Frequent updates would be nice.

I don’t know how people manage to do it. Teresa, the one who inspired me to blog, manages a post almost everyday. Sometimes multiple posts a day for that matter. They’re usually longer than mine too for that matter. I know it’s not like I get too many people reading my blog anyways, but I still want to be able to have that sort of output. I’ve added something new to my tentative “List of Things to do Before I Die.” It’s to one day participate in the NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Basically you start writing a 50,000 word novel on November 1st, and you try to finish by the end of November. One of the things to remember is that there is no worries about grammer or editing; just write. My friend Alex Antoku told me he was going to try, but like me he suffers from extreme laziness. Except of course he can write better than me anyhow haha.

I want to be more productive.

Well that’s enough about dreams and hopes, let’s talk about my day(s).

On Monday I was told someone would be bringing in a laptop for the purposes of having Stepmania going, so help not only get some new songs in but to get more people playing as well. However, I had made earlier plans to go to Bhangra Club, so I missed the guy. There was something about not having the TV Output cable, but I still don’t understand why he didn’t test connecting the dance pads to the laptop. Anyways, I got the club alright, and I had to stop these two kids from rough-housing. I know I’ve repremanded one of the kids on this before, but I don’t care if you are just goofing around: do not get physical in my club.

You know what really pisses me off though? When I had them stop and asked for their names, the kid I didn’t recognized said, “Uh… I forgot.” What the hell. You think that just because I am a high school student as well you don’t have to answer to me for your rule breaking? Technically he doesn’t, but if just because there isn’t a definitive authority figure around you don’t get to defend your wrong doings. Without pausing I replied, “I am the President of this club, so if you are going to be in this room, you can at least tell me your name.” I of course used my authoritiarian voice that immediately marks me as “asshole.” He then timidly gave me his name and upon my asking, his grade level. Mother effing Freshmen. Just because they were on top of their middle school a year ago, they think that power carries over into high school. I gave the two a brief scolding about how if they kept this up I would have to enforce a hard-ban on rough behavior.

I’d like to make an aside to explain the difference between a soft-ban and a hard-ban. I first encountered the difference when reading about Street Fighter II tournaments. The secret character, Akuma (or Gouki if you play the Japanese version) is uberly over-powered. He is the best character in terms of skills, combos, damage and etc. In Japanese tournaments, Akuma is soft-banned. There isn’t a definitive rule saying you cannot use him, but due to his unbalanced nature it is simply understood that you do not use him is tournaments. You can, but the people who decide to usually don’t have the same skill as the people who end up getting into the finals, so it’s alright. It’s sort of like, “I want to be known as an expert Street Fighter II player, so if I play Akuma, sure I’ll win, but everyone will know it’s only because Akuma is overpowered, which means I’ll lose my pride.” In American tournaments, Akuma is no questioned asked, hard-banned. You can not use him. I wish I could trust people with soft-bans on things, but sometimes you need to let the ban-hammer drop. Of course, the threat of the hard-ban works usually.

Tuesday I experienced some intense back pain. Seriously, I think it’s my posture, but when I went to bed Monday night, the only position that didn’t cause my lower back pain was bringing my knees into my chest. The whole day I was worried about my back. It feels better now, but that’s only because I’ve been keeping my mind on it and my posture almost all the time.

Also on Tuesday, in Speech Class we had a “School Wide Learning” or as I think it should be named, “School Widely-Ignored Lecture” about Code Red Drills. Now personally I don’t care about them, but my teacher, Ms. Thomas did. This is going to be a rant that aims heavily towards my close friend Alex Antoku’s personality, but it’s the truth I and feel as though I need to write it. I’ll apologize in advance dude.

I dislike people who don’t respect other people’s worries/beliefs. I mean, yes, what we were talking about was difficult to take seriously since it rarely ever happens, but just because you don’t care doesn’t mean you can belittle the people who do. It wasn’t just Alex who made comments like this, but I can only remember his examples. “We should turn the empty clock tower into a sniper’s nest, and rig remote actived nerve gas in the nest.” He also made a suggestion involving caltrops. Now I made jokes during this “SWL” too, but it’s not like I was directing them at Ms. Thomas. You could tell from Ms. Thomas tone of voice that she was trying to stay as serious as possible, expecially since the matter is important, but she had some fun with it too. However, when she stopped the smiling and tried being extra serious, people continued to derail the class with their own comments on how best to use our 30 to 1 odds against the armed hostile. One student remarked that if all students rushed the assailant we could stop him; he would never get us all. Then what about the people who do fall? Seriously, show some respect towards serious matters. I don’t care if you personally don’t take it seriously, somebody does and they deserve that respect.

It was either Freshmen or Sophmore year, back when Alex and I were still getting to know each other. He had this habit of kicking my chair. It was very annoying. I confronted him rather angrily about it, and we stared at each other for a moment. Because he didn’t react at all, I backed off. Thinking it a jest, he then said very smugly, “I was waiting to see how long you could keep a stright face about that.” Dude, seriously, I was angry f–k about that, but you treated it as if I was the one dicking around. Another incident invoved an assemby whose topic was slated as “Making good decisions.” They talked a lot about Columbine, and they mentioned Jesus a lot. For Alex, the constant mention of Jesus was enough to have him counting the number of times they mentioned it compared to actual decision making. He just continued making fun of it and taking delight in being able to condescend towards the speakers. They had the assembly twice seeing as how it was school wide; the first one was for one half of the school and the second for the second half. We were second. Apparently the first group was totally into what the people were saying about the Columbine incident, to the point where one someone starting crying. The second group was a mess of cynical and smug jerks who got caught up on one tiny detail and didn’t give a second thought to giving respect to these people.

If you act like that, what makes you different from the wanna-be-gangsters and stereotypical jerks who smugly condescend to you and the things you like? Nothing. You think you’re superior to the people who condescend to you just because you can “logically” condescend to them? The world doesn’t need more love people: it needs more empathy. I’m not saying I’m the perfect role model, but at least I try to give my respect. At least I try to not cut off the heads of the people I find to be idiotic from the first word that comes out of their mouths. I try to let grating details slide. The time we had to listen to that public speaker that I thought was horrible? I didn’t make jokes and kill her entire speech to act smug. Alex, I want to let you know I don’t think you’re like this all the time, but I think you need to reel it in sometimes. Lemco leash man! Lemco leash.

I’ll save Wednesday and my adventure to DeAnza to get my official transcript from there for tomorrow’s post. My back is acting up <.< I feel so old goddamn it.