Daily Eccentricities

We've Moved!

2011-02-18T04:00:00.000-08:00

That's right, our new site is http://dailyeccentricities.wordpress.com/.

BlogSpot is no longer capable of handling our immense blogging needs. Well to be honest, it's perfectly capable, but WordPress is so much fancier and it seems like that's where all the cool kids are.

See ya there,

<3 <3 Xtian and J-Beezie

Irrational, Intolerant, and Ignorant Values Dominate Midterm Election - What Else is New?

2010-11-05T14:35:00.000-07:00

With the 2010 midterm election behind us, it's time to reflect on just how fickle and down right stupid this country can be. We saw the rise of the Tea Party and the demise of logic this past Tuesday, setting up what will most likely be a very unproductive 2 years in Washington. I could attack multiple aspects of the election and turn this post into an 80 page rant about the American people putting the most fiscally irresponsible and socially backward citizens back into power, but instead I am going to focus on a story I found earlier today.

As many people noticed, there were a lot of judges on the ballot that were up for retention. I assume most people just checked yes for each judge and continued on to the exciting proposition section while some of us took the time and researched past rulings in order to make the most informed decision possible (and still voted yes for almost all of them...3 hours later >_<). Whether you blindly voted or you researched your decision, you probably felt that these retention votes were more like background formalities rather than actual issues. I completely understand. I voted in CA and there were much more pressing decisions that needed to be made such as Props 19, 23, and 25 and the Governor's race. However, in Iowa this was not the case as judicial retention votes, for their state Supreme Court at least, seemed to take center stage.

This past Tuesday, Iowa made history when they voted not to retain three of their Supreme Court justices. Kudos for making history? Not exactly. The three justices that were voted off the bench were part of the decision that legalized same sex marriage in the state of Iowa and it is solely because of that decision that they were ousted. Apparently, the state was flooded with homophobic advertisements from out-of-state organizations that urged the people of Iowa to vote no on retaining these justices. These out-of-state organizations, the Family Research Council and the National Organization for Marriage, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the advertisements.

This is idiotic beyond belief not only because of the obvious intolerance and bigotry, but also because this was not a movement sponsored by the citizens of Iowa. Does anyone else find it odd that every day we see the Tea Partiers, the Libertarians, the Republicans, and conservatives in general bitching and complaining about "big government" yet they seem to be fine with these national shadow organizations pumping money into various state elections in an attempt to force their misguided beliefs on people? A double standard maybe? This same thing happened in California with Prop H8.

This double standard is just one of the many aspects of a much larger problem regarding the misguided hatred of the societal progress embodied by allowing two willing adults to marry on their own terms. It's bothersome that people can be so easily influenced to abandon their ideals, however misguided they may be, in favor of what the rest of herd is doing. This election exemplified America's inability to think for itself. Because of this inability and irrationality, three judges are without a job simply because they held up the ideals of their state's constitution when they allowed same sex marriage. The truly sad thing is that I bet the average Iowan who voted no to retain these judges couldn't tell you about any of the other important cases that they ruled on.

If you want to read the article, you can find it at http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2010/11/iowa_judges_booted_for_support.php

The picture was found at davegranlund.com

Balance Always a Good Thing?

2010-04-09T21:46:00.000-07:00

I am sure that at some point in everyone's life they have been told that there are two sides to every story and that one should always keep their mind open to the other side of issue. Usually there are multiple ways to go about doing things and if people would just keep their minds open to others' suggestions they might realize their way isn't necessarily the only correct way. This happens a lot in U.S. politics. Some of the most successful legislature comes from partnerships that extend across the aisle. However, is this fair and balanced approach, this taking the time to observe two truths to every issue, applicable to all situations? Does every instance deserve a balanced approach?

Let's talk about education, specifically science education. As some of you are aware, many Texas schools are using books that include Creationist sections in their biology chapters. Unfortunately, people have written this situation off has letting the kids hear both sides of the story, evolution vs. creationism. Does this sound absurd to anyone else? It should. In this case, children are not learning both sides of the story, rather they are being misled and "miseducated" (if I may borrow a term from Lauren Hill) about real science as opposed faux science. The theory of evolution is fact. Theory in this context means "fact", look it up. Creationism is not fact, but instead belief. But because this is being taught in science class it is being represented as fact and that is horrible for the sake of future generations and for the sake of the country. The U.S. is on its way to becoming science-retarded. I am all about letting kids know that there are people out there that believe humans and dinosaurs walked the earth together 5,000 years ago, but not in science class. That kind of discussion belongs in Theology classes or religious studies classes. This situation is on par with a History teacher teaching that the holocaust never happened along with their general holocaust and WWII studies, or a science teacher presenting the belief that the world is flat. It's nothing but misinformation.

Now consider another unfortunate balancing that takes place in science classes (and more notably in the media), climate change. Somewhere around 90% (or higher, I'm being conservative in my estimate) of credible and peer-reviewed literature present findings that confirm human-influenced global warming. If it's 90-10 that global warming is real why is it being taught as 50-50 it exists/it doesn't exist. Teachers should suggest that the issue of global warming is not necessarily certain, but should do so in a proportional manner. For example, spend 9 days discussing findings that indicate global warming, but only spend one day presenting the doubts. After all, the legitimate doubts only make up around 10% of the total data. Why do we give that 10% so much attention? Kids need to learn the science, they do not need to be misled under the guise of presenting two sides to every story.

Thoughts?

The Person I Hate Most Today: Dr. Jack Cassell

2010-04-03T13:47:00.001-07:00

So I was checking the news today (I really gotta stop doing that) when I came across this story, "Fla. doc's sign warns off Obama supporters" (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36152956/ns/health-health_care/).

Yes, that's right a doctor, someone whose purpose in life should be to help people, is putting politics first. Now, to be fair (unlike the GOP, HA!), he isn't necessarily refusing service to people who voted for Obama. If you read the article you will see that the sign on the door appears to be as far as he goes, but isn't just putting up the sign going too far? This urologist is pressuring people to seek medical help elsewhere because of their political affiliation. This is absurdly unethical. No one has to right to know your political affiliation much less discriminate against it. Even if he is not directly discriminating against people, he is most definitely indirectly doing it and in my opinion that is still clear discrimination. Think about how the public would view the situation if he had a sign that said, "If you're Jewish, go see another doctor."

As a doctor, he took an oath to help people, to improve their quality of life. Doctors are supposed to be compassionate individuals that use their intelligence to serve the public. In this country, the public is made up of any race, religion, or political belief. The doctor has no right to even hint at not treating a certain group of people who are doing nothing but exercising their right to freely elect their leader. His prejudice is Un-American and is preventing him from living up to his obligations as a medical doctor. If he is going to continue with his discrimination, his medical license should be revoked.

His actions are in response the new healthcare legislation. How can someone be so afraid of the progress the country is making? We just passed universal healthcare (more or less) and are finally catching up with the rest of the developed world. It is people like this, people who supposedly represent the educated, upper-class American citizen, that makes the rest of the world dislike and probably pity the United States.

The New California State Plant???

2010-03-25T13:53:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning a little early so I could check my email before going to class. As usual, that took all of two seconds so I decided to check on various news sites to see what's going on in the world today. I read through a few stories talking about Obama keeping his promise and signing the no federal funds for abortions law (though it's not as simple as that), but then...low and behold...there it was, "Measure to Legalize Marijuana will be on California's November Ballot" (Los Angeles Times).

I had heard about people attempting to put this on the ballot a few months ago, but I never thought they would actually be able to. I'm assuming supporters just hung around outside southern California colleges going from person to person until they had enough signatures, but it is still amazing they've gotten this far. Do I think it will pass in the end? That's hard to say. But whether it will pass or not is not what I want to discuss.

For the sake of this post, let's assume that it is going to pass and think about some repercussions. Obviously you'll have some people worried about others driving while baked, or kids finding Daddy's gun (or Mommy's in this women-should-be-equal era). But has anyone given thought to the people that already grow? Northern California, specifically Humboldt County, is known nationally as the place to get good weed. Sure it's illegal unless you have that magical "green card", but there is still a lot of money revolving around the Humboldt County horticulturists and their product. Almost certainly, if this legislation were to pass, Humboldt farmers would lose their exclusivity in the pot world. Prices would fall as supplies increased statewide and they might even be taxed for their crop. It may sound like they're getting the raw deal, but then again, what right do these people have to hold the monopoly on something like this? I hate to bring in capitalism, but anyone else who offers a good or service doesn't have protection against competitors offering something similar. McDonald's can't be the only place allowed to have a dollar menu even if they were to the first to have one, right?

So, I ask you, is this situation synonymous with other cases of competition, capitalism, and monopoly? Is it fair to the rest of us that Humboldt County's slogan has become "Save Humboldt County — keep pot illegal"? Are their concerns even legitimate or are farmers of Humboldt County freaking out over nothing? After all, you can get wine anywhere, but everyone knows Northern California's wine is the best so they go there (and pay a little more) to get it. If the product is good, many people are probably willing to take the extra steps to get the best pot out there. What's your take?

What's this about climate change?

2009-12-14T19:39:00.000-08:00

This one will be short and to the point.

So what's with all of this bickering about climate change? Some studies were reportedly falsified or some results were exaggerated or something? Wooptie-fucking-do why do we care?

There are thousands of legitimate scientific studies that all say the same thing, CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL. OMG WUT? Yes, it is. Any good scientist would agree with this fact (that's right not theory, F-A-C-T).

So to you all you junk scientist dissenters out there, get bent okay :)

And to Mr. Beck, you don't know what you're talking about when it comes to the environment. just STFU already.

told you it would be short. <3

The Person I Hate Most Today 12-7-09

2009-12-07T10:49:00.000-08:00

This is the beginning of a new segment/reoccurring topic that I like to call "The Person I Hate Most Today". If you haven't assumed this already, I will basically name one person as the person I hate the most on the particular day I feel wronged enough by this person to make my way to my computer, double click my browser, click on the new post button, and write away.

So without further ado, the person I hate most today is.....(drum roll here)..... Sarah Palin. Why you ask? Why now? What makes today so special? Well, to be honest, it's not so much what she's doing today specifically as much as what she's been up to lately as a whole. The keen political mind that is Sarah Palin has been very active lately as she has been on a nonstop daytime media binge in an attempt to peddle her very "factual" pamphlet Going Rouge....errr...I mean Going Rogue to the mindless drones that, sadly, make up a large portion of the American public.

Everyday I have seen news headlines about the release of her book and every one ends the same way hinting or suggesting that she might run for President in 2012. Often in these stories there are quotes from numerous "Palin Pals" encouraging her to run while pledging their unquestioning support for her supposed stances on the many political issues of the day (never mind the fact that her stances on the issues of the day are Republican influenced sentence fragments of political thought deserving nothing more than to be presented in the form of kindergarten macaroni art much less a book). I have not really taken comments about her running for President seriously until I heard quotes from Republican organizers in Iowa following her latest book signing. They want her to come back to Iowa and essentially start campaigning. Iowa happens to be the first state to vote in the Presidential Primaries which makes it a very influential state. An Iowa Republican Party official made it clear that they could rally a crowd of 20,000+ if she were to come back and field questions about running in 2012. It seems as if though people are actually very serious about her seeking office.

Not only does this baffle me, as she has pretty much no real political experience, but it scares me as well. 20,000+ does not sound like much now, but this could only be the beginning. We've all suspected that this "tell all" book is an attempt to gain support for a White House bid, but now I am actually thinking that our suspicions may be correct. That 20,000 could grow very quickly with all of these book signings and with the comments from Iowa Republicans it seems as if she actually might be able to rally enough support to be taken seriously as a potential candidate. Does this worry anyone else?

No offense to her, well actually...complete offense to her, the woman is nothing but eye candy. She has no political merit and her lack of understanding regarding domestic and international policy, as exemplified through numerous interviews during her 2008 campaign, should offend anyone else who is actually qualified to run for president. I was surprised she was able to coherently collect her thoughts on issues to successfully write a book even with the help of her right-wing nutjob coauthor who probably did most of the writing. Sarah Palin should not be considering running for office and no one in their right mind should find reason to support her. But for some reason people like her and they do support her, and it is because of this that Sarah Palin is the person I hate most today.

POL491 Video Blog Project

2009-11-15T19:15:00.000-08:00

(to the regular readers of this blog: this is a blog project for my polsci senior seminar in case you're wondering why I would post something like this. feel free to comment on it, but no derailing please. serious comments only. thanks)

Jimmy Gaffney

Dr. Browning

Video Project

POL491

16 November 2009

Responsible Parties

Morris P. Fiorina describes two ways in which the two major American political parties act. They either act as decentralized parties or responsible parties. By decentralized he means that there is not much party unity and that congressmen “blithely sacrifice general interests in their pursuit of particularistic constituency interests” (Fiorina). It was because of this that several political scientists believed that voting was not so much in favor of parties, but rather incumbents and their records and under this system no one was being held accountable for the failings in national politics. An example of such failure was the nonexistent party cohesion during the Carter administration that lead to congressmen being worried more about looking good for their constituents instead of backing the president and thus the complete breakdown of legislation resulting in the solving of very few national problems at the time. Therefore many political scientists supported the idea of responsible parties in which members of the parties would be unified and able to enact positive change behind a strong president of the same party (Fiorina). This became the case in 2000 when W. Bush was first elected to the presidency and even more so when his party gained several seats in Congress (and therefore more power) in 2002. In this essay, I am going to discuss the concept of responsible parties in modern politics by using three video clips from the C-SPAN Video Library to explain how each is an example of either the Democrats or the Republicans representing themselves as responsible parties.

The first video is a speech made by President George W. Bush in 2006. In it he expresses his support of amending the Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage.

This speech and his support of the bill was mostly symbolic (Fiorina). This means that the bill never really had a chance of passing into law and he most likely supported it because it was a good opportunity to express his support for the conservative ideological foundation that makes up a large portion of the Republican Party.

Bush gave this speech on June 5^th, 2006 which was just a few months before the elections that restored majority power in both the House and the Senate to the Democrats (Democrats Retake Congress). Bush and other Republican leaders may have assumed that, as a result of declining numbers in both presidential and congressional ratings, various Republican congressmen stood to lose their jobs. This speech appears to have been an attempt to rally support for those Republicans congressmen and is therefore an example of the concept of responsible parties. Rather than remain ambiguous on the issue, he came out in support of his fellow Republicans when he did not really need to. In the selected portion of his speech he twice said something along the lines of taking power away from judges and giving it to the people. As an influential Republican figure he is trying to unite people to the Republican Party by referring to the public as “the American people” which comes off as patriotic. He is also trying to unite them against “activist”, or liberal, judges which represent the opposite ideology and presumably the opposite party in this case.

The second video is also just before the 2006 mid-term elections, but it is from the opposite side of the ideological spectrum. In it House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi discusses some of the Democrats’ economic plans assuming they will win enough seats to become the majority party in Congress. I could not embed this video and the time frame that I am referencing is from 7:15 to 7:49. The link to the clip is http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/194679-1. The clip is short but it thoroughly demonstrates the Democratic side of the concept of responsible parties. Like Bush, Pelosi also explicitly refers to the people that she is talking about as Americans in attempt to unify them toward her cause. However, unlike Bush, Pelosi made it a point to call attention to how the Republican Party as a whole had in a sense failed the average, middle-class American. Bush somewhat attacked the liberal ideology and the Democrats by speaking about “activist judges”, but in this clip it is clear who Pelosi is trying to establish as the “villain” in attempt to put her party in power. She goes back and forth several times explaining how the actions of the Republicans have affected Americans in negative ways and how the Democrats plan to remedy the situation.

This is an example of responsible party politics because Nancy Pelosi is clearly trying to incite a positive attitude from the public in favor of her party and a negative perception of the other party. According to her, as a whole, the Democrats will do “this”, Republican’s will do “that”, and as Americans we want “this”. Pelosi and other Democratic leaders knew that in 2006 they had a very strong chance of winning the majority and understood that if they expressed themselves as a unified body, a responsible party, representing core values of Middle America, they would most likely win and they did.

The third video serves as a great relevant and recent example of responsible parties from both the Democrats and the Republicans. It is a clip from the debate and vote on the Affordable Health Care for America Act of 2009 and it clearly reveals the two opposing sides of the bill. The Democrats were in favor of it and the Republicans were opposed. The whole video is 872 minutes long, but the portion selected is of only two opposing representatives that I felt adequately displayed their party’s opposite stances on the issue.

The first person in this clip to speak is Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen. His speech focuses on great Americans politicians throughout the 20^th Century and how they would support the passing of this bill. Interestingly, he includes the recently deceased Senator Ted Kennedy who was a very influential and long time Democratic member of the Senate. Rep. Cohen most likely included Kennedy in his list of important figures as a means to bring Democrats together to support this legislation as Democrats currently have the majority in the House and the Senate and, with the added benefit of having a Democrat as President, they have a strong chance of passing this bill into law (at the time of this writing it has only passed the House). After Cohen’s list of important people he then goes on to explain how passing this bill will bring the United States into the 21^st century. He notes that the U.S. has infant mortality rates similar to those of third world countries and claims that by passing this legislation that will no longer be the case. The tone of his speech (regarding modernizing America) is rather progressive which is typically representative of liberalism which is associated with the Democratic Party (Fiorina). He is attempting to unite the Democrats as being progressive in an attempt to pass this bill.

The second speech in the video is by Republican Rep. Jeff Miller. Immediately he seeks to accuse the Democrats of belittling average Americans in favor of gathering support for the Republican stance on the bill. His speech is very short and not so much factual as it is emotional. He ends with the claim that Americans want freedom and that the Democrat-sponsored bill will violate the freedoms of Americans if passed. Miller attempts unite people under the Republican Party with a core American value.

The bill passed with a vote of 220-215 with only 39 Democrats opposing the bill and only 1 Republican in favor of it (Karl et al). In this case, both parties represented responsible parties. While 39 Democrats opposed the bill, 180 of them followed party lines and passed it. They knew that as a responsible party they would have no obstacles in passing this legislation. On the other hand, Republicans were responsible as well. Only one of them voted in favor of it meaning that 175 united and voted against it. They most likely knew that since they represented an extreme minority in the House, they did not have a good chance of getting their way. But they came together as a responsible party, symbolically, as Bush did in my first clip. Perhaps this demonstrates that even in weak times, when their overall party organization and welfare has been questioned by the media, they are in fact strong, and if given the opportunity to become the majority again will act as a responsible party and pass legislation representing their party’s beliefs.

This essay has examined three video examples of the concept of responsible parties. The first was a speech by President W. Bush in which he gave symbolic support of a less-than-likely-to-pass amendment to the Constitution in order to demonstrate his allegiance to a responsible Republican Party. The second clip was of Nancy Pelosi just prior to the 2006 elections in attempt to gain the support of a unified, responsible Democratic Party that if in power, according to Pelosi, had the opportunity to right the wrongdoings of the Republicans and improve America. The third clip was of two congressmen of opposing ideologies supporting their party’s stance on the health care bill that recently passed the House. Both speeches represented the ideals of their respective parties and in the end both parties followed the responsible party model. The Democrats followed it to demonstrate that they do have the power to make the changes their party promised, and the Republicans followed it to show that even though their party has struggled in recent years, they are still strong.

Works Cited

C-SPAN Video Library. Web. http://www.c-spanvideo.org/videoLibrary/.

"Democrats Retake Congress." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. Web. 15 Nov. 2009. http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/.

Fiorina, Morris P. Parties as Problem Solvers. Principles and Practice of American Politics. 4th ed. Washington DC: CQ. 611-24. Print.

Karl, Jonathan, Rachel Martin, and Teddy Davis. "Nancy Pelosi and Democrats Pass Sweeping Health Care Reform Bill in House, Now All Eyes on Senate." ABCNews.com - Breaking news, politics, online news, world news, feature stories, celebrity interviews and more. 8 Nov. 2009. Web. 12 Nov. 2009. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/nancy-pelosi-democrats-pass-sweeping-health-care-reform/story?id=9027367.

Sullivan, Andy. "Struggling Republicans to Pick New Party Chief." Reuters.com - World News, Financial News, Breaking US & International News. 29 Jan. 2009. Web. 12 Nov. 2009. http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE50S10K20090129.

How do I loathe thee? Let me count the ways.

2009-11-14T22:47:00.000-08:00

If conservatism was a passenger on my boat I would kindly ask him to immediately remove himself and swim to the nearest deserted island. Then I would wonder how the hell he got on my ship. Its not that I'm expressly opposed to his presence, I just know that he really wouldn't like New America. My point is, I don't like conservatism and I would say that it's bad for humanity.

Conservatism is an archaic principle that has little to no place in the modern world. Radio host Michael Savage regularly sums up conservatism as protecting "borders, language, and culture" and I think most people would agree to that definition in terms of today's mainstream conservative movement. Its very isolationist and encourages an "us versus them" view of humanity. I strongly feel that all people are born equal and the only way to truly progress as civilized and intelligent species, is to stop thinking of each other as American, Liberal, or Christian.

To be continued...

It's been awhile, but here we go...

2009-05-05T19:03:00.000-07:00

Hmmmm while I doubt that too many people check up on this anymore, I feel the need to vent so here we go.

I pay a lot of attention to politics and the news. One source (and I would hardly call it a source) that I go to is Fox News Channel. Why you ask? Sure it's great to listen to people that you agree with on other networks, but I feel that it is also good to listen to people you disagree with in order to keep your political skills sharp. I watch Fox not to be informed, but rather to debate and challenge every lie that they tell.

Anyways, I have had enough of the sheer idiocy of their guests and supposed "analysts". Lately Hannity, Beck, the morons on Red Eye, and Gretchen have made it a point on their respective programs to bitch and moan about how the media is not criticizing Obama like they did for Bush. Tonight on Hannity's "All-American Panel" (that's the name of the panel, not me mocking it although I might as well be) he had one bumbling, nervous liberal and two uninformed conservatives sharing their twisted politics. Fox always like to say they are fair and balanced, but whenever they have a liberal analyst, it is always the most nervous and crazy sounded liberal they can find. But that's not why I'm pissed off right now. I'm pissed because of the "professional" conservative analysts featured. One was a ex-professional football player and the other is a conservative blogger with a bad face-lift.

Why does the non-fact based opinion of an ex-nfl player matter enough to be shared on a news network? This guy has no qualifications and is simply warping the opinions and beliefs of those who know even less than him. At one point he asked why former president Bush is under scrutiny for waterboarding and then went on to preach that Bush was defending us from terrorists and that he should have done more (suggesting caning). Now because he said that, there are going to be a 1,000 more idiots out there asking the same thing completely ignoring the fact that torture is ILLEGAL and that the U.S. has even led UN sanctions against other nations that have done the same thing (Japan for water boarding). This person has no business informing the public because he apparently has trouble distinguishing fact from NOTHING.

The other analyst, the blogger with the mug you don't want to chug, was an even bigger imbecile. She is Pamela Geller and her website www.atlasshrugs.com is filled mistruths and mindelss zombie followers applauding her for every word that she spews. On the show, she claimed that when it comes to abortions, liberals only want to drive you to the abortion clinic. Hmmmm, I'm a liberal and I do not want anyone to have to get an abortion. I would rather that people had a choice that they can make for themselves. On her website, she claims that all democrats protect child rapists? I'm not even going to argue this one as there is nothing that could be further from one-sided coverage of an issue than this.

How in good conscience can Sean Hannity invite these idiots to share their bias when his program airs on a NEWS channel. There is no news here. Back to Fox's anti-Obama campaign, aren't other news networks doing the same thing Fox did when Bush was in office? Get off your high horse Fox, they are doing the same damn thing you have done for the last eight years. All that these hosts are doing is bitching about Obama and offering "news" with their good ol' fashioned right-wing spin. How is it possible that you can even judge Obama after 100 days? Oh wait, you can't. All of their talk about how Obama is befriending terrorisim supporters (specifically Chavez) is completely misguided and I feel sorry for those who treat this bullshit as actual news.

Next Semester

2008-11-17T13:30:00.000-08:00

okay so here we go with a break from my usual political rants. What classes are you guys taking next semester? Fun ones? Not so fun ones? GO!!!

This is what I get to look forward to:
-Genetics & Molec Biol--scary shit
-Lab in Genetics & Molec Biol--scary shit up close
-Environmental Engineering--fuck if I know, it counts for cred
-Intro to Political Analysis--could be interesting. it's statistics + politics
-U.S. Foreign Policy: Selected Problems Intl Relations --gonna be awesome
-Spanish Level IV - ay, dios mio! no entiendo!

Thnxgvn Projex

2008-11-11T23:26:00.000-08:00

The Thanksgiving break is short, so we have to make the most out of our time. The Galactic Super Senate has already passed a measure in which we are going to test the lethally hot Buffalo Sause "Defcon 5". I would like to take this opportunity to propose another measure which will be recorded and donated to the internet: getting the most out of your soda. This would include but not be limited to...

1: Buying 2 liter bottles and filling up your own smaller bottles.
2: Explaining how carbonation works.
3: What to do if your soda has been shaken.
4: The rate at which an open can or bottle loses carbonation.
5: Buying generic or store brand soda for a fraction of the price.

This will be filmed, edited, and posted on the various "how to" sites like 5min.com or instructables.com. Its about time we gave something back to after taking oh so much.

We Need to Talk

2008-11-08T21:58:00.000-08:00

Ok this is getting ridiculous now. As anyone from California knows, if you travel to the other end of the state you are not in the same state anymore. You're not even in the same country. Dare I say not even the same planet. To be honest, I'm more than surprised we don't have two different accents. There's northern California, southern California, and 400 miles of dirt separating the two. I think its about time we stopped ignoring the issue. California is too big and too diverse. Its like a bad marriage, and we need a divorce.

Can someone explain to me why we can't do this? I mean sure it'll make the country flag a little weird with 51 stars, but can't we just combine two of those stupidly small states on the east coast? Consider this, when you travel and meet someone how often do you just say "California"? It's about always followed with Northern, Southern, Bay Area, San Diego, or some modifier like that. I say Bay Area because I don't want people thinking I may be from LA. Its hard to get more different than SF and LA. I'm also convinced that Prop 8 passed because of the "other" half. If Northern Cali was its own state from the beginning I wouldn't doubt that we could have a gay governor. Which I'm saying is a GOOD thing. Not because gays are inherently better at being governor, but because it would reflect our acceptance of people beyond their race or sexual orientation.

Also, we should move the capitol. I mean really, Sacremento?

So the only real question is what to name the new states.

Election 2008

2008-11-05T12:50:00.000-08:00

For some of you looking for election results in CA, you may be finding it hard to find the results for the issues you voted for. So here it goes. Commentary included!!

Prop 1a - Train connecting LA, Bay Area, and Sacramento - passed
Prop 2 - Standards for Confining Farm Animals - passed
Prop 3 - Children's Hospital Bond Act. Grant Program. - passed
Prop 4 - Parent Notif. Before Terminating Minor's Pregnancy - no
Prop 5 - Nonviolent Drug Offense. Sentencing, Parole, Rehab - no
Prop 6 - Police, Law Enforcement Funding. Criminal Laws - no
Prop 7 - Renewable Energy Generation - no
Prop 8 - Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry - looking like it will pass. not official yet
Prop 9 - Criminal Justice System. Victims' Rights. Parole - passed
Prop 10 - Altern. Fuel Vehicles and Renewable Energy Bonds - No
Prop 11 - Redistricting - passed
Prop 12 - Veterans' Bond - passed

County Measure Q - SMART Rail Quarter Cent Sales Tax - passed

So, there they are. How do you feel about them?

To be honest, I am pretty shocked on some of them. I don't know what kind of TV ads have been on back there swaying opinions one way or the other, but why in the hell did some of these pass?

Let's start with the first one; the safe, reliable railway system connecting southern CA and northern CA. Why? Why do we honestly need that? It sounds like a great idea, as a matter of fact a lot of what was on the ballot sounded like a great idea, but who the hell is going to pay for it? It's expected cost is somewhere near 20 Billion dollars and its expected upkeep is millions if not billions per year. Just guess where that is going to come from? The taxpayers, that's where. The state is in the hole and has been for awhile now, it does not have the money for this. We are trying to rebuild our economy, yet for some reason people felt the need to spend money on a luxury, not even a necessity. Think about what 20 billion dollars would do for CA schools. Now this sounds like a wild idea, but what about just not spending that much money period! You know saving it up, getting positive and out of debt. I know that makes too much sense, but come on people, a fucking 20 billion dollar train?

Now let's discuss drugs. So, many may be thinking they're criminals so why should we have to pay to help with their rehab. I know I know, I just went on a rant about senseless spending, but this is different. It does not cost nearly as much, and actually saves money. It's not just about rehab for non-violent drug offenders either. Laws regarding the punishments dealt to people who violate drug laws in a non-violent manner were also going to be reformed. That means, less people in jail, and thus less money required to house inmates. It was a chance to break away from this awful and totalitarian-like war on drugs where the government can make our decisions for us and unjustly punish us for doing no harm to anyone else whatsoever. It's a war that will never be won, actually increases crime rates, and increases needless government spending. Yeah, I know, drugs are bad. But it should still be our choice and this bill was going to be a way for us to get closer to getting that choice back.

I was really taken back with the two props. regarding renewable energy and alternate fuel vehicles getting shot down by so much. Let's just keep using gas, we don't need to break our dependence from foreign countries.

What about our police? I guess we don't need to give them more money as we don't need any more law enforcement because we have those rehab programs...oh wait. I don't consider this one as big of a deal as others, I'm just shocked it lost by so much.

SMART. A railway to connect Sonoma and Marin. Makes sense because they are sooooo far right? However, even I'll admit in all seriousness, it will be good for the environment. I voted no, but it's not the worst thing to get passed this year. However, if you voted yes for this and bitch about our already high sales tax increasing, I will slap you.

And finally, yes you knew it was coming, proposition 8. While it may not be passed yet, as there are some 3 million or so absentee ballots that have yet to be counted, it is not looking good. I cannot believe and am very disappointed with the flat out intolerance demonstrated by the passing of this amendment to our state's constitution. I live in Indiana for school. It is an extremely conservative part of the country. One thing that gets me through it is the ability to know that the whole world is not like this. California, to me, represents change that is to come. It represents modern and progressive ideals that the rest of the country will eventually come to follow. The passing of prop 8 scares me. If California, arguably the most progressive state in the U.S., cannot be an advocate for gay rights, who can? The passing of this is hateful, and I am ashamed to say that I share a state with so many hateful people. There is absolutely no practical reason to pass 8. Denying homosexuals the right to get married is simply based on one groups intolerance for the other and nothing else. Christian fundamentalists with no concept of what American society should be, passed this. I'll admit a large percentage of the country was founded by Christians. but, an even larger part of the foundation of this country is based on the freedom to choose religion. It is wrong for Christians to force their ideals on people of other beliefs and that is exactly what is happening here. Prop 8 supporters will argue that it does not really matter because they can still have unions and get all the rights of married couples anyways. But it does matter, this is segregation. Why should one group have the right to tell another group they cannot do something with no logical reason beyond religious reason which should not come up in political forums anyways. Who gives a shit if because of this not passing, kids would have to learn that homosexuality is normal. Homosexuality is a part of society whether people like it or not and kids will learn about it in one way or another. Wouldn't it be better for them to learn about it in a safe environment like school? They just don't want their kids to learn about it being okay so they can indoctrinate them until they are intolerant assholes too. People who actively supported this bill are imbeciles and should probably get bent. The mentality they possess is intolerant, slack-jawed, idiotic and similar to what you would get from generations of inbreeding. If you voted for this, you are severely misinformed about modern life and I would love to hear/debate your reasoning. Way to fail on this one California, I am actually holding Indiana in a higher light politically because they actually managed to vote blue for once.

We Don't Have Bionic Eyes Yet, Save Yours

2008-10-21T22:01:00.000-07:00

Its been a long while since I've posted anything of real, practical value. Sure railing against the corporations and illuminating the futility of choice through determinism are fun. But how does that help you? Right now? Well actually they both help you but you just haven't ascended to that plane of intellectualism to understand their usefulness yet. So here is something easy that even you can do.

Like many of you I spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen. And a lot of the time its very straining on my eyes. But I didn't really realizes just how much unnecessary stress I was putting on my eyes until I started darkening certain things. So here is a list of things you can do to relieve the stress on your eyes.

Dark wallpaper. This one is the easiest. Just go download a darkish wallpaper and even though you may not spend that much time staring at your desktop, its must less jarring to see when you close your active programs.

Custom FireFox Extensions: This one I highly recommend. If you use FireFox (and you should), go and install the "Stylish" extension (link below). Now go the other link posted below and search for the sites you visit regularly. People have submitted a lot of custom templates that modify specific sites that change the background color, font, and other things. Take a look through them, find one you like, and install it. I recommend the dark versions of Wikipedia and Google.

Word Background: I'm really surprised I didn't figure this out sooner. Just open Word, go to Format and then Background. After a few seconds of staring at the default white background, switch to black. I don't know about you but as soon as I do that I feel like all this tension is listed off of me. I feels so much better to look at a dark screen.

Get Stylish

Customize Web Sites

My Browser is very eye friendly

Stop and Think

2008-10-17T17:53:00.000-07:00

In the last two weeks or so you've all probably heard me talking about the online film Zeitgeist Addendum. Its a long documentary with a lot of radical ideas, so here is my rundown.

I've watched ZA twice now. The first time I just sat back and let it play. When it was finished I wasn't sure what to make of it. My first impression was that it was very persuading, but like all second hand reports I didn't think it was the whole truth. So I started asking around to see if anyone could verify some of the claims that it made. This was pretty hard because it makes a lot of claims and I don't have the time or know-how to check all their facts. But my research did yield some fruit. The last quarts of the film is about The Venus Project, a proposed new "Resource Based" economy by this guy Jaques Fresko. The film is pretty much a big ad for the project but even without the proposed new economy, the message of the film is still important on its own.

So I decided to watch it again but this time take notes on their main points so I could compile it all and check from there. Thats when I realized that it wasn't the facts that I needed to focus, it was the ideas and concepts. Even if someone says that unemployment in the US is 10% when its actually 8% doesn't change the fact that the unemployment rate is out of control (I just made up those numbers for the argument). So its counter productive to focus on each precise statistic than to the look at the main point.

The entire argument of the film is that our growth as a people is being held back from meaningful progress by long held institutions that are not longer relevant, and the point is to just get you to stop and think about the way things work. We could be so much more than we are now if we were not slowed down by the desire to keep things the way they are. The biggest institutions targeted in the film are the monetary system, capitalism, government, and religion.

I don't want to go into each one individually because I don't think I could explain them accurately the way the film does. However there are few overarching things I'd like to point out.

1: Capitalism values profit well above human welfare. The only reason most companies hire employees is because that job hasn't been automated yet. If I have a factory and can function at a fraction of the cost by using machines, why would I hire employees?

2: The only reason we don't usually have to pay for water and air is because its so abundant. Charging for it would be useless.

3: Our monetary system cannot keep up with technological advances. What happens when the population starts to really outweigh the number of jobs? The global population is rising every year and more jobs are being automated every year.

4: As I said in my last post, we have the technology to make clean, efficient transportation and energy but the oil and energy companies (and the government) stand in the way. Why? Because efficiency does not mean profit. The longer we use inefficient cars and energy, the longer they
will stay in business and maintain control. Its no secret that the oil companies hold electric car patents that prevent mass distribution.

There are more issued addressed in the film but, again, I don't want to screw up the message by the explaining it poorly. Take two hours, watch the film, and then look around and ask yourself "is this really the best we can do?"

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912

Gas Prices Too High or Not High Enough?

2008-10-16T21:13:00.000-07:00

Alright I'm going to try to make this short since I need to be in the hot tub soon. In the last couple of years, gas prices have gone way up. And like the whores and addicts that we are, we bitch and complain but we still crawl back to the pump for our sweet sweet liquid crack. I know because I do it too. I really like having the freedom that comes with owning my own car and being able to drive any where I want any time I want. But isn't it about time we retired the combustion engine engine and adopted a new energy with modern functionality? Automobiles really haven't changed all that much since Henry Ford's Model T which began production ONE HUNDRED years ago. We ARE STILL using the same basic technology that powered those cars. In over a hundred we haven't come up with a better and more efficient engine than that? Well we have actually, but they've been stopped from entering mainstream production. The problem is that the oil companies make way too much money the way things are now to let that happen without a serious fight. The automobile industry as it is now is built around having to constantly pay to use a car. Even after you own a car you still have to pay for gas, tires that wear out, and tune ups and oil changes every couple of months. So you can see why the oil companies are doing everything they can to stop cars that don't need as much energy and don't need tune ups and oil changes. Now, our problem is that gas prices are just enough that people will be still use it and not make drastic changes in their lifestyles or demand new technology. If suddenly gas was $10 a gallon, I would bet there would be rioting in the streets for a new engine independent of gasoline. We need higher gas prices. Not just a few dollars though, I mean WAY higher. The higher the better. Its time to shape up and get with the fucking 21st century. We DO have the technology for clean and efficient engines. Its about time we got to use it.

A Quick WTF - Sample Ballot

2008-10-10T12:53:00.000-07:00

When xtian first added me to this blog he said I should come up with segment titles for repeated themes. I think this will be the first post in a series I am going to refer to as "A Quick WTF".

For those of you who are voters out there (better be ALL OF YOU!!!!), you should have received your sample ballot today. Did anyone else notice the order in which the presidential candidates are listed? Anyone else worried? With the 2000 election Florida fiasco in mind, I immediately noticed an oddity to the order in which they are listed. It puts McCain at the top so you would think Obama would be right there under him, but no. He is the second to last candidate listed. This might not be a problem if they were listed in alphabetical order, either by name or party, but they are not. Why are they ordered that way? I fear that people are going to look at the list of candidates, see McCain first, and say to themselves, "I recognize that name", and then they will vote for him without even seeing Obama as a choice (yes people can be that stupid). I mean think about it, if college professors want to trick you on exams, they will put the answer that is closest to correct as the first answer in a multiple choice question with hopes that you will see it and not even look at other answers. This ballot is the same thing. It is a conspiracy for the white man dammit! That is the only explanation. Whitey is going to do anything possible to win this election and playing these sick psychological games is only one example of how low he will stoop.

Here is a picture of my ballot. It is crappy, but you can clearly see McCain at the top and Obama second to last with a bunch of no name, minor parties in between. I say WTF!!!! Anyone else?

I'm going to do it! It can't be put off. As much as I hate it, it is time to talk about the economy.

2008-10-08T13:06:00.000-07:00

Well well, another debate down, another night of unanswered questions and concerns. But, how realistic is it to expect that some of these questions are going to be answered in the first place? As much as I hate mudslinging and these idiotic commercials talking about absolutely nothing, I am actually going to defend our candidates.

What is every one's main concern right now? Let me guess, the economy. While we should be concerned, I am sick of pundits and the public bitching and moaning about how this person doesn't have a plan, or that person is just babbling out buzz words and catch phrases. GET REAL AMERICA! Does anyone honestly think either of our candidates are going to disclose the full details of their economic plans (assuming they have them which I am assuming they do). There is no way in hell any one is going to get a definitive answer about how we are going to fix the economy. It would be campaign suicide if either candidate said what they we really have in mind.

Our economy is in such a crappy state, that there is no quick fix that for some reason people are expecting the candidates to have. The truth of it is, that in order for the U.S. to bounce back we are all going to have to sacrifice for a little while for the greater good. But no one wants to hear that, and God forbid one of the candidates says that. If either one of them explains that the only way to get out of debt is for some people to lose out, they are going to lose so much support they will probably lose the election. Of course if one of them does say the truth, the other one will immediately lie and make a false promise about how no one loses in their plan and sadly people will be duped, and said lying candidate will win.

There was one question in the debate last night that I liked a lot and it demonstrates that the American people are not just a bunch of idiots. An elderly person, who grew up during the Great Depression, blatantly asked what sacrifice we would be making in order to bounce back like they did back then. Good job for asking that, unfortunately guess what...neither Obama or McCain directly answered it, but I think it's time to stop expecting them to.

I generally like debates, as they are usually entertaining and a lot of the time we are able to really hear what these candidates say when they have to think on their feet. I especially like how I can view the debates, even the VP debates, on like 6 High Definition channels. Unfortunately the debates this year are, while stupid at times, being overshadowed by this misguided theory that they should be talking in detail about economic plans. Get over it, it will not happen because no one really wants to hear the truth of the matter. If you want some insight on how these candidate's economic plans might carry out, do some research and look back at congressional committees they have served on in the senate, and bills that they have authored or been major supporters of. That is probably the best way to get a realistic view of how these politicians will carry out business once they are in the white house.

And to make matters a little more biased and interesting, take notice that McCain has voted on about 90% of Bush favored legislature, legislature that has gotten us to where we are today. For shame McCain, for shame...

(pssst...Obama '08)

Comment on!

'Whose Line' Noir

2008-10-07T15:08:00.000-07:00

So I decided its about time I started posting some of my creative writings. This one is essentially a scripted Whose Line Is It Anyway Noir scene between Colin and Ryan. I haven't refined this at all. This is just first draft and took about twenty or thirty minutes to write. I plan to expand on it and polish it up later.

I was desperate. My whole operation was going down the drain and I knew there was only one man I could turn to. One man who could get the job that I needed done right. I swore I would never speak to him again, but fate has a funny way of choking you with your own words.

“Its been a long time… Shoe Face.”

-I knew Flat Top would be back. Me and him have a long history. We knew everything about each other. That’s the kind of thing that happens when you used to be physically attached to someone. That’s right, we were conjoined twins. But I decided to play dumb, feel out the situation.

“You’ll have to forgive me, I… don’t speak English.”

-At that point I started to wonder if I had walked into the wrong brothel. But then I saw the enormous disfiguring scar on his head. There was no doubt about it, that used to be me. I knew he was playing dumb, so I tried to call his bluff.

“Could you hold this for a minute?”

-I had no idea why he just handed me a half eaten sandwich. But I could tell he was desperate. I figured I might as well come clean. He looked like he needed my help, and I did owe him one.

“Alright, Top. What’s your game? Has some red robin picked your basket for the last time? Have all your pawns jumped ship and made a suicide run for the muffin man? Spill it, buster.”

-I always hated his elaborate metaphors.

None of What You See... Online

2008-10-05T02:15:00.000-07:00

I firmly believe that the internet is one of, if not the, most important inventions by mankind. Right up there with the telephone, automobile, Gutenburg's printing press (thank you, Mr. Feeny), and porn. The internet is freedom. Suddenly people from all over the world can communicate and share ideas so easily. Information about everything and anything is just seconds away. And just about every episode from every television show or movie is available for viewing. The world is a much smaller place thanks to the internet.
However, the freedom of the internet is also it's biggest problem. Anyone can post anything they want online. Not only is it an incredibly good thing, its also something to be extremely wary of. There is a lot of good online, but there's also a lot of false information. Often times its hard to distinguish what is true or false. Ben Franklin famously said, "Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see". I would like to amend that statement but I don't think we can believe less than none.
I take everything I see or read online as simple a rumor. I like to see evidence and and proof of assertions. But its hard sometimes. I recently watched the documentary "Zeitgeist Addendum". It makes a lot of claims about how inflation works, that our monetary system is inherently flawed and unethical, and how our major corporations have locked us into a kind a slavery. A lot of it is very compelling and season pretty logical. But then there are a lot of people that say most of it is lies and made up. And then filmmakers have their own rebuttals saying otherwise. So who do you believe? The only way is to fact check for yourself. Thats the problem. There is simply too much to check. Its way too much to have to go and verify every single assertion or claim that the film or anyone makes. Even if someone makes a film countering every point the first film made, how can you be sure the second film is honest and factual? I don't know what to do anymore. There's a lot of stuff I want to believe but I can't just blindly take statements about important issues at face value.

Sarah "Sexy Pants" Palin

2008-09-26T09:35:00.001-07:00

Does anyone find it offensive that McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate?

I remember thinking during her first speech at the RNC (about her and Hillary Clinton breaking the glass ceiling) that this has to be the most offensive political tactic in a long time. Not only is she running against Hillary Clinton's (whom she claimed as her partner in this) party, she is pretty much the polar opposite of HillDawg as far as their views are concerned.

To me this feels like the republican party is simply saying, "Here you go feminists. Here is your woman. Happy? Please vote for her and get back to what you were doing in the kitchen." Palin is simply a tool that is being used to steal woman voters, women who were originally going to vote for Hillary. The Republican party and McCain are basically saying vote for this woman regardless of her views because she is a woman, not because she has anything to bring to the White House. It seems as if though they are expecting women to vote only on the basis of description and not substance, as if they are trying to trick women into voting for them by throwing Palin at them.

This shows no respect towards what women were fighting for when they were supporting Hillary. This is a slap to the face of Hillary's cause. This is idiotic and offensive and it demonstrates clearly how low McCain is going to go to steal votes. There is no glass cieling being broken here, she is not even the first female VP candidate. Don't be fooled.

And yes, I know that the picture is of Tina Fey and not Sarah Palin. Hopefully you know that too if you are planning to vote for her ticket.

Yo

2008-09-24T09:09:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

Welcome to my mind. At times you may become disoriented or motion sick, it is completely normal. If it becomes too much for you to handle, simply close your eyes and back away from the computer. My mind is not intended for pregnant women or patrons with back or neck problems.

Disclaimers aside,

Xstian has added me as a contributor to Daily Eccentricities and I look forward to sharing my thoughts with everyone bored enough to be reading this right now. As stated in Xtian's first post, this will by no means be a journal, but simply a means to post my thoughts, opinions, and revelations. For those of you that know me (I know I know, all of you probably know me. Just let me pretend there are thousands of readers out there so I can feel important and such), you can probably guess that most of what I post will be on political issues since there is nothing more I would rather rant about. But, from time to time I am sure I will write about something more fun so please keep reading, I beg you. I look forward to contributing, hopefully actively, and I also look forward to your thoughts and opinions.

See ya around...

Inspired

2008-03-31T02:33:00.000-07:00

Go here, click "video", and watch the trailer first. www.intothewild.com/

Tonight I finally rented and sat down and watched Into the Wild. Into the Wild is the second movie I fell in love with after only seeing the trailer, the first being Garden State. I really wanted to go see it when it was still in theaters in the fall with someone (particularly Andy) so we could talk about it like usual. But in a way I guess its good I saw it alone because its been a long time since I’ve had to fight so hard to keep from crying. And no one wants to see that. Even now its still coming back and I finished the movie thirty minutes ago. It may not have the same affect on you if you see it, but I think it really got to me because I identify with the main character so much. The film is based on a book which is based on the real life and death of Chris McCandless. Its about change. Its about experience. Its about truth. Just after graduating from college Chris abandons his life and sets out to trek across on the country with no money, no car, and no one with him. He’s heading for Alaska, to get away from the material world and society, to get in touch with nature, to find out what it really means to be at peace and to be free. Its one of those stories that’s truly inspiring. It really makes me want to leave everything behind and go experience all that the real world has to offer. I’ve thought about it before. What would it be like to get away, to reject the material world and live a simple and content life. In the book version, which plays more like a documentary with interviews, the author mentions other young men who vanished into the wilderness, like Everett Ruess who ventured into the Utah desert at age twenty. Chris was twenty two when he left home and twenty four when he died in Alaska. These guys got to a point in there lives when they needed a radical change. Maybe I need a change… maybe I have changed. My biggest problem is that I’m conflicted about what I really want. I don’t mean whether I want to go school and get a job, its bigger than that. I’m not certain that anything I want is really what I want. Like, why do I like green and not pink? Why am I attracted to women and not fish? Its all genetic to me. I’m predetermined to be attracted to human women. No matter how much I will myself otherwise, I cannot force myself to like N’Sync the same way that I like Blink182. How can I really be certain that seeking out the experience that comes from losing oneself in the beauty of nature isn’t just my physical self fulfilling its need to feel good which it derives from that kind of stimulation? Sometimes I feel like that robot that’s faced with a logical paradox and then his head explodes. Is it really me that is wanting? Then what is me? Am I really me? What is me?

Most Important

2008-03-29T03:39:00.000-07:00

Originally, I started this web log (I still refuse to use the term 'blog' for the time being) as a place to show some of the things I've done at school and show off some fun things like the two liter soda thing. But lately its turned into a sort of personal manifesto. A place where I catalog the things I believe, which I think is very important because once you actually start trying to put into words the things you believe, you may find out that you don't actually believe them. Or, on the other hand, you may realize that you know more on the subject that you realized. Either way, I would encourage anyone reading this to try the same thing some day. Its good to be able to put into words your stances on things like capital punishment, birth control, tipping the waitress, civil disobedience, internet piracy, etc. Anyway, on to the actual subject of this post.

As of right now, the two most important things in all of everything are life and choice. Life first, then choice. Why life first? Because we only have one, and even if you don't have choice, it still beats the alternative. So, the most important thing in life is the freedom to choose. It may be a little cliched to say that Americans take their freedoms and liberties from granted but it is true. Sure, the country doesn't have everything right and might not ever, but we've got a head start that a lot of other countries don't have, thanks to our constitution (which at the moment is in serious jeopardy, Mr. Bush).

For a few years now I've started applying this value of choice to a lot of different issues. Take drug legalization. I am all for legalizing every single drug out there. The government has no right to deny me the choice of what I do with my own body (not that I would, but the choice to be able to is important). Same with prostitution. Not that I likely would, but its not harming anyone. So whats the big deal? Anyone anywhere should be able to do whatever the hell they want so long as its not harming anyone else. You want to get stoned out of your mind all day? Its not a smart decision, but its yours to make. Gay marriage? Go for it.

I'm especially advocative about choice when it comes to children. For the most part, children don't have much choice in anything. What they eat, where they go to school, when they go to bed, what movies they get to watch, and so on. For the most part the lack of choice is actually important. Kids are inexperienced. They don't have the same awareness and maturity that someone older has. So its up to the parents to make some decisions for them and lead a good example. However, the line is crossed when it comes to curtain things. Circumcision for one. I used to think it was weird not to be. But its a choice that a lot of parents deny their sons. And, I'm sure you must have been expecting this, raising a child in a specific religion. I really wonder what the numbers would be if parents allowed their children to choose a religion for themselves. I know I brought this up before, but 99% of religious people are the same religion as their parents. Its not a coincidence.

Love and Peace

2008-02-13T03:29:00.000-08:00

This is probably going to be the most revealing pieces that I'll ever write, so I ask that you, my friends, listen with an open mind. Because thats what you are. My friends. And I respect each of you and accept you for who you are, and I hope you feel the same about me. Andy's comment on my last post kind of put me in a corner because I couldn't really address it properly without admitting to something that I wasn't quite prepared to yet. I've been doing a lot of thinking, reading, watching, listening, and researching. I've changed a lot in the last three or four years. And while I still have a lot more to learn and experience and will continue to change, I can say now with certainty, that I am an atheist. I bet maybe you thought I was coming out of the closet. However, while I'm not gay, it really does feel like I'm "coming out". For as long as I've been alive all of my friends and relatives were religious. So admitting that I don't believe anymore is something that I've been trying to figure out how to do. So, when did it happen and how? Well things really got going back in my Critical Reasoning class at Long Beach. I remember we started talking about religion and my teacher said something hit like that asteroid from Deep Impact, "99.9% of people are the same religion as their parents". I'll never forget that. I realized that I believed in religion because it was always taught to me and was always present. There is a lot more than just that of course but, like I said before, I wasn't really ready to open up because I haven't found the right words to articulate accurately everything that went into my decision. Now, back to the catalyst of this whole confession, Andy's comment! Quick note, though. The existence of God can be a very touchy subject, so please don't think I'm trying to disprove God. We believe different things but I don't think any less of you and I hope you don't think any less of me as well.

-Thanks for the compliment.
-For Laplace's Demon, its not that anyone really believes that it exists, its just a hypothetical entity that helps to illustrate the point of determinism. So then maybe you mean belief in the concept of prediction. But it really is much easier to believe that as opposed to the existence God. Determinism is based on testable, reliable, calculable laws. Its a matter of facts. Belief in God is a matter of faith, which is the complete opposite.
-Looking around, its easy to think that with all the intricate complexities of life, that it all had to have been designed. But I think that undermines the natural way of the universe. (I need more articulation for this one)
-I really like your point about imaging "nothing". Its hard. I usually either picture blackness or whiteness. But I do think its possible to image something, say, the universe, without a creator.
-You're right about science liking to know "how" everything works. As for 'why', all of those questions you proposed do have answers but its too much to list. The biggest 'why' question that I've come across that the scientific community can't explain yet is 'why is there something, instead of nothing.' Why is there matter, instead of a spaceless void. We may know the answer some day, but the Bible doesnt really offer any answer either. There was God, and he made the universe. I don't remember him having a motive...
-For the last paragraph, science is based on believing things that are backed my evidence. Faith, by definition, is believing in that something despite the absence of evidence. So really, for me, its easier to believe that what we see is the natural order of the universe because of collected and calculable research and proof.

Thanks for reading, everyone.
Love and Peace

Translating my jibberish

2008-02-05T17:48:00.001-08:00

I stumbled across this clip from "Waking Life" just now it really sums up my Free Will debacle. Its one of those times when you know something and have worked it out in your head but just cant put into coherent words, and then something comes along and does it for you. A few weeks ago I also started reading the Wikipedia entry for Free Will and came across Causal Determinism which is one take on free will which states, "determinism is the thesis that future events are necessitated by past and present events combined with the laws of nature." I also unwittingly tried to explain an old thought experiment called Laplace's Demon, named after the philosopher in 1814. The demon is a hypothetical entity that knows all the laws of the universe and the location and momentum of all things. With these tools he could conceivably predict anything. All of this I had been trying to work out in my own, young mind, but it looks like there are more experienced people who have already done it for me. Just goes to show what a little research can accomplish.

Stick it up The Man

2008-01-31T01:30:00.000-08:00

Welcome back, my loyal drones. Did you miss me? Well I missed you. And to show how much I adore you, today's post is the first in another series of topics this time called "Stick It Up The Man". You might be thinking that the phrase is actually "stick it to the man", but I feel that sticking things up The Man is more gratifying.

I'm going to be blunt here. I hate stop lights. I hate stop signs. I hate stop lights and stop signs. Sure they have their usefulness. Channeling traffic, preventing collisions, etc. And for the most part I tolerate them. However, you may not know this but stop signs and lights are just another way The Man is keeping us down. Lets start with stop signs. The "law" is, when you come to a stop sign you make a complete stop, wait for three seconds or until the road is clear (whichever is last), and then proceed through. Doesn't sound so bad, right? But the thing is, you have to stop even if there is no one around. Recently I started taking every opportunity I could to stick these signs up The Man's ass by rolling through vacant stop signs. I dont speed straight through, but I slow down to a cautionary speed and roll right on through, just as if the sign said Yield. Aw the Yield sign. The world would be a far better place with more yield signs. What does yield mean exactly? It means use your F'ing brain, think for yourself, and stop being a sheep. Yield means use your eyes and your common sense to judge for own damn self whether you need to stop if there are other cars around. If not, just roll on through. This also brings me to stop lights. Now I cant really argue that we should replace stop lights with yield signs. Big intersections are just too packed and busy for that. However, there is one hidden hammer that The Man has been beating us senseless with for years. The left turn arrow. Oh how I hate thee. I have spent too much of my life sitting at the red left turn arrow. The straight light is green on my side and the straight light is green in the oncoming lanes. There is no one coming in the oncoming lanes for miles and the "law" tells me I can't make the turn. Well no more! Along with rolling through stop signs, I have been taking every opportunity to lead by example and wake my fellow motorists from their mindless obedience by turning on these red arrows. If Im in the front of the turn lane, and there is no one in the oncoming lanes, I'll stick that left arrow right up The Man's tight ass and hit the gas. Hell, sometimes I'll go out of my way to make a left turn. Even if I'm not going that way I just can't pass up an open lane. Cuz every time I roll through a sign or drive through an arrow, I get a little bit of freedom back. And it feels oh so good.

Don't be The Man's bitch anymore. Join the resistance. Roll on through and make the turn...just make sure the fuzz ain't watchin.

Stopping the problem before it starts

2008-01-09T00:57:00.000-08:00

Its time to kick off the new year and semester with a much anticipated new update. And as a little bonus, I'm introducing a new recurring feature called "When I'm King..." in which I will let you all know in advance of some of the changes you'll have to get used to once I am the all powerful and unquestionable lord and master of everything everywhere. Fasten your seatbelts, here we go.

When I'm King, there will be no unwanted teen pregnancies. There will be no starving children in Ethiopia. And we will finally stop feeling guilty every time we see those "for the price of a cup of coffee, you can help this little girl get an education" commercials. Why? Because none of those will exist anymore. How? Mandatory birth control. Let me elaborate.

Its sometimes painfully clear that some people just should not have children. Ever. I'm talking primarily about families or parents that are either abusive or do not have the means of adequately supporting a child. Thats where my knights and I step in. Every couple that wants to have children must be approved to do so by passing a series of evaluations. These evaluations examine the couple's income, living situation, extended family, substance abuse history, mental state, and general wellbeing among other things. If we decide that the couple is capable of raising a child in a reasonably non-threatening atmosphere, then they will be a approved. I should make it clear now that it would be by no means hard to pass the test. This is simply to keep the obvious people from having children. People like 13 year old girls, heroin addicts, people who can't even afford to feed themselves, pedophiles, physically or verbally or sexually abusive assholes, and others. This is by no means a campaign to cleanse the world of the impure (man that felt weird to type), its about protecting those who can't protect themselves. The kids.

The only question is how to do it. There needs to be someway to ensure that the only way to get pregnant is to take some pill or shot or something that only the administrators have. For most of their lives, the rest of the population (just one gender I suppose) would be completely sterile. Free to have as much sex as they want without ever worrying about the worst STD of all.

It just says McLovin!

2007-12-01T01:27:00.000-08:00

After my last post about marriage and mating, which I dont think I presented very well, I realize its been a while since I posted something less "Thought"ful. So here's a little something that I hope everyone can partake in.

Everyone needs a good alias. And I mean a GOOD alias. Not just some funny fake name like Humpy McBoobs. Something believable. Something with a backstory. A whole alter-ego. I seriously can't count how many times I've wanted to give out a fake name or school or something, only to awkwardly sputter out, "I'm....uhhhm....Christian Henderson". And then everyone is wondering why I was so confused. Its cuz I was frantically trying to think up a witty and humorous fake name. This especially comes up at Starbucks or ordering a pizza. Even though I know its coming, I still fail when they ask my name.

So why does everyone need a good alias? If it hasnt happened yet, somewhere down the road you're going to be talking to someone somewhere and you dont want to give out any personal information. However, if you have a prethought-out alias with a full backstory, you'll always be covered.

I now call all of my readers to come up with a good alias for themselves. Make a believable name and an equally believable backstory. I dont want to hear about how Sergio McLovin was the first person to slingshot himself into space. I haven't come up with one for myself yet, I'm horrible at naming things. However, once I do I plan on running with it. So that means fake MySpace page, business cards, student ID, etc. You can never be too prepared.

If you have any suggestions for names for me, please post them! First on my list is Sean Neil.

So they got married and lived hapilly ever after

2007-11-27T15:12:00.000-08:00

Back by popular demand here is the latest Thoughts editorial.

Today I'd like to stream a little about mating. No not sex in particular, but selecting and staying with "that special someone". Some of you already know my view about love (I might post my argument from Long Beach Philosophy about love as an illusion later for those who are unclear). But my first post about free will should explains it also. Essentially love is just what we call the biological drive to mate and procreate. The only reason we experience this sensation of love is to ensure that life goes on. Still with me? Good. Now, I like to imagine what life would be like if we were all robots. That is to say, not having an organic body that is hindered by the need for sleep, food, and sex. I think you can see where Im heading with this. If there's no need for sex, then does the whole monogamous (and even polygamous) mating thing fall apart? I'm probably making this more difficult than it needs to be, but my whole point is why do we mate? Why do we marry?

For as long as I can remember it seems that society has deemed marriage (or at least mating for life) as something everyone needs to forever be seeking. Teens are encouraged to date and beyond that you need to be always seeking your soul mate. That special someone that you have to spend the rest of your life with. That special person of the opposite gender (I would like clarify again that I am not sexually attracted to men, and if you recall I'm actually trying to kill my sex drive). Why does your one-and-only have to be of the other sex? If there is anything that I took away from my philosophy classes at Long Beach its that I need to think for myself and analyze why I believe the things I do. In this case, mating and marriage. Now you may say that marriage is a good thing to work towards because if it wasn't it would have been abandoned long ago. And rightly so. Studies have proven that time and time again married couples provide a batter environment for raising children. And thats great. I'm all for happiness and raising children in a good environment. However, my problem with marriage is that far too many people don't know why they strive to attain it. It seems like most people would say they do because its the normal thing to do.

I'm going to try to summarize and clarify a little now. But of course you probably won't agree if you don't follow the first premise.

Mind > Body (biology)
Sex depends on the body
Marriage (mating) is a direct product of sex
Therefore, mating is unnecessary.

Please note: This is just my own view and it is still in its infancy. I've only been toying with this for a few years now and I'm only twenty one. Things change, people change. This is where I'm at now.

Its just a matter of time

2007-11-09T05:52:00.000-08:00

Sorry I didnt get around to writing a Thoughts monologue this week, but I've been busting my ass to finish my sculpture five days early because I'm leaving for Mexico in twenty minutes. So you probably wont hear too much from me til Monday night. What I am going to write about however is a major career concern of mine.

As you all should know by now, Im training to become a video game designer. Whats that? I'm on the top of the totem pole and tell the guys below me what to do. Its my job to plan out a game and see to it that all of my programmers and artists are working towards the same goal. I have a lot of good ideas that I want to implement and show the world but by biggest concern is that my unique and innovative ideas will have already been done by the time I have the resources to produce a big time game. Case in point recently: Mass Effect. This is a new game for the Xbox 360 coming out soon. Its a space shooter. Not really something I'm particularly interested in, but from cryptic statements from the producers, it seems that the game will offer a few distinct story arcs depending on a few key choices throughout the game. While this is nothing new, what they hinted at is that these decisions could carry over into the two planned sequels. I had been playing with this idea for a few years now and couldn't figure out why no one had done it yet. I guess it just takes time. Eventually everything will be done. I'm racing against the clock in an industry where I'm already behind.

However, I do have other (and better) ideas, but how long before someone beats me to them?

If it weren't for those meddling kids

2007-11-03T20:21:00.000-07:00

I'm not a fan of Shrek. In my honest opinion its just not that great. The jokes are so-so, the animation looks like the Family Guy guys got a hold of it (actions are too fast), and the concept isn't as satirical as they want us to believe. Normally, I wouldn't have bothered to watch the third Shrek movie, but it happened to be playing on the way back from (or maybe it was to) China. I would just like to say that I've seen Scooby-Doo episodes with more original endings.

Free your mind...

2007-10-31T23:40:00.000-07:00

This is another one of those topics that has a habit of branching rather quickly. Hopefully can stay focused without too many tangents.

How much control do we really have over ourselves? That isn't really a rhetorical question. You might expect that simply by asking that, I am implying that you think you have control but really you don't. But thats only half right. We actually don't have much control over ourselves, but some people are more aware of this than others. As you may recall from my first "Thoughts" post, our actions and thoughts are the result of trillions of calculable events that occur in our brains. Going a step up from atomic and subatomic interaction, we get to molecular and chemical interaction. In this case specifically, emotions. Emotions like love are not magic. If you are feeling depressed, its not because your dog just died, its because the chemicals in your body are interacting with your brain in such a way that makes you feel bad (see first Thoughts post for more info). Think about how you feel right now. You're probably calm and can think in a rational manner. This is your Default state. For the most part, the level of chemicals in your brain are overall average. However, get too much of any one chemical and suddenly rationality can go out the window. If some guy punches you in the nose and insults you, its very 'natural' to get angry and lash out in a way that you normally wouldn't. This is when your body takes over and pushes your Default state aside. The drive for sex is quite possibly the strongest emotion or state of mind that decimates normal behavior. As I've mentioned before, the basic meaning of life is to make more life. To reproduce. In order to ensure that life goes on, evolution has done a fantastic job of encoding everything living thing's DNA with the desire to make more of itself. This goes back to how the brain rewards us when we do things that keep us alive or spread our genes. Sex only feels good because if it didn't, life might not have gotten this far. And now here's my two cents about the whole thing. I hate my body. My body is just a car that my brain drives except that quite often my 'car' drives itself and my brain is almost powerless to stop it. I can't stand the fact that I don't have complete control over myself. To me, the mind is infinitely more important than the body. So maybe being a head in jar wouldn't be so bad. This is where the topic has a tendency to branch out. Consider this: what if everyone was just a brain in a jar with a mechanical body? Suddenly reproduction is irrelevant. Suddenly gender is irrelevant. Suddenly everyone is just a mind that is free to experience the world without evolution instilled dependencies like sex, eating, and sleep to hold us back.

I doubt in our lifetime (or probably anyone's lifetime) people will be able to transcend their physical bodies and escape these chains. However, I think I am getting a little closer to winning the battle over my body. I think that just being aware of how and why my body and emotions work, gives me power so that I can force control over myself. You may recall my recent abstinence vow. Its getting easier to stop myself from checking out every girl I see. Its a daily war but I think its starting to affect my subconscious and soon I won't even have to tell myself not to stare at the hot girl at the counter.

I feel kind of like I'm in the Matrix, but instead of being a slave to it I'm a slave to my emotions.

"I know what you're thinking... Why, oh why didn't I take the blue pill?"
~Cypther

Walking the line between genius and insanity

2007-10-24T03:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry I havent updated in a while, I've been crazy busy lately. I've had barely any time to myself in the last two weeks or so. Who'd have thought that six classes would be so time consuming?

This Sunday I'm going to write my next "contemplations" piece but for right now I thought I would share my next big project with everyone and hopefully get some feedback. Remember back in elementary school when you would smear Elmer's Glue on your hand and then let it dry so you could peel it off like a layer of dead skin? Well I recently decided that I am going to cover the majority of my entire body in several layers of glue! You might be saying to yourself, "Thats just....insane". Precisely! My creativity teacher just gave us our next project in which we have to do something that an insane person would do. Something that in the service to a higher power, in this case art. However, this is just one of my ideas. The project isn't due for about five weeks so rather than do one project like most people, I'm planning on doing one per week as well as one on going project that I do everyday. Thus far I have the glue idea for sure (I'll go to class on the day everything is due covered in dry glue). I also want to do something with my video camera and projector. For example, setting up the camera in the hallway and feeding video to my projector which is outside and displaying the image on the wall so it looks like you can see through it. For the long term, I first considered saving five weeks worth of urine, but Howard Hughes already did it.

I think, therefor I am....kinda

2007-10-14T23:34:00.000-07:00

This is one of the hardest topics for me to continually think about because its so easy to start thinking about all the related questions that it inevitably raises. Hopefully I can get through this without too many tangents. Its also really hard to convey the ideas.

Our memory, I've come to consciously believe, is one of the most important things in the history of things, second only to life. Whether you're aware of it or not, your memory is the biggest part of what makes you you. The other part being your genes. Those two things together make you what you are today. To get an idea of just how important memory is, consider two analogies. For Jimmy, image you've been using the same memory card for your all the video games you've ever played in your life. Then one day without warning, the memory card spontaneously combusts. Years of work. Gone. For the rest of you, imagine you have a the biggest paper of your life to write. Your entire future hinges on this one LONG essay/script. Now imagine that you can't save it. You have to write it continuously until its done. Then, just before you click Print, the power goes out and everything is lost. In the real world we call this amnesia. Its not the same as death since the body remains, but if you consider memory being such a big part of identity, its not going too far to say that its not much unlike death. It may seem callous to say that someone suffering something as terrible as amnesia is 'dead', but in the case of total amnesia you can't ignore that he or she is not the same person they were before. This is where it gets easy to branch off. Defining "death" becomes complicated. If dieing is the failing of the physical body, then what do we call it when someone's memory and identity (essentially what that person is) dies from amnesia? And then what of the person that remains? Its a strange thing to think about. A fully formed and 'used' body with a new memory. A new person.

Ok now for something a little more relevant to our daily lives. This little scenario always makes me a little uneasy and it has to do with split realities. Say to yourself, "I know I have memory and I exist because I can remember starting this sentence." It should feel pretty reassuring to say, it does to me anyway. I can tell I have memory and exist because I look around and I'm still here. Now, consider that someone video taped you doing this and you have been drinking heavily all day. So heavily in fact that you can't even remember reading this or talking to yourself. Then your friend shows you the tape. At that time you knew you existed. But to the version of you watching the tape, its as if at some point the night before everything blinks and you woke up this morning without any recollection of the previous night. Of being so sure you existed. The point I want to focus on is the 'jump' from before you were drinking til the time you woke up. To you now its like nothing happened. But to your self the night before, its as if hours went by. This all has to do with perception of time and reality. My question here is which one is the real you? And how can I really tell that I won't forget this moment like in the video?

Next topic: Mind vs Brain

Can you sit on your butt for a week straight?

2007-10-07T23:28:00.000-07:00

There is simply not enough time. Not enough to do what, you say? Everything. No matter how hard to you try you just can't do everything. But dag-nabbit I'm gonna try. And as a first step I plan to spend a week (or however long it takes) and watch all the greatest movies and those that you just "need to see". I've starting compiling a list of movies that I will begin to collect or will "netflix" or "blockbuster-netflix-knockoff" when the time comes. If you have any movies that you think I should add, please throw them up. And of course anyone is welcome to join since it'll probably be over winter or summer.

BIG MOVIE LIST

Rennaisance Man
Citizen Kane
A Few Good Men
The Godfather
Schindler's List
Casablanca
Fargo
Goodfellas
The Usual Suspects
Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to Stop Worrying...
North by Northwest
Apocalypse Now
Se7ev
Its a Wonderful Life
Clockwork Orange
Amadeus
Full Metal Jacket
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Blade Runner
Ben-Hur
Platoon
Easy Rider
Patton
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Bonnie and Clyde
The Exorcist
Lawrence of Arabia
Gone With the Wind
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Damn subconcious tendencies

2007-10-04T23:40:00.000-07:00

Thanks to millions of years of evolution, men are always on the prowl. There is nowhere we go that we aren't constantly checking out every single female within reasonable age. In such places as in class, on the road, at funerals, and probably during surgery, there is no woman within eyesight that goes unnoticed. As you can see, this can become quite hazardous while operating heavy machinery or trying to pay attention in class. So, in an effort to both focus on things that are really important and rebel against my own biological urges in the hopes of conquering this transportation module we call a body, I am forcing myself to view the opposite sex just as I would my own. To view them not as this thing that my hormones have been driving towards for 21 long years, but as a person. I'm not saying before this I treated women as something other than a person, but there are definite differences between how I act around guys and girls (especially attractive ones). Corinne and Camille are exceptions because we've known each other so long and they may as well just be guys who don't play video games.

So far I've been trying this for a little over a month now. It used to be that driving to school as many as three attractive women would force me to suddenly focus all my attention on them for the three or four seconds they were in view. It happens everywhere. And the weird thing is, I really didn't notice it that much until I tried to stop. Its hard. Its involuntary, its like breathing. There's no thought or conscious action. You just do it.

It used to be that every girl I met or shared a room with was a potential 'intimate partner', if you will. In the case that more than one girl shared that room, the more attractive receives all the attention and the others are largely ignored (not always, but mostly in a new setting). I would happily make friends with the other guys in the room and ignore the women (even the attractive one for fear of looking stupid and thus ruining all chances of future action). I decided that it had to change. No longer would every girl be a potential candidate for relations. Now there is no pressure to always be on the lookout and no fear of looking stupid. So far, its been hard. Fighting your own body is a steep challenge. But I think I'm winning. I'm certainly getting more work done anyway.

My new best friend

2007-10-02T00:55:00.001-07:00

In an effort to replace my old friends I began growing a new one. He has been growing in the bathtub for a few weeks now. He's gotten so big! Before I know it he'll be driving, and then dating, and having little hair wads of his own.

I'm surprised this hasn't happened sooner

2007-09-27T23:34:00.000-07:00

I cooked a pizza for myself tonight. Pepperoni. Tony's brand. They're pretty good and darn cheap. Everything was going smoothly until I pulled it out of the oven and realized that I had nothing to cut it with... I frantically searched for whatever I could use to cut it up before it exploded, or something. That's when it hit me. The scissors! To my surprise the scissors worked remarkable well. Clean cut, no wedging of cheese from the pressure, it was good. So, the next time you're left without a knife, don't be afraid to improvise.

Simply maddening

2007-09-26T23:28:00.000-07:00

I don't like Harry Potter. Its not my thing. The names, the magic, the kids, the hype...all of it. People are free to do and read what they want and thats fine. But there is one thing about the Harry Potter book series that is just simple maddening. The price. When the final installment hit store shelves in July the book sold for between twenty and thirty dollars (if anyone knows an exact figure let me know, but I could swear I saw it for thirty five somewhere). So, lets say $25. Now, lets consider how much effort, time, and money went into creating this little thing. Money...zero dollars. Time...about two years working off and on whenever the author felt like writing. Effort...one person, typing at a computer, whenever she felt like it. Now, lets compare that to the film industry. To purchase a film, it is approximately $20. Thats less than the suggested retail price of Harry Potter. Lets consider how much effort, time, and money went into creating any average film. Time...upwards of three years working to meet strict deadlines. Money...millions and millions of dollars. Effort...hundreds of people working in sync for months at a time and often times in grueling climates and conditions. All that time, effort, and money to produce a product that sells for less than something any monkey can do. Doesnt quite seem fair... I'm not trying to say that movies should cost more. No, Harry Potter costs too fucking much.

One step closer to the inevitable end

2007-09-24T23:48:00.000-07:00

As many of you are aware (and if you aren't then you should be ashamed of yourself), today was my birthday. Remember that episode of Futurama when Bender became human? Yeah, the last few days were pretty much like that. Now that I'm one score and one year old I can finally legally drink alcohol, gamble, and fish with dynamite in some states. But I feel this may be a little wasted on me since I have no real desire to pursue any of those things on a routine basis. Except maybe dynamite fishing...

At any rate, being 21 at least means that I have gained inherent authority over those know-it-all 20 year old punks.

It'll work itself out

2007-09-23T23:35:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first in a series of short posts in which I ramble on about various topics that have been concerning me for the past few years. This will be the first time that I've tried to put my thoughts into writing and hopefully you can piece together some kind of idea of the point Im trying to make. Im going to avoid the essay style and just go free flow, so bear with me. Also note, I'm still searching for answers and refinement everywhere I go so if you have any references I am more than open to looking into them. This is all based on my own realm of experiences. Things I do not yet know about can sometimes prove everything wrong. Its still a work in progress.

Free will. For the longest time I was an advocate of free will and couldn't figure out why anyone would believe in fate or destiny. Fate and destiny by definition suggest that we aren't in control of our lives and actions. That everything is building towards some inevitable event. With fate and destiny, there is no freedom. You are being controlled. And for a long time, I just didn't buy it.

Actually, I still don't. Fate and destiny suggest a force outside of our reality that guides our every action. I like the idea of being in control of my actions. And for the most part, I am. I saw the documentary-esque film "What the BLEEP to we know?". It deals with science, and quantum physics, and biology, and such. One thing that always stayed with me was just how much our emotions are controlled by chemicals in our brains. If you are feeling good, its not because you just won the lottery, its because your brain has flooded your body with Serotonin (as well as other chemicals your body likes). Likewise, when you feel bad, its because your brain has shut off this chemical supply to your body. So, why would your brain do that? Self preservation. If something happens that causes this lack of supply, you are more likely to avoid that situation in the future and seek out things that make you feel good. Such as eating, socializing, sex, and sleep. Note that all those things are essential to living (so you can pass on your genes), or at least retaining sanity (which you need to pass on your genes). Your brain is hardwired to seek out the good and avoid the bad. Even if you enjoy cutting yourself, something obviously bad to your health, that is due to chemical imbalances. Now, this all clearly applies to general behavior. But what about every single little action and thought?

Remember from elementary school science that everything in the universe is made of matter. And remember from high school physics that everything in the universe obeys certain laws. So... Your brain = matter = governed by laws. Picture a ball being dropped from a roof. Using simple formulas from high school physics, it would be easy to predict how far up the ball would bounce. But not perfectly. For that, you would need more factors. Wind, densities, minute imperfections in the ball and ground, and others. Assuming you could factor in all these into the equation, you could perfectly predict how far the ball would bounce. So the question becomes, how many factors does it take it accurately predict someone's actions? Factors dealing with every single cell and molecule and electric transaction in your brain. We don't have the technology to do it yet, but the point is that it is a finite number. If you knew enough you could predict anything.

What I've come to consider is the possibility that there is no outside force guiding our every action. However, we're not so free that everything we do or think isn't the result of zillions of equations simply working themselves out naturally. You may ask how I can go on with my life thinking this, and the answer is simple. I just don't think about it all the time.

Caveats: Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) science has yet to come up with The Theory of Everything. A single unifying equation and theory that perfectly explains and combines the strong force, the weak force, gravity, and electromagnetism. The forces of the universe. Einstein dedicated the second half of his life to finding it but failed. With this theory, it would prove that you really could predict anything if you just knew enough factors. Quantum physics is a large hurdle to get over on the way. Particles at the subatomic level don't behave by the same laws that larger bodies do. For example, a single electron is said to occupy every space around a nucleus at the same time, until it is seen. At which time is exists in that one spot. Quantum mechanics books are thick. It'll take some time to figure that one out for myself.

Mysterious mysteries

2007-09-21T20:19:00.000-07:00

Beginning this weekend I will post the first in an ongoing series in which I offer my own insights into questions and topics that have been bothering me for quite a while now. There is more going on in my noggin than I have ever even hinted at. Hopefully this will provide a glimpse into my consciousness. Deciding where to start is a tough choice since many of these subjects are interrelated. Here's a little taste of things to come...

-Free will
-Amnesia
-Being human
-Identity
-Separation of mind and body
-Human biology
-Gender
-Biological dependencies
-Attraction
-Love
-Marriage

Those are just a few subjects and you can see how many of them blend into others. I'm still sorting these things out myself and hopefully my explanations will be understandable. I look forward to reading any comments about them.

You got served, ye scalawag!

2007-09-20T23:33:00.000-07:00

By the end of the semester the first functioning video game that I have worked on will hopefully be complete. For my "Game Collaboration 1" class, our goal for the fall is to have made a fully functioning casual video game. There are only about seven of us in the class though, so obviously we're a little understaffed but things are looking good. We have a small team of programmers (using Game Maker 7), a team of artists, and then the design team of which I am associated.

The game itself is an "insult-fighter-card game". So think of it like a Yo Mama competition crossed with Mortal Kombat crossed with Magic (the Gathering). Oh, also all of the characters are either Time Ninjas or Robot Pirates. So far, the game plays a little like this: two players square off against each other. The object is to deplete your opponent's health meter by constructing insults with the cards that you draw from your deck. Its kind of like a Mad Lib. You play a "structure" card which is something like "Your ____ is ____!" and you fill in the gaps with the appropriate noun, adjective, or verb.

It still needs a little refining and we plan on playtesting next week.

Snap Happy

2007-09-19T20:33:00.000-07:00

If you've ever been around me for more than a minute, then you're well aware of two little "ticks" that I have. Tapping on my sternum and collar bone, and snapping. While I'm not entirely sure how I started the tapping, I do know where the snapping came from. In my favorite anime Fullmetal Alchemist, there is a character that can ignite the oxygen in the air by snapping. For a while I walked around snapping left and right imagining cars, trees, and dogs with sweaters exploding as I did.

It wasn't long before I noticed that my snapping was getting louder. So, for the last year or so I have been practicing to get it so loud that it would actually hurt the hears of anyone standing within a few yards of me. Today I reached a milestone on that quest. While I haven't tried it out on anyone yet, one out of every two or three snaps hurts my own ears. This is only after one year. If you see me next summer, I would recommend standing back.

The Naked Alliance

2007-09-18T23:27:00.000-07:00

You may be wondering why the URL for this site is "nakedalliance". You may also be wondering what that strange growth is thats coming out of your navel. But lets try to focus on the important things, k?

Jimmy has spent the last four or so years trying to get me to play Ravenshield, or Battlefield, or Battlefront online with him. Slowly wearing down my defenses year by year. I used to complain that my computer couldnt handle it. It would crash while trying to play minesweeper, how could it possibly handle an online shooter? And for a long time that was a reasonable excuse. But now, since I bought his old computer (still perfectly good), I have no good excuse. Im sure I'll at least try out some of his games since theyre way cheap.

Getting back on track... most online games have "clans" or groups that you can join into. Last I checked Jimmy was playing with Funk Nation. A while back, I got the brilliant idea for my own clan should I ever choose to start one for some game. And I would call it... The Naked Alliance! Why naked? Cuz its inherently funny, and as far as I know, there are no other naked clans out there. The idea of the group is that everyone associated has to be buck naked when they play. Of course no one will actually know and its easy to cheat, but damnit at least some of them will be and thats good enough for me. If I can inspire just one person to strip down and play with his joystick then I will have done my job.

That Crazy Canuck

2007-09-17T23:46:00.001-07:00

Jimmy 2

2007-09-17T21:01:00.001-07:00

Badass Video

2007-09-17T19:39:00.001-07:00

Time-based board game

2007-09-17T17:44:00.000-07:00

As mentioned before, I refuse to bore you with every little mundane detail of my daily life. Normally homework and school related happenings would fall into such a category of being wasted effort if written up. However, this semester is proving to yield interesting projects that I would like share and maybe even get some feedback on.

For my "Game and Interactivity 1" class, our final project is to create some kind of non-electrical game and have it actually be fun and challenging. I have chosen to make a "time-based" board game. That doesnt mean that it must be played in a certain amount of time (though that certainly is possible), it means that the game takes place at different points in time. For example, the game will probably be played on 3 or 4 game boards stacked on top of each other (see picture above) in which actions on the lower boards effect the layout and actions of the boards above them.

My biggest hurdles right now are deciding...
-How much time passes between each board (20 yrs, 100 yrs, 1000 yrs, etc)
-What shape the boards are (square with squares, round with concentric circles, etc)

One cool idea I'm exploring is that maybe the entire goal is to indirectly eliminate your opponent by traveling back in time (going from the top board to the bottom) and killing his grandfather (the Grandfather Paradox).

Stick it to the soda bastards (Part II)

2007-09-16T20:40:00.000-07:00

The short term preliminary results are in. And so far... its good! On Wednesday the 12th I began an experiment to make a 2-liter bottle of soda last for as long as a 6 pack of soda with minimal extra expense and supplies. Here's how...

I bought a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi and one 6 pack of 10 oz. Canada Dry Tonic Water. The Canada Dry itself was not needed (I poured it all out). What I did need however, were the 6 hard glass 10 oz. bottles it come in. I filled each bottle to the top (to eliminate any extra space), screwed on the lids and stored in the fridge. Each day I opened up and drank one bottle to see it was still carbonated. Tonight I drank the last bottle and to my satisfaction was still carbonated.

If you want to try this at home, I recommend using the glass bottles like mine as opposed to plastic bottles like water bottles. Glass is much stronger and will hold a stronger pressure thus keeping more of the carbon dioxide in the soda. Also, they just last longer.

This was just a short term test. After tonight I will begin a longer two week test to see if the bottled soda can last about the longest that a normal 6 pack would in a fridge. I'm hoping this next test will yield similar results and will also be accompanied by a thorough of examination of the various ounces to dollars ratios to determine how much money is saved on each purchase as well over the course of a year.

Idiot-proofing your keyboard

2007-09-16T16:04:00.000-07:00

For those of you looking for just one more way to inflate your techno-ego and feel superior to people who are not quite as tech-literate as you (I'm looking at you, jimmy), here's another. By this day and age you would think that most everyone could type without looking at what the heck their fingers are touching, but of course you'd be wrong. So, how can you take advantage of this little fault? By popping the keys off your keyboard (its quite harmless) and rearranging them as you see fit. This will ensure that anyone who can't type with their eyes closed will be unable to taint your computer with their inferior keystrokes.

After doing this you can rest assured that only those who are worthy will be able to command your keys and it also nets you 5 Geek Points. Congratulations!

Stick it to the soda bastards

2007-09-15T22:37:00.000-07:00

As is common knowledge (or at least to us super intelligent third year college students), 2-liter bottles of soda offer the best ratio of ounces to dollars. The problem with buying the 2-liter is that once it is opened, you've got about a day, maybe two if you're lucky, to drink it before it hits flatsville. After a little research on the ol' interweb, I found some background as to why this happens and some helpful hints to keep the soda carbonated.

First, soda will go "flat" because the carbon dioxide molecules leave the soda and mix with the air above it. The reason this doesnt happen while still in the can or bottle is because the pressure inside is holding the molecules from escaping the liquid. As soon the pressure is relieved, the molecules begin to escape. You can prove this by opening and then recapping a bottle of soda. After a while, the molecules will fill the available space a return pressure to equilibrium.

To make your soda last without any real effort, just open to bottle as few time as possible and store in a cold place. Also, DO NOT squeeze the bottle and then cap it. This will actually make it go flat faster.

Now, if you're like me, thats just not enough. At the moment I am conducting an experiment to make a 2-liter bottle have the lasting capacity of a six pack of cans.

More details soon...

Let There Be Light!

2007-09-13T01:53:00.000-07:00

And so there was!

I applaud you for making it this far. Truly you are a hero worthy of my divine influence and insight. But more importantly you cared enough to check out this little experiment. And for that your time shall not be wasted.

Please note that this is NOT a journal! You will (probably) not hear about what I had for dinner, or that my mom called, or that I stubbed my toe getting the mail. What you will, however, are some things in my current life that I am rather proud of and other projects/experiments that I am working on, possibly as well as semi-philosophical ramblings. Now you may ask yourself, "why would I want to hear about that?" Well there is always boredom...and uh... well once this thing gets going Im sure there will be some good reason to keep coming back. Thanks for stoppin by and dont forget to bookmark my page.

Ciao