I was looking at birthday cards tonight–and I finally relaized why I despise them so much–half of the cards were negative, demeaning, or straight-up sad. Several mentioned drinking, several more revolved around the lack of money, but most went on and on about being old and how bad that is.
I’m not one to utter sweet nothings about old age, but I do not understand how getting older can be viewed as such a negative thing. The only way to keep from getting older is to die, and unless you’re suicidal, that’s really not an option. So why not cherish and celebrate each birthday? Enjoy the day with friends and family and praise God that you have been blessed with another day of life. Don’t yearn for the “good ole’ days” when you were younger (side note: They probably weren’t as good as you rememeber them to be), but enjoy the time you have now, even if you have scores of candles on your cake!

Pride seems to be a huge problem with most people, and I’m definitely in that category.
There are all sorts of people who are prideful in a plethora of ways. A lot of pride is based on some skill or ability. I’m not condoning pride, but I do understand how Michael Jordan (in his prime) could be prideful of his abilities. The same could be said of Shaq (in his prime), Roger Federer, Magic Johnson, Babe Ruth, Wayne Gretzsky, and a host of other athletes. You could likely make excuses for famous musicians like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones or maybe famous artists like Monet or Picasso. They all are (or were) extremely talented, and to a certain degree had a reason to be prideful.
But then I encounter other people who are immensely proud and sadly have little to be proud of. They are proud about all sorts of things, but they’re neither good nor skilled in the areas they are prideful. They’re not that great (in my humble opinion), and likewise they are delusional because they act as though they are.
It would like me walking up to you and proclaimed that I was the greatest dancer in the world (editor’s note: I can’t dance worth crap). I could go on about how great I was while holding my head up high and looking down on you. And soon, I would be put in a position where I’d have to show my skill (or lack thereof), and there would be no doubt that my comments were no more than a cheap fraud.
So I wonder: what causes people to be so proud in areas where they fail? Are they delusional? Stupid? Abnormally and excessively hopeful? I can’t think of many sadder (or more irritating) sight than someone who proclaims their greatness in spite of the obvious contradiction with reality?
Note: All pride is bad, I’m just musing about this humanly unexplicable type…

I believe you can tell a lot about a person simply by looking at their profile picture on Facebook (Note: This theory is influenced by Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink). In fact, I think the picture more adequately explains who that person is than all of the other listings on the page. And I would say it’s much more likely to be accurate than all of the other information, becuase everything is much more easily skewed.
Why do I propose this concept? First, I don’t think that anything happens accidentally. And if nothing happens accidentally, then I know that each person chose their picture for a specific reason (or reasons). The key to figuring out what their picture means isn’t an exact science, but I propose that you can adequately make assumptions based on characteristics in the photo.
Possible ways to analyze the photo:

1. Consider the duration between changes.
2. Look at the colors.
3. Consider the background.
4. Determine their positioning in the picture.
5. Is there more than one person in the picture, and if so, are the others cropped out?
6. Consider the size of their face in conjunction to the picture and the visible portion of their body.
7. Look at clothing types.
8. Consider differences between daily activities and pictoral setting.

Of course, these are only a few of the many possible ways you can over-analyze the pictures. But I really believe that analyzing Facebook pictures will become a more frequent activity in the future…especially among potential employers.
What do you think?

Irony, an example:
Talking to person x: “I hate it when Person Y talks about people behind their back. It’s so rude and I don’t know why he does it…”
Does this sound familiar? I think it does…

At my mailbox this afternoon, I saw a nurse who was smoking a cigarette.
I thought, “Shouldn’t you know better than to do this?” It seems like after seeing a few cases of emphysema, you’d say, “I don’t think I want that.”