Pet Peeve: Judging a Story by it's Ending

Books. Movies. TV Shows. Radio Dramas. Comics.

I guess this goes hand-in-hand with people who don't like spoilers. Personally, I'd be pretty pissed off if someone purposely told me a plot twist or an ending. Other than that, accidents happen. Shit happens. Nothing I can do about it, but I'd still want to know how everything unfolded.

I can't wrap my head around people who think a book or a movie is bad or good based on the ending. I guess I sort of have an idea. It's a pessimistic view. I mean, we're all going to die someday. Not now. But some time in the future. That's our ending. So these people already have that bleak outlook on life.

It's detrimental. People miss out on a lot because of this self-exclusion rule.

Anyway, saw the How I Met Your Mother finale. Part of me was a little disappointed with the ending. However, looking back at the past episodes, it was leading up to this and ultimately it's conclusion. It was nice way of ending it. Not everything is happy-go-lucky and cookie-cutter. Just like real life, not everything is perfect. I like that. It was brutally honest.

I'm done.

Lego Architecture - Leaning Tower of Pisa

Latest timelapse video I did.

I'm done.

Lego Architecture - United Nations Headquarters

My timelapse video for building the United Nations Headquarters.

597 Lego pieces.
Build Time: Approx. 1 hour 51 minutes.

Here's the link or close up pictures of the finished build: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjUFH3GK

I'm done.

Buying/Pirating Music

This has been plaguing me since I started using the Internet and found a way to download music for free through Napster. Since then, the only times I've gone out of my way to legally buy music CDs is if they are collectibles (Videogame music) and artists I actually support. Then the iPod came along, followed by the iTunes Store.

But sometimes you find a new artist and really love their craft. I can't bring myself to download their entire music catalog for free, yet slightly torn on the idea of buying them all.

What's your stance on this?

Time is Marching

So February came and went. The Winter Olympics happened in Sochi. I always thought that they needed more sporting events. Then again, you can only do different kinds of sliding until you run out. Reporters and fans in Sochi took to social media to make fun of how bad the rooms and conditions were at the Olympic site. I thought it was kind of rude. People have been spoiled by bare necessities that you sometimes forget they are hard to find and expensive elsewhere. When I went to Europe with the family 8 years ago, drinks were expensive, including water.

Besides that, Sochi was not the right place for the event. They temperature was too warm and they barely had snow. Meanwhile, everyone in the US except Florida was hit with below zero temperatures. The east coast was pummeled by multiple polar vortices. Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and gave us 6 more weeks of winter. And winter we got. Snochi... cause they could have used all this snow.

And now it's March. I'm still neck deep in work. I'm not stressed yet. When I get overwhelmed, I just try not to look at it as such. It also helps to not go back to that dark place in the back of my mind. One of my co-workers is taking some time off for a much needed vacation. He'll be gone for 3 weeks. Our team lead has been restructuring the resources to better accommodate the business users to all the applications we support. I'll be on-site at work to cover for most of his duties. They're not too bad. It's just the traffic that is bad. They just really need to get rid of trucks in the highway. They cause the most problems.

I was going to be at work throughout this week, but I decided to work from home today. 4-hour commute days is too much. I also did an oil pull this morning. I've been seeing a lot of this online so I looked it up and tried it. It's not bad. It really does cleans your mouth and detoxify it. Some instructions said 1 tablespoon or 1 teaspoon. It's better to go with 1 teaspoon. 1 tablespoon can be problematic when you're holding in the oil for 20 minutes. Saliva and mucus builds up rather fast. They recommended coconut oil. I only have olive oil, so that worked. You swish the oil in your mouth for 20 minutes. After that, rinse with water (preferably warm water with salt). It reminded me of a dentist visit when I was 14. I hide to hold in the fluoride solution in my mouth. The hygienist didn't say how long. She just left me and almost ingested the solution. The dentist was pissed. PISSED at her. That was the last time we went to that place. It was right next to a Discovery Zone. I never got to try Discovery Zone. Not even once. I went to Jeepers and Chuck-E-Cheese, though. They need to bring it back.

I'm done.

A College Dilemma in the Past

I wrote this prior to graduating high school 11 years ago:

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It's always hard to make a decision especially when it greatly influences your life. To some, this may seem easy to decide, but not to me. Deciding whether to live on campus or stay at home is the biggest problem right now in my life. I keep thinking of reasons to live in campus or stay at home. I keep comparing and contrasting ways how each are advantageous. This is twisting me inside. It would be great if I have advisers like the President right now. Either way, I'm still going to college. That's probably the only good thing about this, but should I stay or go?

It's hard for me to narrow down to the simplest reasons for both. If I go, I can learn to live by myself. Still, that does not guarantee me safe passage to adulthood. If I stay, it is less money to pay with tuition and dorm, but still under my parents' roof. I guess it all boils down to one thing: RULES.

With my parents, I've been told to do chores, help out, obey orders... those rules. These have turned me into the person that I am now. Without these rules I'm not me. I won't be me. I've noticed these changes ever since my parents stopped telling me to sleep at nine o'clock or telling me what to do. They still tell me occasionally to sleep early and what to do, but they don't care as much as they tell my younger sister to do them. Ever since they've mellowed down with the rules, I have more freedom. I don't remember as much, but I probably felt quite happy and excited to be able to do more things than I could have even done before. Now, I realize this much freedom is scaring me. Freedom without rules is chaos. It will regress me as a person to something else. Living in campus gives me the ultimate freedom of being by myself. I don't think I can handle that much freedom. That is why I have decided to stay home while in college.

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Looking back, it wasn't really a dilemma. I was still waiting acceptance letters from the colleges I applied to. All schools were within driving distance. That said, the furthest I've driven at the time was to our local mall. If I did housing in college, I wouldn't have to worry about traffic to get to class. Just my alarm clock. One of the problems I was hung up on is parking for my car. Most campuses don't let students who dorm have cars. If they did, there was a fee or they have to take the bus to a satellite parking. But I digress.

I'm not comfortable with change. Never have. Over the years, I've learned to adapt and just go with it, for good and bad. Living alone has unprecedented freedom and independence. My younger siblings always wanted that. Understandable. My mom can be overbearing. I've learned to adapt to that as well.

I lived a pretty sheltered life at the time. I was more afraid of not making any friends if I did in-housing. My mom pushed for me to live on campus, but I declined. It saved us money. But most of all, I was uncomfortable with the unfamiliar.

Two to three years of commuting, I made a lot of friends. We would hang outside school grounds. That got to be a hassle, having to report my whereabouts to my mom (where I'm going, when I'm coming home, etc). If you lived on campus, you don't have to worry about this as much. My siblings sure as heck took advantage of it.

I always preferred to be well-grounded. Some may view that as a dull life, but not to me. I didn't really work well with people and was better company with no attachments. Right now, I can do whatever and go wherever. Currently, I'm still a contractor with continued renewals. It's not a stable job. No 401K. No vacation. No holiday pay. It's a great job that I'm really good at. When I get hired full time, I'll get all those benefits. I'll move and live closer to work. Compared to my youngest sibling's squabbles with my parents, silence never bothered me.

I'm done.