Balance
Thoughts | July 31, 2010
I’ve always held that life relies on a delicate balance. Between work and play, altruism and egoism, caring and prying. Between caring too much and not caring, giving in to superficiality and looking slovenly, pursuing perfection and settling for good enough.
In fact, I used to write that exact sentence — “life relies on a delicate balance” — in my English essays in high school because I, for some reason, thought it made me seem all profound if I could connect everything to life and remaining in the perfect center of the seesaws and situations life presents us. In actuality, balance is such a cliché. But then again, most clichés are true. Wait, but isn’t it a cliché that most clichés are true? Apparently Steven Fry said, “It is a cliché that most clichés are true, but then, like most clichés, that cliché is untrue.” Am I just one big cliché? Is anything I just wrote true?
Cliché status and the truth in clichés aside, I still believe that balance is good and that we should actively try to achieve it. Take the classic s-triangle that all college students deal with. School, sleep, and social life make up the three angles. The goal is to make sure your triangle doesn’t come out too lopsided. Now, a lot of people will say that you can only pick two of the s’s. I think you can have all three, but there’s another equation that comes into play: balancing between actually caring about the s-triangle and wasting time on things like Facebook. Most people pick the latter some of the time when they really want the former, and that just throws everything off.
Balance. It’s important. But this guy begs to differ. He thinks that we live in constant leaning and achieve balance only in retrospect. Am I right, or is he, or are we both?
Well, what is balance, anyway? It doesn’t mean that you have pick exactly equal amounts of anything. That’s not possible. First of all, how do we measure those amounts? In hours? Does anyone actually keep track of the exact hours they spend on work and play, or school, sleep, and socializing? I don’t think so. What about the balance between things like altruism and egoism? Is it possible to count how many hours you spend being selfless and how many you spend being self-loving? No. And obviously if you can’t measure the two sides of a balance, you can’t make them even. If that’s what Carlos means, then he’s right; we’re always leaning, and the only reason hindsight equalizes everything is because leans blur together and cancel out other leans.
I think that balance is subjective, that we all have our own scales. You might have a gold one, I might have a silver one, and that person you don’t like might have a rusty one or one that’s covered in tacky rhinestones. We all just have to pick the amounts of life aspects that balance out our own scales. If you’re a student, it means sketching the s-triangle that you think looks best, not drawing a perfectly equilateral one. Or it might mean drawing a triangle that’s equilateral only when you put on the goggles that your unique life has given you.
And if you look at your balance or your triangle and it’s not the way you want it to be, then you’re doing yourself an injustice. You either need to adjust your expectations, or you need to try harder at achieving balance. When your expectations are too high, disappointment takes over. When you don’t try hard enough, mediocrity wins.
Entertainment entertainment entertainment
TV & Movies | July 28, 2010
I love Wednesdays. So much. During the summer, that is, when I can afford to mark days on my calendar with: “Work some. Noodles&Co for lunch. Catch up on TV. Try to do some productive writing. Lounge around and increase adipose cell count.”
You know why the middle of the week is really great? Both Make It or Break It and Pretty Little Liars air Tuesday nights. And Lie to Me episodes air Monday night.
That’s right, almost three straight hours of delicious mindless entertainment. Now, you might think that I could have spent that time on more delicious and productive activities, like, I don’t know, eating ten pizzas, or competing in a hot-dog-eating contest, or building a meth lab in my basement (if you work in law enforcement, I’m kidding; if you’re not law enforcement, I’m also kidding).
Oh, and if you’re wondering why I disregard TV show time shots despite my Mt.-Everest-sized pile of free time, it’s ’cause my family still has not switched to digital TV. It’s okay, though; I don’t watch much TV anyway. I only watch bad TV online. I also like teetering on the extreme ends of life’s seesaw, so when it comes to TV, it’s marathons then months of nothing.
Okay, so here’s what I have to say (no spoilers):
Make It or Break It: I. love. Lauren. I get it, no one else agrees, but despite whatever bitch moves she pulls, and despite whatever the writers do to make Kaylie and Emily look like perfect little deserving angels, Lauren’s the best character by far. Her shenanigans entertain me to no end, and her vulnerabilities make me love her. I mean, sure, I wouldn’t be her friend, but you probably shouldn’t be watching TV if all you’re doing is looking for a good friend in one of the characters.
Basically, I agree with what I said when the show first came on. Except Kaylie and Payson are combining more and more into the same person (but I like Payson more), and Emily and her tacky mother have only grown leaps and bounds and roundoffs more obnoxious.
Pretty Little Liars: I don’t really love any of the characters. The pop culture references make me cringe. Every episode seems to follow the same tired formula. I feel like the whole suspense behind “A” could be done better. Somehow, though, all of this makes for an entertaining show, or maybe just an entertaining summer guilty pleasure. It’s like, it’s so bad and so good at the same time that I can’t even tell the difference anymore.
Lie to Me: A few weeks ago, I was completely addicted. I watched an episode or two nearly every day. I couldn’t stop talking about the show, and I couldn’t stop thinking about truth and lies and deception. I don’t know what happened exactly; I’m still not caught up on the show, but now I can’t even watch an entire episode without pausing to do productive things, like maybe the aforementioned pizza binges and hot-dog-eating contests.
The Everyone-Resembles-Tim-Roth Syndrome that I contracted hasn’t subsided, though. Sharlto Copley? Looks like Tim Roth. Dierks Bentley? Looks like Tim Roth. Eminem? Looks like Tim Roth. Paris Hilton? LOOKS LIKE TIM ROTH.
Banana pancakes
Food, Music, Photos | July 25, 2010
The Food
Breakfast yesterday morning, inspired by Jack Johnson. Om nom nom nom.
The Song
Jack Johnson is better live than on his album, in my opinion. I used to think his music only appealed to surfers or people who lie in a hammock drinking coconut juice and getting high in Hawaii — I own neither a surfboard nor a hammock, and I’ve never been to Hawaii — but I’m glad to be proven wrong.
The Phrase
I feel like “banana pancakes” could easily become the most versatile phrase in the English language.
Insult: Your face looks like soggy banana pancakes.
Interjection: Banana pancakes! Or: Holy banana pancakes! (Use it in any situation, from stubbing your toe to falling off your unicycle to winning a thousand million billion dollars to finding out your new boyfriend is actually a 43-year-old hermaphrodite who collects moldy sandwiches — which, no no no, I’m not saying from personal experience. Don’t get the wrong idea.)
Indignation: What the banana pancakes is wrong with you?!
Inquiry: Banana pancakes? (Use as a substitute for “What?” or “Wtf?” or “Capisce?” or maybe even “Would you like a hot dog?” except the last one might confuse people.)
Intensification: That dress is banana pancakes gorgeous. Or: It’s raining banana pancakes.
See? Banana pancakes useful! Now you’re banana pancakes smarter.