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Israel: A Country of Unresolved Trauma

There’s a lot going on in the middle east right now, and a lot of strong feelings on a lot of topics.  So first, let me tell you what I will not do in this post. I will not defend Hamas.  Their actions are beyond the pale, and they (to some level) deserve everything they get – mostly because they’d do it again if given half a chance.  They’re unrepentant, and unrepentant needs to be squashed. I will not defend the protestors.  They also deserve everything they get. I will… Read More »Israel: A Country of Unresolved Trauma

Clannad: Being Seen

When I was a child, I had a lot of dreams, one of which actually, in a sense, eventually came true.  I wanted to be a scientist. I didn’t know what it meant to be a scientist, and that deck was stacked against me from the beginning, but I wanted to be a scientist.  As it turns out in my kid-maybe-or-maybe-not-on-the-spectrum mind, what I really wanted was to collect stuff, but I did want to be a scientist.  I wanted to be a scientist because I could collect knowledge. Isn’t that… Read More »Clannad: Being Seen

Fox News Commenters are Idiots

Those of you who have hung around here for a while (which I think is exactly one of you) know that I lean right.  I have absolutely no respect for wokism or any of that tripe.  I’m not a Republican, though, and I’m about to tell you why. This is a post where I, sort of, eat my own. Fox news comments are fascinating to watch, because they’re utterly useless half the time.  About 95% of the comments fit these tropes: Life was so much better when I was a… Read More »Fox News Commenters are Idiots

Clannad

I really don’t know how this post is going to end.  But at the least, I know how it’s going to start. I had heard of Clannad, but I was avoiding watching it, because something about the title made me think that it was an isekai or something set in medieval times, and I’m really not too keen on those kinds of anime.  But then I found out it’s nothing like that, and I watched it.  Or some of it.  I put it on hold after fifteen episodes because I have… Read More »Clannad

Taking Lessons Again

I restarted Japanese lessons this week. Maybe that was a mistake, but at least they’re not that expensive. Due to a minor fortunate circumstance, I was able to pay off all my loans, thereby freeing up quite a bit of money every month to use for, well, stuff you’d spend money on.  I decided to spend it on education, because, let’s be frank, education is the one thing that can’t be taken away. Well, I spent it on that, and a kotatsu. Those seem great.  But we’ll see if that… Read More »Taking Lessons Again

Squarespace

I have quite a few domains.  Until recently, they were hosted on Google Domains, which I was happy with.  Today, I moved all of them to Dreamhost, which is the service on which I host this site. I moved them because apparently Squarespace, against my wishes and will, took over management of my domains and decided they were going to host them.  I guess they bought them from google or something. No, they’re not going to host my domains. I don’t have anything conceptually against Squarespace.  In that, while they’re pretty… Read More »Squarespace

Exotic

I order a lot of stuff from Japan. It’s mostly manga at the moment, but sometimes a few other things as well.  They have a lot of products that I want (and quite a few I don’t, but you can’t win ’em all). Today a manga arrived from Japan.  As I pulled it out of the mailbox, I noticed the Japanese name and address in the “sender” field, the customs declaration, and then my name and address in the “recipient” field. I wonder if the person who is taping the… Read More »Exotic

Eclipse

Earlier this week, I was fortunate to be in the path of a total solar eclipse.  It was, of course, the one that cut a line through the United States, starting in Texas and ending somewhere in the Northeast.  As you may know, I live in Central Texas, so I got about three minutes of totality, give or take. It was an amazing, and slightly terrifying, experience. It starts with the sun just getting dimmer and dimmer.  It’s still sunny outside, but the light levels start to look like it’s… Read More »Eclipse

Bocchi the Rock: Atmosphere

The first anime I ever watched (that I can recall) was “Bocchi the Rock”.  It was maybe a year ago, I had heard good things about it and saw some clips on YouTube, and thought “what the heck”. And I loved it. But it’s not really because “she’s just like me fr”.  She’s really not.  I mean, yes, she is a lot like me, but there are some significant differences.  I did identify with the social anxiety a lot, though.  I also identified with the way she kind of seemed to… Read More »Bocchi the Rock: Atmosphere

I had a Dream about Japan

Last night, I had a dream about Japan.  It wasn’t a nightmare.  It also wasn’t nice. This part of my dream started being in a van or something that someone else was driving, and being stopped by Japanese police.  It turned out the van had some kind of illicit substance in it, but none of us knew what was going on.  The police detained all of us.  I thought I could use my knowledge of Japanese to communicate with them.  I tried.  They kept responding in English.  They pretty much… Read More »I had a Dream about Japan