We often praise that are inherently opposed. We idealize the man that holds to his beliefs no matter the cost, yet we also manage to praise the man that is willing to make compromises so a better solution is found for all. This plays an important role when attempting to engineer a perception of yourself that prevails in society. This means that individuals will find something to praise in those they like, because any characteristic can be construed as being good, that also means that individuals will dislike who they will, and will find reasons to justify that decision.

I am opposed to the attitude that i have noticed which places importance on "being yourself", because yourself is how you are, there is not a person that you "really" are that you could act like, the person you act like is the person you are. Most individuals care about other's perceptions of them, and alter their behavior accordingly, this does not mean that they are acting contrary to who they "really" are, merely that who they are takes others perceptions of them into consideration. The majority of people, if not everyone, falls into this course of action, altering their behavior to create an image for society (ironically that image could be someone who is trying to be themselves). While this behavior is not wrong or objectionable, it does fall into a fallacy, the fact that individuals will find both reason to praise and criticize in any image we choose to create. 

So while altering our behavior to gain society's liking, is flawed, our altering our behavior to gain any particular person's liking is not, because each person will find reason to criticize or praise, as opposed to criticize and praise. The distinction is key because altering your behavior to gain a particular persons liking, makes logical sense because they can, exclusively, like a particular image. The question becomes then how to determine what image is liked by which person, to this i have no answer, for i am as equally likely to be called thrifty and cheap for not spending money, and i have noticed no correlation between one type of person favoring one and one favoring the other.  Thus while it makes logical sense, it is an impracticality that i have no solution to.

And thus ends my philosophical thinking, for those that care the score currently stands at attic 7, cameron 2. And finally i don't have a funny picture to post and so i will post another song despite my aversion to repetitiveness. This song is one of my favorites, especially because of the fact that it has such a strong Vienesse Waltz beat.

Next post: why not having mood swings leads to a happier life.

What is it that causes us to invest ourselves in something we have no control over?
While this question has many applications, in this instance i choose to apply to sports, because the reality is (with a few notable exceptions) sports is the only thing that i choose to get emotionally involved with. The joy of success and the pain of failure only exist because we emotionally invest ourselves in the outcome. Why do we choose to do this when most teams don't win championships and most players fail to be remembered? The answer has several reasons.
1. There has been interesting research in something called mirror neurons, these are neurons that essentially cause us to picture ourselves doing something we have not yet done. These exist in evolutionary terms because instead of growing a coat of hair over hundreds of generations, you just see your parents kill a bear and wear its coat and you do the same. This is important to sports because they allow us to picture ourselves out there, thus even though we may never play on a professional sports team, we can still see ourselves out there succeeding or failing with those that are. (for those that want more info. see http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/mirror-neurons.html).
2. We care about sports because it exemplifies what we hate/love, and what we wish to be. Sports is home to some of the most inspiring stories i am aware of, from Magic Johnson's all-star game despite the fact that he had HIV, to Brett Farve's 399 yard 4 touchdown performance on monday night football despite the fact that his father had just died, to phillip humber's perfect game despite multiple teams discrediting him (please note all of the above performed 'despite' something, another beauty of sports), and these are just individuals success stories there are plenty of underdog teams winning against the odds. Yet sports is also home to individuals that we despise, from Michael Vick hosting dog fights, to the white sox world series betting scandal, to the patriots spying on other players to win. Sports allows us to see individuals on the extremes of the spectrum like no other occupation does, due to the constant media attention and the fact that they do not have to gain your approval to perform.
3. Finally we watch sports to see others succeed where we have not. The phrase "Any Given Sunday" exists because it imports one fact, that your team could win any game. Many sports stories that we cherish deal with the fact that the team beat the odds to win. This allows us to hope that our team may win that next game, or championship. This hope can then transfer to ourselves, if we haven't won yet we still could, or inspite of ourselves, even if i don't win my team can. This is the root cause that many of us watch sports, because in a world where it increasingly seems you can't win, sports allows us to think that we still can
I spend countless hours reading papers, boxscores, watching sportscenter, and the games themselves, yet despite all the disappointment and the losses, i still love it. Even if i won't say that sports "has always been there for me", it has always seemed to be around, from games as a little kid to watching the most recent OKC, Dallas game and Durrant missing the game winner (despite what sportscenter says). Sports is one of the extremely few illogical/emotional things i enjoy. Both its beauty, Ray Allen's jump shot is prettier than most women, to its lack of beauty, Meta World Peace elbowing a guy in the face (yes his name is meta world peace).  And now as the NBA season draws to a close, it just reminds me of how thing were, when the the jazz were fighting for a playoff spot and played pheonix, back before i realized how much i would miss it as soon as it was gone.
I love sports and so should you.

There is a distinction that i often make between the individual that we are and the individual that we pretend to be. While there is an argument to be made that the individual we pretend to be is contingent on we actually are, or that the individual we pretend to be is the individual we become, neither of those arguments negate the fact that there is a inherent difference between the two.
Thus we move on to the real discussion, discovering who we really are. Yes i realize the previous sentence was cliché, i meant it that way, for although it is generally a load of crap, that does not remove the validity of the question. Understanding yourself is something that is incredible difficult, because of the inherent inability of you to separate who you are as opposed to who you pretend to be or who you wish yourself to be. The only way that i can conceive is to observe yourself in extreme circumstances where your ability to think about your reactions is limited, daily routine is not indicative of natural character because it is designed to portray an image or to emphasize or deemphasize particular strengths or weaknesses. It is in the extremes that we can begin to determine what we are truly like, extreme comfort, discomfort are perfect examples. When we are extremely comfortable do we become gluttonous and do things we might regret or do we become generous and pull ourselves back from the brink. In extreme discomfort do we bemoan our fate and revel in the discomfort of others, or do we become industrious and good-natured. It is important to note that the examples given were extrapolations of seemingly minute thoughts and actions that occur in the heat of the moment.
However there is a key component to the discussion that is generally ignored when it is commonly discussed. The ability of rational action in opposition to this essential/natural character, it is possible for us to act contrary to our origional impulse. The interesting thing however is that this ability to act in opposition is something that is a essential characteristic that different individuals posess in differing amounts, i posess it to the point of ignoring the origional impulses completely and to not act on any extrapolation of emotions/feelings, others just enough when it counts, other not at all.
Thus in conclusion we can only truely understand ourself in moments where our ability to censor is absent and the ability to censor is something that is essential to consider as a characteristic.
Now here is the point that i start feeding my massive ego. My life is tightly compartmentalized, everyone that i know (with no exceptions) is aware of me only insofar as i let them. Which is why those of you that i know personally (those that i don't why you read this blog is beyond me but thank you) rarely know what is the catalyst for these posts. However if in finding blogs for those that i know i have discovered to an extent i had not before, that everyone struggles. Which is why i find myself to be so seperate, i have perfected being content, to the point that being sad or happy is almost an impossibility. My ability to ignore my feelings is both my greatest strength and my greatest weakness. While those of you i know may not know the catalyst for these posts, know that one exists and i do not ramble without reason.

And for those of you that actually read all of that, i had a drive today and this song popped on my ipod. While i don't particularly like it, it does have several redeeming aspects

Well i finally troubleshooted the problem that was not letting me post on this blog, and it looks like me and the operating system ubuntu are about to become very familiar.
I had a massively long post regarding something that has been on my mind today, but instead you get this.
One of my personal heroes is John Adams, someone who was unapologetically argumentative, had unquestionable integrity, and someone who was incapable of editing himself in writing or posing for posterity. His relationship with Abigal Adams is one of those stories that is not told often enough, yet when she died the only recorded words he said were "I wish i could lay down beside her and die too".   

Time heals all wounds, but occasionally it is time that caused the wound

i like to think that people are reasonable, that given the choice between an ideological stance and a actual solution, the solution will win. However this belief is becoming something that is more difficult to tolerate by the day. People are so attached to their opinion that there is a lack of acknowledgment in  not only the validity in the opinion itself, but in the fact that they have reasons they are that way. I have no problem with extreme positions, in fact i often assume extreme positions for the sake of argument, but what i do have a problem with is the discounting of extreme (or more realistically moderate) opinions without regard to the truth of any of the claims behind the opinion. Just because it is not your opinion does not make it untrue, or illogical.
If you know me (or you could probably discern from reading the style of this blog if you do not), then you know that i am an argumentative person, I love to debate people. This is redeeming for on key reason. If someone cannot defend their position from attack or disbelief then they should not have that opinion. However this is a flaw in other regards, 1. people discount what i say for the sole reason that i am saying that for the sake of argument, regardless of if that is true or i actually believe what i say, and 2. because it means that i am conflicted in all of my internal viewpoints. I actually believe, care for/about, trust, know, or understand very little. In this regard i follow descartes philosophy (articulated on his first meditations of philosophy), that is really only one thing that i know for a fact, I EXIST. This is evident for the fact that if my mind did not exist in some way then i would be incapable of coming to his conclusion, i think therefore i am (conginitus ergo sum). This inner conflict which works wonders for debate, allows me to maintain moderate positions, and argue with people over the simplest of things, is the one defining characteristic i have that i pride myself on, yet is also is the one thing that prevents me from having sympathy, empathy, major emotions, or any other aspect that makes humanity different from the things it creates. My point however for this paragraph has yet to be made, being that individuals must see the validity of points behind if not the opinion itself, debate both formal and informal is probably the best thing for this, being forced to adopt a position at the flip of a coin and then argue persuasively for that side is something that many individuals in the news, in seats of power, around us, perhaps even us, could use.
This phenomenon of polarized individuals, is not a modern phenomenon, the only reason it is prevalent today is the availability of inside information on those individuals. It is due to human nature that we wish to know truth, and for many the avenue to accomplish this is to ignore objective truth and accept your opinions as facts. The need for a logical defense is something that every individual's beliefs are due, even including religion.
Now that my rant on stupidity on the individuals that think it intelligence is over, i am going to get something to eat

I love Applebear, having been away from it for a year, i have just consumed 64ozs of goodness.
I have been doing a lot of thinking lately and this song keeps popping in my head