The meaning of life

Helen's thoughts

Today in my Philosophy class we discussed the meaning of life, brought up by me. All of us have probably thought about it at some point in our life, maybe we're still pondering now. But I thought "Why not bring it up in my philosophy class?" since I've never had a philosophy class before, and I knew it'd be fun to discuss it with my professor, Allen Costell. He's one hell of a guy. It was kind of scary to really think about it though. Most people don't bring up meaning of life as a discussion because it's kind of an unwritten rule that it's sort of something you figure out on your own. Also, what if you don't like the conclusion to your meaning of life? What if it's all pointless? It's a really depressing thought.

For our discussion, we brought up ideas that people have about the meaning of life. What is it? Most people brought up "pursuit of happiness", "work/live", "social/relationships/love". I brought up "preparation for the afterlife". (You can tell I'm really proud of myself for bring up these "edgy" things, right? Lol)
Throughout our discussion, I've noticed that there's really 2 meanings of life that our class seems to have focused on: pursuit of happiness, and preparation for afterlife. It seems we all agreed that so long as we're alive, we should be happy while doing so. But Costell pointed no matter how happy we are in this life, if we're all going to die and cease to exist, none of the happiness seems to really matter. That's how I see a lot of things sometimes, and why sometimes I avoid parties. Because no matter how great time I had at the party, the fact that it'll always end really depresses me. Now I either don't go to parties, or I try to stay low at the party. There are of course exceptions to this, especially depending on the people I'm with, but I'm sort of a glass-half-empty person. Anyway, I digress.

Costell then told us that because the thought that everything ceases after death is rather depressing, the preparation for afterlife has a great amount of appeal to people, and seems to make sense. Preparing for the afterlife makes this life seem more bearable, and more worthwhile. We then kinda got into discussion about what kind of afterlife to believe in: the Western afterlife (based loosely on Christianity, heaven/hell, etc) or the Easter afterlife (based loosely on Hinduism, Nirvana, reincarnation,etc). Most of my class argued more from the point that there's no afterlife, but you can still live happy lives, knowing that it'll end. Carpe diem, basically. I pointed out that you can live both happy lives, at the same time prepping for the afterlife. For example, Christians are promised a fulfilling life that would pave their way to an even better afterlife, and I think that struck a chord with some of my classmates that might not have thought of it.

What I thought was really interesting though, was discussing Pascal's Wager. Basically, a philosopher named Pascal made a case for believing in God. Basically, there's 4 outcomes for whether or not you believe in Him, and whether or not He exists:
1) You believed in God and He exists: heaven for you! Eternal youth, riches, gates and roads paved with gold!
2) You didn't believe in God, and He exists: fire and brimstone for you! Eternal torture!
3) You believed in God, and He doesn't exist: Nothing. You cease to exist. There's no afterlife. There's no more "you".
4)You didn't believe in God, and He doesn't exist: Nothing. You cease to exist. There's no afterlife. There's no more "you".
Given these 4 outcomes, it only makes sense to believe God, because if He does exist, you have everything to gain. It's like preparing for the worst case scenario.
It makes sense to me, and I actually do this without knowing what it was called to begin with. But Costell pointed out that there are flaws to this argument as well. Firstly, who says it's gotta be God? It could be Zeus, for all we know (at which point we began joking about how Thor would smite us for believing in the wrong god, lol). Another point was that if you believed in God and lived in the Christian lifestyle that's actually outlined in the Bible--which is actually pretty harsh and tough, btw--but God doesn't exist, then you've wasted all your life pursuing an end that does not exist. I pointed out though that if that was the case, since you cease to exist anyway, you wouldn't know that you wasted your life. Costell agreed and joked "But that's such a cosmic injustice!"

I'm really glad I brought up this discussion in my class. We actually had a really meaningful discussion, and it actually reaffirmed my belief in Pascal's Wage (that I should believe in God because I have everything to gain if He does exist. Doesn't mean I'm a "good" Christian by any means, just that I should continue to try.)


 Anyway, my dear readers: what do you think is the meaning of life?

Numb

Helen's thoughts

Lately, I feel kinda numb. I'm gonna be honest: I think it was set off when Google AdSense decided to deactivate my account for "invalid click activity". When I tried to appeal it, they just brushed me off and said that they have to protect their investors' interest, and saying anymore about the subject would leak trade secrets, or something like that.
So we basically got screwed out of $80. And I can't apply for Google AdSense again. Ever. It really fucking sucks because after browsing the internet for a bit, I've found Google AdSense to be the best monetizing program. I mean, it's built into Blogger, FFS.
Alex has volunteered to create an AdSense account under his name, so I might look into that. At first I thought we'd have to switch blogs too, but maybe we won't, since it seems as if I can sign into different AdSense, so hopefully that'll work out. (Basically, this blog is made under my email account, and my AdSense account was associated with my email account, so I thought my AdSense and Blog had to be from the same Google account, but I've realized that it doesn't have to be the same, so yay!)
Besides that, I've just been kinda bummed out, for absolutely no reason. At least, I can't really think of one. Maybe this Winter Blues thing is getting to me already.
School's been kind of a drag, but at least I'm getting by. My school has this really awesome club called "Justice League of USF", which is just a fancier name for "Comic book club". I'm going tonight to enjoy free pizzas and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movies (they're playing 2 of them in 1 night!)

 Hopefully it's good? I've never been a big TMNT fan, but hopefully I'll enjoy it.
Saturday I'm dressing in lolita to my school! My school's having open campus this Saturday for high school students. I'll be there in lolita to promote the Comic Book club :] I'll post pics sometime, hopefully.
It'd be really awesome if one of the high schoolers is interested in lolita, or a lolita herself!

overdue update

Helen's side
O man, it's been a while since Alex or I made any updates. Sorry about that :c Ever since Alex got his new laptop and I bought Left 4 Dead 2 for him, we've been playing it every chance we get, lol. Btw, did you guys notice that Left 4 Dead 2 was on sale for only $10 on Halloween?! I bought it for my friend Katherine too so she can play it with us :D I've also been really caught up with some projects. I finished 2 for this week, so I've been busy the previous week trying to finish it.

So I guess this post will be mostly about Left 4 Dead 2, lol. O btw if you have Steam and play Left 4 Dead 2 as well, I'd love to add you! My steam is elenoaaonele :] I've only recently gotten more comfortable with the campaigns, and I'm looking to explore the other game modes such as Survival and Realism and Mutations soon. I'm getting a little bored of campaigns D: I dl'd some fan-made campaigns recently though. They look like fun!

Maybe I should write a blog post about Left 4 Dead 2 sometime, and why I like it so much, haha. But for right now, I need some zzz's, and zombies :]

Cute with Chris: Chris recites T-PAIN

Not much to write, but this video always makes me laugh lol.
I don't usually like to watch Youtube Videos, but this guy's cynicism and sarcastic ways of putting everything makes me laugh SO hard.
Here's another one:

Mac vs Pc

Alex's thoughts

This is not a which one is better post.  We all know that the mac system is better just not as well supported by gamers and what not. But in recent years that is changing as the Mac OS grows in popularity.

I have been a Mac person all my life.  My dad bought a power mac back in the 90's and that was the first computer I used.  Then in high school I started using the Mac Pro with its huge tower and awesome power.  When I started college I got my first laptop: a Mac Book.  That laptop lasted 4 years.  A few months ago my Mac broke.  I needed a new laptop and I couldn't afford the very expensive Macs so I was stuck with a PC.  Now I own a new Samsung with windows 7.  It takes a bit of getting used to.  It helps that Windows started to copy Mac so some of the stuff is similar but I still got to learn all over again.  I kinda like it though.  It is like an adventure.  What does this menu do?  What happens when I do that?  How long until my comp crashes for no reason?  Don't get me wrong I do like the look and feel of my new computer and Windows 7 really isn't that bad, it just takes some getting used to.  Like the other day I was playing L4D2 and I didn't know how to flip through windows and had to ask Helen. It did kinda hurt though, having to ask how to work my own computer. I am sure Helen enjoyed that to no end. :) (Helen: I'm not that much of a sadist :P) I have so many little things to learn and it is hard to clean up your computer and hard drive.  I can't seem to find everything that I want and I just get the feeling that things are just floating around somewhere on my computer and I have only had it for a week. :p

Starting fresh has its advantages. But at the same time it is nice to stick with what you know.

5 things Helen Loves

LOOKIT HOW HAPPY WE ARE!

1) Alex. Hurrr that was a great mystery wasn't it?

yummy and nutritious!

2) Food. It's just so essential to our survival, as well as being so pleasurable! Though sometimes I feel deceived by food...D:

Cool grafiti

3) Freedom. I dunno about you guys, but I'm really glad I don't live in like the Middle East where my religious beliefs could get me stoned. I'm glad to be in the USA where I can be my own woman.

greatest movie so far. Evar.

4) Good movies. Srsly. What else could entertain me and keep me occupied?

:D

5) Left 4 Dead series: OMG DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED