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Kelp diet must have played some part in Human's air nomadhood, which certainly has its downsides. On the other eight-trigram-palm hand, the troubled, wounded Earth all of us are stuck in need to go beyond taking sides. The real camp we need to join is Alternatives. Take up arms not by pulling up yet more rifles but by brainstorming and refining fresh ideas.

Rediscovering the intellectual life through Asian dramas

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Homepage: https://aphilosopherchair.wordpress.com

The Asian Drama Philosopher (A-Philosopher)’s Chair provides weekly updates of literature, art and ideas featured in Korean/Japanese/Taiwanese/Chinese dramas.

Ilera's Mink Membrane Network

None upon a time, a clerk named Sunshine was so utterly repulsed by his soul-sucking job, which was barely funding his occasional time travel jaunts, he tried many methods to jazz it up—task gamification, plugging in to groovy music, sprinkling more decorations over his dedicated workspace (before the grand comeback of hot desking). Finally, he wondered if it would help, counterintuitively, to reduce the jarring contrast between his work hours and non-work hours and pioneered the hobby of adminpunk—remaking bureaucratic mouthpieces into pop songs, common email refrains into romantic dance shorts and his best public deliverables into glowwave art pieces. Sunshine became so engrossed with adminpunk he bemoaned he did not have more publicly disclosable material to work with. And so, he started to sieve through history for pinnacles of human success he could reverse-engineer into meteoritins, hyperspread bulletins that marked moments of great dreams or great devastation or both. That was where he became fascinated with the intriguing figure Ilera's legacy. The following was a meteoritin Sunshine typed up:

"The Inter-Time Ethics Agency (hereafter 'the Agency') has imposed temporal ethics courses and non-disclosure agreements in relation to technology transfer on time travelers and tight quotas on time travel journeys to minimize butterfly effects capable of reversing births across generations. These reversals are now regarded as a form of death to otherwise existing individuals. While it is acknowledged that much controversy surrounds the preventive measures, which carry their own downsides such as temporal inequality and epistemic bystanderism, the Agency has come to the consensus that the wipe-offs of existing lives on the timeline is the greatest of all harms.

Nevertheless, heeding the calls of campaigners behind the All-Time Freedom of Movement, the Agency has conducted public consultations to seek a greater balance between birth reversal prevention and mobility rights. One of the outcomes of the consultations is the construction of the Mink Membrane Network, a brainchild of Her Excellency Ilera from the Extratemporal Serenetics Habitat. The commencement of network operation as a mode of time travel is scheduled to take place concomitantly with the abolishment of time travel mechanisms involving moa/antimoa manipulation.

Aspiring time travelers wishing to proceed with their journeys despite exhaustion of quotas for the year shall utilize the network and, in so doing, agree to having their age group and gender swapped to whatever are more disadvantageous at their geotemporal destinations. If their own age group and gender are the relatively disadvantaged demographics at those destinations, the travelers shall have their skin converted to a wood-like appearance on arrival. These changes are excellent learning opportunities and will be undone on return.

Since mental alterations are seen as unacceptably invasive, in the absence of overwhelming neurological need and even with free consent, at the time of this decision, nothing in the network is to modify any time traveler's gender identity (including any pre-existing transgenderness or agenderedness) or religion. Because gender psychologies remain the same such that declared or apparent gender identity can be deceiving, unlike the case of natural transgenderness, physically gender-swapped time travelers must adhere to etiquette codes explained by local culture coaches stationed at their arrival points and enforced by time patrols.

To honor Her Excellency Ilera's triumphs against the many adversities that marked her life as a non-hearing, self-taught slave who escaped from her time to pioneer the field of tempochemical science and engineering as well as the above-mentioned habitat for time refugees, members of organizations which percentages of employees from demographic groups marginalized in their times match or exceed the percentages of these groups among their respective general populations shall enjoy priority in the processing of applications for time travel."

100% Human-written. A lengthy epilogue for Confession 91-02

A Geopolitical Reading of Knulp

A Geopolitical Reading of Knulp

Identity has a peculiar relationship with itself. According to art and literary theorists, the act of naming or otherwise describing something replaces the true nature of the object with a representation which accuracy and comprehensiveness are constrained by human limits. Yet in public consciousness, one may contend, this caricature tends to be mistaken for the real thing in the long run. Thus,…

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The NI Series (3): Madame Breakup Is Not Quite a Phantom!

Admin’s Message: After a long break, the noble idiocy trope is put under the microscope again! In this third installment, Vietnamese Canadian Mawiie, a drama reviewer who has also delighted K-drama fans with her clay figurines of popular characters, enthusiastically shares with us how her background has shaped her reaction to variants of the trope involving characters’ closest tribe members.

I need to start off by saying that my opinion comes from a second-generation Vietnamese Canadian who grew up with very liberal parents, but extremely conservative grandparents.

As a child, my grandparents (with whom I spent a lot of time - my grandpa was the one in charge for my education) would constantly talk about filial piety. They were expecting me to get high-paying jobs so I would be providing for them AND my parents. I was the eldest sibling, and also the most motivated for school, so they had extremely high expectations for me to help the whole family out.

So coming from my own experience, when I see family-related noble idiocy issues on the screen, I can believe that they are realistic, especially in a country like Korea where Confucianism is still highly valued, But I also think that, like 0kuo0 has said, the issues have been highly exaggerated in some dramas. I am mostly thinking about those crazy dailies. Are they rooted in some truth? I don't doubt it one bit. But are they always resolved with Niagara Falls level of tears and major life-altering decision sending one character over the Pacific? I sure hope not.

Now, like I have said, while my grandparents were very conservative (”How dare you take a job as a college student? That means that you will quit school! You have to forego a social life and your personal needs for money so you can study to be a doctor and buy us a house where we will ALL live together!"), my parents were pretty cool. I got to do what I wanted, as long as it was reasonable, but my parents would still bend to all the demands of my grandparents.

It was really weird and frustrating to see my parents tell me one thing, but not dare to do it themselves. So I always get super frustrated at characters in drama who can't stand up for themselves when they did no wrong!

TLDR: Growing up with conservative grandparents, I recognize many of the examples in k-dramas. I think that for most part, it's pretty accurate with some exaggeration in dailies. On the other hand, in the West, the Confucian way of thinking kinda decreases with new generations, so while I understand why the characters are acting the way they are, I can't get over the fact that OMG YOU ARE A GROWN ASS MAN/WOMAN, JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER AND DON'T LET YOUR MOM RULE YOUR LIFE.

Thingamajigs have a lot to say today✨🖤

2016 Drama Soup for the Soul

2016 Drama Soup for the Soul

The Asian Drama Philosopher (A-Philosopher)’s Chair thanks everyone for their warm support in the past, especially ladysighs for spreading the love for Six Flying Dragons beyond the drama blogging community. All the same, drama watching is a very time-consuming activity, so it does not really expect readers to watch any of the dramas covered on this site. What it truly aims for is cross-cultural…

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Check out how minutely detailed the alt text is. That's more admirable than any epic-scaled artwork on any platform.

Whoops next gen jumpscare

Bard's Fantasy Medical C-Drama

This is an edited AI story that grew from a Love Between Fairy And Devil prompt. The year is 2077. The world is a very different place than it was just a few decades ago. Climate change has ravaged the planet, and many cities have been abandoned due to rising sea levels. In the midst of this chaos, a new type of hospital has emerged: the glutinous hospital.

Glutinous hospitals are not like traditional hospitals. They are not equipped with state-of-the-art medical technology, and they do not have a staff of highly trained doctors and nurses. Instead, glutinous hospitals are staffed by a group of unlikely heroes: spirits of tangyuan.

Tangyuan are small, round, and sweet dumplings made from glutinous rice flour. They are also very kind and compassionate. They have a natural ability to heal the sick and injured, and they are always willing to help those in need.

One day, a young woman named Xiao Yu (originally Xiaolanhua) arrives at a glutinous hospital. She is suffering from a terminal illness, and she has been given only a few months to live. Xiao Yu is desperate for a cure, and she is willing to try anything.

The tangyuan at the glutinous hospital are able to heal Xiao Yu's illness. They give her a new lease on life, and they help her to find her true purpose in the world. Xiao Yu eventually becomes a doctor at the glutinous hospital, and she dedicates her life to helping others.

However, there is a dark side to this convalescent planet retaken by fantasy. The tangyuan are not the only ones who can heal the sick and injured. There are also a group of creatures known as the colorful qilins who have the same ability. They look like horses with the head of a dragon, the body of a deer, and the tail of an ox and are often seen as symbols of hope and redemption. In reality, though, the colorful qilins use their powers to harm and destroy.

One day, a group of colorful qilins attack the glutinous hospital. They kill many of the tangyuan, and they take Xiao Yu prisoner. Xiao Yu is forced to work for the colorful qilins, and she is used to heal their injured soldiers.

Xiao Yu is horrified by what she is forced to do, but she knows that she must obey the colorful qilins if she wants to stay alive. She also knows that she must find a way to escape and to stop the colorful qilins from hurting anyone else.

Xiao Yu eventually escapes from the colorful qilins, and she returns to the glutinous hospital. She helps the tangyuan to rebuild the hospital, and she vows to never let the colorful qilins hurt anyone again.

However, Xiao Yu is also haunted by the memories of the things she has seen and done while working for the colorful qilins. Despite all of this, she never gives up hope and remains determined to make a difference.

But another wrench has been thrown into the works. The tangyuan are not as kind and compassionate as they seem. They are actually quite selfish and manipulative, and they use Xiao Yu for their own purposes.

Xiao Yu eventually realizes this, and she is heartbroken. She realizes that she has been lied to and used, and she doesn't know who to trust anymore.

Xiao Yu eventually leaves the glutinous hospital, and she sets out on her own. She doesn't know where she's going or what she's going to do, but she knows that she can't stay there any longer. She travels the world while she figures out her future, helping those in need and fighting for what she believes in. In the seemingly never-ending journey, she becomes a symbol of hope and inspiration for others.

Xiao Yu's character trajectory is a long and difficult one. She is faced with many challenges, and she often feels lost and alone. However, she never gives up hope. She knows that she is strong and capable, and she is determined to find her own way in the world.

Her story is a story about the power of the human spirit. It is also a story about the dangers of false hope and the importance of finding your own way in the world. It shows that even the most seemingly benevolent creatures can have dark secrets, and that even the most seemingly innocent people can be corrupted by power. In it, one witnesses the dangers of idealism and the importance of critical thinking.

Image generated through WOMBO.

In an alternate universe, all the warmongers around would be disciples of butterflies instead.

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Soul Nymph Engines

Platform idea: A micro-journaling app, coupled to a network of digital billboards displaying selected journal records, in which users post i