getting back into it...

this is me trying...

check it out

http://jonahray.tumblr.com/post/3711474835/heres-the-history-of-hawaii-illustrated-by-plate

so much is wrong...

It seems that there is so much wrong with the world today, and it just isn't improving all that much. There is violence on television and in our schools. I mean, what do we really expect when video games come out with a "Mature" rating? I heard an interview on NPR with a US Army commander who trains snipers. He said that he uses techniques found in today's video games to desensitize his recruits to violence. Make them more capable of killing without hesitation.

I don't know most of my neighbors. I couldn't recognize them at a party or in a police line up, never mind their names. This loss of community has destroyed us as a culture. what happened to the time when people brought pies to each other, baked bread? Why can't I expect my neighbors to keep an eye on my house while I'm gone. Why is it that, instead of handing my keys to my neighbor when I leave for vacation, I have to ask my mother, who lives 20 minutes away? There is something wrong with our society, and its killing us. It has been for a while I suppose.

I think that, in the last 50 years advances in technology and in medicine, in social policy and perception of issues like rape and abuse have been amazing. But something went wrong. We went from a society of people who were "do it yourselfers" to "I am entitled to mine, and you'd damn well better not get in my way."

I went to the mall to buy a Christmas gift last week. I saw five different groups f people walk in the doors ahead of me. All of them went in the doors farthest from the Salvation Army girl. They refused to make eye contact. they clutched their pocket change like they were squeezing coal into diamonds. Is it wrong that a situation like that infuriates me? These people drive up in their massive FUV's and their three hundred dollar shoes and they cling to a five dollar bill like it will save them from drowning. Sure, go in to the mall, buy your PlayStation 3 and your double caramel macchiato, but God forbid you help the poor. Jesus talks of the Sheep and the Goats...well, what the hell, I think we have an example of that right here. Jesus has no jacket, he's freezing in an alley, but you've got your Lexus.

more about an unecessary evil

I just don't understand why people wish to stand in front of a room full of drunkard's and belt out disgusting versions of songs that were terrible to begin with. I mean why is it that "Love Shack" gets sung at every karaoke night? Is it a coincidence that it was played at every dance I ever attended from sixth grade on? The same song that twelve year olds were screaming the words to in their [insert appropriate outdated clothing style here] is now being shouted at the Fiddler's Green on Saturday nights? And the DJ! Holy crap! They either don't speak at all or they sound like some reject parody of a 1950's top forty radio announcer. I can just see him (and its always a man, women have much better judgement in this case) crouched in a bathroom stall before he sets up, chugging some kind of verbal laxative that causes him to spout superlatives like a super colon cleanse. "All right! Here comes fantastic Kristi! Super! Wow!"

What is it about our culture that has spawned this evil? There was no Karaoke during the crusades. there was no American Idol (and let's face it, it is the worst kind of karaoke...the kind where people think it matters) during the French and Indian War. The book of Ecclesiastes tells us that there is nothing new under the sun...then where the hell did this crap come from?

I loathe karaoke

I saw a concert the other night...the hall was nice, but they had karaoke in the bar on the other side of the wall. There came a point in the show when Derek Warfield was talking about James Connolly, who was wounded in the Easter Uprising in 1916 in Ireland. He was captured and, while dying from his wounds, was tied to a chair and shot. One of the young men conscripted by the British Army to become a part of this firing squad was so moved that he wrote a poem about Connolly's bravery. Into the silent spaces that lingered between the verses of the poem, we heard drunken off-key country music from next door. Is nothing sacred? And when you went to the bar, you couldn't hear the concert! The injustice of it is staggering!

spidey

Can anyone be so lucky? Do I really have three wonderful children and an amazing wife? I told Mia that I wanted to start a non-profit organization this week and she didn't call me an idiot and smash me over the head with a brick. Instead she was supportive. I have told other people my idea and most of them get that look in their eyes, you know the same one they get when a six year-old tells them that they want to be spiderman when they grow up.

I don't want to talk politics anymore

I am almost as tired of hearing about politics as I am of seeing Peyton Manning on TV. I have heard more lies and half-truths from both sides about their own candidates and "the other guy" and I am done... www.procon.org seems to be a good sight for finding facts. The site has info on a lot of topics, though none of it is super in-depth. I just want to go back to the days when we could gripe about the president and not pretend that this guy or that one were going to save America while his opponent would destroy it. Mark my words; nothing will change. we are in a political stasis and will remain that way until something more dramatic than an African American in the oval office or a woman as VP comes along. Oh well...I said I wasn't going to talk about politics. damn.