"Happiness: Attained? Rewarded? or simply... Granted?"

Don't really know how to start putting these things inside my mind in words...

I've read a bit about the idea behind Karl Marx's Das Kapital... and something inside me reacts...
It's not the class struggle idea, no. It's how he wanted happiness for many - for the proletarians. And I honestly think it's such a noble idea... it's really... good, as in good good.

Also I've read a bit about Hegel, how idealistic he was. And I think that's good too.

Honestly, I feel that these guys talk about economic prosperity because they just cannot see another heaven else than this world and all the nations living in peace, with no war, no hunger, and no oppression of any kind. That's heaven: a renewed earth. And don't you think that heaven is really all that? I don't know... deep down inside, I kept telling myself at least now I realize that I don't know what heaven really is, and hence, I don't look forward to it.

This all may not seem like it has anything to do with the title of this blog... but please bear with me and my ramblings... because they are NOT pointless... unlike *some* people, I'm only interested in REALITY.

The Holy Bible said that we were created by God. We are mere creations. HIS creation. And Westminster Shorter Catechism concisely summarized the answer to the question of "what the heck are we here for? why are we here in the first place?" - with this one sentence answer:
We are created to "Glorify AND Enjoy Him forever". Forever. As in, timelessly.

So there you go... and before you start asking me what does THAT got to do with Marx or Hegel, let me quickly summarize things up to this point:
1. We were created to glorify God forever
2. We glorify Him the most when we are most satisfied in Him and Him alone
3. The word "forever" means "timeless; above time, transcends time"

...okay so far so good... and now this is where things start to get a bit complicated...

It is a given truth that we are created to glorify and enjoy Him forever. In short, it is saying that we have a purpose that shall continue on and on, even after time ends. We are eternal beings. (And honestly I kinda believe that it's true... even though I feel that this flesh and blood of mine seems to degenerate day after day, I believe we ARE going to see a second life after this one...)

But...

4. As of now, well, we are living in this world, a world bound BY time, bound IN time

So... what to do now? Or to be more exact:

If we are made for eternity, then how do we deal with temporality? Where do temporality and eternity meet?

Some people (Karx, Hegel, Descartes) go all the way to say that this temporality that we are living now IS our so called eternity, and hence let's just make the best out of it. After that then they add some utilitarian values according to their line of study et cetera et cetera, which (I think) may dangerously be a complicated form of self-gratification... ANYWAY I'm not going there, it's just too complicated...

Some others (Plato, for instance) saw it differently. Plato sharply states that the flesh is the soul's prison. In effect he's saying that the answer to this problem is to leave temporality straight away as soon as you can (that is if you have the guts to do it).

But us, Christians... what about us? both answers above clearly sound a bit off...
I know we can disinterestedly say: "Simple, just live in a balance, just live in between the extremes." Yeah. Thx. Anything new?
I'm not interested in mere high-minded rationale... I'm really keen on hearing the stories of those who lived their live in such a way that makes the simple answer above a REAL thing.
Now where can I find these people? :(

(...humm this reminds me of a book titled: "How now shall we live?"...)

Oh and add in the topic of "enjoyment" and you'll get yourself in a even a worse mess than before...

Okay I just realized I spent almost 30 minutes typing this :
Still got some work to do...
I'll get back to this soon...

See you all in the near future! (I hope...)

Brown sugar is healthier than white sugar... NOT

Yup, the title is exactly the reason why this post was created.

My supervisor at work always says that "brown sugar is natural, hence it's healthy. White sugars are just white poison."

Being a bit of a health freak myself, I am quite susceptible to any information that has anything to do with the things I put into my mouth. Both facts and myths.
But this question has been bugging me since I can remember... so it's about time I find out the answer for myself - and you guys too :)

A search in google (or iGoogle for that matter) on "brown sugar vs white sugar" shows that many people are actually very interested to know the FACTS as well.

Sooo... without further ado... here you go:
1. 10 Diet & Nutrition Myths Debunked
2. White sugar vs raw sugar
3. Sugar & Artificial Sweeteners (Go to Q: "How does sugar effect your body?")

Heh heh...
It's white sugar for me then ;)

Cheers

Lens Buyers Guide

Yahoowee!!!!

After I've finally pulled myself out from all the hype surrounding the body of that d200, I started to look for the second thing that is just as (if not more than) important as the body - the lens.

You see, with dslr body, it's not too hard to narrow your options: if you have the money, go Nikon or Canon. But it's a whole different level of complexity when you start looking for a lens.

Thank goodness I found this article... don't really know the accuracy of the information yet, but I'll just do a read first ;)

Will let you know what I think about it...