Category: Thoughts

Acquaintancy

I hate how in college, relationships can end with the end of a semester. You’re no longer in class with them, therefore you don’t see them or talk to them anymore.
Your one most common mutuality, your one “excuse” for interacting, is over with.
It feels like with more time, you could’ve developed a better relationship, beyond simple acquaintancy.
But maybe the mutual desire just wasn’t as strong as you thought it was. And that’s why it didn’t continue.
Maybe they’ve accepted the fact that friendships only last for a semester.
Maybe that’s all that was meant to be: an acquaintancy.

My Take on Ever-Critical “Fans”

I don’t think one is a true fan of something, if they can only appreciate the initial works of an artist or person, and then criticize everything that comes after it for not being the same, or even very similar. In most cases, this change you don’t like, is just a just natural evolution of the art and the artist.

I see this problem in both music and film, but it can also occur in countless mediums, even with people.
Ex: The people who criticize every new album Linkin Park releases just because it doesn’t sound like their first (the fans’ “favorite”.) People who criticize the new Star Wars films for not being the same as the originals, in ways evolutionary or not. People who criticize the new Halo videogames for not being the same as the originals. People who criticize a leader for changing his ideas as he got older. It’s mere evolution.

The fact of the matter is, if you’re a true fan, you are a fan of the artist, the series, or the person, not just their initial works; and will follow them on their journey, as they naturally evolve throughout it. You liked the original concept, so watch it grow. If it grows into something bad, it’s fine to not like it, but give it a chance, and realize things and people change and evolve.

Linkin Park are different people than they were 15 years ago, and their original music style isn’t exciting to them anymore. Let them be creative and explore new things. Be excited, and follow them on their new journey. Journey with them, don’t hold them back.
George Lucas wasn’t thinking of making the Star Wars prequels with the same formula as the originals. He wanted to try something new, something exciting to him.

You have to remember, true artists do not exist only to please their fans and make money, but to further their art as well, because it is their passion. Likely, they did not enter the market to “please fans”. They entered it because they are passionate about creating, and it is only natural for them to want to move on with their art, and innovate, if not make something new entirely!

Not continuing to further your art as you feel you should is just people-pleasing, and not what God put you on this earth to do. Will some people disagree with these changes? Yes, of course. But it will be the right thing to do. Regardless of what you do, you will have people who are critical, so it is better to do what you, the creator, thinks is best. Should artists take feedback? They should welcome it, but only incorporate what they feel is right, not bending to every person’s expectations. Doing that would not render them an original artist anymore; at that point they would merely be a private contractor.

My point is, let the artists breathe. All art is living, and will eventually grow old. Will it still be fascinating? Yes. But will the artist want to make the same art every time? Of course not. By doing so, it would become monotonous, and the artist would lose his passion. Only by creating new things, will the artists continue to thrive, flourish, and be passionate about their work; hence allowing them to continue to create new work.
If you don’t allow the artists this freedom, there will be no new work!

If you cannot stand the new work, the artist will likely not change. As artists, they want to push the medium forward, and continue to be excited by trying new things.

With that aside, fans, true fans must allow the artists to evolve, and grow with them.
Not allowing the artists the right to evolution is unnatural and unrealistic, as evolution is natural. It’s a natural part of life and a part of art, and we must accept it; not only for ourselves, but for the creators, as well.

If, as a fan, you cannot accept this universal truth, not only are you not a true fan of the artist, but are blinded by the reality of change.

What I Don’t Understand About Vegetarianism And Veganism

What I don’t understand about vegetarianism and veganism:
I understand the view that killing animals for food seems wrong. The main arguments are that they have emotions and feelings too, and since they’re living, and are similar to us in many ways, they do not deserve this treatment. While this seems agreeable to me, look at the next point:

Plants are not excluded from this logic. Plants may seem “okay”, because they don’t have brains or visible feelings, and they don’t move. But in reality, plants are living things too. Have you seen plants like Venus fly traps? That’s an intelligent plant, regardless if it can move on its own or has eyes, it hunts for food just like other animals. And all plants need water, nutrition, and sunlight to grow, the same as all other animals. And they bleed, and they, too, bleed and die when you cut them, and kill them. So in this sense, they are no less important than any animal you may eat.

By this logic, you should not be eating any plant products, either. It’s no more “okay” to eat plants than animals.
But we need to consume them for our survival. Just like other animals need to eat animals, and plants. And just like some plants need to eat flies, and drink water, and take nourishment from worms, and the rest of the earth.

Now that we see both are more equal than we thought, if we didn’t eat animals OR plants, we wouldn’t survive, just as plants wouldn’t survive without the worms, or the animals wouldn’t survive without BOTH.

In conclusion, everything is living, even the earth. And everything is symbiotic. We all must feed off of each other, for our own survival. And we shouldn’t be ashamed of it, or offended by it. In the end, we’re all the same.

As early Native Americans saw it, the buffalo was holy to them. They worshipped it, with the utmost respect. But they also understood they needed the buffalo for survival, and therefore consumed it, but wasted no part of it, and treated it with the utmost respect during the process.

Even though we must consume, as is the law of nature, it does not mean we get to treat the things we consume negatively during the process. Taking a tip from our early Natives, while we understand we need our plants and animals, the least we can do is treat the things we consume with respect.
That is our duty.

Just don’t eat your own kind. That, my friends, is cause for anarchy.

Close Friends

I don’t think the reason we don’t have many close friends is because we don’t want them. I think it’s because we can’t handle too many close friendships. We like telling everything to just a handful of people in our lives and focusing on them, because it would actually be exhausting to try to forge those same kind of relationships with everyone you like and want to be friends with.
So we choose who fate gives us. And maybe that’s how it should be.