Day 18:
I thank God for the many friends that come and go. Through them I have learned a lot of life's lessons, both good and bad.
Day 19:
I thank God for the games we play both in the past and in the present. Games should be called Buy-One-Get-[insert multiplier]-Free packages.
Day 20:
I thank God for OCF that I have learned a lot about the Bible and have a much deeper understanding of it. Also for the opportunity to serve in various parts of OCF that I'd be humble and not self-seeking.
My Database Concepts exam was easier than I thought it would be but it is by no means another walk in the park like the first paper. I had the fortune to finish the paper with about 10 minutes to spare but of course you can't leave the exam hall with so little time left. So I did some "doodling". In the exam, they gave out scrap paper that required us to fill in our names, student number and seat number. Kinda odd if that paper is going to be discarded at the end of the exam and has our names on it so I thought it is going to be used in case you had something right but in the exam booklet you had something wrong. Quite typical when I was in Melbourne Uni and had my first experience marking exam papers. You are given marks on something that you write on the blank side of the exam booklet (which is for rough paper) that is right even if in the lined paged you got it wrong. So I decided to write something in case the exam markers were reading that piece of scrap paper. I wrote something in LolSpeak about being sorry for disturbing the students in the exam hall because I was bored and I promised that I won't do it again. The moment I finished writing the famous "Kthxbai." the exam supervisor called for pens to be down. Quite chun eh.
Anyway, it is good that I have 6 more days before my last paper so I have time to rest. Managed to have pretty much a whole day out on Saturday with breakfast, rowing, napping, drinks and clean church. The rowing was quite something. Took us awhile to figure out how to steer the boat but we learned fast. I rowed for a mere 15 minutes and already I had 2 blisters. I've never had blisters before so you can imagine that I was pretty shocked about it occurring so easily.
Resuming from the few posts before this on the few things that I have been a bit peeved at lately. I think that a lot of people (or at least the ones I know) have a very shallow understanding on the value of goods. Or even the ethics concerning the value of goods. People are unwilling to spend money on a great and polished product just because that you can get it somewhere off the internet for free (and illegal, whether you like it or not). Classic example is of course music but it goes on to videos, games and software. Speaking from a former minor pirate of music and games point of view, I had that same sort of understanding. I think the reason people have this level of understanding is just a matter of perspective. I think that us Christians have been bombarded with the messages from the Bible on not living for the now but live in light of the future, not gratifying the current pleasures of the world because of the promise of what is to come. In some sense I think that same principle also applies when it comes to short changing goods and services.
For example, Photoshop. In light of the affordability of DSLRs, everyone now have access to some sort of professional camera equipment and the need for access to post-processing starts to increase as well. Now everyone (including myself) can take the easy way out, download a cracked version of Photoshop/Lightroom/Aperture and install it in out computers and away we go because we want it now with no strings attached. It is even worse for the students to take on this route all in the name of "It's too expensive" or "Why should I spend money when I can download it?". While Jesus has some things to say about this indirectly (say Matthew 22:15-22) I shall say a few things about the more practical things to look at. Firstly, open source software. While obviously open source software isn't as powerful as the commercial software, there are alternatives (like GIMP in place for Photoshop) which does help out and they get the job more or less done. Best thing is that it is free. With more and more people contributing to open source software there are enough free alternatives to try and you'd be surprised at how much people can develop a program just on their free time with zero monetary demands. Second, for the students there are places to get (legitimate) copies of commercial software at fairly ridiculously slashed prices from the RRP, by virtue of being a student. I got Lightroom for around 25% of the full price and you get all the features, not some reduced functionality half baked program. For those who are working, you have the means to get the full priced ones. No excuse. And thirdly, even after all that you're still thinking that it is too expensive, think about whether do you really need it. Some people just get their programs because it's handy to have around. Seriously, it needs more thought that just mere "Because I can" type attitude. If you really need it, save. We don't do enough of it to be frank.
Also some times I think that people are just so caught up with the issue of price that the forgot about the services the product give itself. Again it is all about perspective. For example, I got a $6 tuner from the App Store. That itself is a turn-off for so many people because it seems that anything more expensive than free in the App Store is too expensive. $6 for a tuner on the iPhone and I must it is a pretty good tuner. It's a great product and because of that I was happy to fork out the $6 which is cheaper than most tuners you'd get and even if you can get it that cheap, odds are that they are not as accurate (this tuner is accurate to 1/100th of a semitone). It is portable and it is not a separate device for you to carry around. Now ask the question again, would you spend the money now? I don't know but hopefully the perspective has been changed. Same goes for games especially on the iPhone. I've known a lot of people who have pages and pages of free games that sometimes don't really do squat and eventually when they do find a game that is off interest to them, spending even $1.30 for a game seems too much. Seriously, you can't spend $1.30 on a game but you can spend like $10 on junk food/snacks? But what about the thousands of people who don't have iPhones but have computers to play games on? When a new game comes out the price of a game can be quite high so what do you do? Of course the easy option is download the whole freaking game because there should be some guy who have cracked it already. But what are the more non-piracy moves? Same as before. You wait for the price to drop or save. It's not about the now. Think about it. Do you really need it? If yes, wait or save. If not, you are doing both.
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