Trendiness and Good Causes

Counting this one, I will have written 9 posts, 1 more than the number of posts last year. That was my goal. It has been fulfilled. Unfortunately, most of my thoughts and observations can be summed up in one short line. Facebook status updates can do that, along with the bombardment of projects at school. Shucks Jo, how do you do it. By the way, I think Feminists are hypocrites. I don't know if my friend would agree with me, but that wouldn't change my opinion. Check out her stuff. Here Jo, you get more traffic.

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So while walking around campus, I noticed someone wearing one of those "To Write Love on Her Arms" shirts. Don't know what it is? Read a bit here. To sum it up, it's a slogan for an organization that helps people suffering from depression, suicide and such related things. When I first saw the shirt worn by someone I knew, I was curious about it. It was a nicely designed shirt and the slogan stood out because it seemed like poorly written english. Putting it shortly, it was something I would've worn. So I searched the slogan, came across the site, and it was a compelling story. Something worth supporting. The shirt did it's job.

Now I ask you, who wears it cause its trendy, and who wears it cause they know the story behind it? Gosh, I wish the latter outweighs the former. I draw a parallel to the Livestrong rubber bracelets. Remember what that was for? Cancer. I remember the surge of popularity those bracelets had. All of a sudden, rubber bracelets were pretty rad. But really, just like now, who knew what Livestrong was for?

The silly thing is, as my friend points out, people are that shallow to do something cause it's trendy, not really for it's good nature. I implore you, serve your fellow man, not cause it's the "in" thing to do, but because you truly believe someone out there needs help.

Stay safe and take it easy everyone,

-Nick

Friends at only an arms length

In the field of connecting people, technology has come a long way, especially in the last decade or so. I mean, hard to believe that it was in the early 90's that the interwebs went underway. Now we got social networking sites up the wazoo.
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This summer, being at work really put a dampen on my social life. At least last year, when I worked at Summer Paradise, I was working with my friends. It was enjoyable, to say the least. This year, not so much. Work is a Mon - Fri, 9-5 internship. The job itself is rather rewarding, but it can get boring. Pro-tip, working a desk job can get REAL boring, and for those who haven't worked at all, you just don't know.

Working in front a computer really doesn't help my short attention span. I've been on facebook so much this summer just because I get bored easily inbetween programming. Everyone does it. When they're at work, they're not really work a good chunk 25% of the time. If everyone was 100% efficient, man the things we could accomplish. Too bad we can't. Anyway, it's nice to see what my friends from high school, or even junior high school are up to. It's nice to catch up. Isn't it? Facebook, among others, delivers this whole phenomenon of being friends at an arms length. People know what others are doing, and yet, they don't at the same time. What's this person like after a month, a year or even 5 years of not seeing this person. I'm certainly curious. It would help if the other end would be as well.

This summer was somewhat an attempt, to do such a thing. Catch up. The call was made, but for some, there was no response. For me, a short, succinct response, is better than none at all. Borderline insulting? Maybe not that bad, but it was sometimes annoying. I mean, this is what facebook is for right? Guess not.

So for them foo's who actually read this, summer is coming to a close. Get ya licks in, yo.

Enjoy the rest of yo' summa,
-Nick.

PS, I got mad handles. Nick. Moyboy. Murisoca. mr nekketsu. smokin_labbit. I gotta stick to one.

Can you be charisma man?

Me thinks I don't apply to the rule of being able to become Charisma man.

WATASHI WA.....CHARISMA MAN....DESUUUUUUUUUUUUU

BlazBlue initial impressions

So me and Arc System works didn't have the best of relationships in the past, but it was mostly one sided. I wasn't a fan of the Guilty Gear Series, mostly because it was too complicated for my brain to process. It was really fast, but thankfully, not marvel fast. There were a lot of systems to this game. "Arcade Mania" by Brian Ashcraft called it appropriately, "controlled chaos". A lot to process, and a lot to remember and I'm pretty lazy, but that's my fault. Plus the people at RIT gave me and the other 3rd strike players a load of crap for playing 3rd strike and not GGXX. I even tried playing GGXX but some people didn't even bother teaching me the mechanics of the game. Gamers RUIN EVERYTHING.

So here comes along BlazBlue, which seemingly is GGXX with a new coat of paint. Not necessarily a bad thing, but since GGXX wasn't my cup of tea, I didn't particularly care. It just looked pretty. The other day, I as at a gamestop, and lo and behold, I see a copy of BlazBlue. I consulted Felix, bought it, and he would buy it from me, since he wanted it more than I did. I did, however, get the permission to give it a test drive.

Coming from Street Fighter IV, there were a few things that I really missed. One was the lack of ability to mash your way to victory. On the stick, doing a SRK/DP whatever you call it was back to the way I remember it, and it wasn't a random ass save all. Man I missed that. 2nd, it was faster. SFIV just seems slow to me, and I needed a faster game. Ideally, if played like I remember it, 3rd Strike had a decent game speed. But this isn't 3rd strike. Still, it was faster, and it was refreshing. Lastly, 2D sprites. It jsut flows naturally. I never did like SFIV's animation. Kinda choppy.

And actually, in the first hour I played it, it seemed mildly enjoyable. Kinda different from guilty gear, but still the same at the same time. What I found really interesting were the designs of the characters. Not so much the actual design (which is what you expect from Arc System works games and their anime-inspired designs), but the game play design. Everyone has the buttons of A,B,C, and D. The D button is their drive button, which is basically what makes the characters, "them".

Let's put it this way. How many characters in SFIV have fireballs? Ryu, Ken, Sagat, Chun-Li, Dan, Rose, Sakura, Guile, Seth, Dhalsim, Gouken, and Gouki. 12 Characters have fireballs! The shoto's generally play the same, and that kind makes it some staleness. Course most of the characters are unique, but I'm sure you understand what I'm getting at.

On the flip-side, BlazBlue has the drive button, and that, what I think, is what makes them, them. Take the character Iron Tager. He's your needed hulking, big guy that can't dash or double jump. However, his special moves and drives make his opponents magnetized for a short time. Doing subsequent specials afterward creates a vacuum effect, running with his whole magnetism theme. How many other characters can do that? One. Just him. This design makes it fresh and unique. Does it make the game good. A bit. Does it make it PLAY well? From a competitors stand-point, I'm not so sure. That requires more extensive play-time. What I want nothing more in a good fighting game is a bit of balance.

A few notes:
Ragna is your basic character that has neither strengths or weaknesses. Jin seems like an easy mode character, with quick and easy combos. Tager, because of the nature of the game, seems slow, but hey, Potemkin managed to be pretty good in some of the GGXX games, so lets see. Taokaka is for those into furries and likes to spam moves like crazy. Noel seems busted.

A short interlude: Girl gamers

It just feels like yesterday where I was just a kid and playing video games was a guy thing to do. Girls thought it was dumb for the most part, although I did know a few that actually played. Come 2009 and now there are plenty of girls playin games. That's fine and dandy. More people to play with.

Then comes the picture -->.


Girls can play games. Go right ahead. Be happy. Play them games. More power to you. Help me make money by buying stuff I'll (hopefully) make in the future. Just don't use it as an excuse for attention, please? I like the mentality of, "Hey, I'm a girl who games, ain't it cool?", not, "HEY, I'M A GIRL GAMER, LOOK AT ME!!."

Thankfully enough, I don't know anyone like that (Jo? But Jo's a man =D)

Games, Street Fighter, and no part 2

In fear that I'll get reprimanded some more and offend more people, I'll just leave out part 2. I will say this, however. Part 2 was supposed to be about what defines us as Asians. You hear some people go around saying, "That's so Asian", or "You're so Asian" and I ask them what that really means. Whoever reads this damn thing, I'll write about it, if so desired.

This past weekend was the West Coast Super Battle Opera 2009 Qualifiers for Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike. Every year since I got into the fighting game scene, which was around the time the Justin Wong/Daigo parry video came out, I would check the forums all the big tournament results, exciting videos and matches. This year was particularly interesting because it was (as far as I can remember) the first time the fighting game community actually did something to broadcast a major tournament live. Not just the matches, but as the overall feeling of the tournament and the atmosphere.

Here's the video of the Grand Finals of the qualifier.

It is exciting to watch this for many reasons. With what little resources these people had, they managed to get this thing off the ground and on the internet, despite the stream crashing multiple times. The limit on views was about 1000, but thousands more were probably watching this stream from the beginning (which was around 12 in Cali, to 2 AM)

Watching this helps convey what the fighting game community is all about. There's just alot of hype goin around and that's what makes it so special. It goes beyond just pressing buttons and watching the characters hit each other until someone wins.

Watching the quals shows that games have come a long way in general. From its simple roots to its complicated development of today, games evolved immensely in the past near 30 years. No one would've imagined that it would grow beyond a hobby thing for kids. Is this where it stops though. Is this where games peak? One can only imagine. Microsoft got that crazy project Natal thing going on. Sony finally delivers with some decent projects. Nintendo is (maybe) trying to do some new things. Only time will get.

I will leave you with this.

Asian People and how they confuse me, part 1

People confuse me in general, but today, we're gonna focus on my people, the Asians.

While on facebook today, I read a status and it went:

"everyone in this asian world knows someone who knows somebody else who knows more asians"

How true this is. Somehow we all know each other, despite going to different schools, having different jobs or just having radically different backgrounds. We all just know each other, which I think is pretty nifty. It pays well to know the right people. However, let me ask my fellow Asians something. How many of you know people that are not Asian? Now I don't mean, "I know his/her name" and that's it. I mean, you know person fairly well. You know some tidbits or talk to this person sometimes. It's what we call friends. Facebook may have made us use the word more loosely these days, having us know personal stuff in their lives, and yet only know them at an arms reach. But I digress.

Honestly, ask yourself. How many people do you legittimately know that are not Asian. Everywhere I go, I see varying levels of cliqueyness. Some will hang exclusively with their fellow Asian people, like the crazy Koreans (unless I'm wrong and they're not angry folk who like to tell people to die all the time =P. Really, Koreans! If I'm wrong, let me know!). And then you have dopes like me who play the equal opportunity card and branch out. I try at least.

When with the yellow people, I used to mention my little escapades in the Bronx if they ask me what's been goin on. I would get stares telegraphing the question of why I'm there. Barring school, or maybe a yankee game, I'm sure alot of them barely step foot past 125th street, saving the exception of a few. Why have the need to go in a not so hot neighborhood, when they know they're safe with their fellow people in the surrounding neighborhoods near home.

And then I ask them why not. I have friends there. I used to think that the Asians judged me alot, just because I wasn't exclusively one of them. Not so much now, since things like racial boundaries are more trivial the more I see it as that way. Rather, if they still do, they're somewhat foolish for not going outside their comfort zone. I ain't missin out on meeting new people.

That isn't saying people of other races aren't guilty of it either. Blacks stick with Blacks. Hispanics are with their people. Of course people of the same cultural background stay with each other. The reasoning is sound. Birds of a feather, flock together. But why do I have to abide by the rules. I really don't and I don't have to and you don't have to either.


Stay tuned for part 2
-Nick

Encounters with a Japanese international student

It's fun to meet new people. You get a chance to see what they're like, where they come from, and possibly learn something (which is something people don't really do these days).

So, this quarter, I met Hazuki, a girl from Japan studying here. Being "friends" (more on that later) shed some light on Japanese mentality, for girls at least, or maybe this particular mindset belongs to those from Yokohama. From what I understand, people from Osaka are all sorts of laid back and open to anything, while those from Tokyo aren't so much.

So when I first met her, it was the usual trappings. Meet and greet. Say hi. Wow her with the language speaking skills (or lack thereof). Granted, she was impressed and things went well from there. A few hangouts with my little group of friends, and it was good times all around. However, we actually got know each other and things kind of went down hill from there.

Down hill, not so much in the sense that we would fight or argue. Rather, down hill due to high contrasting personalities. Think about it, if you will, the personality of myself, usually happy and optimistic, but rather blunt and straightforward. I will have a good time, but I will not beat around the bush if the occasion needs it. Compare that to her. I am not sure how to put it, so I believe "Planet B-Boy" puts it best:

Japanese education stresses homogenization which is reflected in the proverb, "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down"

Homogenization. Conformism? Uniformity? The whole idea of homogenization may explain a few things. Hazuki was not really down for talking about personal issues when things were clearly bothering her. A simple thing like a hug or touching in general, I found, was a thing that Japanese people don't do, for whatever reason, and it set her off kilter. Rather than say so, she kept her mouth shut. Very rarely, she would tell me something that's bothering her or just something on her mind. It was just a very "Things are ok mentality" and that's it. Not to say that is a bad thing. Things were lively when she was around. It is just that when it needed to be, she didn't keep it real.

However, this is all biased perspective. It seemed I was the only one that made her uncomfortable, for whatever reason. One interesting time was when we were at the basement of the Student Union, where the arcade machines are. I was playing, doing my thing, being good, apparently (I just consider myself mildly decent, considering I know people that can double-A stuff, but remember, it's all perspective). After doing paranoia survivor, she noted that doing songs like those are impossible, almost non-human. I responded that nothing is impossible. It's just that people don't try and just hold themselves back. She insisted that it was, quipping that I was a little non-human when I asked her if I wasn't human for being able to do all the things that I do.

Hopefully, this uneasiness will cease, cause really, this whole tension thing kinda silly, dontcha think? Here's to wondering what will happen after the summer when I see her for the next two quarters.

Stay safe, stay thinking
-Nick

So much to think about! Capoeira edition

So much to think about, and yet so little time to write about it. Online at least. I've been keeping my thoughts to myself, luckily, in the form of notebooks. Since...I'd say around February, the notebook where I keep my bible study notes became the notebook for just about everything. Observations, thoughts, sketches, bible study things and the like. Really, it's useful to have a notebook on you. You never know when you need to jot something down, cause texting a note in your phone or just trying to remember it won't cut it.

So Capoeira.

The Afro-Brazilian martial art that can be considered or confused as a dance, whoever you're talking to. Some people think it's stupid. Some people think it's wonderful. Whatever they feel, it's rather big, and at the same time, it's not. The interesting about Capoeira is that, to me, it's everywhere, but a lot of my friends really don't know what it is, or even never heard of it. I see giant roda's, small roda's, containing people of different walks of life that practice it. It had its origins in Africa and/or Brazil and then, somehow, into todays world, made its way to Japan, Israel, the US, Canada, and different parts of Europe. You name it, Capoeira is probably there, SOMEWHERE.

Even in a town like Rochester.

It's been a great past 3 weeks for me and capoeira. Coming from 2 quarters of an endless barrage of work, I was so out of practice when I started practicing again a couple of weeks before the ImagineRIT event, and then a week after, the Batizado. I hated it. I hated not being able to play and I hated being so out of practice. Work takes priority, does it not?

Nevertheless, playing week after week in the last couple of weeks have been great. It has reinvigorated my willingness to improve, especially when the Batizado came along. It was my first all day event, and it was the first time in a while since I've played someone from outside of the club. Trying new things was refreshing. Playing new people made me wonder how my game can improve. In small steps? Leaps and bounds? We'll see.

Here's to summer training.

-Nick