colloquium: colloquia

why can’t we hark back to days of yore, when argot was evident and the hoi polloi were blithe?

col·lo·qui·um  n.

  1. An informal meeting for the exchange of views.
  2. An academic seminar on a broad field of study, usually led by a different lecturer at each meeting.

Preceding a post with this word in brackets doesn’t make your post better or set it apart.  Especially when it’s not much of a discussion or exchange of views, but rather an episodic with two people exchanging the same view.  Epic Win may have been a game of Pong between 0rion and Guff, but if there’s no exchange of ideas, there’s no colloquium.  It’s a forum, not a speech with two people reading off the same paper.

And to break away from my traditional hate machine-powered methods, I need to make one thing clear.  I’m not delivering this to just vuc and ajthefourth, but to all of you people who think inserting long words from a thesaurus is going to make your post any better.  Hell, I had to look up all those words in the caption up there, and it doesn’t make the sentence sound any smoother.

looks like you didn’t learn much

I don’t know much about literary theory, but if the concept of deconstruction is as simple as this, why does academia exist?  Digitalboy is the perfect example of the kind of guy I really detest.  He doesn’t really know what he’s talking about yet he pretends like he does.  And people who are all-too-kind acknowledge him.  And I am not a successful blogger.  This is the perfect setup for posts that can be summarized in a single sentence:

Madoka Magica is different from other magical girl shows because Madoka doesn’t transform.

…but are unfortunately drawn out with the use of big, complicated jargon.  And big pictures.  And too many pictures.

Please, people!  Do not use such complicated vocabulary!  I’m just focusing on post titles here, but I know there are many, many of you out there filling your posts with SAT vocab and words out of thesaurus.com.  This is not good writing!  This does not make your posts attractive!

Being a “tryhard” is not a bad thing.  But try hard in areas that matter more!  (Like doing my 15-page paper so I can write some posts.)

this was not funny at all

P.S.: I did not mention ghostlightning or bash him at all here for digiboy’s crappy post because I don’t really know him or read his blog.  Retro mecha.

P.P.S.: One thing that I must praise digiboy for is not giving a shit about me.  Really b-boosts my self esteem.  I’ve said bad things about his blog and his madoka post in particular all over twitter and my blog and other places.  But then again, I’ve said bad things about most people.

P.P.P.S.: These are not disclaimers.


28 Comments on “colloquium: colloquia”

  1. flomu says:

    I hark back to the days of douchebag name-calling shaded misaki flomu.

    Back in the day, they called me Dorama Inciter, Level 5.

  2. I do not understand the purpose of this post.

  3. Okay so now I’ve read this post twice and I think you’re trying to say that I put a big word in my post title to make myself sound smart? Leaving aside that deconstruction isn’t even a big or hard to understand word, why would I even do that? You say that I act like I know what I’m talking about when I don’t… where do you see this? The first paragraph in the post is “hey this is something I just learned,” which is literally me admitting that I don’t necessarily know what I’m talking about. If I thought I was just nothing but right all the time, why would I even bother leaving comments open on my site? I’m wrong all the time, like crazy. I have to have people in my group of friends who will call me out when I’m wrong, and then help me correct myself.

    I don’t remember using any big, complicated jargon, ever. I know embarrassingly few words, and I don’t fucking read. I’m an uneducated college dropout, and everyone knows this. Honestly, and I’m not trying to be insulting here, you’d have to be a complete dumbass to not understand my blog. And even if you were, if you tell me you don’t understand something I said, I’ll gladly try to explain it differently.

    I can’t apologize for using big pictures, that’s just a matter of taste. I’ve used every size of picture over my years of blogging and concluded I like big ones the best. i have a 1080p monitor so smaller pictures just look tiny in all that white space. Plus I like how everything is justified on both sides.

    Anyway, it feels like you’re accusing me of trying to prove something or show my brilliance somehow, but I’m just not. I write a blog because I have thoughts and some people that I tell those thoughts to enjoy those thoughts. That’s all. If no one enjoyed those thoughts I wouldn’t even bother anymore. It’s not like I’m being presumptuous and thinking that oh people must enjoy my thoughts, I only know it because they tell me so. It’s only like five people. Those are the five people I write my blog for. I don’t need to impress any of them, they already like me.

    • flomu says:

      Thanks for giving enough shit about me to comment. Looks like sending a trackback is the way to get somebody’s attention.

      I think you’re trying to say that I put a big word in my post title to make myself sound smart?

      Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. It doesn’t matter if you dropped out of college (I don’t give out pity points) or have a Ph.D. – everybody wants to appear smart. Why else would you go out of your way to correct the usage of “deconstruction” for Madoka Magica?

      From my point of view, you’re a reaction-type blogger who tries to write academic-ish posts (editorials) and fails. It’s like if glothelegend tried to write an essay on how anime has influenced Western culture over the past five years: painful.

      I’m sure, then, the solution would be to stop reading your posts. But I read everything. And even if I did not read your blog, I would still stumble across Tokimeki Balloon posts that do not interest me in the least.

      Although this post does focus on big words used to make posts look better, I do not like your posts in general. You claim your argument is simple, and I claim mine is as simple as this: I am the everybody – 5 people, and you do not impress me.

      • I went out of my way to correct the usage because that’s what I was learning. It’s like homework for the class I was taking (actually that’s exactly what it was). It’s not to prove something to someone. You’ll notice I didn’t go telling everyone to read my post and correct their usage of the term or some shit. If I did that, it would just mean JP Meyer, who knows literary theory very well I’m told, grinding me into the dirt.

        I do not “try” to write anything. I just write what comes to mind, and I do all of my writing to better understand what I feel about anime. I don’t think I’m any different from glothelegend—in fact, I try to be more like him. Like him, I just write shit because I feel like it and don’t care that much about what happens. It’s just that I also re-read my posts to spell check them and am not as drunk when I write them (though that will probably change once I’m 21 lol).

        If you’re the everyone minus five people, that’s fine, I just hope that you really understand what I’m writing when you decide to not like it. I don’t even know why I hope that. No matter how much I stop caring, I always seem to want people to understand me. After all, some of my coolest readers used to completely hate my guts and writing style (who can blame them, it has sucked major balls in the past and arguably now). I guess I’m just defending myself because you don’t seem like a troll.

      • flomu says:

        Bah, it’s all the same thing. Even if you don’t go telling other people to read your post, people still take note of it. Like how you took note of this post when I didn’t explicitly ask you to read it!

        Though maybe trackbacks are a form of solicitation or forced recognization or something.

        If you’re the everyone minus five people, that’s fine, I just hope that you really understand what I’m writing when you decide to not like it. I don’t even know why I hope that. No matter how much I stop caring, I always seem to want people to understand me. After all, some of my coolest readers used to completely hate my guts and writing style (who can blame them, it has sucked major balls in the past and arguably now).

        I don’t get it. You’re saying you write whatever you want, but you still want people to understand you? So are you writing whatever you want, then?

        I feel like a big issue with the blogosphere is the “I write what’s on my mind” argument. IMO, it’s never true. People write for their readers, for themselves, for other bloggers, for everybody. Even people as hardcore as bates”wrote episodics for months on a private blog”zi still open up and talk about what their readers want to hear. Emperor “blogs huge retro anime” J constantly bemoans the fact that nobody reads his LOGH posts. Everybody! Me!

        Back in the day, they called me Meta Guru.

        I guess I’m just defending myself because you don’t seem like a troll.

        Well, you’re out of luck, because I happen to be 50% troll.

        It’s better this way, because sometimes people take me seriously and other times people don’t.

  4. 2DT says:

    At the start, David and Emily had very different ways of looking at things: He from a more verbal, philosophical point of view, and Emily from the perspective of a painter. But they’ve been learning from each other over time. Whereas you see two people reading from the same script, I see a man and a woman who have come to be on the same page.

    The colloquium is both the journey and the prize. Rather zen, don’t you think? 😉

    Flomu, you don’t hide your feelings. That’s one thing I really like about you, even when you turn the blast in my direction. Because the thing is, I’ve seen you at your best. And I will gladly wait for it!

    • flomu says:

      I’m not doubting that the journey [to true love] is nice, but even the very first post they did on Mawaru Penguindrum read more like an essay than a discussion. When I hear colloquia, I expect an hour-and-a-half-long lecture on supernovae as a guiding candle for astrophysics or a forum-style discussion. I want to see lengthened IRC chat logs, not paragraphs of analysis. And even if there must be analysis, I want to see them talking to each other. But when they talk in tandem to me, the reader, it doesn’t seem like a colloquium.

      Plus it took me all weekend, reading through 40 something articles, to write this stupid essay, and I don’t want to read more papers!

      Also, they are hardly the worst offenders. I’ve seen single-writer blogs with [colloquium] tacked onto their ordinary episodic or editorial posts.

      Back in the day, they called me Super Soakin’ Blastoise.

  5. Yi says:

    I’m not really that kind~

    • flomu says:

      Oh, come on. You’re just piling on the honey here:

      A prolific and well-established blogger, 21stcenturydigitalboy writes with a passion and a very distinct voice. His thoughts are always a delight to read, and I am fortunate to have this opportunity to play host to them.

      I’d never say anything that good about anybody.

      Back in the day, they called me “The Quoter.”

  6. Mushyrulez says:

    Do I get extra points for using long words intentionally..

    ironically

    they call me mr. failed hipster

    also mr. shameless advertiser

  7. […] it’s hard to decide what week it is, today’s post title is a shout-out to some guy that thinks I put effort into my posts. The weeks got jumbled because at first I was making these posts on […]

  8. reiseng says:

    Why, hello there.
    Would you be interested in forming the anime-blog discipline committee? You can be the head, as long as you make bishie poses and bite things to death

    Now, I can totally see where you are coming from, and I often feel the same, but I shall add some extra brownies:

    Brownie 1:

    Are you sure that you aren’t just dump or perhaps, the “word abuser” is smart?
    Before you get mad, let me explain. A few days ago, I saw the great Akirascuro tweeting some super complex tweets. These tweets were infused with words of raw power, words so raw and bountiful that their meaning escaped my cerebellum. And, of course, everyone else was replying to Akira with equally godlike tweets.
    So, what did I do? I fumed for a second or two in hatred against all these wannabe smart people. But then I realized that these people weren’t just wannabes, they were actually smart OR I was just really stupid.
    Let me expand a bit. What if, one of these glorious winter days, I opened twitter and found you in a viscous, exhilarating discussion with Neil deGrasse Tyson? Sure, at first, I would think that your use of fancy words like gravity, forces and electromagnetic flux distribution make you nothing more than a wannabe physics whore, but then I would probably realize that you are a smart intellectualPHYSICS WHORE.

    Brownie 2:

    Everyone tries to look smart. Yeah, you alluded to this earlier, but this applies to everyone, all anime bloggers and non-anime bloggers as well.

    Case in Point:
    Have you ever talked to a programmer or been to a programming forum? HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OR READ THE STUFF THEY SAY???? NO, I DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR FANCY WORDS LIKE instantiate, compile, data structure, object model, inheritance, parent class, and every other word you decide to spew at me. STOP MAKING A BIG SHOW OUT OF IT, IT’S ALL 1’s and 0’s! JUST TELL ME HOW TO FIX MY FREAKING PROBLEM!

    Case in Point 2:
    Your math teacher. “Here, this question involves simple addition but I am going to throw in needlessly complex words that will make you scratch your head and curse humanity just because it makes me look smart and knowledgeable!

    Come to think of it, you physicists are very guilty of this as well. You folk always use big words and scare little people like me.

    So, yeah, basically with Brownie 1, I was just saying that maybe they actually knew what they were talking about, and Brownie 2 suggests that I have an innate hatred of programmers, math people and physics people.

    P.S: Did I sound smart?
    P.P.S: Maybe I should have used muffins instead of brownies, but no one likes my muffins. I wonder why. 🙁
    P.P.P.S: Who popularized this P.S system? Was it you, Mushyrules or Jesus159??????

    • Mushyrulez says:

      P.S. cerebellum controls body movement

      of course the meaning escaped your cerebellum

      cerebellums don’t understand words

      P.P.S. cerebelli

      • reiseng says:

        I think I knew that, or well, at least the part about cerebellum not being able to understand stuff….but I was too lazy to find the proper brain part that controls understanding, so, I didn’t care.
        P.S. I would make a bad scientist.

      • flomu says:

        science is about pushing buttons and moving little things on tables and hoping quantum gravity comes out

    • flomu says:

      You’re giving me the quantum jitters with your large comment.

      Academia is the largest quantum concentration of technical quantum jargon in the world quantum. While some terms make it easier to refer to things (naming equations and fields of study), others make learning everything more complicated (naming equations and fields of study).

      Jargon:
      I did some homework for E&M yesterday on Fermat’s principle of least time and probability amplitudes (related to quantum physics).

      Translation:
      I did algebra yesterday.

      Translation into Japanese:
      watashi wa weeaboo desu

      Translation into English:
      I’m a genus

      Translation into French:
      genus escargot

      Translation into Japanese:
      Kono season ga kirai desu.

      Computer Science is full of stupid words. I had to memorize a lot of them last semester. I don’t remember a lot of them.

      P.S.: P.S. stands for physics sugoi

      P.P.S.: serious reply: I believe that “using complex words” isn’t the problem, though I may have made it sound that way. If somebody smart is using those words, it comes off as “wow, what a smart guy!” But if somebody is trying too hard, it comes off as “no more colloquiums!” vuc and ajthefourth lean towards legit while digiboy leans towards stoptrying.

      And that’s not due to any formal education gap, either! I get a good education, but I sound like I’m the biggest tryhard in the world.

  9. Maserbeam says:

    I enjoyed this post and the resulting comments. :V

  10. Tyler Rupalanite says:

    Technology is great, but sometimes like everything else, it breaks What we�� ve learned to do is just laugh about this stuff and move on, because if you don�� t it will drive you crazy.

  11. […] writing or of their personality.  So when I see a messy blog like Chocolate Syrupy Waffles or people trying too hard to be who they aren’t, it annoys me.  It’s not professional.  I know you can do […]


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