Use The Force Luke

Our parents do it all the time. They take us and force us to do things we'd rather not have. For example, there's my graduation a little while ago.

I didn't want to go. I’d have to dress up, only to have a gown cover up what I was wearing. (We all looked like we were from Hogwarts too!) It seemed ridiculous. Why dress up only to hide it? It made as much sense to me as having a stripper wear a wedding gown only to take it off two seconds later.

Then there was the idea of a celebration for graduating anyway. I would get my diploma regardless of going, so why go? I'd just have to sit there for an hour or two, listening to people talk about stuff I didn't care about. I didn't want to waste my Friday evening in such a meaningless way. I was hell-bent against the whole thing.

But I was forced to go.

Did I regret it? Not really. I got over the whole wearing a dress shirt and pants, and I did sweat. But the fun I had with people there was more than worth it. I got to see people who I hadn't seen in a while, as well as make some memories that'll, appropriately enough, last a lifetime.

Sure, I may have logically approached the situation, had the same information as my parents on the ceremony, etc., but I lacked the understanding. As explained previously, that lack of understand lead to different conclusions on the part of myself and my parents. Their conclusion was right.

Now, this being said, I have two things to show through this example: the idea of parents living through their kids is something we all do, just in different forms, and sometimes people need to be forced into situations they don't want to be, and they will thank you in the end.

The first is the most important. Most people, especially teens, condemn their parents for forcing them to do things they don't want to. It's formally known as living through your children, however, this is just the most obvious manifestation of the human need to live through others.

Why do we watch television? To escape. We imagine ourselves as another person in the same room as those actors. We pretend we're their friends, that our lives are similar to their own.

Why do we play video games? To experience that which we normally cannot. We dive into another world, and take over another person, becoming them. We become ruthless 007, ready to be thrust into another deadly situation.

We do it to our friends too. If someone you know is going to Egypt, you might suggest that they take their picture in front of the Sphinx, mainly because it's something that you'd like to do yourself but cannot. It may not be as enjoyable as going there yourself, but it's something.

Why do you think that people read romance novels? Because they wish to have the same things in those books occur to them, but cannot, so they experience them through the book.

Every single day we live through others. Since we cannot experience all the things we want to, we live through other people. The only reason why we condemn parents is because they have enough influence to make their children do what they want them to. We all live through people to some degree, it's just that parents can, and do, to a greater one.

Now, this brings me to my second point: Some times you need to force people to do things for their own good. Many times we lack the time to explain something to someone so that they will understand, or the ability to break through their emotional barrier to have them analyze the situation logically. In these cases, forcing people to do things is sometimes the best thing to do.

Humans are creatures of habit it has been said. We do what we're used to because it's the easiest and we are the most comfortable like that. If we step outside this comfort zone, we become scared. Humans are scared of the unknown.

This being said, how do we make people break out of their comfort zone? Well, we can either have it occur suddenly, or gradually. To do it suddenly, force must often be applied. To do it gradually though, the situation must be approached with caution, showing the other person that it's not as scary as they think. Patience and perseverance must be used in order to alleviate any remaining fear so that the person is ready to tackle the situation.

Most times though, people cannot be bothered to just sit idly by. Instead they force the other person into the situation. In these cases, there are usually two outcomes: either the person is thankful for the experience, or resentful.

If you truly know that they will be happy about the experience, and you turn out right, then they will thank you. However, if you're wrong, then they will probably resent you for doing it. (However, they may say that the thought counted as you did care enough to try to benefit their life, even if it didn't turn out that way.)

My conclusion? We all live through people, so stop saying that parents are the only people who do it. Secondly, if you think that forcing someone to see something is the only way that they can get the understanding they need, then make sure that you're ready for the outcome. Thirdly, sometimes force is needed in situations in order for them to learn and grow.

And Then, He Was Spirited Away

In a week, spare a day, Halloween will occur. I think that it is appropriate to look at some of the rumours involving this day, in order to see what it’s all about. Remember, knowing about our culture helps to understand some of our traditions and customs.

According to good ol’ Wikipedia, it is believed that the Celts began this tradition and called it Samhain (or End of Summer) in which they had a fire festival, and it was believed that the dead would revisit the mortal world. The bonfires were lit to ward off evil spirits.

This festival was held on the last day of October, and then Pope Gregory the Fourth decides, “Hey, we should change the day, “All Saints Day”, to November 1st!” And the peasants rejoiced because now the day was no longer in April, but still wished to celebrated their other festival the night before. It’s name got corrupted though, into All Hallows Even’, or Hallowe’en. The apostrophe is often dropped for simplicity.

Now, there’s another little known fact about our calendar system, but we lost a series of days in the past. In Great Britain, it was a total of 13 days. Other countries varied, depending on when they switched to the new calendar system. (The switching was needed as leap days were added to the new calendar system to increase its accuracy).

In this day and age, we still hold the day on October 31st, even though the calendar changed, (actually, most days are held on the same days as before the change), and many people still believe this day is when the realms connect. Additionally, we still light fires, except now they’re candles inside pumpkins and in the form of Halloween lights.

What does this mean? Well, if Halloween is the date upon which spirits can communicate with the living realm, then we have to ask why it is every year. It must mean that the dimensions overlap with the greatest intensity every 365 days, if we assume that the original date was correct. If this is true, then people who say that they can “feel spirits” on Hallowe’en are delusional, because the date is now off by more than 15 days or so.

Conversely though, if we assume that our calendar is correct, and Halloween is now falling on the proper day, than those people who believed that they “felt spirits” on Halloween previously after leap years first were missed and today’s calendar started to become different than the calendars of old, must be delusional.

But, there is something more! Since both people believe the same thing, and they recite the same experiences, then something truly strange is going on. Either there is a changing pattern (which is an oxymoron), in which the date moved on one of the calendars, and then became stationary (which is highly improbable, and defies logic), or Halloween is a croc and it is not a day in which we can communicate with spirits.

Logically, we must conclude that Halloween is not a day in which we can communicate with spirits.

I will continue on with this idea of spirits and an afterlife in another blog in the future. Cheers!

High on Life

The speaker of the assembly was a recovered drug addict. I thought it was nice to be out of the high school class, but a waste of my time that this freedom should be stifled by a boring person talking about a subject which didn’t affect me directly. I never had done drugs, nor was I expecting to do them. I knew what they could do to you, and had seen the results of them everyday as I walked up to school and passed people hooked on tobacco in front of the school.

The speaker was a thin man, about 25. He had blond, short hair that made him look younger than he most likely was. He stood up, walked to the podium, and just gazed out at the student body. And then he began.

“Addiction. It’s something that we think wouldn’t happen to us, and when it does, we don’t recognize it. Take the example of my friend Glen and I. We’d smoke some weed on the weekend, just to relieve the stress that had accumulated over the week. It was relaxing to sit there, stoned, in a state of bliss.

“I never once thought I was addicted. I always thought, Yeah, this is fun. I can stop at any time I want, but why should I? It doesn’t hurt anyone. Although Glen never said it, I knew he agreed with me. We weren’t hurting anyone. It was just like we were inhaling a massage instead of having one done to us.

“Over the weeks it seemed like the relaxing effects of the weed was decreasing. At first, it wasn’t noticeable. But as time progressed, the change became more profound. I felt that the weekly dosage wasn’t enough, and needed more. I asked Glen to try to increase how much we got per week, but it didn’t work; the dealer could only get so much to us.

“I needed something to smoke, so I turned to cigarettes. They weren’t as good, but at least it was still something. It relaxed me, and fixed the problem temporally, but soon I increased the amount I had. At one point, I even started to smoke two at once, just to help take the edge off.

“I still didn’t think I was addicting. I rationalized what I was doing by saying that I was merely increasing my dosage in order to compensate for the decreasing quality of the product, as well as my increased resilience to its effects. I took it as a good sign too. If I had to smoke more in order to get the same calm that half of what I had before would have given me, then my body is set to help me resist the addictive effects of the substance, and it had already begun. I thought it’d be easy to quit whenever I wanted to.

“Then Glen informed me that the dealer had been caught, and wouldn’t be back for a few months. I panicked. How could I calm myself now? I needed that weed to survive. I went on a search to find another source, but it didn’t work. People looked at me strangely when I asked them if they any weed for sale.

“They looked at me as if I was useless. I knew differently though, that I was something. So I looked down on society. I thought myself better than them. They were just snubbing me because I was better than they were, and they were jealous of that fact.

“I became introverted. The only person I talked to for the longest time was Glen, but only then to see if he had found a new source. I started to become poor in my quest for relaxation. Then the worst thing that could have happened, did. Glen stopped.

“He didn’t explain why really. He just stopped because he had too much work to do he said. I laughed. Work? That didn’t matter. What really mattered was being relaxed and mellow. So I left my only friend like he left me. I moved on in life, a lone wolf.

“The change happened one day when I was walking down the street, going to the convenience store for another package of cigarettes. I saw an old man, homeless, banging on the door, demanding that they give him cigarettes. He yelled about how he had money, how they were killing him, and how they were horrible people at heart.

“I just walked away. I knew what I had become. Addicted. My whole life had begun revolving around reaching that mellow state to the point where I was stressing over it. Nothing was good enough. It wasn’t a sign that my body was resisting, but instead that it was so accepting, it became dependent.

“It took a while, but my mind was set. I had relapses, sudden urges to smoke, but I was determined; I would not become that old man. I came clean, and have stayed that way ever since.”

He paused, and this was the first time that my thoughts we allowed to come back to myself and the place I was in. Most students were busy laughing at the man who fooled himself, but I could not turn away. He was someone to be revered, his wisdom obtained at half the normal age. He resumed.

“But what does this mean to you? How does this tale affect you? What wisdom are you given by this story? Just a few things. Look at what you like to do. Do you play video games? Work out? Strive to be thin? Has this hobby become an obsession? Is it all that you think, eat, breath, do?

“You may think that it’s easy to break out of. You may think that it doesn’t adversely affect you, or those around you, but it may. The best pieces of advice I can leave you with are: 1. Find the person who has taken their hobby, the same one as yours, to the extreme. What happens if you get addicted to a television series to the point where it’s all you watch, and you memorize the lines? Ask yourself if that’s who you want to become. If it isn’t, then slow down a little.

“2. Do everything in moderation. Take a break from that which you divulge in, and reflect on your actions because of it. Is it good that you’re obsessed with that which you are? Would it better for you to do other things? Should you study and get your marks up?

“Your life is yours to live. I got lucky in the fact that I discovered my addiction quickly. Other people go on their whole life addicted to being in a romantic relationship, talking about a single joke, or other things. The worst part is that they don’t recognize their problem, or admit that they have one.

“So stand up. Be a big person and admit you have an addiction. Admit that you are weak. And then set out to deal with it. You can only solve your problem, once you identify it.”

He hovered on stage for a moment while the words sunk in, and then departed to the front row. I knew what I had to do, and that night I’d do it. I’d look at my life, and see if there were any addictions I had, and then analyze them. I knew now; those things worth my time, could wait until I was ready for them. I could overcome my addictions.

Just as soon as I found them.

Immortality, Conformity, and a Dash of Logic to Taste

Let's break it down, break it all down. If you break down people, interactions, and discussions, it's fairly simple to say that if we were given the same information and understanding, and then thought logically, we'd get the same answer.

If you have an apple and you're hungry, the logical thing to do is eat it. However, you'd need to be able to understand that when you're hungry you need to eat, that the apple is edible, etc. Without this knowledge and understanding, then you will not eat the apple. Anyone in the same situation with the same understanding and knowledge will, logically, reach the same conclusion you have.

So why doesn't this happen in the real world? Why do people act differently and believe different things? Why don't we all do the logical thing? This is because something is missing in most cases; either we lack knowledge, understanding, or logic. Someone may be hungry but not logically connect the food with their hunger, mainly because they're panicking about an upcoming test. Or they may not eat the apple because they don't understand that they're hungry and need food (even if they have the knowledge, they don't understand how it feels to be hungry, and therefore, they do not know they are hungry). Finally, they may just not know that the apple is food.

If you assume, however, that we are all logical people, then giving knowledge to someone and assuming they understand would result in the conclusion that they would come to the same conclusions you would have from said information. However, if they do not, you must assume that you yourself have broken one of these three rules; either you are not thinking logically, lack knowledge that they have, or do not fully comprehend the information.

If we had an infinite amount of time, in order to discuss a topic and make sure that we had the same level of knowledge and understanding, and then did discuss the topic in a logical manner, we would eventually come to the same conclusion (however, one person may just take longer). In this way, we would all end up following identical courses of action (the most logical, of course), and we would all act the same.

[Interesting fact: Gene Roddenberry already knew this and applied to a species of alien known as the Vulcan. They were purely logical (except during Pon Farr, although they were still highly logical at that time too, as depicted in the episode of Voyager, "Blood Fever".), and as a result, all agreed and followed the same course of action. They lacked dimension to their personality because of it, unfortunately.]

As a result of this, let us take our knowledge back to the real world where people are emotional, we don't know everything, and we can't comprehend it all. What does this idea offer us here? It means that if someone disagrees with you on an issue, look to see why that could be. Do you have a different amount of knowledge on the subject then they do? If so, talk to them in order to gain their knowledge, and give yours. Do they lack understanding in the matter, or could you? Ask for clarity and try to provide if this is so. Finally, are both of you thinking things through clearly? If not, calm down, dissociate yourself from your emotions (it's advised that you only do this temporally, as it can lead to future problems), and if all else fails, as a friend what they think. Sometimes, an outside source can shed new ideas on a situation, and help you think clearly.

[Disagree with the blog? Double check if you're thinking logically, and if you are, then question away!]

Funny thing because of this idea: Logical people saying that they’re non-conformists, yet they want everyone to think logically. Doubly contradictory.

War! Hup! Yeah! What is it good for?! Absolutely Nothin'! Say it again!

As promised, I will expand upon immortality and explain two things: 1. How we already inherently know that finding immortality is the meaning for life, and 2. The many ways that we attempt to accomplish that goal.

First things first (where they should be?), how can I say that we inherently know that finding immortality is the meaning of life? Well, we all have a survival instinct, which is why it's so hard for many suicidal people to actually kill themselves. We work out so that we're healthier, most of us wish to live until we're over 100, and we'd all like to be able to relax a bit more. One explanation for this set of behaviour is that we wish to live longer. We want to be healthy so that we increase the chances of living a long life. We want to live until we're over 100, because... well, I'll leave this connection to be made by the reader. We want to relax more because it will result in us being happier, and this in turn results in better health.

From birth we are pre-programmed to survive, and as such, we all want to naturally live long lives, and become immortal. But how do we do this? How do you, the reader, channel almost all of your actions into the goal of becoming immortal? There are many ways.

Some of us wish to create a work of art that will be marveled at forever. Others wish to be remembered by friends and family long after they're gone. Still others wish to leave an impact on society by being a doctor and saving lives, being a teacher and educating the masses, or just being a good member of society by helping your friends, doing what is asked of you, and caring for those around you. Most of what we do is designed to maximize our chances of immortality.

When do we feel safe? When we do exactly what we're comfortable with, which is primarily what we are used to. Why? Because not only are we good at what we do all the time, we also decrease the likelihood of being embarrassed, and embarrassment leads to sadness.

The majority of our actions fall into four categories: moral/logical actions, happiness actions, safety actions, and impulse actions. We do moral/logical actions because we believe they are the right thing to do, regardless of whether on not they give us happiness, such as making yourself late by helping someone else out, or denying yourself that extra brownie. These actions usually result in a better feeling about who we are, and a sense of pride in doing the right thing.

Happiness actions are those which result in happiness for the person doing them. These range from indulging in an extra brownie, to hanging out with friends when you should be doing an assignment. They may not always be the "right" decision, but they result in temporary happiness, whatever the cost.

Safety actions are actions we take to ensure our own survival. These include not running across a highway to not running with scissors. These aren't exactly moral/logical decisions since we may turn down a dangerous situation (such as helping someone who is suicidal) in order to maximize our own survival (by not taking to that person, we decrease the chance that their negative thoughts will translate to us).

The final category of actions is impulse actions. These are actions that you don't think through, and are most times accidental in nature. For example, you could insult your boss after he makes a comment about your performance. Not only does this action not make you happy, but it is also immoral/illogical and you'll regret it in the future. These actions usually lead to continued anger at your past self.

Without impulse actions, all our actions are designed to either make us happy, others happy or allow us to survive. In making others happy, we become happier ourselves and increase the chances we have of living an enjoyable life with friends. Making our self happy results in a higher quality of living , increased productivity, better health, etc., all of which result in a greater chance of long life. Finally, survival actions, obviously, maximize our ability to survive.

The neat thing about these categories is how much they overlap. In general, the right thing to do results in us being the happiest because we didn't have to compromise who we are in order to do what we wanted. We start to tailor what we want to do to follow that which is the right thing. It goes back to the idea that humans are, in general, good people.

Now, this all being said, I still need to deal with Man Eyes' point about there being life after death (even if that sounds paradoxical). That I will attempt in another blog, soon to be published (I hope).

Updates Continue

Adsense was added, and then search came too,
It seemed that his blog was becoming brand new.

A dash of change, a pinch of update,
And then he rambled on about fate.

It seemed that he was finally done,
When he gave the readers a gift for fun.

If you wish to see when new text is typed,
Reply to this blog for a feature, over-hyped.

Notified you'll be to comments and blogs,
And I lack something that rhymes with blogs.

The end.

A Loss of Marbles (The Fate Remix)

This small story is dedicated to all those who doubt fate. May you open your eyes.

I sat on the floor, playing with a marble and racecar track I got a few years ago. I always liked to set up the track to go from one room to another, and then watch the marble go down the track, faster than I could run. It would amuse me for hours as I tried to optimize the speed of the little ball of glass, and then I'd add in jumps and turns, just for excitement. It was on one of these days that my grandfather came over, only to find me fast at work building a new roller coaster for my spherical friend.

"I see you’re hard at work," he said from behind me. I heard him climb the stairs, and smiled upon hearing his voice. Most grownups didn't care about my fun, but he always did. I quickly ran and hugged him.

"Yep! Let me show you!" I grabbed his hand and lead him to a spot next to the track, and then insisted that he sit down to watch. He took his time, but did so happily, excited that he would see my newest creation. I obliged him by getting the marble and letting it go down the track once more.

He looked over to me, and said "Get another marble. I want you to try something."

I had always been used to only using the one marble on the track, but he sounded very enthusiastic about his plan, so I got another marble and sent it on its way. It ended up a few centimeters to the left of the previous one.

"Now Benjamin," (he always used my full name) "why didn't the two marbles end up in the same place?"

I thought about it for a moment, and remembered all that I had learnt about track building over the years. "Well," I replied, "do you see this chair here, under the track?" His eyesight wasn't the best, so I thought that I should ask if he saw it, just to make sure. He nodded. "It holds up the track so that after each run, the track doesn't move as much. It moves a little bit though."

"So, if there was a completely immovable track, and you put a marble down it, it would always end up in the same place?" he queried. He looked like he had just got started, so I decided that the answer had to be no, and worked on why it was that.

"No, I don't think so," I hesitantly answered, hoping that my guess was right.

"Why's that? What other things could be different from the first time, to the second?"

I practiced taking a marble and setting it on the track. I tried to figure out what could change exactly, and then I realized that there were a few things. "I could push the marble!" I happily said. "A-And I could put it down in a different place!"

"Those are both correct." He smiled at me, and I smiled back. "Now, let's imagine that we get rid of everything that can interfere. Then, would the marble always end up in the same place?"

I mulled the idea over. "That makes sense," I finally told him.

"Good, good. Now, when an experiment can be done many times with the same result, it's called repeatable. It's through these repeatable experiments that we gain scientific knowledge. We discover patterns." He looked at me patiently, as I took in the information.

"So," I started "if I send the marble from the top of the track, and then from lower heights, I can find out how far it will go from any height?" I was quite bright for a boy of twelve, partly because I had a good teacher in my grandfather.

"Exactly. You can find a pattern, and then use it to predict future events." He paused, and gazed at me with a twinkle in his eye. "But there's something even more amazing that I have to tell you." I looked back at him with curiosity, and a drive to learn that paralleled his own to teach. "We can use this idea to prove that fate exists."

I eyed him carefully, trying to tell if he was tricking me here, as he so often did. "If you ran enough tests, then you could predict the future for everything, right?"

He just smiled back at me. "You're still thinking inside the box, Benny-boy." The only time he ever called me Benny-boy was when he was very happy, and he was only very happy when he was teaching me something truly wondrous.

I was very excited now, but impatient all the same. "Then tell me!"

He teased me for a minute by just smiling at me some more, and then began saying "The experiment will come up the same if we have everything the same, correct?"

I nodded in response. "If the track doesn't move, the marble starts in the same place, and with the same speed, etc. then yes, the result will be the same."

"That," he slowly revealed, "is the cornerstone to this proof. If you repeat something under the same conditions, the result will always be the same."

"But how does that prove that fate it exists?" I really wanted him to get on with it, even if he was enjoying his teaching.

"Pick a number between 1 and 1000, and tell me what it is," he stated.

"672," I replied, wondering how this had anything to do with fate.

"Alright then. Let's say that we could somehow recreate the moment that you chose your number. Everything would be the same. The whole universe would be identical to when you just chose your number a moment ago." He was getting excited now. "The experiment would be duplicated perfectly! What number would you choose?"

"Six hundred and seventy two." I slowly let the words roll off my tongue, as my mind raced forward to what he'd say next. I started to see where his argument was progressing, and I liked it.

"Exactly! There was only ever one outcome, right?!"

"Yes!"

"Which means..." He was pulling at me to make the connection myself.

"Then you'd get a new universe in which another event will occur, and then a new universe in which even another event will occur, and it will keep progressing in a cycle of action begetting change, change begetting action, onward and onward..."

He smiled. "And all of it stemmed from one action. That's the essence of fate. The universe is like a giant billiard table. An initial action, the hitting of the cue ball, sets a series of events in motion. In the universe though, there are an almost infinite amount of these balls, and they never stop moving, creating action upon action."

And then I knew the final words. "But it all started from the one action. It was all predetermined."

He smiled at me once more while I sat there, grasping at the remaining shreds of the reality I knew only moments ago. "Now Benjamin, don't think about it too hard. It'll come to you in time." He got up, and started to leave. "For now, just be content with your marbles."

I looked up at him, sighed, and then continued playing, my mind working overdrive as it was destined to do.

The Meaning of Life: Redux

Amber raised a good point in her comment to my previous post (even if she did post it at 3 AM). What if there is no meaning to life? It is the only assumption I made in my argument, and so it is a valid question to ask; is there a meaning to life?

It makes sense that we would attribute a meaning to life as it is 100% of our experience. We experience only that which we live, and thus our life is very important to us. As such, we wish to know that our life has a meaning, and there has been a reason for our existence. Just as we wish to feel secure in knowing that all the time and energy we put into school will be worth something someday, we too wish to believe that our life will amount to something greater than just the sum of our days.

But what if it's all for naught? In the grand scheme of things, it's entirely possible that we will destroy ourselves, the sun will expand and consume the remains of the Earth, and there will be nothing left of us. The rest of the universe will progress, unaware of our existence. We will have had no grand impact.

Truly though, every single day, we strive to get meaning from our life. We all want what's best for ourselves, and the majority of us have realized that this goal requires us to do both what is best for ourselves, while still doing good for others. We give our lives meaning. And that, more than everything else, matters.

The Meaning Of Life

We all wonder what the meaning of life is. Why are we here? What's the meaning of it all? I think I know what it is. The meaning of life... is immortality.

That is our ultimate goal; to make sure no one dies. Most of us already know this. We try to be nice to people, avoid war at all costs, and attempt to stop people from killing others. We also try to make our life last as long as possible, by exercising, or by creating something great so others will remember us. Yet, we have not begun to truly become immortal.

Let me address why this is our purpose in life. If we assume there is a meaning of life, then it follows that life must have meaning. And if life is to have a meaning, then there needs to both be life, and a reason for it. Since death is the end of life, and life is needed for there to be a meaning to life, then the reason for life is to prevent death. Hence, the meaning of life is to find immortality.

Determining the benefits of immortality is left as an exercise for the reader, and will be touched upon in the next blog.