The Reasoner

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1. Society forbids suicide.
2. People may avoid talking to you.
3. People may think you want to commit suicide.
4. You may attract suicidal people.
5. People may recommend you to seek medical help, because they think you may be suicidal.
6. You may lose friends who do not like the idea of suicide and think suicidal people suck.
7. You may cease being cool among friends online and offline.
8. Your religion and “God” tells you that you will go to hell if you talk about suicide in any form other than to condemn it and make other people talk less about it.
9. You think talking about suicide will make you suicidal.
10. Your work may get affected because your present or future co-workers and boss may think you are not mentally fit for a job.

Can you talk about suicide comfortably?

I personally am interested in the idea and concept of suicide so much that it is something that is more natural of a topic for me than the topic of Facebook or not eating meat. Sure, suicide can be a physically painful experience, and emotionally disturbing on many levels. Suicide may also be something that people consider an easy way out of problems. But in a world where we support people in killing others in the name of a country or religion, suicide may be the the most logically pure and actually reasonable form of taking a life, your own, in order to achieve some idea or reasoning you may have, or even solve some confusion or create one. You should realize that suicide is definitely not always the easy way out of problems.

And you should realize that you do not have to be wanting to commit suicide soon or at all in order to be able to discuss or talk about the idea of suicide.

What do you think about the idea of talking about suicide? Would you be comfortable discussing the concepts or reasoning behind suicide?

Please share your thoughts, stories or questions through your comment below. Thank you for reading! I really appreciate it. :)

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1. Teaches you to control your appetite.

   Without a doubt, the most surprising thing about Vegetarianism for me has been the control over appetite. While you may be able to actually avoid eating a lot of things, vegetarianism can actually teach you to not be bothered by what others eat and at the same time avoid eating anything you wish. Vegetarians may not tell you about such a thing, but hanging around meat eaters has never been a problem for me. Whether this is my own personality or a feature of vegetarianism is still being decided.

2. Makes you realize whether or not vegetarianism is stupid.

   A good way to realize whether or not vegetarianism is good is to become one, even if it is temporary. Not being able to eat regular things regularly will definitely put your vegetarian beliefs or ideas to test, since you will have to justify your hunger and your urge to eat meat with some very good anti-meat-eating reasons. In the end, if your reasons are not good enough, you can switch back. For example, “I am not eating meat because I am helping animals!” is a stupid reason.

3. Makes you realize the smaller things are not as small as you thought.

   Remember all the side orders that come with every fast food meal? Well, vegetarianism means that those side order of fries, onion rings, salad and other weak looking foods become your main source of survival. Many people find comfort in immersing themselves in things other than vegetarianism on a daily basis, so such side orders become very important, whether it is through you getting a meal or through your friends. Your friends may start ordering value meals just to give you the fries. You may start ordering value meals just to get the fries and to give the rest to your friends.

4. Gives you the opportunity to really realize your view of animals.

   Many vegetarians will tell you that everything they do in this world is about other animals. That can be true, though vegetarianism itself means usually focusing on eating another kind of a living thing: the plants. While we as humans consider ourselves to be more aware of animal rights compared to before, we also have new ways to justify anything we wish in the name of something good. Being a vegetarian makes you realize whether your beliefs have value or if they are based on bullshit. And that latter element comes from animals, not plants.

5. Makes you realize that stopping eating meat will not always result in weight loss.

   So many vegetarians keep telling everyone else how everyone can lost weight after not eating meat for a while. Probably the most surprising thing I learnt after stopping eating meat and after keeping a track of my weight probably for the first time in my life was that I actually gained weight after becoming a vegetarian. My intake of fast food has been the same or lower since I stopped eating meat. Vegetarianism can make you gain weight, sometimes even more than meat.

Do You Think These Vegetarianism Points Are Cool?

Do you think vegetarianism brings these 5 good things into anyone’s life? Would you become a vegetarian for any of the above reasons?

Please share your thoughts, ideas or any questions by commenting below. Thank you for reading. I really appreciate it! :)

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1. You need someone or something physical around you.

   The most common reason for many people to get a pet is to have someone or something around them. This is not actually a focus on avoiding emptiness. It is a focus on having an actual preference of a creature, like a dog or a cat, to roam or live in the same house as yourself. The physical presence of a cat, a dog, a bird, a hamster or a snake makes things around you feel different, which you prefer.

2. You need something to fill the void in your life.

   Many people get a pet because they feel something is missing in their life. Whether or not getting an animal fills that void or distracts people from realizing that the void is still there is something that can be determined mainly by the pet owner or sometimes by the people around them.

3. You need something to control.

   Many avoid admitting the fact that they get a pet to control that pet. Whether it is to harm or to raise and train someone to be a certain way, many people get pets in order to enforce a control. That control can be good or bad, depending on what the pet owner has in mind.

4. You need something or someone to need and depend on you.

   One of the most severe cases of loneliness, getting a pet to have that pet depend on you is a very popular reason why people get pets. Of course, in today’s society, such a reason is usually not admitted, and instead many people say that they got their pets because they love pets. While it may seem like an innocent reason, it is important to know such a reason in order to realize why and how many pet owners simply stop caring about their pets later on in life, the same way many people stop caring about some other people after a while.

5. You need a purpose in life.

   Probably considered the most depressing reason to get a pet, this may be one of the best reasons to get a pet in my view. The same way you get married, get friends and find different things in life, many people get a pet in order to assign themselves to a certain task or idea in life, like taking care of or being friends with the pet.

Do you know why you have a pet?

Now that you have a good idea of what having a pet may be all about, why do you think you have or want a pet? What kind of a pet do you want or have?

Please share your thoughts, pet names or stories, reasons or any questions by commenting below.

Thank you for reading. I really appreciate it! I now have to stop and go check the sounds in the other room to make sure my cat friend Whisper has not broken anything on the nightstand, where he for mysterious reasons loves jumping and moving around every night these days.

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1. It makes you realize what you are afraid of so that you can think of workarounds.
2. It tells you what motivates and demotivates you.
3. It tells you the situations where you may be weak, so that you can work on such situations.
4. It identifies for you the elements that make you uncomfortable. You can then either avoid such elements or take advantage of them.
5. Probably the most important point, fear gives you the motivation to actually try harder and smarter for something in order to get rid of the feeling of fear while attempting something.

Do you think you are a better person because of fear?

We spend several hours almost every month trying to do things that help us avoid things that scare you. Yet, what we usually fail to do is to actually learn from such situations or to obtain something useful from them. While something that really scares you may not always have a good side to it, you can try to improve yourself by focusing on the reasons something defines fear for you.

Do you think fear makes you a better person? When was the last time you felt afraid? And the scary question today for you: what defines fear for you?

Please don’t be afraid sharing your thoughts, comments or questions through the comments below. Thank you for reading. I really appreciate! :)

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What is it about a blood family that makes you like them? Your blood family could be comprised of good or bad people, or both. They may raise and give you shelter till you are older. They help you in things and they also make sure you are safe from harmful things. Society does not tell you why you should value your blood family, but society does tell you to respect them and be loyal to them forever. You are not allowed to choose your blood family, and you are not allowed to choose whether or not to change such families with a replacement. You were brought to this world to carry on the name of your blood family and to carry on the traditions passed down to your blood family by their past blood families. In the end, a blood family exists so that you can live your life to promote the idea of a family.

Society also trains you through your blood family. Your blood family makes sure to tell you, or brainwash you, since birth to respect and be part of your blood family. Your blood family is a catalyst for you to accept a certain culture. Your blood family rarely gives you choices. Instead, it tells you what is right and tells you what is wrong. Being conditioned to this every hour of the day for 5, 10 and 15 years surely has a life-long or maybe a very long lasting effect on you. Your views of culture, people, world, internet, cars, life, love, cell phones, hatred, animals, and everything else is probably affected by the teaching your blood family bestowed upon you during your childhood. And that is of course, as our society says, nothing to worry about! Blood families are meant to teach you what to like and what not to like.

Would you have preferred to have a choice of choosing a family?

Do you live or keep in touch with your blood family? Do you like or dislike your blood family? What is one thing about them that you could change? Do you know anyone else that you may consider a real family as an alternate to your blood family?

Please share your thoughts, comments or questions in the comments below. Thank you for reading. :) I now have to go and talk to some friends. You know, the people I chose to associate with in life with my own free?

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While many people believe that it is the people that make an idea look bad, I think that it is both people and ideas that do bad things. Many people can abuse good ideas, and many bad ideas can influence good people in a bad way. Many times, many bad ideas end up being the focus of many bad people, which can result in chaos of different sizes? However, how can we figure out what is good or what is bad?

The concept of what good or bad is can be very relative, though one way to be sure about the absolute bad nature of something can be the reasons behind the existence of such things. Almost all religions, in one way or another, try to show how other religions are bad without doing anything different than the other religions they try to condemn. This The Reasoner Series will focus on at least 5 different things I have noticed either in the religion or the religious people that make those religions suck. Remember, religious people need a religious idea to be religious, and religious ideas need at least one follower to practically exist or survive. Thus, both religious people and religions attract one another to either create happy life for themselves or a very sucky life for people who do not follow those religions.

Are you ready? Do you think any religion sucks?

Our first religion for this series will start with the religion that gets criticized the most in today’s Western world. If you can guess it, you will be happy to know that the most criticized religion in the West in today’s world will be covered next.

Thank you for reading. I really appreciate it! Please avoid praying for a curse on my life or health, if possible. :)

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All this news of the holy wars and fight against the evil,
What about the fight inside of you to lead a normal life?
You’ve got problems of your own, including a soul you feel is corrupt from within,
How can you go on to save or want others, when your own heart hurts you like a knife?

Is it the person that attracts you, or the actions?
Is it the character that binds you, or the personality?
You feel lucky to have someone to guide you when you feel lost,
When most of the time, including now, your heart seems to be made up of frost.

Maybe you simply want to be wanted!

You wish for the day when simplicity will be evident,
When people will say what they mean, they will sign your pact,
When a person you get close to will get close to you for the sake of friendship,
Not for a piece of favor, and definitely not for the sake of signing a contract.

You end up adhering to the rules of this contract till the day you stop meeting,
You help them the most since you fear them the least,
You want to help in the least way possible,
You focus on caring how the other person can repay you back at least.

So you feel merry, not trusting anyone, not trusting your own self.
You tell others “Let us call each other friends!“,
Yet only you know what you really mean,
That you simply want to be called a friend by any living being.

Maybe you are simply passing time!

Such are the rules you want to live by,
Since such are the goals people use to reach for the sky,
Whether it is success or satisfaction that such a mentality achieves,
You simply want to climb the ladder and be above other feet.

You are happy there is some hope in your heart,
That sometimes keeps you away from thoughts with holes,
For without trust you feel like a machine, with no feelings, no soul,
Your actions devoid of any meaning in such a case, and your life devoid of any goal.

So what do you think of all this story?
Does it reflect your life or how others around you believe?
Share below with The Reasoner and others please,
How you or someone you know may view relationships to simply feel at ease.

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1. It makes you focus on what you can get instead of how you treat others.

   The entire idea of Karma focuses on doing things in order to get good things in the end. Thus, we actually do not care whether or not we hurt animals or are rude to others. We only focus on acting in a manner which will land us some awesome resulting Karma later on. This is the same brainwashing technique we see being used by extremists in religion where the focus is on pleasing God, and not on the reasons behind the actions themselves.

2. There is no forgiveness in Karma. You are always to blame and will always suffer.

   The concept of Karma tells us that once you do something bad, whether by mistake or intentionally, you are basically screwed. So the cat you accidentally drove over last night or the water you spilled over someone on purpose last week will both come around and bite you in the face. You will either reincarnate as a squirrel in Siberia or will choke on green peas next week in order to end up in a coma. If you are having a good life now, it is not because you are trying hard now, but because you did something good or redeemed yourself in the past life. Of course, Karma does not specifically tell you how to redeem yourself today for the next life, or tomorrow. Only HAL has the highest Karma points without any need for redemption.

3. There is no originality in Karma.

   Everything in Karma focuses on making you think about what you are thinking in terms of the simple concept of right and wrong. You simply do good things today in order to hopefully have a good tomorrow. There is no in-between, and there is no action that won’t get you a reward or a punishment. Thus, unlike everything else in your life that you can be original in, your own life when led according to Karma is either a big reward or a big punishment. According to Karma, both the terrorists and the people defending against terrorism will get the same exact bad Karma in their next life. Imagine how many questions Buddha would have had to answer if he came up with that concept today.

4. Karma focuses on making sure you never think different.

   Since Karma focuses on the too-simple concept of right and wrong, it ends up telling everyone to do the right thing that the mainstream society, or majority of the people, consider to be right. Thus, killing witches back in the 1500′s would have brought you good fortune because of your good Karma of ridding killers from the society, but calling someone a witch today would result in a bad Karma of getting a sore cheek and a spiritually resounding slapping sound.

5. We cannot change fate according to Karma.

   Since everything in Karma is the result of some thought or action, and since all of such Karma is either spiritual or from God since the beginning, there is little anyone can do to modify the Karma that we all have. In the end, Karma is just another one of those concepts which basically tells you “Don’t try to question me! You don’t wanna f&$@ with me fool!” That reminds me of religions which tell you to either follow the line like a slave or burn in hell.

These 5 reasons that make the concept of Karma appear sucky to me are also the foundations of the mainstream Karma principles that many people follow. Of course, each of the above 5 points is presented in a different, nicer manner in books and pamphlets that promote Karma: treat others like you would treat yourself, your actions of yesterday define you today, you have to accept responsibility, be more accepting of others by focusing on mutual agreements, and Karma is the foundation of everything.

Do you think the concept of Karma sucks?

What do you think of Karma, in light of the above reasons? Do you believe in Karma? Do you think you can apply some changes to the idea of Karma to suit your own needs? If you believe in any religion, does it promote or go along with the idea of Karma? What do you like or dislike about Karma?

Please share your comments or questions in the comments below.

Thanks for reading. I really appreciate it. If you believe in Karma, reading this article will result in an awesome meal for you tonight at a nice restaurant with a Buddha statue by the door. If you do not believe in Karma, you will probably end up eating something from your fridge. Avoid green peas at all costs, though.

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1. You leave dumb comments.

   “lol” and “haha!” are not dumb comments. Posting something not related to a status message or advertising something as a comment to someone are examples of dumb comments.

2. You leave angry, rude comments.

   Everyone in the world has probably gotten angry at one time or another. You may get angry at someone or at their status message, though it will make people hate you if you start posting angry and rude comments to their status messages.

3. You tag people in spammy or unrelated photos and videos.

   I get tagged so much in photos and videos that have nothing to do with me that I have started saving such photos and videos in order to study them and find a connection among them. I usually get tagged by stereotypically freaky “Democratic Iran” and “Make >$2000 in less than 24 hours” videos. Avoid tagging people in things that have nothing to do with those people. In the end, you are simply spamming people with a link that makes people visit your photo or video.

4. You spam the same people with different Facebook App invites.
   

   Zoosk Facebook App spam - do you Zoosk others?

   Mafia, Farmville, Fishville, Causes, Quiz Planet, Texas HoldEm Poker, Zoosk and others. All of these and other apps promote the idea of having you suggest your installed Facebook application to all of your friends repeatedly. This allows people to spam other people with application invites on an almost daily basis. This is probably the most powerful way to make people hate you.
5. You spam the same people with repeated Facebook Page invites.

   A Facebook Page allows people to have Facebook profiles for companies, groups and related things. Every Facebook Page allows you to invite all of your personal Facebook friends. One of the more powerful ways to make people hate you is to constantly send them invitations to your Facebook Page on an almost daily basis.

6. You spam the same people with promotional messages and comments.

   Facebook messages allow you to send private messages, like emails, within Facebook itself. Many people, however, send you daily newsletters of promotional materials via Facebook messages. Just like emails, Facebook messages are personal and private, and unless someone gives you direct consent to send them commercial mail, avoid doing so unless you want them to hate you.

7. You start Facebook chats with everyone repeatedly, only to promote your services in the end.

   This is a new trend I am noticing. A lot of people will start Facebook chats with me using the Facebook Chat toolbar button on the bottom of all Facebook page display and ask a personal question or two before pitching their business to me. Back in 1745, people were new to the idea of being marketed to, resulting in anyone being asked a personal question first becoming less resistant to the idea of being pitched an offer afterward within the same conversation. Today, because of our entire world being full of advertisement and sales pitches, it is easy to spot your real money-making intentions when you ask me “How are you doing today?“

8. You are a pervert.

   MySpace is full of them. Twitter is full of them hiding. And Facebook is full of them wanting to come out into the open. Avoid making perverted comments or messaging people on Facebook just because you find them beautiful. All of your comments are visible to others, and the general rule for many people is to stay away from perverts.

9. You keep re-adding people as friends, after deleting them repeatedly.

   Many Facebook people delete their friends because of getting mad or upset over something. Sometimes, you may have the tendency to overreact or lose temper a lot, resulting in you deleting many people repeatedly and then re-adding them afterward. Avoid such a trend if you do not want the people to hate you because of you making them go through the drama of having to add you more than once.

10. Post private information about others as your Facebook status.
    

    How Kevin & Shannon posted too much info on Facebook - are you like them?

    Publicly complaining about someone for private reasons shows that you mean business when it comes to wanting to ruin the reputation or feelings of someone in public. Avoid dishing out details about private information, accusations or situations about other people that they may not want to be public. Posting bad things about your ex while publicly telling everyone which ex you are talking about, talking about an ex-client solely because they left you, and publicly pointing out people who do not reply to you immediately on Facebook are some examples of how you can get hated on Facebook by anyone who comes across your hate-inducing behavior.

Do you do any of the things listed above? Do you know someone on Facebook who does these things?

The above 10 methods will most probably, or even surely, allow at least one of your Facebook friends to hate you, and to maybe even defriend you. In the end, people still get by on Facebook while being hated by hundreds of other people. Do you know such people? Do you think you may be hated by others because of what you do on Facebook? Which of the above 10 reasons are acceptable to you while being on Facebook? Which one do you like or dislike the most?

Please share your thoughts about this in the comments below. Thank you! Now I have to go and look at the 608 combined notifications and requests I have on Facebook.

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For a few years now I have sometimes thought of not eating any meat and becoming what the society calls a “vegetarian.” Every time, the simple idea of not having a juicy Burger King burger, any steak or some yummy sushi made me simply laugh at the idea of vegetarianism. I also always laughed at the idea of ridiculing meat eaters and ridiculing veggie eaters. Well, another thing I always thought of was that the vegetarians, who eat no meat, and vegans, who eat no meat and no meat derivatives, should realize that eating any kind of plant is also killing the plant life, which have been scientifically proven to have life, breathe air and feel pain.

The video I saw was a trailer for EARTHLINGS simply showed different kinds of animals being killed, tortured, dissected and other similar things in the name of food, experimentation, pets, clothing and entertainment. I only saw part of the trailer. I did not see anything else, nor did I see the main 2 hour video itself. However, the trailer itself is so strong for me, that I actually saw in visualizations many of the things I have been thinking, tweeting and writing about over the years about the way we live life and how we can simply justify almost anything as long as it serves our needs.

Following is the exact video trailer for the documentary EARTHLINGS that I saw which shows animals being killed, tortured and butchered slowly while alive. You can decide whether or not you want to view this video.

The cruelty we see happening to animals, also reflected lately in my several tweets of how we treat certain animals with kindness, like cats, and other animals with no emotions, like chickens, is something that bothers me a lot when I start thinking of ways to be human, or to be myself in a manner that I want to be. That “bothering” is probably the focus of many of my efforts. I feel very sad to think of the harm that comes to animals, whether it is through torture by humans or by the “ethical killing” of animals like chickens and pigs. Death is death, and pain is pain. How can it be all right to kill certain animals while loving others when none of them have ever harmed us intentionally or for pleasure? Does killing something for food or other purpose, whether through pain and torture or without supposed pain and instantly, justify the killing itself? I have wondered about such things all my life, and the above trailer made me realize I will simply stop eating meat in order to satisfy my emotions.

And one animal in particular that I saw in the trailer, who was still alive and blinking after being skinned alive, made me cry and still makes me cry whenever I think of him/her. Whenever I think of that animal, I realize I have probably made the best and purest decision in my life.

One of the most important things I had to ask myself from the moment I made my decision: Is this just an impulse decision? So many decisions are made simply based on emotional outbursts that later one more harm is done than we can actually realize. It is now day 4 today, and I have not even thought back as to whether or not my decision was made in haste.

Things for me to avoid eating when not eating meat

It is actually very complex and interesting to start eating things that do not contain any dead meat. I say “dead meat” because for me things like eggs and things made from milk are perfectly fine. And labeling something as dead meat sounds more logical to me, at least for my cause, than meat at the time being. Meat, or Dead Meat as I call it for this article and for my view of all of this, the very simple beginning for me is the following:

1. No animal of any kind. Mammals, fish and birds can now feel 100% safe hanging around me now.
2. No products which may contain gelato or similar things that are derived from animal fats. Jello is probably an example of this.

No more burgers. No more steaks. No more sushi. No more chicken nuggets. And almost no more fast food drive-thrus and food adventures that I had before, at least in the meat department probably.

Things to think about when not eating meat

1. I love eating meat. I like the idea of eating meat. It is simply some images and ideas that go through my head now when I think of eating meat or the food industry which involves dead animals. Thus, I think I will not criticize the idea of eating meat itself. I made a personal choice based on what I think I should do in my life to be able to feel associated with the animals, realize how they should be treated, and be able to do something whcih gives another main purpose to my life.
2. I will not criticize meat eaters. The most annoying thing the “vegetarian” class does is to start an all-out assault on meat eaters. As you may have learnt from my articles before, I avoid things which criticize the existence of something else solely based on personal preference. So meat eaters, eat away and be proud like the veggie eaters! I will continue to point out any illogical reasoning in either meat eaters or vegetarians when it comes to criticizing their opponents.
3. Die veggies die! Vegetables suck! Or most of them do! There must be a fast food category for non-meat eaters. I must find it!
4. I do not want to be in the Vegetarian class. No new cult to own and no new labels to label myself with. I had rather be called a “No meat eater” than a “Vegetarian.” I am not entirely sure why: it could be because of all the bad and negative images I have about the concept of labeling and the idea of many, if not most, vegetarians criticizing all meat eaters. It may also be because I just stopped eating meat and I still feel associated with it more than other kinds of food. I will figure it out soon or eventually, hopefully in an organized time frame.
5. Plants and all vegetables have been scientifically proven to have life, breathe, have emotions, and feel pain. So at this time, even though I am not eating meat, I am still eating some things which were once alive. Is there something I can eat that was never alive?
6. How it affects my views about other people and things. My best friend Katie is the only person I think about when I am thinking of situations where my thinking or actions may have a resounding affect on my life. And since I live with her, how do my decisions or actions affect her? I actually told Katie about my decision to not eat meat about 10 minutes after I stopped watching the video. And the resulting impact has been greater than I ever expect. My entire blogging about Vegetarianism and not eating meat will include highly coveted topics of how eating or not eating certain foods can affect not only your own life style but the life style of people you know.

Has not eating meat impacted my life?

Yes. So many years of eating steaks, burgers, sushi and other yummy things does have a big influence on how things are viewed or how things can be viewed. Even last month I bought a brand new domain name to start an all new website dedicated to reviewing the awesome food I taste every day, for I almost eat out daily. Or maybe “ate out daily” may be a better word now. It is actually very strange, or mind boggling, to realize that I will have to give up my dream of start a new website dedicated to reviewing good food. At this moment, I cannot think of any major replacements for the elements that prompted me to love food the way I did before and to review all different kinds of meat.

There have been so many changes from myself, people around me and the way I deal with life itself because of having to eat food everyday that I have now started a whole new category on this site called “Vegetarian.” I would like to call it “No Meat” instead, though Vegetarian, in terms of actually reading about the topic, serves a better purpose here. How long will this continue? Will I always remain a non-meat eater? Only time will tell, I suppose? So The Reasoner will now also showcase the life of a vegetarian. Hmmm.

What do you think? What did you eat today?

What do you think about this? Do you eat meat? Do you eat vegetables and non-meats? What do you think of people who eat meat? What do you think of people who do not eat any meat? Have you seen EARTHLINGS?

This article has indeed been very enlightening for me, as I had to think a lot in order to realize what I was feeling and how I was feeling it. It seems like I have started a new journey, and it may very well be a year or two, or even more, before a single day goes by where I do not have to think what to eat or realize the difference that not eating meat 4 or 5 times a day is bringing into my life and into the people and elements around me, including you.

Thanks for reading. I now have to stop here and go eat my vegetable pizza. :D :O

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If you observe the times when a racial slur is thrown at someone, you may notice a trend in many of such observations. A racial slur, from my observation, usually comes at 3 prime times:

1. When someone is angry. This can happen when there is an argument, or when someone ends up with something they do not want. Talking about politics, playing a game, and dealing with daily life are some of the actual times when someone is so mad that they feel inclined to actually be racist, or say a racial slur. For example, last week in a game chat room, I heard someone say “Kick the spic!” when someone, who sounded like they were of Mexican origin, suggested that the people in the game chat room play a certain map of the game instead of the one suggested by the racial slur user.
2. When someone is being funny with a crowd. The keywords “with a crowd” is very important here, as usually some people tend to use racial slurs when they feel that the company of people they are within, whether it is one person or 20 people, are enjoying their company and will consider such a racial slur as an awesome joke or labeling. If the crowd finds such a thing funny or does not point it out even casually, the person who utters the racial slur thinks that getting into a habit of using racial slur may result in more acceptance into certain areas of the society.
3. To justify something done or experienced by someone. When someone sees a justification, using their own logic, to describe a situation or the reason behind a situation, a racial slur may be used by some people to express their high emotions. Justifying the high rate of crime in certain low income areas by associating it with a racial slur seems to be a trend that many people seem to follow. For example, some people would consider it justifiable to say “Niggers!” when it comes to a TV report that talks about a violent crime committed by an African American against some other race, or “Cracker!” when there is mention of someone who is Caucasian who did something violent to the member of a minority community. The justification here, by the person who says the racial slur, is to show that the race of the person being criticized is entirely bad, and in such situations where emotions are high because of what is being justified, a racial slur will seem perfectly fine to go along with the situation in question.

   This third point is probably the most powerful moment of the utterance of a racial slur, as it justifiably, in the minds of the people who use the racial slur, associates something bad with the racial slur and the people against whom the racial slur is being used.

Why do we get offended over racial slurs?

Since many of us actually know that a racial slur exists solely to label someone as inferior or to offend them, why do we take offense when we hear racial slurs directed towards us? Imagine if no one got annoyed by a racial slur. The result may be a total elimination, or almost total elimination, of the idea of using a racial slur to describe people or offend them. The answer to the question of why we feel offended over a racial slur is, in my view, very complicated. It can, however, probably be described in one simple sentence: We simply do not like being offended by an uncontrollable method for reasons we have no control over.

It would be actually be interesting if we simply did not care about such racial slurs. The very reason they are used is because the person they are directed towards actually takes offense when hearing or encountering such names. It is probably the feeling of wanting to be human, accepted and equal, or at least one of those, that makes us want other people to not use racial slurs against us.

An example of an online Racist: Michael from Sandy Springs, Georgia, USA

You run into racist people in weird places. I run into many of them online usually, as I talk to well over a thousand different people every 2 months or so online through different channels. One of those channels is online games. I play an online game called Left 4 Dead 2. You get to play with up to 4 real human players and you can type or voice chat with them while playing. Well, one of the players I ran into and unfortunately added, a certain Michael from Sandy Springs, Georgia, ended up being a headache.

I did not find Michael an enjoyable player to play with because of him acting rude and racist towards anyone who would not play by his rules and anyone who sounded different in the voice chats. He called one person a “Nigger” and on another day a “Gook.” Those people simply quit the game after a few minutes each time, probably offended by such name-calling. And interestingly enough, “Foreigner” was what I was labeled by Michael whenever things did not go his way in the game. I deleted him from my contact list shortly afterwards, only to have him re-add me several times later on. Annoyed by seeing the multiple pop-ups of his friend request, I simply blocked him. It has been peaceful ever since.

It can sometimes be very hard to get over things for me, for I wonder about the reason why some things happen or why we act the way we do. So for me, I simply used the game example and turned it into this actual article you are reading. So Michael from Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States, whoever you are or however old you are, you not only managed to annoy 3 people this week, you also gave me inspiration for this article. And you also managed to get yourself listed on Google and other places online for everyone including your family, friends, contacts and any employers to see the real you: a racist person who hates the Chinese, Blacks and people with accents by calling them “Gook“, “Nigger” and “Foreigner.” Congrats! :)

What do racial slurs achieve?

What is it about racial slurs that make their users feel inclined to use them against others? For me, it could be several things, including the following 4 reasons:

1. In situations where someone is losing an argument, using a racial slur can easily make an opponent angry. What looks better in the end: a person who lost the argument happily or a person who won the argument while being extremely upset and mad? When it comes to actual pride in the society, many people consider keeping calm and being racist as being better than being called a racial slur and losing temper in public.
2. The upbringing. Parents of many people, including the several racist people I know online and offline, raise their children teaching them that their certain race, ethnicity, color or some certain family profile is better than others. And such a feeling of superiority makes people want to express racist feelings in situations where what they have learnt from their parents is proven wrong. For every racist person you know, and that I know, chances are one or both of their parents were or are racist, or brought up their children with some incorrect racial values.
3. Culture, religion & the surroundings. For me, without a doubt, this may be the most powerful reason why people act racist or use racial slurs. Many cultural pressures actually end up creating literal racist attitudes towards other cultures. This is something that can fall outside the scope of the parents and their upbringing efforts. Many religious interpretations can also prompt people to be racist and view others as inferior. The surroundings, or the environment and the neighborhood, are also a big factor for people wanting to conform to their surrounding. Such conformity, whether it happens at the moment of being racist or after years of being used to conforming to the society, usually plays a big role in people simply playing a role in order to feel part of the crowd or to believe in something that the surrounding teaches them. Hitler is a perfect example of this last aspect. How many mini-Hitlers of our society do you have in your contact list?
4. Feeling of personal inferiority. Many people simply feel inferior or different compared to others. This “different” personal awareness actually makes them feel depressed, inferior, less appreciated or even less capable at something. The resulting emotion is usually anger when such things are realized or such emotions are encountered. Such anger results in racial slurs in order to feel better by putting someone else down based on a historically racist notion that usually offends people who may have a similar quality to the person who is being racially offended.

What do you think? What have you been called? Have you called others by any racial slurs?

In the end, a racial slur is usually defused by simply ignoring it. We have the legal rights today to be racially equal on all levels, but we do not have a society where people view everyone else as an equal. In the end, all the fighting efforts of every race in America and other countries to gain freedom, equality or other rights resulted in only one thing: legal rights. You cannot always force yourself to take action to silence anyone who calls you a racially offensive name. You can try, but in the end, if we ourselves and the society does not change by actually believing and realizing that everyone is different, we will continue to have people who continue being racist in different ways. That is exactly why there is no race or nation on earth which in some manner does not act racist to some other race or nation.

What is your view about this? Have you ever been called a racial slur? Have you called someone else such a name? What do you think of such people who call other racial slurs such names in order to annoy others or win a losing argument by annoying others?

Please share in the comments below. Thank you. :)

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The most common reason in our society for any kind of makeup would be to enhance beauty. People use contrast colors to show specific colors of their skin, and they also highlight certain parts of their bodies in order to draw a nice, and glamorous, attention to them. Many people spend more time putting on makeup for a party than they do partying.

Another reason for wanting to enhance beauty is the idea of jealousy. Many people feel jealous when around others who wear makeup, and thus they themselves put on much more makeup, or better makeup, in order to appear more attractive. In the end, wanting to appear prettier, more beautiful, cuter, nicer or anything on the same level boils down to one thing: wanting to appear more attractive for some reason.

In today’s society, a very popular trend is to wear makeup in order to appear more attractive than other people around you, even when there is no potential mate around. Maybe it is the subconscious idea that if one appears more attractive than other others, then one would have better chances of mating in the theoretical case of having a real mate around.

Hiding Ugliness

Makeup is also used to hide ugliness, which in turn gives ugliness a bad name. Being ugly is not a crime, nor is it a bad thing. It is one of the biggest mysteries in life as to why people focus so much on saying “She/he is beautiful from within“, as if being beautiful or attractive physically in at least some inner-flesh manner is necessary in order to be accepted.

Yet, makeup is recommended so much to hide ugliness, even indirectly, that many people who think they may be a tad ugly try to soak themselves in it. In today’s society, it is the general notion to consider someone with makeup beautiful, and someone without makeup as being lazy or too simple.

One may wear makeup to hide ugliness in order to either to compete with the competition or to appear attractive to mates. It is considered a mistake in the society to go out and be proud while being ugly, while it is considered a feat to wear makeup and divert attention from ugliness to the makeup itself.

Attracting Mates

The most observable reason for putting on makeup has been to attract mates. The other two reasons of enhancing beauty or hiding ugliness usually exist in order to serve the need of wanting to attract a mate. This tradition seems like a conditional response, where even people who are married or are with an existing soulmate still put on makeup to appear attractive around new potential mates that they encounter. People put on makeup the minute they leave their homes, as if simply appearing attractive to a new mate for a theoretical mating, without the potential of gaining any new mate if one is with someone already, is still a valid reason for putting on makeup.

Putting on makeup does not mean that one is actually going to go out and find a mate. The mere idea of appearing attractive and catching the attention of a mate justifies putting on makeup for many people. Whether it is the gene pool that makes many humans act like their cave ancestors or the idea that one’s meaningless life serves a happy purpose by being liked by a potential mate, many people wear makeup simply, mainly, and only to attract mates.

Whether such an act is good or bad usually depends on the person wearing the makeup. Society, as of today, considers it a good and an acceptable trend. “Attracting mates“, and variants of that idea are, however, usually not mentioned openly in such or similar words when it comes to the topic of wearing makeup because that may openly give makeup wearers a bad reputation.

What do you think about Makeup?

So what is your opinion about makeup? Do you wear makeup? Do you know someone who does for any of the reasons listed above? In your view, does makeup exist to enhance beauty? Or does makeup allow one to hide things on their bodies that they consider ugly? Or does makeup mainly exist to help appear attractive to a potential mate?

Please share in the comments below. Thank you for reading.

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What is it about figuring out why things happen that makes you, me and others assume why things happen? Sure, knowing why the TV breaks down can be a good thing, though assuming that the TV broke down because it was old is a completely different thing. Do we try to rationalize the reason things happen by assuming why they happen?

1. Why do you feel depressed when you wake up some mornings?
2. Why does your cat come to you one day but avoids you on other days?
3. Why does the cashier at your grocery store not smile at you?
4. Why does the bank teller never remember your name, even though you go there daily?
5. Why do some of your Facebook statuses get a dozen comments, while others get none?

The Famous Traffic Jam Assumption By Bes

Some years ago, in Orange County, I used to drive several times a day to get to my classes at CSU Fullerton. Every day at different times there used to be a lot of traffic. If there was a freeway traffic jam at 5pm on a Friday, people would usually tell me “It’s the start of the weekend, people are going away for the weekend to other cities!” I heard that every week. If the freeway was empty for some unknown reasons at 5pm on a Friday, I would hear “It’s Friday. People have left early and are already home.” I also heard “People are going home from work!” if there was a traffic jam at 5pm on a Tuesday.

Or if there was no traffic at 5pm on a Tuesday, the reasoning behind that usually started as “It’s usually busy on Monday and later in the weekend, and not Tuesday at this time.” Different reasons given for the same freeways for the same time for the same days. The only difference was the observation: people based the entire reason based on what they saw instantly. That was kind of like saying “I feel sleepy. I must have had a long tiring day!” after I had 9 shots of tequila.

It was during these drives and reasons that I started realizing how many of the reasons that others and I myself arrived at were just assumptions. This article, I assume, has been many years in the making.

Assuming helps in accepting why things happen?

One thing about assuming a reason is that it actually helps in accepting quickly why something is happening. Instead of wondering why the your significant other cheated on you, it is actually easier to assume that he or she cheated because he or she is a bad person, and a cheater. It could be that assuming a reason actually helps in accepting a fact, or an event. You may not actually be trying to avoid figuring out the actual reason behind things, since the assumption happens because of your quest to figure out a reason still. It may be that assuming something may be a faster way to accept something in order to not let it affect your life.

Assuming something is actually a step in the right direction. In order to figure out why your laptop won’t turn on, you have to first assume the bad things that could be causing such a horrible thing to happen to such an innocent creature. Assuming, or thinking, that the laptop battery may not have any charge remaining, you plug in the charger. If that does not work, you start panicking and wondering if you somehow either broke the laptop, or if the battery died. These assumptions most probably make you realize that the laptop has died or is in a coma. These assumptions also help you realize that in the end, many of your assumptions are wrong and in the end, you have to take some big actions to revive the laptop, like buying a new battery or a new laptop charger.

And it all started with you assuming that the laptop may need to be recharged.

Do you assume why things happen?

So, do you assume why things happen? Do you wonder why you woke up the way you did, why you ate something today, why different things you did not expect happened in the last couple of days, and why some people around you act the way they do? Do you assume why things happen? And why do you assume such things? Would you be content by simply thinking “Ok, this happened, end of story!” instead of “Ok, this happened, I wonder why it happened, let me think quickly!“?

Please share in the comments below. Thank you for reading! :)

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