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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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:

1. Read a book
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.

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.

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? 

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 .

Bicycle Race(with lyrics altered to honor FPS games)

MP5 MP5 MP5
I want to shoot my MP5 MP5 MP5
I want to shoot my MP5
I want to shoot my sub
I want to shoot my MP5
I want to shoot it where I like

You say gun I say nade
You say knife I say kill
You say shoot I say hey man
M4 was never my gun
And I don't like Famas
You say Flash I say Hide
You say Flank I'm gonna camp
You say charge I say No way
Don't be an idiot
They'll snipe you down from the ramp
All I wanna do is

MP5 MP5 MP5
I want to shoot my MP5 MP5 MP5
I want to shoot my MP5
I want to shoot my sub
I want to shoot my MP5
I want to shoot my
MP5 bullets are coming your way
So forget all your armor oh yeah!
Snipers above they'll be sniping you down
So look out for those AWPs
Plant the bomb, get out, camp!
MP5 bang MP5 bang MP5 bang 

MP5 MP5 MP5

I want to shoot my MP5 

MP5 MP5 MP5 MP5
MP5 bang!

You say Camp I say move
You say spray I say Snipe
Flash Frag I say cool it man
I don't wanna be the last man on this noob team
You say lag I say noob
Radio commands please
M16 I say dammit
Just shoot that noobcake in the face
Aim for the head and spam
Cos all I want to do is

MP5 MP5 MP5
I want to shoot my MP5 MP5 MP5
I want to shoot my MP5
I want to shoot my sub
I want to shoot my MP5
I want to shoot it where I like 

Glossary for non-FPS players:

MP5: A submachine-gun(SMG) which is actually quite useless

sub: SMG

nade: Grenade (you could probably figure these few out on your own.)

M4: Usually refers to M4A1, a fully automatic assault rifle used by counterterrorist and special forces. Note: M4 is a whole family of rifles based on earlier versions of the M16 rifles

FAMAS: French military service rifle

Flash: Flashbang grenade

Flank: A maneuver in which units attack the sides of an enemy force, thus reducing enemy maneuverability and causing psychological distress.

Camp: To remain at a specific hiding spot in-game and wait for an enemy to run past and shoot him.

AWP: A bolt-action sniper rifle used by the police. AWP stands for Arctic Warfare Police

plant the bomb: In FPS gaming, common game modes include destruction of a specific target by planting a bomb.

Spray: Originally used to refer to noobs who used up a whole magazine just to kill one guy, spraying now refers to using any SMG or assault rifle.

Flash Frag: A flashbang grenade that also doubles as a fragmentation grenade.

Lag: Delays in the transmission of information between network nodes.

Radio: most FPS games have preset radio commands that players can utilize via hotkeys

Aim for the head and shoot: Headshot = 1 hit kill.

Wrote those because I was bored. Try singing it along to the tune of Bicycle Race if you're bored as well, I tried to keep the same number of syllables.

Random Musings.

Sometimes in life you should keep your mouth shut.

As the saying goes, a closed mouth gathers no foot.

Undoubtedly the temptation to talk about things you shouldn't is great, but you gotta have some self-control.

Some people have it, some don't.

Perhaps when you say things you change it to reflect yourself. That is only human.

But human isn't really that good is it? But since we're so prideful of our status as humans,

we'll let it be.

After all McCartney is a good songwriter.

Sometimes you think you are what you think you are, but you aren't what you think you are.

Hank Green sings, "....but I know what I know, but you think that you know what I know that you don't."

You have to accept that you may not be what you are when people tell you you aren't what you think you are.

Tangled webs, there aren't many.

Owning your burdens is half the battle

And sometimes acceptance is all it takes.

Sometimes you have to accept that life is mundane, and drama just doesn't fit in.

But television's got us dreaming, hasn't it?

When you live in a world with 6.8 billion other people, you gotta understand that the world doesn't revolve around you, and generalizations based on your own experiences only just don't work.

But we've been taught to put ourselves above others.

In this world, you're entitled to your own views, but you can't and shouldn't disregard the views of others as incorrect. See it from their eyes, or if you can't, appreciate that they're different, and be fair.

What with all the talk about open-mindedness we are all still ridiculously narrow-minded.

And when you are caught up in your own self-pity and melancholy, remember that not the whole world is out to get you.

So stop assuming, and start trusting, because there are no excuses.

Everything is in the head.

"Come gather 'round people,
Wherever you roam.
And admit that the waters around you have grown.
And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you is worth savin',
then you'd better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone
For the times, they are a changin'.."


And also remember that people do get pissed off eventually, no matter how tolerant they are. Everyone has their limits.
  

I think my life is rather like the tides. There seems to be a certain cycle. Before pri sch I was running around, jumping around. During pri sch I loved pop music and comics. End of pri sch I loved rock. 2 years ago, I started running around, jumping around. Last year I began listening to softer music (Beatles, folk music, 1 or 2 pop songs) and now I'm reading webcomics and listening to rock and roll. It's annoying, a little, to see that I've changed so much and not changed at all.

Anyway. I'd like to introduce a few webcomics to you guys, to entertain you on rainy days, no homework days(play along), homework days, and of course, days when you just wanna lie in bed but have to get out because there is a limit to how long you can tolerate lying around doing nothing and are extremely bored after sitting at the computer for 2 hours with nothing to play/do and having no one to chat with. In short, days when you're bored and at home. With internet access.

This comic is the first I started reading. I actually started reading it last year. It's called Ctrl+Alt+Del and is on this website: www.ctrlaltdel-online.com

There are two comics, one with better "graphics" and color, a storyline, and is generally longer. This is Ctrl+Alt+Del. The other one is known as the Sillies, and features black and white drawings, usually 3 panels long and is like a short sketch, with no apparent storyline. It usually comments on recent news in the gaming industry. Ctrl+Alt+Del is about the life of two, eventually 3 gamers, and is a must-read for gamers(duh). Even if you aren't actually a gamer, it's still kinda funny. Most of the time.

The second one is known as Loaded Dice, and is a webcomic about a D&D session. http://www.rdinn.com/comic.php?comicid=1

It's usually funny/relevant only if you possess at least a little knowledge of D&D or are willing to do research on the terms. Somewhat esoteric; you may find yourself confused if you're not at least an RPG gamer. Unfortunately there are currently only about 40 issues and the artist seems to be on a hiatus, so keep an eye out for future updates.

The third is called Looking For Group (LFG).
http://www.lfgcomic.com/page/1
 It seems to be in a house-rule version of the D&D world, but has more to do with in-game than the real world. You may find occasional references to modern culture, but it's all in good humour. This is a lot less esoteric than Loaded Dice, and also focuses more on adventure than humour. Still funny most/some times.
It features an undead warlock called Richard who likes to eat babies.

The final one(and also my favourite) is known as Order of the Stick(OotS)
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html
It's D&D (I'm rather fond of D&D webcomics. Just saying, in case you haven't noticed) yet again, but this is by far the funniest. The "graphics" seem kinda MS Paint(autoshapes) but it more than makes up for that with the humour. It's somewhat esoteric. Basically, all I'm saying is go play/read some D&D and you'll get all 3 of the comics which are "esoteric". The good thing about OotS is that even if you know shit about D&D you'll still find it funny. It features Roy, a fighter with an MBA, Vaarsuvius, an androgynous elven mage, Haley, a very greedy human Rogue, Durkon, a dwarven cleric who's afraid of trees, Elan, a somewhat useless bard, who eventually becomes a little useful by taking one level in the prestige class Dashing Swordsman, and my favourite character, Belkar Bitterleaf, a chaotic evil halfling ranger who like to stab people. As of now there are about 700 issues of substantial length.

So if one day you're bored and stuff, go check out the comics. Ctrl+Alt+Del has the most issues as of now, I think. OotS is second, LFG is third and Loaded Dice has the least issues.

Hi I'm back from OBS. The annoying thing was that I had a few songs stuck in my head that kept playing every time I tried to focus, which sucks. Anyway. OBS.

The highlights were high elements, kayaking and trekking.

High Elements:
Wasn't all that fun. So anyway I got stuck halfway up, not because of fear, because by then I wasn't scared anymore, but because my arms stiffened -.-. Pretty sure if they allowed us to use the wire at the side I would have had no problem.... Anyway, Huakai's side had it easier, which is why he was able to reach the top.

Kayaking:
On the second day after high elements we learned how to kayak, for those who didn't know, and kayaked from camp 1 to camp 2. We were told it was 1.5km. I was not able to verify this information. This was the easy part.
On the night we spent at camp 2, Huakai, Yaoqing, Jerome and me were chosen to be the leaders of the sea expedition team. So we sat down for awhile, planned and everything. We kayaked 12km around ubin(the long way) to reach Campsite 3. I took the single kayak this time, which turned out to not be such a good idea. After crossing Chek Jawa, the waves became !@#@$#%$^%^&* and my kayak kept getting blown towards shore by the wind while the waves underneath turned it right. This resulted in me being unable to stay in formation and honestly I felt like just sitting there and giving up. Obviously being me, I didn't, because....I'm me. And also because I would end up nowhere if I did. Anyway we made it to campsite a little earlier than expected, which was awesome. Even though campsite 3 had the lousiest "facilities", I had the most fun there, mostly because we were so close to nature. It really felt like an adventure. Shitting in a hole in the middle of a bunch of trees has to be one of the coolest experiences ever. Also because we had a lot of spare time and also the ground was comfortable cold so that actually, sleeping at that campsite was the best. Also, we slept through sentry duty. Just because my shirt says Security doesn't mean I am.

Trekking:
Night over, wake up in the morning. Fresh air, hustle and bustle. We now need to hike from camp 3 to camp 1. I look at the map. Okay, it's about 2-3km. Then we are told we have to hike to checkpoint one first, then possibly to other checkpoints and then to camp 1. Okay, not so bad. I look at the MGR of checkpoint one: eastern tip of Pulau Ubin. Camp 1 is at the western tip. !@##$%^&. Anyway we set off for the first checkpoint at about 9.20am and reach it at around 12pm. Slow pace, since it's only 7.28km. After lunch we are told we have very little time left, so the other checkpoints are cancelled and we head straight for camp 1. Our target is to reach it at 4.30. The distance is probably 13-15km, by my estimate. We set off at 1.55pm and set a brutal pace. We overtake 4 groups on the way, 2 of which I think left 1 hour before us. We reach the campsite at 4.42pm. Fun.

After the trekking thing, our group just got closer and everything. So the next day everyone was feeling like family. Pek Khoon objects but I do feel like she was a mother figure to the group.

Anyway, OBS was fun. I'm both glad and not so that it was over. I'm glad because the activities are so tiring and despite being outdoorsy I do not enjoy sleeping in a tent on cold hard ground every night. I am not so glad because it was actually quite fun spending time with everyone in the group. Anyway I did get stronger after OBS, as I expected, but no, I did not gain much weight, which is amazing. I was 57.2/3 kg before OBS and after OBS I'm now 57.5kg. I'm now closer to getting max points for NAPFA, which by the way was what I was thinking of when doing jetty jump.

Revelations, I guess I didn't really have any revelations. OBS just reaffirmed the beliefs I had, which, if you're interested, are as follows:
Believe in yourself
Pain is all in the mind
Limits are restrictions you put on yourself.
Never (gonna) give (you) up.  Subtle rickroll ftw.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
When in doubt, just wing it.
And something I learned watching Monty Python: Adopt, Adapt and Improve.

Oh yeah there is one other thing I learned.
When in deep shit, shut the fuck up. Reworded to suit this blog.
Glimpsed from a story told by our instructor Pei Lee.

Speaking of which, OBS instructors can tell very lame stories. Very. Lame. But, as Huakai would say, "quite cute la hor."

Anyway Pei Lee if you're somehow reading this, we can't find you on facebook.

Tock Seng Watch if you're reading this, do remember that I am immortal fruit, and not a banana.