Random thoughts II

MsFalange wrote:

did you guys hear that samoa jumped the timeline and because of that 750people didn't have a birthday this year?
They simply skipped the 30th of december, so they yould be in the same timezone as australia

I saw that.

It is a very interesting concept indeed. I have spent hours pondering upon said scenario:
If I walk past a homeless person sitting on the streets in the cold, do I stop to help them, or do I walk by? If I just walk by, I would feel horrible for ages, but if I stop, I feel good, so do I stop simply to help, or because I couldn't bear not to?

It has made me question a lot of things in life, and come to realize that all we do, even help others, is more for one self, than for others. Though I like to think it's mostly for others, because I feel guilt over selfishness.

But then you have those who could walk by without giving it another thought, and I wonder what is wrong with them. How are they wired? To feel nothing at all. That must be self-absorption on a very unhealthy level. To not care about others as long as you are fine yourself.

So I guess I'll gladly be selfish in the way I am, rather than the alternative.

Well i didn't break a leg but there is some of my blood on a French alp. lol.

MsFalange wrote:

did you guys hear that samoa jumped the timeline and because of that 750people didn't have a birthday this year?
They simply skipped the 30th of december, so they yould be in the same timezone as australia

Seriously? How can a country just do that? I thought we were bound by the timezone our rotation of earth provided. Won't that screw up their future calendars?

Quote :

Mike` wrote:

IDK, I'm better than most people in most ways but not in every way. If people don't like it, they can get better themselves, or focus on the parts of themselves that are better already. I want to win, know I can win, and simply have to put forth a pinky-toe's worth of effort to get there. That being said, a lot of my feeling better than people is watching how much effort people put into things that I can half-ass through and achieve more valid results.

I half-ass my way through the day and come out smelling nicer than those who busted their balls. Luck, good karma, being better; it's gotta be one of those three things!

What has that to do with narcissism, though?
Narcissism for me means, neglecting other peoples needs and wishes to always achieve what is best for yourself.
What you described sounds like a very competitive person, who enjoys the fact that he can accomplish more by doing less than the average student.

For me narcissism is a pre-occupation and absolute love for oneself. I love myself more than I love any family member, friend, pet, etc. so from my understanding of the term, I am narcissistic. Self-absorption and narcissism are two differently things and I think you've mistaken one for the other [One of us has our definitions mixed up, very well could be me], I'm not so much self-absorbed (Which is to say I'm very coherent of others around me, and the effect of my actions and decisions on them), but I above-and-beyond am pre-occupied with myself, to a level that if some people get screwed in the short-term, it's a valid trade-off for success.

Mostly I just love blowing my own horn (And totally not in the dirty way); my understanding is that's one of the basic facets of narcissistic tendencies. :unsure:

MissLilly wrote:

MsFalange wrote:

did you guys hear that samoa jumped the timeline and because of that 750people didn't have a birthday this year?
They simply skipped the 30th of december, so they yould be in the same timezone as australia

Seriously? How can a country just do that? I thought we were bound by the timezone our rotation of earth provided. Won't that screw up their future calendars?

The thing is, Samoa is very close to the international dateline. They were on the Western side of that, and now they decided to go to the other side.

MissLilly wrote:

It is a very interesting concept indeed. I have spent hours pondering upon said scenario:
If I walk past a homeless person sitting on the streets in the cold, do I stop to help them, or do I walk by? If I just walk by, I would feel horrible for ages, but if I stop, I feel good, so do I stop simply to help, or because I couldn't bear not to?

It has made me question a lot of things in life, and come to realize that all we do, even help others, is more for one self, than for others. Though I like to think it's mostly for others, because I feel guilt over selfishness.

But then you have those who could walk by without giving it another thought, and I wonder what is wrong with them. How are they wired? To feel nothing at all. That must be self-absorption on a very unhealthy level. To not care about others as long as you are fine yourself.

So I guess I'll gladly be selfish in the way I am, rather than the alternative.

See, I'm the kind of person who would walk by without a second thought. The first and only thoughts that goes through my head in those instances are "What did this person do to put themselves in this scenario" and "What has this person done to change their circumstances?" The first question is something that isn't necessarily their own fault (ie. they got fired, couldn't find a new job, etc), but the second question is valid and is what makes me walk by; if the suffering was as bad as it was made out to be, those suffering would change their circumstances any way possible. There are thousands upon thousands of under-the-table, low-paying jobs and I have to conclude every time that the difference between those who are homeless and those who are not is simply desire to change circumstances and to improve on life.

Good ol' Glee and Sue probably did say it best from my perspective, but if people don't like being homeless, they should try not being homeless.

Well! Tis officialyy 2012 in Sydney!!!!! heheh...... tried to read through your previous posts but i'm a little too drunk rm....gin, a lot of it..... apparently i can't taste gin?
My friend kept flirting wit h me...it was hot... We were lying in bed....But then her stupid boyfriend called. Hate him. God.
Ohhh and the Glee movie was on her TV! i was like--thaknyou god, what a plaeasant cooincidence.

Goodnight all...have a good day xxoxo

Blue Zeppelin wrote:

MissLilly wrote:

MsFalange wrote:

did you guys hear that samoa jumped the timeline and because of that 750people didn't have a birthday this year?
They simply skipped the 30th of december, so they yould be in the same timezone as australia

Seriously? How can a country just do that? I thought we were bound by the timezone our rotation of earth provided. Won't that screw up their future calendars?

The thing is, Samoa is very close to the international dateline. They were on the Western side of that, and now they decided to go to the other side.

That is so weird I can barely wrap my head around it

Like they moved their country or something
How can they just decide on what side of the dateline they want to be. What about other nearlying countries? If any?

Geography, not my stronger side

Mike` wrote:

See, I'm the kind of person who would walk by without a second thought. The first and only thoughts that goes through my head in those instances are "What did this person do to put themselves in this scenario" and "What has this person done to change their circumstances?" The first question is something that isn't necessarily their own fault (ie. they got fired, couldn't find a new job, etc), but the second question is valid and is what makes me walk by; if the suffering was as bad as it was made out to be, those suffering would change their circumstances any way possible. There are thousands upon thousands of under-the-table, low-paying jobs and I have to conclude every time that the difference between those who are homeless and those who are not is simply desire to change circumstances and to improve on life.

Good ol' Glee and Sue probably did say it best from my perspective, but if people don't like being homeless, they should try not being homeless.

But Mike... There are many times in life a person needs the help of another to get ahead in life. You can't do it all alone all the time. What if your help would somehow change that persons life? If all they needed was a stretched out hand to get back on their feet? And you deprive that person from that by walking by, and you also deprive yourself of the good feeling and satisfaction of knowing you made a difference.

well the line is very zigzag-y anyways and now they just made go around samoa on the other side



here you can see what they did

I think this is up to the country to decide.

Venezuela is a very strange case of time zone. Some years ago they (Chávez) decided to delay their time zone in 30 minutes. So now, when is 12 PM here in Brazil, it's 10h30 AM in Venezuela.

or here:

voteforalice1 wrote:

Well! Tis officialyy 2012 in Sydney!!!!! heheh...... tried to read through your previous posts but i'm a little too drunk rm....gin, a lot of it..... apparently i can't taste gin?
My friend kept flirting wit h me...it was hot... We were lying in bed....But then her stupid boyfriend called. Hate him. God.
Ohhh and the Glee movie was on her TV! i was like--thaknyou god, what a plaeasant cooincidence.

Goodnight all...have a good day xxoxo

Glad you had a good night Alice!
Happy new year to you! We're still 9 hours away

Sleep well sweetie, and we'll see you in 2012

MsFalange wrote:

or here:

Weeeird!
I don't get the logic of the people who decide these things. You'd think the dateline was straight or in a curve according to rotation. It's what I have always thought. I'm so confused right now

MissLilly wrote:

Mike` wrote:

See, I'm the kind of person who would walk by without a second thought. The first and only thoughts that goes through my head in those instances are "What did this person do to put themselves in this scenario" and "What has this person done to change their circumstances?" The first question is something that isn't necessarily their own fault (ie. they got fired, couldn't find a new job, etc), but the second question is valid and is what makes me walk by; if the suffering was as bad as it was made out to be, those suffering would change their circumstances any way possible. There are thousands upon thousands of under-the-table, low-paying jobs and I have to conclude every time that the difference between those who are homeless and those who are not is simply desire to change circumstances and to improve on life.

Good ol' Glee and Sue probably did say it best from my perspective, but if people don't like being homeless, they should try not being homeless.

But Mike... There are many times in life a person needs the help of another to get ahead in life. You can't do it all alone all the time. What if your help would somehow change that persons life? If all they needed was a stretched out hand to get back on their feet? And you deprive that person from that by walking by, and you also deprive yourself of the good feeling and satisfaction of knowing you made a difference.

While I agree with you that sometimes we need assistance and a helping hand, I firmly believe that hand should only be extended if asked. It's not my purpose in life to find others' suffering and heal it, but if someone comes to me and asks for a specific instance of help, I'm usually quite obliged to assist.

An example, say I have a friend who got fired and is looking for a job. Now, if he has any desire whatsoever to be able to feed, cloth, and care for himself, he'll be out the next day looking for a new job. Assuming he is, he'd ask me if I knew of any opportunities, and it just so happens I do at the time! I've helped, but not before he helped himself by seeking out my assistance. While that is something I'm more than happy to do, there are valid times when I sit there and laugh. Say that same friend, instead of looking for a new job, decides fuck it, goes on welfare and does nothing but play video games and sponge off the government. Why would I go out of my way to set this person up with a job, at my expense and reputation, when he has no desire to put forth the effort himself?

I think the homeless person is a bad example of helping, from my point of view. If someone were to ask me, "I'm short a few bucks for my groceries this week, can you help me out?" I probably would help them, if someone's sitting on the side of the street with a sign saying "Need $$ 4 food", I'm likely to walk right on by because the only effort they've put into helping themselves is to sit on the street throwing a pity party; I really have no place for pity.

Blue Zeppelin wrote:

I think this is up to the country to decide.

Venezuela is a very strange case of time zone. Some years ago they (Chávez) decided to delay their time zone in 30 minutes. So now, when is 12 PM here in Brazil, it's 10h30 AM in Venezuela.

I know in Russia this year they passed a law getting rid of a couple of their timezones starting in 2012. Said it was for business or w/e cause it was stupid travelling the country and arriving on the other coast the day before you left.

MissLilly wrote:

Weeeird!
I don't get the logic of the people who decide these things. You'd think the dateline was straight or in a curve according to rotation. It's what I have always thought. I'm so confused right now

Australia and New-Zeeland are main trading partners to Samoa, so I can see, that they'd find it problematic to always be 24hours behind.
Generally the dateline follows the 180th meridian but they also paid attention which political affinity the groups of islands had, that lie on this meridian and of course (like in the Samoa case) the trading is very important, so they amended it here and there.

Okay, that was a lot of pages to catch up on...

Firstly, I love the group hug Smiley that Isa used. Lol.

Jugz - don't let the Barbie army make you feel bad about yourself in any way. You rock. You're beautiful the way you are. AND I would put money on the fact that they don't have an ounce of the personality that you do.

On the timeline conversation... I don't remember the name of the country, but there was a country that was two different islands and because the timeline thingy isn't straight, one island was on one side of the line and the other was the other side. And didn't North Korea change their time so they were on the half hour?

Span_ski wrote:

Well i didn't break a leg but there is some of my blood on a French alp. lol.

Oh dear. What happened?

Mike` wrote:

While I agree with you that sometimes we need assistance and a helping hand, I firmly believe that hand should only be extended if asked. It's not my purpose in life to find others' suffering and heal it, but if someone comes to me and asks for a specific instance of help, I'm usually quite obliged to assist.

An example, say I have a friend who got fired and is looking for a job. Now, if he has any desire whatsoever to be able to feed, cloth, and care for himself, he'll be out the next day looking for a new job. Assuming he is, he'd ask me if I knew of any opportunities, and it just so happens I do at the time! I've helped, but not before he helped himself by seeking out my assistance. While that is something I'm more than happy to do, there are valid times when I sit there and laugh. Say that same friend, instead of looking for a new job, decides fuck it, goes on welfare and does nothing but play video games and sponge off the government. Why would I go out of my way to set this person up with a job, at my expense and reputation, when he has no desire to put forth the effort himself?

I think the homeless person is a bad example of helping, from my point of view. If someone were to ask me, "I'm short a few bucks for my groceries this week, can you help me out?" I probably would help them, if someone's sitting on the side of the street with a sign saying "Need $$ 4 food", I'm likely to walk right on by because the only effort they've put into helping themselves is to sit on the street throwing a pity party; I really have no place for pity.

I get your point, I really do. But how are you to know how many times that person has asked for help before? What if they got none, what if everybody turned their back? What if they tried, but didn't make it, and has now lost hope, lost faith in humankind. And your hand is all that is needed to give it back to them, to give them the strenght to fight just a little bit more? It's impossible to know what put them on the street, or what effort they put forth. I'd help, so at least I had done something. If they took that something and turned it into nothing, I wouldn't help a second time.

To me there is a difference between homeless and beggars. In my city we have the occasional gypsy beggars, but you know they're not homeless, because very few are here. We have a good system that takes care of them.
But we're a small city. In the capitol for an example, it's quite different, and it breaks my heart to visit that place, because they are so many, and I want to help them all, but I can't. Last year I walked crying through the streets there because it was so awful. I'm not used to seeing stuff like that. I gave some of them some money, but it didn't make me feel any better because there were many more I had to just walk right by.

I would not feel bad for a friend out of a job and not looking for one. I wouldn't go out of my way to do anything for such a friend either. That is a completely different scenario in my eyes.
So that I completely agree with. Here they would have to ask me if they wanted it. I wouldn't just do it without their effort first.

voteforalice1 wrote:

Well! Tis officialyy 2012 in Sydney!!!!! heheh...... tried to read through your previous posts but i'm a little too drunk rm....gin, a lot of it..... apparently i can't taste gin?
My friend kept flirting wit h me...it was hot... We were lying in bed....But then her stupid boyfriend called. Hate him. God.
Ohhh and the Glee movie was on her TV! i was like--thaknyou god, what a plaeasant cooincidence.

Goodnight all...have a good day xxoxo

Happy New Year Rosie!!!!

Oh no, cockblocked by her stupid boyfriend. How annoying. Lol. What was she doing? AND she had the Glee movie on? Sounded like a pretty good way for you to start 2012.

Charlie wrote:

On the timeline conversation... I don't remember the name of the country, but there was a country that was two different islands and because the timeline thingy isn't straight, one island was on one side of the line and the other was the other side. And didn't North Korea change their time so they were on the half hour?

I think you're talking about Kiribati.
Not just 2 islands, but 32 atolls pooled to 3 groups of islands.
Edit: wiki has a better picture

MsFalange wrote:

Charlie wrote:

On the timeline conversation... I don't remember the name of the country, but there was a country that was two different islands and because the timeline thingy isn't straight, one island was on one side of the line and the other was the other side. And didn't North Korea change their time so they were on the half hour?

I think you're talking about Kiribati.
Not just 2 islands, but 32 atolls pooled to 3 groups of islands.
Edit: wiki has a better picture

I don't remember the name. I remember seeing two larger islands but not sure whether there were lots of smaller ones too. Anyway, they 'moved' the timeline so they were all on the same time.

MissLilly wrote:

I get your point, I really do. But how are you to know how many times that person has asked for help before? What if they got none, what if everybody turned their back? What if they tried, but didn't make it, and has now lost hope, lost faith in humankind. And your hand is all that is needed to give it back to them, to give them the strenght to fight just a little bit more? It's impossible to know what put them on the street, or what effort they put forth. I'd help, so at least I had done something. If they took that something and turned it into nothing, I wouldn't help a second time.

To me there is a difference between homeless and beggars. In my city we have the occasional gypsy beggars, but you know they're not homeless, because very few are here. We have a good system that takes care of them.
But we're a small city. In the capitol for an example, it's quite different, and it breaks my heart to visit that place, because they are so many, and I want to help them all, but I can't. Last year I walked crying through the streets there because it was so awful. I'm not used to seeing stuff like that. I gave some of them some money, but it didn't make me feel any better because there were many more I had to just walk right by.

I would not feel bad for a friend out of a job and not looking for one. I wouldn't go out of my way to do anything for such a friend either. That is a completely different scenario in my eyes.
So that I completely agree with. Here they would have to ask me if they wanted it. I wouldn't just do it without their effort first.

Maybe that's the difference for me living in Canada. If you're homeless in Toronto or any city in this country, you're too lazy and helpless to take advantage of one of the easiest welfare systems on the planet. I can't create any sympathy for stupidity, the system is there and is so easy to get a part of (You don't even have to be a Canadian citizen to be able to collect welfare).

I see your point about helping and feeling bad and that's probably just cynicism on my part; most of the time I feel like others are just too stupid to see the obvious (and easy) ways of making life fun, enjoyable, and successful. Things are right there in front of them if they're willing to stand up and take it.