Thursday, May 3, 2007
Photo Play
Fooling around with my camera... on the farm and other stuff. Still sorting through, so I'm trying to get better pics of the farm... show you a little of where I live everyday.
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to everyone I know who has a b-day in May, and if I don't know you, happy birthday anyway.
Happy b-day to all 9 of you:
May 5
Dubois
Brandon
Jonathan G.
Jonathan F.
May 10
ME!
May 23
Tyler
Joey
May 31
My Grandpa
Cody G.
And if I forgot you, forgive me. You can bang me over the head next time I see you.
Happy b-day to all 9 of you:
May 5
Dubois
Brandon
Jonathan G.
Jonathan F.
May 10
ME!
May 23
Tyler
Joey
May 31
My Grandpa
Cody G.
And if I forgot you, forgive me. You can bang me over the head next time I see you.
Teen Rights. Good or bad?
I read this bit in Time magazine waiting for my mom to pick me up from the orthodontist’s office (4 years in these stupid braces… and more to come… ugh)
Here’s a link to the article: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1604945,00.html
The article, by John Cloud, claims that teens are more sober, less violent, and more responsible than ever, and that perhaps we should have the same rights as adults. The author cites stats obtained by a survey of teens to show that teen drinking and drug use have gone down, and suggests that perhaps we should abolish the concept of adolescence completely.
The possibilities of this are terrific… and terrifying. Getting rid of the teen years would lower voting age, smoking age, drinking age, and tons of other stuff. And if you let us do some of that stuff, a lot of us will. Robert Epstein wrote “The Case against Adolescence” a book on this topic. The quote that made me uneasy was the one where Epstein says that if a teen can pass a maturity test, they should be allowed to legally view porn. Yeah… right.
Some of this suggestion has merit- I think teens should be allowed to vote after they can pass a test, own businesses, and maybe property, but the majority of this is downright hypocritical. Let teens drink and watch porn because they’re staying sober and studying better? That seems to be sending out the wrong message.
John Cloud doesn’t seem to think that giving young people ANY rights is a good idea. He admits in a debate ( http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1605109,00.html ) between the two authors that he doesn’t have constant contact with teens. He actually said: “that would be a little creepy” when Epstein asked. The debate is pretty equally matched, and both participants bring up good points- a short and easy read.
My personal take as a young teen: If you make drinking legal for us, it’ll go up (fact of life: tons of teens drink and have been drinking, kids in my 6th grade class got drunk at a party. THIS ISN’T NEW!), some more rights for us would be nice though. If I could vote right now, I would. If I wanted and could get a business, I would. Perhaps the adult population should give the younger generation some leg room, but too much would be very bad. I suggest you read both the article and debate. They’re both really well written and full of info. Comments?
Here’s a link to the article: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1604945,00.html
The article, by John Cloud, claims that teens are more sober, less violent, and more responsible than ever, and that perhaps we should have the same rights as adults. The author cites stats obtained by a survey of teens to show that teen drinking and drug use have gone down, and suggests that perhaps we should abolish the concept of adolescence completely.
The possibilities of this are terrific… and terrifying. Getting rid of the teen years would lower voting age, smoking age, drinking age, and tons of other stuff. And if you let us do some of that stuff, a lot of us will. Robert Epstein wrote “The Case against Adolescence” a book on this topic. The quote that made me uneasy was the one where Epstein says that if a teen can pass a maturity test, they should be allowed to legally view porn. Yeah… right.
Some of this suggestion has merit- I think teens should be allowed to vote after they can pass a test, own businesses, and maybe property, but the majority of this is downright hypocritical. Let teens drink and watch porn because they’re staying sober and studying better? That seems to be sending out the wrong message.
John Cloud doesn’t seem to think that giving young people ANY rights is a good idea. He admits in a debate ( http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1605109,00.html ) between the two authors that he doesn’t have constant contact with teens. He actually said: “that would be a little creepy” when Epstein asked. The debate is pretty equally matched, and both participants bring up good points- a short and easy read.
My personal take as a young teen: If you make drinking legal for us, it’ll go up (fact of life: tons of teens drink and have been drinking, kids in my 6th grade class got drunk at a party. THIS ISN’T NEW!), some more rights for us would be nice though. If I could vote right now, I would. If I wanted and could get a business, I would. Perhaps the adult population should give the younger generation some leg room, but too much would be very bad. I suggest you read both the article and debate. They’re both really well written and full of info. Comments?
Monday, April 30, 2007
Fantasy Religion- World Cycle
Ok. I’m going to attempt to explain the religion I created for my fantasy world. It doesn’t really have a name, because it’s what everyone in the world believes, but I call it Empire Religion, because this world is divided into empires that change with every age (there are 6 ages that I concern myself with so far). This is just a basic overview, and I stayed out of the stuff like destinies and fate, which gets a little confusing- I'm still working on it. All of this information is based on my more recent notes, I have tons of stuff written down, and this newer stuff is the one I go by most of the time.
Some definitions you need to know:
4 Elements- Water, earth, air, and fire. They are part of the world cycle (explained later) in that order. They are the parents of all the sub-elements, and relate with the seasons. Each element has a male or female god to go with it.
4 Seasons- Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. In the world cycle, they each correspond with an element.
God-Goddess- Not truly a being at all, more of a spirit that resides in all things related to it. It’s like a quality, or aura. The earth god is in all that is green in growing, that kind of thing, but it’s not a being, or a living God, like ours in Christianity.
An Elemental- An elemental is basically a vassal of an element god. An elemental has some limited control over their element, this is called a “Gift”
Sub-element- a sub-element is a combination of two elements, kind of like a ‘child’ element. Weather, light, magic, magnetism, stone, natural disasters, and chaos are all sub-elements (there are tons more). Sub-elements ‘fuel’ the immortals, which are creatures who don’t naturally die. A unicorn is an immortal child of light and magic.
Element\season Relations: Water (goddess) goes with Winter (god), Earth (god) goes with Spring (goddess), Air (goddess) relates to summer (god), and Fire (god) corresponds to Fall (goddess)
Ok, to explain the Element\season relationship, is the World Cycle. The world cycle has four stages, each goes with a Season\element pair. The stages are: beginning, growth, thriving, and destruction. Winter is the first and last season of the year, and it relates to water, the first and last element in the cycle. This is the beginning stage, like in the Bible, before God creates the earth. Winter goes into Spring, and water fuels the growth of the earth, this is the growth stage, everything is blooming and becoming alive. The thriving stage is where the earth uses the air to live, and spring falls into summer, the time where things that bloomed thrive. And the destruction stage is when fall comes from winter and air feeds fire, which sheds the earth of impurities for the new beginning. Make sense?
Fire and fall are related, because they both clear away the earth to begin again. Fire is kind of the equivalent of Armageddon in the Bible. It is considered ‘evil’, but it truly isn’t. Destruction is necessary for life, just as winter cannot come until fall passes. Winter is a time where everything has died, like water puts out a fire. Spring/Earth has the most obvious relationship. Spring is when the earth grows out of the beginning, out of winter. And then Summer and air. Summer is the time when everything born in spring thrives. Summer is paired with air because air feeds the earth, but also fire. Summer is a time of thriving, but it’s also when the world becomes ‘corrupt’ and impure for fall.
Magic is the ability to influence the spirits/or gods by using an incantation and energy. A spell is easier to cast with a rune, which is basically a talisman of an element or season. Power stones are also used in magic. They are used as charms and amulets. There are a large number of them, but they cannot be created or destroyed. Each time a magician uses one up; it disintegrates, but is reborn elsewhere. Different stones relate to different sub-elements. Like a pearl relates to the sub-elements of money and luck. Many gamblers where an amulet of pearl for that reason. All birthstones are power stones, as well as many others. Emeralds have power for protection and defense.
(to be continued... this is the overview of why they worship nature, but I'll get to the worshipping part later. I'm trying to decide if I want an overall top diety, over the spirits and stuff. Any suggies? Comments? Complaints?
Some definitions you need to know:
4 Elements- Water, earth, air, and fire. They are part of the world cycle (explained later) in that order. They are the parents of all the sub-elements, and relate with the seasons. Each element has a male or female god to go with it.
4 Seasons- Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. In the world cycle, they each correspond with an element.
God-Goddess- Not truly a being at all, more of a spirit that resides in all things related to it. It’s like a quality, or aura. The earth god is in all that is green in growing, that kind of thing, but it’s not a being, or a living God, like ours in Christianity.
An Elemental- An elemental is basically a vassal of an element god. An elemental has some limited control over their element, this is called a “Gift”
Sub-element- a sub-element is a combination of two elements, kind of like a ‘child’ element. Weather, light, magic, magnetism, stone, natural disasters, and chaos are all sub-elements (there are tons more). Sub-elements ‘fuel’ the immortals, which are creatures who don’t naturally die. A unicorn is an immortal child of light and magic.
Element\season Relations: Water (goddess) goes with Winter (god), Earth (god) goes with Spring (goddess), Air (goddess) relates to summer (god), and Fire (god) corresponds to Fall (goddess)
Ok, to explain the Element\season relationship, is the World Cycle. The world cycle has four stages, each goes with a Season\element pair. The stages are: beginning, growth, thriving, and destruction. Winter is the first and last season of the year, and it relates to water, the first and last element in the cycle. This is the beginning stage, like in the Bible, before God creates the earth. Winter goes into Spring, and water fuels the growth of the earth, this is the growth stage, everything is blooming and becoming alive. The thriving stage is where the earth uses the air to live, and spring falls into summer, the time where things that bloomed thrive. And the destruction stage is when fall comes from winter and air feeds fire, which sheds the earth of impurities for the new beginning. Make sense?
Fire and fall are related, because they both clear away the earth to begin again. Fire is kind of the equivalent of Armageddon in the Bible. It is considered ‘evil’, but it truly isn’t. Destruction is necessary for life, just as winter cannot come until fall passes. Winter is a time where everything has died, like water puts out a fire. Spring/Earth has the most obvious relationship. Spring is when the earth grows out of the beginning, out of winter. And then Summer and air. Summer is the time when everything born in spring thrives. Summer is paired with air because air feeds the earth, but also fire. Summer is a time of thriving, but it’s also when the world becomes ‘corrupt’ and impure for fall.
Magic is the ability to influence the spirits/or gods by using an incantation and energy. A spell is easier to cast with a rune, which is basically a talisman of an element or season. Power stones are also used in magic. They are used as charms and amulets. There are a large number of them, but they cannot be created or destroyed. Each time a magician uses one up; it disintegrates, but is reborn elsewhere. Different stones relate to different sub-elements. Like a pearl relates to the sub-elements of money and luck. Many gamblers where an amulet of pearl for that reason. All birthstones are power stones, as well as many others. Emeralds have power for protection and defense.
(to be continued... this is the overview of why they worship nature, but I'll get to the worshipping part later. I'm trying to decide if I want an overall top diety, over the spirits and stuff. Any suggies? Comments? Complaints?
Saturday, April 28, 2007
I Should Be Dead of a Snake Bite, But I'm not.
I like to walk around the farm and think. I usually take a notebook and my camera, just in case something happens. A weird thing happened today. I was sitting there, in the woods, by a ditch (old irrigation ditch, about three feet across, muddy, but no standing water) and I was writing in my little pocket notebook. I was actually writing something about the fact that ever since I started home-schooling, I’ve actually been having to read the Bible and care about what it says, and how it’s done wonders for me, mostly on my outlook on life. I was always very… I dunno, depressed, I guess. Kinda feeling like life was hopeless. But reading through the Bible and actually hanging onto what I was reading kind of helped me out of that. I have no clue why I was thinking about this, but then I began thinking about Christianity in general, and wrote something about believing in God is like having someone there to look after you all the time, and at that, I suddenly looked to my right, for no good reason, and right beside me was this cottonmouth snake. I mean right beside me… like maybe a foot away. I said something to the effect of “Oh God help me.,” out loud, and the snake backed off… it was really weird, and I’m not lying. I have photographic proof. The picture is of the snake going off, after I got a few feet away from it. It’s blurry, because I had the stupid zoom on, but the photo’s not the point I’m trying to make here. I should have a snake bite right now… I should probably be dead or really sick. Nobody makes the sudden movement that I did and doesn’t get bitten- it’s illogical, unnatural, not realistic. I swear something happened there… I have no clue what, but that snake should’ve bitten me. Something made it back off... it was really something different.
There’s the photo. It was a small water moccasin, but it’s the little ones that are the deadliest. They can’t control their poison output, so they put all of it into one bite. You get bitten by a big one, you may have the chance to get anti-venom or something, but a little one… you’re probably going to die. If I had gotten bitten, chances are that I would be dead. But it’s not the fact that I was that close to the snake that really gets to me, it’s the fact that it backed off, and while I was thinking that particular thought too… a coincidence… or something else?
There’s the photo. It was a small water moccasin, but it’s the little ones that are the deadliest. They can’t control their poison output, so they put all of it into one bite. You get bitten by a big one, you may have the chance to get anti-venom or something, but a little one… you’re probably going to die. If I had gotten bitten, chances are that I would be dead. But it’s not the fact that I was that close to the snake that really gets to me, it’s the fact that it backed off, and while I was thinking that particular thought too… a coincidence… or something else?
Memories of Gangs, Drinking, and Yester-years
Yesterday, I saw some of my people from way back (ok, it was last year, but whatever) and then from even farther back (from my gangster public school days).
Some of the guys who were in my class last year got tall- as in “I can’t see your face, there are clouds in the way,” type tall. All the midgets from my brother’s class who used to stalk me (for some reason those 5th grade midgets liked to follow me and my friends around- scary ) got older too (and thank goodness most have girlfriends now- those little creeps). So all my old people (I don’t call them ‘friends’ because I did not and will never, fit in with them, like them, or even want to talk to them) have grown up.
And it’s weird, because last night, we went to the Rice Festival at night, and the clientele was predominantly black, and it really brought back all of the memories from when I went to public school and was really being pressured into gangs, and drinking, and especially drugs. I realized exactly how lucky I was to get out of there before I got in too deep… I mean, just looking at the girls my age, with the sharpened nails and knives- I could’ve ended up like that. And believe me, the nails and knives were necessary, if you’ve ever had a knife to your throat, you would get it. And then looking at the boys, especially the ones a little younger than me- that could’ve been my brother. I mean, he’s bad enough already- but it that environment he either would’ve been dead already, or he would be carrying a gun. It brought back bad memories to say the least. So sorry if my trip down memory lane bores you to death, but I feel this ineffeable sense of gratitude to whatever grace pulled me through that, and out of it.
Some of the guys who were in my class last year got tall- as in “I can’t see your face, there are clouds in the way,” type tall. All the midgets from my brother’s class who used to stalk me (for some reason those 5th grade midgets liked to follow me and my friends around- scary ) got older too (and thank goodness most have girlfriends now- those little creeps). So all my old people (I don’t call them ‘friends’ because I did not and will never, fit in with them, like them, or even want to talk to them) have grown up.
And it’s weird, because last night, we went to the Rice Festival at night, and the clientele was predominantly black, and it really brought back all of the memories from when I went to public school and was really being pressured into gangs, and drinking, and especially drugs. I realized exactly how lucky I was to get out of there before I got in too deep… I mean, just looking at the girls my age, with the sharpened nails and knives- I could’ve ended up like that. And believe me, the nails and knives were necessary, if you’ve ever had a knife to your throat, you would get it. And then looking at the boys, especially the ones a little younger than me- that could’ve been my brother. I mean, he’s bad enough already- but it that environment he either would’ve been dead already, or he would be carrying a gun. It brought back bad memories to say the least. So sorry if my trip down memory lane bores you to death, but I feel this ineffeable sense of gratitude to whatever grace pulled me through that, and out of it.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Freedom in America
Hey, had a few seconds so I decided to post this today. Another opinion paragraph... as usualy ready to hear opinions, questions, comments, complains, offers of marriage (long story... inside joke). I wrote it two days ago, but the point it makes is timeless:
On 4/23/07, another religious symbol was added to the list of symbols a military man (or woman) can have on their grave. It was the Wicca pentacle. For me it brought to mind all of the freedoms that this country has regulated. Why can’t somebody put whatever symbol they want on their grave? Especially someone from the armed forces- they gave up their life for you… show some RESPECT. Some of the other things we have regulated are abortion and gay marriage- big issues today.
On abortion, I am pro-choice. I don’t think the government should have any say in the matter, unless it’s threatening the nation. I believe people make mistakes, and we end up with babies that weren’t really… planned on. A lot of the time these babies end up being born and neglected because the mother is not emotionally and financially sound enough to handle a child. The question on this you have to ask you self is: Do I think it is worse to kill a child before it is born and has never seen the world, or let it live with parent(s) that can’t take care of it and let it become a child criminal or get killed needlessly? What ever you think, I believe that it is the mother’s choice. Not the father’s… not the boyfriend’s … not the government’s. We should be free to choose.
The other biggie, gay rights, is harder decided on. I think people should be free to love each other… even if they are interested in their own gender. Don’t get me wrong… I don’t think its right, but that’s my opinion… other people have different ones, but gays and lesbians should choose for themselves.
I know that America is a very free country compared to others, but we could do better. The US has always prided it’s self on being a melting pot of different cultures, religion, ect, but our laws don’t always let everyone in the melting pot do what they believe in. If we are going to be a place where everyone is free, we should be allowed to express ourselves and our opinions freely, and do what we ourselves think is right, not what the people on top of Capitol Hill think.
On 4/23/07, another religious symbol was added to the list of symbols a military man (or woman) can have on their grave. It was the Wicca pentacle. For me it brought to mind all of the freedoms that this country has regulated. Why can’t somebody put whatever symbol they want on their grave? Especially someone from the armed forces- they gave up their life for you… show some RESPECT. Some of the other things we have regulated are abortion and gay marriage- big issues today.
On abortion, I am pro-choice. I don’t think the government should have any say in the matter, unless it’s threatening the nation. I believe people make mistakes, and we end up with babies that weren’t really… planned on. A lot of the time these babies end up being born and neglected because the mother is not emotionally and financially sound enough to handle a child. The question on this you have to ask you self is: Do I think it is worse to kill a child before it is born and has never seen the world, or let it live with parent(s) that can’t take care of it and let it become a child criminal or get killed needlessly? What ever you think, I believe that it is the mother’s choice. Not the father’s… not the boyfriend’s … not the government’s. We should be free to choose.
The other biggie, gay rights, is harder decided on. I think people should be free to love each other… even if they are interested in their own gender. Don’t get me wrong… I don’t think its right, but that’s my opinion… other people have different ones, but gays and lesbians should choose for themselves.
I know that America is a very free country compared to others, but we could do better. The US has always prided it’s self on being a melting pot of different cultures, religion, ect, but our laws don’t always let everyone in the melting pot do what they believe in. If we are going to be a place where everyone is free, we should be allowed to express ourselves and our opinions freely, and do what we ourselves think is right, not what the people on top of Capitol Hill think.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
