My journey through the Decade

So I guess I'm addicted to the newest installment to the long running tokusatsu drama "Kamen Rider", the new installment being "Kamen Rider Decade".

Now, I'm not normally into metal heroes; well, not since Power Rangers (which I vehemently despise right now when I found out it was basterda- I mean Americanized) and Kamen Rider Black. It's probably not due to the rider that shares the name of the series, nor is it because of Kanna Mori (but darn isn't she pretty?).

Kanna Mori as Natsumi

Nor is it because of the theme song sung by Gackt (which was surprisingly good, not because of Gackt but because of the fact that it's a Kamen Rider theme song). No.

I fell in love with the series because of the bad ass epic-ness.

I told a few close friends about this little factoid about me, and now you would know as well. fifthStitch likes alternate versions of things. In songs, movies and television shows, I really like covers, cross-overs or alternate realities. So what's this got to do with Decade you ask?

Simple. Kamen Rider Decade is an epic cross-over of all the Heisei era Kamen Riders, from (in the tone of the DecaDriver) Kuuga, Agito, Ryuuki, Faiz, Blade, Hibiki, Kabuto, Den-O and Kiva. Decade is the tenth of the Heisei era Kamen Riders, and as part of his growing retinue of abilities, he can transform into any of the nine riders before him. Now, I have just begun to watch this series, and even though I already know more about Decade, I dare not spoil you my dear beloved reader or myself by rudely exposing all of Decade's other abilities. Suffice to say though, due to these other abilities, Decade received it's own tvtrope page.

Decade Final Form whooping those bad asses

Well, there you go. I wish to say more about Decade but I'd watch the series first before I make a review. So far I think 27 out of 30 episodes have been completed and I'm at around the 4th. Tomorrow I continue watching the series, as they dive into the vampire music world of Kiva.

Till then, may you have your own journey through the decade.

Up on the fourth floor

Is where I am right now.

I should be doing something for thesis, but my fingers feel frozen due to the cold. I'm typing this with my frigid fingers, warming them up for a day of typing ahead.

Yes, I did mean a day of typing. Looks like I'm going home at ten again.

Anyways, today had been a fun day thus far. I beat my old Plants vs. Zombies I, Zombie record of 7 with a whopping 9. Yay.

It's not without help though, I got some small tips from my thesis mates. And yes, right now I just confirmed all of my thesis mates play or had once played Plants vs. Zombies. Can't blame them, it's a really fun game. To quote a review site I visited which I already forgot, the game keeps on giving and giving. And yes, it does. I suppose a hardcore player can breeze through the game in perhaps 15 to 20 hours, but realistically, it takes a little longer. And with the Zen Garden game mode, Plants vs. Zombies can keep you entertained, well, indefinitely I suppose.

As my previous post mentioned (indirectly though), I've been watching this mindfucking anime entitled Serial Experiments Lain, or Lain for short. Lain is a really complex complex anime, interpretable in more than one layer. Incidentally the episodes are called Layers, but I think that's more of due to the fact that it discusses lots of computer network concepts, and computer networks topics really like to use the term layer. Back to Lain, Lain is a truly difficult anime to watch, each short moment might bear some significance that takes a while to process. It's really just that mindfucking.

It's very nice though, shows like those really stimulate the way I think and challenges my thought process and my concepts of what is standard or real. Suppose it's just fantasy, yes it is, but it still does not take away the fact that it has some more than real issues being tackled. And those issues are sometimes so compelling that no matter how fictional the work is, it still is worth some second thought.

There, my fingers feel quite nimble again. Guess it's time for more thesis, up in the fourth floor.

Duality

The Internet is beautiful isn't it?

You can be who you want to be in the Internet. You can be a girl if you're a boy, or a boy if you're a girl. You can be a legendary hero, or a devious villain. You can be a magician, a swordsman, a warrior, even a dark lord. You can be who you want to be.

You can be wild and outgoing. You can be meek as a sheep. You can be sassy, aloof, conceited.

You can be anonymous.

The Internet makes this duality very possible. In the Internet, you can be who you want to be, even be the complete opposite of who you truly are. If you're shy in the real world, in the Internet you can be wild and outgoing. If you're ugly in the real world, you can be as sexy and alluring in the Internet. If you're a loser in the real world, you can change that in the Internet.

The Internet is beautiful isn't it?

The anonymity associated with the Internet makes all these possible. In the real world, you can only be born once, and once you become a physical entity in the real world, you assume a set of traits, and other people begin associating those traits to you. You gain an identity, and that identity will stick with you. It's not to say you cannot begin anew; the physical world permits this. It's just that, you cannot really begin anew, the old you would continue to haunt you.

This is not true in the Internet.

In the Internet, you can create as many identities as you want. You can assume any characteristic, any trait, any personality. And you can do it as many times as you want. You can assume any number of virtual entities, any number of virtual identities.

In short, you can be anybody.

A friend of mine wrote about freedom and reality. For him, reality is a "concentric", with multiple "realities" existing inside each other. It need not be a complete reality, sometimes sub-realities exist. For instance, a slave lives in his or her own reality, in which he or she is limited by his or her master. Slavery then is a sub-reality of the "real" physical reality. The difference between full realities and sub-realities is also ill-defined, what could be held as a sub-reality can be a reality all on it's own. In this light, freedom then is defined as being in the most external of reality, and questing for freedom is defined as finding your way out of your inner reality and embracing an outer reality.

How do you find out if you are still in an inner reality?

For him, an indicator would be repressive force. If something represses you in your reality, then you are not truly free. There exists a more external reality than where you believe you are in, and it's up to you if you want to pursue this more external reality. A slave would feel repressed by the limits set upon him or her by his or her master. This would indicate that there is a more external reality to the reality the slave is accustomed to, since he is not totally free yet due to the repressive force.

What then is the most external reality?

Is it the physical world? Then why do people escape to the Internet? In the physical world, you cannot assume more than who you are. It's difficult to be more than who you are already; unlike in the virtual world.

Is this repressive force? Is this then enough to say that the physical world is not the most external reality, but is an inner reality to something else? Say, the virtual world?

So which is it? Which is more real? The seventeen year-old boy sitting in front of his computer, or KittyMaster<3<3 his laser saber of kitty-cuteness, cutting a swath across the magic flower field? Isn't he more free as KittyMaster<3<3 than as a boring seventeen year-old bound by the rules of society?

Who then is who?

Tiring tiring tiring

This is one of the most tiring days ever.

I don't know what set it apart from most days though, it seems pretty ordinary. I went to school for a morning class (I actually made it earlier than I usually do, still not enough to make it on time, but way earlier than usual). Then did some thesis work right after, then went home.

Seems ordinary enough.

But by about three PM, I was already wasted. At about that time we were trying to work things out for thesis. I thought after I ate (some decent chicken fillet carbonara from pizza place, yum!) I would be able to think a little more properly and clearly. While it had that effect for, I dunno, thirty minutes, it wasn't long till I felt really really sleepy and tired. We were in the game lab at that time, so it was probably the relevant silence and coldness of the room that made me all sleepy.

Anyway, so there, it was a really tiring day. It was great to cap it off with an Imperial Chinese Supreme Bowl from KFC. KFC should thank me for the free plug, but that dish (I dunno if I should call it a dish, since it's more of an order than a dish) is one of the best! The sumptuous sauce, the crispy chicken, the tangy eggplants... It's really really good! Too bad it's probably full of MSG, which probably is the ingredient responsible for all the flavor. Oh well, at 100 pesos a meal, its definitely a steal.

So there, that's just about it for today.

Oh, hold on, speaking of my morning class, it got so boring everyone began to plurk songs. Plurk turned into a spontaneous singing bee! Hehe, oh well, maybe next week we'd have another round.

God's Chisel - The Skit Guys

Click here to watch this video.

Control or chisel?

It's gonna be painful, but I say chisel.

First day of driving school

was really fun.

Well, the instructor wasn't as friendly as when I enrolled for the manual a year ago, but he's OK, just a little intimidating but after living through two terms under a certain professor, nothing quite intimidates me too much anymore :p

I kindof had to get used to driving again though; it's been a year since I last drove a car. I had to relearn and reacquire a feel for the gas and brake pedals (since I'm driving automatic now) and proper timing for steering. I also had to relearn some of the terms like two point and three point turning and stuff along that vein. Otherwise though, I think I did OK for a pseudo-first time driver.

I wish though that this time my folks are actually going to allow me to use one of our cars. The last time, after I studied manual, my parents never actually let me drive. My mom in particular was afraid I was going to treat it like a toy or something, which was kindof annoying. Why would you make me take up a driving course if you won't let me drive anyway? And up until today she keeps on blaming me for not practicing how to drive all this time!

-_-

Anyway, it's all cool. This time though I'm more determined to learn and have my own driver's license made. Driving is a pretty important skill, seeing as to how society nowadays rely heavily on automobiles for transport. I'm just worried it'd turn me into a lazy sloth.

Recently I've been undergoing some form of holistic betterment, basically doing stuff that makes me feel good about myself physically, emotionally, mentally and most of all spiritually. Think of it like a tune-up for a car, since I've been talking about cars anyway. I'm trying to cut down on unhealthy foods, watching my diet, aiming for 10,000 steps per day, doing at least 10 proper push-ups a day (incrementally increasing), praying each night and daily bible reading; all this to make me feel better about myself. My worry is that when I learn how to drive, I might cut down on walking. I might feel tempted to use the car to get to a very nearby location, wasting a good opportunity to use my legs. Nah, but that's still sometime from now, I would just have to practice a little more discipline.

Anyways, that's just about it for today. Day isn't over yet so I'd see what else I can accomplish before it ends. Tomorrow is another school day, which is good for me since being with my family seriously makes it harder for me to keep up my diet vigilance, hehe.

Guys, don't put your hands in your pockets

It doesn't make you look cool.

At all.

Especially on a date.

Seriously, I know. I've been there and I've done that.

Going home from school today, I spotted a couple which from how I deduce it are in the mushy bashful stage of their relationship. It was kindof annoying since they were in front of me in the tricycle stand line (in case you don't know what a tricycle is, it's a motorcycle bolted to a sidecar used in public transport, probably exclusively in third world countries). I got there and they were at the end of the line already; which means I'm next in line to get a trike (contracted version of tricycle) home. But for some reason they were so bashful and shy they were arguing who gets to ride the trike first! This would have mattered if they were riding separate trikes but they were going to ride just one! Took them a good part of forever before finally deciding who gets to go inside the trike first. As if it matters.

The worst part in this silly anecdote? The guy, trying to look cool the entire time, kept one if his hands inside his pocket! Even when he sat down inside the friggin trike! Which made him look really stupid by the way, imagine curling your arm inside a small sidecar just so it would remain inside your pocket (trike's have notoriously small passenger accommodation, usually each trike is good for three or four: two inside the sidecar and one or two hitching a back ride on the motorcycle).

I dunno if it's a natural tendency of men to place their hands in their pockets when they're idle. I guess it's the effect of mass media or something, that sometime ago it was cool to place your hands in your pockets. Not that I'm not a victim to this too, but at least I know when to shove them in and when not to! I don't know if people would agree when I say that yeah, sometimes hands-in-pockets makes a guy (or a girl) look cool, but it's a volatile thing that while it might work for some, it definitely won't work for all, and not at all times too.

Mass media has that much of an insane effect in people don't you think? Take the hand-in-pocket mannerism for example. What about cramming a person's hand inside a tight pocket? What's so special about that? So does it mean that back in the day when there were no pockets, people have one less mannerism to make them look cool? And what about placing hands in pockets make it cool anyway? I mean, it's a friggin hand in a friggin pocket!

Anyways, sometimes things like these puzzle me to no end. It's like an unwritten rulebook of cool. Certain mannerisms make a person look cool and attractive to the opposite sex; mastering these mannerisms becomes more than a necessity if one intends to impress. And yet it's also very fickle, as the hands-in-pockets mannerism is a definite no no during corporate occasions, and yet is perfectly OK in formal occasions, provided you can pull it off.

I don't know really. I'm naturally cool so I don't really need to impress.

Do you know of any mannerisms that fall in the same vein?