It’s getting a little chilly in here

by   •   Highlights, Tempo
 

This post is over 8 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

Like I mentioned yesterday, I went into this PUBG NVIDIA trip with insufficient sleep and ended up feeling unwell because of it. A side effect of me getting sick and energy-drained after a flight was that I was pretty tired … tired enough that I very easily fell asleep on a recliner in the esports boot camp room.

This trip was relatively unexpected and unplanned on my end – I basically decided to attend and booked my airline ticket with only a few days’ notice. Because of that, NVIDIA wasn’t exactly expecting me, so they didn’t have a hotel room prepared. That was perfectly fine with me, though – our players were booked suites, and I was ok with sleeping on one of the couches out in the common area. I tend to fall asleep pretty much anywhere and stay asleep pretty well, so a couch was more than enough.

The problem here was that I never actually made it to that phase. I ended up knocking out in the comfort of this recliner somewhere around 9-10 PM, back when the players were still busily practicing. The players didn’t finish up until almost 1 AM, and by that time, I was very deep asleep.

Before they left, our PUBG team’s captain poked me on the shoulder and woke me up, letting me know that it was time to head over to the hotel. In my sleepy state, I assessed the recliner to be comfortable enough to continue sleeping on throughout the remainder of the night, so I told him that I would just spend the night at the studio. The team asked if I was sure, laughed a bit, then headed off.

My assessment of the comfort of the recliner was actually correct. My assessment of the comfort of the air surrounding the recliner was incorrect. After the team left, I quickly fell back asleep without a problem. But, a few hours later, I woke up and thought to myself,

Hmm… it’s getting a little chilly in here.

I went over to the climate control, but realized that it was broken. The temperature was set to 50°F, but it clearly wasn’t actually 50°, and there was no air flowing out anywhere (nor were there even any vents visible in the room). I attempted to raise it to 74°F, but the needle seemed like it wasn’t really doing anything, and the thermostat didn’t seem like it was actually reacting, apart from the needle shifting positions.

This is when I realized that I failed to take into account the fact that the temperature of the air around the recliner was just as important as the comfort of the actual recliner itself. I also failed to take into account that the room was only an acceptable temperature this entire time because there were four other guys inside the room, running the CPUs and GPUs of four gaming computers at high load while playing PUBG. Once they were gone, the room started cooling rapidly.

But as I mentioned before, I’m pretty good at sleeping in pretty much any conditions. I sort of shrugged off the chilliness and went back to sleep. Unfortunately, the sleep was short-lived, because about an hour or so later, I woke up again, and thought to myself,

Hmm… it’s getting a little cold in here.

The temperature was still rapidly falling even further. I’m known to produce a lot of body heat when I sleep – enough that, if I close the door to my bedroom overnight, it will actually be a noticeable few degrees warmer in my bedroom than out in the common area. Unfortunately, the esports boot camp room was quite a bit larger than my bedroom, and my natural body heat couldn’t keep up with the fact that it was actually pretty cold outside at night in Northern California.

This is the point when I realized that it was a mistake to have not brought a jacket, even though it never actually crossed my mind that I would need a jacket for a 30-hour trip from California to California. I did, however, remember to bring an undershirt and a spare pair of socks. I put on my second pair of socks as a second layer over my first pair of socks, and wrapped the undershirt around my hands as gloves. It wasn’t much, but it made things marginally better, and I fell back asleep.

You guessed it. Another hour or so later, I woke up again, and thought to myself,

Hmm… it’s getting a little Antarctica in here.

By this point, it was getting uncomfortably freezing. The two layers of socks were doing their job, but the rest of my body was cold, and the undershirt was far too thin to have any effect on my hands.

In an effort to generate some natural body heat, I put on my boots, walked out of the esports boot camp room, and started jogging around the building towards the bathroom. Thinking to myself that the 24-hour security staff watching me through the camera system probably think I’m crazy, I made it to the bathroom, used the bathroom, then jogged my way back to the practice room. This quick burst of physical activity warmed me up enough that I was able to fall asleep again.

That is, only for another hour or so again.

I finally just gave up and stayed awake at that point.

 
In other news, we shot an interesting segment with Zanpah, the newest member of our PUBG roster; here’s a behind-the-scene look at one of the photos where he drops an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. Yes, he actually really did drop a piece of hardware worth around US$1,000.00 onto the ground, but no, it did not break.

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I guess I’m collecting Pokémon cards now

by   •   Highlights, Pokémon
 

This post is over 8 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

Pokémon was the first game I actually really got into as a kid, but I was only ever a fan of the Game Boy games and not the Trading Card Game (TCG). I never really found much pleasure in collecting or possessing material goods in general, and that tendency continues on to this day as an adult – I’d much rather have money, knowledge, and electronic possessions rather than large collections of physical souvenirs.

The only Pokémon TCG card I ever owned was a random Psyduck that I think a friend gave me for free. I didn’t really see the purpose of owning them, because at that time, I didn’t even know how to properly play the card game. I also thought it was a complete waste of money to own Pokémon trading cards (the magnitude of wastefulness probably also amplified by the fact that I didn’t actually make any money back then).

 
As a small child, my favorite Pokémon was Eevee. I felt like flexibility, adaptability, and diversity was a very important characteristic, and Eevee was able to do that – it could evolve into a fire, water, or electric type. I started liking Eevee even more when Pokémon Gold and Silver came out and I discovered that Eevee could now also evolve into a dark or psychic type as well.

I still like Eevee to this day, and Eevee remained my favorite Pokémon for a while – not only because I still liked the concept of Eevee, but also because I didn’t really pay that much attention to Pokémon to really know much about the hundreds of new Pokémon that were being released since the Johto expansion. However, I’ve recently been paying closer attention to the new Pokémon games and the mega evolutions, and I discovered a Pokémon that I think is my new favorite – Absol.

One clear advantage that I think Absol has over Eevee is its appearance. If you know me in person, you know that I really like white clothing (most of the casual t-shirts I wear are white, and I have a thing for white jackets). A secondary favorite color of mine is anything on the grayscale spectrum. Our good buddy Absol happens to naturally be both of those colors, all while having a stylish and fashionable fur arrangement and horn accent. Ask me to pick a favorite “real” color that isn’t white, gray, or black, and I will say I like the ferocity and power of the color red … and Absol’s shiny form just happens to be red.

Absol also has some empathy-inducing lore behind it. Absol is considered to be the disaster Pokémon because every time people see it come down from the mountains, disasters occur. Surely, Absol is the one causing them, right? Of course, Absol is actually misunderstood – it comes down from its natural mountainous habitat to warn civilization about natural disasters coming because it’s able to sense it, not because it’s causing the destruction itself.

 
Even though I’ve never been a fan of collecting cards, and I still don’t really have much of an interest in doing so, I never said that I was actually against it. In an attempt to explore different opportunities and try out things I never got to do as a child (even though I didn’t actually particularly even want to do this as a child), I decided to start a very small Pokémon card collection of only Absol.

Why Absol? I would obviously pick one of my favorite Pokémon, but I decided to go with Absol instead of Eevee because I didn’t want to create a snowball effect of wanting more and more Pokémon cards. My mission is to try and collect all the Absol cards, and once that is complete, I can put the project on hold, admire my collection, and wait until more new Absol cards come out in future expansions. If I were to do that with Eevee, I would have a very easy progression to wanting to collect all the Eevee evolution Pokémon cards as well, and I’m trying to do this as a side hobby purely for fun, not to drain my entire entertainment budget into it. And even then, Absol still has quite a few cards available; not only are there multiple versions of Absol printed, but all of them come in different languages as well.

I’m looking to spend no more than about US$100.00 on my initial purchase (which would include a binder, sleeves, and as many cards as possible), then spend no more than about an hour a week searching for good deals on card vendor and auction websites to try and round out my collection. I would imagine that the time investment would start waning down to just a few hours a month once I get a hold of all the cards in common circulation, and have narrowed down the empty slots in my collection to just rare foreign cards.

 
When I want to do something, I tend to go all-in, so I spent a bit of time doing some research on all the Absol cards in print right now. I’ll be using this as a reference for how much more progress I need to make to complete my English and Japanese collection, before moving on to foreign languages (which I’m finding may include, but is not limited to, Korean, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Dutch, and Russian). I also have the cards listed in order of release date, which is how I will be organizing my physical collection.

I’ll be coming back to this blog post once in a while and making some edits to the table – checking off cards I purchase, and adding more cards that I discover exist.

 

Card name Expansion Release date Rarity Number
 
Forina’s Absol		 Movie Commemoration VS Pack 2003 . 07 . 19 008/019 🇯🇵 $6.00
Movie Commemoration VS Pack 008/019 🇯🇵 €9.60
Pokémon Card Gym Official Start Lottery 040/ADV-P 🇯🇵 $17.50
 
Absol		 EX Dragon 2003 . 11 . 24 Rare Holo 1/97 🇺🇸 $5.99
EX Dragon Rare Reverse Holo 1/97 🇺🇸 $3.89
Rulers of the Heavens Rare Holo 048/054 🇯🇵 $6.57
 
Absol		 EX Team Magma vs Team Aqua 2004 . 03 . 15 Rare Holo 96/95 🇺🇸 $7.79
7-Eleven Pokémon Fair campaign 034/ADV-P 🇯🇵 $9.81
7-Eleven Pokémon Fair campaign 035/ADV-P 🇯🇵
 
Absol		 EX Legend Maker 2006 . 02 . 13 Rare 15/92 🇺🇸 $0.49
EX Legend Maker Rare Reverse Holo 15/92 🇺🇸 $0.99
EX Legend Maker Rare 15/92 🇫🇷 $6.52
Mirage Forest Rare 072/086 🇯🇵 €6.99
 
Absol		 EX Holon Phantoms 2006 . 05 . 03 Rare 18/110 🇺🇸 $1.93
EX Holon Phantoms Rare Reverse Holo 18/110 🇺🇸 $2.59
EX Holon Phantoms Rare 18/110 🇩🇪 $3.52
EX Holon Phantoms Rare 18/110 🇫🇷 $5.41
Mightyena Quarter Deck 006/015 🇯🇵 $3.00
 
Absol ex		 EX Power Keepers 2007 . 02 . 14 Rare Holo ex 92/108 🇺🇸 $8.99
EX Power Keepers World Championship 92/108 🇺🇸 $0.99
World Champions Pack Rare Holo ex 060/108 🇯🇵 $11.09
 
Absol		 Secret Wonders 2007 . 11 . 07 Rare 21/132 🇺🇸 $0.99
Secret Wonders Rare Reverse Holo 21/132 🇺🇸 $2.39
Secret Wonders Rare 21/132 🇩🇪 $3.35
Secret Wonders Rare Reverse Holo 21/132 🇩🇪 $4.10
Secret Wonders Rare Reverse Holo 21/132 🇫🇷 $5.41
Shining Darkness Rare DPBP#417 🇯🇵 $4.46
 
Absol G		 Supreme Victors 2009 . 08 . 19 Rare Holo 1/147 🇺🇸 $1.49
Supreme Victors Rare Reverse Holo 1/147 🇺🇸 $1.69
Supreme Victors Rare Holo 1/147 🇫🇷 $5.41
Beat of the Frontier Rare Holo 064/100 🇯🇵 $5.00
 
Absol G LV.X		 Supreme Victors 2009 . 08 . 19 Rare Holo LV.X 141/147 🇺🇸 $3.49
Supreme Victors Rare Holo LV.X 141/147 🇩🇪 $6.72
Beat of the Frontier Rare Holo LV.X 065/100 🇯🇵 $5.00
 
Absol		 Triumphant 2010 . 11 . 03 SuperRare Holo 91/102 🇺🇸 $2.99
Triumphant SuperRare Holo 91/102 🇩🇪 $10.65
Triumphant SuperRare Holo 91/102 🇫🇷 $9.62
Lost Link SuperRare Holo 027/040 🇯🇵 $9.99
 
Absol		 Plasma Freeze 2013 . 05 . 08 Rare 67/116 🇺🇸 $1.99
Plasma Freeze Rare Holo 67/116 🇺🇸 $0.79
Plasma Freeze Rare Reverse Holo 67/116 🇺🇸 $0.59
Plasma Freeze Rare Holo 67/116 🇫🇷 $4.31
Spiral Force R 033/051 🇯🇵 $4.00
 
Absol		 Roaring Skies 2015 . 05 . 06 Rare Holo 40/108 🇺🇸 $0.49
Roaring Skies Rare Reverse Holo 40/108 🇺🇸 $0.49
Roaring Skies World Championship 40/108 🇺🇸 $0.25
Roaring Skies Rare Holo 40/108 🇫🇷 €4.50
Roaring Skies Rare Reverse Holo 40/108 🇫🇷 €5.50
Emerald Break R 034/078 🇯🇵 $4.99
Emerald Break R 034/078 🇰🇷 $4.99
Premium Champion Pack 077/131 🇯🇵 $4.49
 
Absol-EX		 Mega Absol-EX Premium Collection 2015 . 05 . 29 XY62 🇺🇸 $2.49
Battle Festa 2014: 12 Play Point prize XY-P 🇯🇵 $19.50
 
Mega Absol-EX		 Mega Absol-EX Premium Collection 2015 . 05 . 29 XY63 🇺🇸 $2.69
Mega Absol-EX Premium Collection Oversize XY63 🇺🇸 $3.49
Mega Absol-EX Premium Collection Code Card 🇺🇸 $1.49
Battle Festa 2014: 12 Play Point prize XY-P 🇯🇵 $19.50
 
Absol		 Alola Collector’s Pin 2-Pack Blister 2016 . 11 . 18 Holo XY178 🇺🇸 $4.00
Pokémon Card Gym Karen Night Battle 🇯🇵 $10.00
 
Absol		 Guardians Rising 2017 . 05 . 05 Rare Holo 81/145 🇺🇸 $0.79
Guardians Rising Rare Reverse Holo 81/145 🇺🇸 $0.49
Guardians Rising Rare 81/145 🇩🇪 $4.34
Guardians Rising Rare 81/145 🇫🇷 €5.00
Guardians Rising Rare Reverse Holo 81/145 🇫🇷 $2.10
Strength Expansion Pack Sun & Moon 038/051 🇯🇵 $2.50
 
Absol		 Team Up 2019 . 02 . 01 Rare Reverse Holo 88/181 🇺🇸 $2.29
Team Up Rare Holo 88/181 🇺🇸 $1.95
Team Up Rare 88/181 🇫🇷 $5.41
Team Up Rare Holo 88/181 🇫🇷 $5.09
Team Up Rare Reverse Holo 88/181 🇩🇪 $3.86
Dark Order 2018 . 10 . 05 Rare 023/052 🇯🇵 $3.99
Tag All Stars 2019 . 10 . 04 Rare Holo 075/173 🇯🇵 $2.49
Tag All Stars 2019 . 10 . 04 Rare Reverse Holo 075/173 🇯🇵 $4.49
 
Absol		 Cosmic Eclipse 2019 . 11 . 01 Uncommon 133/236 🇺🇸 $1.18
Remix Bout 2019 . 07 . 05 C 043/064 🇯🇵 $1.99
 
Absol		 Grimmsnarl VMAX Starter Set 2020 . 03 . 27 001/020 🇯🇵 $4.07
Champion’s Path 2020 . 09 . 25 Uncommon 038/073 🇺🇸 $0.54
Reverse Holo 038/073 🇺🇸 $1.08

 

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You might be mad at Logan Paul for the wrong reason

by   •   Highlights, Psychology
 

This post is over 8 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

If you haven’t heard yet by the explosive media coverage, people are a bit angry with Logan Paul because of a vlog he posted on YouTube that included footage of the dead body of a man who committed suicide in Aokigahara, Japan, often referred to as “Suicide Forest.” I’m not really a fan of Logan Paul’s lifestyle and choices, so I don’t follow him, but the public outcry made it next to impossible for me to ignore this, so I looked into it a bit more closely.

Although I agree with the general public and believe Logan Paul is in the wrong, I think most people are mad at Logan Paul for the wrong reasons. Here’s a breakdown of the situation, and reasons why people should and should not be upset with Logan Paul, through the eyes of someone with a background in criminal psychology.

 

Unjustified reason: Logan Paul’s laughter

Laughter is a complicated thing. In fact, it’s so complicated that there is an entire field of research dedicated to studying the psychology and physiology behind laughter – it’s called gelotology.

We’ve all witnessed awkward or nervous laughter – laughter that is prompted by cases of stress, discomfort, embarrassment, trauma, and/or pain. The physiological source of this kind of laughter is completely different – nervous laughter comes from the nose and/or throat, while joyful laughter comes from diaphragm contractions. It’s prevalent enough in everyday life that I’m actually surprised this many people are so unempathetic such that they are claiming Logan Paul is laughing out of amusement instead of nervousness … but then again, this may also be a case of bandwagoning.

Sometimes, there is a disconnect between how our body wants to feel and how our brain actually feels. Neuroscientific studies show that when we en­counter something traumatic, our brains often trigger nervous laughter as a way to attempt to convince ourselves that the awful thing we are wit­nessing isn’t actually that awful. To keep things simple, this is a coping mechanism.

The most famous study demonstrating nervous laughter is Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiment, in which subjects (the “teachers”) were instructed to electrocute experiment insiders (the “learners”) every time the “learner” got a quiz question incorrect. Of course, the electrocution on the “learner” was fake, but they were told to act as if they were in terrible pain.

The test subjects laughed at the cries and screams for help not because they were sadistic, but because they were unsure of what to do. The discomfort they experienced while they were having an internal mental dilemma – whether to continue electrocuting the “learner,” or defy the authority of the principal researcher – prompted them to laugh in order to relieve some of the stress.

Seeing a dead body is no joke for most people, and for someone like Logan Paul, it’s likely that this was the first time he ever saw a dead body “out on the field” (as opposed to in a controlled environment, like a funeral). He was laughing because his body was put in a shocking situation and it didn’t know what else to do. We shouldn’t be hating him because his body engaged in an uncontrollable physiological reaction.

 

Inconclusive reason: Displaying a dead body

It’s easy to skip this topic by saying “displaying shocking images is against YouTube’s terms of service” and disregard this entire argument, but I think this is important.

Culture is a powerful force. So powerful, in fact, that it basically determines what is okay and not okay to do. Cultures can vary substantially across different regions – that’s why culture shock exists. Sometimes, culture is so dramatically different that something considered to be inherently bad in one culture is not inherently bad in another.

Japanese culture sees suicide very differently than other cultures.

Have you ever heard the meme “commit sudoku”? It’s often accompanied with an image of a dead man with a bloody sudoku board carved into his chest. The origin of this meme is an ironic representation of the confusion of the word “sudoku” with “seppuku,” a Japanese term describing an honorable, ritualistic suicide by disembowelment. The fact that such a concept even exists in Japan should be a clear indication that Japanese views on suicide are very different than American views.

The Japanese government is taking steps to ensure suicide rates go down in Japan, but public demonstrations of seppuku have been done as recently as 1970 by Yukio Mishima after a failed coup d’état. Those who were raised in, or are familiar with, that era have non-negligible exposure to a culture accepting suicide, as long as it is done in an honorable manner.

An example of a suicide that may be considered honorable is if a man is unable to support his family due to unemployment. According to his inter­pre­tation, he would have believed he did the right thing by taking his own life because he was being a disservice to his family; consequently, he is allowing his wife to remarry with a more financially stable man, resulting in a brighter future for his children.

To Americans, a story like this would be catastrophic and heartbreaking. To some Japanese, especially members of older generations, this is considered tolerable behavior.

This is not at all an argument claiming that it is okay to show this man’s body because he is Japanese. We may never know the circumstances sur­round­ing his suicide, and there is no guarantee that he committed suicide with honorable intentions. Just because he was found in a public forest does not automatically mean he intended for his suicide to be a public event.

I stand by the philosophy that we should respect his privacy and conceal his body. However, it is important to note that we should not be quick to generalize our thoughts on all situations, as unexpected things – like wildly differing cultural views – can introduce strange twists. Just because you and I think one way does not mean the rest of the world thinks the same way.

 

The most concerning reason: Logan Paul may be increasing suicide rates

To keep things simple, talking about suicide increases suicide.

That is obviously grossly oversimplified, but the point remains the same – research has shown that poor media coverage of suicide increases suicide rates. The more detailed the coverage, the higher the chance of suicide rates increasing. Once suicide methods and photos are introduced, rates skyrocket relative to other types of coverage (known as the dose-response relationship).

By providing video coverage of this Japanese man’s suicide in his vlog, Logan Paul is exposing his fans to a trigger that has been scientifically proven to increase suicide rates in those with risk factors. Adolescents suffering from depression and anxiety are most in danger – which happens to be the age group in which most of Logan Paul’s fanbase is presumed to reside.

Another issue of Logan Paul’s methodology of coverage is the lack of depth of discussion. Excluding cases of youth impulse, most instances of suicide are a culmination of a massive number of problems. Poor coverage of suicide events may misattribute the motivation behind suicide to something superficial or simple, thus implicitly reporting that suicide may be an option for single-faceted problems. Although Logan Paul attempts to discourage his audience from engaging in suicide, it is done with relatively low emotional depth; it is critical to balance out the negativity of the suicide story with stories of hope and recovery.

(As a disclaimer, there is some degree of generalization happening here when applying the findings of these studies to this scenario. Most conclusive studies investigate suicides by notable public figures who may have had a following, putting followers at risk for imitation. In this video, Logan Paul is reporting on an anonymous man, which may provide a sufficient disconnect between the suicide victim and the viewer such that this research could possibly be inapplicable.)

While doing some supplementary research and fact checking while composing this piece, I ran into a website called ReportingOnSuicide.org that goes further in depth on the topic of the media inadvertently increasing suicide rates. If you’re interested in learning more about this phenomenon and finding out how you can avoid it in your own coverage (even if it’s just commenting about it on social media), I recommend you check out their website.

 
In summary, if you’re mad at Logan Paul for his actions, your emotions are probably justified. However, instead of being mad just because everyone else is mad, it’s important to reflect and understand the real reasons why you should feel the way you do.

 

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This is not a New Year’s resolution

by   •   Highlights
 

This post is over 8 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

I made a New Year’s resolution over a decade ago that I would never have another New Year’s resolution.

I haven’t broken it since.

 
I know that New Year’s resolutions are more of a cultural, social thing – this is because I’m regularly told by Easterners that New Year’s resolutions are generally a Western thing. And this doesn’t mean that I’m against that – if people want to use New Year’s resolutions as a way to turn their lives around, then that’s great, and I encourage everyone to do so.

But there are two distinct problems with New Year’s resolutions in my eyes. The first (and more straightforward) one is that people just don’t really know how to properly use New Year’s resolutions. I recall seeing in a study somewhere that literally nearly 90% of people fail their New Year’s resolutions. Issues range anywhere from setting goals that are way too far beyond reach, not really keeping track of progress and forgetting about it, to just straight-up disregarding it and giving up. The impact of a big turning point, like a new calendar year, can be a strong psychological motivating factor … and people are just using this tool wrong.

The second reason I dislike New Year’s resolutions is because I’m a person who does things now. Need to exercise more often and eat healthier? What’s wrong with starting in April, instead of waiting for January of the following year? Want to break out of a bad habit? Why not start now instead of waiting until later? New Year’s resolutions have become nothing more than an excuse to procrastinate for some people. I’m very lenient in the use of the term “excuse,” in that I will generally accept things as a “reason” while other people snap to misuse the word “excuse.” But this… this is the epitome of an excuse.

Back in late August while I was visiting Illinois, I went to my old doctor for a wellness check-up, and he reminded me to go back to doing cardiovascular exercise. I used to practice martial arts and sweat almost every day, but since moving to California, I’ve been doing a whole lot of sitting around and working. Instead of waiting until 2018, I took that opportunity to immediately start exercising when I returned to California. I’ll be taking a two-week break starting from today, though… I don’t really like exercising when there are a lot of people around me, and I imagine the gym is going to be really crowded for a little while, so I’m going to wait it out for a bit until people go back to being their normal selves.

 
There’s something that I want to do. The timing of this makes it seem a whole lot like it’s a New Year’s resolution, but I swear, it’s not. (I still want to be part of that 10% of people who succeed in their New Year’s resolution—as a reminder, mine was to never to set a New Year’s resolution again, and to always act promptly and immediately.)

At least for the next full year, I’d like to create something everyday.

On some days, it might be a vlog; on other days, it might be an album of photos I shot at an event; on special days, it might even be collaborative projects with other people that end up getting published on their medium of choice. But, no matter what it is, I’d like to create something on a daily basis.

When I was younger, I prided myself in being a creator instead of a consumer. While other people were watching TV, I was running around with our family camcorder. While other people were reading books, I was writing short stories. While other people were browsing the web, I was learning how to script in PHP.

Lately, I’ve noticed that this has been trending in the opposite direction – I spend more and more time sitting around watching Twitch streams and YouTube videos. Even when I am working on something creative, I’m revising and editing someone else’s work instead of creating my own. Of course, part of my job at Tempo Storm involves being an editor, so that’s not going to stop, but I’d also like to start supplementing my editing with some more original creating.

 
I’m not going to fall into the same trap as everyone else and fail in just a few weeks. Here’s why this is a good definitely-not-a-resolution, as well as my execution plan.

  • Is it realistic?

    Creating one thing per day is very possible, and there are tons of people who already do it, daily vloggers being an example. We regularly hear of daily vloggers getting burnt out after a few years, though, which is why I’ve made some slight adjustments to my goal – instead of creating a vlog every single day, I’m just going to create something every single day. That level of flexibility should keep things fresh enough that I don’t im­me­diately get burnt out and want to give up.

  • Do I have the time for this?

    I’ve been noticing lately that I spend a scary amount of time sitting around watching other people’s content, thinking “I should try doing that” in the back of my mind but never actually doing it. I can easily cut back on a small portion of that time to actually go and do it, instead of just pondering about doing it.

    On top of that, my duties within Tempo Storm have recently shifted substantially. Over the past year, I was doing a lot of miscellaneous administrative and operative work outside of the production division, simply because we just needed someone to take care of things. Although it was a great learning experience, due to our recent growth and staff expansion, I can now be more hands-off on that kind of stuff and really focus in on my digital media production division, which naturally connects to creating more things.

  • How will I keep track of progress?

    I happen to have a handy tool called a blog where I can share my thoughts and projects. Every time I create something, I’ll be posting the results on my blog along with a bit of commentary about the creation process. If I end up deciding to create something private or personal on any given day (that doesn’t end up on my website), I’m also keeping track of my creations on Google Calendar, which I use multiple times a day.

  • What are my short-term rewards for success?

    I think successfully creating things is intrinsically rewarding to me.

    But, other than that, this one is a tough one, and I guess is the weakest facet of my plan. I personally don’t really feel satisfaction from receiving “rewards” unless those rewards are either money or some indication that I’ve changed the world or helped society advance – both things I just can’t really “give” myself.

 
And finally, touching on a few other common pitfalls – my goal is extremely specific, and any amount of ambiguity was intentionally added (and already addressed above); I plan on setting aside time to do this every afternoon after exercising if my daily creation is not event- or collaboration-related; I will keep going, even if I were to miss a day; and I’m telling the world so people can voluntarily keep me accountable.

So let’s see how this goes.

 

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Through the eyes of a social psychologist: Lessons from Astral Authority’s HotS disqualification

by   •   Heroes of the Storm, Highlights, Psychology, Tempo
 

This post is over 9 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

Last night, one of my good friends Mellina Kong, manager of Astral Authority’s professional Heroes of the Storm roster, posted an update on Twitter about how her players had their dreams crushed. Curious as to what was happening, I looked into it.

Apparently, Astral Authority had qualified for the HGC Fall 2016 NA Regional, happening in early August. The winner of this regional will qualify for BlizzCon 2016 to take their shot at proving themselves to be the best team in the world, on the grandest stage of them all. Not long after, Astral Authority was notified that their qualification had been revoked and their team was disqualified due to bug abuse.

Tyrael has a bug with his trait where selecting a particular sequence of talents and inputting a series of key presses with the right timing will cause his Archangel’s Wrath to deal an unintentionally high amount of damage. According to investigations conducted by ESL and Blizzard, a player on Astral Authority was abusing this exploit to gain an unfair advantage in their games, and consequently, the team was disqualified.

Drama began to explode, with some members of the community and other professional players directing the hatred of 10,000 years at ESL, Blizzard, and Astral Authority’s opponents. People attempted to justify Astral Authority’s behavior by bringing up evidence of other teams using the exploit, claiming ignorance, and just spewing hatred to get the frustration out of their bodies.

What’s done is done. ESL disqualified Astral Authority from the tournament and are scheduling a match to determine their replacement. No matter how vocal Astral Authority fans get, I highly doubt that ESL will reverse their decision by reinstating Astral Authority or revoking the match offer they gave to the runner-up teams.

Having an educational and professional background in sociology and psychology, with a specialization in criminal psychology, I decided to write this piece to help explain this whole fiasco, and nudge the community in the right direction – away from drama, and towards a thirst for learning.

There are some valuable lessons we can learn from this situation about how life works.

  1. Just because you work hard for something doesn’t mean you get it.
  2. People will break rules.
  3. Not everyone gets punished for wrongdoing.
  4. Don’t get caught off guard by Schadenfreude.

 

Just because you work hard for it doesn’t mean you get it.

If you truly believe that you can try your best at something and get guaranteed results, you are terribly mistaken. The key to success is not to chase your passion and give it your all. The key to success is to chase opportunity and be smart about it.

Sometimes, you suck at your passion.

If your passion is painting, and you’ve been dedicated to becoming a better painter for the past ten years, but your products look worse than something I painted with my foot, you should probably give up painting. No matter how passionate you are about painting, it’s just not your thing.

There is no doubt that the members of Astral Authority worked hard to qualify for the North American regional. However, just because you work hard doesn’t mean you have the necessary skill. Just because you work hard doesn’t entitle you to results.

A Korean streamer by the name of chu8 threw together a random team to compete in the qualifier. Even though they didn’t put any effort into it, they had the skill to win and get far in the qualifier bracket – and ultimately, that’s what matters in life.

It really sucks that Astral Authority ended up getting disqualified out of the third and final opportunity to qualify for the regional. But if they were actually so good that they deserved a spot in the regional … Unfortunately, there’s no denying that they already failed to qualify twice.

 

People will break rules.

A psychologist by the name of Lawrence Kohlberg created a theory called the Stages of Moral Development. This theory states that, as people grow older, they shift from ethics based on simply avoiding punishment, to ethics based on societal well-being.

These are his stages:

  1. Obedience and punishment (“How can I avoid punishment?”)
  2. Self-interest (“What’s in it for me?”)
  3. Interpersonal accord and conformity (“I want to act in a way that makes people like me.”)
  4. Maintaining social order (“I have to follow the law.”)
  5. Social contract (“I need to serve the greatest good for the greatest number of people.”)
  6. Universal ethical principles (“I must use abstract reasoning to determine the best way for humans to exist.”)

The stage at which someone exists is the stage that best describes the primary reasoning behind a majority of their decisions. For example, if someone regularly shoplifts and focuses on not getting caught, they are at Stage 1. Just because this individual sometimes thinks about how society can help the homeless population does not put them at Stage 5.

Unsurprisingly, most people hit a ceiling at Stage 4. Adolescents and young adults – the demographic that best describes esports athletes and viewers – linger around Stages 1-3, before some of them mature into Stage 4.

What’s the point of going over the stages of moral development?

It shows that the young and fresh minds in esports still focus on avoiding punishment and acquiring personal gain. As long as they can make sure they’re subtle about their wrongdoing, and they can reap the benefits, it’s likely they will engage in the unethical act – especially when the punishment is abstract instead of concrete (“do not exploit bugs” vs. “Tyrael is banned”).

If you’re an Astral Authority fan, there’s no reason to be upset at the player who used the bug. This is the kind of behavior that a vast majority of people his age exhibit, and that’s just how life is.

 

Not everyone gets punished for wrongdoing.

I’d like to make a comparison here between Astral Authority’s disqualification and driving over the speed limit.

Driving over the speed limit Astral Authority’s use of the Tyrael bug
  • Driving at or under the speed limit is the law.
  • Not abusing bugs is the rule.
  • Many people drive over the speed limit.
  • More teams other than Astral Authority abused the bug.
  • Not all speeders get a speeding ticket.
  • Only Astral Authority got punished.
  • Telling the police officer to chase after someone else will not get you out of your ticket.
  • Telling ESL and Blizzard to punish other teams will not change Astral Authority’s punishment.
  • Speeding just a few kilometers per hour over the speed limit doesn’t get you a speeding ticket. There are too many variables that could account for going a few KPH over the limit.
  • Teams that only abused the bug mildly did not get punished. Those teams could claim the bug abuse as a mistake, and it would be difficult to disprove otherwise.
  • You will probably only get a ticket if you are going 20+ KPH over the speed limit.
  • ESL and Blizzard determined that Astral Authority’s abuse of the bug was intentful and severe.
  • Just because you didn’t know the speed limit doesn’t mean you don’t get a speeding ticket.
  • Just because Astral Authority claims they were not familiar with the bug does not excuse them from punishment.
  • If people call the police to report a particular car and license plate number for reckless driving, they are more likely to get punished.
  • Members of the community called out Astral Authority publicly, which increased the likelihood of them receiving punishment.

If ESL and Blizzard’s investigations were 100% accurate and Astral Authority did indeed intentionally abuse the Tyrael bug, does Astral Authority deserve to be punished? Yes.

Do the other teams that intentionally abused the Tyrael bug deserve to be punished? Yes.

Do all wrongdoers always get punished? As we saw by the “driving over the speed limit” example, unfortunately, no.

And that’s just how life is.

 

Don’t get caught off guard by Schadenfreude.

Schadenfreude is pleasure derived from the misfortune of others.

This phenomenon is based on social comparison theory, where we feel better about ourselves when others around us have bad luck.

The bigger you are, the larger the target on your back.

Astral Authority has made a decent name for themselves so far. The one big instance I remember from Astral Authority is when one of their staff members chose one day to randomly publicly insult those with mental illnesses. The CEO stepped in within half an hour and fired the imbecile. This established the brand’s mission as one that cares about its fans, and the community in general.

Just because you’re building up a good reputation doesn’t mean everyone likes you. As your fan base increases, so does the number of people who dislike you – people who will gain pleasure from your misfortune.

This is why public figures need to be particularly careful about what they say – not only because they are a role model to many, but also because there are people waiting to pounce on all their wrongdoings. Don’t get caught off guard by Schadenfreude.

That’s just how life is.

 

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ally ell eahell at the eahore

by   •   Highlights
 

This post is over 11 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

A few weeks ago, Ed let me know that the S key on his keyboard had broken. This is how he informed me of his tragedy:

He ended up going to a keyboard key website and ordering the letter S for his particular brand and model of laptop.

This is where the story gets juicy.

Apparently, the company from which he ordered his replacement key couldn’t fulfill his order, and sent him this message:

Hello,

The “S” key is currently out of stock for your laptop model. Unfortunately, this part is also very rare and we are not able to acquire it for you at this time. The good news is we do have several options:

1. If you have the original key cap, we can send you the hinges (plastic clips) and rubber cup that fit underneath the key. With these pieces you will be able to fix your keyboard.

2. If you don’t have the key cap, we can remove a random key from the keyboard and place a professional keyboard key sticker of the letter “S” on the key cap. This way, it will look very close to the original.

3. We can sell you a brand new complete keyboard for $78 shipped.

Please let us know how you wish to proceed, so we could further assist you.

This was (literally) a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a genius plan I had come up with. I instructed Ed to respond with the following email:

Hi,

I would like to go with option 2, but without the ticker (I know where my key is, o a blank key is fine). o, pleae end me a blank key cap, hinge, and rubber cup.

Thank,

Ed

After literally laughing non-stop at my own joke for a few minutes, I finally calmed down enough to hear that Ed had followed through with my wishes. He let me know that he had copied, pasted, and sent that exact email back to the laptop key replacement company.

I found out today that Ed had finally received his key in the mail. Apparently they didn’t have any blank key caps, so they sent him a random one instead, which ended up being “Q.”

He tried to install it himself, but he had some problems because the original laptop manufacturer had glued the rubber dome on the base of the keyboard and made key replacement nearly impossible.

He called me over for help, so I went over to his house and installed the key for him.

So now, when something sad happens to Ed, he has two Q keys so he can QQ more effectively.

 

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