The Three Worlds We Live In

Writer Yukio Mishima (三島 由紀夫) summed up our lives to be of three separate worlds.



The first was the world of our imagination: the fantasy worlds we create and the characters we populate it with.

The second was the immediate world of our day to day affairs, like a birth of a child in our own family, or the graduation of a friend.

The third is the world we read in the news: a war in the Middle East, the exploits of President Obama, a public spanking or a flood in Bangladesh.

Ironically, the first and third world are very much similar. What we read in the news is not any more "real" to us emotionally than say, what we see in a television drama.

News about a civil war in Africa, say, would bring no more of an emotional response from someone living in the US than a war scene from Blood Diamonds (which is a fictional tale about a diamond war in an African nation).

About Yukio Mishima:
Born Kimitake Hiraoka (平岡 公威) on January 14, 1925; Yukio Mishima was a Japanese author, poet and playwright. Mishima was among those considered for the Nobel Prize for Literature three times and was the darling of many foreign publications.

He is infamous for his ritual suicide by seppuku on November 25, 1970.

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Afgan

Afghanis-tan (あふがにすタン, Afuganisu-tan) is a Japanese webcomic by Timaking (ちまきing). It is also the name of the manga's heroine, nicknamed Afgan (あふがん).

The characters:

Afghanis-tan illustrates the modern history of Afghanistan and its neighboring countries,

Starting from the imperialist era in the 19th century:

through the Cold War:

when it became a "forgotten country":

the rise of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda:

the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre:

which led to the War on Terror led by former U.S. president George Bush and his chief ally former British prime minister Tony Blair:

The final chapter:

Links:
An English scanslation of the comic.

Afghan Relief Organization
This organization delivers relief aid and offers education programs designed to encourage self-sufficiency.

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Song Time!

A cover song sung by youtube personas YouLessThanThreeMe and NAGARU16:



KATARITSUGU KOTO 語り継ぐこと by hajime chitose 元 ちとせ (one of the ending songs in BLOOD+).

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INTJ: Freethinker or Psycho?

Marina Margaret Heiss's description of my personality:
To outsiders, INTJs may appear to project an aura of "definiteness", of self-confidence. This self-confidence, sometimes mistaken for simple arrogance by the less decisive, is actually of a very specific rather than a general nature; its source lies in the specialized knowledge systems that most INTJs start building at an early age. When it comes to their own areas of expertise -- and INTJs can have several -- they will be able to tell you almost immediately whether or not they can help you, and if so, how. INTJs know what they know, and perhaps still more importantly, they know what they don't know.

INTJs are perfectionists, with a seemingly endless capacity for improving upon anything that takes their interest. What prevents them from becoming chronically bogged down in this pursuit of perfection is the pragmatism so characteristic of the type: INTJs apply (often ruthlessly) the criterion "Does it work?" to everything from their own research efforts to the prevailing social norms. This in turn produces an unusual independence of mind, freeing the INTJ from the constraints of authority, convention, or sentiment for its own sake.

INTJs are known as the "Systems Builders" of the types, perhaps in part because they possess the unusual trait combination of imagination and reliability. Whatever system an INTJ happens to be working on is for them the equivalent of a moral cause to an INFJ; both perfectionism and disregard for authority may come into play, as INTJs can be unsparing of both themselves and the others on the project. Anyone considered to be "slacking," including superiors, will lose their respect -- and will generally be made aware of this; INTJs have also been known to take it upon themselves to implement critical decisions without consulting their supervisors or co-workers. On the other hand, they do tend to be scrupulous and even-handed about recognizing the individual contributions that have gone into a project, and have a gift for seizing opportunities which others might not even notice.

In the broadest terms, what INTJs "do" tends to be what they "know". Typical INTJ career choices are in the sciences and engineering, but they can be found wherever a combination of intellect and incisiveness are required (e.g., law, some areas of academia). INTJs can rise to management positions when they are willing to invest time in marketing their abilities as well as enhancing them, and (whether for the sake of ambition or the desire for privacy) many also find it useful to learn to simulate some degree of surface conformism in order to mask their inherent unconventionality.

Personal relationships, particularly romantic ones, can be the INTJ's Achilles heel. While they are capable of caring deeply for others (usually a select few), and are willing to spend a great deal of time and effort on a relationship, the knowledge and self-confidence that make them so successful in other areas can suddenly abandon or mislead them in interpersonal situations.

This happens in part because many INTJs do not readily grasp the social rituals; for instance, they tend to have little patience and less understanding of such things as small talk and flirtation (which most types consider half the fun of a relationship). To complicate matters, INTJs are usually extremely private people, and can often be naturally impassive as well, which makes them easy to misread and misunderstand. Perhaps the most fundamental problem, however, is that INTJs really want people to make sense. :-) This sometimes results in a peculiar naivete', paralleling that of many Fs -- only instead of expecting inexhaustible affection and empathy from a romantic relationship, the INTJ will expect inexhaustible reasonability and directness.

Probably the strongest INTJ assets in the interpersonal area are their intuitive abilities and their willingness to "work at" a relationship. Although as Ts they do not always have the kind of natural empathy that many Fs do, the Intuitive function can often act as a good substitute by synthesizing the probable meanings behind such things as tone of voice, turn of phrase, and facial expression. This ability can then be honed and directed by consistent, repeated efforts to understand and support those they care about, and those relationships which ultimately do become established with an INTJ tend to be characterized by their robustness, stability, and good communications.

Another INTJ:

References:
Typelogic

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Guro

Ero Guro Nansensu (エログロナンセンス), or more popularly know as Guro (グロ) describes literature and art that focuses on eroticism, sexual corruption and decadence.


It began in 1920s and 1930s Japan as a literary and artistic movement.

The term guro is a Japanese English corruption of the word "grotesque", which implies implies malformed, unnatural or horrific. Thus, Ero Guro Nansensu would be translated as Erotic, Grotesque Nonsense.


The works of art and images featured here are of Shoko Nagasawa (中川 翔子), an all round talented actress, seiyū (voice actor), illustrator and singer.

She is better known by her nickname Shoko-tan.

Her blog (in English) can be found here.

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