I am getting quite some pressure from my family about having a child. While I do want to have children, my health does not currently allow me to do so. This morning, when I called my mother on the phone an aunt of mine was there too. She is 73 years old, and if you think that *I* am witty, rude and a shouting monkey, you haven’t met *her* yet. She likes saying it how it is, but today I proved worthy of her legacy.

Aunt: Eugenia, so nice talking to you. How are you?
Me: Life’s good, thanks, how are you?
Aunt: Oh, give me a break. When are you going to get pregnant? You need to have children!
Me: You are right. We just don’t know how to produce babies. I hear you can get lucky with the missionary position. Any pointers?
Aunt: …..
Aunt: Sooo… are you coming over this Christmas?

Don’t worry, she didn’t get offended. There is nothing you can tell her that she will get offended. A little surprised maybe.

What’s the meaning of life? What are we suppose to do in life? Well, I had a philosophical thought about it at 2 AM last night while trying to fall asleep (no, not a middle-age crisis and subsequent insomnia but I was just finishing up a review really late). I came up with the following diagram in my head:

The most important thing is procreation, even if this strikes you sour for becoming “just a tool”. The survival of the species is of outmost importance. Procreation is what nature requires of you.
The second most important thing is love. Without it, relationships, understanding, emotional stability wouldn’t work. Love is what family and friends require of you.
The third most important thing is work. Work is good for the person, his/her family and the society. Social progress happens when all types of work take place. Work is what the society requires of you.

I think I have blogged about it in the past but I can’t find the URL at my old Slashdot blog. When I was 14 I asked my (only grammar-school educated) mother what’s the meaning of life. She was at my age back then and she had replied “to have children”. This morning, I called her on the phone and asked her the same thing (she of course got surprised to my question). This time she replied “to work and have fun”. People change I guess, but what they want doesn’t really mean that this is what’s important.

I personally feel that if a person does not satisfy all three rules is not a complete (or even a happy) person. I don’t satisfy all three rules (no children), but most people do and this is actually very encouraging. Monks and other religious people don’t satisfy the procreation rule (and they do that on purpose) and I personally don’t like that (read my justfication in the Bible itself).

If you want to become a better person, just follow the “triangle of life”. It won’t make you “happy” instantly (in fact the goal is not to necessarily make YOU happy) but when you are older and you look back at your life in retrospect, I bet it will fill you up with fullfilment. There is no way you had done a good work and you got paid for it, you have loved & you were loved back and you had healthy children, and not eventually find happiness and balance in this simple life. Your (eventual) happiness that comes out of this simple lifestyle is actually a byproduct, but maybe that’s enough.

“The MBW-100 allows users to control calls and music from their Sony Ericsson/Fossil watch. When a call comes in, the name or number appears on the OLED screen and SMS message alerts also show up.”

Yes. Because it’s WAY too much work to take the bloody cellphone out of your pocket.

It’s kinda depressing seeing the western world creating such expensive toys for the rich to buy, while other parts of the world live in poverty and hunger. I can tell you right now that even if I was as rich as Gates is I would never let myself buy or use such useless crap. They would just make me feel guilty. Even now, that I am not really rich, I do feel guilty about some of the useless hardware I have shoved in my closet. But at least I didn’t buy these (they were sent to me), so I find comfort in this thought.