Business, Wikipedia, MMO, MSN, Food, Dojo

It turns out that Mom and co aren't going to do the mall thing. They've got good reasons for not doing it, but I'm still disappointed. They're doing so well, and they've put so much effort into their Christmas line, but they're running out of time. I finished all three batches of candycane reindeer, but now they want Duncan to put beads at the end of each antler point. That'd be six beads per reindeer. Each deer is going to cost $1.25. I'll get 50 cents per sale, and Duncan will get the same. I didn't have to pay for any of the materials. There's no way Louise can make a profit on 25 cents per reindeer, especially since she paid for the materials.

No matter how great a deal this is for me, though, percentage-wise, even if I sell all of them, it's not going to add up to much...

Mom did make a Christmas line sale the other day, though.

Hey, check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipe-tan

This is Wikipe-tan's Wikipedia page. Wikipe-tan is the moe-anthropomorphised symbol of Wikipedia, and it's main method of advertising in Korea. Moe (pronounced “moh-ay”) basically means “cute girl” in Japanese. Many companies and abstract concepts have been converted to cute girl form, for some reason.

Anyway, I have never seen a less professional Wikipedia page. 43 official images. 13 pieces of fanart. 6 cosplays. 32 derivative images. 9 cropped images. 3 additional images. That's 106 images total. Is this an article or a gallery?!

And as for content... Alright, we've got a Nekomimi. “Nekomimi” means “catgirl” in Japanese, and is widely acknowledged as the primary focus for a specific fetish. But there's nothing inherently sexual about it, so we'll let that go...

Alright, now we have “gothic-lolita Wikipe-tan”. Alright, “lolita” is a term that literally means a “sexually attractive underage woman”, and we can't exactly say that she's only a little underage, like, a naturally underdeveloped 17-year-old, since we're treated to “adult Wikipe-tan in a bikini”, and we're kind of forced to acknowledge the difference between the two.

And what's with these weird image titles? "Hello mah baby, hello mah honey, hello mah ragtime-tan". What's up with the intentional misspelling? Is this Wikipedia or lolcats?

The term “cosplay” is a meshing of the words “costume” and “roleplay”, too, and is only used in English-speaking languages. The combination of Japanese language with English terms that correspond to English-speaking people's association with Japanese culture, and the inclusion of so many secular fetishes leads me to the conclusion that whoever wrote this was one extremely creepy nerd.

But there's no way this could be just some weird guy who updated the page, as Wikipe-tan is too highly recognized by Wikipedia for it to slip past the radar.

H-hey! Don't look at me so weirdly, wondering why I know so much about this topic! You're a hypocrite for thinking knowledge and interest directly relate with one another, as you now have all the knowledge that I just shared. I could accuse you of the same thing, now!

But while we're talking about creepy, pathetic geek behaviour, I should say that I got in 3 hours and 15 minutes of my MMO over the past three and a half weeks. I didn't bother to clock it in because my connection's so bad it doesn't pose any kind of threat to draw me in. I have other recreational activities which have taken more of my time.

Also, remember that girl I talked to for two hours on Omegle, and whose MSN and email I got? Well, we can thank my poor connection for disallowing me to use MSN. Despite saying that I wasn't taking things any further, I still contacted her and she requested that I not call her by the name she uses for English-speaking nations, but rather, by the name she was given at birth, and requested I give her a name of equal significance.

So... let's hope my connection doesn't improve.

My ex (and I only learned about this through a Facebook status update, which gets piped straight through to my inbox, not because of any contact or special effort I put into learning about her) talked to a guy from China on Omegle who preached the virtues of his nation and put the charm on her. This girl I've talked to's birth nation is China. I'm wondering if maybe these people are propaganda spreaders, hired by the Chinese government or something.

Did I say that, just a while back, we ate top sirloin steak? I think that's the first time in my life, and yes, this corresponds with my explanation for quality of food improving with poverty. We also got Kenyan black tea, brewed all authentically in Kenya, and brought back by hand to us from a person vacationing there. The steak was good, the tea was anticlimactic.

We got us some “half-caf” coffee. It sounds cool, but when you think about it, why not just put half the amount of coffee into the filter, if you want half the caffeine... I guess if you did that, it would weaken the flavouring of the coffee as well as the caffeine, but this way you good all the flavour as well as half the caffeine? Maybe...

I don't think I'll make yellow belt this month. I think my rival will surpass me. Too bad.

Our dojo is being shared on Wednesdays with another school. I'm not fond of this arrangement, to be honest. It's too crowded. But at least it's interesting to see the product of another dojo.