The habit to partition time.

We humans have a habit of doing this.
We partition time when it is a constant flow all along.
We cut it into Years, then further slice it into 12 months.
And smaller still, we created weeks, and have it made up of seven days, giving each day a special name:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Everyday has 24hours. Or more generally, day and night.

Then we design our daily routines around these... restrictions.
We have work on weekdays, and rest on weekends.
A meal is named differently according to what time frame it is consumed under.
Then we come to attach different values to these... so called different time periods.
Many of us dislike Monday and love Friday.
The schooling kids probably love December.
And ladies probably think they're losing their youth when they're reaching 30s.
All these meanings we create out of partitioned time, when it was supposed to be 1 single flow all along.

For it would be hard to master our experiences without dissecting them into separate chunks.
Just like water. Previously impossible to quantify, we force-freeze them then cut them into separate blocks.
Now they can be counted. Else we'd just go crazy trying to count it in liquid form.

There is probably no yesterday or tomorrow.
Just the eternal "Present".

Song: Sunny Day (Fujiki Kazue)

What if you could experience the same feeling each and every day?
What if you would have to?

Your life will have to be spent in sync with that feeling.
Every motivation, every action, and every thought...
Like a train that can only tread on its rail if it wants to move forward.

From: Detroit Metal City Manga (12: Credits)

Thoughts: (Looking at H1N1 Pig News) Nodes

The entire universe is an abundances of materials or stuffs, just lying around.
Mostly, they just exist. Their purpose unknown, their existence possibly just the result of an accidental phenomenon. Well, perhaps not an accident, but we don't know.

Living things are like gathering points that appear.
They appear, then start to gather materials into themselves, making materials a part of their own body. Animals are mostly composed of carbon and water, and lesser amounts of other elements.
They accumulate these by breathing in gases, taking in solid materials as food, or drinking fluids.
some of these materials get retained in their bodies and they grow. The rest gets expelled back into the environment.

Living things also move materials around through the result of their behavior and desires.
Beavers gather small pieces of wood and twigs to build their homes. Elephants gather at the elephant graveyard to die. Bees gather pollens to produce honey.

Obviously the living thing on Earth that has caused the greatest movement to materials around here is us: human beings. We move resources around the most due to 2 reasons.

1) We probably have the largest total mass on Earth physically.
2) We have the greatest ability and desire to move materials around.

I'd like to identify these existences on living things as 'nodes'.
These nodes have the ability to accumulate and affect the movement of materials in the universe.
Some of these nodes have the ability to function in a coordinated manner to shift materials around. Creatures such as ants functions in groups and different ants carry out different specific functions in their swarm, allowing the entire nest to function smoothly as a combined whole, even if it means that the individual ant needs to sacrifice itself for the betterment of the entire nest.

Some of these nodes can even function in more complex manners.
Again, back to human beings. We are able to create giant entities called organizations to coordinate the movement of materials around. You'll understand what I mean when you see the development of a shipping company, or bank corporations. Goods and money gets stored and shifted around.

Bringing it to another level, these huge entities can, also coordinate with each other for mutual benefits, leading to better movement of materials on a national or international level. We see this in shipping and finance industries.

Humans, though being nodes themselves can also affect other lesser nodes.
We herd animals together to harvest what they produce, or kill them for resources.
Simply put, we have to ability to control other nodes. We can push them to extinction, or prevent so. Kill them or breed them. Gather them together or shift them around geographically. We can even create them or alter them.

Watching this movie made me thought of this...

We all know that some information are withheld from the general public. Usually the justification the authorities provide is that it is done to preserve public safety.

For example, if they have gathered intel on an impending terrorist attack on a certain location. They don't let us know in order to prevent a mass panic.
If they have delicate info on racial/ethnic related matters, they might also withhold it in order to preserve mutual trust b/w groups of people.

This type of information management is also part of the way they use to achieve other goals.
They can also purposely withhold or not emphasis on certain details to shape your beliefs.
They can purposefully emphasis and magnify certain info as well.
We see this a lot in history-making.

Anyway, I digress.
Back to the withholding info part. =)
I think withholding info from the masses is all good because you get to prevent panics and stuffs, therefore it is beneficial to the nation as a whole.
However, the individual will gain more to know such information instead of being kept in the dark. It will save me a lot of time to explain why if you are aware of The Game Theory.

In the this movie, an unidentified Alien object is calculated to hit the city. However, the masses are not informed as there is not enough time to evacuate the entire population of 8million people.
If you, living in the city, knew of the impending event, there would have been sufficient time for you to leave the city within 2 hours.
This is in the event that all other city people do not know of it. Which means to say that you have exclusive information that others do not.

However, if the masses were to be informed of this crisis, a panic would ensue followed by mass evacuation, which will probably jam the roads and hinder your leaving.
But regardless of whether the others know or not, it's always better that YOU KNOW this info.

Many things in the society are like this.
The authorities regulate the society in such a way that the country, as a whole, receives as much benefit as possible.
But you have to know that this does not mean that by following their plan, your gain is maximized.

Many of us get nudged into taking up courses that are probably what we're not really interested in. The nature of the choices what appear in front of us is shaped by the trajectory of the nation.
When a country 1st underwent industrialization, education will naturally emphasize on technical skills. When we switch to a service-oriented industry, naturally courses related to it become more accessible.
I personally find it hard as well, to believe that so many students take up engineering courses because they really like it. But I might be wrong here, maybe many people really love engineering-related stuffs. But I'm not 1 of them.

But my point is, what is good for the country as a whole may not be good for you as an individual.
So sometimes, if your own plan is not in sync with the nation's grand plan, I say fuck the nation's plan. Follow your own path.

Finally I wanna clarify that it does not mean that I do not agree with that the authorities has done. In fact, I'd have done the same if I were them. I'd have made my decisions for the good of the nation rather than for the individual. This is so to maximize total benefit. (See game theory again.)

But as an individual, I'd choose to maximize individual benefit. =)