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Warren Shea

Archive for the ‘Insightful Reads’ Category

Friends are Replaceable

Monday, May 3rd, 2010 at 12:57 am

Let’s think numbers…
Think about the number of close friends in your grade school.
Think about the number of close friends in your high school.
Think about the number of close friends in university/college.
Think about the number of close friends at work.

Given any situation, you always have your really close 2 to 5 friends.
You have your slightly close 5 to 10 to 15 friends who you know, maybe see a lot, but you probably wouldn’t confide in.

I’ll tell a story: I met my close university friends because of a girl. I noticed this girl in my classes and one day, about a week or 2 into uni, just went up to their group and introduced myself. It was…extroverted, social, so very unlike me. Nevertheless, I became a part of their group…it was still early in uni, groups hadn’t really been defined yet. I realize now that had I not tried to pursue this girl, I would never be close to these friends that I have now. I could have just as easily joined another group for another reason and my friends would have been completely different.

Basically, whatever situation you’re in, you always find a couple of people you’re close with. You always find a bunch of people you might talk to but not confide in.

These friends of yours now, the people who know you best, who understand you, whom you laugh with and chill with. They could just as easily have been other people.

From a mathematical standpoint, friends are replaceable.

Friends, best friends, significant others, husbands and wives…they all could be other people given different circumstances.

As much as you cherish your friends, as much as you love them…they could just as easily have been a different group of people. And you’d have just as many special memories, relationships and connections with another group of friends as your friends now.

Soulmates are a mathematical impossibility. People who use the term to describe their significant other…don’t understand it (that’s my way of saying – they’re idiots).

The fact is, the significant other you’re with, the person you’ve married…could easily have been someone else. I guess the point is a bit moot…life is what it is, there’s not much point in pondering the what could have beens and the what can still be. I just wanted to point out that the people you hold dear in your life that aren’t your family…could just as easily been other people. If you lost your friends, you’d get new ones.

Friends are replaceable. Your friends aren’t special, my friends aren’t special, you can find them anywhere given enough people or depending where you look. If you don’t have many friends…you were probably never in a situation with enough people similar to you. If you don’t have many friends throughout your entire life…there’s probably something wrong with you. Or something wrong with everyone else. But it’s probably you. Truth hurts. Do something about it.

Getting a bit side tracked. When I think about Zena and I, I don’t see us as anything more than 2 people who found what we needed in each other. We’re good together…but I don’t think it’s because we just are, like we were meant to be together. I think it’s that we both understand our relationship, our roles, and we both have what we want in each other. But it’s not a Notebook or Serendipity kinda thing. Hmm…I’m not very romantic…I’m definitely looking at things from a statistical and mathematical standpoint.

Anyways…that’s one of my saved rants that I’ve had. It’s been a while since I wrote something that wasn’t a site update or a long tweet. Sadly, I don’t have many rants left…if you want more of these, I’ll have to force myself to think them up…

It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters.

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 at 11:29 pm

It’s true. The glass is not half empty. It’s fact.

In the grand scheme of things, nothing matters. Not your life, not mine, not the contributions we make, or the people we help. Sure, it matters in the small sense. But in the grand scheme, nothing we say, do, create, or destroy will have any significance.

If your life is awesome, you probably disagree with the above.

But if your life sucks, this mentality will make life easier. Do what you want, it doesn’t matter what other people say or do or think. It doesn’t matter what you say or do or think. I mean, in the grand scheme of things…
Don’t go losing your job cuz you’re an idiot.

…what a downer post. I just felt like writing something…

“I believe your parents did the best job they knew how to do”

Thursday, March 18th, 2010 at 1:01 am

Savage Garden – Affirmation <-- song, click to play

I just felt those words resonate with me. I’m watching this House episode where this over protective mother won’t let the doctors treat her son because she’s a stubborn, tough old broad. I started to think about how (loving) parents…don’t always do what’s best. Because they love, because they care, they can be irrational. Their judgment can be flawed because they’re too emotionally invested. But…they still do what they believe is best for their children.

Parents don’t get the credit they deserve from any of you (yes, I’m talking to -you-). I’m guilty as well. I’m short with my parents (or maybe I’m short BECAUSE of my parents – ba dum dum ching!), I lose my temper easily. I don’t talk to them often. They don’t call anymore because when they did, I’d be “too busy” to talk to them…but I’d just be lying cuz I’d be in the middle of some show and it was more important. I don’t call them because I’m independent, I don’t call them just like I don’t really call anyone. I blocked them on MSN because I used to write profanity in my MSN status and I didn’t want them knowing their son swore…I always turned profanity off around them. Like those words didn’t exist.

Wow, I sound like such an awful son don’t I? Which…might just be the truth.

Anyways, I guess I could unblock them now, my MSN status remains unchanged…but then they might come across my blog. I’ve made a number of references towards them…never anything bad but…would I be embarrassed if they read this blog? If they found out some of the frakked up things about me? Maybe….Even this post might shatter how they see me.

I’m getting a bit side-tracked…I want to get back to my original point of this post.

I said something today in front of my co-workers…
“Stupid people should not have children”. I believe I incorrectly used the word “stupid”…but the message I wanted to convey is that…while it’s everyone’s right to have children, I personally don’t think it’s always a good idea.

Regarding abortion, I’m very much pro-choice. I don’t believe children should be born into this world if their parents aren’t ready to have them. Or if the child was the result of one stupid, drunken night. Or if the child was born into a family with not enough financial support. I’m going to be honest – regarding any life, I don’t think love is enough. A child should be raised with responsible, reasonably intelligent parents.

I want to clear this up before I go further: I’m not going to go into the ethics of abortion and how it’s ending a life and every life is precious. Going back to what I said in previous blog posts, I don’t believe life is precious. Life can be created quite easily. It just takes some alcohol and poor judgment, something the human race has an abundance of. That’s a tad cynical but the point is that I don’t see life itself as precious. But that’s just me. Create it. End it. We might as well be Gods in our own way.

Again, I’m getting side tracked. To continue what I was saying before…

A child should be raised with responsible, reasonably intelligent parents. They should have money to support the child and family. They should be mature, they should be loving, they should be this, they should be that. As children, we probably saw our parents as Gods. Seriously, they were the higher power. They fed us, they bathed us, controlled us, disciplined us, they were the shining example of what we should be. That is…until we got a little older and realized how flawed they are. How…similar they are to just about every other person you’ve ever met. How they have strengths. How they have weaknesses. How they weren’t Gods. They are just….human….like everyone else. But they saw themselves as Gods, molding life in their image. Trying to create the best possible offspring. They might have succeeded. They might have failed. But they did the best job they knew how to do.

And on that note, you should call your parents. Just to say hi. Because…they’ll love it. And it’s so easy for you. Now, you might do that. You might not. And despite all I’ve written, I probably won’t. Because the important things get left unsaid. And I’ve always been a terribad son. And I’ll probably, despite my best efforts, be a terribad father. Actually, I don’t believe that at all.

This post…is probably the most accurate post of how my mind works and how I think about things. When I walk to work, I start thinking of something, but it snowballs into this and that, leading to whatever topic tickles my interest. This might be one of my most all over the place posts…and that’s how I think. Up here *points to head*, I’m a mess. But you already know that :)

The internet is bad

Saturday, February 20th, 2010 at 11:31 am

A couple years back, my director asked our department if the internet was a good or bad thing. Being part of the eBusiness team, the majority of people said it was good, and why. While I didn’t disagree with them, I played devil’s advocate and said “bad” with a specific reason. A here it is.

The internet is….monstrous in size. There’s so much information. An unfathomable bottomless pit that continues to grow. All this information is stored in mere zeros and ones (0 & 1 – that’s binary folks). The way this information is stored, the way it’s backed up, and the fact that these simple 0s and 1s can transfer to very far locations in an instant effectively means this content is easily preserved. It’s too early to say it will last forever, but I wouldn’t doubt that were possible. Media storage continues to grow at a rate that is quicker than information continues to be added to the internet. What I’m trying to get at is this internet is still growing. The information is still growing. And we’ve got an infinite amount of space to store it.

The next issue is: how much of the content is useless? How much of it is repeated facts, human stupidity, irrelevant content, guides to the same thing, guides to outdated things, etc. The internet is growing but how much of it is useful? Why do we use Google search but often find it impossible to get what we’re looking for. I’m going to assume we correctly use keywords and I trust Google’s search algorithm and its capabilities but why is it that if I look up pV=nRT (Ideal Gas Law), while I do get some valid websites, I also get mr. random grade 11 science student feeding false information in a forum to mr. random grade 10 science student.

The internet is infinite. Human stupidity is endless. Real facts and useful information actually limited in comparison.

I believe the rate of useless information is growing at a far more significant rate than useful information. The internet has only been heavily used for a few years. Give it 20 years, give it 50. Remember to take into account that the information on the internet never dies. 0s and 1s don’t degrade like paper. This infinite beast of the internet grows and grows.

My concern is that valuable, useful, relevant information becomes lost. The internet, its primary purpose of storing and accessing information, will lose its value. Its strength in user generated content is also its weakness and downfall because of endless human stupidity.

I’m not sure what would replace the internet. I’m not sure how long it will last. I’m not sure if the information on the internet can possibly be reorganized. I’m sure people won’t go back and delete useless content. I’m sure people will still post “First!” in forums despite the obvious lack of value in its post.

I’m completely aware that this was just a devil’s advocate post. I love the internet and almost everything about it. I just think that it’s fundamentally flawed. Do I have a better idea? no. Can human stupidity ever stop interfering with the greatness of our people? no. Do I realize the irony that human stupidity is all relative that someone out there is thinking the same thing about a post like this? yes.

The internet is huge. And I’m just one of the stupid people filling it with useless, irrelevant content.

“People always leave”

Saturday, February 13th, 2010 at 11:09 am

– Peyton Sawyer, One Tree Hill

People are shaped by everything around them. They become who they are because of the experiences they’ve had and the people they meet. But of the people they meet, only a very tiny few will be with them for most of their life. Family, a significant other, a few close friends. What about the other 99.9% of people? Well, they all carry on with their own lives. They walk a different road than you. You cross paths. Or you don’t.

What I’m really trying to get at is that there are some people who make a significant difference in your life for a time. Some people you’re incredibly close with or feel a connection with. But even these people come and go. You only walk the same path for a while.

I’ve been thinking about some of the treasured friends in my life and how they are not in my life anymore. Not because of a falling out, not because they’ve passed on, but simply because you no longer walk the same path as them. Despite even trying to keep in touch, your paths get further and further. It gets harder and harder. Even if you do manage to connect for a brief moment, the lives you had together are long gone. The bond you had, never to be recaptured again. Things change.

I’ve been thinking about the people in my life right now who, sad to say, won’t be in my life forever. Not even very long really, despite being such a significant part of my life right now. I can use my time with them the best I can. But it won’t be enough. I wish that I could walk with them longer on the path they take. I wish they could walk with me. But that won’t happen. Things will change. Our paths will diverge. This is life. People always leave.