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!

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.

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.]

More God of War III Info

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".

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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. :]

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:

"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.