The Purple Tux
With just enough education to perform.Wednesday, March 27, 2002
Some people are just too stupid to realize they're stupid.
Saturday, March 23, 2002
Yo. I'm chilling out. Don't really have any deep thoughts today, though. I'm just kind of in a relaxing mood right now, and I'll just type whatever comes to my mind as long as it doesn't make me seem too stupid. The past couple days have been total idleness, man. Playing Street Fighter for a good portion of the days. Too addictive, man. Even when I get beatdown by Tanaka I gotta keep playing, it's kind of embarrassing when other people watch him do his infinites and resets on me... But I still keep at it because I'm addicted. Not addicted to losing, but addicted to playing.
Lately I've been messing around a lot with Iron Man and Cyclops. I don't really see too many people use Cyclops here at Davis even though he's pretty strong. Iron Man is just fun to play with. Smart Bombs and airdashing, all that good stuff, and then landing the infinite to finish off a guy... satisfying. Still don't know where our CvS2 machine is at. They've been fixing the monitor for like 10 days at least! So the only way I play it is on DC with Samtastic. That guy keeps doing all this annoying poking with Haohmaru and old-school M.Bison tactics (read: Psycho Crusher back and forth with occasional random attacks/movements) that keep messing the crud out of my Ryu. Good thing Yamazaki helps me out, but I still gotta perfect the double half-circle motion... it's so annoying to mess that motion up!!
It's 'bout time for some Spring Break, huh? Going back to San Francisco tomorrow afternoon. It'll be a good time to relax and just chill, hopefully see some buddies I've not seen for some time. Not to mention practice combos in Training Mode in the comfort of my own living room. (Dang it, reminds me that I want a joystick...)
Wow, Danny's going to sleep now for some reason. Ten bucks says I'll still wake up earlier than he will tomorrow morning. That guy is a total sleepy head. I'm just sitting here now, listening to that new Jars of Clay album. That's enough of an update for now. Life is good. Wouldn't mind if it were better, but hey, with Jesus, everything is good enough. I think I'll go read some Bible now.
Wednesday, March 20, 2002
I'm losing my consistency in writing here. I'm sorry about that, seriously. I really would like to write more often here, but sometimes I just can't manage my time properly. Plus, I was kind of annoyed at Blogger for messing with my old posts, but I finally got my archive restored. So all those immature/idiotic things I wrote back in September are still available for all to read. Oh well, I guess it gives you (or at least it gives me) a sense of how far I've come since then. And before I forget, here’s a shout-out to Kenneth Ng, who’s been disappointed in my lack of updates. Well, this one’s for you, man.
This quarter's just about ready to end. I only had two finals, math and psychology. I don't think I'll pass math this quarter. I'm praying for a D-. That sucks, man. On my three midterms, I got a 75 (which wasn't too bad actually), then a 31, and finally a 29 (to quote Samtastic, "That's such a pathetically low score."). If there's one thing I did learn this quarter, it's that I like math a lot less than I thought I did. Or maybe I hate math a lot more than I thought I did. Either way, math isn't too hot for me. On the final today, I only was able to do four problems… out of like twenty-six questions. It was pretty bad… I was basically done with my test in like 30 or 40 minutes. However, I stayed in the room for quite some time, since I didn’t want to be the first one to turn in my test. I was just sitting in my seat for seriously 20+ minutes.
You know, when you’re forced to sit in place for 20 minutes, with nothing to entertain you, it’s a lot easier to get some thinking done. I was doing a lot of philosophizing back there. I would have busted out my little notepad and recorded more of my thoughts, but the T.A.s probably would have thought I was cheating or something. (Not to digress too much, but have you noticed that most college math T.A.s are Chinese guys?) So yeah. I was just doing a lot of brooding.
What was on my mind? Man, too much. I know I’ve failed math. It’s the first class I’ve failed in my life. I’ve never gotten anything below a C in my life (dumb Kramer’s Ceramics class notwithstanding), so getting an F is a new experience. You probably don’t expect me to be thinking blasphemous thoughts, but as I sat there today, I couldn’t help but think to myself, if I had played less Street Fighter, might I have been able to pass math, or at least get a D-? That question made me sad… On one hand, if I played less, sure, I’d probably study more and be able to pass. However, on the other hand, if I were still “in the game” in terms of passing, I’d probably automatically play less. In other words, I think I was just playing because I knew I had no hope anyway. People who think that that last statement is totally pessimistic just don’t understand the way life works. There’s such a thing as losing battles. At this point, I would like to offer my sincere thanks to those of you who have encouraged me to study. If I didn’t study hard enough, it’s probably because the bullcrap was too discouraging.
Also, I was thinking about courage. Like, was I being a coward for just giving up on math after those crappy midterms? The crap got hard for me, so I quit trying. I have to admit, I am kind of worried by my behavior. I mean, I usually do pretty decent in school, and never had any reason to give in to total apathy. I don’t want this to become a habit for me. It would suck if everytime I sucked, I’d give up. This is a one-time only thing, I hope. I mean, come on. The crazy guys whoop me everyday at Street Fighter, but after all these months of dedication and training, I can finally sort of hold my own (usually) against them. If only life were like MvC2. I’d just call my Captain Commando anti-air assist every time things got tough. Or I’d infinite combo math. Hah. Yeah. And maybe, on reflex, I’ll toss out an Alpha counter and Rocket Punch my professor’s outstretched arm as he hands me back a piece of crud test.
Hmm… Alright, that’s enough about math. I’ll take the blasted course in the summer so I can concentrate on it. Second time’s the charm, right? There are more important things in the world than calculus anyway. It’s just that our society makes stuff like this such a big deal. We should be grateful we aren’t starving and stuff.
There’s a UC Davis Street Fighter tournament coming up (Apex-sanctioned, hopefully. If you donno what Apex is, go to www.shoryuken.com/apex), so I’m gonna be training for that for sure. The next couple days are all open for me, since I have no more finals. I’m hoping there are more scrubs at the arcade so I can take out all my inner frustrations on some innocent players looking for fun.
That’s all I have for now. If I can think of anything else I wanted to write, I’ll be sure to blog it in, seeing as how I’m free from school for the next couple of days.
Drumattic, out.
Tuesday, March 05, 2002
"Watch your mouth. Hold your tongue, boy. Because you're running out of breath, running out of time before every careless word that you utter, renders you utterly useless. Now you're drowning in your own saliva. Trying to speak yourself to the top of your empty world. Now keep on talking. Just keep on rambling. You've got your mouth full. Listen, here's the pleasant part: you and I, we fell apart. Why can't you make up your mind? Shut your mouth. Burn your bridges. Throw your words like an attack and stab me in the wait a second, wait a second, what's that I just heard? Nevermind, it's obviously worthless. Now you're standing on your soapbox, yelling from the rooftops. Everything you say is a lie. Listen, here's the clever one who speaks before his thoughts are done. Listen, here's the clever one who speaks before he thinks. Watch your mouth. Hold your tongue. Some things are better left unsaid. Now I hope you're pleased. You let your pride stand tall. It danced within your words. Right before your fall. Why don't you say that to my face? I've had ripped down (torn down) so many things. Everything you, everytime you, every word you say. If I told you this was killing me, would you stop?"
-"If I Told You This Was Killing Me, Would You Stop?" by The Juliana Theory
Yes, I will do my best to stop.
