Birthday Significance

My birthdays haven’t been very special since I graduated college. My last special birthday (with friends) was when I turned 21. Since then, I have spent nearly all birthdays alone and not really done much of anything. I don’t really seem to mind since many of my closest friends are those that I speak to on the phone or connect with via e-mail. Going out drinking in a loud bar is not my idea of a great evening.

Yesterday was my girlfriend’s birthday. While I remembered to get her gifts and spend time with her, I didn’t realize how much her birthday meant to her.

I often find myself still operating in bachelor mode, where such things are no big deal. However, when she told me that my birthday was a big deal to her since it is a day celebrating “the birth of me”, I laughed and realized I was pretty lucky to have someone think about it like that.

My girlfriend also helped me recognize the joy of Christmas. Even though I am not Christian and do not celebrate the holiday with religious activities, to her it symbolizes love for family and appreciation for all that we have.

Her joy about birthdays and Christmas are great examples of her good spirit, and, rather than resisting her enthusiasm, I find it far more enjoyable to end my bah-humbug attitude about birthdays and join her in celebration.

Life is too short to not enjoy each possible day, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant.

Challenging your Beliefs

Many of my my life's best lessons have been taught by others who directly challenged my beliefs. Here are some of my more memorable interactions:

1. Being challenged on my views on religion - I never questioned my faith, but there were a lot of incongruencies I harbored underneath the surface. After speaking with an atheist friend for 10 minutes, I realized I was simply afraid to openly declare that I was a "non-believer". Rather than be honest and honor those agnostic beliefs, I was going through the religious motions.
   

2. Being challenged on my views on abortion – I never considered the human aspect of abortion until I sat down with a self-proclaimed “far right winger”. Even though I didn't agree with his views, his frankness and real-life examples caught me so off-guard I was literally speechless.
   

3. Being challenged on my views on homosexuality – I realized an online columnist who I thought was very masculine was actually gay and I was somewhat surprised. His response was perfect... "Yeah so?" When he put it like that, I (officially) realized it really wasn't a big deal for someone to be gay.
   
   

4. Being challenged on my libertarian stances - A lady responded negatively to an op-ed piece I wrote for my college newspaper. After debating with her, she didn't back down. By standing up for her beliefs, she forced me to double-check and re-examine my views.

Had it not been for these random people refusing to roll over and capitulate, I would be far less mature and open-minded than I am today. Interacting with people I disagreed with forced me to examine my "pristine" beliefs and get a more accurate picture of reality.

The lesson I have learned is that learning only comes from challenging ourselves. This is what great teachers and great friends do; they force us to stretch and consider what we had previously dismissed.

I plan on writing more about this topic in the future as it relates to education. In my personal observations, giving up money and power to governments to educate children reduces the responsibility and consciousness of the parents whose children are being educated.

Thank you for reading.

New Blog Location

http://inthon.wordpress.com/

I will transfer over existing posts in the coming weeks.

Goal Setting Methodology

I normally jot down some goals for the New Year in no particular order, however, this year I am doing something different and setting goals based on their order of their importance.

Relationship/Family goals are coming first, followed by Work Goals, then Health Goals, and then the rest.

I realize there are benefits and detriments to writing down goals, however, I feel that seeing these goals on a daily basis will help me remember my priorities. I have too great of a relationship and a family to screw it up with complacency.

Thanks for reading.

Short Selling

A gem from Mish

Amazing, isn't it? Investment banks can scream and shout, call press conferences and fabricate stories and it literally buys them time while they scramble to raise capital.

Mish does a fantastic job of breaking down the spin and carefully explaining why things are falling apart. I consider his well-reasoned insights more valuable than any college class.

Have a wonderful Holiday season.

Opacity versus Conspiracy

There are numerous examples of deliberate opacity at work in the current crisis.

Some are more obvious than others...

1) Government hiding what assets are being purchased by the TARP.
2) CEO's talking talking tough while frantically raising capital.

To make accurate predictions and uncover the truth, where do we draw the line at opacity versus conspiracy?

There is no shortage of webpages proclaiming the Fed as a giant conspiracy. Whether or not it is a conspiracy or illegal has little to do with how it affects individuals in planning for the future. What does matter is finding out what actions the Fed will be taking and profiting from them.

As I educate myself about the Fed's operations and how they affect the market, I will attempt to separate simple opacity and confusion from conspiracy, in order to find the truth.

Thanks for reading.

Mutual Search for Truth

I have started this site in order to further my discovery and understanding of the truth as well as share my limited wisdom with others.

Many sites on the Internet are heavily skewed towards defending an existing ideology, however, I am interested in engaging others in a mutual search for truth rather than defending any ideologies.

While I have previously fallen in love with certain ideologies (libertarianism, free markets), I often find there to be different points of view which have valid points which I had not considered. While libertarian/free-market viewpoints still seem to me to be the most logical and valid, I find that reading debates or refutations of those viewpoints often provide food for thought.

Most of my growth and learning has come from reading and reflecting upon what I disagree with. In future posts, I plan on sharing some statist versus libertarian conundrums which I have thought about.

Thanks for reading.