Curious Curio

[cure-yo-curio]

"Homecoming"

At some point in our lives, we pondered with the thought of what life would be like if another place would be our home. Being Gen Z born, I share with my generation the search of home and our own true individual selves. For some reason, it felt like being a misfit became a trend, as if the glitch of birth mismatch becomes more intentional.

A lot of people feel like they are incompatible with their family or country for sure, and this spearheads the questioning on the notion of home. Is home really a point of place where we begin? Or is it a mission goal where we usher our soul towards?

I would like to refer to Fujii Kaze's Kaerou to help put essence in this ponder post. You see, this song reached so many people as a genuinely healing message. I would say it has a strong influence in conquering over our egoistic and hate-filled tendencies.

Every time I listen to this song, I always picture this music video in my head where a version of me wearing a kimono woke up in the middle of a forest on his quest to "free" the other versions of himself that are chained to the sufferings of the past.

In this MV that I imagined in my head, several places were visited as settings here. These places included my slums hometown, my prestigious high school, my next hometown where I spent time with my friends, my college before I dropped out, my current residence, as well as the main park of my country. In every place, there will be a version of me to represent my bad experiences in each place, through the showcase of different clothing and aesthetics.

I would appear as a dirty beggar in my slums hometown, an ostracized nerd in my highschool, an underestimated friend in the next hometown, a hated student in my college, a mistreated and abused child in my current residence, and a horned-version of myself wearing my country's traditional clothing covered in blood and scars.

Throughout this MV, my scenes were all about the kimono-wearing self giving those other versions of me one last hug in different approaches, but with the same empathy just to set them free and disperse into the winds of peace. It ends with me waking up to another day in Japan.

I've expressed my desire to strive for home, and I think there is a basis in saying "home is where the heart is". I love Japan, not just because of mainstream media, but because of its nature's influence, culture, and language. I feel healed whenever I do activities related to Japan. I do appreciate my birth country still with its food and language, but Japan just hits harder and closer to home and my inner child's yearnings. I never experienced the genuine feeling of family and home, but I felt a strong pull to become that parent I never get to have and build a home experience that I never get to be born with.

Homecoming is a mission of journey and introspection. You might even find your true sense of home in a foreign country. While success feels good, succeeding in homecoming is a transcendent feeling.

Nothing will beat saying the words "I'm home" in a place that you actively chose and built for yourself.

[cure-yo-curio]

The Fourth Dimension is something we can't perceive with the eyes.

After putting much thought, we can only imagine what the fourth dimension affects.

When we think of the word "expansion", we usually think of things that scale larger than another. When we use modeling software, we have been always familiar about tweaking the X, Y, and Z-axis to move or resize our objects to a desired direction or orientation. Considering the changes when we tweak such tools, I thought that it would be counted as an event of expansion.

When we put a square in the modeling software, we can see its set measures in every face, edge, and side. However, tweaking the X-axis could move or resize the square into a forward-stretched elongated rectangle. It might have changed the entire shape, but the face that comprised of measurements from the Y and Z-axis remained unchanged. Even when moving the object, the Y and Z positions remain the same.

We could observe the same when we move the Y-axis instead. We could also observe it when we move two axes simultaneously. Suppose that we move both the X and the Z-axis, the width and the position of the Y-axis would still remain the same.

This explains that a three-dimensional object, that we see naturally, can be morphed and moved into different directions. But, to morph the entire figure, it would require the modifications of all three axes. Otherwise, one axis will remain the same.

Now, going back to the thought of expansion. When we put negative values to modify the axes, we don't immediately perceive it as an event of expansion. Rather, for us, we would automatically see it as the opposite -- contraction. When something becomes smaller, it's not expansion. But similarly, contraction can be affected by moving or resizing an object with negative values.

When the square becomes a thinner rectangle by shrinking the X-axis measurement, the Y and Z-axis measurement would still remain the same like how the object would if expanded in the same fashion.

Now, we have been thinking about what the fourth dimension looks like. Personally, I saw a resemblance to how we understood Schrodinger's Cat theory. We will never know how the cat is doing unless we look inside the box. So while the box remains unopened, assumptions can only be made.

Judging by examining the three-dimensions of the cat-containing box, it remains unchanged regardless of the events that could already take place for the cat.

But what if the box was to be expanded and/or contracted? It would still be the same Schrodinger's Cat theory, except we cannot be certain anymore that it's only the cat inside the box. The cat here, could be what the inside of the box contains. It could also contain something else.

This is the idea behind the fourth dimension. I even personally think that we are affected by the fourth dimension. The smaller components that we have and us being part of a larger component, could be the fourth dimension. We can measure the three-dimensional sizes of the Earth, but the fourth dimension could only be assumed at best when viewing the Earth from an outer space perspective. We wouldn't know the exact state of the global population.

Similar to our own physiology, the fourth dimension could apply to the changes in our body. Molecules and bacteria are part of the fourth dimension that could be inside of us.

Given this, how are we supposed to manipulate an object in all four dimensions? The answer is: we can't. We can only manipulate an object in all three dimensions. Because to manipulate all four dimensions, we would have to simultaneously manipulate what comprises the object while we manipulate it's three-dimensional properties. The fourth dimension cannot be modified unless we can directly modify what's inside a solid enclosed object. It can also remain fixed as we modify the three-dimensional properties.

Even things outside the object counts as part of the fourth dimension. It did not mean that what's inside the object multiplied or expanded, it remained fix unless the fourth dimensional properties went through a change by itself like liquid turning into solid by natural freezing.

In conclusion, the fourth dimension is something that cannot be manipulated by physical means. It could be one of the unperceivable dimensions where it can be manipulated through the changes of properties.

[cure-yo-curio]

Does "doing your best" really bring out the "best"?

"I'll do my best."

It's undoubtedly one of the most common mantras people resort to in order to feel confident about themselves. Putting the word "best" has also been a common pattern in uplifting and motivational advices. While others can just tell you to be the best person you can be, in reality, not many are convinced that they can manifest their "best". It turns out, that putting your mind to the idea of being the best often causes confusion in different ways.

Suppose that you are competing in a large-scale competition, and you let yourself feel the competitive vibe with other competitors. They set themselves up to be able to perform confidently at their best. You would probably do the same while you condition your mind that you will bring out your best. That's the normal scenario in a competition. As someone who competed a lot of times during my grade school to high school education, the thrill of competition always feels like this and competitors are most often set to be driven.

But not everyone will win in that specific competition, no matter how you scale up your idea of "best" compared to others. Let's imagine a situation where you actually won the competition --- it would feel as if our best has been validated. It's a heartfelt testament that our hard work paid off. However, looking at the other contestants who lost, we could say that they also brought their best.

But it cannot be avoided that there will be other competitors who took the loss very hard to the point that it frustrates them and sees their "best" as more of a fraud. That is because the idea of doing our best is often misleading.

We can visualize it by imagining your childhood's best work, may it be as dictated by your friends or family, while comparing it to your current best work, as perceived by your current friends or even yourself. Of course, we will always see for ourselves that the current best work is much more of a best than the one from our childhood. However, we might be tricked into thinking that our current best work is the best that we've had. That idea of having a "prime" or "peak" is what often sets us up to do worse. We basically put limits on ourselves while decorating it in a way that we see it as our best.

If we go back to the competition scenario, it would make sense to take the loss very hard despite doing his best. Because for that competitor, that's the best he could ever give yet he lost. When in reality, he barred himself behind limits over a one-time competition. Competitions vary, so are criteria and judges. So that brings us to the next point, that the best is just an ego-centered construct.

When it comes to ego, we think of ourselves. Anything that concerns ourselves can be considered personal and subjective. Let's say you're having an art practice, and after finishing your current draft, you got hit with the realization that it was your best draft among the others. However, your peers might jump in to say that they think your previous draft was much better and is more suitable as the best. Your best and their perception of your best are different in this case. That is because we have different perspectives and criteria in perceiving things. This is subjectivity, and the idea of best is also subject to subjectivity (pun not intended).

Now, it might confuse you that a superlative description is subjective which means that there is such a thing as "more than best". The truth is, the best does not exist and one can only become better and better again and again.

If we go back to the competition scenario, and you now put yourselves inside the shoes of the competitor who lost. With the "better" mindset, you would think that your earlier sentiment of your best is not really all that you can offer. It's because you removed the limit disguising as your "best", opening you to more opportunities to become better and improve. You will become more driven to join upcoming competitions, and since the victors are uncertain next time, you might get a shot in winning while you take the path of continuous improving.

Sometimes, we feel great being labelled as the best or having a scale where we can judge for ourselves what is the best that we've ever done. While that's a huge acknowledgement, taking the path of being "better" and removing your limits expands the weight of your acknowledgement and self-assurance. It also ensures that you won't be led into complacency. Besides, it's far more motivational to improve for the better instead of pressuring yourself for the best.

So the next time you enter a competition again, it's always an option to say "I'll be better this time."

[cure-yo-curio]

A pioneering adventurer shining light onto absurd thinking.

Greetings, Tumblr community! I'm Curious Curio.

Few things to know about me: 🍀 I'm 21 years of age and a man 🍀 I aspire to become an author (and even a manga illustrator since I really like the idea of being a one-man creator of some work 😂) 🍀 From the Philippines 🇵🇭 🍀 An ENTP

I started Tumblr to write and post blogs about my thoughts in regards to day-to-day life and my personal encounters, experiences, and lessons, ranging from ordinary happenings to the normally unconventional to the personally absurd. Being relatively new to Tumblr, I have this idea that it's worthwhile to use this platform to create blogs for engagement. Additionally, I also wanted to pursue freelance writing so this is definitely a big help in building a writing portfolio I can pitch out for my potential clients. I'm looking forward to interact with everyone! :)

In case you're wondering, what really will my blogs contain?

Luckily, due to my streak of inspiration, I have planned out several things that I wanted to tackle in my next few blogs: 🍀 Ponder-related posts -- is someone really fine with just doing his/her "best"? are you really "boring" just because you failed to make striking, interesting conversations with certain people? 🍀 Fictional narrative posts -- what if the world becomes obsessed with the idea of pairs that anything has to be perfectly made even, where everything (when numbered) is divisible by two? 🍀 Fictional monologues -- how are people familiar with this so-called "love" while I spent eternities finding out that it's something exclusively uncharted for me? 🍀 Philosophical absurdities -- have you ever wondered that maybe the fourth dimension is a matter of within and without? have you ever wondered that the universe is also infinitely small?

I just really thought of making an introductory post by now since I have messed up my post drafts multiple times where I would press CTRL+Z and it undoes my post-in-progress to an irreversible state, forcing me to kind of start over. But again, nice to meet everyone!