Moderation is Good

Why must people go toward extremes instead of moderation? No single person is absolutely good or evil, no issue is absolutely right or wrong. Anger pushes people past rationality, and people believe what they want to believe.

Perhaps we're all too easily colored by our own emotions, experience, and judgment to be neutral, to be moderates. All too often we're sliding toward the left or the right, while those in the middle dwindle under pressure.

Things Never Disappear From this Vast Sea

Again and again I'm reminded that your digital footprints cannot be erased.

Such as this post.

Reflection and Retrospective

It's been more than two years since I've posted on this blog.

It's quite strange to see this blog again, this spot of self-expression and teenage curiosity. What was uncertain then had come to pass, the hyperbole of thoughts that appeared seems to dwindle down to a more modest outlook. Tamer, perhaps.

It's always interesting to see how your thoughts evolve. I remember reading the journals written years ago and felt a sharp disbelief at my own immaturity. Looking through your pieces of mind and reflect upon them and be astonished may not be so surprising an event.

The Sky is Falling!

The current state of the economy certainly makes it feel like the sky is falling. As world leaders are scrambling to do something, the public confidence is gone, and that is the biggest problem at hand.

It's Never Too Early to Freak Out About College

While I was in physics the other day, I noticed that my neighbor had a list of colleges that were visiting the school, and a long list of college application results and enrollment stats of our school. Next to the application results list, he highlighted the colleges of interest, and he figured out the percentage of acceptance rate in our school from all the colleges.

When I commented on it, he smiled at me: "I'm a little bit freaked out about colleges now."

We are not seniors, but we're only a year away from being the oldest students in the school. But I always reckon that the environment of our school made people nervous about college. The school made it clear that it is a college-preparatory school, and they constantly remind us that everything we do from 9th to 12th grade is for the sake of applying to a college. Sure, I didn't think about colleges much in 9th grade, but after the PSAT in 10th grade, and receiving brochures from various colleges (a lot of them were from colleges I never heard before), the thought of college slowly began to sink in.

Now, as a junior, as I told my neighbor in physics, I'm totally freaking about about colleges.

So now I starts to gather information about my desired choices of colleges, I printed out the national rankings of the colleges and highlight the ones of interests. I looked at the common application forms and checked out the admission sites. While I do have an idea of what colleges I wish to apply to, it's still a hazy plan. So much can happen in the course of the year that can change your mind. Then there's my childish fear of "what if I completely screw up this year?", "what if I flunk the SAT?", and "what if _______ University rejected me?", all of which added to my fragile anxiety. While it's good to get an early start on thinking about college, sometimes I think my actions and researches could be a bit over the top.

And sometimes I look back, and it just dawn on me again and again that everything I worked for in high school is just basically in preparation for college. Then everything I work for in college will be about getting a good job, and everything I work for in a job will be about getting the bills paid. Everything is just a cycle, man, just a cycle.

Facebook Voyeurism

I'm not a big fan of social networks---especially MySpace. Perhaps my dislike of social networking sites is stemmed from my hatred of MySpace, because MySpace have always seem idiotic and ugly to me since I first saw it. And no, I don't have a MySpace, and I would probably never have one, unless it's for business usage.

But, I was more tolerant of Facebook, who is now on par with, if not exceeded, MySpace in popularity. And I would say that Facebook is better stylistically and it's more "safe" than MySpace. At least you don't have to see inane usernames splatter across your screen.

I'm sort of a late comer in Facebook, I signed up several months ago to see what the fuzz is all about, and didn't even edit my profile. I felt like a dummy seeing all the applications and whatnot, and I didn't even try to find friends. It wasn't until a friend asked me to be a friend that I actually did some work on my Facebook profile.

As I "friended" more people, one thing struck me: I was able to see my friends' every move on the news feed.

"__________ wrote something on _________'s wall:
'lol, _____, i haven't c u in a long time!'"

"_____ and ________are now friends."

"____ took the IQ test!"

Okay. That's a little voyeuristic to me, seeing my friends' every move on Facebook being reported to me. While it wasn't anything explicit, but I got the feeling that I was peeping too much at their lives. When I update my profile, the same thought pop into my mind: they're going to see what I did with my Facebook too.


Facebook implemented this feature so we can keep in touch with friends, and surely we want to know their every move, and that we can immediately write witty comments on their recently uploaded photos. But, I found myself hesitating now to post anything dramatic or private,* seeing that everyone will know.And that's the reason that my profile still only includes my birthdate, my school, and almost nothing more.

Perhaps I'm getting old and getting paranoid.

*Of course, you should never post anything too private (like your mating habits) on any social networking sties.

OMG, A Woman as Vice-President?

I just got back from my adventure outside, hit the net, and found out that McCain chose Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, as his running mate.

It's obvious why McCain chose a female as his running mate: to get the votes of those disenchanted Hilary supporters, as well as any other potential female voters. McCain has been trying to get the Hilary-votes over to him, and this may actually close the deal.

I will be paying attention to the Republican National Convention next week. After watching the speeches of the Democrats, it's time to see the Republicans got up their sleeves.