Thursday, March 13, 2014

High School is Dramatic

I am pretty horrible about posting these days. I've just been horribly busy with this nonsense called high school, which is an mix of the biggest-waste-of-time, the mildly-entertaining-but-really-stupid, and the actual-learning-experience. I feel like since I've become a second semester senior the only thing I'm motivated to do is pass.

Dance is also keeping me busy, but part of me doesn't enjoy it as much as I used to. I know taking a break from it isn't necessarily the answer- and I'm totally tied up until after the show. Choreography is exhausting and teaching is less rewarding than everyone makes it out to be. Hopefully at the end of the day everything will look lovely, but until then, it drags.

It's prom season again, the third one for me, and the last. It's fun to listen to who is going to ask who, how, when, where... etc. I'm pretty certain I'm going, and I have an idea for who may ask me as a friend. Not certain about after-prom, since I'm underage and really do not know anyone in my grade. Maybe a movie after prom would be fun. It's not a necessity to get wasted on prom night, after all.   We'll see how that works out. Buying a dress is going to be fun, especially since I plan on going with friends again this year. I've never worn a red dress... hmm!

Sitting around in the library waiting for my rehearsal to start, something occurred to me. High school is an extremely artificial environment, and attending high school in Singapore is a little like existing in a bubble in an aquarium. The things I care about now I know I won't be caring about in the future. I'm tired now, but I know I will be more tired later as a proper adult. Maybe this is what all those fancy psychologists are talking about when they say, "delayed adulthood and extended adolescence". I honestly have no idea why people enjoy being high schoolers, except that everything is basically taken care of. I can only fall so far or rise so high, after all. Everything stays suspended in the air, hanging, waiting to drop.

Also, why the heck don't students here use this library? It's massive, beautiful, and has loads of books. It's right depressing to be from the first generation that really does not read. As we lose the beauty of literature in favour of Buzzfeed and Twitter, we lose a complexity of thought. I hope there are always English majors, even if they can't get jobs, because at least they will know how valuable it is to expand one's mind and read.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Gamer Girl?

I've recently gotten a lot more into video games, and I partially blame Interim for introducing me to nerdy gamer friends. One friend plays Magic the Gathering, while another got us both into playing Hearthstone and DOTA (well, me, DOTA). I played Diablo III a lot two summers ago, and even though I'm rusty, I did not suck at the game. I actually played a Wizard and a Monk, and anyone who's interested can ask me about my build and why I chose it. I did not chose the wizard because she was pretty- I picked her because she was super cool. Yes, I started playing because my boyfriend talked me into it, but I also played independently enough to say that I was not playing solely for him. 

Magic the Gathering is fun because the game is very customisable. You can basically play any way you would like, and there are so many cards that you can always improve. However, it's a really expensive hobby since Booster Packs are $4 each and you end up buying a lot of them. Both my MTG friend and I are missing land cards, which is basically how you get the power to play anything. Sort of like wanting to bake a cake, but not having enough flour. It's possible to play, but it can be really miserable. 

I'm just getting into DOTA, and am not sure if I like it yet. The learning curve is horrible and the game is very time consuming. However, it is also a lot of fun because there are so many different ways to play. We'll see. 

Here's the thing about being a girl gamer, which I sort of consider myself to be. If no one knows you are a girl, you're fine. People won't judge you, or laugh at every mistake you make. Rather, they just call you a newbie, chuckle, and move on. However, if you declare that you are female, or it comes up, suddenly every mistake is because you are female. Every victory was somehow easier because the game is nerfed for girls or something, and guys online do not hesitate to assume that you are ugly. Not really sure why this is, but it's annoying. Everyone has internet names that they use to identify themselves. I've changed mine from very feminine to slightly-less-feminine, not because I dislike the name I was using, but because I don't want to have to deal with people knowing my gender up front. This is just silly.  

I'm honestly the only girl I know who plays MTG and Hearthstone. I do know at least one other girl who tried Diablo III just because it was so popular, but that's cool. However, I haven't tried  DOTA enough to say that I play it, so I'm not sure about the gender specs over there. 

It's weird how every now and then, women are reminded that we are supposed to be the fairer sex. We aren't supposed to do male things like play video games, and we get heckled for it when we violate the "dude zone". Boys, grow up please! Women have every right to play what you all play, because they want to!

Sunday, March 2, 2014

People Are Rude

 I thought it was one of the most basic rules of social conduct. You do not speak of a party/event unless you know for a fact that everyone you are taking to is attending said event. That's why you don't let children give out birthday party invitations at school, since they are probably not giving invites to everyone. This is the second time this has happened with the same group of people in a relatively short time frame, and it's getting annoying. Did none of their parents ever bother to teach them this rule, or do they just not abide by it? I do not know either way, but people, please sort out your behaviour!

Apparently after-grad has been planned already, and people are already putting down deposits to go. I thought the concept of after-grad was that the whole class goes and parties for one last night together. This perception was wrong, because I only just heard about the event. Maybe it's only for people who party regularly? In which case, I do not understand why so many underclassmen are able to attend.