Chew on life's big questions

First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! It's 2011, yo! Best wishes to my fellow readers =D
Already first year blog entry!

Jacob told me today that Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute from The Office) has a book called "Soulpancake", apparently it's a #1 best seller these days. So I went to google to see what it's about. Then I realized it's a website www.soulpancake.com/ and Rainn Wilson (one of the founders of the website) wrote a book based on that website. Both the book and the website ponders about life's biggest questions. Their slogan is "chew on life's big questions". People can sign up and can discuss, kinda like in a forum, about anything: religion, life, secrets, self, , etc.

Reading so many questions made me ponder on my own life questions:

1. What is my purpose in life?

2. If God exists, what does he look like? (Some might argue that He's not physical, but I've always wondered) Bonus if he looks like Morgan Freeman in Bruce Almighty.

3. Does the government control everything?

4. What's the purpose of the existance of mosquitos?

5. How BIG is the universe?

6. Would it be possible the existance of a parallel universe to this one? (So like me in this parallel universe is a tall white guy who loves cabbage)

7. When do we learn to lie?

8. Is the phrase "more money, more problems" true?

9. Do our souls leave our bodies when we dream?

10. Is our knowledge limited?

11. Which is the better , male or female?

12. Is it possible to not be racist?

13. Do humans control technology or does technology control us?

14. Does karma exist?

15. How much personal space do you need?

16. How much private information about yourself are you willing to give out on internet?

17. How big is cyber space?

18. What would the world be without religion?

19. What happens to you after you die?

20. Do "soulmates" really exist?

21. What is love and how do you know you are in love?

22. Who makes the rules for society?

23. What makes something beautiful?

24. Does the way the stars are positioned the way you were born affect on your personality? Like horoscopes

24. Which came first, the egg or the chicken?

25. What really happened to the dinosaurs?

26. Could there be an universal language?

27. Could human archieve absolute happiness?

28. Do ghosts really exist?

29. Is time machine ever possible?

30. Will there ever be a zombie apocalypse?


Those are only a few of my questions. What are YOUR life's big questions? Comment!

My name is katie and I am full-time unemployed

Just after I finished my exams I started to send my resumes and to apply to jobs like crazy because I really needed a job for the summer - because I am becoming poor. The more time I spend sending resumes, the more money I spend and the less income I get. I have possibly applied to at least 15 job postings, and only one got back to me asking for an interview, which I went but they sent me an email saying that they were not able to offer me a job at this time. Maybe I was not doing enough. Maybe I have been making a lot of common mistakes like not sending a personalized resume, sending a generic cover letter, not doing follow up, etc.

But now, I have decided to give up on job searching for the summer. Instead, I am not only going to enjoy my last chance of sleeping in and sleeping as much as I want, but I am also going to do lots of research, learning new skills and things, building up a great resume, learning about the advertising industry, setting up my own portfolio, etc. I am going to prepare myself for the outside war. I'm gonna put that saddle on that horse and get ready for the ride. Buckle my seatbelt, because it's going to be a bumpy ride.

This is how I am preparing for the summer:
- I am going to start getting a list of advertising companies that I would like to work for, and research them about what they do, who the people are, and maybe send emails and ask them questions about the company.

- Since I want to be a creative director or art director or copywriter, I need to research on people who are employed as such and ask about their jobs, learn skills they require when hiring, read online articles about their duties, their role in the company, etc. I am also going to learn InDesign, Dreamwaver, Illustrator, PHP, Flash, Quarkxpress, more than basics of HTML and CSS, etc. Time permits.

- I also wanna learn new hobbies. I want to get a bike so I can bike to downtown and get some work out. Plus it is enjoyable if I wanna get to nice places like the beaches.

- I bought this set of CD's to learn German. I have always wanted to learn German, and this is my chance to do it. If I have more time I would also like to learn Italian. I love learning new languages.

- I want to get out more, meet new people, talk to them and learn new things from them. Make new friendships and build relationships with them.

- I am going to the library and check out more books since they have so much material about things I wanna know

- I am going to take advantage of the job searching workshops that the Career Centre offers.

- I am also going to start a notebook where I write notes about getting jobs and job related stuff, like interviews, etc. articles I read from the Yahoo! HotJobs website, because I have been addicted to them lately. I am going to start recording the jobs I apply to and get some prints of my resumes.

So you see, this summer is going to be all about learning. I have such a thirst for knowledge and I really want to be prepared to what comes. And I know it is all going to be worth it in the end.

Intelligence is beauty, knowledge is power

I was doing some random search on Google, when I came up with this great website on "15 ways to get smarter", which really gets my attention because I have always been looking to become smarter. You see, I like having conversations with people, but for some reason, I end up learning more stuff from them than they learn from me. Sometimes I wonder how people are so smart. When people talk about lots of things I don't know about, I feel like I am left out. When I go to a library or to a bookstore, I find so many things I wanna learn and so many interesting things. I have a thirst for knowledge. But there is a downside of this, that I don't like to read. Big paragraphs always scare me. Complicated words scare me. Yet, I like to write big paragraphs sometimes. Some people say I am smart because I know four languages, but I think other people are a lot smarter than I am because of the things they know. I guess sometimes people underestimate their intelligence. Like, I wish I knew a lot more. I like gaining knowledge and do things I have never done before. I would like to live more so I can tell my experiences. Life is just full of stuff!!

Anyways, here are 15 ways to get smarter (and wiser) I got it from this site:

1. Think outside the box – Have you ever got stuck trying to solve a problem? Well, you’re not alone. “For every problem, there is a solution” seem very far from truth when we found ourselves in this situation. I used to remember what my father told me, and this is probably the best advice he has ever given me. “When you are stuck trying to solve a problem, take a step back and look at it from different angles.” I don’t quite get it at first. “Take a step back… you mean literally? How does that help?” Soon I realized that what he actually meant was to look at the problem from an outsider point of view, without any assumptions made, that had me reached the dead end. In short? Think outside the box.

2. Don’t make assumptions – We all seem to have a tendency to make assumptions (and yes, I do realize this is an assumption as well… ). It seems to be in our blood to relate everything based to our experiences and opinions. Don’t. Discounting ideas or solutions just because you find it ridiculous doesn’t mean it really is. Assumptions are the one that had us stuck inside the box. In order to think outside the box, we need to consider every possible explanation. But that can only be done once we get rid of our assumptions that hinder fresh insights.

3. Ask questions – In my opinion, this is the best way to gain knowledge. Ask questions. You can ask others or to yourself. I often use this method to come up with topics to write. If you put your brain into work by asking questions and actually try to solve it, I promise that you’ll be surprise of what you are actually capable of. Well, if you haven’t already. And this is exactly what every bright mind has in common. They ask tons of questions. Scientist, writer, entrepreneur and investor are just some of them. The 6ws (why, what, who, when, where and how) makes a great companion if you know when to use it.

4. Ask the right question – But you can’t just ask any questions… Asking the right question gives us the answer we seek. Ask the wrong question however, and you’ll end up wasting your time. I find “why” and “how” very relevant to my work so I use it as often as I could. It might be the same for you, or it might not.

5. Dare to differ in opinion – We all have this herd mentality in us. Sure, they work to protect us. But there’s something you need to understand. The opinion of the majority doesn’t mean that they are right, it only means that they are popular, and nothing more. But Karlil, surely they have good reasons to have the same opinion.Fair enough. But you need to understand that, us men, are easy to be manipulated by statistical numbers, the authority (government, the mainstream media and the likes) and words like “the majority…”, “most people…”, etc. Sound familiar don’t you think. These days, I only believe what make sense to me. For everything else, I don’t bother.

6. Understanding the motive – For every action, there’s a motive behind it. Most are good, and cause no harm, and then there are some that are not. An example would be the time you’re helping your mother out with the dishes. Your motive would be for her to do less and make her happy. While it’s not important to pay attention to every motive behind an action, especially when it comes to people we can trust. After all, you don’t want to be a calculative person. However, it is still important to be aware of it. Just make sure you remember, that when things look fishy, always run the opposite direction.

7. Read books – Books are a great resource for knowledge. For the average price of a book, the things that we can actually learn from them are far more valuable. Besides, reading is always a good habit to instill, plus it’s convenient.

8. Know you are – We cannot escape from confident now can we? Even when it comes to being smart, you must first acknowledge that you are. It’s not about being overconfident or conceited for that matter. But in order to have the courage to differ in opinions, you must first have the confident to believe that yours are right.

9. Free of emotion – A good decision making is one which is free of bias and emotions. I think it’s safe to say that we all have acted on impulse at least once or twice up till now. It’s just like gambling. Sometimes, you got lucky and you hit the jackpot. Most of the time however, things don’t turn out pretty. Which is why, going through rational thinking process in making the final decision is always the best bet we can make. At the very least, everything is taken into consideration, unlike following our gut feeling.

10. Mix with people smarter than you – When it comes learning, nothing beats observing and getting the knowledge from our friends. A good example, if you often mix with people who have good sense of humor, you would, sooner or later turn into someone who also has good sense of humor. This is exactly what happened to me, not that I’m saying I have good sense of humor…. So, do try to spend some time with the people who have good knowledge in things you are interested in immersing, and you would bound to be knowledgeable in the area of your interest.

11. Learn from other people’s mistake – The best way to avoid mistakes is to learn from the mistakes of others. Be constantly aware of what and why things went wrong. This way, you won’t have to pay for the cost of ignorance to the order of how things usually work.

12. Find your mistakes – I have always tried to find new methods that can enhance my many skills. Recently however, I have come to learned that it is so much easier to find mistakes and improve them than to look for ways of doing things right.

13. Don’t put the blame on others – Usually, when we put the blame on others, we would be blind of our own mistakes. And if we don’t acknowledge or learn from our own mistakes, chances are high that we are going to repeat it. Therefore, it is always wiser to blame ourselves before finding the mistakes of others.

14. Free of prejudice – Prejudice makes us dumb. It put thoughts in our head. Thoughts that shouldn’t exist, and blind us from truth. It’s like shopping for a book. You can’t just pick up a book with a pretty cover and head to the counter can you? And then, there’ s title, author, reviews and excerpt to consider, which is why it’s always better to avoid judging based on first impression, whenever possible.

15. Have common sense – I think this goes without saying.