Also known as Knewbuntu, Pneubuntu or Gnubuntu depending on your preference of silent letters.


Saturday, January 31, 2009

A Succinct Description of the Countries I Have Lived In

So, as a challenge to myself, I have decided to describe the countries I have lived in (in order) in one word. I'll be explaining why I chose that one word making the whole plan rather redundant, but let's not dwell on the negative shall we?

PLACE: Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England
VERDICT: Awesome

k, this one is kind of biased. I think there is some sort of generic imperative to love the country you were born in. But I do genuinely love England for its half-europeanness. It has all the trademarks of Europe: city centres with roads too small for cars (That's right, North America), farmland just seconds away, non-fat people. But it also has this inescapable air of not wanting to be European. The British are just so unlike all other Europeans in their own special way, but so like it in many others. It is very difficult to describe.


PLACE: Moorsel+Tervuren, Vlaams-Brabant, Belgium
VERDICT: Indecisive

I have labeled Belgium as indecisive because it, well, is. It can't decide whether it is modern or ancient. On your average drive through Belgium, you will drive for an hour along a hugely modern road with cornfields on both sides, then suddenly arrive smack bang in the middle of a town. And then you'll realize the only way out is along a country road in the middle of the forest that looks like it was designed as a mountain bike trail. And I really loved it for that. The idea of having crumbling farmhouses next to ultra-modern buildings that went up the day before is so appealing in its own way.

And now we adjourn from Europe. Forever. =(.


PLACE: Southlake, Texas, USA
VERDICT: Big

There really is no other word to explain Texas, is there? Everything is big. The cars, the people, the place, the servings. It is also so hellishly hot that words cannot describe it. Luckily I was only here for one year, since it was by far my least favourite place to live. In fact, I refuse to give it any more of my time.


PLACE: Cape Town, Western Province, South Africa
VERDICT: Hopeful


Hopeful, in this case, is a little bittersweet (yes, kinda sorta not really ripped off from Gran Torino). It is sweet in the sense that there is this air that something good COULD happen to South Africa. It is bitter in that nothing ever seems to. South Africa has had a good run since Apartheid. Thabo Mbeki and Nelson Mandela, while not the greatest heads of state ever, did make a meaningful difference in South Africa. In Mandela's case, he couldn't go wrong due to his nigh God status. And Mbeki was just a straight-up good guy. And now along comes Zuma. Zuma, for the uneducated, is now the head of the ANC (African National Congress), the only party that has won an election since the Apartheid. Zuma was being investigated for Rape and Corruption. His first act as head of the ruling party was to disband the police force (the Scorpions) that was investigating him. Sound fishy? Well I certainly don't think so.


PLACE: Oakville, Ontario, Canada
VERDICT: Cold

Yeah yeah, I know, it's the stereotype. Well, I do apologize, but Canada is FRIGGIN COLD. If you had spent the previous four years in average temperatures of 22 degrees Celsius as opposed to Fahrenheit, you would understand. The people here are quite nice, if a little need and self-centred (see previous two posts). And as Firefox reminds me, they also can't spell centre. YES, IT IS R-E. But I digress. Canada isn't my least favourite place to live in, but it also isn't my favourite. You see, I can't think of any reasons not to live in Canada (except the cold) (AND STEPHEN HARPER *shudders* sweater vests), but there isn't anything that draws me to Canada. I also feel absolutely no connection to it. In that way, it is also cold. I always feel like I'm shut out from Canadian society. Maybe it's my paranoia/self-esteem issues, but after three years I, in no way, feel Canadian.

~Setsanto

P.S. This was meant to be a short post.....apparently I'm really long-winded.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Musings (while under the influence of anger)

So, I am currently sitting in my school library during second period. My day so far has been amazing. I had an allnighter last night, in order finish up various extracurricular projects. I then had to be at school for 7:30 for music council, where it appears everyone completely forgets about everything we discuss in the half hour meeting the minute it ends. I then discovered that my partner on one of the aforementioned projects (let us call it project A) had not finished all of her part, since she was very tired at 11PM, the poor thing. Which brings me to why I am in the library.


After pulling an allnighter to finish my stuff for project A AND going through 3/4 of the rainforest in notes for the other project (call it project B), I am now skipping a period in order to do my partner's part of the team project. *sigh*

Anyways, I had to save a draft of this to publish later. But then I forgot. So I am no longer under the influence of anger. However, here is another good example of how Canadian kids, in general, do not take responsibility for things they need to do:

A certain acquaintance of mine (for arguments sake, let's call him EgoManiac (and no, there is no deeper reason for me calling him that. :P.)) is participating in project B as well. Project B is a solo project, but one that multiple people are participating in. And for project B, we had to write a short 300-450 word paper.

Now I had pulled an allnighter researching for and writing my paper. I also finished it 2 days before it was due so that the teacher in charge of this project could proofread it. EgoManiac realized on Thursday that it was due on Friday. EgoManiac is not very good at handling stressed, and when he gets stressed (horrendously often), he usually decides to shovel his problems onto someone else. In this case, me.

So here I was on Thursday evening, with American History and Biology exams looming the very next day, walking EgoManiac through his paper. After I had basically written the first two of the three required parts for him, he went into überstress (I'm part-German, so I'm allowed to use über) mode. At this point, I discovered some very interesting information. You see, when I had been writing his paper, he was feeding me research about his topics. I thought this information had been coming from him, so it was sort of bearable. But once he got into his nervous breakdown mood, I discovered that his MOM had been doing research for him so that he could STUDY.

How can someone do that? I mean honestly, does he have no qualms about using other people for his own gains? So in the end, he showed up for American History and Biology, throughly rested and with a good night's studying behind him. I showed up after trying to squeeze in an hour of studying the night before between midnight and one.

And that is why I think Canadian teenagers are, in general, the most overprotected, selfish, needy, self-centred human beings I have ever met. And that experience covers 5 countries, 3 continents and 16 years.

~Setsanto

Thursday, January 15, 2009

I would use Ubuntu full-time if...

So I'm dual-booting a 100% fully legal completely not hacksed version of Windows 7 and Ubuntu. I quickly began to realize that Ubuntu has a number of shortcomings

  1. You could sync videos through it's media players. Seriously, I went through them all. Songbird, Banshee, GTKPod, none of them work the way I want them too. I even tried running iTunes through WINE, but that failed harder than Kevin Pietersen. This is big for me 'cause I need music to distract me from my distractions.
  2. It ran .exes. Yeah, yeah I know, WINE and all that. Well, WINE =/= windows. At all. WINE is great if you're running something for MS-DOS. But try running guitar pro. Or Sibelius. Actually don't. It fails.
  3. It worked every day without fail. As much as it is fun to play with Ubuntu, I have my limits. I enjoyed finding out how to do things with terminal etc. Having to do them over and over again because Ubuntu is weird that way is annoying.
  4. Networking was easier. So I tried to set up a static IP on Ubuntu. Phail just about sums it up. On Windows 7, it is much easier AND IT WORKS.
However, other than these minor qualms, Ubuntu is FTW.

~Setsanto

Sunday, January 11, 2009

16 songs/pieces that you would expect on my iPod at all times

Alright, it is impossible for me to organize this in any sort of countdown or countup manner, because all of these songs/pieces are epic/awesome in their own way. Also, I only remembered to do this as a result of this. And be warned, some are Scandinavian death metal. I'll add a \m/ tag next to those songs for all you weak-hearted souls :P. I have limited the number of such songs due to the probable audience. But anyways, here goes:


1. Fiddler On The Green - Demons & Wizards

Demons & Wizards is a side project of Jon Schaffer, guitarist of Iced Earth, and Hansi Kürsch, legendary vocalist of the legendary German power metal band Blind Guardian (you'll be seeing more of them :P). This song is probably my single most favourite song of all time. The awesome acoustic guitar, coupled with Hansi's soaring vocals is so ridiculously epic that neither words or a metaphor do it justice.



2. Go Forth and Die - Dethklok \m/

Dethklok is the band from metalocalypse. If you are currently giving the computer screen a quizzical look, WATCH IT. NAOW. For metalheads, it's a satirical look at the music you know is the best ever (except for classical). For people that don't know anything about metal, it's very funny and a way of getting into metal. For people who hate metal, it's very funny and a way to realize that what they are currently listening to isn't half as good.



3. Path - Apocalyptica

Cello metal. Yep, you heard me right. Apocalyptica is cello metal. They also play Metallica infinitely times better than Metallica (sorry all of you band-wagon hopping, retarded, non-intellectual, gender-confused, questionable-sexuality morons. Metallica sucks.). Path is a piece they wrote themselves and it is amazing. They manage to rock harder than most bands on an instrument that's almost as old as your mom. OH SNAP. And they make awesome music vids. I mean, come on, a cello-off against your SHADOW?? What's more awesome then that? Except for Chuck Norris, naturally.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUrW5TikUGw (you'll have to go to the website because embedding is disabled)

4, 5. Lost to Apathy, Monochromatic Stains - Dark Tranquillity \m/

What ever you want to call them, Jesus, BEST BAND EVAR or so ridiculously good I'm just going to stand here with my jaw open looking like a retard, if it has a positive connotation, it applies to DT. Pioneers of Gothenburg Metal, that indelible mix of death metal and melodic riffs, DT has been ripping it up since 1989. Both of these songs are very similar. If by similar you mean MINDBLOWINGLY AWESOME. *mind blows*.





6,7. Mordred's Song, Valhalla - Blind Guardian

Blind Guardian should evoke a rush of such a magnitude that you think you've just ODed on heroin. Not that I would know anything about that (not kidding, I'm so straight-edge I make Chuck Norris look gay). They are the most epic power metal band ever ever ever. And they play amazingly when live (which is where these two songs were filmed/recorded at).





8. Symphony No. 25: Allegro Con Brio - Mozart

Mozart is amazing. If you don't think so, you shouldn't be here. Not to be too harsh or anything. The syncopation is amazing, as is the fact that it's one of his two minor symphonies :P. And by the time the recapitulation comes around, you'll be like OMG, CAN"T TAKE MORE AWESOME. And then the more awesome comes along, and it's awesome.



9,10. If I Were A Rich Man, Opening Credits - Fiddler On The Roof

Reb Teyve (the fat guy in the first video) is awesome, 'cause he just is. And the violin solo in the second video was recorded in ONE take while the guy had a freaking cold. If you haven't seen Fiddler On The Roof, proceed to do so immeadiately after you've finished watching the two seasons of metalocalypse.





11. Kings Who Die - Galloglass

Galloglass are a power metal band. This song is epic, as in that truly epic epicness. DONE.



12. Hyperion - Vornagar \m/

Witness Lord Marco (the drummers)'s insane skills. This song is everything I like about death metal right now, fast, brutal and with extreme drums. The second video contains no vox, so if those turn you off watch that one. You also get to see just how impressive Lord Marco is.





13,14. Cry Of The Blackbrids, Death In Fire - Amon Amarth \m/

Amon Amarth is the quintessential Viking Metal band (though Death In Fire is really more melodic death metal). I saw these guys in Toronto. I crowdsurfed thrice and left with a second-hand high and a sore neck due to all my headbanging. 'nuff said.





15. The Murder - The Absence \m/

These guys were in Toronto with Amon Amarth and DIDN'T get blown out of the water which is truly incredible. In fact, I regret not getting one of their t shirts (which were awesome) and getting an Amon Amarth one instead (not quite so much of the awesome). These guys hail from Tampa, Florida but could just as well be in the middle of Sweden's metal scene.



16. Death and the Healing - Wintersun

Jari, of Ensiferum fame, is amazing. He's singing and sweep picking AT THE SAME TIME. And this is a very very awesome song. Extreme Power Metal ftw.



~Setsanto

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Why I miss Christmas.

School. If that word did not make you cringe, you are either a) a tool, or b) one of those horrendously annoying socialites who seem to think that Oakville = real world. [/rant]. So right now school is making me rather depressed, as you probably have not noticed in any way. This is due to the fact that it has combined with my extracurriculars to form this godless, 2-headed, attention-seeking, soul-leeching, mind-raping machine.

To give you an idea of my typical night/day:

11:00 PM - Finally finish being distracted by things
02:00 AM - Finish half of assignments, thinking I've completed them all
02:00:00.001 AM - ASLEEP
05:00 AM - Wake up, finish all assignments, thinking I've only done half
07:00 AM - Leave for school extracurricular, realize I've forgotten all assignments
07:00:01 AM - Realize I really don't care about assignments, go to school without retrieving them
08:00 AM - School, get mindraped by teachers

And this cycle continues every day of the week.

Now of course, to whine without productivity is pointless. So here is my suggestion. Start school 3 weeks earlier. Be done exams BEFORE Christmas. Come back, have second semester. Be done at beginning of June.

Anyone else liking this idea?

~Setsanto