amaslow777

I got my navel pierced when I was 17. Piercing was just becoming the rage back then (1993?) so I thought I was being so cool and rebellious doing this. My parents basically forbade me doing this when I casually brought it up. Undeterred, I went and got it done. My friend who lives across the street was out so I went over and showed it to him. As soon as I got in, my dad said hi, and asked to see my navel, he saw me showing it off to my neighbour. He laughed, thought I was gay, and salivated at the thought of my mom freaking out once she got home. Sure enough, when she did, she wasn’t too pleased. It didn’t hit the fan so to speak, but she was not a happy camper. Of course, the next day when we had company, the first thing my mom says is, “You have to see Bobby’s belly button.” It was fun to do, I still have it to this day. Besides, if you end up not liking it, just take it out.

All right, here was the situation, it’s another rockin’ Friday night in the life of me, I’m cramming for midterms that start on Monday. I hit a wall, I just don’t feel the energy and nothing going in. I decide to take a break. I notice that in my recent downloads I have the movie The Bucket List. I was actually trying not to watch it as I was hoping to watch it with someone, but, I can’t resist so I double click and off we go. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t one of those handy cam specials, someone had ripped a screener so the quality was excellent. I really like these movies, sometimes I get lost in my daily life, and I lose sight of what life should really be about. Yes, what I do daily helps bring me towards my life goals, but I think sometimes it’s good to step back a bit, and enjoy those little moments which really make life what it’s all about. So, I watch this movie, and it’s funny, and I do feel inspired by what the characters are doing, a few were even on my list, skydiving, The Great Wall, The Pyramids, climb a mountain. But, the really inspirational moment came when Carter (Morgan Freeman) is being cared for in the hospital by his wife and he asks her for water. She says she can’t give him that but she can give him these lemon swabs. Almost a year ago, I was in pretty much the same situation. I had an uncle that lived with us pretty much for the duration of my youth, so he was about as close to a third parent as I could have. He was suffering from heart failure, so some of us went to the Philippines to help care for him. Unfortunately he reached a point where he was on a ventilator and could no longer drink water, and we were forced to resort to the aforementioned lemon swabs. A funny, well, more sad I think, thing about that, is that he would always ask for me to swab his lips, and I would, and he would suck on the swab because he was so thirsty. I would pull the swab away because when he did that, it would cause phlegm to build up in his lungs because of the ventilator tube in there. He would look so sad when I pulled it away, and I hate to say it, but I almost felt upset that he kept doing that. Of course, I only wanted my uncle to get better, but really, I guess if I had known how bad the situation actually was, maybe I would have. To this day I hate myself a bit for that, even towards the end, I found myself getting physically exhausted, and not being as patient as I could have been. This uncle of mine had been very supportive of my educational endeavours, something that almost brings me to tears when I think about it is that when he was told that he wouldn’t be able to fly back to Canada anymore, the only thing he said that he would regret was that he wouldn’t be able to see me graduate. Wow, makes you wonder how I can’t get inspired to study huh? I guess another thing I need to do is learn to find my inspiration. I have so many reasons to be doing all I can to make the most of my life, but you’d be amazed at how often I lose sight of them. After the movie, I decided that it was time to knock at least one extra thing off my list right after exams, so skydiving was it, I was really thinking of going for Pyramids or Wall, but one of the resources I’m low on in the next little bit is time. Hey, we have to be practical sometimes too :). I know some people who have done this before, and seeing as they’re all still alive, the places they went can’t be all that bad right? :) I’ll post to how it goes.

I became a member of Mensa in 2003. I was trying to decide what I wanted to do workwise, so I took a bunch of online aptitude tests. I ended up coming across a bunch of IQ tests, which I took for the hell of it. I scored really well on them, and one suggested that I apply to Mensa. I looked into it, and saw that they test monthly in my city, so I said what the hell, coughed up the money, and tested. I passed, and was really excited about joining. I had heard about Mensa through the standard media, and envisioned a group of extremely intelligent, eccentric, fascinating individuals (I guess I should have known better since I got in :)). I did meet interesting, intelligent, and nice people, but to be honest, they were pretty much like any educated group of people I had socialized with, the differences being the jokes were a tad wittier, and they really liked the Simpsons. I guess whether or not this is a worthwhile endeavour depends on your motivation. If you’re doing it to meet extraordinary people, you probably want to join a group directed more towards the interests or commonalities that you’re looking for in particular. If you’re doing to prove how smart you are, well, don’t be discouraged if you don’t make it, I know a lot of intelligent people who didn’t make it in, and some people whom I thought were very intelligent, but don’t necessarily believe that they belong at the pinnacle of intelligence in our society (is that a mirror I see) got in. Such is the nature of aptitude testing. From what I’ve read, a lot of people seem to be wanting to do just that, prove to whomever, be it themselves or others, that they are in fact considerably intelligent. My opinion is, if you’re smart, you’re smart, you shouldn’t need someone else to confirm that for you. There isn’t much difference between a person who gets 90% on a test as opposed to someone who gets 95% on a test, except for the fact that maybe the latter gets to call him/herself a Mensan (no, urine tests don’t count people). I guess what I’m getting at is anyone who doesn’t get in, don’t be discouraged, having passed wouldn’t have made you any more intelligent, and the people who are members are great, but they’re just like any other people you can meet on the street.