While other post-graduates were busily preparing for what to bring the next day, I was on the computer looking at a red-and-black screen, dodging a missile at one point and ducking an alien at another. While they were excited to open a new chapter in their life, I was totally focused on vanquishing the ecclesiastico-military palette.
Enjoy watching.
I was playing the Super Cobra (using the Adventure Vision BIOS) on the MESS and I sought to finish the game (by myself) without infinite Cobras to see whether the game would present an alternative ending or not. I was so besotted with the completion of the game because it would give me closure, a closure that I desperately needed to prove to myself that my lust for that failure of a handheld system was juvenile. I vowed to myself to finish it before classes would start primarily to prevent any distraction from my studies. While I had quite a few misgivings regarding medicine, I am a man who sticks by what he has chosen, and as I had chosen medicine I am going to stand by it (despite the fact that I barely slept yesterday and probably wouldn’t later). After about five days of persistence, I was finally able to finish the game with a limited number of Cobras and I also finally discovered that there was no difference in the ending whether one had infinite Cobras or not: the game kept on without end.
Having played as if demon-possessed for a few days, I could not help but notice the different flaws that the Adventure Vision system had. For one, it was very fragile: a short fall and the rotating mirror mechanism that allowed the game to proceed would break. There would be no more game, and no more system. Another flaw to its design was that it was primarily built with red LCDs. The VirtualBoy was merely an upgrade from this console: both have the same red LCDs that cause eye tiredness, headaches, nausea, and dizziness. Finally, the games other than Super Cobra have barely any replay value: the system possessed mediocre graphics at the time, and once one finished with Super Cobra there wasn’t really anything else left to do but to start all over again (or stop playing, which was what I did).
My finishing of the game came at the most opportune time, because after I completed it I could finally disassociate myself with the game and with the obsession that plagued me for a good few weeks. I could also finally focus studying for the medical profession that I have chosen; and while I am still not quite sure of the decision that I have made I am extremely certain on my commitment to my choice. I can only hope that I can surpass the obstacles that I am encountering currently and the even bigger ones that I will face in the future.
Thank you for everyone who has supported me throughout my stint of blogging. While I probably will not stop watching anime, and while I will probably still blog, it will most certainly be not in the same volume or length as before. Right now I have dealt with three-hour night sleeps: I will probably have to deal with worse.
As Samuel Beckett most aptly put it, ‘I can’t go on, I’ll go on.’
Ever since I started reading about and experimenting on file-sharing programs, I have had this quixotic fondness of it. Ultimately, I know that it’s not with the program itself but its userbase that provides the files, but that doesn’t stop me from experimenting with the different programs and their corresponding gimmickries: I have mulled over and studied different instances and permutations of file-sharing programs over the past week. After finally completing all the requirements prior to graduation, I have once again found the study of its different programs interesting and consuming. (I still watch anime, but the bulk of my time was spent attempting to scientifically observe the different properties of different file-sharing programs.) Read the rest of this entry »
I honestly never put much stock in Murphy’s law because I always sought to be the ‘true optimist’ in Sartre’s words. In his seminal essay ‘Existentialism is a Humanism’ Sartre describes the true optimist to be the ultimate pessimist. Man can rely on and must rely on nothing else except himself. He must not find fate, God, or others to blame, because ultimately it is only he, and not these others, who can do anything about it. This is not to say that I’m perennially happy, but Sartre’s existentialist viewpoint has helped me put things into perspective. His existentialism is not the Gurren Lagann type of existentialism: he recognizes that we are situated in this world and we are all, as humans, characterized into a human condition. As humans, we are limited; we must, however, rely on no one but ourselves as we explore and develop within the world.
The key to understanding this episode is through its title. At first it may initially seem nonsensical, but Mercury retrograding is very relevant, especially in astrology. It is true that astrology is not a science; however, it is also true that astrology was utilized for thousands of years to explain human behavior and natural occurrences.
Before I log on to my blog, I always try to put my thoughts in paper first. I’m sad to say that this week has been pretty hectic to the extent that I have only written some scribbles each day for four days. Since I vehemently refuse to do anything related to academic work today, I simply decided to integrate the scribbles. I’ll hopefully come up with a coherent post. Read the rest of this entry »
Andrew wrote a well-thought and concise editorial here. He observes the spread of microblogging among more prominent members of the anime blog-sphere, and argues that these probably have come into existence because these prominent writers are often recognized with their styles and have been known to write such and such as conventions. This allows them to be unique with regard to other bloggers but also sacrifices their ability to be creative with their posts, as their readers often recognize them through their styles. While I cannot speak for Paul, I think I can speak for Daniel.
(Daniel has agreed with this impression of mine generally, but he adds that this seems to be the case only for English literature-cum-language courses in the UK, and does not include Creative Writing courses.) Read the rest of this entry »
