What are you doing on earth?

Girls.

The Perfect Figure and The Media

In my last post, I said that I would prefer an intelligent person over a vapid bimbo. However, at the same time, I would never be able to truly like an ugly, unfit person who actually says "I'm happy the way I am".

Now you tell me, "How do you know your concept of beauty isn't influenced by the media? Why can't people be happy the way they are?"

This is actually directed at Carmen and Suyin! But indirectly concerns JonChu. Go read his post! JON CHU'S POST. *CLICK*

Before I go on, let me ask you, what is the mass media? From the way some people talk about it, it seems like some sentient organism with its own purpose, being able to "influence" the masses and so on.

But it's not. The messages in the media came from someone. Ideas like "You can be happy with whoever you are, it doesn't matter if you're fat or thin, stupid and ugly, you can be satisfied" come from the mass media too. DISNEY! Blogs are a medium too, btw.

So to say that the idea of the perfect figure is a unrealistic depiction of the mass media is unfair, since the idea that one can be happy with whoever you are is ALSO an idea in the media. The fact is, almost EVERY opinion held by the masses is present in the media.

Since I have shown that BOTH opinions are present in the media, we can ask, "Which opinion is correct?" without saying things like "you are wrong because your opinion is formed and influenced by THE MEDIA".

Now, go read Jeannette Goon's post *CLICK* on the perfect figure.

She wrote from a logical point of view, stating that men desire the perfect figure because of its functionality. I agree with her, but I would like to add a little something to it-

The body you have was given to you by God. What are you doing with it?

If you are overweight, and are not happy about it, congratulations, you're not supposed to be. Now do something about it. God gave some 10 talents, while others only got 1. Don't bury it.

If you are happy about it... Google "Dangers of Obesity" Or click the link.

If you do not exercise, if you eat unhealthily, if you do anything you know is not good for your body excessively... and you feel good about it... then I'm not going to bother preaching to you.

But if you feel guilty whenever or after you do such things, guess what? It's your body telling you "YOU IDIOT. TAKE CARE OF ME".

Pain

It makes me feel alive.

Humility

I'm thinking about it. God, please teach me how to be the most humble man on Earth.

Do you believe in destiny?

Luck, Destiny, Fate, and the Will of God. They're all the same to me.

Rules

Rules without reasons were made to be broken.

Comfort Zone

Don't get out of it, enlarge it.

I want a Fight

A Fight, instead of just a Win. All my life, I've been a Winner. It's getting boring, when you know you're going to win, you just do what you have to do and it's over.

So I want a Fight.

To Infinity and Beyond

Never be satisfied, never lie to yourself that the way you are now is acceptable, because it is not.

Do not be intimidated by perfection, by the impossible, because they are not the final goal.

Be happy with who you will become, and make that a part of who you are now.

The Beauty of Functionality

The beauty of functionality, the raw pleasure felt when one looks at anything that perfectly fulfills its purpose of creation without pretending to be more; when there is no decoration, all useless frills discarded.

Love

No, this post isn't really about love. It's about language. About the inadequacy of language. About how language can be misleading, because words like "love" are used in so many ways that it takes on so many meanings and becomes so many different things.

One of the questions in my girlfriend form was "what is love to you?" and nobody gave the same answer as another person. Obviously no one actually completely agrees on what it is.

Things aren't black and white, in this world. The truth isn't so clear. But there is ONE truth. It just isn't known completely all the time, or it's just undefinable due to the inadequacy of language...

Did you know that Eskimoes have 14 different words for the different shades of white?

Self control

Self control is not holding yourself back, it's not avoiding the cliffs. Self control is jumping off the right one.

Dear You

Someone asked me why it's always about me, why I always say 'I' this, and 'I' that.

One of the reasons is because my world revolves around me.

Everything we experience is perceived from our own individual point of view. Everything we do is out of self-interest. Anyone who gives another reason is lying. Of course many people don't realize it.

I'd like to think that this will be what makes you different: I won't say mine, or I, anymore.

Our world will revolve around us.

Love,

Me.

I think Tolerance is overrated.

Increasingly people are crying out for Tolerance, for understanding and respect between different beliefs. As the world comes together, cultures collide, different religions and opposing worldviews are realized.

Toleransi: Kesanggupan bertolak ansur, sabar dan mengawal diri bagi mengelakkan berlakunya pertelingkahan dan perselisihan faham demi kesejahteraan hidup.

That's from the SPM moral textbook.

For you people who don't understand BM, Tolerance is defined as the willingness to give-and-take, be patient and control oneself to avoid arguments, fights and conflict for the goodness of life.

Tolerance is also defined as the capacity of an organism to live in unfavorable environmental conditions.

This is why I think it's overrated. Anything I have to tolerate, would be basically something I don't like, something I don't agree with. It would be something unfavorable. And you know what? I don't like that. I want to either completely accept something, or completely condemn it. No wishy-washy gray areas and hating something on the inside, but tolerating it. Never compromise, never accept anything less than a 100 per cent.

When I look at the definition of tolerance in Malaysian textbooks, I see that they're asking us to shut up, lie down, and give in... To avoid conflict. To avoid the fight. Even when you're forced to live with unfavorable conditions, for the goodness of life, practice Tolerance, please.

Are you going to tolerate that?

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Why are you so afraid of conflict? Why do you keep telling yourself to respect and tolerate the differing views and opinions of others? Do you keep wondering and worrying if you're really right? You back down and tell yourself that you avoided a pointless fight, but deep down, are you satisfied? You tell yourself you are.

If you really want to know if you're right, Fight. The winner is always right.

My religion? I'm a Christian.

This post was going to be a long vehement argument against the phrase "Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship". I was going to define the word religion, and show that Christianity is indeed a religion no matter what the person at the pulpit or beside you may say.

I was going to go on and on, saying things like...

"They tell you to be not of the world, but they're preaching an understanding of religion that is of the world" and...

"Religion isn't just rituals. Religion isn't just rules. Religion isn't dry and musty. Religion is your beliefs, your worldview, your principles, your choice-making-system" and...

"Christianity isn't just a relationship, it's a religion! And your religion should be everything to you, because your religion is your life."

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But yeah. I got lazy and so, you have these bunch of random thoughts.

If you actually want to know more, ask.

Fist to Heaven

" 'God will help us soon now, won't He?'

'You silly little thing. Don't you know that we must not settle what God is to do for us? We must have patience and wait His time.' "

-from The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss.

...

God has a plan. The Plan, you could call it. It's the Plan of the universe, of existence, it is all that has happened and is to come. The Creator has set everything into motion, He knows where it will go, and since He is God, it will go there.

They will say this is comforting. Knowing that your good God has a plan for you, do you not feel reassured? Do you not feel safe and secure? Your future will be what God has planned for you, no matter what.

That's right. It doesn't matter what you do, or who you are. God's plan for you WILL come to pass, because God's Plan will come to pass.

Yes, whoever you are, I assure you, believe these words. Even if you are a homeless refugee, even if you are an abused child, a victim of rape, a homosexual, a woman-trapped-in-a-man's-body, even a bastard child or an aborted fetus; no matter who you are, God's plan for you is at work.

Yes! Even if you die a pointless useless death and live a pointless useless life, be assured and be satisfied, for God's plan for you was fulfilled!

Oh and do not bother your little mind about the what-ifs and whys. It is absurd to consider these things, because faith in your God is all you need. You cannot see the big picture, no matter how hard you try, so patiently wait for Him to reveal it to you in His time.

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Lame.

I raise my fist to heaven.

Dear Dad

I've been becoming more like you. People always said I was like you, but this is the first time I am saying it myself. I'm becoming more like you.

But I don't even know you, all I know is what others tell me.

I'm not the same as the person they tell me you were, not exactly. But what if I am the same as the person you really were?

"There is no good father, that's the rule. Don't lay the blame on men but on the bond of paternity, which is rotten. To beget children, nothing better; to have them, what iniquity! Had my father lived, he would have lain on me at full length and would have crushed me. As luck had it, he died young. Amidst Aeneas and his fellows who carry their Anchises on their backs, I move from shore to shore, alone and hating those invisible begetters who bestraddle their sons all their life long. I left behind me a young man who did not have time to be my father. Was it a good thing or bad? I don't know. But I readily subscribe to the verdict of an eminent psychoanalyst: I have no Superego."
- Jean-Paul Sartre.


Love,

Your Son.

Words

A picture paints a thousand words.

But a single word can create uncountable images.

Do you understand the true beauty of words? Words are arbitrary signs, containing the meaning they do simply because humans created them for the purpose of meaning.

Cat.

What is Cat? It is simply the letters A, C, and T, placed in a specific order. But when you see the word Cat, an image comes to your mind. What do you see?
The image in your mind, will not be the same as the one in mine.

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Sex.

Dear Kristy

I can't write to you now. People make jokes about the wheelchair, about me hopping around. I laugh. I really am... happy. I wouldn't let a sprain stop me from being happy. But it's the reason I can't write.

You're one of the only people I'm completely honest with, you always have been. I didn't want you to see my despair. The frustration.
It's not just the ankle. It's more than that. It's about being weak. It's about what I am.
The injury just gave me too much time to think.

I'm holding back on you now. I can't tell you everything. I'm sorry. I'll talk about something else.

...

Why do we seek help in times of weakness? Why do we seek God? I say "we", but I mean other people. They say it is God's way of showing us that we need him. I'm not arrogant. Not in this matter, at least. I just don't feel the need to depend on someone else.
In fact, I feel furthest from God when I'm weak.

Do you know that story about magic? I read it in some old fantasy anthology. The book didn't even have a cover.


It was about two boys who wanted to learn magic. They went into the desert where a magician lived in a tower, and asked him to teach them. The magician gave them chores, and only taught them the most basic methods of meditation.

One day, he took the boys out into the desert, for a stroll. When they reached the top of a dune, they saw a large monster. Unfortunately, the monster saw them too. The magician could have fought it, but he closed his eyes, called upon his magic, and flew into the sky.

The monster was getting closer. One of the boys remembered a small cave, too small for the monster, that they had passed a while back, and turned around, ran to it quickly. The other boy closed his eyes. Desperately.

In the sky, the magician told his pupil, "Magic comes to those who need it."


Yours,

Jared.

Sheep

I can't sleep. But thinking of sheep makes me think of a bunch of other things.

Church. Argument. Nice Normal. I'm too lazy to explain.

Argument. What is it for?

I'm thinking of being a father. I never want to make my kid do something "because I said so." How could I be so hypocritical? I want my children to choose to do what they do because they believe it is right. Because they have understanding and knowledge.
I don't want sheep that do what they're told simply because they're told what to do.

What happens when we disagree?