A long awaited FFVII sequel

Bought a certain portable device with the help of my fellow blogger recently and have been spending quite some time these past weeks just trying to find media to fill up the devices 30Gb of space...sigh, only managed 3Gb so far..a long way to go. Of most recent was the animation Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Its amazing how Square-Enix can produce such a masterpiece ...at least for me. It was available here a couple of months back but I can't help but to watch it again and again... yes I am a freak...a Final Fantasy Freak.
Tetsuya Nomura and Takashi Nozue really did a superb job as directors and the Final Fantasy series music composer, Nobuo Uematsu, has never failed to produce excellent scores to accompany the movies theme. In my opinion, though the previous movie from Square, FF The Spirits Within was superb graphically, it was a tad weak on storyline as it was too dragging. But this current offering surpassed not only The Spirits Within in every aspect but it also outdoes what I thought Advent Children would turn out to be and I'm sure die-hard fans couldn't agree more. Though the movie is excellent, I would not recommend it for those who have not played the original game Final Fantasy VII as they could not appreciate the movie as much as one who has played through the original game. Seen above is Tifa Lockheart, the female lead and a fav of mine, and below her kicking some ass..literally.
P/S: Images like these make me sometimes think of trying out CG programming....sigh..too late..
Need to know more?? Visit the official site.

Semantics of Hypocrisy

I am tired of people accusing others of hypocrisy. I see it everywhere I go and it makes me wonder to people actually semantically digest and comprehend its meaning before simply using it as a form of accusation?? I wonder indeed..Below is a direct quote from Websters dictionary for the term ‘hypocrite’

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WEBSTER'S NEW UNIVERSAL UNABRIDGED DICTIONARY
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hypocrite:

1. a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, esp. a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.
2. a person who feigns some desirable or publicly approved attitude, esp. one whose private life, opinions, or statements belie his or her public statements.

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There is a lot of articles out there in the web, and from what is understood and what I would like to think, a hypocrite is someone who publicly applies (or tries to) a certain standard he has set upon himself but fails to meet this standard AND DENIES or HIDES the fact that he has. Many people sadly throw accusations based solely on a person’s FAILURE to apply that certain standard to which he has set for himself, however my feeling is that all the above constituents need to come into play before the accusation is made. However, the semantics of hypocrisy can be argued days on end as what has been defined above is termed as an honest hypocrite in other views. But let us ponder on the following:

'L'hypocrisie est un hommage que le vice rend a la vertu..'(Hypocrisy is an homage that vice renders to virtue)
~François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld, Maximes, 1678

I mean even in debates, if one side lays this accusation the other really becomes defensive about it. People get hurt by such accusations. Its because we all have our egos that we treat it is as a major malevolance.

'Because hypocrisy stinks in the nostrils one is likely to rate it as a more powerful agent for destruction than it is.'
~Rebecca West, The Strange Necessity, 1928

In any case, peace out people. I leave you with a quote from an article titled 'The Self and Lazy Charge of Hypocrisy' by Thomas M. Siphos:

“Hypocrasy is not nice. But it is not genocide, murder, or rape. Nor even turnstile jumping. On a scale of evils, it's a petty offense. Most everyone commits hypocrisy at one time or another, just as most everyone speeds on a highway. Speeding endangers more lives, yet hypocrisy upsets more people. Go figure”

Cognitive Dissonance

[Adaptation of my other blog..heh..]

We humans are a complex lot. And the majority of us are only using slightly less than 10% of our brain, and these are the smartest amongst us. Which makes me wonder at the human capacity to rationalize things, form opinions and make decisions. These factors influence our daily lives. As perfect as we want to be, we are still human and hence are not immune to flaws. This leads me to a state where some of us seem to fall into: cognitive dissonance.

In reference to the wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org), cognitive dissonance is a condition first proposed by the psychologist Leon Festinger in 1956, relating to his hypothesis of cognitive consistency.It is basically a state of opposition between cognitions. For the purpose of cognitive consistency theory, cognitions are defined as being an attitude, emotion, belief or value, or even a mixture of these. In brief, the theory of cognitive dissonance holds that contradicting cognitions serve as a driving force that compels the human mind to acquire or invent new thoughts or beliefs, or to modify existing beliefs, so as to minimize the amount of dissonance (conflict) between cognitions.

The main criticism of the cognitive consistency hypothesis is that it is impossible to verify or falsify by experiment. Even so, experiments have been attempted to quantify this hypothetical drive. Opponents of this hypothesis contend that relations between cognitions can be irrelevant or not present, and cite the apparent ability of many human beings to reconcile mutually exclusive or contradictory beliefs with no apparent stress.

Conflicting cognitions: cognitive dissonance
Once two cognitions are held and there is a conflict between them, one falls into a state of cognitive dissonance, an imbalance between cognitions and a psychological state which needs to seek consonance between the two cognitions.

Festinger further proposes that cognitive dissonance is a "negative drive state", a similar psychological tension to hunger and thirst and that people will seek to resolve this tension.
Reduction of cognitive dissonance, Festinger believed, is good because one feels better, and because one can come closer to consonance by eliminating contradictions. On the other hand some of the ways of reduction of cognitive dissonance involve a distortion of the truth, which may cause wrong decisions. The harder way of changing favourable cognitions may in the longer run be better.
When confronted with two belief cognitions that contradict each other, Festinger suggests the dissonance can be resolved by finding and adding a third piece of information relevant to the two beliefs.
[Adapted from en.wikipedia.org]

Why am I explaining all this I wonder? Just hoping that people in general would stop making pre-judgements about other people based solely on their own personal experience. It leads us to make procrustean judgements about other people.In case you are wondering, being procrustean involves imposing stern and inflexible conformity to a preconceived theory or system, in this case based on one's own personal experience.This term originated from the mythical legend of Procrustes who was reputed to tie his victims to an iron bed and then stretch them or cut off their legs to make them fit the bed.

In anycase, I just wish people would try to get to know and understand each other before making false accusations and judgements about each other. We each deserve a clean slate. Sometimes whatever we do that is in the best of intentions are always interpreted as our worst because of peoples procrustean tendencies.

I shall not bore whoever that reads this far into this blog any longer. We shall await my other views on hypocrisy in the next post. Till then wait it anticipation....muahaha...NOT!!

Ferry Corsten, KL: The Second Coming

It has been a long time since I have been clubbing. Don't see the need to. Last Sat, John Digweed was down in Zouk KL. Heard from a friend that the set was wicked but even that was not enough of a motivation for me to get my ass down to KL. Plus was really feelin' tired. But on Friday the 23rd of December the trance-meister, Ferry Corsten will be down again (he was here in May 2004). Some might recognize him as System F from a couple of years back. I missed his session last year and will make it a point to be there this year. Check out his other tour dates for those interested. And his new track 'Fire' is already out while the LP 'Star Traveller' will be released 21st November this year (not that it will be readily avalailable here in KL and not that I have a readily available turntable ...sigh)

P/S: Just found a wicked track on itunes, Carte Blanche by Veracocha (actually its old as I heard it back in 2000) but whats interesting to some is that Veracocha is an alias of a collaboration between Ferry and Vincent de Moor. The other good result of a collaboration was with DJ Tiesto back at the turn of the Century: Gouryella - Walhalla.

The need to achieve

Hmmmm... Any volunteers for expendable labor?? Anyone?? Sigh..guess I'm back to the drawing board...

Post Eid

First day at work after Eid Mubarak break and can’t really say I had enough of a break. Such a hot day at that, the centralised air-conditioning system is apparently not “working” …yet. There are only 3 persons who handle building-maintenance and working on 12 buildings in this so-called technology park…..and they’re still on holiday!! Bastages man…So now after trying to ‘warm-up’ my brain from inactivity during the hols, I think it went straight to being ‘overheated’…

Anyway, just wanted to wish all the muslims out there a happy belated Eid Mubarak. Hope it was eventful and meaningful. This year for me it had been a low-key affair: no going all out eating after a month’s worth of fasting, not really visiting every single person I know .. just the grandparents up north. Guess this year it was more spiritual for me. Just thank god that I’m still alive and well-off compared to the millions and trillions and gazillions of poor souls out there .. despite the fact that 1/3 of my life is gone and I have yet to achieve something significant (to me).

On a side note Seb Fontaine came down to KL last Sat. A friend called me to go but I was too busy (visiting and entertaining at the kampung) and too tired to (flight back arrived hours before the event). Maybe I am getting old for all this. Used to go raving heaps when I was in Uni..or maybe it does not interest me that much anymore..oh well…

“The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have his own way”

- Josh Billings

The Imminent Festivities

Sigh... Monday blues indeed...
I was really looking forward to being on leave the whole of this week but alas last minute call for a meeting meant I had to cancel the leave less it will be wasted to just come to the office for a couple of hours. Everywhere else, all my friends, had one week COMPULSORY leave. All for the festivities of Deepavali and Eid Mubarak. Just had the meeting and it was nothing much..what an unproductive day. Network even shut-down in protest..we must be really overworking the servers. Either that or the whole of TMNET's Streamyx along with their servers are on holiday.

So here I am on a Monday lunch hour with so much free time to spare. Feelin really lazy to be productive on a day I am supposed to be on leave. In any case, just kinda hate it when people complain about things (myself included). I mean people complain about the workload that they currently have but not realize that almost everyone else is on the same boat if not worst. I once heard someone giving an advice: if you think you are poor, there is a whole world that are poorer than you and if you think you are rich, there is a whole world that are richer than you..same goes with work, life, love, your fat cat.... ok ok, no relation to that last point.

Oh well...was forwarded this mail couple of months back (no doubt pretty old and has been circulated for quite a bit) and thought of including the contents in this post as something to ponder about..

Cup or Water?

A group of working adults got together to visit their University lecturer.
The Lecturer was happy to see them. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

The Lecturer just smiled and went to the kitchen to get an assortment of cups - some porcelain, some in plastic, some in glass, some plain looking and some looked rather expensive and exquisite.

The Lecturer offered his former students the cups to get drinks for themselves.

When all the students had a cup in hand with water, the Lecturer spoke: "If you noticed, all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal that you only want the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all you wanted was water, not the cup, but we unconsciously went for the better cups."

"Just like in life, if Life is Water, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold/maintain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change."

"If we ONLY concentrate on the cup, we won't have time to enjoy the water in it."

Cherating Retreat

We had a company retreat to cherating last month. Well, woiuld not actually call it a retreat per say as it was a team-building event. Yeah, right.. team-building indeed. In anycase we all had a memorable trip.

One thing most of us did there was to take lots of pictures. The one here was that of an east coast sunrise. We all had problems getting a good picture as all 2 mornings that we were there was cloudy. Nonetheless, the pictures taken here was relatively decent in my opinion considering it was taken with a Sony Erricson k750i mobile phone. Though better pictures were taken with a colleague's camera: the Canon EOS digital rebel.

Antipodal point

Have you ever been in a position in life where you are at the 'antipodes' (what I like to call it) of where you want to be? An antipodal point by definition is a point that is on the opposite side of a celestial body (eg. earth, venus..whatever) from a given particular point. Sometimes it feels that way for me, and thing is that whenever you try and head for that antipodal point.. it shifts relative to where you are..like a dog chasing its tail...quite pointless really.

Some words of wisdom that I read somewhere before I end this blog..
"To know others is wisdom, to know self is enlightenment; mastering others requires force, mastering self requires strength" - Anonymous Martial Arts proverb

Till I rant again...