Cam-whore? More like, cam-zombies

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And i just got back from my holidays, like WHOOOOOO, and i made some observation. Mainly at tourists and how they behave with their cams and photogenic attitude. Now, they do say that a picture contains a thousand words and unless they're referring to that 100010001000010001 in literally everything in the Matrix movies being words rather than numbers, well, no, a picture does not necessarily paints a thousand. Sometimes it paints only four and for the most case of it is "i made this up". Yeah, sometimes, the picture that we took, it's at its best saying nothing at all.

Shots with strangers

We do this and we do it alot. Why? Coz when we're somewhere far, far away, we want to make believe that we are living far, far away as well with actual breathing people and with real stories. But we have none of them and we dont go around with real living, breathing people. But instead, we are nothing but zombies calling out of the living to give us their brains - coz we have none. So we take photos with strangers. I find people who do this highly annoying. Come on. You dont know them. All you can do is point at those strangers in those photos and said, "I was in Australia". Justifying that, you have photos with Australians. But do you have stories that involve both you and them? Do you know those people? Or do you take photos to tell people that you're in overseas but in fact, you're living in a small shell Malays call tempurung. So, no, you dont. Lame. Stop being a with-strangers-cam-zombie.

Shots with kids.

People do this and they do it alot. Hell alot. Mostly occurs to people who likes kids or they're expected to be with kids and they want to evoke that "awwww" factor that suggest that you're a child person. Well, no, in truth, you dont. First of all, taking pics with random kids is very, very unhealthy. Remember how mom used to say "dont talk with strangers coz strangers are bad people who kidnaps you and sells you in the market?" Well, 15 years ahead in time and you're the kidnapping strangers who talk with kids and want to take photos with them. Dont. Kids condition things. Not all strangers are nice and take photos with you. Some strangers are real kidnappers. Dont suggest to kids that kidnappers dont exist. Stop being a child-'loving'-cam-zombie.

Shots with backgrounds

No one can take photos without background so, yes, we do this, and we do it a hell-of-a-lot lot. But that's fine obviously. We cant help to take pics with a particular background but can we help to know what the background is about? Yeah, before you take photos to show people that you've a been-there-done-that shot-zombie, know what the background is about. Picture this (pun intended); you're in some country and you take photos of yourself looking comical when the background is something of a respectful momento. Like a soldiers memorial. Take a photo of yourself star-jumping in front of a soldier's name plague who was commemorated for dying in a war and that the family never saw him again after he walked out that door, being called to war - instant classic, scenic-cam zombie.

So, people, pictures can be deceiving. It makes you look pretty but in truth, you might be an idiot. It might paints some story, but in truth its just you pretending that things actually happen. It makes you look caring and adorable but in truth, you dont give much pluck about what you're taking picture with. So, venturing out into the horizon does not mean that you bring along your cam companion and be a cam-zombie. Cam-whores are self-obsessed people who took a photo 80% of themselves. But at least, they DONT give a damn about the world around. Cam-zombies take photos of things around them and PRETEND they give a damn about the world in their shots. Just be a cam-whore. It's healthier.

The cursing kid on Killzone

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for those who dont know what Killzone is, it's a shooting game on playstation 3 and it's about interplanetary human wars somewhen in the distant future (sigh... XXX years in the future and it's still humans waging war against each other... classic..). So, i'm not sure how should i be explaining the game for my readers out here but let's just say, there's the goodie-goodie interplanetary peace-keeping force on one team and then there's the oppressed guys in gasmask on the other team. There's more depth to the gameplay and stuff of course but if you duke it out online, you'll play with 31 other human players from all over the world and you blast on the rival team. Simple. Which team was I on? Well, the guys in gasmask with glowing red goggles of course. Come on. You know me. I hate virtual peace. Virtual chaos all the way.

So, i was playing and playing. Pretty much minding my own business until this one point, i'm racking up pretty good killing streak and staying alive all the way. But that's not the point of the story. Okay, so my internet connection isnt always good (most often it's so-so) but for some reason today, the internet is almost perfect that you can hear the online chatter super clearly (they're the players speaking through the game mic - kinda like online voice chat during plays). Kinda wish i have a mic... I wanna talk! <-- this is an inside joke. sorry.

So, i was hearing all those people talking while they're playing, screaming all the way, laughing, passing commands, talking about strategies, and pretty much things i dont really get - all in all sorts of accents and slangs. In one point, i thought it was pretty cool. Here we are, blasting each other with guns and grenades like it's actual personal when the people playing are from all over the world connected with the single uniting idea - the love of playing games. It was almost touching. But then, i noticed a voice of a kid saying things which makes us all think, "does this kid actually knows what he is saying?"

So, yeah, apparently, most of the voices sound adult-ish's. But this one kid, due to the fact that he obviously sounds like a kid, make his voice stand out from the rest. But that's not all that stood out from the rest. This kid was throwing out curses like... i dunno... One-word curses for me is pretty much normal and i suppose they are accessible to all ages but this kid, he knows the average of five to nine word curses. For example; (under-age readers; cue for you to scroll down and ignore this line) something something "wtf... you shit-fag-gay-ass-gay-retard-n00b" something something something. Yeah, true story. And that's just one that i recognize. I heard some whole lot of it and i, for a moment, was like "wait... whuuuud?" and "dude, give piece a chance". And then there's this one point he was wailing and cursing for God-only-knows what reasons that there was some crashing sound on his line (I assume he was repeatedly shot at and he got angry and threw something - probably his headset). And i thought this was normal for people to curse and go on flame wars so i kept quiet (and i dont have a mic anyway) but at this one point, there was this British guy who totally got pissed off and told that kid to shut up (he has a British-ish accent, i think). Well, the kid didnt. He blew out awhole lot more.

Pretty much the main idea that crossed my mind is; who taught this kid all this? Well, of course, i assume that the kid love games and well, let's just say, characters in games do curse alot - pretty much of an observational learning might have taken place. But shouldnt someone watch what this kid is playing and how this kid is playing them? And that reminds me of a ladyfriend of mine's kid she's babysitting and the kid's just 4 or 5 years old, and he came back from school one day saying that he heard another kid said "fuck". Where the hell does that other kid learned that word from? In fact,the first kid even use it himself thinking it wasnt that bad of a word. And then, there was that indonesian kid on youtube who smokes and he's barely in school yet. Then, there was some news of some kid doing his female friend (yes, "doing", you know what i mean) and they are all in flippin primary school! Seriously! Kids these days?

So, as closing words; i do curse. I love cursing and not just your typical one-word curses, i curse in the system of word chain and terrible, terrible things are said. I dont drop f-bombs though. F-bombs are for kindies cursers. I cursed about moms, and interlinked parts of human body, and innappropriate entities which exist only to be use as insults. I have got myself totally pissed and i cursed without knowing whatever that is that i have said but they are definitely hurtful. And i have friends who curse too. Some curse appropriately, in which i do too for the most cases (eheh... at least, i think i do), but some other just simply throw those words around without thinking. Several times, i've seen them cursing in front of their kids, both unintentionally and intentionally (thinking their kids are too young to understand what they are saying). But seriously, i guess they are hurtful words and things that hurt, unless they are virtually hurtful like blasting someone on Killzone Online, are bad - especially for kids... so please, tone down the bad words please. Dont curse just so you think you'll look cool doing it. Lay it off unless you do need it for anger/stress management or something. Or pretty much, dont curse at all.

After all, you kiss your mother with that *h***y-c**-g*****ing-***r*'s-**n*-****ing-***k-s****d mouth of yours? :p

How Creative is Creative?

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How do we measure creativity? Okay, so that was random wasnt it? Well, this is the thing that i've been pondering since day one of my enrolment to Macq Uni's ENGL201: Intro to Creative Writing class. We have weekly seminars in which, from what it says in the unit outline, i figured it's gonna be fun coz we'll be doing writing workshops every week (workshops are practically sessions where you have people reading out their writing for the week and other people give their feedbacks on them). But after a couple of workshop sessions, i've come up with this question; how do you measure creativity?

There was this Australian girl in my classroom who came up with this writing about her 'other' self. People liked it. I thought it was boring. I mean seriously; "who is that in my room?", "why is she crying?", "how come she looks so familiar?". Well, friggin OBVIOUSLY, she's you in mirror. I figured that out on the first 10 seconds of her reading (though, of course, i didnt say anything). Everyone else claimed that, after she finished reading, that it was the best writing ever. One guy, not sure whether he was trying to hit on the girl or what, straight ahead claimed that he had no idea that the writer was talking about her own reflection. Wait, i figured that out before the first paragraph even manage to come to an end. So, we're having conflicting opinions here. Everyone, including the lecturer thought it was creative. I thought it was predictable. I dont want to call a writing in which i can predict what will be going on after reading the first line as being uncreative so i just kept my opinion to my own self and, like others, claimed that it was a good writing. It was a good writing after all. Just slightly too predictable for me. But, yeah, let's skip ahead to a couple weeks of workshops.

There was this another girl who shared a really emotional poem. And then there was this another short poem about self-discovery which was never found. And then they were a few more others of almost the same kind of mood. Everybody loves them though i am starting to fast lose my interest in listening to their works. I dont know why but people tend to associate creative writing as some kind of sad self-loathing pieces of writing work. Poems have to be sad and emotional and one liners. Essays have to be about not being able to uncover your inner self. Writings are about being self-loathing and talking about things that you cannot get or be. Seriously, what the hell? Finally, there was this one lady who is not of Australian origin who wrote a poem about her family in rhymes. The fact that her English wasnt that good didnt stop me from thinking that her poem is nice. Something happy and positive for a change. I mean, it's about her family; her husband and son and herself - what is there not to like? I find that she enjoyed doing it. I thought she really put herself in the poem. Well, everybody hates it. The lecturer said the rhymes were out of place and some lines were unnecessary. Everybody else hardly commented anything on it. During the feedback session, everyone just pretend they're not in the class. Seriously.

Then, during this another workshop, another friend of mine wrote a short story on gender stereotypes in an Indian family. I thought it was brilliant. Others didnt comment on it. The lecturer said that the whole introduction paragraph was unnecessary. She said; go straight to the point so that your readers dont lose interest. She said; there was too much details and the word choices overlaps one another (apparently, you cant say things "illuminous, bright lights" coz illuminious and bright means the same thing). I thought the first paragraph was as necessary as the whole writing itself. So I said; what the hell?! Since when does creative writing has to be constrained by what the readers want or do not want to read em? I thought writing creativelywas about expressing yourself, creating the mood, bringing your message across, writing like you mean it. But cut out a paragraph coz long, winded paragraph about the setting of the storyline will bore the readers out? Since when did i sign up for being a publisher in a teen manuscript publishing company?

Finally, the moment of truth finally came (Double "finally" there. Sorry :p). It was my turn to present something. I chose my best writing; a poem with rhymes in it and it talks about my philosophical idea of questioning people's mentality. To tell you the truth; it sounds abit hippie-ish, but still, i thought it was my best work. I loved it. But i guess those people are as predictable as some write up about yourself in the mirror. Coz they hated it. Their comment was hardly meaningful. The lecturer said i did a stupid move by writing in rhymes coz writing in rhymes are hard and you shouldnt do it. Yes, i know writing in rhymes are hard but i thought i sign up to this course coz i want to improve my writing. If my attempt to try something risky is replied with a comment " dont try risky things", then how am i to improve my writing? After some reflecting, i realized no one else tried writing in rhymes. Their poems are mainly one-liners which doesnt contain any rhyme - just sad tones. So those writing reflect a true attempt in writing creatively but mine doesnt? So those poems are creative and mine isnt? Is that it?

And about lines in creative writings being unnecessary or too beating-around-the-bushes-like, how do creative writings differ than formal writings then? I thought Stephen King wrote his novels with a hell lot of sentences just to describe one thing super-small but that is his style. Shakespeare wrote reference to the Phoebus and Errebhus and Arthemist in his writing and does that mean that guy is just beating around the bush? I heard people complaining about Watchmen and Fight Club to have a really slow pace in its storyline narration - shall we tell the author to speed things up abit so they dont lose their readers' interest? And i know i normally cite this source for all the negative reasons but personally, i thought Stephanie Mayer's Twilight is slow as hell and it was not realistic at all. But people liked it. People liked her style. As a reader, i can comment but i cant change the fact that Twilight is Twilight. No. That is just how those authors' style are! And if you dont want to call them of being creative, then call them boring in front of the thousands of fans who says that their writings are awesome. And if i am going to write my poem starting with the first line "I like candies" and the second line "I like to fuck", and the following lines is the word "quack.... quack.... quack...." then no one should be able to stop me. Coz there is hidden annotation in both of those lines and if you dont get it; then you're the one not being to think beyond the text, arent you? SInce when does creative writing has to be readers-oriented? I am writing my own piece of work here so if being creative means that my reader couldnt understand what i am writing about, so be it!

So here's my final say for the evaluation to my ENGL201 Unit. I hate it.

Play Feed the Head. People call the game shitty. I call that creative.