Sunday, November 30, 2008

泥だんご Hikaru Dorodango




I've been working on my research paper these last few days, and watching TV for the first time in over a year since it's Thanksgiving Break Week. I was watching Mythbusters today, which is often funny, but today, they were doing something gross; polishing poo.

Yeah, they were polishing poo. The method they finally settled on to get the shine they were looking for is from Japan and is used by school children to polish mud. It is called Hikaru Dorodango and some of the efforts are fantastic! With the mud. The children played with the mud. Adam and Jamie, who are grown, played with poo.



Bruce Gardner lives in my old stomping ground of New Mexico, and has an awesome gallery of dorodango that he has made from the native soil there. He even has a page to show you how to create a dorodango on your own.


I personally love mud, I always have; but I've never heard of this craft before. In the anime Witch Hunter Robin, a little girl that the main character Robin is babysitting is making one of these dorodangos, but I assumed that the mud was shiny because the child was a witch. The little girl drops her ball by accident and starts to cry.


Now that I've seen how much work goes into making just one of these, I'd probably cry too.


Anyway, here's to an interesting new craft I'd love to try.







Tuesday, November 25, 2008

DANCE SHOW




Well, I took Irish Step Dancing over six years ago, and only for a year. But I loved it, and when I got to school, I had an opportunity to start doing it again! Well, here is the collective efforts of the Lyco Irish Step class yesterday at the end of semester dance show.

The theme was TV channels, and we were PBS. Much thanks to my friend Jana for the video!

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LYCO DANCE SHOW


Thursday, November 20, 2008

YOU CAN’T SEE ME, I’M A NINJA!




Ninjas or Shinobi were serious warriors in ancient Japan, with skills that were obtained through long years of serious, dificult training and discipline. They were reviled and loved by their peers. They are no more, though Ninjitsu is taught as a serious martial art around the world.

But, they have also become huge pop culture icons, especially in America, a place where shinobi never were. There are videos:




Ninja Parade





How to be Ninja





Mythbusters - Ask A Ninja!





There are pictures:





Ninja inspired crafts like this felt ninja:




This one is crocheted:






And there are hundreds of movies, video games:







Anime and Manga such as Rurouni Kenshin, Basilisk, Naruto, Ninja Scroll, Ninja Nonsense, and Puppet Princess that feature ninja or they are the main characters. There are shirts, pants costumes:





Everyone wants to be a ninja!!


There is even a debate in the anime internet community about who is better—Pirates or Ninja?







Silly though all of this maybe, I still think it is carried out with a modicum of respect for what these highly trained man and women were capable of.

I am a ninja.




DAILY LIFE OF NINJAS



The two most famous locations for shinobi were Iga and Koga regions of central Japan. The two provinces shared a common border and they prospered until Oda Nobunaga’s attack in 1581. But what about the daily grind for a shinobi you might ask? What was a typical day like—get up, sharpen your throwing stars, kiss the wife and kids, assassinate a few people and come home to a hot meal? Well, no not quite.

THE NINJA VILLAGE

The average shinobi village had a ridged hierarchical structure. At the top were the Jounin, who depending on their wealth could live like a minor daimyo or an upper-class village headman. Some of the most famous jounin were Hattori Hanzo, said to be one of the handsomest men of his day, Momochi Sandayu, and Fujibayshi Nagato no kami, who some suspect to be Sandayu.

Either way, these were the big guys, who sent other people out on assignments. The next rung on the shinobi social ladder were the chunin, who were the executive officers and leaders. They were also in charge of hiring mercenary shinobi for temporary duty assignments. On the final rung were the genin, not to be confused with gaijin. The first one is your work-a-day shinobi, and the other is a foreigner.

The houses that the shinobi lived in were small, typical Japanese style houses. The shinobi jounin’s house may have had special “ninja upgrades” to make it difficult to attack him in his home, such as “disappearing” staircases and secret room with double entrances. One leads to the stairs, the other to a horrible death on spikes embedded into the floor.

The children went through the rigorous training I mention in the last ninja post, but they also had to farm to feed the village, care for life stock and the other daily activities of a typical Japanese village.



NEXT: NINJAS IN POPULAR CULTURE or YOU CAN’T SEE ME, I’M A NINJA!

Monday, November 17, 2008

College Life Article

See, I've gone and done it agian. I promised you ninjas and then I get something else published. This will be the last time, I really, really promise. This is from the Nov. 17, 2008 ed. of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Education section.

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Life in a college town: CONFESSIONS OF AN OLDER COLLEGE STUDENT


By Cristina Sorrells
Special to the Sun-Gazette


When one thinks about it, going to college really is not all that difficult. You get your books, you got to class, you study, take a few tests, rinse, lather repeat for seven more semesters then, graduate. But then, you have to throw in—just for fun mind you—all of your teachers’ and fellow students’ varying personalities, bias, dependencies, habits, tics, and influences and suddenly, you are slogging through mud in improperly fitting hip-waders.

All that said, I really love going to college. I do—the mental challenges it provides me are sorely missed when I am not in school and I am not talking about summer or winter breaks. I am 27-years old, and before I came to Lycoming, I worked full and part-time at various jobs to pay for community college in New Jersey to get my basic classes out of the way so that I could start working on my major as soon as I arrived at a four-year school.

That process should have taken a nice neat two years, just as it did for my elder brother when he took his community college classes, before moving on to a four-year school. In my case, it took almost five years.

However, I made it to Lycoming. In August, I left my full time job with the State of New Jersey Health Department and became a “real” college sophomore.

To say the least, it has been a most interesting and entertaining experience. Even before I arrived, I began to realize that most college life is designed to accommodate and cater to the immature 18-year-old mind set, and I sometimes find myself arguing against the rules —“Can you make an exception in my case?” or “Are you sure I need to do that; I am a little past that stage.”

I still go to class, the same as my younger fellow students, but unlike many of them, by the time Friday evening comes, and my classes are finished for the week, all I want to do is sleep, not go out. I think my age is showing — go to bed early or stay awake and watch the 11 o’clock movie?

I admit, I will more often than not stay up — I am intimately familiar with the wrong side of 2 a.m. and I have found out that the view from my desk is amazing! It is also, as it turns out, a comfortable place to sleep.

I understand that Williamsport is full of fun things to do downtown, though the first time someone mentioned ‘First Friday’ to me, I had no clue what they were talking about.

I fully intend to look into First Friday and many other stores and events during the 2 ½ years that I am expected to be in the city.
Who knows, I might even go out every now and then and I might make an acquaintance or two. But I think I need a nap first.


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NEXT: EVERYDAY LIFE OF A NINJA!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Rice Cooker (Temp.)

Rice Cooker
Enjoy my humiliation for media class. This won't stay here long.






NEXT: THE DAILY LIFE OF A NINJA !

Monday, November 10, 2008

Shinobi 忍者

This is most peoples' idea of a ninja. A man dressed in black, scaling castle walls, silent as the night.

And they are partly right. This image is proably closer to what a real ninja looked like.
Many Ninja or Shinobi as they are properly called belonged to the lower classes and were despised by the samurai nobles for their low birth and secretive and underhanded methods.

ORIGINS

Many of the shinobi originated in the Iga and Koga areas of central Japan. Shinobi really got their start during the Sengoku Jidai—or Warring States Era. This was a time of great civil war in Japan and the spying skills that the shinobi brought to the various factions was often exploited. It should be noted that there were two kinds of shinobi—the experts who trained and passed their skill on to their descendants like those of Iga and Koga, and the ones who were little more than brigands or ordinary samurai who were hired for temporary secret operations.

The famous Iga and Koga shinobi were active between 1485-1581. They were hired by rival lords or daimyo for spying operations and assignations. Oda Nobunaga attacked them in 1581 and the survivors scattered into other provinces, including Mikawa where they found refuge with Nobunaga’s enemy, Ieyasu Tokugawa. Tokugawa became the shogun in 1603 and the Iga and Koga shinobi fell under the auspices of the new shogunate.

TRAINING

A boy of a noble samurai family will begin training early in his childhood to be a warrior. They learn to ride, swim, use a sword, spear, and bow. Before the closing of Japan in the early 1600’s, they learned to use a gun as well. A child born into a shinobi tribe, boy or girl also began martial arts training. Besides learning the same skills as a samurai child, they also learn to make explosives, blend poisons, and fieldcraft and survival techniques. They may also need to learn to read, write, and pull off a convincing disguise or alternate personality.

NEXT: THE DAILY LIFE OF A NINJA

Thursday, November 6, 2008

My Lycourier Article

Today's main topic was supposed to be about ninjas, but something else has happened. I am a published writer. Granted, it was in a free, weekly college paper but published is published. That said, here is my article.

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November 6, 2008

WILLIAMSPORT TAKES CENTER STAGE IN ELECTION

Both V.P. cadidates make last-minute stop in Williamsport to win over undecided voters

By Cristina Sorrells
The Lycourier Staff


Both vice presidential hopefuls, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Delaware Sen. Joe Biden were hosted by Lycoming County last Thursday.

Both were in the state, considered a major battleground with 21 crucial Electoral College votes to give away; aiming to motivate their base of supporters to vote on Election Day, Nov. 4.

According to the web site, http://www.electoral-vote.com, Pennsylvania has been split nearly evenly between Democrats and Republicans in the last four presidential elections, starting in 1992.

Biden spoke in Lycoming College’s Lamade Gymnasium on behalf of Democratic presidential hopeful, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, and Palin later spoke at Historic Bowman Field, for the Republican hopeful, Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Biden spoke about four years of “failed economic policies,” and “restoring the middle class, and reclaiming America’s respect in the world.” He called for a timeline for a military drawdown for the troops in Iraq. The senator promised tax cuts and “the creation of 82,000 new jobs in Pennsylvania.”

He told the crowd of about 450 supporters that the American people cannot wait until January for change, when a new president is sworn in, and that he and Obama would return to Washington after the election and propose a three-month moratorium on all foreclosures to give people a chance to renegotiate their mortgages.

Despite the thin crowd of mostly older people, Biden proposed to the young people in the audience that “If you serve your country in the military, in public service, in a nursing home or senior center . . . you will get into college.”

Palin’s rally at Bowman Field drew a much larger crowd, according to Williamsport Mayor Gabriel Campana, who said about 13,000 people attended. Republicans on hand to address the audience prior to Palin’s arrival were State Senate hopeful Gene Yaw; State Rep. Matthew E. Baker, the John McCain campaign chairman for Tioga County; and Campana and his family.

Yaw, the first speaker, spoke about needing tested leaders and less government. Baker disagreed with the Obama campaign’s promise of change saying “A promise of change espoused by higher taxes does not stand.” He was pleased to announce to the cheering crowd that the local newspaper, the “Williamsport Sun-Gazette,” endorsed McCain and Palin.

Then Palin and her husband, Todd, arrived to an enthusiastic greeting. The governor thanked the veterans in the crowd. Addressing the people in general, she spoke about cutting spending, reducing government, and about military spending, demanding “Let’s not retreat from a war that’s almost won.”

She emphasized Obama’s lack of experience. “The rousing speeches of our opponent can fill a stadium, but cannot make this country safe,” she said.

Palin called for more domestic drilling. “There is more coal and natural gas in this country than there is oil in Saudi Arabia,” she said. “We have to use it and stop the flow of money to countries that don't like us.”

The crowd was delighted and began chanting, “Drill, baby, drill.”

Palin responded, “You betcha. Drill, baby, drill. And mine, baby, mine. We need to develop a clean coal technology.”

She discussed one of her core issues, expanding the funding for special needs children.

After the rally at Bowman Field, Palin, and her husband, Todd, and Biden at Lycoming College, mingled briefly with the crowd, signing autographs.


PLEASE NOTE:
Election results were not available as of press time.

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NEXT: NINJAS!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008




Bow your heads and pray for America. It's going to be long, long, long four years and we're going to need it. Badly.

The flag's at half-staff in mourning for the loss of my country.