There's something about clouds. No matter how bad a photographer you might be, a picture you take of clouds always comes out beautiful.

A picture I took just before the rains started. Of course, nearly rolled off the roof and died during the process.
You win some, you lose some.

In the perfect world, calculus would be a defunct subject.
All the females would look like Christina Hendricks have godly skin, shapely waists and glossy hair.

And Karen Carpenter's voice.

The males would be like Don Draper and Sterling Archer. Probably.
Sans the douchebaggery and chain smoking, of course. I don't know.
We'd all have Wisteria Lane houses, with white picket fences, immaculately trimmed hedges, and friendly neighbours.
Imagine that. A utopia, in every sense of the word.

That kind of perfection, it's unreal.
Don Draper and Sterling Archer are assholes.
Karen Carpenter had a severe eating disorder that eventually claimed her life.
Wisteria Lane has more than its fair share of dark, murky secrets.
Even the word 'Utopia' comes from the Greek word for "no place". No place. You cheeky Greeks.

Perfection is a myth.

And to be perfectly honest, who needs that kind of perfection?
You know how something sweet tastes nice, but something unbearably sweet makes you sick to the stomach? The very same funda applies here.
Simply put, Perfection is boring. Imperfections maketh a man.
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I seem to have come down with the cold of the century. My brain is slowly dribbling out my nose. This is probably another one of those acts of God. By staying put indoors, I can't get soaked in the rain and die of pneumonia.

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#4568790: Brb, fangirling.

You may have noticed how often my blog's background picture changes, according to what book/film/game/tv show I'm currently obsessed with.
While I was scouring the interwebs, I came across this :slice of fried gold:.
Naturally, I HAD TO HAVE IT ;A;

So, what I'm going to do now is see how many of these movie quotes I can guess without Google.
A week from now, I'll google everything I missed out and add them in.
Anyone who'd reading and would like to guess the ones I miss are most welcome to try. [You cheating bastards will probably use Google anyway. Pfft.]
Here goes nothing..

• Let’s Go To Work [Reservoir dogs]
• Roads? We Don’t Need Roads. [Back to the Future]
• Fava Beans and a Nice Chianti [Silence of the lambs]
• Hasta La Vista, Baby [Terminator]
• To Infinity and Beyond [Toy Story]
• We’re on a Mission From God [The Blues Brothers]
• Choose Your Future, Choose Life [Trainspotting. Tried to read the novel. Gave up eventually. Scottish, man! ._.]
• You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat [Jaws]
• An Offer He Can’t Refuse [The Godfather]
• Say Hello to my Little Friend [Scarface]
• Stay Calm, This is a Robbery [Pulp Fiction? Dog Day Afternoon? Idk.]
• With Great Powers Comes Great Responsibility [Spiderman]
• Get Away From Her You Bitch [Aliens]
• Are You Talkin’ To Me? [Taxi Driver]
• Are You Feelin’ Lucky, Punk? [Dirty Harry]
• I’m The King of the World [Titanic. 2D/3D #youprefer]
• Martini Shaken, Not Stirred [One of them James Bond movies. The Sean Connery ones. Dr. No?]
• That’s Not a Knife, This Is a Knife
• I Am Kaiser Soze [The Usual Suspects]
• One Life Ends, Another Begins
• I Love the Smell of Napalm in the Morning [Apocalypse Now]
• 60% Of The Time, It Works Every Time
• I Am Jack’s Complete Lack of Surprise [Fight Club :shamelessly breaks rules:]
• One Ring to Rule Them All [Fellowship of the Ring]
• You’re One Ugly Mother*bleep*er
• If You Kill Him, He Will Win [Se7en. This movie was nightmare fuel back in 6th std.]
• Why Did It Have To Be Snakes? [Raiders of the Lost Ark]
• We Had a Pact, Wolfpack Only
• Life is Like a Box of Chocolates [Forrest Gump]
• Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying
• Wax On Wax Off [The Karate Kid]
• Dead or Alive, You’re Coming With Me
• He’s Not The Messiah, He’s a Very Naughty Boy
• I Feel the Need, The Need for Speed [Top Gun]
• There’s a Bomb on the Bus [Speed]
• What’s This? What’s This? [The Nightmare Before Christmas]
• Show Me The Money [Jerry Maguire]
• These Go To Eleven
• Who Ya Gonna Call? [Ghostbusters!]
• Now Bring Me The Horizon [Curse of the Black Pearl]
• No One Stays at the Top Forever
• Why So Serious? [The Dark Knight]
• These Aren’t The Droids You’re Looking For [Episode IV-A New Hope]
• Vote for Pedro

-----------------


Not too shabby, I guess.

Cleverbot conversation RTH00663707 Is this bot clever? Find out at http://www.cleverbot.com Email this conversation to a friend See a detailed log with times

User: Lets get down to business! Cleverbot: To defeat the huns? User: Did they send me daughters, when I asked for sons? Cleverbot: You're the saddest bunch I ever met. User: But you can bet before we're through. Cleverbot: Somehow I'll make a man out of you. User: I'm never gonna catch my breath. Cleverbot: Say goodbye to those who knew me. User: Why was I a fool in school for cutting gym? Cleverbot: This guy's got them scared to death. User: Hope he doesn't see right through me. Cleverbot: Now I really wish that I knew how to swim! User: Be a man! Cleverbot: You must be swift as a coursing river. User: Be a man! Cleverbot: With all the force of a great typhoon. User: Be a man! Cleverbot: With all the strength of a raging fire! User: Mysterious as the dark side of the moon! Cleverbot: Time is racing toward us! User: Till the Huns arrive! Cleverbot: Heed my every order! User: And you might survive! Cleverbot: You're unsuited for the rage of war. User: So pack up, go home, you're through. Cleverbot: How could I make a man out of you.

-------------

Cleverbot UNDERSTANDS MEE.

Also, it's an unspoken rule [or should be one] that whenever someone says "Let's get down to business", another person should reply back with "To defeat the Huns!".

K.

The Pill.

I spend an unhealthy amount of time scouring the interwebs for creepy, scary stories, collectively called 'Creepypasta'.
Not long ago, I found this story, and liked it very much. It has a very eerie, Lovecraftian feel to it.

Enjoy.

[Credited to the creepypasta subreddit and the creepypasta wiki. And of course, /x/.]
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Don't take it.

It's a miracle and a glory and the greatest thing to ever happen, so they say, and it'll probably become the law soon that you have to take it. They'll have you swallow a little capsule when you're still a baby; probably at the same time you're getting your inoculations. The piece of the thing in there weighs only a few grams and will be plucked out of a little pool that will probably be installed in every hospital soon.

Those couple grams are more than enough for it to happen. Sure, you'll never get cancer. You'll live until a hundred and fifty. You'll have stronger bones and a more resilient immune system. You'll probably never need glasses or a hearing aid. If you lose something small like a finger, in half a year you'll have it back. If you lose a whole arm, in two years you'll have it back with nearly full functionality. It's the sort of miracle that's believable enough to catch on. It won't solve all our problems, and it'll even create a few more. Like overpopulation like we'd never saw coming. But it works and it's cheap and it's plentiful and that's all we need. Sure they can't quite explain how the thing actually manages to rewrite our genetic code after we swallow a few grams; but they promise the answers will come someday and that there are no ill side effects.

It's from a 'previously unknown variety of starfish; but they won't even tell you that on the news. I think the story right now is that it's something they're growing artificially. These starfish live in the deepest, darkest places in the ocean and they aren't very big or interesting looking. Honestly, we've probably seen them down there before a thousand times and just looked them over. It just so happened that prick with the show about eating weird foods got ahold of one, god knows how, and thought it was a different kind of starfish and ate part of it and a year later he had that foot he lost back. I'm sure they tore apart his house and tested gallons of his blood and interrogated everyone he ever spoke to, but somehow they figured out just when the regeneration happened and eventually found the fucking thing. It had been alive when he ate one of its arms and I guess he took a pity on it and let the thing live in a tank in his house. Well, this led to that and eventually they brought up a ton of the suckers.

But here's the thing. Think about or technology and innovations; think about what they're for. Mostly it's to keep us alive longer, make us healthier, help us communicate better. What if, as a race, we'd already had the ability to communicate via thought? What if we were naturally incredibly hardy and long-lived? What if we started out having everything we needed without having to do a bit of work? Our goals would turn to keeping our world the way it was and simply enjoying things. With a mind so powerful it can transmit and receive thoughts with no effort, it stands to reason other amazing things are possible too. With that mind staying completely intact in even the smallest sliver of the creature, one has to wonder just what else that mind can do..

So now here's the question. If you'd survived all this time just sitting around on the bottom of the ocean with this incredible intellect, how would you amuse yourself? What if that mind can wander and roam freely if it can just find something to carry it? What if as a race we made ourselves the bottom of the food chain just to ensure we'd constantly be taken into new creatures and allowed to see the world through their eyes? Is it really such a leap to think that such powerful minds could overtake smaller, lesser ones? No. Nor is it unusual to think that if such a race of powerful minds was endangered; they would use this ability to dominate the minds to defend themselves. That they'd patiently wait until their enemies devoured them, then simply displace the minds of those enemies and solve the conflict? I don't think it's crazy at all, and I don't think it's crazy that there's suddenly a lot more war all over the world. A lot research put into birth control and the 'accidental' release of that superbug that makes men sterile. We should be enjoying world peace but instead we're killing each other faster than ever before.

Maybe they're not even threatened, maybe we're just a game to them. Maybe we're the hundredth race of beings these things have done this with. All I know is they don't turn you into some zombie from a cheesey old sci-fi flick...they let you think you're still in control; that what they want you to do is actually what you want to do. It all seems so natural, so right. Then we're in World War III and the only thing the bombs won't scorch clean is the floor of the ocean.

Don't ask me how I know all of this, and don't take that pill.

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#3588: Stuck in limbo between gender stereotypes? You are not alone.

Tomboy; n.;

A girl who dresses and sometimes behaves the way boys are expected to, often into more masculine things like "stronger" sports, computers, or cars.

I've been called a tomboy all my life.
How did I ever get stuck with the stereotype in the first place? Maybe it was Dad's oversized cast-off t-shirts that I wore when I went to play outside. Maybe it was the super-short hairstyle I always seemed to have back in the day. One may never know.
I mean, sure, I played with Barbies and had a kitchen set, but I mostly used the kitchen set to prepare slightly ambiguous amalgams of mud, flour, leaves and other oddities. And the Barbies? I'd arrange and rearrange them until I'd get bored and drive my Godzilla through their living room.

I took Bharatanatyam lessons. For almost a decade. Yeah.
[I even wrote an exam, so I'm an official senior, or something.]
Whenever we put on performances, I usually played the male god, or, the villain, or the demon who has an intense battle with the hero[ine] and eventually gets slayed. Once I did get a chance to play a female, but I turned it down and asked to play a male instead. Why? Because the male dancers get a moustache drawn on their faces.
A moustache!

Right. Before I wander off into the faraway kingdom of repressed childhood memories, let me just cut to the chase.
I never was the 'typical' girl. Never wanted to be her. I just wanted to, teeth-gritting-cliches aside, be myself. You know, the kind of kid that could play Dress Up with the other girls and Mortal Kombat with the guys, without getting labelled.

But no. Of course not. I got the tomboy label slapped on my forehead for everyone to see. And with the label came all the expectations demanded by society of me.
"I shouldn't play with dolls. Because it's girly", "I shouldn't wear skirts. Skirts are for :girls:" et al.

Um, Society? Hello? The last time I checked, I was still very much a human female.

And once you get labelled, everything you do begins to reflect upon it. :Would a tomboy do this? Would a tomboy wear this?:
Even now, when I dress up for some occasion and look at myself in the mirror, a tiny voice at the back of my mind goes "Why am I dressing up all girly?"
I feel like a fraud. A liar.
Like a dude in girls' clothes.

Basically, the point is that labels, for lack of a better word, suck. The world can do without them. There's this whole fancy notion of what a :real: girl or guy should act and think like. A standard. A blueprint. Any failure to conform to the said blueprint earns you a stupid label that makes us seem so...ordinary. It's a cryin' shame.

Maiti out.

#574: Oh you know, general discontentment with people. The usual.

#41: "Could you kill your best friend?"

I watched Battle Royale yesterday.

It's a Japanese movie, released in 2000, and has been in the news lately because of the recent release of the Hunger Games movie. A lot of people claim that BR is where Suzanne Collins got inspiration from for THG, but who knows. The concept's been seen way before in Lord of the Flies (which I haven't read yet. But I will! Someday.)
And it is a highly controversial movie, met with many bans since it was released.
Fact: I'm attracted to controversial media as shrimp to, say, the angler fish's bio-luminescence.

A summary of the the plot would be something like this:

At the dawn of the new millennium, Japan is in a a state of near-collapse. Unemployment is at an all-time high, and violence among the nation's youth is spiraling out of control. With schoolchildren boycotting their classes and physically abusing their teachers, a beleaguered and near-defeated government decides to introduce a radical new measure: the Battle Royale Act Overseen by their former teacher Kitano and requiring that a randomly chosen school class is taken to a deserted island and forced to fight each other to the death, the Act dictates that only one pupil is allowed to survive the punishment. He or she will return, not as the victor, but as the ultimate proof of the lengths to which the government is prepared to go to curb the tide of juvenile disobedience.

A class is picked at random, kidnapped on their school trip and brought to a deserted island to participate in a battle to the death with each other. Last person alive leaves, or everyone dies. And that gets to them real good. Everybody gets so fucked up in the mind that they're ready to slaughter their classmates in order to leave the island. There's this one scene where two best friends are shown having a teary, senti farewell, and later in the movie they're shown dead, having killed each other. O_O
The movie has a certain je ne sais quoi about it. It sets you thinking: "What would you do in a situation like this?", "Would you even last a couple of hours?", "Can you really trust anyone?", and "Could you kill your own best friend?"

Have I been losing much sleep because of the movie?
Oh yeah.


It's sick?
Yes.

Twisted?
Correct.

Extremely violent?
Of course.

Would you watch it again?
...
Yeah. But a long time from now. The movie is fantastic. But I've had enough depressing, subversive media for now.


BR's been adapted from a novel of the same name. And there's a manga version of it too.
The novel I might read someday, but the manga? NOPE NOPE NOPE OH FUCK NO NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS THAT MANGA IS FUCKED UP BEYOND BELIEF I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE NEAR IT ASDFGHJKLLKJHJ

I really need to watch a couple of happy movies right now. .-.

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Edit 1: Not long after I wrote this, I read somewhere that there's a BR reference in Shaun of the Dead in the form of a poster. I checked, and HOLY SHIT IT'S THERE.
How every movie I seem to watch nowadays is in some way connected to Simon Pegg, I'll never know. But this is getting freaky.

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Edit 2: Found a copy of Lord of the Flies at local bookstore. And I said I'd had enough of subversive literature. Hahaha.

#483: In which I run into the 11/12 Sc. male population's dream Barbie at the local supermarket.

To her left and right are her cousins Rockstar Barbie and Cheerleader Barbie.

So I was at the supermarket yesterday, looking for a present for a friend of mine. Since the bookstore had already closed for the day before I got there, I wandered off to the toys section.

Lets just say for a couple minutes I felt like I was in Wonderland. Slinkies, MASSIVE teddy bears, Star Wars lego, remote controlled tanks, Nerf guns(!!). Frickin' ViewMasters! I haven't seen one of those in years. ;W;

Of course, there were these Barbies, and Cindys and various Disney Princess dolls too. When I was walking through the Barbie aisle, I stumbled into Computer Engineer Barbie, and instantly remembered a conversation I had with Sir Walten earlier, about limited edition Barbies.

You see, Sir W.? She exists. I wasn't kidding. :P