Ohaithere.

I've been so lazy this week, but its because of that that I'm starting to actually feel like a normal teenager again. I procrastinated for the first since semester started just last week, which goes to show, I suppose, how much time I really have on my hands. It's a good feeling, that feeling of being productive and getting things done; but the thing is, its also boring as hell.

Spring break is ALMOST here, although it feels like its already started because everyone else is coming back home. I don't think I'm going to focus on school much these next few weeks. Not that I'm worried of course....Okay. Maybe a little. I'm actually starting a new class in the middle of the semester and right before spring break too so I hope I don't have to do much because I haven't prepared for anything. And I doubt I will. Its a bit unsettling though, because I'm the type of person who wings everything even when I know one day, winging it just won't cut it.

So today, I biked to the beach (pretty much) for the first time since summer and it was a lot harder than I remembered. I was already sore from yesterday and that alone seemed to make the trip all that more intense. Still, it was nice to see people again and laugh and joke and poke arms and do all those carefree things that we often take for granted. It makes me all that more excited for the summer when everyone is free and theres actually time to do things and chill and go to the beach. But man, I'm pretty sure my thighs are broken.

I recently discovered how fun making forum signatures is. They're simple, quick, and good practice for using photoshop because all you really need to do is find a couple of renders, arrange them so they look good, play around the with the blending options, add some brush effects for style, and then find a nice font that fits and write something with it. The header I did this week is an example I guess. It's not the greatest, but its not too shabby considering it took 10 minutes to make. PHOTOSHOP BRUSHES ARE SO FUN.

By the way, feel free to comment on the headers because I'd like to know if they're "ehh", pretty good, or the ugliest things you've ever seen. Some constructive criticism would be nice too.

...Edit:

So after posting this, I went and read Karthik's Passion post and felt all reflective. I started typing a response but it turned out to be sorta long so I decided to just post it here.

In my opinion, passion is the drive that gets us moving to actually achieve something. It makes us idealistic and sure, naive, but without it, we wouldn't even know where or even how to begin. Much like a match, it keeps lit only up until it can pass on its flame and then burns out. As we venture on the path that the flame has lit up, we begin to learn about life and a number of things happen. We become jaded or more experienced and realize that our dreams of say, becoming an astronaut, are too far-fetched and so we change our goals and dreams to fit reality. The match is then lit again and the process repeats.

In a sense, its also like falling in love. I read this article recently about how couples who fall in love usually end up with a different kind of love than they started with. At the beginning, relationships are full of passion and lust and excitement, but as time passes, they "settle" into comfortable partnerships (if they don't end in divorce). The cause of this is a chemical called oxytocin, which goes to show that even biologically, we're programmed to settle.

My personal philosophy on happiness is pretty simple. Its essentially to do the best I can to continuously improve myself and to positively influence the people that I love. That's because when I try to be philosophical and think about the ever elusive meaning of life, it always goes back to me thinking about how truly insignificant I am; and yet, its okay with me. As long as I have my friends and family, as long as I'm able to laugh and love and hopefully make other people laugh and smile, I don't mind being just another somebody in this world. That's not to say that I'm not ambitious because if the opportunity came for me to make some phenomenal change in the world, I would take it. Realistically though, that's unlikely and so, just having influence, however small, on the people around me is good enough. When you think about it like that, its simple really.

...dchan...