Ladies' Comics, etc.
I went to Uchi-Con. It was pretty rinky-dink, not more than two hundred attendees, possibly fewer than a hundred, which suited me fine.
I stuck with the guest speaker track and it was pretty interesting, especially Dr. Ito talking about, and showing samples of, Ladies' Comics. She's a sociologist so her point was what this tells us about Japanese society. Apparently, ladies' comics are a relatively new phenomenon, dating back to the mid-80s and usually deal with "womens'" issues such as layabout/philandering husbands, divorce, child-rearing, women's ailments and sexuality. They are often educational and try to resolve the story in a postivie way. It's not uncommon for college men to read the porn because it gives tips on what women like.
elvkun gave away a volume of ladies' comics which I snatched up. That particular volume wasn't really to my taste; I didn't care for the art style (the men appeared pre-pubescent) and I could not relate to the stories. Among others there was an abusive boy friend story and a story about a girl learning that she doesn't have to put out to have friends. These aren't the sort of stories I would pick up in an American anthology, either.
Anyways, it was an interesting talk which will eventually be a book.
Dr. Napier was also pretty interesting and she already has a book, From Impressionism to Anime: Japan as Fantasy and Fan Cult in the Mind of the West. It has a picture of an Inuyasha cosplayer on the cover.
In other news, I heard about a Finnish moive that looks sort of interesting, Iron Sky. The movie makers seem to be vaguely trying the open source model.
I was thinking it would help me with my resolutions if I did a monthly retrospective on how I did with them. The shame of posting that I was failing might help my resolve.
That being said, this probably will be of little interest to anyone but myself.
GTD: I'm not doing the full on GTD thing. I didn't sit down and enter all my open loops. I've just been entering them as they occurred to me. And, of course, using pencil and paper is just so last millenium so I had to get a tool. I'm using MonkeyGTD on a flash drive that I carry with me so I can do it at work, too. With those provisos, I'm finding it fairly useful. Checking off an accomplishment is always pleasant and forcing myself to think of the next action is a good habit.
Web Certification: I looked at the options for training and initially I'm going to self study to see if that will work for me. I've ordered and received a couple of well recommended books but have not progressed beyond that. I need to allot a regular time to work on this.
Home Office Excavation: No where near done but I did freecycle some old 'puters, after removing the hard drives, and give away a bunch of manga at my anime group. A bunch more stuff went to the trach and recycling. So, progress was made but it needs to continue. This is another case of needing to schedule time.
PT: I did do them twice a week for the last couple of weeks, not so diligent the first couple of weeks of January. I blame the holidays and MD's hand. I did spend $50 for an annual membership to the fitness center in my office complex, which is very nice and, at the times I plan to go, not very crowded. The plan is to do my exercises after work before I pick up MD. So far, so good.
I stuck with the guest speaker track and it was pretty interesting, especially Dr. Ito talking about, and showing samples of, Ladies' Comics. She's a sociologist so her point was what this tells us about Japanese society. Apparently, ladies' comics are a relatively new phenomenon, dating back to the mid-80s and usually deal with "womens'" issues such as layabout/philandering husbands, divorce, child-rearing, women's ailments and sexuality. They are often educational and try to resolve the story in a postivie way. It's not uncommon for college men to read the porn because it gives tips on what women like.
elvkun gave away a volume of ladies' comics which I snatched up. That particular volume wasn't really to my taste; I didn't care for the art style (the men appeared pre-pubescent) and I could not relate to the stories. Among others there was an abusive boy friend story and a story about a girl learning that she doesn't have to put out to have friends. These aren't the sort of stories I would pick up in an American anthology, either.
Anyways, it was an interesting talk which will eventually be a book.
Dr. Napier was also pretty interesting and she already has a book, From Impressionism to Anime: Japan as Fantasy and Fan Cult in the Mind of the West. It has a picture of an Inuyasha cosplayer on the cover.
In other news, I heard about a Finnish moive that looks sort of interesting, Iron Sky. The movie makers seem to be vaguely trying the open source model.
I was thinking it would help me with my resolutions if I did a monthly retrospective on how I did with them. The shame of posting that I was failing might help my resolve.
That being said, this probably will be of little interest to anyone but myself.
GTD: I'm not doing the full on GTD thing. I didn't sit down and enter all my open loops. I've just been entering them as they occurred to me. And, of course, using pencil and paper is just so last millenium so I had to get a tool. I'm using MonkeyGTD on a flash drive that I carry with me so I can do it at work, too. With those provisos, I'm finding it fairly useful. Checking off an accomplishment is always pleasant and forcing myself to think of the next action is a good habit.
Web Certification: I looked at the options for training and initially I'm going to self study to see if that will work for me. I've ordered and received a couple of well recommended books but have not progressed beyond that. I need to allot a regular time to work on this.
Home Office Excavation: No where near done but I did freecycle some old 'puters, after removing the hard drives, and give away a bunch of manga at my anime group. A bunch more stuff went to the trach and recycling. So, progress was made but it needs to continue. This is another case of needing to schedule time.
PT: I did do them twice a week for the last couple of weeks, not so diligent the first couple of weeks of January. I blame the holidays and MD's hand. I did spend $50 for an annual membership to the fitness center in my office complex, which is very nice and, at the times I plan to go, not very crowded. The plan is to do my exercises after work before I pick up MD. So far, so good.