Lily Tomlin

Urban Rodeo

Juston McKinney

James Gregory

Seize the day. Ah, yeah.

Deshalb hier noch ein kleiner Comic-Nachtrag zum zuvor geposteten Thema. Ich liebe die Calvin- und Hobbes Comics, und den hier fand ich schon immer gut:

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An email arrives from the Society of Author's Children's Writers And Illustrators Group. Apparently, a well-established, enormous publishing house has decided to insert the following clause into its standard contract for children's books: "If you act or behave in a way which damages your reputation as a person suitable to work with or be associated with children, and consequently the market for or value of the work is seriously diminished, and we may (at our option) take any of the following actions: Delay publication / Renegotiate advance / Terminate the agreement."

The publisher's name? Ooh, that would be giving it away. Really? Oh go on then: Random House.

- Courtesy of http://www.guardian.co.uk/books -

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I am unsure as to which side I should land on. On the one hand, I can understand some parents being concerned. Children are very impressionable and in a society where Miss J.K. Rowling is a celebrity for having written a children's novels, well I can see that if Miss J.K. behaved in a rather boorish or uncivilized manner, say posing on you tube with crack or making a racist comment, well I can understand the fear of such things, not something I'd want my children being exposed to.

But then, it's a parent's responsibility to do just that...PARENT! I believe it's that one part of their contract that is disconcerting: "suitable", well.. suitable for what, or whom?

What's wrong with our society? I find it sad that our society has become so sensitive, so worried about being politically correct. There is this fear that we seem to have, that if we offend any one individual, that this is some sign of attack on that person and their culture. So rather than risk having any one individual feel hurt or god forbid, having that person face some criticism that maybe a choice they've made in life is not perfect, what does our society do, we sugarcoat everything so that we do not offend anyone. UGH!@$%$

Randomly selected few strips here:

[caption id="attachment_388" align="aligncenter" width="410" caption="You never let me do ANYTHING!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_389" align="aligncenter" width="410" caption="Lost.."][/caption]

Am so glad to find this piece of treasure last night! Like it too? Pass me your pendrive in campus next Monday.. xD

Un meme se trata básicamente de un "elemento" que se hace famoso en Internet por medio de diferentes medios/servicios de audio y/o video. De esos que abundan hoy en día y que permiten que "algo" se vuelva popular en cosa de horas. Para una definición más formal los invito a pasar por aquí.

Una vez aclarado el término, será pertinente dar algunos ejemplos para que mas menos se hagan una idea de lo que estamos hablando.

.:Dance Baby:.
El primer meme que recuerdo haber visto, por allá por el año 1997, era un bebé bailando tal cual como se muestra en el siguiente video:

Claro que para aquel entonces servicios como Youtube aún no se inventaban por lo que este bebé bailando era básicamente un GIF animado en (si mi memoria no me falla) 12 frames.

.:Hampster Dance:.
El segundo corresponde a "Hampster Dance" (1998), el cual era en sus inicios un fondo para páginas webs proporcionado por Geocities.

Un día Deidre LaCarte diseño una página llamada "Hamsterdance" para su mascota, llamada Hampton Hamster, utilizando el fondo proporcionado por Geocities.

Tiempo después decide agregar un sonido (dedodedo.wav) a la página, el cual proviene de los créditos iniciales de la película "Whistle Stop" de Disney. Por problemas legales el sonido tuvo que ser retirado, pero antes de ello se registraban, en promedio, 4 visitas diarias a su página, sin embargo de manera inesperada, el número de visitas se disparó a 15.000 por día.

La melodía, junto a los hamsters, se hizo conocido gracias al correo electrónico y las primeras formas de blogs que existieron en aquellos años. A partir de ello nació el meme de Hampster Dance.

A continuación puedes revisar un video musical (si, ¡porque hasta un single sacó!) del fenómeno:

.:All your base are belong to us:.
Por otro lado, no puedo dejar de mencionar el meme de "All you base are belong to us". Uno de mis favoritos (¿por ser de videojuegos?) y que se trata de una mala traducción de una frase del japonés al inglés (Engrish). El origen de esta proviene del juego "Zero Wing" para Arcadia, PC y Sega Mega Drive.

El dialogo en cuestión es el siguiente:

In A.D. 2101
War was beginning.
Captain: What happen ?
Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb.
Operator: We get signal.
Captain: What!
Main screen turn on.
Captain: It's you!!
Cats: How are you gentlemen!!
All your base are belong to us.
Cats: You are on the way to destruction.
Captain: What you say!!
Cats: You have no chance to survive.
Cats: Make your time.
Cats: Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha....

La traducción de japonés a inglés provoca ciertos problemas al hacerlo de inglés a español:
All you base are belong to us = Todas sus bases son pertenecen a nosotros.

Apróximaciones a la traducción sugieren que podría haber sido "We have taken over all of your bases" (Sus bases están totalmente bajo nuestro control).

Sin duda, la traducción no fue realizada de manera correcta y, para nos desviarnos del tema, esto provocó que se convirtiera en un fenómeno cultural en Estados Unidos. La frase ha originado merchandising que va desde poleras hasta chapitas, si hasta hay una parodia de Calvin & Hobbes que no tiene ningun desperdicio.

Y como era de esperarse, un video musical con el remix de la frase que consolido al equipo traductor detrás del juego:

.:Rick Roll:.
Para nuestro siguiente meme, es necesario ver el siguiente video de Rick Astley con su canción llamada "Never Gonna Give You Up", la cual muchos debe conocer:

Este meme nacio de una forma que resulta poco habitual a lo que estamos acostumbrado, muy diferente también a los mencionados anteriormente.

En primer lugar, en un foro o conversación por chat, ya sea por IRC o servicio de mensajería instantanea de turno puede haber un tema de discusión entre los participantes. Si es necesario se recurre a Internet para apoyar alguna idea que queda en el aire, y mostrarsela a los demás, pero que pasa si...

A: ¿Acaso te parece mal?
B: Yo creo que eso, no debería ser así.
A: Creo que estás equivocado, mira la siguiente página y en la parte inferior te podrás dar cuenta a lo que me refiero.
A: http://smouch.net/lol/
B: Dejame ver.
A: You've been Rick Rolled :P

Situaciones como estas fueron las que llevaron a Rick Astley a convertirse en un meme. Fue tanto así que la palabra "Rick Roll" fue inventada y posteriormente asociada a su canción.

Y, al igual que los demas memes, varios videos de gente siendo "Rick Rolleada" aparecieron, entre ellos podemos mencionar al Señor Burns de los Simpsons, Bender de Futurama, una secundaria completa en Estados Unidos, una persona que vende cosas por teléfono (demoró bastanta en Rick Rollearla) o el mismo Youtube, cuando este año para el primero de Abril (April fools' Day), todos sus videos en portada se autodirigian al video de Rick Astley (Epic Rick Roll!). Tampoco puedo dejar de mencionar una de mis favoritas que corresponde a los Muppets (la sincronización de las voces es casi perfecta)

.:Caramelldansen:.
Ya para terminar con un meme más actual. Quiero mencionar a Caramelldansen, el cual comenzó a hacerse popular durante el segundo semestre del 2006. Este fenómeno tiene como protagonistas a dos personajes de la serie animada Popotan, más especificamente del juego para PC en donde podemos encontrar la siguiente secuencia:

Dicha secuencia fue capturada en formato GIF y se le agregó la música de Caramelldansen, que corresponde a un grupo de nombre homónimo al tema. La canción original es la siguiente.

No obstante para hacer más amena la animación, se utilizo el Speedycake Remix, el cual es una versión más rápida de la canción original. El resultado fue el siguiente:

Después de que el flash se hiciera famoso por sitios como 4chan y Youtube, se comenzó a asociar el término "Caramelldansen" a los personajes de Popotan con su particular baile, quienes se les conocía también como "Popotan Dance" o "Popotan Dansen". Después del 2008 su popularidad crecio de manera exponencial en Japón gracias al siguiente video:

Junto con ello diferentes versiones de Caramelldansen comenzaron a surgir en Youtube, como por ejemplo la de Gundam 00, Resident Evil, Super Smash Bros, Persona 3, entre otras.

Cabe destacar que el fenómeno no se limita a animaciones, sino que se extiende hasta el mundo real, con versiones como esta o la siguiente:

(Puede resultar pertubador ver a un Trooper bailando Caramelldansen :P )

Finalmente, para cerrar la entrada, cabe destacar que dejé muchos memes de lado, como "Leave Britney alone", "Ok Go", "Will it Blend" con su juguera (querida por muchos, odiada por otros), "Numa Numa" y ¡muchos mas!. No obstante, pueden revisar la siguiente página, la cual contiene la mayoría de los memes que han existido en un atractivo diseño usando una linea del tiempo.

"But you know what? To all you books giving me the evil grin - I give you:

By the way, I am looking for some humourous books.. Anyone got suggestions? And please lets avoid Chetan Bhagat - cant stand that dude! And suggestions apart from Henry Cecil and P.G.Wodehouse, and not comics.. I am considering another Calvin, but him apart.. any suggestions?

As you can see, I need entertainment in my life.. Heck! I am talking to myself on my blog now! I mean, sad enough I talk to myself, but, now, I torture you by talking to myself, and you come to my blog, and read it, and then at the end of it find that I need suggestions?!?! I need many kinds of suggestions at this point in life, I think.. So, suggest away!

I just realized this picture doesn't have the greatest resolution. Coupled with me not being the world's best photographer, and I'm surprised you can read so many of the bookshelf titles. And someone in Atlanta ought to recognize one of those picture frames....

Per esempio: Bill Watterson, L'attacco dei mostri di neve mutanti (Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons), Comix (Franco Cosimo Panini Editore) 2005, traduzione di Nicoletta Pardi, 128 pagine, € 13.

So, I have this weird aspect of my personality in regards to the way I live life: I'm always thinking about what'll be going through my mind as life flashes before my eyes when I lie dying.

Well, that sounds a bit morbid. I'm not ALWAYS thinking of that. For instance, when I make a sandwich, I'm not particularly debating the long-lasting importance of my actions. Instead, I'm debating what to put on it, and how much mustard I'd like on said sandwich.

But, I'm often thinking about what "will make better memories," to quote Calvin in the above strip.

In my last essay, I spoke about "busting cycles," and how I feel that is important to do from time-to-time. To me, busting cycles by spontaneously breaking your routine is to your day-to-day life as wedding photos are to snapshots.

You could have a beautiful wedding photo: everyone's dressed up nice, with their hair professionally done. You're in front of some very pretty natural background. You're posed for near-perfection.

But then there are snapshots: those pictures taken spontaneously when the subject had no idea it was coming. This could be the person you love laughing while eating Chinese food on your couch, or perhaps your brother telling you a joke at a barbecue with you, beer in hand, smiling as wide as you ever have.

These snapshots of our lives have always meant much more to me than posed photographs; and I know I'm not the first to say this, but I'd like to publically declare my love for snapshots. Snapshots are bright little bits of life that we can capture and keep in our hands, like fireflies. They show us as we really are. They make us smile because they were unexpected, but turned out wonderfully.

This is exactly my attitude on "busting cycles": unexpected, but wonderful. Life's like those wedding photos: it can be great, but it's planned. You get up, go to work, pay bills, see person X at Y o'clock, etc.

These captured bits of our spontaneous, yet lovely lives that we lead are, in the end, what we'll cherish most. Sure, that fancy, romantic dinner with your wife was a really good night, but wasn't there something beautiful about that night you and her couldn't catch a cab in New York City while the rain poured down on you? Her makeup was running, and both of you had drenched hair. Your clothes were soaking wet, and it was a bit uncomfortable. But you were laughing. Neither of you could help it.

You were laughing.

That sounds a lot more like something that I'd cherish and keep with me till the end of my days. Knowing I feel this way, I often think that these are the things that'll be flashing before my eyes as I pass on. I'll be imagining the moment I first kissed my wife, that time we were smiling and joking like little kids while we ate breakfast at midnight, the time my children had a snow-day, so I called out of work to play with them under the purifying white blanket the clouds were knitting for the soil.

In the end, you've gotta just be the best person you can be, and enjoy life as much as you can. There's things you have to do, but the things you want to do shouldn't have to be planned as much. Don't make everything a wedding photo. Take a snapshot every once in a while.

After all, what more can you ask for out of life than a life worth remembering?

Thanks again for reading. Keep the love alive, everyone.

- Mike

I absolutely love Calvin and Hobbes.  I sit down and re-read the strips and laugh and laugh...and laugh some more.  Watterson drew on some of his own childhood experiences to create Calvin, a precocious little boy with a colossal imagination who terrorized his parents, his teacher Ms. Wormwood, his babysitter Rosalyn, and the little neighbor girl Susie Derkins.  His constant companion was Hobbes, a stuffed tiger that was alive only to Calvin.

Calvin often struggled with issues like death, the meaning of life, God, commercialism, and modern materialism, and Hobbes was usually there with some response that should have provided (but often didn't) perspective and resolution to Calvin.  The star of the strip possessed a huge vocabulary, but couldn't be bothered to do the simplest of homework assignments.  He spent most school-time hours day-dreaming that he was Spaceman Spiff, saving the galaxies in his spaceship, or Stupendous Man.

I think the comic strip was outrageously funny, and picking my favorites out of 10 years of material is pretty difficult.  He and Hobbes play this hysterical make-the-rules-as-you-go game called Calvinball.  His creation of a cardboard-box Transmogrifier was hilarious.  But I think my favorite strips involved Calvin eating bowls of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs and the time when he ordered a beanie with a little propreller that he thought would make him fly.

Watterson created a winner with Calvin and Hobbes, and the numerous awards he won prove it.  He steadfastly refused to merchandize the characters, believing that slapping them on a lunchbox or a T-shirt or creating movies about them destroyed the purity of the strip.  So the comic strip is all we have.  But as far as I'm concerned, the comic strip is all we need.

Happy Birthday, Bill Watterson!!

Recommended Reading: Find any of the numerous Calvin and Hobbes comic strip books at your local bookstore.  Better yet, get the complete anthology...I received it as a gift and it's awesome.

Me sumerjo en la metáfora para que los demás entiendan lo evidente. Me envuelvo en palabras y apariencias esperando a que los otros descubran mi rostro. No tengo nada que esconder pero eludo la obviedad para que ésta aparezca limpiamente.

Me resisto a aceptar eso que llaman realidad como lo cierto y lo tangible.

Soy un neo soñador, un revolucionario adolorido, un amador irremediable, un grito en medio de este mar de sordos y me complazco al descubrir que no estoy solo en mis necedades. Siempre que me encuentre a alguien que piense y sienta en semejanza y sintonía con mi canción, lo invitare a subirse a un tren, a un barco, a un párrafo, a cruzar conmigo el mar a pie, que a fin de cuentas es lo mismo, para emprender una aventura imaginable.

Como sea, los demás ya nos llaman locos, y los que no... Nos miran como si estuviésemos en mente ya unidos.

…if the above image isn’t clear, click on it!

…if the above image isn’t clear, click on it!

ho questa sensazione di averti davvero conosciuto di persona tanto, tanto tempo fa, ma ora inizio a dubitare anche di questo, inizio a pensare che sia stato tutto un sogno, un'illusione. Per esempio, i tuoi occhi non saranno *davvero* così chiari... sicuramente è la mia immaginazione che vuole raffigurarseli così. La tua risata, poi, non può davvero essere così contagiosa come mi sembra di ricordare. Bah, gli scherzi della mente...

Volevo raccontarti un paio di cose che mi sono successe ultimamente, a partire da quel fatto che ti ho accennato che è capitato alla mia amica e che mi ha fatto riflettere parecchio. Vedi, apprezzo molto il senso dell'avventura, come credo anche lei, del buttarsi chiudendo gli occhi sperando che una rete si materializzi come per magia, ma il problema è che a volte le regole del gioco non sono ben chiare, non vengono spiegate bene all'inizio, e ci si ritrova a giocare con regole diverse dagli altri giocatori, che non è bello. Alla mia amica è successo proprio così. Fatto sta, come ti ho detto, ho dormito da lei quella sera, e non fosse stato per il caldo afoso e per la sveglia dell'indomani mattina, ci saremmo anche divertite in questa specie di pigiama party improvvisato! E invece, questo episodio mi ha lasciato l'amaro in bocca, e una gran voglia di vendetta. Un po' come Charlotte nel film di Sex and the City, ho provato a pensare ad una frase da dire al momento opportuno (la sua frase era: "maledico il giorno in cui sei nato!")... sono ancora indecisa tra "mi fai schifo" e "sei una bestia". Non tollero chi maltratta e fa soffrire le mie amiche!

Stavo anche pensando alle parole dette e a quelle non dette... come interpretare alcune frasi? Per esempio, "ti faccio sapere", di solito vuol dire "ti faccio sapere". Allora perché non funziona sempre così? Il vantaggio di avere un amico immaginario, suppongo, è che se anche si volatilizza lo si può giustificare dicendo che, in fondo, non è mai esistito davvero... :-)

Un'altra cosa che volevo raccontarti è che ieri ho ritrovato i miei diari! Incredibile... ormai erano mesi che li avevo dati per dispersi. E' stato fantastico rileggere finalmente quelle pagine di dieci anni fa, quella specie di blog ante litteram, quei racconti di fatti antichi. E' stato come se riprendessero vita tante cose e tante persone della cui esistenza ormai quasi dubitavo... Credo che li leggerò con molta calma e attenzione, per vedere se la vecchia me (o meglio la giovane me) ha qualcosa da insegnarmi, come credo. Mi ricordi qualcuno del mio passato, lo sai, vero, amico immaginario?

Poi, volevo anche dirti che mi piace proprio essere vegan. Devo ammettere che settimana scorsa mi sono presa una storta epica a base di mojito (a stomaco vuoto), e per controbilanciarla ho mangiato un panino con arrosto di tacchino... macrobioticamente parlando, lo yang estremo del panino con carne e maionese ha in qualche modo riportato verso l'equilibrio (seppure instabile) la mia lancetta interna, così spostata verso lo yin dall'eccesso di alcol e zucchero. Quindi, ad essere pignoli, non sono vegan. Quindi, se vuoi portarmi a mangiare la carne o il pesce in qualche posticino carino (e possibilmente fresco) potrei anche accettare l'invito!

Mancano 73 giorni alla mia partenza per le Hawaii; mi chiedo se da qui ad allora ti rivedrò, anche solo in un sogno, chi lo sa. Non ho nessun programma particolare, a parte mangiare un sacco di verdura, frutta, cereali integrali, alghe, e tutte quelle cosine che non ti piacciono particolarmente ma che mi fanno sentire tanto, tanto bene... In fondo, quando sarò lì avrò cibo gratis a volontà, ma strettamente vegan! Meglio farci l'abitudine :-) Ho anche in programma di continuare a sudare in palestra con la mia amica, leggere libri con il mio gatto al fresco del ventilatore, dormire parecchio e uscire un po' di meno. Mi piacerebbe leggere il libro a cui mi hai accennato una volta, sui simboli della spirale e della svastica... o forse mi sono immaginata anche quello?

Poi, nella settimana di ferragosto in cui ho praticamente ferie obbligatorie, credo che andrò a trovare mia nonna in Friuli, anche perché in quei giorni cade il compleanno di mio papà, che ora come sai non c'è più, e credo che mi piacerebbe passare un'oretta in quel cimitero in fondo alla valle, ad ascoltare i grilli e contemplare il cielo azzurro e le montagne.

Stammi bene, amico immaginario, ti penso spesso, sei una persona simpatica e particolare, non riesco ad odiarti nemmeno un po'.

…if the above image isn’t clear, click on it!