The Game plan

All right, chumps. Let's do this. LEEERRROOOOYYYY!!! UHHJJJEENNNNKKIIINNNS!!!

This is how I will get a girl XD

Contextualization of wall post on JC's wall (< omg i made a reference to JC for the first time D:!!! ) ...

Basically, after I was told that girls fall for JC instantly (pfft, unfortunately), I realized that.... he was in breach of antitrust law (demonstration of which was when sistic was sued $1000 000 for being too pro and not giving other minor ticketing agents a chance to rise in the market. basically, they were dominating and it was unfair. so they had to nerf sistic.

Which is why I have to nerf JC. 

GAHAHAHA IM SO HIGH RIGHT NOW XD punchdrunk on love (or lack thereof) XD XD XD

Joshie, i shall heed your advice and enjoy my singleness (pfft, singularity is not equal to singleness).

sin·gu·lar·i·ty (s ng gy -l r -t ). n. pl. sin·gu·lar·i·ties. 1. The quality or condition of being singular. 2. A trait marking one as distinct from others; 

~~

Guys. I'll see you tomorrow. 

Just helping ourselves?

People are self-centered. A gross and disturbing generalization but it could not be further from the truth. People are self-centered. I read San's poem and also read How to Watch a Child Die by Amanda Chong (the basis for San's poem), and while I enjoyed (well, not exactly enjoyed, but rather appreciated) reading both poems, it did jolt me awake. Something deep down inside me had been awoken. Guilt perhaps? Or a sudden realization that everything I've been doing could be explained by a psychological hypothesis which is utterly disturbing? All I know is that something, some grotesque monstrosity has decided to rear its ugly head and start clawing it's way out of its grave.

Have you ever passed by a person on the street or underpass who was begging for alms? Well, the chances are you have passed at least 1. Orchard is full of people who plead you to lend them some sympathy, to show them some mercy and give them some respite from the savage cruelties of the world. Have you ever passed them by and felt a pang of guilt that you didn't take the measly effort to fish out your wallet and donate a few dollars, or even cents for that matter? You probably have, no? And maybe perhaps you've also passed some of these people and eventually decided that you might just show him some compassion and actually fished out your wallet to donate a few dollars or cents to him. You probably felt happy, no? Now ask yourself why did you donate the money? Hmm? Did you really donate it because you sincerely wanted to help the poor chap or did you just want  to rid yourself of the guilt which you have readily come to associate with not helping your fellow man.

Consider this dedication by John Aubrey to the famous political philosopher and author of Leviathan, an argument for why the people require government, Thomas Hobbes.

He was very charitable (to the best of his ability) to those that were true objects of his bounty. One time, I remember, going in the Strand, a poor and infirmed old man craved his alms. He, beholding him with eyes of pity and compassion, put his hand in his pocket and gave him sixpence. Said a divine (Dr Jasper Mayer) that stood by: "Would you have done this if it had not been Christ's command?" 

"Yea," said he.

"Why? quoth the other.

"Because," said he, "I was in pain to consider the miserable condition of the old man and now my alms, giving him some relief, doth also ease me.

The moral often drawn from such stories is that all motivations to do something is to satisfy the self. Consider the following examples. A woman running into a burning house to save her baby who is trapped in his/her crib. Why did she do it? Was it because of her undying love for her child or was it because she knew well how she would feel bad about herself if she did not save the child and thus drove into try and save the child to rid herself of this uneasiness. Everyone is self-centered. Even the Bible plays upon this fact. If you've ever taken a good look at the bible you will soon realize that God inspires us to do good by offering us a reward (entry to Heave, paradise) and offering us incentives not to (forced extradition to Hell, which no one wants to go to). If, for example, there had been no such thing as Heaven or Hell, perhaps we would all be sinning like there was no tomorrow. 

Even love is affected by this. Do we really love the person? Or is it just that we enjoy being loved by the other and that we understand that in order for this to last, we need to love the other person back? 

Avert your eyes from their gaze, says Amanda Chong in her poem How to watch a child die, even if they plead you to be drawn to their depths. What does it mean? Simple. Do not find reasons to feel guilty and you will not be compelled to do something about it. 

Just something to ponder about. 

The Complete History of Russia: Arranged to the Melody of Tetris

Nice useful summary. I <3 history. 

England is NOT Synonymous to Great Britain?

Now time for some sharing on the political boundaries of GB.

GB is an abbreviated term which is used to describe The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Great Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 60.0 million people in mid-2009,^[4][7] it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1,000^[8] smaller islands and islets. The island of Ireland lies to its west. Politically, Great Britain may also refer to the island itself together with a number of surrounding islands which comprise the territory of England, Scotland and Wales.

All of the island is territory of the sovereign state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and most of the United Kingdom's territory is in Great Britain. The term "Great Britain" (and the abbreviation 'GB') is the traditional 'short form' of the full country title 'the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'. Most of England, Scotland, and Wales are on the island of Great Britain, as are their respective capital cities: London, Edinburgh, and Cardiff.

The Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the political union of the kingdoms of England and Scotlandwith the Acts of Union 1707 on 1 May 1707 under Queen Anne. In 1801, under a new Act of Union, this kingdom merged with the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. After the Irish War of Independence, most of Ireland seceded from the Union. Currently the kingdom is named the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland compromises of 4 sovereign countries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

~~

Well, wikipedia helps us all, no? 

Fail Poem #3 ~ Untitled

She lay there ensconced in her fake ecstasies,

Indulging in imaginary delight,

Looking around, drinking in the delicate features,

The surreal quality, the air of a place rising out of a 

Dream long forgotten, of a place where fantasy spilled

Over into reality. The moon's lonely face

Rose from the depths of the cold abyss. 

Moonlight trickled from the bleeding sky and

Played on the windowsill, dancing.

She looked around yet again. The shadows of the night

Took their form. Hollow laughter echoed through the room

And she lay there wondering how the dream turned

Into the nightmare as the shadows converged upon her

Drowning her in a deluge of black light

And quick as a sudden crack in glass, broke her heart.

She woke up. 

The Mechanics of a Keyboard Smash

Well, now for an interesting post. Keyboard smashes, simply put, is the random smashing of keys in a random order thereby achieving a random combination of letters, numbers and symbols, commonly used to denote anger or frustration. Why does it denote/imply anger or frustration? Smashing is a common form of venting anger. Well, if you see a person smashing a keyboard, you know that he is angry. Unfortunately, we cannot see the person smashing the keyboard unless (s)he's using a webcam, so we instead show them the effects of said keyboard smash in the hope that they can make inferences and draw conclusions for themselves.

Back to the topic. I was performing keyboard smashes (practice? D: ) one day and found out that I had liked certain keyboard smashes as compared to others, thus resulting in this: the critical analysis of how a keyboard smash affects someone and how we can use that to find the perfect (well, perfect for me at least XD) keyboard smash. First, we begin with 2 random keyboard smashes.

q0ewrivaq-sr90vARWVN
q-we9mvq-we1vmwemfqavdspknfq]swet

Do they look professional to you? No. They seem as if they were made in China. Now, we begin to question how and why these look bad. First, I must state the characteristics of a keyboard smash that 1 should always look out for.

1) beginning letter - anything beginning with a number, a symbol OR the letter 'x' will look bad (in my opinion)
2) alphanumeric? just letters? letters with symbols? or alphanumeric with symbols?
3) arrangement of letters and the look of the letters, whether they are curvy or straight, the order of the curves and straights has a different effect on the viewer.
4) length? something too short like 'ap9sd' does not make a point whereas something too long such as 'q0-we98vma-s98dfjamosuidfnvasp9uhmvasou8dvnqw8urhvq8wernvg91873gvr91387turvgba8uygrv198wegtvq98ywevgq98weygvq8weyvgrqrygv19834yz' just spoils the beauty of it all.


Now, with that, we begin to look at 1 last example of a keyboard smash in which I will state my analysis below.

q-wer8unvq0w8evhnq89udfchnv2er

The keyboard smash begins with a respectable letter q, a balanced combination of curves and straights. It is however followed by a '-' (dash), which also happens to be the lone symbol, thus ruining the effect. The keyboard smash looks weird due to the randomly inserted numbers which spoils the effect. However, the keyboard smash is of a respectable length and isn't too long or too short.

Well, there we go... the mechanics of a keyboard smash.... I need to make this more conclusive, but heh, as they said in Catch-22: Oh well what the hell and Myko published the post.

Brick By Boring Brick - CLE Reflective Piece

Unfortunately, due to space constraints (I had to fit the whole reflection in 2 pages WITH Arial font 12 AND DOUBLE SPACING - how the hell do you write a good reflection in 2 pages with size 12 font and double spacing?!?!), the lyrics at the start was omitted and certain parts had to be cut. But this is my (slightly edited) CLE reflective essay. Do enjoy XD

"She lives in a fairy tale/

Somewhere too far for us to find./

Forgotten the taste and smell/

Of a world that she's left behind."

Brick by Boring Brick, Paramore, 2009

            All humans have a natural inclination to feel happy and take many measures to ensure that they are. In the world today which is fraught with so many troubles, escapism is one of the most common ways of ensuring that we are happy. Escapism is defined as an inclination to retreat from unpleasant realities through diversion or fantasy. In the lesson about how different people react to obstacles in life (the one about the egg, carrot and coffee bean going into hot water), this character trait is attributed to the egg. The egg’s white, when placed in hot water, hardens to protect the yolk just like how some people harden up and isolate themselves from the world when they face adversity in life. People numb the pain. It is convenient and quick and does not require much effort and at the end of the day, they feel happy. But unfortunately, not many people have had the courage or the desire to question whether the pain was truly gone.

            The difference between eliminating the pain and numbing it is that in the former, the pain is truly gone while in the latter, the pain is still present, just that our senses are unable to detect it because we deliberately make them as such. The former method acknowledges the problem while the latter simply hides it. In psychology, this is known as psychological compensation. The human mind employs a complicated system of checks and balances to ensure that the amount of sadness is always smaller or at least equal to the amount of happiness. If there is a deficit in happiness or a surplus in sadness, the human mind is quick to compensate for this by taking measures to ensure that we get our dose of happiness.  In this case, a person compensates for the sadness caused by the pain by partaking in events which entail happiness.

            Relating this back to my life, I think that when I encounter difficulties, the standard operating procedure for me is to construct a world where all of these problems do not exist. I construct fantasy worlds, an elaborate system of lies designed to make myself feel better and perhaps I may have lost my touch with reality. When a lie is repeatedly told with enough conviction, a person will eventually believe it. What’s more is that when the person has an incentive to believe in that lie, he will believe in it. We take many pains to ensure that the world we live in is as realistic as possible. The song Brick by Boring Brick by Paramore says “Well make sure to build your hose brick by boring brick/ or the wolf’s gonna blow it down.” When doing this reflection, what really struck me was how much pain and effort I took in constructing this system of lies when I could have used the same amount of pain and effort to change the real world I live in. Why waste so much effort on something fake when you could have used the same effort spending it on something real, genuine, authentic?

            What I really learned from this reflective exercise, and what really struck me, was that I was becoming something I knew that I should not have become. I was tricked and distracted by the seemingly great rewards that, impulsively, I took it without taking a closer look at the consequences. When the egg is placed in hot water, the white hardens up to ensure that the yolk is protected. But what many people seem to forget is that in the process, the yolk also hardens and we become cold, emotionless, unfeeling pieces of movable clockwork; machines unable to feel genuinely happy. And indeed, because I have adopted this method time and time again, I have also begun to harden. But fortunately, there is still hope. I think that most people feel that this placing in hot water (or boiling) is a one time event. That after it, you have chosen what you wanted to be and you are commited to it. But that is false. The boiling does not take place at a specific time of your life. The boiling spans throughout it. And I am still young and there is a lot of time to change.

~~

Long post, eh? Well, thanks for reading if you actually managed to endure all that D: and remind me to do an analytic/critical assessment of Brick by Boring Brick San's donut poem XD