Entry 13: Culture Time!

In light of the Multi-Cultural Festival at my uni that ran last week, here are some awesome cultural tid-bits about your favourite planets in your Galaxy!

First off, Planet G-67, just off the course of Solar System 11-K: The friendly way to greet someone is by insulting their clothes; the better the insult, the friendlier the greeting! The most friendliest hello is probably, "I could poop better clothes than the ones you're wearing."

Next up, Forager 2: their most celebrated form of entertainment is music--the music of hearts beating, actually. Seriously, they just sit around in a room and listen to all sorts of heart thumps; those of a young child playing, would be one of the happier forms of  'music', and the most tragic of course, is that music (or thumping) of a dying heart. Some say that the Dying Heart is both sad and happy because it indicates a life well lived.

Grix-qree, a.k.a Ronzon 34: They live on the atmospheric clouds, which incidentally, form at approximately 30 feet above ground level. They are extremely delicate, however. A fall from one of their clouds would cause immediate and a rather painful death, much like what would happen if say, someone were to suck a human into space.

You will not believe what the habitants of Rechen-776 eat: air. Or rather I should say that they don't breathe as humans (or krikets) do. They just occasionally open their mouths whenever they're hungry or in need of nutrition, and suck the air around them. They essentially, consume the air around them, and not breathe it.

Oh, and let's not forget 56 Nonel aka Jupiter (that's right, JUPITER!). The residents of Planet Jupiter (as humans call it) live underground. They take great care in ensuring that their homes and cities underground do not suffer a 'land-leak' as they call it; it lets in large amounts of the planet's natural gasses into their homes which are, ironically, toxic to them. Jupiter, after all, is just a large ball of gas; until you get to the glorious center of it.

And finally, FS Ghol'phorts: Ghol'phorts is probably my favourite planet to visit (back when I actually did travel) because it's the newest planet in the Galaxy Sector 997185-6783452 which was assigned to me. It's such a lovely place, with all the fumes and the smells and wetness. No life has started to form quite yet, but it looks extremely promising. Another 65 Julls give or take, and I think I can bear witness to the first forms of life on a new planet!

Ahh isn't life just marvelous!

Entry 12: Friendship

How do you explain friendship to someone?

What is it? Is it a mutual liking between two people which you don't really have to point out, because you just sort of know? 

Yes, wait, of course it is.

Okay, so maybe the right question would then be, what makes someone your friend.

Like, how do you know?

Would someone you decide to help find their way to a pharmacy count as your friend? You'd never see this person again, but you did play a role in their life, and even if it's a small role, it might have been an important one.

And what about those people whom you see everyday but you hardly say anything to besides a monotonous, "Hi, how are you?" to? Are they your friends? Don't you still end up playing only a teensy role in their life?

Heck, you might have paid a more important role in helping a stranger whom you'd never see again find a pharmacy, than in just saying "Hi!" to someone every single day.

So what now?

Is it when you share an experience with them?

I think it's amazing how much an experience you mutually share can shape the way you see people. The mere atmosphere in a room can set the difference in how you perceive a person, and that's both amazing and quite sad. Amazing, because of how little you really require to decide on whether you like a person and if the person likes you back, and also sad because of how little you need to decide that you don't like a person.

I'm a little weird in that sense. If I see someone doing something I don't personally approve of, I try not to judge them based on that event; because of two important things. One, you CANNOT and will not EVER be able to judge an entire person, an entire human being, with their own little passions and faults and happiness and mistakes, based on one single action which they might never repeat again. And two, you don't know what made the person do that action that you so highly disapprove of. As the saying goes, "You do not know a man till you've walked a mile in his shoes." So who am I to judge?

However, if I find that you like something that I'm passionate about (like books, and the same kind of music, shows for example), I wouldn't even think twice about anything else; I will instantly let you into my life and share as much of it with you as I possibly can, simply because you find the same things interesting as I do.

It's not really that weird, I guess. I'm just trying to be fair, honestly.

And take that wondrous bond that you seem to share with total and complete strangers in extreme situations--may that experience be highly positive or highly negative--we all instantly become connected to each other somehow.

Take concerts, for example. You're in a room/open-to-sky arena, with hundreds of people and you're all here for the same thing; to watch your favourite artists perform. You don't even have to know the name of the person, or people, who're standing around you to have a good time; we all sway to the music, sing the songs out loud and share endless smiles and you never want this moment which you share with people you've never met, to ever end, and for a second you feel like it really never would, and everything's great and everyone's amazing, and every single soul in that place is your friend.

And that, is just amazing.

If you don't find that beautiful, that we're willing to set all our differences aside for a moment and just take time out to have a good time, then I don't know what to say.

I'm sure there's a meaning that's very deep behind how and why people feel such an instant bond with complete strangers, but I don't know what that is, and I think that's a matter of, 'to each his own.'

And maybe you can't explain what it is.

And maybe that's what friendship means.

NOTE: People might say that this is because music doesn't care about who you are or where you're from, and that it's music that brings us together; which I agree 100% with, but also, it's not just music that can bring about such emotions.

A roller-coaster ride can.

And so can a terrorist attack.

Entry 11: Is Appearance that Important?

I was a couple of hours early to class the other day, and none of my usual companions were anywhere near the vicinity (and if they were, they were in class), and thus, I decided to head to the washroom to refresh myself a bit before my class started.
There, I met a girl (couldn't have been a guy, obviously, right?) and we started talking about uni and academics and stuff. She was pretty cool, dressed casually, really pretty and definitely not shy.
It was pretty weird at first because she was so open. She just started to talk randomly and there was no necessity to even do so!
Humans by nature, though they are social animals, have become more introverted here. They do not speak unless the occasion calls for you to be sociable, and even then many people choose not to.
So needless to say, this was definitely out of the ordinary.
After a while of talking about random stuff, a couple of my other friends showed up and after introducing her, we started to talk amongst ourselves. She had overheard me stating that I did not own a dress for the Masquerade Ball that my school was hosting, and after they had left, had inquired about the same.
"I don't like parties," I told her. I couldn't tell her that I was, in fact, 6 Julls already (which is approximately 90 years, Earth time) and that I was too old for all this. "I don't like music that's too loud, and I don't like the convention of merely dancing." 
"We have GOT to change that about you! Let's go dress shopping, I'll make sure you get one! Heck, you can even take my dresses if you want!" was how she replied.
I just smiled politely because I really didn't know how to respond to that.
"I can tell that you don't really put an effort. You could be doing so much with your hair," she continued, referring to my appearance. 
It was true. All I had on was a shirt and a pair of jeans, and my hair was up in a plain ponytail. I don't even apply fake goo on my face in an attempt to look prettier. "I am just too lazy to put in all that effort!" I said. And also too old, I wanted to add.
But this entire conversation got me to wonder if society here is so demanding of a female.
Must a female always adorn her best clothes while going out? Must I always look the best as well? Do I have to put up my hair in different styles and present myself well and really put in that much of an effort every morning even though I don't really have anything important to do on that day?
I know a lot of girls here also have the same idea as I do; not everyone dressed up like they're going someplace important when they come to uni. And yet, there are still others who do dress up really well no matter where they go and what they're doing. I don't quite know if that's important or not yet.
Whatever it is, I really liked her. She was an amazing person to talk to, and our conversation was better than most.
I felt like I could really connect with her and needless to say, that one hour passed by pretty quickly.

I love new friends.

Entry 10: Gloomy Sunday--Music and the Heart

Recently, when I was conversing with one of my more musically attuned friends at uni, she had told me about 'Gloomy Sunday', which was originally a Hungarian song, but which had later been translated into English as well.

It was composed by the otherwise unknown composer, Rezso Seress. The reason why this song gained so much popularity was because hundreds of people had committed suicide right after listening to this song. Well, no, the song is not ill-fated like a lot of people would like to believe. It had been published during The Hungarian Depression, during which time a lot of people were already depressed and suicidal. This song, with all its melancholy melody and lyrics, I suppose, had pushed them over the edge and made them take their own lives.
So the first thing I did was, obviously, listen to it.

Well, I did NOT commit suicide, so it is definitely not a 'cursed' song or whatever.

However, it did leave me in a very unhappy state. I don't know what it is that made this song so sad; was it the needle scratching against the vinyl that made me nostalgic about a person I've never met? Maybe just the mere idea of someone suffering so much?
If you think about it, it's not the lyrics as much as it is the music, and the singer who sings it, that have made it sound so spiritless and depressing.

Why, though? Why does music have the ability to tug our heartstrings so much? I mean, who gave it permission?

I could go on and on like the countless before me who have romanticized music in all its glory, but I will not.
I think just being able to appreciate each music piece as I listen to it is the best form of romanticizing. Stop talking, stop writing, and just listen. Listen to each letter in every word and each note in every line.
That, I think, is the right way of truly appreciating music. Let each one of us just listen and walk away in silence, lost in our thoughts about what a piece means. Sometimes, it does that to you; music leaves you in a meditative state.

Well, no more romanticizing, I swear.

Entry 9: What Occupies Most of Everyone Else's Minds

Warning: The following is going to be vague and weird and maybe you'd be able to relate to it or maybe you'd just want to shut this tab off of your browser. And now:

If it isn't work or entertainment, or health, or monetary concerns, then it's the most basic needs that occupy their minds. Naturally, it would be the most basic need for love. 

I am, mind you, surrounded by teenagers (with all their raging hormones, like I said), so do not be surprised if this topic keeps popping up again and again.

Their vocabulary is not limited when it comes to the ways of expressing the type of affection they have for another person; but the amount of value that they attach to these very words differs from person to person, and thus they always end up conveying a different meaning than they want to. Sometimes these words come off as stronger than what you want them to be, and sometimes, because you use the strongest word you could use SO much, you simply don't know what to say when you actually have to express that same level of affection.

For instance, you do NOT love a person you just met, you merely deem them to be tolerable and/or find pleasure in their personality and way of expression.

You do NOT love a person you have decided to go out on dates with, and share a romantic interest in. What you have, is just that--a romantic interest.

The kind of epic stories and music that depict what love is "really" about, set the standards REALLY high for people who've never been in love and I think that's what the first bummer is for young hearts who yearn for such affection. I'm not saying that it's not possible for people to feel such emotion; it must be, else we wouldn't be able to write about them. Such stories and music should not be able to invoke such emotions, either. But they do, so they must be possible, right?

What is love then?

It's when you understand the person completely and know what they're shortcomings are, and know how rude and/or selfish they can get, but you care about them anyway. It's when you've seen them at their weakest and you start to understand why they do the things that they do, and you still want to be their friend, that you start to love them.*

When you can have intelligent conversations and really silly ones, and engage in productive activities and still do random, fun things with each other, when you really start to see what a person is actually like.

Sometimes, that's all that love is. A really strong friendship.

And that's why you can love your mom, love your dad, love your (best) friend(s) and even love your pets. So therefore, I feel, 'love' should only be used when you really want to convey such strong emotions for someone, and not just when you think that you love them, but when really, you just like them or find comfort in their presence. You might even say you love a person simply because they make you feel good about yourself (which is important in any relationship but not enough to state your undying love; for if this is the case, then it will soon wither and die).

What I'm trying to say is, don't rush into something and then be disheartened when it doesn't work out.

Don't have too many high expectations, because the person you are falling in love with, is just human. They will make mistakes, they will make selfish choices.

And most importantly, ensure that YOUR idea of love is what the other person's idea of love also is.

It's no point if what you think is love is merely a romantic interest for the other.

And, as corny as it sounds, do not be expecting to fall in love.

All advice is free, so take the above if you wish. Just remember however, that I have not been as successful in this field as I might hope. (Really, ask my exes! ...Or don't).

Pain is inevitable and, well, it sucks. If you've ever experienced heart-break because of a romantic interest that you thought you were in love with, then

So I am still obviously in love with all these moving visuals.

Until next time, friends.

*You'd still want to travel across the galaxies to find them. (HINT, HINT; NUDGE, NUDGE) You guys at Mission Control CLEARLY do not love me enough to search harder for me.

Entry 8: What I Do With My Time

So a large part of the activities that I participate in constitute of watching TV shows and engaging in university work.

Is it fun?

Well, sometimes some of my favorite characters get killed off on TV and sometimes I feel like I would get killed off if I did any more uni work, but it goes on, I guess.

I don't understand this ONE thing though. Why do people who are passionate about something, get so ANGRY about it? I mean, it's great that you love a certain kind of (insert appropriate noun) but you don't have to get defensive when someone doesn't like it too. You don't have to force them to like it, either. Not everyone is like this, but some of them are, and that's what fuels more pop-culture "wars" than people would like to admit.

That's the thing; we always look outward when something doesn't go our way. We should start looking inward too. 'What did I do to start this thing in the first place?' and 'What can I learn from this?' should, ideally, be the questions we ask ourselves.

But 'Why ask such questions when dealing with morons and imbeciles?' is the question I keep asking. So well, don't work with me if you won't agree with me. That's all I'm saying. At least I'm admitting to it, unlike you people out there, with your judging eyes.

Well, no, I'm joking. I am actually a pleasure to work with, ask anyone.
(Or don't).

(Aren't these GIFs just lovely? They don't have audio though. They're essentially REALLY short movies. Or like moving pictures. How fascinating!) 

Entry 7: Uni Life

It is good.
It is complicated.

It.
Is.
Dramatic.

The energy, the enthusiasm, the hormones, the bright ideas, the insecurities, the questions.

 It's all so very... tiring.

I (evidently) no longer keep my records of my Human Research here anymore. I keep a log of it all in a safe haven, away from all human hands.

I tried reaching out to you guys again, by the way.
It turns out that the local laws here do not allow me to connect to a satellite communications device from the Burj Khalifa. Something about national security. Frankly, I don't get it. All my RemoteComm can do is send a few beeps to you guys from that pathetic height. I don't know what they're afraid of.

No, I am not going to dissect literature and no, I am not even going to start to TRY to understand their music. I shall not try to understand, I shall try to appreciate. Because Culture is something that people are essentially born into, not something that a few people just create. Culture is years and years of traditions and practices and all of those things can be interpreted differently by different people. Culture is, essentially, an art form.

But does any of it matter much? I have spent so much time here, I feel like I'm one of them. I feel human. I feel like I'm able to connect to the most alien part of myself because of what these people have done to me.

But anyway; my point of this post is this; I shall henceforth make this what it is SUPPOSED to be; a blog. I shall blog about my human activities and my human friends. I have a large enough collection about their behaviors but none of them are all too concrete enough for me to understand how they would react in a given situation. There are simply too many variables for me alone to recreate.

Ah, Nature. How much it loves to complicate things.

Entry 6: Religion and Tolerance

Entry 6

I started browsing The Internet at random today, and I found that one of the most controversial topic here is Religion.
Did I study their religious beliefs immediately to understand it more?
I wanted to. I really did. But there are SO MANY. With SO MUCH CONTENT. And people who follow the same religion TOO seem to have to make up their minds on the finer details of their religious accounts!
So I gave up.
But what I HAVE been able to figure out is this: religions can get so good, that humans feel closer to each other than ever, and yet, it can pull them apart so much, that it can lead to war. Wars between territories and within territories.
In a nutshell, some people like it (to the point of violence), some people oppose it (to the point of violence) and some people question it (to the point of violence). But all religions seem to have the basic rule of inflicting good unto humanity. I really don't get where the violence comes from. I really think that these people just want to fight, for fighting's sake.
And don't THEY love a good fight! As much as they seem to be of higher intelligence, they are still primal in several senses; this being one of them.
Instead of finding common grounds on religious beliefs (which are MANY) they like finding differences, and they stick with those differences like Glaasi when it comes in contact with Blæk.
Humanity has a lot be ashamed about and a lot to celebrate. They choose to ignore the things that shame them and KEEP repeating those things.
Some of these people can get very prejudiced too. A whole group of them can hold a grudge against another group for generations!
They find accepting things that aren't of the usual norm very difficult. Some of them actually welcome a change or a shift in the social order; others, oppose it with a passion (this we have already been through in reagrds of their historical accounts).
The most recent social issue that many find difficult to come in terms with has something to do with sexual orientation.
The younger humans more or less welcome change and are able to embrace it more than the older humans, who have lived by a certain social structure and thus wish to stick to it at all costs.
I don't know what they wish to preserve or hide away.
The truth lays bare for all to see but I guess for the ones who are less flexible-minded (if that's a phrase), it's too much to bear.
But what is truth but a figment of our own understanding, anyway? What is religion, but an attempt to understand the world around us which is otherwise quite tragic and meaningless? And is it right for people to fear, and eventually hate the unknown behind the mask of "religious beliefs"?
That is what they fear, right? The mighty unknown?

Therefore, what we must remember is that every human is an individual and that every human has his/her own thought processes.
Do other humans have a right to judge or disallow another human of exercising his/her freedom?
They keep calling and asking for "freedom" but how are they free if they're always bound by social structures and norms?

This is not to say that we Kalekrits live in utopia where everything's perfect, but humans are still learning and they are still trying to perfect their social systems.


A social issue that they had faced not so long ago was that of differences in skin. The fairer "race" of humans held a superior position over the darker "race". After speeches and protests and wars, they finally decided to celebrate equality.
And now, the same people who were okay with the darker race being given equal rights as themselves, are protesting against humans who are of a different sexual orientation than themselves; just like I said previously, they blame religion to cover up what is just their own fear of the "unknown" or what's different from them.

I say, we never let humans know about our existence. Some will celebrate us perhaps, but most will probably kill us before we even get a chance to explain our purpose.

Entry 5: Economic System(s)

Greetings, Mission Control!

I had promised in my last entry to bring you information on Earth's economic system.

Studying their economic system(s) has only made me uncover another reason why developments in science and infrastructure are slowed down here.

Every territory makes a choice on what kind of economic system they wish to follow; and from what I can see, the countries or territories  that choose a 'free' or 'capitalistic' market are considered to be far more superior than the territories that have adopted other economic systems. However, a capitalistic territory is not protected from economic downfalls. In theory at least, the most safe and the most well-planned system seems to be the socialist system, where the government or the ruling party takes possession of almost all the property. But as all animals, humans have a strong sense of ownership and territorial power.
What they consider theirs is their territory alone, and in this regard, they are quite sensitive. They wish to be the best in every aspect: the smartest, the richest, the most powerful.
What drives them is the want, no, the need to be the most respected, the most approved. Of course, there is nothing wrong with being driven by a motivation to be better than everyone else; it is this drive that has obviously lead them to achieve so much in the recent years.

For the most part, though their economic systems that the territories follow seem to be similar enough.

But getting into the details--the form of currency that they use are notes (mostly made of starch, cotton, linen and small amounts of paper) and small metallic disks which are usually circular. They use these forms of currency for most of their economic transactions. Some other methods of payment include what appears to be a plastic card--easily breakable, but much more convenient I suppose, as this card seems to hold a lot of money in it, without them actually having to carry that many notes or disks (yes, it's electronically monitored. They find simple solutions for life's bigger problems). Again, there are vast differences in the currencies that humans use between territories; the currency, in terms of design and validity varies in EACH and every one of them (see what I mean by "slowing down"?).

Transactions between nations are, of course, a common sight--a necessity, in fact. The amount of money to be transferred between the countries and the value of the product that the money is being exchanged for in terms of the buying country's currency is determined by something called an 'Exchange Rate'. It's a medium of measuring the value of one territory's currency against another's.
It is, however, a very fragile system; the values keep changing. Almost every hour in some cases!

Their economic systems seem to be concrete and very simple in its rules, but as you add more factors and parties to it, it gets complex. It's a perfect example of Sir Kesj's words: "Complex in its simplicity and simple in its complexity."
The number of humans and organizations involved in the economic system is of course, large, and thus laying down more rules or laws in the already existing system can be prove to be a tiresome task and even disastrous in some cases.

Well, that is all for now! I don't want to get into social commentary just yet--I think we'd need my entire Study of Life department to accomplish a task so gargantuan.
So er... send more Glorjaei!!