So I have a few things to say about gender and how I don't really think it is used for much of anything, but until then I would like to share with you a trade secret of making mixed drinks. Here is how the really good places make all sorts of mixed drinks ranging from James Bond's martinis to good 'ol chocolate milk.
Directions: Take ingredients to be mixed, insert into the head of the girl wearing gold. Run the dance number (watch the video) then pour in and empty glass, over ice, or how ever you like. Bar none, this is not only the most elaborate physical execution of the directions "shake well" I have ever seen, but also the best dressed.

If you stay in Larissa, you will find peace. You will find a wonderful woman, and you will have sons and daughters, who will have children. And they'll all love you and remember your name. But when your children are dead, and their children after them, your name will be forgotten... If you go to Troy, glory will be yours. They will write stories about your victories in thousands of years! And the world will remember your name. But if you go to Troy, you will never come back... for your glory walks hand-in-hand with your doom. And I shall never see you again.

Doesn't everyone want to do something? Who wants to be forgotten? Does anyone want not to be remembered?
I talk to people every now and then, as most do, and have come to the conclusion that everyone wants to 'do something'. How specific. Some want to be doctors, some want to be doctors that go to places of the world that are in awful condition and help make things better. Some want to be politicians. Some want to solve the world's political problems and create world peace. OK. Great. Something will happen eventually. Never underestimate the power of the people of the world to do something. I'm not saying it will be a good change necessarily, but in the general trend of things in general, they usually improve. We will keep on truckin. I guess I am looking at two types of the same genre of question.

The first is the what do you want to do question. well, I'm not sure but, like everyone else I want to do something that will make an impact on the world and on people. I want my life to mean something, I want to look back on my life from my obviously present perfect in every way after life retirement home and see that my life made a difference in the scheme of the world. (The whole after life was a joke because I don't believe in it). Everyone does. Unfortunately, I think that our culture has a certain way that we think we can accomplish this goal. We call it school. Learning, and education. But isn't true that so many of the best inventions and breakthroughs in history were either by genetic anomaly created geniuses or by talented self-motivated people who had little uniform, school education. I think that if there were something I really wanted to do, something that could change the world and help people, getting and education is only postponing it. the only reason I would get an education, especially at my level, would be to get to a level where society deems it acceptable to do whatever it was I wanted to do. Wait a sec, no its not. I think there is a small part of that in it, but more than that, the education puts me at a position with more options. If I wanted to help people in a poor country and i just got out of high school, eventually I could do something like join the Peace Corps. Or if I wanted to help people I could become a doctor, make some money, then go spend all of my life's savings to build a hospital in the middle of a poverty stricken nation and help like that too. the thing is, many of the doors that I could take now stay open and increase in number as I learn more and increase my abilities.

I don't remember the second part of where I was going with this. I'm a little sleepy. So ill just keep going with what I was saying. If i became a doctor, I could still be in the peace corps and do the same thing that I could have done 12 years earlier. That would be a waste of talent though. A waste of me. The more I learn, the more responsibility I feel i have to put it to use in some method. Not just school learning, life learning. When.........nope lost it.

In conclusion, I want to do something, Now. I want some friends to comment and tell me what it is they want to do, and lets do something about it now. Lets feed people without food. Lets help kids in trouble with their families, lets do something while we learn. Just schooling is a waste of us. Yeah, I want to do something to be remembered, but it is more important not to waste myself on me. That is what far too many self-richeous self-centered college kids sit around doing all day long. Two hours at a soup kitchen or shelter a week really isn't that much. Stop wasting your lives. if the human race is ever going to survive, we need to help each other.

Just remembered the second part. If you really think about it, what is THE most pragmatic profession or study to get involved with? In my opinion it is the one that will help us better understand ourselves and our world. It's called science folks and I believe its the only thing that can save us. Even if we do stop the global warming we have caused, there could be another gigantic volcano explosion and we could go into another ice age. Its only going to be the scientists who expect, predict and forecast this. The engineers are going to have to come up with a way for us to survive off of alternative energy and other things. You get my drift. i need to sleep. I am really tired. Comment and help me develop something. I've said things really really generally.

So I have an idea that I have read about in a few places and sort of relate to. i am still playing around with it so do some commenting and help me out here. the idea is that education fosters acceptance (of all kinds, racial, sexual, ethnic, gender, etc.) here is what I remember about my uneducated years.

The first is of more blind tolerance than I think ever exists except when you are young. I want food, I want to play, etc and who ever will feed me or play with me works because that is what I want to do. Does not matter! Just gimme a sandwich and lets play legos.

Now I also remember elementary school where girls had cooties, liked pink and yellow, and played with dolls. Boys, in these days, had cooties (XY cooties, duh!), liked blue and red (green was neutral territory), and fought on the playground. In these days it was strange for me to want to go play jump rope with some girls. In fact, it was more socially appropriate for me to hold one's hand and to 'like' someone, in the kind of way that my mother has often asked about.
So, something happened between these two eras. I think I know what it is too. In the first, when we are really young, we don't really have a developed psyche. In fact, most of us haven't really developed yet. Correct me if I'm wrong but our frontal lobes scarcely even exist do they? Any way, some years pass, and we develop a sense of self and what not. I think that the time we start noticing and caring about differences is when we develop identities. Then we say hmmm, we are different! Cool? or BAD! I think that the initial reactions are directly influenced by what we have learned. At that time, we haven't really learned much of anything except what we have seen, heard, and experienced with our parents. So, first step, our first reactions and ideas about other people, who are different in any way, come from what we learn from our parents.

Next we go to school. What we learn there is a combination of social interaction and what is taught to us. In other words, we learn from what other people have learned. If you are Asian and learned to accept everyone, but everyone else hates white people, I think that you may change your mind rather quickly, especially at this age. Maybe you won't change your mind completely, but you will at least be a closeted accepting person.
~~~~Wavy transition into the future~~~~
Then you go on to more education and the same thing happens, etc. You learn more, ideas change....you get the idea.

Now I would think, that as you go on, learning more about the cultures of the world and more about philosophies and ways of thinking and problem solving and spelling (though spelling doesn't really have a lot to do with it) you begin to see that there really aren't that many differences between people. Example: genetics. Differences between groups, for example race, are far smaller than the differences found between groups. I agree that there are differences, I am not trying to deny the fact that my skin is much pastier than many other peoples, I am just saying that there is far more similar between me and my less ghostly friends that it makes no reason for me to hate them because they do not glow in the dark with whiteness.
(try this at home: watch bill Nye's new show, specific episode on race.)

So, there it is, I proved that education is directly correlated to tolerance and acceptance using personal experiences, general knowledge, you tube, and a note from my mother. (My dog ate the note, he also got hit by a car, I can't prove that that existed)
Yes, I know that trying to base any kind of theory on my own experiences is absolutely ridiculous. What isn't ridiculous are two studies done in different areas of the world looking at different things, but both finding the same general idea.
The first is a Harvard study done on immigration in Europe (<-- pdf alert) found something really cool. "More educated respondents are significantly less racist and place greater value on cultural diversity than their counterparts." Huh. So, while this study isn't looking exactly at what I am talking about, they did find that in this case that more educated people are less racist. Neat huh?

The next study was one done by the University of Minnesota on whiteness
"Age and income have little impact on a white person’s awareness of their racial identity, the study found. But Southerners and social conservatives place more emphasis on their racial identity than other white Americans, while those with more education place less." So what does this say? It says that educated white people tend to not care as much about their whiteness. I can't technically directly apply that as a blanket theory to my idea, but it does help push me in the right direction!

In conclusion, I really do think that education is correlated to tolerance and acceptance of all differences including race, sex, ethnicity, and gender.

So, given what I have, let me know what you think. I know not everything is perfect, but its a start.

peace

I am trying to learn the international phonetic alphabet. Im not sure I am doing this right, but at least its a start. I have much to learn. Try and figure out what it says!

My Schedule for Winter

Misunderstanding

Ill begin with a question: Why is it that people aren't able to understand accept other people's beliefs, thoughts, ideas, choices.

Here's an example. I am a vegetarian. My older brother doesn't understand why I am a vegetarian. Therefore, it is somehow a crime that I don't eat meat and he must make sure that I know that he thinks my belief is dumb. While I am not offended or angered by his continuous comments, I am a little bothered. When someone asks me about it, I tell them. Usually I say something about animal cruelty, wasting energy, cholesterol, and chemicals. Then he says something like, "Well I still eat animals." In some mysterious fashion, that is the answer and end all and he leaves the conversation. I'm not quite sure how that works. I get the same answer even when I am minding my own business, say, when I am watching a video on animal cruelty and he walks into the room. He then says something like, "I don't want to see that! Even if I did, I will still eat animals." Again, what he says doesn't offend me or anything, I have nothing against people who eat meat, seriously. That's just as much of a choice as my not eating meat, or you eating brussel sprouts (I do too,mmm). Who cares! Somehow I offend him or anger him in some way that he needs to defend his right to eat animals with me even saying anything.

What I don't understand is why he can't just accept a decision like that and say ok, cool, who cares? I mean seriously. Why do things like this always happen? Why must people always make a big idea of things? It's the same kinda deal with drinking. (around 2:50)



Like I said before, why can't people just accept it. Why does what we do define who we are? I know that what we do is a part of who we are just as much as our personalities, beliefs, and other things. Yet somehow, it is only one or two things that make us who we are to other people.

Its the same as being gay. Why does it matter to people? Why can't you just take it as fact that it is who I am and not worry about it. I don't need you telling me that I am going to hell in your religion because I like guys or because I don't eat meat or because I don't have an imaginary friend. I don't need you to tell me that you are better than me because you believe in god or you eat meat or you think that homosexuality is wrong. But even if you do that's cool. I'm not going to hold it against you. I judge people on personality and their actions that concern me. You eating meat, the only way that could concern me is that I'm glad that there is no possibility that you would want to eat me.

So please, why does it matter? Why do my decisions about myself and my own actions, that have nothing to do with you, matter to you?

Dr Les Roberts, who led the study, said: "Making conservative assumptions we think that about 100,000 excess deaths, or more, have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq."

As a reference, the death toll of The World Trade Center attacks is officially 2,752 people.

****Please read the disclaimer at the bottom before you start bitching at me****

Words Can't describe what I feel right now. I just watched a movie called The Panama Deception in which I heard more lies then I thought was possible for one person to make. Those of you who have read Middlesex will understand when I try and say what I feel by saying Sadforwhatthiscountryhasdone-angrythatwehaven'tstoppedityet-
hleplessandhopelessthatthereisntanythingwecando.
Well, that's my own take in Euginides amazing description of emotion.

Someone tell me here, what have we done to this place and to these people? There is already so much conflict there, the ONLY thing we are doing is making it worse. What have we done? We have taken away any form of stability they had, make them rely on us for military power and basically just make sure things don't get too organized for anybody. How the hell does this make anything better?

Something needs to be done about this. You know, the funny thing is that one man's hero is another's terrorists. Some fundamentalists did their little thing here and what do we do? ROLL OUT THE HEAVY ARTILLERY BECAUSE THAT IS OUR REASON TO INVADE THE COUNTRIES WE WANT TO.

"When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."
- Julius Caesar, Act II, sc. ii

It is the same reason we invaded Panama. We waited until something happened to the US and then we could basically do whatever the hell we please. I bet Osama Bin Laden isn't a real person. What if? What if he is being paid by the US? Why haven't we found him yet? We've certainly killed enough people. We HAVE the technology. Maybe we haven't found him because the govt don't want to find him. Maybe they are in businesss with him, not an official one, a skanky one where in return for the fear he creates, they pay him by not really looking for him. What kind of people are we?

Why would they want to find him? His tapes and his speeches are the key to making the people of the US subordinate and willing to do"whatever it takes" to ...Something mumble.. Something about peace (this is the part where the politician that must not be named says lots of things but really means whatever it takes to get our oil and world power....)

DISCLAIMER: I do not know everything about this conflict and I am not pretending I do. I know one thing: almost anything is possible. So humor me, what if? Think about it.What if the media is only allowed access to the 'good stuff'. I am so sure that there are places that they don't let the media go and its there that the worst happens.


I AM PISSED.

I'mm drowning
Save me
Wake me up

I'm not tired"

why do we watch these dramas?

because we want to belong. We want to fit into the group of spectators that watch this show. We want an escape from our lives. We watch the overly dramatic things because they make our lives seem not as bad. But i can't help but think of how awful this is.

How we live in such an era where we need this. We are in the top 15% of the population and I can't stand it! There are so many people who are poor, dying, starving, the list goes on.

It makes me sad...

not being chrisitian I dont feel right making any sort of christian argument on anything.
However, a person like DAVID MYERS!!!(who btw wrote the text book for AP Psych!) can. I saw him the other day and he gave a presentation on chrisitan support for Gay Marriage. I thought it was good. I attempted to record it on my mp3 player and i will post it after I overcome the two following problems:
1) The recorder was not very near to him, so it is very very quiet.
2) My mp3 player and program does not allow me to take things off of it, including recordings.

As soon as I get it on my computer and edit the audio with the sweet adobe program I have and dont know how to use I will put it up.
Until then, you can admire David Myers at his web site: http://www.davidmyers.org/
[I like writing the website because it is easy...I could hyperlink it for you lazy folks]

peace

i need you here tonight like the ocean needs the waves

I just posted a draft that I had on 10/28/2005 . Check it out. It most certainly wasn´t done...Its only a few lines, but My views have changed on the subject so I will talk more on it later.

This is Badalona, Spain...A very poor picture of Badalona, Spain.
This is where I am right now and where i have been for the past week. Hope things are well. Im off to England tomorrow.

Bye

Question for all of you.

What defines a person?

What do we base or judgments of people on?

Are they the same?


Im leaving for Europe on sunday, I may be in touch maybe not. If I do have computer access, I will have a blog online somewhere. I'll keep you posted.

imagine what it would feel like to do something very nice for a person, and not let them know about it. What would they think? Would it just be a lucky coincedince? Would the y get suspicious? I'm not sure, but I bet it would be cool.

What if that happened to you?

Things I need to remember to think about.

"what is your purpose in life?"
"What makes you happy?"
"How do you change emotions?"

"the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched...they must be felt with the heart." -Helen Keller

OK, so im not the best at responding to comments on time and I hope you two stay interested. I promise I will get to them when I get a chance. (Both of you thanks very much for commenting, im so used to just blabbing and nobody makes me thinks, it isn't as much fun by yourself...haha that sounded sexually indicative.) By the way Rachana, if that is your artwork, I am humbled because it is so amazing.

Ok, back to what I was actually going to talk about, happiness. I am sure if you take a look through my blog you will see my ups and downs. A (Dr. Evil style >) "cycle" if you will. Downs suck ass, as im sure you all know, and ups are nice. In the past year, I have had ups that last about as few days and downs that last for a week of two, and the rest is more or less just stress. I figure that much of how we feel is grounded in how we react to our experiences. Take for example what happened to me this morning. I got a small coffee, open the door to my car, or so I thought. The door swung back and hit my hand spilling coffee (hot coffee mind you) all over my hand and car. Now, I can see someone really getting upset about that. What a crappy way to start the day. I got into my car thinking, 'great this sucks'. Then I thought, 'well not really, there is no reason for me to get upset about that.' So I just laughed and went on my way.

Why be angry and upset when you could be happy? That is my goal for the summer. So far, I have had 4 good happy days in a row. Honestly this is a first...and im really excited.

One thing that will always make me laugh are these fun laughing clubs that started in India, we watched a video featuring John Cleese about the brain in psych. The clip can be found here. Very funny


And today I leave you with this:

Eleanor Roosevelt said, "Do one thing that scares you everyday." (Im working on that too, but that is much harder and I have no balls...ask me about it and I can maybe tell you. Those people know who they are.

I say, "Laugh stuff off, be less angry, no reason to (be angry that is). Too much anger and bitterness in the world. Let's be happy."

So sometimes we hide from things, people....ourselves without knowing it. We get lost. If we are lucky, we notice this and break free and become ourselves again, and it is refreshing. The problem comes when we choose to hide, because if we hide for too long and too deep, we won't be able to find our way out. So...sing like an angel, dance like a raver, and show compassion like buddhist. Because only after we find ourselves can we decide what to do with ourselves.

If it doesn't make sense in the context you think I wrote it in, then use it in your own. Because that has no context that I am ever going to tell you... at leas not in the next couple years you nosey bavarian pig. sorry. I didn't mean it : ) (well not the bavarian part).

You are beautiful

I believe

I believe that a people are the most important things. This includes health in physical and mental senses, people's rights, and their relations.

I believe that staying healthy is an easy thing to do, and not doing so is only harmful and silly. Why would someone not want to be healthy? Why would someone choose pain, discomfort, and cancer over...well...not. To me it isn't even a contest. I also like to think that vanity has nothing to to with it, but that is not true. Vanity plays a part, but is not the main focus. Staying healthy, not wanting to get cancer or mess up the brain are reasons enough for me. Seriously, why would a person purposefully kill neurons or modify DNA? because it feels good? That is selfish, childish, and plain dumb. If you want to feel good there are several other ways to do so alone or with other people (and not all of them are sexual). In respect to the consequences, is temporary pleasure really worth a damaged brain and various forms of cancer? no.

I also believe that the right to do whatever you want is vitally imperative to people. I have no problem with you doing anything, unless it concerns other people. "Your rights end where your fist meets my nose." (Jefferson right?). So hurt yourself all you want, just keep it away from me. In related news, the president will be making a speech on the 5th supporting the anti-gay marriage amendment in the U.S. Constitution. The government is willing to create a constitutional amendment that simply discriminates against certain people. They have no right to do that. Currently, Marriage is defined in the major dictionaries as being referenced by the bible. We are basing the meaning of a word off of one person's interpretation of the Bible. Don't even get me started on my problems with the Bible. Do NOT try and argue the Bible's validity. It is a collection of stories, some of which may have had some historical events that happened, most of which more likely are simply fables encouraging good and condemning bad. It is a story book that was written 2000 years ago. So there. If you are literally interpreting the bible, I will literally interpret fantastic ideas like the sun revolves around the earth and the world is flat and Japan was created by some mud falling off of a stick. What? these are not true you say? prove it. Oh, you have science? then why doesn't it apply to the bible? don't believe me yet? Watch Penn and Teller's bullshit on the bible. You will have to rent the DVD as both Google and Youtube have removed it from their sites as far as I can tell. Conservative __________ (fill in the blank with the profanity of your choice) I hope you see the importance of rights. Do what you want, just don't hurt me or my friends, or my family.

I believe that by ourselves we are nothing, together we are everything. I need family and friends, and I care for them. Communication is key here. So tell people how you feel. and if the above hold true for your state, I will listen to you and try and help. I love you all. ALL OF YOU. I can help some more than others and I will do my best. Talk to me. Choose me. Lean on me. Because I will need somebody to lean on soon enough. Hug me, sit with me, cuddle, drink warm drinks, be cozy. Don't be dumb.

Everything in life is your choice. In all honesty, no choice can be made for you unless you let them. You may be placed in very inopportune situations, but it is all up to you and I know you can do it. I'm not really referring to anything there, but I know you can do it. Whatever it is you want to do.

I love you all

I've gone a Voltaire binge.

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

Every abuse ought to be reformed, unless the reform is more dangerous than the abuse itself.

Many are destined to reason wrongly; others, not to reason at all; and others, to persecute those who do reason.

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

What is tolerance? -- it is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly -- that is the first law of nature.

I disagree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.

Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.

You know,

Just clicking on the recently added link on the right to My Pictures makes things alot easier.

dont forget to check out the sup folders (especially the one titled Earth Day)

In the Spirit of Earth Day yesterday I too some pictures:
(there are alot and I dont feel like linking them so you can do that yourself

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c213/salinecjr/IMG_0086.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c213/salinecjr/IMG_0101.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c213/salinecjr/IMG_0104.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c213/salinecjr/IMG_0109.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c213/salinecjr/IMG_0107.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c213/salinecjr/IMG_0116.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c213/salinecjr/IMG_0140.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c213/salinecjr/IMG_0097.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c213/salinecjr/IMG_0072.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c213/salinecjr/IMG_0082.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c213/salinecjr/IMG_0085.jpg

Yay! have fun looking at them!

This has the potential to be very long and on several subjects. I will separate and label each subject as I see fit.


Government
It is an extremely scary thought to think of our government as from the video below. (My eye is twitching...it is very strange) Seriously though, it is obvious that it has the power. They can do whatever the hell they please and blame it on Uzbekistan for all anybody cares. How would we know? They seem to think they have an unlimited amount of money which they spend accordingly. even though they actually don’t. They can spend billions of dollars on covering up that sort of thing. They make it so convincing because they can. People believe them. We have strayed so far from our Deist forefathers vision.

Religion
I bring up Deism because I know someone would bring up Christianity at some point. (I would say something about Bush being waaaay to into God and bringing that into our politics and I would say it strayed from the founders of the US and they would say that they were Christian and I will say that they were Deist and that you are stupid and that you are talking about things that you have no idea about. I would then encourage them to continue reading and perhaps learn something on the way. In the words of Voltaire, "Let each of us boldly and honestly say: How little it is that I really know!"...that was mean wasn't it?) So Let me help you understand about Deism:
Firstly Here is the definition of Deism According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

Deism
Pronunciation: 'dE-"i-z&m, 'dA-
Function: noun
Usage: often capitalized
: a movement or system of thought advocating natural religion, emphasizing morality, and in the 18th century denying the interference of the Creator with the laws of the universe

So in other words, Deism, in the classical belief, is a belief of a God that created the earth and no longer intervenes with its affairs through miracles or the like. There are several beliefs that branch out here. Some believe that he does not intervene because the best of worlds has already been made, therefore no intervening is necessary. Others believe that it is because he created Earth and no longer exists as a separate entity (God is one with the earth). Either way, God created the Earth and no longer does anything to it or its inhabitants. This is also called the clockmaker hypothesis.

Deists believe that God created the Earth and created Man with reason and logic. Man is empowered with reasonable thinking and strives to learn more about the world by obtaining knowledge through various fields of science.

Key founding fathers including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were both believers in Deism. (Please also note that the following presidents were Desit or had Deist affiliations/beliefs: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Tyler, and Abraham Lincoln. )Their beliefs appear in several documents including the Declaration of Independence. I believe that the terms used in this document are some of the most misinterpreted terms ever. The following terms are all words that Deists use to describe their God:

Creator
Divine Author
Divine Providence
Divine Watchmaker
Divine Essence
First Cause
Grand Architect of the Universe
Nature's God
Providence
The One that is All
The Eternal One
The Living Law (Essene)
The Living Director Principle in All Being
The Governing Being of the Universe
Supreme Being
Supreme Intelligence

*The ones that are bolded indicated their usage in the Declaration of Independence

Therefore, nobody can say that the founding fathers were Christian and that God should be in the government.

***God refers to the Deist and Judo-Christian deity, Man refers to all human beings***

Government
So we are led to believe that our government knows what they are doing. We trust them because they are knowledgeable. Well they must be! we think They have gone to a lot of school to do this! So we lull ourselves into believing that they do what is best for us. AHA! that is where we are wrong. There is a distinct difference between knowing a lot about the government and us, and doing what is best for us. But, because we are waaaaay to trusting of people who know more than we do in certain areas, we blindly say, "Ok do what you want with us! You know best."

This country seems like a bad case of parental abuse. The people in the nation are the child and the government is the parent. We trusted the parent to do what is best for us and they abuse us, therefore losing our trust. Unfortunately, because this is a dysfunctional family, we continue to go back to them because that is all we know. We keep going back and keep getting burned. There is nothing we can do

Oh wait...YES there is! ITS CALLED VOTING! We claim we have a democratic system, (I’m not even going to acknowledge the electoral college because I think it is silly). and we do, but it is defective. It is a democratic system that was born without legs. Everyone can vote, but only 61% of the population does. OOH! 61 percent that’s a lot of people you may think. Yeah it is. But think of how many people in the United States did not vote. Take a guess, right now, how many?
88,720,240 !!!!!!!!! Let me write that in words so you can see it better EIGHTY EGHIT MILLION SEVEN HUNDRED TWENTY THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED FORTY PEOPLE

88.7 million people did not vote. Let’s make some comparisons here.
88.7 million people is...

The number of people who saw the best Super bowl ads
5 million more people than the population of Germany
1.5 World War II casualties (total of everyone!)
36 Years worth of Deaths in the US†
355 I have a dream speeches
825 Sold Out Michigan Stadiums
29,712 September 11, 2001 attacks ?
50,697 Saline High Schools

...and just for fun, If everybody stood shoulder to shoulder, they could rap around the earth one and a third times.

† based on 2005 U.S. Mortality rate as found on the CIA World Fact book
? (isn't it funny how I mention that?)

Hopefully that will encourage you to vote if you can. If you comment at all on current government affairs and don't, vote you are the most (please prepare yourself for a very alliterate use of the thesaurus) abhorrent, abominable, caitiff, corrupt, crooked, despicable, detestable, dirty, disgraceful, dishonorable, egregious, fetid, filthy, fraudulent, heinous, horrid, impure, inequitable, infamous, iniquitous, loathsome, malodorous, monstrous, nasty, nauseating, nefarious, noisome, notorious, offensive, putrid, rank, raunchy, repulsive, revolting, rotten, shady, shameful, squalid, stinking, sullied, tainted, unclean, underhanded, unfair, unjust, unscrupulous, vicious, vile, and wicked hypocrite that has ever come into existence. Period. No excuses.

Voting for our leaders does not fix problems; it eventually either makes problems or prevents them.

Now I know that someone will be an ass and say, "This is a free country, I don't have to vote if I don't want to." I agree. I can't not agree. Naive and Ignorant as it is, it is true. I whole heartedly believe in Liberalism (specifically, a kind of non-extremist libertarianism) (see below) therefore you are at liberty to do what you want as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others. Obviously, not voting does not infringe on anybodies rights. The only thing that happens by not voting is that I lose respect for you and you make our country a worse place. Sorry, did I say that out loud? So go ahead and don't vote asshole, but if anything happens in this government that you don't like you have no right to say anything. In fact I will personally hogtie you and tape your mouth shut if you do. With that said...

Revolution
"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

How true.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Luckily, I don't think things are desperate yet.
I do believe that things could get out of control and we can't let that happen. Pretend with me here, just for an instant, that the government was trying to gain more control over us by fear and increased military power. What can we do. As a means of gun power, we still have the right to have guns (i suppose it is a good thing....?). Now the military has much more power, but we at least have a start. (I love the quote from V for Vendetta: "What usually happens when people without guns go up against people with guns?") Just for an instant we have no control. Just for an instant we are all being monitored. Just for an instant they have all the control and we have none.

Just for an instant, we need to get it back. Just for an instant we need to stand in front of a tank, we need to nonviolently protest the government, we need to sit in the front of the bus, we need to boycott what we don’t believe in. We have the numbers, they have the guns. They won't kill the entire country because there would be nobody left. So please, if you believe in something, stand up for it. A belief is something that you would do, it is not a thought. Because if you don't, who will?

Someone the other day asked what this would accomplish (in response to a certain situation involving a mass resignation from a certain business). Well, they are quitting because of mistreatment and poor quality jobs. They have the right to. Im sure they have already tried talking to them, and since it didn't work, they will leave. They are standing up for what they believe in, workers rights. I think that it is a great idea, if all other options have already been sought out. When workers are mistreated and under appreciated and it isn't something you love doing, then leave. Better yet, stay. Stay and truly reform what is happening. Leaving is abandonment, staying is percervereance and can be revolutionary. Dont quit, reform. Stop complainging and do something, file complaints, make a fuss, hold a strike, but dont give your job to them, make them take it from you while you are making your point. That is what you should do...in my opinion of course

Political Views

A year ago, I did not have as firm of a stance in what I believe. Until some things happened and now I will fight for everything I believe in. I used to be moderate, until I learned that what I believed was not moderate. I suppose that I looked at the Liberal and Conservative (United States Politics) extremists and thought I am not either of those, so I am moderate. As I progressed through life, however, I realized that, through a little research of ideology I realized that everything that I saw in the media, heard in the halls or on the street was of extremists because nobody wants to talk or hear about boring stuff. At least boring in their eyes. They want excitement!! They want crazy politicians ripping each other heads off! They want Rush Limbaugh. (Just kidding nobody likes him). And so I found that my views do fit in a category, more or less. Plus I can modify the name of the category as much as I see fit to hold true to my views!

^.^ More to come!! (maybe)

Is the Government really on our Side?

...and you thought we were safe!

"I believe that Ghandi's views were the most englightened of our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit - not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non participation in anything you believe is evil."

Albert Einstein

Viva La Vie Boheme



Live the Bohemian Life

Cognitive Dissonance, mental inbalance, conflicting thoughts
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. The books, people, movies, art, music, and photgraphy, all can inspire a change of mind. A change of belief, attitude and way of life. Those are the best. The things that make you think about your life to take a step back and realize that everything that is so important to you now will not matter in a year. That you are still young and that there is still time. Carpe Diem! Grab the sweaty toothed madman and run into a field of daises, a field of individuals that view them selvs as unimportant. Take him and your blanket and run. Move on from the death of your wife, maybe it just takes time sitting in a chiar, an hour a week before you realize, "It isn't your fault"

These things are what bring us together, bring the starnagers in the halls, the aquaintences to strong friendship. All of you, those that I know but dont know, call me find me and allow me to invite you to my house where we may talk and understand the world. Those I do know, you are invited to come as well, it'll be a date.


(pop quiz, what movies did I make references to in the first paragraph)

Oh but I wish to be Purple

Equality is Both Impossible and Impractical...

Well, Impractical first:
If everyone were equal, if everyone looked, acted, smelled, tasted, worked, lived, loved, cried, ate, jumped, ran, swamwell; was good at all subjects in school, succesful in all aspects of life; and was identical in all aspects LIFE WOULD SUCK.
Nobody would exel at anything. Nobody would ever win or lose. All sports would end in ties and all classes would be equally boring or amazing.
With everything would be equally amazing! mediocre, or sucky.
Either everybody finds the cure for cancer! we are all equally almost there, or we all die from it.

and impossible because we would all be the same age, or body shape, or all equally good at hunting or something. There wouldn't be any caribou left. In anycase, we would all be so equal at what we did, when eventually there wasn't enough the universe would collapse and we would ll be pulled apart like a big pig roast.


Well then it was fitting for you to take care how you should be like the rest of men, just as the thread has no design to be anything superior to the other threads. But I wish to be purple, that small part which is bright, and makes all the rest appear graceful and beautiful. Why then do you tell me to make myself like the many? and if I do, how shall I still be purple?
-Discourses by Epictetus

The Future's Got me Worried such Awful Thoughts

Noboy knows what the future holds (except H.G. Wells mind you)., but it is something that occupies our minds much of the time. Full of what ifs and full of hope. Full of questions and possibilities and potentialities. We always do it, and everything that we think, every possibility that we create in our minds is false, except that one little one that acctually happens. It is pointless, but so is alot of the things we do.

None the less it happens and I'm not gonna stop it. infact, im going to do it. . . sort of. Becuase soon, I will be going where my life is made. The forgery in which the basis of my life is crafted. everything I have gone through has beought me where I am. And I have many personalities, as evryone does, but can obviously only use one at a time. this is my worry. That my senior silence will follow me next year.

Senior silence is my little quieting disorder. I feel like I talk less. I feel like I analyze more and talk less. I give only a very few attampts at conversation and let others do the rest. I feel like I alienate myself. Everyone else is out there thwoing their moeny away when I have to go to college and eat at the same time. I feel like I have compared myself too much.

Well.. now I really justf feel tired. Because I get all sad when I am tired, I dont like getting tired it isn't fun. I neeed to sleep.

Night


"Nothin gets Crossed Out"
Bright Eyes
The future has got me worried, such awful thoughts.
My head is a carousel of pictures.
The spinning never stops.
I just want someone to walk in front
and I'll follow the leader.
Like when I fell under the weight of a schoolboy crush.
Started carrying her books and doing lots of drugs. I almost forgot who I was,
but came to my senses.
Now I'm tryin' to be assertive.
I'm making plans.
Wanna rise to the occasion, yeah
meet all of their demands.
But all I do is just lay in bed
and hide under the covers.
I know I should be brave
but I'm just too afraid of all this change.
And it's too hard to focus through all this doubt.
I keep making these "To Do" lists but nothing gets crossed out.
Working on the record seems pointless now.
When the world ends, who's gonna hear it?
But Im tryin' and take some comfort in written words,
yeah Tim I heard your album and it's better than good.
When you get off tour I think we should hang and black out together.
Because I've been feeling sentimental for days gone by...
all those summers singing, drinking, laughing, wasting out time.
Remember all those songs and the way we smiled
in those basements made of music.
But now I've got to crawl, to get anywhere at all. I'm not as strong as I thought.
So when I'm lost in a crowd,
I hope that you'll pick me out.
Oh, how I long to be found.
The grass grew high. I laid down.
Now I wait for a hand to lift me up, help me stand.
I have been laying so low
Don't want to lay here no more.
Don't want to lay here no more.
Don't want to lay here no more.
Don't want to lay here no more.
But if everything that happens is supposed to be
and it is predetermined, can't change your destiny.
Then I guess I'll just keep moving, someday, maybe, I'll get to where I'm going.

... and at the end of the night, dawns a new mourning

The've done it!
It's done

They have created an equation to find the worst day of the year.
What psychologist really has such depressing patients that he would want to find that one day that ist just shit?

This guy

The model is: [W + (D-d)] x TQ
M x NA

The equation is broken down into seven variables: (W) weather, (D) debt, (d) monthly salary, (T) time since Christmas, (Q) time since failed quit attempt, (M) low motivational levels and (NA) the need to take action.

Jennifer Carlile
Reporter
MSNBC (click to read the whole story)

The other day when I was walking into blockbuster, someone asked my why she never saw me on the stage. and that got me thinking again as to why we do what we do.

When we are young, infants, we do what we do because we do. We drink milk because we do. We eat what is fed to us because we do. and we grow because we do. It is animal instinct to live and the only thing that can change that is thousands of years of evolution in one direction or another. We do what we do to live.

In early childhood, we learn. We have survived so far, but it looks like we will have to adapt if we are to continue. We learn to do everything. We learn to communicate, we learn to effectively transport our selves, we learn to interact with others, we are sponges that absorb more than even the strongest quicker picker upper. We also learn fun. Fun is what our life becomes obsessed with as we journey farther into life. We love fun in all of its shapes and sizes. We love fun no matter the color or creed. We love fun even without regard to species. life is fun is life.

Later in childhood, what I like to refer to as the 'when I was young' ages, we learn falsehoods. We learn to lie, cheat, scam, and worst of all, we learn emotions. Learn isn't the right words, I just used it for repetition. Seriously, we learn to dilute and complicate our emotions. The barest of feelings we code in cliche words and macaroni hearts and the cute little drawings we hang on the fridge. We code them and give them to others to decipher hoping that they will somehow feel what you felt while you meticulously glue those glitter covered macaroni around your favorite family picture. why? because we want trust. We want the secure knowledge that everyone you know will be here tomorrow, just as they are today, and that you and you and you and I can go play with him and her and him and their dogs. and we play and dream. We dream of our future and of fun we can have when we grow up. Of walking on the moon and of discovering dinosaurs and of saving people from burning buildings. We dream of the world as it should be from our eyes. And never NEVER! do these dreams ever leave us, no matter how hard you try at any stage in your life can you rid yourself of the pure, angelic, untainted hope that gleam in your eyes. we dream of a good life. because life is good. Life is free, lovely, fun.

Then something happens. Whitecoats call it 'maturation'. The body grows and as a result so does our intelligence and wisdom. but that is not what we are worried about. No. we are on stage. We have hit Broadway and we are the stars of the show. ((unless that bitch who thinks she is all that comes over and steals my part that I have worked so hard to make, practicing since I was young risking everything on that audition and just because she knows the 'casting director'. I can't believe she wouldn't let me into that show.)) The show that everybody watches, not at home on their televisors but in life. The show, the drama, the production that life has become. No longer is fun what I care about because fun doesn't make me fit in. Fun doesn't make me skinny or smart or popular...because that's what everyone else wants. we act to fit in. we live to act. because we want trust. We want the secure knowledge that everyone you know will be here tomorrow, just as they are today, and that you and you and you and I can go play with him and her and him...but not her, she isn't good enough for the part. We want acceptance. We want it need it crave it. Like a drug, we take it when we can get it, spending the money our parents give us, thinking we are going to the movies hahaha, we are really spending it, investing it in friendships. Some last for the rest of our lives, some for less time than it takes to say "you little bitch" to the back of a head that is storming out of the theater. we don't even know why we do it, it isn't doesn't even make sense. we don't trust it because we can't see it, but it is in us. The instinct, our bodies know that the people that surround us are going to surround us for the rest of our lives. They are always going to be the same age, or three years younger, or five years older. Not even orbiting the planet will make you younger because you will never get there. Being an astronaut is the dream of a child. A dream that you can clearly remember, the pure, angelic, naked hope that one day you will make it and be great. and it is that dream, that hope, which now is covered under the makeup from the play, that keeps those of us from slitting our wrists and doing the drugs that only bury that hope further in the dirt. But it is still there. the gleam of something more than this act. because this act isn't our life, it is everybody else guessing what everybody else wants them to be. groupthink I think the white coats call it. and we are almost out. the act is almost over, and we have made it through because of that hope. we live to hope, and the others hope to live because what they did to themselves was too much.

finally, we are out. Still stuck in high school, but we now live to be free. we have made it, with more than our share of scars and stories. and we help who we can, because we know what it was like. But now things are different. now we look back on all that we have accomplished, and lost. we look back to our lives of acceptance and groupthink. We look back to the days of dreams and learning, and we look back to the days of life. the days that we lived to live. nothing to complicate it. nobody telling you their opinion while you furiously scribble notes into the notebook you bought with the money from your job at the movies. because we see it now, we see the life we have. We think we understand, but nobody knows everything. and we read stories about big bears of men who have found bliss. True bliss in the form of play, not even with humans but with bears and with dogs and with monkeys. People who live to live. who live to play, who work so that they can live. and we also see the other person who has built the empire of technology. who stands at the top watching over their floor of directors that looks down to their floors and so on. and they all work. to get money, to invest it in their things, hopefully their kids, and try to make a living. the live to work. and we look at those roads, and all the others in between living to work and working to live, because that is what we have been shown. and it is our decision now, to choose our path, or better yet make a new one. and forge ahead into the world...to be remembered.

and then, our train of thought comes to a screeching halt. because there was a noise. a voice actually, but one you haven't heard before. ...his first word, her first favorite word. The years have just flown by. and they are playing outside, having fun. they are five, full of radiant hope, just as you were. and they both love their first word and say it all the time.

why

"Why?" they ask you. why do we want to be remembered? because we want people to know that we have made a difference in this world. why? because we want to know that someone cared about what we did. why? because it is like when you made that macaroni picture and your mom put it on the fridge, because we want trust. We want the secure knowledge that everyone you know will be here tomorrow, just as they are today, and that him and him and her and her can work to make the world a better place for you and you and her. why? because our life wasn't perfect, and we don't want you to have to go through what we did. why? because we care about you, we want you to know that we will be here tomorrow just as we are today, and that our lives are for you. We live for you. and you live for the future. we live in you and you live because of us. why? because, as the writers at disney managed to phrase very well, it is the circle of life. and I honestly believe that in the end, we live for each other, for one reason or another. Whether it is instinct to pass our genes on, or because we just like having sex, or because we are all one being trying to survive in the world, or because a higher power said it would be a good idea. we live to give to the future, and hope it did some good.

what do you do when you can't reach what you want
when it is just out of bounds but you keep on trying
staring too long at the prize to miss the cliff


--oops, wrote that a while ago and never posted it. haha