Thursday 28 February 2008

Rant 097 / Mentos + Coke = Whatever...

It's not everyday that I get to see cute girls up close. Not every class has attractive looking ladies. Thus I attend every NTU TMC meeting whenever I can. Which means I haven't missed one before.

There is this non Singaporean girl in the club who is quite pretty, but simply too young and innocent. Innocent as in naive. You can tell what kind of person a member is by listening to the speeches he or she made, and I can tell, she really is young, both physically and mentally. At first, I thought she was nice, approachable, and friendly. But after a while, I decided she was just another pretty face. With a strong accent in her English.

Too... child-like. It's nice to be like that, but not nice to be with someone like that.




But it's not like I'm such a fantastic person either. I am no conversationalist. I don't start conversations, but I end them pretty often. I can speak decently, I have received praises for my Table Topics speeches outside the meetings, but I have never won a prize for it. That means I can talk, but just not well enough. And not interested enough.

Neither am I very approachable. It is unreasonably hard to contact me through my phone, and I don't socialize like the rest. I do better in group conversations, making interesting comments once in a while, but I'm not the sort who can talk all the time.

Basically, I don't like to talk face to face. I feel more restrained when I see the person physically. And I have less time to think when I talk to the person directly. Sometimes, things just slip from my lips and I have to make sudden adjustments to my following lines to smoothen things again. These don't happen online.




Just watched Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead. I think that in addition to being horror flicks, they also explore the more primitive nature of people. I could see how different people behave in desperate situations, and how they treat their loved ones in such times. Sometimes, their reactions are illogical to me, but I guess it can be possible that some people are crazy in such ways.

What truly defines who you are, is how you react to problems when there is no time to think. It immediately reveals the core of yourself, without all the sugar coating and plastic masks. And you can see all these in the zombie films, whether they just run and hide, or try to save others.





I was pleasantly surprise when my evaluator insisted that I had rehearsed before doing my 2nd prepared speech. I was about to tell him I didn't, but decided to keep my mouth shut. I thought it would insult him if I did tell him, because I know he's the sort who has to rehearse each speech for at least half an hour to deliver it smoothly.

In fact, I have never even mouthed the words before the presentation itself. I have only imagined the speech, and didn't even want to write a script. It was only on the afternoon during that day, when I decided to have some insurance, just in case I panic. So I wrote down the main points on half an A4 paper, and that was it!

Of course, it helped tremendously that I chose a topic I was familiar with (again). GAMING! For that speech, I spoke on how gaming can be considered as a real sport, and how lucrative it already is to be a professional gamer in countries like South Korea. The little research on the prize money of WCG really helped to attract attention. 20k USD for the gold medalist for WC3 in 2007. Win that, and you can stop working for a year.

Unlike many others who like to talk about deep stuff that they may not be familiar with (sometimes), I do not like to do anything like that. I dislike rehearsals. Rehearsals make me want to remember the whole speech word for word, and that isn't good. But that is exactly what many people do! It is simple, definitely, but not easy. I prefer the easy, yet not simple.

This way, I prevent myself from using long, difficult words that not all may understand. I have seen this happen, and it is definitely not useful in conveying messages to the whole audience. It does add some class to the speech, but the usefulness is merely superficial.




I haven't played Sins of a Solar Empire since my last update haha! Stopped playing, because I am now really back into Natural Selection. It's not only the game itself that attracts me, but the interaction with others, and listening to their crazy conversations that brings me back. The Americans are really free with their mouths, and the Europeans aren't all that far from that. Singaporeans don't talk, and I don't understand Korean nor Japanese when I join their servers.

I have also got my hands on a copy of Sword of the Stars! It's like a sci-fi version of the Civilization series. Haven't played yet, but it looks nice.





The NTU TMC bbq was nice. The cute girls didn't attend. It made me cry. Kidding. About the crying.

I took some videos at first, but was too distracted by the food later. And I also learnt not to buy pre-marinated food from supermarkets because the stuff they use don't always suit our tastes.

We tried to do the Mentos/Coke experiment. One guy spent some money for a 1.5L bottle of Coke and a bar of Mentos. He placed the bottle on the table, opened it, and slip all the Mentos into the bottle. It didn't explode. It merely foamed like mad, but the fountain was not impressive. I wanted some mad explosions! Foam doesn't count...

At least I get to know them better.

Tuesday 26 February 2008

Rant 096 / Watching Zombie Movies Made Me Realize I'd Better Start Jogging...

Watched a few movies in the past few days. George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead is really a classic horror. Released in 1990, it lacks the gory stuff that makes today's horror movies horrifying. Instead, it uses the ugly-zombie-moving-slowly-towards-you kind of effect to create that fear in the viewer. I like it. I dislike gore. It's disgusting and unnecessary.

Which is one reason why I think 28 Weeks Later is a crappy movie. All that blood was totally pointless. It wasn't fear that made my heart beat faster - it was the grossness that made me want to cover my eyes. And I especially dislike seeing things being done to the eyes, somehow. So that scene in which the first infected guy did all that stuff to his wife was, to me, one of the most useless parts of the movie.

And in 28 Weeks Later, it gave me the impression that the English are seriously brainless. I know it's not true, generally, but that's what the movie seemed to convey to me. In the first part where the guy abandons his wife when she tries to save the boy, I could understand if the boy is unable to get out of the closet. But for the woman to want to pull that boy out when she knows how close the angry dudes are, is foolhardy at best. And that old grandmother who stood at the ladder while watching in horror as her husband got pulled down... I don't know. Maybe that made sense. Frozen in horror and shit.

Next in the part where the people returns to London, the fact that the two kids would run out after being warned that there are still infected animals out there irritated me. I mean, the whole world in the story knew that the virus practically wipe out all humanity in England. That should have given unimaginable weight to that warning about infected animals. Yet the kids ran out and brought in the carrier. Wow? And the boy stood there looking at his mother when he should have ran at the first strange noise. Holy cow! That really got on my nerves! I mean, whatever living creatures out there have to be infected, so isn't it logical the siblings should be totally paranoid and jump at every sound? INSTEAD OF BEING CURIOUS AND WALKING TOWARDS IT TO CHECK IT OUT?!? And then, the woman wasn't enclosed in extremely secured room after the doctor saw various signs of being bitten. It was obvious that she was infected, but affected in a unique way. They should have been paranoid and isolated her somewhere. If there is a virus that managed to wipe out all humans living in England, I don't see why they should be so relaxed, even if it was 7 months after the outbreak.

My next complaint is on the part where they massacre everyone. Shouldn't they have a rule that if they spot any group of survivors walking together and showing signs of being normal, they should bring them to safety? It's not that hard to see who's normal and who's not when they come in a group. Especially when one of them was normal enough to use A FUCKING MIRROR TO SEARCH FOR THE SNIPER! I mean, if even one of them in the group was infected, that group can't possibly be normal at all. That crazy sniper shooting them deserved that shot. And that time when they burned the good sniper while he pushed the car! Where was the logic in that?

Here comes the last bit. The part where the boy got attacked by his infected father. He was right to run away from his sister. But his sister went after him! Yea I know that's love, but... that's stupid. I mean, there's nothing she could have done to help, and she could have got infected. It would have been a useless gesture of love that even her brother would not have comprehended if not for his immunity. That is a good example of thinking with the heart and not the brain.

Overall, 28 Weeks Later is an infinitely inferior sequel, compared to its prequel, 28 Days Later. This may be the first movie I have hated.


The Invasion is a nice movie. Made me think that maybe it wasn't that bad if everyone got infected in the end. Of course it didn't end that way, but what if...

The infected humans were not truly human, because emotions and our myriad of ways to express them are what define us as humans. Without them, how different are we from a well-designed robot?

The Invasion is a good remake. I haven't watched the original, and I have no motivation to watch it. And Nicole Kidman is gorgeous.





Now playing Sins of a Solar Empire. Good game, unique that it has no campaign. This is the first real-time strategy game I have ever played that lacks a campaign mode. But it's a nice game, an incredible time-consumer. It really makes you feel that your space empire is huge, because travelling between each planet takes quite some time, and between each star is even longer. The graphics are decent, not impressive, and I seldom have any reason to zoom in close to appreciate the ships.

Now I'm playing this huge randomly generated map, 3v3v3. Been at it for more than 6 hours, and it is apparent that I have won. I rank 1 in all 3 categories at the moment, and my empire covers about half of the 5 solar systems. Basically, they cannot compete with me when it comes to pirates because I have more money for bounties than they can ever get. My fleet is so powerful because I have researched everything and have maximum number of crew for capital ships. I have only 2 left. Gets kind of boring now, but I want to win this game for the medal for winning while using the Advent race.

The Advent race is the SoaSE's counterpart of the Aeon race - Fanatics of some religion with a group mind. And not to mention that cool-looking designs of their structures and ships.

Somehow I can't win in a 1v1 vs a Normal AI, but owns the enemies when its 3v3v3. Perhaps it's got to do with my reluctance to get a huge fleet in the early game.





Alright, I now have a Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead and Land of the Dead. More zombie movies!

And D-Wars too! But that's not a zombie film.

Must be the influence from Urban Dead.

Monday 11 February 2008

Rant 095 / Mercy On His Ribs




I'd say this year's Lunar New Year is better than the ones before, simply for the number of house visits I've had so far. 3 may be a small number for you, but I've been having merely 1 or 2 each year since I was 5.

The first 2 visits were quiet. The 10-11 of us didn't have much to talk about. We were from all 3 unis, coming from all sorts of courses, having nothing much in common but the fact that we were from the same class in Pri 6. Since I didn't have much to say, and the silence is rather awkward, I tried to ignore it by fishing out my phone and recording the process.

As an amateur cameraman, I must admit taking an interesting video is harder than it seems. I have to keep an eye out for where the interesting stuff is happening and find the right position to place myself.

With the presence of a few cute young ladies, it really was a waste that my camera's video resolution is really low. According to the phone's display, it is 176. I guess it means 1.76 megapixels. None of the faces are clearly displayed in the videos because of this. Seriously, the only thing I can really make out in the videos are JY's face and fl's long legs.

Because of fl's suggestion, I realize that I need to say something when the situation is quiet. A commentary. I did try it out in some situation, and I find it easier than Table Topics. I think I shall do it more from now on.

And in the last video, I made some gasping noise which really didn't come out too well in the recordings. Now Cal wants all the videos. I shall forever be embarrassed by this. I need to keep in mind never to make strange noises when the mic is on.

Oh f*ck it!



Next on the list is the NTU TMC BBQ. MOAR VEEDS!
Then... Charlie's housewarming party! MOAR N MOAR VEEDS!


Perhaps next time I should get a real camera. Wonder if that camera my mum bought for work has a video-record function. Or maybe I should ask Vic to bring his out for every outing.




Somehow I have lost interest in doing all tutorials. I am now lagging behind in Maths. Good thing I don't have Physics classes this sem, and all my electives don't have homework. Only subjects I need to worry about is Life Sciences and Material Science. Both are tough, at least for me.






Just finished watching Rush Hour 3. It was funny, but too short. I felt that everything just happened too suddenly, too quickly. The plot felt... condensed. But the humour was there.

Also just finished watching Dave's Pro At Cooking Episode 2. As usual, Dave was practically oozing ATTITUDE. And as usual, he sacked his pretty assistant halfway through the show. But this time, he also sacked the guest taster. LOL! "If you don't like it, you can go to hell!"




I think my roommate doesn't need to sleep. He merely lies on the bed for a few hours in order to wait for sunrise and then he dresses up for class. He seems to be able to save up all his fatigue for weekends, during which he sleeps all the way till 2pm, provided I'm not there to accidentally wake him up.




This June vacation may be more boring than the last! 2 very important guys are busy with projects during that very sacred period of the year! Projects! What blasphemy!





And it seems that Hx wants to stay in my house if we were to ever organize another overnight stay again. But it is true that my room is bigger. And my bed too. More work for me next time!!

Tuesday 5 February 2008

Rant 094 / OMG! The Korean Starcraft Replays On Youtube Are Stunning!

Sometimes things that come out of my mouth sound strange to me. Like a few days ago, a friend was asking me and another friend when we first started wearing glasses. I said I started in secondary school, and my friend gave the same reply.

Then I changed my mind and said I started wearing one when I was born. My mum tried to hand me the milk bottle but I didn't respond because I couldn't see it.

Imagine a baby with glasses.

Where the heck did that idea come from? That friend who asked even asked me whether I thought of it on the spot. Of course I thought it up on the spot, but even I couldn't believe I am capable of spouting such amazingly ridiculous nonsense.

On a more serious note, I find myself in no mood to do any work, even though I know I have to complete all tutorials for this week and the next, in preparation for Lunar New Year celebrations aka 4 days of lazing around.

This is troubling. I have to complete all these by tomorrow, because I'll be going home by Wed afternoon. Homework is strictly forbidden at home. Shit. I better stop blogging and do something about my math.

Hey! Typing out this shit helps!

Sunday 3 February 2008

Rant 093 / To Make Your Jeans Less Baggy, Gain Weight!

It is funny how other people are whining about how their parents are making them upset or giving trouble to them. Their parents either want them to want what they want them to want, or live the way they think their children should.

This doesn't seem to be happening to me. In fact, while other parents are telling my friends to stop wanting so much, I get a unending series of questions of whether I want this or that. While my friends are unhappy about what their parents don't allow to have, my mum worries that I'm not having enough.

Life.

I imagine that my friends would occasionally tell their parents that they want a certain thing. In my family, it is the reverse -I tell my mum I don't want many, many certain things. I don't want those seaweed snacks. I don't want a new t-shirt. I don't need a new computer. I don't need a new belt. I don't want just about 99% of what she asks me about.

To some, this must sound absurd. How many times do I hear my friends rejecting an offer to get free stuff from their parents? Never! Yet I do that as a matter-of-course all the time. And if my mum asks me whether I want a new car, I'd say no just the same - I don't and am not interested in a license.

But I wonder if the problem lies within me or my mum. I suspect it is in me. I have never seen a friend who wears a shirt that has been accidentally, partly bleached. I have not met many who do not want to drive a car. And I don't see anyone wearing shorts/bermudas that are worn to a sort of translucence. I have done and am still doing all the above, and more.

When someone whines about troubles with their mothers (never their fathers somehow), I cannot understand how they feel. My mum is too generous, compared to her peers in Singapore. In fact, the only trouble I can ever have with her is that I don't like to talk to her because she believes she will die soon, which is not altogether impossible given her medical history. It gets very morbid when I talk to her, which I sometimes avoid.

Just the above fact alone will totally shut any of the whiners up, if I tell any of them. But I keep this in, simply because these smart people need to learn special lessons the hard way just like everyone else. Life is harsh.

But I, too, believe her days are numbered. Everything I do to make myself seem more independent, is partly to satisfy her. But unlike most people I know, I believe that death is not horrible thing. For some, I understand that life is a burden. It is not wrong to commit suicide, something I dislike Catholicism for. Life is complex, and no one should make sweeping statements when it comes to life. Life is seldom so straightforward, and as such, death can sometimes be a release.

It is not wrong to kill oneself in certain situations. Take for example a cancer patient. Everyone knows it is horrible to die that way, but how many actually knows how a cancer patient dies?

Chronic pain. This is the reason all terminal cancer patients are pumped full of morphine to induce a semi-permanent coma. Cancer patients die in extreme pain, and it is not a fast death. That is, if he or she isn't killed by some other quicker complications before. In such scenarios, I believe Dr Kevorkian is right. People have the right to choose how they die, and if they choose to die in a more comfortable fashion( eg by injection), fuck any religion that vilify suicide.

Because I saw my father's death, I believe that physician-assisted suicide should be legalised. No one wants to end up lying unconscious in a hospital for weeks or months, completely swollen from the heavy doses of medication, knowing you are just waiting to die. And as if your death isn't enough, the hospital places in front of your family the bill for all their services.

In such a case, I don't want world-class medical attention from some bunch of genius doctors who graduated from Harvard or whatever magna cum laude; I want to die with minimal pain!

And together with the obvious fact that Earth's natural resources isn't able to feed our present population, let alone tolerate our expected growth rate, people should worship Kevorkian! Unfortunately, many of his supporters are dead. Obviously.

Well, that was anti-climatic, but I just couldn't hold it in once I thought of it.




"My aim in helping the patient was not to cause death. My aim was to end suffering. It's got to be decriminalized." - Dr Jack Kevorkian