some tv stuff

Season 4 Ep 7

Watch this episode, I found it hilarious and yet I realize I behave in a similar manner. Malcolm is a genius but all the people around him are complete morons so he complains all the time about everything. One day he decides to keep his mouth shut and just not say anything but the result of his actions (or lack of actions rather) is quite serious. Maybe I should start actually think about what I say before I actually say it... because it's not going so well.





Resident Evil Degeneration was awesome. I've never played any of the video games of its series but watching this movie still made sense. The storyline is exciting (in my opinion) and the characters were really well created. You can feel their fear at crucial moments in the movie and their facial expressions were very realistic. The only character that seemed over the top was Leon S Kennedy, the guy with the pistol. Since he is the main character, he is fearless and pulls all of these stunts that would have otherwise killed him if he isn't the main character. This is also the only movie that actually relates to the game itself, the films portrayed by real actors makes absolutely no sense and those were terrible. I recommend you watch this thing.

Worst thing that can happen to a blogger

What's the worst thing that can happen to any blogger? Aside from having no readers and no comments, there is something worse... and that is bot spamming. Recently I've gotten more and more random garbage comments from "anonymous" people that have been spamming my old posts with porn links. Now it brings me a lot of pain to put up moderation for comments because I know that even without moderation you guys don't post any comments so how will anyone post once they need to be approved to post?

Once again, I appreciate anyone who takes time out of his or her busy life to read about some of the stuff I've been ranting on.

some thoughts part 2

We all want to be special in our own little way but the truth of the matter is--most of us are simply a dime a dozen.



I've put off this for quite some time now so here it is.

For the past week I've been quite upset. I got my first B in college. I missed A- by 1 point, which is equivalent to getting 1 more multiple choice question answered correctly on the final exam. The more I thought about it the less it made sense to me. Somehow the class average and the median was higher than mine. The curve obviously worked against me. I was so sure of myself, so sure that I would get an A in that class (CIS) that I didn't really take the final seriously. I'd like to blame the professor, I'd like to blame the cheaters in the class, I'd like to blame anyone but myself but the truth is, I am to blame. If everyone managed to ace this exam, there is no excuse to why I did not.

I thought about it and every time I did, I felt a lot of anger. I don't believe I'm a docile person at all, in fact I demanded that I get to review over my final exam and I did. We found one answer marked wrong that was right, but it didn't matter anyway because I still did not reach the cut off for that A-. I decided that there was no use in asking for any way to boost my grade because I really hated the professor.

As for why this trivial thing makes me angry, it's just a matter of pride. I was so stressed out that I think I had an ulcer. The thought of no longer being able to brag about having a 4.0 GPA makes me sad. All of last semester and this semester I kept bragging on about how easy my classes were and how I didn't study much at all for them and still got straight A's (which was true for the most part). I guess this is karma getting back at me because I really should be more humble about it. Humility is a difficult virtue for me to harness because pride stands in the way. It's so much easier being the bad guy.

I wanted to be special, at least be able to tell others that I maintained a 4.0 in college, but guess not. I vowed to never get another B in college and that's what I'm going to do.

Winter Solstice

Today, December 21st is the shortest day of the year, also known as the Winter Solstice. Today also marks the beginning of Winter. From today onwards, each day will add about another minute of daylight (or was it second?) until the Summer Solstice (the longest day of the year).

A friend of mine has her birthday today, and its one of those few dates that I remember because of the date. I wish her a happy birthday.

I hate finals week

Tomorrow I have two finals. However, I've stalled and stalled and still haven't really "studied." I have no idea how people have the willpower to study all day, everyday, for an entire week. I just began my "studying" and I'm already bored out of my mind and came here to write about this crap. It's not as crazy as Stony Brook, in which it counts for over 50% of your final grade, but still... I should be studying but I don't feel the urge to.

End of English Class Thoughts

As you may or may not know, I had an epic English class this semester. To end the term, we read the Death of Ivan Ilych and saw the play Death of a Salesman. Now how is reading about death a good way to end the semester? These stories weren't so much about death, but rather about life.

Death of a Salesman is a tragedy, for it shows how a man in search of greatness only blinds himself to the truth, thus leads his household into turmoil. The salesman, Willy Loman, is 63 years old and a very unsuccessful salesman. Even though his salary is based solely on commission, he refuses to quit his job despite earning next to nothing. His whole life he dreamed about being a great salesman, to be respected and well liked. He taught his children all the wrong things--that they were magnificent and born that way. All of the lies that Willy fed his children only corrupted them as they grew older. It was no mistake that both his sons grew up to be worthless individuals.

Death of Ivan Ilych on the other hand, is about a man who has it all--money, status, family--yet the irony is he has very little in life. Ilych, hit with the harsh reality of terminal illness and chronic pains, starts to question his own life. Having lived a life of propriety, while his achievements and status rose to new heights, Ilych's life in fact was like a rock falling into abyss. All of his accomplishments meant nothing to him because his marriage was a mess. He cared for no one but himself, and thus no one sympathized for him during his illness. Surrounded by falsity, Ilych dies a miserable death, realizing he lived his life the wrong way. He lived a life deemed "correct" by the rest of society, not what the way he wanted to live. The people all around him, including his wife, are all selfish individuals who care only about moving up in the social ladder.

Both of these stories offer interesting lessons. One very important thing I've come across while thinking about both of these stories is the discussion on lies. Willy Loman reminds me that "a lie told often enough becomes truth." This is a very dangerous misconception that many people fail to realize. In fact, I've finally realized something about myself. All these years I have been lying to myself, believing in things that are not such. The truth hurts and that is why most people cannot face the truth. Denial is only a hindrance to self-improvement, and recognition of the problem is the first step.

Curves Hurt

Curves hurt...

So this girl with very nice curves tore my heart out and stuff. I wanted to get to know her but she simply walked away! No, nothing like that happened, honest! The curves I'm talking about are the ones given by different professors. First of all I would like to tell you how much I dislike curves.

The breakdown for my CIS class is 25% A's (including A and A-), 35% B, 35% C, 5% D-F. What the hell does this mean? Since there are 40 people in the class, that means only two people fail the course. What the shit man, what the shit? The lowest grade on the freaking midterm was two 35's, so that means if you even guessed half the damn test right you can pass the class with a C. Of course, people such as myself don't want to just "pass," we want to go above and beyond. Of course that isn't going to happen because only 10 people are going to get A's, and half of 10 are going to get A-'s. So it really hurts me in the long run to have a "curve" in this class because everything is based on how other people do. What if everyone got a 100 and I got a 95? That means I would fail because I'm on the bottom percentile, which makes no bloody sense.

I'd much rather they access you based on the traditional 93+=A, 90-93=A-, etc. As a matter of fact my accounting class is going to be yet another class with a bunch of curves. Only thing is, only 15% of the class will get A's. I'm wondering how this semester will turn out... will I break my combo of straight A's only the second semester in?!

Back

Okay there goes my short hiatus.

Apparently, loneliness is contagious.

"The average person experiences loneliness about 48 days a year, but having a lonely friend can add 17 days of loneliness annually. By comparison, every additional friend can decrease loneliness by about 5 percent, which translates to about two and a half fewer lonely days a year, the study showed."

So... that would explain why I'm sad most of the time. Of course it's not like I didn't already know why I'm sad in the first place. But is loneliness contagious? That could be said for happiness too, I learned firsthand that smiles are contagious. Eh I don't really believe in this research.