to say back at your own site. It's subtle, but I know from experience at my former site that it works as it drew a lot of readers over from other sites. So, if you're willing to be sincere, authentic, and show your interest in other people's blogs, you can get the same result without looking like a pathetic web whore.
I don't consider myself an Internet addict. I feel that is important before I say that I am a registered member at Digg. I peruse the first page or two of stories and read any of interest about 3-5 times a week depending on how much free time I have and how often I'm shackled to my computer doing phone work. However, I don't make it a point to check it all the time nor do I vote on most articles. Occasionally, I'll make a comment and read other comments on articles of interest. I feel the need to clarify my habits in this regard because, if you know Digg's community, you know that it is full of people who appear to spend every waking moment glued to the screen writing comments and digging or burying every listed article. What I'm saying is, I'm not one of these people.
As is the case with most people, I have areas of interest and my attention gravitates more often to those than other articles. Fortunately, Digg allows you to filter by topic so I can avoid the approximately 50,000 pro-Obama articles that get "Dugg" every day and anything about sports. It's not that I have anything against Obama, but the articles are all the same and the bias of the commenters is transparent. Nothing is added to the conversation in that area.
I do take an interest in some of the Japan articles. In particular, the PR pieces which are churned out by legitimate news sources pique my interest and often incite me to comment. It's shocking how often NPR or the Washington Post will regurgitate some bit of drivel which paints an aspect of Japanese life as utopia incarnate. One would hope and expect such news sources to provide a balanced view or at the very least investigate to make sure the story included all the details of the situation. Unfortunately, the stories appear to be direct from the Japan tourist board or political offices and tend to be quite one-sided.
While I don't want to Japan bash, I also get irritated when one of these articles gets 500 comments from people who don't know any better saying they want to live in Japan and that Japan is so much more enlightened than the U.S. A month or so ago, one of these sorts of pieces was about the health care system and how it was so cheap under the socialized medical system that physicians couldn't make enough money on certain procedures like stitching up a wound. The article made it appear as though you could skip into any doctor's office and drop a few coins on the desk and receive expert health care for the price of a cup of coffee at Starbucks. There's no mention of the fact that you wait in a cattle call room for hours or that the doctor doesn't pay any attention to you and spends 2-5 minutes with each patient nor that they prescribe a cavalcade of medications arbitrarily to get more of your money as they own part of the pharmacy you're likely to get your script filled at.
When I encounter these fantasy articles, I read through the comments to see if anyone else has already spun the article's misleading statements into something resembling reality. Often times, it seems I find someone who says something to the effect of 'I've been blogging about Japan for x years and I talk about topics like this all the time,' and then they link to their blogs. This is what I call "web whoring". These people are so desperate for an audience that they troll high traffic sites looking for ways to insert links to their blogs. And, to be clear about this, it isn't only those who do Japan-based blogs. A lot of people do this sort of transparent self-advertising in all areas.
While it's annoying to encounter thinly-veiled spam (or attention-seeking), what irritates me more is that some web sites will not post any comment with a link in it (even a very appropriate one) due to this behavior. I once posted a link to a specific recipe for a sugar-free dessert in a comment I made on someone else's web site about sugar-free cooking and my comment was rejected, no doubt because so many people use comments as advertisements. I wasn't even trying to draw traffic to my (former) site as I didn't have a cooking blog anyway and the audience wasn't the sort that would have stuck with me.
To me, the best way to draw traffic to your site is to make really good comments on other people's blogs that embed a link to your site via your name. It's unobtrusive and people who are intrigued by your viewpoint can choose to click on your name and see what you've got to say back at your own site. It's subtle, but I know from experience at my former site that it works as it drew a lot of readers over from other sites. So, if you're willing to be sincere, authentic, and show your interest in other people's blogs, you can get the same result without looking like a pathetic web whore.
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