Hey guys!
I haven't blogged in awhile, something close to two years, so I've decided to start it up again. I've tried to start up this blog a couple other times, failing miserably, but I do believe it's high time for everyone's favourite sarcastic blogger to make his way back into the spotlight. Why, you might ask? Well, the main reason is because I've kinda-sorta-definitely-for sure decided on my plans for the rest of the year. *drumroll*
I'm going to Korea!
It's not too much of a surprise for a lot of you, at least those of you I've talked to in the past year or so, but apparently even when I'm not active people check my blog (for the astounding wit, facetious commentary, and excessive use of commas), so I thought I'd announce it to the community at large. Yes, near the end of the summer (or whenever the job I get needs me), I'll be shipped off to Korea to spend my days teaching small children the glorious virtues of English.
Now this doesn't necessarily correlate to an increased amount of blogging, but in my case I plan to blog/vlog about my experiences in Korea, so I figure getting back into the swing of things wouldn't be too bad. I don't know whether I'll blog on this blog in Korea or create a new more Korea-centric blog, but I might as well start getting the practice in now. Besides, there's so many fancy new buttons and editing software on the website, it'd be a shame not to utilize it to it's full extent.
So that brings me to my topic for today (albeit it's probably gonna be short): the ridiculous flamboyancy of K-pop videos.
As everyone knows, I love K-pop. Even if you didn't know me personally, you knew that I loved K-pop, it's a universal truth. But instead of linking you guys a bunch of amazing K-pop songs, I instead have decided to analyze them a bit. Or at least analyze how ridiculous some of them are.
Let's start with 100% more recent comeback, 심장이 뛴다. For those of you who haven't watched it yet (I mean I gave you the link, put a little effort into it) let me summarize the basic plotline of the song. As far as I can tell, it's the story of one boy's girlfriend who, instead of burying him like a normal person, decides to incubate his dead body in some new age preservation chamber. She then proceeds to gather up a rather large number of ominous tubes and chases down his friends to remove parts of them which she then grafts onto his body. Then, instead of disposing of the bodies, she leaves them at the foot of his chamber, so that the first thing he can see when he's reanimated is the lifeless bodies of his friends. The grief of seeing all of this causes him to rip his own heart out, ruining all her hard work.
I mean, come on. I know music videos are all about cool concepts and all that, but it could be better to shy away from the mass murder of an entire band. Don't get me wrong, I love 100% so much. Like so much. But when I watched it again today, it just struck me as such a ridiculous concept. And know that we've gotten ridiculousness out of the way, maybe we should look at some of the flamboyancy.
I love flamboyancy. I love fabulousness. But what I'm not the hugest fan of is repetitive flamboyancy. Almost every K-pop video has a scene in it where all the band members dance in white on a white background. There's just so much white. I'll spam some more 100% here, but it's just so prevalent in every music video. It'd be nice if there was some new colours at least. You can be even more flamboyant in pink, so my dream is one day to see a huge pink scene is some music video.
Now that I'm getting tired and incoherent, it seems like a good time to wrap up my coming back blog. Plus, I've run out of good 100% music videos (their 2nd and 3rd music videos weren't that great). So until next time, adios!
-AFR
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Monday, November 26, 2012
I haven't touched this blog in awhile. Life has a way of moving in unexplained ways and sometimes it can be a bit hard to control. This is gonna be a pretty personal entry, but I finally feel like I'd like to talk about it. I'm gonna try to keep parts of it humorous (so I don't cause a high number of unexplained deaths to boredom), but this is definitely not going to be my funniest blog.
I'm a gamer. Most of my friends know this, but since I don't feel like scrolling through all my blog posts, I'm going to just assume a lot of you don't. I love gaming, despite what I'm about to say on the subject. It's a fantastic pastime and I'm thinking of making a career out of it still, but I've come to realize that I've let it affect me in ways I shouldn't have.
When I first started gaming a lot in my second term of my second year of university, I thought it was a phase, much like almost everything else I start. I'm not much of a person for finishing things, so I assumed my desire to game would fade pretty quickly. It didn't. For once, I managed to stick with something and continue doing it. I wasn't much of a serious gamer, but it continued on into summer, where most of the issues started. My parents have never really been much of a fan of gaming, heck, we weren't allowed to play our N64 on weekdays until we were about 16, and our computer use was limited to about an hour every other day. I'm still not sure whether the strictness helped prevent the problem or exacerbate it. But when I came home that summer, my parents and I had way too many fights about gaming. My brother and I played about an hour a day that summer, which in my parent's eyes was too much. I still disagree on that point, but with my work that summer, we spent almost the entire summer gaming and working.
My disagreements with my parents that summer were way too numerous and heated, but I'd really like to talk more about how it affected me. Gaming during the summer wasn't too much of a problem, mainly because I lacked friends in my hometown, and it was just an activity I could use to pass the time. It wasn't until I returned to school in the fall that gaming really started to adversely effect me. That first term back was the worst four months of my life. I used gaming as a vice, an escape from all things that troubled me or that I couldn't deal with. My grades that term were abysmal, my attendance in classes way too low, and my social life nigh unexistant. The problem followed this endless loop, as I would miss a class to gaming and use gaming to escape the guilt, thus making it more likely I'd miss more class to gaming. That term isn't something I like to talk about much, as it had a profound effect on me. The second term that year I managed to pull myself up out of the void, even though I still gamed a fair bit. This past summer's been good too, but my social life during summer is depressing, as there is none. But that's for another blog.
I didn't actually break the hold gaming had until very recently, this first term of my fourth-ish year at university. And I didn't do it alone. I've met a number of amazing people this year, who've taught me a lot (you know who you are). As well as that, my existing friends have been incredibly amazing with me, especially having put up with me through that scary time. It hasn't been until recently that I've realized just how much that time has affected me emotionally and it's definitely nice to have escaped that time (fingers crossed I stay out of it). That's not saying I still won't game a lot, but it's not going to affect me negatively anymore.
In closing, for those of you still with me, I'd like to thank you for sticking it out and staying with me. It might not be incredibly interesting for you, but I hope you can at least take something out of my story. Also, I'm attaching a video of one of my favourite comedians, so you can at least watch something funny. I give you, Tig Notaro!
I'm a gamer. Most of my friends know this, but since I don't feel like scrolling through all my blog posts, I'm going to just assume a lot of you don't. I love gaming, despite what I'm about to say on the subject. It's a fantastic pastime and I'm thinking of making a career out of it still, but I've come to realize that I've let it affect me in ways I shouldn't have.
When I first started gaming a lot in my second term of my second year of university, I thought it was a phase, much like almost everything else I start. I'm not much of a person for finishing things, so I assumed my desire to game would fade pretty quickly. It didn't. For once, I managed to stick with something and continue doing it. I wasn't much of a serious gamer, but it continued on into summer, where most of the issues started. My parents have never really been much of a fan of gaming, heck, we weren't allowed to play our N64 on weekdays until we were about 16, and our computer use was limited to about an hour every other day. I'm still not sure whether the strictness helped prevent the problem or exacerbate it. But when I came home that summer, my parents and I had way too many fights about gaming. My brother and I played about an hour a day that summer, which in my parent's eyes was too much. I still disagree on that point, but with my work that summer, we spent almost the entire summer gaming and working.
My disagreements with my parents that summer were way too numerous and heated, but I'd really like to talk more about how it affected me. Gaming during the summer wasn't too much of a problem, mainly because I lacked friends in my hometown, and it was just an activity I could use to pass the time. It wasn't until I returned to school in the fall that gaming really started to adversely effect me. That first term back was the worst four months of my life. I used gaming as a vice, an escape from all things that troubled me or that I couldn't deal with. My grades that term were abysmal, my attendance in classes way too low, and my social life nigh unexistant. The problem followed this endless loop, as I would miss a class to gaming and use gaming to escape the guilt, thus making it more likely I'd miss more class to gaming. That term isn't something I like to talk about much, as it had a profound effect on me. The second term that year I managed to pull myself up out of the void, even though I still gamed a fair bit. This past summer's been good too, but my social life during summer is depressing, as there is none. But that's for another blog.
I didn't actually break the hold gaming had until very recently, this first term of my fourth-ish year at university. And I didn't do it alone. I've met a number of amazing people this year, who've taught me a lot (you know who you are). As well as that, my existing friends have been incredibly amazing with me, especially having put up with me through that scary time. It hasn't been until recently that I've realized just how much that time has affected me emotionally and it's definitely nice to have escaped that time (fingers crossed I stay out of it). That's not saying I still won't game a lot, but it's not going to affect me negatively anymore.
In closing, for those of you still with me, I'd like to thank you for sticking it out and staying with me. It might not be incredibly interesting for you, but I hope you can at least take something out of my story. Also, I'm attaching a video of one of my favourite comedians, so you can at least watch something funny. I give you, Tig Notaro!
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Science
My computer is back online. It has been for awhile, but a large number of high profile events have occurred in life, the least being the National Ostrich Riding Competition. Anyways, today I bring you another opinionated installment of my blog. A number of recent conversations have caused me to question my path in life, i.e. a scientist. Having mulled this topic over, I have finally come to somewhat of an opinion on the matter, one that is contrary to say the least. So let us begin...
We begin with the simple question: What is science? In my opinion, science is the study of life and the natural world. Science has a number of offshoots, from biology to physics, all building upon one another. Science studies everything around us, from the quark to the blue whale. And to put my background on the subject into light, well, I am studying to be an ecologist.
So we ask: Why? Why does the natural world need to broken down into its component parts? I asked myself the same question and came to two possible solutions. The first being the nicest, highlighting the simple answer "because I want to." This is acceptable, but I am not sure it is entirely the complete answer, thus my second solution: "because I want to be smarter than the next guy." Now before all my fellow scientists decide to use me as a cadaver in their next dissection, let me explain.
Science is a way of perceiving the natural world, simply put. As my friend said, "I want a better understanding of the world." Hmmmm... "better". What makes science this "better" understanding of the world? After all, "a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet". A rose can still be just as beautiful, without knowing that it is composed of a number of electrons, protons, and neutrons. Why break it down? As much as one would like to say "because I want to know", I think another reason may still be lurking, a need for dominance. Society is structured to reward those who can "perceive" an object better than someone else.
After looking at it that way, I am unsure how to feel. I, for one, will admit I love winning an argument and often knowing more ensures my victory (that or confusing my opponent). Knowledge is power, and science gives more than enough knowledge to its practitioners. So is science a way to exert dominance over another?
As I let that sink in, I will continue with another concept that has been bugging me. That topic is on science's practical applications, or lack thereof. Yet again, give me a word before the scalpels come out. In this current society, science does have some applications, though I do not believe that it was ever necessary to have them originate. Native Americans thrived for years with little knowledge of today's science quite fine. They impacted the Earth very little and science just was not necessary. Knowledge was learned from experiences, for example if that berry made you vomit, you did not eat it again. Much like how when a young child burns their hand on the stove, they do not do that again. Science did not need to arise and in my opinion, should not have needed to at all. You see, science perpetuates science and once it starts, it just does not stop. There is always something more to discover, and as intriguing as that sounds, its implications can be quite horrific.
So are we better without science? Another tough question to answer. Let me first say that science has a way of destroying itself. A couple examples might be necessary to explain that point.
Firstly, let's examine natural selection. Natural selection boils down to survival of the fittest, which definitely no longer applies to a grand majority of the Earth now. Humans exist almost everywhere, but are by no means the pinnacle of evolution. I can name several animals that are much more fit than the average human. Humans have lost the ability to be selected against, with all our medicine and such. Diseases that should be killing off the less fit of the population just do not have the same effect they used too. Not to mention the rampant obesity in parts of the world, demonstrating further just how unfit humans really are. Darwin's natural selection is getting destroyed by the very category it falls under.
Secondly, an examination of nutritional science. It should not exist. Period. If all science was like nutritional science, I would be switching to Arts immediately. Its history shows a litany of stupid people trying to change people diets in the name of science. The silliest thing is, they actually think they are making a difference. Having lost the knowledge we would have gained from our elders, humans are now trying to explain things that are blatantly obvious. Breaking down foods into their component parts just does not work, for a number of reasons. The most obvious being the interactions between the different parts of the food. Sure you can isolate a certain antioxidant and say what is supposedly does, but once it enters the food, its interactions with other antioxidants/vitamins/minerals can change exactly what it does. Secondly, the other foods that it is eaten with can change the speed at which its properties are released, or like the previous example change exactly what it does. Nutritional science is useless and self-destroying, constantly changing what one should and should not eat and switching its positions on certain vitamins/minerals almost daily.
Despite all that, science has permeated modern society and is there to stay. It is a necessity now, despite its results and/or failings. So what is my opinion on it? Hard to say, but I think it harks back to the first question's answer: "because I want to." I like ecology and it interests me, so that is more than enough to keep me in the sciences. Will I use my knowledge to further my arguments? Probably, just as almost anyone would. Will I focus on analyzing things relentlessly? No. I want to use science to fix the impacts humans are having on the world. Because as much as science is self-destroying, science can be self-healing (except for nutritional science). And while I do not agree with everything science does, at least I can use it to change the world for the better.
-AFR
We begin with the simple question: What is science? In my opinion, science is the study of life and the natural world. Science has a number of offshoots, from biology to physics, all building upon one another. Science studies everything around us, from the quark to the blue whale. And to put my background on the subject into light, well, I am studying to be an ecologist.
So we ask: Why? Why does the natural world need to broken down into its component parts? I asked myself the same question and came to two possible solutions. The first being the nicest, highlighting the simple answer "because I want to." This is acceptable, but I am not sure it is entirely the complete answer, thus my second solution: "because I want to be smarter than the next guy." Now before all my fellow scientists decide to use me as a cadaver in their next dissection, let me explain.
Science is a way of perceiving the natural world, simply put. As my friend said, "I want a better understanding of the world." Hmmmm... "better". What makes science this "better" understanding of the world? After all, "a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet". A rose can still be just as beautiful, without knowing that it is composed of a number of electrons, protons, and neutrons. Why break it down? As much as one would like to say "because I want to know", I think another reason may still be lurking, a need for dominance. Society is structured to reward those who can "perceive" an object better than someone else.
After looking at it that way, I am unsure how to feel. I, for one, will admit I love winning an argument and often knowing more ensures my victory (that or confusing my opponent). Knowledge is power, and science gives more than enough knowledge to its practitioners. So is science a way to exert dominance over another?
As I let that sink in, I will continue with another concept that has been bugging me. That topic is on science's practical applications, or lack thereof. Yet again, give me a word before the scalpels come out. In this current society, science does have some applications, though I do not believe that it was ever necessary to have them originate. Native Americans thrived for years with little knowledge of today's science quite fine. They impacted the Earth very little and science just was not necessary. Knowledge was learned from experiences, for example if that berry made you vomit, you did not eat it again. Much like how when a young child burns their hand on the stove, they do not do that again. Science did not need to arise and in my opinion, should not have needed to at all. You see, science perpetuates science and once it starts, it just does not stop. There is always something more to discover, and as intriguing as that sounds, its implications can be quite horrific.
So are we better without science? Another tough question to answer. Let me first say that science has a way of destroying itself. A couple examples might be necessary to explain that point.
Firstly, let's examine natural selection. Natural selection boils down to survival of the fittest, which definitely no longer applies to a grand majority of the Earth now. Humans exist almost everywhere, but are by no means the pinnacle of evolution. I can name several animals that are much more fit than the average human. Humans have lost the ability to be selected against, with all our medicine and such. Diseases that should be killing off the less fit of the population just do not have the same effect they used too. Not to mention the rampant obesity in parts of the world, demonstrating further just how unfit humans really are. Darwin's natural selection is getting destroyed by the very category it falls under.
Secondly, an examination of nutritional science. It should not exist. Period. If all science was like nutritional science, I would be switching to Arts immediately. Its history shows a litany of stupid people trying to change people diets in the name of science. The silliest thing is, they actually think they are making a difference. Having lost the knowledge we would have gained from our elders, humans are now trying to explain things that are blatantly obvious. Breaking down foods into their component parts just does not work, for a number of reasons. The most obvious being the interactions between the different parts of the food. Sure you can isolate a certain antioxidant and say what is supposedly does, but once it enters the food, its interactions with other antioxidants/vitamins/minerals can change exactly what it does. Secondly, the other foods that it is eaten with can change the speed at which its properties are released, or like the previous example change exactly what it does. Nutritional science is useless and self-destroying, constantly changing what one should and should not eat and switching its positions on certain vitamins/minerals almost daily.
Despite all that, science has permeated modern society and is there to stay. It is a necessity now, despite its results and/or failings. So what is my opinion on it? Hard to say, but I think it harks back to the first question's answer: "because I want to." I like ecology and it interests me, so that is more than enough to keep me in the sciences. Will I use my knowledge to further my arguments? Probably, just as almost anyone would. Will I focus on analyzing things relentlessly? No. I want to use science to fix the impacts humans are having on the world. Because as much as science is self-destroying, science can be self-healing (except for nutritional science). And while I do not agree with everything science does, at least I can use it to change the world for the better.
-AFR
Friday, November 12, 2010
My Quest Has Failed
Well, some interesting events happened yesterday, and one ultimately ended up destroying my quest. My computer was incapacitated by a virus. So, despite my attempts to get online with my phone, I could not post a blog yesterday.
And for that, I am sorry. But with some luck and a little bit of juice from a mountain yak's spleen, I am hoping to get my computer back up and running shortly. So that I do not have to post from our school's ancient computers (I think we honestly got them back in the first Ice Age).
-AFR
And for that, I am sorry. But with some luck and a little bit of juice from a mountain yak's spleen, I am hoping to get my computer back up and running shortly. So that I do not have to post from our school's ancient computers (I think we honestly got them back in the first Ice Age).
-AFR
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Math
Watch First!
Now, I was never a huge fan of math, despite being fairly good at it, but this video sends a fairly disturbing message to me. Let me give a little background quickly.
As a kid, I was taught math using those standard algorithms and multiplication tables, so most of those methods on the video are new to me. I found this to be a great learning tool and a easy way to show the fundamentals of math. This fantastic foundation I have built up has allowed me to be both quick and efficient at my math work, as well as understanding the basic fundamentals of math.
This "new" math scares me in a variety of ways, the most prominent being the overwhelming message to rely on calculators. As many people know, I am not a huge fan of machines doing simple work a human can do, despite calculators being extremely useful for other purposes. Using calculators for basic multiplication is something that I am not usually a fan of, even though I am guilty of it at times. This reliance on calculators teaches kids nothing and actually detracts them from the fundamentals they are learning. I know if I were a kid, and handed a very simple solution to a problem, I might fall to the trap of simplicity in a calculator. From this video, it seems that young kids these days do not have the foundation to use a quick algorithm to solve a problem, which is quite scary in my mind.
Now, maybe I am slightly biased because math came somewhat easy to me when I was a kid, but I feel that a grand majority of people that I know have the necessary foundation to do a multiplication or division quickly and with little fuss. This new math books seem to be having quite the opposite effect. I was always taught K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid) and I see no reason to muddy the waters with new, confusing algorithms. So in conclusion, I must agree with the author of this video and urge others to stray away from these books, no matter how glorified they may seem.
-AFR
Now, I was never a huge fan of math, despite being fairly good at it, but this video sends a fairly disturbing message to me. Let me give a little background quickly.
As a kid, I was taught math using those standard algorithms and multiplication tables, so most of those methods on the video are new to me. I found this to be a great learning tool and a easy way to show the fundamentals of math. This fantastic foundation I have built up has allowed me to be both quick and efficient at my math work, as well as understanding the basic fundamentals of math.
This "new" math scares me in a variety of ways, the most prominent being the overwhelming message to rely on calculators. As many people know, I am not a huge fan of machines doing simple work a human can do, despite calculators being extremely useful for other purposes. Using calculators for basic multiplication is something that I am not usually a fan of, even though I am guilty of it at times. This reliance on calculators teaches kids nothing and actually detracts them from the fundamentals they are learning. I know if I were a kid, and handed a very simple solution to a problem, I might fall to the trap of simplicity in a calculator. From this video, it seems that young kids these days do not have the foundation to use a quick algorithm to solve a problem, which is quite scary in my mind.
Now, maybe I am slightly biased because math came somewhat easy to me when I was a kid, but I feel that a grand majority of people that I know have the necessary foundation to do a multiplication or division quickly and with little fuss. This new math books seem to be having quite the opposite effect. I was always taught K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid) and I see no reason to muddy the waters with new, confusing algorithms. So in conclusion, I must agree with the author of this video and urge others to stray away from these books, no matter how glorified they may seem.
-AFR
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