Category: Not Games

#oneaday Day 998: Generally Generalising

First up, read this. It's an impressive piece of investigative journalism regarding a Reddit user known as "ViolentAcrez" — a notorious user for his practices of posting creepy photos of often-underage women without their consent. The piece describes the reporter Adrian Chen's (successful) attempts to unmask ViolentAcrez and publicly shame him for the things he has spent the last few years doing.

Fair enough. As a number of people have said in relation to this story today, the "free speech" so beloved of Reddit users does not mean the same thing as "free of consequences". And while Michael Brutsch, the man behind the handle "ViolentAcrez", has not technically broken any laws with his activities — he wasn't posting child pornography or anything illegal, simply reposts of images that were already in the public domain on Facebook and other services, and later voyeuristic images taken without the knowledge of the people depicted — the fact stands that his behaviour was more than a little creepy, inappropriate and actively harmful in a society that is, for the most part, actively trying to improve attitudes towards women.

I'm not denying any of this. While I find the tracking down and public shaming of a notorious Internet troll a little creepy in and of itself, what Chen did in the name of journalism is a far cry from what Brutsch has been doing for the past few years — and probably for the best in the long run. Brutsch will certainly think twice — or at least be a lot more careful about his "social media footprint" — before trying anything like this again. There's a lesson to be learned in all this — if you're a dick on the Internet, sometimes it will come back and bite you in the ass.

There is something that bothers me about this story, however, and that's been the reaction to it. Specifically, the negativity directed towards the entire Reddit community as a result of this story and surrounding issues. For those who haven't been keeping up on this story over the past few days, a number of Reddit subforums, or "subreddits" as they're called, completely blocked all Gawker links in a showing of solidarity for Brutsch who was, despite his behaviour, regarded as a valuable member of the community and a "necessary evil" by many — while he was a notorious troll, the Reddit staffers made active use of him to police the less salubrious parts of Reddit and ensure that nothing that actually was illegal was being posted. A "man on the inside", as it were.

Because certain parts of Reddit decided to show their support for and/or actively defend Brutsch's behaviour on the grounds of "free speech", apparently all of Reddit is now something to be reviled — a "cesspit", as I saw it referred to earlier today.

This is the bit that makes me uncomfortable — an entire community being blamed and ostracised for the behaviour of one man in particular, and also for that of those who support him.

I've been on Reddit. I haven't been on there for a while but I enjoyed a brief stint on there a while back. I joined some interesting discussions on a variety of topics ranging from gaming to TV shows  via funny pictures and an accidental excursion into naked photographs that users had taken of themselves. (In the latter case, the notorious "gonewild" subreddit, the majority of comments were in fact, body-positive — particularly on the pictures of those who had been brave enough to post a picture of their obviously-overweight body — rather than perverted, which I found to be interesting. Also, it genuinely was an accident that I found myself in that subreddit — Reddit's main screen gives little to no indication what "gonewild" is all about. In retrospect, I should have thought about it a little more before jumping in, but hey, I'm pretty hard to shock. But I digress.)

I didn't spend long enough to make any particular friends there, but I have heard plenty of stories of people getting to know each other and making lasting friendships or relationships through the site. There are plenty of stories of Reddit communities pulling together to support others, too — stories of helping people through difficult times; stories of helping people who are struggling for money; stories of, in short, human helping human. I know at least one person personally who is using a specific subreddit for support in getting help for some of their personal problems and issues. There is plenty that is positive to say about Reddit.

And yet for the obnoxious, totally inappropriate actions of one man and his supporters — some of whom, it seems, have been or are on Reddit's staff — apparently this entire, incredibly diverse Internet community should be ostracised.

Something really doesn't sit right with that for me. To generalise one of the largest communities on the Internet as all being scumbags like this just seems both dangerous and unfair. I have plenty of friends who enjoy using Reddit for completely innocent purposes, be it discussion, promotion of things they have been working on or discovering interesting new reaction .GIFs. I know that they'd be the first to distance themselves from the sort of behaviour that Brutsch has exhibited, and yet if you were to take what a number of commentators are saying at face value, you'd have to brand these people as deviant perverts and assholes, too, simply by virtue of the fact that they're Reddit users.

This is not helpful.

I'm fully aware that I've been guilty of this sort of thing in the past — not specifically with regard to Reddit, but with 4chan. I've referred to that place as a "cesspit" before and certainly it has more than its fair share of trolls and unpleasant people there — but equally now I realise that there are also plenty of other people who just make it their hangout of choice. They, subsequently, become guilty by association with the "/b/tards" who are responsible for the majority of objectionable material and behaviour on 4chan (and, by extension, the rest of the Internet. And they're probably pretty pissed about that.

The same thing is happening with Reddit. As much as Reddit would like to market itself as a "social news" tool, let's not be under any illusions — it's nothing more than the world's biggest forum. Like most forums, it has tons of subcultures and cliques, most of whom stick to their own neatly-carved niches for the most part. Some of these subcultures and cliques are objectionable in nature, and it's up to the site admins and moderators to determine what to do about that — something that they haven't done a great job with so far, and something they need to work on.

However, the mere presence of some objectionable subcultures and cliques does not mean that the entire website as a whole is somehow objectionable. It's the same as saying that a particular city is a "cesspit" because, say, a greater-than-average number of registered sex offenders live there. Or the same as saying that all people who like a particular thing are a bunch of assholes. Or, in fact, the same as almost any other unfair, unsubstantiated generalisation. It's not helpful — all it does is turn everyone outside that group against them, and everyone inside that group becomes defensive. The two sides inevitably clash, and things just get worse and worse rather than better. It doesn't help anyone.

So by all means think that Michael Brutsch is a creepy old pervert whom you wouldn't want anywhere near your children. By all means criticise those who supported him — including members of Reddit's staff.

I agree with you.

But take a moment to think of the thousands — more likely millions — of people who make use of Reddit on a regular basis and have absolutely nothing to do with this before you start branding the entire community as pond life. Would you want to be made guilty by association with something you had no involvement in whatsoever? I doubt it very much. So quit doing it to others.

#oneaday Day 996: はじめまして

I've been doing a bit more on my 日本語 studies recently thanks to the excellent iOS app Human Japanese. This app is essentially little more than an electronic textbook, but it does a few things that are enormously helpful, particularly when attempting to learn hiragana. For starters, when learning the various characters, you can tap on them to see the appropriate stroke order, which is apparently important. Then there's revision quizzes throughout the chapters that, in the case of the hiragana chapters I've been trawling slowly through so far, allow you to test yourself by attempting to read the characters and determine what the various "words" (or, more accurately, combinations of syllables) make up. I was quite pleased when I realised I knew how to spell one of School Days' characters, whose name also happens to be the word for "world" — せかい.

I've also learned how typing in Japanese works, and I think it's probably going to be quite a helpful way to learn the hiragana characters, particularly with the way the iPhone's Japanese keyboards work.

For those unfamiliar (and curious enough to continue reading) it works like this: the Japanese hiragana character set, which tends to be the first "alphabet" that beginners learn, is split into "sets", and the iPhone hiragana keyboard simply represents these sets — press and hold on one and you'll see the five different characters that make up each set. Rather than simply vowels and consonants like we have in English, hiragana characters all represent a complete syllable rather than an individual sound or, as more commonly happens in English, a number of possible sounds. Think of how many possible ways you can pronounce the letter "O" depending on where it is in a word, for example — confusing when you think about it that way, isn't it? Not so in hiragana — each character always sounds the same when read aloud.

Each of the aforementioned "sets" is made up of, at the very least, a vowel sound, and often a consonant. When learning the vowels, rather than the order A, E, I, O, U we English speakers are used to, Japan uses A, I, U, E, O. In hiragana, the symbols for these vowel sounds are あいうえお. These, of course, have absolutely no resemblance to the Roman characters we use in English, so it's necessary to actually drill them into yourself by repeatedly writing them down over and over. I already have several pages of a notebook devoted to effectively writing "AAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOO" which I hope is never used as evidence against me in a Japanese court because it makes me look proper mental, like, innit.

Anyway, yes, sets — beyond the initial vowels, each set is combined with a consonant. For example, the K-set runs ka, ki, ku, ke, ko or, in hiragana, かきくけこ. Just to make matters more complicated, certain characters can add a little symbol called a ten-ten or dakuten to themselves to "soften" the sound and make another set of sounds. For example, the K-set can be softened to the G-set, which runs ga, gi, gu, ge, go or, in hiragana, がぎぐげご. It might be difficult to see at that font size, but the little quote mark-like symbol in the upper-right of each of those characters is the ten-ten that softens the sound — or, more accurately, turns an unvoiced consonant into a voiced one.

I've actually been quite surprised how quickly some of these symbols have stuck in my head — though the problem with learning them by rote is that you start to remember them according to the patterns rather than in context and out of order. I seem to find some symbols much easier to remember than others — I can remember all the basic vowels without much difficulty, for example, and the K/G sets are also reasonably firm in my mind, but the others gradually drop off in memorability. This is probably nothing more than a side-effect of the order in which I've learned them — I've known the vowels and the K/G sets longest, so it's unsurprising I know them the best — but I've still been quite impressed with myself that I can successfully decipher if not the meaning of words just yet, then at least the sounds therein. It'll come with time.

The thing to keep doing, I think, is just to keep immersing myself in as much of it as possible. I'm picking up words all the time by listening to Japanese language-track anime and games, and now that I'm learning the hiragana I'll be able to spell (and, by extension) read them before long too. When I can read and understand a Japanese sentence, I'll be truly impressed with myself, but it remains to be seen how long that will take me. And then there's kanji to worry about after that, but we'll cross that particular bridge when we come to it.

Anyway, so, if you're the slightest bit interested in learning Japanese via self-study, check out Human Japanese. It's available on iPhone, iPad and Android and there are lite versions to try out before you splash the cash. Pretty generous lite versions, too — you should be able to figure out whether or not you're going to have difficulty without having to spend a penny. Which is nice.

がんばって！Or something.

#oneaday Day 995: Cultural Victory

Can you have too much culture? Can the sum of human creative endeavours add up to too much for someone to take in?

Well, first of all, those are two different questions. The answer to the second one, at least, is "yes"; the former? I'm not so sure.

We're already at a point where there is so much Stuff in the world it's impossible to keep on top of it all. Whatever media you're into, be it books, movies, TV shows, music or games, there's enough Stuff out there to keep you entertained probably for the rest of your life in just one of those formats, let alone if you, like most people, spread your time between several. Even if you spend your time focusing entirely on one genre within a single medium, you'll never get to the bottom of the pile. You'll never "finish" culture. You'll never see everything there is to see.

Depending on your outlook, this is either a fantastic thing or incredibly depressing news. For many, there's a degree of "shame" over not having caught up on things that are supposedly "canonical" or "essential" for everyone to have read/seen/played/whatever. The very term "pile of shame" (from which the Squadron of Shame takes its name) is used to refer to one's backlog of entertainment that has been purchased but not consumed — or, in some cases, the definition is stretched a little to include Stuff that the owner of said pile intends to consume at some point in the future, but perhaps hasn't quite got around to just yet.

With books, it's fine. Books are passed down from generation to generation; republished and republished. Today, we can keep a book alive forever by converting it to a digital format and scattering it to the four corners of the Internet. Sure, you lose some of the joy of turning paper pages and that distinctive musty smell they have, but at least the important bit — that's the work printed on those pages, lest you forget — is immortalised. You can read it on your computer; on your tablet device; on your e-reader; on your phone. You can annotate it and share your thoughts with other people around the world in an instant. Books are just fine.

Music, too, has proven itself to be pretty timeless over the years — for the most part, anyway. Throughout history there has been plenty of "disposable" music, but the true greats endure for years. Look how long the works of Bach and Mozart have lasted — people are still listening to, performing and studying these pieces hundreds of years after they were first composed. In more recent years, look at how the music of artists such as Elvis Presley and the Beatles is still interesting and relevant today. In very recent years… well, it remains to be seen which artists (if any) will leave a lasting legacy on culture, but there will almost certainly be some. (And if there's any justice, it won't be anyone who has ever won or been involved with The X-Factor.)

Movies, too, have become increasingly timeless with the improvements in technology over the years. While once a movie only lasted as long as the medium on which it was physically printed, now, like books, we can archive and keep movies forever. Sure, some moviemaking techniques now look antiquated and are unpalatable to modern audiences, but those truly interested in the full history of the medium can trawl back as far as they wish and see how it has developed.

Games, though, are arguably a bit more tricky, as they have an inherent "expiry date" due to the numerous proprietary technologies involved. While emulation technology is getting better all the time, it's still not perfect, and the legal grey areas surrounding it make it something that some people prefer to shy away from altogether. When you consider "PC" games, too, there's even titles that are ostensibly on the same platform that will no longer run on more modern technology. Fortunately, there are places like GOG.com who aim to keep these titles alive for modern audiences, but eventually even their remastered, tweaked versions will "expire" as technology makes the next big leap forward. What happens when computers become wearable and we don't use TVs any more? Will we still be able to play classic titles designed for the flat screen?

With all this, it's easy to wonder how you can possibly get through all those things that you're "supposed" to watch/read/see. The answer is surprisingly simple: don't. Accept the fact that you're never going to read Great Expectations; you're never going to see Citizen Kane; you're never going to listen to anything by The Smiths; you're never going to get caught up on the Assassin's Creed series. Cherry-pick the stuff you're interested in, finish what you start, and don't feel obliged to jump in to things just because they're brand new and everyone is talking about them right now. Get to them when you have time to appreciate them rather than rushing through them in the ultimately futile attempt to feel "relevant".

Crucially, enjoy (or at least appreciate) the culture you consume, whatever medium it's in. Your tastes are your own, and no-one has the right to try and change them. People can share their own opinions, sure, and these may help sway your thoughts one way or the other, but ultimately your feelings about the things you like and dislike are entirely up to you. There's no "correct" opinion; no gold standard of cultural awareness you need to aspire to; no "checklist" to complete. The sooner you recognise this fact, the sooner you can get on with working your way through that "pile of shame" — because there's some great stuff in there that you haven't discovered yet. And the stuff that is shiny and new right now will still be here in a few years time.

Take your time. Enjoy it. It's the least you can do for the people who have invested their time, money, blood, sweat and tears into entertaining you.

 

#oneaday Day 994: I Don't Care

I'm coming to the rather cynical conclusion that I'm not sure I care enough about certain issues to want to shout and scream and rant and rave about them all day, every day. A big part of the reason behind this is the fact that people who do care enough about certain issues to shout and scream and rant and rave about them all day, every day are wearing me down significantly. I won't get into specifics, as that will likely only provoke more shouting, screaming, ranting and raving, but suffice to say I really can't be arsed with it any more.

I am fully aware that taking this rather apathetic attitude towards Big Issues makes me officially Part of the Problem. But, you know, I just don't care any more. I have had my share of shit things happen to me in my life — nothing on a par with the abuse and crap some social groups have to put up with, though, obviously — and I am just exhausted. I am 31 years old and I just want to settle down with a nice, quiet life. I want to have a nice house with a cat and/or a dog, a car that doesn't rattle when it goes around corners, a job that I enjoy that also allows me the free time to do things I want to do. I am partway there already (mainly on the job front) after a difficult couple of years, and I just do not have the energy to get upset and angry over things outside of my immediate situation any more. It's selfish, and I'm completely aware of that — and mildly guilty about it, to my annoyance — but it's true. I want my own life to be sorted before I try and fix the rest of the world, and I've still got a long way to go yet.

In honesty, it's not that I genuinely don't give a shit about the issues in question and don't think they're a problem. It's that any time a "discussion" on said issues comes up, it devolves within a matter of seconds into people throwing tables at each other, telling each other to "get a grip" or that Their Opinion Is Wrong. I've tried on several occasions to engage in such discussions in a reasonable, rational manner and every time this pattern has emerged, without fail. It's utterly predictable. Someone makes an inflammatory statement deliberately designed to provoke, someone else comes along with a counterpoint, then both sides gather the troops and proceed to bitch and scream at one another with no resolution being reached. Then the whole thing just happens again and again and again. In some cases, people in question repeatedly stoke the fire in an attempt to get the arguments to flare up again long after the initial flurry has passed.

I have one far-off friend in particular whom I otherwise like very much who I now feel I can't really engage with via social media any more because 90% of their posts seem to follow the pattern outlined above. This sort of person attracts like-minded individuals, most of whom are strong-willed and keen to argue their case aggressively. I hate unnecessary aggression and will do anything possible to avoid it, whether it's in actual conversation or on the Internet. If that means no longer talking to someone online, then it's a sad situation for sure, but it's what I'll do.

There's also the fact that in a lot of cases these screaming matches don't achieve anything whatsoever. A lot of the people who hold these strong opinions can very much talk the talk but then don't do anything to back up their bold words. If they took some sort of action regarding the things they feel so strongly about, I might be more inclined to care more one way or the other. But when the same old arguments arise day after day after day, I just get tired and don't want to engage with it any more. The impact is lost. I don't care any more. I just want to have a quiet life. If your points are making me — and doubtless plenty of others like me — feel like that, you are not arguing your case well.

Is that such a bad thing? Apparently so. But if it's wrong, to mangle the cliché, I really don't have the energy or give enough of a shit to be right.

 

#oneaday Day 992: Making Excuses

It came to my attention last night that some people were missing the stickmen cartoons. This was nice to know, as I'd always wondered if anyone actually found them entertaining or not and occasionally found myself suffering from a bit of a "crisis of confidence", thinking they were crap, not funny or whatever. I'm usually fairly confident in my creative work, but I think at the back of my mind was the knowledge that bad webcomics often get ridiculed, and I really don't like being ridiculed. Call me irrational like that.

Of course, the pretty limited audience this blog has probably means that the vast majority of the Internet had no idea of the existence of that cartoons, so there's that.

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the cartoons, if I'm honest. I genuinely love the characters I've created, even if they're silly, stereotypical and don't have any really meaningful depth. It's also nice to occasionally drop in a guest character based on someone I know — that has never been received negatively, even though I spend much too long worrying about whether their stickmen representation actually looks anything like them. (note to self: they're stickmen. If you think you're going to make them realistic, you are Doing It Wrong.)

At the same time, it adds a bunch of extra work to my daily blog posts (you'd be surprised how much I agonise over getting those crap drawings just right) and also means that if I'm away from my Mac — which has the software I use to make the comic layouts — I can't do them easily. It irks me somewhat if I've started doing them daily again and then suddenly have to leave a gap. Sometimes I end up not starting again after said gap, which I think is probably what happened last time. Or possibly just laziness and/or starting to write when I just really wanted to go to bed.

I also get a bit hung up on trying to tie the strip and the blog post together, and sometimes there's nothing funny in the post I can spin out into a comic. In particular if I'm writing about something personal or upsetting, cracking a joke about it can feel a little flippant or insensitive. (Can you be insensitive towards yourself? I guess so.) The solution to this is, of course, simply to not be too attached to the concept of the strip and the post having anything to do with one another, and dealing with situations where penis jokes might not be appropriate as they arise.

So there you are. Those are the things that go through my head regarding the stickmen, and the reasons why sometimes I stop for a little while. Since they apparently have a small but dedicated following, however, I will certainly do my best from this point on to keep them coming! (hurr hurr, you said "coming" — Phillipe)

#oneaday Day 991: Last Man Standing

So, having hit one thousand daily posts before me (he did start first), Mr Ian Dransfield has officially bowed out of the daily blogging business. I don't blame him at all — he notes that the prospect of continuing even on a weekly basis feels like "giving myself work I don't want to do" so has chosen instead to jack it in altogether. A hearty congratulations to him for having put up with it for so long, though — a thousand daily posts is a massive amount of stuff to evacuate from your head on to the page. Believe me, I know.

Since I'm coming up behind Ian and closing in on that elusive post number 1,000 as the last man standing, this has naturally got me thinking about the whole business, too. Specifically, it has me thinking to myself "is it worth still doing this? Am I actually enjoying it?"

And, I have to conclude once again — this isn't the first time I've asked myself this question — that "yes" is the answer to both of those questions. In the last 991 days, I don't think there's been a single time that I've resented my self-imposed obligation to write this blog. There have been days where it's been difficult to think of something to write, sure, and there have been days where other distractions have meant I haven't written it until a ridiculous hour in the morning (I think 4am was the latest after having watched several episodes of Firefly while in conversation with someone over the Internet) but I've certainly never felt like it was an unwelcome obligation. Quite the opposite, in fact — although it usually ends up being the last thing I do each day, it's something I often find myself thinking about over the course of the day's activities and looking forward to actually sitting down and writing. It is, as I've said many times before, a cathartic means of self-expression for me, with the happy bonus that I've got to know a number of thoroughly pleasant people in the process. Moreover, a number of people who already knew me have got to know things about me that they might not have done otherwise.

Like Ian, my life has changed immeasurably since I started writing this blog. I have changed jobs several times — going from primary school teacher to unemployed bum to part-time, low-paid games journalist to legitimate, properly-paid games journalist. My relationship status has changed several times — my wife and I split, signalling the start of the darkest period I've ever been through in my life; I met someone, that didn't work out; I met Andie, that did work out (right? Hopefully. OH GOD WHAT IF— [*slap* — the Rational Part of Pete's Brain]). I went to America several times for various reasons (PAX East, family time). I've moved several times — from Southampton back to my childhood home in Cambridgeshire, then onward to my current situation in Wiltshire (and hopefully back to Southampton at some point in the near future). I've re-established contact with some friends; lost touch with others. And I've discovered anime.

Alongside all these various upheavals, the one constant in my life has been this silly little corner of the Internet that I call my own, with the tens of thousands of words I've tapped onto it at ungodly hours in the morning, usually from my own computer, but sometimes from my phone, sometimes my tablet, sometimes my netbook. This blog has been someone I can always "talk to", to offload thoughts and memories both pleasant and painful, and to share those things with anyone who will listen. It's been an immeasurably valuable experience for me, and thus I have absolutely no intention of stopping right now.

I realise that by saying all these things now I am effectively sabotaging my own "YAY 1,000 POSTS" post, but eh, whatever. With Ian's departure from the journey, it felt timely to say them now. Doubtless inspiration will hit me at about 2am on Day 1,000 and I'll have something amazing to share with you.

Until then, though, it's business as usual, I'm afraid. Thanks for continuing to read, like and comment, and I'll see you again tomorrow!

#oneaday Day 989: Blackout

I was all set to write something profound tonight, then the Internet died and I'm relegated to blogging from my phone.

All right, I didn't have anything hugely profound to say and even if I did I could clearly still say it from my phone, but the Internet has gone down, which is, as everyone thoroughly immersed in 21st century living knows, incredibly annoying.

Given its prevalence in our everyday lives, it's very easy to forget what life without the Internet was like. Something as simple as checking the news or finding out what time something was on TV relied on you having… oh, it's back. I'll return when I finish watching this episode of The World God Only Knows. Ja ne!

… … … …

20 minutes later…

There we are, that's better.

Shit, now there's pressure on me to write something meaningful. Umm…

Nope, I got nothing. And fuck all that Internet talk. I've written that exact same post at least five or six times already in the last 989 days.

I finished watching Welcome to the NHK today. The last few episodes were major-league Feels territory. It was a fascinating show, all-told, that I may write about in more detail at some point in the near future. What I particularly liked was that it wasn't particularly easy to pigeon-hole into a specific category of genre. It had elements of comedy, drama, romance, surrealism and all manner of other stuff too. On the whole it was quite an emotional experience for me — I'm not sure how much it would resonate with someone who couldn't relate to some of the issues therein, but I certainly found it to be an excellent, worthwhile, enjoyable and moving watch.

Tonight, as I mentioned earlier, I've started watching The World God Only Knows after recommendations from several people. I'll blog in more detail about this when I've watched more than two episodes, but it seems to be highly entertaining so far.

The premise, for the unfamiliar, is that dating sim addict Keima inadvertently enters into a contract with the unfeasibly cute and broom-wielding demon Elsie to help round up "Loose Souls", runaway spirits that hide themselves inside the hearts of girls. Keima is thus tasked with making said girls fall in love with him, thus releasing the Loose Soul for Elsie to catch. Keima, sadly, is more than a little socially awkward, having spent all his time dating 2D girls rather than interacting with real people. However, since reneging on the contract means that both he and Elsie will be decapitated by the magical collars placed upon them, he has no choice but to go along with the outlandish plan. Consequently, he attempts to use his knowledge of dating sim tropes to figure out girls in the real world and, of course, Hilarity Ensues.

I've watched two episodes so far and already I want my own Elsie to hug. Certain characters just nail the whole adorableness factor, and she has this particular characteristic in spades. The show as a whole is rather endearing, too, though, regularly lapsing into heavily-stylized and chibi sequences rather than trying to remain too grounded in reality. The concept is, after all, ridiculous, so rather than trying to take itself too seriously the show appears to very much embrace its silliness. I'm fine with that, and am looking forward to exploring the rest of the episodes.

Anyway, on that note I think it's probably time I hit the sack. Hopefully tomorrow will see a more coherent entry and less in the way of Internet outages.

#oneaday Day 988: Love and Tolerate

The world is full of social issues that really, thinking about it, we should probably have gotten over by now. As a general rule, hating anyone for arbitrary reasons such as their gender, race, sexuality or haircut is something that the human race of the 21st century should have moved past now, but it's sad to see that this sort of thing still goes on. And yes, people probably should speak out against sexism, misogyny, racism and all manner of other issues when they crop up. If they don't, then these issues just continue to fester and get worse. If you don't get any sort of feedback on the things you say, you never learn that they aren't acceptable, after all.

At the same time, I can't help feeling discomfort at the tone in which some of these criticisms are presented. I read an article over on Boing Boing today about "why the fedora grosses out geekdom". Perhaps I'm not clever enough to "get" Leigh Alexander's writing, but I came out of that article having absolutely no idea of what she was getting at. Supposedly she was exploring why the fedora had such negative associations, even among members of geek culture — this is the first I've heard of it, I have to say — but it actually came across to me as yet another rant against the phenomenon of "Nice Guys". I've written about this topic in the past and it really does bother me — even more so since learning that a very good friend of mine (and a genuine nice guy (no caps) to boot) abandoned his previous (excellent) blog due to its name — "Nice Guy Gamer" — having negative connotations. While I don't argue that there are guys out there who do fulfil the "Nice Guy" (with caps) stereotype, as someone who believes himself to be nice (no caps) it irks me enormously any time this discussion comes up.

In short, Alexander's piece just came across as rather judgemental, even if that wasn't the intention. In providing links to the various "shaming" Tumblrs that focus on men wearing fedoras and these supposed negative connotations, she has fuelled the fire and made people aware of another avenue of bullying people based on their fashion choices. Not only that, she has also drawn attention to a supposed connection between the people who choose to dress this way and undesirable character traits. Statistically speaking, there probably are some men who wear fedoras and who are manipulative jerkwads, but equally, there are probably also plenty of men who choose to wear them purely as a means to express themselves. We geeks aren't particularly known for dressing well at the best of times, so perhaps we should cut those who make an effort to give themselves a distinctive appearance a bit of slack. (NB: I do not own a fedora. I do have a straw trilby that was purchased entirely to stop me giving myself sunstroke when sitting outside, and not as a fashion statement.)

I guess my point is that while there are plenty of issues that really do need resolving — the way that many women are treated on a daily basis is unacceptable; racial epithets just need to go away; medieval attitudes towards sexuality need to be thrown through the window — there are clearly better ways of going about it than attacking (or at least drawing unnecessary attention to) subcultures or trends that may or may not have anything to do with undesirable character traits. Attack sexism, misogyny, racism, homophobia and all that other bullshit the world can do without when it comes up, yes. Speak out against injustices. Make a difference.

But seriously. Dudes in hats? Let them enjoy their quirks. Love and tolerate. Not everything is bad. At this rate there will be very little left in the world for people to enjoy without feeling guilty or self-conscious. And that sounds like a pretty miserable existence to me — especially as a geek who feels perpetually uneasy and self-conscious.

#oneaday Day 987: Welcome to the NHK

Continuing my jaunt into the world of anime, I started watching Welcome to the NHK on the recommendation of my good friend Mark, who knows about these things. And if ever there were a show to ably demonstrate the massive possibilities of anime as a medium it's this one. Watch it and then tell me that animation is in any way childish or silly.

I've only watched about half of the complete run so far, but I am very much appreciating what it does so far. It's wonderfully put together, blending just the right amount of comedy, surrealism and pathos together to produce something extremely memorable and affecting.

For the uninitiated or curious, Welcome to the NHK revolves around the protagonist Tatsuhiro Sato, who is a hikikomori. (A hikikomori is a "shut-in" — someone who is not in employment, education or training (NEET) and who rarely leaves their home or interacts with other people except when absolutely necessary.) The story unfolds as Sato explores his condition and learns a great deal about himself through his developing relationships with several other characters — his neighbour and former schoolmate Yamazaki, his old school senpai (and crush) Hitomi and the mysterious young girl Misaki, who shows up offering to counsel him out of his hikikomori status for reasons that have not become completely clear at the point in the series I have reached thus far.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Welcome to the NHK is that it doesn't pull any punches about how these characters are represented. Sato is wracked with all manner of neuroses and social phobias; Yamazaki is a hardcore otaku; even Misaki, who initially appears to be sweet and innocent, clearly has some fairly serious issues of her own that she's dealing with. Every one of the characters is dealing with some sort of "damage" and it makes every one of them interesting and unique by themselves. When they get together, as you might expect, the sparks frequently fly. But at no point are their conditions and issues really played for laughs — they are what they are, and if you find their circumstances amusing, that's your decision, but they're not specifically portrayed as being worthy of ridicule (or not, as the case may be).

In particular, I've found a lot of the show very relatable for a number of reasons. I recognise many of the things Sato in particular goes through — specifically with regard to his social phobias and discomfort at the prospect of dealing with other people. There's also the fact that I was practically a hikikomori myself in the weeks/months following my split from my wife — I was a NEET, I was emotionally unstable, I had no idea what to do with myself and the prospect of going back home to live with my parents filled me with unspeakable dread, like an admission that I was a complete and total failure as a human being. Having survived all that intact — well, mostly — I know in retrospect that it wasn't as bad as I thought, but when you're there actually in that situation, it's all too easy to let the negative thoughts, fear and anger run away with themselves. And with no-one around to keep you in check, it can be very difficult to deal with.

Aside from the personal perspective on the show, the other thing that I've been very impressed with is the soundtrack. It features some excellent tunes in a variety of different styles, ranging from some mournful Silent Hill-style jangly guitar melodies to more upbeat and "dramatic" numbers. They fit the on-screen action well and are reused enough to be recognisable but not so much to be tiresome or predictable. They're also tweaked, changed and remixed every so often to either have different lyrics, or additional layers of lyrics, or different instrumentation. It gives the show a great feeling of consistency.

And speaking of consistency, there's Pururin.

Pururin is a fictional anime show that Sato's neighbour Yamazaki is obsessed with. It has such importance to the "world" in which Welcome to the NHK takes place that creators GONZO went to the effort to create a completely fake opening credits sequence for the show, seen above. The Purupurupururin theme that you probably already have stuck in your head if you were foolish enough to click "Play" on that video is a regular fixture in the background sound of the show — Sato meets Yamazaki as a result of hearing the song through his wall 24 hours a day (if you want 10 hours of it non-stop for a similar experience, go here), it's several characters' ringtones, it plays in the background of several shops and the Pururin character frequently appears on billboards and posters around the place. We never really find out a lot about who or what Pururin actually is, but from the opening sequence we can deduce that she's some sort of magical girl with cat ears who appears to ride around on a vacuum cleaner.

All this isn't even getting into the other awesome aspects of the show — the tenuous friendship between Sato and Yamazaki as they attempt to make an eroge together; the way in which Sato has a stronger impact on the people around him than he thinks; the unassuming, understated but utterly enrapturing cuteness of Misaki (plus the things she's clearly hiding) — but suffice to say that the DVD blurb's assertion that Welcome to the NHK is a "modern-day classic" is not without a certain degree of plausibility, and it's well worth your time if you're interested in character-driven, relationship-based stories featuring realistically-flawed characters with relatable issues.