Trying

One of the most annoying things people can do is bash each other for messing up. Doing wrong, sure, yell away, but trying to do good and making an honest mistake? Come on, have some compassion. Honestly, this post is largely due to various fictional universes I’m involved in and my irritation towards how the characters are treating each other, but I think this is something we all need to hear.

“I think intent carries a lot of weight. I know some people dismiss it, but if you’re trying to do something good… We all make mistakes. I mean we all try to do something good, and something goes wrong and it turns out not being good… because we don’t have the foresight. We can’t necessarily see the future. Unexpected consequences come in, so we may end up doing harm when we were trying to do something good. But if we don’t try to do something good, nothing good will ever be accomplished, so I give a lot of credit to the people who are at least trying to make the world a better place, trying to improve things.” –A Talk with George R. R. Martin, presented by the College Historical Society, Trinity College August 2019.

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The Other Critters

It occurred to me that I’ve only been posting photos of the cats, and since I’m giving my other pets to my cousin, they needed at least one post first. So allow me to introduce Clove*, the rabbit (who we got during my fifth grade year), Sage*, the bearded dragon (who we got just after my fifth grade year), and Plum*, the nocturnal and therefore photographically elusive leopard gecko (who if I’m very, very lucky will make an appearance so I can add his picture to this post).

[Update] And, for the first time, I have pictures of Plum*!

*Names have been edited to match their new identities.

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Bonds

No, not relationships, and definitely not James. Today I’m discussing chemical bonds. Why? Well, they’re pretty interesting, kind of important, and I’m still Done™ with the world at large, so I figured I’d focus on the world at very, very small instead.

Covalent, ionic, and hydrogen bonds are all prevalent in biology. For instance, without ionic bonds, the ions like sodium and potassium necessary for the body’s electrical impulses — which allow the nervous system to function — wouldn’t be stable, or able to dissolve. That dissolution is also owed to hydrogen bonds, which are most commonly seen in water. Because water is a polar molecule, its positively-charged hydrogen atoms are attracted to electronegative atoms, such as the chloride in salt. However, because the bond between hydrogens and oxygens in water molecules is a covalent bond, which is stronger than an ionic bond, the water stays intact and the ionic bond is broken, stopping its ions from neutralizing each others’ charges and therefore enabling the previously mentioned electrical impulses. These are only a few examples of bond types and their functions, but as I’ve illustrated, they’re imperative to human function.

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Face the Ramen Fury!

Ah, yes, furious ramen. Or, well, ramen with chili peppers in it. But, like anger, that’s only a bad thing sometimes! Let me explain. Ramen Fury is a surprisingly backstabbing-intensive game of ingredient collecting and meal preparation.

Very basically, each player has three bowls, and each bowl of ramen can have up to five Ingredients (noodles excluded). To be eaten, there has to be a Flavor and at least one additional Ingredient. Flavor determines scoring. For instance, Beef Flavor scores for unique Protein Ingredients, whereas Shrimp Flavor bowls are worth four points per pair of Protein and Vegetable ingredients. There are also special Ingredients: Nori Garnishes and Chili Peppers. These can be played at any time (as a free action) into anyone’s bowl. Nori is a plus one, while Chilis are a minus one. That is, unless they’re in a bowl with Fury Flavor, which scores two points per pepper, and is where Ramen Fury gets the “Fury” part of its name.

You get two actions per turn. There are six of them: Prep, where you place an Ingredient in one of your bowls; Draw, where you take either a face-up card from the Pantry or the top card from the Ingredient Deck; Spoon, a twice per game action where you remove the top Ingredient from any bowl (including your opponents’); Restock, where you replace all four Pantry cards; Eat, where you finish a bowl of ramen, making it untouchable; and Empty, which you perform on your bowl of choice and is largely self-explanatory.

The final round is initiated either when any player has eaten their third bowl of ramen or when the Ingredient Deck is empty. Scoring is directly correlated to ingredients and handily mapped out on the Flavor/special Ingredient cards, making it quick and easy to calculate.

So, sit back, make some ramen, and appreciate the strategic Protein/Vegetable duality advantage of tofu!

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The Cell Cycle

So, I had to illustrate the cell cycle recently. Which, you know, Bio assignment, okay. Happens. But it wasn’t until I was ranting about it updating Mom on my progress that I realized a lot of people who haven’t covered it as recently probably don’t remember how it works. Because, let’s face it, that’s what happens with most of what we learn in school. Also, there’s plenty of diagrams for mitosis out there, but not enough covering the whole cycle, with interphase. So, because a quick refresher is good, and also because I put a lot of effort into making this legible when photographed and want to show off a little, here’s this handy model of the cell cycle.

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Burn In Hell

No, no, I’m not being rude or mean, and I’m not shouting at anyone today, I promise. That’s just the name of the game! That’s right, Burn In Hell is an actual game, and it’s loads of fun!

In Burn In Hell, you’re Demon princes (or princesses) fighting over the souls in the “Permanent Pitchfork Party.” The deck is made up of notable souls from throughout history — dictators, tycoons, serial killers, etc. Each card has their name (of course), an illustration, a biography (on the back), and actual mechanics-relevant material. These include their special ability, if applicable, and a number of categories: the value of the card, the “tags” (dictator, tycoon, serial killer, etc.), and however many of the Seven Deadly Sins apply.

It is with these traits that you match up groups, “Circles,” of four or more souls to score points. The mechanics for getting there are complicated, involving roundly sacrifices to the Pit, trading with the Pit, trading with other players, burning souls, and incredibly complicated multi-trade maneuvers, but basically, you’re trying to get groups of cards that either all share at least one trait (bonus points for more) or represent the Seven Deadly Sins, one each. The value of the cards involved, combined with the combo bonuses, along with any special pairings (some people who had met in life give you extra points if they end up in circles together) are added to your score.

While it’s important to make Circles wisely, you also need to make them quickly — the value of the cards sacrificed to the Pit each turn determine how much colder Hell gets, and the game ends when Hell freezes over. If you don’t watch the temperature, you could end up losing by a turn to your mother, and having to listen to her bemoan the irony in her winning score of 665.

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Japanese-American Internment Camps

In February of 1942, two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, authorizing military personnel under the authority of Lieutenant General John DeWitt to relocate individuals of Japanese descent from their homes on the West Coast. The ensuing incarceration of American civilians stands as a shameful mark upon our history, both in concept and in execution.

I’ll start with the obvious — America is supposed to be a place of freedom. We have civil liberties and our supposedly inalienable rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Yet the Army was permitted to round up innocents and send them to isolated camps in poor climates for the then unknown duration of the war.

Were they? Innocents, I mean? Well, let’s see. According to Paul Kitagaki Jr., “Fewer than 3 percent of them might be inclined towards sabotage or spying… and the FBI already knew who most of those individuals were.” So yes, the vast majority of the over 100,000 people relocated were, in all probability, completely innocent. Furthermore, though people of Japanese descent were targeted, individuals with German and Italian ancestry were left alone, despite those nations also being our enemies at the time. This suggests that Japanese-Americans were picked out for reasons independent of the war, which is an implicitly racist approach, as can be seen in John DeWitt’s statement, “A Jap’s a Jap. They are a dangerous element, whether loyal or not,” and in the fact that his report leading to Executive Order 9066 was “filled with known falsehoods” (USHistory.org). Not only this, but the criteria for being “evacuated” was being at least 1/16 Japanese. That, for reference, means one of their great-great-grandparents was from Japan. In truth, most of the Nisei, Japanese-Americans born in the States, had never even been to the country they were suspected of holding hidden loyalties to. As Supreme Court Justice Murphy said, “…racial discrimination of this nature bears no reasonable relation to military necessity and is utterly foreign to the ideals and traditions of the American people.” 

If this wasn’t bad enough, the details of the relocation proved equally detestable. For starters, the evacuees were given only a week’s notice, and instructions to bring only what they could carry. For most, this meant that their homes, their stores, and the majority of their possessions were lost, sold in a hurry and “often for pennies on the dollar.” (Library of Congress.)

After that, they were kept in “assembly centers” while the more permanent “relocation centers” were built. Assembly centers were usually fairgrounds or racetracks, not meant for human habitation, and the internees instead had to sleep in sheds meant for livestock. According to History.com, the Santa Anita Assembly Center “…was a de-facto city with 18,000 interred, 8,500 of whom lived in stables.” It goes on to state that, along with the poor housing conditions and the close quarters the civilians were forced into, the sanitation in most of the camps was also substandard and not enough food was provided. In essence, not only were their rights as American citizens systematically stripped away, but they were treated more like cattle than as people.

The relocation camps were better, but they were by no means good. There were ten permanent housing camps, two of which were on Native American reservations — despite the protests of tribal councils — and all of which were chosen for their remote locations. The climates were harsh, and, though the government hoped to make the camps somewhat self-sufficient, their choice of location meant arid soil that was less than ideal for farming.

Families, usually four or five to a building, were housed in tarpaper barracks without running water. They ate in communal mess halls, usually eating “mass produced army-style grub,” (USHistory.com) and used shared restroom facilities. While the internees were provided with education for the children and jobs for the adults, there was an ever-present reminder of their incarcerated status in the armed guards, watchtowers, and barbed wire keeping them there.

As time passed, added insulation to the barracks and a growing cultural flavor within the camps, each its own small town, made the incarceration more comfortable. At the same time, however, due to the forced and limited nature of their new communities, significant parts of the Japanese-American culture were lost.

In the informal social structuring of the camps, children played for hours unsupervised and often ate with their friends rather than their families. This directly undermined the traditional Japanese emphasis on close bonds and respect for elders. Also, as a Library of Congress article states, since jobs were only given to U.S. citizens, “The younger generation, as the breadwinners, soon began to take on leadership roles in the internee community, while the Issei, who had worked for decades to build up businesses and lead their families, found themselves sidelined.”

That was only one of the lasting impacts of the relocation. Despite the highly decorated, all-Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and their contribution to the war effort, Japanese-Americans were met with prejudice and hostility when they tried to return home after the war. Because of this, not only had they lost their property, but many were forced to permanently relocate from their towns of residence, and quite possibly from the West Coast altogether.

In 1988, Congress issued a formal apology and provided $20,000 to each surviving individual who had been interned. While it’s good that the harm the government caused was recognized and reparations were paid, the fact that it took 40 years for them to do so is infuriating, and perhaps as condemnable as the ordeal itself. After all, it’s one thing to wrong someone, and another completely to then refuse to acknowledge it or make amends.

The relocation of Japanese-Americans to internment camps during World War II was a continuous series of injustices, and though we have recovered as a nation, it stands as both a setback in the progression of American civil liberties, and a permanent blemish in our history.

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