TwitterFlu

I'm writing this because of a comic that I recently saw on xkcd.
Swine Flu. Flu from the swine.
There's only one thing I can say about it, and I'll start this blog of with it.
Mad Cow Disease 3.0, Bird Flu2.0, SARS1.5.
It's blown up by the media. Not just the media, blown up by brainless mass communication. IMing, writing pointless messages on Twitter. Making sure it's what is on everyone's mind every waking hour.
It's sad that people overreact to things to this extent. I mean, it's from Mexico. If you go there and eat, you're asking to get sick from food poisoning. It's the number one common story that people who just came back from Mexico have to share, food poisoning. The other main thing you'd get from Mexico is tequila. Which will kill you anyway.
So people that go to Mexico now, the kind that will remind everyone that "they really don't care about this nonsense" every chance they have. They're going blame Swine Flu for every little discomfort.
Food poisoning? Swine Flu!
Croaking the morning after you had tequila? It has to be Swine Flu!
Sneezed once or twice? Oh my god, it must be a Swine Flu symptom!
Swine Flu isn't going to kill us all, and you're never going to get it.
It's just like Mad Cow Disease, Bird Flu and those letters of white powder everyone would supposedly get.

I decided to see what kind of things people kept saying about Swine Flu on twitter, so I did a quick search for #swineflu to see what kind of things I got.

fashionable #swineflu masks!! http://is.gd/vIhb

Who wants to give me a back massage? I hear it wards off #swineflu.

Kid with the hacking cough behind me is freaking me out. #swineflu

#swineflu No panic. Already dead from SARS, bird flu, mad cow, killer bees, fire ants, anthrax, Asian flu, The Bomb, Communism, Kevorkian...

It's really that bad.

... and yes, I am aware that I am adding to the hype myself right now.

Music

I have tons of CDs that I listen to tons of times, but only like the first 5 songs from.
Whenever I listen to the full disc, and it reaches song number 8 or 9, I feel like I've reached the final boss from the CD and that I should save my game.

Gaming has ruined me.

Horoscopidity pt. 2 - Tiger

So last time I went through the Libra traits, now it's time to deep into the Tiger...
That did not come out right.I used other sites for this, and they used completely different formats. I'll try reformatting most of it the same way, but there will be bits that are really different. Also, this post is a lot longer than the previous one.

Characteristics
Courage, Vehemence, Self-Reliance, Friendliness, Hopefulness, Resilience, Vanity, Disregard
All true. I don't think I really feel like commenting on this too much, I don't have too much to say about these points.

Positive Traits
Independent
Am I? I always feel like I'm a pretty dependent person myself.
brave, confident, dynamic
I've been working on my confidence lately, I'd say I'm pretty confident now. Not sure how confident I am as opposed to other people. Dynamic? I probably am, but I wouldn't take it in a positive way.
intense, energetic
I personally agree, while other people around me would say otherwise.
sacrificing, faithful
To some extent, I am sacrificing, yes. I'd like to think of myself as a really faithful person, but I wouldn't dare comment on it myself. I could ask someone if they think I am, but I'm sure that asking such a thing would result in raised eyebrows, muffled laughter and lots of rolling eyes.
Attractive
Me? Really? Why thank you.
Intellectual
I don't really see myself as a smart or intellectual person that much. I used to think of myself that way a few years ago, whenever I think back to that I feel like I was an idiot. I probably still am one to this day.

Negative Traits
Moody
Very, very moody.
Reckless
I think all the cuts and burns I got through work speak for themselves. I tend to be very reckless.
Hot-headed
Pretty much, yes. I try to keep most of it inside, otherwise I'd be snapping at people constantly. Instead now I merely do it allot.
Selfish
I try not to be, but I am.
Impatient
-skip-
Impulsive
Very, very impulsive.
Opinionated
I'm an opinionated asshole.
Rebellious
Not as much as I used to be.

Likes: success, to be their own person, comfort - though not too sumptuous
So far so good.
big parties, appreciation and recognition of their prowess, spending money
I'm not fond of big parties that much. Appreciation bit was covered in the Libra post. Spending money is sadly true. I tend to enjoy spending more than the things I spend it on.
honesty in others and themselves, change and anything new or unusual, a challenge
Doesn't everyone prefer honesty? I'm not too fond of change, but I like completely new and unkown things. I love a little challenge in life. Whenever I'm stuck in a situation I'd really rather not be in, I try to see it as a challenge to get through it with the best results possible. It usually gets me going.
being in charge, flattery, surprises
Being in charge... I love power and control. Flattery is always nice, as long as it's not done in a mocking sense. Surprises are always great.

Dislikes: failure, feeling caged in by circumstances or people, rules and laws made by others
Nobody likes failure, I think. I often do feel caged that way, it's something I have to learn to deal with. A lot of times it's not even something that's wrong in the situation at all, yet I feel that way about it. The last bit, it's a nice way to say that I can't follow orders, advice or people. Which is true, I'm not a follower.
everyday life and its responsibilities, paying attention to detail, scandalmongering
Yup, I hate everyday life and its responsibilities. That's why I dwelled in escapism for years.
Paying attention to detail, we've got a contradiction here, according to my Libra traits I DO pay attention. Which I do. Scandalmongering.... That's the first time I hear that term, and I do dislike it.
taking orders or criticism, nursing others, jewels and trinkets
The first bit we've gone through twice now, both here and in the previous post. Nursing others, can't say I've really had too many experiences with it but I wouldn't be too surprised if it was true. Jewels, no. Trinkets, yes.

being ignored, established authority, hypocrisy
I don't think anyone likes being ignored. Not a big fan of authority, I know it's a neccasary thing, and I do support it, but I don't care for it. Nobody likes a hypocrit.

Color: Mid-green
I don't mind green. I'm not a big fan of the color though.

Suitable Gifts: Exotic cookbooks, travel guides, sports gear, mystery or crime novel, extreme sport lessons
I think I'm already cooking quite exotic food. Unless asian food isn't considered exotic.
I don't like travel guides that much, I prefer actually seeing things with my own eyes and reading proper books about the areas and the history behind it. Travel guiders are just drivel.
I wouldn't know what to do with sports gear. I don't need much stuff for my excersizes, more stuff would only needlessly add pointless rituals and make things more complex than I feel they need to be.
I don't like mystery or crime novels that much. I do like fantasy novels.
Extreme sports lessons would be nice. Once every 100 years or so.

Ruling hours 3am-5am
Thinking back about how I used to be an insomniac, and how I occasionally end up looking at a clock realizing it's 3am – now being one of those times. It seems funny to me.

I think I'll just end it here and now. No conclusion or final thoughts. It was fun doing this for me.

Horoscopidity pt. 1 - Libra

I've been looking up stuff about my horoscopes lately. I'm not really a superstitious person or anything, but occasionally I like reading about it.
It's not like I'm reading daily fortunes or anything, they really don't interest me. They're always so open to interpretation that anything – including nothing at all – could happen and it would seem like it correctly described the day.
What I do like is the personality descriptions that go along with the horoscope signs themselves. Of course these are also as open to interpretation as the fortunes are, but I find them interesting nonetheless. It probably has to do with the fact that it's not telling you what's going to happen, but instead about who you are as a person and what qualities you have, including bad ones.
I don't believe them. Or rather, I don't want to believe them.
The problem is that some of it really describes me. Then again, that's probably the way they're made: chances are that if I was almost completely opposite to the person I am today, I'd probably still feel like it connects.
Being born on October 4^th, 1986, my signs are Libra and Tiger (Chinese sign).
So let's start on the Libra first.
Also, I'm stealing information from other websites for this. Hurray for plagiarism.

Positive traits:

Diplomatic and urbane
I'm not so sure about urbane myself. Diplomatic, well, maybe.
Romantic and charming
Romantic, yes. Too much so even. Charming? I hope so.
Easygoing and sociable
I'm not extremely easygoing, but I'm very sociable. Everywhere I go, I always meet people that I talk to. Every shop I frequent more than weekly I know the people working there on a first name basis. Every time I go anywhere I constantly keep walking into people I know. Idealistic and peaceable
Yes, and yes.
Loves art
I don't know art, but I know what I like.
Plans ahead
I have no idea what I'll be doing in half an hour from now. I have absolutely no idea what I'll be doing next year. I just see a big cloud of fog when thinking of five years from now. Need I continue?
Neat
Haha! No.

Negative traits:
Indecisive and changeable
I hate to admit this, but it is true. I can't decide on anything, which is terrible because I also tend to be very impulsive: I don't know what I want, but what I want is... now. Changeable, to some extent I am very changeable. Though most changes never really last long except the ones I push myself to take.
Gullible and easily influenced
To me this just sounds like an extension of changeable, or at least something that goes hand in hand with it. So yes, I am both.
Flirtatious and self-indulgent
Is flirtatious really such a bad thing? At least, while I'm single it shouldn't be.
Self-indulgent? Er... Yes.
Bossy at times
Just “at times”?
Slight perfectionist
Yup, that's me. I'm never satisfied with anything I do either. It's never good enough, no matter how good it is.

Likes: The finer things in life, sharing, conviviality, gentleness, Debates, Attention, Intellectual conversations, Admiration, Gifts, Beauty
I don't have to go deeply into this, but these are all true.

Dislikes: Violence, Injustice, Brutishness, Being a slave to fashion, Noise, Confusion, Sloppiness , Ugliness , Pressured decisions, Being rushed, Criticism
Correct, yet again. Though the first 3 all pretty much all the same thing, or at least they appear so to me. Noise has been underlined because It's something that iritates me to no end. It's why I watch videos and movies with my headphones on, so I don't have to deal with anyone else's noise.

Color: BLUE
I think the color scheme here speaks for itself. It's my favorite color.

Lucky Number - 6
My favorite number is 3.

I think I'll wrap it up here and continue towards the Tiger in the next post. I don't feel like annoying people with one gigantic block of text in one time. So instead, I'll bother people with two big blocks of texts.

Damn you, ATM designers!

A couple of days ago one of my friends sent me an IM, telling me to look for a good image of the new ATM machines from ING. I think a bit of background information wouldn't hurt on this subject, so I'll explain about the new design before moving on to why it's so horrible.
Some time ago one of the most popular banks here got taken over by another bigger bank that hardly anyone trusts. Postbank, which was not only a bank but also did a huge hand in mail service - not sure if this is normal everywhere, I remember that some book about Japan had to explain that this was a normal thing in Japan to it's American readers, which surprised me since it used to be normal here too.
After the bank got taken over by ING, the mail service part of it was separated and half of the banks either turned into a mail service center or a bank. Making it harder to find both of them in several areas, including my own.
The loyal, mellow blue design got replaced for a cheerful, pain-in-the-eyes orange one and hundreds of people went to other banks.

Now that I've explained to you why the change is made and how people feel about it, here's what the new machine looks like, the old one is in the picture as well:

Ugly being replaced by eye blinding ugly.

So what wrong with it?

There's an old meme floating around the internet that's been there since the start of 'anonymous'. It's extremely well known as "IMMA CHARGIN MAH LAZER!". Originally started as a joke about the length of the Dragon Ball Z episodes, and how they stretched them. During one fight, a character called Cell took several episodes to charge up his fireball attack. Jokes about him and how long it took for him to charge up turned into the meme we know today. This is the image of him FIRIN the lazer by the way.
The newly designed ATM machines look awfully similar to the "Shoop da Woop" template.

Don't believe me?
Let's look at it again:

Shoop da woop!