Creating a Villain

Every now and then, I think, "in a world where I was a supervillain, what type would I be?". It's kind of a weird question that everyone may think about every once in a while. So what kind of supervillain will I be? Well, I can sure as hell say that in another reality, the miscreant I'll become will be a rather unique one, if not strange (I think "strange" is more fitting). So, let's just get into it...

Every supervillain has a reason for becoming a supervillain. It might be because he wants to be noticed by the world (in fact, many villains' greatest fear is that the world will forget them when they die), or maybe because of his immense greed. Other villains are just total psychopaths who want nothing more than to go on a nonstop killing spree, and others become evil because they want to brainwash others into believing in said villain's ideologies (these types of villains normally lead a cult who all believe in what their leader does).

In my opinion, in order to create the perfect supervillain out of a regular, rational human being, we must first find this person's fatal flaw (wow, this post got morbid real fast). Is this person lazy? Is he greedy? Is he prideful? Does he want others to believe in what he/she does? Or is he just pissed off at the world and show it who's boss? In my case, my fatal flaw is laziness. I try to do as least work as possible and try to reap the benefits from already-existing opportunities.

So now that we know my fatal flaw, let's imagine a world, another reality where this flaw is exaggerated to the point where it becomes my life meaning (have any of you ever searched up "types of good and evil"? on your browser? You might wanna search it up now to get a better idea of what I'm about to tell you). So now, in this new reality where Jason (no, not the Jason that is immortal, wields a machete and constantly kills off teenagers. Although it'd be nice if I was that kind of villain, not gonna lie) is an evildoer who wants $#!+ to be done with as little effort as possible.

In the alignment system (refer to the search results of "types of good and evil" you just opened up a paragraph ago), I would probably fit into the "neutral" or "lawful" evil type. "But Jason," I hear you say. "How are you not sure what TYPE of "evil" you are?". Well, dear reader, I'll leave it up to you to decide which type of "evil" I am, because to be perfectly honest with you right now, I'm quite confused.

The reason I'm confused about what type of villain I am is because unlike many evildoers, if there's a code of ethic that I will follow as a supervillain, it will be (wait for it... wait for it...) to still remain a follower of God while I do so. *audience bursts into uncontrollable laughter*

Yes, yes, I know that it sounds crazy, but I will not commit any mortal sins as a supervillain ("mortal sins", for those of you who don't know, are sins that COMPLETELY break your bond with God. Just search it up on the Internet if you're curious). In summary, that means I'll still stay a follower of God, but with ONE exception (I mean, how else would you stay a supervillain?):

1. As a supervillain, I'll participate in heists, raids, and other operations that involve stealing. So this means I'll probably focus on being a major underworld figure for being the mastermind behind various bank heists, convoy assaults, warehouse raids, etc.

My main goal as a supervillain is to live a luxurious life, and I'll resort to any means in order to become one of the richest dudes (of course, with the exception of not committing any mortal sins with the exception of anything related to stealing) in the city's underbelly.

We'll talk more about this in the next post. Until then, See ya!

What Happens Next

It's amazing how the world works, isn't it? It's an ongoing cycle of life (I would say “endless”, but then again, I doubt that we humans would last forever on this world due to the theories about the eventual but inevitable apocalypse and $#!+) that really is just a “rinse and repeat” sequence of events that keep the world going.

You guys might be wondering, “J, just stop talking in circles and speak straight already.”, so let me just get to my small “deduction”. I'm talking about the life cycle of humans in the world and their roles in it. Last night, my dad and I had a discussion about the types of people in the world. The gist of it was, there were two main types of people in this world: the “consumers” and the “producers”.

The consumers, hence the name, are people who consume products made by the producers. For instance, consumers are video gamers, whilst the video game producers are the producers, hence the name (YouTubers are a special class all by themeselves: they're producers who make money by being consumers (to be fair, they DO have to put in work into the quality of their videos), which is a job a hardcore gamer can only DREAM of having).

The daily life of the entire world is like a food chain: producers create the products which consumers, well, consume (what else? Throw away?), whilst the consumers put these products to good use, as they should (by buying the products, they're already putting the product to good use. Praise consumerism and our dependence on small, insignificant everyday products designed to fulfill our unnecessary wants and needs). In a world where everyone's a producer and nobody buys these insignificant products, the world would probably be in total anarchy by now, because nobody is making any money since they're all busy making $#!+ for other people.

But of course, this isn't to be used as an excuse by consumers to lie around the house beside their Doritos stash (copyright infringement coming in 3...2...1...) and their cable TVs/gaming consoles. Thankfully, you can be a producer and a consumer at the same time. A guy who works at a local Burger King restaurant is free to buy a serving of enchiladas at the Taco Bell next door at any time. And for some reason, according to my family, this consumer/producer thing is a serious issue I've been plagued with over the course of the past few years (or more accurately, ever since I discovered how to have fun).

I'm a consumer. According to me, I'm happy to be one, as long as I have a steady source of income to supply my wants and needs (and trust me, that is NOT much to ask for, unless you call food and water, a shelter, a steady source of income, broadband Internet connection and a laptop the wishes of a millionaire). But a question my family keeps on asking me is, “what are you gonna produce?”. The answer to the question has been discovered, but I have trouble telling it to the rest of the world.

Acording to my dad, I'm not gonna go anywhere fast if I don't start to “do something that will benefit my future”, and has gone to insane lengths to get this point through. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or if I'm just not showing it, but the message I'm getting seems to be something along the lines of “you're a lazy-ass piece of crap who stares at the computer every second of spare time you get, and you're future ain't looking too bright unless you stop having fun and start doing something that'll contribute to your adult life.”

Now I don't know if this means that I'll be homeless if I don't “start doing something with my life” or if it means that I just won't get a high-paying job later down the line. What I want for my future isn't something I'd call a luxury (compare it to the higher class people who have a high-paying job and a family), unless you're living in a homeless camp in some desolate area in the city. Now the question is that if I continue on like this, am I on the road to living the life I asked for (go back two paragraphs and refer to that as my future life's “wishlist”) or am I on the road that will lead me into a hobo encampment under some bridge? That's what I want to know. I know that, and I can live the rest of my life a happy man. Amen to that. Seriously.

Crossing the Line

Over the years, in my childhood, I have relied on my imagination to keep myself entertained. To prevent myself from getting bored, to think of many things that other people may not have (or come to think of it, think of things that are entertaining. Frankly, I couldn't give two $#!+$ whether whatever entertaining thing I do is original or not. As long as it allows me to have fun, originality doesn't really matter anymore).

But one day I came across this game called "The Stanley Parable". This game was about an average man who had a boring life, but an amazingly creative mind, in which he made such great daydreams that he would sometimes even forget which world he currently was in; the world he created or the real one? This made me reconsider my life, and how much I used my imagination in my daily life. To make it a bit clearer, here's a transcript of a description of Stanley's life and the troubling fact about being lost in a world that you created, and not knowing which world is the real one or the one you've made up.

Here we go...

The Story of the Death of a Man named Stanley

"This is a very sad story about the death of a man named Stanley. Stanley is quite a boring fellow. He has a job that demands nothing of him, and every button that he pushes is a reminder of the inconsequential nature of his existence. Look at him there, pushing buttons, doing exactly what he's told to do. Now, he's pushing a button. Now, he's eating lunch. Now, he's going home; now, he's coming back to work. One might even feel sorry for him, except that he's chosen this life. But in his mind - ah, in his mind he can go on fantastic adventures. From behind his desk, Stanley dreamed of wild expeditions into the unknown, fantastic discoveries of new lands. It was wonderful. And each day that he returned to work was a reminder that none of it would ever happen to him.

And so he began to fantasize about his own job. First he imagined that one day, while at work, he stepped up from his desk to realize that all of his co-workers, his boss, everyone in the building, had suddenly vanished off the face of the Earth. The thought excited him terribly. So, he went further. He imagined that he came to two open doors, and that he could go through either. At least, choice! It barely even mattered what lay behind each door - the mere thought that his decisions would mean something was almost too wonderful to behold.

As he wandered through this fantasy world, he began to fill it with many possible paths and destinations. Down one path lay an enormous round room with monitors and mind controls, and down another was a yellow line that weaved in many directions, and down another was a game with a baby. And he called it, The Stanley Parable. It was such a wonderful fantasy, and so in his head, he relived it again, and then again, and again, over and over, wishing beyond hope that it would never end, that he would always feel this free. Surely there's an answer down some new path - mustn't there be? Perhaps if he played just one more time.


But there is no answer. How could there possibly be? In reality, all he's doing is pushing the same buttons he always has. Nothing has changed. The longer he spends here the more invested he gets, the more he forgets which life is the real one. And I'm trying to tell him this: that in this world he can never be anything but an observer. That as long as he remains here he's slowly killing himself. But he won't listen to me. He won't stop. Here, watch this. Stanley, the next time the screen asks you to push a button, do not do it.

You see? Can he just not hear me? How can I tell him in a way that he'll understand that every second he remains here, he's electing to kill himself? How can I get him to see what I see? How can I make him look at himself? I suppose I can't - not in the way I want him to. But I don't make the rules - I simply play to my intended purpose, the same as Stanley. We're not so different, I suppose. I'll try once more to convey all this to him; I'm compelled to, I must. Perhaps, well, maybe this time he'll see. Maybe this time. And I tried again, and Stanley pushed a button. And I tried again, and Stanley pushed a button. And I tried again, and Stanley pushed a button..."

End of Transcript

So to summarize, Stanley is a troubled man who may have relied too much on his imagination to get himself out of the sticky situations in life. But the more he fantasizes, the more he fades away from real life, the more invested he gets in the life he created, the more he... Ah you get the damn idea just reread the transcript.

My point is, after reading this, I started to seriously reconsider my life and how much I "escape" from it. How much will it affect my real life? That's one question I have yet to discover.

Euphoria (Part 2)

Well, it's been a while since the last post. Fortunately for you guys, I think I still have in my mind the content I was about to share with you guys. You remember the last post? About how somebody can actually change the way they think so even if they end up with a boring, crappy office job and a rented apartment room that they call "home", they can still be happier than some people who live in massive mansions in the city, with the wealthiest gadgets and whatnot (for those of you wealthy people who are reading this out there, do know that I'm not judging, but I'm trying to merely make a point. But hey, feel free to hate if you want, it's not like I can stop it).

So last we left off, I told you guys about an Animus, which is pretty much a virtual-reality experience that acts as both a video game and a tool for learning history (just check the Assassin's Creed database. Sorry you're gonna have to search the query and do all that searching $#!+ yourself, I'm still a bit traumatized about what happened recently in my blog regarding these weird notifications that have been popping up in my blog lately). This is probably the best thing that can happen in my life, in the extremely rare, wildly unlikely chance that it'd happen. All I need left is a shelter, food and water, and a constant flow of money to keep the essential resources I've said above going, and I'm set for life.

Right now I'm aiming for a decent life (I've decided that being rich is just gonna take too much work, and it'll increase my reputation, which is NOT something I want to happen to me, as I'll explain in a few paragraphs). OK house, good food (I'm not really thinking about a can of caviar and a prime ribeye steak per day, but you get what I mean by "good food". Something you can get from the supermarket everyday, a visit to a restaurant every few days, you get the damn idea), a laptop, and primo Wi-Fi (AKA broadband Internet connection). That's my definition of a good life. The less things I have to worry about, the better things are for me (and my gradually degrading sanity, not to mention). Which, by the way, is also another reason why I'm still confused on whether or not to have a family or not. Ah, screw it. That stuff can wait for a few years.

I should probably talk about social status now. What should my reputation be to reach a euphoric life? After many years of wondering, I have finally decided that if possible, I should probably stay incognito for, I dunno, say, my entire life (I can hear you screaming at me now, "JASON WHY IN THE NAME OF DOG WOULD YOU WANNA BE INCOGNITO YOU DUMB @$$#0!&?!"). Well, dear reader, here's my reason. The main reason I don't want to have people going around saying, "Hey, it's Jason, that guy who (insert awesome act here)!" is because there is a LOT of things that they can say about me. Spoiler alert: Not all of them may be good.

But unfortunately, that's all the time we have today. I'll write again soon, and until then, this is goodbye. See ya until then!

Euphoria

When you think about it, there really is no such thing as a "perfect world". Maybe if one day humans learnt NOT to be the ungrateful little ingrates that we are, we MIGHT just have a chance at it. But thanks to us, the dream of a "perfect world" is yet to be seen.

To help back up my theory, let's start with this one: Humans (most of them, at least) are used to taking everything they have for granted (I said MOST humans, OK? Please don't hate me for this). Let's take a quick example. Guy A is a billionaire playboy (think Bruce Wayne, but probably without all the philanthropic behavior and having a cave under his mansion that fuels his secret life as a superhero), living the grand life of luxury in his giant, cozy-ass mansion in some rich area somewhere in the world with access to whatever the hell money can buy for him. Everyday he splurges his money on food, taking care of his massive house, expensive clothes, and other things that one would need to fuel his lifestyle.

Let's move to Guy B. Unlike Guy A, B is not rolling in an enormously huge stash of cash and luxury, but rather in the fact that he is just another tiny man in this great, big, unforgiving world. Sure, he may not a lowly miser who can't afford $#!+, but he sure isn't some spendthrift celebrity who can buy whatever the hell he wants. Instead, he's just a single man in a normal house with a job in the office that keeps his boat adrift on the waters of life (I guess you could say that while Guy B is in a puny boat in the sea of life, Guy A is busy chillin' on his huge f***ing cruise ship). Guy B has a regular house that you expect of a regular citizen, but it is no mansion (I think that you guys are smart enough to figure out what the typical house looks like, so I'm gonna save myself a bit of trouble and NOT spend the next few paragraphs trying to explain what a regular house looks like, if you don't mind).

So, given both of their predicaments, logically, Guy A should be happier, right? I mean, c'mon. He's living the high life in that giant building that he calls his house, he's got no financial problems whatsoever, and he can do whatever the absolute f*** he wants to do, whenever he wants to do it. What chance has Guy B got? He's just got this puny little house that only has a TV and a few other electronics and eats the food of the regular folk (as opposed to Guy A, who's probably enjoying his giant stockpile of caviar and Kopi Luwak back at his house).

Actually, that's all just a matter of perspective. Happiness, as I probably may have mentioned several gajillion times now, is a state of mind, not something that you must achieve using worldly means. Dude, if you gave me an Animus (an Animus is a machine from the Assassin's Creed series that can be used to travel back in time to literally replay (or at least that's what I think you do in an Animus) the memories of the past like in a video game. I'm not going to post a link to the webpage on the Web because I fear that might be the cause behind this warning I got in my blog a few weeks ago. Sorry, can't take any chances) that could entertain me for the rest of my life, then I really couldn't care about much else in my life (unless, of course, my dominant human nature will express ungratefulness and screw me over again. We'll get to that when it happens, IF I ever manage to get an Animus one day, whcih I probably won't).

We'll talk more of this later, in another post. Until then, as usual, I'll see you in the next post. Jason out. Peace!

Ye Old Days

I still remember the days that I wrote essays, answered tests and made speeches in front of the class. One of these days I just wanna show what I did to you guys. So I present to you, one of my English essays about a movie called "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" (WARNING: the review may be a little biased, but it's not a serious review, so chill out). Here it is...

“Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” is a movie concerning racism and racial problems that used to haunt America in the 19^th century. It was a movie made quite a long time ago (think a few years ago, when Morgan Freeman didn't look as old as he is now), and is derived from a novel of the same name. For the most part I enjoyed the movie. Here's my review of it...

The movie is about a black family living in 19^th century Mississippi, when racial bias and injustice to black people were still haunting the country. The story follows a black family called “the Logans”, who were one of the many harassed black families living in the country and were struggling to take a stand against the injustice and bias that was being done to them. To this end the family has participated in many brave (and occasionally suicidal) acts in an attempt to show that all races are equal such as offering credit to the black people in the area so they would be able to spend less money in stores (something that the whites would never allow and will try their best to put a stop to). Even the main protagonist (a young black fourth grader) beat another white kid up for disrespecting her (again, another thing that is frowned upon within the white community).

I personally enjoyed the actors and actresses in the movie; they all put up a pretty amazing performance in the movie. But out of all the actors and actresses that played a role in the movie, the actor I enjoyed the most was Morgan Freeman, also known as “Uncle Hammer” in the movie. What astounded me the most about Freeman's performance was that I was normally used to him being the wise, understanding person in the movies he normally plays. But in this movie, he plays Uncle Hammer, a hotheaded, foul-tempered black man who will jump at the smallest chance to mess up a white person's face. Amazingly, Mr. Freeman dramatically changed from the wise, old man that we normally see him play as and see him as a darker (in both the literal and metaphorical sense of the word), more violent character. I loved it.

I liked the fighting scenes in the movie, namely one scene in the movie when someone gets his leg run over by a cart (there was no blood and gore in that part, don't worry. To be honest though, I was rather disappointed). I also enjoyed the parts in the movie that involved guns and standoffs, even if they don't involve any shooting (I've always been one for the more sadistic movies), mainly because these scenes are very intense and really brings back the difficulty and the atmosphere of living as a black person back in the 19^th century.

However, I didn't like that there were certain parts of the book that the movie skipped out, and while I can completely understand that you can't fit EVERY SINGLE event into the book, there were some crucial events that the movie missed out, and some of the events that took place in the book didn't take place in order in the movie. So if any of you guys reading this out there read the book before planning to watch the movie, prepare to see some parts of the book taken out of the movie, some of them very important.

If there was a moral to learn from this story, the movie states it loud and clear: “Don't grow up to be a racist jerk when you grow up, because we have learned how difficult it was to live back in the racist, unjust 19^th century America, where all black families lived unjustly, looking up to the whites when in reality, they were all equal and all deserve the same rights”.

Yeah, that must be it. If there's one message to be learned from the story, it's got to be that.

Movie Details

I'd rate the movie a 4 out of 5, mostly because of its accurate representation of the difficulty of living the life of a black family back in 19^th century America. I would originally rate it a 3 out of 5, but Morgan Freeman's stellar performance as a supporting character adds one more point to the movie. His presence alone would give the movie a +0.5, but his presence as a talking, walking character makes me rate it a 4. Yes, that's just how much I admire the guy.

As for the MPAA rating of the movie, I'd say it is a PG-13 movie. While there are very cheerful moments in the movie, there are also dark moment s of racial bias and a decent amount of swearing (namely the many uses of the word “n***er”). Other than that it doesn't sport much controversial content, except for the racism. In conclusion, it is a rather good movie.

About Jason

 Jason is a quiet teenager who resides in Jakarta, Indonesia. He goes to school in Global Jaya International School, along with his fellow classmates and friends (he would provide the details of his house address, but then he'd be afraid he'd have to kill you). When he's not working his butt off doing various assignments given to him by the school, he's either busy chatting with his friends on social media, watching videos on YouTube, or playing video games on his computer (sometimes all of them at the same time). He is currently unemployed (and does not plan to be employed anytime soon). He is an eighth grader who is struggling to maintain the balance of work and fun in his life, and is still struggling to do so.

Adaptation

So it's about time that we talked about what we were gonna do (actually, what I'M gonna do) when I get back to school. As I may have mentioned a few posts ago, it's only a few weeks' time until I'm gonna have to get back to a life of difficulty, routine, and stress (plus, it's inevitable too. Unless I... nah, screw that thought. That's too dark. And besides, I'm still working on reducing my negative thinking. Gotta improve your mindset, J, gotta improve...).

On the bright side however, I do get to get back with my friends and hang out with 'em which I have never actually managed to find time for over the holidays (I was too occupied by the fact that my everyday “disturbances” (AKA video games and video streaming) were more entertaining than my friends) to speak to. Which is something I must fix. I know that said activities make me happier than hanging out with my friends, but so does marijuana. And coke. And so does... (dammit J, we're getting distracted here) you know what, never mind. My point is, I must hang out again. Not only is it good for my social skills, but I also must try to NOT be an unsociable son of a b****.

Ever wondered how fast the weeks pass during the holidays? (or whenever you're doing anything fun, on that matter) Hence the saying, “time flies when you're having fun”. When you're NOT having fun, on the other hand, time suddenly runs into a traffic jam (of course, this doesn't apply to EVERY time, but it damn sure applies to a HUGE portion of life. Yeah, I know. Life can be a d*** sometimes). I noticed this pattern when I was doing a series of activities, starting from doing schoolwork to watching YouTubers play Mortal Kombat X on the Web (among the many other videos that I watch). You can imagine which activity made time go as fast as an Alcatraz escapee on speeds (if you get the joke) and which activity slowed it the f*** down.

But as I have said previously, school ain't all torture either (then again, it ain't exactly paradise, but sure, it has its perks). I have my friends, I have games, I have many things to entertain me during my time in the area (I COULD lisst them all down, but I don't feel like doing it now. Sorry). I'll be looking forward to it. It's nice to have a good challenge in life once in a while, no? (in fact, I challenged myself to write this down in my laptop, in an environment that I'm not entirely comfortable with (it's hard to keep the place anonymous, but I'll try my best to be at my best behavior and describe the place I'm writing at at the same time), with no adaptor and limited battery power. Challenge accepted)

On that note, I should probably leave now. Someone very important (especially if I don't follow said person's orders, that is) is gonna tell me to pack up in a bit. On that note, goodbye and thank you guys for listening. See ya 'til next time!