OMG so funny

at the end, it's all about energy

ㅋㅋㅋ was I meant to be just an "accident?"  Why am I kissing so many girls yet not in a relationship yet? 

"Would you rather have something that the world considers it to be the best but know in private that it's the worst or would you have something that you know is the best but the world considers it to be worst?"

Such a powerful question that could be applied to everything, something small as the attire you choose (the world thinks it's ugly but you think it's the best, or vice versa), to more important things like your career or significant other. 





(the original quote is “Would you rather be considered the best lover in the world and know privately that you’re the worst or know privately that you’re the best lover in the world even and be thought to be the worst?” by Warren Buffett)

Aut vincere aut mori

Upon crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, Tariq Ibn Ziyad ordered his men to burn all the ships.  It was a powerful signal to his men - only victory or death awaited them - since they could not return back home.  The Berbers (the Moors), eventually became rulers of Spain for centuries until Ferdinand and Isabella drove them out.

As I was on a mission to lose weight, I told many people that reaching my goal until August 31st would be highly unlikely, but it would be okay as long as I try my best.  Now that I think about it, I don't think this is the right way to approach anything serious.  The right away to approach it is how Tariq Ibn Ziyad did.  Give yourself no other option but success.  This way, you can stop thinking about failure, and focus only on how to win. 

Unless you fight with this mentality, surely you will lose to those who fight this way. 

I have but a month to lose nearly 6~7 percent body fat.  Mathematically, it's nearly impossible, but I refuse to think about how I won't be able to pull this off.  I will only think about how I can. 

Aut vincere aut mori! (conquer or die). 

I'm so into dark chocolate these days.  I eat exactly two squares a day ('cause it's high in calories and I'm trying to lose weight), often with roasted coffee beans.  Yes, roasted coffee beans.  I bought these beans sometime ago and quickly realized that I was too lazy to grind them all the time.  Not knowing what to do, I just took a handful and ate them.  To my surprise, it actually tasted pretty decent, and even better when mixed with dark chocolate.  So here I am, chewing chocolate and coffee beans. 

Sometimes, it pays to be weird and adventurous. 

__________________________________

I must say that I really underestimated this six pack in 3 months deal.  It's half way mark and I must shift things into gear.  1,500 calorie reductions a day.  No exceptions. 

I'm not sure if I could ever live in a city without public transportation anymore.  I never realized how much I hated driving... actually, I always knew how much I hated driving but my experience in Korea only solidified this knowledge. 

Yeah, sure. you actually spend more time in mass transit, but it's different.  You don't have to be focused.  You can sleep, you can read a book, or you can write in a journal.  Of course, I miss driving once in a while, but if I had a choice between Korean public transportation and LA traffic, it's public transportation hands down.

Of course, it's always nice to have both. 

p.s. Heck, you can't even walk around at night (unless you're in West LA).  What kind of bullshit is that?

Come August 31st, I will surprise the world (just my fb friends actually).

Pray for the victims of the shipwreck?  To whom?  I must ask.  To the benign, almighty Christian god who foresaw all this yet let it happen anyway?  

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both willing and able?  Then whence cometh evil? 
Is he neither able nor willing?  Then why call him God?"

                                                                                      -Epicurus

If we can imagine a better world, then surely god mustn't exist.  For such an awesome god would've created a world beyond our imaginations. 


*To the people who believe that this happened because god gave us free will:

Why do you associate free will with the ability to do evil?  Free will deals with decisions, not ability.  Human beings cannot fly on their own, but does this inability affect our free will?  Of course not.  Then why didn't god create us as creatures unable to commit evil?  After all, can god commit evil deeds?  If he can't, then does he have free will?  If he can but is unwilling, then why didn't he create us in his own image?  

So I'm single again, albeit we were never official.  I am absolutely convinced that this was for the better, but I find myself constantly looking at my ipad, longing for her. 

Maybe I should've read my "this is what it means to say goodbye," before I told her that it was over.  Well, at any rate, I still think she did most of the killing.  I merely pronounced it dead. 

I had a discussion with a Christian the other day and I spent most of today watching religious debates on Youtube.  I must say, the more I am exposed to all this, the more my position becomes  solidified.

The best argument for God is not rhetoric but bacon.  Omg it's so fucking good - maybe, just maybe it's a gift from God.

But really, the idea of vicarious redemption never made much sense to me.  Suppose that I'm Dr. Frankenstein*, and I've created a being.  But this monster just doesn't praise and worship me every second of the day like I intended him to.  I want him groveling at my feet, fawning and telling himself how worthless he is and how he can't do anything without me.  So I decide to destroy my creation but I have a better idea.  I decide to forgive the monster, by torturing and killing my own son.  I've brought my son back to life of course, using the techniques I've developed to create my monster in the first place.  The monster didn't really change, but because his sins were washed away by the death of my son, we can all live in peace.

What a ridiculous story.  Out of a gazillion different questions and comments that can arise, you'd probably have these three things to say.

1.  Why didn't I just forgive the monster?  Why kill my son in the first place and then resurrect him?

2.  Why am I so insecure that I need constant adoration by my own creation?

3.  I'd better keep my day job, because I'm a shitty creator.

You'd think that for an almighty God, the creator of the universe, forgiving humans on this tiny dust speck of a universe ought to be fairly simple.  But no, he has to forgive himself, by himself, for himself, in order to do so. 

I'd also contend that if you have to call for a substitute, it's not true forgiveness. What a ridiculous story.  I can't believe I took this seriously for so long. 

__________________________________________

*I'm so annoyed whenever people think that the name of the monster is Frankenstein.  Read!  The Doctor who did the creating is Frankenstein.  The monster actually doesn't have a name.

I haven't posted anything here or anywhere for the past month or so because I've been busy translating a new book.  I think I can safely say that this is the end of my translating career, for I intensely hate it.  I sat here for about 15 seconds, thinking of various words - loathe, livid, abhor, detest, revulsion, et cetera, but yeah, I like intensely hate for whatever reason. 

But I had two realizations as I was translating this book - a Christian book - which is interesting, because I no longer classify myself as Christian.

1.  In the introductory part of the book, there were bunch of "letters of recommendations" by pastors.  Nearly all of them were absolutely horrid.  Not just bad, but devoid of any useful meaning and overstuffed with pretentiousness.  I hate it.  I fucking hate it when a writing lacks substance and is deduced into an array of fancy words to impress.  Do they have no taste?  I mean, it's like eating shit and not knowing how bad it is.  If they had re-read what they had written, it should've been painfully clear that they vomited on paper.  If not, then I pity them, because they have no taste buds in their brain to differentiate between a shitty writing and an acceptable one.

It's not like I'm some wunderkind, but pastors?  It's their job to write sermons everyday.  Do your fucking job.  If you've taken it seriously, your writing can't possibly suck this much.  I now know why most sermons are so damn bad.  Because the writing is horrendous to begin with. 

2.  I have this wonderful speech - a farewell toast actually - in my head.  I typically write short speeches in my head from start to beginning, and I almost cried thinking about it.  I'm dying to transcribe it onto paper, because I'm so curious how it will sound.  But I couldn't do it because translating took up all my time and now, I have to write some letters of recommendations.  I suppose I could've written a little bit instead of writing this blog post, but no.  The speech will be about the same length, but it will take hours and hours to write and rewrite and edit, while this blog, which has taken about 20 minutes of my time, probably will take another 5-10 minutes to complete.  I have to finish the letters of recommendation first or else I'll feel guilty. 

I guess that's the difference between obligatory and voluntary writing - torture and heaven.  This is why I hated English so much throughout school, yet I've came to love it after graduation. 

The secret to cooking

I have discovered a secret to cooking; you add msg and salt until it becomes edible - or like pho. 

My written art

Here's a story about James Joyce, told by Stephen King (On Writing)

A friend came to visit James Joyce one day and found the great man sprawled across his writing desk in a posture of utter despair.
'James, what’s wrong?' the friend asked. 'Is it the work?'
Joyce indicated assent without even raising his head to look at his friend. Of course it was the work; isn’t it always?
'How many words did you get today?' the friend pursued.
Joyce (still in despair, still sprawled facedown on his desk): 'Seven.'
'Seven? But James… that’s good, at least for you.'
'Yes,' Joyce said, finally looking up. 'I suppose it is… but I don’t know what order they go in!'

I looked up the word "ephemeral" the other day.  Sometimes I look up a word I know for no apparent reason.  And as I was looking over the comments, I saw this:

"Life is too ephemeral."

I instantly cringed when I saw this.  Doesn't it just sound so crude?  Short bro, short.  "Life is too short," or "life is fleeting," is fine, but "life is too ephemeral?"  It sounds like someone looked up a thesaurus and replaced an easy word with a difficult one in an effort to sound smart.  But just change the order, and there's magic:

Life too, is ephemeral. 

Oh the beauty of the written art.

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.” 

-George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

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

Someone told me the other day that my writing was wonderful, which was nice but not so flattering (oh my arrogance!).  Well, I had written the letter in Korean so the compliment meant something but really, words like great, marvelous, wonderful, fabulous, are not only subjective but merely denote a positive feeling towards something.  

An articulate compliment per se would say that a writing is succinct, witty, or genuine.  Sure, these are all subjective too, but it goes beyond "I like this."  It says, "I like this because."  

And it's so much more powerful. 

I shou“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

– George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-favorite-quotations-about-words-vol-1/clear-language.html#6W5qf4bxi4VYQA8v.99

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

– George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-favorite-quotations-about-words-vol-1/clear-language.html#6W5qf4bxi4VYQA8v.99

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

– George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-favorite-quotations-about-words-vol-1/clear-language.html#6W5qf4bxi4VYQA8v.99

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

– George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-favorite-quotations-about-words-vol-1/clear-language.html#6W5qf4bxi4VYQA8v.99

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

– George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-favorite-quotations-about-words-vol-1/clear-language.html#6W5qf4bxi4VYQA8v.99

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

– George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-favorite-quotations-about-words-vol-1/clear-language.html#6W5qf4bxi4VYQA8v.99

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

– George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-favorite-quotations-about-words-vol-1/clear-language.html#6W5qf4bxi4VYQA8v.99

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

– George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-favorite-quotations-about-words-vol-1/clear-language.html#6W5qf4bxi4VYQA8v.99

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

– George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-favorite-quotations-about-words-vol-1/clear-language.html#6W5qf4bxi4VYQA8v.99

I just spent an afternoon debating whether to replace a dash with a comma.  The answer is always the same.  Replace. 

But at least I know that I prefer en dashes over em dashes, with a space on each side.  Heresy I know, but it just looks so much better.

Oblivious

I decided to give in and check out what this EXO fad was all about (a boy group in Korea/China).  Four months ago when several zit-faced adolescent girls enthusiastically explained some nonsense about EXO-K and EXO-M having superpowers, coming from different planets, losing their memory and living on Earth thinking they were human, that was it for me.  I thought to myself, I would rather read twilight.  Well, not really.  

But I did want to ask how these idiots failed to see the marketing ploy behind having two groups, one singing in Korean (EXO-K) and the other in Mandarin (EXO-M), to the identical tune. I also wanted to ask whether their superpowers included interspecific intercourse (or extraterrestrial intercourse?), but decided in favor of my better judgment.

Mockery demystifies, but also angers.  One ought to use it sparingly.

Anyway, I watched the video and I must admit, embarrassingly, that I was blown away.  Not by their voice (though the song is surprisingly good), nor their dance (fantastic), nor their face (don’t give a fuck, but I really needed a third example), but by the camerawork.  They only use one viewpoint throughout the entire music video.  Maybe the idea was copied but I’ve never seen such camera work before. 

So I proceeded to watch the video about 30 times, completely mesmerized.  And then I realized that I was listening to Chinese. 

I’m really glad that I’m not a pilot.  Ho Lee Fuk.