More busy busy

Still quite busy with schoolwork. Will get back to you later next month.
I'm contemplating biking to school again. I've started running in my free time to train for the aerobics involved. Maybe start in June? When my bus pass expires?
In the mean time, toodaloo

Shitdogs

I won't blog too much for the next few weeks; damn Summatives
In the mean time, have fun with this picture

I take it back

Remember my other post bashing air cadets? I've decided to take some of it back.

I've recently noticed the Great Divide between cadets. It's very much an aristocratic organization, without the favoritism and inheritor properties. What does that mean? Let me explain:

You have the "Bourbons" on one side, and their obnoxious attitudes are a force multiplier that makes them seem more common than they really are. These guys are the "aristocrats"; they seek power, and will informally follow a leader (who seems to be the most obnoxious of them all). They will consolidate their hold on the classroom in one specific corner, and so that entire area is contaminated by their influence. As time goes on, the peer pressure on the group forces more and more cadets to join them, until they've reached the shy kids, and intelligent kids. Once they have hold of the classroom, they will take control of the canteen. Though they do nothing bad, they do not have the same respect for orders as the other cadets. Though they still follow orders, they do not have initiative, and will often try to socialize instead of being productive. As a result, the squadron overall suffers in quality, and cadets are alienated.

These "Bourbons" provide a foil for the rest of the squadron, and seems to give them a force multiplier in terms of intelligence. Any cadet who's not part of this social group instantly becomes 500x smarter for some reason. Eventually, these cadets will band together and form their own social group to counter the aristocrats, as a sort of "backbone" to the squadron. A failed squadron is one in which this group did not form, and allowed the Bourbons to take over the politics of the squadron.

The Bourbons can be very influential, as time goes on. Though there is a statistically higher chance for the Bourbons to ditch cadets, their force multiplier is much larger than the Backbone group. The cadet program generally filters the Bourbons down, with the end result being a squadron run by responsible cadets. There is also a noticeably higher efficiency for those squadrons where the Bourbons are successfully suppressed by the Backbones.. An issue with the politics between these two groups is also the same issue in world politics today: the shifting view of the everyman. There seems to be a generation gap for every squadron; one generation has a larger Backbone than another, or vice versa. Thus, the banding of the Backbones must reverb down the ranks, in order for a squadron to be successful.

That's it, that's all, folks. Good night and good hunting.

Oh, and these are just my personal thoughts.

Cropy Prasta

The following is an excerpt from my OTHER brog. Some bits have been censored for your safety.

We were on a bus to a summer training center for cadets (strange... It's always because of cadets...). This time, instead of a camp, we show up at a mansion/warehouse/school. I reckon we had about 300 or 400 of us there, and we all shared rooms. We were told to meet up at a specific time (though I forgot what the time was, along with who told me this). I followed the trail of cadets to our rooms. An officer directed us to our rooms, as our nametags were scanned.  All the rooms were rather spacious, about the size of a living room. Think a slightly larger average hotel room you find at the Westin, or Mariott, or even a medium sized condo if you will. It was in the shape of a large square, with our rooms along the side. The center of the room is occupied by a large square pillar. I never knew what was inside. It was also very well lit, so I assumed that there were some windows on the other side of the room, blocked from my vision because of the square pillar. Everything was white and bare, save for a TV, a TV shelf, and our beds (were they beds? or were they couches? I dun remember). Anyways, I was looking around after I put my stuff down with the other guys, and I noticed the 42 inch TV sitting nearby. It was sitting on top of the TV shelf, and I thought I saw a PSOne in there. The shelf was black on the outside, with two glass doors that open up to the outside, with smaller shelves in the middle. On top of one of the shelves was a box full of electronic stuff. One of them was a Nintendo 64. Some of the other stuff were controllers, games, and wires. I searched around for a multiplayer game to get started with my friends (who were they? I have no clue. Never remembered their faces. Generic white kids/asians... Now that I think about it, this might as well have been some private school or something...). I looked around for "Super Smash Bros", but I couldn't find it. All I could find was another singleplayer Mario game, along with a multiplayer Kirby game. I gave out a shout of excitement, as my fellow mates went around trying to organize their stuff.
I exited the room, and I took a look. The hallways were massive, with old oak floors. The building was built in a rectangle, with a large square on one end, and the other end leading to another building. In the center were staircases that led up 3 stories (or more... I only remember going up three stories). The square had massive windows that let light in, however it was still enchantingly dark in some areas. I saw cadets organize with the rest of their squadrons in the square, while others were chatting with old camp pals to catch up with the times. It looked busy as hell. I decided to take a stroll outside. The building looked like a massive research institute from the outside. Think Lisgar, but much larger. The concrete steps leading up the school was packed with cadets trying to unload their busses and organize themselves.
I decided to check out what's going on upstairs, as this place was massive. The staircase was also massive; you could probably fit two elephants side to side through the stairs, and still have two lines of people walk by. I think the stairs were made of marble, and the railing was made of varnished wood. Quite elegant. The floor above us was pretty much the same as the main floor, and also the third floor as well.
I remember we were called down to the mess. This is when the dream ended. I blame the PS Vita alarm, which rang too soon (imho). Had I had another 15 min, I could have spent more time in that world.

Short

My, this week went by FAST. If I were to describe this week in one word, it would be "parabolic".

Why parabolic?

The week started off slow. The middle sections went by too quickly. And at last, the last few days went by too slowly. Also, I'm tired.

This update will be quick, as per all my future weekly updates. I may write up a story from time to time.

In other news: I have a whole new respect for artillery people in WoT. That is all. It will be pure physics until Wednesday.

A pledge

I have decided that I'm going to make my posts shorter.

This is in direct contrast to my previous attempts of extending my posts. It seems that they've gotten too rong. Remme remedy that

A funny thing happened the other day...

I was writing up one of my Physics Labs, when some cadet started talking to me.
Young cadet: "Sgt. Liu?"
Me: "Yes, my child?"
Young cadet: "Do you have two girlfriends?"
Me: "No" (I continued typing. And then I start thinking about what he just said. Da fuq?)
And then I freeze mid-equation. I give the cadet a frown.
Me: "What do you mean by that?"
Young cadet: "One of your facebook pictures has you with two girls."
He was, of course, referring to that pic of Alpha-1 and Alpha-2 at one of our performances, where I photobombed their portrait.
Me: "That doesn't necessarily mean that they're my girlfriends. And having more than just one is wrong. Totally wrong."
Young cadet: "Ok"

And that got me thinking. Beyond the fact that he found one of my pictures from grade 9, this entire conversation was probably one of the weirdest I've ever had. Even with Howard. But that one thing lingered in my head: Is it wrong to have more than one girlfriend, if the two are totally alright with it?

Starting off, I would like to say that I have no experience with relationships. All my wisdom is derived from the experiences my friends had, along with my (limited) understanding of the inner workings of a juvenile. In mainstream western society, polygamy is outlawed. Now, I know there is a difference between marriage and courtship, and I'm not mistaking one for the other. We do, however, often base our relationships on the basis of someone we want to spend the rest of our lives with. Should I keep using the word "we"? Meh. Let's go on.

If we base our judgement of our mates with the notion of spending the rest of our lives with said mate, does the courting of two separate mates count as polygamy?

To be fair, those two mates are not bound to you financially and legally, by law (as per the definition of "dating".) So technically, you're just cheating on both partners, but they both know you're cheating on them and they're totally fine with it. That means all parties are not fully committed to the relation, thus it's not really a serious relationship. The system of the three partners is probably that for sex, and sex-related sex topics only.

It's been a while since I last thought about this topic (I started writing this on Wednesday night). So imma drop it. Also, I don't have wheels. Good day to you.