Just Say No?

The authorities say that drugs are bad. Drugs do people in, break up families, liquefy minds and have all sorts of horrible side effects including withdrawal symptoms. All this would be well and good were it not so that mind-altering drugs are actively being administered in response to certain exceptional psychiatric cases. It would appear that psychotropic drugs are issued only to keep people docile and within the norms of consciousness (at a superficial level at least). As such, it seems to be the case that hallucinogenic drugs are controlled not just because of potential permanent damage (which may not be the case for all drugs within the classification) but in the interests of "law and order" whereby people keep their consciousness fully rooted in "reality".

It is strange that such drugs are not being administered under close medical supervision to give people the chance to experience such alteration of consciousness or at least to understand their effects at a scientific level. Alcohol may have similar effects on the consciousness by nature of its action, yet is not strictly controlled despite being associated with numerous deaths and injuries. It is probably better that takers of hallucinogenic drugs come under the purview of medical professionals rather than self-dosing on illegal products of dubious potency and getting harmed and/or harming others in the process.

The issue at hand appears to be a fear of the "insanity" (altered perceptions) experienced under influence than any real fear of bodily harm. Carcinogens are being actively studied even though known carcinogenic foods are being purveyed and consumed. Hence, it may be better that hallucinogenic drugs be studied rather than banned, giving people the potential of vacations from reality with minimal risks.

The Flexibility Of Experience

Today is the day that I can declare that I've actually taken up the Full Lotus position. Frankly, I never thought I could do it, since I've been trying for some time. It turns out that I was trying it the other way around (which is physically impossible) . Strangely enough, its difficulty isn't anywhere near as high as I'd expected of an "advanced" position. Guess it's just hard for some people. My friend can't do it, for one. Next on the target list: Splits

My Wristband

I finally found it: The leather wristband. Its strap is as wide as that of my wristwatch. It would appear that I finally have a matching pair to wear on my wrists. heh. Today's shopping trip was fruitful. It would seem that it is far better to have dad walk all over the place while mom and I shop than to have him follow us around and cast disapproving looks whenever any sort of money is slated to leave his wallet. Ah hah! Oh, and I got myself a pair of decent jeans at last.

I'm probably mildly allergic to what they call "silver", and the breaker tripped at the apparel store shortly after I went in. How inconvenient.

Just Let Go

How can one let go of reality when one has dwelt in it for countless millennia? If one has all those memories all at once, would it make any difference? Just beyond the veil lies the receptacle of the facts of the past, present and future. Yet is any of it significant, really, or does knowledge merely entrap? One can be free in oblivion, but is it a worthy pursuit? Everything is meaningless. One could learn to just let go. Is there any more meaning in oblivion?

Back From The North

Back I do be, from that vacation up north. Yes, it's a break from computers as well, so I've taken to penning the memories down, and not putting them up. So no info! Suffice to know that I saw a guy who has eyes just like Mark Hamil's. You know, the guy who acted as Luke Skywalker in the early Starwars films. Quite a sight =p

I note that consuming obscene amounts of fiber in the morning (e.g breakfast) does wonders for when you're having constipation-related problems and similar complications. It makes the morning visit a lot less painful if you let the stools pass with a soft "warhead". Fiber is not only good for digestion! It prevents unnecessary blood loss! As if losing blood every month weren't enough.

Blood and Clots

My friend was hospitalized for breathing difficulties. Turns out that she had clotting trouble that resulted in some sort of blockage in the lungs. It's a bit of a relief that the clots didn't form somewhere like in her brain or something. I really hate to see people with brain damage. Anyway, it turns out that I'm seeing another medical professional in the exact same hospital. Guess I'll visit again when my appointment is up (if she's still there)

Of Nothingness and Becoming

When one attains the highest possible level of enlightenment, one extinguishes all self and effectively becomes nothing in relation to a state of becoming. What happens, then? Does one stagnate within this blissful state free of the cycle of life and death, or does one become the inadvertent victim of becoming? When one has surrendered all will and self, one is no more. That also implies that one is no longer immune to the spontaneous expression or imposition of the self. Is there a backwards link between nothingness, and existence, where nothingness "evolves" to existence, starting again at the most rudimentary of existences that is the closest to nothingness and no-self? If so, then there may well be a stage beyond Nirvana, even though one will invariably be essentially different once one re-emerges as a new existence. The old self was surrendered and is no more, but nothing guarantees that a new and completely different rudimentary self cannot arise from the nothingness of the old self.

Moozique Recovery

My harddisk crashed some time back. Oh yes it did. But unfortunately, it took my music library with it. Yes it did, too. So what did I do? I checked my laptop, which had a nearly identical music library to the one on my desktop. Yes I did. So yeah, I spent a good amount of time just reorganizing all my music lists and whatnot, tossing out all the bad tracks. And now my music library is back, more elegant than it originally was. Yes it is. Unfortunately, it is short of a few of the newer albums, which I'll have to obtain again. Yes I will. I am proud to announce, however, that my music library is now back online! It is now!

Keeping The Balance

Why must girls like pink, and boys wear blue? Why must boys like soccer and football whilst girls enjoy romantic drama? This unnatural schism between the sex does little more than segregate the two main divisions of humanity into two neat groups. Such organization does little than facilitate groupings of primary modes of expected conduct within a society. Would society collapse in the absence of such rigid guidelines? Affirmations of such roles are met with approval, whilst any significant deviation is often criticized or even punished. Fluidity in definition need not be the root of destructive chaos. It is unnatural for life in all its variations to be subjected to rigid compartmentalization. There must be some degree of fluidity to enable some deviation from norms. Otherwise, dissatisfaction and associated unhappiness will be the likeliest result.

Must a presumably omnipotent deity be presented exclusively in a male form? Can there be balance between the masculine and feminine in divinity? One cannot hope to contain omnipotence just as one will find difficulty describing nothingness. To thus limit the greater Powers can amount to no less than blasphemy in claiming limitations to omnipotential power. In the grand scheme of things, only balance is the acceptable endpoint. If there can ever be a point of perfection, it can only be perfect balance. Anything else would cause an ever-shifting tendency towards a direction that can only lead to an ultimately lopsided universe. In seeking the triumph of one side, one is directly demanding the demise of its natural opposite.

Smash-resistant Glass

I never believed that it existed. If it sounds like glass, looks like glass, it probably shatters like glass, right? Incorrect, apparently. After visiting a long-abandoned theme park, we came across this display case with half-broken glass. Now, my guy friend, being destuctive, decided that he wanted to try his hand at breaking glass. Silly as that may sound, he took a solid swing at it with a broken billiard cue and all he got for it was sore hands. He threw a chair with heavy metal legs at it, and the chair just bounced off. Now that's really tough glass. It didn't even crack, though part of it was broken by some hooligan. So if you ever visit an abandoned theme park and find some pane of glass to be largely unbroken, you can rest assured that it's some sort of security glass. I took a swing at it with the cue, and it promptly broke, though. Guess it just takes a certain kind of force to damage that sort of thing. I'm officially a hooligan! Well, anyway, I call it smash resistant 'coz it took quite a beating before breaking. My glass panes cracked in my windows without my having to do anything at all! I want that smash-resistant glass on my windows! =p

The Great Disconnection

It was horrible! MyISP gave me a major scare when all of my internet connections started failing. Browsers refused to work, hell, even chat programs disconnected themselves and refused to reconnect. Worst of all, my router reported that everything was A-OK. Went around my other computers and found that they had the same problem. I was beginning to worry that the router decided to have an unscheduled break when I thought to fire up all my chat programs and set them on reconnect. It turned out that the ISP was (probably) conducting some maintenance out of the scheduled maintenance time slot. The disruption was 2 hours in advance of the scheduled maintenance time. Scary. Especially when my computer hardware has a knack for conking out at the most inconvenient times and in a rather abrupt manner.

The Freedom to Communicate

I can't stand my dad. Yeah. He's the sort that believes that stability is everything. Yes, to the extent that dictatorships are largely acceptable as long as they aren't actively destroying the country. I don't know what sort of indoctrination got to his head, or whether he truly believes such things, but it's terrible. He's so much in favour of state control that there is no limit to which a government can control the population, so long as it promotes stability. That includes organized protests in the face of corrupt policies. If other people think in this manner, overtly or covertly, I can understand how Hitler came to power so easily by mere force of words and some political maneuverings. And I also understand why dad runs the family the way he does.

Unchanging History

Humans hate change. And if any sort of "organization" actually likes change, it is probably young and unestablished. Why must a historical religion be "purer" than its modern form, for example? Perhaps it came from a time when change was necessarily a bad thing. A comfortable routine of having 3 square meals was a good thing. Suddenly having 5 meals a day and starving for the next 3 would probably be undesirable. Over time, humans became more and more comfortable with the idea of stagnation in stability. Perhaps that is why religions never wish to change with time, and why some remarkably illogical things are still being clung to.