George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
The things you lean on / are things that don't last
User ID: 107
I'd argue that the hands of the producers of our current iteration of Shogun are not clean in this regard--in other words that they also have, possibly unavoidably, made narrative adjustments to suit their idea of the modern progressive ethos. But I am still imagining how to effort post that particular topic.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1d ago
I don't have an insightful answer to your question but I hate tats myself. A lot of my friends, even if roughly my age, have them, and the tattooing stories all sound inane to me.
The popular belief about Japan is that tattoos are a signal of organized criminal membership (Yakuza) and this has been my own experience. The view that Japanese therefore find tattoos "scary," however, I'd take issue with. Japanese are very aware generally that tattoo cultural norms are different outside Japan, and seeing a tattooed foreigner isn't particularly traumatizing, but probably does seem like a class signal. In other words because the yaks generally attract the socially disaffected (e g. burakumin or Zainichi Korean, etc.) and then gang members have the irezumi (traditionally tattooed with bamboo needles) sleeves and back-tats etc., to be seen tattooed is to be unconsciously associated with the dregs of society. Like seeing someone with a gold incisor, even if you know they're not in some gang or whatever.
For this reason many places where all or part of the full body is on view such as pools, hot spring resorts, or sento (public baths) have signs everywhere that tattooed patrons are forbidden. (Although I've seen at least one Japanese man at a hot spring with a tattoo on his shoulder, and to my awareness nothing was ever said to him and he certainly was not kicked out. Then again he was a big dude and onsen staff are generally dainty women or old spent dudes. If tattoo guy had the stones to wade into the hot spring without fear of social rebuke, he pretty much was home free.)
There are also sento baths that do not forbid tattoos and these are usually straightforward, no-nonsense public baths in dingier areas.
I was raised to see tattoos as trashy. My dad was in the Navy and apparently this view lodged in his mind. He also liked Catholics, though wasn't one himself, because he said the Catholic guys were the one group that didn't immediately visit brothels at port. (I cannot verify the accuracy of this.)
Back on topic: Lots of young Japanese women now seem much more interested in tattoos than their parents, but only seemingly those already immature in their social development or mildly out-of-step anyway (e.g. they are also interested in foreigners.) For guys if you're a musician or otherwise resolved to stay on the fringe (artist, bar owner, etc.) you can get away with tats, probably.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
2d ago
As you suspect I am speaking English and it's dubbed in Japanese. There is (or was) a version with just English but I won't search for it for two reasons:
a) They assured me only the dubbed one would be released
b) I just spoke the exact words as written, complete with grammatical errors, so I'm speaking shitty English.
Yes it is a strange place.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
2d ago
Yes I am very proud of that move. I am realizing I resemble a lot of people I didn't know were out there. I am about Patton's age apparently.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
2d ago
Back in my Peace Corps days, I was in Southern Africa. One curious compliment to a woman there (crude, to my way of thinking)° was O morago o motona which means "You have a big ass." Generally I believe the anthropological thinking is when a culture is in lean times, the big folks are attractive because that signals access to the eats. In the bountiful era, a slender frame rather suggests you have the resources to push away from the plate of Twinkies because you know there will be more if you want them, whenever.
°I also once heard a man say to a colleague of mine, a young woman new to the school: O mabele o montle, tla ke anye which means "You have nice tits, let me suck them." Of course this was a big dude and he could and did say whatever the hell he wanted most of the time in that world where brute strength ruled pretty much everything.
I don't know how accurate any of this is in terms of human psychology but it makes a certain amount of sense.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
2d ago
I'm not sure what you mean by that, to be honest.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
2d ago
It reminds me of women who say all men are rapists waiting to be rapey. Now sure maybe in the right circumstances, Mr Gittes, men are capable of anything, that doesn't mean the same thing. Taking an observed behavioral phenomenon and applying it wholesale as typical is shoddier than even the usual shoddy social science.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
2d ago
And our children all above average.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
2d ago
This Patti Hearst-type phenomenon surely can't pattern onto all females? I agree a certain type of woman likes the brute (I went to high school with some of these girls) but I wouldn't by any means say this applies to all women. You seem like a very smart guy, so what makes you confident to make such a big generalization?
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
2d ago
I took
This is why I stay away from veggies
to mean you avoid vegetables. Maybe just those in a can? Although you should know canned and frozen vegetables often retain many of their nutrients just fine, this is particularly true of frozen vegetables. I dislike making such statements without a good source though. Probably you already know this and are avoiding the added sugars/sodium etc.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
2d ago
Ha, exactly. I get to ride for once on film and they pollute the ad with some douchebag.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
2d ago
I would need to look him up. Not so far no.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
2d ago
Foreigner = Act goofy . In one audition I was told repeatedly to "overreact" to everything. I ended up getting that job (for a laundry detergent) but had to play myself as a gameshow host, a voluptuous woman (my one-time cross-dressing experience) and an old bald man. I have turned down work because it's too stupid. I don't know why this is so, though I can hazard guesses. White/black males at least must always look slightly idiotic in their behavior. (Unless it's George Clooney or similar of course. And even then...
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
3d ago
Truth be told I've never owned an Iphone.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
3d ago
I may have another commercial. Have I mentioned I am sometimes in commercials? I am. This is no big deal because if they need a foreigner and you are available, cha ching. Early on I was in mostly web CMs (as they are called here) and overdubbed. Yes that's me, fuck it. It was 11 yrs ago.
Anyway the new one is a bank/credit card so maybe they'll drop the cash. Will update. My burgeoning celebrity continues... /s
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
3d ago
That's probably true for many. I recently got my buddy back home to stop drinking sodas. Whether he has kept up the abstinence I obviously don't know. I avoid drinking anything sweet, and only rarely even drink orange juice, which I remember I used to love. I can't even remember the last time I had it. I live in Japan with a Japanese wife and have Japanese in-laws though so my diet is dramatically different from what it used to be. Hopefully I am getting some of the acquired/acquirable health benefits of living here.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
3d ago
I don't know if it's true or not but I feel as if living here in Japan for the last two decades really changed my diet. Like I haven't bought any sort of jarred pasta sauce since around 1999, but as a kid my mom served the Ragu weekly, and as a youth and young man I wouldn't think twice about it. I make my own salsa, guacamole, etc. But this is also largely because you just can't find that stuff regularly where I am. I have been known to make pot pies from scratch, simply because I get nostalgic for the frozen food of my childhood in the South.
Unlike what you're saying I eat many more vegetables now, as well as fruit. Probably at least part of that is because of my wife's skill in preparation.
I'd be a blob of walking triglycerides if I still lived in the states. Maybe.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
4d ago
I'd argue against bullet point 1, or at least ratchet it back a bit. I read Robert Lustig's book Metabolical and he is clearly wrong about a number of things. Sugar (sucrose, fructose, etc.) is obviously not great to eat constantly and vigilance and curating one's consumption of it can only help, but Lustig calls it a "toxin." It's not a toxin. Or, rather, it's not a toxin in small enough doses. I'd also flag "processed" food as overly vague. There are lots of meanings to the word processed and again just being processed doesn't necessarily make a food harmful to eat. Another point against Lustig (and I realize I'm the one mentioning him, not you, but he has been my most recent exposure to these same claims you're making) is he bangs the drum about "organic" food, a thing which always makes me immediately hold whoever's doing it suspect. Organic farms are arguably less sustainable than non-organic farms, and are not pesticide-free.. (Once again I realize you have not pushed organic food.)
I personally agree with your view on protein, as well as the importance of sleep and hydration.
I would suggest supplements are largely unproven and bordering on s snake oil, but you seem to know this. Without plunging into impossible goals there are always apps that will not only adjust any workout to your own level with incrementally increasing difficulty, but also make suggestions about what you should be eating. I'd also offer that the mindset of trying to supplement one's way to health and forego the hard work will very likely not produce satisfactory results.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5d ago
None of what you've written here makes a particularly insightful point except to suggest "Here are things I believe are crazy, how about it?" And the not-veiled implication that only idiots would disagree with you--which hardly invites discussion. There are a great number of older threads worth reading on this site without shit-stirring for the sake of it.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
6d ago
Is that your video? If so I'll watch it. Otherwise could you give me a quick summary?
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
6d ago
Probably I'm not badass enough, or partake in a budo that will be scoffed at, but the head of my Aikido ryu/dojo 's big boss is a (Japanese) woman, and although she's no spring chicken any more, she could throw the hell out of you. My point is that it's toing to depend on the martial art. BJJ is probably going to be more man-centric. You'll find girls at kickboxing and aikido.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
7d ago
Still plowing through Errol Flynn's autobiography. It's good, even gripping, I juat don't have a lot of time lately.
Since I last wrote of it he has :
-
frolicked with a farmers"s daughter and gotten chased off the land. That was probably good though because it was a sheep farmer and Flynn's job involved "dagging the hogget." Actually he didn't dag the hogget (I'll let you look that up), he was the next guy, meaning he took the sheep and bit off its testicles. Yes you read that correctly. Makes me sentimental for the pre -title reel of that Indian video linked by Kulak. Anyway look up dagging the hogget. It's a crazy world, folks. Nuts, really, and then you must apparently bite them off.
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continued running with the stolen jewels he stole, only to be himself relieved of them while in an unsuspecting drunken stupor.
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been involved in cockfights where he and his coeval poisoned the bird's beak so it would autowin. Got caught. Had to haul ass. Yes there is a pattern here.
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made it with a Japanese wife of a Swedish man on a boat while at sea, who eventually catches them. Running occurs At least one shot is fired, though where .the bullet ended up is anybody's guess.
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been eviscerated, almost, by an angry untipped rickshaw driver. I think this was India.
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been to many a whorehouse. Brothel, if you prefer. He speaks highly of brothels and the women who work in them.
I am now up to the chapter where I think he is about to start acting.
Will post again next week.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
8d ago
Thanks for the recommendation. Mind sharing why? I have deliberately avoided all of the modern re-envisionings of the series, and the ads for this one don't at all convince me to abandon this strategy.
And presumably naginata, which was, yes, used by women, presumably because of its reach which would cancel out size issues.
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