From the Stacks of Paper and Paint I Rise Again

So I've been so busy with real life, I've been neglecting the internet (apart from Facebook of course, because it's like...impossible, to neglect Facebook).

So first, my apologies for the fact that my last post was almost half a year ago. Unforunately, my lack of updating doesn't mean that I'm dead, but rather, that I was busy with school. I got my first semester of medical school done. Went pretty well. Got an A+, and the entire B spectrum for the other 3 courses I did that semester.

I wasn't particularly fond of going home at 7 or 8 pm from the anatomy lab, but I suppose it comes with the fact that I decided to punish myself physically by studying to becoming a doctor, rather than sexually by studying to become a programmer.

BUT, I digress. I've had some interesting experiences. I go to the main campus in Kingston on average, about once a month, to do some labs. I get to catch up and hang out with my friends and make some new ones (can anyone say "Hot Trinidadians?").

I just came back from my pinning ceremony and UWI Carnival this past week. I have pictures of the pinning ceremony. I don't have any pictures of the Carnival itself for three reasons:

1) SLACKNESS! :D
No seriously, some of the pictures of the Carnival could seriously ruin the professional careers of some people *cough* me *cough* in the future if they got out. Oh, and I danced with a lecturer for a good 20 seconds, then she pushed me off. Long story. xD

I also danced with this hot Trini girl and bumped her (humped her?) a little too hard, and sent her flying into this hot jerk drum (jerk pan, jerk grill, whatever you want to call it). Before I apologized to her I sang the following hymn (yes hymn),

"You're a jerk!(16x)

Jerk Jerk Jerk! (Jerkin)(5x)

JEEERRK
So cocky with it got my iced out clubs like rocky hit it
Got your girl on my swagg she lovin them jerkin songs
Like the new ipod just touch it and turn her on
And when the bass start beatin and the waist I'm beatin
Done I got on my way I'm leavin she like where you goin? I aint
got my shoes and purse
I said it's none of your concern and she yelled (your a jerk!)
So I walked out the door called Ben J. told him it's a function he
said I'm on my way
We pulled up to the party I take off my shirt and got geeked up
everybody jerkin
We was jerkin to the right jerkin to the left
Then she popped out of nowhere she was still half dressed
She like fa real jerk you left me for this stuff
the whole party heard her but all I could hear was.."

But she took it all in good humour, and I didn't have to run for my life.

2) THE WATER AND THE PAINT
There was an epic water truck, spraying water on all of us. It was an UNGODLY amount of fun, but I was totally unprepared the first time the water hit me, and I jumped a couple feet into the air from the shock. Oh, yeah, but umm, I couldn't bring my camera anyway, because I didn't want to risk damaging it bygetting it wet (it's already half-useless as is already anyway). As it pertains to the prevalence of the paint...here's a little mini-anecdote:

There was a party before the Carnival (Night) Road March called J'ouvert. Unlike the road march, this party took place in one centralized area. As soon as I entered this place, some girl (who I don't even know) slapped me across my face, and I'm talking about an EPIC bitchslap, the sort only Jesus could turn the other cheek for. So I turned around, ready to cut a bitch with my incisive wit, and I saw her laughing at me, and then she just hugged me and ran off. It was unexpected and surprising; after that I wasn't angry anymore. (I should also add that the fact she was in nothing but a bathing suit and had massive breasts also helped to repair my transient anger management malfunction).

Then when I went inside, one of my friends who I was there with (this guy named Steve) was like, "Gavin, you've been painted already!". He showed me my reflection. Lo and behold...there was a massive yellow paint mark in the pattern of a hand on my cheek and my shirt and shorts were stained with yellow paint from hugging this girl. I still wasn't mad though. xD

But yes, I'm straying. Onto the final point:

3) THE EPIC TURNOUT
There were at least 2000 people there (based off my quick, crappy, ballpark estimation). Not only UWI students were involved, but UTech students and random people off the street. In fact, at the J'ouvert party for the night road march, the place was so packed that I actually got claustrophobic. It was rather traumatizing when I was trying to escape from the water cannon that was blasting me, and I was trying to push people aside, but nobody would move, so I couldn't get away in time. Let's have a moment of silence for my poor nervous system. (FOR EXTRA TRAGEDY, imagine a fat man pushing through a crowd of people while getting epically hosed down).

All in all, being my first UWI Carnival, it was pretty cool, but I heard people complaining that other years were better. (One of my classmates who had actually gone before was actually pissed from Saturday morning till Monday afternoon at how lame it was this year, to him at least). My major complaints were that the DJ focused on Dancehall music too much, and never played much of other Caribbean genres such as Soca, and that they repeated the same songs over and over.

As it pertains to my pinning ceremony (which was the original reason I was in Kingston anyway), I got my medical pin. It may sound epic, but all I will say is that those pins are gold and bronze only in colour. No more shall be said. I do look epic in a bush jacket though.



No, I don't know those other two girls. Well, I'm just kidding, they're in my class.

Pictures from the night after, a bit before we went to Carnival. (WARNING: BOOBY SHOT PICTURES)

Marc being epic for the first time in his life.


Me being epic as I always am. (But I just realized I have a massive nose, it's squeezed against her chest dwl)


Steve's frass face, Giselle and Rahje's hand seizing his property.


Marc and his "legal team" (sans Raquel who was an absentee, and Steve, who took this pic). That's me in the pink.



Steve's "fair rationing" of Pepsi to white rum. Yes, that's really all the Pepsi he used. It seemed like a good idea at the time...



Oh yeah, and there was a little messing around at the gas station in New Kingston. Just a little. That involved playing catch with someone's teenage daughter.






Oh, and finally, one of the most epic couples ever (Raj and Gis):


And no, before people start, I don't really drink. I just participate in lots of recreational activities with career alcoholics. Oh, also, I apologize for the quality of these images; this camera is on its way out.

Anyway, I hope these make up for all the blog posts I've missed. I've gotten almost hundreds of new stories since I last updated my blog. I'll cover them all someday.

Till Next Time (which I hope will be soon),
Lord Robinson.

LCD Monitors Are Oh So Juicy

Yes...it's shameful. I was living in the 1980s before today. I was holding down a dreadfully antiquated CRT monitor. Now...I'm finally in the 1990s...I got a 19 inch LCD monitor. My eyes are still trying to readjust to the new aspect ratio and different brightness and such, since I can't seem to set them exactly like how they used to be on my old CRT, but hell, change is good.

Lately, I've been listening to the Notorious B.I.G. I'm really enjoying his song Juicy. For regular readers, you would all know that my listening tastes are quite eclectic...I jump from listening Benny Benassi, Daft Punk and the Global Deejays, to Notorious B.I.G. and Nas to Vybz Kartel and Tony Matterhorn to Saosin and Limp Bizkit. I have a very "globalized" ear, as a friend once put it.

My friends are all full of shit.

Generally though, while I listen to practically every type of music, I noticed I tend towards songs with strong and/or repetitive/driving basslines. Maybe I have some subconscious desire to have some subliminal messaging programmed into me...who knows?

Onto the next topic...Kanye West really needs some concept of appropriateness. Ugh..he's a great rapper, but he needs to SHUT UP once in a while. I think what he did to Taylor Swift at the VMAs was just terrible. Even if Beyonce deserved the award more, I don't think he should have ruined Taylor Swift's time onstage like that. How would it have gone if Nas, for example, ran up on Kanye receiving an award onstage, grabbed the mic from him, and shouted, "My man Jay-Z deserves this shit, Kanye is just some wack ass crap man!!"

Not very well, I can tell you that.

Anyway, I should just say that I seem to be overcompensating with blog posts on weekends, since I can hardly do them during the week, but I suppose getting 2 loaves on Friday and Saturday is better than getting none at all for the week right?

I apologize to creator of that idiomatic expression. Like, I'm totally sorry for butchering it like that dude..it was nasty. That was so bad...there was like blood all over the place and stuff, you know?

Learning Japanese is going pretty well by the way. I know somewhere in the region of 100 basic kanji (the 80 Grade 1 Joyo Kanji + a couple of common verb kanji). I'll start Grade 2 Kanji eventually, hopefully, by the end of next week...but I'll just have to see how that fits in with my school schedule.

Oh yes...and for all those who it matters to, PUA Haze is alive, kicking ass and taking names.

Peace Out,
Lord Robinson

P.S. Here's something for the non-Jamaicans to figure out, most Jamaicans worth their salt should figure this out in 10 seconds or less. It's a line from a dancehall song, you can post the answer to the comment box or email the answer to me if you think you know what it means. Extra points if you can tell me the name of the song it's from.

"If yu tell me fi squint me nuh squint my eye."

Good luck people.

Twitter, Japanese and Mathematics

No, I guarantee you that none of the nouns in the title of this blog post are linked, I'm not that far gone yet. However, I'm blogging about them right now since they're significant. First, onto the issue of Twitter.

Yes, I've been a lazy BASTARD lately. I haven't been updating my blog, but I have been updating my Twitter feed. As I write this, I'm on the eve of my 100th Twitter post(For those of you retards who don't know English, it means I'm at 99 Twitter posts...dumbasses.) If you got to this link via Twitter, it means that you just clicked on my 100th Twitter post, WOOT!!! That's right people, my 100th Twitter post was a link to my blog...wow!!

Everyone knows how AWESOME Twitter is, so I won't waste my time regurgitating what you can find all over the web. So instead, I'm going to talk about the useless crap that has been going on in my life.

First, one of the obvious facts of life. I, Gavin Robinson, r teh HAXXORS!!

Why?

Well, within 3 weeks, I have managed to acquire a functioning knowledge of Japanese, including knowing the entire Hiragana and Katakana tables, knowing basic conversational Japanese, knowing how to conjugate regular Ichidan and Godan verbs (the two main categories of verbs in Japanese, similar to ar/er/ir verbs in Spanish), and learning 12.5% of all Japanese Grade 1 Kanji, as well as the on-yomi readings, kun-yomi readings and the radicals associated with the Kanji.

Yes, I'm boasting. So what? Bite me.

But then, what sort of blogger would I be if I didn't use this to spread free information?

So how did I do it?

Well first of all, get some oxygen to your brain. I'm not advocating the usage of hyperbaric oxygen chambers, but some cardiovascular exercise (in my case, skipping) does help to improve memory (at least it helped mine). I don't seem to be getting any fitter (yet), but at least I'm not getting any fatter.

Next, bite into your lower lip, and prepare for pain while you learn the hiragana and katakana syllablaries. Seriously, this is painful. It's like one of the hardest things (next to memorizing Kanji). This is especially true if you're a natural English speaker like me (or most of the people that come to this blog T_T). It may feel unnatural drawing symbols to represent syllables, but you'll get over it soon. Personally, I found it easier to start with katakana and move on to hiragana. The way I learned it was by learning the katakana/hiragana in sets of 2-5 at a time, then writing each character out about 12-25 times (yes, WRITING them). Then I learnt some vocabulary that used them, and practiced writing those words from memory (its easy to remember words in romaji). I kept this up until I could write the whole Katakana/Hiragana table from memory. I highly recommend these lessons:

Kanji Kafe's Complete Katakana Lessons (also contains incomplete Hiragana lessons)
Hiragana Exercises
Joyo Kanji Up To Sixth Grade Level


Next, go and learn some basic conversational Japanese vocabulary. About.com's Japanese lessons are a good place to start. Don't get ahead of yourself and try Kanji now...you will be in PAIN!!(as in eternal damnation style pain)

After you've soaked up enough conversation vocabulary, check out verb and adjective conjugations (also on About.com's Japanese lessons). Yes, adjectives can be conjugated in Japanese too. Thankfully, adjective conjugations aren't very hard. Neither are verb conjugations for that matter. You'll see once you reach this stage. While learning about verbs, you should also learn basic sentence patterns such as how to say that one noun is another noun, or a certain adjective describes a noun.

By now, you should probably have run into a few difficulties here and there with little oddities in the language. This is why I recommend getting a friend who is DAMN good with the language. Preferably a HOT one.

Sadly, my search for a hot girl that knew Japanese was an EPIC FAIL =[. The one I found was a nice enough person though, and relatively smart. (I'm kidding Shrewy, please don't kill me '^_^ ). In all honesty though, I consider myself fortunate to have found a friend who fit all the criteria for a J-sensei. =]

But seriously, a good friend who knows the language and/or a friend who is interested in learning the language is a great help. The wise friend who knows the language can always help you when you're stuck, and the friend who is interested in learning provides a source of rivalry...so you always feel motivated to work. Then again, that's just me...and lots of my friends say I'm overcompetitive...balls to you all!!! (some friends they are T_T).

By this time, you should know the basic sentence structures, so take a day (as in a 12 hour day) to make some basic sentences using the verbs, tenses and sentence structures you know. You may periodically need to refresh your knowledge of the kana tables by trying to write them down from memory. Personally, I find the hiragana for the syllabes "mu", "yu","ne" and "nu", as well as the katakana for the syllables "mu" and "ne", a bit hard to remember.

Do a refresher on everything for the better part of a week (about 4-5) days, and then go and try some learn some Japanese Grade 1 Kanji. I guarantee you that this is the hardest part.

You can now go and try to read some Japanese websites. I recommend getting the Rikaichan browser plugin for Firefox first though, because there are going to be quite a few phrases/Kanji you don't know. I also recommend getting the Denshi Jisho bookmarklet, for quick reference.

Tada...you now know enough Japanese to find the bathroom if you ever find yourself in the middle of a Yakuza conference by accident (although in all honesty, I think you'd have bigger problems than wetting yourself if you found yourself in the middle of one of those O_o).

Next...up..Mathematics.

Yes, I bet some of you cretinous proles have looked up on some AWESOME people such as myself at times in the past, and wondered, "How can he multiply such large numbers, mentally, so QUICKLY?!"

Well, all your human sacrifices have pleased the I, so the I has decided to reveal to the thou how the I dost do it. Keep in mind that everyone is different, and this is just MY personal method, so other people may tell you different stuff. Mine works fine for me though, so I'm cool with it.

Look at this:

369 x 69

You could do it mentally, but it would take a lot more than 15 seconds. Using my method, you can do it in less than 8 or so. Of course, doing mental arithmetic also depends on how well I slept the night before...some days were just NOT meant for Mathematics.

You split up the numbers first.

369 to 3 6 9
69 to 6 and 9

Now, here's what you do. Normally, you'd multiply 369 by 9 and multiply 369 by 60 and add them, using conventional mathematical methods (If you're confused about multiplying by 60, think about it, you put a 0 at then end, then multiply 369 by 6 to get the second number you use to add. This is equivalent to multiplying by 60. If you're still confused, just think about it a bit.)

So here's what you do, multiply the first separate set of numbers (thats 3, 6 and 9) by the 9 from 69.

So, this gives you:

27 54 81

Now what you do is add these numbers together as follows:

2700
0540
+ 81
------
3321

That's the first number.

You find the second number in a similar manner, but multiply your result by 10.

So, for the second set, you'd have:

18 36 54

This produces:

1800
0360
+ 54
------
2214

which you then multiply by 10 to get 22140. You then add this and the previous number to get:

22140+3321 = 25461

This principle works off the fact that its faster to break up the different parts of the number and add them than it is to try multiplying the WHOLE number by something else. In this way, it's a simplification of traditional multiplication, although the basic principle stays the same.

Still, this has been a LONG post, and I don't want to bore you people now (as if you aren't bored already). So, I'm going to say:

ざまたガャビン
(Later,
Gavin.)

P.S. My friend's an artist btw, and I figure one of the best ways to thank her would be to link to her DeviantArt profile...so I'm putting it here for the WHOOOOLE world to make fun of:

Laugh away =]

EDIT: Added a link to a site containing the Kanji up to Grade 6 level.

Poon: The Definitive Etymologicalistic Thesis Thingy

"Poon"...what does it mean to you?

Is "poon" a state of mind? Is "poon" a state of being? Is "poon" some abstract spiritual quality we all must strive for?

Nope..."poon" is that wonderful quality we all desire in a woman.

I'll let the innuendo sink in for a while. For the daft ones among us, I've included a link so you can see what I'm talking about:

But seriously, if you're wondering what inspired this post, I was reading through Texts From Last Night and the site regulars use the word quite a bit (at least compared to people who live in the REAL world). So, I decided to look it up. I already had a few context clues as to what it meant, but Google decided to light up my world a little bit more.

Fine...I decided to pass the knowledge onto you, my dear readers.

After all, isn't that what bloggers do? Aren't they responsible for keeping their beloved readers informed and up to date on a variety of culturally significant topics?

You say no?

So what do they do then?

On second though, forget about it, let me get on with my exposé on poon.

So where did the word come from?

Well, according to this site, it may be a corruption of the French word putain, meaning whore. However, it may also be derived from some part of Chinese language (as well as some other reasons, go read the link if you're one of those people who's interested in "facts" and "logic" and all that crap).

So, having given up my quest to find a definitive origin for the term, I decided to do something that only Gavin Robinson can do. Harass people with the newest addition to my slang vocabulary. I almost got injured a few times, so I'll just include one, in order to preserve my dignity. This interaction took the form of a MSN messenger conversation.

Me: hey man, you ever heard of the word "poon"?
Friend: lol, yeah man...it means [censored to ensure the academicityness of this article]
Me: oh, I should go get some then, huh?
Friend: Fi real...you look like you really need it lol
Me: eat [censored] [censored]
Friend: lol
Me: so do you think I could use it as a verb?
Friend: huh?
Me: yeah, say something like, "that whoring bitch pooned me last night"
Friend: ummm...i dunno, i guess.
Me: yeah...or like, "My favourite drink is Poon Tang."
Friend: ewww
Me: or even better:
Friend: i get the point, please shut up
Me: you get my pooont? cool
Friend: you're [censored] crazy, you know that?
Me: too much poon
Friend: you're creeping me out man, later

I therefore conclude that the word "poon" is a legitimate slang term, that should be respected and feared by all speakers of the English language.

-END OF THESIS-

If you're one of those people who thought this article was serious, you need to close your browser, turn off your computer, and go get some poon. lol

Peace Out,
Gavin

Woohoo!!! Level 60!!!

No, I haven't actually wasted that many hours of my life on a certain RPG. Rather, this is my 60th post on Happy Desolation. As you can see, I decided to celebrate with a new blog layout(Shit, do I know how to party or what?). Anyway yeah, its back to school for me.

School is not treating me very well at the moment. Nor am I treating it very well. As such, I propose to hack the school's network.

Ok, fine...maybe thats a bit too extreme. Still doesn't make it any less fun though. lol. What I really want though, is for June to come. By June, this damn school should be just a distant memory in the haze of cigarette smoke, liquor, loose women and computer parts. Oh well.

CAPE Unit 1 (thats the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Exams) is coming up within like 2 months, so just like during CXC time, I won't be blogging as much. There might also be a surprise coming up for all you loyal readers.

Write to you guys later!!

The Past 2 Months In Less Than 500 Words

Wow, perfect. Another "sorry I haven't updated in so long" post. Its sorta becoming a habit, don't you think?

Well, without further ado, here's the rundown of the past two months.

1)School started. Its a bitch.

2)I learned a lesson the hard way about the importance of backing up stuff. My old computer's motherboard,hard drive,graphics card and memory stick went bad all at the same time. Lost over 200 GB of stuff.

3)I finally realized that I was really good at Mathematics and probably should consider taking over Stephen Hawking's job at CERN.

4)I underwent a period of psychological trauma after starting college Chemistry and realizing that electrons don't actually orbit in shells, their positions are random, that is, they have a 95% chance of being found in a regions of space known as orbitals. I wept.

5)I had an epiphany, and realized that its pretty simple to build a nuclear bomb.

6)All hail President Obama!!! Finally, a balla president. Lots of people died that night, since after seeing that, they probably had nothing left to live for.

7)At some point, I realized that I more or less forgot about Happy Desolation. Some good Samaritan reminded me about it(Thanks Robyn!!).

That's about it. Lets hope from now on, I can be more regular with the updates. For your sake,since I know you all live for this. lol.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Two posts in one day. WOOT!

I was wondering,since on Megavideo, they have whole episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion... what would it be like if for every post, I embedded an episode?

The answer is, it would be KICKASS!!!

Seriously though. Its a cool idea. Here's the first one, for the benefit of all those who don't know what it is. It came highly recommended from Todd and Marc. Thanks guys. I owe ya one(or is it two? Whatever >_>).



Hope you enjoyed.

SHOGO!!!

I finally managed to track down SHOGO, and I've burnt through the game in like 5 hours on normal difficulty. (Still too wussy to try MADNESS.) It feels good, I finally managed to track it down after so much time.

As you can see, I've added my own little Blogs of Note feature...only its not called that. I've also added one blog. It belongs to a friend of mine called Ricardo. Don't ask about the name. He thinks he is special. I think he is "special"...get the picture? Like this woman.


I Suppose Australia Has Talent - Watch more free videos

Still, just kidding. Thats my friend man. lol. And I'm going to frag him in Shogo as soon as he gets the CD I burnt with a copy of it. Screw you copy protection!!! You're what spoiled games. lol.

Since I'm an ass, I decided to gizoogle Ricardo's first blog post...(thats mean lol.)Its almost more intelligent than before lol. Here is it, all pimped out like a crack ho(Oops):


yeah hi. This is mah fizzirst tizzle mak'n ma own blizzay n it thiznink i'm going ta have a bootylicious time hav'n it gangsta style. Ma name is Ricardo , but most of ma niggaz cizzay me ricky. Soo i guess you also can ciznall me ricky.
Any wizzay tha name of mah bliznogg is actually weird , "The rejects". lol . I kizzy yeah funny.
Any waaz i wanted ta be genuine in mah bliznogg. So i chose this title. Now what is a reject.
Accord'n ta tha oxford dictionary , n i quote " someone thizzay is not accepted by persons around him or her, who is usually treated differently from gangsta.
Yeah i guess you mizzle be wonder'n y chose such a name fo` mah blizzay. Well i guess it's coz at one tizzy in mah life i was a "reject", but now thats totally over n i am like tha hypest person at mah schoo` . You gotta check dis shit out yo. Soo even though yo a reject you can break out of that n be someone else . Im a bad boy wit a lotta hos.

keep cool, n i'll pizzay ma nizzext blizzay soon soo makes sure you pizzay yo views n comments pleaze.

OGame and Stuff...Right?

Lately, I've been umm..wait, let me think.

Oh yeah, I've been playing OGame(www.ogame.us), and watching funny youtube videos:



and working on Mons Blanc. No you can't see the latest design document. Why? Because I said so, mwhahahaha!!!

I like Flippy. He makes me seem umm, mentally well grounded.

Still, I'm only posting this to let you guys know that I'm still alive.