I'm somehow inspired with this certain song of Relient K, More Than Useless. I promised myself a long time ago that I would never write something pessimistic. Sometimes, well, most of the times, I feel so useless. But this song, it actually woke up my senses. "Sometimes I think that I'm not any good at all And sometimes I wonder why Why I'm even here at all But then You assure me I'm a little more than useless And when I think that I can't do this You promised me that I'll get through this Do something right And do something right for once. " According to my friend, Ram, I'm a bum. Okay I accepted the fact that I'm a bum. I applied for job which I thought is according to my talent. Until now, I'm still jobless and I'm on the edge of thinking that I'm no good for anything. Why? Because there are many things that I don't know. I feel so dumb and stupid. But then, I realized, if not today, when will be the right time? I started reviewing my notes, starting the basics. It's so hard. It seems I'm starting from scratch again. Actually, I'm a very moody person. I will only do a thing if I feel like doing it or there's a need of doing it. But like studying again, and I'm not in the mood, it will really take a lot of hardship and perseverance, a lot of chocolates (they say that chocolates help to stimulate brain cells or what we call neurons) and a lot of inspiration. Oh, inspiration. Where will I get inspiration? I'm inspired when I hear good music (songs that in a way touch my heart), when I'm listening to classical music, when I see a good painting, when I read heart-touching story, when I feel peace every time I can feel the Nature around me, and when I watch good movies. Let's talk about good movies and how they inspire me. I have this habit of watching movies or series and compare them with the books they are based from. Most of the movies based from books are quite disappointing. Many scenes are changed and characters did something but in the novel, they did not. Okay, I'll stop being a critic. Good movies. These are the movies that somehow inspired me to learn more else. Movie 1: Angels and Demons. Well, Dan Brown's novels are intriguing. In one way or another, it somewhat opposing the Catholic Church or rather unravel the secrets which can destroy or strengthen faith. This novel-based movie suddenly have my interest for arts awakened. On my third year in high school, World History is my third most favorite subject (you can guess the other two according to the rank as the first is the most favorite. The one who can guess correctly has a chance to win... oh sorry. There has .been technical problem.) World history of course is about the history of every civilization, from the early one to the one with what we have now. My favorite age is the Renaissance when many artists were born who made their names famous. I once dreamed to be like them. These artists are my inspiration then to make my artwork a nice piece of artwork. Angels and Demons is about arts, persons, underground group (Illuminati), puzzle-solving skills and ingenuity of the main character, Robert Langdon. Movie 2. The Da Vinci Code. Adventure of Langdon were continued in this novel-based movie. Many thought that The Da Vinci comes first before Angels and Demons. But if you read the novel yourself, you will learn that Angels and Demons was the first. It just happened that The Da Vinci became controversial because of involvement of Christ. But I'm not gonna focus on that. I want to focus on things which interest me. First, again the ingenuity of Langdon on how he solved the puzzles or maze. Second, my interest for early civilization, early religion and tradition, the history of Christianity (years after Christ was ascended to the heaven), early cultures and of course, arts. Movie 3. Sherlock Holmes. Actually, what I'm watching is the series. After episode one, I asked myself, "Does a person like him exists? How can he be so genius? You will learn the theory of observation and deduction once you've met him (not actually meeting him face to face). If you want to be a detective someday, better watch the series or movie (another option, read the novel. Everything is more amazing in the novel). What is the common thing in the movies I mentioned? Yes, being a genius. Questions: 1. Why are they so genius? 2. Is there any possibility that ordinary person can be a genius? 3. Why I don't have such ingenuity? They are genius because first, they are gifted and second, they chose to be genius. I've met someone who is a real genius and the funny thing, he shared us his secret. Well, it's no longer a secret because I will unravel it at this very moment. Okay, my mistake. It's not a secret. It is something we knew as common sense. If you're suppose to find the area of a rectangle and you don't know how, what will you do? Common sense, isn't it. These geniuses are geniuses because they know how to manipulate their common sense with a sense of little talent. Let's call this talent building a mind palace. I first encountered the word mind palace in Sherlock Holmes movies. Building a mind palace is a technique on how to store knowledge. You should store your knowledge in a way that it will appear whenever you need it. It simply means that we need to get serious when putting information in our minds so we won't forget. How does the mind palace works? It's like shutting down the information you don't need, remaining only the information you need. It's like solving for the area of rectangle, you need to shut down your "chambers" of science, history, etc, remaining the Math active alone. That is the talent. I even ask myself how is that possible. Well, the answer will be provided by the talented and geniuses. If you're ordinary and you wish to be genius, learn how to build a mind palace. Question 3 is really crazy. I'm not genius because I chose to be dumb. Yes, being dumb is a choice. We always have choices in life. There's no such thing as "no choice". It just happened that the other option means death or embarrassment or pain or anything that's lethal to us. We choose to be dumb when we refuse to learn, when we choose to have our facebook account well visited instead of learning how to use MS Excel, when we sleep all day instead of reading or doing something of great significance. Someone quoted, "We have lots of time when we die. But while you're alive, live." Life is a continuous learning. That's true. You will be stagnant when you don't follow. And the thing that hinder us from learning is laziness. Actually, we don't need to be genius (although the thought of it is inspiring). We just need to give our best shot in everything we do. "It's such a cold cold world (hello cold world) And I can't get out so I'll just make the best of everything I'll never had Such a cold cold world And it's got me down So I'll get right back up As long as it around Hello cold world" It's one of my favorite songs, Hello Cold World by Paramore. So, instead of sulking because I'm useless, why don't I try to make the best out of what I have? I'm inspired. I'm well motivated. What else would I be needing to be optimistic?