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slugtranslation-hypmic · 9 months ago

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I Think Hypmic's Portrayal of Gender Roles is Kinda Refreshing: An Essay A.K.A. I'm Procrastinating on a Weekend Deadline :)

Hypmic's talking points on gender are hamfisted, corny, and melodramatic. "Maybe...we shouldn't have a wage gap," is not the hottest of takes. However, like most things in Hypmic, the writers have a lot more to say about gender and gender roles in the framing of the story itself that's much more nuanced. And honestly? It's kinda refreshing.

It's also something that went way over my head when I first became a Hypmic fan. Sure, I read manga and played Japanese video games--usually translated into English first--but I didn't have enough exposure to hundreds or thousands of pieces of untranslated Japanese media. I'm going to guess that most Hypmic fans don't either, which is totally fine and normal. We all exist within our respective cultural communities wherein we're bombarded with messages constantly telling us how to act, think, and speak. We tend to absorb these messages on subconscious levels and reflect them in the art we create and stories we tell, either by reinforcing them or challenging them. Thus, our stories don't exist in a vacuum, and divorcing stories from their cultural backgrounds can suggest the artist is the original thinker of a larger concept or hide their specific point of criticism. That is, if I wrote a story about a man who chooses to not catch fish, drink beer, and drive a Dodge Ram pick-up truck, we should be aware that I'm not the person who conceptualized the stereotype of dudes who catch fish, drink beer, and drive pick-ups. I wouldn't deserve the credit for dreaming up that exact image, and at the same time, it would be incorrect to read that as me targeting those three things randomly. The choice to not drive a Dodge Ram pick-up is not a commentary on Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. It's a stand-in for the notion of masculinity.

Thing is, we're hit with messages about masculinity, femininity, and other gender-related concepts on a daily basis. No matter where you live or what language you speak, every person on Earth is inundated with messages saying, "This is what you are, and consequently, this is how you should act." Our relation to these messages is complicated, and this complexity is compounded by different cultural communities preaching different messages in their stories, marketing, and human interactions. For instance, the US's massive global cultural influence means that those outside the US can still easily recognize what I mean by catching fish, drinking beer, and driving enormous American pick-up trucks. But the location and cultural differences may add or subtract nuances. A person living in, say, Munich is unlikely to have Dodge pick-ups advertised to them the way a person in rural Texas would. Our fictional Munich person does not feel the same social pressures to buy a Dodge and represent their masculinity with a Dodge the way our imaginary Texan would. In turn, the Munich person likely sees a Dodge with an element of absurdity--who the hell needs such a big truck in a European city?--and foreign Americanness. The Texan wouldn't have that concern--why worry about navigating your enormous truck down narrow streets when you live in the countryside?--and sees Americanness as their local default, thus removing any element of foreignness.

That is to say, gendered messages aimed at people (especially women) who live in Japan don't affect me the same way as they impact those who do live in Japan. Like, it's not my dog in the fight, and there are plenty of people who are directly affected who write their own stories and commentaries on gender roles in Japan. Japanese women don't need a random guy in the US to stand up and say, "Damn, your gender roles are fucked!" 1) They already know. 2) They're already saying it. So I come at this from an angle of someone who already has deep, primary frustration with the gendered messaging in my culture and secondary frustrations when similar messages appear in other cultures. I don't have a bone to pick with Japanese media in particular. Plain and simple, reading and working on hundreds of pieces of Japanese media is what I do for a living. It's in my face constantly, and as a result, I am also perpetually bombarded by messages about gender roles in Japanese media.

It's not a hot take to say that Japanese media, like the media of every single other culture around the globe, has a lot to say about gender. There's a lot of slotting people into boxes and telling people what to do. It's chafing, as we see all across history in art produced in reaction to gender roles. In the past couple of decades, global shifts in gender roles have caused media to shift the messages they're pushing, but it's not controversial to say that Japan has lagged behind other countries like the US.

Many, many stories push arbitrary notions of how to be a girl or how to be a boy that don't necessarily come from the author themselves. The authors probably aren't even fully conscious that they're making these choices. If an author writes a story about a library and makes every female character a romance fan and every male character an action fan, it's likely a reflection of endless messaging that says action is for boys, romance is for girls. In turn, this story becomes yet another reinforcing message. If no fictional girls like action, and no fictional boys like romance, it becomes alienating for real girls and boys who don't follow these same rules. These rules are everywhere and have so much to say about gender that it's hard to know where to begin. Girls must like cute things. Boys can't like sweet food. Women must not express sexual desire. Men can't be shy. On and on and on.

Which is why, when there's a relative lack of this in Hypmic, it's kind of a breath of fresh air.

Wrong Ways to Be a Man

Actually, Hypmic does have a few moments where characters claim there are certain things men or women should do, but the writing always frames these messages as incorrect.

Take Samatoki, for instance. After Kuukou and Sasara leave MCD, Samatoki tells Ichirou, "Men shouldn't cry when they lose their friends. Men should only cry when they lose a family member."

(TDD chapter 10)

This line usually appears via Ichirou's perspective. In the stage play, it's told during a song Ichirou narrates, and as shown above in panel 3, the manga frames the line from the angle at which Ichirou sees it. In such moments, the audience is meant to read this as a cool line from a strong mentor figure to Ichirou. That's how Ichirou sees it, and he's a seventeen-year-old with too much on his shoulders who idolizes Samatoki. He is incapable of seeing how much pain Samatoki struggles with.

However, when the manga focuses on more intimate moments of Samatoki's life, we see that Samatoki does struggle quite a lot.

(BB/MTC+ chapter 6)

This isn't a cool, attractive figure meant to be idolized. While Samatoki's cigarette usage and aggressiveness are often framed as sexy or enticing, the juxtaposition with dirty laundry, overflowing ashtrays, and empty bottles make him a sympathetic and struggling figure. Therefore, we should understand that his notion that men don't cry is flawed. It's a means to distract himself from emotions he doesn't want to feel.

Later, as Samatoki begins to process his emotions and open up to his teammates, the unhealthy coping mechanisms recede. Samatoki is more confident, mature, and happier as a result of being more emotionally vulnerable.

We see a similar transformation with Kuukou. As a teen, Kuukou is reluctant to accept help or truly let anyone in. In a conversation with Hitoya, he says (and I am still completely unable to take this seriously), "A man's got to wipe his own ass."

(DH/BAT chapter 4)

However, over the course of his character arc, Kuukou learns that he cannot exist as a good leader or individual without the teamwork of his newfound "family." Only rejecting this classical and toxic notion of masculinity brings Kuukou joy.

In fact, most of the first-line characters have very similar arcs. At the start of the story, Ichirou is insistent on doing everything himself. He has to learn to be able to rely on other people (Kuukou, Samatoki, Ichirou and Jirou) to be happier and unlock his true strength. See below, his final attack and Ability use in the 2nd DRB, which is only possible when his brothers figuratively and literally support him through it.

(BB/MTC+ chapter 25)

Sasara struggles with emotional honesty and trust in favor of using humor to gloss over discomfort. It takes multiple heart-to-hearts with Roshou before he can let humor take a backseat and say how he really feels. Ramuda has difficulty trusting other people and being honest with his emotions when faced with stressful scenarios. Only through Fling Posse is he able to open up and ask for help instead of driving people away when the problems are too big for him to face alone. Jakurai struggles to connect with other people, work through and acknowledge his complicated feelings, and not place himself on a pedestal. Through Matenrou, Jakurai is able to ask for help, be more open, and ultimately be less hard on himself.

The second- and third-line characters follow similar arcs, and this repetition creates a core message for Hypmic: Trust and rely other people. Be open with your feelings. There's a wrong way to be a man, and that's to hurt yourself and other people.

Right Ways to Be a Man...Are Infinite!

But with that being said, there is a surprising lack of commentary on how else to be a man. Hypmic as a whole doesn't do much to constrain the male characters in terms of gender roles.

Sure, some characters do fit into more traditionally masculine roles--Ichirou, Samatoki, Riou, etc. The messaging makes it clear that it isn't wrong to play into masculinity provided it doesn't become toxic. (See above.)

Even then, however, these especially masculine characters are associated with less masculine traits that are either portrayed positively or not portrayed as a joke. Riou is an avid cook, but the joke is never that he wears an apron and knows his way around an outdoor kitchen (tee-hee, men don't cook!). It's that he cooks with horrifying ingredients. Samatoki is a fashionista, but the joke is framed as a counterpart to Ichirou's nerdiness.

(DoD chapter 1)

Here, it's funny that neither of them can shut up (the ペラペラ/blah blah SFX, the long bubbles filled with lots of text that's cut to indicate they kept going for longer), but the object of their attention--a model toy and a pair of jeans--are treated in the same neutral light. It's very common for stories to touch on, even defensively, the social taboo of men being into clothes. Hypmic doesn't even acknowledge that such a taboo could exist.

This is subtle but extraordinarily effective in giving characters the same consideration and weight. The more feminine characters are always treated just as sincerely (or, if there's a joke to be made, irreverently) as the more masculine characters. Take Ramuda, for instance. In Japanese media, a love of sweets is often characterized as feminine and will often be remarked upon, even in LGBT+ media, as atypical for men. Again, there's zero acknowledgement of such a thing in Hypmic. Whenever other characters talk about Ramuda's food intake, it's always framed as a concern about the lack of nutrition.

(FP/M chapter 11... I don't have the source lying around on my computer, so here's the old-ass scanlation lol)

It's also given the exact same weight as anyone else's junk food habits. Here, MCD goes out for burgers (a neutral to masculine-coded food due to the meat and high calorie count) while Ramuda opts to try a sugary Starbucks-esque drink. The parallelism in the comic's framing suggests that the two objects are functionally the same, and there is no comment that a sugary drink is feminine and therefore "inappropriate" for Ramuda. There's also no indication that MCD's preferences are in any way better. They simply happen to be the characters' personal preferences. The punchline is two groups splitting up, only to awkwardly run into each other again moments later.

(DoD volume 4 bonus comic)

Similarly, Ramuda's interest in clothes or fashion is never treated negatively--in fact, the discussions of clothes as a means to find identity and happiness make it a positive!

In ARB cards and promotional materials, Ramuda sometimes wears dresses. It's, again, portrayed in parallel to other characters wearing more masculine clothes and is never commented on as something "unusual." It's just who Ramuda is.

Hifumi is another interesting case. Like Ramuda, his playful personality often doesn't as stereotypically masculine. (To be clear, I read much of this as "gender neutral with a strong emphasis on youth" versus "feminine" in a way that I'm not sure has a good US equivalent...metrosexual/yuppie men's fashion, maybe? In the sense that it's a youth subculture that defies some masculine gender roles but is still focused mainly on men. I wish I was more well-versed in Japanese men's fashion and could give an exact term, but I'm what I'm thinking of is definitely an established thing--young, trendy dudes whose styles focus on poppiness vs. the rugged manly man or "idk, I'm just some guy" subcultures. It's a thing that pisses off old Japanese conservative men in the same fashion as people getting up in arms about "the gayz!!!1!" and their androgynous clothing lol.) Their personalities are often the butt of jokes, but only in the same way that Dice or Doppo are--that is, that they're exaggerated and over the top. There's no commentary on masculinity or lack thereof.

There are also moments when Hifumi, Gentarou, or other characters play feminine characters in roleplay moments, which is usually (but not always) not the sole joke. The audience is supposed to find it funny, but the humor is almost always centered on the absurdity of the scene as a whole. For instance, in a moment where Hifumi and Doppo are pretending to be two drunk karaoke-goers, the humor comes from the composite set-up of Hifumi's hair twirl, Doppo's untucked shirt and tie, Doppo and Hifumi's exaggeratedly flirtatious poses, the spotlights and sparkles, and the same font as used on classic karaoke machines.

(FP/M+ September 2022 oneshot)

Hifumi and Doppo do not perform traditional gender roles in their homelife, and while it's easy to see and often commented on in the English-speaking fanbase when it comes to Hifumi, I find it just as prevalent on Doppo. It's true that Hifumi is taking a feminine role by doing the majority of the household's cooking and cleaning, but if we were to assume Doppo has the masculine role in the household, he would have the breadwinner duty. However, he isn't the main source of income for their household, and he's just as unassertive in finding a (female) romantic partner as Hifumi is. Japanese men are bombarded with media messages stressing the importance of taking an active role in career and romance. That Doppo does not would, in many stories, make him the butt of a joke for not living up to masculine gender roles. But he isn't; instead, Hypmic portrays him as a sympathetic character. It's tough, Hypmic says, for people to get good jobs and maintain friendships/relationships as an adult.

Similarly, it's noteworthy that Hifumi's self-appointed term "Gigolo" is consistently portrayed as a good thing in Hypmic. The meaning of the English term aside, the Japanese word ジゴロ (jigoro) is almost always used as an insult for a man who is financially dependent on one or multiple women. In the strictest sense of the term, Hifumi is a jigoro in that his income derives from his female clients. However, there is never any shame associated with that, and as a whole, Hifumi's career as a host is shown to be a positive thing. I can't express enough how rare that is in any sort of semi-serious media. Certainly, Hypmic acknowledges that his job requires too much drinking (Doppo's verse in Hoodstar), but the overall portrayal is overwhelmingly positive. Hifumi and his coworkers are never treated as uneducated, boorish, or pathetic for "failing" to find other work that does not require flirting with and entertaining women. (This is partially due to the overlapping judgment with sex work.)

All the various harmless preferences and personality traits of the male characters are treated equally with no judgement over what's masculine or non-masculine. Within the broader context of Japanese media, this absence of judgment stands out and reinforces one of Hypmic's core themes: Differences make us better, not worse. In the end, Hypmic suggests, there's no one right way to be a man.

Right Ways to Be a Woman...Are Just as Infinite!

But what about women? This series is, after all, marketed mainly towards women, and while female audience members can no doubt extrapolate the lessons learned from the male characters, it's worth taking a look at the female characters too.

The female characters do receive much less screen time than the men and are not the focus in the series; I'd argue that's less an issue of overt sexism and more that they fall out of focus in the story the writers want to tell. (There's a broader discussion to be had about inherent sexism in the writers' focus which goes hand-in-hand with rap industries across the globe favoring men and rap being an example of exaggerated masculinity, but that's a topic for another day.)

Even so, the framing of the female characters is interesting in a couple key respects. The individual character arcs and motivations of the main female characters are, in my opinion, some of the weakest parts of Hypmic--many times, Otome and Ichijiku do things because the plot demands them to, making them look incompetent or needlessly cruel for characters we're supposed to sympathize with. Nemu's story seems to be handled with more care and takes an interesting twist, wherein she openly acknowledges that she's disenfranchised as a woman in modern Japan but rejects the notion that she needs to find strength on either Ichirou or Samatoki's (male) terms. By choosing to be strong in "her own way" (whatever that means...it's not well-defined), the authors are using Nemu to reject the notion that strength and power are inherently masculine.

What I find to be far more interesting is the character design for the Chuuouku women, both in what is said and what is not said.

To begin with, the characters and their portrayals run the gambit from highly sexualized to completely non-sexual. Some characters (especially Ichijku and Honobono) have conventionally attractive, curvy body types and are often drawn in ways that highlight their bodies.

(FP/M+ chapter 4)

(FP/M+ chapter 14)

In some cases, especially Honobono's, the enticing nature of the illustrations is framed as the character's choice; in the above, her words indicate that she wants to seduce the off-screen listeners. The images included above are largely representative of these characters' raps, regardless of illustrator.

But on the flip side, other characters with large breasts or hips are never drawn in a sexual fashion. By way of comparison, here are two shots of Nemu rapping.

(BB/MTC+ chapter 12)

Even in shots with dynamic poses, no attention is drawn to Nemu's figure in any sort of provocative sense. Nemu touches her chest, drawing the reader's eye there, but the artist does not emphasize the size of her chest--they're allowing a chest touch to be no more than an emphasis of the self. At the same time, Nemu's body isn't downplayed. We can see in panel 2 on page 2 that Nemu has a small waist and wider hips, but once again, she isn't being sexualized. The action lines draw the reader's eye to Samatoki and thus put the action first and foremost. This creates the idea that not only can characters portray themselves sexually, but they can just as easily choose not to.

We see similar with Otome, who does not wear any sort of revealing clothing and is never shown in a sexual fashion. However, Hypmic doesn't equate revealing clothing to sexual portrayals either! While I wouldn't call Tsumabira's outfit revealing, she does have more visible cleavage than most Chuuouku figures. However, her bare chest is never sexualized like Ichijiku's.

(BB/MTC+ chapter 4)

Compare the non-emphasis on the chest and the power stance to any of the many shots of Ichijuku where her breasts are front and center in the camera. Speaking of power stance, Tsumabira remains confident in her power stance without being sexy--that is, no stepping on the camera and showing her whole leg.

Which isn't to say that Tsumabira is a sexless character. She's drawn visibly turned on by the male characters in such a way that is cartoonish but not, in turn, overly sexual. Were this supposed to be titillating to the reader, I would have expected to see a larger close-up on her face and tongue. However, the artist (who is no stranger to focusing on tongues!) devotes the majority of the panel to Tsumabira's body language (which, again, doesn't absurdly exaggerate any of her proportions or focus on her chest) and covers part of the mouth with text bubbles. Tsumabira is drawn as engaging in sexual behavior without being sexualized for reader entertainment.

(FP/M+ chapter 4)

The juxtaposition of such different views with little to no judgement attached to any of them suggests that it's perfectly okay to want to be sexy or not, to wear revealing clothing or not, to be involved in sexual situations without being the object of sexual interest, or to simply exist with an attractive body type without sex ever coming into the equation. Just as some characters choose to tie bodies to sexiness, some don't whatsoever--and either is perfectly fine!

The former idea ("I can choose to be sexy") may not sound especially revolutionary to US audiences, where sexuality is thrust upon women willingly or otherwise, but I find it fascinating because it lets the main characters embrace this idea without associated slut shaming. So much of Japanese media insists that women should be sexy but are also wrong for wanting to indulge in their own sexuality. Therefore, having characters who run virtually every iteration of take on the topic (I want to engage in sexuality and be sexualized, I want to engage in sexuality without being sexualized, I don't want to engage in either) with multiple body types (ie, Tsumabira isn't automatically not sexualized because she has a smaller chest; Nemu isn't automatically sexualized because she has a bigger chest) and no judgement involved feels like another breath of fresh air to me.

As a whole, I find the diversity of the Chuuouku uniforms and character appearances quite interesting. They're undeniably all feminine and relatively militaristic, but different characters wear entirely different wardrobes. Skirts vs pants, blouses vs dresses, high heels vs boots... Since every character has her own take on the common theme, it once again feeds into the idea that each character is her own individual and perfectly valid for defining femininity in her own way.

Haircuts, too, range from longer and more feminine hairstyles to pixie cut-esque looks.

(BB/MTC+ chapter 16)

Again, nothing of the framing suggests this short-haired woman is in any way different from her longer-haired counterparts on the edges of this screenshot.

Finally, while most Chuuouku women are conventionally attractive, I find it extremely compelling that Haebaru is a stereotype of an unattractive Japanese woman. To be extremely clear, I do not think these stereotypes should have weight, but the combination of chubby and/or muscular build, freckles, rounded nose, and non-glossy hair is often used as a visual shorthand for unattractive or otherwise undesirable women.

Sure, it's not fantastic that Haebaru is a scheming, two-bit villain. However, so is virtually every other female character in the series, and in particular, Haebaru is (the conventionally attractive) Tsumabira's counterpart. Both are treated with the same respect or lack thereof, suggesting that one's appearance has nothing to do with your ability to be a no-good baddie. Ha ha ha.

It would be lovely if the female characters were fleshed out further and given intelligent choices and diversity outside of the realms of physical appearance. However, I do think the writers' choices are limited by virtue of all women automatically being antagonistic side characters (which, again, is another discussion altogether). What the writers can and have accomplished is further reinforcing a celebration of differences. Just as there's no one right way to be a man, there's an infinite number of ways to be a scheming snake of a woman HAHA.

Intersection with LGBT+ Topics

Unfortunately, this is a very binary look at gender and gender roles, which, while largely representative of the current state of Japanese media, can be disappointing.

Hypmic appears to want to steer shy of LGBT+ topics as a whole, which is a bit of a shame. In a story so focused on gender and acceptance of diversity, it seems the natural next step to explore the notion of those who experiences don't align with a strict gender binary. Such stories are growing in popularity in Japanese media but have yet to be anywhere near the mainstream acceptance in US media (which is still in a fledgling stage at best). I would imagine Hypmic's writers are unable or unwilling to take a definite stance on these topics in the work due to fears of financial or career backlash. If nothing else, the sexuality of the main characters needs to remain in a limbo in order to have plausible deniability for both self-shipping and shipping with other characters. (Some deniability may be more plausible than others.)

The few instances in which Hypmic does wander into this territory are usually clumsy. I am no fan of the handful of scenes where male/male attraction is supposed to be funny purely by virtue of being male/male.

The inclusion of Urumi, the one minor character explicitly LGBT+, is not stellar either. I am hesitant to apply any definite label to her, as the real-life people her stereotype portrays self-identify as everything from trans women to cis men--or refuse to use these English labels at all! Still, we know from her profession (proprietor of a bar heavily implied to be a gay bar by the neighborhood it's in), appearance (poofy permed hair, exaggerated make-up), and demeanor (feminine speech style, a bit flirtatious) that she's AMAB and choosing to present herself in a feminine fashion. By writing Jirou to ask, "Aren't you a man?" in an exasperated fashion, the writers have put her gender presentation in a boke role--suggesting she's over-the-top, exaggerated, comedic. It's not great. I completely understand why readers find it offensive (and it is) even while I don't think the writers intended it that way. Ultimately, it would have been great to see other explicitly LGBT+ characters portrayed without the joking angle.

With that said, I'm not entirely unhappy with her character. She is a stereotype, but the authors have chosen to take only the visual elements of the stereotype and leave the rest on the cutting room floor. In other works of fiction, characters like Urumi are often hypersexual to the point of being in-universe creepy, especially towards underage boys. Other times, characters like her may be eccentric or off-putting in other ways. However, that's not at all the case here. Urumi seems to play a helpful big sister/aunt role in Jirou's life, and he's clearly comfortable enough with her to spend the night at her bar.

(BB/MTC+ chapter 17. "Sorry, but can I shack up here again tonight?" "Of course you can.")

While she seems to engage in some sort of a bohemian lifestyle, as evidenced by the alcohol and smoking, it isn't anything outside of what many of the other characters do. Additionally, while she isn't drawn in a flattering fashion in scenes where she's playing up her persona (which is par for the course with any character in this series, regardless of gender), there are plenty of neutral shots of her being serious. Finally, the art is never outright rude--that is, she isn't drawn exaggeratedly masculine or flamboyantly...snakey? I don't know how to describe this to anyone who's lucky enough to have never seen this--clearly LGBT+ AMAB characters drawn with noodly limbs and huge, overblown lips winding around male characters.

Maybe because I see so much worse continuing to be produced in this day and age, I feel like Hypmic could have done a much, much worse job with this character. She overall plays a positive role and is treated with much the same care as other side characters. It's unfortunate, then, that the writers have chosen to make her gender presentation the subject of a joke.

In other frustrations, I heavily dislike the unnecessary gender divide in background characters. All punks and other background baddies are male, whereas all adoring fans are female. (But Rhyme Anima has done an interesting job of subverting this!) The vast majority of other background figures fall into strict gender roles, which is likewise disappointing. It appears that diversity may be an accepted trait for none but a lucky few that form the main Hypmic cast.

All in all, I don't think Hypmic's portrayal of gender roles is groundbreaking, nor do I think it's fair to suggest that all Japanese pop culture plays into strict gender roles. There are certainly many Japanese works, popular or otherwise, with much more interesting things to say about gender. However, when compared to the vast majority of the titles that cross my desk on a regular basis, I notice and appreciate the level of care put in to Hypmic's commentary on gender roles. The work consistently reinforces the notion that it's okay to be your own individual, no matter how that plays into your gender, and I find that freeing. That's a message we could all do to hear more often, regardless of culture and language.

TL;DR: Oh no, my rapidly approaching deadline. :)

#not a translation #analysis asks

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wytfut · 7 months ago

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Aluminum siding....

I think as a kid who grew up in the 60's, we remember the hard core salesmen that bang on your door... vacuum cleaners, spices, aluminum siding, brushes. .... all humorous in a way today. There has even been movies made about this type of life.

My Pop... way back in the 60's bit the bullet and bought aluminum siding. The guy sold him the goods, and he bit hook line and sinker. The company had their contractor put it up..... Pop wanted his crushed rock roof strauss built home, to be pink for eternity. And so it was....

It was shortly after... maybe a year or 2 later, we had a historic Nebraski hail storm. And just beat the shit out of the siding. I'd say that this aluminum siding was much softer than todays products...

Anything exposed under the eaves of the house on the west and south side took the beating.

Pop about cried and tried to make a claim on his damaged siding, and of course his insurance company didn't recognize aluminum siding as a standard house siding. .... nada... nothing.

The siding remained on for I'd say at least a couple of decades, all dinged up. Finally in the late 90's Mom and Pop were financially comfortable, Pop had the dinged siding removed and covererd with red brick as a wainscoting about 6' up on all sides of the house. I wont critique the color combination, but Mom and Pop were happy. The aluminum siding higher up remained, and looked good until the house was sold.

Now I bring this humorous story up, as that most likely wasn't Pop's only upside down event in his life. And as I grew up there, I know I have picked up this behavior up.... and have applied it many times thru the years.

Examples:

I just had to have a diesel car. After the 70's embargo, it only made sense to me. So I left my brand (Ford at that time didn't quite yet have a diesel model), and ordered a brand new buick diesel.

Probably the prettiest car I have ever owned to this day. Within 6000 miles, the motor blew up. And we were without a car for close to 3 months.

Within a couple of years, the transmission went. Basically I ordered from Detroit the grand GM double joke.

Sounds innocent enough.... but if a person were to stand back and take a good look at this story or the many others, including my Pop's.... he and I get an idea in our heads, and the blinders come on. No changing of the minds here mind you. And admittedly, it is a weakness or a curse.

Not that we both would fall for salesmen....no no.... but the fact that once we get an idea, we just can't let it go.

Pop I'm sure was told by all his chronie State Troopers...."don't do it!!" ...Just I was told by many folks not to buy a GM diesel.

Here's my latest blinders mistake.

A few years ago, I was using a product called "ride on" on my motorcycle tires. It claimed to reduce flat tires substantially, and would also balance your tires. It was a gooie substance, and for all the years I had used it, I was very happy with it.

I found another company selling a "tire sealer" years ago, a friend used on his farm truck. He had tires with multiple nails in all of his tires with no flats to report.

Thru the years, I had heard that tire repair shops hated these products. Some of the earlier products were impossible to remove. Which made fixing a simple flat tire impossible.

Come up to date now.... to about 4 weeks ago.

My hunny said we were not going to drive to colorado on the tires on her car... especially the one with a double plug (being a tightwad, I fix our own tires, right or wrong, I do). Ok. So I rounded up some very nice almost new tires on facebook market place. Got them for a song.... extremely cheap.

My thoughts.... put berryman's tire sealer in them. Josh, Luke, and myself mounted each..... life was good.

I was still under the impression, that berrymans tire sealer would also balance these tires. As that was "Ride On" claim.

We got about 250 miles into the trip, and holy shit... the tires took off. Shaking the Patti's car like no tomorrow. Many miles of trying to figure out how to avoid the shaking... I determined that if I stayed under 70, it wasn't too bad or very often. It'd still do it a bit here and there.... but no way over 70.

Made it to our destination. And as the week went on I contacted several tire shops. One said he'd try to balance them.... and he couldn't. Another in Estes, said yup he'd fix the issue, but it would cost.

Being a tourist in Estes.... I was guessing $400+. I cringed, Patti said do it....

The tire shop fixed all 4 tires (cleaned the goo out and balanced)..... $160, plus 2 days.

We were ecstatic. No way .... he could of taken huge advantage to our situation, but he didn't. God bless this man.

When I went to pick up the car.... this very same guy was in the parking lot helping a much older gentleman clean fresh asphalt off of his tires. The guy drove thru fresh asphalt (no barricades).... And his tires looked like huge donuts. I talked to the old guy. He was amazed that the guy was helping him, at no charge. Attacking the tires with pry bars....

Back to the point. Folks that know me.... know I do this. My boys, friends, etc. I get the blinders on, and it is the goal to achieve, hell or high water, it'll be done. They all just roll their eyes, and shake their heads

You'd think after years of this nonsense, I'd learn, or someone would just shake the shit out of me, to get my attention.

My next odd ball mission is to drop some ajax/comet down the carburetor of our 36 ford. lolololol I've already heard murmurings from some folks not directly. ...

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bolton-buried · 8 months ago

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Statement of Jackie Crow, regarding a “deep puddle.” Statement taken direct from subject, May 21st, 2024. Statement begins.

It wasn’t even supposed to be raining that day. I don’t know why that stands out to me so much, but it shouldn’t have been raining at all. Deep breaths. Step back. Okay.

I used to work with debts. The exact kind isn’t important, but suffice to say it was large amounts of money for the most useless products you would ever see. I’m talking MLM type stuff. “Oh, Jackie, it’s a vacuum cleaner it’s not useless” it’s also not worth $5,000.

I lived in Minnesota, up north of Lake Superior. You probably don’t know where that is. So, the fact that I’m here in London at all? I’ll get to that. Sorry.

This started while I was watching a streamer on twitch. He plays games, but another thing he does is live reactions to some really weird videos. They’re almost always of a person drowning in a body of water, a river, lake maybe. I didn’t like those ones so much, I always felt like I couldn’t breathe while they were playing, but that day…

It was me in the video. Sure, it’s hard to make out features through the water, and it’s got this broken-camera effect on it, but clear as day, that was me. Drowning in a river, lake, whathaveyou. I tried to chalk it up to coincidence, but… it itched. In my head. Didn’t help that my job was starting to get hectic, and I was starting to look for a way out.

I mean, have you seen the US job market? Just thinking of that sheer amount of pressure, that force, a tidal wave of change that feels like it could swallow you whole if you let it. That’s terrifying enough.

I was let go from the company soon after. They must have seen me getting my resume out, because “inappropriate dress for work” is the most bullshit excuse I’ve ever heard if you’ve seen what I wear. I stepped outside, exposed to every metaphorical force of the world, and like a scene from a movie, it was raining cats and dogs out there. Things in hand, I started to walk.

I saw two men on the sidewalk near me. One of them—the one in the black trench coat—handed the other an umbrella, then stood in the rain himself. And then—I’d think it was a trick of the light if it weren’t for what happened to me afterwards.

He let himself tip backwards to fall, like a trustfall exercise with no one to catch him, but instead of cracking his head on the pavement, he fell into a puddle and just. Kept going.

He vanished through what should have been solid ground. I was still processing the fall, and started to run to help, stepping out into the street.

And the next thing I know, I’m in over my head in icy rainwater. I think I stepped in another one of those puddles. Maybe. I don’t remember it well down there.

I remember cold water around me. Struggling to hold my breath. Rough stone walls that scraped at my sides. And a current. God, when I hit the current, it was like a truck hit me. I was caught in an endless flow and could do nothing to stop myself from being forced against those walls, tearing at my skin, pushing in on my lungs harder. All too close. I couldn’t breathe. And I couldn’t hold my breath either.

Again, my memory is fuzzy, but I think I stayed like that for a while, trapped in the current. I think I stopped holding my breath at some point—it felt like hours. But I couldn’t have. I’d have drowned. And I feel like I was struggling to hold in my air the whole time.

I think I fell unconscious. I remember seeing some of my friends, reaching out, calling me to them. And I remember reaching out, and then waking up on a street in London.

You guys work with this stuff, right? You can fix it, or, I don’t know. Something. There has to be something you all can do.

I need to get a new job. Funny, the things you think about when it all comes crashing down. Are y��all hiring?

Statement ends.

#tma rp #tma rp blog #unreality

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travelog007 · 12 days ago

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dyna-clean01 · 18 days ago

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Best industrial floor scrubber machine

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#floor cleaning machines #best floor cleaner machine supplier #best cleaning machines supplier industry

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sableprerna · 19 days ago

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rootsmulticlean · 29 days ago

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HOW TO CHOOSE INDUSTRIAL VACUUM CLEANER?

Today tons of wastes are generated by different industries on a daily basis. Most industries are facing challenges to get the waste cleaned. Roots Multiclean Ltd focuses to help industries solve their cleaning problem by providing the right Industrial Vacuum Cleaner (IVC) that is designed for continuous duty and reliable solutions for cleaning dusts, solids, and liquids.

Before choosing an industrial vacuum cleaner, let us know about two important things:- 1) What is IVC? 2) What are the things to be considered while choosing an IVC?

1. What is industrial vacuum cleaner?

Industrial Vacuum Cleaner is a machine used for the general cleaning in industrial environment, Industrial vacuum cleaners are designed to meet specific needs of users and particular tasks that are generally heavy to handle. It is provided with a side-channel blower that is powerful, silent, and suitable for performing round the clock.

The IVC ranges start from 1.8KW to 45KW suitable for various types of industries like Food, Pharmaceutical, Steel, Cement, Foundry, Textiles, Power plants, fertilizers, Bio labs, Engineering, and Automobile sectors available in a standalone, movable, fixed vacuum, online vacuuming, centralized vacuum system, and Truck mounted vacuum.

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Vacuum pressure represents the suction force to clean up the dusts, solids, and liquids. It is also called “Depression”. The top depression rate value is taken by mmH2O (millimeters of Water Column), mbars, or others pressure measures.

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The most important thing to consider is Filtration. Our Industrial Vacuum Cleaners are equipped with various types of primary filters and HEPA filters to accomplish high filtration efficiency which ensures the exhaust air is free from dust particles.

Primary filters generally have relatively low permeability. To achieve a reasonably low-pressure drop through the filter, the element area (surface area) must be increased. Quality of the filtration increases by large filter surface area to achieve better efficiency.

2.4 Collection tank:

It’s also an important thing to consider the capacity while choosing an Industrial Vacuum Cleaner. It depends on the size of the disposal tank. For continuous operations, you need a large collection unit to remove residuals and it is also easy to detach the collection container with rotatable castor wheels for easy transportation of dust collected.

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Another element to be considered is Quality and Durability. All Industrial Vacuum Cleaners are provided with sturdy steels chassis to withstand for many years. When evaluating durability, the machine construction is designed and developed to work for the rugged nature of factories, where other industrial vacuum cleaners fail to do.

Conclusion:

On the market, there are many industrial vacuum cleaners available that differ by their performance, and applications. In the decision-making stage, it’s always better to hear from the professionals to guide you to choose the right Industrial Vacuum Cleaners. To know more about our Industrial Vacuum Cleaners visit our page

Read more posts: THE ROLE OF INDUSTRIAL VACUUM CLEANERS IN MANUFACTURING SECTORS VACUUM CLEANER BUYING GUIDE: FACTORS TO CONSIDER BEFORE PURCHASE

#industrial cleaning machine #industrial vacuum cleaner #roots multiclean

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rutuja1627 · 1 month ago

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techpccleanup · 2 months ago

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Truck Detailing in West Chester PA

For truck owners, maintaining your vehicle’s appearance and cleanliness can make a lasting impression, whether for personal pride or professional purposes. If you’re in West Chester, PA, and want to keep your truck in top condition, professional detailing services by Autodetailingwebsitedesign.org offer the quality and care you need. With services tailored to the unique needs of trucks, their team ensures your vehicle looks pristine inside and out. Let’s explore the benefits of truck detailing and the range of services they offer for truck owners in West Chester, PA.

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When it comes to truck detailing, you want a team that understands the specific needs of larger vehicles. Autodetailingwebsitedesign.org brings its expertise to truck detailing in West Chester, PA, offering truck owners several benefits:

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To maximize the benefits of professional detailing, here are a few maintenance tips you can apply between visits: car ceramic coating -

Rinse Regularly – Wash your truck regularly to remove dust, mud, and salt that can accumulate and cause rust.

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#Truck Detailing in West Chester PA

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lazypersonruins · 2 months ago