Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Other blog sites

     Just putting a quick post up here.  I started 3 other blogsites.  As I mentioned in my previous post I didn't always want to post quotes and perhaps I wanted to do other stuff.  So I created a site for reviews, a site for random stuff, and a site for current events.  I haven't really posted on 2 of them yet, and only have 1 post up on the random blog.  In fact, since I haven't posted on 2 of the others I haven't even formatted them yet.  But there is a post over at the random blog at comeonstealme4.blogspot.com the other sites are comeonstealme2.blogspot.com and comeonstealme3.blogspot.com I will probably post on all my sites if I update on any of them just for the ease of it.  So people will know where to go if I say I have a new blog up.

-J

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Unsure

     I've been going through a moment where I'm unsure as to how I want this blog to go.  Obviously you are looking for quotes when you come here.  But I have other ideas that sometimes I want to post about and I don't want to post about them on this blog.  In the days coming I will figure out a way to perhaps create multiple blogs on the same name so that you can view my other options.  Some days I do not have time to read, nor do I want to for some reason and so I don't have a good quote to write about.  However I have something else to maybe write about.  Perhaps a current top news story where I could write about informative stuff pertaining to that story and perhaps offer my opinion on the matter, maybe a video game or movie review, or something else.  I've had occurrences over the past few days where I wanted to blog about something that wasn't a quote and I didn't because  I didn't want to put it on this blog. 
     Sadly, I've been wanting some sort of guidance from my readers because I thought that would help.  However, I'm not sure if it would.  You see, I myself have many ideas.  Sometimes I just wonder if I should actually write them down period.  Not to mention show them to the public.  I think I will though.  What's the harm honestly?  A person can truly be themselves online while not being themselves.  Have you ever come across someone that treats you poorly online?  It's because they can be crude without repercussion.  They don't have to think about what the other person thinks, and honestly they don't even have to read any responses as to what they say.  The internet allows people to post cynical things and literally not feel any remorse for the person they are saying it to.
     Think about it.  Have you ever had something posted online against you?  I bet that other person had no idea what your face looked like or the emotions you felt.  What about some random person?  The literacy of the news world constantly slanders peoples' names without regard to who they might actually be or how they might actually feel.  The distance between someone can make it easier to post bad things about them.    Instead of messaging something about someone, or posting it on Facebook, or some other medium other than just saying it to someones face, does that make it easier?  Because you don't have to deal with a response, or the actual feelings of the other person?
     Now mind you, nothing has happened to me to make me post this.  These are just random thoughts coming through my mind.  As my fingers tap onto a keyboard and produce the words.  I also shall now apologize for spelling/grammatical errors.  Mostly just grammatical as I'm more math/science based and that side of my brain works more.  This post in itself probably has 85 run-on sentences and other such grammar mistakes. 
     I apologize if any of this seems out of place, again, just randomly typing as words pop into my head.  I'm also sifting through music and doing a few other things as a type.  So that may increase the randomness and incorrectness of my typing.  I'm ending this now.  Feel free to comment on all of my half finished thoughts included in this post and I will gladly finish them for you :-P.  I really am not going to read through this to make sure it makes sense.  So it probably doesn't.  Good night everyone it's 2:30 am!

Currently listening to: "The Real Slim Shady" by Eminem

-J

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

We the people (Kony)

     Today, I am going to write a post that most likely will contain no quotes, but a video full of them.  Normally I don't get caught up in internet stuff, like Rebecca Black (Still haven't seen that video), that annoying kid on YouTube that just mouths the words to songs, or even the dreaded Jenna Marbles.  However, something compelled me today to watch a video entitled 'Kony 2012'.  Now I know what you're thinking, either you don't care to see it, you've already seen it and you still don't care, or you've seen it and you're like "Oh yeah, that video is awesome, I'm totally supporting that cause!"  Whatever your stance I still urge you to continue reading this post of mine.  Before getting much further I'm going to embed the video here for you to watch it.  It's roughly 30 minutes long, and when I watched it that time went by pretty quickly.  If you think watching a 30 minute YouTube video is a big waste of time, I would most often agree with you.  Some clever ideas would be to maybe do a little workout while watching it, make some food and eat dinner, perhaps you could knit or do some other hobby while watching it.  Here we go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc&feature=g-all&context=G245c2c2FAAAAAAAABAA

(After a bit of research I found a very interesting article about this foundation.  Please read this story)
http://lifehacker.com/5891726/how-to-determine-if-a-charity-like-kony-2012-is-worth-your-money

     Okay okay I admit defeat.  I don't know how to embed a video on this blog.  But just copy and paste that link into your most favoritest (of course that was done on purpose!) web browser and watch if you'd like. 

     A few points I'd like to mention about what I got when I watched the video.  I do find Kony's acts very disturbing and yes he should be stopped.  I don't mind that U.S. troops are getting deployed to help make this happen.  I find it very interesting that when you take this situation into account and maybe mix in the whole SOPA and PIPA fiasco's you can notice a few things.  First of all you can notice that because of the internet and newer forms of communication.  The world, and individually the people of the world.  Are able to communicate and gather into masses far quicker and easier than ever before.  So watching this video and knowing what happened to SOPA and PIPA the people stood up to their government and they won.  But why not do this more, perhaps on more pressing issues?  Like our national debt, the fact that we don't get to choose who to vote into office but are handed who the government wants in, or many other things.  I don't aim to rant here, this is mostly informational.

     The video mentions that on 4/20/12 the followers of this cause will stay up all night plastering billboards, stickers, and so on all over the world.  I have a few things to say about this.  As with SOPA and PIPA all that was really required of people was to sit at their computers or on their phones and contact their congressman and state representative.  So will this actually happen?  I hope so, it's time for people to stand up and actually 'do more'.  Not just in these regards, but in life in general.  At work, with your family, for your friends, and for yourself.  Lastly, who is going to clean all this stuff up when it's time for it to come down?  I'm not trying to joke about it, but that is a lot of litter and trash once this movement is done.  Perhaps more media outlets like newspapers, TV, and the internet would be the best to plaster with stuff.  The newspapers would be printed anyway, and there is nothing to throw away when it's just visually on TV and the internet.

     All views and opinions expressed here are that of my own.  I'm standing to my point that I think this is a good cause and that it should get supported.  But as a citizen of this world, you must think to yourself "What else should I be doing?  What else should I be fighting for?"  And that's all I wanted to instill with this post.  That we can do more, and we can change our government and our lives as well as the lives of others.  Now more than ever, and easier than ever to boot.

Currently listening to:  "I'm with you" by Avril Lavigne

-J

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Talking about Nature

     Speaking of nature, I'm still sick :-(.  Anyway it's not the worst thing in the world.  It's forcing me to get up earlier and eat/drink better so I can improve my health.  It's kinda funny how I don't do this as much when I'm not sick but should probably consider it.  I don't know how it is where you live, but here the weather is quite hectic right now.  We go through 2 day periods of a certain temperature then the next 2 days it's either 20 degrees colder or warmer.  I don't think that's helping me, I wish spring/summer was here already.  That's enough rambling from me for now, onto the quote:

     A bit of a precursor might be needed here, so here it goes.  In the paragraph preceding this one the author mentions some of Aristotle's assumptions such as the idea that women had fewer teeth than men, or that a baby would be healthier if it were conceived when the wind was blowing north.

"We must not be too hasty in mocking Aristotle's prejudices.  We have enough of our own, as for example, the equation we moderns make of truth and quantification.  In this prejudice, we come astonishingly close to the mystical beliefs of Pythagoras and his followers who attempted to submit all of life to the sovereignty of numbers.  Many of our psychologists, sociologists, economists and other latter-day cabalists will have numbers to tell them the truth or they will have nothing.  Can you imagine, for example, a modern economist articulating truths about our standard of living by reciting a poem?  Or by telling what happened to him during a late-night walk through East St. Louis?  Or by offering a series of proverbs and parables, beginning with the saying about a rich man, a camel, and the eye of a needle?  The first would be regarded as irrelevant, the second merely anecdotal, the last childish.  Yet these forms of language are certainly capable of expressing truths about economic relationships, as well as any other relationships, and indeed have been employed by various peoples.  But to the modern mind, resonating with different media-metaphors, the truth in economics is believed to be best discovered and expressed in numbers.  Perhaps it is.  I will not argue the point.  I mean only to call attention to the fact that there is a certain measure of arbitrariness in the forms that truth-telling may take.  We must remember that Galileo merely said that the language of nature is written in mathematics.  He did not say everything is.  And even the truth about nature need not be expressed in mathematics.  For most of human history, the language of nature has been the language of myth and ritual.  These forms, one might add, had the virtues of leaving nature unthreatened and of encouraging the belief that human beings are part of it.  It hardly befits a people who stand ready to blow up the planet to praise themselves too vigorously for having found the true way to talk about nature."
~ Neil Postman

   Yes, another long-winded quote.  I guess this simply breaks down to, do we as people know how to talk about nature?  And what forms of language are capable of expressing truths about certain aspects of life?  Are those forms of language changing because of the media we indulge ourselves in? 

Currently listening to: "Killing me softly with his song" by Roberta Flack

-J

Monday, March 5, 2012

Music Monday #1

     Well first off let me apologize for not posting anything yesterday.  Sometimes time slips away from me and I go insane with other things.  I kept rather busy.  But thanks to my loyal fans and perhaps some random people across the internet I still got 9 views on a day I didn't even post anything.  That's awesome and I wanted to thank everyone for that.  Moving forward.  A few days ago I asked what people though about Music Mondays and Whacky Wednesdays.  Unfortunately nobody responded to me on that.  So I'm just going to do what I want and post music lyrics today.  On a side note, I have a cold and I picked up Vicks Nature Fusion cold & flu nighttime relief.  Only get this if you really enjoy honey.  I mean like drinking honey from a bottle/jar/any other drinking device.  It's really thick and kinda gross in my opinion.  I like honey in tea and on some foods, but this is intense honey.  Anyway, onto the quote for the day:

"Am I loud and clear, or am I breaking up?
Am I still your charm, or am I just bad luck?
Are we getting closer, or are we just getting more lost?

I'll show you mine if you show me yours first
Let's compare scars, I'll tell you whose is worse
Let's unwrite these pages and replace them with our own words

We live on front porches and swing life away,
We get by just fine here on minimum wage
If love is a labor I'll slave till the end,
I won't cross these streets until you hold my hand

I've been here so long, I think that it's time to move
The winter's so cold, summer's over too soon
Let's pack our bags and settle down where palm trees grow

I've got some friends, some that I hardly know
But we've had some times, I wouldn't trade for the world
We chase these days down with talks of the places that we will go

We live on front porches and swing life away,
We get by just fine here on minimum wage
If love is a labor I'll slave till the end,
I won't cross these streets until you hold my hand....until you hold my hand

I'll show you mine if you show me yours first
Let's compare scars, I'll tell you whose is worse
Let's unwrite these pages and replace them with our own words

We live on front porches and swing life away,
We get by just fine here on minimum wage
If love is a labor I'll slave till the end,
I won't cross these streets until you hold my hand

Swing life away
Swing life away
Swing life away
Swing life away"
~ Rise Against

I really really love this song.  And most things by Rise Against for that matter.  I feel it speaks pretty loudly although it is a soft rock kind of song.  If you haven't heard it I'd urge you to listen to it while you enjoy reading the words.  Although the song is pretty easy to understand.  I'd also love if people would comment and maybe let me know what they think about this idea for Music Mondays, this song, this band, me, cheetohs, or anything else you might like to talk about.

Currently listening to:  My fingers tap tap tapping on my keyboard!

-J

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Media, good or bad?

     Woo, well it's been a semi-productive day so far.  I just finished filing my taxes, I read and wrote in my journal already.  Now I'm ready to share something with you!  My faithful readers.  This will most likely be a long one today.  As I was reading it I was trying see if I could possibly cut something from the beginning or end and it still make sense as a standalone quote and sadly I could not.  So here it goes:

"Our attention here is on how forms of public discourse regulate and even dictate what kind of content can issue from such forms.
     To take a simple example of what this means, consider the primitive technology of smoke signals.  While I do not know exactly what content was once carried in the smoke signals of American Indians, I can safely guess that it did not include philosophical argument.  Puffs of smoke are insufficiently complex to express ideas on the nature of existence, and even if they were not, a Cherokee philosopher would run short of either wood or blankets long before he reached his second axiom.  You cannot use smoke to do philosophy.  Its form excludes the content.
     To take an example closer to home:  As I suggested earlier, it is implausible to imagine that anyone like our twenty-seventh President, the multi-chinned, three-hundred-pound William Howard Taft, could be put forward as a presidential candidate in today's world.  The shape of a man's body is largely irrelevant to the shape of his ideas when he is addressing a public in writing or on the radio or, for that matter, in smoke signals.  But it is quite relevant on television.  The grossness of a three-hundred-pound image, even a talking one, would easily overwhelm any logical or spiritual subtleties conveyed by speech.  For on television, discourse is conducted largely through visual imagery.  Which is to say that television gives us a conversation in images, not words.  The emergence of the image-manager in the political arena and the concomitant decline of the speech writer attest to the fact that television demands a different kind of content from other media.  You cannot do political philosophy on television.  Its form works against the content." ~ Neil Postman

     What do you all think?  Do you think this is true?  With the presidential election coming up soon do we as Americans put too much emphasis on physical appearance and other such visual things to make our decision.  What about in other points in life?  Friends, family, relationships?  I think it's interesting how things have changed so much.  Think about before writing was even done.  All people had was speech (if not just grunts), drawings maybe, symbols.  We've come a long way as humans.  But are we going the right way?

Currently listening to:  "Give it all" by Rise Against

-J


Friday, March 2, 2012

Some Ideas

     So over the course of yesterday and today I have been thinking about my blog and how all my posts are serious.  To be totally honest I'm sure people could use these types of posts every day but, where is the fun you may ask!  Well I've come up with 2 ideas to maybe lighten the mood around here.  First off I'm thinking of incorporating some silly quotes every once in awhile.  Something clever or witty perhaps.  And, to make my blog a bit more interactive, I would love for my viewers to possibly submit possibilities for these.  If not I'm sure I can find my own funny quote here and there, but I think it'd be fun to see who could win with their quote (Oh and I was thinking of doing these every Wednesday and calling it Whacky Wednesday or something.).  Anyway, that's just one suggestion.  My next thought was to do some musical quotes, because I love listening to music, lots and lots of music!  So I thought to lighten the mood maybe I could take some lyrics from songs I like and post them (Maybe do these every Monday and call them Music Monday's or something like that).  There are my 2 thoughts so far.  Let me know what you think.  As for getting quotes to me for Whacky Wednesday's maybe you could send them to me on facebook, or twitter or something.  I don't know just yet.  But posting them in the comments would cause a few problems.  Number 1, that'd be a lot of comments and I wouldn't want anything to get lost in the shuffle.  And 2, I would want all the submissions to be a secret so when I picked it wouldn't be something that they could have just read in the comments.  Please supply some feedback!

Thanks
-J