Most of you have probably never heard of Team Fortress, much less played it. The original TF is a bit outdated by now, but the idea is one of the most fundamentally sound for multiplayer. The idea is a lot like Capture the Flag, you try to run into the enemy's base and steal their flag/top secret whatever-it-is. TF added a little twist however. You could choose to be one of a few different specialists. An engineer built defensive turrets to guard the flag, the heavy-weapons guy mowed down whole battalions with his giant gun, the medic healed injured team members, the spy could disguise himself to look like one of the enemy players, and so on. It was, in short, such a good idea many started using the same priniciples for their games.
Now, the makers are coming out with Team Fortress 2.
I have to admit, I was a little doubtful as to whether or not it was possible to remake a game like that. Then I saw the trailer.
I am SO buying this game once it comes out.
If you would like to see what convinced me, first watch this trailer to get an idea of what the different professions do (the engineer builds robot guns even though the trailer doesn't show that too much). Then, if you'd like a laugh, watch the interview with the Heavy Weapons Guy, the Soldier, and, my personal favorite, the Engineer. If you wanna see even more, check out this gameplay trailer (this one's the prime mover in my want to get the game, be warned: it's pretty violent). Trust me when I say these links are worth your while, I've seen them like fifty times and I still enjoy watching them (maybe I have a slightly sadistic sense of humor? O.o).
If you haven't played the original, you may not be convinced that this game is gonna be awesome. But as for me, I can't wait.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Friday, September 28, 2007
To Game or Not to Game?
I apologize for this random ranting that will ensue. It stems from a lack of a more interesting post. (read "Reminiscence of a Departed Friend if you haven't already, that'll be sure to be interesting)
We've all heard it before. "Video games are a menace to society! They turn our kids into lazy, unsociable, underachieving nerds who don't know how to interact with people when all they do is sit in front of a screen all day!" (yes I know it isn't worded like that, but that's what they imply!)
Well, I beg to difer.
It's true, video games give lotsa people a reason not to be healthily active. That much I will admit, although the Nintendo Wii helps that problem a bit.
But, video games prevent people from learning people skills? Garbage.
Whoever thought that one up isn't up to par with technology these days. Most of the popular games out there have something to do with playing online with other people. People you've never met, people you have to work with and organize if you want to win whatever it is you're doing. People who you have to communicate with if any of these goals are to be accomplished. Of course, some games require more interaction with those around you than others. A free-for-all deathmatch won't have much communication, everyone is just trying to ensure that their own head isn't the one blown off whilst they attempt to blow more heads off than the other guy. Not much talking required, other than the occasional accusation of cheating, the exclamation of annoyance at having one's head blown off fifty times in a row, or the exclamation of glee at having blown someone's head off fifty times in a row. But, may I remind you, this is limited to the free-for-all. Team fights are a different story, with organization neccessary for defeating the other team. Team deathmatches require only a little more communication than free-for-all's, capture the flag rounds require more, capturing and holding certain areas (king-of-the-hill) even more.
Then we get to MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games), such as Guild Wars.
Part of these games is singleplayer, where the only actual human being playing is you. Obviously not much communication there. But a lot of the game requires the help of other players. In order to finish a cooperative mission, everyone has to communicate freely and often, and obey orders from the designated leader. You can't do your own thing if you want to make it. Some try, and they're not respected much. The missions alone teach you people skills and leadership, the knowledge when to follow orders and the experience to know when to take charge. If you know what to do, you're not gonna just follow what the leader thinks you should do, you lead the leader to show them what needs to be done. The missions are only a very small example. The real human interaction comes with the guilds.
In Guild Wars, you have the option to join a group of other players, called, as the name implies, a "guild". The guild can have a hall where they meet, a cape distinguishing its members from the rest of the hoi poloi, and a leader and officers who can help members with missions and quests they're having trouble with. Now, being a member, there isn't too much neccessary of you. You're free to join any guild that will accept you, you can leave that guild anytime you want, and you can get free help from the higher-ups trying to keep their guild large. It's a member's world out there. The real people skills comes with being an officer, and even more with being the leader.
Let me give a personal Guild Wars example.
John started his own guild. Of course he was the leader, I joined readily, got promoted to officer, and then i kinda just was there, not doing much and not requiring much. The guild grew, gained experienced members, and everything was goin' great. Then, after the 3rd Guild Wars came out and people completed it, many in our guild began to get bored with Guild Wars, John included. And, in all fairness, I can't blame any of them, there's only so much you can do in the game, I'm starting to get bored of it myself. Anyway, what with the leader not being around much to lead and the officers not being around much to recruit and the members wanting a more active guild, we lost a bunch of people. Our guild shrank from about 30 people to 20. Then to 15. Then 12. Finally, I, the dormant officer who was pretty much useless up to that point, woke up. We're gonna dissappear! So, I began recruiting. After I had recruited one or two, I realized I was gonna need help. So I offered an incentive to the members: bring me 5 people to recruit, and I'll promote you to officer. And whaddya know? They found people to recruit! And so some got promoted and some left and some stayed and we gained a few faithful members and we lost a few useful members, but we grew. Up to over 30 people. I felt I could relax a bit and just focus on my own GW character. But then, some officers who didn't feel like recruiting didn't, some members who wanted more left because our guild was going nowhere fast, and in short, we shrunk. Back to the painful proccess of rebuilding again. Offering incentives, starting activities in the guild, forming an alliance with other guilds, we slowly gained people's interest and grew again. Back to over 30 members.
And why, you might ask, am I wasting your time with a boring record of a video game you haven't a clue about?
Because, through all this, I learned some important business management skills. If you want people to accomplish anything, provide incentives. Keep growing, otherwise you'll shrink. Make sure to appoint trustworthy mangers who will obey you. Know what your customers want. Advertise. An apple a day keeps the doctor away (just making sure you're paying attention).
I learned this from a VIDEO GAME. And, actually, I know how to apply them to everday life. I could go on and on mentioning friends I've made, things I've learned from those people, oppurtunities to share the Gospel with those people, and so on. But, I think you get the idea.
Video games don't prevent people from learning people skills. They teach them.
We've all heard it before. "Video games are a menace to society! They turn our kids into lazy, unsociable, underachieving nerds who don't know how to interact with people when all they do is sit in front of a screen all day!" (yes I know it isn't worded like that, but that's what they imply!)
Well, I beg to difer.
It's true, video games give lotsa people a reason not to be healthily active. That much I will admit, although the Nintendo Wii helps that problem a bit.
But, video games prevent people from learning people skills? Garbage.
Whoever thought that one up isn't up to par with technology these days. Most of the popular games out there have something to do with playing online with other people. People you've never met, people you have to work with and organize if you want to win whatever it is you're doing. People who you have to communicate with if any of these goals are to be accomplished. Of course, some games require more interaction with those around you than others. A free-for-all deathmatch won't have much communication, everyone is just trying to ensure that their own head isn't the one blown off whilst they attempt to blow more heads off than the other guy. Not much talking required, other than the occasional accusation of cheating, the exclamation of annoyance at having one's head blown off fifty times in a row, or the exclamation of glee at having blown someone's head off fifty times in a row. But, may I remind you, this is limited to the free-for-all. Team fights are a different story, with organization neccessary for defeating the other team. Team deathmatches require only a little more communication than free-for-all's, capture the flag rounds require more, capturing and holding certain areas (king-of-the-hill) even more.
Then we get to MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games), such as Guild Wars.
Part of these games is singleplayer, where the only actual human being playing is you. Obviously not much communication there. But a lot of the game requires the help of other players. In order to finish a cooperative mission, everyone has to communicate freely and often, and obey orders from the designated leader. You can't do your own thing if you want to make it. Some try, and they're not respected much. The missions alone teach you people skills and leadership, the knowledge when to follow orders and the experience to know when to take charge. If you know what to do, you're not gonna just follow what the leader thinks you should do, you lead the leader to show them what needs to be done. The missions are only a very small example. The real human interaction comes with the guilds.
In Guild Wars, you have the option to join a group of other players, called, as the name implies, a "guild". The guild can have a hall where they meet, a cape distinguishing its members from the rest of the hoi poloi, and a leader and officers who can help members with missions and quests they're having trouble with. Now, being a member, there isn't too much neccessary of you. You're free to join any guild that will accept you, you can leave that guild anytime you want, and you can get free help from the higher-ups trying to keep their guild large. It's a member's world out there. The real people skills comes with being an officer, and even more with being the leader.
Let me give a personal Guild Wars example.
John started his own guild. Of course he was the leader, I joined readily, got promoted to officer, and then i kinda just was there, not doing much and not requiring much. The guild grew, gained experienced members, and everything was goin' great. Then, after the 3rd Guild Wars came out and people completed it, many in our guild began to get bored with Guild Wars, John included. And, in all fairness, I can't blame any of them, there's only so much you can do in the game, I'm starting to get bored of it myself. Anyway, what with the leader not being around much to lead and the officers not being around much to recruit and the members wanting a more active guild, we lost a bunch of people. Our guild shrank from about 30 people to 20. Then to 15. Then 12. Finally, I, the dormant officer who was pretty much useless up to that point, woke up. We're gonna dissappear! So, I began recruiting. After I had recruited one or two, I realized I was gonna need help. So I offered an incentive to the members: bring me 5 people to recruit, and I'll promote you to officer. And whaddya know? They found people to recruit! And so some got promoted and some left and some stayed and we gained a few faithful members and we lost a few useful members, but we grew. Up to over 30 people. I felt I could relax a bit and just focus on my own GW character. But then, some officers who didn't feel like recruiting didn't, some members who wanted more left because our guild was going nowhere fast, and in short, we shrunk. Back to the painful proccess of rebuilding again. Offering incentives, starting activities in the guild, forming an alliance with other guilds, we slowly gained people's interest and grew again. Back to over 30 members.
And why, you might ask, am I wasting your time with a boring record of a video game you haven't a clue about?
Because, through all this, I learned some important business management skills. If you want people to accomplish anything, provide incentives. Keep growing, otherwise you'll shrink. Make sure to appoint trustworthy mangers who will obey you. Know what your customers want. Advertise. An apple a day keeps the doctor away (just making sure you're paying attention).
I learned this from a VIDEO GAME. And, actually, I know how to apply them to everday life. I could go on and on mentioning friends I've made, things I've learned from those people, oppurtunities to share the Gospel with those people, and so on. But, I think you get the idea.
Video games don't prevent people from learning people skills. They teach them.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Reminiscence of a Departed Friend
Heehee, sorry 'bout the title sounding like my friend is dead, I just think that title sounds way better than "Remembering My Friend Who Is Now in Texas for College", don't you?
Anyway, as the Deerfield Fair arrives (my school is going there tommorrow instead of our usual school day classes!), my mind takes a very short trip down Memory Lane (it'll have farther to travel when I'm old 'n' crusty :D ). Every year, Matt (the guy who's in Texas now), Jonny (a friend who is currently in California but is actually coming back tommorrow for his brother's wedding, he'll be staying for a week and a half so some other guys and I am gonna go to the Topsfield Fair with him), some assorted other friends and I would all go as a group after school to the Deerfield Fair. Honestly, I liked being with my friends much more than the actual fair itself; it was a great place to hang out but it was the friends that made it fun. So now, as I think about going to the fair without Matt this year, my rememberances of the great and crazy times we had pop up faster than zits on a teenager's face. ;D
One of my more recent and most noteworthy crazy, dangerous, and rather dumb thing that I did with Matt actually stemmed from diligence in doing a project for English class. Our class had just read Dante's Inferno, a really boring and dull book about what this Italian guy thought Hell was like. Anyway, after a week or two of painstakingly emptying the book of its boring contents, our English teacher assigned us a project. We had to choose a chapter of the book and somehow physically represent it. Each chapter was about a certain "circle of Hell", basically Dante's idea of the way it was divided. We could either make a model of it, make a movie, or whatever else we could think of. Matt and I teamed up to make a movie. As a movie with only two actors could get very messy and would not in all probability make very much sense, we wisely chose to use Lego guys for our actors. It was a good thing too, the chapter we chose had two groups of sinners, one that was constantly driven around a giant circular trench by demons and another that was sunk in poop (yes I'm serious). We dug a trench in a clearing in the woods around his house to film the action in, and selectively chose Lego guys suited to the various roles in the story. Anyway, to get to the crazyness/danger. Even though the book hadn't mentioned fire in this "circle of Hell", Matt and I were not so enthusiastic about a nonconflagrant Hell. So, to add a bit of realism/coolness, we decided to make little fires around the trench. My friend, whose family is big into all motorized anythings and had lots of gasoline lying around, suggested that we light some of the aforementioned fossil fuel for our fires. I readily agreed, and after pouring little puddles of gas into holes that we had set up in strategic locations along and inside the trench, we lit the gas on fire. The result was perfect, blazing fire with a thick, black smoke. It really added some "spice" to the movie, I gotta admit. There was only one problem: Gasoline burns up very fast. So, in the middle of shooting the film, our blazing Hell-fire started to die down. Not exactly helpful. We solved this problem with a very simple soution; we poured more gas on to our guttering flames. The only problem is, when you pour gas on a live fire, the fire just flares up, consumes the gasoline faster than I can consume a sandwich when I'm really hungry (believe me when I say that's fast), and then dies down again. Pretty annoying when you're trying to film a movie. Anyway, after repeated short dumps of gasoline on the dying puddles of flaming fuel, Matt began to get a little bugged by the uncooperative fire. Giving a grunt of annoyance, he let the gas pour out a little bit longer than he had before, with the intention of giving the fire a little more to burn. Well, needless to say, you don't wanna pour a continual stream of gas on a live fire. As he poured, I watched as the stream of gas lit up from the bottom and continued to burn up to the spout of the gasoline container (this was all in the course of 2 seconds of pouring btw). Matt noticed it too, and quickly pulled the container away, only to find that gas around the tip of the spout had caught fire. He quickly put it out with his hand. Phew, we were safe. Unfortunately we weren't smart enough to stay that way.
It happened again. The gas burned low, and instead of a blazing inferno we had smoldering wisps of flame. Did we learn from our 5-minutes-ago past experiences and let them burn out before pouring more gasoline on? Yes we did, and we were safe and lived happily ever after and never played with fire again. NOT!!!! We viewed the failing blaze with disgust and annoyance, a delay in a project we just wanted to get done. And, again, I shall ask, did we wait until it was safe to pour more gas and light it? Nope! Matt took the gas container, said "Y'know what? I'm sick of this!", and poured the gas onto the dying flames. This time, whether purposely or not I'm not entirely sure, he dumped it with more gusto than the previous times, allowing a greater torrent of fuel to dump out than he had before, and he held it there for about 2 seconds.
And guess what happened?
I watched as the gas lit (again), the stream of clear liquid turned into a pillar of fire, and this time the nozzle was set fully ablaze. Matt quickly jerked the container away, and in the proccess flung flaming gas all over the dry leaves and grass around him. The leaves and grass caught fire. The gasoline container was on fire, looking ready to blow up any second, ready to engulf us and the clearing around us in a giant ball of flame. Matt was in a state of panic such as I've never seen him before or since. "Oh man, this is not good! This is NOT good!" he exclaimed, running around frantcially, debating whether to flee the area before the gas tank exploded in our faces or to attempt to put out the flames before said catastrophe.
And what was I doing in the midst of the impending doom?
I, while Matt was running around attempting to solve our predicament......was on the ground laughing my head off.
LOL, just thinking about it is making me laugh, just picturing the moment when the gas tank caught fire and flaming gas splattered over dry leaves is making me want to burst out into loud peals of laughter.
No, it wasn't hysteria. It was really, truly, hilarious to see. Yes, I realize I should have taken the danger more seriously, but no matter how hard I try, I dont think i could possibly have not laughed. IT WAS SO FUNNY! It was exactly like one of those movies where the two main characters alway end up messing everything up and everything goes wrong around them. LOL I wish I had that moment on film!
For some reason, Matt didn't seem to understand the humor of the thing.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? HELP ME OUT HERE!!!" he yelled, amidst running to and from a pond nearby with a small pail that had holes in the bottom, dumping whatever remained of the contents on the fire that threatened to spread throughout the woods and blow us up at the same time. I, still laughing, attempted to help but ended up spilling more than I dumped on the fire with all my laughing. Somehow, we put out the fire on the nozzle, I still don't fully remember how, putting out the fire is something of a blur of urgency and the hilariousness of the situation. The leaves and grass were likewise doused before any significant damage had taken place. Upon finally relaxing, we payed closer attention to the nozzle of the gasoline container. We stared at the nozzle and looked at each other in amazement at our close call.
The plastic around the bottom of the nozzle where it connected with the container had melted. The fire had melted the plastic just before the gasoline inside.
Fortunately, the container had only been half full.
It might not have ended up so funny had it been completely full.
Anyway, to wrap up my little tale here, we finished the movie, being very careful of how we used the gas after that.
The teacher thought our project was the best out of the whole class and gave us both a 100.
And I learned of the good times you can have playing with fire. ;)
Anyway, as the Deerfield Fair arrives (my school is going there tommorrow instead of our usual school day classes!), my mind takes a very short trip down Memory Lane (it'll have farther to travel when I'm old 'n' crusty :D ). Every year, Matt (the guy who's in Texas now), Jonny (a friend who is currently in California but is actually coming back tommorrow for his brother's wedding, he'll be staying for a week and a half so some other guys and I am gonna go to the Topsfield Fair with him), some assorted other friends and I would all go as a group after school to the Deerfield Fair. Honestly, I liked being with my friends much more than the actual fair itself; it was a great place to hang out but it was the friends that made it fun. So now, as I think about going to the fair without Matt this year, my rememberances of the great and crazy times we had pop up faster than zits on a teenager's face. ;D
One of my more recent and most noteworthy crazy, dangerous, and rather dumb thing that I did with Matt actually stemmed from diligence in doing a project for English class. Our class had just read Dante's Inferno, a really boring and dull book about what this Italian guy thought Hell was like. Anyway, after a week or two of painstakingly emptying the book of its boring contents, our English teacher assigned us a project. We had to choose a chapter of the book and somehow physically represent it. Each chapter was about a certain "circle of Hell", basically Dante's idea of the way it was divided. We could either make a model of it, make a movie, or whatever else we could think of. Matt and I teamed up to make a movie. As a movie with only two actors could get very messy and would not in all probability make very much sense, we wisely chose to use Lego guys for our actors. It was a good thing too, the chapter we chose had two groups of sinners, one that was constantly driven around a giant circular trench by demons and another that was sunk in poop (yes I'm serious). We dug a trench in a clearing in the woods around his house to film the action in, and selectively chose Lego guys suited to the various roles in the story. Anyway, to get to the crazyness/danger. Even though the book hadn't mentioned fire in this "circle of Hell", Matt and I were not so enthusiastic about a nonconflagrant Hell. So, to add a bit of realism/coolness, we decided to make little fires around the trench. My friend, whose family is big into all motorized anythings and had lots of gasoline lying around, suggested that we light some of the aforementioned fossil fuel for our fires. I readily agreed, and after pouring little puddles of gas into holes that we had set up in strategic locations along and inside the trench, we lit the gas on fire. The result was perfect, blazing fire with a thick, black smoke. It really added some "spice" to the movie, I gotta admit. There was only one problem: Gasoline burns up very fast. So, in the middle of shooting the film, our blazing Hell-fire started to die down. Not exactly helpful. We solved this problem with a very simple soution; we poured more gas on to our guttering flames. The only problem is, when you pour gas on a live fire, the fire just flares up, consumes the gasoline faster than I can consume a sandwich when I'm really hungry (believe me when I say that's fast), and then dies down again. Pretty annoying when you're trying to film a movie. Anyway, after repeated short dumps of gasoline on the dying puddles of flaming fuel, Matt began to get a little bugged by the uncooperative fire. Giving a grunt of annoyance, he let the gas pour out a little bit longer than he had before, with the intention of giving the fire a little more to burn. Well, needless to say, you don't wanna pour a continual stream of gas on a live fire. As he poured, I watched as the stream of gas lit up from the bottom and continued to burn up to the spout of the gasoline container (this was all in the course of 2 seconds of pouring btw). Matt noticed it too, and quickly pulled the container away, only to find that gas around the tip of the spout had caught fire. He quickly put it out with his hand. Phew, we were safe. Unfortunately we weren't smart enough to stay that way.
It happened again. The gas burned low, and instead of a blazing inferno we had smoldering wisps of flame. Did we learn from our 5-minutes-ago past experiences and let them burn out before pouring more gasoline on? Yes we did, and we were safe and lived happily ever after and never played with fire again. NOT!!!! We viewed the failing blaze with disgust and annoyance, a delay in a project we just wanted to get done. And, again, I shall ask, did we wait until it was safe to pour more gas and light it? Nope! Matt took the gas container, said "Y'know what? I'm sick of this!", and poured the gas onto the dying flames. This time, whether purposely or not I'm not entirely sure, he dumped it with more gusto than the previous times, allowing a greater torrent of fuel to dump out than he had before, and he held it there for about 2 seconds.
And guess what happened?
I watched as the gas lit (again), the stream of clear liquid turned into a pillar of fire, and this time the nozzle was set fully ablaze. Matt quickly jerked the container away, and in the proccess flung flaming gas all over the dry leaves and grass around him. The leaves and grass caught fire. The gasoline container was on fire, looking ready to blow up any second, ready to engulf us and the clearing around us in a giant ball of flame. Matt was in a state of panic such as I've never seen him before or since. "Oh man, this is not good! This is NOT good!" he exclaimed, running around frantcially, debating whether to flee the area before the gas tank exploded in our faces or to attempt to put out the flames before said catastrophe.
And what was I doing in the midst of the impending doom?
I, while Matt was running around attempting to solve our predicament......was on the ground laughing my head off.
LOL, just thinking about it is making me laugh, just picturing the moment when the gas tank caught fire and flaming gas splattered over dry leaves is making me want to burst out into loud peals of laughter.
No, it wasn't hysteria. It was really, truly, hilarious to see. Yes, I realize I should have taken the danger more seriously, but no matter how hard I try, I dont think i could possibly have not laughed. IT WAS SO FUNNY! It was exactly like one of those movies where the two main characters alway end up messing everything up and everything goes wrong around them. LOL I wish I had that moment on film!
For some reason, Matt didn't seem to understand the humor of the thing.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? HELP ME OUT HERE!!!" he yelled, amidst running to and from a pond nearby with a small pail that had holes in the bottom, dumping whatever remained of the contents on the fire that threatened to spread throughout the woods and blow us up at the same time. I, still laughing, attempted to help but ended up spilling more than I dumped on the fire with all my laughing. Somehow, we put out the fire on the nozzle, I still don't fully remember how, putting out the fire is something of a blur of urgency and the hilariousness of the situation. The leaves and grass were likewise doused before any significant damage had taken place. Upon finally relaxing, we payed closer attention to the nozzle of the gasoline container. We stared at the nozzle and looked at each other in amazement at our close call.
The plastic around the bottom of the nozzle where it connected with the container had melted. The fire had melted the plastic just before the gasoline inside.
Fortunately, the container had only been half full.
It might not have ended up so funny had it been completely full.
Anyway, to wrap up my little tale here, we finished the movie, being very careful of how we used the gas after that.
The teacher thought our project was the best out of the whole class and gave us both a 100.
And I learned of the good times you can have playing with fire. ;)
Monday, September 24, 2007
What's a ZUZU Anyway???
Glad you asked! To fully explain the meaning of ZUZU, I'll have to tell a little story...
One day, when me and my brother and two sisters were little (Peter wasn't born yet), we were all in the van, going to I-don't-remember-where. And, as was their way back then, my sisters were playing together. The game involved something to do with a TV show, and Grace, who apparently was running the TV, had decided it was time for a commercial break. The commercial went something like this...
"Have your kids ever played with...ZUZU?! Have your kids ever played with...ZUZU?! Have your kids ever played with...ZUZU?!....." etc.
Andrew and I looked at each other and laughed. What were our two crazy sisters doing now? Thinking to tease them a bit (I take my duty as the oldest very seriously), I asked them...
"What's a ZUZU anyway?"
To which Grace gave a sheepish grin and attempted to ignore me, embarressed at having her silliness pointed out. Well, Andrew and I didnt forget that, it was wierd even for her, and continued to laugh about ZUZU and what it was and stuff like that.
Oh yes, an important note: Joy was 3 at the time I think, possibly 4, and was annoyed at our making fun of what she thought was the best game ever.
Anyhow, as I mentioned before, I was not so quick to forget ZUZU. I would tease my sisters about it constantly: if I was walking past their room and saw them playing with dolls (a very common sight), I would barge in and snatch one up and say, "Is his name ZUZU? Is she ZUZU? How about this one?" And of course, they were none too pleased with this, in fact they were downright annoyed and I assume I was told on numerous times.
Back to my earlier statement about Joy's age.
Joy, being the youngest, never knew all the words we big kids used, and it frustrated her very much. If you called her something in a teasing way and she didnt know what the word meant, even if it was a compliment, she'd get very upset and go tell on the offender. My mom always found out about every little insult or annoyance, and I very often got into some sort of trouble for my share of name-calling, face-making, toy-snatching, and the like. And, due to my experience in such areas, I kept trying to find ways I could annoy without getting in trouble. A very difficult job, let me assure you. But, in dedication to my duty as the oldest, I made the neccessary sacrifices ;).
Now, zap back to the times I annoyed my sisters by asking if their dolls were named Zuzu.
I quickly learned that the nature of my usage of the word ZUZU brought some very negative connotations to the mind of my youngest sister. She took very serious offense at it. And so, at a time which I do not remember for an occassion that I forgot, I tried it on Joy. Of course, she took full offense, burst into angry tears, and stormed off to tell our mom about what mean old Nicholas just called her. The effect was something like this:
Joy--"MOMMY! NICHOLAS CALLED ME A ZUZU!!!!!!! WAH!!!!!!"
Mom--"Ignore him, Joy, Zuzu doesnt really mean anything."
If I could describe the joy that swelled within me at this newfound power, believe me when I say I would, but words fail me.
And thus, ZUZU was born.
Pretty soon, I extended my targets of the name from Joy to Andrew and Grace as well. They caught on, and soon they called each other ZUZUs. ZUZU came to mean anyone or anything stupid or unlikeable, and when something undesirable happened, it came to be called ZUZUish. My parents eventually caught on, and now they joke about ZUZU too. I taught John, now ZUZU is a part of his vocabulary. He taught some others, I'm not sure who exactly though I know Eric uses it, and I've taught people all the way from California. Oh yes, an interesting side note, Zuzu is the Arabic nickname for Joseph. We met a few Zuzus when we went to Lebanon, and that's people with the actual name, not just the ZUZUs. It was very hard not laughing when we were introduced to them (terrible, ain't it? :D).
Anyway, that's the story behind ZUZU, and the way that it's to be used.
So, with this enlightening knowledge, go out there and perpetuate the ZUZU legacy!
One day, when me and my brother and two sisters were little (Peter wasn't born yet), we were all in the van, going to I-don't-remember-where. And, as was their way back then, my sisters were playing together. The game involved something to do with a TV show, and Grace, who apparently was running the TV, had decided it was time for a commercial break. The commercial went something like this...
"Have your kids ever played with...ZUZU?! Have your kids ever played with...ZUZU?! Have your kids ever played with...ZUZU?!....." etc.
Andrew and I looked at each other and laughed. What were our two crazy sisters doing now? Thinking to tease them a bit (I take my duty as the oldest very seriously), I asked them...
"What's a ZUZU anyway?"
To which Grace gave a sheepish grin and attempted to ignore me, embarressed at having her silliness pointed out. Well, Andrew and I didnt forget that, it was wierd even for her, and continued to laugh about ZUZU and what it was and stuff like that.
Oh yes, an important note: Joy was 3 at the time I think, possibly 4, and was annoyed at our making fun of what she thought was the best game ever.
Anyhow, as I mentioned before, I was not so quick to forget ZUZU. I would tease my sisters about it constantly: if I was walking past their room and saw them playing with dolls (a very common sight), I would barge in and snatch one up and say, "Is his name ZUZU? Is she ZUZU? How about this one?" And of course, they were none too pleased with this, in fact they were downright annoyed and I assume I was told on numerous times.
Back to my earlier statement about Joy's age.
Joy, being the youngest, never knew all the words we big kids used, and it frustrated her very much. If you called her something in a teasing way and she didnt know what the word meant, even if it was a compliment, she'd get very upset and go tell on the offender. My mom always found out about every little insult or annoyance, and I very often got into some sort of trouble for my share of name-calling, face-making, toy-snatching, and the like. And, due to my experience in such areas, I kept trying to find ways I could annoy without getting in trouble. A very difficult job, let me assure you. But, in dedication to my duty as the oldest, I made the neccessary sacrifices ;).
Now, zap back to the times I annoyed my sisters by asking if their dolls were named Zuzu.
I quickly learned that the nature of my usage of the word ZUZU brought some very negative connotations to the mind of my youngest sister. She took very serious offense at it. And so, at a time which I do not remember for an occassion that I forgot, I tried it on Joy. Of course, she took full offense, burst into angry tears, and stormed off to tell our mom about what mean old Nicholas just called her. The effect was something like this:
Joy--"MOMMY! NICHOLAS CALLED ME A ZUZU!!!!!!! WAH!!!!!!"
Mom--"Ignore him, Joy, Zuzu doesnt really mean anything."
If I could describe the joy that swelled within me at this newfound power, believe me when I say I would, but words fail me.
And thus, ZUZU was born.
Pretty soon, I extended my targets of the name from Joy to Andrew and Grace as well. They caught on, and soon they called each other ZUZUs. ZUZU came to mean anyone or anything stupid or unlikeable, and when something undesirable happened, it came to be called ZUZUish. My parents eventually caught on, and now they joke about ZUZU too. I taught John, now ZUZU is a part of his vocabulary. He taught some others, I'm not sure who exactly though I know Eric uses it, and I've taught people all the way from California. Oh yes, an interesting side note, Zuzu is the Arabic nickname for Joseph. We met a few Zuzus when we went to Lebanon, and that's people with the actual name, not just the ZUZUs. It was very hard not laughing when we were introduced to them (terrible, ain't it? :D).
Anyway, that's the story behind ZUZU, and the way that it's to be used.
So, with this enlightening knowledge, go out there and perpetuate the ZUZU legacy!
Become a ZUZU today!!!!!!
Saturday, September 22, 2007
(a little) About Me
I'm pretty sure most of you visiting this blog already know me. In general, at least. John knows me better than most, as is to be expected considering we've been pals since we were old enough to realize we were the same age.
Before I go on, I'd like to say that the most important thing you can know about me is that I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, that He died on the cross for my sins, that He is the only way for my getting to Heaven, and that I am utterly incapable of doing anything to merit my admittance into Heaven other than believing this. For more details, see Isaiah 53, John 3:16, Romans 3:10, Romans 6:23, and Romans 10:9. Oh ya, I accept the Bible as my final authority, if you want to know why, ask me sometime, I'll be happy to explain.
Anyhow, assuming you all know all the general information about me, I'm just gonna delve into some stuff not too many know. BTW, this knowledge is being given out to minimize misunderstandings and confusions that will arise anyway. For one thing, I tend to think deep. I'm not saying this because I'm proud of it, but I'm probably gonna be posting some deep stuff on this blog, and I'd rather prepare people than have them wondering why I say certain things. The most common deep topics that will arise will be thoughts on why certain people react the way they do, how it's possible to read people's minds (no I'm not crazy), and the questioning of the purpose of certain things. Another thing you may need to know, I can be at times what some call brutally honest. Maybe rightly so. If I hear something I deeply disagree with, I will almost certainly say so, and give reasons for it too (don't worry, most of the time I'm not too blunt). I also tend to be a very unpleasant person to have angry with you. It takes a lot for me to get angry, and a lot for me to cool down. I get very vicious when I'm angry. Ask my siblings, I don't think John even knows the extent to which I get angry. An important thing to note: Never get a person who tends to be reserved (yes, I am reserved, despite the teasing of my cousins and the craziness around my friends) angry, because we have emotion bottled up inside us under high pressure. Unleashing that (a.k.a., making us angry) releases a torrent of angry thoughts and imaginations, which can truly be disturbing. Lol, this isn't a threat, but in the rare case I get angry at someone, you may be seeing this reflected in what I write. Also important: I value trust and honesty very highly, despise hypocrisy, get annoyed at egotistical actions, and can be really stubborn sometimes. May be useful to know.
Anyway, those are some tidbits of what people tend to not see in me, for general info I'll be updating my profile soon. Hope you learned something from all this.
Before I go on, I'd like to say that the most important thing you can know about me is that I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, that He died on the cross for my sins, that He is the only way for my getting to Heaven, and that I am utterly incapable of doing anything to merit my admittance into Heaven other than believing this. For more details, see Isaiah 53, John 3:16, Romans 3:10, Romans 6:23, and Romans 10:9. Oh ya, I accept the Bible as my final authority, if you want to know why, ask me sometime, I'll be happy to explain.
Anyhow, assuming you all know all the general information about me, I'm just gonna delve into some stuff not too many know. BTW, this knowledge is being given out to minimize misunderstandings and confusions that will arise anyway. For one thing, I tend to think deep. I'm not saying this because I'm proud of it, but I'm probably gonna be posting some deep stuff on this blog, and I'd rather prepare people than have them wondering why I say certain things. The most common deep topics that will arise will be thoughts on why certain people react the way they do, how it's possible to read people's minds (no I'm not crazy), and the questioning of the purpose of certain things. Another thing you may need to know, I can be at times what some call brutally honest. Maybe rightly so. If I hear something I deeply disagree with, I will almost certainly say so, and give reasons for it too (don't worry, most of the time I'm not too blunt). I also tend to be a very unpleasant person to have angry with you. It takes a lot for me to get angry, and a lot for me to cool down. I get very vicious when I'm angry. Ask my siblings, I don't think John even knows the extent to which I get angry. An important thing to note: Never get a person who tends to be reserved (yes, I am reserved, despite the teasing of my cousins and the craziness around my friends) angry, because we have emotion bottled up inside us under high pressure. Unleashing that (a.k.a., making us angry) releases a torrent of angry thoughts and imaginations, which can truly be disturbing. Lol, this isn't a threat, but in the rare case I get angry at someone, you may be seeing this reflected in what I write. Also important: I value trust and honesty very highly, despise hypocrisy, get annoyed at egotistical actions, and can be really stubborn sometimes. May be useful to know.
Anyway, those are some tidbits of what people tend to not see in me, for general info I'll be updating my profile soon. Hope you learned something from all this.
Statement of Refusal
Ok, I got a blog, and I'm gonna make good use of it. But first I'd like to get a few things out of the way. This is a list of things i refuse to do with my blog.
- I refuse to use this blog as an online diary. No prying into my thoughts for you! >:P
- I refuse to get addicted to this. Well...maybe.
- I refuse to use this blog as a place to describe my muscle-building/victories over certain people in arm wrestling/pictures of me flexing. (My targets of this lampoon know who they are! >:D )
These statements are subject to amendment and may be revised, removed, or added to. (how's that for fine print? :D )
I Got A Blog!
Yes, I got a blog. I never thought I would, but here I am, writing my first post, wondering how I finally decided on it. Hmmm not much to wonder considering I know what happened. I kept seeing friends websites/blogs, especially John's, and I began thinking that it would be fun to have a little place to post some thoughts and info. The idea of an online diary that everyone could read was appalling to me (and still is), and so I ignored the idea of a blog for that of my own website. When I asked my dad if it was alright with him (it was), he asked, "Why not get a blog? You can pretty much do the same things." He was right, and the fact that lotsa friends have blogs helped move me toward bloggy goodness. So now I'm here, and you can expect more from me in the future.
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