Choices in games

There has been numerous discussions over the use of choice in gaming, whether it be a moral one or otherwise.

Here's a bit of what I'm talking about for those unclear.

I don't want to go into too much detail of the discussion, except my own opinion of it. I feel that games being the interactive media that they have the ability to make us reflect about the choice we make and reflect about us in particular. It's different from a movie or a book where we judge a characters' decisions and whatever happens happens, all for the sake of the narrative.

In most games, choices are boiled down to simple questions, big sword or big shield, money or power, good or evil, etc. Playing games often enough, I generally have a sense of which choice I'm going to pick even before they ask the question. (I'm good by the way.)

Anyway, this game comes along and throws me out of my comfort zone. Bastion

This is an amazing game. And I bought it for only $5.

Choice in this game reflects the idea that there is no right answer in the real world, and we have to make decisions regardless.

I want to discuss this here but I really don't want to spoil it for anyone who even is 1% interested in playing this game. Which is that case, BUY THE GAME, or tell me, I will get it for you.

ANW SPOILERS KTHXBYE.

there are essentially 2 points in time you have to make a decision. Here's a brief outline of what happened so far. There has been a great disaster that wiped out most of your people. You go around looking for things that will power your "bastion" or safe haven. You end up finding a few people who also survived and they will agree to go back with you. You find out that the disaster was a genocide attempt meant to wipe out a certain race of people but backfired, causing everyone to die instead. One of the people you rescued, who is that race targeted, finds out before you do and leaves, but not before he sabotages your safe haven. You after much salvaging, go after him, because he stole a thing that you need to keep the safe haven afloat. When you finally meet up with him, you see him being battered by his own people because they believe he brought you here, who at this point rips apart their defenses and soldiers. He is helpless and wounded and possibly dying. You on the other hand, are holding a weapon that requires 2 hands. You retrieve the magical item and the choice comes up.

Do you save him and forsake your weapon, which is your only defense, or do you carry him back and leave your weapon.

For me, this choice was fairly simple because I am a straightforward good guy. The only difficult part about this choice was that he was not particularly my friend at this point, after all he did sabotage my bastion and also some other hurtful things (even though he was not wrong to do so).

After you return home (with or without him) you learn that the magical thing that you found powers a machine which again with 2 options.

To restore the world to a time before the disaster, or to evacuate into the new (albeit more or less destroyed) world.

I was genuinely stuck at this question because I grew attached to the characters (courtesy of the amazing storytelling) by the end of the game and restoring would mean that I would not know these same "people". But to escape is to leave it in ruins and that's also not acceptable. This was a choice that had no slant towards good nor evil and so most of the things I have become used to was now useless. This became a difficult decision just like that. So I'm stuck.

My brother happened to be in the room so I asked his opinion. He said, If you go back in time, how would you know that it wont happen again? And that struck a chord in me.

So I chose to evacuate. And I felt like the game somehow rewarded me, because the achievement I would got for completing the game was titled

The Beginning.

SIDW

When you have forgotten someones name, simply say : "I'm sorry, but what was your name one more time." They may act offended, but when they give you there first name you simply reply "No, I meant your last name." (more socially acceptable to forget). Bingo. First and last names.


If you park in a large parking garage/shopping centre, get out and take a photo on your cell phone of the nearest parking sign (Area B2, etc). You will never lose your car again.


In class, if it's a presentation where someone has to present without looking at notes or anything like that, and while they're up in front of classroom presenting, some people forget what they're talking about, space out, freak out, and lose their train of thought. To counter this, nod your head at the end of each sentence they say, confirming what they're saying. They will somehow use this as a motivator and 9 times out of 10 will keep presenting without fault.

If you're in a crowded social group, restaurant, bar, party etc... and you want to know if someone is checking you out try this:

Turn sideways from them (they will be either 90 degrees right or left of you), then very obviously, look at your watch (even if you don't wear one, lift your wrist) then point at your watch and nod thoughtfully. Over acting is perfectly acceptable.

If they are keeping tabs on you, even peripherally, they will have a sudden urge to know the time and will either look at their own watch, cell phone, or casually look at the various obvious places where someone would put a clock.

I'm a paramedic. When a patient is possibly faking unconsciousness we have 2 tricks to determine if they're really unconscious or not. First, you can lightly brush their eyelashes with your finger. Their eyes will flutter if they're faking it. Alternatively, if they're on their back you can lift their arm over their face and let it go. A conscious person will drop their arm away from their face.

Finally, a trick to see if someone is faking a neck injury or neck pain. Put a thermometer in their mouth while checking their vitals, then ask them a yes or no question while looking them in the eyes. If you aren't looking directly at them they tend to answer with a strained "uh-huh" or "unh-uh", but if you're looking directly at them they will usually nod their head. Someone who is faking the pain can do this with ease.

And yes, there are a lot of calls where people fake pain, illness, etc. for various reasons...

The door-in-the-face technique. The general idea is that you ask someone for a huge favor which you're relatively confident they'll say no to. Then you ask them for a small favor.

Subjects who initially refuse the huge favor have a much higher compliance rate on the small favor than if you just ask directly for the small favor or if you present both at once.

If they end up saying yes to the huge favor, that's also good.

If I need to remember to do anything at all the next day I will put something in my room out of place. This works every time. Say for example I really want to remember to email my professor before leaving for class I will put a movie on the floor. I will initially think "Why is that-oh right email Ernie".

When trying to convince somebody to do something...offer them two options...either of which is OK with you. Humans have a hard time selecting outside of the given options.

Example: So, did you want me to pick you up at 7:00 or 7:30? Did you want me to pick up the $50 one or the $35 one?

"Nobody questions a man with a clipboard who looks like he belongs there"

A few months ago, a few local gas stations were robbed of all their red bull by a guy wearing a red bull polo and a clipboard. He walks in a tells the clerk that the red bull has expired and that he's replacing them. He loads the "old" red bull on a cart and leaves never to be seen again.

You would be shocked to find out how often "Hey look, a distraction!" works. Sure, they usually get mad right afterward, but I spent the time between them turning and catching on to what they just heard leaving the room.

Protip: it is best to do this next to a door, especially if you can get out of that door's line of sight quickly.

Proofread documents backwards. You'll catch more misspelled words.

Shit i didn't know, Courtesy of Reddit.com

p.s. Get a "Security" shirt.

To Do List: Big Ideas Edition

1) Learn to cook, at least at a basic enough level that I can either (hopefully both) cook for myself when I move out to a hostel, eventually my own house, and cook for my eventual couchsurfing host when I stay at their house.

2) Write a book about the life of my parents and the environment that they grew up in.

3) Learn a new language, either French or German.

4) Make more CouchSurfing friends

5) Put a (few) disposable cameras around Orchard Road and various other places for a single day and printing out the pictures.

6) Finding a new tumblr (or other) name/server so I can transfer, so that my potential readers can have a relatively (user-interface wise) better experience reading.

I'm still not 100% sure if I want to export the history to my new blog or just leave it here as part of history.

Quips

If I just found out about an issue and I have no opinion of it, would the first few opinions of others affect my own judgement? Would it be mildly immoral to want to find out about others' opinions so that I don't have to formulate my own and think too much about it?

Also, I'm looking to transfer this blog to a tumblr or wordpress style blog, but I'm not sure what to use as my url. Suggestions?

Vocals and Lyrics

Stupid stupid shit, on stupid stupid people

See, I have this friend, and he will definitely know I'm writing about him because he is pretty much the only person who reads this blog aside from the 20 hits I get from bots and IT programs very other week. I've heard him, and by him I mean you, say that it's easy to go back to being depressed or being numb or whatever whenever you, and by you I mean him, hear certain songs.

And I heard him, you, say that you, he, listens to the lyrics when it comes to music. Obviously, most of the sentimentality (I'm not sure if I'm using that word right), comes from the words. I, on the other hand, am more of a mixed bag of tricks. Because I have some kind of hearing deficiency that doctors have not yet identified, I can't pick up lyrics as easily as other people can, so I enjoy music that generally have a very nice tune.or rhythm. or melody. Basically everything but the lyrics. I can't remember words, almost as badly as I can't remember sounds. What I can do is mostly recognize songs, like in the first 2 seconds, which is a very weird trick. So, to be frank I'm less of a mixed bag of tricks, and more of a empty bag save a hammer. But hey, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

An interesting story about lyrics, or vocals to be more exact. One song I really enjoyed, and still do. is How To Save A Life By The Fray, so after listening for about 500 times, I decided to learn how to play the piano part. I was watching the tutorials on youtube when I noticed that after 4 "cycles" (I don't know what they're called) the melody repeated itself. Which I thought was strange, given that I have no training with any musical instruments (recorders don't count). So I listened to the full version again, and right at the part when the "cycle" is about to repeat itself, the guitars and the vocals pick up, masking the piano. That felt strange to me, but yet it reminded me of that Linkin Park song in the Transformers movie, the first one, not the other ones. That too had a starting melody that got covered up by louder instruments.

So, intrigued as I was, I blew out a puff from my smoking pipe (I didn't have a smoking pipe) and decided to play the other common pop songs at that point in time, which if I remember correctly was The Script. Interestingly enough, I found out that most (very obvious in The Script) songs actually feature the vocals as another instrument as opposed to rhythmic poetry. If you listen closely enough, most songs without vocals sound like a different song entirely, which is strange as it is. What the vocals does is that it takes the song in another direction tune wise, and makes it possibly more palatable. And that is why most pop songs actually feature very very bad instrumental versions.Because more often that not, the vocals play a key component of the entire melody.

"Now where are you going with this, old chap?" asked Watson, flustered. I paced around the room back and forth, trying to figure where the hell that voice came from.

Anyway, with this newfound understanding of the music world that I just blew you mind with, it becomes easier to appreciate songs as not so much entertaining poetry, but music which doesn't have meaning. But it's not as easy when you lack my (dis)ability. I suggest J-POP songs. Typically the only j-pop songs I picked up where openings from popular anime shows such as:

Pretty good for newbies, it actually has TWO words that you understand at the start and more if you listen on.

Also one of my favorites.

More ladylike, no less, um, loud?

Also more recommendations, Opening from Tenga Toppa Gurren Lagann, and the collected works of FLCL (which is the full name of the anime just FLCL). the entire album of FLCL is pretty awesome. There was also an opening from Gundam SEED which I can't seem to remember.

Disclaimer: I Don't Watch Much Anime, As You Might Think.

There is a side effect of listening to J-pop music though. When you eventually listen to the translated lyrics, it may turn out that the very hard rockish music are actually talking about some more fluffy idea like friendship and trust and some weird crap like that. Also another side effect, I will repeat those same wrong lyrics, loudly, and in public. This may not happen to you though.

I get that some people just like their music with a bit more meaning than just coordinated sound, I totally get that. I wish most things in life had a deeper meaning. But why keep doing it to yourself and feel sad, or nothing if that's what you feel. I used to be the same way. Intuitively, something told me that what I was listening to was affecting me at some level, whether conscious or not, and I steered the fuck away from those music. In fact, one of the songs I kept on repeat was "When It's Over" by Sugar Ray, which was very "happy" in some sense, but at least I felt like *meh* instead of *teardrops* or *cutting-myself-to-make-the-pain-go-away*. And the *meh* was very funny because that's how I would feel if I failed an exam at that time. Music has a strange way of reprogramming our moods, and trust me listening to happy music when you're sad does make you happy. People just don't do that because it doesn't "fit" with the atmosphere or they just want to go back and sulk or brood.

DEDICATIONS, BITCHES: to Zhengyang, because he's the only one who still reads my blog.

Taxi fare not fair

Lately, taxi companies have decided to increase fares. Actually, they phrased it as "revising their rates", which I naively thought not to be increasing fares. How naive of me. Anyway, as of now, I'm still not exactly sure what changed and what didn't. I was still trying to adjust to the last fare hike.

One interesting observation though, the loudest people complaining are the young people. Of course that could easily mean I haven't been talking to enough older people, which it does. Anyway, I find this interesting because  young people seem to be devastated by this, and it really sounds like they have been crushed by such an increase in fares.

Personally, I don't see this as such a bane as I would, perhaps a bus rate hike, because I see a taxi ride as a luxury. And if my economics hasn't failed me, it just means I will take less cab rides in the future. And when I really really want to do it, say for instance I have a lot of stuff to move, I'm still going to take a cab, the increase in fares isn't going to affect my decision much.

I think it affects young people that much is that we have started to see the taxi as interchangeable with buses and mrt, perhaps not to such a great degree, but people nowadays do take it at some kind of regularity. My parents and their generation tended to see taxi rides as something to be avoided, an unnecessary expense. I like to think like my predecessors as often as my values would let me. Sometimes, (i.e when I'm crazy) I wish I got married at 16 like the Arabs and the farmers in the past. Anyway, moving on, I do marvel at the regularity that some (of course not all) people who seem to take taxis every other week, think about it, you definitely know a few.

This doesn't "outrage" me because this is companies being the companies that they are. They are not supposed to look out for your welfare, they are supposed to look out for their profits. I have a GodGrandfather who is a taxi driver for as long as I knew him and retiring soon, and he doesn't make much, any way you look at it. Generally, from what I understand, nobody seems to profit from these fare hikes. Drivers lose more potential customers every time the price hikes, and they still have to pay back that same amount to the company, who in turn subsidize the petrol they use, which drivers will tell you is not enough. Taxi is an industry that is lose-lose, and you still expect the driver to smile at you.

I also don't get as outraged because this is actually, many of you don't know this, a trend in developed nations. Japan is one of the countries where taxis are so ridiculously expensive that people don't ever take it except for emergencies, such as late for interviews. I use the term "emergencies" loosely. To put it in perspective, The flag down rate for a Jap taxi costs 710 yen for the first 2km, close to $12sgd, whereas a Singaporean taxi would cost $2.80 + $0.60 for a 2km ride. Few places are known for taxis, the only one I can think of is New York City.

My third reason is that people who are less well off financially don't ever really need to take cabs so it doesn't cut an even bigger chunk of their already small amount of disposable income. I doubt you want to hear me elaborate on that.

I think I just wrote a GP essay without even really trying. I'm not going to write a conclusion.

Happiness

The search for happiness is dead. Stop looking for happiness. You will get there when you get there.

And until then.

Do things not because you think they will make you happy. Do things because you want to do them. And if you want to do nothing, do just that.

Because happiness will find you, not the other way around.

HPatDHp2

That is a terrible picture of Snape.

Finally got around to watching HPatDHp2. ON BLURAY. Tried out rigging my laptop to my tv for the first time. Pretty cool, except that the sound quality wasn't really as impressive and speaker kept producing the kind of sounds when u slap a piece of paper in mid-air, but only when the orchestral plays the really low sounds, so it didn't affect my much except when Voldemort BLEEPBLEEPBLEEPBLEEPBLEEP.

Set-up wise, the video was pretty awesome for a movie, very clear except certain parts it gets glitchy which is weird. The sound was quite low although I was pretty confident that can be fixed, because I intentionally kept the volume of my VLC player at 100% instead of 400% which is what i normally do, thinking that it might improve my sound quality. Ended up having to turn the volume on my tv up all the way to 100 (normally at 20) and resulted in the slap sounds, I THINK.

Story wise, it felt weird for a movie to feel too rushed and too dragged out at the same time. This is the first movie where I read the book beforehand so I knew what was supposed to happen where. And for future reference, ALWAYS watch the movie first, even though it's bad business for the author, I'm sorry to all authors. Movies will always be restricted by time and will always cut parts of a book out and this is no different. The pacing of the book was a little strange at the end, but because it was exciting, nobody questioned it mid-reading. In the movie, it becomes very obvious. There is a lot of back-and-forth not only between people but also between places so it feels stuck in some parts. The front, on the other hand, feels rushed. From Shell Cottage with Bill Weasley and his beautiful wife all the way to the conversation with Aberforth.

The visuals are obviously spectacular, except for any part with floating objects. I can't believe it's 2011 and we still haven't nailed down floating objects yet.

Something I want to give massive props to is the acting. Particularly that of Snape and Voldemort. Surprisingly for the end of the series, the protagonists' don't stand out in particular. Many times, it feels like this whole army of good guys (which while filled with all brilliant actors, all have too little screen time, another flaw of books-turned-movies) versus one person and his horde of cannon fodder.

Snape was great in this movie and the actor, I think, Alan Rickman deserves an Oscar. I think this might be the single best acting I have ever seen. The only other movie to have won the honor of being the best in something (in my mind) is the first 8 minutes of Up the movie. Specifically the best part was Harry reliving the memories of Snape. That short clip really took the cake. Even as I read the books, I never felt any sort of attachment to him as a character, despite what the fangirls out there would say. He was a good character in terms of character development but I just didn't like him that much.

Well, Alan Rickman's acting changed all that.

Voldemort also appeared pretty impressive, acting wise. First time seeing him as a desperate character, pretty good in my book.

All in all, great movie, disappointing on the not-enough-Emma-Watson department. : )

To Do List

As of now: Nothing. ORD LO.

Updates: The second I pasted the picture, my mom called me to help teach my cousin math.

You win this round, Universe.

Back And Forth

I think people generally assume that when we have a particular view on a subject now, it would not change over time. People give politicians a lot of flak for being inconsistent over certain issues and I can see why they might be upset. When someone running for office changes his stance, it could be misconstrued as trying to win over voters and become unreliable. "Is he saying that just to get my vote?"

But people do change their views, even without external influence. It's understandable that, say when perhaps someone bears children who develop mental retardation, their views on mental retardation would definitely change. But one thing people do not seem to understand is that people can in fact change their views without being influenced by anything. 

I believe it is human nature to be questioning. To be curious, if that's how you like it. And we, as the curious human beings that we are will apply that same attitude not only to others but also to our own viewpoints.

Something that I have noticed pretty often is that while some people do admit that they have "struggled" with a particular belief in the past, having gone back and forth several times, they inadvertently come back to the same conclusion that they have always held. I have never encountered or even heard about a single person who after much deliberation with himself, come to the opposite conclusion.

Sometimes when I see someone (usually politicians because they're the easiest to spot) stick to their guns and maintain their stand in spite of overwhelming evidence, I can't help but feel like he never really thought it through.

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool. 

Anyone who has given any serious amount of thought understands that there are serious flaws in his beliefs, and he believes it because the alternative has even more flaws. He who thinks knows that he could be wrong.

I think it is easy for people to remain absolute when they do not think about that particular topic much. Like me, for example. I like to think that in the abortion debate, I am a pro-choice person. But I never had to make that particular choice, nor anyone else around me. I used to believe that abortion shouldn't be taken off the table because a woman has a right to choose. To me, at that time, it was very simply an issue of choice, that one should not take a person's right to choose away from her. Abortion is more than that. It is about life. It is a very difficult question and even when I picture my hypothetical sister or girlfriend or wife making that choice (sorry, I just can't picture myself with such a responsibility as being pregnant), I, even hypothetically, am totally and utterly void of any coherent thoughts. I cannot think logically at that point, not even when I place myself at that hypothetical level.

How hard must it be for someone to deal with that?

The thoughts in this post was a lot more logical in my mind. I got distracted and by the time i got to writing it, which is only like 10 minutes later, it just became a string of vaguely connected points. Sorry if you read all the way and still have no idea what I wanted to say. I kind of forgot too.

Updates

Update: I am currently in the process of "acquiring" The Blu Ray edition Of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 so I will be more awed by the improved graphics.

P.S. I haven't watched any version of it yet. Except the book, in which case, I read it, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Note To Self

If you ever need information, call up the appropriate organization and pretend to be a reporter or director or writer.

Some information are harder to obtain because people naturally become defensive when being asked, like passwords, IC numbers and specific people's information, whether others' or self.

Anticipation

Currently I have Harry potter and the deathly hallows part 2 on my phone. I haven't watched it yet and I also didn't get to watch it in the theaters, as I would have liked because I couldn't get anyone to go with me. It's been on my phone for a month.

As much as I desperately want to watch it, I cannot bring myself to do so. There's too much anticipation and the bar has been set too high in my mind for this movie to ever reach. I'm expecting too much from this movie that it is as if I am forcing myself not to watch this, even though I want to very much.

This is a sick feeling. I feel dirty. Haha