Cracks in My Brain

A little change. A little smile.

2010-11-18T04:54:00.000-08:00

Since I like the way this blog is created, I'm going to change it from a simple Murdoch Blog Assignment, to something I can just rant onto. Ranges between something thought provoking, controversial, to downright trivial like what I did throughout the day.

I have a tendency to piss people off in my previous blogs and if I did piss you off in this one, let me know and show me the errors of my ways in a civilised abstract thinking manner.

Cheerio!

Disclaimer: Views expressed in my postings are my own personal opinions, not my dad's, not my granddad's. So don't pull that law of tort on me. Capish?

S8 - Facebook Games Are the Future

2010-11-03T08:06:00.001-07:00

You know what is annoying? Getting those invites to play Facebook Games such as Farmville, Mafia Wars, Pet Society and all those stuffs.

Don't these people know that not everyone is as obsessed as them, which eventually made me to ponder ponder and ponder.

You see, when I was growing up, I played a lot of computer games and that really made my school grades suffer. Why should I care, I'm so good at what I play i can even call myself a God that invokes my wrath onto heretics! Yeah that was me ten years ago.

Speaking of being obsessed and lame I was sucked into playing a few Facebook games that made me wake up in the wee hours to collect gifts (in terms of game money or game weapons) that appear every six hours.

I'm not the only doing this at that though as there are millions and millions of users or facebook 'gamers'. So one day I had an epiphany to stop playing and delete them right off my account (I was caught by my Manager you see, and funny thing was I then caught him playing the game too. HAHA)

Oh Violence - We love thou!

Anyway, the way the pattern goes, I can safely assume that Facebook games will be the future of gaming. Why? Look at Farmville - over 80 millions users in that game and for Mafia Wars - a whopping 350 millions of users in it. Now with that crazy amount of users from of all shapes and ages, big, small, tall, short, male, female, transsexuals, straights, gays, from the age of 5 to 60 could be playing it.

Don't believe me? Look at who bought over Playfish (developer of a lot of popular Facebook games), EA. EA is one of the biggest players in the traditional gaming industry and now they are focusing on raking in the profit from these online social networking games.

Crazy thing.

S8 - My Story

2010-11-03T08:05:00.001-07:00

It's the year 1437, I was involved in a raid on a nearby human camp. In that raid I killed two unarmed fighters and my wife killed two other priest when they were resting.

It has been two days and I'm still very troubled. I am damned and have to walk this with shame. My wife Eleanor seems not to share this guilt as she claims that they provoked the attack when they tried to invade our Elven Moon City of Silvery Light. She told me to get a grip because as an Elf, it was our duty to protect our forest and kill those who defiles it.

I tried reasoning with her and she ended it with the edge of her sword through the palm of my hand. I lost a lot of blood but with the help of the elven priest at the temple, he managed to heal my wounds. I now know what must be done. I must kill my beautiful but bloodlust wife to redeem apart of my soul.

How am I supposed to kill my own wife, am I crazy to think th..."wait..Ma! I'm writing the memoir about my character on War of the Old Republic! OKAY I'm coming down now, geez..."

"Hey Silvrin, I gtg, mom's bugging for dinner and forcing me to go to the mall. Will talk to you later when I get back and we'll go on a dungeon raid alright!"

*Black Bull Logged Off*

Lame.

S7 - My Friend Bob

2010-11-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

I've got a very good friend. His name is Abdul Rahim Morshidi. He likes to make funny jokes. He like to show me some inappropriate jokes on the net. He does that to crack my brain.

Alright enough with the nine year old sentence structuring. You see, I envy him for being able to use his Blackberry in class (when nothing important is happening) He could tweet, he could check Facebook and even BBMessage other people in class.

I wished I had the same privileged to cool my mind off when I'm feeling sleepy and perhaps read some funny dead humour in class and unexpectedly laugh and make a fool out of myself.

Alright, now for some dry humour!

S6 - Mobile Tech has got us really happy :)

2010-11-03T07:21:00.000-07:00

Ever thought on how you could help catch criminals? Easy, pops up your phone that has video recording capabilities and record the act. While you're at it shout at them, "oi lovebird, smile!"

And don't forget to run after that, straight to the police station, or you'll be the lovebird's next target :)

Or how bout this, record yourself doing something erm, exotic with a partner and leave your phone on the table of Starbucks coffee and wait for 10 minutes.

The experiment should be successful and the phone will be gone. Now, wait for, say two months and check the erotic stress relieve websites for your video(s). Now, that can make us all happy or yucky depending on the quality.

A mocking picture to say bye bye to your
reputation if the experiment went well!

S6 - Love Thy Soul

2010-11-03T06:35:00.000-07:00

Brick Phone Anyone?

I have a feature phone. Don't call it lame, it serves my basic purposes. I refuse to buy a smartphone (partly because I find money is better spent on other things) and I think that you're selling your soul to the devil if you buy one. Unless.....

You don't go into the net when you're driving.

You don't tweet when you're in the toilet bombing omaha beach.

You don't facebook stalk when you're out having a cup of "Teh Tarik" with your mates

You don't ebuddy, pingchat or bb messaging anybody when you're having dinner with your family, or your boyfriend or girlfriend or spouse or mistress (that's a recipe for disaster my friend)

You don't store naked photos of yourself or you partner (I'd laugh at you if you do and lost it)

And most importantly, you're not obnoxious and mean when you look at people who use lesser phones, like me.

And if you are all of the above, congratulations you are worthy of having a smartphone. See you on the other side when I feel I can discipline myself and finally buy one to join the gang.

S5 - Read and think before you believe

2010-11-03T06:16:00.000-07:00

Google is alot of wonderful things. Yes you know that, and I've been talking about that alot but what most people don't ponder upon much is, how truthful is the information gathered?

We are all childrens of the information age and being overloaded with that, we sometimes (if not most of the times) Google stuffs and hold true to the first few findings.

What we should remember is that, the first of all findings are based on hits and popularity and not about truth and relevency. Sometimes we could find untrue stories and actually believed them.

So don't really believe what you read, go to the library, or buy a newspaper or two and read the traditional way. It might not be true too but hey, it's got some credibility to it right?

Ooopss!

S5 - Google, We love you :)

2010-11-03T06:03:00.000-07:00

Professor Google (just kidding)

The thing about Google is that, its a phenomenon. You want to search for something you google, you want to look for pictures, you google image, you want to look for journals or books to help with assignments you use google books or scholar.

Fantastic and awesome tool indeed as it saves us precious time to go out *insert fun activity* instead of going various college library (I'm a KDU and technically still a Taylor's student as I haven't gone for my graduation and they haven't paid me back my deposits for various stuffs)

Assignments could be done easily thanks to Google's efficiency. Who knows in the future Google might introduce another handy tool to just look for whatever we want and organise it in bullet form for us to cheapen our experience in finishing up articles. Then again if our papers are not on par to what information we've gathered it'd still be a crappy one.

S4 - Lemon Law

2010-11-03T04:22:00.000-07:00

You know Barney Stison from tv hit series How I Met Your Mother pratices the Lemon Law theory of dating.

In that Lemon Law, it only takes a person five minutes on a date to figure out whether the other person is worth it and a good candidate to take stuffs to a new level.

Well now, the Lemon Law could be used to apply on the internet. How? Well, firstly you add somebody on a messenger or online profile such as Facebook or Myspace. Then chat off with the person. Tell them what your needs, and wants and expectations of the person and vice versa. If you guys click then wala! Go ahead and date in the real world.

It it doesnt work just tell them, "I'm Lemon Law-ing you. tata!"

*delete and block them to avoid further harassment*

S4 - Tagging

2010-11-02T23:56:00.001-07:00

With information overload comes various forms of filters, notably tagging.

Tagging is basically labels of a material so that we can find whatever we want easily while blocking out unnecessary materials. The thing about tagging is that while the tagger find relevance to the material he tagged, it doesn't necessarily mean it is true.

Example, I posted a video on youtube teaching people how to play the guitar and i labeled it as, guitar course/guitar lesson/guitar lesson from a pro and so on but the thing is it's a fake lesson because i don't know how to play guitar. Now people who are interested in learning how to play will be presented with my video because i tagged my video as something that they are interested in.

So yeah, if you're feeling mischievous, just make fake videos or websites and annoy people

S4 - The Zeitgeist of Distraction

2010-11-02T21:43:00.000-07:00

Zeitgeist - the general set of ideas, beliefs, feelings, etc. which is typical of a particular period in history (Cambridge Online Dictionary)

I never liked the word Zeitgeist, it gives me the impression that somehow it's related to some conspiracy theory about how the world is coming to an end. bla bla.

Little did i know that Zeitgeist actually means a set of beliefs of a time in history.

Information overload. Information overloard. Information Overload, that reminds me of Alpha 5 from hit kids series power rangers when it overloaded with the joy and when kablooey because the power rangers successfully saved Earth.

The Zeitgeist of this current age has not only made us busybodies but also information hungry.We can get whatever we want. Google here, wiki that, stalk this online profile, abuse the local forum.

Because of this, we are infront of our screens 24/7 (except going to class or work which we will still find a way to go and check our profile) and we somehow decrease our time outside. Why? I said it in the previous post, we are so fascinated by the current tech age that we forget what we were once were before willingfully get tied down in a relationship with the internet.

Apart from productivity could decrease considerably with not enough discipline (trust me, I was so distracted to finish this posting) ,relationships could suffer too.

Yes relationship could suffer, last month I went to Chilli's in 1Utama and out from 10 families, only one dad was entertaining the wife and kids while the other dads were on their Blackberry or iPhone checking out whatever it was fancying them.

Oh and not forgetting, you also could stalk your loved one's online profile and invade their privacy (if you have their password), by checking their private messages and find or not find whatever negative curiousity you had in your brain you no-good-having-trust-issue-fella. Imagine if you did find something while doing the housekeeping, oh man, INFORMATION OVERLOADDD!

These kind of distraction are what our Zeitgeist is about, simulations of stimulations in our brains that distracts us from functioning properly. So now, to distract you further I posted a ludicrous video below. Enjoy.

Yes that's me.

S3 - Online Social Media - A place for the Cool and Vain

2010-11-02T20:21:00.000-07:00

Remember those times where in every high school there are different kinds of circle?

The Jocks, The Preps, The Mean Girls (imagine Blair's group from tv series Gossip Girl) The Geeks, and alot bunch more.

Were you in those loser circle?

Well, with the emergence of online social networking all of that diminished as now, everyone can be as cool as they can be and at the same time be vainpots!

On Facebook, everyone could spend hours trying to get a perfect picture pose and once they get the best one, on to the upload page.

You see, psychologically these new media has a way to boost one's confidence because when Myspace started the craze, everyone is adding everyone and letting the whole world know how cool they actually are outside school.

Come on, if everyone thinks you're cool, doesn't that make you happy and not wanting to slit your wrist like the goths do?

But with all that, it doesn't change the fact of who you are, and at the end of the day when people meet the real you, your cover will be blown and once again, you are the loser.

What I'm pointing out that although online social networking sites such as Myspace, Facebook, Friendster (they still exist?!), Twitter, and all that vainpot websites boost your confidence to reveal to the whole world, it's doesn't wholly change people's perception of you being cooler. Good lasting changes starts from within.

Speaking of vanity and being a little bit of plastic, here's a picture of me, being acceptably lame :)

P.s: I was in the Rockers Clique, still abit loser-ish but we know how to sweettalk (well I like to think I do) :p Cheers!

S3 - Keep Your Privacy Close....

2010-11-02T11:54:00.000-07:00

I recently wrote about online social networking and its privacy issue.

In that paper, I talked about privacy concern from consumers and how these online social media infringes on their privacy. With the surging of new users and craziness of current ones it seems that for now, these online networking developers have so much power which can be abused by third parties. (PM me if you'd like to read it)

Information could be used by third parties such as nothing-better-to-do hackers, paedophiles, sexual abusers and everything in that crime category and government to be used against the end users.

Imagine bored hackers took your naked pictures from your private online album (why did you do that in the first place) and posted it publicly for everyone to see? Imagine your kids, being harassed because these mentally challenged pedophiles know the kids routine from online status' and tweet. Or perhaps you or the house got mugged because they know where you live and you unknowingly posted a picture or two telling everyone of the newly acquired iPad iPhone 4G, Blackberry Torch, you get the idea.

Point is, although there are advocates out there campaigning for our privacy rights, we should help ourselves too and learn how to keep our privacy in check. Yes the the online world has erased a lot of secrets barrier but we should know better to not put ourselves out in the open.

So yeah, keep yourself safe, you don't want someday some creepy guy comes up to you and say "Hey pretty, I've been checking your Facebook profile and I like what I see" - that happened last week at an Oktoberfest party held at 1Utama to my close friend name Ca.. Hey that's too much information already! Whoops!

Now here's an option if you're really concerned about your privacy. =)

S2: How New Media Made Me a Scrooge! YAYY!

2010-11-02T11:08:00.000-07:00

What I love most about the new media is that I can be a cheapskate when I love my money too much.

You see, ten years ago, when the computer has gone crazy with viruses, the only reasonable course of action would be call the computer technician and tell him to fix it. Usually it cost my dad RM30 for checking and another RM30 to fix the little joker. Imagined if it's some minor problem such as, the hard disk is not being plugged properly, still that RM30 (and another RM30 if the technician is an a-hole) would just fly away due to our, erm... computer-troubleshooting-challenged-head.

Now, if that's the case, I would just google what in god's name would be the problem and read the instructions on how to fix it. Kangen.exe? MCb.vbs? hahayourcomputerisgone.exe? easy, go to the net with another computer and google to troubleshoot the problem. However I find it most appealing to the thought of just formatting the little not-so-funny-clown.

On another matter besides fixing my computer, from the new media, I learned how to play the guitar, fix my headphones with a soldering kit, construct an exercising bench (which is now a place where i put my books) and (we've all done this), learn some dating skills. Saved me a lot of money and the experience is well worth the effort.

New Media, you rock. Anyway, here's a video to teach you how to Melbourne shuffle!

P/S: I wonder if the local politicians learned how to do their job on the net. Marvelous if that's the case.

S2: And so it is

2010-11-02T09:50:00.000-07:00

Hello Bob, I figured that you'd be the first one to read my blog.

Why? Well that's what the new media is all about right? It's a culture to check out whatever links your friend passes and let's face it, we want to know what's the scoop about.

What I really wanted to touch about is the online social networking culture that has got us changing our traditional attitude from catching up with our circle of friends at the coffee shop to the new culture of just 'stalking' for information on their profile.

You see this new media technologies has turned us into busybodies (not being said in a negative tone). Now our brain is more active than our body because we do a lot more of information gathering on the computer using our brain and fingers to click and type.

Everything is fast fast fast, you want to know what's going on with a friend, you go to their profile, you want to invite them for a cup of teh tarik you invite them through the online messenger.

On the other hand, if you want to know something that pique your curiosity, Google. You want to know what happened on Route 666, you Google, and if somebody puts up a status on Facebook asking who is our first prime minister of Malaysia, you could just post this on their comment box - http://lmgtfy.com/?q=who+is+the+first+prime+minister+of+malaysia

but then again why bother with the clown?