Inside the Mind of Deserusan

Thanks Zach. My interest in Japan was actually born from my grandfather’s very vocal hatred of the Japanese. He was a WWII Navy pilot that fought the war in the Pacific.

I spent my summers with my grandparents in a small beach community near Ferry Beach State Park, Maine. A day wouldn’t go by where I didn’t here “Jap” this or “Jap” that mixed in with all his crazy war stories.

Needless to say, I developed a keen fascination with WWII history and then Japanese culture. When I began my undergraduate studies I decided to take Japanese to meet my language requirement and actually had 8 semesters.

The tagname “deserusan” was actually a nickname given to me by a TA whom I was very fond of. In class I could be seen drinking a protein shake which seemed odd to most but he certainly respected due to my muscular frame hence the name “diesel” or deseru in Japanese.

You are correct in spotting the japanese in my new banner. It’s katakana for Daniel…each symbol meaning da, nyu, e, ru:

I also have a bunch of kanji in my avatar that is presently displayed. One frame is the seven virtues of bushido (rectitude-gi, courage- yu, benevolence-jin, respect-rei, honesty-makoto, honor-meiyo, loyalty-chugi). One is an japanese proverb, masakatsu agatsu, which means true victory is victory is self victory. Another frame is actually bushido, which is interpreted by some and myself as the "way of the warrior."

This ideology has influenced many cultures and might explain at times why I act the way I do on the forum. I take it pretty seriously at times.

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