Life is Precious: Why it is not a cliche

I just heard something. It doesn't really matter what it is. What matters is the next thing I am about to say. It's said time and time again but obviously, it does not get through some thick skulls: life is so precious. It is the one thing that mostly everyone (unless you're like a solipsist) can agree that everyone is given on Earth. Some people, be it the aggressors or the aggressed (not a word), take it for granted and it's a shame. Even if you do not believe in a higher being, just think of how much...science had to work for billions of years in order for humans to exist. Billions of years. And it is so terrible to think that people abuse their gift or try to take away the life of someone else (or even more terrible, else in the plural form).

 I just...I heard this...fact and it made me really sad. Not even the matter itself and matters likes it, but just the principle of the thing. People are always casting off cliches like 'life is precious' as common sense. But it is quite clear on an everyday basis that there are still some people who fail to actually see the message behind that hackneyed expression. 

10 Favorite Books (because I can, and I will)

If you haven't figured it out already, I am an avid reader (I've been slacking in recent months but we'll overlook that). As a result, it is quite difficult to pin down exactly which books that I can claim I adore the most. However, I guess I can only try. So here it is.

1.) Horton Hears a Who -- Dr. Seuss; 1954
 One of the first books I remember reading outright. If you don't think that's cool, then please exit the premises.

2.) Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (and its saga) -- Mildred D. Taylor; 1976
I had to read this when my fifth grade teacher assigned a wonderful (it was pretty wonderful in retrospect) Newbery Honor/Winner book project of my choosing. To be blunt, I picked it because it was black (I was in my Afro-centric stages back then). I read it in haste and within a few...weeks I'll say, I fell in love with this book and its characters. Cassie, her brothers, her parents, T.J., her land, everything. I admit that it is one of those books that elementary teachers try to stuff down the throats of their unwilling students, and if I had read it in that way, I probably would not have such a great opinion of this book. But I digress. If you haven't read this, read it . It's not too long. And if you really like it...there's a saga to go along with it! Yay!

3.) The Hunger Games (and its trilogy)  -- Suzanne Collins; 2008
I know that you're probably just about tired of hearing about these books (just as I was hearing about Twilight and Harry Potter and stuff like that for years). I had to put this on here, though. This is mostly because this book changed my life. Wait, wait, hold on. Before you exit out of this (because only melodramatics say things like the above) hear me out. When I say that, I mean my literary life (which is basically the same thing). I know that the Hunger Games is not the first dystopia, post-Armageddon novel ever written (I mean, there's 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, etc.) but after I read this, I was exposed to a whole new genre. About twenty five percent of my Goodreads library, now, is made up of said genre. That's crazy. And I owe that to, at least in part, to the Hunger Games.
And how can one not adore Peeta? It's PEETA.

4.) A Catcher in the Rye -- J.D. Salinger; 1951
Yes, I went there.
At this point, if you don't adore a little emo, angsty literature like me, that you exit out. But again, I beg you to hold on a sec. Kay?
I read this the summer before I entered high school. At that time, I was in what I like to call 'deracialliteraturation'. What this means is that I finally got over my whole phase of only reading books about or with Black characters (as I said before, Afro-centric stage). Anyway, I started off with books like The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton), Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck) and 1984 (George Orwell). However, when I read this....my mind was blown.
Blown.
This is seriously the funniest novel I've ever read. Which is saying a lot because more than once my sister looks like she wants to have me committed for laughing at a numerous number of books.
But seriously. Holden is one funny dude.
I don't think it's really suppose to be funny and I know a lot of people get pissed off at Holden for being a stupid, angsty, moody white boy who doesn't have any real problems and thus is depressed for no reason.
But I think people are missing the point when they say things like that. It is true that my inamorato  Holden is a disturbed young man who needs mental help. But...as an often melancholy person (don't look at me like that), I can often relate to him on a purely theoretical basis. Some of the things he said, are, a bit self seeking and black-and-white, but, well, it's something that I can relate to.
Now, I can hardly go a while without questioning someone's genuineness to be replaced with something else....wait for it....PHONY.

5.) Looking for Alaska & The Fault in Our Stars -- John Green; 2006 & 2012 respectively
I had to out these two together because for the life of me I simply cannot distinguish between them. I so adore John Green. I am of the opinion that he is a modern day J.D. Salinger (except a little more kind hearted, comical and philosophical).
The characters in these books are, of course, some of the best I've read and Green can write some ROMANCE. I mean, for a man, he is fabulous. FABULOUS.
And if look up top, you'll probably see one of his quotes because he is just that awesome. Seriously.

6.) The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 -- Christopher Paul Curtis; 1995
This is one of those childhood books. Wonderful wonderful wonderful. And before I read Catcher in the Rye, it was the funniest thing I'd ever read. The characterization was beautiful and it didn't take itself too seriously. It was devastating but, as a kid's author, Curtis made sure that the subject matter wasn't too much for a 5th grader like me (that was when I first read it).

7.) The Autobiography of Malcolm X -- Malcolm X & Alex Haley; 1965
I love Malcolm X. This is the book that made that happen. If Catcher in the Rye is the funniest book I've ever read, then Malcolm X is definitely the most moving. Malcolm X may seem like a pretty imposing figure to some. And I understand that. But after reading this (and watching the equally amazing movie) it's so much clearly why such a figure should not have died when and how he did.
Sometimes I think that liking Malcolm X so much and his story is wrong of me because I am a self proclaimed pacifist. But he didn't advocate violence. He was simply so fed up with how things were going for him and his people that he was willing to do anything to get he freedom African Americans deserve. That is beautiful and I honestly do not care to hear any contrary view on the matter.

8.) The Skin I'm In -- Sharon G. Flake;  2000
There's nothing I love more than a book where a character learns to love themselves. The Skin I'm In encounters many of the problems that many black youth often struggle with in terms of their self esteem relating to their skin tone. As an African American, I am often witness to others as dark or darker than I who often subconsciously believe that if they were lighter, they would be prettier; if they were not so dark, they would be more beautiful. This mindset disgusts me and the character in this book is constantly dealt with blows by people with similar mindsets. When I read this as a 4th grader, this was like the deepest book I'd ever laid hands on. It really stuck a cord with me and I can pick it up and just read it to this very day.

9.) Divergent and Co. -- Veronica Roth; 2011
Wonderful dystopia trilogy. It almost rivals The Hunger Games but Katniss gets seniority so...
But I do so love how Roth reps Chicago.

10.) (Tie) Forgotten -- Cat Patrick; 2011 and Ready, Player One --Ernest Cline; 2011
Strange, right? Who would have thought? But this is seriously one of the best I've ever read. Action, romance, mystery. Yayayaayayayaay.
Now as for Ready Player One, that is the nerd manual incarnate so I had to put it on here for principle's sake. Really adorable, epic book. 

Asymptotes and approaching them.

Well.

Now it seems that I am not the only one who reads this blog. Hmm isn't that fun? I know it's the Internet, that people can read whatever they want within means of their Google search. But...wow. Germany? I've never even Been to Germany (admittedly, I've been to Paris, France, but that is another story entirely). This is a big deal. Seriously.

But it's mostly a big deal because I feel like the only reason anyone read my blog in...Germany in the first place is because they were looking up some trig. or physics related thing -asymptotes, tan functions, limits, etc.- and my blog popped up, on, say the twenty fifth page of the results. Maybe. I don't know.

Or perhaps my title sparked interest and the viewers thought they'd be seeing a blog more though provoking than some random, inconsistent rants and Goodreads updates. Whatever the case, there are no deep thoughts on here. At least, not intentionally. I am not striving to open your eyes, here, or anything.

I do want to say why I chose the name of this blog in the first place: it was the summer time. Per usual, I was busting my butt, attempting to graph darn tangent functions (I still can't do that crap). I kept getting stuck on this thing called asymptotes and how they're something that the line -the tangent line- never reaches. Ever. I looked this up. I didn't understand how something could approach a thing and never actually reach it, just reaching forever and ever and...yeah. Eventually, I came up with the term, approaching infinity (I probably got it from Khan Academy or something because God help me, that's one of the only male voices I heard all summer).

It's a beautiful phrase, when you think about it. I mused over it, trying to conjure up the meaning behind it (you know, besides the boring math one). I didn't come up with it immediately. I did, however, change that to my Twitter location (lame, I know) and it's come to mind every time I'm reflecting how cool my bio is (not really).

And now, as I am writing this, I have come up with something.

WE ARE ALL APPROACHING INFINITY.

Each and every one of us. You. Your dog. Your crush. Your ex. Your mother. Your father. Your spouse or partner. Anyone that you know that is still living and breathing, is, by my estimates, are approaching infinity.


Let me explain: We're all dying at this moment. I'm not saying that in the Armageddon way or anything. But each breath we take, each action we accomplish, brings us one second closer to our deaths, whether we want to admit this or not (I admit that the thought scares me, as well). I guess it's okay to be afraid but it's something that happens to everyone, at some point, in some way. I am not trying to scare you, just stating a fact (and hey, if you're some immortal rebel, then you go on with your bad self). Anyway. At some point, we'll die and all that will lie before us is....eternity. There is only forever. If you will....infinity. Regardless of your religious beliefs -atheist, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, agnostic, whatever- in some form this must be true for you, correct? Well, if you believe that you're going to heaven or Paradise or something of that caliber (or that undesirable place down TheRe) than you, in essence, believe in forever, that despite that you'll still maintain a soul in the span of timeeeee after you perish, that there is no way that you can possibly be....aware of yourself in such a long time period. This is hard to explain, and undoubtedly does not make much sense. However, I guess what I am trying to say is that if you live in such a blissful state with no pain, death, hurt, sickness, heartbreak, etc. for such a long time, eventually or maybe even forever initially, you do not realize that you are even still YOU.

And if by some chance that you do not believe in God or heaven or hell at all then this concept should be easy to grasp: when you die, you are infinitely dead but you don't know it. So, in a sense, you are only approaching infinity in terms of your own consciousness, during that final moment of your life.

This approach, this almost-ness applies to life in general. Asymptotes are everything: true knowledge and understanding of the universe (although I think humans are so far on the lower end of such levels. We probably will always be), you, as a person. True happiness. Blah blah hardy har.

It is this, Germans and Chrome users and anyone else who maybe reads this, that makes up my title. I am approaching infinity. And so are you. We all are.

I said I wasn't going to be deep.

So...What now?

I've had a pretty interesting existence. Not happy. Not sad. Just interesting. Which I guess to some people translates to happy or sad or something in between but not for me.

I don't even know what I'm talking about.

For the last...six hours now I have been listening to my Grooveshark library (I've heard 'Ready or Not'- covered by Jackson 5 about three times now) and (pretending) to do my physics homework. I actually have been getting into it. Now I half way understand what capacitance,ampere, electric field strength and coulombs are. Kind of. Well perhaps the ounce of knowledge will be satisfactory for the finals I'll have to take soon. Maybe?

It's been months since I've blogged which makes sense because

1.) I am not entirely sure that I am not just talking to myself and thus blogging constantly should make someone question my sanity.

2.) I forgot that I had one.

3.)I forgot my password once I remembered that I had one.

4.) I've had school.

So as you (you being the operative word) can tell, I am not entirely active on here and that gives you more than enough reason not to pay any attention to me.

First Day

I'm blogging for the first time. I've had a blog before -or rather, still have, I suppose- and that's a Tumblr I've never used. Too complicated.

I know there probably won't be many people who will even read this. I don't know how anyone can anyway unless they just happen to be looking up any of the keywords of this blog.

That's okay, I talk to myself all the time.

I'll be posting my Goodreads reviews on here, you know, just to be doing something. So, have fun myself! :)