October 31, 2007
Something inspirational I have been meaning to post.
I get into these semi-sappy inspirational stories of people triumphing over difficulties in life. I know it's cliché but I can't help it. It gives me hope!
October 29, 2007
*SiGh* I am not suposed to feel happy right now... but you never feel unhappy when a nasty storm passes.
I simply do not know how people in relationships survive together. No joke here! I just can not comprehend it. How do two people who have strong opinions and feelings of their own stay together for 25 years, 50 years or longer without physically killing one another! If anyone out there would like to comment on this and tell me how it's done I would love to know. On the grand scale of relationships, I am a rookie. I need all the coaching I can get.
It's bizarre really. You can tell from the countdown timer on the right that Emily will be abroad in Wales, UK for the next 2 months. What's bizarre about this is that I don't necessarily feel like I miss her. Given the stress that we experienced in the time leading up to her departure (a bit too personal to discuss in further detail in this blog), it is amazing that one of us did not kill the other or just call the relationship quits. That is why I am so perplexed why relationships find a way to survive. Now that she is gone, the stress has dissipated and left a feeling of relief, a calm, a peacefulness. I hope the reader does not consider me a terrible boyfriend. Don't get me wrong, I do miss her a little, and that feeling will likely grow as time progresses. Right now however, this is how I feel.
I can't help but think that this must be what Meursault must have felt at the beginning of Albert Camus' novel "The Stranger". The novel starts with the death of his mother. Meursault never cries at the funeral ceremonies. He acted rather ambivalent towards the whole situation. People around him who saw this perceived it as the signature of a cold hearted emotionless man because he did not react in the way that society expected him to react. As a result, Meursault became a victim of his emotions and feelings. Internally, he was free to feel any way he wanted, free to cry or not to cry. Despite this freedom, he was judged based upon those feelings and actions.
I guess I am judging my self a little bit right now.
It's bizarre really. You can tell from the countdown timer on the right that Emily will be abroad in Wales, UK for the next 2 months. What's bizarre about this is that I don't necessarily feel like I miss her. Given the stress that we experienced in the time leading up to her departure (a bit too personal to discuss in further detail in this blog), it is amazing that one of us did not kill the other or just call the relationship quits. That is why I am so perplexed why relationships find a way to survive. Now that she is gone, the stress has dissipated and left a feeling of relief, a calm, a peacefulness. I hope the reader does not consider me a terrible boyfriend. Don't get me wrong, I do miss her a little, and that feeling will likely grow as time progresses. Right now however, this is how I feel.
I can't help but think that this must be what Meursault must have felt at the beginning of Albert Camus' novel "The Stranger". The novel starts with the death of his mother. Meursault never cries at the funeral ceremonies. He acted rather ambivalent towards the whole situation. People around him who saw this perceived it as the signature of a cold hearted emotionless man because he did not react in the way that society expected him to react. As a result, Meursault became a victim of his emotions and feelings. Internally, he was free to feel any way he wanted, free to cry or not to cry. Despite this freedom, he was judged based upon those feelings and actions.
I guess I am judging my self a little bit right now.
October 23, 2007
I could not resist the urge to warn you all of this DIRE THREAT!
BBC NEWS | South Asia | Drunk elephants kill six people
What kind of a world do we live in where the elephants are now getting drunk and going on murderous rampages... *tisk tisk*
October 17, 2007
DAAAAAAAAAMN... It could be a lot worse...
Don't get confused about my last few posts. I am not a cynical person who is constantly in a disenchanted state due to current events... I am only in that state sometimes (!). But that's what this blog is all about. Sometimes I will be posting things of a more personal nature, what have I been up to, etc. and other times I will rant and rave about what's pissing me off in the world.
But I do have hope now. Why? Last night I went out with Emily and her roommate Meredith and a few others to Acme's. I know I mentioned Acme's before in this blog. One of the best places in the city... where you can spend less than $5 and that will take care of cover charge, a couple of beers and a slice of NY style pizza the size of your head!
Meredith had a particularly stressful day working at the hospital (she's training to become a nurse) in which according to her for one reason or another all of her patients were covered in shit... literally! And that in turn required cleaning and so forth.
So the quote of the night, according to her was;
I think I am going to remind my self of that every time I am experiencing a tough time!
But I do have hope now. Why? Last night I went out with Emily and her roommate Meredith and a few others to Acme's. I know I mentioned Acme's before in this blog. One of the best places in the city... where you can spend less than $5 and that will take care of cover charge, a couple of beers and a slice of NY style pizza the size of your head!
Meredith had a particularly stressful day working at the hospital (she's training to become a nurse) in which according to her for one reason or another all of her patients were covered in shit... literally! And that in turn required cleaning and so forth.
So the quote of the night, according to her was;
"Things could be a lot worse, there could be shit EVERYWHERE."
I think I am going to remind my self of that every time I am experiencing a tough time!
October 12, 2007
Al Gore v. U.K. High Court v. Alfred Nobel... and once again that queasy feeling is returning to my stomach.
OK, I am going to do something here that I did previously in my last blog post. I am going to take two pieces of information in the news and lay them next to each other and observe the effect. Now these pieces of information are not necessarily reported in the main-stream media but will be related in some way nonetheless.
1) Yesterday you probably heard about Al Gore and the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change) splitting the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in spreading awareness regarding the threat of global warming. Gore has shifted his efforts from running for President to making the movie/book documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" and promoting that information on a tour tour all over the world.
2) Now ironically, a few days before the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize award, there was a court ruling by a High Court in London (click here and here for more) stating that in order for "An Inconvenient Truth" to be shown to children in classrooms a disclaimer must be announced pointing out up to 11 flaws in the science and logic reported in the movie.
Hmmm... Right about now is when a nice queasy feeling sets into my stomach and I feel kind of... well... disgusted with the Nobel. It has lost its alure to me now that someone who has essentially delivered propaganda as irrefutable scientific fact is being rewarded. It disappoints me as a scientist because it is not ethical. I have watched "An Inconvenient Truth" and done a fair share of my own research on both sides of the debate. There are flaws in Gore's documentary, and he is exploiting people's ignorance in an attempt to make them accept his opinions as irrefutable fact.
Uggghhh... not even the inner rage can make the queasiness go away with this one!
***Little known fact: Alfred Nobel the founder of the Nobel Peace Prize made his fortune from the discovery of... wait for it... dynamite! That coupled with some other explosives made him a fortune as they were quickly put to use by miners and engineers and mainly by the military. That secured his reputation with the French who called him "The merchant of death" in a fake obituary which also stated "Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday." Well, turns out Al had a guilty conscience, and decided to leave his fortune to funding the Nobel Prizes to reward people who did things that had a bit more of a positive effect on society. (!!!)
2) Now ironically, a few days before the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize award, there was a court ruling by a High Court in London (click here and here for more) stating that in order for "An Inconvenient Truth" to be shown to children in classrooms a disclaimer must be announced pointing out up to 11 flaws in the science and logic reported in the movie.
Hmmm... Right about now is when a nice queasy feeling sets into my stomach and I feel kind of... well... disgusted with the Nobel. It has lost its alure to me now that someone who has essentially delivered propaganda as irrefutable scientific fact is being rewarded. It disappoints me as a scientist because it is not ethical. I have watched "An Inconvenient Truth" and done a fair share of my own research on both sides of the debate. There are flaws in Gore's documentary, and he is exploiting people's ignorance in an attempt to make them accept his opinions as irrefutable fact.
Uggghhh... not even the inner rage can make the queasiness go away with this one!
***Little known fact: Alfred Nobel the founder of the Nobel Peace Prize made his fortune from the discovery of... wait for it... dynamite! That coupled with some other explosives made him a fortune as they were quickly put to use by miners and engineers and mainly by the military. That secured his reputation with the French who called him "The merchant of death" in a fake obituary which also stated "Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday." Well, turns out Al had a guilty conscience, and decided to leave his fortune to funding the Nobel Prizes to reward people who did things that had a bit more of a positive effect on society. (!!!)
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