You know what's weak? Or rather, who's weak?
Pick up artists.
If pick up artistry were simply about teaching shy men how to gain the confidence to approach women in bars, I'd have no issue with it. But these guys don't see any value in the woman they're picking up beyond that night. If this stuff was really about emboldening shy men with confidence, then the focus would be learning how to talk to women in order to find out which ones share common interests with him, and therefore which ones might be interested in dating or a relationship.
Rather, PUAs learn how to talk to women with slightly more interesting banter than usually expected from a guy looking for a one-night deal, and the goal is to basically trick the woman into thinking that he's smarter or more interesting than he actually is. The apparent intrigue will then hopefully land him a bedmate for the evening (but just for that evening, because it wouldn't be long after that the woman would figure out that behind his fancy posturing he's actually just a tool, and a pretty boring one at that.)
I usually don't think about them much, but recently the PUA community has been making something of a statement online since the gym murders of women in Pennsylvania. Their position? That George Sodini was just a "nice guy" who "lacked game" and if "women had just been more kind to him" (read: had pity sex with him) then this tragedy wouldn't have happened.
You see what they did there? They took one George Sodini, obviously mentally deranged criminal, and made him the victim of his crime because WOMEN had been harsh to him and thusly deserved to die. This is all an extreme representation of Nice Guy™ syndrome (link HIGHLY encouraged reading), in which women are to blame for the asshole-ization of "nice guys."
I found this article in the Taipei Times discussing this phenomenon succinctly - but there's a lot more reading on the Internet to be had if this subject interests any of you, for whatever reason. I just wanted to throw my two cents on there so that the WWW knows where I stand.
Music time!
Showing posts with label LOST. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LOST. Show all posts
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
LOST days remaining: 3
So, I'm talking with some friends from my program at orientation on Monday, and they decided that they were interested in checking out the graduate student government table, so I go with them. As we're standing there, this guy comes up and starts waxing socially awkward, making irritating little zingers to try to hold our interest and just generally being the proverbial mosquito interrupting our barbecue lunch.
I was already annoyed, but then he had to go ahead and pull out one of my big pet peeves. "Where are you from?" "Oh, I grew up around here in the LA area." "Oh, well I'm from New York, but I've been in LA for a few years. Which part of LA?" "The Valley." [condescendingly forced pained expression] "Oh, ouch."
So, I know that the Valley was the butt of a lot of jokes in the 80's, and that people on the other side of the Santa Monica mountains tend to still have a little bias against it. And I know that in the 90's people were exposed to that bias via Cher in Clueless, which is kind of the impression that a lot of people have of it now - that it's not as *nice* as the Westside. Which, hey! That's true for some of it. But since when it is cool to rip on anywhere for being less wealthy than somewhere else? I actually thought that was kind of anti-cool. But people still get away with it all the time with the Valley.
Let me tell you, I met someone from Newport Beach this year who told me "I'm sorry" when I mentioned where I was from, and I didn't think it was funny. I just wanted to barf all over her and her snotty privilege. I don't make fun of where other people are from when they tell me, even if I think it sucks. I mean, I might be thinking to myself in my head, "Bakersfield, man, that place smells like cow and it's even hotter than the Valley." But I'd never rip on that person to their face. That's just rude! And even if you think I'm cool with it because I'm not outwardly punching you in the face, "where ya from" is something you can't change, like your family. There's gang wars over people defending their home turf. So no, people who don't know me, making fun of the Valley is not a good way to endear yourself to me.
Anyway - today's playlist. (Commentary is for Laura who is feel free to tell me after this post if it actually added anything meaningful to her life)
Some major points (not per se my favorites among the list, but just those that garnered the stream of consciousness resulting in the following points):
Let Me Know - Roísín Murphy
I was glad to see Roísín come up on shuffle today, because I think she's delightful. She's totally weird but what I really love about both of her albums that I have -- Ruby Blue and Overpowered -- is that though there is a cohesive spirit amongst the songs that defines them as unabashedly HER, the songs themselves all come from such different inspirational sounds that it never becomes just background noise. They all have great character.
Burn, Burn - LostProphets
This was part of my angry rock phase in high school, but it still holds up well for me as a headbanger. Not to mention I couldn't find fault with the not-so-vaguely pyromaniac message.
Strict Machine - Goldfrapp
You'll have heard this most notably in the promos for Nip/Tuck a few seasons ago. I like the heavy downbeat and I'm generally a fan of Alison Goldfrapp's voice. This is pretty prototypical "heavy" Goldfrapp most notably featured throughout Supernature, though this song is from Black Cherry.
I'm Not Driving Anymore - Rob Dougan
Rob's featured pretty prominently on the soundtracks for the Matrix trilogy, and fans of his sound on those albums will appreciate this song. It's got the string symphony set to a rock-ish breakbeat that one may expect from him. A bit repetitive, but generally I like it.
Breath and Start - Blockhead
I am not sure how to pinpoint Blockhead - not because it's categorically weird music, but just because I'd say beats-wise and frequently attitude-wise it's instrumental hip hop. But the sounds over the beats are often smooth, jazzy even, usually influenced by other genres, and not usually associated with the hip hop genre. I guess generally I'd say it's urban cool.
I was already annoyed, but then he had to go ahead and pull out one of my big pet peeves. "Where are you from?" "Oh, I grew up around here in the LA area." "Oh, well I'm from New York, but I've been in LA for a few years. Which part of LA?" "The Valley." [condescendingly forced pained expression] "Oh, ouch."
So, I know that the Valley was the butt of a lot of jokes in the 80's, and that people on the other side of the Santa Monica mountains tend to still have a little bias against it. And I know that in the 90's people were exposed to that bias via Cher in Clueless, which is kind of the impression that a lot of people have of it now - that it's not as *nice* as the Westside. Which, hey! That's true for some of it. But since when it is cool to rip on anywhere for being less wealthy than somewhere else? I actually thought that was kind of anti-cool. But people still get away with it all the time with the Valley.
Let me tell you, I met someone from Newport Beach this year who told me "I'm sorry" when I mentioned where I was from, and I didn't think it was funny. I just wanted to barf all over her and her snotty privilege. I don't make fun of where other people are from when they tell me, even if I think it sucks. I mean, I might be thinking to myself in my head, "Bakersfield, man, that place smells like cow and it's even hotter than the Valley." But I'd never rip on that person to their face. That's just rude! And even if you think I'm cool with it because I'm not outwardly punching you in the face, "where ya from" is something you can't change, like your family. There's gang wars over people defending their home turf. So no, people who don't know me, making fun of the Valley is not a good way to endear yourself to me.
Anyway - today's playlist. (Commentary is for Laura who is feel free to tell me after this post if it actually added anything meaningful to her life)
Some major points (not per se my favorites among the list, but just those that garnered the stream of consciousness resulting in the following points):
Let Me Know - Roísín Murphy
I was glad to see Roísín come up on shuffle today, because I think she's delightful. She's totally weird but what I really love about both of her albums that I have -- Ruby Blue and Overpowered -- is that though there is a cohesive spirit amongst the songs that defines them as unabashedly HER, the songs themselves all come from such different inspirational sounds that it never becomes just background noise. They all have great character.
Burn, Burn - LostProphets
This was part of my angry rock phase in high school, but it still holds up well for me as a headbanger. Not to mention I couldn't find fault with the not-so-vaguely pyromaniac message.
Strict Machine - Goldfrapp
You'll have heard this most notably in the promos for Nip/Tuck a few seasons ago. I like the heavy downbeat and I'm generally a fan of Alison Goldfrapp's voice. This is pretty prototypical "heavy" Goldfrapp most notably featured throughout Supernature, though this song is from Black Cherry.
I'm Not Driving Anymore - Rob Dougan
Rob's featured pretty prominently on the soundtracks for the Matrix trilogy, and fans of his sound on those albums will appreciate this song. It's got the string symphony set to a rock-ish breakbeat that one may expect from him. A bit repetitive, but generally I like it.
Breath and Start - Blockhead
I am not sure how to pinpoint Blockhead - not because it's categorically weird music, but just because I'd say beats-wise and frequently attitude-wise it's instrumental hip hop. But the sounds over the beats are often smooth, jazzy even, usually influenced by other genres, and not usually associated with the hip hop genre. I guess generally I'd say it's urban cool.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
LOST days remaining: 4
Something I learned on Gangland today:
the "art" of hiding something in the rectum (for use in prisons, for instance) can be called "keester stashing."
I've been making a particular tasty lunch for myself that's relatively easy (outside of the fact that I have a hard time flipping eggs and pancakes and things of that nature. Consider me spatula-challenged) that I decided to photo-document in part. Here's where I learned that in addition to having shortcomings in cooking ability, I also have shortcomings in food photography. You know how people are hired to take pictures that make the Big Mac look like the damn most delectable thing you'll ever have in your mouth? And then you actually get the burger and it looks like the deflated, hungover cousin of the Big Mac you saw in the picture on the menu?
I do the reverse of that. If I'm lucky, I can blame my cell phone camera. Regardless, it's not suitable for food porn. So basically what I'm going to show you looked a lot better in person.
I first of all sliced up some cheese bread and toasted it, then put some sliced tomatoes on top. Afterward I put some warm carnitas (and let me tell you all right now if you ever get the chance you have got to get a pound of carnitas from Vallarta market, you won't regret it) and let it sit there for a bit while I fried up an egg over-easy and mashed some guacamole.
Amanda's surefire guacamole recipe (lulz):
avocado
pico de gallo from Baja Fresh or Poquito Mas
salt
So this is what the sandwich looked like with the egg up ons it:
I had taken a picture of the sandwich prior to the egg, but no angle could make the carnitas look less sad and brown, unfortunately. And again - I swear in person it looked amazing!
The final product:
Guacamole smeared on eggs on meat on tomato on bread. Good right?
To conclude, here's my playlist for today of some things that popped up on iTunes shuffle.
the "art" of hiding something in the rectum (for use in prisons, for instance) can be called "keester stashing."
I've been making a particular tasty lunch for myself that's relatively easy (outside of the fact that I have a hard time flipping eggs and pancakes and things of that nature. Consider me spatula-challenged) that I decided to photo-document in part. Here's where I learned that in addition to having shortcomings in cooking ability, I also have shortcomings in food photography. You know how people are hired to take pictures that make the Big Mac look like the damn most delectable thing you'll ever have in your mouth? And then you actually get the burger and it looks like the deflated, hungover cousin of the Big Mac you saw in the picture on the menu?
I do the reverse of that. If I'm lucky, I can blame my cell phone camera. Regardless, it's not suitable for food porn. So basically what I'm going to show you looked a lot better in person.
I first of all sliced up some cheese bread and toasted it, then put some sliced tomatoes on top. Afterward I put some warm carnitas (and let me tell you all right now if you ever get the chance you have got to get a pound of carnitas from Vallarta market, you won't regret it) and let it sit there for a bit while I fried up an egg over-easy and mashed some guacamole.
Amanda's surefire guacamole recipe (lulz):
avocado
pico de gallo from Baja Fresh or Poquito Mas
salt
So this is what the sandwich looked like with the egg up ons it:
I had taken a picture of the sandwich prior to the egg, but no angle could make the carnitas look less sad and brown, unfortunately. And again - I swear in person it looked amazing!
The final product:
Guacamole smeared on eggs on meat on tomato on bread. Good right?
To conclude, here's my playlist for today of some things that popped up on iTunes shuffle.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Lots Of Spare Time (LOST) Days Remaining: 5
So, I figured I'd start blogging. Not because of an abundance of anything especially exciting to say, but rather because it seemed like kind of the cool thing to do, and if I ever did come up with something I wanted to share (but didn't want to force upon people on Facebook via newsfeed who might not care) this would be a place to scribe it into the annals of pointless Internet history.
I anticipate that many posts will be of me ranting, or discussing food. Don't think this is a "food blog" though; I can't cook and have a pretty non-discriminating palate. So by "discussing food" I really mean "partaking in an online outlet for fat kid behavior." Also, as per an inside joke with Casper, I plan on introducing a "special feature" called "Punk Says the Darndest Things." Because she does. And I want to share them.
Also, as I was discussing the idea of blogging with a few people (namely, Tiffany and Michelle/FriendlyLee1214) I brought up the notion of grad school musings, which seemed to have a warm reception. So perhaps some of that might find its way in here as well.
It's possible that at least some element of this blog helps me gain white people points back, since (I assume) those of you who are actually reading this know I'm the wrong kind of white person with honorable mention Asian points. I was thinking the grad school thing definitely helps, but upon re-reading the entry it appears that I don't even qualify for points in that area since suitable majors are only in the humanities.
In conclusion, I'll just leave you with some cute bunnies:
I anticipate that many posts will be of me ranting, or discussing food. Don't think this is a "food blog" though; I can't cook and have a pretty non-discriminating palate. So by "discussing food" I really mean "partaking in an online outlet for fat kid behavior." Also, as per an inside joke with Casper, I plan on introducing a "special feature" called "Punk Says the Darndest Things." Because she does. And I want to share them.
Also, as I was discussing the idea of blogging with a few people (namely, Tiffany and Michelle/FriendlyLee1214) I brought up the notion of grad school musings, which seemed to have a warm reception. So perhaps some of that might find its way in here as well.
It's possible that at least some element of this blog helps me gain white people points back, since (I assume) those of you who are actually reading this know I'm the wrong kind of white person with honorable mention Asian points. I was thinking the grad school thing definitely helps, but upon re-reading the entry it appears that I don't even qualify for points in that area since suitable majors are only in the humanities.
In conclusion, I'll just leave you with some cute bunnies:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)