Two Weeks Left

Summer is almost at a close. I'm glad I had a decent summer. I finished chemistry and I will never have to take chemistry ever again!!! I will never put myself in that position ever to suffer so much and almost never make it through.

Mathematics and chemistry are not instinctual talents I have, nor will I ever achieve such logic that my friends have. Heres to calculus and physics! I need the best of luck to pass those lovely courses. Why are they lovely? I want to make sure that when I get through them, there will be battle scars to prove my struggle.

My new venture into the newspaper business is a challenge. I never knew how difficult it is to organize it together, but each day is a new step in the right direction. So far, I believe readers will be amazed. For now I won't do my pep-talk, I will let the paper say that.

Consumerism, individualism, etc...

I thought about a specific thing at work today, which was that we (adults) are teaching children to become expensive consumers. I am not kidding when I say, we are. To me, this sounds all dandy and so, but it's not good to teach them consumerism, and by what I mean, to elementary school students.

There is everything from brandnames to specific foods, etc. I thought it was kind of crazy to think that everything is individualized for a person, while that may limit what is given, it is personalized to a bit. Catching on yet? Making anti-social socialites because of selfishness. Everyone wants their own thing.

I believe in individualism, but is it going to cost us more just to get things like that? As long as you earn your way into individualism, that is what sets apart how we can function with each other. No need to share, no need to pull and tug at the same thing, no need to be dependent.

In some ways, I enjoy how my job can allow me to think, even when entering this chaotic environment, I'm still able to pull it off with no sweat.

Brilliant Discoveries

There are many news websites I go daily, some are fairly bad, some are decent, and some are moderately ok to visit. The only thing that bothers me about news is how stagnant it can get when I never read anything new about the news.

Entertainment news and tabloids never catch on to me, they are just boring as hell, and I wonder how people can stand gobbling up all that news. To me, I wouldn't want to indulge in an actor or actress's personal life. But people do.

Tech news, business, politics, science, and everything that sounds relevant and interesting to me, I read. Arts and certain historical news items are pretty cool to read. Night Noir is a pretty interesting read about photography in New York City. There is so much news out there that I know most of it before the rest of the newspaper readers ever get a chance to read it themselves.

You could say I am a day ahead of newspaper readers, but in fact, I find it is easier to read online news instead of waiting a day later. Also, reading the news online gives me a larger perspective and most of it is free to read.

Research Agencies

Today I received a call from a research agency asking me to do a survey about local politics ranging from the state of New Mexico to state representatives. I thought, sure, why not? A lot of questions dealt with potential candidates, people already in office, potential scenarios, would I vote this way, do I agree or disagree, and et cetera.

Some of the questions were ridiculously strange and confusing. To top this off, I had to deal with another person having to speak English as a second language. Lovely, the accent pointed me to somewhere between the Asia and the Mediterranean Sea. Anyway, after my answers were filled, then I asked the person doing this survey to answer a couple of questions, such as what research company he worked for and to give me the information about the company and a contact address and phone number.

What he gave me was Mountain West Research. So I searched for it on Google and found out that they actually exist, but what really bothered me was that on their website sounded so clean, so pure, but the person I just talked to had a hard time pronouncing people's names, especially when living in New Mexico, Spanish names are unique.

To get to my point, if then why is Mountain West Research's website show people working there as having a neutral accent, when I get a person with a distinct accent from the other side of the world interviewing me? If it is located in Pocatello, Idaho, why shouldn't I get someone who works there or at a facility in the United States? Oh wait, I forgot; we are exporting American jobs and professions in order to make a better profit for companies and investors. Sounds un-American to me to cut the lifeblood of American companies and the truth is that I would love to talk to an American interviewer on the other end of the line asking me about my local politics instead of wrapping my phoneline across the world to another human who may not understand why he or she is conducting this survey for, except to get paid and bring an income to his or her family.

Thunder + Rain = Happiness

My favorite weather occurence has to be thunder and rain. I just like the sound of thunder. It shakes the ground, the walls, and makes you jump if lightning strikes in close proximity. The roar reminds me of a giant lion growling away at the skies.

The shaking contributes to how unpredictable everything is, you don't know when or where that next strike will come down, it is very appealing. Lightning itself is somewhat bland because sometimes you cannot see where it is and it is luck that you catch a glimpse. It does offer a neat sight at times.

Rain used to be pretty sucky to me, probably because I'd get wet and that would be it. Now I love rain, the smell of it coming up from the ground, the slick roads, and its cooling properties. It reminds me of how lovely things should be and how taking time to slow down and look everywhere has to be a priority.

Rain and thunder force me to look around and look at things in another way. Sometimes I wish I could simply slow down and not be so rushed in life. Everything goes by quickly and I forget that there are more lovely things out there that cannot be rushed through.

Death of Radio

For some reason, I believe radio is dead to me. As strange as that sounds, I hardly listen to the radio as much as I used to. I listen more to my iPod and cds in my car instead of the radio. To me, the radio stations waste a lot of time playing ads instead of actual music or they waste their time with DJs that make absurd talk-shows out of useless topics. Keep the talk shows to AM radio, I actually like listening to those.

I spend more time watching television than listening to the radio any year, I spend more time listening to music from my stereo or iPod than from the radio. Why do I have to listen to something that is free when I can save my sanity and play better quality music on my own system.

This has not ruled out getting satellite radio, to me that would be pretty awesome. At least they have hundreds of channels to listen to instead of the limited channels you get in a medium-sized metropolitan area.

Happiness in a Box

I need to package all my happiness into a box and store it for days where I feel bad. Today is actually a good day, so I should package some of that happiness into a box and keep it for a bad day.

So life sounds so promising. I am half way done with school, half way done with my summer. Now to make the next two years worth it. My class at UNM is not faring too well. I am slowly creeping into the lovely category of not-passing. Bah. Two more exams and I must do excellent, three more quizzes and I must do decent, and three more homework assignments that I must do marginally well, and I should pass with a decent grade. I am not counting on a great recovery, but I need to ramp up my productiveness and study habits.

Next to nothing, I just take the class over, but I hate to do that.

In other news, my box of a room is slowly having a makeover. Currently 1/4 of my walls are covered with photos I have taken over the past four years. More should be coming. I need to make my room more presentable to my family and friends.