EPT
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Life certainly has its ups and downs. After all, it is a great journey in which we experience a number of events with some of those being bad. Death, disease, loss, failure, disappointment, medivacs... all of these things can challenge you mentally and make life difficult. Some people can't take it, and end it all. In fact, the guy who sat in front of me in 5th form history (when I was 15) ended up hanging himself two years later presumably because of a bad break up (we never officially found out, but that is what people said at the boarding house I lived at, whom were very close to him).
Having come out of one of the most difficult experiences of my life, I've had the chance to reflect on a number of things. Where I was at with my life; was I happy with it? What things are really important to me; how will I keep those things close? Moreover I had an opportunity to muse on those things which make my life easier or better; and that is the subject of this blog. Sorry Starcraft fans, the esports ends here.
New Zealand
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Photo credit: Alice from my facebook; thx!
Photo credit: Alice from my facebook; thx!
Living in New Zealand is something I've taken for granted for most of my life, as I suspect many of you do about your home countries. It's only very recently that I've been realised that living here is a massive blessing. Access to free health care, for one, is particularly nice. I've heard many stories about hospitals in China and other places around the world where critical health care has been denied because people could not pay the bills. Here in NZ this is never an issue. Treatment always comes first. If you are a citizen here, there is no charge. If you aren't, you'll be billed afterwards (although I hear a lot of people skip country - oh well). While you'd hope that you'd never have to use this, it's good to know it's there just in case.
Indeed, NZ has a certain standard of living that no one falls below. Of course this is due to our social welfare schemes and whatnot, but despite it's benefits being debatable it's reassuring to know that even if you fail - the country is there to catch you. Of course these things are not unique to NZ, but they are certainly positive aspects of the country as far as I'm concerned. One more thing is that NZ's political position in the world means that we are relatively safe from any incidents happening. The security and safety that this country offers is another thing that's often taken for granted.
Of course New Zealand is famous for its natural beauty, and that is another thing about this country that I haven't really appreciated. I mean, I live 30mins away from this:
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Plexa/Fairy_Falls/FF_13.jpg)
And I live in the central city. Of course I could go on about this, but then I'd sound like a NZ tourism ad. Let's just say that NZ is a beautiful and diverse landscape and will leave a lasting impression on you - assuming you go to the right places of course.
But I think the biggest revelation to me has been that New Zealand food kicks ass. It isn't that NZ has unique and amazing food like Italy or France, but it's that we do the simple things extremely well. For instance, NZ coffee is some of the best in the world. Starbucks coffee is terrible in comparison, even cafes in Europe can't hold a flame to NZ coffee. It isn't that I've grown up and have become used to NZ coffee, hence it's superiority. Rather there are a number of tell tale signs of why its better
- In over 80% of the cafes in NZ, you can smell the aroma of coffee beans as you enter
- In the majority of cafes the machines are kept clean (between uses) and in good condition, one cannot say the same about other places in the world
That alone is fairly indicative of the difference in quality. We even have a coffee native to the Australasian region - the flat white. It's basically a cappuccino, but there are some subtle deviations (like the amount of froth). Incidentally, Auckland Public Hospital has one of the best coffee places in NZ (it's called Planet Espresso, for those interested) at a good price too. However, my favourite cafe is without doubt Ben on Fort St:
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After tasting a Flat White (or anything really) from here, nothing else compares. The guy who runs this place went to the world Barrister champs if I recall correctly, and has an extreme passion for coffee to the point where he imports some special kind of bean and grinds it himself daily. It's also priced very reasonably ($4.00 for a Flat White last time I was there, thats about $3.20 USD with the current exchange rate).
When I was in LA for Blizzcon one of the most distinctive memories I have is how different the hamburgers tasted. There was something special about them that made them different from what I was used to in NZ. They, indeed, were very very good (and probably terrible for me, but oh well). Then Burgerfuel came along and my perception of the Burger changed.
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Hashbrowns in a burger? Fuck yeah!
Their basic burger captured everything amazing about the burgers I had in LA, but then came the rest of the menu. Every burger was a crafted masterpiece of culinary delight. I mean they are a good 10-15cm (4-6 inches) in diameter for crying out loud. Oh, and their chips and aioli or kumera (sweet potato) and aioli is to die for (or beer battered chips, when they have them). This is like fast food on steroids.
I could keep going on about the food, but I'll stop now. NZ may not have the most fancy restaurants in the world or the most creative (although, I'd say giapo is up there!) but your basic foods are executed at an extremely high level worthy of envy from across the globe.
Music
Music is a large part of my life, being a classically trained pianist. While I no longer play piano (time constraints, but also that there isn't room for a keyboard in my apartment) I can't escape the effect that amazing songs have on me - such as the one above. The thing I've come to realise is that good music is everywhere and in every genre. Some genres however, the good is a little more difficult to find than others.
Melodic music resonates with me tremendously. That's probably the pianist influence coming through, heh. I think my taste in music reflects this very well. On one hand there is my metal influences like Opeth (Blackwater Park is one of the greatest albums ever made), Insomium, Kalmah, Children of Bodom, Dark Tranquillity, Eternal Tears of Sorrow, Scar Symmetry, Between the Buried and Me etc... There is so many more I could list and each is amazing in their own right. For those of you who couldn't stand the above track (
) then perhaps this is more to your liking;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4Fvf6JFP4U
Of course the bands I just listed are definitely towards the heavier end of the spectrum - mostly because they all play death metal subgenres! Of course I have some bands in the metal-hard rock range that I listen to; Dream Theater as cliche as they are now, are still a good band. Also Trivium, Nevermore, Tool, Sonic Syndicate, Ill Nino, Rise Against etc. are all amazing to me. But I'm assuming there is a lot of metalheads here so I won't bother elaborating further.
On the other hand you have my electronic influences. Two genres to me stick out - Liquid Drum and Bass (ala the first video in this section) and Progessive Trance. Armin's A State of Trance podcast is one of the greatest gifts ever given the mankind. It's my go to study music but not only that it's makes for good standalone listening (or gaming music!). While ASoT is my primary source of trance, I always have my eyes peeled for work by John O'Callaghan and Roger Shah - two of the greatest Trance producers, in my opinion.
For my Liquid DnB fix there is only one real option - Liquicity.
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I'm still feeling my way around this genre, but there is a lot of amazing material out there. I know everyone praises Netsky - but I don't find anything particularly special about his stuff. Of course he has some great tracks, but his body of work isn't fantastic (although, the same can be said about almost every DnB artist).
When it comes to Liquid DnB my preference lies with B-Complex (<3 Beautiful Lies), Stan SB (Cloudhead and Smudge are incredible) and selected works from Two-Thirds, Tyler Straub and Madmen & Poets. Of course this begs the question, what about dubstep? Well, adding the prefix to it makes it bearable - but there are some outstand tracks within the Liquid Dubstep genre. The following (NZ made, mind you) is one such track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZnpikoHNWw
And lastly, there is a bunch of weird alternative stuff that I listen to. Other genres I find are too difficult to find artists who consistently put out quality material. One of the most perfectly crafted albums of all time, in my opinion, is A Perfect Circles "The Thirteenth Step". While no track on the album is stands out and screams "omg this is amazing" - the entire album when played in order is incredibly deep and each song flows naturally on to the next. Pet is the climax of the album and the lyrics still haunt me..
"Don't fret precious I'm here, step away from the window, and go back to sleep. Lay your head down child I won't let the boogey man come, counting bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums....
Don't mind what other voices say, they don't care about you like I do. Safe from pain, and truth, and choice, and other poison devils - see they don't give a fuck about you, like I do. Just stay with me, safe and ignorant, go back to sleep. "
Shudder. The 'counting bodies like sheep' simile is one that I've never been able to forget - even though I hear it first in 'When the levee breaks'.
Okay, enough about APC. That's not the only weird alternative stuff I'll listen to. It goes both ways - on the metal and electronic side. Air, for instance, has some of the most chilling electronic tracks I've ever heard - like Cherry Blossom Girl (Jazz flute is sexy, I'm sorry). Crystal Castles has their moments as well, particularly in "Alice Practice" which conveys (to me at least) the emotion or feeling of desperation like no other. There's also stuff by Freezepop (like "Less Talk more Rock") and Telepopmusik which have intrigued me.
And then there are weird poppy-alt-rock gems like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdO85Qf4Poc
Oh, amazing stuff.
Shoutout to Doctorhelvetica who introduced me to Toe recently, and has sparked my interest in Post Rock. No doubt I'll be mentioning this more significantly in a few months time when I truly have a good grip on the genre. I could also mention some """Classical""" stuff like Dvorak, Liszt and Mendelssohn, but I think my audience would be lost. Oh well
The People Around Me
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Me and my gf celebrating 4.5 years, taken before prednisone ravaged my body too much
Me and my gf celebrating 4.5 years, taken before prednisone ravaged my body too much
It's funny, throughout life you encounter some really amazing people. In fact I think most people are pretty amazing. The ones I've let into my life are all people whom enrich it with their presence. While I shouldn't go into details about my real life friends out of respect for their privacy, I will say this about them. Each one of them brings something unique and inspirational to my life. For that, I am thankful to have each and every one of them.
"Around" is a fairly loose term, people on the internet are still people I consider to be around me. Indeed, TeamLiquid is a large part of that. Nazgul told me something that's stuck with me, around the time I 'quit' TL. To paraphrase, he said 'it doesn't matter whether you know the person in real life or over the internet, the connections you make are real and significant. The friendships you make online are real and transcend their origin to become friendships in the real world.' The people I've met here are amazing and genuinely care about me. A feeling which is reciprocated to each and everyone of them (Megalisk included, although he's a terrible poster... sigh...)
Another thing which surprised me about the TL staff is how all our arguments arise from differences on how we think we can improve TL. No matter the disagreement, everyone has the betterment of TL as their driving motive. This isn't what you'd expect, personally I'd expect personal difference or power struggles or something to be the driving cause for tension and disagreement - but nope, it's always 'what is the best way to make TL better'. Crazy stuff. But the passion everyone has for the website helps drive me and keeps me coming back, and keeps me wanting to contribute too!
Lastly, my gf is an incredible source of strength for me. Some of you know I was sick with a chronic illness (ulercative colitis) and the treatment has wrecked my body, and at times my mental state. She has had every opportunity to leave and rid herself of my problems - but she hasn't. She has supported me through the whole thing and I have every faith that she will continue to do that in the future. She gives me a reason to do even the most basic things, like cooking and taking out the rubbish, and if that isn't motivation or something to make my life better then I don't know what is. She is truly special to me.
Math
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I love doing Math. It makes me feel so complete and happy, yeah that's weird. In particular, there is something fascinating about Complex numbers - at least to me anyway. One day I'll hopefully do a PhD motivated by the fact that every light open mapping between manifolds is topologically equivalent to an analytic mapping.
But it isn't really Math that makes life easier, it's the fact that I'm doing exactly what I love doing. I think that's something everyone should aspire to achieve - a life doing things you love. Waking up each day motivated to continue work on my Masters is such a blessing and I know that if I had not studied Math then my life would have been incomplete. It's just one of those things which you know in your heart is right.
The World Ends With You
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Plexa/Blogs/stuff8.jpg)
While the game is amazing, it's the quote that stuck with me. In fact, the quote resonated with me so much that it is without doubt my favourite quote and a source of inspiration. Upon first reading this, I simply didn't get it. I didn't even give it a second though. But then some dialogue in the game changed all of that;
"Listen up, Phones. The world ends with you.
If you want to enjoy life, expand your world.
You gotta push your horizons out as far as they'll go."
— Sanae Hanekoma If you want to enjoy life, expand your world.
You gotta push your horizons out as far as they'll go."
I think the quote is incredibly deep, and can be read in many ways. My reading is this; while scientists have concluded the Earth has been around for many years, that isn't really the world. The world is actually a person specific concept. Your world is your environment, the things you see, hear, smell, touch - all of that comprises what you perceive as the world. Life is short, death all encompassing. The world ends with you, and you only. There is no fallbacks, no scapegoat to blame; you only have yourself to hold accountable.
But like I said, it can be read in many ways. Nevertheless, it's a thought provoking quote - and an apt note to end this blog on. I hope you enjoyed.
Plexa
it's worth it imo
