Ramen

I debated for a while on an essay to write for a graduate school program: the point of the exercise is to judge your ability to write, analyze and organize your thoughts on paper--or via electronic means.

The major problem was that I did not know what I wanted to write; there were plenty of subjects that came to mind, but none of them fell into the "I feel like writing about this subject today." A night at Yokohama Stadium during a Baystars-Giants game came to mind, but I rejected that idea along with anything related to my current career or anything else relating to my past experiences. I felt, and I felt this most of the time when writing essays for my other applications, that these topics were either trite, irrelevant and that my writing style felt forced.

All of these ideas were slowly bobbing in my mind as I stirred in the ねぎ and チャシュー in my ramen at my favorite ラーメン屋 in the area when inspriation hit me. Why not write about ramen? Everyone in the US thinks of ramen in the form of the instant noodles in a package, not the dish that I know about, not the dish where artists constantly hone thier craft to create another delicious bowl.

And of course, I'm sure this essay will make little to no sense to whoever reads it.

I went running

I never realized how much fun is possible when running 12 miles. I am a bit worried since I was feeling weakness on the outside of my outer left ankle. It dissipated after a few miles, but it did scare me early on. There's the good ol' shin splints on the inside of my legs-and again, I'm too lazy to ice it down after a run. There really are no excuses for that. I'm looking forward to my ice foot bath later today. As much as one eagerly anticipates getting punched in the face by Mike Tyson, circa 1991.

But, although I feel drained and dead to the world, I still have the stoke burning for tomorrow--when I get to test drive my new booties I bought yesterday in Hayama and re=introduce my body to paddling out into the line up. I don't care if it the waves are less than epic (kind of hard since Typhoon season is over), I just need to paddle out.

I saw around reading "Fire Bret B," and realized one idea, when thinking about surfing, "who cares about a football team that much?" I don't anymore, knowing that I can strap my longboard to the top of my car and look for a decent break in 鎌倉、七里ケ浜 or either of the beaches in Fujisawa.

I do need to buy some new wax and probably gloves depending on how cold it is outside, but, that can wait until I get to location X tomorrow.

Stoked.

Heroes

I wonder if anyone reads history anymore. I am watching Heroes right now and wonder what they read to set up this Takezo Kensei story. First they make Takezo Kensei a white guy...I'm rolling my eyes at that thought already, then the set him up in Japan in 1671.

And it is feudal Japan. Complete with ronin samurai terrorizing Japan.

I certainly hope that Tokugawa Ietsuna does not catch wind of these situation, I don't think he would approve of a competing warlord trying to screw around with his rule. I also wondered how this "White Beard" was able to give away half of Japan to the white guy with a Japanese name.

I guess they probably meant to refer to the Sengoku period, but they were a century or two too far ahead in history...

Temudjin

After watching two versions of films covering the life of Temudjin, aka Genghis Khan, I noticed two things. The Japanese-Mongolian production seems more like a samurai eiga with Mongolian soldiers. It felt like a candy coated version of history. The Kahzak-Mongolian production was gritter and probably a bit difficult for westerners to handle, but it did cover some of the Western propaganda that painted Temudjin as merely a brutal butcher.

I've always found it interesting that no one will question the brutality of the Christian Crusaders who slaughtered the Muslim and Jewish population of Jerusalem in 1099, after they "liberated" the city from Muslim rule, yet Temudjin is demonized as only a brutal butcher. Indeed, the Mongolians did wage war with brutality, but the Mongolians are painted as the harbingers of death, the devil incarnate... And no one bats an eye in the face of Western brutality starting with the expansion of Portuguese naval power in the 15th century.

Ah whatever...

The wasteland of the Intelligentsia

My brain hurts.

Unfortunately, I was able to hear a sound clip from Rush Limbaugh today while at work. I completely forgot about...him. Yet, as I rolled my eyes and blocked out his voice to think about what to eat for lunch: curry or curry, a flashback reminded me that I was once a Rushbo fan. Dittos was a greeting and tobacco stained fingers was a laughter eliciting comment.

That was 1994-1999. Then I moved to college, supposedly became a ranting socialist liberal although I joined the military. I prefer to define it as "political atheism."

But it was not Rush Limbaugh that hurt my brain; well, it did cause some pain listening to his sense of logic. No, that award goes to The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior.

I know that I have a passing knowledge of classical history, but this movie caused me to cringe from start to finish. Randy Couture as Sargon was possibly the most painful to watch. I wont comment on the acting performance or the cheesy use of CGI, but the jarring and confusing history.

They mention Akkad and Sargon as an evil monster with the powers of the dark side--yet, the Sargon of the Akkadian Empire was probably not so empowered. What was really confusing was the moment that he travelled to Greece--not quite sure that civilization had really started to flourish in Greece by the reign of Sargon (24th century BCE). It was a jarring clash of mythology and history--especially when they went to the Underworld to see Lady Asarte....the Goddess of Love and War living in the Greek Underworld...and its gate existed in the Laybrinth in Crete, which was the home to the famous Minotaur. Yet, while Asarte is prevalent in Mesopotamian mythology, she was later adopted into the Greek Olympian Pantheon as Aphrodite.

What is truly confusing is that if this were all to occur in the 24th century BCE, the Greek guide/poet/etc refers to Herodotus who lived in the 3rd century BCE...and at that point, the region that was once Akkad and even Egypt and Crete were under the Perisan yoke. Herodotus gives us a great tale of the fall of Egypt to the Persian armies in his Histories. In fact, Herodotus only chronicles the histories that lead up to the great wars between the Hellenic states and Persian Empire...minus the Spartans in speedos, capes and heavy metal music in the background.

What is ironic, since I'm blabbering about Classical History and Hollywood film (either to theatres or straight to DVD...remember when it was straight to video? Damn), is that if they actually wrote the film to the histories that we have of the Greek stand at Thermopylae, it would have been probably more brutal and violent than 300. Somehow the final stand of the Spartans and Thespians as they dragged King Leonidas's body back to their lines fighting to the point of their claws and teeth against the Perisans would probably shock more than anything that was in 300...or Xerxes 's desecration of Leonidas's body.

What's the point? That someone reads Herodotus or Anabasis....