People have their own ways of coping with whatever life throws at them. For instance, if work loads tend to get out of control, some people may take the time to step back and gather themselves, and others may just plow right through it and then relax afterwards. Different methods work for different people, and I would like to share my recent discovery of how I deal with one of the inevitable obstacles life throws at us: death.
When I am dealing with the death of someone close to me or, in this case, preparing for a death, I pamper myself. Over the summer there was a boy my age who passed away that I was once very close with when we were younger. Because of my work schedule, I was unable to stay for the funeral but the emotions I felt when I went to the viewing took me by surprise. Afterwards, I went to one of the antique stores downtown and bought myself a large Bible from the 1870's that I had been eying for awhile. It doesn't matter so much that it was a Bible, but it was large and quite beautiful to me. I had every intention of using it as an art piece, but it's still just sitting in my room untouched but admired. When my granny passed away a few years ago, I took myself out to lunch on the day I found out. And now, with news that my grandfather may only have a few days left to live, I've been pampering myself and dressing up more than usual. When I dress up, I feel better about myself and more confident, as if this will help me to be prepared for when the day comes that he passes away.
I cannot express enough how humanity continues to amaze me, and yet I so often overlook my own... habits I guess you could say. Everyone is so complex and it seems that only upon serious self-reflection I don't realize my own complexities. Just something to think about, I guess
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
When Thoughts Get The Best Of You
"The brain is the most complex thing in the universe and it's right behind the nose." ~The Science of Sleep
This quote has stuck with me. While trying to sort my own brain out, I realize it is very complex. There is no straight answer, always these loopholes and excuses that we try to get through so we can just make a decision. When the wrong decision is made, our brains try to figure out for itself what went wrong and more loopholes and excuses are created. With all of the thinking we do just to get by in our day to day lives, I'm surprised that there aren't more people in padded white rooms talking to themselves. I know that I often feel like I should be in one of those rooms.
Be prepared for your brain to betray you. All of your thoughts and fears and experiences will eventually get the best of you and the result is regret, which of course ends up staying with you for many years to come. When this happens and your mind just gets too full and too confused and you make that mistake, just remember: the people who are still willing to be with you are the ones worth keeping.
This quote has stuck with me. While trying to sort my own brain out, I realize it is very complex. There is no straight answer, always these loopholes and excuses that we try to get through so we can just make a decision. When the wrong decision is made, our brains try to figure out for itself what went wrong and more loopholes and excuses are created. With all of the thinking we do just to get by in our day to day lives, I'm surprised that there aren't more people in padded white rooms talking to themselves. I know that I often feel like I should be in one of those rooms.
Be prepared for your brain to betray you. All of your thoughts and fears and experiences will eventually get the best of you and the result is regret, which of course ends up staying with you for many years to come. When this happens and your mind just gets too full and too confused and you make that mistake, just remember: the people who are still willing to be with you are the ones worth keeping.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Common Sense
It's amazing when I consider what I find to be common sense compared to what the norm seems to be.
Let me elaborate.
I think it's pretty common sense, whether you believe in the "Golden Rule" or not, that you should treat others as you want to be treated. "What you get is what you give" in other words. Yet it still AMAZES me how people can be so rude and cruel to people without knowing them at all. I understand that people have bad days, and I know on some days it's not as easy to be civil to others... and that's why I usually give people 3 strikes. But really, sometimes 3 does not seem to be enough for some people, and to me that's sad. No matter what the situation, by the third encounter people should realize that your impression of them relies on what they do and say. There really are some people that no matter what you do to them or even around them, they just treat you like you're scum at the bottom of their shoes. Common sense to me would say "If I treat someone like scum, I will be treated like scum" to which I would follow by asking myself "Do I want to be scum?" If your answer to that is anything but "no" then I would suggest you re-evaluate yourself, but again that's just a suggestion.
Does rudeness really bypass common sense? Can people really be rude to others and not see anything wrong with it? So perhaps that may not count as common sense rather than general courtesy. Maybe I should have titled this "Common Sense and General Courtesy" instead... but I'm going to leave it as is because I can.
Let me elaborate.
I think it's pretty common sense, whether you believe in the "Golden Rule" or not, that you should treat others as you want to be treated. "What you get is what you give" in other words. Yet it still AMAZES me how people can be so rude and cruel to people without knowing them at all. I understand that people have bad days, and I know on some days it's not as easy to be civil to others... and that's why I usually give people 3 strikes. But really, sometimes 3 does not seem to be enough for some people, and to me that's sad. No matter what the situation, by the third encounter people should realize that your impression of them relies on what they do and say. There really are some people that no matter what you do to them or even around them, they just treat you like you're scum at the bottom of their shoes. Common sense to me would say "If I treat someone like scum, I will be treated like scum" to which I would follow by asking myself "Do I want to be scum?" If your answer to that is anything but "no" then I would suggest you re-evaluate yourself, but again that's just a suggestion.
Does rudeness really bypass common sense? Can people really be rude to others and not see anything wrong with it? So perhaps that may not count as common sense rather than general courtesy. Maybe I should have titled this "Common Sense and General Courtesy" instead... but I'm going to leave it as is because I can.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Parenting
First off I'd like to say that I know I'm probably the last person who should be giving parenting advice. I'm not a parent, my youngest sibling is now 18, and I grew up in a pretty healthy household. With that said, even though I do not have children of my own, it sickens me to see some of the parenting I witness around town and when I'm working at a "family" restaurant.
I don't care how old your kid is, they are human beings and not dogs. If you just point and yell at them, they're not going to get it. There was this one guy who had two kids with him about the ages of 2 and 4. The 2 year old was upset about something, started crying, and this guy just starts yelling at the boy to be quiet. Yelling, mind you, louder than the kid was crying! That doesn't solve anything, if the kid's crying in a restaurant/theater/public place of any sort, you should remove them from the situation. What you do at that point, I don't care, I'm not here to discuss that. This goes beyond parenting, it's just polite. Let those around you enjoy what they went there to do!
Another thing I've seen are parents who issue out threats to their children, but not even good threats. A girl came in with her son once, and she couldn't have been older than 18 and the boy was definitely under 2 years old. They sat at a table and he started putting a spoon in his mouth. I've seen some parents let their kids put the forks and butter knives in their mouths before, so I was just glad it was a spoon this time. The mother pulled the spoon out of his mouth, placed it on the table, and said "Knock it off!" Sure enough, the boy grabs the spoon again to put it in his mouth. The same result, she took the spoon away and told him to stop. Because she still put the spoon within his reach, he still was able to grab it. Finally she yelled "Do you want me to put Orajel in your mouth? Put that in your mouth and I'm gonna put Orajel in your mouth!" Here's what I don't get, is it really that bad that there's a spoon in this boy's mouth? It's too big to swallow and isn't sharp enough to cut. And Orajel? Really? That's what's going to happen? Turns out this boy knew what Orajel was and started banging the table with the spoon instead, and that seemed to be better. I'd rather have a kid gnaw on a spoon quietly than make a drum out of a table in an already noisy environment.
There are so many other examples I could shell out, but at this point I'd rather not share anymore. And again, I'm no parent, so this is more observation than advice.
I don't care how old your kid is, they are human beings and not dogs. If you just point and yell at them, they're not going to get it. There was this one guy who had two kids with him about the ages of 2 and 4. The 2 year old was upset about something, started crying, and this guy just starts yelling at the boy to be quiet. Yelling, mind you, louder than the kid was crying! That doesn't solve anything, if the kid's crying in a restaurant/theater/public place of any sort, you should remove them from the situation. What you do at that point, I don't care, I'm not here to discuss that. This goes beyond parenting, it's just polite. Let those around you enjoy what they went there to do!
Another thing I've seen are parents who issue out threats to their children, but not even good threats. A girl came in with her son once, and she couldn't have been older than 18 and the boy was definitely under 2 years old. They sat at a table and he started putting a spoon in his mouth. I've seen some parents let their kids put the forks and butter knives in their mouths before, so I was just glad it was a spoon this time. The mother pulled the spoon out of his mouth, placed it on the table, and said "Knock it off!" Sure enough, the boy grabs the spoon again to put it in his mouth. The same result, she took the spoon away and told him to stop. Because she still put the spoon within his reach, he still was able to grab it. Finally she yelled "Do you want me to put Orajel in your mouth? Put that in your mouth and I'm gonna put Orajel in your mouth!" Here's what I don't get, is it really that bad that there's a spoon in this boy's mouth? It's too big to swallow and isn't sharp enough to cut. And Orajel? Really? That's what's going to happen? Turns out this boy knew what Orajel was and started banging the table with the spoon instead, and that seemed to be better. I'd rather have a kid gnaw on a spoon quietly than make a drum out of a table in an already noisy environment.
There are so many other examples I could shell out, but at this point I'd rather not share anymore. And again, I'm no parent, so this is more observation than advice.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
If you say "Jump," I'll say...
... what's the point? I mean seriously, there are some phrases and expressions that I can understand. "Sleep tight." "Rule of thumb." "Raining cats and dogs." I get that the origins of these have a significance to cultural habits of the time. But to say something along the lines of "If you say 'jump,' I'll say 'how high?'" just seems to make no sense. What would the point be of jumping? Amusement? I don't know about you, but it takes a lot for me to WANT someone to jump. If I'm bored, watching someone jump is not at the top of my list. Sure, if there's a chance that someone might jump off of something (and survive of course, I'm not that mean) then it would be more of a question of what they were jumping off of. Also, if the person were to do more than jump I'm sure it would be more amusing. If they were to do a backflip or put some kind of neat spin onto it, then yes I may ask someone to jump. So it is not "how high" that should be asked. Rather, if I say "jump," you should respond with "from where and would you like it to be more than a jump?" I highly doubt that will catch on as the norm, but it's a lot more accurate.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Fear
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." ~FDR
What an interesting concept. We only really have to fear fear... if that makes sense. I find it interesting that there are sites with all of these lists of phobias where someone can find the proper name for what they're afraid of. They range from fear of spiders, needles, death, balloons, and even string. One of my favorites happens to be "Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- Fear of long words." In all seriousness though, there are people who say that they are fearless: one without fear. Wouldn't it be fair to say that it is these sort of people that have a fear of fear itself?
Let's face it, someone who says they have no fears are almost invincible. There's nothing that can break their spirit. But, if a person who said they had no fear suddenly experienced the feeling of fear... what would happen? They could suddenly be tortured, exploited, or blackmailed. It's like any good superhero movie. Even the good guys have that weakness where the bad guy can get ahead. What makes them good is their ability to overcome that fear. But again, someone who didn't have any fears couldn't be touched, so I would assume that even the fearless have the fear of being afraid... if that makes sense.
What an interesting concept. We only really have to fear fear... if that makes sense. I find it interesting that there are sites with all of these lists of phobias where someone can find the proper name for what they're afraid of. They range from fear of spiders, needles, death, balloons, and even string. One of my favorites happens to be "Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- Fear of long words." In all seriousness though, there are people who say that they are fearless: one without fear. Wouldn't it be fair to say that it is these sort of people that have a fear of fear itself?
Let's face it, someone who says they have no fears are almost invincible. There's nothing that can break their spirit. But, if a person who said they had no fear suddenly experienced the feeling of fear... what would happen? They could suddenly be tortured, exploited, or blackmailed. It's like any good superhero movie. Even the good guys have that weakness where the bad guy can get ahead. What makes them good is their ability to overcome that fear. But again, someone who didn't have any fears couldn't be touched, so I would assume that even the fearless have the fear of being afraid... if that makes sense.
Monday, August 4, 2008
The Importance of "And a Half"
I am often surprised at how much I underestimate my younger cousins. Whenever I see them, I know that I'll have fun no matter what, but the things they teach me is incredible. One of my cousins is 5 1/2, and she stresses the "and a half" as if it were a matter of life and death. She was telling me about one of her new friends who was five, but as she said: "I'm five and a half so I'm older than her. I have so much to teach her!" At first I just thought it was cute, but it did get me thinking. We take half a year for granted so much right now.
You don't hear many adults following their age with "and a half" (if they bother to tell you how old they REALLY are) because as you get older, it doesn't seem to matter. To a little girl who is five, half a year really can make a difference. When you're young, half a year can mean new bits of knowledge from school or general life lessons. In babies, half a year can be the difference between holding your head up and crawling. There is so much that can happen, and as you get older it doesn't seem as incredible. In the past half year, I personally have made a lot of changes to who I am: the lessons I've learned, the facts I've learned, and the wisdom I gain and share. Whether or not that makes me a better person doesn't seem to matter as much as the fact that it has made me who I am today.
Children are wonderful. Never take them for granted. They can teach you so much if you open your mind to them.
You don't hear many adults following their age with "and a half" (if they bother to tell you how old they REALLY are) because as you get older, it doesn't seem to matter. To a little girl who is five, half a year really can make a difference. When you're young, half a year can mean new bits of knowledge from school or general life lessons. In babies, half a year can be the difference between holding your head up and crawling. There is so much that can happen, and as you get older it doesn't seem as incredible. In the past half year, I personally have made a lot of changes to who I am: the lessons I've learned, the facts I've learned, and the wisdom I gain and share. Whether or not that makes me a better person doesn't seem to matter as much as the fact that it has made me who I am today.
Children are wonderful. Never take them for granted. They can teach you so much if you open your mind to them.
Monday, July 28, 2008
And Now For Today's Rant, Starring Me
And not starring Nanette Manoir. If you know what that's from, you get a point.
Anyway, I've gotten sick at advertisements. Not all, some of them are really funny, but some of them are... just dumb.
Example #1: The new Mentos gum. That's the one with the man sitting next to the water bubbler, and he puts a piece of gum in his mouth. A woman walks by, lifts his nose and starts kissing him. When she's done, she wipes her mouth, puts his nose down, and the cooler next to him bubbles as he smiles. When it first aired, they played a sound effect as she was kissing him of a sort of slurping noise, which just made the whole kiss repulsive to me... I mean who wants a kiss that sounds like slurping? Then, they took the sound effect out, so now it just looks awkward. It sure doesn't make me want to buy Mentos gum.
Example #2: The Coke Zero commercials. It was bad enough when they had the whole lawyer situation where they wanted to sue themselves for taste infringement or whatever... that was just dumb. But who, and I mean WHO wants to see tongues? Really? It's such a disgusting part of the human body when you really think about it, and when it's shown outside of the mouth they just look so weird and gross. And I like eyes, but not ones that walk and have an annoying accent. It's just way too weird, and yeah I don't like the idea of trying Coke Zero after watching those advertisements.
Example #3: Well, I guess this is the reason why I started this blog. I saw a commercial that was for some sort of Athlete's Foot cream, and the guy talking about it said "I don't need to tell you about Athlete's Foot. It's annoying" or something like that. The point of telling someone that you don't need to tell them about something implies that you will not tell them about it. Honestly, he didn't even put a pause between the two statements. To me, it just made him sound like he didn't really know what he was talking about. Oh well.
There are more that bother me, but those stick out
Anyway, I've gotten sick at advertisements. Not all, some of them are really funny, but some of them are... just dumb.
Example #1: The new Mentos gum. That's the one with the man sitting next to the water bubbler, and he puts a piece of gum in his mouth. A woman walks by, lifts his nose and starts kissing him. When she's done, she wipes her mouth, puts his nose down, and the cooler next to him bubbles as he smiles. When it first aired, they played a sound effect as she was kissing him of a sort of slurping noise, which just made the whole kiss repulsive to me... I mean who wants a kiss that sounds like slurping? Then, they took the sound effect out, so now it just looks awkward. It sure doesn't make me want to buy Mentos gum.
Example #2: The Coke Zero commercials. It was bad enough when they had the whole lawyer situation where they wanted to sue themselves for taste infringement or whatever... that was just dumb. But who, and I mean WHO wants to see tongues? Really? It's such a disgusting part of the human body when you really think about it, and when it's shown outside of the mouth they just look so weird and gross. And I like eyes, but not ones that walk and have an annoying accent. It's just way too weird, and yeah I don't like the idea of trying Coke Zero after watching those advertisements.
Example #3: Well, I guess this is the reason why I started this blog. I saw a commercial that was for some sort of Athlete's Foot cream, and the guy talking about it said "I don't need to tell you about Athlete's Foot. It's annoying" or something like that. The point of telling someone that you don't need to tell them about something implies that you will not tell them about it. Honestly, he didn't even put a pause between the two statements. To me, it just made him sound like he didn't really know what he was talking about. Oh well.
There are more that bother me, but those stick out
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Don't know what to say
Don't you hate that feeling of wanting to say something but not knowing what to say? Yeah...
Sunday, July 20, 2008
A place to rant
So what I like now is that this blog can now be a space for me to rant. If someone cares to read it, they can, but I'm not forcing anyone to do so. You see, I like sharing with people but I hate making someone listen/read something they don't want. If you are reading this, you've found your way to my blog, and so there's some sort of want to read what I've written, so I don't have to worry about what you think. I shouldn't even really worry about what you think anyway, come to think of it.
That is all. More later.
That is all. More later.
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