Klinsman Hinjaya's Blog

Saturday, April 5, 2025

The Lesson from the Bakery

It is quite difficult to cease reading the profoundly thought-provoking The Book of Understanding by Osho for a short while, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right? My writing mind has been throbbing, aching to share a sort of epiphany that pierced through my brain on my recent visit to a bakery near my home.

Photo by Robert Anderson on Unsplash

Inside the relatively small establishment, I was suddenly enthralled by the beauty of the creations displayed there. The experience was kind of peculiar since I had been there so many times but never felt the same way before. The cakes I saw imbued me with a very strong and deep feeling of appreciation and admiration; it was as if I was about to weep tears of joy for the wonderful works, created with an incredibly high level of precision and dedication. Marvelous! Perfection! Masterpieces! The feeling was so overwhelming that, had the baker(s) been present right in front of me, I would probably have commended them directly.

But then, my mind made a shocking, sudden turn, swerving into another dimension. What is the meaning of all of these? It felt as though poignancy was starting to sprout in my soul. All the grandeur the cakes were carrying, is it really something that people can enjoy? Is it something that can genuinely satisfy someone to their very core? These fancy products can certainly be purchased by those with enough money, but can these items really form bona fide smiles in their receivers?

In the same place, I noticed that there was a little girl accompanied with who I believe was her dad. Apparently, she was buying a birthday cake for her mom, uttering to the cashier the birthday greeting to be written on it. Judging from their appearance, they were not a part of the affluent, probably getting a cake that was cheaper than most of what were on offer. However, there was one thing catching my attention: her attitude. She seemed so genuinely happy to be able to buy the cake for her mom. While the cake might not be of the exquisite kind, she felt full, complete, overflowing with bliss originating from her desire to make her mom happy on her birthday. (And I believe her mom would be really happy and grateful for the birthday present as well.)

Then, I answered my own question. Life is how you view it. Luxury can mean nothing, simplicity can mean everything. Pursue what makes genuine happiness bloom in your heart. That's the lesson from the bakery.

Friday, March 7, 2025

A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth – Book Review

Image source: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71AvU10Q9lL._SL1500_.jpg

A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Chapters

by Henry Gee

Perhaps, for most people, the word "history" invokes monumental events that have peppered humanity's communal trajectory – the Industrial Revolution, the Second World War, the invention of the internet, etc. That's the upshot of us being so accustomed to peering into life through an infinitesimal lens, which, in a sense, doesn't do justice to the grand scheme of things. A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth by Henry Gee provides an easy, almost cheating-like way to grok life in a vastly larger picture.

As the title says, this book summarizes what has transpired to date in relation to life on our planet. Compressing 4.6 billion years into 12 chapters in 230 pages or so is no mean feat, and the author deserves lavish praise for doing that. A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth is brilliantly "written with style" (as Sunday Times testifies) and emanates a modicum of humor. The fact that this book also projects life in the future is to be celebrated, and, as a dinophile, I love the fact that the author has devoted an appreciable portion of it to discussing the icons of the ancient past.

All that being said, despite the inclusion of timeline diagrams, I wish this book was accompanied with more pictures, as it would help readers with imagination in regard to the points of discussion. What I read is the Kindle version, though, so the paperback and/or hardcover version might feature the visual aids.

All in all, if you are interested in or curious about the history of life on Gaia, including that beyond our own species', it is well worth dedicating a tiny part of your own history/life to reading A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth by Henry Gee.

Have you read A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth? What do you think of this book? Share your opinion in the comment section below!

Friday, February 28, 2025

Quote #122

"Silent moderates are (at least partially) responsible for the action of violent extremists." - Klinsman Hinjaya

Monday, January 13, 2025

Quote #121

"Be completely at ease with certain uncertainty." - Klinsman Hinjaya

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

Big & Fancy Words That Might Make You Smarter...er – Book Review

Image source: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71GEyJZewfL._SL1500_.jpg

Big & Fancy Words That Might Make You Smarter...er: A Vocabulary Builder For The Lexical Deficient Interlocutor Albeit Soon-To-Be Supercilious Smarty Pants Confabulator

by Albert B. Squid

Happy New Year, everybody! 🥳🎊🎉 The year 2024 ended with two great things: the presence of my sixth monster in Monster Rancher 2 DX, Wackosaurus; and the completion of my perusal of this vocabulary builder. 🥰

Big & Fancy Words That Might Make You Smarter...er by Albert B. Squid is a English-learning book with a difference. This vocabulary builder showcases "big & fancy words" (as the title says) presented in calendrically sequent order – you will learn one unusual but cool word for each day of the year, from January 1 to December 31. Apart from easy-to-digest definition(s), each word is accompanied with information on its part of speech (whether it is a noun, verb, etc.), an example sentence (which is often, if not always, funny or even hilarious!), and synonym(s) and antonym(s). Among the book's lexical selection are "opprobrious", "turpitude", "anathema", "peripatetic", and "crepuscular". It is not every day that we hear this sort of expression, is it? I guarantee that you will learn a plenitude of vocabulary in a fun way from this unique book!

Despite the positive things I have mentioned, there are some changes that I wish could be made to this vocab booster. First of all, as this book is intended to educate its readers on English language, the lack of linguistic accuracy is something to be dealt with. There are a number of mistakes, without which this book would be far more valuable. Here are several examples:

A synonym for "antediluvian" should be "old-fashioned", not "old-fashion". (p. 43)
The correct spelling for "consistant" is "consistent". (p. 72)
The word "vengence" is a misspelling; the correct one is "vengeance". (p. 319)

I wish there was a pronunciation guide as well (we all know how exasperatingly unphonetic English is), and, if there was an index, it would be much easier for readers to revisit an entry (I bought the Kindle version, and, since the entries are in an image format, I cannot use the search function for this purpose).

All things considered, Big & Fancy Words That Might Make You Smarter...er is an amazing resource for enriching your lexical repertoire – Mr. Squid deserves scores of plaudits! Buy this book (it won't make you impecunious), read it, and impress your audience with your upgraded vocabulary!

Have you read Big & Fancy Words That Might Make You Smarter...er? What are your thoughts on this vocabulary builder? Share in the comment section below!

Friday, December 27, 2024

Monster Rancher 2 DX: My Monster YouTube Playlists

About four years ago, by courtesy of an Android emulator, I returned to playing one of my favorite childhood games: Monster Rancher 2. It is an indescribable feeling to be able to raise terrific monsters and manage to achieve their entry into the Hall of Fame, in which your "children" are eternally recognized for their towering achievements. When I heard news that KOEI TECMO GAMES released Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX on Steam around three years ago, it came as a lovely surprise! To make a long story short, I purchased the legendary game and have now raised some flippercanorious monsters, among which are the super hardy Cosmonol and the exercise-addicted genie Gymnie!

Necrobot uses Burst Cannon in its quest to defeat リック (Rick)
©KOEI TECMO GAMES All rights reserved.

Just like before, I decided to record videos of my beloved monsters' battles and upload them to my YouTube channel. Check out their playlists and I hope you have a whale of a time enjoying the wondrous spectacles!

Note:

- Click the monster's name to be directed to the playlist

- I will update the list as I finish raising more monsters

Monster 1: J-1000

J-1000 (Metal Jell - Jell/???)
©KOEI TECMO GAMES All rights reserved.

Monster 2: Cosmonol

Monster 3: Necrobot

Monster 4: Gymnie

Monster 5: Bloodbather

Monster 6: Wackosaurus

Friday, November 1, 2024

The Nature of Nature

Having finished chowing down on the exciting action-adventure novel ARK FOUND: An Omega Files Adventure (Book 2) by Rick Chesler, I feel it's time I wrote this article before setting off for my next read by the same author: Luna. I hope the seemingly redundant use of the word "nature" doesn't discourage you from resuming your perusal (I can assure you the title is carefully thought-out).

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

What stimulated me to write this post is something along the lines of people vociferously complaining about the existence of a video on social media showing the gory depiction of an animal killing and/or eating another animal of a different type. Think about lions hunting a zebra, for instance. (If you'd like to go back much further in time, imagine a Tyrannosaurus assailing a Triceratops in Late Cretaceous North America.) Such things are natural phenomena, and vehemently resenting and detesting them would naturally prompt me to raise my eyebrows.

I understand that such macabre events can make some (or many) flinch, but that's the harsh reality of nature. That's the nature of nature. Lions are predators and carnivores (their dental apparatus is not "designed" for ingesting vegetation) and without consuming flesh, they would simply vanish into thin air. They have evolved this way, and it is not their fault that they have to kill other animals in order to survive. Taking sides is a mind-bending thing to do and can lead to cognitive dissonance. Nevertheless, it seems that nowadays many people are drawn to this sort of behavior and continue engaging in mental masturbation – X is an extremely cute animal! Nobody and nothing should ever hurt it! The more videos of X thriving on social media I see, the more ecstatic I am!

An implication of the nature of nature pertains to morality. I have changed my mind on more than one thing in my life and this is one example of those. I used to firmly believe in absolute morality, but the nature of nature has simply crushed this way of thinking. Let's take birds and worms, for example. Is it morally right to catch worms and feed them to birds? Well, from birds' point of view, definitely yes, as it will give them the nutrients they need, but it's certainly a huge no from worms' standpoint, as it will contribute to their demise. Talking of this matter, Dr. Henry Wu's quote in Jurassic World has had a deep impact on me: "Monster is a relative term. To a canary, a cat is a monster. We're just used to being the cat."

Then, a question naturally arises: How should we live our lives? I think the best approach to answering this question is shown by the following quote from Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a.k.a. Osho: "You should care only about one thing, that you are happy, that you are blissful, that you are silent, that you are at ease with existence."