Disregard the twelve-month posting gap.

Hey, nobody!
I'm here at home, sitting on the computer and putting off writing my application essay. Yeah, I suck. I've been beating myself up about it for the past month, but I've been way too lethargic to actually do anything. This year has been weird so far. For the past four years of my high school life, my stress outside of school has primarily consisted of just getting my work done. Now I have to worry about getting my shit together in order to get into the college I want and worrying about getting all my stuff done for school. Oh well. I know I'm just bitching, but that's the stupid crap I need to get over.
[transition]
I should make a promise to update this site more often. I have some unfinished posts that I saved that are somewhat presentable, so I'll probably spend some time finishing those up. Anyways, I just need a creative outlet. School sometimes boggs you down like that. You can only write so many essays about literary devices until you feel compelled to write a blog post about how much you love Project Runway or how weird life sometimes turns out to be. So, I'll continue to write here, clogging the intertubes with another blog about another teenager's life.

And on a completely unrelated note: I seriously need to steal the grill from my parents. I've had some variation on grilled flesh for the past four days. Seriously. Could I get some pasta or something? Geez.

;

The period is black and stark. It it small. It is authoritative. It shows nothing. It serves no other function than to terminate. It is definite by nature. It is the black dot that pierces the white of sentences. It subjugates each previous statement to its own.

The comma, it is unsure. The comma is submissive to its two indefinite parts, and it cannot rely on its own being to have meaning. Because it slips under the union of the cluster of dominant words that support it, it is unable to stand upon its own. It stands unrerect, for it lacks a defining quality that allows it to be its own.

The semicolon is what brings the two together; it commands a certain authority, but it remains open to the indefinite nature of the mind of the writer. The semicolon builds upon an idea; it elicits a certain memory from the reader. It is educated, for it continually pulls upon its predecessors and previous ideas to move forward; It is definite while still being indefinite; it terminates one but not without the conditions for another.

I found this very amusing.

Yay for playing Scrabble at one in the morning! I'm so mature.

Very scattered thoughts on last night's Repulican debate.

I finally remembered to TiVo a presidential debate (yuss!). Last night it was the Repulican debate-- I missed the Democratic debate. Thank god for TiVo, though; seriously, two hours of political crap easily fast forwarded to the important parts. "I grew up as a blue collar worker's son in [insert middle-American town]..." boop-boop "Blah, blah, blah...What defines an American?..." boop-boop "the terrorists hate our freedom...". Some of the parts that I didn't fast forward through:

Immigration:
It's kind of odd to think that some of these candidates really believe that the answer to illegal immigration involves the impossible task of rounding up every illegal Mexican in the United States and deporting them and the ridiculous concept that building a bigger, badder fence (with robot-alligator moats, I would presume) can solve anything. Obviously, if the current immigration process isn't working, it needs to be changed; howerever, I'm hoping the plans purposed would be better than President Bush's "guest worker" plans.

Gays in the Military:
This one was kind of random. If anything, gay marriage is a far bigger deal than "Don't ask, don't tell" ( I was actually disappointed that the issue wasn't raised). Unfortunately, every single candidate agreed that the system is working. What?! No it's not! How is being dishonorably charged from the military based solely on sexual orientation working? I guess it's okay to discriminate against homos in the military; "we're at war."

Global Warming:
Basically, nobody had any insight that struck me as reasonable. The almost unanimous proposal from the candidates to solve global warming (global climate change, whatever) was to increase reliance on nuclear energy. Yes, nuclear emits nothing into the atmosphere, but there is one small caveat to that: nuclear waste only becomes safe after such a long time (6,000+ years half life, depending on the material). We might as well be living in a smog infested, oxygen depleted atmosphere than a radioactive wasteland. WHY does nobody realize this? It's common sense! Geez.

Abortion:
Okay, the big one. Personally, I don't know where I stand on this issue. Though I lean more towards the Pro-Life side, there are still some things that are pushing me into the gray area: I don't believe that this should be regulated at the federal level; and, though I believe in protecting an unborn fetus's opportunity at life, there are times in which a forced birth would be inappropriate. The candidates all took the Pro-Life stance. However, I think Giuliani is pandering and, based on his previous stances he is trying to cover up his past inconsistencies by stating he merely was Pro-State level regulation. Other than that, not much variety in the arguments of the candidates.

None of these candidates really impressed me, though Ron Paul did strike my fancy-- I could never see him as a president, however. Also, who the hell really cares if Mitt Romney is a Mormon? Granted, he does seem a little nutty, but I really could care less if he's a Mormon. Hey! according to Fox News, we already have a radical Islamic democrat running for president, so what's the big deal?

Dear DRM, you suck.

Today I received this CD from Lala.com, a completely legit and legal CD-swapping site. I placed the CD into my CD drive, intending to rip it through iTunes onto my computer-- again, completely legal. However, the folks at Sony BMG had plans otherwise: they a) encrypted the data on the CD so that it cannot be ripped onto a computer by making all the ripped files skip b) made me agree to a EULA and download some skeezy software of their own (which I didn't do) just to freaking keep a godamn CD on my computer. I don't want to go P2P the file; I don't want to make copies and hand them out; I WANT TO LISTEN TO SONGS ON MY COMPUTER! Now they have driven me to go find a way to illegally circumvent the data protection all so I can add this CD to my digital collection. It shouldn't be this much work: I legally own the CD! Sony tried to pull this crap recently, and they got into trouble. It's ridiculous. This is what causes people to pirate CDs. If people can't own the stuff they buy, they might as well steal it (not saying that I would). The RIAA is probably going to send me a cease and desist letter now for justifying illegal downloads. Whatever, I should really start supporting iTune Plus or eMusic.

Update: After three hours, thank you, Princeton!

Existentialism Made Easy!

I decided to submit an article to WikiHow. Too bad my article is getting deleted as I type. Oh well, here it is (was).

How to Exist

Are you having and existential Crisis? Well, this article aims to show you how to exist in three simple steps.

Steps

1. Be born. This is an important step; it's kind of hard to be a part of the natural world without being born.
2. Be alive. Hello and welcome to Earth. It's a nice place to live.
3. Repeat Step 2 as long as possible.


Tips

* Don't die. You can't live if you're dead. Here's a simple acronym to remember how not to die: B.F.D.S.D.B.M.E.
B.- Breathe. Your body needs oxygen to survive. The lack of oxygen inevitably leads to the lack of life, so remember to inhale and exhale air.
F.- Feed your self. The entire homeostasis of your body depends on energy. Where does energy come from? Food, of course! Food to stay away from: anything poisonous and human flesh (cannibalism is frowned upon, unless you're in a remote cannibal tribe where that is cool, then it's alright.)
D.- Drink water. The human body is more than 70% water, so you kind of need it to survive.
S.- Sharp objects. Yeah, they're bad and usually lead to injury and/or death. Try to avoid poking yourself with them as much as possible.
D. Diseases. Diseases lead to death, so try to avoid places that look like incubators for diseases: old food, raw meat, rabid animals, mold, cesspools, Paris Hilton, etc.
B.- Blood. When blood comes out of you, it's usually a bad thing. Once you start bleeding, seek out immediate attention (i.e. band-aides or a hospital).
M. Moderation. As with most things in life, moderation is key. Don't be a glutton and remember that there's a limit to the stuff you can ingest or be exposed to.
E.- Etcetera. The human creature learns and can reason. Use your brain and determine what is and what isn't a good decision in living. Don't be stupid. There's countless ways to die, and I can't put them all here; but you should be able to logically determine what is benign or not, if there's a failure to do so on your part, well, that's just Darwinism.


Warnings

* See B.F.D.S.D.B.M.E.

Yay for old essays!

So, I'm still too lazy to write anything new, and I decided to post an essay I wrote for a contest. It's kind of lame but oh well.

Opportune Changes

     The human creature adapts: we age, we mature, and we continue to change until we are inevitably changed back into our most basic components. It can be said that change is a natural occurrence, so why is it that we so vehemently protest change?
     The human mentality tends to contradict this “natural” change; it is the fear that we no longer control what we once knew, and it is the fear that we are powerless against our own lives that drives us to confine ourselves into a stagnant system within ourselves. So, we build a inert world where we believe the natural occurrences are sterilized to the random and minor inconveniences that tend to accompany the untamable, wild aspects of nature. Yet this construct world of sterility is shattered when one completely insignificant yet significant break occurs. This break usually is undetected, unavoidable, or even unnoticeable, but its ramifications alter the world of the one affected. The ramparts built to avoid the occurrences of change crumble under the weight of the uncontrollable. No longer are we the gods of our own fate. We are, instead, helpless children picked on by that big kid called life. It is in these moments that the opportunity at freedom arises.
     The ability to change is the ability to live, and adaptation is the source of this freedom. Though we cannot control the breaks in our world, we can change our world to fit the breaks. Ironically, we are only truly in control of our lives when we relinquish all mortal control of our lives to the whim of the uncontrollable. We may not have absolute control of the events that shape our lives, but we have utter control how we shape the impacts of the events in our lives. We are then freed from the fear of the unknown and unmanageable when we do so. This freedom to fail, the freedom to chance, the freedom to regret, and most importantly the freedom to learn allows us to grow.
     Our reactions to change—be they wise or foolish—teach us about ourselves and help us to evolve and survive. Change evolves us from our tunneled perspective and allows us to experience ourselves and the complexities and randomness of life. Each unexpected change allows us to gain better knowledge of ourselves based on how each of us personally reacts. We improve upon our weaknesses in poor judgment that caused or preempted change, and we dote upon the judgments made right. Without change we would be ignorant to the realities of life, and we would, therefore, be weakened as we progressed further into the insurmountable unknowns dealt to us.
     We panic at the unknown and uncontrollable aspects that accompany life, but it is these very changes that allow us to survive. Adaptation is freedom from the fear of the obscurities of life, and adaptation is the ability to learn and to evolve. Fear not change. Change is but the opportunity; it is what one does with the change that one garners control of life and wisdom to move on.