Wealth

The accumulation of wealth and wealth's definition per Merriam-Webster "A large amount of money and possessions" is important, but not more important than character. However, I want to discuss the matter of wealth specifically.

According to the definition above, if you have a lot of possessions you're not wealthy. If you have a lot of money but lack possessions, again you're not wealthy. However, if you have either, you're most likely to accumulate both. You may sell your possessions for money, or you may use your money to gain possessions. While one side of the equation decreases the other increases. Viola!

We must work to obtain wealth. We work for money, and we use that money to obtain possessions or more money through investment or reinvestment in our own lives.

Get a job, any job! As you become more productive with your time and more skilled in various tasks your time will become more valuable and thus you can hope to get paid more at your current job or you may find a better-paying job. This is a ladder-effect and continues ad-infinitum.

I enjoy working as it gives me a sense of accomplishment, confidence, increases my existing skills or creates whole new skills, and of course working earn me money and I use at least part of that income to reinvest in myself via purchases of food, shelter, and clothing. I also prefer going further than that and invest in new vehicles that provide me with better gas mileage or perhaps if I'm in construction then something with more towing capacity. I invest in books because I find them relaxing and I am learning something new that either directly or indirectly will have a positive influence in my life. I invest in better, more wholesome foods, taking a night out on the town to see a movie or grab dinner, etc. And if I really have a lot of cash, I would love to invest in a new home and land. Actually, I grew up building residential homes and apartments, so I would purchase a large plot of land let's say 20-40 acres, and build a nice 2500-3000 square foot home. Purchase plenty of animals, buy an engagement ring for the lady and finally begin a great life. It's nice not having to worry about the small expenses such as fuel, natural gas, electricity, water, sewage, phone bills, clothing, food, etc. It's even better to not have to worry about larger expenses such as mortgage payments or rent, insurance, etc. What's more, once you begin a life of ever increasing wealth accumulation, you can help out those in need. You can help your friends with expenses or take them out for a beer, or perhaps you can help your parents when/if they're in financial need.

There is nothing to stop you or I from accumulating ever greater amounts of wealth. Fear of people, or fear of commitment shouldn't stop anyone. Whether you're working fast-food or in the financial sector, there is honor and pride that can and should be found. Some jobs are more disingenuous than others, and some are down-right evil, but even then honor can be found through human determination and will-power.

We work to for money and pay to better ourselves. It's the way the world works. Let nothing stop you!

Current Reflection

Having some time on my hands after a very busy summer that has consisted of nearly losing my father and taking care of my injured girlfriend, I figured it would be a great time to clear my head and allow myself the opportunity to digest the developments of the last six weeks.
   Slowing down and clearing my schedule has allowed me to grasp what has happened and how I feel about it. I've also thought about my future, which I am at a crossroads on: I may continue my education or I may put it on hold. The balance of the question is weighed on my conscience very heavily. I feel burned out like I have never felt before; I want to quit. I am not happy with my new university. My professors weren't enthusiastic about teaching, the university is very expensive and there are a lot of students. I am used to small schools with >5,000 students, now I am at a university more than six times that size and I feel overwhelmed, anxious, nervous, and distracted. I sort of lost motivation half-way through my previous fall semester but I trudged on and on through the spring only to find myself anxious to get away from classes.

I feel like I can't quit though. It feels wrong and ultimately foregoing even one semester may be a bad decision for my future. I am a person and I want to think like one and have a good conscience but school is really sapping my strength. But would I be better off without continuing my education? I really don't know. I am already in the thick of things so I might as well continue, right?

I would love to write about the economy or my country here, and I will but I won't go too deep. My biggest concern lies with the incessant greed of both politicians and big business. Any sort of good-will and testament to human thrift and welfare is but smashed into a million bludgeoning machetes the size of grains of sand. Our rights are swiftly being stripped, thrown, and burned into the black hole that is paranoia. Our great nation was never so great. We became a superpower because of who we conquered, of what we stole from others, and out of a terrible lack of wisdom and foresight. If we were founded by God, we were destroyed by the devil himself.

In technical terminology we are still the one and only superpower, but the near-future reveals we are to become but a relic of great times past, and a haven for the bloodthirsty and wicked... another Babylon if you will.

Lincoln warned of it, Eisenhower cautioned it, Washington foresaw it, and thousands of men and women from older times predicted it.

Mike Rowe, from the show "Dirty Jobs" put our current situation into perfect context and clarity: "We are lending money we don't have to kids who can't pay it back to train them for jobs that no longer exist." Pretty cool eh?! The worst part of it all is that we all see it, we all know it, but were still apathetic and hopeful that change will happen... but it doesn't! We see all of our freedoms, liberties, and wealth vanish before our eyes! We have incredibly smart and hardworking people in this great nation but they are not the voices heard. Reason is not what the politician is paid for. We are a den of thieves! Woe to our government for they have abandoned us! What are we students supposed to do? We have no jobs, we have no money! We want to better ourselves and our nation but we can't afford the cost of an education! If we can't have an education what are we to do? How are we going to progress as a nation? How are we going to lead? We cannot construct new buildings without money! We cannot sustain a powerful army if we have no science to support it!

China is overwhelmingly the victor as of today. They have money and place a high emphasis on education! Though they are just as, if not more corrupt than us, the different lies in their dreams! They are up and coming, full of hope; motivated, driven, and eager to show the world their power! We are demoralized, upset, paranoid, fearful, and have no dreams! It's the government stupid!

Happiness.

We all want to be happy, right? So what's stopping us?

I've thought a lot about this as I find myself in funks often. I've gone to school and studied some of the hardest material that could be thrown at a person with the exception of quantum physics, and very upper-tier mathematics and biology. I've traveled from town to town across the Pacific Northwest, hitting bookstores along the way hoping to find my answer, or answers secretly scribbled in some mans journal, or a woman's novel. I've read books on psychology, math, physics, philosophy, religion, even language!

When I was a teen I was overcome with devastating depression, one that also struck my brother through more terrible means. I locked myself away from the world with my books... not Maxim, Penthouse, or Playboy, but books on history, finances, and philosophy. I had heard of "enlightenment" and was convinced that was my answer, but how would I get there?

I changed course and dove headfirst into the dating world. I broke out from being this quiet, shy, homeschooled kid, to one full of confidence. Confidence that was fed from the attention I received from women. I was frustrated on my quest and I figured maybe happiness isn't so much about thinking as it is about taking extreme risk!

Finally, I settled into a life more balanced with work, relationships, college, and family. It took a lot of mistakes for me to reach what I believe to be "enlightenment" but alas I'm about there.

Happiness, the kind that is long-term and clings to you wherever you go and whoever you're with, the kind that is absorbed by everyone who comes into contact with you is not so much what you're influenced by as much as it what you believe.
It is having a positive attitude, where you look at life as a blessing and find the opportunities in everything in life. A flower is not just a flower, it signifies life and determination. It can be picked, trampled upon, cut, and smashed. But it is there in all it's majesty. It's taking everything in and not saying "no" to opportunity. It's a combination of thought, feeling, and belief. It takes self-determination and will. Life will pass you by and leave you unhappy if you don't take charge of your life and believe in yourself and regard life as a blessing full of opportunity.

Issue with modern T.V. and movies.

I have an issue, or issues rather, with modern TV and movies.

Most modern television is bland, generic, predictable, boring, toothless, tasteless, and quite frankly unintelligent.

I will explain each of the previously mentioned descriptions here:

Let's take Game of Thrones for example.

Game of Thrones is is an HBO-based show. HBO is typically associated with high-quality movies and television series.

However, I have noticed a significant decline in quality TV shows over the years and just when I think I've seen the worst, another will come along to surpass my dreary expectations.

Game of Thrones is one of the most popular shows in the U.S. currently and has seen raving success among people of every class, faith, background, etc. It is for those reasons I am picking on it, however, I will include many other shows that I feel have a significant relationship with the same sub-par qualities that Game of Thrones has.

I will give Game of Thrones props for its unique setting in an older middle-age sort-of era. The show does a wonderful job in it's costume design, props, and architecture. The plot and story are also very unique thanks to having a good author of the books.

But here is where it gets bad... and not just bad as in "that response didn't make sense" bad or "that prop seems incredibly out of place for that era", no! I mean bad as in "I can't take this show anymore... please just make it stop!"

First: the acting is quite poor. I haven't decided if it's simply the actors who are at fault or the scripts given them but to be sure; it's quite awful. I will get back to this in a minute.

Second: the script is absolute rubbish! Completely horrid! I feel as if I might go mad and finally decide to hit the local club simply because of the go-go dancers! That bad!

When the actors are conversing with one another it seems way to obvious that they're speaking at one another rather than with one another. Most people in real-life converse with one another and develop a certain flow or chemistry amongst themselves where one subject is discussed leading to another subject with several quips or remarks made in-between each subject. But in Game of Thrones, the dialogue between characters is painfully awkward and entirely without chemistry. Instead of conversations proceeding like this: " hey [x], how are you today?" "I'm fine [y], how are you?" "I'm great [x]! You know, I was just thinking about gathering an army to defeat mean ol' Joffery, what say you?" "hmmm [y] I like the idea, how do you propose we go about doing that?" Instead this is how things unravel: "hey [x],  how are you today?" "shut your mouth you jerk! You shall never talk in such a tone again." "I hear you might travel to the wall today [x]." "those bastards took my wallet." "I think I'll have some wine"
....... Now keep in mind that in between each painfully spoken sentence, there is some pause and a camera close up on the character that lasts for sometime.

In addition to the terrible conversation pieces where the characters speak at each other in a seemingly chaotic and disorganized union where the full magnitude of what character [x] said to character [y] is almost entirely dismissed, or entirely blown out of proportion.

In addition to that addition, there are several extremely long and drawn out scenes where a single conversation will take place between two people which has little to nothing to do with the ultimate plot of the show, or any relevance to anything whatsoever! It's as if the writers were not sure what to do so they included a scene that has nothing to do with anything and where the words spoken are but few; the emotion is high, and the whole scene is simply put: a waste of time.

Third: the level of rational thinking among any of the characters is completely lost! There isn't a single character in the show that portrays the least bit of maturity for their given age and experience. The producers simply said: "you are bad guy [a]; that guy over there is bad guy [b]; and both of you will simply be bad without thinking much about it." And of course vice-versa for the good guys, essentially saying "you're good so you always do good."

The bad guys are just plain bad and have no intention of thinking anything through. Where as the good guys are good but they have a host of emotional issues. Now a lot of people of high-running emotions I get that; but these guys wake up in the morning and literally piss estrogen. No one is sure of anything, but they're more than happy to give up whatever they think they're sure of in order to get what they think they are sure of that they want. Yes... what I said sound entirely dumb because there is no other eloquent way of putting such a dumb way of thinking.

Fourth: the show has very, very little action, and whatever action is shown is always very, very brief. Most of the show is centered around politics; politics of sorts that are not even in the least bit interesting. This is one of the areas where the show is quite like most other shows on television these days: group [a] wants to take action against group [b], but cannot do so without negatively affecting their relationship with group [c]. Group [c] cannot take action against group [d] without negatively impacting group [a]. Group [b] cannot take action against group [a] without negatively affecting their relationship with group [d]. And within each possible consequence there are a number of other consequences that affect the relationships within a single group: mother sets son up for success; son turns against mother; mother turns against son; and round the tree we go!

The plot moves at such a slow rate it's a pain to watch.

Ultimately the show is emotionally draining; there is very little comedy and almost all of it comes from one man (guess who); the characters are devoid of any level of realism and fail to make any connection with the audience; the dialogue is awful and painful to watch as there is no chemistry or flow to any of the conversations; and finally the show is simply boring as it moves at a snails pace towards an undefined goal.

Like most modern shows (everything on ABC, NBC, the CW, etc) the shows biggest pitfall is the lack of good dialogue. Good dialogue can overcome a poor set, bad acting, just about bad anything.

Watch shows from the early 90's and anything older than that and one thing you will notice is a lot of fun conversations that make the show appear to be moving forward in a direction. The conversations grip you and involve you in ways that modern television fails to.

Aaron Sorkin, the writer for The West Wing, is absolutely brilliant! The conversations flow between characters, often involving several characters speaking at a pace slightly faster than what most conversations take place in real life but it still manages to captivate the audience with complex discussions that involve seriousness, humor, and the whole range of emotion, without involving long and drawn out pieces where the characters are nothing more but pawns on a board.

The West Wing along with Gilmore Girls, has that fast-paced realism that is too good to avoid. Something a lot of older films had too!

Instead of decent television; we fall victim to sub-par shows where the characters all suffer from some sort of mental illness, baggage, and sorrow that trumps any possibility of them acting or speaking using logic. This sort of television is so far detached from reality that it almost seems like it's intended for a DisneyChannel age demographic. Heck, the DisneyChannel is among the worst of the worst!

The DisneyChannel features shows where every character lacks any sensibility, rationality, or maturity... yet the kids still manage to out-mature the parents who are unable to express any emotion other than laughing.

"I was walking then I saw a mouse, looked up at the sky and got hit by a space-man!" *audience laughs uncontrollably as if they are North Korean citizens seeing their leader Kim Jong-un in person* " that's awesome Billy, now watch me roll over the couch and hit my head on that spoon" "waaaaiiiiiit just a minute there young man, just what do you think you're doing?" "oh hi dad, were just playing ordering a deli yogurt." "ok I'm going to bash my head in" "ok dad, just use a proper hammer next time."
... yup, that's about how much sense the DisneyChannel makes.

Heck, television has gotten so bad that now the History Channel no longer features any history at all, ever! Now it's a series of scripted television shows and pseudo-science that belongs on the Sci-Fi Channel rather than on the History Channel (Aliens, anyone?).

For whatever; the U.S. is becoming increasingly lazier and dumber. Willingly subjecting themselves to television that numbs their senses rather than stimulating them intellectually (Murder She Wrote, Numbers, Magnum PI, etc).

How about Big Bang Theory? Surely that's an intelligent show! After all, it features scientists and engineers and has even had guest appearances by real physicists!

Nope, the BBT is pretty bad! All of the humor comes from half-thought up references that aren't funny at all, but are placed into slightly relevant conversations stooping the audience into thinking its funny. "Did you hear Leonard, the train museum is featuring a new train!" "That's great Sheldon, maybe that train can take you far away from here!" That's the writing! After that quick conversation, the entire show will turn another direction from there.

The show does not feature any level of serious science, or even scientific references. Nor does the show boast any qualitative conversation that might draw the audience into thinking "wow that was really brilliant and funny!"

All of it is really lazy writing. I can write entire seasons of shows that are better than either Game of Thrones or BBT, or 90% of shows on television today. And before you say "then do it!" I'd like to say "I am".

I want the West Wing, Magnum PI, Home Improvement, Seinfield, Scrubs, JAG, and anything that has some backbone in it. Something I can get immersed in and makes me think!

Now, I don't want to end on a sour note so I do want to mention some great shows that are on TV right now:
1) Blue Bloods-CBS
   -This show is in a class of its own. The acting is superb, the script is good, conversation between characters is good, and they all seem like normal, down to earth people without a host of mental issues. It's a good, clean show with a heavy family emphasis that is awesome and refreshing to see.
2) Shark Tank-ABC
   -Not really a typical show, more of a reality show, but a darn good one at that! Anyone looking to start a business, or just curious to see the process of securing a loan can learn a lot from this show! Not to mention, it's entertaining as hell!
3) Deadliest Catch-Discovery
   -Again, not a conventional show as it is a reality show but it is really addicting! This season is really slow, and I'm guessing its because of the reduced crab quotas set forth by the government.
4) House of Cards-Netflix
   -This show is really good. The conversations aren't incredibly fast like on the West Wing, but there is a level of normalcy about it and Kevin Spaceys acting is delightful! A good script, excellent plot and dangerous twists keep will keep you on your toes!

It seems like most shows now-days focus too much on the clothing, hair, and making a cocky hero out of nothing. Notice that almost all the lead actors who are the "heros" or main stars of the show are extremely one-dimensional? They're all very bravado, masculine, arrogant, cocky, and all-knowing. They all drive nice cars, have nice clothes, perfect hair, and speak cool and calm the vast majority of the time. Because they're all so alike, and because of the shows heavy reliance on them; every show is nearly the same. Here is a list of shows fitting that description:

1 ) CSI: Miami
2) CSI: Las Vegas
3) CSI: New York
4) Castle -how did the police ever solve cases without Castle?
5) The Mentalist -what is the point of the police, and why is the girl a police officer? The Mentalist does everything, making her entirely irrelevant to the show!

I'm sure there are more but I don't watch much TV outside of the four shows I listed above.

Other notable shows that are completely retarded:
1) Vampire Diaries- what is the point of the show if you just make up random crap every episode that only serves to confuse and over-complicate things?
2) Cult-been cancelled finally!
3) Gossip Girl-Cancelled too!
4) One Tree Hill-show ended a few years back, but still horrid.
5) The O.C. -same as One Tree Hill
6) Any and all vampire shows.

And finally, the channels that provide the most unintelligent, most boring, and most tasteless shows known to man (and they should be banned out right):
1) DisneyChannel-when I have kids they will never know what this is! Disney used to produce some good television, but these days it's insane, I mean it... every show is literally insane and worthless. It's dumbing-down kids everywhere.
2) History Channel-why it called the History channel if there is no history?
3) NBC-how is NBC still in business? They haven't put out a good show in years!
5) Fox-providing false information and irrelevant cynicism since before time!

I'd like to see al-Jazeera gain popularity in the states. It's a great news channel, that is also timely, accurate, and more non-biased than any other larger news network in America. I'd take al-Jazeera over Fox, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, HLN, and CNN. They do a good job of just reporting the facts, without including heavy bias.

Current status!

Hello all,

So I haven't been on here much as life outside of the internet has been very demanding. I have almost completed this semester so that means that I shall spend more time on here writing.

In addition to my studies in school; I am also working on writing a book and preparing a fairly large blog post I hope to post on here within the next month regarding 9/11, terrorism, national security, etc. It's a tedious gathering up qualified sources of data, writing, and finally editing/organizing a post of such magnitude in addition to everything else life is throwing at me but I fully intend to finish it sooner rather than later!

Cheers,



RT

Happenings.

Hi all,

I haven't posted in here for a while due to many things happening. My last living grandmother died, followed by one of my close friends. School and life has added to my stress and taken away a lot of time I would otherwise have to post here.

Anyways,

The U.S. government seems eager and more than willing to collapse; economically speaking. With sequester in full-swing we are witnessing the greatest dysfunction within our political system in history. 

To add to the flavor; president Obama has not change much since the Bush era. Allowing drone strikes to occur anywhere in the world and to strike any man, woman, or child anytime and place (including the U.S.) is quite scary. 

The air-force has now wiped-clean all drone strike data with regards to Afghanistan.

The Republicans are quite frankly, insane. Showing complete and utter disdain for logic and for their fellow Americans, they're more than willing to sacrifice men, women, and children for the sake of corporate greed.

I'd like to end this blip on a good note: SpaceX has launched their new Grasshopper rocket to a new height of 263 feet! If you're not familiar with SpaceX or the Grasshopper rocket, then please Google them! The Grasshopper rocket is an autonomous rocket that not only takes off vertically (big deal-right!) but also lands vertical with incredible accuracy!