Material Being of Human Being.

Why must the human being place such importance on material objects? Why do we want things which we don't need?

To answer we must look at the fundamental nature of being human. As Sartre said, "being is the annihilation of past being". Existing as a person means that what is is constantly moving into the past, or non-existence. This means that being human entails that every part of your life which is concrete and definite does not actually exist at all- assuming a non-eternalist framework of time, which I think we can in this purely phenomenological question. The future is unsure, the past is annihilated and the present is an untrappable point. If this is the human situation, it's only rational that we feel a constant need to justify ourselves and to prove to ourselves that our identities persist over time.

Material objects exist in themselves. They persist over time, and do not change unless they are changed. If a person attaches material objects to themselves (figuratively); they have created a part of themselves which exists over time, meaning that this person can also feel as though they persist and are whole and solid. If I have a blanket from when I was a child, this proof of my childhood could justify to myself that I exist in the world in the same way. This can account for why we keep useless trinkets from our lives, so much more solid than the memories they represent, and why we are attracted to the expensive gold and platinum, which never change.

It's also interesting to wonder if this might be in a small way a reason for why we want our faces and bodies to never change. Obviously sexual selection is hugely responsible for this, but it's interesting to think that in some way we feel distress when we see that we have changed because we are losing part of what anchors us into the world. If our minds and our bodies are in constant flux, how can we feel real?

Also see: religion, cultural identity, tradition

The worst thing I ever saw

I can't think of anything to say any more.

Here's a picture of some shit that you might find on the internet:

Procrasti-nation

Make a cup of tea.
Make a cup of soup.
The soup is too thick, pour some of the tea into the soup to thin it down.
Brace yourself... the soup tastes fine, feel proud of achievement.
Check facebook.
Check twitter.
Check facebook again.
Need music to write essay to.
Download discography of Mercury Rev.
Check facebook and twitter again.
Joey Comeau has posted a new asofterworld comic, better read it.
Read old asofterworld comics.
Better check all your other comics, now you're checking comics.
read XKCD
read dinosaur comics
read cyanide and happiness (getting desperate)
read CAD (you never really get this desperate)
read postsecret
Music has finished downloading, try to open the file.
Realise that you still haven't figured out how to use winamp, and media player is broken.
Spend half an hour trying to fix media player.
Listen to a song.
Look the lyrics up online.
Check facebook.
Check twitter.
Open msn.
Oh god people are trying to talk to you, close msn again.
Maybe you should tidy your room.
Clear a person-shaped hole in the mess on your floor.
Lie in it.
This is nice.
It's probably time for a break now.
Go to make some tea.
While you're down there you might as well make some toast.
Toast is boring, how about soup.
No canned soup, better get chopping vegetables.
Soup will take a while to cook, might as well read a book while I wait.
Read half of American psycho.
Eat soup.
Check facebook.
Check twitter.
Realise you never actually made any tea.
Go make some tea, get involved in debate about pornography/education system.
End up in discussion about gorgeous men.
Turns into a discussion about essays.
Oh no, you are supposed to be writing an essay.
Go upstairs.
Check twitter.
Check facebook.
Answer messages on facebook.
Check last.fm.
Wonder why you would ever possibly need to check last.fm anyway.
Oh look, some guy from high school is listening to music, right now.
Open facebook again.
Check your mum's profile.
Check the rest of your family and friends' profiles.
Nothing appears to have changed since the last time you did this. 
Remember some girl from high school who was cool, wonder if she has facebook.
You can't even remember the girl's second name.
Realise that it's really not important to remember her second name anyway.
Realise that you have eaten soup twice whilst writing this essay, wonder exactly how long you have been sitting here.
Oh, quite a long time.
Open OpenOffice.
Right, time to write the title.
Better find the module guide.
Look at the pile of various coloured papers covering your bedroom floor.
Better tidy up a bit if you are ever to find the module guide.
Start folding clothes.
Find a skirt which you haven't seen in ages.
Wonder if it still fits.
Try on the skirt, it looks awesome.
Stare at yourself.
Fringe needs a trim.
Trim fringe.
Hair needs a wash.
Better go have a shower.
Where is your towel?
Better tidy up a bit if you are ever to find that towel. 
Haven't checked facebook in a while. 
Check facebook.
Check twitter.
Realise the music has stopped.
Put on a new album.
That album was in the wrong file.
You should really sort out your music collection.
Go through every single artist's file on hard drive, checking that everything is in the right place.
Might as well sort all of your moves and TV shows while you're at it.
Spot your towel. It's in the place where you always keep it.
Go for a shower.

etc.

Happy Things

I am going to write a blog about happy things.

Birds

We are humans. We are special. We have higher intelligence, we rule the earth. But can we leap into unaided flight? No we fucking cannot.

Water

If you have ever uttered the words "I do not like water", then please kindly take yourself outside to be shot. What the hell could be more wonderful than pouring a pint of cold water down your neck? Or drinking some?

An anecdote about Michael Craig-Martin's "An Oak Tree"

Michael Craig-Martin created an artwork called 'An Oak Tree' which consisted of an oak tree, in the form of a glass of water on a shelf, and a plaque informing people of the fact that what they were looking at was not a glass of water on a glass shelf at all, but was in fact an oak tree, in the form of a glass of water on a shelf. In all interviews and conversations he would insist that there was no glass of water, there was no shelf, there was only an oak tree. All very well, until Australia refused to let him into the country with what he insisted was an oak tree, because this would violate regulations on what was allowed to pass over the border. He was eventually forced to admit that it wasn't really an oak tree at all, which in my opinion shows a huge lack of conviction.

[disclaimer: may be inaccurate]

Smelling Things

Things smell wonderful. Smell the book you are reading, smell somebody's hair, smell your scarf after you've worn it all day wearing perfume, smell someone's armpits, smell a freshly painted fence, smell an unsmoked cigar. You probably should ask first before doing some of those things though.