I wonder why it is that every time somebody lectures about a bad habit which I agree I need to work on (such as eating unhealthy foods, self-obsession, or overuse of the Internet), and they do it in a particular preachy way, my instinctive reaction is to reject their entire message.

Yeah, even when I agree in principleI know I'm not the only one ( Read more... )

Recently, I saw a TV show (on the Chinese channel here) about medical remedies based on Chinese medical philosophy and methods.

Practically, I learned that eating Chinese dates are good for speeding up metabolism and maintaining weight loss - because they have the property of strengthening the liver, which speeds up metabolism ( Read more... )

From the always awesome CrushPessmism.com: An article about how our perception is often geared towards the negatives in life - not because they're so common, but because they're actually not, relatively speaking ( Read more... )

David Wong, the same person who wrote the (in my view) brilliant "10 Things Christians and Atheists Can And Must Agree On", explains why, in ingloriously detailed detail ( Read more... )

1. Hot tea/chocolate/warm drink of your choice.

2. Visiting with a bunch of friends.

3. Watching Azumanga Daioh. Seriously.

And something that's definitely not going to improve the blues: The mindset of "I can't be happy unless (insert problem here) is completely solved". It doesn't matter what the problem is, or whether it only affects you ( Read more... )

I think that people who don't have it for themselves sure won't have it for real towards other people, or other animals for that matter. If they do display respectful behaviour, it will be out of fear, desire for gain, or social compulsion - all reasonable motivations in many cases, but still not real respect ( Read more... )

There is a paragraph on "basic attribution error", which refers to the phenomenon of people being more likely to attribute the bad behaviour of others to their innate personality, but their own bad behaviour to circumstance. For instance, one might say that a friend had a car crash "because he's a careless driver", while if the person him/herself ( Read more... )

They drain all the nutrients out of their host, leaving precious little for him/her/it. That's why people and animals with tapeworms are so unhealthily thin.

I seriously think that, on the metaphysical front, there are mental and philosophical tapeworms that drain all the emotional energy and love for life out of you. The result is an unhappy and ( Read more... )

I'm not a very avid His Dark Materials reader, but coming across The Daemon Page has made me think about it again.

I have taken several "what is your daemon" type tests before, and various sites have said that "I'm" a songbird, a wolf, or a gibbon. Now I took another one and came up with a rather unexpected result.

( Eh...what's up, Doc? )

I just saw this on someone's Fanfiction.net profile:

"Ninety-five percent of the kids out there are concerned with being popular and fitting in. If you're part of the five percent who aren't, copy this, put it in your profile, and add your name to the list..."

Now, is it just me, or isn't this just another example of someone trying to "fit in"? ( Read more... )