{"PC" ∪ "Mac"} == { ? }

Something that always irked me was that people seem to differentiate between a Macintosh and a PC. Think for a moment... do you see what does not work here?
If I'm not mistaken, PC stands for Personal Computer. Is a Mac not a Personal Computer? It is a computer. It belongs to persons. It must be a Personal Computer then! Still, when someone says 'PC', they are usually referring to something running Windows (or even a Linux based OS) - but not something running OS X. Funny how that works huh? Apple really knows how to market a product properly so that it becomes a class of its own. (like people replacing mp3 player with iPod - though I don't think it's nearly gotten to the prestige of Band-Aid or Kleenex, it's close). And then the price gets jacked up 200%+. *sigh, trendy stuff blows. (and yet I own an iPod, such a hypocrite I am)

There's another ambiguity that I never really figured out either... do you call a laptop a PC? In the strictest sense, it certainly is a personal computer. But saying PC seems to imply desktop PCs. I guess Macs have the same issue huh? When you say Mac, do you mean desktop? or laptop...

Oh yeah! You know when you have a serious brain block, and the word you're looking for just doesn't come up? It's like, you know there's a term for it, but the term is prancing away from you at a pace slightly faster than you can run... In the previous post, I couldn't think of the phrase "Off limits!" and thus I settled with "Out of Bounds" -- which sounds retarded.

That is all, I figured I needed to update and post something, so there you go!
Enjoy life!

awkwardness

Summer school is so weird. The shortness of the session freaks me out. To think that there are only 4 substantial weeks left in the semester is awkward. Especially when you've only taken one major test in each class. Which leaves 2 or 3 more for the final 4 weeks. Which most likely means there will be a test or two every week from now until the end of the semester. Fun.

On to the main event: so let's talk public transportation. Specifically, the metro (or, as in the Atlanta area, the MARTA rail lines)... I have a few things that I've noticed. One of these niennerz pointed out at one time a long time ago (I think). If there's a newspaper laying on an empty chair, no one will sit in that chair. Even if there are three empty chairs around it, no one will sit in that general area until the train starts filling up. After which, the seats around it will become occupied, but the newspaper will still act as if it were a passenger. No one makes an effort to move it. They will stand rather than toss the paper aside.

I wonder what this tells us about human psychology? I think it all boils down to the fact that humans are innately irrational creatures. Despite all the advances towards becoming more rational, there are some things we cannot escape. No one makes an effort to move that newspaper in order to have a seat. Instead, they like to stand and do their metro-surf (where people wobble back and forth attempting to keep their balance) which expends more energy than if they were sitting down. Move a newspaper vs. metro-surf... I wonder which expends more energy.

The awkwardness factor. No one wants to be the one who's seen moving a sheet of paper just to get a seat. Why? Because other people might think them lazy! In order to prove they are not lazy, they will stand. Because sitting implies that you are lazy, right? Maybe... But I guess another thing is that it is always awkward to sit down directly next to someone (Same thing happens in bathroom stalls, but that's another story). The more subtly you sit down next to an occupied seat, the less awkward it is. To move a newspaper would immediately destroy any subtlety of trying to sit down. Automatically means that seat is off bounds. No longer shall anyone occupy that seat until the janitors come around.

NEXT TOPIC! Drifting walkers. No, not like a car drift, but more like a wandering walk. Let's first define this drift-walker. Have you ever walked behind a person who was traveling in the general direction that you are, but at the same time includes random lateral movement? Let's say you and this drift-walker are walking in a line, you behind them. The drift-walker will regularly stray from the line, either slightly left or slightly right. The problem is, unlike drunks who have exaggerated movements, these drift-walkers' lateral movement is so subtle that it becomes unpredictable. Do you now know the type? If you don't, it's you. JUST KIDDING! So why did I spend a paragraph explaining this? You shall see.

So every day I take MARTA to get to class. It's not exactly fun, but it's cheaper than using the car and gas these days. Here's the situation. Coming from the parking lot, I need to get to the stairs to go up (yeah, it's not exactly an underground metro, but an above-ground train system) to the platform. There is a lady in front of me. Issue #1 that I have with her placement. She is directly in the middle of the walkway. Do you ever have those moments when you are walking along and someone else is walking in the other direction and when you meet you're not sure if you should pass on the left or on the right? (I hate those situations too) Most of these situations could easily be avoided if people walked in the same manner that cars drive on roads. Directional traffic should be designated as either the left side of the walkway, or the right. Back to the situation. This lady walks kind of slow. And the MARTA train has been sitting at the station for a good while - meaning it should be leaving soon - I need to get to the train.

I need to pass this lady who is walking slowly to get to the train. The problem is that people have comfort zones (Have you met people who insist on standing completely too close for comfort? They're all up in your face and they don't seem bothered by it, but you are. They are making you feel uncomfortable) I try to respect this comfort zone even when walking - especially when there is no one else around (It'd be odd to walk right next to someone you don't know when there's a lot of extra space around). Thus, I come up in my mind the quickest and least awkward means of passing people when I need to. (Am I anal?.. I swear I'm really not, I'm just really bored sometimes. Lookie, I'm not the only one who does something like this!) Sure sure, everything would be absolutely peachy. Except now the Chekov's rule comes into play.

The problem is that this lady is a drift-walker. I can no longer predict where she will be going and thus I cannot assess the best possible path to take in order to keep myself distanced from the comfort zone. So, three things come together to form this awkward situation. One (1) She was walking slowly. Two (2) She was walking in the center of the walkway (whether that was by choice or if she accidentally drifted into this area - I don't know). And Three (3) The drift-walking throws off all predictions of where she may be by the time I start to pass her. Awkward situation alert! I have been obstructed and foiled. The only choice I had was to just pick one and go for it. I'm not even sure if it was a 50-50 chance of success or not. Is it? If any of the 3 factors was not in effect, this situation would not have occurred. *sigh

Sorry I wasted your time. I ended up taking the path on the right even though it was longer because I figured that she was heading towards the stairs as well, thus closing the gap available on the left. The right was the more rational approach to the problem. Until next time. Enjoy life!

gen

So it's been a month with no update. I did think about posting to the blog - it's the thought that counts right? ...Yeah, I guess not. So anyway, many GTA IV sessions have passed, I'm now back home in the ATL with summer classes in session. It's actually not so bad (I say this in retrospect because whenever I'm actually in class, it really is bad, but I'll get to that in a bit). I originally thought I had classes everyday (which I will eventually) but it turns out Monday, Wednesday, and Friday classes are for the short summer session which starts in mid-June. THUS! I have 4-day weekends until then! It's quite amazing - 2 days of classes out of 7.

The only problem with summer classes is that they're SO FRICKIN LONG (insert "that's what she said" here). I can handle interesting subjects for 1hr 45min, but monotonous and uninteresting subjects are just that - monotonous and uninteresting... for an hour and 45 minutes. Take for example my math class Applied Combinatorics. I thought this would be an interesting class because of its description:

Elementary combinatorial techniques used in discrete problem solving: counting methods, solving linear recurrences, graph and network models, related algorithms, and combinatorial designs.

That sounds pretty interesting right? At least for a math class, right? No? I'm just a dork? Ok. You're right. The other day we spend half an hour on proving the existence and the uniqueness of a "Division Algorithm" aka we learned how to divide. Needless to say I lost interest 5 minutes in. I'm still hoping, however, that the course will become more interesting. Which leads me to the class following: History. This class has no hope of becoming more interesting. The prof talks for an 1hr45min non-stop. I kid you not. No breaks, starts on time, ends on time. It's unbelievably sleep-inducing.

Now that you've read about my school life, let's move on to the more interesting stuff? Like that kid and his male guardian figure I mentioned... a month ago. So I was at GameStop pre-ordering GTAIV and while waiting in line I overheard this conversation going on between this kid and this dude. It went a little something like this:

Dad: ....but you already have a two-hundred and fifty dollar gaming machine at home, you don't need this
Kid: but...
Dad: Do you see this price tag? It says one-hundred and thirty dollars . This is not as good as your two-hundred and fifty dollar one you have at home.

At first I was wondering what they were going on about, but then as soon as he stated $130 I knew what he was talking about. He was puttin' down my DS, my and our beloved DS, as inferior to the PSP on the basis of price alone. I felt like walking up and saying: If you're going to lecture a child, do it properly and with your facts straight. While it's good you're teaching the kid he doesn't need two portable gaming toys, the reasoning behind your logic is ultimately flawed. But I supposed I'm biased and partial towards the DS. BUT!, my partiality has logic behind it. By the following table, I shall support my reasons for knowing that DS > PSP.So there you have it, DS clearly is better than PSP. Even though the PSP is two-hundred and fifty dollars it is ousted by the one-hundred and thirty dollar gaming machine. Take that two-hundred and fifty dollar gaming machine! And take that Mr. Swayed-By-Price-Of-Unit. People who think they know things that they don't annoy me. You are distorting that child's mind! He shall never know the joys of a DS! But whatever, you bought him a PSP in the first place. He better be happy with that.

Onto the next subject! What's up with all these game journalists using the term 'next-gen' to describe the 360, PS3, and even Wii. This very much annoys me whenever I see it used to reference one/all of these consoles. The term is blatantly inaccurate.

next [nekst] Pronunciation Key
–adjective
1. immediately following in time, order, importance, etc.: the next day; the next person in line.
5. on the first occasion to follow: when next we meet.
Courtesy of Dictionary.com

What's this? 'Next' means coming up? What a concept! Wait, how are our consoles 'next-gen' if they're already here! This term may have been fine when the consoles were in development, but why has the term stuck? I dislike things that are inaccurate but become trendy.

Aside: Back in my Guild Wars days, there was a team build that was named IWAY. The build name was coined because its cornerstone key skill was called '"I Will Avenge You!"' Thus the name fit appropriately. Its amazing success however, had many other builds INACCURATELY mimicking the name. Builds such as Flare-way, Monk-way, hell, I even saw some people have the audacity to call Necro spikes SS-way (for the skill Shadow Strike) and many others (of which I've forgotten names, it's been a while...) that I didn't care to remember since they were so lamely copied.

Get a clue people, these consoles are no longer 'next-gen', they are 'current-gen'. I suppose describing the graphics in a new fangled game as current-gen-graphics doesn't have the same luster to it ("The graphics in [insert game] are very current-gen~!" vs. "The graphics in [insert game] are very next-gen~!") but next-gen-graphics falsely implies that the graphics are of quality that can't be seen today. I'm sorry for being picky, but the term annoys me. I suppose stating that the technically correct way of referencing this current generation of video game machines as 7th generation wouldn't get the same message across either... *sigh.

That is all for this time. Until the next, enjoy life!