I've been struggling with this freaking paper for the past four days. It is the hardest nut I've ever had to crack. What's curious about this particular struggle is, that for the last four days, I have been continuously distracted by one of my doodles of Hoss. It's like I've never doodled anything so magnificent in my life. In my anguish, I plea to the doodle to stop staring at me. But it doesn't. It won't. It's consuming me. Tearing apart my insides like only four days of short, disturbed sleep and an illness in my respiratory system can. I fear if I am to lose this battle of will and descend into madness, this is the face that will look at me, failed and frail, and laugh. And as I stare back into its pitiless eyes I will see only the abyss, staring back; and I will ask - who is the cartoon here? The silly drawing on the paper with its infinite gaze or the silly man in his seat slowly dying from stress? I can only wish this paper - this quarter - ends before I do.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Dangit
I've been struggling with this freaking paper for the past four days. It is the hardest nut I've ever had to crack. What's curious about this particular struggle is, that for the last four days, I have been continuously distracted by one of my doodles of Hoss. It's like I've never doodled anything so magnificent in my life. In my anguish, I plea to the doodle to stop staring at me. But it doesn't. It won't. It's consuming me. Tearing apart my insides like only four days of short, disturbed sleep and an illness in my respiratory system can. I fear if I am to lose this battle of will and descend into madness, this is the face that will look at me, failed and frail, and laugh. And as I stare back into its pitiless eyes I will see only the abyss, staring back; and I will ask - who is the cartoon here? The silly drawing on the paper with its infinite gaze or the silly man in his seat slowly dying from stress? I can only wish this paper - this quarter - ends before I do.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Happy Chinese New Year!
YES!!!
It's gonna be a tough year for nearly everyone, that son of a bitch ox, but if we approach each challenge in usual A-men fashion then every sunset will be as orgasmic as the last.
It's gonna be a tough year for nearly everyone, that son of a bitch ox, but if we approach each challenge in usual A-men fashion then every sunset will be as orgasmic as the last.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Look at these freaking kids
All these hipster college kids and their crazy nonsense.
University Lipdub (HS Furtwangen) from DASKAjA on Vimeo.
University Lipdub (HS Furtwangen) from DASKAjA on Vimeo.
Good Short Movie
Here's a short kung fu flick I came across. Not bad for something shot with a phone's video camera.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true or is it something worse?
Oh, what could've been. Past midnight yesterday, Wakefield calls me up:
"Alex. Did Hoss tell you about tomorrow?"
"No. What's going on?"
"We're going down to San Diego tomorrow night. Are you in?"
And just like that, my next two days were set up. By the afternoon of the next day i made a call to Hoss to see what the plan was. I don't remember exactly how the conversation went, but here's the gist of it: at night Wake would pick up me and Hoss. From there we would drive on down to UCSD. We'd then magically call Jin or Olivia or whomever, despite not having their numbers, and then hope that one of them would take Hoss and me in for a night while Wake sleeps 'til morning at his fling's place.
Problem with that, of course, is our reliance on something that, for one: was highly unlikely; and two: was completely impossible. Why the crap would Jin or Olivia let two guys they hardly talk to sleep over? And, of course, how the crap would we contact them without their contact information?
So the plan, as I rephrased it, went like this: Wake was gonna go to San Diego to sleep and along the way he'd drop me and Hoss somewhere on campus and we'd be left to fend for ourselves.The plan was awry. It was logically flawed. Moreso than our usual projects. Yet it did not deter for one second my intentions to go on this adventure - for it was truly an adventure like no other. For once in a long while I would be in a sticky situation where, depending on how compliant the A-men would be, we could've achieved outrageous success or vicious consequence. But no matter what, memories would've been made. That's priceless stuff. But tonight, it was not meant to be.
I call Wakefield when I return from class and I expressed my opinion on the sketchy plans of the night. Now that's something I probably shouldn't of done 'cause he took it the wrong way and got mad at me. I guess he figured he was doing me a favor by taking me on this trip. He also understood the ridiculousness of the idea so that turned him off the ordeal. In the end I let Hoss decide for me. I'm still in my seat in Irvine. Adventureless.
But of course nothing is as it seems when Wake's involved - a lesson I keep forgetting. Why, even stretching back to the San Francisco trip when he conspired to meet with a girl named Teddy, stringing me along with his devious plot, he always played a layered game. Only his games were full of trap cards.
And we're always helpless kuriboh.
Tonight is, again, one of those nights. Though I wish I could be there in the heat of battle, I've learned through years of friendship that Wake's affairs are best left for Wake to handle - for a Wakefield mess is a mess like no other. Built by a madman with hands made of tiny ants, his is a tangled affair of poisonous rope and creaky pulleys, each attached to cage of scorpions, where the slightest jolt and tug catapults the venomous critters straight to the groin.
Depending on how tonight plays out, Wake will walk away with his full groin, half his groin, or no groin at all. Regardless, I wish him the best of luck. He'll need it. To save his groin.
I will say that I am just a slight bit disappointed. Not so much my wasted time. Not so much my not being on an adventure. Rather, the reasoning we use to not participate in this adventure - reason itself. It did not stand to reason for Wake to drive over to Hoss' place, then my place, and then to SD, where me and Hoss would be abandoned for awhile, then in the afternoon leave early for Hoss to make it to his class. Unreasonable.
It is a shame, and a disappointment, to realize even we A-men are subject to the will of the world. Adventure died today (for me and Hoss) in the face of reason. I can only wait for the next opportunity a rare occasion like this will come along.
"Alex. Did Hoss tell you about tomorrow?"
"No. What's going on?"
"We're going down to San Diego tomorrow night. Are you in?"
And just like that, my next two days were set up. By the afternoon of the next day i made a call to Hoss to see what the plan was. I don't remember exactly how the conversation went, but here's the gist of it: at night Wake would pick up me and Hoss. From there we would drive on down to UCSD. We'd then magically call Jin or Olivia or whomever, despite not having their numbers, and then hope that one of them would take Hoss and me in for a night while Wake sleeps 'til morning at his fling's place.
Problem with that, of course, is our reliance on something that, for one: was highly unlikely; and two: was completely impossible. Why the crap would Jin or Olivia let two guys they hardly talk to sleep over? And, of course, how the crap would we contact them without their contact information?
So the plan, as I rephrased it, went like this: Wake was gonna go to San Diego to sleep and along the way he'd drop me and Hoss somewhere on campus and we'd be left to fend for ourselves.The plan was awry. It was logically flawed. Moreso than our usual projects. Yet it did not deter for one second my intentions to go on this adventure - for it was truly an adventure like no other. For once in a long while I would be in a sticky situation where, depending on how compliant the A-men would be, we could've achieved outrageous success or vicious consequence. But no matter what, memories would've been made. That's priceless stuff. But tonight, it was not meant to be.
I call Wakefield when I return from class and I expressed my opinion on the sketchy plans of the night. Now that's something I probably shouldn't of done 'cause he took it the wrong way and got mad at me. I guess he figured he was doing me a favor by taking me on this trip. He also understood the ridiculousness of the idea so that turned him off the ordeal. In the end I let Hoss decide for me. I'm still in my seat in Irvine. Adventureless.
But of course nothing is as it seems when Wake's involved - a lesson I keep forgetting. Why, even stretching back to the San Francisco trip when he conspired to meet with a girl named Teddy, stringing me along with his devious plot, he always played a layered game. Only his games were full of trap cards.
And we're always helpless kuriboh.
Tonight is, again, one of those nights. Though I wish I could be there in the heat of battle, I've learned through years of friendship that Wake's affairs are best left for Wake to handle - for a Wakefield mess is a mess like no other. Built by a madman with hands made of tiny ants, his is a tangled affair of poisonous rope and creaky pulleys, each attached to cage of scorpions, where the slightest jolt and tug catapults the venomous critters straight to the groin.
Depending on how tonight plays out, Wake will walk away with his full groin, half his groin, or no groin at all. Regardless, I wish him the best of luck. He'll need it. To save his groin.
I will say that I am just a slight bit disappointed. Not so much my wasted time. Not so much my not being on an adventure. Rather, the reasoning we use to not participate in this adventure - reason itself. It did not stand to reason for Wake to drive over to Hoss' place, then my place, and then to SD, where me and Hoss would be abandoned for awhile, then in the afternoon leave early for Hoss to make it to his class. Unreasonable.
It is a shame, and a disappointment, to realize even we A-men are subject to the will of the world. Adventure died today (for me and Hoss) in the face of reason. I can only wait for the next opportunity a rare occasion like this will come along.
Wake, Wake, Wake....
Wakefield, although you are probably in the ICU or morgue, I will write this anyways.
You are a brave soul. Driving a hundred miles to get your ass kicked...that takes balls. If it is any consolation, at least you're going out a man. A dumb man, but a man nonetheless.
I'm just messing Wake, but seriously, you are going to get your butt kicked.
Godspeed Wakefield. Godspeed.
Smackdaddy V
You are a brave soul. Driving a hundred miles to get your ass kicked...that takes balls. If it is any consolation, at least you're going out a man. A dumb man, but a man nonetheless.
I'm just messing Wake, but seriously, you are going to get your butt kicked.
Godspeed Wakefield. Godspeed.
Smackdaddy V
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
http://restructure.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/white-american-culture-is-general-tsos-chicken-and-chop-suey/
Hello, everybody. So this is my first post, and I'm not sure what to post about, so after some time of brainstorming and inactivity, I figure I'd post about this video. As we all know, food is necessary for daily sustenance. This necessity alone has led to the creation of many types of food that we know and love, like hamburgers and stinky tofu. These are only two of the many foods available to us.
Life without choice of food would be sad. What would be even more sad is that if immigrants couldn't bring their foods to other country. Unfortunately, this thought can lead to good and bad. Regardless of the fact, different variations of the original recipe specific to the home country have come about. The video above gives some examples of foods, the origins of which we rarely question. Of course, eating is more important. I just stumbled upon the fact that it's nice to have so many different types of food, authentic or not, like the fortune cookie. As a collector of the fortunes, I like to think that I appreciate both the authentic and the not, broccoli beef and
say gwai dou" (some sort of beans). I think it's all great and I hoep you think so too.
Hello, everybody. So this is my first post, and I'm not sure what to post about, so after some time of brainstorming and inactivity, I figure I'd post about this video. As we all know, food is necessary for daily sustenance. This necessity alone has led to the creation of many types of food that we know and love, like hamburgers and stinky tofu. These are only two of the many foods available to us.
Life without choice of food would be sad. What would be even more sad is that if immigrants couldn't bring their foods to other country. Unfortunately, this thought can lead to good and bad. Regardless of the fact, different variations of the original recipe specific to the home country have come about. The video above gives some examples of foods, the origins of which we rarely question. Of course, eating is more important. I just stumbled upon the fact that it's nice to have so many different types of food, authentic or not, like the fortune cookie. As a collector of the fortunes, I like to think that I appreciate both the authentic and the not, broccoli beef and
say gwai dou" (some sort of beans). I think it's all great and I hoep you think so too.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Youtube - What the hell?!
While I wait for youtube to process a 4 mb video I just uploaded (I've been waiting for about 3 hours, by the way), I'll go ahead and talk about youtube's new way to fight copyright infringement.
Copyright infringement in youtube has always been a problem, to copyright owners anyway. It's very easy to just post up a show, movie, or a song and gain at least ten thousand hits. Now, youtube has a new way to counter copyright infringement of music. They will analyze the audio in any video and if they find any audio that belongs to a copyrighted song, they will MUTE (yes, MUTE) the audio completely. I'm not really sure how they do this, but I think they check the audio against a huge database of copyrighted music, and if any audio from the video matches anything from the database, they will mute it. As you can imagine, this might take a lot of time, because there are terabytes of music out there, which why I'm guessing that they're taking so fucking long to upload and process my 4 megabyte, 50 second video!!! Muting audio on youtube might curb copyright infringement on music a bit. I don't know if they're doing this only for newly uploaded videos or if they will run audio checks against already existing videos. If they do mute the older videos, they will effectively be purging at least half of all youtube. Anything that has non-original music will be muted, and that includes short movies, video logs, anime music videos, and much more. Is this really a smart thing for youtube to do? The copyright holders might temporarily satisfied, but is it worth decimating the youtube community?
Copyright infringement in youtube has always been a problem, to copyright owners anyway. It's very easy to just post up a show, movie, or a song and gain at least ten thousand hits. Now, youtube has a new way to counter copyright infringement of music. They will analyze the audio in any video and if they find any audio that belongs to a copyrighted song, they will MUTE (yes, MUTE) the audio completely. I'm not really sure how they do this, but I think they check the audio against a huge database of copyrighted music, and if any audio from the video matches anything from the database, they will mute it. As you can imagine, this might take a lot of time, because there are terabytes of music out there, which why I'm guessing that they're taking so fucking long to upload and process my 4 megabyte, 50 second video!!! Muting audio on youtube might curb copyright infringement on music a bit. I don't know if they're doing this only for newly uploaded videos or if they will run audio checks against already existing videos. If they do mute the older videos, they will effectively be purging at least half of all youtube. Anything that has non-original music will be muted, and that includes short movies, video logs, anime music videos, and much more. Is this really a smart thing for youtube to do? The copyright holders might temporarily satisfied, but is it worth decimating the youtube community?
The New Smackdad
Okay, stupid Al made me do this so for the sake of time, I will simply give the world some insight into the mind of Smackdaddy V lately.
Over the past month or two, I have grown more and more irritable, snapping at people, nearly running over an Asian guy because he stole my parking spot, and generally being a complete asshole. There are many factors that led to this change...college life, chauffeuring people around, etc. etc., but the main reason is that I am fed up being the pushover in all my belonged groups (clubs, A-men, family, it does not matter). I bust my ass off for people with little to no recognition or appreciation and I've grown sick and tired of it.
So there you go.
Over the past month or two, I have grown more and more irritable, snapping at people, nearly running over an Asian guy because he stole my parking spot, and generally being a complete asshole. There are many factors that led to this change...college life, chauffeuring people around, etc. etc., but the main reason is that I am fed up being the pushover in all my belonged groups (clubs, A-men, family, it does not matter). I bust my ass off for people with little to no recognition or appreciation and I've grown sick and tired of it.
So there you go.
Wait a minute... haven't we done this before?
I just had a deja vu moment. I could've sworn we had some sort of google group that we were supposed to post to and keep in touch with. I think the link is somewhere in one of my old emails, but I know the group is still out there... somewhere... lost in the vastness of cyberspace...
On a sidenote, I am suddenly reminded that I once had my own geocities website devoted to the animes I liked. Geeky and nerdy, I know. But it's long since been deactivated due to neglect. What possessed me to create my own website, I do not know. The pre-Facebook years of high school must've been dull indeed. Haha...
On a sidenote, I am suddenly reminded that I once had my own geocities website devoted to the animes I liked. Geeky and nerdy, I know. But it's long since been deactivated due to neglect. What possessed me to create my own website, I do not know. The pre-Facebook years of high school must've been dull indeed. Haha...
Monday, January 19, 2009
Academic Paper Quandry
Alright so I initially thought it'd be fun to write an academic essay on drug dealing but now I'm not so sure. On one hand: I am curious how the homeless fella living in the park has his hands on some fancy ass coke but on the other hand there are three others writing about the drug trade. Yeah. Competition - that turns me off. Don't get me wrong - I love competition. I do. What I don't like is the notion that there are other people writing about the same topic. I figure - what the hell. Let them handle it. I can do something else. I just have to think of what that "something else" should be. Child porn? I don't think anyone's doing child porn. I dunno.
Now since it doesn't look like I'll be studying drugs anymore I was wondering if anyone out there can tell me just how do these homeless fellas get their drugs. Are there drug mills somewhere out there where hard-working Joes break their back and sweat it out harvesting crack rocks?
Now since it doesn't look like I'll be studying drugs anymore I was wondering if anyone out there can tell me just how do these homeless fellas get their drugs. Are there drug mills somewhere out there where hard-working Joes break their back and sweat it out harvesting crack rocks?
Friday, January 16, 2009
My Poker Universe
In my own personal universe, when it comes to poker, bluffing and poker faces do not exist. Before I expound on anything though, let it be known that I am not a professional gambler, and nor will I ever be. I play simply for fun using poker chips or coins, if poker chips aren't lying around. Here's what I realize about my strategy. I do not psychoanalyze other players' actions, facial expressions, and whatnot. I fold about one percent of the time, even if my cards are absolute shit. In addition, I always call or bet. Most of all, I know not know when to quit. But still, I won a crap load of chips. Just for tonight, I rejected poker reality and substituted by own, ignored all other cards except for mine, and played like I was gonna win every single hand. Of course, I did not. So what's my point? Although the cards dealt in poker are based on pure luck and the only real strategy involved is knowing when to play on and when to fold, I like to reject the folding part of the game. I mean, with respect to probability, each person has the exact same chance of winning each game, and if other players fold, then your own chances of winning increase. After all, statistically, it's very probable to get at least a pair each time. I obeyed statistics and statistics came out. I'll admit though, this is because there was no real money involved. Bottom line: in poker, statistics is greater than psychoanalysis.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Redo?
This blog was originally intended to be a sort of community-maintained newsletter, comprised entirely of fictitious events cooked up by the A-men. However, that fell to the wayside due to everyone's busy schedules. But I think - it doesn't have to end there. It doesn't have to be an abandoned project - we can keep this nonsense going. All we require is a change - so here's the new thing: this'll be an A-men group blog. We could go ahead and post whatever the hell we want. Vic, for example, can put up a picture of whatever smackable is on his mind one day and that'll be it. No explanations. No great story. Hoss could write about some kinda scientific nonsense. Me, why, I'll write about my day. No trickery. No embellishing. And every once in awhile a big old story - just like in the old days. I hope this thing takes off. Maybe it won't. But if it does it could be something special. I dunno.
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