Well, not much really. Hopefully it will snow tonight - that would be nice. Busy weekend coming up, I'll try to post something.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Parody for Literature Class
Yeah I know - it's been a long time since I posted. I actually have a lot to talk about - just not enough time. Here is a parody I just finished writing for my literature class - it's a fun read. I've posted first the song lyrics that I used for my parody. This is a really good song and I really enjoy it - hopefully my parody is never turned into a song. I should be able to post again either tomorrow or Monday...
James Blunt - You're Beautiful Lyrics
My life is brilliant.
My love is pure.
I saw an angel.
Of that I'm sure.
She smiled at me on the subway.
She was with another man.
But I won't lose no sleep on that,
'Cause I've got a plan. You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you. Yeah, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was,
Fucking high,
And I don't think that I'll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last till the end. You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.
You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
There must be an angel with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be with you.
But it's time to face the truth,
I will never be with you.
Parody by Justin - My Presidency
My presidency is genius.
My vice-president, a true master.
On 9-11 we all saw terrorism.
On 9-11 I saw opportunity.
American turned to me.
I was their man.
No more vacations in Texas,
Because now I have a plan.
You're a terrorist. You're a terrorist.
You're a terrorist, fuck you.
I can hear your voice on your wire-tapped phone,
And I know just what to do,
Off to Guantanamo with you.
Yeah, you're in my way,
I have an agenda to follow through.
I'll won't share any internal memos because I'm the,
Fucking president,
And I don't think we'll see Osama again,
But that's OK – we have Saddam.
You're a terrorist. You're a terrorist.
You're a terrorist, fuck you.
I can hear your voice on your wire-tapped phone,
And I know just what to do,
Off to Guantanamo with you.
You're a terrorist. You're a terrorist.
You're a terrorist, fuck you.
There's my dad and Bill with a smile on their face,
As they realized I pulled the big one on you.
You can bank on it – you'll never hear the truth
From my administration, we'll always lie to you.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
What an awesome day!
I got so much done today - it's unreal! To start off, I woke up late - but that's OK, I get so little sleep during the week, a couple of extra hours on the weekend sure doesn't hurt. Anyways, after waking up, Joe and I managed to go grocery and shoe shopping. Then we came home and I wrote a 5-page term paper on Type 1 Diabetes for my Health & Wellness class. After all this, Joe and I sat down to eat a wonderful Sunday dinner: fried chicken breast, macaroni and cheese, green beans, and croissants. Mmmmmm! Thanks Joe for cooking all that delicious food! After that I took a break and retired to the TV to watch a few comedies and eat dessert. Now most Sundays I would stop there, but not today. After a while, I decided to work from home for a bit - accomplishing a whole lot that I probably could not have accomplished in 8 hours at work! Still not enough, I have time left over to write on my blog, catch up on The Week magazine and drink my Sleepytime tea. Like I said, what an awesome day! I feel like I got so much done and it still ended up feeling like a Sunday. I've got a fun week coming up...Physics test on Tuesday, Politics test on Wednesday, and I have to start working on my next speech. Hopefully I'll have lots to share...
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Sonnet 3-2-1: TiVo
I had to compose a sonnet today for my Literature class, so I thought I would share...
To refresh your memory (since you are probably not taking a literature class), a sonnet is a 14-line poem that has some sort of structure. This sonnet, known as a Shakespearean or English sonnet, follows a rhyme scheme of ababcdcdefefgg. I hope you enjoy.
Oh TiVo, dear TiVo, my beautiful electronic machine
You are so small and so compact
You hum away on the shelf appearing so serene
I love you more and more - I tell you, that's a fact!
You record all of my favorite shows
Suggesting others that I may enjoy
I can't help but brag to all my fellows
That you let me fast-forward, pause, rewind - oh boy!
I haven't even mentioned, all of the extra things
That make you so different from the rest
Like weather, photos, music, and local happenings
There's so much more, dear TiVo - I swear, you're the best!
I don't know how I made it, when there was no you and me
But now that we've come together, forever we will be.
To refresh your memory (since you are probably not taking a literature class), a sonnet is a 14-line poem that has some sort of structure. This sonnet, known as a Shakespearean or English sonnet, follows a rhyme scheme of ababcdcdefefgg. I hope you enjoy.
Oh TiVo, dear TiVo, my beautiful electronic machine
You are so small and so compact
You hum away on the shelf appearing so serene
I love you more and more - I tell you, that's a fact!
You record all of my favorite shows
Suggesting others that I may enjoy
I can't help but brag to all my fellows
That you let me fast-forward, pause, rewind - oh boy!
I haven't even mentioned, all of the extra things
That make you so different from the rest
Like weather, photos, music, and local happenings
There's so much more, dear TiVo - I swear, you're the best!
I don't know how I made it, when there was no you and me
But now that we've come together, forever we will be.
Friday, March 03, 2006
The Rich and Poor + In Between
The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, the majority of us fall somewhere in between.
As I said in my previous post, there are valid reasons that can be generally applied to American society as to why this statement is true. Yes there are exceptions to this generalization - but for the most part, it holds true. Rather than argue this point, consider the following.
If economic status was governed by the same rules that steer evolution, the disparities between the rich and the poor would begin to eliminate themselves. In an ideal world, someone who was poor and underprivileged without the ability or skills to elevate their socioeconomic status would also not be able to sustain a quality of life that would be conducive to reproduction and child-rearing. A lack of adequate resources would spell certain death for any offspring and the chain of DNA would end. This is evolution. This is how the earth has "lived" for millions of years. Although cold and harsh from a human perspective, without it, our existence as intelligent beings would quite possibly never have come to fruition. Evolution is built into our DNA. In the long run, I think evolution will win out over human intelligence - but in the short term, we sure seem to be giving it a run for its money.
Humanity, and therefore, society interferes with evolution by way of religion, government, health care, or other aid-bearing or life-altering entities that enable the weak to survive right alongside the strong. So is it humanity, then, that dictates that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer? Is it humanity that seems to infinitely spawn the need for more humanity? Would you not agree that if it wasn't for humanity than life would carry on as it has for millions of years - only allowing the strong to survive?
Look at the man or woman who greets you at Wal-Mart. Think about the nice man that bags your groceries. Think of that person that isn't so bright and sometimes makes you wonder how they make it around in life. Our instinct via conditioning urges us to be compassionate to the less fortunate, offering charity and love so that they may enjoy life as you and I do. Now look at them through the eyes of evolution. In the end, most of us end up looking out for our own well-being. But bureaucracies, government, and societies are not human beings that are hard-coded with the will to survive. It is in these entities that humanity and compassion can take on entirely different forms that will likely end up causing more harm than good.
Evolution tells us why the rich get richer, but why do the poor get poorer? Would evolution just put them out of their misery? Perhaps evolution is more humanitarian seeing as how it would prevent suffering, eliminating the possibility for the poor to get poorer. Perhaps the poor get poorer because we try too hard to help them better their selves?
As I said in my previous post, there are valid reasons that can be generally applied to American society as to why this statement is true. Yes there are exceptions to this generalization - but for the most part, it holds true. Rather than argue this point, consider the following.
If economic status was governed by the same rules that steer evolution, the disparities between the rich and the poor would begin to eliminate themselves. In an ideal world, someone who was poor and underprivileged without the ability or skills to elevate their socioeconomic status would also not be able to sustain a quality of life that would be conducive to reproduction and child-rearing. A lack of adequate resources would spell certain death for any offspring and the chain of DNA would end. This is evolution. This is how the earth has "lived" for millions of years. Although cold and harsh from a human perspective, without it, our existence as intelligent beings would quite possibly never have come to fruition. Evolution is built into our DNA. In the long run, I think evolution will win out over human intelligence - but in the short term, we sure seem to be giving it a run for its money.
Humanity, and therefore, society interferes with evolution by way of religion, government, health care, or other aid-bearing or life-altering entities that enable the weak to survive right alongside the strong. So is it humanity, then, that dictates that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer? Is it humanity that seems to infinitely spawn the need for more humanity? Would you not agree that if it wasn't for humanity than life would carry on as it has for millions of years - only allowing the strong to survive?
Look at the man or woman who greets you at Wal-Mart. Think about the nice man that bags your groceries. Think of that person that isn't so bright and sometimes makes you wonder how they make it around in life. Our instinct via conditioning urges us to be compassionate to the less fortunate, offering charity and love so that they may enjoy life as you and I do. Now look at them through the eyes of evolution. In the end, most of us end up looking out for our own well-being. But bureaucracies, government, and societies are not human beings that are hard-coded with the will to survive. It is in these entities that humanity and compassion can take on entirely different forms that will likely end up causing more harm than good.
Evolution tells us why the rich get richer, but why do the poor get poorer? Would evolution just put them out of their misery? Perhaps evolution is more humanitarian seeing as how it would prevent suffering, eliminating the possibility for the poor to get poorer. Perhaps the poor get poorer because we try too hard to help them better their selves?
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Tired of Wal-Mart haters!
I am taking an Introduction to Politics class this semester (had class this evening in fact) and I am so sick of hearing negative comments about Wal-Mart (in reference to globalization). People randomly spout off obscene facts regarding employment practices, benefit and salary information, and the community impact of this behemoth organization. I actually like the company and just wish that I had "bought in" back when all the Waltons did - only to become billionaires.
Unfortunately, my ignorance or lack of factual information prevented me from countering a lot of the crazy facts people came up with to prove how Wal-Mart is corrupting the world. Well that's changed. I sat down to read Sunday's newspaper (yeah I know today is Wednesday) and there was a guest commentary in the editorial section from our local Sam's Club General Manager. Wally Amerson did a good job of countering the negative propaganda that is obviously running rampant through some circles, especially the overly liberal and excessively vocal young adult age group (18-30). He cited walmartfacts.com as a source for a lot of his statistics. Both links that I provided are worth at least looking at - if you can spend time looking for all the things that Wal-Mart does wrong, at least take a minute to look at things from their perspective. Amerson mentions in his oped that a lot of this propaganda is propagated by unions and this actually makes a lot of sense. Unions are actually organizations that collect dues from their members. Imagine if a union was successful at unionizing Wal-Mart employees. That right there spells plenty of motivation for ruthless tactics aimed to undermine the integrity of a corporation in the public eye.
Needless to say - I won't stop shopping at Wal-Mart. Everyone talks about globalization as if it is something yet to come. I believe that it is here and any attempt to turn it around would end up crippling the global economy. If anti-WalMart-ers want to hold up Wal-Mart as the example of what globalization "has done" - I could only hope that all global corporations are run as successfully as Wal-Mart. If you feel like you are missing out and that Wal-Mart is taking all the jobs and only making the rich richer - well buy some Wal-Mart stock and put a sock in it!
The rich get richer because they are smart with money and usually pass on this socially and economically valuable skill to future generations. Likewise, the poor get poorer because they are not smart with money and manage it irresponsibly, also passing on their mismanagement skills to future generations. If you don't like your economic status, educate yourself and aim to do better - don't blame it on other people, businesses, cities, states, federal government, and please, stop blaming Wal-Mart!
Unfortunately, my ignorance or lack of factual information prevented me from countering a lot of the crazy facts people came up with to prove how Wal-Mart is corrupting the world. Well that's changed. I sat down to read Sunday's newspaper (yeah I know today is Wednesday) and there was a guest commentary in the editorial section from our local Sam's Club General Manager. Wally Amerson did a good job of countering the negative propaganda that is obviously running rampant through some circles, especially the overly liberal and excessively vocal young adult age group (18-30). He cited walmartfacts.com as a source for a lot of his statistics. Both links that I provided are worth at least looking at - if you can spend time looking for all the things that Wal-Mart does wrong, at least take a minute to look at things from their perspective. Amerson mentions in his oped that a lot of this propaganda is propagated by unions and this actually makes a lot of sense. Unions are actually organizations that collect dues from their members. Imagine if a union was successful at unionizing Wal-Mart employees. That right there spells plenty of motivation for ruthless tactics aimed to undermine the integrity of a corporation in the public eye.
Needless to say - I won't stop shopping at Wal-Mart. Everyone talks about globalization as if it is something yet to come. I believe that it is here and any attempt to turn it around would end up crippling the global economy. If anti-WalMart-ers want to hold up Wal-Mart as the example of what globalization "has done" - I could only hope that all global corporations are run as successfully as Wal-Mart. If you feel like you are missing out and that Wal-Mart is taking all the jobs and only making the rich richer - well buy some Wal-Mart stock and put a sock in it!
The rich get richer because they are smart with money and usually pass on this socially and economically valuable skill to future generations. Likewise, the poor get poorer because they are not smart with money and manage it irresponsibly, also passing on their mismanagement skills to future generations. If you don't like your economic status, educate yourself and aim to do better - don't blame it on other people, businesses, cities, states, federal government, and please, stop blaming Wal-Mart!
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