Losing is nothing more than learning, but still yet we fear losing what we have so much. - Something I thought of today after Yang totally kicked my ass in a 1v1 Starcraft game. I only beat yang 17.5% of the time (I calculated our gaming ratio), but in some matches I've beaten him by nearly 200% - it's funny how it works. (I like it when I lose in games . . . it gives me the opportunity to learn while I can still press the reset button and not mess up when it really counts in life. The next obvious argument one would use against that statement would be, "Is life not a game?")

I just got back from the city, and today brings nothing but good news. My grandma reached stable condition and will be released to rehabilitation. The exception to this nothing but good news is that her life expectancy is still very low because she is requiring an incredible amount of oxygen, and the chance of heart failure is extremely high due to the pulmonary fibrosis. All this is hard, and stressful, but to be quite honest very predictable. One must not despair over things out of his abilities to stop - this is the path fate has chosen, and so it will be.

"I walk along the avenue, I never thought I'd meet a girl like you. The cloud is blooming because of you, aurora borealis blooms because of you." - A Flogk Of Seagulls: Iran (Die Krupps Remix) - And yes, it's Flogk. I felt like posting the quote not because I've met someone, but because not only does the music of the song strike me as amazing, but also the concept is very happy and positive. I don't have to think that this song was dedicated necessarily to a girlfriend - but perhaps to some girl that the author saw going by in some car and saw as striking, or perhaps his mother, his grandmother. For me, I see everyone to be amazing - everyone to have amazing talents and capabilities. This is one of my reasons for saying to one who has no hope, "All humans have the realm of possibility within their grasp" - simply because the line is full of entire truth - everyone is capable of so many beautiful things, we just have to tone our bodies and minds to make these beautiful things occur.

What is it to be beautiful? Webster's Dictionary says: Pleasing to the eye, ear, mind, etc; that which has beauty - but the true definition of beauty is something which, when applied, gives the highest degree of pleasure to the senses or to the mind and suggests that the object of delight approximates one's conception of an ideal. Lovely refers to that which delights by inspiring - handsome implies attractiveness - pretty implies some dainty and delicate feminist - good-looking is much like handsome or pretty, suggesting a pleasing appearance but not quite as poetically sound as beautiful.

So my friends, true beauty is what is emitted through the heart, through the soul, and through the mind to please another. Beauty could be as simple as sitting on a rock, smiling and waving to people as they go by. Beauty could be combing one's hair in the morning, playing a song on the piano, talking on the telephone, reading a book, petting one's dog. Beauty is simply in the eye of the beholder.

I live a beautiful life. I hope you do too.

Take care my friends.

Note: My grandmother said something that made me so happy today that I felt overwhelmed with rapture . . . it was so very pleasant, it's hard to even say. The gist of the comment was, "I expect wonderful things from this young man. President of the United States? Don't take the job. It's overrated." Nearly made me cry. I love life so much . . .