Trivial Trivialities Trivially Tinkering With Teh Thoughts

In case you were wondering:

The French word, "blague," is pronounced almost identically to the English word, "blog." Translated, it means "joke."

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And now, a pseudo-confession:

The truth is, I frequently plagiarize. In fact, everything I ever do or say is plagiarism. I simply can't think a truly unique thought. It's rather unfortunate, but I'm afraid that's just the way my mind works. I mean, all I have to go on are my sensory inputs from the world around me, which are hardly original. Further, they're all filtered through a complex system of language that defines the world I perceive. Add on top of that the rich cultural tradition I am descended from--all the literature, music, art, science and ephemera that a hundred generations past have built, and which fundamentally inform my worldview. It's really no surprise that nothing I ever think is original.

Nonetheless, I do resent the implication that I lift material from Cliff's notes.

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And now some pseudo-philosophical ramblings:

Karma

It's just cause and effect. There's no personal identification, although many incorrectly understand it to mean exactly that. There's no such thing as 'the universe taking revenge' on you or anything in that vein. The reason a bad action results in bad karma is simply because it hurts other. It's as simple as that--the cycle never necessarily affects the individual causing the harm. "This is what people mean when they say 'The world isn't fair." Often, people committing 'bad' actions get away without ever feeling the harm they cause. Perhaps they even reap some benefit from of it.

People also sometimes say that whatever harm or good you do will come back tenfold. This is also misinterpreted--the harm or good doesn't come directly back to the person causing it. But the energy, positive or negative, that is created whenever an action is taken, does spread. A person who has something stolen from them is more likely to become a thief. A person hurt often proceeds to cause pain himself. However, an enlightened person will be conscious of the pain cause them, and will avoid continuing the effect.

Some schools of thought hold that the ultimate goal is to completely end all karma--to halt it in its tracks and exist in a state of non-action. That's a little too metaphysical for me, and makes me wonder what point is. It seems to me that one should always attempt to halt the negative karma they encounter, but reciprocate, even multiply, the positive.

But maybe I just haven't acquired a taste for entropy yet.

In this vein, here's a hypo: You see a coat on television, worn by a character on one of your favorite shows. You immediately want it. You look in stores, online, you find it in different places for various prices, but all more than you can reasonably afford at the moment. You decide that once you have the necessary cash, you'll buy it.

The next day, it is out of your mind. You meet a couple of friends. One of them seems to wearing a new coat, similar to the one you wanted to purchase. He shows it to you, tells you he 'found' it in an open car. He didn't break into the car, but the window had been smashed--someone had broken in previously. And in the car, the coat, which he took. He shows you the tag. it is a designer label. It is, in fact, the precise coat you were looking at just a day before.

Later, hanging out as a group, your friend buttons the coat. Some of the other people you are with start laughing a bit--it is far too large for him. He asks you to try it on. You hesitate a moment, but ultimately don the garment. It fits perfectly. He offers to give it to you.


What would you do?

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And now some pseudo-US Foreign Policy: We owe it to the world. We must lead by example--we are proponents of a democratic society with a market economy. Our message is, and one which almost all Americans believe, is that it is possible to have an open and free society where people are able to contract for their labor and still live meaningful lives. If we are to take that message seriously, we must lead by example. We have the most money by far, and also the most helpful conditions in general. If we cannot succeed, no nation can. The alternative is a return to the dark ages--fascist rule and the vast majority as peons serving those who brainwashed them. We need to immediately improve our education and healthcare services. No more bullshit elections. A truly progressive tax that requires those benefitting the most from the system to pay something back to those who labor so that they may live extravagant lives. And fundamental respect for life and the right of individuals to live free from oppression.

It's all in the preamble. Seriously.

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Point:

It's all about planting a seed.

Counterpoint:

“When you think about it from a native plant perspective,” Oyster says, “Johnny Appleseed was a fucking biological terrorist.”
(From Lullaby, by Chuck Palahniuk)

I'm here to kick ass and chew gum. Fortunately, I've still got lots of gum.

Sacre-Coeur, 23 June 2007.

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I've been writing a lot more lately, and its making me feel very nostalgic about the website I put up when I was at Wasatch Academy. It feels good to be writing, kind of cathartic. Just putting something onto the screen is somehow liberating.

Enough about that: I'm heading back to OR for Felice, my sister's, wedding in eight hours, and I'm pretty excited to go back to the states for a bit. Even better is the fact that I'll have a few days of vacation, something that hasn't happened since Spring Break. At the end of the school year, I finished the writing competitionon a Thursday, packed up my apartment and flew out on Friday, arrived in Paris Saturday evening, and started work on Monday at 8am. Been going strong since. Needless to say, I'll be glad for the break.

Also very cool, I'll get to see a few people who I haven't for ages when I stay in Portland for a couple nights.

Right now, I'm contemplating an all nighter. It's 4am in Paris now, and my flight leaves at 12:55.pm If I go to sleep when I get to my seat, it will be 4am in Oregon. I can sleep for 7 or so hours, then wake up 3/4 of the way through the flight to Houston, at about 11am, OR time. Then, if I land in OR and don't go to bed until midnight or so, I should be able to get a full night's sleep and wake up without any jetlag. We'll see if it works.

Gotta finish up my packing, so I suppose I'll do that when I'm finished with this post. I'm stoked to be going back to Oregon for a while.

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And now, some pseudo-political nonsense:

On the Need for Marijuana Law Reform

The United States prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s and early 1930s resulted in large economic and social costs to the country at large. There were two primary effects of that prohibitions which severely undermined the American economy:

1) A vast amount of taxable income went unreported. As a result, it was not collected. This reduced operating revenue for the Federal and state governments.

2) The organized crime associated with bootlegging caused its own set of losses: First, there were significant policing costs--having to enforce prohibition meant diverting cops to that task and taking them off the street and preventing violent crimes. Further, the criminal organizations responsible for the majority of the bootlegging also perpetrated a variety of additional crimes which both increased the policing requirement(and further reduced funds and manpower available for other tasks) and came at a very high social cost as well.

The prohibition of marijuana is fundamentally similar to prior prohibitions of alcohol. There are related ideological roots and legal precedents. And there are similar associated costs, both economic and social.

Repealing current Federal marijuana laws would have the following beneficial effects:

1) It will allow states to decide how to regulate sales of marijuana, including complete bans if they wish. Allowing states to act as 'laboratories of government,' and try out new policies to determine their effects, the best solutions will eventually emerge. Further, by allowing states to determine whether or not to allow the drug, American citizens will be given better opportunities to live in areas with laws they agree with, thus maximizing choice in what kinds of places they want to live.

2) By heavily taxing marijuana, the Federal government could create a significant revenue source. This is money that could be used for pressing national concerns: education, healthcare, scientific research(from NASA to the National Insitutes of Health to the National Science Foundation), and other badly needed social services.

3) We could free valuable Federal police manpower to deal with more pressing national security needs. This would result in a significant boost to the effort in the war on terror. Further, by legalizing marijuana and allowing it to be sold and grown legitimately, we would take away a major source of funding from the criminal organizations(terrorist or otherwise) that profit from the marijuana prohibition.

The war on drugs has come at a significant cost to our country. Countless individuals have been jailed or otherwise severely penalized for growing marijuana and selling it. The systemic costs of supporting an overcrowded jail system full of non-violent offenders are a drain on resources badly needed elsewhere. We must repeal Federal marijuana laws, allow states to choose whether to proscribe or simply enforce age limits, and we must tax it, turning it from a resource-drain into a source of revenue.
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And now a random rant:

The stupid bitch of the week award goes to....
The Checkout Lady in the Express Lane of the Monoprix on Rue de Courcelles

Having never even heard the word efficiency(or, for that matter, efficacité), it's no surprise that this stupid bitch was totally inept. All the other lines were flying by--people with baskets full of groceries were moving far quicker than the sad few in the express line. But I stayed there, thinking that the short line in front of me would soon end. But it was interminable.

There were 3 people in front of me when I got in line. It took the checkout lady 10 minutes to get through the first two. At least three of her coworkers came and talked to her while she worked. And she had to stop everything to respond. She wasn't scanning or making change while they spoke to her--the act of speaking exhausted her mental resources. I inched closer. The line grew longer behind me. The woman ahead of me had 8 items, which she put onto the conveyer. The idiotic checkout lady scanned one at a time, very slowly, putting down the scanning gun between each item as she grabbed the next. Not only was she completely unable to multitask, she even lacked the ability to process single threads at any decent rate. I was the next in line. After the stupid bitch of the week spent 4 minutes checking out a woman paying cash for less than 10 items, I stepped up. I put down my single bottle of wine, and prepared to pay. I'm not going to go into the mind-numbing boringness of standing there: suffice it to say, it was just more of the same. How it could take her 3 minutes to complete the transaction, I will never understand.

Granted, 17 minutes isn't a lot of time, but having to waste it standing in line just because she was too retarded to do her insanely simple job really pisses me off.

I'm not bitter. I just think she should be fired. And possibly imprisoned.

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And now, a long time ago in a galaxy far far away:


Tie Fighter: |-o-|
Advanced Tie Fighter: (-0-)
Tie Bomber: (-o-0-)
Darth Vader's Tie Fighter: <-o->

X-Wing: >=[^]=<
Y-Wing: Y (lol)

Light Saber: =*========[&/&:::::]
Doubled-edged light saber: =*=======[:::::&*&::]=======+=

@-_-@ Princess Leia