Not So Much A Good Thing - Just Highly Venomous and Possibly Counter-Productive

So I realized I've gotten skinnier in the past few days. Might be the stress, or the fact that I'm vegetarian. My sisters still haven't gotten over the fact that I'm vegetarian now. I do think about, and miss, awesome (meat) food like BBQ chicken wings, rib-eye steaks, Popeye's chicken, chilli crab, steamed fish and all that other stuff. I might become a non-vegetarian some time in the future. But for now I've gotta exercise a little self-control. No it's not for health reasons in case you're wondering. I've also been eating significantly less, about 1-2 meals a day, which is a good thing in a way because I've kinda accomplished what I set out to do. No it's not to save money, just in case you were wondering.

One thing that has been on my mind lately is the maturity of people, no particular person, in general. Everyone likes to think that they're in control of the situation; that they know what's best for themselves; that the whole world doesn't understand. It's true that most people don't understand you, or what you're going through, but that doesn't discount it's validity. They immediately go on the defensive mode and start arguing instead of actually trying to see things from the other person's point of view. Everyone likes to think that they're smarter than everyone else - myself included. It's easy to give advice when you're looking at things from the third-person POV, but when you're actually involved in it your judgement usually gets clouded. I'm not saying I'm free from all these, but at least I'm aware of what's going on and I try - ever so often - to look at things with an open mind, something which a lot of people do not have - an open mind.

Everyone is opinionated, yes, but that doesn't everything is subjective. If I said the sky was green, I would still be wrong despite whether it's my opinion or not. Opinions have to be backed by facts or evidence, not plainly by subjectivity. I used to think that all music was considered art, until I realized that some people are just doing it for the money. But even that itself can be art, if the artist is true to his intentions. Specifically hip-hop artists, who rap and sing about money and bling, they're true to their intentions and that can be called art because they put their emotions into rhyming about money and women.

There are those who think they know a lot of things, but head knowledge doesn't account for true knowledge. There is a whole category in philosophy called Epistemology, which is basically philosophy in knowledge. Experience itself might not account for knowledge, what your five senses tell you may not be what actually is. Experience is always biased; perception is always colored. So knowledge is really a very grey area, do you actually know anything at all? I'll end off with a story, which is not mine, to get you thinking.

There was a farmer who owned a cow. He had a whole herd of cows but one, Sally, was his prized cow because she was his first cow, and he took great care of her - resulting in her producing exceptional quality milk.


Everyday the farmer would let his cows into the field to graze while he went about his daily chores, occasionally checking back to see if Sally was doing alright. She would always graze by the lone tree in the distance, and because the farmer's eyesight was failing, he couldn't really see too far.


Whenever he looked by the tree, he would see a blurry figure by the tree that was black and white and he would then know Sally was there. In his mind, he knew Sally was there because he saw her by the tree.


John, the local truck driver, drove past the field one day and noticed something strange - that there was a white cloth with black patches hung beneath a tree. He found it weird and decided to ask the farmer what it was. He went over to the farmer who was feeding the horses and pointed to the tree, asking "What's the over there beneath the tree?"


The farmer promptly replied, "Son, don't you know a cow when you see one?" The truck driver was perplexed. He asked the farmer if he was sure and the farmer replied with confidence, "Yes, of course. Don't you see that figure beneath the tree? It's my prized cow, Sally over there."


Did the farmer know that the cow was there?