Some piece on spirogyra and patrick danin

Patrick Daneen in one of his talks mentioned  the affectious manner the term coerce the discourse

Interestingly from more leftist side you can see in the song Cogwheels churchs and cyanide by spirogyra a similliar critique

"Well the first man was a juggler
And his skill was very great
But he said that he was leaving
He said he couldn't wait

And the second came with jewels
That flickered on his hand
As he spoke about tomorrow
As if it were another land

But a lady caught between them
Said she should be free
And they just looked bewildered
And said "Yes, so should we"

Juggler as far as i understand here could be understood as investor who moves from project to project though never localize himself to a particular project

The rich man is, as far as i can see the symbol, as a capitalist in a more econmical function sense

And similliraly the lady is a proliteriat (i am not fully locked on the identification though as far as i can notice it still fall to a fairly orthodox marxist language)

Although interestingly  there is a slight nitzechean undertones if not "postmodern" in the popular sense.

This can be seen in the song structured as a story which the author lost control of seen mainly in the chorus

"How on Earth," yelled the author
"Does the tale make its sense?
It's alive with a truth
But we must have a proof
How can we open the door?" "

As well as similliar underlining of contra modernity notion

"Well the next man had religion
It made him very proud
He said he'd found his inner bliss
He said it very loud

But a group of men surpassed him
With science, skills, and speed
They hurled down his conceptions
And dug up all his weeds

The lady, she was worried
She asked if this was wise
"Of course it is
It's logic, brains, and enterprise!"

"

Though the differ is obviously lies in the answer seen in the last person of which the allusion is  i guess clear as someone who is free but because he found his own way

"
Well the last man had no number
And didn't say a word
He didn't even answer them
When they said he was absurd

They made him sign a treaty
To give up all he owned
And searched his pockets anxiously
To see if he had gold

The lady was enchanted
And said they ought to see
So they charged her with subversion
And made her watch TV
"

While Daneen would give a more traditionalist response with virtue ethics idolatry and such

Both formulate pretty popular opinions overall though it is always interesting to notice this particular gap affects

On Tommy

Tommy as an album structured around two arcs broadly distinguished by one revelation.

The first part is in terms of narrative following Tommy pre-revelation in which he is disconnected from the world in inherent manner. Thematically Tommy in this part is passive, and the cure given as such are external to him. This is in contrast to Tommy’s wish in his heart that people would notice him. The revelation is when tommy look to himself at the mirror, the mirror is where one self become object to himself; the last part is when he is open to the world and thus treat other as external to him, in this part he is active and cause harm to others.

Underlying the change there is a sense of corruption of the world that reach Tommy. This can be seen in what lead to the change, while tommy early on wanted people to notice him, what people noticed is themselves that is to say they noticed him only in so far as they noticed what they cared about, his pinball ability. This ability was of course accidental strength of Tommy, something he is not necessarily noticed as the song says it was almost instinctual activity. When tommy notice it himself is when he turn this accidental strength to be his main attribute in how he relate to people fundamentally.

Ultimately being revealed to the world leading to his demise as what he sees in the world is object of revenge. This expressed more clearly with the tragical, yet ironic, ending that while before it was the fault of the people that couldn’t notice him due to external factors, now after falling to external factors made them the only way which he could be seen, though in Tommy’s case the external factors is his inability to be connected to the world before.

Another way to phrase it the world caused hardship to him due to focusing on superficial elements, the pinball abilities that weren’t even controllable,  but when he escaped his own prison tommy defined himself by exactly such qualities, that is his privations.

Though with that in mind the question the listener left to ask goes as follows:”what does the prayer of tommy that people would sense him refer to?”. This question can be  problematized further in this way :”in the first part it is not accessible as Tommy is a black box to the world, that why he could be defined by such accidental property in such an all encompassing manner; while in the 2^nd part the condition is such that one could empathize with him in terms of content, yet, due to the manner he framed it, there is no way to access it as well”

The further question one may ask is whatever the content tommy request the world to empathize with changed. One could say that essentially even with the change of regaining sense data -  he still remained as unreachable as before in the same manner – as the fact he could speak and be interacted didn’t make it so his request could be reached, that is that people would care for him as himself. While on the other hand it could be said that the content is changed in the sense that the type of empathy requested is different – on the first it refer to empathy as a fellow human being that is yet to be known, while on the latter as a human being who is known for his folly.

Another duality revealed within the question is the question of who is the hypocrite. While the straightforward reading would lead the listener to consider Tommy as the hypocrite due to the way he abused others because he got abused once he became aware of his fame - it is the others negligence as well that led to it.

This question also unite the previous question with the theme of passive/active, or more appropriately bring them into question to begin with, as while it seems on surface that the album certainly play with them, ultimately in the end it is less clear who is the cause and who is the caused and it is even less clear whatever there was change at all in the relevant sense.

But if one may to conclude he would notice that although the album raise this topics it is in overtly raise them only that they remain open. This can be seen in how the album end, that is it end with the same question it started with –  would tommy be able to be reached – symbolized by repeating the prayer we started with.

To further show it, it is worth noting in that regards that there is important change between the film and the album. In the part of the chant “listening to you” in the album it is slow and cautious and ambivalent on who is chanting but more easily relatable with the crowd. In the movie  this is more clearly triumphant and associated with Tommy  directly. The need to change it reveal that it was ambiguous before but in the revision it was directed to be a positive ending.

Even with this change, just by a little reflection one can see that merely making the chant more positive only made the movement from the prayer to the chant more jarring: To start with the shift of mood is too sudden which in turn make the message unclear – in matter of seconds the mood move from revolting masses to him crawling to the corpse of his mother with the prayer, which in turn move  to a triumphant voicing as he get baptized again to the image of the rising sun. the shifts themselves so sudden it become unclear why is there redemption? Does it mean that he was reached? But he is alone if he was reached? So should we take it that he reached by reaching himself? But in the context how is it different from the other cases? And so on the question can go. (one may be charitable and would take it that it was self realization but self realization alone seems to be not enough to me due to the tension built)

for me at at least the album ending seems to be more tight by being more ambiguous and less definitive as the question it is rasing is one that framed so that it wouldn’t be answered.

Though regardless of all that quibble, the deviation is not structural nor is it in the themes but in the conclusion of them –   and the conclusion, what one take with him, Is more personal and contingent as is even if the author can guide it and the work in itself is still capturing and illuminating. 

Jinhao X750 Review

Another pen I've got but had long shipping is the Jinhao X750.
It is a cheap pen around 10usd in regular online retailer but you can get it from Aliexpress or eBay for 3usd.

Mine says it uses no. 5 nib size though it accept number 6

Positive:
-cheap price for reliable pen
-steel body means it have more sense of writing.
-fairly flexible nib the tines spread is quite easy and lead to fairly expressive writing

-can easily host more higher range nibs from more pricey pens(so you can buy different nib unit and upgrade it rather easily)

Neutral:

-the grip is quite thick and I find it less comftarble
-it is ok sized pen but without option to cap(could feel a bit too short at time)

Negative:
-Nib I've got came fairly dry and it is a bit scratchy. The ink I am using is a bit dry so not sure if it is because the nib or ink

-the design is a bit like montblanc 146 though somehow it have a cheap feel to it.

-it feel more like medium nib overall
- it tend to get dry fast when open

some thoughts about .hack

One of the more capturing songs from .hack//sign is  the theme song named after the game in the show's world by which the viewer experience the show.

The TV show backdrop is pre-WoW mmo games such as Dark Age of Camelot, Lineage 2 and Everquest 2. as a saga the .hack utilize the advents of this new games as ways of socializing to explore a particular part of the interaction of technology and society that is  the substitution of human interaction to an imaginary one at first, but also how the dwelling in this cyber arena overtake one life without noticing(be it by the nature of technology to be a utility that always tend to go to the background or the nature of the substitution that the game contextualization can bring). this in turn highlight the artificialness of the experience as the game back drop highlight how one is free to come and go freely without real consequence, but once it has consequence it is queer(in so far as the realization of the viewer). but the artificialness never stays within the realms of being odd to the viewer, the show by bringing it to light aim to show the sense of paradox of how social activity become so isolated in terms of experience.

before delving into the manner by which the show explore the themes lets give a general background. .hack//sign  is a show set in the not so far future where a company named CC corp released a vr computer that took over the world and released a game named "The World"(shortened to R1) the game premise is the usual fare of mmorpg in the time where you go on some pve, hang up in the world and engage with the lore that is hidden within the game world. the show follows a player named "Tsukasa" who got stuck in R1 and a particular bug(or unintended ai) start to follow him and protect him. two players who are caring encounter him (named Bear and Mimiru) and start investigate him, at first they thought he is some event character but soon realized he is a human player who got stuck and try to release him from the game. along the way the bug shelter him and let him cause havoc and put human players in comatose after he pk them and they try to solve it along with the ingame mod-knights.

so how does it go about exploring the themes? first, the main utility is when a human player in some manner stopped the normal interaction of making the game an alternative reality. this is done in the tv show by making a human player  not only engaging the game as a distant activity(that is allowed by "logging off" but living in the game world as part of its very fabric and without being able to escape. one need to notice this happen not because the player wanted to but by accident outside his control and without him being able to do anything about it. for him he just passing by and frustrated. though the show don't just stop there the bug that "joined" him is causing harm to other human players, putting them in comatose whenever they interact. thus the game world stopped being neutral, and it is not because any human agent but an ai that accidently slipped in and the trivialization of the game and vr as a utility.(later on the franchise will play with it in more substantial manner.)

that is enough to ground in the most basic manner to ground the substitution, but where does the artificial nature of the experience come in? as the show start Mimru notice that tsukasa activity is unusual, sure he do some bugs, she is aware of some hackers here and there, but she sees that he have more natural interaction, for example the berries he eat them as if they are food to him, as he can say they are sweet or sour. she sees him doing what could be taken as daily life events, or when he suffer it is as if he is in real pain. this is deneutrlize the game as experience, she is worried or rather at first curious but later on want to help and bring Bear abroad.  which also become worried. then they realize the comatose victims in the real life are victims of his, so there is sense of urgency on one hand but also sense that the game world itself changed in the place it took. they start to explore in the real world, try to find hints about the player identity and so on. on top of this main narrative you constantly see how the main characters have a weird relation where you mostly see them ingame and in manner that is rather obsessive(the op named obsession around this theme in particular).

but the show don't stay on this level for it also show the emptiness that come around. not in blunt fashion, as it is a slow show, but in steady manner.
the Assasin that follow along selfishly for loot(who is most likely a 13 years old in character) constantly hang around an adult Priest who scheme with him in game only to be revealed that the said Priest is more engaged in R1 than her life, but also show how unfulfilling it is as to her it is manner of escape the daily life.

another contrast is by the mod-knight gang. they are the sort of decency cop of the game world hired by the company with a special suit and organization. they are being lead by a Blue priest who is quite weak but her main time is in the world being around rping as the leader of them, so much so that it is her. so much so, when they get disbanded the said priest is lost in R1 but even more lost in the actual world.

however all of those are nothing compared to what Tsukasa represent. Mimiru is curious about Tsukasa because his manner of engagement with R1 seems appealing, she is quite an heavy player. she sees in Tsukasa someone who breath the world which she can only engage externally, it is a sort of envy at first but to the viewer it is in contrast to Tsukasa actual experience, he is alone in the world, can't really engage with other players nor can he take part with the activities. even if he could take part in the intended activities they get dull fast. in order to enhance the distance the ai (Morgana) is trying to jail him within her claws, a weird monster follows him by her order and protect him,  and he even get a chance to play with the world in the unintended manner. but that is not enough and ultimately R1 for Tsukasa is truly a jail and isolating.

to make it clear, the above sub elements work only because this very tension tsukasa represent. for tsukasa become an ideal type and each of the agents see in him something else. Mimiru see in Tsukasa a different sense of R1 which she want yet not  realize what she wants, while you as a viewer can see the place in which she miss the mark. Bear see in Tsukasa a sense of mystery in R1 which later transfer to pity - mystery as he treat tsukasa as a game event at first, some type of lore or so puzzle that unique from the regular activity, but soon he realize the actual happening and see in it the misery. the priest along with the Assassin see in Tsukasa a sort of new challenge compared to the regular pve events they were doing while tsukasa just want to be left alone. and the mods who are overly invested in their rp see in him a nuisance to the order they want to create while for tsukasa at times it is not even in his control but by the control of the ai.

the show reveal all of those tensions by perspective is not being caused by any of the player but by the game world and yet the thing that change is never the game world. they all just happen to fall into there in different path of life with different mindset on what they want from R1, or one may say what they want in their life. yet what they put  investment in, R1, will never be fulfilled as the only reason they think it will be fulfilled is that they are not part of R1(if they were part of R1 they would become Tsukasa who live their dream) and besides R1 itself became something else with an AI that now make it an entity separate in itself that can cause things of its own will.

with that note here are the said lyrics that at least to me invo.
You are here alone again
in your sweet insanity
all to calm, you hide yourself for reality
do you call it solitude? do you call it liberty?
when all the world turns away to leave you lonely

The fields are filled with desires
all voices crying for freedom
but all in vain they will fade away
there's only you to answer you, forever

In blinded mind you are singing
a glorious hallelujah
the distant flutter of angels
they're all too far, too far to reach for you

I am here alone again
in my sweet serenity
hoping you will ever find me in any place
I will call it solitude
when all my songs fade in vain
fly my voice, far away to eternity.

On historicity and laws

after religion, or constitution, start to examine itself historically its can only delineate and make itself weak in slow and agonizing process. without noticing, slowly but steadily, the code describing the principles of laws change its meaning.

at first people can notice that by this understanding something change and point it out. depending on the spirit of their time, namely in how open they are open to the change, so the the understanding of the principles will start to change. secondly as the historical understanding start to build up so a new principles start to arise as facade, creating facade on the previous most sacred. finally after series of changes like this the principles change without recognition and the original tradition which they went out from get more and more forgotten and hidden , all awhile nobody can even notice that the code that guide their life have changed so drastically.

 some might keep the code written or even maintain the lawgivers writings and life, but once the principles changed enough, they would be so far gone to build again.

the less sophisticated way we see it today is in the idea of progress,  so when the liberals go against the past in hope to a better future proudly, they do it through the historical lens, they attack the foundation of the lawgivers in themselves and even challenge the very authority of the tradition as they see in front of their eyes a new, and they would claim better, times ahead. from the conservative it seems they see the same thing only instead of looking on the future, they see the better future as the past as they understand it through the historical lens. all awhile they are not noticing that by the lens they change the very ground they are standing on, as they are not living in the mythical past.

both of the sides end up changing the tradition from within, one try to change the tradition embedded in the civil law through the historical lens but also put new tradition above it which he sets as goal, the other try to understand the tradition of the civil law as well his own unique tradition to some degree and in the process change it. 

On Mazinger Z & the war of modernity

while watching the original Mazinger Z I just realized how fear of war the narrative itself. its will probably fall under over analyze kid show with robots, but I guess its fit my liking for kid shows with robots.

1. The scientist in mecha show have double role, both the bringer of peace and the evil conqueror. in the show its start by presenting the bringer of peace, the grandpa of the main character, Dr. Kabuto, which later on succeed by one of his students who show his discoveries of a new alloy called "Japanimium" in a somewhat adversary of defense and for a better technology. he also build the main mecha in the show used to defend form the evil enemy. on the other side there is Dr. Hell, a rough student of , Dr. Kabuto, who discover an Mycenaean temple with bunch of destructed robots, when they check the records in the temple they find out that the Mycenaean built this robots to war which ultimately ended up destroying themselves. Dr. Hell renew the robots the help of a scientist team with the hidden plan in mind of world domination.
In it we see play with the role of science, both as a defense and bringer of good and help to maintain society, but as bringer of war which connected to unjust, chaos and war. the backdrop in it is of course WW2 and Hiroshima, event which lend echoes throughout much of the mecha world, surely the production as well as Go Nagai are not strangers to the work of Osamu Tezuka or Yokoyama which heavily dealt with such issues in series such as Tetsujin 28th, Tetsuwan Atom, and so on.
2. play on the Classical vs modernity, both in their good and bad, but ultimately lead to highlight the imperfection in them. the evil forces flash out to be originated form the Mycenaean, hence the past. the choice itself is also unique as the specific time have some classical element but its not classical in the classical sense, that is saying its not a prime example to learn from when we usally think on Ancient Greek. Dr. Hell shown constantly in backdrop of greek temple with his mage like stick(which translated erroneously in HK subtitles to crabstick) he both show the past in his sources, imagery, and combined with small touch of anti-religious messages inherited by the European tradition Japan partially absorbed. the focus is on the war in fairly one sided manner but with the images its show more complex image then just the big evil doctor and the dealing itself is with the usage of technology in war.

On the other hand, the good side show as modern city dwellers, blessed with the technology, liberal life and overall peaceful, though behind it lies the danger of the technology. as Dr. Hell is creation of this world, and the main robot, Mazinger Z have his own inner demons, as its embed within itself a demonic uncontrollable force, which can always come out. in fact the opening shot of Dr. Kabuto showing the new alloy to some government and investor like figures also hide such tenets on the role of technology as well as the immediate development for defense. further more when Dr. Hell find the temple its as if he was finding Atlantis, hidden culture that for some reason in Japan took the face of war in more then just Mazinger Z, but also Umi no Triton.
3. Its a bit outside the claim on war but another interesting feature is in the contrast between heroes and villains, the main hero of the show Kouji Kabuto showed as a simple young man who try to help in full-heart and passionately, there is no ambiguity in his aim and overall he pretty naive image, naivety that also contain tacitly danger of lack of knowledge and gullibility. on the other hand the evil main agent, Baron Ashura, is a two-faced "monster" half face male and the other female, in the manga at least he contain certain tragic elements as backstory that slowly build up. In a way its can be connected as if I remember correctly Ashure play similiar role of naivety, only he dragged down to the dark side, though I can't recall completely. a lot of Ashura reflection in the story is on what can be called the war within as its character that in fact contain two and at certain parts, each part of Ashura can disagree with the other, at least from what I recall from the manga and other entries in the Mazinger saga.

Objectivity in news sites in the light of GamerGate

In GamerGate through its progress, a thought was developed that news sites should be objective. this article aim to show that the objectivity which members of GamerGate strive for in the media, transformed into idealized to the point of meaningless form which is not achievable and would only hinder the usage of media as a consumer

The origin of the issue start with the idea of objectivity. in the discussion the word objective, which wasn't necessary the role of the news site to begin with as news article inherently contain analyze  in manner that show clear cut separation but yet linked to facts which are indeed objective.

In writing, the objectivity is more of a scale, in most cases the writer would write based of facts something that is true, but you will always have his own input in it(as a subject write it), whatever he want to insert or not. in the interpretive kind, which is practiced in journalism as form of recording events(in some sense pretty close to historiography today), just the mere "x happened" or "x gonna be released" is not enough as there is always context to the release. yes, there is the factual sources as evidently, it is based on real event, which in fact happen or gonna happen in the case of news, but the core of the writing need to give context or interpretation on what does it mean with connection to other events just as much, and in the case of news site its can contain possible interpretation on the future.

Otherwise, as the alternative GamerGate's advocates want, its would even more obfuscate the subjective realm of the writer, and indeed the current way of conduct operate as its operate in order to combat it, in many cases such kind of writing include at first the clear cut events being reported as well clear separated part on what the interpretation of the writer, which include how does such news arrive today by connection to other events or phenomena, and as news mainly report on the present to near future its include views on where does it lead.

Example of it can be seen in the most questionable sites such as Kotaku and Polygon, which had a lot of backlash in recent months. in their news articles never really claimed otherwise nor did any other site, they always had section with the facts which is the overview or in other words the objective part, as well the interpretation for such events, in most cases separated with mark like "its could be seen", "as I see it" and other derivatives that declare "this part is not factual but the analysis" in the end.

The fact the sites reports have subjective elements its not far from the role of the media to interpret and in fact I would say that its derive to indistinguishable from its  primary role, to report about the present and the possibilities in the near future from this present as they are the one knowledgeable and have time to research as well develop a view to judge by. with the analogy to history, its close to the way historian develop a way to research, hence way to look on the phenomena he researching.

such view of objectivity also leaked in even more flawed manner to review, which members of GamerGate advocated to striving for 100% objective review, in other words, overview, when in fact such notion isn't even the basis and intention of  review to begin with.

ultimately the review will strive to give a image to the consumer on how the game work as a unity, view that inherently subjective by its role and how its operated by. its OK to disagree with review as in Bayonetta 2 or more recently with the backlash against Hatred. but to silence the writer would mean the death of the review and transforming it to a mere overview which would still contain the writer opinion only in far more hidden manner.

To exemplify what I mean by it, review meant to be more on the subjective analytic side of the objectivity scale, in it the main content its not the mere facts, if we compare it to math "1+1=2", but what does the fact means and what they create, hence if I add  unit of "sheep" with another unit of "sheep" I will have two different  unit of the kind "sheep" which will create a herd. similarly to the analogue  the review aim to analyze why the gameplay working or not working; what is the visual appeal or the lack of in the game, not just fidelity but under such category there is also the consistency of the theme, its connection to interactivity and more connection that inherently subjective.

Furthermore on the obfuscation of transforming the review to just an overview, not only contain within it just objective facts as evidently different people will focus in it on different things. and in itself without explanation and the analysis would be meaningless as a guide to the consumer, as just saying "the graphics look outdated" or even "the graphical elements can confuse in x,y,z instances" its not enough as the inherent subjective element that stand in its core is not explained and in fact even more dangerously in such style of objective report remain hidden as if its not there.


Honestly, I don't see the appeal of objective review, When I buy a game I don't see how an overview can help me decide, as its lack any context or explanation. behind such ideas I would argue that lie exactly what GamerGate as a platform that advocate to openness  can be seen as form of censorship for opinion some group of gamers don't like(like in the case of Bayoneta 2 review). pretty similar to the straw-man "SJW" which try to kill any voice that don't agree to its worldview . furthermore its hide the core problem, which not discussed as much here but I may elaborate in the future, that the news used as a long hand of advertisement, and therefore can be less critical and help to gamers as consumer. something that can be seen since the early video game reviews newspaper which were nothing more then a toy advertisement block. the recent case of Kotaku not invited, exemplify it to me even more that such view didn't change under this foundation, nor did I see indication of less bribery in the form of press kit, rewards for bias reports(like in Shadow of Mordor if I remember correctly) and review guides, which give foundation to far bigger problems then just a "SJW" review/