...The God-Sister/Brother Rubbish?

That’s what it is really; a whole load of rubbish. Let me first explain my definition of god-brothers and god-sisters. Unlike their relatives, the step-brother and step-sister, the siblings with the god- prefix aren’t related by family ties or the legal bonds of marriage. God-Brothers and God-Sisters are merely terms people use to explain a close relationship between two people when, like mentioned before, cannot be justified through flesh and blood or the institution of marriage.

I don’t mind older guys taking youngsters under their wings and calling them god-brothers or older girls taking care of little girls and calling them god-sisters. Those relationships are beneficial. However, the thing that ticks me off is the number of people nowadays who are misusing the term for their own convenience.

The classic case is when a guy who’s already attached to someone else, gets close to a younger female and uses the term “god sister” to justify their closeness. It’s horrid really! It’s like having a visa to spend time with and splash affection on another female other than your girlfriend. No matter which angle you look at it, it’s really cheating on your partner.

Another scenario is when two people like each other very much but they cant get together because of their age. The female might be a couple of years older than the guy and that might be socially unacceptable to the people around them. So what do you do? Slap a label on your forehead that says “god-sister” and “god-brother” and heck, you’re good to go. You're now free to go on "dates", exchange presents for no apparent occasion and no one will raise and eyebrow. WRONG!

The next time you see someone with a so called “god-sister” or “god-brother” relationship, take a look at their situation for yourself and see if there’s an ulterior motive. A hundred bucks says that they’re not coming clean.

...Girls with Words on Their Hot Pants?

If you want to draw attention to your behind, IT'S WORKING!

What vile creatures these women are. I'm walking around the mall, minding my own business and WHAM! This girl walks out of a store ahead of me and the first thing that my eyes focus on is the words "ANGEL" which was conveniently located on her backside….instantly reducing me, from an innocent bystander to a seemingly depraved pervert.

Those designers of clothes are really decommissioned psychologist who developed a penchant for art. They're playing on the human proclivity to read letters. Somehow words are a stronger attention magnet than pictures. This isnt proven (of course this theory would fall flat on its face with illiterates), but I believe that there is a higher tendency to read words than to analyze images.

Here's a little test that you can conduct yourself. Just stare around a blank wall with a word somewhere located within the space. Your attention is more likely to be drawn to that word. Try to gaze away from that word, and somehow your eyes will be brought back to it. In a way I guess it will always work because our eyes need somewhere to focus on. But just think about the scenario mentioned above. Chances of you knowing what the words on her backside read are a given 100%.

Angel? Oh please....

Check out an interesting article related to this topic called "Bringing Up the Rear"

...The band Creed?

Ah, what happened to the "Christian" band that disappeared from the face of the earth, only to appear as three quarters of the original band in Alter Bridge?

Creed burst into the music scene with their most successful single "Higher" a couple of years back. The band had been around before but didnt really make a breakthrough until that single hit the radio waves. Soon everyone was talking about them. They went on to release some pretty good hits like "Arms Wide Open", "Six Feet from the Edge" and "My Sacrifice".

There was a lot of talk on whether this was a Christian band or not. This has been an issue with a countless number of bands, like Evanescence, Jars of Clay, etc. But really, when you're not on the Dove Awards List and you're seen on MTV like 15 times a day, you're definitely a mainstream rock group. All the controversy came from the lyrics that seemed to have subliminal Christian messages in them. Also, who could forget Scott Stapp's (lead singer) impersonation of the crucifixion pose in the "Higher" music video?

Word has it that Stapp also happened to be the son of a preacher. But things fell into perspective when I went to a website that had their guitarist, Mark Tremonti posing with one of his hands giving the devil's hand sign (when you clench your fist and stick out our index finger and pinky). Now that wasnt very Christian of him.


Anyway, the band got disbanded in the middle of this year. I guess that's the end of Scott Stapps irritating rasping voice. I think Mark Tremonti, his beliefs aside, is an awesome guitarist. Man, to have your own line of signature PRS guitars, that's something to shout about.

If you cant get enough of Tremonti's axe-wizardry, you can check out his new band Alter Bridge. It's basically the same Creed band with the exception of the lead singer. The new guy isnt any better than Stapp sadly.

:(

...The Toilets in Northwood?

I absolutely love the space that I'm getting now, but there's this one nagging problem that I face every single day....yup, and that's the toilet bowl flush system.

Normal flush systems pump the water from under the rim of the bowl down to the bottom and push all the crud into the sewage pipes. The clean water rushes in to replace the old stuff. Everything is fast, clean and efficient.

Sadly, this is not the case with mine.The flush system in my apartment actually has the clean water come UP from the bottom of the bowl. So when flushing, this stream of clean water pushes UP all the crap and raises the water level up to 1 inch below the rim, before the sewage pipes open to suck up the mess. As a result, the remaining water is actually a mix of the old and the new. And yes, I would still have “fish” in my “pond”. I usually have to flush twice just to get the job done.

I just did a little search and apparently there's a whole science behind this flush system thingy. I learned that my system is called the “tank system”. Typical 9 liter tank for the water, etc. But mine is the low level one, which, according to "Wikipedia" is the least efficient in terms of the use of energy. Something to do with the potential energy of the water being higher if the tank was near the ceiling. As a result, more water is necessary to effectively push the stuff down the sewage pipes.

Muahaha...like I'd care about that. It's a good thing that I dont pay for my water bills. But hey, I dont have time to think about energy efficiency when I wanna relieve myself! The only energy I want to conserve involves not having to push the flush lever twice when I really only need to push it once! Bah!



Guilty as charged!

...Ashlee Simpson?

Man,
You are not going to believe what I saw tonight. I normally wouldnt take the trouble to write about such an insignificant blip on the radio charts, but after watching SNL tonight, I had to say something.

The girl starts off as a blonde. She starts up her new reality series called the Ashlee Simpson Show. People start talking about how she's Jessica Simpson's little sister and how it's nice that they're both into singing. But of course she wants to be different and not to ride on her sister's "fame".

Too bad, the guise of being a punk rocker instead of the sentimental Light & Easy singer Jessica Simpson is....well, let me put it this way.....she's trying to hard. So she comes up with this totally new image, dying her hair to transform herself into a brunette. Her disguise of being a punk rock chick is just too reminiscent of Avril Lavinge, who seems to be growing out of that phase and showing a little more of her feminine side. Get your own act! The fact of the matter is, if she wanted to be famous and different from her sister, she should have tried acting.

The girl cant sing! Which brings me to what happened on national television tonight. I saw her first live performance early this year which was at some MTV Beach House event. Gosh, she literally croaked. I thought not too much of it because she was still a rookie, but after having a multi-platinum selling album, you've got to be pretty good by now.

Ok, you must be pretty frustrated by now, so I'll just get to what happened on SNL tonight. Ashlee Simpson was supposed to perform live on the show. The band started with the intro and everything seemed to be going on fine. Then suddenly, she looked rather stumped and stopped singing, but I could still hear her voice over the amplifiers. Embarrassed because she got totally busted for lip-syncing, she did a little jig on stage and walked off. Producers immediately took the show to a commercial break.

At the end of the show, when all the performers and guest artists come upstage for a final bow, she apologized and blamed her band for playing the wrong song. But what wrong song? You only made one radio-worthy song and obviously you intended to play it! Crap, first you get busted for totally ripping everyone off by lip-syncing, then you blame your band for playing the wrong song. Woman, your days are numbered.

...Bursley Dining Hall?

Crap Crap Crap!

That's what I've been having for lunch and dinner almost every day. Living in Northwood Housing, I'm forced to travel a distance of about 400 meters to get there. Most of the time I just drive. If I drive, there's the risk of getting a parking ticket because if there's no space in the parking lot, there's a very high chance that I wont put enough money to last me my meal time.

Then there are the lines. Every year, for the past 3 years I've had to endure the horrid lines that extend from the entrance, two flights of stairs and finally another 15 meters to the front desk. Every early Fall, it always seems like there are more freshmen coming in than there are seniors graduating. Sadly, not all seniors eat in the dining halls, but almost 35% of all freshmen do....in Bursley.

If the lines are not enough to turn you away, there's the food. Oh, and you would think that there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. You'll be sorely disappointed. The food in Bursley reminds me of how McDonalds tries to meet the demands of their millions of customers....everything is mass produced. Strange how the cooker is right outside the actual kitchen, so as we are lining up, we can see how the food is treated in all its "glory". It's enough to make you skip the entrees and make a beeline to the salad bar.

Did I forget to mention the Swiper? Apparently it's the job every employee wants since it's the easiest one available. He just sits there, takes the MCard from the student and swipes it. Every fifteen minutes, he records down the number of students he’s swiped in. But this is a very privileged position so only the oldest and the most physically challenged workers get priority. Well, it’s also because they cant do anything else. How appropriate. We are dying of starvation and there's this old fart that stares blankly at my face as I approach the counter. After 5 seconds (an eternity), he suddenly jolts back into reality and extends his wrinkly old phalanges to receive my MCard. Sheesh....

There's this old dude that does get on my nerves sometimes. He's called Sexy Grandpa. Apparently, he's a legend here. They even have Sexy Grandpa T-shirts that say "I've been served by Sexy Grandpa". Apparently he got the name from the cap he was wearing. It had the words boldly written across the front. Someone got offended by it and eventually he had to resort to wearing Harley Davidson caps. Poor chap.

Anyway the old geezer's the fastest server in the dining hall. So if you're in line and he's serving, jump over to the counter that he's serving on. The thing that ticks me off about him is his attitude. I've been lectured a couple of times by him just because I asked for that extra piece of chicken. Good grief, I pay for my meals! Other times he tells me to shush up while he rearranges the burritos before taking my order. He goes, "Now hold on there." Then he shifts the stacks around a little. Then looks up and then says, "Ok, now you got to be patient there. Now what do you want?". It seems really trivial, but you've got to experience it to know what I'm talking about. Some people just love to exercise the little bit of authority they have whenever they have the chance.

Horror stories? I've got horror stories aplenty. There was once I was having breakfast this one time and I found a hair in my pancake. This actually happened to me twice. Another time was when I struck something rather hard in while cutting my, yes, once again, pancake. I thought it was a carrot stick or something, but it turned out to be a bottle cap ring! I went to see the server about it but all he did was give me a new pancake shrugged. Ugh!

I cant cancel my meal plan in the middle of the semester but I'm seriously considering canceling it next semester. I think two and a half years of suffering for a little convenience is enough. Since I have my own kitchen and a car, I may as well eat better. It's about time!

...Nikon compact digital cameras?

Dude, have you seen them lately?
They're not exactly the prettiest things you'll see on the shelf. Sit one right next to the Kwanons and the Sonys and $100 says I know which ones you'll be staring at. First of all, the Coolpix 2000, 3000, 4000 and 5000 series cameras look like squares from the front. And they're not very slim either.
This whole issues reminds me of the time when Dell was still producing bricks for laptops while Fujitsu and Toshiba were already churning out sleek beauties. It was only much later that Dell finally realized that they were losing sales because of portability. DOH!


Back to the Nikons... Well about 2 years ago they came up with the Coolpix SQ which I thought was pretty cool. Swivel lens and really tiny too. But Minolta came along with their tiny giant, the Dimage Xt, which totally stole the show. Nikon announced late last year that they are officially pulling out of the 35mm market and heading totally towards the digital realm. That of course only applies to the point-and-shoot camera department. Really, if they are so daring as to make the leap across, they had better think about working on some eye-candy.

Notice how superficial this subject is? I'm only talking about looks and ergonomics here. But the fact of the matter is, people want digital cameras that they can talk about, show off and make people go "cool!". Sadly, Nikon has yet to come up with a selling point related to design.

Minolta came up with the revolutionary internal zoom lens, which was incorporated into the Dimage X-series cameras. Casio just came up with ceramic lenses that make their cameras a whole lot slimmer. Sony decided to slap their new line of digital cameras with huge LCD screens (DSC-T1 and DSC-W1). The only thing I see Nikon priding themselves in is the "In-Camera Red-eye Fix (TM)" function, which I frankly dont give a hoot about.

I got acquainted with the relatively new Nikon Coolpix 4100 at Circuit City last week. I can see that Nikon is taking steps to make their cameras more compact. This particular model is pretty slim. But the only problem is, Nikon made it too curvaceous, making it a nightmare to hold on to. Hope they come with some sort of handstrap. It didnt take me long to wander over to the Sony section and pick up the Sony DSC-W1 which i eventually purchased from Dell.



I have a feeling that Nikon might be putting too much emphasis on the SLR-style P&S cameras like the 8800, 8700 and the 5700. With the introduction of the 8800 the prices of the earlier models are tumbling like nobody's business. Frankly, the 5700's control responsiveness was rubbish. I havent tried the 8700, but I heard they have made more improvements, and the 8800 is basically the 8700 with the addition of Nikon's famed Vibration Reduction system.

If Nikon wants to get a bigger share of the consumer-level market, they better fire that Nakazawa dude and get Steve Jobs to do an "Apple revival" on them.

Me?

• Name: Mike Ng
• Occupation: Student
• Major: Electrical Engineering
• By afternoon/night: Used Nikon Equipment Reseller
• Location: Michigan, USA
• Hobbies: Photography, PC Gaming, Electronic Hardware, Music, Pigging out.
• Pet Peeves: People who are too smart and know it
• Favorite Color(s): Blue/Black/Grey
• Favorite Food: Bah Kut Teh
• Favorite Drink: Teh Peng