A Blog for All and None

In your quest to find your place in this world, to find what makes you unique, and who you are, be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking that any one thing makes you special. You are not a one-dimensional fictional character. The myriad things that make you and everyone else unique cannot be reduced to simple tropes. You have a depth that cannot be defined so succinctly. Every aspect of your personality, your thoughts, your upbringing, your skills and talents, all these things stacked together paint the picture of the person that is you.

Say you have a trait that only 10% of people have. That makes you pretty rare, right? Sure, but it gets better. Say you have ANOTHER trait that only 10% of people have, now you’re down to 1%. Only 1% of people are like you in those ways. But this thinking can be applied to every other feature, every other quality, quirk, flaw, EVERYTHING about you.

You are not one in a million. You are not one in a trillion. You are one out of an infinite number of possible humans. The only person who has ever existed and will ever exist who is exactly like you is you. That is what makes you special.

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The English language is a confusing thing, with many valid points for and against it. Some notable problems with the language are the sometimes seemingly arbitrary rules of grammar and punctuation, the abundance of homonyms, and the lack of certain features that other languages have that assist with understanding.

Words with differing contextual meanings also don’t help. When we call a crowd big, we’re referring to density, when we say something’s a big deal, we refer to import, when we call a skyscraper big, we mean volume. When we call a pepper hot, we mean Scovilles, when we say it’s hot outside, we mean temperature, when we call a person hot, they’re attractive. I could go on and on. They’re everywhere.

But it’s not all bad. One of the most frustrating bits of misinformation out there is that there’s a word in the English language for throwing a chair out of a window, but not for the day after tomorrow. There ARE words for those two things, they’re defenestration and overmorrow, respectively. (I use Grammarly when I type, and even now, it’s asking me if I want to add overmorrow to the dictionary, as it’s an unknown word. This is what I mean!) The thing is, since English is a language made up of many words borrowed from other languages, it’s become useful for bridging the gap between the languages from which it borrows.

As for the features that other languages have that English could benefit from, there are a few that spring immediately to mind. Some other languages opt for more words with fewer meanings. Greek has many different words for love, each appropriate in its own unique context. The way I love my family is not the same way that I love my wife or friends, but in English, we just have one general use word: love. In Japanese, there are many different words for “you” and “I” and you can glean a lot of information about how the speakers of that language feel about themselves and each other based on which ones they use. In Spanish, certain types of punctuation are placed before and after the sentence, so you can determine the tone before reading it.

I believe that this is a classic case of the grass always being greener on the other side, that we’re only so frustrated with the English language to the point of believing misinformation because we deal with the shortcomings that it DOES have every day. This language is tough, so all the more grateful we should be that we were born into knowing it. That said, there are some things we can do to improve our experience with this language on a day-to-day basis.

Be more specific. Try to use fewer words that have multiple meanings. At least two different contextual meanings for “hot” could apply to food. If there’s a word that means exactly what you want to say, that word is best to use.

Adopt features and words from other languages if native words don’t suit the purpose you need them to. English is an ever-evolving language by design, and I’ve already provided some examples of certain things that other languages do better. There are plenty more that I haven’t thought of, so go nuts.

Most importantly, be more honest. The most effective way to improve your English experience is to say exactly what you mean, to describe exactly how you feel, and to stop using outdated “figures of speech” that are really just excuses to avoid getting to the heart of what you’re trying to say. The sooner that people start being frank with each other and being honest, brutally honest, about how they really feel about things, the sooner people will develop long-lasting relationships that actually matter and find improvements in all interpersonal areas of life.

Yesterday, the city of Portland, Maine, elected the first Somali-American mayor in US history. The only reason I knew about this was because of the fact that she is not a white person. As I typically do, I got to thinking. I’ve always heard stories about the first person of X orientation or Y gender or Z race to do X or Y or Z. The first woman to vote, the first Black president, the first Somali-American mayor. I’ve always wondered why we love to celebrate people for things that they can’t control. Maybe we celebrate them because America has a history of prejudice, segregation, enslavement, and general cruelty against all types of people, and a few specific people have broken the mold. Today I finally realized: we don’t.

We don’t love to celebrate them, we love to celebrate ourselves. We don’t love to celebrate people in the minority accomplishing things that are historical firsts here in America, we love to celebrate ourselves for “allowing” them the “privilege” to accomplish them. “Look at how far we’ve come! Look how hard of a choice it was for us to finally allow someone of color to run our town!” What were her campaign promises? What are her politics? What kind of a platform did she run on? I don’t know. The only thing I know about her is the color of her skin. The same will probably be true of the general population. This is the problem. The town is 90% White, no doubt the campaign trail was hard for her. She should be celebrated for winning the mayoral election in a town where she had no intrinsic advantage, but instead, here we are, patting ourselves on the back, “Look how progressive we are!”

When will we stop reducing people to their most arbitrary traits? Race is without a doubt, very real and very important.  It affects everyone’s lives in myriad ways. But how you’re celebrated for your accomplishments? How you’re known by the general population? These things should not be on that list. We need to start congratulating people for the things that they can control, start congratulating people for the things that they did that they chose to do. That is the key to progress.

At least among the philosophy books I’ve read, there seem to be two prevalent styles: The checklist and the novel. An example for a frame of reference would be Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra and The Gay Science. Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a novel, with the characters exposing the philosophy that the author is trying to get at in a more gradual and natural way. The Gay Science is a straightforward laundry list of the author’s thoughts on various topics. George Orwell’s 1984 is in the novel style, Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny seems to be its equal and opposite checklist style book. A novel like Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead shows us characters that are purpose-built archetypes of philosophical ideals that the author conveys and clarifies through the events of the book. Sun Tzu’s checklistian The Art of War gets straight to the point, explaining a strategy or concept concisely, then moving on to the next. Maybe calling things checklist-style sounds too derogatory, but I really don’t mean for it to be. It all just depends on how you prefer to digest your philosophy.

It’s a sentiment that I generally agree with, but feel is not elaborate in its current form. Of course, it needs to be kept short and sweet to appeal to a general audience, but, my understanding of the deeper meaning is this: If you know what you’re doing, rules can be safely ignored. Some rules are made as preventative measures, some as responses to problems of the past. If you understand a few basic things about rules, you’ll find that they are not roadblocks, but speed bumps.

• WHY a rule was made
• WHAT it was made to accomplish
• WHO benefits from your compliance

Now, I don’t think it’s my place to suggest exactly HOW and WHEN to break rules, but with this framework of questions, you should be able to make that determination for yourself. If you know WHY a rule was made, you understand that people have tried to do what you’re trying to do, to no avail. If you’re more crafty than them, you can probably get away with it. If you know WHAT a rule was made to accomplish, you can now decide if you can safely navigate the consequences of breaching the rule without trouble. Knowing WHO compliance to the rule benefits speaks for itself; if you’re breaking a rule that affects only you, the decision becomes that much easier, if the rule was made to keep people at large comfortable and safe, take this into consideration as well.

Note here the difference between laws and rules. Laws have much heavier consequences than rules. If you’re crafty enough, this, too, becomes just another consideration. Now, if you apply these questions to rules you follow every day, you’ll get a good idea of just which rules you are comfortable breaking and those which should really rather just be kept.

If you’re going through a hipster phase, know that there is value in presenting underappreciated or unknown things to people, be it music, TV shows, books, or any other medium that you choose to explore more deeply than others. But it is important to keep in mind that if many people enjoy something, they probably have their reasons. Just because something is popular doesn’t mean it should be discounted. Lighten up; listen to the songs that everyone else is listening to, read the books that have been read by all your friends. You might be surprised and enjoy some of them. In my experience, it’s been worth risking a few minutes of my time to discover something that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

If you’re going through a rebellious phase, the advice is simple, there are two pertinent types of rebellion: Doing things that harm yourself just to spite perceived authority figures who tell you not to and doing things that will be of benefit to you in spite of authority figures telling you not to. Always weigh your options, understand the relevant type, and proceed accordingly.

Inflation targeting is the practice of setting a goal for how much your federal reserve wants currency to inflate. The USA Fed currently aims for a 2% rate of inflation every year, but over about the last 30 years the rate has fluctuated such that the cumulative inflation has been 102%, meaning that the price of things has doubled since the beginning of 1990.

Now, an important distinction must be made here between the quality of goods and the price. The price does not reflect the quality of the item, it is only a number assigned to it for the monetary transaction and is sometimes completely arbitrary. The quality explains itself.

Basically, if anyone’s ever told you that they never would’ve spent THAT much on one of THOSE, chances are, they aren’t aware of this simple economic principle: The same exact object would’ve cost half as much 30 years ago. Feel free to educate them.

One last thing:

If you keep comparing yourself to people who have already painted their masterpieces, you can easily lose the will to pick up the brush. Perfectionism, noble as it may sound, is a stumbling block all artists face. It can lead you to stop progressing, because the colors in your portrait are just a little bit off, or the words you use are just a little bit too convoluted, so you’ll “sleep on it” and “think about it” and you’ll procrastinate finishing that piece of art. Even if every line isn’t perfect, it’s okay to just post something to get it out of your head and save the mental bandwidth for future projects. You will eventually paint your masterpiece, but not if you stop practicing.

I’ve always held a special place in my heart for cities. The graceful architecture, the sense of adventure, the people, all the different cultures that clash and compliment and compound, the food, the shopping, I could go on and on.

So I will. Not only are cities beautiful on the surface, with their sweeping skyline vistas and unrivaled vantage points in the form of skyscraper rooftops, but they’re mechanically interesting, as well. All the inner workings fascinate me, as they have to follow the same mechanical principles as engines and guns and industrial machines, every single intricate piece has to line up perfectly with very little wiggle room. Cars on the roads, planes overhead, ferries on rivers, trains underground, and most importantly, people. People are everywhere. In buildings, on streets, in cars and planes and ferries and trains; everywhere. People are the blood cells in the beating heart of a metropolis, and they all have to move in unison and perfectly in time.

People are what make cities what they are. That may sound like an obvious statement, but think about this: If you’ve ever visited a city, chances are that you’ve been told by friends or by family that you HAVE to visit a certain restaurant, park, museum, etc. People are what create these things. Another obvious statement, maybe, but what I mean is that in my small city alone, with its small city population, public art abounds and there are enough small, family-owned restaurants to visit to last a lifetime. I try, though I struggle, to imagine what it would be like if the whole city was scaled up hundreds of times over. An easily understandable analog is New York City.

Let’s talk about statistics really quickly. In 2018, the city of New York, New York had an estimated population of 8,398,748 people. Compared to my hometown of Ogden, Utah, with a population of 87,325 people in 2018, that’s a 9,617% difference.

Now, consider: for every up and coming artist that strives to make Ogden a more beautiful city, there are 10,000 in New York with similar goals. For every couple that opens a restaurant in Ogden with the hope of introducing foreign cuisine to people who haven’t had the chance to travel, there are 5,000 more couples who share that passion In New York. For every small business owner that dreams of making the world a better place in Ogden, 10,000 are working just as hard in New York.

Now, New York isn’t for everyone, so it might not be for you. But fear not, there are always other options.

How about Portland, Oregon? Oh, Portland, where individuality is celebrated and shines like a beacon cutting through the drab fog of homogenized society that you might find in other cities.

Maybe Seattle, Washington? A city surrounded by forest, with no shortage of clean air to breathe or nature to explore. A city that is no slouch when it comes to tourist appeal, either, with the Space Needle being just one of the reasons the place might interest a traveler.

Perhaps Orlando, Florida? Known for its theme parks and other entertainment options, it’s a city that is sure to grab your attention, keep you occupied, and never bore you.

Maybe Las Vegas, Nevada, where it’s hot?

Or maybe even Hiroshima, Japan, in the east? Where the city itself seems to practice Shinto, where beautiful nature parks and trees mingle seamlessly with the grandeur of Eastern architecture, where the fashion scene is so amazing it actually changed my life, and where every other aspect of culture is completely unlike anything we have in the West?

Those are just examples of cities I’ve visited myself. There are so many more that I have not yet, and, unfortunately, may never get the chance to explore; but, maybe you’ve had a different experience visiting a city. If you’ve been put off by a summer trip to a far too hot Palm Springs, California, remember that there are other cities that are much cooler, temperature-wise; Lincoln City, Oregon, perhaps. If you’ve felt burned out by the hustle and bustle of New York City, just remember that there is always laid-back Park City, Utah, whose atmosphere might pique your interest a little more.

For every person, a different image comes to mind when thinking of a personal Utopia. For me, it’d have to be a city. Dozens of floors in hundreds of buildings to explore, thousands of new experiences not available anywhere else, millions of people, all unique and shining examples of why humanity is what it is, a collection of hearts and dreams, and this can all be found in one place: a city. It’s that compression of culture, that extreme condensation of the human experience that can’t be felt anywhere else that is, to me, The Appeal of A Metropolis.

-Spencer

Black Friday was always exciting for me in previous years. A bastion of consumerism and capitalism, a time when the retail stars aligned and high end electronics, new clothes, and even basic things like socks became more affordable than any other time of the year. Christmas shopping, replacing old things, and just good old retail therapy became easier. The adrenaline rush of finding good deals and the looming threat that that good deal I saw in an ad might be sold out by the time I got to it imposed a time limit that only added to the fun. 

This year was different.

One, I worked 12 hour shifts on Black Friday and the day after, so I didn’t have a lot of time to shop. Two, I was saving for a honeymoon, so I wasn’t going to break the bank. I took a more casual approach and wasn’t expecting to find anything good. I didn’t. My Fiancee bought about 90 socks with my money and a I got cheap controller. At the checkout, the cashier commented on how calm it had been this year. My immediate first thought was that Black Friday will probably be back to its crazy self next year. I didn’t realize until days later that I had just witnessed the death of a tradition. I read the articles and saw the headlines; people just stayed home this year and did their shopping online. That’s when it hit me.

Black Friday is dead. Black Friday remains dead. And we have killed it.

It won’t ever be the same. This, I firmly believe. From this realization a new fear came to the forefront of my mind: By the time I get old and die, likewise by the time most of the people who will ever read this get old and die, what traditions from our childhoods will remain? Will not they all share our fate and eventually become dust, dirt, or ashes? Traditions from the past often greatly inspire our futures to. My Fiancee is studying to become a teacher. Will teachers even be necessary to our society by the time she gets certified? My sister is training to become an Olympian. Perhaps even this tradition, the Olympic games, standing the test of time as it so far has has outlived its utility in this rapidly changing world. These are cynical views to take, I know, and even I severely doubt that teachers or the Olympics will ever obsolesce. But, if you asked me a few years ago, I might’ve said the same thing about Black Friday.

So, what do we do?

To be honest, I’m still unsure. What I am pretty sure of is that it doesn’t even matter. I still found some pretty good deals on things online, like everyone else did. More than the death of Black Friday, I fear what this could mean for the future. What other traditions will slowly but surely be put to rest after being a constant for so many years of our lives? I’m sure you saw this coming, but all I can say at this point is the tried and true “don’t take it for granted” spiel. All I can think to do with this newfound knowledge of, fear of, and respect for how rapidly things can change if we let them is to say this: I’m going to try my hardest to not let any more traditions be slowly sunk into the sea, I’m going to give them a well deserved sendoff. With this post, I hope to inspire others to do the same, as well as to thank Black Friday for the memories we made together. Don’t let the artifacts of your childhood go out with a whimper, but a bang.

-Spencer