The stretch

It's a bit late, but I finally decided to join catch of the day, and what do you know, at that very moment, they had a massive sale and there were heaps of earphones and headphones that were going for more than 50% off :D I've never bought any audio products in my life, so I was initially quite hesitant to buy one. However, considering that my previous earphones died and that I've been using some crappy earphones (that I got as a freebie from uni open days) for 3 months now, I thought it was about time to get a somewhat slightly more normal quality earphones. I ultimately came down to 2 options, the Lady Gaga Heartbeats by Monster ($60) or The Stretch by Philips, O'Neil ($40). I never really liked or had headphones cause they are hard to store, so I was initially keen on the Lady Gaga Heartbeats. But after reading some reviews, I saw that the Heartbeats are somewhat entry level earphones for audiophiles but it's sound quality is subpar for its price. So I settled with the The Stretch instead which was cheaper :) I figured that if I were to get good earphones, I'd rather pay a little more to get something that I like that is good and worth its price, instead of jumping at the cheaper ones on sale, that may not be as good. So here we are with my very first pair of headphones :)

The bundle of joy I got from the postman

:)

Last day of semester one

Journeyed halfway through the year with much joy and pain. Exams are just around the corner, and I finally get some time to make up for lost ground. Can't wait for the holidays :)

"Still waiting, waiting... waiting for the world to change"

Just like that.. I'm still waiting for things to change...

Weekend

Week 8 of uni is almost over and I've managed to tick the following in my list.
- 2 mid semester tests
- Maths assignment
- Weekly chemistry lab report
- Catch up (mostly) with subjects that I'm behind in

A few more weeks of this first semester of uni is left, and apart from the bleakness of things, there are a few things that I do look forward to :)
- Building more circuitry
- Finishing off the last 3 lab and lab reports in the coming weeks
- Building a trebuchet

Apart from the brief update about what I have and yet to accomplish, here's a tiny update about the past week. On Sunday, I've had the pleasure of catching up with church friends over lunch at a Malaysian restaurant (it was pretty close to the real thing :P), before going off to bake a cake and a cookie cake to celebrate a church friend's birthday at Sofia's :) Took the opportunity on Anzac Day on Wednesday to watch The Avengers with my girlfriend since it was released that very day :) finally, after so many years of anticipation and waiting, it's finally here and I'm thoroughly content :3 After that we went to catch up with the Mount group over churros, chocolate and chocolate drinks at San Churro. Kinda felt tired from the movie so I think I was a bit quiet at that time, but nevertheless it was great to sit back and chill with the group :)

After 12pm tomorrow, I am free! For about 50 hours anyway. And then it's back to the same cycle of the drowning in my studies before the next weekend is here. But oh well, I'm getting used to it :)

For now, yay! As the weekend is here :)

Highlights of the month

- Starting uni life

- Realising that uni life isn't "THE life"

- Having the urge to kill those who told me how good uni life was (stares at arts and commerce kids)

- Feeling intimidated to restart my social life and meet new people

- Meeting new people and realising that the opportunities that lie ahead are limitless

- Meeting deadlines in uni

- Meeting up with old school friends from Malaysia

- Finding out that one of my old school friends has 2 of my subjects

- Falling behind in uni studies

- Catching up in uni studies

- Meeting up with the Mount Waverley group

- Keeping up my part time job amidst all of that

- Racking up my sleep debt

- Going out with my lovely girlfriend

- Nodding off in lectures when I thought I could pay attention with my eyes closed

- Playing in the church band and establishing the musical standard for the church

- Looking forward to the one week break

- Feeling refreshed whenever I see something like this:

Absolutes

Something struck me as I was evaluating my beliefs. Specifically - my beliefs in absolutes and the grey area.

I believe that some things are absolute; things that are clearly defined right or wrong. Things that are black and white. Things like the law, knowledge and facts and etc are one of these absolute things.
However, I believe that there is a grey area between the absolute right and wrong. With this area, there are many chances that things may go wrong with errors occurring. This is because everything that lies between, is subjective and debatable. Things like values, beliefs and etc lie in the gray area.

There are pros and cons to each i.e. being absolute and being in the grey area.

For the absolute...

• If we think about it, if everything in the grey area was made absolute, there would be peace in the world. Because everyone would be united in a set of values, and there will be no qualms to whatever issue because things are clearly cut out by the "higher" authority - the absolutes. E.g. countries wouldn't be strangling each others' necks, arguments would only last for less than a minute, bias and prejudice from personal opinions wouldn't exist, and people won't be harmed by subjectiveness.
• However, this being said, this leaves no room for individuality - the human factor. The personal opinions and feelings of the individual is disregarded and he must abide in the absolute system, choosing either to be right, or wrong. In a sense, they're "forced" to do right because most people want to do the right thing. Either do that, or be regarded as a wrong-doer, whose emotions and beliefs are left unheard.

For the grey area...

• It prevents us from living under a plain and uniform society. Sure, it's awesome if society is united, but it doesn't feel "right" if we all had to conform one thing. Individuality roams free in this area. We can speak our opinions, voice our emotions, fight for what we belief is "right".
• Unfortunately, this leaves room for error. Everyone will have their differences and conflict will definitely ensue. It is then hard to resolve things because there is no higher authority to settle things cleanly and clearly. Since nothing is set in black or white, everyone will fight for what they believe is right. Everyone is out there for himself, and it's likely that their mindset is self-centred. The error in this area is existence of selfishness in humans - "How I think and what I think is right. I can do what I want and however I want to. It's about me and about how I want to be heard."

So is right to be absolute?
Doesn't it give us the assurance having no error in society? Won't it benefit us since it eliminates the imperfection in the human factor in the world? Wouldn't it prevent prejudice that is presented by the perspectives of emotional humans? Wouldn't the world be a fair place?

Or is it too strict and emotionally detached, leaving no room for individuality? What about emotions? Aren't we made to feel and express emotions freely instead of restricting it? Is it wrong to think about ourselves?

I believe that being absolute would be the way to go for unity and peace all around, but having said that it really depends why, who and how the absolutes are defined. Because everyone is different, there will be a group of people who will not fit into either the category of right and wrong. The personal input is ignored and they're forced to put aside their feelings and individuality. If God defined the absolutes in every single detail in the world today, there would be no qualms at all, because He is the higher authority and perfect in judgement. But since it's humans we're dealing with, our definition of things in the world can be flawed.

So where do we draw the line? How do we draw the line? Would it be better to adopt an absolute belief in somethings whilst allowing a certain margin for individuality? If so, how much? What will the margin of error be? Ultimately, because we are human and what we do cannot appease everyone, we're stuck with this eternal problem, a conflict between the two beliefs. We can only do our best to minimise the damage by finding the "balance" between the two.