First time being grounded
I planned to take three days off works so that I could attend PAX Prime, the granddaddy of gaming conventions available to the public. Fly in Thursday, enjoy the three-day con, hop on a Sunday night red-eye and spend Monday recovering.
But it's Wednesday, and I'm still here in Seattle. In fact I'm going to be here straight through the week. JetBlue called on Friday to let me know that my flight had been cancelled, because the airports were being shut down due to the crazy weather smashing through the northeast. I call to reschedule my flight, and find that the next one available is another red-eye...the following Friday.
And so that's why I'm booked into another hotel for four days longer than I planned. It's an impromptu extended vacation, an unexpected urban adventure. I'm enjoying the free buses and the rollercoaster-esque monorail, and I'm getting acclimated to the general layout of the city. My hotel is 10 minutes from the Space Needle, definitely in a more residential area but still connected to the veins of public transportation sprouting from the city.
I have no laptop for this trip, but that's not such a bad thing. It makes me get on the computer mostly just to reconnect with the outside world for short bursts. Most of my time is spent sightseeing, liberally padded with vegging out in front of cable TV. There's just something enthralling about watching Zimmerman eat strange things on the Travel Channel, people sell or create oddities on Discovery, and celebrity chefs get way too excited on Food Network.
It's a refreshing palate cleanser from the routine of work and whirlwind of PAX, but I'm looking forward to returning to the east coast to see my friends, my family, and last but not least, my gaming computer. Deus Ex isn't going to play itself, you know.
I definitely don’t have thick enough skin for her job
This story is also an entry into Sally's contest for the upcoming Halo game. If you've got one of your own, hop over to her video and leave a comment to enter!
I got a call yesterday from an unknown number. I pick it up, and am immediately greeted with the strangest voice I've ever heard, barring Chocolate Rain. The lady on the other end starts speaking with an almost artificially clear, precise voice. It's like the recorded voice that you'd hear on a subway train announcing your stop. It's so deliberate and pitch perfect that I actually do think it's a recording, until she says my name.
"Hi, I'm calling from Staples for a Mr. Steven Li."
I had recently purchased something from Staples, but I was still surprised that they were calling me. Maybe I finally used stacked one too many coupons and they were blacklisting me from their stores. I figure I might as well get on with it.
"Speaking."
"I'm calling to ask you a few questions about the quality of your last visit. Is now a good time to talk?"
Ah, a survey solicitor. Now you have to understand, my parents instilled in me a strict sense of politeness. Solicitors are annoying but they're still people, and they're simply doing their job. I wouldn't hang up on one, even though she called me while I was busy at work. Instead I try to deflect her, hoping she'll take a hint.
"Sorry, now's not a good time."
"Alright, could we schedule a time that would work better for you?"
I meekly murmur, "......is it possible to say no?"
A beat. My face is flushing red. Then she bursts into laughter.
"Of course sir, you can say whatever you like! It's a free country!" She laughs some more, and it washes over me like a cool breeze. I'm thankful that she sees the humor in this; that I'm just like every other guy that wants to dodge a solicitor, but I'm simply too polite to verbally muscle her around and hang up. Her voice takes on a softer, gentler tone, like she's speaking to a child who wants one more story before bedtime. "Have a nice day, sir."
Phew. "You too."
Bidders bartering for Bananas
Continuing the trend of my quirky eBay listings comes yet another.
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Bananas.
Bananas who?
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Bananas.
Bananas who?
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange you glad I didn't say bananas?No, actually, because you were probably hoping I would say bananas and present you with the King Mukla card, with an scratchable code to unlock Bananas the Ape. Using this code gets you a Banana Charm, which is not only good as a little splash of yellow on your otherwise drab and dreary mud-stained adventuring wardrobe but also summons an adorable ape vanity pet.
No, this is not a monkey. Don't expect Bananas to do any coding for you.
No, but at least you get an angelic ape to blindly follow you around as you take on monsters a hundred times its size. Any lesser being would quake and tremble at the thought, but Bananas?
No, this ape's allegiance is ardent, for he is especially thankful that you were able to procure him!
No small feat, since this card is especially rare. You'll only find one of these cards in about 242 booster packs, which means that on average this card would cost you $400 to farm! Chances are just barely better if you're opening up random Landro's Pet Boxes to find one, as there's just barely a .5% chance in each box. At 2,000 UDE points per box, that means you' going to be looking at two million UDE points spent to nab this attractive ape.
No, save your money by bidding on this auction. To top it off, I'll even toss in a protective sleeve for the card so that you can proudly show it off. This is one card that makes a statement, and that statement is "I support animals and wildlife, especially when those animals get me in-game items for World of Warcraft and happen to trample smaller allies when they're played in the trading card game."
Bear with my puns
My penchant for unnecessarily long product descriptions started when I hawked my wares in WoW, but recently I've found that the tendency carries over to my eBay listings as well.
Fantasy games are supposed to be fantastical. World of Warcraft lets you ride around on huge bats, mechanical striders and more, but you never get a sense of accomplishment because they're mythical creatures that you've never seen before. Who knows what huge bats are like? Maybe they're actually really tame and love being ridden. Where's the challenge in that?
What you need is a mount that you understand, a mount that you can proudly show off and say "Yea, I caught this the other day. Oh, those giant claws and teeth? No big deal, I was able to wrestle him down with my BEAR hands! Oh ho ho ho!"
If you haven't guessed already, what I'm offering you is The Red Bearon, a rare card from the World of Warcraft TCG's Drums of War set. Now when I say rare, I mean rare: the chance you'll find one of these bad boys is just 1 in every 363 booster packs you open. Let me do the math for you: if you were to try to farm this, it would cost you over $900.
So save your real-life gold and plop down a bid on this real-life card. Not only do you get a sweet card for the TCG game (come on, an armored bear?) but you also get an unlock code for an in-game bear mount. Whether you're gnome, blood elf or orc, you're bound to look badass when friends and foes alike see you strolling down the thoroughfare with this bad boy: http://www.wowhead.com/item=49282#screenshots:id=144648 .
"But why would I bother this this mount," you say, "when I already have one I love?" Well bucko, if you're already happily mounted then I don't know why you're looking on eBay for other mounts but I'm not here to judge. I will say that if you personally don't care about riding this sick bear around Azeroth, then maybe you know a friend who does. A friend with lots of gold burning a hole in his pocket. A friend you could sell this mount to, because the item this card gives you is bind-on-use. Sell it at your leisure, or just dangle it above your enemies' heads as they grovel at your feet and offer you exorbitant amounts of gold for it!
Of course, if you're already rolling in dough, you can still lavishly flaunt it without opening a trade window. Using this mount will count towards the Mountain 'o Mounts achievement, an easy way of saying "Yes, I do have a veritable mountain of bears. Don't you?"
Bid on this now and you'll be entered in the running for The Red Bearon card in perfect condition, unlock code intact and unscratched. To preserve its integrity on the long journey to your mailbox, I'll even toss in a protective sleeve (think of it like bear armor for your armored bear).
The best examples stem from food or money
SarcasticSteven: there exist many different kinds of [data structure] trees
SarcasticSteven: some of which end up having very complicated insertion and deletion methods
SarcasticSteven: but which ensure that the tree is balanced, which ends up being a very important quality
SarcasticSteven: it's like if you had the choice between two burrito lines at warren [dining hall]
SarcasticSteven: one line goes moves slightly faster than the other one, but has a chance of giving you food poisoning
SarcasticSteven: it doesn't matter that that line is slightly faster
SarcasticSteven: you're never going to pick the food poisoning line
SarcasticSteven: a tree that can ensure that it is balanced doesn't suffer from worst-case search times
SarcasticSteven: and so the extra overhead of insertion and deletion (for example, the rotation you do) is worth that guarantee
Chapter 1 – How Science Makes Progress
These are the notes I took for the first chapter of my astronomy textbook. I call it Chapter 1 - How Shit Gets Done .
- The Scientific Method
- WATCH SHIT Observe a natural phenomenon
- EXPLAIN SHIT Develop hypotheses
- PREDICT SHIT Make predictions for each
- TEST SHIT Experiment with or reobserve the phenomenon to test the hypotheses
- REDO SHIT Compare results, refine hypotheses
- SHIT DON'T STOP Since hypotheses can always be refined, the scientific method is never-ending
- CAUSE SHIT AINT DONE A theory can never be considered final
- The Nature of Science
- SHIT FIXES ITSELF Since models are always being refined, science is self-correcting
- IF SHIT'S GOOD, SHIT CAN BE WRONG Theories also must be falsifiable and lead to further understanding, not merely serve as an explanation
- THIS WAY SHIT GETS GOOD This leads to an increasingly accurate description of nature
- LIKE I SAID, SHIT AINT DONE However science does not produce absolute truth, since none produced are final
- BUT SHIT STILL SORTA EXPLAINS STUFF Instead, we glean tentative descriptions of phenomena
- GIVE IT TIME, SHIT GETS GOOD Over time it will still reveal the objective truth
Masochism
My life has been marked by lack of ambition. There is simply nothing I want thoroughly and continuously enough to diligently work for it day after week after month after year. I want things that make me happy, but that isn't the same as needing them.
The distinction between want and need was one instilled in me by my parents early on, when I would rarely get things that my whims decided they wanted. I learned that really, I don't need much at all. Most things are wants, and I can do without them. I'll live without them. Don't fret if you don't get it.
What if I have applied this rule too liberally to my life? What if, in my (successful) attempt to insulate me from the pain of dejected desires I caused myself to never really deeply desire anything?
I know that is a false statement, though. There have been things I have wanted and believed in with all my heart, but as scars are wont to do, the failures are the ones that make themselves constantly evident to me. I believed in them, devoted myself to them, was willing to do anything for them. I turned myself into things uncharacteristic and unimaginable for them. And yet those causes were wrong. Totally, utterly wrong.
When I now look at them, I recoil. They make me unsure of whether I can ever again really trust my judgment. I recall the certainty with which I elevated my position, and the ruinous falls that would follow. How could I ever be sure of anything again? How could I ever pledge myself to something again?
It's not that I don't, but I feel like it has become too easy for me to abandon them if I need to. That when they're declared void, I simply don't care. It doesn't affect me.
I don't know why I'm fine. In a way, the fact that I am fine makes me think I am otherwise. The absence of feeling loss is what troubles me. All I feel is that, well, you didn't really need them. You may have wanted them, but the fact is that you already have all you need. You had no idea of knowing whether they would have been any good for you in the first place, and there's no use pining for losing what was ultimately a gamble. You ought to just keep on rolling the dice.
Do I not invest myself in people and causes anymore? Have I reduced them to dice, ready to be followed or forsaken according to whatever result happens to show up? Because I think it should hurt more than this.
Jetlag
Only jetlag and final papers can cause me to be conscious for a sunrise, and final papers don't allow me the liberty to walk over to the BU bridge, hop the construction fence and take pictures of the beauty.
Japan, to
Sure, I let the end of my junior year go by without a single word to reminisce. And my summer web development job. And my trip back to NYC.
But all of that was the prelude to the main event, my trip to Japan. I leave tomorrow (today, Friday, really) and will be gone for a week with my brother, mom and aunt. Thanks to the time difference, my 14 hour nonstop flight to Tokyo will effectively take a day to get there and mere minutes to return. I will be taking meticulous notes linking my pictures to their descriptions based on time and date taken, because it's unlikely that after the week-long trip I'll remember in what context I took that picture of Hello Kitty or what caption I thought up for that strange mechanical contraption that looks vaguely like a sex toy.
Things I definitely want to cover:
- Pachinko. I don't like gambling...but this is less gambling and more Peggle/Plinko + cute prizes!
- Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. This sounds incredibly dull but AHHH MODERN ARCHITECTURE! Should be right near our hotel.
- DrumMania. Fuck yea, drums. There is no way I am going to pass up the chance to try out the precursor to Rock Band. My brother may link up with GuitarFreaks, but I don't think either of us will try out KeyboardMania...BeatMania was bad enough.
- VENDING MACHINES
- Maid cafe? None of us speak fluent Japanese so this may be more awkward than it's worth. And we can't take pictures inside them anyway.
And as for you, viewers, just pray that my shutter finger is itchy and I don't collapse from the extreme humidity over there this time of year.
Anime Boston 09
This year was the first time I really got my full share of Anime Boston. The past two years I went to the convention, I simply milled about the dealer's room and Artist's Alley, perusing the wares with the presence of mind to only pick out a few select gifts for friends. The convention was just such a big event, my natural instinct was to take it slow and enjoy the scenery.
However I had had enough of just getting my feet wet, and so this year I went to the early badge pickup in preparation for making sure I would be able to see everything I wanted to. Did it work out that way? No, because I'm a lazy bum who hates waking up at a reasonable hour. But I did mark out everything I wanted to see, and then followed that whenever I did get out of bed. (Since Anime Boston is held just a few T stops away, it didn't feel like I was wasting massive travel + hotel expenses on sleeping in.)
As with any good con, there was a variety of cosplaying, from the intricate to the overdone to the creepy to the hilarious.
The last is my requisite picture with something cute yet slightly creepy, as I had done the year prior. Apparently the Hello Kitty dude is from an anime called Hetalia: Axis Powers, but I didn't know that at the time. I had simply seen this random guy in a big Hello Kitty helmet all over the place, and finally decided that I should take a picture with him. Yes, anime conventions are the one place you can walk around in a school uniform with a giant Hello Kitty helmet and be considered awesome even if no one recognizes who you're supposed to be.
Interestingly enough, my favorite parts of the event were not anime at all. Two charismatic personalities ran an alternative roleplaying system panel (titled Beyond D&D), which was entertaining in itself but also gave my friend Elliot a few new ideas and sparks of inspiration for future campaigns.
On the second day made it a point to see the Death Note live action movie, which I approached very tentatively at first, since I'm usually not a fan of the typical over-the-top acting in Asian live action media. I was pleased to find that it was over-the-top in all the right ways, and followed the plot of the anime/manga quite faithfully even when changing elements to better suit the medium. There was plenty of enthusiasm from the crowd that watched it, which can be both a blessing or a curse, depending on whether you can actually discern the movie's dialogue over fangirl squealing.
Interestingly enough, Anime Boston also had a formal ball, dubbed the Black Orchid Ball. The dress code consisted of suits, ties and dresses, but also encompassed formal cosplay. This meant military uniforms, kimonos, princess gowns (not Sailor outfits though). What did this mean? It meant that everyone in the room would look absolutely delicious.
The other big draw of the ball was that the dancing was also formal. As in, ballroom. A part of me was like, "What, those ballroom classes finally have some application in the real world? Score!" This part of me was quite ecstatic, and as soon as I learned about the ball it became the one event I made a point to attend.
The actual ball itself was a bit of a letdown, not because there weren't enough people but because there were
I still enjoyed the dances I did steal, got a refresher on the dances that I already knew, and finally learned how to waltz! (It really does feel like gliding.)