I'm NOT "Back"

I am proud of the success this blog has had. When I first pictured myself working with it, I had imagined it as an open, public journal. Exactly what I thought "blogs" web-logs were designed to be. I know there is a need and demand for blogs that promote products or people. Little mini-resume's for would be actors and comediennes. That's great. I'm glad they exist.

My little podium here was meant to be haven for public discourse. I didn't set out to become famous, popular or earn any revenue. I slowly found myself though dedicating so much time to it that guilt started setting in. I was spending time here where I should be elsewhere, doing things that will actually benefit my life at work or at home. It was with that intention that I added advertisements as a tiny little incentive for justification.

That didn’t quite pan out since I refused to add anything obtrusive to the site. I did NOT want to cross that line. Now I am here with ideas slowly escaping me and no real time to jot them down. I can no longer do the essay length 2 or 3 blogs a day I was doing some time ago. I will post a few now and again but I’m afraid the days of a constant barrage of nonsense are over.

At least until I hit the lottery or retire. Or both!

For now, I shall continue to post occasionally and respond as soon as possible as always.

(Oh and I apologize about the new comment system, I had no choice. I was getting spammed and I didn't want my readers to be exposed to it in the comment section with fraudulent and dangerous links.)

Online Acquaintances

We live in an electronic era. Occupations and lifestyles change nearly as fast as new technology can accommodate it. Just the other day I was discussing the odd nature of the taboo subject of online relationships with my wife.

I don’t mean “sexual” relationships though I am not excluding them specifically either. I was watching a documentary about a group of guys who play World of Warcraft together. Most of them didn’t know each other personally until they met through the game. They were not exactly young either. From appearance alone I could safely say that they were all in their mid to late 30’s.

Watching it was a little painful. Each one of these guys showed traits that seem downright stereotypical of the older, video game player. It was an honest documentary and will not be the solitary focus of this blog but merely an introduction to the concept of online friends.

Occasionally they expressed concerns over admitted the fact that they met online, there was a hint of embarrassment. Admittedly, I felt a little embarrassed on their behalf as well. This really made me pause. Why? I thought. Why in this day and age do we still feel that meeting someone online is a stigma?

I propose the following arguments.

• You meet people online by evaluating them first by the way they present themselves, contextually. (As opposed to physically at a bar or club were you or they are most likely inebriated.)
• You share more of your personal life with them then you would because of the ease of the inherent media sharing capabilities of the internet. (You wouldn’t open your wallet while dancing to show them pictures of your children at a club would you?)
• You spend MUCH more time conversing with them. (You have access to them every hour of every day through social networks, cell phones, e-mail or even Twitter messages.)

If you introduce someone to your friends and tell them that you met them online, there is always the little bit of suspicion. They must be a weirdo or murderer of some type ignoring the fact that they also spend ridiculous amount of time online. It’s hypocrisy.

If you lose a friend online and feel sad about it, you feel guilty and people don’t really show you sympathy because after all, they weren’t “real” to begin with. Yet if you lose the address of a pen pal you had written to once a year for 20 years then people will cry with you.

Is it because it is new technology that is understood but not yet fully accepted? Is it a concern that some day we will choose it over actual social interaction? Eventually that may be our only alternative to reduce the spread of disease in the distant future but is that what keeps us wary? I don’t know for sure. I imagine that the situation is different for every individual.

One thing I do know is that the best friends I have are online. Some I have never nor will I ever meet in person. What if they are being insincere and are not truthfully representing themselves? Does that really matter? Aren’t friends you have in person just as deceitful as those you meet online or even more so because they do it to your face? Even now, I feel programmed to refer to the offline friends as “real” friends.

It will definitely be a quirk we all need to work on. It will take time but I have faith that this electronic medium will be the first great step towards breaking the imaginary boundaries supported for generations by the Babel concept.

Here we all speak the same language. Currently, we argue and bicker but as time goes on I believe we will begin to notice how similar we all truly are.

Remember When? (Updated - 4:55 p.m. 1-20-2010)

I don't mean to sound like I'm tooting my own horn. The ideas I get are completely original but that doesn't mean other folks don't come to the same conclusion. I know and completely acknowledge this. Now simply because I call attention to it and reference my blog I hope you all don't think I'm trying to say "I told you so." I just find pleasure in the fact that other folks agree.  I'm human and glad that others are on the same track.

Remember my blog about modular cars that I posted last year?

Well check this out. :)  Someone has designed it. XDXDXDXDXD

Oh and remember when I wrote the blog titled Closet Bigots?  The one where I said racism was "natural" and came easy to us because our minds just worked that way?

"This is the way we humans in all our wisdom come to grips with that which we do not understand. We classify and categorize.

These virtual files and categories we created helped keep us in line, think abstractly and learn to abide by rules that don’t physically exist. We learned to survive by using our sense of judgment. Prejudice. We need to be able to identify a threat and not wait impotently for the attack first."

Scientific American agrees.

"..information about living and nonliving objects is shuttled to different areas of the brain so as to trigger appropriate reactions. Animals, for example, could be dangerous, 'but you don’t have to run away from a hammer,' he says. The new findings suggest that the wiring system that connects different areas of the visual cortex with appropriate regions in the rest of the brain is innate—it does not have to form gradually based on visual inputs. That means 'the organization of the brain has to be understood in terms of our evolutionary history,' Caramazza notes. Our brain’s structure is such that we can distinguish prey and aggressors from other kinds of objects, and we have retained this structure even as we get 'milk from bottles and meat from the butcher shop.'”

Of course their terminology is a lot more intellectually and topically appropriate.

Honor

I've been watching a lot, perhaps too much, of old Japanese movies and animé. The great Seven Samurai being one of them. I'm starting to believe it is getting into my head.

I caught myself slightly bowing to someone when I almost ran into them as I came around a hallway corner at work. :S I don't know how long I've been doing this for. I only acknowledged the realization because I felt awkward at the fact that I was bowing to a Japanese coworker.

Whoops!

I sincerely hope he didn't think it was in jest. I don't want to have to try to explain. "Oh sorry I have just been watching a lot of Japanese film lately and..."

Anyway, I hope you have a better day!

Killers

I'm not psychic. I don't know if I believe that people can be. I know that there is a lot that we DON'T know so I can't say beyond any shadow of a doubt that psychic abilities do or do not exist.

That said... I work with many people. Some of which have a pretty shady history. Of those few individuals, two in question have a certain look in their eyes. When I speak to them and see their faces...I feel, I think they are disturbed. Disturbed as one would be if they had murdered someone in the past. Ex-Military.

I've met and worked with plenty of individuals who have worked both for and with the military. Not many have this "look." These two guys have it burned in their faces.

I can't describe it as well as I can see it but I will try.

It almost seems like they permanently have an expression of absolute boredom or disappointment. Above and beyond any typical poker face. Almost like they are dead. But their eyes...their eyes have this intensity that seems as if they are looking for you to turn your back so they can bite you on the neck with their bare teeth.

I would be willing to bet cold hard cash that these guys have killed before even though I don't believe what I "see" is any psychic impression. Does this make any sense to you? Have you seen what I am talking about?

I hope I'm not alone.

Morons

About a year and a half ago I posted a blog about taggers and their obvious lack of anything remotely resembling intelligence. Taggers, if you don't already have the unfortunate luck of knowing one, are these idiot children that go around at night and scribble nonsense on walls, street signs and anything that could get them what their ridiculous excuse for a brain understand as fame. They are so dense that it doesn't even click that people can't even read that garbage. Now I'm not talking about territorial gang markings. That's a whole other world of special bus.

...well, at that time some brave idiot came out of the woodwork using the anonymous name and tried to insult us all. Never making a single point, in fact at one point conceding to what we were saying and then just flopping. "Granted, some graffiti is ugly and done by kids just wanting to vandalize property, but for fuck sake, shut the hell up."

I won't delve into the details of his moronic complaint (or the irony of his insults "you sound ignorent") because I responded to him here and you can read that if you wish.

Well a year and a half after writing that original post, we apparently attracted another jackass. This time I blocked anonymous posts so this guy created an account to respond with.

It is in the comments of the original post but I will copy and paste here for you all to enjoy. :)

J0Ey.C said...

hey hektik life ...FUCK YOU....and tagging crews stand for graffitti you fucking idiot think you know what gangser rappers are like what the fuck...youl get yur self shot for saying that.. your probaly some old white person......yeah fuck you too iris you guys are nothing but smurks oh yea uhmmmm bloggerette (FUCK YOU)
"taggings UGLY" its not to the kids tat are doing it and you old white people just sit in your house and biuld model cars and shit you fucking faggets and i can tell your white beause you talk shit on stuff you no NOTHING about..... yeah and fuck whoever wrote this shit on this whack ass site......

December 23, 2009 9:14 PM

Then he responds to himself.

J0Ey said...

hectik life is a straight shit talking bitch... you only had a mom growing up huh? hahah or a whack ass white dad hahahhah someone needs to beat your ass you discust me. just go build a birdhouse or whatever old faggets do.
FUCKKK YOUUUUU

December 23, 2009 9:18 PM

:D

So now I respond to JOEy.C.

"tagging crews stand for graffitti"
No, child, they don't. Graffiti and tagging are NOT one in the same. Know your own history. Graffiti is urban art and tagging is chicken scratch.

"you know what gangser rappers are like what the fuck...youl get yur self shot for saying that"
Oh will I? Because real hardcore gangsters dance right? And make music videos? Real gangsters are in prison. Real gangsters die. Real gangsters don't have products named after them. Your parents must have never taught you to distinguish between fantasy and reality did they? Do you still believe in Santa?

"your probaly some old white person"
Ahhh, and this is the point where you proved your ignorance to me. Racism and ignorance go hand in hand. Assuming that I am white why? Because I know how to spell? That doesn't say a lot about the faith you have in what you call your own "people." No. I am not white and it wouldn't matter anyway because ignorance isn't prejudiced, as you have just proven.

The rest of that original post goes on a rampage of misspelled slurs and cursing. Much like a rabid chihuahua before you kick the little bastard over the fence so I will skim over that section.

In his next post after he caught his second wind, most likely after his weed coughing fit.

"you only had a mom growing up huh?"
What? Is that an insult? Isn't that what happens to poor little ghetto bastards? I guess he was trying to insult me with what he grew up with to know as an embarrassing life. Please, try again. Put some thought into it. This stuff is just making me laugh.

"someone needs to beat your ass you discust me"
Let me guess...you didn't even read the blog did you. You just assumed content from the title. Did you read why tagging is stupid? How it costs YOU money in the taxes that are raised to pay for the cleaning. How it costs YOU money when the property values of your home drop as a result of the tagging.

Perhaps you'd believe me if I told you this way toker. What if I told you that "the man" started this tagging trend? That he and his fat cats up in Washington conspired to make it popular and to glorify it in movies and music so poor folk would ruin their own neighborhoods and keep them poor by not letting their property values stay high and increase as much as other homes in the same neighborhoods.

JOE, all kidding aside. If your response to me telling you that taggers aren't doing anything but making the lives harder on those individuals struggling to make ends meet in our neighborhoods is "FUCKKK YOUUUUU" then there really isn't any hope for kids like you and those of us smart enough to see the truth for what it is will have only one option. Turn our backs to you when we achieve success and turn you down when you come asking for a handout years later.

Good luck moving out of your mother's house, if you're lucky enough to know who she is.