A Particularly Uninspired Blog

Tonight I am not particularly inspired to be writing a blog, which I feel makes me particularly uninspired. Nonetheless, I have sat down here to write a blog in the hopes that inspiration will strike me once more with its glorious, epiphanous self, across any surface of my body, so long as it ultimately leads to me starved brain. I'm having a particularly bland semester thus far, although the blandness tastes so much better than the harsh, brutal, bitter agony and despair that came with last semester. College is different somehow; even having done very little work last semester it still surpassed any of the minor inconveniences of high school life a hundredfold. It's a matter of getting used to, I've concluded. A trifle more work, yes, but that's all about habit. Granted, it's a habit I have to re-forge, one I lost long ago in the distant days past of my sophomore year in high school. This semester brings me classes that so far are more interesting (even IEA, the purported bane of every engineering major's existence, seems more enjoyable than anything I took last semester, with the obvious exception of Life's Easiest and Most Trivial Class, Living in Cyberspace; I shan't go there now), applicable, and thus far learnable. Still, unless I go on to teach a class in differential equations, I find it unlikely that the majority of what I'm learning in that field will ever come back to me later in life. They say that everything involves math, and they're bloody well right. Except for English and History majors, of course. Those fine folks don't have to deal with the gruesome horror of endless manipulations ofnumbers and variables, simplifications, substitutions, and crunching that lead to a final, slightly relieving result. But as the cycle goes, even that result becomes part of a larger, never-ending, infinitely nested monster function that accounts for the whole of Life, the Universe, and Everything. We haven't gotten to the ultimate level of that function yet. But anyway, my point is that it never fails to surprise me just how often that math I thought I would never see again returns from the shadows to bite me in the butt, chew, spit, and laugh an evil laugh. I curse math. I'm tired of math, or at least traditional math. I want something that's at the same time both more concrete and more abstract. I want something of substance that I can really use to further my life. I don't want to solve for y in terms of x. I don't want to know the mass of an object if it has a weight of 600 pounds at 2,000 feet above the surface of the Earth.

What do I want? Well for starters I want to be right. I want to be right about everything. I want to have all the answers. I want people to ask me questions that I can provide with a satisfactory, informative response. I want to disprove the idea of human influence on global warming (that's one of my hot topics). I want to entertain people, but in doing so have enough of a background to provide valid and accurate information. I want to support the people who are right and satire the people who are wrong. I want to watch imaginative, intriguing movies again, ones that aren't based off of a book or a true story, or twisted remakes of old classics, or senseless, vulgar humor. I want to experience the sadly declining and increasingly untapped pool of human creativity. I want to be a part of that pool, adding my two (or more) cents, from which people can draw a deeper appreciation for their own lives.

I pretty much want to convert the world. I don't like where it is right now. Human civilization is in the middle of a massive, distressing decline. Values and principles are blurred. Everything is viewed as relative; the concepts of absolute truth are totally lost on the people of today. Good and evil are subject to the whims of the individual. Anarchy is the underlying desire of the average human, freedom to do as they please without the restraints of responsibility or consequence. No one wants to think anymore. Spoon feeding is much easier, much more convenient to the modern way of life. The English language is declining, becoming increasingly riddled with slang and ambiguity. Words are given new meanings that destroy the original value of what they once stood for. The tendency for those in positions of power to promote agendas that will further their position in life is appalling, but not nearly as appalling as the willingness of the common man to blindly and apathetically surrender himself to the desires of those who are supposed to represent them.

This is what I believe: we've passed our peak. Our time has come and gone. Humanity on the whole, like never before, is on the way out. America is the last in a long line of world powers. When we go, the world will go with us. Everything that America stood for, or was at least intended to stand for, is being dismantled. We are the leaders of the world, but our days are numbered. History is bound to come to a head, likely sooner rather than later. I'm severely disillusioned with the human race.

Alas, it's not over yet. We still have some time. At this point I think there's no turning back, but we aren't quite done. Don't get me wrong: it's not doomsday, but it isn't hard to read the signs. What's going to happen? I sure can't say. We can only really make guesses at this point, but whatever is going to happen, I think I'll know it. I hope I will. I hope everyone else knows too.

Well there's my nugget of joy for the evening. I ended up building some inspiration up just by being sick of math. How about that? I just wonder now, maybe I'm in the wrong place. Maybe I'm studying in the wrong field. I can't really tell if this is just my own doubts or whether I'm sincerely being led in other directions. I just can't help the nagging feeling that something is just not quite right with me right now. Something feels out of place. I'm sticking with it, though, because even if I do ultimately pursue a different career path than the one I'm on (say, writing for instance), at least what I'm learning now will be valuable knowledge to have. What a burden. I can't begin to try and figure out where I'm supposed to be right now. I just need more time, and time is not something I really have. Despite my only having lived less than a third of an average life span, I'm smack dab in the middle of the most important part. What I do now will indelibly determine what I become for the rest of my life. The majority of my existence depends on these years that I'm living right now. I just don't want to waste that.

I don't know what to do now. This is the second serious blog I've written in a row. That kind of worries me, but on the other hand maybe its just a progression to the next stage. Am I to become an electronic journalist? Maybe. Am I going to author best-selling books? I would certainly love to. I don't feel like thinking about it anymore. I can't possibly determine the course of my life tonight. I don't honestly think I can determine it even over the next three years. Ultimately, though, everything will work out the way its meant to be. For you who are still with me at this point, thanks for enduring this non-fictionalized rant. That's all for now.

The End

An Intense Self Discussion

While doing the dishes I had a pretty in-depth discussion with myself (inside my head of course) that brought me to some interesting levels of understanding. Lately I've been doing lots of reading and arguing about global warming, which I won't argue here, but I realized some key things. Namely this: science is not religion, religion is not science, and politics don't belong in either of the two.

First off, I'm a "young earth" creationist. What that means is that I believe in creation by God, rather than evolution. There are two commonly accepted beliefs these days, which are both evolution, one the so-called theistic evolution, or the "science and religion can coexist," and then just plain evolution, or "chaotic systems are cooler than God." For the latter, it's just another good reason to take God out of the picture entirely. Fine, if that floats your boat. I can't force anyone to any kind of religious beliefs. The former, though, is a cop out. It's a compromise. The point of religion is not to take what you like and leave what you don't. That's not really faith. Christianity is a package deal. You can't just pick and choose things to believe. This is a distinct difference, mind you, from the interpretation of the Bible. So many people cling to the idea that the Bible can't be understood. Granted, some of it is more difficult to understand, but let me establish exactly what the Bible is: a history book. That's it. Now tell me, when you read a history book, do you expect to find the use of metaphors to describe events? Of course not. The point of history books is to give facts. A history book is designed to tell a story; that is, an unembellished, untampered story, grounded in fact. And there, folks, is what the Bible is: the ultimate history book.

Don't get me wrong, the Bible is full of metaphors and imagery and other such devices that add more meaning to what would otherwise be a list of bullet points. This is where it becomes important to establish where the Bible is metaphorical and where it isn't. I'm sure I'm not the first one to realize this, but I realized it, like an epiphany. The literal parts are the parts that tell a story. Everything that is part of the history that fills the Bible is given straight to us. The parts that are metaphorical are the prophecies and the advice sections. The parables, visions, dreams, and proverbs are metaphorical, but don't confuse them with the historical texts. Interpretations of prophecies and such becomes a separate issue, but that's along a different line than the one I want to travel.

My main point (which actually leads to my mainer point) in all of this is: Genesis is one of the history books in the Bible. Once again, I can't force anyone to any sort of faith, but if you're going to profess belief in the Bible, at least believe in what it really is. The first chapter of Genesis is a list that effectively says "God did this. Then God did this. Then God said this..." and so on. That is fact, at least in terms of the faith. As a follower of this faith, I accept it as universal truth. Anyone who does not follow this faith can disagree that it's universal truth, but they can't argue that within the context of the religion, it's simply and undeniably true. There is nothing to be interpreted about Genesis, nothing to be understood, any more than there is to be understood about 2+2=4.

And here is the mainer point. As Genesis is history, everything that is written there should be treated as fact. Let me remind you, the Bible is written by humans. The "seven days may actually be thousands or millions of years, because God is outside of time" argument doesn't work. If the Bible were written by God, maybe you could say that. It's not. The Bible is written by humans. It's inspired by God, yes, but the hands that physically wrote the Bible were those of men. Divine inspiration really has nothing to do with the ultimate interpretation of the text. God said what to write down, and said it in terms that humans would understand. Tell me: would it make any sense at all for God to tell humans to write a book designed to be read by humans that was written in God's terms? Think about it; it really doesn't make any sense at all. Therefore I conclude that the seven day creation is absolute truth, and should be for anyone who professes faith in God. And that's why I say "theistic evolution" is a compromise. Compromising on faith is never a good thing.

"Theistic evolution" gives God the back seat to the physical laws of nature. Think about it: God causes, say, the Big Bang, and establishes fundamental laws of nature. From there, he just sits back and enjoys the show while life "evolves." God leaves the earth alone...until man "evolves," at which point it becomes hands on again. Tell me why that makes any sense.

Here's the deal: God creates the universe, the laws of physics, the earth, all life as we know it, and finally humans. Humans are the peak of creation, the final point. That's why creation ended there. It was all done. God created beings capable of appreciating Him of their own free will, and that's all there was to do. Well, one of the major important points of all this is that God is behind science. God is behind physical laws and the organization of life. Evolution and God effectively cancel each other out. In the case of evolution, God becomes pointless. In the case of God, evolution makes no sense, as I've spent time pointing out.

Let me point out a formal logical flaw in the "theory" of evolution: All life forms are fundamentally similar implies they evolved from a common ancestor. Let me take this in terms of a p-->q statement. All life forms are fundamentally similar: p. All life forms evolved from a common ancestor: q. The only case in which a p-->q statement is false is if it takes the form T-->F, in other words the premise is true, but the conclusion is false. That statement becomes false when: All life forms have are fundamentally similar implies they did not evolve from a common ancestor. The problem is that all life forms evolving from a common ancestor is only one possible explanation for fundamental similarities. They may have fundamental similarities because they were created that way (think: progression of complexity; for instance, all cars are fundamentally similar, but that doesn't mean for instance that they evolved from bicycles. Man creates bicycles, and progresses upwards in complexity to cars, airplanes, space shuttles, etc.), in which case fundamental similarities doesn't imply evolution. In other words, you can't go from general to specific. The statement "All life forms evolved from a common ancestor, therefore they are fundamentally similar" is logically sound, because the premise can never be true while the conclusion is false.

I didn't come here to debate evolution originally, so I've gone off on sort of a tangent. What I want to establish is that, very similar to the "science" of today, religion (from my point of view, Christianity) is politicized to a ridiculous point. Neither should be politicized at all. Politics is about selling people on an issue, because opinions vary so widely. Science is about facts. It shouldn't be necessary to convince people of science based on a consensus. Religion is about faith, and needs to be taken in much the same way science is: things are because they are, period. 2+2=4. End of story. My self discussion tread briefly through the realm of separation of church and state, because that's a fine example of a clever political twist on religion, specifically Christianity. The idea behind what Thomas Jefferson was referring to was preventing the a national church; that is, preventing a religious body that had political tangibility. The church as an organization should have no direct influence on the political process. Don't, however, mistake that for personal faith. Banning God from the political arena and banning the church from the political arena are two grossly different things. The kind of entity that the Catholic church became during the previous thousand years was exactly what Jefferson sought to avoid. That does not by any means imply that our government was not founded on top of Christianity. Separating church and state doesn't mean eliminating any shred of the Christian faith from public schools, courts, the Pledge of Allegiance, etc. Separation of church and state does NOT mean separation of God and state. We need to be clear on that.

I guess the whole point of this rant is this: keep your science, politics, and religion straight. Science does not determine God; God determines science. Politics belong in the legal process only. Politics involve manipulation, and we don't need that cluttering up the straight facts of science and the straight faith of any religion.

That's about all I've got for now. I would just like you to realize that I came to all of these conclusions through strings of logic, in my own head, all my own ideas. Try thinking through from point A to point B some time. It's really enlightening.

The End

Fun With Hydraulics!

Alright, it was effing COLD today. What ever happened to global warming? Huh?! I COULD USE SOME GLOBAL WARMING RIGHT NOW! Highs in the teens tomorrow? What the freak is that? I thought the world was going to melt or something. Gosh, I mean it snowed this morning. It actually bloody snowed! At any rate, in order to be even remotely comfortable, I had to wear a fleece thingy (jacket? I don't really know what it's called), a hoodie, a down coat, and leather gloves. I'd go so far as to say it was disturbingly cold. Then again, when it comes to low temperatures, I'm about as much of a pansy as they come. I hate cold. What I hate even more is a lack of heat. And when the sun is shining brightly (which I almost just spelled "britefully" before catching myself being fooled) and it's still frigging cold, I can't help feeling like someone out there in the cosmos is trying to spite me.

That wasn't really what I sat down to write about. I figured I might make a mention of the notable shift in weather over the past, say, 48 hours. But what I actually wanted to deal with in this post is my near death experience in a parking lot early this afternoon.

Okay, I made slight use of hyperbole there, I will admit. I didn't actually come anywhere near death, nor did anyone else that I noticed. I suppose, though, that it was providential that I decided that I needed a cheap-o-depot watch from Wal-Mart, because otherwise a crisis may just have ensued. See, as I was pulling into the parking lot at Wal-Mart, the loveliest of lovelies occurred. That's right, my brake line blew, and I was left with naught but the faintest ability to stop the car. That part was slightly unnerving, but here's the real killer: I walked into Wal-Mart and couldn't for the life of me remember what it was I came to buy. It was bugging me, but I ended up cruising out of the store and dialing up my house on a pay phone to tell the maternal parental unit that I was lacking brakes and less than able to get back to school for my next class. During the ensuing non-chaos (I sat in the car for a while just staying warm, waiting for a tow truck and a ride back to school), I managed to locate my old watch in my coat pocket, and thus remembered what it was that I was going to buy. Of course, at that point I no longer needed to buy a watch, so the trip was for nothing. I sincerely don't know what I would have done had my brakes gone out whilst on the highway. What an adventure.

In other news, today was the first day of classes, so naturally I went to class. Here I found that Engineering Processes is a metal workshop class (in other words, rather exciting because we get to actually do stuff), Intro to Discrete Structures is cancelled for two days because the professor's wife had a baby, Differential Equations has a TA with a really cool accent who seems at least to go over concepts in a good amount of detail, and that getting a ride home from school still sucks.

I was reading the Wikipedia article on V for Vendetta this morning and I discovered that in the original "graphic novel" (the sophisitcated artiste's way of saying "comic book"), the Chancellor's name was Adam Susan. Seriously, what kind of fascist dictator is named Susan? It sounds like a weenie's name to me. For the movie they changed his name to Sutler, which is like a fusion of Susan and Hitler. Anyway, I don't know where I was going with that, but Susan is a really lame last name for a big bad meanie characters like Adam "Adam Sutler" Susan. People should really think before giving characters goofy names.

Oh golly, how could I think about ending this without talking about 24? Well, here's my take: I think it has a freaking gay political agenda this season. I wish they would stop the propaganda crap and bring back the essence of 24: 21 straight weeks of Jack Bauer kicking terrorists' butts all over Los Angeles. I've lost a bit of faith in the man after watching him kill Curtis Manning (truly, truly unnecessary; he could have just shot him in the shoulder or knee, just to disarm him). Even in season 3, when he executed Ryan Chappelle (who I didn't like) I thought he shouldn't have done it, but at least then they bought some time. I firmly believe that CTU is totally crippled now as far as field operations go. Curtis Manning was absolutely the man when it came to executing intensely risking and dangerous missions. Who does Jack have now? No Tony, no Curtis, no Edgar even. 24 is going to heck, and fast. If they could just manage to kill off Kim somehow...she's nothing but trouble.

Ah well. That pretty much concludes today's episode. I bid all of you a good week, and for those of you who I won't ever see again, a good life. Have fun having fun without me, whilst I toil away endlessly in classes.

The End

2006: A Year in Review

I haven't written since November of 2006, which considering the new year and all was a beastly long time ago. Granted, nothing of immense significance has happened really, but I figure I can at least scrounge up something considering there is an entire year that just passed away into history, and the dawning of a brand spanking new one. I can't possibly remember every little fine detail about 2006, but I would count it overall as a successful year. So, folks, a year in review:

Well 2006 was pretty much the first year of my life. It was the year that kicked off the second semester of my senior year in high school, which is noteworthy as heck because that's when I no longer had to care about high school. I got into all the colleges I applied to, none of which were exceptionally challenging, considering my grades and the rather undeserved reputation CBA has, so I had little real work to worry about, save the AP Calculus exam. Even that didn't worry me in the least, because calculus was probably my strongest subject in all of high school. I missed having a 100 average for the year because I mistakenly dropped a negative sign (it had to do with odd exponents, which allow for a number to be negative) and lost a solitary point. Thus, my 99 on the midterm marred an otherwise perfect game in calculus, but I got over it pretty easily. Even AP English was nothing to worry about, because at that point in my life I knew oh-so-well how to work the system and cater towards english-y type people. The point is, there was nothing to worry about that semester, save maybe how many times Chris was able to destroy me in Pirates (back when my fleet was frustratingly small and impotent). I also participated in the 2006 CBA musical, Guys and Dolls, which was a major turning point in my life because, among other things, I managed to find myself a girlfriend. This, of course, would be none other than my first girlfriend (that is, my first dating-type relationship), which at the time I still considered to be rather stupid. Coming off of some four years of decidedly disowning the female gender, all of the sudden finding myself attracted to girls was just slightly odd. That particular venture didn't last long, but was at least a stepping stone in my dynamic life. The rest of the school year was easy, similar to sledding down a hill in one of those snow tubes. It required shockingly little effort, provided enough bumps to be amusing, and went slightly faster than I would have liked. Somehow I found myself graduating and commencing the longest summer vacation of my life.

Ah yes, summer vacation, two months of noooooooooooothing followed closely by allofthesuddengoingouteverysinglenightanddoinglotsoffunstuff! I remember that as the beginning of what might possibly be called a social life. I honestly don't know what I did before I all of the sudden had friends to see every single day. A monster was birthed that summer, and it looked a lot like me, except that it went to bed much later and slept in a lot longer. By this point, that monster was once again single (an exciting prospect, to be sure), and only slightly worried about the female gender. Back then I wasn't really about to go back to disregarding their existence entirely, because they counted for a pretty large part of my life. Ultimately, it turned out that I was as far from disowning them again as possible, because I wound up falling for yet another one of their numbers. This relationship, however, is still alive to this day (knock on wood), and so I find myself once again enamoured with the prospect of the existence of another, opposing species (yes, I believe that women are actually a separate species), or at least one among their number. I still can't say for certain that I'm a fan of women, but I daresay I won't go there in this increasingly verbose piece of bloggery.

When summer was over, I was left with: COLLEGE! The first semester of college was exciting for me for roughly two days. After that it was just toil, drudgery, and otherwise painful experiences, followed by classes and tests. I dragged myself through that first semester, though, and I might just be a better person because of it. On the other hand, I might not. But at least I learned how to write a for loop in C++. And that, my friends, is all that really matters, right? It was something of a journey of self discovery, which led me to a conclusion: I don't think I'm ever going to stop being really lazy, unless something really manages to hold my interest, with an iron grip capable of strangling even the largest of necks. If I could be a professional blogger, I think my life would fall into place really nicely. Alas, I don't think anyone hires bloggers yet. Maybe someday they will realize that this is my true worth and will bring me on full time, but until then I guess I can be an engineer. As a side note, I'm increasingly uncertain as to what engineers really do. Maybe I'll find out when I graduate college, unless I've already morphed into an EMAC or business major by then.

Christmas break of 2006 was pretty much the biggest relief of my whole life. I can't compare it to any other experience I've ever had. The idea of having an entire month free, with no classes or homework or tests or people to answer to, was so exciting that I did the only thing I could possibly think of doing: nothing. I spent a month doing just about nil, until my ridiculous social life kicked in at about 10 each night, dragging me along until some wee morning hour, when I got into bed and slept until 1 the next afternoon. On the one hand, I felt mega lazy, but on the other I felt like I deserved this particular joy, so I kept doing it. I spent a month doing just this, and now here I am, the day before classes start for the second semester, brooding about having to start school again.

Believe me when I say this review was by no means all inclusive. I left out a heck of a lot of details. So hecking much, in fact, that you might be able to fill 300 pages with them using Times New Roman size 8 font. And small margins. But it's okay, because anything I left out was mostly to protect the innocent (me) and even the not-so-innocent. Well, maybe not so much to protect the not-so-innocent as to not give them the satisfaction of mention in my blog, because it is mine after all, and I am by no means required to write about people that don't deserve to be here. At any rate, 2006 passed away in a blaze of glory, marked by a pretty boss New Years shindig (which I called and will continue to call a party). Here we are, all of us that remain alive on Earth, in the year 2007, rapidly hurtling towards impending doom at the hands of global warming, nuclear winter, a meteorite similar in size and magnitude to the one that destroyed the dinosaurs all those years before we humans came about as a result of the pitifully slow evolutionary process, the depletion of the ozone layer and subsequent scorching of the surface of the planet by that monster of a sun, and most of all Republicans. Right, that last bit was facetious in its entirety, as it reflects a variety of subject which I place absolutely no portion of my beliefs in.

Right now I've been completely exhausted of any useful topics, save maybe a few pondrances, two of which deal with why we use the word "sleeping" as a polite way of denoting sexual intercourse, and the widespread phenomenon of girls referring to other girls as "lovers." I, for one, am tired of the debasement of such fine words in this fine English language. I mean heck, the words "gay" and "queer" were once respectable words in their own right, but now are only two more of the many words thath describe homosexuals. I think tomorrow morning I'm going to pick a random word and attribute it to something completely unrelated. That way I can contribute in my own way to the revolution of language. Be wary, folks; one day you might use a word, and the next you'll wake up to find that it has become some kind of vulgar slang.

Well, it's the last day of vacation. There's just no avoiding it. Tomorrow it's back into the daily "grind," and it is going to be especially grindy this time around since I have 8 o'clock classes every day, except of course Fridays, when I have a glorious day off every week. Scheduling is wondrous. Which, of course, reminds me that last night was the 2007 CBA Military Ball. I didn't get to go this year, naturally, being a freshman in college, but I really think it would behoove them to allow alumni to go to these events. Too bad no one ever listens to me, and also too bad that in the event I would have been able to go, my date would have been in Massachusetts anyway, so it would be no good. I guess I'll try again next year.

On that note, and one more, I guess I'll end this. I was just musing that I would like to see Gerard Way play the Phantom of the Opera, simply because he has a vocal range that would suit the part. I'd also say, based on music video performances, that he's a pretty good actor, so all around the experience would be pretty interesting. So yeah, if anyone with the necessary means to do so is reading this, get Gerard Way into a show to play the Phantom. I would pay to see it. Peace out piggies, and may the new year bring all of your wildest dreams to fruition.

The End