An, essay appeared in the New York Times Magazine linking neediness to the rejection of African American culture. A woman out in California spent 12 year trying to pin down the common nerds and what makes them be. During a year of painstaking fieldwork she studied the nerd in their semi-natural environment, a large San Fransisco Bay High School. One time she asked female student(a "girl" to the layperson)to define the word blood and a shocking example of cultural rejection was uncovered. The student acted as if she was in the spelling bee by spelling the word B L O O D and then claimed that it was the substance flowing in her veins. When any normal person would know that it was the excepted word for friend.(I had never heard this definition, but as one with no culture, how would I have any knowledge of words or language?) Obviously she's was rejecting African American culture. It seems the conclusion was that nerds were "HyperWhite" and rejected the African American influence underpinning the "cool" white kids culture. The real kicker comes at the end:

By cultivating an identity perceived as white to the point of excess, nerds deny themselves the aura of normality that is usually one of the perks of being white. Bucholtz sees something to admire here. In declining to appropriate African-American youth culture, thereby “refusing to exercise the racial privilege upon which white youth cultures are founded,” she writes, nerds may even be viewed as “traitors to whiteness.” You might say they know that a culture based on theft is a culture not worth having.

I don't really have the words to describe the above, other than I was under the impression that nerds were shunned for their lack of social graces, not due to  consciously exercising their white privilege to reject the adoption of a non-culture stolen from the oppressed African American "youth". 

You can't make this stuff up. Honestly this the kind of stuff you ought to be reading in the Onion. I don't know how this stuff doesn't get laughed out off into the trash heap where it belongs, but then again I hear things look different from the Ivory Tower and that perhaps in some corner of the new math you can take nothing from something and end up nerds....

P.S. Also, if ever you feel the need to show your solidarity with the downtrodden African American youth, just drop the g's from the ends of words. Remember no other dialects of the non-languate English do this, only the African American version does.

Hat Tips: TigerHawk and JustOneMinute

I found a lack of demotivation upon my blog, so I created the above poster. I'm not entirely sure I like it, I almost think the text would look better in blue. Maybe it'll reappear in a second version.

Since I failed to make it to Kendo yesterday, I shall make up for it by displaying this video.

This video demonstrates with narration all ten Kendo kata. I think the drums are a nice touch, it really sets the mood. They use a lot of Japanese kendo jargon, but the video should still make some sense to the laymen.

The general purpose of these kata is to demonstrate skill and control with the swords. Also you practice various strikes and blocks.

I. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

This gets the top spot just on the basis of it's sweet ending; its really hard to top Voldemort rebirth as a climax. I also enjoyed a lot of cinematography of the film, such as the competing schools introduction and the Dragon. Another notable plus was a lack of Dursleys and stupid elf things. Some negatives that almost put this in number two spot was a lack of explanations of certain events lack of time for the competitors who were not named Harry.

Grade A-

II. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Akzabahn

This was good movie, Highlights involve the time traveling and Harry finally developing some effective offensive spells. However this movie had too many Dursleys and the bizarre bus ride during the early parts keep it from over taking the top spot. I also enjoyed the introduction of Sirius Black who I found to be a cool character.

Grade A-

III. Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone

This movie was the introduction and as such was enjoyable. I'm still disturbed by his abusive step family but once one gets to hogwarts things become much more interesting. Harry has exiting adventures, acquires noble and useful companions and saves the day. How can this not be enjoyable?

Grade B+

IV. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

This movie rates low due to it's seeming rehashing of the philosopher's stones conflict and that I didn't really care for the cinematography. After the last movies amazing scenes this one seems very closed and dark. Maybe it could have been saved by an awesome climax, but the struggle for Harry's mind in the end just didn't lend itself to being filmed particularly well. However, the incompetence and downright dereliction of duty of the government certainly sets the stage for future tragedy.

Grade B

V. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The blame for this movies last place showing lies completely in Dobby's lap. I despise him as the Jar Jar Binks of the Potter Universe. He's bumbling, stupid, unfunny and worst of all, has nothing what so ever to contribute to the plot. It seems his only purpose is to put pointless obstacles in Harry's way. Unfortunately the elf thing is rewarded with freedom at the end based solely on his (failed) attempts to betray his master. Otherwise I rather liked this film, particularly the implication that Harry is an heir of Slytherin and the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets. Also a Giant Basilisk makes a nifty final boss.

Grade C

I saw the new Harry Potter movie today and it was quite good, although I wouldn't rank it as my favorite Potter movie. (Perhaps a future post will involve my Potter movie Rankings)It's still nice to see the series start to move in a darker manner now that the dark lord was Reborn, things certainly carry over from the traumatic ending of the last film. It looks like the hard times are here to stay for Harry, since now even his refuge of Hogwartz has become as dark as the real world.

The supposedly responsible people, just pretend the problem doesn't exist live their happy lives. Instead things are left to the Order of the Phoenix, led naturally by Dumbledoor and Sirius Black, who are given the blame for all the bad things going on. Even though they are trying to prevent worse things.

The Good

Harry is starting to get some combat skills as a war wizard, which is good to see. It was nice to see him actually using his magic for useful purposes. Unfortunately, none of those spells would have been under the ministry of Educations syllabus , since they might actually been useful. Also Harry's not a bad teacher, maybe if he survives he ought to take up the Defense against the Dark arts position at Hogwartz he's already doing a better job the jokers who've held the job lately.

Snape as usual was exceedingly cool in this movie. I don't know why I like him so much, but maybe because he's got a certain (if sometimes hapless style) it was nice to see more of his back story with Harry's "sainted" father, it bring more humanity to both of their characters.
[spoiler]I look forward to seeing Snape kill Dumbledore, Hopefully the movie people won't let me down.[/spoiler]

The lack of screen time for the Dursleys. I really despise those people and anytime taken up by those idiots is time taken from the important doings at Hogwartz and elsewhere.

It was nice to see the touches of insanity of the Magic ministry, such as the massive portrait, resembling something you might see in Mao's china, Stalin's Russia or Big Brother's Air Strip One.

The Bad

To some extent I think the darkness of the movie, made the film a little less visually appealing, particularly after all the bright scenes of the wizard tournament in the last move. Also wasn't the general plot of having Harry lead Voldmort to the object he desired the plot of the first movie? I seem to recall that Harry was convinced to disarm all the traps so Voldmort could get the Philosophers stone, but maybe I'm just suffering from freak deja vu.

Not much action for Ron in this movie. I suppose with all the other characters there really isn't much time left for old dependable Ron. It would also have been nice if Harry love interest had been given some character development. I have to admit that I can't say I remember a thing about her, supposedly there she and Harry went on St. Valentines day date in the book, but all I saw in the movie was one kiss. Still I fear that is the shortcomings of the medium, just not enough time to spend on all the other characters. On the other hand, since this movie is so far the shortest of the films, you think that maybe the could have spent a little bit more cash and given a little more time to non-Harry Characters. In some ways the path Lord of the Rings took, (in releasing an extended DVD version, not adding random psudo-death scenes) is probably the path to take, that way you can both make more cash and please fans at the same time.

A friend and I just saw the latest summer blockbuster Transformers. I must say I hadn't gone in with too much in the way of expectations for a stellar plot. I was just hoping for some cool special effects and to be entertained. Sadly even those low expectations were not met.

The plot:

The Sparkle of life made it's way to earth and the Autobots and Decepticons have come to claim it. A bad comedy ensues punctuated by occasional special effects. Our hero, Sam Witwicky gets the girl, Some snooty, blond English Hacker chick makes authority looks like war mongering fools, Some reject from Saturday Night live pretends to be a hacker, some random people from Men in Black do inexplicable conspiracy stuff. All I know is that for a movie supposedly about Transformers, most of the time was spent with very non mechanical objects.

The Good:

• Blackout's attack on the military base in Qatar. It was very excellent, with really cool special effects. Also the fight with scorperon was cool.
• The Transformation sequences were nicely done

The Bad:

• The lack of laser guns. Anyone who watched the original cartoon saw lots of laser weapons. Conspicuously absent form this movie.
• Megatron doesn't turn into his classic gun, but instead into some lame alien jet thing. Supposedly the director felt that having Megatron shrink down to a gun would be "cheating". wtf, the other transformations are basic transmutations and have no relations to the normal laws of physics. Case in point would be Blackout, it flies as a helicopter but transforms into a huge Mecha thing, there's no way a helicopter could carry that much weight!
• Lack of interaction between the Deceptacons. Sure they looked cool, but how can you have transformers with out Starscream's plotting?
• The map to the cube was magically imprinted in some random broken glasses. Why?
• Everyone in the movie, (except for the stuck-up Genius Blondie Hacker chick with a bad accent) is a complete moron. You'd think a bunch of super intelligent machines that have been around the millennial would have a better strategy than wander around aimlessly looking for the sparkler of ultimate power? Then there's the Hollywood induced war mongering of the Defense department. Okay a base is destroyed by some thing, so It must be the Chinese? One would think they'd be able to take a look at some spy satellites data and see this giant robot, but then this movie would make sense.
• Mr and Mrs Witwicky were extremely annoying, in fact anytime there were on screen was like we'd been transported into a lame teen comedy involving band camp and pies. What is this doing in a sci-fi movie about Giant Transforming Robots? I thought the scene at the Witwicky household would never end.
• The hero is not Optimus prime. Instead he's some loser who gives the Sparkle of life to the villain. What's up with that?
• The ending where even though the climatic battle took place in the middle of a large city with skyscrapers, the move attempts to make the audience think the government could cover it up. I suppose it's supposed to be a heroic attempt to wake up the audience that the government is not trustworthy and is keeping the source of all our amazing technologies a secret. Or maybe that script writer pasted that portion over from Men in Black. All I know is it put those annoying Witwicky parents on the screen to waist more time.

Conclusion:

I don't really understand what was so difficult about making this into a decent movie? Did they really need the American Pie and Men in black ripoffs? It seems that it would have been simple to stick to the tried and true, transforming robots. I mean the idea is to sell toys and cars isn't it? All they needed to do was rip the plot off the begging of the animated series, kids would have loved, guys my age would have loved it, it seems like a no-brainer to me Robots awaken after millenia and do battle on earth. What so hard about that? The 1980's animated version was much cooler, while it's plot wasn't Shakespeare at least it was still Sci-Fi, not a lame teen comedy movie. I suppose I shouldn't expect a summer movie to make sense or that Hollywood actually take pride in their work.

Whenever I'm at low point in posting I can always bring up nifty videos I've found on μTube. I currently am involved in fencing and kendo, so it's really cool to see some nice Longsword work.

The first video demonstrates many Longsword Techniques some of which I recognize from what little broadsword training I've had.

This second video is more of a simulated match with more action and faster strikes. 

Sadly I've not been writing much on my blog of late. I've been too busy fiddling with the blog styles and adding plugins. I feel almost hardcore, since I managed to upgrade my Wordpress from 2.0 to 2.2 as if it was my job. I fear I've still much work left on the theme,as it still doesn't measure up. Perhaps someday, I'll upload a generalized version to wordpress themes collection

Things on the list to change

• I need to strain my graphics skillz and make some kind of Header image, so my blog is less plain.
• The bullets for unordered lists should be different. What happened to the Red circles?
• I Need to adjust the position of the Digg & share links, they look odd left aligned.
• Font - the current font is more generic than I can quantify
• Headings. (h1,h2,h3 etc) They are all messed up with no hierarchy that I can see
• Buttons - Do I want to create images or keep the Css versions? Also should I fix the Hover for Internet Exploder?
• Make the Vote Button match my other buttons(either as images or css)
• Add a hover image to the wp_spoiler tags
• Do I really like white for my meta text on posts?
• Should visited links hover the same as normal links? And why are they grey?
• In general where should Images be aligned when I place them in posts? Currently they are left aligned which is lame
• Why is in St. Georges name is the Poll text white?
• Organize the stylesheet which has no logical method to it's madness

That's probably more than enough for now