Super deep analysis.

There's an element of the human condition that's a bit sad, but also simultaneously excellent. I'm talking about Familiarity. 

Using Familiarity as the lens through which we sort people, humanity is divided into three types:

1. Those who we feel more fondness and respect for as we become more familiar with them, and get to understand and know them better. 

2. Those that we distance ourselves from (or should, but sometimes don't), whether consciously or unconsciously, because Familiarity reveals, for want of a better/less melodramatic phrase, their dark side. 

3. Those that we don't become familiar with at all. Apologies in advance to those 6.5 billion (and counting!) people. 

It seems an obvious thing, but it's sort of taken me a while to reach this conclusion. It kind of developed into a cohesive thought on Friday night. Of all times. Maybe my mind becomes more metaphysical when it's tired/stretched.  

I've never been one to sit down and really think about human relationships, in particular my relationships with other people. I usually just sort of let it all develop/maintain/die organically. I think actually dedicating time to thinking of these things, and in particular, bracketing people that you know into those three brackets, helps to assess which relationships are truly worthwhile, and worthwhile developing and maintaining, which ones need rectifying or management, and which definitely need to be terminated. 

On a slightly cheerier note, I've managed to catch the vast majority of my favourite people in the world over the past three days. Does wonders for the soul. And all this with another day of liberty to look forward to tomorrow.

On a definitely cheerier note, I managed to sneak pass in Taxation. 3/5. Almost through it. 

Word of the Day: Familiarity 

Imagine the kind of stuff I'd write after a few drinks.

It was only a four day working week, but for some bizarre reason, it feels like it's been a big one. The weekend I've got planned promises to be fairly big too.

Not 'big' in the, shall we say, classical sense. You know, get smashed, do some illegal things, maybe a couple of fights for good measure.

Big, as in, lots going on.

This week, I feel as if I've learnt a lot more about people. Reinforces the notion that you shouldn't write someone off before having at least known them for a couple of weeks. Sometimes longer. If you give it time, lots of people that you don't originally rate turn out to be quality people.

It's a bit mutual though. I find that if people invest a little in me, it usually works a lot better. Instead of me unidirectionally extending the cordial hand of potential friendship, these things happen a lot easier if it's a mutual handshake. Or at least a substantially mutual handshake.

Best analogy ever.

Getting to know people better also reveals things that you don't necessarily know about, or think about, and that are actually quite deep, interesting or eye-opening.

On a slightly related note, I've fallen in love again this week. As is customary, she's a bit weird. But so very cool.

How do I know it's love? Well, it's taking me a good ten minutes to fall asleep now instead of the customary one-and-a-half. If that isn't a sign, I don't know what is.

Word of the Day: Big

Irrational.

Irrationality is a peculiar word.

You can attach the word 'irrational' to so many contrasting and different verbs and nouns.

Allow me to canvas two such pairings that have recently affected me.

Let's start with this one: 'irrational actions'. 

I have a friend. She's broken up with her boyfriend a number of times. It may have been twice. It may have been three times. I'm not even sure what you, I or she would count as breaking up anymore.

All I know is that they keep getting back together.

(As an aside, he's a bit of a mega-jerk. Not that that really concerns me at all. I never see him, and nor do I want to. Ever. And he'd probably best not see me. If you know what I mean).

While I too repeat mistakes, often with full knowledge that it will not all end well, it just seems a bit dumb to keep going back to the guy if you have to do it SEVERAL TIMES right? Something must be fundamentally flawed if you have to break up and make up that many times.

And something, or somethings, are fundamentally flawed. I just don't have the heart to tell her. I'm sure she would know, if she opened her eyes and stopped kidding herself. But you know, love makes us blind, and all that.

So that's 'irrational actions' covered so far.

That leads me seamlessly on to my next 'irrational' pairing. 'Irrational annoyance'.

I experience this a lot. I'm by no means a genius, but often this annoyance stems from fools. I just don't suffer fools very well. You know, people that don't make sense, or are just generally bad people, irk me quite easily.

Which, I think, is not so irrational.

Irrational annoyance would be me despising the overuse of the phrase 'like a boss/baws/bors'.

Picture of man sitting on a motorbike. "Like a baws!!!!111!!!"

Picture of girl with face paint. "Like a baws!!!!!111!"

Status update of a guy at a hotel. "Like a baws!!!!111!!"

Someone walking their dog. "Like a baws!!!!111!!"

Far out. Overused, inappropriate, thus, not funny or amusing.

Or 'swag'. I'm not even going to go into that one, because pretty much everybody already has.

Back to my story. Well, all of this is my story. Or at least, my re-telling/telling of it. But back to the story that we were halfway through.

When said friend related her story about her nth breakup with same boyfriend, I listened. Literally, for hours. Literally listened too, because I have no idea what to say to someone in that situation, especially over the phone. "There there"? "He was a jerk anyway, you'll get over it. You did with the other four boyfriends"? "Let's go smash his face in"?

She clearly still liked him at that point, so obviously the "Let's go smash his face in" or "He was a jerk anyway" doesn't really work.

It works even less when they eventually get back together. Which is what happened.

So thank goodness I didn't go bashing her (momentarily) ex-boyfriend, verbally or otherwise. My father taught me well, at least with this trick. He always says to me (because, for some reason, I always get calls about people having problems with their supposed better halves):

Son, don't go bad-mouthing their (what could very well turn out to be temporary) ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend. If (and most likely when) they get back together, your name will get bandied about, and in no nice way either.*

*Obviously in Cantonese. With a bit of embellishment by me. But the general gist is the same. 

Anyway, I'm annoyed by the whole business. I can think of a few reasons why, none of which may be correct.

1. Time was wasted. It wasn't a ball of fun either. I don't mind people calling me. In fact, I often welcome it. But it just seems so dumb, for some reason, when I get called for, not exactly advice, but opinion I guess you would call it, and then it just kind of all gets ignored.

2. She knows that there's something fundamentally wrong with this whole saga. That's why she wouldn't tell me they'd gotten back together before I kind of prompted it. This also annoys me because I also like good news. Sometimes (or often) more so than bad news. If you can call this good news. It is for her anyway. Why in such a rush to tell me about supposed doom and gloom, and so tardy to tell me about what's supposed to be good news? Do I seem like a person that thrives on pessimism and sadness? If I do seem like that, for the record, I'm not. I like good news. And good stuff in general.

3. As canvassed above, her (now current, as of this moment, as far as I know) boyfriend is a bit of a mega-jerk. What's more, she left a perfectly nice guy that I got along with a few boyfriends ago because of a reason that I don't find to be a reason at all.

So there you have it. Irrational. We all are, to a certain extent, and at certain moments. I can think of at least roughly five irrational things that I've done this week. I just don't like it very much when I'm on the receiving end of irrationality. Not sure if that's rational or irrational, and at this stage, I don't very much care.

Word of the Day: Irrational

An expensive party

Davy's 21st on Friday night was the most expensive party I've attended to date. Mostly owing to the $70 parking fine that I incurred. Stupid double signs. 9am - 6pm: 2P. Above that, it says '6pm - midnight: permit parking'. James didn't read the sign at the top, and I didn't look at all. So pretty much all my fault.

Anyway, the party was quite good. Got to hang with friends who I hadn't seen for quiet a while. About half the people took a plus one with them, which made me feel sort of lonely, but it wasn't too bad, because most of the fellas I was hanging with didn't have one either. Maybe that's why they were hanging with me.

But yeah, once things got underway it was alright. We all had a few glasses of the hard stuff (lemon lime bitters...yeeeeaaah man), and, hey presto, everybody was talking. Vu and I, on the same team, lost twice, once because I sunk the black ball and 8 ball at the same time, and once because he did the same. What are the chances?

Bieber came on a bit later, thanks to the machinations of Imesha, but because of my prompting. I don't know why I do these things. I don't even like the guy in the slightest. Davy made me do the Bieber Dance, and I had to, because a Sicilian can't refuse a request on the day of his daughter's wedding. Or because it was his 21st. Either one.

This occurred during our highly intense game of Mafia. Yes, we played Mafia at a 21st birthday party. I think we should make it the official sport of NQT. And, just in case it's not sad enough, we'll make a team and participate in tournaments. We'll see who's laughing when we bring in the glory and the cash.

Speeches were up next. Although I royally screwed up Yvonne's part by interjecting at completely the wrong time, I saved it so well that it sounded like it was planned. Or it did to me anyway. I was treated like a bit of a celebrity afterwards, so it must've been alright. Hopefully videos up soon.

A good gig. A tad expensive, but not because of the person hosting. Hope you enjoy your present/s, Davy. And Happy 21st again.

Almost directly as a result of this, my good friend started having relationship/parent problems. I'm not going to go into it, because it's too complicated, and I don't want to publicise it everywhere. I just spent two hours with her by the lake on Monday. Half of it involved crying, and another friend being there, and the other half of it involved just me being there, and no crying. Funny how those two things positively correlate. Jeopardised my planned accounting midsem cram session, but hey, it's only 10%, and I probably wouldn't have gotten much done anyway. And my friends are more important than 10%. At least in times of crisis. I've already told her, but I'll reiterate it here again, and for everybody that feels that they are a close friend of mine: you can call me whenever if you just need to talk. I'm more than happy to do it. Talking is therapeutic.

Ironic how I spent two hours trying to alleviate somebody's relationship problems, but I have no clue what I'm doing with my own. Or lack thereof. Irony again. Hate it.

Yeah. Accounting midsem. Unmitigated disaster. Didn't expect to do that well, but that test was highly passable. If I'd actually studied. Procrastinated too much. Will start working now.

Word of the Day: Expensive