Keynesian Economics = Bad

I know this will probably come off as sounding extraordinarily piggish, but I wish all this economic crisis was just done and over with. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it's been fueling the conversations and news networks, but it's just gotten to the point that the more I hear about it, the more angry I get.

I don't know what's worse: Being the generation that not only has to take care of environmental issues and also a hefty national debt, OR The fact that all my future aspirations of getting a higher education and decent job are becoming more impossible to reach.

It's ridiculous. Not only is the job market going sour, but colleges are upping the prices, more kids are applying for scholarships and government help, and there just isn't enough money to go around.

I don't claim to be an economist, but let me assure you I am not a Keynesian. I do not believe that injecting money into the economy will do us a least bit of good due to the fact that the businesses we are giving hand outs to aren't doing one thing to change their ways. Not to mention, where are we going to get this money? The taxpayers don't have much because they don't have jobs, and other countries are doing just as bad because the economy spreads throughout the world, which means they've fallen just like us. My parents were closely connected to Circuit City, and when the two or three businesses shut down in our area my parents had to cut their losses and look for new accounts. Did my parents, who happen to be small business owners themselves, have the opportunity to get bailed out? No.

The blue collar workers, or as I like to refer to them as the Back Bone of America, need this bailout money just as much as the major corporations. Not only do small businesses provide for 60-80 percent of jobs annually, they also are more responsible and stable.

By keeping these irresponsible major corporations that don't know how to handle money, we're just keeping the bad kids in, and safe from harm, while the good kids fall because of other's mistakes.

It's not right. It took me a while to come to this conclusion, but I would rather have 5-10 years of a depression so the smaller businesses can build up and hold the economy together, than to fund greedy CEOs and their employees.

It's rough, it's hard, but we do not need to applaud Keynesian economics. We must look to adhering to free market economics, and just let things run their course. Maybe then, we can all come out of this situation with a few bruises, instead of a gaping hole in our limbs.

(p.s. due to my tourney schedule the likelihood of me reading blogs, and updating are very slim)

Little Politician

Oh man, am I hyped up or what? (not)

It just sunk in this morning that tomorrow is a really big tournament. I'm going to be gone from about noon till around 10pm for Debate. Not to mention it's at the local junior college, and is a 3 day event.

I'm both nervous and anxious because I'm going to be competing in three events.

1. LD Debate
2. Extemporaneous Speaking
3. Student Congress

I feel like quite the little politician. Also, I hope I make Bill Maher proud. I heard a rumor that I might be lucky enough to spend some time with these two guys from other schools that I've been hanging out with. They are refined and handsome, and best of all they're going somewhere in life.

On the downside of missing two days of school is the fact that I have to go in early and pick up any late/make up work I might have. Oh well. Bah, I've been so busy lately, and even though I always complain about it, I can't stand when I'm doing nothing.

Inside the Book

What's this? Why is my ever infamous sketch book. Inside the answers to all the worlds questions might be found if you can read the scrawled mess that is my handwriting.

This book goes almost everywhere with me, no lie. The thing is, I don't even put just drawings in there. It's a bit like an offline journal with more pictures.

It holds the val-o-gram messages I got this year, the apology letter from
Jacob, and tons of little notes and papers from class. Sometimes people take it, and look through it, complement my art, but I don't know. It's like someone reading my blog and complementing it. It's just one of those weird things. Oh well. There is so much crap in my sketch book, so I only snagged two pics as a sampler to the inside of my book.

I'm a bit disappointed because a lot of the shading and detail was lost when I took the pictures. :[

Halfsies

Of all things to be accused of, they had to pick the worst.

My fellow debate classmates aka Sarah and Jacob decided to accuse me of liking cousin Ricky. Um no. I tried not to let it get too under my skin but it didn't really work out.  

Oh well. Today for me was a half day (woot!) and I went out and got some Disney Princess Pencils and Stickers! Haha they're great!

Anyways, I was pretty happy today, not only did I get my homework done before I got home, but I was also able to talk to a bunch of old friends.  

Not to mention, the one thing that kicked the day off to a good start: Nirvana was playing right as I got out of the car to get dropped off for school. It was epic.  Also, I felt pretty special when my teacher noticed that I was reading Nietzsche.  We chit chatted a bit about it, and talking about philosophy always makes me happy.

Random

I found this in my picture folder when I was cleaning out.  I have no idea why I made this, but I just thought I had to share it with the world.

Alamo Bob

I'm a bit tired, and a bit sickly from all the excitement of the competition, and also from the many rounds of Twister that I played.

I think I played 20 rounds, and I even got some other kids from other schools to play Twister with me also! Hehe I was also lucky enough to play Twister with Mr. Musician, aka Dylan Bailey.

I met some nice guys from Lindale :] hahaaa they were niccceeeee.
 
Actual competition wise, a 4 was the highest number you could get and I got 3s on both of my peices.

Oh well, there's always LMFA. I spent a lot of the day with Cousin Ricky (not really my cousin) just talking, trying to get him to play Twister and such. For lunch we both went out and ate Subway, which was cool, because we got to talk about important things.

Right now I'm trying to prevent catching or developing anything bad, my immune system has been a bit low lately.  Not to mention all the sickly people there trying to pass on thier viruses on to me!

Also, Bekka, bringing Twister to school with me Monday to give it back to you! Thank you for letting me borrow it!

Twister Sore

Ouch.  Last night I played way to much Twister. My butt is so sore for holding the same position for like 10 minutes that it kills me to walk up stairs.

Oh well, it was great great fun.  Tomorrow at my art competition we might play Twister... maybe if all the other art kids do... You never know.

I'm so anxious about the competition due to the fact that we have to do interviews, and I'm not quite sure if I'm going to directly hit it off with my judge or not.  Either way, I wish my fellow competitors the best of luck.

Next week I found out that Thursday, Friday, and quite possible Saturday will be occupied by the National Forensics League (debate) tournament.  Noooooo--- I'm so nervous!  Ah I have work to get done! What am I still blogging for?!

I am Ron Weasly

Woo, I just got home from the library's 3rd annual Board Game Extravaganza!

For those of you who have added me on Facebook, beware of some maybe craziness if Bekka uploads the stuff.

This post will be short due to time constraints, but the test results came back for my baby brother's heart is enlarged on the right side due to the fact that he has two small holes in his heart.  Supposedly they should have been healed after he was born, but for some reason they didn't.  He'll be going back to the doctor in May to see if the holes have healed by then, if not then he has to have open heart surgery.

For now, I'm trying not to think about it. Bahh.

Lump

Ok, so right now I’m a bit freaked out. My brother is currently at a Dallas hospital right now to have his heart scanned because the local doctor informed us that he has an enlarged heart. Now, I don’t really know what this means, or exactly what an enlarged heart entails, however I do know that this is not good.

What makes me so scared is the fact that he’s just a baby, only six months. I don’t know what I would do if his condition were to be bad. For now, I’m just going to hope and pray he’s alright. I can’t do much, but I can hope.

Denial Blush

Oh my. Everything is so muddled right now that I feel as if I'll explode if I don't type this somewhere.

Yesterday I realised that I've been really anxious around one person. Although I've known him only for a short while, I've really grown quite fond of him. I notice him, and even look forward to seeing him during passing periods, his witty comments and outrageous ideas are the highlights of my day. The only downside is our incompatibility. I've seen some of the girls he's dated, and I've come to the horrible conclusion that he doesn't like girls like me.

In fact, he likes the exact opposite of who I am, or the people I even associate with. I'm too lazy to change who I am to fit his taste, and currently the most I can do is exchange witty banter with him due to the fact that he is dating a girl that I absolutely detest.  Another downside is that he's graduating next year.

Ah to be a teenager. It is no fun at all.

New Agenda

Well, my parents have set new rules.

Computer for 1 hour, then I'm off, then I can get back on after 4 hours.  Bah, oh well.  I have about 30 minutes left on the computer and by golly I'm spending it blogging.

I noticed people doing posts on Valentine's day and how it went, mine was mediocre and consisted of getting fattening sweets from beloved friends and family, and cute stuffed animals and roses.

I gave all the milk chocolate I got from my friends to my parents, and they gobbled it up, and I gave the roses I got to my grandma and she thought they were pretty.  I got an awkward val-o-gram (rose w/ message) from the debate pres. aka Jacob.  The only thing that made it worse than actually getting one from him is the fact that when I put it down in my world geo. class some friends of mine read the message before I did because I had to deliver the rest of the val-o-grams.  I am forever embarrassed.  Luckily they couldn't read his jumbled signature (thank god!) and I got off with some mild teasing and winks as to who the mystery note person was.  I hate Jacob for that.

Sadly, art club didn't make too big of a profit off of val-o-grams because some members didn't pay for roses like they were supposed to, so we came up short.  Looks like there won't be an art club trip this year.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I have an art competition this weekend!  WOOT!  Not to mention it's at a really nice school!

Public Service announcement

Ah, so my parents have laid down the ominous law.

Bummer.  Apparently I'm an irresponsible horrible teenager that doesn't yell, throw hissy fits, or talks back and they don't like it.  Maybe I should start doing the above mentioned?  Because my inner sulking and quiet brooding is starting to piss them off.

Anyways, they've talked about limiting my computer and TV time, which leaves me with the following activities: causing mischief, drawing pictures of boys, sleeping.  I'm sure they'll find those activities way more productive and worthwhile anyways.

So even thought it pains me to type this, I'm going to have to part with a piece of my soul due to the fact that if I really do have to limit my time, I won't be able to blog or write everyday.  All computer time will go towards school (i.e. case work and evidence for debate)

Moving on to a further realization, anytime I spend the weekend somewhere when I come home my parents are always fuming mad at me.  It puzzles me to no end because then it makes me think that they were bad talking me all weekend even though I'm like a live in baby sitter.  Oh well, maybe I should spend more weekends at home.  Maybe they won't be so mad every time I come home.

Drinking water

Ah, I'm postponing the last post to my 7 days of Nietzsche bit because quite frankly I don't really feel like doing it right now. I've been in this frazzled not really paying attention state, and quite frankly I'm pissing myself off.

I've been in denial for almost all the school year and it's just now coming out to bite me in the butt.

Not to mention, no one will leave me in peace so I can finally finish watching Nick and Norah's infinite playlist. Buddha what does a person have to do around here to finish a movie? Also, a random fact about me: when I'm stressed, instead of drinking alcohol or smoking, I chug water down like a mo fo.

At first it feels good, but now I feel that if I don't have a water bottle at my side at all times I freak out and think I'm going to die of dehydration. Is this good? I think not. It's a bit pathetic actually. It also causes people to wonder if I'm half sea creature or something because I'm always sipping on water, and making multiple trips to the bathroom.

I need something to distract me before I die of over hydration. I now know what my friend meant when she said that she felt like a fish in a plastic baggie being shaken. I feel like a very frazzled fish.

Happy Valentine's day. Oh yes, I finally got around to watching Burn After Reading. I don't get it, and it only enhances my shaken baggie fish state.

Anger at ineffiency

Dear Internet Explorer and Twitter,

I hate you guys. Well to be clear, I don't really hate you Twitter, I'm just mad that you went down in my most important hour of need.

But as for you IE I hate you. You freeze up at the worst time (i.e. 5 minutes ago) and compromise a pivotal conversation of IM on Facebook.

I was just to ask a very important question to a somewhat questionable individual and YOU FREEZE UP ON ME AND SHUT DOWN. I HATE YOU. Bah, you make everything crappy, but for some odd reason people still use you! Why?!

If only I could download Firefox or Opera or even Chrome.... Oh yes, you would be deleted in less than two seconds. But I can't delete you. Because this is not my computer that I am currently operating on. BAH. Why did that Facebook conversation have to end?!!!

Truth is a woman.

If only everyone understood the method behind Nietzsche's thought. He was a complicated and misunderstood man who presented ideas far to ahead of his time. From the Preface of his book Beyond Good and Evil:

SUPPOSING that Truth is a woman--what then? Is there not groundfor suspecting that all philosophers, in so far as they have beendogmatists, have failed to understand women--that the terribleseriousness and clumsy importunity with which they have usuallypaid their addresses to Truth, have been unskilled and unseemlymethods for winning a woman? Certainly she has never allowedherself to be won; and at present every kind of dogma stands withsad and discouraged mien--IF, indeed, it stands at all! For thereare scoffers who maintain that it has fallen, that all dogma lieson the ground--nay more, that it is at its last gasp.

Thinking Party

Surprisingly, Nietzsche also had some wisdom when it came to partying. Mind you, he probably didn't attend any, but hey, how many philosophers do you know that actually went out and acted like normal people?

What I think I might gather from his words on socializing is to not think much, or perhaps to just let be and not worry.

Happy Laughs

One of my favourite quotes from Nietzche is, 

And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.

It's a nice saying, and one that I often forget on depressing cloudy days.  Nietzsche didn't have the best life, his love life was lacking, and later on he suffered mental breakdowns close to his death.  However, he still put much emphasis on remaining, or seeking happiness.

Happiness is easily lost, but easier to gain if one just stops looking for it.  Laughing maybe hard, but at least you can always dance.

Immense dislike of

Bah. Today was alright, until I went to Spanish.

Why? Because of a little known person named Kenneth. Bah. Usually in class he's fairly tolerable, but today he was being exceptionally irritable. You see, in Spanish, I understand nothing so I usually get my friend Karina to help me. But no. Kenneth wanted to be super mean and hog her.

Geez I know he probably likes her or something, but hey, I need to pass Spanish as much as the next person! Maybe I'm just being hormonal, but I just got really mad at him today. I'm tired of his high and mighty act he's been putting up lately. Have some friggin humility.

Moving on, I bought two Val-O-Grams. Woo. Not. Seeing as I'm in Art Club, and we're selling them I have the wonderful task of rifling through the schedules and finding the room I'm supposed to deliver them to. FUN. What sucks is that since I'm on the delivery team, I'm going to have to deliver my Val-O-Gram to myself. Major suck. Not to mention the day we deliver them is also Senior Skip Day. Ah, well I guess they don't get their Roses.

Oh yes, If by some odd chance you were looking for the next installment of my 7 Days of Nietzsche series, it's below this post. I had to double post due to my urge to rant and not talk about Nietzsche.

Hansen Writing Ball

Now, I know my past few Nietzsche installments have been extremely on the serious side, but today I'm just going to talk about his awesome Typewriter. But you see, his typewriter was no normal typewriter. It was surely unique compared to most. I wonder how he even managed to use it? Apparently, it was sent to him because he found it easier to type with.

Now, after seeing this picture, are you not convinced that this is the awesomest typewriter on earth??

Nietzsche and Religion

From some college lecture notes quite back, "Modern Christian civilization, Nietzsche declared, is sick and must be overcome."

And I must agree with that statement.  But first, before I speak about the illness of modern Christianity, I will give you a passage from "The Madman" 

"God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?"

If there's one question that Nietzsche stirs controversy up in, it's his Who created Who question. 

Did God create us, or did We create god?

The Greeks and Romans answered many of the world's famous questions with either science or Gods.  Are your crops bad?  Maybe you should go sacrifice something to Demeter.  Need children?  Worship Hera.  All questions, wants needs and hopes, answered with a different God.

Does this not sound similar to modern day "Jesus"?  We don't know how we got here... well really, the scientists (aka the only people who are smart enough to tell us) say that we are here due to evolution and shear chance.  They sort of answer our questions, but really in the end leave us hungry for those missing gaps and links.  Whereas the only people who rival their opinion have even less evidence and proof.

Did we create God, as some sort of answer to all of our questions? Or did God create us, and we somehow fabricated the bits and pieces of the story we forgot?

Either way, whomever created whom, this still does not justify the corruptness of the modern church.

I do not plan on, and will not plan on ever becoming a member of a large scale church. Why? Because if you haven't noticed, they're always trying to take your money. As someone who knows a bit about church, I know that you are entitled to give 10 percent, but no more or no less. You may give extra, but only if you feel spiritually moved to do so. However, with larger churches, they always have some money scheme going on which basically forces half your paycheck out.  

I don't believe that you need a church to go to in order to honor God, or whomever you worship. One must always remember that when thinking of the classical sense of God, he is always there, so why go to a giant fancy building to talk to him? Why not go to a humble environment?

Religion is a touchy subject with many rituals and nuances, both of which I'm not too fond of.

Modern day religion is so corrupt right now, that I think someone could get away with creating a new division of it. It's sad to say, but I'd rather have my little sister watch Disney channel than go to church on Sunday. In my area of Texas alone there have been 20 molestation charges in the past 5 years that were church related.

When Nietzsche speaks about his disdain about religion, he wasn't speaking of the faults of God, or our creator whomever they are, but of the people who represent the Holy figure.

Provoking thoughts of which I do not know

Freidrich Nietzsche said once,

"What else is love but understanding and rejoicing in the fact that another person lives, acts, and experiences otherwise than we do…?"

For someone who was so entirely unlucky in love, he wrote and even said a great deal about it.  Some reflected of his bitterness towards the matter, some showed how much he longed to comprehend its depths.

It just goes to show that even the most complex of minds is sometimes wrapped in what we think, or what we wish love to be like.  Dictionary.com defines love (n.1) as A deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness.  And I guess different people would define their love differently, depending on their a priori knowledge of the subject.

A single bachelor would define love as someone being by his side, since he is single.

A love sick teenager would define love as some over the top feeling that can only be expressed artistically and with actions.

A woman recently divorced would probably give a bitter definition of love, maybe somewhat implying upon how at times it can be fickle.

However, what if we asked someone who has been "in love" for over half their life?  Or someone whose love was kept frozen and constant due to loss?

Would their thoughts and definitions not be different?  How can we judge what we perceive as the strong feeling of love if the only knowledge we have of it comes from the opinions of other people who are biased due to their own happiness or bitterness?

More importantly, how do those such as Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Needleman, Plato, many others even dare to write of love when at times they themselves do not purely know what they mean to perceive.

Perhaps they are like me, and they write for what they don't understand or wish to understand.  Developing theories in the fickle hope that they one day will be recognized for trying to figure out that which makes the world move.

In his book, The Gay Science, Nietzsche states,

"Even the most beautiful scenery is no longer assured of our love after we have lived in it for three months, and some distant coast attracts our avarice: possessions are generally diminished by possession…"

Is this not how most who perceive love end up?

Gaspy

Do you not find it at all odd that this picture is on a mens magazine?

Today feels like a Saturday

Ugh, today was another one of those ok days.

I'm tired of ok days. I want some wonderful days again.

In Pre-Drill class we moved stuff, most of the stuff I moved was for Prom, which kinda depressed me because I'm not a senior. Bah, oh well, I'm not to fond of their them anyways. My hands felt raw and stiff afterwards from all that heavy lifting.

Later on I skipped out on my Spanish substitute, who was surprisingly cute to go to debate and put up more pieces of paper to annoy Jacob.

For the past two days I've been putting up these papers that say "Jacob + Ting Ting 4 EVAR!1!!one"

Today Josh, Rachel, and Sarah helped me put up more, except this time we switched it up a bit:

Jacob loves lamp
Jacob loves African American men (Obama)
Jacob loves Jews
Jacob loves church of Christ girls
Jacob loves tight pants
Jacob loves it when Sarah and James argue
Jacob loves Nathan
Phillip Hayes loves Jacob
Jacob wishes he was a Jew
Jacob loves Men
Jacob loves Jack Loeb
Jacob loves tacos
etc.

You get the idea.

Yess, the room is littered with this nonsense, and the best part is that the teacher doesn't even mind. Coolest teacher on earth.

Oh yes, and unless you're blind, that thar is one of three of the newest Harry Potter posters!

Bah with this nonsense.

Ahhh it's only Thursday! Gosh. I need more time, and I still need a job. I'm really considering this one proposal that's only 2 days a week and pays $100 a month... I'll see if I can find work for more, or I might get two jobs....

Anyways, at school there isn't much going on. I'm still working on planning my 7 days of Nietzsche, and another thing I'm planning is Cousin Ricky day.

Woots. Greys Anatomy (insert gasp of disgust here) is coming on tonight for TWO HOURS. Yes. I love that show, as awful as it may be. In fact, I love that show more than I love House.

A letter

Dear Mr. Lipton.

Please make more tea. I really like your tea, in fact if I had to choose between your tea and coke, I would pick your tea. In fact, I did pick tea over water.

Anyways, I do hope you do not fall due to the recession.

Running late

So in Debate our Policy peeps went to district.... I hope they did well! However, I was a bit disappointed that I didn't go due to the fact that I'm LD. Oh well...

Anyways, since I didn't get to go we were sorta working on cases, not really though, mostly finding definitions etc. For some reason, there is this big awkward gap in class, which I partially blame on myself. Bah. Whatever.

Today I stayed about 2 hours after school for studio night, and it was ok, I only had to do one thing, but I told my parents to pick me up at five so I decided to spend the rest of the time helping cousin Ricky (who, btw is not really my cousin) put his pieces together for competition.

Hehe, he is quite.... interesting. We both like being right. And he's a perfectionist. How nice!

Yes, cousin Ricky = wayyy nicer than L.

Oh, yes, before I forget I was going to propose an idea, not to anyone particular unless you randomly wanted to do this with me, but next week I'm starting this thing called 7 days of Nietzsche, where All my posts are centered around Nietzsche--- so yeah. Feel free to join in if you want, I'm recruiting some Facebook people...

Marriage then love?

It's weird, but I've been doing a bit of research due to a 20/20 program I watched last Friday.

Statistics show the marriages for "love" have a high 50% divorce rate, and arranged marriages have a 5-7% divorce rate.

Now, I know what a bunch of you are thinking, there are strings attached with arranged marriages, but in some cultures it's not so bad. People end up falling in love after they are married. They build their relationship on the idea that they must work together in order to have a successful, happy life, and somewhere along the way they fall in love.

It's a nice thought. Most people rush into marriage thinking they are in love, making a decision in the heat of the moment and look where they are. Divorced.

I don't know. Maybe it's my cynical nature coming out again, but it's definitely something to think about.

Something not so fun was pointed out to me today.

I need to find a job.

Or else most likely I won't be going to Debate camp.

Bah this sucks. I'm off to find a job. Any suggestions? haha the only work I do is volunteer for the library, so something that actually pays would be nice.