久しぶりにMemeage!

[akujunkan]

As brought to you by ontogenesis, reply to this meme by yelling "Words!" and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Please post them in your journal and explain what they mean to you.

My words were: Self-awareness, reviews, piercings, relationships, and [a word of my choice]. Hmm.

Self-awareness is perhaps one of the main keys to life, provided that it is accompanied by a modicum of attachment. I've known some people who've got the self-awareness thing down: "Wow, that made me really angry." And once they've recognized that they're angry, they move on.

Me? I've got the initial bit down, but I still take it too far more often than not: "Wow, that made me really angry...that really sucks...I can't believe this...OMGAIDAD_KFJDASUPERNOVA!!!"

Reviews are something I originally started writing because after my last stint in Asia, I was so overjoyed to have ready access to English language books on myriad subjects that I pretty much ate, read, and slept. (Seriously, I think I read 28 books during my first week back.) I'd been keeping a list of all the books I'd read cover-to-cover for years, but figured I might as well start jotting down my opinions too. And the longer I kept at it, the more opinions I had. So three years later, here I am writing thousand-word book reviews of my own volition. Thanks, all of you guys for reading them!

Piercings are something I would have even more of, except you can only put so much metal in your face before you really start freaking out the elderly Japanese ladies. I've got seven rings in my ears and one in my nose; I'd like two in my left eyebrow as well, but see above. I'm always a bit bemused by the reception they get, even among liberals (For instance, in The Body Project, Joan Jacob Brumberg, who is quite objective about all other forms of body adornment, states repeatedly and without any qualifiers that people get multiple piercings to signal that they are sexual deviants. Um?) I had all eight of mine done because the mood struck me; I certainly wasn't trying to fit any kind of look or make some deep statement about my personality.

Relationships are something I am much, much more pragmatic about than most people, to the endless chagrin of my Jpop, Jdrama loving acquaintances here. I don't think true love is forever (at least not in its intial form), I don't believe that there's a One True Love out there for everyone, that love will solve all your problems, that it's the main point of living, or that your partner can fill all your emotional needs; and most of what many women find hopelessly romantic (judging by Jdrama or Hollywood romances) just strikes me as a lot of unnecessary heartache due to people not talking with one another at best, and emotional or physical abuse at worst.

That said, I like well-done love stories as much as the next person, have really, really close relationships with many of my friends, and like hanging out with and talking to other people in spite of the fact that I am freakishly introverted. Make of this what you will.

And finally, the word of my choice is genki. God, how I wish English would get with the program and adopt genki already. It is an intensely useful concept, and one for which English, with all its synonyms and nigh-synonyms borrowed, stolen, or outright coerced from myriad other languages doesn't have a single term that approaches genki's meaning. For once, I would just like to be able to tell my friends and family back home that I am genki, and get on to the rest of the conversation.

That will be all.

Comments

[wombatdeamor.livejournal.com]

In actuality, the frilly bows and stuff aren't that interesting to guys. Most guys I know dig stuff that is mostly nonexistent. And my idea of sexy underwear is my Pac-Man boxers, so I'm not much of an expert there (though when I was thinner Tym bought me a pair of tight boxer briefs, so maybe that's what guys are supposed to wear to be sexy?)

I guess I like the movie so much that I don't want to read the book. I'm happy with my position on the story. and I don't want it to shift one direction or the other.

I just learned about comma splices. I do that a lot on these message things, don't I? do you think it has anything to do with the fact that one hits a comma with the middle finger? *raised middle finger to the Internet and the universe as a whole*

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Nonexistent. That makes sense. Cause the thing with the bows? They seem to make a lot of girls feel "feminine" or "cute" but really they just make me feel like I have a lot of weird lumps under my t-shirt.

Boxers are the sexiest to me, although if they're ratty and 500 years old, not so much. But the tight boxer briefs and stuff? Strikes me as either "gay man" or "unhygenic."

Ahaha, I am a huge fan of using the semicolon to keep comma-splice phrasing while still being a grammar nazi. Or maybe it's just because you hit the comma with the pointer finger on Japanese keyboards, so I don't get the fun of flipping anyone off...

[wombatdeamor.livejournal.com]

Believe me, if a guy is even unreasonably sure his pants are coming down, he's wearing a newer pair of boxers. I hate boxer briefs 1. Because they look gay and 2. no instant access to my junk.

In my poetry class we were talking about semicolons today and the quote from Kurt Vonnegut came to mind: "Avoid using semicolons. they are transvestite hermaphrodites...all they do is show you've been to college."

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Boxer briefs just seem like they'd make your bits sweaty and smelly, same as all the girly underwear that undoubtably looks sexy and beguiling but when you get down to it is a lot of non-breathable rayon and polyester shoved up into your crotch.

Awww...Kurt Vonnegut, I love you, but I gotta say a) you're wrong on that count, and b) what's wrong with transvestite hermaphrodites in the first place?

[wombatdeamor.livejournal.com]

I personally feel if one is prepping for sexual olympics, a lack of underwear is better. but I'm someone who would rather go without sex than play stupid games. But then again, I'm also opposed to advertising that fact, because then one is just skanky. There's a wierd balance.

how would you even have a transvestite hermaphrodite? It'd be really hard to dress up in the opposite gender's clothes if you have both. Maybe a utilitarian jumpsuit? Or a skirt and tie? (nope, that image is kinda sexy.) I still hate semicolons.