Optimism and Happiness

As Abraham Lincoln once announced, "Most folks are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

He was quite right. I feel emotionally exhausted from time to time concerning the subject because it seems like "most folks" make up their minds to be unhappy. I am here to debunk the myth that happiness comes out of your situation.

It really all stems from perspective. For instance, in current times, where we have many kinds of soaps, disinfectants, sterile hospitals and things made out of plastic, we are very clean individuals. When you walk into the bathroom, you might smell something foul and you would notice it.

However, contrary to Hollywood portrayal, the Medieval times were pretty disgusting. Although various forms of soap had been invented at this time, imagine life without a shower. If you had a basin, you were able to bathe. If you are a woman, you would wait until everyone else has bathed and use the cold water everyone else had used. If you needed surgery, you could be restrained as they cut you open, or they could knock you out with alcohol or a hard object. If you are a woman, you were probably not allowed to have surgery. There were no hot packs, no cold packs, no heating or air conditioning. The worst part to me is this: there were no clean and private toilets, and worse yet, no feminine products.

In light of this, most of us would look back at the muddy streets and diseased peasants and think "I could never live in that!" Yet somehow, so many people did. They died younger because their bodies were incapable of keeping up, but they had just as much of an ability to be happy as we are today. The fact is though, no matter what time period it is or has been, people are difficult to make happy. It is not because of the world itself, but because of the attitude people have about living.

Before I get into this next topic of discussion, I would like to point out that I am not against medicine. I am just against excessive use of it and I will explain the reason why.

People are generally born with the correct balance of chemicals in their brains which create a sense of happiness. Occasionally there are people that just can't seem to be happy no matter what they do. That is usually due to a chemical imbalance and those people require the use of medicine to keep their serotonin levels at a proper place so that they can function. Most people, however, are perfectly capable of functioning upon the level of serotonin they already have. The reason I do not like extended medication most of the time is that it inhibits this and makes it so your body gets used to what is being put in your body and then you cannot function without it.

In light of everyone's issues with being happy, I have decided to create a guide to happiness for you. I understand we all have our moments and are not going to be happy all of the time, but there is hope! When you remember you can be happy, you will now have the ability.

1. Don't put things in your mouth that don't need to be there. This includes alcohol, medication, and other drugs. Anything that alters your brain from the way it would naturally think can cause problems. If you have a serious depression issue, medication can be excused. Alcohol is okay occasionally, but not excessively (like if you "need" it, there is a problem). If it alters the way you think, it is likely you will be unable to enjoy proper serotonin levels without it, and then can be dangerous for multiple reasons.

2. Experience healthy things outside of your comfort zone. For instance, go out and do something new with your friends. Explore or take a road trip to a site within a couple of hours of where you live. Go try a new exercise program. This is particularly important for extroverts, but introverts must do this as well.

3. Eat healthier. You will feel more fresh, and fewer health problems will decrease your stress. If your stress decreases, your health problems decrease.

4. Dress up. Looking at yourself in the mirror and thinking "dang I look good" is a fantastic ego boost. Especially when you laugh about it afterwards. If you are fashion-challenged, find someone who is not and ask for their help.

5. Take time out of your day to follow up with your favorite hobbies, such as reading, writing, etc. If you enjoy science, read a book about it for fun. If you like art, create something. Don't watch TV or surf the internet. This is time reserved for your own self-education, and not for school or work. You will feel important, peaceful and productive afterwards. This is particularly important for introverts, but extroverts need to try it also.

6. Spend some time thinking about God. Just ten minutes can make a huge impact on your day. The moment you realize within yourself that God is infinite and that all of your problems here on earth are so minute in comparison, you'll be unable to take any small problems seriously. Instead, you will be focused and determined on the important things because those are the things that God has set before you to accomplish. If you don't ever have epiphanies about what God does in your life, seek him more actively and he will meet you.

7. Do your best at the things you do and forgive yourself for mistakes. If God forgave you for everything, then there is no reason you shouldn't forgive yourself. Just try your very best not to make them in the first place. Ironically, the best way to avoid making a lot of mistakes is pretending like whatever you are doing is unimportant for the most part and telling yourself there is no possible way you will make a mistake. It may not be true, but as long as you know that, you'll be okay.

So that is my final word on happiness and the importance of optimism. Go forth and be happy!

Roll Keyboard: Do Not Putted on the Fire to Roast

Last year at Christmas, my brother received this fantastic gift from my mother. It was a really cool keyboard that could be rolled up and transported easily, as well as it just appeared comfortable and nice.

However, we got far more enjoyment than we had asked for. My brother took a quick glance at the short instructions page. It was just the front and the back, but just about everything on it was a joke. It was written in Engrish.

Page 1:
"Turn on the computer, start the computer system. Find out the USB jack on the front or rear of the computer. The jacks are rectangle, generally 2pcs,arranged as horizontal or vertical: Plug the pin of the keyboard cable into the USB jack. If it is difficult to plug in, turn the pin 180 degree,then re-plug.
"Notes: Do not insert the plug force, if the plug can not comply with the jack.

"The usage norm of the Roll-keyboard
"The Roll-keyboard can be used in below conditions:
"It must be used on an even working face.
"It can be used in the damp environment even shallow water.
"It can be used in the acidity and the alkaline environment.
"It can be used in the temperature of -40C- + 80C.
"It can be used in the dusty environment even sandstorm.
"It can be laundered by alcohol or disinfector."

That was only the first page. The second is much better.

"It cannot be contacted the sharp object
"It cannot be pressed when it was rolled
"It cannot be putted into the oven and putted on the fire to roast
"It cannot be contacted the oil or organic impregnate like acetone and toloul etc
"Cannot places the heavy object on it in long time
"We cannot put out the strength to twist or pull it"

And it goes on to explain in more detailed Engrish.

"Material: Made by high-quality silicone, the keyboard has no poisonous and evil smell, according to the requirement if the environmental protection, it is kind of creative new product.
"Anti-Pollution: In view of the fact it is all seal completely, preventing all kinds of germs and pollutants exiting into the keyboard, and the keyboard's surface can be washed and disinfected any time, so it can prevent the disease infection.
"Watertightness: It can be used for a damp environment, even inside shallow water. It can normally used when beverage or other liquids spilled at the keyboard.
"Acid and Alkaline-proof: The keyboard can be used safely in acid or alkaline environment.
"High dustproof: The keyboard can be used safely in dust fog, and even in sandstorm.
"Carrying convenience: Because the keyboard can be rolled up, so it can save lots of spaces while carrying.
"Other Characteristics:
The special special printing technology guarantees the letter on the buttons of keyboard not to be worn away for a long time.
Feeling soft comfortable
Soft without any sounds while typing
Various beautiful colors
The keyboard is applicable to office; hospital Classroom; workshop; network bar; laboratory; kid room; notebook PC; army; etc."

Aberrant Nomenclature

I have been in a very wordy mood lately. Every time I use thesaurus.com, I always end up spending several hours "word surfing". A couple of days ago, I noticed there was an option to favorite a word. Currently I have over thirty words "favorited", and I would like to use them. Unfortunately, it is a tad difficult in real life situations to use "somnolent" in a sentence, unless you are actually feeling somnolent (which I am). Therefore, I have decided to use as many unusual words in the subsequent literature of this entry. **I apologize in advance if any words are misused, as I attempted to play with many, many words I have never used in the past.**

As I previously adduced, I've been a bit torpid today. I would elucidate the ambition behind this, but I have trepidation it would be far too voluminous an explication. In any case, expostulating about the subject would be feckless. I would aver that I have been enervated by the soporific atmosphere, and I cannot evince myself felicitously. In other words, it would not be a pedantic exemplification of my perspicacity.

I myself am vexed with my rumination during this indolent epoch. I cannot ameliorate beyond my laconic vocabulary extrinsic of this passage. My sagacity is abstruse at its paramount... I disquiet myself that this travail may be sententious.

On another proceeding, I do envisage on frequent opportunity, the ubiquitous supposition that those of us from the Midwestern United States are in fact, inane. Of course, this proclivity is asinine. While the aphorism is heedlessly slighted as insipid here, I find the intimation about my acumen opprobrious. Ensuing this cognition, I sublimate with reverie that they descry our precocity is not so much a phantasm of ignoramus cretins, and more copious than primitively posited. When the corporeity of the human race comes to acceptation of this altercation, I will be assiduously galvanized. Of course, I have to capitulate an iota - some "didactic" beadledom among the scantier towns are far less inculcating than the one which I attended.

Lamentably, I predicate this genial testimony requisites to come to its termination; so now I say my farewell. I hope you have extolled this read and imbibed some prodigious locution. That is assuming you comprehended any full sentences.

Creativity

I feel like doing something creative, like blogging, but I'm too tired. I normally find that I am more creative when I am tired, but I am not tired in the proper way. One important factor for creativity, is having less light. Light gives you something to look at, therefore something to think about and distract yourself with. In the dark, you can come up with your own thing to think about and suddenly be creative. Also if I am tired and it is bright, I just want it to be dark, so I close my eyes so it will be darker and then all I want to do is sleep.

Therefore, creativity works much better at night.

It also works well when you think about random things occurring in the room you are in. For instance, imagine you are at school, and the teacher is talking about something very boring. So, you take something that is not boring, like Vikings, and imagine that the surface of everyone's desks mark the surface of the salty seas. Then, you play out little scenes of Vikings battling dragons, whilst the rest of the class believes you are simply spacing out. But this is not the case. No, in reality, you are imagining that a dragon the size of an airplane is crashing through the wall, and they are tearing up the desks and the teacher is running for cover, and all of the students are either hiding in corners or attempting to spear it. Bravely, you climb upon its back and as it turns to crush your skull, you shove your backpack in its mouth. This would be an amazing way to get rid of some extra homework. When class is over, everyone believes you were A) paying attention or B) spacing out, depending on your method of imagination. If you can look at the teacher, then you're good.

During the next course, you are bored, so you go ahead and draw your delusion from earlier. When you fail at drawing because you simply are not in the mood, you attempt to write a poem about it. When you cannot do that, you wonder what is wrong and by theater class, you are wondering what it would be like to have an action scene on the catwalk, and you imagine someone dangling from the edge, over the seats, with a cruel headmaster laughing maniacally.

The curse of creativity is that sometimes there isn't a medium for it. I come up with ideas and then I realize that I can't do anything with them all the time.

Right now I don't have any ideas and I'm just tired and bored and I need some mental stimulation. Other than solitaire. I always feel so dead after being out of the house for ore than a few hours. I'm utterly useless after such a situation. If I'm with a close friend, who I am particularly comfortable with, I can take it a little longer, but still... I like going home and resting for a portion of the day, and then using the rest of the day to accomplish other things in silence. I dislike how when I was a child I got all used to playing by myself and all this (it sounds sad, but I enjoyed myself that way most of the time) and while back then I was too shy and wasn't able to be out and about, or hanging out with friends all the time, now I am not aloud to spend much time for myself. I know mothers have a particular problem with this, but I am not a mother. I go to work, and when I come home I am tired, but I always have something to work on, it seems like. And then I can't write. **sleepy face -_- zzzz**

Battle Students: Eradicate Your Enemies. With Scissors.

Today I thought of a fantastic video game idea - battle students. As an elementary student your weapons comprise of your crayons, your scissors, your pencil, chalk, and occasionally playground equipment if you make it to recess. Survive a few simple math problems, grammar and spelling specifications and you'll make it through the battle of the wits - but then of course, you must make it through artistic challenges (can you color within the lines or cut out a paper dinosaur?) - and then onwards you will go into the real bloody battles.

If you graduate, you may move along to middle school. Middle school is honestly boring. You can be a tad more mischievous by leaving gum on the hallway floors in order to trip your opponents during the physical battles. You have a few new choices in your classes, and a few other new options. There would also be fewer bullies.

High School is where things get bloodier. School sports begin and you can take down your opponent on the field, and you can choose your classes. Choose more than 3 science or other specialized classes together and you get "super powers", or spread your choices out and have some art, some science and some language etc.

Your specialized classes will give you new weapons. If you choose sculpting classes, for instance, you can use your skills in sculpting to fool your opponent, challenge your opponent, or inhibit your opponent. However, you could also use your chisel to stab your opponent during the bloodier battles. If alongside sculpting, you took a painting class, you could paint your opponent onto another scene, or a hole beneath them etc. You can fight them physically with your paintbrush or use the paint to slip them etc. You could also now paint a better scene with the addition of your sculpting abilities, because now it can be 3-D. If alongside all of that you took digital filmmaking, you could embarrass your opponent in their confusion or document the situation and earn a little cash on the side.

If you chose science classes, you might attack with labratory equipment or sick your pet rat with experimental rabies on them.

Naturally the classes will become more complicated and get better weapons if you graduate High School (if you lose too many battles you can flunk, and depending on your grade, you might get into a better or worse University). If you graduate, you go to college and from there you can choose from majors and you don't have to answer any more general education unless you choose the classes. As a film student, for instance, your weapons outside of the gen ed weapons, would all be specialized towards film. You can get a Xenon light and blind your opponent or burn them, or steal their soul with the camera. As a programming student you can reprogram specific traits of your character or your opponent during each battle. Of course, you'd actually have to know how to program. As a creative writing major, you would be able to defeat your opponent with the fanciest words you can think of - the fancier the better. If you say "disintegrate" for instance, that would be an intermediate word and would do a mediocre job of destroying the enemy, while "obstinate" might slow their abilities for a longer period of time. "Matriculate" would be a fantastic word to use on yourself.

I imagine all of the characters would look a bit like Scott Pilgrim people or anime anyway. The main goal is to graduate college. "Smart" battles would take place in the classrooms, where you have to use your weapons in the way they were meant to be used and out-do your opponents. Outside of the classroom you can also challenge opponents to "smart" battles, though in college it would need to be within your major or their major. Physical battles would take place at recess, at lunch, in the parking lots, and in the hallways. You can use whatever weapons you have in your backpack. That would include textbooks, computers, phones, pencils, pens, chisels, cameras, test tubes, paint, lighting gear, running shoes, and anything that might have to do with whatever classes you are taking at school.

An example of a physical university level battle:

Chemistry major vs Culinary major

Chemistry

weapons:

demented lab rat

broken test tube

dangerous chemicals

heavy textbook

defenses:

gloves

lab coat

safety goggles

heavy textbook

Culinary

weapons:

Butcher Knife

poisoned ham

alcohol

silverware

defenses:

mixing bowls

wedding cake

gloves

spatula

Students would face each other in their location. First the chemistry student may spray acid towards the culinary student. The culinary retaliates by shoving out the wedding cake to absorb the dangerous substance, and then toss a bit of silverware towards the chemistry student. The chemist would then block this with the heavy textbook and set loose the demented lab rat. The cook may then trap the rat with the mixing bowl or kill it with the spatula or butcher knife if they think they're good enough at using it. They could also poison the rat or get it drunk. Their next option might be to toss their butcher knife. At this point the textbook may be too weak to defend, depending on how the silverware attack went earlier. If the butcher knife went through the chemistry student would flunk his course, or be given a warning by his teacher and the culinary student would move on to the next round.

Another example is of a Creative Writing student versus a Music Major.

Creative Writing

weapons:

imagination

pencil/notebook

dictionary

defense:

notebook

fictional book

imagination

dictionary

Music (stringed instruments)

weapons:

Violin

Guitar

Guitar pick

Violin bow

sleep-inducing sheet music

defenses:

sheet music

guitar

violin

piano

music stand

In this situation we will pretend like the music major strikes first. First they might attempt to set their opponent to sleep by playing their song, but before this is able to kick in, the creative writing student might say "excite me" and the music would pick up a bit. If they used a word like "galvanize" they might do better in that defense. This would be the writer using their dictionary in defense. Next the creative writer might attack by describing as detailed as they can, a hole beneath the musician. The musician might then use the strings from one of their musical instruments to tie a rope to the ceiling. They might then shoot guitar picks at their opponent. The writer could block these using their fictional book or their imagination. They might next launch their pencil into the string and break it. The music major swings over before the pencil hits and swings a guitar at the writer, who blocks this attack with their notebook.

Anyway, you get the idea. Different majors would have different kinds of fights. So basically, the game would be an epic all-out war between the students at your school. It is not only a battle of random skills, but of wits! The more you know about your subject the better you could do. The best thing ever is the expansion packs - Battle Students: Demolish the Greeks (fraternities and sororities) and Battle Students: Jocks vs Nerds. There could also be Battle School: Master's Degree and Battle School: Extra-Cirricular

Homo Sapien vs Arachnid

I do have an important blog planned to write. It just needs to be edited and I haven't gotten around to it. In the meantime, I feel the need to record a few events of the day.

I started my job at MBS yesterday and have since been eating too much junk food, sweets and drinking too much coffee. I also have gotten the hang of answering calls for dumb people, computer illiterate people, confused people, and the occasional person who actually has a technical problem. Its somewhat entertaining during calls, if not stressful, and sometimes I have time to read or fold paper animals so it isn't bad. Today after I got home from work I bummed around a bit and skipped kickboxing because I was feeling kind of ill. I'm not sick, it was just the typical grumbles that make kicking and such unpleasant. Because yesterday was my bestie's birthday I decided I would just bum around until she wanted to hang out so at about seven or eight I gathered up my stuff and brought her birthday present - it was a pink and white golf umbrella with a span of 62". We decided it could fit up to six people underneath, and it was very well built. She appreciated it because her last umbrella was stolen a while ago, and I know she really likes umbrellas so when one goes missing, it is extremely upsetting.

Anyway, we played ping-pong for a while, and I discovered that I had magically improved somehow (I never play ping-pong). When I came back, I returned to my lair in the Donelson family's basement only to discover that it was the perfect model for my future dream cabin. With a few slight modifications, it is a wonderful layout. The kitchen, dining room and living room are all basically one conjoined gathering place with no separating walls at all. This leaves it feeling rather open and inviting. It is also simple to navigate. The rest of the house consists of a small garage, two bathrooms and two or three bedrooms. One of them is larger than the other two as the master, and it would be connected to one of the restrooms.

(SKIP TO HERE FOR SPIDER STORY ONLY)

I was guestimating the lengths of the walls in the main room, when I spotted a large spider - about three or four centimeters in diameter if its legs were sprawled out. It was hiding behind a blockish beige piece of electronic equipment, which usually beeps quickly at a high frequency so as to be annoying only when the room is completely silent. Using my stealth ninja abilities, which I had practiced earlier at Ashley's with ping-pong, I used the remote control to joust the equimpent. My goal was to smash the spider behind it, but instead only the box stopped beeping as enthusiastically (which I didn't mind, and the blinking red light on the front continued, so I was not worried). Seeing as this had done nothing, I jabbed it several more times at different angles. Unfortunately, the spider was clearly at a tactical advantage due to its small stature and superior speed. It therefore dodged each of my attacks by either cramming itself in the corner between the fluffy carpet and the baseboard, or dashing out at the last moment.

Eventually I realized my wrath was futile, and I gave up the crusade. I turned off the lights and returned to my room, no longer enticed to create further drafts of my dream cabin. Still, a small fear is left inside me that it will enter my bedroom at night and it will be creeping in the corners, prepared to strike vengeance. As it had been hiding along the opposite side of my bedroom, it may be a possibility, but I am hoping that it will catch the scent of my presence and associate it with fear because of said near-death experience. After all, fear is everywhere... but so are spiders... -_-

Creationism vs. Science

I apologize for not making my last anime blog yet, but I'll get to it when I get to it. But for now, I feel prompting on the topic of Genesis and a few passages near the very, very beginning that used to worry me.

I had been reading Genesis chapter one, and although I had read it before, I noticed something that irritated me. In verse three God creates light and separates it from the dark. At first, you're assuming the stars and the sun and all that, because it says he called the light "day" and the dark "night". Then, in verse fourteen you are suddenly left shocked and confused because it says that God divided the day and night - implying that they weren't before - and says that he created the sun and the moon (of which they correctly accredited the science of the four seasons to by the way). You're left in the dark, right? He created all these things like the planet and its shape and the water and all that, but apparently the sun wasn't there yet.

Before I go about answering this question, there is the matter of time which trips people up quite a bit. It does indicate in the Bible many times that God doesn't care about time. Humans who claim that God actually created the universe in six days don't really seem to get that God doesn't care about our days. Sure, six days I suppose, but they're six days in God's time, and according to 2 Peter 3:8 "With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." That's God's time for you. When he says "soon", it might mean next year. In thirty years, you might agree with him, but at the time it seems quite lengthy and that is because he lives in the past, present and future all at once. This minute isn't even this minute for him. Kind of mind blowing, right? Anyway, I just wanted to point that out because I think science could have taken as long as God wanted it to take for things to happen.

Back to the original question, the difference between the creation of light and dark versus the sun and the night must be made clear. Oddly enough, I was watching an episode of charlieissocoollike, a popular youtuber who I enjoy from time to time. Charlie is actually an atheist (and for those of you who judge, he's a normal and wholesome individual, for lack of a better term). However, he likes doing these short little vlogs about science, where he briefly and simply explains some smaller scientific concepts so they are fun and easy to understand. Perhaps it is childish that I watch them, but I think they're fun and interesting, even though I generally already know the information. This last one was about stars and he mentioned something I hadn't really thought much about, even though I had heard of it. He dipped into the surface of the fact that we are technically made out of stars, just like everything else on the planet.

If God made the light, and we are made from stars, who is to say God did not create the stars first or something like them, and then when they "died", they became the planet, which is where we could have been truly made from the dust? No human in the days of Moses would understand that we were particles from a ball of gas like the sun, but now we do know that information, and we should also be intelligent enough to interpret the words send in the times. It says he made the light, so perhaps he made the stars. After that, he formed the earth and the waters - everything but the living creatures. So after the light is spread out among other stars and celestial things, we have the dust, and rocks of the earth. This is when we joined our solar system as a planet rotating around the sun, creating our four seasons etc. So now we are a blank planet made from a star, rotating around a star, and with a moon.

Wonderfully enough, there is no woeful tale in Genesis about how creation had to survive in the darkness or anything stupid. Instead, a very scientific and straightforward approach is taken, and it says that next came all of the plants, and then all of the animals. If God created man from the dust of the earth, then we are still made of the same star material which we had before. He may have then just created all life from the dust. We were just made special, and after all of the other animals. Because we were some of the latest creatures to have "evolved" into actual homo-sapiens as opposed to older humanoids, I think its quite possible that Adam and Eve were just the first of our real race, or of one of the much closer races. It is possible that older humans were just not capable of possessing a human soul, or the Holy Spirit and so they could not comprehend enough of God to be considered in his image. We do know that Adam and Eve were not the only people on the planet after all, so what exactly made them so special? The only thing I can think of is that although they may have been the first homo-sapiens or something of the like, they were not the only human-type creatures around.

Of course, this entire blog is speculation, but hopefully it brought you some interesting thoughts and answered a few questions. That's my analysis of Genesis versus Science because I usually find that God and Science fit together nicely. He did create it after all. We just have to figure it out.

Here is the link to Charlie's vlog if you would like to see it. Its about five minutes long, and quite enjoyable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pag1NdPKcYM