Blog Archives
Rules, pt. 3
First of all, I wanted to say that I love everyone who reads my blog. I haven’t posted in God knows how long, yet people keep coming to my blog every day. I wuv woo!
Now that that babytalk is out of the way, let’s get down to business. Its been a while since I posted some life rules, and I figured I’d share a couple that I’ve learned this past semester, which I’m going to fondly dub “Probably the most hellish couple months of my life.”
Honestly, it’s been my own fault for taking so many classes and shifts at work, but hey: I like complaining. Moving on, here are some rules.
7. If you think you’ve bitten off more than you can chew then you’ve already given up. If you accept failure as a possible outcome then you’ve already failed. But…
8. Sometimes you need to fail, because the act of succeeding would be even worse.
9. You only have a specific amount you can care about things. Care too much about the small things and you lose passion for what’s really important.
10. If you’re willing to lie about your phone number, name, and email address then the amount of free things you can get are virtually limitless.
11. Unconditional love and acceptance can fix any problem, even if it’s just from your dog.
I threw in a couple more than the usual three, partly because I had more to say and partly because you all are my favorite people ever. Thanks for reading, yo.
Mistakes
Image via Wikipedia
Hey, guys. PSA here from me. Now I know that we’ve all witnessed and made a fair few of mistakes in the past. That’s fine. Welcome to being human, where everyone screws up sometimes. My soapbox speech today isn’t about making mistakes, because I am of the opinion that anything you can look back on and smile isn’t a mistake and everything else is experience.
I’m instead talking about how we, as a society, judge people that make, in our collective eyes, ‘stupid mistakes.’
Nobody thinks to themselves ‘man, this would really be a stupid thing to say, but I’ll say it anyways.’ At least, not sober.
Guys: If a girl says she has feelings for you, don’t laugh because you would never date a girl like her. Respect her because she put herself out there and took a leap of faith, having no idea how where she would land.
Girls: If a guy takes you on a date and is, like, totally creepy and being way too nice and so weird, chances are he was just trying to be nice so that you would have a great evening. I don’t think that any guy thinks that they’re being creepy, just nice. As a guy I can say from experience: the line is very thin. Instead of judging the weirdo, be happy that someone would care for you so much as to try that hard to make you have a good time.
People in classes everywhere, any grade level: If someone says something totally asinine (“I thought Lincoln was the fifth president, isn’t that why he’s on the five dollar bill?”) don’t laugh at them. Especially in college, the social pressure to be correct all the time is overwhelming, leading many people (like me, I won’t lie) to simply stop answering questions, for fear of being wrong. If the person has the cajones to answer the question, don’t judge them for the answer. They obviously wouldn’t say it if they knew it was wrong.
If everyone can just accept that everyone else is a human, just like them, this world would be a much better place. So much of the evil in life comes from the dehumanization of others: thinking that you are the only one who really knows what’s going on and everyone else is just a dumb slob wandering through life with a finger up their nose and a stupid expression.
We are all cut from the same mold, guys. One of the few things I learned in AP Biology was that humans have about 99.7% the same DNA. The fears, hopes, and dreams that you think are yours and yours alone are, in fact, probably shared by everyone.
Moral of the story: Never forget that humans are people too.
Rules pt. 2
Guess who’s thought of three new rules? This guy. Here’s the first three I thought up, and here’s my next three:
4. Question everything.
5. If you don’t like it, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.
6. Some days are awesome and some days just suck. Get over them both. Tomorrow is what you make of it.
One Year Later
Recently I was having lunch with one of my good friends, who was a senior this past year at my old high school. She was telling me all about her plans to move up to Kalamazoo College. I’m sure she felt like I wasn’t paying attention to all the names, dates, and locations she was throwing around. Probably because I was too busy following the train of thought started by the simple phrase “When I was your age…”
Me, basically
I decided that, since my mind was obviously no longer on the mountain of packing that I had to do before I left, I’d start jotting down some thoughts on what life was like exactly a year ago. I love doing stuff like this, because it is a great way to see just how far you’ve come. Great, now I’ve got this Matchbox Twenty song stuck in my head. Below is a distillation of those thoughts.
I had the tiniest of mental breakdowns while I was packing up my stuff to head off to Ann Arbor last year. Read the rest of this entry
“I was born this way. This exact way. Hat, makeup, and all.”
Image via Wikipedia
Dear Lady Gaga,
First of all, let me say I’m a fan of your work. I really am. Your music is extremely catchy and your voice is the most beautiful among the autotuned pop starlets of today. You and Ke$sha aren’t even on the same playing field. Don’t let her drunken slut image fool you: nobody likes her.
However, Mama Monster, I do have one tiny little issue with your whole schtick. Your excessive makeup and flashy costumes.
Again, don’t get me wrong: I love the giant middle finger to the Man that you are portraying (although that may just be for money a la Rage Against The Machine). However, a lot of your songs seem to be about being happy with who you are. Allow me to give an example.
I’m beautiful in my way
‘Cause God makes no mistakes
I’m on the right track, baby
I was born this way
Rules
This man is all kinds of inspiring
Inspired by NCIS’ character Leroy Jethro Gibbs (I watch more TV during the summer than the rest of the year combined) I decided to make a list of my rules, my tenants, my life’s guidelines. Life is easier to live within a certain set of parameters. Plus, it makes it all the sweeter when you break said rules.
Seeing as I’m not even into my third decade of life yet, this list is obviously a living document. However, I’ve seen enough in my 18 years to make these first three rules.
1. Never pass up a chance that you may never have again
2. When a romantic relationship ends, let it stay that way
3. Learn from the past, but never let it rule you
To be continued…
Psychology: It works, hater
Recently I’ve found a new way to combat the problem that I’m sure plagues 9 out of 10 kids home for the summer: procrastination. If you’re anything like me, you went into the summer months with a laundry list of things that you wanted to do, now that you didn’t have homework and exams to eat up your time.
Also, if you’re anything like me, you’ve been failing pretty miserably at the tasks on your list.
More like a "To-Do Eventually" list. Doesn't roll off the tongue as well, though.
There always seems to be a host of excuses ready to bail me out. Like a good friend bailing you out of jail. But only if that good friend was plotting an elaborate revenge that would screw you over in the long run.
Okay, I’ll admit. That analogy lost coherency faster than they usually do.
Anyways, to the brain hack. I’ve found out that if I hold an internal monologue, crazy-person-style, and present my excuse to myself as if a friend was presenting it to me, my excuses seem less valid. Here’s an example:
Patrick: “So, Procrastination Pat, did you practice your guitar yesterday?”
Procrastination Pat: “Nope, didn’t have the time.”
Patrick: “You did have the time to play a couple hours of Assassin’s Creed, though, right?”
Procrastination Pat: “Umm…yes.”
Patrick: “This is why you’re single”
Suddenly, procrastination doesn’t seem as good of an idea. Sure, I can do it tomorrow. But eventually tomorrow will be my first day of classes of a new semester and I will have run out of time. Carpe diem, my friends.
Summer time and the livin’s easy
Sooner or later summer stops being a vacation. I know that one day I will reach an age when I have to keep working on through summer. Until then I’m enjoying every minute.
Related: this song always makes me think of summer. Wonder why.
All work and no play…
I’m really bummed. Not only did I not get a chance to write a good post about my RC car repair efforts before I had to return them all but I also haven’t been able to practice guitar for going on 4 days. I know my baby missed me as much as I missed her. Oh yes. Not only is my guitar a female, but she is also my baby. I figure better to have a guitar baby at this point in my life rather than a real one. Plus no diaper changes.
Calling your normal child sexy is frowned upon. My guitar baby, though...rawr.
In addition, my book has had little progress on it, my Python app is barely off the ground, I don’t have the time to work out, and I’m not getting enough sleep.
Basically, whoever decided a day can only have 24 hours in it should be dragged behind a horse. And this is supposed to be my vacation, too!
