Some Lighthearted Cynicism

F.E.A.R.

2009-02-22T05:55:00.000-08:00

This gave me the chills:

The Message

Don’t dismiss this outright as the work of some raving lunatic. There’s some sense to this story, if you’ll just hear me out…

Look, we all wonder if time travel is possible, right? Well, let me tell you something… it is. I’m from the future, actually. I know you probably don’t believe that, but seriously, I’m from the future. It’s a really great thing; getting to see the past, watching events unfold… stuff like that. We know more now than we ever would.

Behind all the fun, though, there’s a more serious aspect. We aren’t supposed to go in our own lifetime, and we are NEVER allowed to contact our past selves. Let me tell you, I’m breaking that rule right now. Yes, kid, you’re talking to yourself. Your future self. I’m going to be executed for this, but you know what? I accept that. I’m preventing something by talking to you that is WORSE than death. I can’t tell you outright what to do, because the filters would catch it. This is the closest I can get, trust me. I can, however, send a little message.

You should probably read the first word of every paragraph, now.

Ninja is the new black.

2008-12-23T04:59:00.000-08:00

You know you want to.

My logic is undeniable

2008-12-11T05:24:00.000-08:00

The perfect debate:

2008-09-18T02:22:00.001-07:00

Is that a mooncake made entirely out of dark chocolate?

YES IT IS.

My life has new meaning.

2008-09-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't noticed already, Microsoft Office 2007 sucks MASSIVELY.

This should be a public service announcement or something.

2008-09-07T06:18:00.000-07:00

To do list (in order):

1) HRP survey. Target: 100 respondents. Within 1 day.

2) Revision for all sciences.

3) Convincing myself that I haven't forgotten everything I've learnt in Terms 1 and 2.

4) Realising that I have forgotten everything I've learnt in Terms 1 and 2.

5) Acquainting myself with a few new swear words. Preferably in foreign languages.

Unexpected

2008-09-03T00:21:00.000-07:00

A classmate of mine has just met with a car accident.

Car accidents are supposed to be the stuff of drama serials, a distant "what if". Because this is reality, and in reality, these things just don't happen to you.

Which makes it all the more unnerving. Even though it wasn't a serious collision (thank God), and it was a little bizzare, just knowing that you aren't invincible, that statistics and precautions can't shield you forever, is pretty sobering.

It is a reminder that I greet with uncertainty, a fact that I will try to dispel with a smile and some revision.

I don't think it's going to work though. Sure puts the exam season into perspective.

Replacements

2008-08-29T18:45:00.001-07:00

New Laptop!

I have managed to get my hands on a Fujitsu Lifebook S7211. And it is phenomenal (although this might be relative).

Kinda makes up for my hiatus from WoW.

They're taking the hobbits to Isengard!

2008-08-12T04:19:00.000-07:00

Watch it and weep, techno haters.

2008-07-31T05:49:00.001-07:00

I think a little piece of me died around halfway through this video.

Boom De Ah Dah!

2008-07-15T19:47:00.000-07:00

The most amazing thing happened during Biology yesterday.

We were given a worksheet to help us prepare for the upcoming test, with the answers supposedly attached to the back. Being obviously too lazy to copy the answers from the whiteboard, we flipped to the back of the worksheet to take a look at the answers.

For some reason, the answers didn't seem to match. We then took a look at the title of the answer key. Apparently, she had attached the answers for the test to the back of every worksheet given out (we assumed this was by accident).

There was this dawning moment of comprehension.

And then complete chaos.

God knows we need more incidents like this. Makes life a whole lot more interesting (or bearable, for that matter).

Here's an inspirational video anyhow. I think everyone needs something uplifting now and then.

Keyboardisms

2008-07-07T06:44:00.000-07:00

My computer has decided that it would be funny to completely screw up it's keyboard on Youth Day. I have spent the past 12 hours praying for a miracle from the Tech gods, but I'm not expecting much, considering that I have ceased my stream of offerings since the last incident. I think I've been taking them for granted a little too much as of late.

I attempted to repent by house-cleaning my computer, and abstaining from chocolate for the day, but apparently, they aren't feeling particularly merciful today. After drawing a prayer circle, and flogging myself with a banana skin, I tried typing a sentence without the help of my handy external keyboard.

What it was meant to sound like: "Dear tech gods, I am sincerely repentant. Now fix my laptop."

This is how it turned out: "Dar tc g8ds, 6 am s6ncrly rpntant Now 6x my lapt8p"

I laughed when I read the last sentence (which is funny if you read it out loud), but I had to gag myself with the banana skin because I was trying to be solemn.

I have since given up on appeasing them, and come up with a god-awful rig that involves placing the laptop on two tissue boxes (yes, tissue boxes), and hooking up an external keyboard under it. My wrists are left dangling though, which has proved intensely uncomfortable, and has increased typing stress to an unbearable level. Perhaps suffering a little more might solicit a little sympathy from the tech gods, although I'm not too hopeful about that.

After my recent MMORPG disasters, I have decided to take a leap into the unknown, and try out the World of Warcrack. It took a good amount of faith to attempt this, but I was curious to know if my luck had picked up. Downloading it has unsurprisingly taken 14 hours of prayer, hope, hearbreak, and a good amount of staring at the monitor, hoping that intense concentration might help the download speed pick up. The download speeds have since been erratic, the estimated-time-of-completion's have stretched into the hours, and I swear I can hear laughter somewhere inside my earphones.

The Tech gods have a sick sense of humor.

Subliminal

2008-06-14T03:55:00.000-07:00

I cannot stop laughing at this.

Aliens, Fedoras, Jesus Lions and Overweight Pandas

2008-06-13T04:33:00.000-07:00

I am back after an extended hiatus! If anyone noticed, that is. Credits go to Halo 3 marathons and strings of Movies [most of which were consecutive]. I have caught Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the Omnipotent Martians [Intergalactic beings, to be precise. I believe this is what you call, a spoiler.], The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian [twice], and Kung Fu Panda.

I think my accurate rephrasing of the title of Indy 4 would pretty much alert you to what the entire movie is about. Yup, that's right. We have KGB agents, guns [RPG included], massive ants, an aged Harrison Ford, and the Transformers kid. But who needs that when you have ALIENS. With MAGNETIC HEADS [that attract even non-magnetic metals]. Prepare for a not-so-willing suspension of disbelief if you haven't caught it yet. I apologize if the spoilers weren't welcome. I think they're more of a warning, really.

Prince Caspian was completely and utterly average. I mean, just because LOTR managed to pull off the battle-fantasy concept with elaborate war scenes and such doesn't mean that every other film should be ripping off its success. Narnia does this. Shamelessly. The film kinda lost it's fantasy aspect for me because of that. I expected something more fairytailish and lighter-going than LOTR. That was the X-factor for me, and it was sorely missing in this film. The romance between Susan and Caspian was completely uncalled for, and there was an overdose of dark-fantasy creatures such as minotaurs and centaurs. Only the anthropomorphic animals and our beloved CGI Jesus-Lion retain their awesomeness. Especially the talking mouse.

Speaking of awesomeness, Kung Fu Panda lived up to its tagline. It was a well scripted story that mercifully avoided cliche. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience that was worth the 9 pm timeslot and the trouble we went through to catch it. The opening animation was particularly impressive.

The holidays are ending soon, and I think I'm expected to shift into high gear around now. But I can't care less. Denial is a wonderful state to live in.

I must stop trying to be funny

2008-06-13T04:30:00.000-07:00

Timothy: It's Holland vs France tonight.

Me: Ahahaha, Ho-land!

*Silence*

Me: No one got my jibe.

Rachel: I did, okay.

I know this is a Greg trademark, but I just felt compelled to post this short conversation. Sue me for copyright infringement if you must.

My internal compass has been demagnetized

2008-05-28T05:30:00.000-07:00

Just went to catch a movie today, and I have affirmed that I have no sense of direction whatsoever. Vague hints of my defect had appeared when I failed to navigate myself out of Takashimaya with my cousin, but this was the clincher. On our first attempt to reach Cathay Cineleisure Orchard, due largely to my misdirection, we ended up at Tangs. Minor alert. As tenacious as ever, I quickly blamed that on a particularly absorbing conversation I was having, and retraced my steps with the group in tow.

We started off in the opposite direction, only having the faint notion that the cineleisure was somewhere near Paragon. Our hopes were shaken upon our arrival at our beloved landmark, as the cineleisure was no where in sight. In our desperation, we committed the ultimate male heresy of asking for directions. Nothing a few prayers to the kindly gods of gender stereotype won't solve though. Our knowledgeable Orchard guides, consisting of a health shop cashier, a cookie vendor, and a random shopkeeper unanimously pointed in the direction we were moving in. Hurray! A morale booster! We continued our epic odyessy towards the land of moving images. Just to roughly gauge how far we had walked, we started out somewhere near Mount Elizabeth hospital, where I experienced my shortest dental session ever.

After five or ten minutes spent fighting gravity and air resistance, we made it past Dhoby Gaut station, and began to near our destination. Checkpoint done. At this point, it began to drizzle slightly. We hastened to the cineleisure to avoid the rain, and to an extent, the clouds, which we were afraid of, somewhat. When we reached it, we noticed that we were at The Cathay Cineleisure, and not Cathay Cineleisure Orchard. Red alert! If you were expecting an epic journey through the rain, which was pouring down by then, you will be disappointed to know that our nerve failed us. We quickly succumbed to the temptations of the nearby cabs.

We attempted to flag a few down initially, to find that our stretch of road seemed to spawn only occupied cabs. It took us approximately five minutes to figure out that the road was actually an exit for the cab stand at Plaza Singapura. Looking back, although it was slightly humorous, it is hard to see the lighter side of any situation when you are exhausted, hungry, and standing in the rain. We did eventually get a cab though, by crossing the street, and arrived at Cathay Cineleisure Orchard within two minutes.

As for the movie, Iron man was incredible. Apart from Spiderman/X-men, I think it is possibly the most faithful comic-book adaptation I have seen so far. It was well scripted, with lighter moments of dialogue here and there, and most of all, great action sequences with a guy in a cool armour suit, which was generally what the movie was supposed to be about. But the movie was satisfying on a whole, with some clever lines, and an excellently adapted plot. With my advice, we stayed back in the theater to catch the post-credits scene, which involved our beloved protagonist sans cool suit talking to Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D, who was, interestingly, played by Samuel L. Jackson. I could have sworn Nick Fury was supposed to have hair.

We followed that up with dinner, where I've had my first taste of cold udon, which has given me a stomach ache. Nothing a little chocolate can't cure though, although this is probably going to deplete my stocks (which were just replenished yesterday), quite quickly. Oh well, never mind. The holidays are a great time for extravagance, especially when you're with company.

Better than a squeeze ball

2008-05-26T07:41:00.000-07:00

There's something about this song that makes me want to sing along with it. I play it when I'm in a upbeat, yet somewhat pensive mood (I play music to suit my mood, not to change it). It is somewhat like a stress reliever in any other situation. Check it out.

James Morrison: You Give Me Something

Technologically inconvenienced

2008-05-26T03:55:00.001-07:00

I have just spent nearly half the day figuring out how to get a c-box up. HTML code appears to mock me with its incomprehensible "div"s and " xmlns"s. Considering that I have a practically symbiotic relationship with my computer, I feel as if I have been forsaken somehow. Fortunately, Google came to my rescue, after an hour and a half spent hacking at the code and bruising my pride. The fact that I am actually blogging this shows how intensely boring the holidays are. Apart from leveling in Cabal, I have nothing to show for today's time spent, apart from my c-box. The holidays are not the most fulfilling of times.

Looking at my c-box makes me feel better, temporarily. This feeling lasts for the grand total of 10 seconds, the time I take to type in a blog address, load the page of another blog, and find that practically everyone else has a c-box too. Still, I have my levels in Cabal to show for today, and some chocolate. I don't think you can ever feel unfulfilled with good chocolate.

To start with

2008-05-25T23:25:00.000-07:00

With the encouragement of my peers (it's called peer pressure), I have made the decision to start a blog. Laying down a few guidelines will ensure that all readers do not waste some precious few seconds of their life reading some random drivel.

Firstly, I will try my best to avoid using internet slang. I hope that I am not being pretentious by doing this, but I do have some passable reasons for doing this. On top of it being somewhat juvenile, I don't think everyone on the net understands acronyms like "lol" (I have met people who don't. Really). On top of that, I think reading such acronyms requires a bit of effort on the reader's part to interpret. Hopefully, not using such slang will make my posts easier on the eyes.

I will also attempt to blog in simple English. Words will optimally be below four syllables, all in the sake of reader welfare (I am so thoughtful. Brownie point for me!). Not too sure if this sentiment is shared by anyone, but I find large words such as "moribund" completely incomprehensible and awfully tiring to read, let alone understand (That word should have alerted a certain someone to my not so subtle jibe).

Finally, I will ensure that all blogposts are G-rated. I do not use strong expletives in everyday practice, and the same applies to my blog. No one should be offended by the language here, and the same goes for the content. Don't expect all posts to be sugar-coated though; apart from what the blog title suggests, I think self-censorship can only go that far, and I don't think I can please everyone (I deserve a personal viewpoint too, I think).

Now, since I've laid down the guidelines on what to expect (or not, for that matter), let the input of random thoughts begin!