One or two common(ish) unrelated assumptions that really bother me

Assumption #1:

If someone is bisexual they have to be with both men and women.

I've come across a fair few people that are under the impression that it is impossible for someone who identifies as bisexual to be faithful. For example, if a bisexual woman is married to a man, she would be unable to be faithful to him as she has to be with a woman as well. This is so incorrect it's not even funny. Being bisexual simply means being attracted to both genders. They are no more likely to be unfaithful than straight or homosexual people. The only difference it makes is that they have the potential to be attracted to both males and females as opposed to just one or the other. For example, there are billions of women out there that have the potential to be attractive to me. However, this does not mean I will cheat because I have this amazing thing called self control which allows me to be faithful to Laura. If I turned out to be bisexual, this would not change.

Assumption #2

How can we know (enter topic here) happened if it was meant to have happened before humans were alive.

SCIENCE MOTHERFUCKERS!!! I wouldn't dream of attempting to explain exactly how we are able to know about things that happened before humans were around, I sadly don't possess much knowledge of advanced science. However, there are various techniques of approximating events that happened long, long ago that have been developed over the years. Sure, they're not entirely accurate and could end up being completely wrong. This is why scientists tend to say they think something happened. But just because there were no humans around at the time, or the event wasn't recorded doesn't mean it didn't happen. What really bothers me is when Christians use this argument. There's no way there were humans around when God (allegedly) said "Let there be light", yet people who believe in the Bible are rather certain it happened. Yay for contradictory statements!

Assumption #3

The ocean can't be rising due to global warming because the icebergs are already in the ocean.

Yeah, I've actually heard that one. One word: glaciers.

Trance

So far I've enjoyed all the Danny Boyle (which is admittedly, not that many) movies I've seen. Trance was no different. Well, it IS different in the way it's pretty weird, but I definitely enjoyed it. I appreciated the fact that even though it's a mind fuck of a movie, it all gets properly explained and tied up at the end. Yay for few plot holes! The acting and writing was top notch, but the main attraction of it to me was the visuals. Doesn't really use any special effects but relies on lighting. It's been a while since I've seen a movie on the big screen that struck me as so vivid. Probably helps that the cinema I went to up here in Wellington is better than the Invercargill one though. Sadly down there the projectors are kinda out of focus and possibly dirty. Anyway, I digress. Trance was great. I must admit, part of the reason I like the way it looks so much is due to it's huge usage of the colour red, which really is my favourite.

Other than that, I got locked out of Mum's house today. My phone was inside too, so I had no way of contacting her. This is what lead me to seeing the movie. I also ended up picking up a small notebook and pen to write in as a cheap way of passing time. I've found I quite enjoy it and I think I'll continue. It's probably not writing I'll ever show anyone, but it's still writing. I used to write quite a bit, especially when I was around 12-14. Not sure why I stopped, I just kinda did. Now I'm inspired by my English course amongst other things and I think I shall take it up again. Got friends wanting me to be a D&D dungeon master, so maybe I'll write a few of my own campaigns. Could be fun.

Wellington

Haven't posted in a while as I've been busy hanging out with family in Wellington. It's been great to see them all again. Dad's visiting here from Thailand too (which was the main reason I came up in the first place) and I haven't seen him over a year, so it's been really good hanging out with him. Wandered around town for a few hours today doing nothing in particular (other than chatting) which was fun. Good to see Mum and my brothers too. That said, I'm really missing Laura. It's not fun being apart from her for any amount of time longer than a day really. Other than all that, I walked past our parliament building (the Beehive). Man it's ugly!

Skate 3

I know it's not real life and is just a game, so the actual skating isn't all THAT impressive. That said, I'm pretty pleased with myself for this video.

The editing is all me, so there's at least a little skill involved. :p

Wikipedia Adventures

All debate on how reliable it is aside, I love Wikipedia. As I had just downed two, I decided to look up Nyquil. The page for it is fairly boring, but it led me to the Proctor & Gamble (the company that produces Nyquil) page. I figured the history of such a huge company would be kinda interesting. From there I found out where a popular phrase comes from. "Soap opera." The term was coined to refer to shows on the radio that were sponsored by Proctor & Gamble, who, at that point, mostly made soap. Funny where bored link clicking can lead you.

When you're not expecting it....

Ok, so, I'm currently reading a book called Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. It's kind of a steam punk sci-fi/fantasy novel. Anyway, to the point. The book borrows many various creatures from the mythology of different countries. The creatures I've noticed so far have mostly been fairly unknown in the Greek/Roman/sometimes Norse mythology most people (in New Zealand at least) seem to know. Examples of these would be the khepri and the vodyanoi. Another of these creatures is a garuda. He's pretty important to the plot too. Now, I KNEW I knew the name garuda, and the description of the creature struck me as somewhat familiar too. Part human, part bird, warrior like. So I googled it. The garuda is the freaking national symbol of Thailand. I definitely know what a garuda is and what it's meant to look like. I suppose it just didn't click because I hardly expected one to be in a weird fantasy novel written by a British guy, but there you go. Maybe I'm just a little thick sometimes.

Just noticed that I've read enough of Atonement to be ready for the next week or two of assignments I have to do on it. This is very bad for my motivation.

The Host (teensy spoilers ahead)

So yeah, the Host was as bad as I expected. It wasn't really any of the actors' fault, Saoirse Ronan and Diane Kruger were actually pretty good. It was just let down by a poor script and a poor story. Very little was properly explained. The entire movie would have sat with me a lot better if there was actually a good reason for the aliens wanting to eliminate all human resistance. The humans aren't doing particularly much to harm the aliens, so the fact so much effort is put into hunting them down doesn't make much sense. Yes, Seeker did have a personal reason for wanting to hunt Wanda down, but the rest going along with her just didn't seem right.

Another thing that irked me was visual. Low saturation. I'm getting really tired of this trend. Some movies use the effect well, and it's great when that happens, but when it's low saturation for the sake of it, it's lame. Yes, a lot of it was in the desert, but that doesn't call for artificial looking desaturation. On the upside, the effect they used on the actors' eyes to show alien possession looked kinda cool.

Anyways, this isn't a full blown review or anything, so I'm not gonna say much. Over all the movie had poor story, script, visual effects and direction. It's definitely not the worst I've seen, but meh.

Off to go see the Host with my fiancee. Be warned, a rant may or may not follow when I get home. On the upside, it's a good excuse to get snacks. Bring on the chocolate and fizzy drinks!

C&H

Ok, so, Cyanide and Happiness is generally pretty sick, immature humour. Sure it can be pretty amusing, but you know, generally trashy. That said, as shown above, they can say some pretty smart stuff. As someone who generally lives by "It could always be worse" it can be good to be reminded that things could always be better. I dunno, the comic can speak for itself. I'm in a really rambly mood tonight. Guess that's why I started a blog.

Main thoughts about Atonement

Ok, so, I have to read Atonement by Ian McEwan for my Intro to English Studies class. Now, it isn't a bad book, and I don't particularly mind reading it, but I'm prevented from saying I enjoy it. It's pretty well written, and the characters in it are well portrayed and actually kinda cool. The issue I've been having is that I'm finding it to be a fairly boring story. Sure, the World War II part is pretty interesting, but there are other books that have been more so. The whole rape mess at the beginning just kinda bored me. I can't exactly say why, I just feel like there are other stories I'd much rather read. Which is a shame, because as I said, the characters in the book are actually really good. I do want to know more about Robbie in particular, but he just ends up in not hugely interesting situations. Is a book still good if it's a boring story as long as everything else about it is well done? I dunno.

Hello there blogger

So, I'm pretty much going to use this blog as a dumping ground for random thoughts. I guess it'll mostly be about whatever I'm studying/reading (the two can be separate or the same) at the time as that's largely what I  think about. There'll probably be some gaming stuff or random rants interspersed.

For the poor sods who don't know me but have stumbled across this blog and is wondering what exactly a TCK (a grumpy one nonetheless) is, let me explain. A Third Culture Kid, or TCK for short, is an individual who spent a large period of their childhood in a culture other than their parents' and/or passport country. For me this was spending a little over 8 years in Thailand from the ages of nearly 10 - just over 18.

Now, maybe you're wondering what the "third" part of the term means. Well, even if you aren't, I feel like explaining it so I'm going to. The "first culture" is your parents' culture. For me this was New Zealand culture. The "second" culture is the culture of the country you move to. Once again, in my case, this was Thailand. The "third culture" mentioned in the term itself is a merging of these two cultures along with the weirdness that comes out of growing up in such a way.