Don’t be alarmed…the creative juices are still flowing on this end, but with the end of the semester just past and my trip to Honduras (which begins in about 6 hours), I haven’t had much time to post. So, I promise to post when I get back - but in the meantime, stay sane and keep yourself busy with the links below:
Check out the weather in La Ceiba, Honduras
I love geography - I didn’t always, but it’s become a bit of an acquired taste. I think it’s so cool being able to see places on a map. You can just look and see where coutnries, states, cities, and amazing landmarks are. So, you can see why Shepphard Software’s “Place the State” game has had me addicted. It automatically shuffles states of the U.S.A. and lets you place them on the map - see how well you can do! If you’re feeling particularly worldly, take a chance at one of the other continents or regions!
I finally found a legit, easy to use, working converter to rip audio (MP3) files from YouTube videos. I’m mostly putting this up here in case I lose the software, that way I’m guaranteed to find it again - but if you were looking for the same type of thing, it may be of use to you:
I guess I never noticed it until now. I have such articulate thoughts running around in my head, bouncing in and out of all the crevices in there. It’s kind of crazy…and the weirdest part is that I can’t pretend like they aren’t mine. They most certainly are, and they’re all expressed in my own voice, whether I’m debating an issue or formulating a statement. It’s arrogant to the point of hilarity….but I guess that’s the way it goes. I’ll only start to worry once I start talking to myself out-loud, though.
Selflessness is just that; an art. It takes a lot to attain and is unique to each individual. The following is my ruminations on the post “Selflessness for the Self”, in which I’m glad to say sparked my interest. While my ideas are certainly stated differently, I don’t know if they necessarily prove or disprove anything stated in the other post. So in case you were wondering, this wasn’t just a random thought – it’s been marinating for a while in my head.
Love of one’s self doesn’t necessarily constitute narcissism. I’d agree that before you can love others, you have to love yourself. But being content with your own constitution is far different than just indulging in activity for personal gain.
I’ll elaborate on a more personal level. I like myself. A lot. Is that conceited? Absolutely not. I like the things I do, the way I think, and the people I surround myself with. Why would anyone want anything less? I’m not wholly content with the world, and I don’t seclude myself from those that are different than myself in some petty attempt at self preservation. I like heated argument and reevaluating myself and my ideas. But with that said, I’m not discontent with myself by any means, and I think it would take a lot for me to become jaded to the point I thought differently.
I like volunteering. It’s actually amazing (to me, at least), that I can do much more when I’m working for free opposed to being paid for something. I attribute that to the “do good, feel good” mindset. Still, I help others because it’s the right thing to do. I love myself, so I can love others - agreed– but not to further the love of myself. I think that to an extent, you hit a plateau once you become content with “who you are”. The sooner one accepts that, the sooner they can turn their focus to others. What I’m trying to say is that I’ve figured myself out, so I can go out and do good works without concern for myself. However, I think there is a higher sort of paradox going on here. I think I’d stop loving myself if I stopped loving others – so although it’s the inverse of the initial claim that one can’t do good without knowingly elevating themselves, I can see the merit in that mindset, too.
So ultimately, back to the real question – does selflessness exist? Yes. It takes a lot to attain, and I’m not saying I personally am at that level, but it’s a realistic and attainable goal. One can certainly be selfless – acting for the good of others opposed to their own well being. We see some form of it every day – those who work gladly and without complaint – for the furthering of a higher purpose. A soldier that dives on top of a grenade to save the rest of his unit, a mother that stays up all night to calm her crying child, a kid that gives up a seat on the bus for an elderly person. Even if the end results in a “feel good” high, many of us do it out of our basic humanity. That is, we do it without “thinking” - we just “feel” it. Like the old saying – usually the right thing and the hard thing are the same.
I’m oversimplifying, but in the end, I’d much rather love myself than the alternative. After all, we all strive to do what makes us happy opposed to that which makes us discontent, and why would we ever want that to change?
Maybe thievery isn’t the best word choice, but I liked the alliteration. Anyway, hands down my favorite part of the semester is when I get to sell back my books. Why? Being the intelligent person that I am, I buy all my books on eBay/Amazon or some other source. The point is that I don’t buy them at the bookstore, ever, because it’s over-priced and the majority of the employees are more worried about catching you stealing something than actually being of service to you.
Anyway, today I took my International Business book back to the bookstore to see what I could scrounge up for a trade-in. While the retail price is around $117, I was able to nab it in January for a mild $17.50 on eBay. That’s a significant mark-down, I’ll admit, but I was even more ecstatic to see what the bookstore gave me back. With $80 in extra cash at the end of the day (that’s $62.50 profit, for those of you who can’t do the math…), I’ll be able to thoroughly enjoy my evening of video games and Friday Night Lights. The moral of the story is to never settle for overpriced, sub-par goods. I was taught at an early age to be thrifty. Good old Boy Scouts…
For all intents and purposes, I’ve come to the conclusion that one should never (or at the very least, extremely exclusively) use absolutes. It just drives me nuts to look around at the world and see how many people think issues are so black and white, right and wrong. They aren’t. Absolute or universal truths will always have flaws, making them, well, not absolutes at all. Truth is the conformity to fact or reality, but there’s always going to be someone who doesn’t agree. Does that make the idea or the person flawed? If you think I have an answer, I don’t. Just sayin’.
Murder is wrong. Theft is wrong. Abortion is wrong. Picking your nose is wrong. Some people agree, some don’t. I’m not going to get into the legal/religious specifications of the above – I’m just using them as examples. Murder is wrong if it is senseless, correct? So, for example, if John Smith murders Jane Smith, that’s a crime. But then again, senseless implies that short of psychopathic tendencies, murder would be acceptable. But if John murders Jane out of passion, is that still a crime? I’d say so. What if John kills Jane in self defense? That’s when we get into grey area. That’s years worth of legal battles and millions of dollars in press coverage. But I digress…
What is John was suffering from depression? Still a crime? Or just plausible deniability? What if John was just acting based on a stimulant he ingested? Does it matter if it was legal? If he was using cocaine, he’d be in jail. But what about caffeine? Still a stimulant…it’s just socially accepted. Yet, alcohol is socially accepted too, but much less so than caffeine. If you don’t see the logic in the above, I’m either doing a very poor job of articulating my point, or things are worse than I thought.
Speaking of which, as a brief interjection, I hate the argument that things are “wrong” because they are illegal. Or that the Koran says so. Or because you were “raised” a certain way. Murder is wrong – why? Because the Bible says “thou shall not kill”? No. It’s wrong because deep in your psyche, you know it isn’t acceptable. You know that stealing is wrong because you shouldn’t take what rightfully belongs to others. Yet, would you really tell an Ethiopian child with a swollen belly not to take food when it was in front of them, regardless of ownership? You steal on a day to day basis, too. You steal the ozone layer away from the earth because you need to drive to work, you shop at Wal-mart because prices are cheaper than the local mall. But is it still wrong to knowingly harm the environment? Some may same it isn’t, because soil isn’t the same thing as flesh and blood. But then what becomes of the animal kingdom? (For the record, the Vatican just issued a new list of sins here in which pollution makes an appearance, among other things). I’m not chastising anyone for anything specific here – in fact, if I was, I’d be refuting my entire argument. I’m just saying that we need to consider all sides of a story before we start crucifying others for their beliefs.
Don’t worry, I’m not sociopathic…I think murder is wrong just like everyone else, and I’m almost second guessing posting this as I’m typing because rest assured, someone will get the wrong idea. I’m just saying that nothing is easy anymore. The ideas that we’re all striving for are incredibly complex. We can’t just assume that we’re going to get everything right all the time, whether it’s relations with foreign nations or the sub-prime mortgage crisis. It’s just not realistic, but that doesn’t mean we can stop striving for perfection. To quote a friend, “Though we live at the pinnacle, we yet strive for greater things.” I’m coming upon a more relativist way of thinking lately, and I haven’t decided how I feel about that yet, since I’m struggling with the whole “argument” thing. I love the battle of ideas, and while relativists claim that thoughts are boundless and shouldn’t be controlled – so what is the point in arguing? Can one be a relativist if they defend their beliefs? There we go again…grouping ourselves until there’s no room for individuality. I’d just be happy if I could get a few more of the closed minded to think every once in a while. I hope my thoughts are cogent – like I said, it’s incredibly difficult to articulate and fathom the ideas and issues we’re faced with at this time in history. I’m just not ready to give up that easily…
Actually, I’ve been so busy the past week…I should change that to “A Good Week”. Anyway, as you’ve noticed, I haven’t posted anything lately…I’ve just been so caught up in final projects, going to a really fun awards dinner, working, and doing other life-oriented things. Anyway…I took today off and just hung around, went to the beach, and went out to dinner. When’s the last time any of you can say you did that? If you can honestly say you’ve done it recently, then good for you - but if you haven’t, seriously reevaluate how you’re spending your time. More than anyone, I completely understand how hectic life can get and how preoccupied you can become with things you deem more important.
Take my word for it. Take a day off and enjoy yourself - you won’t regret it.
I’ve really been neglecting to do the whole “posting on my blog” thing. Maybe I should get on that…
Updates coming soon.
Andrew brought up another one of my less humorous scar stories in one of my last posts, here. Less humorous for me, that is…probably more entertaining for you.
In any case, I was in a pretty terrible relationship back in the day, and the girl I was with had a little brown dachshund. It wasn’t even that good looking - I mean, some dachshunds can be cute - but not this bugger. We were just hanging out one day when she asked me to pick the stupid thing up, which I did (keep in mind that I love animals), and put him on the bed. Completely unprovoked, the little mongrel jumped out of my hands mid air and decided it would be fun to latch onto my face. Let’s think about that for a moment. Latch on. TO MY FACE. Not fun. At all.
It hurt like hell, and I’ve never bled so much from my nose in my entire life. I was shaking my head around like one of those bad movies - with the dog still attatched to my face, clawing wildly at anything it could get its paws on. I finally managed to get the thing off and launched it into the wall, pretty much dispatching it while my then-girlfriend stood shocked, not comprehending what was happening. That was when I really started bleeding, and I had to go to the emergency room to get all put back together.
There where two really bad parts to this whole mishap (you know, besides the fact you could peel my nostril away from my face). The first was that this happened in January, in the middle of my swim season, so I was out of practice and competition for about two weeks until my goofy looking nose healed. Second, the girl’s parents were convinced that I somehow provoked the stupid animal. I didn’t. I’m not a six year old - I can hold a human child, and I’m positive I can hold a freakin dog. Thanks for the vote of confidence, jackasses…
To this day, one of my biggest regrets in life is not having that dog put down. That canine was downright nasty, and I’d challenge any animal rights activist to tell me otherwise.
So, thanks Andrew, for reminding me of the worst day of my life and the hairline scar that still appears on the right side of my nose. Jerk.
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