Cryptic Experiment

Moderation is Good

2011-01-04T18:34:00.002-05:00

Why must people go toward extremes instead of moderation? No single person is absolutely good or evil, no issue is absolutely right or wrong. Anger pushes people past rationality, and people believe what they want to believe.

Perhaps we're all too easily colored by our own emotions, experience, and judgment to be neutral, to be moderates. All too often we're sliding toward the left or the right, while those in the middle dwindle under pressure.

Things Never Disappear From this Vast Sea

2010-12-14T01:30:00.002-05:00

Again and again I'm reminded that your digital footprints cannot be erased.

Such as this post.

Reflection and Retrospective

2010-12-12T01:52:00.003-05:00

It's been more than two years since I've posted on this blog.

It's quite strange to see this blog again, this spot of self-expression and teenage curiosity. What was uncertain then had come to pass, the hyperbole of thoughts that appeared seems to dwindle down to a more modest outlook. Tamer, perhaps.

It's always interesting to see how your thoughts evolve. I remember reading the journals written years ago and felt a sharp disbelief at my own immaturity. Looking through your pieces of mind and reflect upon them and be astonished may not be so surprising an event.

The Sky is Falling!

2008-10-12T15:02:00.002-05:00

The current state of the economy certainly makes it feel like the sky is falling. As world leaders are scrambling to do something, the public confidence is gone, and that is the biggest problem at hand.

It's Never Too Early to Freak Out About College

2008-09-20T15:13:00.003-05:00

While I was in physics the other day, I noticed that my neighbor had a list of colleges that were visiting the school, and a long list of college application results and enrollment stats of our school. Next to the application results list, he highlighted the colleges of interest, and he figured out the percentage of acceptance rate in our school from all the colleges.

When I commented on it, he smiled at me: "I'm a little bit freaked out about colleges now."

We are not seniors, but we're only a year away from being the oldest students in the school. But I always reckon that the environment of our school made people nervous about college. The school made it clear that it is a college-preparatory school, and they constantly remind us that everything we do from 9th to 12th grade is for the sake of applying to a college. Sure, I didn't think about colleges much in 9th grade, but after the PSAT in 10th grade, and receiving brochures from various colleges (a lot of them were from colleges I never heard before), the thought of college slowly began to sink in.

Now, as a junior, as I told my neighbor in physics, I'm totally freaking about about colleges.

So now I starts to gather information about my desired choices of colleges, I printed out the national rankings of the colleges and highlight the ones of interests. I looked at the common application forms and checked out the admission sites. While I do have an idea of what colleges I wish to apply to, it's still a hazy plan. So much can happen in the course of the year that can change your mind. Then there's my childish fear of "what if I completely screw up this year?", "what if I flunk the SAT?", and "what if _______ University rejected me?", all of which added to my fragile anxiety. While it's good to get an early start on thinking about college, sometimes I think my actions and researches could be a bit over the top.

And sometimes I look back, and it just dawn on me again and again that everything I worked for in high school is just basically in preparation for college. Then everything I work for in college will be about getting a good job, and everything I work for in a job will be about getting the bills paid. Everything is just a cycle, man, just a cycle.

Facebook Voyeurism

2008-08-31T18:32:00.003-05:00

I'm not a big fan of social networks---especially MySpace. Perhaps my dislike of social networking sites is stemmed from my hatred of MySpace, because MySpace have always seem idiotic and ugly to me since I first saw it. And no, I don't have a MySpace, and I would probably never have one, unless it's for business usage.

But, I was more tolerant of Facebook, who is now on par with, if not exceeded, MySpace in popularity. And I would say that Facebook is better stylistically and it's more "safe" than MySpace. At least you don't have to see inane usernames splatter across your screen.

I'm sort of a late comer in Facebook, I signed up several months ago to see what the fuzz is all about, and didn't even edit my profile. I felt like a dummy seeing all the applications and whatnot, and I didn't even try to find friends. It wasn't until a friend asked me to be a friend that I actually did some work on my Facebook profile.

As I "friended" more people, one thing struck me: I was able to see my friends' every move on the news feed.

"__________ wrote something on _________'s wall:
'lol, _____, i haven't c u in a long time!'"

"_____ and ________are now friends."

"____ took the IQ test!"

Okay. That's a little voyeuristic to me, seeing my friends' every move on Facebook being reported to me. While it wasn't anything explicit, but I got the feeling that I was peeping too much at their lives. When I update my profile, the same thought pop into my mind: they're going to see what I did with my Facebook too.

Facebook implemented this feature so we can keep in touch with friends, and surely we want to know their every move, and that we can immediately write witty comments on their recently uploaded photos. But, I found myself hesitating now to post anything dramatic or private,* seeing that everyone will know.And that's the reason that my profile still only includes my birthdate, my school, and almost nothing more.

Perhaps I'm getting old and getting paranoid.

*Of course, you should never post anything too private (like your mating habits) on any social networking sties.

OMG, A Woman as Vice-President?

2008-08-29T15:41:00.003-05:00

I just got back from my adventure outside, hit the net, and found out that McCain chose Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, as his running mate.

It's obvious why McCain chose a female as his running mate: to get the votes of those disenchanted Hilary supporters, as well as any other potential female voters. McCain has been trying to get the Hilary-votes over to him, and this may actually close the deal.

I will be paying attention to the Republican National Convention next week. After watching the speeches of the Democrats, it's time to see the Republicans got up their sleeves.

BIden is Obama's Running Mate!

2008-08-23T09:40:00.004-05:00

So I checked my cell phone this morning, and as expected, I got a text message.

It was a neat little message that reads: "Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3PM ET on www.BarackObama.com. Spread the word! [03:28:11 AM]".

Great time to send a text message, guys! Maybe they're trying to be sneaky. I personally think that's kind of hilarious.

The senator of Illinois teaming up with the senator of Delaware. I can't say much about Biden yet, but I'm certain that I will be more familiar with him as November approaches. Now, McCain, please announce your running mate soon.

And You Can Be the First to Know!

2008-08-22T17:11:00.003-05:00

After hearing that Obama is expected reveal who his running mate is today, I signed up for his vice president text-alert (just text "VP to 62262). Though I'm not an Obama fanatic, that desire for immediate knowledge drove me to do it.

Maybe that's why I'm tensed up all day.

The way that Obama embrace technology is certainly giving him more connection to the younger, can't-live-without-my-cellphone crowd, and a large group of his supporters are indeed young voters. This ploy also gives the media more reasons to cover him, I mean, the coming reveal of Obama's running mate seems more publicized than McCain's. In the age of the Internet and technology, you can't just stick to TV ads and newspaper anymore.

Of course, this "first to know" text message plan is already boiling some hoaxes for giggles. Come on, Elliot Spitzer ain't a bad choice.

Reality Doesn't Always End in Happiness

2008-08-18T16:47:00.003-05:00

That's it, the most anticipated race will not happen. Liu Xiang pulled out of the 110 hurdles because of his injury.

We missed the live footage of his preliminary race, but when we switched back to NBC to see what's up, they were already showing Liu Xiang walking out of the stadium. Confusion soon turned into disappointment, then disappointment soon turned into sadness as we realized what happened: Liu Xiang's leg hurt so much that he didn't even finish the race.

My father and I were shocked, even though I had my irrational worries that something was going to happen in the preliminary, I didn't expect it to actually come true. A press conference quickly started about Liu Xiang, but no explanation was needed to feel the pain of Liu Xiang, his coaches, and us, the Chinese who waited four years to see this athlete soar. But fate's a bitch.

Disappointment aside, I respect and understand Liu Xiang's decision. It is my sincere wish, and I hope this is the wish of the majority of the Chinese---that Liu Xiang will heal completely, and that he will soar again.

Beijing Olympics: A Brief Retrospective

2008-08-09T14:00:00.005-05:00

The Beginning
Seven years ago, a nation named China erupted into joyous celebration when it was announced that Beijing would be the city hosting the Olympics in 2008. To this day, the image of Samaranch announcing the victorious bid of Beijing is still iconic and fresh in people’s mind.

I was still on that other side of the globe when that happened. It was sort of a blurry memory for me, but one thing I remembered clearly was the mood of the nation. Everyone was [i]happy[/i], everyone was proud. There was a distinct feeling in the air that China, a country that suffered so much in the past, was beginning to step into the international map.
Of course, billboards, advertisements, and propaganda banners began to appear. Various products began printing logos relating to the Olympics. I remember wishing that 2008 would arrive soon, in my young mind, seven years seems like a long time.

The Liu Xiang Moment

Fast forward to the summer of 2004 when the Athens Olympics were happening. My parents and I were sitting on our couch watching the 110 meters hurdles final. Another moment that shaped what’s to come in 2008 happened in the most surprising way. And this time, I remembered it extremely clearly (must be because I was older).
We noticed that there was actually a Chinese athlete in the final race. We looked at each other, and I remembered one of us saying “well, if he can get a bronze metal, that would be awesome.” Of course, there was no hope whatsoever in that happening, because historically Chinese has no place on the racing track.

As the competition started, we noticed the Chinese athlete was beginning to come to the front. Our jaws dropped lower and lower as he was dashing to the finish line, and froze in surprise when we realized that he just won the gold metal. Then we cheered.

That was one of those "where were you when _______ happened?" moments, yes it was.

The next day, all the Chinese newspaper had the front page news of “Chinese Athlete Liu Xiang Won Gold in Hurdles”. Now all the Chinese are hoping for the same headline this year. It is said that Liu Xiang is bearing the hope of gold of 1.3 billion Chinese, and it’s no melodramatic statement. To be honest, I’m not over confident that he will win gold, I would certainly collapse from nervousness if I were Liu Xiang.

Back to the Present

For the past few months, the advertisement for the games were virtually nonstop on Chinese television, and everything was tied to this big game. At one point I just threw up my hands and declared that I just wanted the games to start already. Believe, watching the same ad on television twenty times a day will drive you insane.

But now, the games have started, and everything that China worked for, everything that the Chinese are waiting for, everything that meant so much to us are happening. As my cousin said, everyone’s happy because “we’ve finally arrived at this moment”.

I Haven't Updated in a Long Time, So I'm Just Going to Share a Story

2008-08-04T14:36:00.003-05:00

Frankly, I didn't have anything interesting things to write about. But, I haven't write in my blog for almost two months now, so I guess I should write something so it doesn't feel like I abandoned this place.

I'm currently working in a community center in a housing development (yes, you can say that it's the projects) for the summer.The main job for me and the other co-workers are mainly to watch over the kids and do various small tasks. We all live in this housing development, so we know the people and the rules.

One day, a co-worker of mine saw a kid turning his computer monitor away from her whenever she approaches him, and there are other kids surrounding him. She suspects that the kid is watching porn. Maybe the kid was not cautious enough, he didn't delete his internet history. When we checked the computer, we immediately know that they were playing "sex games" on these computers.

Keep in mind that these computers are for public usage, and the people that uses these computers are mainly kids from 6-14.

Of course, we told our superior what happened. And guess what action was taken? Absolutely nothing was done.

There is a "board of directors" in this housing project, they were supposedly the representatives of all the residents living in the community. These board members were voted in by the residents, and they decide plans, improvements and such for the community. They are basically the aristocrats of the community, the management office and our superiors basically couldn't lift a finger on them.

It turns out that the kid that was watching porn was the son of a board member. Our superior didn't dare to do anything, even though the evidence is there and we all know that it's wrong what he did.

One of my co-worker was frustrated that the wrongdoer didn't get a consequence. The secretary was frustrated also. but he told her that this is the real world, and there's always a double standard.

Double standard indeed.

Democrates, Unite!

2008-06-08T16:10:00.005-05:00

Finally, after a long grueling battle between Obama and Clinton, there's a nominee.

Even better, Clinton is throwing her full support to Obama, a good move on her part, and a move that will hopefully patch up the cracks between her supporters and Obama's supporters.

Now the question is: Who will be Obama's running partner?

The first thing that I heard is that Clinton would be the ideal choice. From the beginning, I thought that Obama and Clinton '08 would be groovy, but then their rivalry became so tense that it was almost impossible to imagine the scenario. But the short period before Obama's win , this tension has somehow seemed to eased a bit. And now with Clinton's endorsement, it suddenly seems like these two can patch things up.

Of course, that will be Obama's decision. If he does run with Clinton, the supporters of Clinton will probably turn their heads and support him, the angry women that were so disappointed after Clinton's loss will once again vote for the Democrats.To make up his lack of votes from White women, older people, working class, and Hispanics, it seems like the best strategy will be asking Clinton to run with him. But on the other hand, the Clinton-haters that despited Bill Clinton, and sequentially hated Hilary Clinton, will probably be ticked off by this. Obama's message of change might even be overshadowed if he brought on Clinton, since Clinton doesn't exactly fit the "new politic" stance that Obama stood behind.

It's now five months till the November election, Obama needs to make a good choice.

On the other hand, who does McCain wants to go with?

Giving Us "The Slip"

2008-05-06T16:02:00.005-05:00

Well, there's finally an album that's "100% free".

On the early hours of May 5th, Nine Inch Nails gave the world "The Slip", a 10 track album acting "as a thank you to our fans for your continued support, we are giving away the new nine inch nails album one hundred percent free, exclusively via nin.com."

Unlike that other band that released a "free" album last year (folks, it's not completely free), "The Slip" seems like a more considerate and better served album than "In Rainbows". For one, there are several options with the quality of the tracks, and all of them are high-quality. There's artwork included in a PDF, shoot, they even give you the lyrics embalmed in the songs, so no need to purchase a CD for better quality or artwork of the album. And it's released under Creative Commons, so you can remix it and use it freely for noncommercial usage. The music ain't bad either: it's a blend of noise and melodies, music ranges from pretty piano ("Lights in the Sky"), to sullen ambient ("Corona Radiata").

And Reznor also offers the hard copy in CD form in July too, so that's good news for those of us that likes to have a physical copy.

Reznor's activities and antics lately brings contrast to another band that are credited with so much fanfare and "innovation": Radiohead. It was quite funny that the press will say a band has "pulled a Radiohead" whenever someone distributes music online. Sure, Radiohead was the first major artist to do this kind of online distribution, and they should be acknowledged. But it seems like that they're not completely comfortable with online distribution, and has no plans of further developing their method of online distribution.
The Thom Yorke said that "In Rainbows" was just a "one-off". Certainly, I was disappointed when I heard the news, but not surprised. I was a bit irritated that to remix "Nude", you have to pay for its stems, I mean, Radiohead has the potential and talent to be trail-blazers in this new digital world, but they don't want to reiterate themselves into the "In Raibows" world again. But who knows, Thom Yorke and Co. might try their hands on other interesting methods.

Oh well, there's still Reznor. He's fully believed in the whole concept of "digital distribution is the future", and has become a true innovator. The times are a-changing, and Reznor is taking his place as one of the first leader.

Indecision '08

2008-04-24T18:15:00.004-05:00

Now that the showdown between Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama is over, you would think that things would be more clear. But actually, the answer to the "who is going to get the Democratic nomination" question has only gotten more muddy.

Clinton
Even though Hilary Clinton won the Pennsylvania primary on Tuesday, I don't think it's a "big win". With 55% of the vote, Clinton certainly gained the momentum she needs to continue this race, but it's not a win so impressive that put her in first either. Her total delegate counts are still behind Obama, even though Clinton has more superdelegates under her belts now. She and Obama are basically going head to head, and this win in Pennsylvania only adds to her potential in the race. Hilary now has the reason to run, and the competition between her and Obama will probably have to be settled by the super delegates.

Obama
Perhaps the whole "Reverend Wright" thing has struck Obama deep, since now not only the public associates Obama with an extremist, but now Obama is more vulnerable to the attack from his opponents. In fact, there's already a a pretty negative ad in North Carolina. Then his "bitter" remark got his opponents going again. Even though polls indicated that his remark did not hurt him, he lost nevertheless.

So now the Democrats are stuck with no clear winner, and it is unclear about who is "best" for the party.

Electability
Both Clinton and Obama will be subjected to negative campaigns by the Republicans no matter who is the nominee. Clinton has the Lewinsky thing, her past voting records, and her image to worry about. While Obama has Reverend Wright, inexperience, Muslim conspiracies to worry about. Clinton has won the bigger and more populated states while Obama has won the smaller states. Some argue that Clinton will have a bigger chance to get the bigger states in November, and that will lead the Democrats into victory. Some argue that Obama will be more appealing than Clinton to both the young and the undecided votes. I honestly do not have a preference right now of who should be the nominee.

The fact of the matter is that the super delegates will probably get their hands on deciding who the nominee should be. From the beginning, I thought the super delegates are not the best idea to get the nominee, since it basically ignored the popular votes and lets public "democracy" goes out the door. It's quite unappealing that a few hundreds of powerful members gets to make the big decision (kind of like oligarchy, isn't it?) while the previous delegates goes to waste.

Well, while this is all going on, McCain is just sitting back and laughing.

Oh, My Media

2008-04-19T17:05:00.005-05:00

Of course most of the people in the West had heard about the Tibetan and human rights activists protesting in London, Paris and San Francisco during the Beijing Olympics Torch Relay. But while the camera of the West turned mostly to Pro-Tibet protesters, how many actually give the same coverage to the Chinese supporters who were waving the red flag on the sideline?

Right after the riots in Lhasa, the media immediately jumped and talked about the cruelty and the bloodshed that the Chinese police brought upon the Tibetan protesters, some even calling it "peaceful protests" on the Tibetan's part. Right, tearing down buildings, burning shops, and attacking the Hans are really peaceful. While reading the newspapers and sites of the West, I realized that they mostly focused on the Tibetans, and many did not mention the Hans that were attacked, injured, and those Hans that were killed by the rioters. Well, maybe I'm not paying close enough attention.

Then,media of the West began using various misinformation when reporting the Lhasa riots. Cropping our the violent part from the picture so it seems like the Chinese police are cracking down on the Tibetans (CNN), identifying the Nepal police as Chinese police (Germany), and saying an ambulance is a police car (BBC). I'm quite baffled by their "professionalism", and to see more of these "honest mistakes", you should see this video that was complied by the Chinese students in the West:

Then it comes the torch relays, protesters dominated the Western press, I didn't really know that there were Chinese supporters in London and Paris until I read the Chinese newspaper.Well, maybe I didn't pay enough attention again. Soon because of this, Chinese nationalism is rising, to the point of extreme. Boycotting CNN and French goods, and in one case, Chinese students are actually threatening another Chinese student of being a "traitor" in a gathering of both sides. Most of it went on unnoticed by the Western media, and it only makes the Chinese even more angry.

Well, now they actually does report the rallies by the Chinese supporters, but the catch is in its title: "Anti-French rallies across China", such a good title to depict Chinese supporters, isn't it?

Some Quick Words on the Tibetan Uprising and the Olympics

2008-03-19T19:03:00.006-05:00

Everyone had heard about it by now, Minorities in Tibet are protesting and violently rioting on the streets of Lhasa. And it seems like it's not stopping.

I've been exposed to both the Chinese media and the Western media about the news. Both have their own distinct tone and view, and I don't trust both. The Western media will always have a negative light on China, and China's media is government-controlled. With this say, I honestly don't know what side I'm on.

With this wave of violent protest, I wonder if the Olympics will be as smooth as the government promised. And there's this sort of sadness in me to see this, since as a Chinese myself, I'm proud that China had actually have the opportunity to host the Olympics. To see people considering boycotting the Olympics and seeing people using this opportunity to act violently seems a bit...disheartening.

Some people did not get why the Chinese government cared about the Olympics so much. Well, the Chinese cared about it so much is because of national pride. China was a country that was oppressed by the West and was invaded by Japan, its people have suffered humility and oppression for a long time. Well, now it's the time for China to shine, for China to show off its wealth. To prove to the world that it's no longer a country of regression but a country of progression. It's not just about the Chinese in China, it's also about people like me, immigrants that are far away from their homeland to feel (somewhat vicariously)like they're part of a strong nation.

It will certainly be interesting to see how China will handle the Olympics. I'll be watching closely, whether people boycott it or not. Then again, my opinion is not objective either.

Oh My God, It’s Ghosts!

2008-03-09T12:22:00.012-05:00

My Story

A week ago at around 9:00 PM, I was among the many NIN fans that screamed “oh my God!” into their computer screens. That’s right, Nine Inch Nails actually released an album, I mean, albums, online last Sunday.

Reznor had been hinting on something big for a couple of weeks prior to the release of Ghosts I-IV. At around 7:10 PM on March 2nd, he posted “2 hours” on his blog, I was expecting something by the 9’0 clock hour, but not something this big.

When I connected to www.nin.com at about 9:00 PM, the site changed pretty drastically. And more importantly, there was the text that said “Ghosts I-IV is available RIGHT NOW” on my computer screen.

I froze for a second to take it all in, but then I immediately went to the fan forum, and of course, people exploded. I typed in some inane comments about how excited I was and went straight to nin.com to get my hands on Ghosts.

But alas, it was not that easy.

I was able to cruise past the options page that listed all the editions that you can choose from. I clicked on the $10.00, 2 CD option and tried to proceed, but the pages after that couldn’t even load. Apparently most of the people have the same problem as me, because the site was so congested with people trying to order. The early birds that did get their order through reported that they have trouble downloading the files. It was chaos and confusion.

Then we came to the conclusion that we broke the NINternet , LOL.

However, I did managed to listen to the few selected tracks at AinR, and I was delighted with new music. After I calmed down a bit, I read more into the release: it is a 36 tracks instrumental album described as “music for daydream”.

Dude, that’s trippy.

I had the burning desire to own the album, to listen to it, so I went over to Amazon to buy the album for $5.00. Loaded it into my iPod, and I was amazed at the variety, the texture, and the depth.

I was able to get my order through the next day after one failed attempt. But problems didn’t end there, even though I received my receipt, my download link is nowhere to be seen (as I’m writing this, I still don’t have the download link). But I let that go, because I already got a MP3 version and managed to snatch the Apple Lossless version that I wanted from somewhere else. I got what I paid for, even though it wasn’t from the download link.

Here Comes the Analytical Stuff
The first thing that the press said about this release was that NIN pulled a “Radiohead”. While it is an acceptable analogy, there are some significant differences.

One, this is not a pay-what-you-want method. Even though there are variety of options for the customers to choose form, Ghosts have a set price. It’s offering different packages too, and this distribution method seemed more well-thought out than In Rainbows.

In Rainbows seemed more about donation, Ghosts seemed more about business.

Reznor is not giving the whole thing away for free (theoretically), instead, he used the method of free-samples to get people to buy it. he offered 9 songs for the free (through BitTorrent, no less) to build interests. He seemed more cautious after Niggy Tardust , and takes the mind of a businessman.

He took time to make this a worthy and fair purchase also: for $5.00, you get 36 songs, a PDF, and DRM-free, high quality files in the format that you want. One of In Rainbows’s complaints were bad quality, well, Reznor’s effort solves that.

Reznor is a vocal advocate for online distribution, and he’s a good man for taking a step. While he is not the first one to try online distribution (no, the first one is NOT Radiohead, they’re the first big act to do that), I think that he offered the best method so far. Business-wise. That is not to say that his method this time is perfect: the servers didn’t do their jobs right.

Of course, due to high volume of downloads, their site crushed, and people started screaming that their downloads doesn’t work. Perhaps it was poor-planning on their part, or perhaps they underestimated their fanbase.

But he fact that the site crushed and that they sold out their $300 edition under 2 days is a good sign, this means that they have business. People are coming in and giving him money. The downloads of Ghosts were ranked high in torrent sites, even if they didn’t get people’s money, they got their ears.

And here’s a larger question: will this method work for others? Yes and no. for big and well established bands, I think this plan would work fine. There’s your cheap and worthy download at a low price for the poor and the casual fans, and there’s your expensive deluxe edition for the hardcore.

For unknown and the smaller bands, I think the Radiohead method works better. The donation-esque method is not as imposing. Even a low set-price may drive away customers because they don’t know the band and are not familiar with the music, a $5.00 may sounds outrageous to them for an unknown band, I would think it’s better for them to donate according to their own will. Donating and buying is two different things. You also don’t need extra accessories like quality and PDF to satisfy your customer (but it would be nice), since the general expectation is lower for things like that with a smaller band. They don’t have the fanbase for deluxe editions either (at least not for $300), a simple release should be able to do the trick.

But who knows what the future holds? More well-known artists have to participate in order for us to imagine how things will be.

Change vs. Experience ’08 (Stephen Colbert Should Run for President for Real)

2008-02-21T11:22:00.008-05:00

It’s a topic that I have not yet write about: The presidential race.

Well, that’s kind of a lie, I just didn’t have the guts to express my opinions on the Internet yet, the arguments are so passionate and tense that I was afraid to throw my hat in. Since no one reads this blog, I can say whatever and not get call an idiot.

Okay, enough chattering:

If I were to vote today, at this moment, I would vote for Hilary Clinton. Even though this statement is practically useless, because Massachusetts already had its primary, and I can’t vote anyways. But that is not going to stop me from having an opinion, it’s impossible to not have an opinion about this race.

Arguably, the 2008 presidential race is one of the most important race so far. It certainly has the most diverse candidates, and its stakes are high: Americans are choosing the next victim to clean up the Iraqi mess (or if you’re McCain, stay in the Iraqi mess), spur up the economy, fight the terrorists, and millions of other things.

The democrats have tow candidates that, if elected, will be making American history in being the first female/ black president. Both are promising to me, both have values that fits my view (Kucinich’s views matched with mine the most, it’s a shame that he was under the radar). But I will vote for Hilary if given the chance because I trust “experience” over “hope”.

Obama

I seem like the oddball in my age group, since most of the young people like Obama. They want change, they need change, they have the optimism for change. Obama embodies hope, his campaign is based on the promise of change. People are sick of the direction that America was headed (and still is), there was a sort of desperation to change things. Obama, with no old political ties, only in the Senate for three years, there seem to be this “hipness” associated with him too. People are afraid that the White House is going to fall to another politician with the same old ties like Bush, afraid that the new president will promote the same agenda, the same policies, and the same relations. Well, Obama is the new fresh light, and he is going to bring change, buddy!

Or, if you’re cynical like me, you might think that change is not gonna come easy. You might pick Clinton’s experience.

Clinton

I admit, being a female myself can be subjective in choosing who to support.
Clinton seemed like a confident, strong and firm woman. This can be seen as her strongest and weakest quality. It may bring admiration or the “hey, she ain’t womanly enough, biiittch” thing. I talked with an adult friend of mine who supports Clinton, and she mentioned that people didn’t like Clinton because she’s a woman. A friend of mine who supports Obama mentioned that Clinton is a “bitch".

Is this reality? Politic is a man’s game, you have to be perceived as strong. But in being strong, you get call a bitch. Then there’s Bill Clinton, maybe people are afraid that the First Husband will run things instead, I don’t know.

Clinton’s slogan is “experience”, yes, she has it. But with having the experience, she has the ties also. Perhaps this is why the Obama supporters chose Obama: they don’t want ties. They don’t want ties to corporations, they don’t want ties to old politicians.

But without ties, how much change can one brings?

Now, I’m no politician, but I don’t think change is that easy. Politics is a dirty and intricate game, with no ties and no experience, just how much can actually change? Clinton and Obama seemed to agree on the important points, and it seemed like a “safer” choice to have someone who have experience and ties to bring these changes.

Republicans

McCain and Huckabee (I have to admit, President Huckabee will be one hell of a hilarious title) are left. I’m pretty sure McCain is going to get the nomination. I just pray that he doesn’t choose Huckabee as running mate.

I’ll give props to McCain in being firm on his position on the War in Iraq. But dude, you can go to Iraq and fight the war yourself if you want to continue.

Conclusion

Currently Obama is leading in the delegates, and he had a long string of victories. It’s a tight race, at one point or another it seemed like all the candidates have the upper hand. Who will ultimately win the nominations and elected as the new president of this beautiful land? I don’t know. Right now, Obama seems to be getting somewhere, if he wins the nomination, I will support him.

Once the nominations are given, that’s when the mud-slinging begins.I hope they don't use something like this.

Who knows, if we’re lucky, we will get another Republican Caucasian man in the White House, and stay in Iraq for a hundred years.

Last but not least, I want to post this heart-warming picture that has nothing to do with anything:

These People are Unbelievable

2008-02-15T16:49:00.003-05:00

Just another example of how fucking crazy, hateful, intolerant, and arrogant these religious nuts are: that infamous God Hates Fags site is once again ranting about their hatred and trying to justify the shooter at Northern Illinois University in this "News Release":

Thank God for the Shooter at Northern Illinois Univ.
God sent the Shooter. In His Wrath & Vengeance Against an Ungrateful Nation that has Forsaken Him &Embraced Filthy Fags.
WBC will picket their hypocritical funerals & memorials & “vigils.”
Yes. In religious protest & warning; to wit: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked.” Gal. 6:7.
God Hates Fags! & Fag-Enablers. Ergo, God hates fag-dominated Northern Illinois Univ.,fag-saturated Illinois, and fag-run America. What part of this 12-word sentence don’t you idiots understand? “Thou shalt not lie withmankind, as with womankind; it is abomination.”
Lev. 18:22.

People are unbelievable. How dare you try to justify your own hatred using this national tragedy? Are you so arrogant and and feels so self-important to think that God is trying to avenge your little homophobic and intolerant club? I can't even understand them.

If there is a God, I seriously doubt that he will hate homosexuals, and he would certainly be against your kind of intolerance and utter hatred. But if God is anything like you described or believed to be, a God that hates homosexuals, hates non-believers, and damns anyone that has a sense of their own mind, and sends a shooter to punish them, then fine, I'm happy I'm an atheist.

Seriously, fuck off.

The Cloverfield Monster is a Giant Squirrel

2008-01-19T21:22:00.000-05:00

No, it's not. I'm just kidding.

I saw "Cloverfield" yesterday afternoon, more out of curiosity than actual fandom from following the ARG. I wasn't expecting a lot from the movie, since "monster movie" doesn't translate into "great" for me. But fuck it, with all the hype, I'm going to see this thing.

And it exceeded my expectation.

The first 20 minutes or so was some mild background story-telling, setting up the story line. Then,it got violent fast. Fires, buildings falling, screaming, running, it all turned into destruction and panic. The movie was filled with intensity and adrenaline, a total thrill ride. There was a few surprises in the movie also, like the fact that the Cloverfield monster is not alone.

The only thing that I could come up with as complains were that the whole "told from the perspective of the hand-held camera" thing was a bit too much. After a while, I felt a bit dizzy, and my stomach felt a bit weird afterwards, because there was so much scrambling and shaking. But I do think that the perspective was refreshing and made the film looked more realistic. Also, the ending was a bit irresolute to me, it didn't really explain anything about the monster.

But that's not the point, is it? The movie was more about destruction, not explanation. With destruction, the movie did a good job.

Also, after poking around, I found that I missed at least two pretty interesting thing from the movie: the whisper at the end of the credits, which when you listen to it in reverse, it said "it's still alive". And at the end of the movie with the old footage from the camera, there was something falling from the sky into the water near Coney Island. So, maybe that gives some clues to how the monster came to be?

"Cloverfield" was a thrill ride for me, I will definitely get this on DVD.

When You're Really Bored (Make Your Own Calendar) II

2008-01-06T17:50:00.000-05:00

Well, might as well post the other pictures of my calendar in the making. Though as of right now, I don't think they will become calendar pages, but it will become part of my drawing portfolio of sorts.

Queens of the Stone Age's Era Vulgaris backcover.

Picture inside of Radiohead's OK Computer booklet.

Cover of Arcade Fire's Funeral

Picture inside of Arcade Fire's Funeral album jacket (whatever it called).

Inside the album jacket of NIN's Year Zero

A Few Words on the Saul Williams Stats

2008-01-05T11:37:00.002-05:00

As said before,in October Trent Reznor announced that the Saul Williams album Niggy Tardust will be a digital release, which you can get it for free or "donate" five bucks. Well, unlike Radiohead, who is all secretive about the stats of their In Rainbows "experiment", Trent Reznor announced the stats on the Niggy Tardust album. To quote:

"Saul’s previous record was released in 2004 and has sold 33,897 copies.

As of 1/2/08,
154,449 people chose to download Saul’s new record.
28,322 of those people chose to pay $5 for it, meaning:
18.3% chose to pay.

Of those paying,

3220 chose 192kbps MP3
19,764 chose 320kbps MP3
5338 chose FLAC"

These data at first disheartened me a bit, since I paid $5.00 without any considerations and couldn't quite fathom why 81.7 % of people chose to pay nothing. Does people really see no value in music anymore in the age of piracy? I even posted on a messageboard about whether musicians should even consider the "free" option.

BUT, after reading other people's thinking and thinking it a bit myself, I guess my first reaction was wrong. People are going to get it for free if they want to, it's getting easier and being justified more and more and there is no point anymore in trying to make people pay for music anymore. While 18% is a bit low in my opinions, others said that it's still making a good profit. Yes, they make more than $140,000 on this so far, but you have to take into account the expenses involved with making a record. According to Reznor, this record didn't sound like it's made in a cheap studio with some cheap engineers. Then there is the point of "well, this record gain Williams more fanbase than he ever had"(with Reznor acknowledged at the end of his post). While I do agree this may be a long-term investment, but I guess the essence of Reznor's post was about what others can expect from a distribution method like this, and how much cash they can make from it.

And I guess these statistics will not apply to ALL the others that will come after them. The Saul Williams situation is a bit unique: He is an obscure artist, with a major artist backing him. I would expect that most of the people who downloaded this album (like myself) are NIN fans, and didn't want to risk $5.00 for something that they don't know if they will like or not, because hey, they want that $5.00 to buy a cup of Starbucks coffee, goddamnit.

There are some many more factors contributed to the results as it is. Just scroll around messagboards and comment sections and you will see the whole convention of people discussing it. Do these stats say alot? I don't know, I guess we will have to see more stats from different artists. But it's laudable that Reznor posted his stats and shared it with people. It's not clear how much Saul Williams and Reznor had make on this record, but the record is still online, and there will still be people downloading it and (maybe) pay for it.

But whatever distribution method figure out in the future, it seems that you should expect the majority of the people to get it for free, and a minority of them to pay for it.

Attack of the Radioheads

2007-12-28T21:48:00.001-05:00

Seriously, does every end of the year "Best Albums" list has to have Radiohead's In Rainbows as #1?

The totally innovative, out of this world and brilliant method of distribution * must have blown everyone's mind, and let this overshadows the music. Not that I hated In Rainbows, but I just never find it so excruciatingly amazing. Maybe it was because everyone went on and shouts: "OMG, In Rainbows is totally fucking awesome!" because that sort of stuff tends to annoy me and alienates me. I tried to love In Rainbows and "get it", but I just never did. Sorry. I completely understands that some people truly loves this fucking record, but I just didn't get the big deal about the music**.It's certainly better than a lot of crap that came out this year, but was it really that extraordinary and such a masterpiece? Maybe it was because I'm not sophisticated enough to like +(some) songs that has no hooks and no dynamics. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks that this album was so fucking overrated.

And now every time I read that In Rainbows is #1, I just roll my eyes. And if any Radiohead fans reads this, they probably wants to curse me. Hey, I'll still buy the CD version of In Rainbows and continues to like Radiohead, but shut up about
"In Rainbows is not only the best album of the year, but maybe the decade."

*This statement was totally exaggerated and sarcastic.
** Despite saying this, I will continue listen to "In Rainbows" and try to "get it".
+ This is not to say that all of the songs have no hooks and no dynamics.

RIP Bhutto

2007-12-28T16:43:00.000-05:00

When I heard about Bhutto's death last night, I was shocked. Even though I figure that she will be assassinated sooner or later, but it still came as a shock.

I'll admit I'm no expert on the going ons in Pakistan. But somehow, there was some sort of sadness after I heard her death. With her death, Pakistan is going to be even more chaotic and violent,the future of elections will be unclear and whether Musharraf will benefit from this is still hard to say. And Bhutto was a strong woman, and it seemed to me that she was not afraid to die. Maybe my reaction to her death was more of a sympathetic approach than a political one.

As my mother heard about it, she said: "another legend has fallen."

The grim reaper always get someone before the year ends.

When You're Really Bored (Make Your Own Calendar)

2007-12-26T16:39:00.000-05:00

During the Christmas break from school, I basically have nothing to do. As the new year approaches, I became really bored and began to do crazy things. Like making a calendar myself, with album arts that I re-drew as visuals.

I can't quite remember how this idea came to me, it was one of those things that just jumps out. It didn't occur to me there wasn't a lot of great album art that I can draw from. Most of the albums that I own have some really simple and/or abstract art that was not easy to recreate. But I did managed to pick out a few, here is four of them:

The cover from Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero
The reason I drew this was mostly because it's one of the only album cover that has some sort of clear image on it. After I drew it, it looked too plain, and still weird.

And here's my favorite one, the cover of Era Vulgaris by Queens of the Stone Age. It's easy to draw and it's an interesting picture.I guess this was the album cover that gave me the idea of doing a calendar with album arts.

Another one that was great to draw because it's distinguished and interesting was the album cover of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel. I love the drum-faced lady, it's creepy in a good way.

The fourth one is also from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, this time is the back cover. I'm running out of materials, but it's an awesome picture to draw.

I'll be drawing more, next stop should be some pictures inside the booklet of OK Computer. Yay!

Merry X-Mas to Me

2007-12-24T10:32:00.000-05:00

I don't celebrate Christmas.

I don't get bummed out either, I kind of see it as kind of like a burden being lifted.

Christmas is so commercialized right now, at some points it seemed to me that it wasn't so much about the birth of Christ, but just about getting presents. It seems like it is inevitable that you must buy a ton of presents for everyone in order to celebrate this Holy Birth. What does Santa Clause have to do with baby Jesus anyway?

I see students in school dragging bags of presents for their friends and whatnot,even though a part of me was thinking: "It's kind of awesome that they get all kinds of presents," but ultimately I wasn't jealous. I didn't have to go Christmas shopping, spent time thinking who should get what, contemplating how big a budget I have and how much I have left.

Several years back I brought ton of cards to give to friends, but right now, I gave one physical card to a friend, and just gave e-cards to the rest.The closest thing I had as Christmas shopping was buying three books for free-time reading over the holiday break .To match the holiday spirit, I brought The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a tale about a father and a son making a post-apocalyptic journey South. 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell, both cannot be categorized as Christmasy.

So because I'm an atheist, I have no Christmas obligations. I guess (a little) money in my pocket is a Christmas gift for me.

Early-Internet Life Crisis

2007-12-16T18:04:00.000-05:00

The Internet, a tool and space that is integral part of modern life. A data base so vast and great that it contains unlimited knowledge. A space open for everyone and anyone to share everything and anything. It's great, but with every great thing, there's a downside.

Because people can seal their identities and face, they can take on a alternate personality of sort, and just exploit the potential of being anonymous.Trolls, internet bullies, stalkers, you know it. There are gossip boards and message boards where rumors flies. People can prowl into other people's lives. The net is infested with all sorts of people.

That is why I don't have a MySpace or Facebook, nor do I expose a large portion of my personal life. But once or twice I get fed-up with the Internet, since I prowl the Internet and sees all sorts of things described above. Shoot, I can feel my integrity draining as read some of things on a gossip board. Why do people insist on tearing into the personal lives of celebrities or whatnot, and willingly talk trash and lies about a person if they have only seen their public persona and never know them in person? Why do people attack others relentlessly?

And more importantly, why did I read those things in the first place and be thinking and bothered by them? They weren't talking about me, nor do I have any interest in joining their discussion about whatever-the-fuck. Curiosity kill the cat, and sometimes I got dragged into it.

Sometimes I seriously thought I would be much happier if I don't know half the stuff I know and read.

I'm Such A Masochist

2007-12-09T12:42:00.000-05:00

I have a habit of reading comments below articles. It's so painful to read yet somehow I can't look away. A few spots that brings out the most entertaining commentators (in no particular order):

Blabbermouth.net
Example:

COMMENT | WOO-HOO GIGANTOUR!!!posted by : MRBIGTIME
12/8/2007 5:16:17 PM

PLEASE,PLEASE LET IT BE TESTAMENT-SLAYER-METALLICA-EXODUS- OVERKILL. \M/ MEGADAVE!!! \M/

Well, this is not the worse I've read, but it's the one that I found that qualifies as over-the-top. Then there's one post where someone who posted the same comment like 40 times...But the real haters and crazies come out when a news band that is not "metal".

Youtube.com
Example:
Ramox3 (13 minutes ago) Show Hide Marked as spam
-1 Poor comment Good comment

(Reply) (Spam)
bad smell is not muslims u dumbass its Indians (some of them) muslims have to wash 5 times a day and are required to shower frequently. Mohamad PBUH said:" Hyegien is part of faith"

I don't know what to say. It's easy to find this kind of comments on YouTube. There's more posts that are more maniacal than this, but I'm too lazy to look through the 39,162 comments to find the dumbest comment.

PerezHilton.com
I don't read the site. This is only the third (or something )time I visited the site. I read the comments under this post, as it were linked to a site that I frequent, and was instantly amazed.
Example:

david-0-selznick says – reply to this
i wonder what his balls smelll like at the moment this pic was taken. I rubb mine at the gym and sniff my hand.

LOL. Then there are a whole fangirl reaction to Reznor being hot. I didn't dare to read the comments under the other posts, but do people on PerezHilton always rave about how a celebrity is hot and how they want to fuck them?

nin.com
Now, I love the blog thing that the site does now, but the comments are scary.
Example
Anonymous said...

ok. I'm going to just say it already. trent, you are coming off gay. are you trying to let us know your gay? or bi? it's ok to be bi or gay. I have bi and gay friends. anyway. first you have that video with the guy drinking from a coffee mug with a nude guy on it and now a pic of a guy siting on your sofa with your dogs. are you going to come out of the closet? I'm sure male and female fans will still like you and nin and buy your music if you admit your bi or gay.

What the fuck? Why is the comments to every post have some sort of speculation about Reznor's sexuality? Then there's the people talking about mortgages and how much that want to have sex with Reznor. God. I would not be sad if the comment section on nin.com gets removed.

And ultimately, it's my fault that I read those comments, and spent time talking about them. I still have to do my homework.

And There's the Grammys...

2007-12-08T11:46:00.000-05:00

This is a bit late, but, I got to say it: The Grammys suck.

It's predictable and totally commercialized. The Grammys does not recognize musical talents but musical commerce. Whatever is on the radio gets nominated. Whoever is the buzz that year gets nominated. Those established Grammy favorites gets nominated every time. I've realized a while ago that the Grammys are irrelevant,it's just a spectacle for the media and give a chance for the labels to pat themselves on the back.

So let see who's nominated:
Amy Winehouse is everywhere this year, so of course she gets 8 nominations. Kanye West won the sale contest with 50 Cents, so he gets nominated. Beyonce, check. Justin Timberlake, check. Fergie, Check. Nickelback, check. Daughtry, check. What you hear on the radio is what you get.

Then there's that awful "Hey There Delilah", and Foo Fighters got some pretty high nominations. I like the Foo Fighters, but "Album of the Year" ? "Best Rock Album"? Foo Fighter's average album is the best, huh? Well, it's better than Daughtry.

Whatever, LOL.

Gem of the Day: Courtney Love's Blog

2007-11-18T16:32:00.000-05:00

When I first came across one of Courtney Love's blog postings (on moonwashrose.com), I was absolutely fascinated by it. Not by how well-written or how it resonates with people, but by how it was so incoherent and how Courtney Love posts about personal things. Her posts were just simply a rant, a long rant filled with grammatically errors and spelling mistakes.

Then I came across her post again today, that post was linked to Sputnik Music, and she talked about Radiohead. While I'm sure she has some very in-depth thoughts on the Radiohead distribution plan, I couldn't understand 1/5 of her post. This is her original post:

Originally Posted by Courtney
as for radiohead= they didcnt jump off a REAL clifff, they bungee jumped you KNOW the kamikaze pilot in me wnats to do the same dfamm thing excapt wuith my a lsit mnaterial, with the real thing- theyve made 9.7 m,illion in 3 weeks this way and its live junk-= not junk as radioheaddoesnt really amke JUNK but its live - most of it heard before( wich youve all heard liveversaionbs of things veryvery different than non live versions of things) i really think it couldf work do all my magazine covers in january - so the lead time in there kamikaze thropugh my junket my oprah my tv **** n the 2 week leaD UP and just jump of f that cliff i love doing things really first im greatful for radiohead for making the first move- id do it differentlyt -= thats why b sides are no longer b sisdes but have to be a sides to an extent-= cos theyre EXTRA TRACKS now wich can mean up to 500k to such and such sponsor coty./my space etc. ... i justthinjk offering about 10 songs but your best for "free" witha what am i worth sign not just NINs cast offs i mean yopur a sides- i don t know im percolating- i love risk and most everything ive ever done well has been because everyone said iw as crazy to do it-= thazts why words liek "risk management" and Rime management:" are4 resonating with me now.

Huh? What is she talking about here? I can sort of figure out that she said she appreciates Radiohead doing their "free" download thing, and something about a-sides or b-sides, something about NIN castoffs, and something about money. But other than that, I'm not smart enough to understand her.

And after looking around, I found a generous person translated Courtney Love's post in a language that I (sort of ) understand:

Originally Posted by Courtney Love Talks Radiohead
As for Radiohead: they didn't jump off a real cliff; they bungee jumped. You know the kamikaze pilot in me wants to do the same damn thing except with my A-list material, with the real thing. They've made 9.7 million in 3 weeks this way, and it's live junk—not junk, as Radiohead doesn't really make junk, but it's live—most of it heard before (which you've all heard live versions of things very, very different than non-live versions of things).

I really think it could work—do all my magazine covers in January so the lead time is there, kamikaze through my junket, my Oprah, my TV shit in the 2 week lead-up and just jump off that cliff. I love doing things really fast, I'm grateful for Radiohead for making the first move—I'd do it differently.

That's why b-sides are no longer b-sides but have to be a-sides to an extent, 'cause they're extra tracks now which can mean up to 500k to such and such sponsor company/MySpace, etc. I just think offering about 10 songs but your best for "free" with a 'what am I worth' sign—not just NIN's castoffs, I mean your a-sides—I don't know, I'm percolating. I love risk, and most everything I've ever done well has been because everyone said I was crazy to do it. That's why words like "risk management" and "time management" are resonating with me now.

Okay Courtney. And yes, I totally bookmarked your MySpace.

The Canterbury Tales

2007-11-16T15:14:00.000-05:00

The Canterbury Tales

Wordsworth, William. 1888. Complete Poetical Works.
http://www2.cs.uregina.ca/~barnard/01coming.html
http://www2.cs.uregina.ca/~barnard/idylls.html
http://www.poetry-portal.com/styles9.html

RIP Demonoid

2007-11-10T17:32:00.000-05:00

"The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding.
---From Demonoid.com
First Oink, then Demonoid. Wow.

I was never an Oink user, but I do understand the site's importance to some people. I'm also not a Demonoid member (though I did used it before), but this is too much.

The music industry's woes will not be solved by forcefully closing down torrent and file sharing sites. If you want people to buy music, lower the fucking price of the CD! Stop blaming the music piracy and think about what you did wrong, and try to find a way to embrace the Internet instead of oppressing it. The more you push it down, the harder people will rebel.

LOL!

2007-11-06T17:36:00.000-05:00

This version of Sunday Bloody Sunday is awesome.

Yay, Another Way of Selling Music

2007-10-26T22:06:00.001-05:00

The distribution method of Saul William's new album, "The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggytardust!" is what I think is the best reaction of the post- In Rainbows "experiement" . Even if it's just merely a few weeks after the news that Radiohead released that shockwaved the whole industry.

It's an improvement on the In Rainbows way of paying your money, with a set price of $5.00 or choose to pay nothing. Also, you can choose 192kbps, 320kbps, or Flac files ( better quality than In-Rainbows)if you choose to pay $5.00. If you choose not to pay, fret not, you still get 192kbps. Sweet.

And, it includes artwork and lyrics. Yay, now I know what the hell they're talking about.

Now I paid my $5.00, mostly for the cause of it. Besides, Trent Reznor produced it, so it should be interesting. It should also be mentioned that Reznor himself said he would like the same method of distribution in interviews couple months back, so I guess NIN will possibly employ the same method for the future. And yes, NIN should put a physical thing out too if they use this method mentioned above, as long as they don't cost $80.00 like In Rainbows.

Also, I heard "Break" off of Niggy Tardust, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was rich and complex, has texture and depth. Much better than comtemporary hip-hop.

Trent Reznor is Happy

2007-10-09T17:13:00.000-05:00

It's not ending yet. So...
OMG! NIN is now independent! Like Trent can do whatever he wants now! He's not on Universal or Interscope anymore!

Yes, Mr.Reznor says goodbye to his record label, finally. After his anger and dissatisfactions directed toward his label, it's good to hear that he get to do whatever he wants. He's been saying that he's eager to get off of the label since March (or at least that's the first time I really heard about it, not counting the time he was with battle with TVT).

Here's the whole statement from www.nin.com :

08 October 2007: Big News
Hello everyone. I've waited a LONG time to be able to make the
following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally
free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have
been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the
business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very
different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a
direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate.
Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008.
Exciting times, indeed.
posted by Trent Reznor at 10:45 AM. 1203 Comments

So yeah, it would be interesting to see where he goes from there. I have a faint idea of what he's going to do (but what do I know?), I think he's going to distribute his music directly from his site (or some site), have some sort of cheap price, and people get their music directly from him. At least that's what I think he's going to do, according to things he said interviews.

And he's planning it for a while now, I can tell.

I was surprised that he announced so suddenly, I expected it to be later. But, sooner the better. Established acts should be leading the way. While this will not trigger evolution or anything, this can be a catalyst of change to come.

Radioheads are Smart Businessmen

2007-10-08T09:38:00.001-05:00

OMG! They put the new Radiohead album on the net! For free! For download!

I pre-ordered Radiohead's new album "In Rainbows" (got to say that's a bad title, in my opinion) last night. I just have to be part of this most groundbreaking, innovative, and futuristic musical distribution event ever in the history of the Internet and download music! Plus, I like Radiohead.

I've got to admit, I do think that this method of distribution is quite clever, giving it the appearance that they're giving the album to the people for free, thus gaining them more reputation among the Internet-oriented music fans. I've also got to say that they're the first major act to openly use this method, and thinking about a solution for the selling of music in the collapsing industry. In the way, they're thinking about the future, and giving other artists the result of their "experiment" and let the others further develop a way to distribute their own music.

But really, the album is not free.

First, it's released also as a super deluxe version that costs like $40 in US dollars (or something). Second, they asked for "donations"! I would think when most of the people pre-ordering the album on downloads would feel guilty not giving them a bit of money (I gave them 2.00 in Euro, since I'm poor and charging the credit card of my father). And I assume, people who order that album are at least have some interests in Radiohead, making them more vulnerable to the "donation" tactic. And hard-core Radiohead fans? They're throwing their money in there.

Of course, you can put 0.00 in that donation box, and I don't really think that will be a large fraction. The album can be free, but really, it's not free.

Of course, there's people saying that "I'm going to pay nothing, then I'm not even going to listen to it". Ha ha.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a Funny Guy

2007-09-26T16:55:00.000-05:00

By now we all know the hilarious Q&A that happened in Columbia University with Ahmadinejad. You gotta love this guy for bring the laughs and bring down the tension with saying "In Iran we don't have homosexuality like in your country." Yes, there's laughter when he said it, and I laughed hard too.

Then there's the doubts about the Holocaust, then saying
We are friends of the Jews. There are many Jews living peacefully in Iran.” .

Of course he came off as ridiculous in the eyes of Americans, he's completely at odds with what Americans (and most people)believe in. Raging against facts and making up excuses along the way. He very negative coverages in here and basically everywhere else, and he is a nut. And the fact that he doubts the 9/11 being attacked by terrorists, Americans are going to go nuts.

And people knew that he's nuts and going to say stupid things, that's why they got him to Columbia University, right?

Translation

2007-08-28T17:32:00.000-05:00

Here's the translation from the poster.

"Nine Inch Nails is founded in 1989, there is only one permanent member in the band, that is its founder and brain trust Trent Reznor, he played almost all the creative, playing and production roles , the other members are just studio hands or players.

Nine Inch Nails’ style is part of the heavy music, but Reznor fits the pop sensibility perfectly into Nine Inch Nails’ unique style. NIN’s music is not just fill with artistic expression, it also created some memorable melodies. But Reznor’s songs is moving yet not stale at all, it also won the liking of the alternative and hard core rock fan base, and it pushed industrial into popularity.

Michael Trent Reznor was born in Pennsylvania’s Mercer. He started to learn piano when he was five, the same year that his parent divorced, he was raised by his grandparents. Then, eh learned saxophone and the tuba. Then he attended the Allegheny College for computer engineering, then he graduated (note: that a mistake) and moved to Cleveland. In 1989, he founded NIN, early on, he began to search for dance music, at the same time he absorbed the industrial and electronic style.

NIN’s debut alum was “Industrial Nation” (note: okay…), and won them the spot opening for Skinny Puppy, Jesus and Mary Chain, and Peter Murphy. But the album that brought NIN success was their 1990 album (note: What?) “Pretty Hate Machine” and in it was the popular song “Head Like A Hole”. This album included heavy metal’s brutality, pop song’s structure, industrial music’s volume and rich dance beats, it was on the chart or more than two years.

In 1991, NIN participated in the famous Lollapalooza music festival, and became the selling champion of T shirts. But the band’s dispute with its label delayed the second album’s release. Then Reznor founded his own label “Nothing”, and signed new bands in 1992, including Pop Will Eat Itself, Prick and the famous Marilyn Manson. The same fall, the band released “Broken”, and the record debuted on #10, its song “Wish” won a grammy for Best Metal Performance.

In the spring of 1994, NIN release their sophomore album (The Downward Spiral”, it labeled the jump to popularity for the band. Reznor also recorded with the famous singer Tori Amos in the album “Pass the Mission” (note: isn’t that a song?). TDS was advertised as a “concept album” and displayed Reznor’s inspiration of the record---70s rock and roll, in it was former King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew. This record debuted at #2 on the chart, and Reznor appeared on the cover of “Rolling Stone”, and became Playboy’s (note: Playgirl!) “ten sexiest rock star”. The band was on the 1994 Woodstock. All of this was great for all those who sang along to “I focus on the pain, the only thing that’s real”. “Even though now we’re popular, and filled the mainstream media’s channel” Reznor said, “But I felt that I’m walking on my own path>”

After the TDS, Reznor created the creative soundtrack for Oliver Stone’s controversial movie “Natural Born Killers”, the movie dialogue and the songs (including SICNH and Burn) fits together perfectly.

In 1995, NIN release their remix album “Further Down the Spiral”, and toured with their idol David Bowie. In 1996, the song “Happiness in Slavery” (The Woodstock live version) won the grammy for the best metal performance. The end of 1996, he was preparing for the new album, and wrote 3 new songs for David Lynch’s “Lost Highway”. Reznor and Lynch appeared on the 1997 Feburary edition of Rolling Stone.

In 1997 NIN release the double album “The Fragile”. Without exaggeration, “PHM” (1989), TDS (1994) and TF (1999), these NIN’s classic catalogue chronicled Reznor’s peak, and we witnessed how NIN pushed industrial music into the popularity, and became one of the rock movement in the 90s alternative scene.

In 2005 the band release their fourth album “With Teeth”, this album debuted on #1 on Billboard. Then after only after one year (note: two years), NIN released the new album “Year Zero”, and changed their habit of long gap between releases. Not only Rolling Stone gave it a four star review, AMG music gave it four and a half stars, and gave it the words “very amazing, moving the listener’s mood, and it cannot be missed”. And, Year Zero debuted on top of England’s rock chart, and the single “Survivalism” was #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock charts.

Now at its 18th year, NIN received two grammys, and was named “Greatest 90s band” by the internationally famous magazines like “Rolling Stone”, “Spin”, and “Q”, its platinum album (note: they’re talking about TDS) was also named “90s best rock album” and “200 most important album of the 20th century”. Their music influenced so many famous rock bands and rock innovators.

Discography. "

There's some mistake on there, and I noted it in parentheses.

Here's the translation of the letter on nin.com

"Trent wrote to the Chinese fans:
I want to thank the Chinese Nine Inch Nails fans. We felt very excited and honored about this trip to China. Because we want you to further understand our band, we prepared the following information about our band.

Nine Inch Nails is looking forward to the music festival.

In this period, following the fans who decided to go online and “steal” music and not go buy a CD, the Western music industry is experiencing a rough time. These fans, because of whatever reason, felt that this was reasonable, and I’m not completely oppose to their thinking.

Because of China’s special situation, it’s not an easy task to obtain Western music by official means, so I’ll suggest to my fans the following: if you can buy a official release of our album, I appreciate your support. If you can’t buy it, I think that illegal downloading from the web is desirable way to get it. Our music is very easy to get on the web, and you can find most of our music easily. If you like what you heard, please share it with your friend. I’ve put all my effort into my music, so I truly hope I can let more people share it.

Trent Reznor"

Didn't translate the blip about Year Zero because I didn't see it at the first place, and upon reading it, it's exaggerating and have some mistake on it. Also, I have enough translating already.

Photos Blah

2007-08-22T10:10:00.000-05:00

Since we brought a digital camera, I have been taking photos everywhere. These photos were taken outside of my home, and I'll just put it here to let loose a copy of it on the web, just in case I go nuts one day and delete it all, and I'll still be able to find a copy on the site.

Arms Raised

The Mystic Channel

Looks Like a Cigar

What I Learned While Having A Summer Job

2007-08-19T09:09:00.000-05:00

The planets aligned, the stars lined up, and I finally got a job this summer at the beginning of July. Yes, it’s over now, and I got my money, I got my experience, I got realism.

I got a job at my Housing Projects’ office (that’s right, I live in the ghetto, the ‘hood), and my boss was a social worker. People often come to her, and she knew who was on heroin and who was in jail. There’s more messed-up people in my area than I thought I knew.

From her, I knew a lot more tragedies and screw up kids on the block, she even pointed out the drug dealers to me, just across the street.

I met a bunch of kids that was pretty wild. You know, even if they’re loud-mouthed and belligerent, there was intelligence and care in them.

One of the little girl had a BIG attitude, and she was like ten. She had a MySpace and pretended she was fourteen (seems like all of them have a fascination with MySpace), and she had a big family and her siblings aren’t that close, I’d guess. Another little girl’s mother was a heroin addict who was pregnant, and considering giving the baby once he was born. A boy’s father was in jail, and he was screwing his girlfriend while humping another. Jeez.

I wonder if some of these kids are going to repeat the fate of their parents, and become heroin addicts and whatnots. Does family and childhood life make them want to turn away to an alternate path, or does it twist them into an inevitable fate like their parents?

I hope it’s not the latter. But I guess there’s more of the latter than not.

Retrospective: The One Year Anniversary of Cryptic Experiment

2007-08-19T09:08:00.000-05:00

Okay, stop patting yourself on the back.

See, it’s not really the One Year Anniversary now, since I believe this thing started on August thirteenth, two thousand and six, so I guess I’m a bit late.

Time seemed to pass by fast, it seemed not so long ago that I went nuts and thought having a blog was a good idea. And this little blog does provides me a place to rant on this vast space we call the Internet. Even if no one reads it, I know I can look back one day and read Cryptic Experiment’s archive and think: “What the fuck was I thinking?”

Yep, it’s gonna be one of those things.

Something That Can Make Me Cringe

2007-08-17T15:21:00.000-05:00

In a desperate attempt to find something to read, I stumbled upon real-person fiction. Actually, I was reading the Nine Inch Nails' Encyclopedia Dramatica entry, and I followed the link to a fanfiction. And hola.

Actually, what really made me cringe about that fiction was that it was a slash fiction. You know, with two guys doing it (or something, I didn't really read the Wikipedia entry on that). Without going into details, that fiction was about Trent Reznor and Christian Bale.

While I admit that the writership was rather good, the plot itself was...I don't know, I was cringing while reading it.

I have no problem with homosexuality, but what I don't quite get was why some people fancy about gay sex so much. Is it more exciting? Is it because it's more stimulating? And especially with real person fiction, it gets a bit invasive. I wonder what the celebrities think about it when they read a story about them fucking so-and-so.

Anyway, I went on an extented research on these real person fiction area just to see what's there, I found that there is a lot of them on Livejournal, there's a few sites that specializes in My Chemical Romance slash , (which I thought sadistically was a good thing). There's a few sites that's for band fictions (type that in Google), all of which I believe is mostly slash.

There's a lot of people that enjoy slash, I guess. But to me, it gets creepy afterwards.

Quote of the Day

2007-08-03T18:26:00.001-05:00

"Diplomacy is the ability to tell a person to go to hell in sucha way that he actually looks forward to the trip."

---From watching "Secret of the Kremlin" on Discovery Times

Harry Potter is Going to Die!

2007-07-18T14:50:00.000-05:00

No, I'm not sure if Harry Potter is going to die or not, but I think so.

To be honest, I don't really care if Potter is going to die or not, the most important thing that I wanted to find out is whether Snape is on Voldemort's side or Dumbledore's side.

I was an avid fan of the series, but as I get older, I got a bit apathetic. I can't really remember what happened in the fifth and sixth book, except a general blurred outline of the big things that happened and who died.I did remember just flipping through the pages of the last two books and read the death scenes, and upon reminder, I also remembered that there was A LOT of teenage angst in the fifth book, and it was kind of annoying.

Anyway, I have never loved Harry Potter the character. He was always a bit too nosy, too rash, too hotheaded. Not my type of guy. In fact, my favorite character is Severus Snape, the sarcastic and complex potion master. I always have a thing for anti-heroes, characters that are dark and quiet, yet there's more to them than just being the typically "bad". Byronic heroes, that's the type of character that I like.

When I heard that two important characters is going to die in the Deathly Hollows, my first instinct was that it's going to be Harry Potter and Snape. You know, Harry suffers an injury fighting Voldemort, and the last minute Snape comes in and tries to help Harry and he dies saving Harry. Then Harry kills Voldemort and dies a heroic death killing Voldemort.

But, I don't think it's going to be this simple and easy. I was constantly surprised when I was reading the books, so I believe that I will be surprised in this one too. There's already a few "endings" that leaked online (which I never bothered to search for),and I'm sure that people are going to go nuts and wait in front of the bookstore and dress in Gryffindor attire and scream for the new book. Hey, this book mesmerized millions.

Oh well, I'll buy the book on the first day that it comes out, but I'm sure as hell not going to wait in line and dress in costumes. If it's all sold out, I'm just going to get one off Amazon.com.

RANDOM RAMBLINGS TO FILL THE SPACE

2007-07-08T12:18:00.000-05:00

So we tried to get Verizon DSL for our home again, for the third time, and it still doesn’t work! So now for the third time, I have to wait for them to mail me the returning label and have the mail the modem back. I don’t think I’ll ever get the luxury of fast internet.

Applied for a summer job and supposedly to start on July 9th, but have not got the call about where I’m going to work. I don’t expect things to go smoothly anyway.

If I have a dog, I would name him Cerberus.

DW from Arthur is a bitch. By the way, what is Arthur? A mouse?

My mind is completely blank these days. Apathy has washed upon me and I found I lost the past passion on a number of things. I guess I have one of these “apathetic phrase” every once in a while. With that said, even in my “interested phrase”, I sometimes cannot fathom why some people are so dedicated and passionate about certain things, and why they cared so much.

But perhaps these passions fill a void. Now that I’m in the “apathetic phrase” and have no commitments (as of today), I do fill a certain empty spot. At times. And now that I think about it, I didn’t really ponder on life like I use to anymore, I didn’t think about the “meaning of life”, religion, purpose of life or whatnot like I used to . Did I found answers to these, or am I just being apathetic?

The above bulletin is rather pretentious.

Things I Learned From Reading Fanfictions

2007-06-21T08:24:00.000-05:00

I found myself reading fanfictions. Again.

From time to time, through my endless "stumbling into stuff", I would find that my interest peaks at some particular subject, be it books, movies, whatever. Sometimes that interest will lead me to read fanfictions (no, I DO NOT write them, as a personal rule, becuase I'm weird about it).

Perhaps it was me just me wanting to know the characters in interest to a greater extend, perhaps it was me trying to envision the characters in a different setting with the help of the stories, perhaps it was pure entertainment, perhaps I'm just weird.

Anywhoo, I do gathered some stuff from reading those wonderful fanfictions:

1. Like all things, there's some very good, some are very bad. (Duh)

2.Some authors have no idea a what a "paragraph" is.

3.People often times pick shitty songs for songfics...Like the ones using Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend"...oh well, what do I know?

4.Lots of people cannot correctly use :"to", "too", "then", "than"

5.People really do like their characters to be gay, do they?

6.Rated M fictions makes me twitch at times, now I just gave up on them.

7.Usually those with a lot of reviews is a good indication that that story is good.

8.Almost all stories of the same genre have the same plot, just with different characters and different settings.

9.I like ambiguous characters, the bad guys that are actually good.

10. I found that I have no desire to write a fanfiction. I would rather just read them.

On a side note, my email inbox is now full of spam. Damn it.

Various News Roundup

2007-06-09T13:10:00.000-05:00

Marilyn Manson is Angry
Marilyn Manson said that Gerard Way is ripping off his style. Okay Manson, when are you going to apologize to David Bowie and Alice Cooper then? I don't like My Chemical Romance either, but this just makes me dislike Manson more, what a way of the pot calling the kettle black. I can rant on and on about Manson's attempt at grabbing attention (dating a 19 year old (now 20) and his publicized divorce). But whatever.

Paris Hilton Goes Back to Jail
Most of the time I like playing devil's avocate, but this time, I'm happy about this news item like everyone else. I was quite angry when I heard about her getting out of jail just after 3 days, and that proves that money can get you out of anything. I was pissed. But now she have to serve her full sentence, so suck it Paris.

Here's some real news:

Global Warming at G8 Summit
It's a good thing that the leaders finally address this issue and actually attempt to do something about it. It's a step, and we may take a long time to be able to walk, but it's a step.

In other stuff:
I just saw the Pride Parade, lots of drag queens, biker chicks, half-naked dudes, and a bunch of bears. Good times. I saw couples that were together for many years and were just recently married, it's quite heart-warming. Now the bible thumpers wanted to put an option of banning gay marriage on the ballot in 2008, and if it does, I don't think there's enough people that will vote "no" on banning. There's lot more conservatives in America than you think, and they're the powerful ones.

Finals, Music Chart, and Summer Reading!

2007-06-02T11:03:00.000-05:00

It’s been busy as hell in school, with all the final testing coming at you at once. But you got to take it as it is. We just got through the biology final, which was okay, and I'm pretty sure I fucked up on at least serveral questions. Then next week is the English, then next next week is algebra, Latin, and whatever else, woot!

Anyway, with all of this whirlwind, I still managed to find some time to keep an eye on the music chart. I’m always baffled at what’s on top of the charts, I don’t even know why I care anymore. I don’t know if people really want to be force-fed Daughtry and Nickelback, or that they really believe that the album deserves their buying. Ahhhhhh, who am I to judge?

Commercial success is not about quality, it’s about status and promotion.

As the summer approaches, so is all sorts of exciting summer activities. And because the school hates its students, we have summer reading to do. And seriously, most of the students are just going to read it the two weeks before school starts, and write some half-assed report on it. At least this year’s format is more interesting, and breaks away from the “summary-character-comments” format. “original writing” of the students, as they put it.

God, I hope it’s going to rain.

Collective Thoughts

2007-05-11T17:07:00.000-05:00

www.myxertones.com is awesome.

Now that the school year is almost over, all the final tests are coming in. YEE-HAW.

A Call From the Grave of Cho Seung Hui

2007-04-21T08:11:00.000-05:00

Many are disgusted by the footage of Cho that NBC played. I wasn’t disgusted, but certainly disturbed. I’m sure the footage is on YouTube somewhere right now, but I didn’t bother to look.

Cho’s call from the grave is now going to live a everlasting life (or until the Internet disappears, or until human extinction). This is a call for attention, and NBC granted him that. Is it “clues to the reason of the killing” or a bad step that only fulfills the killer’s goal? Both, I would say, but more of the latter.

The only thing that we got from (or at least me) the video is that Cho is angry. Angry at the world, angry at society, but angry at no one at particular. What triggers this? Is it society’s mistreatment (and what exactly is that?) or his brain chemical imbalance?

I wonder how many people share the same feeling of mistreatment like him.
And switching gears, will this have a negative effect on Asians? I’m Chinese myself, and I just have to wonder. But I haven’t heard anything yet, but again, I didn’t bother to look.

Rant of the Day: Hipsters and Metal Heads

2007-04-21T08:07:00.000-05:00

You know what irritates me?

Indie-pseudo-intellectual-holier-than-thou-hipsters. Stop fucking talking about Of Montreal, Arcade Fire, or whatever band you read on Pitchfork.

Once the band sells more than 500,000 they’re going to piss all over the bands that they praised to high heaven. Talk about flip-flopping and narrow minded.

Same goes to I-just-like-guitars-and fuck-electronics-metal heads. Stop talking about how a band “isn’t metal enough”, or how a band doesn’t scream enough.

Once a band put out a record that isn’t as “heavy”, they’re going to spit all over the band and call them “gay”. Talk about meat-headed and closed-minded.

Of course, all of this yapping from me isn’t going to help. And what demographic do I belong to? I don’t even want to know.

P.S. Who the hell is buying the new Lavigne disc? Wait, I had her last two albums, things you do when you’re younger…Now I’m a flip-flopper.

Mass Suckers

2007-04-18T16:33:00.000-05:00

It is just another sad thing that I see.

People at the end of the day just want something that’s easier, something that won’t challenge them. They want fucking packaged pop, escapist but not thinkers.

This week there is two major releases---Nine Inch Nails’ Year Zero and Avril Lavigne’s The Best Damn Thing. One is a dense concept album with a challenging theme and sound, one is an album with pop songs designed for Top 40. Which one do you think is going to sell more? Lavigne, of course.

According Hits Daily Double, it looks like Avril Lavigne is expected to debut #1 with about 250k in sales, while NIN should be right behind her with about 200k in sales. While the margin is not big, I was a bit sadden by it.

PEOPLE JUST FUCKING WANT DISPOSABLE POP.

Yes, NIN has Internet buzz with the ARG campign, has mostly positive and some very positive reviews, (yes, the album is great). But it touches darker subjects---mass sedation, a controlling government, rebellion, a giant hand of god---stuff that makes for good science fiction. Set in place 15 years from now, it represents a bleak future, and perhaps something that the mass does not want to think about. Hey, there are still a lot of people who still won’t believe that global warming is upon us.

Lavigne, on the other hand, has something better (in terms of sale)---she has Top 40 radio play, a bunch of TV appearances (how punk is that?) and a mass-circulated video. She got mostly average to negative to reviews, but does it mean anything? Nickelback sold a ton.

I guess that’s why most of the time discs that ends up in “Best of the Year” list is usually things that wasn’t a mass –commercial success (again, mostly), because to achieve critical success, it has to be challenging, daring, interesting, and audacious. The average mass is not going for that, they just want something normal, something peaceful and something ordinary.

And who am I to judge?

I don’t even know why I should care anymore.

The Definitive 200

2007-03-31T12:42:00.000-05:00

The Definitive 200 is the list that the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame came up with for music lovers, or something. Not surprisingly enough, the list is consists of albums that sold a ton with some artists of minimum talent (though perspective may vary). And of course, The Beatles is #1.

I printed out the list to see how many album I own on the list, for a minute I thought I own none of it, but it turns out I own 10 out of 200 albums that’s on the list. Including:

The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem

Speakerboxx/The Love Below by Outkast

Get Rich or Die Tryin’ by 50 Cent

American Idiot by Green Day

Eminem Show by Eminem

Hybrid Theory by Linkin Park

OK Computer by Radiohead

Diary of Alicia Keys by Alicia Keys

The Black Albumby Jay-Z

Dangerously In Love by Beyonce

7 out the 10 album are hip-hop and R&B, so does it mean that I own more classic hip-hop and R&B album than classic rock albums? And the funny thing is, only about 21% of the albums that I brought are actually hip-hop and R&B. So this means that I only buy mainstream, top-selling hip-hop album? I guess.

God, I knew I should have brought Nevermind and Ten.

Weekend Playlist

2007-03-31T12:26:00.000-05:00

Wolf Like Me
By TV On the Radio
From Return to the Cookie Mountain
Fuzzy guitars mix with blaring bass, with dreamy backing vocals on the background. Can’t help but sing along to it.

Ruby
By The Kaiser Chiefs
From Yours Truly, Angry Mob
It’s all in the chorus. In fact, their new album (which Ruby is on) Yours Truly, Angry Mob is full of delightful big choruses.

In This Twilight
By Nine Inch Nails
From Year Zero
With a crackly noise that recalls a rusting machinery, this song has a extremely melodic chorus that showcased Reznor’s singing ability. The crooning makes a great morning listening when riding on the bus and the sun is rising (ironic), or setting (as the title say).

Living For the Weekend
By Hard-Fi
From Stars of CCTV
An electric lead from the song goes permeating into a working class anthem---shitty job, long hours, and the celebration of the weekend. From the debut album Stars of CCTV, this certainly match loads of people’s mind.

True Mathematics
By Ladytron
From Light and Magic
The throbbing bass goes together with the slashing drums to create a dance track that hard-hitting. Points added to the weird vocals in a foreign language that’s probably made up.

Years later if I read this, I’ll know what I was listening to. Isn’t this what a blog is about?

PS. Writing about music is like dancing about architecture, and I sound a pretentious music critic.

Sideline Commentary

2007-03-25T15:49:00.000-05:00

I am a big Internet person; there is an unlimited amount of information and entertainment. Almost every bit of information that you need and want is within your fingertips, and you can watch some obscure 80s television ads on YouTube (no, I didn’t watch them).

Aside from researching information about otters for biology class, forcing myself to watch that horrible video(and song) “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavigne (that’s got to be a song written for 13 year olds, and I only watched it after hearing some mumbling about it), and reading some weird blogs, an integral part of my venture is reading comments that people leave at various sites (this includes message boards to blogs).
One thing that’s great (or sometimes bad) about the Internet is that it brings out all kinds of people from all kinds of places. This is the clash o cultures, personalities, tastes, and views. Take a Rolling Stone article for example, whenever there’s a post about a modern star of choice, the commentaries below the article will bring out the best and the worst of everyone. This is actually the most entertaining and most frustrating part, you usually get a few laughs out of it, and there’s bound to be comments that make you want to spit at the person who wrote it. Take the above Avril Lavigne “Girlfriend” video on YouTube, there’s tons of comments on that thing. It ranges from “elle est troooo belle et jkiff tro sa chanson “, to “I <3 THIS VIDEO!!! IT ROCKS!!!!” to “that was the stupidest thing i have ever seen i thought the bitch was annoying before but now its just sad n the rest of you idiots who think avril is so punk you need to be shot in the face” and these are just a few of them.

Yes, I actually spent more time reading those than watching the video. There were a lot of times when I questioned my sanity after I found myself reading the comments time after time. I had nodded my head to plenty of them, yet more often than not I found myself frowning, or worse, being upset by it. There was always a sick feeling after some guy insulted your favorite band/singer/book/whatever.

But there’s a lesson that’s hidden in these brilliant, infantile, thorough, incoherent ramblings: no matter how great something is, there will be its haters, and no matter how atrocious something is, there will be its lovers. And more importantly, it’s hard, borderline impossible to change the views of some people.

I figured this out a few years ago when I was younger, and I sometimes have to constantly remind myself of this:
Your opinion sucks, and so does mine.

We all have our own opinions and views, and we need a venue of venting somewhere, and what’s better than the Internet? You may remain anonymous, take on a double life with a completely different personality, and throw out you opinion at any topic any time. I often see vicious slews and just complete assholes on the Internet giving out their view, and there’s a large population of them, and why is that? This is the time for them to shine. Everything seems to be boasted bigger and more malicious on the Internet because it allows people to be protected.
But really, does these comments that I see on message boards matters? Does it contribute to my benefit? Does opinions make something better or worse for you? And what is good or bad?

Of course, the “this sucks ass”, “they’re awesome” and “fuck you” are going their everlasting life on the Internet. I’ll continue reading comments and shake my head at the immature and iniquitous fucks that are clearly idiots, their opinions suck, and the funny thing is, my opinions suck too.

Flowering Plant Reproduction

2007-03-23T10:25:00.000-05:00

Flowering Plant Reproduction Flowers reproduciton Flower diagram plant blan Reproduction information about lily

MySpace

2007-03-14T15:46:00.000-05:00

There are some very incoherent and just plain inane posts on MySpace, I mean, more than any other message boards or whatever.

I can feel my IQ being lower while reading those posts.

Is "Better" Worse?

2007-03-03T09:26:00.001-05:00

So, "Better" from the long awaited Guns N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy" was leaked, now it's rumored to be the first single.

I heard it about a week ago, and the local radio station was playing it yesterday, with a lot of people calling in and say :" This sucks!"

The funny thing is, I DIDN'T think it was THAT bad, maybe it's BECAUSE I'M NOT A GUNS N' ROSES FAN.

It's been what? Sixteen years since the last album (which is a little bit older than me)? Fans are fed up, tired of Axl Rose saying that Chinese Democracy will be released whatever year. This album has to be THE GREATEST ALBUM EVER RECORDED (okay, maybe not that much) to restore people's faith. And that track was not the greatest thing ever, so people are pissed (even more), and this applied to the GNR fans. Fans hated it more than non-fans, because Chinese Democracy meant more to them, so when they're disappointed, there's no mercy.

And you know, people's opinion are easily influenced, then once the initial impression is established, it's hard to change. So when the first wave of people who heard it (i.e the fans)and the view spread, people everywhere are starting to say this is bad. And those who say that this track is good will likely to get flamed and be called a over-obsessive fanboy/girl.

To be fair, like I said, it's not THAT bad. The beginning is bad, with Rose singing in falsetto (which sounded horrible)and some atmospheric sounds (as one radio personality noted, "it sounded like NIN"). Then there's a period of whatever the hell and it kicks in a (pretty) straight forward hard rock riff (with Axl Rose sounding better now). Near the end there's some more industrial-rock like electronic bleeps in the riff. And sadly, Axl tried to scream in the end, and again, it sounds horrible. For a while it sounds okay, maybe even good.

Wonder if this song was released, I don't know, 14 years ago, it would have a better reception. But it's not, so too bad.

Rant

2007-02-28T17:27:00.000-05:00

Wouldn't it be better if Iggy and the Stooges were on the cover of Spin instead of Fall Out Boy?

My Favorite Pitchfork Reviews

2007-02-24T12:57:00.000-05:00

Pitchfork Media is of course one of the most important music site on the planet as we know, and no, I don't constantly read their reviews. But, known also for their pretentious ranting about indie bands and bloated reviews that leaves you scratching your head, here are some of my favorites:

Autechre
Untilted
[Warp; 2005]
Rating: 7.4

This review is not a review, but instead a play. It involves a conversation between the Tortoise and Achilles about the Autechre record. What better way to review a record than this memorable way? Somebody put this on Broadway.

Audioslave
Out of Exile
[Interscope; 2005]
Rating: 6.8

This one is awesome and it makes me laugh. In the author's own words, the review is about "Fresh out of exile, Chris Cornell is trying to re-adjust to the real world. Cornell has one problem, though: He only communicates using Audioslave lyrics". Really, it's funny. Here's a sample:

"Chris Cornell at the eye doctor:

Eye Doctor: So what's wrong, Mr. Cornell?

Chris Cornell: I've stared straight into the sun.

Eye Doctor: You can't see anything?

Chris Cornell: I've seen 50,000 names all engraved on a stone.

Eye Doctor: So you see some things, but not other things.

Chris Cornell: Send my soul away.

Innovative indeed.

Next we have Jet, again, it's not a review, but a Youtube video:

Jet
Shine On
[Elektra; 2006]
Rating:

I would think that this was rated 0.0. Since the video was about a chimp reliving himself.

Next:
Tool
Lateralus
[Volcano]
Rating: 1.9

This "review" was written in the perspective of a Tool fan. Basically it was the fan talking how good music comes in the cycle of every 16 years. it brings out the stereotype of Tool fans likes doing math and that kind of shit. Did the reviewer even listen to the record? I didn't see any straight-forward description of what the music on the disc sounded like. You can't blame them, since major label artists suck (in the eye of Pitchfork), right?

Why not another Tool review?
Tool
10,000 Days
[Volcano; 2006]
Rating: 5.9

The reviewer was not a Tool fan to begin with, because: "At 28, I'd feel funny mocking 15-year-olds still finding their place in the world. And as for taking them seriously-- well, I take Tool about as seriously as I do black metal or Lil Jon or the films of Tsui Hark. Which is to say, not very."

How can a review be fair if you already dislike Tool to begin with? Even if all the reviews are subjective, let's not make it this fucking obvious.

"If only the music had one-tenth of the Public Image Limited song's power. Instead I find myself in the awkward position of trying to sell you on the merits of a deeply uncool band by telling you to go buy their last album instead.
I guess the more opinionated, the better. No, I'm not that big of a Tool fan and I don't think 10,000 Days is a great record, but that review was just so subjective and predictable.

At last but not least:
Nine Inch Nails
The Fragile
[Nothing/Interscope]
Rating: 2.0

The reviewer complained about the record being bloated and predictable, but the irony is the review itself is bloated and predictable. I don't even know long the review itself it, but it just rant on about how much Nine Inch Nails is stupid and Trent Reznor sucks. It critized The Fragile being not concised enough, and the review itself was not concise itself.

And yeah, let me point this out:
" 1:49am: "Even Deeper," a track mixed by Dr. Dre, spits aluminum riffs into my headphones. The entire concept of pairing of Dr. Dre and Nine Inch Nails, a match ,maid in Kornboy heaven (or most likely the Interscope commissary) is laughable."

It's "made", not "maid".

Of course Pitchfork Media has its legion of haters, and I would think that reviews like that contributes to it.

Jesus Reigns on the Internet

2007-02-18T18:16:00.001-05:00

The Lord Jesus Christ is always looking upon us, even on this fascinating place that is the Internet. There's a few catergories of these sites, and I'm blogging about it because I'm weird.

1. The God Loves You
Who is Jesus ?This one has some pretty comprehensive Q & A about our Lord Jesus Christ. There's also some very important information about God and man, like:

Okay.

Oh, How I Love Jesus! I just found this while I googled "love Jesus", it's yet to be set up right now. Oh well.

Wow, this one is for the kids! Everything on there is written for the kids, so you know, it's in kiddie language. Such as:
" Jesus Loves You
Jesus loves you this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong, they are weak but he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves you, yes, Jesus loves you, yes Jesus loves you, the Bible tells me so!"

2. The Jesus Sucks
a last.fm group about how Jesus sucks

An article about how Jesus sucks It's interesting. The author listed some pretty to the point reasons:

I've only read half of Luke -- after which I couldn't stomach any more -- so I may be missing some important things. However, from what I've seen, the whole "do unto others as you'd have them do unto you", "do not judge", etc. is, like, one thing he said once. The majority of the time, Jesus is busy doing one of the following:
Showing off.
Telling people how great he is.
Judging people.
Warning people how fucked they're going to be if they don't do what he says.

Funny that there's lot more love for Jesus than hate. Or maybe I didn't look hard enough.

3. The Presence of Jesus in Their Title
What would Jesus blog? Good question, never asked myself that question until now.

i think the dude is trying to be funny

The Hollywood Jesus Dressup This is just creepy .

Jesus Tattoos I Found on the Internet

Doesn't Jesus look nice on your arm? (or leg, or whatever?)

How long does this tattoo takes to make? That's gonna hurt. But hey, Jesus suffered for you so you should suffer for him, I guess.

Praise our Lord, indeed.

************************************************************************************
I'm wrapping up just because I'm bored now. I think I'm losing my mind.

Year Zero=Science Fiction

2007-02-15T18:01:00.000-05:00

Yes, Nine Inch Nails is releasing a new album on April 17th, and it is titled Year Zero, and things are getting a bit creepy (in a good way) for the promotion of this album...

There's a trail of websites containing an apocolyptic images and description of the USA, set in place around 2022 (or as the websites say, 0000). The government controls the media, adding substances to the drinking supplies to (possibly) control and sedate its citizen, an army controlled under God and religion, a new drug named Opal, and the Presence (aka the Hand of God)...

Here's the websites that's related to Year Zero:
I Am Trying to Believe
A site first discovered by fans, noticing on the back of the tour T-Shirt with the letters highlighted the above phase. A website that talks about Parepin, the substance added to the drinking supplies.

Be the Hammer
I don't really know what this is, a resistance site as some suggested.

Chruch of Plano
A Chruch website

105th Airborne Crusaders
The army under God.

Consolidated Mail System , appearently a ... mail system in the story...
Also the Consolidated Mail System, but you can't do anything with it.

Another Version of the Truth Clikck and drag the mouse around, there's a forum around
HERE,

There's audio clips around, and yes, ONE TRACK HAD LEAKED, "My Violent Heart" was found in a bathroom in Libson, Portugal, and all hell broke loose.

Yes, I heard the track, it's awesome.

There's static noises at the end of the song, and some fans analyzed this noise using spectrograph, and got this:

And in www.iamtryingtobelieve.com, there's this:

Fucking weird.

And of course, if you want to join the discussion and snoop around ,you can always count on this: Echoing the Sound Forum

This is very cool...I can now honestly say that Trent Reznor is a smart guy, he knows how to work things...

Mogao Cave

2007-02-13T09:31:00.000-05:00

What I Brought Yesterday (or at least some of it)

2007-02-04T10:06:00.000-05:00

I was planning to buy this album after "Smile" really grew on me.

Usually, when I buy albums base on the single I heard (I'm one of few who still buy the whole album instead of downloading the song), the album just have a few good songs. But not this one, I can say the whole album is great.

It's full of melodic clashes, the poppy atmosphere dominates the record, and there's the beat that keeps you moving. In other words, it's like one of those Top 40 hits, except it's better and not make you want to tear your hair out.

Also brought: Saul William's self tiltled sophmore album.

It's hip-hop, except with less profanity,less bragging and more meaning. The music itself it's not really what hip hop now sounds like: it's simplistic, a blend of electronics with a little (just a little) rock edge.

His lyrical intentions is much better than the usual "I got my hos and bitches line up, and my blings are thicker than your neck" kind of boo-hah. It's about life, proverty, politics and society.

Of course, he won't blow up because he didn't talk about his hos and bitches.

Here I Go Again

2007-02-02T16:49:00.000-05:00

The Dudes Talks About...Hair

Gotta love those dudes. Now looking back, I'm not "feeling weird" about the whole "hoax bomb" thing anymore, I now think this is a bit too funny.

Follow-Up

2007-02-01T16:48:00.000-05:00

I just have to post this picture.

Light Man Freak Out!!!

2007-01-31T17:08:00.000-05:00

Hoax" triggers Boston security scare

I'm so unhappy that I missed this thing until 15 minutes ago. I miss it all, you would think that I'd at least notice this news with the fact that I'm riding the MBTA. And I didn't see a single traffic jam on the way home.

I should have go home via Sullivan Square.

Turner Broadcasting's "publicity promotion" sure works. In a big way. I don't even know how to think of this. Maybe if I was actually held up by this from coming home, I might have more of an opinion and very pissed.

Now the news say there's another one found in Fenway Park, how many is there?

Hey, it's giving me the finger! I found it funny/odd that Turner Broadcast didn't notify any of the officials, and nobody knew this until now, and all hell broke loose. In the world after September 11th, some people can't take this type of "publicity stunt".

I'm still unhappy that I missed this, especially when I take the public transportation around Boston and noticed none of this.

I'm going to Sullivan Square tomorrow morning to school(like every morning). Blah.

History Study Center - Maps & Reference Article

2007-01-29T14:50:00.000-05:00

History Study Center - Maps & Reference Article

Children.Org

2007-01-24T16:16:00.000-05:00

While I was walking to the bus stop to go home, someone from Children International stopped me and asked me to pledge for a child. But the only problem is, I'm not old enough (I looked old, I know, I know).

But he did told me their website, it is Children.org.

Too bad I'm too young.

What is On My Radio (Or Yours)?

2007-01-21T15:48:00.000-05:00

I have heard it several times already, people saying "radio is going to die", maybe it is, I don't know. On a Saturaday night, I listened to the radio station WFNX , and I decided to write down their playlist, and then determine if the playlist (the music)is killing radio or not, so here we go:

January thirteenth, two thousand and seven
6:12PM
Steady As She Goes by the Raconteurs
I heard this song for 1,456 times already (I tallied them up and counted it)for the last few months. And really, I'm getting sick of it, I don't care if Jack White is awesome or not.

6:14PM
The Sweater Song by Weezer
I always wonder why the hell would someone want to destroy River Cuomos' sweater. This song always makes me imagine a bunch of guys singing drunkingly while the others smokes weed.

6:16PM
Unknown song
Appearently a 80s tune. Nostalgia.

6:20PM
Shine On by Jet
Whew, that song ended, and Jet came on!All I really noticed about this song was that this is the exact formula for their other song, Look What You Have Done. Oh my gosh, maybe this will be on Top 40 too!

6:25PM
All Apologies by Nirvana
Wonder if Courtney Love sold the right of this sont to some company yet.

6:28PM
Don't Look Back In Anger by Oasis
1. Is Oasis going to release anything this year?
2. Who is Noel Gallagher going to talk shit about next?

6:32PM
DJ talking about some show

6:33PM
Commercials (including McDonalds, skiing, 24, Donkin Donuts and more)

6:39PM
Le Disco Shinny Toy Guns
Another hispter dance/disco rock band! Yee haw.

6:42PM
Date Rape by Sublime
My favorite kind of story in a song form.

6:45PM
Holiday by Green Day
Green Day is everywhere. In fact, they're just outside my windows.

6:50PM
Never There by Cake
Cake, hmmm

6:53PM
DJ talking about Shinny Toy Guns sounding like Peaches.

So, judging from the playlist, I think the current state of radio is sdjofupksdfjek;slfijk.

Databases

2007-01-10T09:24:00.000-05:00

Nero's life with Rome
Nero
Brief Biography of Nero
Biographies of Roman Emperors
Detailed bio
Another one
Nero's Death
Quinn's Nero Page

Global Warming is Upon Us!

2007-01-06T14:12:00.000-05:00

Today is January sixth, and it is 68 degrees out there in Boston.
If this does not prove that global warming is in effect, I don't know what is.

2006-12-29T08:35:00.000-05:00

The Good Never Lasts
The good never lasts,
And the bad always struck.
Time of ecstasy,
Broke by uncertainty.
How can we forget,
There’s always something there,
To block all the potentials,
All the hopes and
All the cheers?
What a fool,
What idiocy,
What a hit.
But I will be here,
Waiting.
Waiting for the outcome,
Waiting for the future.
I’ll stick around,
I’ll give a hand.
I know the good never lasts,
But I will stay put,
Even if it won’t be what it used to be.

The Mouse
Painful squeal,
Trapped in its deathbed,
Helpless.

It struggles,
In this pool of glue,
Watching the world through sad eyes.

So small and fragile,
Stealing the last bit of breath,
Just to survive, trying to survive.

It can’t escape anymore,
And I’m watching it,
Oh god I’m watching it die.

X-Mas

2006-12-23T16:16:00.000-05:00

It doesn't even feel like X-mas here.
It's rainning,of all things.

I WANT A BLIZZARD.

Operation Conservatives

2006-11-23T08:34:00.000-05:00

They plan to protest Wal-Mart,but dropped it. Perhaps because no one cares.

"This has been Christian families' favorite store( Wal-Mart) _ and now they're giving in, sliding down the slippery slope so many other corporations have gone down," said the Rev. Flip Benham of Operation Save America. "They're all being extorted by the radical homosexual agenda."

Funny how many priests turned out to be attracted to little boys and one not long ago “gave in to sin” (or whatever he called it) with another man.

Speaking of agendas, I though the Christian Conservatives’ agenda is way more subversive to society than “their homosexual agenda”.

First, the Conservatives impose their agenda/teaching upon you. Their tactic of fear with “if you’re a homosexual or a non-Christian you will go to hell” allows no tolerance and exception (maybe except limbo in Roman Catholic, but when have you ever hear “you’re a good atheist, you will go to limbo!?)Thus they plant a seed of fear in people’s heart. This absolute arrogance and intolerance leads to discrimination.

And more or less, American society (or maybe government even) is based strongly on religion (you may even say it’s a theocracy). The reason same-sex marriage is having so much trouble and controversies is because of the Conservatives, and they do have a hand in politics---do you think they really think that gay marriage is wrong just because the constitution said “marriage is between man and woman?”

Homosexuality is seen as a blasphemy and a crime.

Mitt Romney (Massachusetts governor) recently openly supported the voting on banning gay marriage. Why? He’s a Christian! The opponent of such is 99.9% base on religion. Religion is use not just for personal faith, but almost everything else.

The fact is that Christian Conservatives does not accept anything other than their own beliefs, Jesus is your savior and that’s it, they cannot look at other things objectively. So, this lack of objectivity became the one and only truth, and everything else is base on that. Perhaps it was…noble for them to “right the wrong” and “fight evil” because they truly believe in what they’re doing. Everything they do is for God. Basically, they’re fight for their rights, but so does the gay right supporters. Homosexuals are also people, a difference in preference (and some priest is having that preference also, mind you) does not make them a monster. And I thought Jesus taught people to love everyone.

I should go ask that guy with the cardboard that says “Save by Jesus or lost in hell” about whether he loves everyone or not.

SHUT UP

2006-11-18T18:34:00.000-05:00

Don't say anything if you have nothing nice to say, it's very dull after you say it more than two times.

I was roaming around a forum today, and I rediscovered something that is very irritated and annoying--- people complain how much they dislike/dissatified/disppointed by something (in this case, about an album).

It's the same person over and over again---" I'm disappointed, it's a bad album" "it's not complex enough" "it sucks ass". WELL, I LIKE IT, SO FUCK YOU. STOP TRYING TO CONVICE ME OTHERWISE.

Seriously, enough already! I understand that you don't like the album, fine, BUT STOP SAYING HOW MUCH IT SUCKS OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN! Tell me something that doesn't suck, something that you like for a change!

And yes, the fact that I like,(I may even say love) the album irritates me more. I like the album and that is all it matters, I don't care what you think.

How to define a "great album" or "bad album" anyway? These are obviously oppinions, you think one thing, the other thinks the opposite, so which is true? NON.
What really matter is what you think, if you think one thing, don't let others convice you that easily.

I hope I won't type something like this again, thereby making my opening statement a phrase that I cannnot follow (therefore I become a hypocrite).

Dancing Teacher

2006-11-18T18:25:00.000-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IHhCVIkPCk

I hope a teacher dance to a tune that is more embrassing than this one this year.

But,this is good enough.

Mid -Term

2006-11-17T17:19:00.000-05:00

It's near the end of the month,this means that my teachers are busy making their students take exams to write their progress report.

I'm sure I will mess up on the latin mid-term exam somehow, since I have to go through a long process of identifying which tense is which, then adding the different endings and all that...and worse yet, I have remember some damned architecutre terms.

My school tend to produce an aura that will suffocate its students, that's why so many of them drop out in the first place.

I still have a few projects pending...

It's kind of sad that everything in your academic years are based on numbers, exams, grades...and really, report cards are not a measure of intelligence, just how hard you worked and maybe luck. I seen some kid got so upset over their grades, and really, it's not the end of the world. There's way more beyond the As and Bs and whatnot.

I still got a long way to go....

Halloween Playlist

2006-10-28T08:59:00.000-05:00

1. Bela Lugosi's Dead by Bauhaus
I guess it's classic for a day like Halloween. For one thing, the title's suit for the day, and the song's eerie soundscapes give you a creepy feeling.

2. Peek-a-Boo by Siouxie and the Banshees
I don't really need to explain.

3. Dracula by White Zombie
Do I need to explain?

4. The Wretched by Nine Inch Nails
Perhaps the creepiest NIN song, in my opinion. It's great to listen to when the sky is gloomy, it will be even better to listen to on Halloween.

5. Burn the Witch by Queens of the Stone Age
Salem's song.

Other Tracks:
Psycho Killer by The Talking Heads
Deadhead by Stereophonics
Dead Souls by Joy Division
Living Dead Girl by White Zombie
Everyday is Halloween by Ministry
Mask by Bauhaus

North Korea and Their Nuclear Weapons and Everyone is Freaking Out

2006-10-21T11:06:00.000-05:00

This, to me, isn't the biggest problem.

How many coutries have nuclear weapons? I'm sure the United States have it, Russia have it, other countries have it, so North Korea wants one. Do they have the right to have one, sure. Like the United States have the rights to crash Iraq and free the Iraqis (maybe not the best analogy)

The thing is, because Kim Joon II is perceived as a fucking nutcase by the media and otherwise, so people automatically assume that he's going to shoot it towards everyone in sight. Maybe he is a nutcase, by the way that he doesn't care what the other countries are yelling about and don't care about the consequences. But, is he going to use it? I don't know.

Like my history teacher said: " People don't trust Kim Joon II with the nuclear weapons, well, I don't trust Dick Cheney either. " puts it best.

But I wouldn't be that surprised if North Korea goes off.

Latin

2006-10-21T11:01:00.000-05:00

Prepositions

Preposition with ablative nouns
• Ab: from, away
• Cum: with
• De: from, down from; concerning, about
• Ex: from, out of
• In: in, on
• Sine: without
• Sub: under, at the foot of

Preposition with accusative nouns
• Ad: to, toward, near
• Ante: before (time), in front of (space)
• Post: after (time), behind (space)
• Ob: because
• Per: through
• Trans: across
• In: into, onto
• Sub: up to, under (motion)

More vocabulary
Via, viae f: road, street, way
Servus, -I m: slave (not servant)
Filia-ae-f : daughter
Donum, -I n: gift
Nuntius, -I m: messenger
Porta,-ae, f : gate
Silva, -ae f: forest
Amicus, -I m: friend

it: he/she/it goes
eunt: they go
navigant: they sail
navigas: your are sailing
pungnas: you are fighting
portent: they are carrying
preparant: they are preparing
ubi: where
laudat: he/she praises
vocat: calls

Am I Annoying?

2006-09-17T14:52:00.000-05:00

Here's something interesting:
Am I Annoying?

Now I can find out how annoying I am! Fortunately after I took the quiz, they said:
"Quiz Results
Points: 29
Our experts are please to report that you are a tolerable, if not pleasant. You should be proud of your annoyance rating (unless you lied on your quiz, then you're a complete bastard!)
Time Spent: 12:54"

Sometimes I am pleasant to the point of weak.

Retrospective: September 11

2006-09-10T13:03:00.000-05:00

For older people, maybe they have been asked the following question: “where were you when you heard Kennedy got shot?”, or, “where were you when you heard Lennon got shot?”. For people my generation, the question of equivalence is certainly “where were you when you heard the Twin Towers got hit by terrorists?”.

I remember clearly where I was when that happened. I was quiet young at the time, and was on the other side of the ocean. And I t seems not so long ago.

Typical fall day, and like everyday, I walked with my friends from school back to my grandmother’s house. It was about 4:30 in the afternoon, and the television was on in the living room.

Expecting the usual programming of cartoons, I was surprised when all I saw was a ruin of some building, with the news reporter reporting something. I sat down, and there, they showed the footage of the plane struck the Twin Towers over and over again. I soon realized that the terrorist attacked New York City, and the US was under attack.

That was the first time I heard of the word “terrorist.”

During these five years, I had moved to America, and hear the word “terrorists” at least few times a month. “The war on terrorism” is heard every time Bush speaks.

America’s not safe, I don’t even know if it will ever be safe from terrorists. It’s pretty lucky that the British uncovered the terror plot in London last month, but just how many more can we bust? How long can we continue this?

Terrorists aren’t idiots. Their selfless will to do revenge is something that is almost indestructible. As long there’s conflicts between the US and the Middle East, there will be grudge and vengeance. But it seems like the government had made no effort to resolve this. Instead, there’s wars and yapping when a country wants to develop “weapon of mass destruction” (nuclear weapons).

It all seems distant away, yet it is all so near.

Back to School

2006-09-09T14:39:00.000-05:00

School started on Thursday, and it's been...okay.

I'm in a new school this year, though there's people I know from my previous school, but of course, the other 2000 plus faces are strangers to me. Also, the school is very big, and there's only 4 minutes for you to run to your next class and put away the 5 pound books in your locker, it provides a considerably stress both physically and mentally.

I know it's going to get worse when the piles of homework comes.

You know, students are really slaves to the education. With today's demanding environment, four years of college isn't enough (and I'm not in college), we spent a good part of our youth in education without knowing what it really promise. "Education is mighty weapon," even if you graduated from Harvard, that doesn't mean you will become a CEO or the president. But for sake of education, (or your parents or whatever)you have to take it.

Or else you will be homeless.

I can't even remember what I was going to say.

Rest In Peace, Steve

2006-09-05T10:41:00.000-05:00

Stingray killed the Crocodile Hunter.

I was shocked that the seemingly indestructable Steve Irwin died. I just know about it a few hours ago.

I first came across Irwin when watching Animal Planet, and I have always liked the guy. And now this... I was bummed.

He died while doing something he loves, maybe that can give people some comfort. Well, rest in peace.

I Wish I have the Programmer's Job

2006-09-03T10:37:00.000-05:00

I just heard G-Unit's "Stun 101" on a segment in a PBS kids program, I don't know if it's more funny, or it's more of a proof that there is no God.

I hope next time they will use Tool's "Die Eier Von Satan" or Nine Inch Nails' "Closer".

Future Rock Hall

2006-09-01T09:36:00.000-05:00

Future Rock Hall
Something that I can poke around with, though I was surprised at some artist's induction chances.

Retrospective: Hurricane Katrina

2006-08-29T07:38:00.000-05:00

It’s been a year already.

Time really flies by, and it’s been a year after the disaster that destroyed New Orleans.

We learned more than what a hurricane can do to a city: waist-deep water, roof-less houses, and everything turned to a ruin. But perhaps more importantly, we learned that the government is slow to respond, and there is still a clear division on skin color and classes.

The media (and everyone) was quick to notice that a unreasonably slow response was given to New Orleans residents, whom is mostly colored. Reading back my journal at that time, I saw that I made a note that 99% of the people that were strained, standing helplessly on the roof, and crying frantically at the Dome were black. The images were hear-wrenching and hard to watch. It was surreal that New Orleans suddenly became like a place in the Third World, yet, this was in America.

The Administration has the money to invade other countries, but couldn’t respond correctly to a place of their own. And even now, a year later, we don’t see any significant re-build of the city.

Another hurricane, Ernesto, is moving to the direction of the Gulf Coast, and just how much can New Orleans take if it is hit again? I doubt that the hurricane will hit directly at New Orleans again, but not only is New Orleans’ dams fragile; people’s hearts are now also fragile.

Now I suddenly wanted to watch the footage of Kanye West’s classic blurt out: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” You know, I was fortunate enough to
see the footage live last year, along with Mike Myers’ face filled with absolute horror. I hope someone puts it on YouTube.

Bob Dylan Said Today's Music Sucks

2006-08-24T05:57:00.000-05:00

"I don’t know anybody who’s made a record that sounds decent in the past 20 years, really."-Bob Dylan, in a recent Rolling Stone interview

While I (and a lot of people I met) agree that the majority of today’s music on the market is bad, I have to admit that the above quote is something that I wouldn’t say (aside from the fact that I can’t say “the last 20 years” due to my age).

Of course this is an exaggeration, and I believe Mr. Dylan used it as an exaggeration too. He has got to like something in the past 20 years. I have a record that I think it’s amazing that just came out in 2006 (Hard-Fi’s Cash Machine), and in the same time I think today’s music sucks. And what about notable records like Nirvana’s Nevermind, Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral, and Radiohead’s Ok Computer? And that’s just on the alternative rock side.

I guess that Bob Dylan just used this quote to express the general state of music. Or wait, does he hate CDs and that results to the dislike of modern music?

And that got me thinking: is the older generation always think that today’s youngster music sucks?

I know my parents won’t listen to the “boo cha cha” music (named after the beats of techno and hip hop, I think) that I listen to. Funny thing is, I don’t really listen to techno and hip-hop, and that expression is just a generalization. Is the older generation too nostalgic to try to listen to “young people’s music”, this may or may not be the case. I don’t even know if I will listen to “young people’s music” when I’m my parent’s age. Maybe I’ll just listen to my favorite records that’s recorded in the 90’s and the 2000’s when it’s 2030.

But still, nothing but love and respect for Mr. Bob Dylan.

Next Stop: Lizards on a Ship? Snakes On A Plane's Possible Sequels

2006-08-20T17:51:00.000-05:00

We have all witnessed the phenomenon that is Snakes on a Plane. As many have wondered, " how many sequel will follow?", and I think the following situation/title will suit the sequels to a spectacular level:

And I'm not going to see the film.

In The News: JonBenet Ramsey's Murder Case

2006-08-18T09:22:00.000-05:00

Our attention has shifted to JonBenet Ramsey’s murder.

After almost ten years of the murder, they have finally arrested a suspect in Bangkok. Suddenly reporters started standing I front of the murder site, JonBenet’s face on the newspaper, and there’s the footage of John Karr walking out over and over again.

A true testament of the case’s popularity (which is extraordinary considering America’s attention spend), and a testament of how Americans still subliminally passionate about childhood and innocence (though Jonbenet's image doesn't not really conjure up the typical image of "innocence").

The case itself was made for media deliria: a beautiful child pageant, death at an innocent age, confusing situation, seemingly suspicious parents, and layers of mysteries.Even though I was not old enough to have a profound reaction on it initially, but I still remembers it vaguely about “a body in the basement” when it was brought to attention again.

And there's the thing about Jonbenet's image as a "child sex kitten" as one reporter puts it. I have seen on the web that some people think the attention that this case have recieved is largely due to that JonBenet is not "plain". Perhaps yes, since the media tend to attracted to the sense of aethestic. Murder case? Give it a bit of coverage,. Child murder case? Oh my, give it complete coverage. A child beauty pageant murder case? This is made for dream coverage. Life is not fair, even media coverage is not fair.

But whether this case deserves the attention or not, it certainly stir up another story to read after you read about terrorism in your newspaper. Whether the case will be solve is still unclear, I’m not even sure if Karr’s “confession” is believable. Of course, this make for a even better media story, and this media deliria won’t end any time soon.

Diary of A Possibly Evil Baby Genius

2006-08-15T12:15:00.000-05:00

Diary of a Possibly Evil Baby Genius
By S.Wang

June 5th, 2005
I was born onto this Earth on a stormy day. Released form my mother’s womb, I set eyes on those terrible creatures that surrounded me and let out a cry. For I realized with disgust that I’m the same kind as those terrible creatures: I’m a mere human.

June 13th, 2006
I have arrived at a place called “home”, and was being carried in forcefully by two creatures of my kind called “parents”. How grim the world seems! I let out another cry.

June 14th, 2006
I had become conscious that my mundane identity is Walter Lane.

June 23rd, 2006
I found my power in voice, and began to command my “father” by calling him “Dan”. Unfortunately, he thought I called him “Dad”, which caused commotion among the household that I did not want.

June 24th, 2006
Laura, my “mother” made attempts to make me call her “Mommy”, I refused. I also stopped calling Dan, because that will cause more commotion.

June 28th, 2006
The stroller is a torture! I was strapped in no matter how hard I protested. My strength was not great enough to break out, but someday I will, believe me, I will!

June 30th, 2006
I began to imitate the objects surrounding me. Using the writing instrument I have seized at a nearby table, I began to draw the stuffed dog I’ve received from Dan and Laura. To my disappointment, it looked shapeless like spilled milk.

July 4th, 2006
Laura forced me on her lap to watch the television. I was extremely annoyed by this at first, but then I realized the beauty I was seeing. Red, yellow, green, purple, all sorts of color splattered across the screen. And to my surprise, all this beauty began with a big “boom”. Later I learned from Laura’s commentary that this was called “fireworks.” Perhaps I someday I will take over the world using “fireworks”.

July 5th, 2006
Laura brought in her “friends’ to celebrate the one month anniversary of my birth. To my discontentment, her ‘friends” brought their infant version my kind. Okay, fine, I’m also an infant, but that is not my point! Anyway, those filthy minions kept putting their claws on me and taking my stuffed dog. I was utterly frustrated, and I struck one of them. But they did not wail, why must my fist be so fragile?

July 13th, 2006
I’ve completed my escape plan. After a few days of looking around, I have drawn a map of the directions from my room to the door. I’m proud.

July 14th, 2006
Dan has found my escape plan! He took away my carefully drawn map! Then he muttered something about who drew such a dreadful picture.

July 18th, 2006
Nothing happened. I just wanted to record the nothingness of this world. This led to a stronger desire of ruling the world.

July 21st, 2006
My idiotic Laura had brought in her “friends” once again to disturb my peace. Those infant minions continued to irritate me by touching me and taking my toy away. Curse them! When I’m king you all will be the first against the wall!

July 22nd, 2006
I still cannot overcome my horror about my “grandparents”. The male grandparent was named “Cal”, and has a enormous belly. The female one was named “Anne’, I was screaming for my life when Anne’s artificially painted lips touched my face! That’s it, tomorrow I will begin my plan to rule the world, and then I’ll be able to ban people from touching my clean body. Seriously, I will. And the next time you hear from me, you will be bowing before my throne for I’m your ruler!

Black, White and Those Grey in Between

2006-08-14T15:18:00.000-05:00

We tend to catergorize things: there's ten kinds of cookies, twenty kinds of pens, how-ever-many kinds of music. We also categorize humanity.
Here's the thing, what should we set up the categories as? Good and Evil, tall or short, physically or internally?
For now, I'm just going to put it into three categories: optimistic, pessimistic, and those in the gray area.
The optimistic are the lay-back ones, take everything as it is and won't try to desperately change it. The pessimists are the anxious ones, they take everything as "something could be better" and desperately tries to make it better. And because of this, they will prepare everything if they have the chance, and tries to do everything perfectly. Kind of a perfectionist.
Those in the gray is the synthesis of the two, they're able to relax and be tense at various scenes. Perhaps they're the most adoptable ones here. They lack the total bubbly happiness of the optimists but lacks the depression of the pessimists. Maybe they are the ones that are the strongest.
Sometimes I don't even know why I write stuff like this, or how I wrote it.

2006-08-13T16:09:00.000-05:00

Thus the experiement begins, and I'm certain that I will mess up at some point.