The world coming to an end?

I have had some seriously weird dreams the last two nights. The other night, I dreamt I quit my degree, joined the Marines (the U.S. Marines, specifically, which is odd since I'm neither a U.S. citizen nor do I live there), and shipped myself off to Iraq. This after almost quitting training from it being too hard, but getting all determined and dedicated (see every clichéd army movie in the history of Hollywood). By the end of the movie, there I was, M82A1 sniper rifle in hand, aboard a troop transport to go shoot insurgents. Keep in mind, I'm about as anti-war, anti-military as you can get, and this is just plain odd.

Last night, I dreamt that city after city was being levelled by some mysterious force that nobody could explain. Everything would be fine, then all of a sudden, all the tallest buildings would spontaneously collapse. Earthquake? Terrorism? Nobody knew. Then, sure enough, the city I was in got hit. I could see row after row of building go down, and knew mine was coming (I was in a skyscraper and the collapsing ones were getting closer and closer to mine). I grabbed my brother who was inexplicably there, and we fled to the basement, where there was a series of interconnected tunnels (basically like The Path in Toronto, for anyone familiar with that). We heard buildings all around us collapse, but we made it out alive, and got to the waterfront, met up with a bunch of people fleeing the destruction, and were then attacked by (I shit you not) Optimus Prime and Voltron, who I guess were evil, and possibly the cause of the destruction. Very weird. Also, at some point, a group of us refugees were asked if we were circumcised. Perhaps our rescuers were the Jewish U.N. or something?

Weird weird weird!

"Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real."

-Tupac Shakur

Why I judge you for using bad grammar

"The language denotes the man. A coarse or refined character finds its expression naturally in a coarse or refined phraseology."

-Bovee

This is an opinion article I wrote for my university newspaper, Student Direct.

The English language is under siege. It is under siege not from a hostile invader or a devious interloper, but rather from sloth and a lack of care. But the result is the same: the detriment and dissolution of a once-proud establishment is evident; the war of attrition is beginning to take its toll.

The first salvo was the spelling checker. A brilliant idea, when used to augment one’s spelling ability, the spell checker has devolved into a crutch. This can be shown in two ways. We all know someone who relies on the spell checker, and its younger sibling, the auto-corrector, because they no longer truly know how to spell. But the effects of this go much deeper. More and more, people fail to understand the difference between “their” and “they’re”, between “your” are “you’re”. Even wholly disconnected words have begun to be interchangeable. On far too many messageboards and facebook walls have I seen people who cannot differentiate the words “lose” and “loose” despite their wildly different meanings.

The strongest weapon in this epic battle, however, came in the form of small messages, both SMS text messages and instant messenger clients such as MSN. A new shorthand arose, especially in the case of SMS, where a 160-character hard limit enforced a decided sense of brevity. “You’re” and “your” became not only interchangeable, but reduced to “ur”, “are” became “r” and so forth.

The real damage did not come, however, until this shorthand extended its tendrils into mainstream society. With a short message, the brevity I described is understandable, and even I cannot decry its use. But when that vile shorthand begins to appear in emails, letters and (as has become increasingly common) submitted essays in school, a serious blow has been dealt to the English language. Combined with a general decay in attention to grammar and spelling, eventual capitulation often seems inevitable.

So, why does this matter? After all, language is fluid and dynamic; the English we speak now varies dramatically from that spoken by Shakespeare and his cohort. Slang and idiomatic expressions have long shaped the face of any language and always will. We incorporate new words both into the common tongue and into our official bastion of the language, The Oxford English Dictionary. Is this not simply another evolution of the same process? I don’t think it is, and I believe this for a number of reasons.

The first is the motivation behind this shift, and the speed at which is has occurred. These changes have been inspired by laziness and imprecision, not by an organic evolutionary process. They have entered the language quickly, leaving older generations often unawares and leaving little time for a truly cohesive set of language to coalesce.

My biggest qualm, however, is that these words are neither new nor more-descriptive. In fact, they achieve quite the contrary: when you confuse “you’re” with “your” by shortening them all into “ur”, you lose (not loose) variety in the language. The context may differentiate the meaning, but the flavour of the language has gone. Language is a tool. Like any craftsman, a writer hones his art through the application of a tool, and imperfections and dullness in that tool results in an inferior end product. One would never expect a carver to work with a dull knife, yet people are increasingly writing with dulled and rusty linguistics.

It’s not a minor point that in Orwell’s 1984, Newspeak, the pride of Oceania, is hailed for its perpetually-shrinking vocabulary. That the language gets smaller every year is seen by the misguided souls who push it as a benefit. In the mock-Communist world of the novel, that lack of flavour is representative of a world under the thumb of tyranny. The meaning is there, but everything that makes a language unique and colourful has been stripped away. In such a world, Shakespeare would not write “that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”, he would instead simply state “I don’t care who your family is”. The meaning remains, but the joy and depth of the phrase is forever lost.

This war rages all around us, and will do so for the foreseeable future. It does so on badly-spelt YouTube pages, it does so in hastily-checked emails. The warriors are not active participants, but merely those too lazy to care. And for this, I judge them. Because if you choose to not expend the necessary effort to craft your words with care, you help the denigration of a mellifluous tongue. You don’t need to be a linguistic perfectionist, but if you know not whether you routinely lose your keys or loose them, I will forever feel scorn towards your indifference.

"Now, we must all fear evil men. But there is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men."

- The Boondock Saints

Feminism and Gender Equality in the 21st Century

"Does feminist mean 'large unpleasant person who'll shout at you' or 'someone who believes women are human beings'? To me it's the latter, so I sign up."

-Margaret Atwood

I recently read a very well-written and incisive blog posting written by a woman I met through debating. Though I commented on it on her blog, I wanted to expand somewhat on what I'd written, because the post adeptly elucidates much of what I've felt for some time, and does so from a position of someone with a vested interest, lending it even greater credence. The post details the concept of feminism and why the author considers herself not to be a feminist. This is something with which I have to concur. I think the concept of feminism, as commonly held and espoused by the majority who claim to preach its doctrines, is flawed. Now before my friend Liz whacks me with a 2x4, let me explain...

Let me be clear-I am by no stretch anti-female. I don't think women are inferior, I don't think they should be subjugated, oppressed or controlled. Further, I don't write off many of the concepts of feminist theory; I just think that, as a whole, the idea has been skewed by people who have taken it off the rails into ill-defined and often blithely shallow territory. So perhaps it's better to say that I take issue with what feminism has commonly come to be construed as, as well as those who claim to be shining examples of its doctrines.

I agree with the cited blog post insofar as I think that one of the greatest problems is a lack of definitive clarity as to what feminism actually means. And here I think the first kinks begin to show in the armour. Because many people would tell you it relates to equality of opportunity. This means that a man and woman, of equal qualifications and skills, should be paid the same. To me, this isn't feminism, this is humanity and common sense. So, is it an opinion that women are intrinsically superior? There are certainly those who hold that viewpoint, but I think the question is trite, primarily because superiority is itself ill-defined-superior in what sense? So what about the notion that men and women are totally identical in every potential, and it is societal influences that mould us into disparate creatures? I deny this notion-first of all, there are physical differences; men are not (by and large) bigger due to diet and gym regimes. We are bigger because testosterone grows muscle better. Similarly, I firmly believe that men and women have different intellectual and emotional strengths; I don't see anything wrong with this. So, many of the most commonly-held views of what it means to be a feminist are views with which I either disagree or agree insofar as I feel the issue is self-evident and requires no such "-ism" label. I'm not a "masculist" because I think men should have the chance to be paid as well as women; I shouldn't have to be a "feminist" to believe the reverse is true.

My second issue with most people's view on feminism is that it is a zero-sum game. A zero sum game is one in which, for one side to "win", the other must "lose". For example, sports are a zero-sum game: if one team rises in the rankings, another has fallen. Stocks, however, are an example of something that isn't. Just because Apple's stock rises, doesn't means Microsoft's falls. In fact, it's theoretically possible, through the magic of economics, for every stock in existence to rise in a given trading day. In terms of feminism, I feel many people view the issue as a zero-sum game: if you are pro-woman, it must mean you're anti-man. This is just wrong, and it this thinking that leads people to automatically equate "feminist" with "man-hater". It is simple fact that one can support women's rights without impinging on men's. But the inherent assumption behind many feminists is that you must push men down in order to be able to elevate women. All this does is galvanise both sides into a black-and-white idealogical debate that need not take place. It is similar to movements such as the Black Panther movement in the 1960s that preached black supremacy; rather than striving for integration and the elimination of barriers, all this does is energise your opposition.

The biggest issue I take with the allegedly-feminist views I've heard espoused, however, is that there is only one way to be feminist, and only one line of thought leading to that standard; that many groups have wildly disparate views of what that one way is is evidence of the very fallacy of the concept. There are those who will say that a woman should not use her looks to her advantage; there are those who preach conformity to male ideals (as evidenced in the shoulder-pad suits so prominent in the 80s and 90s). There are those who feel that every instance of the word "man" should be replaced with "person" (chairman to chairperson, congressman to congressperson and so forth). There are those who feel that men and women are fundamentally identical and therefore every position should be held by 50% women (I'll get to this ridiculous assertion in a minute, as I feel it's deleterious enough to merit its own paragraph). In a realistic, pragmatic world, there is no singular way to do anything, much less define one's identity. A perfect example of this arises in one of my favourite television shows, The West Wing. At one point Sam, one of the lead male roles, makes the comment "you'd make a good dog break his leash" to Ainsley, a recurring female lead who is both skilled and very physically attractive (and dressed in a very fetching backless ball gown at the time the comment was made). A female coworker takes offense at his "sexist" remark-she feels that Sam is degrading Ainsley by complementing her on her sexuality in lieu of her skills as a lawyer or her intelligence and general aptitudes. I disagree. I don't think that being physically attractive takes away from one's skill or power in other areas, nor do I feel that it automatically makes one an empty shell. This is the consensus that many of the other characters reach in that specific episode, but I feel that many feminists would still take offense. My point here is that neither side is automatically right. There are arguments to be made that emphasising one's sexuality decreases one's power and control or automatically makes it impossible for one to escape being merely "eye candy"; similarly, there are arguments that say one should use any and all tools at one's disposal and that complimenting a woman (or a man for that matter) on their sexuality in no way implies that you value them less as an intelligent human being.

"What's the point in feminism if I can't shave my legs when I damn well want to?"

-S. Camus

Now, the matter of quotas. As I mentioned above, there is often a push amongst feminist groups to eliminate the gender split in the workforce, either in terms of wages, or in terms of the number of people who make up that role (that is to say, every job should employ 50% women, 50% men). The disparity is especially prevalent in certain fields, notably computer science and engineering. In many cases, schools are actively trying to recruit female students into these programs. In some cases (I read an article to this effect ages ago, which sadly I cannot locate), there is a stated goal of having 50% enrollment. I think this misses the point entirely. Assuming that, just because the overall ratio of women-men is 50-50 implies that any given degree or job (much less every degree or job) should match that ratio is foolish, and is a shining example of feminism gone awry. Men and women do think differently, they have different strengths and weaknesses, and different avenues of study and employment appeal to them. A simple example is highly-physical labour (firemen, construction workers etc.). Men are physically larger and stronger than women, and I see no harm in there being more firemen than firewomen. In academics, if a particular field appeals more to one gender, so be it; this happens for both genders-some programs (notably biological sciences, psychology, veterinary science and many of the fine arts) are absolutely dominated by women and yet I feel no urge to cry foul that these degrees are discriminating against men; I realise they are degrees which are simply of a greater magnetism to women, for varied and perhaps unknown reasons. What we must do is ensure there are no artificial barriers to entry to these jobs or degrees. When it comes to women in engineering and computer science, this means making sure there's no harassment of women, either overt or subtle, that there isn't a residual "old boys' club" mentality, and so forth. Unfortunately, if you're a politician it's easier to point to a number and say "50%! Success!" than it is to to a thorough audit of any lingering sexism in a system as broad as a university or workplace. And politicians will take the easy and more-publicly-visible way out whenever they can.

Similarly, an assertion that every woman should make the same as every man is ludicrous. Unluckily for women (or lucky if you think kids aren't a giant pain in the ass), women have been saddled by nature as the ones who bear children. This means that a woman who chooses to raise a family must take time off work. But what people fail to realise is that a year off work actually sets one back by well over a year: the lost training, missing out on technological advances in one's line of work, and simply forgetting some of what you've done mean that a year's diversion mid-career puts one further back in one's career than it would seem. Put another way, someone with five uninterrupted years of experience will be much better-trained and much more capable than someone who has worked every other year for the past decade, taking the alternate years completely off of training and employment. The solution to this, of course, is to enshrine the concept of paternal leave, allowing men to share the burden of child-rearing early-on, and to allow women to continue training where possible while on maternity leave. But to compare a man and a woman in the same position, each with an apparent 10 years of experience, and then point to their disparate salaries as automatically implying sexism is disingenuous. Because if in that time, the woman took a year off for each of two kids, her career has probably been set back by the equivalent of three years. Blind equality is misleading; what's needed is a true evaluation of the equivalency of two employees' potential, and salaries commensurate to that.

This leads me to what I think we need in place of feminism: a total equality of opportunity. In every case, whether it be a job application or a university education, everyone who applies, regardless of gender, race, or any other characteristic, should be presented with the same chances to excel or fail based on their individual merits. Those who are the best candidates should be admitted and prosper; those who are ill-suited should (and will) fall by the wayside. This should be held true in our hearts and enshrined in the annals of law and in academia and corporations the world over. This isn't an easy thing to achieve-distorted views, adversarial sentiments and old-fashioned sexism are often hard to detect, even within oneself. But I think that modern feminism in many ways is counter-productive. By trying to force a supremacy of women, by espousing views that are easily seen by the masses as "man hating", and by trying to pigeonhole women into any one of a number of wildly disparate "right ways to do things", you exacerbate the situation. People put their guards up, and become instantly recalcitrant to engage in the matter to a meaningful degree. You cannot reason with someone whose shackles are nor, nor with someone who feels attacked and denigrated.

So if not feminism, what is this? I think it's simply: humanism. You don't have to feel women are superior in order to feel they should have equality of opportunity. That's just human decency. You don't need to believe men and women are identical in every biological way to believe that the salaries of two people who are truly equivalent should be same, no matter what; you just need common sense. And you don't need an antiquated affirmative-action quota or ratio system to ensure that every role in the world is filled by 50% women; you just have to make sure that it settles at the natural, equilibrium level, that there is nothing preventing hopeful candidates. It's not feminism, it's humanism.

"Women: their rights, and nothing less; Men: their rights, and nothing more."

-Susan B. Anthony

50 Things To Do Before You Leave University

Following along with the theme of my last post (39 Ways To Live Your Life in An Airy-Fairy World), I'd like to respond to another such article, this one from New Scientist: 50 Things To Do Before You Leave University. This one bugged me less than the rest, so it's more of a personal checklist, along with my own rambling thoughts.

1. Spend At Least One Week Researching Your Career (kinda done). I've certainly looked into various prospects over the years, though haven't ever given the concerted effort they suggest.
2. Send Off A Job Application (done). Thanks to co-op, I have done this many, many times.
3. Work On Your CV (done). Again, have done this a lot, and I actually feel I'm quite adept at it now.
4. Hand In Assignment A Week Early (done). I've done this, but it didn't feel great; the only reason I handed in an assignment very early was because there were like 10 more waiting to be done.
5. Visit Every Library On Campus (kinda done). I've been to the three main libraries here at Manchester. I never use hard-copy journal articles though-everything's online now.
6. Star In A Play (not done). My acting ability falls somewhere in-between "shrub" and "dead shrub". There has never been a play desperate enough to cast me as the lead. Although, when I was 5, I do believe I played some role in the kindergarden production of Little Red Riding Hood, because every kid in class has to do so.
7. Attend A Career Fair (done). In my experience, these are good for free stuff, bad for actual career-hunting. I was told at a career fair (sponsored in part by the University of Guelph) "we didn't know Guelph hab engineering" and "we only hire engineers from Waterloo".
8. Attend A History Lecture (done). I'll do you one better, I took a 3rd-year history course (Celtic Ireland and Britain to 1066), loved it and got an 81%. I only wish I'd had more time in undergrad to do things unrelated to my field.
9. Do Something Stupid For Charity. (done). I know I sat on a giant teeter-totter (made out of a telephone pole) for awhile, and I'm fairly certain I ran across campus in my underwear at least once.
10. Fall Madly In Love (done). It is both a learning experience and a character-building one. Heartbreak is no fun, but whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, right?
11. Pull Pints (done). Only briefly, this past Christmas, thanks to Jon and his amazingly kind and generous family.
12. Take A Course Or Alternative Module (done). I took the History course mentioned above, an English course (which sucked) and two economics courses (which were boring, but I got a 90% and 100% so yay for me). I considered minoring in economics, but it was just too boring to dedicate the time to.
13. Try Out For The University Challenge Team (not done). I had a pretty good knowledge of obscure trivia, but a sadly-lacking knowledge of British-oriented trivia. Cricket? Football? Old prime ministers? BBC sitcoms? No thanks.
14. Argue With An Arts Student (done A LOT). This is always fun. I debate, so dig arguing. And arts students have some plain old wacky ideas. It's also a challenge to debate with someone lacking basic logic (I kid, I kid).
15. Join A Society (done). Debating, Jiu-Jitsu, SafeWalk, Fencing, etc.
16. Consider Never Leaving (done). I've been in some form of school for 22 years, almost uninterrupted.
17. Vote (done). I think student politics is usually just a big circle-jerk, but I've voted once or twice (generally to vote against candidates, but that's neither here nor there). I've also voted in provincial and federal elections, because they actually matter.
18. Attend A Protest (not done). Here's the weird thing: the more activist people around me are, the less inclined am I to want to get involved. I actually get pissed off, and they tend to push me the other way. And I've attended two very activist universities, so I've become pretty apathetic.
19. Hug A Professor (done). Done because they say getting to know one counts. And there have been a few who have really inspired me-notably Jack Wiener and Shawki Areibi.
20. Discover A Local Band (not done). In fairness, a majority of local bands suck.
21. Get Some Work Experience (done). Again, thanks to co-op, I've worked a number of contract positions. Not in the area I hoep to go into eventually, but so be it.
22. Speak At A Debate (done). Let's see... I was secretary then president of the debate society back home, and have been communications officer for two years running here. I've debated for over ten years counting high school debating, and have made it to the quarter-finals of the European Championship. I think I can safely check this one off the list.
23. Teach Science To Kids (not done). I almost worked for the Guelph engineering school's summer science camp once, but was too late in applying. Besides, kids are scary.
24. Take Your Parents To The Pub (done). Did this last year when they came to visit.
25. Write A Blog (done). You're reading it right now. Actually, I suspect nobody is reading it, but if you are seeing these words, I'm wrong.
    
26. Try A Job-Shadow (not done). Probably would've been a good idea, though.
27. Wear You Pyjamas To A Lecture (not done). This was common-place at Guelph (even for people who took the bus into campus), and it always bugged me. I don't think it's asking too much to ask you to put on some freaking pants before you turn up. This isn't black-tie, but throw on a pair of trousers, dammit!
28. Flip Burgers (done). Dairy Queen, the summer after first year. It sucked.
29. Buy A Suit (done). A nice charcoal-grey pinstripe number. The jacket shrunk in the rain once, but then I lost weight, so it fits nicely again. Pants had to be altered, though.
30. Visit The Careers Office (done). In my experience, the careers office is singularly unhelpful. Your mileage may vary, but my guess is that some of the most useless people you'll ever meet work there. Needless to say, one visit was all I did.
    
31. Become Excessively Pretentious (done). See #22 (debating) for details.
32. Organise Something (kinda done). I helped organise World On A Plate for my hall in undergrad, and have helped organise various debates and other events. Never spearheaded anything, though.
33. Throw A Dinner Party (kinda done). Do barbecues count?
34. Volunteer (done). Only a little bit, for things like the engineering Speed River Cleanup.
35. Be A Culture Volunteer (done). I've been to a few museums and art galleries, though I really should see some more.
36. Join A Sports Team (kinda done). I played one game of volleyball for the Watson Hall team.
37. Start A Business (not done). Lots of ideas, no real follow-through.
38. Live Out (done). Halls are great at first, but I am so glad to be in my own place instead.
39. Make 100 Friends (done). I might have to stretch the definition slightly, but I think I can do it. Certainly my facebook list is well over 100 if that counts.
40. Buy A Piece Of University Clothing (done). I have a U of Guelph polo shirt and hoodie. Nothing from Manchester, yet, though I do have T-Shirts from Harvard and Oxford (where I have never studied).
41. Go To The Zoo (not done). Haven't been since I was a kid.
42. Subscribe To A Magazine (done). Maxim, in my first year. Not exactly erudite social commentary and news, but entertaining. And with a much higher boobs-to-depressing-war-story ratio.
    
43. Collect £50 In Loose Change (not done). I hate change. A lot. I try to keep as little of it as possible.
44. Take A Sandwich Year (kinda done). With co-op, I had work terms in-between study terms. But none of the work terms were a full year long-8 months was the longest.
45. Go To A Fancy-Dress Ball (kinda done). I've been to a fancy-dress party, but not a ball. Note for non-Brits: fancy-dress=costume party.
46. Brighten Up Your Department (done). I threw some plastic flowers that were going to be discarded into a wine bottle. I'm counting it.
47. Find Religion (not done). I have some interesting view on spirituality and divinity, but nothing that could be called a religion.
48. Find A Job (done). Again, co-op.
49. Give Up Drinking (not done). Beer: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.
50. Open Your Mind (done). I think I'm open to a wide range of ideas and concepts.

So what's my total? Counting "kinda done" as one-half, that puts me at 34.5 out of 50 (or a pathetic 69%). Anyone else want to weigh in with their ranking?

39 ways to live your life in an airy-fairy fantasy world

I just read an article called "39 Ways to Live, and Not Merely Exist" by someone named Leo Babauta, and while it seems on the surface to be life-affirming and generally good, it bothered me more and more as I read it. Not because some of the suggestions aren't good, but because many of them are airy-fairy, hippie nonsense that is great, unless you live in the real world. Furthermore, they assert a single ideal when it comes to what one "should do"; an ideal I feel is clichéd and lacking in both flexibility and understanding. So, consider this a point-by-point rebuttal and critique.

1. Love. OK, a good start. Being able to love, and doing so wherever possible, is great. I also agree that this love can be for family or close friends, as well as romantic love.
2. Get outside. Again, broadly speaking a good idea. Nature is good, and balancing one's indoor time with outdoor time is a good thing, by and large. I'd wait until it's nice, though. Rain, sleet etc. suck and do not engender an appreciation for the outdoors.
3. Savor food. Food is great, but I've always taken offense to the idea that it must be consumed slowly and with excessive deliberation to be enjoyed. A fine dark chocolate truffle should be, yes. But a plate full of chicken wings deserves to be devoured as the velociraptors of yore devoured their hot-and-spicy chicken wings: quickly and messily. That is a pleasure in and of itself.
4. Create a morning ritual. Morning sucks. It's tiring and mean. Coffee also sucks, but I understand that's a minority view. Either way, talking to myself and meditating will never make morning suck any less. It's to be gotten over with. Period. (mom, please stop reading this point NOW). Morning sex is good though, and can improve an otherwise-crappy time.
5. Take chances. Spot on, something I've written about before.
6. Follow excitement. OK, this is the first one that's nice in principle, but simply not realistic. Eventually, you have to actually get stuff done. Excitement is great but mundane tasks exist for a reason. You can't live your entire life on safari. It just doesn't happen.
7. Find your passion. Yeah, this one's good too. It's on my to-do list.
8. Get out of your cubicle. Good God, I hope I don't spend my career in a cubicle. But if I do, so be it. There's more to life than work, and if working in a cubicle gives me access to the things I want in life, that's a reasonable trade-off.
9. Turn off the TV. There is some good stuff on TV, there really is. There is eye-opening, informative programming, there is uplifting, entertaining programming, and there is quality programming that's great for just turning your brain off for a limited period of time. There is, of course, a giant mountain of crap as well, and too much TV is bad. But to paint all of television with the same brush is simplistic and disingenuous.
10. Pull away from the internet. First off, this guy really thinks his article is the only good thing on the 'net? Second of all, kiss my ass. There's a lot of good stuff on the net, too, and you only learn to sift the good from the bad through patience and experience.
11. Travel. Travel is great, and most people love doing it and should do so to the extent they can. But become a freelancer, checking your email weekly? FANTASY LAND! Some jobs require physical presence, and they often pay enough for you to be able to afford to, you know, travel. Airplanes aren't free. Also, if you do travel, I'd highly recommend straying outside the most-touristy areas. The Eiffel Tower is fun and all, but there's more to France than that.
    
12. Rediscover what's important. If you can reduce your life to a list of 4 or 5 keys things, you're a cloistered Buddhist monk and aren't reading this blog posting.
13. Eliminate everything else. See above.
14. Exercise. Yes, but do it because being a lard-ass is nasty. I was too fat for too much of my life. I've exercised extensively and regularly for two years now and I still hate just about every minute of it. So exercise, but do it to be healthier-up to 95% of American adults are overweight or obese. Be in the good 5%.
15. Be positive. Yeah, because bottling up your negativity never has consequences! Look, life isn't always great-sometimes a little negativity is warranted. Just don't let it rule you.
16. Open your heart. Tough thing to do, but worth it.
17. Kiss in the rain. Passion is good, but anything can become routine. The key is to let the inner romantic have his moment when it's spontaneous and natural, not all the time. Also, don't pick wildflowers, pick a potato!
18. Face your fears. Yup, good advice, and again, something I've written about before.
19. When you suffer, suffer. This kind of contradicts his #15, but aligns nicely with my critique thereof.
20. Slow down. No. The slower you go, the less you can do. And don't give me that "you enjoy it more" or "take time to stop and smell the roses" garbage. There's stuff to be done. Lots of it. The world, it turns out, is quite large. You want to travel? Hang out with friends? Watch the good TV shows? You gotta cram that into the 16 hours a day you're awake. And anyone who walks slowly on a sidewalk, obstructing those of us with better places to be deserves being pushed in front of a bus.
21. Touch humanity. I don't need to talk to a smelly homeless dude to know his life sucks, I get it. Getting out of your comfort zone is a great experience, but to blithely say that everyone needs to experiences destitution first-hand is trite. Furthermore, you can cram your simplistic Buddhism-101 anti-materialism up your ass; how dare you tell me how to enjoy my life? I should feel guilty because I actually like the idea of watching movies (a pastime I do enjoy) on a 72" screen with 7.2 digital surround sound? Just because you can find enjoyment without material things doesn't mean there's anything intrinsically wrong with enjoying pastimes predicated on material possessions. Everyone likes different things and no one person can be the arbiter of what anyone else should like.
22. Volunteer. Volunteering is good, but there are many ways to do it. The sick and dying are depressing and often icky. Not my cup of tea.
23. Play with children. Yeah, just hang outside playgrounds and ask the wee kiddies to come play with you, I don't see how that could go wrong. Also, kids might be entertaining in small doses, but they're frustrating and draining on an ongoing basis.
24. Talk to old people. Again, a broad statement. Some old people are interesting and have great stories. But many are senile, forgetful and incontinent. Either way, most of the elderly are at least a little bit creepy.
25. Learn new skills. I agree with this one, but try not to lose the old skills, eh?
26. Find spirituality. This, to me, is another classic example of assuming everyone is the same. Spirituality can be a great thing for some, but it's not for everyone. Some of us actually prefer proof and demonstrable, tangible credibility in the things in which we choose to believe.
27. Take mini-retirements. Another fantasy-land invention. Every year you take off of work sets your career back by 18-24 months. Therefore, if you take your "mini-retirements" regularly, you'll just stall your career and once again, be unable to afford travel. And that whole "sell your house, live simply" crap? Yeah, selling a house takes like 2-12 months easily, depending on the market. And having shelter is a good thing. Living in tents 7 days a week gets old after awhile.
28. Do nothing. Good advice, doing absolutely nothing every once and awhile is great for recharging the batteries. Although, again, he's contradicting his anti-TV statements here, he's agreeing with my opinion, so good for him.
29. Stop playing video games. Again, the arrogance of telling me what I should and should not enjoy! I personally find moderated video game play to be an intellectual stimulant and a relaxing experience. I guess that makes me a slovenly wastrel. Oh no, wait, it makes him a dick for judging me.
30. Watch sunsets, daily. First of all, overly-sappy and romantic. Second of all, some of us live in Manchester, where the "sun" is a myth at most. Finally, while I do love a good sunset, daily is a little overkill-it becomes a waste of time, and ruins the romance by converting it into standard routine.
31. Stop reading magazines. Again, not all magazines are bad. Certainly, very few are as bad as the trashy romance novels he suggests as an alternative. Magazines run the gamut from vacuous celebrity-gossip to insightful political analysis, and to blacklist them as a hole is to cut yourself off from one of the most astute views of the society in which you live.
32. Break out from ruts. I agree with this one, though he once again contradicts himself (by saying you should change the morning routine he suggested you establish way back in #4).
33. Stop watching the news. Just because something is depressing, doesn't mean you have the right to be ignorant. The knowledge of the world around you can be vital in defining your place in the world, and knowing the day's events can lend you a depth and breadth of understanding that solely getting tidbits from your mother can never bring.
34. Laugh until you cry. Laughing is great, and releases endorphins. But rolling on the ground laughing just makes me want to kick you in the ribs to see how funny you find that. I'm guessing, not very.
35. Lose control. I'd modify this slightly and say exhibit control, but accept the limits. You can never control anyone else completely, and your self-control will forever be tested. Further, I agree that it's good to let go sometimes (beer helps with this).
36. Cry. In Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey, he says "It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man." I think that speaks for itself.
37. Make an awesome dessert. Amend that statement to "Make or buy an awesome dessert" and you've got my vote. Personally, I like to go for the most chocolatey substance I can lay hands on, but to each their own.
38. Try something new, every week. Good advice, albeit a little impractical.
39. Be in the moment. Don't overplan, but a failure to plan simply results in you getting blindsided by something you should be able to deal with adequately. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. People often make the mistake of assuming that planning for something makes you inflexible; this is wrong-it simply gives you a framework in which to operate. Furthermore, while unanticipated problems will always surface, so will concerns you should be able to anticipate for, and these can (and should) be mitigated.

I don't think the article is bad per se. I just thinks it's naive and simplistic. I don't think it's fair to paint everyone with the same brush, something I feel the author does quite a bit. There are some great bits of advice there, but they must be tempered with a dose of pragmatism. Put another way, idealism is wonderful, but should never compromise realism.