About Me

I love books, but I don't like owning many of them. This is what libraries are for! I do own a handful of favorites however.

I have hoarding tendencies. I think it's genetic. I used to keep several years worth of paper receipts and carry them with me every time I moved. Luckily today I'm able maintain the hoarding digitally! But, yes, in general, I agree with the mantra, 'less is more'. 

I'm extremely picky when it comes to clothes and shoes, but quite the opposite when it comes to food. I will eat pretty much anything, but this is not to say I don't appreciate the finer foods. 

I'm very antisocial and would describe myself as an introvert, but I don't hate people.

I'm extremely frugal and go so far as to monitor and scan for certain items of clothing on Ebay for several months before making the purchase (on a used item).

I will only ever purchase a manual transmission car because automatics are so boring to drive. 

However, while I love driving, I hate driving among all the careless drivers on the road. Because of my frugality, ideally I'll end up somewhere I won't need a car to get around. While I am looking forward to self-driving cars for safety's sake, I will miss grinding through the gears

My last meal would be a toss up between a good burger and sashimi

I'm very skeptical by nature. I find it scary and alarming when people believe something so easily.

I believe ignorance is likely bliss, but willful ignorance is downright sad and infuriating.

I believe in the KISS philosophy: "keep it simple, silly", for  most aspects of life.

I find it strange when people strive to be 'normal' or like everybody else.

Giving people the benefit of the doubt is one of the best things you can do. Don't assume. Ask questions.

I don't put my eggs all in one basket. Obviously when it comes to investing, but also when it comes to spending money. I try not to support only one company. This part of the reason I like building computers so much. Almost every component is made by a different company: storage: solid-state drive (SSD) - Western Digital,  hard drive (HDD) - Seagate, power supply unit (PSU) - Corsair, graphics card (GPU) - ASUS, central processing unit (CPU) - AMD, random access memory (RAM) - G. Skill, motherboard (MOBO) - MSI, mouse - Logitech, keyboard - Kensington, Monitor - LG, Case/tower - Rosewill, Speakers - Creative, Operating System (OS) - Microsoft

I don't follow traditional holidays or even keep track of birthdays. I do however, participate in spontaneous gift giving. Along the same lines, if you contact me once or twice a year for either my birthday or a holiday, I prefer you don't contact me at all.

I can't for the life of me stick to a certain daily schedule. Every day is different and somehow I manage to live this way. I feel like if I did, I would feel too much like a robot.

Trendy fashion eludes me for the most part. I don't know why you'd want to look like everyone else. Along the same lines, I especially don't understand why you'd want to be a walking advertisement. As a younger kid, I used to wear this t-shirt with a giant Nike logo on the front. Looking back, I think I was desperately trying to fit in. I see these people carrying around these expensive hand bags and the only decoration on the entire bag is the brand name tiled across the entire surface. Typically, they are Coach bags. How does that look good? I suppose it's a status symbol. 

In reaction to a similar post in 2009:
https://muse-parade.blogspot.com/2009/03/25-things.html

1. Somewhat still true - although it's more like low light. Likely due to being so frugal I keep as many lights off as possible. I also sometimes wonder what it's like to be blind.

Fun fact: did you know blind people don't actually anything at all. Not even black. So simply closing your eyes doesn't exactly put you in the shoes of a blind person.

2. I definitely don't do this anymore
3. Still true
4. Not true anymore - although sometimes I just want to get rid of it
5. While nostalgic, this is not true. Too much of hassle. I do however enjoy using mechanical pencils from time to time - although I get pissed every time I smudge the lead.

Super short story: A college math professor asked us not to write in pencil because writing in pen would make us not forget our mistakes. Instead of simply erasing the mistake, we'd cross it out. He thought it would make it more likely we would't repeat the mistake.

6. I think I grew out of this. Funny enough, my wife and I kept our original last names. Whose name will our kids have? Better grab a coin.
7. Looking back, I should have raised my hand. I had nothing to be embarrassed about.
8. I finally got rid of it. The holes became too large.
9. My favorite color is yellow and I do know why. It's a happy color. And I am generally a happy person.
10. False. I love being alone. But yes, I am extremely introverted.
11. How nostalgic. I'll have to find some ROMS and try to recreate this experience.
12. Yup, I was devastated. 'You can't always get what you want'.
13. I still wonder what happened to the letter. However, looking back, I'm happy nothing came of it.
14. I've been sick, but nothing too bad.
15. Still true. I try to read too much between the lines.
16. Still an option, but we'll see.
17. Not true anymore.
18. True, yup. I think it had to do with the material. I have very sensitive skin. Now I have a pair of jeans I love - but I  would still be horrified to put them on wet.
19. I still hear people say this. Still don't understand why.
20. Yeah.. this happens from time to time, but I'm still here!
21. Not true any more.
22. First  part is true. Second part, not so much. I just don't have the time.
23. Yup,  true. I always enjoy telling people these useless facts.
24. Yup, true. I can still do it, but still only stuck at 3 balls.
25. Partly true. I hate daily routine, but it's important to have discipline. So you need to find a good balance.

Boycott

Boycott - "an act of voluntary and intentional abstention from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons" - Wikipedia

Thanks, Charles Boycott for the term and the method!

Typically a boycott is a public protest - sort of like a strike. There are many groups that host public boycotts such as PETA.

A boycott's effectivity generally depends on the amount of people involved and how widely 'televised' it is or how 'viral' the story went.

Needless to say, solo boycotts aren't very effective at all. One's personal choice not to eat meat for example will a very minimal effect on the profits of the meat companies like Tyson. But, one person does make some difference. We are dealing with supply and demand after all. For example, if you are a vegetarian, you'll save roughly 20 land animals per year.

I personally have been boycotting a several companies for many years now such as Nike, Apple, and Walmart.

Why Nike? Well, I used to buy and own Nike products when I was much younger. Then one day Tiger Woods was in an interview on TV and he was being asked why he was still sponsored by Nike after learning that they essentially used slave labor in third-world countries , he said something along the lines of, "Well, if not me, then someone else". This must have been in the early 2000's. From that point on I refused to buy anything made by Nike.

Very revlavent video about Nike workers in Indonesia working for slave wages:
https://youtu.be/M5uYCWVfuPQ

Walmart shares a similar story, but on top of this they pay their US workers like crap also.

These were in the prime-time news of course, so I saw it. What I didn't do was research what other companies also utilized this type of labor overseas.

Why Apple? I used to own a green iPod mini. I bought it used from a friend. I loved that thing. Then I started to learn about the founder and CEO Steve Jobs. What. A. Douche. R.I.P. Steven, but yes, you were sort of an a-hole. Besides their products being way over priced, this is why I never bought your company's products.

How many other companies have CEOs who aren't ideal citizens? Likely many. Even Bill Gates had his moments, yet I've always purchased and own Microsoft products - partly because they had such a monopoly on PC operating systems (Windows).

Most recently, I've been boycotting Facebook because of the way they reacted and dealt with the spread of 'fake news', especially during the 2016 presidential election. Like Tiger Woods and Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg's 'evils' were highly 'televised'.

So, what about the ones that aren't widely televised or talked about in the news or social media? I've come to realize I've been a bit of a hypocrite by selectively boycotting certain companies without doing proper research about other companies who might be committing the same kind of 'evils'.

Different countries have different wage laws and so companies in the US (and elsewhere I'm sure) take advantage of this. Does that make them 'evil'? This is a highly subjective moral question, but I personally wouldn't take advantage of such labor laws. But that also means my company wouldn't remain competitive.

You can also argue that providing jobs for people in these other countries is a good thing. Where would they be working if they didn't have a job working for Nike or Walmart? That's likely the best job they could find, so why is this 'evil'? In my view, while this may be true, US companies exporting jobs to save money, are supporting the outsourced companies laws. The more companies that do this, the more likely these laws won't change.

Now, after hearing all about poor working conditions at Amazon, I'm considering dropping my support for them as well.

And then there's Google... along with Facebook and Microsoft, and many other others  are always dealing with anti-privacy issues. I'm definitely a Google fan boy, so I need to be careful of personal bias. I also need to start revisiting my reasons for starting my boycotts. Perhaps the companies have changed their ways.

Relevant articles/links:
https://relate.zendesk.com/articles/money-where-your-brand-boycott-is/

Loneliness: Youtube video review

According to this Youtube video on loneliness, "Loneliness is twice as deadly as obesity and as deadly as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day".

This was surprisingly in-depth. They actually list their sources and most of them seem to be legitimate research papers and books. We are social beings. Even the hermits and socially awkward need some level of human interaction.

I identified with many thoughts expressed here - in particular, the bit about the vicious cycle of loneliness and how your perceptions change. You see things that aren't true. You misunderstand social interactions. You become hyper-aware and defensive. You stop giving people the benefit of the doubt. Everything is negative. You feel anxious. You don't get along with anyone.

YOU need to pull yourself out of this funk and realize perhaps you have the wrong mindset. Give people the benefit of the doubt. When you're not sure, don't assume you understand someone's intentions. Ask them. Be direct and try to understand them. Communication is hard.

It's interesting that loneliness has increased over time. With the age of technology and social media, you would think loneliness would be a thing of the past. Communication is getting harder. Intentions are getting misinterpreted. We're becoming more isolated. This issue is not going to solve itself. We need to acknowledge this problem and ensure our mindsets are evolving along with our environments.

Source:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1745691614568352
Youtube video source list:
https://sites.google.com/view/sourcesloneliness/startseite

Entitlement

The world does not owe you a damn thing. Despite what you may think, “You are not special. You're not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else. We're all part of the same compost heap. We're the all singing, all dancing crap of the world.” - Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club).

Living in Boston, I see entitled people every, single, day. Where? On the road. It drives me nuts. You think I'd be used to it by now. They are sometimes referred to as 'Massholes'. Why do people feel it's okay to cut you off at an intersection? Why must they beep their stupid horn for 30 seconds because they are stuck behind you when you are trying to make a turn? Was saving 30 seconds more important than risking both of our lives? Is their destination really that much more important than yours? I don't think I'll ever understand it. We're all adults here, right? Maybe not. I think perhaps it may have something to do with being in a car... people feel safe and secluded and are more likely to do something disrespectful since they aren't interacting directly with another human being. I wonder if I were to encounter such a 'Masshole' on the train or bus - would they act the same way? This is why I'm looking forward to driverless cars!

Obviously you are the most important person in your life. You are selfish and that's totally okay. But, you live in a world of others who feel the same way. You should put yourself before others, but you must do it in a respectful way. Do you enjoy being cut off? How about being beeped at when you need to make a turn? I highly doubt it.

I think most of us are all naturally entitled individuals from a young age. This is why we need to be taught respect. Kids hog toys from their siblings or take something that doesn't belong to them. I feel like most of us have parents that teach us this. But then why does the world have so many assholes?

Perhaps something terrible happened. Something dramatic, unfair, and perhaps unexplainable. The world kicks you in the teeth. You choke, but you survive. But now you see the world differently. The world and everyone in it can go to hell for all you care. You got treated unfairly. Fate decided respect was not in the cards for you. You come to terms with it and move on with your life with this mindset. You are going to take or do whatever you want, regardless of how it affects anyone else. You just don't care anymore.

It's too bad you feel that way. I do hope you change your mind someday. You know the saying, 'two wrongs don't make a right'? Despite the cliche, propagating negativity and unfairness makes the world a sad place to live. 

Related articles / links:
Masshole Youtube video

https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/health-fitness/mental-health/4-ways-to-deal-with-entitled-people

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/between-the-lines/201801/what-we-mean-when-we-talk-about-entitlement

An Unexamined Life

"The unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates.

Imagine that you are not allowed to think for yourself. Also try to imagine a scenario where you are too distracted to think for yourself. If you are not sure what I mean, watch this short clip of the Pixar movie, WALL-E. Ancient Greek philosophers like Socrates and Plato suffered from the former. Poor Socrates was sentenced to death for thinking and believing something outside of the norm.

I think we are beginning to succumb to the latter. We live in a fast-paced world with many distractions. We literally have an endless supply of cheap entertainment at our disposal. Perhaps one day, all of our work will be automated and we'll end up like people in the spaceship like in the clip below. Without any responsibility whatsoever, what will we choose to do?

Many Greek philosophers had a lot of free time because they were higher class citizens with fewer responsibilities. They chose to spend their time reflecting and think critically about life. They didn't have things like Netflix. What if they did? Would we have the Socratic method? I'm not so sure.

This is a direct tie-in to my previous post about binge-watching TV shows and scanning headline news. I see it in myself and almost everyone I know. We're not reflecting anymore. Reflection is key. We're surfing along at high-speed, being entertained, missing the finer details of life, not thinking for ourselves.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with watching a movie or TV show - if it's in moderation. To binge, in my opinion is inherently unhealthy. We need to slow it down. Capture the details. Do something else. Investigate and fact check what you are reading or watching. Take nothing at face value. Don't become a robot or a sheep.

Slow down, live your life, and think for yourself.

Binge-worthy

With the age of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video - we have endless ways of being entertained. Netflix even has a TV show category called, "Binge worthy" shows. They are usually quite addicting and before we know it, we've spent the whole night in front of the TV or whichever device you happen to be using.

Besides entertainment, what are we getting out of this? Perhaps if it happens to be something educational, we might be learning something - but how often do you binge-watch something like this? I admit I binge-watched The Cosmos, which was narrated by the ever-famous astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I enjoyed it and I learned a lot, but unfortunately I don't remember much from it.

Imagine the days when we had only books. Unless you were an editor, librarian, or book lover, you probably wouldn't have binge-read. But if we did, I think we'd be better off because reading takes your time and focus. By the time you are done reading the book you'd probably have a lot more to say about it than if you had just finished a TV series.

I don't very much enjoy my conversations with people when we talk about our latest binge-watching adventure. Why? Because it's usually short-lived and shallow. Here's how it usually goes: "Hey, did you see that last season of Game of Thrones?" "Yeah, it was insane! I can't believe this person died" "Did you see the last season of so and so?" "Yeah, I can't believe so and so happened". Just like that, we switched the conversation to a different, completely unrelated show. I can't stand it. I also find this very disturbing.

It's not just binge-watching TV shows that shares this shallow consumption of the media today... it's headline news, Tweets, etc.

This is why we had to write book reports in grammar school... to remember and learn from what we read!

'Soup to Nuts'

Have you ever heard someone utter a quirky phrase, almost as if it was some sort of code language? The most recent one I've encountered is, 'soup to nuts'. What the hell does that mean and why would anyone use it in normal conversation?

It's called an 'idiom' and apparently most languages are chock-full of them. They may have originated hundreds of years ago or perhaps recently from some form of media or pop culture. An idiom is a phrase or saying that means something, but it's not always obvious from the words, exactly what. So what is the point of idioms when there are already so many ways of saying the same thing?

Take 'soup to nuts' for example. Good luck understanding what this means without looking it up on the internet. Apparently somewhere in the world, a meal was served in several courses, starting with soup and ending with nuts as the desert. So, by saying 'soup to nuts', you're essentially saying, 'start to finish'. You may also hear the phrase when describing a person - in which case it would would mean the person follows through with whatever they do.

Then there are the 'easier' ones to figure out, but still not super obvious - like, 'as the crow flies'. This one means, 'in a straight line'. You'll most often here this one when someone is giving you a distance to a location. Funny enough, crows don't fly in a straight line. Then there are the easier ones like, 'a penny saved is a penny earned'.

So why use idioms? Probably to make life more interesting or humorous. How often have you heard the phrase, "break a leg!"? This always lightens the mood when you are wishing someone well before a presentation or performance.

I had never heard the, 'soup to nuts' phrase until several weeks ago. It was uttered during a big yearly presentation. I had no idea. It almost sounds like a kinky sex position. I couldn't stop the person mid sentence and ask them to define, 'soup to nuts', so I had to look it up afterward. For this reason I'm not sure if idioms should be used in situations like this - but then I start thinking about all of the other phrases that I hadn't previously considered idioms. The one that comes to mind is, 'comparing apples and oranges'. I would definitely use this in a presentation - although I'm not sure why I would expect everyone would know what I was talking about.

I don't think idioms are part of any required curriculum in grammar school, but I'm sure they do pop up here and there in the required reading materials. Depending on where you grow up, you'll be exposed to a different set of idioms - especially if it's a different country. When you use an idiom, you treat it like you would a word in a dictionary and you expect your audience to follow you. But, much like using big, fancy words - you need to know your audience. Typically the simpler, the better - but at the same time, this can get boring.

So, when should we use an idiom? 'Your guess is as good as mine'.

Relevant links / articles:
https://www.ef.edu/english-resources/english-idioms/
https://www.phrases.org.uk/idioms/index.html
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/knowledge-is-power-using-idioms-to-give-power-to-your-writing/
https://www.idioms.online/

Neverwhere: Audiobook Review

Dork score: 6/10

Overall, I enjoyed it. The story wasn't particularly interesting, but the characters were mildly intriguing. I feel like this was part II of a three part saga, but it's a standalone book. The highlight for me was that the audio book was read by the author - and much to my surprise, he's quite the talented narrator. I can't say for sure that I would have finished it, if it wasn't for the superb voice acting. Then again, even an incredible book read by an annoying voice is hard to tolerate.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this novel. I don't recall exactly how I came across it. I believe I was just browsing around for an audio book on the Minuteman Library Network to fill my time during my long commute to work. Someone recommended another novel of his, American Gods; so the author's name rung a bell.

It's characterized as an 'urban fantasy'. Apparently it was originally a TV series on BBC in 1996 and then later 'novelized' by its creator in the same year. The version I listened to was actually a re-publication from 2006. It took me a while to finish since the story didn't grab me; I had to renew it twice - but I did actually finish it, which says something.