brains are pretty weird (especially on irregular sleep schedules)

[alexr_rwx]

So I was pretty sick, starting on Tuesday night. I slept through almost all of Wednesday and into Thursday afternoon, in fact. But as of today, I'm most of the way recovered.

But last night, I got weirded out and angry about how much medical care costs, and our insurance system (recalling 2006, when I got smacked with a car and it broke my arm), and then, as I was trying to sleep I couldn't stop envisioning mutant animal heads making faces at me, or people wearing strange masks jumping out. None of this was frightening, just irritating.

So when I did wake up this morning, faced with having to go out into the world and teach lab again, I just cried. I was sure it was going to be miserably cold and rainy (it was actually quite nice!), and I just didn't want to get up. I don't cry a lot! (the rest of the day was very functional and OK, and I like teaching, and it went quite well.)

I cried again this evening, and what set it off... well, would you share with me, if this sort of thing has ever happened to you? I found out about Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, which was this anime from the 70s. (apparently it was pretty influential, and turns out to have predated the live-action Super Sentai shows.)

It's so perfect. They're a Science Ninja Team. They work for the (fictional) International Science Organization to solve sudden environmental crises, which often involve alien invasions and the need for ethically unambiguous semi-cartoony martial-arts violence. They move in that beautiful acrobatic anime-ninja way that you (I) wanted to move when you were a child. You fantasized about it all the time. You practiced your flips underwater, at the bottom of the neighborhood swimming pool. That's what this cartoon is about.

Also, sometimes, they call in for air strikes support. (quoting wikipedia) "The Science Ninja Team is often aided by a mysterious squadron of combat pilots lead by the enigmatic Red Impulse, who is later revealed to be Ken's father."

Here's the intro song.

... my body might just be in a strange state right now. But this pushes past "ha, awesome!" into something more deep-seated. For me at least.

Comments

[lindseykuper]

Alex also quoted an article to me which I wish I could find, in which someone had written, and I'm paraphrasing heavily, "I'm a white guy who grew up in a secular household in suburban middle-class America. The closest thing I had to a religious worship experience was G.I. Joe." I think that's relevant. I'm also curious what Michael jonatthebar might have to say about it.

[cola-fan.livejournal.com]

Alex! How's it going? You must be an awesome lab teacher, braving the cold. Hopefully we can form our own science acrobatics team.

That song is awesome. I imagine an ERF cover someday.

[oniugnip.livejournal.com]

We need cool color-coded suits with translucent masks! And possibly also mecha!

And yes -- if anybody understands unabashed, post-ironic awesome, it's ERF.

[oniugnip.livejournal.com]

Oh, and about lab -- it's pretty hip! I'm teaching the Intro Scheme class. It feels somewhat like the CS 1 from Tech, circa 2001. (yours was Pseudocode, though?)

My students seem to be responding to me pretty well, so I guess I'm doing alright. It's fun to get a chance to perform in front of an audience every week, at least :)

Take care of yourself!

[(Anonymous)]

Please take care sweetie.
- your momma

Re: Take care of yourself!

[oniugnip.livejournal.com]

Drinking orange juice and eating falafels, rest assured :)

<3

[unya.livejournal.com]

I once sat in Thomas Lux's office, crying, not for any particular reason and he handled it in the most awesome way. He started telling me that he researched crying once for a poem and learned that there is this compound that gets secreted when you cry that is good to get rid of. He was cool as a cucumber and it made me feel immediately accepted.. tears, snot and all. hugs alex!

[oniugnip.livejournal.com]

There's been a whole lot of snot around here recently, for various reasons.

*hugs yuna!*

as for healthcare

[unya.livejournal.com]

It's definitely weirded out worthy. My younger brother sat in his room over a weekend with a broken leg (bones protruding and all) so he could get insurance to cover it. It seems inexplicable to me right now and the details are lost on me but I get furious every time I think about it.

[deepdistraction.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry you've been ill, Alex. I'm glad you're feeling better.

Many of us are angry about our health care system, and particularly about the health insurance industry. A lot of people are reading The Healing of America by T.R. Reid and similar stuff, and are actively trying to make things better. It's an uphill battle because so much money is at stake.

I think the creators of some of the earliest anime--I'm thinking of Astro Boy, which I used to watch on TV when we lived in southern California in the late sixties (although it used to disappoint me somewhat, because I felt the animation was far choppier than gorgeous Warner Brothers cartoons) understood children very well, which is to say that they understood our deepest human needs, particularly our need to feel a sense of power and control over frightening beings/situations that threaten us with enslavement/bodily harm/extinction/you name it.

This is in keeping with child psychologists' recommendations to read fairy tales to seven-year-olds. The idea is that through the tales, kids realize that even the most seemingly powerless individuals actually possess the wherewithal to slay dragons, so to speak.

When, a decade ago, I would see my young nephews strike ninja poses and choreograph (in their little-kid way) fight sequences, it was clearly not be interfered with. They were entirely focused. It had a calming influence on them. They were learning to battle demons, both real and imagined.

Perhaps this is part of the allure of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman..

[oniugnip.livejournal.com]

Dragon-slaying is an enterprise that favors the prepared.

Thanks for sharing about your nephews; that's really interesting!