Death

Just like anything else, death comes and goes unnoticed. A week or so ago, one of my grandma's brothers died. It was weird hearing it, it seemed just like yesterday we were all gathered in my great grandma's house all smiling and laughing, oh yeah she recently passed away too, can't really ask for more than 100+ years. Anyway, its times like these that make you feel the reality of death. Death, it hits you in the face like.. well nothing can hit you in the face as hard as death i guess.

Back when I was younger, not that I'm hella old now, I always thought that I would be ready for death no matter when it came. But as I grow up more, I guess I really don't know anymore. Recently I read two passages about it, and it makes you wonder.. if you could choose how to die, how would you want it? I guess if it were me it'd definitely be protecting my most important person, I wouldn't mind dying for that, or just saving someone, or fighting for a cause. Dying with honor is my greatest dream I guess. I mean what else could a man ask for in his life? But I guess the greatest wish of any dying person would be that he would be remembered, that he had been able to touch people's lives, that people would keep him alive in their hearts, never letting his existence fade away. I remember, at one point, I was thinking.. maybe if I planned to die someday, I'd do it that everyone was mad at me, that they would forget me, like I never existed. I always thought that was the best scenario for death, no one would cry, be affected. One of the few things that make people regret dying is the sorrow it causes the people who care for him isn't it? But of course thinking about it more carefully now, that thought wouldn't make sense

I guess when I die, I wish to be buried on a hill top, or somewhere overlooking a view of a sunset. a dramatic grand view of the setting sun on a simple gravestone. I guess that'd be perfect. Anyway as my philosophy professor always said, man has to die a beautiful death. NEVER ever let death dictate how you go, plan your death and make it a beautiful ending. I wouldn't want to die of old age, or to die of some random sickness and of course of an accident. I guess I would just really want to go in my own way.

Anyway this is just my take on death.

some stuff messing with my head

There are a lot of things in my head lately. Most of them just there because of the stuff I've been reading, the others things that I brought down on myself. Sometimes I just stop and wonder why people are they way they are and why don't they ever change? Also stuff like how come I'm like this and why the hell aren't I changing?

Well all I can say is that things never change, well at least some things... there are things that we think are gone but are really just there sleeping, waiting for the right time or in fact it may well be the wrong time for it to come out. Also there are somethings we have no control over... things that just can't be directed to the right path. I know this is all crazy, probably some left over ideas I have after reading Civil War (one hell of a great comic book series, kudos to Marvel for that one).

Well I guess these are just random abstract thoughts running amok in my head right now, running and making a mess of things, filling my mind with useless thoughts filling it up, nearly to the brim and maybe even almost overflowing... this probably doesn't make any sense at all, oh well look at the time, its almost 2 o'clock in the morning and here I am writing crappy ideas popping out of my head just because I read that comic book.

Anyway I'm sorry for anyone who bears with me and reads this crap, I guess I have succeeded in wasting hmm about 5 minutes of your time I guess. Thanks to anyone who drops by anyway.

the counter arguement

the rebutle to the x and y thing, you see my friend an occurence of an X in terms of causality necessarily corresponds to an effect Y. This IS what causality is all about if not and if one X can have multiple occuring Y's and one Y can have multiple X's causing it then what is the difference of this scenario from an independently occuring X and an independently occuring Y happening after X? could it be said that this is indeed causality? This is exactly what it means when I say everything happens by chance.

Causality part 2

@ osi : the thesis is this, everything happens by chance. Now as for the definition of causality, the principle of causality is the occurrence of a definite effect given a definite cause, meaning there is always an effect given a cause. Now to address your arguments, to consider something as the cause of something the thoughts must be necessarily connected meaning smoke is necessarily where fire is and vise versa. But clearly there are occurrences of fire without smoke. So how are they necessarily connected when one can do without the other? As for your cupboard opening with light flooding in, how in the world is opening a cupboard connected with the light flowing in? If your actually arguing that every cause has an effect of a sort isn't that saying there really is no principle of causality? If anything is possible given a cause then there is only chance that governs these occurrences? You see, the ideas you gave might be true, but aren't always true. Even data of scientists are proven wrong from time to time, have you ever heard of the space shuttles exploding just 13 seconds up the air? and didn't the scientists say that the shuttle was perfectly safe? Why do scientific theories take 300 years of proving before it becomes a law when people are so sure? so in the end isn't causality just a habit of the mind trying to connect various causes to the most common effects they have? clicking the post button will post your comment? please, aren't there occurrences where it fucks up and fails to post? nothing is certain, the idea of causality can only take us as far, but it can never tells us absolute certainty. think about it again, because the causality you say you know is the very reason why we say there isn't causality.

Humian Skepticism, the bane of our existence

First of all I am creating this post not to harm beliefs but rather to show you an entirely new way of looking at things...
David Hume the philosopher behind this is known for his uncanny consistency with his arguments.
He came to a point that he has become so consistent that we, as people trying to live our lives, could not and can never accept his philosophy, why, you might ask? Well let me give you a little sample of his skepticism, lets start off with a story:

There was this nerd, a super genius nerdy type that was the type who always got 4.0's or straight A's, but being the genius he was, he had this idiotic habit of waiting for exactly 8 o'clock before stepping into the school no matter what time he got there. Now one Monday, at exactly 8 o'clock, he stepped into the school feeling good and refreshed as he always does when doing this, when suddenly exactly 3 seconds after he heard a loud screech and a red car parked near the school gate. He at first paid no heed to such an occurrence thinking it must have been just a coincidence. The next day as he stepped into the school at exactly 8 o'clock feeling good, a red car just screeched and parked near the gate once again, and as he checked the time it was once again exactly 3 seconds after he stepped in. Being the genius he was, he started taking notice of this event. Mysteriously, the exact same thing happened both on Wednesday and Thursday as well this convinced him to consult a friend about it, having only one friend though, he told him of the event and come Friday both he and the friend waited near the gate and at exactly 8 o'clock exactly 3 seconds after he stepped in, the red car once again screeched and parked at the same exact space. Now the question is that Is the nerd causing the red car to stop and park? of course we know that this is an impossibility as the idea of stepping into school and a red car parking are totally different and have no grounds of being a cause and effect argument...

but then what if I then told you that this occurrence is exactly the same as these ideas? namely the following:
cause effect
smoke fire
jumping down a building death
dropping a piece of chalk breakage
universe God

impossible isn't it? well according to David Hume, the ideas we get are simply secondary perceptions that occur in our minds, the first thoughts are what he calls impressions, now for an idea be valid and to have meaning according to Hume, it must be supported by a corresponding impression, these impressions are things which we perceive here in the real world which we later form into ideas. Stop here, think for a second, think about anything that is real and you will see that we do have impressions of where these things were based on. Now here comes the main problem, the Principle of Causality, the very principle responsible for our everyday living and existence does not have a corresponding impression which shows it to us! You see for David Hume, there are 3 things as to where we base our thoughts on causality, these are contiguity (ideas that come next to each other.. e.g. I live in apartment B. Oh! He lives between apartments A and C) , priority in time (Before and After occurrences of the event) and Constant Conjunction (the ideas are joint together). These are all satisfied by the Principle of Causality. But then if thats the case where's the problem you ask? well you see Hume was not convinced by these 3 evidences, he was searching for a fourth factor this was the thought of necessary connection. Now this may sound a bit confusing... they are necessarily connected are they not? well this might be what most people would think, but think about it. When we see smoke there just might be fire isn't it? There is also a chance for there not to be a fire! when someone jumps down a building we think that there will be death, but there is a chance that the person will live and will only suffer a couple of injuries.. even if the event has happened around a million times, the next time could always have a chance of having a different outcome, this therefore shows us that no one cause and one effect can be considered necessarily correct!! But taking it a step further, we come to a conclusion that nothing is certain, that nothing can assure us of anything... this means studying hard won't guarantee an A or a passing mark, as well as breathing can necessarily be connected to living... so then the question becomes what do we live for now?

Please by all means post arguments or comments on this post, the more counter arguments and examples you give the better!

7th in legacy not a bad day considering i slept at 3 am

2 straight top 8 appearances although this last one didn't require me to go into the playoffs which was an upset since i could've really used the prerel pass. Anyway, i played gobvantage and it was pretty much a blind play since i have no practive with gobs and i have totally no experience playing with these little green men. anyway heres the decklist:

Gobvantage:

Artifacts: 4
4 Aether Vial

Creatures: 29
4 goblin lackey
4 goblin piledriver
4 goblin warchief
4 goblin ringleader
4 mogg fanatic
3 gem-palm incinerator
3 goblin matron
2 siege-gang commander
1 sharp shooter

spells: 6
3 lightning bolt
3 pyrokinesis

lands: 21
4 wasteland
3 bloodstained mire
4 wooded foothills
8 mountain
2 plateau

sideboard:
3 umezawa's jitte
3 pyrostatic pillar
3 disenchant
2 kami of ancient law
2 tormod's crypt
1 scrabbling claws
1 phyrexian furnace

1st round vs Patrick Taleser Mono Blue Winter Orb Lock
game 1:
i play a turn one aether vial, then he counters with force of will and then plays a land then passes the turn, i play a lakey and he doesnt counter thus paving way for my gobli horde.
win
game 2:
i play a first turn lackey he didn't counter gg
win

2nd round vs Joseph Rudio Mono Black jitte deck wins
game 1:
first turn lacky followed by siege-gang followed by warchief n piledriver... gg
win
game 2:
i gem-palmed all his critters he was killed by a piledriver a warchief and a ringleader.
win

3rd round vs Mondu Quiambao CAL
game 1:
I'm one turn away from dealing lethal damage, he top decks a solitary confinement complete with life from the loam backup gg
loss
game 2:
I get him down to 2 but i over committed my goblins and a devastating dreams shooed them all away. He then played 2 roars of the wurm sending me into a world of hurt.
loss

4th round vs Chrysler Chee Salvagers Game
game 1:
i dont get to play much gobs, he rips very early with dark ritual living wish lion's eye diamond, he already has the chromatic sphere in play gg.
loss
game 2:
my gobin hoard was running wild until the 2 gamekeepers found their merry ways to the graveyard and out came a platinum angel and a darksteel colossus i wasn't afraid since mine was a horde and all i had to topdeck was a gem-palm incinerator or a pyrokinesis but for 2 turns it was all fetchlands... gg
loss

5th round vs JT Porter vials affinity w/ berserk
game 1:
i play 1st turn lackey with matching warhief backup and ringleader refills. gg
win
game 2:
he plays alot of early stuff including having a 4/4 ravager, i casted disenchant on the ravager and proceeded the beatdown i was lucky enough that he didn't draw much critters.
win

6th round vs Manuel Parangao Gobvantage splash green
game 1:
a mirror match up, on the first game we both started with an aether vial but as the game proceeded my deck was kind enough to give me enough goblin power to win, and he had a for the win attack moment but then his two piledriers were hit by a split pyrokinesis. hehe gg
win
game 2:
I boarded in the wrong things, i died very quickly.
loss
game 3:
we were both having problems and were both running out of green men to play. i was luck to have top decked a ring leader leading the way into a full goblin assault.
win

final standings: 4-2

anyway a note to self... when playing a tourney the next day get early sleep and plan ahead on what to play hehe i was lucky i chose this over solidarity.

acknowledgement:
thanks to osmond for giving me the vials (but i forgot to get the stps...)
to arvin ang for also playing in the events even if he was playing standard.
to franz lim for moral support and help in the sideboard decisions.
to God for everything.

hehe thats it for know, tune in next time!! hopefully another top 8 report!! thanks for reading. GO TEAM MF!!!!!!!!!

Almost died last night...

Last night was a scary night, well i was in a bad thinking mood and i stayed up late to watch some anime to lift my spirits. All was well but then at around 11 i thought of sleeping when cooking master boy got me hooked and i stayed awake up until 2 o'clock. And thank God i did, at around two o'clock i smelt something burning, it was the smell of burning plastic and it made me a bit panicky, so i started looking for the source, turns out is the little light my brother decided to kee open beside his bed it had short circuited and it was burning through the plastic casing, after that i opened the door and opened the fan to drive the foul smell away, i couldn't sleep well too cause i was really wondering what would've happened to us if i was already asleep that time. One thing's for sure, no entries will ever be posted here again and well i'd probably be sleeping forever... kinda makes me wonder what it would be like to die... but whew that was a close call....