Kaunijar’s Student Blog

Innocence Over Wisdom

Watching an old war film the other day, it became quickly quite clear to me that there is a certain advantage to being innocent, and one that many a wise man would no doubt swap for in a heart beat. Because, while the knowledgeable know it all, and understand about pain and suffering, fear and humiliation, an innocent child such as in the film lacks this burden of insight. And in the film, this allowed the young child to look after his even younger sister while his father broke down, his brain skewered and in pieces with what was going on around him.

So the question came into my head: would I like to have all my knowledge of emotion removed so I didn’t carry the burden of being an adult? I drew up a list:

1) Innocence: less time to fear and try and analyse things, life is simpler. More time to eat Maltesers and not worry about all the things which can make life highly unpleasant.

2) Wisdom: the power to change things when you don’t like them. The conscious ability to see good and bad and thus prevent worse events from taking place. The ability to help others who are struggling and a bit more innocent.

I decided in the end that yes, I’m happy to be an adult and to be learning. I wouldn’t want to go back to the age of innocence. But there again…maybe that’s just my so-called “wisdom talking”?

I think I need some of my nan’s Caribbean Recipes now. My brain hurts. Hopefully yours doesn’t.

Similar Posts:
The Future? : I’m in business, am well up with the latest…
Politics : We’ve all been there…It’s our first…
How To Begin A Murder Mystery Book : If you love murder…

An Explanation Of Why Kindle Will Win

Being a lover of books and writing and philosophy, it was a matter of time until I succumbed to Amazon’s e-book reading device the Kindle. I can’t say I was overly pleased about buying one in the beginning – I love the feel of books – but what I can say is this: the Kindle is progression, and progression is essential in this world. Our problems, as humans, is our memory. We’ve recorded everything, and that means we can now look back on books and say “agh, that’s such a shame, I hope the book never dies”.

But I ask you this: why is it so important that the book stays alive? I put it to you that the book is bulky, takes up needless space, and is generally nowhere near as useful as the Kindle. This isn’t me saying that conventional books are rubbish, this is me just looking at the facts and saying that actually, everything about the Kindle makes sense.

Us humans do love to get attached to things though, and there is the issue. We’ve become attached to the idea of the book, and now, despite the book actually being relatively less useful than the Kindle, we’re feeling sad it’s on the demise.

If you’re still sceptical, think about this: before books people carved on stone. Now, I’m sure when the book came along there were lots of people who said “I wish I could still read my heavy stone-carved slabs. How I miss them”. But can you imagine what we’d have done had the book not been invented?

I say embrace the newness. Let that become our future, and indeed our heritage. Just like Liposuction surgery is now considered the norm to remove unwanted fat that won’t shift any other way, we should get used to the idea that the Kindle is hear to stay, and can only benefit our reading habits.

Similar Posts:
The Future? : I’m in business, am well up with the latest…
Politics : We’ve all been there…It’s our first…
Health Reasons for Loss Libido in Men : Among the things in a…

Knowledge, Greed & Knowing Just Enough

Having watched a lot of nature documentaries recently – as well as the incredible Human Planet series from the BBC – I’ve found myself pondering an interesting conundrum: is knowledge important? If so, how is it possible for some people with very little knowledge – or so it would seem – to be very successful living in harsh climates, while other people with lots of money fail to adapt to their way of life?

Take two examples: the Eskimo and the successful actor who is having a dry period with no big film in the pipeline. How come the Eskimo, who knows only what he needs to know about his environment, will suffer through the cold but remain upbeat and happy, despite the ravaging weather? And how is it that the actor, with all his money, gets depressed?

In my opinion, it all comes down to what you need to know and knowing too much. The Eskimo only needs to know how to survive, and he lives in relative peace. The actor, however, is subjected – or allows himself to be subject to – all kinds of other pressures. In other words, while the Eskimo doesn’t know of any other life, and is content, the actor always seeks a better one. In this respect knowledge can be dangerous. It can make you greedy, want always more and never be happy with what you have.

If you’re one of many people wondering if you’ll ever be able to afford Hybrid Cars and a fine standard of living, think about the Eskimo and how happy he is living off the land. I wonder whether Eskimos are able to get broadband in their igloos.

We could do far worse than stop with what we know. We know plenty, it’s how we use it that counts, I think.

Similar Posts:
The Future? : I’m in business, am well up with the latest…
Politics : We’ve all been there…It’s our first…
Search & You WILL Find : I can remember the first time I came…

Are Some Thoughts Worth More Than Others?

To begin with, you can fall into the trap of reading philosophy and thinking that only philosophers'thoughts should be considered grand. But here’s the thing: If you read enough philosophy you soon discover that actually, philosophers are some of the most unsure, questioning people around (people who literally can’t fill the kettle up without thinking “but will filling the kettle up right NOW kick into being a series of events that might forever change the world?”). In that respect they are no different from you and I in terms of information storage : in fact, from what I’ve read I’d say that most people on the street are much more decisive (and sometimes make a LOT more sense…).

These thoughts were triggered by a conversation I overheard; two tramps talking about Kant and existentialism and Nietzsche while tossing rubbish out of a skip on the hunt for sandwiches (don’t ask me what was so apealling about skip sandwiches rather than skip burgers, but that’s what theyw wanted). Not the kind of thing that you really expect to hear two tramps talking about but still, you do indeed learn something new each and every day.

So what I’m trying to say is that just because you’re not famous, and you don’t have a whole new philosophy on life, that doesn’t mean that you can’t think about things in an equally important way that might one day change the world. Look at Simon Cowell for example, and even the Dragons off Dragons'Den. They didn’t listen to others, they just jumped straight in using their heads and ended up becoming entrepreneurs. Much as I couldn’t bear to be in the same room as Simon squarehead Cowell for too long, even I have to admit that he has a good business philosophy: either that or he’s just extremely lucky, which I doubt somehow is the case considering just how rich he is…

Similar Posts:
The Future? : I’m in business, am well up with the latest…
Politics : We’ve all been there…It’s our first…
Search & You WILL Find : I can remember the first time I came…

Is Thinking Dangerous?

Recently, while I was staring out into space, a friend told me that thinking too much was dangerous and that I ought to be careful, because it could ruin my life if I was not careful (and I think he was insinuating that I had already partially ruined it by thinking, but I can’t be sure). I wasn’t sure what he meant, and when I quizzed him he said “I’ve been reading Nietzsche, and as you know he thought so much he went mad”.

I had to correct him: although Nietzsche was a bit of a thinker, to say the least, and this probably did contribute to his maddening, he also suffered from Syphilis – a common disease at the time which made people quite literally lose the plot. Nobody can ever really know, of course, how much thinking attributed to his demise, but one thing is for sure: thinking too much can be dangerous. It can open up new ideas which can challenge anyone, from the farmer who had previously only ever thought about white diesel , to the professor who comes to realise that there may be another explanation for losing all his grey hair.

Of course, thinking can also be a fantastic thing: where would we be, I ask you, if we all stopped thinking and just gave up? No new ideas would happen, technology would grind to a halt, and life as we know it would change horribly. I don’t know about you but that’s not a world I want to live in!

So next time you start off on a deep thought, don’t be discouraged, just don’t do it too much before bed-time Oh, and look out for those dangerous diseases too, because as Nietzsche proved, the combination of the two can be really quite dodgy.

Similar Posts:
The Future? : I’m in business, am well up with the latest…
More Input! : Just like Jonny 5 in the eighties cult-classic…
Cutting Edge : I’ve written a few posts on why the murder…

Fearing Change

Far as I can tell, about the only thing people aren’t afraid to change is lanes. Just yesterday I was on my bike when I was cut up buy a red diesel Bradford lorry; I swear that it was the same driver who had tried to murder me three weeks previous, but then again, my bike is bright orange and even I hate the sight of it so I could understand if that was the reason. It reminded me about change, and how we have this weird mentality towards changing and not changing.

For example, you’re considered a failure if you drop out of one course and change to another. Shame on you: why hadn’t you pre-emptied that you’d hate doing that first course? But then there’s another school of thought that suggests that if you haven’t changed your career and got into selling property by the time you’re 40, you’re part of an alien race. In fact, it just gets weirder all the time, doesn’t it? I pity the aliens that have landed her already, or might in the future. And maybe that’s why they haven’t made their presence felt yet? Perhaps they are, quite simply, scared of admitting that they don’t understand our bizarre rules of change and not change.

I suppose it all goes back to the security thing: us humans like to be secure, both financially and emotionally, and suddenly if you are someone who changes willy-nilly then you stand out as someone who is greedy and wants always more. The truth is anything but, of course; in my opinion, change is a healthy thing. It’s the people who don’t want to change who need to take a serious look in the mirror. After all, humans, animals and the landscape have been changing and evolving for billions of years. You don’t get anywhere if you stand still and settle for second best now, do you?

Similar Posts:
The Future? : I’m in business, am well up with the latest…
Where Do All The Pens Go? : If you’re an office worker,…
How MM Changed Things : Back in the day, before CGI, bad acting…

Learning Languages

For as long as I can remember, I have wondered why only us English seem to be gifted with the art of speaking just ONE language. Just one. It’s not much after years of going to school and studying, is it? It’s no wonder, then, that “foreigners” think all English people who can only speak one language are more than a bit strange and really need to get their act together pronot. The irony is that on the train the other day I overheard two grumpy old women talking about how lazy foreigners were, among other ludicrous things which I will detail below. It just didn’t add up, so I quietly listened to what they were saying, which were the following points (among a small bit of banter about Liposuction surgery ).

1) Anyone who is not English is work-shy: this just annoyed me. I’ve seen Polish people and other nationalities of people clearing up the trains at night and they were anything but lazy. Likewise with cleaning. I wondered what evidence they had to support their weak argument, considered butting in but then decided there was no point, it would only create an argument.

2) Anyone who can speak multiple languages is somehow different and had a better education: this sounds logical, but I know for a fact it’s total rubbish. I have met highly educated people who can barely grasp English let alone Italian. And I have met tramps who could speak Spanish. What does that tell you?

3) You can’t learn a language and work a full-time job: possibly the daftest of the three statements, this one made me do a small laugh which I had to pretend was a yelp of excitement about the imaginary phone-call I was imaginarily having.

Similar Posts:
The Future? : I’m in business, am well up with the latest…
Party Etiquette : Being a bit of a social butterfly, parties…
How Writing Murder Mysteries Helps Skill-Build : Sadly, most…

Age Old Debate

Watching an interesting documentary on counselling the other day, a few thoughts suddenly came to mind: the first was “is counselling much better than a chat with a good friend?” and the second was “why are we all so ashamed to discuss that we may potentially need help ourselves?” I say this about the latter because with other health issues, such as high-blood pressure, none of us are afraid to voice out concerns with friends and loved ones, and surely counselling is as serious a thing as any other health issue. And I say this about the former because I have often heard stories of people going to counselling and not really learning as much from it as they expected.

Take Self Esteem Coaching london for example – a search I put into Google which received pages and pages of text about counselling places in a very small area. Had I wanted to I could have had an appointment within a day or two (at a higher price), and probably on the NHS I could have got one in a couple of months. It made me wonder: do people with more money actually go to counselling sessions more? Or is it nothing to do with the money? Is the stigma powerful enough to override these matters and make even people who have serious issues and loads of money think “Why should I have counselling, everyone will think I am strange”?

The point I am trying to make is that even now, in 2011, counselling is synonymous with mental illness, and not enough people have a good idea of what this actually is. Something seriously needs to change and fast. There are lots of people out there who need help and fast, and all of them are someone else’s friend.

Similar Posts:
The Future? : I’m in business, am well up with the latest…
Keeping A Level Head : Being in business can be stress….
Mysteries Are Hard : Right, I have no choice but to admit it…
Enjoying a beer for a change. : Foster’s Lager is a beer…

Why We Can’t Be Truly Free

One psychological thing which really interests me is how people think that what they wear influences how well they will do at something, particularly sports. Take my friend for example: he’s an intelligent person, I think. He is a strong user of logic to problem-solve most things on most levels, and doesn’t believe in anything that can’t be explained by science, yet when it comes to going jogging, he HAS to be wearing his best mizuno running shoes and jogging bottoms. Oh, and not forgetting his running top, fashionable and matching. For some reason or another which he won’t readily admit to he truly believes that the little tag on the shoes – as well as the colouring and pattern on them – makes some dramatic difference to how he will perform. Ridiculous thinking, of course, and he admits that if he were to wear similar shoes which didn’t look so fancy but performed just the same he would undoubtedly be able to run just as fast as in his favourites. But my friend is not an isolated case, of course. We are all sceptical, even if we say we don’t believe in any of that stuff.

There’s no way to not be a sceptic, is there? If so please tell me. In my opinion, from the moment we re born we are subjected to all kinds of tradition and folklore: a perfect breeding-ground for superstition to be born, even if it does mature and gather momentum subconsciously. In that regard, it’s virtually impossible to be completely free from it as you grow up. So you may as well just admit it: whether or not you want to be, everyone is a sceptic in some situation. Logic can’t always prevail, and the reason is, we are but human. No?

Similar Posts:
I Want Everything Made of Oak : All this modern furniture is…
Social Butterfly Life : Being a bit of a social butterfly,…
Annoying Git Dave : As well as living in Bristol and wondering…
Enjoying a beer for a change. : Foster’s Lager is a beer…

Goodbye Resolutions

By now(and this applies to you no matter what time of year it is) the New Year’s resolutions have been and gone by their millions: I’m going to be staying healthy this year, all year! No chocolate for me, you can forget it! Beer? I don’t even remember what it tastes like…

Except, by the second week in January most people who bothered to make resolutions have discovered that being unhealthy tastes much better, chocolate is actually quite good after a hard day at work with your boss yelling at you, and beer, well…Where do we begin; we’d be here all week, let alone day. Most people who give up beer for a few weeks only miss it more. And so it begins again. The same old tired cycle of denial and denial and denial…

It’s a bit sad really. I’ve had quite enough of this garbage and I’m sure you have too, haven’t you? Yes, I thought so.

So surely this is a sign that the New Year’s resolution is as dead as a dodo, isn’t it? I mean, how much longer do we have to keep pretending to one another? For the next hundred years? Forever? What a horrible thought…

My idea to rid the world of this plague is as follows, and I propose we start it now and end the misery: I say why don’t we have a new thing called an End Of Year resolution, and we implement this at the end of November. That way, by the time Christmas comes around, we might want to binge a bit, but then we can PROPERLY begin and it’ll be loads easier because we’ll have got a head-start. How good does that sound? Yes, I know, it does sound pretty amazing. Do it now and spread the word!

Similar Posts:
I Want Everything Made of Oak : All this modern furniture is…
Thicko-Central : Working for a large London company, I suppose…
What We Can Learn From Famous TV Detectives : As you will know…
A Lawn Game I Played Last Summer : I played an interesting game…