Believe

I've been looking back at this blog and I've been thinking about the effect of the seven sins in my life. And I have to admit, the sins have played a rather big role in my life. I mean, some of the sins have been of little problem for me to resolve, while others have been huge, annoying moral dilemmas for me to deal with, both physically and mentally.

Now, for those of you who may not know what the hell I'm talking about right now, I'm talking about the seven deadly sins: Pride, Lust, Greed, Wrath, Envy, Gluttony and Sloth. According to popular (and probably religious) belief, these seven sins are the sins that have been the "base" of every sin a human has committed (that probably could've been phrased better, but you get the idea).

In this post, I'll be covering the seven sins' effect on yours truly. Although I would describe myself as the rather "monotonous, blank, silent" type, I have NO problem admitting that I too, have a problem when it comes to being a perfect, pure, unstained lamb of the Lord. Trust me, I ain't no saint. I am FAR from pure. I don't exactly have the biggest faith (can faith even be measured in size? Ah well, you get what I'm trying to say) in the general community, because there are some irresistibly blasphemous questions about how the world was truly made and crap like that (evolution, the Big Bang theory (not the show, the actual theory), and other God-defying theories about life).

I'm not trying to defy the Father and his teachings or whatever, but I also don't want to sound like those overzealous dudes who stood on the Creationist side on the debate on Creation VS Evolution that went down several decades ago (or centuries. Ah, screw it. Too lazy to search up the exact date, but you get the idea, at least). I mean, yeah, I know that you Creationists out there really stand by your virtues about God and stuff like that, and I totally respect that (and don't hate on me guys, I really meant that. I wasn't being sarcastic. Word of honor).

Sometimes I guess believing in God is something that can make you a bit of an outsider, whether you may like it or not. I also respect the fact that you Creationists out there believe in the Lord's teachings even though it may collide with logic (take Noah's Ark, for instance. Some of the Ark's calculations about its size may not exactly fit the entire population of animals that were roaming the Earth at the time, but believers out there hold on to that fact. Maybe that's one part that I do not fully comprehend/understand yet).

I have mixed thoughts about all these theologies about how the Earth was made, how humans were made, a lot of things (yeah, there are a lot of things that an introvert can do in his spare time, isolated from the rest of the general community) that are a common debate nowadays. For instance, I like to think that God TRIGGERED the Big Bang that made the universe, that Adam and Eve was- Um, never mind, forget I ever said that. Don't want an endless wave of hating running at me. The point is, I have a lot of messed up (the level of "messed up" can vary on the theory) theories about the universe, some that a lot of you will most likely hate me for if I ever told you. So yeah, some things ARE better kept under wraps than known to the public...

We'll talk more about the topic next time, when I get the time. For now, peace out.

Da Future

From the title of this post I can tell that you might be thinking, "Oh, Jason's gonna be talking about the future and all the fancy stuff that we're gonna have later in out lives." or something like that. Well, my dear readers, whether you like it or not, the topic for today is NOT going to be about future weaponry or all that stuff. Instead, we're gonna spend this post talking about my (potential) future and how the hell I'm gonna manage to achieve it (man, I sound all arrogant and self-caring, I should seriously consider changing my tone to become less of a braggart). Anyway, let's just get this started already.

To start with, let me just put it this way; if one day there was a person who needed somebody to rely on to get a job or find motivation to work on whatever project said person is working on right now, I tell you now, and do NOT say I didn't warn you guys: I will certainly, one hundred percent sure I will NOT be that person. Work and play do not mix. Or at least it doesn't for me. You want expert advice, ask all those geniuses in the universities and people like that. Either their work IS their play (in simpler words, studying is their favorite activity. I will NEVER be that kind of guy, because I NEVER want to be known as "Jason the Smart-ass Nerd". Even if I can, I'll hate myself for it, Just an FYI. "Ain't nobody gonna change me but me.". Remember that quote?) or their lives depend on it.

Anyway, to summarize all that, let's just say I'm more of a carefree, aloof soul. Maybe a bit TOO carefree and aloof, if you ask me (yeah, amazingly, I somehow still know my limits). And this is not just because my parents told me, either; I also came to realize this over the years, but I just can't help being this person I am today. I mean, sloth is a deadly sin, yeah, but losing habits are more easily said than done. Anyone who's protesting now about my current metal state and that "Jason should stop being a lazy-ass f*** and be more discipline, DUH.", please shut the hell up and stop reading. This is not the post for you. You're better off reading about quantum physics and $#!+ like that than complaining about how I live my life.

OK, sorry about the recent meltdown there. As I was saying, all I need is just a little push. A little motivation (my parents don't count, by the way. The only thing they helped me with so far is that sometimes force is necessary to control your children and other basic virtues, and didn't exactly help me with motivation to work. Sorry, my descendants. Not my freakin' idea) to turn me into the successful person I hope I just might be someday. With a bit of luck and passion, I will be said person someday. I just need to find a way to do it. If I don't, well, expect to find an "Alexander Jason" working a regular, tedious and obviously dull office job in some building or, worst case scenario, roaming the slums of Jakarta trying to find a way to survive a day in its, harsh, cruel, unforgiving environment.

Time To Parteh

So. Last day of the school year down. What the hell do we do now, now that all the school stuff has been done and all is well with the world? OK, well, maybe not EVERYTHING is well with the world yet, starting from the fact that I feel somewhat isolated from my friends and prefer social interaction over an online Skype chat with my compatriots, as I may have mentioned in the previous post. However, on the bright side, I've got several weeks (perhaps even MONTHS) of goofing around the house doing absolutely nothing but opening various useless (but nonetheless very entertaining) websites and social media applications, and probably a few events with my family and friends, some of which I may enjoy (sleepovers, chatting online with my bros, all that kinds of stuff) or dislike/even despise (pretty much everything else).

So, on the plus side, I've got my plans for the holidays, which is basically watch the absolute $#!+ out of myself (that's gonna be a problematic, seeing that my eyesight is already seriously messed up as it is, but hopefully I'll be able to figure SOMETHING out over the holidays) on my computer, while resisting compliments from my ever-supporting parents about how it will horribly hinder my eyesight and mess up everything related to my vision and trying to shrug them off and find a way to deal with this dilemma so they won't have to worry about it (WHY in the name of Dog, out of all the genetic health issues my family could've passed down to me, it HAD to be “bad eyesight”? You can see how great that health problem mixes with my addiction and daily life. I'm not blaming you, ancestors, don't worry. I'm just cursing fate. I also won't want to be cursed by my (possibly grand) children for passing down my many disorders, including bad vision, mild ADHD and OCD in the future).

So other than my parents, I've got pretty much everything else sorted out. I've got Skype to help me keep in touch with my pals, which, when you think about it, might actually BETTER than real life interaction on some sides. I mean, can you create accidental spoonerisms on social media? Are you affected by your impediment speech in an online chat? That's a persistent problem I have to deal with from time to time. My friends I keep on “moving my lips the wrong way” when I speak. Well, to that I say my friend, screw you too. “Ain't nobody gonna change me but me”, bish (before you call me a copycat or something like that, let me point out to you that that wasn't my quote. It was a quote (not a very famous one, but a quote nonetheless) spoken by a talking raccoon in a movie where a vagrant, a space wrestler, a green super soldier, a tree and before-mentioned talking raccoon save a planet from a race of aliens who've suffered from hypothermia for way too long (or whatever that sickness that turns your skin blue is. I don't have freakin' Internet connection right now, so I'm not even gonna try to search up that term). If you still haven;t guessed the movie yet, consult to your friend who has). Get used to that.

So really... That's all that I really need to say for this post. I'll post this thing tomorrow, when I'm authorized connection the Web once more (my parents (I'm sorry, to be more exact, my DAD. If my family was a city, he's be the SWAT, the CIA and the FBI all at once. On second thought, my mom would probably be CIA. She reports to the superior agencies and they act accordingly. Anyway, we're getting off topic here, let's try to stick to the main path) have blocked off the Internet connection for the night, because due to past experiences, they have concluded that I should not be left to run amok with free Wi-Fi overnight, which is why I'm writing this now, at 10 PM. Time and date'll change by the time I post this, but that's the condition as of right now).

So that's that, then. Goodbye and see y'all until the next post.

Wake Me Up When The School Year Ends

So, today's the final day. After a year worth of studying and working my butt off doing various kinds of worksheets, tests, homework, projects and all that stuff, we have finally reached the year's end. During this year's end, I normally reflect. I look back and reflect on the things I could have done better, and the things that I was happy I did the way I did it (in simpler wording, the things that I was glad stayed the same).

In this post, I'm going to reflect on the previously mentioned things that I have just listed above (that probably could've been put into a much simpler sentence, but whatever) and if I feel like I'm the mood to, I'm probably gonna spend the remainder of the post planning my kick-ass holiday. We'll see how things go.

Let's reflect on the things I could've done better over the course of the past year. I mean (chuckle), EVERYBODY knows what a DILIGENT, HARDWORKING soul I am (that just goes to say that in reality, I really was just this lazy-ass dude who would delay the homework to the last possible second before he would actually get up and DO the work. Hey, don't ask: Last-minute panic is an awesome remedy to work, as I always say. You'll probably get a different opinion depending on who you ask though. I mean, my parents SURELY approve of it...), which is not at all.

Seriously, the majority of the projects and homework that I have done over the past year was NOT done in the best way possible. In other words, I REALLY didn't try. I really didn't. I'm not that type of guy. I'm more of the kind of guy who'd wait the homework out up until the last minute AND THEN work on it, as I may have mentioned previously. I am the LAST guy you'd expect who'd actually give a crap about some upcoming project.

When there's a piece of work that needs my attention, I'd normally lie around the house surfing the Web until the day before the deadline. THAT'S what it takes for me to quit YouTube and use the Internet for something far more useful (in academic terms, of course. Personally, I don't really think that stuff is all that useful to me. Then again, this is coming from the mouth of a guy who's obsessed in the Internet and literally can't find anything else to do besides write about his daily musings in a notebook OR talk with his friends (It MUST be his friends, however, because he and the public don't really mix well together. He hates strangers).

Of course, there's an exception. If it's a group project, that means I at least receive support from my friends, both morally and physically. I mean, I know I'm lazy, but when it comes to helping my friends, I'm all ears to find a way to help. That's one thing I'm glad I still had after all this time; a good standing with my friends. Fortunately, to the year level, although I come off as a bit of a freak, at least I ALSO come off as a patient, understanding and kind soul, even though there's a lot more that I'm willing to divulge under the mask (if you get that metaphor, I mean).

So yeah, other than that, I'm very happy and satisfied with my current state in my school. It's taught me a lot of things (in an unnecessarily rough method, but they taught me many things nonetheless), including mettle, toughness, friendship, sacrifice, and a great many other things. I'll be back, however, You ain't seen the last of me yet. So until the next post, guys. I will see you until then. Bye!

(Potentially) Happy Holidays

So anyway, it's only one more day 'til freedom comes. Tomorrow, which will be (hold on, let me check the calendar for a sec... and... right, here's the date) June 24, 2015, will be the last day of 8^th grade (or to you people out there, to put it in more easily understood terms, last day of the 2^nd grade of middle school, whichever one you prefer, you get the point). That, my friends, will be the time when everyone in the school goes into a brief hiatus (AKA a holiday for several months) of fun and excitement.

However, holidays, as amazing as it may sound, is not all sunshine and rainbows for me. Oh, NO, sir. There were a lot of issues that one might consider about having a holiday that may not have been considered by a person beforehand. There are a lot of things. But on the positive side, it may mean several months worth of useless (but EXTREMELY entertaining) lying around the house, but take this from me; it is one of my ideas of a perfect use of time. I know that sloth is a huge deadly sin that I possess, but seriously, as much as you might want to eradicate it from me, seriously guys, give me a freakin' break. Please.

Anyway, let's just get straight down into it. First of all, the issue with holidays are the lack of friends and social interaction. Yes, as much of a socially isolated freak I am in the general community around me, I actually CARE about my interaction with my buddies. Surprise, surprise. Just wait 'til my parents read about this...

As I was saying, when I say “lack of social interaction”, I meant to say that I don't feel that the liveliness of the typical conversation is present within a chatting session done on the Web. I mean, if you ask me whether I'd rather have a real, physical conversation with my friends at a table where we talk to each other with our own voices compared to a Skype chat online, where the only equivalent of talking is tapping several keys on our laptop to communicate with other people in the same chat, I'd take the actual, physical conversation ANY day. It DOES have much more meaning, after all. I mean, Social media IS good for communicating anywhere at any time, but when it comes down to it, the physical conversation wins, hands down.

That is the one, sole, vital reason behind missing school: Friends. A school without classmates is like Snoop Dogg without his stash of weed (yes, I actually made that reference in a speech in my English class. The English teacher was like, SMH). So if there's one thing that I highly miss about school, it's that one. Freaking. Word: Friendship.

With a bit of luck, I might be able to find a way to use social media and other online chatting applications to make the best of my friendship online while away from school. And if I don't, well, I'm pretty damn sure I'll be able to figure out another way to entertain myself at home without my friends' company that (hopefully) DOESN'T incur my parents' wrath. So with a bit of luck, I should be able to do that. Hopefully. Anyway, goodbye and see ya guys in the next post.

End of the Line (2015 version)

It's only a few more days 'til the end of my school year. That's both a good thing and a bad thing. Good? I've got a few months ahead of me full of nothing but fun and excitement. And needless to say, that is freaking awesome. Bad? Well, that means I'm gonna have to wave goodbye to my friends for several months until we reunite by the next school year.

It's amazing how fast the years pass, isn't it? Strangely, this parting didn't feel half as dramatic as last year; last year was a lot more, how should I describe it, sad (is that even the right word to describe it?), mostly probably due to the fact that it was the very first time I parted ways with my classmates. Now, well, it doesn't feel as dramatic as last year.

But still, the fact that I had to part ways with my pals was still very saddening to admit, one way or another. On the BRIGHT side, however, UNLIKE last year, I at least now I have another means to contact my friends over the months, including my friend who's gonna be moving to the USA next year; it's called social media. I mean, sure, it's not as effective as actually mingling with them, but it's a way to contact them nonetheless.

But I'm not here to talk (actually, not talk, to speak literally, but write) about that. I'm here to discuss about my science fair to you guys. I mean, there's this big-ass science fair that my school is having, and I think that for today's post, we should probably talk about said science fair.

So anyway, as I was saying, this science fair is basically an exhibition of crazy science stuff that students of the school have cooked up. These experiments may range from wet clay and a sound system (basically, the wet clay moves and makes a shape depending on what kind of sound you play on the speaker) to a ketchup packet that can sink or float (you can decide) in a bottle of water (courtesy of yours truly. Yeah, I know it's kinda lame, but that's always been my style; simple, fun, and not difficult). You only need to press said bottle in order to make the packet sink, and let go of the bottle to make said packet float.

So you might assume that this science fair might count for something towards the students' final academic grade. To answer your question, yes, it does. Kind of. Not that much however. We're not talking about a HUGE change to your grade according to how awesome your experiment is, but merely only a minor one. I, for one, don't really give much of a crap about the grade this is gonna bolster me up on, because it is already what it is. So I'm just gonna stick with my humble little experiment here (this time, rolling a can with static electricity).

So yeah, that's all I have to say about the school year coming to an end. Hopefully I'll be here next time, and see you guys until then. Bye!

Frame of Mind

Another day, another post. I could get used to this (but then again, remembering my true motive behind this post, maybe not), Anyway, in today's post, we are going to talk about happiness and many moral issues and its characteristics. I don't see much of a point babbling on and on about useless bull-crap that isn't necessary to be explain to you readers, so without further ado, let's just get straight to it.

Over the months, after some mental conditioning and change of heart (and mind), I've finally come to a conclusion, and a rather important one too. It may be a conclusion that some of you readers out there may have found earlier, but I only have discovered just recently, so frankly, I'll understand if you guys mocked me for this. Anyway, about last year, I discovered that happiness was really just a frame of mind. And believe me, that is a pretty damn important discovery for me.

I used to think about happiness and the feeling of contentedness was just merely related to your possessions and material belongings you had. So as a kid I would have these wild goals about being super rich/famous and that way, everything would take care of itself.

But when I got into 7th grade in my new school, my new friends had inadvertently taught me a new way of thinking, the CORRECT way of thinking, the potential key to my future life; that happiness is not about your physical possessions or anything like that: it's about you, and HOW you think your current condition is. For instance, person A may think that he is in a hellhole although he's got himself a good-earning job, a nice, obeying family, a nice-looking house, good internet connection, everything he really needs to supply him for the remainder of his ungrateful life (sorry A, but you had it coming. No offense, other people out there reading this that sound like person A. I don't relate anyone in real life to the people in my story).

Meanwhile, person B is just a low-income, disrespected, pressured man who lives in a rundown house and has no guarantee that he will be able to live his life until his death. He has no family, almost no friends (with the exception of the other losers in his office who share the same rank in the business as he does), and a rather low income. Hell, he even has trouble paying for his rent, for Christ's sake.

But B is happy. He may not be in the best financial situation in the world right now, but he is happy. "Why the hell, after all this crap happening to him, is he still happy?" you may ask me. Well, my faithful readers, it's because he's happy. He's content with what he has, and he. Is. Happy. Period. Although he has a low income job and a financially critical situation, he is content with his life and what he has, although he just has this crappy junkyard of a house and a job that practically demands nothing of him. Hey, don't look at me; there ARE people like that in this world. Damn, son, there are HOMELESS people in this world that are content and happy with the lives they have. In fact, some of them may even be more happy and content than us people on the Internet looking for something juicy to read/watch/chat about online.

So as you read this, I want you to put on a brighter, more cheerful mindset. Be happy with what you have, be it not that much or a lot. Over time, you'll find a way to be content and happy with what you have, as I have managed to be with (the TRUE problem with me lies in the fact that I AM content with what I have, but lose my freakin' mind once I DO lose that thing. As of now, it's the Wi-Fi. Take that away, and you now know why I'm writing this thing in the first place. Sorry, readers. That's the painful truth).

So yeah. That's that, then. Thanks guys, and see y'all next time.

Work Has (Not) Driven Me Insane

Well, it's been a long time since I ever updated this. But due to a very sudden (and not to mention life-threatening) demand to get an article up and running up in this blog, here's something else to think about. It's been a long time since I've updated this blog, so let's get it started again with a little but of positive reinforcement. In this case, some tactics on how we can work on improving the quality of your work (disclaimer: this method requires some deep thinking and is not guaranteed to work, so I am not responsible for any negative impact this post may give. Anyway, let's get this started already).

My dad talked to me a few nights ago about how positive thinking can really affect the quality of the work you do and the way you think about the work. Don't even mention it; he spent an entire night talking about how I can improve my study habits since he saw me working on my homework and said that I should have a "better attitude" towards it. And so that's how this post came to be; daddy dearest here ended up making (or should I say "forcing" by the way he decided to strangle the Internet connection in the house? Nah, that's a bit too mean. We'll stick to "making" for now) his kids make an article on how to optimize the quality of one's work and how to improve your attitude towards it.

So here's my tactic on how to improve work quality: (many of you may have heard of this already, but I'm just here to inform the guys who don't know about it yet. If you already know, feel free to skip to the part where we're done discussing about this stuff) Get a more positive mindset (if you didn't already have a positive enough mindset already, I mean), to start with. To pessimists out there, I know that optimism ain't exactly the first thing we'd resort to when the word "productivity" comes to mind, but trust me, it can be VERY useful sometimes. And not merely only in work quality and thoughts on said work; it can also be used to gain a happier life. I could go on all day about this wonderful philosophy, but I'm afraid we're running short on words here. Anyway, let's just get to the point:

So if you can implement this positive thinking into your work (for instance, you can visualize that "'x' will help me to become a better person" instead of "'x' is utterly freakin' useless and will get me absolutely nowhere in life), you're going to perform a LOT better at the current piece of work you're, well, working on. And that's just the gist of it: you can implement this into plenty of your daily life's activities, as I had just said a few moments ago. But as I also had said before, we'll discuss about that another time, perhaps another day.

So yeah, that's what this post has been all about. Work can be melded into something good, something that actually benefits your life, instead of being a mere hindrance to your happiness. However, this is far much easier said than done, but once you can trick your mind into thinking like that, work will be so much easier to do. Trust me.