Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Back in the Saddle & New Anime Season

It's been a while since I blogged, but lately I've felt the need to have an online presence again, specifically relating to my areas of interest: namely Japanese culture and Religion. So I've cleaned up the ol' blog, applied a new skin, and am now setting forth to be the blogger I've always wanted to be.

So in keeping with this theme, it's only right, I think to talk about the new anime season. Thus far, I've only seen two episodes of anything, and neither one was something to write home about ... despite the fact that that's kind of what I'm doing now.

Kampfer
What's the anime world without gender-bending, voluptuous schoolgirls, and a touch of yuri? Perhaps a little better off. In any case, Kampfer has it all: the guy who suddenly has a mysterious bracelet on his wrist which randomly changes him into a busty girl who can shoot fire; some as-yet-unexplained impetus for him and girls like him to fight; a love interest who is apparently a lesbian and only interested in the main character as a girl. Yeah ... if you can't figure out who the target audience is for this one, you're probably not smart enough to be browsing the internet anyways. It should go without saying that this show is going to have to do something AMAZING to keep me interested.

The Sacred Blacksmith
Medieval swordfighting your thing? Girls with formed-into-breasts armor more your style? Then look no further than The Sacred Blacksmith. Don't get me wrong, this one has the potential to be passingly interesting, but for the most part exudes quite the aura of "meh." Blah blah, girl knight who's never fought before, blah blah, magical katana-weilding blacksmith with an elven companion, blah blah, giant demonic monsters. Suffice to say the first episode didn't suck me in, but I'm still open to see where this one goes.

Honorable Mention: InuYasha - The Final Chapter
This one is out, but hasn't been fansubbed. Oh, it's been Viz-subbed, but not fansubbed. Depending on how this plays out, it could signify the beginning of the end of fansubbing. I haven't lost my faith yet in the fansubbing community, but InuYasha could be the dealbreaker.

That out of the way, the only way to describe this show is that it's InuYasha. Continued. No recap, no review. They just jump right in where they left off, except this time at a breakneck speed. If you liked InuYasha before (and fyi, I did), then you'll like these final chapters.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Book Recommendation: The Quest For Holiness

So the thing about Seminary is that each of your classes require a HUGE and VAST amount of reading. Now if you're uber-study book guy, then no sweat. You can read and read and read and do it quickly enough so that you have time to get it all done AND still have what passes for a social life in Seminary.

But if you're like me and have video-gamed yourself into A.D.D. while in college, then the reading doesn't always get done. Usually, it's okay because you can learn what you need in class and still get a decent idea of what the book says with some skimming. But then there's the occasional book, that when you talk about it in class, you say to yourself, "I really wish I had the time to read that." Thank God for vicarage.

I've kept those books that I wanted to go back and read someday and brought them to Mobile in hopes that I would actually read some of them. And first and foremost on my list is "The Quest for Holiness" by a guy named Koberle. I've started working through the book, and while it's some pretty heavy reading (I'm working myself out of ADD through reading, but I'm not sure I was ready for something this heavy yet) it's really a GREAT book.

Koberle in this book describes all of man's efforts to achieve holiness, how they all fall short, and how God has taken matters into his own hands. Then, if I recall from class, he swings back around and shows how Sanctification is not synergism or anything like that, but is 100% God and 100% us. Fascinating stuff. I look forward to getting to those portions.

But already where I am in the book, Koberle's done some great stuff. If you've ever wanted to know how Christianity is different from every other religion in the world, then you should check out this book.

I'll try to remember to get back with full reaction once I finish.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Sometimes, Getting Caught Up Is A Bad Thing...

Finished getting caught up with Toradora! today. Now I have to wait a week like everyone else until the next ep comes out. Drat!

What is it about high school love stories? Or, I suppose, Japanese high school love stories. I not much one for the American ones. But for some reason, the Japanese ones just suck me in.

Here I am, going about my business, watching a funny anime with quirky characters and WHAM! All of a sudden, it's a drama and I find that I actually CARE about what happens to these characters. This is PRECISELY the problem I've been having with Naruto lately.

In any case, I think in my initial reaction to the first few eps of Toradora!, I made mention of a couple of the main characters being two-dimensional. Well, that's no longer the case. Those characters have now been fleshed out pretty well, and, as I said, I find myself caring about the story.

But going back to my initial question: what is it about Japanese high school love stories? If you haven't noticed, the vast majority of anime/manga take place in high school. So what is it about those years? Is it the first time kids have real relationships? Is it because you have an excuse for people seeing and interacting with each other on a daily basis? Is it because it's a period of life with a definite end? I don't know. But for some reason, in anime/manga, they work pretty well. And when you have characters as in Toradora!, well, it gains the ability to suck in the random passerby.

So well done, Toradora! I now have another anime to follow. Keep up the good work.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

My Thoughts on My New MBP

So I've now had my MacBook Pro for a few weeks now, and I realized that I haven't really posted any reaction to it. I thought about doing a proper review ... but that sounds like it'd be too much work to do it properly. So I'll just give you a few thoughts on the good and the bad.

First of all, the trackpad is AMAZING! It really IS something that takes some getting used to. It took me a couple days. But once you get used to it, there is NO going back. The sheer ease of clicking anywhere, the multi-touch, all of it. Navigating the web is amazing with the two-fingered scroll. Reading manga is a dream because of the pinch-zoom-thing. And the best part about the multi-gestures is that it knows when you want to use them and when you don't. For instance, the bottom part of the track-pad is more "clickable" than the top. So when I want to drag a file, I can click on the bottom with one finger, and then drag with another finger, and it knows that's what I'm doing and doesn't try to scroll or zoom or whatever. Great stuff. Well done, Apple.

And of course I got it all souped up with the fastest proc (at the time) and all that, so I can do anything from video editing to watching HD anime, all while having Safari, Adium, Entourage, iTunes, and Vuze running in the background. Truly great stuff.

I also installed WindowsXP on it with BootCamp (I know, I feel properly dirty for doing so) so I could play Windows games (something I've been sorely missing). And I've installed Portal, HL2, and Supreme Commander thus far, and the MBP handles them all like a pro. Way better than my native Windows box I had previously. The graphics card in this thing can handle whatever the current gaming scene can throw at it.

The only thing that is sort of a negative with the thing would be the heat issue. It hasn't really overheated, but one must realize that the entire bottom of the laptop is the heatsink. The way it's designed to work (I had to think hard about this, since I couldn't readily find any fan outlets) is that air blows down out of the joint between the keyboard and the screen in such a way that it is supposed to hit whatever hard, flat surface the laptop is sitting on and then blow across the bottom of the laptop, cooling it down. Where this hits a snag, then, is when the laptop is ... on my lap. The air isn't directed properly, and if I'm doing anything processor-intensive, the bottom of the laptop heats up pretty quickly. In such cases, my flesh of my leg becomes the new heatsink. :-P

But overall, it is a REALLY nice laptop. Sturdy. Dependable. Fast. All the things you'd come to expect from a Mac. And as I said, once you learn the multi-touch trackpad, you'll be hard-pressed to go back to a normal trackpad. (My Pastor brought in his laptop for me to look at a problem it was having, and I tried to click the trackpad and was confused for a second when nothing happened. It just becomes that natural.) A recommended purchase for anyone looking for a powerhouse in a manageable and portable package.

On an unrelated note, I'm catching up on Toradora!, since I can watch HD anime with no hassle again. I'll post more about that when I get fully caught up ... maybe. And more on Naruto as the plot unfolds. Ja ne!

Saturday, February 28, 2009

There's a Disturbance in the Force ...

... as if millions of Naruto fans cried out in one voice: "WTF?!" And then were immediately engulfed in flame wars.

Seriously, Naruto manga 437 was HUGE. I won't spoil it here, but ... well, *I'm* still working through the roller coaster of emotions that was this chapter. And I'm not that emotional a person, at least when it comes to fictional characters.

So if you're a Naruto fan and AREN'T current with the manga, I'd highly recommend you get that way. Not sure whether you will admire Kishimoto-sensei for his brilliance or want to kill him after getting current (I'm not sure *I* know which to choose [but leaning toward the killing]), but you should definitely read it.

Monday, February 23, 2009

A New Project Undertaken

So I got this crazy idea to make an AMV for each song in Dr. Horrible.  Decided I'd make it into a project.  So I did.  Even created its own website: http://horribleamv.blogspot.com.  If you're interested, check it out.  I've already started working on my first AMV for this project, and as I get them done, I'll update on the Horrible AMV Project blog.  Enjoy!

On another note ... sorry for not updating.  Getting ready for Lent + a new MacBook Pro distracting me = falling behind on the blogging.  I'll try to do better.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Kannagi - Sometimes, even gods forget who they are.

So with the Who Scarf done and nothing else pressing, I finally got to do some much-needed anime catch-up today, starting with finishing off Kannagi.

The anime was 13 episodes, and was a fun one to watch, although in my opinion, the sexual jokes/themes were a bit TOO overdone.  But overall, a good sort of harem/gag comedy.

***SPOILER WARNING***

What was especially interesting for me, though, was how the whole shinto god thing was done throughout the series.  There were some fascinating themes presented in the midst of this lighthearted anime: local deities tied to the land, the necessity of praise for gods to function, etc.  The most interesting, though, turned out to be the sort of "final conflict" which the series built to.  All through the series, Jin has been curious as to Nagi's identity and her mission.  Nagi has always brushed him off or avoided the questions, but one day, in episode 11, Jin puts his foot down and insists upon some answers.  Is Nagi really a god?  Why does she have to capture impurities?  What would happen if she didn't?  Why does she have to live at Jin's house?  Nagi runs off in a fit.  But over the course of the next episode or so, we find out a troubling truth: Nagi doesn't even know.  She's got instincts and intuition, but she doesn't really know who she is.  The resolution comes when Jin catches up to her and accepts her as she is.  Jin says something to the effect that he doesn't really know who he is yet, so the two of them can figure out who they are together.

Interesting, no?  Japan certainly has had and continues to have some issues with identity.  Individuals attempt to derive their identity from the clubs they're in, the fashions they wear, the company they work at, the family they're a part of, etc.  Young people especially seem to be searching for a source of identity, as can be seen with all the subcultures that have been cropping up lately: otaku, harajuku, goth loli, mamba, etc.  Young people in Japan are searching for who they are.  And even as a nation in the midst now of economic turmoil and with more and more culture being imported from the West, Japan as a nation seems to have lost its identity and is searching for it again.  Emblematic of this would be Nagi, a Shinto god who's forgotten who she is.  She *thinks* she's a god.  She has the instincts and some powers, but no memories, no proof of her identity.  She, like Japan, has somehow lost her identity.

What's the solution?  Let's find our identity together.  A positive, encouraging (if ultimately idealistic, and without Christ, futile) message to the youth of Japan found in the midst of a harem/gag comedy anime.  Well done, Kannagi.  Well done.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Doctor Who Scarf Milestone

Today I finished the knitting of my Who Scarf!

... okay, did that sink in yet?  I'll give you some more time ...

So w00t!  The knitting on the Who Scarf is done!  It feels amazing to have knitted a 8-10ft long scarf (which will eventually be stretched and tasseled to be more like 13ft).  A major accomplishment, if I do say so myself.

Now, on to the finishing of the scarf.  I've already started dealing with the ends of the yarn from where I changed colors.  I've got to weave each of those strands into the main scarf.  And after that, I've got to get a bit more yarn and make tassels for both of the ends.  Then the final thing I'll do is actually block out the scarf so that it's stretched to its full length (a process which involves stretching, wetting, and letting it dry).  So if all goes well, I'll have a fully-functional Tom Baker Doctor Who Scarf within a week or two.

It's been a long time coming ... but it's totally going to be worth it.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Dark Knight All Over Again

Heard on the radio today that they're bringing Dark Knight back into the theaters.  I thought it sounded like a really silly idea.  I mean, the DVD/BD's already out.  Are they THAT desperate to keep milking it for more money?  But then I realized something else...

I would totally go see it again.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Tri-Movie Revue -or- The Meaninglessness of Life Without Christ

Okay, to be fair, I'll be looking at two movies and an episode of Azumanga Daioh, but really, who's counting?

Looking back over my posts recently, I've talked a lot about my own musings (mostly complaints) but have shied away recently from any Japanese/Anime-related posts.  But as I was watching an episode of Azumanga Daioh the other day, it reminded me of - it gave off the same vibes as - two movies which are really the same movie set in different cultures.  The first was Kuuchuu Teien, hereafter referred to as "Hanging Garden."  The second, likely more familiar to most of you, was American Beauty.  What tied all of these together in my mind was the problem with which they dealt, the issue with which they struggled, the solution they were unable to find.  Each of these three confronted head-on the meaning of life.  Or perhaps more helpfully phrased, finding meaning in life.  So I'd like to explore these three works, considering what each adds to the discussion.  

Beware.  Spoilers follow for all three.

Azumanga Daioh 19
In this episode, Kurosawa Minamo (Nyamo), one of the teachers at the high school asks the big question: what is she doing with her life.  Earlier in the series, we've had hints that within the last couple years she had a rather serious boyfriend, but the relationship ended badly, leaving Nyamo single (and providing her colleague Tanizaki Yukari plenty of material for comical blackmail).  The episode then begins with Nyamo's mother calling, trying to subtly pressure her into an arranged marriage.  Nyamo is hesitant, to which her mother responds that she's not going to be young forever.  This gives Nyamo something to think about for the rest of the episode.  Her situation is brought into stark contrast later in the episode when she and Yukari go to a restaurant to catch up with one of their old classmates.  This classmate is now successfully climbing the corporate ladder and presents herself at all times like a proper businesswoman.  In contrast, Nyamo and Yukari seem rather childish, still single with their teaching jobs.  Their friend invites a couple of guys to join them for the purpose of setting the teacher pair up with some good matches.  We never see the guys, but rather the next time we see the teachers, it's obvious that Yukari made some sort of rude remark that ruined such a set up.  And although Nyamo complains to Yukari about it, it's evident that she is not too broken up about the ruined opportunity.  By the end of the episode, the feeling seems to be "well, maybe I have to grow up, but not yet."  (The plot following the high school girls, specifically Kagura, ends with the same sort of tone.)

And that's the answer which the episode gives to the question of meaning.  It's plainly communicated that society expects each of the characters (all girls) to marry, have a family, and be mature adults.  This is where meaning is supposed to lie.  But none of the characters (teachers included) fit into this stereotype.  Instead, each character in their own way rebels against such an idea. (Kagura even comments that she can't see herself in such a life.)  But is that okay?  Can meaning be found in life apart from the expectations of family and society?  Is it just as meaningful to be a single high school P.E. teacher as it is to be a successful businesswoman?  The characters don't see value in the status quo, but neither do they see value in rejecting it.  And thus, they're stuck and must avoid the question altogether.

American Beauty
If you haven't seen this movie, go do so now.  I'm not going to describe the plot, since it's a feature-length film.  I really shouldn't have even done so for the Azumanga Daioh episode, but whatever.  From now on, I'll assume you've seen this movie (same goes for Hanging Garden). 

This movie is about the search for meaning in life for a group of people surrounding the family of the late Lester.  Lester finds escape from his dead-end corporate job by extorting his business and living out his fantasies (no matter how childish or lecherous) with the money he gets.  Everything he does after his enlightenment is to gratify himself.  This is where he derives meaning.

His wife finds escape from her mediocre family in the success of her business and in the affair she's having with her biggest competitor.  By day she's a powerful businesswoman who rules over all she sees, and by night she's completely dominated and submissive to "the King."  Her meaning is found not in being a strong woman, but in giving that up to be dominated by a strong man.

The daughter finds escape from the social pressures of her sex-crazed cheerleader friend and her pervy father in a real relationship (including sex) with the new boy next door who truly understands her and treats her as beautiful.  Her meaning is derived from her boyfriend's value of her.

The other characters are worth mentioning, too: the homophobic ex-military neighbor who fears his own homosexual urges.  The sex-crazed attention-starved cheerleader who, despite her kiss-and-tell stories, is still a virgin.  

And the new boy next door.  Now the boy next door is interesting because the movie presents him as having the only real solution to the question of where to find meaning.  He finds meaning in finding beauty in the simplest things of life.  A leaf dancing in the wind is beautiful.  His naked girlfriend is beautiful (once she drops all facades).  His room, in fact, is FILLED with video tapes of things he thought were beautiful.  His philosophy is to find beauty before life flutters away.  And he is the only one still standing on his own at the end of the film.

Because Lester's self-indulgence leads to his own murder.  The wife's affair leaves her abandoned and powerless.  The daughter forsakes her family to be with her boyfriend (the one who "gets it").  The homophobe resorts to murder after his homosexual feelings for Lester are rejected.  The cheerleader is unable to lose her innocence.  Thus, the message of the move - the answer it comes up with to the question of meaning - is that you simply must find beauty in an otherwise brief and meaningless existence.

Hanging Garden
So now imagine American Beauty, but set in Japan with a Japanese family and the struggles for meaning common in Japan.  Imagine the family where the father is a weak man who can't get any from his wife and thus resorts to several "s-friends." ("Sex friends" for those of you not familiar with Japanese terminology.)  The daughter finds hope in a new mall being built near her house and the prospect of finding the right man to deflower her.  She wants to have sex, but can't get any because none of the boys she knows are both strong enough to dominate her and weak enough to allow her to assert any freedom of her own.  The son finds meaning in the virtual world, shutting himself off relationally from his family and the real world.  Even when his smokin' hot tutor (who is also one of the father's s-friends) takes him to a "love hotel" (just what it sounds like), he's more interested in a room without windows than the sexy woman lying on the bed.  The mother finds meaning in the success of her family.  As long as her family is the picture of perfection, she has value and meaning as a mother and a housewife - no matter what sort of evil backstabbing plot she has to undertake to make it happen.

In this movie, the grandmother is the one who knows where to find meaning.  She finds it in the relationships she has with her family.  But even her foundation is shaken when her daughter's family begins to fall apart and when the relationships cannot thrive because of the pretenses which everyone must adopt to get along.  When those pretenses are removed, everything blows up.  Everyone's basis for meaning is shattered.  The father's escapades are exposed.  The daughter fails to bag a good man (and the mall development is cancelled).  The son is forced to deal with the family's real-world issues.  The grandmother's relationships are strained.  The mother's family harmony is completely nonexistent.

Oddly enough, the movie ends on a positive note.  The mother is "reborn" and begins to see her family not as a trophy for the perfect housewife, but as her family.  And the family refocuses and begins to derive its value from their relationships with each other again.  And there's hope that harmony will be restored.

But as I watched the end of this movie, in the back of my mind I knew: the problem's not solved.  It will all happen again.  Nothing has changed from the beginning of the movie.  Rather, the equilibrium which existed before the movie started (indicated by the photos of the family having fun together at a theme park when the children were small) has been restored.  They are no better off, and more than likely, it would all happen again.

What does this mean?
Each of these is an attempt to explore the question of from where or what meaning in life is derived.  Azumanga ended up avoiding the problem.  American Beauty promoted finding beauty in a meaningless life.  Hanging Garden held on to the family as the basis of meaning.  But none of these answers are satisfying.  None of these answers will get you through the tough times.  At some time or other, each of these answers will fail you.

Each of these pictures are a cry from their creators asking for meaning.  They cry out, each in their own cultural context, wanting an answer.  And then they present the best they can do.  But the best they can do is not good enough.  Meaning cannot be derived from anything in this life.

Except for Christ.  Only in Christ is your meaning based on something that doesn't change.  Only in Christ is your meaning based on something that won't let you down.  Only in Christ does the Creator of the Universe Himself say to you, "You are my beloved child.  That's all you ever will be.  That's all you ever have to be."  Only in Christ is your identity based on God's promise rather than man's performance.  Only in Christ can one truly find a satisfying meaning to life.

And the implications are pretty clear.  The scary thing about these movies is that the characters contained within represent real people.  Real people are even now trying to find meaning in all of the places explored in these pictures.  And those people need Christ.  America needs Christ.  Japan needs Christ.  So those of us who have Christ need to get our act together.  We need to get out there and find these people without meaning.  We need to take Christ to those who are perishing.  Can't find any of those people?  Well, here are three great places to get an idea of what they look like.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Wii Are Doing Well

I tried to find Wii Fit today, but to no avail.  The darn thing is sold out.  I guess I won't be losing weight while playing video games for another week.

But while looking for Wii Fit, I noticed something else: there weren't any Wii's either.  Here it is 2009 and there STILL aren't any Wii's in stores.  The thing's been out since November 2006 and Nintendo still can't make enough to keep up with demand.  Say what you will about the Wii and about its library of games, but the peoples love it.  Perhaps it's the fact that it's innovative.  Perhaps it's the fact that it's cheap(er).  Perhaps it's the fact that it has Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and Smash Bros.  Or perhaps it's the fact that there are like a million crappy kiddie minigame collections and parents just love to buy them for their kids.

I remember the good old days:  the days when parents didn't buy their kids Nintendos.  I was only given one console (a SNES, btw) by my parents, and it was because my sisters and I said one Christmas that we wanted to put together our "big gift" in order to get one console.  The rest of my consoles (and they are numerous), I bought.  From the used NES I got in 5th grade to the Wii I got at launch, I've bought them all.

Before Christmas, I went to Best Buy to get some Wiimotes so that I had an even 4, and in the Wii section I encountered some confused parents.  They were apparently buying their child a Wii, several controllers, Mario Kart, extra Wii wheels, and classic controllers.  Add all that up, you're looking at $400-500.  That.  Is.  Ridiculous.  (Especially in this economy)  And on top of it, they didn't even know what they were doing.  They had to ask me if extra Wiimotes came with protective jackets or whether they had to buy some extra.  I guarantee that if I had said that they didn't come with jackets, they would've bought extras without a second thought.  What the heck? (This phenomenon of parents blindly buying things for their kids and what it says about their investment in their child's leisure time should probably be explored in another post.  But not now.)

So maybe this is why the Wii is doing well.  It's sold itself to parents who have too much money to throw at their kids' free time.  And now proper gamers like myself can't find Wii Fit to save our lives.  Thanks a lot, rich, doting parents!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

A Touch of Perspective

Just goes to show how quickly things change.  I was watching a Looney Tunes marathon today and got bent out of shape over a bit of censoring I noticed in one of the cartoons, and was all prepared to vent about it on my blog when my mom called and told me that the father of a good friend of mine had suddenly died in a freak accident at the gym.  And suddenly my disgust at Looney Tunes censorship didn't seem so all-fire important anymore.  Suddenly I had prayers to pray and people to contact so that they could pray.  Suddenly one of my friends lost his dad.

Perspective for the evening:
Life is short.  Give God your all.  Give others God's all.  Do it now!

On Knitting and the Church

So looking back over my last few posts, I realize I've been very dismal in my outlook on this blog.  Don't get me wrong, these posts have been genuine thoughts I've had, but I suppose I've only posted when my thoughts were, well, dismal.  I assure you I'm not as without hope as my blog would lead you to believe.  I've always got hope that God can change the situations and issues that I've complained about.  After all, which is more powerful, God or culture?  I submit it is the former.

In any case, this post is not dismal.  It is actually something that's struck me over the past few months as I've been learning to knit.  Okay, before you start doubting my manhood, I'm knitting a Doctor Who scarf.  The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) always wore a looooooong scarf, and I thought it would be cool to have one.  However, the internet failed me on this one and I decided it would be easier and cheaper to make my own scarf.  This proved to be untrue, but as I'd already started on the thing, I'm going to see it through to its completion.  So rather than doubting my manhood, be impressed at my nerdiness ... if that's any better.

Anyhow, as I've been knitting, it's really struck me just how ingenious knitting is.  I mean here you take a strand of yarn, loop it around itself a few times, and you get fabric (in my case, a scarf).  It's really amazing how taking something like yarn and organizing it into a structure changes its properties.  All of a sudden, the yarn is stronger, stretchier, warmer, etc.  You've not chemically changed the yarn, but just reorganized it.  Amazing, really.  Whoever came up with knitting, my hats off to them.  Truly an under-appreciated genius.

And then I started thinking of how knitting is kind of what the Holy Spirit does in the church.  (Yes, I'm hopelessly a Lutheran pastor [in training].  Deal with it.)  One strand of yarn can be broken pretty easily by me pulling on it.  But my scarf cannot.  One strand of yarn isn't very stretchy, but my scarf is.  One strand of yarn has very limited usage, but my scarf has a number of uses.  In the same way, one Christian by himself is easy to break, unable to be stretched and has a limited number of uses.  But when that Christian is woven into the Church by the Holy Spirit, there's no end to what can be done.  For the Church is strong, flexible, and quite useful.  I could go on with the analogy, but I think you get the point.  Whoever came up with knitting: a freakin' genius! ;-)