Control your anger, or it controls you

"You are moody."  I was told.

I'm not moody.  I think moody is someone that changes or have unpredictable moods.  And my mood is consistently low.

I think it may have been recklessly uttered because I am often mistaken to be angry.  I am not at all angry.  I just happened to have been born with a very somber facade.  In short, a serious expression.  And I have to admit that I rarely smile.  I read that it takes fewer muscles to smile than it is to frown.  I guess I burn more calories than most people who are lazy enough not to develop their frowning muscles.  However, the number of muscles it takes to frown or smile is still unverified even at this age.  Besides, someone else's smile may be another one's smirk or another one's grin.  The Joker from Batman, and the Grinch from Dr. Seuss' book both have grin from ear to ear.  Yet I am not so comfortable by their supposed smile.  Something suggests that I should neither trust any of them.  It is quite alarming.

The ancient philosopher Seneca said " Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it."  So it's better to control anger.  But how to?  That is the question.

If we can't control our anger, can I suggest the following techniques?  Yes, I think there's an effective way to control anger.  I just have not proven its effectiveness yet.  I think that the best thing to do is to schedule your anger.  Read that as the Brits would pronounce it, "shed-yool."  It's much more classy the way the Brits say it than the Americans do.  You may make it a habit to get angry every nine-o-clock in the morning.  Scheduling (again, "shed-yooling") your anger makes you more consistent and predictable.  People will know when or when not to approach you.  This may also be an effective technique if you have a lot of things to finish and don't want to be disturbed, then feign anger.  Even if you woke happy and had a good dream the night before, make it appear that you are angry.  People will hesitate to approach you.  I think nine-o-clock in the morning may be the best time to schedule it.  Right after you finished drinking coffee and others who are late would still be tinkering with their computer, or reading the emails that were sent the previous day.  Being angry late in the day is quite exhausting.  Besides, you don't want to be exhausted and angry going home, seated on a bus besides angry and exhausted people who may just be looking for a reason to unleash their energy.  Being angry and exhausted at noon is a bad combination.

To make this effective, I suggest you keep a daily log, or a journal if you must.  Learning is the key and consistency it's brother.

There is also another variation for this technique.  You may opt to direct your anger towards only one person.  This is useful if you want to get along with everyone else.  Blaming someone else is the method commonly followed by psychologist.  This method known as Pyschological projection was first developed by Sigmund Freud.  It is the act of denial of one's own attribute, thoughts and emotions, and ascribe it to something external such as weather, government or even other people.  It is also popularly known as Freudian projection because psychologists who followed Freud's theory eventually realized there are some shortcomings for this theory, and so blamed Freud for it.  It is also a practice to direct one's anger towards inanimate objects.  But in our case, let's try to do it towards the animate, meaning live person.  It is much more fun this way because you can observe how that object of your experiment would react.

Be careful however that if you direct your anger towards one person who does not know how to implements the techniques I have mentioned, he may not be able to control his anger like you do, and so react in a manner you may not expect.  This is of course expected.  But you may share this technique to him and hope that he will be enlightened to control his anger.  Just like you do.

Now, I have to caution you though that it takes much effort to do it.  I admit there are instances that I forget to be angry and not be consistent about it.  Yes, it takes effort.  But with the right attitude and perspective, it can be done.

An anecdote on prayer

I find this anecdote amusing, and interesting.  I read it from the book The Grand Weaver, by Ravi Zacharias, on a topic on prayer.

In our understanding of prayer, I fear we take one finger of it and think we have the whole fist.  Years ago, I heard a story about the well-known Indian Christian mystic Bakht Singh.  As he and his associate walked many miles to a conference where he was to speak, a Hindu stopped Bakht Singh and challenged him.  "We are in a drought, and you say that God answers prayer.  If your God really exists, why don't you ask him right now to send us rain?"  Bakht Singh is said to have responded, "If I pray for rain and God answers, will you become a follower or Jesus?"  The man took on the dare and said that he would.  As Bakht Singh was about to kneel down in the dust, his assistant placed his hand on his shoulder and said, "Do you really think you should be praying now, when we still have miles to walk and didn't bring our umbrellas with us?  Why don't you wait until we reach our destination?

Read the book by Ravi Zacharias, The Grand Weaver: How God Shapes Us through the Events in Our Lives

Learn more about Ravi Zacharias and his ministries at http://www.rzim.org/

If one wishes to be a steward in God's house, he must first be prepared to serve as a scullion in the kitchen

Do not think of waiting until you can do some great thing for God; do little things, and then the Master will bid you go higher. Eleven years ago, I was a addressing Sunday-school children, and these alone. Ten,-nine years ago, I was preaching in little insignificant rooms here and there, generally going out and coming back on foot, and occasionally getting a lift in a cart. It has often happened that, when I have been going out to certain villages, the brooks would be so swollen that they could not be crossed in the usual way, so I would pull off my shoes and stockings, wade through up to my knees, then try to make myself tidy again as I best could, and go on to the little chapel to preach, and return home in the same way. Now, I am perfectly sure that, if I had not been willing to preach to those small gatherings of people in obscure country places, I should never have had the privilege of preaching to thousands of men and women in large buildings all over the land. If one wishes to be a steward in God's house, he must first be prepared to serve as a scullion in the kitchen, and be content to wash out the pots and clean the boots. Remember our Lord's rule, "Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."'

This is a thought provoking quote from Charles H. Spurgeon, a 19th century evangelist prominent for his lectures and sermons.  These are some things i gather from reading the quote:
1. Do not wait for opportunities to do great things for God.
2. Big opportunities begin from even the most menial tasks.
3. Be humble.
4.  God exalts those who humble themselves.
5.  It is God who exalts, not us.

Eggplant has nicotine, there is water on the moon and googol is a very large number

Just some random and trivial items I discovered.
Eggplant belongs to the same family as that of tomato and potato. It is botanically classified as a berry.  It is a distant relative of tobacco and contains insignificant amount of nicotine that it would take 9 kilos of eggplant to equal the nicotine content of a standard sized cigarette.  This seems a good excuse for me for not eating eggplants.
Very recently, on November 13 2009, NASA announced the discovery of water on the moon.  NASA Spacecraft LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) discovered beds of water ice when it impacted the moon on October 9, 2009.  According to NASA LCROSS Project Site, “The Mission Objectives of LCROSS include confirming the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed crater at the Moon’s South Pole.”  It also mentioned that “the identification of water is very important to the future of human activities on the Moon.”   I suppose there is a hope that in the very near future, astronauts will be able to take a good shower in the moon.
The name "Google" originated from a misspelling of "googol," which refers to the number represented by a 1 followed by one-hundred zeros.  In mathematical terms, one googol can either be represented either as 10¹⁰⁰ or 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
Due to its popularity, the company name Google became widely used as a verb that it was officially added to both the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary and Oxford English Dictionary.  Merriam-Webster Online defines Google as “to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web.”  Of course, I was able to get this information by googling it.

 

Monday blues

What is it with Mondays that it always seems difficult to wake up early?  Time seems to slow and I can’t wait to get out of work.  The chocolate in my cup is cold and almost half empty. Or half full if one wants to imply a positive outlook by means of measuring the liquid contents of a glass, or cup for this matter.  I need another cup.

 

The task I’m doing at the moment seems to be taking time.  I have done this before, the same day and time as last week.  But it seems that the more I do the same activity, the more it becomes boring.  Perhaps I should be drinking coffee instead.