It takes two... ?

I forgot my bicycle helmet today and remembered it far enough along that I said 'screw it' and went on to work without it. Of course, I kept playing out accident situations in my head, and I thought something about how it takes two people who aren't alert to have an accident.

Check that though. It's not true really. I mean yes, being a defensive driver (or cyclist in my case) you can avoid many disasters.

It isn't universally true though. Most accidents are single-car accidents, and, like when I was hit by a car, there was not enough time or space for me to react to someone else's poor driving.

So if I apply this back to arguments... People often say 'It takes two to argue'. Implicitly true on that if you simply don't respond, how can there be an argument?

But on closer inspection... I myself have been guilty of going out looking for a fight, or, getting in an argument with someone and continuing well after they've stopped simply because I'm irritated. It doesn't take two people to argue any more than it takes two faulty drivers at an intersection to have a collision. In fact, in most traffic cases, one driver is generally found at fault.

So if you're ever arguing with someone and they say 'It takes two to argue', odds are it's a lie and quite probably the person saying it is simply trying some ploy to get you to shut up and (in their mind) accept their point of view. Of course, the other end of this is 'pick your battles'. If you are going out looking for someone to quarrel with, consider whether or not it will really accomplish anything or if you couldn't instead find some more productive way to vent your frustration with whatever.

Just some food for thought.

PS: I made it to work safely, and no, I haven't had a fight with my girlfriend (or anyone else) lately.

Tea Time

Across the street from my office is a chinese tea shop. I found myself wanting some tea today and decided to go in for a look. I came out with a bag of whole-leaf green that was ~$15 for .4KG. Alarmingly, this was by no means the best or most expensive tea in the shop.

Threw out the water in the pot and put in bottled water, heated it up and poured myself a cup. Quite delightful. Much more full flavour than tea in packets and a lot less bitter though I steeped it quite a while longer.

I've been trying to consume less. particularly in terms of purchases from large multi-national corporations. It seems like the way I can do the most harm to the american right wing.

Not that tea isn't generally grown by large multinational corporations. Far from it, they were some of the first too-powerful multinational corporations. However, the amount I paid for tea represents several hundred cups of tea, and when that's compared with the cost of say coca cola (~$6 for a flat of 24) the tea comes out far far cheaper.

Not to mention, green tea, being a strong anti-oxident is rather good for you as opposed to coca cola, which mostly corn syrup. Green tea also contains less caffeine than cola. Although it's still rather a lot to me.

I've been drinking almost entirely water and carbonated water the past two months, but I've been growing to appreciate truly good tea a lot more lately too.

Maybe one of these days I'll try some of the really expensive tea but for now, I think I'm fine with this one, a lower mid-range variety.