Aleatz Hates Exams (but loves when they're over)

Don't be fooled by the title. This entry is filler! To all of you who are new to email list, bitch to me if you want to be off it. I won't hesitate to remove your ungrateful face off it.

So my last exam was today. Tomorrow I'm going to see Australia. The movie, not the country (that was a running joke at work tonight. You don't have to laugh just because they did). So, I might end up writing an entry on how I hated it (or sarcastically saying I hate it when I actually love it. I do that a lot). Truth be told I've never seen a Baz film that I've adored. I thought they were all pretty average. Of course, all of us are amateur critics, so none of us really have the right to talk unless we're being paid. Ha ha...

I suppose I should say something about exams now, seeing as that's the title. Um, 2 were shit? 2 were good. 1 was average. I figure if I end up breaking even I'll be all set! Three of them were on three days in a row, which was shocking, seeing as the two shit ones were on right after the other. Everyone is jealous of me because I finished my exams early in the week, but no one realises how much I died in the Monday exam. Apparently the biology exam got cancelled half-way through because the fire alarm went off and the building got evacuated. Now they have to do it next Tuesday. Sucks to be them!

So, two of my exams were about geology. The first one (which was shit) involved a massive section where you identified rocks and named their characteristics. I was tempted to write 'This rock is harder than the steel nail, so it'd be good for throwing at someone I don't like', but I decided against it since I needed every mark I could find. Other temptations included 'This rock is porous, so it'll be good for sticking up someone's nose to stop bleeding' and 'This rock is shiny!'

On another note, I'm going to Tamworth in the country next week to look at MORE rocks! It's almost as if my uni break was striving to be shitastic all on it's lonesome! People in my classes are apparently smuggling some alcohol up there, but I don't see much point in drinking on a uni course. All it'll do is make you crap for the mornings when they want you to get up at 6am so you don't miss the rocks.

Some plutonic rocks go into hibernation after 7am, didn't you know? ...Don't lie and say you did.

Aleatz Hates Fillers (#2)

Note to all of you who receive emails: I'm altering the email list soon. If you enjoy getting email updates please email me and tell me to continue sending them to you. If not, well... Your loss!

I just feel like a random rant right now. I can't really justify why. I suppose I have time to 'spare' (a.k.a. no assignment due tomorrow), but I'm tired after today so I can't stay on one topic.

Regular visitors of the interwebz would be familiar with commenting (such as on blogs, HMM??) and I couldn't help but get ticked off by the numerous people who, being the first to comment, write 'Zomg first comment!' then nothing after it... It has got to be the dumbest thing I've ever seen in my life. Do people not get the point of commenting? You're supposed to talk about the thing the comment box is under, not say how you're the first to comment as if it's some amazing accomplishment that no moron could do. Oh, and then doing a second post with the comment. Haha... Weren't you supposed to say 'ZOMG 2ND COMMENT!!!11!'? Because there's no point in breaking a moronic trend. It makes it less funny for the rest of us.

Anyway, I did my Isys practical exam today. Which I aced. I'm not usually that confident for an exam, infact I usually come out of them thinking I've failed. But this was simple 'how i typ in word?' crap. Then when someone in the room said 'What do they mean by "Print Screen"?' I thought 'Yep, it's in the bag'. Although, print screen is a legitimate thing not to know about. If you're not into computers then it makes sense that you wouldn't use it. Kind of like 'Find...', eh Dom?

Anyway, FINALS NEXT WEEK! Holy shit this year went fast! I can't believe it. Even though I went to Europe and worked and had uni... It all just disappeared. It doesn't feel like I've learnt all that much either. I know a bit about rocks now... But that doesn't feel all too significant. I'm enjoying my non-geology courses, like Global Studies and Information Systems, because they're a change of pace, you know? Global Studies has been my absolute favourite, even though there's a lot of essays involved.

[/filler]

Aleatz Hates Stupid Ideologies

Source: I don't fucking know. It was sent to me by Plague and I can't remember the URL, so if you're really keen on finding it then go and hunt for it.

I know by now many people are either celebrating or complaining about Obama's victory in the US presidential election right now. If you read this entire blog entry you probably won't need me to tell you how I feel about it, since I'll make my stance pretty obvious. While doing my fabulous geology assignment (because rocks are boring) I felt the urge to explore a particular ideology that was discussed leading up to the election, but still slightly baffles me. The idea that socialism is evil.

Now please, don't jump the gun on me. I wouldn't describe myself as a 'socialist'. However I'm really unsure what to describe myself as. Socialism seems to be where I lean most, along with my liberal ideals. But still I feel that socialism is a strategy which should be used in certain circumstances, and shouldn't become a universal policy. I feel much the same way about capitalism and communism. They all have their pros and cons, but it's up to people to recognise these and understand what situations they should be applied to.

John McCain used 'Joe the Plumber' as a representation of the 'American Dream', which relies on the concept of capitalism to insure a person has the freedom to choose the role they serve in society and what they can spend their income on. Upon hearing that Obama wanted to 'spread the wealth around', McCain supporters booed and jeered, while I sat it my seat thinking 'that doesn't sound like a bad idea'.

So, what is wrong with spreading the wealth? Well, it's very much a case of forced charity, where someone unwillingly (because of the law) gives someone a fraction of their wealth without the other person 'earning' it. In Walter Williams' article (see below) he compares social security to thievery, and believes God would oppose such forced acts of charity. His argument is that people should have the right to choose whether or not to give their hard earned dollars to another person, or more specifically who that person might be.

I can see the logic... To a degree. However, humans are greedy, selfish creatures. Even those 'under' God. What we can't see or feel we rarely ever care about, unless it is emotionally pushed upon us by a charity ad or a Salvation Army officer. That's why I believe we need a system which acts as a Robin Hood-type character... Evenly distributing wealth to those people who never got the same opportunities as those with wealth. No singular person can determine where money is needed most, and most people have no clue about many problems which impact society. A government; a collection of people elected to create cohesion, is a far better option in creating equality.

In R. G. Price's rebuttle to Williams' article he jokes about the idea that socialism is damaging to a prosperious economy, and instead argues that it has helped create the middle-class; a class many people take pride in being in because it symbolises prosperity and equality, but not gluttony.

Another opinion pressed by Raphael Kaplinsky in one of his articles is that globalisation and capitalism are unsustainable practises and the cause of great inequality and environmental degradation in this world. I must admit I can see the link here. Personally I believe that while people have the option of consuming more they will often take that option. Again, this links back to greed and simple human desires. We'd rather a Ferrari than a Toyota because it's better, not because the Toyota prevents us from getting to A to B and the Ferrari doesn't.

If we want change we will have to impliment slow changes to limit consumption of not just fuels, but food and materials. Fast changes will cause outroar for all those who live a stable or high-end lifestyle and wish to keep it. Currently the technologies are not readily available to create sustainable development right around the world.

Is socialism evil? Is socialised health care the work of the devil? Is a country one step away from communism if they support socialism? I doubt it. I think people can get paranoid about just about anything, and when someone's threatening to apply a higher tax to someone who can afford it more than the starving man, any excuse will do.

Wanna read some opinions? Of course you do:

Socialism is Evil (#1) ~ Walter E. Williams
http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/04/socialism.html
Socialism is Evil (#2) ~ Walter E. Williams
http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/04/socialism2.html


Rebuttal to Walter Williams' "Socialism is Evil" ~ R. G. Price
http://rationalrevolution.net/articles/rebuttal_to_walter_williams.htm

Globalization, Poverty and Inequality ~ Raphael Kaplinsky
http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9780745635538


P.S. Sorry this wasn't my usual comedic rant. Not that I should apologise since no one reads these things anyway! (Except that shitty Sasuke entry...)

Aleatz Hates Monies (#1)

Please forgive me for this horrid animation. It seemed good in theory, but now it looks shit. Episode 2 will actually be funny, although by the time I post it I probably won't think that. And just so you know, I intend to write a bunch of random crap after I post one of these things. Just a warning.




This is the time of the year when a bunch of stuff hits the fan. Exams, finances, Xmas prep... You know what I mean, right? Surprisingly, for once in my life I'm actually managing things pretty well. I'm not procrastinating much with certain things... Perhaps I'm growing up? I sure hope so. About time my brain caught up to my chest.

That said, I don't seem to have enough focus for a solid 'one topic only' blog post, so I won't make one. Not now anyway. I feel inclined to do a MASSIVE post on Jesus Camp [link] and how stupid fundamentalism is, but we can save that for another day (month).

Dom got me hooked on Birds of Tokyo. If you feel like some new grooves I suggest you check them out. I promise you won't be disappointed (note: not an actual promise). I've also (this one is actually pathetic) been hooked on Code Geass, that crappy anime that doesn't know whether it's a mecha or a drama. I suppose all mechas are dramas when it comes down to it. However this is far more drama than I expected. It's like Death Note (actually, it's so similar to Death Note that I had to check the title to see if I wasn't watching a 'future' based Death Note series), so this means I already know what's going to happen. Yay for me.

Oh, and I'm going for my green Ps on Wednesday. I don't really care... There's not much of a difference between a P1 and P2 license anyway. I still won't be able to have any alcohol before driving, which means my staff drink shall continue to 'go to waste' (as said by Craig) on cranberry juice and lemon, lime and bitters (although bitters is actually alcoholic, but if anyone asks I didn't actually know that).

Aleatz Hates US Comedy Remakes

That's right. They're actually showing the US production of Kath & Kim tomorrow on NBC, then on Sunday in Australia.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=642819

Although I didn't even have to see it to know it would be awful, here's a little preview for all those who allocated time to this shitty remake (I sure hope no one actually did).



Yeah, it was Australia's #1 show until you fucked with it. You even pulled Sharon out. Now it's a pile of roting garbage. (Actually, Chasers is better, but surely American producers wouldn't be stupid enough to make an US version... would they?) No one in the US will even touch the Aussie version now, thanks to this shit.

The argument for creating this crime against humanity was that Americans wouldn't get Australian humour/jokes. This must have also been the divine logic behind the tragedy which was the US remake of Red Dwarf. Now I know how it feels to see my culture warped.

Well Yankees? Do you get this?:



If not, then maybe they just should have never put Kath & Kim on in America in the first place. The show was good because of its satirical representation of middle class Australia. Now the US has cocked up and served out a shitty sitcom which is just like all their other shitty sitcoms... Hell, it's so crap that it's even worse. I sure hope Jane and Gina have learnt their lesson.

And another note...

DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH BLACK BOOKS, OR THERE WILL BE PAIN!

Aleatz Hates Emos

It appears that updating has become a monthly phenomenon...

Anyway, so I just accidentally deleted my ISYS assignment. I'm a little pissed. It wasn't anything long or hard, but I'd basically finished it and my computer has a different version of Excel to those at uni so it's just going to be a bitch to do now. Right, now that that's off my chest I'll go onto the main article.


It was in high school that the term 'emo' was first introduced to me, and I remember that for a few years after I still had no clue what it really meant. Randomly and recently I decided to look it up on the internet, because although I 'know' what the term means I was curious to know what people who fitted into the emo subculture actually thought it was.

You know when you go on an insightful journey and then find out that there wasn't anything too insightful to begin with? No? Well I suppose it doesn't happen too often. I don't know why I expected there to be anything insightful about such a crappy mainstream subculture, but I hoped that people who were involved would have enough brains to describe their culture as something more than the vague and dumb image I had developed over the last few years.

Source from http://www.luv-emo.com/

The term for the teenagers who listen emocore is emo kids. The society thinks about them as failures; they are not strong enough to hide their emotions, they're sensitive, shy, introverted, and often quiet. Usually, Emo kids like to express their feeling writing poems about their problems with depression, confusion, and anger; all because the world fails to understand them. Emo poetry uses a combination of any of: a highly emotional tone, stream of consciousness writing, a simple (ABAB) or nonexistent rhyme scheme, references to the flesh, especially the heart, heavy use of dark or depressing adjectives, and concern over the mutability of time, love or both. Themes such as life is pain are common. You can check some 'emo poems' on our forum! Altough life is already very hard for them, emo kids have to suffer for even more society prosecution because of their condition. The term 'emo' itself is used nowadays as an insult. Adressed to a person means they are 'overly emotional'. Emocore is compared with pop boy bands of 1990s. Critics cast the music as lacking any artistic merit and that the fashion is just ... a fashion used to drive girls attention. The ones who are emo not because they feel it, but because they like to be trendy are named 'posers'. A big percent of the current emo subculture is formed by posers. Emo subculture is acused that it is celebrating self-harm. As i've said before many fail to understand that those are only fake emos (rawrr you bastards, get away from here); actually i have no rights to judge them even if most of us suffer because of them.

I've bolded all the parts which made me crack into hysterics. The main part which makes me laugh is the concept of suffering and how it's used in this description in particular.

Amyler thinks I use Kenya as a solution to all my problems. Damn right I do. But I can substitute it for another African country like Rwanda if I want, because I'm pretty sure sending any of these whiny arseholes out of a first world country would stop them from bitching about 'suffering'. Suffering is when someone actually has to live through some sort of traumatic experience. How is suffering linked to people incorrectly using your subculture? Who gives a shit if they listen to similar music as you and feel the urge to call themselves emo or whatever?

I don't. But then again, I'm not an emo and I haven't really suffered through society's prosecution or however you describe it. Then again, I've never described myself as suffering, so I don't feel like a hypocrite.

I'd like to make some points which might never be read by anyone, let alone the webmaster of luv-emo, but I'll write them because this is how I get my kicks after deleting my assignment.

• Judging by your forums and everything, it appears there's plenty of emos out there... I'm sure these spoilt brats (and that is what they are) can find emo friends close to them to gain friendships.
• I'm presuming that the ratio of disability and all that is similar to the average person, so I guess they're not stuck on getting a job (unless you include mental aspects, in which they're pretty much screwed).
• Based on the two forementioned points you have nothing to bitch about. I could stop here but I'll just keep going.
• Your subculture and music genre was probably coined by some sly music producers and artists who are now rolling in dough because now they have an automatic fanbase who basically listens to music and writes poems as their main hobbies.
• There are people out there who suffer from depression, abuse and all the excuses that you use to complain about your life who don't bitch about it on a daily basis and don't feel the need to join a generic subculture which has no individuality.
• First sentence contradicts the fourth last sentence. 'Emo kids' are described as teenagers who listen to emocore, but apparently to be emo you need to 'feel it'... WTF? A serious WTF. First listening to a particular genre of music makes you emo, then you have to feel something that only the cheerleaders from Bring It On would know about to be a real emo. It's all full of bullshit.

Am I generalising much? Probably. But emos brought it upon themselves with their crappy websites, music, fashion sense and personalities. Besides, I didn't realise that you could classify someone's entire personality based on the music they listened to. You learn something every day.

PS: I was trying to find the part in Skins where Chris is sitting with the emo kids at a party, but I couldn't. Instead, here's him trying to sell a cup of tea. Enjoy!

Aleatz Hates Bleach

Source: http://www.vgcats.com/. The best representation of Bleach on the web. For a real life representation, take your dog for a walk.

When discussing Bleach to those who watch the series religiously, I put forward the impression that I don't like the show because it drags a fair bit. Most respond by asking where I'm up to, and after I explain further they reply with something along the lines of:

“Oh. Well, that's a boring bit, obviously. You should skip the next 20 episodes till you get to the next arc, because that's good. Also, you might want to just forget the section after that, since most of that's filler... blah, blah, blah, bleh, bleh, blah...”

How about this all of you Bleach fans. NO. Fuck no. I've tried watching it, and I'm not doing it. You know the reason why people don't drink bleach? Because it makes you vomit. The same could almost be said about the way this show seems to consume people's time, even though they realise they're watching something which isn't that good.

What is so great about Bleach? Fight scenes? Psh. They're alright, but I'm not waiting 10 episodes just to get to a good fight scene. Or, alternatively, sitting through a fight scene which contains about 10 minutes of pointless dialogue. What does Bleach think it is, Dragon Ball Z? I also noticed a shitload of running. Most of it contained dialogue, but none of it was any good. In fact there's not really any good dialogue in the entire show. So I'm almost at a loss as to why people still watch it.

Your common household detergent currently contains 187 episodes of shit. Wolf's Rain (one of my favourites) has 30 episodes in total, with 2-3 being fillers. Full Metal Alchemist has 51, plus a movie. Trinity Blood has 24. Trigun has 26.

So tell me why Bleach needs 187 episodes to be good? The answer is astoundingly simple. It isn't good, therefore it needs a million more episodes to make up for the fact that the people making it don't know how to summarise. Somehow quantity prevails once again over quality.

You know what's even more disturbing? The anime is supposedly better than the manga! God, the manga must be complete shite then. The only show I've come to hate more than Bleach is Inuyasha, and that's basically because they're so similar. They both have a ton of episodes, a disgruntled protagonist who carries an oversized sword, and a bunch of creators rolling around in the money which is spent to purchase all the DVDs and manga books which come with these shitty shows.

So can someone please tell me what's the appeal of this show? Or is it like cigarettes? Only the users know...