i see it around me, i see it in everything...i could be so much more than this...

It just doesn't click. I know this is a terribly cynical generalization, but it seems that the wrong thing to do is both easy and fun, while the right thing, though satisfying in the end, is dull and difficult. I'm hanging out with friends because I have nothing else to do. I don't want to get too specific, but I chose to throw back Dr. Pepper all night instead of alcohol, so while people have their drunken fun and others partake in the proverbial game of baseball, I have the pleasure of playing solitaire on someone else's kitchen table. By myself. For three hours. And now I decide to hijack this computer and blog. I don't really enjoy playing the martyr, but I simply don't understand why you always have to pay some price to do the right thing. It doesn't make sense. Now I know rationality is both severely overrated and painfully uncommon. And I know that a truly selfless person wouldn't go online and bitch about making some petty sacrifice, but I'm just tired of this basic situation manifesting itself night after night. Where's the real fun, where you don't have to be wasted? It seems to have been misplaced, and there doesn't seem to be very many people looking for it.


-alex

I really do ask a lot of questions

What in the world makes AP tests so ridiculously expensive?

Are politicians really less honest than the average person, or are they just an accurate sampling of society in general?

Why do people pay $1.99 for gas, when, in clear view down the street, there's a gas station with gas for $1.89?

Do you think someday the whole political correctness thing will get so out of hand that people will complain that in a deck of playing cards, all the face cards are white people?

Why do cops tailgate you? Are they just taunting you like "haha, yea, just go ahead and break 45, sucker"?

Isn't there kind of a small ethical dilemma when someone gives you a burned copy of a CD they payed for?

Are you annoyed by all my quasi-rhetorical questions?

Who else is disappointed that all the really cool things have already been invented? (sticky notes, pizza bagels, etc.)

If people were never introduced to the concept of violence, would they discover in themselves on their own?


-alex

Just a few more questions

Why are bad decisions so much easier to make than good ones?

Does anyone else think R2-D2 should make an appearance in every movie ever?

If people didn't think swear words were bad, would they still be bad?

Has anyone else noticed that television has made people so lazy that we have to come up with "TV" just so we don't have to strain ourselves and say a 4 syllable word?

Am I allowed to believe in luck but not believe in the supernatural?

Who else is really annoyed by people who only like bands no one's heard of, and then when that band gets all popular these people suddenly don't like them anymore?

Are smart people good at not doing dumb stuff, or good at hiding it when they do?

How many people do you know that you can 100 percent trust and depend on in any situation, however petty or significant it is? Doesn't this number seem awfully low?

Aren't songs more fun when you don't know the exact lyrics so you just kinda make up your own?

If pennies were taken out of circulation, would the average person save money or lose money?

Can opinions be objective?

-alex

hasta la pizza

Well the Pizza Factory went out of business today. Last night I'm working a normal shift and now suddenly I'm out of a job. Nevertheless I thought it was a really fun place to be, whether I was working or just wanted some food. I was only there for 3 or 4 months but I still met some really cool people that hopefully I'll stay friends with. AJ, Matt, Matt, Kristen, Daniella, Emma, Tracy, Ben, David, Justin: peace. It's been fun.

-alex

billions and billions

The stars are always there. Sometimes we can't see them, but they're still there. They make us feel small. You can't count them, but you can try. Everytime you go through the course of a night without looking at the stars, you're missing 50% of what's going on that night. In 60 years you'll probably be in a different place, you'll look, act, feel, and think differently than you do now. The whole world will have changed, but if you look up, the night sky will look just like it did 60 years ago. There are infinite patterns, so the stars are kind of like a giant ink blot test where you can see whatever you want to see. Lets say I want to take a gander at the Andromeda Galaxy, which is the closest galaxy to the Milky Way. Andromeda is 2.2 million light years away: so you say "Wow, who cares?" After punching some numbers, Andromeda Galaxy is 13,490,400,000,000,000,000 miles away, yet I can see it with a 4.5-inch telescope. Just a thought. Star gazing is essentially time travel; what you see actually happened years and years ago. Stars are tools and toys. You can find your way around with stars. You can feel the Earth spinning when you look at the stars. They always give you something to do late at night. In many cases you can't see them if you look at them, only if you look near them. The longer you look at them, the more of them you see. Does anyone else find the night sky interesting? Maybe you should.

Look up.

-alex

People Watching II: Is That So?

On the local news there was a segment about teenage drinking. During the piece, the reporter stated that "Teens who start drinking are more likely to become alcoholics than those who don't." Well I'll be....

-alex

Just a few questions

Why can't we just slide our SAT answer sheet through a computer right after we take it and get our scores right then? Is this really that far fetched?

Why don't more people watch Family Guy?

Is there anything more straining than when someone you like does something you don't like?

How do teenagers not care about voting? What if a candidate proposes college tuition cuts, or planned on cutting jobs in the field in which the teen hopes to work? Would they still not care?

Are people inherently bad at being subtle or is everyone just afflicted with a horrible lack of perception?

If you could you read people's minds, would you really want to? Think about it.

If someone was 100% percent honest and forthcoming, would anyone like them?

What color is glass? (Note: clear/transparent is not a color)

If no one had guns, would anyone need guns?

Hmmm.....

-alex

Guess who's back, back again...

I just got back from Colorado today. Loooooong drive up there, but the University was really cool and Boulder seems like a neat town. Back to the grind here in Tucson. Nothing else exciting to report.

-alex

Boulder or Bust

Hey I won't post fer a few days because I'm heading up to Colorado for a little vacation and to visit the University of Colorado. I think I got my ass thoroughly kicked by the SAT II tests yesterday, but I cheered myself up by stopping by Best Buy and adding The Starting Line and the newer Something Corporate CD to my ever expanding punk/pop-punk CD collection, and by popping my awesome new Pac-Man antenna ball onto my car. Good stuff.

-alex

People Watching I: Tact, Anyone?

Sometimes (everyday) people do or say things that I find odd (stupid), and I always wonder if other people would find these things equally as odd (stupid). If you read the situation and are like "Why is that so weird?" that's fine, maybe you just have a less cynical perspective on things than I do. I'm not going to comment on whatever the situation is, I'll just post it and see if you find people as...odd as I do.

I walk into Subway to get a meatball sub because I just filled up one of those free 6 inch sub cards. The kid behind the conter, probably my age, asks me what I want. I say "I'll take a 6 inch meatball sub on wheat." He proceeds to say "Yuck, I hate meatball subs, they're so disgusting. I don't see how anyone can eat them."

Hmmm....

-alex

Trogdor!

To anyone who has never been to Homestar Runner I strongly recommend checking it out. There is some incredibly funny and creative stuff on there. Specifically, check out the Strong Bad Emails.

And don't miss out on the Badger fun:

www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/badgers.php
www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/footy.php
www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/badgerphone.php


-alex

Academy awards, here we come

Turbulence 3: Heavy Metal. A movie about a KISS-like rock band hijacking a commercial airplane and attempting to crash it into a Kansas church in hopes to open the Seventh Gate of Hell. Just a few questions on this one. At any point during the production of this movie, did someone think "Hey, maybe this isn't going to be a very good movie." How did anyone keep a straight face while making this movie? Who has the dignity to present this idea to a movie company? What actor receives this script and says "Wow, this looks like it'll be a real blockbuster! I hope I get to be the lead singer with heavy make-up that ends up landing a 747 at a large airport in the middle of a populous city. " How many people actually call up their friends and suggest heading down to the theater to catch a screening of this movie? I'd love to call all 4 people who have rented this movie since it came out and ask them if they miss their 3 dollars. Not that I watched it or anything, I just...read about it....shut up.

-alex

damn alexander graham bell

Phones suck. They're intrusive. They make it hard to decipher tones and moods. Things are easily misunderstood making for unnecessary tension. The awkward phone silence is the worst of all awkward silences. You can't "be right back." People think it's rude if you don't answer the phone. People think it's rude if you don't want to talk for long and they do. People think it's rude when you call at certain times of the day. The percentage of people who actually call you back when they say they will is inexplicably low (like less than 10%). Most phones now aren't even phones, they're little video game systems or cameras or music players with telephony as an extra feature, not the other way around. Everywhere you go you hear someone's phone ringing with the latest obnoxious rap song, and although it sounds terrible, it resembles the song enough that they feel the need to let it ring 14 or 15 times before answering. Cell phone companies make things even worse. You have to sign a multi-year contract just so you only have to pay 100 dollars for a 20 dollar phone instead of 400 dollars. Switching plans is a hassle:

Customer: "Yes, hello, I'd like to switch to one of your even more complicated plans with a more abstract calling area that includes only a small area where I live but covers me in case I happen to be visiting northeast Montana."

Service Rep.: "No problem sir, the transition process should only take 19 or 20 hours of you standing there wondering what I could possibly be typing into my computer that takes so long."

Adding features such as text messaging or caller ID or voice mail is a hassle as well, and they're deceptively expensive. And no matter how many frivolous features your phone has, you're always going to see someone with that one extra feature (such as self-detonation, invisibility, low altitude flight, etc.) that puts your phone to shame, so you no longer whip out your phone in front of everyone and repeatedly open and close it hoping someone might notice its new multi-colored, glow in the dark, insect repellent, military grade titanium case with a miniature George Foreman Grill: Cellular Phone Edition® built into the back. Of course all that your friends have to do to outdo your new 14 pound phone is head down to the mall and stop by one the 14,567 phone case kiosks and find the one offering the lowest financing rates. Wait, i'll be back, i've got a call...

-alex

ummm yea...were gonna need you to come in on sunday also, thanks...

Did you ever wake up one day, and you know nothing is going on that day, but you shower and get ready for the day anyway? Then you call all your friends as if theres gonna be some awesome sunday afternoon party going on somewhere. Then you just sit there with your keys in your hand watching TV for hours so it looks like your just waiting to be called back before you leave for somewhere important, even though no one's going to call you. Eventually you just go someplace pointless by yourself for no other reason than to get out of the house.

Yea.... me neither...

-alex

the pilot

first, im gonna give credit to amanda f. cuz i read her blog, thought it was cool and decided to do one. i dont really care how few people read this (and trust me, few is a generous word in this case), im just tired of opening up MS Word and typing to no one whenever i have something on my mind (always). This is just a way to do some brain defecation and clean up up here. if you dont read it: awesome. if you do read it: awesome...r

ill do an actual post in a few days

-alex