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.