It’s Not a “Samurai Sword”
One of the most annoying thing people can do around me, other than driving like an idiot, is to use the phrase “samurai sword”. Here is why using that term is incorrect, disrespectful, and completely idiotic.
1. If you see a western-style sword, you don’t call it a “knight sword.” If you do, please don’t.
2. The real name is katana. Use it. Other perfectly acceptable terms include shinken (live blade), or Japanese sword.
3. The katana changed over hundreds of years. It started out as a straight edge (like most western style or chinese swords) until it earned it’s curved edge.
4. The katana is to be reguarded with the utmost respect. It is part of Japanese culture. By calling it a samurai sword you are not giving the kanata the respect it deserves, and are disrespectful to those who train in Japanese sword arts.
5. Samurai actually carried two swords - the wakizashi and the katana.
6. Other classes were allowed to carry a single sword, the katana, up until the classes were seperated and all swords were taken from anyone who was not a samurai. Samurai were the only class allowed to carry 2 swords.
7. It’s all about respect. Call the katana by a propper name and I won’t call you an idiot (or beat you senseless with a bokken).
While running one or more ASP.NET websites, it is valuable to have a system where errors encountered by your users are automatically reported so that you can fix them. It is bad practice to let the user’s see the error and it is horribly evil to force them to report the errors themselves. The answer: an automatic exception handler. I developed this handler for use in websites so that any error encountered would be e-mail to a list of developers as well as recorded to the log if desired.
