I should probably hurry up and do something worthwhile with my life.
...well after today anyway.
DARK KNIGHT TONIGHT.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Math is depressing.
Update! sorta.
EDIT: Update 2!
Listed:
The Brothers Karamazov
Sam and Max Hit the Road
Persona 3
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Planescape: Torment
Earthbound
Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria - finished!
Final Fantasy XII
Queued:
Suikoden II
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Baldur's Gate II
The Last Express
Dragon Quest VIII
Wanted:
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1+2 (of course now when it's the one game I happened to leave at home...)
Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix + (blagh stupid Square, take a lesson from Atlus already)
Mother 3
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Chrono Trigger DS
Not as much:
Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Heaven's Feel
Finished:
The Other Boelyn Girl - Henry VIII is so soap opera material.
Hancock - asshole.
My Fair Lady - the raaaain in spaaaain falls clearly on the plaaaain.
It's a Wonderful Life (as implied by last entry)
Wanted
The Longest Journey
Grim Fandango (Woot! Two games in a week! This never happens.)
The Philadelphia Story - my god this movie is awesome.
Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (WOOT! Three games in a week! I'm on a roll, finally.)
Rear Window - creeeeeeepy. moreso than Disturbia.
Fantasia 2000 - eh, the original was better. But I have to say that Donald Duck is my favorite Disney character of all time (well everybody loves Mickey :P).
The Dark Knight - AWESOMENESS
Matilda - this movie fulfills some long lost childhood fantasy of mine to have psychic powers. too bad now it's all about changing states of matter. :D
Anatomy of a Murder -good stuff.
Fargo - the mix of irony and disgusting elements in this movie... woooow.
Rope - reminds me of Crime and Punishment! and <3 Jimmy Stewart. Ending scene was intense.
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey - Probably one of my favorite game stories in a while (since TLJ and Grim Fandango anyway) although the massive number of cliffhanger elements is excruciating to the point of aaaaaaaahaa[=s-gdh. Hurry up and make Dreamfall Chapters already!
EDIT: Update 2!
Listed:
The Brothers Karamazov
Sam and Max Hit the Road
Persona 3
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Planescape: Torment
Earthbound
Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria - finished!
Final Fantasy XII
Queued:
Suikoden II
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Baldur's Gate II
The Last Express
Dragon Quest VIII
Wanted:
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1+2 (of course now when it's the one game I happened to leave at home...)
Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix + (blagh stupid Square, take a lesson from Atlus already)
Mother 3
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Chrono Trigger DS
Not as much:
Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Heaven's Feel
Finished:
The Other Boelyn Girl - Henry VIII is so soap opera material.
Hancock - asshole.
My Fair Lady - the raaaain in spaaaain falls clearly on the plaaaain.
It's a Wonderful Life (as implied by last entry)
Wanted
The Longest Journey
Grim Fandango (Woot! Two games in a week! This never happens.)
The Philadelphia Story - my god this movie is awesome.
Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (WOOT! Three games in a week! I'm on a roll, finally.)
Rear Window - creeeeeeepy. moreso than Disturbia.
Fantasia 2000 - eh, the original was better. But I have to say that Donald Duck is my favorite Disney character of all time (well everybody loves Mickey :P).
The Dark Knight - AWESOMENESS
Matilda - this movie fulfills some long lost childhood fantasy of mine to have psychic powers. too bad now it's all about changing states of matter. :D
Anatomy of a Murder -good stuff.
Fargo - the mix of irony and disgusting elements in this movie... woooow.
Rope - reminds me of Crime and Punishment! and <3 Jimmy Stewart. Ending scene was intense.
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey - Probably one of my favorite game stories in a while (since TLJ and Grim Fandango anyway) although the massive number of cliffhanger elements is excruciating to the point of aaaaaaaahaa[=s-gdh. Hurry up and make Dreamfall Chapters already!
Friday, July 11, 2008
It's A Wonderful Life makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
I kinda wish real life were that way. But at the same time you kinda have to appreciate real life's tragedies for what they are, I guess. People can't live without them.
With that said, George Bailey. Good man.
With that said, George Bailey. Good man.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Everything's a facade!
This was written a week ago but it felt oddly misplaced where it was so I decided to move it. Not to mention semi-emotional.
"I wish I felt more motivated to act the way I know I should act. To believe what I say I believe. I see the positive people around me - particularly Jason and Ryan, and the way they've been able to change other people just by their good nature and faith. They see the world in a positive light - perhaps you could say in a naive manner (I'd say Jason's one of the most "WHOOSH" people I've ever met in my life- but sometimes I really do wonder if he really does notice some things and prefers not to say anything about them - like about the kind of person I am... He'll probably have a better time being roommates with his church friends), but in such a way that people like me can't help but just love them for being who they are. But at the same time, I feel like I could never live up to those same standards - like it's in my nature to be critical of the way things are. And to worry about how close I am with other people. And to neglect my responsibilities by playing video games and reading high-minded books all day."
Oh oh and a revised to-do list (non-academic, that is):
Top:
Brothers Karamazov
The Longest Journey
Persona 3
Earthbound
Middle:
Hanaotoko
Grim Fandango
Planescape: Torment
Valkyrie Profile 2
Final Fantasy XII
Alice in Wonderland and probably Through the Looking Glass
Uh... one of the 40+ movies on my hard drive
Bottom:
Everything else
Waiting:
Usual manga stuff
Code Geass R2
Mother 3
Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Heaven's Feel
Back to vector calculus!
"I wish I felt more motivated to act the way I know I should act. To believe what I say I believe. I see the positive people around me - particularly Jason and Ryan, and the way they've been able to change other people just by their good nature and faith. They see the world in a positive light - perhaps you could say in a naive manner (I'd say Jason's one of the most "WHOOSH" people I've ever met in my life- but sometimes I really do wonder if he really does notice some things and prefers not to say anything about them - like about the kind of person I am... He'll probably have a better time being roommates with his church friends), but in such a way that people like me can't help but just love them for being who they are. But at the same time, I feel like I could never live up to those same standards - like it's in my nature to be critical of the way things are. And to worry about how close I am with other people. And to neglect my responsibilities by playing video games and reading high-minded books all day."
Oh oh and a revised to-do list (non-academic, that is):
Top:
Brothers Karamazov
The Longest Journey
Persona 3
Earthbound
Middle:
Hanaotoko
Grim Fandango
Planescape: Torment
Valkyrie Profile 2
Final Fantasy XII
Alice in Wonderland and probably Through the Looking Glass
Uh... one of the 40+ movies on my hard drive
Bottom:
Everything else
Waiting:
Usual manga stuff
Code Geass R2
Mother 3
Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Heaven's Feel
Back to vector calculus!
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Did I say before that I feel like Ivan Karamazov sometimes? Well I finally got back into reading The Brothers Karamazov again this weekend (incidentally because Jade and Olivia were reading books. but I'd meaning to do this for a heck of a long time anyway) and after reading about Ivan's "poem"/excuse for a philosophical rant about probably one of the largest problems with religion today (or across history, evidently, since Dostoevsky lived a century and a half ago) about the Grand Inquisitor, I can't help but empathize with him.
Ivan's stuck in a pithole because he wants to be able to believe in the natural goodness of people, but whenever he meets people in real life, all he can see is their bad qualities. He doesn't think people are capable of meeting up to the expectations that God has for them as believers- that, given the choice of free will, they are more inclined to give in to anything that can provide for their basic secular needs first, as it is in their wretched, doubtful, and "rebellious" nature to do so (see: Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden). Besides, after all, it's difficult for people who are naturally skeptical to try and follow the words of someone who hasn't shown themselves in the flesh for over 2 millenia. Thus, organized religion exists to fill in that gap: to give them something more physically tangible to follow, even if it happens to be a heavily flawed interpretation of Christ's original words. The one sided discourse between the Grand Inquisitor and Jesus (who remains conspicuously silent for most of the story) in a way is also illustrative of how things are today. As the Inquisitor says, there's no need for Jesus to come again - the best he can do now is to further torment man with more impossible and unrealistic burdens, as if the basic tenets of Christianity weren't impossible enough. How could a man possibly live up to such ideals when his faith must be tried each day by the constant suffering that exists in the world - and after seeing what terrible acts he himself is capable of? (well, considering the fact that Ivan's father is a lecher that likes to host orgies in his house in front of his crazed mother... or that he gets murdered in an even more despicable manner, but that's later.) Ivan's conclusion is that God either does not exist, or that if he does, he must be one of the cruelest beings that ever was - for subjecting us through through the nightmare of living the imperfect life and all of the calamities that come with it. And he'd much rather choose a nonexistent God over a heartless one.
But that's not to portray Ivan as your typical critical atheist, for he does end his story on a semi-positive note; he has Jesus kiss the Inquisitor on the head (...before the man sends him to burn at the stake, to die at the hands of a jeering crowd AGAIN). And this in turn provokes his brother Alyosha to kiss him on the head after he has finished his depressing story. Because in spite of all of his doubtfulness, the thing that Ivan wants most is for himself to be wrong. He wants to believe in the possibility of a loving God, of a reality where mankind is naturally good and where people can simply just love their neighbors as themselves because they want to. He's torn to the point where he finds himself arguing on the side of religion and Christianity even when he doesn't fully believe in them. And as everyone knows, what good is good works without good faith?
On another note, I can't say yet whether I like this book more than Crime and Punishment yet. On one level, it does seem to address more directly the fundamental issues that plague people today (well, since not everyone is a crazed psychotic and poor college student/murderer like Raskolnikov is- we get to choose from four personalities now! Are you depraved, emotional, intellectual, or hopeful?) but on another level, it does seem to go on a few random tangents to explain certain things. I'm not sure how good explaining the elder Zosima's entire lifestory right before Papa Karamazov is about to get murdered is for the pacing... But I guess our idea of good pacing today is SHORT. FAST. ACTION. PACKED. SEQUENCES. or something.
Ivan's stuck in a pithole because he wants to be able to believe in the natural goodness of people, but whenever he meets people in real life, all he can see is their bad qualities. He doesn't think people are capable of meeting up to the expectations that God has for them as believers- that, given the choice of free will, they are more inclined to give in to anything that can provide for their basic secular needs first, as it is in their wretched, doubtful, and "rebellious" nature to do so (see: Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden). Besides, after all, it's difficult for people who are naturally skeptical to try and follow the words of someone who hasn't shown themselves in the flesh for over 2 millenia. Thus, organized religion exists to fill in that gap: to give them something more physically tangible to follow, even if it happens to be a heavily flawed interpretation of Christ's original words. The one sided discourse between the Grand Inquisitor and Jesus (who remains conspicuously silent for most of the story) in a way is also illustrative of how things are today. As the Inquisitor says, there's no need for Jesus to come again - the best he can do now is to further torment man with more impossible and unrealistic burdens, as if the basic tenets of Christianity weren't impossible enough. How could a man possibly live up to such ideals when his faith must be tried each day by the constant suffering that exists in the world - and after seeing what terrible acts he himself is capable of? (well, considering the fact that Ivan's father is a lecher that likes to host orgies in his house in front of his crazed mother... or that he gets murdered in an even more despicable manner, but that's later.) Ivan's conclusion is that God either does not exist, or that if he does, he must be one of the cruelest beings that ever was - for subjecting us through through the nightmare of living the imperfect life and all of the calamities that come with it. And he'd much rather choose a nonexistent God over a heartless one.
But that's not to portray Ivan as your typical critical atheist, for he does end his story on a semi-positive note; he has Jesus kiss the Inquisitor on the head (...before the man sends him to burn at the stake, to die at the hands of a jeering crowd AGAIN). And this in turn provokes his brother Alyosha to kiss him on the head after he has finished his depressing story. Because in spite of all of his doubtfulness, the thing that Ivan wants most is for himself to be wrong. He wants to believe in the possibility of a loving God, of a reality where mankind is naturally good and where people can simply just love their neighbors as themselves because they want to. He's torn to the point where he finds himself arguing on the side of religion and Christianity even when he doesn't fully believe in them. And as everyone knows, what good is good works without good faith?
On another note, I can't say yet whether I like this book more than Crime and Punishment yet. On one level, it does seem to address more directly the fundamental issues that plague people today (well, since not everyone is a crazed psychotic and poor college student/murderer like Raskolnikov is- we get to choose from four personalities now! Are you depraved, emotional, intellectual, or hopeful?) but on another level, it does seem to go on a few random tangents to explain certain things. I'm not sure how good explaining the elder Zosima's entire lifestory right before Papa Karamazov is about to get murdered is for the pacing... But I guess our idea of good pacing today is SHORT. FAST. ACTION. PACKED. SEQUENCES. or something.
Friday, June 20, 2008
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