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Approaching something from a positive vs. negative light can yield quite different conclusions. Turning on the radio, what I mostly hear are people complaining about how crappy the world is (economy, politics, greed, etc.) and then their supporting points about why their view is correct. There will be some discussion about the “other side” but by starting with the negative view, the conclusion will inevitably be foregone - Yes, you are correct that the world is shitty.
Does this approach help us? Or just trap us in a vicious cycle of complaints? Why not start with the positive and identify issues that we can solve?
I include myself in the camp of people who use “hate” as the starting point but I think this is wrong. Isn’t the world a better place now than it was 50 years ago? Haven’t we made “progress?” It’s time to use “love” and “happiness” as a starting point to identify and solve problems.
Side note: These thoughts remind me of a recent episode of South Park featured Stan getting “old” and becoming very cynical - the world essentially turning into a giant pile of shit. Funny…shit.
Reading is fundamental…but totally overrated. I’ve always thought it seemed smart to be able to brag that I still churned through maybe 25 to 50 books per year while the average American was at 2 books if they were lucky. It makes sense but honestly, what’s it done for me?
That’s when the realization occurs. Reading is useless if you don’t turn that knowledge into something more valuable. You can spend your whole life educating yourself on everything but at some point, you have to be the thinker, you have to create new books. Otherwise, you are simply a consumer. The same consumer that buys pop music and action movies, the same consumer that orders extra large cokes and goes to amusement parks.
There’s no difference. You have to make a choice about being a consumer vs. a producer. So what are you?
Good pizza + Bad soda = Bad review
I have been saying this for a long time but great restaurants are usually distinguished by a single or a few dishes. You go for “the lobster” or the “chicken rice” or the “creme brulee.” Yes, there are some restaurants who are able to put together an entire menu of just winners but that is very rare, so rare that smart restaurant owners are now focused on menus that contain just a single item. Donuts only. Pizza only. Barbecue only. The hottest restaurants don’t have diner-style menus who employ chefs that can cook a million different dishes.
Given that premise, my question today is why does Lombardi’s, a world famous pizza place that has lines out the door, serve soda by the jug that is both flat and off-flavored. We all thought it was either diet soda or some sort of regular / diet hybrid that made it taste pretty much like crap.
It’s inexcusable and also terrible business because eventually, someone is going to put up a bad review - like me - and it will have had nothing to do with their core business: pizza.
Shame on you.
Other businesses should learn from your mistakes. My actual review for this establishment below.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/lombardis-pizza-new-york#hrid:ROlfAuAAO-r8aJKpkx05Ow
What will you leave behind?
Remember when you first heard that Michael Jackson died? It was kind of a surreal moment because while you sort of expected crazy news out of someone who had become essentially a caricature, you still didn’t expect him to simply not exist.
Now, a few years later, I find it also a little strange when I was thinking about him and his music and realized that he too will be forgotten, like most things in life. Sure, there will be lots of times when we as humanity will gather to remember the “king of pop” but essentially the world isn’t going to miss him.
If someone like him could be forgotten, what hope is there for someone like us? 
The odds
What are the odds that two people from the same village meet in a different country and get married? Apparently its more frquent than one would think since that’s what happened to me.
I’m sitting at a dinner featuring a gathering of fellow villagers from China. The immigration process is so foreign to me if only because it scares the crap out of me - the thought of moving to a place where I don’t speak the language and I have little to no money.
What are the odds?
"Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone."
Ayn Rand
This question came to me today via random neurons in my brain: “Can you get a disease from a fart?” Maybe more specifically, “Can you get a disease from smelling someone else’s fart?”
Well, it turns out that as far as original thoughts go, it’s more “been there done that” for the collective wisdom of humanity. Yahoo Answers’ “best” answer bravely addresses this question with the following:
Farts cannot transmit disease through the air. If you were to put your face right up to someone anus and they release a fart directly into your face then maybe you could be exposed to their e. coli but not in a quantity to make the average normal person ill.
The answer make sense but I still hesitate when I walk into a bathroom and get a whiff that pauses me in my tracks. Even if it’s sanitary, it’s still absolutely disgusting.
The Internet as the Truth…for Asians.
Is it true that a good restaurant review - perhaps accompanied by a few choice photos - will fill an opening day with…Asians? In a time when the Internet becomes more and more a reflection of reality, is it the case that one ethnicity above all relies on the Internet what it sees to be the “truth?” Why is it that you can’t eat a restaurant unless you’ve read all the reviews online? Why is it that a few bloggers (or worse, those people who write on the food websites) influence what an entire race eats one restaurant, one meal at a time?!
Can’t we figure out what to eat on our own?
“There’s no such thing as original thought,” said a friend. I will explore that here over the next year and hope to prove him wrong.
When he said that, though, it made me think about music and whether melodies will ever be used up. After all, it seems like there would be a finite number of chords that would generate a melody and then within that set there would only be a very limited number that would appeal to a mass audience. Is that why it’s all about remixes these days? Are we approaching the end of musical creativity? (My guess is no…)
