Eye Rubbing

Lol weird title, I know. But does anybody else exceptionally enjoy rubbing their eyes? I purposely postpone doing my eye makeup until JUST before I leave so I can rub them to my heart's content. It just feels so nice. I oftentimes forget and rub them anyway. Then my eyes start to water because I get mascara in them and I have to compulsively rub my eyes until all my eye makeup is off. Which usually requires a tissue or my shirt to help. I'm sure that's not good for my eyes and preventing wrinkles. But I can't help it! It ends up happening everyday. Last week, I got a scratch or something somehow on my inner left eyelid so I couldn't really rub it since it hurt and I wanted it to heal. It was so hard.

Ps, I probably never mentioned this, but eyes CREEP me out. Especially when there is something wrong with them. So I don't recommend researching eye rubbing if you have a weak stomach like me. EW

Omg I just found this article (everything online HAS to be true) and this is some of it:

"There's no reason to recommend rubbing at all," says McMonnies about the range of everyday situations that usually beg for a rub. "Rubbing should be avoided at all times."

So, short of sitting on your hands, how can you avoid rubbing?

McMonnies suggests:

• gently applying a clean, wet facecloth to your eyes to help reduce the itch and urge to rub or to remove sleep from your eyes in the morning.
• treating the underlying causes of dry, irritated or itchy eyes to minimise the need for rubbing. This could include avoiding known allergens or irritants, or taking your allergy medication.
• trying to manage your stress if this is the reason that you rub your eyes.

( http://www.abc.net.au/health/talkinghealth/factbuster/stories/2012/09/18/3592456.htm )

 Now I'm worried. I don't do it for any reason really other than it feels good. Does this slightly terrify me finding out it isn't recommended? YES. Will I stop rubbing my eyes? Probably not. How would you even stop that? It's like stopping eating meat. Sure people do it. But not the kind of people aka person I want to be. Please tell me other people do this casually?

Creationism vs. Evolution

I probably wouldn't typically bring this topic up on my own just because it's not something I generally think much about. I am solid in my views and quite frankly don't see the other side as a valid option. Recently Bill Nye (Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill Nye the Science Guy) and creationist Ken Ham had a debate, which I watched on youtube, about creationism versus evolution. Watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_04S0fYU7FI

And (big surprise), I have some pretty strong feelings about it. I should probably preface this by telling you I don't believe in any religion. I don't want to attack anyone's beliefs, but I personally do not see any use to put my belief in something that cannot be proven just to make myself feel better about life's unanswered questions. I understand why people believe in religion. What it gives them. I'd just rather accept the life I have and find strength in myself. I've seen enough bad things happen to not believe anyone is watching over me.

Now most of what I know about the bible comes from Supernatural and a Sociology of Religion class I took in college. I'm no expert. But what I know of the bible, does not come across to me as realistic. From what we know of life, these things can't happen. You can't be resurrected from the dead. A virgin cannot become pregnant and birth a child. You can't build a woman out of a man's rib. I'm the first one to say things don't always have to make sense. But there is a difference between things not having answers and things having magical, superhuman explanations.

I don't understand science as much as I'd like to (I want to learn how to time-travel Quinn Mallory style, but physics is NOT my strong suit) But science offers so much more realistic explanations to me than taking the bible as truth. Having faith in your religion doesn't mean you have to be blind to the facts. You can't refute proof that is right in front of you, but I guess some people can.

As I mentioned in a post a couple days ago, science tells us the earth is 4.5 billion years. According to the bible (and Ken Ham), the earth is only 6,000 years old. Ancient trees, fossils, and ice layers also show the earth being older than 6,000 years. These are scientific examples! HOW is that a valid opinion when all the proof we have points to the fact the earth is much, MUCH older? I don't logically understand how somebody can believe that.

Ken Ham pretty much said, if you're a christian and believe in the science that the world is older than the bible states, you are not a good christian. And although I'm not religious, that seems mega harsh. But then he said the bible and science go hand in hand. When asked if the entire bible should be taken literally, he copped out by saying we need to DEFINE the term "literally". Why is it ok to take SOME things as truth and some, as Bill Nye said, as "poetry"? You can't have it both ways. There is just no basis to these creationist claims to me.

Now to me, this really didn't turn out to be an issue of if we evolved from primates or if we were created by God.  It became an issue of: is the bible realistic enough to believe? And it isn't. As far as it comes to how we got here, I don't know anything for sure. Like I have said in other posts, maybe we're not even here at all. We can't be sure. But if we are, there is really no sure way to know how. Through science, we can make the most realistic guess. I'm not positive I believe we evolved from primates. But I 100% do not believe we were created by God. I would more likely believe we just happened. Like the universe is just there, maybe we just appeared. But in my opinion, an all powerful being did not create us.

The Truth is Out There

X-files reference FTW! So, if you know me, you probably know I am consumed with the idea that life isn't what we think it is. I'm not sure what it is, but I've heard enough theories to be convinced. (The Matrix, anyone?) If you really think about it, we can't be sure of ANYTHING 100%. And that's kind of creepy. But mostly intriguing. This is not going to be about that, but it will be along those lines. If I haven't mentioned this (which I have to have by now), I love science fiction. Fringe, Supernatural, Dollhouse, Sliders...just to name a few. I have seen every episode of these shows--most more than once---and I am fascinated by these ideas. Now The X-Files is obviously a little older, but it is the basis a lot of modern day shows are built on. I've been watching it lately since I was 3 when it premiered (just got to season 2) and it really makes you think. (But Scully's undying skepticism in the first season was really frustrating) I like to think of it as a more modern X-Files, without the extraterrestrial element. Badass FBI agents investigating things most people wouldn't believe in.

So I want to talk about some of the concepts brought up from this show and mostly the universe in general. Now from my college astronomy class (although it was NOT what I was expecting and was very disappointed...I'm NOT good at science no matter how much it interests me) I learned A LOT about space. Almost to the point where it terrifies me. How small and insignificant we really are. BUT all of what I'm going to say is on the basis that WHAT WE ARE LIVING IS REAL AND WHAT WE THINK IT IS. Which as I stated, I don't believe is the case. But for the sake of this conversation, we will act as though it is. (And ps, I'm not crazy. I think it's SO naive to believe everything we're taught. Not everything CAN be explained. We just like to rationalize everything so we feel better about our lives. And so self-involved to think we're the only people in the universe. Have you seen the size of the universe?!)

Now the way it essentially works is that we can only see as far out as how old our planet is. The whole light year situation. And the farther things in space are, the older back we see them, because it takes so long to get to us. So if someone was on a faraway planet, looking at Earth, they could see it WAY in its' early years. We're talking dinosaurs, here. (Not that we can be sure they ever existed, but I'm getting off track) From what we can see of the universe around us, we can estimate the earth to be 4.5 billion years old. That's the observable universe. And it's a lot more years than we can really even comprehend.

This video shows just how small the earth is in comparison to the universe:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IVqMXPFYwI

It's beyond crazy to me to think about this. As far as we have come with inventions and languages and everything could be SO basic compared to what others in the universe have come up with. There could be people like us (or other intelligent species) that we will NEVER be able to know about because of how far away they could be. It almost gives me anxiety to think about how much we don't and never will know. It kind of makes me feel like nothing I do is important. And in reality, what we do doesn't matter. We will die and eventually nobody will remember us or anything we did.

Don't even get me started about parallel universes. (Which by the way, sciences do believe exist, we just can't get to them. But if that day comes, I'm so game to participate in that experiment)

Back to the universe. It's so possible, and I'd even go as far to say definite, that there is other life somewhere out there in the universe. And we don't have answers. Now I don't want to get into government conspiracies, but I'm certain there are people that know more than the general public. I'm not sure what experiments they do/have done and they probably wouldn't divulge that information anyway, but it's scary to think we may be so uninformed about the universe around us. Even aside from extraterrestrial phenomenon, there's plenty on earth that we don't know about. It makes my brain run wild with all the possibilities. Thinking of all the possible other people out there and how different life could be for them. Different species we never would think of. Or super evolved humans--or even animals. It's fascinating to me.

Sorry if this seems scattered. My mind is going a million miles an hour and I tried to wrangle my thoughts in. But space.. it's a crazy thing.