to the people of the world (or readers of this blog),

Due to recent computer-related trouble, i've been unable to access my bounty of photos and as a result, posts that i publish until i get my harddrive working again will be lacking in any form of visual stimulation.

In recent days I've come to realize one thing - That hedonism, like escapism, is an essential element in our lives that no man can do without, whether voluntary or not. You can't avoid something as all-encompassing as this, because the human psyche has been moulded such that we will almost surely walk down the path of pleasure over that of pain. In fact any road you take, whether you consider it "cleansing" in nature or not, will lead you to the same end, and as such qualifies my point. We diet to look good and to feel good. It's not as if we put ourselves through the torture of restricting our diet just because we want to feel the kick of exercising self-restraint. Similarly, a man who indulges in a life of promiscuity does so because it leaves him satisfied and might even justify his existence (lets assume he's suffering from chronic testicular cancer, and as such, shagging someone would be an assertion of his authority as a man, complete with functional gonads). Saints and sinners differ not when it comes to so-called sacrifice because we're all governed by very different ideals, and the fact remains that we all strive to attain an end which we perceive will leave us in a higher state of satisfaction than before. Hedonism isn't a lifestyle, it's the degree to which we perceive another's actions are unjustifiably selfish and individualistic. That's not to say that hedonism leads us to nowhere, of course. Where would we be without Einstein, who admitted that science to him was like an addiction? Or Jane Goodall and her obsession with gorillas? Bill Gates, or even Michael Jackson (and his music)? These people would have been judged differently if we were to compare them based on the same spectrum of moral values, but clearly their lack of concern for a fixed set of ideals and their passion to pursue their respective interests has left us with a lot more than we bargained for. I guess to me, hedonism is a just a form of pursuing one's passion, and how it manifests in each of us matters not as long as we can be responsible for our actions and answerable to ourselves.



yep. that killed off plenty of brain cells. anyway i managed to find a picture i took the same night of the Colors Award Ceremony. It's a little fuzzy, but i think it's calming.