Givin' Some Thanks

Wow, it's been nine months since I last made a post. A human can be made in that time. I gotta post more. Ok, since it's close to Turkey Day, I'm making a Turkey Day-related post. It's also a post with my friend the pessimist in mind. Those who never quite seem happy. I'm reminded of another blog post detailing how to be happier. One of those methods is to be thankful for things. Being almost Thanksgiving, I'm gonna list ten things I'm currently thankful for.

• My 4 gig flash drive stocked with the music I can't fit on my iPod. Carry it with me everywhere and it keeps me sane.
  
• The fact that I have this blog to use when I get the urge to do some writing.
  
• President-elect Obama. Don't mess this up starting January.
  
• My parents, who have supported me in everything I've wanted to do.
  
• Indie music, for being mostly awesome.
  
• The fact that if I have a thought, no matter how weird it is, there's someone out there who agrees with me.
  
• The fact that I'm healthy, all my limbs and organs work, and I'm mostly happy.
  
• "Sociables" crackers. For being stinking awesome.
  
• Kevin Spacey, for being an excellent actor in everything he's in.
  
• Finally, my friends. My old friends for still being wonderful. My new friends from Hi-Y Fall Conference for being really cool. And, my friend, the pessimist, for many, many things.
  

Happy Almost Turkey Day Everyone!

To Bill Brasky!

Chuck Norris. The mere mentioning of his name envokes tales of sheer bravery, strangth, and overall manliness. But were you aware that there is someone even greater than Chuck? It's true. His name is Bill Brasky, a mythical, modern-day Paul Bunyan. A man-god who's conquests and achievements make Chuck Norris look like a mere child. His tales have been recounted by drunken businessmen at airport bars and little league baseball games all across the world throughout the years. His name has gone down in history as one of the giants of our time.
A small list of his achievements.
Video of a worship ritual, in which his conquests are retold.

Happy SAD!

Yea, yesterday was Valentine's Day, and I'm sure a lot of people had fun. However, for us single people, VD was a less-than-normal Thursday, devoid of flowers, candy, and love. But instead of moping around, crying to our Livejournals, and listening to The Smiths, we decided to make our own holiday. Or, at least, someone decided to. What's that day? Why, it's Singles Awareness Day, or SAD. It's a special day that can fall on anywhere from the 13th to the 15th, and it's a time for us single folk to go out and show appreciation for ourselves and other single people. What's that mean? It means treat yourself to something nice, have some fun, and forget about the crippling lonliness that tears away at your soul until you're nothing more than a miserable sod who spends every waking moment crying, writing sad poetry, and of course, listening to The Smiths. So go out and watch a movie, go down to the shore and skip stones, or go to the store and by another album by The Smiths. And remember, you may be SAD, but at least you don't have VD.

Of Monkeys and Men

This world is mixed-up. It's a mixed-up, chaotic world we're in. True, there are some good people out there, but for every good person that's out there, it seems like there's a bad person and some change. And there's a lot of bad things that happen in this world. Murder, theft, the "Scary Movie" series and it's spin-offs; they're all bad things that have happened to the world. And we know they happen, but why do they happen? What drives people to do bad things? You could answer that question with examples of morals or religion or a combination thereof, but I recently came upon an article that, despite its title or opening examples, explains the problem very well. The article is "Inside the Monkeysphere," and it takes a new angle on the whole "good/bad" problem. It presents the theory that we are all living inside our own little worlds, and our worlds can only hold so many people, and we fill these worlds with our friends, family members, and so on. And these people inside our worlds are the people that we care about, and care for, and that's it. Everyone else outside of our world is just another face. We know nothing about them, and that's how we want it to stay. We don't know what kind of people they are, what they like, what they don't like, and we don't care. According to the article, this lack of caring is what enables people to do these bad things. We don't care about them, and we don't care what happens to them, so we have no problem doing them harm. And for that same reason, that's why we care about what happens to our friends and family, but not anyone else. They're not part of our world; what happens to them doesn't affect us, so we don't care. Of course, this is just a brief description, and the actual article goes into more detail about the "Monkeysphere." So I highly recommend taking the time to read about it, it's pretty interesting.
"Inside the Monkeysphere"