myOtaku.com: SomeGuy

myO Still <3's You

Vitals

Birthday
• 1983-08-05
Gender
• Male
Location
• Vancouver, BC
Member Since
• 2003-08-02
Occupation
• Writer; Part-Time Hero
Real Name
• James

Personal

Achievements
• Visiting eight different myO friends in person thus far
Anime Fan Since
• Winter 2001
Favorite Anime
• Neon Genesis Evangelion, .hack//SIGN, Naruto, Bleach, Beck, Peacemaker Kurogane, Ranma 1/2 (the guilty pleasure)
Goals
• Visit the myO friends I've missed thus far; complete a cosplay from 300
Hobbies
• Writing, Gaming, Kung Fu, Movies, Acting somewhat strange in general
Talents
• Can recognise most quotes from almost any movie/show on first listen; Can recite the entire 12 days of Christmas by memory

myOtaku.com: SomeGuy

Monday, July 4, 2005

The Star Spangled Banner is Four Stanzas . . . Interesting . . .
I can't remember why I looked this up a couple nights ago, but somehow it came to my attention that the American national anthem is quite abbreviated from the original poem. Neat poem, though, when you take it into context . . .

It seems the guy who wrote it got to see the siege of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, and basically tells the story of how British naval ships shelled the hell out of this one fort. But then the fort withstood it all and then the Brits retreated. Being Canadian, I think it's fair to say that this probably wouldn't be common knowledge to me. And y'know, it does put a lot of stuff in my mind at ease . . . . . eheh. And now is the time we all learn why a Canadian guy is making a big long post for the 4th of July . . .

I'm gonna admit it. In my 21 years of life I haven't always been completely kind in my thoughts towards my neighbours to the south. I'm sure the words "loud," "violent," "stupid," have all popped into my head as well. Heh . . . for the record, "overly kind," "weak," and "dependant" have come to my mind about my own nation as well (yeah, just insult them right off the bat, good job . . . . . . I promise, this gets better). It's a fact of life, we substantiate what we are by often figuring out what we are not - and yeah, when you have two large modern North American countries side by side, well . . . it's not hard to look for comparisons. Well, not hard to want to look for them, anyway.

Thing is, as much as all the Social Studies classes have ever done and everything, and no matter how much I will say to people around me about ideals or ideas on whatever, people are still people. Yes, The States have a pretty bad rep these days and I can see why that is the case.

But who am I kidding? Ever since I could vote, I've found myself more often than not voting for the lesser of evils each time. Canadians don't murder each other? Then why is there a pig farm in British Columbia that had bodies of dozens of prostitues buried underneath it? We're progressive and liberal and all? So why has it been SUCH a big fight for the same-sex marriage bill that's still not completely in just yet?
By that same token, I can think of some amazing people who I love more than quite a lot of the people that live close to me. They don't eat fast food every meal (one even reprimanded me for getting a McDonald's deli sandwich!), or own firearms (well, one does but that's besides the point), or whatever. Heh, let's face it, we're all more the same than we are different. We just . . . live at different latitudes, is all.

I remember some years back, I was ICQ'ing with a friend about the Spider-Man movie. Remember how in the commercial there was the shot of him leaping onto the side of a flagpole with the US Flag waving and everything? Yeah, said-friend said that night that he would not watch the movie solely because of "them constantly trying to ram that patriotic crap down my throat". This guy . . . . . he liked to think he was a smart guy who read intelligent magazines, watched CNN, understood the world. But he couldn't handle a single two second shot of an American flag in a movie commercial. This coming from a guy who thought this one particular car commercial was "brilliant... the most brilliant commercial I have ever seen in my life." Needless to say, I don't really talk with this friend much anymore.
Oh yeah, he's a heavy pot-smoker too, along with a lot of people from high school. But, I guess it seems pretty smart too . . . psh . . .

I could rant for a good long time about all this sort of stuff, I bet. But that would defeat my purpose, I think. Hehe . . . long, large tangent, I know . . . I'll get back to the "brief" point now. So yeah, being not American, I'm sure I've also at some point made some sort of crack about how a national anthem could involve bombs and rockets blowing up or something . . . . . but, now that I've learned the origins of the song (and read the incredibly anti-British third stanza), having those sorts of lines in the anthem really doesn't seem so bad. Heh . . . who knew the bombs and rockets were actually falling ON the Americans in the song? Kinda puts things into perspective, ne?

So yes, here is a message for all you wild and crazy yet loveable Yanks' down south of me (except for the ones past the Mason-Dixon, you guys aren't yankees. I learned that the hard way. I don't have a new word to sub in as of yet though . . .):
Either way, you don't need to prove it through the night - your flag is still there. Happy Independance Day, you guys!
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