Party in the PRC

When I first arrived here, my classmate, who hails from Chicagorlando, asked me what was popular in the States. "I never know what's popular, " she explained, "I feel like I'm always behind the times." That's definitely me with music (but not just music). Not that I was so into music in the States. I'm no music aficionado: my music standards follow what is on the radio or what my friends introduce me to. With the power of the internet, though, I no longer have to be a pop song ignoramus. I think I'm about 3 months off of the most popular music now. Listening to Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA" (see what I said about music standards?) led me to consider buying it off of Amazon's MP3 site. This is where I found an interesting phenomenon. People will make covers of popular songs and try to trick others into buying the covers under the pretense that is the original song. One of the best is by Miles Cyrus. The lyrics are slightly different and the vocal quality is more than slightly worse. This combination makes it a tempting purchase. In the spirit of all these covers, I present my five readers my version, "Party in the PRC". If someone buys the DJ instrumental track and the Miles Cyrus version (c'mon, he put some work into it) off of Amazon and gives it to me, I will also record myself singing over this. Party in the PRC I hopped off the cab at Xingmingyuan With my wife and a stupid grin Welcome to the land of the Chinese, (woah) Am I gonna fit in? Jumped on my bike, Here I am for the first time Look to the right and I see a Chinese sign This is all so crazy Nobody here speaks English! My tummys turnin' and I'm feelin kinda sick Too much spice that they serve us, Then KFC turned up their radio and a Backstreet song was on and a Backstreet song was on and a Backstreet song was on CHORUS: So I put my hands up They’re playing my song, And the butterflies fly away Noddin’ my head like yeah Moving my hips like yeah, And I got my hands up, They’re playin my song All the Chinese are looking at me! Yeah, it's a party in the PRC Yeah, it's a party in the PRC Get to the school on my bicycle Everybody's lookin at me now Like “Whos that guy who can't speak? He's gotta be from out of town” So hard with squatties all around me Its definitely not a Western potty Cause’ all I see is big holes I guess I never got the memo My tummys turnin and I'm feelin kinda sick Too much spice that they serve us, Then KFC turned up their radio and a Britney song was on and a Britney song was on and a Britney song was on CHORUS BRIDGE: Feel like hoppin' on a flight (on a flight) Back to my hometown tonight (town tonight) Something stops me everytime (everytime) KFC plays my song and I feel alright! CHORUS

My Hobby

Some people like to fish. Some people like to knit. Me, I like to surf the internet. True, I have "normal" hobbies: I like to play basketball, soccer, football, and almost any other sport where I can win. I like to write software. I like to play video games. But one of the things I really enjoy doing is being online with another friend, you know who you are, and just trading links and making smart-ass comments.

Some people take me to be an extrovert. I actually don't like the spotlight all that much. I'm pretty terrible at public speaking (although that is relative) and performing in front of others makes me anxious. But I love being the kid in the back that makes smart-ass comments.

This is one of the primary reasons why I like to surf the internet. In addition to being an information miser, I like to read other people's comments. I read a particularly touching story, today, of a Kansas man who lifted a car off a girl.

Here are the comments I read. I particularly enjoyed the last one.

Winning

We had just finished playing a night game of flag football. Derek broke the silence: “That was pretty fun.” “Eh,” I replied. “I mean, it was competitive. It was fun,” he countered. “Yeah, but we didn’t win,” I said. I told him I would rather win than have a competitive game. As we got back to the apartment he asked me, “So would you rather play a group of mentally handicapped elementary school children and win or play a…” He didn’t even get to finish.

“Retarded kids.”

I love to win. And I don’t just like to win. I like to win big. I don’t like playing games where somebody says stuff like: “Well, if you didn’t get the soldier card, I would’ve won.” Or “If the ref didn’t give you that call, we would’ve won.” That’s why I play games like Starcraft where I like to pummel the computer into oblivion, setting up myself against myriads of Zerg, knowing they have not a chance as I set up a wall of Supply Depots and Siege Tanks. I laugh as I see the computer futilely throw waves upon waves of aliens against my small force of brave soldiers, knowing that my puny brain has made a fool of this calculating machine. That’s why I love playing Hordes of Orcs and watching these orcs run around, getting whacked by my awesome maze, sending them back and forth, looking for relief from my deadly assortment of ice towers, nuclear cannons, and flame throwers.

Part of this perverse delight comes from wanting there to be no doubt of victory, but I can’t decide whether I like winning that much or I hate losing that much. I think another part of not liking to play close games is that not only is there a chance of losing, but also you have to elevate your play. I start getting too serious and not enjoying myself. There’s not a lot of room for error when the game is close, so it requires more concentration, more effort, and more dependence on others. There’s not a lot of room for running triple reverses, “the star” formation, or trying to get everyone a touch on the ball. I start getting upset about the little things, since it’s the little things that start to matter. I actually hate watching athletes complain and whine about calls or even participate in games where people argue about technicalities of the game or even lie about what happened in order to gain some advantage. It makes the game less fun.

True, I enjoy watching a close game; it’s a lot more exciting than a blow out. Especially if your team comes from behind to win. But when it comes to playing games, I’d rather win big. So why is this relevant?

A couple of days ago I got out of language class. One of our neighbors had just gotten out of school too and was heading home for lunch. We were both on our bikes and at the stop light I began talking to him a little. As we rode towards home he started laughing and began pedaling faster. Sigh. Foolish boy. For a second I thought about how it would be fun for him to beat me, but this was after I had parked and locked my bike, beating him to the bike garage by 20 seconds.