Okay, so I've been away...

And I offer an appology. I've been busy. Busy with things that are quite far outside my comfort zone(hate to be there, by the way), and time management is quite the bitch, frankly. However, a blog this is, and because I'm here at my college (because I'm quite settled in with no intention of returning home so early) without anything better to do, I'll tell you about the last 2 months.

You see, I've been working at a place called Quizno's Subs for 8 CAD an hour, roughly 15 hours a week. Do the math. After 2 months of work, I can barely pay my tuition. I know, it's kinda sad, working 3 5-hour shifts a week for 2 months and only scrapping together enough to pay for my school fees. Not exactly what I had imagined myself at. When I got the job, 3 things came to my mind. Killer computer, PS3 and Rock Band 2. Having done some math, the total came to about 3 grand. Calculated to have that by the end of summer. Okay. So I went to work, albeit without grandiose expectation about working conditions. Everyday at work I reminded myself of the hardware that I would eventually own. That kept me going. Then..., my school bill arrived. Whee. So, instead of indulging myself, I had to burn my own head-earned money on college.

Okay, now about college itself. What I took this semester are PHYS 107, pre-calculus physics, MATH 120, calculus I, CHEM 110, chemistry I (structure of matter), and ENGL 103, studies into fiction. Here's the breakdown: my physics teacher is a bore, which forces me and a few others to band together to get a study group going; we basically skip all the classes and are still at the top 10% of the class. That's sad. Math is fun, never knew you could do so much with derivatives. Chem started kinda slow, then sped up. Did not like all that abstract stuff with electron orbitals, though. The rest was quite enjoyable. English, was probably (yet again) the most challenging course I took this semester. Reading into books isn't as easy as reading a book. Similar as they may be, interpretations tend to be quite biased.

Now, I could bore you endlessly with what I did over the course of the winter. I can break it down into 4 categories. Things I did in college, things I did at home, things I did in between, and miscellaneous activities. Seriously, the 4th category is devoid of anything of interest, save perhaps the weekly attendance of the Mass. The 3rd is comprised of mostly cursing in cold weather that I was 2 minutes late for the bus, and trying to stay warm for another half hour. Cold is much worse than heat, let me assure you. I sometimes miss the Land of the Eternal Summer, especially during the winter, and anything less than 3 layers will cause frostbite. Now, the weather is finally warming up, and I look forward to summer, when I can ride a bicycle around and leave the house with a T-shirt and shorts on.

Wall o' text, indeed. I hope my update is not unread. Truly, don't hold it against me. I was swamped in other things to have anything to say on my blog.

I can't, for the life of me, understand how others around me have the propencity to find specific events in their daily life to share, which are, in retrospect, either entertaining, insightful or thought-provoking. Perhaps, that is a talent that escapes me completely, but I am not remorseful, as many would gladly trade that for something they might see in me. It is, I suspect, not self-awareness that spurs this realisation of talents they see in me, but perhaps, excessive pride. I am no master of my heart; no man is. But, perhaps, through self-realisation of vices, I can attempt to overcome the hypocrisy that plagues our world as much today as it has all through the annals of history. However, I doubt my ability to. Vanity of vanities, indeed.

On a final note, I should really post more often, seeing as my classes are almost over and I'm taking a break from work.

i regret this now
however, i cannot stop
i must be this; me

-Gabe

The new one!

     Refer to my earlier post about my quickly shifting interests.

     Okay, so now I have no chance to go and tag people with paint, with it being winter and all. So, I started looking to my next interest. Within weeks, I found it.

     Rubik's Cubes.

     Okay, once you've settled down from breaking out in pearls of laughter, there's something I have to say. Rubik's cubes are quite simple to solve, once you have the technique down. Now, there are probably some of you who are saying to yourselves, "Hah, so you say. Let's see you do it." To you I say, "Okay."

    So, I can solve a 3x3x3 cube. That's nice and all, but something I saw on Youtube just made me wanna go and get more. A 4x4x4 cube. Now, some may argue that the method of solving a 4x4x4 is not much different than solving a 3x3x3, and they'd be right, key word being 'much'. Only getting the middle and sides, then solving as a 3x3x3, right? Wrong. Then, there's parity. What parity is, is that when 2 blocks have their positions switched, and there's no similar way to switch them that is also used in 3x3x3 solving. So, there is a loooooong move pattern to memorise for different cases. Suffice to say that it isn't the same.

    Anyway, things go the way they go, but my hunt must continue. Wish me luck!

Stay frosty!

-Gabe

I'm Back..... (a.k.a the MoaP)

     Okay, I think I have some explaining to do for my absence. Since my exams began on the 6th of December and ended on the 10th, i had been studying. After that, I had to go shopping before my return to the Bolehland. Upon arrival, I was internet connection deprived, and then after my connection had returned, I was too busy going around with my parents (I was only there for 3 weeks. Quite seriously, I was stranded too (Had no phone, precious little cash to use). After my departure, the next two weeks were something of a transitional period, where I had to get reaccustomed to life as a student, and even some more newer adjustments in the realm of public transport.

Okay, so I have covered everything that's happened at the macroscopic level. But, that's not quite what a blog is for, am I right? It's for the details of the events that the writer is experiencing. So, now for the mother of all posts.

Let us begin where it left off. The exams. Since then I have had the joy of recieving my final grades, but with results a tad lower than I had anticipated. Since then I have enrolled and started past the first month classes. My only hope is to keep my grades as high as they were last semester.

After my exams had concluded, I had to buy everything that everyone back home in the Land of the Eternal Summer (which hence shall be refered as LotES) had requested. The list goes something like this...  Ice Hockey vizor(specific model), mouthguard case, tracksuit, skull cap, Wii games, maple syrup, pine nuts, walnuts and granola bars. And I had 3 days to get it all. You can imagine the rush. Fun.

So I got home and gave everyone what they wanted, but then my parents weren't home, so I had to stay with my sister and her family for about a week. Suffice to say that I wasn't very mobile during that time, due to my keyless condition which limited my mobility. I had no phone, no internet and no car. You can imagine.

When my parents do get back, and I'm staying with them, I took the oppotunity to go out as much as possible. However, due to the vast majority of my friends either working, studying, living in a dorm in college on weekdays or some combination of the above, I had not the chance to meet with some of them. This is probably the greatest regret I have about the trip home to LotES. That I wasn't able to meet up with quite a few friends of mine.

With the few that I did, however, I had a ball. Telling them stories about stuff that happened in NS and Canada. Some of the things I said made utterly no sense to them, however, and this can be attributed to the fact that I had, unbeknownst to myself, picked up some Canadian slang that I assumed everyone understood. [Canadian] Eh? [/Canadian]

So, I get back to Canada, and, I bullshit you none, I get picked up at the airport, and get dropped off at my college for my 2nd class (it so happened that I had missed my first class by about 3 hours). And, wouldn't you know it, jet lag set in, and before I knew it, I was face-forward on my desk, drooling on my book. Yay for jetlag. 

In any case, sorry it took so long for me to put up another post. Will do more. Look out for it!

Over and out!

-Gabe

Why...?

To be given too much time to do something, to procrastinate by doing this totally unrelated to the given task, then kicking it into superhigh gear to only barely finish the assignment and recieve a lower than desired mark. Yes, that is my destiny.

I have a qwerk. I have a tendency to see something, to be immensely passionate about it for roughly.... two weeks. Then, my interest evaporates like ethanol on an Egyptian sidewalk. This is known to be a trait of Geminis (to all you Geminis out there saying "hey, that's not true...", I'm not stating this to be Gospel truth. My Horoscope has been wrong more than it's been right). It is also a trait of the people born in the Lunar Year of the Horse. Unluckily, I happen to be both. That's a double threat, kinda like spraying NH3 onto a stale piss soaked rag, and then letting it air-dry. Indoors. With no fans.

A good example of the qwerks I get is the time when a few of my friends and I decided to make a whole deck of playing cards from thin cardboard, art bloc, masking tape and clear tape. Suffice to say that as soon as the tedious treating of the individual cards began, we quickly dropped the project. How did we do it? It's quite simple, really. Just draw the card's face on the artblock, get some school glue, glue those together, put masking tape on the other side of the cardboard, and put clear tape on both sides to protect it. Refer to the below diagram.

The next obsession I had was writing a novel. I actually got to the 50th page before running dry on ideas. The actual contents still play in my mind once in awhile, and I intend to finish that, more for myself than for others. That being said, in this small period of self-awareness, doubt that I will ever get myself to sit down and write. It is with some deliberation that I bring your attention to my newest passion.

Paintball.

Yes, paintball. It hurts no more than a rat tail and is loads more fun. I have scoured the Internet and have spent hours researching everything there is to know about paintball. Positions, terminology, styles of competitive play, equipment, rules in competition. The list goes on. My idea to build a bolt action paintball marker to increase effective range, speed and accuracy was, as I believed, new. However, even on Youtube, I've found no less than 4 bolt action paintball markers, just for the cool factor. The engineering aspects of the changes to the usual marker that I had planned were physically sound. The main problem was that all guns have to be capped at below 300 feet per second. What this meant was that despite my want to create a paintball sniper, and ability to, I would not be able to use it, because of regulation of maximum speed. Now, some of you may be going: "Why?" Well, because of the extreme nature of paintballing, everyone has to wear goggles which protect their eyes and face. The goggles are only rated for 285 feet per second, so any faster than that, and the paintball could shatter the goggle and hit you in the eye. Thus, even adding a 64 cubic inch tank, rifling, a bolt action reload mechanism and a scope will not make it any more accurate than it already is because of the speed limit (except maybe the rifling).

So, with my dreams dashed, all I have left is the know-how to play basic paintball. I could still potentially go and play it.

Keep your feet on the ground!

-Gabe

Musically, ...

To each his own; different strokes for different folks; one man's poison is another man's meat, all of these signify taste. While there are some who blindly cling onto what they believe is the best, I find it is always good to take a walk and see life from the other side of the fence, to walk in another's shoes.

As per the title, I will divulge in my personal musical preferences and other things musical, from Avenged Sevenfold to Bach, from Metallica to Beethoveen, from Louis Armstrong to Switchfoot. You can probably already tell my taste in music is... wide. Personally, the music I listen to is influenced by many factors, friends for example. The more modern music was introduced to me by my friends. However, I can scarcely imagine anyone under the age of 26 who likes Satchmo' or Arty Shaw. In that respect, I am something of an anomaly. Classical music is timeless, yes, but Jazz is somewhat an aquired taste. At first, I myself did not like it, perhaps because of its over rambunctiousness. Soon, though, I came to see it as lively, and energetic without all the rage of rock music.

Maybe, just maybe you did not notice any pop music or R&B. While I do not find them offensive or inappropriate, the styles just don't possess any sort of hold on me. The obvious beats are good for dancers, whom rely on the beat of the music for timing. Pop music, on the other hand, has improved. I don't object to the music itself, but it's the performers whom I dislike. Too much time and money has been wasted on reporting on every single qwerk of theirs, from winks to eyelash flirts to who is dating whom, and so on and so forth. It's appalling how the young generation (that's mine) fawn over the singers of today.

Classical music is, without a doubt, the most beautiful of the styles of music. Rock will cause your head to bob up and down, and Metal causes blood to rush through your veins as if you hooked your heart to a 747 engine. Jazz will lift you out of a deep dark hole of depression and somber you up. However, only Classical can show you a piece of your soul, no matter who the composer is. Somehow, if you stop, listen, and look within, you come into contact with a part of you that perhaps you didn't know existed. Bach's Tocatta and Fugue in D minor for Organ summons the sinister, which is not entirely evil, however; instead of being wholly evil, it is a complex characteristic, with darker motives. Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmuzik brings forth the gentleman, the formal socialite. He creeps me out. Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" in his Oratorio "Messiah" evokes the image of salvation and light, themes that I personally love. Beethoveen's 9th Symphony "Choral", more commonly known as "Ode to Joy", is about how all men are brothers. I can't name the feeling that is brought out by this. The music is both majestic and humble, both magnificient and yet simple enough for the uninitiated to appereciate. The original version in German is not coarse as the language is; it is forceful without being overbearing; harmonious and accented.  It is one of my favourite pieces.

Whether or not you agree with me, let us agree on this: music is inseperable from the world from which it is wrought. With the world as it is, is it any surprise that popular music is about almost nothing but sex, drugs, and the overemphasis on having romantic relationships? It is a world that must be changed by us, the youth of today, the kings of tomorrow.

The pen is mightier than the sword, and it is the pen I wield. . .

-Gabe

The MSFI

You may have noticed my irrational and unexplained disdain of the MSFI. If you went to school with or as the same place as me, you'd understand. To all you else, however, there is explaining to be done.

You see, education (I'm using the politically correct term here) is compulsory in Malaysia, with every parent having to enroll their child into primary school at the age of 7. It is also not uncommon for parents to enroll their children in pre-schools or kindergardens. My parents did so, and I was more or less used to being away from my parents by the time I got into Primary school.

That's right, primary school. That's sorta a combination of Elementary and the first two years of Middle school to anyone who doesn't understand that.

So, Primary school was terrible, if you wanna know. Why? Well, that's for me to know and you to try to pry it out of me. Either way, I got out of Primary school and into Secondary school. Kind of a 'duh' transition, isn't it? Anyway, Secondary school was a crapload more fun, mainly because of the freedom I got, in more ways than one. School was fun. Wow. I can't believe I said that.

Back to the reason I don't like the education system. I enjoyed myself as much as possible in school, but the classes. Holy crap, you cannot possibly imagine the depths of idiocy of the people I have had to call 'teacher'. Don't believe me? Try this. A Physics "teacher" who doesn't teach Physics, instead rants about how we don't give him enough respect, how we should save the world by turning off the fans while in sweltering heat, the lights before daybreak, to somehow "save diesel", and that the resources used are not renewable, and how the world is going to be destroyed by energy shortage. All this in the space of an hour and fifteen minutes. "Oh, I was just about to start teaching, but my time's up! See you next class!" It's no wonder everyone, even the bootlickers, boycotted his class.

That might have been an extreme case, but there are other reasons. Racist teachers, for example. I, personally, have never gotten less than an A in English. The first 3 years secondary school I kept my record. Then, when I was in Form 4 (age:16), I got perhaps the most discriminatory teacher I have ever faced. I wrote an essay, and when I had it returned, I was in for the shock of my life. A 'B'! I've never gotten a 'B' for English before. I complained to her, showing her my supposed 'bad grammar' that was in actuality only in intransitive passive voice. As if she needed a reason to rob me of my 'A'. I looked at my classmate's papers, people who had never gotten a credit for English before. Lo and behold, it had an 'A' on it. I read through his essay; it was incoherent, laced with grammatical errors like poison in a cyanide pill, and the spelling almost lead me to believe that truth was spelled with two 'H's, so frequent was the mistake. And yet, only the most severe and unmistakable of the errors was pointed out. The difference between him and me? The day we pray, him on Friday and me on Sunday.

 At first, I thought that she was only dangling a carrot on a stick, attempting to drive me to excel. It is worth noting that at this point, my Asian friends had the same grades as me. I read their's over, as well. Although I agreed with the mistakes made grammatically, I did not agree with the grade. All thing through time, they say. In time, I saw what it was: a personal vendetta against all who prayed to a different God or had a different tone of skin. Some people really just can't see past the things that divide us and look at the things that unite us instead. It's really something I can barely wrap my head around.

However bleak I have depicted it, the MSFI has employed some good people. Even fools must sometimes be right by mistake, I suppose. Some of the teachers I've had are intelligent, willing to share knowledge and passionate. It's not good to lock any group into a stereotype, because stereotypes destroy individuality. 

All that is yours is rightfully mine, and mine it will be. . .

-Gabe

Examinations

Ah, the bane of my existance, woe of my eternal soul. Of what do I speak? Of the undeniable effect exams have on both my schedule and my confort zone. Even worse, with me in college and having new courses every semester, things go even further out of the bounds of familiarity.

But enough of these heavy matters! Let us now turn to more heartening things. The past semester here has been mighty fun, I must say. College is, in a word, different. However, it is different in a good way, a way that both sets challanges before me and is kinder than its younger, Malaysian counterpart, the Malaysian school system, or as so labeled by yours truly, the Ministry of Shit-flinging Imbecilles (MSFI).

The past semester I have taken four courses, namely Chemistry, Pre-Calculus, Academic Writing (English), and Basic Japanese. Of the four, Academic Writing is the hardest, and the rest are fine. Academic Writing is also the only University level course I'm currently taking; hence, any judgement on the difficulty of the courses may or may not be biased.

So, as time goes on, I draw closer to my exams. I have probably close to no doubts about my Chemistry and Japanese courses right now. Math is not very challenging, which is probably why I'm slacking in that respect. English, there is no written test, but a final argument paper to hand in. Research, writing and printing are all done unsupervised, but there is a deadline to be kept. This is perhaps the one paper I am fretting over. Not concerned about the others, because procrastination does not affect those courses (as much). As some of you may know, I have a saying: "Why leave to tomorrow, what can be done the day after." With that philospohy in mind, you can easily see why this might be a problem. Research and writing of the essay must be done over time, not simply scribbled over a short period of time. This plays on my greatest weakness: laziness.

Okay, so I've done fairly well in the past semester. This final exam will decided my GPA outta the gates. This is what will show my progress. All hopes rest on this.

May the stars guide you

-Gabe