Conversations With Self

Saturday, April 30, 2005

This is an old note I scribbled down a long time ago, but only now found the time to read it. For those who knew of my small experiment with caffiene and Red Bull, yeah here is what happened.

To find out whether there is a chemical substitue for sleep, a much needed commodity of a college student.

Introduction

After 29 hours of intense Chronotrigger gaming from 12 midnight 6th April to 5am 7th April, the subject appears greatly sleep deprived with only 5 hours of sleep during the past 29 said hours and has stayed awake for 21 hours prior to sleeping.

Process of zombiefication

5th April 8am - Woke up from 7 hours of sleep
5th April 11:59pm - Download of Chronotrigger complete.
6th April 12 midnight - The gaming begins
7th April 5am - The gaming ends

Subject did sleep from 5pm to 10pm on April 5th, after remaining awake for 21 hours, and needs to remain awake for another 19 hours.

The subject faces classes from 9 to 12 and 2 to 5, this it remains a challege for this zombie to remain awake for another 12 hours. ]

April 7th

6:30am - Hot shower
7:45am - Breakfast, bacon and eggs, 2 cups of orange juice, 1 bagel and cereal
8:15am - consumed secret test ingredient, Red Bull
8:35am - arrived at class

Apparently Red Bull doesn't help much as subject fell asleep in class from 9:15 am to 9:25am. Red Bull has no significant immediate effect.

10:00am - 2nd can of Red Bull consumed. No relief of tiredness.
11:00am - First class ending wtih mixed results, barely stayed awake with little concentration, Red Bull doesn't work as described.
12:30noon - popped 200mg caffiene pill. No-Doz.

Said on box, not a sleep substitute. Subject scoffed and tossed box in garbage. Observable effects, hyperactivity and irritableness. Tendency to do more and stand up. Talkativity. Friend observed an increase crappiness. Caffiene pill seems to work in about 30 minutes or Red Bull finally started working.

Red Bull is a diuretic and increased thirst drastically. This thirst could be cause of tiredness felt. So holding back on 3rd dose of caffiene from Red Bull.

2:00pm - heightened senses and activity. Could be due to warmer weather. Maybe low 70s or high 60s, about 20 degrees Celsius. Awaiting caffiene crash.

2:30pm - a tireness sets in
6:00pm - dinner
7:30pm - WarCraft III
12:00midnight - sleep
9:00am - woke up

Apparently there is no "catch-up" sleep as sleeping pattern has resumed normally without need for additional sleep. Perhaps it can be noted that 24 hours sleep every three days is unnecessary.

Red Bull has no clear effects in raising metabolism or decreasing tiredness unless perhaps consumed in great amounts. Even so, benefits are minimal.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Again I was thinking about the human condition. Not exactly the human condition, but rather my own condition to be exact.

I was thinking what does it mean to be happy, and since I am a subscriber to the belief of relativism where there is no such thing as a singularity that there has to be at least a duplicity or multiplicity of situations that can be juxtaposed to know each other. By that premise, I suppose that I hate my life now, and therefore there must be at least a situation where I don't hate my life, i.e. a life preferential to this one right now.

So through searching for this preferred life which exists in my history, I sort of run into the old cliche that the happiest days of my life is my childhood. Erick kindly added on that ignorance is bliss. I guess perhaps knowledge once gained cannot be loss, and it is like a accursed object in a sense of which you cannot be rid of. (Yeah, like in D&D games too for the benefit of the geeks out there) Perhaps then again happiness can be found in limited wisdom and knowledge. After all, it always seems that those who are troubled mentally are those who think too much, when thinking is the problem in the first place.

I suppose that therefore such a world I yearn for is impossible to return to. But then again, what if I lobotomise myself? Maybe if ignorance is bliss, I can find it literally by digging into my brain.

Monday, April 25, 2005

There is something in the water!! &#%)(*&#&$(*

I'm telling you, there's something in New York City's tap water! Don't tell me there's nothing, I've been coughing my lungs out for the past week until my intercostal and pectoral muscles hurt. Although various websites assure me the hygiene standards of New York City's drinking water, I insist, there is something in the water. Really, something that makes us all stupidly sick, or sickly stupid. Whichever way you see fit.

Sunday, April 24, 2005

Lumines! Lumines! Lumines!

Woot! Bright flashing lights, irritating background music, coloured blocks! Nice.

I think I'm addicted. Oh well, what the heck, it's only been eight hours.

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Habemus PSP!

I'm sure that that sounds really egotistical and insane, but this, this is a PSP. Of course there are some people who don't understand the greatness of this little device which is the ultimate symbol of techno-geekhood! Behold! The PSP in my hands! Muahahaha... now I have something productive to do in lecture.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

It was so hot yesterday that the weather kindly convinced me not to walk 5 minutes in the hot sun to go to class.

I hear objections to how lazy I am. I beg to differ. You see, I have seen ahead that I would arrive in class in a hot environment where the air-conditioning is down (the most expensive private college in the East Coast is trying to save money) and students would be fanning themselves, therefore in such an unconducive environment for studying, I decided to be more productive by relieving stress and preparing my mind for the rigorous mental activity the next day by playing WarCraft 3.

Somehow there is no such thing as moderation, nor some sort of warning system around here. Four days ago, the wind was chilly and I was bitching how cold it was. Yesterday it was as hot as hell that the weather demanded an afternoon shower. It was about 28 degrees Celsius in the day, and that is hot as hell considering the winter I just went through. I shall die a gruesome death upon my return to tropical climate.

Maybe it is the hair after all. My hair, which has kept my ears and neck warm throughout the winter has now cause a rising temperature build-up in my head, resulting in insane crankiness and old-men grumpiness. Still I refuse to have my hair cut; I plan to give my mom a surprise.

With that, I hope it better rain soon. And New York doesn't have clouds. Smog it does have, but not clouds.

On Monday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came and gave us a talk on businesses and the environment. Yeah, he was one of the Kennedy clan, and he was an interesting speaker, and it's pretty much safe to say that we all liked him, because he was a Kennedy and he was in a power suit and a red tie.

But that's besides the point. It was all appearance, and c'mon, never judge a politician by his suit, only by his lack of it. He gave us some interesting statistics about the moron-ness of Bush voters, which of course he never said that way, rule 1 in politics is never insult your voters, but then again I fail to have words other than morons to describe what Bush voters are. He said 64% of Bush voters thought Saddam Hussien was behind 9/11. 60% of Bush voters thought that WMDs were found in Iraq. 60% of Bush voters thought he signed the Kyoto Protocol.

Now I balked in horror at these numbers and the sheer impossibility of such stupidity and ignorance. And I was not alone. My friend in Singapore also responded with great surprise. But here's the kicker, I asked a friend in Kansas who has been right in the Bible heartland, and he didn't sound surprised at all. I could almost hear him say, "Hmm... that's low." Sure the numbers are there, like 98% wanted America to bomb those goddamn terrorists in Iraq, but 95% of Americans didn't know where Iraq was before 9/11. Furthermore, I asked my professor in class, and he didn't seem too surprised by the numbers either, he said he heard it all before. And so perhaps there is a great difference between what America's brand of democracy is as compared to the rest of the world.

America's brand of democracy isn't about knowing who you are voting for, but rather, know that there exists an iPod one and the president's country music playlist. America's brand of democracy isn't about the policies that your president is going to enforce, but knowing that Michael Jackson is going on trial for child molestation, again. Bush doesn't read the newspapers. He doesn't! It's a fact, he said it before. What kind of semi-intelligent, semi-literate person doesn't read the newspapers?

But it's not entirely Bush's fault you see, he was just never taught to read. And the newspapers aren't informative at all. Scandals these days are uncovered by inside whistleblowers rather than the now-dead investigative journalists. Gone are those days where investigative journalism was the hype and you always read those Dick Tracy comics where a hot single investigative journalist with a really short skirt shows up in the office of a private eye and asks for help and they end up kissing on the desk and moving on fro mthere. See? The news aren't informing at all. The news is more entertaining. Kennedy said that Americans are the most entertained and least informed people in the world. It's true from what I see. Look at the news, people are more interested in Wacko-Jacko's trial, Lacy Peterson's murder and Kobe Bryant's rape accusation. America glorifies it's sports stars more than it villifies corporations which take their money and pollute their lands. And gone are the days of interesting news anymore, any inside stories and basically, we won't know ANYTHING until it has hit us already. The huge giant news corporations number six in total, and they control most of the media in America. It is in their self-interest to milk all the public's interest in whatever latest Hollywood scandal they can find. Yesterday, while I was watching the news, I saw the newscaster announce, "A new pope has been elected, but first more on Annie vs Diana." Who's Annie? And who's Diana? And who gives a crap? The pope affects 1.1 billion Catholics directly, the Muslims, Hindus and other branches of Christianity indirectly and gets invited to the UN. Now who is Annie and Diana and who gives a rats ass? Apparently the news world, CNN, MSNBC, FOX and all these other corporations got their priorities mixed up. Look, I want news, genuine news, so stow all that bullsh*t away, and I really don't care about all those stuff about the personal life of celebrities and all.

So perhaps it's all really screwed up, and there is great wrong and injustice in the world. I was listening to my World Cultures: Russia lecture yesterday, and there were two theories of why the Soviet Union collapse. One was because empires end. Two was because of original sin that the Russian Revolution of 1917 was founded on original sin, and therefore it was going to end. If either one were true, then I guess America is heading that same way too. America is now an empire, and America was also built on the bodies of slaves. It's all a matter of time now.

But then again, I'm still puzzled why the public lets this happen. I think that Kennedy gave me the answer. That there is something in the water. I keep telling people that there is something in the water, but then hell, no one believes me. Kennedy tells that there is enough mercury in his body, such that if a woman had that amount, she would give birth to a child which would have 5-7 IQ points lower. There is enough PVC in the environment to pose various health hazards which no doubt, stupidify the crowd. And children in America are more susceptible to asthma than before. Mercury has the tendency to accumulate in the food chain, and so really, there is something in the air that makes us all stupid, and it's not the fart of Bush.

Sunday, April 17, 2005

iPod one.

What the hell? What the hell is iPod one? iPod one the prime iPod in the world, the most important iPod, the numero uno, the one like Neo. iPod one is the presidential iPod, and it would seem that finally the morons of the world turn their attention to President George Dubbya Bush's iPod.

I wonder why would anyone bother to know what kind of music the president listens to. I wonder whether it would affect voters. Maybe in November, some dude said, "Oh, I'm not voting for the president because he listens to country music." Of course he listens to country music! He's from Texas! He has a ranch! I'd be damned if he wasn't called a cowboy president for nothing!

But that's about how much attention people pay to the most trivial of all things. I wonder how it captivates people the most trivial of all things that hardly even concerns them. Why not take note in matters more important like why does a triple tall cappuchino cost the same as a triple grande cappuchino? After all, the triple grande cappuchino has extra milk in it,so does that mean that milk actually has negative cost? My friend kindly gave me the numbers, triple tall cappuchino is 6.30 while triple grande cappuchino is 6.00. See? This is a lot more important than what Bush listens to.

Americans are the greatest coffee drinkers on the planet. Most NYU students drink coffee every day, and that would equal to 100 dollars a year saved if they decide drink triple grande cappuchino instead of triple tall cappuchino. And there are about 26,000 undergraduate students in NYU, so that is about 2.6 million dollars saved by drinking triple grande cappuchino instead of triple tall cappuchino, and that is not even by drinking less coffee. 2.6 million dollars. That's a lot of aid for a lot of poor people. Like me. So if you read this, and you realise that you can save 30 cents by drinking triple grande cappuchino instead of triple tall cappuchino, please donate 10 cents to my fund for poor college student trying to get through life.

P.S. I'm sorry that this blog hasn't been mine at all, the ideas and observations came from a friend. Yeah, he'll still want your 10 cents donations.

Saturday, April 16, 2005

Irritating song of the day:

Harry Nilsson, Put The Lime In The Coconut

Guys, if you have been watching Lime Coke advertistments, this is that one song that they keep playing.

Now let me get this straight;
You put the lime in the coconut
You drank them both up
put the lime in the coconut,
You drink them both up
p'the lime in the coconut,
you drink them both up
put the lime in the coconut,
you're such a silly woman,
put a lime in the coconut,
and drink them both together,
put the lime in the coconut,
then you'll feel better.
put the lime in the coconut,
drink them both down,
put the lime in the coconut,
and call me in the morning

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Find the remainder when the following sum is divided by 4:

15 + 25 + 35 + ... 995 + 1005

Solution

15 + 25 + 35 + ... 995 + 1005 ≡ 15 + 35 + 55 + 75 + ... + 975 + 995 (mod 4)

Note:
1 ≡ 1 (mod 4)
3 ≡ 3 (mod 4)
5 ≡ 1 (mod 4)
7 ≡ 3 (mod 4)
.
.
.
97 ≡ 1 (mod 4)
99 ≡ 3 (mod 4)

Therefore
15 + 35 + 55 + 75 + ... + 975 + 995 ≡ 25 x 1 + 25 x 3 (mod 4)≡ 0(mod 4) q.e.d.

Monday, April 11, 2005

I tossed out a suggestion to a couple of people asking for possible blog subjects. What I got in reply was the following:

1. A twisted dream I had
2. RPG obsession
3. Diablo 2
4. DoTA
5. Britney Spears and Federline having a reality tv show
6. The Pope

But then again, great suggestions as all of that, I guess what really bothers me is the on the 9th April, 2005, Prince Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles.

Now I'm sure everyone else have their own objections, and that they think that Camilla Parker Bowles does not deserve to be the queen because she was the cause of Prince Charles' divorce with Princess Diana. Or whatever other possible objections you guys might have.

I am greatly disturbed because Camilla Parker Bowles is 58. That's even older than my mother. Okay, well I know most of you might say that he is close to her age. But that's not the point. The point is, you're 58 and you were a slut during most of your earlier life and it takes you this long to settle down? What the hell were you thinking? Did you also know that the probability of conceiving a child with Down Syndrome after the age of 40 increases dramatically?

So here at this point, I have to call Prince Charles a fool. Of course he's a fool, he divorced Princess Diana in the first place and married this old bag eight years later. And she is 58 years old! I have to compare Prince Charles to Donald Trump, and although people criticize him for marrying a 34 year old Slovenian model, Melania Knauss, I really got to stand up and applaud him for getting such a hot wife who is 24 years younger than him. So what if he's a dirty old man? At least he is a dirty old man with fine taste!

Granted, it must be said that Prince Charles look like something wrinkled straight out of the dryer, but he's a prince, he's rich and has prestige, and he marries an old bag older than him, rather than a hot Slovenian model? Something seems completely wrong with this picture, so I guess this case warrants further analysis.

What possible reason could Prince Charles have for marrying Camilla Parker Bowles in face of all the public opposition and disapproval of the Queen Mother? Let's see... some possible answers I could think of is true love (suggested by Erick), psychological problems as expounded by Freud with close similarities to Oedipus complex, witchcraft and voodoo, modern-day hypnotic drugs, publicity stunt, chance to laugh at Princess Diana in her grave, or fulfill a modern day fairy tale by presenting his sons with an evil old stepmother.

First of all, I got to omit the possibility of a publicity stunt. After all, this marriage has generated so much negative reaction from the public that the event doesn't even fulfill its purpose as a publicity stunt. So that theory goes out the window.

And I don't think he has anything against Princess Diana. Though there is a conspiracy theory that the Royal Family got her killed, so hmm.. if the conspiracy theory was true, then Prince Charles already got his revenge against her and don't need to enter another marriage to spite Princess Diana. So scratch this too.

What about the modern day fairy tale so that Prince William and Prince Harry would have an evil stepmother who'd torment them after the death of Prince Charles so that they would be rescued by a damsel in distress... and... okay... this seems really ridiculous as it is already. Besides, I'd say that there's a strong possibilities that both of them are already screwed up without needing a stepmother. After all, Prince Harry did show signs of Nazi tendencies after showing up in a Halloween party with a swastika.

As for witchcraft and voodoo, and modern day hypnotic medicine, well, this is possible... it's a scheme by Camilla Parker Bowles to ascend the throne and rule over England with an iron fist. My ass... the England royal family is just for show with no power. And I don't believe in witchcraft and voodoo. And hypnotic medication? Maybe, but then again I don't think she could pull that off. So yeah...

That leaves two possible theories, one being true love, and the other being psychological problems on the part of Prince Charles with an Oedipus Complex wanting to marry a wrinkled old bag who is older than him. And since I am skeptical in the existence of true love, as quoteth by Erick from his mother, "True love is eating chicken sh*t and tasting chocolate."

So by the powers of deduction and logic, I come to the conclusion that Prince Charles is indeed, sick and nuts for marrying Camilla Parker Bowles.

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Forgive the long hiatus, but I guess now is the time to make up for the lack of postings.

First of all, interesting things which has happened. My friend sent me this link.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/07/tv.cookie.lessmonster.ap/index.html

Now before you all scream in terror like I did, I would like to say a few words first. Once again, the nonsensical behaviour of network television has screwed up my entire world, and today, instead of Cookie Monster, we have instead Sometimes-Cookie Monster. What the hell do you mean, Sometimes-Cookie Monster? Does this mean that Cookie Monster is sometimes a Cookie Monster until he decides to have a celery stick? Oh... damn... I just have to stab my eyes out before I see that.

Seriously though, why are they taking my childhood away? Why do they want to deprive an already deprived guy who grew up wtih Cookie Monster, and thankfully escaped the terrifying reign of Barney and Teletubbies. Now Sesame Street wants to promote healthier eating habits and encourage children to eat healthy stuff, which sadly doesn't include cookies. Sesame Street cites increasing obesity rates as a sign of bad eating habits and they are trying to fulfill their social role by perverting an old iconic character of Sesame Street? Noo... I protest!

Look, if Sesame Street wants to be politically and socially correct, why not start teaching kids to turn off their television? Why not teach kids to do something fun, or make crafts or play games? Why not promote activity, and insane running around? Dudes, do you think a child has any dietary control over his intake? Give a child a cookie, he'll eat a cookie. Give a child brussel sprouts, he'll scream and yell and cry until you give him a smack and tell him that the television network would take away Cookie Monster and brainwash him so that he doesn't like cookies anymore and he'll eat children instead. Now that'll scar them for life.

Now that my childhood is destroyed, I wonder what is there next for the television networks to do. Look, Sesame Street in Africa already has a muppet with AIDS to teach children on AIDS awareness. So maybe Sesame Street would start teaching stuff like feminist theories and women empowerment. What about racial prejudice? Crime and punishment? No wait, maybe they'll even teach controversial stuff such abortions! No wait, what about homosexuality, and accepting homosexuality? Yeah, they could do a gay muppet and start making out with... err... never mind, Teletubbies already did that.

I guess another thing Sesame Street can do is televise a court scene of the Michael Jackson trial to show happens when children don't listen to their parents and keep eating cookies.

The enduring grey silence,
Glides coldly into the warmest of hearts,
And stills the liveliest of tongues,
At the end of the day,
Above all the noise and rants and babble,
The Great Tower crumbles,
Destroyed by a single Word,
Sound only last for the briefest of moments,
Silence is forever.
Why do we talk so much,
When what we say is unheard?

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Last night, my roommate went VIP clubbing. To cut a long boring story short, he rubbed shoulders with a bunch of celebrities; couple of guys from N'Sync, the CEO of Rockefeller Records, Russell Simmons, Lindsay Lohan and her boyfriend, Fez from That 70's Show, Giselle Bundchen, Jay-Z and a bunch of other celebrities. While everyone else was sort of saying, "Damn, I wish I could have been there." I think to myself, "What's the big deal?"

Somehow I seem to be missing a point. Everyone else who heard that story says, "I want to see them." And here I am thinking, sure, you can go ahead and see all these celebs for all you want, but what are you gonna get out of it? The kick for being able to boast to your friends that you've seen so-and-so? Maybe there's completely something wrong with me, but I don't give a rats ass about many issues people seem to enjoy bickering about, morality issues, abortions, stem cell research, the role of the Christian Church, political issues, US foreign policy, the economic future of China, globalisation, environmental issues, global warming, endangered species, recycling. So in light of all my apathy, I am not even going to touch the subject of celebrities with a fourty-foot pole, because even then, I would seem so bloody shallow.

Perhaps I got it all wrong, but I think those celebrities would be happy to see me, the everyday consumer, who's hard-earned money put their gyrating semi-naked booty on the A-list of top earners with so ridiculous amounts of money that they can buy just about anything and everything, being the epitome of excess and commiting the deadly sin of gluttony.

Maybe I'm just wrong, maybe I'm just one psycho in a whole mess of sane, normal people who idolises celebrities, read the gossip magazines, watch in antication at Hollywood marriages, swooning over sexy celebrities and fantasizing a world that would never be reality. These celebrities do deserve our respect, awe, flattery and good ol' fashion ass-kissing, and I have just committed the greatest wrong ever by dissing them and turning away from the sole focus of our pathetic mundane lives.

I just don't care. Olsen twins get to NYU? Rather than looking out for them, I'm betting when they are going to drop out. Look, I don't care. Why should I?