Bad Day (Cynical Kid)

I'll only go on a little here...

Today for reasons unknown, perhaps due to the cumulative stress or a dissatisfaction with factors out of my control, I was angry all day. I have been disrespectful, vitriolic, and mean. I offended some friends of mine. They deserve a personal apology (not here).

I don't mean to externalize these things but I sometimes get upset and think negatively about anything anyone says and I go out of my way to get attention.

But anyway, these bouts of anger have gotten me a reputation as the Cynical Kid. It's a cross I've come to bear, really. I know I dug myself a hole and I want to escape it. But it can be hard not to be negative in a stressful world!

How does one shed a bad reputation? Do actions speak louder than words?

Art Talent

Just a quickie this morning, kind of like stuff I said before.

Inspired by a fellow advisee blasting hardcore metal from his headphones, I began to think: some people consider a guitarist/drummer/other musician talented because they can play difficult runs and extremely fast notes in tempo. These people are often called "virtuosi." However, are these people really that virtuosic? The most-often considered greatest guitarists were never major-league shredders but played innovatively.

In visual arts, there can be obscure artists who can paint very detailed paintings of beautiful landscapes and portraits, while artists like Mark Rothko (colored squares) and Jackson Pollack (random splattering) become renowned.

In your opinion, are chops or innovation more important in being a "great" artist?

IB Promotes Disease! (well not really)

I thought of this post because my 8th grade brother is sick with a bad stomach flu and has been staying home from school. At first I was going to post something about how sickness has caused him to act crankier than usual and have a negative outlook on life, but a lot of people have already posted about perspective and attitude.

Instead, I thought, Dang, I hope I don't catch what he's got. I can't afford that.

Because at this point, we cannot afford to lose a day. Our schedule is so fast and densely-packed that getting thrown off a day is basically the end of it all (well for me it would be).

I thought of my post title by thinking of the tenacious but foolish souls that come to school when ill simply in order to not get behind. I'm sure we've all contemplated it. Senior year for IB students is too late for us to celebrate a sick day as a day off. Some of us will inevitably come to school with some contagious virus and not only have a miserable day trying to fight it off but also we will promote the spread of disease. Have you ever considered that staying home when sick was not just for your own good?

That's why I say that IB promotes disease (tongue in cheek of course). Do you think that advanced curricula are so intense that they cannot be missed by even a day?

Baboon Apocalypse (Just One More Post)

Sorry for the excessive posts, but I just finished watching an interesting documentary about the health hazards of chronic stress on not only the human body, but also the bodies of primates like baboons and macaques. It was shown that any primate that is higher-ranking in the social construct is under less stress and therefore less affected by various health conditions, like cardiovascular disease, obesity, and even aging.

In one particularly scintillating study, a scientist studied a colony of baboons over many years. At one point, however, disaster struck.

The colony began to eat food from a garbage dump that was ridden with tuberculosis.
Unlike what you may first think, the weak were not the ones to perish. The higher-ranking alpha males were virtually wiped out by this epidemic because they were the ones who got to eat the most and therefore were at a higher risk in this case.

In fact, the subordinate groups, in this case females and gentler males, were the survivors, and the colony underwent a change in personality. Aggression was frowned upon and kindness became the key to this society. This was because the "nice guys" were now the leaders, and they would not support anger and hatred.

The first thing I thought was that an epidemic designed to kill jerks would instantly solve the world's problems. :P
The second thing I thought was wondering how we as humans can cope with stress by eliminating superiority structures.
Any thoughts/reactions?

PS: Best blog title ever...

Whites, Pt. 2

Satirical singer/songwriter Randy Newman (yup, the guy who does the Toy Story theme) recently made a song called "I'm Dreamin'" in which he takes on the voice of a voter "dreaming of a white president." The best line:

"He won't be the brightest, perhaps/But he'll be the whitest/And I'll vote for that."

Rolling Stone magazine declared it as "satire that will be misconstrued, denounced, and used by no one as a campaign theme. Brilliant."

Is satire of offensive material offensive in itself? Randy Newman has made similar tunes with an unreliable narrator before: "Political Science" is told by a politician saying "Let's drop the big one/And see what happens," while "Short People" claims that the title group "[has] no reason to live." Newman is anti-racist but hates, well, haters. However, is his seemingly earnest but actually acidic humor the right way to go about it?

Whites, Pt 1.

OK, bear with me on this one.

I recently read about a T-shirt worn by several Mitt Romney supporters at a rally that read:
"PUT THE WHITE BACK IN THE WHITE HOUSE"
I'm sure you can see how this is wrong on so many levels.

The problem that arises with people like this is the negative connotation given to a political party because of extremists like this. The Republican party may be predominantly appealing to whites, but it is not inherently racist. Mitt Romney is not inherently racist. He and his campaign have publicly decried the shirts.

Why do we not recognize extremists and trolls for who they are? We should know that Communists were not a good example for a liberal party agenda, and that Tea Partyers are not representative of the Republican party. But instead, we (and the media) like to use these people as a slice of the whole.

Advantages of Obscurity

Is there really any good that can come out of picking an obscure topic to write a paper about?

My Extended Essay topic is on the effects of melatonin supplements on the human body. Chrome doesn't even recognize "melatonin" as a word.

My Internal Assessment is on the long-term political causes of the Falkland Islands War of 1982. Our library doesn't even have any books on the Falklands themselves, let alone about the Anglo-Argentinian conflict that took place there 30 years ago.

I like to research unusual things that we never learn in school, but there's generally a reason for that: there are no resources, or it is cutting-edge resource.

What do you all think?

What I Dislike About NHS (and this has nothing to do with NHS itself but rather the people in it and you'll see what I mean)

I feel bad by badmouthing NHS online, but I'm not badmouthing the institution itself. I don't mind assisting in the community and being expected to keep my grades high.

No, what I really don't like about it is the people.

This may confuse some of you, as I am perfectly fine with most of the people most of the time. And I really am. I duly enjoy the company of most of the members because they are in general very intelligent and considerate.

It's only IN the society that people start to annoy me.

Strangely this has nothing to do with the society's purpose either. There's no reason to dislike my fellow volunteers.

The real reason is: I hear things about people that I don't want to know. The things, I mean, are what I don't want to know.

The reason for THIS, in turn, is that I am in the dark about how us teenagers really act.

I'll make it clear: I hear about people's relationships and what they do for fun, and always hear about parties and other wild methods of entertainment that border on hedonism (the pursuit of pleasure alone). This not only seems ironic to the point of the HONOR society, but also gives me a bad image of otherwise upstanding students.

To be honest, I don't know what teenagers do. I just hear fragments of things and make assumptions. I don't know if something is a joke or an extreme example or a lie or what.

I need ANSWERS. To what extent to teenager's "relationships" go normally at this age? What do they do for fun? I'm tired of being in the dark and I don't want to probe.

Besides, if you answer this, that'll help me formulate my social behaviors in the long run.

Maybe I seem sheltered, but I prefer to think I'm misinformed or perhaps willfully ignorant for the sake of my own ego. In any case, I'd like to know.

Furthermore, I don't like to think differently of people. I assume they are good people and that they don't do much of anything other that what they're expected to.

On Thursday, author Patrick Jones talked about how annoying it is when most teen literature is painted with unrealistic scenarios and rosy sterilized depictions of life. I prefer not to think the world operates the way he says it does. If it does, let me know. What are your experiences or knowledge?????? (and don't mislead me anymore!)

The Keywork and Karma

Lately I've been curiously looking up information about not my EE topic or my history assessment (really should though), but about a unique rock group that depicts an epic sci-fi saga through their songs. Their albums parallel graphic novels penned by the band's singer. Anyway, in their latest album the story involves this mystical force known as the Keywork that holds together the entire known universe. One character boldly attempts to discover what the Keywork really is, and discovers that the universe is held together by the energy created by the souls of the departed. The balance of good and bad energy depends on the lives of the souls in the system. Additionally, those who lived a life of dishonesty or evil are doomed to repeat their misfortunes for eternity.

Mind=blown?

Bombastic theatrics notwithstanding, there is an interesting point shown here that relates not with the concept of afterlife but more like karma. If we behave in a harmful way that hurts anyone, we upset the universe. You'll never know how many people you harmed. We all leave a legacy for better or worse that affects everyone, and we also are forced to live with the things we have done and their aftereffects.

Could the Keywork's concept be based in reality of the lives of people?

PS: The band is Coheed and Cambria, for anyone interested. Their newest album comes out tomorrow but I already previewed it all online today. Not my type of music mostly but it's an indulgence of the nerdy/philosophical/cultural side of me ;P.

Work Time

Why does setting matter so much in terms of productivity? I sit here in the LMC when I'm supposed to be working on the Written Task 2. I blog instead. I would work better at home, but even then it's not easy to work if I'm not in the right mode. What's your ideal homework scenario?

An Experiment in True Democracy

I ask to all the readers of this blog: What should I blog about?

I want to know what the preferences of the public in our class is. I will continue to post but I hope to hear the opinions of many on this topic. That's all for that.

WRITE

Read My Other Posts Too

Seriously, scroll down the page for once...

All apologies, but anyway, I wanted to comment on "school spirit". This is homecoming week so there are tons of activities that the administration has cooked up to hopefully achieve the elusive unity among all students.

However, is that what school spirit is? I certainly hope that's what they're aiming for, since that is what we need now. The world has become pretty bipartisan for how open-minded it is. I don't think we need to emphasize the superiority of our school, per se, but rather bond us all together, even with our enemies. I know that Blaine are not our "enemies" in reality, and in sports rivalries are essential, but there's still too much hate in the world today.

Also, are parades and pep-fests really that effective in increasing student's unity? Perhaps: they are united in hating being forced to attend events against their will. Is this too cynical, or do we agree that these are kind of annoying?

Thoughts?

PS: Sorry for blogging so much today, I just felt like putting out a variety of new topics and testing the limits of my patience. XD

Disillusionment (Rehash)

Perhaps this is a stale retread of what other people have said but:

I just considered the Cargo Cults that Ms. Mork told us about. These people honestly believe that US airplanes dropping cargo off are gifts of the gods. I mean, who could blame them? If you saw a giant thing come out of the sky and present you with food and strangely-dressed pale men, you might be a bit excited.

Who are we to disillusion them? Is it wrong to tell them this is an ordinary part of the society that they live parallel to? They are isolated; how should we expect them to know anything about us? There are likely still a few dozen tribes that have never been in contact with other humans in the "outside" world. Should we ruin their world by coming into contact? It's kind of fun to discover what outsiders would think of, say, airplanes, but it's like another Schrodinger's Cat: we'll never know what they think unless we barge in and perhaps ruin the outcome.

The Death of Comedy: When?

I thought after English today about how much of our humor in American culture is based off of microaggressions. We leisurely toss around remarks that SOMEONE could consider demeaning to minorities. Make any joke about a stereotype, or even a stereotypical character, and it's a microaggression.

What will comedy look like after prejudice has died (if it does before humans do)? Even physical comedy is based off the demeaning of a particular individual by making comedy off of misery (schadenfreude). This could be identified as not funny and offensive to somebody.

At what point do we stop considering the feelings of others? And moreover, what is funny without offending A-N-Y-O-N-E?

My friend suggested that absurd humor could always be funny, as a mixture of the real and the bizarre creates juxtaposition that is unfamiliar and therefore humorous to people.

Any other suggestions on humor that could not be interpreted as being offensive AT ALL? Remember, there's no such thing as ridiculous when it comes to offending people. If they can make a lawsuit out of it, they will. There's always somebody ruining it for the rest of us.

Rage Against the Paul

My obligatory musical post today:

VP candidate Paul Ryan has tried to make himself in the image of a hip, young everyman to appeal the youth vote (I presume). This includes his emphasis on his love of rock music; bands he has cited include stereotypical choices like AC/DC and Led Zeppelin.

However, Ryan received media ridicule for claiming his favorite band is Rage Against the Machine.
For those who may not know, RATM is a rap-rock group with a distinct focus on left-wing political rants that often preach righteous violence against the corrupt right-wing "suppressors" or at least suggesting revolution (key tracks: "Killing in the Name", "Bulls on Parade", "Testify"). Additionally, they dish out crazily twisted guitar riffs built on funk, metal, and hip-hop, courtesy of guitarist Tom Morello.

Now, it's more likely that Ryan likes RATM for the latter reason, but this comment has led to more than a few jeers. Most notably, Tom Morello wrote an opinion column in Rolling Stone (a liberal magazine for music and politics) claiming "Ryan is the epitome of the Machine that our band rages against". Ryan defended himself by claiming he liked the band's sound but didn't really care about the lyrics.

We make fun of Paul Ryan for this ironic statement he made, but this really brings up the point of lyrics vs. sound in music.

I like the sound of some bands but their lyrics may be too violent, explicit, or downright weird (looking at you, Pixies). Likewise, some singers write great words to their songs but their music is kind of meh (Bob Dylan should sometimes have stuck with poetry).

This shows how music appeals to both the emotional and logical ways of knowing: which one we use may vary from person to person. Which one is more profound for you?

BTW, if you haven't read my old blog posts, you should.

Liars and Police: Another TOK1 flashback

Who here remembers The Thin Blue Line?

Beyond the lady with the glasses and the *enthralling* soundtrack, there were some interesting sociological/philosophical points brought up in this crime documentary. One such issue was honesty. The perpetrator of the murder, I think his name was Harris, claimed in an interview that "Criminals always lie". First of all, with this definition, how do we determine who is a liar or a criminal? Does a lie count as a crime? And furthermore, this statement comes from a criminal. Should we trust his ethos?

Another interesting point was the reliability of police. The police in Dallas were corrupt in this case, arresting an innocent man (Randall, his name was) for a crime committed by Harris based on obscure evidence. I don't remember the whole details, but the essence of the title came from the quote "The police are the thin blue line separating society from anarchy" or something just like that. Can we put the public's safety in the hands of a group of armed people that may have an agenda of their own that runs against the public good? Such as the need to make money or assert their beliefs?

I think that once someone has been proven to have lied, it is very hard to regain their trust. One's integrity can be lost and never regained, because they have proven they have the capacity to deceive.

Also, I believe the police generally have good intentions but as citizens we should be mindful that cops have the right to use weapons and bend the law to suit "the greater good". Watch out for police brutality!

I will now yield the floor for comments.

Bonus Post (just for fun)

If you can read this, you'll know why I titled the file FAIL.

Candy!

Tonight at the parade, I bought and brought my own candy to throw to the children. Honestly, I didn't think that we would even be allowed to throw candy, but I was wrong. However, as I did clarify that the candy was mine and was free for the taking for anyone who asked, many people partook in the sweets. I noticed that people who otherwise would never approach me were now asking for candy. Kind of odd how having material goods that others can use makes someone popular. Not that I'm not guilty of this. If someone brings an open pan of cupcakes to lunch, you'll bet I'll ask for one. When someone brings cookies, I'll politely beg for one.

Nevertheless, this is a pointed observation on the shallowness of some people, and how they use you for what they want, and so on and so forth. What say you about this?

Jesus: A Scientist? + Snake Oil

My uncle once tried to inform me about the beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ, Scientist. It has an odd name but essentially believes that maladies of the human body are simply perception and that people can get well just by believing they can get well. This contradicts much of germ theory, but science also shows that having a good attitude helps your immune system. How much validity is there in the beliefs of the JCS people?

On a similar tangent, homeopathy believes that certain natural substances, like spider venom, minerals, or plant extracts, can be added to water and diluted until the quantity of the original solute is nil, and the resulting fluid will still work to cure certain conditions. This is often dismissed as bunkum, but some reports have (perhaps dubiously) claimed it works. Is this a placebo effect, or could substances really "imprint" their solvent even after leaving? I think that many are passing this off as a scam to make money from selling vials of water to unsuspecting naifs. Snake oil, I say. But I will watch to keep tabs on this controversial belief.