Fishbright Scholars

"Where was it, in the aquarium?"

I don't remember no fishies.

Maybe my memory sucks.

I think I'm running out of links to songs which aren't jap and that I like.

I think I need to listen to more stuff but... eh.

For the moment, there's this:

Have fun with that.

I actually think I'm basically set for everything, just last minute checks on Ext 1 English and Maths and Ext 2 Maths.

What about you guys?

Cannot wait till HSC is over, till all these stupid applications and scholarships are done etc, etc.

Would it be too weird to have this?

It's an off vocal, so it's meant to be for karaoke, but I guess it might work ok for music, right?

As in behind frag vids or like... I dunno. Gameplay maybe.

I understand it's an old game, but I still like it. There's nothing that really compares.

I give up.

Have some Touhou.

I just can't seem to find anything that's over the top, but also energetic. Or beat-y.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

One last thing:

The song's the ending of Vampire Knight, which is cool too.

I like that series, even if I don't follow it very seriously.

[Geddit?]

Anyway, if you guys want/need help with creative writings and/or essay whatevers, just shoot me an email.

I'm sure you know it by now.

If not, you can always ask.

I think that's all I really have to say.

Hoping you guys are enjoying yourselves. 9 days?

Streaming? Mm...

"Maybe not?"

I'm thinking that maybe I should just make videos instead. Cause streaming seems rather daunting. Plus I guess the quality will be really crappy.

If that's so, then I only have to worry about music to put into my vids.

I think a friend of mine made two vids of me a few months back, but they're pretty crappy, so I'm not gonna link.

Maybe something like that?

It's not like... insane metal that makes me cringe every time I hear it in the occasional frag video I watch.

[Which btw, isn't very many cause a lot of them are absolute crap, including the 2 that I mentioned earlier]

And it's also not super happy upbeat.

And well. I'm probably going to dedicate the channel to either Roaming or Direct Hit (ab)usage.

I don't want to really do tutorial videos though, cause there's probably enough of them.

Besides, they would only be like 2 seconds long.

"Shoot feet, get kills"

[/blackscreen]

Are there no more eps of Doctor Who till Christmas? Damnit.

At least now it won't interfere with HSC.

BUT STILL DAMNIT.

Ok, so. Speculation time.

What does an old guy named Solomon, the Tally, the Dalek Asylum, the Gunslinger and the Angels have in common?

..........

.......................

What if the universe blew up again, and stuff.

I dunno.

Basically what TF2 is all about.

If you don't believe me, maybe I'll link something.

One last song:

If you don't get it, it's really famous anime openings.

And well. Kumikyoku.

........ Which translates as "Medley"

Go figure.

But it's still pretty cool. Even though I don't watch anime much if at all.

Hoping you guys are having fun too.

Movement from one space to another time.

"Ethico-moral abnormalities"

So that's why the BBC orchestra makes things sound so good. :O

I had a lot to post last night, but I'm somewhat glad I didn't.

Though, it is always nice to hear that I'm probably not going to fail the HSC.

Hopefully. I'm not sure where I am for sciences, but I seem pretty set for English.

Maths... Just a few more questions, I guess. Basics and whatnot. I should redo that really hard paper.

Not quite stream-y type music, but maybe I'll play it. I think this version sounds a little better than original with vocals. But the vocals are cool too.

I think I'm at a point where it doesn't matter which related texts I use for a module, I should still do alright. Woo proficiency.

Still, I'll probably stick to my current lineup cause I don't need to change it around heavily.

"Once you understand what the syllabus requires, there are no tricks, only questions"

So yea, I'm set for English. Maths I should be done soon.

That leaves the tiny details left over for Chemistry/Physics.

Ie; reaction requirements.

I know them, but not that easily, I think

Also, Physics... what am I missing uh...

I'm not sure. I should look at past papers that I've done.

Woo for more electro.

But there's something that strikes me as odd.

I can't think of anything as fast in English.

Is it cause English words tend to be polysyllabic?

[Btw, I don't expect you to play through the entire song]

I never pay attention to 'drops'.

Welp, better never play RTS ever.

Played TF2 for the first time in weeks, and still managed to do well.

I don't think my body can forget 200+ hours of using the Direct Hit *_*

[I'm not sure if that's a good thing]

I promise, I'll explain the game better later.

But in simple terms anyone can understand:

"Shoot feet, get kills"

[It's actually quite efficient so long as you hit feet and nothing else..]

Also, people move weirdly when they don't notice you.

When people are stand-offing you, they move so predictably.

It's horrendous how bad my aim is when people aren't "trying to dodge".

I hate how some parts of chem/phys are pure memory work.

There's like, 0 derivation or anything like that.

Sigh.

One last thing:

One of the few videos you actually have to watch a few times to catch everything :)

Hoping you guys are studying hard too.

Tread softly

"For children lay their dreams at your feet"

It's fairly long, so just skip to the end if you're that impatient.

I guess I know why I don't do so well in Advanced English then.

It's cause they expect simpler, overdone-to-burnt-ash ideas.

Which is always frustrating.

As for chem/phys, it's all about minor details.

Welp, that's my crappy school experience for you.

I can't say I approve of the LoL image, but I came for the music, not the video:

I actually got to the first video because a friend told me about "flow", and how people are happiest when they're immersed in something that's challenging in that it stretches skills by just a little.

Otherwise, you get boredom, or being overwhelmed.

Maybe that's my problem: An inability to regard little details as significant.

Ironically....

Anyway.

I kinda do wish my childhood was like that video last post simply because I think what generally makes me happy is discovery, but then again, doesn't everyone? Maybe not.

And Carroll's story was too slow for my liking. So video it is.

Lastly:

 K, I'm done here.

Hoping you guys aren't feeling really constricted by all this HSC stuff and humbug.

SLeEpLeSs NiGhTS

"Don't..."

Warning: 1.47 video:

Don't you wish your childhood was like that? I do.

Well, in a way.

Have not really felt like doing much work.

Did a paper 2 today though.

It was ok.

Didn't reaaaaally make me happy though, and well.

Mm..

Lots to think about, but not too much to say.

Did once say that I'd probably never be happy.

I doubt I'll be happy till uni hits.

Then.... well. Who knows.

13 days.

Hoping you guys are having fun too.

It's CHRISTMAS.

"New things :O"

Why do people hate Moffat? D: I think he's amazing.

Just fishing around and found that.

ANGELS.

Pretty scary, pretty sad. I cried.

Twice.

Cause I watched it twice.

Not enough badassery at the beginning, maybe this could have been over two eps.

Same with power of three. That should have been over two eps :(

And apparently there's a new dota patch.

I really should stop playing but...

Well. I haven't played much over the last week.

Just some Spacechem.

It's like... molymod, but fun >.>

Serious.

It's also insanely hard...

 

Don't you wish Haber process was like this?

 Anyway, they fixed Pitlord [again]

Or well, they reverted back to old firestorm. Which is cool.

For lazy people:

Yea.

kk.

That is all.

Also, Multiple psychopaths per TARDIS plz.

[NTS: Flying corpse birds are killers :O Never played anywhere Evil before]

Hoping you guys are having just as much fun. :D

Honesty, love, philosophy and energy.

"Utilitarianism, or Deontology?"

 Was just thinking about this as I woke up.

Friedrich Nietzsche in The Antichrist (1895) and The Will to Power (1901):

What is good? Everything that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself.
What is bad? Everything that is born of weakness.
What is happiness? The feeling that power increases — that a resistance is overcome.^[4]

In that sense, knowledge, which is inevitably power is good.

Though, definitions can vary, but an axiom of society is that it functions around duality.

I remember it being mentioned 2 years prior in class, but no-one really paid much attention to it. To this day, I'm not sure why it's not discussed more, and why we have to discuss how the context influences the text. [Which is a much easier and obvious subject to grasp....]

[On an aside, it's always the easy ideas that pass over my head. When writing about Hamlet, I forgot (read: half-refused) to talk about 'revenge'. Go figure.]

And then I decided I wanted to listen to some music.

So here you go, some music.

I love Wowaka's work.

Same with Hachi-P.

I might end up using the same texts for Mod C, AoS and Extension.

But I don't want to do two Vocaloid songs.

I have a wide range of texts to choose though.

Matryoshka (Analysed fully)
Two songs (Haven't bothered to analyse or even translate or look for translations)
One anthology of postcards (Done)
One Korean film (Done)
One English Poem by Philip Larkin (Done)
TWEWY (Yet to be analysed or 100%'ed)
Any Final Fantasy...?

I think that's all the texts I would consider on such short notice.

Should probably not make this too long.

Here, have another almost-nonsense song.

And remember, it's not contrived if it's academic.

I think I like English because I get to say things and use words I would never be able to use in regular conversation because then I'd have to explain what I mean.

And that's a bit frustrating.

Something I've noticed is that I don't read very much, and yet, my vocabulary is pretty large.

Why is that?

Is it my memory? I don't know.

I'm not really all that special by any means, just slightly above par, if you take the average to be the median person in society.

...If you could actually do that...

For lack of anything else to talk about, I might talk more about those songs later.

Wow.

Stereo music is crazy.

Bass in left, Treble in right.

Crazy.

Love the energy of Vocaloid songs.

You don't get that same amount of upbeat anywhere else.

.... Wow. Telemarketers. Are just... ugh.

They don't understand people.

I've met exactly one telemarketer in my life that was enjoyable to talk to.

Every other time, it was just..ugh.

I'm really tempted to try and sign up for the National Do Not Call Register.

The one nice guy was an old, Australian guy who was inviting me (read: family) to some RSL thing about stock market...thingies.

I don't quite remember. But I got the impression that he was really nice, and a bit like Prof. Harry Messel.

Which sure beats some nasally, rude Indian (geographically) guy.

Or some really forward and rude Australian guy.

[As soon as I said that I wasn't interested, it was an abrupt 'bye' and a hangup]

[>.>]

Anyway, enough tangents.

Lastly, I'm talking about what came first [Wibbly wobbly timey rhymey]

[Almost about to cry yesternight and then I saw this. Could not stop laughing.]

Basically, is it better to be always honest, or sometimes honest because you'll make things break, or never honest because then everyone's happy?

I wonder if somewhere along the line, I got replaced by a simulacra of my own design.

Strangely, I feel fine.

Haven't heard Liz Triangle in a while.

If you thought Two Steps from Hell was good....

I'm fairly link happy, I noticed.

Should I embed the vids in the blog?

And lastly, a song which is dear to a lot of people on a superficial level:

Ten-Faced. [If you thought Two Face was rad... He's got nothing on GUMI.]

 It's not a very deep song in and of itself, but then again most texts aren't. However, if you take it with the context in mind, you can get a fabulous (~) array of meanings and interpretations.

Of course, the usual one is "Ooh look, dis ich me!"

But then, that validates Baudrillard's thesis, about the commonplace of reality subversion and warping of truth.

[See, I can barely use those terms in regular conversation without a 'huh?' coming out. It's a little frustrating... ahhhhhh.............]

Anyway, I think that's enough for now.

Hoping you guys are having a grand old time. Cannot wait for Angels in Manhattan!

English songs

"Uh...."

Not sure if this counts.

Does it? I'm gonna loop it on my stream when rockets fly.

Aaaaaaalso......

I'm not sure how one teaches Soldiering. You just.... well. I suppose it's a learned thing.

I'm rusty too, have not played in weeks.

I'll try to make a pictorial tutorial after HSC, and you can see how basic the idea is. 

Hoping everyone's studying ok, I guess.

[PS. Just kidding, gonna loop stuff of this nature. Woo for epic openings! ]

JM, you probably have a virus.

"[startpost] Hi. [/endpost]"

Hoping you fix it soon.

Day[V] made me do it.

"Holidays are for doing whatever you think you've missed out on"

So, I'm prepping for HSC and whatnot and I find in my Mod C folder [yes I do keep stuff reasonably organised into folders for subject and whatever] and I come across an article on simulacra all the way back from year 11, when we were doing Dorian Gray.

It's quite dense stuff, but it's absolutely genius.

Some teachers hate it though.

SummarY:

Excerpt from Jean Baudrillard's "Simulacra and Simulations - I. The Precession of Simulacra" (1983):

Translated from French [Cause all the cool philosophers and stuff are 'croutons']

He talks firstly about the 'cartographers of the Empire [who] drew up a map so detailed that it ends up covering the territory exactly', and calls this 'the most beautiful allegory of simulation'.

What Baudrillard then postulates [but he does it as though it were common knowledge] that because this map is now so perfectly accurate, what stops other maps from using this map as a reference?

Does that mean that 'reality', 'real' geography is now obsolete?

And if so, does that mean that this perfect map is now the 'reality'?

Of course, he does this with more beautiful language than I could ever dream of mustering.

Ie; "The sovereign difference", "constituted the charm of abstraction", "ideal coextensivity of map and territory" .

After this, the conclusion is that because this map can now be replicated, it no longer has to make any sense.

What he means is that this map no longer obeys the physical laws of nature and 'reality', it's just a map. It's a copy, but it has become reality itself.

[ISN'T THAT COOL?!]

Also: Vicissitudes.

[To: SilverDragon

Why did Cowgill give us this in year 11 if it's quite dense and hard to understand for me now? O.O]

Next paragraph:

"THE DIVINE IRREFERENCE OF IMAGES"

I wish I could copy paste this, because I love it too.

But the summary is that if someone can simulate or dissimulate illness, or some kind of status, then 

"objectively one cannot treat him as being either ill or not ill. Psychology and medicine stop at this point ... 

For if any symptom can be 'produced', and can no longer be taken as a fact of nature, then every illness can 

be considered as simulatable and simulated, and medicine loses its meaning". 

[Double spaced so it takes less time for you to understand exactly what he's saying]

Basically, he's telling me that doctors are useless.

[Lolj/k, not really. He's actually just pointing out flaws in our current medical practices from a philosophical, turned realistic point of view. This is all just conjecture though. But he might be right. Then again, so might 2012EndofWorld.]

Then he goes on to talk about psychoanalysis and psychology in terms I can't clearly understand. So I skipped it.

[Also, this reminds me. You know how in chem/phys we use models? Models are a simulation. Does that mean that they then can become a form of truth in themselves? And if they are a form of truth, then what happens to 'real' truth? Or rather, the 'true' model of the atom, bonds, linkages?]

[Of course, any scientist will just say "Bah! Humbug!" and continue tinkering with !!SCIENCE!!]

[Yes, I'm trying to cover as many bases as I can. I want people to read this damnit!]

Even cooler bit:

You know how the army traditionally weeds out gay people, mentally unstable and unfit?

What if they're just pretending?

"What can the army do about simulators?  Traditionally it unmasks them and punishes them, according to a clear principle of identification"

His conclusion isn't nearly as effective:

"It is against this lack of distinction [about simulators and 'real' people with ailments] that classical reason 

armed itself in all its categories. But it is what today again outflanks them, submerging the principle of truth"

And then there's a paragraph on Christianity, and it's rather cynical, so I'm a little hesitant to write about it, but here goes.

 "Beyond medicine and the army.... the question returns to religion and the simulacrum of divinity"

"I forbade that there be any simulacra in the temples because the divinity that animates nature can never be represented."

[Or rather, that the divinity of 'false' gods must never be heralded as true divinity]

Baudrillard proposes that there are always simulacra of nature, and other things of worship, even if it was not intentional.

[Joanne Burns, microwave god anyone?]

He then goes on to talk about the actual existence of God:

"deep down God never existed, that only the simulacrum ever existed, even that God himself was never anything but his own simulacrum"

Which again, I find really cool, [bear with me, religious people :O]

"Because if there were no God, we would have to invent it."

See how philosophers steal ideas?!

[Appropriation. Writers are the best thieves.]

 He's a bit scathing. I like his ideas, but I guess they don't afford any social points.

Then again, he's explaining exactly why that commandment exists.

"But their metaphysical despair [the problem with idols] came from the idea that the image didn't conceal 

anything at all, and that these images were in essence not images ... but perfect simulacra [and therefore, are 

in themselves, 'real' gods]"

"Thus this death of the divine referential [idols of nature, etc.] must be exorcised at all costs"

[I wonder if I'm just more 'angsty' when I'm doing English. Either way, it's really fun :O]

Warning: Eminence grise of politics.
Warning: Evanescence of God
Warning: Dialectical power [Hegel's Bagel: +5 strength]

Then he talks very briefly about representation:

"Representation stems from the principle of the equivalence of the sign and real"

[Ie; he's saying that his theory that representation is truth is in itself a 'fundamental axiom', when in fact, he could be lying. See how slippery 'truth' is? And this is what my essay is based around. Isn't it sexy?]

Next two paragraphs are almost irrelevant.

He explores how Disneyland is a perfect simulacrum.

And after that:

"THE END OF THE PANOPTICON" 

[If you don't know what that is, it's essentially a jail where the jailer can watch all of the inmates without being seen]

He talks about 'reality tv', in really dense language that I'm too tired by this point to translate, so there's no highlighting on my page.

But, he does make an excellent point about the tagline of reality tv, and how paradoxical it is.

"They lived as if we were not there." <---- Seems to make sense.

Think about it.
















Thought about it enough?















[If you still don't get it, here's the explanation:

How can you know that they lived exactly as though you weren't there, if you have never observed them? And if you have, then of course, they lived as though you were there.

Does that make sense? Yes? Moving on.

*wipes whiteboard before you can copy anything down*]

[On an aside, he shoehorns the word 'porno' and says, "Pleasure in the miroscopic simulation that allows the real to pass into the hyperreal. (The is also somewhat the case in porno, which is fasinating more on a metaphysical than a sexual level.) {I think he slipped it in just to make sure you were paying attention}]

And... ok I'm going to highlight, cause I understand it now.

.....

.........

Basically he's combining Schadenfreude, semiotics and the degradation of meaning.

.... Aren't I glad I'm a 4U English student.... god.

I'm not sure.... ah, I'll see if I can explain better.

He's saying that there is a "pleasure in the excess of meaning, when the bar of the sign falls below the usual

 waterline of meaning [I have no idea what he's trying to reference here]", and "In the "verite" experience [I 

assume this is a French etymological root of "voyeur"] it is not a question of secrecy... but of a sort of frisson

  [what?] of the real, or of an aesthetics of the hyperreal, a frisson of vertiginous and phony exactitude, a

 frisson of simultaneous distancing and magnification..."

BRING OUT YOUR FRISSONS!

fris·son/frēˈsôN/

Noun:

A sudden strong feeling of excitement or fear; a thrill: "a frisson of excitement".

............

Ok, well. Now I know. And knowing's half the battle.

Music break.

Actually, if you don't like piano...


[You know how hard it is to find an English song I like? Damn.]

[Also, I thought it was Kiatsuki. Apparently, it's Kiatzuki]

[Way to go Japanese... >.>]

[When I stream TF2, I'm going to have to find English songs, won't I?]

[Also Kael, did you treat your throat yet? It's killing me.]

[Must. Heal. EVERYTHING.]

[Except myself]

Moving on and back to Jean.

Then he says something silly about "You no longer watch TV, it is TV that watches you (live)"

I think his meaning just degraded. Either that, or I'm not following anymore.

Just smile and nod like it's the Doctor.

I actually don't understand this last bit.

You try:

"We are witnessing the end of the perspectival and panoptic space (which remains a moral hypothesis bound up with all the classical analyses on the "objective" essense of power), and thus to the very abolition of the spectacular."

............

I give up.


(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻


And that was my morning.

What about yours?

Also, something that happened last night:

THE POWER OF THREE.

Renee, Silverdrago-n, watch it!

It is the most beautiful episode ever.

Not in terms of plot, but visuals.

The plot is great up until the 20th minute mark.

I think they ran out of time, they should have made it a double ep :(

Also, I hate the new Amy Pond voiceover. It's quite disgusting, I get it, but...still.

It's a new season, etc, etc. BUT STILL.

Yea, the ending's absolute bullshit.

But the middle and beginning is excellent.

At least the voiceover isn't intrusive until the end.

Ok.

That's it from me for now.

Hoping you guys have had lots of stuff done this holidays!

[PS. Day[V] made me do this post.]

[PPS. If you still don't really get it, say it out loud. I'm sure you do get it though.]