Here’s to hope.

One of the most tempting temptations in today’s society is described a very short and simple word, sex. Sex and sex related things are everywhere. In fact it is probably one of the most far reaching and effective marketing strategies in North American television, radio and magazine. I have nothing against sex or naked bodies. The problem is there is too much of it around. There is too much focus on it. It is as though all we are supposed to think about is sex. Sex, sex, sex. When a typical guy sees a nice girl on the street, you think he is curious what kind of music she likes? No all he’s thinking is about is what she looks like naked. We are so saturated with sex that there’s nearly no mystery left. Girls are wearing skin tight jeans with thongs popping out. Guys stare and drool and imagine more sex. When a guy is caught off guard, and he happens to not be thinking about sex, a sneaky advertisement plants the idea back in his mind. You can barely watch a movie without there being a sex scene in it. So I find myself asking the question, are we addicted to sex?

I think we are addicted to sex. Maybe not the act of sex, but definitely the sexually explicit ideas, which in turn lead to only one desire. As kids grow up, they are bombarded with standards and expectations about when you’re expected to lose your virginity, how promiscuous you’re supposed to be. The only times when I don’t encounter sex is when I’m studying for exams. Otherwsie no matter where I am, or what I’m doing, there are one too many things that have been associated with sex. For something that is so natural, beautiful and pleasant, it sure is overused. I’m probably quite naive to think that this obsession with sex is something new. Most hippies would probably be quick to point out that this is all nothing new.

The idea of sex is so primed in our mind that it is hard to think about much else. People are turning to the internet to relieve the stress of dating. Not like anything is much different in on-line dating. For so many the focus is to hook up. Sex is the ultimate goal. It is as though we do not have any pleasure in any other part of our social lives. The worst is that once sex crawls up in your mind it is very hard to extricate from your conscious. Even seemingly neutral information forums like Digg have at least one “10 benefits of sex” stories a week. I have no illusions about sex. How does one cope with such exposure to sex? How does one relieve all the stress without ending stuck in a cycle of dependency?

However even a simple statement like “Nothing is absolute.” is absolute and thus…wrong? What I’m getting at here is that it is difficult (not impossible) to say with any kind of certainty that something is either always or never. Just like in quantum mechanics, certainty is not absolute¹. You are only certain of the current moment, nothing further². It is probably human nature to try and extrapolate our current experiences to explain and predict future ones.

Spend a day examining how many times absolutes enter into play around you.

¹Yet another absolute statement. How do we fix it? We must acknowledge that sometimes certainty is absolute. That in turn violates the initial premise. Paradox.

²Isn’t the assertion that absolute certainty of the current moment a fallacy in of it self?

Judging by my wall of post-it notes, I have a lot of work still left to accomplish. Let me just tally them up. Right, 4 yellow post-it notes representing the 4 chapters I have yet to read, and summarize for social psychology. Add to that another 5 notes for algebra, which represent 5 separate chapters I have yet to read, understand and do practice questions for.

On the off chance I get all that done earlier than expected in the two days that I have alloted, I will have to start writing my philosophy take home exam. I think my drift is quite clear. Life is hard. Or rather school life is hard. Of course  it doesn’t have to be hard.  I could just care less. But where does one draw the line between completely not caring and caring too much? How do you moderate your effort?

I guess the best part of all this is that I see the end of the tunnel and I’m quite confident in my ability to get to the end. I know that once I’m on the other side it will feel great and I will be relieved. However that will not last long. I will soon start to miss the hectic days that I’m living through now. Perhaps because you forget the rough patches and focus on the good moment, the moments through which your character was shaped.  Education is hard, life is hard.

People will tell you that the years of college are the best years. In many ways they are. I’ve learned a lot. No I’m not talking about learning to chug a beer the fastest, or chug a keg while upside down. I’m talking about learning more about yourself. Your limits, what works in terms of study techniques and what you can achieve. The fascination with  getting piss drunk and then spending the rest of the weekend stumbling around like an idiot is quite an interesting North American trend. Of course it exists outside of North America but I can’t help but think that the propaganda radiates from here. I’m getting off topic, more on this some other day.

It’s late and I need the strength for the two upcoming days so I’m calling it quits.

All in all the internet seems like a pretty smart place right? However I see it differently.

Just like the dolphins who were much too aware of the imminent doom and left Earth in the famous Douglas Adam’s book “Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy”, all the smart people have abandoned public forums of every type.

What is left, is these celebrity-status-seeking parez hiltons. Who’s names don’t even deserve capitalization! Moronic discussions are in such abundance that it’s infectious. There are idiots in real life too but on the internet idiots have a much louder voice. Arguing with stupidity on the internet is pointless and tiring. Smart people have realized that long ago and so now millions of blog posts, forum topics and discussions go unchecked. Stupidity uncontrolled, grows like that weed you’ve been trying to eradicated from your garden.

Internet gives people power, confidence and most importantly anonymity. Breeding grounds for ignorance, arrogance, immodesty, which all creates a complete intellectual chasm. The internet is becoming as saturated as the already existing TV and radio worlds. I have no doubt that intellectual people exist, however finding them and connecting with them is becoming harder and harder.

Perhaps what is worse than stupidity itself, is the recognition and support stupidity receives on all communication mediums.

May the universe have mercy on us all…

Friends. Friends are really important. No I don’t mean the people you got drunk with last week at a party. I mean the ones you share your life with. I’m a guy and I’m sad to say I’ve never really had a best friend. Nobody I can really confide in, somebody who’s got my back. The older you get the harder it is to make good friends.

How can you tell who your good friends are? They are the ones you share your good news with, and the bad.

Treasure your close friendships. As cliche as that sounds.

Either way I checked out her profile and found the following interesting,

Please spare me the whole “your hot”, that’s great and all, but it’s getting kinda old! I am secure with myself and my body, that’s it!

Maybe it’s just me but to me that’s kind of an odd thing for someone in modeling to say. I was going to message her and point out her false logic but decided against it . If you don’t want people commenting about your “hotness” why would you post professionally done bikini shots on an internet dating site? Like what do you expect guys to comment on, the beauty of your soul??? And I’m pretty sure for someone who is a model the whole reason you got into it was because people always admire your body.

“I’m hot and I know it.” is what she should have said instead.

“If the parents do not comply, Mr. Frye tells them, their child’s grade may suffer — a threat on which he has made good only once in the three years he has been making such assignments. The point, he said, is to keep parents involved in their children’s ’ education well into high school.“

Now parents can experience what it feels like to fail at school twice.

read more | digg story

A few moments later, a fellow a bit shorter than myself and visibly older, joined me in the search for the watermelon. I happened to glance his way only to realize that he had found a very good watermelon. I leaned over to my girlfriend and whispered to her, in a foreign language, that if this gentleman doesn’t take that watermelon, I will most definitely snag it. She laughed and I continued my search. A few moments later I get a tap on my shoulder. I turn around only to realize that the same fellow is standing there with the big watermelon he had found earlier.

He says, “Here I’ve found a great watermelon, you should take it”. Inside my head I’m taken a back by such an unlikely occurrence.

I reply with “Why don’t you take it?”.

He gives me a smile and replies “I was just at the other store and already picked up a watermelon there.”

I take the watermelon out of his hands and thank him for his generosity. All the while I’m wondering about why would he be wasting his time looking at watermelons when he has already bought one. Not to mention why even offer me his watermelon.

The whole event gave me a weird feeling. As though my thoughts had just been invaded. Spooky.

I’m not sure I could definitively name all the stages that I’ve gone through. Though I can clearly identify a shift of mindset mainly due to a realization. Yes good things happen but waiting for them to happen with no effort is silly. Pretty much all of my conscious life I’ve been a believer in a mix of destiny and choice. The last little while I’ve been passively letting luck and destiny dictate my success. Some may call me a loser, but by definition a loser is somebody who tries and fails. But I didn’t really try. I just observed.

A few days ago I realized that I have succeeded the most when I was in charge. When I didn’t wait for orders or accept plans. When I made my own plans and went after my goal on my own path. Ever since I was a child, I have always had a pretty good idea of exactly what I want. I’ve never made a really good sheep. So thanks in part to a falling out that I experienced with some of my friends, I’ve began a shift into the next phase.

To use the ideology of Dr. P, “A lion does not ask to be fed. He does not wait to be fed. No! He feasts. He takes what he feels belongs to him.”. Perhaps that is a tad too cliche but I believe it makes its point. Living life passively is almost too easy. Pretty much everything can be written off as it was meant to be. Even though I still feel that some things are just meant to be, the reality is that without effort full potential cannot be realized (perhaps it can but infinite time would be required).

Moreover playing by the book is good and a necessity when you’re young and learning the ropes. Though, sooner or later you’ll have to break the mold. Great artists didn’t become great by following only taught technique. They invented technique. Just like I must invent my own approach.