Objective Complete

Silly sammich. He's got the L and the T but no B.

When was the last time you felt satisfaction at having accomplished something? Something worthwhile. I highly recommend getting that feeling, man. This shit is thoroughly good. I'll tell ya what it was later, I promised someone else I'd tell 'er first second so you just sit tight and marinate yourself with curiosity.

High Five, Mr. Prez (O____O)/

He promised change. You got it. The first president brave enough to publicly support gay marriage.

OH YEAAAH!! FUCK ALL YOU HOMOPHOBIC FAGGOTS!

The irony does not escape me. \(>ワ<)/

The response from the Republican Party has been generally along these lines:

-"How dare he play this card during an election year! It isn't fair. He's trying to pander for votes."
-"Supportive of gay rights? Whatever, it's not like it was an important issue anyway. Not like the economy."
-"While polls show that most Americans support gay marriage, take a look at this map of America. Voters in almost every state have already told their legislatures they don't support gay marriage."

So some of them are saying that Obama's just saying this as a political play for votes. Then, on the other hand, they claim that most people don't support gay marriage. Well, in that case, how is this a play for votes? I really want to know how these two contradicting claims reconcile with each other.

Some of YouTube's Finest

A while back, MDK linked me an article discussing the question of whether internet comment sections actually served any good or not. It's a fair question. Actual intellectual discourse? Rare. Trolling and spam? Normal.

My response? "This isn't even a question. The goal now is just to find good ones."

Here are some from my collection.

AHAHAHA Man, FOX News.

FOX News never fails to provide me with my daily dose of laughter. Even if it is just one of their local affiliates. Dumb fucks. (>ワ<)

Apple and a Return to the Piracy Issue

The root of the piracy problem is the outdated capitalist system that the companies use.

I've quoted Gabe Newell from Valve before about piracy being a service issue not a pricing issue.

Now, I'm no fan of Apple for reasons I'll get into some other time and I'm no fan of Steve Jobs, living or dead. But I will recognize Apple for its great advancements in the way music is sold through iTunes. You can buy musics for $0.99, TV shows for $1.99 and movies for $12.99. From 2003 to 2006 iTunes Store sold over 1.5 BILLION music files. Clearly, people are willing to pay for stuff they could easily illegally download. The problem is not the people but the industry. They dont want to make changes that will threaten their profits so they hide behind current broken copyright laws.

Short post today. Just got back from serving as an Officer of Elections for the Republican primary here. 17 hours of continuous duty.

All Hope Is Not Lost, Penny Pigtails #3

So anywayz, continuing from part 2.


#3. Nerds have gained wide acceptance and jocks have suffered a corresponding loss in popularity. On the other hand, a strain of anti-intellectualism continues to run strong here.

I mentioned that I'd talk about The Big Bang Theory later. Well, here it is! Personally, I don't care for the show but the popularity of it is heartening. There have been nerds in shows before but I don't know of a (successful and mainstream) show that has featured a cast of characters almost entirely consisting of socially awkward nerds. You know how cool that is? It's also understandable. Many more of us grew up the nerd or at most normal than the ones who were the varsity all-stars in high school, yes? And we're the ones who are making the shows that get put on TV, the ones who post stuff on Tumblr, 9gag, 4chan, etc. In this virtual world, our physical attractiveness (or lack of it (- -;;)7) doesn't hamper us in the slightest.

Nevertheless, despite the advancements we've had in popular culture on that front, there is still an abiding mistrust of 'eggheads' and 'experts'. 
Here's a fine article from the Dean of Arts & Sciences at UVA touching on the subject.
On the low end, there's a pervasive sentiment for 'keepin' it real', which I attribute to dumb-asses and the remnants of the brawn-over-brain cadre. On the high end, you have people who have already embedded themselves within the establishment and want the masses to stay bovine and docile.


=====================
P.S. Since Blogger implemented the new comment reply system every time I click on a blog name in the Feed the new page opens up and jumps straight to the Reply box at the bottom of the Comments. This is annoying. Is this only happening to me?

All Hope Is Not Lost, Penny Pigtails #2

As I said in the previous post, I've done quite a bit of activist stuff here in the past week. It had to be done but I don't want to inundate my blog with that stuff. We shouldn't always be On, you know?

So anywayz, continuing from part 1.

We live in some interesting times, people. No, no, I'm not even referring to so-called "important" stuff like politics and shit. I'm talking about the polarity between Awesome and Suck that defines American society today. I will elaborate.

How Great is the Internet? \(⊙ ワ ⊙)/

Here's an example of how amazing the internet can be. So a group of us Sasuke fans started to notice that a lot of the music used on the program sounded familiar. Most obviously to me was the ending credits song: "Victory" from the Naruto soundtrack. Not too hard for most to identify since Naruto is one of those mainstream anime series. But then things got harder.
"This song sounds so familiar, but what is it?! WHAT IS IT?!?!" 
"Oh, I knew I heard it from somewhere. It's from Chicken Run [2000]."
Then the pool of knowledge dries up to puddle size: "What is that music that plays when the camera pans over Stage 2's obstacles during Sasuke 22?"



What the fuck, right? That's almost an impossible task. How the hell am I supposed to find that straw of knowledge in the haystack of all the music ever created? Well, damn, Internet to the rescue! Lookie here, someone comes in and tells us that the song is called "Operation Room" and it comes from a PS3 game called Mobile Suit Gundam: Target in Sight, a.k.a. Crossfire in the U.S.
Without this "internet" thing, how would i have found that? Asking my family members? Neighbors? How far can I reach from my chair? Across the world, apparently. (^___^)

YouTube and Internet Validation(?)

So if you surf YouTube as much as I then you've probably done your share of Related Video chaining and therefore, you should have run into plenty of shitty videos that suckered you into clicking on them because of their high view numbers. If you are a smart guy like me you probably cursed and wished you could see the Rating on the video before clicking on it. That way you'd know if it had earned its eleventy million views or if you're just going to the latest derp on the top of the herp heap. I present to you this excellent browser extension: here. It comes in Firefox, Chrome and even Safari flavor.

In other news, speaking of YouTube Ratings, only twice have I managed to post one of the Top Rated comments on a YouTube video. By Thor's hammer, what an accomplishment...
(- -___)=3

#1 - Yelle - A Cause Des Garçons
#2 - The Proclaimers - 500 Miles

Was I trying to get lots of Likes? Nope. Did I feel a great surge of pride or victory when I saw my comment within the top ranks? .... Nope. ╮(╯_╰)╭
People should stop hunting for Thumbs Ups... Make your comments clever, poignant or pertinent, guys, come on.

Click those links to watch the nice video, but I don't know when you'll be reading this post so I can't guarantee that my comment will still be there. My comment for the tecktonik vid will be about 2 years old now so it got shuffled under long ago.

All Hope Is Not Lost, Penny Pigtails #1

===================================================
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:
I may use more colorful language in this blog from this point on. By that I mean profanity. True, I haven't been stingy with it thus far but I just want you forewarned to the increased levels of it in the days to come. There's a quote by some clever wag floating around saying something to the effect of "the use of course language betrays a feeble intellect" (Delivered in a posh and condescending accent). Well, that's witty and all but entirely rhetorical and unfounded on real life. I've known many foul-mouthed intellectuals and a good number of well-spoken fools. I have no doubts you all have made acquaintances of your own shares, eh?
===================================================

 Now on to the post topic.

We live in some interesting times, people. No, no, I'm not even referring to so-called "important" stuff like politics and shit. I'm talking about the polarity between Awesome and Suck that defines American society today. I will elaborate.

#1. As a whole, the U.S. has become more secular. Say what you want about how the Founding Fathers created a nation with a separation between church and state. It didn't happen. In the letter, sure, maybe. In practice, no. You can see evidence attesting to that fact on our currency, in the various rituals both legal (...and nothing but the truth so help you God?) and political (one nation, under God, indivisible) and, of course, looking at the population that lives here. Christianity still has a nominally solid hold on America but I am pleased to say that most people only pay lip service to their professed faith.
d-(^__________^)-b
You only have to observe a person in the course of their daily life to discover this. What drives a person? What concerns weigh on his/her mind? Thankfully, these days religion features in fewer of these answers. I attribute this to a generally wealthier (yes, even now) and more public institutionally educated society. Most people these days don't learn their "Readin', 'Ritin' and 'Rithmetic" in a one room schoolhouse on which the townspeople keep an eye to ensure their children aren't being taught witchcraft and devil worship. For better or worse, the typical contemporary's motivations tend toward the selfish. That's good! Fewer and fewer people let sexually repressed male virgins priests dictate how they should live their lives.
Furthermore, tolerance is well on the rise, especially my generation and up (or is it down?). Younger. My generation and younger. At least, it grows where the bigoted parents don't find it in time. I once encountered a white cab driver who told me all about how he had done his part to keep the "great Amurrican nayshun" clean by marrying a white woman and having a pure-blood white child. Otherwise, he remained perfectly civil and polite. (A well-spoken fool, no?) I think he truly meant it when he said he'd "done his part" as he betrayed no palpable malice towards my yellowness. I suppose his love of green overcame it, maybe? After helping me with my bags he assured me that his son would grow up indoctrinated with his ideals. Then he bid me good night and left.
Ok, that story had to do with race not religion but extrapolate the message yourself.

Do remember that I speak in generalities. I live here. Before you respond to me with all kinds of anecdotal evidence of fanaticism, excerpts from Fox News broadcasts, etc., recall that I'm an anti-religious Chinese male in America. I know plenty about societal prejudice.

Now if only I was, I dunno, an unattractive (<-this is important) female Jewish Middle Eastern Muslim Nazi Communist who grew up in the ghetto THEN I'd be an expert, eh? Eh? hahahahaha

Once again, I find I'm going to have to split this post for the sake of digestibility.

Sweet!

So I bought two tires to replace the worn front pair on the van yesterday. I was surprised by how dramatically different the tread depths were when compared side by side. Mmmm, that's some nice traction right there. The rear tires will remain old and worn for now though.
Let me put my best tires forward!!!!

So with a shiny new windshield and two sparkly firm tires my dad took it down to get a state inspection and it passed!

Win!

Pics later. Be warned, the paint job and interior look perfectly suitably beat-up to serve as a "first car".

Can't Let the Holiday Go Unnoted Can I?

This was my costume last year. Man, it's been a year already.....

Props to you if you know who this is.

For the curious, that's a gym mat propped to the left there, a towel hanging on a door hook over my shoulder and a photograph of cherry blossoms in Tokyo above a light switch on the right edge.

Sasuke a.k.a. Ninja Warrior

So today's find comes by way of one of tracirz's posts. I clicked on the link to Joel's list and then clicked the link next to Learn Parkour which lead me to this blog here.

The guy seems like just my type of person, going out and doing awesome stuff cuz he wants to. But that's beside the point. Looking through his posts I found this one. Man, Ninja Warrior (aka Sasuke) sounds awesome! But I already have K-ON!, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones on my watch list.... (><__)

Video Game - E3 2012

Love of the game right there.

In other news, I have to say, I don't think anyone takes their hobbies more seriously than the Japanese. If you read any manga or watch any anime in which the characters are still in school (there are plenty of them) you've probably noticed how dedicated extracurricular club members are to what they do. For example, if a character is the captain of the team or some such, it will be a big part of their character. That's not just an exaggerated characterization used in the fiction. It's how it is in real life, too.

Whoa A Liebster Blog Award!! \(⊙⊙◡)/

Ho ho! So I got a Liebster Blog award from Mai Yang over at Most Awesome Blog Title Ever!
\(^ヮ^\) (/^ヮ^)/ <(O___O<) ^(O___O)^ (>O__O)>

Good to know someone out there appreciates my awesomeness. kekeke <(º◡º)> *hubris*
What's a Liebster Award you ask? 

 -Liebster - German word meaning 'favorite'
-spread to five bloggers who have less than 200 followers
-thank and link back to sender

Seems like an excellent way to spread some love to some blogs that deserve it.
So then, five fav blogs with <200 followers, eh?
(I couldn't find the number of followers for some of these so it might have broken the rules hehe)

Mount Aenos
Stuff That Rocks
Beast in Human Skin

There are other blogs but too many other people liked them too! For shame, eh? hahaha

My Excellent Password (￣︿￣)7 *salute*

Today I completely retired my first password.

It's a fact that most people use very simplistic passwords for fear they themselves will forget them. Despite all the advice NOT to use birthdays, names of relatives/children/pets, and what-not a lot of people still use them as passwords. Or perhaps they rationalize that if a skilled hacker really wanted to get at their data they'd get in, no matter how good their password was. That's not really good logic there but whatever. Another problem: People tend to use the same log-in name AND password for a lot of different accounts (I myself was guilty of this for a long time). Personally, I made up an awesome password and I used it for everything cuz it was so secure, so I believed. Then I realized: if someone wanted to take advantage of that tendency, they would only need to make a website, attract loads of people to register accounts and they'd basically have people handing them the virtual keys to their virtual houses. When I realized this I started to make specialized passwords for individual log-ins. Actually they would more aptly be called 'passcodes'. Sure, it's a little more complicated but it means that if people break into one room they still won't have free run of the entire house, so to speak. Think about it. If you register on some forum dedicated to, for example, discussing the TV show Game of Thrones with the same log-in and password you use for your online bank account there will be serious trouble if someone decides not to deal with the security features of the bank site and instead come through an unsuspecting fan forum, yeah?

People's faces when they see me type it in.

So any ways, I followed another piece of oft ignored advice: Change your passwords periodically. If you still use that password you came up with when you first signed up for Hotmail, you might be ok. Then again you might not. I for one, prefer peace of mind. So anyway, I completely retired the first passcode I came up with back in 10th grade. And it's pretty awesome. While my brother and sister still used, get this, they still used actual words as passwords I was using this:

yg-9f/v4rfls-g37

Yeah, super cool right?

K-Pop #6: Covers

Remember what I said about the dances being a big part of the 'songs' as a whole? It's pretty amazing how far and wide K-Pop has spread. People in countries way out, far from S. Korea show their love with dance covers like these:



Speaking of dance covers, check out some of this talent for Rainism.

It makes me smile to see the fun go beyond borders and even language barriers.
Case in point! => There was actually a dance cover contest for the 2NE1's single "I AM THE BEST" and the submissions came from all over the world. If you have some time to kill, take a look at these videos.

France. Vietnam (the contest winners). Singapore. USA. Thailand. Japan.

Today's witty exchange

I have a baby sister who, through no fault of mine own
(⌐ ⌐__) (__¬ ¬),
likes to hit people. She hasn't yet mastered her muscle control so she goes all out! Despite being 12 years younger she can deal massive amounts of damage and frequently beats her older siblings (savagely, I might add). This may sound funny to you guys but her fists are like little rocks! Rocks I say!! ~( ಠ◡ಠ)9"......( />.<)\

So today, we sat her down to discuss her lack of control:

My bro: Man, stop hitting with all your strength! See when we hit you it's at half power, like so *whack* but when you hit it's like this *pound*.
Me: Yeah, stop beatin' us so savagely.
Bro: SAVAGELY! Just wailin' on us!
Me: Like Smithers.
Me & Bro laugh heartily.

If you don't get the pun.... go back to watching South Park or something.

An odd Touhou music post

Here's a weird one a friend showed me a while back. I've never played Touhou or any of those bullet hell games but the music has its appeal.

Like this one: U.N. Owen was her?



But I actually like this one better. It's some weird and awesome acapella wouldn't you say?



The number one comment as of right now is the best too.

Breaking Bad Season 4

Season 4 has started up for this series and, as with Dexter, I have fallen a few seasons behind. I ended up marathoning through the last 4 seasons of Dexter and I'm going to do that with 2 and 3 here. Walter White is such a badass.

OH MY GOSH!!!

Have you ever thought something was impossible, that it just couldn't be done? There are invisible walls that limit our potential.... man, that's deep.

Today I stuffed a sleeping bag back into its original package!

 Look at how much that punk expanded once out of its plastic bagging! I consider myself a capable sleeping bag roller but even this seemed impossible to me all these years.

After a mighty struggle I managed to wrestle the beast back into its case.

A reaction similar to this girl's ensued. I have other ways of rejoicing but I won't disclose those just yet.