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2 in the Top 10%
2002-05-15 06:21:26
I am stunned!
While I know the Top 10% here is really just based on opinions... and therefore more a sign of popularity than quality...
I am still thrilled to death that I have TWO AMVs on the top 10%
"Flash Before Your Eyes" was #25 when last I looked
and
"Akane Tendo Has a Little Bit of a Temper" was #45!
I really feel good about myself today...
So... thank you to all those who sent opinions on these AMVs
and thanks to Phade for having this web site
and thanks to my friend Dario, who is gosting my AMVs for me!
Just feelin' good!
-Uncle Milo -
A nice E-Mail
2002-05-15 02:21:53
I recieved a very nice E-Mail from someone who was at Fanime. It commented on how much he enjoyed the Akane Tendo AMV I did. I thought it was such a nice thing to recieve an e-mail like that, that I should post it here.
I have been writing about many things that have been bothering me and I thought that too provide some balance, it is important to write about some of the better things that have been happening.
I am about 20% done with my Cowboy Swing AMV and with any luck I will be close to 50% before this week is over.
I have some good ideas for future AMVs and I am considering taking advantage of a friend's system for the possibility of making a DVD of my AMVs. I just wonder how many AMVs I should have made before I make a DVD of them. I certainly want 10 finished... and Cowboy Swing will be 9.
I should also figure out what the cover's gonna look like. I never really had any logo in mind. The name "Cosmic Mule Studio" stems back to an old, old joke between a friend of mine and myself.
Anyway... The new Star Wars movie is coming out and I hear it isn't terrible like Episode I. I hope that turns out to be the case!
-Uncle Milo -
I had to comment
2002-05-14 07:17:51
You know... normally, I don't "go after" people in my Journal. If I say something bad, I talk about the post that annoyed me and not the person who posted it.
However, I happened to read the Journal Entry of Mroni and was amazed at what a vile sentiment it contained. So vile that I had to actually name the person I am speaking about.
First off, he complained about the terms "racist", "sexist", and "homophobic" claiming that these terms were invented for the PC movement that started in the early 90s (if I am not mistaken)
While I hate the PC movement, as it is trying to act like if you don't say the terms, that the hateful sentiments behind them will also go away, the three terms above are serious issues.
Mroni then posted that the terms are only used by certain people who he felt were all meager personality types.
Mroni clearly needs to learn more about vocabulary (as well as spelling) and certainly needs to learn more about history.
Racism in US has been a major problem.
The most obvious case is concerning the afro-american population here. I mean less than 50 years ago we still had good men (black and white) losing their lives just because they were trying to bring about equal rights for all men. National Guard was mobolized just to try to enforce integration in schools!
However, racism exists in many forms... let us not forget that right after the 9/11 terrorist attack, how many Americans simply chose to blame ALL people of Arabic race and ALL practioners of Islam for the violent actions carried out by an evil, extremist group. Many Americans who wanted America to bomb Afghanistan off the map couldn't even point where the country was on a map.
Racism, of course, rears its ugly head all over the globe. It is not exclusively a trait of "white Americans" only.
Sexism is the toughest issue to tackle.
Women have been treated unfairly in the US for a long time. They couldn't vote, they couldn't have jobs and even when the women were able to get into the work force, they were not given equal pay for an equal day's work. The main problem is that the US is a little screwed up when it comes to sex in the first place. If you have a movie where someone gets shot and killed, it's rated PG, but if two people have sex, it's R. It's hard to deal with all the issues connected with Sexism...
Laws about sexual harassment are good, but I have certainly seen these laws get abused by people who were uptight. That's the real problem... is that sexism itself is subjective...
Just to make one example - you could have one woman think that Playboy magazine is a horrible sexist magazine that is degrading to women and should be banned. Then you have another woman who dreams of being a Playboy Model because she feels exposing herself in front of the camera strengthens her own sense as a woman. Both these women are right to feel the way they do...
However... there are other cases where there is no doubt whatsoever... a boss who won't give a raise to a member of the opposite sex unless they perform sexual favors... sexual assault... and other similar actions of hostility.
I'll admit that I sometimes go with the guys to see a blatantly sexist movie or go to a strip club... or make jokes that are blatantly sexist... but I try to be aware of my company and my surroundings. If I am made aware that my comments are bothering someone, I am careful of what I say when around that person out of respect for them and their feelings... or if I am in a social situation like here on a message board, I try to be tactful, because some people are more likely to get upset than others.
Homophobia...
Mroni said that only homosexuals use this term. I don't know where on earth he is getting his information from. He says that homosexuals assume people are afraid of them. Again... I wonder where he gets his information from. While the few gay friends I have don't think everyone's afraid of them even though with all the anti-gay sentiment that exists in this nation would justify that view.
Let us not forget the brutal killing in Laramy which happened only a few years ago. That's not to say that things like that don't happen all the time in this country even as far back as a few days ago.
The main problem is that certain "holy books" teach that homosexuality is EVIL and this leads to even more hatred. I have seen people assume that if someone is homosexual, then they must be guilty of all other sorts of crimes and perversions.
America is much more intolerant of homosexuals than many other nations. Hell... some Americans blame AIDS on the homosexual community and in the Laramy case, the defendants tried to use "Gay Panic" as a justifiable defense for murder. Thankfully, that didn't work...
Homophobia does drift into the same uncertainties as Sexism. Again, I don't want to write a whole discourse on this, but let me give a very simplistic example. The movie "Blazing Saddles" has a sequence where a large number of gay actors are doing this dance number on one of the sets. The set is broken into by the fight of the characters from the main movie and the gay men leap into the battle. The jokes are blatant and tasteless. One of my gay friends finds the scene to be hysterical while another one finds the scene to be upsetting and he refuses to watch the film.
While some situations are subjective... acts of violence or hostility are unacceptable.
With all the terms "racism", "sexism" and "homophobic"
there are degrees...
Some people are more prone to get upset at something than others.
However, it is up to us to use our brains and think these things through.
Going back to my example
- I can laugh at Blazing Saddles because Mel Brooks makes fun of whites, blacks, gays, conservatives and everyone else he can poke fun at. He uses broad, tasteless humor. I can see how he is getting us all and I think its funny.
- I get angry at Mel Gibson (just to use one example, again), because he has been very hostile against homosexuals. When he was in "Man Without a Face" which was based on a book... he changed the character he was playing from being gay to being straight... and then even through in a scene in the movie to emphasize he wasn't gay. In "Braveheart" there was so much anti-gay sentiment that I felt vile by the time the movie was over... Mel was so worried about being in a movie surrounded by men, he had to have William Wallace have sex with the princess just to ensure the audience he was straight (I mean... who cares that the princess was only 9 when William Wallace was rousing the Scotts against England)
Now...I'm sorry that I'm using such strange examples... but I simply talk as I think.
I just felt the need to write all this, because the idiocy that was vomited forth from that journal entry just drove me to say my say here.
-Uncle Milo -
This is too damn funny...
2002-05-12 02:16:43
I was reading this annotated Bible on the web... and I was just rolling!
Here are just some examples:
Exodus 22:24
And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
Annotation: If you make God angry enough, he will kill you and your family with his own sword.
Exodus 23:17
Three items in the year all thy males shall appear before the LORD God.
Annotation: Three times a year God wants to see all of the males. The females he never wants to see.
Exodus 23:28
And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.
Annotation: God has hornets that bite and kill people.
Well... you get the idea.
It also notes good things in the Bible, injustice in the Bible, contradictions and so on...
-
Amizadai
2002-05-11 01:54:39
Don't worry...I'm not going to leave.
However, it's hard to sit on this site and be quiet when there are people who post homophobic material. While sometimes there are borderline comments, some are blatantly aggressive.
To stand by and ignore it is not really the best path, because that simply means tolerating it... and that kind of attitude is not to be tolerated.
Unfortunately, all I can do is get angry, which isn't much better... but I am simply tired and don't really have much left in me other than anger and foul language.
"Know that a walk through the ocean of most souls will barely get your feet wet."
JOURNAL: UncleMilo (Jonathan Osborne)
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