Update - Regarding St. Valentine's Day.

This was a post written on the 13th of February, just before St. Valentine's Day.

St. Valentine's Day: A simple yet painful reminder of the loneliness one experiences when without a partner to share joy and sadness with. It is absolutely mortifying if you think about it: People around you recieving gifts one after another, and you sitting alone, with nothing to pass you by but a few token yellow roses of friendship.

Come to think of it, St. Valentine's Day is indeed but a moneygrabbing scheme, where various non-living objects take on new prices to widen that already large hole in your wallet, still smouldering from exertions over Christmas. St. Valentine's Day may hold significance to the lucky few in relationships, but for the rest, it is but an ordinary day with no special meaning, except perhaps an enhanced sense of loneliness. Of course, if I were to recieve a gift, I would be very happy. =)

This was a post written on St. Valentine's Day, 14/02/07.

An absurdly uneventful day, if you are talking in terms of St. Valentine's Day. The only thing that reflected what occasion it was was Terence going around giving out free hugs and proclaiming "Happy Valentine's Day", and an interesting coincidence in that I happened to read the chapter detailing St. Valentine's Day in the seventh book of the Suzumiya Haruhi series today.

In fact, I felt nothing on the matter - I even forgot entirely about it, until I saw some girls going around with roses in hand. So I must say, the points I raised in my previous musing have come to naught - I spent more time today pondering the beauty of the stark difference in shadow and light cast by the evening sun, which was not quite dim enough for a sunset, but enough to generate wonderfully soft shadows and contrast between the light and the dark, so beautiful one could paint it. Observing sunsets, I must say, makes for a pretty interesting hobby, if somewhat weird; it is never possible to tell what you might get the next day. Oh, and best of all, it's free.

And that concludes my St. Valentine's Day musings.

Update Sunday 04/02/07 - Best.

Is there really something anyone can be good at? People say that my drawing is good, but if you look at the artists and painters of the past, is my work even of ten percent the standard they exude? Even if you narrow it down - my friend said I'm good at manga and cartooning - but even then, the numerous examples of good artists on Deviantart bring me down to my knees. See below, Notes 1.

I am extremely conscious of my shortcomings - one of them being unable to put heart into close to anything at all. Why would this be so? That's because you can never be the best at anything. Wherever you look, there is always someone bound to be better than you. Though this may spur some on to try to become the best, in the end, everyone comes to the same bitter conclusion - there is no such thing. In everything, there are styles - different styles that get the job done in different ways. It may not neccessarily be the best way, though - because there cannot be a best. There is no such thing because everything, at higher levels of skill, branches out into different genres, with different styles. Different artists and writers have their own individual styles that appeal to certain people - in a way, everyone is the best at everything they do, which is to say no one is.

So, when you can't ever be the best, why bother in the first place? It's completely irrational to stress oneself over something that you can never win at. Why not just live life as did the grasshopper? The ant may have survived the harsh winter, but is spending your entire year working just so you can live for another year of work really meaningful? Why not just have fun, enjoy yourself, fornicate or whatever pleases you, then disappear from the surface of the earth? That way, it would be better for everyone - Mankind would have more space, animals would have more forests and less polluted seas, the Earth would be less squeezed for resources - and it would be a much better life for all.

Note 1:
http://kuridoki.deviantart.com/
http://arehandora.deviantart.com/
http://lasaro.deviantart.com/
http://kaze-hime.deviantart.com/
http://damashii.deviantart.com/
http://phantom-paranormal.deviantart.com/