Aaaaaaand Representing USC....

It never ceases to amaze me. Are there really people with this attitude going to USC? This is an actual Xanga blobring:

:::University of Southern California:::{FIGHT ON!}
Description: USC University of Southern California students and for people who fucking hate f/ucla. fuck ucla!!! USC FOOTBALL KICKS ASS!! USC FOOTBALL NATIONAL CHAMPS BABY!! OUR QUEST FOR THE 9TH COLLEGE FOOTBALL NATIONAL TITLES BEGINS NOW '03! ::::::::::FIGHT ON!::::::::::

It is good to have pride in your school, but to write stuff like "f/ucla" and "fuck ucla" is beyond me. However, to me it seems to be less of an insult to UCLA people--which includes me ('83 & '86)--than it is to decent 'SC people who are being represented by the likes of this individual. In contrast, see this other Xanga blobring, and notice the underlined:

UC - aZNs!
Description: Check it foo's: UNIVERSITY CaLI REPRESENT! It don't matter if u be going to any UC school but hey?! how bout givin it up for us peeps who dominate the system! Hellz yeh! Ite.. this is intended for all of us far east peeps to be part of something we good at! anyone be welcome to join. Just check it & stay as long as you plz.. Peace! UCLA, UCB, UCD, UCI, UCR, UCSC, UCSD, UCSB... lets show love for USC and Cal State too! Woot

Now tell me: Is there a significant difference in attitude? We UC people can "try" to discuss this matter with those who hold to the attitude expressed in the above description, but chances are they will continue to rant "fucla" and such. To which--in the heat of the moment--some might respond: "$uc" or "You can only use a Trojan once". It's really up to the 'SC people to show them the light. But then, they'd probably call you a "fucla lover" and brand you a traitor.

Hanazakari
On another note, I went to Hanazakari's blog and I SWEAR it had an electric blue background with light blue text. This old man has trouble reading it, i told her. But she responsed that its green with black text! So I go back and lo and behold, so it is. Am I losing my mind is is there ANYONE ELSE who happened to see the blue background on Sunday afternoon? Please, someone give me a hand... or a new cornea.

I'm a kitty

Ah crap. I took this stupid quiz, and guess which San Rio character I am?

I swear, I don't think: I can never have too many friends! I am not a Kitty! Oh, yeah?!? Well click on Hello Kitty and YOU take the quiz. Let's see what YOU are. I liked it when I was a crow... oh that's another quiz... re: NefariousHatter

Sign the petition

As I posted earlier, Takunishi79 and GOnews have brought my attention to the following: The City of Los Angeles is planning to construct a new Police Station, Jail and Emergency Center next to Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple in Little Tokyo. I noticed that fellow Xangers I know and/or recognize--Mr_Mephisto, Hanazakari, Masahiro--have signed too. Good people all! I urge you to sign the petition as well to protect the community that is Little Tokyo. http://www.petitiononline.com/LAJtown/petition.html

Poetry by Early JAs: Senryū川柳

Senryū is a style of poetry developed in Japan during the Edo period. It is an outgrowth of haiku, and concerns itself with the thoughts and tastes of the common people. While haiku focused on identifying human truth through the seasons, senryū is more concerned with identifying human truth and sentiments through everyday human activity. According to my old man, a JA Senryū poet, it is like taking a snapshot of life. He is a kibei-nisei --帰米二世, American-born, educated in Japan and returned to the US--and composed poems, including the following which reveals his nostalgia for Japan.

郷愁の記憶へ浮かぶ握り飯
kyōshū no kioku e ukabu nigirimeshi	Appearing in memories longing for home a riceball.

The poem, composed in 1973, suggests two elements that bind us to fond memories of the past. First is food. Things we eat can easily bring back memories of a better time. Indeed, I remember when I went to Japan to study. Although I was a Mombusho student, I was living a hand-to-mouth existence. The stipend I received barely paid for the essentials, and when I finally found a part-time job that allowed me to indulge myself just a little, I went to McDonalds! Can you EVEN imagine that the taste of a Big Mac can trigger not only memories of home, but a sense of nostalgia?!? Oh gawd, how can I even be admitting here that the first bite of the two-all-beef-patties-special-sauce-lettuce-cheese-pickles-onions-on-a-seseme seed-bun in Ogikubo almost brought tears to my eyes? Well, being poor sucks, but its amazing how a meager life can make you appreciate even the simplest of experiences.

Which brings me to the second point: nostalgia is often connected to simple things, not complex ones, for it seems that the simple things are the most familiar, and the most reminiscent of a simpler life. For my old man, rice balls--nigirimeshi, or onigiri--brought back memories of home, Fukushima, and his life as a kid in the 1920s. Back then, onigiri was not bought at the 7 Eleven (duh!), but made by his mother, another strong image that elicits nostalgia. When I think of it, in 1973, my dad was already 60 years old, his mother had died in Japan 17 years earlier, and he had been to Japan only once to see his parents (they didn't return to the US with him) since 1931 or so. A poem such as the one above may seem simple enough to me, the reader, but must have been saturated with significance for him.

If I were a poet, I wonder what kind of poem I would compose when I think back to my mom and my life as a kid?

郷愁の記憶へ浮かぶミートローフ
kyōshū no kioku e ukabu miito rōfu	Appearing in memories longing for home meat loaf.

Like I said, IF I were a poet.

Today's Japanese culture class--toilets

(WARNING: don't read if you are offended by toilet talk):
In class yesterday, we got on the subject of Japanese toilets. No, not those new fangled bidets, but the old fashion squatters. Some students were surprised to hear that they still existed. I had to tell them that the Japanese aversion to touching something dirty (of course this is not exclusively Japanese) promotes squatters at public venues such as train stations and department stores--if you squat, your booty really doesn't touch anything, at least theoretically.

I told them there were a number of things involved, including bunching your pants around the knees. If you drop 'em to the ankles, you'll crap into you pants. Also important is direction: most of us sit facing away from the wall. but if you do that on a squatter, there is no hood to catch the splatter when you piss--Yes, ladies, guys can take a leak and crap at the same time. Anyway, I should know about the splattering. I was squattin' the wrong way and thinking, "how do I prevent this?" as I was trying to find a point on the inner wall that would offer the least amount of resistance to a stream of... never mind.

Speaking of direction: I've heard a couple of old stories about elderly Japanese who didn't know how to use western toilets. One was amazed at American toilet ingenuity: a flat top to a tank so you can sit there--facing the wall--and peruse the magazines stacked there, or even maybe write a letter as you did your business. Once I went to a hot spring in the boonies, and discovered directions using stick figures on how to use western toilets. Laughing, I told my grandpa, and he told me in all seriousness that there once was someone who marvelled at "the balance that white people seemed to have." "Huh?" "I stepped up onto the seat and tried to squat but it was slanted inward and I couldn't keep my balance. I put the seat up, but the rim was so narrow, I could barely keep my balance. How do they do it?"

In case you've never been to Japan, don't fret. Virtually all modern homes have western-style toilets. What you have to worry about is the bidets. But if think you'll find yourself in a dorm or old housing, practice your catcher's squat. It just takes practice. After a year or so, I even started to take the newspaper with me.