THE TRAIN NUMBERS GAME

Since today is "Leap Year Day" (2/29) a day which occurs only once every for years here is a post to do with numbers.. The “The Train Numbers Game” is a game I like to play to test my brain as well as for a little bit of fun when riding on the train. Perhaps you’ve heard of it before, but surprisingly when I try and play this game with people on the train many are oblivious to such a game existing, hence my blog post. I’d just like to mention that I did not make this game up so I don’t know who to give credit to and secondly this game is basically playable anywhere where you can see a set of four numbers.

The aim of the game is to get to the number ten using the four numbers given in the carriage number.

Rules:
- Each digit must be used
- Each digit can only be used once
- You must not have any spare numbers left over
- You may only use addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication (Although if you’re good with other operations, feel free use implement them)
- If you wish to square or cube a number (etc.) you must have a two or three (etc.) respectively. The same also applies for square or cube roots. This expends the number.

Most often than not it is possible to get a ten, but there are occasions where it will be impossible to get a ten, especially if there are too many zeros.


Upon playing this game with my two Chinese friends Vivian and Lisa, they were surprised to find out the rules in which I was playing by. According to them, there is a Chinese variation of this game which they used to play back in China. It basically follows the rules except makes these two amendments.

1) In order for the game to start, each of the four digits must be different and there must be no zeros.
2) You must somehow get to the number 24 (Instead of 10)

For example in the picture below, the carriage number is 5928

The solutions for each version are as follows.

Standard Game:
9 – 8 = 1
1 X 2 = 2
2 x 5 = 10

Chinese Version:
9 – 5 = 4
8 – 2 = 6
4 X 6 = 24

For additional fun, the loser may be forced to do a dare or a punishment game etc.

Enjoy the commute~ \(^o^)/

THE FOLLIES OF FEMINISM

In this small rant of a blog post, I would briefly like to point out the follies of feminism. Please note that this is not just me taking a shot at females as I think males have to take some of the blame too. I personally think that feminism most probably grew from the fertile fields of hopeless males. Think about it, if males kept women happy, then there would be no disgruntled females trying to call for revolutionary change. Everything would be sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows.

I think feminism itself seems to be a half-baked theory consequently being something which occasionally seems to fail at going around full-circle. I personally do not believe in complete gender equality as I don’t think we are equal, but in saying that I don’t think that the disparity between genders in certain areas should be so great either. For the record, a few things I do support relative gender equality for include, the right to dignity as a human, suffrage, and wages. I also disagree with the way women are treated in many areas of the world such as in places where a women can be punished severely just for dressing in a particular way. Sure it’s good to have a school of thought in where women are empowered but I think there are a few things feminists fail to see, or at least if they do see such things their vision must be obscured. As with most things, moderation is okay but for those feminists who take it that little bit too far, demanding that little bit too much, to me it seems such people are trying to have their cake and eat it.

For those of you who are well-versed in the ideology of feminism, it may appear that I have some misconceptions about it. Granted, if that seems to be the case, that need not weaken my arguments as the points I shall bring up below tend to be the things most people think about when the word feminism is brought up.

For example, feminists often strive for complete equality. Unfortunately, I beg to differ as males are physiologically different from females. Each gender has its perks and downfalls and as such, you can’t both have your cake and eat it. Furthermore it leads me to believe that feminists are oblivious to males who are either “Romantic Casanovas” or “Prince Charmings”. Guys like that put a lot of effort into pleasing their girl so as to make her feel like a princess. As you can see, in this instance it is the girls who are controlling the guys to an extent in one way or another. If one were to counter argue this notion by stating something alone the lines that such guys only do this because in the end all they want is sex, I would counter argue such a statement with the fact that so long as any sex between the two was consentual, then it should be noted that “it takes two to tango” and that the female was merely seduced. I’m sure that if the efforts males put into gentlemanliness, gallantry, and chivalry are to compensate for the minor disadvantages inherent with being a female. Then again, since such characteristics of males are generally dwindling nowadays so I think it’s only fair that women do something to compensate for this deficiency.

If the idea of feminism is to empower females, I find it strange that feminists either fail to see or somehow tend to overlook one of the greatest weapons they have at their disposal, that being their ability to please males with sex. Take for example the Ancient Greek play, Lysistrata in where the plot revolves around the women of Greece withholding sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers in an attempt to end The Peloponnesian War. This drought of sex led to a profound affect with males inside the story. Although women have sexual appetites too, at this current point in time most of mainstream society tends to shun overtly promiscuous women, whereas men who have many sexual conquests are often touted as heroes. Although, just imagine if something similar to what happened in Lysistrata were to happen today and all the females of the world were to stop having sex with males. It would be easy to then imagine the world suddenly plummeting into absolute chaos.

Lastly, I’d like to note something which will probably never change, whether feminists like it or not, although I think this would more have to do with the tradition of courtship as opposed to gender difference.
“A guy should always pay for the first date.”

Additionally, here is an ethos and I live by and I think this is critically important for males.
“What kind of a guy are you, if you cannot protect and provide for the girl you love?”

In essence, that’s my little rant. In short, moderate feminism is okay, but as with most things, it’s best not to let things get too out of hand as you can’t always have your cake and eat it. I also think males are also partly to blame because if we weren’t so hopeless, females would have fewer things to complain about and therefore can be kept pacified. I apologize once more should I offend anybody, but the fact of the matter is males and females are not the same therefore there should not be complete equality. Conversely, males and females are fairly similar so in saying that, males and females should be relatively similar. Additionally, there are probably a few things I forgot to mention but as I’m an expert at pleasing girls, I guess it doesn’t really bug me. In summation, to make for a better Planet Earth, girls, be ambitious and boys, up your game.

ATTRACTIVENESS & IT'S VARIOUS FORMS

Seeing as today I celebrated a “Delayed Valentine’s Day” with a super-fly girl I thought I’d post something on couples. Here’s something which might seem like common sense to some but to others might not be. It's surprising to note how often people make comments about couples which go somewhere along the lines of one person in that particular couple being way too good for the other person in that couple. Critical words like that often make me think about what kind of basis such a statement can be made on. What I will focus on in this blog post is the one reason which occurs more often than not, that being how one person in the couple is a lot more physically attractive than the other. I suppose it is this disparity between the two which seems a little strange to onlookers passing by.

This post will explore something I think people should note, especially those willing to make such calls on couples which appear to be an odd match at first glimpse. For the record, I did not come up with everything here, but here’s a bit of what I think combined with some gnarly bits of economic and sociological theory.

Suppose that all the people in the world were commodities. With that being the case we can now postulate that each individual can be purchased (won-over/scored/obtained, call it what you may) with some form of capital. For argument’s sake, let us also imagine the world as a predominately free market, or in layman’s terms, a dog-eat-dog place generally free from intervention, in where if you want, you must do whatever you can to get whatever you can.

For those of you who are a bit lost with this slight analogy to economic theory I guess you could say that the more capital you have, the more purchasing power you have. In a nutshell, having a higher purchasing power consequently allows you to obtain better things.


So taking this into account, I believe that attractiveness generally boils down to three things, each of which equating to a different form of capital.

1) How attractive you are on the outside

- This would have to do with how you appear on the outside, which basically means your looks.

- This equates to SEXUAL CAPITAL

- This can be increased by working-out, dieting, make-up, surgery, etc…

2) How attractive you are on the inside

- This can be broken down into two sub-categories, your personality and/or your intellect.

- This equates to PERSONALITY CAPITAL &/OR INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL

- This can be increased by being a better person, studying harder, etc…

3) How attractive your wallet is

- This would have to do with how much money you have, which basically means your financial status.

- This equates to FINANCIAL CAPITAL

- This can be increased by getting a job, getting a better paying job, winning the lottery, etc...

Usually people will have a certain amount of each capital in varying amounts. In some cases the amounts may be balanced across the board whilst in other cases the amounts may be skewed towards only one or two particular forms of capital. For example, one person could just be average in every single avenue, being average with the looks, personality, and wealth they have. Alternatively, someone low in sexual capital may in turn be compensated by having extremely high amounts financial capital and moderate amounts of personality capital. Conversely, someone with a high amount of sexual capital may often have this at the expense of the amount of intellectual and financial capital they have. There are then also rare cases in where particular individuals either are extremely lucky, having high amounts of capital in all its forms, or extremely unlucky, having very little capital in all its forms.

With this in mind, one should note that some forms of capital can be converted into other forms of capital, some more easily than others. For example, models capitalize on their sexual capital by showing off their body and in-turn they obtain financial capital. Likewise, if you have a good idea, you can turn that piece of intellectual capital into financial capital by making that idea become reality. In addition to this, sometimes certain forms of capital can even crossover as evident in the particular cases where people find either smart or kind-hearted people to be sexually attractive, more-so than say a person with a good physique.

As hinted above, the accumulation of additional capital of any type requires more effort to be exerted in its respective field. In many cases, putting in such effort to obtain increased amounts of capital isn’t necessarily the easiest or most pleasurable thing to do in the world. The term which may best describe this could be the word “work” in its various incarnations. This in turn justifies why we often feel either jealous of them (or one of them) or feel like laughing at them when we see such discrepancies between the two individuals who are in such couples. On the flipside, it also explains why we ourselves feel either really lucky or gypped when it comes to us perceiving our (potential) partner. As rational beings, we all generally want to feel like we’re getting a fair deal as opposed to being swindled out of our various forms of capital. In other words, most of us want to see ourselves as being relatively equal to the partner we have in one way or another, hence the notion, "we 'deserve' eachother".

In wrapping up, I shall return back to the topic regarding how some people react when seeing a presumably mismatched couple. In its most common form, I’m guessing people fail to see that the not-so-good-looking person (I.e. the one deficient in sexual capital) may have high amounts of personality capital, intellectual capital, financial capital, or potentially even all to compensate for their lack in the looks department. It very well could have been these other forms of capital which brought these two together. As you know, we are all different and thus, we are all attracted to different things and each of us desires something different from the other. With that in mind, if you’re the type to judge such couples, then the next time you see a couple in where one person looks a lot better than the other, perhaps consider their relationship under this light before casting judgment. If you’re feeling jealous, just remember that couples which aren’t happy will more often than not, break up. Furthermore, there are plenty more fish in the sea, so just keep fishing…

Then again, your hunch could be right in where that person you're jealous of is just plain lucky~ \(^o^)/

P.S. If you can detect the subtle undertones written between the lines in this particular blog post, then odds are what you’re thinking is correct. The ulterior motive behind this blog post is that I actually do advocate a “particular something” many people in society look down upon hence, I felt that it was necessary for me to present this “particular something” in a way which makes itself justified. I also believe it is one’s obligation to, and the other one’s right to do this “particular something” should they wish to. If after reading or re-reading this you can see where I’m coming from, then the purpose for this blog post would have been achieved.

THE SEXUALITY SPECTRUM

Disclaimer: This blog post might be a bit sensitive as it has to do with sexuality. I have tried my best to write this as delicately and “politically correct” as possible but if it still does not suffice to your taste, I apologize as I do not mean to cause offense. Although I have done a few sociology subjects and even a gender-studies class as an elective at university, I am by no means an expert so there may be a few errors in here.

As a preface to this, the catalyst for writing this particular blog post is because I am a fan of fighting games, especially STREET FIGHTER. In Japan, there is a famous competitive player named named 佐藤 かよ(Kayo Sato) who often plays under the name KAYOpolice.

Here is a video of KAYOpolice playing SUPER STREET FIGHTER IV

Here is another video

If you can understand Japanese then I’m sure you’ll get it. If you can understand written Chinese then perhaps you may get the jist. If you have a sense of empathy, you might be able to get it, but just in case you missed it, KAYOpolice’s “sex” is male.

Please note, there IS a difference between gender and sex.

- Gender has to do with what society perceives to be male or female and usually can easily be changed by the individual.

- Sex has to do with what sexual-reproductive organs you have physiologically that being whether you produce sperm and are male, or produce eggs and are female and so far cannot be changed.

So back on-topic, prior to KAYOpolice revealing her true sex, I honestly admit I found her to be “physically” attractive. I also thought that KAYOpolice would probably be one of the very few good looking girls who were actually good at STREET FIGHTER. Nobody knew KAYOpolice was a male, not even the modeling agency she worked for. This is in spite of her doing photo shoots revealing outfits including bikinis. It was only up until rumors surfaced that KAYOpolice was forced to come clean. Even now upon realizing KAYOpolice is a male, I still must concede that I find her to still be “physically” attractive, although as a heterosexual male, I guess it does muddle things up.

In either case, I’m not too fond of using labels as you can see with this mess I’ve brought up right here. As a result, I concocted up spectrum below which is what I sometimes use (and would rather use) as an alternative to the usual sexuality labels such as straight, gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, etc.

 

To make sense of this, you just choose where your tastes lie along the spectrum.

So rather than coming up with an outright sexuality, with the way I look at things, I guess it just depends where on the spectrum your tastes lie. As you can see, the combinations are endless as everybody has different tastes in what they find to be physically attractive.

When you begin to look at sexuality under this light, you begin to see some of the deficiencies under the normal sexuality-label system. It is evident that there seems to be some overlapping. For example, what do you make of a female lesbian who has a thing for tomboys, considering the fact that tomboys are females who deliberately put effort into being (or at least appearing) more masculine? To further complicate the issue, what if there was a tomboy who found herself attracted only to other tomboys? You could also apply the inverse of this to males and obtain similar results. Likewise, what do you make of males who are attracted to tomboys, or females who find pretty boys attractive? I’d also like to add that for the record, I am aware that society often circumscribes upon people what is traits are to be considered feminine and masculine. My guess is that I’m sure there are specific labels associated for such people with such tastes, but as you can see, to the everyday person this kind of stuff can get a bit confusing.

I also believe that highlighting stereotypes under a negative light and holding prejudice against people who fit under certain labels makes the world a less pleasant place to live in. Conversely, without stereotypes, how can we highlight difference? We all are unique aren’t we? I guess it’s not the idea, but the execution which is more crucial in society.

On another tangent, it is said that in Ancient Rome, sexuality wasn’t determined by whether you were heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or asexual, but rather by if you were the dominant or the passive person. This though has flaws in itself for example, if you were to say a person performing fellatio was to be the passive person, what if they were to be so good that the person receiving it succumbed to them? Then who would be considered dominant (sic. Superior) in that case?

So in wrapping-up this blog post which could be likened to as a “messy situation”, I shall leave it in a mess. I guess we should all live and let live and leave people to do what they wish so long as the collateral damage isn’t too much. In summation, I don’t think my idea of the sexuality spectrum is the solution to the prejudices that those who of different sexual orientations face, but rather, a different way of looking at it.

Peace~ (^_^)

RAY-legion

Ha! Just in case you didn’t figure it out, "RAY-legion" is a pun on the word "Religion", in where I was able to integrate my name by slotting it into the first syllable. I decided on the suffix-word “legion” as “RAY-legion” sounds a lot better than “RAY-ligion”, and perhaps one day, maybe my mentality might have a "legion" of followers. This blog post shall serve as a way into the inner-workings of my mentality and mind.

Although I was brought up Catholic, I wouldn’t say I’m the most religious person out. I could argue that I’m Atheist but I’m sure there’s a myriad of arguments which would probably prevent me from being able to claim that I am that. I guess you could say I’m a sort of Agnostic but to be frank, I don’t let issues such as religious labels bug me. I also don’t really show any prejudice towards other religions so long as they let me be. I tend to be in the mindset of live and let live.

For the record, I’m aware of the arguments both for and against the notion that “Morals stem from religious doctrine” or something to that effect. I just thought I’d point that out. Feel free to read up on them if you wish.

So here’s the preface:

PERSON:  What religion are you?
ME: I’m RAY-legion!
PERSON: No, seriously… What religion?
ME: I was brought up Catholic, so I guess that makes me Catholic? I dunno… I don’t let such things bug me… I act all good and stuff, and probably I’ve been influenced by Christian doctrine, but yeah, it’s up to you…


And now we move on to the more interesting stuff...

I’ll assume you are aware of the concept of “karma” and “an eye for an eye”.

For me, I take a bit from each and make up my own system which helps me determine how I should act in given a situation. This may be worded a bit badly so I may re-edit thefollowing till I get it right. In either case, I'm sure the explanation below it will help make more sense.

1) Whether you do something positive or negative (or do nothing which then results in a consequence either positive or negative) that something will come back to you in some form, one way or another
2) The magnitude in which it comes back to you may or not be equal to the aforementioned said amount

3) So from there, taking that risk into account, you can determine what course of action to take in a given situation

I tend to apply this to negative things, for example If I were to steal $100 the consequences for that action would be that somewhere down the track as payback, I may lose $10 or I may lose $1,000.

As I tend to be a risk-averse person I guess I can say that under most circumstances I will resist the urge to steal the $100 for fear of losing $1,000 later on down the track.

Of course there have been people who often counter-argue with statements like, “Just because you do something bad, doesn’t mean there’s going to be some sort of cosmic-retribution going after you as a consequence”.

Furthermore, this system is also completely open to abuse, especially if one were to believe that they would only lose $10 down the track, should they steal the $100 in my aforementioned example.

Be that as it may, I guess it’s just the way I am and this system works perfectly for me. Who knows, it may even work for you too.

Here are a few other things I think are worth a small mention regarding my mentality.

- There's always bound to be a postive, no matter how bad things get
- I tend to dislike useless effort (Although I’m sure if were to audit my behavior, I could be a hypocrite here)

- And at that, I generally dislike hypocrites

- I often like heavily processed (sic. fake) things. So for music that means auto-tune and for food that means cheeseburgers

- If you've got it, flaunt it if you want (but try not to put down those less fortunate you) and if you don't have it, be discreet, work hard to get it if you can, or make do without

I also tend to be a bit pessimistic, especially when it comes towards anticipating good things such as if a girl will say yes to me on a date, or whether I’ll have a string of good luck. As odd as it may seem coming from a happy-go-lucky person like me, my rationale for that is so that I’ll be grateful for anything good which comes my way. Consequently, I end this post with a line from the movie “Ice Age”.

Diego to Sid: If you ever find a mate in life, you should be loyal. In your case, grateful!

START

Yay! I've started a blog and it is here where I shall blog. (^_^)

~Happy Valentine's Day!!! \(^o^)/