Everything Zen

No politics tonight! I am truly sorry. I’m sure that all of you wanted to read my
bitching about candidates and about how childish they all are. However, that will not be the topic of tonight’s blog. No. Tonight you will all hear about something much more important. ME! I am now the proud resident of room 329 of Richardson Towers South. This means that I no longer have my own room, but it also means that I no longer have to wait on the slow ass elevator that is most likely broken. I haven’t had a roommate in a pretty long time so I hope that I can adjust to it. Abteen, my new roommate, and some of his friends helped me move all my crap down. That was nice considering that I don’t know any of them all that well.

Unfortunately, due to the moving process, I ended up missing LOST. I had been anticipating this for some months now, and, stupid me, I completely spaced it. Oh well, that’s what the internet is for, right?

On a happier note, I decided what to get my girlfriend for her birthday. I’m going to get her a nice digital camera. Her other one broke, so she’s been without for some time.

On yet another happy note, the weather service is saying possible bad weather tomorrow. Could it mean no school? Probably not, but keep you hopes up.

Crybaby in the Whitehouse

Well, Edwards finally gave up the good fight. This really sucks. Out of all the Democratic candidates, he was my favorite. It is a real shame that he wasn’t as rich as the other two candidates. He just could not afford the same level of campaigning as the Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama. What really gets me is that he hardly got any media coverage during the entirety of his campaign. While there was a story about Hillary or Obama on the news almost every day, there was virtually nothing about my man, Edwards.

While Hillary and Obama were busy squabbling about who was blacker, and who had a better health care program, Edwards mainly focused on the issues. He did slip once, but it was only to stop one of many quarrels between Hillary and Obama at one of the Democratic debates.

I didn’t know that Edwards had dropped out until I read Left Wing Cracker’s latest blog. Now the only hope for the Democrats is one of two adults who squabble as if they were young children. Hey! Hillary! Obama! Come off it already! You are senators for Christ’s sake. At least try to act respectful in front of the nation.

Separation of Church and Stupidity

I was reading LeftWingCracker’s blog about religion in politics. It almost made me physically ill. It is just pitiful that people feel the need to quote the Bible when they are choosing a president.

In his blog, Cracker talks about a woman who is very very…well, stupid when it comes to politics. She says that her vote will be for Obama in the primaries. That’s fine. It’s what she says after that that is so insensibly close-minded. She says that she would have voted for Hillary, but she didn’t feel that Hillary would be an effective leader. Hillary would just “run to a man” if she got in trouble. This is the kicker. She said that, in the Bible, it says that men should be saying this. THIS IS A WOMAN SAYING THIS! You all have to stick together. If all women thought this way, they still wouldn’t be allowed to vote. So, why don’t you women support each other. The fact is that no Republican is better suited than Hillary is. If you vote republican just because a woman gets the Democratic nomination, then you should just stay over on that right wing. You seem better suited for that side anyways.

By the way. Forgive any misspellings or other mistakes. It’s ten o’clock. The power is out in Richardson Towers. I had to drive home to write this and, last but not least, I didn’t get out of class until 7 p.m.

This Weekend

How did everyone’s weekend go? Mine actually went quite swimmingly. I watched some movies. All of them were pretty good. One stood out above the rest. It was a movie called The Hunting Party. It stars Richard Gere and Terrence Howard as two journalists who were in the midst of the Bosnian Civil War. I don’t want to give too much of the plot away, but you should definitely see this movie.
Apart from the movies, I spent my weekend doing calculus homework. It was pretty hard, so I didn’t finish it. Now I have the answer manual so I can figure out what I need to do to complete the problems. I’m going to take a look at that a little later.
The highlight of my weekend was definitely getting to drive a Golf GTI. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a sporty little Volkswagen hatchback. It was a manual, so I had a bit of a time trying to get used to it. First gear is not a good friend of mine. “Just hit the accelerator and let off the clutch.” That’s what I kept telling myself. The only bad was that my friends made me drive it home. I stalled once on the way, but besides that, it wasn’t too bad. I hope that everyone else’s weekend went well, and I’ll be seeing you all tomorrow.

Friday and Japanese Horror

Thank god (Christian or otherwise. I’m not picky) that it’s Friday. It’s a real shame that I have homework this weekend, but what are you going to do? Luckily I only had two classes today, so it wasn’t that bad. This weekend will hopefully be pretty uneventful. I’m not really in the mood to do all that much. I think I’ll probably get my homework out of the way today, then I’ll just chill out the rest of the weekend. Maybe I’ll rent some movies. There’s this one that is always out. Its called Casshern. Anyone ever heard of it? Oh well. I’m also in the mood for some gore. I might get Saw IV. I heard it was bad but blood is always a plus. If not, maybe a trip to Black Lodge Video would be warranted. They’re always good for a bloody Asian movie. Something by Takashi Miike sounds good. No one probably knows who he is, but you should check out his work if you want a cool movie. I’d recommend Ichi the Killer. By no means get the movie, Visitor Q, if you have not been prepared for it. It’s not really for the faint of heart. It spans a wide range of taboos from incest to necrophilia.

Regardless of what I do this weekend, it won’t be stressful. The week has been way too hard for that kind of stuff. I actually hope that there is no winter weather this weekend. That’s just a waste. If there’s no of not going to school, then what is the point of winter weather. See you guys next week. Later days.

Random Ponderings

Have you ever noticed the beauty of a tree? I was walking back to the dorm today after a particularly disappointing UNHP class. It wouldn’t have been bad except for the fact that no one participates. I can tell that professor Safa is really trying to get us involved. I felt sorry for him so I chimed in a few times, as did some really well spoken guy in the front of the room. So at least Safa didn’t feel like he was talking to himself the whole time. So that was my good deed for the day. Also, it kept me from falling asleep.
Now, on to the trees. As I was walking to Richardson I noticed all the dead trees. There is something hauntingly beautiful about their unsymmetrical build. It’s organized chaos. Just look at the trees. They grow out and out only to die each year and start anew during the following spring.
The beauty of a tree was first brought to my attention during my senior year of high school. I was walking into economics and a stoner friend of mine, Kirk, grabbed me and told me to look out the window at this tree swaying in the wind. The thing that intrigued him about it was that as it swayed the leaves turned over and changed the color of the tree for that one instant. It was simply beautiful. From then on, whenever I didn’t feel like listening to something about interest rates or whatever boring topic that Mrs. Hager was talking about, I would sit and look at the tree. Sometimes I would draw it. I would’ve talked to my friends, but Hager did not allow talking. The tree was my only escape from the boredom that was economics.
Since then I have had a definite appreciation for the beauty and serenity of a tree, with or without leaves. There’s just something serene and calming about a tree. Look around and try to notice it sometimes.

The Legal Alternative

So, I was looking for blogs to comment on yesterday when I found one that I liked. This month marks the 35th anniversary of the landmark court case, Roe vs. Wade. For those of you who don’t know, this was the case that established the legality of abortions. I know that this is a very controversial subject, but I want to chime in anyways. Abortions within the legal time zone are not murder people. Cells don’t feel pain or even feel anything for that matter. That’s what the nervous system is for, and they don’t have one yet. They aren’t thinking organisms yet. Now, I am not condoning “back-alley” clothes hanger abortions. I’m just saying that I believe if there is a legitimate medical
reason, or even if the mother feels as though she could not take care of a baby, then an abortion may be the right way to go.
What sickens me is that the government feels the need to get involved. It’s none of their business. It makes me wonder what they would do if their little girl, God forbid, was raped. She is not going to want to keep that baby in most cases. Most likely the child is just going to be a reminder of that terrible loss of innocence. True, she could have the baby and put it up for adoption, but no matter what the circumstances are, there is a bond between child and mother. Sometimes an abortion is the lesser of two evils. On one hand, that person will never exist, but on the other hand, the mother will be spared a lot of pain and anguish.
I’m sorry if I’ve offended anyone. If you think different then I have no choice but to respect your opinion, but please try and do the same for mine.

My Slightly Less Than Amazing Day :)

So, here it is. This is my first blog ever for a class. In writing that last sentence, I realized that the word “blog” is not in the glossary of my version of Microsoft Word. It seems strange since I have the 2003 edition and blogs have been around longer than that. Oh well. Enough rambling. I do not really know what to talk about, so I will tell you about my day and then myself.
My name is Ryan. I am nineteen and somewhere in the neighborhood of 5’7”. I hate being short. My basketball game suffers due to my severe height disadvantage, but I think that I would make an excellent Roman-Greco wrestler. Maybe I am not stocky enough for that though. So anyways. Back to me. I love music (listening to it, not playing it. However, I am taking an intro guitar class next semester). I have an extensive CD collection that spans over fifty years of music. I like everything from country to rap. If you do not believe me, just look. I have Hank Williams next to Immortal Technique. My real passion is folk music. Give me some Cat Stevens or some Decemberists any day. I also like art. I am not such a big fan of paintings but I love anything in pencil. That is not to say that there are no amazing paintings, color just is not my thing. I am relatively cynical, but I love to laugh and have fun. If you asked my friends what they thought of me, they would probably say that I am a sarcastic asshole. This is true for the most part, but I have many close friends, so I must be doing something right. I think that I am relatively intelligent. I ranked twenty-third of around 450 students. That is not that great, but it is not terrible either. I have two dogs, a wonderful, though quite pissy, mother, and a girlfriend that I love dearly. I am a freshman at the University of Memphis. This is my second semester. It is not bad, but I did not think it would be quite this hard. So that is me. Stalkers, you know where to find me and what I look like now. Seriously. Do not stalk me
That is just creepy. Thanks for the admiration though.
Now onto my day. I HATE CHEMISTRY! Even worse than the class, itself, is the fact that it is a night class taught by the most boring person I have ever met. Chemistry is bad enough already, but when you put a lazy kid in a night class with a boring teacher, you are just asking for sleep. I have managed to avoid it thus far, but I can feel its comfortable tentacles grasping at me. English makes me even madder. By all accounts, I should hate this class. It is at eight in the morning and about as far from my dorm as you can get, but I cannot bring myself to dislike it. Today I finally met the famous/infamous Wendy Sumner, and I must say that the class sounds interesting to say the least. After English, I have Calculus I, which is the number one most failed or dropped class in the United States. I think that it is easy, but it will probably get harder. We got to do a driving lab to get information about velocity today. Then I had a short break, which was subsequently followed by a class that I absolutely loathe. It is called UNHP. It is like a sociology class, but not even relatively interesting. Honestly, I have no idea what the class is meant to teach us. It has something to do with globalization being the evil spawn of the Satan that is America. It is depressing to say the least. Then I am done…for four hours. Then we have already talked about my least favorite class. Therefore, that was my day. It had its ups and its downs.
After the actual class day, I ate some dinner with a friend/ex-girlfriend, who I have not seen in months. She is pretty cool, so it was good to play catch-up.
It feels good to just sit back, vent to my computer screen, and watch some TV. It would almost be a break if it were not for this blog. The great thing is that tomorrow, I only have two classes and I am done at 11:15 A.M.
I realize that I sound mean and bitter about my day, but all in all, it was not that bad. There was even one good aspect to chemistry. I aced a pop quiz, which I rather excited about.

The Glorious Manifesto of the United States of Manning

The Glorious Manifesto of the

United States of Manning

A manifesto is a public declaration of intentions, objectives and motives. In this manifesto, one will find the guidelines for a newly created nation. This is, of course, the United States of Manning. Thanks to the influences of the Communist Manifesto, people will be the focus and the main power in the new government. Thanks to influences from The Declaration of Independence, a new system of government will be established. Strict guidelines will be set for politicians. Law enforcement will be more manageable and more effective. The problem of unemployment and poverty will be addressed in an appropriate manner. Last, but not least, guidelines will be set up to address the issue of immigration. This is essentially a template for government. It is open to interpretation and revisal; however, nothing may be added which is contradictory to the already established principles. It is the belief of the writers and of the people that this manifesto will stand as a strong symbol of our unity and our power as a people.

First, let me start by saying that the government is a corrupt organization as well as a major influencing factor. It is my sincerest belief that if people played a more vital role in major politics then they would cease to be as corrupt. This is not to say that all politicians are bad people. It means that the government as a whole has become a corrupting influence that may turn once good people into corrupt mad men and women on a devious power trip.

How can this be remedied? The simple answer would be to eliminate government altogether. However, this would be a step toward the devastation of the nation. Simply stated, make the people a vital part of the national government. For example, do away with the Electoral College. By doing so, the need for gerrymandering will be eliminated as well. Neither of these implements is good for the general population. By doing this, all votes are counted equally. Therefore, elected officials are fairly elected.

The head of the government will not be a single person. It will be a parliamentary-like body. They will vote on topics of interest. If these topics pose an immediate impact on the citizens, then they will have the chance to vote on it as well. No longer will the government be the supreme law-making body. The people will have the power.

Next is the issue of the impeachment of a national official. This will work much the same way as it does on a state level. If a member of the national congress commits a crime or violation of this manifesto, the people have the right to vote him out of office.

By limiting the power of a single person, their ability to corrupt the government lessens greatly. This is a far better system of checks and balances than, say, the American Government has.

Now we go on to the topic of law enforcement for the general population. Police will be one single body. Jurisdiction lines will be abolished within states. This way, technicalities with which the supposed offender can get off will be lessened to a degree. Lethal enforcement will be strictly abolished. In fact, new gun laws will essentially ban the trafficking of any and all non-sporting guns. In the case that a violent crime does break out, special task teams, with highly specialized training, will be dispatched to take down or eliminate the threat. This would only be a last resort effort.

Poverty is a problem in any large country. This is why extra emphasis will be place on education. The abandonment of an education will be viewed as one of the countries highest crimes. The law will be as follows: At the minimum a high school education is mandatory. After that, people are free to do what they please, as long as it is productive. The only valid reason for unemployment will be that of injury of chronic

sickness.

Those who fail to complete their mandatory education will be faced with a prison sentence in which the remainder of their education will be completed. As far as higher education goes, there will be a cap on the tuition charges of universities and technical schools. This will increase the number of college attendees in the nation.

Immigration and emigration will be open, providing that all those immigrating into the country have prospective job offers and at least some secondary education. This will eliminate the problem of overcrowding. Unless someone has a definite job, their request for a Visa will be denied. Therefore, the development of slums and ghettos will not be an issue.

Hopefully, with Manning leading the way, change and social reform will soon follow. This is not just reform for the people of Manning, but hopefully for the world as a whole. They will have no choice but to acknowledge the fact that the people of Manning are happier because they have trust in their government as well as hope for the future.