Zombie Ants?!

Well work is very quiet, which explains why there are more entries in the blog than usual. I am actually a little bit concerned of my position at work, as most of the workI do has become less and less.

One of the main directors has left the company, due to the low share price the company has become and the cost and payments have been taken over by a subsidiary. Thankfully I'm in the head group company, but the chances that we relinquish the control could still be a possibility. Whether the business decision to continuouly try to attract investors will be tough one to make. Their first task I believe would be to attempt to increase the share price and attract potential investors, allowing the opportunity for growth. How they do that I do not know to be honest. I'm just the accountant. :p

Anyway today's topic for discussion is a parasite that has the strangest of life cycles. The Lancet Liver Fluke. It starts from reproducing in the liver of a cow, before injesting its offspring into the feces of the cow. Upon which are then eaten by snails. The larvae inside the snail will drill a wall in their gut and settle for a while in their digestive tract. The snail's immune system will form a cyst from where it has settle and the cyst is then excreted out, from which an ant will digest. Again the lave will exit via the gut of the Ant and will then take control of the Ant's nervus system.

Here comes the most interesting part, at night the parasite takes control of the Ant and climbs to the top of a blade of grass, and stays there all night for a cow to digest. If no Cow digests it, the Ant is given back control for it to carry out it's daily tasks. And it will continuouly climb the blade of grass night after night. Incredible!

Now if you think about it that's a Zombie Ant! A parasite taking control at night. The reason why it won't control the ant during the day, is because of the heat of the sun would kill the Ant including the parasite. That's what you call a survival mechanism, but it seems like a crazy life cycle to continuously perform to survive in this world. The cow could be replaced with Sheep, Pigs, Goats, it seems any animal that has a gut and would eat grass.

It's fascinating to me that there is a parasite capable of controling another creatures habits and movements, soley for it's own gain to be injested. I suppose if you prefer to feed off other animals food and nutrients a cow would be a great host, and you can live out your days just eating and reproducing. Not a bad life indeed, but it seems like a hell of a process for survival. I suppose the cow will eventually die, therefore it needs to find a way for future generations to survive, but to travel between 3 different host, to eventually make it's way back into another cow, is just incredible.

The notion that it instinctly knows what it needs to do to survive, or an evolutionary process is mind boggling. Whether this parasite is able to adapt in this world, or just that the right conditions are met. The Cow, Snail and Ant living in tandem to create the life cycle possible for this parasite to exist. It boggles the mind, to think the number of species, creatures that are out there, but can not survive because certain conditions are not met, or that they are unable to survive/evolve or even adapt to different environments.

Also the notion that zombification is possible via a parasite. Imagine the parasite that is able to transfer to different hosts via biting another. The infected hosts are rage inducing zombies much like 28 days later. It is contagious to a massive degree and that quarantine is needed for many countries from a world wide epidemic. I know people seem to love the idea of a zombie apocalyspe. It's such an impossible crazy idea that it's a fantasy people would like to experience, not going to lie I'm one of those people. The notion of back to basics survival is at it's very core, human instinct.

I think because I'm at a stage in my life, where I'm going through the same routines and it's become quite mundane. A zombie apocalypse is most welcome in my eyes. lol. I can reassure you that I am quite sane.

Mortgage Troubles!

Holy fucking shit balls! My bank has just sent a fax to my solicitor that my mortgage has been withdrawn! What the FUCK!?

Waiting to hear from my mortgage advisor to see what the hell has happened! I'm not happy. Blog is being updated to vent my frustration!

ARGHHH!

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Update:


Resolved! Thank fuck!

The bank were trying to perform the necessary checks I suppose in confirming my payslips. The problem was they contacted the wrong company. The bank contacted one of our subsidiary companies, that the company I work for owns. So they obviously go back to the bank saying I don't work for them. The bank would then think my payslips are fraudulent, and subsequently withdraw my application!

Luckily the HR person contacted my HR manager to confirm, otherwise this would not have been resolved quickly.

A few things here:

1. Contact the right company to confirm payslips!
2. Shouldn't you perform these checks first before anything else? I mean they had to pay for their own survey on the house. If they did these checks first I'd think they'd save some money in realising frauds first!
3. Why not contact me or the mortgage advisor first before hitting that button to withdraw. A quick chat could have made things a hell of a lot easier.

(sigh)

No wonder banks are struggling at times, their staff are incompetant fuckwits!

Decision Making- Puke story

Well Starcraft 2 is still keeping me busy, and annoyingly I'm still wondering what could have been with my ex. I think I'm at a lull period in my life and I'm just expecting myself to get through the process of moving into my new place, and wanting a new start from there.

I've decided I'll start and concentrate on my studies then, but it can't come soon enough. I just want to be there now so I can concentrate on all of this and keep myself busy. I'm  relishing the responsibility of having a mortgage, bills to pay, furnishing, just owning a house, that I can call my own home. All these years I've been renting and paying into someone elses pocket. It's time to invest and pay something back to myself. I'm thankful that my parents are helping me out in the process. I suppose being the son of the family there is still that chinese tradition in having a strong male foundation.

The first place I saw, was great. It was my first experience in getting an offer accepted. To put things into perspective, I had failed my exams, and on the verge of a breakup with my now ex. I put all my hopes and dreams into this one property, as I negotiate well and got a great deal. I mean I felt so happy that I got all the furniture included. I thought maybe this is the point in where I can start again, but then suddenly it fell through and it really got to me. I had a sinking feeling, and was on the verge of tears. It was like nothing is going right in my life. I was left feeling empty and hopeless. Obviously I was really just dissappointemnt, but I got myself in gear again straight away, of which I'm very glad I did, otherwise I would not have found the current place now.

It's extremely silly to think that my world is turning to shit, when really it's still ok, when compared to many other people's lives. I'm actually being the unrealistic one here. I should be very grateful of my current situation. First world problem I guess... :).

Anyway from this ordeal in finding a property, I've realise I am capable in making a good decision. I know at times I can be indecisive, but I know there have been times in my life where I can make important split decision quite well. My crisis management is very good for some reason I don't know why. Story time:

One specific moment when, a bunch of my friends, were on a ways to a friends BBQ. Kev was driving, Andy in the front seat with Jess and I at the back. We had a night out before drinking cocktails as such but this being the next day most of us are feeling hungover, yet seemed ok. As we made our way not 15 minutes into the journey. Andy blurted out 'pull over I need to throw up'. Kev was like seriously? and couldn't pull over straight away, as it was a busy road and you cant just stop there but there was a turning coming up.

Now you know that feeling of when you're on the verge of gagging and the puke is on the edge of your throat, and at times you can control it and even save it by swallowing it back down. Horrible, but doable. Now there are times you think you can hold it back, but no matter what your body doesn't want it and it's coming out. Andy was obviously on the verge and unable to hold it back, so he did what most people do as a natural reaction, but also the worse thing possible thing and that's to cover your mouth as you throw up.

If you're a physics teacher this would be a prime example at it's finest of how build up in pressure works. I'm sure you've used a hose and placed your thumb over the nozzle but leave a small gap to create that spray of water to increase the distance. Well now imagine a mouth full of puke wanting to get out, with only your mouth and hand to stop it from going out. The mouth fails to keep it in, so now so it's your hands. I've never been able to pick up a perfect ball of water in my hands as the small gaps between your fingers always lets the water through, so you can guess what happens next.

All I can say to describe it, that it was like an explosion of utrid puke water, that smelled of horrid rotten banana soup. Luckily most of it went on himself, as I think at least he tried to contain it on his T-shirt, but it's the spray of back wash puke is what hits everything in it's path.

The car manages to come to a stop, and silence ensures. Andy breaks the silence by apologising continuously, whilst Jess is now in shock suddenly says. 'I can't stay here or I'm going to throw up too'. I took charge of the situation and I told her to get out of the car! We all got out, and I went to look at our current surroundings to see whether there were any shops close by.

Luckily there was a petrol station and I helped Andy walk over there and he went into the toilet to clean himself up and I believe destroy the toilet with more puke as he decribes later on. I purchased some kitchen towels and some air freshner. Made my way back and Kev did the process of cleaning up. I suppose it's not much of a story of crisis management but when no-one is on the verge of doing anything to sort it out, I just stepped up.

To finish the story off, we drove back home whilst he got himself cleaned up and got a change of clothes before we started the journey again. We even got there earlier than some other people.

Well change can help put things into perspective, create a new beginning. I've started and restarted this blog a number of times already, and it always mentions a new start. So it feels like I'm repeating myself given the limited amount of entries I have in this blog, but it's a much necessity on my part to keep my self in check.

Passion of eSports

I just want to talk about eSports. I love it. I would be doing a great injustice in just providing a brief description as to what eSports is. Just Essentially eSports is electronic sports, comprising of competitive play of video games. Now just by describing it like that it sounds silly and sad. There's definiting more to it than that. I mean is it as silly as scrabble, and chess tournaments. I mean chess is an olympic sport, so eSports can be considered a type of sport as well. I suppose you don't require to have that much physical exertion, but there is defintiely a mental capacity, test of dexterity and hand eye cordination. Regardless if you're just pressing buttons, it does require speed and reflexes in reading the game.

The video game population is obviously massive, but it's not all competitive gaming. Also you will have to seperate the community in terms of genre, such as fighting, first person shooters or real time strategy. Yet even though they're serperated by game genre they are collectly still together as part of the large community.

My first experience with competitive gaming is Streetfighter. And seeing crowds around arcades, having mini competition. I was only a small child, but I was just there watching. I love my streetfighter like any other gamer, it's great pick up and play as well in providing a lot of depth for the competitive scene. For me I only need to know a few special moves and a basic combo and you're well on your way to start competiting with the casual gamers too. Later on in the dawn of the internet watching some clips of some games of higher skill level and you can appreciate the skill involved. The Diago vs Justin Wong is the eptime of that the eSports environment is like.

Every tiny input is deliberate by the player, I mean when I play there's a bit of button mashing, or at times I end having to input the command moves to special moves a few times before it will take effect.. These guys can do it quickly and effectively. Regardless you normally have to play the games to appreciate what is going on. Fighting games are quite good in that you can see exactly what is going on at it's most basic level. Two characters on screen fighting each other to the death, with lots of flashy moves, simple for the casual viewer.

What I have gotten into, in the past year is a game called Starcraft 2. This is a real time strategy game, in the likes of Command & Conquer, Age of Empires etc. However the difference being that Starcraft 2, provides a very in depth game, that is also a great for specatators. The games can really vary, the worse type of game normally is when both players are slow to build and are not agressive until they reach a large army size, but even then it's a slow burn, because you know eventually they'll have to do battle, so it can be interesting to see how the battle that decides it turns out.

It's like real time chess, but you start off with a pawns, and you have to mine resources to pay for better units, and the board is large terrain, with high and low grounds, chokes points and open spaces.

Well saying all this MLG happened this weekend and a Korean Terran called MKP AKA Marine King Prime, beat a Zerg player DRG, Dong Rae Gue in the finals. It was a great series showing high skill of play. Even though MKP won quite convincly it was still amazing to watch. What increased my viewing experience, was watching it with my friends.

I had shown a lot of enthusiasm amongst my friends that it increased their curiousity, so now I somehow got them into it too. So on Saturday night we went round our mates house and watched a few games together. It was quite a laugh, then for championship Sunday, we watched the stream whilst on mumble chat. Then we actually played some SC2 inbetween games. It was a lot of fun.

Definitely getting back into the game again, after taking abit of time off from the game due to other commitments as well as GF at the time, studying, Skyrim and Mass Effect 3, of which I will talk about at some point. The pro gaming scene, really puts some inspiration into the playing the game again. A friend got the starter edition, which is free, but you're limited to playing Terran and only allow limited maps in multiplayer.  still it's great to have the option and we had a blast. Played quite a few 2v2 games we forgot about MLG was going on. He's now thinking of buying the full version.  hehe.

Having not played it in a while, it's pretty good feeling again. I still remember quite abit and was always staying active which was great. I remember the quick roach build, it's mainly used for rushes, but I use them to be safe. Although one game I decided to rush with them, and we pretty much won the game from there. My friends are not great, but it's a lot of fun and laughs.

I've been off racing as Terran, until my friends get a bit better, also I think it'll be good to get decent as Terran as they're strong in team games, at least I think so. The ability to be able to wall off and be strong in the early game is very important when I believe a lot of team games are rushed. However my friend seems to struggle with Protoss so I'm going to give Protoss a go to see where he's going wrong.

I also really enjoy watching the replays afterwards, seeing how the other people play decisions they make etc, it's very well implemented by Blizzard the game makers, all they have to do now is be able to sync replays so a party can view it at the same time. I will probably record a replay at some point with mini commentary. It would be to show the rest of my mates and see what they are missing out on, and who knows maybe I'll get them interested too.

Here we go again!

It's been awhile but I think it's time to hit my blog again. Mainly because I find it is very therapeutic to write about myself and just reflect. Also I have some time again now, that being I'm single again, and that work is a bit slow at the moment.
I can say that I've been very busy this past year and a half. So I think I'll slowly write and tell exactly what has happened in my life since then, as well as write about my current thoughts. I’m pretty much the happy go lucky type still, nothing that much has change, in fact, I feel like I’m back where I’ve started but with more experience and a more mature outlook in life. Yet I’m still immature when I can and want to be.

I’m not too sure where to start but maybe will talk a bit about everything for now and then go into more details later. For now I'll start with:

Girl troubles

It’s very hard to say, because I feel it’s like a very complicated issue in why we couldn’t work it out. I suppose I am still not sure exactly what went wrong with our relationship, but I can say that we tried. Even though in her eyes I probably didn’t try hard enough. I tend to agree with her to a degree, yet ultimately it felt that what I did was never truly enough to satisfy her needs, and she has many needs and deserves much better than I could give to her. She rode me hard (literally as well, ahem) which was unnecessary and arguably unreasonable. I was not able to reason with her and I feel that was the ultimate downfall. I was always the one to give in, but whenever I stood my ground we would have the worst possible fights. Should I have to be the one to be constantly be abused? Sigh, I‘ve not put her in a good light already, when in fact she can be the most lovely girl. She has problems and I can look past them, but she is not reasonable.

I suppose more later, details and more personal stories, hopefully a bit more positive.

More recently I went out on Friday night with a few friends because my mate just wanted to, and it was the first time I went out in quite a while for a proper drink session. Met a new girl and she seems quite nice, but I'm not interested. I swear players can easily pick up girls who are looking for a guy. I feel it can be quite easy sometimes, as all you have to do is show a lot of interest and treat them out and give them plenty of attention. Not saying all are like this, but there are plenty that are. I'm not the best looking guy, but when someone has a slight interest in you, you have to grab it by quickly or it'll slip away. I normally always let them slip away. The girl has to impress me as much as I have to impress her.

Of course she could just be very friendly and I’m being deluded, as per my blog, hehe. My friend says it’s all a numbers game, he’ll just print off a ton of business cards and just hand them out to random girls he sees on the street. Which is hilarious, I don't think he'll go through with it but I'd be interested in the results, purely for science. ;) 

First world problems at its finest. In this day and age living in a fast moving city in the age of the internet, it can be a strange time to try and find love. Internet dating seems to be the current trend, but I don't quite like the forced environment, I feel like nothing quite beats actually hooking up with people randomly. The trouble is meeting those specifics to create a random environment for a particular outcome to happen. No matter what, it’s really down to you controlling what you do, if you don’t get yourself out there, then you will not get anything. Go out there and make a fool of yourself in a bar/club, go to many social gatherings, join clubs, etc. It’s down to having fun though, regardless if it’s outside your comfort zone. I hear and see people moaning about being single, but normally it is themselves to blame. Make your own luck.

I’ve liken to a website called Reddit, which I will probably dedicate a blog entry all on its own. In particularly I’d like to point out a sub group, solely for sharing experiences in the art of seduction, or at least tips and experiences in trying to get with the other sex. They refer themselves as Seddit. It’s enlightening and very interesting.  It’s like they have create a new language for themselves when talking about how to woo the other side. The game is always being played, and it’s quite fascinating. Even if it's a bit crude and they're solely in it to get as many as they can. They do tell much truth.

In any case my point of view at the moment, is that I’m not going to make effort for now, I’m quite content with where I am with my life right now, amongst other things to sort out. Women can come later, or it can hit me in the face or not regardless how much older I'll be getting. Love as they say can come at any age.