Monday, August 16, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Curaj gaina ca te tai
50 de litri de lapte sau carnica? Hahahaha!!! Cand esti cu cutitul la gat faci orice miracol. In fine, noi radem, dar e o lectie foarte importanta de tras din bancul asta si anume ca motivatia vine de cele mai multe ori cand nu ai incotro!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
The myth of religion: an essay on the absurd
Contrary to what the title might indicate, I'm not going to write a philosophical treaty on the meaning of life and how religion fits into it all (it could be interesting, but I frankly don't have the time right now). This is more of a reaction to an article that I recently discovered (thanks to Facebook yet again...I'm really starting to get impressed). It describes the situation of Chechen women who are abducted at a young age and then forced to marry their kidnappers (it is estimated that one in five marriages occurs like this). And if that weren't enough, dissident young brides are brought to an exorcist who will try to extirpate the "genie" that is planting such ideas into their heads. Now let's take a moment to ponder on that shall we? GENIES?? Seriously?? What else? The tooth fairy is the one who secretly makes us believe that going to the dentist is painful? Elves and garden gnomes are the ones who fill my pool with algae and make the water all green? The world of Harry Potter is real and the latest economic crisis is just another one of Voldemort's clever schemes to rid the world of muggles? Now I know that logic isn't one of religion's strong points (my excuses to the few rational believers out there, I know that some of you are actually making an effort to render religion plausible), but in this case it's really not that hard to tie two and two together (P.S: it makes four!). You force someone to do something they do not want to do and they will not be happy. End of the story. No magical creatures and haunting souls need to intervene. It happens by itself. And the worst of it is that, sometimes, the women themselves are willing participants in this act and, in addition to that, they come back for more even though it is painful. I really have no words for this except for the fact that it is incredible what the human mind can accept when it is placed in extreme conditions.
Here is an excerpt from the article that really struck me:
"The patient was lying blindfolded on her back, wearing a long, flowery robe. Mairbek began yelling verses from the Koran into her ear and beating her with a short stick.
'She feels no pain,' he said. 'We beat the genie and not the patient.'
The woman, probably in her early twenties, was writhing on the bed: 'Shut up! Leave me alone,' she growled.
Mairbek claimed this strange voice belonged to the genie possessing her. He shouted back: 'Take your claws out of this woman. Aren't you ashamed? Go on! Leave her body like you did last time, through her toe.'
With a deadpan expression, Mairbek explained that the genie inside the girl was 340 years old.
He was not a Muslim - he was a Russian man called Andrei and he had fallen in love with his victim.
The genie was so jealous that he made her leave her husband. 'It was a tough case,' he added. This was already the seventh time he had treated this patient.
[...]I asked Mairbek if he always blamed the genies for marital breakdown. Perhaps, I suggested, some women are traumatised by being abducted and forced into marriage or by losing their children?
Mairbek was dismissive.
'We have so many young girls with these problems. I had a patient today whose genie tells her she should divorce, that her husband doesn't love her; that she shouldn't stay in an unhappy marriage for the sake of the children.'
'But that's just the genie trying to get its own way and we have to put a stop to that,' he said."
You can find the full article here.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Precious
Probably not the smartest thing I could have done, but I just watched the movie Precious. It's about this overweight and illiterate black girl living in Harlem who is also pregnant with her second child by her father. Oh did I also mention that at one point she discovers she is HIV positive? Talk about life being a bitch! And of course that after watching this you feel like crap times infinity (especially in the state I seem to be lately), but at the same time you realize that your life is not that bad. Of course, some people might think that my life could inspire horror stories or that it is comparable to a concentration camp with the Nazis, but despite everything, I live with people who love me. They're not perfect and there are days when I wish from the bottom of my heart that I could get out of here, but they do care and even if they do complain, they still drive 20 min in the pouring rain at 10:00 PM to come pick me up at the metro, or they still drive me in the traffic when the metro isn't working so that I can get to an interview on time. I can't say that I can count on them every time, but I can count on them most times. I'm going to university and I have a bright future awaiting me. I have friends who I can talk to and who make me forget. Things could be better true, but they can also be worse. I'm a big girl and, no matter what, I'm going to be fine. Always have been, always will be. I just need to learn to take better care of myself. And stop wallowing in self-pity. And stop making myself ill by intoxicating my body (which is always fun as hell, but it doesn't do much to make you feel better afterward). But I'll be fine! Cause tomorrow's a new day and as the days pass, the coldness slowly goes away and I manage to forget the loneliness. Because being happy doesn't mean that there's nothing wrong in your life. It just means that you are able to forget the sadness enough to appreciate a clear blue sky or a smile that is sent your way.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
I am a drunken fool
It's weird how at one point you become so confused that you don't even know what is right and what is wrong, what is acceptable and what is not, what you should sacrifice and what you shouldn't. You realize that you made too many compromises with yourself and reason won over your heart. Or was it the other way around? I don't know anymore which part of me is speaking. There are too many voices shouting in my head and I feel paralyzed. Everything is just so loud. I need to clear my head, but I can't. There are just so many people around and somehow I feel like I'm suffocating.
"Just close your eyes and hold me, no harm will befall you"
God I so wish it would be that simple...
"Just close your eyes and hold me, no harm will befall you"
God I so wish it would be that simple...
Friday, August 6, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
Quote of the month...sort of
Yes late again, but blah. Having to take classes in the summer makes one sloppy and uncaring of etiquette. So sue me!
The idea for this post initially came from the fact that today while desperately trying to study for my finance exam, I got stuck with the song "A Little Piece of Heaven" in my head.
And while this is a nice song by Avenged Sevenfold from a musical point of view, the lyrics do tend to give you a shiver down your spine. And this reminded me of something that I once heard (probably from Bunny, though I really don't remember if it came from him or someone else). It went something like this:
"The most disturbing thing about necrophilia is that there have been enough cases in the world for us to have a name for it."
And it's kind of true. We are so closed up in our own little "normal" world, that we end up imagining that people who would want to have sex with a corpse are rare abnormalities, statistical impossibilities of the type of Ed Gein (another lovely case of a reeeeeeaaaallly fucked up mind). But while trying to see if my fabulous sentence was actually a real quote or just random folk wisdom, I stumbled upon a forum thread on necrophilia. And there was this self-proclaimed necrophiliac who said:
"No, necrophilia isnt a mental disorder per se. The diagnostic criterias in DSM requires significant distress on the behalf of the paraphiliac. Altough necrophilia are a NOS-category so there are no formulated criterias so you have to translate from the other paraphilias diagnistic criterias.
So on what grounds are you claiming that necrophilia is a disorder? Are you using ICD-10? Or just having an opinion on an subject you dont know much about? If its the later i think you should rethink your view on the subject because as i said before even masturbation was seen as an disorder before (as late as 1972 with the book 'Human Sexuality' American Medical Association officially reversed its earlier standpoint that it was an foremost danger to human mental health).
And, im not harming myself and i dont accept your argument. Even (hypoteticaly) if my sexuality made me socialy isolated and so on, got me in prison or even mental institution thats not because of "disorders". It is because of societies narrow minded views on this subject and thats the problem, not me. You wouldnt argue that homosexuals that got in trouble when it was illegal had mental disorders would you?"
And there was one thing that struck me. This person sounded very much like the Marquis de Sade quote I posted a couple of months ago and which went like this:
"My way of thinking cannot be approved you say? Why should that be of importance to me! The one who adopts a way of thinking for others is nothing but a fool! My way of thinking is the fruit of my reflections. It is part of my existence. I am not the master to change it. Even if I would be, I wouldn't. This way of thinking that you blame so is the only solace I can find in life[...]. It is not my way of thinking who makes me unhappy, it is that of others."
So this makes me wonder. Where do you draw the line? What is acceptable and what is not? When do you fall into mental disorders and when is it that society is being too narrow-minded and is imposing conformity on its members. I mean, many things that we have believed in the past to be true are now considered abominations (like homophobia, racism and discrimination against women). And it's arrogant to think that we now live in a perfect society where we have nothing more to learn. But then in that case can we say that anything goes? Should we consider murderers, rapists and psychopaths as just another facet of the diversity in the world that should be accepted as it is? Well, according to Camus, freedom must include murder or it is not real freedom.
Anyway, these are heavy things to ponder on and considering how late it is, my babbling at this hour won't get me any closer to an answer. But there's just one more thing that I want to mention. Now I mean this in the most respectful way possible and my philosophy in life is pretty much that as long as nobody gets hurt, anything goes. But man am I happy that I mostly fit into what the majority of people would call "normal". For one of the first times of my life, I'm happy that I'm just like everybody else. Because, even though I might be missing out on some aspects of life (or maybe not...sex with a cold, unmoving body is not really my cup of tea), I would be scared shitless if I would have to go through the whole self-discovery phase and then try to find a place for myself in society (and fail most of the time). I've seen friends go through it and it does not look like fun. So this post goes to Lily-chan and Cris. The strongest people I know!
The idea for this post initially came from the fact that today while desperately trying to study for my finance exam, I got stuck with the song "A Little Piece of Heaven" in my head.
And while this is a nice song by Avenged Sevenfold from a musical point of view, the lyrics do tend to give you a shiver down your spine. And this reminded me of something that I once heard (probably from Bunny, though I really don't remember if it came from him or someone else). It went something like this:
"The most disturbing thing about necrophilia is that there have been enough cases in the world for us to have a name for it."
And it's kind of true. We are so closed up in our own little "normal" world, that we end up imagining that people who would want to have sex with a corpse are rare abnormalities, statistical impossibilities of the type of Ed Gein (another lovely case of a reeeeeeaaaallly fucked up mind). But while trying to see if my fabulous sentence was actually a real quote or just random folk wisdom, I stumbled upon a forum thread on necrophilia. And there was this self-proclaimed necrophiliac who said:
"No, necrophilia isnt a mental disorder per se. The diagnostic criterias in DSM requires significant distress on the behalf of the paraphiliac. Altough necrophilia are a NOS-category so there are no formulated criterias so you have to translate from the other paraphilias diagnistic criterias.
So on what grounds are you claiming that necrophilia is a disorder? Are you using ICD-10? Or just having an opinion on an subject you dont know much about? If its the later i think you should rethink your view on the subject because as i said before even masturbation was seen as an disorder before (as late as 1972 with the book 'Human Sexuality' American Medical Association officially reversed its earlier standpoint that it was an foremost danger to human mental health).
And, im not harming myself and i dont accept your argument. Even (hypoteticaly) if my sexuality made me socialy isolated and so on, got me in prison or even mental institution thats not because of "disorders". It is because of societies narrow minded views on this subject and thats the problem, not me. You wouldnt argue that homosexuals that got in trouble when it was illegal had mental disorders would you?"
And there was one thing that struck me. This person sounded very much like the Marquis de Sade quote I posted a couple of months ago and which went like this:
"My way of thinking cannot be approved you say? Why should that be of importance to me! The one who adopts a way of thinking for others is nothing but a fool! My way of thinking is the fruit of my reflections. It is part of my existence. I am not the master to change it. Even if I would be, I wouldn't. This way of thinking that you blame so is the only solace I can find in life[...]. It is not my way of thinking who makes me unhappy, it is that of others."
So this makes me wonder. Where do you draw the line? What is acceptable and what is not? When do you fall into mental disorders and when is it that society is being too narrow-minded and is imposing conformity on its members. I mean, many things that we have believed in the past to be true are now considered abominations (like homophobia, racism and discrimination against women). And it's arrogant to think that we now live in a perfect society where we have nothing more to learn. But then in that case can we say that anything goes? Should we consider murderers, rapists and psychopaths as just another facet of the diversity in the world that should be accepted as it is? Well, according to Camus, freedom must include murder or it is not real freedom.
Anyway, these are heavy things to ponder on and considering how late it is, my babbling at this hour won't get me any closer to an answer. But there's just one more thing that I want to mention. Now I mean this in the most respectful way possible and my philosophy in life is pretty much that as long as nobody gets hurt, anything goes. But man am I happy that I mostly fit into what the majority of people would call "normal". For one of the first times of my life, I'm happy that I'm just like everybody else. Because, even though I might be missing out on some aspects of life (or maybe not...sex with a cold, unmoving body is not really my cup of tea), I would be scared shitless if I would have to go through the whole self-discovery phase and then try to find a place for myself in society (and fail most of the time). I've seen friends go through it and it does not look like fun. So this post goes to Lily-chan and Cris. The strongest people I know!
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