![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Link round-up!
1) Sarah Palin talks to "Sarkozy". For those of you not in the know, that's the French President. Except it's not -- it's two guys from a Canadian radio show who get Palin to embarrass herself by gushing with fangirl-like enthusiasm over Sarkozy, probably in hopes of getting an endorsement or some overseas support. She hangs up when she realizes she's been tricked, unsurprisingly, but what worries me is that she didn't even realize the voice was wrong! I can recognize his voice and I'm definitely not in the running for Vice President of a major country.
2) Check Your Bias Here. A test from Harvard that identifies if you have an hidden bias where white/black people are concerned and the two American Presidential candidates. My results were a slight automatic preference for Black people over White people and a strong automatic preference for Barack Obama over John McCain.
Amusing, considering that I was taking this test thinking, "Yeah... Black versus White again. No South Asians involved." And slightly pouty over that. The black preference surprises me a lot more than Obama, since that one's obvious. Maybe it's because I live in Austria and I've yet to deal with racism from black people but have had plenty of it from Austrians, argh.
3) There's No One As Irish As Barack O'Bama! It's a song. Be warned, it's catchy. I still have it stuck in my head, days later!
4) I've gotten hooked on YGO: 5D's despite having refused to watch YGO GX. I blame the motorbikes. Ever since I heard that there are duels which take place while people are on MOTORBIKES, I've been itching to watch this series. And yes, this isn't a link, but there's more detail on my latest shameful fandom addiction under the cut.
When the producers made the show, I was definitely not the target audience they were aiming at (22 female living in Europe) but let's face it, I'm hooked. Why?
1) It's a children's card game being played ON MOTORBIKES.
2) You can't summon certain cards unless your bike is going above a certain speed.
3) Class warfare, with Domino being split into Neo Domino City (rich) and Satellite (poor).
4) Rich antagonist who calls himself the King but is being blackmailed about his origins from Satellite by the Big Bad in NDC.
5) Protagonist who believes that every card is important. Especially poignant because Satellite workers do nothing but recycle trash, thus him having that viewpoint since he built himself a bike out of said trash.
6) The five main chars have tats on them that signal they're able to summon the guardian dragon god of a Pre-Incan civilization.
7) The tats represent different parts of the dragon god. (Mind OUT of the gutter!)
8) The protag and antago spend the first three episodes looking up at the moon and thinking about each other and how the moon was exactly like that on the night they separated. And they're rivals.
As the above list might've clued you in, YGO 5D's is pretty much crack. I imagine that the conversation must've gone like this in the producer's studio:
And lo, Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's was born.
2) Check Your Bias Here. A test from Harvard that identifies if you have an hidden bias where white/black people are concerned and the two American Presidential candidates. My results were a slight automatic preference for Black people over White people and a strong automatic preference for Barack Obama over John McCain.
Amusing, considering that I was taking this test thinking, "Yeah... Black versus White again. No South Asians involved." And slightly pouty over that. The black preference surprises me a lot more than Obama, since that one's obvious. Maybe it's because I live in Austria and I've yet to deal with racism from black people but have had plenty of it from Austrians, argh.
3) There's No One As Irish As Barack O'Bama! It's a song. Be warned, it's catchy. I still have it stuck in my head, days later!
4) I've gotten hooked on YGO: 5D's despite having refused to watch YGO GX. I blame the motorbikes. Ever since I heard that there are duels which take place while people are on MOTORBIKES, I've been itching to watch this series. And yes, this isn't a link, but there's more detail on my latest shameful fandom addiction under the cut.
When the producers made the show, I was definitely not the target audience they were aiming at (22 female living in Europe) but let's face it, I'm hooked. Why?
1) It's a children's card game being played ON MOTORBIKES.
2) You can't summon certain cards unless your bike is going above a certain speed.
3) Class warfare, with Domino being split into Neo Domino City (rich) and Satellite (poor).
4) Rich antagonist who calls himself the King but is being blackmailed about his origins from Satellite by the Big Bad in NDC.
5) Protagonist who believes that every card is important. Especially poignant because Satellite workers do nothing but recycle trash, thus him having that viewpoint since he built himself a bike out of said trash.
6) The five main chars have tats on them that signal they're able to summon the guardian dragon god of a Pre-Incan civilization.
7) The tats represent different parts of the dragon god. (Mind OUT of the gutter!)
8) The protag and antago spend the first three episodes looking up at the moon and thinking about each other and how the moon was exactly like that on the night they separated. And they're rivals.
As the above list might've clued you in, YGO 5D's is pretty much crack. I imagine that the conversation must've gone like this in the producer's studio:
"What do kids like about Yu-Gi-Oh? The card games! Yes, we'll have card games. But to make it different, we'll have them play card games on MOTORBIKES. Because kids like motorbikes! And they like dragons, so we'll give them dragon part tattoos and dragon signature cards!"
"...Sir, what about a plot?"
"Hm? Oh. Oh! Plot. We did Egypt already. And Atlantis. Let us now MAKE UP a civilization that predates the Incas and had a guardian DRAGON god! Yes! And the tattoos can summon the god! Who will save mankind from the bad guy!"
"Another ancient evil?"
"No, a bureaucrat. Much worse."
"..."
"AND WE WILL CALL IT YU-GI-OH 5D's to represent the 5 dragon tattooed people! One of whom should act and dress like Seto Kaiba's reincarnation as the most popular character from the original series!"
"Yes, sir."
"But we'll make him blond."
"Yes, sir."
"TO THE DESIGN TEAM, MINIONS!"
"*sigh* Yes, sir."
And lo, Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's was born.
no subject
no subject
And wait, I thought you were a conservative and would be voting for McCain?
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
There are only two races don't you know?
no subject
*is invisible*
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
The black people further north can be mean, though. I'm intimidated based on location. My family in Chicago always warns me to leave the black people alone, not to go to certain neighbourhoods, etc. It used to be wierd to me, but now I just accept it.
Not that any of this affects my voting. lol. Race does not apply to my choice in elections. I didn't vote for Bobby Jindal (LA governor) because he was south asian. And, I don't like him particularly because I voted for him. I just really didn't want the other guy to win. That's probably why I would vote for Obama, too (my preference in the result was for Obama). I just really, really wouldn't want McCain to win. You know, ignoring that McCain is gonna win LA anyway despite what I vote.
ANYWAY, on to YGO 5D. lol. Is beautiful that the three tags fandom:yu-gi-goh, world:politics, and world:race/culture can all be used in a single post. That is what makes you so special. xD
I have not watched YGO 5D, actually. But, omg, motorbikes? That's way above awesome. Where to they play these duels? Just on your friendly neighbourhood established street? Or in arenas? Or on long, pointless motorways? lol.
no subject
O_o How does living up north make them mean? That's like some weird inversion of black people needing to be careful when they're south of the Mason-Dixie line.
But I have to admit, I thought it'd be cool to have a black president. Though I think it'd be MUCH cooler to have a chick president. Specifically, Hillary.
And YES. Those are great tags. And all totally relevant. *special sparkles*
Motorbikes. They duel WHILE ON THE RUN FROM POLICE. Actually, they duel AGAINST THE POLICE while on the run from them! And they also have stadiums they ride and duel in, but the fact that they DUELED WHILE ON THE RUN is what killed me the most.
no subject
Does that make sense? Think HSM and maybe that's the same. Tisdale is the sorta evil person, and she's really white. You know? Am I making any sense? xD
I think it's more of the many cities up north. It's just harder and more stressful to live up there (to me, at least, I'm converted to Southern ways), so the tension and economic gaps are louder. In cities in the south there are more race problems simply because it's a city.
But, as there are so many black people in the south, you sort of can't live your whole life without knowing people. Where my relatives live up north, it's really hard to find black people. Not that I try to hunt them down, but still. In some suburbs all you can find are white people. Of course, my relatives (father side) are mostly in much higher economic classes and naturally sort of scared of all the classes below them. They were raised in a predominately white community, also. At times, they can be incredibly racist. It's why I try not to use Spanish around my father's family, since they have this mindset that I'm betraying the whole damn country or something.
But then, I do not live in the "Deep South" really, so there could be major problems there. I live in The South, but it's not Georgia or Alabama or anything. Louisiana is something different. The history isn't the same. It's more like the Midwest falling into the Delta region. Kinda trapped between Texas and "The Deep South". The further north in Louisiana, the more like Arkanas and Northeast Texas. It's just a totally different South by then.
....
OMG, YOU ARE JOKING. TELL ME YOU ARE JOKING. XDXDXDDDDD That is so awesome I almost cannot comphrehend it. Duelling the police as you make a break for it. That is insanity and that is balls simultaneously. Whoever dreamed that up, thank you so much. xDxDDDDDD
no subject
The thing that's rather horrid about how lots of Australians think of East Asian people is that they're the exotic other, the colourful natives who populate the pretty holiday destinations. I imagine that Pacific Islanders and Caribbean people are treated in a similar way in America; I'm not sure what the European equivalent would be. It's completely completely gross. To read coverage here of the trials in Bali for the night club bombers, you'd think that only Australians died and that nobody actually lives in Bali.
no subject
And to be fair, I attended an International School but it wasn't until tonight when a friend mentioned that although the hallways of his school were mixed, the higher level classes were exclusively white, that I realized that the same applied to my classes as well. (I was the only non-white kid in my English Higher Level class, and the same for Comp Sci). Though in my case, that might be sheer obliviousness to the world around since I walked around with my nose stuck in a book most of the type. Still. Total lack of awareness there of racial/ethnic distribution and how disproportionate it was.
...Exotic other = East Asian definitely exists in America as well. 'Yellow fever' as a phrase originated in America, I think. And the stereotype of East Asian girls being 'quiet, exotic, sex toys' is still common. Europeans tend to travel inside Europe. I think it's the Spanish and French that get sexualized by the Germans and Austrians, but I have no idea who the Spanish and French giggle about behind their hands, since I never lived there. Arabs, mmaybe?
And wow to the Bali affair. I haven't actually heard anything about it, but I've only ever read about Bali in terms of rich white women having sex holidays there, much in the same way that Germans head to Thailand -- it's a land that's set up as having natives there only for exploitation. Or at least, that's all you ever seem to read about/get exposed to.
no subject
The Bali thing is especially gross right now because the bombers are about to be executed, and the papers here are full of "don't go to Bali for a sexy holiday right now, the terrorists are going to have a revenge attack and you will diiiiiie! (http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/warning-to-schoolies-stay-away-from-bali/2008/10/25/1224351608043.html)" -- because obviously Bali doesn't exist except as some kind of zoo full of ethnics who are nice to look at but might bite you if they're cranky.
no subject
...Wow. That's some kind of special right there. I guess they're trying to aim VERY CLEARLY at their audience instead of going for a broader world view.
no subject
I have to read all the papers from Aus at work, and I wish one of them would go for a broader world view at least occasionally, argh.
no subject
no subject
Also, 5D's really is sort of like popcorn. You consume it while knowing it's bad for you but you just can't stop even though it has ZERO value.
no subject
no subject
Lots of eps, both subbed and raw! (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=shriekV&view=videos) Hit up page 11 and start watching, but only click the SUBBED ones unless your Japanese is excellent.
no subject
no subject
Though, if you're seriously interested in my results:
"Your data suggests a slight automatic preference for Black people over White people
Your data suggests a strong automatic preference for Barack Obama over John McCain"
--
I also thought what WR said... I find that sad, but I'm not the one making up these... "tests" either.
--
5Ds. XDDDD I ... do need to watch that. But GX, first. Then 5Ds. I think. I donno. Hey, I like motorcycles >_>;