It was for those rarities in life that today I willingly, without any persuasion, decided that I'm going to stay at home and not go to the court. Apart from the fact my body feels like I had been given horse tranquillisers, I am mentally not capable of playing any basketball today. In shorter word, tired.

I guess after putting the songs 'Winner' and 'I'm not afraid' on loop yesterday, I ran a bit short on will power. Note to self, do not get pumped up listening to songs if there is no outlet of expressing it. I mean, it's quite common for someone to listen to music before big games to mentally psyche themselves. But then again, note the object in the phrase, big games. I should have known better as for sure there was no big games after midnight last night. Sigh.

So I picked up a book. Unfortunately, unlike my body, my mind was on hyper mode. I couldn't read a single line without being distracted with a wild thought. If my mind were a boy, he'll be jumping on and off the wall while picking a fight with his friends. Thus why I stopped and am writing this now.

I wanted to blame the kids who are playing outside but because of my sensible nature (hahaha) I decided to ignore them. If anything, I thought, I should be telling myself to stop listening to them instead of trying to shut them up. I know, to some, this will quickly trigger a self-defence mechanism (to protect the ego). Because it does make one to feel inferior to the kids due to failing to control them to make the situation more favourable to you. But I AM really that cool. (hahaha)

For me, children are like sponge. (This is how I finally figure out why they love Mr Squarepants so much, they identified with him) (Hopefully I used the word 'identified' here correctly and with the correct preposition) (These brackets are starting to look like English lessons. Miss Jas, you should join in) Anyway, like sponge, they soak up things indiscriminately. I read this one instance as Alexander Lowen was giving an example on how a certain characteristic developed within a child.

One of the ways children are made to adjust to the new order is called "letting them cry themselves out." The mother puts the child into the crib at night to sleep. It is bedtime. But the sense of aloneness and the loss of contact with the mother's body terrifies the child, who begins to scream and cry. No animal mother would fail to respond to a baby's cry. Some human mothers believe, however, that to respond would be wrong. To give in to a child's crying will spoil the child. Besides, they have been told, crying is good for a child. It strengthens the lungs. So no response is made, and the child continues to cry.

The first time this happens, the child may cry for hours before falling asleep, exhausted. If the same procedure is repeated the next night, the child will not cry so long before falling asleep. The mother may think the child has learned a lesson, but, quite simply, the child doesn't have the energy for a repeat performance. Sleep comes more easily because exhaustion sets in more quickly. After several experiences of this kind, the child learns to give up the struggle for contact with the mother. In effect, the child has cut off the longing for this contact and so no longer feels the pain of frustration. A new reality, in which the desire for intimacy and closeness is not expressed, has been accepted.

Narcissism: Denial of the true self. 

He later explained how some parents response with violence to some of the crying. Obviously, the effects, as he explained it, is, if not worse, as bad. Some might find these acts as acceptable, or understandable, or normal. Well, either he was the baby or somebody need to put some sense into him.

I know a kid of about 5 or 6 years young. He is pretty much a tape recorder for human behaviour. You do one thing in front of him, he'll do the exact thing in front of you right afterwards. This has made his mother very concious of what people 'teach' him.

One thing that I like a lot about kids is their perspective. It's pure. It's naive. Unlike us, old people, we have established a certain way of thinking, how we look at things. For one who supposedly is a reflector, experiences with people and this world can turn someone into a very realistic (pessimistic, in your words) person. To some, it's easier to tell the possible source of a car accident than where are the wonderful places a car can take you. Not to them. Like the apple that the fell on Newton's head, the car to a kid is fill with questions waiting to be answered. It is not surprising to witness a kid surgically removes every insides of model cars from his father's collection and later sends them on their way into the junk yard's inventory.

This is a bit unstructured. Oh well, has it ever been otherwise?

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Isaac Asimov once wrote "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny...'" And I wondered why babies laugh so much x)