TC_Halogen - AMA

[TC_Halogen]

<bump>

[justaguy]

lol really

[TC_Halogen]

Originally Posted by justaguy

lol really

yeah really

[justaguy]

here ill validate u

whats ur favorite color

[TC_Halogen]

Originally Posted by justaguy

here ill validate u

lol

Originally Posted by justaguy

whats ur favorite color

I'm a pretty big fan of darker colors, darker blues preferably.

[mrpreggers]

pfffft some stupid generic bleh questions
Do players like you just start out in D6 and work your way up? lol
What makes players like you stand out from the rest? a lot of players do what everyone else says to do to get good but we still only see like 5 of you guys
WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO BE GOOD ;_;
What do you think of me?
gay

[Spoiled_Milk]

-Does your happiness depend on your health? For example, if you are a Breast Cancer Survivor (we all know you really have tits) and in the future, you have a relapse, would your happiness be affected by that news or would you embrace your suffering with acceptance and joy?

-Who are you? Names, nationalities, and virtually any other socially-defined attributes do not count. Deep down, who are you?

-Some say that striving for perfection is unhealthy. What if striving for perfection made you improve faster than you would have if you had lower expectations for yourself? Which way would be better?

[TC_Halogen]

Originally Posted by mRpREggERs

pfffft some stupid generic bleh questions
Do players like you just start out in D6 and work your way up?

absolutely not. I've been playing FFR for a very very long time, and have pushed myself up as high as I can any time I'm presented with the opportunity to compete. My biggest skill jump was during the 4th official, because I was placed in the highest division with only two FMO AAAs; I managed to make it to round 7 out of 10 in that division, succumbing to Hardkore Atomic.

Originally Posted by mRpREggERs

What makes players like you stand out from the rest? a lot of players do what everyone else says to do to get good but we still only see like 5 of you guys. WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO BE GOOD ;_;

I might be extremely proficient at FFR/keysmashing, but I don't care to "stand out" in the community. Being an extremely good player shouldn't be something that makes me stand out. As far as only seeing "only like 5 of you guys", there are a lot of really strong keysmashers that are just completely disregarded, and it's really unfair. What people fail to understand is that proficient D1 players are better than a good majority of the community simply because they're better than those outside the forum that play only casually. It somewhat irritates me to see players that actually know how to play the game (D2+) constantly calling themselves "bad".

Originally Posted by mRpREggERs

What do you think of me?

I don't really have any problems with you; you seem like an alright person aside from the fact that you intentionally act like a prick sometimes.

Originally Posted by Spoiled_Milk

-Does your happiness depend on your health? For example, if you are a Breast Cancer Survivor (we all know you really have tits) and in the future, you have a relapse, would your happiness be affected by that news or would you embrace your suffering with acceptance and joy?

Happiness is definitely dependent on my health for me. In the situation that you mentioned, I would be absolutely destroyed. When considering a serious health ailment within myself, I like to consider being rid of it as "normal" (so that when I mention normal, it's not a generalization/association). To go from a state of normality to realizing that my life is in jeopardy yet again... I don't know how I would react. It's even worse because I'm a pretty emotional person, too.

Originally Posted by Spoiled_Milk

-Who are you? Names, nationalities, and virtually any other socially-defined attributes do not count. Deep down, who are you?

I'm... really not sure how to answer this.

Originally Posted by Spoiled_Milk

-Some say that striving for perfection is unhealthy. What if striving for perfection made you improve faster than you would have if you had lower expectations for yourself? Which way would be better?

I disagree very much that striving for perfection is unhealthy, but I understand why people think it is. In terms of value, perfection can be analyzed in the same way as infinity. Think about it: to most people, achieving perfection is impossible. Additionally, having an unlimited amount of something is also theoretically impossible, as using something drops the amount of it that you have. This is as explicit of a comparison as I can consider giving.

However, I like to think of perfection on a subjective level. Perfection isn't attainable on an objective level because it does not exist. Anyone can take apart anything that you have worked on and find one single flaw, breaking the objective definition. To answer your second question: striving for perfection doesn't make me improve faster, but it makes the level of improvement increase. Essentially, I consider perfection as the limit of my ability, and it isn't possible to be pushed to that limit because at any given point, I can always work harder. Thinking about perfection in that light keeps me sane and always keeps me pushing as hard as I can.

[TSB_[Shattered]]

Why can't i connect to MP or Chat?

[TC_Halogen]

Interesting question to ask me in an AMA, haha.

The site is currently going through what seems like DNS issues, so that could be related to why you can't access anything related to SmartFox Server (which, coincidentally encompasses Multiplayer and Profile Chat).

[icontrolyourworld]

Approximately how many hamburgers have you eaten in your life?

[Zon Fire]

would you rather be able to go super saiyan or catch/train pokemon?

[TC_Halogen]

Originally Posted by icontrolyourworld

Approximately how many hamburgers have you eaten in your life?

Holy christ, haha. I have no idea; it's gotta be a pretty high number. I lived pretty close to fast-food places like BK/Mc'Ds, but those hardly count as quality hamburgers, haha.

Originally Posted by Zon Fire

would you rather be able to go super saiyan or catch/train pokemon?

Catch/train Pokemon.

[TC_Halogen]

Hmmm...

Two year bump? Things have changed quite a bit since this last post.

[choof]

Why web design?

[AlexDest]

How are you doing with school?

[___________]

How has life changed over the past two years?

[Zapmeister]

The year is 2059. Mankind has long since commercialised inner solar system space travel, and set up permanent colonies on the Moon, Mars, and Titan. However, commnication between different colonies is difficult, and lifestyles between the planets are hugely different, so that since your migration to Mars, you've found it hard to relate to your Earthling friends on more than a superficial level. Meanwhile, you've still been playing rhythm games the entire time because the enticing lure of FFR keeps drawing you back there no matter how much you try to retire. As a result of your natural improvement, you have just been elected as President of Mars after SDGing the fiendishly difficult exam to become President of Mars (which has obviously got harder since 2012). Unfortunately, intergalactic police forces have been inspecting Earthling procedures to infiltrate other colonies in the Solar System, and have just clamped down and held hostage FFR, Stepmania, KBO, osu!, and NoseDancer (which is a rhythm game created in 2027 where you use your nose to hit the rhythm), citing them as secret training bases to train people to have the necessary skills to colonise the galaxy, and consider them extremely dangerous weapons. They have also taken hostage anyone in d6 or higher. I suck at creative writing, because I haven't taken a class in that since I was 14. Since you're president of Mars, you have more political power than other Earthling and Martian ffr/stepmania players, but the police claim a rigged election and want to overthrow you. What do you do?

What is something you've done that you'd say is a lot more difficult than it looks, but someone would find it hard to believe you until they try it for themself?

You seem to be a really busy person - so I was wondering how do you motivate yourself when you've got a lot of work to do but don't have motivation to do it? Or does that not happen to you? I'm a masters student who's been losing motivation for working for a few months now and at this point I'm getting REALLY desperate - I haven't really done any work for like two weeks, out of complete and utter demotivation. If you want to know exactly how desperate I am, the fact that I'm asking a random internet stranger on his AMA gives you a pretty good idea

Can I be a difficulty forum mod?

In your last response to my post you talked about four-barrelling in poker. I know three-barrelling is when you c-bet the flop, turn and river, but what is four-barrelling? Didn't you mean four-betting?

Why are divisions in ffr tournaments labelled backwards so the highest number division is the best one, which never happens anywhere else?

You wake up one morning and there is a tin of tomato soup stuck to your bedroom ceiling. You're not sure how it got there, but it seems likely that it was superglued there. You think nothing of it. The next day you wake up and there are 2 identical tins of tomato soup, one underneath the other, stuck to your bedroom ceiling. Again, you're not sure how, but you ignore it. The next day there are 3 identical tins of tomato soup forming a tower extending down from your ceiling, and so on. You get to the day when the tower has reached the point that there's not enough space for another tin between the bottom of the tower and the floor. What do you expect to see when you wake up the next day?

EDIT: I'm considering making money by sending helium balloons in the post to New Zealand. The idea behind this is that I can argue at the post office that I should be charged a negative amount of postage because the postal aircraft would in fact be lighter with my balloons in it than without. Now I know what you're thinking - you're wondering whether I'd be able to make enough money from the postage to offset the cost of the balloons and the helium. To solve this problem, I'd have to find someone living in New Zealand to co-operate with me and we'd send the same balloons back and forth to each other, thus making more money out of the same balloons. With enough dedication I think I'd be able to make a living out of doing this. What do you think?

[MikeShinoda12345]

Do you have any advice for a college freshman?

What would be your favorite place to live? to visit? Why, and what would you do?

What do you do to relax and recharge?

[TC_Halogen]

Originally Posted by choof

Why web design?

Amazing thing about this: it actually happened completely by chance! When looking for work around the area, Kayla spotted a job that dealt with web design, development and SEO work. She very forcefully told me to apply for the job, because the worst that could happen is that I never heard back. I reluctantly applied for the job via an e-mail, with very little professional experience but showed various things that I've done on the internet randomly and indicated that I'm a person who is highly adaptable. Next thing I knew, I got an e-mail back to have an interview with my current boss. They knew that I didn't have the experience to do the job right away, but apparently saw a large amount of promise in my capability of picking things up on the job, so they hired me under a consultant contract for a month (more like a probationary period). At this point, I found out that there were three other candidates who were going to interview for the position roughly a week after I got there, so I talked to my boss and asked him for a list of things he was looking for not just out of me, but also for the website.

The opening task was actually an interesting one for me: the website was utilizing a Magento Go eCommerce platform, and, as some store owners came to find out -- Magento Go services were being terminated in February of 2015. I knew what the current content management system was, so I took the time at home to learn it inside and out, and essentially plow through the initial stages of the migration process at such a high speed that it would have been trivial to hire someone else, because I was already familiar with the system and had moved a good majority of their products over from the old site to the new one. When my boss was curious to see how I was doing after a week, I proceeded to show him what I had done.

Two of the interviews ended up not happening, and the other person that interviewed apparently didn't do well. So, while web development is certainly not the career outcome I am looking to have, it's a great launching pad because I will have actual IT experience in my resume from here on out, which is awesome.

Congrats on your new job too, by the way!

Originally Posted by AlexDest

How are you doing with school?

I've been better. My grades slipped for a little bit, but I've recently rebounded this term. My priorities really hit me in the face after getting this job and it changed my attitude quite a bit (in my opinion: in a good way).

Originally Posted by ___________

How has life changed over the past two years?

Originally Posted by Zapmeister

The year is 2059. Mankind has long since commercialised inner solar system space travel, and set up permanent colonies on the Moon, Mars, and Titan. However, commnication between different colonies is difficult, and lifestyles between the planets are hugely different, so that since your migration to Mars, you've found it hard to relate to your Earthling friends on more than a superficial level. Meanwhile, you've still been playing rhythm games the entire time because the enticing lure of FFR keeps drawing you back there no matter how much you try to retire. As a result of your natural improvement, you have just been elected as President of Mars after SDGing the fiendishly difficult exam to become President of Mars (which has obviously got harder since 2012). Unfortunately, intergalactic police forces have been inspecting Earthling procedures to infiltrate other colonies in the Solar System, and have just clamped down and held hostage FFR, Stepmania, KBO, osu!, and NoseDancer (which is a rhythm game created in 2027 where you use your nose to hit the rhythm), citing them as secret training bases to train people to have the necessary skills to colonise the galaxy, and consider them extremely dangerous weapons. They have also taken hostage anyone in d6 or higher. I suck at creative writing, because I haven't taken a class in that since I was 14. Since you're president of Mars, you have more political power than other Earthling and Martian ffr/stepmania players, but the police claim a rigged election and want to overthrow you. What do you do?

hahahahahahahaha holy fucking shit I have no answer to this, but posts like these are amazing and just make my day <3

Originally Posted by Zapmeister

What is something you've done that you'd say is a lot more difficult than it looks, but someone would find it hard to believe you until they try it for themself?

This is a pretty interesting question, actually. One of the things that I really feel like people think is difficult but really isn't is actually programming. What a lot of people fail to realize is that programming isn't this arbitrary term for getting computers to do things, it's an actual language that, like spoken languages, can be learned with diligent studies. When I showed my parents some of the work that I've done at my current job, they would both respond in a way that pretty much said they had no idea what I was talking about, but a simple explanation that took literally a minute of my time provided plenty of insight and knowledge. For those who are interested but scared: try learning a coding/programming language. There are a number of sites that give you really hands on experience and make it a relatively enjoyable process.

Originally Posted by Zapmeister

You seem to be a really busy person - so I was wondering how do you motivate yourself when you've got a lot of work to do but don't have motivation to do it? Or does that not happen to you? I'm a masters student who's been losing motivation for working for a few months now and at this point I'm getting REALLY desperate - I haven't really done any work for like two weeks, out of complete and utter demotivation. If you want to know exactly how desperate I am, the fact that I'm asking a random internet stranger on his AMA gives you a pretty good idea

Believe me, I know exactly what it is like to go under a period of demotivation, and the worst part about it is that it starts this HORRIBLE train that eventually spills into other things you do. In my case, I went from getting lazy in my studies, to being lazy with certain things in my hobbies (FFR is a key example and my decline is pretty visible, hence me stepping away).

These last two weeks have been an incredible trial for me of patience and diligence, because I literally spent every day, doing at least 4-6 hours of studies. One of the things that helped me was having music in my background. Something about having a different ambiance just changes my ability to handle workloads -- some other people claim that this helps them as well, but your mileage will certainly vary. You just have to push yourself and tell yourself that your studies are more important than anything else. Isolate yourself from distractions as much as possible if you feel like your demotivation is too great -- travel to a library, work in a focus group, do anything in your power to turn the tables on your lack of motivation.

Originally Posted by Zapmeister

Can I be a difficulty forum mod?

I don't make those decisions.

Originally Posted by Zapmeister

In your last response to my post you talked about four-barrelling in poker. I know three-barrelling is when you c-bet the flop, turn and river, but what is four-barrelling? Didn't you mean four-betting?

Yes, that.

Originally Posted by Zapmeister

Why are divisions in ffr tournaments labelled backwards so the highest number division is the best one, which never happens anywhere else?

I think the divisional numbering system came to life pretty early on but was really loosely used. In my opinion, it just happened to extend arbitrarily once the dashboard was created in the 5th Official tournament, because the buttons used to check divisions were actually labeled "division 1", "division 2", etc. I personally believe that the actual divisional terminology would have been used substantially more frequently if the opportunity to lazily use a number system wasn't so easily provided.

Originally Posted by Zapmeister

You wake up one morning and there is a tin of tomato soup stuck to your bedroom ceiling. You're not sure how it got there, but it seems likely that it was superglued there. You think nothing of it. The next day you wake up and there are 2 identical tins of tomato soup, one underneath the other, stuck to your bedroom ceiling. Again, you're not sure how, but you ignore it. The next day there are 3 identical tins of tomato soup forming a tower extending down from your ceiling, and so on. You get to the day when the tower has reached the point that there's not enough space for another tin between the bottom of the tower and the floor. What do you expect to see when you wake up the next day?

EDIT: I'm considering making money by sending helium balloons in the post to New Zealand. The idea behind this is that I can argue at the post office that I should be charged a negative amount of postage because the postal aircraft would in fact be lighter with my balloons in it than without. Now I know what you're thinking - you're wondering whether I'd be able to make enough money from the postage to offset the cost of the balloons and the helium. To solve this problem, I'd have to find someone living in New Zealand to co-operate with me and we'd send the same balloons back and forth to each other, thus making more money out of the same balloons. With enough dedication I think I'd be able to make a living out of doing this. What do you think?

- the tomato soup conundrum: you never said that I had to ignore the cans of soup when they neared the floor: I'd purchase some tarps and cover the walls/objects in my room, put on some junky clothing that I have no use for, and then take a baseball bat and swing as hard as I could. The more the mess, the better, because I won't be cleaning it.

- helium balloon situation: are you implying that balloons are weightless/negative in weight? I don't care if you think you should be charged a negative amount of postage, helium balloons still have a weight! Negative density != negative weight, sir.

Originally Posted by MikeShinoda12345

Do you have any advice for a college freshman?

What would be your favorite place to live? to visit? Why, and what would you do?

What do you do to relax and recharge?

- Don't be a slacker. Get your bearings on how your schedule is so that you can adequately prepare for when workloads get heavier than you expect. If you're a lazy student and procrastinate early, the amount of work you will have to catch up on is horrible, and the feeling of trying to do it will feel twice as bad as the amount of work that you have to do.

- I personally would love to live back in New Jersey again; it is nothing like what people assume it to be thanks to reality television - some areas are incredibly peaceful and quiet. It's also a relatively safe state outside of the main cities -- Kayla and I both lived in Mount Arlington and man, when it was quiet... it was -real- quiet. Having that kind of peace is really nice sometimes.

- If I had the chance to travel internationally, I would definitely want to visit Venice just to see what it's like to legitimately have to travel on a gondola. If Kayla and I are taking a trip together, I'll likely be forced to go to Paris because Kayla has this neverending desire to experience the Paris catacombs. I think the idea is great, but it's certainly not on my bucket list.

- I listen to and try to create music. Anything and everything related to music that I enjoy listening to helps me relax; that also includes things that allow me to interact with music, which is why I badly miss playing ITG regularly, why I play FFR on and off, and why I enjoy judging/creating charts on FFR.