Mr. Speaker

Well, things look shaky for the happy continuation of modern society. Either global warming is going to get off it’s lazy bum, wipe out our food supply and leave us living on the juice of cockroaches (lucky I live in Sydney). Or global warming will be averted due to the fact we have run out of fuel to burn, in which case food transportation and production will be halted and leave us living on the juice of cockroaches.

Either case will have the same result of course - our shortage of fuel/food will be balanced by an over-abundance of commercial television’s delightful shock-reports that no family can afford to miss. I might try and tape as many of those as I can actually… If we can dig up a VCR they will be hilarious to watch in 40 years time.
(more…)

Mr. Speaker presents a brief historical comparision of Tokugawa Japan and the 1981 video game PacMan, in point form.

Introduction

• The first Shogun of the Tokugawa period was Tokugawa Ieyasu.
  He was a pretty dang good Shogun, heavily influencing japanese history and achieving almost unlimited power and wealth.
• The first video game to spawn its own line of merchandising was PacMan.
  PacMan was created by Namco designer Toru Iwatani and is the best selling coin-operated game in history.

Definitions

• Shogun means “Foreign barbarian subduing generalissimo”.
  It was applied to Ieyasu after he defeated the Hideyori loyalists and other Western rivals.
• PacMan has no meaning.
  It was changed at the last minute from PuckMan so that no one would graffitti the machines and make rude words.
• Tokugawa Ieyasu was the major ruler throughout the Tokugawa period.
  The Tokugawa period was a time of peace that allowed visual and performing arts to flourish.
  The Tokugawa period lasted from 1603 to 1868.
• PacMan was the major ruler throughout the 80’s.
  The 80’s was a time of innocence and neon that allowed anyone who so desired become a pop/rock star.
  The 80’s lasted from 1980 to about mid 1988.
  

Interesting point

• There have been many periods (jidai) in Japan’s history.
• There has been only one 80’s.

The mystery of the monikers

• All of the periods had an alternate name. I don’t know why.
  The Tokugawa period was also called the Edo Period. Edo was the name of the place that is now known as Tokyo.
  The Momoyama period (1568 to 1603) was also known as the Azushi period. The Muromachi period (1336 to 1568) was also called the Ashikaga period. An so on.
• All of the ghosts in PacMan had an alternate name. I don’t know why.
  • Shadow, Speedy, Bashful and Pokey had nicknames of Inky Pinky Blinky and Clyde.
  • Their Japanese names were Oikake, Machibuse, Kimagure and Otoboke.
  • Their nicknames were Akabei, Pinky, Aosuke and Guzuta.
• They also had alternate names. I dont know why.
  • Their alternate names were Urchin, Romp, Stylist and Crybaby.
  • Their alternate nicknames were Macky, Micky, Mucky and Mocky.
• The common ghost name in Japanese and English was “Pinky”

Summary and conclusions

• No Shogun was ever called Pinky.