August is Already Over

That was fast...August, I mean. Feels like it was just July.
I've been watching the major cable news stations and the response to Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally from this past Saturday. I've watched the rally and listened to the messages delivered. I am pretty sure that none of the commentators speaking about it have. If they did watch, they didn't understand it, or they are making up what they wanted the rally to be. They are reporting their agenda. I call that propaganda. I wonder what the animosity is based on, the animosity against Beck. If he is as the commentators call him then why such the big deal about him? They try to paint him as inconsequential and full of hot air, but then why do they keep talking about him? Is it simply because they think it is easy to make fun of him? I suggest that they keep talking about him and slandering him because he is speaking the truth. At least what I believe to be the truth, and I recognize that. Not everyone sees the same things as being truth. That's fine. If we don't agree, great. Let's discuss it and be friends and see how we can teach each other, because I think most people have something good to share with others, regardless of political or religious or social points of view. So why can't Keith Olberman allow that Glenn Beck believes differently and appreciate that? And the same goes for Beck. I think the aggressive attacks on Beck are because some people can't accept the fact that others believe differently than they do, and they feel that they need to make everyone believe as they do. That is dangerous. If you don't think the same way I do then you probably think what I'm saying is hypocritical, and perhaps it is, or at least sounds that way. I know I have a hard time hearing some things and accepting that someone believes that without trying to run it through my perception of truth. But I try to. I guess I just have a hard time understanding how someone is going to attack Beck for encouraging faith in God, hope and charity. How can a man who talks about putting God first in our lives be so bad? Have faith, be responsible for your self and your family and your neighbors. Alveda King, at the Restoring Honor rally, talked about how we need to see past skin color and realize that we are all a human family. What's wrong with that? Nothing. Why are we a human family? Because we are all children of God. We are all a family because God created us and we are his children. But I suppose that's just what I believe. It happens to be what Glenn Beck believes it and a lot of other Americans as well. So what about that makes us racists or hate mongers? That's something I've been thinking about.
You know what else frustrates me? People who want to be victims. Sociology calls them conflict theorists. Conflict theory is one of the main theories of sociology. Marx would be considered a conflict theorist. This theory says that all problems are caused by people with power. Whether it is men having power over women, white people in America having power over black people in America or rich people having power over poor people. Everything is conflict. I think that when conflict becomes your reason for everything and your lens through which you view the world then you are embracing contention and anger. I joke about being an angry guy, and sometimes I get more frustrated with certain things than I should, but I think for the most part anger isn't one of my key characteristics. And I hope to root out that weakness entirely. It isn't a happy way to be, always finding fault in people and placing blame. Playing the victim. That's what anger and contention do. It comes down to selfish pride. You feel like you deserve something and if you don't get it then it must be because someone else is preventing you from getting it. You play the victim and if there isn't a real oppressor, because sometimes there will be (i.e. Hitler), you have to have a make believe oppressor. May I suggest a rich, white man? This type is the popular target from many conflict theorists. It just bothers me when people don't accept responsibility for getting the things they want or need. If you are capable of getting it, then do it. If you expect someone to hand it to you without work, then I'm saddened by you. An interesting note from Beck's rally, afterwards the area of the rally was clean and free from litter. After the last presidential inauguration the area was trashed. Perhaps Beck paid people to pick up the trash so he could use this comparison as a feather in his own cap, or perhaps the people who attended his rally are responsible people who work for what they have and take care of themselves and the people attending the inauguration are expecting a handout from the government because they are "entitled." Something to think about. Or I'm still being what I was condemning earlier. I'm not perfect or close to it in anyway. When I look at things that I don't agree with and try to theorize solutions I'm not trying to single anyone out, I'm making generalizations. And I include myself in the audience. I don't think you have to be perfectly honest to recognize the importance of honesty and the wrongness of lying. If you had to be perfectly clean to understand what clean was then no one would ever understand what clean is. Does that make sense?
Finally, I was talking to some folks tonight and one of them said something about rhetorically asking God how long he can see the injustices of the world and stay his hand. She wasn't asking how God could let bad things happen, but rather how long will he allow us to go so wrong in so many ways. In my mind I thought a possible answer to that question might be "How long can you sit by and watch these things happen?" I believe that we are agents to act for ourselves. With this being the case, we have to be free to succeed and free to fail (did you hear that Government? Free to fail). When we see injustice across the globe and wonder how God can let it continue, perhaps we should wonder how we can let it happen. Perhaps we ought to see how we can fix it. Maybe that's what life is about. God knows how to fix these problems and he has always told us the solutions through prophets. The resources are there, we just need to care and seek them out. Do we have faith that God is there and that he has given us the resources. Do we have hope that we can achieve these good things? Do we have charity, or love for others, enough to fight injustice by carrying out what God has taught us? When I contemplate these questions I feel a bit of guilt. This is what the revolution is all about. I've got to change. I need to revolve. This isn't the first time I've had moments like this. They always seem to hit, last for a bit and then fade into the distracting sources of entertainment that are so plenteous these days. Change is possible for everyone with the mental capacity and function to do so, which means most of us. If you desire to change you can do it. The difficulty comes in maintaining the change. Preservation of self-improvement. That is the topic I need to give some time to.

Blending of Real Life and Not-Real-Life

There I was, watching the movie Fallen, starring Denzel Washington, on the AMC channel. Wondering if the "C" stands for "classics" or for "channel." If it is for channel then my initial sentence is redundant. That is to say, if the "C" in AMC doesn't stand for "classics" then I said the same thing twice. I'll pause here for a moment to let you finish your laugh, just like they do on the sit-coms. I wasn't actually wondering that while sitting in the kitchen, I only began wondering as I typed the first sentence. I'm pretty sure that AMC equals American Movie Classics, but I wouldn't put any confidence in that. Perhaps a little. If you are wondering what I was doing in the kitchen while watching the movie, I will tell you now. I was waiting for my buffalo-style chicken strips (made with real chicken) to heat up in the conventional oven; the strips were fully cooked, so a good heating was all that was needed. The timer on the oven ticked down at the regular pace of seconds. It wasn't slow or fast, but as I typed the previous sentence it felt like I should type that the timer ticked down slowly. I've read or watched too many suspense stories I suppose. There was nothing abstract about the passage of time in this story. I wasn't even paying attention to the timer. I was paying attention to the text message conversation I was having with Muffin Man. I asked if he was familiar with the movie I was watching and he said he was. He then told me that a particular song, a popular song, used in the movie has left a bad taste in his mouth. Luckily he never tastes songs, so he doesn't have to worry about it, but the context in which the song is used in the movie has created a less than favorable association with the song in his mind. Always the friendly jokester, I told him that I would send him text messages of the song lyric (I won't tell you because I don't want to spoil any aspect of the movie) during the middle of the night, which for him is the early afternoon for me, time difference between VT and HI. Here's the punchline: right as I sent that text with my practical joker intentions there was a knock at the back door. At first I assumed the knocking was from someone in the house, a brother and sister were both home as well. I looked out at the front door and no one was there. The dog wasn't barking. I went back to paying attention to the movie. Then there was a knock again. I looked out the kitchen window towards the back door, but didn't see anyone. Then I went to the front door and saw no one. The dog still wasn't barking. This wouldn't be noteworthy (if it even is in this case) if not for the fact that I was watching a suspenseful movie and sending threatening text messages to my best friend. I went out the front door, to be able to sneak up on the door knocker at the back and obtain the element of surprise. As I came around the house a woman with a big dog came around towards me. She asked if it was my dog. I asked, "if it is my dog, then why do you have it?" Not really. I told her it wasn't. She is a neighbor from a few houses down and doesn't know who the dog belongs to. She left. That was all there was to that story, but it was funny to me and Muffin Man. And the fact that it was funny to us ought to be funny to you. We ended our conversation, Muffin Man and me, by saying that this person we both know could just sing that song lyric used in the movie and that could be their Halloween costume. This person we know has that serial killer look in their eyes and singing this song with the movie's context on it would work perfectly for a creepy costume. Get ready to dance!

So Much to Say and So Much Space Wherein to Say It

First of all, the most recent thing I pondered. I was eating a fudgcicle, or fudgecicle, or fudgicle (yeah, three options). I was also holding some outgoing mail. I thought about how if the item I was eating began to melt, I wouldn't want it to get on the envelope because it was already stamped. I didn't want to lose the stamp, but I wasn't concerned about the envelope. Why is the stamp so cherished but the envelope isn't? The envelope costs money; the stamp costs money. Granted, the envelope isn't 44 cents, but it still costs something. Why am I so quick to write that off but want to protect the stamp? Perhaps because the stamp has the price tag still on it. Well, not the ones I have now, they say "Forever." Stamps used to have the price on them, perhaps there are stamps that still do. The Post Office should stop being tacky and take the price tag off of all of their stamps. Or maybe the envelope companies should start printing the price of an individual envelope on the paper. Maybe it doesn't matter.
One of the envelopes contained a letter to my good friend who starts Army Ranger school in a few days. Get some. The other letter was a contribution form for the United Way. They sent me a letter today to request a donation. I've heard the United Way has a highly paid CEO. When I say highly I mean it makes a doctor's salary look like minimum wage. I don't think that is right. The head of a "non-profit" charity organization shouldn't be making that much money. That's just my opinion. But I like to share it, so I wrote a message about it on the donation slip and am sending it in. Petty? Perhaps. Useless and immature? You know that's right. But I'm going to do it.
Quiznos has a commercial with three cats. Three cats singing with horribly laryngitis sounding voices. The commercial kills me. I loathe it.
I went on a little hike with some friends today. We were hanging around afterwards and I was complaining about college, as I frequently do these days. I said that the only thing I got out of it was frustration and animosity. My friend then said, ignoring me and referring to an earlier story she had been telling before I went on my tangent, "Those are the only two things you need." It was impeccable timing. The others of us looked at each other, not realizing that the statement wasn't in reference to what I said. We laughed and agreed that frustration and animosity were all anyone really needed. Well, it was funny to us in the moment.
Every week Apple pops up an installing tool on my computer. I'm ok with updates to iTunes. I use that program. It also wants to update Safari. I have that installed, but I don't use it. The MobileMe Control Panel is the one I don't accept. I don't know what it is, nor do I want to. But thanks to that movie Despicable Me, which I haven't seen, I think MobileMe is like that movie, which I also don't know anything about. So what? That's what I'd like to know.
Shawn's dad is on Seinfeld. Corbin Bernsen. This episode is from 16 years ago. He looks young...er than he does today, on Psych. Wonderful.
I've had a hankering for some donuts all day. Dunkin' Donuts. That's what I want. But I didn't want to go to the Dunkin' Donuts place. The parking and location's are inconvenient around here. the kind I want is the powdered type with a frosting type filling and a blob, a tuft, of it coming out the side. It looks like a diamond ring. Think about it. I want one of those donuts. I also developed a desire for jalapeno poppers. Maybe I should head out to get a donut and a jalapeno popper, perhaps more than one of each, but more-so the latter.
I probably had more ideas to express here, probably.

Seinfeld, Season 7, episode 1 (111 overall) "The Engagement"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmJ4wa64iLA&feature=related

Jerry: What kind of lives are these? We're like children. We're not men.
George: No, we're not. We're not men.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Engagement_(Seinfeld) )

This is the kind of day I've had today. Did you watch the video? Just in case, here is the link again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmJ4wa64iLA&feature=related

Well, I don't know. I just need a job.

The End of the Every Day Posting

I realized that some days I just don't want to come up with something to write, and since this isn't my job, I'm not going to force myself to do so. It was a fun time while it lasted, posting everyday, but I'm not going to make that my goal anymore. I'll write when I'm inspired or angry. Better reasons to write I've never heard of.