Relative Perfection

I think dualism, albeit a little out there in old times, has a very fair outlook on the world. I also do not think that it needs to be taken literally. Be it that everything here is imperfect and that everything there is perfect, does that not mean that variables should be included? If I am here and you are there, then perfection aren't the same place, is it.

I know this girl.

She sometimes says that she is bad at some of her hobbies - I think she is great.

I know this girl.

She is sometimes very emotional - I say that evens out my logical ways.

I know this girl.

Sometimes she is worried that she is boring - Yet I enjoy every minute with her.

I know this girl.

Is she pretty? To you maybe, but not to me - To me, she is fricken gorgeous.

I know this girl.

She has a very irregular and strange humor - I makes me very comfortable.

I know this girl.

You do not love her - I do.

I know this girl.

She is not perfect - Except that she is to me.

This isn't classic dualism, I know.

This is my way of saying that perfection is relative...

... And scoring some points with my GF.

The Elder Scrolls: The Escape Scrolls

We all know the game series The Elder Scrolls, and those who don't, have probably been living in a hole for a couple of years (More than 10.) The popularity of this series severely rose with the release of Morrowind, the third installment in the series, and even further with the fourth: Oblivion.

The Elder Scrolls consists of the most awesome RPG elements known to man. Common for all the games is that you start as a prisoner in a holding cell, without a clue as to what you have done or why you are there. Once you escape, which you definitely will, you can roam around in a huge world and do as you very well please.

Now why would I wanna do that?
Because it is fun?
Definitely!
Because I am bored?
Supposedly.
Am I a fan?
Yes, indeed!

But why do millions of people succumb to the need of playing such a game, and why is it so popular?
The answer to that would be: Because it is an open world, where you can do as you please.
But can't we also do that in, say, real life? YES, WE CAN!
The difference is that in the world of Elder Scrolls, there are no REAL consequences. If you die, you just load. Something is too hard? Alter the difficulty! Too mundane? Use magic! In a bad mood? Assassinate some innocent civilians!

This game is ultimate form of video game escapism. You can even create your own content with a fancy toolset they give you for free. People are free to create their own textures and meshes such as these:

Interestingly enough, it was a chick who made this. I bet you thought it was a guy!

Anyway, so if someone wants to ignore the real world, and just bask in glory of being sole person the entire world revolves around for a couple of hours a day, The Elder Scrolls are just made for you. Even on their website they advertise, saying: "Be another person, in another world." It's the perfect opportunity to earn some dead hours! And who would you rather be?

Sheldon the Garbage Man, having to deal with bills and relationships - or Timmy the Great (I came up with that name,) Who own his own bests the Daedric lord, Mehrunes Dagon, with 100% chance of success, but still made so that it seems like an achievement?

The latter? I thought so!
So do I have a problem with escapism? No! I think it is great! I think dead hours are the best kind of pass-time in the world! Given my "Aesthetic" way of life, I think that this is awesome and that there are few things better to do.

Applaud for Bethesda studios! Really!

People dislike truth

Our entire law system is build on honesty. You have to do good things and in court you always have to be honest. Truth and justice and all that crap. Being honest is even considered a virtue. The the funny thing just is that people HATE hearing the truth about themselves. The primary reason for this is that we don't actually like that part of us. Maybe we don't want other people to know it, or ourselves to know it, because we would seem either evil or weak in the eyes of others.

I borrowed a game from a friend of mine, or rather, he put it in my hands and said: PLAY!

This game is called Persona 4, which is awesome, by the way. The game is about a bunch of teenagers who becomes capable of entering TV's and end up in a different world, where so called "shadows" are on the ready to attack them. Fortunately, our heroes are capable of summoning an avatar of their so called "dark side" (Which is the truth about themselves) called a "Persona." 

But there is a catch. before they are able to use their personas, they need to accept their "shadow selves." That is all there is required. But this is easier said than done, 'cause their shadow parts are mean and cruel. They still speak the truth though. They have the virtue of honesty. They are open about the weakness of their counter-part and what annoys them. From a freudian point of view, one might call them the subconsciousness. 

The point is that they can't accept their shadow selves to begin with and that is exactly what happens in real life. There is a part that we don't wish to acknowledge, deep inside us. It might be an opinion, an interest or some physical. Personally, this isn't such a big problem for me, I'd gladly admit that I am weak, or lazy or unattractive, if people point it out with some reasonable arguments. It's not a problem for me, since I am completely satisfied with who I am and accept that I am not perfect. This is partly because that whilst I realize that I am very "cruel" when it comes to some points, I simply don't care. It have been a problem for me, though. When I found out that I was going to be bald in a couple of years from now, I felt really bad about it, and I hated when people commented on my thin hair. That part of me is however gone. Which is why it pisses me off that I am still not able to summon an avatar capable of firing off lightning bolts!

So Persona got me thinking and I could actually recognize this kind of dilemma. After my en devours in bizzaro-TV-land, I was in a real-life sports competition, where we were in teams of 4-6. My group came in the 5th place, which means that we lost and so did the group of a guy I knew who were also participating. Th judges had a reward for everyone though, which consisted of a small candy-bars. Of course the winners received more. Both I and the guy I know who was also there, insisted on not receiving anything because of the fact that we lost. Still, later I see him gnawing on one anyway. At that point I ask him, why he might have changed his mind? He said, that since one of the winners offered him one, he couldn't say no. So he couldn't say no because a different person than the judge offered him one. I believe that he shrugged it off as being rude to say no, which, according to my observations, it wouldn't be, especially not if he told him about his principle of "loser gets no reward". Therefore I asked him: "So you said yes because you really wanted the chocolate." This made him very angry and needless to say, he gave me a childish reply, that made no sense whatsoever.

I believe that he became angry, because he was faced with the truth. He gave in. Craved. Having the tasty chocolate dangled in front of him twice was more than enough, and thus he decided to just dumb his principle and eat it. That is most definitely a sign of weakness, which I believe is why he didn't wanna face it. His "darker self" was smearing the fact in his face and he chose to neglect it. But I believe that we can learn a lesson from Persona 4. If we can't accept ourselves, we will grow weak and our we will in fact be defeated time and time again by ourselves (Which kinda seems humiliating.) But if we can accept ourselves, we will grow stronger (evidently without a cool avatar, though.)

It all boils down to whether we want to be weak, or acknowledge that we have a "darker side" and know that we are so much more than that. If we want to evolve and grow to acceptable levels, we need to be able to accept ourselves. Our "Full" selves.

You can exchange it!!

Ever received a present? Of course you have! We all do from time to time, as well as  give them out. I believe that no one can complain when it comes to being given a gift - or wait! I can! But I won't.... Wait... That's a lie, actually, I will.

I'll admit that getting Assassin's Creed II: Brotherhood for Christmas was nice. Or Storm of Zehir on my birthday for that matter! But aside from some very specific games and some creative surprises from my girlfriend, gifts don't really give me that much joy. Despite the fact that I dislike birthdays and Christmas a great deal, I also hand them out on said occasions.

I guess we get used to handing out and receiving presents and that is fine. The trouble is when people like me receive them, we don't really tend to get overly enthused. Instead we give a quick "Thank you" and a doubtful smile. Personally, I'd think that that would be enough of a display of gratitude, but sadly: NO!

Every-single-fucking-time I have to go through the process of my mother, aunt, or some crazy dude dressed as Santa saying: If you don't like it, you can exchange it!

Okay:

1. I fucking know

2. You already know I won't tell you that I will, 'cause it's rude

3. Why would I fucking bother

4. If you'd think it was okay to exchange it, why'd you fricken bother getting it? Just give me money instead!

Just because I like the gift, it doesn't mean that I'll jump and run around the house 3 times in excitement. It's just a T-shirt, come on!! And it's not like I am going to go through that theatrical sequence of pretending to really care for it, by saying: Uuuuuh, that's nice! Just what I wanted!

Of course I'd be good at it, better than most, but no!

When I give gifts, all future remarks and comments are actually inexistent. Once it's handed over, the deed is done and we never need to speak of it again. Case Closed.

Being smart

Being smart is cool. There's nothing better than overhearing two people at school or work, talking about the Roman kingdom (Regnum Romanum) and then being able to say "Did you know that Romulus was the first king of Rome? He build Rome in 753 BC :D LOL"

Then the people you just lectured stands in awe and says "Wow, you are both smart and good looking" (that's what happens in my dream world.)

... Okay, that reaction may be a lie, but knowing stuff is cool, and the best thing is when you are awesome at math, biology and physics. The only issue is that it most of the time can be kind of dull to get there.

Once you are there, though, it's all kittens and pink clouds.
But, I guess it's like juggling. We don't really want a stand around and practice until we're finally able to juggle around the 2 balls, 3 juggling clubs and the nine eggs that we want. Once we do know how, there's nothing better than showing off! Spinning the emotions of awe and jealousy around the room, with your magnificent skills.

You may be tempted to "let it go for now" (And never get back to it) and just go play Crysis 2, which is awesome when you are trying to master it, and boring afterwards instead. GO PROPHET!

I believe that the best way of going about this, is to pick a point of focus and then just stick with it until you can do it. I do that with German (and Japanese, but shush).

True optimism doesn't exist

Let me start out by saying: I am a full-blood pessimist. I do not have a problem with optimism, even though I don't quite agree with the ideology.

Recently a thought entered my über-intelligent brain and now I am going to share it. Hold on, now:

True optimism is inexistent!! :O

That's right!

Have a look at this sketch I made in paint!
Heres the legend:

• Black Pentagon = The act of ignoring problems
• Red Square = Pessimism
• Blue Square = Optimism

The arrows symbolize whether it's a negative thing (down) or a positive thing (up)

I believe that if you ask the ignorant commoners to answer whether these things are negative or positive, these will be the results.

Pessimism is negative. Fine.

Optimism is positive. Okay.

Ignoring problems. Sound kinda negative doesn't it?

I Believe that ignoring problems is part of optimism. The more hardcore the optimism, the worse the case. Focus on the positive, brush off the bad and forget about it. Ergo = IGNORE THE PROBLEM

Thus, the pentagon forces both squares to be... Da da da daaaam...:

NEGATIVE

We can thus conclude: True, or or pure if you'd like, optimism does not exist!!

Thank you, for your time.

A rising star that should be put out

So I do believe that everybody is familiar with Rebecca Black by now and have either decided that they love Friday or hate Friday. Rebecca Black strikes me as an untalented, little girl (I believe she is 13 ATM). Still, you don't know what's behind her motivation to do this, so I feel a little bad for all the flaming.

Still, the song Friday features a set of non-rhyming (at all) lyrics, the dilemma of whether Rebecca should take the front seat or back seat, even though there's no front seat available, in a car driven by her same-aged friends. Yes, under-age driving. It also features educational uses. We learn that Thursday comes right before Friday- Thank you, Rebecca. Also there's a random black guy, rapping (still not rhyming) in the end of her video. And of course we get to dwell in the seat-dilemma once again, even though she is already IN the back seat. Yae^^

So there's criminal acts of the under-age, education and disturbing voice enhancement.

I don't find Rebecca Black disturbing at all. Not since I've laid my eyes (and ears) upon the music of Jenna Rose. SHE is disturbing!

Who is Jenna Rose you ask?
From what I can gather from her song, I'd say she's a hypocrite, spoiled brat and incapable of singing, since it is extremely auto-tuned. Evidently, her first single "My Jeans" is about some jeans that she once try on at the mall, but didn't buy and now she have seen some famous people (Hannah Montana, Ashley Tisdale and someone named Kiki Palmer :/) wearing them in magazines. Though she doesn't own them, she still refers to the jeans as hers.

Why is that disturbing and not just ridiculous? Well, the disturbing part is that anyone can just make this stuff these days. Talent isn't needed- money is!

But maybe you're right- It ain't disturbing at all. But I'm telling you: THERE IS MORE!! MORE!!!

She has released a second single called OMG- Which is exactly what the reaction I had to the video and the lyrics! It is all about her showing herself in "revealing, sexy outfits" and singing, and I quote "Just take a picture, baby" - "You really wish you could" - "It will last longer for you"   - WHAT WILL JENNA?! :O

At this point, I might just mention that she's 12 years old. It's like she's encouraging child pornography. It is like, and I quote at this point "Reverse pedophilia" -Cupofteam

Rebecca Black I disliked. Jenna Rose I despise! Greatly!! :O
Catchy as her songs are (They even rhyme... Rebecca!), they feature stupid and disturbing lyrics and voice enhancement. Final judgement!!

I really recommend watching CupofTeam's video reviews of these 3 songs on youtube. CupofTeam are really hilarious! Just follow the links below.

Reviews:
Rebecca Black - Friday
Jenna Rose - My Jeans
Jenna Rose - O.M.G.