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Monday, June 8, 2009

Summer's Here

Well, summer's almost here, only 6 days left of school following today, then I have one English exam on the following Wedsnday first thing in the morning, and following that, I'm done for the rest of the school year. After that, all I have to do is come back briefly on June 25th to pick up my report card.
I don't know exactly what I'm going to do for the entire summer; alot of my friends are going to be busy, either with part-time jobs or going out of town, or just unable to hang out for no real valid reason. I don't really want to spend my summer like I spent the boring and dry days in the summer prior; sitting on my computer surfing the internet while watching some documentary on Joseph Stalin on History Television.
I'm going to Lethbrige, Alberta at the end of July with my dad, his girlfriend, and my brother, but that's still a long time away, and I guess in the meantime I can get around to starting that novel I've been avidly planning out for the past three months, as well as become more skilled at guitar and maybe even start to write my own songs, and possibly perform them for a YouTube audience.
Obviously, I'll also be hanging out with friends every chance I get, which will probably be at least two or three times a week, as well as checking out the latest summer blockbusters.
Another thing I'll be doing, most likely near the beginning of the summer, will be taking my knowledge test as to earn my 'L' license.

If I end up getting so incredibly bored I find myself getting depressed, I'll probably look for a part-time job to keep myself pre-occupied. Hopefully, though, it doesn't get to that point.
Also, I'll probably look into taking day (or possibly camping) trips to the nearby Gulf Islands I can see from my bedroom window as well as from my school (which is conveniently located within walking distance).

Another two years of school, and I'm done for good. I'll finally be able to experience life to its fullest. God, I can't wait until June 2011.

Monday, June 1, 2009

The Necessity of School

To get right to the point, I do see the basic, and even some of the advanced necessities of school; how to do essential math problems you're going to need to buy a load of groceries at the store, how to read a novel or a newspaper, or even something as simple as a pop label so you can be sure you're not drinking sulfuric acid, and basic social situations in social environments, so when you get out into the big, open world you don't start thinking everyone's going to take 'fuck you' as a thank you.
What I don't understand is why we don't have more of a choice, especially when it comes to high school. I can see essential mathematics as being a minimum required course until grade 11, and even essential English, but what I don't understand is why people are forced to take things like science (the subject differs to me each year; sometimes it more interesting, others time not so much) social studies (I'm just throwing that out there as an example; in fact, social studies is one of my favorite academic subjects) planning (which can also be known as CAPP which stands for Career and Personal Planning, which I do see a point to, but don't see why we don't have a choice in it) and PE (this ones a big one for me. I see why people would want to take it, and I do see the whole 'fitness' goal to it, but why force us to take that either?).

Schools are supposed to give us safe, healthy environments to work in. For the most part they do, but there's always the group of egotistical assholes who try to make everyone look like feeble idiots, and to tell the truth, it works most of the time. I feel embarrassed and not valuable to the slightest extent. I feel expendable and worthless when enough people get together to force it to stick in my head. That's not to say that's happened recently, or even happens very often, because it hasn't actually occurred since about grade 9, and I can't even entirely recall what the incident was.

I really see no point in forcing students to learn more-than-basic geometry, and see no valuable importance in knowing that there are holes in the sun's corona that cause particles to seep out and spread throughout the solar system to create solar winds, but again, if someone wants to learn that stuff, they can be my guest. In fact, I'd be interested in learning the last of those two, but I see no point in forcing it on the students.

Another thing I find strange is that school isn't a democracy; why do we always have to have bad principals? Think of it this way: if we voted in a principal out of four or five runners, we'd have only ourselves to blame if we get a bad one. It's a flawless plan, and would probably be quite popular among students worldwide.

Also, why does school perpetuate such a strong sense of authoritarianism? Shouldn't we be learning how to be independent as opposed to following the rules of someone who seems to think they're in charge of us, yet don't even pay us anything for our cooperation?

Yes, I'm sure if you talk to a principal that after awhile of debating the necessity of school they'd admit that the system isn't flawless, but they'd still hold very true to the stance school takes. There would be no change. The only time change would truly happen would be if students stood up and actually pushed for change (which, sadly yet not unexpectedly, they probably wouldn't).

That's my entire outlook on the entire subject, and please, I want everyone to know that school is indeed quite debatable. If you seem to think it isn't you better not have any political opinions, because you'd only be contradicting yourself.

Simple update. Nothing big.

Well, it's my birthday today and I turn 16. I'm probably going to see about going down to my local CIBC branch and picking up a drivers studying manuel as to study for getting my L (which is 'Learners' for any of my readers who may be unaware). I'll probaby end up taking the test sometime next week (amid final exams chaos).
On a seperate subject, I got a guitar as a requested gift for my birthday, and it's quite a nice one. It's a solid-top Corts acoustic guitar, and I've already semi-learned the opening to the Beatles song Ticket to Ride.
My arm still aches and won't bend to certain angles due to the bicycle crash just over a week ago, but should be fine within the next couple of weeks (hopefully within the week).
Final exams have all the teachers stressed out, and bringing that stress directly into the minds of the students, including myself, who's arm is pulsing with extra pain due to the extra pressure.

The upside to all this is that next weekend I'll be having a bit of a birthday get together, am going to the gulf island of Texada with a friend of mine, and it's summer break the week after that (aside from an English exam that I need to go to that I'll have absolutley no problem with).

Friday, May 29, 2009

Rockefeller and the Zeitgeist

Well, it's an absolute given that I was going to do a new blog post after I saw the documentary Zeitgeist last night.
It's an incredible documentary, and really sheds an incredible amount of light onto not only the 9/11 conspiracy, but also on how corporations with incredibly rich owners are able to manipulate even the smartest, most charismatic members of any democratic government to work in their favour, and if they don't, they either find a way to make them look bad, or they kill them. Plain and simple.

The fact of the matter is, the United States of America is no longer living in a democracy, it's living in a world controlled by power-hungry, self-absorbed, genuinely evil corporations that cleverly used us against ourselves in intricate bendings of the social structure to their benefit.

After seeing Zeitgeist last night, I'm honestly surprised that no one has ever taken a shot at any of the Rockefeller's, or if they have, it's been kept under tight wraps. I really think someone should take to arms and kill a few (if not all) of these power-hungry Rockefeller's. It needs to be done by someone at some point in time, and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if I get a knock on the door tomorrow and two men wearing suits and glasses tell me they're taking me away for no valid reason, despite the fact that I live in Canada, where our Conservative government kisses the shiny shoes of the American government, who, in turn, kiss the shiny shoes of the corporate elite.
Getting back to the 'should-be-dead Rockefeller's,' it's true that even if they were taken out, you'd probably have to delve deeper into the intricate corporate connections if you truly wished to free both the USA and the world from these evil corporations.
Yes, I believe that a revolution in thinking, a reawakening of the hypnotised, clueless American public would definitely be necessary, and is definitely possible, but I honestly think violence is the only way this entire problem can be solved once and for all.
The Rockefeller's and their associates need to be exposed on as wide a scale as possible, and killed to prevent them from continuing their evil, manipulative campaign which aims towards a one-world government where everyone wears a tracking device inside themselves known as an RFID chip. I'd rather my children don't grow up in an evil, dystopian future. I'd rather I don't live the rest of my life in one.

Yes, I do believe the world needs to be unified if we're to achieve peace, freedom, harmony, and equality, but not if it's controlled by corporations only out for their own gain. This just causes pain, suffering, confusion, and eventually, the entire loss of hope with the population subjecting themselves to these corporate overlords.

The human race doesn't deserve this, the human race deserves free will, hope, love, compassion, and a beautiful world to experience. These corporations need to be taken down, whether it's by a revolution in thought, violent uprisings, or a mix of both.

Wake up people.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Nature and Technology

Question #1: Nature
Briefly state how much time you approximately spend out in nature per week? Outline where you went for your nature exploration? Discuss what it felt like to completely shut off your technology and embrace the simplicity of the outdoors? Discuss some of your favorite things to do outdoors and examine your overall connection with nature? Do you feel this exercise was useful? Why or why not?

I guess I can say I spend at least about 3-5 hours in nature per week, depending on what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. I’m surprised I don’t actually spend more of my time out there considering where I live, but hey, school requires a majority of my time (for some reason). I went out to the Pole Line out by the complex with a friend of mine, and to be completely honest, I guess we didn’t really spend a lot of time sitting, relaxing, and appreciating nature, we spent more time doing cool jumps on some of the man-made dirt tracks out there. We did end up going down a trail we were curious to explore, but I ended up braking to fast at a steep, rocky part of the trail and scratching up my leg badly. We just decided to walk our bikes back at that point.
We didn’t actually shut off our technology, but my friends cell phone did die on him, and I didn’t use mine or even pull it out for the entire duration, so I guess I can honestly say I didn’t use technology in my time out there. Anyways, it felt quite good to disconnect myself from the hectic, unending mainstream of humanity for a little bit. It can prove to be very stressful even when it’s not a necessity (ex: internet not working properly, people constantly texting you).
When I’m outdoors, I love to just walk around, explore, inspect, and appreciate everything that’s surrounding me. The thing that boggles my mind about nature is that it’s not man-made, and that all the incredible formations and patterns I see were never designed, but instead simply came into existence. I guess in that regard I can say my connection to nature is an ok one, albeit not incredibly large.
This exercise, as I see it, was very useful, even if I didn’t end up following the guidelines properly. It was entertaining, interesting, and thought-provoking.

Question #2: Technology
List your favorite aspects of technology? What do you think are the most positive benefits of modern technology within our culture? What do you think are some of the negative disadvantages of modern technology? Do you think technology creates, provides, and promotes distractions, diversions, and short attentions spans within today’s world? Explain.

I guess some of my favorite aspects of technology would be its potential, its ease of use, the amount of information it has provided for us, as well as an area to store it and make it instantly accessible, and the amount of things it gives us to do when we’re bored.
The most positive benefits that come with technology are easy connection to the world, easy obtainment of information, and easy access to entertaining and educational things to do. Yes, it probably has more downsides then upsides if you look at it closely enough though, a few being short attention spans provoked by how easily were used to being able to access different things, the amount of distraction it can cause, the amount of time it consumes that could be used more productively to create/do something meaningful, the disconnection it causes us to have with
nature and occasionally a lot of our other surroundings, the information it gives us that we’d probably be happier not knowing, the amount of intricacy it causes us to see as entertaining and worthwhile, which leads us to get easily bored because we perceive other, simpler things as not being as intricate and therefore not entertaining or worthwhile, as well as the new things we have to learn almost daily due to the never-ending updates and improvements.
Yes, I do think technology creates, provides, and promotes distractions, diversions, and short attention spans within today’s world; it’s not hard to see.
I know for a fact that people that were living hundreds of years ago never saw things in the intricate, complicated ways as we do now. They simply lived life as fully as they could, and never took anything for advantage.

Question #3: Nature and Technology
List the most important elements in nature for you? List the most important elements of technology for you? Describe proactive ways in which you could incorporate a healthy moderation of both nature and technology within your life?
The most important elements in nature for me is the overlying simplicity that provokes deep, interesting thoughts into myself, the disconnection and fresh, natural feelings it provides, the absolute beauty it provides, and the serenity and hope it ignites within me.
The most important elements of technology for me are the information it provides, the quick and easy connection it provides to my friends, family, and the entire world, the abilities it has provided us with (like the ability to cure certain diseases and other medical problems, and the ability to safely cross oceans using ships and planes), and the sleekness it show bodes everywhere it’s present.
I guess I could start exploring the back country of Powell River, see what incredible nature lies out there that I still have yet to see, but also bring a cell-phone in case of emergency, and my iPod as to make scenes of beauty even more epic, as well as provide entertainment if I end up utterly bored for some reason or another. Also, finding information on how to survive in nature using the instantly accessible internet could help to.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE ABOVE POST WAS ORIGINALLY CREATED AS AN ESSAY FOR MY DIGITAL MEDIA CLASS.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Europe and North Africa, with a Dash of the Middle East Trip Route

Starting Point: Vancouver, BC, Canada

Via Plane: East to London, Federal District, UK

Via Chunnel: Southeast to Paris, Ile-de-France, France

East to Strasbourg, Alsace, France

South to Geneva, Republic and Canton of Geneva, Switzerland

Southwest to Lyon, Rhone-Alpes, France

Southeast to Turin, Piedmont, Italy,

South to Genoa, Genoa, Italy

East to Pisa, Tuscany, Italy

East to San Marino, San Marino

Southwest to Rome and Vatican City, Lazio, Italy

Southeast to Naples, Campania, Italy

Southeast to Catania, Sicily, Italy

West to Palermo, Sicily, Italy

Via Boat: Southeast to Valletta, Malta

Via Boat: West to Tunis, Tunis Governorate, Tunisia

South to Sfax, Sfax Governorate, Tunisia

South to Gabes, Gabes Governorate, Tunisia

East to Tripoli, Tripoli Sha’biyah, Libya

East to Misratah, Misratah Sha’biyah, Libya

East to Surt, Surt, Libya

East to Ajdabiya, Al Wahat, Libya

North to Benghazi, Cyrenaica, Libya

East to Al Bayda, Al Jabal al Akhdar, Libya

East to Shahhat, Al Jabal al Akhdar, Libya

East to Darnah, Al Jabal al Akhdar, Libya

East to Marsa Matruh, Egypt

East to Alexandria, Egypt

Southeast to Giza, Egypt

Northeast to Port Said, Egypt

East to Gaza, Gaza Strip, Israel

North to Jerusalem, Israel

North to Tel Aviv, Federal District, Israel

North to Haifa, Israel

North to Damascus, Syria

North to Beirut, Beirut Governorate, Lebanon

North to Tripoli, Lebanon

North to Homs, Syria

North to Aleppo, Syria

North to Gaziantep, Gaziantep, Turkey

West to Tarsus, Mersin, Turkey

North to Konya, Anatolia, Turkey

North to Ankara, Ankara, Turkey

West to Izmir, Marmara, Turkey

Northwest to Bursa, Marmara, Turkey

Northwest to Sofia, Bulgaria

Southwest to Skopje, Macedonia

Southeast to Thessaloniki, Greek Macedonia, Greece

South to Athens, Attica, Greece

West to Patras, Peloponnese, Greece

North to Tirana, Albania

North to Podgorica, Montenegro

North to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

North to Zagreb, Croatia

West to Ljubljana, Slovenia

North to Vienna, Austria

West to Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Northwest to Stuttgart, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany

Northeast to Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany

Northwest to Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany

East to Dresden, Saxony, Germany

North to Berlin, Federal District, Germany

Northwest to Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Southwest to Bremen, Bremen, Germany

Southwest to Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands

South to Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, Netherland

South to Brussels, Belgium

South to Paris, Ile-de-France, France

Via Chunnel: North to London, Federal District, UK

North to Liverpool, Merseyside, UK

South to Cardiff, Wales, UK

East to London, Federal District, UK

Via Plane: South to Brest, Brittany, France

Via Plane: South to Oporto, Portugal

South to Coimbra, Portugal

South to Lisbon, Federal District, Portugal

Southeast to Setubal, Portugal

Southeast to Seville, Andalusia, Spain

Northeast to Cordoba, Andalusia, Spain

Southeast to Granada, Andalusia, Spain

Northeast to Cartagena, Murcia, Spain

North to Murcia, Murcia, Spain

North to Valencia, Valencia, Spain

West to Madrid, Federal District, Spain

North to Valladolid, Castile and Leon, Spain

Northeast to Pamplona, Navarre, Spain

South to Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

East to Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

North to Toulouse, Midi-Pyrenees, France

Via Plane: North to London, Federal District, UK

Via Plane: West to Vancouver, BC, Canada

North American Trip Route (West Coast and Interior)

Starting Point: Vancouver, BC, Canada

South to Seattle, Washington, USA

Southwest to Tacoma, Washington, USA

Southwest to Olympia, Washington, USA

Southwest to Portland, Oregon, USA

Southwest to Salem, Oregon, USA

Southwest to Eugene, Oregon, USA

Southwest to Coos Bay, Oregon, USA

South to Medford, Oregon, USA

Southwest to Eureka, California, USA

Southeast to Sacramento, California, USA

Southwest to Oakland and San Francisco, California, USA

South to San Jose, California, USA

Southeast to Fresno, California, USA

South to Bakersfield, California, USA

Southwest to Santa Barbara, California, USA

Southeast to Los Angeles, California, USA

South to Long Beach, California, USA

South to San Diego, California, USA

South to Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico

South to Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico

South to La Purisima, Baja California, Mexico

South to La Paz, Baja California, Mexico

Via boat: East to Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico

Southeast to Durango, Durango, Mexico

Northeast to Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico

East to Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico

East to Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico

South to Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, Mexico

South to Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico

Southwest to Queretaro, Queretaro, Mexico

South to Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico

South to Puebla, Puebla, Mexico

South to Oaxaca, Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, Mexico

Southwest to Ometepec, Guerrero, Mexico

Northwest to Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico

Northeast to Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico

Northwest to Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico

Northwest to Ciudad Guzman, Jalisco, Mexico

Northeast to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

Northeast to Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, Mexico

Northwest to Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico

North to Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico

North to Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico

North to Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico

North to Nogales, Sonora, Mexico

North to Tucson, Arizona, USA

North to Phoenix, Arizona, USA

North to Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

Northwest to Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Northwest to Carson City and Reno, Nevada, USA

East to Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

North to Pocatello, Idaho, USA

Northeast to Cody, Wyoming, USA

North to Billings, Montana, USA

Northwest to Helena, Montana, USA

Northeast to Great Falls, Montana, USA

Northeast to Havre, Montana, USA

Northeast to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

North to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

West to Red Deer, Alberta, Canada

Southwest to Calgary, Alberta, Canada

West to Kamloops, BC, Canada

South to Kelowna, BC, Canada

West to Vancouver, BC, Canada

Copyright

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The world is meaningless,

there is no God or gods, there are no morals, the universe is not moving inexorably towards any higher purpose.
All meaning is man-made, so make your own, and make it well.
Do not treat life as a way to pass the time until you die.
Do not try to "find yourself", you must make yourself.
Choose what you want to find meaningful and live, create, love, hate, cry, destroy, fight and die for it.
Do not let your life and your values and your actions slip easily into any mold, other that that which you create for yourself, and say with conviction, "This is who I make myself".
Do not give in to hope.
Remember that nothing you do has any significance beyond that with which you imbue it.
Whatever you do, do it for its own sake.
When the universe looks on with indifference, laugh, and shout back, "Fuck You!".
Rembember that to fight meaninglessness is futile, but fight anyway, in spite of and because of its futility.
The world may be empty of meaning, but it is a blank canvas on which to paint meanings of your own.
Live deliberately. You are free.