Da-da-da-da-da, Feelin Groooovy
While I was doing my daily surveillance of teh internetz today, I happened across this article on CNN:
Slow Down, You're Movin' Too Fast
I'll let this quote explain the gist of it:
Cahn is a leader in the "slow movement," a national campaign that claims that speed kills. Its leaders say that Americans are so starved for time, our need for speed is destroying our health, families and communities.
Well, I'm not saying I'm overworked or anything, but I do fervently believe (and have said so for years) that if I could just take a half-hour nap after lunch, I'd be way more productive in the afternoons. Nothing in the article specifically about fighting for your right to nap, though. Just things like "turning off the BlackBerry, cooking unhurried meals with friends, cultivating a garden and taking long walks."
Sigh, even my fellow lazybones don't have my back.
Friday, June 06, 2008
Wiinanigans
Ok, so, as I get older, it gets harder to think of good blog post titles. Hit the big three-oh this year, a couple months ago. My old wit has started to fade already. OR it might have nothing to do with age. It might have more to do with the fact I played a lot of Rayman: Raving Rabbids 2 on the Nintendo Wii last night. It was the semi-regular geek night of the ex-Netlearning Programmers, and this time the theme was videogames. Wii and Guitar Hero, to be specific, though there was a little Rock Band action before everybody showed up.
Rayman: Raving Rabbids was alot of fun, in large part due to its disturbing sense of humor. It's basically a party game along the lines of, well, Mario Party, which gives up to four players the chance to go head-to-head in a battle for supremacy at a bunch of loony minigames. It'd take to long to describe the entire game in a way that does it justice, so I'll just describe one mini-game. It has the four players looking at a bunch of screaming baby bunnies in the back seat of a car on a road trip, and anytime a bunny start crying or jumping around, you need to point at it with your wiimote and make a slapping motion with the nunchuck, which shuts the lil bugger up and nets you points. Brad Buchanan put it succinctly "And they're getting on Grand Theft Auto IV for being too violent". The game was a ton of fun, and got me wondering if I should get a Wii myself... I might, since Kyeonghi doesn't seem too adverse towards the idea. It'll be a while though.
I've started a new T-shirt store on Printfection, mainly because after some research I saw good things being said about it. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to come with a handy-dandy blogging function, so I'll have to figure out another way to peddle my wares. I also need to rearrange the store a little. It doesn't do a great job of ordering the stuff you put up. Still, there's a few things I like about. I'll probably stick with both stores til I decide which one I like the best.
Here's the current URL:
http://www.printfection.com/BernardNg
Happy window-shopping! (Or actual shopping)
Ok, so, as I get older, it gets harder to think of good blog post titles. Hit the big three-oh this year, a couple months ago. My old wit has started to fade already. OR it might have nothing to do with age. It might have more to do with the fact I played a lot of Rayman: Raving Rabbids 2 on the Nintendo Wii last night. It was the semi-regular geek night of the ex-Netlearning Programmers, and this time the theme was videogames. Wii and Guitar Hero, to be specific, though there was a little Rock Band action before everybody showed up.
Rayman: Raving Rabbids was alot of fun, in large part due to its disturbing sense of humor. It's basically a party game along the lines of, well, Mario Party, which gives up to four players the chance to go head-to-head in a battle for supremacy at a bunch of loony minigames. It'd take to long to describe the entire game in a way that does it justice, so I'll just describe one mini-game. It has the four players looking at a bunch of screaming baby bunnies in the back seat of a car on a road trip, and anytime a bunny start crying or jumping around, you need to point at it with your wiimote and make a slapping motion with the nunchuck, which shuts the lil bugger up and nets you points. Brad Buchanan put it succinctly "And they're getting on Grand Theft Auto IV for being too violent". The game was a ton of fun, and got me wondering if I should get a Wii myself... I might, since Kyeonghi doesn't seem too adverse towards the idea. It'll be a while though.
I've started a new T-shirt store on Printfection, mainly because after some research I saw good things being said about it. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to come with a handy-dandy blogging function, so I'll have to figure out another way to peddle my wares. I also need to rearrange the store a little. It doesn't do a great job of ordering the stuff you put up. Still, there's a few things I like about. I'll probably stick with both stores til I decide which one I like the best.
Here's the current URL:
http://www.printfection.com/BernardNg
Happy window-shopping! (Or actual shopping)
Monday, May 19, 2008
I Am Iron Man
Well, this kinda saves me the trouble of doing a movie review. Heh. Make a tacky t-shirt instead. Now you too can have a chestpiece ala Tony Stark! Hmm.... I'm gonna have to fix up the transparencies on the images I upload. I seem to have a white leakage problem around the borders every time.
EDIT: Nevermind... it looks perfectly fine when you put against a colored T-shirt. Looks pretty badass on a black T. That's the color I got on the T-shirt I have in my shop right now. I don't know what's up with the pic Spreadshirt's Blog It function links me to. Maybe I ought to buy one for myself just to check... hehe.
I Am Iron Man
Well, this kinda saves me the trouble of doing a movie review. Heh. Make a tacky t-shirt instead. Now you too can have a chestpiece ala Tony Stark! Hmm.... I'm gonna have to fix up the transparencies on the images I upload. I seem to have a white leakage problem around the borders every time.
EDIT: Nevermind... it looks perfectly fine when you put against a colored T-shirt. Looks pretty badass on a black T. That's the color I got on the T-shirt I have in my shop right now. I don't know what's up with the pic Spreadshirt's Blog It function links me to. Maybe I ought to buy one for myself just to check... hehe.
I Am Iron Man
Sunday, May 18, 2008
My First Spreadshirt Design
I'm just testing out Spreadshirt's Blog It functionality... and shamelessly peddling my first design! The design has a transparent background, it doesn't show up very well here. Sorry! I'm too lazy to do anything about it.
Peace I Leave With You
I'm just testing out Spreadshirt's Blog It functionality... and shamelessly peddling my first design! The design has a transparent background, it doesn't show up very well here. Sorry! I'm too lazy to do anything about it.
Peace I Leave With You
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Some Updates
Well it's kinda hard to summarize a whole year, so maybe I won't even try. All who are near and dear to me (and not so near but still dear to me) know pretty much what are the big changes in my life lately. Of course, I have a been seeing a very charming lady by the name of Kyeonghi for close to a year, now. I'd like excuse the year of inactivy on that, but truth be told, I wasn't really blogging much before that either. What was it, once a month? Yeah I needed to quit for a while.
Now I'm feeling the urge to tell the world what's up with my life once again, though it is mostly for the sake of this blog itself. Shame to let a 4-year old institution just die like that, you know? Especially since Blogger was so nice to keep it around for me.
First things, first, I've randomly decided to try and sell T-shirts! I signed up on one of those make-your-own T-shirt sites that let you sell the designs you make. Right now I've got one design there, and I planted it on a T-shirt and a mousepad (though you get to put it on anything else you like that they have available, I get a commission if the design is used). I hope as time passes by I get round to building a half-way decent portfolio. I don't know if they ship to outside of the USA, so if you're in Malaysia (or anywhere else) you may be out of luck. Or in luck, depending on how awful you think my designs are. Grr.
Enough bellyaching! Here's a link!
Link To My Spread Shirt Store (Soon To Be Impressive, As Opposed To Underwhelming, Hopefully)
If you have a suggestion for a piece you want me to do, feel free to leave a comment here. You're under no obligation to buy anything if it comes out not quite the way you envisioned it =)
Well it's kinda hard to summarize a whole year, so maybe I won't even try. All who are near and dear to me (and not so near but still dear to me) know pretty much what are the big changes in my life lately. Of course, I have a been seeing a very charming lady by the name of Kyeonghi for close to a year, now. I'd like excuse the year of inactivy on that, but truth be told, I wasn't really blogging much before that either. What was it, once a month? Yeah I needed to quit for a while.
Now I'm feeling the urge to tell the world what's up with my life once again, though it is mostly for the sake of this blog itself. Shame to let a 4-year old institution just die like that, you know? Especially since Blogger was so nice to keep it around for me.
First things, first, I've randomly decided to try and sell T-shirts! I signed up on one of those make-your-own T-shirt sites that let you sell the designs you make. Right now I've got one design there, and I planted it on a T-shirt and a mousepad (though you get to put it on anything else you like that they have available, I get a commission if the design is used). I hope as time passes by I get round to building a half-way decent portfolio. I don't know if they ship to outside of the USA, so if you're in Malaysia (or anywhere else) you may be out of luck. Or in luck, depending on how awful you think my designs are. Grr.
Enough bellyaching! Here's a link!
Link To My Spread Shirt Store (Soon To Be Impressive, As Opposed To Underwhelming, Hopefully)
If you have a suggestion for a piece you want me to do, feel free to leave a comment here. You're under no obligation to buy anything if it comes out not quite the way you envisioned it =)
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Piracy, Purity, and Petey
Looks like I'm averaging one post a month now. I have been busy, but it's mostly been a silly kind of business. I bought Sid Meier's Pirates a couple of weeks ago with a gift card I got for my birthday, and I've been sailing up and down the Caribbean making a nuisance of myself like a good pirate should. I have been going to the gym an average of 5 days a week, taking about 2 hours to get through my workout each time. I've gotten a little bigger over the past four months, but it's nothing super-dramatic. I think I've only gained about 8 pounds since I started.
Aside from the silly-busy, there's the not-so-silly busy. I've been teaching a series for the international class about the beatitudes (From the Matthew 5 text), and that's taken up a bit of preparation every week. The preparing part isn't really the hard part of teaching a class like this. It's asking yourself if you're doing any of what you're talking about that's hard. It's been a a crazy few weeks in that sense. Some days it feels like the word of God is a refreshing stream. Other days it's more like a sword, and it cuts. Ouch! Painful personal growth and reflection aside, I've gotten a lot of good feedback about how the series is going, so God is using it to edify the body.
The next beatitude we're going to talk about this coming week a bit of a doozy. It's something that's been on my mind a lot lately: purity. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. The obvious problems with purity apply to me... I don't think there's any need to go into detail. I'm single, I'm young, I'm a guy. What more is there to say! I have a friend asking me from time to time how I'm doing on that front, so I have a little help there. It's still a struggle though. I was talking about it with him early last week, and he tells me he found hope at the end of the tunnel... when he got married. He hasn't had a problem with lust since. Ah, great, I thought. Something else I need to improve my progress on.
That's a narrow view of purity, though. I like something John Wood said a few sermons ago about purity: all it is is desiring one thing, not two mutually-opposed things. Single-minded pursuit of God's desires. Not a NARROW-minded, but single-minded. I think of narrow-minded as wanting something your way and your way only. I think single-minded merely means you want what God wants, regardless of what your expectations or preferences might be, and God's imagination can be a little bigger than ours a lot of the time. I'm not really good at wanting what God wants either, though. I guess it's a good thing Jesus talked about mercy right before this beatitude, because if God's mercy wasn't on your mind you might lose hope thinking about purity!
Oh! I saw Spidey 3 yesterday. Here's my 2-cents: if you saw the first two, you probably need to see this no matter what. I personally thought it was emotionally satisfying, but very, VERY uneven. There were a lot of attempts at hockey comedy, which will definitely get on some people's nerves. I didn't mind so much, since I was in the mood for a laugh. A lot of the dramatic/poignant moments kinda fell flat, though. I wish they had done a little more with Aunt May... in retrospect, she was just a little too one-dimensional in this series. Aunt May from the Ultimate Spider-Man comic-book series is infinitely more interesting, and they probably should've included some elements from that interpretation of the character.
Aside from that, I have two major gripes about this movie. There's plot holes the size of Venom's mouth in this baby. It's as if the movie's running time got too long and they decided to leave some important plot points on the cutting-room floor. The thing that bothers me is there was a lot left IN that just seemed unnecessary. I'll just mention one of those goofy things: Parker's Landlord's daughter. What. The. Hell. I couldn't understand that element from Spider-Man 2 and it made just as little sense here. I should've looked in the credits to see if she was, like, the producer's daughter or something.
My second major gripe is the very last act, when everything just kinda gets rushed to a conclusion. This rush to get things over with results in the laziest example of a deus ex machina since The Matrix Revolutions' hokey ending. In case you haven't seen it, I won't say too much... just two words: Harry's butler. You'll know what I'm talking about when you get to it. Three movies worth of drama building up, and who gets to resolve all that conflict? The butler did it!
The action is top-notch though. So it's not all bad.
Looks like I'm averaging one post a month now. I have been busy, but it's mostly been a silly kind of business. I bought Sid Meier's Pirates a couple of weeks ago with a gift card I got for my birthday, and I've been sailing up and down the Caribbean making a nuisance of myself like a good pirate should. I have been going to the gym an average of 5 days a week, taking about 2 hours to get through my workout each time. I've gotten a little bigger over the past four months, but it's nothing super-dramatic. I think I've only gained about 8 pounds since I started.
Aside from the silly-busy, there's the not-so-silly busy. I've been teaching a series for the international class about the beatitudes (From the Matthew 5 text), and that's taken up a bit of preparation every week. The preparing part isn't really the hard part of teaching a class like this. It's asking yourself if you're doing any of what you're talking about that's hard. It's been a a crazy few weeks in that sense. Some days it feels like the word of God is a refreshing stream. Other days it's more like a sword, and it cuts. Ouch! Painful personal growth and reflection aside, I've gotten a lot of good feedback about how the series is going, so God is using it to edify the body.
The next beatitude we're going to talk about this coming week a bit of a doozy. It's something that's been on my mind a lot lately: purity. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. The obvious problems with purity apply to me... I don't think there's any need to go into detail. I'm single, I'm young, I'm a guy. What more is there to say! I have a friend asking me from time to time how I'm doing on that front, so I have a little help there. It's still a struggle though. I was talking about it with him early last week, and he tells me he found hope at the end of the tunnel... when he got married. He hasn't had a problem with lust since. Ah, great, I thought. Something else I need to improve my progress on.
That's a narrow view of purity, though. I like something John Wood said a few sermons ago about purity: all it is is desiring one thing, not two mutually-opposed things. Single-minded pursuit of God's desires. Not a NARROW-minded, but single-minded. I think of narrow-minded as wanting something your way and your way only. I think single-minded merely means you want what God wants, regardless of what your expectations or preferences might be, and God's imagination can be a little bigger than ours a lot of the time. I'm not really good at wanting what God wants either, though. I guess it's a good thing Jesus talked about mercy right before this beatitude, because if God's mercy wasn't on your mind you might lose hope thinking about purity!
Oh! I saw Spidey 3 yesterday. Here's my 2-cents: if you saw the first two, you probably need to see this no matter what. I personally thought it was emotionally satisfying, but very, VERY uneven. There were a lot of attempts at hockey comedy, which will definitely get on some people's nerves. I didn't mind so much, since I was in the mood for a laugh. A lot of the dramatic/poignant moments kinda fell flat, though. I wish they had done a little more with Aunt May... in retrospect, she was just a little too one-dimensional in this series. Aunt May from the Ultimate Spider-Man comic-book series is infinitely more interesting, and they probably should've included some elements from that interpretation of the character.
Aside from that, I have two major gripes about this movie. There's plot holes the size of Venom's mouth in this baby. It's as if the movie's running time got too long and they decided to leave some important plot points on the cutting-room floor. The thing that bothers me is there was a lot left IN that just seemed unnecessary. I'll just mention one of those goofy things: Parker's Landlord's daughter. What. The. Hell. I couldn't understand that element from Spider-Man 2 and it made just as little sense here. I should've looked in the credits to see if she was, like, the producer's daughter or something.
My second major gripe is the very last act, when everything just kinda gets rushed to a conclusion. This rush to get things over with results in the laziest example of a deus ex machina since The Matrix Revolutions' hokey ending. In case you haven't seen it, I won't say too much... just two words: Harry's butler. You'll know what I'm talking about when you get to it. Three movies worth of drama building up, and who gets to resolve all that conflict? The butler did it!
The action is top-notch though. So it's not all bad.
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