Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
feminism, i support it.. just not this b!tch
I recently stumbled upon this girl, Anita Sarkeesian, who is trying to raise more awareness to how the media and entertainment is still portraying women as helpless and 'weaker' than men. While I agree with what she's doing and her overall message. I think some of her criticisms are rather ignorant and poorly researched.
One of Anita's first videos that I saw was about the video game industry and how women are portrayed. In her video, she gives a few examples of the classic 'damsel in distress' motif and goes on to talk about other topics of feminism like voluptuous women characters dressed in skimpy outfits in the series of videos. First, I have to say that the videos are very well made. The editing it top notch, organized, has cut scenes from various games, and the information is presented in a very clear and precise manner. I completely agree with her that very rarely, women are the main protagonist of the game and often get portrayed as sex objects (check out Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Soul Caliber, Tekken and King of Fighters).
Luckily, more and more women are being portrayed as the main protagonist these days, for example Claire and Jill from the Resident Evil series, Lightning and Terra from the Final Fantasy series, and Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider series to just name a few. However, the majority of video protagonists are male. That list could go on forever. The scantily clad women is absolutely unnecessary. Like any guy, I like to see sexy women but in a video game, it just doesn't make sense. The latest Mortal Kombat video game has ALL of it's female characters with curves and wearing clothing that might as well be lingerie. With MK being a fighting game, who fights wearing a g-string? The males are upgraded to look more masculine and 'bad ass' if you will, with new outfits. The women however, look they belong in an X-rated film.
My only criticisms to her is that when you look at the history of video games, you have to realize the culture that has been established behind it. When games were first invented, they were made by men and majority played by men as well. Over the course of 30+ years, this stayed the same in the industry. First, as a video game company, when a majority of your costumers are male, you make the product appeal to your target market. That's just a no-brainer business practice. Second, men play these games because they want to be the protagonist. They are in a way living vicariously through the male protagonists who want to save the world and get the girl at the same time. Same concept how many women read romance novels and read into those characters. And third, the video game industry is changing everyday. As we progress as a society, the industry is beginning to progress with it. Like I pointed out earlier, there are many more female protagonists being introduced. Is it perfect? Definitely not. A majority of gamers are still male and therefore many of the major titles publishers will make, will obviously be male centered. At the end of the day, this is a business and the publishers are out to make one thing and one thing only. Money. They are not out to make difference, change our own views on society or make the world a better place. They are capitalists. By no means am I justifying the current trend to be acceptable but just stating the reasons behind the trend. There is a history here that we must understand before we start making judgments on it.
The second video I watched was her critique of the Hunger Games. This video is less of a critique of the feminism as it is to a critique of the novel itself. I have to say that I completely disagree with all of her negatives on the book and what she considers 'unbelievable' or 'inconsistent'. First, she talks about how the world Collins has set up is unbelievable. In case you haven't read the Hunger Games, the Hunger Games is a yearly competition where 24 children are randomly chosen against their will to compete in a death match that is televised in all twelve districts and the capital city. The games doesn't end until there is only survivor. Anita claims that this scenario is unbelievable because she feels that a society where parents willingly give up their children to the government to be slaughtered is ridiculous. Well Anita, I'm going to be kind of blunt but did you not read this book? The book clearly states that the Hunger Games were originally created AFTER there was civil war where all of the districts revolted against the Capital. The games are a reminder to the people who lost the war, that the government has absolute power over them. If that doesn't make it realistic enough for you, let's put it in modern terms. Have you ever heard child soldiers? In countries like Uganda, Chad, Thailand and Myanmar, children are being taken from their parents to fight wars. Why don't the parent do anything? Well it's hard to do something when you have nothing to defend your children with. The armies hold all of the power (including fire power) and you have nothing. It is pretty hard to resist when you have nothing. That is the same thing in the Hunger Games. The Capital has ALL of the power and guns. The people have NOTHING. This isn't just a criticism but a portrayal of what is happening right now in other countries. This leads me to think she is a bit naive and ignorant in her own thinking.
She goes on to say how Katniss's reaction to violence is consistent by using the example of the death of Rue and Katniss's reaction to other people's deaths. Anita says that Rue's death deeply affected Katniss (which it did) yet the death of other tributes do not phase Katniss and therefore is not consistent. Again, did you not read the book? First let me address why Katniss's reaction to Rue's death was so strong. First let's remember why Katniss was first in the Hunger Games. She volunteered to be in it so that her younger sister would not. She took her sister's place because she loves her sister so dearly that she is willing to die for her. Later, Katniss meets Rue who reminds Katniss of her sister. They are about the same age and have the same look of innocence in their face. Katniss quickly builds a relationship with Rue due to these factors. When Rue died, Katniss couldn't help but react the way she did. The reason she doesn't care about the other tributes deaths is simply because she doesn't have the same relationship she has with them as she did with Rue. Rue's character really hit the core of Katniss's character and to see that is very traumatic. Katniss's character is also very cold. At a very young age, she experienced the death of her father and let's not forget, she's been watch the games her entire life. Seeing kids die is not something new to her. Asking her to have the same reaction to the other tribute's deaths as Rue death is like asking someone why do they only cry when someone in their family dies but not when anyone else dies. It simply doesn't make sense.
So Ms Anita Sarkeesian. After watching a few of your videos, I really wonder how much thought and research you really put into your videos because it seems like you don't really think it all through. I know it's your opinion but opinions can be educated and I just don't feel like yours are.
One of Anita's first videos that I saw was about the video game industry and how women are portrayed. In her video, she gives a few examples of the classic 'damsel in distress' motif and goes on to talk about other topics of feminism like voluptuous women characters dressed in skimpy outfits in the series of videos. First, I have to say that the videos are very well made. The editing it top notch, organized, has cut scenes from various games, and the information is presented in a very clear and precise manner. I completely agree with her that very rarely, women are the main protagonist of the game and often get portrayed as sex objects (check out Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Soul Caliber, Tekken and King of Fighters).
Luckily, more and more women are being portrayed as the main protagonist these days, for example Claire and Jill from the Resident Evil series, Lightning and Terra from the Final Fantasy series, and Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider series to just name a few. However, the majority of video protagonists are male. That list could go on forever. The scantily clad women is absolutely unnecessary. Like any guy, I like to see sexy women but in a video game, it just doesn't make sense. The latest Mortal Kombat video game has ALL of it's female characters with curves and wearing clothing that might as well be lingerie. With MK being a fighting game, who fights wearing a g-string? The males are upgraded to look more masculine and 'bad ass' if you will, with new outfits. The women however, look they belong in an X-rated film.
My only criticisms to her is that when you look at the history of video games, you have to realize the culture that has been established behind it. When games were first invented, they were made by men and majority played by men as well. Over the course of 30+ years, this stayed the same in the industry. First, as a video game company, when a majority of your costumers are male, you make the product appeal to your target market. That's just a no-brainer business practice. Second, men play these games because they want to be the protagonist. They are in a way living vicariously through the male protagonists who want to save the world and get the girl at the same time. Same concept how many women read romance novels and read into those characters. And third, the video game industry is changing everyday. As we progress as a society, the industry is beginning to progress with it. Like I pointed out earlier, there are many more female protagonists being introduced. Is it perfect? Definitely not. A majority of gamers are still male and therefore many of the major titles publishers will make, will obviously be male centered. At the end of the day, this is a business and the publishers are out to make one thing and one thing only. Money. They are not out to make difference, change our own views on society or make the world a better place. They are capitalists. By no means am I justifying the current trend to be acceptable but just stating the reasons behind the trend. There is a history here that we must understand before we start making judgments on it.
The second video I watched was her critique of the Hunger Games. This video is less of a critique of the feminism as it is to a critique of the novel itself. I have to say that I completely disagree with all of her negatives on the book and what she considers 'unbelievable' or 'inconsistent'. First, she talks about how the world Collins has set up is unbelievable. In case you haven't read the Hunger Games, the Hunger Games is a yearly competition where 24 children are randomly chosen against their will to compete in a death match that is televised in all twelve districts and the capital city. The games doesn't end until there is only survivor. Anita claims that this scenario is unbelievable because she feels that a society where parents willingly give up their children to the government to be slaughtered is ridiculous. Well Anita, I'm going to be kind of blunt but did you not read this book? The book clearly states that the Hunger Games were originally created AFTER there was civil war where all of the districts revolted against the Capital. The games are a reminder to the people who lost the war, that the government has absolute power over them. If that doesn't make it realistic enough for you, let's put it in modern terms. Have you ever heard child soldiers? In countries like Uganda, Chad, Thailand and Myanmar, children are being taken from their parents to fight wars. Why don't the parent do anything? Well it's hard to do something when you have nothing to defend your children with. The armies hold all of the power (including fire power) and you have nothing. It is pretty hard to resist when you have nothing. That is the same thing in the Hunger Games. The Capital has ALL of the power and guns. The people have NOTHING. This isn't just a criticism but a portrayal of what is happening right now in other countries. This leads me to think she is a bit naive and ignorant in her own thinking.
She goes on to say how Katniss's reaction to violence is consistent by using the example of the death of Rue and Katniss's reaction to other people's deaths. Anita says that Rue's death deeply affected Katniss (which it did) yet the death of other tributes do not phase Katniss and therefore is not consistent. Again, did you not read the book? First let me address why Katniss's reaction to Rue's death was so strong. First let's remember why Katniss was first in the Hunger Games. She volunteered to be in it so that her younger sister would not. She took her sister's place because she loves her sister so dearly that she is willing to die for her. Later, Katniss meets Rue who reminds Katniss of her sister. They are about the same age and have the same look of innocence in their face. Katniss quickly builds a relationship with Rue due to these factors. When Rue died, Katniss couldn't help but react the way she did. The reason she doesn't care about the other tributes deaths is simply because she doesn't have the same relationship she has with them as she did with Rue. Rue's character really hit the core of Katniss's character and to see that is very traumatic. Katniss's character is also very cold. At a very young age, she experienced the death of her father and let's not forget, she's been watch the games her entire life. Seeing kids die is not something new to her. Asking her to have the same reaction to the other tribute's deaths as Rue death is like asking someone why do they only cry when someone in their family dies but not when anyone else dies. It simply doesn't make sense.
So Ms Anita Sarkeesian. After watching a few of your videos, I really wonder how much thought and research you really put into your videos because it seems like you don't really think it all through. I know it's your opinion but opinions can be educated and I just don't feel like yours are.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
twenty twelve..
Now that the year is coming to an end, I can definitely say that 2012 has been the craziest year I've ever experienced in my life thus far. I started this year living in one of the greatest cities in the world. Living in SF has been a great experience and I know it's only the beginning. Since moving to SF, I've learned a lot about myself and the people of this fine city. For myself, I didn't realize just how lazy I was. Many of you may know, in SF, the majority of San Franciscans don't drive a car on a regular basis so for me, someone who drove pretty much all over the place, adjusting to that was a bit of a challenge. Taking public transit wasn't much of an issue since there are bus and train lines all over the city. It was actually a matter of not taking it too often, especially for short distances. There are many places I could easily walk to in about 10-20 minutes but instead I choose to wait for the bus or train. By the time I get to the destination, I would not have saved much time, but I got there with as little effort as possible. However, I wasn't about to drive anywhere on the fear of losing my parking spot. Now that I've finally adjusted, I'm looking to sell my car soon so that I can really start saving money.
On January 18th, I experienced something 99.99999% of 25 year old adults would not experience. I had a heart attack. That moment changed my life forever. According to the doctors, my life was never in any danger, but there could have been detrimental effects to my health if I had never done anything about it. As crappy as that event was, I came out of the incident in the best case scenario. No surgery or any special procedures necessary, all I have to do is take four pills for a year, at which point only two after that maybe for the rest of my life. I will have myself a nice long life.
After that, life went as it usually did. Work, day in and day out. When my birthday came around, I figured I needed to celebrate it. So I rolled out a limo and took me and my friends to Napa. The day was rather fuzzy and thought there was some unfavorable outcomes, it was a great birthday none the less.
This past summer, a number of my friends got married. It was truly a blessing to be able to be a part of their special day. First, it was Mike and Diana. Two people that have been there for me all of college and post college. Second, was Rachel and Brandon. Rachel has been one of my oldest friends and seeing her so happy almost made me tear up. Then came Darwin and Jade. Two people from college I never thought would end up together but they did. Their wedding was by far the one of the funnest I've ever been to. Last, but not least, Denise and Jason. A very interesting wedding where I got the chance to catch up with people I don't normally get to see.
Mid 2012, was also a time I finally decided to travel more. I realized that I never go anywhere so i decided to visit Chicago where my friend Phil currently resides. That weekend, though it hurt the wallet, was one of the best weekends this year. We did many of the touristy things but also got to experience some of the things, Chicago natives experience everyday.
Right after Chicago, I met a girl. An amazing girl.
After 2.5 years at CafePress, they decided to let me go. I must say it was bitter sweet. On one hand, I hated that place. I spent most of my time there looking for a way out and one day it finally came. Kind of bummed they closed the door on me since I was looking to close it on them. Not long after that, I found a great fit at NatureBox.com. Greatest thing about it? It was NOT CafePress. NB is a place where they treat employees with respect and dignity. Where we all feel valued and are heard.
Now to end out the year in a bang, My brother and his girlfriend are engaged!
2012 has been a roller coaster of emotions and physical.
I was contemplating all of this until the morning of December 14, 2012. That morning, I go to my usual news sites and found that 26 people were murdered in an Elementary School in Newtown, CT. The more I read about the incident, the worse I felt. I spent so much time contemplating my own life when twenty 6 and 7 year old kids just lost theirs. For them, it was just a typical day at school. A nice Friday where probably all of them looked forward to the weekend. Then a psychopath decided to do something horrific. My heart goes out to the family and friends of the victims and I pray that they may find comfort in our Lord.
On January 18th, I experienced something 99.99999% of 25 year old adults would not experience. I had a heart attack. That moment changed my life forever. According to the doctors, my life was never in any danger, but there could have been detrimental effects to my health if I had never done anything about it. As crappy as that event was, I came out of the incident in the best case scenario. No surgery or any special procedures necessary, all I have to do is take four pills for a year, at which point only two after that maybe for the rest of my life. I will have myself a nice long life.
After that, life went as it usually did. Work, day in and day out. When my birthday came around, I figured I needed to celebrate it. So I rolled out a limo and took me and my friends to Napa. The day was rather fuzzy and thought there was some unfavorable outcomes, it was a great birthday none the less.
This past summer, a number of my friends got married. It was truly a blessing to be able to be a part of their special day. First, it was Mike and Diana. Two people that have been there for me all of college and post college. Second, was Rachel and Brandon. Rachel has been one of my oldest friends and seeing her so happy almost made me tear up. Then came Darwin and Jade. Two people from college I never thought would end up together but they did. Their wedding was by far the one of the funnest I've ever been to. Last, but not least, Denise and Jason. A very interesting wedding where I got the chance to catch up with people I don't normally get to see.
Mid 2012, was also a time I finally decided to travel more. I realized that I never go anywhere so i decided to visit Chicago where my friend Phil currently resides. That weekend, though it hurt the wallet, was one of the best weekends this year. We did many of the touristy things but also got to experience some of the things, Chicago natives experience everyday.
Right after Chicago, I met a girl. An amazing girl.
After 2.5 years at CafePress, they decided to let me go. I must say it was bitter sweet. On one hand, I hated that place. I spent most of my time there looking for a way out and one day it finally came. Kind of bummed they closed the door on me since I was looking to close it on them. Not long after that, I found a great fit at NatureBox.com. Greatest thing about it? It was NOT CafePress. NB is a place where they treat employees with respect and dignity. Where we all feel valued and are heard.
Now to end out the year in a bang, My brother and his girlfriend are engaged!
2012 has been a roller coaster of emotions and physical.
I was contemplating all of this until the morning of December 14, 2012. That morning, I go to my usual news sites and found that 26 people were murdered in an Elementary School in Newtown, CT. The more I read about the incident, the worse I felt. I spent so much time contemplating my own life when twenty 6 and 7 year old kids just lost theirs. For them, it was just a typical day at school. A nice Friday where probably all of them looked forward to the weekend. Then a psychopath decided to do something horrific. My heart goes out to the family and friends of the victims and I pray that they may find comfort in our Lord.
Monday, June 25, 2012
EDventures - LTC 2012
EDventures - Ep. 1 - LTC 2012
EDventures - Ep. 2 - LTC 2012
EDventures - Ep. 3 - LTC 2012
EDventures - Ep. 4 (final) - LTC 2012
Sunday, May 13, 2012
My Testimony.. so far
When I was first asked to give my testimony, the first
thought I had was, my story is kind of boring. There was no life altering event
where God showed up out of nowhere like stories you hear out there. For
example, those of you who were at Winter Retreat, Pastor Ioannis’s testimony
was really intense. Mine is nothing like that.
But I started to think about what it really meant to give a
testimony. Most people talk about what their life was before they met God or how
they met God, but mine is more about what has happened to me after I met Him
and my journey so far. If there is one way I can say that describes my life so
far is that God sure does have a sense of humor. For me, I was never really
able to empathize with that saying until I really started to look back on my
life and really examining the different things that has happened to me.
I grew up in a very typical Asian family. My parents immigrated to the U.S. in the early 80s from China. I was born on a snowy winter morning
on March 17th of 1986 in Reno, NV. Throughout most of my adolescent
life I had no idea who God was or any concept of Him. My parents are pretty
atheist when it came to all things religious. The concept of praying to a
higher being or an afterlife was ridiculous in their eyes because for them, the
only person you can rely on is yourself.
In sixth grade I moved from San Jose to a small town called
Burlingame and that was where I first started going to church. My best friend
Anthony, who I had just met in gym class at the time, invited me to go to
church with him and his mother. Like I said earlier, I had no concept of God so
I had no idea what was in store for me. Being the new kid in town, I was very
bored on most weekends so I figured why the heck not. My first day at church
was quite the interesting one. You see Anthony and his mother attended an Assemblies
of God church. For those of you who don’t know what the Assemblies of God is, Assemblies
of God churches are very charismatic Pentecostal churches, who believed in the
manifestation of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues quite often. So you
could imagine my surprise when the pastor’s wife started yelling out a foreign
language I never heard before during service and then the associate pastor
yelling out something else in English right after. I have never been so
confused in my life. However that didn’t stop me from going to church and I
eventually started going to youth group with my friends. That summer my youth
pastor gave us a chance to accept Christ in our lives and I didn’t know quite
what that meant but he put it this way.
“If
you accept Christ and later in life you find out that this was all fake, you
lose nothing. However, if you find out it is all real, you gain everything”
So I figured what do I have to lose? And then began my
“Christian” walk.
Throughout most of my junior high and high school career I
was what I called a ‘twice-a- week Christian’. Basically I was a ‘good
Christian boy’ on Wednesdays for youth group and Sundays for church. Every
other day of the week I was just like anyone else. In high school, I started
doing a lot of underage drinking. It wasn’t until my senior year that I really
started to take my faith a little more seriously.
Then came that one fateful summer night… I was taking one of
my best friend’s home after a typical night youth group. I pulled into his
driveway and waited for him to get out. He didn’t move. My first thought was uh
are you going to get out or what? Do I need to get the door for you? What’s the
deal? I was tired and I had work the next day so I just wanted him to get out
so I could go home and knock out. Just as I was about to say something he
finally spoke up. He asked me how long will we keep kidding ourselves. How long
do you think we’re going to last as Christians in college if we keep living
like the way we do. We know God is real but we don’t treat our lives seriously
at all. My first thought was speak for yourself man! I am perfectly fine. But I
knew that was a lie. I started to seriously ponder the way I lived my life up
until that moment. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if I didn’t do
something that day, my faith or walk, whatever of it was real, would’ve just
disappeared in college. So that night, July 23rd, 2003, my friend
and I rededicated our lives to God.
However that wasn’t the end. It wasn’t long until I found
out college gave me whole new set issues I had to deal with. During my freshmen
year, I started going to InterVarsity but I just didn’t feel very comfortable
there. I remember seeing AACF when I was at my freshmen orientation but for
some reason it I just kept thinking it didn’t seem legit to me. All the other
Christian fellowships had interesting names like Campus Crusade, InterVarsity,
and Epic. Asian American Christian Fellowship, that’s not a name, that’s a
description! Anyways, in my 2nd year @ UCR I started going to AACF. Didn’t
really want to at first but the only reason I did go was because I really liked
this girl. As I started to make friends in AACF, I for some reason gravitated
towards a certain group of people. You see our Double A at UCR had about 100
some odd people and that meant a good amount of cliques and a very clear split in
the dynamic of students. There was the party crowd and the non-partiers. I
think you can assume who I naturally was attracted to. It wasn’t before long
that I went back to my old ways and ironically enough; all of my party friends
were from AACF. I continued to live a lukewarm life where I did ministry for
AACF but would go out with my friends almost every week. Again it was my senior
year that I finally decided to tone it down and really start taking things more
seriously. A few of the older AACFers who I really looked up to, talked to me
about what I was doing and for some reason it really spoke to me. I knew that
life after college was going to be very different and needed to shape up.
Throughout that year, I had this feeling that my time was
not done at AACF. My staffer Warren at UCR, asked me if I thought about
staffing for AACF and my first thought was HECK NO. Are you crazy or something?
That’s the last thing I want to do after college. But like I first said God has
a sense of humor because look at where I am right now!
As I continue to discover this thing called being an adult,
God is always giving me new challenges and definitely doesn’t sugar coat any of
them. Earlier this year, on January 18th, 2012, I suffered a minor
heart attack at the age of only 25 years old. When I say minor, on a scale of 1
to 10 it’d be a 2, but it was a heart attack none the less. Doctors were baffled
that someone my age had one. It was a 1 in a million chance and I was that 1. I
don’t think my life was in serious jeopardy at the time but it really got me
thinking. People say all the time that life is short and for most of us, we
finally get it when it’s something that hits so close to home.
God continually reveals to me crazy things in my life, paths
I didn’t think I’d go on and people I may or may not have wanted to meet. I
don’t know what else is in stored for me but I do know that it will be an interesting
ride and I want God to be my driver.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Cooking Like Ramsay
A little over a year ago I decided to watching some Kitchen Nightmares on Hulu and I immediately was hooked. In case you're not familiar with this show, this reality series TV show, has world renowned chef Gordon Ramsay go around to failing restaurants around the United States, and help them save their business. He assesses the problems and then implements changes in these restaurants. May sound kind of boring at first but it was probably the most entertaining show I've ever seen. Why? Well, aside from Ramsay being an amazing chef, he also has a "no bull$#!%" attitude when it comes to running a business. He's not afraid to tell it like it is and boy do some of these restaurant owners and chefs need to be told. I believe the best way to describe this show is "common sense, isn't so common". Anyways, this show started my obsession of all thing Gordon Ramsay. From there I moved on to his other shows like Hell's Kitchen and also Master Chef.
After watching how amazing Chef Ramsay is, I was dying to know how he was so special. One thing Gordon Ramsay always stresses is that cooking is something anyone can do. All you need is some basic knowledge on basic principles and it shouldn't stop you from producing good food. I soon found some clips on YouTube on some basic tips of preparing food. These tips have made a world of difference in my food life, for example chopping an onion. Something very simple but can be nightmare if not done efficiently. I'd recommend everyone to just watch some of these videos. They will definitely make cooking easier and more enjoyable.
After watching how amazing Chef Ramsay is, I was dying to know how he was so special. One thing Gordon Ramsay always stresses is that cooking is something anyone can do. All you need is some basic knowledge on basic principles and it shouldn't stop you from producing good food. I soon found some clips on YouTube on some basic tips of preparing food. These tips have made a world of difference in my food life, for example chopping an onion. Something very simple but can be nightmare if not done efficiently. I'd recommend everyone to just watch some of these videos. They will definitely make cooking easier and more enjoyable.
Monday, May 23, 2011
being an adult series
Recently I've been talking with some new and old friends who are just beginning to pop into the working world after college. Most are complaining about the hours they work and the kind of realization of what being an adult is really about. Now I'm not saying they're all just whiners, I went through many of the same emotions as they did. However now after 3 years of working I've come to find there are many many perks to being an adult. So here starts a new series of mine where I will continue to list as many perks as I can as why being an adult is good and the things to look forward to. I will try to name as much as I can in this post but will continue to add as more come to mind.
Perk #1: No Homework
Depending on what you do for a living after college, some jobs may have work that follow you home like being lawyer might have you doing research and looking up files at home if you don't want to be stuck in the office all the time. For the most part, everyday when I come home, nothing follows me home. The bliss of knowing theres nothing to read, no problem sets to do and no papers to write. I can't begin to describe the kind of freedom that brings. Everyday when I come home, I think to myself "I can do anything I want!"
Perk #2: Income
For those of you that have not been working before school ended, this was probably a new found revelation for you. Finally not having to ask mom and dad (or lets hope you still don't) for $20 for food or going to a movie gives a great sense of financial independence. KNowing that every dollar you gain and spend is purely yours and knowing that your parents no longer 'own' you so to say with their income.
Perk #3: Knowledge
Not sure if many feel this way but I've learned more in the last three years than I did in the 17 years or so I was in school for. I've realized that unless you're in a knowledge specific occupation like engineering, medicine, law or whatever else requires a certain skill set, then all school is really good for is building your work ethic. Sadly it even fails at that because in school you were forced to take classes you never cared for and for many of us, we didn't give those classes 100% of our effort. You're probably asking 'what's the big deal?' Well, as many have realized, there are tons of things we do in the working world that we hate doing. But to not give those tasks 100% means a boot out the door. In the real world, everything you're given is expected to be given an A-grade effort. Everything from something as small as filing paper to executing key projects to launch your company that one big step is required to be as good as it can get. Anyways, there's a lot of things you simply cannot learn in a classroom. There are basic principles but exercising those principles is a totally different story.
Perk #1: No Homework
Depending on what you do for a living after college, some jobs may have work that follow you home like being lawyer might have you doing research and looking up files at home if you don't want to be stuck in the office all the time. For the most part, everyday when I come home, nothing follows me home. The bliss of knowing theres nothing to read, no problem sets to do and no papers to write. I can't begin to describe the kind of freedom that brings. Everyday when I come home, I think to myself "I can do anything I want!"
Perk #2: Income
For those of you that have not been working before school ended, this was probably a new found revelation for you. Finally not having to ask mom and dad (or lets hope you still don't) for $20 for food or going to a movie gives a great sense of financial independence. KNowing that every dollar you gain and spend is purely yours and knowing that your parents no longer 'own' you so to say with their income.
Perk #3: Knowledge
Not sure if many feel this way but I've learned more in the last three years than I did in the 17 years or so I was in school for. I've realized that unless you're in a knowledge specific occupation like engineering, medicine, law or whatever else requires a certain skill set, then all school is really good for is building your work ethic. Sadly it even fails at that because in school you were forced to take classes you never cared for and for many of us, we didn't give those classes 100% of our effort. You're probably asking 'what's the big deal?' Well, as many have realized, there are tons of things we do in the working world that we hate doing. But to not give those tasks 100% means a boot out the door. In the real world, everything you're given is expected to be given an A-grade effort. Everything from something as small as filing paper to executing key projects to launch your company that one big step is required to be as good as it can get. Anyways, there's a lot of things you simply cannot learn in a classroom. There are basic principles but exercising those principles is a totally different story.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Top 5 most annoying facebook profile pictures
1. The Baby Picture
The Problem: These are all the people who dig up old baby pictures of themselves just to post on facebook. Seems like a good amount of work when you have to look for one you like, scan it or take a picture of it and then load it up. Why do people do it? Because they are seeking attention like no other. Talk about digging up the past, these people want all the comments and 'likes' from their friends and whats a better way to do it than to dig up multiple baby pictures of yourself. Seriously once or twice is fine, but after multiple posts it looks like you're just getting desperate. These folks are generally attention whores who are incredibly insecure about how they look right now and instead of posting a more current picture they resort to point in their life where everyone thought they were cute.
Alternatives: If you have a kid/siblings/cousins that are babies and you felt like making a profile picture of you and the baby then that's fine. Everyone is proud of their kids and hell, babies are just cute. But posting yours is just crying 'LOOK AT ME!'
2. The Infamous Bathroom Picture
The Problem: You're getting ready for a night out and just when you're ready you figure lets snap a few pictures before you forget the night. Usually, this is ok but when you have multiple poses and facial expressions that is just plain weird. When you think about it, this person probably loves looking at themselves in the mirror and so lets capture the moment of me looking at myself.
Alternative: Taking just ONE picture of yourself smiling is fine. No need to purse your lips and do all this crap that no one cares about.
3. The Model Picture
The Problem: Everyone today are so narcissistic that they believe anyone can be a model when in reality thats not the case. These people grab one of their photographer friends and forces them to use them as a model. Doesn't matter what it is, they just want to get into some kind of dress or bathing suit and shoot all day. The pictures are then used for themself all over facebook because apparently you need to be staged in order to take a good picture and not just regular ones.
Alternatives: If one of your friends loves bringing along their SLR to every damn thing, then something good is bound to pop up out of the million shots so in those cases sure. But if you have albums worth of these pictures then its like really? Is that necessary?
4. The Recycled Picture
The Problem: Do you ever see people reuse the same 3-4 pictures over and over and over again? Every few weeks or so, they switch to something they used 6 months ago and then it just keeps repeating. No new ones are ever added. Now I'm not telling you to upload a bajillion photos but obviously you want to change up your profile picture here and there and just using an old one is almost insulting to our intelligence thinking we won't notice and also show you're just plain damn lazy.
Alternatives: If you have nothing new then just don't change it.
5. The Over Exposed Picture
The Problem: You always want to capture the moment when you're out, thats what cameras are essentially for but sometimes you're just capturing too much. More often than not you find girls aiming the camera high in order to get them and their friends, what you find later is that they have aimed too high and the camera captured some ridiculous cleavage and if just a little higher can pretty much capture the ground. Now I know its hard to get the right angle, but I know you at least check what the picture looks like before you post it up for the world to see and when we see that ridonkulous boobage its like wow are you really going to play dumb and be like oops? You know full well of you're putting up and you want the attention of the world knowing you have something to show off.
Alternatives: After thinking about it, I don't know if this a problem.
The Problem: These are all the people who dig up old baby pictures of themselves just to post on facebook. Seems like a good amount of work when you have to look for one you like, scan it or take a picture of it and then load it up. Why do people do it? Because they are seeking attention like no other. Talk about digging up the past, these people want all the comments and 'likes' from their friends and whats a better way to do it than to dig up multiple baby pictures of yourself. Seriously once or twice is fine, but after multiple posts it looks like you're just getting desperate. These folks are generally attention whores who are incredibly insecure about how they look right now and instead of posting a more current picture they resort to point in their life where everyone thought they were cute.
Alternatives: If you have a kid/siblings/cousins that are babies and you felt like making a profile picture of you and the baby then that's fine. Everyone is proud of their kids and hell, babies are just cute. But posting yours is just crying 'LOOK AT ME!'
2. The Infamous Bathroom Picture
The Problem: You're getting ready for a night out and just when you're ready you figure lets snap a few pictures before you forget the night. Usually, this is ok but when you have multiple poses and facial expressions that is just plain weird. When you think about it, this person probably loves looking at themselves in the mirror and so lets capture the moment of me looking at myself.
Alternative: Taking just ONE picture of yourself smiling is fine. No need to purse your lips and do all this crap that no one cares about.
3. The Model Picture
The Problem: Everyone today are so narcissistic that they believe anyone can be a model when in reality thats not the case. These people grab one of their photographer friends and forces them to use them as a model. Doesn't matter what it is, they just want to get into some kind of dress or bathing suit and shoot all day. The pictures are then used for themself all over facebook because apparently you need to be staged in order to take a good picture and not just regular ones.
Alternatives: If one of your friends loves bringing along their SLR to every damn thing, then something good is bound to pop up out of the million shots so in those cases sure. But if you have albums worth of these pictures then its like really? Is that necessary?
4. The Recycled Picture
The Problem: Do you ever see people reuse the same 3-4 pictures over and over and over again? Every few weeks or so, they switch to something they used 6 months ago and then it just keeps repeating. No new ones are ever added. Now I'm not telling you to upload a bajillion photos but obviously you want to change up your profile picture here and there and just using an old one is almost insulting to our intelligence thinking we won't notice and also show you're just plain damn lazy.
Alternatives: If you have nothing new then just don't change it.
5. The Over Exposed Picture
The Problem: You always want to capture the moment when you're out, thats what cameras are essentially for but sometimes you're just capturing too much. More often than not you find girls aiming the camera high in order to get them and their friends, what you find later is that they have aimed too high and the camera captured some ridiculous cleavage and if just a little higher can pretty much capture the ground. Now I know its hard to get the right angle, but I know you at least check what the picture looks like before you post it up for the world to see and when we see that ridonkulous boobage its like wow are you really going to play dumb and be like oops? You know full well of you're putting up and you want the attention of the world knowing you have something to show off.
Alternatives: After thinking about it, I don't know if this a problem.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
non-team players aka douche bags
You know who I'm talking about. There is always that one mofo who just doesn't help out the team for whatever reason. These guys will never help complete the objective at hand and are only out to help themselves. For instance, if the point of the game was to capture a flag or a king of the hill game, these guys would just stand off to the side or go off on their own way. Chances are they only care about one thing and thats their kill/death ratio or KDR for short. In objective based games as to straight deathmatch, there is no killing quota so being in objective based games means you can kill as much you want and it won't end the game.
Whenever I play Modern Warfare 2, I like to play the game domination. In domination, there are 3 flags on the map. The objective of the game is to capture these flags, hold them and accumulate points. The first team to reach 200 points wins. Each team generally has a flag right next to their spawn and then one in the middle where it is sort of a 'no man's land'. To accumulate more points faster you must capture more than one flag. When there are more than one person on a flag it captures faster, so generally you want as many people on it as possible. Get it? Good, because I'm not explaining it again. So whenever I play in this game there is almost always one or two douche bags that just don't want to help the team out to get that W (Win). Many times I would find myself running to a flag in order to capture it and then I would see my teammates just keep running past me. I'm like thinking to myself "Wow thanks for the help in capturing this guys", and then what usually ends up happening is these guys run off, get killed, leaving me alone on this point and then I get killed and so therefore we don't end up not getting the flag. The other situation I find myself in is when one out flags gets captured and as I'm running towards to get it back, I see my teammates running in the OPPOSITE direction and AWAY from it! I'm just like "ARE YOU KIDDING ME? WHERE ARE YOU PEOPLE GOING?"
"But edwadokun, what if they were trying to protect you while you captured the flag?" BULL!!! It takes twice as fast to capture a flag with two or more people so why don't you just help me capture it so that we get it twice as fast and then we can both defend the flag. Plus, even if they kill us in the process, chances are you probably would've died facing against them all by yourself anyways.
"But edwadokun, If you don't kill people, then they would be all over the place and you wouldn't be able to capture anything!" True to a certain extent because yes, in order to capture a flag you'll need to eliminate the threat surrounding it, but my point is that once the threat is gone, where is everyone to take the flag? Sure killing someone would reset them to a spawn point which also buys you more time to capture but capturing points can actually help your KDR because in domination, a team spawns in near their safest flag so in some cases for instance if you are able to capture two flags then the enemy team will be stuck spawning in one area where at this point you can do what is called 'spawn trapping' which is where our team surrounds the enemy team and make it impossible for them to advance. This will basically eliminate the likelihood of someone flanking.
So you see folks, don't be a douche bag, when its a team based objective game then play for the team and the objective. If you care that much about your KDR or just want to get kills then play free-for-all or team deathmatch. Don't waste everyone else's time.
Whenever I play Modern Warfare 2, I like to play the game domination. In domination, there are 3 flags on the map. The objective of the game is to capture these flags, hold them and accumulate points. The first team to reach 200 points wins. Each team generally has a flag right next to their spawn and then one in the middle where it is sort of a 'no man's land'. To accumulate more points faster you must capture more than one flag. When there are more than one person on a flag it captures faster, so generally you want as many people on it as possible. Get it? Good, because I'm not explaining it again. So whenever I play in this game there is almost always one or two douche bags that just don't want to help the team out to get that W (Win). Many times I would find myself running to a flag in order to capture it and then I would see my teammates just keep running past me. I'm like thinking to myself "Wow thanks for the help in capturing this guys", and then what usually ends up happening is these guys run off, get killed, leaving me alone on this point and then I get killed and so therefore we don't end up not getting the flag. The other situation I find myself in is when one out flags gets captured and as I'm running towards to get it back, I see my teammates running in the OPPOSITE direction and AWAY from it! I'm just like "ARE YOU KIDDING ME? WHERE ARE YOU PEOPLE GOING?"
"But edwadokun, what if they were trying to protect you while you captured the flag?" BULL!!! It takes twice as fast to capture a flag with two or more people so why don't you just help me capture it so that we get it twice as fast and then we can both defend the flag. Plus, even if they kill us in the process, chances are you probably would've died facing against them all by yourself anyways.
"But edwadokun, If you don't kill people, then they would be all over the place and you wouldn't be able to capture anything!" True to a certain extent because yes, in order to capture a flag you'll need to eliminate the threat surrounding it, but my point is that once the threat is gone, where is everyone to take the flag? Sure killing someone would reset them to a spawn point which also buys you more time to capture but capturing points can actually help your KDR because in domination, a team spawns in near their safest flag so in some cases for instance if you are able to capture two flags then the enemy team will be stuck spawning in one area where at this point you can do what is called 'spawn trapping' which is where our team surrounds the enemy team and make it impossible for them to advance. This will basically eliminate the likelihood of someone flanking.
So you see folks, don't be a douche bag, when its a team based objective game then play for the team and the objective. If you care that much about your KDR or just want to get kills then play free-for-all or team deathmatch. Don't waste everyone else's time.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
the tester
For those of you with a PS3 you might have noticed that SCEA has made a reality game show called 'The Tester'. In this show several individuals compete against each other in order to win 'the ultimate prize' which is a position as a QA tester. Now sounds kinda cool right at first but as a recent QA tester I can tell you that this show is freaking RETARDED!!!!
These people are complete morons in competing for a position that literally ANYONE can get as long as they are somewhat articulate and can sit in a chair for 8 hours a day. A tester is also at the bottom of the video game hierarchy. So I ask why the crap would these people want to compete for a crap job? Most likely they either don't know about the whole hierarchy or they think 'Hey this is my chance to get my foot in the door' but its like you can do it WITHOUT competing these other mofos for it. These people are wasting their time and Sony is wasting their money. The Tester is by far the most idiotic show ever.
These people are complete morons in competing for a position that literally ANYONE can get as long as they are somewhat articulate and can sit in a chair for 8 hours a day. A tester is also at the bottom of the video game hierarchy. So I ask why the crap would these people want to compete for a crap job? Most likely they either don't know about the whole hierarchy or they think 'Hey this is my chance to get my foot in the door' but its like you can do it WITHOUT competing these other mofos for it. These people are wasting their time and Sony is wasting their money. The Tester is by far the most idiotic show ever.
Friday, March 19, 2010
'you're such a noob!!!'
Where to begin... I guess from the beginning. For as long as I have been playing video games (20 some odd years) there has been some form of social competitive bracket where gamers fight for that top score at the arcade and compete for the title of being the best. That was back in the day, now lets fast forward 20 years or so and now there is actually a professional league for gamers, the Major League of Gaming (MLG). Yes, the face of competitive gaming has changed from the arcade leaderboard to a professional league, but enough of the history, lets talk about the social aspect.
Recently, like millions of others I have been hooked on the game Modern Warfare 2 which is the latest installment of the Call of Duty franchise, in case you don't know what it is.
So like any other game with a competitive scene a player will either be branded as a 'noob' or a 'pro'. There seems to be little to no middle ground. Now what qualifies someone to be a 'noob' or 'pro' seems to be currently dictated by the general community of gamers. Currently, the 'noob' qualifiers are using weapons that require little skill to use. For instance, in Modern Warfare 2, all assault rifles have attachments and one of them is a grenade launcher which has been so dubbed 'the noob tube'. This little guy fires a grenade and will kill anything within its kill radius. "Whats the big deal?" you might be thinking? Well the big deal to the gaming community is that this is too easy to kill someone. You don't need to really aim, just be able to judge the relative distance and POW goes a shell and BOOM there comes another frag. The attachment is balanced by only being able to have 2 rounds. After the two rounds are gone, you are forced to switch back to your rifle or if you have the scavenger perk on, which allows you to replenish your ammunition and equipment from dead enemies.
Another example, is the thermal scope attachment for all assault rifles and sniper rifles. This little gizmo gives you the same amount of magnification as a regular sniper scope but also turns the world to grey and white where enemies show up on the scope as a silhouette of white and all other inanimate objects are grey. This allows the player a great advantage where enemies are as clear as night and day. So no matter how much yout try to blend yourself in with the map or dark corner you plop yourself in, the thermal scope will pick you out. The only way around this is if you have the cold-blooded perk which basically blocks its effects. So you might be thinking 'Why doesn't everyone just use cold-blooded then?" Well, this funny little game did something weird where another perk called stopping power can be used to kill people faster. This perk is in the same category as the cold-blooded perk so to use one is not to use the other and players are extremely reluctant to give up more power to kill someone over not being spotted by the thermal scope.
The list can go on and on with guns/attachments that every player thinks is 'overpowered' and what not. For some players it seems like their ego is SO BIG that whenever they are killed, whatever set up the other user is using is considered 'noob'. It;s like they think they are so good that god forbid they will ever get killed because that's just not possible! *sarcasm* I first noticed this behavior from my 14 year old younger brother who screams 'WOW!' and 'ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" every time he gets killed and begins to swear whenever he's done in by a 'noob' weapon. Now I can agree that it gets annoying if every corner I turn theres a dude with a noob tube waiting for me or a sniper thermal scoping, but hey guess what. EVERYONE CAN USE IT! So therefore SO CAN YOU! I know I know, you don't want to lower yourself to that level but then you're just digging your own grave. Basically what I'm trying to get at is that these things are part of the game. Sure some are cheap but its not like it's limited to certain users. All users are allowed to use it so what's the point in whining when you can just do it back to them. One time my friends and I encountered this team where that the grenade launcher was all they used so I decided to fight fire with fire. I brought out my own grenade launcher and so did my friends. End result? We kicked the crap out of them.
In my personal opinion, the game is pretty well balanced for the most part. It's not a perfect game but it's good enough that there will never be that one thing that makes you a juggernaut and everyone else is screwed. If someone is noob tubing then snipe them or flank them. If someone is thermal scoping then they are stationary so flashbang them and advance forward. There is ALWAYS a solution and a way around it.
At this moment, I would like to promote KEN. No, not the blond guy from Street Fighter (so S-class) KEN was originally just a guy's clan tag in Modern Warfare 2 because his name is Ken, Ken Burton to be exact and who is a YouTube director where he makes random gameplay videos about various aspects of the game. He's not very good but he enjoys playing the game and always seems to have a great time. His positive attitude rubbed off the community so much that others started sporting the KEN tag, so now the KEN tag is known as "Keep Everything Nice". The KEN tag promotes good sportsmanship and overall fun gameplay. Don't you just hate it when you enter into a lobby where you got all these mofos yelling at each other? Who always seemed pissed off for one reason or another, and who screams into their mic at every little thing? It just makes me not want to play it. So all in all, Keep Everything Nice.
this is edwadokun
Recently, like millions of others I have been hooked on the game Modern Warfare 2 which is the latest installment of the Call of Duty franchise, in case you don't know what it is.
So like any other game with a competitive scene a player will either be branded as a 'noob' or a 'pro'. There seems to be little to no middle ground. Now what qualifies someone to be a 'noob' or 'pro' seems to be currently dictated by the general community of gamers. Currently, the 'noob' qualifiers are using weapons that require little skill to use. For instance, in Modern Warfare 2, all assault rifles have attachments and one of them is a grenade launcher which has been so dubbed 'the noob tube'. This little guy fires a grenade and will kill anything within its kill radius. "Whats the big deal?" you might be thinking? Well the big deal to the gaming community is that this is too easy to kill someone. You don't need to really aim, just be able to judge the relative distance and POW goes a shell and BOOM there comes another frag. The attachment is balanced by only being able to have 2 rounds. After the two rounds are gone, you are forced to switch back to your rifle or if you have the scavenger perk on, which allows you to replenish your ammunition and equipment from dead enemies.
Another example, is the thermal scope attachment for all assault rifles and sniper rifles. This little gizmo gives you the same amount of magnification as a regular sniper scope but also turns the world to grey and white where enemies show up on the scope as a silhouette of white and all other inanimate objects are grey. This allows the player a great advantage where enemies are as clear as night and day. So no matter how much yout try to blend yourself in with the map or dark corner you plop yourself in, the thermal scope will pick you out. The only way around this is if you have the cold-blooded perk which basically blocks its effects. So you might be thinking 'Why doesn't everyone just use cold-blooded then?" Well, this funny little game did something weird where another perk called stopping power can be used to kill people faster. This perk is in the same category as the cold-blooded perk so to use one is not to use the other and players are extremely reluctant to give up more power to kill someone over not being spotted by the thermal scope.
The list can go on and on with guns/attachments that every player thinks is 'overpowered' and what not. For some players it seems like their ego is SO BIG that whenever they are killed, whatever set up the other user is using is considered 'noob'. It;s like they think they are so good that god forbid they will ever get killed because that's just not possible! *sarcasm* I first noticed this behavior from my 14 year old younger brother who screams 'WOW!' and 'ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" every time he gets killed and begins to swear whenever he's done in by a 'noob' weapon. Now I can agree that it gets annoying if every corner I turn theres a dude with a noob tube waiting for me or a sniper thermal scoping, but hey guess what. EVERYONE CAN USE IT! So therefore SO CAN YOU! I know I know, you don't want to lower yourself to that level but then you're just digging your own grave. Basically what I'm trying to get at is that these things are part of the game. Sure some are cheap but its not like it's limited to certain users. All users are allowed to use it so what's the point in whining when you can just do it back to them. One time my friends and I encountered this team where that the grenade launcher was all they used so I decided to fight fire with fire. I brought out my own grenade launcher and so did my friends. End result? We kicked the crap out of them.
In my personal opinion, the game is pretty well balanced for the most part. It's not a perfect game but it's good enough that there will never be that one thing that makes you a juggernaut and everyone else is screwed. If someone is noob tubing then snipe them or flank them. If someone is thermal scoping then they are stationary so flashbang them and advance forward. There is ALWAYS a solution and a way around it.
At this moment, I would like to promote KEN. No, not the blond guy from Street Fighter (so S-class) KEN was originally just a guy's clan tag in Modern Warfare 2 because his name is Ken, Ken Burton to be exact and who is a YouTube director where he makes random gameplay videos about various aspects of the game. He's not very good but he enjoys playing the game and always seems to have a great time. His positive attitude rubbed off the community so much that others started sporting the KEN tag, so now the KEN tag is known as "Keep Everything Nice". The KEN tag promotes good sportsmanship and overall fun gameplay. Don't you just hate it when you enter into a lobby where you got all these mofos yelling at each other? Who always seemed pissed off for one reason or another, and who screams into their mic at every little thing? It just makes me not want to play it. So all in all, Keep Everything Nice.
this is edwadokun
Thursday, January 21, 2010
the audacity of the american people
So today like any other weekday, I hop in my car and head to work. As I pull out of my driveway, I tune in to my favorite radio station and morning talk show (which will remain anonymous). About 5 minutes into th commute or so, the host starts taking callers about the aid to Haiti and for people to express their opinions about how certain A-List celebrities are hosting a telethon in order to raise funds.
So caller number 1 calls in and starts talking and to my surprise he is AGAINST the relief effort for Haiti. He begins to state and i quote "Why are we helping out others when we have our own problems to take care of ... why do these celebrities suddenly start giving money to Haiti when we're still in a recession." First thought that came to my mind was 'what a douche bag'. In a way I do agree with him in terms that where were the celebrities to help out the common people when this recession started? Forbe's list the top 100 celebrities who earn the most and the current top ten are:
1. Oprah Winfrey
2. Tiger Woods
3. Mel Gibson
4. George Lucas
5. Shaquille O'neal
6. Steven Spielberg
7. Johnny Depp
8. Madonna
9. Elton John
10. Tom Cruise
These people make damn good money and when the crap hit the fan, they were nowhere to be seen. Oprah and Tiger alone make BILLIONS every year and yet they can't seem to spare one cent to help put struggling normal blue and white collar workers. Oprah is for sure a person who gives and gives a lot but for the amount she makes, she can give a lot more. She can single handedly put hundreds if not thousands of kids through college, probably save tons of small business from going bankrupt and save hundreds of homes from getting foreclosed. Maybe not all at once but she is capable. So in that sense I agree with caller number 1... HOWEVER, is this guy out of his freaking mind? The United States has a lot of problems, we all know it either from the news, radio, papers or obnoxious people like caller 1 but is it really more important than the devastation of Haiti? The guy went on to talk about how millions have lost their jobs and what not but millions have DIED in Haiti. People's home may be getting seized by the banks here in the U.S. but they are completely gone in Haiti and took human lives along with it! Yes it is unfortunate for so many people in the U.S. to be struggling but it has only been a few years. People in Haiti have been struggling their entire life. I've read stories of CEOs who went from making $200k to $20k a year. Yes it's sad but people in Haiti will never even see $20k in their life time. They'll be lucky if they can get $2k a year. I seriously do NOT get how selfish people can be and when in a crisis they can only think of themselves. Here's a little food for thought:
1. If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more fortunate than the one million people who will not survive this week.
2. If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the world.
3. If you can attend a church or political meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, then you are more blessed than three billion in the world.
4. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in your pocket, then you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
2. If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the world.
3. If you can attend a church or political meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, then you are more blessed than three billion in the world.
4. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in your pocket, then you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
How about them apples eh? TOP 8% of the world's richest if you have a bank account, some bills in the wallet and some change lying around. Saying that the U.S. needs help first is the most selfish thing someone can say in this day and age. That's like telling your friend who's dying of a gun shot wound that you cannot take him to the hospital to save his life because you need to go to walgreens for some cough drops. At one point he did say we need to help education and thats for damn sure when people like him are around. We need better education so people like him don't exist!
Then there was caller number 2. This guy agreed with caller number as well and decided to throw in more ignorant things to say such as, and i quote "What did the Haitians ever do for us, all we got from them was Wyclef." I have to admit that was pretty funny. Defintely made me chuckle but still it's like what can you honestly expect from a 3rd world country. Do you really expect a country with a corrupt government and where the average worker gets about $200 a year come to New Orleans and help them out? That's like asking a small business owner to go and bail out a bank.
All I have to say is that if there is anyone out there who thinks helping dying people is not as important as making sure you can afford a steak dinner now and then is pretty freaking selfish and I high suggest that you take a long walk off a short pier.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
my recent surge back into kpop
So recently I've been listening to a lot of kpop thanks to a few suggestions and pleasant surprises. First it was 2pm when I found out I knew someone in the band and now its the wonder girls. Both bands are catchy and fun to listen to. on that note there has been a surge of publicity regarding the leader of 2pm, Park Jaebeom (Jay Park).
Earlier this year, a comment surfaced from his MySpace page where he expressed some negative comments about Korea and its citizens. After the comments surfaced, the korean population was outraged and wanted Jaebeom out of the group and even out of the country. They were so angered that there was a rally in front of the record label JYP entertainment where thousands gathered to protest against Jaebeom. Now, Jaebeom is back in America at his parents in the state of Washington. This has gotten so big even the local news reported a story on it. Fans all over the world are pleading for him to come back to the band and even ahs gone as far as holding flash mobs in places like Korea, Singapore and Malaysia. These groups of fans would begin dancing the choreography of the band's popular song "Again and Agian" when the clock strikes.. you guessed it, exactly 2:00 PM. Fans of Jaebeom in America all stress how this anger and hatred is childish, immature, outraegous and that the Korean public is overreacting. In some ways I think they are right because as humans we do ridiculous things. The comments were from when he first arrived in Korea in 2005 to train at the JYP Academy. Though Jaebeom is Korean, he was born and raised in Seattle, WA and didn't even speak a word of English when he went to Korea. Being alone in a country as foreign to him as any other non-Korean he most likely started having withdrawals and became homesick. His parents and friends were thousands of miles away so like any other emotional teenager, they resort to expressing their dislikes online.
It is truly unfortunate that his beginning frustrations came back to bite him but in all honesty it was a pretty dumb mistake. Some say that it was an invasion of privacy well its not really privacy if you set your account to public or add tons of fans as friends and giving them full access. Being such a big hit in Korea, diehard fans would for sure add him on MySpace and then try to learn as much as they can about him to further their obsession. It was only a matter of time until those comments became public. For all those who believe the Koreans are overreacting, ask yourself what would you do if one of our own celebrities said that in America. If Shakira ever said anything negative about the U.S. the American public would react just the same and rally against her. American flags would start flying up everywhere and thousands would start telling her to get out of this country. You think you wouldn't react like that but this didn't happen in your backyard did it? We all hear stories and think we would react differently but in reality, human responses are pretty much the same throughout the board. If the Beatles had ever said they hated America or Americans we would've sent him on the first place back to Liverpool. If Jackie Chan ever said anything we'd all tell him to go back to China. It's just how people are. When someone offends your home territory you automatically get angry and fight back. This is just human nature.
With all that said, I believe it will be nearly impossible for him to go back without hostility unless he has such a strong following that they out number the haters. The chances of that are slim and JYP as a company will probably not risk having all the fans split with his return. In the end, they are a business built on making young and attractive kids stars (Disney anyone?). I wish the best for Jay but if I were him I'd start looking into other venues.
Earlier this year, a comment surfaced from his MySpace page where he expressed some negative comments about Korea and its citizens. After the comments surfaced, the korean population was outraged and wanted Jaebeom out of the group and even out of the country. They were so angered that there was a rally in front of the record label JYP entertainment where thousands gathered to protest against Jaebeom. Now, Jaebeom is back in America at his parents in the state of Washington. This has gotten so big even the local news reported a story on it. Fans all over the world are pleading for him to come back to the band and even ahs gone as far as holding flash mobs in places like Korea, Singapore and Malaysia. These groups of fans would begin dancing the choreography of the band's popular song "Again and Agian" when the clock strikes.. you guessed it, exactly 2:00 PM. Fans of Jaebeom in America all stress how this anger and hatred is childish, immature, outraegous and that the Korean public is overreacting. In some ways I think they are right because as humans we do ridiculous things. The comments were from when he first arrived in Korea in 2005 to train at the JYP Academy. Though Jaebeom is Korean, he was born and raised in Seattle, WA and didn't even speak a word of English when he went to Korea. Being alone in a country as foreign to him as any other non-Korean he most likely started having withdrawals and became homesick. His parents and friends were thousands of miles away so like any other emotional teenager, they resort to expressing their dislikes online.
It is truly unfortunate that his beginning frustrations came back to bite him but in all honesty it was a pretty dumb mistake. Some say that it was an invasion of privacy well its not really privacy if you set your account to public or add tons of fans as friends and giving them full access. Being such a big hit in Korea, diehard fans would for sure add him on MySpace and then try to learn as much as they can about him to further their obsession. It was only a matter of time until those comments became public. For all those who believe the Koreans are overreacting, ask yourself what would you do if one of our own celebrities said that in America. If Shakira ever said anything negative about the U.S. the American public would react just the same and rally against her. American flags would start flying up everywhere and thousands would start telling her to get out of this country. You think you wouldn't react like that but this didn't happen in your backyard did it? We all hear stories and think we would react differently but in reality, human responses are pretty much the same throughout the board. If the Beatles had ever said they hated America or Americans we would've sent him on the first place back to Liverpool. If Jackie Chan ever said anything we'd all tell him to go back to China. It's just how people are. When someone offends your home territory you automatically get angry and fight back. This is just human nature.
With all that said, I believe it will be nearly impossible for him to go back without hostility unless he has such a strong following that they out number the haters. The chances of that are slim and JYP as a company will probably not risk having all the fans split with his return. In the end, they are a business built on making young and attractive kids stars (Disney anyone?). I wish the best for Jay but if I were him I'd start looking into other venues.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
vampire insanity
Within the last year or so there has been an uproar of vampire shows and movies. Everyone is just sucking up all these shows (pun oh so intended). First there was twilight, a novel series that was a virtual overnight sensation along with its movie(s). Shows like True Blood and Vampire Diaries have swept the young "tweens" of this generation. Need I say enough already?
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
the day the earth stood still on blu-ray
recently i rented this movie from my work. i watched it over the weekend and you know what? this movie isn't half bad. it didn't get the greatest reviews and i can see why but i think the overall impending story was quite touching. if you haven't seen it already then don't read on. so the overall premise of the movie is that, this alien race came down to earth and is going to eradicate the human race because we're destroying the planet. i guess u can say they mean us no harm but of course the U.S. government in all its wisdom is just going to treat them hostile anyway and actually escalates the situation. the overall message of the story was pretty interesting and what not but so many things were so confusing or unnecessary. for instance in the beginning you see keanu reeves in the arctic somewhere and he first encounters the aliens. nothing really happens to him except that his hand gets a weird mark. fast forward to modern day and the aliens return. the aliens present themselves to the humans and what does one of these trigger happy morons do? shoots it.. they eventually reveal that the alien is using a human body they made themselves that evidently looks like keanu reeves. first thought is that keanu mustve been kidnapped right? no because the alien is only using the body and in the movie the doctor says the human body was probably made and it needed human DNA so the aliens were here once before which we know is true. but was it necessary to show keanu's encounter and mark signifying that he was the 'sample' these aliens took? nope. in fact you could've just left it at what the doctor said and it would've been all gravy. i spent 1/2 the movie thinking keanu was abducted and was sent back 80 some odd years later brainwashed. another part i didn't like was will smith's kid in the movie. the kid was a complete brat and made just want to smack him. which means he did a good job acting and gives a good performance but man that kid was just SO aggravating. in the end, the aliens decide not to kill the humans because they convince them humans can change when pushed to the threshold, which is exactly what the aliens did when they were face with the same dilemma of their own demise. after the movie ends, pretty much everything is left up in the air. we know that the human race lives on but do they change? do they relay the message to the rest of humanity that they need stop harming the planet? what happens to that secretary of defense when the main character gets to tell her 'told you so' and watch that smug face turn white? this movie couldve been so much more if they had just thought it through but now it is only an OK movie
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
District 9
After hearing all of the rave reviews about this movie I knew I had to see this movie for myself. I also found out that this movie originally was supposed to be the Halo movie but Peter Jackson abandoned that. Anyways, this movie was needless to say AWESOME. A very heart pounding and heart felt movie from beginning to end. The cinematography made a bit dizzy at some parts but made it seem so much more real. On top of that I found out they worked on a $30 million budget which is almost unheard of for sci fi movies. The usual price tag for these bad boys are over $100 million. The actor who was the main protagonist did an amazing job and I heard its his first big role as well. Like all movies, there were some plot holes but it didn't stop this movie from being as epic as everyone said it is. This movie definitely bring a different kind of message with humans being the main antagonists against aliens. For so long, we've always been afraid of aliens and yet this movie turns it around. It goes to show how humans treat things/people we don't know or understand. I recommend this movie 100%. Any fool saying this movie sucks is either too critical or has crap for brains.
Monday, August 3, 2009
people who do not knwo anything about cars
recently i was on facebook and one of my old schoolmates had recently bought himself a new car. he was a pretty smart guy so i figured he wouldn't make a bad decision when buying a good car. how wrong i was. he had decided to buy a hyundai sedona which regardless of what is on paper or surverys or research, a korean car is death. nothing against the koreans but its just their cars are horrible. the best part about this were his moron friends that were commenting how they were 'jealous' and how its 'a nice car'. sure you don't want to be mean but jealous? really? its like wanting new and good cookware and getting the target brand. sure in the beginning it looks good but give it 5 years and its going to be OVER. i was quite tempted to be like 'WTF were you thinking when you bought this car? did you not consult ANYONE who knows about cars?' to me a car is a BIG investment since it can only depreciate. cars are meant to wear down and will never last so why the hell would you buy a car that is absolutely rubbish? if you want a NEW car and can't afford a better one then keep saving OR get a used car that is better. i seriously do not understand people who just want a new car and get something that is horrible.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
1 year and 2 days
i cannot believe i have been home for 367 days or 1 year and 2 days. i remember when i first moved home i was quite depressed and hated being back here. the last thing i wanted was to move back in with my parents. sure there are a lot of benefits and what not but there are still so many things that comes with being on your own. but i wont get into that. since i've been home God has taught me a lot of things about myself and what He wants in my life. i realized that i was destined to move home and that was always his plan anyways. i spent 3 months looking for a job in socal and NOTHING. i come home for 2 weeks and i start working. call me crazy but i'm pretty sure that is a sign. even then i was still unsatisfied and wanted something else. once again i was humbled and my eyes opened to what is now something i LOVE doing. i've realized that being happy where i am is probably the most important thing in life as to just making money. if i wanted to make more i would be working for my older brother, but i would be absolutely miserable. and i was for the short amount of time i was there. misery filled my life day in and out.
now after a year i stand here at another junction in life. at work there is a possibility for me to move up in my department, but being the person with the least amount of experience i have a very slim chance of getting it. though my manager tells me that it will all be based on my interview i cannot help but think that wont be all that they are going to decide on. i know i am still young and have a lot ahead of me. in fact i think i am the youngest of all the applicants so even if i do not get it i still have time to look elsewhere and wait for my turn. it has been nerve racking to think about but i have to just leave it to God to show me the way.
now after a year i stand here at another junction in life. at work there is a possibility for me to move up in my department, but being the person with the least amount of experience i have a very slim chance of getting it. though my manager tells me that it will all be based on my interview i cannot help but think that wont be all that they are going to decide on. i know i am still young and have a lot ahead of me. in fact i think i am the youngest of all the applicants so even if i do not get it i still have time to look elsewhere and wait for my turn. it has been nerve racking to think about but i have to just leave it to God to show me the way.
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