Sometimes I'm not the man I want to be

One day this past school year, I was sitting in my friend's car in a parking lot on campus. I saw someone in a wheelchair (can't remember if it was a man/woman, young/old) and they seemed to be having a hard time - the road was grading uphill. I wanted to go over to them and push them, but I figured they'd get angry at me for "pitying" them. So I just sat there.

Another day I was driving in the rain and saw a man walking on the side of the road. I wanted to pull over and give him a ride so he wouldn't have to walk in the rain, but I have this paranoia about picking up murderous hitchhikers (as does almost everyone else, I'm assuming) - so I drove on by.

One day I saw a couple arguing on the sidewalk. I had no idea what they were fighting about, but I still wanted to go over and try and help, like moderate the debate in a way. But they'd probably yell at me for butting in on their lives, so I walked on by. Maybe if I had intruded, they would have forgotten their momentary hate for each other and united it against me, and in turn that would've helped them out, somehow.


Another day I saw a woman sitting on a bench on campus, looking very distraught/downtrodden. I wanted to sit down and console her, give her someone to talk to, remind her of the good things in life. Instead I just walked on by. I figured she wouldn't open up to a complete stranger anyways.

One day an old war veteran came through my line at Kroger. He was buying his groceries with a food stamp card, but he didn't have enough money on the card so it wouldn't go through. My supervisor came over and told him there was nothing we could do, and that's when he started pleading with us - I need this food, I don't have much in my house and don't have any cash. I offered my life for this country dammit, why is it so damn hard for me to live in it? - he had tears in his eyes at this point. My supervisor kept saying we couldn't do anything for him. He eventually left, and the supervisor said he was probably just trying to get free groceries out of us by pulling the "ol' war vet card". His order was only 30 bucks or so, and I had the cash in my wallet. I wanted to buy his groceries for him. But I didn't. I can't even remember what I spent it on now.

"the funniest guy she knew"

This is a conversation I had with my sister via text messages.

Me: Is it possible to place cameras in my eyeballs and be able to take pictures with them by thinking a certain phrase? (sent to Facebook as status update)
Sis: I thought about putting cameras in my eyes cuz all the pics i take never do what my eyes see justice.
Me: Haha ive always wanted to do this. Id give them to my dog too, but id have to have some sort of remote so i could turn it on and take stop-motion pics lol.
Sis: Haha i wish they could really do that. Still pics and video :) then i could show everyone all these weird ufos i see all the time - my camera cant see at night :(
Me: Yeah thats a dilemma haha
Sis: Suxs. But then everyone could see what i saw. the ultimate "in her shoes"
Me: Haha youd have to change it to "in her head"
Sis: Haha true. True
Me: True blood. Bloody mary. Mary without a sound. *what has search overload done to us?!*
Sis: Hahahaha omg. its called bing. and youre done. Bing.
Me: Bing. Sing. Sting. Jerry Seinfeld.
Sis: .....
Me: It works, sting was in a movie with jerry seinfeld.
Sis: Sure it does.....lol i wouldnt know
Me: Bee movie
Sis: Ah. I always forget about that lol
Me: Yep. Watch your step, i dont want you to trip on that knowledge i just dropped
Sis: Lmao...i love you haha
Me: Love ya too
Sis: You crack me up :)
Me: Thats always good to hear lol
Sis: Lol you always crack me up. Youre the funniest guy i know
Me: That settles it. Thats whats gonna be on my tombstone. "the funniest guy she ever knew". and just that, not even my name haha
Sis: Ill accept that :) that and calvin and hobbes' pic. Itll confuse the hell outta ppl
Me: Haha nice touch
Sis: *bows* thanx :)

[post composed listening to "Queen of Hearts" - RIBS]

You think slavery was abolished?

Controversial title, I know. Now let me explain my stance.

I am not referring to the enslavement of people to do one's bidding. That obviously was legally abolished, at least in this country.

I am referring to money. We are all slaves to money.

Think about it - just about every damn thing you want or need, you have to give money for it. Food, shelter, clothes, entertainment - the list goes on. They haven't found a way to put a price on the air we breathe as of this post, but you never know. Greed has a funny effect on people.

And it's those few people who are able to monopolize certain things and control the prices that are essentially enslaving the people. Greedy CEO's and the like will hoard as much money as they can, which leads to everyone else having less money to "share" between us. Then we (the common folk) can't buy certain luxuries, and thus reduces the demand of products. And when the demand goes down, the price must go up. Paradoxical, when you think about it: no one is buying your product, so you have to raise the price to stay in business.

Can't the government see that it would be more beneficial for the economy to have the majority of people in this country living with financial freedom? Let's use this example: there are 10 people each with $1 million, and one person with $10 million. The 10 millionaires will buy (between them) on average 10 sets of products, whereas the one multi-millionaire will only buy one set of products. Seems obvious to me that a business would rather sell 10 units versus 1 unit, no matter what the price difference is.

Which brings me to my next point - how much is too much? Does it really matter if you have $10 million vs. $15 million?  Or $900 mil vs. $1 billion? There is literally no way you should be able to spend a billion dollars in your lifetime without being a greedy, materialistic douchebag who just HAS TO HAVE twelve different sports cars and a mansion big enough to house a small town - in five different countries, no less.

We live in a free country, so unfortunately there is no way for the government to place a cap on people's wealth. But just imagine the impact that could be made if all that excess wealth could be put to good use - teacher's would finally have good salaries (not to mention a seat in a good public school for every child), there would be a hospital room for every person in the country, decent living conditions, healthier people (cause poorer people have less to spend on healthier foods, which are only expensive because they are constantly undercut by cheaply-processed shit), better law enforcement/public services, and so on.

I commend Bill Gates for promising to give something like 99% of his wealth away to charities and such - now if every other person that is fortunate enough to not be a slave to the dead presidents would follow Bill's lead, maybe one day no one else will be a slave either. I have a dream...

[post composed listening to "Cloud 9" - B.o.B.]

A question to ponder

I don't think it would be a stretch to assume most people like music. Sure, there would be varying tastes of music as you go along, but in general most people enjoy having their ears stimulated.

So my question is this - what makes humans so partial to music? And more specifically, certain types of music? Is it a case of Nature vs. Nurture? Personal taste? Genetics?

Or is it that humans need to have all their senses stimulated, and music simply fits the bill for the hearing sense? And if that is the case, why do we need this stimulation? Would personalities be radically different if there were no music in the world?

[post composed listening to "Skeletons" - Yeah Yeah Yeah's]

No I did not plan this

Most of you, I assume, have heard of people seeing religious imagery in their food - Jesus in toast, etc.

Well today, it happened to me. Here is the pic.

What does that look like to you? Cause to me, it looks like Golgothan, the shit demon from the movie Dogma.

Random things I sometimes do

- hear a phrase that sounds similar to a song lyric, and then start playing that song in my head. or, hear a phrase that sounds like a movie quote, and then think of the movie quote.
- start thinking in a narrative, memoir-ish voice, mainly after i have an idea that i think might make it big. (ex: this was the moment he realized he was onto something)
- make random noises at animals in hopes of somehow communicating with them.
- play out possible scenarios to things in my head (like after having an animal speak to me, what kinds of shenanigans we could get in to)
- when i listen to a song, sometimes i will mimic the timing of my actions with the music (so i can shut a door when a cymbal crashes, or step in rhythm with the bass pedal, etc)

thats all i got for right now, but i will definitely have sequels to this post.

[post composed listening to "Ocean" - John Butler]

Why I don't care for Bob Dylan

Ok, I had this discussion the other day. What draws me to a song is a mixture of the sound of the music and the sound of the singer - NOT what they are singing, but how they are singing it.

So, I am not a big fan of Bob Dylan. Sure, I respect the guy. Apparently he has been a big influence on just about every musician since he came around. But I really don't care for his voice, and his guitar playing (on the few songs I've heard) just doesn't cut it for me. There are songs I like where the singer is so-so but the music is awesome, or the music is so-so but the singer is entrancing. Bobby D, unfortunately, is a so-so musician and singer (to my ears).

When I pointed out this view to my friend, she said "but his lyrics are poetry!". To this, I respond: "if I want to care about what someone is saying, I'll read their words." I dig music for the feeling it gives me, and sometimes words can't deliver.

[post composed listening to "Wake Up" - Arcade Fire]