My Sincerest Apologies

Hello all.

I wanted to make a quick blog post just letting anyone and everyone who cares know that I am deeply sorry for neglecting this blog for so long. I got busy with school and ultimately just prioritized this under other things in my life.

That’s hopefully all about to change. I’m going to (at least attempt to) post here every Friday. My challenge to myself is to do this for an entire year. Call it a preemptive New Years resolution.

In short, expect a new post this Friday and each subsequent Friday for the foreseeable future. Thanks to any and all who viewed this blog in the past. I hope to not disappoint in the future.

Until Friday,
I’m Michael, and this is my life.        

Nostalgia vs. Speculation: Being Torn Between the Appeal of the Past and of the Future // Coca-Cola

            There's just something about a letter, a board game, a polaroid picture. Something that reaches into your heart and tugs on a deeply rooted nostalgia. Heck, even opening a classic Coca-Cola™ bottle causes this feelings to bubble up. These older activities, methods, and objects bring to us a longing for what is now considered a quaint way of living.

            This concept is fresh on my mind because I've had a pen pal for awhile now and have recently made a new one. Ironically, however, I met both of these people on the internet and, thus far in my life, have not met either in person. Interestingly enough, though, is that despite our cheaper and easier ability to communicate instantaneously via the internet, we still feel drawn to this archaic idea of sending and receiving post. There's something oddly appealing about this concept, and I'm forced to wonder: does this feeling exist simply because we dipped our toes in that era, but never needed to actually dive in? Technology developed with us, and we consequently didn't necessarily experience writing letters, playing board games (as opposed to video games), or taking photos on a film camera. These things go back to our earliest memories, but have long since been expired. Does the generation before us feel the same nostalgia for these things as we do? Or are they happy to see an improvement, as they've dealt long enough with the hassles of these outdated methods? What about the generation below us? Do/will they experience this nostalgia for these things, or will they instead feel this way for, say, a traditional video game controller? In other words, is the nostalgia we feel for these activities innate in the activities themselves, or is it assigned? 

            Conversely, each generation feels some rush of excitement when speculating on what's to come. Such is the basis of and a driving factor for the appeal of science fiction. We long for a future that has flying cars, useful robots, and a knife that toasts bread as it slices. This craving for what is to come is what creates demand for companies such as Apple. People want the new, improved, and closer-to-the-future technology. Yet, one can never actually acquire "the future technology". That would make it present technology. We strive for the future, because it's so tantalizing to us, and yet we will never be satisfied when concepts that were once of the future suddenly become the present.

The unfortunate truth is that both of these things, past and future, and inaccessible. We can get tastes of them, previews or flashbacks, but we cannot hold them. The human race is, for whatever reason, destined to forever simultaneously and paradoxically want to reach the future and relive the past; the present will seem lackluster in comparison.

The foot on which we are standing will always feel sore to he who wants to take a step.

Those are my musings for now.

I'm Michael, and this is my life.

The Cyclist Paradox

            I live in a relatively large city. My university is practically a medium-sized city situated within the larger actual city. It’s a great place to live, with great people, places, activities, and just overall environments. We’re also super green here and that’s fantastic. Our city has a bike rental system to encourage people to bike instead of driving around campus. We have really nice bike lanes on most of the streets in the area. In face, on the main street (which is one-way), bikes have a separate lane that goes the other way. So, in that sense, bikers here have special privileges.

            The problem is that this goes to their heads. Bikers here (as with biker in many other parts of the world, I’m sure) have grown to believe, paradoxically, that they are simultaneously a vehicle and a pedestrian, but only ever one when it’s convenient. For example, bikers here hardly ever stop for stop signs unless there’s traffic. What’s worse, the aforementioned special bike lanes (the ones that went against the flow of traffic on the one-way street) have their own stoplights, which they choose to ignore. That is, bikers are ignoring the traffic light that was built just for the bike lane. Many pedestrians find this annoying and infuriating. In fact, I once saw a biker completely ignore one of these stop lights, not even slowing down, and she consequently hit a pedestrian who was in the crosswalk when the sign said to walk. (Had I not been paying attention, this cyclist would have hit me.) This has become such a problem that the city police actually spent a day pulling cyclists over who ran reds at one such intersection.

            Another thing that cyclists do here is frequently switch between the road and the sidewalk whenever the other is more convenient. Now, I understand going to the sidewalk if your class is in the building there, but please please please dismount and walk your bike. You’re not a child anymore. You’re a grown person who has the ability to bike on the road.

            So, I guess as a general plea to all the cyclists out there: please be intelligent about your biking. While you are biking, you are a vehicle, not a pedestrian. Dismount if you want to act like a pedestrian.

Anyway. That was my rant for now.

Until next time, I’m Michael, and this is my life.

(P.S. No plug for this post. There hasn’t really been anything recently that I’d like to plug. Besides, I don’t really know how I’d work a plug into this rant. Next time, I promise.)

The Separation of Parent and Child // BBC Shows

            So, it’s been awhile since my last update. Reason being I moved into an apartment just off campus for the school year that, until recently, was without internet. But we’re online, now, and everything is going smoothly.

            Interesting thing, moving out. Moving out is like purgatory with regards to your parents. You want, and on some level need, to be independent from them, but at the same time they want, and on some level need, you to still be mildly dependent on them. Don’t get me wrong, they’re probably super happy to get you out of the house, but at the same time, they probably despise the fact that they have to let go.

            For example, shortly after I moved out I went camping with some friends a couple hours north of campus. Despite the fact that I should have probably told my parents where I was going just in case something happened, I did not on the basis that I felt it was none of their business. (This was, admittedly, rather immature of me.) Whilst I was gone with my friends camping, my parents tried to contact me, because my loft bed frame had finally arrived. Not being able to contact me, they decided it was a good idea to swing by my apartment and drop it off. Now, it is my fault that I did not tell them where I was, but I still wonder what drove them to think that stopping by unannounced at my apartment, which is shared with three other tenants, was a good idea. They could have arrived at any number of inconvenient and/or awkward times for the other tenants. So, through a lot of failed communication and irrational thought processes, my parents and I created a wonderful example of the different positions held by the parents and the child upon the child moving out.

            The worst section of time, though, is the part just before a child moves out. Like, when the child is about 18 years old and wants so badly to cut his or her parents loose and run around free in the world. The child desires independence (morally, religiously, physically, monetarily, etc.), but at the same time he or she cannot have it.

            Too many parents think that they have failed as parents if their kid(s) don’t believe exactly what they believe. This, however, isn’t a failure in parenting, but rather a failure in their ideology. For example, many religious parents feel that they have failed in raising their child properly if he/she “strays” from his/her parents’ religious views. Examine this closely and you will see that this is not a failure in parenting. Instead, it is a failure in spreading the religious views further, which is innately what all religious views (as well as all other ideologies) wish to do.

If I were to raise my kid to believe that, say, The Vampire Diaries (a show I, personally, find to be utter garbage) is the best show that ever was and will be, would it really be correct of me to feel that I failed as a parent if my child grows up and realizes that BBC television shows such as are far superior shows to The Vampire Diaries? No. Rather, I should be proud that my child has grown to the point where he/she can judge what is good, even if it were to disagree with my own views.

Personally, I feel that a parent’s job is to raise a child to a level of intellect and maturity such that he or she can go out into the world and independently make rational and informed political, religious, academic, vocational, and moral decisions. Too many parents take this and add “that agree with my views” to the end of it, and that, in this blogger’s opinion, is wrong.

Well, that’s about it for this update.

I’m Michael, and this is my life.

*Update/Disclaimer*: I realized that this may seem like I want all parents to be super loose and not try and teach or guide their kids. This is not accurate. This post is talking exclusively about the time in a child’s life when he/she begins to separate both physically (moving out) and ideologically from his/her parents. It is at this point in life that I believe parents should take a step back and let their kid decide more for him/herself, even if they disagree with him/her. The parents can (and arguably should) still be there as a guide, but they shouldn’t force it.