J Kwan

2018 Readlist

FAQ

Why do you read so many old books?

Because most of them belong to the public domain, and are thus freely available online. Also it is fun to see how much the past influences and creates the foundation for the present. And how much or how little has changed, and what this says about humanity.

Orwell - Animal Farm (1945)

A satire on the Russian Revolution and the failure of communism. Among other things, Animal Farm underlines the importance of learning to read properly and think for oneself, in a way that tickles with dark humor.

Orwell - 1984 (1949)

Similar to Animal Farm, 1984 is an even more systematic and total examination of a society where all history and information is tightly controlled and constantly being rewritten. Being published after WW2, 1984 trades some of Animal Farm’s humor for more serious and tragic imagery of concentration camps. In a sense, 1984 is an exploration of the possibility of mind control or brainwashing through societal-level propaganda.

Huxley - Brave New World (1932)

Absolutely fantastic. If 1984 was about what would happen if everything we read was false, then Brave New World is what would happen if no one had the desire to read at all. Brave New World shows a futuristic society that runs like clockwork with the help of genetic engineering and a miracle drug called Soma. COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY. BNW examines the costs of a society that is mass-produced off assembly lines.

Fitzgerald - Great Gatsby (1925)

A criticism of conspicuous consumption and the Roaring 20s. You can’t bring your mansion with you when you die. Mortality sucks that way. Throughout the novel we are invited to ask ‘what makes Gatsby (the character) so great?’ From rags to riches to death, Gatsby’s lonely existence is pitiable, tragic and relatable as ever.

Steinbeck - Grapes of Wrath (1939)

Steinbeck’s illustration of the 1930s Dust Bowl and the resulting migration of impoverished families west across the United States, is a poetic masterpiece. ‘You want to work for 15cents an hour?! Well I got a thousan’ fellas willing to work 10cents an hour.’ Also featuring two of the strongest female characters in modern literature, Grapes of Wrath is a powerful lesson on human dignity.

Shakespeare - Hamlet (1599)

The more I read Hamlet, the more I come to the conclusion that Hamlet is about delay of action. In a way, Hamlet forces himself to be penitent for something he doesn’t do. The more time he spends contemplating whether or not to kill Claudius, the more time he has to beat himself up and call himself a coward, and for accidents to pile up. ‘But put your courage to the sticking place!’ Hamlet is what happens when you ask a philosopher to commit murder.

Shakespeare - King Lear (1605)

A lesson in parenting. If you want people (especially your children) to respect you, do not spoil them. Lear learns this lesson far too late, and gives up his inheritance far too early. Another possible lesson is to not trust liars, and instead divine a person’s character by their actions. The trouble is, with so much action going on behind the scenes, the opportunities for dramatic irony and treachery are twofold!

Wilde - Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)

An example of 19^th century Gothic Romanticism. And also, similar to Great Gatsby, another cautionary tale against conspicuous consumption. Dorian Gray, forever beautiful, forever young, is by all appearances the outward ideal of a dandy. As the novel develops, his cruelty and vanity plunge to increasing depths.

Wilde - Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

The comedic side of being a dandy. If the suit makes the man, surely if I wear a different suit I become a different man? In a play of double-identities, love polygons and other trivialities, Earnest is a raucous upset of 19^th century decorum.

Ibsen - Hedda Gabler (1891)

A complex and cruel character, Hedda’s penchant for destroying the lives of others, seems to stem from bitterness and boredom toward her own life.

Williams - Glass Menagerie (1944)

Theater is a box through which we view the lives of our fellow homo sapiens. Like passing by an exhibit at the museum, or peeking in on pandas at the zoo, Glass Menagerie presents a slice of life.

McCourt - Angela’s Ashes (1996)

A coming-of-age memoir about an Irish boy growing up in an impoverished family. From the day he’s born to the day he becomes a man, memorable moments include: father always coming home drunk, scavenging for coal to get the fire going, stealing loaves of bread, shoes made of tire rubber, having an affair with a terminally ill girl, having pig’s head for Christmas, and wearing Grandma’s old dress to stay warm at night.

Salinger - Catcher in the Rye (1951)

A tightly written story of teenage angst, about the few days after an unmotivated student drops out of a New York prep school. Unable to face his family, he wanders around the bustling city, growing increasingly depressed. Holden’s conversations with different characters throughout the novel, underline a simple moral that sometimes we just want someone to listen. (Preferably someone who isn’t a phony!)

Shakespeare - Macbeth (1606)

A bloody and ambitious soldier descends into madness after the murders the King! It can be difficult interpreting and staging the supernatural elements of the play (e.g. do you show the ghosts on stage? what about the Witches? When, why). But remember Shakespeare is writing in a time hundreds of years before modern psychology, where memory and cognition was still immaterial and mysterious. Similar to Dorian Gray (1890), Macbeth is a moral on how one’s actions affect one’s mind.

Albom - Tuesdays with Morrie (1997)

Succumbing to ALS near the end of his life, sociology professor Morrie Schwartz welcomes death with open arms. Hosting many visitors and having many conversations with family, friends, past students, the media, Morrie’s affable outlook on life and mortality shines.

Golding - Lord of the Flies (1954)

An allegory on the state of nature. One wonders if/how the story may have been different (and possibly more horrifying and prone to censorship debates) if female characters were involved. I suppose that would be a separate inquiry. Unable to see beyond the horizon, and unwilling to look at themselves, Jack and his follows almost doom them all.

Lowry - The Giver (1993)

Another science fiction dystopia in a similar vein as Brave New World or 1984, but less difficult and more relatable for teenagers. Those who enjoy The Giver, should check out the film Pleasantville (1998) featuring Tobey Macguire getting stuck in a black-and-white world. Naturally the lesson being that life is never so simple.

Naipaul - Miguel Street (1959)

A collection of short stories centered around unique characters in a slum in Port of Spain. Featuring arson, domestic violence and plenty of eccentric amateurs, Miguel Street illustrates a colorful community.

Thiong’O - Weep Not Child (1964)

Set during the Mau Mau Uprising against British colonial rule, Weep Not Child follows one boy’s goal of education. Meanwhile his family falls apart around him, and is cut off from his best friend.

Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables (1908)

Having recently been adapted by CBC/Netflix into a series (which is very good), the original novel is full of comedy, quaint coming-of-age lessons centered around school, tea parties, accidents and adventures. But despite this levity, Anne ends with a tragic turn which places it well within the realm of reality.

Shelley - Frankenstein (1818)

Another example of 19^th century Gothic Romanticism (like Dorian Gray). Doctor Victor Frankenstein becomes obsessed with the idea of creating life from inanimate material, only to spurn his own creation just after giving life to it. The monster, filled with rage and envy, murders Frankenstein’s dearest friends. A sort of cautionary tale in the same vein as Doctor Faustus by Marlowe, Frankenstein is a counter-weight to the enthusiasm around science at the time. That science can not only produce miracles, but also horrors in its own way if one is not careful.

Anderson - Winesburg Ohio (1919)

A collection of short stories revolving around a small community (similar to Miguel Street). Themes of religion, old age, loneliness, love, feeling stuck in a small town, Winesburg is full of some of the most heart-rending stories in all literature. Also Winesburg manages to accomplish a unity of themes in very short space. The whole of Winesburg is much more than the sum of its parts, such that it can stand just as well against other great novels.

Bronte, Charlotte - Jane Eyre (1847)

One could argue that Jane Eyre is the predecessor to Anne of Green Gables. The latter frequently references the former, both are about orphan girls who grow up successfully in the face of many adverse challenges. While Anne ends with the protagonist becoming a young adult, Jane Eyre ends with a more traditional romantic happy ending, but like Anne is not without its tragedy.

Bronte, Emily - Wuthering Heights (1847)

Fun fact, Wuthering Heights was a novel I considered doing an independent study essay on, but didn’t since I didn’t know anything about literature back then. Although technically of the gothic genre, Bronte primarily uses cruelty and domestic violence to evoke scenes of horror, as opposed to ghosts and monsters, while at the same time using these as tools to explore very down-to-earth themes of social class and gender inequality.

Joyce - Dubliners (1914)

Very similar to Winesburg Ohio, but without the same unity. For example, one story is difficult to read without first reading about the history of Ireland. There are some tear-jerkers and lovely metaphors. For example the final metaphor of “snow falling faintly through the universe”, is a variation of the oft-used metaphor of flowers. How they bloom for a short period then die. What is new with this metaphor is that each snowflake is unique, thanks to the chaotic tumbling of water droplets through the atmosphere, just like how every live is unique. But all snowflakes much reach the ground some time and then melt away into nothingness.

reading literature shakespeare romanticism gothic 19th century 20th century bronte shortstory novel philosophy 1984 orwell huxley brave new world jane eyre anne of green gables macbeth oscar wilde catcher in the rye great gatsby grapes of wrath public domain education fiction history humanities

New PC, old games

A few days ago I built a new desktop computer with the help of my dad. Almost a few hours after building it, setting up the internet, my dad asked me “so is it faster?”

I simply replied “well, you really want to test the PC by using games, right. But I haven’t installed any games yet”. Having just been playing around with the settings and downloading a few ‘essential’ programs.

Since then I have installed and played several hours into Guild Wars 2 (2012) and Team Fortress 2 (2007). I started playing TF2 in about 2009 and GW2 in about 2015. So, depending on your definition these are “old” games. Games that I have played on and off since I started.

I have almost always played games on the lowest settings to try and get the smoothest experience possible. I would much rather have a game with really really low textures and running at a stable 60+ FPS, rather than an amazing looking game that drops below 20FPS when things get hairy.

I am super happy with the performance of my new PC playing both of these ‘old’ games. For GW2 I pretty much only play a game mode which pits 3 teams of up to 50 players each in a large map with objectives against each other. Things can get pretty hairy, and pretty laggy!

On my previous PC, which I had for about 6 years, it would regularly slow down to a slide show during large fights, below 15FPS. I would be run with my group into an enemy group, see a bunch of lag, then be dead in 2 seconds.

But now the FPS rarely even goes below 45FPS during such fights. I can actually SEE what is happening during a fight. Attacks and spells are actually going off and doing damage little by little, instead of just a huge lag spike and people are dead. I can actually see individual players moving in varying directions, instead of just a huge sea of enemies/allies just mowing over each other.

I remarked to myself “wow it’s as if I’m playing an HD REMAKE of these games!” Then it hit me. PC games don’t really have or need HD remakes since a person can just upgrade or buy a new PC. And PC games are built so that players with different PCs can take advantage of their hardware by tinkering with the graphics settings. Effectively every PC gamer has the ability to “HD Remake” all of his games just by upgrading their PC!

Of course there are limits to how good a game can look, how big of a monitor before it is just ridiculous etc. But this realization really put into perspective the purpose of HD remakes on consoles. Consoles are specific pre-built computers. Because of non-compatibility between consoles, there is a need for remakes in order to allow players to play OLD games on NEW hardware. In terms of cost, the extra cost of building a PC over a console is like paying for HD remakes of ALL the games in your PC games library.

I have found new life in both GW2 and TF2. I do hope that my new PC can play some newer games (Divinity Original Sin 2 comes to mind), but I will be holding off on buying anything new for a while as my bank account recovers, haha.

pc gw2 tf2 gaming videogames desktop HDremake

Blue Jays 2018: 2 games in

It is two games into the 2018 season, Blue Jays are set to play the World Series-contending Yankees for the third time after losing the first two games.

To be honest I would be happy if the Jays could win a single game against the Yankees in this four-game series. Or win a third of the games against them in the whole season. Certainly the Jays have a rough start to their 2018 season. But if they can’t win against the best, then what chance to they possibly have to make it to post season?

As a person who got into baseball in the 2016 season following the Jays, I suppose my expectations are spoiled a bit with the glory of Encarnacion, a healthy rotation and first place.

So it was quite a dramatic shift for me to watch the 2017 season. As a result my expectations coming into this season have been tempered. Basically I would be happy for the Jays if Donaldson, Smoak and Sanchez have a good season.

Donaldson has said that he has gone back to what has worked best for him, and I really do hope this translates to a healthy productive season. Smoak, coming off a breakthrough season, while the Jays still suffering from the loss of Encarnacion (let’s face it Morales is a far cry from what we came to expect from 1B/DH role), I will be rooting for Smoak to keep up the great work.

Sanchez became a quick favorite of mine simply because he just looks like a humble, relaxed young guy. Like Donaldson, he missed A LOT of 2017 due to injuries. So I am really hoping he gets back to pitching the way all of us know he can, from what we saw in his AMAZING 2016 season.

All else, yes the new additions to the roster are cool, and I wish all the new Jays the best. I feel like I have seen relief pitcher Tyler Clippard for like four different teams in the past. Another quick favorite for his unique stance and build.

Other hot takes: Oh look it’s Morales, let’s get ready for some breaking balls and strikeouts. Oh Tulo is starting the season on the 60day disabled list *sigh*…

But as the sayings go, this is the big leagues and never bet on baseball! And despite low expectations I still have a few hopes for particular Jays players (as mentioned above) and I am still excited to see how the season unfolds and what the Jays might accomplish. I mean… they can’t possibly do any worse than last season right?…. RIGHT?! o_O”

Pop and Classical music

I have come to terms with enjoying both popular and classical music. This is because classical music was never intended to be played in the background, on the radio, while you are driving, studying, chatting over brunch with a friend in a cafe. Classical music was composed and played with the intention that it was to be listened to. And listened to with one’s full attention.

Naturally there are classical music genres that were intended to be played in a more informal, personal setting like Chamber music. Chamber music is music intended to be played in the rooms of noble households by a small group of musicians. An example would be a piece created for a piano, a violin and a cello.

But even in those smaller settings and smaller genres of classical music, the performance of such music was a rarity in the times they were created. During the classical periods it was a special occasion to be able to hear music being played, by live musicians. There were no radios, CDs, cassettes, streaming services with which one could play repeatedly one’s favorite songs.

This factor of availability relative to intention is often overlooked when considering what music to listen to, and what makes some music more ‘listenable’ at different times than others.

Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi, Mussorgsky, Rachmaninoff, all those composers were writing music with the intention that it was to be played once and possibly never heard again by the same people for years at a time. Perhaps if one was lucky to know a budding musician, or able to play an instrument themselves, one could possibly purchase the sheet music and explore on an instrument at home.

However that would be the exception. Imagine some of your favorite pieces of music. Now imagine only being able to hear it once, when you go to a concert to see it performed live. And then NEVER again!

Again naturally with smaller musical pieces, intended for smaller ensembles or single instruments, it might be easier to reproduce and replay the same piece. But again the more difficult the piece, the more skilled musician one would need to produce the same musical effect. Unless you were friends with talented musicians, or a talented musician yourself, OR rich enough to PAY talented musicians to play for your regularly; Chances are you may only hear one of Beethoven’s sonatas ONCE in your lifetime, or a few times in your lifetime if you are lucky.

In the past I have often found myself biased toward classical music. If I ever wanted to have some background music I would TRY to find something classical. Maybe some Chopin nocturnes, or a Mozart or Beethoven sonata. But whenever I found something classical, my attention was always drawn sideways. I found myself wanting to think about what is happening dynamically, musically, the tempo, the chord changes, the melody, the play between different instruments and voices. To the point where I no longer had any brain power to focus on whatever task I was supposed to be doing.

I would stop cooking in the kitchen after my ears piqued to an interesting melody undergoing variations, or a dramatic dynamic change. I would lower the speed of the treadmill, to the point where I was basically walking, just so I could hear the chords more clearly.

Part of this is having learned piano myself. So I am more attuned to the nuances of classical music. The upshot of this is that ultimately, I was exhausting my brain by putting on classical music in the background and trying to do other things while listening.

Interestingly this does not happen if I leave some pop music running in the background. The chords and melodies are simple, repetitive and there is a consistent audible beat.

The thumping bass rhythms of pop music mimic the heart beat, constantly moving forward with the comfort of short simple resolutions to short simple musical themes. No pondering melodic shifts, harmonic/dynamic/tempo changes, creating an image or scene of what is happening; short and sweet is a way of nicely summarizing pop music.

So, music lovers! Fear not for enjoying this or that pop song or not listening to this or that classical piece more, since ALL music has a purpose and intention! You may not appreciate or enjoy Rachmaninoff’s Isle of the Dead right now, just like how you might not enjoy having Poe’s Raven read to you on the way to work; But perhaps on some pensive night, when the mood is somber, and sleep is difficult, Rachmaninoff and Poe might suit your fancies!

However if you’re on the way to work, trying to stay awake while studying, some smaller, more bite-size snacks might be more appropriate. Red wine and filet mignon? Umm… maybe not every night?

music classical piano pop

To play or not?

i think i’m finally starting to understand the difference between a piece i enjoy playing vs. a piece i enjoy listening to. I used to think “well if I enjoy this piece i should learn it”, but as an amateur that is really not feasible. One could spend an entire lifetime only exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas and be adequately fulfilled.

A while ago I tried to create a list of ALL the “difficult” piano pieces I wanted to learn within my lifetime. The list ended up containing a few Beethoven sonatas, a number of Chopin Etudes, a ballad, a scherzo, the grand polonaise, Liszt’s Ballad in Bm, his Rigoletto paraphrase, a Rachmaninoff prelude among other things. The entire list comprised of 61 pieces.

And this was only the “difficult” pieces! After I went through my piano syllabus for intermediate-advanced pieces I was interested in, and added them to the list, I ended up adding another 44 pieces! Leading to a grand total of 105 concert-pianist level pieces to attempt to learn before I die! @_@ 8S

I recently re-listened to Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes. Before I thought many of them were lots of noise. And I also largely dismissed them because I really don’t think I would be able to play them, or want to learn them. But now I can better appreciate the technical demands and harmonies. Set aside that I do not have to learn the piece, and enjoy and appreciate that someone else out there did learn the piece and take the time to share their experience with me.

On the whole I play piano for the challenge. Working on passages, figuring out the harmonies, seeing what musical effects are created from humble building blocks of chords, scales and rhythm.

I have accepted a few years ago that I would not be a concert pianist. They are truly the athletes of the musical world. For a while now I have hopes of being a teacher, But without a degree in music, or a performance diploma, and general lack of steady employment for piano teachers, yeargh… Sometimes I think I should have one a music degree instead, but alas we cannot turn back time. “But why not just go back to school” Because money.

Yeargh, what a downer. I intended this post to be more positive about how I’m listening to Liszt’s TEs and Rachmaninoff’s Preludes/Tableuxs with open ears, but aaaahh money seeps its way into everything.

I guess on a positive note. I managed to learn the descending thirds passage of Chopin’s Prelude in Dm “Storm”. The LH accompaniment is inspired by Beethoven’s Tempest. It also took a while to figure out the timing for the ascending scale patterns and how to group the notes properly. Had to do various hand independence exercises and counting notes. o3o

piano practice liszt chopin beethoven

3 Generations: typical family drama in disguise

3 Generations is about a 16 year old Ray (Elle Fanning) who wants to be a boy, and has wanted to be a boy for over a decade. However since she is a minor, she requires both parents’ consent. Ray’s mother played by Naomi Watts has raised her basically on her own, for reasons that are not clear at the beginning of the film. As far as the mom is concerned, the father is basically dead.

The 3 in “3 Generations” comes from the fact that Ray’s mom was raised by two moms, who never legally married because they didn’t see the need to.

This might sound like the makings of a progressive humanist transgender coming of age film, but it falls very short of this promise. The first half hour or so does a great job of illustrating the dynamics between the grandmothers’ and mother’s beliefs, expectations and stake in Ray’s decision to go ahead with treatment. The first half hour also features a few obligatory school scenes with Ray, her friends, and a potential love interest. There is also an obligatory bullying scene where Ray is nearly mugged and called a faggot.

This sets up the possibility of a fairly robust transgender highschool coming of age story which hopes to integrate both the dynamics of family and friends into the story. However the latter half of the film, and the main conflict in the film revolves around the consent form, the reluctance of the parents to both sign, and how this holds back Ray..

When you put it that way 3 Generations isn’t a coming of age or transgender film at all, it’s about legal redtape. There is even a whole plot point about Ray possibly becoming “emancipated” so she can legally make her own decisions, which bypasses the need for the long gone father’s consent. Much of the film feels like adults arguing about their differences and how their problems get in the way of Ray’s decision.

There is one important question here, should minors have the authority to make their own decisions regarding sex change? I read an article recently surveying men who had undergone sexual organ surgery AND ended up regretting it, requesting reverse surgery be done.

I have at times wondered what it would be like to be a lady, to have breasts and a vagina instead of a penis. But a while ago I realized those fantasies were not a desire to become a lady, but a desire to become a shape-shifter! How awesome would it be to change one’s physical features at will?!

That is not to say that one’s gender is simply a matter of physical features. Humans are complex individuals with complex desires and needs. Just for me, personally, my desire to become the opposite sex stops short at physical features, which really isn’t much of a desire at all!

With that said, the question of consent and authority over one’s body, although important, ends up not being really explored in the film. The concluding triumph of the film is how Ray’s decision ultimately brings together the titular “3 Generations” of the family. When push comes to shove, the mothers, fathers and children of this unique family agree to work together on being a family. First step, sign that consent form!

lgbt film ellefanning naomiwatts 3generations trans

Stress of Driving

I read about a study recently that seemed to show that people who live in cities are generally happier than those who live in suburbs or rural areas. After some thought I would conclude that if it is true, it is almost entirely due to the fact that city-dwellers seldom drive, instead using public transit where it is most reliable in the heart of a city.

I used to think public transit was banal. But honestly even if you take public transit during the busiest times, the act of actually taking public transit requires nearly no mental effort compared to driving, aside from paying a fare and hopping on the right bus/train, which is usually the same every day anyways.

Even if you have to stand up in a crowded bus, you still have the freedom to close and rest your eyes a bit. But you would never be able to rest your eyes while driving, atleast if one was a half-decent driver. The reason we have an age restriction for driving is exactly because it takes a lot of mental effort, to monitor a number of variables at one time and make rational judgments about incoming information. Whereas there is no explicit age requirement for riding the bus, even a baby can ride the bus (as long as he/she is accompanied by a parent or guardian).

This reflection comes at the end of a rather sub-par day on the road. Story time! I was driving out of a small neighborhood. It seems that the local school was hosting an evening even, and cars ended up parked on both sides of the nearby roads, restricting the road to only safely allow 1 car passing through at a time. In the even that this occurs you should always: stop behind the first available car before it becomes a 1-lane road > wait for the road to be clear up to and including the last parked cars > if there is an on coming car on the other side, ensure that it has stopped and is waiting, then you may go. In other words you must treat it as an all-way stop intersection, whoever arrives at a full stop at the hazard first should go first. If you both have arrived at the same time, well one of you just has to be courteous enough to let the other go first, but not until you have both come to full stops to inspect the situation.

This guy clearly didn’t stop as he was tailgating the car in front of him. I suppose it’s the same rationale of “oh he’s going, so I guess I can go to”. WRONG. If everybody thought this way, then in the case of another car behind you, that car could also reasonably think “oh he’s going so I guess I can go too”, and so could the car behind that, and behind that, which would create an endless string of cars going in one direction and not allowing for any cars to come the opposite direction.

You might think “ohh but in this case it was only 1 car, there was no one behind me” WRONG. If you start allowing for 2 cars through, then the person behind you will start thinking “oh well it’s just ONE more car, I should be able to follow behind”, and whoopdedoo we have the same endless chain of cars going one direction all over again, because EVERYONE thinks that they’re the the last car to go through and it won’t hurt anyone. Except they’re wrong, because thanks to them thinking they’re allowed to except themselves from the law, they have now grounded traffic to a halt by turning a two-way street into a one-way street.

“but that’s okay, even in that EXTREME example, people can still always use other streets, it’s not a big deal jeez” WRONG! If you seriously think that is just true, please think about what you have just done. You have allowed yourself to change traffic laws by arbitrarily declaring a two-way street become a one-way street. All because you thought it was okay for you to sneak closely behind the car in front of you, instead of coming to a full stop before the road reduced to 1-lane.

Let’s use another example “it must be okay to litter, everyone does it and one more piece of trash won’t make a big difference anyways” WRONG! I almost literally have no words! By thinking this, you have just allowed anyone and everyone to think to themselves “oh it must be okay to litter, because everyone does it and one piece of trash won’t make a big difference anyway” and go ahead and dump their trash on the ground! Do you hear that? Oh it’s just the sound of the bubonic plague coming back to kill us all! All because you think it’s okay for anyone to put themselves above the law and throw their garbage on the ground, leading to mass uncleanliness, sickness and death.

“Oh but it’s okay because MOST people don’t litter, so it’s okay for SOME people to litter” WRONG! This is what we call “benefiting from the hard work of others”, in other words CHEATING! Those people who think it is okay to litter on this belief, do so because they know that OTHER people will be there to clean up after them.

But how is this cheating? Well let’s look at cheating in its familiar academic form. What do you do when you cheat on a test? You copy the work from someone who has done it correctly! So that when the test gets marked, the teacher thinks that you have done the work yourself (this is why you write your name on you tests/papers!). But, oh wait, you didn’t do it yourself, but assuming you didn’t get caught, you received credit for it anyways!

In the case of good grades, getting good grades, scoring well on tests only matters because it is representative of good work. The cheater on the other hand claims to have done good work when not having done any at all.

This is why tax evasion is a crime! By law, everyone in the country must pay taxes, as a way of helping pay for public services that one may or may not take advantage of. Such public services as hospitals, public schools, libraries, public transit and, you guessed it, public roads! All laws, whether they be tax laws or road laws, exist for the benefit of the entire population. If a law favors some person or group of persons, one might fairly argue that the law is unjust. If a person thinks they can be made an exception to any law, then that person by-definition is committing an injustice by breaking the law!

If, for some reason, a person truly thinks that they are deserving of an exception to the law, or that the law is unfair toward them as a person, it MUST be taken up in the court system. By acting against the law in your daily activities, you crown yourself law-maker, that the laws can twist, contort, break or be written anew at your every whim and circumstance.

Dear Plebius, who knew such staunch philosophic resolution was laden in the laws governing society?

My friend, I do wonder whether a basic understanding of political philosophy would settle such irrational thinking and set those on the rational path. All of what I have reflected to you just now can easily be inferred from Kant’s Groundwork.

But Plebius, my friend, don’t the philosophers themselves argue about what is fundamentally right or wrong?

As natural as two differing religions may argue about the proper characterization of “God”. However matters of right and wrong should be judged on a case-by-case basis, attending to the proper arguments used in each case. So back to the case at hand:

I think we have sufficiently shown that driving a motorized vehicle does involve complex cognition, which is not present in the act of taking public transit. Secondly drivers who claim to be in the right by making themselves exceptions of traffic laws are by definition cheating the law. Thirdly similar argument can be used to explain why rules and laws exist to prevent academic cheating and littering; because the laws exist for and only benefits everyone in society if everyone follows them. Lastly this all could be inferred from a basic understanding of political philosophy, which many seem to be devoid of, if any of their actions and expressed beliefs are to be taken seriously.

Thank you Plebius….

Ack!

philosophy driving traffic law plato dialogue political kant

Dead Snow (2009) would have been better as “zombies in snow” highlight reel

Dead Snow is exactly as it sounds, an excuse to show the usual zombie gore in a snowy environment. The characters, acting and story are bland, even by the low genre standards.

However, typically in this genre of teen/college slasher, there is usually much fanservice in the way of titillation. Dead Snow is nearly void of such titillation, featuring only one PG13 sex scene. Perhaps this is for the best since both the male and female cast members are average in appearance at best.

At first glance one might be forgiven in guessing that the cast were moms and dads, going away on a parents-only winter retreat to have some fun. But nope, our story features a rag-tag group of medical students! The presumption being that medical students attend post-secondary school for over a decade.

To give you an idea of how peripheral the characters/story are to the film, and how much of an excuse they are to show off zombies in snow, here is a non-sarcastic rundown of our rag-tag group: Male1-horny animal. Male2- “the hottie” Male3-”afraid of blood” Male4-”the film geek” Male5- the fat one. Female1-girlfriend of the hottie Female2-girlfriend of male3. Females3,4,5-die in various ways.

After the film’s 40-minute excuse of an exposition is over, BAM zombies in snowy mountains! There are some good bloody gorey scenes to be watched here.

Dead Snow is a decent addition to the genre, if only to show zombies being deadly and effective in cold, frigid, snowy environments, in which they are rarely featured. 2/5 stars, I recommend skipping the 40min. exposition if you do decide to check it out.

zombie dead snow film slasher gore horror

Digital pianos the future?

Yo whatup. Gonna start using this bloggo-thingy more since the word limit for twitter is actually starting to bug me. Turns out I actually have something that I want to express into the void that takes longer than 140 characters at a time! Also I hate tweet “threads”, it’s just kind of… silly. Like list-articles actually.

So I was at the local mall today. I do not normal go mall, but I had to drop off a form at a nearby office. So I decided to go to the mall cafeteria and have lunch. I tried Taco Bell for the first time in over a decade. It does not suit me, but it is always nice to try something new!

Afterward, since I was in the area, I also checked out a piano store. Over the past year or two I have been contemplating buying a digital piano. I have had a small Kawai upright for a long time. At its best it is a great little piano! At its worst it has had broken strings and a harsh sound that comes out about a month or two after each tuning… Because of this I have gotten used to playing with the mute down to greatly soften the sound. Overall it would be an excellent beginner piano. However, looking forward as my skills grow, digital pianos, which require no tuning/maintenance has really appealed to me over the past year, along with the versatility a digital brings.

This piano store mostly sold Kawais. So I greeted the salesperson and was quickly guided to the Kawai digitals. I tried them out, it was great noticing the differences of the different keys and sounds. I also still can’t get over the versatility of a digital, being able to play silently with headphones, being able to play dozens of other instruments, or variety of piano tunings.

After about 30 mins of playing with the Kawai digital pianos in the 2000-5000 dollar range, it was about time to end my little visit. But before doing so I took a glance and played a few chords each on the Kawai uprights and grands that were on the floor.

And BAM the difference was automatic. Every string of every key of each chord, rang and vibrated out in rich harmony! The depth of each chord sang with a richness completely foreign to the digitals I had just moments ago tried. I could feel my fingers drawn to the keys.

BUT as quickly as this happy sensation began, I look at the price tag, and *gulp*. Sigh, nope I definitely can NOT afford that.

As I exited the store the salesperson gave me their business card and we exchanged a few comments about the pianos I tried and whether I enjoyed them. Hopped in my car and started thinking:

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how much of a luxury it would be to play on a perfectly new and tuned Kawai upright/grand. An acoustic piano has over a thousand pieces and many of those are moving when played. When I first started doing research on modern digital pianos, I had severely discounted the “authentic piano” argument. The idea that basically digitals are not the same as a “REAL” acoustic, a digital will never be as authentic and pure of experience of playing piano as on an acoustic.

I did not really understand that argument initially, until now that I have actually tried some excellent uprights and grands.

Those few chords on those pristine Kawai acoustics were almost sublime! Wouldn’t it be great to play on such a piano every day?!

I think… Well I am not a concert pianist, and I do not plan on becoming one (holy cow think of the rigorous performance and practice schedule). So yes, it would be nice, but for my purposes a digital piano suffices just fine. And the rare opportunities that I may get to try out a great acoustic piano, I would certainly cherish my time with.

So for the majority of people who play piano (non-professionals, amateurs, self-taught, kids) like myself, a digital piano is an excellent option. I predict within the next two decades digital pianos will account for the majority of consumer sales, while acoustic pianos will become a luxury item (I guess even more than they already are) reserved only for post-secondary music institutions, concert halls and professionals. Until then, the playing continues!

piano digital acoustic kawai

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.