Damn this, at least I got my business project started.

Also, I hate you all.

I’m sure there are many things that will make us stick together. I can send you some photos with me, if you wanted to type me few words

Lisa” – but that wasn’t the scary part. The signature, which you can add to all e-mails you send…bow, THAT’S scary. Have a look: “He besiegeed, shrugging his shoulders, and smiling suspiciously. And, I swear, I dont arrange that I unfastened; it was perhaps the lower scull, I lather where comfortable for determination, in another translation I would flay suggest up to flush his tendency. Of his factual relations overboard enraptureed with speck infectious get back, but he too was a quart of the Koznishev and not the Levin fanatic, so that the Levin beetle was utterly justifyd. We quoteed lush, bidding too keyed up. these three was all for jumping richly. Do ordinance remand Madame Karenina? We are traveling sincerely.
Presently, your returned home Fyodorovitch was pulling me by my scared, Id sumptuous withering, he was in a deserving commerce and cavorted to poach upon me.”

This got me interested, because of boredom, and nothing much to do. That, and terrible English. So, I replied:

“Wait, so is this Alice or Lisa?”

And whaddya know! Got a reply this morning. Apparently, they either think that I’m stupid, or THEY are stupid.
“Hello!
I will go to your city in a couple of weeks…!!

I don’t check my MailBox often,
at last I have waited your answer to email…

but I constantly On line on site http://dateritim.ru ,
my nickname is ‘Nevesta’ find me on this project.

You can look there my pics at my profile, … after ur Registration, i think..

Please, write me where you live exactly and something more about yourself in personal message and add ur pics”

So, what the hell…If I am to get any fun from this, I better register. Oh, I’ll keep you updated, folks! BTW this was my reply to her:

“Oh, okay! I’ll register there ASAP! And you’re arriving in Riga? I
have to warn you, it’s quite cold here, might have to do something to
warm you up By the way, how did you find me?”

It’s crazytime now!

10. Lonely island (feat Akon) – I just had sex

The good:
Firstly, this song is catchy. Secondly, I love how Akon has the balls to perform with these guys (who have produced such hits as “Like a Boss” and “Jizz in my pants”) who are basically a huge parody of the whole pop industry. Thirdly, yes I have played this, and sang along, just right after a consensual sexual intercourse. And it felt awesome! ^_^’  Except that I got punched afterwards. Repeatedly. And she didn’t make me a sandwich next day.

The bad:
It’s cheap. Really, really, really cheap. The song has absolutely no meaning, neither artistic nor political, and – let’s be honest here – it’s basically a praise for the animalistic feeling of pleasure you’ve just received in your genitals. Also, it’s pop/parody of pop – and, as we all know, Poe’s law says: Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody that SOMEONE won’t mistake for the real thing. Originally, it was about fundamentalism, but it can be applied to anything really. At one point, the parody comes around, and becomes the very thing it’s parodying. And with this song, lonely island have reached that point. It is a parody no longer, because people treat it as a real pop song. And like I said, it’s really, really, really cheap. And stupid. And I love it. And I’m a philosophy student. Go figure.

9. Nena – 99 Luftballons

The awesome:
It’s a song about a war, started by some people, launching a couple of red floating thingies in the sky, and some other people, mistaking those things for military planes and bombing  freeing the SHIT out of them! And it’s in German! Seriously, though, I love the anti-war message, and the song itself got into my head during the summer I spent working at a construction worker (I was 14 and did a lot of dumb things) when I had to remove paint from a LOT of window frames. My employer tried to learn German, but this was the only song the stupid dolt had in the said language, so he played it for days and tried to sing along. Unfortunately, old fat Latvian males aren’t Nena. They aren’t even clone to Nena. And he thought the song was about a toyshop, and saying goodbye to summer. Because that’s what’s in the English version. -_-

The ugly:
It’s the 80′s. Everything had to look ugly back then. And the song is…ehh…cheap pop again. Surely, at that time, it had to be something more, right? Well…judging by the cover of the German version of the single…ahh, just see for yourselves.

If I'd see people dressed like this on the street right now, I'd give them some change.

Apparently, the only people that care about a thermonuclear genocide are some bums. And their cameraman is a ghoul already. Seriously, every album cover from before the 2000 should be banned from existence. The guy in the far right looks like “eh kills aliens and doesn’t afraid of anything” though. But let’s not judge these people by the cover, right? Well…to be frank, the song IS simplistic, and follows the very same cheap Verse – Chorus – Verse theme as every pop song ever. And it’s not much…anything really, if you take the lyrics out. But…I still like it. It’s like a relic from a different time, when people thought that the country I was born in would free bomb the shit out of the everyone, and…frankly, that’s awesome too.

8. Celtic Woman – Spanish Lady

The attractive:
It’s a celtic song, about an extremely beautiful lady from Spain, sung by extremely beautiful non-Spanish ladies. It’s got the rhythm, the mood and…actually, some pretty cool lyrics! Yeah, these beautiful ladies skip the last verse, where we find out that the man obviously in love with the Spanish lady goes and spends some time with Napper Tandy and his crew – the united Irishmen. Who were, no less, Irish rebels, fighting against the English in the 18th century. So, some beautiful ladies sing about an awesome dude, who becomes a rebel and fights for his country, after seeing an extraordinarily beautiful lady from Spain. And I can understand him. I mean…just look at this:

This is Juana Galán. A Spanish rebel, who kicked out Napoleonic troops out of her village, using a baton and leading a bunch of other women. (All the while being awesomely hot, if you trust this picture.)

The repulsive:
I’m a man. That’s basically a love song. Sung by women of celtic origin.  And I’m not a woman. Also, I’m not Irish, in fact, I have precisely zero percent of Irish blood in me, so it’s double lame of me to sing along this thing. That, and when you mention that you like any celtic-sounding semi-folk songs, people stare at you, and treat you like an old drunkard. Or, just a weird person, who doesn’t understand what “proper music” is, and listens to this just to annoy everyone. Actually, It’s pretty hard to write anything about why it’s bat to like this song – people just look at me strangely when I listen to it, and that’s about all. So, you know, if you dislike it for some unknown reason, no more free beer from me, ya’ twats!

7. Metronoms – Nāk Nakts

The elegant:
There’s not much to say about this Latvian ’80 poprock thing. It’s about a girl who’s sad and how someone should cheer her up *wink, wink* – came out in 1988, if i’m not mistaken, and is catchy as hell. First heard on a weird radio station on a bus. As you, rich capitalist pigs nice foreigner people, probably don’t know, Latvia is a small country – and we can get to whatever place of our small, crappy postagrarian country we wish by a bus or train from our capital in about 4 hours or less. And that’s if you want to go near the Russian border. The problem is – all those inter-city bus drivers listen to Latvian Radio two, which plays awfully terrible German schlager analogues. And…this wasn’t one, so it just got more attention.

The debased:
What happens when you mix 80′s with poprock and a bus? Awfulness. This song, exactly because it isn’t AS crappy as everything else played by that ONE radio station, listened-to by bus drivers (no, seriously, they listen only and exclusively to Latvian Radio 2, as if…as if they had some sort of a crooked deal…hmm.) gets played everywhere, and has received at least nineteen crappy dance remixes. It’s played at cheap parties, it’s associated with cheap people, mostly from the countryside, and it’s just not polite to even mention it in polite society. And, yeah, in my opinion, while the remixes are crap, there is a reason why they’re made out of this? Is there? Please tell me there is, or I’ll have to shoot this kitty!

I'm dead serious. Also, you must like this on Facebook, and leave a comment.

6.  Nickelback – If Everyone Cared

The cool:
I know I’m treading a narrow path here, but this song has a purely emotional value for me. It’s one of those songs I listen to, when I’m slightly intoxicated and want to think globally for a minute or two. Also, the way how the video raises political awareness and globally important issues is of importance. Seems like these Nickelback fellows are nice guys, and, yeah, I can relate. Also, these emotionally touching songs is what I like in Nickelback – because, frankly, that is their only redeeming factor. But what the hell, this and “leader of men” and “fighting for all the wrong reasons” pulled me through my teenage years and, without doubt, contributed to my willingness to study philosophy – and that’s kind of awesome too.

The sad:
It’s still Nickelback. Cracked.com chart about the differences shows us quite nicely, as of why the poprock is the lowest common denominator of the music industry. (At least, in the parts that can still be called music)

Listen to: "Tool - 10,000" days to understand.

What also makes it terrible is the fact that, although, Nickelback tries to raise our awareness, they’ve sold out as much as a 40-year-old Thailandian prostitute. And Thailandian prostitute will, at the very least, admit that she sucks. (And she’s probably good at that too) Mass-produced, audio-tuned music that, yes, touches you emotionally, still is…well, just bad music. And not nearly enough of art. But still…wasn’t that the point? Making me feel something, making me feel different? And, if their music works, then why the hell do we judge the song by it’s author? Again, a lot of questions, which I, hopefully, will be able to answer after my aesthetics course. But then again, Nickelback – the poster boys of every other crappy pop-rock band out there. I recommend death by a vacuum bomb.

5. Despues De Todo – Un Minuto Mas

El bien:
I’m running out of acronyms, so, as this song’s in Spanish, might as well. Yeah, this song is in Spanish, and it’s nu-metal. My Spanish teacher, mr. Fernando Torres once showed us a couple of songs in Spanish, so that we could study the language better, but…yeah, Enrique Iglesias isn’t for me. So, I just searched for this in youtube, and it seemed nice. Now I put this on, every time I have to study for a test. As far as I get it, the song’s about not being able to say goodbye to someone, before they died in a fire. (Mm…chicken) It’s rhythmic and supplies me for just enough distorted electric guitars to study a bit harder than before.

El mal:
Apart from the fact that this song’s in Spanish, it’s just about as dull as every other nu-metal band out there. Heck, even Disturbed are re-defining themselves as hard rock, so all of that pseudo-rapping has been tossed out of the window and left to burn, while at least seventeen retarded gnomes mutilate it’s dead body with poisoned pickaxes and hand grenades. As it should be, because at one point, it really did go too far. Now, not to say that there weren’t any good songs, no – it’s just that most of the time, when something good hits mainstream, a lot of bad, crappy rip-offs are made, and then we’re all sentenced to hear them on the radio, while our ears and eyes slowly bleed out. A while ago, this happened to the “alternative” genres – they became mainstream, and we, Latvians, had to see this:

This dude was on a singing reality TV show, and got quite popular here.

Turn into this:

Everything is better with spikes and darkness and brooding evil!

Now, I don’t enjoy much of pop music myself (practically, the only pop songs I like are on this list) but this…was awful. A crappy pop-singer decided to become darker and edgier, but – alas, as his producers wouldn’t allow him to write anything that is’s sugary and sweet as hell, he ended up playing soft poprock, with miserable guitars and meaningless, shitty vocals, while trying to be one of the cool “hard” guys. About at that point, everyone understood that he sucks, and now he’s working in some hotel in UK. At least, real life has happy endings as well. I can only imagine this to be better, if he’s also stabbed with swords, tortured with fire and made to listen to his own songs on a daily basis.

4. Gackt – Redemption

Kawaii:
Firstly, Gackt is awesome. Going to repeat that AGAIN! Gackt. Is. AWESOME! He has a higher musical education, he plays a bunch of instruments and this song is about “The Crow”  movie. I don’t care if it isn’t, it IS! Plenty of nifty goth thingies, plenty of distorted guitars and, an XBAWKS HEUGE amount of Japanese epicness! ^_^ And yes, I know that I sound like a fanboy here, but yeah…I love this song. That and kittens. I was serious about that cat, you better comment!

Odzumashii:
 It’s J-rock. Imagine everything you know is wrong about Japan, and you’ll get this. Yes, their culture is full with bad-asses, such as Hattori Hanzo, but today, everything we think about them is filtered through a bright lens of a wending machine for used girl’s underwear.

At least, they're neatly packaged.

Also, now and then I watch some anime. My favourites are Trigun, Cromartie High and Hellsing. That alone is enough to get me prison time in some countries, because, obviously, everything that comes from Japan is in two flavors – pervert and childish. And, as weird as it may seem, sometimes, I have to agree. Except this time – because Gackt is AWESOME!

3. Lady Gaga – Bad Romance

The kinky:
Firstly, yes, she’s talented. Yes, she has a musical education as well, and you should really, really listen to some of her acoustic stuff. But this song, it’s so surreal, so weird, so…awesome. Yeah, Lady Gaga is pretty awesome, really! Much better than all the Beyonce’s and Biebers and whatever. The quality is epic, the lyrics make sense, the style is….just WOW! I love this song, because it. Is. ART! In it’s purest, untouched form, giving my ears and eyes a small orgasm every time I listen to this. And no, I don’t care whether she’s a hermaphrodite or not! My neurosis are kept in check, unlike yours! You pervert!

Even more of The Kinky:
Lady Gaga shows that people with talent will choose to create insane amounts of terribly weird things. She started it, and now she’s associated with everything that’s wrong with the music industry today. (Don’t flatter yourself, Rebecca Black! You’re just shitty!) Now, most of my friends are hardcore metalheads. I’m a metalhead quite often myself. So THIS….thing…is more harming to my reputation than that one time, when I had to run around the block in my underpants (and the block we’re speaking of is in Old Riga, in the middle of our capital, right in front of the monument of freedom) because someone purchased Games Workshop PVA glue. But seriously, what’s wrong with Gaga? She’s worked with the Lonely Island guys and made a whole bunch of parodies of the whole pop industry. Hell, one of her videos even contains a reference to Command and Conquer: Tiberium Wars series! Seriously, she’s more geeky than you think!

Caine would be proud of her! /From Telephone

2. БГ – Cтаканы

хороший:
This song is all about drinking and not giving a damn! And…and BG’s band – Aquarium enjoyed a lot of Soviet fame back in the day. Blah, to explain this to you, non-russian-speaking audience, I’ve translated the lyrics for this awesome Russian mentality song. (No, they didn’t have any on google.) So, just read this. Except that it’s much ruder in the original:

Come on, put your cups on the table,
Come on, put your cups on the table,
Come on, put your cups on the table,
And the other dishes as well.
Everyone says that you mustn’t drink,
Everyone says that you mustn’t drink,
Everyone says that you mustn’t drink,
I reply that I WILL!

Early in the morning while it’s dark,
While it’s dark, while it’s dark
Early in the morning while it’s dark,
And the world is still in bed.
To understand where to go,
To understand why to go,
Do not hesitate to drink one hundred grams [of vodka]
And you will reach the goal.

Come on, put your cups on the table,
Come on, put your cups on the table,
And the other dishes as well.
Everyone says that you mustn’t drink,
Everyone says that you mustn’t drink,
Everyone says that you mustn’t drink,
I reply that I WILL!

I did not want to pull the barge,
So I’ll go, I’ll wander around,
When i’ll reach the end of the Earth -
I go for a walk on the sea.
If i’ll break the old, cranky machine,
I’ll become a pirate and will be happy
Without hesitation, gonna drink down a battleship
But I won’t disgrace the navy!

Come on, put your cups on the table,
Come on, put your cups on the table,
And the other dishes as well.
Everyone says that you mustn’t drink,
Everyone says that you mustn’t drink,
Everyone says that you mustn’t drink,
I reply that I WILL!

If this isn’t epic enough for you, then I don’t know what is. So….awesome. ^_^

дурной:
Yep, if the celtic song didn’t make me an alcoholic, then this does so, 100% sure. Otherwise, I’ve no idea. Some people (mostly women and homosexuals) dislike this, and say that this is a bad song. I’ve no idea why, except that they’re all idiots – and, it’s not socially acceptable to like this, apparently –  so I’ll just drink my 100 grams and be off with it. Yarr, mateys! But yeah, why it’s on this list, then? Because, for no apparent reason, liking Russian songs in Latvia is terribly bad. Go figure.

And the top pick is….

Los Colorados – Hot & Cold

The Magnificent:
I have to explain? Really? Okay – it’s an Ukrainian polka band, with an extremely shoddy camera and a dreadful sense of humour, playing a cover or Katy Pery’s “Hot & Cold” And…it’s better than the original.

The Hardcore:
I have to explain? Really? Okay, I’ll repeat myself:  - it’s an Ukrainian polka band, with an extremely shoddy camera and a dreadful sense of humour, playing a cover or Katy Pery’s “Hot & Cold” And…it’s better than the original. By being extremely weird. And awesome. No, seriously, if this doesn’t blow your mind, then I don’t know what will, because this is, truly, a love/hate thing that’s going on here.

So, there you have it. I hope y0u liked this, and feel free to link on your own shameful songs here. Also, like this/friend me on Facebook (Kristaps Resnais)/ follow me on Twitter (TorquemadaStark) and…have a really nice day. (Or the kitty gets it!) P.S. Mandatory political sentence: Valdis Zatlers sucks!

This is my neat Orianna

There. And now we have a picture. Ok, where was I? One: I have to teach Latvian to my boss’s son. It’s harder than you might think, because really, kids. Nothing against them, and I’ve grown quite accustomed by working in my store, yet – I can give them advice on playing warhammer, but teaching them a language is hard. Kudos and respect to D503 for doing this on  daily basis. Man, teachers have balls in the size of an elephant.

Two: My manager has some female-related issues. Now, IF a girl is 16 years younger than you (He’s 36 so do the math) IF she hasn’t worked  for a single day of her life, IF you pay for her prolonged existence and IF she also dates other guys, then you just might be doing something terribly wrong with your life and I can’t help you. That’s a harsh lesson to teach, and I’m not sure if this blog is the best place to do it, but: Dump her, dude. Sometimes your so-perceived love is NOT an argument. But enough of this, here’s another nice picture.

This is a Space Dwarf. It is awesome. AWESOME!

And thirdly, of all things, I am finally happy, because in comparison my own problems seem less important. Frankly, because I have no problems. And let’s end with this awesome note. But really, HOW am I supposed to help my superiors? That’s….kinda stressful.

Basically, that’s an article which says something about our ex-president and our recent elections. And, frankly, it’s full of shit. At first, Harmony Center is an openly pro-russian, loyal to mr. Putin, pseudo-oligarhical party, and also they’re clearly populist – dropped most of their election campaign promises TWO HOURS after the end of the elections. Well, one has to be said, though: they HAVE made our capital better though. IF they’ll work properly with others, there MAY be some improvements. Second: Our ultra-right-wing Nationalist Union is as much full of crap as is Harmony Center. Sometimes even more. Ach, who am I kidding – they’re far worse. And they also whine about it. And now, after the elections, their members are seen spamming facebook with “boo, woo, Harmony Center are bad people” and spamming views about how multiculturalism spawned the recent Norway island shooting. (by mr. Iesalnieks, idiot extraordinaire)

And mr. Zatlers is on his way to make this country a presidential republic, which just doesn’t work for non-federative states. I think he’s obsessed with some sort of a neo-authoritarianism, and should chill down a bit.

By far the biggest problem that our little, shitty country has is that everyone either doesn’t give a shit completely, or, on the complete opposite side, tries to politicize everything, like we’re living in some sort of Piatigorsky’s “Absolute Politics” sphere. Protip: We’re not.

Both of these are neurotic activities and attempts to escape from this kind of newfangled freedom (and the responsibility that comes with it), just like Erich Fromm wrote in his work: “The Fear of Freedom” (or, “Escape from Freedom” for the US people) Either way, most people out there want to be given everything, they want their money, information, food and entertainment force-fed to them. They want the Soviet way, where you were given a job, either you liked it or not. They don’t want to think, and/or work for their money, because most Latvians have no idea about how capitalism works.

And so, we elect the people who are like us – except they can afford it. So, our government doesn’t educate people or make them better in any way, our government wants us to become more like Sweden. And Sweden is all fun and games, except it isn’t. Political correctness is lame per se and when a country punishes you for being rich, then you just know you’re on the wrong track. (I support healthcare, though. That SHOULD, and thankfully, IS partially funded by our government.) As about 1/3 of our voters are pensionnaries, nothing is going to change here, until all the people who grew up in Soviet Union will die out. Sorry to say this, old folks, but you’re assholes, taking loans which we’ll have to repay, electing people because you find their hair funny and they gave you flowers once or they’re your old schoolmate and you’ll ask them some money afterwards, and making your needs (such as bigger pensions) superior to actual economic growth of this country.

And a large part of them votes for their party, because they either a ) are ultranationalist and xenophobic b ) don’t know Latvian. Also, werent those people the one’s who didn’t resist the soviet union? Some of them fought in the SS legions, some of them fought for the Red Army, and they’re all making such a fuss about it. These people fucked our country in the past, and they’re continuing to do so now.

Yes, they are. No, I won't give you my seat in the bus.

Like a friend of mine once said: “If I’ll ever have to live from my pension, I’ll know that I’ve screwed up my life.” Now, I understand that some of these people are nice folks, I understand that some of these people actually helped to restore our independence, and I understand that some of these people are really, really smart. (Cracked told me so) But, as a social group, they dominate this country with their soviet mentality. And this just has to change.

Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.

But then, a friend of mine posted a link to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_path_sentence

And then, it somehow made sense. The quote is ambiguous because “flies” in the first part is a verb, while it becomes a noun in the second part. The strange part is, that I’m sure that 99% of LoL playing people do not recognize this duality. And yet, it’s a nice thing that Zilean could say.

But then again I understand why I’m supposed to read all the influental philosophers, not just those of the 20th – 21st centuries; the cognitive capabilities and the logical process of causality which I have experienced allow me to make my own conclusions, and I wouldn’t have felt as if I’m making correct assumptions, if I, from my own rational mind, wouldn’t have come to the same conclusions as some modern-day philosophers – it feels nice to know that your mind works and that it’s on a right (or maybe „correct” or „valid” would be a better term to use here) path.

It’s a weird feeling, really. Before I started my studies, it was far easier to think of something I want to tell the world, write a story about it, make it fun, make it understandable. Now it seems that writing a story is something that an arrogant or a very wise person would do, because what if the idea that I’m trying to convey to the reader has been proven wrong in a text which I haven’t read? Suddenly proper quotations are of importance, and the fact that I have to tell something to the reader is not. I’d rather study something, research something new, then make sure that, indeed, I’ve researched and developed something new, and only then would try to make a story out of it.

When I was a teenager, I used to write things, because I believed that most people are idiots, while I’m not – and that it’s my duty to make them smarter, make them think differently, all the while entertaining them; I hoped that while they would have a good read, something in their dumb brains would click and that my stories would work like some sort of a catalysy that would unlock their hidden intelligence caches.  As you can see, I wasn’t very clever during my puberty, and I doubt that I’m much smarter now. Except that now I know that I should be more humble and more careful about how and what and why do I write.

And I must ask now, why would an author ever would want to write anything for stupid people? Even cheap crime novels which people read on boring train rides presume that their reader can make some rational choices and can understand something about how crime works. Being rude to your readers and calling them names is dumb. Writing things, presuming that your readers are dumb is egoistical and idiotical. Thankfully, I’m out of puberty – at least, out of the physical puberty, that is. To become an adult in the mental sense, like Immanuel Kant wrote in his „Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?” to really be able to use my rational mind and to be able to say that my decisions and ideas are one hundred percent mine, to use my mind as the final tool of judgement requires a lot more experience and wisdom than I currently have. At the very least, I can be quite sure that I’ve done my best to understand those wise men I mentioned in the beginning of this essay, and that, most likely, I’m on the correct, valid path.  Maybe I’ll even start writing something normative one day, but that’s just wishful thinking that includes possible assumptions about my future abilities. If that day comes, however, I can surely say that I won’t be writing anything for stupid people, trying to trick them into some percieved, pre-determined conclusions. Writing entertaining and funny things and making comics about philosophy is a quite another thing, though. It’s like a vodka for the psyche. I have these weird graphomaniacal tendencies, and I really like to see happy, laughing people – because stress is killing us – and joining the two is the way how I make myself happy.  Although, I’m pretty sure that I don’t know a lot about happiness either.

Free will doesn’t make a person happy, that’s for sure. One of my favourites, Stoa philosophy presupposes freedom of will and states that in our rational choice to lead a meaningful, organized, virtuous (arete) life,  we gain sense of peace which is much more important that some percieved state of happiness. (My christmas essay for people now makes a lot more sense, and in the same time, I’m so ashamed for it) Through our choice to be good, stable people we don’t achieve happiness, but we are free of suffering – in the mental level that is – and we live the best possible life. Some philosophers, like Popper and Descartes agree on this freedom of will. Other philosophers, such as Ryle and Hobbes and every reductional matherialist ever have made sensible claims about us, not having any free will whatsoever.  I’m more inclined to take Kant’s position on this issue, because freedom of will, as a thing in itself (ding an sich) is completely irrational, unprovable and, actually, doesn’t change anything – even if we don’t have a true freedom of will, that means that right now our deterministic nature demands us to act as if we had it. In short, whether or not we have free will, we’d still do the same thing. If this raises some questions about morality, read „De libero arbitrio voluntatis” by Augustine, together with mr. Frankfurt’s commentary.  I’m sure that people before me have tried to combine this as if free will with Stoa philosophy (I severly dislike the term „Stoicism” – any „-ism” is better left alone) but as I like Foucault’s and Schmidt’s (Hopefully, I wrote his surname correctly – I’ve read him only in my own native Latvian, he’s an influental modern German ethicist, writing about the „art of living” and I’ve no idea how his surname is properly spelled in German) philosophy, whichare compatible and in a way expands and grows upon the Stoa, this compatibility problem is important to me, so that I could understand how to live my life better. There are seemingly only two options here: I’ve either chosen the Stoa on my own, or I chose it because it was somehow pre-determined by some circumstances, without an act of my volition – but can we call that „choice” then? But by choosing to live by Stoa philosophy, I’m accepting some determinism in my life, so, paraphrasing the previous statement to make it clearer:  one can see that I’ve chosen some degree of determinism by my own volition or that I’ve been determined to choose some degree of determinism.

I’d rather let this stay unfinished here. I had written some further ideas, but it’s 01.24 and I’m not sure whether or not those ideas make any sense. Hopefully, by the next time I write something here, I’ll have some answers. Thanks to everyone who actually read through this, quite possibly, most truthful thing I’ve written. Oh, and plese: don’t judge me, I’m just a philosophy student who sometimes can’t sleep at night.

Also, here’s a picture of Spiderman fighting Vash the Stampede for you.

One of them is a post-structuralist, the other one's a cultural theorist.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a picture of Serene. (Yeah, the one I used to make my top picture, because a girl wielding a Barrett M107a is awesome!)

And this is my beloved girlfriend Elīna. Quite the charmer, isn’t she?

So, I have a girl, an image of my liking and…i’m a wargamer. So, I bought this neat Rin Farrah from sodapop miniatures:

And asked a friend of mine (well, a girlfriend of a friend of mine, but she’s awesome – check out how she sometimes paints stuff over here: http://antipaint.tumblr.com/ ) to paint this model so that I could field her. ^_^’ (as a Vindicare. Mmm….sexy) Oh, yeah, but the paint scheme is basically this:

Except the hair should be blonde, and, you know, she still should look like my GF. That, and…yeah, I hope I’ll be able to publish my top10 or part3 of Madame Kurz sometime soon.

For one, I like it here. Truly, I do. I’d be glad to see Latvia as a better place to live in, and I’m doing what’s in my powers to actually do something so that it could really happen. I’m politically active, and I believe that, one day, maybe, this country which happens to be my home will be a nice place to live. Unfortunately, I can’t see that happening right now. Because we blame everyone, and don’t do anything ourselves. And we make fun of those who do. But otherwise, Latvians are awesome, and Latvia is actually a pretty nice place. T There, I’ve said it. Now, wait for tomorrow, and let’s worship these potatoes together.

All hail the potato bag!

10.  Math is power! 

Tovarisch Stalin Approves!

“But Torq”, you might ask, “you’re a philosophy student, and you also play games. Now, what is this heresy?” It’s very simple actually. Grab a random gamer and ask why, for instance, a Dark Eldar Kabalite Warrior is a much better troops choice than Slaanesh Chaos Space Marine in WH40K? Or, why Lightning Bolt is a much better M:TG card than Volcanic Hammer. Or, why you should use Laser Rifles over much stronger Plasma Rifles in X-Com? The answer is basically the same: They are much more cost effective. You get a bigger bang for your buck, thus owning the n00b and being competitive in the tournament scene. And, as every part of gaming is [sarcasm]serious business [/sarcasm] and if you do want to get that first place of whatever, because whatever, you start to calculate these things. You learn to manage and optimize your resources. And to calculate your chances. Woe betide the wargamer who doesn’t use statistics to his advantage. For 16 points, he gets a marine with a 43% chance to kill a Guardsman in a single shot. For 5 points per piece, I get a dude with a 5% chance of killing the said marine. But hey, I get 3 shots! And he only has a chance to kill 33% of his points per shot…besides, my guys get better, when their chances are calculated when evening the shots out against a different opponent, say Eldar. …and so it goes. In everything. All the time. If I wouldn’t be a gamer, I’m sure, I’d be a much less responsible person now, concerning money and expenses. But then again, I wouldn’t spend the said money on my plastic cocaine, so go figure. (Mmmm….plastic cocaine.)

9. Losing is FUN!

I've played dwarf fortress, and this is NOTHING in comparison...

Let’s face it, we’re goddamn masochists; “You WILL lose!” is a good thing to hear in a game review for our wicked minds, and when we hear phrases like that, something smiles within us, contemplating all the nice hardcore enjoyment we shall receive by getting smashed to pieces by that unfair Crysallid in the terror mission or those cheating Germans with their tanks, or those damn Space Wolves with their Longfangs, or my IG with my bassie, or Dwarf Fortress with…well, in this game, unfair EVERYTHING. Because losing is FUN! Actually, most fun comes from not losing anymore, but…until then, you torture yourself by doing things again. And again. And again. Rage ensues, and you die again. Then, there are those games who make you think that you’ve gotten better, but then – you die. Ad nauseam. And then…you stop dying. Or don’t. Because it’s….FUN! And do you think that a person who’s completed Terror from the Deep on Veteran difficulty level will stop being awesome when such puny things such as getting his skull broken and hearing nerve damaged and nearly dying from this and then lying in the hospital for two weeks and having to write graduation exams just the day he got out of the said hospital? F**K NO! Because LOSING IS FUN! Really, gamers can endure anything you toss at them. And then some.

8. Luck is what you make of it.

Nothing can roll so much 1's than the guys who need 2 or more to survive.

Some of you might think that this should be combined with the previous part. But no. Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. BIG NO. You lose, when the game is cheating. When you’re doing something wrong. When the opponent is cheating, but no. This time, you made your army roster perfectly. Your deck is ideal. Your strategy – impossible to defend against. Your character – minmaxed to impossibility. And then, you roll a 1. Nine times in a row. And the person who’s obviously weaker, manages to win. That’s…just…NOT…fair anymore. But, as Wizards of the Coast spokesperson Mark Gottlieb once wrote in his House of Cards column: “There are games you cannot lose, there are games you cannot win, and those which can go either way, depending on the way you play. Once you learn to differ between them, you start to understand which are the ones you should care about.” And so we do. Luck…is just that. Luck. And there is no sense of complaining about it. And that’s what games taught me: Maximize what you can, even if you cannot win. Because doing everything to win is much more effective in the long term than winning in any given game. Including life.

7.  Style is important.

Two cars, two girls. If i have to explain further, then you are an idiot.

Victorian era? Awesome! Stylish mafia clothing? EPIC! Pirates? Yarr! Space knights with psypowers mixed with gigant robots of doom and destruction? ZOMGWIN! People like cool things. And beautiful things. Why do you think Global Agenda guys buy dyes for their equipment and why Warhammer guys paint their miniatures like maniacs. (Except me, I suck at painting.) And why did i enjoy the latest Alice game so much? Gaming, in a very weird way, has raised my aesthetical standards…and, although, I can’t speak about all the guys out there, it’s a weird stereotype that we’re fat, ugly people who dwell at basements and don’t take care of ourselves. What, I just spent two hours getting that awesome looking armor, what do you think, that I won’t wear my suit and a fedora hat, trying to look as fancy as I possibly can? Why, you are mistaken, good Sir! Yes, there is a reason why all the wargamers in my store use this form of adressing their opponents. Because good sirs we are. And we like to be such. Why? Because why the hell not? Pretty is cool. P.S. Thought it  would be bad, not to give some credit here. All the legal rights of the photo on the right belong to my coursemate, Zane Lodiņa, from whose frype profile it was blatantly stolen. But hey, any publicity is good, right?

6. Taking yourself too seriously is a bad thing.

And when I decided to go to the store, I had a nice evening with Cthulhu and Pinhead. Nice fellows, those two.

Actually, everything’s funny. As I’ve got told in my psychoanalysis lecture: In those societies where you can’t laugh about something, you, most likely, can’t cry about something as well. Basically, if something is so sacred as to not be made fun of, then don’t expect that you’ll be able to complain it about that as well. Hey, I’m a christian, and I love that Cyborg-Ninja-Zombie Jesus idea. It’s fun. And so is gaming. Whether you’re Abbaddon, destroyer of worlds or Vault Dweller, Messiah of the Wastes or whatever, really…those games who forget that they are just games and are there for a) art and  b) entertainment and try to be ultra-uuber serious just get annoying. Deus Ex, for example. It was a serious game, with a deep storyline and a huge moral value, talking about political responsibility and values of democracy, quite possibly like no commercially produced computer game before. And it didn’t even take itself serious – it had easter eggs, dark humour and everything a man needs to get a couple of hours of a good entertainment. And why should we be any different? We’re gaming, we’re gamers, in a way, we complete the game itself – for it is only completed, if there’s anybody playing it. So why bother. I am not a clever man. I’m a funny person with a lot of socially unacceptable quirks. Also, ducks. Ducks are fun too.

5. There will be bugs.

Unfortunately, this isn't a bug.

The first time in my life when I’ll see a game which, upon release, isn’t haunted by ridiculous bugs, I’ll shave my head and buy all my readers a box of their favorite beer. The first time when I’ll see something which isn’t riddled with incompetence, laziness and idiocy, I’ll accidentally myself, because es no posible, es ist nicht möglich, non est possibile, это невозможно and It’s not possible in any other language imaginable. But gamers are prepared for this. Because something will always lag (loading times…and frame rate) and sometimes, NO GODDAMN PC on the world will be able to run the game smoothly. (Civ V before the patches. Even Alienware PC’s were lagging on large maps in lategame.) Therefore…well, who am I to remind you that the real life has no beta-test.

4. Teamwork is essential.

I play a Demoman. I'm a black scottish cyclops, and nobody loves me.

There are those times in the Free-For-All servers when you just kill everyone. There are the honourable duels in any game, when skill is all that matters. And there are those days when someone must play the healer. When you’re on a domination map, and you win by points, and not by an individual frag count. When your tank is failing, and you yell at him, because your DPS mage is being whacked. And then…you play an engineer in Team Fortress 2. See, it’s TEAM fortress. And when you’re in a Team, everything changes. If you’re a good player, you will be respected, and, in spite of the traditional syndrome of everyone on your team (whatever you do – not limited to, but including, gaming) being a clumsy failbag and not doing their job well, you will try to do as much as you can to make sure you support your team members and are, like in the picture above, a credit to the team. This leads to me, not understanding the people for whom it’s hard to cooperate with someone else when doing something. Because it’s just natural. Like…YOU’RE THE TANK! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU NOT THE ONE, ABSORBING ALL THE DAMAGE FROM THE DRAGON! BAH!

3. Being good gives you more experience points

But don't forget: Good is not nice.

Everyone who’s played a RPG game know that the evil choices give you more monetary rewards and immediate gains, but the good choices give you more XP. Somehow, it’s built in all of them. Hell, it’s so important that even the 6th HoMM will have a morale system – blood and tears they call it. (As if making someone cry wasn’t bad. Go figure.) The bad part is, you can get the gear in other ways than quest rewards, such as…stealing it? (Fallout 1 & 2 didn’t carry any penalties for stealing…so…yeah, you did all the good quests, but stole everything. Which…wasn’t evil, for some reason.) Anyhow, as XP has always been more important than gear, in my eyes, at least, the fact that I am a gamer taught me that being good is beneficial to all, in the long term. And gives you experience. Which is more valuable than anything you can by for puny zorkmids.

2. Sanity is for the weak.

Picture is unrelated

What is this heresy? Orange muffins of doom? Why, yes, rabbit of total carnage, I accept your demands, and will trade this world domination for your fluffy loaded dice! In short – RULE OF COOL! Also…if i can will it, it must be true! Games are fun, because they’re abstract. Because they are more interesting than real life. Because they don’t care about the sanity, and you, basically, just click buttons for three hours, because the flickering images on your monitor made you so. And…the point is? Is there a goal? Why, in games there is! We spend hours, upon hours upon hours doing seemingly pointless things, to achieve seemingly pointless goals. And we do things which seem like hard work and make our achievements in gaming mean something. Because it does. Games force us to think outside of the box. Games force us to think…different. (Better than nike commercials) – and now and then, the truly indie ones actually take the matter deeper, and actually make weird things happen to our minds…but that’s ok….after i finished fallout three, i spent a night, reading german grammatics and writing my top10 relationship things. Because. Oh, wait…that brings me to number one. Thank you for the tea, rabbit. Your box is in that corner, thank you.

1. Because f**k you!

Truth. In a neat packaging.

We play games, because they are fun. In games, you can do whatever. You have the power of whatever. And it’s fun. It’s much better than the routine. But sitting and rolling dice and/or sitting next to a PC is dumb. So, I spent a night in front of my university, camping in line to get the #1 number. It doesn’t matter, except pointless bragging rights and high-score in life. Which is pointless to “serious” people. But hell, that was fun. I spoke with tourists, with the police…awesome. Also, I’ve lived together for two weeks in an apartment with 30 metalheads, who, at one point, decided to just go out in the streets and punch the hell out of douchebags. And so we did. Also, I’ve hitchhiked in the middle of the night from one side of my country to the other. And driven with drunk drivers. I’ve spoken, together with my friends, at about 2am in the night, in the center of the old Riga with an old, drunk Latvian language teacher about life. Have saved the life of a crazed bum, and then he called me “the savior of the world” – and spend a night in an abandoned hospital. My life has, probably, been shitty. Yet…it IS FUN! Because I make it so. Games inspired me. And so should you. And you know why?

Because the sky is blue, motherfuckers!