Secret Cupid!

So I participated in Cheeseblarg's Secret Cupid exchange this year, and I have to say it was really cool.

I sent off my presents a few days ago and no response yet, but I hope she likes them! 

I received my presents today from the awesome Julia Shirey in Battle Creek, MI.  And let me tell ya, this lady is very much Not A Jackass. 

Without further ado, the swag:

 Candies!!

 Smell pretties with a really sweet card

A zombie love book!  It gave me the happies.

That is all. Like I said, definitely Not A Jackass

The Social Contract

How many of you have ever not done something because people would have looked at you funny?  Scratched your junk, danced, giggled at something that tickled you, etc.?

How many people have told little white lies or said something to make someone else feel better because that's what is expected of you but may not necessarily be the truth?

These are examples of the social contract.  The social contract is what we all as a society tend to live by for fear of being ostracized, to make the gears run smoothly, to avoid conflict and a multitude of other reasons. 

Now the reason I mention the social contract is because it is an inherent part of culture, any culture.  No matter where you travel or what home you find yourself in, every new situation or group of people has a culture. 

We are all constrained by the culture that we exist in from moment to moment.  It's a simple statement of fact.  There are certain actions that we perform within our own homes, out of the public eye because it's culturally unacceptable.  There's a certain decorum we're expected to adopt (within a spectrum) in public because that is what is culturally acceptable.

I mention this to make this point, we are constantly bemoaning and mourning that there are no great innovators, thinkers, or artists of our time.  I think a large part of this is because as a society, we don't really cherish and encourage individuality, originality, and creativity like we say we do.  We like to say we do, but not really.  In our schools, children are expected to stick to a highly regimented schedule were there is very little time to dream, to be creative, to be children.  From a young age, children are indoctrinated into a culture that has very strict standards for behavior, dress, speech, even thinking.

When we think of the great thinkers and innovators of the past, most of the time they went against the societal grain.  They were odd, socially awkward, didn't tend to follow societal norms and were great.  Some were prodigies from a young age because they weren't stifled by the constraints of the society in which they lived. 

So in short, I say this:  if you want people to be great, give them the opportunities and don't get your goddamned panties in a twist if some dude or chick scratches their junk in public.  They may have had a sudden epiphany on how to finish Mozart's requiem and they just hit the kettledrum. 

Be a little bit more flexible in your expectations of people and know that in order to be great, people have to think differently, they have to be given the room and time and opportunity to daydream.  They need to be inspired.  What's inspiring about living and automaton-like existence dictated by an abstract, intangible construct such as the social contract?

Cheeseblarg's Scavenger Hunt!

So I participated in Cheeseblarg's Scavenger Hunt, which J.Rose came up with to help get me out of the house and get my mind off depressing thoughts.  Here are my pictures as well as the clues:

1. A cat in a window

2. Bare feet in the grass (it was a bit of a bitch to find grass where I live)

3.  Bacon!!!

4. A squeaker (dog toys)

5. 3 People holding cards (these women were super nice)

6.  Cheese on an entire family

7. A person wearing a hat

8. A bird, not in a tree (Golden Eagle)

9. The color red, only the color red (the front of my college graduation gown)

10. You holding a sign referring to da Cheeseblarg

11.  The cutest chocolate you can find (I thought the chocolate at the corner of his mouth was cute)

12.  Velcro

13.  An upside down book (my number one favorite book ever)

14.  Something I (Jodee) write about all the time but isn't in the list (you'd have to read the blog to get it, but narwhals are dicks)

15.  Ice Cream

16. A chance

17. Something nerdy (Sailor Moon manga)

18. A yellow flower

19.  A crack in the sidewalk

20.  The inside of a grocery store

21.  A person wearing a barrette (little hard to see it, but it's there)

22.  A scavenger

It was great fun!  I encourage all of you to do it, be creative!  Don't just use the internet, get your asses outside and try it, or at least use some creativity and draw.

Different Tactics

I've recently started seeing a man who I had known years ago and we recently reconnected, through pure coincidence or fate, whatever your pleasure may be.

It got me thinking though that there are other ways to not be a stupid jackass besides not doing something.  You can do it by actively trying to do something different. 

For example, I've ranted and raved against people being ignorant, being poor drivers, etc.  

But have I ever given suggestions for things people can do instead?  I don't think I have.  So today, I shall offer some advice that is good for all aspects of your life, but especially good for not pissing me off: 

Pursue happiness.  Find something or someone that makes you happy every day.  I've not known any person who was pursuing their happiness or with someone who makes them happy that actively strives to annoy others or to be a blight on their existences.

I think that if people found something that made them happy, really happy, dance around in the kitchen, do a jig in public and not give a damn who's looking happy, the world would be a better place.  I don't care what it is really, just find something.  If it's a person, that's wonderful, I hope you make them happy too, if it's something, that's great too because it'll always be there for you.

I'm not saying that you should be happy all day every day, because that's a pretty damn tall order, but be happy for at least a little while every day.  It's good for your health, because if someone annoys me now, I've decided to make them cheerful by injecting cheer into them via a hose straight up the ass...like a cheer enema. 

hehehe. Could be fun!  Maybe I should be a motivational speaker lol. 

Have You Ever...

had cravings for weird things because you haven't had them in a while?

That's what I'm going through right now.  I want caramel, and I want crunchy Cheetos.  Not together, because that's just disgusting, but I've been thinking about it a lot.

I found this really awesome recipe for butterscotch that I want to try, but I can't quite yet.

Soon though!  I'm almost to my goal, and once I get there, it's time to really start toning myself up because I'm dissatisfied with the way certain parts of my body are now.  After I get there, I can start bringing things back in in moderation and learn how to not let them derail me. 

Truth be told, I don't really miss much anymore and I hardly crave any of the things I used to gorge on. 


In other news, sorry about the long quiet spell.  I've not really had a whole lot to rant about lately, at least not in an intelligent way that wasn't just "FUCK YOU IN YOUR FUCKING HEAD YOU FUCKING FUCK KNOB!  I'M GONNA MAKE A NEW HOLE IN YOUR CORPSE AND FUCK YOU THERE TOO!!"  You know, that old chestnut.

Hopefully I'll be back to regular rants against jackassery soon.

Just Some Thoughts

It's been a little while since I've posted so I'm correcting that.  There hasn't been anything that's been immediately pissing me off lately.  Just had a lot on my plate so I'm gonna share some short thoughts, and some congratulations.

• With all the fires and drought conditions that have been happening in some parts of the country, and all the floods and such happening in another part of the country, do you think there's a genius or engineer or two that could put their heads together to maybe kill two birds with one stone on those problems?  It makes sense to take an overabundance of something from one area and use it to help out another area that's got very little of it.  Come on, someone.  Hell...let's start a fucking bucket line or something. 
• Tying in with the first bullet, if it's so fucking dry that there are wild fires springing up all over, then it's probably too dry for your campfire (particularly if you don't know how to properly build one) and for you to just be flicking your cigarette out the window.  Put that son of a bitch out first.  Seriously.  It's not that damned hard.  Ya lazy hump. Same goes for you folks on the ATVs.  Stay out of areas with a lot of underbrush, your exhaust is hot enough to ignite dried grasses.
• Congratulations and good job to New York!  Gay marriage is finally completely legal there, and there's no reason it shouldn't have been in the first place.  Gay people are just as human as anyone else, there's no reason that they should be denied rights just because their lifestyle is different, and some tight-assed people don't approve.  I don't approve of a bolt through the cock, but I'm not gonna tell someone they don't get medical treatment because they have one.  
• And finally, congratulations to me! I have officially been accepted into grad school and I can barely contain my glee.   I can't wait to start in the fall. I'm excited to get back into school and get started with a new chapter of my life.

Private Lives Are Not Indicative of Professional Capability

I don't know why I feel like opening this can of worms, other than I feel like I need to voice my opinion in some form or another in light of yet another political "sex scandal."

Let me just make myself plain, people have private lives, and no one is a saint.  Okay?  We're not in the Victorian era, and we have some pretty backward and archaic notions when it comes to sex and sexuality and sexual natures/proclivities, etc. Everyone is going to fuck up from time to time and they should be held accountable for those fuck ups, but their whole lives shouldn't be defined by it unless it's something really huge, like genocide.  Hitler may have been a vegetarian painter who was rejected by art school, probably liked to clog or some such shit, but when you systematically murder millions of people because you're in a snit?  That makes you a mass murdering fuckhead. That's the kind of thing that should define a person.

So, with that said, I don't think that "sex scandals" or the fact that someone got a traffic ticket makes them unfit to perform their job. Most of the time the societal transgression that people are accused of or actually did perform aren't illegal, and have no fucking bearing on their professional ethics.  People are constantly confusing Morals with Ethics and using them interchangeably. Sorry, that's not the way it works.  Morals tend to be societal mores and guidelines for acceptable behavior, thought, etc. Ethics (in this particular instance) refers to the practices of business and what is good or bad and ideas of that ilk.  They are NOT interchangeable and are actually exclusive of each other. 

I don't care that you find something morally reprehensible or it violates your personal code of honor or behavior or that it is against the mandates of your particular religion.  In most cases, it has no bearing on whether someone is able to perform their job effectively and well.  If there was a problem with someone's work, they probably wouldn't have been able to do it for long without someone pointing out that shit doesn't quite work right. Everyone is entitled to a private life and if there's something that violates a code within that person's social group, then it needs to be kept in that group.  A man cheating on his wife is between he, his wife, and their lawyers, should the need arise.

I'm talking about Anthony Weiner.  There have been calls for his resignation from office because people find his actions reprehensible and wrong and dirty and naughty and a whole slew of other words.  I don't think he should resign because honestly, all he did was engage in a form of fantasy.  He was fine and dandy with him carrying on this "affair" for several months until he sent a picture of his penis and the woman receiving it went to the press.  And folks, it was just a penis.  Almost half of the world's population has one, and if they don't have one, they've probably seen one before.  It wasn't like he sent a picture of him putting babies on spikes.  It was a dick. 

Now there's also an investigation about whether he used congressional cell phones or computer to conduct his "lascivious" actions.  What does it matter?  How many other members of congress use those things for personal communication and use all the time?  What does it matter as to the content?  It was just as personal a use as someone else using it to order pizza, or check his Facebook, or look at porn.  Sorry to break it down like that to some of you, but it's true. 

It offended your morality, but no one was physically hurt by it, and the woman trying to make herself the victim by saying that he "made her talk that way and do those things" is a repulsive glamour whore.  She is.  She talks about how he humiliated and degraded her by "making her" do those things.  If she were so humiliated, why did she go to the press?  Why is she talking to any reporter she can, doing interviews, giving sound bites? She simply wants to capitalize on someone else's disgrace.  It's schadenfreude.

But going back to the main issue here.  His sexual proclivities and exploits have no influence on his ability to be a congressman.  Like I mentioned in my last post, everyone is entitled to a private life and if his wife has a problem with it, she'll take care of it however she sees fit.  It's not for the media or the public to judge him for his private actions.  Stay the hell out of it. Does the man do his job?  Does he do it satisfactorily?  Then that's all the public needs to know and that should be the end of it.