Todays Youth

I’ve been reading a lot of opinions from older generations regarding today’s youth. I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries on “bullying” in American school systems. I suppose now is a good time to give my two cents.

Todays youth. The Xbox generation. The iPhone generation. The Entitlement generation. The whatever-you-want-to-call-it generation. Kids today have cellphones, yes. I didn’t have a cellphone when I was in my youth, and I survived just fine. So did millions of other kids. Does that mean kids today don’t need cellphones? Does that mean kids today don’t need an iPhone or an HTC Galaxy, Blackberry, Go-phone or whatever else is out on the market? Technology evolves. So do people. If I had children, I’d equipped them with the latest cellphone technology, for sure. And I’d also monitor who they call, who they text and who calls and texts them.

The Entitlement generation. I don’t know exactly where this idea of kids in todays generation think they’re entitled to everything. I don’t think that’s just kids thinking that. I think this entire country has the mindset of thinking they’re entitled to everything. And that gets passed down to kids. I’ve heard grown adults say, “I have the right to buy any car I want.” or, “I can do whatever I want, say what I want, and think what I want.” In recent years, this whole entitlement phase has grown to epic proportions. Kids generally follow in their parent’s footsteps. And when you have grown adults claiming they have the right to this and they have the right to that, it’s only natural for kids to start thinking that, too

I was bullied in high school. I’m sure just about everyone has had a bully or two in their lives. Some people even have bullies in college. Or in the work place. It’s everywhere. The fact that kids are committing suicide over bullying has really brought this stuff into light. When I was in high school, I don’t remember any news stories of kids taking their own lives due to being bullied too much. We didn’t have cops roaming our hallways, either. And no one was arrested or rung up on assault charges for fighting. That’s just how things were back then. Now kids are hauled away in police cruisers and cited for criminal charges for the things they do in school. Its ludacris! To charge a teenager with criminal charges?!

So why are kids today so sensitive? Why are they babied and coddled so much? Why do adults give the losing team of kids trophies and praise them anyway? Why do adults…?

People blame the kids? I blame the adults for being so overprotective of these kids. For not letting kids battle it out in schools. For allowing police to get involved. For running to their kids when they fall down. For the constant praise. For blaming everything on ADD. For placing every kid in America on some kind of medication at such an early age. For allowing such a capitalistic environment where both parents must work two jobs to support a small family. I blame todays adults.

 

Give me Liberty or give me Death

Give me liberty or give me death! Give me liberty or give me death! Give me liberty or give me death!

The biggest issues in our beloved United States of America right now are gun control and abortion. The right wingers are adamant about not allowing for more strict gun laws, background checks, mental health evaluations. With all of those aforementioned new laws in place, would it really help reduce gun violence and keep wackos from shooting up schools and apartment complexes? Some would agree and some would disagree. But most say it’s an invasion of our 2nd Amendment rights. The problem with the Constitution is it’s not 1787 anymore. It’s 2013. And as we evolve as humans, as a nation and as a world, things need like the Constitution need to evolve as well. We don’t still use rotary phones, do we?

I have a few guns to my name. Two handguns and a shotgun. I love guns. I love to shoot guns and I love to carry one around town (I have my CWP, by the way). And as you look at the history of our country, we have implemented laws to keep Americans safe, right? Like, certain places guns can no longer be carried into. Gun free zones. You know, like in Wyatt Earp days where you had to hand over your gun to the bartender. In cities, you can not discharge your firearms. And when you get pulled over by the police, in some states you must declare your weapons as soon as the police officer approaches your vehicle. Isn’t all of that against our Constitutional rights? Hey, I have a right to my firearms. Who’s business is it where I have one in my car!

Abortions are another huge issue in this country. People claim it’s murder. Some claim it’s not murder because a fetus isn’t a “human being” yet. Everyone has a different opinion of when life actually begins. Some claim when there’s a heart beat. Others would say as soon as the egg is fertilized. You know what I say? I don’t give two shits what you think. If someone wants to abort their child, baby, fetus, egg, it’s not your decision. It’s theirs. It’s not like we have a herd of American women running around having a blast, drinking margaritas, aborting their babies. It’s probably not an easy decision and it’s probably pretty traumatizing. But people have their reasons. And you probably have nothing to do with any of it.

When I think about the United States, I envision a bunch of whiny, spoiled brats, bickering at each other to do this and not do that. What’s best for you may not be best for someone else. And vise versa. We have freedoms in this country. We aren’t ran by dictatorship or tyranny. We aren’t North Korea. You have the freedom to shop at Wal-Mart or not. You have the freedom to buy a firearm or not. And you have the freedom to abort your child for whatever reason. Whether it be from being raped or falling on hard times or getting drunk at a frat party. Do I advocate abortions? Not so much. But I’d rather a child come into this world with a fighting chance instead of being raised by some irresponsible dead beat mother who got fucked at a drunken frat party, wound up pregnant, dropped out of school, can’t hold a job, and wound up on the welfare system for the rest of her life and her childs. And then her child repeats the process.

The thing with both of these issues is no one seems to be able to provide a solution. People are going to have sex in this country. And people are going to buy guns and shoot up schools in this country. It’s going to happen. We’ve identified that, at least, right? So let’s provide solutions to the problems. With irresponsible sexual relations comes unwanted children. Who ends up paying for all these unwanted children? Mostly tax payers. I’d like to pay for my own kids, thanks. I’m for contraceptive (obviously I’m not a Christian or Catholic, go figure). I’m for safe sex. I’d like to think I’m responsible. The unfortunate aspect of this is; you might be responsible but your neighbor may not be. So we prepare for the irresponsible ones.

Gun control works the same way. Although you may not like extended background checks, waiting periods, mental health evaluations, you’ll probably be all for that shit when your fucking kid gets waxed by some asshole on a murderous rampage. Or are you going to play hero, strap on your piece, tramp on down to the local school and put two in his chest and save the day? Probably not fucking likely. Washington State has a three-day wait on firearms purchases if you don’t have a CWP. Three days. You think I’m happy about that shit? Fuck no. But if it keeps some low-life scum bag from buying a gun from a local dealer and killing people because someone cut him off on I-5 that day, then hell yes I’m for it!

The whole point of reducing magazine rounds in magazines from ten to seven or whatever the fuck they wanted to do was to force the gunmen to reload more often hence giving police or whoever more time to take his ass down. Too many people have said, “well, what’s that going to do? What difference does three rounds make?” Maybe a life or two? I don’t know. I’m just spit-balling here.

The whole point of America is freedom. Personal freedoms. I like my freedom. I like to wake up everyday and stretch out, sip my coffee, read my newspaper and not have to do shit if I don’t want to. I don’t want to live in a country where I can’t do something because some other asshole American doesn’t believe in or because he/she doesn’t think it’s right. If I want an abortion, I’ll get an abortion. And I don’t need YOU up in my face about it because YOUR opinion doesn’t mean shit to me anyway.

 

America, the great nation of consumerism!

1: the promotion of the consumer’s interests

2: the theory that an increasing consumption of goods is economically desirable; also : a preoccupation with and an inclination toward the buying of consumer goods

— con·sum·er·ist noun or adjective

— con·sum·er·is·tic adjective

In 2011, the United States consumed about 134 billion gallons (or 3.19 billion barrels) of gasoline, a daily average of about 367.08 million gallons (8.74 million barrels). This was about 6% less than the record high of about 142.38 billion gallons (or 3.39 billion barrels) consumed in 2007.

In 2011, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential
utility customer was 11,280 kWh, an average of 940 kilowatthours (kWh) per
month. Louisiana had the highest annual consumption at 16,176 kWh and Maine the
lowest at 6,252 kWh.

Studies show the average American eats at Mcdonalds on an average in a single lifetime about 1,800 times.

U.S. household consumer debt profile:

• Average credit card debt: $15,204
• Average mortgage debt: $148,818
• Average student loan debt: $33,005

Why is all of this relevant? Because we, as Americans, buy a lot of shit. In my lifetime, I’m certainly guilty of it. I grew up in a household with multiple television sets and the newest game console. Sure did! Now, as I matured, I realized how worthless all this crap is in America. Tv’s, cars, iPads, iPhones, CD’s, movies…the list goes on of the shit I no longer buy. I had such an extensive music collection of probably over 300 music CD’s. Later, I traded it all in for money because I wanted to get rid of shit. I uploaded every CD onto my computers hard drive. At $15 dollars a CD, times 300, that’s $4,500. How much do you think I got back on that collection? Maybe $3-5 dollars. Maybe. I probably barely got $1,000 in return.

Think of all the stuff you buy. Think about every time you move into a new house or a new apartment and you go out and buy a new furniture set at Walmart or IKEA. You buy it because it’s there to buy.

We, as Americans, buy a lot of shit. Yet, our politicians claim our country is broke. We are not broke. We are a nation of consuming. That’s what we do. We consume and waste. We consume and waste. If you’ve ever sat in a restaurant and people watched (which I don’t recommend) you would see what I’m talking about. Try it one evening. You’ll see how many plates are returned to the waiter with plenty of food left on the plate to eat. People just throw it out. And I’m not sure why. I was raised in the generation of “waste not, want not”.

Have you ever lived in an apartment complex and went out to throw trash away and saw chairs and mattresses and tables and all sorts of shit surrounding the dumpster? It all gets thrown away. I think in this country we have this image to uphold. Buying everything in mint condition, name brand stuff. Never used or second hand. Who wants something used? Yuck!

I’ve downsized my life quite a bit and I’m certainly not advocating that you do the same. My first motorcycle was brand new. And I learned a valuable lesson through that story. Now I buy used. And I’m just as happy with the used motorcycle I have now. Probably more happy then when I had a brand new bike. Instead of going all out and furnishing my new apartment with new tables and chairs, I bought a cheap tv stand from Wal-Mart, bought a used tv off Craigslist and try to live within my means.

I don’t like it when these politicians claim this country is broke. We aren’t broke. We have plenty of money floating around the United States. Look how we live if you want proof. We live better than 90% of the world. Our poorest in our country is in some countries their richest. That says a lot. And it seems no matter what income bracket anyone is in, they can still afford iPhones and nail appointments.

$156.5 billion. Apple’s total sales for the year. The biggest chunk of that came during the first quarter, when the company brought in $46.33 billion in sales.

$41.66 billion. Apple’s profits for the entire fiscal year. Once again, the company’s biggest quarter was its first, buoyed by sales of more than 37 million iPhones.

$121.25 billion. Apple’s current cash pile. It was about $81 billion at the end of this quarter last year, and up about 3.4 percent from its previous quarter.

Boston, A Tragedy

In the wake of this tragedy, I had a lot of time to think about how these things could be prevented. I want to believe that America is safe. And in most towns, cities, etc, people are safe. It’s very unlikely that the little town of Snohomish would ever become a target for a terrorist attack. Seattle on the other hand, very likely. My thought process is sort of like this: stay alert, stay alive.

Allow me to explain. I spent ten years in the United States Army. I served one combat tour that literally has changed my life, for better or for worse, depending on how you look at things. I have constant paranoia, I’m constantly on edge, and I’m constantly looking for danger. Having that kind of mentality is probably one big reason why I haven’t wrecked my motorcycle. Yet.

This whole situation in Boston, in my opinion, could have been avoided. I’m not asking people to be as on edge as I am every day. I’m not saying people need to live in constant fear about the next terrorist attack. What I am saying is this: it’s something that should be kept in the back of our thoughts. We live in a Post 9/11 world now, folks. Things aren’t all kitty cats and rainbows anymore. We have enemies. We have people who hate America and want to do us harm. What does that mean? It means homeland security is everyone’s responsibility.

It’s simple. You see something out of place, report it. You see something kind of weird or not right, report it. It’s not brain surgery. It’s our obligation and responsibility as American’s to keep our homeland safe. I’m not saying we need to run around all day looking for weird stuff or bad guys. But why let the government dictate our safety? Why not take things into our own hands and make sure things are safe for our friends and family members? Obviously the Boston authorities had their guard down during the marathon. Did we not learn anything from 9/11?

If anything, Boston PD could have walked a bomb sniffing K9 unit through the area a few times and maybe would have found those bombs prior to them detonating. Maybe not.

 

 

“I have lion things to do now”

I recently watched a documentary called A Lion Named Christian and what an awesome documentary is was. It jerked at the ol’ heart strings for sure! And I literally had to hold the tears back. If you haven’t watched it, I recommend. If you’d rather me just tell you about it, I can certainly explain the gist but I’m sure it’s a lot more gratifying if you watched it yourself.

These two men from London purchased a lion cub in the late 60′s, early 70′s, and basically raised him themselves. After Christian (that’s the lions name) pretty much out grew his city life, they transferred him to a nature reserve in Kenya. After being separated for one whole year, after being together for two years, the two men went back to see Christian and the ever popular lion/human reunion that received nearly 50 million hits on YouTube was born. Three years later, Christian went on his way to raise his own family and be apart of his own lion pride.

I certainly can relate to this story. And if you really think about it, so can many of you. We all start out somewhere and we all have to learn to eventually let go of where our roots began. Regarding my employment career, I have come to realize a few sad, sad things. And…not to get too much into detail, it’s time for me to let go, essentially. Theres a good quote in the documentary where Christian sort of matures and grows apart from his human parents. They go to visit him and he’s this massive, majestic, beautiful lion. They try to cuddle with him and play, but he sort of lost his charisma and he shakes his mane, gets up, and goes to sit elsewhere. Kind of like, “here I am, this massive lion, and I have lion things to do now.”

One thing I will never forget is my experience and my maturity that was given to me from people who took a chance on my success. I will never forget where I came from and I will never forget those individuals who appreciated my hard work, who appreciated my diligence, my loyalty, and my willingness to give 100% every single day. I will never forget you.

I have lion things to do now.

 

Inexperienced Junkie

When I got out of the service my life was basically in shambles. If I could fast-forward to what I’ve become today when I first got out of the Army, I’d probably be pretty shocked. Life in general seemed pretty hopeless. I didn’t have a well-structured support system, I didn’t have any friends or really anyone I could turn to. I suppose I’ve droned on about this plenty of times throughout my past blog entries…

Today was one of my more successful days. If you have no idea what I do for a living or you’re reading this blog for the first time, I’m involved in retail security. I’m not sure why I’ve let myself get so deep into this career field especially when there are way more better paying jobs out there. Anyway. It’s what I do. It’s not very rewarding, the pay sucks, the hours suck even worse and I’m dealing with the worst of the worst on many occasions. You know, people who just don’t give a fuck.

There are times when the job is very interesting and exciting though. Early morning surveillance or long-drawn out investigative scenarios where we end up busting someone trying to rip the company off for like, thousands of dollars. Some times the job can be very rewarding. Generally it’s not, though. In fact, in most cases it’s extremely boring and dull. And I often find myself questioning my own motivation, my own willingness to see some of these criminal cases through or even if I have the energy to continue working in this field. Sometimes I feel like I’m wasting my time. Like, the other day. Here I am, a grown man, sitting outside a fitting room in the juniors department of the store waiting on a shoplifter to emerge. People stare at me..you know, like I’m some pervert.

So back to today, right? When things are going extremely smooth in my life whether it be with my love life or with my career, something else always has to emerge and start screwing with my happiness and routine. I left one company to go work for another retail company for more pay and more experience. That’s what I thought would be a good move in my life. It’s always important to gain as much experience as you possibly can to enhance your resume and project yourself into the working world to stay valuable and relevant to employers. I’ve always had a drive to work my way up the corporate ladder and eventually be “the man”.

The company I left has now called. They want me back. But not for a low man on the totem pole position. They want me to be the man. At this point, my life couldn’t get any brighter. These phone calls aren’t always going to present themselves. These opportunities aren’t always going to fall into your lap. It’s not every day someone gets a phone call saying “hey, we’d like to promote you even though you left us for a competitor.” I mean, are you fucking serious?!

I don’t put a lot of stock into my accomplishments. I really don’t hold a lot of self value and confidence. I’m always worrying about what others thing of me and if I’m fucking up or not. And when people don’t tell me I’m not fucking up, I’m constantly thinking I am fucking up but they’re just too afraid to tell me so. Does that make sense? I’d like to think I’m doing a good job at work but I have this constant nagging feeling that people aren’t pleased with my work. Like, they aren’t really appreciative of what I’m doing. Like, I’m lacking. It’s frustrating to feel this way and it’s not very motivating sometimes. Am I doing the right thing? Am I doing the job they’re paying me to do? Am I doing a good enough job to warrant this kind of pay? Am I failing?

But I just keep smiling. I just keep smiling.

Well, they must’ve seen me coming, ain’t this life so fucking great!

Ben Affleck Still Sucks

…Ben Affleck still sucks.