(I thought I’d put this on my own personal blog rather than my JET blog, since this is more related to what think more than what is going on with me right now…so yeah, this stuff is gonna sound different, but different can be fun huh?)
Two main things I’ve been watching for the past couple of weeks. I’ve been wanting to watch the Ghost in the Shell series, starting with the Stand Alone Complex anime, since that was the one I was the most familiar with. I just finished the first season today, and I’m glad I went back and gave it a full watch. The characters, the gorgeous animation, the different scenarios, it’s all pretty damn amazing. However, I think one of the strong points of the series is the issues that it tackles, like the line between being human and machine. When I watched one of the episodes, from the beginning, it was meant to be more of a “lighter” episode. For those who know the series, Ghost in the Shell is pretty heavy and can get violent at times, so having a “breather” episode was nice. For that reason, I didn’t expect too much out of it, but once I watched the whole episode, I think it’s one of my favorites in the series. It raises some interesting questions and brings up some interesting problems like escapism, and how to deal with the loss of a loved one. There is a 2nd season for the series, plus like 4 other movies. I think there was another movie that recently came out…so I’ve got lots to see. We are never gonna run out of things to watch huh?
The other thing I’ve watched, on YouTube, is Henry Rollins. I don’t remember how I managed to stumble upon him, but when I watched his spoken word “Provoked,” I was like “whoa…this guy has seen and done some shit.” Before this, I’ve only heard of Henry Rollins from a little game called Def Jam: Fight for New York…where me and my brother would play it on the Gamecube (so it was a while back). In essence, it was a fighting game, except all the players were real life, and popular rap and hip-hop artists. Like no joke, Snoop Dogg is the antagonist. Despite how crazy that premise sounds, is was a fun game to play, even with the long loading times. I still have a couple of songs stuck in my head from that game.
When I was playing that game, you train your character up and whatnot, and your “trainer,” the gym guy, is Henry Rollins. I’m like…this guy doesn’t look like he should belong in the game at all. Once I started watching this guy, and learned that he started in a punk band called Black Flag…I started to realized why he was placed in that role for that game. I also realized how amazing this guy is. If you had to describe this guy in one word, it’ll be “intense.” Another word I’d give him is “relentless” because he will tell you what is on his mind, and won’t give a shit what you think of him. He goes to places that people dub has “too dangerous” and he comes back alive and well saying “hey they were pretty nice.” He’s got some strong opinions, some that people might be opposed to. For instance, he defends the right for gay people to get married. It shouldn’t even be called “gay marriage” it’s just marriage. I whole heartily agree with this notion of course. He has traveled a lot, and he has done a lot (artist, writer, actor, activist, he does a lot). So I highly encourage people to check him out.
This is my own opinion, I’m no expert on this, just to let you know. My brief take on equal rights for marriage is that why are people so fussy about it? From what this stupid mind knows, wouldn’t there be lots of benefits to this? People may not know, but the world can only support so many humans, and once that threshold is reached, we better have some kind of plan to take care of everyone by then. Gay couples can’t exactly “reproduce” so that solves that problem. They can live with content with their loved ones and not increase the world population. IF gay couples do want children, hey they can adopt! Not only gay couples can take these poor children to a good home, they can be raised in a loving household while giving the child a unique insight on the world by their parents. If we want to continue and grow in this world, we need to expand our horizons, and not just have families be “mom, dad, and children,” because that’s where stereotypes comes from. Of course, there are many kinds of families, I think that some people are opposed to the whole thing having gay parents, and that isn’t right. Why can’t they raise children? They aren’t going to hound you for child support, or begging for a place to stay, they are gonna do that by themselves! So not only gay people can live with who they love, and help slow down the population from exploding, they can stop children from being orphans, from being lonely, and give them food, a roof over their heads, and a loving home. Wow I went off more than I thought…and that isn’t the main thing I wanted to cover.
I wanted to go back to mentioning about masculinity versus femininity that I wanted to talk about last week. If I had to put it simply, masculinity and femininity is full of bullshit. I LIVE to break stereotypes, so here you have someone who goes to the gym regularly…and also enjoys watching My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, various Japanese dramas and anime (some that are tear-inducing, some that are meant to kill you with cuteness). SO, where do I fit on that spectrum of masculinity and femininity? Answer is nowhere, because I don’t want another category conveniently smacked on to my name. I know there are numerous people out there with different tastes, and yet there are probably some people who are afraid to show what they love simply because it doesn’t fit the “mold” society has given them.
It might still seem old-fashioned that we give boys certain things when they grow up, and certain things to girls when they grow up, because well…that’s what the “mold” dictates. Cars, trucks, “manly” things for boys and dolls, playhouses, “girly” things for girls…whatever these things are. These “things” are merely “things” and only should be that way. It’s the meaning WE have smacked onto it is what perpetuates that meaning to everyone else. It’s kind of like the words we use. Words are only sounds, packets of info meant to transfer info from point A to point B. It’s the meaning we attach to words that gives them the potential to cause damage, albeit physically or mentally.
I’m merely just spewing out these thoughts…since I just want to put them down somewhere. Can never have enough thoughts coursing through my head. I’m not saying to go out and have a revolution of some kind, no. I know that some people’s minds cannot be changed, that’s just how it goes. All I want to point out is that we should be cautious on what actions we take based on what we thought. Sure we make mistakes, and learning from those mistakes is necessary for growth. It’s the repeated misgivings of arrogance and malice and gets people hurt is what one of the more truly depressing things in life. Some people just wanna live their life, love what they love, and not have to deal with other people’s negativity.
Thought I’d put in my two cents for now. I’ve got lots of pennies to give from this noggin of mine, but I need to let my head cool off. Like literally since I’m still having that slight fever (haha). ‘Til then, keep on thinking on.
Thoughts, Feelings, 何で？ 