Merkavah - Drive the Lord's SUV!

Just wrote this for a role-play thing. My nation is The Utopian Militarized State of TigerStaat, if you're one of the many involved in NationStates. Understand that this is a state-owned radio station. =) Hehe. It was fun to write, now back to work.

____

TS3NR: (Radioshow transcription, broadcasted live 2 minutes ago)
Today marks perhaps the most significant change in the political spectrum of TigerStaat since the end of the Feudal age. Just three hours ago, opposition leader Yamar Kuznetsyn was shot three times in the chest as he exited a press conference from which he announced the amalgamation of the right-winged parties into one opposition Conservative party. While he lies in critical condition at the Panthera city hospital, the more shocking news came after this would be assassination. An emergency council meeting was called by opposition vice-chair Anya Mezovka, which ended violently just minutes ago. As the council ended, its results still unknown to the public, the entire opposition party was annihilated by a terrorist act of immense proportions. A vehicle, described by witnesses as a blue tractor-trailer, ripped open at the sides and onlookers could only be terrified by a gattling gun opening fire on the line of vehicles leaving the building.

There were no reported survivors, as the occupants of the vehicle are reported to have gone from vehicle to vehicle after they had all been destroyed and pumped round after round from combat shotguns into each vehicle. The citizens were not slow to react, however, and the citizen army was able to kill three of the terrorists before they themselves detonated a charge and blew up the tractor-trailer.

Prime Minister Heinrich Todman expressed shock and amazement that such violence could carry on inside of the borders of TigerStaat, and pledges for revenge upon any who claim responsibility for these actions. However, his attentions are quite possibly turned outside of the borders of TigerStaat today, as violence rises both in the JSI Wargames and in FalconWORKS itself.

The city of IncIncCorp, a sprawling coastal city of 20 million, simultaneously had every man, woman and child go from their signature FalconWORKS pragmatism to absolute utter chaos yesterday as the entire city rose up in arms and assaulted the every building of significance in the city, including the embassy of The Republic of Qwghylm. The embassy, a large building comprised of 40 human beings as regular staff, 50 robots, and with several visiting guests and dignitaries, including a high-ranking salesman of Qwghylm's signature robotic dogs, were trapped, calling for aid which did not come for a full 24 hours. Only when TigerStaat's National Security department put a call 24 hours and 34 minutes later exactly after the simultaneous breakdown of IncIncCorp's citizenry to the Qwghylm High Command were those men, women, and robots rescued by Qwghylm forces, who, finding no other alternative, occupied the entire city and subdued the citizenry. Casualties are said to be in the thousands, though impressively the Qwgyhlm forces have managed to detain and house-arrest most of the other citizens of IncIncCorp, many whom do not have any recollection their motives and desires of the past 24 hours. Many citizens complain of a sense of weird mechanism of the Qwgyhlm military machine, but are likely simply confused by their sudden collective loss of reason.

Also in foreign news, the JSI Wargames, which have been going on as a sign of peace and harmony within Tartarus VI for over a year, shocked the world today as live ammunitions were used in a competitive exercise, as several Kraken air superiority fighters destroyed an armoured TigerStaat squad consisting of UBAS (Urban Battlefield Armoured Suit) units and Simba main battle tanks. 60 TigerStaat soldiers were killed before the exercise was halted by JSI overseers, but not before a neighbouring UBAS detachment took retaliation, destroying a FalconWORKS airfield, killing approximately 40 people and destroying 30 Kraken fighters and several ground-based units with no losses. Though the incident is now under investigation by JSI officials, both TigerStaat and The Republic of Qwghylm, whom TigerStaat has an ongoing soldier exchange-program with, are withdrawing their forces from the Malazor Island Chain. The TigerStaat officer in charge of operations at the wargames, Army Chief Of Staff Niobe Chandra, is quoted as saying, "The forces at Malazor are being reassigned to national defense. The happenings both yesterday at IncIncCorp and today here at Malazor have raised questions about a possible insurgency of some sort rising within the FalconWORKS command chain, some sort of weird corporate takeover... perhaps, or an agressive move by an exterior nation. We have no choice but to reprioritize our troops."

The Prime Minister is expected to release a statement, but strangely enough, there have been no reports issued by the FalconWORKS government on this issue. It is now that...

*crash*

What the... is that the FalconWORKS embassy offic...

FW EMBASSY OFFICIAL: What the hell is going on? I'm not getting any news from the inside! TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN FALCONWORKS!

Host: Calm down man.. ca... put down the gun...

FW EMBASSY OFFICIAL: NO! Tell me what the hell is going on inside my own country!

Host: Look man, calm down. This is radio, man... not Intelligence. I can give you the address of Parliament... if you want.

FW EMBASSY OFFICIAL: NO! FUCK YOU AND YOUR PROPAGANDA! D...

*gunshots*

Host: I'm sorry folks... but this has been a TigerStaat National News Network Radio broadcast cut short... I believe I have a duty to the citizen's army to follow. This is a public service announcement... every man and woman enlisted in the citizens army or reserves are required to report to their officers as soon as possible. This broadcast will now loop.

Posted by Johann Kwan at 09:58 PM | Permalink

I drew a thing. This is to hail the rebirth of a set of comic characters my friend Richie and I made for a comic back in 7th or 8th grade.

Self-explanatory, I think. The strip in question is here. Still looking for people to go to Bonnaroo with... let me know!

Posted by Johann Kwan at 04:29 PM | Permalink

Kelly managed to convince me that I need to go to the Bonnaroo Music And Arts Festival this year in June. If anyone in the Toronto, Ottawa, or New York Capital Region wants to go with, let me know. Drivers are preferable. Go check out their line-up, it's fucking amazing. You know you waaaaant to.

ROAD TRIP!

Posted by Johann Kwan at 04:02 PM | Permalink

Sleep is irrelevant. I feel like a king.

Stayed up all of last night, another night of awesome. Started with a discussion about life philosophies with Janet, an impromptu emo-club, really... and then an interlude of fun and entertainment with Dave... and then back to life philosophies with Janet, until she dozed off in a lull of conversation just minutes ago.

I really like Dave... he's a good guy. He's funny, and always good for a laugh. Nothing about that can really be disliked, I suppose.

Been focusing my thoughts as of late and thinking my way through texts and life in general. It's all so beautiful, really... I went out to see the sunrise with Janet and Dave this morning, and I don't think I've ever in my life felt better than I have in the last few days (weeks?). They've just been... great.

I don't regret signing up for Humanities... it is quite possibly the best thing I have ever done for myself. I came to learn about myself and to perhaps start off a road to a better state of being...

I've been here the better part of the year... barely a quarter of the Humanities program has passed for me. Maybe I don't get all my work done... maybe I spend more time navel-gazing than anything else... and I certainly haven't reached an enlightenment... but that is not to say that I haven't learned anything. On the contrary... I think I have learned far more than I ever expected to learn.

In reflection, I suppose the most important idea in everything I've learned could easily be said by Yoda's beautiful green puppet visage.

"Do, or do not. There is no try."

What is it about the human brain that immediately dismisses "do not"? The message is simple. Nothing is accomplished trying... you must do, or you do not do. To try is to think about it constantly, to have it worry your mind...

The part that takes positive action is instantly grasped by Luke Skywalker. What about "do not"?

It's inherent in many great philosophies to "not to do". It's a beautiful thing, because I can tell you now that it simply works, when the occasion permits it. The only reason that it may sometime fail is that social concerns do not allow for it.

To simply not do something and let nature run its course is beautiful. To not concern your mind with the thing you have not done... is to not realize you have not done something in the first place.

This week has brought plenty good for me. It is not enough, of course, to simply "not do"... though there may be a way around social constructs, I have simply not discovered it. However, to decide between doing and not doing is simple nature, so long as you are not trying.

I certainly tried on some things, because I thought what I was already doing (by allowing myself to do, and not do, as I so chose) was either not enough or not right. And those are perhaps the only times that I have screwed up, in retrospect. Not because they were the wrong things in the first place... but because I put the time into thinking too much about something that could easily have been dictated by nature.

By simply continuing to not do some things, they would, while at appearances, not have worked out, I would not have concerned over them... and simply there would have been another course of action I would have been able to take. And by continuing to do some things, I would've accomplished them rather than doubting myself, my capabilities, and my intuition.

A simple example of this (while not the best, I tired and I'm running with the first thing that comes to mind... I will re-write this into a Star Wars related example when I'm less tired out) would be a set of questions on an exam, even if I think I'm going to fail. If I simply do them, they are complete, pass or fail. If I 'try' to do them, because I think I'm going to fail, I only let fear override me, and I'm screwed, taking up time from the rest of the exam.

On the other hand... if I simply do not do them, that is... do something else... there is no remorse for the questions I were bound to fail, and my grades would have been further allocated elsewhere in the exam, balancing everything all out. If I 'try' not to do them... then I am taking the time and wasting it, rather than just passing over them.

It's a difficult concept to explain, but I've done my best. And I'll be damned if I've got it all right... but it's somewhere. And damn, I've had a hell of a week. Nothing has gone wrong, except when I've doubted myself like a fool. Now I'm going to shower and perhaps get an hour of shut-eye before I head back out to go out with Tim (or maybe not).

Addendum: Hey... everyone's gotta try an extended spell of celibacy for a while. Even if you love sex... not worrying about fucking the brains out of anyone frees up so much time to pursue other things that are actually so much more productive. And like everything... just do it. Thinking about it too much just makes you miss sex. Trust me. Though I'll be glad to be off of this vow this summer... it's taught me a lot. And give it a chance, I can only say this now after almost a year of it... and while I did miss sex sometimes, I have learned to appreciate so much more.

By the way, this is for someone out there I've been trying to talk to for some time... trying, like an idiot, of course. So I hope you know who you are... but just do it. Tell them how you feel, dammit. And don't just try. Go with it, and run with it. Do it, or forget it. Don't be a fool.

"Hey Jude, you'll do, the movement you need is on your shoulder"

Posted by Johann Kwan at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I don't know if you guys have heard of Banksy. He's an awesome graffiti artist from the other side of the great pond...

Anyway, he snuck into four museums in NYC and put his own work up among everyone else's. Caused quite the stir...

It's really good stuff... I personally like this one...

'Withus Oragainstus'.

I really admire that kind of gutsiness. And the art itself is definately not just some trash... it's really good.

Enjoy... and cheers to ya' from Canada, Banksy!

Posted by Johann Kwan at 12:15 AM | Permalink

'I feel like blogging.'
- Myself to Janet, less than a minute ago

Modest Mouse is playing right now. That makes me happy... These last two days have been musically superb.

I don't think anything in the world could bring me down right about now. It's been a good two weeks... since the Medea play (the night before St. Patty's) it's almost been a non-stop flow of awesome.

Just finished up the rest of the Bailey's with Janet, made coffee and Bailey's. Janet drinking is something quite different... =) She just gets giddy... hehe. It's fun.

A giddy Janet on the phone with Timothy, through a haze (light glare, actually) that resembles how I am currently viewing the world.

There's something to be said for waking up early in the morning to a beautiful (though a tiny bit chilly) morning for a walk along the canal with a friend... watching the Wilco I Am Trying To Break Your Heart DVD... and being completely out of it. I love little moments like that.

Completely out of booze and drugs now after the last week, except what medicinals I have left from being so completely sick with the bloody cold. It's leaving now, thankfully. Just a slightly irritating cough left.

This summer will yield good things. My vow of celibacy will expire, life will go on, and Johann will have an entire year's worth of celibate non-action to make up for. It's been educational... but it just isn't me. I'll see it through the end of the year, though. Ahh... life. =)

By request, the music has gone back to Iron & Wine. I had the oppurtunity to introduce him to Kelly last night. Superb music as of late, as I've said. The morning and night hanging with her was probably one of the highlights of the week. The whole week, however, has just been a haze of awesome.

Happy Easter everyone. Jesus died for our sins, remember...

So enjoy them while you can. *grin*

Posted by Johann Kwan at 11:16 PM | Permalink

I just drew this out of the Fall 2004 Holt Renfrew catalogue... which I found in the TV Lounge. Suprisingly quick sketch... 30-40 minutes in class.

Enjoy.

It looks better on paper, I think. Possibly cause it's too dark on the scan. Oh, and the date is wrong. I have since changed it.

Posted by Johann Kwan at 01:17 PM | Permalink

So... after dinner today, I stopped by at the Abstentions... our little in-residence convenience store, to check out what insane mags they might be carrying. Last I checked, there were several copies of Trump magazine, but they were no longer there.

A shame, really, since I actually wanted to pick up a copy and take a closer look at the life of these insanely rich buggers and their trophy wives.

While that's one side of right-winged buggery (and I was just discussing earlier with some friends at the hypocrisy of both sides of the political spectrum... how few left-wingers had any clue of what they were talking about when they talked about military strategy and hardware, and how few right-wingers knew when they talked about social policy... or even how to manage money in a non-business model)... I somehow managed to pick up a copy of the March editions of Soldier of Fortune magazine at a campus store.

Coke, Commies, and "Capitalism"?

This publication is literally insane. While I oftentimes respect the common soldier (and moreso, manytimes, the romanticised mercenaries of the cold-war era), the nature of this publication itself is to praise and perfect the act of killing, to dehumanize those that they are killing, and to give them some sort of moral high ground. Excessive amounts of moral high ground.

Which makes sense, sort of. You don't want soldiers feeling bad about what they're doing, because then they'll get shot. But when the war itself is for unjustifiable purposes... this just passes off as propaganda. And they make sordid remarks about journalists being huge sensationalists... and while that is true... true to their own nature, the Soldier of Fortune magazine is far worse.

The articles themselves are really poorly written. Not surprising, given the amount of hatred they have for journalists for never telling the happy, heroic stories... of which Soldier Of Fortune has few. Every page has the words "Support Our Troops!" emblazoned down at the bottom of the page. Some of the articles are of hero stories... but moreso... gear suggestions for returning troops. (and for the other nutjobs who buy the mag just because they think they're commandos) In a certain light, they aren't all bad. They do try the best for the troops themselves by giving them suggestions for the best gear and thereby pawning off their shit. The hero stories are poorly written, but of decent quality. One of the articles actually comes close to passing, in my eyes, un-biased journalism. Of course... the other articles are also ridiculously de-humanizing, rendering a picture of Arabs as heartless, brainless rag-heads. In a way, it also dehumanizes the American soldiers themselves, because while I am aware that a great many of them acknowledge killing in war to be a necessity, the magazine treats killing like a sport... rather like game-hunting.

"Busy Killing The Enemy: Miami's Mad Max Marines Finale" is an example of the title of an article. While it says enough on its own, I will include Caroline's opinion: "This is like, testosterone on paper."

The advertisements are ridiculous. If they're not ads for training manuals for the common civilian to become killing machines (obviously geared towards the aforementioned nutjobs), they're ads for weaponary. I can understand an ad for an ArmaLite AR-50 .338 Lapua rifle... I really can... but an ad for a 'Carbon Black Titanium CarboNitride' finished knife with the words "9/11 We Will Never Forget" across the blade? Wait... lemme think... I think this knife was made for people who've watched just a little too much Rambo. Am I wrong?

Or bullets... advertised with the tagline "The World's Premier Anti-Terrorist Rounds!" or also on the same ad... "You Shall Rise Up on the Wings of Eagles.. and the Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail Against You!"... wait... those bullets can't be used to shoot anything but terrorists? Are they... holy warrior bullets... or what? I don't get it. And the second line...

Apparently, moral high ground also involves religion. Because Christianity is just... oh so superior to those uncultured Arab pigs. And they say this isn't a religious war. There's an image in here of a soldier praying at his bed (to an American flag... no less)... I don't know how much more religious it can get.

*le sigh*

Oh, and I mention that there are still a good number of articles here about Vietnam? Wait... how long has it been, exactly?

I'm fucking tired. I'm going to take a nap. This magazine is ridiculous. While I realize it is originally a magazine for mercs, it now looks to profit off the crazy pissed off rednecks riled up by the terrorist 'threat'... guys who just want to go grab some hardware and go fucking crazy-go-nuts. Only one or two articles actually showed reverence for the common soldier... the others tried to either justify the war (and push some political bullcrap), or sell something. More of the latter, actually.

P.S. I was reminded earlier today of a statement from someone that this war was unique in that it resulted from an event which caused a huge butt-load of hatred... and that it was a war about just that... hatred. I differ in opinion, citing the US involvement against Japan post-Pearl Harbor. Just an observation.

P.P.S. My friend Mike Giacoma (who is my right-winged right-hand man, by the way) and I were discussing a specific article which extols that the gear soldiers have is sufficient (which is contrary to what the rest of the mag has been screaming... whilst trying to pitch products in their faces...) and he made a point about the article discussing armour additions to the Humvee... and how, while the article uses it as an example of how troops got what they really needed, it really just destroys the mobility of the vehicle and thus lessens the ability of the Humvee to go anywhere fast... especially when they need to be moving along before they get tagged by an RPG. To quote his quote of a 1st Armoured member: "Speed Is Life"

Posted by Johann Kwan at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Dreams last night were completely absurd... and violent. I can definately tell it's starting to get warmer up here (it's 2.2 C right now) because I covered in sweat. Yet another excuse to take hundreds of showers a day... sweet.

I do not ever suggest trying to shoot vampires with a handgun, even if they're threatening your client. They normally don't care all that much... and your dream will typically turn into a bad horror flick.

Other than that though, I did have some pretty sweet dreams about Star Wars (Hmm?) and also one about an all-ages talent show... from which the chorus from a child's song (which I obviously made up in my head) is stuck in my mind.

"Each day comin' home I'd be coming back to you/Each day comin' home I'd tell you I love you."

As far as I can tell, my mind is insane.

However, I did come up with a few good conclusions about the Star Wars franchise...

Episodes 1 and 2 (the new ones) would have been much improved had there been more focus on the political situation of the time. As the movies stand we don't have clear motivations for any side of the conflict... Why, when they had such a big fucking army, was Naboo so important to take? Why did the Republic have such a strong response?

So much is unexplained.

Though Episode 3 promises to be a good action film, I think. It really doesn't matter how they make it... we've all already been hooked in by the trailer. It's the last Star Wars movie... no matter how bad our friends say it is... no matter how many bad reviews it gets... we have to see it, simply for that fact.

Anyway, I just woke up. Later today shall bring a post about the hypocrisy inherent in heterosexual males, or something about video games.

Either or, it'll be a better post than this one. I'm really f'in hungry.

Posted by Johann Kwan at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So as usual, I'm sitting in my room, it's 2 PM, I've class in 30 minutes, and I didn't sleep at all last night. I don't know why I didn't sleep last night, I had the room to myself. Probably had something to do with the drinking and whatnot.

Probably being very likely, since I hate going to bed drunk.

So yeah... typical day. Rammstein is blasting very loudly into my ears, drowning out all the outside noise. Some people like to make out at very high decibel ranges.

Not that I wouldn't be doing the same thing, given the same situation. So it's not like I mind. I just sometimes can't hear myself think without needing some hardcore beats... or crazy German guys singing into my ears.

I've probably so many different kinds of ear problems by now. It happens.

Been doing a lot of thinking... the benefit of staying up all night every night is that it gives you a lot of time to think. A lot of time to reflect upon everything.

THis is both a blessing and a curse. Some things were just never meant to be dwelt upon. This is a lesson I should've learned years ago... but I still haven't.

Nightwish now. *sigh* I remember when Nightwish was one of those bands I couldn't get enough of. I've gotten into so many kinds of music... only the classic rock has stayed true to me since I was but a mere child. Even the different classical periods lose my interest from time to time...

I need to get the original George Winston of Walking In The Air. I think I have it at home someplace. Then I need to learn how to play it on the keyboard w/ violin accompaniment.

Or electric guitar. I like the Nightwish version... it's really kickass.

Mmmm... electric guitar and an orchestra.

There's so much that can go wrong... I know... it's nice to hear what it's like when real orchestral goth-metal is pulled off well. Mmmmm, I've missed it.

Time to get ready for class.

I feel like playing Max Payne 2. I miss the huge amounts of overdosage of that local band they have in that game... what was it... The Poets Of The Fall.

Or watching sad films. I think I'll do that after class...

Posted by Johann Kwan at 01:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

there are many things to be jealous about in this world. I'll leave you to decide which ones are your own, and which ones actually matter at all.

But for me... there are a few distinct people who I believe I have every right to be jealous of. I think most of you will agree, when you hear this one...

There's no such thing as a perfect person... normally.

But then you get people like my Humanities professors. And more specifically... Prof. Stratton...

She's got a great personality, teaches really well, smart as all hell... a Harvard and Columbia grad... looks great all the time...

And grew up in the same school as Pearl Jam.

The same school. She knew Pearl Jam.

And she's going to a High-School reunion next week, where they're playing.

*sigh*

Just a quick post... busy day, but just wanted to get that out.

Posted by Johann Kwan at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Just a few doodles I have been playing with in class and such... a few pencil ones, since I don't think I have any pencil stuff up here.

This was a while back... just a few thumbnails I was doing as figure sketches... and yes, I am aware the girl in the middle has huge boobs.

This one was done on the back of the ones above.

This was today, actually. Just messing around in class, didn't turn out exactly as I'd have liked it, but s'okay. I was just playing with poses. And yes, you can see the faint shades of ink doodles from the other side of the page. I think the right (left on the page) shoulder's a little too big for the perspective, if I'm going to have her leaning backwards on that arm. Oops.

Yep, that's it. I have things to say... but I don't think I have the energy to type them up tonight.

I kicked some people's bums at Risk today. Taking over the world is so much fun.

Muhahaha.

Posted by Johann Kwan at 03:47 AM | Permalink

"Now Mario's dead! I'm killing everyone! Why couldn't Ponce have three lives like Mario!?" - JFK

Bjork is pulsing beats into my head. Ben and Caroline lay curled together in bed, hopefully undisturbed by the pitter-patter of my fingers on the keys.

I'm angry at Janet today. She shafted us for a get-together, likely to engage in more of her sex-pottery. (sex-pottery? Damn, I'm inebriated) No real matter though, I'll just be angry at her and bitch at her for the next week, and be extra cruel to her. That is the way things go with spiritual siblings.

We went on an adventure today, Jared, Justin, Reuben (sp?), and I. It was exciting... the three of us (excluding Reuben, as we grabbed him later) started off our journeys with a trip from our home of 4th Stormont to 3rd Dundas, the all-girls floor. Not much of a difference there, so we trekked up to 10th Glen, the party floor.

If you don't live in Carleton Residence (which I'm assuming many of you don't), the Stormont building is a pretty decent place. We've got rooms that aren't all too tight, enough space to stretch, and we have a bathroom to every four people (every two rooms)... which is pretty decent, in way of residences.

10th Glen was insane.

I believe they have a communal bathroom. Not completely certain on this (as I do not know anyone who lives up there)... but that's not important.

I felt like I was in Eastern Europe. Metal elevators with bodily fluids all over the cracked mirror, hall lights turned completely off, wallpaint peeling, stairway doors that look like they were props from a b-rated prison-house movie...

I almost want to bring a camera there and film another shitty sequel to the Resident Evil franchise. Though I could definately see myself living and enjoying myself there.

We went from there to 7th Prescott to grab Reuben (though we did not know where he lived, exactly...) Instant bourgeois. The place was so sanitary... clean... walls were blank sheets of solid colour paint... all the doors had card-locks...

Bizzare.

We trekked around the other buildings, but none of the others were as striking. We did, however, get confused for rapists, as there have been cases of strangers creeping into people's rooms.

So we ended that.

We also locked Braeden in the garbage chute room while he was drunk off his arse, but that's a story for another day.

It was an interesting night all in all, but now I have to work. Cheers.

(This entry is incomplete, and is only posted because I'm not exactly sober... hopefully I will get time to brush it up tomorrow)

Posted by Johann Kwan at 03:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

It's interesting now, thinking of it, that Apple could change their marketing strategy so throughly that it would place an Apple product, which traditionally were solely personal computers, as the music medium of choice of our generation.

The last two decades had been characterised by Sony products... in the 90s it was the Discman, and the 80s, the Walkman. Both enjoyed widespread success... everyone, eventually, got one... or lusted after one. They were supposed to do it again this decade, start off the millenium with a whole line of 'trendy' minidisc players.

But now... halfway through this decade (halfway already, can you believe it?) this is obviously not the case.

Everyone owns an iPod, or wants one. An Apple product, as I said. I still remember when students cursed Apple for their terrible compatibility issues (while that was actually strictly Microsoft's fault, in my opinion). Now everyone wants and iPod, and subsequently... everyone who's anyone wants to grab themselves a whole smackload of Mac gear and be the trendiest in their building.

Not to say Apple doesn't deserve it, their products are magnificently made.

It's just interesting, how we've shifted. Apple is experiencing a boom in all their product lines, thanks to their success with the iPod. With one product, they just simply pushed Sony out of the music market...

And don't think it's not going to make Sony's revenue drop. Sony did bring us the 3/4" videocassete... the walkman... the discman... but they'll likely go the same route as RCA and the 8-track... or Pioneer with the Laserdisc.

And unless their other 'vice' industries start making some more cash (which they may, with EverQuest... though I highly doubt a videogame, no matter how addictive, could bring in that much revenue) Sooner or later they'll just fade into myth along with Decca, MGM, Capitol, Mercury, and MGM.

The technology industry, after all, exists as a vehicle to bring us new mediums of enjoyment and new ways to make it easier to access. If you lose your hold on the lead in that industry...

Where can you possibly go from there but down?

Time for me to get an hour or two of sleep.

Posted by Johann Kwan at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I was going to title this 'sneakerygeekery' and post an assortment of sneakers for geeking out upon... but then I realized I don't really like sneakers anyway.

But I do like geekery.

Of course, for those of you who do not speak Ameri-Canadian, I must first establish the distinguishing differences between geeks and nerds, a common mistake to those that do not throughly understand the language.

Geeks are anyone with an extreme bent towards pursuits (often intellectual, but not necessarily) that are not the norm. For example, the people you see at Anime Cons are anime geeks. (Or comic geeks, depending on how big the con is and what artists are there)

By no stretch of any definition could you call them nerds.

Nerds are a sort of geek, typically one who 'geeks-out' over academic or technological pursuits.

Someone who pushes up their thick-rimmed glasses while peering into the bowels of your computer, shaking their head (keeping careful not to discharge any static, mind you) is a nerd.

I will confess to filling that role at times. (looking around, hoping the art-student brigade doesn't lynch him as a double-agent)

Computer geekery is the least of my little evils. While I am one, I have many other little obsessions.

For example, some people classify a football geek. (not American football, mind you) While I don't consider myself that at all, I do know many who, while they do not play football and could likely never kick a ball across a room, geek out over things like Ljungberg's new hairdo, or go on rants about how their team lost to some other team from who knows what arse-hole of the world.

Okay. So I confess to the bit about ranting. Maybe for hours. But it doesn't really make me a geek, does it? ...

Maybe it does. That's freaky.

For a long time, I was a Beatles geek. This, I confess readily to. I had Beatles playing in my room practically 24/7 (even while I played video games that were quite violent, after all, all you need is lo...BLAM) I owned several... uh... a lot... of Beatles books squirreled away, and had photos of them all over the place.

Total geekery.

I'm still a big music geek. Not so much as I once was... but I do have a f'load of music. People have a habit of asking me what is playing on the Radio. Most-times I want to choke them. It's either that I can't be expected to know every damned song on the planet... or sometimes it's just cause it's so obviously Morrissey (who is a GOD by the way)...

Hmm. So that's three. Computers, football, and music.

I also geeked out all night about making a D&D scenario, since I invited a bunch of people in my program to learn to play D&D. Geeked out all night.

Yikes. Four.

D&D geekery at that.

I think I'm going to stop there, I'm scaring myself. *shudder*

Posted by Johann Kwan at 09:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I'm feeling special right now, despite it being 8:45 AM... kicking it around with insomnia as usual.

Why do I feel special?

This blog's been up for less than a week and I have 31 unique visitors... that's thiry-one different computers being taken to my site.

All this time I just thought it was me rambling to myself.

I normally don't look up webstats, but I was curious about all the stuff that's installed in my cPanel (my host comes with it)... and I just took a peek.

Wow.

Thanks everyone... I hope you keep visiting!

Posted by Johann Kwan at 08:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So I happened upon something I'd seen before, but now regained super amounts of awe for... PodBrix. Hand painted lego models of iPods and stuff... is just super cool.

Unfortunately, both figures are currently sold out... not that I would spend $16 US and shipping to obtain a handpainted lego-dude. Despite the fact that it would a be super cool piece of art, lego has a habit of disappearing easily.

Somehow the new Keynotes ones sold out in 36 minutes. A blend of pop-culture materialism (iPods) and just plain awesome (Lego). Never a stable or safe combination.

Makes me kind of want to buy this shirt. (Diesel Sweeties is an awesome comic, by the way, if haven't ever read it)

Speaking of shirts, if anyone buys me the shirt below, I would bed them for a night. I've had my eye on it for some time... (first saw this over at Preshrunk, a blog about interesting shirts/apparel... wow, I'm cheap... I just realized the shirt's much less than getting say... a Toronto hooker...)

Parents will be in town later for the day. It'll be nice to see them again, and see my little bro.

That makes me happy, though it also makes me think I should get some sleep, if I want to be alive at all when they get here.

Elcap, an old friend from Blizzforums, asked for me to collaborate on him on a small project (basically, help him draw some stuff) that he's had for a while. Should be fun... a bit of designing that's right up my alley, actually, what with everything I've been thinking about doing lately.

Dungeons and Dragons may soon be hitting the floor, newbie style. If you live on 4th Stormont or are in the Humanities program at Carleton University, and wish to participate/learn how to play Dungeons and Dragons, let me know.

Cheers, I must hit the sack now... it being past 8:30.

Posted by Johann Kwan at 08:24 AM | Permalink

So... it's 9:14 AM and I think I shall be headed to bed soon, get some sleep before my Anthropology class at 2:30...

I spent the last few hours working on a character design sketch. I titled it "Hunter"... but that's just a filler title until I can come up with an appropriate character name.

Designed for a more modern Alternity campaign. Could end up being a quite an interesting character, I'm not sure.

Posted by Johann Kwan at 09:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's funny how a few words can turn a relatively superb day into a perverse jumble of emotional turmoil.

"Have you ever felt like that, like you don't feel anything, and you don't want to either...?"

Mogwai gently whispers notes of melancholy in my ears as my roommate shuffles in bed, matching his body to that of these plastic slabs we pass off as mattresses.

There were a few things I had the misfortune of learning today... all of which were thoroughly depressing, but none of them seemed to dent my armour of my sweet hangover... but one.

It doesn't matter how I learned what I did, but when I was told...

I swear this entire week's good vibes and happy times collapsed in on me. What's more is that I expected it to, and had been avoiding certain places and people all week to prolong my state of bliss.

But all things must pass.

And now I'm confused, helpless, fearful now... having been shown my surroundings, lost in a sea of my own mistakes.

Shit.

On a more bright note, last night was delicious. We went to Jared's new house, and we hung out all night and we discussed many things, including the state of Canada and how many things could be remedied, if only the left would open their eyes and the right would just stop bitching...

Call me a centrist, but sometimes leftists make decisions based upon opinion and misguided presumptions instead of learning the intricacies of whatever it is they're complaining about. (for example, weapons of mass destruction)

And yes, for those of you who don't know me, I'm actually very far to the left... but the way some of us carry ourselves like we know everything, and refuse to actually do any thinking before leaping to a judgement based solely upon their political alignment...

Just fucking pisses me off.

Still, not the biggest thing on my mind, by far.

*sigh*

Posted by Johann Kwan at 03:10 AM | Permalink

I was in the middle doing a sketch of a woman in her 20s, and being in the very altered state of mind that I am, the question came into my head... what if modern day hippies and left-wing activists adopted Vietnam-era protest methods, and placed an image of it into a poster similar the propaganda of the "witch-hunt" period? So I did a quick sketch, again, as I said, in my altered state, I turned what began as a quick excersize into a ridiculously outlandish thumbnail. Shame, the face could've turned out really well, if I had the time to work on it. It turned out a little something like this:

The shirt says: No More Bush Oil War, with a peace symbol through the "O" of the "No". The pamphlet/paper in her right hand is supposed to be the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms The picture, as it is difficult to see in this quickie, is of a girl (wearing a waistpouch, mind you, an item of everyday use that has become rare now) getting hit over the head with a truncheon by a cop.

Trust my crazy nutjob head to come up with anything when as messed as I am right now. =)

(Oh yes, and the lettering "Keepers of the Peace should be graffiti on the wall behind it. I will have to work this whole thing out into a real drawing sometime on the computer)

Posted by Johann Kwan at 04:42 AM | Permalink

I do believe I own a shirt that sums up quite succinctly what the individual atoms of my body fit together to create.

I'm sure that if you continue reading this blog over the coming months, you'd have to agree.

Nonetheless, I should speak a bit of myself, to give you, the reader, a feeling for what it is that I am.

What I am on the surface is easy. I was born in September of 1986... and since then I've become a lanky, geeked out man-child of 18. My current situation places me at Carleton University in Ottawa, the capital of Canada... studying Humanities, or for those of you not in the know, liberal arts.

How an asian kid (proficient in the use of computers, as all asian boys should be) ended up in Humanities and not computer engineering relates directly to the shirt above.

Some people call me a natural genius. I tell them that brains aren't worth shit if I don't apply myself... and I really don't. Not unless I need to, or it's something I really find interest in. Even then, not often.

For example... I love my courses this year. All but one or two, but all of the courses in the core Humanities program are thus far, spectacular. It doesn't mean I apply myself. I still try to go to class as often as I am awake (which is not often, mind you) but some of the essays become sheer busywork. I have an essay currently in my hands that is about a week overdue, with no end to the slacking in sight. Simply because I have nothing new to contribute to the analysis of Antigone that hasn't been said a thousand times...

Even my subject, the interpretation of Creon, Thebian King, by Sophocles as an unheeded warning against the failures of a political state turning its back upon its mythic past... *takes deep breath* has been done somewhere, somehow.

However, somehow when I do finish them (this is my first overdue paper, I believe), they come out of the box with a big red A circled in the same ink smack-dab on the front of the page. I did apply myself on one essay this year, and while I ended up with an A on that one too, it was an upward battle where I had to almost write another paper justifying my viewpoint. It just doesn't seem worth it, sometimes, to apply myself.

I'm assured, of course, that this will change next year, which scares me more than anything. I am unaccustomed to not having slack-off time to pound away at my synth or type out long diatribes such as this one.

I fancy myself as a bit of the writer. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen in the actual workplace, but I have had a generally positive response to the things I write (though they are typically finished in a night... I have no patience to engage myself in more than one or two large projects at a time). I'm sure you'll see and judge for yourself.

I have had a long and complicated history as an 'internet-savvy' individual. I would place my first experiences with internet administration and webmastering at about the time I was recruited to be the first (and for a long time, the only) moderator of the Legacy Headquarter's Works-In-Progress forum in 2000. While I remained a staff member at LHQ, raising the Works-In-Progress forum from its birth to what it is now at Blizzforums, I began almost instantly at attempts to create my own webpages.

I'll admit that in the first few months, my attempts were juvenile, and generally misguided. I relied heavily upon WYSIWYG editors, and simply did not know what half my site acutally functioned on. It wasn't that I didn't realize this... I just never thought I could actually learn HTML without some sort of computer science degree (which, at that time, was ages away). Since then I've managed to learn a lot more about webdesign, and I've burned through a bunch of sites... and hopefully, when I finish the design of johannkwan.com, it will be my last great personal web project. (though, of course, I am still open to doing contract work, despite several bad experiences with jobs that were pro bono)

So now that we've established that I'm not an internet amateur, and that I'm a lazy bastard... we can talk about my history of blogging.

For a long time, I was an aspiring journalist. I wrote for several sites, had my own site that spewed forth political diatribe one after another... and blogging just seemed to be a natural course of action. It started for me in 2002, when my friend Bryan Casey from the regions of San Diego (a damned nice town, by the way) invited me to join his blog, Healthy Frowns. It was a great time... writing long nothings about the state of the world, about music... when HF closed down a year or two afterwards I was left jumping from service to service (Livejournal, Xanga) until I created my own website.

Being a poor student in high school, I did not have much choice in the way of hosting, and for the longest time, I lost hope in creating my own site in which I could share my own portfolio... and more importantly, blog.

When my friend, Matt Goldstein, (creator of doormanbot) whom I knew well from my old men's choir (Bethlehem's Bass-On-Up) told me he owned his own hosting company... (and the man's still in high school, if you'll believe it!) I jumped at the oppurtunity to fulfill my dream.

So... here, after many delays, after putting off many an assignment, I finally bring to you blog.johannkwan.com.

I'll be honest... blogging hasn't always been good to me. There was a period I treated my blog as an artistic playground, exaggerating each emotion to the extreme, toying with various themes of violence and lust... and its gotten me in some deep, deep shit in the past with the lawmakers. There was a time when I couldn't write a damned thing without being afraid of the Man.

But this blog will end that. This blog's about my life, my views, and my whatever my goddamned imagination likes. There'll be times when it's dramatic, times when it'll be a little extreme. I don't make excuses for any of it, because damn it, you may as well arrest everyone who writes a damned horror flick. I'm not a violent person, I don't kill people, I'm not a sadist. So fuck off, you fucking pigs.

Posted by Johann Kwan at 07:33 PM | Permalink

Ahh... that was enjoyable. I just finished watching an episode of Magic School Bus on the telly, while eating a bowl of tomato (toe-mah-toe, not toe-may-toe) soup in dorm common room.

Things have really changed since last I saw an episode of Magic School Bus. I've gone from being a bright, young studious boy to a complete burn-out University slacker who gets by on writing essays on sheer genius and inebriatory powers... if the papers get written at all.

I think I have a paper that's about a week late now that I still have to start. I don't know why, but lately I cannot even commit the willpower to finish a book, much less write a paper. It's rather upsetting.

However, to wind the cogs in my brain and get them to start turning again, I did manage to finally install movabletype and get this blog up... so perhaps that bodes well for me, that I actually got around to doing this.

So, for the ceremonious first post, I suppose I'll begin with explaining the title of the site:

The Merkavah (alternative spellings: Merkovah, Merkava) is the chariot of God as described in the book of Ezekiel. One of my favourite professors, who will go unnamed here for now, described the Merkavah as God's SUV, based upon Ezekiel's elaborate descriptions.

I would have to agree... God's rims exhibit a consciousness of the concepts of bling.

¹⁶ The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. ¹⁷ When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went. (Ezekiel 1.16-17, KJV)

Well, that, or Ezekiel was looking at a fleet of alien starships... which is just about as likely. Nonetheless... by claiming to drive the Lord's SUV, I either imply that I have stolen God's ride, or I have his blessing to use it. Both propositions that I enjoy, personally.

Of course, the novelty wore off a bit when I realized that the Merkavah is also the name for the IDF's main battle tank... they just put the Mk. IVs in service last year, I believe.

Given that I don't normally like to take sides in that hideous conflict... I may change the title, to something more akin to "Buddha is a shit-stick"... but it is unlikely at this point.

The drawing up there is of my friend Tim. In case the titlebar changes in the future, I have uploaded the original image, a quick sketch I did while we were sitting here and chatting in my dorm room.

I'll post again later today, when I'm not near passing out and far more coherent.

Posted by Johann Kwan at 06:57 AM | Permalink