Bruno is now at the bottom!!

Jerksblog!

Date-Based Archive No time!

I was going to post something, but no time!!

That's all you get, suckers!

Posted by erin at 06:22 PM | Comments (0)

Date-Based Archive Celery and Misquotes

This site was linked to in Kari's comments. It's a study of the effect of celery on loose elastic bands in women's underwear:

Here's a site that sells a Bush-quoting calender:

Posted by erin at 06:52 PM | Comments (2)

Date-Based Archive Flakiness Abounds

So Friday night I check my NYU mail address, and I find that everyone has been emailing each other about hanging out on Saturday... at my apartment... despite the fact that Maggie wouldn't be there, and that I hadn't responded to say it was OK.

I hadn't responded yet because my NYU mail account is blocked at work, (eef206@nyu.edu), likewise, I can't check my work email at home (efinnegan@iso.com) because the web-based mail doesn't seem to work, and we just use Outlook during working hours. If there is ever any doubt as to how to reach me, use erin@erinfinnegan.com, which forwards mail to my work address, but I can also check that mail from home.

Anyway, I did respond to the thread to say it was OK if people wanted to come over. Dan replied asking what time, I responded with "After 7pm." I also mention that people should call first, to make sure I'm home. 7pm rolls around. Rick calls. He wasn't CC:ed on the emails, but Dan told him people were getting together. So Rick comes over. So N and I hang with Rick.

Time passes.

Time passes.

Midnight rolls around and I haven't heard from anyone. No phone calls, no emails, no Instant Messages. No one has cancelled, yet no one has come over but Rick. I IMed Sam, and emailed the group. Dan called to apologize.

So Dan is excused... but seriously, people, this was a bizarre incident of mass-flakiness the likes of which I've never seen. The true irony here is that Maggie, and Maggie alone, knew her plans ahead of time and stuck with them. I knew ET had an out-of-town guest, so I could see her not showing. Also, obviously, Hal was in Connecticut. But the rest of you...?

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not mad, and it's not like my evening was ruined or anything. It's just really weird is all.

Posted by erin at 09:15 AM | Comments (10)

Date-Based Archive Eva and Northern Exposure Continued

I thought it was about time I finish up this post:

http://erinfinnegan.com/blog/archives/000010.html

Click below the read the new part of the post, or go to the link above to read the whole thing. The new part begins with "In Setting"

In Setting

Despite different continents and time periods, Cicely, Alaska and Tokyo-3 have some things in common.

The most obvious similarity is that the two cities are examples of humans living in extreme environments. I use "extreme" here to refer to environmental conditions that are violent or adverse to typical human lifestyles.

In Cicely, Alaska, this violence is inherent in the weather. Extremely cold temperatures, tons of snow, isolation from other cities, and dangerous animals like bears and moose make living difficult for residents of the small town. Due to the isolation and long winter months, which restrict travel, trade, and commerce, the economy of Cicely rests (most likely) on lumber.

In short, Cicely is surviving on the edge of what could be considered human survival. So is Tokyo-3.

In Eva, the Earth has been attacked in the past by giant monsters they call "Angels." The first such attack, called the "First Impact," melted Antarctica and killed most of the Earth's population. I hardly need to mention that it flooded the original Tokyo. The "Second Impact" occurred about 20 years later, and again, huge battles were fought, populations decimated... Tokyo-3 was built in preparation for the dreaded Third Impact. However, rather than another tremendous explosion (or "Impact"), when the new "angels" began appearing only 12 years later and started appearing every 12 days (or less) thereafter, and apparently they do not cause the giant catastrophes on the scale of the 1st and 2nd impact.

The angels are huge, and appear (seemingly) out of nowhere. Despite being called "angels," they are wingless, and only vaguely humanoid in shape (some are not humanoid at all - one was more whale-like, another a floating diamond shooting lasers). Conventional weapons are useless because they are surrounded by an "AT Field," which is apparently some kind of energy shield.

Only the Eva units (mobile suits, or giant robots to you laymen) are capable of breaking through the AT Field and destroying the angels. NERV, the agency in charge of stopping angel attacks, only had time to put together 3 Eva units before the angels started attacking again - and to be honest, they barely got to test them and had no time to train the 14-year old pilots.

It is no coincidence that the angels started attacking as soon as the first Eva unit was completed, and it is no coincidence that the angel attacks almost always focus on Tokyo-3, the city where the NERV headquarters are located. The angels have an agenda, and although they never try to communicate, it is clear that they are trying to get rid of NERV and the Eva units.

So this makes Tokyo-3 a terribly dangerous place to live. If you don't get killed by an angel stepping on you, or shooting a laser at you, you could be killed when an Eva unit, in the process of fighting the angel, falls onto your apartment building.

Anticipating destruction, Tokyo-3 is built for battle. Its skyscrapers, in case of emergency, can be lowered into the ground. The citizens are put through drills all the time, and know exactly where the shelters are located.

NERV headquarters, besides being miles underground, is also protected by 12 heavy-duty steel shields. NERV is self-sustaining, with it's own life-support systems and no less than 3 back-up power generators. Deep within NERV is a terradome, so, in case of a big emergency like the dreaded Third Impact, NERV can become a self-contained colony, growing its own food.

I cannot possibly imagine what the economy of Tokyo-3 could based on, other than providing services for NERV headquarters. I suppose, like any other large city, Tokyo-3 serves a center of business and commerce - or it did until the angels started attacking. At that point many people left the city. Despite all of it's high-tech-safety gadgets, Tokyo-3 is the most unsafe place to live in Japan, and possibly the world, all because of NERV.

Without NERV, however, no one is safe. It's a bit of a problem... NERV's budget is huge, and tremendous amounts of energy and resources are poured into it - while people in other parts of the world, and even other part of Japan starve. Tokyo-3 teeters on the edge of finical (and physical ruin) all the time, thanks to NERV. This is not unlike Cicely in that, if the lumber industry pulled out, the town would cease to exist.

Toko-3 is comparable to Cicely, Alaska in that the two cities are self-sustaining (for the most part), and allow humans to live under extreme conditions.

Not to mention how Cicely is attacked on a near-daily basis by Morty the Moose.

Posted by erin at 03:39 PM | Comments (1)

Date-Based Archive So Gay! Gay 102!

Posted by erin at 12:36 AM | Comments (12)

Date-Based Archive Irrefutable Evidence

I was just listing to Rammstein, "Du Hast" and it reminded me of a silly high school argument. Two kids were quibbling over what the words "Du Hast" mean, exactly, in German. Do they mean "You hate," or something else? After several minutes the two kids arguing asked the German exchange student for clarification on the matter. She explained that "Du hast" does, in fact, translate as "You hate."

Here's what really gets to me - the one kid still insisted that perhaps the lyrics meant something else. (This argument was taking place outdoors, so the internet could not be used to settle it at that time.)

How is it that, in the face of such irrefutable evidence (such as a native German speaker translating), one of the arguers could possibly refuse to concede?

Likewise, at sci-fi club the other night Dan and this one kid were arguing over World War II. It had something to do with attitudes towards Russian soldiers. The debate ended with Dan yelling that he was basing his argument on stories his grandfather had told him about his experience as a soldier. The kid still would not admit that perhaps Dan was correct. "You're refuting a first-hand account?!" Dan bellowed across the room.

My best friend in junior high once argued with me whether or not Disney LAND was in California and Disney WORLD in Florida, or the other way around. She had gotten it backwards, and since I had been to Disney World just one month prior to the conversation, I insisted I was in the right. She wouldn't believe me. Finally I dug out a postcard I had purchased there. The fine print on the back said, "Printed in Disney World, FL." And yet, Jen was still wary to accept my argument, before finally conceding.

What is with people like this?! It's one thing if you can't look a fact up on the spot, however, how could anyone possibly refuse to concede in the face of irrefutable evidence?

Posted by erin at 03:20 PM | Comments (31)

Date-Based Archive Breaking it Again

eh... I broke it again. I'll fix it later.

Posted by erin at 12:11 AM | Comments (1)

Date-Based Archive You too can be a Presidential Speech Writer!

Click and drag words and phrases to make Bush say what you want:

http://www.lemonbovril.co.uk/bushspeech/

It's pretty good, but it needs more stutters and made-up words.

I'm fairly sure this is how his speeches are actually constructed.

Since Rick will inevitably rally to defend Bush, and point out that Al Gore has said many idiotic things in his day which the liberal media didn't choose to mock, I should like to point out here that Al Gore just isn't funny enough. He doesn't have that deer-in-headlights look. He also fails to provide the humorous misspellings of Quail or the constant near-fatal heart attacks of Cheney. Building an Al Gore speech would be really boring. Except, I suppose, for the part where he claims to have invented the internet. That _is_ funny.

Posted by erin at 11:27 AM | Comments (14)

Date-Based Archive Christmas - Taking Over Time Itself

As of November 15th Starbucks began using their festive holiday paper cups, playing Christmas music, and offering their holiday-themed drinks (Many contain peppermint. Avoid the eggnog lattes, however, I recommend gingerbread lattes, as they actually taste like liquid Christmas, or, as N puts it 'Liquid Death.') This is a sure sign that Christmas has now overstepped Thanksgiving by at least two full weeks.

When I was a child I had the entire collection of Berenstain Bear books. The Christmas book mentions that, "The Thanksgiving decorations had barely been taken down when the Christmas decorations went up at the Bear County Mall." (...or something equally cheesy.) The book was published around 1987. This means that the Christmas "season" has been starting about one day earlier each year for the last 15 years. By 2020, Christmas will overtake Halloween.

Granted, many early-bird retailers have already started putting up Christmas decorations in mid-October. By 2020, these gun-jumpers will have their stockings hung by September 1st.

Posted by erin at 04:40 PM | Comments (4)

Date-Based Archive DJ Names

N was heard to remark as we left for work this morning, "DJ Adjective Noun."

This is his DJ name, and a fine one it is, at that. It beats my DJ name, which is, of course, DJ Something Something.

You can find your DJ name here:

http://www.ideazoo.com/things/hiphop.cfm

The last of these is by far the best.

A last, Finally a random name generator I can use for stories:

http://www.kleimo.com/random/name.cfm

Posted by erin at 03:59 PM | Comments (19)

Date-Based Archive Watch as Erin messes with her template!

Observe!!! I have changed my template and messed things up pretty badly!

Huzzah!

I badly adapted my template from: http://intoanother.net/design/templates/getit.php?x=wi&template=ghostworld

Posted by erin at 11:28 PM | Comments (5)

Date-Based Archive Spirited Away Refutation

Herein I am refuting Ryan's claim that Spirited Away spirits away $10 and 2 hours of one's life. I have set out to argue that the film is neither plotless drivel nor unintelligent, despite some problems with structure. I have not covered elements that Kerry explained – those bouncing heads were a folklore character, not an acid trip, etc. – and instead, I have aimed for an intelligent critique of the film.

Since this is such a long entry, you'll have to click on the link below to read the rest.

I should like to say here that the first 20 minutes of Spirited Away are really awesome. The rest of the film is mediocre, or, if you're Japanese, you could appreciate it more. The film was a run-away hit in Japan about the same time Harry Potter was playing there. I heard an NPR report where Japanese kids testified to liking Spirited Away much more than Harry Potter, mostly because it was more "Japanese," but they also liked that Chihiro doesn't use magic to solve her problems (even while trapped in a magical world). I'll get back to this later.

Spirited Away is far from plotless. In fact, it hits upon a few elements of Joseph Campbell's hero's journey, as outlined in Hero with a Thousand Faces. The most well-known hero's journey, in our culture, is Star Wars. It is well known that Campbell worked closely with George Lucas in developing the story.

DISCLAIMER: Don't think I'm comparing Spirited Away to Star Wars in quality, because I'm not. I'm just saying it has elements of the hero's journey.

In part of any hero's quest there is a call to adventure, and the subsequent rejection of that call. Good heroes are often reluctant heroes. Luke Skywalker was all, "I can't leave home, it's almost the harvest, Uncle Owen needs me blah blah whine whine." In Spirited Away, Chihiro's parents are like, "Let's explore this abandoned amusement park," as if it will be an adventure. Chihiro whines and would rather stay in the car, but goes along anyway. Then, much for the same reasons that Luke is left with no other options when he finds that Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru are on fire, Chihiro also "loses" her parents, and is now locked into her adventure.

In a typical hero's journey the character then meets someone older and wiser who can help them (Luke, meet Obiwan, Chihiro, meet Haku,) and given items to aid them in their quest (a light saber, a magic bean-thing)… and so forth.

Where Spirited Away fails to stay true to the hero's journey is in the last third of the film. According to Campbell, in order for a hero to complete his journey and truly become a hero, he (or she) must lose everything and face death. As Luke Skywalker dangles over the abyss with his one remaining hand, he must face that the grim-reaper-esque Darth Vader is also his father. Luke has to look into the face of death, and also face death himself.

Another terrific example of a hero in their darkest hour is in the book "Watership Down." In one of the folktales the rabbits tell each other, their rabbit-hero must go to the moon, and face the rabbit of death (I've forgotten all the names, I apologize). The hero-rabbit begs the rabbit of death to save his people from the famine and plagues they are suffering through back on earth. The death-rabbit takes the hero's ears, tale, and finally his nose in exchange. The hero must face the loss of his rabbit-ness in a dark, cold cave far from his people, his companions on his quest long since dead. The story scares the crap out of the rabbits, but it is a great story.

The real problem with Spirited Away is not that it is unintelligent, or unintelligible, but rather that Chihiro is not challenged enough. She does face losing her "self" by forgetting her name and her humanity, and she must complete many difficult tasks and be brave, but never once does she face down death, by herself in her darkest hour. Instead, as the film progresses she gains friends and companions to help her. The witch's kindly older sister helps her out at a moment in the film when Chihiro should be in the most trouble. When the final challenge comes, the solution is waaaay too easy.

Even without knowing anything about Joseph Campbell, this kind of thing can be very disconcerting for American audiences, who are used to seeing classically structured three-act films (for more on this, read Robert McKee). Any deviation from the widely used classical format just feels weird. In a normal movie, Chihiro would have a hell of a time saving her parents, and then she would have to fight Yubaba.

Speaking of Yubaba… Although Yubaba is the obvious antagonist in the film, in my reading of it, I don't think she was the main source of conflict. I think the real story of the film is not Chihiro vs. Yubaba, but rather, Chihiro versus herself. Chihiro has a wonderful character arc - this is something I think both you and Kerry missed. In the end, I think the film is about a child's struggle to be independent. As your chat-room-buddy said, it is a coming of age film.

To back up this proposal, I will argue that there are at least three major parts of the film that point in this direction:

1. Chihiro immediately loses her parents and must begin fending for herself. Haku, the sorcerer's apprentice, is able to help her out at first, but as the film goes on he becomes he becomes less helpful and more injured. Chihiro moves from being cared for by, to taking care of Haku.

2. Chihiro must get a job. Just like a young adult going out into the world, Chihiro must work to survive. (More on work later).

3. When the film ought to be climaxing (as I covered above) Chihiro is riding a creepy train by herself (with a mouse and bird, but they hardly count). I don't know how old kids are in Japan before their parents let them take public transportation by themselves, but this seems like a big step for Chihiro. She is not just riding a train by herself at this point, she is also solving her own problem(s). It may also be of great significance that Chihiro begins the film in the back of her parents' car (totally dependant), but in the end is on a train (independently). She goes from being driven somewhere to finding her own way to get there.

Overall, Chihiro goes from being an overly whiny and screaming little kid to being a non-whiny, hard-working, unafraid kid. That's her arc.

You expressed disappointment that Chihiro did not free all of Yubaba's slaves. This is a legitimate concern, and I worried about that myself, but I think that the internal logic of the film can justify it in two ways. First, when Chihiro enters the magical world, everyone complains that she stinks like the living. This implies that everyone there is dead, and is further confirmed in that most of them are mythological in nature, or take the forms of traditional Japanese ghost (for example, all those chicks with the weird eyebrows should remind you of the ghost in Roshomon - unless you recall a different version of that film than I do). Second, we know that everyone else stuck in that world are not unsuccessful little girls because Chihiro, being there by mistake, has not, like her parents, taken on a new appearance.

(I'm hesitating to say what happened to Chihiro's parents in case someone is reading this concerned about spoilers.)

Kerry is right in saying that Spirited Away is like a fairy tale. I once took a class on Russian Folklore, so I can safely say that it is by no small coincidence that Yubaba is reminiscent of Baba Yaga, the old wicked witch of Russian folklore. Baba Yaga lives on a house build on chicken legs, deep in the forest, and often lures little girls into her hut to use as kitchen slaves, or to eat their bones. She's rather unpredictable. Sometimes she even gives kids items that help them out.

My point here is that fairy tales are deviant from traditional film structure - the bad guys, as Kerry says, go unpunished and a kid learns a lesson. In (perhaps) the most famous Russian fairy tale, "Vasilisa the Beautiful," orphan Vasilisa is kind to a dog, and later decorates a tree with ribbons, making the tree happy. Then she gets captured by Baba Yaga. The dog helps to free her by attacking Baba Yaga, and the tree magically puts its branches in Baba Yaga's path, aiding Vasilisa's escape. That's the way it is in most fairy tales. Kindness to animals (and even plants or inanimate objects) is rewarded. Baba Yaga is sometimes punished, sometimes not. The antagonist takes a back seat to the moral of the story.

However, unlike Kerry, I think Spirited Away goes beyond simply being a children's tale. Miyazaki is saying something extremely intelligent about work, economy, and employment over the course of the film. Unfortunately, I cannot grasp 100% of what this theme is, because I simply don't know enough about Japanese economics. I know, however, that there is a point, and that point is intelligent.

The minute Chihiro's parents walk through the gate, the film is concerned with the Japanese economy. "Must be an abandoned theme park," Chihiro's parents speculate. They go on the conclude that it was built in the '90's, when a lot of theme parks were built, and then closed down because [I assume] the economy couldn't support them.

Why is Chihiro's family moving, anyway? Has her dad gotten a new job? I don't remember, anymore.

Without her parents around to support her, Chihiro must get a job. She has to beg and grovel for work, from adults who say none is available. That SUCKS. I hate job interviews...

Chihiro is shouted at by her managers, forced to sign a shady contract, and scared of her boss. These are not children's issues at all.

When Chihiro is in the steam room where tiny dust-mites are hauling coal towards the furnace, one of the dustmites is crushed under his particularly heavy piece of coal. Chihiro picks it up, and carries the coal to the furnace for the creature, completing the job. The other dustmites IMMEDIATELY collapse, hoping Chihiro will also do their work for them. I think that this scene is some kind of metaphor for Communism. From each according to his abilities... or however it goes. The dustmites come off looking like jerks who don't want to do their share of the work.

Later on, Chihiro shows good customer service skills by being kind to No Face, who everybody else shuns. That is, the other workers ignored him until he started sprouting gold from his palms, then they were all over him in some kind of customer service orgy. We, as viewers, know their actions are foolish. If gold can be magically produced, and becomes plentiful, then it's not worth anything anymore. Chihiro is a good person because she cannot be bribed with gold like the others.

Miyazaki is clearly saying something about gluttony in the film. When No Face eats the greedy frog, he becomes a horrible glutton. And look what happened when Chihiro's parents started chowing down on food someone happened to leave out...

Unfortunately, one of the films failings lies within this (intelligent) economic theme. I don't know what I'm supposed to get out of it. I have a clue about who the dustmites are parodying, but who is No Face a metaphor for? (I hope its not Americans.) What is Miyazaki trying to say? Perhaps I would understand more of it if I were Japanese.

There is one other, more clearly stated, message in the film. When the Stink God comes in to the bathhouse, all the other employees let Chihiro deal with him. Like pulling a thorn from a lion's paw, Chihiro grabs onto the rusted bicycle that is lodged in the stink god. The important part about this scene is that Chihiro can't pull it out by herself. The entire bathhouse must all pull together before the Stink God can be free of the garbage and once again become a beautiful River God.

The environmental message in this scene is painfully obvious, yet remarkable well done. It is, in short, "If we all work together, we can clean up pollution." This struggle between the mystically clean state of nature and the unnaturally polluted world of man is further explored in some of Miyazaki's other films, most notably Princess Monoke and Pom Poko, the ladder of which is about raccoons stopping bulldozers, from what I've heard. I'm quite grateful that Miyazaki doesn't hit us over the head with environmentalism in Spirited Away and instead gives us a cool-looking Stink God and lets us infer the message ourselves.

In the end, environmental and economic messages aside, I found Spirited Away to be an enjoyable film with an awesome opening act. If Chihiro had suffered more, the film could have been much more of the masterpiece that critics, hipsters, and Japanese children seem to think it is. On a final note, I ask whoever reads this to keep in mind that Miyazaki directed the best animated film of all time, My Neighbor Totoro, which is mark to live up to.

Posted by erin at 04:00 PM | Comments (3)

Date-Based Archive Not today either

Sorry folks - I'm not going to finish the Eva/Northern Exposure thing today either. I am far too lazy.

Well, lazy and daunted by other things. I would like to get my archives back, and come up with a nice blogskin, but neither of these things will happen tonight, or indeed, tomorrow night. This is mostly because of Wednesday.

On Wednesday night there is a Nickelodeon Digital recruitment thingy that I will be attending at NYU, and bringing a reel, and my resume and such things. Bringing my reel means dubbing another copy of it and printing out a nice label for it on sticky paper - these two things combined mean a trip to NYU and Kmart tonight.

I'll still be going to Yo-Yo Club. For some reason...

Competing for my attention on Wednesday night are two events: A Lord of the Rings screening at N's friend's apartment, and my old roommate L's birthday. L wins that one, since she's holding the celebration mere blocks from my apartment, whereas N's friend's thing is in Queens and N has to work late all this week.

Besides dubbing and printing labels tonight, my dishes and laundry are badly in need of my attention. I can't go to a recruitment thing all smelly, can I?

Since I know you all care about my schedule so much, I will now move on to warn you about N's impending rant about my gym, Crunch. I took him there last night on a guest pass and he had a horrible time of it.

Monday is always the busiest night there, so there were big guys hogging all the machines N needed in order to do his routine in the correct order. The gym lacked little 5-pound blocks to add to the machines, which angered N a great deal, considering the 4 other gyms he's ever been to all had them. Crunch also failed to provide little charts wherein one could mark off one's weightlifting progress. Then one of the pulleys on a machine N needed wasn't working. To top everything off, the front desk lost N's id. You have to leave them an id to get in, you see... and they didn't file his in the box correctly, so no one could find it before we left.

They found the id today, and they gave N a free week of visits, but he's never going back there. He hated every minute of it.

I'm relaying this story for two reasons: One, to get the upper hand in telling you all that I am not disappointed in my gym, since I can do my exercises in any order and don't write things down, and I know when it's too busy to go. Maggie also enjoyed our gym, while she was going.

Two, if any of you are interesting in going to my gym, I have several guest passes left, two or three of which expire at the end of the year.

Posted by erin at 04:26 PM | Comments (14)

Date-Based Archive Eva and Northern Exposure - Practically the Same Show.

Preamble

When I was little my mom taught English classes. I got to attend a handful of classes as a small child, presumably when no babysitter could be found. The only course content I remember are two lessons - one about letter-writing, wherein my mom used the hypothetically example of one finding a dead mouse in one's cereal box, and writing a letter to the cereal company, and the other was a lesson on comparative essays. My mom asked the class to come up with ways that apples and oranges are the same. There are many similarities - both are round, both are fruit, both (usually) have seeds, both grow on trees, and so forth. It turns out apples and oranges are really quite similar, but nevertheless, the saying persists, "Like comparing apples to oranges."

It is perhaps for this nostalgic reason that I enjoy comparing unlike things.

The Basics

At first glance, Northern Exposure, an American TV show which ran from 1990-1995, and Neon Genesis Evangelion (Shin Seiki Evangelion), an animation television show which aired in Japan in 1995, appear to be vastly different.

The plot, setting, and characters of the two shows seem ridiculously unalike.

The plot of Northern Exposure (here on referred to as NE) centers around the life of 27-year-old Dr. Joel Fleischman, who is being forced by contract to work for four years as general practitioner in the town of Cicely, Alaska. The show follows the lives of the quirky townspeople. The plot of Neon Genesis Evangelion, (here on referred to as Eva) centers around the life of 14-year-old Shinji, who is forced to pilot a giant robot in order to save the world from giant monsters which attack periodically.

NE is set in Cicely, Alaska, and many scenes take place at the local tavern, and in Joel's office. It all takes place in the present. Eva is set in "Tokyo 3" roughly 20 years in the future. (The original Tokyo is now underwater, as a supposed asteroid impact melted the polar ice caps in 2004.) Many of the scenes take place at Shinji's school, in his apartment, and at NERV headquarters, where the giant robots are constructed.

You might think, then that these two series are totally unlike, but that's where you're wrong!

The Facts

Before I get too far into this, note that most of my fact-checking was done at these two websites:

http://www.nx-misc.net/characters/

http://www.interlog.com/~mileston/neon_genesis/eva.html

The Similarities

In Characters: Both Shinji and Fleischman are doing jobs they don't want to do. Fleischman spends the first episode of NE trying to back out of his assigned location. Shinji spends the first few episode of Eva trying not to simply run away to avoid piloting his giant robot. Both Shinji and Fleischman eventually warm up to their jobs.

In NE, Maggie O'Connell is constantly at odds with Fleischman. They get in fights and are uncivil, and yet, they are attracted to each other and sometimes give into those feelings. Also, Maggie is kind of a bitch. Asuka of Eva is the dictionary definition of "bitch" - and her relationship with Shinji is much like Maggie and Fleischman's relationship. Sure, she yells at him a lot, but when she gets bored she demands that Shinji kiss her.

When it comes to unshaven, attractive men, NE has Chris Stevens, local smarty-pants and talk-show radio guy, and Eva has that guy who Misato can't admit she likes...

I'm out of time for today, folks! I'll finish this up tomorrow.

In Setting

Despite different continents and time periods, Cicely, Alaska and Tokyo-3 have some things in common.

The most obvious similarity is that the two cities are examples of humans living in extreme environments. I use "extreme" here to refer to environmental conditions that are violent or adverse to typical human lifestyles.

In Cicely, Alaska, this violence is inherent in the weather. Extremely cold temperatures, tons of snow, isolation from other cities, and dangerous animals like bears and moose make living difficult for residents of the small town. Due to the isolation and long winter months, which restrict travel, trade, and commerce, the economy of Cicely rests (most likely) on lumber.

In short, Cicely is surviving on the edge of what could be considered human survival. So is Tokyo-3.

In Eva, the Earth has been attacked in the past by giant monsters they call "Angels." The first such attack, called the "First Impact," melted Antarctica and killed most of the Earth's population. I hardly need to mention that it flooded the original Tokyo. The "Second Impact" occurred about 20 years later, and again, huge battles were fought, populations decimated... Tokyo-3 was built in preparation for the dreaded Third Impact. However, rather than another tremendous explosion (or "Impact"), when the new "angels" began appearing only 12 years later and started appearing every 12 days (or less) thereafter, and apparently they do not cause the giant catastrophes on the scale of the 1st and 2nd impact.

The angels are huge, and appear (seemingly) out of nowhere. Despite being called "angels," they are wingless, and only vaguely humanoid in shape (some are not humanoid at all - one was more whale-like, another a floating diamond shooting lasers). Conventional weapons are useless because they are surrounded by an "AT Field," which is apparently some kind of energy shield.

Only the Eva units (mobile suits, or giant robots to you laymen) are capable of breaking through the AT Field and destroying the angels. NERV, the agency in charge of stopping angel attacks, only had time to put together 3 Eva units before the angels started attacking again - and to be honest, they barely got to test them and had no time to train the 14-year old pilots.

It is no coincidence that the angels started attacking as soon as the first Eva unit was completed, and it is no coincidence that the angel attacks almost always focus on Tokyo-3, the city where the NERV headquarters are located. The angels have an agenda, and although they never try to communicate, it is clear that they are trying to get rid of NERV and the Eva units.

So this makes Tokyo-3 a terribly dangerous place to live. If you don't get killed by an angel stepping on you, or shooting a laser at you, you could be killed when an Eva unit, in the process of fighting the angel, falls onto your apartment building.

Anticipating destruction, Tokyo-3 is built for battle. Its skyscrapers, in case of emergency, can be lowered into the ground. The citizens are put through drills all the time, and know exactly where the shelters are located.

NERV headquarters, besides being miles underground, is also protected by 12 heavy-duty steel shields. NERV is self-sustaining, with it's own life-support systems and no less than 3 back-up power generators. Deep within NERV is a terradome, so, in case of a big emergency like the dreaded Third Impact, NERV can become a self-contained colony, growing its own food.

I cannot possibly imagine what the economy of Tokyo-3 could based on, other than providing services for NERV headquarters. I suppose, like any other large city, Tokyo-3 serves a center of business and commerce - or it did until the angels started attacking. At that point many people left the city. Despite all of it's high-tech-safety gadgets, Tokyo-3 is the most unsafe place to live in Japan, and possibly the world, all because of NERV.

Without NERV, however, no one is safe. It's a bit of a problem... NERV's budget is huge, and tremendous amounts of energy and resources are poured into it - while people in other parts of the world, and even other part of Japan starve. Tokyo-3 teeters on the edge of finical (and physical ruin) all the time, thanks to NERV. This is not unlike Cicely in that, if the lumber industry pulled out, the town would cease to exist.

Toko-3 is comparable to Cicely, Alaska in that the two cities are self-sustaining (for the most part), and allow humans to live under extreme conditions.

Not to mention how Cicely is attacked on a near-daily basis by Morty the Moose.

Posted by erin at 04:43 PM | Comments (1)

Date-Based Archive brave, or stupid?

My old animation professor recommended me for a job as a P.A. (Production Assistant) with this guy who did Celebrity Deathmatch on a new animated series owned by Scholastic (who did the Magic Schoolbus series and own the rights to Harry Potter).

I talked to the guy, finally, and they need someone to start next week. I would have to give two weeks notice to quit this job. Even then I think they would hate me if I left in 2 weeks.

Now, I never got around to asking how much the P.A. job would pay... in theory I could do some things to lower my expenses. The job would last until May or June.

Am I stupid to pass up such an opportunity??! Everyone at ISO would get really mad at me if I quit at all, let alone if I quit in less than 2 weeks. Things are really busy here, and my help is needed. Replacing me with someone who's untrained would suck a lot.

The thing about ISO is, that, the way I figure, even if I sold a screenplay I could still work here part time. Or if I left on good terms, I could, conceivably work here again. You know, if I was desperate. But if I pissed everyone off on my way out, forget about it.

I guess if I was very brave, or possibly very stupid, I could call the guy back right now, say I'll take the job, and piss off everyone here. This is so tough for me!!! AUUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!!

Posted by erin at 02:24 PM | Comments (8)

Date-Based Archive Possible Blog Topics for Today

The DNS around here has still not refreshed, so I can't see my new blog at work. I can only see the old one. Gah!

On my morning commute I was thinking of possible blog topics for today. They include:

Northern Exposure was a Really Good Show
Why Neon Genisis Evangelion Kicks My Ass
Am I both Paranoid AND Delusional?
My Revised Thesis and Research on Hunter/Gatherers

I guess email me before 5pm if you want to vote on a topic. You can write in the comments all you want, but I won't see that until the DNS refreshes.

efinnegan@iso.com

Posted by erin at 09:48 AM | Comments (6)

Date-Based Archive woooo!!

Wooooo!! Look at me look at me!
Hal says 90% of all human interaction is nothing but saying "Look at me!" and I tend to agree. I would be lying to you if I said my blog was anything else.

I am posting in all new, super cool ways, thanks to Mr. Ryan. He is practically a super hero. Super powers include: Coding, hanging shelves, going to baseball games for free.

I have to wait for the DNS at work to refresh before I can see my cool new webpage, though.

Posted by erin at 02:02 PM | Comments (6)