interrogo

If you're aware of graffiti and the things that people find important to write on walls and other surfaces, you're probably familiar with the phrase "question everything".

Often this seems to be a defensive approach to a corrupt world.  Fed up, angsty people looking for social change and a better world spread the word via wall-writing.

Usually "question everything" seems to carry a connotation of "accept nothing" and "you're surrounded by lies and conspiracies and you're being duped" and other similar warnings.

Sometimes there is validity in this, but it certainly is not the only way to question everything.  Questioning is a very valuable skill to develop.  After all, if there's one thing I learned from Sesame Street, it's that asking questions is a way to find things out.  And don't we want to spend our lives finding things out?

I think it's important to question everything.  At the very least, to not be afraid to ask questions.  If you just accept everything, even the acceptable, you'll never learn things.

I mean, think about little kids.  They have EVERYTHING to learn because they haven't learned anything yet (particularly not how to give up) so they ask all the questions that people usually just accept.  Like why the sky is blue and why birds can fly and why cats can't talk.

Calvin's dad has plenty of fatherly wisdom to impart to us.  There's a collection of it here.

Ask questions that you normally wouldn't ask.  Ask yourself why you get up when you do.  Ask why an average diet is considered to be 2,000 calories.  Ask if there's a more efficient way to tie your shoes.  Ask why Gatsby bothered to get real books and never cut the pages.

And then answer as many questions as you possibly can.  Some questions have good answers that are easy.  Some questions have good answers that are harder, but might give you some insight you normally wouldn't have arrived upon.  Some questions don't have good answers...yet.  And some questions may never have good answers.  They might only lead to more and more questions without answers.  But it's still important to ask them.

Asking good questions makes you notice things you normally wouldn't notice.  It makes you accept things as an educated sovereign mind, rather than just ignorantly forgetting about the wonderful things around you.  You have to know a thing or two in order to ask a question, so it challenges and enhances this education called life in multiple ways.  It's delightful, really.

And don't turn into a four year old and only ever ask, "Why?"  Remember sometimes to ask, "Why not?"

sciscitator

I've been thinking about superheroes lately.  There are plenty of different ones with varying powers and situations and nemeses, but the other day when I was watching part of Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, I thought it was a little bit funny that so many villains shared a common trait:

Science!

And who do we have to defeat misguided nerds like Lex Luthor, the Mad Hatter, Doctor Two-Brains, the Terrible Trio, Megamind, Doctor Octopus, and the Lizard?

Heroes!

The typical hero is brawny and has origins either on another planet, or from some radioactive mishap.  They defeat science by punching things and bending steel and flexing muscles.  Yeah, a lot of superheroes use science and gadgets and technological wonders, sometimes built by themselves, sometimes built by their inventor-ally, but on the whole, the people seen in the laboratories doing the science and math are the villains, and the people seen punching things and succeeding in life are the heroes.

And I am well aware that this is not characteristic of every superhero-villain setup.  Indeed, there are many superheroes and villains and they represent a varied array of strengths and former lives, but how many villains' names include the word "Doctor"?  How many superheroes' names have the suffix "-man"?  It's a fairly recurring theme.

And it seems a little too reflective of the Jocks beating up on the Nerds.  Like society is supporting these weirdos from other planets coming in to beat up on someone half their size.  The fact that the scrawny nerds were about to destroy the city could explain for this glorification of middle-school violence, but I think the bullying stereotype still stands in comics.

Is there something just not heroic about knowing lots of math and pushing the limits of science?  Does scientific research always get pushed too far and end in manic disaster?  Because it certainly seems to be the theme here...

So.  If you know any comic book designers or movie script writers or anyone working with DC or Marvel, tell them it's about time we had a nerd hero.  Who uses math and science and maybe even language and history for the common good!  Who defeats muscle-brained bullies with their smarts!  Who throws protractors as ninja stars!

Because really, the nerds are the ones bringing about the progress of society.  Saving lives from cancer, diseases, unsafe conditions, car crashes, drowning, bridges collapsing, pollution, constantly studying ways to improve our lives and make things a little bit better by solving real-world problems.

And we do still have the brawny heroes like soldiers and firefighters and the FBI, but they too rely on their nifty, nerd-made gadgets and safety apparati. (Apparently "apparati" is not the plural of "apparatus", but it should be.) 

So don't buy into the silly superhero mindset and wait for some muscly, hansdome fellow to come punch all your problems away.
Start sending your distress calls to the nerds in your life ;)

mensis

It is November now, and November is a very nice month.  It's No-Shave November (where we, like other mammals, bulk up our winter coats). No-Shave has kindof been transmogrified into Movember (a classy celebration of moustaces) and also NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

I've always kindof rolled my eyes at NaNoWriMo, because certainly all these aspiring writers are just wasting their month going crazy, not sleeping, not eating, not going outside...et cetera.  At the end of it all, they're not published, they're failing classes, they're going to sleep for about a week straight, their friends are wondering whether they're still alive...

But I suppose it has some benefits to it:

1) If you're going to be a writer, you have to practice.  It's definitely practice.
2) It keeps all the weird people busy for a whole month! ;)

So...if you're up to the task of writing 50,000 words (which is apparently the definition of a novel) in 30 days (hey, at least they didn't pick February), you still have time to start!  Go, spend 20 hours a day with your computer!  If you're classy, you have a typewriter!

And kudos to you if after NaNoWriMo, you actually continue your novel past the first draft.

fabula

Every good story is a love story.

Now, I know this sounds gross, because love stories are so cliché and revolting, not to mention cliché...  But it's true.

And if you're someone who knows me personally, you may be wondering what kind of blog link I gave you, because this is certainly not me writing...But it is.

Here, allow me to tell you a loveless story.  It will be brief, in the interest of saving virtual paper.

Once upon a time, there was a girl who was bored with her life.  She didn't have a blog to fill her time, so she decided to embark on a journey and see what life had to offer.  She traveled across the country until she came to the sea.  There was nobody she wanted to say goodbye to, and nobody she was hoping to meet.  But she sailed away in a small boat, slightly curious about what she might encounter in her journeys.
The girl was indifferent toward the ocean, so the sight of land one day was neither a relief nor a pain.  She quickly found her way ashore and set out to explore her new location.  There were some interesting things there, but nothing too noteworthy, and nobody to write to about the curious discoveries she was making, so these discoveries are rather inconsequential.

Okay, that got really difficult really quickly.  Which is why there is no ending.  And really no middle...and not much of a beginning either.  The whole story sucks.  See, the story would be a lot better if there was some sort of love going on.  Naturally what comes to mind is that the girl either leaves a wonderful boy behind, or finds a new dark and handsome lad in the new land, or both.  And yes, even that would make the story much less dry of a read.

But any other kind of love would be welcome as well.

See, stories require love in order to connect with us.  Whether it's a love of a land (as in Far from Home...I'll just refer to that since we should all be familiar with it...), of a people, a culture, a sport, a mathematic principle, a small hedgehog....it all makes the story valuable.  Sure, people usually get involved as well, but that doesn't mean that there is only one kind of love story.

Now, I'm sure that some of you little devil's advocates are wondering "What about hate stories?  Those are passionate and emotionally involving just like love stories, but they are indeed loveless."  And to you, I say that you use the term "hate" just as loosely as people use the term "love".

"I love bacon" is not the same kind of love as "I love my dog".  While both are clearly desirable....actually, I'm pretty sure that bacon love is pretty deep stuff...

Take two:
"I love reading 'The Far Side' comics" is not the same kind of love as "I love my dog".  Obviously, most of us have a much deeper attachment to dogs than to comics, and this is largely because of the many good experiences we've had with our dogs that outweigh the good experiences we've had with Gary Larson.

Unless your dog is named Gary Larson.

Similarly, "I hate Justin Bieber" doesn't carry the same weight as "I hate celery", because I haven't had many experiences with Justin Bieber (thankfully), but I have had countless miserable experiences with celery.  Awful, stringy stuff...

True hate has to be rooted in the same place that sincere love is rooted.  You can only truly hate that which you have truly loved.  And you can only truly love something if you give it the power to break your heart.

See, my heart's been broken by soccer before.  And math, yes.  And by each of my closest friends.  (They take turns, but some of them take more than their fair share of turns...)  And by Marcus Mumford.
But not so much by bacon.  Or Boston Baked Beans.  Or the city of Boston.  Or even zebras.

Each person's love story is a little bit different.  I could tell you how I spent summers dedicated to soccer, and never made the team, and yes, it's a love story.  That's why it's worth telling.  If I had spent my summers training for the wrestling team and then didn't make the cut, that wouldn't have been a good story because it's completely passionless.

So, as we all go around making stories to tell, just remember that where you invest your love, you invest your life.