you know what?
i'm tired. so here, enjoy the song that i know you've all been waiting for, here are some random facts, and have a great holiday season!
edgar got me crystal pineapple salt and pepper shakers. yessss.
our suite is homo. and eric is a cutieeeeeeeeeeeee.
[songs for christmas! 4 of 4]
so here's the deal, i've picked four songs in anticipation of christmas, and i'm going to have a new one up in each blog entry that i post, the four weeks before christmas. ideally one post a weekend. 3 of the 4 songs are by artists that you know or have at least heard of, but i'm almost certain that you won't have heard any of the songs before. so they'll be foreign but in a familiar kind of way.
this week's song is: the christmas song, by owl city. push play!
aww yeah, the best for last. :]
[randomly stuffingly random stuff]
-i only eat finger foods with my left hand. that means chips, french fries, and the like. i guess it became habit because i do other stuff with my dominant hand, like use the computer mouse and stuff.
-a few winters ago, i buried some soda cans in the snow piles outside my house 'cause i thought it was a fun idea for some reason. i only remembered i put them there when i found them in the spring. yay!
-i eat starburst with the wrapper. :]
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
gift-giving
[songs for christmas! 3 of 4]
so here's the deal, i've picked four songs in anticipation of christmas, and i'm going to have a new one up in each blog entry that i post, the four weeks before christmas. ideally one post a weekend. 3 of the 4 songs are by artists that you know or have at least heard of, but i'm almost certain that you won't have heard any of the songs before. so they'll be foreign but in a familiar kind of way.
this week's song is: baby please come home, by anberlin & various artists. push play!
oh you know it's getting to the good stuff, 'cause anberlin is AWESOME. the first time i listened to this song, i was totally thrown off 'cause i wasn't expecting a Christmas song. LEGIT.
i was never really big on getting people gifts for Christmas.
i didn't think it was silly or not meaningful or anything, but rather, i preferred to simply get people their individual gifts on their birthdays. it made it more sense to me because for me, i feel like it's more special when i remember that people's birthdays are coming up and i get to plan ahead in thinking about what they like and what to get for them and stuff. and also, that way, it's easier to make sure the quality and time spent on their gift/card isn't compromised because of needing to get gifts/cards for other people, as it tends to be for Christmas.
well, how about writing or making cards?
at one point in high school, as people got me cards and gifts and stuff for Christmas, i felt bad that i didn't get them stuff. i think, the year after that, i made cards for my friends, but i remember it just felt odd to me.. probably because i wasn't used to the whole getting-people-gifts-for-Christmas thing, and some of it felt obligatory to me because i knew i didn't put as much thought into it as i would have if it were the present for their birthday.
i feel like, with Christmas comes a certain expectancy from your friends. the difficult part is, i'm afraid of letting people down (even just slightly) if we've only recently become friends and they expect stuff from me because everyone else(?) does stuff for Christmas.
so what now?
i still don't know what i'm going to do in the way of making cards or giving gifts. AND this is made all the more difficult with finals being the week before Christmas, prime gift-shopping time. garrr.
haha, what i actually ORIGINALLy meant to write about is..
when i go looking for gifts to get people, for their birthdays or Christmas or any occasion, i often run into a dilemma.
i find something that's so cool that would be a great gift for the person, but i end up really wanting it myself. a few choices pop up in my head.
1) i'll get it for them and only them.
2) i'll get it for myself, and find them another gift.
3) i'll get it for myself and for them!
on one or two instances, i remember getting the gift for both of us because i really wanted it as well. it felt.. wrong for some reason.
that's when i realized something about myself.
good gifts for other people are the ones i would want myself to have.
and it means more to me if i don't buy it for myself, too.
hmm, something like that. lols.
on another note, i hope the "stuff i like" posts aren't boring you guys. they actually take me a mad long time to write because even though the descriptions and reasons of why i like stuff should come naturally, there are like a million thoughts in my head at once and it's TOO hard to organize them.
well, have fun in this lovely Christmas season, even amidst finals and all that stuff.
i leave you with this video of AWESOME. i get chills each time i watch it 'cause it's so awesome, no joke. enjoy!
[ru you know that]
-i need both of my shoes to have the same tightness when i wear them. sometimes i end up having to tie and re-tie my shoes for a few minutes to get them just right, especially with my skechers, which aren't as squishy and mold-fitting as my sneaks.
-i hate it when i eat chicken wings or something at a restaurant, and then i have to go pee, because when i go into the bathroom, i wash my hands with soap first, that way my hands aren't dirty and i can actually pee, and then have the dilemma of wondering if i should wash my hands again because they still feel squeaky clean. i usually do wash my hands again though.
-the best way for me to fall asleep is to think about something visual that occupies my mind. most frequently contemplated: snowboarding, badminton, hockey, video games. i'm speculating it works in that when i get lost in the thought of whatever i'm thinking about, it removes other sounds and distractions from around me to help me fall asleep. it's also fun to just think about fun stuff. so there's that.
so here's the deal, i've picked four songs in anticipation of christmas, and i'm going to have a new one up in each blog entry that i post, the four weeks before christmas. ideally one post a weekend. 3 of the 4 songs are by artists that you know or have at least heard of, but i'm almost certain that you won't have heard any of the songs before. so they'll be foreign but in a familiar kind of way.
this week's song is: baby please come home, by anberlin & various artists. push play!
oh you know it's getting to the good stuff, 'cause anberlin is AWESOME. the first time i listened to this song, i was totally thrown off 'cause i wasn't expecting a Christmas song. LEGIT.
i was never really big on getting people gifts for Christmas.
i didn't think it was silly or not meaningful or anything, but rather, i preferred to simply get people their individual gifts on their birthdays. it made it more sense to me because for me, i feel like it's more special when i remember that people's birthdays are coming up and i get to plan ahead in thinking about what they like and what to get for them and stuff. and also, that way, it's easier to make sure the quality and time spent on their gift/card isn't compromised because of needing to get gifts/cards for other people, as it tends to be for Christmas.
well, how about writing or making cards?
at one point in high school, as people got me cards and gifts and stuff for Christmas, i felt bad that i didn't get them stuff. i think, the year after that, i made cards for my friends, but i remember it just felt odd to me.. probably because i wasn't used to the whole getting-people-gifts-for-Christmas thing, and some of it felt obligatory to me because i knew i didn't put as much thought into it as i would have if it were the present for their birthday.
i feel like, with Christmas comes a certain expectancy from your friends. the difficult part is, i'm afraid of letting people down (even just slightly) if we've only recently become friends and they expect stuff from me because everyone else(?) does stuff for Christmas.
so what now?
i still don't know what i'm going to do in the way of making cards or giving gifts. AND this is made all the more difficult with finals being the week before Christmas, prime gift-shopping time. garrr.
haha, what i actually ORIGINALLy meant to write about is..
when i go looking for gifts to get people, for their birthdays or Christmas or any occasion, i often run into a dilemma.
i find something that's so cool that would be a great gift for the person, but i end up really wanting it myself. a few choices pop up in my head.
1) i'll get it for them and only them.
2) i'll get it for myself, and find them another gift.
3) i'll get it for myself and for them!
on one or two instances, i remember getting the gift for both of us because i really wanted it as well. it felt.. wrong for some reason.
that's when i realized something about myself.
good gifts for other people are the ones i would want myself to have.
and it means more to me if i don't buy it for myself, too.
hmm, something like that. lols.
on another note, i hope the "stuff i like" posts aren't boring you guys. they actually take me a mad long time to write because even though the descriptions and reasons of why i like stuff should come naturally, there are like a million thoughts in my head at once and it's TOO hard to organize them.
well, have fun in this lovely Christmas season, even amidst finals and all that stuff.
i leave you with this video of AWESOME. i get chills each time i watch it 'cause it's so awesome, no joke. enjoy!
[ru you know that]
-i need both of my shoes to have the same tightness when i wear them. sometimes i end up having to tie and re-tie my shoes for a few minutes to get them just right, especially with my skechers, which aren't as squishy and mold-fitting as my sneaks.
-i hate it when i eat chicken wings or something at a restaurant, and then i have to go pee, because when i go into the bathroom, i wash my hands with soap first, that way my hands aren't dirty and i can actually pee, and then have the dilemma of wondering if i should wash my hands again because they still feel squeaky clean. i usually do wash my hands again though.
-the best way for me to fall asleep is to think about something visual that occupies my mind. most frequently contemplated: snowboarding, badminton, hockey, video games. i'm speculating it works in that when i get lost in the thought of whatever i'm thinking about, it removes other sounds and distractions from around me to help me fall asleep. it's also fun to just think about fun stuff. so there's that.
Monday, December 7, 2009
stuff i like, part 3
[songs for christmas! 2 of 4]
so here's the deal, i've picked four songs in anticipation of christmas, and i'm going to have a new one up in each blog entry that i post, the four weeks before christmas. ideally one post a weekend. 3 of the 4 songs are by artists that you know or have at least heard of, but i'm almost certain that you won't have heard any of the songs before. so they'll be foreign but in a familiar kind of way.
this week's song is: santa baby, by mase, snoop dogg, puff daddy, and various artists. push play!
heehee, this song made me lol when i first heard it.
i like physics.
our high school curriculum has freshman year as biology, sophomore year as chemistry, and junior year as physics. (senior year is whatevs you wanna do.)
i didn't like bio. too much memorization. i didn't find mitosis to be that interesting, and by that interesting, i mean, at all.
i didn't like chemistry. AND I STILL DON'T. BUT I HAD TO TAKE IT AND IT WAS HORRIBLE. the problems aren't too bad, but the EXCEPTIONS are what i hate. there are still a good number of things to memorize and those are just annoying.
when i took physics, it just MADE SENSE. i think, since growing up, i've always had this interest in how the world and nature works, and a lot of it clicked conceptually right away in the classroom. chickens dropping off of cliffs, bullets embedding in blocks of wood going around loop-de-loops, all that MECHANICS stuff.
don't get it mixed up, though, i only like physics mechanics. electricity & magnetism, nuh-uh! even sound and light and thermodynamics and stuff like that is bordering on annoying because i can't really SEE the concepts of what's going on.
why do i like physics? because it gives you a set of formulas that govern how things work, and you use those formulas in creative and mind-stretching ways to figure out the solutions to problems. there's no needing to remember that cadmium randomly has a +2 charge that doesn't fit in with the rest of its group of elements or any nonsense like that.
although, i do admit, chemistry has the coolest equipment. beakers, flasks, thermometers, wooden molecular sets, and the such.
i like badminton.
discounting times i played badminton in the backyard during my younger childhood, my first experience with badminton was the end of high school, senior year. we played in gym, and holy crap, from the instant i picked up the racquet and started whacking around birdies with johnny, it felt like me and badminton were meant to be.
even though i still liked tennis very much, i started liking badminton more and more as i kept playing, either in gym, or in my backyard with james' ghetto net. you should see the two dirt patches worn into my backyard because of our badminton "court".
the main problem with my tennis game was inconsistency. i just was not able to develop groundstrokes that were consistent and good, and it was pretty discouraging, though i still really enjoyed playing tennis for fun. however, with badminton, consistency was never a big problem, which was a huge relief for me, transitioning from my days of tennis.
one big thing i like about badminton is the SPEED.
i don't like running far distances, but on the flip side, i REALLY enjoy sprinting short distances. there was some of that in tennis, but in badminton, it's all about quick starting and stopping to get to and from every spot on the court. there's also the speed required mentally, to quickly analyze all the factors of the situation and know (some would say "feel") the right shot to hit. to adapt to your opponent and change strategies on the fly. speed.
another big thing about badminton is the DEPTH (of the game).
there are so many different shots to hit, each with their own different opportunity, timing, and pace. one second it's a smash, then it's followed by a cross-court dropshot, and then a counter dropshot, and at the same time, having to incorporate all that with shot disguise, good technique, swift footwork, and mental awareness of the opponent's position, your position, and where the birdie is. AWESOME. depth.
another big thing about badminton is WHACKING-STUFF-WITH-A-RACQUET.
i like it.
haha, no, but really, whacking stuff with a racquet just feels so natural to me, and it's also cool having your "personalized" racquet that you can call your own and put whacky colors of grip tape on, etc.
but maybe.. i like badminton so much because of the great people that have always surrounded me when i've played the sport. :]
['tis time, the three things that thou .. thast thanticipated]
-i can crack my right pinkie whenever i want.
-when i write on a computer, i always, always, put two spaces after a period. it just makes sense to me.
-i like my boba tea to have a boba:tea ratio of 1:1, as viewed from the side of the cup. that means a lot more than is regularly given in a commercial cup of boba tea from i's or noodle gourmet or anywhere, really. i'm used to it because my mom would often make boba tea at home and we would have an insane amount of bobas so i would get to set the proportions myself. goood stuff.
so here's the deal, i've picked four songs in anticipation of christmas, and i'm going to have a new one up in each blog entry that i post, the four weeks before christmas. ideally one post a weekend. 3 of the 4 songs are by artists that you know or have at least heard of, but i'm almost certain that you won't have heard any of the songs before. so they'll be foreign but in a familiar kind of way.
this week's song is: santa baby, by mase, snoop dogg, puff daddy, and various artists. push play!
heehee, this song made me lol when i first heard it.
i like physics.
our high school curriculum has freshman year as biology, sophomore year as chemistry, and junior year as physics. (senior year is whatevs you wanna do.)
i didn't like bio. too much memorization. i didn't find mitosis to be that interesting, and by that interesting, i mean, at all.
i didn't like chemistry. AND I STILL DON'T. BUT I HAD TO TAKE IT AND IT WAS HORRIBLE. the problems aren't too bad, but the EXCEPTIONS are what i hate. there are still a good number of things to memorize and those are just annoying.
when i took physics, it just MADE SENSE. i think, since growing up, i've always had this interest in how the world and nature works, and a lot of it clicked conceptually right away in the classroom. chickens dropping off of cliffs, bullets embedding in blocks of wood going around loop-de-loops, all that MECHANICS stuff.
don't get it mixed up, though, i only like physics mechanics. electricity & magnetism, nuh-uh! even sound and light and thermodynamics and stuff like that is bordering on annoying because i can't really SEE the concepts of what's going on.
why do i like physics? because it gives you a set of formulas that govern how things work, and you use those formulas in creative and mind-stretching ways to figure out the solutions to problems. there's no needing to remember that cadmium randomly has a +2 charge that doesn't fit in with the rest of its group of elements or any nonsense like that.
although, i do admit, chemistry has the coolest equipment. beakers, flasks, thermometers, wooden molecular sets, and the such.
i like badminton.
discounting times i played badminton in the backyard during my younger childhood, my first experience with badminton was the end of high school, senior year. we played in gym, and holy crap, from the instant i picked up the racquet and started whacking around birdies with johnny, it felt like me and badminton were meant to be.
even though i still liked tennis very much, i started liking badminton more and more as i kept playing, either in gym, or in my backyard with james' ghetto net. you should see the two dirt patches worn into my backyard because of our badminton "court".
the main problem with my tennis game was inconsistency. i just was not able to develop groundstrokes that were consistent and good, and it was pretty discouraging, though i still really enjoyed playing tennis for fun. however, with badminton, consistency was never a big problem, which was a huge relief for me, transitioning from my days of tennis.
one big thing i like about badminton is the SPEED.
i don't like running far distances, but on the flip side, i REALLY enjoy sprinting short distances. there was some of that in tennis, but in badminton, it's all about quick starting and stopping to get to and from every spot on the court. there's also the speed required mentally, to quickly analyze all the factors of the situation and know (some would say "feel") the right shot to hit. to adapt to your opponent and change strategies on the fly. speed.
another big thing about badminton is the DEPTH (of the game).
there are so many different shots to hit, each with their own different opportunity, timing, and pace. one second it's a smash, then it's followed by a cross-court dropshot, and then a counter dropshot, and at the same time, having to incorporate all that with shot disguise, good technique, swift footwork, and mental awareness of the opponent's position, your position, and where the birdie is. AWESOME. depth.
another big thing about badminton is WHACKING-STUFF-WITH-A-RACQUET.
i like it.
haha, no, but really, whacking stuff with a racquet just feels so natural to me, and it's also cool having your "personalized" racquet that you can call your own and put whacky colors of grip tape on, etc.
but maybe.. i like badminton so much because of the great people that have always surrounded me when i've played the sport. :]
['tis time, the three things that thou .. thast thanticipated]
-i can crack my right pinkie whenever i want.
-when i write on a computer, i always, always, put two spaces after a period. it just makes sense to me.
-i like my boba tea to have a boba:tea ratio of 1:1, as viewed from the side of the cup. that means a lot more than is regularly given in a commercial cup of boba tea from i's or noodle gourmet or anywhere, really. i'm used to it because my mom would often make boba tea at home and we would have an insane amount of bobas so i would get to set the proportions myself. goood stuff.
Monday, November 30, 2009
stuff i like, part 2
[songs for christmas! 1 of 4]
so here's the deal, i've picked four songs in anticipation of christmas, and i'm going to have a new one up in each blog entry that i post, the four weeks before christmas. ideally one post a weekend. 3 of the 4 songs are by artists that you know or have at least heard of, but i'm almost certain that you won't have heard any of the songs before. so they'll be foreign but in a familiar kind of way.
this week's song is: 30 days, by never shout never. push play!
okay, this week's song is the artist that you probably don't know. hope you enjoy it!
yep, winter is my favorite season. by a big margin.
- i don't like greasy things, or fingerprint smudges, and in the wintertime, since the air is cooler, there is less moisture.
- i don't like sweating, also 'cause it relates to the reason above.
- coolness = less sweating.as opposed to the summer, if it gets too cold in the winter, you can simply put on more layers of clothes. in the summer, you'll still be hot even if, well, you're naked.
- i like wearing a big jacket and putting my hands in my pockets.
- since people wear more clothing, there's more room to customize and accessorize ie. with scarves and stuff [not applicable to me]
- SNOWBOARDDDDDDDDDDDIIIIIIIIING AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH TOO MUCH TO SAY BUT IT IS AWESOME MTCREEK KILLINGTON CAMELBAK LET'S GOOOOOOOOO
- CHRISTMAS! the holiday season and everything about it. and the christmas music that starts playing everywhere.
- family and friend get-togethers to be festive and enjoy each other's company.
- gifts?
- SNOOOOOOW. seeing it. throwing it. stepping on it. eating it. riding my bike on it. throwing it down people's shirts. missing school 'cause of it. burying soda cans in it and forgetting about them until spring. winter is the only season that has its own unique form of precipitation. how cool is THAT?
so here's the deal, i've picked four songs in anticipation of christmas, and i'm going to have a new one up in each blog entry that i post, the four weeks before christmas. ideally one post a weekend. 3 of the 4 songs are by artists that you know or have at least heard of, but i'm almost certain that you won't have heard any of the songs before. so they'll be foreign but in a familiar kind of way.
this week's song is: 30 days, by never shout never. push play!
okay, this week's song is the artist that you probably don't know. hope you enjoy it!
i like winter.
yep, winter is my favorite season. by a big margin.
- i don't like greasy things, or fingerprint smudges, and in the wintertime, since the air is cooler, there is less moisture.
- i don't like sweating, also 'cause it relates to the reason above.
- coolness = less sweating.as opposed to the summer, if it gets too cold in the winter, you can simply put on more layers of clothes. in the summer, you'll still be hot even if, well, you're naked.
- i like wearing a big jacket and putting my hands in my pockets.
- since people wear more clothing, there's more room to customize and accessorize ie. with scarves and stuff [not applicable to me]
- SNOWBOARDDDDDDDDDDDIIIIIIIIING AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH TOO MUCH TO SAY BUT IT IS AWESOME MTCREEK KILLINGTON CAMELBAK LET'S GOOOOOOOOO
- CHRISTMAS! the holiday season and everything about it. and the christmas music that starts playing everywhere.
- family and friend get-togethers to be festive and enjoy each other's company.
- gifts?
- SNOOOOOOW. seeing it. throwing it. stepping on it. eating it. riding my bike on it. throwing it down people's shirts. missing school 'cause of it. burying soda cans in it and forgetting about them until spring. winter is the only season that has its own unique form of precipitation. how cool is THAT?
i like hockey.
i didn't even like hockey a few years ago. it was definitely acquired.
i randomly started watching hockey a few years ago because i was so bored that i turned on the television and had nothing else to watch. it seemed like a good mindless thing to stare at.
when i started watching it, hockey was just a sport where players skated up and down the ice, hitting each other into the boards, fighting over a puck that i could never find, and trying in vain to get the puck into a small goal covered by a gigantic goalie.
i think the speed of the game, and definitely the checking, was what slowly got me hooked.
the progression of my obsession:
07-08. i wrote down game times of the devils and the islanders in my planner and watched some games regularly, and watched my first all-star game.
08-09. by now i had decided that while the islanders are a cool bunch, i really only like the devils. i actually set time apart in my schedule to watch the devils games, and i watched the majority of the devils games this season, and also watched my first post-season. i'm glad i got interested at a good time. i witnessed as zach parise became an integral part of the team and also one of the top leading nhl goalscorers (3rd highest in 08-09 season). as martin brodeur became the most winningest goaltender. oh, so many times i had to pick between CCF (God) and the devils. i always found that kind of funny, heehee. i watched the highlights of every game that i missed, though, so it's all good.
09-10. i watch every game that i get a chance to. the devils were on fire with their away games from the start of the season with NINE straight road wins, going into the history books and coming second only to, uhh, the other team that i forget who they were who have ten straight away game wins from the start of the season. even though they've changed some key players (shanahan, GIONTA?!) and got some new faces, the devils are the still who they are, and they still do what they do best .. defense. LOL. okay, i'd be fortunate if even just ONE person understood that joke. but alas, that is how it is with being a fan of hockey. no one knows what hockey's about, no one wants to watch it with you, and everyone at some point in time asks, "you watch hockey?!"
while i'm still learning about and developing my appreciation for the complex and fast-paced sport that is hockey, i'm lovin' every minute of it. every face-off. every goal. every check. every slash. every cross-check. EVERY FIST FIGHT YEAHHHHH.
though i have yet to actually go see a devils game. maybe sometime this season. they even have college nights...
[san guh chi guai dong shi]
-one of my past habits: i used to use the lead of my lead pencil to get gunk out from under my fingernails.
-one of my hobbies: particularly at badminton, i like to steal compliments. when i'm around other people and i hear a compliment given out, i say "thanks!" even if it wasn't directed to me or even if i'm not doing anything.
-sprinkles. when i eat ice cream, i POUR on the sprinkles. ice cream just tastes kind of empty without it. you also kind of have to see to get an idea of what i mean. but i loooove sprinkles. the rainbow kind.
i didn't even like hockey a few years ago. it was definitely acquired.
i randomly started watching hockey a few years ago because i was so bored that i turned on the television and had nothing else to watch. it seemed like a good mindless thing to stare at.
when i started watching it, hockey was just a sport where players skated up and down the ice, hitting each other into the boards, fighting over a puck that i could never find, and trying in vain to get the puck into a small goal covered by a gigantic goalie.
i think the speed of the game, and definitely the checking, was what slowly got me hooked.
the progression of my obsession:
07-08. i wrote down game times of the devils and the islanders in my planner and watched some games regularly, and watched my first all-star game.
08-09. by now i had decided that while the islanders are a cool bunch, i really only like the devils. i actually set time apart in my schedule to watch the devils games, and i watched the majority of the devils games this season, and also watched my first post-season. i'm glad i got interested at a good time. i witnessed as zach parise became an integral part of the team and also one of the top leading nhl goalscorers (3rd highest in 08-09 season). as martin brodeur became the most winningest goaltender. oh, so many times i had to pick between CCF (God) and the devils. i always found that kind of funny, heehee. i watched the highlights of every game that i missed, though, so it's all good.
09-10. i watch every game that i get a chance to. the devils were on fire with their away games from the start of the season with NINE straight road wins, going into the history books and coming second only to, uhh, the other team that i forget who they were who have ten straight away game wins from the start of the season. even though they've changed some key players (shanahan, GIONTA?!) and got some new faces, the devils are the still who they are, and they still do what they do best .. defense. LOL. okay, i'd be fortunate if even just ONE person understood that joke. but alas, that is how it is with being a fan of hockey. no one knows what hockey's about, no one wants to watch it with you, and everyone at some point in time asks, "you watch hockey?!"
while i'm still learning about and developing my appreciation for the complex and fast-paced sport that is hockey, i'm lovin' every minute of it. every face-off. every goal. every check. every slash. every cross-check. EVERY FIST FIGHT YEAHHHHH.
though i have yet to actually go see a devils game. maybe sometime this season. they even have college nights...
[san guh chi guai dong shi]
-one of my past habits: i used to use the lead of my lead pencil to get gunk out from under my fingernails.
-one of my hobbies: particularly at badminton, i like to steal compliments. when i'm around other people and i hear a compliment given out, i say "thanks!" even if it wasn't directed to me or even if i'm not doing anything.
-sprinkles. when i eat ice cream, i POUR on the sprinkles. ice cream just tastes kind of empty without it. you also kind of have to see to get an idea of what i mean. but i loooove sprinkles. the rainbow kind.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
stuff i like, part 1
let's start with the basics.
i like pineapples.
come on now, who actually didn't know this?
i'm not sure how i came to like them, but.. i did!
what do i like about them? EVERYTHING.
first of all, it LOOKS cool. what other fruit looks as aggressive and spiky and awesome? it has a very distinct shape/design that is easily drawn and even more easily distinguished apart from other fruits. there's no getting a pineapple mixed up with an apple/peach/plum/blueberry/tomato, that's for sure.
it smells nice. i have a pineapple cologne from bath & body works. and various other good-smelling pineapple products.
it's nice to hold. it has a nice hefty weight, good for when you just wanna .. lug something around .. that LOOKS COOL.
the only thing that is amiss in my pineapple obsession is that i don't like to eat pineapples. if you eat too much pineapple, it messes with your tongue and you get that annoying irritated feeling on your tongue and i HATE THAT! maybe i just shouldn't eat pineapple in droves, but hey, that's what i do when i like to eat something!
all in all, pineapples are awesome. you can never go wrong with a pineapple-related item as a solid choice for a gift.
now, if only i had a baller friend who would get me the pineapple from swarovski...
next..
i like god of war.
so the story goes, one day in my senior year of high school, i was chillin' on the couch, watching gameplay hd, a gaming channel that, well, talks about games. they have this one feature where they show footage of a particular game being played, and as i watching one day, i witnessed the most awesome action game i had ever seen. it gripped me the instant i watched it, and i knew i had to play it. what about it? the violence is so awesomely over-the-top, the greek mythology is very interesting and well-integrated. the graphics are nice. and man, the game is just straight-up ba.
unfortunately, i felt sad because a game with such good graphics had to be on the 360, so i had little chance of playing it. BUT LO AND BEHOLD, it was actually FOR PS2. AND it was like 3 years old already! i jumped on ebay and snatched up a copy for <$20 .. and so it began. story: kratos is a spartan warrior who fights for ares, the god of war, because ares saved kratos' life in exchange for kratos' service. ares cursed (blessed?) kratos with the blades of chaos, a blade at the end of a chain, with one on each arm. however, kratos eventually vows to seek revenge on ares when ares tricks kratos into killing his own family. the goddess athena aids kratos in his journey to kill ares. that's god of war 1. and there's god of war 2. a whole second game. bigger and better in every way. thank you kevin for buying it for me. :] action. violence. challenge. puzzles. pure fun. god of war defines epic. the action, the battles, the story, kratos, the music, the sense of scale. mind-blowing.
although i must admit, i'm scared to play the game by myself. heehee.
i think it resonates so well with me because it satisfies this internal desire that i never even knew i had until i first experienced this game. or maybe seeing the game and playing it created this desire in me. who knows. AND WHO CARES. KRATOS IS THE MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN.
here, look. [WARNING: this video is kind of gory. and by kind of, i mean, immensely.]
kratos picks up a man and rips him in half with his bare hands. HOW AWESOME IS THAT.
god of war 3 is coming out march 2010. i am psyched beyond belief. and i am definitely getting the ultimate [collector's] edition, one way or another. mark my words, god of war 3 is going to be beautiful. in every sense of the word.
[wachu know bout me]
-the longest my hair has been is a little more than 5 inches. i plucked this one strand of hair out a few years ago and taped it onto a ruler. it's in my house, you can see it if you want! yay!
-i drape the toilet paper off the top of the roll. the one and only way to do it. unh.
-i only work with college ruled notebook paper. and it has to be 8.5" x 11".
i like pineapples.
come on now, who actually didn't know this?
i'm not sure how i came to like them, but.. i did!
what do i like about them? EVERYTHING.
first of all, it LOOKS cool. what other fruit looks as aggressive and spiky and awesome? it has a very distinct shape/design that is easily drawn and even more easily distinguished apart from other fruits. there's no getting a pineapple mixed up with an apple/peach/plum/blueberry/tomato, that's for sure.
it smells nice. i have a pineapple cologne from bath & body works. and various other good-smelling pineapple products.
it's nice to hold. it has a nice hefty weight, good for when you just wanna .. lug something around .. that LOOKS COOL.
the only thing that is amiss in my pineapple obsession is that i don't like to eat pineapples. if you eat too much pineapple, it messes with your tongue and you get that annoying irritated feeling on your tongue and i HATE THAT! maybe i just shouldn't eat pineapple in droves, but hey, that's what i do when i like to eat something!
all in all, pineapples are awesome. you can never go wrong with a pineapple-related item as a solid choice for a gift.
now, if only i had a baller friend who would get me the pineapple from swarovski...
next..
i like god of war.
so the story goes, one day in my senior year of high school, i was chillin' on the couch, watching gameplay hd, a gaming channel that, well, talks about games. they have this one feature where they show footage of a particular game being played, and as i watching one day, i witnessed the most awesome action game i had ever seen. it gripped me the instant i watched it, and i knew i had to play it. what about it? the violence is so awesomely over-the-top, the greek mythology is very interesting and well-integrated. the graphics are nice. and man, the game is just straight-up ba.
unfortunately, i felt sad because a game with such good graphics had to be on the 360, so i had little chance of playing it. BUT LO AND BEHOLD, it was actually FOR PS2. AND it was like 3 years old already! i jumped on ebay and snatched up a copy for <$20 .. and so it began. story: kratos is a spartan warrior who fights for ares, the god of war, because ares saved kratos' life in exchange for kratos' service. ares cursed (blessed?) kratos with the blades of chaos, a blade at the end of a chain, with one on each arm. however, kratos eventually vows to seek revenge on ares when ares tricks kratos into killing his own family. the goddess athena aids kratos in his journey to kill ares. that's god of war 1. and there's god of war 2. a whole second game. bigger and better in every way. thank you kevin for buying it for me. :] action. violence. challenge. puzzles. pure fun. god of war defines epic. the action, the battles, the story, kratos, the music, the sense of scale. mind-blowing.
although i must admit, i'm scared to play the game by myself. heehee.
i think it resonates so well with me because it satisfies this internal desire that i never even knew i had until i first experienced this game. or maybe seeing the game and playing it created this desire in me. who knows. AND WHO CARES. KRATOS IS THE MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN.
here, look. [WARNING: this video is kind of gory. and by kind of, i mean, immensely.]
kratos picks up a man and rips him in half with his bare hands. HOW AWESOME IS THAT.
god of war 3 is coming out march 2010. i am psyched beyond belief. and i am definitely getting the ultimate [collector's] edition, one way or another. mark my words, god of war 3 is going to be beautiful. in every sense of the word.
[wachu know bout me]
-the longest my hair has been is a little more than 5 inches. i plucked this one strand of hair out a few years ago and taped it onto a ruler. it's in my house, you can see it if you want! yay!
-i drape the toilet paper off the top of the roll. the one and only way to do it. unh.
-i only work with college ruled notebook paper. and it has to be 8.5" x 11".
Sunday, November 15, 2009
counting--oh, the fun
in the first grade, i lived in oregon, because of my dad's work. we had a bichon frise named eddie, as well. anyway! i went to fisher's landing elementary school, and that was where i learned to count. funny thing is, though, they had an interesting way of teaching us first graders how to count. here's a little diagram explaining it..
the blue dots represent that "point" being counted once. the red dots represent that "point" being counted twice.
as you can see, the system doesn't really make too much sense for the majority of the numbers, except maybe 3 and 4.
the sad thing is, i think this actually hindered my mental math abilities, because i remember counting the dots in my head (including double-counting each red one), when adding numbers. and yeah, this was up until sometime in high school. from there, i gradually made a change to actually learning and REMEMBERING simple mental math instead of counting dots.
oregon.
in a similar vein, one of the things i'm excited for when/if i get to heaven is the FUN FACTS.
by fun facts i mean, since God knows everything, in heaven, we'll be able to know every single fact there is to know about our lives! i would totally want to be able to see and compare stuff with other people and see how we rank up in terms of statistics. 'cause you know, statistics are always fun.
a few examples of some things i would like to ask, see, and compare with other people..
[distance traveled..]
on bike
by foot
[time spent..]
watching movies
playing video games
pooping
[volume of..]
blood lost
mountain dew consumed
oops, the list came out to be much shorter than expected. yeah, i guess i never really had to sit down and make a list of stuff. but these are definitely biggies that i've thought about randomly.
[pic of the day!]
fiercest picture. i've ever seen. in a calc book.
[yofavfax]
-my favorite color shirt to wear is navy. however, it happens that navy shirts, given the dark color, also fade easily and noticeably after multiple washings. as a result, i never (rarely) wear my navy shirts anymore, because i don't want them to fade. funny how that works, huh? it's like the saying, "no one goes to that restaurant anymore because it's too crowded."
-when i drop food (like snacks) on the floor (that's not too dirty) and there are people around, i pick it up as if i'm going to throw it out, hold it for a few seconds, and then eat it. that way, when people are watching me to see what i do with it, they'll think i'm going to throw it out and not eat it, but i still do when they're not watching! score!
-when i'm by myself in a public bathroom, and the option is available, i like to hit the buttons on both of the hand dryers and dry one hand under each. yeah. sup.
the blue dots represent that "point" being counted once. the red dots represent that "point" being counted twice.as you can see, the system doesn't really make too much sense for the majority of the numbers, except maybe 3 and 4.
the sad thing is, i think this actually hindered my mental math abilities, because i remember counting the dots in my head (including double-counting each red one), when adding numbers. and yeah, this was up until sometime in high school. from there, i gradually made a change to actually learning and REMEMBERING simple mental math instead of counting dots.
oregon.
in a similar vein, one of the things i'm excited for when/if i get to heaven is the FUN FACTS.
by fun facts i mean, since God knows everything, in heaven, we'll be able to know every single fact there is to know about our lives! i would totally want to be able to see and compare stuff with other people and see how we rank up in terms of statistics. 'cause you know, statistics are always fun.
a few examples of some things i would like to ask, see, and compare with other people..
[distance traveled..]
on bike
by foot
[time spent..]
watching movies
playing video games
pooping
[volume of..]
blood lost
mountain dew consumed
oops, the list came out to be much shorter than expected. yeah, i guess i never really had to sit down and make a list of stuff. but these are definitely biggies that i've thought about randomly.
[pic of the day!]
fiercest picture. i've ever seen. in a calc book.[yofavfax]
-my favorite color shirt to wear is navy. however, it happens that navy shirts, given the dark color, also fade easily and noticeably after multiple washings. as a result, i never (rarely) wear my navy shirts anymore, because i don't want them to fade. funny how that works, huh? it's like the saying, "no one goes to that restaurant anymore because it's too crowded."
-when i drop food (like snacks) on the floor (that's not too dirty) and there are people around, i pick it up as if i'm going to throw it out, hold it for a few seconds, and then eat it. that way, when people are watching me to see what i do with it, they'll think i'm going to throw it out and not eat it, but i still do when they're not watching! score!
-when i'm by myself in a public bathroom, and the option is available, i like to hit the buttons on both of the hand dryers and dry one hand under each. yeah. sup.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
cute kids, cool cars, close call, and a cleaaaaan cookie
i think my blog makes you guys read too much. here, a change of pace. (also no new music. sorry.)
these two kids are isaac and enoch, respectively.
i know them from church, and i went to their house and taught them piano for a while up until i had to go to college.
enoch is the older brother, but i don't remember exactly how old they are. they're ridiculously cute and cool at the same time, and i love hanging out with them.
fun fact!: enoch and isaac have beaten me in checkers every time that we've played. in my defense, i've only played checkers a handful of times as a kid, and haven't touched the game since.
isaac has two swirls!
i have this thing where i point out every nissan 350z that i see. and if i can, i take a picture of it. (which isn't creepy, 'cause they're just cars, not like people or something.)
i saw this sweet black one as i was biking on my way to mr. kevin yuey's house, and stopped to take these two pics, but not for too long, for fear of neighbors being suspicious.
i saw this tricked-out 350z as i was leaving rockaway mall.
i'm particularly proud of these shots that i got here, waiting for the traffic light at 46/beverwyck.
at rutgers. DIG the blue.
rutgers again. orange is pretty legit, too.
check it ouuuuut.
before i came to college, i mowed four lawns regularly, and carried the lawn mower to their houses in our mazda suv, pictured on the left. for these next pictures, even though i had full intention for this to happen, i'm not sure whether to describe it as something that i did or something that happened to me. i'll let you decide.
and last but not least.
SHO NUFF
[those 3 fax]
-when i was younger, i used to think i was clever by pointing my middle finger down at the ground. i don't recall doing it much, though.
-for as long as i can remember, i've slept on my tummy. on the rare occasion, i would sleep on my side. however, it wasn't until college that i actually deliberately slept on my back. still rare, though. it feels so weird.
-my favorite soda is mountain dew: code red. it doesn't have to do with the color red, that's for sure, because that's one of my least favorite colors. but i dunno. i'm a big mountain dew fan in general. all the mountain dews i've had: regular, code red, live wire, pitch black, pitch black ii, voltage, supernova, revolution, baja blast, and halo3 game fuel edition. i have yet to try the two world of warcraft ones. i still have an unopened can of the halo3 game fuel edition on the shelf in my room. :D
these two kids are isaac and enoch, respectively.
i know them from church, and i went to their house and taught them piano for a while up until i had to go to college.
enoch is the older brother, but i don't remember exactly how old they are. they're ridiculously cute and cool at the same time, and i love hanging out with them.
fun fact!: enoch and isaac have beaten me in checkers every time that we've played. in my defense, i've only played checkers a handful of times as a kid, and haven't touched the game since.
isaac has two swirls!
i have this thing where i point out every nissan 350z that i see. and if i can, i take a picture of it. (which isn't creepy, 'cause they're just cars, not like people or something.)i saw this sweet black one as i was biking on my way to mr. kevin yuey's house, and stopped to take these two pics, but not for too long, for fear of neighbors being suspicious.
i saw this tricked-out 350z as i was leaving rockaway mall.
i'm particularly proud of these shots that i got here, waiting for the traffic light at 46/beverwyck.
at rutgers. DIG the blue.
rutgers again. orange is pretty legit, too.
check it ouuuuut.
before i came to college, i mowed four lawns regularly, and carried the lawn mower to their houses in our mazda suv, pictured on the left. for these next pictures, even though i had full intention for this to happen, i'm not sure whether to describe it as something that i did or something that happened to me. i'll let you decide.
and last but not least.
SHO NUFF[those 3 fax]
-when i was younger, i used to think i was clever by pointing my middle finger down at the ground. i don't recall doing it much, though.
-for as long as i can remember, i've slept on my tummy. on the rare occasion, i would sleep on my side. however, it wasn't until college that i actually deliberately slept on my back. still rare, though. it feels so weird.
-my favorite soda is mountain dew: code red. it doesn't have to do with the color red, that's for sure, because that's one of my least favorite colors. but i dunno. i'm a big mountain dew fan in general. all the mountain dews i've had: regular, code red, live wire, pitch black, pitch black ii, voltage, supernova, revolution, baja blast, and halo3 game fuel edition. i have yet to try the two world of warcraft ones. i still have an unopened can of the halo3 game fuel edition on the shelf in my room. :D
Friday, October 2, 2009
pour me a heavy dose of atmosphere
i SAW OWL CITY IN CONCERT, the same venue as the one i saw amber pacific at. IT WAS AWESOME. adam sang and played some electric guitar (two different ones!). there was also a celloist, violinist, drummer, and a female vocalist who also played keyboard and synth. it was AWESOME. oh wait i said that already, lols. they didn't stick around afterwards, unfortunately. i didn't get any merch this time, because the wristband was $10, t-shirts were expensive ($20), and the poster wasn't interesting enough on its own (meaning without autographs).
i'm planning to go see ANBERLIN in concert sunday, october 25th. allentown, pa. 1hr20min drive, daaang. BUT IT WILL BE AWESOME. ANBERLIN = AWESOME.
---
what IS integrity?
what does it mean?
what is it comprised of?
some questions..
is it okay to do something illegal if no one sees?
what if everyone else is doing it, too?
are some laws not as important as other ones?
these days, i think it's tremendously hard to have good integrity.
it's hard in the sense that a lot of things push us to cheat or cut corners or bend the rules, perhaps to get ahead, to make things easier, or because it's an easy source of enjoyment.
it's also hard in the sense that even if we put a ton of effort into trying to maintain our integrity, there are so many little subjective things that an outsider could pick at if trying to pinpoint cracks and faults.
some thoughts..
one thing that comes to mind for me is music piracy. yeah, it's illegal, but it's also widely prevalent. you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who adheres strictly to not downloading music.
now this isn't some self-righteous post about how i purchase [almost] all my music and everyone else downloads everything illegally and i'm so right and i hate piracy and blalhbalhhlab, it's just meant to get your mind crankin'.
even though i like to purchase music and support the artists, i'm conflicted a lot of the time, too.
as one (okay, probably more) of my friends said, "BUY music? that's such a waste of money, since it's so easy to get it from anywhere!" and it's true! why buy music?
i think one of the reasons that people don't feel bad, or as bad, about breaking the law, is when it relates to something that isn't monitored. you know, download a few songs, or a few thousand, no one's gonna know or catch you.
or, they feel like it's okay because it's not something physical. "it's not like i'm stealing the CD from the store!"
or, better yet, it's okay because everyone else is doing it, too, or they're more illegal! "i'm only downloading a few songs that i like since the rest of the songs on the CD are crappy, and other people download so much more than me! i'm GOOD compared to them."
or, some people say, if it's a big corporation, or someone wealthy, it's not as bad to steal from them. "it's okay, kanye's mad ballin', he doesn't need my money and it won't affect him at all if i don't buy his music."
or, that the law is unfair and a rip-off. "CDs are way too expensive, they overcharge for them! $10 for a movie ticket? get real!"
here's a thought: who ever even officially said that music should be cheap, let alone free? is it easy or cheap to write and produce and publish amazing music?
owning music that we can listen to whenever we want is not some right that we have, and i think we've grown to feel like it is.
just because a flatscreen plasma HDTV is expensive and is awesome and you want it, is it okay to steal it?
but this makes the situation most real for me.. even though i've never worked on a movie, or wrote any kind of great music, i know i can't even imagine how much work it takes to put it all together.
put yourself in their shoes.
if you wrote an original song.. if you designed a beautiful piece of art..
would you want someone to steal that from you?
[randoms]
-i will never use 0.7mm lead. i don't know why. i just grew up with 0.5mm and stuck with it. but that's only for lead pencils. as for pens, i will practically never use blue ink. i dunno why i just don't like it. my preferred is black, and i don't have any other colors.
-now that i live in a suite with five other doods, i re-discovered one of my shower hobbies. re-directing water from the showerhead to wash away random strands of hair stuck on the wall, the shower curtain, or anywhere on the bathtub. it's so addicting! and fun! maybe that's my slightly-OCD side of me talking.
-ever since i was younger, one of my dreams was to be trapped in shoprite. with a few friends, of course. i would wanna see how long we would be able to survive, only living off of what we could find in the store. we could last for months! more! YEARS?! hooohoo awesome, i'm laughing just thinking about it. if you steal that idea for a reality show after reading the post above, you have no heart.
i'm planning to go see ANBERLIN in concert sunday, october 25th. allentown, pa. 1hr20min drive, daaang. BUT IT WILL BE AWESOME. ANBERLIN = AWESOME.
---
what IS integrity?
what does it mean?
what is it comprised of?
some questions..
is it okay to do something illegal if no one sees?
what if everyone else is doing it, too?
are some laws not as important as other ones?
these days, i think it's tremendously hard to have good integrity.
it's hard in the sense that a lot of things push us to cheat or cut corners or bend the rules, perhaps to get ahead, to make things easier, or because it's an easy source of enjoyment.
it's also hard in the sense that even if we put a ton of effort into trying to maintain our integrity, there are so many little subjective things that an outsider could pick at if trying to pinpoint cracks and faults.
some thoughts..
one thing that comes to mind for me is music piracy. yeah, it's illegal, but it's also widely prevalent. you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who adheres strictly to not downloading music.
now this isn't some self-righteous post about how i purchase [almost] all my music and everyone else downloads everything illegally and i'm so right and i hate piracy and blalhbalhhlab, it's just meant to get your mind crankin'.
even though i like to purchase music and support the artists, i'm conflicted a lot of the time, too.
as one (okay, probably more) of my friends said, "BUY music? that's such a waste of money, since it's so easy to get it from anywhere!" and it's true! why buy music?
i think one of the reasons that people don't feel bad, or as bad, about breaking the law, is when it relates to something that isn't monitored. you know, download a few songs, or a few thousand, no one's gonna know or catch you.
or, they feel like it's okay because it's not something physical. "it's not like i'm stealing the CD from the store!"
or, better yet, it's okay because everyone else is doing it, too, or they're more illegal! "i'm only downloading a few songs that i like since the rest of the songs on the CD are crappy, and other people download so much more than me! i'm GOOD compared to them."
or, some people say, if it's a big corporation, or someone wealthy, it's not as bad to steal from them. "it's okay, kanye's mad ballin', he doesn't need my money and it won't affect him at all if i don't buy his music."
or, that the law is unfair and a rip-off. "CDs are way too expensive, they overcharge for them! $10 for a movie ticket? get real!"
here's a thought: who ever even officially said that music should be cheap, let alone free? is it easy or cheap to write and produce and publish amazing music?
owning music that we can listen to whenever we want is not some right that we have, and i think we've grown to feel like it is.
just because a flatscreen plasma HDTV is expensive and is awesome and you want it, is it okay to steal it?
but this makes the situation most real for me.. even though i've never worked on a movie, or wrote any kind of great music, i know i can't even imagine how much work it takes to put it all together.
put yourself in their shoes.
if you wrote an original song.. if you designed a beautiful piece of art..
would you want someone to steal that from you?
[randoms]
-i will never use 0.7mm lead. i don't know why. i just grew up with 0.5mm and stuck with it. but that's only for lead pencils. as for pens, i will practically never use blue ink. i dunno why i just don't like it. my preferred is black, and i don't have any other colors.
-now that i live in a suite with five other doods, i re-discovered one of my shower hobbies. re-directing water from the showerhead to wash away random strands of hair stuck on the wall, the shower curtain, or anywhere on the bathtub. it's so addicting! and fun! maybe that's my slightly-OCD side of me talking.
-ever since i was younger, one of my dreams was to be trapped in shoprite. with a few friends, of course. i would wanna see how long we would be able to survive, only living off of what we could find in the store. we could last for months! more! YEARS?! hooohoo awesome, i'm laughing just thinking about it. if you steal that idea for a reality show after reading the post above, you have no heart.
Monday, September 14, 2009
too ninja for civics
I GOT T-BONED BY A CAR TODAY ON MY BIKE lols
[prep] [today, monday 9/14]
today, me and matthew took a bike ride together to college ave, 'cause i had to go to the public safety building to pick up my parking permit, and also to the university bookstore so i could pre-order an iclicker.
we biked to the rutgers student center and got on the F bus (bikes too), which brought us to the public safety building where i picked up my parking permit.
from there, the plan was to bike back to the scott hall stop and take the bus, or bike directly back to busch.
[set-up] [1:10pm]
at the intersection of hamilton and college ave, me and matthew were waiting to cross the crosswalk. i waited as i usually do until pedestrians start crossing, in order to ensure that cars would be stopping for at least the pedestrians, and i started my way across. a black civic was stopped nearby and the first in the row of cars, and as i started to cross, he started to accelerate. at that point, i was already square in front of his car, but i was just thinking to myself, "yeah, he'll stop. yeah.. okay, he's not stopping oh crap this is really happening --"
[action]
BAM! since i'm very aware when i ride my bike, i was already watching his car and anticipating the collision, and i was able to jump off my bike like i just messed up landing a bmx trick and proceeded to land square on my feet. TOO NINJA.
[aftermath]
i think both me and the driver took a few seconds to collect ourselves and take in what just happened. he steps out and apologizes and says some other stuff that i didn't take notice of, but then i'm just like whatever, and i pick up my bike and move it over to the sidewalk to check it out. the bike is fine, except that the back wheel is a little crooked where the car's bumper hit it. i had to disengage the rear brakes because they would touch a part of the tire on each revolution. it's okay, i never really used those crappy rear brakes anyway! my bike just got even ghetto-er, and i didn't even think that was possible.
[questions?]
you probably have a lot of questions. lemme give it a shot.
-the driver was male
-he was going straight
-yes, he had a green light
-no, i wasn't on the crosswalk, because his car was already stopped ON the crosswalk before i even attempted to cross it
-pedestrians were crossing despite the "red hand no walk" sign over the crosswalk
-no, i didn't get his info or plates or anything
-yeah, i know, i'll get it in the future from now on no matter the severity of the situation
-a handful of people probably saw, though it wasn't a big scene because a) the collision wasn't that big, and b) i landed on my feet
-he had [quickly] accelerated for about a second and then hit the brakes just a split-second before hitting me
-no, i wasn't scared
-matthew was behind me watching the whole thing and was greatly concerned for my health. what a good friend! not once on the entire bus ride home did he even do so much as crack a smile about the situation.
-my bike still runs well, and you wouldn't even be able to tell there was something wrong with the back wheel
[morals]
snowboard. it gives you a good sense of balance and teaches you how to fall well in impromptu situations.
[modnarrandom]
-maybe two years ago or so, i was at home taking out the trash. i was barefoot and took a step out the front door, and with the first step that landed on the ground outside, i stepped on something squishy. IT WAS A SLUG. i immediately freaked out and limp-ran upstairs to the bathtub to start scrubbing my foot with as much soap as i could. after a few minutes of soaping and scrubbing, i realized that the sole of my foot was squeaky clean, except for the one sliver print of where i stepped on the slug. MAD NASTS. i asked my mom what to do and she said to use baking soda. so i did, and it came off, just like that. moms are so smart.
-once, i stole a contacts case from baldwin pharmacy. i needed one, and it was like a ridiculous $4. not that that was what i used as my rationale, but it was my incentive. i don't remember ever stealing anything else.
-one time, i was in my room (the room which is now the guest room) and staying up late. it was like 4am. i needed to pee, but didn't want to open the door because it was gonna make a lot of noise. so, i stood up on my bed, opened the window, and peed out. the window was facing the back of my house, and i heard the long splatter on the pavement 20 feet or so below.
[prep] [today, monday 9/14]
today, me and matthew took a bike ride together to college ave, 'cause i had to go to the public safety building to pick up my parking permit, and also to the university bookstore so i could pre-order an iclicker.
we biked to the rutgers student center and got on the F bus (bikes too), which brought us to the public safety building where i picked up my parking permit.
from there, the plan was to bike back to the scott hall stop and take the bus, or bike directly back to busch.
[set-up] [1:10pm]
at the intersection of hamilton and college ave, me and matthew were waiting to cross the crosswalk. i waited as i usually do until pedestrians start crossing, in order to ensure that cars would be stopping for at least the pedestrians, and i started my way across. a black civic was stopped nearby and the first in the row of cars, and as i started to cross, he started to accelerate. at that point, i was already square in front of his car, but i was just thinking to myself, "yeah, he'll stop. yeah.. okay, he's not stopping oh crap this is really happening --"
[action]
BAM! since i'm very aware when i ride my bike, i was already watching his car and anticipating the collision, and i was able to jump off my bike like i just messed up landing a bmx trick and proceeded to land square on my feet. TOO NINJA.
[aftermath]
i think both me and the driver took a few seconds to collect ourselves and take in what just happened. he steps out and apologizes and says some other stuff that i didn't take notice of, but then i'm just like whatever, and i pick up my bike and move it over to the sidewalk to check it out. the bike is fine, except that the back wheel is a little crooked where the car's bumper hit it. i had to disengage the rear brakes because they would touch a part of the tire on each revolution. it's okay, i never really used those crappy rear brakes anyway! my bike just got even ghetto-er, and i didn't even think that was possible.
[questions?]
you probably have a lot of questions. lemme give it a shot.
-the driver was male
-he was going straight
-yes, he had a green light
-no, i wasn't on the crosswalk, because his car was already stopped ON the crosswalk before i even attempted to cross it
-pedestrians were crossing despite the "red hand no walk" sign over the crosswalk
-no, i didn't get his info or plates or anything
-yeah, i know, i'll get it in the future from now on no matter the severity of the situation
-a handful of people probably saw, though it wasn't a big scene because a) the collision wasn't that big, and b) i landed on my feet
-he had [quickly] accelerated for about a second and then hit the brakes just a split-second before hitting me
-no, i wasn't scared
-matthew was behind me watching the whole thing and was greatly concerned for my health. what a good friend! not once on the entire bus ride home did he even do so much as crack a smile about the situation.
-my bike still runs well, and you wouldn't even be able to tell there was something wrong with the back wheel
[morals]
snowboard. it gives you a good sense of balance and teaches you how to fall well in impromptu situations.
[modnarrandom]
-maybe two years ago or so, i was at home taking out the trash. i was barefoot and took a step out the front door, and with the first step that landed on the ground outside, i stepped on something squishy. IT WAS A SLUG. i immediately freaked out and limp-ran upstairs to the bathtub to start scrubbing my foot with as much soap as i could. after a few minutes of soaping and scrubbing, i realized that the sole of my foot was squeaky clean, except for the one sliver print of where i stepped on the slug. MAD NASTS. i asked my mom what to do and she said to use baking soda. so i did, and it came off, just like that. moms are so smart.
-once, i stole a contacts case from baldwin pharmacy. i needed one, and it was like a ridiculous $4. not that that was what i used as my rationale, but it was my incentive. i don't remember ever stealing anything else.
-one time, i was in my room (the room which is now the guest room) and staying up late. it was like 4am. i needed to pee, but didn't want to open the door because it was gonna make a lot of noise. so, i stood up on my bed, opened the window, and peed out. the window was facing the back of my house, and i heard the long splatter on the pavement 20 feet or so below.
Monday, September 7, 2009
thank yous to my homies
thanks for reading my blog, doods.
all of you out there. the rare visitors, the occasional visitors, and the visitors that hound my gmail/aim status every day waiting to see when i update again.
i appreciate all of you very much.
(but i love you the most if you're in the last category :P)
---
living in a suite is mad cool. i'm in mccormick low-rise, 304. in through the main mccormick doors, make a left, make a right, and you're in low-rise!
i'm not used to ever having to wait to use the bathroom, since there were always plenty of stalls/showers in the dorm public bathrooms last year. however, our partial solution to this is just to leave the door unlocked while showering so that others can pee if need be. genius, i know.
HANGING POSTERS UP IS GREAT. but i don't have enough room. :[
i'm definitely understanding why once upperclassmen have a suite, they're so much more inclined to spend like all their time in the suite and ask YOU to visit THEM. why? because it's comfortable, easy, and everything you need is in your suite! except for food, which is just a trip to the dining hall.
the thing is, in a suite of six people, if you wanna chill with only a small number of people, like one or two others, you can have that. on the other hand, if you wanna hang out with a larger number of people, like three to five others, you can have that, too! in terms of friendships, the suite is self-sufficient! thus, it's so much easier to simply want to stay in all the time and ask other people to visit. heehee.
i'm not saying i'm stuck in that mentality, though, because i've done my share of visiting other people's dorms. along the same lines, i'm pushing myself each day to step out of my box more and meet people i normally wouldn't talk to, and it's been really cool.
I LOVE WORD GAMES. not exactly games that have to do with knowing vocabulary, because the size of my vocabulary is decent at best, but i'm talking along the lines of manipulating words and such. games like prolific on FB (which if you haven't heard of, i've been told is like boggle), word challenge which also on FB, and speed scrabble!
just yesterday, i played this game called bananagrams with robert, steph, and vincent. it's funny because it's simply speed scrabble. however, the differences are.. there are 144 tiles. and the tiles are square. AWESOME.
this seriously makes me consider getting bananagrams just to have the extra 44 tiles, and the convenience of the square tiles. plus, the tiles are beige and come in a zippered banana peel bag. $14? HMM.
scattergories is also really fun, especially in big group settings. i think playing on teams (of two) is the most fun, because winning is always more fun with a friend.
with the whole meeting new people and having fun hanging out, i definitely plan to stay on campus a lot more these weekends. i really don't have anything to do at home.
!!! i'm also going to see OWL CITY in concert at the school of rock in south hackensack. it's the same place i went to see amber pacific at in may. if anyone is interested in going, lemme know, it's on sep17th, thursday at 7pm. YAY OWL CITY!!!
so here's the part where you help me with my blog. lemme know what you think about it, what you like, what you don't like. anything!
i always try to picture what my blog would look like as if i were a third-party viewer, but that only goes so far.
some sample questions to get you started:
how do you like the music?
do you like that it auto-starts?
what are you interested in reading more about?
[randomizer]
-when i played neopets back in the day, my favorite neopet was the meerca. i'm not sure what about it attracted me so much to picking it, probably its ridiculously long tail or something, but it was my favorite neopet by far, and the only one i kept. i think. i also painted it gold (and paid a lot for it!) for some ridiculous reason that i can't understand now.
-whenever i pee in a urinal, i always mentally judge the quality of the urinal. by quality, i mean how good it is at re-directing and absorbing my pee stream so that it doesn't splash back at me.
-at fisher's landing elementary school in 1st grade in oregon, i rode the bus to school. one day, on the bus ride there, i was sitting with my best friend. i forget his name. as we approached the school, a bully told the bus driver that i was picking my friend's nose. the bus driver believed him over me, and i got in trouble for it. WHAT THE HECK!
all of you out there. the rare visitors, the occasional visitors, and the visitors that hound my gmail/aim status every day waiting to see when i update again.
i appreciate all of you very much.
(but i love you the most if you're in the last category :P)
---
living in a suite is mad cool. i'm in mccormick low-rise, 304. in through the main mccormick doors, make a left, make a right, and you're in low-rise!
i'm not used to ever having to wait to use the bathroom, since there were always plenty of stalls/showers in the dorm public bathrooms last year. however, our partial solution to this is just to leave the door unlocked while showering so that others can pee if need be. genius, i know.
HANGING POSTERS UP IS GREAT. but i don't have enough room. :[
i'm definitely understanding why once upperclassmen have a suite, they're so much more inclined to spend like all their time in the suite and ask YOU to visit THEM. why? because it's comfortable, easy, and everything you need is in your suite! except for food, which is just a trip to the dining hall.
the thing is, in a suite of six people, if you wanna chill with only a small number of people, like one or two others, you can have that. on the other hand, if you wanna hang out with a larger number of people, like three to five others, you can have that, too! in terms of friendships, the suite is self-sufficient! thus, it's so much easier to simply want to stay in all the time and ask other people to visit. heehee.
i'm not saying i'm stuck in that mentality, though, because i've done my share of visiting other people's dorms. along the same lines, i'm pushing myself each day to step out of my box more and meet people i normally wouldn't talk to, and it's been really cool.
I LOVE WORD GAMES. not exactly games that have to do with knowing vocabulary, because the size of my vocabulary is decent at best, but i'm talking along the lines of manipulating words and such. games like prolific on FB (which if you haven't heard of, i've been told is like boggle), word challenge which also on FB, and speed scrabble!
just yesterday, i played this game called bananagrams with robert, steph, and vincent. it's funny because it's simply speed scrabble. however, the differences are.. there are 144 tiles. and the tiles are square. AWESOME.
this seriously makes me consider getting bananagrams just to have the extra 44 tiles, and the convenience of the square tiles. plus, the tiles are beige and come in a zippered banana peel bag. $14? HMM.
scattergories is also really fun, especially in big group settings. i think playing on teams (of two) is the most fun, because winning is always more fun with a friend.
with the whole meeting new people and having fun hanging out, i definitely plan to stay on campus a lot more these weekends. i really don't have anything to do at home.
!!! i'm also going to see OWL CITY in concert at the school of rock in south hackensack. it's the same place i went to see amber pacific at in may. if anyone is interested in going, lemme know, it's on sep17th, thursday at 7pm. YAY OWL CITY!!!
so here's the part where you help me with my blog. lemme know what you think about it, what you like, what you don't like. anything!
i always try to picture what my blog would look like as if i were a third-party viewer, but that only goes so far.
some sample questions to get you started:
how do you like the music?
do you like that it auto-starts?
what are you interested in reading more about?
[randomizer]
-when i played neopets back in the day, my favorite neopet was the meerca. i'm not sure what about it attracted me so much to picking it, probably its ridiculously long tail or something, but it was my favorite neopet by far, and the only one i kept. i think. i also painted it gold (and paid a lot for it!) for some ridiculous reason that i can't understand now.
-whenever i pee in a urinal, i always mentally judge the quality of the urinal. by quality, i mean how good it is at re-directing and absorbing my pee stream so that it doesn't splash back at me.
-at fisher's landing elementary school in 1st grade in oregon, i rode the bus to school. one day, on the bus ride there, i was sitting with my best friend. i forget his name. as we approached the school, a bully told the bus driver that i was picking my friend's nose. the bus driver believed him over me, and i got in trouble for it. WHAT THE HECK!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
ivory
Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.
that, above, is written on the wrapping of a bar of ivory soap. how cool! that line really makes me think about my life in perspective. lately, i've started to feel myself actually growing up and getting older, and man, it is a scary thing.
i specifically remember one moment at the beginning of my sophomore year of high school. i said to myself, "preston, high school is going to go by really quickly, but it's a good thing you're not at the halfway point, and you're only going to be a sophomore. you could throw away this year and still have enough time to redeem your high school years, but make the best of it now."
i'm not gonna say any of that "it felt like i was young just yesterday!" stuff, because when i think about middle school, all that feels REALLy far back in the past. i like school, because the education provides something to do, something to achieve.
is it bad if that is the "main" purpose of my life now, with everything else such as friends, games, life experiences, as "side" enjoyments? to think that in a few years there won't be anymore school!? scary.
i was talking with chris chu a while ago, and the way he described things to me put things in a scary kind of perspective for me.
a few things i remember:
after college, there won't be time to hang out with friends anymore, and if there is, it'll be limited. because "4/5" people will move to another area to work, and/or they'll get married.
church won't be nearly the same because the english young adults is nothing like college group which is already much different from regular youth group.
without a purpose or "thing to go after" once college is over, what'll i seek out and fill my life with, besides work?
which brings me back to the quote above.
"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."
i hope i've made the best of enjoying little things in the past. i think, if you take time to look around, you'll see your life filled with lots of little things that you may take for granted. but hey, youth is what it is, and it doesn't last forever.
every sunday school, every sermon, every "routine" worship team set, every applebee's get-together, every sleepover, every settlers game. make the best of it.
preston, college is going to go by really quickly. make the best of it now.
what are your little things that you enjoy now?
[randumz]
-when i was younger, i would go apple picking every year around october. one time, i brought a steak knife with me, and slashed up apples as they hung on the trees as if i were a samurai or something. i had a BLAST.
-DCLA. in DC. in 2006. at the beginning of one of the concerts, i was heading to the bathroom. and before i even got close to the door, guess who i SAW! DAVID CROWDER! a ton of other people were there and crowding him at the entrance to the bathroom, the poor guy. the point is, I GOT TO SHAKE HIS HAND HEHEH.
-one time in middle school, i got a nosebleed. i went to the nurse's office and it kept going for a long while. eventually, the nurse called my dad and he came to get me since my nose wouldn't stop bleeding. i went to see a doctor/private-physician-dood on the spot, and he stuck this solder-like thing up my nostril, and the bleeding stopped. he said my nose would never bleed again. that wasn't true.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
are you holding back like the way i do?
sometimes, i wonder how my life would be different if i were in a different grade.
the most immediate alternative i think of would be the grade above me, since i'm really old for my grade and on the borderline to a grade older.
i know every once in a while i thought about it in terms of school friends, but usually it was with my church friends, because they're the ones that have been the most consistent throughout the years since i was waaaay young.
i think about the people i would be friends with, and wonder how that would change me as a person.
would i have different hobbies?
would i be a better student?
would i be more disciplined?
would my spiritual life be better?
would i still be good friends with these people who are in my grade right now?
would i be going to the same college?
ultimately, that's not to say, though, that i don't really like where i am now with the awesome people in my grade. :]
if you have some time [which you do because i have a short entry today], think about it for yourself. it's kind of interesting!
lemme know what you think up. :]
---
i'm watching my sister's dog (daisy) and one of her three cats (MCA). daisy is fun. and this is my first time taking care of MCA, and man, this cat is kind of whacky in the head. it likes climbing on everything, going through every nook and cranny it can find, knocking stuff over, and randomly sprawling out on the ground. but dood, it is so cool and whacky, hahah. i'm having fun. :]
[YOUR FAVORITE RANDOM FACTS ABOUT ME TIME YAY]
-when i was younger, i would always watch my parents move the gear-shifter stick thing in the middle and get really curious about it myself. so, one day, while my mom was driving, i was riding shotgun. when i noticed she wasn't looking, in one quick motion, i pressed the button on the gear-shifter and gave it a pull downwards. looking back, i think i put it directly into park. lols. my mom quickly pulled the car over to the side of the road and scolded me etc etc. yay for curiosity!
-when i was younger, my parents had this blue car. one day, we were waiting at a stoplight, maybe like 5-6 cars back from the light. my mom was driving, and i was sitting in the backseat right behind her. a truck+trailer was on our left, the one that carries like eight cars on it. it was making a left turn, and the rear right end of the trailer slowly and seemingly painstakingly scraped up the left side of our car. my mom was honking furiously but i think the truck driver was too far away to immediately hear. what an experience. heehee.
-once, i cooked ramen on the stove. i boiled clean water that i scooped up from the toilet bowl. it tasted normal. :]
the most immediate alternative i think of would be the grade above me, since i'm really old for my grade and on the borderline to a grade older.
i know every once in a while i thought about it in terms of school friends, but usually it was with my church friends, because they're the ones that have been the most consistent throughout the years since i was waaaay young.
i think about the people i would be friends with, and wonder how that would change me as a person.
would i have different hobbies?
would i be a better student?
would i be more disciplined?
would my spiritual life be better?
would i still be good friends with these people who are in my grade right now?
would i be going to the same college?
ultimately, that's not to say, though, that i don't really like where i am now with the awesome people in my grade. :]
if you have some time [which you do because i have a short entry today], think about it for yourself. it's kind of interesting!
lemme know what you think up. :]
---
i'm watching my sister's dog (daisy) and one of her three cats (MCA). daisy is fun. and this is my first time taking care of MCA, and man, this cat is kind of whacky in the head. it likes climbing on everything, going through every nook and cranny it can find, knocking stuff over, and randomly sprawling out on the ground. but dood, it is so cool and whacky, hahah. i'm having fun. :]
[YOUR FAVORITE RANDOM FACTS ABOUT ME TIME YAY]
-when i was younger, i would always watch my parents move the gear-shifter stick thing in the middle and get really curious about it myself. so, one day, while my mom was driving, i was riding shotgun. when i noticed she wasn't looking, in one quick motion, i pressed the button on the gear-shifter and gave it a pull downwards. looking back, i think i put it directly into park. lols. my mom quickly pulled the car over to the side of the road and scolded me etc etc. yay for curiosity!
-when i was younger, my parents had this blue car. one day, we were waiting at a stoplight, maybe like 5-6 cars back from the light. my mom was driving, and i was sitting in the backseat right behind her. a truck+trailer was on our left, the one that carries like eight cars on it. it was making a left turn, and the rear right end of the trailer slowly and seemingly painstakingly scraped up the left side of our car. my mom was honking furiously but i think the truck driver was too far away to immediately hear. what an experience. heehee.
-once, i cooked ramen on the stove. i boiled clean water that i scooped up from the toilet bowl. it tasted normal. :]
Saturday, July 25, 2009
SETTLERS
i love playing settlers. the simple gameplay with multiple underlying layers of depth and strategy played on a randomized game board with different dynamics every game.. golden.
recently, though, i've encountered some settlers controversy with me and my good friend, matthew. we played a lot of settlers together, and it got to the point where we'd be at each other's throats over in-game disputes on "how to play correctly" or "what the right thing to do is" and stuff like that, and we decided that we shouldn't play together. yeah, it was that bad.
ironic, because just a few weeks ago, i was amused by something matthew said:
there are probably infinitely many different reasons, but here are some of my thoughts..
apparently, there are some unwritten "rules" to settlers.
"i'm sorry, but i have to!"
one of these rules that some people strongly believe in is that you must always do whatever you can in your power to help yourself to win. use the robber whenever you have the chance to, and everything and anything else that can benefit you, you must do.
another of these rules is that you have to target whoever is winning. it's not "right" to target people who aren't winning, because you're upsetting the natural balance of the game. the debate here comes into play when figuring out who is actually winning. some people judge it based only on points, which is accurate, but naive for a few reasons. check it out:
if person A has four settlements, and holds longest road, person A has 6 points.
if person B has five settlements, he/she only have 5 points.
who's winning?
points-wise, person A.
LOGICALLY AND SMARTLY SPEAKING WISE (heehee, i'm not biased at all), person B. why? person B has 5 points worth of settlements/cities, so we can call those 5 "resource-producing" points. person A only has 4 points worth of settlements/cities, so theoretically speaking, person A isn't making as much as person B. by attacking person A who has more points by using the robber and such, person B will be able to continue gathering resources and his rate of production will be much greater than person A because the attention is off of him.
some people also find it important to point out who's winning, or who has the most points, or when someone reaches x amount of points. i don't see this as bad, since some people may slip under the radar and get close to winning, so it's important to "notify" the general public.
here's a big question: is winning itself the only point of settlers?
yeah, i play to win, naturally. it's fun to win! it's a nice sense of accomplishment, especially in an intense four-player game. but, as with many other things, the desire to win can result in a lack of other courtesies that you would normally exhibit as a person outside of the game, such as, oh, BEING NICE.
i don't just mean being nice as in "oh i won't put the robber on anyone!" i mean being nice as in attitude, words spoken, and general play style exhibited. it is just a game.
some people get annoyed at people who take the game too seriously and tell them "it's just a game, stop being so serious!"
it's funny, because then i also see people who take the game seriously provide reasoning for how they play by saying "it's just a game, chill out, i'm nice in real life."
i accept that, and i don't think that people who play meanly in settlers are mean in real life, because i know they aren't. however, i think, whether people notice it or not, the way that people play settlers is also somewhat representative of their own selves.
there's also something to be said about "becoming how you act". yeah, that's the informal way of putting it and i'm not sure how psychology puts it or whatever, but if you play enough mean/selfish games of settlers, there's only so much time that will pass before that play style starts to gradually become accepted (by yourself and others) as traits and characteristics of your own personality as a person.
back to the point, if winning is the only goal of settlers, then technically everyone should go all out and do everything in their power to win, right? meaning being mean in every way possible, being selfish in every trade and expansion and use of development cards, etc.
however, there's the other side of people who realize that if they play the crowd correctly, they can win by being nice. being nice allows you to have a certain veil over you as a player, since less attention is brought to you when you're not putting the robber on other people or stealing cards from other people. and being under the radar is always a key to victory. it's also a good strategy to be nice, because sometimes other people just roll more 7's than you do, at which point, if you got on their bad side, you're screwed!
for me, as well as a few people that i know, i get just about as much (if not more) enjoyment as i would from winning, when i help someone else to win. it's even more exciting when the person i'm helping is the underdog by a big stretch, and together we team up to make a huge comeback to steal the win from the first-place player. kind of a jerk move, but if a team effort results in 3 people working together and winning against 1 person, then the greater good is achieved right?
i remember once in game, me and abel weren't winning, but we pooled our resources together and helped the person in second place to build 5 roads in one turn and steal longest road, and thus the game, away from the point-leader, eric chen. yeah, eric wasn't too happy about that, but the whole enjoyment came from the fact that it was so epic and seemingly unachievable.
sometimes when i build up a partnership with someone else in the game, i end up realizing that i would be just as happy if they won as if i myself won.
i feel like because settlers is "just a game", it provides a cover (or excuse) for the "evil sides" of people's personalities to be free and run rampant. kinda like, it brings out the worst in people. ya know? [not everyone, mind you, so don't get the impression that everyone is suddenly super evil and selfish and mean and ruthless when they play settlers, haha]
what a fun game.
[riii]
-i took karate when i was younger, like in elementary school sometime. i think i generally enjoyed it. i don't think it actually taught me anything useful, though, since i don't remember any of it now.
-i was part of a swimming program at the ymca in 4th grade, and i HATED it. freestyle was the worst. i kept feeling like i was going to drown, hahah. i would occasionally grab onto the floating lane lines to support myself, once or twice while swimming across the pool. i did, however, enjoy the backstroke. it was relaxing, and i didn't feel like i was going to drown. i was just afraid of drifting sideways, and also hitting the concrete on the other end of the pool.
-i played indoor soccer, also at the ymca, when i was in 4th grade. i liked this a LOT. i remember i always played defense, always always always. i was the tallest kid on my team. on the contrary, i remember our goalie was the shortest kid on our team, and many a goal were scored on him since he was so small. noob. i probably saved his butt a billion times. i think i scored like one goal, or maybe two, by kicking it super hard from my end of the field, since the overall field was so small. OH. and one time, i went for a ball at the same time as this kid from the other team, and we collided shins together pretty hard. he cried like crazy because it hurt, and yeah my shin hurt a little too under the shinguard, but the funny part is i specifically remember trying to limp or grab my leg to make it look my shin hurt because i felt bad that he was crying and i wasn't. joke time!: i liked sharks and other marine animals when i was younger, so when we voted for team names, i chose the blue sharks, naturally, since blue was my favorite color. i didn't realize until some time later, since no one told me, that our shirts were purple. no wonder the crowds or parents were always kinda confused when they heard our team name.
recently, though, i've encountered some settlers controversy with me and my good friend, matthew. we played a lot of settlers together, and it got to the point where we'd be at each other's throats over in-game disputes on "how to play correctly" or "what the right thing to do is" and stuff like that, and we decided that we shouldn't play together. yeah, it was that bad.
ironic, because just a few weeks ago, i was amused by something matthew said:
"i love playing settlers because i get to hate you for those 45 minutes"this makes me think a bit. what IS it that makes settlers enjoyable? what makes it "ruthless" as many people put it?
there are probably infinitely many different reasons, but here are some of my thoughts..
apparently, there are some unwritten "rules" to settlers.
"i'm sorry, but i have to!"
one of these rules that some people strongly believe in is that you must always do whatever you can in your power to help yourself to win. use the robber whenever you have the chance to, and everything and anything else that can benefit you, you must do.
another of these rules is that you have to target whoever is winning. it's not "right" to target people who aren't winning, because you're upsetting the natural balance of the game. the debate here comes into play when figuring out who is actually winning. some people judge it based only on points, which is accurate, but naive for a few reasons. check it out:
if person A has four settlements, and holds longest road, person A has 6 points.
if person B has five settlements, he/she only have 5 points.
who's winning?
points-wise, person A.
LOGICALLY AND SMARTLY SPEAKING WISE (heehee, i'm not biased at all), person B. why? person B has 5 points worth of settlements/cities, so we can call those 5 "resource-producing" points. person A only has 4 points worth of settlements/cities, so theoretically speaking, person A isn't making as much as person B. by attacking person A who has more points by using the robber and such, person B will be able to continue gathering resources and his rate of production will be much greater than person A because the attention is off of him.
some people also find it important to point out who's winning, or who has the most points, or when someone reaches x amount of points. i don't see this as bad, since some people may slip under the radar and get close to winning, so it's important to "notify" the general public.
here's a big question: is winning itself the only point of settlers?
yeah, i play to win, naturally. it's fun to win! it's a nice sense of accomplishment, especially in an intense four-player game. but, as with many other things, the desire to win can result in a lack of other courtesies that you would normally exhibit as a person outside of the game, such as, oh, BEING NICE.
i don't just mean being nice as in "oh i won't put the robber on anyone!" i mean being nice as in attitude, words spoken, and general play style exhibited. it is just a game.
some people get annoyed at people who take the game too seriously and tell them "it's just a game, stop being so serious!"
it's funny, because then i also see people who take the game seriously provide reasoning for how they play by saying "it's just a game, chill out, i'm nice in real life."
i accept that, and i don't think that people who play meanly in settlers are mean in real life, because i know they aren't. however, i think, whether people notice it or not, the way that people play settlers is also somewhat representative of their own selves.
there's also something to be said about "becoming how you act". yeah, that's the informal way of putting it and i'm not sure how psychology puts it or whatever, but if you play enough mean/selfish games of settlers, there's only so much time that will pass before that play style starts to gradually become accepted (by yourself and others) as traits and characteristics of your own personality as a person.
back to the point, if winning is the only goal of settlers, then technically everyone should go all out and do everything in their power to win, right? meaning being mean in every way possible, being selfish in every trade and expansion and use of development cards, etc.
however, there's the other side of people who realize that if they play the crowd correctly, they can win by being nice. being nice allows you to have a certain veil over you as a player, since less attention is brought to you when you're not putting the robber on other people or stealing cards from other people. and being under the radar is always a key to victory. it's also a good strategy to be nice, because sometimes other people just roll more 7's than you do, at which point, if you got on their bad side, you're screwed!
for me, as well as a few people that i know, i get just about as much (if not more) enjoyment as i would from winning, when i help someone else to win. it's even more exciting when the person i'm helping is the underdog by a big stretch, and together we team up to make a huge comeback to steal the win from the first-place player. kind of a jerk move, but if a team effort results in 3 people working together and winning against 1 person, then the greater good is achieved right?
i remember once in game, me and abel weren't winning, but we pooled our resources together and helped the person in second place to build 5 roads in one turn and steal longest road, and thus the game, away from the point-leader, eric chen. yeah, eric wasn't too happy about that, but the whole enjoyment came from the fact that it was so epic and seemingly unachievable.
sometimes when i build up a partnership with someone else in the game, i end up realizing that i would be just as happy if they won as if i myself won.
i feel like because settlers is "just a game", it provides a cover (or excuse) for the "evil sides" of people's personalities to be free and run rampant. kinda like, it brings out the worst in people. ya know? [not everyone, mind you, so don't get the impression that everyone is suddenly super evil and selfish and mean and ruthless when they play settlers, haha]
what a fun game.
[riii]
-i took karate when i was younger, like in elementary school sometime. i think i generally enjoyed it. i don't think it actually taught me anything useful, though, since i don't remember any of it now.
-i was part of a swimming program at the ymca in 4th grade, and i HATED it. freestyle was the worst. i kept feeling like i was going to drown, hahah. i would occasionally grab onto the floating lane lines to support myself, once or twice while swimming across the pool. i did, however, enjoy the backstroke. it was relaxing, and i didn't feel like i was going to drown. i was just afraid of drifting sideways, and also hitting the concrete on the other end of the pool.
-i played indoor soccer, also at the ymca, when i was in 4th grade. i liked this a LOT. i remember i always played defense, always always always. i was the tallest kid on my team. on the contrary, i remember our goalie was the shortest kid on our team, and many a goal were scored on him since he was so small. noob. i probably saved his butt a billion times. i think i scored like one goal, or maybe two, by kicking it super hard from my end of the field, since the overall field was so small. OH. and one time, i went for a ball at the same time as this kid from the other team, and we collided shins together pretty hard. he cried like crazy because it hurt, and yeah my shin hurt a little too under the shinguard, but the funny part is i specifically remember trying to limp or grab my leg to make it look my shin hurt because i felt bad that he was crying and i wasn't. joke time!: i liked sharks and other marine animals when i was younger, so when we voted for team names, i chose the blue sharks, naturally, since blue was my favorite color. i didn't realize until some time later, since no one told me, that our shirts were purple. no wonder the crowds or parents were always kinda confused when they heard our team name.
Friday, July 17, 2009
burning down neverland
one of those spontaneous and weird ideas you think of and you can't believe you end up following through with.
for those of you who don't know, me and matthew chao are taking the same statics class at rutgers on tuesday and thursday, and we have calc class at the same time monday-thursday, so we get a good amount of hanging out and studying done.
this tuesday that just passed, me and mr. matthew went to good ol' SERC to work on statics homework, due that same day. our statics classroom is in 205, except neither me nor matthew like sitting in the desk/chair things that they have in that classroom. they're uncomfortable, have limited desk space, and don't allow interaction with other people. however, the room right next to it, 206, had the glorious long tables with cushy armrest chairs. we were both fans of these comfy chairs and long tables, which encouraged group work. clearly, this was the better option, and we settled down here.
this is matthew chao, electrical engineer OF THE FUTURE! (ha, look at that geeky shirt.)
while working on statics, as seen above, i had an idea. here is the conversation*.
it was one of those things that i said out loud because it popped into my mind, but i didn't think i would actually go through with. never before has someone taken so excitedly to one of these ideas of mine as matthew did that day, which really got me excited for this endeavour. it quickly went from a funny hypothetical situation to seriously considering and planning out how to go about it, and if we would get caught, and such. we began by making time estimates on how long it would take. matthew said ten minutes. i said thirty minutes. oh, we were so wrong.
to start, we stacked the desk-chairs into piles of 4-5, and carried them over together. we decided we would start by moving the desk-chairs in 205 (our statics classroom with the annoying desks) over to 206.
halfway through the moving, we realized that the number of seats in the two classrooms differed quite a bit. 205 had 58 desk-chairs, but 206 only had 39 seats. uh oh. we stood there. we contemplated it. does our statics class have that many people..? we realized it was too late to back out. ONWARDS.
after we moved all 58 chairs over to 206 and left them there in stacks, we began the task of moving the 20ish tables from 206 to 205. one by one. one by one. man, walking backwards is so annoying, especially in sandals, as we both were.
this was around the halfway point, and all this lifting and moving was actually really tiring. we definitely underestimated this whole ordeal. we underestimated the scope of it, the work required, and how unfun it would actually be moving all those darned chairs and desks. regardless, we had to press on.
after all the tables were moved over, we stacked all the chairs from 206 and carried those over to 205 as well.
fast foward a bit. and.. FINALLY. everything was where it was supposed to be, except the desks and chairs were in stacks. it was the final stretch where we unstacked them and put them in rows or behind tables where they belonged.
the whole thing took an hour+, and after it was over, it was such a relief. high fives were exchanged. grins were worn. hug was given. :]
i only took a few pics, because there wasn't much to see. it was just a lot of annoying labor.
for those of you who don't know, me and matthew chao are taking the same statics class at rutgers on tuesday and thursday, and we have calc class at the same time monday-thursday, so we get a good amount of hanging out and studying done.
this tuesday that just passed, me and mr. matthew went to good ol' SERC to work on statics homework, due that same day. our statics classroom is in 205, except neither me nor matthew like sitting in the desk/chair things that they have in that classroom. they're uncomfortable, have limited desk space, and don't allow interaction with other people. however, the room right next to it, 206, had the glorious long tables with cushy armrest chairs. we were both fans of these comfy chairs and long tables, which encouraged group work. clearly, this was the better option, and we settled down here.
this is matthew chao, electrical engineer OF THE FUTURE! (ha, look at that geeky shirt.)
while working on statics, as seen above, i had an idea. here is the conversation*.me: hey matthew, i wish we had these tables and chairs in our statics class.*i don't remember exactly what matthew said, and i don't want to quote him saying something he didn't, so i took the liberty of just making up stuff.
matthew: yeah.
me: the desks we have are so uncomfortable!
matthew: i guess so.
me: you know.. we should move all these tables and chairs over to our statics room!
matthew: yeah.
me: people would be more comfortable, and it encourages group interaction!
matthew: i guess so.
me: wow, do you think we could do it?!
matthew: yeah.
me: haha that'd be crazy, OKAY LET'S DO IT.
matthew: i guess so.
it was one of those things that i said out loud because it popped into my mind, but i didn't think i would actually go through with. never before has someone taken so excitedly to one of these ideas of mine as matthew did that day, which really got me excited for this endeavour. it quickly went from a funny hypothetical situation to seriously considering and planning out how to go about it, and if we would get caught, and such. we began by making time estimates on how long it would take. matthew said ten minutes. i said thirty minutes. oh, we were so wrong.
to start, we stacked the desk-chairs into piles of 4-5, and carried them over together. we decided we would start by moving the desk-chairs in 205 (our statics classroom with the annoying desks) over to 206.
halfway through the moving, we realized that the number of seats in the two classrooms differed quite a bit. 205 had 58 desk-chairs, but 206 only had 39 seats. uh oh. we stood there. we contemplated it. does our statics class have that many people..? we realized it was too late to back out. ONWARDS.
after we moved all 58 chairs over to 206 and left them there in stacks, we began the task of moving the 20ish tables from 206 to 205. one by one. one by one. man, walking backwards is so annoying, especially in sandals, as we both were.
this was around the halfway point, and all this lifting and moving was actually really tiring. we definitely underestimated this whole ordeal. we underestimated the scope of it, the work required, and how unfun it would actually be moving all those darned chairs and desks. regardless, we had to press on.
after all the tables were moved over, we stacked all the chairs from 206 and carried those over to 205 as well.
fast foward a bit. and.. FINALLY. everything was where it was supposed to be, except the desks and chairs were in stacks. it was the final stretch where we unstacked them and put them in rows or behind tables where they belonged.
the whole thing took an hour+, and after it was over, it was such a relief. high fives were exchanged. grins were worn. hug was given. :]
i only took a few pics, because there wasn't much to see. it was just a lot of annoying labor.
but, was it worth it in the end?
mm. yeah.
going to statics class, everyone looked pleasantly surprised and refreshed at the change in seating, although mr. grad student statics teacher dhaval dadia was none too pleased. i think i heard him say "ridiculous!".
i found out we have 37 people in our statics class, and only 39 seats. look how that worked out! definitely the funniest part of that day was when people trickled in late, and each person stood in the middle of the class and had a bewildered look on his/her face when looking around for a seat to sit in. funnnnnny stuff. AND, since one half of the room has seats in rows of 4, we witnessed these two people that arrived early and sat in the MIDDLE two seats, leaving one seat on each side of the pair. WHO DOES THAT?! we called them the awkward sitters. though matthew just likes to use the term "idiots".
i enjoy statics MORE now, and i wish we thought of the idea sooner, but we're only about halfway through the session, so there's still time to enjoy our work. as we were sitting in class, matthew and i both really wanted to tell other people about who moved the desks, but unfortunately, we both didn't know anyone in the class. doh. it's okay. we understand.
and he came over after class.
and we saw transformers 2. :D
[exciting: when i went into clearview cinema 12, they have that little table in the middle of the lobby area that has the popcorn seasoning stuff, and on the table was a full jumbo bucket of popcorn! it must have been a present! i looked around and waited for about a minute to see if it was anyone's or if anyone came to claim it, but no one did, so i took it. i discreetly dumped it all out in a trash can (what do you think i am, gross!?), and got a refill. and we saw transformers.]
what a good day.
[r!r!r]
-when i drive on the highway, my preferred hand positions on the wheel are 3 and 11. i've only formally discovered this recently because of all the driving i had to do for summer classes at rutgers. it just works.
-i went to the hillsong concert in new york in june, and rode the subway for the first time. i think after seeing how gross the standing poles on the subway are, i became more wary of things in public that have been touched by a lot of people and may be really dirty. for example, now whenever i open a door of any kind at school, i try to push/pull on the handle or door only where i think nobody has touched it before.
-when i was younger, i used to hold my nose with my hand and exhale forcefully, to pop my ears if they were ever feeling weird. however, i occasionally did it really forcefully, and at unnecessary times, as well as unnecessarily extended lengths of time. it was probably because i thought it was interesting that the pressure i felt in my head that popped my ears out, i also felt in my tear ducts, as if they were connected somehow (which i now know, are). and thus the story goes.. not too long after, i had a nosebleed. and blood came out of my tear ducts. the end.
mm. yeah.
going to statics class, everyone looked pleasantly surprised and refreshed at the change in seating, although mr. grad student statics teacher dhaval dadia was none too pleased. i think i heard him say "ridiculous!".
i found out we have 37 people in our statics class, and only 39 seats. look how that worked out! definitely the funniest part of that day was when people trickled in late, and each person stood in the middle of the class and had a bewildered look on his/her face when looking around for a seat to sit in. funnnnnny stuff. AND, since one half of the room has seats in rows of 4, we witnessed these two people that arrived early and sat in the MIDDLE two seats, leaving one seat on each side of the pair. WHO DOES THAT?! we called them the awkward sitters. though matthew just likes to use the term "idiots".
i enjoy statics MORE now, and i wish we thought of the idea sooner, but we're only about halfway through the session, so there's still time to enjoy our work. as we were sitting in class, matthew and i both really wanted to tell other people about who moved the desks, but unfortunately, we both didn't know anyone in the class. doh. it's okay. we understand.
and he came over after class.
and we saw transformers 2. :D[exciting: when i went into clearview cinema 12, they have that little table in the middle of the lobby area that has the popcorn seasoning stuff, and on the table was a full jumbo bucket of popcorn! it must have been a present! i looked around and waited for about a minute to see if it was anyone's or if anyone came to claim it, but no one did, so i took it. i discreetly dumped it all out in a trash can (what do you think i am, gross!?), and got a refill. and we saw transformers.]
what a good day.
[r!r!r]
-when i drive on the highway, my preferred hand positions on the wheel are 3 and 11. i've only formally discovered this recently because of all the driving i had to do for summer classes at rutgers. it just works.
-i went to the hillsong concert in new york in june, and rode the subway for the first time. i think after seeing how gross the standing poles on the subway are, i became more wary of things in public that have been touched by a lot of people and may be really dirty. for example, now whenever i open a door of any kind at school, i try to push/pull on the handle or door only where i think nobody has touched it before.
-when i was younger, i used to hold my nose with my hand and exhale forcefully, to pop my ears if they were ever feeling weird. however, i occasionally did it really forcefully, and at unnecessary times, as well as unnecessarily extended lengths of time. it was probably because i thought it was interesting that the pressure i felt in my head that popped my ears out, i also felt in my tear ducts, as if they were connected somehow (which i now know, are). and thus the story goes.. not too long after, i had a nosebleed. and blood came out of my tear ducts. the end.
Monday, July 13, 2009
into the velvet sky
[about this song: I LOVE IT. the instant i heard owl city's music, i knew i had to get whatever albums they had out. they remind me of postal service, or as my friend put it, "electronica death cab", which works too. thank you betsy for showing them to me, who thanks jon huang for showing them to her. this entry is not directed at any particular person(s), nor do i have any particular person(s) in mind while writing it.]
here's something i recently thought of that i've been wondering about for a while [but hasn't occurred recently].
when someone shares a band/musical artist to someone else, why is there that certain sense of "ownership" from the person who originally shared it? i remember back as recently as a few years ago, this situation wasn't uncommon, whether witnessing it or personally experiencing it.
person A: yo, check out this band! they're great!
person B: woohoo, thanks dood! -- listens -- AWESOME!
[person B puts the song on their xanga]
xanga post: "HEY I LOVE THIS SONG YEAHH"
person A: YO, i showed you that band, and you didn't even mention me!? i listened to them FIRST! ZOMGZZBBQBQBBQAHHHDFD
i can understand it if person B makes some claim like "i love band xyz!" when they've only heard one song by them, but that's clearly not the case here.
i feel like the reason is that the person A's in today's society think what they listen to defines who they are, or their personality, or something like that. perhaps they feel threatened when a newcomer "claims" that music for themselves. too much emphasis is placed on who originally listened to/discovered the band, as if there was some big importance to the origin.
i know some people who don't listen to certain groups just because they carry with them a name, and a reputation for the "kind of people" who listen to them, or simply because the music is mainstream, and they don't want to seem like they're conforming with everyone else. maybe like clothing brand names?
i say, like what you like, and share [by word of mouth] with others what you like, too. i know there's probably tons more to say about this topic, but i think these are the extent of the conclusions that i've reached. what do you guys think?
i mean, i'm not goin' around saying, "johnny got me into taylor swift, now i love listening to her music!" every time someone mentions taylor swift. of course not! i'm just gonna say "i like taylor swift!" i'm sure johnny doesn't mind that i don't credit him.
the suggestion to listen to something may have come from someone else, but ultimately, how much you enjoy and like the music is completely your own.
[r][r][r][r]
-the only time i ever took a bus was in first grade when i went to fisher's landing elementary school in oregon. it was interesting.
-i got in trouble once on the bus. as we arrived at school, a bully tattled on me and said that i picked my friend's nose. which i didn't. the bus driver didn't believe me. lame.
-on the bus ride home, i would stare directly at the sun. until it turned into a black circle. or until i got to my stop.
-each day when i got off the bus stop, i found a rock on the ground. i kicked it all the way to my front door. i ended up with a big pile of rocks at the front door.
here's something i recently thought of that i've been wondering about for a while [but hasn't occurred recently].
when someone shares a band/musical artist to someone else, why is there that certain sense of "ownership" from the person who originally shared it? i remember back as recently as a few years ago, this situation wasn't uncommon, whether witnessing it or personally experiencing it.
person A: yo, check out this band! they're great!
person B: woohoo, thanks dood! -- listens -- AWESOME!
[person B puts the song on their xanga]
xanga post: "HEY I LOVE THIS SONG YEAHH"
person A: YO, i showed you that band, and you didn't even mention me!? i listened to them FIRST! ZOMGZZBBQBQBBQAHHHDFD
i can understand it if person B makes some claim like "i love band xyz!" when they've only heard one song by them, but that's clearly not the case here.
i feel like the reason is that the person A's in today's society think what they listen to defines who they are, or their personality, or something like that. perhaps they feel threatened when a newcomer "claims" that music for themselves. too much emphasis is placed on who originally listened to/discovered the band, as if there was some big importance to the origin.
i know some people who don't listen to certain groups just because they carry with them a name, and a reputation for the "kind of people" who listen to them, or simply because the music is mainstream, and they don't want to seem like they're conforming with everyone else. maybe like clothing brand names?
i say, like what you like, and share [by word of mouth] with others what you like, too. i know there's probably tons more to say about this topic, but i think these are the extent of the conclusions that i've reached. what do you guys think?
i mean, i'm not goin' around saying, "johnny got me into taylor swift, now i love listening to her music!" every time someone mentions taylor swift. of course not! i'm just gonna say "i like taylor swift!" i'm sure johnny doesn't mind that i don't credit him.
the suggestion to listen to something may have come from someone else, but ultimately, how much you enjoy and like the music is completely your own.
[r][r][r][r]
-the only time i ever took a bus was in first grade when i went to fisher's landing elementary school in oregon. it was interesting.
-i got in trouble once on the bus. as we arrived at school, a bully tattled on me and said that i picked my friend's nose. which i didn't. the bus driver didn't believe me. lame.
-on the bus ride home, i would stare directly at the sun. until it turned into a black circle. or until i got to my stop.
-each day when i got off the bus stop, i found a rock on the ground. i kicked it all the way to my front door. i ended up with a big pile of rocks at the front door.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
take down this molotov of words
(10:48:01 PM) Matthew Chao: hey
(10:48:07 PM) Matthew Chao: what are you working on
(10:48:14 PM) Preston Chang: trig integrals(10:48:22 PM) Matthew Chao: omg
(10:48:22 PM) Preston Chang: go to 438(10:48:24 PM) Matthew Chao: those make me so hot
(10:48:26 PM) Matthew Chao: ok
this is why matthew is my study buddy. 'cause he'll osculate YOUR curves. (i don't know what that means.)
[r-r-r]
-when i was younger, like in middle school times, i used to wear shirts that were mad sizes larger than i was, like, they had to be at least XL. going into high school, i gradually shifted down to L. i only recently made the change, meaning like two years ago, to M.
-when i was younger, i wanted to be a fighter pilot. specifically, of an F-14. i think this was 95% due to seeing tom cruise be so awesome in top gun. YEAH. TOP GUN.
-when i was younger, i sold david yang a beedrill card for $20 on a friday night at church. when i told my parents, my mom was upset at this, but my dad said it was fine. heehee.
--mini-random fact: to be honest, the random facts are my second favorite part of each blog entry. my favorite part is all of the comments you guys have. :]
(10:48:07 PM) Matthew Chao: what are you working on
(10:48:14 PM) Preston Chang: trig integrals(10:48:22 PM) Matthew Chao: omg
(10:48:22 PM) Preston Chang: go to 438(10:48:24 PM) Matthew Chao: those make me so hot
(10:48:26 PM) Matthew Chao: ok
this is why matthew is my study buddy. 'cause he'll osculate YOUR curves. (i don't know what that means.)
[r-r-r]
-when i was younger, like in middle school times, i used to wear shirts that were mad sizes larger than i was, like, they had to be at least XL. going into high school, i gradually shifted down to L. i only recently made the change, meaning like two years ago, to M.
-when i was younger, i wanted to be a fighter pilot. specifically, of an F-14. i think this was 95% due to seeing tom cruise be so awesome in top gun. YEAH. TOP GUN.
-when i was younger, i sold david yang a beedrill card for $20 on a friday night at church. when i told my parents, my mom was upset at this, but my dad said it was fine. heehee.
--mini-random fact: to be honest, the random facts are my second favorite part of each blog entry. my favorite part is all of the comments you guys have. :]
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