status reads: is not happy.

It sucks to feel like you're not wanted.

It sucks to feel like that despite knowing that it isn't true.

but then it's assuring to know that you're always fine in your own bubble. alone.

Noise: Saturated Love by The Locust

open up.

Noise: Are You Alright by Lucinda Williams.

they'll keep searching.

It's comforting, yet disturbing. The faces of the people around, be they friends or strangers, all have an existential hunger for meaning in life. It makes me unnaturally happy to know that they are searching because even though I am glad they want more, for some reason I suspect they won't ever be content.

On a separate note, I find that over a period of time, if I have been more introspective, it's almost like I forget how to socialize. So when I am in a big group, I have to start learning all over again.

It's tiring. I'd rather be alone.

Noise: Strangers Again by Ari Hest.

Honesty.

They have said that it is hard to believe a man is telling the truth, if you would lie if you were in his position.

It's true.

Which is why it is so refreshing to believe someone, because you know you'd tell the truth too.

'Which of us is dreaming,

and who will wake up screaming?'

Noise: Parachute by Sean Lennon

If you're my queen, it's a beautiful thing.

Finally, in this remote villate, his quest ended.
There, by the fire, sat Truth.
Never had he seen an older, uglier woman.
"Are you Truth?"
The wizened, wrinkled hag nodded.
"What message can I take from you to the world?" he pleaded.
She replied, spitting into the fire,
"Tell them I am young and beautiful."
- Robert Tompkins

It's hard to say exactly when it happened, but gradually my want for conversation has become an increasingly important entity in my life. It is starting to dictate my decisions, to distort my sense of myself, and, is about to eventuate into a constant, droning, hopeless backdrop against with everything else occurs. It's starting to become all these things in the form a voice, a voice that is telling me that I am never going to find good conversation because there is something fatally flawed in me and that I might as well just face it.

I could go on about the people I have met who have somewhat measured up to some of all of my conversation-fantasy, but the truth is that the minutiae of many of my encounters aren't that interesting. Most of them start to seem the same in retrospect and eventually exhaust me. When they were taking place, each word weighed lightly. Maybe that is what makes them seem the same, in the end: They were not real.

So how do I live? I thrive off the memories. The way they used to listen, the things conversations used to say, the extent of their responsiveness; I would replay these details over and over, and live on them, use them as touchstones to brighten up my day in a bittersweet way.

I may seem like I am pining for a lost love, but what I really am doing is just trying to find my way back into the whirl of genuine social activity. This place is, after all, the only place - apart from Manhattan/London - I know of that moves at the speed of panic. So right now all I can do to escape this predicament is to distract myself with plans for the future. And that is something that I am attacking with a zeal that is beginning to border on compulsion.

x
Noise: Change Your Mind, Sister Hazel.

It's a crisp yet cordial morning.

So I sit here, at 7.30am, in the middle of the business canteen with my cup of tea and sandwich, and type away to the rhythm of the classical music that harmonizes in the background.

I wonder why I don't do this more often - come to school early that is. It's so peaceful and cheery, even with the grey skies, glistening grass and chilly breeze.

It's a pity I don't have the chance to fully embrace this moment; such a rarity that tea and classical music alone can cut through my benumbed senses. But I've got an article to rush.

Blame it on the weatherman.

x

Noise: Classical, Media Biz.

Just Joy.

The idea of happiness is about a few centuries old.. People from years ago (and today, too) thought that happiness came from 'things' that gave them a sense of purpose or feeling of elation. But today, happines is just a state of mind. The happiness that comes from within, the one we all seek after, is joy.

Joy is a sense of meaning and purpose and it serves to comfort and calm. If you just glance at our socienty, you will notice that people are looking for bigger, better cars, richer friends, 'cooler' contacts and bigger breasts. So few are happy or contented with what they have; the things they need. No matter how rich or how poor people are, we always want more.
I read somewhere that scientists have found that babies who smile or laugh a lot have a lot of left frontal activity in their brain.
Joyful people tend to have a lot more friends, and find it easier to get people to cooperate with them.
Optimists expect only the best, and so they perform better to achieve their state of happiness and impression of joy.
Some people are happy just by doing the simple things that they love to do on a constant basis.
Close relationships with a person also gives a sense of joy and happiness, as you feel connected to that person and know that you are thought about and loved.
Extroverts who surround themselves with people are usually more joyful. They find excuses to laugh and interact with others and this makes them happy.

Personally, I don't find happiness just by laughing or being humourous, as humour is fleeting and eventually gives way to the emptiness that was always there.
Happiness doesn't come from drugs, sex and alcohol. These things don't give anybody a purpose, they serve no meaning or function, and they don't comfort. So when you say, 'I'm happy' or 'I'm filled with joy', what does that mean? What do I gain by being happy if there is no joy?

Honestly, I don't know what happiness means to me because it is only temporary.

Joy however, is my strength. It is what keeps me going when I realize that without all the materials in life, I am nothing.
Because he is with me, and I am successful because he is with me. I can speak to the walls, and they may not listen, but he's always with me.

And in that Joy I find my comfort, I find my meaning and my purpose, and most of all I find the love and the peace that allows me to approach everything in life with equanimity.

Joy is the essential heartbeat of existence.

x

Noise: Skin and Bones, Foo Fighters.