H/T Ace of Spades HQ
The good parts begin at 2:00.
It's about a shady huckster selling an "Ism" formula to labor, farmers, industrialists, and politicians. The Ism will take care of you forever. You just have to sign over your freedom.
Heavy handed and corny -- it's an instructional cartoon, after all -- but pretty good.
Jon Stewart, a sometimes funny TV comedian, said during a discussion about torture that Harry Truman was a war criminal for dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 64 years ago. I'm sure that some others today believe, like Jon Stewart, that those attacks were unwarranted. This may be due to their political bent and/or due to their incorrect education about World War II and what led up to those bombings.
If you are one of those people, or if you want to know more about it,
here is a link to a PajamasTV video that proves that Jon Stewart and his ilk are oh-so-wrong about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is the BEST presentation about the need for the atomic bomb attacks I have EVER seen! It is a little long (~17 minutes), but it is worth every second, IMNSHO!
I get to use my iPod at work. It's one of the biggest perks of my job, not just because it gives me an excuse to listen to so many things, but also because the organization leads to interesting finds. Half of what I listen to are podcasts—some just for entertainment, others for information (at least one right in between: NPR's hilarious newscast "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me")—but there are only so many of those, usually released on a weekly basis, and I need at least 6 hours of listening material a day.
There are also audiobooks, and one resource I've heavily mined is Podiobooks.com. These are all released under Creative Commons' licenses, so they aren't works most people are familiar with. But they're free, easily downloadable, and some are quite good and enjoyable ("The Rookie" by Scott Sigler, for instance, despite the atrocious foul language). Eventually I'll run out of those, and have to resort to getting books on CD from the library, but until then these will do.
But some days I have no podcasts, and I'm not in the mood for audiobooks. My brain's worn out, and I won't do the story justice by trying to listen to it when I can't fully focus. So, when it comes to that, I have actual music to listen to. I have various playlists of my favorite songs, sometimes sorted by genre, sometimes just by how much I like them. But, given that they're my favorite songs, they get played a lot at home as well—and I don't want to get tired of them by playing them overmuch at work.
So sometimes I make playlists music that, while it isn't something I'm excited about at the moment, used to be well-loved or favorited. And a couple days ago, I put together a playlist of a few of the whole albums I own. Mostly I buy songs on an individual basis, but I decided to go "traditional" with some albums that I hadn't listened to in a while. Oddly enough, given its eclectic nature, it was the perfect combination of music for how I was feeling that day; it's nice when that works out.
First was the Redding Brothers' album "Physics of Immortality". I only got this because I know the band personally, but it was nice soft rock that was perfect for background music. Next was The Chieftains' album "Further Down the Old Plank Road". More soft music, but a little spunkier, and the homegrown feeling made the rainy day seem brighter. Third was Selah's album "Hiding Place", which had similar qualities to the Redding Brothers in how it made good soothing background music. Last was the perfect kickstart to the end of the day: Within Temptation's album "The Silent Force". This is pure epic music, and after hours of school and work, it pumped me up for the evening. I've forgotten how much I love this style of music, though I never thought I'd say that about Eastern European "gothic rock".
Despite the oddness, I'm probably keeping that playlist. I don't want to listen to it too much and tire it out, though, which means that I probably need to look over next week's playlists...
Overheard at college: "It was a really good book, just not my thing; it didn't have the intensity of 'Pride and Prejudice'."
Considering that my college doesn't offer an English Lit class, I'm really curious about what they were talking about.
(Also, being able to use an iPod Touch to write a couple hundred words while waiting for the bus, or on short bus rides, is really satisying my must-make-the-most-of-every-moment personality side. Sadly, I still don't have much personal to blog about...but I'm not giving up on it just yet.)
Coworker: So, what exactly is martial law?
Me: It's when the military takes over from the normal government during some kind of crisis—you know, like a military coup.
Other coworker: Wait, I thought a coup was poetry?
Me: No, that's a haiku. (sudden impulse to speak that I should have denied) And a haiku-coup is when you take over a government using poetry...
I found this hilarious...
Reminds me of this: http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2009/01/20
I remember seeing the results of a study a while back, about empathy and understanding between the two major political parties. The study involved taking conservatives and liberals, and getting each of them to attempt to get in the other's shoes, mentally imagine themselves on the other side of the spectrum.
The results proved something that I'd picked up through casual observation of the debates: essentially, conservatives could understand why liberals choose their opinions, for the most part, just didn't agree with that line of thought. Most liberals, on the other hand, couldn't comprehend the motivations for conservatives. They simply couldn't understand why anyone would think conservatively.
Aside from giving scientific proof to a previously subjective opinion, the study was food for my thought, because though it gave the facts it did not give a reason why. It's mulled around in the back of my head for months, with my opinion varying slightly as time went by. Until I remembered this quote, and it made it all make much more sense:
"One's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." --Oliver Wendell Holmes
Liberals are open-minded, by their very definition. They accept almost everyone and everything, not just tolerating but usually condoning and welcoming too. There are few things that are off-limits to liberals; everything else is fair game, and they have a myriad of options.
Conservatives, on the other hand, exercise strict self-control. They have a set of beliefs, self-imposed, that govern and limit their choices, and also the choices they accept from others. They are aware of other choices, but choose not to allow them in their morality.
This leads to a simple proof of the above quote. Once a liberal opens his or her mind to all the possibilities of a liberal morality, they can't imagine what it's like to not think that way. They can't put their mind back into the box, no matter how good conservatives say that box is for the mind. It just won't fit, in most circumstances.
Conservatives, on the other hand, can see what it would be like to have a broader morality. It's not as hard to imagine what more moral freedom would be like, because the only reason they don't have it is a personal choice. To exercise self-control, you must know what you are controlling yourself from, and so visualizing the outcome if you didn't is not such a big step.
Which makes the term "open-minded" a little misleading. Many liberals can accept a thousand different beliefs different from theirs as being equally valid, but cannot understand the people who aren't accepting in such a manner. Whereas many conservatives, though much less condoning of other beliefs, can at least understand those who hold them. It's a broad brush, and could easily turn into a stereotype, and the original study recognized that. But it's interesting no less, and the Oliver Wendell Holmes means much more to me now.
Sometimes I just look around and hate the world. Not a unique reaction, I know, but the usual reasons don't bother me. The selfishness, the immaturity, the ignorance, the intolerance—I can deal with those. But when the entire world seems to be united in a plot to make me go against my own happiness, well, it makes it a bit unbearable.
I've struggled with the idea of my future for as long as I can remember. There have been moments when I grasped onto professions that seemed interesting, and for a time considered pursuing them further. But as the choice grew nearer, they all faded from my interest quickly. I liked the ideas, but not nearly enough to spend years of time and money on them. There was no choice that I could see offered, from anyone, that seemed like it would make me happier than I was and am now.
And the world won't accept that. I'm a poor student, not even moved out yet, and I don't even have a basic college education. According to the world, I don't deserve to be happy yet. I haven't put down the money and achieved the American Dream. I'm just another apathetic young adult who needs a push in the right direction until this stage passes. Never mind that this stage has lasted for years, never mind that I wouldn't be disappointed if I never got past it. Because my happiness doesn't matter to the world unless it fits into the institutionalized mold.
I'm happy with the mundane in life, the ordinary everyday kind of living. My dream life would be a non-descript day job, and an evening and weekend life of reading, writing, cooking, and just living life. Nothing else. As long as I could live on the wage, I wouldn't even care what job it was; I think I could handle boring, and I know I could handle frugal. Most of all, I just want to live, and I can do that just fine the way I am now.
Maybe there would be logistic issues I can't see from where I am right now. I'm willing to deal with those as they come up. But no matter what the world says, I know that I don't need a lot to be happy. And instead of doing what everyone else does, I'm not going to work for a better future. Because I honestly can't see a road to a future better than the life I'm living now.
And I hate the world telling me, through every teacher and media outlet, that I shouldn't exist.
Today was one of those days that I hope never to have deja vu about...
After missing both work Monday and school and work Tuesday (due to an illness I couldn't classify), I thought that I was back to normal on Wednesday. Missing the second day of class was nerve-wracking, but I managed to make it through. I had a bit of a cough, but felt generally healthy, and work that afternoon went exuberantly well.
Aglow with the special vigor that I only feel after recovering from sickness, I had a productive evening, and got to bed right on time. Tomorrow's forecast looked to be spiffily normal. Sadly, it was not to be. I struggled through school this morning, only to finally realize as I was walking to work that my problem was—I couldn't seem to breathe very well. Figuring it to be a result of my cough, I paid it no mind, and planned to work through it anyways. The fact that my sinuses were stabbing pain straight into my eyes and through to my brain...did affect my mood, but it wasn't so bad.
I started work a little early, trying to make up whatever I could of the hours I'd missed, and started to feel even more off-kilter as I was loading book boxes onto the hand truck. For some reason, I couldn't seem to get in a deep breath. I brought over the books a little slower than usual, but again paid it no mind. It wasn't until about an hour in that I realized just how tight my chest was getting, and just how difficult it was getting to breathe (all the while as my sinuses kept a rhythmic pattern of pain).
As long as I didn't move faster than a leisurely walk, and didn't lift more than two boxes within a couple minutes or list the books at my usual speed, I was fine. Which meant, that I really wasn't. I called Purring Piggy to ask for her advice, since I haven't suffered from asthma at all since I was very small. All I really wanted to do was quit early and take it easy, but I couldn't justify losing even more hours of work. So, Purring Piggy brought an inhaler. Which didn't help. Even worse, by this point, my headphones were half-dead.
(Let me pause to explain why this was no coincidence, but the universe deciding to pile yet another mess on top of my current life. Because I wear headphones around boxes and corners, they have a fairly limited lifespan because eventually they get caught on something and are damaged. I did find a pair of nice headphones on the side of the road, in a shallow puddle, back in the winter—and surprisingly, these lasted about 5 months before buzzing and dying a rather foretold death. In the meantime, I had purchased a replacement pair of headphones, expecting the road-side-rescue ones to be near death's door. These headphones? That I actually purchased? Lasted about a month, deciding to die today, when everything else was pretty much shot in my life. I don't think this is random circumstance.)
(Oh, another bit of proof that the universe decided to hate me? My Netflix disc went missing in the mail, and it happened to be the one that we really wanted to watch tonight. And it's the first time this has ever happened. I'm not making this up as some weird martyr delusion, I swear...)
So at the end of the day... I was still catching up from my missed day of school. I still needed to make up some hours of work. I had an intense sinus headache. I had a bout of asthma that was painful, unnerving, and slowing my work. And I couldn't even listen to anything soothing. There hasn't been a day that I can recall, in the near past, where I felt so utterly miserable; nothing even remotely cheery happened, and the best thing I can say is that at least Netflix has excellent customer service.
And now, after baring my (admittedly a bit whinging) soul to the five people who read this blog, which doesn't feel as cathartic as I hoped, I'm just going to go off to curl up. And not die.
"Bliss (I Don't Wanna Know)" by Hinder
"Numb" by Linkin Park
"Holiday" and "She's a Rebel" by Green Day
"Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" by K.T. Tunstall. One of the most fun new-folk songs I've heard.
"Metamorphosis" by Philip Glass. Hauntingly dark and beautiful piano music.
"The Great Escape" by Boys Like Girls
"Auld Lang Syne" by The Real McKenzies. Bagpipes, plus a fun version of a classic song...what's not to love?
"You've Got a Friend" by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Yet another cover that I prefer to the original.
"Clumsy" by Fergie
"Long Way to Happy" by P!nk
"My Wish" by Rascal Flatts
"This One's for the Girls" by Martina McBride
"Try Not To Remember by Sheryl Crow
"You Found Me" by Kelly Clarkson
"Stay Strong" by Newsboys
After having a discussion last night with MerryK and PurringPiggy about AGW (anthropogenic, or man-caused, global warming) by lantern (our power went out for about 8 hours), I was read this article this morning, that was originally from the The Times (of London), about "Scientists Drill Into Greenland Ice for Climate-Change Clues". The last paragraph referenced made me wonder about their thought process:
The Eemian began 130,000 years ago, ending 15,000 years later, and is the most recent time in the Earth's past when temperatures resembled those that can be expected if greenhouse gas emissions are not brought under control. [emphasis mine]
...with this iPod Touch, I will be able to post updates on my Europe trip. And this is certainly faster than me trying to text. Yes, this was not written on my computer...I feel like I've crossed to the dark side of social networking.
I read this article on Right Wing News about a discussion between a father and son. The conclusion that the son comes to is very prescient for a youngster:
"Maybe he was like Obama. He gave really good speeches, and the people who listened to him stopped thinking."
So true!
I was first exposed to barley tea through a Korean friend at work. I liked what she let me try, but she said it was nearly impossible to find, even in Asian markets. So I pretty much gave up on it. However, while following recipe links I came across this.
This is definitely one of my keepers! I used about a cup of barley for half a gallon of water, honey to taste, and just a splash of lemon. I also dry roasted the barley until just aromatic, not too long. But I followed the steeping directions exactly. It's a very light tea flavor, and I might try steeping for 45 minutes next time, but it was very good nonetheless.
If you're skeptical about barley tea, it doesn't taste like how you'd think it would. Just like green tea has a slight grassy quality to it, barley tea has a similar quality, only browner, if that makes any sense. It's nicely herbal but has a slightly meatier flavor than most herbal teas, just not so far as to be like black tea or coffee.
Your result for The Perception Personality Image Test...
Nature, Background, Big Picture, and Color
You perceive the world with particular attention to nature. You focus on the hidden treasures of life (the background) and how that fits into the larger picture. You are also particularly drawn towards the colors around you. Because of the value you place on nature, you tend to find comfort in more subdued settings and find energy in solitude. You like to ponder ideas and imagine the many possibilities of your life without worrying about the details or specifics. You are in tune with all that is around you and understand your life as part of a larger whole. You are a down-to-earth person who enjoys going with the flow.
The Perception Personality Types:
We came across a wonderful article about marriage. Here is a quote, but the whole thing is very challenging.
"Today, when injustice occurs, our first instinct is often to demand our rights. And when there is injustice in marriage, often the first instinct is to demand justice or seek divorce (something God hates! Mal. 2:16) if that justice doesn’t come. Scripture doesn’t tell us to ignore injustice — in marriage or anywhere else. But we are not to battle injustice with the weapons of the world. A gentle spirit, a godly example, patient reasoning from the word of God, a sincere effort to love and understand your spouse: these things do more to ensure justice than any demand, demonstration or divorce, even when God’s methods may mean we have to endure suffering longer than we might like. "
"When we follow the steps of Jesus in this way, a marriage can be something glorious. "
