Pride

Pride is an interesting thing. It's considered one of the seven deadly sins, but it is also what can motivate a person to go beyond himself.

Pride is a strong motivating factor for a person to act, sometimes stronger than survival. Faced with a dire situation where survival is at stake in some form or other, depression can overcome the survival instinct, but pride can overcome depression.

More interestingly, faced with a non-dire situation where the survival instinct is ineffective, pride can be a stronger motivating force than material incentives. Think of the man who strives to succeed at his job, or at a sport, not purely for material gains, but for the sake of his pride, to prove to himself and others that he can indeed succeed. Could this motivating factor be stronger than other material and emotional factors?

Another interesting thing about pride: On the one hand, it is a selfish concern - one's own pride, and one's own ego. But when extended to the idea of the pride of a nation or the pride of a team, which is possibly linked to the pride of the self in a transcendent sort of way, it pulls on motivating factors beyond personal ego or face, and can drive a person to act in the interests of a larger body, sometimes at substantial risk to oneself, for the sake of the pride of that larger body, one that does not have tangible existence beyond the collection of other individuals such as himself. How puzzling.

How many people are truly proud of their country?

Good stuff to watch

1. Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Set within the rather confusing timelines of the 3 terminator movies, this new TV series currently airing in the US is about Sarah Connor and her son John Connor (future leader of the resistance and all that) running away from the Terminators sent to kill them. It gets more interesting though, because they're joined by a friendly teenage girl Terminator sent back in time to help them survive. Cute robot love.



2. Battlestar Galactica Season 2

Remake of the 70s cheesy-sci-fi-hit series. I loved the original, actually. The new series is not bad. Starbuck is hot in a strange kind of way. And so is the Korean Cylon. Wait-a-minute... Korean Cylons?!



3. Friday Night Lights Season 2

I liked Season 1, and Season 2 is currently airing in the US. It's a bit more melodramatic and over-the-top than the first one, probably because American viewers found it too subtle and boring. Pity... A little unbelievable this time around, but still entertaining, I guess.



4. Great Teacher Onizuka

A great Japanese Dorama about a biker-gang member who decides to become a teacher and helps to turn around the lives of a class of unruly students in a school that has stopped believing in them. The series was shown in the late 90s and spawned a TV special as well as a movie.



5. Naruto Shippuuden

A natural favourite for many anime lovers. Currently airing in Japan.



6. Bleach

Another natural favourite. Strangely, many Bleach fans don't seem to like Naruto fans... Also currently airing in Japan.



7. Gundam 00

I think this may be the best Gundam series I've ever watched. It feels less juvenile than Seed and Seed Destiny, the characters have more interesting and varied background stories, and the political twists are surprisingly engaging. MS-08 comes close though. Currently airing in Japan.

Male Chauvinist Taxi Driver

I had a rather unpleasant conversation with a taxi driver this evening about the role of men in families and society. It had to do with tradition and Chinese New Year.

It began seemingly uncontentiously with the driver talking about how young people don't respect tradition anymore, but unravelled into a spiel about how the father is the head of the family and when one visits a person's house for Chinese New Year, one must always offer one's oranges, signifying luck and prosperity, to the father or oldest male in the house. When I said I'd offer them to either parent, he was rather vexed and exclaimed, "The woman has nothing to do with it! The man must be the one to receive the signs of prosperity, and when you leave the house, the woman is the one who offers them in return to the visitor!"

He lamented about how men had given up their role as head of the family and let women rise in standing and take care of the family. And he offered an analogy of a tree growing in the soil. The soil is the mother, and the seed is the father. In his opinion, the soil is nothing and the most important thing to the tree is the seed. In other places, where there is soil and no seed, there are no trees. WTF?!

A misplaced sense of duty and responsibility is one thing, but I think what that driver had in his head was just male chauvinist crap. I was wondering if his wife and children hate him.

Blogging with Marsedit is addictive

It really does make blogging a lot easier and more convenient. No more slow and laggy web interfaces to deal with. Just type and go!

Here's another classic pic for everyone's enjoyment.

Trying out Marsedit with Blogger

So how does this work, then?...

Marsedit is a simple and easy blog editing software that lets you write your blog entries offline and upload them easily. It's also got easy ways to add image and links, an that's about all you need for a blog entry, isn't it?

Check out these army boots I want to get - Marine Corps approved, too!