Religion

There is no doubt that the country in which I reside has a society built on Christianity. While this is not an entirely negative concept, it does have the downside of sidelining other world religions. The president is sworn in with his hand on the Bible. A prayer is said before state meetings. What do these incidents teach us? Essentially the other religions are slaves, forced to look on as the masters execute their collective will. Faith, when properly applied, instills its believers with morals and values, and is essentially beneficial. It is when these values are skewed or utilized by individuals to accomplish not entirely honorable ends that religion itself gets a negative reputation. That said, no institution would survive without support from believers and followers. It’s here that I’d like to mention the Christian rationale towards slavery. White supremacists argued for slavery as a reprise for those less genealogically inclined to succeed than others.

How then, has this view changed in the present day? A Supreme Being, communicating to a select few through a translated book handed down through the years is controlling our society. The Christian God made man in his image, according to his followers. Is it then not possible, perhaps, that this god along with the thousands of gods worshiped throughout the millennia, were created in the image of Man? Are we, as humans, not seeking to deify and exemplify the human qualities we find admirable, and in fact personifying those qualities into gods? With this rationale, we might begin to more accurately dissect the true values of American society.

Shameless Plug

Well, a previous comment suggested posting art, so following are some crude artisan crafts and photographs. For the medieval reenactors and fans of Viking items, plase check out my Viking-style Drinking Horns. I'll custom carve designs, names, and insignia on them for cheap ($45 starting... good luck getting a plain horn for that ^-^).

Two examples:


If you're interested, my e-mail is ap_wordsmith@yahoo.com

Recent Movies Have Declined

It may just be my cynical view on the world, but it seems that recent movies are cinematic remakes of books nobody read, comics we all read and therefore have no use of a movie telling us the same exact thing, or remakes of older and classic movies. Is our culture so downing, so depressive as to restrict the creative flow of ideas for new pictures? It's true that we have recently been blessed with the gems of Juno, Nick + Norah's Infinite playlist, Superbad, Yes Man and several other recent comedies, but three of the four listed above are teen dramedies and undoubtedly directed at a younger audience. Is it then, that we are reduced to mindnumbing teenage drama every time we go to the theater? I don't know about the rest of you, but high school was definitely not the best four years of my life, and I really don't care to repeat it often and fully through the assumingly pleasurable cinematic experience.
So Hollywood do us a favor and either produce movies that are semi-intelligent and intellectually stimulating, or kindly take advantage of the seismic plate you're resting on and drift away into the ocean.

Routine Jobs

For those of you who haven’t heard of the comedian 2 the Ranting Gryphon, open Google right now. Navigate to his skit “Do your F***ing Job!” I’ll wait.

With this country in a recession, the public is constantly bombarded with alarming headlines stating the drastic loss of jobs. In such a situation, more and more qualified individuals find themselves performing medial tasks for minimum wage while smashing their brains against the wall. College students will look around them and ask ‘What’s the point?” Nothing can do more to dissipate the faith of a nation then announce a recession. The cash flow stops. Small businesses dry up and close shop. Gradually even the corporate and routine jobs seem to dwindle and disappear. How can this be solved? Ignore the recession. We only dig ourselves in deeper by hoarding money from our neighbors. I’m not saying you should spend your entire 401(k) on frivolous items, but instead go ahead and buy that new couch you were saving for anyways. People are afraid and needed to be goaded out of their shells. As they gradually regain their footing and return to this society’s consumerist ideals, the economy will stabilize, and gradually begin an upwards trend.
That said, we all have and probably all will perform some form of routine job. This is the general way for teenagers to enter the workplace with their first jobs. Standard places may include low-level jobs at a grocery, department store, or restaurant. I chose the restaurant route at seventeen and became a minimum wage worker at a family owned Cantonese place. The strange thing about this restaurant is that there was no set hierarchy among the low wage workers, so the general job title for the front- end was “carry out” and it was sup to the individual employees to remember who had seniority.

American Dream

The public school system imprints on our brains form an early age the ideals of this country- work hard, and one day you might have a job like mine. We all need exactly 2.5 kinds in a bland Colonial house with a perfect white-collar husband and a white picket fence. Everything in this fantasy is white, and it’s not at all realistic. Modern Sociology tells us that only 4% of American families are living the “dream”, and subsequently the number has most likely decreased in the few years since that research. The modern age gives us same sex marriage and children raised by single parents, working moms and stay at home dads. And the beautiful thing is that there is nothing wrong with these situations. It doesn’t matter who are parents are, it matters what beliefs they give us.

Textbooks

Every college student dreads that special time each semester when the lists of materials come out- and include at least five mandatory textbooks. It's common knowledge that we'll all be ripped off when it comes time to buy, but even greater pain awaits at the end of the semester. It's Russian Roulette whether the local bookstore will buy back your books for a fraction of the price or send you on your way with out turned pockets. For example, last semester I tried to sell back my Communication book, with no success. The bookstore claimed to have too many and told me to wait until the next semester. Well, next semester has come and turned to this semester, so on the first day of book buy back I rushed in, Communications book in hand. Nothing. "We're not taking these," the cashier girl sneered after scanning the bar code. I couldn't believe it. Still can't. Meanwhile, my boyfriend sold four of his Sociology textbooks (at least $100 worth of kindling) for $15. It's stereotypical that college kids are poor, but why do we have no money? It's not because of binge drinking or scoring drugs- it's because the university itself has no mercy and only exists to self-sustain. The local book store is no different and actually compounds the problem. So take heed, friends- it's either a lifetime of debt or working at minimum wage for ten years to save enough money for such a demanding education.

College 101: Make friends in every class and form a study group- that way you can borrow textbooks instead of buying.

Lonliness is a road that must be traversed... alone?

Ok so this is the second post, and nothing interesting has come up yet. Deepest apologies. Tonight has the flavour of new posts stemming from the deep ruminations of the past couple days, tinged with a hint of Mountain Dew.

Truth be told, it's extremely disconcerting when someone exits your life, and you suddenly find a vacancy where they once stood. Today death is not the culprit, as often alluded to.

I woke up this morning alone, again, as my roommate slept at a friend's house. The day proceeded normally as I showered and left to pursue my various tasks, and returned at lunchtime. When my boyfriend got off work, we relaxed on his sofa, until I returned here, to my room, around 11pm.

My roommate moved out.

All of her belonging are gone, as are the decorations on our door.

The space is empty, and I am alone. And it's definately weird, for lack of a better word. To live with somebody for a month, and suddenly find them moved out of your life in a span of a few hours... how much do we actually take for grantid?

And now that the inital shock has passed, I may return to my thoughts of a higher existance and the interconnectedness of all things.

Next week I'll begin the search for a new roommate.

Starting anew... everything is a circle

Well, the time has come to start another blog. The first one was deleted over a year ago, along with the crude Myspace page that housed it. Hopefully my thought processes have grown since then, but only continued posting will tell. My hope is that you, the much appreciated Reader, depart with some hint of knowledge and perhaps a greater understand of the complexities of life and self. At the very least, it is hoped the departed have rhetorical questions circumnavigating their brains.

So here lies the first post, albeit a rather bland one. more shall be added at a near future date (i.e. when yours truly can't sleep at 2am and has to get up at 7).

Please feel free to leave comments of every but the crudest variety, and Deus Volt.