Variance

Variance in behavior. What is variance ? It is subtle differences from one object, or living being in this context, to the other. Or thats what I would like it to be. Differences. What makes us different from each other ? Genes ? Culture ? Upbringing ? Experience ? Social status ? Education ? If it is just looks that are concerned, then we can attribute looks to genes. Genes, as we know, play an important part in how or who we end up looking like. But behavior is not something that genes decide, behavior is formed as we go along. It is picked up, as we often say. "Yeah, he picked up that dirty habit of his from his uncle". But then what is habit if its not repetitive behavior ? But something has to be repetitive if its to be called behavior. Lets take for example the environment that i'm in now. There are lots of people here from various backgrounds, races and cultures. Dont take me for a racist now, I'm not. This is crucial for the topic that I'm talking about. I'm at a Nasi kandar if you're wondering. Every Malaysian should know what is a Nasi kandar, and i'm sure almost 99% have been to at least one, at least once. It is not only a good place to hang out with friends but also a good place to watch people. Lets not to deviate from our topic. Its a perfect collection of random people, not like the random people they pick out for some experiments, but random enough for my study. Study on behavior. I look around and I see people, all seated, and lets take a look at what people do when they talk. There are 2 major groups, those that use their hands and those that do not use their hands while they talk.

Lets start to observe those that keep their hands down, those that dont actively use their hands when they talk. Some place it on their thighs, some on their abdomen, some just interlock their hands not letting their hands touch anything else except their other hand. There are some who hold the chair with both hands, some who clutch their mobile phones and some who just let their arms hang, almost lifeless at their sides. Some of them just grip the table like its either them or the table that is gonna topple over, there are ones that keep touching their hair and face like their on the evening news, some even busily typing away on their mobile, which is what I'm doing by the way. Most of them hold cigarettes by the way, its one way to hide what you actually would do with your hands when you are talking. There is a small number of them who absolutely have to touch someone else, especially girls with their boyfriends or husbands. And finally, the ones that I've labelled as actively using their hands while talking. I'm not going to elaborate further on that group as it would take another entire passage to describe how they use their hands while talking, you know how expressive they can be, their hands I mean, waving in their air as they talk. What contributes to the variance in behavior when talking ? Is it any of the factors that i deduced ? Why people behave the way that they do ? Does it have any resemblance to their their pattern of speech ? The topic that is going on ? Or is it simply an extension of how they feel at that moment ? I would like to think so. Whatever it is, humans exhibit endless variance. Now, I am hungry, and I haven't even started on variance in eating habits yet.

Change

Penang island from Butterworth coastal highway, New Year 2008
(click on it for a better view)

My first entry, in my first blog. About a year ago, I would have said "What blog ? Why ?". But that has changed now because of someone's blog, someone who I think loves to write too, someone that I cherished the company of for the past few weeks. That single blog motivated me to start this blog of mine. I have always loved writing, just never thought that I could or would blog. Why have I changed my mind on blogging ? Read on, its about change.

We all know that change is upon us. Every single one of us, no matter who or what we are destined for, if there is such as thing as destiny pre-written for each one of us. How to change change is beyond our human capabilities and comprehension, yet there are many believers who think that they are capable of controlling the very changes that come upon them.

One thing that I've learned throughout these years of coursing through my meagre existence, that I choose to call my life or maybe fragments of what's left of it anyway, is that changes are inevitable. As inevitable as the sun rising in the mornings or the millions of stars peeking out at night. In fact, change itself is prone to changes just as much as we are prone to change itself.

Change can be as predictable as a cycle of things that happen, like the weather which is seasoned no matter how random it may seem at times, or just as random and unpredictable as a meteor shower, which I myself have never seen before. I have learned to accept changes as part of my life, be it for good or bad, change is what keeps us human, fragile, colorful in our personalities and full of emotions that makes each one of us unique. Without change, human life would be stagnant; like the plants people would say, I disagree. Even plants undergo changes, for example, the weather poses a threat of change for plants just as other living things. Rock. That is what human life would be equivalent to without change. Yes, plain, solid, immobile, emotionless and generic rocks.

To go with the flow has been my motto all along, although there has been times when I was subjected to inescapable rules that bind and monotony of daily routines. But there are moments in life when the opportunity arrives where each of us is presented with a choice, a forked path that either leads us into or away from the norm of life. There is no correct path to take, no matter how hard we think, as either path will only lead to more forked paths along the journey.

It's not about the correct or wrong choices that we make now at this juncture, but it's more about living with the choices that we make, making the most of it.

So let's welcome change in our life and let it take us where our dreams are waiting for us.