Room to breathe
At last, I’ve finished high school for good. No more uniform, no more bells ringing periodically. Except of course for the fact I want to become a teacher. There are so many things I’ve been waiting to do, and now my exams are all over, I can finally get on with it.
I want to become more fluent in German, because I have neglected it since I went to Germany almost a year ago. I want to get started on learning Japanese because I have a conditional at Edinburgh Uni to study it. To be honest, I don’t think I did well enough in my exams to get in, but it’s better to be optimistic. I think it’s important to keep your self-esteem no matter what happens.
Speaking of self-esteem, I was watching a documentary about Vaginoplasty today. I felt incredibly sorry for some of the women on it. One girl had been verbally torn apart by some men in a club because of the way her labia looked. How petty and ridiculous is that? As if it wasn’t bad enough the way people are treated based on their breasts or their tummies, now the aesthetics of the vagina is a problem. One plastic surgery had seen a 300% increase in labia reductions; many of the patients were only around 16 years old.
Well of course we know what this is going to be blamed on. Porn. This is an excuse. Yes of course porn shows an unrealistic perfection in people’s bodies. But can’t we see through this and realise that porn is just a fantasy? You wouldn’t watch a film about human flight and then jump off a cliff. No, we need to be more realistic. Porn isn’t to blame, our society is.
We ourselves perpetuate this behaviour. We try too hard to emulate what is clearly impossible and then that kind of standard is passed on. The taboos of sex and body image need to be forgotten, and we need to become more comfortable with ourselves.
It just makes me so sad and disgusted when people would rather change their own body rather than the way they see themselves. If your boy/girlfriend doesn’t like the way you look, well then, what on earth are you doing with them? Another part of the documentary showed young Muslim women going for hymen reconstruction because on their wedding nights, if their hymen wasn’t intact, they could be punished, even killed because it would mean they were not a virgin. This is happening right here in the UK. Apart from the fact that you can break your hymen from activities such as horseriding, what’s the big deal with losing your virginity before marriage anyway? Virginity is a meaningless word. Having sex makes you no less of a person, it doesn’t change anything. People still seem to think it’s some kind of dark magical act that will make you impure and evil.
Our society is in desperate need of reform.
“The Perfect Vagina” can be watched here.
Why I am an atheist
There are many reasons why I am an atheist. Mainly these are not philosophical reasons, because I feel that I don’t know enough to make decent arguments. This might lead you to think that perhaps I should be agnostic and not straight-out atheist. However, I do have my reasons. Firstly, I should explain the word atheist. An atheist is simply someone who does not believe in God. This is pretty obvious. My dad once told me that it is impossible to be an atheist because not believing in God is a belief in itself, but he usually doesn’t make much sense anyway. If you look up the word ‘theism’ it says “The morbid condition resulting from the excessive use of tea.” I don’t think this is entirely correct because many atheists also drink tea.
Belief is greatly affected by the way you are brought up. This stands for all religions, including atheism. This is probably a big barrier to proper philosophical debates since many people tend to stick to their guns no matter what anyone else says to them. As a child, my mother often told me that my father’s theist beliefs were wrong and that I shouldn’t believe anything he told me. As a result, I was probably quite rude towards him and his friends. However, children brought up as theists are often the same. They are taught that God exists and that’s all there is to it, and it is probably not very fair on the child.
Not only is it very difficult for me to accept a religion that is accepted purely on the basis of being told it’s just so by your parents, (don’t worry, I’ll get philosophical soon) but there is so much trouble caused by being part of a religion. Look at everything that religion has done. The Ku Klux Klan are christian. Modern-day terrorists are muslim. The fights between protestants and catholics. And in Sikhism, if the first born child is a girl, the mother is blamed and the child can be killed, completely ignoring the fact that a child’s gender is all down to the father’s sperm. Must be a really reliable religion. You’ve probably heard of the Westboro baptist church. They’re the ones who protest publicly that the world is doomed because we’re all gay. They go to people’s funerals and protest saying that they deserved to die. I found a blog called shelleytherepublican.com that says that pokemon and wifi are evil and has a long list of the things and people on ‘God’s hitlist’. These lists include Barack Obama (which they spell ‘Osama’), animal rights people, Germans, Linux users, college professors, poets, starbucks, and vegetarians.
Many christians, muslims and so on will tell you that the people who commit hate crimes and do all these terrible things are not true followers of their religion. That’s all very well, until they try and convince you that their book, be it the bible or the Qu’ran is perfect. Well in that case, how is it possible to twist the ideas in that supposedly perfect book? Does that not show that it cannot have been written by God? The omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God should be able to make a work that cannot be twisted to suit someone’s terrible ideals. I’m sorry, bible bashing is so very fun.
Let’s get away from actual religion and focus more on the actual belief of God. It’s all very well to make arguments about the existence of God, but then a lot of people will jump to the christian God. No. That doesn’t work. You can say that there was a first cause, but why does that have to be God, and not only that, but the ridiculous God of the bible and Qu’ran. Did you know, in Genesis, God creates light before he creates stars. I’m sorry, I’m not very good at science, but I’m pretty sure the sun is a star. Or am I missing something? Oh yeah, sorry, God can do what he likes.
Anyway, I’ve completely rambled in this essay and I think I should stop now. I’m sorry that it’s not what I’ll need to write for the exam and it’s probably a bit irrelevant.
In conclusion, I am an atheist because there is too much wrong with religion for me to accept it.
Loud and proud!
“The next time anyone tells you that only losers masturbate, or that they don’t, and never would, bear this in mind: according to most studies and surveys, about 95% of adults have masturbated or continue to do so. Were many falsehoods and misconceptions about masturbation true, it would mean that 95 out of every 100 people would be blind, infertile, drooling psychopaths with hair on their palms and shrunken genitals.” – scarleteen
Despite the fact that nearly everyone does it, there are still many people who are uncomfortable and embarrassed about their own natural urges. Not to mention those who think that it’s wrong or say it goes against their religion! In the mid 20th century, only half of all men asked owned up to masturbating and far fewer women did. It’s a lot less taboo now, but many of us still have preconceptions and old-fashioned views when it comes to playing with ourselves.
Well girls and boys, today we’re going to have a bit of sex education! It’s important to learn as much as you can about sex, even if you don’t plan on having sex or having a partner in the near future. The ‘Sexperts’ at Scarleteen have possibly the most comprehensive guides to all things kinky all in one place, alongside a message board and book recommendations.
According to Heather Corinna of Scarleteen, one of the most important things for your sexual self is to choose yourself as your first partner.
“We hear a whole lot about who should be our first partner. Most of the time, we’re told it should be someone we love and who loves us back, someone committed to us long-term, perhaps even someone we plan to spend the rest of our lives with. I agree completely, because you, all by yourself, have all of those qualities, more than any other person ever can.”
So why is it so important to do anything for your sexuality when it doesn’t involve another person? Sex is all about reproduction, right? Furthering the species and all that.
No way. Not only is that absolutely no fun whatsoever, but masturbation has a lot of health benefits, physical and mental. Don’t believe me? Let’s have a look at what masturbation can do for you.
Firstly, it’s exercise! If you do it rigorously enough, you can be burning well over 100 calories every 20 minutes. And feel that heart pumping! Your circulatory system will thank you.
Regular ejaculation has been proven to decrease prostate cancer in men, and orgasming releases endorphins, making you feel less stressed and sad, and giving you an overall feeling of wellness. Now isn’t that wonderful? It can also cure a headache or any other achey feeling.
Not only that, but by keeping an eye on your down-belows, you’ll be able to detect any health problems you might not have noticed without having a good feel down there.
Furthermore, it helps you discover what you like. You can explore and experiment as much as you like without the pressure of needing to perform for someone else. Then when you’ve found out what makes you go ‘WOW’, you’ll be able to tell your future partner so that both of you can have as much fun as possible.
Finally, even if you are religious, there is no proof that masturbation is evil or wrong. Upon further research, I discovered a page for Christian masturbators. Now you have no excuse!
So, my dears, what’s stopping you? Oh, you don’t know how to do it? Don’t worry, it’s really quite simple. Just do whatever feels best. And if you really don’t know, there are plenty of guides on the internet! Just be careful what you’re clicking on…
Anyway, masturbation can do wonders for everyone. Be proud, loud and not too embarrassed to admit to your hot masturbation skills. I think you’ll find you’re not alone. If you still need more convincing, I really do recommend Scarleteen, guys and girls alike. Sex ed, self-esteem, pregnancy, relationships, everything.
Right, I’ll be back after I get off to some hot gay porn.
Into the rhythm
I still can’t believe I spent the whole of July in Germany.
Shy little me, never before travelled beyond the shores of the UK.
It wasn’t even a holiday. Now it’s all behind me, and all I have is experience and memories. That’s the most valuable thing you can ever gain, even though some things weren’t quite as positive as I would have been comfortable with. And my goodness, is it stressful speaking a foreign language constantly for a whole month! Trying to be articulate enough to be understood is difficult, but then you have to be social with the other people, some of whom were from countries I had never even heard of. I’ve never talked so much in my whole life, which is strangely ironic, given the fact that my German was not exactly the best in the whole group.
To be quite honest, I don’t think I’ll even keep up with the people from my group much longer. I added all the people I met on Facebook, but I was only very close to about four people. I resolved to be talkative and friendly, but I guess old habits die hard. There was a clear gap between my little group of friends and the loud, typical bunch.
I don’t want to go into too much detail, I’ll discuss things more in detail in other posts, when they become relevant. Of use to a certain theme, you could say.
Something I want to make clear is that when you do something that has a big effect, it builds the foundation or helps structure you. What you bring into conversation, how you see things, your opinions. Everything is effected most by the things that make you uncomfortable or take you out of what you’re used to. Do you remember what happened last Thursday? Probably not. It hasn’t had a big effect on you, and only helps scrape the spare cement off. (But if you’re a procrastinator like me, it didn’t even do that much.)
We all need something to remember. We all need something to look forward to. When you are just stagnating in daily routine, life seems pointless. Anticipate something. Even if it’s just giving yourself a little reward at the end of the week or trying something scary, or making a new friend. Trust me.
I’m building.
In other news, the LHC has a final official start-up date! 10th of September and the (I assume) lovely physicists at CERN will flick the switch to perhaps discovering something incredible- world changing even. I’m looking forward to it.
The Guardian newspaper online has collected quite a few interesting things about it-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/cern
Tschüss!
Amour
Now this is an interesting subject, isn’t it? A lot of the time, it seems to cause more trouble than good. But that can easily change, just by the way you look at it. Of course, there are always going to be people that you simply can’t get along with, maybe they are so problematic that you can’t fix anything. But most of the time, there are things you can consider to make your relationships work better.
I think that love is one of the most important parts of life. It’s close to impossible trying to live alone. I wouldn’t say I’m a very social person at all, but my life would truly suck without people to love.
If you’ve been reading any of my previous posts, you might have tried to learn to love yourself. This is important before even considering loving anyone else. If you don’t know what you want; don’t understand yourself, your needs and bad points, you won’t be able to handle a meaningful relationship.
A lot of people are not going to agree with me on this, but I think that it is possible to love just about anyone. That’s right. Just about anyone. It does make sense. You love your family even though you had no choice in the matter. It doesn’t matter what sort of personality they have, you love them all the same. That’s because you care about them. It’s a human thing. Therefore, this can extend into your relationships with anyone.
It’s true that if you get to know someone too well, you can get bored of them, but that can easily be combated by changing yourself every so often. Of course, your partner has to do this too. People change their personality a bit roughly every seven years, but if you get too comfortable with someone, you might not undertake this change. This is why it is important to retain yourself when you get into a relationship. Too many stop caring about themselves once they think they have the person for them.
You stop looking after yourself when you have no one to impress.
You cannot neglect people like this. Keep your life different and exciting and trust me, life will be great, your partner and yourself will not become predictable. Love is something that anyone can feel for anyone else, given the right circumstances. That’s the most important thing.
Well, that’s my opinion anyway!
