Here's a Title for this post.

Am I the only one who feels weird sharing stuff (music, funny comic strips etc.) on Facebook? It's why I don't do it. It just feels like I'm shoving things in people's faces going "NA. LOOK! LOOK! SEEEEEE THIS THING THAT I LIKE!" and really no one asked for that. Which is why I'm gonna do that on my blog because I'm allowed to do that on my blog. I'm allowed to do that on Facebook too, but I feel less like a dick when I share things on my blog because I'm not forcing people to read my blog, whereas if you share things on Facebook and it appears on someone else's newsfeed it's more or less shoving it in their face. I know the feeling and I do not appreciate it. So you're welcome, people who do not like reading people's inane fb posts.

First off, this haunting track from Portal 2's soundtrack by awesome indie rock band The National, titled Exile Vilify:

Iz naise. I didn't actually finish Portal 2 because I didn't want to think too much, and I uninstalled it before I got back in the mood for some puzzle-solving. So I didn't actually get to hear this song in-game. Still.

Also there's this song, Apartment Story, also by The National. Catchy if you listen to it like 2 or 3 times.

The National also did "Rains of Castamere" for Game of Thrones, just saying.

Moving on.

Prom. I don't have much to say about it, except how horrible the emcee was. I know we couldn't really afford a very good one but...oh what's that you say? People say he was paid $4-5k for this? Really? For "jokes" like

Emcee: (talking to Brandon Pee) So you pee alot in school?

Pretty sure that's not worth even $5. Personally, I think it's worse to have someone trying but failing to be funny than to have someone who's not even trying. Okay, I'm done here.

Since I don't actually have much to talk about I figure I'll just share videos and stuff. Enjoy this french bulldog  puppy trying to roll over:

Cutest thing I've seen all year. Possibly all my life. According to someone in the comments french bulldog anatomy is such that they have trouble rolling over and need to learn to do it by themselves when young, or they'll never be able to roll over. Which is sad. Still, wiki doesn't mention it and I have 0 knowledge on dog anatomy so.

Okay recently I haven't really blogged and that's mainly due to not having much to talk about. So (and I've said this many times) you reader things really have to give me some ideas sometimes. Just say like "Hey you could do a post about _____" or ask me an interesting question or something. I know what you're thinking, "It's YOUR blog, think of yer own damn blog topics." but seriously, I hardly have enough material for a blog post of any significant length, or something that you guys would probably be interested in. The more I blog, the more I feel like it's a very narcissistic.....thing. It's so very self-absorbed, and presumptuous. We write these things, little inconsequential things about our lives or whatever, and we put them online, thinking people care what we think or say, and sometimes (or most of the time) I think people don't. We're just bored or something, looking to kill time, so we read stuff or look at things on the internet until we feel sleepy, go to sleep and get up the next day to do it all again. Which then brings to mind the question of why I even bother blogging, which can be explained with 2 reasons
1) I get bored.
2) I am that narcissistic. Love hearing myself talk/think.

And maybe an odd sense of duty or obligation, having had a blog since Primary 3. It's been that long. Sometimes I look back at old posts and cringe.

So, to end off this post, feel free to ask me any questions or suggest blog topics, privately or otherwise, and if I don't have a problem with it I'll probably write a post about it or something.

Speaking of the word thing, did you know it comes from an old english/norse word (also thing), meaning an assembly or meeting?

From Middle English, from Old English þing (thing), from Proto-Germanic *þingan; compare German Ding, Danish and Norwegian ting. The word originally meant "assembly", then came to mean a specific issue discussed at such an assembly, and ultimately came to mean most broadly "an object". Compare the Latin rēs, also meaning legal matter. Modern use to refer to a Germanic assembly is likely influenced by cognates (from the same Proto-Germanic root) like Old Norseþing (thing), Swedish ting, and Old High German ding with this meaning.There, you learnt something new, albeit useless. Isn't that fun.

Cue ridiculously overplayed Vitamin C song.

Alrighto we're finally graduating so I feel obliged to say something. I'm not very good at this sort of thing but still.

While many are feeling nostalgic and shit, I haven't yet begun to feel so. Maybe at grad ceremony. It's been 6 years in this hellhole wonderful learning environment, and though it has never hasn't always been fun all these 6 years, it's gonna be over in 2 months or so, whether we're ready for it or not. Speaking of ready, for all those gentlemen who still don't know how to tie a tie, yet for some reason are reading this blog before learning to tie one for tomorrow's grad ceremony, here. You are welcome. Back to graduating. From the obnoxious little buggers arriving in Malan Road campus on day 1, to the obnoxious buggers graduating from Boon Lay campus tomorrow, we've grown and learnt quite a bit. I wish the graduation ceremony, as impossible as this is, would be held at Malan Road campus though, so there's a sense of closure. But I guess it isn't really right to say closure, because it's not the end. As Gandalf the White puts it at the end of the Lord of the Rings, "End? No, the journey doesn't end here." He goes on to mention death but then, "And then you see it... White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise." So for people feeling sad, don't, because it isn't an end. It's just the beginning of the rest of our lives.

I was going to write down a list of thanks for everyone I know, but then it started feeling cheesy so for people who feel like you deserve thanks from me in one way or another, give yourself a pat on the back and feel free to approach me for a verbal confirmation of my thanks if/when you see me. Special mentions, however, are in order.

My subject tutors, without whom I wouldn't know anything. Not that I know a lot now. But a lot more than I would if they didn't teach.

All the people I hang out with all the time after lessons/stuff. I was going to list out all the names, but it started feeling a bit too homo so to avoid that I'll just leave it at that.

Everyone who has smiled/laughed (even a little bit) at all the stupid little jokes/puns/ I have made over the years, thank you as well. Whether you genuinely thought it was funny or not, sometimes these little bits of laughter and smiles are great ego/morale boosters. I promise to make more groan-worthy puns in the future.

Moving on. I've sometimes been asked, if given a choice, would I still have chosen to come to RV? Honestly, up till now I can't say for sure. I don't regret being in this school, per se, but I'm always curious about how everything would have gone down if I had gone to, say, RI or HCI. Probably wouldn't be there for long, looking at my results, but still. Or what if I had gone to a school which didn't have such prestige? I think the biggest difference lies in the people. I wonder, always, if I might have made as good friends as the ones I have now, if I had gone somewhere else. Whether good friends exist everywhere, waiting to be found, or whether it was an incredible stroke of luck that the people I click with happened to be in the school I chose? Sometimes I wish I'd gone to a poly after year 4, as the poly people whom I do know seem more adventurous and fun, but maybe it's because I don't know them that well. Ultimately, I guess it doesn't matter now, because, well, it doesn't matter.

Expect nothing to be smooth sailing from now on. By all accounts, life's a bitch. Expect to fall. Expect to get knocked down. But always expect to get up and keep going. Even though we haven't even taken A-levels yet, I just wanna say a few things. Some of us may not get good grades. Heck, I'm not expecting exactly stellar grades myself. But no matter what kinda grades you get, always know one thing: There's always a way out. I trust that most of you guys know (or have at least heard of) the channel 8 drama from long long ago, 出路. Remember that line from the intro to that show? "飘扬过海，我吃得起苦，相信天无绝人之路。" I didn't actually watch the show, but this line I feel is a great philosophy to live by. Actually just the last line. 相信天无绝人之路. And it's true. You always have a way out (not suicide pls). You may feel bad if you scored badly, or if you didn't get into the university you want, but remember this: life's gameplay style is a wide-open sandbox, not a linear action game. There is no fixed path you must traverse. No one says you have to get into a university right after JC, spend 3/4/5 years on a degree, then come out and get a job. You could choose to work for 2 years, to save up money and study overseas, and then choose to get a job that's not even related to your degree. Don't trap yourself within a single path and ignore all the other possibilities. Sure, doing things differently may get a little tough, or may take a little more time, but who's keeping score? It's not Super Mario Bros. You don't have to end the level in 600 seconds, and you don't have to collect the coins. The only thing that matters in the end is that you're alive, and you're happy. As long as you're happy, it doesn't matter if your highscore is 20 and you took the longest route through the game. It's not a speedrun or WCG.

Ending this post now, because I have to sleep in case I miss my own graduation tomorrow lulz. I just wanna say, thank you to everyone I've known these 6 years, even if you aren't from RV. My life has been just wonderful so far, and if I can say nothing else for my life the past 6 years, I will at least mention one thing. I had fun. And that's always......well, fun. Here's to 60 more years of fun, before we end up being lowered into a hole in the ground to rot, or burnt to a smoke crisp so your living relatives can gaze upon your remains and think it means something.

Also, being as it's graduation tomorrow, you can bet your ass they're gonna play that ridiculously overplayed Vitamin C song (hence the title of this post). You know the one. Yeah. Guys, just because the song is titled "Graduation" doesn't mean you have to play it at every single damned graduation. It's always bugged me a little. Sure the song is nostalgic and all......graduation-ish and stuff, but why couldn't we use a different song for once, like Into the West or Don't Stop Believing? Sheesh.

Okaycan Patch 1.7.6.38293.24a.948.6E

For people who still visit this blog despite studying for A levels/being busy with stuff, thanks, I appreciate it. Here's a cookie.

That's the biggest cookie in the world. Seriously. Google it. Don't think they ate it though. It's apparently chocolate chip. Like that makes a difference.

For those of you studying hard or just looking for an excuse to slack off, take some time out to enjoy some British humour delivered by the masterful Rowan Atkinson:

At some points he begins to resemble our Lang Arts/GP teachers. Particularly when he goes into Deadpan Snarker mode.

In other news, some guys did a graphic overhaul for Morrowind. I apologise for being unable to convey sufficient enthusiasm through text, but that shit is awesome.

There's a comparison video for Morrowind as it was in 2002 (That's 10 years ago. Don't you feel old.) and with the graphics overhaul last year (2011). Now, granted, the graphics aren't exactly like "ERMAHHGERRDD GRAFIXXXXZZXZ" good, but it was entirely user created. Last year. For a game that came out 10 years ago. Being the massive fan of The Elder Scrolls series that I am, I've played through Morrowind so many many times, and when Skyrim arrived I got a little sad because I realised that the graphics and game engine of Morrowind will never compare to Skyrim's, despite having such immersive gameplay. Regardless, I spent hundreds, literally hundreds of hours playing Morrowind, at first just playing the vanilla version over and over again, then eventually downloading mods and stuff.

Morrowind will forever hold a special place in my heart/gamer equivalent of a heart because it is the most immersive RPG I have ever played, and yes, that includes Skyrim. Skyrim is great, with its Radiant system which I'll admit does make the game feel more lifelike, but Morrowind had such depth that I'm frankly a little disappointed with Skyrim for not living up to it. Sure, Skyrim had better combat, better mechanics and whatnot, including the ability to kill people by shouting at them, but Morrowind had depth. Morrowind had much more variety. Skyrim has dual-wielding but that's a given at this point. Morrowind had daggers, longswords, shortswords, katanas, dai-katanas, spears, hammers, axes, throwing stars/darts and crossbows. Skyrim only has swords, axes, hammers, two handed varieties of swords, hammers and axes and bows. It took them a whole frigging expansion pack before they even thought of putting crossbows in. And did the world just completely forget about spears altogether in the 240 years since Morrowind? And you can't even take unarmed combat as a legit method of fighting anymore because it's ridiculously weak compared to any weapon you can wield.

In Morrowind, you can choose to join and pursue an entire questline for any of the following factions: Morag Tong (basically an assassin's guild), Fighter's Guild, Mage's Guild, any of 3 great houses, Thieves' Guild, Imperial Legion, Tribunal Temple, Any of 3 vampire clans, and a few other factions you automatically join during the main quest. In Skyrim, you get: The Companions(basically a Fighter's Guild), The College of Winterhold(basically a Mage's Guild), Thieves' Guild, Dark Brotherhood (assassins), and 1 of 2 sides of a civil war. The expansions for both games all add some factions but those are negligible. Based on rough estimates, Morrowind has about 400 quests, and Skyrim has 100+. In Morrowind, you had to work at something if you actually wanted to advance in a guild. For instance, if I wanted to advance in the mage's guild, I would need to get better at magic and be competent enough to be advanced. In the College of Winterhold questline in Skyrim, I can become the Archmage of the college in days, and without casting a single spell ever. It just doesn't feel like the same kind of achievement. It's a bit like travelling. You can run 10km, or drive 10km. But at the end of that 10km run you're gonna feel a lot more accomplished than after a 10km drive.

More importantly, Morrowind had characters, factions and stories that you could sympathise with. A random farmer you meet on the road, or some noble you decided to rob. Inconsequential relative to the entire game? Yes. But the game actually makes you care by drawing you in and giving you a reason to care, whether it's because the farmer is too poor to pay his landlord or the noble is a jerkass who just told you to piss off. Frankly, I couldn't really be arsed about the characters in Skyrim. I was drawn in on an intellectual level because I wanted to know the story, but there was just something missing about it, and I couldn't really care about those characters beyond what rewards I can receive from them. And sure, the radiant system allows for more spontaneous quests etc. but it takes away depth.

Ultimately, both games are still great, and one quality they share which makes them great is the inclusion of the Construction Set in Morrowind and Creation Kit in Skyrim, basically modding resources which allow users to create content for the game given some basic knowledge. These mods allow gamers to include or disable features that they may prefer that others might not, and more importantly, add heaps of new content and ideas to the game.

Overall, I'm not saying that Skyrim is a bad game, though the above may suggest otherwise. It is still an impressive game with hundreds of hours of gameplay in it, especially with all the mods and stuff, and certainly the game itself is fun to play. It's just that it doesn't really compare to Morrowind. Morrowind's like an old friend who's been with you since you were 4, and though you may occasionally blow him off to go hang out with that cool new kid Skyrim once in a while, ultimately your best friend is still Morrowind and you're gonna have the most fun with Morrowind in the end. But at least Skyrim is still cooler than that weirdo Oblivion. What a heap of randomly-mixed-together gunk.

I'm ranting about The Elder Scrolls because I don't know what else to talk about so seriously people who read my blog and wish to continue reading my blog please suggest stuff that I can talk about because I keep running out of ideas. I cannot count the times I've said "nothing to blog about". Just throw it out there and I might write about it. Literally suggest anything you want to see me blog about, like "Hey why don't you talk about the greatest game of our time in comparison with the second greatest game of our time?". There ^. Done.

Rants and stuff.

I'm finally updating (I say this a lot, don't I?), because I promised to. I feel sort of fuzzy on what to write about, but I find that as I write it sort of just flows, so, this is my attempt at a blog post. If this one does get posted (I write drafts and delete them if I don't like them), then you (the reader. I mean, duh, who else would be reading except a reader. But yeah.) should know that I did try to post ever since that post from really long ago (March, was it?). I tried 5 or 6 times. I either fell asleep or couldn't think of what to write about.

Someone suggested I should plug Operation Smile, which is exactly what I'm doing now, since I'm a performer. Basically on 3rd August (someone's birthday) there's gonna be a charity concert, where the proceeds will go to kids with cleft lips, for their operation costs or something. I'm performing with Francis, Zhiyang and Justin, so people reading this, go buy your tickets na0 (they're $6). Bought it? Okaycan, let's continue.

Btw this song is awesumz:

So listen to it like na0.

Also this song:

And this one:

And I could just post videos for this entire post but I suppose that'd be cheating. Argh. Don't know what to talk about. Suppose I should say something about AYLC since I kept ranting about it when it was happening.

So according to www.aylc.net,

The Asian Young Leaders Convention (AYLC) brings together the young leaders, aged 15 to 17, who share a commitment to shaping the 21st century global landscape.

which is just fantastic, isn't it. Except, it isn't. Perhaps I'm not the best qualified to talk about this, seeing as how I haven't gone through the actual thing myself, but based on what I can see (and our teachers do like to say "I'd like to share some observations", so apparently observations are valid judgements), it's a load of horseshit. Let's evaluate whether AYLC fulfills it's aims, as stated on the website:

• Resurface the governing values of today’s youths.
• Promote the practice of values-based leadership skills.
• Provide a platform for the internationalisation of both local and regional young leaders.

1. Resurface the governing values of today's youths.
There is no direct mention of what these values are, but this is RV after all, and they do mention "Sense of Appreciation, Responsibility, Self-Discipline and Self-Motivation" several times on the website, so I'll just assume that these are the "governing values" they are talking about. The word resurface implies that today's youths had these values in the first place, which is highly debatable.

The programme of AYLC as seen by students seemed to mostly consist of loud, incessant cheering and pointless games (e.g. throwing water bombs). I fail to see how this is even remotely related to sense of appreciation, responsibility, self-discipline and/or self-motivation. Perhaps it is the sheer amount of control required to not get frustrated that you paid $X to come here and throw water bombs at people? To give them some credit, the website does mention that participants would be planning and organising games for fellow participants. Maybe there's some development of leadership through this planning and stuff, but I doubt the few instances in which one haphazardly strings together a few simple games could teach one much about planning and organisation. Furthermore, I thought this was the Asian Young Leaders Convention, not the Asian Young Leaders-to-be Convention?

2. Promote the practice of values-based leadership skills
Again, I assume these values to be those mentioned above. The term values-based leadership has been thrown around for about 2 years or so now, and though we've certainly paid a lot of lip-service to it, I don't think it's been instilled into our students, much less international students visiting our school for a week. Every time this term, "values-based leadership" is mentioned, we inevitably come to our many Leader and Character Development (LCD) camps, which is basically the same orgy of loud incessant cheering and pointless games as most camps are in this school. It is important, at this point, to note that I am not criticising the camp itself. I just dislike the fact that they're passing them off as something that really aids character development when really it's just an excuse for students to slack a bit and beautify their CV.

It may come as a shock to some that teaching people cheers and getting them to cheer loudly along with you is not really what leadership is about (I know, right? We need to, like, tell the president or something.). Sure, it is an example of leadership, but a very simple form. When our school says leadership, they tend to refer to only top-down leadership. I don't suppose there is anything wrong with that, but my life in scouting has also taught me the importance of peer-leadership. We can't do away with top-down leadership, but all too often we neglect peer-leadership, so we end up thinking that being a leader is about ordering people around. Guess what? That strong, silent guy who just keeps going without a word when everyone's dying? He's a leader too. And a more powerful one than one who simply tells you to "加油" when you feel like you can't go on. Who is a greater source of motivation for you when you are on the brink of giving up? Someone telling you to "加油" or someone who's out there beside you, pushing just as hard as you, and not giving up, showing you that it can be done.


Coming back to AYLC, of course, it's an international event, we ought to give it some priority-status, so some things have to be sacrificed right? But for a camp that is about promoting values, it doesn't seem to do that much? Where is the responsibility? Your loud cheering - it's very annoying to the people in the classrooms. Very. And if you do it once or twice, fine. But all day? While we're trying to listen to what our teacher is saying about galvanic cells? The self-discipline, maybe it's there, maybe it isn't; I wouldn't know, since I didn't actually interact with the participants. Self-motivation......not so much. For people to constantly have to tell you what to do is not a great illustration of self-motivation, but that was pretty much what I saw happening throughout the camp, including instances of facilitators telling their groups to "吃快点， 没时间了". Yeah, great self-motivation there, leaders.

3.Provide a platform for the internationalisation of both local and regional young leaders
At this point it should be pretty clear that we don't really have many leaders participating in AYLC. We have a bunch of youths who want to be leaders (which is admirable), or who want to make their CV/resume look better (not as admirable). Our student council is supposed to be a group of student leaders who represent the students, but look what they actually are. No one is willing to follow you, SCs. No one. Not as a peer, not as someone with formal authority. Our SCs aren't actually leading anyone but themselves, which, if you think about it, isn't that great a feat. What was the ideal was a group of about 20, leading a group of hundreds, leading a group of 2500. What we have instead is a group of 20, leading a group of 20, and a group of hundreds scratching their belly buttons.

Feel free to disagree with me, but I think a leader should not require formal authority by the time he's done. Maybe when he's building up trust, he needs that authority to get people to do things and show them what he's capable of, but by the time you're done, people should be willing to follow you if you ask, not grudgingly say "okay" when you use your authority, or the school's authority to enforce your will. I can't say whether our international participants were leaders or not (again, because I didn't interact with them much), but I say that our local participants, and even the facilitators, are not good leaders (generally speaking. This is a very important point. I will change the font colour and bold it.), if leaders at all. So a group of non-leaders training a group of people to be leaders, guess what happens?

The only leader I saw in AYLC was this one Filipino guy who, back at home, taught his friends to play Ultimate Frisbee, and coached them himself. That's a leader, and guess what, he didn't need to come up with loud cheers and pointless mini-games to do any of that.

So overall, yes, have your AYLC, if it makes you feel good about yourself, branding yourself a leader just because you went through a camp with the word "Leader" in the title. Go to forums and talks by people with status and all that. But as I learned from a KI teacher called Mr Oja, "The certificate does not make you a leader". Being certified or being called a leader is nothing if you can't actually lead. And people will find out, and you will find out, when you can't lead, when that leadership is being tested, as I learned years ago.

So, ranting aside, I really don't like AYLC, but kudos to our principal for coming up with the idea. I suppose if you look at the school like a firm then AYLC is really good advertising and marketing. Tell me what you think about leadership and AYLC, or just comments in general, in the comments section or the cbox over there  -------->(and possibly upwards a little bit.)
 I leave you with this badass mofo:

Mind -> Blown.

I'm finally updating. I realised that I keep getting ideas for posts but I keep not posting them. I need to keep a notebook. Whenever whoever reads this just remind me to get a notebook when/if you see me.

First off, I notice my change in tone over the past year or so. I seem to have cut down on the humour and have been more sombre of late. I'll try to keep this cheery.

I want to start off by commenting on the whole Kony thing. While it is pretty obvious that Kony can be considered a despicable man, and probably deserves to be hated, I have to say that I really just don't care. Furthermore, I challenge any of you to honestly say that you do. I don't want to sound like an ass, but do any of you honestly care about what Kony did, what is happening now in Uganda? Do you even know where Uganda is? Do you know the name of Kony's resistance group? Do you know what he did beyond the fact that it involved children? Can you recognise Kony from a line of similarly dressed black men? My point is, beyond clicking like for the facebook pages, beyond sharing the Kony video, have you done anything? Did you honestly care? Or did you just want to care, or look like you care? My point being, we live in a world where we seem to pay lip service to alot of things. We agree, yeah this shit sucks, or that's not good. We "like" things on facebook that we agree with. But do you act on your "beliefs"? Do you believe, or are you just another keyboard warrior? And here's the thing: I believe that it's not even your fault if you just can't give a shit about Kony. I know I don't. I want to, but I don't. Without experiencing for ourselves the travesties he has committed, without seeing its effects first-hand, we cannot reasonably empathise with the situation at hand. We understand it on an intellectual level, of course, but we cannot connect on an emotional level, and thus we don't care. But I would rather we recognise our own apathy and admit it, rather than bury it and carry on with our online advocacy, generating false support for a cause that we don't even really believe in. Don't be a keyboard warrior, and instead get off your ass, and do something for something you believe in.

I realise that paragraph was rather harsh and sombre. Oh well, I tried. Speaking of Kony, did you know that the co-founder of Invisible Children, the group that made that infamous (yes, infamous) Kony video, was recently arrested for indecent exposure and vandalism. Apparently he went on a wild rampage wearing only his underwear, vandalised some cars, then stripped down to his birthday suit and started masturbating/making sexual gestures. His excuse is....“The past two weeks have taken a severe emotional toll on all of us and that toll manifested itself in an unfortunate incident yesterday." Really? Your campaign is successful beyond all expectations and you gallivant through the city in underwear? I'd hate to think what this man will do at his wedding.

Still, we have to give him credit. He brought to our attention an outrage that has gone on unnoticed for so many years by the average man. I don't think anything he could do will change that. Sure, doing crazy shit invites judgement on his character and thus his motivations for making such a video, but can you deny what it has achieved? I know I just said above that I don't care about Kony, but since we're talking about it I'm giving my stand, as I understand it, on an intellectual level.

Okay it's kinda late, and I've been up 17 hours with just 3.5 hours of sleep so I need to crash now. Kthxbai.

And now for something completely different

I'm posting again because frankly reading through the previous post makes me wince. Substandard bullshit. If any of you feel the same way I do apologise (for all the good that does (I've been using parentheses more often haven't I (z0mg parentheses in parentheses. AND ANOTHER! I actually did this once in an older draft but I lost that awesome rambling paragraph of like 4 layers of parentheses.) ? I suppose it gets confusing after abit. People, this is not the way to write. Excuse my obsession with parentheses.) , which is bugger all)

After receiving some -very- constructive feedback on my previous post I feel obliged to compensate by writing another post. TWO POSTS IN TWO DAYS. Enjoy it while it lasts. Also, the voice in my head is suddenly English, so I'm reading all of this stuff (what I type) in a fantastic British (London (oh look, more parentheses!)) accent.

To begin, Baldur's Gate is a CITY, Jerome. It is a city. It is not a gate. It is a city. Again, a CITY. Once more, and repeat after me on this, "Baldur's Gate is a city." Named after Balduran. The adventurer. Balduran. Baldur's Gate. You see how it works?

And now for something completely different.

Philosophy is not actually an abstract thing. I say this because many people are automatically disinterested the moment a conversation moves towards discussing such a topic. From the Greek (And I quote from Wiki, which is actually pretty reliable on the more significant pages, despite what people will tell you) "φιλοσοφία (philosophia)", which literally means "love of wisdom". Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Talking to some people, the moment you even mention a long word, they begin to say, "Okay I don't know what you're talking about." This is insulting to yourself because you are implying that you do not have the sufficient intelligence to comprehend it (Although frankly it just sounds like a more polite way of saying "I don't want to talk to you." Come to think of it, that's probably the intended meaning. Hm. Whaddya know). The main reason why this is annoying is that most of the time, you are fully capable of understanding it. For instance, suppose I say, "I do not think that moral objectivism holds true. Instead, I believe that morality is a relative concept that is dependent on the context, i.e. the society in which this morality is being discussed." You may not know what "Moral objectivism" is, but by listening to the second sentence, it is not a difficult task to infer that moral objectivism probably means the belief that morality is objective (again, this is GP. Compre skills). And if you're not sure, you can always ask, "What is Moral Objectivism?" On a completely unrelated note, I realise I'm writing walls of text again.


My main point is that most of the time, when someone says something, and you think/say that you don't know what is being said, do you truly not understand, or are you just not trying to understand? For instance, if I start talking about "Mohist consequentialism" (found this term on wiki), you may not be familiar with the philosophy of  墨子, and it is excusable that you are not familiar with consequentialism (though only barely. Still, it is a 6 syllable word.). But if I say moral objectivism, as an 18 year old JC student taking GP at 'A' Levels, it is not really convincing to say that you don't know the words "Moral" and "Objectivity". IN CONCLUSION, the next time someone says something long/seemingly complex, before blinking and staring in stunned silence or simply proclaiming that you have no knowledge on the matter, actually take a moment to think about what is being said and review your knowledge, seeing if you truly have no bloody idea what is being said.


Because I've forgotten (yet again) what I want to say for the rest of this post, I'm gonna put in some filler material, which will probably help me remember. I need to start writing stuff down. Keep forgetting what I write in my blog posts. Sadly for those of you who are seeking a more base form of entertainment, it is still philosophy. I'm gonna try and write(type) out my philosophy on certain matters, which I've come to over just a few months of occasional reading and a bit of thinking and debate.


First, and I think, most pertinent (or at least the least boring (again, this is bad writing. If you know you're boring people, you should probably change what you're writing)) to my readers, I am an atheist. It is not a stand I have come to simply out of a desire to rebel against any specific social order, and it is definitely not so I can proclaim it. I was raised Buddhist (though that is debatable. More of raised Chinese. I wasn't really educated on Buddhist principles. Although I've picked up some over the years), and in primary school I tried being Christian (-GASP- (shock and horror) yeah it happened). The reason why I essentially stopped believing in Buddhism was that I couldn't really believe in the concept of becoming enlightened through removing craving (in any form). I haven't gone through it, so frankly I can't say if they are right or not, but I can safely say I would not wish to. With regards to trying to be Christian, I actually seriously considered it. Eventually I concluded that the reasoning did not make sense TO ME (this is important because it may make sense to others. I cannot judge because there is no way to confirm that everyone's minds work in the same way, or even whether other people have minds at all (this is solipsism). Or maybe my own reasoning is inadequate. Regardless, this is besides the point) and so I stopped believing in it. After reading arguments for both sides over the years, I've decided that it is much more likely that there is no God. Note that my view is not that there is definitely no God, but that it is impossible to prove that there is a God, and that it is highly unlikely. Of course, you are free to believe what you want, since, as mentioned previously, my reasoning may be inadequate, or simply just that our minds work differently. 


Second, I do not believe in moral objectivism. I think that morality is a relative concept, dependent on the society in which one lives and was raised in. DISCLAIMER: Just because I say that nothing is intrinsically wrong (since I said morality is not objective), DOES NOT mean that I condone it. For instance, I may say that killing is not intrinsically and universally wrong, since it is only wrong relative to human society (Lions don't seem to have a problem with it), but it DOES NOT mean that I condone killing. In fact, for all my reasoning and all that, my morality is actually rooted in an irrational adherence to what my feelings tell me is right (which, in most situations, are congruent with societal notions of right and wrong), which I suppose ultimately comes down to social conditioning. Interesting.


Ooh I remembered what I wanted to say (see above if this line is confusing). Philosophy is boring if everyone agrees. I would really like to be able to talk to someone about philosophy and have them disagree with VALID ARGUMENTS. Most of the fun of Philosophy is in debate anyway. It is somewhat annoying (yet strangely satisfying), and does get dreadfully dull when I argue for determinism by presenting arguments and citing relevant analogies, to hear, "Yeah, I think so too". At least tell me why you think so too (unless you happen to have the exact same line of reasoning.)


Abrupt ending because I can't think of what to write for the moment and I'm kind of sleepy. There is a significant chunk of text to wade through already, anyway.

K I'm back. So, haven't posted in a while, but believe me, I tried. I made like 4 or 5 drafts over the past few months but either stopped because it got too weird (I have one sitting around being nostalgic and shit) or because I ran out of things to say, and I felt there wasn't enough content (readers of this blog will recall that my posts are basically walls of text). Also one where I wrote like pages and pages of shit and the draft wasn't saved. As I recall it was about Lord of the Rings.

Anyway. I suddenly recalled that last year I found my Might and Magic 6 disc and tried to go back to play it again. Now, MM6 is a pretty significant game for me. I think it was my first RPG, or at least that I could remember. I was really young when I played it and it was a really great game. So I reinstall it thinking to play through the whole thing again, but guess what, it ended up being rather disappointing. The controls were rather annoying (arrow keys to move?! no WASD?!), graphics were, naturally, pretty lousy (although I expected that the graphics wouldn't be too good, I thought it would be better) and the game just didn't have the feel to it. But the thing is, it's not a bad game. In fact, for its time, it was the equivalent of Skyrim today. Okay maybe not, but still a pretty great game. Still, I wish I hadn't reinstalled it and played it because overexposure to more modern games have pretty much made me used to them, so I tend to find older games less interesting because of the different interface and sometimes graphics, though usually I'm okay with poorer graphics. I would rather that this game had remained perfect in my memory as an awesome RPG rather than just a game with poor (w.r.t. gamers nowadays) controls and other such annoying things. I mean, frankly, when you're playing games where you can just pick up something on the street and throw it at the city guard, then run to another town and proceed to rob a house, MM6 doesn't seem like much.

2 key points here.
Firstly, we do tend to remember the positive parts of our experiences and forget the negative parts. Though it's been proven that we store scary or traumatic memories better, I doubt games are scary enough or suck enough to be traumatic. So some things should really just be left in memory, because once you take it out and relive it again, you'll start noticing all the flaws, and it sort of depreciates because of that.

Second, a lot of (so-called) "gamers" nowadays, when playing older games, their first complain (or even comment) is that "THE GRAPHICS SUCK". And they would probably be right, but do remember that everything is relative. Suck graphics to you were ground-breaking 10 years ago. 10 years later when people look at our games they will say too that our graphics suck. More importantly, GRAPHICS DO NOT MAKE A GAME. Good graphics does not equal a good game, and bad graphics do not equal a bad game. Case in point: Dark Messiah of Might and Magic was released a few years ago. Fairly decent graphics, but criticised heavily and in my opinion was a pretty poor game as well. They had a few things going, such as a somewhat fresh combat system, but it got repetitive, and it seemed like the developers were so giddy with excitement over their "innovations" that every chance they got, they tried to draw attention to it or maximize it. The result is grills with spikes on them in every possible location where you can have a battle, because you can kick enemies on to them. The storyline was also devastatingly linear for an RPG (although it was actually an action game) and characters were meh, with most of them simply being annoying or just stupid (doing things like getting stuck on a SINGLE STEP on a flight of stairs.) Lots of bugs too. So it had good graphics, but fairly meh. Compare this to a game such as Baldur's Gate. First, a graphics comparison:

Dark Messiah:


Baldur's Gate:


Admittedly, not a super fair comparison because they're somewhat different genre, (Action Game vs RPG) but that's actually besides the point. Now, Baldur's Gate has what we would now consider pretty lousy graphics, especially when you have Skyrim:

(Image is too big and my blog space doesn't do it justice, check it out here)

However, I've actually played through Baldur's Gate and despite being released in 1998 (That's right, the game is 14 years old) it is actually one of the best games I've ever played. I realise at this point non-gamers may start to get bored so I'll spare you the details (there are a lot. ask me about it if you care).

My point, ultimately, is that graphics are negligible in a game. Gameplay is what is important. It should be obvious actually. I mean, Game -> Gameplay. Not exactly rocket science.

Back to my main point (didn't even realise I was digressing there), on old games. I think (and I am stealing this chunk here from a draft I wrote awhile ago. ALSO, PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN TL;DR -ING CAN START READING FROM THIS POINT ONWARDS)  "I guess ultimately why I feel happy when I think of *A game which I will not name* (naise, it rhymes), and why I feel nostalgic, is because it was representative of that time in life when everything was easier and relaxing. No stress. I go to school, slack through the day, come back home, shower and game. I had so much freedom then. I couldn't think of a time when I had to tell anyone "I'm not free that day". Now life is still easy, as compared to the life of someone living in, for example, a third world country on $1 a day, but it wasn't as easy as it was before. And now we have more stress. Studies and other stuff we have to think about, consequences that are permanent, people who will remember a grudge rather than saying "don't friend you already" and then play with you a few days later."

I suppose what I'm trying to say is, life really was better when you were younger (well, duh.) but you don't really realise it until you progress to the next stage of life. I suppose when we graduate, go through uni (or not) and transit into working adult life, we will look back on our teenage days and think of how slack it was too. And ultimately I think it is important that we retain some of our childishness (the positive parts, not the negative parts) as we grow up. I know, this has been said many many times, and a lot of you will agree and say yeah, that seems like a good idea. But really, stop for a moment, think about it carefully and consider if that's what you're doing. The aspects of being a child, which I think (therefore you may have differing views) are worth keeping, are not the immaturity or naivete of a child, but the open-mindedness and simplicity. Again, this sounds very fluffy, but actually try to make it work. When you see a person jumping around, when there's a perfectly good path to walk on, and this guy is climbing, or jumping or whatever, do you think "lame" or "childish" (probably not, you people will probably think parkour, but that's not it, and neither is it the point)? Do you stop to consider, when was the last time you did something like that? If it was very long ago, why did you stop? Why did you stop living life as a child does? Children have the most fun, don't they? Admittedly, yes, you have to make way for adult life, but don't eliminate, compromise, if you are in fact willing to retain your inner child. Don't make excuses for yourself like "I have no time" or some such nonsense. Time is always there, and if you're willing to grasp it, you will have it.

Okay that last paragraph sounded very fluffy and idealistic (the common definition, not the philosophical one), but actually read it, think about it, and maybe if you agree try to apply it. I'd hate for people to read my posts and like just treat it like the "philosophical" shit people post on facebook and go like, "awww" or "that's nice". It's easy to read someone's blog post and say, "that's nice". It's easy to say, "I'm gonna do this" and forget about it by next week. But actually think about what is being said. Ask yourself whether you agree. Why or why not? If you don't agree, what is your view? Ask yourself these questions every time a claim is made. Btw this like, helps you with GP also, so, added benefit from reading my blog yeah? Anyway if my writing always sounds fluffy or idealistic, it is because I'm trying to establish an overarching philosophy. The more general you get (the bigger an army you have, lol jk. K, sorry, not funny.) then the more vague you have to be to encompass more fields, and so it starts to sound idealistic.

Okay this blog post seems rather long so, in conclusion:

1. Positive memories are better left as memories lest they become tarnished by reality.
2. Graphics do not make a game
3. Life is better when you're younger; in other news, try to retain your inner child.
4. Think critically when someone states a claim or stand.

Last word is, I hope that, starting with my readers (All 3 of you. Lol jk I don't know how many readers I have), we can become more intellectual and think more, so that when I want to talk philosophy or something I actually have someone to talk to. Admittedly, somewhat selfish, in that the motivation for my wanting you guys to think more is so that I have someone to talk to, but you cannot deny that being more intellectual is actually a benefit for you as well. If you have nothing to get started on, Google Idealism vs. Realism and consider your personal stand on this issue, and support it with valid reasoning or examples (or both. Both are cool.)

And finally (I have been dragging this post a bit haven't I) I apologise if this post is a little substandard cos I really had nothing much to write about and just tried to squeeze out a post. More content to come in the near future.