How to Motivate Yourself

Today I will share with you my three-step procedure of self-motivation. I use it when I have a ton of work to do or face other annoying stuff that I know I have to do but am reluctant too, or when I am generally not feeling too happy.

1. Take a large swig of vodka (or other suitable alcoholic beverage).

2. Put your headphones on and set the volume to max.

3. Press play on the video below and close your eyes.

I guarantee you after you listen to this song you will feel like you can take on a thousand demons.

And win.

Comparison

It's pretty hard to deny that most of us nowadays are pretty materialistic. We are hung up on how much we earn, what car we drive, what handphone we use, where we dine, what we wear, etc etc etc.

Now people often speak words of wisdom against this materialism, e.g.

"In the old days we didn't have much, we wore old clothes handed down from our elder siblings and played with sticks and stones. Nowadays kids want expensive electronic toys. So greedy!"

Or

"Primitive tribes in Africa have nothing and yet are happy! Why can't we be happy with less?"

The answer to this is that if everyone of us suddenly had less material goods, for instance if we all suddenly reverted to using the venerable Nokia 3310, also affectionately know as "The Brick", that would not make much impact to the general level of happiness. But if YOU were forced to use it, and everyone laughed at you because of it, that would affect YOUR level of happiness.

In other words, what affects our level of happiness is not the absolute level of our material enjoyment, but that in respect to others around us.

So our parents were happy with sticks and stones in the kampung when they were kids, but if I were to open a space-time portal and give one kid a PS3, I bet all the other kids would instantly feel dissatisfied with their sticks and stones.

And although our expensive cars may make no impact to the happiness of African tribespeople in the wild, I bet their warriors are concerned whether they have less ostrich feathers in their headdress than their peers or not.

Therefore, if you ask me "would you mind making do with less," I would say:

"Sure, but everyone else has to make do with less as well."

Decadence

I came back today to notice that the switch for hot water outside my room was on. This triggered the sudden horrified realization within me that it is on all the time.

When I was younger, I scoffed at people who were soft enough to actually use the hot water machine in this tropical climate. Having ambitions of being a great polar explorer in the footsteps of Amundsen and Scott at the time, I insisted on using cold water at all times, even in Genting.

Unfortunately as the years pile on, I have cowardly sneaked away from my original dream, and the pride that once burned brightly within me has waved the white flag to the tempting hot water machine.

Perhaps a wheelchair will be next.

Gay Marriage

Recently the subject of gay and lesbian marriage has been in the public eye to a significant extent. Firstly, I would like to clarify that I have no personal dislike whatsoever towards homosexuality, neither do I think it is sinful.

Yet, is the standpoint of "being gay is not a sin" naturally equivalent to "gay marriage should be accepted as just the same as normal marriage"? In my humble opinion, I think the two standpoints do have some difference.

I'm sure most of us would agree that it would be morally repugnant to allow gays to be persecuted legally, or called names in streets, or to suffer any kind of discrimination against in society or professionally. As individuals, they should enjoy each and every rights that other members of society do.

However when it comes to the institution of marriage, when we look at it from a more pragmatic viewpoint, what is the purpose of marriage? Obviously it is to raise kids in a stable family setting, with certain economic advantages given for said kids (tax breaks). If it was just to find a soulmate, that could be done without signing the contract.

So since the legal and societal function of marriage is to raise kids, if gay couple cannot have kids, wouldn't such tax breaks be inapplicable to them?

My personal opinion is that all marriages should not have tax breaks - as even straight marriages may not have kids. But after they have a kid, the amount deducted should be larger than present to even things up.

If that is done, then yes I support gay marriage.

Promiscuity

Many people associate promiscuity with the onset of modern, "Western" culture and the decline of traditional morals. The shocking truth though is that cultures which many may regard as primitive can be far more promiscuous.

In the Dyak communities in Sarawak, everyone stays together in the longhouse, which can contain many families. Now if a girl sleeps with some young fellow it is really no big deal, since everyone stays together as one big family anyway, the babies are just cared for by the old women who really don't have much else to do anyway. So everything is fine and dandy.

According to what I have heard, if outside visitors go and visit the longhouses, after the proper ceremonies have been performed and the chief satisfied they become formal visitors of the longhouse and are treated warmly. During this warmth and cheer some hanky panky may occur. As each family within the longhouse has its own room, it might seem hard to accomplish such behavior. Yet the defense of family members is not foolproof; the room is not sealed tight as there is an airspace between the wall and the ceilings. Ardent young men can then climb over the wall and achieve consummation with the young unmarried daughters, if they do not resist the other members of the family treat it as a normal occurrence.

Of course if you decide to try this experience after reading my blog I would refrain from taking any responsibility for your wellbeing, as there may well still be headhunters in the region.

Even this liberality pales before that of the traditional Tibetan society though.

In Tibet, out on the plains, the old custom is that once girls reach a marriageable age of 15 or so, they move out from the main tent in which the family resides into a smaller white tent some yards away. This is an open invitation for every young man in the vicinity to come and make love to her. Once she is pregnant, she is prime marriageable material for she has proven her fertility, thus marriage invitations come flying in like spam mail. Due to the poor hygiene and healthcare in the area, getting pregnant is not easy at all!

The result of this is nobody knows who their father is, at least for firstborn kids. Lest you imagine many Darth Vader moments, the fathers don't know who their kid is too. I think the most that could be done is a rough guess.

Therefore we can see that promiscuity is not copyrighted by modern society at all. Not by far.