"Back from vacation", the barber announces,
or the postman, or the girl at the drugstore, now tan.
They are amazed to find the workaday world
still in place, their absence having slipped no cogs,
their customers having hardly missed them, and
there being so sparse an audience to tell of the wonders,
the pyramids they have seen, the silken warm seas,
the nighttimes of marimbas, the purchases achieved
in foreign languages, the beggars, the flies,
the hotel luxury, the grandeur of marble cities.
But at Customs the humdrum pressed its claims.
Gray days clicked shut around them; the yoke still fit,
warm as if never shucked. The world is still so small,
the evidence says, though their hearts cry, "Not so!"

Back from Vacation by John Updike

Most of the time, we get so lost in the routines of life that we forget how to appreciate the world around us. This is not any one else's loss but our own. The world is not going to pity us that we missed the wonders, nor will the world remind us to take a look around. The beauty is there if and only if we want to appreciate it.

The world carries on so efficiently and smoothly with or without our presence. Does it really matter to the world if I exist? Probably not.

At the very least, I want it to matter to me if I exist. Yes I do. Eye in the Sky written by Eric Woolfson

Don't think sorry's easily said
Don't try turning tables instead
You've taken lots of chances before
But I'm not gonna give anymore
Don't ask me
That's how it goes
Cause part of me knows what you're thinking

Don't say words you're gonna regret
Don't let the fire rush to your head
I've heard the accusation before
And I ain't gonna take any more
Believe me
The sun in your eyes
Made some of the lies worth believing

Chorus:
I am the eye in the sky
Looking at you
I can read your mind
I am the maker of rules
Dealing with fools
I can cheat you blind
And I don't need to see any more
To know that
I can read your mind, I can read your mind

Don't leave false illusions behind
Don't cry cause I ain't changing my mind
So find another fool like before
Cause I ain't gonna live anymore believing
Some of the lies while all of the signs are deceiving Every discourse I follow almost always leads to a dead end. There is no firm resolution. What am I doing with my life? What is certain?

Every coin has two sides.
This coin we all share in common has life on one face, and death in the other. They both go hand in hand. Or is it possible that we can live forever? With so much improvements in science, would that be that sliver of opportunity? Some turtles do not senescence.

James Christiansen, professor of biology at Drake University in Des Moines, is studying how telomeres, the simple, non-genetic DNA sequences that sheathe the ends of chromosomes, function in reptiles. Each time a healthy human cell divides, it loses a little bit of the telomere, until the strands are too short to protect the chromosomes. At that point the DNA in a cell begins to break down, which triggers senescence and death. Human cancer cells go off the program, producing an enzyme called telomerase that stops the shortening and renders the malignant cells immortal.

Turtles seem to follow a different pattern. "Even though many species live in some of our most polluted environments," Christiansen says, "they avoid cancer." Early results of his study suggest that some reptiles may receive a short burst of telomerase early in life, which makes healthy cells rather than cancerous ones immortal. If this proves to be the case, he says, the human implications may be dazzling. "If we could do that with humans shortly after birth, before the mutations have a chance to creep in," he says, "we could potentially add a hundred years to the human life span."

- Can Turtles Live Forever? from http://www.barryyeoman.com/articles/turtles.html

So what am I left with? Life on one side and a wild-card on the other. No firm resolution, again.

Billions have come and gone before me.
All signs point that I am going to follow in their footsteps. "Pain is inevitable but suffering is your own decision."

An interesting quote which I found on the internet. For all this time, my understanding of faith has been so messed up.
And now, whilst doing all these clearing up, I break down my faith to the base foundations all over again.

Now I know what faith really is.
Faith is not believing without seeing.
Faith is believing without logical proof.
That is what true faith is. Not being able to prove your faith, because once you proved it, it becomes knowledge instead.

Cartesian doubt is really depressing. I suddenly come to this realisation.
Conflict arises because every one pursues different ends.

So you want peace?

Repress the desires of society. Remove the drive of people. Discard ambitions. Abolish dreams. Ask yourself first, why do we have these desires? Emotions. Our emotions are the basis for all our actions. Reason and logic are tools to achieve emotional satisfaction. Have you ever heard of Prozium? You would, if you have seen the film Equilibrium. Prozium is a fictional drug that represses emotions, thus sedating the people, but eliminates war and crime in the process. No lust, no gluttony, no greed, no sloth, no wrath, no envy, no pride. Only everlasting peace.

Life would be reduced to a meaningless garble called existence. A heavy price, but for peace, a decent price? Put an end to pursuit.

Such a conclusion would probably be utterly unacceptable and disgusting to the average humanitarian.

What if the human race unites towards a common end?

What an ideal situation that would be. But never practical. If only the world could see eye-to-eye on any one social issue, any one issue! There are always opposing views. Democracy and Communism, profit and saving, justice and mercy, charity and self-reliance. If an opposing view is silenced by force, tyranny and oppression is evident. The Jews were massacred for being in the way of Hitler's ideal world. Slavery is a result of a ethnic group's superior view of themselves.

You might think that every individual would agree to equal human rights. Generally, the less educated, who are usually subject to violations of their "rights", have the tendency to accept that not every one have the same rights. You might point out that, once educating them, and exposing them to higher morals, so to speak, they would come to the consensus that every one should be treated equally. Is that so? Even the highly educated question the rational behind this statement. An opposing view to equal rights is that, not every man is equal. Some contribute more to society, some prove to be useless, others still bring detriments to the community. Would they be equally valuable? That is what human rights is all about, is it not? That every man is equally valuable. So the question again: "Is every man equally valuable?"

How can we reconcile such contradicting opinions on man? Where can there be compromise? How can we agree on this issue to move towards an ideal, peaceful society?

To be able convince the entire race to your stand, you have to be simply amazing.
One for all and all for one, the Utopian motto for all people on this lonely planet. When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the little space which I fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant, and which know me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there; for there is no reason why here rather than there, why now rather than then. Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and time been alloted to me?

- Blaise Pascal, 1623-1662, French philosopher, physic and mathematician There comes a point in every young man’s life when he is forced to take a long hard look at his life. For me that time has come and I shall share with you what I have learned. I look at my life and see how far I have stepped into the realm of adulthood at the age of nineteen. I am not currently employed and truth be told I have never had a job in my life. I don’t have a car or a driver’s license, in fact I don’t even have a learner’s permit. I look around my room and see video game paraphernalia, alcohol containers and clothes strewn all over the floor. I spend all day on my computer playing videogames and talking to people I have never met outside of the virtual world. I look at all of this and think to myself:
“This is fantastic”

Post in Reflections On Life, Love And The Internet by purepwnstar

Sophie, either you are living in a wondrous universe on a tiny planet in one of many hundred billion galaxies - or else you are the result of a few electromagnetic impulse in the major's mind. And you are talking about grades! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!

- Extract from Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder

The first source is self-explanatory.
A short explanation on the second source. Spoiler warning.

Sophie's World is about a fifteen year old girl, Sophie, who is enrolled in a philosophy course. She and her teacher begin to suspect that their world is actually a book written by an army Major for his daughter, Hilde. Hence, the statement "you are the result of a few electromagnetic impulse in the major's mind".

When you boil it all down, what remains is the question, what is most important then? What is trivial and not worth doing?

Obviously to purepwnstar, economic success is of little import to him - his freedom and indulgences are emphasized upon more. At the same time, to Sophie's philosophy teacher, academic success is trivial, along with many other factors that society would consider important, namely appearance, wealth, power and status.

I admit I have a bias towards Sophie's philosophy teacher, Alberto. I tend to classify the actions of purepwnstar under wastage of time. Granted, that is his own lifestyle, and that is his choice. My own choice would be one to find the truth.

To Alberto, and to myself, grasping for the truth is of the greatest import. Even though others may think me weird, even though it might be impossible, even though three thousand years and maybe more of philosophers have tried and failed.

I think I finally realise what Einstein meant when he said: "I want to know God's thoughts... the rest are details."

But wait, there is a God, right?

I am getting all so philosophical now. Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself.
Being true to anyone else or anything else is... impossible.

- Richard Bach Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

- He wishes for the cloths of Heaven by William Butler Yeats

I wish I had the cloths of heaven too.
Older Post | Newer Post

"Back from vacation", the barber announces,
or the postman, or the girl at the drugstore, now tan.
They are amazed to find the workaday world
still in place, their absence having slipped no cogs,
their customers having hardly missed them, and
there being so sparse an audience to tell of the wonders,
the pyramids they have seen, the silken warm seas,
the nighttimes of marimbas, the purchases achieved
in foreign languages, the beggars, the flies,
the hotel luxury, the grandeur of marble cities.
But at Customs the humdrum pressed its claims.
Gray days clicked shut around them; the yoke still fit,
warm as if never shucked. The world is still so small,
the evidence says, though their hearts cry, "Not so!"

Back from Vacation by John Updike

Most of the time, we get so lost in the routines of life that we forget how to appreciate the world around us. This is not any one else's loss but our own. The world is not going to pity us that we missed the wonders, nor will the world remind us to take a look around. The beauty is there if and only if we want to appreciate it.

The world carries on so efficiently and smoothly with or without our presence. Does it really matter to the world if I exist? Probably not.

At the very least, I want it to matter to me if I exist. Yes I do. Eye in the Sky written by Eric Woolfson

Don't think sorry's easily said
Don't try turning tables instead
You've taken lots of chances before
But I'm not gonna give anymore
Don't ask me
That's how it goes
Cause part of me knows what you're thinking

Don't say words you're gonna regret
Don't let the fire rush to your head
I've heard the accusation before
And I ain't gonna take any more
Believe me
The sun in your eyes
Made some of the lies worth believing

Chorus:
I am the eye in the sky
Looking at you
I can read your mind
I am the maker of rules
Dealing with fools
I can cheat you blind
And I don't need to see any more
To know that
I can read your mind, I can read your mind

Don't leave false illusions behind
Don't cry cause I ain't changing my mind
So find another fool like before
Cause I ain't gonna live anymore believing
Some of the lies while all of the signs are deceiving Every discourse I follow almost always leads to a dead end. There is no firm resolution. What am I doing with my life? What is certain?

Every coin has two sides.
This coin we all share in common has life on one face, and death in the other. They both go hand in hand. Or is it possible that we can live forever? With so much improvements in science, would that be that sliver of opportunity? Some turtles do not senescence.

James Christiansen, professor of biology at Drake University in Des Moines, is studying how telomeres, the simple, non-genetic DNA sequences that sheathe the ends of chromosomes, function in reptiles. Each time a healthy human cell divides, it loses a little bit of the telomere, until the strands are too short to protect the chromosomes. At that point the DNA in a cell begins to break down, which triggers senescence and death. Human cancer cells go off the program, producing an enzyme called telomerase that stops the shortening and renders the malignant cells immortal.

Turtles seem to follow a different pattern. "Even though many species live in some of our most polluted environments," Christiansen says, "they avoid cancer." Early results of his study suggest that some reptiles may receive a short burst of telomerase early in life, which makes healthy cells rather than cancerous ones immortal. If this proves to be the case, he says, the human implications may be dazzling. "If we could do that with humans shortly after birth, before the mutations have a chance to creep in," he says, "we could potentially add a hundred years to the human life span."

- Can Turtles Live Forever? from http://www.barryyeoman.com/articles/turtles.html

So what am I left with? Life on one side and a wild-card on the other. No firm resolution, again.

Billions have come and gone before me.
All signs point that I am going to follow in their footsteps. "Pain is inevitable but suffering is your own decision."

An interesting quote which I found on the internet. For all this time, my understanding of faith has been so messed up.
And now, whilst doing all these clearing up, I break down my faith to the base foundations all over again.

Now I know what faith really is.
Faith is not believing without seeing.
Faith is believing without logical proof.
That is what true faith is. Not being able to prove your faith, because once you proved it, it becomes knowledge instead.

Cartesian doubt is really depressing. I suddenly come to this realisation.
Conflict arises because every one pursues different ends.

So you want peace?

Repress the desires of society. Remove the drive of people. Discard ambitions. Abolish dreams. Ask yourself first, why do we have these desires? Emotions. Our emotions are the basis for all our actions. Reason and logic are tools to achieve emotional satisfaction. Have you ever heard of Prozium? You would, if you have seen the film Equilibrium. Prozium is a fictional drug that represses emotions, thus sedating the people, but eliminates war and crime in the process. No lust, no gluttony, no greed, no sloth, no wrath, no envy, no pride. Only everlasting peace.

Life would be reduced to a meaningless garble called existence. A heavy price, but for peace, a decent price? Put an end to pursuit.

Such a conclusion would probably be utterly unacceptable and disgusting to the average humanitarian.

What if the human race unites towards a common end?

What an ideal situation that would be. But never practical. If only the world could see eye-to-eye on any one social issue, any one issue! There are always opposing views. Democracy and Communism, profit and saving, justice and mercy, charity and self-reliance. If an opposing view is silenced by force, tyranny and oppression is evident. The Jews were massacred for being in the way of Hitler's ideal world. Slavery is a result of a ethnic group's superior view of themselves.

You might think that every individual would agree to equal human rights. Generally, the less educated, who are usually subject to violations of their "rights", have the tendency to accept that not every one have the same rights. You might point out that, once educating them, and exposing them to higher morals, so to speak, they would come to the consensus that every one should be treated equally. Is that so? Even the highly educated question the rational behind this statement. An opposing view to equal rights is that, not every man is equal. Some contribute more to society, some prove to be useless, others still bring detriments to the community. Would they be equally valuable? That is what human rights is all about, is it not? That every man is equally valuable. So the question again: "Is every man equally valuable?"

How can we reconcile such contradicting opinions on man? Where can there be compromise? How can we agree on this issue to move towards an ideal, peaceful society?

To be able convince the entire race to your stand, you have to be simply amazing.
One for all and all for one, the Utopian motto for all people on this lonely planet. When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the little space which I fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant, and which know me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there; for there is no reason why here rather than there, why now rather than then. Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and time been alloted to me?

- Blaise Pascal, 1623-1662, French philosopher, physic and mathematician There comes a point in every young man’s life when he is forced to take a long hard look at his life. For me that time has come and I shall share with you what I have learned. I look at my life and see how far I have stepped into the realm of adulthood at the age of nineteen. I am not currently employed and truth be told I have never had a job in my life. I don’t have a car or a driver’s license, in fact I don’t even have a learner’s permit. I look around my room and see video game paraphernalia, alcohol containers and clothes strewn all over the floor. I spend all day on my computer playing videogames and talking to people I have never met outside of the virtual world. I look at all of this and think to myself:
“This is fantastic”

Post in Reflections On Life, Love And The Internet by purepwnstar

Sophie, either you are living in a wondrous universe on a tiny planet in one of many hundred billion galaxies - or else you are the result of a few electromagnetic impulse in the major's mind. And you are talking about grades! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!

- Extract from Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder

The first source is self-explanatory.
A short explanation on the second source. Spoiler warning.

Sophie's World is about a fifteen year old girl, Sophie, who is enrolled in a philosophy course. She and her teacher begin to suspect that their world is actually a book written by an army Major for his daughter, Hilde. Hence, the statement "you are the result of a few electromagnetic impulse in the major's mind".

When you boil it all down, what remains is the question, what is most important then? What is trivial and not worth doing?

Obviously to purepwnstar, economic success is of little import to him - his freedom and indulgences are emphasized upon more. At the same time, to Sophie's philosophy teacher, academic success is trivial, along with many other factors that society would consider important, namely appearance, wealth, power and status.

I admit I have a bias towards Sophie's philosophy teacher, Alberto. I tend to classify the actions of purepwnstar under wastage of time. Granted, that is his own lifestyle, and that is his choice. My own choice would be one to find the truth.

To Alberto, and to myself, grasping for the truth is of the greatest import. Even though others may think me weird, even though it might be impossible, even though three thousand years and maybe more of philosophers have tried and failed.

I think I finally realise what Einstein meant when he said: "I want to know God's thoughts... the rest are details."

But wait, there is a God, right?

I am getting all so philosophical now. Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself.
Being true to anyone else or anything else is... impossible.

- Richard Bach Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

- He wishes for the cloths of Heaven by William Butler Yeats

I wish I had the cloths of heaven too.
Older Post | Newer Post

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