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August 26, 2007 - Sunday
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2:04 PM - tag [I’m] it!
Current mood:  okay
Prior to my most recent extended hiatus from MySpace, I was tagged by Dawn. I don't recall if getting tagged requires you to tell five or ten facts about yourself. For the sake of boredom, I'll give ten, but a few will be half-assed (to balance things out):
1. I was born in Washington, DC and have lived here most of my life. For whatever reason, though, people often (and by often, I mean all the time) assume I'm a foreign-born citizen. Jamaica, parts of West Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and Guam are common guesses. I've never even been outside the United States, however. I've always felt like an immigrant at heart.
2. I have a real-life twin. I am the phallus-wielding elder (by two or so hours), thus superior. My sibling had to be delivered by cesarean section and almost died during the birth. We are not identical and cannot read each others' thoughts, so stop asking!
3. I'm extremely soft-spoken, shy, and modest. I can talk a lot and make friends very easily when I'm in the right mood though. I think many people find my quietness off-putting, but I prefer to just listen and observe than chit-chat 'bout this 'n' that in most situations.
4. For around two years (2001/'02), I did nothing but watch movies all day. On average, I watched 3-5 movies per day during this lengthy "period of hibernation" and had very little interaction with the outside world. I watched everything: mainstream Hollywood, independent, foreign films, classic cinema... To be honest, I view this hermit-like phase of my life as invaluable, because I feel it refined my artistic sensibilities and made me a lot more cultured. Still, I acknowledge that getting out and traveling would've been a healthier alternative.
5. On weeks that I don't have any obligations, I only bathe every other day and shave about once a fortnight. I don't necessarily like the stubbly hobo look, but it's nice not to have to be concerned with personal appearances all the time. I would like to grow a lumberjack beard someday, despite most women I know expressing a strong distaste for facial hair.
6. I do laundry once a week, usually on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday afternoon. I use either XTRA or Arm & Hammer laundry detergent. Sort the wash into three loads: dark, colors, and whites (always in that order). Sometimes I hand-wash delicates. Never used starch. I don't always iron and fold my clothes on the same day.
7. I'm somewhat of a perfectionist with obsessive-compulsive tendencies (if you couldn't tell). Fortunately, I'm not much of a control freak, slight Wagnerian bent notwithstanding. Did I just contradict myself? Nah, I'm really just a laid-back kinda guy...who knows what he wants.
8. I hate answering or making phone calls. I find most phone calls to be awkward, even those long ones with kindred souls that are pleasant. I rarely answer my house anymore. At the same time, I dislike text messaging, due to how impersonal and trendy it is. People probably just assume I'm dead or whatever.
9. I didn't feel comfortable smiling when I was little because of a small overbite. Purely aesthetic, not a big deal, right? Well, I never told my parents how much I wanted braces. It caused me to grind my teeth during adolescence. I still have insecurities about my choppers and whole mouth region today, even though people tell me I have a beautiful smile.
10. My 25th birthday is tomorrow (8/27). As of now, plans include a telephone interview for a new job, taking an online class, cleaning my bathroom, and responding to email. If I'm feeling festive, I may watch a movie or read a book.
If you read all that, you might know me a little better, I don't know... I'm supposed to tag other people, but I haven't kept up with enough blogs to know who has and hasn't been tagged. Oh well, I was never any good at hide-and-go-seek anyway.
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Currently
listening
:
Like Father, Like Son
By
Birdman
Release date: 31 October, 2006
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4 Comments - 4 Kudos
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October 18, 2006 - Wednesday
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6:16 PM - creation
Current mood:  determined
Category: Life
by Jillian Ann, fellow dreamer...
We all have the power to create, to manifest our dreams visions and ideas into physical form. They will tell you that you don't that you can only follow, they begin teaching you this as a child your world is filled instantly with a box telling you what to think what to eat wear and look like to be beautiful accepted loved.
I remember the feeling the sinking feeling I felt as I watched the world changing before my eyes. The uniqueness of the small neighborhoods was replaced with repetitive stores houses, as the stores and houses changed and all started looking the same, people seemed to morph and follow. You had to wear this or that in order to fit into this or that group and to not fit into a group was to be a loner a reject and being different was seen as a negative.
Creativity was being smashed, if a child is trained to follow a box, then teachers, stores, magazines, trends, and religion all with there own rules and limitations the thought of being able to manifest and or dream diminishes at a rapid and tragic pace. I watched as the majority of my peers rapidly became sheep never questioning never seeking and never daring to go after there dreams.
I watched people who had dreams visions and ideas give them up because someone told them it wouldn't make money, it didn't fit the mold they were not good enough. I watched as they walked away with there heads hanging for there dreams were now replaced with a sense of duty to follow the leader.
What leader? I looked for a leader granted I was looking for a savior not someone who would willingly lead the sheep to the wolves so they could get a kick back. I searched I looked in every corner I found imitations I found false prophets I found corruption I found greed, I found one or two who would show up for a moment and they get sucked in and then be taken out and become followers I watched the lights fall as quickly as they showed up.
I watched the media change slowly I watched the message become darker, but in a way which appeared light for it happens over time, as your convinced that you are not worthy to be anything but a sheep but a follower but someone working to buy things to work to buy things to try to buy your dreams back but nothing you will buy can give you what can't be bought.
The entire industry became about selling the dream, the illusion, plastic surgery, retouching, nothing was real and yet people believed in it, and I watched as religion lost its soul and spirituality was then the hottest thing on the market and anytime I saw a price tag associated with connection to God it hit me. Something is very wrong, and who is our leader.
In God we do not trust, if we did everyone of us would be living our dream, wouldn't be afraid to be different would know we are not alone and we would not need to kill people, spend trillions of dollars on security, if we really believed we could trust the creator, then we could create ourselves we would know it was safe to take risk there would be no fear.
Why don't we create, why don't we write or paint sing dance why don't we do what we dream of? why? is it fear of failing? of not being good enough? wait who made the rules? .... not our creator for we were given the power of choice, freedom, free will we have the whole earth at our fingertips we have unlimited resources..
I watched it descend like a dark cloud bringing confusion, destruction, greed, and fear, it penetrated the minds and hearts then moved through the cities carried often by the media, slowly it started to feed fear, doubt, despair, hopelessness, telling us it wasn't safe, we were not good enough to fear, to be afraid. Because since we were children we have often be taught we don't have a choice, we don't have freewill we are not strong, we are weak we believed it. When we believed it then it manifested.
When we allowed our dreams to die the emptiness sunk in. It made us hungry then they told us we could fill that hunger and lined up thousands of things we could buy or do to try to replace the emptiness we felt from our disconnection. As we worked so we could buy or do these things it only made us want more then work more and it created a world based on materialism. Children are not taught to grow up and have a good connection with there creator and to make love and truth there focus they are taught to get a good job to make good money so they can have a nice house car and someone will find them worthy.
Millions of people take medication or some other substance in order to numb the silent cry of a soul that feels it lost its purpose. For as we give up our dreams vision and connection we feel we have lost a purpose we may feel we found it serving someone else for a moment but inside we often know we are missing something but don't know what.
Go all the way back, there was nothing but your spirit, and your connection to earth you were born through love and the exchange of flesh and spirit and when you die you will leave your flesh and only be spirit. The spirit is within all of us, and yet we often pay it about as much attention as brushing our teeth. We live in a world we think we control but we do not, we build things which will one day all be gone, we spend our whole life to pay for a house that will be left behind and become dust, we don't spend time connecting to our own spirit, or others because we are too busy working to pay for our material replacements.
I was forced to create, I didn't have tv, or the computer video games or other kids to entertain me for the first part of my childhood, I had books nature art supplies and dreams. yet it was in those times I learned I could manifest anything I wanted to if I applied myself I learned I was limitless as a child and I never forgot that even though they tried to make me forget it, to wipe it out of me.
I decided to use my freedom of choice, my free will, my direct connection to the divine to harness the unlimited energy that exist for our use if we seek it to create and spent my whole life creating. I created many things, some light, some dark, some painful some inspiring some beautiful some reflecting what I felt. Yet I learned to just allow it all to flow and not to worry about the rules or if any one liked it or not. I created as my communication, my communion, not to be a puppet to a puppet master controlling me with rules.
There are no rules to dreams, visions and creation. The act of creating is the act of channeling and expressing your spirit through a medium. You have the choice the capacity and the ability to do this at anytime in anyplace in many forms . It doesn't matter if your rich poor black white old young there is no time no clock no limits except those you believe in and or put on yourself.
The more you create the more you feel free and that your dreams are within your reach, as you create you will meet resistance work with it, its your teacher and will only show you how you can expand your creative capacity. For me it is my channel and I express truth and truth is not always pleasant and yet it will set us free truth is accepting things as they are and understanding that things all happen for a reason and allowing the pain to pass through and cleanse and strengthen the heart.
You have the choice, we have free will, we have the capacity to dream create and be connected to the never ending source if we chose yet in order to do that we have to connect with our spirits and seek to unplug ourselves from the hum of fear doubt decay and distraction.
Its not that hard, just listen to your spirit and if you can't hear it turn everything off , go to a place where your alone, and don't leave until it comes to you and it will, but you have to seek it you have to allow it to chose it.
Today the makeup artist was talking about how at art school they were teaching here the rules of art. To understand what people believe in can be useful, to understand others perspectives can be useful but to place rules and limitations on art only prevents growth.
If they strip us of our capacity to dream and create to believe and have visions and have a direct connection to the divine then it is easy to get us to do whatever they want. What do they want? sadly I think it comes down to power and greed, a leader who leads the sheep to the wolves for a kick back is not a leader but a traitor. Yet if you have been blinded by fear and doubt and fear living and dying then it is easy to follow the wrong leaders right into your own slow destruction.
I was born aware, I have to pay attention to stay aware and ask myself what is the purpose what is the intention. Everything that passes in front of me I ask myself what is the purpose. What is the purpose of watching this, or listening to this, or reading, eating, sleeping, working, kissing, giving, friendship, what is the intention and purpose of my actions, of what I do. What is the purpose ? of buying this or going somewhere, or doing something. Everything and anything and the more I ask the more I see the more I am able to make a choice.
Spirit is energy our spirits feed whatever we pay attention to what are we feeding? why? is it returning? or just draining us. The more I create the more I see I can create the more I dream the more I create the more I do the more I see I can do. I hit walls, I have enemies, I have resistance, and yet I learn from them, they teach me, I take what they give me and use it to expand my creativity. I take the pain, the sorrow, the joy, love, I take it all and use it to create I put it in a channel. I grow from it all. They say you will burn out, no I won't its not possible because even when I lose it all my heart is broken and I breakdown I find in the breakdown another layer of my spirit another connection to the divine and then I have more then I had before more dreams more visions more creativity.
If you believe something will stop you it will, for you believed it you chose to be stopped, if you believe nothing can stop you all is teaching you, then you will grow. If you take your dreams, write them down, seek them, ask if what your doing helps the purpose if you decide to use your will you can take that faith and move a mountain. You are loved limitlessly by your creator and that love is what gave you spirit that spirit is limitless. No one can stop it, not a broken heart, abusive parents, drug abuse, being raped, being abandoned, being harmed, no government, no school, no teacher, no priest, no one and nothing can stand between that, nothing between the bottom of the sea and the top of the sky can severe it unless you chose to not believe you are the only one who has the key to the door, and its not one anyone can take from you its burned into your soul, your flesh your being.
Yet we have an enemy without one we would have no choice and without choice we would not be free and your enemy wants you to believe you are limited you cannot create you cannot be free and you are not connected with your enemy.
Back to purpose, where is it coming from what is the message is it from the enemy.
If your not aware you can't see so being aware is vital to living alive. Its not complicated its simple its just making the choice to listen to seek to be aware and to believe. We all have the ability to create for we were made in the image of the creator who could create without limitations.
If I had listened to those who told me no I wouldn't be here, but I saw the enemy as a formless idea that had no limitations on ways it could come to try to prevent me from creating and I started looking and listening and asking ...chances are it will show up, because I wrote this and posted it, maybe through a person telling me I am not good enough or something else negative but it has no effect because I have a connection to the creator so I see resistance as a good thing it means somethings being affected.
Some may love your art, some may hate your art, don't create for them, create out of your spirit, out of expression and connection with the divine and then you will be free from all the rules and boxes built to stop you.
10 Comments - 18 Kudos
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6:01 PM - Envy
Current mood:  envious
Category: Religion and Philosophy
Lust
Gluttony
Greed
Sloth
Wrath
Envy
(jealousy, malice)
The desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation
Like Greed, Envy is characterised by an insatiable desire, however the two sins differ for two main reasons. Firstly, Greed is normally associated with material wealth, whereas Envy can apply to other concepts, like love or success. While I don't covet material possessions, I do admire the truly beloved and successful. I rarely obsess over another's enviable traits, however. Secondly, those who commit the sin of Envy desire something that someone else has. There are certain virtues/personal characteristics others possess that I wish to improve upon. That is all. Dante defined this as "love of one's own good perverted to a desire to deprive other men of theirs." I have no desire to deprive other men of their good, even to my benefit. My aim is to uplift those around me while building myself into a better humanitarian, not tear my fellow man down and bask in my own glory. In Dante's Purgatory, the envious have their eyes sewn shut with wire, because they have gained sinful pleasure from seeing others brought low ('schadenfreude'). I see this passive-aggressive bloodlust everywhere, and it makes me mourn for humanity.
Sites Cited
deadlysins.com
Wikipedia
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Currently
reading
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Shatterpoint (Star Wars: Clone Wars Novel)
By
Matthew Woodring Stover
Release date: 27 April, 2004
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8 Comments - 10 Kudos
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5:52 PM - Running Chart - Summer '06
Current mood:  accomplished
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes
Date (Mo./Day) Distance (in mi)
July
Sat. 7/15: 2.012
Sun. 7/16: 4.073
Mon. 7/17: N/A*
Tue. 7/18: 6.385
Wed. 7/19: 1.474
Thu. 7/20: 6.005
Fri. 7/21: 11.674
Sat. 7/22: N/A
Sun. 7/23: N/A
Mon. 7/24: N/A
Tue. 7/25: N/A
Wed. 7/26: N/A
Thu. 7/27: 7.294
Fri. 7/28: 9.084
Sat. 7/29: 15.242
Sun. 7/30: N/A
Mon. 7/31: 6.074
August
Tue. 8/1: N/A
Wed. 8/2: N/A
Thu. 8/3: 6.316
Fri. 8/4: 7.081
Sat. 8/5: 11.611
Sun. 8/6: N/A
Mon. 8/7: 11.156
Tue. 8/8: 11.039
Wed. 8/9: 11.597
Thu. 8/10: N/A
Fri. 8/11: 15.717
Sat. 8/12: 16.822
Sun. 8/13: N/A
Mon. 8/14: 3.231
Tue. 8/15: 6.705
Wed. 8/16: N/A
Thu. 8/17: 7.309
Fri. 8/18: 6.861
Sat. 8/19: N/A
Sun. 8/20: N/A
Mon. 8/21: N/A
Tue. 8/22: 4.168
Wed. 8/23: 2.573
Thu. 8/24: N/A
Fri. 8/25: N/A
Sat. 8/26: 13.704
Sun. 8/27: N/A
Mon. 8/28: N/A
Tue. 8/29: 1.243
Wed. 8/30: 4.013
Thu. 8/31: N/A
September
Fri. 9/1: 6.766
Sat. 9/2: N/A
Sun. 9/3: N/A
Mon. 9/4: N/A
Tue. 9/5: N/A
Wed. 9/6: N/A
Thu. 9/7: N/A
Fri. 9/8: N/A
Sat. 9/9: 2.795
Sun. 9/10: N/A
Mon. 9/11: ???**
Tue. 9/12: N/A
Wed. 9/13: 7.875+***
Thu. 9/14: N/A
Fri. 9/15: N/A
Sat. 9/16: N/A
Sun. 9/17: N/A
Mon. 9/18: 5.118
Tue. 9/19: N/A
Wed. 9/20: N/A
Thu. 9/21: N/A
Fri. 9/22: N/A
Sat. 9/23: N/A
Sun. 9/24: N/A
Mon. 9/25: N/A
Tue. 9/26: 3.147
Wed. 9/27: N/A
Thu. 9/28: 7.898
Fri. 9/29: N/A
Sat. 9/30: 4.182+
* N/A=0 mi
** ???=x mi
*** +=>x mi
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Currently
listening
:
For Hero for Fool
By
Subtle
Release date: 03 October, 2006
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5 Comments - 8 Kudos
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June 26, 2006 - Monday
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11:11 AM - Dangling Balloons
Current mood:  quixotic
Category: Writing and Poetry
 It's easy enough to slip away
To catch a flight, to hop on Cloud 9
To float up to Heaven without delay
Just find a runway in the state of Mind
Duly departed, molecules splitting atmosphere
And we're on our way, right on time, rhythmically drifting
No better time or place than now, without fear, only here
Defying gravity and logic, no other feeling so uplifting
Ouch! Sharp stabs, a gasp, then marred cleft
Polymer strings, once gentle, suddenly tight as a noose
Short breath, no oxygen, CO2 or helium left
Wake up, no longer hanging, again I'm loose
Alas, a dream deflated, soggy rain-conjured swoons
Limp and tethered, like dangling balloons
© 2006 John Daniel Patterson
Special (unrelated) Note:
If you sent me a message anytime last week, I've not read it yet. I was going through the 4000 messages in my inbox, answering all the old e-mail to which I never replied. So if you were wondering why I hadn't written back or left blog feedback/approved group membership/accepted friend requests in a while, that's the reason. Not ignoring you, mah peeps!
Oh, and I'm moving this week...
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Currently
listening
:
Team Sleep
By
Team Sleep
Release date: 10 May, 2005
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13 Comments - 32 Kudos
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June 16, 2006 - Friday
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1:08 PM - June6teenth
Current mood: TGIF
RESPECT: Respect to 2PAC...but today is about Soweto, June 16 - 2Pac and Soweto, South Africa
Date: Jun 16, 2006 12:04 PM
Africans should NEVER forget Soweto student uprising!!!
"STUDENTS are the SPARK of the revolution"--A-APRP
June 16th 1976: Soweto Student Uprising!!!
June 16th Student Uprising
Part 1: Background to the uprising.
When high-school students in Soweto started protesting for better education on 16 June 1976, police responded with teargas and live bullets. It is commemorated today by a South African national holiday, Youth day, which honors all the young people who lost their lives in the struggle against Apartheid and Bantu Education.
In 1953 the Apartheid Government enacted The Bantu Education Act, which established a Black Education Department in the Department of Native Affairs. The role of this department was to compile a curriculum that suited the "nature and requirements of the black people." The author of the legislation, Dr Hendrik Verwoerd (then Minister of Native Affairs, later Prime Minister), stated: "Natives [blacks] must be taught from an early age that equality with Europeans [whites] is not for them." Black people were not to receive an education that would lead them to aspire to positions they wouldn't be allowed to hold in society. Instead they were to receive education designed to provide them with skills to serve their own people in the homelands or to work in labouring jobs under whites.
Bantu Education did enable more children in Soweto to attend school than the old missionary system of education, but there was a severe lack of facilities. Nationally public to teacher ratios went up from 46:1 in 1955 to 58:1 in 1967. Overcrowded classrooms were used on a rota basis. There was also a lack of teachers, and many of those who did teach were underqualified. In 1961, only 10 per cent of black teachers held a matriculation certificate [last year of high school].
Because of the government's homelands policy, no new high schools were built in Soweto between 1962 and 1971 -- students were meant to move to their relevant homeland to attend the newly built schools there. Then in 1972 the government gave in to pressure from business to improve the Bantu Education system to meet business's need for a better trained black workforce. 40 new schools were built in Soweto. Between 1972 and 1976 the number of pupils at secondary schools increased from 12,656 to 34,656. One in five Soweto children were attending secondary school.
This increase in secondary school attendance had a significant effect on youth culture. Previously, many young people spent the time between leaving primary school and obtaining a job (if they were lucky) in gangs, which generally lacked any political consciousness. But now secondary school students were forming their own, much more politicised identity. Clashes between gangs and students only furthered the sense of student solidarity.
In 1975 South Africa entered a period of economic depression. Schools were starved of funds -- the government spent R644 a year on a white child's education but only R42 on a black child. The Department of Bantu Education then announced it was removing the Standard 6 year from primary schools. Previously, in order to progress to Form 1 of secondary school, a pupil had to obtain a first or second-degree pass in Standard 6. Now the majority of pupils could proceed to secondary school. In 1976, 257,505 pupils entrolled in Form 1, but there was space for only 38,000. Many of the students therefore remained at primary school. Chaos ensued.
The African Students Movement, founded in 1968 to voice student grievances, changed its name in January 1972 to the South African Students Movement (SASM) and pledged itself to building a national movement of high school students who would work with the Black Consciousness (BC) organisation at black universities, the South African Students' Organisation (SASO). This link with BC philosophies is significant as it gave students an appreciation for themselves as black people and helped politicise students.
So when the Department of Education issued its decree that Afrikaans was to become a language of instruction at school, it was into an already volatile situation. Students objected to being taught in the language of the oppressor. Many teachers themselves could not speak Afrikaans, but were now required to teach their subjects in it.
June 16th Student Uprising
Part 2: Students organise a protest.
When the 1976 school year started, many teachers refused to teach in Afrikaans. But generally students were disparaging of the attitude of their teachers and parents. One student wrote to The World newspaper: "Our parents are prepared to suffer under the white man's rule. They have been living for years under these laws and they have become immune to them. But we strongly refuse to swallow an education that is designed to make us slaves in the country of our birth."
In June, Form 1 and 2 students from Orlando West Junior Primary School (also known as Phefeni) staged a classroom boycott. They were joined by students from seven other Soweto schools. The Department of Bantu Education sent the police in. At Naledi High School students had demanded to speak to the regional director of education. Instead members of the police Special Branch arrived. This led to the first incidence in which students really felt their power: when the Special Branch members locked themselves in the school principal's office, students overturned the police vehicles.
A students meeting was held in Orlando on Sunday 13 June. About 400 students attended. At the meeting, Tsietsi Mashinini, a 19-year-old-leader of a SASM branch, called for a mass demonstration against the use of Afrikaans was called for the following Wednesday, 16 June. Students made a pact not to get their parents involved, believing they would try to stop it.
On 16 June, students assembled at different points throughout Soweto, then set off to meet at Orlando West Secondary School where the plan was to pledge their solidarity, sing Nkosi Sikeleli 'iAfrika and, having made their point, go back home. Witnesses later said that between 15,000 and 20,000 students school uniform marched.
The Bureau of State Security (BOSS), which was in charge of South Africa's internal security, were caught unaware. A police squad was sent in to form a line in front of the marchers. They ordered the crowd to disperse. When they refused, police dogs were released, then teargas was fired. Students responded by throwing stones and bottles at the police. Journalists later reported seeing a policeman draw his revolver and shoot without warning into the crowd. Other policemen also started shooting.
Students started setting fire to symbols of apartheid, such as government buildings, municipal beerhalls and liquor stores, Putco buses, and vehicles belonging to white businesses. Anti-riot vehicles and members of the Anti-Urban Terrorism Unit arrived. Army helicopters dropped teargas on gatherings of students. Roadblocks were set up at all entrances to Soweto. The battle between students and police continued into the night.
Probably the most famous photograph of the uprising is the photo by Samuel Nzima of Mbuyisa Makhubu carrying the body of 13-year-old Hector Petersen who had been shot, with Hector's sister running next to him.
Samuel Nzima has described what he saw: "The first shot was fired before children started throwing stones. Then absolute chaos broke out. The children ran all over the place and stoned the police." A postmortem revealed that Hector had been killed by a shot fired directly into him, not a bullet ricocheting off the ground as the police later stated.
The dawn of 17 June revealed burnt-out cars and trucks blocking the roads, virtually every liquor store, beerhall, and community centre burnt to the ground. And dead bodies lying in the streets. The official death toll was 23; others put it as high as 200. Many hundreds of people were injured.
Students again poured into the streets. Parents stayed away from work to watch over their families. Police patrolled the streets. By the end of the third day of rioting, the Minister of Bantu Education had closed all schools in Soweto.
The rioting soon spread from Soweto to other towns on the Witwatersrand, Pretoria, to Durban and Cape Town, and developed into the largest outbreak of violence South Africa had experienced. Coloured and Indian students joined their black comrades. And unlike the riots of 1952 and the Sharpeville riots of 1961, the police were unable to quell the rioters, even with force. Students showed reckless disregard for their own safety to vent their frustrations. As soon as the upheavals were suppressed in one area than they flared up elsewhere. And so it continued for the rest of 1976.
A new generation had made their voice of opposition to apartheid heard, and were determined to be listed to. Many left South Africa to join the armies of the exiled political movements. Those who stayed behind ensured the exiled organisations could count on support from within the townships. June the 16th would never be forgotten.
3 Comments - 16 Kudos
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June 12, 2006 - Monday
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11:43 AM - Save The Internet - He Is Not Kidding
Current mood:  indescribable
Category: News and Politics
Thank you, Ckay, for posting this most important message!
We currently live in a world of net neutrality, for those of you that don't know what this means i will explain, right now your are online and reading this and are completely free to read it, noone can say you can or can't look at this page. That is because we have net neutrality it means that anyone on any isp through any provider can look at what they choose. We should all be thankful for that freedom mainly because it may not be here much longer.
You see telcoms companies are making very little of the internet while companies like google and microsoft get the lion's share. They have decided to try and start up a system where websites would need to pay them money otherwise noone would be allowed to access the website from that supplier. Basically your choice of what to view would be dependant on your provider, if myspace didn't pay up you wouldn't be able to read this, if your bank didn't pay up you couldn't view your balance and if google didn't pay up you would need to find a new search engine. Basically they will be charging websites protection money. One of the greatest things about the net is that anyone can start up a web site and what is an afternoon hobby one day can be a career the next, if there were restrictions on this that would no longer be as feesable.
You may be thinking right now about the first ammendment protecting you from this and you would be right because currently it does. The american goverment is a goverment for the masses not the few right, and if ever there was a case of the few benefitting of the back of the masses this is it.
On june 8th the house of representitives voted in favour of a bill allowing the telecom companies to do this, it wasn't even close the vote was 321 to 101. This now goes up before the senate. Luckily there is a bill being floated that will protect net neutrality. Everyone needs to get behind this as if the telecom companies get there way the internet will no longer be the place of freedom it currently is. It will set a horrible standard that could sweep the world where you don't have a choice at what you view, where the telecom companies get rich off work they didn't do. A web where the sites that get viewed are decided in a boardroom.
You can help, get in touch with your local politicians, currently the telecoms are winning by plowing money into fake grass root campaigns and running a media campaign that paints net-neutrality as some pro-internet-goverment-regulation concept. Repost this in your blog and tell everybody to repost it in theirs, myspace has 85 million users out there so spread the word
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Currently
listening
:
Take It Easy
By
The Fugees
Release date: 01 November, 2005
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8 Comments - 10 Kudos
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June 10, 2006 - Saturday
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10:29 AM - Wrath
Current mood:  angry
Category: Religion and Philosophy
Lust
Gluttony
Greed
Sloth
Wrath/Anger
(hatred, prejudice, discrimination)
Manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury
Inappropriate [unrighteous] feelings of hatred and anger. Rarely do I truly feel anger or hatred, in despite of unjustified hatred and anger towards me. Even rarer that I would act maliciously. Becoming incensed or irritated by blatant injustice and intolerance is more in my character. I have a pretty mellow personality, though I like to project and convey passion. Denial of the truth to others or self. In the end, I have little to gain from being dishonest with others and even less from being dishonest with myself, so I see no need for putting up ruses or fronts. The truth will eventually come to light anyhow, so deception amounts to misguided foreplay. "The truth shall set you free." Brutal honesty is just cruel sometimes, however, so I try and err on the side of tactfulness; discretion is my friend. Impatience with the law, I have nothing but patience. My ancestors were enslaved by exalted plunderers for nearly half a millennium. The least I can do to show my gratitude for their perseverance is not act like a nigger when police pull me over for a routine traffic stop. or seeking revenge outside of justice. I may be superheroic, but I'm no vigilante. Let their own misdeeds be their undoing and God will sort out the rest! Unnecessary vigilanteism. Ostentatious! Batman is my archetype, yet somehow I resist the urge to crusade in cape and cowl. Wishing to do evil or harm to others. I've been mistreated and abused. I have no desire to see anyone else experience that same form of torture. Hurting others hurts me and I'm not masochistic. Disliking others for no good reason, Everybody deserves a fair shake. Respect is given by me, not bought or sold. such as their race Many people don't like black people. Most are too cowardly to admit it in the company of black people, but subtle behaviors betray them. or religion, Christians are undoubtedly the butt of many a joke. Well, we'll see how much you heathens are laughing when you're burning in HELL!!!
...j/k
leading to discrimination. Why would anyone want to discriminate against me? I'm awesome... Self-righteousness. ...and always right! (okay, not really) Wrath is the root of murder, assault, discrimination, and, ultimately, genocide. (See Crimes against humanity.) Not to mention WCW superstar Bryan Clark (formerly Adam Bomb):
Dante described wrath as "love of justice perverted to revenge and spite". Such a wise guy! The childish of the two prolonged adolescence sins, being hard to safeguard against especially in the case of people in teens and 20s. The youth of today scare me. Ever seen Children of the Corn? Yeah, that bad! Wrath is considered childish because hatred is often born out of misunderstanding, or the inability to forgive. I concur. Holding grudges is childish behavior, and being unable or unwilling to resolve conflicts with civility is a mark of emotional immaturity. Wrath is symbolized by the bear
"Hey, bitch stole my pic-a-nic basket!"
and the color red.
Greatest album of the 20th century!
The punishment in hell for wrath is being dismembered (probably over and over again, like the eagle that repeatedly eats Prometheus's liver every day in Greek mythology.) Animal cruelty at its finest!
Sites Cited
deadlysins.com
Wikipedia
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Currently
listening
:
WWE Wreckless Intent
By
Various Artists
Release date: 23 May, 2006
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8 Comments - 14 Kudos
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June 8, 2006 - Thursday
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9:04 AM - Sloth
Current mood:  depressed
Category: Religion and Philosophy
Lust
Gluttony
Greed
Sloth/Sadness
(apathy, indifference, laziness)
The avoidance of physical or spiritual work
Apathy, Varies based on the subject and imminence of said subject. Generally speaking, I'm a sensitive, sym-/empathetic person with strong views and beliefs, but I try not to be too (outwardly) emotional. I tend to muffle or mask my feelings in order to maintain a calm, contemplative countenance, almost like some kind of a poseur robot. idleness, I meditate regularly, sink in and out of states of depression, and suffer daily from hypersomnia on top of insomnia spells, so...YES, I am idle much more frequently than I wish to be. The medical reasons have been thoroughly documented. Limbo is where I reside and where I will remain til my battle is won. Such a lonely place! and wastefulness of time. Like most reading this, I spend hours each day using the Internet (leisurely, not some altruistic activity like researching ingredients of potential cures for fatal diseases). Hours more playing video games or watching TV, maybe a movie. Reading, writing (nonsense), hanging with chums...we're barely scratching the surface of "me" time! I'm riddled with guilt over the past, present anxieties, and worry and fear about the future. I am stifled, rendered useless, like waste.... What a shame! Laziness is particularly condemned I'm not lazy so much as I am debilitated by physical and psychological maladies. Quite a diligent, hard worker when I'm well, in fact, but I don't feel well often enough to be consistent. And that kills me inside, knowing I'm performing mediocre or poorly when I could be great. because others must work harder to make up for it. I hate to be a burden. I have to keep reminding myself that I'll one day repay family, friends, and acquaintances dividends for picking up the slack in my virtual absence. Hopefully I don't die before I get the opportunity! Cowardice I fear nothing, and yet I fear everything. But how can this be? Man's dual nature, contradictions cohabiting. I am both cowardly and noble, though I fashion myself more brave than cowering. or irresponsibility. Finally, some letup! Characteristically a very responsible young man. I naturally rely on logic, abide by the rules (or display the proper contumely, should they be unjust), and proceed straightaway with a level head. Abandonment, Being a solitary creature by nature, it's (relatively) easy for me to do without human contact; I can amuse myself quite fine, for prolonged periods of time. Given this, the thoughts and emotions of others persist in weighing heavily upon my own, so any departures from humanity are only temporary respites to regather myself. especially of God. I've never completely abandoned my faith in the Lord, but it certainly is tested during trying times and isolated moments of brilliance. Sloth is a little like a state of equilibrium: one does not produce much, one does not consume much. No good or bad, just empty. However, sloth, unlike homeostasis, leads only to despair. Humans weren't meant to be hollow. We have souls, and squishy stuff! Emptiness and indifference inevitably lead to sorrow. Dante wrote that sloth is the "failure to love God with all one's heart, all one's mind and all one's soul". Passionless romance makes for lousy lovemaking. Associated with goats Because they're related to sheep? and the color light blue. The color of tears... The childish of the two misplaced childhood. In the small hours, I yearn for the blissful ignorance of childhood. The punishment in hell for sloth is being thrown into a pit of snakes. Never a dull moment in purgatory!
Sites Cited
deadlysins.com
Wikipedia
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Currently
listening
:
Cabin Fever
By
Rasputina
Release date: 09 April, 2002
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6 Comments - 10 Kudos
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Gender: Male
Age: 26
Sign: Virgo
State: Washington DC
Country: US
Signup Date:
05/14/05
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