Swords versus Guns

Ok, after a long hiatus, I've decided to actually try posting here a little more frequently again. We'll see how it goes. A warning for this post, spoiler alert! Particularly if you haven't yet seen Transformers 3 and would like to be surprised, read no further.

So, after watching Transformers 3, I noticed something strange in the battle choices. These are giant robots with huge, powerful guns, right? And we all know that guns ended the reign of swords as weapons on the battlefield, right? So why is the first battle between Optimus Prime and Shockwave waged with Optimus dual wielding swords, and the final battle between Optimus and Sentinel with sword and shield? If we wish to go back further, think of the Matrix. Neo can morph the matrix in whatever way he can conceive, and yet in the end still resorts to physically martial arting everyone to death. Hell, we could even look back at Star Wars, where any storm trooper or bounty hunter in the galaxy can use a gun, but only the highly trained Jedi get the cool swords.

Now, I've come to expect that sort of thing with RPGs. After all, isn't the hero of just about any fantasy game expected to have a sword, even and perhaps especially if all of the armies for and against the hero are holding guns? You need only look back to Final Fantasy XIII for examples of the futility of guns in RPGs. Sure, Lightning has a gun built into her sword, but mostly she uses the sword part instead. Sazh, the only gun wielder, is the weakest character in both magic and physical attack throughout the game. Yet look at the sanctum troops and the numbers of guns. Only the most advanced troops have melee weapons. Looking back further to Chrono Trigger, hero has a sword and the most consistent powerful attack, while Luca has a very inconsistent and usually weaker gun.

I've come up with a couple of thoughts as to why there seems to be this emphasis on climactic swordplay. For one, sword fights can be longer (there's generally no blocking of bullets or energy blasts). Guns are too fast, one shot and it's over. Sword fights also generally look cooler. I mean, unless you're going to do a slow motion shot of the bullet, you're not going to see it, and doing extended slowmo is just ridiculous. However, if that was the end all, we wouldn't have all of the modern guns-only action movies. I've come to the conclusion that it's because of the impersonal nature of guns. You can shoot someone from far away where they can't even see you, or even shoot so many that they become a faceless horde. But you can't do that with a sword. A sword is one-at-a-time, face-to-face action. Rather than blasting Sentinel from half-way across the city, Optimus has to stand right in front of his enemy. There's almost a sense of honor that you have to be out in the open to finish the battle. No snipers, no surprises, just man against man (or robot against robot) action. It makes one wonder about the general state of things, no? About humanity in the modern age and the importance of personal contact with others?

Food and Fun

So, I haven't been all that consistent about updating this, but oh well. Classes have been rather difficult. Well, I should say that the Japanese classes have been very difficult. The English classes are easy. Japanese Society is really just for amusement. The professor is enjoyably scatterbrained. Comparative Histiography is more interesting, a comparison of how history is taught in the US, Japan, and Germany. However, Japanese is rather an adventure, as it's all in Japanese and I've felt like a bit of a fish out of water. Most of the class seems to understand far better than I do, but I don't think I embarrassed myself too much on the test last Friday. We haven't gotten it back yet, so I can't tell for sure, but I think I managed ok.

On the plus side, I have been cooking on a regular basis. Last night I made awesome bacon cheeseburgers, but I've also been doing lots of rice and noodle sauces. Beef is expensive, so I've been doing mainly chicken with some pork every few days or so (Pork, while not as expensive as beef, is more expensive than chicken). The cheap wine here is no good for drinking, but is pretty good for cooking. I've got quite a few admirers who are always eager to clean the pan with some bread because they love the sauces. I also made sweet and sour sauce a few times, and it was fantastic each time. I'll get into more of my adventures later, but for now I have to head off to class.

Arrival in Kyoto!

So, it seems that somehow I did in fact survive the summer. Even more, I survived 2 weeks at CAS.....Just kidding guys, I loved it. Now I'm in Kyoto, but I think I should fill you in on some fun surrounding the trip first. Firstly, I just barely dodged a typhoon that I didn't even know about on my way in. Secondly, I got to go through customs twice (once in Canada, then in Japan, as I flew from Philly to Toronto to Vancouver to Kansai, Osaka). The Japanese one was the most fun because they went through like every inch of my luggage looking for drugs (since I passed through Canada to get there). They asked how long I was there, if I was carrying any drugs, if I had bought any drugs, if I had bought any marajuana, you get the picture. The customs people didn't seem to believe that I could pass through Canada without purchasing such illicit items, nor that I would then not try to smuggle them into Japan. It was rather funny even at the time (I could laugh as I had slept on the plane). Finally, the shuttle was rather amusing. We were crammed in like sardines, and myself and a fellow yank (going to the other dorm) were the last ones off. I made it in at about 7:30 at night, the last student to arrive. During the tour, I met a Frenchman, a Swede, an Australian, and a New Zealander (I know, it sounds like a really bad joke, I just haven't figured out the punchline yet). Fortunately, they were all rather friendly, and I've gotten to know them a bit better over the weekend.

Bright and early the next morning (9:30), we got to take the placement test. I think I did reasonably well, although I'll find out for certain on Thursday. Classes start Friday. After further orientation stuff we were free. I went searching for an alarm clock (now say this with me: mezamashitokei wa urimasu ka?). Unfortunately, I've failed thus far, but I'm planning to search more this week. Then we had a spontaneous party to get to know each other. It was lots of fun.

Saturday, I decided that it was time to find the grocery store....Which was far harder than it should have been because the map wasn't accurate. However, I had time and thoroughly enjoyed the scenery. I may be in Kyoto, but I'm on the fringes, where it's much quieter and feels more like Williamsport or Kalamazoo than crazy city. Four hours later, I managed to find what I was looking for. Shopping was interesting, but not as troublesome as some had. Most of the college kids here are buying Japanese versions of cheap ramen noodles. I've upgraded, which they consider expensive (but since I don't buy prepackaged stuff, not too expensive). Food does seem to cost a bit more here, but it's manageable. I've mainly got chicken and pork so far. My chicken in a soy sauce over rice was awesome last night, and I think I'm going to try a white wine sauce in a few minutes.

After dinner, we went to do karaoke....from like 9:30 pm to 3:00 am. I was rather hoarse by the end of the night, but it was lots of fun. I even got complimented for my evil laugh in Enter Sandman at 2:30. I sang more as the night went on and my voice got progressively worse, but no one really cared. We were just having fun.

I think that's all for now. Tomorrow, it's back for more orientation stuff before an off day on Tuesday.

No pictures yet :(

Ok, so pictures haven't been posted as quickly as I hoped. I have been very busy with classes, but the real reason is a bit more emotional. Leah broke up with me about a week and a half after I got back and as such it's been hard to go back and look at the pictures from Germany. Perhaps after the semester ends I'll be able to face them. It's been rough going, but I guess that's to be expected under the circumstances...

Triumphant return......

Ok, so I know this is a bit later than I planned on updating following my return from Germany, but school during the week in grad school is always chaotic and especially so when you get a crash course in jet lag. Unfortunately, the pictures are not yet ready to be posted (or more to the point, I haven't gotten around to sorting and titling them yet). I took all of the touristy pictures since Leah hasn't while she's there. She's too much of a native at this point ;). However, I will leave some remarks here for the moment.

The trip to Germany went off without a hitch...no delays, flying over the Atlantic at night (more like Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and Great Britain). It was so good to see Leah again! The first day was worth the whole trip :). We went for a few walks to see the sights, and Leah was brilliant at translating and doing all of the talking since I speak no German. My favorite sight in the city was the Frauenkirsche (sorry Leah if I spelled it wrong). It was a huge baroque church almost completely destroyed in WWII, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union, they put a team together to reconstruct it. You'll understand more when I post the pictures, but they took all of the remaining stones they had from the original and plugged it into a computer program to restore them to their original location in the structure. Of course, they also had to quarry replacements for many, and actually got replacements from the same quarry the originals were from. Sorry, my computer science and physics geek side came out there a bit.

Anyways, it was on Sunday that I got my first cliched German meal....sausage and beer and it was awesome. I ended up sampling quite a bit of German beer over the course of the week, but you needn't worry, I never got drunk, just a beer or two with each meal (as the Germans do). During the week while Leah was at school, I even got some grading and reading done. I found out that although I went the furthest of anyone in the department for spring break, I also strangely enough got the most done. Leah also had lots of fun playing with my beard, and agreed with the departmental nickname: Eric the Red...now I'm a viking, I just need the hat :).

Tuesday night, we had dinner with one of Leah's teachers. She was very kind, if a bit eccentric....she always seemed so out of her element, but Leah tells me that's what she's normally like. We had lots of fun conversations, although a bit strained when her husband was home (he speaks no English, and I speak no German, so one of us was always out of the conversation). However, it was still an enjoyable evening. For dinner we had sausage and German potato salad (potatoes, onion, sausage slices, apples, mustard, and I don't know what else, but it didn't sit well in either my stomach or Leahs). However, I was good and ate it all, although quite frankly it was rather revolting, but then again most of you know what my tastes are like. I also got to try Radler, which is like the German sports drink....It's half beer and half lemonade....what you thought the Germans wouldn't have beer in their sports drink? Hehehe...Crazy Germans. Oddly enough most of the week we did also have trouble finding sausage....but never problems finding beer.


Thursday, we even went to see a real castle in Saxony. They have these basically sandstone mesas all through the countryside, so naturally someone's going to build a castle on one of them overlooking the Elbe (the river that runs through Dresden a bit further downriver). We decided that the castle was nigh impregnable, and most invading armies would just probably try to avoid it at all costs. This will be born out in the pictures. There's also the fun little bit that it's large enough to have like a full town at the top...not just the basics, but like a full town! Also, although it's mostly wooded now, there's probably enough extra room for crops and livestock if they so choose. There's also plenty of artificial hills which conceal tons of ammo magazines...although you have to be standing next to them to realize what they are. It was a good trip.

The big problem came when I worked my way back. Firstly, in the airport in Dresden, the Lufthansa counter refused to print out the boarding pass for my United flights (the 2nd and 3rd), while the United counter had printed out the Lufthansa boarding pass on the way to Germany. When I got to Frankfurt, the Lufthansa counter said that the United counter was already closed for the night (this is at about 8:30). I tried to ask a security guard how to get to the United counter, but he didn't speak English (neither did the restaurant waiter or the second Starbuck's one, Leah). So, I stay up all night, ordering Starbucks twice (since I had slightly more confidence in it), and once at the restaurant. There I ordered tomato soup and a beer through horrible pronunciation and pointing. In between, I did manage to read an entire book for my Religion and State paper. I did take a 10 minute nap (checked the clock on both sides of it and had an alarm set for it), and when I awoke at 5:40, there was a long line for the counter that hadn't been there when I started the nap. The counter opened at 6:15 (flight at 8:10). When I made it to the front, I said it had been a long night, and they joked back that "you mean a long morning?" Which I was not in the mood for at the time. I did manage to make it to the plane with 10 minutes to spare.

By this point, I thought the hard part was over, but surely enough the adventure was far from over. Six rows in front of me was a 6 month old child who screamed at the top of its lungs for seven hours...I was passing out for like 45 minute stretches before being re-awakened by it. I did get a lovely view of Northern Canada as we flew over, and I really enjoyed that. O'hare was extraordinarily stupidly designed. Organization in there was incredibly lacking. No signs, no indication of where we should go (oh and the security guard had a sense of humor: when looking at my passport from 8 years go, he said "this doesn't look like you"....well yeah, I was 18 then and now I'm 26 *#$*#%*#....needless to say, I wasn't in the mood at the time), and then they even make you go back through security again (completely unnecessary after 26 bloody hours of security checks). When I got to O'hare, it was flurrying....which shouldn't be a problem in the country's biggest airport, right? Wrong...many flights were being cancelled, and mine was delayed by an hour (coming from Kansas City, which had no snow; O'hare with flurries; and Kalamazoo with just overcast skies).

I did however eventually make it back to Kalamazoo and out of the airport 29 hours after I left Leah in the Dresden airport (yest that does include reliving 6 hours due to the time difference and adapting to daylight savings time). Even after all of those shenanigans, the trip was well worth it, simply for getting to see Leah again for the first time in 6 months. Hopefully, I'll get the pictures uploaded soon.

Terror before the first expedition of the year!

So, now I'm down to only five days before my trip to Germany begins for spring break. I can't wait, but I'm also very nervous since as you all know I speak no German. On the plus side though, Pablo (Leah's/my pet snake) is doing much better and having a clean shed. I'll try to remember to take some pictures of him the next time I get him out :). Other than that, classes are pretty much normal, although Spirit Possession continues to be a disappointment. I'll make sure to post the pictures and descriptions when I get back from Germany in two weeks!

The Blog Experiments Begin!

Hello and welcome all to my new blog. I don't have much to post now, but as I'll be travelling alot this year, I figured I'd get started on this. It will most likely be a slow start, but there will be more updates when I begin my journeys.