Books and boredom May 12, 2006
Posted by AkumAPRIME in : Books,Life , 1 comment so far
Originally uploaded by AkumAPRIME.
I finished Angels and Demons. Then I finished the Da Vinci Code. They were good, really, I give them both As. But really, do we all need to go CRAZY over them? I see dozens of spin offs, people clutching at Brown’s heels for a chance to rake in the dough.
The Vatican is calling for boycotts; apparently they haven’t learned that that brings more attention and viewers to a subject. Oddly, some groups are making a smart choice: They are using this capitalizing on the curiosity to inform potential believers about Catholicism. This is very smart for them (bad for us of course).
The major problem is that even though Brown’s books are critical of organized religion as it exists, it is only serving to increase religiosity. This of course, is bad.
Anyway after those two books, I bought some Philip K. Dick books; a famous sci-fi author whose drug induced stories are unique and paranoid.
There’s a potential typhoon that will hit this weekend, but A) it looks like it might turn away, and B) it will hit the south, leaving only heavy rain for me up in Taipei.
Question: What happens if a pirate and a ninja become friends?
Storm May 10, 2006
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Tuesday storm
Originally uploaded by MRHSfan.
A storm is coming; I can tell. Distant lightning teases and rumbling thunder whispers its arrival. There will be rain tonight, and with rain, I hope, cool air. You see, it is painfully hot here. So hot that at night I sweat my sheets to the point of saturation. The humidity is high, so the heat doesn’t seem as dangerous as what I’m used to in LA. Though a heat stroke might be a sweet release at this point.
Tonight I was recommended JingMei night market. Looking on the map, I had a sudden epiphany that it was where I had been lost the day before. When I arrived by MRT (after the bus driver dropped me at the Totally wrong place) I discovered it was exActly the place I had been lost. Sometimes my innate sense of direction Really amazes me, but perhaps I just conveniently forget the times it fails.
I’d better figure out what to do with myself soon.
Cirque de Crazytown
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Cirque de Ole
Originally uploaded by AkumAPRIME.
This week was good, but a bit crazy. MaX was in town. We did touristy things and were sick together. The sickness made things a lil’ less… cohesive than I’d have liked, but it was all good.
Then I ran out of money.. Well not really, just that the funds wouldn’t get from WaMu to my bank in Taiwan… I tried a thousand things, but everything was no good. I thought we lived in an age where digital communications allowed for instant wire transfers, etc… I guess not.
I also went biking at rush our in Taipei… Really crazy. The buses wanted to kill me, the taxis wanted to maim me… then I got lost on the way back… Taipei is big.. but I got back in time…
It’s summer, and the sweat is what let’s you know. The constant streams of sweat, and I DON’T have AC in my room 🙂
Oh well, I hope to hop down to central Taiwan, see SunMoon lake. I’ll see ya’ll in 2 weeks 😉 88
MaX fun May 5, 2006
Posted by AkumAPRIME in : Life , 1 comment so far
Originally uploaded by AkumAPRIME.
Originally uploaded by AkumAPRIME.
So today we went to CKS memorial hall (think Washington/Lincoln memorial, but in Taiwan) and on the way, we ran into a troupe of College students. For an assignment, they had to ask some english speakers a bunch of questions, so they did, and we answered, and we took pictures. So: ” Hey, if any of you guys come here to get this picture, email me: akumaprime AT yahoo DOT com, ok?”
After that… Well, MaX is sick. It’s either Malaria or tapeworm. He got it from Nepal and since he’s dying, we aren’t doing much… but I hope he feels better tonight, because we’re having dinner with some friends…
Tomorrow is the Tapai 101 building, Xiling night market, and more… so Check out the pics!
I’m sick… May 3, 2006
Posted by AkumAPRIME in : Life , 1 comment so far
Originally uploaded by AkumAPRIME.
When I find out which one of my flatmates is sicker… I may kill him… I mean, the day before MaX arrives, I’m sick? I will use my bodies insanely powerful immune system and an ancient Mayan trance to try and rid myself of all impurities within 24 hours. That and alot of soup (which is in High supply here). So on the plus side, I can justify eating about 3 lunches and 6 dinners.
As a side note, I am 9000 days old today.
Slow it down April 29, 2006
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Lego land
Originally uploaded by AkumAPRIME.
After my (overly expensive) trips to Thailand and Singapore, it’s nice to come back to Taipei and slow things down. AkumAPRIME.com is going to be funky for a while… but I hope to have it up and normal and stable in 3 days time.
IDK how you guys H4X0R3D my site, since I set it to no comments. Shah, just use the tags setting to sort through my photos. Wanna see me? Use the Me tag. Wanna’ see my friends? Use the Friends tag.
In other news, several old High school mates MySpaced me, so I sifted through and found some other old classmates. Fun!
Clouds April 20, 2006
Posted by AkumAPRIME in : Life , 2 comments
Clouds
Originally uploaded by AkumAPRIME.
So I got back to the zoo, and I took over 700 pics in the past 2 days!!! I’m sure I’ll weed about 3/5 of them out. But after getting back to the Zoo, torrential rainfall occurred… really dreadful since I had my camera with me… Anyway, Singapore is great, and I’ll have several hundred pics up ASAP.
Disappointment and failure
Posted by AkumAPRIME in : Life,Philosophy , 3 commentsI have comment disabled this point because I want no sympathy.
The fact of the matter is that I have have the MCATs scheduled this weekend. After reading all the books, listening to all the audio.. it is quite clear to me through my practice test scores that I won’t be passing this test. I have worked hard, but perhaps not hard enough. I have accepted this fact. Some might say that I shouldn’t enter with a negative attitude, but there is a difference between realism and arrogant optimism and pessimism. I am experiencing the reality of the situation, and my family will also.
I also won’t be taking any more time to study to re take this test. I am currently looking into other higher education options in the neuro cognitive psychological arena, but I won’t ever be a doctor. This is sort of painful to think about, but at the same time it’s ok… well for me, IDK if my family will be perma-disappointed.
Anyway, just wanted to put a reality check out there for all of us.
As a sidenote; today at the Zoo, my camera’s battery died! I came all the way back to my quarters to recharge, will wait an hour, then head back… tsk tsk…
A cousin’s Question part2 April 19, 2006
Posted by AkumAPRIME in : Life , add a commentOk, so there’s a lot of stuff in your email that I might question, but it makes sense to start with the foundation, so here goes…
First, it is interesting that you make the distinction between a strong atheist and a weak atheist, or agnostic. I would venture to say that there is actually no such thing as a true atheist, and that those claiming to be atheists are really agnostics. Here’s why: in order to make an absolute negative statement, one would have to possess absolute knowledge.
For example, if I were to say “there is no gold in China,†I would have to know the contents of every jewelry shop, pawn shop, set of teeth, rock, stone, and underground cave–I would have to have absolute knowledge of China to make that statement true. Conversely, if I were to say “there is gold in China,†all I have to have is one piece of gold to make my statement true. In the same way, in order to make the absolute statement that there is no God, you would have to have all knowledge of the universe. Even if you possess a generous 1% of all the knowledge in the universe, that would still leave a 99% margin of knowledge that you have not yet come across that could sufficiently prove the existence of God.
What you say is true, but I never said there is no god. I said I don’t think there’s a god.
:::Edit::: That didn’t come out quite right. What I mean is: Even if I say there’s not God, I can only mean I don’t think there’s a god. Just as if you say there is a god, all you can really mean is you Think there’s a god. There is no god, there is no god…
So when you say that you know there is no God, aren’t you really saying that, according to the limited knowledge you have at present, you don’t believe there is a God?Yes.
And due to your limited knowledge, doesn’t that mean that you don’t really know for sure, and are really an agnostic, and not an atheist?No. The difference between the two, in my opinion and I read different definitions occasionally, is that the atheist believes that with total knowledge, you still won’t find a god.
As far as faith is concerned, you said that we all make a faith-based decision when we think about the universe. You are totally right. When it comes down to it, we are human beings with finite minds, and there are just certain things impossible for us to know. It is interesting to me, though, that the origin of the universe many people see as the most “logical” actually makes very little logical sense. If I told you that my car did not have a maker or that my house did not have a builder or that the Sistine Chapel painted itself, you would say I was crazy. There is nothing in our world of experience that would allow us to accept the notion that it created itself or just came into being. No scientist has ever been able to make something out of nothing, and yet that is what is considered the “logical” explanation of the origin of the universe. Is not creation itself evidence for a Creator?What makes the origin of the universe as “We” see it have little logic? Surely an anthropomorphic god made in mans image snapping his fingers is less logical than the Big bang, which has a tremendous amount of evidence to support it.
In the same way, if I dropped 50 oranges on the ground and told you that they landed in 5 rows of 10 oranges, perfectly spaced, you would not believe me. It’s a statistical improbability at best. Order implies intelligent design. Back to the example of my car–it doesn’t just happen to have an air conditioner or headlights or windshield wipers. Intelligent people design our cars to make our experience safe and comfortable. Doesn’t the fact that the earth is perfectly designed in every way to support life make you at least wonder if there’s not someone intelligent behind it? You said “ask away” so there you go. Some interesting things to think about…The Earth is perfectly designed to support life? Could’ve fooled me. The damn things been killing us for a long time. But no, the fact that life exists here is not evidence that life was placed here. Life on other planets, which surely exists, may also think that their planet was designed for them. This is backwards. Our life developed around this environment. In one sense, you may think of evolution as intelligent. But it’s not the same as ID purports.
Singapore
Posted by AkumAPRIME in : Life , 1 comment so farI’ve only been here a day and a half, but I am amAzed by this place. Clean and orderly, with a decent MRT and bus system ( though they could Both use a better system to tell the passengers where they are), great food and beautiful scenery, Singapore is among the best on our planet. The multiethnic city brings a unique flavor, where everyone seems to coexist better than LA. Pictures up later this week, but in the meantime, Look at my Thailand pics!
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