K, here comes an update. Unlike all my previous updates I don't actually have any ideas in mind when I start writing this time so bear with me if it becomes non sequitur. Also I'm kinda tired but you know, I'm an awesome blogger so I push through the fatigue to bring you the fantabulous blog posts you love and sometimes (but not always) deserve.
I won't talk about exam results because, you know, some people like theirs, some people don't. And it's already done with so no point whining or bragging about it anymore, unless you're gonna rub it in the faces of people with giant egos, in which case, rub away. Just one point I wanna mention though. A lot of people instantly start comparing their results to others the moment they discover their marks. While this is not an inherently wrong act (or rather I would say, it's not wrong at all), I just wanted to mention that I don't think we should bother. When you compare your marks with others, one of two things will happen. They score better than you, and you feel bad(the "if they could do it, why can't I" sometimes appears), or they score worse than you, and you feel good (the "Hah, pwn3d.") Either way, your marks won't change, so you're still at the same level, and you may end up feeling different, for better or worse. Even if for better, it's still a very superficial kind of satisfaction, at least to me, to score higher than someone for a test. Because the fact is that, unless you are the 1st or last, there will be people who score better and people who score worse, and it's just pointless to compare, because I can simply find people whom I know will score worse, compare my scores to theirs and think "Wow I'm actually pretty good." I feel then, that instead of comparing with others, why not just compare with yourself? Think about it, it's the ONLY fair competition, so to speak. Other people may have started off smarter or stupider, they may have had more or less help, more or less sleep before the exam, they may have studied more or less. So many variables, all of which were beyond your control. If instead you compare with yourself, assuming that your behaviour is more or less consistent, then it's the most ideal comparison because everything is constant except the test itself. Furthermore, would you feel better if for example you scored 80 this test when you scored 60 for the previous test, knowing that you improved by 20 marks, or would you feel better if the top student in class happened to slip and drop to 59, and you maintain at 60 and "beat" them? I don't know about you guys, but I find no joy in scoring better than others when there is no improvement in myself. Knowing that I have improved by 20 marks, even if it means that I am still losing to the same people, is more satisfying than knowing that I have beaten them, because ultimately it doesn't matter that you beat someone at a test in JC. And when you compare with others, where does your motivation come from? It stems from the need, the desire to be better than others. In other words, your motivation is external, because without anyone to beat, you would not need to be better than them, and you stop progressing and improving because you lack the motivation to work harder. If instead you compare with yourself, your motivation comes from within, the desire to better yourself simply to be better than you were the day before. Since you always exist as long as you exist, your motivation will always exist as well. As long as there is room for improvement, and you can tell yourself, "I can do better than that", then you have motivation to work harder and improve. The motivation to be better than yourself is the greatest motivation you can have(I mean, not counting dramatic hollywood-esque scenarios where the love of your life is hanging off a cliff. That's different because it's specific to one event, whereas the motivation I am talking about is for your whole life in general). Because every time you best yourself, you have something new to work towards. You can always work to be better than yourself. Even the strongest man in the world would have to put in effort to be better than himself, as compared to all the billions of people who are not as strong as him.
TL;DR version of the above chunk: Don't compete with others, simply compare yourself with yourself, and aim to be better than you were the day before.
At this point I should remind you that as this blog deals with philosophy sometimes, please don't take it as a manual. The things I write on this blog are merely my own musings and thoughts. They are NOT meant to be a guideline for you to live your life. You live your life the way you live it, not the way people tell you you should live it. That being said, I like to think that some of the things I write are in fact good pieces of advice. Still, it is up to you to heed it or, if you disagree, to NOT heed it. Also, btw, if anyone ever disagrees with my points, please comment/tag and let me know. Monologuing is rather boring sometimes(though what with my ego I do enjoy listening to, or rather I would say, reading myself talk/think) and discussion is always welcome on this blog. As long as you hold back the personal attacks and objectively argue your point, I would love to hear what you guys think.
Now, onward. I was shown this epic video the day before:
I'm not a dancer, I don't know shit about dancing, but tell me if that wasn't some m4d 5killz in that vid. Also, the music is awesomesauce. K, got nothing more to say about this vid except, check out his other vids.
I have been informed that some of you guys turn off your speakers/headphones/earphones when you visit my blog. -.- K first thing to note is that the music I share on my blog nowadays is generally not the kind that most people will dislike. I.e. I don't use metal, not even hard rock, I don't use gangsta rap and I have yet to use dubstep. Secondly, the music is AWESOMESAUCE. So please, do listen to the music.
Got linked, so, some epic Drum n Bass coming up.
Seriously, the vocal sample in this one is eargasmic. Also, if anyone can find out where it's from I will be eternally grateful. Or, k maybe only grateful for awhile. But still.
K I was gonna continue but I'm really tired so maybe I'll write more soon. My blogging is more or less constant at about 1 post/month. If I miss posts then usually I post multiple times in a month. Kthxbai.
P.S. the new Title section, with the pictures, naise right? Rather than "K, Can", you get a series of 3 pictures that express more or less the same idea. Marketing, lol: making people feel like the product is different when in fact it's about as different as pop music nowadays and shit.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
So my dreams keep getting weirder and weirder. But maybe it's the fever.
Anyway, combo-broke my health streak, so down with the flu, after a few months. And before that it was like a year or something. Symptoms are fever, sore throat, occasional blocked nose, lethargy and sometimes general confusion. Sucks. These few days I'll probably appear dazed and confused so if I behave strangely or anything do ignore it kthx.
Saw someone's facebook status and it triggered my memory about a post I was gonna write a while back. Then again I may have posted about this topic before, but I can't remember it now. If I have just bear with me.
So it's safe to say that almost 100% of my readers are students? In view of that, here's a question: why are you in school? I don't feel like our generation thinks about this enough. Why are you in school? For the certificate? Because there's nothing else you can do so far? I don't feel like you can properly study and learn unless you can answer that question. If you don't know why you're in school, how would you motivate yourself to study.
I'm talking about this because most people I see just seem to go through school in a daze and shit. My idea of education is to learn how to learn, not to memorise stuff. Granted, the school doesn't really do that a lot(which does put a damper on my attitude towards school), but I do still try to go to school for that purpose. I don't think it's right to go to school expecting to be given information and then just absorbing that information. You don't need to go to school for that. You have Google and textbooks. I think the point of school is, in the words of an overused analogy, to teach you how to fish, rather than to give you fish. In view of that then, what is YOUR purpose for going to school? I don't know if this is accurate, but I'm guessing that many of you are doing this just to get the certificate at the end of your JC/Uni life. But then again, so what if you get that cert? If all you did was memorise a whole bunch of stuff to obtain that cert, without really picking up all those other essential skills on the way, what use are you to anyone? The certificate, when people came up with that idea, was supposed to represent the fact that the bearer of that certificate has been through education, and has all those skills that they're supposed to have. But I feel that more and more, students have been neglecting those skills. Rather than learning how to learn, we've become more focused on remembering certain things just to get that A in an exam, and then we forget it after the exam. It may not be our fault - after all, schools have become more focused on these things as well, all for the sake of competition, but what sort of impact does this have on future generations? Will we have a generation of people who only know how to regurgitate information? Who cannot innovate, or cannot learn on their own? Time will tell.
To add on, I don't feel like it's wrong or anything to be aiming for that cert at the end of school life. It's just, how you're getting that cert. Although personally I can't stand studying any more. It's getting very boring. Sure, the Uni cert gets you a job with more money, but do you really want/need all that money? I have been told that my current belief that I would not strongly desire to be affluent in the future will prove to be erroneous, but I think it'll stick.
Anyway, combo-broke my health streak, so down with the flu, after a few months. And before that it was like a year or something. Symptoms are fever, sore throat, occasional blocked nose, lethargy and sometimes general confusion. Sucks. These few days I'll probably appear dazed and confused so if I behave strangely or anything do ignore it kthx.
Saw someone's facebook status and it triggered my memory about a post I was gonna write a while back. Then again I may have posted about this topic before, but I can't remember it now. If I have just bear with me.
So it's safe to say that almost 100% of my readers are students? In view of that, here's a question: why are you in school? I don't feel like our generation thinks about this enough. Why are you in school? For the certificate? Because there's nothing else you can do so far? I don't feel like you can properly study and learn unless you can answer that question. If you don't know why you're in school, how would you motivate yourself to study.
I'm talking about this because most people I see just seem to go through school in a daze and shit. My idea of education is to learn how to learn, not to memorise stuff. Granted, the school doesn't really do that a lot(which does put a damper on my attitude towards school), but I do still try to go to school for that purpose. I don't think it's right to go to school expecting to be given information and then just absorbing that information. You don't need to go to school for that. You have Google and textbooks. I think the point of school is, in the words of an overused analogy, to teach you how to fish, rather than to give you fish. In view of that then, what is YOUR purpose for going to school? I don't know if this is accurate, but I'm guessing that many of you are doing this just to get the certificate at the end of your JC/Uni life. But then again, so what if you get that cert? If all you did was memorise a whole bunch of stuff to obtain that cert, without really picking up all those other essential skills on the way, what use are you to anyone? The certificate, when people came up with that idea, was supposed to represent the fact that the bearer of that certificate has been through education, and has all those skills that they're supposed to have. But I feel that more and more, students have been neglecting those skills. Rather than learning how to learn, we've become more focused on remembering certain things just to get that A in an exam, and then we forget it after the exam. It may not be our fault - after all, schools have become more focused on these things as well, all for the sake of competition, but what sort of impact does this have on future generations? Will we have a generation of people who only know how to regurgitate information? Who cannot innovate, or cannot learn on their own? Time will tell.
To add on, I don't feel like it's wrong or anything to be aiming for that cert at the end of school life. It's just, how you're getting that cert. Although personally I can't stand studying any more. It's getting very boring. Sure, the Uni cert gets you a job with more money, but do you really want/need all that money? I have been told that my current belief that I would not strongly desire to be affluent in the future will prove to be erroneous, but I think it'll stick.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Birthday Update
K here comes the long awaited birthday update. Some cock-up with blogger zzz.
3rd August 2011
Firstly, thanks to Ventures for the taupoks and the burgercake(Burger+cake = Bake?!)
Secondly, thanks to everyone else who remembered it was my birthday and wished me happy birthday, even if you didn't get me a present(it's alright).
Thirdly, thanks to everyone else who didn't remember it was my birthday because now I've seen/heard the word birthday too many times and it's starting to look/sound weird.
I started this post off having a lot of things to say but I kinda forgot, so instead I'll just end of with this video. It was on my facebook page but it sort of got buried beneath all the birthday wishes. If the video is too small view it on Youtube please. It's hilarious actually, so make sure to watch the whole thing. The beginning isn't as funny.
So once again thanks for everything, guys. xD
8th August
Today's National Day Celebration was quite abysmal. The emcee in the red shirt was bloody annoying. Actually, everyone should have noticed, but if miraculously you didn't, I'm sayin'. Bloody annoying. People should speak to her in that accent and tone, see if she gets pissed off. I understand if you're trying to speak good English but people have proved time and time again that you DO NOT NEED AN ACCENT to speak good English. Tone is important, but there's no need to over-dramatise it. Even on National Day. Or the National Day celebrations.
So anyway, since we're talking about National Day, you can almost definitely expect me to throw in a cynical post. Not in the sense of the Greek philosophers, but more of the modern dictionary definition of cynical. Every National Day, people will go "I love Singapore", blah blah blah and all sorts of patriotic proclamations. While that is just simply fantastic, how many of you truly mean it? It's one thing to say something. It's another to believe in it and live it. It's another as well, to make yourself believe that you believe it and are living it. I'll give you an example.
When I go training, I'll look at a gap from afar and say to myself, "I can jump that". That's the proclamation. As I'm standing next to the gap, I'm still thinking, "I can totally jump that". That's making myself believe I can do it. But when it comes time to jump, I can't do it. Either I think the gap is too far, or I'm afraid I'll jump too far or lose control, and fall over the edge, or I'm just scared. And that's realising the self-deceit. And here's the crazy thing. You don't realise that you're lying to yourself until it comes time to validate or prove those lies. Because otherwise it wouldn't work. So yes, you can tell yourself something, you may even really believe in it. If you truly and absolutely do believe in it, good. Fantastic. But from time to time, you may want to ask yourself, "Am I really thinking like this? Do I really believe it to be so?" and you will find that maybe your perspective will change. I'm not saying to doubt yourself. No, self-confidence is an important part of living a happy life. But what I'm saying is to challenge your own beliefs. It's easy enough to challenge others' beliefs. Can you challenge your own? Do you dare to tear down your own lies? This doesn't apply only to National Day proclamations of loving your home, where you grew up etc. This applies to your everyday life. When you say something, do you really believe it?
When you challenge yourself rigorously, physically and mentally, then you will discover a more fulfilling life, or at least, that is my experience. And when you discover your own lies, and find your true beliefs, then you can lead a life that is more true to who you are. The value of such is of course debatable, but I suppose the general consensus is that being yourself is just wonderful, what with so many teenagers going on and on about it in their blogs(irony lulz), twitter, facebook etc. I don't claim to have much experience, but based on the 17 short years that I've lived, I've found out that being yourself, being who you really are, is at the same time so easy, and so difficult to do.
Speaking of challenging yourself, I find that much of today's youth, especially you privileged lot living in cities and urbanised areas, are way too comfortable. You're living in sheer luxury, but you don't know it. So, as I'm in sort of a nice-guy mood today, here's a challenge to you. How strong is your willpower? Are you able to step out of your comfort zone? It doesn't have to be something big; you don't have to go and climb Mt. Kinabalu tomorrow or anything, but a sufficiently strong challenge. If you're a gamer, how long can you go without gaming? If you drink coffee all the time, like me, how long can you go without caffeine? Many of the activities we indulge in are actually bad for us, either physically, mentally or both. Caffeine is a drug, and like many drugs, you can get addicted to it. And there are withdrawal symptoms. Have you ever heard of people who experience headaches just because they didn't have their cup of coffee that morning? Or people who fall sick when they don't have their usual coffee break? Those are withdrawal symptoms. And people who say that drinking coffee doesn't help them stay awake? That just means their body has built up a tolerance to caffeine. So, how able are you to overcome your own mental barriers?
My own challenge will be to try and go two weeks without taking any caffeine, and if that works out well maybe I'll take it further. This effectively means no coffee, no tea, no milo, no energy drinks(most of them, anyway). Once I figure out what to drink in the morning if I don't drink coffee, tea or milo, I'll start this challenge. So come up with your own challenge today. Challenge yourself and you will find the limits of your willpower, and maybe even push beyond it. Also, do tell me about it and your experiences as you try to complete your challenge. I'm rather curious to see how this works out.
Of course judging by past experiences the odds are that none of you guys will do anything I mention in this post, so I'm ready for disappointment.
Here:
3rd August 2011
Firstly, thanks to Ventures for the taupoks and the burgercake(Burger+cake = Bake?!)
Secondly, thanks to everyone else who remembered it was my birthday and wished me happy birthday, even if you didn't get me a present(it's alright).
Thirdly, thanks to everyone else who didn't remember it was my birthday because now I've seen/heard the word birthday too many times and it's starting to look/sound weird.
I started this post off having a lot of things to say but I kinda forgot, so instead I'll just end of with this video. It was on my facebook page but it sort of got buried beneath all the birthday wishes. If the video is too small view it on Youtube please. It's hilarious actually, so make sure to watch the whole thing. The beginning isn't as funny.
So once again thanks for everything, guys. xD
8th August
Today's National Day Celebration was quite abysmal. The emcee in the red shirt was bloody annoying. Actually, everyone should have noticed, but if miraculously you didn't, I'm sayin'. Bloody annoying. People should speak to her in that accent and tone, see if she gets pissed off. I understand if you're trying to speak good English but people have proved time and time again that you DO NOT NEED AN ACCENT to speak good English. Tone is important, but there's no need to over-dramatise it. Even on National Day. Or the National Day celebrations.
So anyway, since we're talking about National Day, you can almost definitely expect me to throw in a cynical post. Not in the sense of the Greek philosophers, but more of the modern dictionary definition of cynical. Every National Day, people will go "I love Singapore", blah blah blah and all sorts of patriotic proclamations. While that is just simply fantastic, how many of you truly mean it? It's one thing to say something. It's another to believe in it and live it. It's another as well, to make yourself believe that you believe it and are living it. I'll give you an example.
When I go training, I'll look at a gap from afar and say to myself, "I can jump that". That's the proclamation. As I'm standing next to the gap, I'm still thinking, "I can totally jump that". That's making myself believe I can do it. But when it comes time to jump, I can't do it. Either I think the gap is too far, or I'm afraid I'll jump too far or lose control, and fall over the edge, or I'm just scared. And that's realising the self-deceit. And here's the crazy thing. You don't realise that you're lying to yourself until it comes time to validate or prove those lies. Because otherwise it wouldn't work. So yes, you can tell yourself something, you may even really believe in it. If you truly and absolutely do believe in it, good. Fantastic. But from time to time, you may want to ask yourself, "Am I really thinking like this? Do I really believe it to be so?" and you will find that maybe your perspective will change. I'm not saying to doubt yourself. No, self-confidence is an important part of living a happy life. But what I'm saying is to challenge your own beliefs. It's easy enough to challenge others' beliefs. Can you challenge your own? Do you dare to tear down your own lies? This doesn't apply only to National Day proclamations of loving your home, where you grew up etc. This applies to your everyday life. When you say something, do you really believe it?
When you challenge yourself rigorously, physically and mentally, then you will discover a more fulfilling life, or at least, that is my experience. And when you discover your own lies, and find your true beliefs, then you can lead a life that is more true to who you are. The value of such is of course debatable, but I suppose the general consensus is that being yourself is just wonderful, what with so many teenagers going on and on about it in their blogs(irony lulz), twitter, facebook etc. I don't claim to have much experience, but based on the 17 short years that I've lived, I've found out that being yourself, being who you really are, is at the same time so easy, and so difficult to do.
Speaking of challenging yourself, I find that much of today's youth, especially you privileged lot living in cities and urbanised areas, are way too comfortable. You're living in sheer luxury, but you don't know it. So, as I'm in sort of a nice-guy mood today, here's a challenge to you. How strong is your willpower? Are you able to step out of your comfort zone? It doesn't have to be something big; you don't have to go and climb Mt. Kinabalu tomorrow or anything, but a sufficiently strong challenge. If you're a gamer, how long can you go without gaming? If you drink coffee all the time, like me, how long can you go without caffeine? Many of the activities we indulge in are actually bad for us, either physically, mentally or both. Caffeine is a drug, and like many drugs, you can get addicted to it. And there are withdrawal symptoms. Have you ever heard of people who experience headaches just because they didn't have their cup of coffee that morning? Or people who fall sick when they don't have their usual coffee break? Those are withdrawal symptoms. And people who say that drinking coffee doesn't help them stay awake? That just means their body has built up a tolerance to caffeine. So, how able are you to overcome your own mental barriers?
My own challenge will be to try and go two weeks without taking any caffeine, and if that works out well maybe I'll take it further. This effectively means no coffee, no tea, no milo, no energy drinks(most of them, anyway). Once I figure out what to drink in the morning if I don't drink coffee, tea or milo, I'll start this challenge. So come up with your own challenge today. Challenge yourself and you will find the limits of your willpower, and maybe even push beyond it. Also, do tell me about it and your experiences as you try to complete your challenge. I'm rather curious to see how this works out.
Of course judging by past experiences the odds are that none of you guys will do anything I mention in this post, so I'm ready for disappointment.
Here:
Friday, July 8, 2011
On the Consumption of Diplopoda.
In light of recent events, I present to you this handy side by side comparison of millipedes to one common delicacy many of us(but not me) enjoy --- Crabs. Not the parasitic louse, mind you, but the crustacean. Without further ado, let us proceed.
Millipedes - Taste bad raw.
Crabs - Taste bad raw.
Millipedes - Taste questionable cooked
Crabs - Taste questionable cooked.
Millipedes - Have many legs
Crabs - Have many legs
Millipedes - Have no endoskeleton
Crabs - Have no endoskeleton
Millipedes - Have an exoskeleton made of chitin
Crabs - Have an exoskeleton made of chitin
Millipedes - Have two antennae.
Crabs - Have two antennae.
Millipedes - Good source of protein
Crabs - Good source of protein
Millipedes - Stink.
Crabs - Also stink.
Millipedes - Found everywhere on land
Crabs - Found everywhere in the water.
Millipedes - Slow-moving
Crabs - Slow-moving
So as you can see, crabs and millipedes are rather similar, so really, if you eat crabs, don't diss people eating millipedes. But surely there are differences, you say. Of course.
Millipedes - Curl into a ball when poked.
Crabs - Tear off your finger when poked.
Millipedes - Cannot feel pain (according to a study by Norwegian scientists)
Crabs - Can feel pain (according to recent studies)
Millipedes - Require only your bare hands to catch. In fact, it's more of foraging than catching.
Crabs - Requires hours of waiting with a cage or walking around in water with a spear.
Millipedes - Will not be stolen by eager survival-mates
Crabs - Can be eaten by eager survival-mates when you're not looking.
Millipedes - Not slang for anything negative, and has not as of yet been associated with anything negative.
Crabs - Also the term for a parasitic louse that lives in pubic hair and gives you a nasty infection.
Millipedes - If uneaten, can be used as bait to catch fish.
Crabs - If uneaten, useless.
Millipedes - Can be juggled.
Crabs - Will tear your hand off when juggled.
Millipedes - Can be stored for future eating, or as a crunchy on-the-road snack.
Crabs - Are a pain in the ass to carry around.
So as you can see, there are many differences between crabs and millipedes as well, but would you look at that --- these differences show that it is less tedious, dangerous, and more humane to eat millipedes, which are more useful than crabs even when not eaten, and don't bring up any disgusting imagery.
Millipedes - Taste bad raw.
Crabs - Taste bad raw.
Millipedes - Taste questionable cooked
Crabs - Taste questionable cooked.
Millipedes - Have many legs
Crabs - Have many legs
Millipedes - Have no endoskeleton
Crabs - Have no endoskeleton
Millipedes - Have an exoskeleton made of chitin
Crabs - Have an exoskeleton made of chitin
Millipedes - Have two antennae.
Crabs - Have two antennae.
Millipedes - Good source of protein
Crabs - Good source of protein
Millipedes - Stink.
Crabs - Also stink.
Millipedes - Found everywhere on land
Crabs - Found everywhere in the water.
Millipedes - Slow-moving
Crabs - Slow-moving
So as you can see, crabs and millipedes are rather similar, so really, if you eat crabs, don't diss people eating millipedes. But surely there are differences, you say. Of course.
Millipedes - Curl into a ball when poked.
Crabs - Tear off your finger when poked.
Millipedes - Cannot feel pain (according to a study by Norwegian scientists)
Crabs - Can feel pain (according to recent studies)
Millipedes - Require only your bare hands to catch. In fact, it's more of foraging than catching.
Crabs - Requires hours of waiting with a cage or walking around in water with a spear.
Millipedes - Will not be stolen by eager survival-mates
Crabs - Can be eaten by eager survival-mates when you're not looking.
Millipedes - Not slang for anything negative, and has not as of yet been associated with anything negative.
Crabs - Also the term for a parasitic louse that lives in pubic hair and gives you a nasty infection.
Millipedes - If uneaten, can be used as bait to catch fish.
Crabs - If uneaten, useless.
Millipedes - Can be juggled.
Crabs - Will tear your hand off when juggled.
Millipedes - Can be stored for future eating, or as a crunchy on-the-road snack.
Crabs - Are a pain in the ass to carry around.
So as you can see, there are many differences between crabs and millipedes as well, but would you look at that --- these differences show that it is less tedious, dangerous, and more humane to eat millipedes, which are more useful than crabs even when not eaten, and don't bring up any disgusting imagery.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Giant Cheese Taco
So, what up? Today's blog title isn't random, go google it, I DARE YOU. Warning: It's NSFW. VERY NSFW. You probably shouldn't have eaten anything for the past 30 mins. And hopefully you don't plan on eating for the next 30 mins either. If you value your stomach's contents, or if you're squeamish, don't google it, whatever you do. Of course, now that I've said don't do it, the negative suggestion will just keep bouncing around inside your head and make you feel like doing it more. So don't say I didn't warn you.
So check out this song by Aerosmith. "Livin' On the Edge". It basically talks about some social issues in the world, I'll leave you to interpret the lyrics yourself, they are as follows:
NOTE: Before you watch the vid, I should inform you that there is a 20 second or so shot of a naked Steven Tyler just covering his crotch with his hand.
Livin' On The Edge Lyrics:
There's somethin' wrong with the world today
I don't know what it is
Something's wrong with our eyes
We're seeing things in a different way
And TC knows it ain't His
It sure ain't no surprise
We're livin' on the edge
We're livin' on the edge
We're livin' on the edge
We're livin' on the edge
There's somethin' wrong with the world today
The light bulb's gettin' dim
There's meltdown in the sky
If you can judge a wise man
By the color of his skin
Then mister you're a better man that I
We're livin' on the edge
You can't help yourself from fallin'
Livin' on the edge
You can't help yourself at all
Livin' on the edge
You can't stop yourself from fallin'
Livin' on the edge
Tell me what you think about your sit-u-a-tion
Complication - aggravation
Is getting to you
If chicken little tells you that the sky is fallin'
Even if it wasn't would you still come crawlin'
Back again?
I bet you would my friend
Again & again & again & again & again
(solo)
Tell me what you think about your sit-u-a-tion
Complication - aggravation
Is getting to you
If chicken little tells you that the sky is fallin'
Even if it was would would you still come crawlin'
Back again?
I bet you would my friend
Again & again & again & again
There's something right with the world today
And everybody knows it's wrong
But we can tell 'em no or we could let it go
But I would rather be a hanging on
Livin' On the Edge
You can't help yourself from fallin'
Livin' On the Edge
You can't help yourself at all
Livin' On the Edge
You can't stop yourself from fallin'
Livin' On the Edge
Livin' On the Edge
Livin' On the Edge
Livin' On the Edge
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Livin' On the Edge
You can't help yourself from fallin'
Livin' On the Edge
You can't help yourself at all
Livin' on the edge
You can't stop yourself from fallin'
Livin' on the edge
Livin' on the edge
You can't help yourself
You can't help yourself
Livin' On the Edge
You can't help yourself at all
Livin' On the Edge
You can't help yourself
You can't help yourself
Livin' On the Edge
You can't help yourself
You can't help yourself
Livin' On the Edge
You can't help yourself from fallin'
Livin' On the Edge
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, you got to that now
So check out this song by Aerosmith. "Livin' On the Edge". It basically talks about some social issues in the world, I'll leave you to interpret the lyrics yourself, they are as follows:
NOTE: Before you watch the vid, I should inform you that there is a 20 second or so shot of a naked Steven Tyler just covering his crotch with his hand.
Livin' On The Edge Lyrics:
There's somethin' wrong with the world today
I don't know what it is
Something's wrong with our eyes
We're seeing things in a different way
And TC knows it ain't His
It sure ain't no surprise
We're livin' on the edge
We're livin' on the edge
We're livin' on the edge
We're livin' on the edge
There's somethin' wrong with the world today
The light bulb's gettin' dim
There's meltdown in the sky
If you can judge a wise man
By the color of his skin
Then mister you're a better man that I
We're livin' on the edge
You can't help yourself from fallin'
Livin' on the edge
You can't help yourself at all
Livin' on the edge
You can't stop yourself from fallin'
Livin' on the edge
Tell me what you think about your sit-u-a-tion
Complication - aggravation
Is getting to you
If chicken little tells you that the sky is fallin'
Even if it wasn't would you still come crawlin'
Back again?
I bet you would my friend
Again & again & again & again & again
(solo)
Tell me what you think about your sit-u-a-tion
Complication - aggravation
Is getting to you
If chicken little tells you that the sky is fallin'
Even if it was would would you still come crawlin'
Back again?
I bet you would my friend
Again & again & again & again
There's something right with the world today
And everybody knows it's wrong
But we can tell 'em no or we could let it go
But I would rather be a hanging on
Livin' On the Edge
You can't help yourself from fallin'
Livin' On the Edge
You can't help yourself at all
Livin' On the Edge
You can't stop yourself from fallin'
Livin' On the Edge
Livin' On the Edge
Livin' On the Edge
Livin' On the Edge
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Livin' On the Edge
You can't help yourself from fallin'
Livin' On the Edge
You can't help yourself at all
Livin' on the edge
You can't stop yourself from fallin'
Livin' on the edge
Livin' on the edge
You can't help yourself
You can't help yourself
Livin' On the Edge
You can't help yourself at all
Livin' On the Edge
You can't help yourself
You can't help yourself
Livin' On the Edge
You can't help yourself
You can't help yourself
Livin' On the Edge
You can't help yourself from fallin'
Livin' On the Edge
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, you got to that now
So anyway the entire post before this point was a draft that I wrote in like March or April. And I'm very serious about not googling Giant Cheese Taco. You do not want to see it.
Anyway, school's been getting boring recently. Not saying it wasn't already but....okay it wasn't, before this year. I actually kinda had fun. But it got boring. I don't know why, maybe because it just is. It's boring and not only that I now have nothing to look forward to. Training under 武坊 is boring and to me kinda useless. Hopefully it gets better soon. In Ventures we're looking forward to Survival Camp but argh two more months to go. Coping well with studies except Econs, because frankly it's more boring than an Oscars acceptance speech that has gone on too long. I get how it might be useful(not many instances where I can apply it though) but at this level it's usefulness is quite limited. And I have no interest in it whatsoever. Not the slightest bit of interest. At all. Zero. Sub-zero, even. Frankly, I have more interest in rocks. Literally. Rocks. As in, the stuff mountains are made out of.
So. Moving on. Recently came across this pic:
Allison Stokke. Hottest woman in the world, and also an amazing athlete. She's a pole vaulter, which just makes her so much more awesome. Apparently I'm lagging a little here because she's been famous for quite awhile now.... Just thought I'd bring this to your attention in case you've never heard of her. Google her! No idea how to pronounce her last name, but I hear reporters pronounce it as "stocky".
Recently finished the Transitions trilogy by R.A. Salvatore, which continues the story of the Companions of the Hall from the aftermath of the war between the allies and the orcs in the Forgotten Realms. For people who keep up with R.A. Salvatore's books(which I assume, in my reader base, are none), Obould Many-Arrows establishes an orc kingdom and makes peace with the dwarves. Luskan devolves into chaos and falls under the control of High Captain Kensidan, who gains power after killing Deudermont(captain of the Sea Sprite), who defeated the Hosttower of the Arcane and seizes the city from the wizards. Losing you guys already, I see. Go read his books. They're good. If you like fantasy. Anyway, in the final book of the trilogy, *spoiler alert, even though I've already leaked tons of spoilers* Catti-brie and Regis DIE. And Bruenor sort of haz a sad. Cadderly, the priest, dies as well. Drizzt gets pissed. Anyway, in the next book involving Drizzt, titled Gauntlgrym, Wulfgar and Bruenor die too. And there go the Companions of the Hall.
Back to non-geeky stuff. Had a very emotionally intense dream. Won't disclose the contents of course. Just understand that it has to do with emotions and it's intense. It's not sexual. I wonder if it's a sign of me becoming more emotionally "mature"? I've always been a little detached(not as much as Junwei) and can seem so-called "immature" at times, but wouldn't it shock you to know I have an emotional side. I just don't tell people(because what's the point?). I'm also somewhat apathetic and that's the way I like it because I don't see the need to get involved with everyone's business. Anyway, it was an interesting dream. But it sort of beat up my thoughts and sent them into a washing machine, because they're all sort of just tumbling around right now, so forgive me if some of what I'm saying makes no sense. And I've always wondered: are emotions an extension of our logical reasoning? Perhaps, hardwired into our brain is a code that contains the programming for our emotions, much like our code for logic. Except, the code for emotion is more complex. Like if logic was a flash game emotions would be the equivalent of the Pentagon's defense system. Maybe that's why it appears to defy logic sometimes. Back to the dream. It felt quite real, and even after waking up, I feel like it could happen. But logically, I know that the chance of it happening would be equivalent to an apple falling on my head and knocking me out as I walked under a tree. Ok we're done here.
What does emotionally mature mean, anyway? From the examples I can think of, it seems to actually suggest that being emotionally mature means overriding your emotions with logic and/or discipline. Which is actually becoming more logically mature isn't it? Kind of a misnomer there. And I'm also interested in how emotions work. Something happens, that triggers your brain to command your body to release certain chemicals that force it to take certain actions. For instance, you're hiking in the jungle, and a tiger jumps out and roars in your face. You instantly release pheromones that convey fear, and you also proceed to shit yourself. Well, okay, fear is simple enough to understand. You see something that poses a danger to you, you command yourself to get away from it. What about things like "love"? I put it in inverted commas because I doubt it's existence as of now, but perhaps I will be proven wrong. Scientists believe that it is induced by chemicals released in the brain. That's gonna be a bit of a problem isn't it? Why, you ask? Well, 2 things.
What does emotionally mature mean, anyway? From the examples I can think of, it seems to actually suggest that being emotionally mature means overriding your emotions with logic and/or discipline. Which is actually becoming more logically mature isn't it? Kind of a misnomer there. And I'm also interested in how emotions work. Something happens, that triggers your brain to command your body to release certain chemicals that force it to take certain actions. For instance, you're hiking in the jungle, and a tiger jumps out and roars in your face. You instantly release pheromones that convey fear, and you also proceed to shit yourself. Well, okay, fear is simple enough to understand. You see something that poses a danger to you, you command yourself to get away from it. What about things like "love"? I put it in inverted commas because I doubt it's existence as of now, but perhaps I will be proven wrong. Scientists believe that it is induced by chemicals released in the brain. That's gonna be a bit of a problem isn't it? Why, you ask? Well, 2 things.
First: Alot of our fluffy beliefs are founded on the assumption that love is this mystical, pure and unstoppable force that compels us to perform heroic acts of self-sacrifice blah blah blah blah.
Second: What if we found a way to induce the release of those chemicals? Suppose you have pills that make your brain release those chemicals. Now, you feed those pills to someone, and their brain does as it is supposed to, and now they're "in love" with you. Would you still treat it the same? Logically, your brain tells you it's the same. The exact same chemicals are being released, provoking the exact same responses, but your emotional side tells you that you so-called "artificially" induced it, making it less real somehow. It's all up to you to decide.
While we're on philosophy, what is altruism? I was thinking about this last year. Altruism is what people usually describe as "doing good without expecting any sort of reward". A crude definition, but it more or less sums up the whole idea. Now, some people do good because other people are watching, and it is socially more acceptable to do good rather than be apathetic. Evolutionary biologists believe this type of behavior occurs because altruism comes at a cost to the person doing the helping, and thus is a form of the handicap principle in action. You can thus sort of argue that this isn't really altruism. Alright, now suppose there's no one else except you and the guy you're helping. The guy is unlikely to ever tell anyone either. Now you help him, and you don't expect him to compensate you or anything. Is this altruism? Yes, you say, definitely! Consider this then. Did you get a warm, fuzzy feeling when you helped him? Did you know that would happen? Of course you did, and of course you did. We've been conditioned since young that altruism is it's own reward(this should set off alarm signals in your head already) and that you'll enjoy a warm fuzzy feeling from helping people. So now, if you do help people for the warm fuzzy feeling, is that not a type of reward? So is it still altruism? Since altruism is defined as doing good without expecting any benefit to the self, we can further argue that true altruism is when you do something good and don't care about it, no? Even if you do a good deed, and your reason was, "because I just felt like it" or "because I wanted to", doing it still brought you a benefit, because you sated your desire to do good, didn't you? So ironically, true altruism would stem from apathy. Because only when you truly don't care and didn't do it for a reason of any sort can you call it altruism, when you use the definition as mentioned above. Of course, practically this is all a little pointless, because what's the point of arguing this is altruism, that isn't blah blah blah if the main point was to encourage people to help other people when they can. I just thought it would be a fun thought exercise.
Personally I've always wondered whether our desire to help and preserve the lives of our fellow humans, even those we don't know, is a result of social conditioning or whether it is some innate "moral" code. Think about it: leaving more people around in the world will only lead to more competitors for resources, and saving the weak will only propagate weak genes in the gene pool, thus compromising our strength as a race and slowing down our evolution. On the other hand, your heart tells you that leaving all these people to die is wrong. Logically, I am all for the pure evolution route: survival of the fittest. Emotionally, I am unable to follow through. How can you, when you know that doing so involves killing millions, possibly billions, of "innocent" people? And therein lies the subject of my interest. Is this reluctance to weed out the weak genes in our gene pool a result of years of social conditioning, growing up in a society where the weak have learnt to utilize concepts like morality and ethics to garner protection from the strong, or is it part of us since our birth? My hypothesis is that because humans are physically weak as individuals(and we are, don't deny it), survival has demanded that we group together and win by strength of numbers. Now, survival requires that we do not live alone, or we die, and this becomes hardwired into our genes as we evolved. To survive in a society, we agree to provide protection and receive protection from others in our group. Prehistorically, this meant the tribe you belonged to, or the village you lived in. However, our genes aren't that specific, and can only tell you not to do harm to other humans, and not specifically which humans. Thus, with the advent of globalisation, we begin to see people who previously we regarded as different from us(thus making them somewhat "inhuman" and hence a race we can have no qualms about vanquishing) as one of "us". Now, our "tribe" is the entire human race around the world, and that is why we see the need to preserve and protect everyone in our tribe. Just my hypothesis, of course.
Well, that was quite a long post and it's like way past 2am. So I'll leave you guys with another song. Before I go though, I would like to state that as usual, my arguments are not perfect, I may sometimes be wrong, and it is your duty as a reader to poke holes in my arguments where there are weaknesses, by posting in the tagboard. Kthxbai
Oasis - Supersonic
Monday, January 17, 2011
Cheeseburger
Hey all, updating here. This post is actually to inform you guys that I've changed my blog url. You should know, actually, since you're here. Just in case you didn't, I did.
It's the beginning of the third week of school, and already I hear some people complaining about stress. Personally, no idea what you guys are talking about. What is this stress you guys keep talking about? It's only been 2 weeks of basic stuff, there is no stress. If anything it's more relaxed than previous years. Stress is when you have 10 hours 'til your Bio exam and you don't know anything. Stress is when you're standing on a ledge high up on a building, about to make the precision jump of your life, and if you mess up, it's 30m of plummeting doom. I mean, sure, now I actually have to study, but then again you guys have been studying for all this time that I haven't so I'm not really sure why there's a feeling of stress in you guys when I don't feel it.
So anyway, nothing much going on. Watch The Big Bang Theory to pass time, if you haven't already, here: http://www.watch-the-big-bang-theory.com/episode_guide.html
Use the links from veevr, wisevid or zshare, those usually work. It's funny, and so deliciously geeky.
If Pokemon was an integral part of your childhood (and of course that means anyone between the ages of 3 and 24) then you should read this article, so that you can have your childhood come crashing down around you. It's kinda depressing, some parts don't really make sense and some parts it references in the anime are just not true, but yeah it's still really depressing. Some also say creepy, and I agree with that as well. In any case, read it and weep.
So that's all, short update.
It's the beginning of the third week of school, and already I hear some people complaining about stress. Personally, no idea what you guys are talking about. What is this stress you guys keep talking about? It's only been 2 weeks of basic stuff, there is no stress. If anything it's more relaxed than previous years. Stress is when you have 10 hours 'til your Bio exam and you don't know anything. Stress is when you're standing on a ledge high up on a building, about to make the precision jump of your life, and if you mess up, it's 30m of plummeting doom. I mean, sure, now I actually have to study, but then again you guys have been studying for all this time that I haven't so I'm not really sure why there's a feeling of stress in you guys when I don't feel it.
So anyway, nothing much going on. Watch The Big Bang Theory to pass time, if you haven't already, here: http://www.watch-the-big-bang-theory.com/episode_guide.html
Use the links from veevr, wisevid or zshare, those usually work. It's funny, and so deliciously geeky.
If Pokemon was an integral part of your childhood (and of course that means anyone between the ages of 3 and 24) then you should read this article, so that you can have your childhood come crashing down around you. It's kinda depressing, some parts don't really make sense and some parts it references in the anime are just not true, but yeah it's still really depressing. Some also say creepy, and I agree with that as well. In any case, read it and weep.
So that's all, short update.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Pancake
It's interesting how you don't really notice a glaring fault/flaw in someone's behavior/personality sometimes. It's probably always been there, but maybe you don't see it, or don't want to see it. It always becomes apparent after enough exposure to that person though, and you learn to tolerate it or you don't. Meh. See this observation explored in the episode Spoiler Alert from How I Met Your Mother.
Anyway, Zhiyang mentioned this interesting rendition of Flo Rida's song Club Can't Handle Me:
So, watch it, if you have some time. Must see: the body lotion part at 2 mins ++
First week of school, I got through it more or less alive and cheerful. Still, I feel like I'm spending too much time doing school work instead of slacking. Gotta slack harder.
PE is probably gonna be really tough for the next 3 months or so, at least, so looking forward to that, though I really gotta improve on my endurance. Muscle aches all over already, but as I've mentioned to many people before, I like that feeling, that tired, aching feeling. Makes me feel like I accomplished something, which I usually have.
For those of you who don't already know(i.e. haven't seen the pic on facebook yet), I beat QWOP on 24th December at about 8.40pm, here's the pic(click for larger version).
In the bottom right corner is the tooltip from my messenger, with my email there and it says signed in, just to prove I didn't steal this pic from someone. It was Christmas eve, and I hadn't really done anything big that day. So at 8pm I was sitting at my computer, and I thought, well I need a challenge. So I thought of the most challenging thing I knew of at the time(beating QWOP) and I said to myself that I would beat it before Christmas. After about 40 mins, I did it, surprisingly. It's an epic feeling, to beat QWOP. Of course I was then faced with the problem of what to do for the next 3 hours or so, since I had allocated 4 hours to beating QWOP. And also then had to face the fact that it isn't really that hard a game.
I started this post wanting to talk about something interesting but I kinda forgot, so I'm gonna here. Will post again if I remember what I wanted to talk about.
Also, hi to any new readers I may have gotten over the new year. Hi. Am gonna keep this tradition of saying hi to any new readers after every new year. Even if I don't have any new readers. I suppose it's time I put that nuffnang thing back on just to keep track of how many readers I have.
Anyway, Zhiyang mentioned this interesting rendition of Flo Rida's song Club Can't Handle Me:
So, watch it, if you have some time. Must see: the body lotion part at 2 mins ++
First week of school, I got through it more or less alive and cheerful. Still, I feel like I'm spending too much time doing school work instead of slacking. Gotta slack harder.
PE is probably gonna be really tough for the next 3 months or so, at least, so looking forward to that, though I really gotta improve on my endurance. Muscle aches all over already, but as I've mentioned to many people before, I like that feeling, that tired, aching feeling. Makes me feel like I accomplished something, which I usually have.
For those of you who don't already know(i.e. haven't seen the pic on facebook yet), I beat QWOP on 24th December at about 8.40pm, here's the pic(click for larger version).
In the bottom right corner is the tooltip from my messenger, with my email there and it says signed in, just to prove I didn't steal this pic from someone. It was Christmas eve, and I hadn't really done anything big that day. So at 8pm I was sitting at my computer, and I thought, well I need a challenge. So I thought of the most challenging thing I knew of at the time(beating QWOP) and I said to myself that I would beat it before Christmas. After about 40 mins, I did it, surprisingly. It's an epic feeling, to beat QWOP. Of course I was then faced with the problem of what to do for the next 3 hours or so, since I had allocated 4 hours to beating QWOP. And also then had to face the fact that it isn't really that hard a game.
I started this post wanting to talk about something interesting but I kinda forgot, so I'm gonna here. Will post again if I remember what I wanted to talk about.
Also, hi to any new readers I may have gotten over the new year. Hi. Am gonna keep this tradition of saying hi to any new readers after every new year. Even if I don't have any new readers. I suppose it's time I put that nuffnang thing back on just to keep track of how many readers I have.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Hey guys, bored, so here's an update.
For all the crap that Korea has given us and the rest of the world, she is not without merit, as Korea has produced many great persons. One famous example is Kim Jong-il. Lulz jk. It's funny how most people say Korea and people will automatically assume it's the Republic of Korea(a.k.a South Korea). Has it never occurred to you that a pretty girl group may come from the north? ........................Ok maybe not. Still, we should seriously start referring to the south as the south, instead of just Korea. Anyway, for all the crap that the Republic of Korea has given the world (e.g. Shinee, Super Junior etc.) she has produced persons that are as good as the aforementioned groups are bad. Take for instance, this amazing violinist called Jiyoun Kim, a.k.a sori1004jy on the internet. (According to some guy, "sori" means "sound" in Korean and "1004" when spoken in Korean sounds like the word(s) for "angel".)
Also, check out her epic version of the Super Mario theme:
Other good things that come from Korea obviously include food and the quality of plastic surgery they offer.
And now for something, completely different. As the progeny of nature, mankind has made much progress from the days of Urk the caveman. We've ended up where we are now, which frankly is not a very enviable position. Yet, I was thinking the other day, that we came from this Earth. Everything we've made has come from this Earth. So are issues such as global warming really our fault? It is a bad thing, global warming, we can all agree on that. I'm not so naive as to believe my interest in slowing or eliminating global warming is due to a love of nature; rather it is due to a love of survival. We are still animals after all, and no matter how intelligent you are, your greatest motivation is survival. I'm digressing. Anyway, since the materials that resulted in global warming came from the Earth that we live in, and we as children of this Earth were capable of manufacturing these materials into what they are, perhaps it was meant to be. That's one view. The other would be to believe that what we do and what happens around us is not influenced by this system we call "fate" or "destiny". In that case, then yes, it is totally our fault, we screwed up, we screwed up BIG. But I just thought it was interesting there exists the possibility that we were SUPPOSED to mess up the earth. I mean, the human brain is ultimately an Ultra-computer. Like any computer, we have programming. The more complex the programming is, the less it seems to be like a machine, and more like what we call "sentience". Yet, computers are computers, and the limit of a computer is in its programming. Were we programmed to destroy the Earth?
There we are, some of my inner ramblings. I think about these things when I'm sitting on the bus, or can't sleep at night, or blogging at 2am. Anyone smarter or has a better idea than me, please feel free to tear apart my reasoning or shoot me down on the tagboard or comments section. (You guys don't even care about the comments section of each post, do you?) I get the feeling that there's some flaw in my reasoning somewhere, but I can't think of it now, or am just not smart enough to ever think of it before someone points it out.
Haven't done my GP homework. I said I'll do it today, and in fact this is the reason why I didn't go the BBQ for 2B chalet (sorry 2B'08). But you know, I just didn't feel like it. And even though I had nothing much to do, I still didn't do my GP homework. I was thinking about doing it tomorrow awhile ago. Then I realized, hey, I haven't been punctual with my homework for the past 6 years of my schooling, why should I change now? And it being a new year, doesn't quite kick it. So I figure, I'm not gonna do it, and I'll wait until I get pwn3d really bad or something before I do it. Let's hope Ms Seetoh Peiling(think she's my GP tutor) is a nice person.
Anyway, New Year, so Happy New Year. Right, one year has passed, so let's look at some of my past year's resolutions and see if I did accomplish them.
----Extracted from my post dated January 14, 2010----
15 pull ups. Meh. I'm actually further away from this than when I wrote down that resolution. Time to start training like mad.
Reach basketball hoop. Got there once. It was a nice day.
Master b-kick. Ok when I said master, I actually mean GET. Francis pointed out to me that MASTERING b-kick would take many many years, and personally I think it might be at the Jet Li or Bruce Lee level of fitness. I got b-kick though, so WOOT.
Run to new school campus. I did this one time, while going to school before heading for CID field trip. Didn't run all the way, since I was carrying my bag and kinda strained my neck a little. But yeah I ran for most of it.
Eat philly cheesteak. NOOOOO. I NO CAN HAZ PHILLY CHEEZSTEAK! Didn't get to eat one.
15 sec handstand. Almost there..... I'm not sure, but I think I got a 12 second one once.
I will do my chinese homework. More or less accomplished
I will not be too sarcastic/hurting towards classmates because they are my only lifeline during O levels for HCL. Hmmm......I will TRY. Turns out, I have no idea why I wrote this down. I mean, O levels for HCL is easy, and when it got here, I wasn't really concerned about it. That said, I was much nicer to people in 2010
I will grow taller than Jean. Argh, didn't manage to do it. I'm like stuck here.
I will not play so much basketball/soccer that I am incapacitated and am unable to do homework. Easy. Done.
I will do homework. Meh
I will at least try to do homework if I am unable to complete it. Meh
I will at least pretend to try if I don't even feel like trying. Meh
I will not leave shoe prints all over walls in the school should I feel like trying something out, but will instead leave FOOTprints if I have to, because my soles are not as immediately recognizable as the soles of my shoes. Managed to not leave any prints at all. I think.
So yeah, my new yaer resolutions from last year. So about a 64% success rate. That's cool. Resolutions for this year, alright!
Will start studying for subjects like Bio. This is major. It will be the first time I study in my entire life.
Get an Aerial. It's only the start of the year and my cartwheel is more or less ok, so probably will be able to get aerial this year if I train hard.
Learn a new instrument. I have a goal to be able to play at least 10 instruments before I die. So, currently we got:
Drums.
Guitar, considering that I can learn a song with tabs and can play simple riffs. I still suck at guitar though.
Harmonica.
Beatboxing.
Singing. Your voice is technically an instrument.
Castanets. Cheating here, but hey, who sets the rules?
Cowbell. Blatantly cheating.
Triangle. Yep.
Tambourine. Learned it when I was 6.
So yeah, that's nine already. Just need 1 more instrument. Most people can play alot of these instruments(usually the bottom few). See, people need to start giving themselves more credit for things.
Ace at least 3 of my subjects, and get no lower than a B for the rest. I'm fully capable of this.
Make 10 new friends. Widening my social circle is important. If you count the indians we danced with and said happy new year to at the countdown at Boon Lay I'm already halfway done lol. But no, we're not counting those guys, though they're really happy people. Or really drunk. Or both.
Obtain a medal/trophy. It's sad but, in my entire life, despite the great, handsomely chiseled chunk of awesome that I am, shining with brilliance, I have never gotten a medal or a trophy. In the entire cabinet in my house devoted to medals and trophies, only one of them has my name on it, and it's for getting full marks in New South Wales (Science) when I was P3, so, you know, doesn't count. Every time I have a chance at a medal or trophy, something happens that makes it not happen. Sports day in primary school ---- I was one of the representatives, and it was a telematch. I take the lead early on by excelling at all the ridiculously easy tasks(e.g. toss the beanbag in the hula hoop positioned 2m away), but my teammate not only fails at most of the tasks, but also happens to slip in the wet grass, since it just stopped raining. Ok, not his fault, but really, we were so close. We could have been 2nd place, at least. Every badminton tournament I've been in ---- We get pwned at the qualifiers. The QUALIFIERS, ffs. We win some matches, lose some, but always get eliminated at the qualifiers. Oh well, someone has to get eliminated. Sports day 2007, I'm running 4x400m, a sec 1 guy running with all the sec 2 guys. Didn't have a chance. Still, I am told I overtook this sec 2 guy from dance. Not bad. RVHS Cross Country 2009, ran, ended up 37th place or something. I suppose that's okay. Sports day 2009, I had to either run relay or play frisbee. Decided to support our class' frisbee team, since we got good runners already. Our runners get 1st in place, while our frisbee team gets eliminated at the semi-finals because we were pitted against 4B, with Ying Wai. He is a beast man. So I felt it was kinda unfair for us, 'cause it was the final 4, and our game with 4B was the only elimination match. 2010, no sporting events, since I didn't run for sports day and Cross Country run was cancelled or something. Inexplicable. Well, let's hope I get a medal/trophy in 2011. I'd hate to die in 2012 without ever achieving a single trophy.
15 pull ups, since I didn't get it the previous year.
15 sec handstand, since I didn't get it the previous year.
And we're done, I can't think of anything more to write about.
For all the crap that Korea has given us and the rest of the world, she is not without merit, as Korea has produced many great persons. One famous example is Kim Jong-il. Lulz jk. It's funny how most people say Korea and people will automatically assume it's the Republic of Korea(a.k.a South Korea). Has it never occurred to you that a pretty girl group may come from the north? ........................Ok maybe not. Still, we should seriously start referring to the south as the south, instead of just Korea. Anyway, for all the crap that the Republic of Korea has given the world (e.g. Shinee, Super Junior etc.) she has produced persons that are as good as the aforementioned groups are bad. Take for instance, this amazing violinist called Jiyoun Kim, a.k.a sori1004jy on the internet. (According to some guy, "sori" means "sound" in Korean and "1004" when spoken in Korean sounds like the word(s) for "angel".)
Also, check out her epic version of the Super Mario theme:
Other good things that come from Korea obviously include food and the quality of plastic surgery they offer.
And now for something, completely different. As the progeny of nature, mankind has made much progress from the days of Urk the caveman. We've ended up where we are now, which frankly is not a very enviable position. Yet, I was thinking the other day, that we came from this Earth. Everything we've made has come from this Earth. So are issues such as global warming really our fault? It is a bad thing, global warming, we can all agree on that. I'm not so naive as to believe my interest in slowing or eliminating global warming is due to a love of nature; rather it is due to a love of survival. We are still animals after all, and no matter how intelligent you are, your greatest motivation is survival. I'm digressing. Anyway, since the materials that resulted in global warming came from the Earth that we live in, and we as children of this Earth were capable of manufacturing these materials into what they are, perhaps it was meant to be. That's one view. The other would be to believe that what we do and what happens around us is not influenced by this system we call "fate" or "destiny". In that case, then yes, it is totally our fault, we screwed up, we screwed up BIG. But I just thought it was interesting there exists the possibility that we were SUPPOSED to mess up the earth. I mean, the human brain is ultimately an Ultra-computer. Like any computer, we have programming. The more complex the programming is, the less it seems to be like a machine, and more like what we call "sentience". Yet, computers are computers, and the limit of a computer is in its programming. Were we programmed to destroy the Earth?
There we are, some of my inner ramblings. I think about these things when I'm sitting on the bus, or can't sleep at night, or blogging at 2am. Anyone smarter or has a better idea than me, please feel free to tear apart my reasoning or shoot me down on the tagboard or comments section. (You guys don't even care about the comments section of each post, do you?) I get the feeling that there's some flaw in my reasoning somewhere, but I can't think of it now, or am just not smart enough to ever think of it before someone points it out.
Haven't done my GP homework. I said I'll do it today, and in fact this is the reason why I didn't go the BBQ for 2B chalet (sorry 2B'08). But you know, I just didn't feel like it. And even though I had nothing much to do, I still didn't do my GP homework. I was thinking about doing it tomorrow awhile ago. Then I realized, hey, I haven't been punctual with my homework for the past 6 years of my schooling, why should I change now? And it being a new year, doesn't quite kick it. So I figure, I'm not gonna do it, and I'll wait until I get pwn3d really bad or something before I do it. Let's hope Ms Seetoh Peiling(think she's my GP tutor) is a nice person.
Anyway, New Year, so Happy New Year. Right, one year has passed, so let's look at some of my past year's resolutions and see if I did accomplish them.
----Extracted from my post dated January 14, 2010----
15 pull ups. Meh. I'm actually further away from this than when I wrote down that resolution. Time to start training like mad.
Reach basketball hoop. Got there once. It was a nice day.
Master b-kick. Ok when I said master, I actually mean GET. Francis pointed out to me that MASTERING b-kick would take many many years, and personally I think it might be at the Jet Li or Bruce Lee level of fitness. I got b-kick though, so WOOT.
Run to new school campus. I did this one time, while going to school before heading for CID field trip. Didn't run all the way, since I was carrying my bag and kinda strained my neck a little. But yeah I ran for most of it.
Eat philly cheesteak. NOOOOO. I NO CAN HAZ PHILLY CHEEZSTEAK! Didn't get to eat one.
15 sec handstand. Almost there..... I'm not sure, but I think I got a 12 second one once.
I will do my chinese homework. More or less accomplished
I will not be too sarcastic/hurting towards classmates because they are my only lifeline during O levels for HCL. Hmmm......I will TRY. Turns out, I have no idea why I wrote this down. I mean, O levels for HCL is easy, and when it got here, I wasn't really concerned about it. That said, I was much nicer to people in 2010
I will grow taller than Jean. Argh, didn't manage to do it. I'm like stuck here.
I will not play so much basketball/soccer that I am incapacitated and am unable to do homework. Easy. Done.
I will do homework. Meh
I will at least try to do homework if I am unable to complete it. Meh
I will at least pretend to try if I don't even feel like trying. Meh
I will not leave shoe prints all over walls in the school should I feel like trying something out, but will instead leave FOOTprints if I have to, because my soles are not as immediately recognizable as the soles of my shoes. Managed to not leave any prints at all. I think.
So yeah, my new yaer resolutions from last year. So about a 64% success rate. That's cool. Resolutions for this year, alright!
Will start studying for subjects like Bio. This is major. It will be the first time I study in my entire life.
Get an Aerial. It's only the start of the year and my cartwheel is more or less ok, so probably will be able to get aerial this year if I train hard.
Learn a new instrument. I have a goal to be able to play at least 10 instruments before I die. So, currently we got:
Drums.
Guitar, considering that I can learn a song with tabs and can play simple riffs. I still suck at guitar though.
Harmonica.
Beatboxing.
Singing. Your voice is technically an instrument.
Castanets. Cheating here, but hey, who sets the rules?
Cowbell. Blatantly cheating.
Triangle. Yep.
Tambourine. Learned it when I was 6.
So yeah, that's nine already. Just need 1 more instrument. Most people can play alot of these instruments(usually the bottom few). See, people need to start giving themselves more credit for things.
Ace at least 3 of my subjects, and get no lower than a B for the rest. I'm fully capable of this.
Make 10 new friends. Widening my social circle is important. If you count the indians we danced with and said happy new year to at the countdown at Boon Lay I'm already halfway done lol. But no, we're not counting those guys, though they're really happy people. Or really drunk. Or both.
Obtain a medal/trophy. It's sad but, in my entire life, despite the great, handsomely chiseled chunk of awesome that I am, shining with brilliance, I have never gotten a medal or a trophy. In the entire cabinet in my house devoted to medals and trophies, only one of them has my name on it, and it's for getting full marks in New South Wales (Science) when I was P3, so, you know, doesn't count. Every time I have a chance at a medal or trophy, something happens that makes it not happen. Sports day in primary school ---- I was one of the representatives, and it was a telematch. I take the lead early on by excelling at all the ridiculously easy tasks(e.g. toss the beanbag in the hula hoop positioned 2m away), but my teammate not only fails at most of the tasks, but also happens to slip in the wet grass, since it just stopped raining. Ok, not his fault, but really, we were so close. We could have been 2nd place, at least. Every badminton tournament I've been in ---- We get pwned at the qualifiers. The QUALIFIERS, ffs. We win some matches, lose some, but always get eliminated at the qualifiers. Oh well, someone has to get eliminated. Sports day 2007, I'm running 4x400m, a sec 1 guy running with all the sec 2 guys. Didn't have a chance. Still, I am told I overtook this sec 2 guy from dance. Not bad. RVHS Cross Country 2009, ran, ended up 37th place or something. I suppose that's okay. Sports day 2009, I had to either run relay or play frisbee. Decided to support our class' frisbee team, since we got good runners already. Our runners get 1st in place, while our frisbee team gets eliminated at the semi-finals because we were pitted against 4B, with Ying Wai. He is a beast man. So I felt it was kinda unfair for us, 'cause it was the final 4, and our game with 4B was the only elimination match. 2010, no sporting events, since I didn't run for sports day and Cross Country run was cancelled or something. Inexplicable. Well, let's hope I get a medal/trophy in 2011. I'd hate to die in 2012 without ever achieving a single trophy.
15 pull ups, since I didn't get it the previous year.
15 sec handstand, since I didn't get it the previous year.
And we're done, I can't think of anything more to write about.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
You know, there are so many other things you can do apart from reading my blog, so me not updating my blog shouldn't even be that big a deal to you guys. It probably shouldn't even occur to you guys to go, "eh update leh", but maybe more of "Oh, no updates, guess I'll check back a while later".
Before the main point of today's post, I've compiled a list of things you can do other than read my blog.
Things You Can Do Other Than Read My Blog:
Things You Can Do Other Than Read My Blog:
1. Read a book
2. Read two books.
2. Read two books.
3. Read......a webcomic. Seriously. Most webcomics have a few hundred issues, so I doubt you can finish at least 3 or 4 webcomics before I get to my next update.
4. Read failblog, verydemotivational, failbook, or basically just any other website in the cheezburger network. I'm not sure about the actual number, but there are probably about tens of thousands of posts on every website in the network, or at least a few thousand. And there are like 10, 20 of them, so read those.
5. Draw/paint a picture
6. Drink some coffee/milo/tea/milk tea/water.
7. Write a story
8. Write a poem
9. Make new friends. And I know this sounds really primary school-ish (Gaylord Focker Jr., don't stay at home all day, go out and make some friends!), but really, many people underestimate (or as George W. Bush Jr. would say, misunderestimate) the value of having more friends. Also, meeting new people is fun. Or can be, depending on who you meet.
10. Read OTHER PEOPLE'S blogs.
11. Remove an ant from crawling around on your leg. By remove I mean without lethal force. Like just pick it up and put it elsewhere.
12. Update your blog.
13. Re-watch the Star Wars films. (If you haven't seen them before, HOW DARE YOU?!)
14. Watch How I Met Your Mother. Season 1 to (the still in production) Season 6.
15. Learn to play an instrument. Seriously. I learnt the harmonica because I was bored one afternoon.
16. Learn to dance. Any type of dance. Actually, preferably all types of dance. Because you never know when you might need to dance.
17. Eat.
18. Eat some more
19. Play Doom 3 on Nightmare difficulty.
20. Play Quake 1, 2, 3, 4, on Nightmare difficulty.
21. Play Call of Duty 1-6. On the hardest difficulty. Can't remember what that is.
So we have a list of 21 items which will take up at least 2-3 weeks of your time. And that's if you stay at home all the time. Now, onward!
When reading other people's blogs, sometimes you come across this blog by a teenager who grasps some sort of profound truth or meaning about the world based on something really mundane. Some people actually do it with every single blog post. Don't know about you guys but I find it kinda annoying. Before we continue, I would like to say that anything I say or write more than 3 weeks old cannot be used against me in any way, for whatever purpose. Now, back to the topic. It's annoying because most of the time these bits of "deeper truth" or whatever they're calling it is just stuff that people have mentioned, observed before.
Not targeting anyone in particular, but bloggers in general who post with such "depth", and most of it is either common sense or just bullshit. An (entirely fictional) example would be something like, "Today I experienced X. Through X, even though things didn't happen the way I wanted it to, I understood Y." Y usually being something like "not everything will happen the way you want it to in life". The following must be said, "DUH". The thing is that, for most people, your life just isn't interesting or special enough that you would grasp some sort of deep understanding about life through some mundane activity. Almost anything you might come up with will most likely fall into one of the following categories:
1) Been said before.
2) Obvious for all to see.
1) Been said before.
2) Obvious for all to see.
3) Makes no sense.
4) Some sort of fallacy.
5) Just wrong.
I've sort of been through that phase too, and my personal experience was that it seemed interesting and made you feel more intelligent or something. Still, it gets really annoying to read these things. Occasionally when I read my own blog archives I get an urge to go back in time and punch myself for that, but then again, it would be detrimental seeing as how it would affect how awesome I've become.
So the fact is that as a 13/14/15/16 or something year old living in Singapore, your life will be very mundane, very boring, and nothing special. You may feel the urge to post something like what I've mentioned above to make yourself feel better, but even if it does make you feel better, some people find it really annoying/disgusting and I know, I know, the common (and expected) response to this would be, "If it disgusts you so much, why read the blog?" It's just that sometimes you read the blog one time, and it disgusts you already. By that point, I don't really have the option of being undisgusted by your posts, do I? And so hopefully this post helps you guys to understand how much pain you guys are causing to others, and maybe you'll stop posting like that.
Anyhow, did anyone notice how I seem to be using parentheses a lot more? And it's also just weird that when I start off writing a blog post with a topic in mind, it almost never ends up the way I intended to write it, and I can't think of a way to make it so.
Some interesting things to share:
Qwop: It's a game where you use the Q,W,O and P keys on your keyboard to control the legs of an Olympic runner whose training funding was cut short. Not only is it hilarious, it's also a fair challenge. In fact, you should have heard of it by now. Give it a try. As of now, my record is running 51m, after knocking down the hurdle at 50m and tripping.
Qwop: It's a game where you use the Q,W,O and P keys on your keyboard to control the legs of an Olympic runner whose training funding was cut short. Not only is it hilarious, it's also a fair challenge. In fact, you should have heard of it by now. Give it a try. As of now, my record is running 51m, after knocking down the hurdle at 50m and tripping.
Joe Satriani performing his awesome, awesome piece, Surfing With the Alien. This man does not just shred, he is the producer of eargasm. Also, he was the guy who taught guitar to Steve Vai(Also an awesome guitarist), Kirk Hammett(lead guitar, Metallica), Kevin Cadogan(lead guitar, Third Eye Blind). He was also asked to be the lead guitarist for Deep Purple but DECLINED. How badass do you have to be to decline joining Deep Purple?
Monday, September 20, 2010
So I haven't posted in quite awhile. Didn't really have anything to say so didn't post. Anyway, today's post opens with 2 nerdgasms. Treat for MMORPG fans and guys in general:
Anyhow, this was featured on http://intertuberecords.cheezburger.com/ , which was how I found out about it. It's written by Felicia Day, who was in Buffy for 8 episodes. The people in the vid are characters from The Guild, which is a web series about a guild of gamers and how they interact with each other in real life. Pretty cool series. So anyway, if you take it as a song at face value, it's pretty shitty. It was written after listening to a whole bunch of "really bad 90s dance songs". You gotta look at the lyrics, the references to gaming. Which makes it pretty awesome for geeks. Not to mention that Felicia Day is pretty.
Here's the second one:
Also made by The Guild. This one is really really cool. It's basically a parody of typical Bollywood vids, you know, when they're talking and suddenly everyone starts dancing, and like 50 dancers enter from nowhere and join in? It's mainly a parody of the buffalaxed vid Crazy Indian Video (My loony buns is fine Benny Lava~. That one?). In fact there's even this section in Hindi or Tamil which is buffalaxed. And also the line "Give that bulb a twist", which is my 2nd favourite line in the whole song. Felicia Day sings the female part in this song, and her voice was completely unedited in this song. Most of the other singers have minimal to zero auto-tuning as well, except for that very obvious section near 2/3 of the way through, for effect. I exceptionally like the way Felicia Day trills in a few of the lines, similar to the singers in those Bollywood song. It's really hard to do and I imagine it takes quite a bit of practice. Of course, this entire song is also talking about gaming.
Here are the lyrics:
"Game On"
Boot up, embrace the feeling
The start button is the portal to your being
Turn on, it's a pleasure device
Game with me, the ultimate spice
I promise you it won't ever be dull
In a world you're all powerful
I'll buff you, don't be afraid
It's Tuesday night, Let's do this raid!
Game On! Is it immature?
Game On! I'm insecure
Game On! Don't g-quit on me!
Game On! We got keyboard chemistry
(DANCE BREAK)
I feel so much shame
I get dissed for saying that I game
No one understands
Why I'm living in a fantasy land
In-game you've got cool hair
Go from slumdog to a millionaire
Level up, Feel the bliss
Forward slash, Almost kiss
Game On! Invite sent!
Game On! Hop on Vent!
Game On! Say it proud!
Game On! Screw the crowd!
Game On! No one else to please!
Game On! I'll press your hot keys!
Game On! There's no disgrace.
Go to hell real life I'll punch you in the face!
(FIGHT BREAK)
Game on! Game on! Game on! Game on!
Game on! Game on! Game on! Game on!
Game On! Steal my breath!
Game On! No perma-death!
Game On! Don't resist!
Game On! Give that bulb a twist
Internet sabhi desh ko jodataa hai (The internet connects all nations)
Frustration nikalanekaa raastaa hai (Provides a outlet for all frustrations)
ONLINE GAMING may kuchh buraa nahi Hai (Nothing wrong with online gaming)
Us Vichhar CONTROL-ALT-DELETE" (Control-Alt-Delete that feeling)
I'll admit, when we party it sizzles
Won't let the spell fizzle
Grab the reigns, don't re-roll
Point and click, take control!
Game On! No disrespect!
Game On! We're not rejects!
Game On! No remorse!
This is a feeling you can't outsource!
Game On! Invite sent!
Game On! I'm on Vent!
Game On! Never g-quit on me!
Game On! We've got keyboard chemistry.
Game On! Game On! Game On! Game Onnnnnnnnn....
For non-gamers, a glossary:
From the first vid:
Tank and spank: Nothing naughty here, it's a gaming term. A tank is someone who can absorb lots of damage and can draw monsters' attention to him. Tank and spank is a strategy where you get a tank to pull lots of monsters, then have the rest of your party, which is usually full of DPS characters to spam skills on the monsters, thus effectively killing a large group of monsters quickly. DPS stands for Damage Per Second, and is calculated by dividing total damage done over total amount of time(in seconds) active. A DPS character is one with high DPS.
Cloth armour: Spellcasters are often unable to wear anything other than light armour, so cloth armour is common on spell-based classes.
plus-five to dexterity vest: This is a reference to the second episode of The Guild, in which the character Zaboo tries to seduce Codex by claiming his hat gives +5 to sexterity(it's a pun). It's also a game reference. Dexterity is a common character attribute in RPGs.
From the second vid:
buff: A positive effect on a player that enhances his or her skills.
raid: In many MMORPGs, groups of players will charge together into a dungeon to clear out monsters and loot the place. That's a raid.
g-quit: To g-quit means to quit a guild, and it has a negative connotation, suggesting that you quit the guild for no coherent reason after hording up months of guild resources.
Vent: Ventrilo. It's an audio software that allows players to connect to a host and from then on communicate directly through microphones. Useful for groups that often play together, such as guilds. Microphones are preferred to typing because it takes barely a second to shout "HEAL ME" and almost 2 seconds to type HEAL ME. And because typing doesn't always get noticed, you won't get healed and you'll die anyway. Shouting HEAL ME into the microphone, while deafening all players on the receiving ends and resulting in them swearing at you, does ensure you get healed. Unless your shout shocked the healer into a stunned state. In which case you're screwed.
Anyway, The Guild is a pretty awesome webseries, a must-watch for MMO fans.
It's mainly based on WoW, but it's kept vague to avoid copyright issues. Seasons 1-3 are on youtube, season 4 is on their website up to episode 9 as of now: www.watchtheguild.com .
Anyhow, this was featured on http://intertuberecords.cheezburger.com/ , which was how I found out about it. It's written by Felicia Day, who was in Buffy for 8 episodes. The people in the vid are characters from The Guild, which is a web series about a guild of gamers and how they interact with each other in real life. Pretty cool series. So anyway, if you take it as a song at face value, it's pretty shitty. It was written after listening to a whole bunch of "really bad 90s dance songs". You gotta look at the lyrics, the references to gaming. Which makes it pretty awesome for geeks. Not to mention that Felicia Day is pretty.
Here's the second one:
Also made by The Guild. This one is really really cool. It's basically a parody of typical Bollywood vids, you know, when they're talking and suddenly everyone starts dancing, and like 50 dancers enter from nowhere and join in? It's mainly a parody of the buffalaxed vid Crazy Indian Video (My loony buns is fine Benny Lava~. That one?). In fact there's even this section in Hindi or Tamil which is buffalaxed. And also the line "Give that bulb a twist", which is my 2nd favourite line in the whole song. Felicia Day sings the female part in this song, and her voice was completely unedited in this song. Most of the other singers have minimal to zero auto-tuning as well, except for that very obvious section near 2/3 of the way through, for effect. I exceptionally like the way Felicia Day trills in a few of the lines, similar to the singers in those Bollywood song. It's really hard to do and I imagine it takes quite a bit of practice. Of course, this entire song is also talking about gaming.
Here are the lyrics:
"Game On"
Boot up, embrace the feeling
The start button is the portal to your being
Turn on, it's a pleasure device
Game with me, the ultimate spice
I promise you it won't ever be dull
In a world you're all powerful
I'll buff you, don't be afraid
It's Tuesday night, Let's do this raid!
Game On! Is it immature?
Game On! I'm insecure
Game On! Don't g-quit on me!
Game On! We got keyboard chemistry
(DANCE BREAK)
I feel so much shame
I get dissed for saying that I game
No one understands
Why I'm living in a fantasy land
In-game you've got cool hair
Go from slumdog to a millionaire
Level up, Feel the bliss
Forward slash, Almost kiss
Game On! Invite sent!
Game On! Hop on Vent!
Game On! Say it proud!
Game On! Screw the crowd!
Game On! No one else to please!
Game On! I'll press your hot keys!
Game On! There's no disgrace.
Go to hell real life I'll punch you in the face!
(FIGHT BREAK)
Game on! Game on! Game on! Game on!
Game on! Game on! Game on! Game on!
Game On! Steal my breath!
Game On! No perma-death!
Game On! Don't resist!
Game On! Give that bulb a twist
Internet sabhi desh ko jodataa hai (The internet connects all nations)
Frustration nikalanekaa raastaa hai (Provides a outlet for all frustrations)
ONLINE GAMING may kuchh buraa nahi Hai (Nothing wrong with online gaming)
Us Vichhar CONTROL-ALT-DELETE" (Control-Alt-Delete that feeling)
I'll admit, when we party it sizzles
Won't let the spell fizzle
Grab the reigns, don't re-roll
Point and click, take control!
Game On! No disrespect!
Game On! We're not rejects!
Game On! No remorse!
This is a feeling you can't outsource!
Game On! Invite sent!
Game On! I'm on Vent!
Game On! Never g-quit on me!
Game On! We've got keyboard chemistry.
Game On! Game On! Game On! Game Onnnnnnnnn....
For non-gamers, a glossary:
From the first vid:
Tank and spank: Nothing naughty here, it's a gaming term. A tank is someone who can absorb lots of damage and can draw monsters' attention to him. Tank and spank is a strategy where you get a tank to pull lots of monsters, then have the rest of your party, which is usually full of DPS characters to spam skills on the monsters, thus effectively killing a large group of monsters quickly. DPS stands for Damage Per Second, and is calculated by dividing total damage done over total amount of time(in seconds) active. A DPS character is one with high DPS.
Cloth armour: Spellcasters are often unable to wear anything other than light armour, so cloth armour is common on spell-based classes.
plus-five to dexterity vest: This is a reference to the second episode of The Guild, in which the character Zaboo tries to seduce Codex by claiming his hat gives +5 to sexterity(it's a pun). It's also a game reference. Dexterity is a common character attribute in RPGs.
From the second vid:
buff: A positive effect on a player that enhances his or her skills.
raid: In many MMORPGs, groups of players will charge together into a dungeon to clear out monsters and loot the place. That's a raid.
g-quit: To g-quit means to quit a guild, and it has a negative connotation, suggesting that you quit the guild for no coherent reason after hording up months of guild resources.
Vent: Ventrilo. It's an audio software that allows players to connect to a host and from then on communicate directly through microphones. Useful for groups that often play together, such as guilds. Microphones are preferred to typing because it takes barely a second to shout "HEAL ME" and almost 2 seconds to type HEAL ME. And because typing doesn't always get noticed, you won't get healed and you'll die anyway. Shouting HEAL ME into the microphone, while deafening all players on the receiving ends and resulting in them swearing at you, does ensure you get healed. Unless your shout shocked the healer into a stunned state. In which case you're screwed.
Anyway, The Guild is a pretty awesome webseries, a must-watch for MMO fans.
It's mainly based on WoW, but it's kept vague to avoid copyright issues. Seasons 1-3 are on youtube, season 4 is on their website up to episode 9 as of now: www.watchtheguild.com .
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