Rituals and Lucky Habits

I'm Jewish, so I fast every year for Yom Kippur, but I understand the reasons for it. I feel good after spending the day cleansing myself. I also observe Passover and watch what I eat that week. I consider that an homage to my ancestors.

But one thing I don't understand is what I call my "Lucky Habit" I consider it luck, not divine intervention, because the habit involves me replacing God with the fictional object of my affection. Some consider me obsessive, but it's the only religion I have that wasn't shoved down my throat from age three. It's a kind of healing for me. My mother still thinks I'm incredibly religious, and she's right, but I've made my own religion. When it rains, He's there, I go to the highest point I can reach and feel so close to Him. Why? Because I've been doing it for years. It's what I consider lucky. If I go to sleep one night and it rains without my knowledge I feel incredible guilt, I don't know why. It might just be an after effect of the fear of higher powers ingrained in me as a child.

The Otaku Contact Zone

I tried to think of a place where different backgrounds and cultures clashed and grappled, it didn't take me long to think of one. A place where totally different people merge on one setting and mingle as brethren. Some take on alter-egos, some like to debate, still others just want to become one with the cultures of others.

Anime conventions are my contact zone.

I arrive at one and am immediately struck by Japanese words and phrases intertwined into the English natives' speech. The vernacular is always changing, the trends come and go. Still, year after year these same people descend upon hotels and convention halls and the only ones who don't enjoy themselves are the ones who are trying to ruin it for others. True Asians feel welcome, as do American japanophiles and technophiles.