Nostalgia and Embarrassment

I think the reason I don't use Facebook for anything useful (have I even updated it to reflect that I'm not in Melbourne anymore?) is its wider audience. I have written many cringeworthy things both here and in other corners of the Internet, under at least superficial anonymity. A Facebook account is the exact opposite of anonymous.

Sometimes I surprise myself, reading over old missives. My "voice" changes over time, and sometimes it's hard to believe, looking back, that I wrote those words, be they insightful or perfectly moronic. The early ones are the most interesting, back when I was new to blogging, and when I was fairly sure I had no audience, seeing as I hadn't confessed to my friends that I owned a blog.

I notice I had a few traditions, like doing a "New Year" spiel. I seem to have forgotten it this time. Honestly, I have no idea what I was doing on January 1st this year. Probably writing my thesis (it's a safe bet). Frankly, I didn't really have much to reflect on, because by that point it had been a few months of endless THESIS THESIS THESIS.

(Sung to the tune of Badger Badger, probably.)

Anyway, I don't have much to add. Mostly because this is an old post which I forgot to release from my drafts section. Fly away, post. You're free now!

The Other Side

I received two emails and one snail-mail letter from friends in Australia. What a contrast from six years ago! Now I'm in the wrong country, again. Will the grass on the other side never stop being greener?

I'm here now. Such a strange feeling! The end already arrived, days ago, and it landed as a dull thud.

Another Quick Post

It has been too long, yes!

I've been writing my PhD thesis. It seems that there is a critical limit to the amount of writing I can endure in a single day. So, a high thesis output means a low blog output. Even though blogging is significantly less boring.

So! What have I been doing recently? Well... writing I suppose. Where do the days go?

I did spend some time the other day watching the following video multiple times. It's an excellent parody of the video game, the style of music, and the style of music video. Also, it contains the second-most deftly-executed "Your Mom" joke I have seen (the first, of course, is from Meet the Spy).

Canonically, Ratonhnhaké:ton is supposed to be a serious, driven, unquestioned badass. Much of the humour of this video derives from a weedier version of the character engaging in slapstick antics, casual psychopathy, and constant, overwrought, failed attempts at being cool. (George Washington is the opposite - he still appears as a tough, admirable character, just not quite in the way one might expect).

As an aside, I am consistently impressed with level of effort fans expend when making tribute to their favourite media. Regarding the above video, if you take into account the costumes, the actors and actresses, the sets, the props, the stunts, green-screen effects, script writing, lyric writing, sound recording, editing... that's a lot of work for less than four minutes of payoff. Hats off to the Smosh team, and to others like them.

As a further aside, how proud would you be, if you were a creator and someone spent so much time and effort to celebrate your work? Creators who attempt to shut down fansites and delete fanworks on grounds of copyright infringement only confuse me. Copying others' work and trying to take credit for it is unethical, make no mistake, but creating what amounts to a love letter has an entirely different intent behind it.