#cynicallyjaded

[distilled-wisdom]

Cynical is when you feel happiness and focus on its fleeting nature. Jaded is when you experience its fleeting nature and you tell yourself, “I told you so.”

Zaid Ismail

[distilled-wisdom]

About that url change

Cynically Jaded defined my online persona for so long that it's weird trying to relate to this new url that I've chosen. I can see people assuming that it's a pompous self-image relative to the ramblings that I share, but to be honest, I don't care. (I love saying that by the way. People curse me at the office for saying that when they share problems with me that are not really my problem to sort out.)

Anyway, I think that every life is a source of distilled wisdom. I think that books are the entire opposite in many ways, but ironically enough, they contribute significantly towards that distilled wisdom that I'm referring to. Distilled wisdom because if we just live a life that is well observed, which by default demands a high level of mindfulness, we'll be able to articulate the sum of our struggles in a single line that will serve as insightful provocation for others to avoid the same mess. That way, if we all applied that approach, we'd all have time to create entirely new and more creative messes that have not been created before. But, alas, we would rather make our own mistakes, and therein lies the rub.

The rub is irrelevant if you're oblivious to the fact that you're being rubbed. Nonetheless, your obliviousness, if observed by another, becomes a source for their distilled wisdom, so we're all good, even when we're not.

Damn, it seems like even though I may have dropped the url, the traits of being cynically jaded are still well entrenched in my ways.

[roxygen]

brassmanticore said: I want all of the tropical plants. And roses. But cactuses are about all that will grow here. I still want venus flytraps.

cynicallyjaded said: Stick to cacti! :)

Actually cacti and things like succulents can be harder to take care for me of due to their low maintenance.  You have to bridge the gap of not over-watering and causing root-rot versus neglect. Also, lighting is a weird balance. I have a succulent and you would think that some sun would do it good, but I have had to place it at a weird angle by the window to get some, but not a lot. I want to get a cactus at some point, but I haven't found the one I want yet.

Venus fly traps are so cool. I just got a hibiscus. I'm worried because I tend to be attracted to plans that do well in drier climates and I live in the swampy Mid-Atlantic. I have seen many hibiscuses in Morocco, so I don't know how this is going to do. I love it though. I need to monitor it closely. My mother used to have one, so it may end up alright.

I'm going to be keeping it indoors.

[strifemars]

cynicallyjaded said: Not having kids won’t stop the cycle. Having kids and raising them differently will. And it will make the adults stop and pay attention. :)

I'm not confident my kids can be as understanding as i am now coz the hardships of my family shaped me into a better person. However in the future, i may want to prevent such hardships from happening to my parents. I used to be so self-centred and attention-seeking that it's scary.

But if i do have kids, i'll try my best to assess their growth. However, with technology and media nowadays i just don't feel safe. How cartoons nowadays seemed to reinforce in finding the one true love without addressing the little one's need to discover their inner self is an issue our generation didn't have in the past. 

[thetruthsiren]

cynicallyjaded said: Just sounds like a professor with his own agenda. And yes, I would agree that this is one of the reasons why there is a negative connotation, and also why western sources can’t be trusted.

Yeah :( I think I'll give it one more shot, the next few lectures are just on Quran and seerah so iA everything should be consistent. 

[the-art-of-protest]

Recommended Blogs

I answered this question on Arabswagger, but I figured I might as well, put this out there, these blogs have mostly to do with Muslim/Arab/Middle Eastern/South Asian affairs or even general politics. These blogs are similar to the content of my blog, so enjoy:

1. http://lilyjoon.tumblr.com/

2. http://partytilfajr.tumblr.com/

3. http://tmihijabi.tumblr.com/

4. http://cynicallyjaded.tumblr.com/

5. http://ammarmali.com/

6. http://mehreenkasana.tumblr.com/

7. http://mohandasgandhi.tumblr.com/

8. http://maarnayeri.tumblr.com/

9. http://naasirheydari.tumblr.com/

10. http://mayflowrs.tumblr.com/

11. http://dnarmi.tumblr.com/

12. http://313-hopeful.tumblr.com/

13. http://thebeautyofislam.tumblr.com/

14. http://the-cerebral-magician.tumblr.com/

15. http://thegreaterjihad.tumblr.com/

[roxygen]

cynicallyjaded replied to your post: Sometimes people ask you to help them edit...

Hmmm… you don’t say…? O.o

I know what you're getting at, Zaid. :(

[classicalnewb]

Music, poetry, and abstraction

cynicallyjaded asked: I'm not entirely in agreement with your comments about music being more pure than words (I'm paraphrasing :)). I think they're equal considering how many times the same human sentiments about love and life have been expressed but in different ways, that till this very moment, someone's take on an old theme still touches the heart in different ways than something similar that may have been said a hundred years ago. Music, in my mind, is the same. Different compilations, similar effect.

Hm, I understand your point and I do agree to an extent. Yes, words are very strong and timeless tools and I personally use them more as a medium than music. But I would disagree with the last sentence. I don’t think the effects are similar. I’d say it has a lot to do with the ambiguity of music. When you’re affected by words, to a certain degree, you can pinpoint why. You can say that these words strung together create a beautiful imagery in your mind. You can also say that the message the words are conveying is something you can relate to or feel strongly about. For instance, whenever I read these lines by Anne Sexton:

… and when we touch we enter touch entirely. No one’s alone. Men kill for this, or for as much.

I am moved. But I can tell you why, though I admit, not definitely. I can tell you that it’s the combination of words and the explicit message I get from it. Yes, it can be argued that words are sometimes used to mean something only implicitly, but you can figure it out and dissect it and argue about it on the basis of the text.

But music is different. The effect it has on you is unexplainable in a way that you really can’t say with considerable certainty why you’re moved to feel a specific way by a music piece. You can say that the crescendo makes you nervous, or the melody makes you sad, but ultimately, you have to ask why and how. There is nothing specifically attached to each part of a musical piece, as in words, yet most of the time, you feel what the composer wants you to feel. I listen to Gymnopedie and I am sometimes moved to tears, but the best explanation that I can give you is that it’s beautiful. I can’t tell you what the notes mean per se, but I can tell you what it says to me without saying anything at all. That is where I think the freedom of music lies. Like I said, there’s ambiguity in it, so you can take it and make it more personal. It’s like the composer is merely your guide as you tell the story of the music. It’s yours for the taking more completely than words.

I’ll say this over and over again. Words are chosen by the artist with preciseness, but limitations are already part of the words. As ambiguously as they may have been used, as in poetry, the artist still points you to the exact direction. The nuances arise only from the different experiences of people that allow them to take one interpretation over the other. Notes are also chosen with preciseness, but notes are not innately limited. The direction can never be certain. Music is the man pointing you to the general east when you ask for directions.

Thank you for your thoughts, though. :) I love honest responses to my thoughts. I’d have to say, to, and maybe you agree, words still have a way of haunting me.

Let me make two quick points. The first one is that music does have semantic content the way words have, although its semantic content is a lot weaker that the content of words. There is certain music that we associate with ideas and emotions that we associate them as such by convention. Are the minor keys sadder per se? I don't know. I do know that the minor keys are often used in European cultures to communicate sadness. The second one is that although music lacks the precise semantic meaning of words, music is more physically real than words.  it is a lot more immersible since we experience music with our ears and through our body and skin. Unlike words, which have to be decoded, the vibrations are the message. Looking at it from this perspective, words are more abstract than music is.