Mythological Stranger's Blog

"I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good."

2007-08-31T11:45:00.000-07:00

The title quote is one of my favorites, from the roman play write and philosopher Seneca. I know, its a hell of a way to break my posting hiatus, and it may be the only post I'll make in the near future (I make no promises) but I'm just going to make this entire post a half-dozen or so quotes that I like.

So without further ado, my favorite 6 quotes in no particular order.

"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education."
~Albert Einstein

"He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave."
~Sir William Drummond

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
~John F. Kennedy

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
~Benjamin Franklin

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail."
Abraham Maslow

"Have you ever observed that we pay much more attention to a wise passage when it is quoted than when we read it in the original author?"
Philip G. Hamerton

And to close the post out, one that perhaps I should leave off because it contradicts the post. But hey, it's still clever.

"A quotation, like a pun, should come unsought, and then be welcomed only for some propriety of felicity justifying the intrusion."
~Robert Chapman

New Link

2005-06-30T17:04:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to let everyone know they should go to eff.org (first link to the right) and check out what they have going on over there. Very informative and thought out.

Laters,

M.S.

The Nature of Humanity

2005-06-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

There are many popular view on the nature of humanity, so I thought maybe I'd offer up a few of them and my analysis of each one. Some of these points of view are secular, but most are obviuosly religious in basis.

1. Humanity is Basically Good (Good for the sake of being good.)
This is the most basic (and naive) viewpoint of the ones I'll list. It means exactly what it sounds like it means. That, given the choice, the majority of humanity would do what was right reguardless of consequences or punishments. I'm inclined not to believe this one, in large part because anyone who's lived in the real world is far too cynical to believe such sentiments.

2. Humanity has a Sin Nature (Good of their own desire.)
This is the christian perspective (along with that of the majority of other organized religions). It basically says that humans have a wicked nature they must strive against, but that the majority will be good for the sake of not being evil. I come closer to believing this one because I am Christian... but I think there is one aspect of it I disagree with, as I'll explain below.

3. Humanity is Fearful (Good for fear of punishment.)
This is the one of the three basic beliefs I believe the most. I'm not sure if I was the first to say it, but it is my belief that the majority of humanity is only good because they fear the consequences of being evil. Even the majority of Christians are (unfortunately) guilty of living under this belief. They claim they are following one of the first 2, but in truth it's a fear of the consequences of not being good that drives the majority of them (and the rest of humanity for that reason) to do what is right.

I'm not sure what inspired me to offer up this analysis... I guess recent events in the lives of those around me had me thinking about whether humans were really capable of altruism. Which, after I dismissed altruism as a dream, started me thinking about why good deeds were done in the rare instance where there was seemingly nothing to be gained by it. So... I know this was a pointless post, but it had been a while since my last one so I thought I'd put it up.

Always have a line to go out on.

~MS

"Character is higher than intellect... A great soul will be strong to live, as well as to think."
~Ralph Waldo Emmerson

If you buy this, I've got a bridge to sell ya.

2005-04-30T01:37:00.000-07:00

Two years ago today, president George W. Bush declared that major combat in Iraq was over. Right George... we all believed you. But tell me why we're still there.

I know I'm not necessarily old enough for my opinion to hold water with some of those who may read this, but I'd like to think my limited life experience gives me the ability to see this from a angle some of you can't. I know more than a few military people even still. I even got a email from one of the friends I made in basic, telling me he was deployed in Iraq not six months ago.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but that was 18 months after major combat was over... and we were still sending in fresh troops. Seems to me that if major combat was indeed over, we'd have reduced our forces to a smaller "peace-keeping" force (like the ones we have in Bosnia, and Kuwait) but instead we're still expanding our number of troops there and spending more and more outrageous amounts of money. I'm not mad at the fact we're there... don't mistake my motives. I'm upset with the fact our president didn't respect the American public enough to tell us "yea... we're doing well, but we'll still be here a while." Hell, honesty is not a lot to ask for is it?

Back to the subject of money. Want to know something disgusting about this "war"? Not even counting what we've spent on troops' travel and foodstuffs (as their budgets are largely covered under the auspices of the Department of Defense) we've spent so much money in Iraq that, were we to divide it evenly with every American citizen, each and every one would get over $1500. And guess what? Bush just passed a bill to let him spend even MORE money over there.

You know, George, instead of raping social security with privitization; you might consider cutting back the amount of money you spend on wars that are, at this point at least, completely unneccesary (note: I did not say it wasn't necessary to begin with... just that "keeping it up" is not necessary now that we've crippled Saddam's regime)

I suppose it's fairly evident I don't support Bush's decisions all that much. But I'm not a liberal. I didn't vote for Kerry (his exit strategy sucked from a millitary viewpoint anyways). I voted Libertarian. And while some of you may count that as a wasted vote (in fact a couple of people have told me I wasted my vote) I believe that no choice, made on your own moral convictions, can be wrong. [I think I just threw this part in so no one would ask if I voted for Kerry. Bush is a better president than Kerry would have been. Or Gore.]

Ok well there's my rant for the day. I know it's been a while since I've posted. I just don't often think of a subject I consider worth posting about. So I'm off now. Peace, Love, and Happiness,

~M.S.

"You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it."
~Malcolm X

Who's Driving the Car, Now?

2005-03-12T03:15:00.000-08:00

Often times, we analogise being in charge or control of a given situation with being in the driver's seat of a car. I've been reading a number of articles recently on the issue of discrimination (be it real or imaginary), and the thought occured to me: who is most guilty of discriminating against a group of peoples in the United States today? So... rather than start shouting "Oh! I'm the only one who's EVER been discriminated against!" as so many of the groups in some of these articles seem to be doing; I thought I might compile a list of alleged discriminations, redress them as best I am able, and come to a conclusion on who really suffers most under the lash of discrimination, at the end of the article.

We'll start with the most often used (and accused) form of discrimination: racial/ethnic discrimination. While many cases of actual discrimination amongst people not of the same ethnicity as one another may exsist in the United States, it is not nearly so rampant as some would like you to believe.

[A point of interest in this: while minorities have, for many years, been insisting that the police single them out as suspects in crimes, recent data released by the Harris County Police Department states that, of all arrests made in 2004, 34% were black, 33% were white, and 31% were latino (with the remaining 2% being smaller minorities in Texas). This contradicts the claims of discrimination there, but lets not get sidetracked. ]

Nor has it been completely eliminated, as some others may like you to believe. Rather, the majority of racial descrimination that does still exsist has done one of two things, as a general rule. It has either:

1- Continued in the form of a stereotype. This form is on the rise, dramatically. (i.e. african-american people are atheletes, arab-american people own convenience stores, latino-american people are in gangs, etc. etc. etc.) There's an impossibly high number of stereotypes to keep track of. And I suspect that everyone is, at some point, guilty of desciminating against another person through stereotypes.

-or-

2- Moved to a more intimate setting. These are fanatics we all know and despise for their desciminatory beliefs. Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Black Book, the American Nazi Party, and the Black Panthers all come to mind. And yes, I do view the KKK and the Black Panthers as being on the same tier of racial descimination. Basically, they started out as a group adbicating a particular breed of peace "by any means necessary". But when you use evil means to produce a result, you become evil yourself. (old addage: "You dance with the devil, the devil don't change. The devil changes you)

While these groups and their hatred usually stay underground (which is the best we can hope for, since we can't destroy them completely) infrequently a act of hatred will again draw the national eye to them once again. The most recent that I can think of at 5:45 am is the dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. Because of these infrequent "uprises" national news would have us believe this form of discrimination is on the rise, rather than in recession as it more that likely is, and shall remain.

I'll pause here to comment this: I know there are many of you out there who, if you should read this, will want to yell at me about how you've been discriminated against due to your race/creed/gender/age. I ask you to remember, I never said it didn't happen. Only that its not as common as many would have us believe.

Now on to a very touchy sub-topic of racial/ethnic descrimination. Anti-white male. Even sounds funny, doesn't it? When I say this, you all probably know to what I am refurring: affirmative action. I'm all for people being treated equally reguardless of race/creed/gender but affirmative action hinders that. To say that a buisiness must have a certain percentage of minority employees (once it has more than 20 employees, it has to abide by these "rules") in order to recieve government benefits, is to taint the very ideal of "equality" affirmative action was designed to prevent. Basically, my point of view on this is that it has served its purpose and now needs to be either rewritten, or scrapped alltogether.

Onwards to another old form of descimination: sexism. Descrimination based on gender used to be a rampant, and horrible thing for women to deal with. As little as 80 years ago, the "seen but not heard" rule was still in widespread use here in America. But sense then, it (and many other rules like it) has been shattered by women's libbers. And kudos to them for it. And, having given some serious thought to the issue, I've decided that they're just about done. I suppose women still don't play professional football. But in all honesty, I think that's more then likely because.... well.... they just don't want to. I suppose again they aren't allowed in calvary units in the armed forces. But I suspect that will change in the near future, if a woman decides she wants it to. And here's the big one. The only one that will ever quiet the waters of sexual descrimination: a female president. This is something I fully expect to see within my lifetime. (I'm not saying I'd vote for her... but I usually don't vote for "main party" candidates anyways).

Stereotypes about sexes are also still around. But they're not nearly so bad as racial stereotypes, when it comes down to it. Women are bad drivers. Men are all horn dogs. their generally untrue, and (while widely stated) are not widely believed in the modern day.

Before I move on to my next section, I have a gripe about descrimination against men: my car insurance is 4 times that of my sister. I have no accidents, and not tickets on my record. She has 2 accidents, and 4 tickets on hers. So why is my insurance higher? I'm a man. Now there's descrimination for you, folks.

Moving on. The next step goes hand in hand with my personal gripe against insurance companies: ageism. While this term is usually used to describe descrimination against the elderly (a descrimination that occurs all to often in my opinion. Just think on the stereotypes that come to mind when you hear the words "80 year old") I'm inclined to apply it to a different group alltogether: 18-25 year olds. Yes I know, I lose a certain amount of objectivity because this is the group I'm part of. But I find myself under a cornucopia of stereotypes as a young male. I'm classified as violent, sexist, and foolish; because of my age. I know I'm off on a tangeant, but I'm writing this as much to vent as anything else, so I've a right to be on whatever tangeant I like.

Thats a short section, largely consumed by my personal gripe about the only form of descrimination i've been fully exposed to on a personal level.

Due to my belief that I cannot be fully objective in my opinion of descrimination based on sexual orientation, i've opted to leave the section on this out completely. If you want to read about it, go here but keep in mind that this site is blowing the amount of said descimination way out of proportion, as the media tends to do.

On to my last section (not the last type of descrimination, but the last I'm going to list and redress tonight). Descrimination based on belief. In a country founded on belief in religious tolerance, and acceptance, this is one which should, truely, not exsist. And yet it does. And the ACLU is to blame for it, in large part. In the past 20 years, the ACLU has become quite daring in how they willfully seek and destroy any reference to Chrisianity, under the guise of "separation of church and state". What they are forgetting, is that absense of a belief system (aka religion/church) is itself a belief system. So, by removing historical landmarks

(such as:
the 10 commandments monument in Mercer County, Kentucky;
the 10 commandments in the Alabama Judicial Building,
or most recently, the bible on display as part of a memorial outside a Harris county civil courthouse)

The ACLU is, in effect, not helping to stop descrimination against a belief system, but is rather helping to spread descrimination against Christianity, and any other religion forced to remove hystorical landmarks, for the sake of someone who wishes not to see them.

I pose a question to you, on the subject of belief based descrimination. why is the minority always right in this situation? Do you supose that, if I were to get a couple of thousand people to say that tall statues were a means of supporting one faith over another, we could get the statue of liberty removed? It may sound absurd, but it really goes along the same lines if you think about it.

My conclusion: yes descrimination exsists. That was never in question. but the group most desciminated against is a odd breed, and one you would not expect. The ones who I feel are most desciminated against are christians. So to answer my question about who's in the drivers seat in America: atheists are (and the ACLU).

I may be wrong. But this is my opinion. You're free to not like it, but do not flame my comments section. Constructive comments are, as always, welcome.

Have a nice night, everybody!
~M.S.

"Sometimes I feel descriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me! How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me."
~Zora Neale Hurston

Nothing to Write Home About

2005-02-14T09:10:00.000-08:00

Well it went neither as good nor as bad as it could have gone. She didn't exactly play the friends card, but my suspicions were verified and she is seeing someone in a long distance relationship. But the impression I got from her was that she was impressed I had worked up the courage to ask her out, and I think she views me in a different light. Plus the friendship is still intact, and that's always a good thing.

I kept it very casual the whole time, and when she couldn't think of anything to say I just said "well it isn't as though we're mourning the death of anything here" and chuckled, and after that things were back to normal. I still think there's a possibility for a relationship here, but not right now. Plus I think I may have planted the "seed" of possibility in her mind, so maybe she'll give a relationship with me some more serious thought and who knows what the future may bring.

For now, I'm happy to count her among my friends, if nothing else (again... fow now XD)
Man... I'm just the eternal optimist today, aren't I?

~M.S.

"Once more into the breach, dear friends. Once more."
~William Shakespeare, Henry V

Once More into the Wind.

2005-02-08T04:57:00.000-08:00

Well I figured that since pretty much no one reads this blog, aside from 1 or 2 friends, it would be a safe place to vent a little to try to get a couple of things off my mind.

Basically I'm nervous as *tries to think up a clever analogy.... fails.* hell let's just say I'm really really nervous and it's just no damned fun. I'm nervous because I have to ask this girl from my Psychology class out on Valentines day (I "have" to because I decided if I couldn't do it then, I probably never could) and that's LESS THAN A WEEK AWAY now. Lol. I sincerely hope that the female readers of this blog (all 2-3 of you) can understand how much mental stress the prospect of asking a woman out puts on a guy. Its down-right scarey to put oneself out there like that, to be perfectly honest.

Especially when there's the possibility of them pulling the "friend" card. I loathe and despise the term "just be friends". To that end, I'm already "friends" with her, and frankly I want more out of the relationship, so I'm honestly not sure if her pulling the "friends" card would depress me, or just piss me off. I'm sure that wouldn't help the situation, but that's just how much I hate the "friends" card (if my bitterness doesn't give me away; I've had that "card" used on me acouple of times before and it SUCKED)

Oh well..... nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

I'll put up a post on Velentines Day one way or the other and let you curious people know how it went.

Bai.
~M.S.

"To do anything truly worth doing, I must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in with gusto and scramble through as well as I can."
~Og Mandino

New Layout!

2005-01-15T01:30:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of link 1, I have a new layout. I think it's a rather drastic improvement. However, it's very late at night so I'm not going to go into too much detail. I'll try to post again later. Enjoy the layout. It was a pain in the arse. Literally. *has been sitting in the same less than comfortable chair for too long*

Night all.

~M.S.

"Only enemies speak the truth. Friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty."
~Stephen King, The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger

Um.... cheese!

2005-01-14T20:20:00.000-08:00

"The pen is mightier than the sword, and considerably easier to write with."
Todays title was too long so I posted it down here and changed it up there. It is courtesy of Marty Feldman.

Not much on my mind tonight, but I thought I should send out a post to let everyone know that, yes I'm still alive and well.... in spite of those of you spreading rumors about my untimely demise *eyes Mar mistrustfully.... lol*

What to say, oh what to say.... I got my apartment.... not sure if I had it at the time of my last post.... whenever that was. Probly didn't, cuz ever sense I moved to it, I lost internet access and I just got it back tonight for the first time. SO I have my solitude.... it's nice but to be perfectly honest my natural cynicism is sneaking in and making me just a bit paranoid some nights. I may end up having to hmmmm.... how do I put this without ticking off my peaceful canadian friends.... ah I know... I may have to excersize my second ammendment right.... maybe that'll throw you off enough not to know what the hell that means.... *whistles innocently*

Anyways.... I hope everyone out there's having a good night.... I'll try to think of something more important to say tomorrow and I"ll come back and post it then.... toodles all.... peace love and MANY wheels of cheese *drools* (can anyone say "random thought"?).

Ciao.
M.S.

"Without education, we are in a
horrible and deadly danger of taking
educated people seriously."
-- G.K. Chesterton

"Cocaine is God's way of saying you're making too much money."

2004-12-02T08:08:00.000-08:00

Okay to start off with, that's a quote by Robin Williams.... I know I usually only put quotes at the end, but don't be scared there's still a real thinker down there for your pleasure. Plus that ones really funny. XD

I think for a change I'll go back to my first entry and try to actually speak my piece on some world issue. Or at LEAST something beyond my own thoughts, which have so dominated my last few entries.

Which issue, you might ask? How about.... the value of meditation. Yes, there's something I can honestly say goes beyond my own thoughts. Or at least goes into other people's as well. I've been a practicioner of zazen meditation (a Buddhist practice, usually; even though I am most decidedly christian) for about 2 years now, and I can honestly say there is NOTHING better than the introspection a hour or so of good meditation can give you. The perspective on your own life you gain is more astounding than even the amount of tranquility you feel when you're done.

Okay so I've told you how good I think it is. Try it for yourself. I'ma go ahead and give a (VERY) basic walkthrough on how you could get started, if the urge strikes you to give it a shot. If you don't wanna know, just scroll down to me cool quote at the end, and have a nice day XD.

In Zazen, you have no goals. You can sit anywhere, but a place with few distractions would be good for beginners. Don't look at anything in particular - just emptiness, no need to focus or concentrate on anything.

You should relax your breathing. Don't manage it, let it happen. In your relaxation, it will become natural. Let your body remain motionless. You can sit on a pillow or use a bench, whatever helps, but once you settle, remain immobile, because if the body doesn't move the mind will gradually fall silent.

When you practice Zazen, do not try to stop your thinking. Let it stop by itself. If something comes to your mind, let it come in, and let it go out. It will not stay long, unless you attach to it.

When you try to stop your thinking, it means you're bothered by it. In Zazen, do not be bothered by anything. It may take quite a while before you find your calm, serene mind in this practice. Many sensations come, many thoughts and images arise, but they are just waves of your own mind.

Usually we think of our mind as receiving impressions and experiences from outside, but that is not a true understanding. Actually, our mind includes everything. Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble. You yourself make the waves in your mind. If you leave your mind as it is, it will become calm. After a few days of practice, you will enjoy it tremendously. You will see layer upon layer start to drop.

Well.... I hope you enjoy your meditation... After my third attempt at it, I was hooked.

" Only in quiet waters do thing mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world"
~Hans Margolius

Light meat, dark meat, and other anomalies...

2004-11-29T11:54:00.000-08:00

Excuse the long while between posts, but I was on a "mini-vacation" over thanksgiving break. Did you miss me? Lol. Well there was definately some good food over thanksgiving.... it's horrible of me to say so, but I didn't miss going to visit my moms side fo the family (something I had done every year since I can remember on Thanksgiving) and I really prefurred spending the break at my Dad's house. (shhh.... don't tell my mom)

Anyways, I got to meet my stepmother's father, and he's a pretty cool guy. 65-years-old and he has two PhDs (a amount of time in school I refuse to comprehend) One in seminary and the other in some science field. He's like "scary" smart. I mean, I like to think of myself as a pretty intelligent guy, but he definately gives me a run for my money, so to speak.

Hmmmmm..... did anything else interesting happen? I guess so.... I found out that next semester I finally get to get my own appartment; and that is just awesome.... no dealing with my family (I'm really not that mean a person, they're just THAT irritating sometimes) or any of their obnoxious friends.... just me and a little solitude and my own place.... I'm excited.

Well.... this is a short post, but I don't care.... you know what they say, no news is good news.

" Who does not thank for little will not thank for much. "
--Estonian proverb

Damnit Jim, I'm a doctor not a fool man!

2004-11-19T13:07:00.000-08:00

Just a quick little post to put up the rough draft of a poem I wrote.... I'm kinda excited because of 2 things. 1- This is the first thing I've written in almost 6 months and 2- I think with a rewrite or two it'll be a pretty damn fine poem, if I do say so myself.

Abandoned Dreams

Abandoned dream
Ghost it seems,
Why keep you in my heart?

Drying dream
Remorse you bring...
To rend my soul apart.

Beneath my feet,
The pavement beats...
Beneath our cold sun's beams...

To remind us all,
Lest we trip and fall,
On the corpses of broken dreams...

Well that's all for tonight. Bye bye everybody! (or maybe only MJ since no one else has even SAID anything.... *sigh*)

"Like all dreamers I confuse disenchantment with truth."
~Jean-Paul Sartre

Do you feel.... like I do?

2004-11-16T10:21:00.000-08:00

A moment of inspiration has struck me. My recent thoughts about life have ultimately led me to the natural end (i.e. death). And I've decided 2 things: 1) I intend to live forever (so far, so good) and 2) if I absolutely MUST die there are a few things I'd like to accomplish first. SO I've decided to list, in no specific order, 20 of them.

Here goes:

1. Base jump the grand canyon (XD)
2. Stand in the eye of a tornado and spit into the wind (really not gonna happen... but wouldn't it just be so damn COOL to do?)
3. Actually see snow falling (more realistic than number 2)
4. Publish something. (could be poetry, or a scientific paper since I'm a chemistry major)
5. Spend a couple of mounths bumming around Europe.
6. Learn to breathe fire.
7. Rescue someone from a burning building. (which I did NOT light on fire with my breath)
8. Say something people will quote me on until long after I'm dead.
9. Get in a bar room brawl (not a fist fight... a full fledged, 8 or more people BRAWL... so long as that's not how I die)
10. Lasso someone like the cowboys do in all those movies. (Just because I'm Texan doesn't mean I have a CLUE how that would be done)
11. Get in a high speed chase. (not to get away from the cops.... just for the adrenaline rush!)
12. Drive a F1 Racer, or a McLaren (super fast! zoom zoom zoom! weeeeeeeeeee....!)
13. Move something with my mind! (there is no spoon... there is no spoon....)
14. Eat shark. (I hate fish, but wouldn't that be cool to be able to say "Yea, I got hungry so I ATE A SHARK!" Bet it tastes like chicken.)
15. Get scared so badly I pass out. (I don't scare that easy, so I think that'd be a real rush, right?)
16. Get in a sword fight to defend "my lady's" honor. (Chivalrous ain't I?)
17. Have some role in a movie (not made for TV, and not some documentary.... a REAL movie.... but ANY role in it.)
18. Go see an actual screening of the Rocky Horror Picture show (Dressed up, audience participation script, and all)
19. Learn to ski, snowboard, AND surf. (I'm gonna hurt myself doing this one..... oh well, I'll live. (XD)
20. Be a millionaire. (it'll happen.... just wait and see... well.... maybe....)

Well that's all for now.... I'll add some more later..... give me some time to think of some plus an idea for a later post. I see M.J. is being nice enough to comment..... as for the REST of you bums... *glares around the metaphysical room accusingly*

"Life is eternal and love is immortal; And death is only a horizon, And a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight. "
~Rossiter W. Raymond

A Dream Within a Dream

2004-11-14T08:10:00.000-08:00

I'm suprised with myself. Shocked, actually (past the suprised marker and on down the road quite a ways). I honestly thought I knew myself a bit better than this. But sometimes, I suppose, a dream can tell us something about ourselve we simply hadn't a clue about.

I suppose I should elaborate, but I think I'll start by stating that this was NOT the personal issue with which I was going to deal last night. This one came from nowhere, and caught me by total suprise.

In any case, last night I had a dream (and a particularly vivid dream at that). To spare you the details, which to be perfectly honest have already begun to fade from my mind the way dreams often do, in this dream I had a child. MY child. And something that completely shocked me about that was that, while I've never stopped to think about a serious relationship (much LESS having a child) when I woke up, I found that I had the most intese yearning I've ever had in my entire life for just that. This raises it's own new breed of problems and obstacles (if this is really what I want... I just don't know, and that scares the hell out of me) most notably the fact that I'm in school and have no time for it, and I'm not in a relationship right now. While I know that this is a bit like putting the cart before the horse, it is simply the depth of "yearning" I felt which compels me to think about this so deeply (which, as I said before, I had never [EVER] stopped to think about before).

I suppose the thing which inspired this troublesome dream is that my sister recently had a child. My nephew. And while I'm as loving an uncle as I can be, it has rather forcefully reasserted the wall that devides fatherhood from every other male role in a child's life. And my guess would be that it was this wall that caused this dream.

Anyways, I suppose this bears some further thinking out. I think writing it down will at least get it off my mind for a while.

You know, when I made this blog the other day, I wasn't sure I'd be able to come up with enough "ammo" to keep it up and running for long. I guess I was wrong there.

"No lower can a man descend than to interpret his dreams into gold and silver"
~Kahlil Gibran

Here There be Dragons

2004-11-13T23:32:00.000-08:00

So it's 1:30 in the morning here. I should probably get some sleep but it's just not happening yet. Sometimes thoughts strike out at me and refuse to leave me be until I jot them down, or (more usually) debate them in my own mind until I become so numb I can fall asleep anyways.

On tonight's agenda are two things, one a general rant and the other more of a personal problem. So, which would you like to hear first? General rant? Okay the rant it is. (say THAT 3 times reat fast....)

Imperialism, not pride, goeth before the fall. The roman empire fell to the Germanic tribes because they assumed that the weaker WANTED to live in the same manner as the strong (this should be ringing some bells, but I'll go into that later). Of course this was, basically, forcing their way of life upon those who were "weaker" and, in the end, that caused such a massive amount of hatred towards the roman empire that it collapsed under the weight of it. Lets take this analogy a bit closer to home. To our very own revolution in fact. Did we not rebel against the brittish empire (whom the sun had "never gone down on" at that point) because they were trying to force their way of life upon us, in the form of taxes and the torries who enforced them? Now think for a moment... isn't America playing the same imperialistic role now, as both the Roman and English empires did in their own time? And it didn't work for either of them, so if we continue along this path can we really expect it to work any better for us?

Okay, well I got that out of the way so now on to my personal problem, which seems somehow smaller after that, so I'm not sure how much detail I'll go into about it. Actually.... I don't think it warrants telling at all, now that I think about it. It's nothing that won't resolve itself without me stating it, and I should really get some sleep.

"To all, to each , a fair good night,
And pleasing dreams, and slumbers light."