100 Things I Learned About Japan from Anime
Here is a quick list of 100 things I’ve learned about Japan from Anime. (obviously satirical)
1. There is always some spineless guy who ends up with 5-7 girls all pining after him.
2. Making someone a bento is one of the greatest things in the world (I would agree with this).
3. The older a girl gets, the larger her breasts.
4. Excitable girls always tackle some hapless guy and land on their faces, crotch first.
5. Boys often get random nosebleeds throughout the day and no one notices.
6. All Americans that live in Japan are narcissistic a**holes. (Come on, I’m American and I can laugh at it)
7. 16 year old guys in high school always have a long lost childhood friend that they forget about.
8. Girls will almost always kick a guys’ butt.
9. When women fight, they always rip each others clothes off, but what’s left always manages to cover up their privates.
10. Cherry blossoms.
11. Never let your guard down or some pervert with a camera will start taking your picture.
12. Every girl except the very nerdy bookworm with glasses can do the high jump.
13. At least once a year you end up at the beach with one male friend and 5-7 female friends wearing amazing bathing suits…except for that one girl who wears her school swimsuit.
14. Someone always manages to win tickets to a hot springs spa.
15. And the theme park.
16. For some reason, women feel the need to take the spineless guy with them to buy lingerie where each of them asks his opinion of their chosen outfits.
17. Don’t worry about bringing your lunch. 7 girls will always share their lunch with you, even feeding it to you.
18. Fireworks on the beach.
19. Girls in Kimono’s are amazingly beautiful.
20. The only people who attend anime release parties are middle aged guys all wearing headbands.
21. The guy will always choose the absolute worst thing to do when the best girl confesses to him.
22. Harihu Suzumiya is God. Get the f*** over it.
23. Every hot girl you know will eventually end up sleeping next to you.
24. It snows every year on Christmas.
25. No one’s parents are ever home.
26. They guy we end up listening to always sits by the window, 1 seat from the last.
27. Lusting after a flat chested, 16 year old girl is completely acceptable as long as you make fun of her first.
28. Every girl you know just happens to have different colored hair making it remarkably easy to tell them apart.
29. Oh, that damn blonde guy.
30. If your parent’s aren’t home, they’re dead and you and your younger sister have been living on your own since you were 10 because, you know, that’s totally acceptable.
31. Mysterious transfer student.
32. You best friend is guaranteed to be a pervert. It’s going to happen so don’t fight it.
33. The smartest person in class is also the most stuck up. Jerk.
34. Certain students get special treatment like being allowed to read in the library while the rest of us have to sweat it out in class.
35. Everyone takes home economics.
36. All the protagonists suck in sports, except Yamato from Suzuka because he’s the man.
37. Everyone loves eggs!
38. I’m heading off to the all you can eat cake shop. Who’s with me?
39. Frequently visiting adult themed tea houses isn’t creepy at all.
40. Karaoke or you’re out of the club!
41. The cultural festival basically means you get 5 days to screw around at school while possibly scoring with a hot girl. Why is this not in America?
42. Discount Ken Watanabe.
43. Oh, you love me and you sacrificed your life for me? That’s sweet…but I still don’t choose you.
44. Every time you end up at a public bath you somehow end up in the girls side and no one calls the police.
45. Public baths?
46. You can destroy buildings, murder people, set off explosions, and no one ever dies.
47. Every vampire is hot and for some reason, still in high school.
48. You made me a bento without making the sausage look like a little octopus? A**hole!
49. All you have to do is say you feel sick and you’re allowed to sleep in the nurse’s office all day.
50. Sinking every ship in your anime is completely acceptable. In fact, author’s love your tears (Oreimo).
51. Visiting that hill just outside the city somehow solves all your problems.
52. Every part time job you get as a high schooler is embarrassing yet that one guy you like always manages to walk in when you least expect it.
53. Why does that mother not slap her kid for lifting up my skirt!
54. Pocky.
55. Almost everyone still uses flip phones. Apparently, Samsung and Apple haven’t made it to Japan yet.
56. Only perverts buy figurines of their favorite anime characters.
57. Dating sims are amazing!
58. It’s not Sony, it’s Suny.
59. The girl with the long, white hair who barely speaks is the most awesome girl ever…until she literally rips out your heart.
60. There are no stupid girls, just stupid guys.
61. Even now we will cheer for Taiga and if you don’t, she’ll kick your a**.
62. If a girl shares her bento with you, the entire class will scowl at you the entire time.
63. Robots.
64. Girls with their long hair in ponytails are amazingly cute.
65. Every student is forced to take an English course, but they all suck at it.
66. This is what every girl in Japan looks like.
67. Screw the rules, I have money!
68. Reading adult themed manga on the train is completely acceptable.
69. Everyone visits Okinawa at least once.
70. Bon festivals are awesome!
71. Marrying your cousin is not considered weird.
72. B*TCH FLAKES! Eat up, Baka!
73. Hercules beetles are fairly common and girls don’t freak out at all when one flies into their hair.
74. If you’re a lonely guy, don’t worry. By tomorrow some girl you’ve not seen since childhood and whom you don’t remember will crotch tackle you the next morning.
75. Loli’s are not lollipops.
76. She hates you and tries to murder you? Now she is making out with you? Makes perfect sense.
77. Always go to the roof to confess to someone because…well, just because.
78. Most girls do not have lips until they are wearing lipstick. That’s weird!
79. Putting your head on a girl’s lap is the most erotic thing in the world.
80. Sure, let’s head off to the beach for several days and solve a mystery because f*ck school.
81. If you’re an alien sharing your body with a 16 year old boy, it’s perfectly fine to destroy half the city because no one will care.
82. Every girl I know has a secret life as a teen model.
83. All adult males are ridiculously huge while their teenage counterparts are all small and wimpy.
84. So that’s what the red string means.
85. It’s perfectly acceptable for your 15 year old sister to take a bath with you unless the girl you like just happens to walk into your house, unannounced and feels the need to see if you’re in the bathroom not by knocking, but by just walking in.
86. Photography clubs.
87. Kendo looks fun! I should try that!
88. Every girl you like wants to kill you for absolutely no reason.
89. We’re locked in the equipment closet again? Why does this keep happening to me and some random hot girl?
90. There is no such thing as sex. The stork brings the babies.
91. Schools in Japan don’t have air conditioning.
92. Card games on motorcycles.
93. It takes 4 episodes for someone to power up and the fight lasts all of 68 seconds.
94. All teenage males are perverts.
95. All female teachers have massive breasts.
96. All male teachers are middle aged with glasses.
97. The characters from Cowboy Bebop are not from Texas.
98. The police are the most clueless people in the world and always arrive after a seven hour fight just finishes and there is no one to arrest.
99. Everyone hates Kirino.
100. The younger you are the biggers your eyes get.
100 “sins.” Sentence: (drumroll) (Credit to Cinema Sins for the Ding idea)
Marriage to MIKURU ASAHINA!
(bow)
Problems with Clear Wireless
So, I was speaking to clear about my poor internet speeds since last Thursday. Here is a snapshot of my conversation with them.
Yeah, it was pretty funny. I originally posted this to my Facebook account. Here is a copy of one of my responses when some people started asking questions.
I am actually doing more research into the matter. Wired cable is treated similar to a telephone: it’s considered a utility. If I can argue and prove that their service is unusable during extended periods of time, I can corner them into giving me a month for free and they can’t fight it. In a sense, they would be obligated to waive the monthly service. Many people don’t know, but if your home telephone goes out for more than 4 hours in a day, you are entitled to one day free service. If it goes out for more than a day, you are entitled to a month of free service. This is how it was when I worked for AT&T and Time Warner. It’s not something the utility companies talk about, but it’s regulated by the FCC. Since wireless is also regulated by the FCC, I want to see exactly how they define wireless internet. If it’s deemed a utility, then I have that argument. They can try to deny me the credit, but then I can complain to the FCC directly and they would then be forced to give me the credit. I tear apart Terms and Conditions all the time when I buy things. I did the same thing with Cricket Wireless. They refused to refund me my rate plan cost because they tried to tell me it was considered an “Activation Fee.” I went into their T&C and found that it did not consider a “Rate Plan” an “Activation Fee.” I argued my case and won and my monthly service was refunded to me. My years in wireless really helped me in so many ways.
I did do a little more research, but in the end I was just sick of Clear and sick of paying $50 a month for something that hadn’t worked as advertised for 8 straight days. Here is something I was originally going to post to Facebook, but decided just to add to this blog post.
UPDATE! – So, I called Clear today to cancel. I had been using the internet service from them again this morning and was still getting massive slowdowns. I call them and I tell them I want to cancel. I was expecting them to try and do a save which is when they offer you usually some sort of credit or discount to try and keep you from canceling your service with them. We did that when I worked for AT&T Wireless so I figured they’d do it as well. They did give me a great offer though. They knocked 40% off my service price, no contract. I said sure, go ahead and apply the save promo, but if my speeds aren’t any better in the next couple of days I will just end up canceling anyway. Well, I had mentioned in a previous post that I knew they were purposely slowing me down via a bandwidth management system they use. Guess what…no more than 5 minutes after I ended my call with Clear, my pre-issue speeds are back to their previous levels. (Feigning shock) Now, even during peak times, my speeds are quite fast and I am paying far less for the same service. Lesson? COMPLAIN! I figured the worst that could happen was they offered nothing and I would just rid myself of them, but now it looks like I am on an unofficial “Do not throttle” list, at least for a little while.
Here is a copy of an email I got from Clear along with the “Save” promo they added. (I blotted out personal info)
You’ll notice the name of the promo is Loyalty Stay Connected 6mos. I am thinking perhaps since I had been with them over 6 months that this promo might only be good for people that have been with them for a certain period of time. In other words, if you’ve been with them for only 6 or 7 weeks you may not be offered this. They also said that this promo was good for 6 months so it might also mean that. Still, most places that offer internet and cell phone service generally give better save offers if you’ve been with them for a good while.
Well, this is how it went with me and Clear. If something changes, I will give an update. For now, I am enjoying my faster speeds again and hope they stay that way.
21 Days of Prozac (Fluoxetine)
It began to feel as if the positives from this medication were starting to creep through. I can’t say I was any more happy that I have been. I’m never really happy. However, I did feel a little less down, especially on days 18-21. It looks like the medication is starting to make an impact on my overall mood which is a good thing. Still, I am seeing side effects from it so I have to address those here.
Positives:
Overall better mood. My mood is usually pretty low so while this is an improvement, I cannot say I am “all better.” After all, you’re never really “all better.” I find I am thinking less about suicide. It’s still a daily thing, but my mind wasn’t going nearly as far down that road as it sometimes does. I am finding it easier to laugh at things that should be funny. I guess you could say it has started working as far as mood. As far as other issues, well….
Neutrals:
I am still not feeling hungry. I list this as a neutral because some people want this while others don’t. I don’t mind one way or the other. I was getting tired of always gaining weight with other medications. It’s hard to feel good about yourself when you gain 30 pounds. In a way, some medications are self defeating in that way. Sure, it might trick your brain into thinking you are happy, but looking in the mirror brings it all down again. I’ve dropped about 8 pounds since starting the medication so my weight loss isn’t terribly dramatic. I had to stop my usual workouts because of an injury so who knows how much I might have lost if I’d been able to continue my exercise. I am looking to get back into my workouts next week so we’ll see if I drop anymore weight.
Negatives:
My sleep is still very erratic. I am having to depend on other medications to get at least some sleep. Even then, I am constantly waking up throughout the night; at least 15-25 times a night. I’m not exaggerating. My anxiety isn’t seeing much of a decline from the medication. Just yesterday (day 22) I had a meltdown and had to turn to Klonopin to knock me down. I could feel the anxiety attack coming on, but there was nothing I could do to stop it besides my benzo. After that, I lied down and tried to relax. My body was numb, but my mind was still racing. Still, I managed to fall asleep about 2 hours later, but as I mentioned, I kept waking up.
Overall, I think the medication has more positives than negatives. I know Prozac isn’t a catch all. I’ve been down this road before and I know I will probably always have to be on multiple meds to manage my illness. I am glad I stuck with the Prozac though as it is showing some positive results and few negatives. I still find myself creating my own worlds when I leave the house so I can manage to do normal things like visit the grocery store. I still don’t talk to people and I still don’t make eye contact unless she does it for me. I go in, get what I need, and leave. The only place I let go a little is the book store. It’s always so quiet in there and the smell of fresh paper is soothing. I will probably end up going there again very soon.
Clonazepam tablets Klonopin 1mg. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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The Pain, The Struggle, and The ER
I was in terrible pain all last night and into this morning. So much so that I ended up in the ER at Memorial Hospital. I thought I’d hurt myself a couple of weeks ago which caused me far more pain than normal. I figured I would get over it, but never did so off to the ER I went.
I’m in massive pain as I wait through the examination. I sit for hours, waiting for my meds to be ready. I got lucky and the ER doc took mercy on me and gave me Hydrocodone 7.5’s (they usually give 5’s, 7.5’s are reserved for major pain). I’m so thankful that I can finally get some sleep and get close to pain free, a phrase I’ve long since forgotten. I come home, I do some work that needs to be done, hurting the entire time. I don’t take the hydro because I know it will put me on my butt. I tell myself to wait till I am done with all my work so it gets done. I finish things up, I hit the shower, I dry off, I lie down…and then suddenly the pain lets up and I am able to move around with far less pain.
I never took the hydrocodone. As I sit here now writing this, the pain is still there, but manageable. It’s sort of funny. I spend almost two weeks in great pain and when I finally break down and go to the ER, the day I come back with meds that will help me I am suddenly feeling better. I guess I can only attribute this to the power of the mind to heal. I’m not taking it too far though. I’m still going to see my general practitioner when my appointment day comes. I know my body and I have a feeling I may need the hydro in the next 24 hours.
English: Hydrocodone bitartrate 7.5 mg / ibuprofen 200 mg tablet (generic Vicoprofen) manufactured by Watson (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
7 Days of Prozac (Fluoxetine)
For those of you who’ve followed my posts on mental illness, you all may know I’ve been on a few antidepressants. I’ve been on Pristiq which did not agree with me at all. I got some major side effects which caused me to have a massive meltdown so I was taken off. I was then moved onto Celexa and that seemed to work pretty well for a while. I didn’t feel amazing or anything, but I was better able to manage my mood swings and depressive episodes.
Last summer I went off my meds without telling my doctors. I wanted to try to live without the need of medications. I was also getting some unwanted effects from another drug I was on called Latuda. If you are not familiar with that drug, it is an antipsychotic drug that is used in the treatment of Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder, and a few other forms of mental illness.
I did alright for a period of time while off the drugs as I was able to cope with my depression and anxiety. That didn’t last though. I had contemplated going back on meds, but I didn’t want to as I hated some of the unwanted effects. The biggest complaint came from the Latuda. It has a major numbing effect on your emotions. It does have some benefits though. It quieted most of the voices in my head and lessened my visual hallucinations to the point where I had maybe 1-2 a day. Off medication, my hallucinations are quite frequent; visuals come and go although they are not intrusive all the time and the voices aren’t terribly bothersome for the most part. The exception is when I find myself under great stress. In those times, the voices and visual hallucinations can get out of control and that was why I was given the Latuda.
The cons, as I mentioned, was the numbing effect. In a way, I felt almost zombie like. Next to nothing generated any sort of emotional response. I couldn’t really feel much sadness, but I also couldn’t feel joy. I didn’t feel anger. I did sometimes feel frustration, but that was mostly because of the fact that I couldn’t feel anything at all. If all I wanted out of life was to sit in my room and watch game shows, I suppose that would be fine. However, I want something more.
Fast forward several months and my depression is getting quite bad. My hallucinations have returned, but they are manageable for the most part. I revisit my psychiatrist after several months away. He tries to put me back on Celexa, but unfortunately it isn’t working for me after two months. In comes Prozac.
I’d been on the drug previously in 2009, but only for a very short period when I was so lost in my mind I don’t even remember how long I took it. In the years since, I’d educated myself more on mental illness and medications. So much so that I now frequent the Yahoo! answer forums and take on some of the harder questions so I can try to do something positive. Through my research, I read up more on Prozac. I remembered being on it, but as I said I don’t even know if it helped or not. I asked my doctor about it and he said we could definitely try Prozac again to see how it works for me. Here is the deal so far.
I know it’s too early to know if it’s working on my depression. It can take about 3 weeks before I start seeing any positive effects of that nature. What I have noticed though are some side effects after the 7 days I’ve been on it. One…I’m actually feeling worse as far as my mood goes. My anxiety has gotten bad so I’ve had to resort to the Klonopin a couple of times. I’ve been able to manage though. I expected something like this so I was prepared. Another interesting effect that I’d read about and interestingly am getting is a lack of appetite. I actually don’t mind this effect at all. I’ve been exercising a lot the past month to try and improve my moods and also to drop a little weight. I noticed that I wasn’t feeling hungry at all on the 2nd day which wasn’t expected. I thought I wouldn’t get this particular effect till I was seeing the true benefits of the drug. As I said, I don’t mind having a lighter appetite, but I’ve figured out that I have to watch myself though.
Without even realizing it, I went an entire day without eating. I had water which is normal for me, but I never once felt the urge to eat. I didn’t even realize I hadn’t eaten till the next day when I thought about it. I ended up at the grocery store to get some food, but didn’t buy much as I still wasn’t hungry. I started feeling a little light headed though so I went ahead and had a good meal; some grilled chicken, green beans and corn. It wasn’t a very large meal, but boy did it fill me up. I did not eat the rest of the day. The follow day I still wasn’t feeling hungry so I had a big Honeycrisp apple about midday. I also kept with my water and still, I didn’t feel hungry.
It didn’t take me long to figure out that this side effect was pretty significant for me. I’d read about people not getting it and some who say they did. It looks like I’m turning out to be one that’s getting it, but I know I need to be careful.
I often schedule things for me in advance and have a list of things I need to make sure to do every day like take meds, exercise, clean certain parts of the house…you know, everyday chores. I keep the list because I sometimes deal with overwhelming compulsions to do things over and over because I feel I didn’t do them before so I use my check off list as a reminder that I did in fact do them. I am adding eating to this list. I figure as long as I have two decent meals a day along with a snack like an apple (love apples) or an orange, I should be just fine. The only issue is that now I am finding it annoying to eat when I’m not hungry. I’ve started to make my meals smaller, but not too small. I don’t want to push my body into any sort of shock from a sudden diet change.
Beyond that, I’m happy to say that I’m not getting any other significant side effects. Hopefully, I will start to see the true benefits of the drug in a couple of weeks.
If you suffer from depression, it’s important that you talk to your doctor about it. I cannot say that Prozac will work the same for you. Only your doctor should advise you on the types of drugs you should be taking. I guess I should add this in as well: No, I am not being paid to say these things about Prozac. This is just my personal experience with the drug. If you come across some online pharmacy trying to sell you drugs like Prozac or Klonopin, they are scams! Avoid them. Only get a prescription from your family doctor or psychiatrist and fill your medications at a licensed pharmacy like CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, etc. Prozac is available in generic form and is very inexpensive, especially from Walmart as a 30 day supply is only $4.
Fluoxetine (Prozac), an SSRI (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
NSA Spying Fiasco
Here is a little something I wrote up about this whole NSA fiasco.
This all reminds me of that scene with Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox in The Dark Knight when Batman is doing everything possible to locate and capture the joker. Batman lets lucius know he took his sonar idea and applied it to every cellphone in the city for the sole purpose of catching one man (A terrorist). Foxx refers to it as “Beautiful, unethical, dangerous.” When Batman says he must do everything he can to stop the joker, Foxx looks at him and says “At what cost?”
Even Christopher Nolan saw this coming as many of us did. How many more liberties are you willing to sacrifice in the name of safety? How many more laws are going to pass, taking away more of our freedoms until we realize that we have completely given up on the idea of freedom and have become slaves to fear? Even with all these new laws that are supposed to keep us safe from terrorists, I don’t feel even a tiny bit safer. In fact, I feel more like a prisoner. Knowing I can’t do anything unless big brother is looking over my shoulder goes against everything I was taught about the USA growing up.
For years, people have been talking about the novel 1984, saying that we are heading in that direction. Most of the people who said that stuff were called conspiracy theorists. Well, it’s not longer a theory. It’s a fact. For so long allowing the government to do this kind of thing has been seen as a slippery slope. Well, I can see us sliding already. Many people 50 years from now will mark this as the beginning of the end of our freedom. It start with the Patriot Act and it continued with what we are seeing now. I openly admit to being a staunch Obama supporter all these years, but this…I cannot accept.
I know this program started under Bush, but Obama kept it going. I refuse to live in a police state. These violations of privacy are unacceptable. When I am an old man and look back on my life, tracing back to when I lost faith in the “American Way,” I can mark this as the starting point. I can see now why some millionaires are leaving the country. Not only for tax purposes, but this country is no longer free. There are a ton of other countries out there that are safer than ours but their people are truly free. I am sure any number of them would be happy to take a few more millionaires in.
Referring back to The Dark Knight, Foxx finally said to Batman “I’ll help you this one time, but consider this my resignation. As long as this machine exists at Wayne Enterprises, I won’t.” I wish politicians had as much backbone as a fictional character. One can only wish they would have the guts to stand up for what is right. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this is wrong on so many levels. I am not one to make idle threats, but believe me when I say if and when I’m financially able to leave this country, I will. As long as this sort of program exists in the United States, I won’t.
This is no longer the land of the free. It is the home of the scared. For years we have been told that if we don’t do this or that, that the terrorists will win. Well, guess what. They have. Sure, the government will say they have thwarted an attack here and there, but if they are hiding this program from us, who is to say any of what they tell us about preventing terror attacks is true? You know how the terrorists have won? We cannot go anywhere in our country anymore without being on camera. We cannot watch television without the NSA knowing about it. We cannot surf the internet, make a phone call, send a text message, or have what we thought were private conversations on Facebook without big brother watching every single thing we are saying. Even Michael Caine‘s character Alfred Pennyworth told Batman what he felt they would eventually have to do to catch the jewel thief when he was in Burma: they burned the forest down.
I’ve lost all confidence in the US Government when it comes to protecting the rights of its citizens. When a government can take any citizen it wants and jail them indefinitely without filing charges, you cannot consider this a free country. Yes, they really can do that. Go read the Patriot Act and it will show you how it can. The same thing for people who still think the government needs a search warrant to tap your phones. They don’t. Again, it’s in the Patriot Act. All they government has to do is say that they think you are a threat and they can completely tear your life apart and there is nothing you can do about it. You can view all the data on the Patriot Act here.
People will still argue that these laws are in place to protect us. I do not feel any safer than I did before 911. It is a sad fact that everyone dies. No amount of laws will ever keep us 100% safe. It is a cold hard fact. There will always be terrorism and there will always be mass killers walking into schools and movie theaters looking to kill as many people as possible. Short of taking away virtually every freedom we have left, no law will ever stop these things. Ever.
Cover via Amazon
Ladies and Gentleman, I Give You…Americans!
And these, my worldly friends, are Americans.
Notice the immaturity in their responses as well as their unwillingness to see more than 5 minutes in front of them. Yes, the American is an interesting creature; one that votes for a president because they affiliate themselves with a political party and not because that candidate has their best interests in mind.
Yes, Americans…more than willing to say that everyone should follow a certain set of rules…except themselves, of course. Special exceptions for them!
Oh, yes. Americans…so upset about supposedly nothing being done to lower the deficit, yet refuse to do anything about it themselves. Indeed, they are a strange people. Only they would immediately assume a Muslim or an Asian was responsible for the bombings in Boston with absolutely NO proof.
Only they would disrespect the office of their leader by offering him snide remarks and heckles instead of actually calling or writing their own senators and congressmen to take part in the democratic process. And yes, they will mock me as well for saying these truths and still not offer any solutions to the problems we face in our country today…like perhaps seeing the bigger picture on things like abortion where we should respect that fact that it is the woman’s decision to have the procedure or not and none of their business. After all, I don’t walk into their homes and tell them how to live or what to believe in. Heck, if I did, they would probably shoot me…which would be fine because they might have seen me as a threat…which is strange because although they have the right to shoot me if i enter their home, a gay couple has no recourse when they tell them they cannot get married.
And why can they not get married? The bible, that’s why! Yes! Americans look to a 2 thousand year old text; a collection of stories passed down for generations and still try to apply all the rules in it to life as if it applied today. They say no! You cannot marry because in the bible it says a man shall never lie with another man as he does a woman. And yes, only Americans would then conveniently ignore the part where is says we should sell our daughters into slavery. They’ve also cherry picked a few other things that they think we should ALL follow, even though not all of us follow that religion, but hey…they’re AMERICANS so we should never question THEIR ideas, right?
Only within America is it considered bad to, god forbid, change your mind about something! That’s right, folks! Only in America do you get branded with the name “Flip Flopper” for changing the way you see the world…unless you go from disagreeing with them TO agreeing with them. Apparently, that is just fine.
An interesting and sometimes hilarious bunch, these Americans are! Only they would take to Twitter after seeing the movie Olympus Has Fallen and begin spouting hateful things like “Fuck all the gooks!” and “Fucking Asians should all die! Kill them all!” and think it were perfectly fine. After all, hey! Freedom of speech, right? That means I can say anything I want, right? In America, we’re free to do what we want , too! In fact, one could say those are one in the same…but then again, just because I have the freedom to run full speed into a cactus doesn’t make it a good idea. The same can be applied to freedom of speech. Sure, you can say anything you want…but should you? Calling for all Asians to be killed is technically freedom of speech…but wait…we have Asian Americans. Should we kill all them, too? Guess that’s not such a good idea after all…so let’s instead say KILL ALL THE MUSLIMS!
But wait…there are Muslims that are also American citizens. Should we kill them as well?
But hey, this is still America! A country where if the terrorist is white it must mean he is mentally ill…or it was the fault of violent video games or metal music. Yeah, that must be it… because if the terrorist was brown it MUST mean he just hates America and therefore he and everyone like him should die! Right?
In American…right?
So, I hope you all enjoyed the tour as much as I did. I’ve done this tour a handful of times and I must say, I still find myself surprised at the end of it! Americans…so quick to judge, so quick to bash others, so quick to tell all the “niggers” to go home…even though the white man brought them all here by force. Hold on, I need to look up the word irony.
Ah, yes! Here we go! Irony! Bitching and complaining that American jobs are leaving the country…while at the same time complaining that the Chinese-made goods at Wal-mart are still too expensive.
Oh, those crazy Americans! I always have to deal with their petty threats. They’re always saying I’m unpatriotic by saying these things and they feel the need to make the same old threats to me. One even told me that if I loved China so much, why don’t I just move there…posted from his Chinese-made iPhone.
Boston Marathon Bombings – My Response
I was having a discussion on Facebook with some friends over how people tend to automatically assume it was someone from the middle east or an asian that set off those bombs (some very interesting tweets). We were exploring the fact that a ton of people have already assumed that it was a foreigner and not a white terrorist. My friend pointed me to a very interesting article (written by a white guy) that talks about how no one thinks that a white person could have perpetrated this latest violence. Here is one of my responses during our conversation:
“We like to think of ourselves as enlightened, but as a country, we’re not. There are still so many people out there ready to jump to conclusions about who did it. They always want to blame people from the middle east or in some cases, Asians. Absolutely no proof, yet they’ve already made up their minds. I read the story you linked to about white privilege and I have to say it rings very true. People seem to ignore the fact that we’ve had a very large number of white terrorists in our country, yet conveniently forget about them when something like the Boston bombings happens. I find it even more disturbing that the Colorado movie theater shooting was done by a white guy, yet they don’t mention that he’s a white terrorist. They blame guns or they blame mental illness. They never mention that he might be a white guy who just wants to kill as many people as possible. Same thing with the shootings at Sandy Hook. A white guy, but it’s the fault of the guns. Columbine High School, two white kids go crazy and shoot up their school and kill teachers and students, yet again, they blame guns and metal music. The only time race is EVER a factor is when the person doing the mass killing is not white. When we find out who did these latest bombings, I can tell you this. If he’s white, no one will say a thing about him being white. If he turns out to be practically any other race, you can bet your house that someone is going to play the race card and try to say “I told you so.””
English: Hope Columbine Memorial Library at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Gun Debate
Here is a Facebook response I posted to someone arguing about pro-gun legislation and about how the government is now trying to limit how and what guns are available.
“Most people are looking at this as sort of like the bible. Many people do not live by things written in a 2000 year old text. Sure, it has some moral lessons in it, but for the most part it is not followed today word for word. Not even close. (We don’t sell our daughters into slavery anymore) The same can be said about any government constitution. When it was written, they did not have the same problems that we do now. The world has changed. Back when this was written, they did not have fully automatic weapons or magazines that could hold a massive amount of ammunition. People are hating on the AR-15 lately. Pro gun people say it is not an assault rifle, yet I know a guy who can, with a few minor changes, make it fully automatic. Adjustments will always have to be made to things like laws because the world is always changing. Not too long ago, minorities were not allowed to sit in the front of the bus in many places in our country. That has changed. The same for women. With out the suffrage movement, women would still be without a voice in this country. Instead of holding steadfastly to an old rule, why not offer ways to improve it and adapt it to the world today? Many pro gunners reject the changes to the laws outright without offering any suggestions of their own, no original ideas. I am neither for or against guns. I think they serve a purpose so I am not arguing for or against any sort of ban. What I am saying is we need to have a real discussion or this will never be resolved. Until both parties are willing to sit and talk it out, this will go on pretty much forever. We get angry at our senators and congressmen when a budget doesn’t get passed, yet pro and anti gunners are doing the exact same thing with this issue…barking real loud, but not solving a thing.”
R. Allen
Johnson Automatic Rifle (in Center) (Photo credit: neepster)
Stop Blaming Obama for Your Problems
Here is a picture I saw on Facebook a little earlier today. Take a good look. I am sure you will react to it.
A picture I saw on Facebook
Interesting, isn’t it.
I have found that often it’s pointless to engage in a discussion about politics with anyone as it only ends with people spouting nonsense and not sticking to the actually facts. I am not just talking about a snapshot in time as this picture depicts. I am talking about real facts. The ones you have to go and search around for to really understand. Sadly, I found that most people looked at this picture and felt that since he was president, Obama is to blame for it. I couldn’t believe people were so short sighted and seemed to have a massive case of tunnel vision. Not that it will change anyone’s mind, but this is what I felt I had to write on this picture as a response.
” What people will not tell you is the reason that gas was so low at the time was because people were anticipating big changes with Obama coming into office which is why it fell so precipitously. No one mentions that 6-7 months earlier it was as high as $4.10 a gallon under Bush. Over the last 15 years, gas prices have been like a roller coaster and that will not change just because a new president is in office since oil is so global. Also what people will not tell you is the rate of mortgage loans is higher now because the economy was so in the toilet with bush in office that the federal reserve was slashing interest rates to try and boost the economy. A higher rate denotes that there was some recovery and now banks are able to charge more because we are all doing a little better. A 5% food cost increase seems about right and since it is tied in with gas prices, you can see why it’s higher. Notice it does not mention what is considered “High Unemployment.” It also does not mention what criteria is used for the “Misery Index.” The US debt is higher now because there was no long term plan to pay it off when Bush left office. A majority of the additional amounts come from interest on that 10.6 trillion. Again, no one mentions that. You cannot give everyone a tax break and expect the dept to not balloon which is what Bush did, again to try and improve the economy. The value of a home is also tied into the value of the US dollar. Our money took a hit because of various factors, including our debt amount and the credit downgrade we suffered. There was also no mention of what is considered “long term unemployment.” It seems to me that posts like this are aimed at people who barely made it out of high school or not at all. Anyone with at least a little college or common sense can see through this. Also, if you truly want to see the debt get cut big time, stop arguing about paying a slightly higher tax. Notice that there are so many extremely rich people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet that actually want to pay more taxes, yet those bills never get passed. If it meant paying down the debt and ensuring social programs, we should gladly pay $4-5 more dollars per check to get it done. If you don’t want to do that, then how exactly are you helping to pay it down? This is our country and it is our responsibility to pay this debt down. Ours because we put these people into office and we need to hold them accountable. To put the blame on one man is childish and small minded. Not a single republican wanted to try and help pass a budget deal unless they looked like the heroes and not a single democrat wanted to make reasonable concessions. These are the people we all put in office. Stop blaming one man and put the blame where it belongs: On all of us. Grow up and take some responsibility. I may be sick, but even I can see the hypocrisy here.”
Getting Rid of Small Balances on Gift Cards
I was doing a little research on gift cards. Over time, I have managed to accumulate a handful of Visa and American Express gift cards. One of the major downfalls of these cards is that, in some cases, you can never fully utilize the amount that was gifted to you. On several cards, I manged to leave small amounts on them; so small in fact that it would be rather embarrassing to use them for payment anywhere you might go. To solve this problem of too many gift cards and nowhere to spend the small amounts, I turned to my old friend Amazon.
I have purchased various goods from Amazon for many years now and I must say they have definitely earned my trust. They are very good when it comes to deals and if you ever need to return something, they are always helpful and courteous. They are also my store of choice whenever I buy music. Yes, I have an iPod, but the Apple iTunes store is often overpriced and I do not like the Apple format they use for music. I prefer MP3’s which Amazon sells. Regardless if you like Amazon for music like me or if you buy other stuff like eBooks, DVDs, etc. they are a good option if you have a handful of low value gift cards you are looking to get rid of.
So, how exactly does this work out? Amazon gift cards. I know what you are thinking. Trading in one gift card for another. It may seem that way, but it’s really not. For someone like me that buys from Amazon at least once a month, it’s a great option. All you have to do is go to the website and select gift cards. It will give you an option as to how you want to gift the funds. I chose email as all it would do is send me an email with a clickable link to add the funds to my Amazon account.
It took a little patience, but I was able to move over a decent amount of money to my Amazon account which will eventually get used up. The one issue I found was in using the VISA Vanilla gift cards. Amazon states you can gift as little as $.15, but when I tried to use the VISA Vanilla to gift myself the remaining $.75 on the card, it always cancelled my order. Bummer. The other card types used were the American Express gift card and a bank gift card that works as a debit card. The two AMEX cards I used were for the amounts of $1.75 and $1.70 and had no problems with those. The Bank debit gift card was a larger amount so no problem there either. It could just be that Amazon is not crazy about eating the charges that go along with processing the smaller amounts on some cards.
I know this isn’t the perfect plan for everyone, but it worked well for me. Now I have some credit that I can use next time I want a DVD or some music. Like I said, I really like Amazon so it works for me. If you have never used Amazon, give it a look. There are always good deals there and shipping in most cases is really small. Often times they have a deal where you get free shipping on orders over $25 which I almost always take advantage of.
Like I said, not a perfect solution, but a decent option; especially since I know a few of us got some of these gift cards over Christmas!
Cover via Amazon
New Year’s Free Promotion – All Releases
To celebrate the New Year, both myself and Ruby Jones are offering our titles for free for a short time starting December 31st!
Check out Ruby’s book We Are All Retarded on Amazon by clicking here! Keep in mind, Ruby’s book carries an audience recommendation of ADULTS ONLY.
You can pick up my short story Last Night by clicking here. This release is rated 13+ foradult content.
Also make sure to pick up Rumbling Heart which is the first in a series based in and around the Eureka, California universe. You can pick up this release by clicking here. This book is rated 14+ for adult language, adult situations and content, and scenes of dramatic peril.
Get’em fast! This free offer only lasts till January 2nd. Three free books available for three days! Go get’em now!
Sandy Hook School Shootings: Why It Will Keep Happening
It’s a very simple question. Why do these people feel the need to run off and shoot up a school or a mall or their workplace then kill themselves? My sister asked why, if someone is planning to kill themselves, do they not just off themselves and not kill a bunch of other people. My answer was this: “Because suicides don’t get media attention, but murders do.” It was to the point and very accurate. It’s very true. Think of it. You rarely hear about suicides in the media unless it was the death of a well known person like an actor or a musical artist. If you are a regular Joe like most of us and you kill yourself, you’re lucky to get a simple obituary in the local paper. But if you take a bunch of people with you, you are surely to be remembered and people will begin to wonder more about who you are.
It’s been happening for years now. Think back at just how long ago Columbine High had its infamous shootings. Yes, it’s really been almost 14 years and look at what happened with those two boys? They were all over the news and various media outlets for years. They even had movies made about them. Sure, they may be dead and cannot see what happened after the fact, but everyone else can. People know if you go to a school and kill enough people you’re going to get a slew of media attention and people will possibly talk about you for years to come. What better way to grab the attention of a nation and sometimes even the world.
I am not saying it is alright to do such things. Murder is murder and is never the answer. All I am saying is we should no longer be surprised when such things happen, especially here in the United Sates. We are a gun culture and we’ve been raised to believe that certain situations, certain problems can be dealt with using a gun. Disagree with me all you want and discuss gun control. Fact is if you made it harder for people to acquire and possess guns it’s very possible that fewer people may have died. I know, guns don’t kill people on their own, but having one sure makes it a lot easier to get the job done.
I sincerely hope those people that managed to live through this are able to move on with their lives. It’s a pity that they will have to live with such a memory.
Sandy Hook Elementary
No Suicide Note
Sometimes we are abruptly reminded that when a person suffers from a mental illness, at any given moment, that illness can rear it’s ugly head and take over better judgment. I am glad that a certain someone was able to pull back from the edge recently and is still with us now. People will never seem to fully grasp how their harsh words can affect people, especially those who can tumble down that long, dark hole in the blink of an eye. I don’t know who this person was that came after my friend and attacked her, calling her an outcast and making her feel like she should crawl back under a rock and stay there forever, but I do hope they think twice about the way the speak to people.
My friend was so distraught that they just started taking various medications without even thinking. All they knew was they didn’t want to be awake. This wasn’t something she planned. It just sort of happened. This is how quickly a monstrous depression can eat you.
I find it disheartening that people still treat us as outcasts from society. All my friend was doing was trying to be social when she was told these harsh things. Anyone that has ever sought treatment for depression, anxiety, or even something more severe like schizophrenia when paired with the other two, knows that one of the biggest things your therapists wants you to do it NOT lock yourself inside your home. They encourage us to go out and be among other people. Even if you don’t speak to anyone, they just want you to try and live. We are given a light push back out our front doors. Sadly, this evil person sees us as tainted, inferior, mentally retarded.
We do not ask to be treated any differently. We really don’t. Yes, I know some of us are quite fragile, but we have been taught methods of coping with everyday situations and given medication to help calm our nerves. However, when confronted with major confrontation, as any other person might, we sometimes panic.
I am glad my friend is still with me today. She is one of the very few people in this world that truly understands me. I know I understand her. I wish I could say it was me that stopped her from going to far, but it wasn’t. I am just glad when she was somewhat cognizant, she was able to reach out to me.
I just hope others who share the view of us as a bane of society seriously consider their actions. Imagine if it were your mother or brother, your wife or your best friend dealing with this. I doubt you’d take lightly to someone pushing them to the edge of death.
Amanda Todd: A Reaction
People have been talking about Amanda Todd, a 15 year old girl who took her own life from endless bullying. If you’ve read my blog before you will know I am no stranger to major depression and thoughts of suicide. While I cannot claim to have know this girl, I can attest to how she probably felt. A friend of mine posted a story about her on their Facebook page to bring the story to light for those who may not have heard about it. The following was my reaction.
“This happens to adults as well as children. We are all people and we all make bad decisions every now and then. She did and she knew she did, and for that she was cast out of society until she couldn’t take it anymore. A perfect adult example of this is what has happened and is happening with Michael Vick. The guy screwed up big time and for that, he went to jail. He repaid his debt to society, yet people still bash him and ridicule him, and sadly it will probably always be that way. It’s this sort of mentality that destroys people. A person makes one or two mistakes in their lives and they are never able to live it down. Of course, this 15 year old girl had more of an excuse than Vick, but the situations are still similar. Yes, he was a grown man and she was just a kid. Still, we are mere spectators in most of these situations and we need to stop being so judgmental. We are no one to judge others. None of us. We’ve all made mistakes in our lives. Until we can realize that everyone in one way or another is screwed up, this will continue to happen.”
I was in no way making excuses for what Michael Vick did. He knows he made a huge mistake and for that he was sent to jail and dismissed from the NFL. There is no way he can bring back the lives of the animals he took, but to assume he can never fully redeem himself is selfish on the part of society. In some people’s eyes, anything he may be doing or might do in the future to try to redeem himself will never be enough. That’s unfair. The same can be said for this little girl. She made a huge mistake by showing off her body and letting herself be photographed. Still, it was the mistake of a person with very little wisdom and no grasp on the long term repercussions of her actions. She screwed up. Everyone screws up. We all don’t do the exact same things this girl did, but we do eventually make a bad decision. Maybe we do something dumb like not keeping up with our children or maybe we start gambling away all our money. Maybe we get into drugs or start drinking too much.
If a drunk can find redemption, then so can this little girl. So can Michael Vick. I’ve had my run ins with drunks and suffice it to say, they were not the greatest of times in my life. The same can be said of those with drug problems. These people that have directly affected my life made mistakes just like Michael and Amanda did. Yet, here I am, having forgave those people for their actions.
I find it remarkably disturbing that so many people find it so hard to forgive. I find it even worse that so many people that had nothing to do with those mistakes somehow feel justified in condemning not the mistakes themselves, but the people who made them. What’s done is done. We cannot change that. There is no secret time machine where we can somehow go back into the past and correct our mistakes. Sure, the people who screwed up would surely like to do just that, but it’s simply not an option. All these people can do is seek atonement. It is up to them and if they sincerely wish to atone for their sins, we should be able to find it in our hearts to forgive them and maybe even offer them help to achieve that goal.
I don’t care how old you are. I don’t care what religion you follow, what political group to ally yourself with, or what color your skin is. Not a single one of us has any right to pass judgment on anyone else. We have all screwed up. Some more than others, but not one of us is innocent. If a person is truly remorseful for their trespass, we should do our best to let go of any hate or anger that developed from that indiscretion. As the old saying goes, hate begets hate. Anger begets anger. Forgiveness, compassion, love…well, they help to heal.
Amanda Todd – gone too soon – Rest in Peace.
Photo via Vancouversun.com
“Dream Catcher” Update
The story is running long in places I would rather it move along a little faster. Editing will be a little bit of a pain, but I am still happy with the story overall. I may not have mentioned this in the past, but the story takes place in the same universe as Rumbling Heart does. It doesn’t continue the story of the other characters though. It moves on to new characters that also live in Eureka, CA. The characters named so far are Casey (Protagonist) Emma, which is another main character as well as supporting characters such as Walt, Carla, and even Joanne Kay (an ode to a friend of mine).
The story focuses on Casey and his life working for the local Eureka newspaper. He’s been lucky in life. He’s never really had to worry about money and his parents are still happily married. He was able to attend college and his high school days were relatively easy and carefree. He’s had the life most of us hope for at 25. Easy, productive, painless. All seems well until he meets Emma, a 21 year old artist he meets at an art festival who’s harboring many secrets. At first, Casey accepts that Emma isn’t your average woman. He realizes she hides things from him, but he’s alright with it…until things start going a little crazy.
As the story progresses, Casey finds himself wanting to know more about her, even to the point of using his connections at the newspaper to find out more about her past. What he discovers is far worse than he could have ever imagined.
Casey thought he knew what it was like to know someone who is damaged. As he digs up Emma’s past, he realizes he knows nothing about true pain.
(This eBook will carry a voluntary rating of 16+ for language, some graphic violence, some crude humor, alcohol use, drug references, and scenes of dramatic peril.)
Getting Ready
Just a few more weeks till Rumbling Heart reemerges as a lighter and better book. I was considering only having it on Amazon, but have decided to make it available on Amazon, BN.com, Smashwords, and I am also working on getting it on the Apple store as well. They will all be the same price and considering the almost 2 years of work I’ve put into it, I am not gonna sell it for a scrawny price like $.99 like so many other authors do. I am still looking at the numbers, but when it gets settled, I will post about it. Also, you’d previously purchased the old version, I will be more than happy to provide a copy of the new one free.
Ruby is Blowing Up!
She is currently #40 in Humor – Amazon Best Seller list and moving up strong. If this keeps up, I can see her breaking the top 100 overall very soon so lets keep those downloads going!
http://www.amazon.com/We-Are-All-Retarded-ebook/dp/B007EVYCWA/
“We Are All Retarded” Free Release Event
Well, her book is ready to go and she is very excited!
We’ve setup a free release event for Ruby M. Jones via Facebook and you can show her your support by “joining” the rest of us here.
We hope this is the beginning of many great things for Ruby and for our small, but tight knit writing family. If you were interested, you can get the skinny on all of us by clicking here. Thank you all again for your continued support not only of my work, but also of Ruby’s work as well as Emily’s. We hope Ruby will be our first 100k seller!
Best of luck, Ruby!
Division in The GOP?
I don’t normally get into politics too often on the blog, but just last night as projected by CNN.com, Rick Santorum won Minnesota’s caucuses and Missouri’s nonbinding primary. As of the writing of this blog entry, it was still unknown what the results were for Colorado.
Now I’ve never really identified with anyone party. I will admit that most of my political views have been more toward the left so I never really cared much for what happened to the Grand Ol’ Party, but this is definitely interesting. While I didn’t really dive headlong into the story, I did skim them over to see how the numbers looked and for a while it seemed as if Mit Romney was going to be the one to run against President Obama in the fall elections. Then suddenly, light a bolt of lightning, Newt Gingrich came out and won South Carolina and just like that it felt like people were thinking “ok, now it’s game on.” I was thinking the same thing, hoping to see at least a semi-entertaining Republican run similar to what we saw a few years ago between Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Now here we are again thinking it’s between the two big dogs, but no! Santorum says “What just a minute!” and pulls out two huge wins! Perhaps not massive delegate-wise, but it’s definitely turning heads. For a race that seemed to be coming down to only two men, Santorum came in and change the game.
HOLD THE PHONE!
Just checked CNN.com and as of this moment, they updated the Colorado results and Santorum is about 300 votes behind Romney so he has a big change to take Colorado as well.
I gotta say, I have no idea why, but this is almost exciting; sort of like a horse race. Some of you might think that I am a closet republican. Nope, sorry to disappoint. I’m not a racing fan either, but if I were around while a horse race was going on, I’d stop for a few minutes just to see who came out on top. SImilar situation here.
Gotta say this is going to be a very interesting Election year. Regardless, I have to say whichever candidate they throw at Obama better be on his toes because with unemployment numbers looking better, the stock market improving, and the kept promise of ending the Iraq war, it’s gonna be a hard sell trying to convince America to replace him.
Image via Rick Santorum Website
Twitter Killer
People on Twitter may kill me for this one.
I will never follow 25k people. Ever.
Why? That’s something a retard would do. Yes, I said it. Let the hate mail and unfollows begin.
Let’s face it. The only reason people follow 25k are because they are wanting those 25k to follow them back. Thing is those 25k people are only following back for the exact same reason. The thing about Twitter though is to have people follow you who actually read your tweets and when someone is following 25k people…come on, do you really think they give a damn about what you are tweeting? Their twitter feed is so filled with spam, it’s probably nearly impossible to decipher one tweet from the next. Yes, I know there are apps and so forth that can help, but still. The chances that you will get noticed and added to said app are slim to none. I used to be like many of those people, desperate for followers, wanting to get as many as possible, but I am breaking from that. I have slowly been dropping my follows down to people I actually interact with. Of those that are left, I generally do read their tweets, at least from time to time so if I follow you, rest assured it’s because I actually read your tweets and NOT because you are following me. That number will continue to decline. I am going through my lists and if I see someone with a ridiculously large number of people they are following, I am more than likely going to drop them. I have maybe 1 or 2 exceptions to this rule. Why? Those people I am actually close to and have known for awhile and I actually do speak to them beyond twitter.
As for everyone else? Sorry, but I refuse to play this “Follow me and I’ll follow you back!” game any longer. You can hate me now. You won’t be the first.
Image via CrunchBase
Easy
I read an article on Amy Winehouse and it gave her cause of death after a lengthy inquest to try to figure out how and why she died. Turns out she went on a sort of bender in the days leading up to her death. She died of alcohol poisoning. As before, the jokes about rehab and her song started swirling all over again. I couldn’t help but think to myself how mean spirited some people are. It seems its so easy to make fun of someone like a celebrity who had a real world problem. People seem to forget that there are millions of people out there deal with alcohol addiction, not just musicians, actors, or professional athletes. I think it’s also really sad that for some reason, rarely do other feel the need to defend people like Winehouse and only look to tear her down.
She had a problem just like anyone else in the world. It was a problem she needed serious help with. It’s unfortunate that the help came too late for her.
Things like this are no unusual in the world of entertainment. You have a lot a money and you have access to things like illegal drugs and vast amounts of alcohol. I think the main reason why so many celebrities fall victim to such things is because of the public. They have an image that they have to live up to so they stress themselves to the breaking point to try and fit that mold; to fit the model that the public wants to see. Sometimes they succeed. Other times, we get Amy.
It’s so remarkably sad that when it comes to someone with money, us everyday Joe’s feel the need to bash and tear those people down. We seem to think that since they have money that they should be happy. As the public, we love our sayings and quotes from famous people, yet when it comes to the downfall of a great person, we never hesitate to knock them. They are easy targets to us. Somehow, it makes us feel a little better to know that someone much more talented and gifted than us can fall. I am waiting for the first person to say otherwise. That person will simply prove my point.
It doesn’t matter who it is that has the problem. As with most things, it’s harder to create something than it is to tear something down. We as people have a choice as to what course we should take. Do we help create something to give to the world or do we just tear it all down. Someone once told me it’s harder to be good than to be evil. It’s harder to be a good parent than a bad parent. It’s harder to be a best friend than an enemy.
Which one are you?
Image by Mr. Mystery via Flickr
Rumbling Heart 