I'm in a really awkward situation right now because I'm ordering all the stuff for the house now that I'm moving in. But I don't know whether to put my apartment address or my house address. If I send it to the apartment, I may not be here when it arrives. But if I send it to the house, the delivery man may take a look at my unfinished house, wonder what the hell is going on, and then leave. It's a problem. Thankfully Amazon.com is two-day.

The reaction for the recent disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines plane is rather perplexing for me. There are many families screaming that Malaysia is hiding something, that they need the truth, that there has to be more information. Okay, here's the truth: No one fucking knows. Wait a fucking bit whilst people figure out what the hell happened. Here's what we know: We found an oil slick in the ocean and currently teams are combing the area to search for a crash. There were two fliers who had illegal passports, but at the moment they're not tied to any terrorist groups, no terrorist group has taken responsibility for this (very unusual), and they may just be illegal immigrants. It seems the plane toward the end veered off course. But beyond that, we've got fucking nothing. It's hard to determine the cause if we don't know where the hell the remains are. But it's probable it crashed and everyone is dead.

I kinda view this is a consequence of the Information Age. People just expect everything right away and don't have patience for shit. I admit, there is a lot of suspicious shit about this case. But I doubt anyone's deliberately withholding information. They just need time. I don't see anyone gaining anything from not telling people shit.

That's a review I found on Barnes & Noble's site for Voltaire's A Treatise on Tolerance. The reason why I checked it is because whilst browsing I saw that book has a 1-star rating and vaguely wondered why this person hated Voltaire's work so much. It turns out he doesn't hate it at all but rather just got a misprinted copy.

See, this is why I hate online reviews and star system because people don't know how to critique something properly. Let's say for a moment I didn't know anything about Voltaire and just was looking for a book to read, I would from just glancing at it see that it's shit because people are giving it 1 star and then immediately dismiss it. Most of the time people aren't actually criticizing the thing but rather the seller (getting the product late) or customer service (didn't give you the discount you wanted). That doesn't tell me jack shit about the product itself.

I think people before they review things need to sit down and think properly about criteria. Like something being good in general vs. whether it was good for you. For example, I saw a ranking of the NYC subway systems and the 1 train was low on the list because it takes forever to get from upper Manhattan to lower Manhattan. Well... yeah. It's the fucking local train. Do you want it to magically turn into an express train to satisfy your impatience and the people along the route just don't get any service at all? That's a terrible fucking reason to say something is bad. You can complain about the 1's recent signal problems, its propensity for randomly terminating service at 137th, or the high rate of encountering mariachi bands. That's something to bitch about. Not that it's local. You have to acknowledge that something has to be local because if not... well, let's face it: You'll be whining no trains stop by near your house.

I think if websites force people with more specific questions instead of just an open one ("what do you think of this product?" vs. "what was the quality of this product?" and "how was the shipping?") perhaps it would direct people more, but even then I think they'd just say dumb shit.

Can someone please tell me what the hell these Playstation "Favorites" are? I thought it was bad enough with the Greatest Hits shit, now there's a subcategory I have to contend with as well? At least it's not as glaringly obvious a the Greatest Hits, but it's still bothering the fuck out of me to see it there.

For anyone who's played World of Warcraft, you know that were two side jobs you could take on: miner, enchanter, leatherworker... Final Fantasy XIV also has something exactly like that: botanist, fisher, goldsmith, etc. Every guild has its own master, who gives you missions for your specialty, e.g. make four types of shield or fifty logs of this type of lumber. So far I've seen all types of guildmasters, from the hostile and doubtful to the friendly and encouraging.

And then there's this guy.

I've never joined the weavers guild, but I can only assume it is the most terrifying experience ever. I don't know why a general from the Soviet Union is overseeing the weavers, but I can only assume it is another method of enact terror upon the general population. Look at his munitions. He's got a cross stitch of a cactaur, a pin cushion at the wrist, and scissors and thread on his belt. And you can tell from the look in his eyes that he wants to fuck you up badly with them and has the complete capability to do so. Weavers: the most powerful people in the world that no one knows about?

Tagalog has titles corresponding to age similar to Japanese: ate = neesan, tita = obasan, and lola = obaasan, which you've probably noticed with Ate Neneng. I pronounce it something like "at-ning," but in reality both syllables should not be swallowed: á-te.

Mom told me years ago in the Philippines she went to the movies with her parents to see Ate Maria. Back then there were plenty of American servicemen to be found due to the Korean War, and some of them were in the theater with her. According to mom it was a romantic comedy, but afterward she heard one of the Americans asking a comrade, "...I don't get it. Who ate Maria? She didn't get eaten at all!"

I would love to know how "Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn" is pronounced in Japanese. What the fuck were they thinking?

I'm reading a book about Bush and Cheney, where I found this gem discussing Bush's time as governor of Texas:

Bush courted [Democratic Lieutenant Governor] Bullock and Democratic House Speaker, Pete Laney, at weekly breakfasts and roamed the capitol popping his head into the offices of other lawmakers.

His irreverence worked. Once Bullock declared he was on the opposite side of a bill. "Governor, on this I'm going to have to fuck you," he said.

Bush got up from his chair and leaned over to plant a kiss on Bullock's mouth. "If you are going to fuck me, you've at least got to kiss me first," Bush said playfully. ^*

Peter Baker, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House (New York: Doubleday, 2013), 45.

After two years, I finally rebought my PSP. Literally the week before the fire I bought the 3000, but up until that point I had the 1000. There is a physical noticeable difference, most glaringly the 3000 is made of plastic and weighs about 6.7oz whereas the 1000 was constructed from metal and weighs about 9.9oz. I didn't have time to accustom myself to it before the fire, so each time I grab it I'm actually startled by how light it is. Sometimes I even pick it up with too much force because I'm expecting something lighter. My wrists aren't aching after five minutes from holding this thing up. I'm scared I'm going to break it because it feels so fragile in comparison.