Remembrance.

Today, I have to come up with my own quotation and gives it to Sir Mark. Funny, how I kept thinking about what quote to give when I have the perfect quote with me all this time. I wrote it a long time ago and I don't know if I should do it. So, I asked Sir if it makes sense and I get a green light. 

So, here's my quote.

Here's an advice,

Jump off the train,

Everyone's expecting you to be on it. 

Just a few quotes from few famous personas.

Forever immortalize as a young man.

"Only the gentle are ever really strong." - James Dean 

Witty, Humorous, Genius

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." - Albert Einstein.

"Absurdity is the rule of creative thoughts" - Albert Einstein 

Plato.

"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws." - Plato

benefits of xxx.

Pornography is broadly defined as “any form of explicit representation of the human body or sexual activity with the goal of sexual arousal and/or sexual relief.” It takes form in all sorts of media, including movies, magazines, literature, and artistic representations. The issue of pornography acceptance in society is somewhat based on personal opinion. But whether individuals consider it moral deterioration, entertaining, disgusting, appropriate or inappropriate, pornography has grown into an outsized industry by taking shape in almost every form of media with unlimited availability and a plethora of observers. It has, and continues, to survive pressure from society and censorship.

First of all, this post is not a persuading post nor it is a post to praise pornography, to accept it in our life. This is a post to debunk the myth that has been surrounding the issue of pornography for a long time.

First claim is that pornography leads to an increase in sex crimes. Rape, pedophilia, divorce, and sex crimes in general have decreased radically since pornography is widely available over the internet. Crimes against women have decreased as well. The reason for this correlation, many believe, is because pornography serves as a means to release sexual urges by giving the sexually frustrated people a risk-free outlet to ease their sexual tension.

Nonetheless, if pornography were as powerful and important in sex crimes, it would be expected, particularly since its wide availability over the internet, to lead to less promising figures. That there is a link between viewing pornography and becoming a sexual offender is not yet proven.

Next claim is that pornography exploits and degrades women. This is one of the most frequent arguments from the feminist movements. For this claim to have any weight, those who make it must ignore the fact that the porn industry is one of the few industries in which women make drastically more money than men.  I think it would also be fitting to mention that rational thinking calls for the blunt realization that pornographic performers are not forced into their profession, and they can quit at any time they want and no one is stopping them.  Because pornography is recognized as an entertainment industry, it often times serves as an opportunistic and satisfying career.

Therefore, pornography benefits society. Pornography plays a strong part in cultural exchange. Aside from cultural exchange of sexual norms, probably the best and most significant part of pornography is its function as a form of expression. Pornography expresses human sexuality and represents a side of the human mind that Freud believed influences our daily lives and that society otherwise ignores and declares obscene in normal settings. That, of course, is sexual desire.

So, because all individuals have the instant and normal capacity for sex for the purpose of physical contentment, pornography reaches so many people. Community norms and morals are what serve as obstacles to the expression of pornography, as going against these norms constitutes a sexual taboo. 

Toxic.

Some friends don’t act like friends. Perhaps it is their own discontent in life that they feel the need to put you down. Perhaps there is envy. Perhaps your friend critiques you all the time. When all three of the factors come into a friendship – that connection can become toxic. 

How do you identify an enemy disguised as a friend?

1. Spotting the enemy.  Frenemies can be hard to be aware of because they start out as a friend. However, their commentary, behaviour and tones when they speak to you could impact pessimistically on how you feel about the relationship.
2. How do YOU feel? Do you feel frustrated? Annoyed? Useless? - After meeting with this friend? Your feelings are a flag as to the condition of the relationship. Is this person good for you? Is this person can be trusted?
3. Are they builders or destroyers? Do they build up your self-esteem by adoring your new haircut or destroying your self-image by putting down your weight? Sometimes it is hard to distinguish positive, well-meant, criticism with downbeat, well-placed, digs. Remember, a builder is a friend and a destroyer is an enemy.
4. Are they serial-negativity-spreaders? Everybody can have a bad day – saying the wrong things however, enemies make put-downs a frequent part of your relationship.
5. Frenemy language. Enemies might be perfectly friendly to you – but then say or do things against you behind your back. They may speak disapprovingly about you. You might not even hear the “words” of a frenemy but as an alternative feel the eye rolls, head shakes or pursed lips. Is this a friend, you think?
6. Actions make re-actions. Perhaps the friend is perfectly lovely – but their actions are the opposite of the so called lovely actions.

Friendship is something that should be cherish about, not treat it lightly. Frenemies is toxics. They are dangerous because we never know when they will attack you. Verbally or physically. Either way, it would bring stress or even depression towards you. Your life is too important to be filled with frenemies or “toxic friends” Hope this post would open up your eyes and make you more aware.

                   

"False friends are like our shadow, keeping close to us while we walk in the sunshine, but leaving us the instant we cross into the shade." - Christian Nestell Bovee. 

An erotic hero.

Famous erotic hero, women seducer and a libertine. Giacomo Casanova. 

Define Libertine?

A libertine is one devoid of most moral restraints, which are seen as unnecessary or undesirable, especially one who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behaviour sanctified by the larger society. Libertines place value on physical pleasures, meaning those experienced through the senses.

 "Libertine" is defined today as "a dissolute person; usually a person who is morally unrestrained"

    One of the most legendary libertines / erotic hero of all time is Giacomo Casanova. He is best known for seducing women, but Casanova had a diverse career: he was a spy, a soldier, a law clerk and at one point entered a seminary.  Casanova “adventures” includes frolicking around with 122 women – according to his own counts.  

   Giacomo Casanova was born in Venice. His father, Gaetano Casanova was an actor, who also directed some plays. He had married in 1724 to Giovanna Maria (Zanetta) Farussi, an actress, and a perfect beauty. In his childhood Casanova suffered from nose bleeds, and his parents thought that he would not live long. Strong women dominated his life: his mother and a witch who helped him to stop the bleeding. Later in his life he occasionally dressed himself as a woman. Casanova's parents left him in the care of his maternal grandmother, Marzia Farussi, and went off to London. Zanetta and Gaetano returned to Venice in 1728. Casanova's father breathes his last breath in 1733 but Zanetta turned down all her suitors and decided to bring up her children on her own. However, she soon left Venice and ended in Dresden, where she was a member of the Comici Italiani ensemble.

   Casanova received a good education, and showed early extraordinary cleverness. He learned to read in a less than a month. In 1734, Casanova was sent to live with Doctor Gozzi in Padua. He studied at the University of Padua and at the seminary of St. Cyprian from where he was expelled for indecent conduct. Drinking and love affairs ended his plans to become a priest, but he never gave up his faith in the existence of an immortal God.

   Casanova served in the army for some time, played violin, but not very successfully, and worked for the lawyer Manzoni. In 1742, he received his doctorate from Padua. A few years later he became a secretary to Cardinal Acquaviva of Rome, but a scandal again forced Casanova to leave the city and he traveled in Naples, Corfu, and Constantinople. Eventually he settled in Venice, where he had a love affair with Signora F.  In 1746 he was a violinist in the San Samuel theater.

   Casanova met in 1749 his great love, the young and mysterious Frenchwoman, Henriette, in Cesena.

"People who believe that a woman is not enough to make a man equally happy all the twenty-four hours of a day have never known a Henriette."

 Henriette left him and it was one of the saddest moments in his life. He began to question the true meaning of love. "What is love?" he asked, and he compared love to a fatal illness and divine monster. He went to Lyons, where he was received as a Freemason. 

   Casanova's freedom ended in 1755 for a year. He was arrested; his manuscripts, books, works on magic, and Arentino's book on sexual positions were seized. Casanova was denounced as a magician and sentenced for five years in lead chambers under the roof of the Doge's Palace. The dungeons is extremely hot. He managed to escape with his friend, Father Balbi. Casanova made his way to Paris, where his escape made him a celebrity. Like Dostoevsky later on, Casanova was a gambler and in 1757 he introduced the lottery. This invention made him a millionaire. He also established a workshop for manufacturing printed silk, hiring twenty young girls to do the work.

   Once more impoverished, Casanova ended his days as the librarian to the Count of Waldstein in the castle of Dux, Bohemia (now Duchcov, Czech Republic). He died on June 4, 1798, aged 73, almost forgotten.  Among his last lady friend was Cecile von Roggendorf, a twenty-two-year-old canoness, and Elise von der Recke, who sent him soup and wine.

I have felt in my very blood, ever since I was born, a most unconquerable hatred towards the whole tribe of fools, and it arises from the fact that I feel myself a blockhead whenever I am in their company. - Giacomo Casanova

Rant!

One of the most exciting things I did during Critical Literacy class was rant. I ranted about Bieber Fever and how this “disease” is getting more and more annoying as time passed by. It was a good experience overall. It was my first impromptu speech that I have to talk about something that I’ve always wanted to rant about.

What is a rant?

(n.) High-sounding language, without importance or dignity of thought; boisterous, empty declamation; bombast; as, the rant of fanatics.

(v. i.) To rave in violent, high-sounding, or extravagant language, without dignity of thought; to be noisy, boisterous, and bombastic in talk or declamation; as, a ranting preacher.

To rant, you have to find an issue you’re most passionate about or something you hate the most and how you’re so passionately annoyed by it. You have to be good at sarcasm and use your WIT. It sounds simple but it’s not. Prepare to be laugh at.. well, that’s the main purpose of a rant. So, get your brain moving and start to rant! You’d feel like a thousand tons weight has been lifted off your shoulder. Either rant on blogs or orally, it works both ways.

I found one video about this man who ranted about Justin Bieber and from my point of view, what he said is all true. Enjoy!

stop & reflect your thoughts.

The human mind is full of mysteries. Cognition, the act or process of thinking, enables us to process vast amounts of information quickly. You may be consciously thinking about one particular thing, but you brain is processing thousands of subconscious ideas. Unfortunately, our cognition is not perfect, and there are certain judgments errors that we tend to make, known in the field of psychology as cognitive biases. This situation happens to everybody regardless of age, gender, education, intelligence, or other factors.

Now, I will throw in some information into your ever so lovely smart brain about ten common faults in human thoughts. Starting from number 10, let's do the countdown!

10. Gambler’s Fallacy

The Gambler’s fallacy is the inclination to think that future probabilities are altered by past events, when in reality, they are not. Certain probabilities, such as getting a heads when you flip a (fair) coin, are always the same. The probability of getting a heads is 50%, it doesn’t matter if you’ve gotten tails the last 10 flips. Thinking that the probabilities have changed is a common bias, especially when gambling. This may sound obvious, but this bias has caused many a gambler to lose money thinking the probabilities have changed.

9. Reactivity

Reactivity is the tendency of people to act or appear differently when they know that they are being observed. In the 1920s, Hawthorne Works (a manufacturing facility) commissioned a study to see if different levels of light influenced employees’ productivity. What they found was incredible, changing the light caused productivity to soar! Unfortunately, when the study was finished, productivity levels decreased to their regular levels. This obviously shows that the change in productivity was not due to the light levels, but to the employees being watched. This reveals a form of reactivity; when individuals know they are being watched, they are motivated to change their behaviour, generally to make themselves look better.

8. Pareidolia

Pareidolia is when random images or sounds are perceived as important. Some common examples of pareidolia are seeing clouds in the shapes of dinosaurs, Jesus on a hot pocket, or hearing messages when a record is played backward. The common element is that the stimulus is neutral, it does not have intentional meaning; the meaning is in the viewer’s insight.

7. Self-fulfilling Prophecy

Self-fulfilling prophecy is engaging in behaviours that gain results that confirm existing attitudes. A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that causes itself to become true. For example, I believe that I am going to do poorly in school, so I decrease the effort I put into my assignments and studying, and I end up doing poorly, just as I thought. This is a powerful tool used by “psychics” – they instil an idea in your mind, and you in due course make it happen because you think it will.

6. Halo effect

The Halo effect is the inclination for an individual’s positive or negative trait to “spill over” to other areas of their personality in others’ perceptions of them. This bias happens a lot in employee performance appraisals.

Interesting Fact: The Physical Attractiveness Stereotype is when people assume that attractive individuals possess other socially desirable qualities, such as happiness, success and intelligence. This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when attractive people are given privileged treatment such as better job opportunities and higher salaries.

5. Herd Mentality

Herd mentality is the tendency to take on the opinions and follow the behaviours of the popular beliefs to feel safer and to steer clear of conflict. Also known as “Mob Mentality,” this is, at its most familiar form, peer pressure. Herd mentality clarifies why fads get so popular. Things like clothes, cars, hobbies, styles and etc., all it takes is a group of people who think something is cool, and it catches on.

4. Reactance

Reactance is the urge to do the reverse of what someone wants you to do out of a need to defy a perceived attempt to limit your freedom of choice. This is frequent with rebellious teenagers, but any attempt to resist authority due to perceived threats to freedom and/or choice is reactance. The individual may not have a need to do the particular behaviour, however the fact that they cannot do it makes them want to.

Interesting Fact: “reverse psychology” is an attempt to manipulate people using reactance. Tell someone (particularly children) to do the opposite of what you really want, and they will rebel and actually end up doing what you want.

3. Hyperbolic Discounting

Hyperbolic discounting is the tendency for individuals to prefer a smaller, immediate payoff over a larger, delayed payoff. Delay time is a big factor in choosing an alternative. Most people would choose to get 20 dollars today instead of getting 100 dollars one year from today. Normally it makes sense to choose a greater amount of money immediately than less in the future, as the value of a dollar is worth more today than it is tomorrow.

2. Escalation of Commitment

Escalation of commitment is the tendency for people to continue to support previously unsuccessful actions. With all the decisions people have to make, it is unavoidable that some will be unsuccessful. Of course, the logical thing to do in these instances is to change that decision or try to reverse it. However, sometimes individuals feel compelled not only to stick with their decision, but also to further invest in that decision because they have sunk costs.

1. Placebo Effect

The Placebo effect is when an ineffectual substance that is believed to have healing properties produces the desired outcome. Especially common with medications, the placebo effect has been observed when individuals given a sugar pill for a real ailment report improvement. Placebos are still a scientific mystery. It is theorized that placebos cause an “Expectancy Effect”, (In cases of uncertainty, expectation is what is most likely to happen) individuals expect the pills to cure their ailments, so they feel cured. However, this does not explain how the ineffectual pills actually cause a reduction in symptoms.

Death of a dictator.

Who is Julius Caesar and why was he assassinated?

Julius Caesar was born in 100 BC to Aurelia and Gaius Julius Caesar, a patrian family. The name "Julius" comes from Iulius, the family name. This comes from Iulus, the name of Venus' son. Julius made his way to praetorship by 62 BC and many of the senate felt he was a dangerous, ambitious man. Because of this, they deprived him of a triumph after his praetorian command in Spain somewhere between 61-60 BC, they also did their best to keep him out of consulship. He finally became consul in 59 BC.

He was a brilliant military leader and lead many campaigns, which included; The Helvetic Campaign in 58 BC, The Belgic Campaign in 57 BC, The Venetic Campaign in 56 BC, and many others. The whole point of these campaigns was to get high public and political acclaim, he wrote about all the campaigns and sent the books to Rome so people knew and remembered his name. Aside from being a "brilliant military leader," Julius believed Rome needed him alive and in charge, if peace was to continue.

He once said:

"It is more important for Rome than for myself that I should survive. I have long been sated with power and glory; but should anything happen to me, Rome will enjoy no peace. A new civil war will break out under far worse conditions then the last."

While in pursuit of Pompey, Julius fell in love with Cleopatra. Who happened to be Pompey’s sister. Julius and Cleopatra met by a dramatic introduction that Cleopatra had set up. It was, she had herself wrapped in a carpet and delivered by a friend to Julius, and unrolled at his feet. He was 52 and she was 21, but her intelligence, allure and wit was what fascinated Julius. With Julius' support, Cleopatra position as queen of Egypt was secured. Julius had all the fame he could hope for and the triumph to back it up, but to get the position he felt his achievements deserved, he had to take his troops across the River Rubicon and in doing so declare civil war on the state and Pompey. Pompey, the person who had got Julius to where he was, was sent to prevent him but failed. General Pompey fled to Egypt while Julius entered Rome in triumph as Dictator. The battle for Rome continued for five years of bloody fighting.

He was assassinated by a group of senators, who stabbed with a dagger in the back, on the Ides of March 44 BC below a statue of Pompey, possibly in support of Pompey. Julius had convened the senate so that it would grant him the authority to be known as king in the lands outside of Rome, but the assignation took place before Julius could claim the new title for himself.

History channel aired a show called "Ancients behaving badly"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBqC3GdJKGw