Bleep!

I don’t like it when people say things they don’t mean, I find it irresponsible. If you don’t mean it, why say it? And I’m not talking about joking around– that’s one thing, and that’s fine cause that’s in good fun. But there are some things that people don’t say for the fun of it– for example, when they promise things they’re not going to stick to.

Basically, what I want from the world is for people to represent accurately who they are when they communicate. Don’t play games with your image. Games are for those who understand some basics about the RULES. Games are for those who earn rights to be on a team.

And this proverbial team is society– if you want to be a part of society, you have to give something back to it as well.

***

You see it on sitcoms being abused nowadays, and it’s supposed to be funny and kickass when someone has a swear word bleeped out. “Well you know what? She can just go BLEEP herself!”

Why do that?

Why write that into the script?

I find it’s cheap. The regulations on swearing on public television exist for a reason– you either stick to it or you don’t. But I find that the whole effort to get away with gratuitous language with the use of bleeps is just a big sham, it’s abuse. But whatever– I’m not here to debate whether or not swearing should or shouldn’t be allowed in public media, that’s a whole other can of worms.

Language regulations on public television have gotten a lot more lenient during my decades on the planet. So you’ll have words like ass and bitch coming in there. Which is one thing. But since when is “I’m gonna kick your ass, Foreman!” a punchline? What, did the ‘ass’ part suddenly make this a witty retort? Or “You… evil… BITCH!” how is that a big deal? How is that funny or entertaining?

So… let me see if i can get this straight. Grown adults writing scripts for characters who are also supposed to be adults are resorting to the gratuitous use of increasingly profane language, because this is… funny. Because we can’t communicate intelectual ideas so we resorts to big ’rounder’ or ‘close enough’ words to express our thoughts.

Whatever happened to plot? Whatever happened to acting?

Okay, that wasn’t my main point. My main beef is with the real “bad words” that get BLEEPed out altogether.

My point is that people shouldn’t be using these ‘halfway’ methods of ‘implied profanity’.

Same how when people write in their stuff things like a$$hole, or b*llshit.

… what’s the point? Does it make the language any better somehow? Is it supposed to make you look more civilized beause you’re showing some restraint or something?

If you’re gonna swear, then SWEAR. There are situations where you will be upset and sure– go ahead. Cuss it out. Get it out of your system.

But if you’re not going to swear, then don’t. But don’t swear and use a bleep, don’t swear and use a few substituted letters.

Back when I used to read things like asterix, you’d always see things like !$*!@$( to imply frustration. That’s one thing– because it was meant to be a general frustration. It was meant to imply grumbling– the random characters represent when words weren’t enough, so you’ve got something that just doesn’t make sense to any random listeners (hence, the random characters).

But nowadays, that kind of censorship is just about as good as the real thing. The censorship methods are being abused to the point where there is still a LOT of precision, and the weight of the words is still there even if the sound is muted out. They cut a bit of the sound in from the middle of the word, but they leave in the “er” at the end in a lot of cases– and you can distinctly see the emphasis in the actor’s lips of that telltall “F” sign. You don’t need to be able to read the lips of someone who’s calling someone else a stupid fucker.

All this half-assedness is just stupid. Just who do you think you’re protecting, or who do you think you’re impressing?

Shockwave

Good morning all. It’s 6:36 in the morning, and I am at work. My day is starting off good so far. Is this jinxing it? Who knows, I don’t care– today, I feel like I’m made out of steel. Come on world, give me your best shot– today, you are my oyster.

People tend to shy away from terms like “Ki” around here because western society has this sorta tabooed view on that sort of “eastern mysticism” but every now and then, I find that the vocabulary of western confrontation just isn’t enough. It’s not just ‘pressure’. It’s not just ‘tension’. It’s not just ‘fighting spirit’, or ‘life force’ or ‘killing intent’. Indeed, it’s sort of all of these things at once and yet to call it just one of those things is necessary because there isn’t a blanket-all term for it.

Badminton yesterday was pretty good for me. There were a few games where I was playing special conditions matches, so that made things kinda interesting. But you know, no matter how often it happens, the sensation will never get old– when there is this ‘shockwave’ that hits you from an opponent’s attack.

In my mind, I liken it to what I imagine Kendo to be– this idea that everything happens in ones. It’s not like kickboxing or boxing where the match is won with a hundred punches. When you’ve got a sword, you win or you lose with in ones.

And so there’s an enormous amount of tension when the bird goes up, and you see your opponent winding up– you don’t know which way it will go, what kind of shot it is. All you know is that your own weight is sinking, timing in sync to the swing on that bird so that when your opponent’s racket makes contact, you’re ready to do that dash.

At least, in theory, all physical aspects of space and time considered, you are in the best possible place to make your response. On the other hand, if the bird were just a projectile coming to your end, it would be that easy.

But it’s not. The bird in itself is an attack. A dropshot probably travels at something like 20km/h. A smash on the other hand goes in excess of 200. And you don’t usually know which one it will be. So you wait.

And that wait? That wait may be plenty of time to prepare your body’s position, but preparing your brain is another thing– it’s also plenty of time to overthink, and to psych yourself out. The tension that occurs when we are bracing for an attack in badminton is much like how it was in martial arts– you don’t know exactly what it will be, you just know that you’re going to have to do something about it and turn this around when you get the chance.

When people freeze up, under the force of their opponent’s fighting spirit, or under the inconsistency of their own, it doesn’t matter how good their body is at moving, or how fast their eyes are. They could get crushed.

And yet, I’m no expert at this. To be honest with you, when I’m on the deffensive, I’m ALWAYS freezing. My perception speed is kinda slow. It just so happens that my brain and my body have a little agreement– my body follows orders when I tell it to.

So if I hesitate for a moment because a shot scares me, I doubletime it and push harder to catch up the lost time.

That’s why you’ll see me sometimes, countering a shot from ridiculous angles that could have been so much easier; it’s because frankly, this is the best that I can do sometimes if the shockwave of the attack hits me too hard.

The funny thing about surviving attacks in a sense is that as much of the explosiveness of the deffense comes from the deffender as it does from the attacker. I mean, the deffender CAN over react, which is often what I do actually (and it’s bad form).

The opponent’s attack, in a sense, doesn’t need to do all the damage– it just has to ignite the excess of leaking fuel from the over hyped deffender.

Now, bad form or not– if a deffender who is over hyped has enough extra gasoline and enough structure to survive constantly spontaneously exploding with every agression, it makes for some pretty interesting fights.

In that sense– NO, technique isn’t everything.

And so I tie this into your daily lives. Who cares if you’re not good at what you enjoy? The main thing is that if you enjoy it, you’re willing to put your spirit on the line for it. If you can do that– you can get so far– so very very far, if you only let yourself out.