I don't think I'm inside my own mind today... I sit at this computer with an anticipation inside of me that I cannot yield. I want to create, I want to write but then there comes the all too familiar stifle. Where do I start? What do I write about? Do I write something new? Do I continue something I've already started? Do I work on something I've already written and make it better? It seems that, no matter how pure my intention, even with my hobby I cannot seem to find that glowing path (not unlike in a video game...) that will lead me where I need to go. Obviously, that's because there is no path. I'm just saying, it'd be nice.
Kind of like this time I called my grade 12 English teacher a "stupid bitch" (Maybe just out of spite, trust me when I say she deserved it, but I just hated her.) for chastising my lack of effort on an assignment. The criteria was far too vague (so far so as to say that it wasn't really criteria for anything at all...) to warrant any effort on my part. The creative muse isn't always a willing participant in the creative union, just like how my teacher was not a willing participant in that educational endeavor. However, with creativity there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, sometimes you've just got to dig around the tunnel a little bit to find it.
A lot of my more creative friends often tell me, when they're not up to it, that they 'cant figure out what to write'. They want to, they just don't know what to do. Well writing doesn't work like that. There's not always a stalwart force to direct you where you need to go. Sometimes, you have to be that stalwart force and today I do not feel like a force for anything, much less a immovable force. The muse is only as good as you nurture it to be, like a child or a plant. You have to feed it for it to grow. (Not literally, I mean I've just been reading a lot more lately) I haven't been feeding my muse as much as it needs, but as of late it's been getting far more nutrients than it has been prone to receiving over say, the past 16 months. As such, my muse has practically been in full gear.
Ideas have assaulted my mind on a daily basis, some good, others not so much, but always intriguing and motivating. I find myself constantly in this position that when I am at work, or otherwise indisposed, I'd love to be writing and diving into a world of imaginative bliss. But when I'm at home, free to do as my whims would heed I feel as if I need to sit down in front of my Xbox and embrace a healthy session of Madden 10. Madden, as lovely as it is, does not fuel my muse other than to make me ponder if I want to switch up teams in my Franchise Mode... I just read Maddox's The Alphabet of Manliness. Which was a great read, it's fueled my muse to blog but I must constantly remind myself that I am, in fact, not Maddox, so I shouldn't try to write like him when I'm blogging, no matter how fun it might be.
Creative types are, dare I say, enigmatic people. Driven by passion and reason, their only solace comes in the output of something from the heart. Be it something as small as a haiku, or as grand as a thousand page novel. A painting of a hummingbird or a mural of a world war two battlefield. Today I watched a trailer for the upcoming movie Cup of Tears, a very bad ass looking Modern/Sci-Fi Samurai movie, with violence, hyper stylization and even room for Ninjas too. This kickstarted my desire to write something with a Samurai. I wouldn't always recommend trying to exersize your muse by watching something but this was the one rare example that it did in fact work.
I've been reading a fair number of comics lately and that's tempted me to write in my own worldsetting. I don't really write for the purpose of getting published, that's my goal, but I'm still trying to find myself as a writer. I've got my own characters and sociology that mirrors our own. I've been torn on weither I should push the world forward, or if I should go back to stories past that I've since abandoned and re-work and finish them.
When I started out I had this fear of not finishing a story. I had tried to write a few stories and I couldn't finish anything, so when I finally started my first complete story titled "Superhero Anarchy" I made a goal for myself. No matter what, I would finish that story, and I did. Sounds easy but it wasn't. I almost failed the 11th grade writing that story and if it wasn't for an english teacher who knew I had more potential than the C-, 51 percent passing grade he gave me (That's right, I passed by 1 percent...) then I would've been in high school an extra year and odds are, I probably would've dropped out and dissapointed the shit out of my parents. Thank christ that never happened.
I got distracted by habitual smoking of marijuana (as fun as it is, when you're smoking a lot of it the only thing you're good for is sitting on the couch and eating all of your food. It can help the creative process but that's another story.) and that really thwarted my created efforts. Stories became too overambitious, I was stretching my efforts thin and in writing this I've come to realize maybe I need to simplify the process to achieve what I want to. So I'm still kind of back to where I started, do I go back to what I abandoned or do I leave it in the past and start on something new?
That debate will probably never get old. I think in the mean time I will just try something new and see how it goes. Trying anything will yield results and that's my main point. When in doubt, just do. You never know what you'll discover. Half of the act of telling the story occurs while writing it, you might take the story in a direction you never thought it would go. Some surprising, intriguing direction that you'll run with. Kind of like a blog entry, many times I've started an entry on nothing but a firecracker under my ass and rage in my heart only to find the answers to my questions yielded different questions than the ones I initially had in the first place.
Until next time I feel like something needs to be said, be it good, or bad.
PEACE
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
PANIC! ITS THE FLU!!!
I don't think I'm inside my own mind today... This mass hysterics, H1N1, swine flu BULLSHIT has got to come to an end. Get a grip people its the GODDAMN FLU! If you haven't died from the flu before, chances are this swine flu isn't going to kill you either. It might make you feel gross for about a week, THATS WHAT THE FLU DOES!
You have to worry if you fall into one of three cattegories.
1. You are an infant or young child
2. You are an elderly person.
3. You have a weakened immune system.
If you don't meet one of those three (technically, four) criteria than the odds are in your favor that you will be okay. You don't need to hit the proverbial panic button. You don't need to do a clean sweep of everybody you know and make sure that everyone is just as freaked out as you are because what you saw on FOX news has made you certain that you will get the swine flu and die (For those of you who are more ignorant, Fox News is NOT to be taken seriously by anybody with the ability to cognitively assess logic and common sense)
Maybe you're reading this and thinking, "But Bryce... this is a pretty serious problem, people are dying." Let's look at the cold hard facts. The NUMBERS. In 2009 there have been a confirmed 5,382 deaths to the H1N1 Virus. Of those deaths, over 2600 have occurred in South America. 49 of those deaths have occurred in Canada. That's .09 percent, not even 1% of 2009 swine flu deaths have occurred in Canada. Total, there have been 89 Canadian fatalities to Swine Flu out of over 12,000 confirmed cases. That means, statistically, your odds of surviving the swine flu are pretty good.
Then you might go on to think "That's only a certain demographic (The only one that matters to me, technically, because I'm a Canadian) the U.S. is being hit pretty hard by the swine flu... so we should worry because they're worried" WRONG. Of nearly 59,000 confirmed cases of swine flu in the united states, there have only been just over 1,200 fatalities. I agree, that's nothing to ignore, but lets look at this from a different angle.
In South America, there has been over 2,600 fatalities from over 100,000 confirmed cases of swine flu. So that would extend that, if you live in South America, you might be more likely to get Swine Flu.
THE Flu (as in, the one we've always been worried about getting since the dawn of time) is responsible for 250,000 to 500,000 deaths annually (Roughly 20,000 or so Americans). That means, every year about a quarter of a million people DIE from THE FLU. Compare that to something else everyone worries about dieing from, Cancer, which kills about 550,000 people annually. That would mean, statistically speaking you're half as likely to die from the flu, as you are from cancer. (Only in the sense that Flu kills, from half to about as much people as cancer does every year. This doesn't really go in to consider that you're more likely to get The Flu than you are to get cancer.) The flu is the 7th leading cause of death according to the center of disease control.
So all I really want is for the world to take a deep breath and ask yourselves a few questions 1) Have you ever had the flu before. 2) Have you died from the flu? If you've answered no (and undoubtebly, you have if you're reading this.) than you really have nothing to worry about! Yes. The Swine Flu is sweeping across the world, yes, people are getting sick and furthermore a small percentage of those people are dying. THATS NO DIFFERENT FROM THE REGULAR FLU. Which, for some reason, has not incited world-wide panic even though it's got more than adequate enough of a resume for the job. Eat it: SARS, Antrax, Bird Flu(which I guess is the swine flu now isn't it?), Terrorism.
Do the resurch for yourselves, get the facts, inform yourselves. Don't just believe whatever the hell FOX news or CBC is feeding you because its skewed from the point of view of somebody who wants YOU to see it in a certain way. Not in a way that would allow you to think about this situation critically and logically as you should be allowed for it is only human nature. But from the point of view that would project your opinion in the direction that they want you to (aka: panic!) If its not inciting panic on a country or planet wide scale, than it's not news worthy.
Until next time that something incites me into a near undecipherable rage that I cannot seem to unattach myself from, or maybe even for once something cool, positive and maybe even (heaven forbid) happy...
PEACE!
You have to worry if you fall into one of three cattegories.
1. You are an infant or young child
2. You are an elderly person.
3. You have a weakened immune system.
If you don't meet one of those three (technically, four) criteria than the odds are in your favor that you will be okay. You don't need to hit the proverbial panic button. You don't need to do a clean sweep of everybody you know and make sure that everyone is just as freaked out as you are because what you saw on FOX news has made you certain that you will get the swine flu and die (For those of you who are more ignorant, Fox News is NOT to be taken seriously by anybody with the ability to cognitively assess logic and common sense)
Maybe you're reading this and thinking, "But Bryce... this is a pretty serious problem, people are dying." Let's look at the cold hard facts. The NUMBERS. In 2009 there have been a confirmed 5,382 deaths to the H1N1 Virus. Of those deaths, over 2600 have occurred in South America. 49 of those deaths have occurred in Canada. That's .09 percent, not even 1% of 2009 swine flu deaths have occurred in Canada. Total, there have been 89 Canadian fatalities to Swine Flu out of over 12,000 confirmed cases. That means, statistically, your odds of surviving the swine flu are pretty good.
Then you might go on to think "That's only a certain demographic (The only one that matters to me, technically, because I'm a Canadian) the U.S. is being hit pretty hard by the swine flu... so we should worry because they're worried" WRONG. Of nearly 59,000 confirmed cases of swine flu in the united states, there have only been just over 1,200 fatalities. I agree, that's nothing to ignore, but lets look at this from a different angle.
In South America, there has been over 2,600 fatalities from over 100,000 confirmed cases of swine flu. So that would extend that, if you live in South America, you might be more likely to get Swine Flu.
THE Flu (as in, the one we've always been worried about getting since the dawn of time) is responsible for 250,000 to 500,000 deaths annually (Roughly 20,000 or so Americans). That means, every year about a quarter of a million people DIE from THE FLU. Compare that to something else everyone worries about dieing from, Cancer, which kills about 550,000 people annually. That would mean, statistically speaking you're half as likely to die from the flu, as you are from cancer. (Only in the sense that Flu kills, from half to about as much people as cancer does every year. This doesn't really go in to consider that you're more likely to get The Flu than you are to get cancer.) The flu is the 7th leading cause of death according to the center of disease control.
So all I really want is for the world to take a deep breath and ask yourselves a few questions 1) Have you ever had the flu before. 2) Have you died from the flu? If you've answered no (and undoubtebly, you have if you're reading this.) than you really have nothing to worry about! Yes. The Swine Flu is sweeping across the world, yes, people are getting sick and furthermore a small percentage of those people are dying. THATS NO DIFFERENT FROM THE REGULAR FLU. Which, for some reason, has not incited world-wide panic even though it's got more than adequate enough of a resume for the job. Eat it: SARS, Antrax, Bird Flu(which I guess is the swine flu now isn't it?), Terrorism.
Do the resurch for yourselves, get the facts, inform yourselves. Don't just believe whatever the hell FOX news or CBC is feeding you because its skewed from the point of view of somebody who wants YOU to see it in a certain way. Not in a way that would allow you to think about this situation critically and logically as you should be allowed for it is only human nature. But from the point of view that would project your opinion in the direction that they want you to (aka: panic!) If its not inciting panic on a country or planet wide scale, than it's not news worthy.
Until next time that something incites me into a near undecipherable rage that I cannot seem to unattach myself from, or maybe even for once something cool, positive and maybe even (heaven forbid) happy...
PEACE!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Apparently dietary indescretion is grounds for hate crime
I don't think I'm inside my own mind today... Has society become so overly-sensitive, or have I just become the worlds biggest douchebag? I am not a racist, I'm not a sexist, and I don't even like to believe that these ideologies exist. We live in a society that should be able to accept everyone regardless of their skin colour, sexual orientation or personal habits and sometimes I forget that not everybody is as open minded and 'loving' as I am. (I use the term loving, just because I don't actually love everyone. I hate people, but I hate biggot's and hypocrites too. So when it all boil's down, I treat everybody equally, and so should you.)
Reading about this today, has opened my flood gates of anger. Now, let me set the record straight right here. I don't hate fat people, I don't really have any preconceived opinions about fat people. I like to judge people right when I first meet them. If you leave a good first impression, I'll like you. If you set a poor one, chances are I will hate you. Its not that I won't ever come to like you, its just that first impressions are very important to me. Thats how I judge people. I don't look at someone and say "That guy probably loves fried chicken." because he's black or, "That woman is probably a terrible driver" because she's asian. Though we like to laugh at jokes depicting these situations. I don't push upon these preconceived notions into my daily thought train.
Fat people, pushing for 'equality' sorry. That's complete bullshit. I happen to be a very tall, very skinny person. I get made fun of for my size (or lack their of) all the time. Do I want to climb to the rooftops and start rallying all the pasta and sushi loving geeks to let the world know that WE WILL NOT TOLERATE THIS BULLSHIT ANY LONGER? Fuck no because I know how ridiculously stupid that sounds.
"Protesters want the UK to follow San Francisco, where a law bans "fat-ism" in housing and employment and stops doctors pressing patients to slim down."
Lets stop the crazy train for a moment and think about this. If your doctor is pressing for you to slim down. It's because you're in a position that your habits and lifestyle could END your life. In a less tactful style, you're so fat you're putting yourself in an unfavorable position. I get it, everyone makes fun of the fat people. But the fact of the matter is, its something you can CHANGE, something you have complete control over. You don't have to, but don't whine like a goddamn seven year old whenever somebody takes a jab at your waste size or eating habits.
Obesity is an EPIDEMIC in the united states. That means its a more serious problem than swine flu, the war on drugs or terrorism, yet nobody gives a shit about it. If you want to croak and have a heart attack because you can't get enough eclairs in your system or because you love to eat potato chips. That's not MY problem. I have enough common sense to realize that biology does not dictate that we are all born to be skinny and thin like the popular culture would like us to realize. There are more important things to worry about than your fat ass. What about all the hundreds of thousands of UNEMPLOYED, HOMELESS FAMILIES that aren't eating anything because they have nothing? Who gives a fuck about them, right? So long as you get to eat KFC whenever you fucking feel like it, as long as you can eat it without having to be hastled about being a fat ass, right?
Now, the few of you who actually read things through might be saying. "Well Bryce, the article is about people being discriminated against because of their size, its not about the fact that they don't like being called fat (Which they probably don't) its about the fact that the chances of them being hired for a job, for example, are being affected because they are fat.
"For instance, people in inner cities are much more likely to be overweight because of poorer education, poorer housing and poorer job opportunities. "Not everyone has a free choice about controlling their weight."
Okay let's stop right there for a second. Now fat people have no control over their size. Suggesting obesity is an epidemic, wouldn't be unlike suggesting it is a disease. Is physical activity too much for these people? I don't hate fat people but I fucking hate lazy people. If you're too lazy to get up off of the couch and go for a walk every day to help out your size and health than you will not get ANY sympathy from me.
And then there's this... Apparently the issue is big enough that somebody has taken the time to put together a very simple one page website outlining the problem of "fat-ism" without taking any time to put forth any kind of evidence for the case of fat-ism.
Fatism (n) -
1. Discrimination or prejudice based on a person's weight.
Fatist (n & adj) -
1. A a person with a prejudiced belief that one persons weight is superior to others.
2. based on intolerance to a person's weight.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the internet equivelant of me walking out onto the street and screaming and passers by that Stephen Harper is, in fact, a smarmy slimy worm and that I do not like him. The fact that the webpage for fat-ism has very little to do with the actual combat OF fat person suggests to me that someone very lazy made this web site. And then we spiral back to my previous argument. If you're Fat and willing to change, than I can support you. If you're fat and lazy and you want to continue to be fat and lazy without people bothering you, that's your right. Just don't cry when somebody takes a jab at you for diving into a burrito or buying a few value meals from the drive thru at a Wendys.
Further resurch into this development tells me that this is becoming a wide spread cultural problem. Give me a fucking break! Do I get to start parading around about the moron's from Fox News for pushing their anti-videogame propoganda to the moronic parents who buy into every little thing that they talk about on their news program? NO because I have the sense to realize I am only ONE person, and in our society there are much larger (heh), much more important problems to think about.
To shift gears for a moment. Maybe I am a "fatist" but I wouldn't discriminate against a fat person for being fat, am I the only one who sees how ridiculous this is. I guess that's my issue, the fact that being fat is considered discriminatory at all. And the fact that the fat people need to cry about it to the world because they feel slighted by the way society proposes one is to be acceptable is to be skinny and beautiful. Where are all the ugly people at? I'm sure they're being discriminated against too, right? Where's Steve Buschemi when you need him.
"we live in a culture where we obviously place a premium on fitness, and fitness has come to symbolize very important values in our culture, like hard work and discipline and ambition. Unfortunately, if a person is not thin, or is overweight or obese, then they must lack self-discipline, have poor willpower, etc., and as a result they get blamed and stigmatized."
This article suggests that biology is more responsible to size than we lay claim for. Something I've always believed, so finally the argument against 'fatism' has some thing to back it up. Just the fact that the fat people are feeling discriminated against to the point that they have to complain that its' anything close to racism or sexism is something I find a tad obtuse. I am being a fatist in saying that most of the fat people I know don't do anything to change the state their in. There's nothing scientific about that, they're just lazy. Go for a freaking walk. It's not about science and excersize, it's about being ACTIVE for christ sakes. I eat about as poorly, and as much, as some of the biggest people I know, and for the life of me I can't eclipse 180 pounds. That's biology at its finest right there folks. Could the fact that I walk damn near EVERYWHERE play part into that role? I'm willing to bet that it does. Don't blame the economy, and say there's more to it than that when there's not. When your rolls have rolls, it's no longer biological, its the fact that you do, in fact, have a problem!
In sum, because I don't care to talk about this "issue" anymore. I don't advocate 'fatism' but I don't really see it being portrayed as a legitimate issue until people start to present it more seriously. I found one practically informative article out of all the crap I read though, that's bullshit too. I just think that if people did a little less time complaining about whatever that is that bothers them be it discriminatory or, other. And a little more time taking steps to battle whatever it was that is slighting them whatsoever. Maybe the world would be a better place. There certainly would be a lot less of the pointless bullshit complaining that pisses me off, and that would be a great cause for celebration.
Until next time that I read something that sets off my spider-sense of bullshit that spawns an unorganized, but ultimately informative rant...
-PEACE
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