Pure Pwnage

Hand up if any of you watched Bananas in Pyjamas when you were younger!


I've been spending the last 3 hours reading Jodi Picoult's 'Nineteen Minutes', and as usual I'm tempted to stay up till 7 am to finish it. She has so many thoroughly thought out ideas (and I think, understanding)about the human condition. Sometimes she uses witty plays on words, and sometimes she writes simply, but she always manages to communicate the emotions and wry humor that her characters possess. I think she must be an excellent communicator and observer of people in real life... I also felt that she really captured a lot of the feelings that I had when I was that age...

Just went to the Kino Book sale. I bought Neil Gaiman's 'Neverwhere', and a pair of what will be the last Agatha Christie books I collect. I could not find 'American Gods' though, which was a disappointment; but Kino still has props for the homage it pays to my favorite (though admittedly, the only one i've read) detective novel writer, Agatha Christie, in spite of the age of her series.

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Have you ever walked into a shop that was out of your price range, prepared to inspect their wares calmly and pretend to be unimpressed? That was my plan when I entered Brooks Brothers to get a look at those nice vests they always display. I walked in and smiled at the sales assistant, and picked up a vest to find its price tag. I did this while preparing an outer mask of a composed and nonchalant rich kid... Then I saw the price, and my mask shattered completely.

When this sort of thing happens, the socially correct thing to do would be to walk around the store for a minute or two more, pretending to look at the rest of the clothes whilst trotting about in a regal manner. I was so very distraught that I was unable to complete this simplest of social rituals, and discreetly walked out of the store.

Pwned.

Big World, Big People

-If you love her, you'll give yourself the chance-

Indulgence- noun
1.the act or practice of indulging; gratification of desire.
2.the state of being indulgent.
3.indulgent allowance or tolerance.
4.a catering to someone's mood or whim; humoring: The sick man demanded indulgence as his due.

Occasionally, I like to remark on how big the world is, and how full of wonders and opportunities it must be.

After today's eye-opening meeting with Ah Boon and Yicheng's friends, I can now remark about the large number of people who are very much likely to be bigger than me, and who would probably pwn my ass in the game of life. Rather... I got to know a little more about how little I know about people in general. I met a totally different breed of people, which is in no way a bad thing because they were all very polite and well-spoken and nice enough... but also very collected. It didn't affect me much but I was rather aware of being a fish out of water.

Once again though, a learning experience =/


Note to Self: December 8th

The Seven Deadly Sings cont.

They were, in order of increasing seriousness: gluttony, lust, avarice, sadness, anger, acedia, vainglory, and pride. Evagrius saw the escalating severity as representing increasing fixation with the self, with pride as the most egregious of the sins. Acedia (from the Greek "akedia," or "not to care") denoted "spiritual sloth."

NOTE TO SELF: BACKUP ALL ENTRIES

' I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love.' - Mother Theresa

Back to the Future

Must get the theme song!!!

And a new set of Firefly, among other things...

The Seven Deadly Sins

reticence- –adjective
1. disposed to be silent or not to speak freely; reserved.
2. reluctant or restrained.

—Synonyms 1. taciturn, quiet, uncommunicative.
—Antonyms 1. talkative, voluble.

Sins-–noun
1.transgression of divine law: the sin of Adam.
2.any act regarded as such a transgression, esp. a willful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principle.
3.any reprehensible or regrettable action, behavior, lapse, etc.; great fault or offense: It's a sin to waste time. –verb (used without object)
4.to commit a sinful act.
5.to offend against a principle, standard, etc. –verb (used with object)
6.to commit or perform sinfully: He sinned his crimes without compunction.
7.to bring, drive, etc., by sinning: He sinned his soul to perdition.

Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity.
Envy is the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation.
Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.
Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.
Anger is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath.
Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness.
Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.

Chinese music is nice

NOTE to self: Eating honey is dangerous for infants, because it contains trace amounts of toxic substances which an adult's digestive tract can eliminate, but a baby's cannot. DO NOT FEED KIDS HONEY. DO NOT.

'It's political in what it doesn't say, in what it chooses to ignore.' -Somebody involved in 'Lions for Lambs'.

'Remembering all the time he’d spent, and how little he’d taken out of it in the end.' - excerpt from the School Rumble fanfic which I linked to my blog.

I used to revile the thought of close friends flying off to unfamiliar, unsafe (feeling) lands to chase their dreams or further their studies. I even let this thought hurt one particular friendship some time back (but God was good to me)... Somehow though, it seems that quite a good number of good friends will be flying off, whether it be in the pursuit of law, media studies, veterinarian degrees, or the bedding of French chicks... And there's not a thing I can do about it, haha...

...I think I've come to terms with it though. Why discourage someone important to you from trying to fulfil their dreams, or from securing their futures in the way they see fit? I can still pray for them... And use Windows mesesenger... And Skype... And send winter clothing over. Lol.

At the time, it did not occur to me

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3162522/1/I_Disappear- a person with a rather strong understanding of the School Rumble characters...

Temerity Connotation Exceptional Lecherous bout

Remember to: Make a more detailed analysis about why I loathe 'The Secret'

The extremely cheeky and in-your face writer, Mr.Janades(spelling error?) Devan, illuminated some of the finer points regarding the use of certain old sayings...

'Tightening one's belt' is not the same thing as reducing one's expenditure. You have to spend less first, and thus you would eat less and subsequently become thinner. Only then can you 'tighten your belt'. Spend less to tighten your belt!

'Eating humble pie' is supposedly based on the umbles pie which was eaten in the courts of old English kings. It was a pie that was served in the lower portion of the dining table (for the less important people), but it was eventually promoted to the upper half of the table. I think it should be made of the different innards of a deer. Something like that.

A friend of mine in camp told me something interesting the other day... What if we weigh our trust of others in terms of money? For instance, I might not trust Gwendolyn enough to lend her an amount as small as $5, but I might trust Giovanni to return me a loan of $50,000. How much we are worth (in monetary terms) is dependant on how reliable our character is perceived to be, as well as our technical and money-making abilities. Thus, we should also work towards reducing our 'credit risk' from both ends.

I think it's a concise way to measure the value of people, haha....

A World Without Borders

My Borders bookshop trip was irritating and frustrating. They have a rather wide range of authors, but a lack of range in their individual works. 50% of the books have some tear in the cover, or have large creases. The layout is confusing, and books written by a single author for a particular genre can be spread all around the place.

And they have the GALL to classify SCI-FI and Fantasy together with such nonchalance. How terribly inconveniencing. I could only find ONE Neil Gaiman paperback in decent condition.

Now I have to wait for the Kino sale or go to Sans for a Neil Gaiman fix.

Dragonlance- poetic, allusive?

Supposedly, one of the steps in a particular process for treating nuclear waste involves mixing it with sugar to stop certain chemical degradation processes in the waste... Wow.

Note to self: Search more about locus of control studies

Quote: ' The one with the most courage will win.' ... Awright. But... hahahahha ha haha

Quote: ' He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.' - A missionary martyr by the name of Jim Elliot

... I've run out of inner crapping energy... Was going to write an inane little paragraph about a gaming view of friendship, which might categorize them into early, middle, and late game friendships... Ahha. Well, I'll just make a note of it here...

Allusive (adj.), Allude (verb), Allusion (noun).

My idea journal has been restarted as of today. Now to find a pencil...

Lovely Traitor!

Loose thoughts

-it's true strength lies in it's clever use of wordplay and witty puns- School Rumble... School Rumble episodes 7 is corrupted in the oddest way. The sound is intact, but the screen is black which means that you can't see what's going on at all..

yoroishiko onegaishimasu- nice to meet you.

Some people are predisposed to peace and compromise, others to contention and strife. That some people value peace over argument; it is not a telling sign of merit or personal cultivation.



After two years, did I know her well? I'd have to say no. It's not that I never had the opportunity, but maybe there wasn't any part of me that truly wanted to understand anything about her.... Near the end, we were closer than any other time before.. And I gave it up willingly, unable to deal with the duplicity of wanting her, longing for her, and at the same time having to pretend to want nothing more than to be a good friend...

I was far from happy about it. But even now, I don't regret that I gave up. Wonderment, loving girlishness or womanliness, longing for someone so much that you saw her in your dreams every night... It turned out to be different from caring for, loving a person. Before, I had been so confident that I'd be able to do both... But maybe it starts out that way, liking a girl before you like the person she is. Probably, but I don't really know for sure. Haha.

Stories from the fringe people

To open up my mind regarding the illusion of impossibilities...


Does great art only come from having experienced great pain? Does a storyteller have moral obligations (message distorted), and is vengeance ever right? .... I can't remember everything the review was saying about it, but 'The Pillowman' looks interesting...


Is God like a movie director, or a puppeteer, pulling our strings? Is that our definition of his omnipotence and all-knowing? Or is he reacting to the every move of billions of free wills, understanding us perfectly and getting in place to receive us at the end?


per·ni·cious –adjective
1.
causing insidious harm or ruin; ruinous; injurious; hurtful: pernicious teachings; a pernicious lie.
2.
deadly; fatal: a pernicious disease.
3.
Obsolete. evil; wicked.

glib -adjective

1.
readily fluent, often thoughtlessly, superficially, or insincerely so: a glib talker; glib answers.
2.
easy or unconstrained, as actions or manners.
3.
Archaic. agile; spry.

Andrew L. Shapiro (1999) argues that the "emergence of new, digital technologies signals "a potentially radical shift of who is in control of information, experience and resources" (Shapiro cited in Croteau and Hoynes 2003: 322). W. Russell Neuman (1991) suggests that whilst the "new media" have technical capabilities to pull in one direction, economic and social forces pull back in the opposite direction. Thus, although social changes will occur, they "will be evolutionary, not revolutionary" (Croteau and Hoynes 2003: 322). According to Neuman, "We are witnessing the evolution of a universal interconnected network of audio, video, and electronic text communications that will blur the distinction between interpersonal and mass communication and between public and private communication" (Neuman cited in Croteau and Hoynes 2003: 322). Neuman argues that New Media:
will alter the meaning of geographic distance
Allow for a huge increase in the volume of communication.
Provide the possibility of increasing the speed of communication.
Provide opportunities for interactive communication.
Allow forms of communication that were previously separate to overlap and interconnect.

'I am pathetic. I've never been loved since the day i was born.'--Gwendolyn

xkcd.com

'He has a mysterious power. He just makes other people want to bet their hopes on him.'

Shikamaru and Chouji... Understanding without words..

Angles

You read about the writers' strike going on in America, and you ask yourself what all the fuss is about. You think, " Why are all these writers depriving American couch potatoes of their daily doses of Scrubs, Monk, and House?" You don't really know what's at the heart of the matter.

Then you read about all the effects it will have on the economy, the jobs of thousands of people who will be affected- Hairstylists, cameramen, prop makers, sound crew involved in the production process- and you think that these writers are just being selfish.

The next day you read about how it's not about the rich TV show producers or the successful writers, but the middle-class writers who are struggling to provide for their households...

Should we just pin it on the corporations and the directors for hoarding profits? The next day...

Lady

Imagine there's this girl you knew a couple of years ago from school, and at the time you thought, " She looks average, just another girl.". You don't see her for a year or two, and one day, you come across her on the street, and suddenly she's a lady, exemplifying beauty, and exuding grace and confidence that a school girl could never come close to.

Because you only have two frames of her, one two years ago and one now, it becomes as if you've just watched a flower bloom in a span of a few seconds. Your brain can't even process the command to ogle at any one part of her, because it's been overloaded by a sense of awe and humility from witnessing an act of nature that's beyond either imitation or understanding. She is alluring without brazenness, classy without being haughty, dainty and demure, yet confident and accommodating. Neither naive nor jaded, she seems wise and yet, innocent.

The girl you knew has vanished, and inexplicably, a lady has taken her place. The lady grants you a warm smile, and you smile back, and you talk with her, all the while conscious of the fact even though you both are the same age, you're still just a boy-man but she somehow seems mature enough to be your mother.. Somehow the gap between the both of you feels wider and wider with each passing second, and, too embarrassed to stay on, you make up some excuse about having to go. She only smiles and says, "It was good seeing you again."

You walk away.. somehow she's made your day, and ruined it at the same time.

Lady

'The price of justice has risen in recent years'

Neil Gaiman is so fun to read! Mmmm... Halo 3...

Recently, some PLMGS girls won an online poll, and were to be awarded with a surprise visit from the Click Five, an American pop band. However, their principal forbade the visit, citing the upcoming O Level examinations as a reason. The band went to perform at CHIJ(SJC) instead, resulting in a uproar (furore? check meaning) from the PLMGS students.... My condolences to the young girls, for the utter destruction of their childhoods by their principal, and for the years of ones-upmanship by CHIJians that will follow...

Some books by psychologists suggest that parents pass down their relationship rules (the ways in which one feels, acts, and thinks with regards to another in a relationship) to their children. It is said that when these children grow up, they often get attached to a person who has similiar traits to a particular parent (perhaps the parent of the opposite gender, perhaps not, i am unsure if this is dependent on which personality the child emulates more), and their marriages may reflect the same relational patterns as their parents..... 'I'm looking for a wife/husband that's just like my mom/dad.'

Is this a more mechanical, and less romantic, idea than than the concept of looking for a 'soul mate'? I think it's... logical, but confining as well... because I'd feel less comfortable (on an unconscious level) with somebody who has a different relationship style than, lets say, the one that I share with my mother, and the one that she shares with my father... This might even be so if that relationship isn't a good one in the first place... If this idea is true, and if i'm aware of it's place in my life, how much more freedom does that grant me?

Over the weekend:
1. Cut hair, prepare uniform
2. Buy Neil Gaiman books at Borderes
3. Study BTT
4. Play some Odin Sphere

Next: Tsundere, Yandere

Chivalry and Chauvinism

We respect the daring man, and the humble man.

We follow the leader who leads effectively, or the leader who leads by example.

Got pwned this mounting on many levels... though I am glad that I decided not to join in the emotion venting.. It would have been ironic to gain the right to go to cell group through arguments and contention.

It's funny... When I receive a compliment from my shift mates, I really feel my pride swell... haha...