Western Culture vs Eastern Culture

If you didn't know by now, we live in the "Western" world. Generally, most of our practices and beliefs have their roots in European ideas. Christian values and classical art styles are all around us. But on the "other side of the world" we have what can be called the Eastern world. It's different over there, so let's compare the two.

Eastern World defined by Asia

Food. Come on, everyone loves food. We need to eat, so might as well eat something tasty, right?

Western food was historically based upon surplus food that we had in the past. This included grains, corn, bread, and livestock like chickens and cows. Later, the West got potatoes too! Nowadays, a stereotypical "western" meal would be something along the lines of french fries, burgers, hotdogs, spaghetti, and bread.

Eastern food in the past was based around fish, rice, livestock like chicken and pork, rice, lots of vegetables and also rice. Eastern civilization also had many spices to change up their food, something we really wanted (if you paid attention in history). Nowadays, a stereotypical "eastern" meal would be something along the lines of curry, rice (noodles), spiced chicken, and fermented foods.

That looks good!

This is making me hungry!

Hm, don't they look a bit similar?






Entertainment. Okay, I'll skip the history lessons and talk about the now. What do you do for entertainment? You probably watch TV, play video games, do sports, or perhaps have your own special hobby. Unsurprisingly, the "eastern world" does this too! But what we do and what they do might be slightly different.

Despite what you hear, not everyone in Asia watches anime or those sappy dramas. The same of type of people who would watch them here are the same type of people in the "east" too. They have their own ridiculous reality TV shows, dramas, game shows, and series that are not that different from ours.

What's on?

When you get down to it, this whole "Western" and "Eastern" world doesn't make much sense. Everyone's culture is different, it's not really fair to make it so general. That's why in the end, you can't compare the two. Today, the whole word has become a melting pot. Cultures have fused, come together, and expanded. I'm betting that you do something your parents don't as a result of your exposure to other cultures. So in my comparison of these two worlds, the real truth is that we're not that different!

The Variety of Variety Shows

1. A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts (hence the name), especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and is normally introduced by a host. (Google) Personally,  love variety shows, especially South Korean ones. They provide fun situations to watch, so let's explore some!

Don't walk... Run!

Running Man is a show where contestants meet up, split into teams, and complete various events against each other. These contestants aren't just anyone, they're usually famous South Korean people, led by the host Yoo Jae-suk (a funny old man that only I seem to like). The two race to finish a set of objectives, usually in an urban environment or famous landmarks. They've got to go fast, hence the title of the show! I really recommend checking it out if you love shows with talented people and lots of funny or intense moments.

Counselor help us out!

Hello Counselor is another South Korean show where , agaian, famous people meet up. But this time, the discuss topics instead of compete against one another. Regular people send in their problems that they want the "counselors" to fix for them. They pick a problem that seems interesting, and have the person and some of their acquaintances come into the show. Problems arrange from friend problems, marriage, and comical situations. Also, they select a person who the audience agrees has a major problem, who is a sort of winner. The shows are hosted by the popular Yeong-ja Lee and Shin Dong-yup.

Gaki no Tsukai is a Japanese group of five that preforms a variety of shows, ranging from strange challenges to simple comedy acts. They are special in the fact that they have many different shows they do. 24 Hour Batsu is a game where the contestants are put into a strange situation filled with things to make them laugh. But if they do, they are whipped on the spot. It's certainly strange, but give it a try! Absolutely Tasty! is another show where they must taste a random food blindly, and then guess it from a group of similar foods. It's really cool to see them struggle and complain, so try this one out too!

Downtown Comedy!

I really love Asian variety shows, and there's really a variety (haha) of them. Search around, and find which ones you like. 

The Art of Dressing Up

One of the most important things you can learn about is fashion. Everyone wears clothes (I hope), so it would make sense if you put some effort in how you dress. So, I will explore the world of male fashion. Sorry girls, I'm not qualified to comment on female fashion, but I can assure you that females can learn from this too!

Do you see any excess fabric or tightness?
No, because it fits well!

An important aspect of looking good in your clothes is making sure your clothes fit. Now, when your shirt bags or your pants sag a bit, they don't fit! Sure, you can wear it, but there is excess space that would look better gone. Shirts should not have any obvious looseness to it and hug your body overall. Pants go at your waist, please don't sag! Use a belt if necessary, too.

Now that your clothes fit, the next step is understanding color. Some colors go good with each other, and some not so much. Color can get complex, so I'll try to explain it to the best of my ability. 

A good way to categorize colors is to start looking at color palettes. We have palettes like the Earth Tones, with green, brown, black, red, and orange. These colors generally compliment each other, and do not clash. An example of clashing colors would be to wear blue pants and a red shirt. They are too different, and will look strange most of the time. 

You want to wear colors that are similar in tone, warmth, coolness, shade, or darkness. Look at some fashion blogs, and you'll notice outfits generally follow the same color schemes. If girls are still reading, think makeup palettes.

Looking good!

Do your clothes fit and match now? Coolio, because now I'm going to move on to different articles and style. 

One of the classic articles of clothing that will never go out of style is the button-up. Make sure you don't wear a formal button up for casual wear! One of my favorite button-ups is the OCBD, in light shades. 

We also have jeans and chinos. Don't be afraid to sway away from blue jeans and wear other types of
trousers! Jackets and coats vary all over. 

I always see a lot of people wearing sport hoodies. They're not bad, but try to expand into anoraks, bombers, varsity, cardigans, and field jackets.

Shoes are cool too! Although we are in high school and sneakers seem the most appropriate shoe wear, dont be afraid to expand into boots, oxfords, and boat shoes. These are fancier than your usual Nike or Vans.

And to conclude my advice on fashion, I'll give the most important thing you can have in order to look good, no matter what you wear. Ready for the secret? CONFIDENCE! Confidence is key when it comes dressing. If you feel bad, you're going to look bad. But you feel great, then heck, you're going to look great! Keep your head up, your back straight, because if you carry yourself with confidence, it will make you look better than any clothing could ever do.

Arrr! On Piracy.

Piracy. It is defined as, "the unauthorized use or reproduction of another's work." Is it bad? Many argue, yes!

Piracy creates a problem for companies. Instead of receiving money from sales, they get absolutely nothing in terms of money. Instead, their product is circulated through the "market" through copying and torrenting. In fact, music companies alone lose $12.5 billion every year (ipi.org).

So why would people pirate? Well, the reason is pretty clear. Why would you spend money on something you can just grab online? It's very easy to just go on a torrent website, search up what you want, download, and enjoy.

And trust me on this, it is very easy. One of the most biggest pirating site was Piratebay.se. It hosted thousands of pirated games, movies, and software for anyone to download. 

But Piratebay wouldn't stay forever. The website has since been closed since December 9, 2014. Pirating is illegal of course. Two of the owners of the website have been placed in prison, and the servers located in Sweden were raided (variety.com).

But this meant nothing to online pirates. Online piracy levels have not dropped at all. The number of IPs tracked using P2P connections (how most pirating is conducted) have stayed at it's average of 100 million (yahoo.com).

No matter what, people will continue to pirate.There are alternate sites or programs people will find. There is no possible way for every piece of pirated digital software to be traced. The desire for free goods will never be gone. If you could get any movie, any game, software, e-book, song, or program for free, would you do it?

Will the war on piracy ever stop?

PLEASE NOTE THAT I DO NOT ENCOURAGE PIRACY. PIRACY IS A PUNISHABLE CRIME BY LAW, AND SHOULD NOT BE DONE. FOR OFFICIAL INFORMATION REGARDING PIRACY, VISIT http://www.iprcenter.gov/

PCMASTERRACE

Hello, I'm going to talk about something amazing. Absolutely beautiful. PC Gaming. PCs are the absolute masters of gaming, no matter what anyone else says. They're far superior to consoles, do you agree? If you said YES!, then you're already in the ranks of the pcmasterrace, congratulations!

Well then, I guess- wait. Did someone say NO! ??? Oh, well then. Allow me to enlighten you on the perks of PC Gaming!

Lord GabeN

Money. We all want it, but don't have enough of it. How much does the average peasant (console pleb) spend on a game? Upwards of 60$. If you couldn't tell, that's a ludicrous price. During online sales such as the Steam Sales or Humble Bundle, you can get AAA games for prices lower than 5$. Bam. Amazing. Oh right, there is also multiple games you can get for free (F2P games). The PC is the home of F2P games. Some AAA games go free from time to time too!

LoL Championship Stadium

Community. Games are most fun when played with others, and trust me, you'll never be alone on the PC. Steam alone has over 100 million active accounts. There's always going to be a server to join. With PC having multiple platforms for you and friends to connect such as Steam, Hamachi, Origin, Tungle, and online forums, you will never game alone.

Now that's a nice build.

Preformance. Do you think that the PS4 and XBone are next-gen? False. PCs have preformed, and exceeded, the capabilities of consoles since their existence. Instead of spending 400$ on this generation's consoles, you can build a equally powerful PC. If you nab some parts on sale, or get them from a friend, you can even exceed consoles for the same price! So why build a PC you ask? Well, PCs are upgradeable. You will never need to buy another PC because of "newer PCs". You just need to buy new parts, and replace your old ones! Simple as that. Trust me, you'll be saving money from never having to buy a new console.

Elite: Dangerous (A PC exclusive)

So, have I convinced you? I certainly hope I have. Let me stress: the pcmasterrace isn't about bragging or making fun of consoles. We simply recognize that PCs are the superior platform for games. That is not to say we hate consoles, we know consoles are great for certain occasions, and we get jealous at their exclusives sometimes. But, we will always know PC is the true gaming platform.

The face of PC gaming. GabeN.

Worlds' Languages

Last post I talked about something passionate to me, Music. This time I'm going to discuss another thing I find absolutely interesting, Languages!

From the dawn of humans,we've been communicating with each other through spoken words and written texts. The earliest signs of languages are present in Sumeria, in (of course) Sumerian and Cuneiform. Both of these are ancient languages, as old as 3000 B.C! Imagine, people were able to speak and write that far back in history. It gives an amazing scope at how long languages have connected us.

Now, I'm going to skip a few millenniums and talk about our modern languages, which you're probably more familiar with. Note that these are in no particular order, they're simply languages I find interesting.

Mandarin 
你会说中文吗? Mandarin is the most common language worldwide, with about 955 million speakers. That's 14% of the world! It uses isograms, meaning different symbols mean different words in Mandarin. It's not an easy language to learn, as you can tell. But nowadays, more and more people are learning it in order to gain economic partnerships in the workplace. Of course, others learn it simply because of the experience. You'll find it spoken in places like China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Check out this TED Talk about learning Chinese!

Korean
한국말 하실 줄 아세요? Korean is spoken in Korea, and is also the most common second-language in Japan. It's often been praised for it's very simple writing system, Hangul (한글), which was created and instituted in Korea by Sejong the Great in 1443. I can attest for this, I managed to learn the alphabet in a day! Whether you're obsessed with Kpop, want a top electronics jobs, or want to become a pro LoL player, Korean is definitely worth checking out.

Do you know who these Korean guys are?

Xhosa
Uyakwazi ukuthetha isiXhosa? You probably don't, but if you do please show me it sometimes! Jumping from Asia to Africa, Xhosa is an original language spoken in South Africa and Zimbabwe. It's unique and known for it's "clicking" sounds in speech. There are many dialects, but Xhosa is one that stands out to me the most.

Check out this Xhosa song!

Klingon

tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh'a'? Traveling to the planet Kronos, Klingon is - wait what? Let's start over. Klingon is a fictional language created by Mark Okrand, for used in the hit film series "Star Trek". In the films, Klingon is spoken by an alien race appropriately named the Klingons. Okrand purposely created Klingon to sound alien, giving it a distinct nasal syntax. Outside of the film, Klingon is rarely spoken casually. However, it's often popular at conventions and fan meetings. Klingon is a great example of how language is not limited to what is evolved.

A Klingon.

These are just a few examples of languages, of course, There are tons of languages out there, and I encourage you to learn or learn about some of them! You never know when knowledge of a few words or phrases may come in handy, and it's also good to be aware of other cultures. Well, until next time. Au revoir! さようなら! 안녕! Paálam! Tạm biệt! Adiós! Goodbye!

The Sound, The Beat

Music is an essential need of everyone around the world, regardless of culture. Everyone listens to music. Everyone loves music. It is a manifestation of human thought and soul. It can be fun, sad, happy, exciting; it's amazing!

Pop music is no doubt, well, the most popular music at the moment. Modern pop music is usually mid to fast paced, and almost always accompanied by vocals. Love and happy things are a common topic, because most people can relate to those sorts of things. Pop dates back to 1950s, where pop music started referring to a break from classical, instrumental type music.

Sub-genres include R&B and Soul. One important figure is Micheal Jackson, often called the King of Pop (a well-deserved title!). The tone of pop ranges across the emotional spectrum, so really anyone can listen to Pop.

Hip-Hop is often associated with rapping, DJ/electronic elements, and beat boxing. Hip-hop started in Bronx, New York, by the African-American youth. Since then, it has spread all over the globe, securing it's place as a very popular genre.

Many different sub-genres have submerged too, include Trap and Crunk. Hip-Hop is often fast-paced, getting you really hyped up. Dr. Dre and Eminem are considered popular modern artists. It's definitely not easy listening, but if you like the upbeat type of music that gets you pumped, Hip-Hop is perfect. It also usually has profanity, so look for that.

Rock, or Rock and Roll, started in the USA in the 1950s. It's defined by a typical rock band of percussionists and strings, often with a lead guitarist. One of the most popular figures is Elvis Presley, sometimes considered the king of Rock. Rock is pretty great, plenty of swing and charismatic guitar pieces. Since then though, many different subcultures of Rock have emerged, liked Metal and Indie.

Jazz. What can I say. Jazz is amazing, my personal favorite. Inspired by 1900s African-American culture, blues, and ragtime music, Jazz blends the most classy and melodic aspects of music. It has not changed much over the 100 years. Popular artists include Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong.

Listen to these two if you want a taste of Jazz. Seriously, they're so amazing. Jazz brings the soul out in you and makes you want to groove to the beat. It's awe-inspired. You can tell that Jazz is my favorite!

But regardless of what genre you prefer, music is absolutely essential and a wonderful part of life.