You can taste the friendship

I thought I’d just make a quick post, seeing as it has been quite a while, no?

So, when do individuals, people that you you wouldn’t ever relate with, become a friend? I don’t know whether or not you’ve thought about it, but I have…

Here’s how I measure it… If people try to add me on facebook, I simply think, ‘Have I ever had a five minute conversation with this person?’ If so, I’ll add, and depending on how much we chat, I’ll keep the person on my friends list. So, for me, it’s a good five minute conversation before I’d ever consider someone to be a friend. Not a good friend, mind you, just on the verge.

Of course, there are many levels of friendship. To reach one of the highest ones, your friend has to make fun of you. I know, weird, right? But the friendship comes in when they know when to stop, and not hurt your feelings.

Anyway, think about friends, and how easily you can make them. Is it as easy as a five min convo? Or is it gonna take a treacherous trek to achieve that relationship?

Mobile phones are a big thing nowadays. The industry is huge and companies like Apple and SonyEricsson are working hard to bring you the best new hand-held tech at… extortionate prices. But if you’re looking for quality, it’s better to have individual devices. I’m talking about cameras and mp3 players.

I’ll start with the camera. Mobile phones have bad cameras. Fact. If you know anything about the workings of a camera, you’ll know that it’s not just the megapixel count that matters. The CCD screen (the material that the image is ‘burned’ onto) needs to be a decent size too or the millions of pixels start to overlap and you lose detail. Obviously this can’t be the case in phones, since most of the space is taken up by circuitry and also nowadays the membrane which supports touchscreens, while the phone itself isn’t particularly big in the first place. And the flash is weak and eats your battery. Even worse than this – phone cameras have plastic covers. Sure, this protects them – but there’s not a chance in hell that the camera could pick up any decent resolution through plastic in comparison to glass. Maybe some of these issues are being resolved, but the modern camera is lightyears ahead of modern phone cameras.

As for mp3 players, modern phones are trying to double up as convenient music players. Crap. They have a capacity of 32Gb maximum (ok for some people, bad for many), a long-winded file system which is just inefficient for quickly finding music (some phones are much better than others however) but most importantly – playing music, even through headphones, is a black hole for your battery life.

So what I’m saying is – if you are looking for practicality with your electronic devices and you don’t want to have to carry 3+ gadgets around at a time, a multi-purpose phone would serve you well (just make sure the battery lasts more than 12 hours between charges). But if you’re looking for a quality camera or mp3 player, don’t be tempted by mobile-phone advertising – they just don’t compare to the individual products.

Time for a quick post between revision.

It’s  a universal fact that batteries perform poorly in the cold. Have you ever noticed that news reports from cold-weather places contain much less original footage than from warmer places (about 20°C+)? Check it out next time on the news. This is because the batteries in their recording equipment suffer from the cold, and so the team has to pad out the report with old recordings.

Batteries don’t contain electricity. They contain chemicals which, under the right conditions, react in a way that moves electrons through an available pathway. This pathway is the circuitry you get in electronics. When electrons move – you have electricity! When it’s moving through circuitry, you can power whatever device you’re using. In this way chemical energy is converted to electrical energy.

It is also true that chemical reactions are slower in cold conditions. The current (think of current as the speed of the electrons) is slower. Furthermore, the less reactants, the lower the rate of reaction, known as Le Chatelier’s Principle. Thirdly, a reaction needs a certain amount of energy already present for it to take place – this energy comes in the form of heat. With these 3 factors working against the battery, it cannot last long. The batteries soon become useless.

The counteract this problem, it’s perfectly acceptable to warm up your batteries before use, or insulate them while they are being used. In fact, batteries that have ‘died’ in the cold can be warmed up and will continue to work until the battery literally runs out of chemical reactants. High-spec equipment (particularly military tech for use in extreme conditions like the arctic or even space) uses battery power to keep the batteries warm as well as to power the device. You’d think this empties the batteries sooner, but the power you gain from the extra heat is more than you lose to keep the batteries warm.

So hopefully this should help you out if you need to use any electronics outside, particularly phones, cameras and camcorders. Keep spare batteries with you in a warm place and you should do just fine :)

Well i have to say this blog has been very quiet over the past few weeks. This can easily be explained by one word… exams!

So through life you will get tested on stuff. Even at a pub there are pub quizes.  So yea all the bloggers for this site have been very busy, since we all have lots of exams to do, which we need to pass to continue with life. If we fail we will have to go through another route and do even more exams, if we want to do well.

Timotei [;_;]

My friend always describes my taste in music as “obscure japanese music.” Despite it not actually being descriptive of my tastes, I do listen to japanese music. But when people find that out, they tend to think that’s all I listen to…

Going through my library of music, I found that the ratio of English/American artists to foreign artists is 50:50. Considering that a significant number of these foreign artists sing english songs and release albums in England/Europe/America, it should be more like 60:40, or maybe even 75:25…

But that’s not what I’m getting at here… Why is it that people automatically tend to dislike music from japan or korea? The main reason (or excuse, in some cases) is that they don’t understand the language. I would argue back with the fact that a lot of the lyrics are in english. They’d mumble another excuse… lol

Back on topic… Is foreign music obscure? You could look at it that way… You could say that only nerds and geeks listen to this kind of music. Though I’ve met plenty of people that certainly don’t seem to be like nerds or geeks to me, yet listen to this kind of music… So that can’t be the only explanation.

Another explanation is that, perhaps, the minds of the people who listen to this kind of music is just more open. They know what they like, and aren’t afraid to try new things to get more of it. They like ‘normal’ music, but also take the best from ‘obscure’ music. They’re living the best of both worlds, and aren’t limiting themselves to the ordinary… Is that not a good thing? Saying that japanese/korean/chinese music is crap is just incompetent – If it was, then why is there such a big world wide audience for it? The way I see it, if there’s an audience for something, that thing must have provide some kind of ‘reward,’ in the form of pleasure, for the consumer. And I try my best to get past the crap to find that reward. If it was worth getting through the crap, then it’s worth keeping the music. In fact, a lot of the time, I find it easier to find things I like in japanese songs, than in english songs.

To end this post… Is there any ‘obscure’ music you listen to? OR does anyone you know listen to it? What do you think?

Well everyone say alcohol is a depressant. I know this to be true but affect people in different ways. I mean although alcohol is a depressant, it can make people extremely happy the day they drink. So drinking alcohol is kinda like karma for them. They will be happy if they drink it but the next day they won’t be happy! For others alcohol makes them a whiny depressed person, i only know this to happen on whiny people, so they don’t change much, just more whiny.  For me it varies, I get really happy and the next day depending on what i do will vary my mood. If I’m at home i will become slightly depressed because i will think about “What could have happened” but if i go out with my friends, i won’t have time to think about that.

My mother has a rule that it won’t affect you straight away but 3 days later. I always say this is wrong, though she sometimes mentions it when i get in an argument. I personally doubt it would affect me, and I’m naturally an argumentative person. But she says it does, but my mum says a lot of things which aren’t true about me. Alright, i would usually finish a blog post about asking a question, but personally i don’t think i have enough views who drink.  So my question is…. Why do you not drink. Don’t worry i won’t judge, i have several friend’s who don’t drink and i respect that, but I’ve been brought up to drink so it’s kinda in my nature.

3pic Ramblez!

I wanted to ask you guys about this blog name… What do you think?

I decided to change the name, since we have new authors, and the original wasn’t too original :3

Any ideas on better names? It was an on-the-spot kinda thing, and we’re open to suggestions. Not that we’re gonna definitely take them, but if something awesome crops up, we’ll steal it, copyright it, and laugh in your face ;D

To The Comments Section!!!

I guess I’ll make a start with a real post.

So I recently got a chance to run around a 400m running track alone. Big deal right? I always used to think running was boring. But I gave it a go – I ran the full 400 and clocked a time of 1:28:27 (that’s minutes: seconds: microseconds, I didn’t take 1 and a half hours :p) and I wanted to keep going round to try and beat my time – and even when I didn’t I enjoyed the run.

It was good to have my pace, breathing and rhythm to concentrate on, while not having to worry about dodging traffic or negotiating uneven surfaces like running around town. It also made the difference to be alone, I’ve raced on these tracks and found competition distracting and not very pleasant. I could seriously have spent the entire day there, with the help of my mp3 player.

I’m not saying running is for everyone or that you will instantly like it as I did, but I totally recommend you try it, especially if you’re fired up and need to calm down or burn some energy. Just make sure you stay warm and hydrated. I’m definitely going to get myself to a track and beat my time.

Let me know what you think.

Impressed?

Hey all.

Name’s John. I’m a new member of the Epic Rambles team.  I used to take part in the Anime-Stadium Forum but unfortunately I’m not a great fan of anime (not that I dislike it, I’m just not into it – yet) so I struggled to find much in common with the other users and their posts. I know both Mika and Timotei from school so they got me set up here. And the image is me in an (obviously) home-made  ‘Optimus Prime’ suit made of cardboard and hot glue. I made it for a charity run.

I guess the most relevant way to tell you about myself is to go through this blog’s categories. Well I’m not Asian, although my squinty eyes would suggest I’m oriental or something. Development? Well I’m concentrating on education at the moment. Having said that, I never work too hard. I enjoy PC gaming, you’ll probably find out a little more in my later posts if I do some reviews e.t.c As far as music and media are concerned, I like ALL genres of music, I judge on a song-by-song basis. I tell Mika that I hate Utada, but I just haven’t sat down and given her a fair listen yet. But don’t worry fella, I will someday. Films interest me, often sci-fi and fantasy but I find many genres of films interesting (although rom-coms need to be very funny to hold my attention). I often can’t be bothered with entire series, although BBCs ‘Life on Mars’ was excellent, and I’m enjoying Glee and 90210. Did I mention I’m straight? Yes I go to school – hopefully in a few months I’ll be off to university to study Computer Science to degree level. So there you go. I guess another thing that makes me different is that I recently had a brain tumor removed. Not fun – I wouldn’t recommend it. I won’t bore you with details unless you really want to know.

Cool.

Cheers,

John

New template? Yea that’s right, we’ve changed it. A template is always important to a website, it’s like the photoshop work done to an ugly image. I mean the content is still going to be the same, but wouldn’t you rather see the content all airbrushed up. ;D while writing this i thought of so many other similes for what a template could be like, but they were definitely not appropriate for younger readers.

So yea hope you enjoy the new template, and keep on reading.

So, the other day, I almost got into a fight and I had adrenaline going through my body… Which used to be a normal thing for me, seeing as I went to such a bad school about two years before – It wasn’t surprising if a seemingly ordinary lesson turned into a riot. Not back then, anyway…

Now I go to a school where I’ve been attending for almost two years, and I still haven’t seen a fight. Ive not had that adrenaline rush in so long… The same rush I’d get weekly, if not, sometimes, daily. The last one I had, ignoring the one from the other day, was a few months back, when I fell off a waveboard (google it), which was going fast downhill O_o

Okies, here’s the main focus of this post… When I used to get a huge adrenaline rush, I’d feel sick for about 20 minutes and, despite not being a smoker, I’d somewhat crave the smell (just the initial smell) of a cigarette. But now, I stay sick for a few hours and I shake like a leaf. Is that normal…? I am kinda worried >_>

Hmmm, I weren’t too worried about feeling sick, I mean, I never felt too sick, and a friend told me that’s normal after a rush like that. And I can link the wanting of a sniff of a cigarette to the sickness, seeing as the smell is comforting. To me, anyway. But the shaking? I’ll have to look into that… Hmmm…

Mikahcho Out… Like a bat flying out of a cave, which I thought was The Bat Cave, but it wasn’t, it was the Fortress Of Solitude… Damn, I’m lost… Laterz…

Ok well as you gathered from the previous post, i like to drink. But what really makes me wonder is how come people act completly different from when they are drunk. I mean i don’t really change much from sober to drunk, except slurred words and the fact i will never admit i’m drunk, though i will admit when i got tipsy. But some people completly change. Which often makes me think they put it on but after them doing it loads, i come to terms that people do change under the influence of alcohol.

I mean there is this one guy who is completely anti-smoking and literally looks at people who smoke in digust, but get him drunk enough he will steal a cigerette off someone and smoke it. So i actually went up to him and was like oh your smoking and he was like “i’m drunk i don’t care”. Surely your morals don’t go when you drink. I mean i don’t go round thinking it’s acceptable to stab people after i had a few pints. So why would someonewho feels so strongly about smoking do it.

There is one girl who i know when she gets drunk, she would literally bite me, not in the agressive way, but showing her emotions to me… in some weird way. Which i generally ignore because she is a mate, but seriously it’s a bit weird, and definitly painful.

So to top this off, what do you guys do? Do you even drink?

Timotei {¬_¬}

A while ago  mikahcho did a blog post about his favorite word which was passion. Well i’ve decided to do my favorite word which is:

Hypocrite. I love this word, though i needed to use sell checker to make sure i typed it correctly. I don’t think anyone isn’t a hypocrite at any one point in their lives.

Because it makes people seem sooo silly. I mean my friend generally call me a alcoholic, because i have an occasional beer even if i’m not going out (which i thought was normal, apparently it’s not for them) but they only drink alcohol when they plan to get drunk, which is like at least one day every week. I don’t know how i’m the alcoholic when they purposely try and get drunk.

I do like to get drunk aswell so this rant about them being hypocritical because they are the real alcoholic, is in fact hypocritical because i do drink more than them thoughout the week. So really my friends and i are both hypocrites and alcoholics… in some weird way.

Timotei \[^_^]/ the drunken ramblings of a drunk.

So… This Glee program that all the kids are talking about these days… Why’s it so popular? So many people say that it’s just another High School Musical.

Is that a bad thing?

So many guys hear any mention of HSM and think eurgh, that’s gay. Ofcourse you’d think it’s gay. It’s a movie for a younger audience you effin’ douchebag. It was made by Disney as a family movie, about love and stuff. And to be honest… Some of the music from the movie IS pretty good T_T

Moving on with my rant… Why do people compare the two, when they’ve never watched both, or sometimes, either of them? I mean… If you think Glee basically is HSM, just try watching an episode. Any episode. Just pick one out. Notice how reality is, in fact, a reality. Glee uses serious problems that are faced by teenagers all over the world. Girls become pregnant, socially out-casted people spiral into depressive behaviours and teens fall for each other and then realise that they can’t be together. And instead of pulling a HSM, and going against social norms, these kids realise that there will rarely ever be a happy ending. They seriously just get over it.

Another reason it’s different. Take the characters. The main female lead in HSM falls in love with some guy, whom she can’t be with, but miracles happen, yada, yada, yada, and they get together at the end. Yay. But in Glee, the (arguably) main female lead falls for a guy whom she can’t be with, she tries t get him, fails, gets over him, then starts getting with the guy’s best friend, who up until this point in the story is portrayed as a sexy douche, and then leaves him and is currently getting intimate with the enemy.

Oh. The drama.

Mikahcho. Out.

Ok this post is a bit experimental. I mean alot of bloggers who write about their everyday life, tries to make the most simplest thing exciting. Which surprises me, because it can be the most boring thing like the weather and they can still make it seem like the best thing since sliced bread.

So yea… Right now it’s raining. Rain is water and water makes things wet. Haha ok well this is definitely not as easy as i thought it would be.

I never really think about the weather much, it’s just something that happens and you have to get over. But to be honest it is so much more, for instance, I have a noticeable attitude change depending on the weather. I mean movies often associates rain with sadness, but i think of it in a complete different way. I like to believe that the rain is cleansing and giving life back to plants.  But if it constantly rains it just gets boring and a bit of an annoying. I think the real fact is it’s not the weather that dictates my mood, it’s the change of scenery.

Yes i know, i am going no where is the blog post but like i said it’s just a tester post. So to round this up I’m just going to be like, “what’s your favorite type of weather”

Timotei  <(^_^)>