Medicine is For Losers
I just took an Advil like 20 minutes ago. This may come as a huge surprise to people who know me but it's complicated. Anyways, my head has been hurting since Sunday at Wisconsin, and today after I had my lunch I just popped one in.
Now, I understand that it will be hard for people to not feel offended by my title up there, but let me just explain why I don't like medicine. To me, it seems like the easy way out. If you've got a headache or cold, just suck it up and take it like a man. These days, there's a pill for everything. Nagging cough? Buy Halls Vapor Action this and that. Allergies? Allegra, Claritin, you name it. Menstrual cramps? Ok, I better stay away from that one because that could bring me more trouble than I can handle. Anyways, I don't pretend to have suffered all these illnesses and severe conditions myself, and I'll admit that in more serious cases there are times when taking something is understandable or even necessary. So, not everyone who takes medicine is a loser.
But I've had my share of headaches, coughs, stuffy noses, etc., and rarely have I resorted to taking Tylenol or the 'Tussin. The way I look at it, your body has an immune system, let it take care of you instead of depending on some pill that other people cooked up so they could have a multi-billion dollar industry. Plus, I have to believe that every drug has its side effects, big or small. Since I don't know exactly what causes cancer, Alzheimer's, or even ulcers, I stay away from caffienated drinks, tobacco products, and yes, aspirin, ibuprofen, and even cough medicine. I can bear a little discomfort now if it means I will be healthier and less drug-dependent in the long run.
So here I am, now 40 minutes removed from taking that Advil, and guess what? Headache's still there. Maybe it still needs some time to kick in, but I already regret taking it. By the way, those things remind me of Skittles or M&M's, no wonder they have to use those child-safety caps. Anyways, not only do I still have a headache, I have probably increased my chances of getting an ulcer by 0.1% or something. this sucks...
Tuesday, June 25, 2002
Starcraft and Me
Much like an alcoholic starts with just a sip of beer, my addiction to Starcraft began so innocently in the early days of my freshman year at U of I. Me, my roommate Andy, and a third pseudo-roommate Will probably did basically nothing other than play video games and watch movies in our room in those times. Needless to say, studying was not in the picture for room 509 of Oglesby that year (thankfully, there were other places for me to keep my Engineering status afloat). Anyways, a friend let us borrow a Starcraft CD, which we ended up burning some copies of, and in no time, we were all on Battle.net playing against other people online.
Soon, it spread from me, Will, and Andy to our next door neighbors, and almost by accident, the ~509~ clan was born. Before I knew it, all of my friends were into Starcraft, and over the next couple years I must have spent over a thousand hours playing that game. At our height, the 509ers grew in number and we played so much that people would notice us by our names when we joined or created games. For a while, I even thought I was unbeatable and that I had become as good I as I could ever be.
But inevitably, times changed, schoolwork started to take over and as studying, sleeping, and video games clashed, something had to give. Not to mention the girl factor, even though she likes playing Starcraft herself (which is definitely a huge plus in my book). As I played less, my skills suffered, and though my love for the game has never waned, a younger generation of 'crafters with higher potential and more dedication passed me by.
Today, I still play semi-regularly, if not for fun, then mostly for the sake of not letting my skills deteriorate. As for the rest of the original 509 boys, only a few still show up in our channel nowadays. Most have moved on by now, possibly to fancier games like Counterstrike or onto a job and career. The people I do see in channel 509, I no longer recognize, and none of them have that once-revered ~509~ extension to their name. It's a far cry from our glory days, that's for sure.
As I reminisce about the old times, I must say that even though the game has probably dropped my GPA by as much as a half point cumulatively from what it could have been, I look back and think only positive things about the whole experience. Call me an addict, but I still love Starcraft no matter what you say. A friend once planned to write a poem entitled "Starcraft and Fellowship," and while it has yet to be released, I am quite sure that this blessed man is in the same boat as myself; he understands what true love for the game means. Other people on the internet have dedicated entire webpages to the game and even produced songs for it. Nerds, but I respect that.
There's just something about the game that sets it apart. Starcraft is not just another video game, for I have played many others in my life without ever becoming nearly as addicted. Battle.net is a community where people all over the world, of all ages can gather and all collectively be entertained by a common interest. When you play together with someone, you can't help but feel some sense of brotherhood as you save a partner from attack or he sends you an overlord to help your cause. When you look at your map, you feel like a king controlling his army and taking care of all his little men. When you win or lose, it can have severe effects on your ego as well as on your mood for the rest of the day.
It's hard to explain it all. For people who have never played the game seriously, you all probably think I am an idiot for writing all this crap. Not that I could blame you, but if you had experienced the crafting sensation for yourself, then maybe you would understand.
Much like an alcoholic starts with just a sip of beer, my addiction to Starcraft began so innocently in the early days of my freshman year at U of I. Me, my roommate Andy, and a third pseudo-roommate Will probably did basically nothing other than play video games and watch movies in our room in those times. Needless to say, studying was not in the picture for room 509 of Oglesby that year (thankfully, there were other places for me to keep my Engineering status afloat). Anyways, a friend let us borrow a Starcraft CD, which we ended up burning some copies of, and in no time, we were all on Battle.net playing against other people online.
Soon, it spread from me, Will, and Andy to our next door neighbors, and almost by accident, the ~509~ clan was born. Before I knew it, all of my friends were into Starcraft, and over the next couple years I must have spent over a thousand hours playing that game. At our height, the 509ers grew in number and we played so much that people would notice us by our names when we joined or created games. For a while, I even thought I was unbeatable and that I had become as good I as I could ever be.
But inevitably, times changed, schoolwork started to take over and as studying, sleeping, and video games clashed, something had to give. Not to mention the girl factor, even though she likes playing Starcraft herself (which is definitely a huge plus in my book). As I played less, my skills suffered, and though my love for the game has never waned, a younger generation of 'crafters with higher potential and more dedication passed me by.
Today, I still play semi-regularly, if not for fun, then mostly for the sake of not letting my skills deteriorate. As for the rest of the original 509 boys, only a few still show up in our channel nowadays. Most have moved on by now, possibly to fancier games like Counterstrike or onto a job and career. The people I do see in channel 509, I no longer recognize, and none of them have that once-revered ~509~ extension to their name. It's a far cry from our glory days, that's for sure.
As I reminisce about the old times, I must say that even though the game has probably dropped my GPA by as much as a half point cumulatively from what it could have been, I look back and think only positive things about the whole experience. Call me an addict, but I still love Starcraft no matter what you say. A friend once planned to write a poem entitled "Starcraft and Fellowship," and while it has yet to be released, I am quite sure that this blessed man is in the same boat as myself; he understands what true love for the game means. Other people on the internet have dedicated entire webpages to the game and even produced songs for it. Nerds, but I respect that.
There's just something about the game that sets it apart. Starcraft is not just another video game, for I have played many others in my life without ever becoming nearly as addicted. Battle.net is a community where people all over the world, of all ages can gather and all collectively be entertained by a common interest. When you play together with someone, you can't help but feel some sense of brotherhood as you save a partner from attack or he sends you an overlord to help your cause. When you look at your map, you feel like a king controlling his army and taking care of all his little men. When you win or lose, it can have severe effects on your ego as well as on your mood for the rest of the day.
It's hard to explain it all. For people who have never played the game seriously, you all probably think I am an idiot for writing all this crap. Not that I could blame you, but if you had experienced the crafting sensation for yourself, then maybe you would understand.
Monday, June 24, 2002
Mind Steroids
All this talk about 'roids in baseball got me thinking... there's stuff you can take to make your muscles bigger, but is there anything you could take to increase brainpower? I mean, if you're a professional athlete and you want to win at all costs, steroids are there for you. What about for the rest of us? I was on math team in high school (that's right, a mathlete haha) and basically there's no shortcuts there, no matter how badly you wanted to stomp the competition.
Or, say you were one of those kids at the National Spelling Bee. There's thousands of dollars at stake there, you know? I'd think that somebody, somewhere must have found a way by now to give them an edge over the rest.
I heard once that some Chinese herbal medicine or ginseng or something is supposed to clinically increase the rate of firing in your brain's neuronic network, but I have no idea if it's true. And there's that thing about listening to Mozart before taking SAT's or whatever. For the most part, though, it seems like if you want to be smart, you're gonna have to be born with a good brain and exercise it frequently by educating yourself and stuff. There's no cheap fix there, just how it should be in the first place.
Still, wouldn't it be funny if there was some sort of mind steroid out there? They'd have to test those Spelling Bee kids before competition. Once in a while some hapless fool might overdose and his brain would melt or something. Maybe they would also have that lovely side effect of shrinking your testicles like real steroids do.
Call me crazy, buy with the way biological research is progressing nowadays, I have a strange feeling that we might see something along those lines in the not too distant future. But you won't ever see me go near anything like that. I personally feel that shrunken testes are probably too high of a cost for increased intelligence. Plus, nobody really likes smartypants anyways.
All this talk about 'roids in baseball got me thinking... there's stuff you can take to make your muscles bigger, but is there anything you could take to increase brainpower? I mean, if you're a professional athlete and you want to win at all costs, steroids are there for you. What about for the rest of us? I was on math team in high school (that's right, a mathlete haha) and basically there's no shortcuts there, no matter how badly you wanted to stomp the competition.
Or, say you were one of those kids at the National Spelling Bee. There's thousands of dollars at stake there, you know? I'd think that somebody, somewhere must have found a way by now to give them an edge over the rest.
I heard once that some Chinese herbal medicine or ginseng or something is supposed to clinically increase the rate of firing in your brain's neuronic network, but I have no idea if it's true. And there's that thing about listening to Mozart before taking SAT's or whatever. For the most part, though, it seems like if you want to be smart, you're gonna have to be born with a good brain and exercise it frequently by educating yourself and stuff. There's no cheap fix there, just how it should be in the first place.
Still, wouldn't it be funny if there was some sort of mind steroid out there? They'd have to test those Spelling Bee kids before competition. Once in a while some hapless fool might overdose and his brain would melt or something. Maybe they would also have that lovely side effect of shrinking your testicles like real steroids do.
Call me crazy, buy with the way biological research is progressing nowadays, I have a strange feeling that we might see something along those lines in the not too distant future. But you won't ever see me go near anything like that. I personally feel that shrunken testes are probably too high of a cost for increased intelligence. Plus, nobody really likes smartypants anyways.
Whitewater Rafting
Well, I spent the past weekend in Wisconsin doing some camping and Whitewater rafting. It was a good experience and I've now returned with some more scattered thoughts....
Mosquitoes suck. Can you imagine a life lasting only a few hours or days, during which the only way for you to survive is to make the lives of others miserable? These little vampires serve no useful function in the ecosystem, yet they are so highly evolved that it's doubtful we'll ever be able to get rid of them. Kind of like those Campus Parking workers at U of I.
I don't need a cell phone. I don't really need high speed internet or cable TV either, for that matter. Technology is great, but how much do we need it all? I remember last summer taking Leisure Studies 100 down at U of I (that could be a whole blog in itself probably), and they were telling us that studies showed people were making more money now than 20 years ago or so, but they were less happy. It's easy to forget, but the key to happiness is not adding to our possessions, but subtracting from our wants (no, I didn't come up with that little saying myself). That doesn't mean I'm gonna go cancel my cell phone, internet, and cable, because those things are still useful to me even if they aren't a necessity. But one thing I realized is that if I want to live a happy life, at some point I will have to be satisfied with where I am and what I have. Right now, I sometimes think that I will be happy once I have a good job, marry the girl I love, have two or three kids, and drive a BMW M5. Yet I have a feeling that even if I make it to that point, I'll only want more. I'll want a better job, expect my wife and kids to be perfect, and trade in the M5 for a Ferrari. So the point is, it's not necessarily bad to want certain things in life, just that you shouldn't expect them to make you happy. It sounds cheesy of course, but happiness comes from within.
My car makes for a better sleeping spot than a tent with a hole in it set on rocky, uneven ground. Leather seats and a quiet night's rest. Can't beat that. Except maybe on a waterbed. Or a normal bed. Or even a cot.
It's nature's world, and we just live in it. I've always grown up in a well developed area, surrounded by technology and nice amenities like clean showers, air conditioning, and ESPN Sportscenter. But up there, it's all trees, fields, rivers, and then a couple people and a few buildings. I always kill these spiders and flies that get in or around my house like a badass, but I think all those bugs got their revenge on me this weekend. It's like they were saying, "welcome to our house, biatch" and proceeding to feed away on my blood. Well, now that I'm back home, maybe the little experience will make me more merciful to these guys. Actually, that's not too bloody likely. It's on, little bloodsuckers, I'm a hard man and I don't forgive easily...
So there's a little of what you all missed as I was away. I'm still recovering from the many many bites, the blisters on my hand from rowing, a little headache possibly from mild smoke inhalation or sunburn, but it's alright. I'm gonna be fine.
Well, I spent the past weekend in Wisconsin doing some camping and Whitewater rafting. It was a good experience and I've now returned with some more scattered thoughts....
Mosquitoes suck. Can you imagine a life lasting only a few hours or days, during which the only way for you to survive is to make the lives of others miserable? These little vampires serve no useful function in the ecosystem, yet they are so highly evolved that it's doubtful we'll ever be able to get rid of them. Kind of like those Campus Parking workers at U of I.
I don't need a cell phone. I don't really need high speed internet or cable TV either, for that matter. Technology is great, but how much do we need it all? I remember last summer taking Leisure Studies 100 down at U of I (that could be a whole blog in itself probably), and they were telling us that studies showed people were making more money now than 20 years ago or so, but they were less happy. It's easy to forget, but the key to happiness is not adding to our possessions, but subtracting from our wants (no, I didn't come up with that little saying myself). That doesn't mean I'm gonna go cancel my cell phone, internet, and cable, because those things are still useful to me even if they aren't a necessity. But one thing I realized is that if I want to live a happy life, at some point I will have to be satisfied with where I am and what I have. Right now, I sometimes think that I will be happy once I have a good job, marry the girl I love, have two or three kids, and drive a BMW M5. Yet I have a feeling that even if I make it to that point, I'll only want more. I'll want a better job, expect my wife and kids to be perfect, and trade in the M5 for a Ferrari. So the point is, it's not necessarily bad to want certain things in life, just that you shouldn't expect them to make you happy. It sounds cheesy of course, but happiness comes from within.
My car makes for a better sleeping spot than a tent with a hole in it set on rocky, uneven ground. Leather seats and a quiet night's rest. Can't beat that. Except maybe on a waterbed. Or a normal bed. Or even a cot.
It's nature's world, and we just live in it. I've always grown up in a well developed area, surrounded by technology and nice amenities like clean showers, air conditioning, and ESPN Sportscenter. But up there, it's all trees, fields, rivers, and then a couple people and a few buildings. I always kill these spiders and flies that get in or around my house like a badass, but I think all those bugs got their revenge on me this weekend. It's like they were saying, "welcome to our house, biatch" and proceeding to feed away on my blood. Well, now that I'm back home, maybe the little experience will make me more merciful to these guys. Actually, that's not too bloody likely. It's on, little bloodsuckers, I'm a hard man and I don't forgive easily...
So there's a little of what you all missed as I was away. I'm still recovering from the many many bites, the blisters on my hand from rowing, a little headache possibly from mild smoke inhalation or sunburn, but it's alright. I'm gonna be fine.
Thursday, June 20, 2002
AZN Pride
Everyone probably knows someone who is all about the whole "AZN" thing. You know who I'm talking about, that punk kid with a riced out car, tries to talk ghetto, listens to nothing but techno or trance, etc. Supposedly that's how Asians are supposed to be, and if you don't act like that then you're a sellout or "whitewashed." Cause that's how you show pride for your ethnic background, right? Get lots of traffic tickets for drag racing and annoy the crap out of everyone who's not hip with the scene.
As for me, I've never been called whitewashed or anything like that, which is good because I'm not. I actually have a lot of friends who fit those things I described, and they're actually pretty cool people, so not everyone with a lowered Honda and wRyTeZ LyKe DiS is that bad. But I've also never been a part of the AZN thing either, and never want to be.
Sure, most of my friends are Asian. But that's more because of how things worked out when I was little. My best friends happened to all be the kids of my mom and dad's friends. I went to an Asian church. At school, there were maybe 1 or 2 other Chinese kids in my class so you do the math. Like it or not, there is still racism in America, even among grade school kids and not only against Black people. But what I'm trying to say is that just having mostly Asian friends doesn't automatically mean you're running with the AZN crowd.
I even drive a Japanese car that has a few mods. But that doesn't make me A-Z-N either. I just did it cause I wanted my car to look, sound, and drive exactly the way I liked it to. I didn't do it to attract girls, drag race, or to top out my speedometer needle at 140 (even though I came pretty close once, in my pre-speedingtickets days, just to see if it was possible, before I chickened out and started to hit traffic when I got to low 130's). I don't think it's that bad to work on your car a lot and even soup it up a little. It's all a matter of doing it with some taste and discretion. For example, is it really necessary to have an exhaust the size of a garbage can, or for it to be loud enough to shake the neighborhood around you? Just get one that sounds and performs better (not neccessarily louder) than stock without making it look ugly and violate city noise ordinances. Spoilers can be way overdone too. They might make the car look a little better to a point, but some people cross that line and put metal-park bench looking things on their Honda Civic.
While I'm on the topic of Civics, yes, they are nice cars and all, but no matter what you do to it, it's still supposed to be a freakin economy car (excluding the SI maybe). Yes, it's well built and reliable enough to handle a lot of mods, but don't act like it's the best car ever. I hate those people who will be like "i engine swapped with a integra GSR into my EX, added intake headers exhaust, turbo kit, took out my back seat, blue bottle, +5 hp Greddy sticker, and I ate a BMW M5 for breakfast at the track the other day." Being faster than a M5 doesn't make it better. Just look at your car, dude, it's a rice mobile. Plus now you ain't got no back seat, dumbass.
Ok, well back to what I was trying to say about Asian pride. These kids all talk about it but what they do is more like Asian shame to me. When people think of Asians, I don't want them to think we are all a bunch of obnoxious ghetto wannabe posers tryin to act all bad and hating on all white people. I'd seriously rather people just think of us as being stingy, nerdy, and slanty-eyed.
Still, I take pride in being Chinese. I'm glad my mom and dad made me learn how to speak read and write it, because it doesn't matter if I was born in this country, if I'm a citizen, educated as an American, people will always see me first with black hair and chinky eyes so I better not think I'm white. Even though I don't scribble AZNPRYDE all over the place and go around running my mouth about Michael Chang and Michelle Kwan, I bet I appreciate being Asian just as much as anybody out there. There's no way I'd ever choose to be white or black over being Chinese, cause that's who I was born as and that's who I'm gonna die as. Not everything about Asians is great, not everything is great about white people or black people either.
Everyone should have some amount of pride in who they are. If you don't like the image your race portrays, don't join the crowd just to fit in, and definitely don't desert your heritage and hate on your own people, but do your best to make the people around you see that not everyone fits those negative stereotypes. For my part, I know I'm already a nerd so it will be hard for myself personally to convince others that not all Asians are math geeks. But maybe someday I'll be able to do something to help the world in some way, so people won't think all Asians are selfish, greedy, and opportunistic (see Cantonese-accented trade federation from Star Wars Episodes I and II). As one person among billions, I probably won't be able to change the whole world's perspective, but at least I should do my part to not make it more negative. Everyone else should try to do the same.
Everyone probably knows someone who is all about the whole "AZN" thing. You know who I'm talking about, that punk kid with a riced out car, tries to talk ghetto, listens to nothing but techno or trance, etc. Supposedly that's how Asians are supposed to be, and if you don't act like that then you're a sellout or "whitewashed." Cause that's how you show pride for your ethnic background, right? Get lots of traffic tickets for drag racing and annoy the crap out of everyone who's not hip with the scene.
As for me, I've never been called whitewashed or anything like that, which is good because I'm not. I actually have a lot of friends who fit those things I described, and they're actually pretty cool people, so not everyone with a lowered Honda and wRyTeZ LyKe DiS is that bad. But I've also never been a part of the AZN thing either, and never want to be.
Sure, most of my friends are Asian. But that's more because of how things worked out when I was little. My best friends happened to all be the kids of my mom and dad's friends. I went to an Asian church. At school, there were maybe 1 or 2 other Chinese kids in my class so you do the math. Like it or not, there is still racism in America, even among grade school kids and not only against Black people. But what I'm trying to say is that just having mostly Asian friends doesn't automatically mean you're running with the AZN crowd.
I even drive a Japanese car that has a few mods. But that doesn't make me A-Z-N either. I just did it cause I wanted my car to look, sound, and drive exactly the way I liked it to. I didn't do it to attract girls, drag race, or to top out my speedometer needle at 140 (even though I came pretty close once, in my pre-speedingtickets days, just to see if it was possible, before I chickened out and started to hit traffic when I got to low 130's). I don't think it's that bad to work on your car a lot and even soup it up a little. It's all a matter of doing it with some taste and discretion. For example, is it really necessary to have an exhaust the size of a garbage can, or for it to be loud enough to shake the neighborhood around you? Just get one that sounds and performs better (not neccessarily louder) than stock without making it look ugly and violate city noise ordinances. Spoilers can be way overdone too. They might make the car look a little better to a point, but some people cross that line and put metal-park bench looking things on their Honda Civic.
While I'm on the topic of Civics, yes, they are nice cars and all, but no matter what you do to it, it's still supposed to be a freakin economy car (excluding the SI maybe). Yes, it's well built and reliable enough to handle a lot of mods, but don't act like it's the best car ever. I hate those people who will be like "i engine swapped with a integra GSR into my EX, added intake headers exhaust, turbo kit, took out my back seat, blue bottle, +5 hp Greddy sticker, and I ate a BMW M5 for breakfast at the track the other day." Being faster than a M5 doesn't make it better. Just look at your car, dude, it's a rice mobile. Plus now you ain't got no back seat, dumbass.
Ok, well back to what I was trying to say about Asian pride. These kids all talk about it but what they do is more like Asian shame to me. When people think of Asians, I don't want them to think we are all a bunch of obnoxious ghetto wannabe posers tryin to act all bad and hating on all white people. I'd seriously rather people just think of us as being stingy, nerdy, and slanty-eyed.
Still, I take pride in being Chinese. I'm glad my mom and dad made me learn how to speak read and write it, because it doesn't matter if I was born in this country, if I'm a citizen, educated as an American, people will always see me first with black hair and chinky eyes so I better not think I'm white. Even though I don't scribble AZNPRYDE all over the place and go around running my mouth about Michael Chang and Michelle Kwan, I bet I appreciate being Asian just as much as anybody out there. There's no way I'd ever choose to be white or black over being Chinese, cause that's who I was born as and that's who I'm gonna die as. Not everything about Asians is great, not everything is great about white people or black people either.
Everyone should have some amount of pride in who they are. If you don't like the image your race portrays, don't join the crowd just to fit in, and definitely don't desert your heritage and hate on your own people, but do your best to make the people around you see that not everyone fits those negative stereotypes. For my part, I know I'm already a nerd so it will be hard for myself personally to convince others that not all Asians are math geeks. But maybe someday I'll be able to do something to help the world in some way, so people won't think all Asians are selfish, greedy, and opportunistic (see Cantonese-accented trade federation from Star Wars Episodes I and II). As one person among billions, I probably won't be able to change the whole world's perspective, but at least I should do my part to not make it more negative. Everyone else should try to do the same.
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