The merits of blogs

Why read blogs?

Because you'll come across that one post that makes you tear up

or the one that you love so much you can't help but comment on

or the one that consists of a friend or acquaintance opening up, sharing with the world all the heartache, the pain, the troubles she/he has

or the one with the girl who is swimming against the current saying that popular opinion is mistaken or hypocritical

And you stop. Reread.

You think.

And you learn something new

you realize that you had been too narrow minded

or judged too quickly

and you learn that you're not alone.

Movie craving

I would love to see this movie.

Blurry Computer Screen

I hate it. I hate that I'm never sure. About anything. I make a decision and soon enough I'm wondering if I made a mistake, if I said no to something great. If I relied on my selective memory as an accurate description of things. If I took other people's advice instead of using my own head. If I made mistakes along the way and instead of acknowledging that they were my mistakes, blamed them on others or circumstances.

And I come to the conclusion that in fact, I, am the problem. Not others. Not circumstances.

And I eliminate myself from the equation but my math skills don't equal my verbal skills.

And I'm bound to be in a state of words unsaid forever.

So I sit here, like a dead body, and look at the blurry computer screen.

Cheating

It disgusts me.

What happened to integrity?

Oh, right. It's not actually that bad because you'll never use this information in the future anyway.

Oh wait... aren't you going to be an engineer?

I sure hope you are not a structural engineering major...nor any other major.

Actually, I hope you get caught.

Or maybe you'll just stop.

Really? You'll just rationalize it so?

Oh of course. Everybody does it so in order to have it be fair, you should do it too.

Because a strive for a better, more morally aware world on an individual level is pointless.

Or it is according to you.

Well, I think you're wrong.

There are lots of things that I can't say I'm entirely sure I believe in. But this one is black and white to me. Cheating is wrong. No matter what kind of twisted logic you present to me, and even if I can't fight back and prove my point because of a lack of speaking or debating skills, I'll never agree with you.

Home

Home is the entity that is so engrained within you that no matter how far away you are from it, or how deep inside you bury it, it will keep coming up.

The only thing that needs to happen is a trigger. A familiar song, phrase, picture, object.

Next thing you know, memories begin to pass in front of your eyes in bits and pieces.

You remember the ti

me you broke the rules and got punished.

The time when you exchanged a heart to heart with a friend on top of a beautiful hill.

The time when you cried because the movie was too sad or the death too unbearable.

The time when you did the wrong thing and never forgave yourself for it.

The time when you laughed because the suggestion was so silly.

The time when you exchanged a smile that was miles beyond a smile.

A smile that could not be explained by pages and pages of writing.

And you wish you could relive it all and this time truly appreciate every second of it.

Revisiting, Rewatching, Remembering

There's something intensely powerful about watching a movie that truly affects you deeply, over and over again.

There's something about the moment when you catch a piece of dialogue, a certain movement, a facial expression of a character, that you had missed previously.

There's a pure enjoyment, an "ah" in the new finding.

There's something about the emotion you feel, the smile that inevitably shows upon your face, the tear that you shed, the goose-bumps that you get on your arms that remind you of the last time you watched the movie and who you were with and how you feel about the fact that you're far away from them.

There's something magnificently beautiful in that experience.

And there's something beautiful about the perfect timing that God has for you.

You feel perfectly in sync with the plan.

Beauty

What is beauty? Who is beautiful? Who defines beauty?

Is the Megan Fox look considered beautiful? Angelina Jolie? I don't know... Salma Hayek?

Is beauty external or internal? What makes one externally or internally beautiful?

Take a moment. Think about those questions. Think about people who you consider truly beautiful and what qualities they have.

A friend today talked to me about a revelation she had about beauty and as I reflected upon our talk, I came to the following realization.

We've all heard phrases like "Beauty is on the inside," but what does that actually mean?

Have you ever met someone new who is definitely highly physically attractive but once you begin talking to them or knowing them better, you find out that they are not exactly the nicest or most morally conscientious person? If so, don't you find yourself lowering that person on the attractiveness scale?

I do.

And likewise, when you meet someone who's not the most good-looking person out there but is truly a good person in every way possible, they become more beautiful as you get to know them.

On a scientific level (or my attempt at a scientific explanation) this correlation between outward beauty and inward beauty may be reflective of what all of us think when we think of "beautiful." Perhaps, in one's mind, the word "beautiful" comes to consist of various different aspects and subconsciously if one factor is lagging, we perceive the individual as less beautiful.

So maybe internal beauty is reflective of internal peace, perhaps ever a divine connection...

Just thinking out loud