What is the Watercooler?
It's a haven in the middle of a harsh, 9-to-5 world. A place where you can gather with your fellow human beings and bond over a paper cup full of cool refreshment.
All sorts of randomness is welcome here. Post pictures, videos, special Chat information, or just discuss news and current events.
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Acquired via a nifty Tumblr blog that I don't really want to link to directly on account that I saw boobies in one post and that would upset people. But that's neither here nor there, rather, I've an image to share!
Well, I'm sure if we compared 12th century art, we'd get a similar joke in the other direction. But no one blogged that one yet.
If anyone remembers reading that essay last month "Japan: It's Not Funny Anymore", this week that author wrote a reply.
Apparently he got a lot of e-mails of people going "well, then why do you still live in Japan?"
The bit about messing with the guy on the train is hilarious. Also, apparently people in Japan like to talk about pooping a lot - I could probably get behind that. More food for thought, I suppose.
Tim Rogers, Editor-In-Chief of actionbutton.net, is a guy who has lived in Tokyo for the past five years doing various kinds of work in the video game industry and stuff.
Apparently, it stopped being fun over there for him, and he's written a long essay at Kotaku talking about it. A bit of an eye opener, pretty funny, and just very, very (as the celebrities in the picture-in-picture while they watch video clips say) OMOSHIROOOOOI!
http://kotaku.com/5484581/japan-its-not-funny-anymore
Excerpt:
I think, in general, the Japanese seem to be comfortable stereotyping and being stereotyped. High school students wear uniforms. Everyone knows who they are and what they are up to. In college, people are confused, because they don't have uniforms. They graduate and immediately find an excuse to wear a suit, even to companies with no dress code, so that everyone on the train might know where they stand in their life. They hit eighty, join my gym, and start screaming. That, or they go play pachinko.
If you have a long while to kill, take a read.
As with all psychotic Japanese-originated internet stuff, this originally came out of nicovideo . . . but daaaaamn, it's pretty.
Basically, take Super Mario World, and put it to music from techno-remixed games and anime you all know and love:
Cheers.
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