Get ready for the full monty

Seeing as it has been exactly 2 months since my last update, with a dash of having else to do at 1 in the morning except be bitter and cynical, I have decided to talk about something that has been on my mind recently. Go figure, a 21 year old who thinks about peak oil, no wonder I’m single and forlorn.

But how to suck you, the reader, into this article with a clever hook. Dare I say we are on the brink of the collapse of global industrial civilization as we know it? I guess you’ll now have to read on…

First of all, allow me to say…shut up, just shut up and stop talking. From the guy who cuts my hair, to the anchors on CNBC, to family and friends, to the politians, none of these people have it right. None of these people really understand what is going on with oil. The most commonly used explanation for these higher fuel prices is that Exxon Mobil and Shell are evil greedy corporations that jack up the price of gasoline to increase their profits while simultaneously burning down forests on a whim and killing bunny rabbits. The second most commonly used explanation would be that OPEC, or rather, those dirty Arabs, purposely keeps oil production low to inflate prices. These are both wrong. OPEC is also not just made up of only Middle Eastern countries.

Continue Reading»

No comments »

You know, for all the negative connotations and stereotypes we give to people south of the United States, I would have to say sometimes I respect their cultural ideals more than ours here in the U.S. Maybe it’s just because of the type of person I am. Let me explain what I mean. For all the terrible political and economic turmoil that we think of someone mentions Central and South America, people really like to party down there. People take life slower down there and pase lo que pase, which pretty much means whatever happens, happens. They don’t have to plan every single moment of their lives out. They have crazy carnivals and wild parties all the time. Sure, I have not personally traveled around down there yet but I intend to. From what I have learned people of the Spanish-speaking world just takes life as it comes.

Continue Reading»

1 Comment »

I really had no intentions of writing an update this evening, I just happened to find myself inspired. For some reason if I don’t have much to do late at night I’ll think of things I have to do and start on them at 1 in the morning. Tonight I felt like emptying out boxes under my bed into a large garbage bag and just storing that stuff in the attic while using the empty boxes to transport ever more shit to my new apartment in State College.

As I listened to my iPod, I pulled out the first dusty box from under my bed and opened it. It had been the first time I had touched that box in over a year. Contained in that box was such an array of memorabilia. I have never been one to remember things in detail, but seeing the contents of that simple box really stirred up some feelings and memories in me that had long since passed. The first thing I noticed was there was a smaller box inside the one I had opened, and inside that box were miscellaneous papers and all sorts of things I never throw away, only save. I pulled out a Happy Valentine’s Day card from Danielle Houston that had to be from 6th or 7th grade or whenever we stopped doing that sort of thing in school.

Continue Reading»

1 Comment »

So in an effort to update this blog more often, I’m going to make an entry tonight while listening to a mix of Celine Dion and Chemical Brothers before I go to bed of an undefined length without having thought of a topic before I write this. I basically noticed that I haven’t updated this for about 6 weeks.

I’ve had a number of things I’ve wanted to talk about in those 6 weeks; however, it’s been quite the busy summer with work and all. Although I had envisioned a summer of wondrous dreams, the things that novels are written about, none of that has really passed. Of course, I always have this strange expectation of summer to be not like the rest of the year, and by rest of the year I mean cold and shitty.

Sure, summers are nice for weather, but it’s the classic conflict of schedules as we finally grow into adulthood and realize that we cannot keep our social ties with everyone. I’ve thought about it in a sort of odd manner. In our highly mobile industrial society, we are a nation that prides itself on independence and self gain. If you go to Papua New Guinea, you’ll find much closer kinship groups. People are born and die in the same town, of course this is still possible in the U.S. but it’s becoming less and less common. People in many other nations work together. There are more tightly knit groups of support. What do we do in the U.S.? It’s a nation of neolocality, graduating college/ getting married and getting the fuck out of Dodge. Those who do not follow the cultural norm of neolocality after one of those two events are seen as being highly, and I mean highly unproductive. We live in a society that in essence prevents and undermines keeping old social ties.

Continue Reading»

No comments »

I’ve been debating on whether to make this blog a topical one like it has been where I just target one issue or thought or to have to be a more personal blog on my personal life. I guess I’ve decided to make it both, and this is a more personal entry. If I made it only topical, I’d update about once a month.

So the last I updated I was in State College a little down about everyone being busy but we had our final party Wednesday night so I was happy about that. I came home Thursday afternoon and immediately went golfing. My semester grades came back a few days ago. I got a 4.0 this semester, which is funny because that was something I never got in high school.

From Thursday to Sunday was just hanging out, it was fun. I played tennis finally although we didn’t really follow the rules I didn’t care. I finally got Steve to golf after years of fucking asking him. We had our lol’s, including playing behind a pair of old, African American men we collectively called “Mammy”.

Continue Reading»

2 Comments »