TC_Halogen - AMA
 

(or ask me anything, for short)

Initially, I opted out of having questions asked to me in a thread because I was semi-concerned with these cluttering up the forums as is, but it seems like devonin is opting into making a sub-forum, which is pretty nice. These are interesting to read, so it's perfectly alright with me as long as it doesn't cause issues on the forums, haha :)

With that being said -- ask me anything. I will answer any questions as long as they aren't trolly/stupid.

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

what do you like most about the ffr community?

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Am i cool? -_-

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I am treading on a very tight rope

but

Who is the one user in the community that you CANNOT stand?

And also, most embarrassing moment?

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

I've been with FFR for a very long time... almost eight years. Through those eight years, a lot has happened to me. There's definitely been many highs and many lows. I got admitted into one of the best high schools into Chicago, was really active in extra-curricular activities and clubs, and was pretty popular despite how timid I was at times. However, I hit some of my biggest lows during this time (and not all of them were my fault, either). I lost touch with my parents and felt like I could never talk to them seriously, I ended up getting bullied my senior year of high school, lost a lot of friends, and got kicked out of school for truancy (goes along with the bullying issue). Things have gotten better though, I feel like my life has settled quite a bit and I am enjoying it a lot.

What does this have to do with the question? Well, it goes along with the fact that I was actively on FFR during a good majority of this time. Through the toughest points of my life, I always felt like I had someone to talk to, even if I never had a true personal connection. I'm now an active member of the community, at 21 (compared to the 13 when I started). I wouldn't change my experience on FFR for anything, even though I've had issues with a few people.

Yes, you are. I very much like you as a user and you are an inspiration to one handed players everywhere.

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

Which online community you can't stand at all that you were a part of?

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What's your favorite Wonka candy

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do you love me?

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

That question doesn't tread on a tight rope whatsoever. Honestly, this question is easy to answer and I don't care what they think of me but... I absolutely can't stand Findarian. I was very close to reaming him out after he tried splitting up the Team Pony team. After a four day break (note: no usable computer without asking Kayla), I came back to the Skype chat to see a conversation topic that really irritated me. I then left the chat.

Honestly, I really haven't been on too many online communities, and the ones that I have been on (and/or are on right now) don't bother me.

Nerds.

I answered this on my profile when it was up temporarily, and I'll answer it here too: I like you as a person, but you definitely have your moments where you piss me off. You're chill but can definitely be a prick when you want to be. (See, I said I would answer honestly.)

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

Am I loved?

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If you wanted anyone to make a AMA thread that hasn't already who would it be?

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

What is your most favorite and least favorite word?

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

You're an awesome person that has been through quite a bit in the past few years. I know you're busy with schooling and you're making the best effort to be as productive as you can to make sure things get better for you.

In addition to that, you've been really nice to me since we first talked. Honestly, I don't even know how long ago that was -- you were a pretty big inspiration as a SM player when I was still trying to get the hang of the game. You're someone that I'd love to meet and (as a friend) I love you a lot.

devonin or Reincarnate. Both of them are incredibly intelligent and would have a lot of insightful things to contribute when given the chance.

I love the word "convoluted". Something about being complex makes me feel cool using it.

I hate pseudo because a part of me dies a little inside when I pronounce the first syllable and realize that it somehow equates to "pseu" instead of su. The english language sucks.

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

whats the most angry ive ever made and what was it that i did

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You might not love Razor, but surely you love me, right? :D

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what is UR favit file of mine pls

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

honestly, I can't remember anything that you did that has made me upset in the past ASIDE from the post you made in my Jamais Vu thread (about it not being threadworthy).

You -really- have to ask that question? We've collaborated on projects, dealt with all sort of pad-related endeavors, competed against each other in FFR tournaments, chit-chat on ThirdStyle quite frequently, and had a ton of small talk at random points throughout the last five years. Of course I love you. :p

I haven't played one of your files in a long time, but I absolutely loved playing Mina's OP and Kryptonite.

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

that post was a joke lol

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

When and on what are we going to collab (be it for FFR or SM)?

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

it didn't seem like it ;_;

Whenever you want ;)

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Within what you see as 'the realm of possibility', where would you like to be in ten years?

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what do u feel when u realize everybody will die at some point

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

It's ok,

i'm a strong independent razor who don't need no halogen

~

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

Things are finally starting to look up for me in terms of education (at least, it looks like it). I start my endeavor for a Bachelors-level degree in Computer Science (Information Systems) on the 17th of October, and I'm really hoping to plow through that in an effort to get a career in the field that I want. I'm contemplating going for a Masters already, but I figure I'd be more suited to make that decision when I'm closer to my goal.

I'm hoping that Kayla and I are still living together and raising Saphira to become an intelligent girl, and I'm hoping that we're still living out in the east coast (honestly, Jersey isn't that bad). I'd also like to hopefully have enough money to put down money on a house and live a great life.

I don't feel much of anything. I've tried to rationalize what I feel when I think about death in general, and it's not saddening at all. In fact, it's very fascinating to try and imagine what and how you feel when it's over. I try to fathom what it feels like to exist when your body and mind don't work anymore and it's just... impossible.

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

have you ever cried while listening to music? whether they were tears of joy or tears of sadness is irrelevant.

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

Absolutely. A lot of orchestral music tends to at least get my eyes to well up because it just sounds absolutely incredible.

I feel like I'm attached to a lot of different genres of music, and if a song interests me, I have a tendency to try and "storyboard" a song. I'll try to connect myself to the song and invoke the feelings. I find myself frequently tearing up in happiness though.

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

Biggest fail of your lifetime?

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If there was a life-sized piece of chocolate of me, would you eat it?'
Edit: Very detailed life-sized piece of chocolate.

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So here you are one of the best players in the world at a rather underground game. How many people around you know that you play FFR, and how many of them know the extent of your abilities?

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Favorite flavor of Jarritos?

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

So far? Getting kicked out of school.

Fun fact: I don't eat chocolate. (Ask Kayla.)

A lot of people that I talk to actively are rhythm gamers or are really close friends to me, and most of them are very well aware of how good I am at the game. My parents know how good I am at it too, but only my dad seems to acknowledge me being good at a game is alright (my dad used to be a game-head himself even in his late 30s).

wow I hate you for mentioning this, I haven't had one in a while. (p.s. Lime.)

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

What do you think of me? =)

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If you could pick -one- place to go travel, where is it.

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Lime?

Pft, upgrade to mango, n*gga.

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What is your best experience with this community?

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How has stepping style changed over the years? And what is your opinion on current steppage?

Also, do you have a mommy?

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If you could pick one person to be a moderator who isn't currently a moderator, who would it be and why?

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What is your favorite videogame outside of FFR/Stepmania/etc and why?

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do you even lift?

how many hours do you play FFR/SM a day?

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Lmfao

To add to my previous question, would you like to meet up?

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do you have a dog? preferably the one in my picture XD. Does it play with Saphira ?

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

You're really chill. I'd talk to you a lot more if our main medium of communication wasn't Facebook. I don't like hanging on Facebook for multiple reasons.

For years, I've always wanted to see Venice, Italy. If my life gets really good and I'm able to advance myself and my career, that will be the first place I travel to leisurely. (And hey, on the way there, maybe I can meet Mollocephalus somehow.)

It's tough to really give a great answer to this question. Back in 2009, I was really well regarded as an active FFR Multiplayer user. I didn't play much because I was on dial-up or a leeched connection, but I would hang in the lobby anywhere from 8 to 10 hours a day. I'd very frequently get messages like "whoa, you're still on here?" Some people at that time also thought I should have gotten some sort of MP moderator title back at that time too. I was treated nicely and I treated people nicely.

I've been stepping since early 05. I didn't release any files of any sort until around September of '05, back when most keyboard charts looked as light as your typical ITG chart (typical being 11+ difficulty). Around January of '07, my stepping style changed a little bit after playing quite a few Zaghurim/Bursurk_Lurk/Exige files, and I tried to mimic their style as best as I could (hell, I even used the Square Unique font that most of their files used to have).

Then, I started getting really active on FFR in the forums. I eventually ran into Carlos (who gave me confidence) and bmah (who tweaked my style a bit into something I really like) and had them give me advice on how to improve a bit. After Tageri got released, I received a ton of praise from the community (even some private messages saying that it was one of the best files on FFR now) and it boosted my confidence quite a bit. I kept charting to try and get a feel for how my charts should be.

When Dragon's Fury came around, I was proactively charting for the private custom tournaments, and I started figuring out how to pump out charts at a relatively fast pace to meet demands (or time constraints for any reason). Things started getting really easy to me and I was finally learning how to be a bit more experimental while still being relevant and having fun (see: Who You Thought Was Evidently Me on Dragons Fury, that was my first real attempt at being different).

Once FFR came back up and a batch was open, I was recommended to be a judge. This was awesome to see people realize that I had improved at a substantial rate.

Throughout the last eight years, my stepping skill and style has evolved. My initial style was very simplistic (just following the music and putting notes on their appropriate rhythms without a care), but I started learning how to layer, I started learning how to do "keysound layering" (direct layering - I call it keysound layering because keysounded games like IIDX/Pop'n usually layer as directly as possible on higher difficulties - p.s. I despise doing this now), and now I use accented layering (rather than trying to figure out how many sounds cohesively play at once, I just take prevalent instruments and accent sounds that don't occur frequently or are heavier than other notable sounds).

My current opinion on stepping? People are trying too hard to judge others on technicality ONLY. Not everyone has a gift or talent to be able to properly discern slightly different pitches, so it absolutely frustrates me to see people that had no intentions on using pitch relevancy on songs where it's not blatantly obvious. If you want to chart something, you should be able to do so without having to worry about how amazing it is in technical accuracy, because in four keys, you will never achieve technical perfection. I've made this argument before and no one was ever able to prove me wrong.

Yes, I do have a mommy; I don't like her very much.

To me, a moderator should possess good social skills with the rest of the community, should be really level-headed and rational, and needs to be able to handle things properly without stirring up issues within the community and whoever else they work with.

If I had the chance to pick someone that would be a very suitable moderator, I'd have a lot of trouble choosing between two people...

The first person I wouldn't mind as a moderator is iironiic. He is a prolifically active player with overall rank 3, he's a simfile artist and simfile judge, has a great forum presence overall, and has been an active contributor for quite some time. He's also very intelligent and rational, and I feel like he's level-headed enough to make sure that things won't go out of hand.

The second person I wouldn't mind as a moderator is subin. subin has very positive forum experience as well, and he seems to care a lot about making sure that people understand the site's workings (for those of you that don't remember, he made a few things that were worthy of forum stickies in the past). Like iironiic, he's also very intelligent and doesn't seem to have a negative attitude located anywhere on his person.

If either of them got moderator access, it would be a good day to me as long as they handled their power like I thought they would.

Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu - Op. 66, and Lizst's El Contrabandista

Crash Bandicoot. Bold for HUGE emphasis. I've spent so much time trying to perfect all of the earlier (earlier being up to The Wrath of Cortex) games. Some of the challenges I've tried putting myself to where finishing Crash Bandicoot 1 without a single death (SO hard), trying to finish Crash Bandicoot 2 without a single death (retardedly hard), trying to full platinum Crash Bandicoot 3 (I have only one more left ;_;), trying to fully complete Crash Team Racing without any restarts on races/bosses/challenges (I've made it more than halfway through!)... I could keep going for a while if I didn't have more to talk about.

Crash Bandicoot has been a huge part of my gaming life. When I first got hands on a PSX, Crash Bandicoot 2 was my first game ever. I was addicted to it, and it happened very quickly too. The game started getting too easy though, and I had heard from others that the first game was much harder to do. Let me tell you something, just hearing the name Sunset Vista and Slippery Climb makes long time Crash Bandicoot players cringe in place. It's a great game that requires precision like any platformer, but the music is great and the concept is just brilliant to me (I mean, come on -- spinning crates with fruit inside of them... occasionally using them to travel to where you need to go? It's nuts.)

do -you- even lift? I would I could, but I'm usually watching Saphira throughout the day so it doesn't leave me much time for leaving the house. :p

Believe it or not, since the official tournament concluded, I haven't played all that much FFR. I had two days where I had roughly a two hour session, but it was out of leisure and wasn't anything really hard for me (63 to 80 on the new scale, just randoming files). I'm done with the competitive side of FFR; it was fun while it lasted, but I don't want to do it anymore.

I would like to meet up, but that plane trip will probably make me want to kill myself.

We don't have a dog in our apartment. Kayla's mom has a dog at her house and it is a bit skiddish, but Saphira does well with him.

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

Do you miss Team Chaos

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

On what else then? =)

I'm thinking of cruising through the US next summer, so that could be something funny.

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

How did you get kicked out of school?

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how many times have you made it to Road to Nowhere without dying? have you made it past that level? (falling planks and tricky perspective stumped me as a kid lol)

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How bigs your left nut

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

Yes and no. It was a nice hangout, but it really didn't get anywhere.

Do you have Skype?

Ugh... I had a feeling this question would come up if I made a mention of it, and I promised that I would answer questions honestly, so here goes.

I was going to a pretty well known high school in Chicago (Lane Tech College Prep) and I was doing pretty well for a while. I had made a couple of really close female friends. One of my friends I had a few classes with, and we mutually agreed that we were only friends, because neither of us had a real affectionate interest in one another. However, she got a boyfriend that was incredibly paranoid. He was also a lot bigger than I was overall.

I used to be very playful with her, I used to tickle her, playfully pinch her to start hilarious mini-fights that we used to have fun doing, and hell, when she pissed me off, I would pick her up and carry her on my shoulders because she was a twig (and I was in much better shape, lol). But, her boyfriend thought that I was hitting on her, not realizing that we were friends way before he was ever in the picture.

I ran into her boyfriend more frequently during the second half of my day, during my fifth to eighth period classes, and he started approaching me about the situation. I kept trying to reassure him that there was absolutely nothing going on and that we had no interest in one another, but he kept approaching me around the same point of the day, with increased aggression as time went by because I refused to give up a really close friend.

School started getting a bit more stressful -- I was having issues with my parents and couldn't confide in them with anything because they were too busy and childish with their own relationship issues that they couldn't bother to help me when I needed it most.

The day that I got kicked out, I had a really volatile confrontation with my mom, with her telling me that my mind wasn't focusing on the right things (playing a lot of video games and occasionally neglecting classwork by procrastinating - I still did get it done, though), and I told her to back off because she wasn't helping by constantly getting into fights and other unnecessary drama. I went to school in a pretty upset mood, and I was very reclusive about it too. Most of my classmates/friends knew that I was upset, but I didn't bother talking to any of them. And then, for a reason that I still don't understand, I got approached by her goddamn boyfriend again. I had my locker half open because I was just dumping all of my books in there since I had absolutely no homework that day, and he was essentially talking to me behind it, waiting for me to shut it to confront him. I can't remember what was really said anymore, but he said something that really pissed me off and I pulled the locker door open as hard as I could and ran. I'm not sure how much of him I hit, but I know for a fact I at least caught his face, because he was on the floor in pain. These locker doors were somewhat heavier than your normal locker door, too. That day was pretty empty near my locker, because my locker was on the 4th floor and the only reason I was up there that late was because of concert band sectionals. I'm not quite sure why he was still here, though.

I never went back to Lane after that. My parents never knew about anything - I would take my bookbag with me, but I would go to the local bowling alley (which at the time was 24 hours), linger around the park, grab a bite to eat, play some ITG here or there... whatever. My dad then sent me a message saying that I screwed up and got expelled (for truancy). He was upset, but he seemed to let it go pretty quickly. My mom didn't, though. I put up with it for another seven and a half months before booking it to live with Kayla.

I have made it past RtN a few times on my really good runs. However, I simply can't make it past Slippery Climb with that kind of pressure. The end of that level is such a pain.

next

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

wow, that's ****ed up. Sorry to hear about that. Hopefully you've at least grown in some way from that shitty situation.

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

Well, things have definitely started to look a lot better. I got my GED in June (the test was pathetically easy), and I actually start my journey in getting a Bachelors for Computer Science (Information Systems) on October 17th! :)

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

I sure do, inb4 PM.

Interesting story about how you got kicked out, reminds me of a friend who went through something similar...

I actually did Crash 1 without dying, of course with the precious help of *HAMBURGER TUDU-TU*, dunno if it still counts... That game was a good part of my childhood, lmao.

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

Bumping my AMA because I'm interested in more questions.

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

What Facebook games do you find yourself playing regularly, if any?

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Do you have any hobbies that you think no one on FFR would've expected you to have?

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

I play a lot of the games that are spin (or rip) offs of television game shows. Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Family Feud, The Price is Right, Deal or No Deal, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, etc.

I love to swim, and I also love to cycle. If I was a great runner, I'd more than likely be actively training to do a triathlon. Unfortunately, I can't run for long distances anymore. :(

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

Do you like to whore for retarded platinums?

What's your PSN?

Favorite simfile of yours?

"Newbie" of FFR you look up to the most (like, uprising member)

Do you spit or swallow

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

If referring to CB, absolutely. I actually am looking to get a PS1 memory card again and Crash Bandicoot 3 so that I can go for full platinum + a few developer time sups. I was able to tie Orient Express' dev time on a PSP, which has a horrible d-pad/analog for CB.

Don't have one, unfortunately.

Hard to say. There are a lot of files that I really really like. Most of the files that I like are files that are very accent-heavy and have a great structure in addition to having great flow. Hellhounds on My Trail is definitely a favorite of mine; I also really like SOLROS (Vocal) because it has everything I would want to hear in a song combined with a really strong/heavy chart.

Honestly, I can't think of too many newbie newbies that I follow. I was very interested in Zekramcross for a long while, but his past involvement with Team Blaze made me uninterested in him and his behavior. In any event, he's really not a newbie anymore. I kinda wish Helixia and Frans813 would get a bit more involved in the community (not sure if those numbers are right), because I tend to see videos of them.

not sure what context this is, but I have a feeling, lol

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

Why did you nuke st scarhand on DF?

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

You're playing poker with a tiger. You're holding Ac Ad and the flop is 4s 6s Qs. You notice that the tiger has started making loud growling noises like a bear, but seems focused on the game. It places a bet slightly higher than the minimum. Do you fold? call? raise? or run screaming?

What is your favourite halogen?

Why is water wet?

What is the 1 song you don't have an FC on?

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

It happened back during custom tournament #7; me, Kayla and hi19 were having a stupid argument and we removed his files. I should put some of those back at some point, lol.

I'd run screaming if I somehow ended up playing against a literal tiger.

In a normal situation, in late position, I'd put out a reasonable re-raise and potentially push to a four-barrel, depending on the way the player's style has been. If this player is normally a loose player, I'll let them know that I do have a wide range of their typical hands beat.

*shrug* I only made the name because I was a fan of chemistry at the time and I needed something that was a decent name. I'll just say flourine (that's from memory, I could be wrong about that being one) because that's the first thing that came to mind.

No idea. I can only speculate. Saying that water is wet because it is a liquid doesn't explain why a liquid is wet, and water is a liquid so...

Death Piano. However, I actually did FC the song. I lost my FC (137-77-0-127) from a long while back (at least two and a half years ago) to my non-FC (82-4-7-15) from a little less than a year ago.

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

<bump>

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

lol really

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

yeah really

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

here ill validate u

whats ur favorite color

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

lol

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

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

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

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

-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?

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

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.

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".

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.

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.

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

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.

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

Why can't i connect to MP or Chat?

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

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).

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

Approximately how many hamburgers have you eaten in your life?

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

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

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

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.

Catch/train Pokemon.

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

Hmmm...

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

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

Why web design?

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

How are you doing with school?

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

How has life changed over the past two years?

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

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?

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

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?

Re: TC_Halogen - AMA
 

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!

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).

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

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.

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.

I don't make those decisions. :p

Yes, that.

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.

- 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.

- 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.