“Normality” vs “abnormality” --- from Tiger Woods to Michael Jackson

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For me, Tiger Woods is perfectly normal, just like everybody else, and Michael Jackson was abnormal but not necessarily guilty as pedophile. But it seems that most people don't take it this way.

While so many normal people addict into sex everyday, they demand a role model such as Tiger Woods to be abnormal--- to show the world that our human being does have hope to put our animal sides under control. Of course their attempt fell flat. And a label “sex addiction” "scientifically" proved the "guilt" of Tiger Woods. As a result, all other “normal” people are still safe to have as much sex as they want, free from people’s judgment and “diagnoses” of psychologists.
On the other hand, while people frenziedly demand someone’s “abnormality” for some reasons, they showed no tolerance for true “abnormality” --- “difference” or “complex” in my own dictionary --- such as Michael Jackson. I believe that the reason most people were so sure about Michael Jackson’s guilt is only because for people THEMSELVES, to engage in sexual behaviors with children is the only reason for them to sleep with children in the same bed. But they forgot that while something is true for most people, DOES NOT mean it’s true for EVERYBODY.

Yes, people are complicated.

Atheism vs. theism

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I believe that our (human) capability to know is limited. So to say there is a God is denying this limitation, as if we are sure about something we really have no ideas. And to say there is NOT a God is also arrogant because we really have no evidences to prove there is NOT a God.
So both atheism and theism do not make sense to me. We are limited. We are trapped. We have no help. And WE DON'T KNOW.

And what is worse (or better) is that we cannot give up our reason --- the only tool we rely on to know things --- no matter where it leads us.

Good and Evil, the seeds of our nature

More thinking about this issue.
By saying that Good and Evil are both our Human Nature, I did not mean that we hold those qualities one way or another completely by our nature. I rather take it like this way: these qualities are more like seeds implanted in our spirits from the beginning. How we end up with these qualities depend on many complicated issues, such as how we are raised, what is our social environment, relationships, etc.. So, as individual, our moral standards are shaped by all these life experiences together. It is a combination of born nature and life experience.

Good and Evil, by nature and by Teaching

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I think we human beings all have some moral standards by NATURE called "conscience". This means even without the teachings of Jesus Christ or Confucian or whatever, we should still be able to comprehend things such as "love", "understanding", "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you", etc.. We also without teachings should be able to recognize "evil spirit", because we understand what hurt ourselves must also hurt others.

This is what I meant earlier "human beings are born both Good and Evil". They come to us as part of our Nature. And the morality created by such nature like "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", is something representing truth and we should never give them up.

However, there is another kind of moral standard made by MAN, usually under the name of "God", or "Saint", teaching us what is Good and what is Bad, such as pagan, adultery, homosexuality, abortion, divorce, etc.. These teachings were/are usually set up for certain purposes, and they all changing through history (I mean a history in a large picture, not history within hundreds or couple of thousands years). They may have done lots of "Good" but also lots of "Bad" at the same time, so they remain controversial to scholars or whoever asking questions.
These types of moral standards, are belong to what I said earlier as "Doctrine" (or someone help me to find a better English word please). They do NOT necessarily represent TRUTH.

"Kind" people

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By Ping Hu, an contemporary Chinese philosopher:

"People always put the word 'kind' to many weak individuals, but they may not realize that the only reason these weak individuals appear to be so 'kind' is because they do not have chance to be evil."

Good and Evil

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Human beings are not born Good, nor Evil, but both Good and Evil.

Doctrines can not make a good man better, nor can it turn an evil man good.

Doctrines are created for survival needs of human groups, so a plain truth for most people can be a total fault for a few, a noble creed for one group of people can be a devilish cult to another.

Feel "English" again.

After writing in Chinese for a while, I feel "English" again. My English writing has to be very simple due to two reasons: 1, my vocabulary is very limited; 2, this shortage of vocabulary actually forces me to simplify whatever I have to say. So, it is like using limited tools working on some bigger project... not a bad thing I guess

Passion and reason

Passion without reason is chaotic and shallow, reason without passion is dry and boring.

Aphorism by a "bitch"

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"... the difference is: I go after men because I want them, you go after them because you need them.... face it, you are weak!"
---by Edie, Desperate Housewives, season 5, episode 12.

After watching Desperate Housewives, the character that really made me thinking is Edie Britt, a "bitch", "Whore", and a philosopher. I even found this web page call Edie Britt Quotes

The most unforgetable was her narration after her death, which I have posted previously.

Sasha is back!

Sasha Cohen, after 4 years' "break", coming back to competition. Here is the most anticipated short program practice today at Spokane where she will compete tomorrow night (she looks amazing! i already got heart attack 5 minutes ago when she fell...):



Sasha now is 25 and aims to Olympics this year (next month). When she just came out she was 16 and she was the only one who was considered possibly beat Michelle Kwan. She didn't, technique wise (or jump wise), but by my point she did. Her talent to interpret music is like never seen before. Now, every single Sasha fan include me is nervous, and of course, excited!

Edie's final words --- from "desperate housewives"

"That's how Wisteria Lane became to be my final resting place:
My ashes was spread on grass I had once walked on; beneath trees that once gave me shade; on top of roses I once admired; and beside the fences I once gossiped over. After my friends finished saying goodbye, a wind came along, took what was left of me into the air. As I looked down on the world, I began to let it go of it, I let it go over white fences, cars and drive ways, , coffee cups and vacuum cleaners. I let it go over all those things which seemed so ordinary, but when you put them together they make up a life, a life that really was one of a kind. I tell you something, it is not hard to die when you know you have lived.
and I did. oh, how I lived! "

From "Desperate Housewives" season 5 episode 19.

History of the world part 1: Last supper

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by Mel Brooks:

"History of the world part 1: 10 Commandments"

----

by Mel Brooks. hilarious:

Is psychology a science?

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Here is an article questioning psychology's scientific value.
Is psychology a science?

It proves the difficulty on studying human being, also it supports my doubt on some psychological ideas. However, I believe scientists (psychologists) would not be discouraged by this difficulty. They will carry on. Of course.

My doomed 2009 -- A lesson was learned

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In 2009, I met the toughest challenge in my life: jobless paired with terrible health condition. While I poorly "conquered" the first one during the first half of the year, the later one remains problematic.

CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) is really a monster. It doesn't kill you like some cancers, but it makes you to be only half of yourself, or even less than half. You may suffer symptoms of heart diseases, or of diabetes, or of many other diseases but as matter of fact, you have none of those diseases. The causes for CFS are still unknown, or too complicated to be detected. For sufferers, this means there is no cure for you. Or, as many doctors claimed, "you are fine".
The worst part of CFS is that it is the most misunderstood thus the most commonly misdiagnosed and mistreated illness ever. Usually it starts with normal tiredness, gradually gets severe until it's too late. During the course, patients inevitably and frequently feel inadequate, which is exactly how people with depression would feel. Thus CFS are often diagnosed as depression and given anti-depressants. However there is no study shows the effectiveness of these treatments. On the contrary, there were plenty cases showed the opposite (A young lady Sophia Mirza was one of the victims who DIED under mental treatments: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mZMpvtD3rg). To clear this confusion, people (esp. doctors ) should know that it is chronic physical illness cause depression, not the other way around. However I don't mean that depression doesn't cause ANY physical problems at all, it only means that it is not most CFS sufferers' cases.

As a longterm sufferer, I personally diagnose my CFS as "energy overdrawn". By Chinese medicine, our energy is like a bank: we make withdraw everyday also we make deposit everyday. When we make withdraw but not make deposit, we bring ourselves troubles.
How do we make deposit for our energy? Answer is: Foods, sleep and exercises. These 3 things are the most important "deposit" we make for our energy bank. They together make a concept called: "positive life style". If we keep these things on going everyday, we should have no problems at all.
So my personal conclusion on the cause of CFS is " bad lifestyle", which mean failed on these 3 things. For CFS patients (not real depression sufferers), making effort on changing your physical life style would do much better job on recovering than focusing on what's wrong with your mind (like doctors said).

As a person who never cared about my physical being, this is the biggest lesson I learn in very hard way during my struggling in 2009. I had to shift my whole interest from "spirit" to "physical matters", such as cooking, sleep, exercises, etc. (the first one --- cooking --- is very hard for me to do because my stomach doesn't like American food so I have to work very hard to please such a patriotic organ!)

Of course, there is one thing I did not mention on my good life style menu: good spirit. I used to think this one is the most important thing and it is above all physical issues, but after physically problematic for so long, I had to doubt my former belief. All I can tell now, is that we must take care of every aspect of ourselves: body and mind. Being balanced is the key.

May I have a blessed 2010! And you too!


01/01/2010

Geography of a southern redneck

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A cable guy originally from Romania told me this true story: one day he came to a single house in the woods of North Carolina to do his job. The owner of the house was a guy about 30s. This guy lived alone there with dozens of dogs and cats. He noticed the cable guy's accent and politely asked him where he came from.
"Romania." The cable guy answered.
"Oh? How long does it take to drive there?"
"Eh? ... Oh, Romania is a country in Europe"
"Oh? I thought Europe is in Poland."

Is compassion really a human nature?

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My experience starts telling me that people usually would turn away from you if they heard that you were sick, especially if you are chronically ill. It seems that people either don't really know how to act in such a situation or, they simply don't believe you are sick (unless you stay in hospital).

I cannot tell how many time when I mentioned that I wasn't feeling well to some of my "friends" they just shrugged me off by saying "you look fine", or "you sound fine". I knew clearly what they really said was "don't even try to draw my attention by saying that you are sick", or, "you just don't know yourself". I also noticed that quite a few times people (or friends) just ignored my emails when I mentioned I was not in good shape.
By the way let me just clarify here that I was not the type of person who like to whiny over nothing.

So as time goes by friendships are jeopardized. As matter of fact I had to drop a few friends (which was not easy to me), because I simply cannot imagine I would do the same things like what they did to me. I can't even recall a single time of turning away from a friend when she/he needed me.
Am I abnormal here? Or, am I just too good to be a human being?

Does knowledge have limitation?

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I think it does. If we admit that our human being has limitation, so does our reason and our knowledge. Thus I believe that being skeptical is the right attitude to have for a real scientist or a rational human being.

However, this does not mean that we should go for superstition. It only means that while we acknowledge our limitation, we would still respect our reason as the most reliable pathway to reach the truth.

Dexter

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I would recommand this show to whoever enjoy mystery, crime and suspense movies. I knew this show from an online friend. Now I am totally hooked. It is absolutely addictive. If you really want to have a good time, start watching it from season one.

Mel Brooks, a genius filmmaker

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After having great fun with "High Anxiety", I started looking for Mel Brooks' films. "History of the world: part 1" just proved my impression of him, he really is a genius filmmaker! He is not only one of greatest filmmakers, but also a great thinker. He put some very serious subjects into comedies and made your laugh and think at the same time.

Watch these clips and see if you would laugh:
Last supper
10 Commandements