The Celebration of Mediocrity

The Youtube comments sections have always been cesspools of human intellect. Recently, I found a video of a young, quite…. homely… girl on Youtube singing covers to songs. To put it kindly, she’s not exactly the most talented singer in the world. In fact, she’s quite bad. If I were to be completely honest, she sucks and its embarrassing to watch her.

Now, I see no reason to put up her video for two reasons. One, I think it would be unquestionably hateful, and two, I’m sure there are so many videos like that on Youtube that you can substitute any one of them in and it would be the same.

If you ignore all of the spam, the majority of the comments sections at the end of the videos are polarized into two camps: The Trolls and the Anti-Trolls. The Trolls ridicule the girl mercilessly, tearing down her looks, her singing, and the general presentation of the video. The Anti-Trolls try to support her, giving empty platitudes like “your video is inspirational” and “keep doing what you’re doing” and “your singing is amazing”.

Personally, I’m not a troll. I hardly ever leave a comment unless there’s something particularly funny or positive about the video. I don’t leave hateful comments unless the video itself is hateful. This time, though, I was growing more and more annoyed with the Anti-Trolls. There’s nothing particularly bad about what they are doing. I think the girl in the video appreciate all the support she can get.

But, there’s just something about this celebration of mediocrity that people seem to cling to that just rings hollow. I hate it when I know that I could’ve done something better and I get congratulated or get sympathy about a half-assed job. When I fumble the ball during football when I could’ve trucked a defender over, when I step out of bounds while making a cut, when I fail to block a pass rusher, when I fail to get past a defender, the last thing I want to hear is that “you did your best”. I don’t care if I did my best, the fact of the matter is that my best wasn’t good enough. I don’t like being patronized. I hate it.

When I see those people type those canned statements to those videos, I think it’s ridiculous. Mediocrity is not something to be celebrated; it is something to be criticized. It is something to be improved upon, not maintained.

Things That Make Me Happy

I found two awesome things on Youtube today. The first is this ridiculously cute video of Pikachu’s voice actor, Ohtani Ikue, saying some things like Pikachu…

I also found this funny anime webcast adaptation of this manga called “Hetalia: Axis Powers”. It makes light of World War II history… without the holocaust. I like it because it’s funny. They’re only 5 minutes long, but I think there are 30 in all.

I found where to download them here:
http://www.cyber12.com/page-Hetalia.html

Watch them because they’re funny.

Anyway, I’ve got one more day at home after tonight. I’m leaving early Saturday morning to go back to the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. I’m kind of excited to get back to my scholarly grind, coffee, books, and all. But then I’ve got labs… so that sucks.

I’m trying to think what else I’m excited for. I want to see the people from last week… uh… I dunno what else. Oh yeah, I kind of want to see what my new roommate’s like. He’s a bit of a FOB (fresh-off-the-boat) Asian, but he’s already been to San Diego for one semester, so I’m guessing he’s somewhat acclimated to the U.S. He did say that his English wasn’t so great, but he’s Chinese, so I don’t think it’ll be too difficult. If it gets real bad, he could just switch to Chinese, and I’ll be able to (kind of) understand him. YAY!

Insomnia-Fueled Rant Against the Internet and Console Prices

It’s currently 2:07 AM, and I can’t sleep.

So I went on Youtube to check out some videos, and I happened to click on a video about Bill O’Reilly railing against the liberal-du-jour that had something to do with that late-term abortion doctor killed last week or the week before. By the way, I don’t give a damn about the abortion issue. If I knock someone up and she wants to have an abortion, fine by me. If I knock someone up and she wants to have the baby… that’d be a bit more problematic, but I’d take responsibility for it. BUT THAT’S NOT THE POINT.

So I got good and pissed at Bill O’Reilly, but it was classic O’Reilly. It’s not like he’s about to tattoo the Hammer and Sickle on his chest and prance about declaring the virtues of universal healthcare or something. He has his views, and although I disagree with him, I don’t hate him for it. I do get pissed by how he goes about espousing his views, but whatever. He makes a shit-ton more money than I do, mostly because I don’t have any money, so more power to him.

No, what pissed me off even more is the lunacy and sheer stupidity of Youtube commentors. For one reason or another, any political issue in the United States quickly devolves into “Democrat this” and “Republican that”, “you’re a socialist, baguette-eating, Starbucks-drinking, European pussy”, “you’re a backwards-ass, gun-toting, moose-shooting, Southern fuckhead, blah blah blah… and no one actually gives a damn about the actual issue being debated. Here’s a snippet.

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Some Australian Dude

Haha, dude, I’m Aussie, and I’m glad as hell I ain’t one of you. Seriously, black or white, lib or conservative, gay or straight, you stupid motherfuckers need to stop fighting amongst yourselves like children, stop being so narrow-minded, stop being so prejudiced and your country will grow strong. Twats like you are ruining America.

Random Jingoistic American (Conservative?)

I’m glad as hell you ain’t one of us too, MATE! As an American, I definitely don’t need advise from an Aussie Gator chaser about what’s good for my country. Even with us fighting amongst each other, we’d still kick your asses. What’s ruining America is trying to appeal to shitheads like you and the Europeans by dropping our defenses and extending the olive branch to people who want to destroy our country just like you guys have done in your miserable Socialist hellholes.

Random Opposing American Citizen

lol, nice show of ignorance, bigotry, and mindless nationalist sentiments. Ruining America? It’s fellow citizens like you who only add insult to injury.

Random Jingoistic American (Conservative?)

Aww, did I hurt your Liberal feelings, you fucking geek?

You want to appeal to the Europeans? You want to read Islamic Terrorists their Miranda Rights? You’re a mindless numbskull who doesn’t know what’s good for them, and that’s why you vote pieces of shit like Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, Barbara Boxer, Hillary Clinton, and Diane Feinstein into office.

Yes, if we were only nicer to terrorists, they’d be nicer to us.

It’s idiots like you that pass for College Level Thinking these days. Sad

Me

What would you rather have?

RJA(C?)

I’d rather have more Common Sense in Washington D.C. and more Common Sense taught in Colleges.

ROAC

F**cking geek – isn’t that an oxymoron?

I think you should Wikipedia the term Liberalism.

I’m not getting into an argument with you – you’re not interested in civil discussion, just name calling & prejudging. BTW – numbskull? You been watchin a lot of Three Stooges or 80′s TV lately?

I like how you single out Islamic terrorists. What about other terrorists? Tim McVeigh shouldn’t have been read his rights? So we should discriminate on the basis of religion? Or ethnicity? Isn’t justice blind?

RJA(C?)

You know what an oxymoron is? A Smart Liberal.

Liberalism? Well, there’s 2 kinds. There’s Classical Liberal, which I am, and there’s Modern Liberal, which is Socialist, which is what you are.

I’m always up for a civil discussion, but you casted the first stone, so if you can’t take it, don’t dish it.

As for the terrorists, you think we should read the Miranda Rights of terrorists on the battlefield in the middle of a war?

Why are foreign terrorists entitled to justice?

ROAC

Two things:

1) Exactly what evidence do you have to support your claim that I am a Socialist? Because I think your comments are hostile, xenophobic and haughty?

2) Are you saying justice is a special right that only American citizens have?

RJA(C?)

You think they are hostile, xenophobic, and haughty? That’s your fuckin’ problem, and yeah, if you think they are, then you are a Socialist. Problem is, I always tell the truth. You didn’t like how ripped the Socialist hellhole of Australia. Too damn bad, cause that’s what it is.

As for justice, it’s not a special right for pieces of shit shooting at our troops nor the guys who burned 3,000 Americans 8 years ago.

You want your tax dollars to go to court fees and lawyer fees for them?

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*Back to my writing*

As you can see here, in prime example 1, most people have largely been polarized to two sides, or if they themselves have not been separated themselves thus, they have been pushed there. One on side is the jingoistic, gungho, “kill all the damn towelhead Muslim terrorists”, “Amurika! FUCK YEAH!”, backwards-thinking, homophobic, xenophobic, almost-everything-phobic Conservatives. One the other side is the pussified, European, “I hate America”, “I hate the free market”, homosexual, xenophilic, socialist, baby-killing Liberals. It’s all bullshit! Sure, there are some people who are far-right and far-left, but just because someone is a little bit on the right doesn’t mean that he wants to take a switchblade and start cutting up Guantanamo prisoners to make them talk and just because someone is a little bit on the left doesn’t mean that he wants to take a switchblade and start eviscerating fetuses and harvesting them for a clone army.

For the most part, political dialogue on the Internet devolves into who can say the most shit about the other side the fastest and least eloquently without the least bit of concern for grammar, syntax, and cleverness. So basically, people on the Internet are dicks.

On a COMPLETELY unrelated topic, FUCK CONSOLE PRICES! LOWER THAT SHIT!

It’s now 2:33 AM.

Asian Musics

I’m recently come into some amount of free time, and I spend the vast majority of it on the Intarwebs, looking for new music, games, etc. Anyway, I’ve been on Youtube more than I have before, and this is some of the new music that I’ve discovered.

I’ve developed a new liking for some more traditional Asian music. Here’s a video of a duet with two Sanxian, a three-stringed Chinese instrument.

I’ve also been looking at some traditional Okinawan music. This is a video of a man playing a Sanshin, an instrument related to the Sanxian but with decidedly different music. The song is “Asatoya Yunta”, which is a well-known (in Japan, at least) Okinawan folk song about love.

This last one is a shoegaze acoustic guitar song by an musician named David Choi. He’s an Asian from Southern California and he’s the only Asian who sings in English that I legitly like at the moment. I like the song. The music video is produced by Wong Fu Productions, a.k.a. the guys who made “Yellow Fever”.