Alien

Spinning
Originally uploaded by al greer.

To me it looked like an alien, to you it might be neon lights or something else... Aliens seem to be quiet elusive. And yet there is millions that claim to have seen them or been in contact with them, daily strange sightings are made and rumors abound - nothing has ever been confirmed. Now as you might have realized, if you are one of the rare (well almost extinct by now) regular readers of this blog, that I am cynical. I am a skeptic concerning aliens.
Firstly, why, if they were friendly, would they not come and help us in our evolution/development.
Secondly, if they are indeed hostile, why not kill us before we get anywhere near their technological standards, unless they are cruel and they want an exciting little match.
Thirdly, why must aliens necessarily be superior to us? They might just be humans stuck on another planet.
Well its all rather fictional to me. And with physics telling us that the universe is constantly expanding, at some exponential rate it all becomes rather difficult and complex.
If they do exist, and I doubt they do, then they would be another evolutionary error like humans. And they would most likely be self destructive like us too. If we were to concentrate on collective research and such, we would be lightyears ahead of where we are at the moment. So I guess its just a flaw that comes with being atop the food chain and being an irreversible mistake in evolution - you might have guessed but I am atheist.

Fate

dealing | the cards
Originally uploaded by liliths_nymph.

Fate is what some people believe determines your life. I personally do believe that "what will be, will be" (... man I'm starting to quote lyrics, very bad) but I concede that I am a hypocrite, as I see a number of flaws in the fatalistic view of the world. Take for example the following situation: You sit under a chandelier which is just about to fall off. A true fatalist would accept a fall of the chandelier as his destined death, but any rational person would attempt as soon as the chandelier falls to get out of the way ie save their lives, which in turn may mean cheating fate. Its complicated and I just realized that the quality of my posts has been steadily declining, too much Maths work I hope.
But do I need fate to lead my life? No, definitively not I will do my best and if I fail I will try again, I like to think that I make my own destiny and create my own future. I am currently an atheist, although born catholic, and the only religion I would contemplate practicing would be Buddhism. The existence of a god for me would mean that I am or could be little pawn, and it would also mean that I have to accept the concept of fate. Cynical as I am I also don't see how a benevolent being such as god (and god is benevolent in just about every religion) could let a corrupt and self destructive society as ours continue to exist and slowly eradicate all other forms life on this planet.

Blackout

An opening...
Originally uploaded by GustavoG.

Once again I have been lagging behind in posting new stuff, and that even though I did receive feedback and suggestions, which I'm very grateful for by the way - so thanks to all of you who have left a comment - much appreciated.
Now on to the reasons for my virtual absence, I know excuses, excuses but they must be made. Now firstly it's busy at school, exams are approaching. Secondly, my PC completely blacked out, as in nothing worked and since I can't remember my passwords I was stranded in a world without blogger. Well that's just about all I can come up with.
And just as a note, I had my Y12 formal last friday - it was great, gargantuan, awing, and many other big words. Now it's back to the routine of updating half regularly.
Before I finish this rather blunt post, I just want to whinge about all those people that somehow find a lot more to write about me and have a lot of visitors. I want that too!

Change

Inside of a bottle
Originally uploaded by Degno Di Anima.

You guessed it, the pun is intended. Indeed. Now you may have noticed that the frequency of my posting has fluctuated heavily over the last few months, now that is because I find it harder and harder to find inspiration for posts in the way I have started. Education, is the first in a number of posts that will instead of musing about the picture, muse about aspects of society or others and then find a pic. Now please! please! comment, most of the things I will raise are controversial and up for debate. Tell me what you think about the topics, and please give me more suggestions for new topics!

Education

A New Japanese 7th Grade Classroom
Originally uploaded by A is for Angie.

The perfect education system - where do we find it and what does it mean? Questions that have plagued students and teachers for millennia (not quite but still, a long time).
So here are my thoughts. Education should be about excellence, I personally cannot perform unless I am under tremendous pressure, time-wise and achievement wise. I need competition to keep me going. Teaching methods have been greatly debated, should teachers be slow and use plenty of visuals to support their lessons? In my opinion, no. They should give us information overload, so that we must look through all the knowledge to find the essentials, trains analytical skills along the way. Sport is another big issue. I am not a jock, I think it should not be compulsory, sport is good but unlike academics it is harder to compete if you lack the ability, for academics you can always study (now, you may argue a bit on this). Excellence should be rewarded, and while this is all elite, it is in my opinion the best way to separate high achievers from lower achievers, one exam at the end of the year can easily be failed due to random events or occurrences. But if the elite is recognized from the beginning, and more are added as the years pass, exams would not be necessary, while also getting rid of the "it's not a finals year yet". So that's what I can think of at the moment.
Some argue strongly for a privitization of the education system, let schools found themselves through things like renting out the canteen to MacDonalds, or selling the results of the best students to big corporations recruiting the next generation of managers. As long as there is no financial cost to the student that may prevent him from going to a school I don't mind. But putting a price on education should not be allowed, it is a right to receive education, putting a cost on it is unacceptable and prevents the system from giving everyone a chance, as well as possibly overseeing a lot of talent that could then go to waste. These are my thoughts, feel free to discuss.

Smile

Originally uploaded by kk+.

In our hectic lives we seem to see less and less of them - smiles. As people become preoccupied with more important stuff they forget to look after themselves. Having a goal or a dream is great, but if we loose a part of ourselves or sacrifice our happiness in the process it is not worth it. Happy people are rarer by the day, and most of the smiles one does still see are fake. It is as if they have been commercialised. So cheer up! And give us a big smile.

Rebel

Originally uploaded by kk+.

This lone man on the streets somewhere in America is a rebel. Rebelling against authority and the structure of society. Traditionally it is up to the young to take up the protest and fight against old and inflexible authority that has corrupted with age and greed. However, and as sad as this is, in today's age more and more students feel that they are just one amongst 4 billion that think otherwise and with the increase in the label 'terrorist' being used as a way of creating support with the masses it has indeed become difficult to stand up against the increasingly paranoid and protective (of themselves anyway) governments. With a reduction in privacy and the rights to privacy the very mentality of rebelling is undermined as insecure students seek peace by joining what they cannot fight. This is unacceptable! We must fight for what we believe in - not with weapons but with words - after all that is what democracy is all about, and yet the governments that advocate democracy become increasingly hypocritical challenging the laws they set down themselves. Give protest a go and don't let prejudice could your judgment, some change may be for the better.

Hope

Mikael loves the rain
Originally uploaded by vice1.

We all seek something, some unattainable goal. We cherish it and all that keeps us from giving up is hope. Hope, the feeling that gives many of us power and strength in the darkest hours. Hope feeds us, a glimmer of hope is to some more than anything else. Men have rebelled hoping for change. Communism was created in the hope of founding a utopian society. Hope is the belief that all humans need to fuel their desires and ambitions. Without hope there would be no ambition after all what is hard work if there is no glimmer of a possible change? Hope is important and sometimes it is all we have. Don't crush it or you may take more from some than you intend.

Love

balloon
Originally uploaded by grabigail.

Like a balloon it is elusive, and many of us search for it for most of our lives. But what is love? What is true love? These are all questions that need answers. It isn't easy to define something that is purely based upon perception - I mean some might think that true love, or love is all about a healthy sex life. So let me put it this way, love is elusive, yet we all crave it, we search for it and as it is a thing humanity holds as one of the penultimate feelings it is worth searching, and finding. Now that said, my definition of love would have to be that you complete each other, your partner is the other half of you; you don't have to share every characteristic or have all your likes and dislikes common, but once the person leaves the house in the morning for work, a void should appear that cannot be filled until that person returns. Many of us fail to find love and are stuck in unhappy relationships, then there is the commercial side to love, relationships for money of a career, all they do is leave you irritated and emotionally drained as it is no more than a lot of lies and pretending. Never pretend to be someone you are not, if you aren't accepted as who you truly are then the love isn't reciprocal and is no more than an obsession on your behalf, love requires two parties, and can only work if both feel the same way. Love is hard to find, indeed most never find it and to compensate seek happiness (Freud would now say that this is where fetishes are born, things that remind us of something we crave or have lost and are used to fill that void - at least partially). So if you are lucky enough to have found love, hold on to it. But never overstep the line, as love, especially blind love or obsession can have disastrous consequences.