JangChoe.name

I would like to write about being married. When people ask me how’s married life, especially single people, I feel the social pressure to give them the rosy picture. When married people ask me, I tell them a more truthful picture. Then they smile and give me that, “haha you newlywed (n00b)” look. But I do want to lay it out in the open, especially to you single people, how married life it is. This is strictly from our experience and other married people’s experience that I’ve noticed.

First of all, it’s pretty different than being single. Some single people have a naive thought that if they live together before getting married, it relieves some pressures of marriage. I don’t think that’s true. Also, living together to “try things out” doesn’t insure a successful marriage. Statistics show that couples who lived together before marriage have around the same divorce rate as people who didn’t live together.

Being Christian don’t matter either. Sure it sounds like it should be “different” than our heathen friends’ marriage. But statistics do show that Christian couples  (whether they are really Christian or not) have the same divorce rate as non-Christian. Christians do and should take marriage more seriously, but statistics show otherwise.

Anyway, what does married life feel like? It’s pretty normal and boring. In the first month or so, we did fight a lot more about stupid stuff. The first few weeks seemed hectic compared to when we were single. It challenged us hard. I think one reason is because the finality sinks in. For example, your spouse’s little quirks and faults will be part of you for the rest of your life. That reality is hard to take in for the first few weeks.

Also, marriage itself feels stressful. I thought I was a mellow guy. But for some reason, I started to freak out. It probably has to do with the planning, the moving, other responsibilities, and reorganization of life that stresses people out.

We also don’t see our friends as much or at all. But I think that’s because we live far from our friends, and we’re just lazy and too comfortable with each other to go out.

Other than that, it’s cool. You can have all the benefits of sharing stuff with family plans, true teammwork, and someone to do my laundry for me.

I had the experience of playing with three touch screen phones that’s on the market today. I actually had the devices in my hand, took it to different places, and played with them for an extended period of time. I even had them at the same time and played with them next to each other.

I’m going to compare three phones: the iPhone, Palm Pre, and HTC’s G1. Unfortuantely, I didn’t get my hands on ther other screen phones. I wished I played with HTC’s MyTouch since that would be more relavant than the G1.

I’m not going to compare the technical specs since you can find those at other sites. I’m just going to cover my user experience and other high level thoughts about these phones.

Hardware

The Palm Pre is a lot smaller than both the iPhone and the G1. It’s almost the size of a woman’s compact makeup. Because of it’s size, it fits most women’s hands well (and men who have small hands). But the Palm Pre is a lot thicker than the iPhone. Thinner is better to carry around on your body. Luckily, it’s not too thick that it makes a big bulge in your pocket. It is also very light.

The iPhone is the thinnest phone of the bunch. Like I wrote earlier, thinner is better to carry around since it can slide in and out of tight pockets and other slim spaces. It is, however, larger than the Palm Pre. But I find that to be a positive because of the bigger screen. And the ergonomics isn’t a problem for people with bigger hands.

The G1 is just a brick. It’s bigger and thicker than the other phones. It’ll fit in your pocket. But it’s just a clunky phone to carry around compared to the other two.

The Palm Pre has a nice, slide out keyboard. But Palm made the keys so scrunched together that you’ll need to use your fingernails to type–another reason why the Palm Pre is good for women. The G1’s keyboard is much better. The keys are larger and spaced out. It’s easier to type on the G1. But after some practice, you can type on all three devices easily.

Also for the Palm Pre, it is hard to slide the keyboard out with one hand. Let’s say you’re doing something and need to type. So you start to slide the keyboard out with your thumb, but your thumb will press all sorts of buttons on the touch screen since that’s the only place you can get a grip on  it. I can understand they sacrificed serrations or more grippy areas in the Palm Pre to make it prettier, but it is annoying to slide the keyboard out. Oh well, you can’t have it all.

Another “womanly” feature in the Palm Pre is the mirror in the back when you slide the phone up. For guys, it’s great to check your teeth for food stuffs, plucking out your nosehairs, etc. For women, I guess you can use it to check how pretty you are. But the Palm Pre feels like a girl designed it. It’s just a girly phone. A lot of the women I know seem to love it, but none of the bigger, beefier guys like it at all. But I’m a man with large, endowed hands; and I didn’t mind it at all.

The screen resolution is same on all three phones. The Palm Pre has the smallest screen in terms of area. And that sucks. They should have made the screen a bit bigger by stretching the screen out a bit more or making the phone slightly bigger. Since it is a touch screen phone, it needs all the screen real estate it can get. Because of the small screen of the Palm Pre, I felt it needed a stylus.

Like any Apple product, the industrial design of the iPhone is very nice. It’s not overly rounded like the Palm Pre, and it’s not a big brick like the G1. The Palm’s industrial design is nice too. It is obviously rips off inspired by the iPhone. But iPhone definitely wins in the look, feel, and the coolness factor. Palm Pre comes in at a close second. The G1 is just ugly.

I love the wheel of the G1 though. If I can’t get to an element of the screen with my finger, I can just use the scroll wheel to access it. It’s very convenient. The G1 has too many buttons on the device itself though. A lot of the button’s functionality could’ve been handled in the OS. Both the iPhone and the Palm Pre has a very miniamal design. They only have one button which is enough.

Software

We all know that iPhone has a billion apps. The G1 has like a million. And Palm Pre has like 10. And Palm’s API is just a glorified JavaScript/HTML 5 framework running on some browser engine.  I’m sure the number of apps will increase on the Palm Pre as long as they’re not as restrictive like Apple. However, unless Palm release a a more powerful API for the Palm (or support flash), I doubt they can get the cooler apps like the G1 or iPhone has–such as games. And I’m not talking about boring board games. I’m talking about next generation 3-D games.

On the other hand, even though the iPhone and the G1 has like a million apps, most of them are crap. Also, the Palm Pre has some unofficial home brew apps coming like the tethering app. You don’t even need to jailbreak the Palm to use it, and it won’t void your warranty either. But to install them is a pain for casual users.

There is a copy and paste function in the Palm Pre. But it sucks; you can only use it on the document you’re currently writing. You can’t copy and paste between different applications. I hope Palm improves the copy/paste functionality in the future. iPhone’s copy and paste is a lot better.

The responsiveness and smoothness are very close for the Palm Pre and the Iphone. In fact, the Palm Pre functions pretty much like the iPhone with the muti-touch capabilities, the easing, scrolling, etc. It’s almost like they hired some Apple people and ripped off some stuff from Apple. Hmm… The G1 just felt sluggish for me. Overall I think the iPhone was the slicker device among the three.

The UI of the Palm Pre is weird. If you have no idea about gestures, you won’t be able to figure out how to get around the app. If you are planning to buy a Palm, make sure you understand gestures. Once you do, everything is cool. You just have to be trained in the Palm Pre way.

There is multitasking in the Palm Pre and the G1. That’s an important feature no matter what the Apple fan boys say. I can leave Pandora on and go surf the web. I can leave my chat window to do something else and still get notifications for chats.  It’s just useful. On the other hand, if the apps are made horribly, leaving certain apps on in the background will drain the battery fast. It’s a balancing act. But I would prefer multitasking.

I also think the accelerometer is too sensitive on the Palm Pre. If I tilt it slightly to the right, the screen turns unexpectedly. The G1 obviously has no problem with this. You have to open the keyboard to switch to landscape mode.  I like having direct control of that. iPhone’s acceleormeter is weird. Sometimes it takes a long while for the screen to shift directions. My friend’s iPhone was stuck in the landscape mode for several minutes until it finally freed itself.

The software for the G1 is pretty powerful. It has a lot of features thanks to it’s open nature. It’s even going to support flash in the later release. I just wished that they paid more attention to the little details like what Apple did to make the user experience more pleasing. Even though it’s more powerful, it doesn’t act like it. It just feels sluggish. But I think Android is just going to get better since it’s an open platform. It’ll probably support multitouch later on and rip off a lot of the other smart phone’s features.

Price

We know the iPhone is the most expensive product among the three. That’s a big negative. For unlimited two year plans, the iPhone is around $1000 more expensive compared to the Palm Pre and G1. For average plans, it’s still several hundred dollars more expensive than the other two phones.

Networks

Tmobile sucks compared to Sprint and AT&T. I can’t get a signal anywhere. But T-mobile has the BEST customer service I’ve ever witnessed. But good customer service won’t do me good if I can’t get a signal in certain places. Of course in dead zones, all three won’t get any service.

Conclusion

They’re all nice phones. I’m sure the new Android phones coming out should make the Android platform a sexier choice. The G1 is old, and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you want a big keyboard and not care what the phone looks like.

Overall, I think the iPhone does stand out from the pack. It’s just sleeker than the other two. Palm Pre comes in a close second. Then comes the G1. But any of these devices will do you good. But if you compare them all next to each other, it’s like comparing a Ferrari to a Lexus and an Acura. All three cars are nice, but a Farrai is a sleeker car.

Of course, the iPhone is priced like a Ferrari. I personally am turned off by how expensive the iPhone plan is and how it’s locked into AT&T. If I were to get a touch-screen smart phone, I would probably go for the other choices (Android or Palm Pre).

I guess 30 year old men would feel embarrassed to say that they love watching America’s Best Dance Crew. But I’m 30, and I love watching it. I consider it a good show despite its cheesiness and brain-dead, saccharine entertainment that MTV usually provides. I guess I like the show because I like dancing, and I participated in the bboy scene about 8 years ago.¹

I have a few complaints about the show such as the weird camera angles, but it features good dancing and great crews. I saw all 3 complete seasons, and I’m going to list out my 10 favorite (in no particular order) America’s Best Dance Crew routines.

1. Beat Freaks : Freeze :: Link

I chose this routine (along with  Quest Crew’s OrQUESTra listed below) as one of ABDC’s best performances ever. When I first saw this routine, it blew me away. I had to watch it at least 10 more times; and every time I watched it, I appreciated it even more. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of watching this routine. 

I love Beat Freaks. They’re comprised of seven all-star female dance members. I wished they got Pandora though (another sick female popper who lives in that area) but oh well. They still hit very hard and know how to dance.  I love watching them perform.

2. Quest Crew : OrQUESTtra :: Link  (Skip to 35:00)

Quest Crew, from season 3, took the same bboying and athleticism of Super Cr3w and brought it to a whole new level. They’ve added in theatrics, art, drama, comedy, and clean “dance choreography.”

They display some intensely difficult and creative moves. For example: the head spin speed changes according to the piano music, the hollow back bending to music, and that weird side back flip at the end. SICK. They also show off their other creative side like the piano playing. Not to mention the whole routine looks nasty overall. I never get bored watching this over and over.

Not long ago, Quest Crew actually called themselves the Sick Step Crew. And while they called themselves the Sick Step Crew, So You Think You Can Dance featured some of the members of them a couple of times. And each member killed it on that show.

Also, did you know Lydia Paek dances for both Boxcutters and Quest Crew? She decided to dance with the Boxcutters since Quest Crew had their max 7 members for the show. Of course, I doubt that she could hang with the Quest Crew anyway. So she made a good decision.

3. Quest Crew : Hip Hop Decathlon :: Link

This routine probably helped Quest Crew catch up with the Beat Freaks in season 3. It appeared that Beat Freaks had the upper hand until the final routine, where Quest Crew totally surpassed them. I kind of wished Beat Freaks stepped up even more at the end instead of coasting². Then it could of made the last show a little more interesting.

Quest Crew saved almost all their tricks for this routine. They totally killed it. They represented every dance style perfectly. Not only they showed perfection in every style, they also brought their usual theatrics and comedy. 

4. Fanny Pak : Flash Dance :: Link (Skip to 28:00)

In season 3, the show went nuts on how Beat Freaks and Fly Kicks became the first all female crew in the top 3. In actuality, I consider Fanny Pak as an all-female crew. The group has 4 girls and 3 gay guys. Therefore, I consider them an all-female group.

Anyway, this Flash Dance routine displays their creativity and great style. They totally owned this challenge.

5. Fanny Pak : Get Your Freak On :: Link (Skip to 29:20)

I really like Fanny Pak. Not many people like their style. I felt the same way in the beginning and didn’t like their quirky style. But I slowly realized their awesomeness.

They show a lot of creativity and excellence in their dances. This routine illustrates that because the judges gave their first standing ovation.  

6. JabbaWockeez : Apologize :: (Link) 

This routine put JabbaWockeez on the map. It featured their miming and creative dance skills. It also shows that putting on a white mask and matching gloves gives off an interesting and cool illusion. Nothing more to say–one of my favorite routines from season one.  

7. Kaba Modern : Technologic :: Link (Skip to 50:00)

The kids of Kaba Modern can dance very well–especially Mike Song and Tony Tran. Everyone gives Kaba Modern credit for having precise and clean isolations. I agree with that. 

I like this routine a lot. Kaba Modern actually danced this particular routine many times. They actually shortened this routine for ABDC, but I’m glad they showcased it to the mainstream audience. 

8. Super Cr3w : Get Up Offa That Thing :: Link (Skip to 40:00)

Super Cr3w: the “new-old school” bboys. I call them new-old because they rose out of the bboy scene in the early 2000’s. At around year 2000, bboying started to become popular again. And a lot of revolutionary dancers popped out from that time³.  I actually recognize Do-Knock and Ronnie from 8 years ago when they started bboying. 

I like Super Cr3w and glad they won. But I’ve seen all their tricks before, and their routines look jaded to me. I think Fanny Pak should have won season two. But to the people who never saw bboys, Super Cr3w probably looked awesome to them. I have no beef with them winning.   

Anyway, this routine looks awesome. I heard they danced this in Battle of the Year, but I couldn’t find the original routine. Not only they showed off their awesome moves, they dressed up as ninjas. You can’t go wrong with ninjas. 

9. Beat Freaks : Hot N’ Cold :: Link

I have one complaint with this routine: the wack camera angles. Stupid MTV, they needed to show this routine facing them the whole time in the first section instead of changing the angles around. I saw some clips of them rehearsing the robot part, and it looked unbelievably sick. MTV’s crappy camera movement ruined the overall effect.

Oh well, it still looked good. Beak Freaks didn’t dance their cleanest routine (they kinda messed up in some places), and I didn’t like their costume (only because it hid some of their precise robotic movements). Even with my nitpick complaints, they did an awesome job overall. 

10. Kaba Modern : Thriller :: Link  (Skip to 19:15)

I wanted to add another Beat Freaks or Quest Crew routine for #10, but I didn’t want Quest Crew and Beat Freaks dominate this list. So I’ll put one of my other favorite Kaba Modern routine up.

When I first watched this rouine, I loved it. They introduced tutting and even finger tutting to the mainstream audience. They also didn’t go with the whole zombie theme for Thriller.  They actually updated it to have a more futuristic feel. I thought that brought it to a whole new level in originality.

This routine doesn’t blow me away compared to the top-quality routines of season 3, but they danced a solid routine overall.

1. don’t ask me to bboy anymore. I haven’t practiced in years. I’m very rusty, and I will look wack. I’ll just stick to my crappy house dancing. [↩]
2. I’m sure they didn’t it just seemed like they did [↩]
3. Of course, the real old school bboys started back in the 80’s [↩]

Hannah complained to me about not updating my blog. It’s true, my muse has been sucked dry. There are a couple possible reasons:

• I have started a couple of mini projects and hobbies:
  • For example, I began to relearn Japanese again through JapanesePod101 and iKnow. This project was killed due to time constraints. 
  • I started exercising again.
  • I’m trying to read the New Testament 10 times in this year or two.
  • I’m getting into skeet shooting (or shooting in general). 
• I recently got married and moved to a new apartment. This left me no time to do anything. It also left my life in a total disarry. I have to reorganize my life due to these events.
• I’ve gotten lazy about writing my blog because of Twitter.

I think the main reason is because of the last reason. Twitter is the best thing in the world. All I need is 140 characters to let out my thoughts; then I’m done. 

Writing a blog takes too much work. It involves too many steps.

1. I have to think of a topic to write about.
2. I write the post, and it can’t be only 140 characters long.
3. Then I have to take the time to proof read and edit it. Yeah–I actually do this even though some of my sentences looks like it’s been written by a fobby Korean high school student.
4. Check it one more time and publish. 

In Twitter, I just have to write 1-2 sentences and I’m done. No need to proof read. It’s so simple. But since Hannah started her nagging wife phase, I guess I’ll try to update this blog more often.

Hey dudes, if I am taller than you, you are not 6 feet 1. You’re probably 5 feet 11.

I find it funny that a lot of men exaggerate their height. I am somewhat honest about my height. My precise height is 5 feet 11.5 inches.  I round up to 6 feet to make things simpler. Yet I have guys that are my height or shorter claiming they’re 6 feet 1 inch or 6 feet 2 inches tall.

I mean I know how they feel. I’m a guy with a massive ego. My ego got devestated when my height measured less than 6 feet. I also feel dirty when I tell people I’m 6′ tall. However, saying, “5 feet 11.5 inches,” is a mouthful. I just say, “6 feet tall,” to make things simpler. It’s dishonest, but I know I’m not deluding myself like some people.

Some guys are pretty deluded though. When I reveal to guys who are shorter than me I’m actually 6 feet tall, they don’t believe it. I even tell them I measured myself with highly scientific, fancy equipment. They deluded to themselves so much, they start to make excuses for me.

For example, they would tell me that I must have not stood up straight. Or maybe I grew a few more inches (in my 20’s?). They won’t accept the fact that they’re shorter than they think. So guys get honest with yourselves and get measured correctly.

It’s true. In fact, right now, Hannah and I caught the cold. She is handling it 10,000% better than I am. The occurrence of men acting like babies when sick seems to be common. Someone even wrote an article about it.

Why do men act like this? I dunno. Maybe we’re used to being babied when we’re sick. Maybe we want attention. Maybe women like taking care of men when sick, so men milk it for all it’s worth.

Although in my experience, men do cope better with injuries. But with the common cold or flu, we turn into a lump of useless carbon material.

Anyway, I’m sick now. I don’t want to write anymore. I’m going to bed, curled up in a fetal position.

Check this video out:

Isn’t that cool? If each block weighed about 3-5 lbs, he was carrying about 60-100 lbs of weight on his head.

Over the history of time, many cultures—who didn’t have sophisticated equipment—came up with ways to do things efficiently. It could be transporting heavy loads, like shown in the video, or other types of manual labor.

Here are more examples from Ghana:

You’ll notice that all the white folks carried the loads with their muscle (shoulders, biceps, forearms), while the locals used their heads. The original poster of these pictures wrote that each brick weighed about 40 lbs, and they walked 100 yards to the construction site. Not only that, the women showed no signs of strain; they could casually stop and chat with the heavy loads on their heads.

That is not an easy task. When I in college, I had to carry a 40 lb package from Georgia Tech mail center to my dorm. The walk was longer than 100 yards, but my muscles failed 75% of the way. I barely made it to my dorm. If I knew about this technique, I could’ve saved a lot of trouble.

You can try it yourself. Put something heavy on top of your shoulder or head. It’s much easier to carry stuff that way. It’s very efficient because the weight is closest to your center—it’s pretty much on the same plane.

Does this mean we can now start carrying things on our heads? Not really. The locals did this for a long time. The top of their heads, mind-intent, and the necessary bone and muscle connection became conditioned through years of practice. It’s just not good leverage; it’s good body conditioning.

What they’re probably doing is relaxing certain muscles so their structure will transmit the ground through their bodies and support the weight. In a nutshell, the ground holding up the bricks. The only muscles they’re using are the muscles to hold their structure (and walking). Of course, their structure has to be conditioned enough so the ground can transmit through it. But even if you know the secret, it’s still be hard.

If you do ancient Asian martial arts like Taijiquan or ancient Asian body conditioning like Yoga correctly, your body should be conditioned in that way. And since I’ve been doing that kind of Asian exercise stuff for a few years, I was curious if I could carry at least 80lbs on my head. I tried it and failed miserably.

The problem wasn’t my structure, but my skull felt like it was being crushed. Therefore, my skull wasn’t conditioned enough to hold that weight. I do think my spine and legs were able to transmit the ground to my head though. I think I need to practice more if I were to do this seriously.

Anyway, next time you move or have to carry heavy loads, trying putting it on your shoulder or head. In fact, the other day, I had to carry a drunk girl away to our car. I used my structure to hold her weight, but if I really wanted to be efficent, I should’ve put her on top of my head and carried her.

I had more needles on my head than her.

Brief Introduction To Alternative Medicine

We all know and love alternative medicine. You know, the new age crap that people do to feel better. In case you don’t know what some of these alternative medical practices are, here are some examples:

• Acupuncture – stick needles in people to make them feel better.
• Natropathy – use natural herbs to make you feel better.
• Prolotherapy – stick needles that squirt chemicals into your joints to make them feel better.
• Chiropractic – twist and bend your spine in all sorts of ways to make you feel better
• Aromatherpy – using smells to make you feel better.
• Rolfing – giving a really painful massage to make you feel better.

If something goes wrong, however, these can be dangerous. For example:

• Acupuncture – needle gets infected and you die.
• Natropathy – eat a toxic or poisonous herb and you die.
• Prolotherapy – squirt acid into your joints and you get die.
• Chiropractic – adjust your spine wrong, get spine trauma, and you die
• Aromatherpy – you sniff toxic fumes and you die.
• Rolfing – they dig too deep and puncture your organs and you die.

Sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it? Of course, Western medicine community look down on these practices. I mean they’re not scientifically proven. One time, I told my doctor that I did acupuncture, and he laughed at me. Hey, I would laugh too if you tried to fix a broken arm with Natropathy.

Luckily, I didn’t have a broken arm or AIDS. I only had tinnitus. Tinnitus is one of those billion problems that Western medicine can’t figure out. After going to ENTs and having no cure, I did acupuncture. And it worked.

My Experiences With Acupuncture

I grew up in a pretty traditional Korean home. We were Buddhists, believed in Shamanism, ate kimchee, and ate nasty Oriental herbs to make us stronger. Every time I got sick, my old-fashioned grandparents would take me to a TCM¹ doctor. They stuck needles in me and gave me disgusting medicines.

When I went to college, I began to break free of my family’s brainwashing. I began to develop rational thought and general teenage-know-it-all-ness. I started to think acupuncture was a load of baloney. I even got into minor debates with a few loony, tai-chi, hippy Westerners about acupuncture.

Of course, my problem was that I was also a hippy, tai chi person. And every green-tea sipping, peace-loving, Asiaphile, hippy Westerner dabbled in acupuncture as well. Since, you know, you can’t be Asian unless you do acupuncture and speak broken Chinese (or Japanese).

So I was exposed to acupuncture a lot. Then I began thinking and reevaluating it.

These Asian folks are pretty smart people. I should know since I’m Asian. They figured out a whole system of strengthening and conditioning the body that’s different from Western method. And like acupuncture, those conditioning methods haven’t been thoroughly scientifically researched yet. If those Asians came up with cool ways to develop your body², they probably came up with some unique ways of treating sick people.

In fact, in an article I read, they found out the acupuncture points had an 80% overlap with fascia planes. 80% is not an accident. These Asians probably knew something was up. Besides, 80% is pretty good for a culture that frowned upon dissection of human bodies for the last 2000 years. They had to develop it using empirical methods.

Since acupuncture had to do with manipulating fascia layers, I tried testing that out. When I went to the acupuncturist, I tightened the fascia layer where the doctor stuck the needles³. As I did that, the needles jerked around. It hurt a lot. But it confirmed my theories.

So I went my fair share of acupuncturists. Some worked, some didn’t. Maybe it’s just placebo.

So Should You Go To Any Old Acupuncturist Operating Out of a Van?

No, not really. I mean it can’t hurt, but I rather go to an Asian guy than a Westerner. Of course, I’m also racist, therefore I could be biased.

In all seriousness, I would make sure your acupuncturist went to a legit TCM school somewhere in Asia. If they got their certificate at some community college or is just a “hobbyist,” then avoid. There’s other criteria that you can follow. For example, I pay attention when they poke and prod my body to see if they’re using jin. Also, I find out if they do qigong. They should also be able to explain what they’re doing as they poke needles in you.

One final word of advice is to use your common sense. You can’t cure cancer, AIDS, broken bones, dislocated joints, gunshot wounds, heavy burns, or dismembered limbs using acupuncture. But check them out if you have a lingering pain or weird problems in your body that Western medicine can’t figure out.

1. Traditional Chinese Medicine [↩]
2. to do farming and to hurt people really bad [↩]
3. using breath and intent. It’s complicated, I do this when I do my mystical, Eastern conditioning exercises [↩]

There’s a lot of stink over this Proposition 8 being passed. Here is a solution: let’s make marriages a religious thing and just give out civil unions for everyone. This way, anyone can have a civil union with whoever they want. This solves everything.

Then what will become of marriages? It’ll become a strict religious ceremony. It’ll be religious as a baptism or a communion—both of which secular people have no interest taking part of. This way we won’t have these debates, the church and state will be separate, and we’ll live happily ever after.

Then again, non-theists would probably say that there was a such thing called marriage before the popular religions were established. On the other hand, theists can say that since God created the world from the beginning, He also created marriage with it. Which means that marriage was always synonymous with theism. So there could be debate of that. Well, you can’t win them all. I guess pesudo-intellectual people who love to argue for the sake of arguing will debate about everything.

On a Different Note

One reason I propose this is because of the differences between getting married at a court house and getting married at a religious institution. For example, we had to fill out 3-4 pages of personal information about our faith and ourselves to be considered to be married at Mt. Paran’s. Not only that, we had to go through a month long, mandatory pre-marital counseling session.

At a court house, you just have to show up and the judge will marry you in 5 minutes.

Also most churches view marriage as something more than just a contract. This means that 2 people are physically bonded into one. It’s like two cells joining together into one cell. So separating that cell back into 2 cells is extremely difficult and painful.¹ The church kind of don’t like it when their members get divorced.

In a more secular marriage, all you have between the husband and wife is a piece of paper saying they’re married. It’s still messy and hurts a lot, but it’s easy to do.

By the way, Christian couples get divorced just as much as non-Christian ones. So I guess it’s easy for everyone.

What Was My Original Point?

I propose California to change all marriages into “Civil Unions.” And for the religous people who want to remain “married” can do so via their religious institution. So maybe in 20 years, couples will say, “we’re in a civil union.” Or if they’re religious, they’ll say they’re married.

1. I’m not a Biologist so don’t nitpick here. I have no idea how cells work [↩]

According to Malcom Galdwell’s new book Outliers, it says the mastery of skill takes 10,000 hours of practice. I haven’t read that book, but I’m sure it means 10,000 hours of correct, focused practice. That’s such a de-motivator. It seems so overwhelming.

This means you need to practice something 5 hours a day every day for 5 years to master it. 5 years is not a long time, but 5 hours a day every day is. People can get burnt out from that. I guess that’s why some people take 10, 20, or even 30+ years to master something.

I don’t feel like I have that type of time. It’s probably because I was raised in the instant-gratification culture of America. Or maybe I’m not disciplined enough. But I know people who have great focus. I envy them.