Aesthetics, Elitism, Body Image, and Why Can't I Find a Girlfriend

  I love Calvin and Hobbes. I think Bill Watterson is an amazingly creative person. I remember reading one strip in particular in which Calvin is critiquing Hobbes' clay artwork. He asks about the marketability and appeal to the masses to which Hobbes [paraphrasing] replies, "Who cares? I just made it to make it." Calvin's response is one of outrage as he demands to know, "Is this some snobby aesthetic elitist thing?" I think that strip has singularly, or if not singularly, lent the most weight in  informing my thoughts and opinions about aesthetics and elitism; my thoughts about aesthetics, or what I find aesthetically pleasing then inform my thoughts about body image, specifically my own.
   I admire elitism. To clarify I admire elitism when I am the subject of such. It's pleasing to feel like you're special or better than most people. It's feels good to feel like you're looked up to and the subject of respect. I think it's the basis of cliques and "the cool kids". All people are created equal, but that does not mean they are equal. Everyone is entitled to the same thing, but that doesn't mean they'll get it. I'm not talking about denying anything to anyone who works for it (although I'm sure that happens) but denying it to those who do not (although I know that doesn't happen, just look at welfare).
   I love my sister but I'm particularly proud of her for denying welfare. I'm not proud of her for being a single mother, but for refusing welfare even though it was being pushed at her from persons at her school, who are supposed to be acting in her best interests, that I can say, I am proud of.
   Anyway, body image. Being a fan of Rubens and in particular Mucha I find myself drawn to curvy women. E.g. Christina Hendricks, Katie Green, etc.




Unfortunately, it doesn't work so well on my end. I may like women with a little meat on them but not so much on myself. Part of it is probably the propagation of advertisements like those of Abercrombie & Fitch but really I just don't expend much effort on self improvement. I guess it comes back to that elitist thought process. I think any girl should be lucky to have me, fat and all. I'm easy going, I'm a decent guy...decent cook, decent baker, cause they're not the same thing, all around decent person...I like to think more than decent in regards to bedroom prowess, but as everyone would like to think that, you'd have to ask someone else involved in the proceedings and I'm not naming names.

Plans for the Day

     It's going to be a great day today...I plan on sleeping till the crack of noon or later, after having gone to bed somewhere around 6 this morning just so I can say to people I work with, "HA HA, I still haven't gone to bed yet cause I don't have to work today cause I'm cool like that." I plan on sitting by the pool for a few hours and getting plastered with Taaka and Dr. Pepper, Peach Schnapps and OJ, and maybe some triple sec and coconut rum as well. Then back to the apartment for some chocolate ice cream. That's right, in several hours I'm going to be "Chocolate Wasted!!"

 Ooh...I gotta remember to pick up some chocolate ice cream.

Webcomics...and...part 01?

   What is the deal with webcomics and homosexuality? I wanted to say webcomics and the gay, but the gay just sounds...well, gay. I guess a lot of it has to do with personal preference on the part of the artist and or writer and I know it's stereotypical that women LOVE the Yaoi...and gay men too I suppose. However, one of the webcomics that I read, Oglaf, disturbed me a tad. So some dude rescues a princess from a dragon and then is told, "there wasn't really a princess, it was a journey of self-discovery, you are the princess but only when you understand that you are the princess can you marry the prince (oh and by the way you still have a man's body)." So after being informed that there was no princess at all our heroic hero looks down in astonishment to find only the dress of the princess he, until a second ago, had been carrying. Then the look on the faces of the royalty was just...ugh. Beatific, hands clasped together, like this was the best possible outcome; one that could only be effected when the hero "realized" he was a "princess."
    Now some people think homosexuality in all its forms is wrong. Some people think that homosexuality is a choice. Some people think that if you're homosexual, you're born that way. Some people think that if they know someone who is a homosexual that they should love them and accept them regardless. I personally, draw the line between acceptance and encouragement. You're my friend/family member and you want to tell me you're gay...whatevs, but if you're looking for assurance that I'm going to encourage you, well bubba you are looking in the wrong place. Now I'm not saying I'm going to try to dissuade you, cause if I did, how is that being accepting but, neither will I in any way encourage your lifestyle.

Update: Same webcomic: It seems that engaging in homosexual activity will somehow grant you enlightenment. Judging from the tone of the rest of the comic this supposition is tongue in cheek but still...

The day after my cousin's birthday

   Yesterday was the 30th birthday of one of my many cousins. I tend to frown upon favoritism, though my sister would probably say I'm the recipient of it, but this particular cousin and to a slightly lesser extent, his older brother are special to me. It's probably because we spent so much time together as children. We are of similar ages, I am pretty much in between the two of them and as kids we spent, with few exceptions, every other Sunday together at our shared grandparents' house.
   While the adults visited or prepared food we boys were outside, with any other cousins who happened to be there, playing football, or rather our simplified version of football. Our field was the front yard, that being at most 30 yards. I say at most because I'm estimating and I'm a horrible judge of distance, not because the yard had a variable length. Anyway two completions for a first down because we weren't going to get ten yards out of four downs without crossing most of the field anyway. We were kids, it was fun.
   I also spent time in the summers out at their parents' house in Leander; it's still not a very developed area so there's a feeling of isolation but at the same time you can see the neighbor's house, so not really. They had a pool, which has since fallen into disuse since they both have moved away to start families of their own, dirt bikes, a trampoline, upon which I came the closest I ever had to flying that I can remember as a child, there were wild animals; scorpions, tarantulas, white tailed deer, rattlesnakes, I don't think I ever actually saw a rattler out there but that's beside the point. Oh and tons of cactus just waiting to be fallen into, that is fun let me tell you.
   In any case, my sister and I have spent the most time with our cousin who just turned 30, John. After our family moved he would come up sometimes to spend a week or two with us. I think he's always been closer to our shared grandparents and when I moved back down to Austin and lived with them for awhile we would spend a lot of time together, playing card games mostly. Sometimes we would go down to a coffee shop on the lake, Mozart's, there's a family in joke concerning one of our trips down there that I won't divulge, because where then would the mystery be?
   Anyway, I think it's because of all the time spent together and all the funny memories shared that I favor John a bit. Happy Birthday John. Hope it was a great one.

I have to get up for work in two hours

And yet here I am typing away on my keyboard cause I'm not really...well I am sleepy but I just feel like doing something rather than sleep. Like look up rattlesnakes on Wikipedia and figure out the best way to say Diamond back rattlesnake in Japanese...I think it's ダイヤ柄 背中がらがら蛇  "daiya-gara senaka gara gara hebi" by the way, which roughly translates to, diamond (pattern) back rattlesnake. I think rattle snake in Japanese is hilarious. がらがら蛇 "gara gara hebi" which is basically saying gara gara snake. Onomatopœia is fun. Ah, time to tend to the needs of the body the most pressing of which requires that I get up. Then back and surrender to the gentle tyrant.

Concerning daily posts

Does yesterday's post about there not being a post for the 24th count as the post for the 25th? I use "concerning" in lieu of "about". That's all, not that this daily post was supposed to in some way generate concern.

No blog for the 24th

I meant to blog, I really did, but I just got caught up playing Deus Ex.

I like webcomics

Some of the webcomics I like are:
Questionable Content somewhat nsfw (sexy times, language)
Diesel Sweeties somewhat nsfw (sexy times, language)
Girls with Slingshots somewhat nsfw (sexy times, language)
Dinosaur Comics most of the time sfw (language)
Tweep as far as I can remember sfw
Sinfest somewhat nsfw (sexy times, language, drug usage)

又 あの人 は 忍者 です; Concerning the title of this blog

   I like Japanese. The language. Nihongo. I like Japanese people too, those that I've met anyway but when I say "I like Japanese," I mean the language. It's a very specific language. Take the distinction the language makes between the people and the language itself. Nihonjin is a Japanese person, Nihongo is the Japanese language. Two different words with a specificity that English doesn't obtain in just one word, in this instance. 好きよ.
   I also like Family Guy. Maybe not as much as I once did, but I still enjoy it enough to flip over to [adult swim] around 10:00 of an evening, if it's not already on from watching American Dad or King of the Hill. I say that to say this, the title of this blog is a Japanese (Nihongo) translation of a sketch in one of the episodes of Family Guy in which Peter imagines what his life would be like as a sitcom. 俺の黒い息子。又 あの人 は 忍者 です。in romaji, or "Roman letters", looks like this: Ore no kuroi musuko. Mata ano hito wa ninja desu, which means, My Black Son. Also he's a ninja. If you'd like to hear this said aloud, go here. I thought this was amusing and since it in no way relates to my life my use of it is nonsensical which further amuses me.