Precision

It's going to be another rant, I've done enough of these here, you might know what this is already about before I get down to the meat and bones of it. I've done one on this before, after all. I've been here in my course for more than a semester already, I've got a kinda good grasp on the kind of people in my class. That said, I've not worked with all of them, so I can't say if so and so is this kind of person for sure. But for sure, I can tell you that I don't know what some people are doing in an Engineering course. Or anything Science related for that matter. I won't say names, but you might already know who these people are.

It's this pervasive idea of close enough. Like when I ask for you to throw a basketball through the hoop, you hit the pole holding up the board and hoop and say, "I did what you wanted." Like fuck you didn't. Not even close. Even if you did hit the board, that's still not what was requested. I've seen it in the way they do work, or even behave. They just can't be bothered to do things the way that's requested or even try to do it that way.

I was sitting in computer programming tutorial, the question was to fill out the part required and not the whole code and the guy sitting next to me hadn't finished it by the time the teacher went through the question. Why? Because he was wasting his own time, writing out the whole code in the name of "practice". Jesus fucking Christ, the start of the whole code so far has only changed one time, which was to add <math.h>, it's been the exact same otherwise and you need to "practice" that shit? I mean if you could write out the whole thing in the allotted time, good for you, but if you can't do that and can't even reach the part that we need to go through at least, then don't fucking bother, you're not helping yourself. You won't even know if you can do the part that the question was asking for because you didn't even reach it.

And only just now, I was chastised for being obsessed with detail. Well I kinda was back in DGAD but they called it "straight" (as opposed to flexible, not the sexuality connotation of it), which is supposed to be a bad thing. I mean I get it, you should be flexible sometimes, a bridge has to flex or it'll snap. But can you imagine the pillar holding the bridge up flexing? The longevity of that bridge is questionable. Sometimes, you've got to be straight too, especially when one's an engineer or a scientist.

Seriously, just think about it. If you have a penchant for doing things your own way or "close enough", then fuck off and go do art or something where blueprints don't exist. The things you create/work on are going to be used by people. Can you imagine if the engineer designing the engine in your car said," Well it doesn't matter if this here piston doesn't fit well. The car'll still run." And you drive your car with that engine in it and it suddenly fails you on the highway and you get a runaway engine that drives you right off a cliff, because the engineer that designed the steel barrier for that bend said it would be fine if they use a weaker steel, where if it was actually built to spec, would have saved your life. Magnify that a hundred times and you get a ship sinking because the designer didn't bother to find out if a smaller rivet used in the ship's panels would cause it to fail or not. And the lives of the hundreds of people on that ship.

Peace out.

Remaining

Well turns out I think I remembered what I wanted to talk about. So here we go again~

I don't know when I had this shift in mindset, I can't pinpoint an exact time and say, "Here, this is the moment that I changed." I can say that it's about last year that it happened. So I'm 18 already. Statistically, the average male lives to about 80. I've lived nearly a quarter of my life. I've only got about 3 quarters of it left if I don't do something stupid. I won't say it was the best quarter, plenty of shit happened but from that shit also came flecks of gold called life lessons, so it wasn't all for the worst. And gradually I've just come to not be annoyed at people who call me names, who insult me, generally people who want to shit on my life. If anything, there's pity for them, that they'd have to stoop so low to try and hurt my feelings even though it doesn't work. Part of this is also probably because I've gained this ability to cut toxic people out of my life without batting an eyelid (but doesn't mean that just because we were cut off you were toxic), probably helps with not being affected by being insulted. And now that I'm thinking about it, it seems a little psychopathic to be honest, to have no sentiment for such things and being able to cavalierly cut off people like that.

Another part of it, a bigger part I figured as a part of my sudden realisation that I have grown up over the past year, is that I've lived a full 18 years, well a little over now. But I've lived 18 years. I got 62 left and hell, I'll be damned if I let anyone shit on the rest of that 62 years. I am determined to be generally satisfied with my life and there's no room for people who want to shit on me in that 62 years. If we ain't good for each other then I'm not gonna bother with you. You feel me? You only got so much time in this world, you don't got time to be sad, to be insulted, to be shit on by lesser people. That time is for you to live, to learn, to love, be loved. I'm not saying shit won't happen or you should shut out people who shit on you but mean well, shit's going to happen, it's life and they shit on you because they love you. That's fine. I'm talking about the toxic ones, the ones who shit on you for the sole purpose of shitting on you, to make themselves feel good. They're not worthy of being in your life so just cut them off as you would a cancer tumour.

As Hailee Steinfeld says,

"I love me, gonna love myself."

Look

So what up, who the fuck actually still reads my blogs? To whoever's been reading this crappy collection of shitty writing all this time, congratulations for being such a loser. You really should reconsider your reading choices.

So I kinda felt like I ought to talk about something that was mentioned to me one time by my first ex. Also the first time I had any real interaction with any female, didn't have any really close female friends prior and you know, kinda was a disaster. So anyway one time, she said that I have this stare. She didn't describe it with a word, I asked if she thought it was rapey or intense but she she said it was as if I was studying everything about her. Which is actually kinda rapey if you think about it. I never actually realised up until the point she mentioned it how much I actually notice when I look at stuff. I always figured everyone had a keen eye for detail, which I guess isn't true.

That's really all I have to say. I actually had another topic I wanted to talk about but I totally can't remember it, so you'll have to settle for this.

"Refugees"

So with Da'esh taking large swathes of land in the Levant region, plenty of Kurds, Syrians and Iraqis have been forced out of their homes, faced with the threat of death. They've gone to places like Hungary, who have turned them back and many look to Europe for refuge. In this whole fiasco, plenty of other nationalities have been taking advantage of the situation to seek economic refuge. They tear up their passports and other identification, take a dangerous journey across the Mediterranean and land themselves in Italy, ground zero for their eventual journey to Swedistan or Deutschistan (Sweden and Germany, among other countries commonly sought after by "asylum seekers").

Honestly my personal opinion is this: fuck all these people. Don't get me wrong, really, if you're getting rekt by some political issue in your country, like maybe you're an Afghani escaping the Taliban or a Syrian from Aleppo, Raqqah or a Kurd from Kobaniye trying to escape from Da'esh with your whole family, that's cool. (I've seen a story of a teen escaping Syria because he didn't want to be conscripted, IMO that's unacceptable) But if you're an economic refugee, that's not cool. Your entire country is in economic shambles, what gives you the right to escape it simply because you made this arduous journey from your country? Hell no, deport these fucks I say. And even for the refugees of the former kind, they should be deported the moment their country is deemed safe enough for them to be returned. It is absurd that suddenly, these people manage to get a free pass because some shitty shit happened to them. Think about it, it shouldn't be easier for a poor Syrian with no education qualifications, no contacts, no knowledge in German or German culture or anything else that would be deemed beneficial to the German society to become a German citizen compared to say maybe a wealthy Chinese business man with decent enough German and several stakes in multiple German companies.

So that's just my 2 cents, it is fine to accept refugees of the non-economic kind, but only for as long as they are safer here than they would in their home country. They shouldn't be allowed to remain for longer than that and continue to be a leech to the host nation's taxpayers. Hell, remember that refugee that I mentioned earlier from Syria? While awaiting his asylum acceptance, he was given an allowance. For free. FREE. He didn't have to do community service, help produce some trinkets for sale, absolutely nothing that contributes to the German economy. And then he got to tour Germany on German taxpayer's money. The government paid him to tour the nation and generally do nothing. Absurd, I say. Absolutely absurd. Now think about it, this multiplied by hundreds of thousands of refugees? That's hospitals, roads, subsidies, scholarships and what not that instead of going to the German people, goes to these refugees that are here for the fun instead. Unacceptable.

A Friendship But Not A Relationship

So it's been over a month since my last blog post and school has already started for a week, it's currently in its second week now and quickly, work is seemingly already piled high ahead of me, I can only hope I can achieve a 4.0 GPA to bring it up but I highly doubt I can hit that. But that's not the topic of what I have to say today. It's on an entirely different spectrum.

For most people, they have a few friends of the opposite gender. Sometimes more than their own, which is perfectly fine. I don't have many friends who are girls, I can probably count it on one hand if I had to, which then again, I don't have many friends either. Most other people I know I'd only count as acquaintances. To me, the word 'friend' just has so much more meaning and power than to others. Some people only have to meet a person once or twice before deciding they're their friends (supposing they like them). For me, it's more like twenty. Minor digression, back to the point I was going to say, so sometimes, there's this friend of the opposite gender you really hit it off with. It's at the point where you have so many things you can talk about, movies, games, anything really. All your mutual friends are speculating if you're together, you hear them and laugh it off but then you doubt yourself for a moment. What if you really like them? Would you miss out if you don't act? Could he/she be the soulmate you were destined for?

And so you acted, or it could be that the other other party acted first. You end up together. Happiest 3 months of your life. Maybe rest of your life. And then strife. National Service, taxing classes, work stresses. Argument. Life so turbulent. You question if really you were meant for each other. Increasingly, you notice the things you never saw before, say words of war. At the same time, so does he/she. Tensions rise and they drop their guise. Suddenly you realise that you're not meant to be. Words you didn't intend, an unwanted end.  After 3 weeks, you run into them. It was fleet, your eyes meet. Pleas quietly said, no mends to be made, heart cut by a blade. You drink your mead, try to stop the bleed. Passage of a melancholy tide, tears have dried.

So before I get too carried away with the rhymes (actually it's just that it's gotten too hard), the crux of what I've been trying to say is that just because you have a great friendship doesn't mean that you'll have a great relationship. There's always things that you will never show your friends, likewise so will the other party. Things you'll expect of a significant other but not a friend. I've personally seen this in my own relationships (only in one actually but still) and that from people around me. Somehow, even when they're in the wrong (I'm talking for objective issues like if the sun is a star), they want the other party to cede to them, but they might simply accept that they were wrong and not fight over it if it was a friend instead who told them they were wrong. This is just one example of the things that could be expected from a significant other that won't be expected from a friend. Somehow, just because they're together, it is expected that the significant other should be treated differently, like royalty. And honestly, I don't think that's a viable relationship. You got together at first because you enjoyed each other's company. Then when unrealistic or sudden expectations are placed on the other party, suddenly your company ceases to be as desirable to the other party. You show things you wouldn't show your friends but would show your family. They see that you're not all that you're cropped up to be, likewise so will you, and well, things don't end well.

So don't be overly hasty. Sometimes, all that you'll ever be meant for is just a friendship but of course, that doesn't mean you can never be more than that.

Spirituality Without Religion

This post was sparked by this here video, so go on ahead to check it out.

To those that know me on a level greater than an acquaintance, you might perhaps know that I am a staunch Atheist. Not so long ago, maybe 4 or 5 years ago, I'd decided that I was an Atheist. I've known pretty much all my life that idols of the Buddhas in the temples I visit occasionally don't really have any sort of effect on me. I've never set foot in a church and I don't think I ever will, but I've never really felt Jesus or God in my life. I believed in one thing - nothing happens without a reason, everything has an explanation backed by evidence. That's my philosophy on religion, which so far has no evidence for existence of a God, but granted there's no evidence proving there isn't one either, though so far everything religion has said about the creation of the world has proven to be less than true. I mean come on, it's a really far-fetched story that the world was created in 6 days, with God resting on the last. It sounds just like a week, work for 6 days and rest/church on Sunday.

Just a couple years ago I'd straight up tell you that religion is a terrible thing and that anyone who believes in a God is a fool to cast aside the teachings of Science and choose instead to believe in old books and the words of our ancestors who didn't know better. Nowadays, I recognise that that's the way that some people choose to see the world and it's damn near impossible to change it. After all, it's not easy to let go of something you've been taught your entire childhood for something that a stranger or a friend told you when your whole family believes it. Your whole family can't be wrong right? And anyway, I realise that not all religious people are a terrible lot and just because I can't see the good of it doesn't mean they can't. Science speaks to me like Jesus or God speaks to them. And religion does answer some of the hard questions like where we go after we die and how life came to be born on Earth (though this is beginning to be more clear to us everyday).

My take on religion is that it was a way of living that worked for almost 2 millenium. There's no better way to teach an uneducated person how to live than with a omnipotent being that's ever watchful of your every move and would punish you for straying away from the "righteous path" and doing bad deeds or not believing in him. It was also a means of explaining complex events that have no clear and obvious reason. Like why is there a waterspout, a whirlpool or a tsunami? As the ancient Chinese would tell you, that's the dragons of the East Palace wreaking havoc because they were angry over something. Why has plague suddenly struck us out of nowhere? God's wrath for humanity's sins. Mythical beings are a very easy way of avoiding having to dig deeper for the truth, pinning everything to God's(or mythical beings') will. And if you think that's hokey, if your 2 year old child asks you why there's rainbows, is it easier to tell him it was made by God or to explain to him that a rainbow is a result of the refraction of light through water vapour in Earth's atmosphere? 

Now just think, if you didn't know why something happened and someone asked you for an explanation, wouldn't just be easier to say it was the work of God than to try to find an answer for it? After all you've got better things to do like work the fields and make sure the raiders aren't coming to abduct your women again. Much of the Bible contains passages about things that are forbidden and what's allowed, like not wearing clothes woven from 2 materials, not eating molluscs and shellfish or not eating pigs in the Qur'an and Torah. With good reason too, the octopus/sea slug could be poisonous, there's no way of knowing for sure and pigs often have tapeworms that could pass to humans if not cooked well. And there were other passages about things like selling your daughters to other men for wives and what not. Such a thing today would be unthinkable but not in those days. And not to mention there was incest between Lot and his daughters (instigated by them no less) because he has no male heir. Not all of religion is about outdated methods of living though, God does provide a sort of comfort to some people and that's not bad.

But there's a common misconception that a person who doesn't believe in God is on the wrong path and that unless you're on the same road as them (by that I mean the same denomination of religion as them), you're definitely on the road to Hell and our dear friend Stan. Yes, Stan. (Alright, alright, Satan.) Oftentimes I see this from Christians and being said to other Christians and people of the book. Like come on, you guys have the same God, can't you guys be nice to each other? Not too long ago, I saw an article written by a female Australian journalist about why she converted from Christianity to Islam and while most of the commentators were supportive of her change, the ones that stand out are Christians telling her that "She is not born again, I will pray for you and hope you find the way back to God." What the fuck? Fuck your prayers, she found her God. You can keep your God and your shitty mindset to yourself. Why couldn't they be happy for her? Why does it have to be either you're with us or you're on your way to hell. It's so freaking archaic and reminds me of the iron age. And it's always the christians like them that foul the image of all Christians and also the reason why I ended up being an Atheist. Constantly asking you to go to church with them and telling you quotes from the Bible like it's some fucking gem of a quote. Hell naw it ain't. They say nothing but "Believe in me because I'm the best and the most amazing." Literally the whole aim of the Bible is about asking you to believe in God if you just take a step back and look at it.

And these people often think that because we don't have a God, we aren't spiritual and we can't appreciate beautiful things because we don't know that it was made by God for us. Well my answer to them is that we can. We can appreciate the stars because we know what powers them, the forces that create them, how they shine, their births, their lives and their deaths, some go quietly into the night, others in a blaze of glory. When we look at the birds flying in the sky, we appreciate that they can do that because of the glorious evolution of their feathers from quills and breast muscles to power their flight. When I walk outside and look at the trees, the grass, the cat, the lizard, the bird and the fish, I can appreciate that we are all related to each other, that at one point in time we were not so different from one another and that we all share the same origin. That all matter in the universe is but a tiny fraction of that which existed at the very beginning of time and it's because of that tiny amount more matter than anti-matter that the universe came to exist as we know it. That the dirt, the water, the air, every living creature is made from stardust. From the Earth that gives us life we return to it in the great cycle. The root of the word Science is Scientia, Latin for knowledge. And indeed it is to know, to possess knowledge through Science from which my spirituality comes. Through Science, it is discovered that all life is connected to one another, we are all related and that is exceedingly beautiful. To me, it is far more beautiful to know that it was through the smallest of chances that we came to exist and are all connected than that we were created by a perfect being as separate creatures.

But I'm not saying that religious people are bad people, no. Not all of them. Many of the religious ones I know are good people. It is just that they see the world through a different lens to try and understand it in their way. By no means are they bad because they don't see the world through the same lens as us. I guess my message here is that no matter what we believe in, we are all the same as each other and there's no need for hate. There is no room for hate. The world we live in today is unsustainable and the only way we can survive the 21st century is if we are saved by some miraculous technology leading to a rise in complexity, as John Green puts it talking about the Anthropocene. And I believe the only way forward is through Science, as does Bill Nye and Neil DeGrasse Tyson and all other contemporary great minds. And perhaps there was a little shift in the direction of where I wanted to go in the start of this post and where I ended up but both messages are important, Not being religious isn't a bad thing, and we need a solution for our problems now so that we can have a brighter future. I'll end it on that note, peace out.

Anime

There's nothing wrong with watching anime. I used to watch anime too, but that was a long time ago and it's been probably 6+ years since I was interested enough to watch more than 5 episodes. I'm sure there's anime out there that have some form of values it's trying to inculcate though majority of it is usually fan service (I'm looking at you, Monster Musume). As much as I don't watch anime, because application of some simple economics tells me it's much better to watch educational stuff online than anime, I do think there's nothing wrong with watching anime. To each their own after all, some people do derive entertainment from watching anime and that's okay. Even the fan service ones filled with crude humour with little values, that's still fine.

But the real problem is when anime becomes your whole life and the only culture you're interested in. There's a term called otaku for these people, it's a derogatory term in Japan, it's shameful to let people know you're one. But here in Singapore, boy oh boy do you see weeaboo (derogatory term: Someone who is obsessed with Japan/Japanese Culture/Anime, etc. and attempts to act as if they were Japanese, even though they're far from it. They use Japanese words but usually end up pronouncing them wrong and sounding like total assholes. - Urban Dictionary. They also usually denounce their own culture, which is what sets them apart from people who are just interested in Japan.) after weeaboo proudly proclaiming themselves an otaku. And they say it with such pride as if it's a good thing. Really though, it's not. It implies an absolute obsession with anime culture. It's funny how they all think it's Japanese culture, really it's not. Japan's rich culture can't be boiled down to Tokyo, Harajuku, Akihabara (I forgot the name to this and googled Japan Anime District. Really amazing how they knew what I was talking about.), kimonos, Japanese high school life, sushi and ramen/udon. Although I'll grant you that there are people who are genuinely interested in Japanese culture and anime was the gateway drug, that's fine. I'm talking about the people who are only interested in anime culture and proclaim themselves as interested in Japanese culture.

Then comes the problem when anime becomes your worldview, all of their opinions and thoughts have some kind of root in anime or manga. So last year, the Mars One project was announced. A weeaboo I know made this very comment on the matter

"It's a bad idea, didn't they watch Terra Formars (Bunch of dudes landed on Mars, Mars has alien roaches that fucked them up, took them over and now humans send teams to kill em or they're fucked big time - synopsis provided by a friend)?"

Now that really rustled my jimmies. That his sole argument against the Mars One project was a fucking anime. Not that it's too costly, not that people who regretted going can't come back, not that the technology isn't likely to be out yet by that time, not that if something fucks up on Mars, those people are on their own but a fucking anime about aliens taking over the minds of the humans and coming back to wreck us. Which goes to show that he wasn't paying attention because they have no way of coming back, and you can take over the minds, but you're still stuck with their biological needs, reference Yeerks, and are probably unlikely to know the physiological needs for humans to maintain homeostasis and would likely lose too many to be able to have the manpower needed to come to Earth.

So really, there's nothing wrong with watching anime but never let it be your source of ideas and opinions for history and innovation is rich in ideas that anime only tries to imitate.