MY PROBLEM IS I`M p e a c e f u l . . . && ~ [ I . BELIEVE . ] - intheppl;

I finally found out where a friend of mine got the line in her windows messenger status from: I do believe it was the same line that is the headline of what you're reading, which is from the song "Words I Never Said" by Lupe Fiasco, featuring Skylar Grey. It's pretty impressive and... yeah. I like it a lot.

Well, I'm at my dad's, in my sister's bed, Nephew was just playing on my legs, and my family are littered about the house. It's Tuesday, and, this time around, my weekend was pretty awesome! I tried to write something to precede it on Thursday, but I didn't really get to do anything. Oh, hello. Nephew has returned to absentmindedly rub my leg while watching television. Such a strange child. Anyway, yes: the weekend was magnificent.

I can simply tell you that I hope my friend and all of his guests had the best possible time they could have, because I am certain that it was a very enjoyable experience. Best of wishes go out to my good pal, everyone. Thanks!

Of course, we made new friends and shared laughs, which I am grateful for. Got to spend some time with familiar faces, too, which is always a good thing. Now Nephew is sitting on my leg. Just thought I should share. Back to the weekend, it was an overall good time. Not much else I can say, but I found it interesting how we each had our ventures for the summer - the summer before Senior Year. I don't know if it's a standard thing, because whatever's "normal" isn't quite definite to me anymore, but we've expressed more interest in our particular areas of interest as of late. It's most certainly a good thing, but I can't help but feeling as if it's a bit of a late-start.

Even if it is, of course, I'll be chasing after the others to catch up, keep up, and then pass them when I'm finally done playing around. Speaking of playing around, Nephew just climbed atop my back and shoulders, covered my eyes for the sentence before this one and part of this one. Pretty funny stuff. Sorry if it's a bit difficult to follow jumping back and forth between the content and occurrences, but it's feasible. You wouldn't continue reading if you weren't interested, would you?

Right.

Back to particular areas of interest. I've been doing these covers regularly for the summer [ my next is to be Adele's cover of "Black and Gold" by that marvelous Sam Sparrow fellow for my darling Kat. It's gonna be fun stuff! My friends are pretty supportive of what I've been doing, and I've been receiving tokens of benefit from all directions: experience in more areas than one. Good for me, yay yay yeah, all that nice stuff, but I was speaking with a friend of mine today who asked me to do a favor for her before I started writing tonight. Stephanie asked me for a favor which included going out of my way - which I don't mind in the least, mind you, so if you ever ask me for a favor, just ask, don't even bother with "can you do me a favor?" [ oh, and she wants me to include that she's awesome ] - and when I did it, it astonished her how simple of a matter it was to me.

I'm not entirely sure why, but people seem to make a big deal out of nothing. Not from her perspective, but in retrospect, if I would have declined her of her favor, which she probably could have very well done herself, I would have been denying her for what reason? Other than any other selfish reason that you can think.

Right.

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it before but selfless deeds are not over-rated at all. People put them down, claiming that there's a hint of a selfish desire in every charitable and acclaimed "selfless" deed. So what if there is? By their logic, there's a selfish desire in every action, every thought. We survive to live, and to protect our own lives is our first instinct - to protect someone else via putting ourselves in danger is something similar: your desire to keep them alive is something precious to you, and therefore it is selfish.

I am not saying that it is completely infallible substance what has been brought up here, but the gestures of generosity, I am sure, were established out of the pure and wholesome kindness in our hearts, regardless of whether we wanted something in return. I know when I gave a gift, I was racking my brain to think of a gift because I needed to get my friend a gift! I wanted to give him one, despite his nonchalant dismissal of the matter. "Oh, it's no big deal - you don't have to get me anything": the general gist of whatever we say to be bashful, polite, or what have you.

Our desires drive us, but it's our minds that establish what we desire. And, of course, how badly.

Now, I have no clue where I'm going with this - as if I ever do - however, the lyrics of this song, in particular the chorus, are as follows:

It's so loud inside my head,
With words that I should have said
As I drown in my regrets,
I can't take back the words I never said.

What do you think about regrets? Do you have any regrets? I don't think I have any that are eating away at me, seeing as how "everything happens for a reason", right? Well, let's see if we can make a connection here: if you keep something in your head, but you desire to say it aloud, why curb your tongue? People are overly-sensitive. At least, the people I've encountered, with exceptions that probably can be countered by the many others I actually aren't familiar with. If everyone was as blunt and straight-forward as needed, there wouldn't be as many dilemmas in the world, do you think? I mean, it wouldn't be an immediate change, or an easy one, but this line in the song - "I think that all the silence is better than all the violence" - can be used on both sides of the perspective here.

Do you think ignorance is bliss, or is it necessary to act upon kinds of aggression to get people going in the direction they need to?

Personally, I do not think that violence is always the answer. However, ignorance most certainly is not bliss in certain cases. It's all subjective, surely, but - to get into what I've learned of Philosophy so far - I concur with Immanuel Kant, for those of you who are familiar with the categorical imperative. It was a big deal that was in objection to most of my classmates when we were taught of it, but I found it interesting and took a liking to it.

Of course, peoples' opinions are different and their perspectives are varied. Granted, it makes finding out the truth all the more difficult - if it's even there at all.

Strange, ending on a foot like this. Since this is ending the way it is, I'll ask a follow-up question: if your take on approaching life is the right one, why?

<3 ~ Monty