Birthdays, anyone?

      

What are birthdays? I’d assume its the day you were born. But what’s the significance of it? I have no concrete ideas although I do have several theories.

With age comes responsibility, getting older means getting wiser. Hopefully wise enough to know but still young enough to do it. Getting old is a right of passage of sorts. A transition from being you depending on others to others depending on you now.

Another thing might be to remind people about how much time has past and how much time is left. An entire year spent with little or no successes? Bummer. Better kick it into high gear, time’s running out.

Conversely birthdays might be a sign to slow down. In this day and age sometimes we live too fast, too furious. Wouldn't want life to pass us by like a blurry line of a car racing past. Later in life, we usually learn to enjoy the little things in between more rather than Big things (cars, vacations, hotels).

Lastly, cake. Birthdays is nature’s way of telling you to eat more cake.

If its your birthday today as you read this, then I wish you happy birthday. May life keep giving you lemons for you to make lemonade. (Or any other fruit you want, its just a metaphor)

So insecure... don't know what for...

So like, I feel threatened. Not in the "I'm in danger" sense but the "there goes my self-esteem out the window" sense and I can't do anything about it. You see, I used to be quite tall compared to my friends in class but in recent years that has changed. They're not as tall as me. No. They're taller. Even most of the girls are same height or taller and they seem to get taller each time I see them. Must be a punishment for teasing them about their height. I'm about 5'2.., 5'3 at most. This typically wouldn't be a problem except that I have to tilt my head a bit to talk to anyone. Finally, you know there's a problem when you can't reach an overhead kitchen cabinet (I'm going to starve) or even a freakin' clothesline.

That was superficial and totally not consequential. But this, this creeps me out.

Its been a few weeks of classes. Recently learned about cell damage. Necrosis and Apoptosis. Just like cells are the building blocks of life:
cell --> tissue --> organ --> system(s) --> organism

cells are also the way things go bye-bye:
injured cell --> damaged tissue --> organ failure --> system(s) shutdown --> death

An open wound or a splitting headache would at least be felt and you'd know something is wrong. But a disease or mutation could just trigger necrosis or apoptosis and suddenly your life expectancy is being shortened... cell by cell.

But thats okay because most cells can and do regenerate. Even without disease, 300,000,000 of our cells are comitting suicide every minute (for the greater good of our bodies) albeit in a regulated and controlled way. Apparently everyone also develops "cancer" multiple times daily! But our Good Guy Greg immune system is advanced enough to kill these cancerous cells early on. A researcher was reported as saying:
"the mystery of cancer isn't why some people die from it, its why most people don't" <-- Okay, I admit I find this very fascinating and cool. Science here I come! :P

However when things are asymptomatic (showing no obvious signs that something is wrong) you can go on your merry life, under the assumption its not the type of case that makes you suddenly keel over. And when you go for a medical check-up (since you haven't done so in like 3 years or because this new company insists on health standards, pesky things!) and then...

Doctor: Well, Mr. XYZ, your test results are back. Good news is you came here to the hospital. Bad news is you apparently have diabetes/hypertension/4 extra rib bones, etc.
Mr. XYZ: ...   :O     >.<     :'(
Doctor:     -.-"      :/

Disclaimer: I'm only a student, please don't use this as actual medical knowledge and that conversation is totally fictional. This entire post might not even be coherent.

You can't trust the system, man.

Now now, this post title might sound like I’m protesting a government but I’m not. The system I’m referring to is the relationship system and what I mean by that is in today’s instant gratification or shallow society some men have adopted systems to get women.

Nothing makes me more embarrassed about my gender than the fact that there are books, DVDs, seminars and courses about this. However, usually these resources have the specific aim of getting a woman in bed and nothing more. Relationships are human emotions not a scientific formulae.

The 1st terrible thing about this is that the formula is based on dishonesty since the goal is to get the girl and what better way to do that than psychological manipulation. The man usually has to present himself as something he’s not and you can’t keep up a lie indefinitely.

The 2nd is something that should be obvious but sadly it isn’t. Get ready for it, the woman is an individual! “Of course she is, you moron" some of you might be saying. Thing is, if you’re planning or are using a system you clearly don’t understand the concept of an individual.

You see, in a system there has to be constant variables for it to be efficient. By this, you have to assume all women respond in a highly predictable manner to how you’re acting. As an individual, she is going to respond in a way that is unique to her being.

The problem with this systematic approach to women is that men who do this treat the whole relationship process like a game where the woman is the final end game boss where he has to remember certain patterns and combos to make her submit defeat. What those guys don’t realise is that in reality the girl is a potential co-op player whom you need to defeat the real boss (whatever that may be).

Therefore in any relationship whether romantic, platonic or work-related; honesty is the best policy.

Disclaimer: I’m not a social scientist nor a feminist. This post goes both ways, male and female. It just seems more prevalent with men.

Sloth

So I'm going to be on holiday for the foreseeable future which is a few months. Even though I'm not Christian, I can understand why Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins (not the animal sloth like Sid from Ice Age, no no). Sloth, I suppose is olden day English for laziness since sloths seem extremely slow. I actually have a lot of things planned... in my head. I have no idea when I'm going to get around to actually doing them.

I want to cook, read, play piano but so far all I've done is... huh, I haven't done anything of note unless changing my cats' litter box counts. I need to get a part-time job but so lazy and procrastinating. Laziness is probably one of the biggest enemies of the human race because when you're doing nothing important, you're wasting time, time we don't get back.

There's a joke on the internet, it says "Tomorrow: a magical place where 99% of human potential is". Thing is, tomorrow might never come because the hands of time are never on our side.

tiny

One day while writing a short story in college I noticed an ant scurrying on my desk with a scrap of food. I picked it up with a piece of paper and placed it elsewhere.

Later I felt something crawl up my leg. Same ant, so I decided to help it find its nest. After 3 tries it found its colony in a tiny crack in the wall.

I thought “you finally made it little guy”. Maybe we are all that “little guy”. Like the ant, sometimes we get lost (realist) but sometimes there are kind people to help show the way or even carry you there (romanticist)

Just my opinion though.

Romantic realism #1

Happy ever afters don’t exist… unless you want them to.

If so, be prepared to put an insane amount of effort into it with no guarantees of success whatsoever. Think positive so that positive things will happen.

But dear God… if or when it works, it works beautifully. I hope.

break the Cycle

Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the purchase of goods and services in ever-greater amounts. In the 21st century this is especially true when lessons like "only look out for #1" are being taught. People consume, consume and consume while rarely or not giving back at all.

An example is in the case of water. We need fresh water, we consume ever larger amounts of it. Yet we don't give back to the Earth because many people pollute water sources. There's only 1 habitable planet, so resources are limited. The human race is consuming too fast and replenishing too little.

Consumerism links in with materialism where beginning in the 1990s the main reason for attending university is to make big money and not to become an expert in a certain field or to help people in difficulty. Materialism shifts away from community, spirituality and integrity and leads to competition and disconnection.

Social status is now tied to your material belongings rather than your actual self worth. Its a vicious cycle. The poor try to imitate the rich while the rich try to imitate celebrities and so on. Sometimes we buy things we don't need even use solely to emulate people we regard as having "higher social status".

Buying material things is fine, we all need our certain comforts. But at the point where you have to buy something in order to fit in, now there's your problem. Our consumerism also needs to stay manageable and not go beyond what is environmentally-sustainable.

Lone Wolf

You know, sometimes it feels like the most logical for us to do is pack up our things and get lost. As in, to go live in the forest alone or high up in the mountains all monk like. The thing is, its impossible. Humans are social creatures, we need other people to interact with lest we go insane. Overwhelming noise and clutter can drive a person mad and so can dead silence and stillness.

People need other people. Its why we're conditioned to have family and friends. Even the most shy or quiet of people have at least 2 or 3 people whom they consider close. Talking to one self is normal and usual when we contemplate things or are preparing for something but if the only person we talk to is ourself since we are "lone wolves" that is probably unhealthy.

Proof of this is that people are dependant beings. When we are young, we depend on others. When we are old, we still depend on others. Throughout our life we will always depend on others on some level and other people are counting on us as well.

Simply put, even elite commandos need teamwork. Actors who go "one man army" in films are woefully innacurate portrayals of how soldiers really work and doing so is actually frowned upon in the military. For example, snipers who are often portrayed as loners actually function in pairs. And that pair is integrated with another squad of infantry.

So stop thinking about living alone in a submarine and go out and meet people!