Willware - Tumblr Posts - Page 18
F1RST P0ST
[A group of people enter the room.]
WillWare: Oh, hey! This is my new blog thing that I'm working on.
Person 1: That's cool!
Smart Alex: "New"? Like your theme isn't?
Person 2: What's it about?
WillWare: A number of things, actually. I'll post about music, video games, art, philosophy and religion, whatever cool stuff I find, smart things, and my life at *location* School for Math, Science, and the Arts, which will soon change to college.
Person 2: *location*?
WillWare: I'd rather not give away my age or location. Stalkers.
Smart Alex: I think your blog is having a bit of an identity crisis.
WillWare: It's a little bit of everything, to be sure. I hope I can keep it organized. I've never done this "blogging" thing before.
Smart Alex: I can tell.
Person 1: Oh, be nice. He's new.
Person 2: How often will you be updating this?
WillWare: I'm hoping for about once every day or two. School is taxing, though.
Person 1: Which is why you're making this over Thanksgiving Break?
WillWare: Yep. Except my school seems to believe that "break" = "pile on more homework", so even this is a stretch.
Smart Alex: So is the blog itself.
Person 2: Just shut up. So, what are your hobbies?
WillWare: Pretty much everything I've listed already...
Person 1: That's honestly not much.
WillWare: Even within my hobbies I'm pretty closed-minded. I listen almost exclusively to Christian and video game music - mostly the latter - and I play mostly Nintendo, Sega, and indie games. But within those restrictions I'm open to anything - heavy metal to orchestra, brick breakers to platformers.
Person 1: I just noticed... what's with the name of your blog?
WillWare: I'm a CS guy.
Person 1: Ah.
Smart Alex: Would you say you're a "good" coder or a "great" one?
WillWare: ..."Good." Why?
Smart Alex: It's said that good coders are failing in one subject, while great coders are failing in all of their subjects and dropping out.
WillWare: Well, I failed both halves of American History last year...
Smart Alex: Yep.
WillWare: But I got an A on the first half over the summer. Even so, I'm wary about my grades in social studies courses.
Person 2: Speaking of which, what's your homework over the week?
WillWare: ...It's mostly in Religions of Asia, my SS class this semester.
Person 1: Then you might want to get to that!
WillWare: Yeah, I probably should. See you guys!
Person 1, Person 2, Smart Alex: Bye!
[Exeunt.]
Thanksgiving
It's Thanksgiving today! You may have already known that, but it's nice to announce anyway.
(Warning: Much of the rest of this post will be sentimental and will involve my life up to this point along with random memories. Read at your own risk.)
I'm personally thankful for having friends. I've never really had the chance to have friends since I was eight; my parents were constantly on the move, and I was homeschooled. Since I never took roots, and since I was never surrounded by people outside of church, I slowly went away from social-ness and became an introvert. Not that that was a bad thing; I began doing more solitary hobbies such as video games and maze-drawing, which have now become ingrained into my very being.
My parents then adopted my brother (who is actually my cousin) two years later. He's a social flutterby, to put it lightly. We get along for the most part, but he ended up being my only "social" contact. As a result, we have our own little quirks and inside jokes that no one else would understand, which doesn't help with being social. It just creates more of a box.
Then I began going to smart school just last year, which is like college at high school. Jumping from a conservative Christian bubble to a worldly liberal social setting was a stretch at first, but I like having friends now. I click well with my circle of friends, possibly because we're all smart and most of us share similar views. It also helps with being away from home.
Now that I've troubled you with my sentimentality, here's a song for Sonic After the Sequel that sounds like a sugar rush.
http://soundcloud.com/kgzmusic/breakfast-time-horizon-heights
Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Oh, that's right, I have a blog now. I've been too busy playing the new Paper Mario to remember!
Speaking of which, Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a fun game, but I don't think it's quite a Paper Mario game. I've played through and enjoyed all three of the other games at least twice each (10 times for TTYD); I think I'm qualified as an expert in this field. So when I say that it's not much of a Paper Mario game, that means something is wrong.
Let me be clear: In its own right, PM:SS is outstanding. The battle system works quite well (even if there's no incentive to battle at all), the levels are expertly designed (help where's that darn fish hook), and the music is catchy (why don't we jazz everything). There are thought-provoking puzzles, there are clever boss battles, and there are little things thrown in everywhere that make me smile. The paper art style works well with the 3D effect. It's Mario with RPG gameplay and papery stuff, and that makes it a Paper Mario game.
But I played Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door first. You could say I'm spoiled. When I think of a Paper Mario game, I think of badges and partners and Flower Points and the audience. None of those are here. The levels are the generic NSMB tropes missing the flair of the interesting TTYD designs. The plot is an aside, replaced exclusively by the subplot and NPCs, who do a good job, but don't quite capture the feel of what I'm used too. It's not a Paper Mario game.
Again, and let me make this very clear: It's a Paper Mario game, not a Paper Mario game.
That doesn't disappoint me. PM:SS pleases me in other ways. I like Mario games; maybe that's why I enjoyed Super Paper Mario. That and the story, anyway. Since I'm looking at a Paper Mario game, of course I'd enjoy it. But in this case, there's always that piece of me thinking "this could be better."
Or maybe it's just Super Mario RPG.
I give it an 8/10. TTYD still holds my lone 10/10.
Finals
I haven't left... Life happened.
First up, finals are coming soon. So I've had to prepare for that.
Secondly, I forgot I had this blog half the time. I was working the other half.
Third, I should warn my tiny following: To me this blog is almost like a journal. Sort of. The problem is, I've tried keeping a journal before, and it didn't quite work out. Each of the five or so times I tried, I ended within a month. Except one, which I managed to keep up for four months. Either way, things don't look good for me keeping this up.
I like to think I can change that. At some point, I will figure this out.
Presented Without Commentary: Someone's Rendition of Sonic Unleashed
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE INANIMATE OBJECT?
Um... what?
I assume this is a question that every "new" blog gets asked (it is tumblrbot, after all), but... um... how the heck do I answer this?
Inanimate objects? It's a very broad category. I'm not very good at answering general questions, because that means that there's a lot of factors to consider. For one, I interact with a good many inanimate objects on a daily basis. Each of those has different functions that I can't compare to each other.
I guess I could say my 3DS, but it's more animate than some of the people I deal with. I also happen to like doors - which is especially random for me - as these objects have very useful functions as both portals and barricades. I could even say my laptop, but it's sort of falling apart on me and I need a new one.
Something I'm sure that tumblrbot would appreciate, though, is that most of the objects that come to mind when this question is asked are electronics. And that's probably my best answer.
I felt like sharing this for whatever reason. (Isn't that how Tumblr works, anyway?)
I make mazes.
I made this maze as part of a set of five for the twenty-fifth anniversary of Super Mario Bros. some time ago. I'm hoping to digitize all five, but I'm not entirely sure how long that will take.
Here's a bigger, more officious version.
Mario looks old and wrinkly like this.
Dude, how are you so awesome? Seriously, bro!
WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON MY FRONT LAWN.
Am I going to get strange, general questions throughout the life of my blog? Seriously, how the heck do I answer this? (And who thinks I'm that awesome? I have a feeling it's someone here at school.)
I don't think I'm that awesome. Am I really that awesome? Am I just modest or something? I just make things. Maybe they're awesome things, sure, but other people put much more time, thought and work into their stuff than I do. I just throw together whatever looks nice (comparatively speaking).
Whenever I do ANYthing, not just art, I play it by ear. Writing, music, socializing, physics... I just do what looks right. Apparently I do darn well to get a question like this, but I don't feel like I should.
And WHO THE HECK ARE YOU? It's bugging me.
Heh...you just haven't realized yet how great of a person you are! And whether or not you know me is completely irrelevant. Sometimes, not knowing the theory or concept behind something but still doing so well is just natural talent. ^^
Um... thank you?
I still want to know who you are, but I have this strange feeling that I won't wrench that outta you, so I guess I'll drop it.
Beach party, anyone?
It should be mandatory to play this song at least once at every beach party, all summer long.
Don't ask me where the name came from.
If I promise "special" questions, will you be more active on your blog?
If that's what you've been looking for, I can't help that QUITE as much as I would hope to. I do have a constant barrage of schoolwork that I need to get done, and that sorta gets in the way of me doing anything else (including keeping up my blog here). I try to update when I find something interesting and have time to share it. For example, I already have something I want to post sometime today, but when I'll post it is beyond me. I'm currently supposed to be doing school right now anyway.In short, I'll post when I can - special questions or not.
Presented Without Commentary: A Calvin and Hobbes Comic
*pokes* When is your next break? Your updates are always interesting.
Spring Break began twelve hours ago.
However, my teachers have no concept of the word "break," and on top of that, I have unkempt homework to make up (that's the short answer, anyway). I just finished a semester-long term paper that's supposed to be due today, for instance. I'll still be updating, just not as frequently as you seem to ask for.
You know when I'll get a good break? After finals, in May. When I don't actually have any work left to do.
Tomorrow's forecast shows that there's a chance for extra salt in your breakfast.
Today is Easter and tomorrow is April Fools Day. How did the second best and second worst holidays get put together like this?
Speaking of which, I hope you had a good Norther - um, Easter (I always get those mixed up) - and that it was filled with candy and bunnies. Not the other stuff that the holiday's actually about, though. That doesn't exist, right? Right?
Also, good luck keeping on your toes tomorrow from unexpected pranks. Always check the top of your salt shaker to make sure it isn't unscrewed. And make sure to Google a site and get a site preview when going in to make sure they didn't do something dumb.
Are all these anon!questions bugging you? .^.
Yes and no. I'll answer some of the questions on the blog, but it'd be nice to respond to some of your messages privately. I can't do that without you being a registered member.
I think I've sorta gotten over figuring out who you are, though.
Loljk: A new concept
In my day-to-day proceedings throughout my lifetime, I have noticed some peculiarities about the way, during usual cafeteria table conversation, that "logic" can be used to prove a sarcastic point or mess with people's heads. It has almost turned into an art of sorts, much like standard rhetoric has, except that this rhetoric is used in a joking manner. Using colloquial terms of my day, I have devised a name for this new art: Loljk.
Don't leave yet, I have my reasons.
I chose "loljk" because the terms "lol" and "jk" are most often used after such discourse, and because it sounds like "logic" when pronounced correctly. By observing the phenomenon carefully, I have also derived a definition for it:
Loljk is the attempted use of flawed logic wherein there are an unusually large number of fallacies (e.g. post hoc, ergo propter hoc), untruthful statements (especially those that almost pass as truth), or things that are just plain wrong. It is used extensively when making jokes or trolling, and is often used by people who have no idea what they're doing, occasionally stretching to even the smartest of us when used without thinking first. It is related to, and in most cases synonymous with, troll logic.
The uses of loljk are many and varied. Its main use is to prove untruthful statements, useful for creating nonsense, deriving unrelated objects, recreating history, proving the unprovable, or making one look smart when one has no idea what one is doing. Other uses include humor, getting out of sticky situations, horrifying teachers, or earning blank stares from one's friends. It is known to be extremely useful on tests.
Spread the word. Hopefully awareness will breed understanding, and understanding will breed new talent in this new art of loljk. Rhetoric has successfully evolved for a new generation.
Where is everyone?
My father recently asked a question that I thought was really interesting: Where are the philosophers of our day? You don't hear of any new Plato or Aristotle enlightening the world anymore. It got me thinking, and I think I managed to come up with an answer... several answers, actually. I found that more than a few of our best minds are in different places than before. Here's my take on where they can be found:
Where are our fine artists?
DeviantART, left to be unknown but by a few people. In the video game industry, turning gaming into an art form. Designing operating systems that function like magic. Still painting, but less so; more creating on Photoshop and sharing their work on the Internet. Physical mediums have become but sketches for the new kind of artist.
Where are our religious leaders?
Catering to the masses. If successful, becoming the next new Billy/Franklin Graham. Possibly, writing books. Otherwise left to the obscurity of their own church that they pastor. I can't speak for other religions, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were the same thing.
Where are our free thinkers, the ones who push against societal norms?
Once fighting for civil rights, they now support ideals such as LGBT and Coexist.
Where are our great mathematicians?
Universities, as professors of mathematics. They don't get paid to develop their field anymore - they teach instead, using their spare time to prove new ideas.
Where are our poets?
They've become songwriters. Broadway musicals, pop music, Taylor Swift - anything with lyrics.
What does that mean for our composers?
Oh, they're still around.
And where ARE our philosophers, anyway?
This one's trickier to answer, as they're scattered. Some are in bioethics, fighting for when life is defined; others roam message boards and fight random trolls that come about. They teach, they preach, they write, they learn, they shop online; they live among us, because they ARE us. No more is there such thing as the guru on the mountaintop. With the advent of the Internet, we all have a voice, and we are all heard by varying audiences.
And what do you do in all of this?
I watch. I listen. I take in what I can, and then I give it back to those who will hear me. Sometimes I make my own stuff, but that's not often. I simply take the information I have and put the pieces together.