11.14.2008
Tele2... fuck you Tele2
Being caught working for Tele2 is like being caught punching a baby; it really should be a federal offense. Yeah I know you guys got off my back after the state office intervened but as promised I'll continue to give you lazy fucks the worst publicity that I can muster, you deserve every syllable. The next time you see a Tele2 booth, give them the finger from me.
10.25.2008
The problem with fighting games
EDIT: I fixed some of the errors found in the text, thanks for the heads up.
Note that this is a translated excerpt from a forum post I just made on the topic of whether introducing new games, especially 2D titles, into the community would be worth the hassle. I am responding to subjects as whether or not playing a game with no scene is worth the time of day, whether or not there's a point in playing a game that only one person has, if it's meaningful to buy a title that no one will be playing in two weeks and also I'm lashing out at the dominance that Capcom had over the entire community for the past decade despite not making the effort to actually releas new games until just recently.
"The problem with today's fighting gamers is that no one seems to every play the games for fun or even because they are GOOD anymore. It's only about community, tournaments, winning streaks and match videos with celebrity players. The fact that fighting games are like any other video game, part of a medium designed primarily around entertainment, is something that seems all but forgotten. In the end reality has been twisted to the point where people are still playing their ten year old fighting games (I won't mention any names though Capcom games in general should feel targeted) either because they don't know any better or simply decided to jump on already existing bandwagons because they simply can't be bothered. That kind of behavior is usually referred to as backtracking.
Original rant can be found at: http://www.bitterharmony.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2001&start=270
Note that this is a translated excerpt from a forum post I just made on the topic of whether introducing new games, especially 2D titles, into the community would be worth the hassle. I am responding to subjects as whether or not playing a game with no scene is worth the time of day, whether or not there's a point in playing a game that only one person has, if it's meaningful to buy a title that no one will be playing in two weeks and also I'm lashing out at the dominance that Capcom had over the entire community for the past decade despite not making the effort to actually releas new games until just recently.
"The problem with today's fighting gamers is that no one seems to every play the games for fun or even because they are GOOD anymore. It's only about community, tournaments, winning streaks and match videos with celebrity players. The fact that fighting games are like any other video game, part of a medium designed primarily around entertainment, is something that seems all but forgotten. In the end reality has been twisted to the point where people are still playing their ten year old fighting games (I won't mention any names though Capcom games in general should feel targeted) either because they don't know any better or simply decided to jump on already existing bandwagons because they simply can't be bothered. That kind of behavior is usually referred to as backtracking.
To have or not to have isn't even part of the debate anymore because I know for a fact that it means nothing whether the games in question can be provided or not. I would gladly sponsor everyone in the area with a copy each of King of Fighters XI if I didn't already, from previous experience, know that it would be a waste of time and money. And if we're talking about learning curves; let me ask you how long it takes for seasoned fighting gamers to learn a character from an old classic like World Heroes 2 which only uses three buttons? 5 minutes? 10? Regardless, the problem lies in the fact that most players these days aren't prepared to dedicate even that time to try something new to them, even out of curiosity.
We talked a little about how ungrateful being a fighting gamer can be and yes, it can get really hairy every now and then. But maybe, just maybe it wouldn't be so damn bad if such large parts of the entire community still wasn't completely focused on only doing their own thing. Just look at the lingo from different games as an example; 1234 in Tekken and SC respectively doesn't mean even nearly the same thing, and these were made by the same company. Similarly A and B in SC and KOF uses the same terminology for two entirely different things, a mid in 3D is called an overhead in 2D and it just keep going on like that. Sure, it doesn't help that the companies that make these games often somehow try to establish their franchises by coming up with new names for things. Anyone still remember that a “super combo” was originally invented as “desperation move” before a certain company desired to change it up or that a “parry” was originally called “deflect”? But even so I still don't think I've seen many communities that ended up so divided and whose members are so concerned about hanging out in groups, or even having members being forced to simply stick with the group that is the closest to their interests in hopes of getting any playtime at all.
At the same time the whole fighting game genre is in the middle of the biggest comeback since the mid 90s, yet no one seems to bother taking a loot at the world outside of their little corner made from whatever fighting game series you hold above all others. I honestly don't give a damn about how Street Fighter 4 turns out as a game, all I care about is new players coming in and enjoying a game that was neither played to death like a broken vinyl five years ago nor taking 18 months of playtime before anyone even bothers to remember your name.
All in all I think that fighting games are like the wine in a documentary I just saw on public service TV the other day; if you only drink the brands that people tell you to drink then you are doing it WRONG! It's nothing short of a miracle that there are so many titles out the entire population of the western hemisphere only bother to play five of them. Regardless of their reasons for doing so.
So if anyone feels particularly moved by this go to Ebay and buy the first title you find at the to of the fighting game genre list, I'd be surprised if you had to spend more than a measily 30 bucks for it nowadays. Bloody Roar, Fatal Fury, Rise 2 Resurrection, Brutal Paws: of Fury, Mortal Kombat 3, Toshinden 2, Street Fighter the bloody movie game or fucking Shaq Fu. As long as it's something that you don't have, I dare you! If you want anyone to join in, I'll be on it, I don't care if it's a bloody game boy port of power rangers that you dig up!
And by the way, considering that virtually every fighter produced between 1990 and 2003 is available on emulators (and everything after that being relatively easy to get hold of cheaply) I say there are no excuses about not getting hold of specific titles. I would gladly hand them out myself if I had to.
Well if nothing else, thanks goes out to the people who bothered reading my entire rant.
Hex off"
Original rant can be found at: http://www.bitterharmony.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2001&start=270
9.26.2008
Speak like the devil pt. 2
As an atheist I tend to get a lot of existential questions from curious or and crititcal religious people alike. One of the most common being "how can you NOT believe that there is an afterlife?" after a lot of gibberish about souls along with a few comments about how cynical it is to believe that you're the food of worms once you're dead.
Well first of all let me get one thing straight, regardless of my beliefs I do not plan to end up as worm food. That's what happens when you get buried in a coffin, underground, in a cemetery, which is the last thing I want. Burn me, use my body to make a fancy skeleton to teach biology classes, pilfer my organs or hell, donate the corpse to the local club of necrophiliacs. Just do me the favour of not having my body be part of religious traditions and add to their false sense of legitimacy. So there, I said it.
As for death itself, what does an atheist think death is like? Well I thought about it for a while and I’ve come up with a simple answer. Think back, waaay back. What did you experience during the tenth century? Were you alive? I think not. So what was it like? Do you have any memories of the time you spent not being a part of existence? The time before you were born? Try hard and you might get a glimpse of what I am pointing at-it’s called entropy.
Simply put you didn’t feel anything because you didn’t have a body to feel, you don’t remember any of it because you didn’t have a brain to remember with, you weren’t aware of your current state of non-existence because you didn’t have an awareness to be aware of. A blank slate, a transparent nothing. That’s what you were then, and that’s what you will be when you die. No memories, no personal quirks, no stress, no worries, no planning, no nothing. That’s what it means to be dead and that’s what you will likely believe as someone free from delusions of heaven. It may sound like a harsh or even sad truth, but honestly, once you’re dead you won’t care because naturally there’s no sadness there either. You’re just… gone.
With that in mind I think it’s obvious that it doesn’t matter what happens to your body, all you really have to do is perhaps take those still alive into consideration. Perhaps THEY would like to see a proper burial? Well that’s what your last will is for, give them the piece of mind to tell them what you really want and be done with it, it’s not like you’ll ever be able to do anything else ever again.
Well first of all let me get one thing straight, regardless of my beliefs I do not plan to end up as worm food. That's what happens when you get buried in a coffin, underground, in a cemetery, which is the last thing I want. Burn me, use my body to make a fancy skeleton to teach biology classes, pilfer my organs or hell, donate the corpse to the local club of necrophiliacs. Just do me the favour of not having my body be part of religious traditions and add to their false sense of legitimacy. So there, I said it.
As for death itself, what does an atheist think death is like? Well I thought about it for a while and I’ve come up with a simple answer. Think back, waaay back. What did you experience during the tenth century? Were you alive? I think not. So what was it like? Do you have any memories of the time you spent not being a part of existence? The time before you were born? Try hard and you might get a glimpse of what I am pointing at-it’s called entropy.
Simply put you didn’t feel anything because you didn’t have a body to feel, you don’t remember any of it because you didn’t have a brain to remember with, you weren’t aware of your current state of non-existence because you didn’t have an awareness to be aware of. A blank slate, a transparent nothing. That’s what you were then, and that’s what you will be when you die. No memories, no personal quirks, no stress, no worries, no planning, no nothing. That’s what it means to be dead and that’s what you will likely believe as someone free from delusions of heaven. It may sound like a harsh or even sad truth, but honestly, once you’re dead you won’t care because naturally there’s no sadness there either. You’re just… gone.
With that in mind I think it’s obvious that it doesn’t matter what happens to your body, all you really have to do is perhaps take those still alive into consideration. Perhaps THEY would like to see a proper burial? Well that’s what your last will is for, give them the piece of mind to tell them what you really want and be done with it, it’s not like you’ll ever be able to do anything else ever again.
5.18.2008
5.13.2008
If it ain't physical it ain't scary
Psychic powers is probably one of the most re-ocurring elements of all gaming and film, that is if you live in Japan. We got characters like Bison (Street Fighter) and Athena Asamiya (King of Fighters) using psychic powers in fighting games, we've got one of the most recognizable cyberpunk anime movie adaptions in the west Akira featuring psychic powers prominently throughout the movie, there are body horror live action movies like Tetsuo that does the same and hell we've even got a US made Japanese horror-styled game called FEAR that makes it a vital plot element.
So anywar I don't really think the whole psychic thing even belongs in the whole sci-fi genre, I mean the whole idea is to get away from stupid folklore like that right? Putting psychers into sci-fi is like putting werewolves in a world war two documentary, so let's just skip the whole genre and fast forward to the part about horror.
In the west I guess we've got uh the Screamers movies and I guess Freddy Krueger is a borderline effort, and that's about it. Especially when it comes to horror we do body horror instead. Why? Because mind ghosts aren't fucking scary. I'm not exactly afraid of having a psycher will blow my head up in a fit of rage because even if we were to bend the rules of reality quite a bit it still won't fucking happen. Aliens are more likely to happen.
FEAR made quite a good example, all the ghosts featured in the game are pretty much mind distortions see? They cannot hurt you so why should be afraid of them? Because they provide an unsettling mood and creepy music? Please, I've had scarier scenarios than that daydreaming!
I am writing this because I just had one of those cultural clash episodes watching the new demo of Siren on the PS3 not to mention Asian import horror flicks were shit hot a while back and I really like steampunk, especially in anime. So anyway, the game is Siren and mere seconds into the game the first guy gets slaughtered by some random zombie (all good) then comes back from the dead almost instantly (kinda ruined the mood but sure) and goes to work by digging into the ground (uh...) and has this eerie voice because he was possessed by an evil ghost...
Okay hold it right there! This is exactly what I am talking about. This isn't the meaty body horror that I am into, this is some psychic thing involved there I just know it. It's some fucking random "ghost" taking over a corpse and walking around. For the record, ghosts or demons (or whatever you'd call them) aren't scary either because it's simply not plausible for them to exist. They can work for action games like Onimusha because they can look cool, or funny as hell like in Mario or Sonic Adventure 2 (certain boss) but seriously, ghosts have about the same impact in the horror genre as the fucking easter bunny. Not only do they not exist, make no sense from any scientific perspective (at all) but they need to be fucking designed by HR Giger before they even start looking somewhat intimidating.
So why "body horror" and what is it you may ask? Well it can be anything from a viral outbreak causing people to turn into ultra violent zombies (like in 28 Days Later), an alien parasite that takes over the bodies of humans to do their bidding (like in the classic Body Snatcher movies) or simply having some killer robot from the future disguising itself as a human (kinda like Terminator) in order to assassinate someone. Basically ANYTHING that's at the very least semi-realistic from a fucking modern world perspektive and have something to do about what it means to be "an organic being" as opposed to being a fucking semi transparent CGI. Make more movies like that and less movies about random symbols appearing on TV screens (Ringu), psychic powered robots (Cyber City) or unstoppable super powered ghosts with no known form of weakness for no reason (Grudge).
Eastern Asia needs to get over their fucking fascination for the supernatural, ghosts and psychics in particular, start living in the real world and produce more quality horror and sci-fi that doesn't build around fucking impossible premises. Lay off the whole psychic power thing, fuck ghosts, fuck spirits, fuck demons and fuck everyone who still thinks being photographed will make you lose your soul. We live in an extremely developed world where science rules the day, I simply cannot relate to mysticism anymore.
So anywar I don't really think the whole psychic thing even belongs in the whole sci-fi genre, I mean the whole idea is to get away from stupid folklore like that right? Putting psychers into sci-fi is like putting werewolves in a world war two documentary, so let's just skip the whole genre and fast forward to the part about horror.
In the west I guess we've got uh the Screamers movies and I guess Freddy Krueger is a borderline effort, and that's about it. Especially when it comes to horror we do body horror instead. Why? Because mind ghosts aren't fucking scary. I'm not exactly afraid of having a psycher will blow my head up in a fit of rage because even if we were to bend the rules of reality quite a bit it still won't fucking happen. Aliens are more likely to happen.
FEAR made quite a good example, all the ghosts featured in the game are pretty much mind distortions see? They cannot hurt you so why should be afraid of them? Because they provide an unsettling mood and creepy music? Please, I've had scarier scenarios than that daydreaming!
I am writing this because I just had one of those cultural clash episodes watching the new demo of Siren on the PS3 not to mention Asian import horror flicks were shit hot a while back and I really like steampunk, especially in anime. So anyway, the game is Siren and mere seconds into the game the first guy gets slaughtered by some random zombie (all good) then comes back from the dead almost instantly (kinda ruined the mood but sure) and goes to work by digging into the ground (uh...) and has this eerie voice because he was possessed by an evil ghost...
Okay hold it right there! This is exactly what I am talking about. This isn't the meaty body horror that I am into, this is some psychic thing involved there I just know it. It's some fucking random "ghost" taking over a corpse and walking around. For the record, ghosts or demons (or whatever you'd call them) aren't scary either because it's simply not plausible for them to exist. They can work for action games like Onimusha because they can look cool, or funny as hell like in Mario or Sonic Adventure 2 (certain boss) but seriously, ghosts have about the same impact in the horror genre as the fucking easter bunny. Not only do they not exist, make no sense from any scientific perspective (at all) but they need to be fucking designed by HR Giger before they even start looking somewhat intimidating.
So why "body horror" and what is it you may ask? Well it can be anything from a viral outbreak causing people to turn into ultra violent zombies (like in 28 Days Later), an alien parasite that takes over the bodies of humans to do their bidding (like in the classic Body Snatcher movies) or simply having some killer robot from the future disguising itself as a human (kinda like Terminator) in order to assassinate someone. Basically ANYTHING that's at the very least semi-realistic from a fucking modern world perspektive and have something to do about what it means to be "an organic being" as opposed to being a fucking semi transparent CGI. Make more movies like that and less movies about random symbols appearing on TV screens (Ringu), psychic powered robots (Cyber City) or unstoppable super powered ghosts with no known form of weakness for no reason (Grudge).
Eastern Asia needs to get over their fucking fascination for the supernatural, ghosts and psychics in particular, start living in the real world and produce more quality horror and sci-fi that doesn't build around fucking impossible premises. Lay off the whole psychic power thing, fuck ghosts, fuck spirits, fuck demons and fuck everyone who still thinks being photographed will make you lose your soul. We live in an extremely developed world where science rules the day, I simply cannot relate to mysticism anymore.
4.28.2008
Speak like the Devil
So humanity has this bad habit of finding wrongs in everything it does, even when the intentions are good. We invent ways to produce cheap quality food so that starvation in the western world is brought to an absolute minimum, then we stab ourselves in the back as we find out the consequences of our own actions. You see we've been breeding chickens to the point where they grow to full size seemingly over night and be ready for slaughter before we even managed to sell off the last batch. Now if you look into this further you will find that this breeding program where only the fattest and fastest growing birds are allowed to mate you will find that not only does it prove that our theory of evolution is indeed true but that our "God" has no control over it since it is humans calling all the shots.
Regardless of religious theories however it brings up an important question. Would it be better if we were to breed these chickens to the point where they are nothing more than sacks of meat with holes in them? You would simply have fill it up with corn and watch the sack of meat expand. Would it be easier to forsake our sympathy for something that no longer has eyes to see, a face to recognize, limbs to break or a brain to register pain? What if the animals we used to produce our meat actually kinda resembled that burger you see on display at your local joint? Only they add some photo shopped salad, cheese and a slice of bread.
If science was completely unchained by the morals of religion, vegetarians and money we could most likely actually do this. So speak like the devil if you want your meat to be an "it" that can be devoured with no sense of guilt. That is, if you can live without that emotion.
Regardless of religious theories however it brings up an important question. Would it be better if we were to breed these chickens to the point where they are nothing more than sacks of meat with holes in them? You would simply have fill it up with corn and watch the sack of meat expand. Would it be easier to forsake our sympathy for something that no longer has eyes to see, a face to recognize, limbs to break or a brain to register pain? What if the animals we used to produce our meat actually kinda resembled that burger you see on display at your local joint? Only they add some photo shopped salad, cheese and a slice of bread.
If science was completely unchained by the morals of religion, vegetarians and money we could most likely actually do this. So speak like the devil if you want your meat to be an "it" that can be devoured with no sense of guilt. That is, if you can live without that emotion.
4.26.2008
Tele 2 are mother fuckers
Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your pets. Tele 2 (or Comviq as they are also called in the cellphone biz) are mother fuckers and should be treated as such. All the money I saved on what seemed like a sweet deal as I changed from Telia, the no. 1 (albeit a bit expensive) telecommunication brand in the country, have been permanently lost because they are liberal assholes who think they can simply do what they please and use any excuse, no matter lame, to justify their actions just because they are one of the big guys.
Well I've got something to say to you,
fuck you Vigo Carlund and fuck you Lars-Johan Jarnheimer. It was one thing when you suddenly decided to use shit printers for the bills you were sending out (making them look like fucking hoax demands) to save money. but when you can't even take responsibility for your own blatant mistakes you get one angry customer. What? You didn't think I'd notice?
Well then...
Fuck you Tele 2.
Fuck you.
Well I've got something to say to you,
fuck you Vigo Carlund and fuck you Lars-Johan Jarnheimer. It was one thing when you suddenly decided to use shit printers for the bills you were sending out (making them look like fucking hoax demands) to save money. but when you can't even take responsibility for your own blatant mistakes you get one angry customer. What? You didn't think I'd notice?
Well then...
Fuck you Tele 2.
Fuck you.
4.23.2008
Enduralism, make it a word
Enduralism - The of power of which any aspect of human nature that is given its own name has to stay within the perimeters of human consciousness for at least as long as the word is used.
Think about it, in ancient times human had no words for "war" and as such we had no concept of "battle tactics" or "surrender". Now that those words are in our library however we also have a good image in our heads of what they mean. The same goes for sayings like "school shooting" or "going postal" both which weren't even concepts until recently.
So we may ask ourselves this; do people continue to perform the actions tied to these concepts simply because they now know of them or do they exist simply because something in our society has already changed on a fundamental basis, thus causing us to invent words for concepts that we have yet to understand?
But maybe we instead ought to ask ourselves; does it really matter? And if so, how can we possibly ever eliminate an entire concept from our public concsiousness when we already have a word for it? Even if we take the word out of our dictionaries people will still be familiar with the concepts "war" and "school shootings" for some time because of enduralism.
Think about it.
Think about it, in ancient times human had no words for "war" and as such we had no concept of "battle tactics" or "surrender". Now that those words are in our library however we also have a good image in our heads of what they mean. The same goes for sayings like "school shooting" or "going postal" both which weren't even concepts until recently.
So we may ask ourselves this; do people continue to perform the actions tied to these concepts simply because they now know of them or do they exist simply because something in our society has already changed on a fundamental basis, thus causing us to invent words for concepts that we have yet to understand?
But maybe we instead ought to ask ourselves; does it really matter? And if so, how can we possibly ever eliminate an entire concept from our public concsiousness when we already have a word for it? Even if we take the word out of our dictionaries people will still be familiar with the concepts "war" and "school shootings" for some time because of enduralism.
Think about it.
4.21.2008
It's Sweden you SOB
Now I made a rant about the US yesterday and about how I admire their industrialism and I got some good political debates out of it. Naturally I despise right wing assholes who only think with their damn wallet as much as the next guy, and sure the US is full of them, but then again so are most other countries. Today I'll focus on something else entirely however even though it's still within the scope of the same topic. I was planning on writing this a little later but there was a chance that it may just fall out of topic so instead I'll just get it on right now while the previous blogg is still in everyone's minds. I call it "It's Sweden you SOB" and it will deal with the most common stereotypes I've encountered across the net and my thoughts on them, it'll be a simple list of facts that shouldn't be too hard for anyone to understand.
- First of all it's Sweden, not Sweeden, as much as it sounds funny to pronounce the extra E in there that's not how you spell it and it doesn't sound even remotely similar to what we call it in our own language.
- We are not the same country as Switzerland. Sweden is the really fucking long land mass just below the north pole and third largest country in Europe. Now Switzerland is a considerably smaller, yet also considerably more wealthy, country south of us next to the German border. So when it says Swiss chocolate, it's from Switzerland, not Sweden. The same goes for cheese.
- Unlike Switzerland we aren't particularly famous for our chocolate even though we produce som high quality shit over here. Instead we are well known for our masses of handsome women and the fact that we have more natural blondes than most other people.
- In my 26 years of living as a native in this country I have not once come across a any single person, dead or alive, by the name of Inga. If you are looking for actual names that are common here I'd say Maria, Sara and Linda are some of the most common names for girls as I know of several people (both celebrities and common people) with each. Seriously, even the spinoff Ingrid (which is an actual name here) is quite unusual, especially nowadays.
- Denmark is NOT our capital, seriously where did this come from? Denmark is a small country consisting partially of islands that lie directly south of our border across a small but noticable body of water. Sure it's only about an hour away from my current location and the trip there is probably cheaper than it is for me to visit my family up north but it's still on the other side of a fucking border. Our capital is Stockholm and theirs is called Coppenhagen in english, plain and simple.
And that's Sweden.
- First of all it's Sweden, not Sweeden, as much as it sounds funny to pronounce the extra E in there that's not how you spell it and it doesn't sound even remotely similar to what we call it in our own language.
- We are not the same country as Switzerland. Sweden is the really fucking long land mass just below the north pole and third largest country in Europe. Now Switzerland is a considerably smaller, yet also considerably more wealthy, country south of us next to the German border. So when it says Swiss chocolate, it's from Switzerland, not Sweden. The same goes for cheese.
- Unlike Switzerland we aren't particularly famous for our chocolate even though we produce som high quality shit over here. Instead we are well known for our masses of handsome women and the fact that we have more natural blondes than most other people.
- In my 26 years of living as a native in this country I have not once come across a any single person, dead or alive, by the name of Inga. If you are looking for actual names that are common here I'd say Maria, Sara and Linda are some of the most common names for girls as I know of several people (both celebrities and common people) with each. Seriously, even the spinoff Ingrid (which is an actual name here) is quite unusual, especially nowadays.
- Denmark is NOT our capital, seriously where did this come from? Denmark is a small country consisting partially of islands that lie directly south of our border across a small but noticable body of water. Sure it's only about an hour away from my current location and the trip there is probably cheaper than it is for me to visit my family up north but it's still on the other side of a fucking border. Our capital is Stockholm and theirs is called Coppenhagen in english, plain and simple.
And that's Sweden.
4.20.2008
Ode to the US
I am well aware of my nationality as a Swede and I am quite aware of the fact that Europe as a whole had a tendency of looking down on the US as of late. Me on the other hand have had this strange admiration of everything north American for quite some time now and even with the stereotype of an American thinking very little of us just as we try to think very little of them it just seems a bit unfair to me. How and why? Well bear with me and I'll try to dot down exactly what I mean as have been pondering over my own fascination of that large country with many states in the west a lot lately.
First off, what do I like most about the US on a personal basis? Well it just so happens that there are a lot of things that the average US citizen can enjoy as easily as taking a ride down town. I am talking about wrestling TV shows every monday and friday night, I'm talking about going to a comic book store that actually has the latest issue of Supergirl ready for me, I'm talking about going to the Superbowl and watch one of the biggest sports events known to mankind, I'm talking about paying half as much for twice as much gasoline and I am talking about the mentality of trying to make everything faster, stronger, bigger, badder, better.
At home? I have none of that, lest I go the extra ten yards myself to import some of it at ridiculous prices. So yeah, it's with no small hint of envy that I look across that sea and the border in the west. I don't know about the rest of Europe or even other swedes for that matter but it's no secret that there's a lot of people out there right now with an evil eye glancing in the same direction as I am.
So I try to put myself in the position of an average US citizen, and even though I am fairly biased like my above statements suggest, it's easy to put yourself into the situation of someone from a country so small that your state alone covers a wider area calling you something like "world police", "fascist" or "patriotic garbage".
With the three items in order I can see how you won't like being called "world police" when you're a member of one of the few countries in the WORLD that can actually do something that could drastically change the outlooks of an entire nation and everyone that lives there. Needless to say it must be so easy to just roll your eyes and say "hey, what did your country do for humankind lately?"
Fascist? Well naturally a country of such large proportions needs a pretty strong regime to hold it all together. Looking at other examples like say China or Russia it would only be natural for any US citizen to simply brush that one off since surely their nation and population are in great shape compared to those two.
And lastly there's the whole patriotism issue. As a swede I am taught from an early age that nationalism is pretty much the same as racism, and you don't want to be racist do you? It's gone so far that wearing the swedish national flag on your clothes will almost automatically label you a racist and before you know it somone will have a grudge with you.
In the US I imagine it's quite easy to get past this issue since there all kinds of people living there. White, black, hispanic or whatever, if you're born an American then you'll be just as much of a US citizen as everyone else. As such Americans have little to no reason to make nationality into a racial issue and can instead go on about their business and parade their flag as they please.
So with that I am hoping I've been able make a point on why I like to tune in on American shows, read American comics and buy American food without feeling guilty about it. Hey I do the same for Japan anyways, they're a great country too. So if you don't agree well then there's the freedom of speech allowing you to keep dissing any American that crosses your line of sight, just remember that they can do the same to you, just for different reasons.
First off, what do I like most about the US on a personal basis? Well it just so happens that there are a lot of things that the average US citizen can enjoy as easily as taking a ride down town. I am talking about wrestling TV shows every monday and friday night, I'm talking about going to a comic book store that actually has the latest issue of Supergirl ready for me, I'm talking about going to the Superbowl and watch one of the biggest sports events known to mankind, I'm talking about paying half as much for twice as much gasoline and I am talking about the mentality of trying to make everything faster, stronger, bigger, badder, better.
At home? I have none of that, lest I go the extra ten yards myself to import some of it at ridiculous prices. So yeah, it's with no small hint of envy that I look across that sea and the border in the west. I don't know about the rest of Europe or even other swedes for that matter but it's no secret that there's a lot of people out there right now with an evil eye glancing in the same direction as I am.
So I try to put myself in the position of an average US citizen, and even though I am fairly biased like my above statements suggest, it's easy to put yourself into the situation of someone from a country so small that your state alone covers a wider area calling you something like "world police", "fascist" or "patriotic garbage".
With the three items in order I can see how you won't like being called "world police" when you're a member of one of the few countries in the WORLD that can actually do something that could drastically change the outlooks of an entire nation and everyone that lives there. Needless to say it must be so easy to just roll your eyes and say "hey, what did your country do for humankind lately?"
Fascist? Well naturally a country of such large proportions needs a pretty strong regime to hold it all together. Looking at other examples like say China or Russia it would only be natural for any US citizen to simply brush that one off since surely their nation and population are in great shape compared to those two.
And lastly there's the whole patriotism issue. As a swede I am taught from an early age that nationalism is pretty much the same as racism, and you don't want to be racist do you? It's gone so far that wearing the swedish national flag on your clothes will almost automatically label you a racist and before you know it somone will have a grudge with you.
In the US I imagine it's quite easy to get past this issue since there all kinds of people living there. White, black, hispanic or whatever, if you're born an American then you'll be just as much of a US citizen as everyone else. As such Americans have little to no reason to make nationality into a racial issue and can instead go on about their business and parade their flag as they please.
So with that I am hoping I've been able make a point on why I like to tune in on American shows, read American comics and buy American food without feeling guilty about it. Hey I do the same for Japan anyways, they're a great country too. So if you don't agree well then there's the freedom of speech allowing you to keep dissing any American that crosses your line of sight, just remember that they can do the same to you, just for different reasons.
That's me.
Hello there readers,
and welcome to my first attempt at this blogging thing. You may or may not know me from the adult fanfiction circles and you may or may not know me from the fighting game circuit, but then again that's what blogging is for right? So here we go, the complete biographical information orientation (also know as BIO) of your host: me.
HexElf
Alias: Mika Scaare
Age: 26
Nationality: Sweden
Gender: N/A
Consoles: PS3 and Neo Geo AES
Politics: Libertanian
Religion: Atheist
Personality: IMFP
Interests: Fighting games, shoujo-ai and writing
Quote: "Reality won't go away just because you stop believing in it."
That's the gist of it at least, if I can find anything else that could be stapled here I just might add it but I just needed a basic presentation for this one.
and welcome to my first attempt at this blogging thing. You may or may not know me from the adult fanfiction circles and you may or may not know me from the fighting game circuit, but then again that's what blogging is for right? So here we go, the complete biographical information orientation (also know as BIO) of your host: me.
HexElf
Alias: Mika Scaare
Age: 26
Nationality: Sweden
Gender: N/A
Consoles: PS3 and Neo Geo AES
Politics: Libertanian
Religion: Atheist
Personality: IMFP
Interests: Fighting games, shoujo-ai and writing
Quote: "Reality won't go away just because you stop believing in it."
That's the gist of it at least, if I can find anything else that could be stapled here I just might add it but I just needed a basic presentation for this one.
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