OddballGreg - The Price Of Life

Coins. Words. Paper. The irony is that this may be one of the most apt headers I've made, and that's just because the topic has a vague scope.

Life has costs. From the soda you might be drinking right now, to the electricity running your device, to the time you're spending reading these words. Everything has a price. Lets talk about that.

Have you ever taken a moment to consider the price you pay to live? Sure you've sat down and thought, "Darn, Coke is expensive." or some similarly phrased sentence with a different subject. Whatever it may be, you understood that for that item or service, there is a price that you have to pay to enjoy it.

The question is, have you ever considered that such a statement exists for everything in life. No matter what you do, how you do it, or who you do it with, there is a price. Writing this blog post costed me time and energy that I will never get back. Your reading of this post is doing the same. Charity costs effort. Crime costs innocence. The world is in an unending flux of give and take, and the only guarantee is that nothing will stay the same.

As I said in a particularly sage moment with a friend, not wishing to do something that might not have any useful long term rewards is not laziness. It's acceptance of the price of life. That every action bears weight, meaning, and a personal price. That every action bears a toll on our life that will be collected, no matter how. We pay for stability with our freedom. We pay for strength of spirit with our ability to feel for the world. Everything has a price.

To sum it all up, think of your life, those finite 70 years of life expectancy that you might not even get to have, as a wallet full of money. Every moment you spend doing nothing, or every deed, good or otherwise, requires you to pay from that wallet. If you knew that the money in your wallet was the only money you would ever have, what would you spend it on? Similarly, if this short life is the only one you have, how shall you spend it? If you wouldn't pay an exorbitant price for a sub-grade meal, why would you spend a large amount of your life doing something you don't even care about?

The most successful people are those that know how to effectively plan their finances, or at least are careful enough to manage them in a self-rewarding way. So take a moment to consider if what you're spending your life on is truly worth it's price. You might find that it's time... for some change. (I'm sorry.) 

Hopefully, this has made you think about the things you're doing with your life. Perhaps you've realized something that builds upon this whole concept, or simply wish to tell me to stop being so preachy. If so, do be sure to let us know down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter. We here at TCSA love to hear your feedback.. And of course, if you enjoy finding out about awesome stuff on the web and world then do please be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts as they're published. Also, do be sure to share posts you enjoyed with your friends as it helps us out a great deal. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Spend your lives well my friends.

OddballGreg - The Hacker Mentality

Nothing says "Hacker" like a wall of green hued binary code right? Unless of course you subscribe to the digital era understanding of the term which is essentially: "an inventor".

Have you ever imagined yourself as an inventor? Perhaps you dreamed about making fantastic new machines or writing amazing new programs when you were a child. Either way, these days you would not have been referred to as an aspirant inventor, but rather as a "Hacker". (Provided you're asking someone born in the digital era.)

Right about now, depending on your age or how informed you are about the internet and cultural going-ons of it's inhabitants, your brain may be ringing various alarm bells about the negative stigma surrounding the term "Hacker". Whether you subscribe to the digital-era's take on what it means to be a "Hacker" or not is irrelevant to this stigma, as it's still commonly understood that a "Hacker", whatever he may doing, has certain motivations which are contrary to the laws of society. What am I referring to? The belief of Hackers that break into banking systems to steal money, or into government files to steal information. Perhaps they're even vandals, destroying data or defacing websites.

Whatever the dogma, you need to understand, (for the purposes of this article), that a Hacker isn't necessarily a bad person. Sure you get those wayward individuals seeking personal gain regardless of those it impacts, but in the digital era, "Hacker" has come to stand as a term for people who look for ways to improve things or do them better. As Ymir Vigfusson said in his Ted Talk at TEDxReykjavik, he teaches students to hack for the benefit of society, with the hope that his teachings will instill a moral compass into his students that will help them to use their skills to the benefit of society, rather than its detriment. There is risk involved in doing so, but also the potential for great gains. (I heavily paraphrased that, sorry.)

Those great gains come from "The Hacker Mentality" as Pablos Holman referred to it in his Ted Talk at TEDxMidwest wherein he talked about how one of the reasons he taught people about Hacking was because of the mentality it caused in people. He put it, simply, as "Don't ask what it can do, but what can I make it do?" It's a frame of thought that makes for fantastic inventors, scientists and programmers because it frees you from thinking along pre-programmed lines. 

Most of us pick up our phones and use them to talk to people, to remember dates and take pictures. Functions that have been made and done thousands of time which we usually take for granted as the extent of the phones capabilities. Yet some people use their phones to run commercial servers remotely via command line prompts, to gather information from people using Wi-fi nearby (kind've dodgy, but it's been done), or to even use it as a remote point of access into a network that they shouldn't be accessing. (Definitely dodgy.) These smartphones are miniaturized computers which contain the processing power that the whole of NASA used to send the APOLLO space mission to the moon in the 1960's. (And yet we take selfies with them.)

So with so much power at our literal fingertips, whats to stop us from doing equally impressive things if we simply stop to ask "What can I make this do?", instead of "What does it do?" Various things perhaps, a specific lack of technical expertise for some surely. But the beauty of this mentality, is that like the word "Hacker", it needn't apply to computers specifically. Machines and their various parts can be re-purposed in a great variety of ways if one thinks about it carefully. So the next time you see some nifty piece of tech, consider what it can be made to do.

If you which to add something of your own to the argument for/against "Hacking", or simply want to share some great story of how this "Hacker Mentality" changed your perspective on the machines around you, do be sure to let us know down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter. We here at TCSA love to hear your feedback. And of course, if you enjoy finding out about awesome stuff on the web and world then do please be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts as they're published. Also, do be sure to share posts you enjoyed with your friends as it helps us out a great deal. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Happy hacking my friends.

OddballGreg - The Need To Believe

A black shirt with "Believe" written across the back. Stylish no?

Have you ever had a truly difficult day? A day where it seemed like the whole world was against you and there was nothing anybody could do to help? How did you get through that day? There are many answers to that question, but if you say "You don't know.", I worry for you.

Life is a difficult and traumatic experience for all of us as I have mentioned various times on this blog. But it is also these very challenges that define who we are and what we will become; which makes them an integral part of our journey through life.

But what about those days when the challenges become too much. When the strength of opposition threatens to engulf your will to stand against it, and you can simply weather the storm no longer? Some people turn to a deity of their respective faith. Whatever your faith though, I believe that it is a necessary thing to have something to believe in. (And it needn't necessarily be a religious deity. Just in case any atheists are reading this.)

Imagine a life devoid completely of hope. Where nothing could ever be guaranteed. It's a pretty abysmal world where even hard work and the sweat of your brow could not get you what you wanted. But if someone could guarantee something to you somehow, how greatly would that change that world? How happy would you be as your deity told you that your labor would be rewarded or that your good behavior would earn you a place in eternal paradise? Or for those less focused on theism, perhaps a promise from a lord to reimburse you for your works, or even, a personal guarantee to yourself that you will always be there for you. (That last one is a very interesting one that I maintain myself.) In a world where there is a guarantee, even a false one, there is hope for better times and a reason to keep working and to keep surviving. Quite simply, without believe, it is impossible to truly substantiate meaning into our lives and actions.

While I cannot say which is exactly the best thing to believe in, I do believe that it is important to understand what it is that you believe in, and why it motivates you to live your life, as it makes for happier, more ambitious people.

 Of course, not everyone may agree that ambition is necessarily a good thing, and perhaps you think that there is something significantly more important than belief in our lives that we should know about. If so, do be sure to let us know down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter. We here at TCSA love to hear your feedback. And of course, if you enjoy finding out about awesome stuff on the web and world then do please be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts as they're published. Also, do be sure to share posts you enjoyed with your friends as it helps us out a great deal. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Think carefully my friends.

OddballGreg - The Necessity Of Contrast

Black and white are the most common contrasts you'll hear about. Ironically they just serve as the basis of the metaphor.

In a world filled with so many doubts, one might wonder why it is precisely that our world is so precariously based upon choice and options rather than definitive fact. Why can we die? Why do we live? Why is there dark and what is light? The answer is a strangely apt one: Contrast.

The other day, an interesting question cropped up from one of my friends on Facebook, in which he asked: "If the speed of light is c, what is the speed of dark?" While his reason for defining the speed of light as "c" remains unbeknownst to me, I had, of course, learned some interesting things about the way the universe works from my ever-mentioned favorite YouTube channel for all things Science or otherwise; Vsauce. 

The video I referenced is below, but essentially, I made the argument that "C < Dark". Which is to say, Dark is faster than the speed of light. Why? Consider for a moment that light moves at the speed of light, while dark is simply present wherever light is not. Switch off a flashlight in a dark room and the change of illumination is not gradual, but rather instantaneous as dark fills the room at a speed faster than we can perceive with our naked eye.

The reason for this is not that dark is faster than light per se, more a technicality in that it appears to fill space faster than light according to our perception of the situation. What is in fact happening is that once the light source is removed, there is simply nothing left to perceive and so we see darkness. Essentially, darkness is a lack of information, which is interesting since physics dictates that information cannot move faster than light; and light is technically information in the form of moving photons refracting off of surfaces and molecules to produce colours. So what happens when you switch your flashlight off is that you are simply eradicating the presence of information, and darkness fills the information-less zone that was lit up.

But, why then, you may ask, does darkness exist? Shouldn't everything be information, including the darkness itself? While that would be an interesting paradigm, it would be an unrealistic one. Consider the act of swimming. In order to do so, you need to in something that provides you with the buoyancy needed to move like that. A medium, much like the paints and canvas of an artist. Well, in similar vein, darkness is the medium in which light becomes apparent to us.

Which brings us to the axiom of this article's subject. The Necessity of Contrast.  Without a contrasting medium, something cannot be perceived due to it's lack of comparison. (Veritably incomprehensible, at least to the human mind.) Think about anything. Life, Air, Children, Fire, Evil... all of these things have a definable contrast which allows us to define them. Life and Death, Air and Space, Children and Adults, Fire and Ice, Good and Evil. These things all have some definable contrast that allows us to subject them to comparison and comprehension. They are each other's mediums against which they can be shown to the world.

Imagine a world without Evil: could any act be defined as good? Not really. Without a comparison, those acts would simply be acts, devoid of moral definition. A world without Death would be a world without life, and without Adults, children would simply be people, as we could not define them as anything else. Existence itself is not only based on contrast, but justified by it. We live, to die, and there is death so that we can live. People are cruel so that others can be kind, and fire burns so that ice can freeze. (Though those last two technically have more than a single contrast if you're into the whole earthly elements paradigm.)

In any case, I'm sure that this article has given you a very interesting new perspective on the world, or at least made you want to yell at me about your counterargument. If so, do be sure to let us know down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter. We here at TCSA love to hear your feedback. And of course, if you enjoy finding out about awesome stuff on the web and world then do please be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts as they're published. Also, do be sure to share posts you enjoyed with your friends as it helps us out a great deal. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Think carefully my friends.

OddballGreg - Why Do We Like Scary Things?

Ah, what a beautiful... thing... Just in case you weren't having enough nightmares lately.

In continuation of the Halloween special and it's appropriately themed topics, I thought it might be interesting to discuss a more thoughtful and perhaps philosophical topic relevant to Halloween. Which is to say, why is it that humans like scary things?

We've all seen it, or heard of it, or experienced it. Horror. We watch movies filled with gory death and frightening supernatural beings; we play games that subject us to terrifying experiences in the name of fun and we read and listen to terrifying stories of ghosts and demons because that's fun too. Anyone else wonder why on earth that would be fun? In a world so full of traumatic occurrences and horrific accidents... and not so accidents, why are people so happy to subject themselves to these fearful experiences?

In Michael Stevens' video which discusses relatively the same subject as this topic: "Why are we morbidly curious?", he points out many interesting points about human psychology which can be attributed to as the cause for our morbid curiosity and, moreover, why it is that we like scary things.

Perhaps most notably, (in my opinion at least), he points out that humans seek out these frightening and occasionally harrowing experiences because there is comfort in knowing. A very common historical trope in human history is the fear of the unknown, with supposed witches and inexplicable natural phenomena being feared simply because the general human populace didn't understand them or what they may or may not be doing. Consider a baby born with a tail for example. While this is a now documented medical phenomenon, people of the past had no idea of genetics or mutations, and could only chalk such an incident up to magic and the supernatural.

Of course, assumptions like that tend to lead to more questions.
"It's supernatural? What caused it? A demon. Satan himself? Will my children also be born with tails if they stay near. Will this child try to kill us as soon as it's old enough to try?"
Brutal and disgusting as such a thought process sounds, the human mind takes comfort in patterns. Anything that doesn't fall into the pattern of friend or foe, is typically frightening because you don't know if it's going to shake you hand, or eat your face. So naturally, the next step was:
"It's too risky... Kill it."

So what does this have to do with liking scary things? Simply, by exposing ourselves to these harrowing stories and nightmare inducing movies and games, we bring some comfort to ourselves by feeling that we know just a little more about what's out there. That if we had to see Slenderman outside our window, or a red skinned and horned creature in our living room, we would better know how to deal with such an occurrence.

However, in perhaps a more interesting take on the idea as pointed out again by Michael Stevens in his video, is the idea that by subjecting ourselves to these horrors and becoming familiar with the darker aspects of life and death, we come to better accept the terms upon which we are born. Essentially, this is an expansion of the idea in his video from Caitlin Doughty's book "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, and other lessons from the crematory." in which she says: "Accepting death does not mean you will be any less devastated when someone dies. It means that you will be able to focus on your grief, unburdened by larger existential questions like 'Why do people die?' and 'Why is this happening to me?'. Death isn't happening to you. Death is happening to us all."

By playing these horror game, and listening to these ghost stories, watching these movies and in general just subjecting ourselves to these horrors, we come to better terms with the fragility of life, ours included, and are able to change how we live our lives, according to what we believe the lesson behind such fragility may be. For some, it is a motivator to experience all that life has to offer, given how very finite said life is, and how easily stolen it can be. Our enjoyment of horrors and by extension of his relevance to the topic, our curiosity for the morbid, essentially boils down to every humans' quest for knowledge, survival and meaning, as we hope that these experiences will help us better know about the world we live in, better survive it, and perhaps most importantly, understand why we're bothering in the first place.

In my article about The Challenges That Define Us, I pointed out that what people do, and who they are, is determined by what they experience, and how they succeed or fail to do within those experiences. It could be conjectured that our search for meaning in the horror and terror does more than simply comfort us and expose us to the world, but helps us to find ourselves and decide who we are. A punching bag against which we learn whether we prefer swift jabs or powerful swings, or a textbook that we can peruse or ignore as we will, in the search for the information that helps us know what we need or want to know so that we can act accordingly. Horror and scary things are, essentially, a learning experience.

And with that, I leave you to ponder what next you will learn this Halloween. If you have anything you would like to add, or simply liked the article, do please let us here at TCSA know down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter. We do so love to hear from you. If you have any friends who enjoy horror or perhaps like to contemplate the reasons behind people's actions, consider sharing this post with them as I am sure that they will find it interesting. Of course, if you yourself would like to read more interesting articles such as this, consider liking the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or following us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts, as they're published. Regardless of what you do, I thank you having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Happy scares my friends.

OddballGreg - The Snowball Effect

Snowballs. Aren't these just the best? Especially when they roll down mountains and cause avalanches. That's also fun.

The snowball effect is a fairly well known effect in which small initial circumstances quickly grow into larger and potentially more voracious occurrence which can have a larger impact on whatever it affects. This effect can be taken in a great many ways, not limited to the literal, metaphorical or philosophical. Let's talk about that.

Snow. It's great fun to play in snow. Having lived in, (and never left), South Africa all my life, I have only seen snow twice. 2012 and 2013, both years of which, the South African weather took a turn for the abnormal and gave many, including myself, a taste of what winter is like in the northern hemisphere. Of course, what's more fun than snow, is snowballs. Especially since, apart from their very literal fun for throwing, are quite a fantastic source of the so called "Snowball Effect".

The snowball effect is so named after the phenomenon of rolling a snowball down a snowy hill or mountain. As snow tends to grip to itself, the rolling ball quickly gathers additional snow as it rolls, gaining in size and speed exponentially as a result as the growing surface area allows it to gather larger quantities of snow quicker, until it it veritably large enough to cause an avalanche, or at least cause significant impact upon collision.

Of course, humanity, being the keen minded people that we are, quickly decided that the snowball effect, or "snowballing" as it is called by many, was a very apt metaphor for all manner of things in life, ranging from the aeronautical effects of weight reductions or increases. (That is to say, a decrease in the weight of the aircraft would also allow a decrease in wingspan as less lift is required, which means smaller engines can be used. As such, the effective weight reduction is always greater than the initial projection as a result of the additional reductions. This works the same in the opposite as well.)

In not-so-technical applications, the snowball effect can be used to describe a great many interesting things ranging from the gold gathered from a well-played champion's kills making them proceedingly more difficult to kill in League Of Legends, to the way that a small increase in public spending can create more educated masses, which can increase GDP, which again allows for increases in public spending, and so on and so forth.

Philosophically speaking, this is comparable to all kinds of things that affect the way a person lives and leads their lives. Consider what people call "exploding in rage". The act of throwing a tantrum due to some offensive act. Usually, this is not a result of a single offensive act, but more the snowballing of anger and outrage as slight after slight is made against the person, until eventually, it takes one unfortunate individuals poorly positioned placement in front of the snowball to cause a rather tumultuous outburst, often to the detriment of all involved.

In any case, I'm sure you can place this interesting effect into all manner of metaphors in the human life, though for me to continue to do so would do little more good. If you have any interesting uses of the metaphor to share, or simply which to make a comment in general, do be sure to share it down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter as we here at TCSA love to hear from you. Speaking of sharing, if you have any philosophically minded friends, do be sure to share this post with them as I am sure they will appreciate the thought. Of course, if you yourself would like to read more posts like these then do be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to read all the latest posts, as they're published. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for taking the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Safe travels my friends.

OddballGreg - Ted Talks (Thoughtful Discussions)

Image is of Ran Gavrieli during his Ted Talk: "Why I stopped watching porn." I will point out that by "thoughtful discussions", I am implying that while the talks are given to you, they prompt personal contemplation and thought on the subject.

The internet is a wonderful place full of information on topics far and wide if one takes the time to look. As a result of looking, I came across a bountiful range of wisdom and philosophical thoughts in the form of Ted Talks. Talks given at various places around the world, recorded, and placed on the internet. Lets talk about them.

Philosophy and Wisdom. Two topics under which a great many of my near 100 personal blog posts fall. (Or so I hope, delusions of grandeur being what they are.) As a subject of discussion, I find these topics very easy to contemplate and logically discuss with usually minimal research as opposed to my other topics of interest. (Such as operating systems. If you were hoping for that topic today, please give me a day or two to get the facts mostly straight.) 

As such, my discovery of Ted Talks a while back was quite pleasing as their discussions greatly mirrored my interests and grasped my attention in most cases. For those of you unaware, "TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world."

tl:dr, Ted Talks are meaningful talks about almost any topic. Be they social, global, scientific, philosophical, and whatever other subject you might think would be interesting to debate. Of course, with my crazy and rather nerdy personality that loves learning for the sake of learning, the opportunity to listen to these talks on such a vast array of topics is nothing less that exciting for myself, and I enjoy watching each one that is emailed to me, even if the subject isn't quite on par with my typical interests.

Of course, one can only rave so much about something until they start sounding biased and/or bought. (They didn't pay me, I promise.) So allow me to share some of the Ted Talks that I've quite enjoyed since I discovered them, as well as one or two that I recently enjoyed.

Please note the next section discusses sexual behavior and is not entirely suitable for minors. If you're easily offended, or a minor, I suggest you pass over this next paragraph. That said, your actions are your own. You have been warned however, and I do not condone the exposure of minors to anything unsuitable for their age.

Why I stopped watching porn: Ran Gavrieli at TEDxJaffa 2013

The first video was Ran Gavrieli's "Why I stopped watching porn", a video in which he discusses his reasoning behind no longer indulging in what is admittedly, something of a taboo subject. (Admit it, when you read that title, your first reaction was probably that this video is about how it's bad to touch yourself or you'll get hair on your palms. etc.) The point is, sexual behavior is very much stigmatized and people avoid talking about it, even though, shockingly, you are the product of it. What's interesting about Mr Gavrieli's talk is that he takes the argument far further than just the idea of "self" and the effects it has you alone, but points out the greater social impact that the simple act of indulging in porn may have on the world.

While I won't spoil the greater points of the talk, I will say that it is very thought provoking and even stands as my favorite Ted Talk for one simple reason which I am not afraid to state due to the veracity it gives to his topic; since watching his talk, I have not once watched porn of any kind. As such, it stands as my favorite simply because it inspired a fundamental change in my own behavior with nothing more than a thoughtful inspection of the unseen impact of our behavior on the world. Do yourself a favor, watch this video to the end, you may be pleasantly surprised.

(Before you think that it's awfully brave, or silly, of me to blatantly speak about such things on the internet, I will point out that 90% of children between 12 and 18 years of age have access to the internet. While statistics can be skewed, personal experience cannot, and before I was even 13, both myself and the great majority of my peers in primary school, were fully aware of, and had seen, pornographic material. It's a pertinent social issue and one I do not fear talking about when necessary.)

Potentially controversial section over, I commend you for overcoming curiosity if you did decide to skip the section entirely.

The first 20 hours -- how to learn anything: Josh Kaufman at TEDxCSU

Learning. It should come as no surprise that a talk about learning is one that I found very interesting. What I enjoyed, however, from Josh Kaufman's talk is how he not only humorously combined personal experience with greater philosophical thought, but also entertainingly applied the message he was conveying by using it in practice on the stage right before his audience. He effectively shows how easy learning can actually be and how significant time investment is not necessary to becoming "good" at any particular skill.

That aside, extra points for mentioning the Axis of Awesome and their famous 4 cord song.

Why do we ask questions? Michael "Vsauce" Stevens at TEDxVienna

Of course, as a self-respecting YouTube addict and fan of learning, my listing would be incomplete without mentioning that my favorite learning channel Vsauce's very own Michael Stevens, who has been mentioned many times in my posts, did his very own talk about "Why do we ask questions?" As he does in his typical YouTube video, he uses this initial question as a way to discuss many other related idea's in an entertaining and interesting way, much like I try to do myself on the TCSA blog. Certainly worth watching, though I am more than likely biased in this case.

Apart from these 3 talks which are somewhat centered around my own interests, some other interesting talks that I watched recently are Meaghan Ramsey: Why thinking you're ugly is bad for you and Myriam Sidibe: The simple power of hand-washing which both discuss current and important social issues in the world, and ways that they can be addressed. While perhaps not specifically in my own interests, these are good talks as they effectively make their topic interesting despite this. They help you to understand the issue and it's factors while at the same time trying to spur you into helping to curb and solve these issues to make a better world. As such, it's again, worth watching them for interest's sake, if not the cause.

In any case, that is all I really have to share on the case of Ted Talks currently, though they may inspire future discussions with me as time passes. If you have any Ted Talks that you personally find quite thought provoking, or just wish to make a suggestion for a future topic, please consider telling us about it down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter as we here at TCSA love to hear from you. Of course, if you have any friends who you think may be interested in the Ted Talks, consider sharing this post with them as well. I'm sure they will appreciate it. And if you yourself would like to read more interesting posts like this one, consider liking the Official TCSA Facebook page or following us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left, so that you can get all the latest posts, as they're shared. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this article; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Learn on my friends.

OddballGreg - The Human Need For Progress

Debatable that there is no greater symbol of progress for the human race than the first time man stepped foot on another planet.

Progress. In life, humans actively seek progress in order to substantiate their lives, either in progress towards ambitions and goals, or by simply progressing through life itself. What is, however, interesting to note is how important this progress is to the very existence of humanity. Lets talk about that.

Water is frequently used as a metaphor for life. (Probably because it's so important for sustaining life.) When stagnant, it is foul, disease ridden and often filled with decaying matter which is likely to turn any a stomach which has the displeasure of drinking it. Suffice to say, drinking stagnant water is usually a good way to have a disease induced death. Flowing water, on the other hand, is typically free in it's movement, flowing wherever it may. While perhaps not 100% clean at the best of times, the fact that it remains in motion allows it to filter through all manner of rocks and vegetation, often cleaning it of substantial detritus, if not microbial dirt. (Please... at least boil water you get from a natural source before you drink it... Even clean water can probably kill you, which is ironically accurate for this topic.)

Both examples are accurate metaphors for human life in a multitude of ways, and feed back into the human need for progress. Let us take the more literal for example. A sedentary lifestyle, in which a person sits doing nothing all the time, leads to all manner of health issues such as muscle atrophy, obesity, heart issues and various other problems, and that's without even considering the psychological issues which may arise. Basically, it doesn't do a person much good to do thing and make no progress. Your average healthy person on the hand typically does some amount of exercise in their days, either actively or just from the need to move around with their lifestyle, they are continually making progress as they move to different destinations, accomplish goals which progress them towards their life's ambition, and are just all round healthier and happier for what they do. Like the flowing water example, they might not be in perfect happiness or health as things can happen, (like picking up strange diseases from drinking unpurified river water), but they are far less ill and sickly than the stagnant variant.

Clear as day, progress is important. Very important. Interestingly enough, this need for progress in the sustaining of human life is multi-faceted and applies in some interesting and somewhat less obvious ways. Economy, Education, Healthcare, Research, Civilisation as a whole and many other things, are all based upon progress and require it in order continue functioning.

Consider the global economic depression that was suffered by the world back in 2009. While perhaps not as harrowing as "The Great Depression" was for the USA back in the 1900's, it was still a somewhat frightening time for many countries in the world. And part, if not the main reason for it, was the lack of economic growth for an extended period, which ultimately resulted in the world's economies starting to fall in on themselves due to this lack of progress. In terms of this article's argument, the system began to decay due to it's stagnation.

In grander scheme's, consider ancient civilizations such as the Inca's, The Zulu Kingdom, or even the Roman Empire. All 3 of these, among others, came to their untimely demise due to a lack of progress. The Inca's had not progressed enough to defend themselves from the Spanish Conquistadors or to treat themselves of the diseases that they brought. The Zulu Kingdom, though strong and lead by a brilliant military strategist, was met with it's demise due to it's lack of progress towards more effective methods of warfare, as the various colonists vying for Southern Africa brought their European gunpowder weapons to bear against them. The Roman Empire's decline was the result of it's inability to make progress against the growing Gaul and general barbarian populations, as well as the stagnation of it's politics and culture as continual vying for power in the empire fractured it between multiple factions.

I can continue to list examples, but the point, I think, is clear enough, humanity is somewhat rather dependent on progress in order to survive and thrive, where the success of any one man, civilization or the race of the whole, is dependent on it's ability to match progress against it's adversaries, or even nature itself, as without progress, the ultimate result cannot be anything other than slow decay and ultimate death. (Phew.... that's not a somber thought. Listen to this to lighten up.)

This is probably going to change your outlook on how the world works from now on... maybe. If not, it is an interesting thing to consider, and I look forward to hearing any counter-arguments or theories you may have, down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter. Of course, if you have some friends who would enjoy weighing on such a discussion, then perhaps share this article with them as well. I'm sure they will appreciate it. And if you yourself would like to read more interesting and thoughtful posts such as this one, consider liking the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or following us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left. Regardless of what you do, I thank you having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Happy thinking my friends.

OddballGreg - The Meaning Of Our Actions

Doves are a symbol of peace. They're also fairly humorous when they cock their heads back as if they challenging you to say what you said again, brah! (Teehee)

This weekend, I've had the opportunity to spend an absolutely fantastic day with some of the most meaningful people in my life, which unexpectedly, has also lead me to consider just how meaningful the smallest of our actions can be in the lives of those around us. Lets talk about that.

Every action has meaning in our world. While as a statement, that is not a very profound thing to consider, when one explores the true scope of their actions and their possible effects on the world, it becomes truly astounding how much of an impact your seemingly small and perhaps relatively unimportant life may have on the world.

Consider, for a moment, that the world exists with, or without you, and continues to do things as it will regardless of you. While not an empowering statement in itself, it is necessary to understand that the world is always on a path. Things will always be happening. The empowering thing to understand about this, is that you, as a single human, are powerful enough to affect the history of the world, by simply doing nothing.

While doing nothing is hardly unmemorable, consider the fact that world works in what can be compared to waves. Every action has a consequence that is felt infinitely beyond it's initial impact. The dropping of atomic bombs is felt to this day by the "Hibakusha" as they are known in Japan. The destruction of Twin Towers in America is an event that is memorialized every year to this day. Both these events are the results of people's choices to take action in life.

So what has doing nothing done? In my favorite example, there is the remarkable case of Adolf Hitler, the infamous German fuhrer of World War 2, cited as responsible for many atrocities in the world. For you see, Adolf Hitler's life continued as a result of one man's choice to not take action. During World War 1, Hitler was injured in battle and was recovering in a field hospital which was captured by British soldiers. The man who entered the tent came upon the piteously injured Hitler, and decided to do nothing, allowing him to live on and commit the atrocities he became known for later in life. 

Now consider how that man's choice to not take action can potentially be attributed as the cause of World War 2 and it's atrocities. In the same way, your choices at this moment to do nothing have that same amount of power. What might you be doing to the path of mankind's history by the things you do or do not right now? The possibilities are forever endless, and in some cases, even your most seemingly insignificant decisions can change the lives of those you come into contact with.

Yesterday, I had the greatest pleasure of spending my day with a group of the most important people in my life, some of which I have mentioned before for the decision to be my brother in blogging, their penchant greatness as a happy and friendly individual, or their social awesomeness despite their belief in their own social awkwardness. Who I had not mentioned in the past however, was the man who we had gathered together on the day to celebrate his birthday (despite it actually being today, Happy Birthday my friend.)

This great friend of mine was not always such to me you see. When we originally met in the junior years of high school, he found it endlessly amusing to tease and in all technicality bully me to no end. It was not a fun period of my life, and I absolutely hated going to school because of him. Infamously, he is in fact one of 3 people in my entire life that has driven me to violence in an effort to get him to shut the hell up. (Being a very friendly and patient person, that is an extremely difficult thing to manage.)

The interesting thing however, comes in how profoundly affected he was by something I did merely as something I would always do. He had been playing sports of some kind when someone tackled him and severely injured his leg, making it extremely difficult to get around the school, which enjoyed scheduling lessons up and down the various flights of stairs. Despite being injured, the people he was friends with at the time found it funny and simply laughed at him and his plight. To his shock, the last person he ever expected to help him, walked up to him and did just that.

Various factors throughout my childhood resulted in my belief in being a better person in the world, not the least my motto "Be The Miracle". As such, I thought nothing of helping someone who had so badly wronged me. As my fried recounted with awe at his birthday party, he asked why me, the person who he had literally driven to try and injure him, was carrying his bags and helping him get around the school. My answer, if I didn't help him, I would merely be perpetuating this cycle of cruelty, and would rather be the person who helped those around him, instead of having to live looking over my shoulder for any knives that may be coming for my back. I even went to him the next day to see if he needed help again to get around the school.

4 years later from that event, and it still makes me feel amazed at how much those words and actions have influenced my friend, and the respect that has for me as a result. When he tells that story, I can hear how much those actions, and our continued friendship means to him, and it something that continues to fill me with awe and joy to have been such a positive piece of somebodies life. When I sat there in the Jacuzzi with those friends of mine and looked at the respect they held for me when my friend specially mentioned myself for the things we had done together, and even my girlfriend who had joined me that day to continue what had become a tradition for myself to arrive early, and leave late, helping to set up for the party and being there with him to the end. (Though perhaps slightly earlier than the end in this case, since sleeping over was not quite an option when my girlfriend was with me. I don't begrudge that in the least though.) In all honesty, as I sit here and write these words and think about the genuine smiles and congratulations from my friends, I cannot help but feel slightly teary eyed. (It's dust... I'm sure of it! Haha)

So the next time you are sitting thinking that your life may be pointless, just remember the fact that our actions, and even our decision to not take action, can, and does have a profound effect on the world, whether you realize it or not. The things you do today can cause the next world war, change mankind's history, or even change the lives of those around you. You are never powerless.

In any case, that's all I've got for this subject. If you have a story of a way that you had a profound affect on somebody's life, let us know down in the comments below or via Facebook/Twitter as we here at TCSA love to hear from you guys. Of course, your sharing of this post with your friends who may or may not need a motivations boost will likely be appreciated by them, and definitely appreciated by us here at TCSA. Better yet, if you would like to read more posts like this one, then do be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter via the buttons on the bar to the left so that you can get all the latest posts, as they're published. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Live well my friends.

JovialJman - Wisdom and Words ... Again

"Creativity is using the same post but putting the word "again" into it, to sound like it was just you being sassy and not lazy. Teehee" - OddballGreg

Did your friend turn a blind eye to your bare-faced lie after you rubbed them the wrong way or did the jaywalker bust your chops for having sideburns? Words and sayings that we use every day have very unique origins, that are debated among many. Let's talk about that.

When you are doing something (usually wrong) and another person pretends not to see it, they are said to be "turning a blind eye". This saying is said to come from time of war, during one of the battles, the commander of the British fleet attempted to stop Horatio Nelson from continuing the attack on enemy ships, by the use of signal flags, but Nelson rose his telescope to his blind eye and said, "I really do not see the signal." Now if you lie on the other hand, it is easier to spot it if you have no hair on your face, as nothing is concealing small movements. So if a person makes no attempt to conceal a lie they are telling a "barefaced lie."

After trying really, really hard to reach a goal but you fall just short, someone might say, "close but no cigar." At carnivals they used to give cigars out as prizes, so if you almost won at a carnival game but didn't, you came close but got no cigar. Herders use a stick to herd sheep, if they are short of a dog. The waving motion causes the sheep to travel in the opposite direction, but sometimes they have too many sheep to wave the stick at, so when you have more of something that yo need, it is said you have "more then you can wave a stick at."

Don't be a sheep. You won't know if you are many or if you are one.

"Blood is thicker than water" is often referred to as strong family bonds, but the origins might have little to do with family. In the Middle eastern culture, blood rituals symbolized bonds that were a lot stronger than that of family bonds. So when warriors symbolically shared blood on the battlefields, it was believed their bonds were stronger than those of blood brothers. When you are family, however, it can be hard to "rub them the wrong way." This saying comes from colonial America where servants were to wet-rub and dry-rub the wooden floors in their masters house, and if done against the grain it would leave streaks, which annoyed the owners.

Walking across the street at a place that is not designated to walk, is called "Jaywalking." This word came from birds, (naturally), Jay birds that traveled into towns often became confused and are unaware of some of the dangers that the town might have, eg traffic. People began using the term "Jaywalker" to identify someone who walks across the road in a reckless or irresponsible manner. When you get home after seeing a jaywalker, you can "let your hair down." this means to relax after a tiring day. This phrase came into existence because of Parisian nobles. They risked disapproval from their peers if they were found in public without a fancy hairstyle. Many of the styles of the time required a lot of work, so when they came home after a long day it was really relaxing to literally let their hair down.

You must have seen sideburns before and if you are a male over 17, you most probably have had sideburns at least once in your life. This word for facial hair was named after a person, Colonel Ambrose Burnside was well known for his facial hair on the sides, (see picture below). People started calling the hair on the cheeks sideburns and then the term just stuck. Now there were some people who "bust your chops" by giving people a hard time. This phrase started when people punched others in the face for having sideburns, (also know as chops, how rude is that).

"Burnside didn't have much hair on his head, so he grow some on his cheeks." - Theory by JovialJman.

OMG stands for, "oh my gosh/god" and has been used by many a teenage girl around the world, but the person who coined the acronym was the furthest thing from a teenage girl as you can get. Admiral John Arbuthnot "Jacky" Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher of Kilverstone used it first while writing his memories in 1917, (that is a while before the internet don't you think). The exact words he used were, “I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapis—O.M.G. (Oh! My God!)—Shower it on the Admiralty!” Then there is a word that means little girl but is used by boys and men alike. "Boobies" used to mean little girls, the way it is used today might be because bubby (plural boobies) was used by children as a child-talk term for a breast and it evolved from there, (this may have been the same as the name Dick)

When someone is "shitfaced", they are most probably young, but did you know it was a term to describe young people, ie teenagers.  A Scottish dictionary from 1826 defined it as "having a very small face, as a child." Drinking Whiskey could get you "shitfaced" if you don't watch out. Whiskey (or whisky) comes from the Gaelic words "uisge beatha", which means “water of life,” (Scottish people might take their drinking a little bit seriously). Vodka is a bit more potent than whiskey to some (unless you are Russian, the birthplace of Vodka), but it means small water, (yes Russia named it after water, which explains why they drink it as such).

This picture is a tough question

Anyways, did you find any of these words interesting? or are you "shitfaced"?, please let us know down in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter, as we here at TSCA love to hear from you. Thank you for taking the time to read today's post, and if you liked it or would like to see the newest posts as the are published, please like us on Facebook and/or follow us on Twitter, using the associated buttons on the bar to the left. Do you have any friends or people you know who like to drink Whiskey or might need a bit of "chop busting", please share this post with them as I am sure they might get a laugh out of it and will thank you for sharing it. I hope you have/had a really good day, and I shall write again overmorrow.

Cheers and cross the streets safely, jaywalkers.

OddballGreg - A Day Without Internet

Google. The most accurate description of the internet these days... Also Bronies.

Have you ever spent a day, without access to the internet? If you’re over the age of 30, probably, but some for the younger generations these days, the thought of being without internet is a slightly alien idea, and today, was one I experienced, with much strange thoughts as a result.

Yesterday at about 2pm roughly, the internet ceased to function at my house. I don’t know why precisely, as the internet and telephone service providers had no idea either. So there I was, sitting with no internet, no ability to do my usual day to day work, and a rather unsure, niggling feeling in the back of my skull wondering what to do with my day.

For some, the answer would be obvious. Read! Play Videogames! Sleep! (All rather enticing options of course.) Unfortunately, the greater majority of my consciousness insists on at least a partially productive day, and so I spent my day doing housework in preparation for the upcoming weekend. (A truly eventful day to be certain.)

While hardly a startling revelation in itself, this rather strange day of menial labour and disconnectedness left me wondering what it would be like for the world if all of a sudden, the entire internet shut down for a day.

The comic in me likes to think it will be the most productive day in human history, but only because everyone would be trying so hard to get the internet working again. On a more realistic note, one has to wonder just how badly the world would be affected by such a thing. Children would actually have to do their homework instead of googling the answers, researchers would have to actually go to a library, internet trolls would probably be completely unsure what to do with themselves, or would simply go back to irritating people in some other way. (Who can say what they’re going to do at any time.)

While it is unlikely that the internet would ever go down and cause such utter pandemonium on earth, (Likely…), it is strange to think that the internet, this strange construct of interconnected computers, has become such a largely important and often integral part of our lives. Humans appear to be very keen to become dependent on things when it suits them, despite the tragic consequences they may suffer if their addiction ever become unfulfillable.

In any case, I’m done cleaning for now, and at least have been able to post this article but a single day late, which is hardly terrible by any means. If you think it is, or simply wish to add to the list of problems having no internet would cause, then please feel free to let us know down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter as we here at TCSA love to hear from you guys. Of course, feel free to share this with any friends who like to ponder strange possibilities. It might be fun for them. Better yet, if you yourself enjoy posts like these, then consider liking the official TCSA Facebook page and/or following us on Twitter so that you can get all the latest posts, as they’re published. Regardless of what you do, I hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Happy thinking my friends.

JovialJMan - Wisdom and Words

"Because, books equals wisdom! Right?" - OddballGreg

Did you break the ice after you went the whole 9 yards, or did you grab the wrong end of the stick after getting up on the wrong side of the bed? Sayings are an very common part of our lives, and are a very interesting point of debate in terms of their roots. Lets talk about that.

If it is "raining cats and dogs" then you are in for a really strong rain. This saying has many different origins, the most popular being, the one from the 1500's where the houses commonly had thatch roofs and at the time pets weren't really allowed inside of the houses, and so they went into the thatch roofs for warmth. This meant that when it rained quite hard, the animals would slide down out of the that and if a person was looking out the window at the time, it would seem like it was raining cats and dogs. On the other hand, "going cold turkey" means to completely stop something abruptly. This is a reference to the the belief that when a patient was going through drug withdrawal, their skin became translucent and covered in goose bumps, which made it look like a plucked turkey.

To "give someone the cold shoulder" is a rather rude way of telling someone that they are not welcome. The origin on the other hand was a polite way in medieval England to tell people to go home. The host would offer people a cold piece of meat from the shoulder of the animal to let the people know they could go home. Then there is "eating humble pie" which is when you apologize and suffer humiliation with it. The beginnings of this one is from the Middle Ages during which the lords would eat the best cuts of meat and all the entrails and giblets, know as "umble", were given to the person of the lowest status, thus indicating their low status and thereby humiliating them. 

"Going the whole 9 yards" is when you give everything you have, "110%" as they say. In the Second World War, the fighter pilots were given 9 yards of ammunition and if the used it all up, they were said to have "gone the whole 9 yards". Of course, "breaking the ice" with someone is to start conversation or to initiate a friendship. Before planes and trains were around, the best way to trade items over long distances was by ship. During the winter months, these ports were wont to suffer as the big ships would get stuck in the ice around them in which case a smaller ship would often go and break a path through the ice for the larger ship to follow through. This allowed business to once again commence in those ports.

When you "spill the beans", this means that you are telling someone something that should be a secret. In ancient Greece, the way to vote for people entering various organizations, was to place a white bean, (yes or agree), or black bean, (no or disagree), into a container. If someone was to tip over the container with the beans, either by accident or on purpose, and thereby reveal the results of the vote, and essentially "spill the beans" on the confidential result.

Then there is to "sleep tight", in which case you were to have a good night's sleep. In the time of Shakespeare, the mattresses were held to the frame with string. and to make the mattress more firm you had to tighten the strings, thus the term sleep tight came about as the mattress was tightly held to the frame. Now in the morning you could "wake up on the wrong side of the bed." wherein someone has woken up grumpy or is rather unfortunate on that morning, and is thereby in a rather foul mood as a result. Also during Shakespearean times, people believed that things to the left and things that pertained to the left were considered sinister, so the house maids often used to push the bed right up against the wall in guest bedrooms so you had to get up on the right side of the bed to avoid a sinister start to the day. ("Fun fact: the Latin nickname for 'lefty' is 'sinistro' which literally means sinister, strangely meaning that people who were left handed were considered inherently sinister" - OddballGreg)

In any case, did you know about the origins of any of these sayings; or perhaps know of some sayings with interesting origins yourself, please let us know down in the comments below or over Facebook/Twitter. Also, do you have any friends or relatives that enjoy general knowledge or simply like knowing useless facts, if so, please share this with them as I am sure they would appreciate the thought. If you would like to show your support for TCSA and/or see the newest posts as they are published, please like us on Facebook and/or follow us on Twitter. Thank you for taking the time to read today's post, and I hope you have/had a really good day. I shall write again overmorrow.

Sleep tight buddies.

OddballGreg - Hoarding (Keeping What You Don't Need)

A screenshot of the bountiful aid supplies I had "liberated" in a short 5 hour stint of Fallout: New Vegas.

Hoarding. It's a problem people suffer from when their belief of an items possible usefulness in the future overrides it's actual necessity in any likely situation. Some people are good at logically working out what they need, but others occasionally just can't let things go. Let's talk about that.

A couple days ago, a Kotaku article about a YouTube channel called ManyATrueNerd caught my attention when they mentioned that this one, enterprising individual, had taken it upon himself to play the widely acclaimed Fallout 3 and New Vegas games from Bethesda Softworks in what was perhaps the most psychotic, hilarious playthrough of a game I have ever watched. 30 episodes of listening to a British madman "Kill Everything" was quite literally the most most absurd thing I had watched in ages, and I loved every minute of it. (I am OddballGreg after all. It's all in good humor though.) I highly suggest you watch that very humorous playthrough.

In any case, watching him play these old, favorite games of mine made me want to play them again myself, and promptly installed Fallout: New Vegas, only to remember 4 hours in why I had never finished the game in the first place:

Turns out I probably missed the day at school where they explained what "Packing Lightly" meant.

 Hoarding. We've likely all done it in some capacity over the course of our lives, digitally or not. Why is this a problem? Well, in terms of Fallout: New Vegas, a character can only carry so much before they get encumbered, which removes their ability to run or jump and makes them walk slower than a crippled grandmother with a walker. The many times I previously played this game, I spent hours walking at this snails pace with my overly laden pack until frustration made me stop caring.

This time though, I was interested to find out, why exactly, did I keep doing this to myself? What was the source of all this weight in my pack? To people on the outside, the obvious answer would be all the heavy guns and armor I carry around.

While carrying 3 sets of armor and a FREAKING FLAMETHROWER is certainly heavy, they were only a small part of the issue.

For myself, I was somewhat more convinced that my issue came from my incessant need to carry anything that could be made into something else. Crafting materials and whatnot. Strangely, even this pile turned out to be somewhat underwhelming.

You would think that scrap electronics, wrenches, whet stones and scrap metal would be the problem. Apparently not.

However, the revelation was when I finally came to the "Aid" section of my inventory. Healing items, food, water, various fictional drugs that provide bonuses to the game character. Things would expect to be useful. So dropping a couple items, and then a few more, and then another hundred, I quickly realized why it was that I was so frequently overladen in this game.

Listen, I know "Waste Not, Want Not" is a thing, but this is ridiculous. This pile probably weighs more than I do.

That is over 200 units of in game weight of "Aid" items. Considering the fact that the heaviest item I was carrying was metal armor which weighed 15 units, I think it's fair to say that I think I found the problem.

An old habit of mine from many a game has always been to take anything that could be useful or save your life. Healing items are excellent, so is food when you're playing on "Hardcore mode" which requires your character to eat, drink and sleep. But at no point did it ever occur to me that I might be carrying too much food, water, medical supplies and other assorted items. "Surely I'll just naturally go through all this supply?" That would be true if I wasn't such a strategically frugal person. I saved everything I could whenever I could, and the consequence of this is that I just never stopped adding more and more to my characters pack. Perhaps in a humorous moment of disbelief, the total equipment on the floor of that room was likely several times my character's mass and weight, and would probably not have fit into the trunk of car, let alone my character's seemingly depth-less pockets.

It's interesting to consider that this is the same issue that people all over the world have to deal with in a very real capacity. That they simply cannot bear to give up something that could be so very useful, even if they don't actually have a use for it themselves. Even I need to frequently clear old and useless from my desk every so often, limiting myself to keeping only what has been useful in the past year or so, and is not readily or cheaply available. (The rest gets pushed off the edge and into a convenient green bin that I keep nearby.)

Do understand that hoarders are not stupid or silly in any capacity, and like all of us, are the result of their experiences, which makes them into the way they are. I like to keep useful things, because I've known what it is like to not have things when you need them. I've seen the more fortunate throw away perfectly good food and drink for arbitrary reasons, not because they're spoiled, but because they don't understand just how lucky they are to have what they do. Despite this, it is an occasionally unhealthy habit that is good to deal with in what ways one can. Organisation, as I am quickly learning thanks to this blog, far outweigh keeping the "possibly useful" objects I like to have.

While I don't expect this game induced revelation to change much in the world, I do hope that it has at least provided you with something entertaining to read, and interesting to consider. If it has, then please do let me know about it in the comments below or via Facebook/Twitter, as we here at TCSA love to hear your feedback. It would also be greatly appreciated if you share this post with anyone you think may find it interesting, as I am sure they will appreciate the thought as much as we appreciate your support. Of course, if you would like to read more interesting posts like this one, then do be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left, so that you can get the latest posts, as they're made. Regardless of what you do, thank you very much for having taken the time to read this post; I hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Pack lightly my friends.