A candle in a hurricane

Recent events made me re-think the whole "I want to remember and honour someone so I will light a candle for him" thing.

1. To understand why we are all such pyromans when it comes to paying respect... would mean to study a lot about symbolism, and certain religions ( jewish, catholic, northern barbaric...) and I suspect the synopsis would be something like this: It is a symbol of life...and... it makes the person/object alive again for us ...
2. So it is a cultural/archetype thing. Ok, no problem let people burn the candles, if it makes them feels good or in other wordss gives them greater utility.
3. For if people have greater utility, plus some economic subjects make a decent profits out of this habit, then we not only make the population happier, but also increase the national GDP. It is a win win situation right?
4. Wrong. Because in order to maximise the proftits it is logical to make the product more complex ( a simple candle won't do) so you can increase your added value to it and sell it for higher price. But that takes some extra natural resources. And what is that magical resource? Yes it is plastic and wax. And guess what is the main ingredient for those two? Yes our precious friend the oil. And oil is getting more and more scarce these days, because we really like to burn it for all kinds of more or less practical reasons.
5. Furthermore, burning oil produces Co2 emissions and without much scientific ( not public! ) doubt that increases the global temperatures. And that makes our weather more extreme. Just remember the recent floods in europe, severe draughts in Africa and floody hurricanes in US.
6. So if we return to the whole symbolism thing, a burning candle is becoming a new symbol in its own. A symbol of our civilisations unecessary destruction of our enviroment and ourselves. To put it simply: The end of life.
7. A deadly hurricane certainly blows all the candles away. What about our habits and symbols?

Remember Them!

This picture has to be the most perfect example of how much creativity and effort can be put into honoring the dead. Or does it just show how we can preoccupy ourselves to bury the pain of loss? Or simply forget the point? Enough candles give the night sky above cemeteries a distinctive red shine to it. Or perhaps keep a lot of families warm. Flowers in quantities witch would make even Elton John look tasteless ( guy spends litterally millions on flowers). Crowds of people cleaning and decorating the graves with bands and making sure every pebble is in a perfect position. People chatting about how big the neighbours flower arrangement is or how long the new electric candles ( raving in the afterlife candles) will "burn". Every year I ask myself: Do they take the time to remember why they are doing all these rituals in the first place? Who are they paying respect to? Do they remember how much They learned them and how much They really gave them? When you drink the water, remember the spring...

Bad boys v. Nice guys

I won't go into consequences of a man being one or another personality type, I will just try to define the difference between the two.

1. BBs are very clear and simple when it comes to sex: If you are attractive and I feel like I want to have some, I will, if you want to. No manipulation. No reason to try and hide it. - NGs on the other hand try to hide their desires in all sorts of ways. They tend to complicate and hide "natural" things and by doing so confuse themselves and certain subject-
2. BBs ability to be clear and simple ( primal?!) comes from their self confidence. And to be that self confident they are usually not very attached to the outcome or the current situation or person ( they are cool ), because they know from their past experience, they have many choices. - NGs are not aware of their choices and posibilites when it comes to women and therefore place too much of their energy and emotions into one current situation. In other words, they act in a way that seeks woman's approval (clingy) which of course isn't very self confident.
3. BBs self confidence usually leads to them acting like a leader, a dominant figure - NGs can also try and act like a leader, but they usually lose it on crucial areas, because of the mentioned reasons. So they usually take alternative social roles. Or invest too much energy into leading, which causes them to look too agressive, annoying....
4. Behaviour and looks are just logical consequences of the state of mind and if you look at the above pictures again, it really isn't hard to say which of these males is a BB and which one is a NG is it?

Thank You for smoking

Is a must see movie for every debater and highly recommended for everyone else. Why? It is packed with satirical, hillarious speeches, unpredictable twists and sceenes of the main caracter Nick who is trying to be a chief spokesman for the tobaco industry and a role model for his twelve year old son at the same time. There are also some very interesting insights into how and why to use arguments: Nick Naylor: "That's the beauty of argument, if you argue correctly, you're never wrong." After his divorced mom let him go to a buisiness trip to California with his father: Nick Naylor: "How did you convince her?" Joey Naylor: " It was an argument not a negotiation." Nick meeting with Jeff Megall, a film industry godfather, trying to buy more cigarettes into movies again: Nick Naylor: " Are you at all concerned about the health element?" Jeff Megall: " I am not a doctor, I am a facilitator. I bring creative people together. Whatever information there is, exists, it is out there. People should decide for themselves, they will, it is not my role to decide for them, that would be morally presumptious." After debating which flawour of ice cream is better in which Nick shows to Joey that it doesn't matter which flawor is the best, but to show that your opponent is wrong and you are therefore right: Joey Naylor: " But you still didn't convience me." Nick Naylor: " Its that I am not after you, I am after them!" After that a scene follows in which Joey smiles knowingly. A concept even a smart kid could understand, is usually missed by people who should get it. And people who do get it can "spin" them. There are so many more "nuggets of gold" in the movie so take 95min of your life to watch it, it will be well worth it!

Listen!

Why? Here are my reasons: 1. I hate monologue of the deaf ( Two or more subjects thinking only about what they will say or writte and ignoring others. ) 2. Ahhem , yes, precisely, of course and other such polite phrases acompanied by a stupid and ignorant face expression really don't make you feel understood. Or respected. 3. I don't like people shouting around me. Next time you are unfortunate enough to witness or take part in a verbal fight, think about why people started yelling in the first place: BECAUSE NO ONE WAS LISTENING. And when the voice volumne is matched by the other "fighter" even less can be understood. 4. I am feed up with Vatican apologising ( three times and counting...) for Popes speech in Regensburg. If only the Offended took a little bit of time and try to read = listen to what he really said , I wouldn't be listening to the same stories day after day... Furthermore I can only "pray" that hearsay will become a bit more understood concept. And hopefully people will start thinking about what they are listening to. 5. There is so much to learn from people if you really listen to them. Even if they are full of crap (i.e. a profesor who has a really unorganised, illogical and borring lectures) you learn that you should not listen to them anymore and waste your time. 6. Making someone feel understood brings people together. 7. It is nice to actually get the food you oredered. So:

MANAGE YOUR TIME ( part D )

After quite an extensive brain time out, it is time to talk about something extremely undesirable: about managing the time you have left, so that you make the most of it, and pass the exams the way you planned. By the end of this post you will realize that it is not just about organising, managing your time, it is about managing&organising yourself.

Basically, you can devide your 24 hours activities into four simple categories based on two variables: A is the thing you are doing with your time important for you and your future life B is the thing you are doing urgent or not. In this way we get a simple 2x2 matrix, four squares. For example if you are driving with a friend who just got a drivers licence, and he doesn't see a car comming from the right, it is most urgent and important for you to spend your time shouting at him not to drive off.

On the other hand sitting by your window and watching the neighbours go to work and come back again is mostly considered unimportant and not really urgent. And although that doesn't stop some people from doing it (sorry neighbour Maria), it just means our life goals can be very different.

The big Q here is in which of these "squares" is it best to insert your mental energies? Which things to do? It is not the urgent&important one, because you have to attend to these situations automatically or you will probably end up as a custumer for the undertaker. And both the unimportant squares can be logically ruled out, because doing things not in accordance with your Important leads you somewhere else.

So DO the important and not urgent things if you want the best for yourself ( said the granny). Besides it will also decrease the amounth of urgent have to solve situations, because you'll be working on a strange thing called prevention, which usually also decreases stress. So, after very pleasant holidays it is not only time to organise my time in a way that will allow me to study, but especially organise and manage myself in such a way that I will start to study. In the end it all comes down to motivation. Maybe the feeling that I am the master of my time and not the other way around will be a bit of a help in that.

Untill ORGANISATION&MANAGEMENT happens ( gets high enough on want to do list) it is time for another swim in the warm sea and perhaps a refreshing cocktail will be okay too.