Happy?

Some of my favorite things really are the simplest. I like books, simple. I like poetry, simple (sort of). I like hot apple cider and beaches when it’s too cold to go swimming, simple. So many things in life are simple and I think that sometimes we overlook the small, simple things while rushing ourselves to the bigger picture, the details are what are important; they make the picture.

Just imagine a painting without any detail or a story with only the main elements and you’ll soon realize what I’m on about. You all know the saying ‘stop and smell the roses’ and in life it’s very important (to me anyways) to do just that. I try my best to stop and smell even the smallest of roses; I take my pleasure from life from noticing the things that others omit in their wanderings. It sometimes amazes me of all the small wonders people miss out on when doing even the smallest tasks.

You’ll soon see as you start to pay attention to the little things that everything out there really is made up of the smallest and simplest things, so take the time to smell the roses, to notice the small detail in the everyday, mundane things you do. Just as I can enjoy a travel mug full of hot apple cider on a beach in November while reading an anthology of poetry I urge you to look at all the small things and take root in the things that make you the most happy. If you can learn to find the simple joy in the small everyday things you do you’ll unlock one of the biggest secrets of life. If you haven’t already figured out I’m talking about happiness you need to do a bit of work in finding small things that make you happy and then read this over again so you can relate.

Until next time,
Jake

Paper or The Future?

Now I'm not usually a tree hugger but I do hope paper is soon replaced with technology. I'm not going to suggest that this all happens in a year or two but give t a bit and we'll never touch paper again. By the time our grandchildren roll around I hope we've finished our paper placation.

I like to think that I'm living in the future with all the technology I use but unfortunately that is quite impossible to do while still going to school. I remember a question in math class about to most economic plan to print a book and I had to answer with eBook (that's just me though).

As much as I think we need to stop using paper I think there will still be certain medias that use paper. As of right now I guarantee you I could scribble a note a tad quicker than I could type it up. This being said I believe the only way that technology could trump over paper if it became much more accessible. As great as multi-tasking on the iPad may be it's still not quite as quick as grabbing a notebook and pen.

Just something to think about as you type up your next email, which (sort of ironically) has already replaced the letter.

World War, Anyone?

So, Iran

Their nuclear weapons program is getting big, to a point where the US has said they might have to go to, I don't know, war measures or something to the liking of that.

That's scary. Probably none of the people who read this were ever alive in a war, and I wasn't either, but what this could lead to is that, war. A world war with today's weapons is a step beyond dangerous. Imagine if Iran lost a certain fight to the Allies and suddenly decided that the map could do without Florida. Scary but not something that's impossible with today's technology for ending existences.

As I learn about the second world war in my Canadian History class I realise how amazing the effects of war are. In 1940 the fighting that started in Europe reached it's fingers as far as Washington and Japan so what could war in today's climate cause?

Just for a moment you might think world war three is on the horizon, maybe the world ending in 2012 isn't as far-fetched as some might think.

What If?

Hi, I plan on this being a short post but my gut tells me otherwise.

I want to start with one of the biggest questions out there. This question can literally (with a little manipulation) be used in any and every situation. The Question is 'what if?' What if I died tonight? What if she doesn't love me back? This simple little question can completely turn your life upside down. You don't even need the word 'what' in there, just 'if'. That simple two letter word can be applied to anything and everything, even Dimitri Martin wrote an entire show called 'If I'. (It's very good, you should try to check it out, I believe it's on DVD.) By living your life constantly asking yourself 'what if?' one of two things will happen. One-you'll drive yourself mad, Or two-you'll realize all of the things you might be missing out on and find a way to fit more in.

The simple fact of the matter is that if you knew you were going to die tomorrow you would probably do something different today. What I mean by 'constantly ask yourself "what if?"' is that you should always be looking for one time things ('do I go to the movie that'll be playing again tomorrow night or do I study for a test in a course I'm not doing too well in?' sort of stuff). I know you can't live your life doing the most extreme thing every time you get the chance to but you can't live your life in a shell.

I feel very strongly that you have to be proactive in your life to make it a good one. You have to plan for the future but don't forget that you're living in the moment and what happens in the moment is sometimes more important than the future (at least for small periods at a time). Think of it this way, if there is no 'in the moment' there will be no future, but if there is no future there will soon be no more 'in the moment'.

I challenge you to keep the 'what if?' question in your head as you go out in the next couple of days. I'm not saying you should do anything different (yet), just that you should keep your eyes, ears and mind open to the other possibilities that are out there, they may surprise you. Who knows, some of these possibilities might even be better than what you had originally planned.

Love and Such

Man, I haven't written forever.

Oh well, I'm writing now. It's not like anyone reads these posts anyways. I suppose these are just a way to put myself out there while I think someone is reading them. I guess that helps me a little bit. (Help with what I don't know.)

What shall I talk about? To be honest there are so many things floating around in my head right now I wouldn't even know how to write anything interesting at this point. Why don't I just start with the biggest thing on my mind at the moment: What is love?

Deep question with billions of possible answers that is. Every person you would happen to ask would tell you a different answer, I guarantee you that. To be honest I'm not even sure if I know what my definition of love is.(Funny enough that a paragraph ago I though I knew exactly what the post would be about.) The reason I think love is so complicated is that love is different for everyone. Now I don't mean the trivial stuff like me saying I love my Macintosh, I mean the really deep love like right before you'd ask someone to marry you or something like that. Because love is so diverse there really can't be one definition for it, I'm sure you could look 'love' up in Webster's but how good of an explanation of what love feels like would that give you? It's not the warm feeling you get when you see that one person you care the world for. The thing with love os that unless you've had that deep, deep love you really don't have any idea what it is, you can't even begin to fib something up about it.

For reasons too obvious to post love is important. I don't know if you're religious or not but the whole Bible is based upon love. Where would this world be without love or compassion? If you really think of all the philosophical issues involved with love there probably wouldn't even be hate without love. (Bet you haven't thought of it that way before.) The inconvenient fact of the matter is that everything in the world is based around love and hate, as often as some people may deny it.

As we all grow in this world there are certain things that likely all of us will face, one of those is love. Whether you're the one giving the love or receiving the love it's likely a very important thing for you, which brings me to the biggest and possibly the only downside to love, (nice sagway, eh?) losing it. Obviously I can't speak for the whole world when I say this, but for me losing the thing you love most in the world is a hard thing to do. Obviously I'm not saying it's something one would do on purpose but it's something that can happen. When you lose something/someone that you've spent time with; that you've shared with; that you've loved it hurts to lose it. As a younger person I may not have experienced the shearing loss some of the people reading might have experienced I still know that losing something loved is not easy.

You see, Love is not something that can be defined or held in the palm of your hand, but as I sit typing words into a keyboard I know that I have had love; that I've touched it. Love is not something that will every be described accurately or can be understood by someone that hasn't felt love. Love is a mystery, love is the thing that holds the world together, love has seen many tears and many smiles. Trying to sum up love in a couple of words is impossible but just by writing this I feel like I've come closer to finally understanding what love is for myself.

Renewable Energy

Hello again,

I know it's been a while since I've written anything but it's second last period and I have nothing to do, at all, no lie.

What I'll talk about today is renewable energy. I have no doubt that this type of energy is the way of the future but it will also cause problems for some people. For many, many years the oil companies have been getting huge, this is contributed all to the extreme need (maybe more the want) of the public. We will always need some sort of energy, I've no doubt of that, but I do think that the large petrol companies will do something to stop this switch. When the world switches to hydrogen, Brown's gas, electricity, whatever it is, there will be companies that will loose great amounts of money.

I know that I will probably never have a say on this matter, but I know that I wouldn't be spending so much money on oil - if I was CEO of a large oil company - but rather ways of make renewable sources of energy more available and affordable. You really have to speculate that these gas giants know it's the end of an era for fuel oils and this begs the question; why are they still making so much of their product? If this world is really moving forward then we have to stop worrying about the things that make us money and more about the future. It's completely pointless to make money for the future if you don't care enough to ensure that there IS a future.

Well thanks for listening to my rant. If you never rant you should try it, start a blog, facebook will work too in a pinch I suppose. It's great fun. Have a good day.

Greetings

Hope you've all been well. To update on my cold I will say that I believe this one is almost gone. It's such a great annoyance when you have a cold but once it's gone you feel so great. Colds are odd things in that way.

There are many things on my mind right now but I think the first thing that popped into my head was technology. Technology is great, don't get my wrong, by technology can cause problems. If it weren't for technology I wouldn't be writing this blog, but if we didn't have technology our planet wouldn't be so poluted. Now I know that this subject is a very controversial one so I would like to say that the opinion herein is solely mine. Back to the topic at hand. At any point today I'm sure that you have been in some sort of contact with technology. Whether it's was your car, or even your wrist watch. I have no problem with technology, however I do not lime the amount of polution that is produced by technology. Something I have recently learned is that to make a Toyota Prius is less enviromentaly friendly than to drive a Range Rover. This is one of my favourite examples of technology's polution.

But it's not just the harmful nature if technology to our planet. Technogy can harm us humans too. It's not bad enough that technology has a negative effect on us, but the things that hurt us most are the most common items. For example a cell phone, my sister has hers out constantly. This isn't good for her, it can have adverse effects on her health. I don't think that the government should allow devices such as cell phones for the sole reason that they cause so much harm. Of course cell phones are helpful in our everyday socialization, but they aren't that helpful to our much more important health.

I can't speak for everyone on this last issue but it seems to me that some people are addicted to technology. I'm sure that if you took away certain peoles' computers they would wither. Because of all of the technology that has been available to us we tend to rely on it. An example is yesterday during school. My science teacher had to cancel her lesson simply because of a power outage. The outage had been caused by the heavy rain we'd been having. It's the small things lime this that really say how much we're dependent on technology. When it comes down to it we really can't rely on our computers to get things done. Sometimes we can't be afraid to do things ourselves someti we we have to get our hands dirty. Lastly we need to not rely on something that cannot be garanteed.

Organizational Un-Skills

Hello again.

I hope all of you have been well. I've been better and I'm getting better. I recently mentioned I was sick but I belive that I'm just about over my cold.

Something that's been on my mind lately is organization. I don't neccesarily mean organization with small things such as my wallet or my school books. The thing that bugs me most is large events that are poorly and sometimes unorganized. I will be the first I admit that I am not the most organized person in the world. That is beside the point though. When I'm to organize something I make sure I know what I'm doing, I'll try to think of everything. It really bugs me when people have things planned out unwell.

Now this lack of planning isn't rooted only in children and the laziness of some, ok most, teenagers but it reaches so far as adults. This won't surprise you. At least it shouldn't. An example I have recently noticed is the poor planning of some teachers' lesson plans. My math teacher, and I won't list any names, sometimes doesn't even have a plan for her day's lessons. One point in the last month she didn't even seem to know what she wanted to accomplish with the fifty minute class we had. Now sometimes this sloth-like behaviour can be excused I'd regimented, but when it comes to grown adults you really have to stop for a moment. Now this is not the only, and it sure won't be the last example of laziness I will ever see, but when you can pick it out so easily from the people we trust our children with it scares you a bit doesn't it?

Hello

Hello,
As you probably know my name is Jacob. I live outside of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. Seeing as this is the first time I've ever blogged I'm not quite sure what to say.

Today I'm not feeling that great. I stayed home from New Germany Rural High School, where I attend school. I don't know if anyone will agree with me on this, but I find that school is much more interesting when you're not actually doing work. Take yesterday for example. I was sitting in social studies, not really paying attention and I was quite content to not pay attention. This changed the moment I was handed an assignment. I honestly have nothing against schools, but I think that if the South Shore Regional School Board wants us to srive for higher marks and do the absolute best we can then they should make the experience much more enjoyable for the students.

One thing that most students use school more as a social meeting place than a place of study. I will admit that I am no exception to this. I realize this situation though, many students do not. One thing I do not understand about some student is their drug use. The years that you spend in school are quite possibly the most important thirteen years of your life so why would you throw it away? If I knew the answer to that question I would never have to ask it.

Well I think I've ranted enough for today. Sometimes you just have to get your thoughts out don't you? If anyone has read this I hope you have a good day and I shall hopefully write some more som time soon.