Loosely Speaking

By Ciel - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Everything Else

Monday, February 19, 2018

Living in Interesting Times

I've returned to China via a 6-episode documentary by Michael Wood laying out the history of the people, the dynasties, the events that shaped the longest continuous empire in the world. It has had its ups and downs, its more and its less "interesting times." There is something about the seed energies of a nation that shapes its whole journey through time. This begins with the heart of the founding people, its culture and beliefs. For China, this was the founding principal ~3000 years ago,... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, February 11, 2018

How long will it take?

It is clear to many of us these days that certain cultural habits have to change. Generations of acceptible notions are no longer tolerable in their wrongness. But what does it take to change a world of long-accepted, long-practiced and normalized assumptions about how reality is? How do we, for instance, repair centuries of Women aren't quite as good as men, or Men cannot be expected to control their reactions to sexual stimuli, or People who aren't our color are defective, or Animals are just... Sign in to see full entry.

Wanna see something really scary...?

Here it is. https://hackernoon.com/the-new-neural-internet-is-coming-dda85b876adf A day will come when I will be abandoning the internet in favor of real life. Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Rule of Law

The Galaxy Fest convention is this weekend at Colorado Springs. This is the one we have a vendor table at, and have quite a few friends who are bringing their own arts and skills to display. Some of these friends of ours are costumers putting on fashion shows of sci fi/fantasy/cosplay fashions. At least one is a nationally renowned cosplayer. So, it has been revealed that a certain infamous cosplayer who has offended many with his sexist behavior, even to an accusation of attempted rape, will be... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, January 22, 2018

America and Immigrants

With the current administration, there is this insane attempt to make America white... which is to say, filled with the descendants of mainly Western European immigrants. This is based on a White Is Best fantasy that... white is best. This fantasy includes absurdities like Jesus being a blond, blue-eyed model of Western European male perfection. Like the White 'race' being more essentially intelligent than 'races' with all other shades of skin tone. Like Western Europeans being the most... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

and more of Chinese history

Watching a good historical drama, there is much to acquire of the culture of a place. We in the West get so little even basic information about Eastern history and culture, it's quite interesting to fill in the blanks. Basic differences between Western and Eastern social understandings, assumptions and expectations sometimes makes it tempting to judge the differences, to assign right/wrong determinations. However, the more of the culture one becomes aware of, the more its patterns of logic fall... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, January 15, 2018

Ancient China some more

Thinking more about the beautiful robes and fabrics, I got to wondering how accurate the colors really are, and did a little research. The warm colors, from bright oranges all the way to deep reds, would have come from a plant called madder. Yellows came from saffron. Blues from indigo and woad, in various shades. Berries, barks and lichens provided browns, greys and sage-greens. Deeper greens came from overdying blues with yellows. So the only color I have doubts about is the bright pale aqua... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Ancient China in 80 episodes

For the past several days I have been immersed in a Chinese production based in Chinese history. KING'S WAR is a single season, according to Netflix, consisting of 80 45-minute episodes. I am up to 63. It is subtitled with original language and voices which is much better than mis-synced not-quite-right voices. More on this topic later. I can't say much about the historical accuracy, though I intend to do some research when this is finished. The major characters are derived from history, the... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

you could do worse than start your day/week/year with this read:

https://www.brainpickings.org/2018/01/01/john-o-donohue-walking-on-the-pastures-of-wonder/?utm_source=Brain+Pickings&utm_campaign=9afe029263-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_01_05&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_179ffa2629-9afe029263-237625185&mc_cid=9afe029263&mc_eid=445b266d6c Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Charlie wrote this about the net neutrality repeal:

It's not just about paying more or less, or slowing down competitors for profit. ISPs will now be implicitly permitted to control 1: The information we are allowed to see. 2: The communications we are allowed to send and receive. 3: The websites we are allowed to visit. They are basically allowed to control our reality beyond what we can physically see. Our connection to the greater world. I am wondering how much of the world this will affect, so much begins with the US. This net neutrality... Sign in to see full entry.

Headlines (What is this?)