oroiko's Xanga

Relationships with family hardest to maintain

Tue, 01 May 2012 14:49:05 GMT

If you look at my title, it's hard to develop mutual trust out of family members for the simple fact that sometimes we ask family to help out--more like demand--because we're related. This is the case especially between my mother and me. One example is my checking account. She deposited extra money in it so that I'd eventually have enough money to purchase a house. Then one day, she needed to borrow my money. About 3 months after I loaned her some money, I discovered I went over when I had to pay for my college tuition. I was pissed. She didn't pay me back in a timely manner, and I didn't bother actually writing down how much I had because her earlier deposits skewed my calculations. Her suggestion was that I wouldn't have to pay the $1000 "rent" fee for the money she owes me, which would amount to 8 months worth of rent.

Anybody else experience similar trust breakdowns with family members?

Rick Santorum on apology of Quran burning

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:47:06 GMT

Republican presidential candidate hopeful, Rick Santorum, believes President Obama should not have apologized for the inadvertent burning of the Quran, which sparked a riot in Afghanistan. He said Obama should have only acknowledged that the burning action was wrong and taken responsibility. Well, isn't giving an apology taking responsibility for the circumstance? It's common courtesy to apologize, deliberate or inadvertent. We don't only say "I'm sorry" when we mean to hit somebody.
Elia, who left a comment on yahoo.com below the article said it best and I'm posting it here:

When I bump into a guy in a crowd, the first thing I do is look to him and offer a small apology. Not because I intended to hit him, but because the circumstances we both shared had caused me to infringe upon his personal space for a moment. That's just common courtesy, politeness, or "manners" if you will. If you think that makes me a #$%$ then by all means say so: It will only prove that you're the douchiest prick in the entire world who can only rant through an online forum ( I did two tours in Afghanistan and Iraq while a US Marine, so if you don't have similar credentials, tread carefully, and choose your words with care)If Rick Santorum were in Charge, his response would have been: "I did it, so what? come at me brah" ?An Apology doesn't say "I see you as my superior, I'm a giant coward, please don't hurt me"What it does say is "I see that my actions have unintentionally caused you harm or grief, I feel bad about that, and I'll make sure something like this doesn't happen in the future, so we can proceed in the present without bloodshed."If you think Santorum's method might be preferable, Then let me know exactly which branch of service, unit, and time you served with that unit. I'm eager to see if anyone who's actually 'put up' is willing to 'speak up' for this opinion. To the rest of you hillbillies talking racist nonsense: grow up and become an adult. And insult me how you like, but unless I see some unit info, you're a giant #$%$ with no right to back talk to your betters.

What do you think of Obama's apology? Do you side with his action or Santorum? Would you vote for Santorum after hearing just this tidbit about him?

Dog Dominance

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:53:52 GMT

Today, my friend and I went to visit his girlfriend, and this is the first time I've been to her house. Well, she had a little dog, who decided to jump on my lap and try to kiss me. Later, the girlfriend picked the dog from my lap. A similar incident with small dogs happened at my cousin's apartment, where his girlfriend's two little dogs just jumped on my lap without permission. My cousin said dogs could sense I'm a friendly person. Well, I decided to look up "dogs jumping on laps" and it turns out the act is a sign of establishing dominance over the human, for space has to do with signs of respect. When a dog jumps on a person's lap uninvited, the dog is claiming dominance/ownership over the human rather than a sign of love. It's something we tend to let small dogs get away with because we think it's cute. The website,http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/articles/smalltoydogs.htm, says humans should always dictate what a dog can or cannot do and demonstrate to the dog that the human owner is the pack leader. This includes having the dog walk beside or behind the human, permission to sit on lap, permission to growl, and permission on where to sleep.
If the dog jumps on a person's lap uninvited, the person is to prod the dog until the dog moves off on its own.

Elgin Baylor's quiety refusal as seen on True Hoop of ESPN

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:28:58 GMT

In 1966, Frank Deford profiled Elgin Baylor for Sports Illustrated. What emerges is undeniably one of the greatest players, and characters, in NBA history. Of course Baylor scored with the best, and rebounded better than almost anyone his size. Today is January 16, 2012, the day we honor the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. It also happens to be, according to Hoopedia, 53 years to the day that Baylor made it known that he would not let West Virginia racists sap his dignity. Deford tells the tale of the racial encounter that marked Baylor's rookie year:

Then in January the Lakers went to Charleston, W. Va. for a game with Cincinnati. The hotel clerk, a mousy chap, looked at Baylor, immaculate as always, and at the two other Negroes on the team. "We can't take those three. We run a respectable hotel," is what the little man said. Baylor stiffened. He decided simply that he would not play.

But he made no fuss. The papers did not even know. Some of his teammates called him selfish. As the team walked out of the locker room, one Laker spoke over his shoulder: "Nine of us go out to play; nine of us split the playoff money." Baylor heard, as he was supposed to. He made no reply, and he did not move.

Hot Rod Hundley, a teammate who was from Charleston, came back to implore Baylor. He went through the litany: We Need You; For The Team; Please; This Won't Accomplish Anything Anyway. Baylor listened, and only at the end did he speak. "Rod," he said, "I'm a human being. I'm not an animal put in a cage and let out for the show. They won't treat me like an animal."

For the first time Hundley, the white kid from Charleston, understood the great pride that lives in Elgin Baylor. "Baby," he said, "don't play."

The Lakers lost that night but made the playoffs, and Baylor even carried them to the finals before Boston beat them. "By the end of the year," Hundley says, "we couldn't shut Elg up." They split the playoff money 10 ways.

PETA and Mario's tanooki suit

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:03:10 GMT

PETA is against the revival of the tanooki suit in Mario's latest game on Nintendo 3DS. See the link.
http://www.1up.com/news/mario-3d-land-tanooki-suit-not-ok-with-peta
And they came up with a game parody, where the skinned raccoon has to recover it's skin. They neglected to notice that their game has more violence and blood than the Mario game. Hypocrites? I mean if they're so mad against the tanooki suit, PETA might as well protest sale of animal costumes on Halloween, as that can be implied as promoting wearing animal parts.

Michael Jackson's private doctor guilty of manslaughter

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 22:39:16 GMT

Dr. Conrad will face up to 4 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter of Michael Jackson. The Jacksons get closure, and the best outcome could be that Dr. Conrad will have his medical practice license revoked.

Downloadable Content

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 20:36:09 GMT

Downloadable content (DLC) for games sound nice. Instant bug patches and ability to buy extra packs that suit an individual's tastes. But sometimes it feels like developers scamming the consumer. Take WWE'12, the latest wrestling game by THQ. The game is scheduled to come out in a month, but there's already an article about the first DLC pack http://ps3.ign.com/articles/121/1210643p1.html, that will come out a month after the game. Now, DLC is usually content that developers wanted to include but couldn't add them in time for the release, but this is ridiculous. The DLC of Shuma and Jill for MVC3 is just as bad. Extra characters on the disc that had to be unlocked by forking more money. In the past, characters were unlocked after repeated playthroughs. Not anymore. Another gripe is when the DLC come out. Call of Duty: Black Ops had 3 separate map packs spaced roughly 1-2 months apart from each other. Really? Developers couldn't package them all together? Gone are legit expansion packs that are worth more of your money. Now, every additional content costs something: costumes, map packs, new characters, new weapons. Pre-orders are equally bad. Every vendor has a special pre-order. What should a customer do if he wants all of them? Wait 2 years for the game of the year edition or wait for the exclusive content to become DLC. One time use codes for multiplayer or extra content is a bitch too. All it does is hurt the fanbase not the used market.

Haven't felt this good in a while

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 03:40:56 GMT

Today I played intramural basketball. We've been struggling since most of the time we only have 4 or 5 show up and the other team has at least 8. Today we had 5 and they had 7, but we also picked up a new guy who's African American and can ball. He has played with us in the past 3 games. Even though he is the best guy on our team, he still does a good job distributing the ball. I thought I scored 8, but the scorekeeper notched 7 for me. I also got 3 bogus calls. One was an over the back foul, when it was the other guy over my back as I prevented him from getting an offensive board. The interesting part was I played without my contacts since I forgot to pack them in my bag. It turned out good, since I didn't feel as nervous as I normally would and I hit most of my shots. My teammates said I deserved the game ball for my hustle and clutch shots. Our "ringer" scored 41. My team captain even agreed. Normally he's an ass for always demanding the ball despite not playing any defense nor do anything on the offensive end except wait in the corner to shoot a 3. We ended up beating a good team that could shoot well from outside. They crept back in the second half due to me finding out I had 4 fouls. One more and I would have fouled out, so I played softer defense. We won despite bad officiating, and a win is all that matters. We stand at 5-6-1.
We eked out a draw when I nailed the buzzer beater at the end of the second half, which we thought iced it for us. Only that the scorekeeper said he removed some of the other team's points and the other team did originally play 5 on 4 against us. In the second half they played 4 on 4 and that's how we caught up. My team captain was complaining, but I told him we should be grateful. It was funner in the second half instead of being mismatched.

If you were to die, where would you like to be buried?

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 02:37:39 GMT

The Band Perry's song about dying young got me thinking about this question. My answer is cremate my body after donating my organs and find any cemetery or place to bury it should people want to remember me. For my burial service, I don't want one. Just let my family and relatives know, say a small prayer and that's it. It's no good crying over a dead person who will never know he's missed. I also like short and simple ceremonies. I'm still picky even though I've died. Please don't say "I'm sorry for your loss." Just say, "That sucks." It's what I said to a friend who lost his mother. I mean, you weren't responsible for the loss so don't feel sorry.

Frustration

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 23:37:20 GMT

Frustration
Job interview request on a day I told them I have class.
Now they don't call me.
Fast food restaurant worker asking me if I want a beverage after I said water only 3x
Fast food restaurant worker getting my order wrong after I said what I wanted 3x
Fast food restaurant worker asking me if I want anything else after I said "that's it" more than once
I buy a safer can opener and now my parents say they're used to the old one already
I don't have financial aid this semester because I have too many units overall
My intramural team keeps getting blown out because we only have 4 players show up for a game.
To make matters worse, the team captain is bitchin about his lack of touches so our PG stops playing.
There's no NBA season yet because the team owners and players can't agree on anything.
I've got a "diva" for a coworker. She can't get along with other workers and not willing to sacrifice days off or longer hours for her coworkers even though other workers are willing to work overtime for her hours when she needs days off.