barok
-
Content Count
942 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Never
Posts posted by barok
-
-
mit's right about the hormone test.
I think there was a case of an female olympic weightlifter, who couldn't compete or had her medal stripped or something, because her hormone test came back male.
With all of the steroids those chicks must do, I'm not surprised in the least.
I think in that same story there was something as well about her bits test not even being conclusive cuz all the roid use had severely enlarged her clitoris.
whole thing could be urban legend though, i dunno.
another anecdotal item i heard was that a series of psychological tests must be passed (at least in the US) in order to get the surgery. Not sure if those tests are designed to keep schizophrenics-to-be from mutilating themselves (genetial mutilation is an event that often accompanies the onset of severe schizophrenia) or if they are designed to determine who is in fact, (or believes they are, depending on which side you take) a woman trapped in a man's body.
In any case all my life I have been taught that sex does not equal gender, so hey guys, if you want to identify as a woman, or vice versa girls, you can be what you want to in my book.
-
so we started out in the limbo thread, but i think it deserves it's own.
i guess I'll just start with some questions that some comments in the other thread brought to mind.
1) Do you know/ have you met any transsexuals? If so, what was your impression ?
2) How would you (gender) label a pre-op Transsexual with male parts (he or she)? What about post-op ?
3) If you met and fell in love/like/lust with a transsexual before you knew their deal, but found out later (from them or someone else) would you, er, be intimate with that person?
4) Do you think Transsexuals are justified in having surgery? I think there was something about this in the Japanese press a while ago - should taxpayers foot the bill to cure them of their malignment?
Basically the greatest area of confusion for me on this issue, is where do you draw the line between a woman trapped in a man's body (or v/v) vs. your everyday run-of-the-mill cross-dressing hustler ?
-
'cept that tobacco kills more people each year than all forms of dope combined, yet it doesn't get the moniker.
-
I don't think we have tackled transsexualism on this board yet, someone should start that thread. . .that's good and controversial, and has the added bonus of being speculative - I mean, how many people have met an actual transsexual ?
-
I really liked 2 of Adam Sandler's first flicks - Happy Gilmore, and Billy Madison.
Lowbrow? Yes, that's the point.
-
Some more whining:
It's at my mom's house, and all I do is study, so I can't even make the 2 hour drive to get it.
but when I do get it I'll post it, just fer you Fatz.
-
Nozawa Nozawa Nozawa
Not sushi, but the soba they serve in Nozawa is the best I've had, EVER ! ! !
I don't know about Tokyo sushi, but 2 hours trip from Nozawa is Niigata, which has all kinds and all price ranges of excellent sushi.
-
just for the sake of being whiney,
I always hated that word "quiver" when used in this context. " title="" src="graemlins/cry.gif" /> It just doesn't bring up the right mental imagery.
-
The study is vague, but I'll read it again.
The most interesting thing that I gleaned was that overwhelmingly, head injury related deaths involve collisions, usually with a tree. So if you treeride, wear a bucket.
I was about 65%helmet/35%not this season. It saved my head quite alot early to mid season, but come spring, I just didn't want to wear it anymore. I felt comfortable without it, but that was stupid, considering my hardest stacks were in the spring and without a helmet.
My best guess is that helmets are a damn good thing. I got soooo sick of hearing that patrol siren at the 47 park. Every day like 2 or 4 times a day would they cart someone from the bottom of the medium sized kickers that everyone hit. These two jumps were maybe 2.5 or 3 meters long (read short) but they were poorly made, had landings that were too short, and because everyone hit them all the time, they got rutted out. You would approach the lip, and all of a sudden your board would slide into this groove, throwing you way off balance. People were constantly falling on their heads. It was hideous, and for the life of me, I couldn't understand why park designers wouldn't spend more time brushing the jumps out - but I think the reason was that they were too busy having fun riding the big kickers themselves to bother trying to help people. Anyway, the point is that on a 3 meter jump, where you get maybe 1 meter of vertical air, a helmeted fall will not hurt your head at all - (I speak from lots of personal experience) But a non-helmeted fall will leave you with brain soup.
So yeah, helmets on trees and jumps, kiddies
-
I redid my review, cuz it sucked, but much better now.
-
hi nori-chan
freestyler #1
freestyler #2
freerider
-
great!
much of the way that I think about these things isn't really logical, more emotional and based on the small cross section of what I have seen in the industry.
core vs. corporate
This is a toughy. I always like to cheer for the underdog, but only if he/she has a chance at winning. So if a small company builds what is reputed to be a great board, I will check it out. And that's always how I have bought boards -after much reading, research, and listening to the opinions of others, I look for the best deal on what I think I want. I have never actually ridden a board before I have bought it, but I have never been disappointed either. If I buy a board from a small company, I know that that company appreciates it, and that the customer service will be great, so the board feels more stable under my feet, and I am more proud to show it off. When my $549US valued Burton Dragon snapped in two, I didn't even bother trying to get warranty, because I know what they would have said.
When you look at the real small companies - NS, Gentem, Donek, whatever, they make fewer boards, so they can put more time and effort into quality control, so there is a better chance that you'll get a better product, and as mentioned, if it breaks, you'll probably get a new one.
So yeah, support a small company, cheer for the underdog, and ride a better product - core, er something.
ski vs. snowboard
I thought alot about this one today. I definately DON'T have a problem with skiers, or at least not the new breed. Any skier vs. snowboarder argument I have is yeah, a lighthearted football rivalry type thing. Hell, most of the non-day-trips I took last season were to meet skiers.
Ski companies - I don't really know enough about them. I say to them, thanks for all the tech and distro stuff mentioned by migs, but I know that I wouldn't buy a board from a ski company. Why not ? Just don't want my dollar to go there. I figure there will be a better comparable product available built by a company owned by, and employing snowboarders. I appreciate their efforts more than those of the factory workers who have never seen snow. Maybe some of this thinking is imaginary, maybe ski companies like Salomon and K2 don't employ legions of factory workers in hot countries, but it's definately the image in my brain. Like I said, I haven't really done enough research on them.
But there is one thing in the whole ski vs. snowboard argument what really burns me up, and that is the way that the Federation Inernational du Ski or whatever has been chipping away at the soul of snowboarding ever since it saw profit potential. These are the clowns that dropped enough cash in front of the International Olympic Committee, and beat out the now defunct International Snowboarding Federation to the rights to oversee snowboarding as a competitive sport. Even after this point, there were two competitive circuits in snowboarding, and riders competed to win points to advance in the rankings. Problem was, that it was impossible to hit both competitive circuits, and the FIS worked very hard and spent alot of (prize) money to promote it's contests over the ISF's. And of course with the Olympics being promoted as the chief event for international competition in almost every sport, the FIS events gained more and more populartity, and the ISF eventually tanked. So if you want to be a competitive rider, you have to listen to those same old foagie skiers who didn't want you on the hill in the first place on matters of snowboarding competition. In the field of competition, skiing won, and it bugs me.
Luckily, competitive snowboarders haven't given up, and there are still plenty of good competitions out there, created by riders, and judged by riders.
-
Hey Nils, I support what you are doing, as I think any diversity in the sport of snowboarding is good. So if you create something new, that is successful, it really enriches the sport, but I think you are wrong in your assessment of freestyle snowboarding and snowboarders. I am a freestyler, and I disagree with alot of what you say about us.
You Say:
Ten more years have past and we’re now ruled by freestyle and 16 year old pierced, tattooed and marketed pro-riders.
I say:
What's wrong with or what's not core about the punk style and being 16 ? It was exactly that group that brought up snowboarding here in the States. Young kids with no money, but a desire to do something different and fun.
You say:
It has reached maturity and at the same time childish behaviours in an image/success-oriented society. It is now eating itself, raping the last ounces of freedom that once was within it.
I say:
I don't understand what you are on about here at all. Sure, I hate the fact that ski companies have gobbled up much of snowboarding and have bought and/or started many many of the good brands (Forum, K2, Ride, Solomon, Head, etc.). Although let's not forget 1) that more than half of snowboards are not made by ski companies, 2)that the info of which companies are owned by the ski brands is well documented, and 3) that core companies exist on every level - from very big (Burton) to very small (Option, NeverSummer, Unity, Gentem, and countless others)
Also it's unfortunate that many companies sell out - in addition to brands that have sold to ski companies, there are brands that have sold out to other companies as well - to the best of my knowledge, Mervin Manufacturing (Lib Tech, Gnu, Supernatural) is owned by Dannon Yogurt. And I guess Winterstick could be included in this category? Of course we can't really blame them too much. After all, at least part of the reason that people go into business is to make money, and I certainly wouldn't call this "rape."
You say:
Last week I bought a French snowboard magazine and felt the danger. Out of 230 pages there was just ONE page actually showing a snowboarder on the snow, simply turning on snow. The rest was 229 pages of ads, and teenage riders spinning into air - most of the pics didn't show the mountain below them. I tried to imagine how many years would it take before snowboarding would be called 'circusboarding' or 'trickboarding', and when snow wouldn’t be needed at all. It made me wonder why we let that happen, why we let the magazines be driven by the ads and the ski companies wanting to appear as cool, and why we should let marketers make a sport for teenagers when most riders are grown ups.
I say:
If you think the way that most freestylers do, (as opposed to freeriders, who probably draw connections to surfing) Snowboarding is an extention of skateboarding. In skateboarding, what most people aspire to are the technical spin and rail tricks. So extend that to snowboarding, and you get, surprise surprise, technical spin and rail tricks. I don't think there is anything wrong with it, because these tricks are fun, lots of fun. Admittedly I have never extreme carved, or even paid that much attention to carving at all, except through powder, but I love hitting rails, and flying through the air and spinning. It has nothing to do with aspirations to be in any magazine either.
I don't really like the mags, I like the videos better. I am surpirsed that most of what they are showing in the French mags, by your description, is park jumps, when all we ever hear about France is the endless freeriding possibilites (Val, Chamonix, etc.) Anyway, what I see in the mags, as far as the "Wow" pics, are 2 things - 1) Urban Rails and 2) Backcountry kickers. Again, I think urban rails mirror skateboarding, so I don't see the problem. Backcoutry kickers I think are great - I don't really want to take three paragraphs to explain why, but suffice it to say, that embodies the soul of snowboarding as much as anything, and if you've ever built and hit a bc kicker, you know how much fun it is.
Overall, I liked your article, and though I probably will never carve, I hope that the businesses involved do well. It can only add/diversify things. Maybe it's just the underdog thing, but I never understood why freeriders bad-mouth freestylers (I hear it all the time), who generally pay them nothing but respect back. I think it might be somewhat overcompensatory, and that you all should really just try to promote what you are doing, and have fun with it than create futrher divisions in the sport.
-
Just saw Kill Bill
My review (no spoilers):
First thing, I was surprised at how much Japan there was in this flick. At least half of the dialog was in Japanese. Lucy Liu hid her lack of ability by speaking softly, and it works fairly well. Uma did a fair job for a westerner who probably only practiced her lines. I think they definately spent alot of time, trying to get the Japanese to an acceptable level, which is great in my book, considering how many films seem to do it half-assed, or not at all.
Japanese stereotypes were laid on thick. But that was kind of the point, as this movie's action, plot, and mood mirrors that of an ultra-violent anime. They actually do a 5 minute animated digression in this ultra-violent style. I am not a big fan of anime - I could take it or leave it, but it worked well here. What also surprised me, was how well Tarantino set up and filmed the action sequences. Fun hokey, but not super hokey or going for laughs, and with comic book violence and gore.
Another thing that I have to comment on was that it felt like half a movie - obviously due to the whole part one thing. It was definately unjust, because the movie a) has a thin plot, and
is slowly paced, thus the movie that they show you, only gives you half the events of a small story.The acting was good overall. Performances were over-the-top in some cases, but again that is what he was going for. Uma Thurman was great - totally believable when the script needed her to be.
Overall the movie was very stylish, as you might expect from Tarantino. Closeups and weird camera angles, goresplatter, switches from Color/BW and back with some clever techniques. Lots of attention to detail. Big theme was of course, revenge. Tarantino definately tried to invoke the spirit of older martial arts flicks, with hokey villians, and lots of tough talk. The use of the sword was much appreciated.
I would definately recommend this flick to anyone who is interested in it. It is definately not a rental, as there is too much to see to watch it on the TV. As a last note, the soundtracking is pretty damn good, save for overkill on some of the segues and sound effects.
-
Anyone know how to say - "We'll have to agree to disagree."
-
hey bobby12,
I think its hairu, ireru that you are talking about? I'm not sure what iru is, 'cept for to be(living things), or to need.
If that is what you are talking about it is the transitive/intransitive verb thing.
入る/入れる
泊まる/泊める
出す/出る
etc.
Also very difficult for me, but the pairs are like
something enters vs. put something in
stay somewhere vs. put someone up
put something out vs. something goes out
Still not 100% on ndesu - what does that mean mogski - qualify an adjective ? Like to assign an adjective to a noun? Like "THAT sushi is delicious." miteyak's adding an element of emphasis sounds kinda like what I am thinking - "Where did you buy those shoes." vs. "Where is it that you bought those shoes?"
-
So yeah, it's been done before, but I am creating this thread in hopes that other people will post Japanese language questions or at least answer mine.
So here are two things that I can't get a clear explanation for or wrap my mind around. . .
1) What's the deal with --んです。?? I learned this about a year ago, but I can't really get a good explanation for it and it's everywhere. Is it an explanation, like
"This is why I am going to the park." or "This is where I am living." ? Or is it more of an embedded clause "Why is it that you can use chopsticks?" or "Where is it that you are going?"
Either way, it is difficult to figure out when and when not to use it.
2) Anyone wanna take a shot at は vs. が? Allz I have ever gotten from the native-speakers is 「むずかしいね。」 or "direct object" the English meaning of which I never really understood.
Thanks in advaaaaaaaance.
-
I think it was that same afternoon that we had some killer "pick a line" fun, or was that the day that we found that windlip off the skyline course - oh to build a kicker off that lip on the day after a storm. With that run being as steep as it is, you could fly for miles.
-
This was me last year, and my friends Mike, Sheep, Michelle, uuhhh, Matt, Al, and a few other dudes/ettes.
I pray for the soul of Nova/Eikaiwa employees/students everywhere.
I pulled this same crap, and so have plenty of people who aren't English teachers at all, but やっぱり, bums living off of an Eikaiwa system that lets any knucklehead who can dress in a suit and has a degree (or not) teach conversational English, and I say those words with the deepest affection for that system, and the knuckleheads involved.
There are plenty of schools, and one NOVA each in Nagano city and Matsumoto city. There are also plenty of other English schools. You might do well to have some experience, if you want the job. Nagano is a competitve place to get assigned to or hired in. Don't tell 'em you are a skier, instead, tell them that you have a girlfriend, or a Japanese teacher, or asthma and an aversion to crowded cities and smog or some crap like that, but make it good, because,
They are not looking for ski-bums in Nagano Eikaiwas, methinks. Too many of your predecessors have severely lessened the demand. Both cities are very liveable, albeit boring, and the nearby fields are very accessable - buy a car.
I'm only being half serious, but yeah if you have any ?'s I'm yer guy.
-
I don't know what you all are bitchin' about
zwendernekobelgenbizero
that's
zwen-der-ne-ko-bel-gen-bi-zer-o
for the syllabically challenged
sure my friends were ridiculous with their makeup that day, and their sake the night before,
but didn't at least two of you get some of the freshest tracks all season that day, while I gave a lesson on the oh-so-gentle groomies for 2 hours ? " title="" src="graemlins/cry.gif" />
-
Well the Roy dude himself seems to have some perspective, or at least an unhealthy obsession with Tigers, as he was quoted as saying "Don't kill [the tiger]" after he was carted away.
If you play with fire . . .
-
wow, Yoshie is on the forum. Thanks for showing up, Yoshie. I hope you are here to stay.
I guess the fact that 80% of your biz is word of mouth or repeat says something, but as you can read in this thread, there are some people (besides myself) who have stayed, but didn't like it. I hope that you address these issues, not just on this forum, but at your establishment.
Thanks again,
barok
-
And this is just crap.Quote:Originally posted by paizuri:
I'll agree that many people are not quick to share info on their favorite off-piste runs. This is a function of the paranoia created by the Patrol, and not meant as some "local" attitude. For those of us who have temporarily (or permanently) lost our expensive season's passes...we aren't really trying to have a traffic jam in the trees. It's not personal, just practical.
I rode Hakuba 50+ days, and for a large part of those, I was riding off-course, and I liked to compare notes with other off-course riders - specifically, in the instance I mentioned in my first post on this topic - I was talking to one of the guys who was long-term staying at snowbeds, hell it could have been you. But then to have Mitch interrupt my conversation that I was having with someone else, to stop the flow of info - how is that not local's rule BS? This spineless guy who I was talking to, actually let Mitch censor his speech. The guy actually quit talking to me
Rude on Mitch's part, spineless on this other guys part. And just the wrong kind of attitude for a business owner to have and expect to get good word of mouth.
And I found the line anyway. The lines at Hakuba are easy to find, because they are everywhere. Just cuz the !! lOcaLZ rUlE !! doesn't mean that other people can't have fun too. "traffic jam in the trees" - please, they are not your trees. You snowbeds guys want to maintain some kindov closeted attitude, and not talk about your precious little secrets, fine. But it's a lame attitude when the virtues of powder are advertised and extolled.
"function created by paranoia of the Patrol" - give me a break - there are places at Hakuba where you can ride off-course with the patrol's approval - if you don't want to share that info, be discreet about it, there are ways that you can hide info without dangling the carrot in front of your customers' faces. Watch the Video and it's all - Look at all of this powder at Hakuba - talk to Mitch and it's - That powder is for me and my buddies, not for you.
Bad day my ass, I stayed there 3 or 4 times, and it was always lOkaLz rUlE ! ! Not the kindof place that I would recommend to anyone.
Crap. -
Whoah, and I thought this was a dead thread as well.
Davo thanks for responding, I understand that there are quite a few people who like snowbeds, so I'm happy to discuss it with those people.
First off, on the topic of gutlessness, I would gladly tell Mitch what I thought of him, if I saw him again, and if he cared, but based on what I saw, I don't think he does, and I don't have any plans to return to Hakuba anytime soon. If and when I do go back to snow country, it will be Nozawa or somewhere in Niigata. I don't plan on going back to Hakuba, because there are better places to ride in Japan, and I don't plan on making any special trips to let Mitch know that I don't like him. I also don't see the point in calling someone to tell them that I think they suck. Is this something that most people do ? But hell if you or any one else on this site wants to give him my email address - benjaminrok@hotmail.com - it used to be up there under every one of my posts, and for the past 2 years or so, has been on my member's page. And gamungeru, I don't understand what the whole 'sign your name' thing is all about - again, my name is really really easy to find - member's page - embedded in my email address - Benjamin Rok - real easy to find, hell my picture and place of residence are up there too, if any of you who are "foaming at the mouth" want to track me down.
Gimme a break.
As for the pot calling the kettle black, sure I can own up to my own problems with Hakuba 47 patrol, but I never baited them the way Mitch does - you want evidence, just watch his video - parking lot scene. He seemingly gets pleasure from starting sh*t with these guys. I have talked to him on this issue as well. He asked me to write down my account of what happened and send him pictures of my bruises to him. But after seeing the video, talking to him some more, and hearing what other people had to say, I decided not to give him my info, because I don't think him and I saw the problem the same way. Instead, I made the effort to follow the rules, while at the same time, talking to them about places where it was ok by them to ride off course. My way, his way different - Sure I was only one season, but I like my way better, cuz I got to keep my pass. I don't think he has one.
As for slagging, slander, blah blah blah, MESSAGE BOARDS ARE THERE FOR PEOPLE TO POST FACTS, STORIES AND OPINIONS. And sure I have some pretty harsh opinions on some things and some people. Who doesn't. As I know, or have met alot of people on this forum, I don't feel that I have to give a restrained opinion. I talk like I would in a conversation, cuz that's what this is, a conversation, albeit others can listen in. I won't apologize for it, and I'm not going to tiptoe around an issue, if it makes me sick. I lay it out as honest as I can. I have some high opinions as well. That is usually what I post. Mitch puts his name and face on a business and sometimes that face is ugly. So if people ask me about snowbeds, I am not going to promote it, cuz I don't like it. Furthermore, as I think the main problem is it's owner, I am not going to tiptoe around that as well. Instead, you get to hear what I think. Don't like Snowbeds, don't stay there - (I would rather sleep in my car) Don't like my opinion, don't read it.
I (without thinking too hard about it) criticized the Hakuba Now Reports once, and I took my medicine on this board. I can take personal criticism just fine. Anyone who has met me, or has read this board for a while, could certainly lay into me hard if they wanted to. I later apologized for my hasty critique and pledged to think about what I was going to post, before I posted it, which is why I thought good and long about what to post about snowbeds.
paizuri - you are all over the place - rant - apology - what exactly are you trying to say?
Dope
in General off-topic discussions
Posted
All of this tobacco litigation, to me represents the legal rocketship's departure from planet common sense.
First you have people who claim that they had no clue that smoking was bad for them suing the tobacco companies for something that the smoker's themselves are ultimately are responsible for.
Then you have tobacco companies and judges saying "oh no, nicotine and cigarettes are not addictive, and they don't cause cancer. What are you plantiffs talking about?"
Bith sides need to get their heads out of their asses. There has to be a better solution to the problem of smoking than personal injury litigation.