Obtaining a Healthy Life

                I was recently talking to a very dear friend about the attainment of a healthy life. They commented that there were several categories that had to be maintained in order to obtain a healthy and complete life. The categories were kind of cute and fit nicely into a quartered pie chart which only could have looked more appetizing if it had been a literal layer of lemon coated in a nearly excessive layer of meringue. These cute classifications included things like spiritual life, social life, academic life, and the kind of life that occurs prior to inevitable death (physical). All sounded so delectable and delicious that I was practically drooling just imagining my healthy life pie with its four wonderfully tasty sections.

                I immediately decided to organize my life in a way that I could exploit all of the categories like the architect of a ponzy scheme carefully siphons money from investors. I set about allocating equal chunks of time to devote to the four all encompassing categories of the healthy life pie. This worked wonderfully for a short period of time, but then I discovered a hideous truth.

                Though the healthy life pie looked so delicious, it was simply too big. There was simply not enough time to devote to all of the categories. Running with the pie comparison that has already been run into the ground the pie was just too large for a single person to consume all the sections. If you eat too much pie you increase your chances of purging. One could either gorge themselves on a single piece almost exclusively or sample each section at a minimal level. Although the sampling would appear to be the best option one couldn’t devote enough to each category through equal sampling to consume a single section at a healthy level. To obtain success in any category of the pie one must devote a significant amount of time and effort. In other words sampling only amounted in failure in every category.

                Recently I have been focusing on academics (garnished by spirituality, courtesy of BYU), almost entirely. I did occasionally grab a bite from the social or physical pie pieces, but it wasn’t really a feasting by any means. Now that finals have come to a close I realize that neglecting the social and physical pie pieces has basically served to destroy my abilities in those categories. I attempted to go running with my father and felt like I was going to die. I am currently sitting at home wondering where my entire social network and life has been placed; I can’t seem to find it (angst as requested…children pictures coming soon).

                In short the moral of this dessert description is that health in life probably should be sought after in healthy foods like a salad, not dessert.

Romance of Angles

With all the angles involved in geometry it is easy to get caught up in the romance of angles. But seriously, angles are the first step in a romance. I was naive to this phenomenon until a couple months ago. At campus I have the unique pleasure of being able to watch the blossoming of freshman love right before my very eyes in virtually every class which I do not sit in the front row for. In other words in my two classes which I occupy a middle range or back seat location I get the wonderful pleasure of watching innocent victims fall for Cupid and his subtle arrow piercings. And believe me I enjoy nothing more than watching the slow process of student relations burgeoning as two complete strangers fall for each other and slowly begin the romance of angles.

As a reader you are probably not actually very interested in anything that I have to say and therefore should probably use your computer rodent to locate the x icon and free yourself from the pain of realizing how much math there is in romance; however, if you insist on reading the rest of this post I can't stop you.

The angles of romance are the best trace for relations. Strangers will initially exhibit certain angles, whereas couples will exhibit starkly different angles. As a qualifier I must first point out the location of angles which I am interested in. I will focus on sitting angles. Sitting angles are the angles created by two individuals who occupy adjacent seats on a row. At first contact two individuals (if they are part of the normal human population) will angle apart from one another. For example when attending a movie theater and when forced to sit in a seat immediate next to a stranger an individual will make a conscious effort to avoid contact with that person. Anyone who has had the misfortune of sitting in a location like the one described above will not that the arm rest between the two sitters becomes no man’s land. I personally would rather die that place my limb on that treacherous location for fear of contact with a human outside of my comfort bubble. Arm placement on that boundary runs the high risk of accidental human contact (AHC). With only one arm rest and two people there is a risk that the other individual will accidentally place his or her arm in contact with you and therefore violate your personal bubble. To avoid this potentially awkward incident of AHC people act like similar magnets and angle their body away from the contact zone. This remains true for some time in most relations, occasionally forever. However in most relations (especially cross-gender) as the level of comfort increases the angles begin to change. This is typically a very slow process, although some individuals who seem to have no shame in bubble violation will rapidly decrease the angle of difference. People are so predictable. I watched several couples slowly trim their angles throughout the semester. The process shifted from angled repulsion to in some cases the lack of angle (human contact). Once lack of angle is reached you have reached the proper time to pursue romance. So perhaps I should rephrase my statement about angles being romance, in reality it is the lack of angles.

Investing in Social Stock

There is always a certain amount of liability when investing in the stock market. Fluctuating graphs of returns and losses testify of this supreme law of the investing world. This fact makes investing risky. Generally the more risky the investment the more potential return/loss is available. When investing in social stock keep this in mind. Social stock is at a very basic and limited investing levels fairly risk free. Acquiring a select few stocks in which a limited amount of resources are allocated in a responsible and frugal manner is fairly low risk. An individual will avoid entangling alliances and generally reap modest return on a fairly insignificant investment. For example if an individual acquires a professional acquantance he or she can obtain professional advice or aid if the need for such assistance presents itself. The risk of an investment such as this one only occurs in the case that favors begin to be exchanged in an irresponisible and risky manner. In short investing in a couple professional acquantances can be very beneficial if such stock is only frugally invested in.

Naturally not all stock is as low risk and by association low reward as acquantances. A barely friend can also be a fairly responsible yet slightly more risky and rewarding social investment. A barely friend requires limited time and resource investment outside of the professional sector of one's life. A barely friend still runs a low risk like a proffesional acquantance with a modest return potential. A barely friend can provide birthday well wishes and potentially a person to ask a small (never large) favor of like borrowing a dollar when going out for a lunch (another potential bonus, although never offer to pay for a barely friend that is pooling too many resources in one stock). The risk for a barely friend are that this individual might attempt to be more than a barely friend. This might initially seem like an acceptable move but there are severe risks in that kind of social investment.

This brings us to the next level of social stock, the friend. Friends are a fairly risky investment. They require more time and effort than either of the previous categories although there is a substantially higher return on such an investment. Returns could be as high as recieving invitations to particiate in activities or even as high as having a good time. Given the returns one would have to be an idiot not to invest heavily in a certain friend or friend group, right? Wrong. Returns on friends can be glamorous but they are often fickle. One must be careful in overinvestment in friends because friends are often fickle. A friend investment requires significant upkeep fees and can easily stop providing postive interest without constant care. A friend can turn into a burdon either by attempting to become more than a friend or by becoming far less than one becoming an enemy. Because of the risky nature of friend stock a wise individual will diversify friend investments with the knowledge that friend stock is high risk. The risk rate is lowered substantially by avoiding high concentration of investment into a single friend stock or stock group. Although the potential returns are also lowered the risk becomes manageable. Individuals who over-invest in a single stock often find themselves without any social stock and consequentially find themselves investing in blogging or other activities that don't require social capital.