Category: Uncategorized

This post was originally going to be called “When Tinder Meets Bagel” but that would probably be too short. So I’ll include it with some other posts! yay

Online dating is on the rise, and so is the number of people who get married through it. But I wonder what the rate of successful marriages is. If people have a long-distance relationship with each other and they’ve only met through online dating, then the most interaction they have will just be through the internet. It’s pretty easy to put on a facade when you’re on the internet, and even if you’re meeting someone in person for a short period of time. What happens when they finally get married and live together? What happens when people start to show their true selves to each other? I’d be interested in seeing the statistics behind this.

I’m still concerned about my life passing by quickly (you can read my previous post to see what I was saying about that). It’s a feeling I can’t shake. January passed by faster than it ever has (I’ve come to realize that January goes by very quickly anyway).

You know how people say that you don’t realize what you’ve got until it’s gone? Yeah. I didn’t realize how much my life is spent on Youtube, but I came to this realization when I heard about the possibility of TotalBiscuit passing away. I tried to imagine the world and my life without him. I don’t think there’s anybody who can replace him and do what he’s done for the games industry, Youtube and for the internet in general. A few are similar, but none can match his witty combination of charm and cynicism. He’s seriously got a gift for that. He also makes really long videos that are interesting all the way through. Also a gift.

I wonder what will happen if he’s gone.

Here’s a threefer (it’s basically what it sounds like). They were ideas that I was holding on to that aren’t fleshed out enough to warrent entire posts. I may revisit some of these later on.

I’m working now, and… well, it’s weird. It’s great that I’m making money while learning (as opposed to paying to learn), but I’m enjoying it quite a bit. So much so, in fact, that the days are passing by incredibly quickly, and I’m a little worried about life passing me by. I’m sure that this worry is rather ungrounded, and I will soon hate working and adult life, etc. etc. but I just can’t help but feel like I will be old soon. And dead.

I’m approaching 1,000 Facebook friends. It’s an incredibly strange feeling, being connected to so many people. If I were to run into anyone on my friends list, I’m sure I would be able to match the name to the face (unless I’ve never met the person, which should be fewer than five people). But I’m not sure if everybody else feels the same way.

Then there’s the fact that whatever I post may be seen by 1,000 people, so I have to be extra careful about what I write. Post the right (or incredibly wrong) thing, and there’s a possibility of even more people laying eyes on it. But I know they usually don’t. Facebook’s selective-posting algorithm is funky, and I’m sure it’s changed since I started paying attention to it.

It requires more and more effort nowadays to stand out from a crowd. I wonder if employers are looking for even looking for standouts anymore; seems like they’re just looking for people who fit a certain set of critera. Standing out may be becoming taboo.

But famous people stand out, right? They’re famous because they’re unique and special, right? Well, sorta. They’re unique, special, and incredibly good at what they do. Sure. But they’re also incredibly lucky, both with their timing and with their circumstances.

The value of personal uniqueness seems to be taking a nosedive. You’re special. I’m special. Who cares?

BONUS!

I’ll be restarting my “Quote of the Day” for the year of 2016. Stay tuned, make sure you keep checking back and talk to me if you want to become famous. (har har)

The days of “brb” are over. It’s kind of bittersweet, isn’t it? The people who spent their childhoods in front of their computers IMing other people will understand what I mean.

The advent of mobile devices has come and passed. There are fewer PCs in households than there are laptops, tablets and smart phones. This means that people are moving away from the AIM, the YIM, the ICQ, the MSN messenger and onto the seemingly-ubiquitous Facebook messenger.

But with Facebook messenger (and many other platforms), you can pause your conversation and pick it up somewhere else at any time you want, traveling between your computer or your cell phone. People will no longer find it strange when you stop replying for a few minutes without saying anything. And quite frankly, I have a hard time getting used to this change. What was rude in the early days of instant messaging has now become the norm. I understand that there’s no need to explain your reasons for leaving, or say that you’re even leaving in the first place, since your means of communication don’t require you to be staring at it all the time. But couldn’t you at least tell me if you’re going to put it down for a while?

It’s not that I want to know exactly where you are at any given time (although Facebook has basically already got that down), I just want to know if I’m going to have to sit and wait for your response or if I can leave and do something else for a little bit. This is particularly true for me because since I tend to play with very risky humor, I get a bit nervous when there’s no response from the other end.

Anyway, if you know me (or have read anything I’ve posted in the past….forever), you know that I’m pretty stubborn. Right now, I refuse to use Facebook Messenger because I don’t feel the need to be connected all the time, let alone notified immediately when someone contacts me. That is, unless I’m sitting in front of my computer; just like I always have and I always will.

Sometimes I just miss the old days, which why I still use Trillian. I logged into AIM, YIM and MSN every day until they stopped working. It’s sad to see all of those platforms turn into a wasteland. Maybe it’s for the best, who knows?

rip in peace, SmarterChild.

I don’t know what it is about Seattle drivers nowadays, but it seems to me like we’ve gotten much more erratic in general over the past few months. I’m guessing it might have something to do with the new toll lanes on 405.

Segue.

My past few years of driving have been me trying to figure out the best ways to drive. Here’s a few things I’ve picked up over the years–feel free, as always, to correct me if you disagree.

1. If it’s raining, turn on your headlights, regardless of how bright it is. This is especially important if it’s bright outside. Your headlights aren’t just for you to illuminate the road ahead of you, it’s also the best way to make yourself visible on the road.
2. Avoid tailgating in traffic. Tailgating in traffic is the most dangerous and possibly the most foolish mistake you can make on the road. The key to doing your part to alleviate traffic and being safe is to leave a big gap between you and the car in front of you. That way, people can freely merge in, reducing traffic in the lanes next to you; you’ll have plenty of time to react to brakes in front, reducing the chance of a brake-slamming chain reaction right behind you; and you won’t be accelerating and braking constantly, saving you lots of gas and headache. Leave a distance of at least three cars in front of you and match its speed. Trust me on this one. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.
3. In the same vein, make sure you match the speed of the lane you’re merging into before you merge. If you’re in a stuck lane and you want to move to the one next to you, leave a considerable gap between you and the car in front of you and use it to speed up. If you’re trying to get into a lane that’s not moving as quickly as yours, slow down and try to squeeze in–at a reasonable speed, of course. If someone doesn’t want to let you in, move on ahead and try again. Be careful and make sure you keep an eye on the road in front of you when you’re merging.
4. Keep right except to pass (this includes small roads). Left-lane squatters have started being pulled over by police, because it’s illegal to sit in the left lane unless you’re actively passing people. In a sense, it’s legal to stay in the left lane for a long time, but if you look in the rearview mirror and someone’s tailgating you, move aside. If you don’t feel comfortable driving over the speed limit, don’t drive in the left lane.
5. DO NOT BRAKE-CHECK. It seems like totally logical and safe (and vengeful) to get the person away from your bumper, but it’s also the easiest way to get into an accident. From where you are, you won’t be able to tell if the person behind you is also being tailgated. Give them the benefit of the doubt and just move. If he follows you, move again. Don’t recklessly speed up or you might find yourself being pulled over.
6. That being said, keep the speed limit. Use the highway on-ramps to get up to the speed limit and off-ramps to slow down. If an on- or off-ramp is a mile long, that means you have a mile to speed up or slow down to the next speed limit–you don’t have to slam on the brakes immediately after you veer off the main highway. Also, getting on the highway under 55mph is incredibly dangerous. Make sure you’re up to speed when you’re ready to switch lanes.
7. Don’t drive distracted. This should be a no-brainer. Don’t text, call, drink, eat, sleep, apply make-up, watch movies or study while driving. Your presence on the road makes your attention on the road a priority. This mistake could cost you your life, or worse yet, the lives of many others. It could also cause you to break any of these other rules, which is equally bad.
8. Don’t run stoplights or stop signs. When you approach an intersection where you’re supposed to stop, you should ALWAYS stop and check for cars. It’s fine if you make a rolling stop at an intersection, as long as you are sure that a) there aren’t any cars that may interfere with your position, and b) that if there are cars, that you have enough time to take your action and continue moving afterward.

All of these rules can be summed up into one: be considerate of others. Traffic laws are only put in place so that everybody can be on the same page, but none of them are absolutely necessary. Don’t do something that you would loathe another person for doing.

Stay safe out there.

I’m so naive.

I’ve created a habit of blindly listening to other peoples’ opinions without fact-checking it against what I actually believe. This has led me to be very confused about what the world is like and on current issues, but also equally indifferent because nobody can seem to come to an agreement about anything.

I had a good think session (in the shower, where all the greats had their good think sessions) as to why I started doing this and here’s the best I could come up with:

Going to a public high school, I was taught to question (mostly) everything. Nothing is black and white; there are gray areas in almost every situation. Is this person justified in doing this or that? Maybe. Why not? This type of thinking enabled me to open my mind and allowed me to truly think about what I was hearing. The benefits of this type of thinking are still in effect in my life today, just at a very reduced level.

After I graduated high school and went on to college, I was thrown into an environment where you couldn’t argue for answers–right was right and wrong was wrong–and we weren’t required to think for ourselves, simply because there was no need to do so. Perhaps it had something to do with being an engineering major; its history has one truth (though some of it is shrouded in shame, such as the treatment of legendary computer scientist and cryptanalyst Alan Turing), and computers think in a very logical way, thus leading to human computer-handlers to think in such a logical way.

My other excuse is that my naivety was caused by technology itself. Easy access to media allows me to always listen to other peoples’ opinions but also to drown out the voices in my own head. The constant flow of ideas jumbles up my ideas but also prevents me to differentiating opinions of people I trust from opinions of people I don’t necessarily agree with.

Be careful, folks. Make sure you’re always keeping an open mind and always make sure you’re giving yourself enough time to think about what you believe, rather than occupying yourself with random junk your life doesn’t need. This is the only way to stay grounded in your beliefs. That being said, it’s still possible to change what you believe, but don’t be too hasty to change it either.

Toodles.