After shuffling through my video cassettes, I came across my old high school talent show performance.. Watching it over again brought some tears to my eyes for three reasons: 1) because the video reminded me of the good old days in High School where I could act like a schmuck and still have the respect of my fellow classmates 2) because of the ::cricket:: noises after some painfully unfunny and uncomfortable moments (1:15 and 3:06 in particular), and 3) because Ed stole some of the charitable money that should have been mine. I have you on camera red handed Ed!

LYRICS:

Mamaaa! Why did you have to go and leave me buh bymyself? Buh bymyself?

Mamaaa! Why did you have to go and leave me all alone? All alone?

Pappaaa! Why did you have to go and kill my Mama mama?

Pappaaa! Why did you have to go and kill my Mama mama?

PAPA! PAPA! Why’d you kill mama?

PAPA! PAPA! Why’d you kill mama with the:

KNIFE THE KNIFE THE KNIFE THE KNIFE THE KNIFE THE KNIFE THE KNIFE!

Mama mama mama I reallyah missa you!

Mama! Mama! Iah missa you!

Mama! Mama! Iah missa you!

I missa you I missa you I missa you I missa you!

Mama mama mama I reallyah missa you!

P.S. No, my mother is not actually dead. In fact, you can hear her giggle throughout the course of the video if you listen carefully. However, most of the audience did not know this, which begs the question: why the hell were they laughing when I said that I don’t have a mother anymore on the first formal question???

Oh, and I cut out the last part of the results section because everyone knows I won…

Or did I…

The purpose of this post is twofold:

 1) To let my audience know that I have not forgotten about them, despite having put my blog in the backburner for the past few weeks.

2) To nullify the popular assumption that Geology is the easiest of all physical/natural sciences.

Spring semester 2008 came to a close about two months ago, and this prospect was met with great enthusiasm and excitement as many of my High School buddies arrived home from their distant campuses, rampant parties, and overwhelming schoolwork. Those three ideas are inextricably linked to form a formula for failure. Living away from home allows you to attend parties without the fear of parents smelling booze on your clothing when you get back home at 3 am, and the amount of brain cells you kill after one party would naturally make any task overwhelming, especially schoolwork. Perhaps that’s why they’re not on the Dean’s List.

I, fortunately, or unfortunately, as some of my friends would say, don’t have the “luxury” of going to parties. I live only fifteen minutes away from my campus and take classes back to back, typically on Tuesdays and Thursdays, depending on whether the classes I want to take fit into the timetable. When I’m finished with all my classes, I either drive straight back home, or go to work if I’m scheduled that day. Even with my rigorous school and work schedules, I have had no problems managing my time, even when I had three papers to write, two exams to study for, and a presentation to prepare for.

This all changed when I took Geology this summer. Like many naïve students, I’m sure, I signed up for Geology thinking that it would be a nice and brisk way to get my science general education requirements out of the way. Even better was that it was being offered during the summer, meaning I could take only one class, focus on it, and get it out of the way. Oh man oh man was I wrong. Never have I felt more stressed over assignments, more anxious about quizzes, and more fearful of tests. It’s truly amazing that only one class can cause so much grief. I don’t know if my anxiety is a result of taking it over the summer, considering that a whole semester’s worth of information is being forced down my throat in the course of five weeks, or if it’s because my mind can’t comprehend the super complicated concepts of our Earth’s processes. I like to think it’s a little of both.

It’s not just rocks. It’s river channels, mountain building, plate tectonics, coral reefs, deep sea trenches, volcanic formations, islands, the composition of the Earth’s crust, the four spheres, earthquakes, ocean basins, etc. each with their own chapter dedicated to describing even the most subtlest of nuances for each process.

You would think that we would be looking at rocks in boxes, right? That’s what I thought. Wrong. We actually go out to the field, to local rivers, creeks, beaches, poison ivy infested forests, and mosquito-ridden swamps. During the regular semester, students would never dream of going outside. To be fair, if I were a Geology major, or even a major in any psychical or natural science, this summer session would be a wet dream come true. I can’t say that I haven’t learned a lot in the class, and that it hasn’t opened my eyes up to just how complicated our planet is. I mean this is the definition of a liberal arts education, right? I just wish I could have experienced the class without the anxiety and fear.

I have always considered myself different than most students in terms of how I view grades, but it takes a class like Geology where there’s a strong likelihood that I may get a C, and that’s only if I’m lucky, to realize that I may not be so different than the typical student after all. Eh, the most important thing is that at the end of the day, I tried my best, learned some stuff on the way, and definitely know that I want to stay as far away from Geology for a career as possible.

Now you know why I haven’t been keeping up with my blogs regularly. That will change soon. But I have to say, I’m beginning to grow tired of politics. People are always going to believe what they want to believe, and the same goes for me. I mean my blog’s title is a paradox! It’s a human tendency to be subjective in our beliefs. I wish to keep an open-minded approach to the way I view politics, but when people tell me that they do not want to vote for Obama because their friends have told them that he is the antichrist, my faith in humanity diminishes a little bit more. Oh well, I’ll save topics like these for other blog posts, but I don’t think I’ll have a blog dedicated to politics as I originally planned anymore. I still have to focus on one topic, though, or else I’m going to go back to my random rambles. Maybe videogames? Film? Both? Interesting.

As immediate woes like the ridiculous price of gas, the mortgage crisis, the falling dollar, among other economic hurdles distract Americans from more distant issues like the war in Iraq, we can expect to see the GOP try to make the case that they are best suited to protect the American taxpayer by naturally keeping taxes low. They must make this argument because 1) in order to win, the GOP must convince the American public that the Democrats will raise taxes, consequently leaving the economy in more of a slumber than it already is, and 2) the GOP just doesn’t have a compelling argument to stay longer in the unpopular war in Iraq, so they must do everything in their power to keep people’s minds on the “number one issue.” Thus, this coming November, if Americans think more about their empty pockets and less about the War in Iraq, the GOP will almost certainly succeed.

Although I would agree that our economy is the most pressing and important issue facing our country today, we can’t begin to forget how the economy’s current state is only a symptom of the war in Iraq.

Democrats must make the case that the war in Iraq is directly related to our economy’s steady downfall. Only during the last eight years has the middle class faced extinction as the gap between the rich and the poor widens even further. Tax breaks for corporations have done nothing to help average Americans, and have done everything to help war profiteering corporations. The war has cost us trillions of dollars borrowed from China and Saudi Arabia that future generations will have to pay off as the dollar continues to sharply fall and inflation continues to rise. If the Democrats can convince the American public that increasing food prices, oil prices, commodity prices, etc. will continue to rise if McCain resumes the war in Iraq, Americans may wake up to the fact that paying low taxes just won’t make a difference in the grand scheme of things when they’re most likely going to pay $8 a gallon, from which a good chunk of the proceeds will be used to fund the war in Iraq and the inevitable war in Iran.

But of course, Americans don’t think in black and white. Or do they? Even if Democrats can succeed in convincing the American public that the war in Iraq is negatively impacting our country from an economical standpoint, still a great many Americans will make their decision on who to vote for based on the color of the candidate’s skin. These voters are the same naïve and ignorant individuals who voted for Bush twice because they could see themselves drinking a beer with the gregarious golfer. Race is not the only polarizing issue. Gay marriage, abortion, gun control, among other decisive issues, as important as they are, will serve to divide Americans along party lines to vote based on their beliefs rather than a candidate’s policies on health care, the environment, the economy, and the war in Iraq.

In an ideal world, an American voter would look at the big picture and decide on a candidate based on his or her overall package, hopefully with an emphasis on the candidate’s stance on the most pressing issues immediately facing the country directly (economy) and indirectly (Iraq). However, when voters vote for a candidate just because they would enjoy a beer with the candidate, or because the other candidate’s black or white, or more reasonably because the candidate is against abortion or for gay rights (what ever happened to separation of church and state anyways?), then we face a serious problem. I mean if Obama has to continually assert that he is not Muslim because Americans can’t fathom a non-Christian president, you know we live in a society that arguably may not be too far off from one that stones women when their faces aren’t completely veiled.

The strong likelihood that McCain will most likely continue the downward spiral of the Bush Administration’s failed domestic and foreign policies doesn’t seem to matter much to most Americans. What seems to matter more is that McCain would defend the sacred and holy right to have a gun. But to the voter in Montana who can’t wait to cast his or her vote this coming November, I ask: what good will that .547 revolver do when a mushroom cloud trespasses your backyard?

Although that’s a bit over-exaggerated, like the facts leading up to the war in Iraq (ZING!), the point still stands. There are pressing issues facing our country that need to be dealt with immediately before it’s too late. In my view, Obama proposes the best policies to address those pressing issues.

What are those policies?

To responsibly end the ill-conceived and poorly managed war in Iraq that has cost us trillions of dollars, our reputation and influence in the global arena, and more importantly, the lives of more than 4,000 brave soldiers and more than a million innocent civilians. I have listened to many arguments for why abruptly ending the war would pose a serious problem for the Iraqis. From a humanitarian standpoint, leaving the war as irresponsibly as we got in would lead to a mass slaughter between the Shiites and the Sunnis. From a political standpoint, leaving the war would allow Iran to exploit Iraq’s natural resources. What to do?

Now here’s a reality check: The United States sadly cannot sustain another potential eight years in Iraq. We are not the super power that we think we are anymore. How can we be when leaders from Iran and Venezuela make light of our dominance; and with good reason, for the war has emboldened our enemies, cost us our reputation and influence in the global arena, and our good allies. And for what? So that Iraqis can have the right to vote? I think the Iraqis preferred the right to have their family members in one piece.

The Obama campaign’s promise to responsibly end the war doesn’t necessarily mean that every troop on the ground will be coming home. A great majority of American troops will gradually come back home, while some will stay back at an American base in order to police and keep the Iraqis from killing themselves. By drawing away our main focus from Iraq, Obama will convert his attention to the real war on terror against Al Qaeda, and will help rebuild our economy by promoting new jobs in conventional industries, as well as new ones like alternate energy, which in turn, will help pay off our debts.
Obama also proposes to talk to the leaders of our enemies. Some would say that shows a sign of weakness, but I would say that is the American way. America has always been a country about diplomacy first, and war as a last resort…until Bush. Unfortunately, McCain will continue Bush’s failing trend to piss off the international community as he laves diplomacy in the backburner and aggressively eyes Iran.

Of course, you’re free to disagree with Obama’s policies and my opinion. If you’re in the mindset that McCain will truly serve our country well because his policy to never surrender appeals to you, then by all means, vote for him. I just hope that you own stocks in Exxon Mobil or Halliburton, because for the rest of us, brace yourselves for another potential four to eight years of Hell.

Her hair shines radiantly in the morning light as it cascades down her face like a waterfall, gently, majestically, infinitely. Her delicate and lustrous skin has the tender and soft texture that of silk, pure and untouched. Her musical voice, tranquil, yet poetic, engulfs both ears with aural euphoria. Her firm nipples, exposed to the harsh realities of nature, have blinded countless men from a secret that only her dark and illustrious eyes can reveal. Just as a rain cloud blocks the sun’s jovial rays, her vision is blocked by her past and her present.

As he painted her with a thick and unjust brush in broad strokes and different shades of black, he smiled, as did she. She had no choice then and has no choice now, but to stare lifelessly into the eyes of tourists, spectators, and painters, with her deceiving smile.