Aspiring to be Good at Something.

Sickening

2011-09-09T12:14:00.002-05:00

It has been far too long but I feel I must capture my current mood somewhere. The more conventional channels seem far too hokey and I worry that It may just seem as though I am prostituting the memory of an old friend for attention.

What a vile situation. That poor girl. I feel it is best to keep the details as vague as possible but I only wish to say I recently lost a friend in one of the most gruesome and despicable ways possible. We were not particularly close but we were friends. And now she is gone. I've lost many friends before but not like this. Sadly I doubt there will be any true carriage of Justice. I am dumbfounded by the whole ordeal. Its so senseless. Yesterday I vomited at work because I read about what was done to her in the papers and then a flush of memories from our days in college. She was so sweet and innocent. Never a mean word about anyone.

And the last time we spoke was by the A,A statue in front of the Library maybe a year ago. Maybe a year and a half. And then this. The word I feel I should be using, intuitively, is "tragic." But this wasn't tragic at all. It is as the scales of fate in this clockwork universe have failed. In a certain way, Oedipus -deserved- his fate. That is a tragedy. Nor is this some ill-fated accident. Something that could have been so easily prevented. No no no. This is a disgusting manifestation of the depravity men are capable of when they abandon their humanity and become slaves to their bestial whims.

What a beautiful world we live in potmarked by these degrading and sinister men who barely even deserve to be called such. It makes me sick. I feel ill.

Interesting question for conservative Christian pro-lifers:

2008-11-24T23:22:00.003-06:00

If you believe, as many seem to, that a person gets their soul at conception, and if you believe that things with souls have rights to life, then what implication does this have on chimeras? Simplified, chimerism occurs when two fertilized embryos in a womb that would otherwise become twins end up fusing together so that the end product is one human with two sets of DNA; So a chimera might have his skin cells coded for one set of DNA with his kidneys coded for another set, and his blood's DNA will be different from the DNA in his cheek cells, and so forth.

So, again, whats the implication here? Do chimeras have two souls? If a chimera is murdered should we charge them twice? Many on the pro-life side of things seem to think that the murder of a pregnant woman should count as a double homicide, why not take things to the logical extreme?

Or, you could just believe as I do, that "souls," "personal identity," "me-ness," is a thing that develops over time as an unfolding narrative, and not the product of sperm fertilizing an ovum.

AGAIN

2008-11-23T21:35:00.003-06:00

I woke up this morning gripped with this strange feeling of anxiety. I feel awkward around people. I'm forgetting all the correct, clever responses to the things that others say. Im stumbling over my own words lately; its hard to look anyone in the eye right now.

Sup guys.

2008-11-03T18:55:00.001-06:00

Hi.

When it rains, it pours.

2008-10-26T20:33:00.002-05:00

I have been drinking way too much; I'm going to cut that shit out.

I dont think I've felt this alone or this miserable since the year I spent in San Antonio. Friends: please dont take offense if I make myself scarce; I need time to find some stable ground. I fantasize about moving to Austin and starting a new life there, a life where I havent yet alienated and ruined the few good things in my life.

The difference in Houston is that here I have friends. I didnt have friends in San Antonio. Thank you friends, for not hating me enough to keep hanging out with me.

-Fin.

Adulthood.

2008-10-12T22:58:00.002-05:00

Nothing that is correct is easy and fun. The right thing to do is usually the one that hurts the most. But its the one that makes us happy in the long run, and makes us better people.

Lonliness and self loathing here I come. I need a drink.

Anyone wanna grab a drink with me?

2008-10-07T23:50:00.001-05:00

No. Of course you dont. You pansies.

Right now I miss my Laredo friends a lot.

CHAT LOG

Markos says:
Omar, no one here drinks. And when I ask them if they want to have a beer at a UH Bar they talk to me like im an alchoholic
Laika says:
LOL
Laika says:
Come to Laredo, we can drink all you like.
Markos says:
And then I think to myself, "This shit wouldnt be an issue in Laredo"
Markos says:
"Cause we'd be smashed an hour ago."
Laika says:
You hang out with squares, thats your problem.
Markos says:
Theyre always like "Its a Tuesday. I have school tomorrow. I'm a virgin. Wah wah wah."
Laika says:
Virgin you say...........
Markos says:
Theyre dudes
Laika says:
gaaaaaaaaaaaay
Markos says:
Yeah but I want to go to Laredo, where I can get tow'd up on a Tuesday and not be some bizzare eccentric
Laika says:
You look flaco in your pic btw.
Markos says:
Thankies
Markos says:
(Speaking of gay)
Laika says:
Dude you know who got fat!!?!?! (continuing the gay trend we've already embarked on)

Roadtrip.

2008-10-05T11:44:00.001-05:00

I want to take a roadtrip. Any ideas? Location? Anyone want to travel with me?

Time for another blog post.

2008-10-03T01:50:00.003-05:00

Its late, almost 2 am. Im drinking coffee in the mug my friend Mel got me from NYC, listening to all the Bright Eyes albums on my computer, and I'm working on a paper right now that was due earlier today that I did not complete. I have been slacking a bit behind in my school and now is the time to get back on track and not fall further behind. So sorry ahead if I make myself a bit scarce.

Its sort of hard to focus when I keep getting distracted by cool articles like this:
http://www.dimaggio.org/Eye-Openers/consciousness_is_a_meaningless_accident.htm

Its fun to contrast articles like that to articles like such:
http://community.livejournal.com/philosophy/1828488.html
(FYI - The catch phrase "Fuck you, Im a dragon!"; it comes from this poster...)

Oh! Lemme take this opportunity to post my Medical Ethics essay. Its not that great but gosh darn it I like it.

Is the Customer Always Right?
For the most part, there seems to be an accepted presupposition in thinking about the relationship between a medical doctor and his or her patient. This presupposition is so ingrained in the collective conscious of contemporary people that it seems almost a given.
The story goes something like this: the patient discovers something physical about himself or herself that he or she does not desire to have: a tumor; a virus; all conditions which fall under the category of things called diseases. Upon discovery, the patient will usually go to or be taken to a place such as a clinic or hospital where the patient will meet with a physician. And then, the physician will do everything he possibly can, within reason, to remove the unwanted element from the patient’s body.
To see the process described in such a way gives the whole ordeal the feel of a business transaction; which is the unspoken presupposition: that patients are customers and physicians are providing a service, and that, as the old chestnut goes: “the customer is always right,” or in this case, the patient.
Patient autonomy is a concept, and a belief, that refers to the capacity and entitlement patients retain in making their own medical decisions and choices. It is the backbone of a subset of beliefs in medical ethics which might be called the Patient Centric Model; the belief that medical decisions ought to be based upon either what the patient wishes or upon what his or her best interests would be.
Professor John Hardwig takes issue with this stance, in his article “The Problem of Proxies with Interests of their Own: Toward a Better Theory of Proxy Decisions.” In this article, Hardwig states “An excluse patient-centered ethics must be abandoned...because it is patently unfair to the families of patients.”
In a response to Hardwig, entitled “Hardwig on Proxy Decision Making,” Professor Baruch A. Brody seems to agree with the general spirit of Hardwig’s article, but takes contention with a few key issues.
In this paper, I will attempt to explain and interpret both Hardwig’s and Brody’s articles by outlining their arguments and conclusions. Afterwards I hope to edify some of my own feelings and beliefs on the matter; specifically focusing on Hardwig’s conclusion and arguments for such.
Hardwig on Patient Autonomy and Proxy Decision Making
Hardwig opens his article with a sordid tale involving an elderly woman with Alzheimers who has become incapable of making her own decisions. Said woman is hospitalized with pneumonia, and in spite of their best efforts, the doctors begin preparing her for terminal care. Yet, her physicians insist on continuing aggressive treatment.
However, this is not something that her husband, who had been providing care for her at home, wishes. He implores the attending physicians to scale back treatment, which confused the physicians, who wished to continue aggressive treatment on the small hope that she may survive to live a while longer.
Since the patient herself was incompetent and unable to make her own reasonable choices, the charge of making her medical decisions fell to her proxy, which in this case would be her husband. Now, why would a husband wish to discontinue treatment for his wife? Because he had recently proposed to the housekeeper, who had accepted, and any more money spent paying for the Wife’s medical care would leave them destitute.
Against intuition, Hardwig wants to argue that we ought not to automatically write off the husband as some sort of selfish, philandering vaudeville-esque villain. The physicians attending the patient’s case certainly did though. They wished him to be removed as a decision maker because of his obvious conflict of interest and his inability to put aside his own interests and consider only his wife’s.
But, it is exactly that sort of reasoning that Hardwig wishes to attack, for why is it that we should expect, argues Hardwig, that proxies should put off their own interests when they have their own interests at stake as well? And when these interests are invariably tied up with the interests of the patient?
Hardwig gives several reasons for this belief, but they are all driving to the same point: human beings are not lone solitary entities who’s interests are theirs and their’s alone. Humans are communal and interconnected so much so that there will always be a psychological ripple effect when something happens to anyone in our shared public community.
As for following the patient’s wishes as closely as possible, Hardwig offers two arguments against this idea in the form of two clever reductio ad absurdums.
Firstly, assume that the patient is in fact a mean spirited, vindictive, emotionally manipulative woman who derives pleasure in seeing her poor husband go finically broke just to keep her alive. She unreasonably demands costly procedures and uses emotional blackmail when her wishes are not met. It seems counter intuitive to say that it would be a GOOD thing that such a woman’s demands would be met, without question, by virtue of the fact that the role she plays in this story is that of patient.
On the other hand, imagine if the woman was the kindest, gentlest woman imaginable, who, when diagnosed with pneumonia, would refuse even the most modest healthcare options because she did not want to be a burden upon her husband, and would sooner parish than live with the thought of her husband’s quality of life being downgraded even in the slightest bit. Again, intuitively, it seems that obeying this woman’s wishes is somehow wrong.
The woman in the first scenario ought to be punished and the woman in the second scenario ought to be somehow rewarded. But under the conventional understanding and acceptance of patient centric ethics, this does not happen.
Hardwig requests to see that this view of patient centric ethics be thrown out and replaced with a New Theory of Proxy Decisions, one that, as he puts it, “in which the interests of the incompetent are constrained by what is morally appropriate.” He goes on, “Proxy deciders have been given the wrong directions...we must tell them that the incompetent patient’s wishes are the best way to define her interests, but what she would have wanted for herself must be balanced against considerations of fairness to all members of the family.”
Brody on Hardwig on Patient Autonomy and Proxy Decision Making
Brody’s response to Hardwig is relatively short but still manages to raise some interesting points. The first half of the paper contains Brody arguing that Hardwig was not utilitarian enough in his belief that the decision making process should not be patient centric (ALL conceivable parties should be considered, says Brody, not simply those who know the patient.) This, I think, is a rather uninteresting and pedantic point.
His second criticism is much more substantive. To understand the second criticism, it is important to see what Brody takes to be Hardwig’s argument. Brody’s outline of Hardwig is as follows:
“1. The job of the proxy decision maker is to make the right decision.
2. The right decision is not necessarily what the patient would have decided, because the patient might not have properly considered the interests of others.
3. Therefore, the proxy decision maker should not necessarily make the decision the patient would have made. Thus, the substituted-judgment standard is wrong.”
What Brody sees as the problem with this chain of reasoning is the first premise. Brody believes that the proper way to read the job of a proxy decision maker is that of an advocate; one who represents the interests of his “client” as best as possible, like an attorney.
“Given this understanding of the role of proxy decision makers,” Brody says, “premise 1 is false and Hardwig’s conclusion...does not follow from his already established premise 2.”
This objection, while interesting and certainly relevant, I believe it is wrong for two reasons.
First, it fails to recognize the real problem of proxy decision makers with their own interests, and that is that proxy decision makers have their own interests.
The reason we believe that the closest kin should be proxy decision makers is because they are the most likely candidates to know what the patient would have most likely wanted. But, as Hardwig mentions in his article, there is a Catch-22 involved here because it is the those who are closest who will be the most emotionally invested.
To ask the people who are the most attached to detach themselves and act as level headed surrogates is not only unrealistic but also a bit cruel. Its an impossible task and it is such because of the way human communities are set up.
Second, it is a mischaracterization of Hardwig’s argument. I do not believe that Hardwig believes it is the “job” of the proxy decision maker to make the right decision, but rather it is his “obligation.” Brody puts it in descriptive terms and forgets that we are talking about subject matter that is inherently value-laden. Certainly it is the “job” of the doctor to make the patient whole again, but that tells us nothing about the merits of how he goes about doing it. In the same vein, while it might be the assigned task of the proxy decision maker to make decisions for the patient, that also tells us nothing about the evaluative quality of those decisions.
My Thoughts on the Matter
I agree with Hardwig on a many things. In general, the item I most concur with Hardwig about is this driving idea behind his article, that human beings are not isolated individuals whose actions and desires exist in a vacuum. Whether or not we like it, we are all connected in an infinitely complex and intricate system of emotional, psychological, and sociological ritual that invariably one person’s decision will effect more than himself or herself, and giving any patient a blank check just because they are, in fact, a patient, is reckless and immoral.
However, both Hardwig and Brody seem to speak of this concept of interests, and they speak of interests in a vague and broad sense. This is the heart of the matter, I think, and what we should be focusing our collective effort on. Questions like “What are these interests? How do we evaluate these interests? Or are these interests good simply because the person is interested in them?” are questions that are underplayed, if not ignored, in Hardwig’s article.
Of course, Hardwig also says nothing about why small amounts of mass are attracted to larger amounts of mass, and the reason for that is obvious: He never intended to. Just as this is not an article about the mechanics of gravity, this is also not an article about evaluating interests. Still, I feel as though this should be his next step, because if he keeps his utilitarian considerations, he will have to explain what he is a utilitarian about. Happiness? Pleasure? Eudemonia? Or is it a more Kantian notion; are interests good because a rational agent is interested in them?
One thing should be clear though, healthcare is not a business transaction and proxy decision makers are not lawyers.

For funsies.

I miss my friends in Austin. Sometimes you guys post about all the fun things you guys are doing together and I get really sad because you guys are over there and I'm over here. And its hard to find people in this city who "get" the sort of things we find funny.

Like that little boy in the cowboy hat.

Holy moley that was funny.

Kay. No more weird stream of conciousness stuff. Later.

Will someone tell me what the hell just happened?!

2008-10-01T01:51:00.003-05:00

This whole convo is a bunch of lol. Trust me. Edited to make it more readable, but the content is untouched.

Frankie: I know what you're up to. I'm not sure I approve.
12:46am

Markos:What.

Please let me know what it is you speak of

So I can tell you if I am indeed up to it.
12:48am

Markos:HELLO
12:50am

Markos: I hate you Frankie. I hate you.
12:51am

Frankie:oh

hey, Markos

what are you doing?

tell me specifically
12:51am

Markos: Hola. I am at the puter lab
12:51am

Frankie: not generally.
12:51am

Markos: computer lab hanging out with my friend Sonya
12:51am

Frankie: doing what?
12:51am

Markos: at Tower's

Using facebook.
12:51am

Frankie:ah, campus life.
12:52am

Markos: So what is it you suspect me of doing I wonder. What
12:52am

Frankie: someone told me you were in pursuit of a minor.

and I didn't approve.
12:52am

Markos:What
12:53am

Frankie: I knew this guy...

his name was Will.
12:53am

Markos: Doesnt ring a bell.
12:53am

Frankie: oh
12:53am

Markos: I am always in pursuit of Minors. Duh.

Is he from Laredo?
12:53am

Frankie: well, he was below average in the attractiveness department.

but he would date young girls.
12:54am

Markos: What are you saying here?
12:54am

Frankie: who were pretty, but you know...girls you shouldn't be after.

and it was uncomfortable to see.
12:54am

Markos Are you saying that I am below average in the attractiveness department?

You just sort of did man
12:59am

Frankie: what?
12:59am

Markos: I dont understand your driving point here

I dont know any underage girls in this city

While I wish I did

AND who is this person you are talking about
1:00am

Frankie: my point was not that you were below average.
1:00am

Markos: AND you just called me an unhandsome fellow!
1:03am

Frankie: no.

you're the second most handsome person in SAS.

and I'm below that.
1:03am

Markos: So youre saying that

You think that Im going after some underage girl?

Who?

And you think that I ought not to?
1:05am

Frankie: no, I just found out you're innocent.
1:06am

Markos: What
1:06am

Frankie: but it may still be possible and or likely that you are attracted to certain underage women.
1:06am

Markos:WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE

That you are talking to about me?
1:10am

Markos: Die.

1:12am

Frankie: who?

no one is talking about you.
1:12am

Markos: DIE DIEDID+EI

Its late and I am sleepy. Goodnight!
1:13am

Frankie: noooo

don't leave meeeeee.
1:13am

Markos: I have to Franky
1:13am

Frankie: okay
1:13am

Markos: Those highschool girls arent going to pleasure themselves. Not until the camera is on at least.
1:13am

Frankie: nighty night, Markos.

you sick Laredian.

A very special Markos Blog Entry

2008-09-29T22:17:00.001-05:00

I have decided after thinking long and hard about it:

Im going to take up wearing a cat-ear beanie.

Dont try to talk me out of it!

Hurricane Ike Pt. 1 or IM STILL ALIVE FUCKERS

2008-09-20T22:48:00.002-05:00

First off, the economy is failing. My dad is a lot of things, not all of them good things. One thing Im grateful for is that my dad is a financial genius. Our family does not own very many things on credit because my father insists on paying for things, like cars, houses, and university tuition, with cash upfront. As the US economy begins to crumble before my very eyes, Im glad that his shrewed business practices have insured that my future wont be spent paying off loans.

NOW THEN, ON TO MY AMAZING JOURNEY OF HOW I SURVIVED HURRICANE IKE

So, its story time. This story starts on Thursday evening of September 11th, 2008. It was around this time that everyone started evacuating and around this time that I started thinking to myself that evacuation might be a good idea. I decided against it, not really wanting to spend 48 or so hours away in an area Im unfamiliar with (By which I mean friend's houses in the suburbs of Houston, which as it turns out didnt fare too much better than areas of downtown.)

It probably would have been more FUN to stay in Austin with some close friends, but looking back I dont think I would have left if I knew that I would have been without elecricity and hot water for five days. The experience was worth it.

So, Thursday night I sleep here. Friday during the day, they evacuate one of the dorms, Cougar Place, to a more sturdy dorm complex, Moody Towers. My friend who lives in Cougar Place decided to opt out of staying at the makeshift shelters at Towers, and instead spend the storm with me.

Friday evening at around 7 the winds pick up and the skies are noticably darker than usual. Things are looking onimous. Me and Andrew go for a ride on our bikes around campus, enjoying the headwind.

We spend the rest of the evening in my room, playing scrabble and watching the news. Finally, at 11 or so the power goes out. Outside, the wind is beating the building and the wind and rain are crazy. People scramble outside to see whats up. In the distance there is lightning and these bright flashes of cyan light, which I would later learn were the transformers blowing out. The RAs tell people they can either go to Building 4's Community Center or go back to their rooms. I decide its better to wander around in the courtyard and enjoy the rain and wind.

One of the RAs spots me and tells me to go back, but then it turns out he is my friend, Ricardo, and he asks me to help him deliver supplies from the office to those in building four. So I do. Cullen Oaks isnt a small complex; its pretty big. Or long, at least. So we make two trips in the hurricane carrying water bottles and junk food to those in Building Four. Andrew is feeling ill, so he stays in my room, and falls asleep. I go to Building Four to have social interaction, and about thirty of us pass the time telling jokes and horror stories. At around 2 I decide to go back to bed. So I do.

I wake up at six to the sound of an alarm. As it turns out water is in the attic. One of the RAs shuts off the alarm. Still, I have to step outside. This was the first time I was actually scared, because you could see the glass of the entrance to my hallway heaving back and forth. I was worried it would shatter and I would be impaled on a shard. This doesnt happen. Outside, the wind is as strong as ever. I decide, again, to go exploring. The rain hurts as it hits my face and the wind makes me stumble quite a few times. I decide that I am sufficiently hurricaned out, so I go back to sleep.

I wake up at around 9. The power is still out and people talk of it being out for at least a week. Andrew is still asleep. I get on my bike and ride around campus and take pictures of the scene. There is debris everywhere and downed powerlines. Huge trees snapped in half and everywhere tree branches keep falling as the reminences of the storms wind blow through. Whole parking lots are underwater. Wheeler street is completley flooded. For a while, The University of Houston was an island. Me and Andrew ride around and take pictures. We stop at the Quad, one of the dorms here. As it turns out, the University proper has power because the University proper runs on its own generator. Buildings ajacent to the University, such as my aparment complex and several other apartment complexes, lack power. 99% of the city of Houston is without power, but I have no way of knowing this at the time.

So, people who evacuated to the shelters in The Quad and Moody Towers are doing fine, we learned. Everyone else around campus, in Cullen Oaks, Cambridge Oaks, Bayou Oaks, and Cougar Place, are without elecricity. Andrew and I sighed and biked back to my apartment. He read for a bit while I ate some food that the deziens of Cullen Oaks had cooked on the propane powered grill outside. Delicious sausage.

Later in the evening, Andrew and I decided to go see what the deal was with Cougar Place, his dorm. We rode over and found a mean security guard telling us that if we stepped on the property we would be cited. Outside there were a couple of students, one of them with his family, angrily saying that they had no where else to go and that they should be allowed back in since Cougar Place has elecricity. That did us no good. So me and Andrew went to Moody Towers to eat.

At Moody Towers, the cafeteria was running on odd emergency hours, so we ate quickly and met up with a friend of ours, Demetri, who is a Russian exchange student. Demitri explained that shelters were set up in the lounge area of each floor in Moody Towers, each with five or six cots a floor, and both towers having a total of 36 floors. Demitri suggested that we sneak into one of the shelters in his floor, because there were some unused cots since some of the people left town. Andrew took him up on this offer. I myself needed some alone time, so I went back home and took a cold, freezing shower. Then I took some bennadryl for my allergies and went to sleep.

I did not sleep well. The night was hot and humid and I was sweating like crazy. So the next day I decided I too was going to sneak into a shelter.

Most of Sunday was spent figuring out how to spend my time. I rode my bike to Moody Towers, ate some lunch at the cafeteria, and basically sat around the Commons and waited for something to happen. I took the opportunity to charge my phone. While doing such, I ran into a friend of mine, Rayah, who lives at Towers. She agreed to sign me in and from there I would sneak into an unoccupied shelter. We also met up with Andrew, who said he enjoyed his stay and recommended I do the same. So we both went into Rayahs room and watched Robin Hood, Men in Tights and V for Vendetta.

Then, an announcement: Cougar Place was reopening. People could go back. YAY. For Andrew, at least. Andrew headed back and gave me a key to the makeshift shelter, which I was to return to Demtri tomorrow morning (As they would be kicking people out of the shelter.)

That night in the Towers I did not sleep well. People were loud and noisy. I tried to sleep. At around 1 things got quiet. I was on the 11th floor, facing downtown. The view was really pretty, especially at night. The lights were very bright and stood out. Downtown had power, nothing around it did.

TOO BE CONTINUED

Long post regarding my Thesis, my livejournal, cool Japanese music, the future of Markos, and general Markos related items

2008-09-07T21:51:00.003-05:00

So, off the bat, you all should check out this song by the Japanese band Stance Punks. They did the ending to this anime the anime club has been showing and its really catchy and peppy. Follow the youtube link! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzH8_VI-rC0

Now then, my Livejournal. Ive been thinking about reviving it. Ive invested too many years just to abandon it. So I think I will start occasionally posting there again. Maybe use it to dedicate it to a particular topic, so as not to have another unneccessary blog when this has served me well.

As for my Thesis. Ive decided to do it on Citizenship, specifically Normative Citizenship Education. Aside from questions like "What does it mean to be a citizen? Is citizenship a purely legal thing, like liberal universalists want to say, or is it something else? What is the catagorical distinction here?" I want to focus on the question "What does it mean to be a GOOD citizen? Can there be a such thing as a good citizen and is the phrase "Good Citizen" redundent, seeing as how some argue that Citizen is already a value-laden normative term to begin with? How does one learn to be a good citizen? Is learning, or teaching, such a thing possible?"

In general, I am taking a Neo-Aristotilean stance in saying that citizenship is association, much like friendship. Its something organic. One thing that I hope to try to include is this thread I find in both Aristotle and Wittgenstein of "Ontology as its use."

I have a whole bunch of articles and book chapters printed up and Ive read through half of them already. As soon as I finish the other half I hope to begin writing.

So, this is my last year as an undergraduate. Hopefully I will get into the UH Philosophy masters program. In case I dont, I am also applying to Texas Tech's MA prgoram and A&M's MA program (all three of these programs being in the top 10philosophy MA programs in the country.)

What do I do afterwards? I dont know. I have a lot of ideas. Somedays I want to go to law school, start up my own firm in some college town and work short hours. Other days I want to try and get my PhD and desperately look for a tenure track job at a small liberal arts college. And other times I imagine myself as a private school teacher, teaching high school philosophy at a boarding school, then teaching philosophy in the evenings at a local college. And even further still, I think about maybe going to library school and working at a university library.

There are two things all these jobs have in common. The first is the most obvious: I cant help but want to work in an academic sort of enviorment. I really like the feel of being on a campus, the self contained and autonomous nature of a university; almost like an ancient Greek city state. And then the laid bake nature of campuses leads me to the more subtle shared trait of my would be careers:

I value leisure time very heavily. I could not imagine myself working 60 hour work weeks in an office with only 2 weeks of vacation a year. Id sooner die. I need time to watch junk food TV, to hang out at the library and read, to take long walks while listening to an NPR podcast.

So...what do I do. I dunno =/

Anyway. This semester so far is alright. My classes are interesting and dont seem TOO difficult, which is good because it will allow me to slack to compensate for the amount of hours Im taking (18! WTF!) The hardest class is easily Philosophy of Language, which not coincidentally happens to be the most interesting thus far. I dont like Chompsky much; what he advocates sounds A LOT like private language, and thats just co-co puffs coo-coo.

Fair Trade group is still moving forward. We have a lot of good ideas for this semester and have claimed some minor victories, which really add up. I cant talk too much about it though. Sorry guys!

In the past two weeks I have seen an UNGODLY amount of anime. More than like, in the past two years. Ive also experienced a really STRONG amount of nerd and geek. Which is a nice change of pace from the crowd I normally run with, which fall into the catagory vaguely labeled "Semi-Hipsters with nerd like qualities who read many books and advocate causes." (Sorry guys! I love you!)

My bicycle is a beigish yellow Miyata 710 from the mid 80s. Its pretty nice and it goes a lot faster than my mountain bike would (which I gave to a friend of mine,) but Houston streets are not always well taken care of. For this reason, I am thinking of buying a mountain bike for longer trips (like anything off campus further than five miles,) and putting some smooth tires on it, adding some fenders, a back rack, a chain guard, and a head light and making my own little durable commuter. Yeah. Thats the ticket.

Alright guys. Thats it for me.

Listen to that Stance Punks song! Its catchy!

Anime Club

2008-09-03T22:38:00.002-05:00

Yes, I joined. Yes, its pretty fun. Yes, I probably should be using the time I meet for it on Fridays to work on my Thesis (I will update on that later!) Yes, I am enjoying watching anime. Dont judge me.

Also, Re: Tiffany's Party: I am never, ever, ever, drinking again.

vfd

2008-08-26T23:24:00.001-05:00

"You couldnt pay me to vote for McCain. Or any Republican for that matter."

How did the fact that my grandfather on my dad's side has been a life long Democrat evade me? Probably because I assumed he was like my father.

ANYONE but Keeanu! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

2008-08-16T21:07:00.003-05:00

If I had to rate people on their level of cool, it would probably go something along the lines of

Fonzie
Miles Davis
Spike Spiegal
Malcolm X
Jack Kerouac

And so on.

But notice how high on the top of my list Spike Spiegal is. Spike is fucking badass. He's former mobster turned bounty hunter who listens to jazz and does karate, all while wearing a really badass suit. Oh, and hes a mother fucking Jewish Martian. For serious.

Now. Keeanu Reeves. He's on the slate to play Spike in the upcomming live action Cowboy Bebop movie.

I. Am. Deathly. Against. This.

Seriously, KEEANU REEVES AS SPIKE?! Keeanu does not have the subtly needed to pull of Spike. He cant even pull of a character whos lines consist of kicks to the sternum.

ARG NO

Staaarrtttiiing....NOW

2008-08-06T08:42:00.002-05:00

Operation "Lose those fucking ten lbs I gained over the summer before the begining of September" is now underway. And I need YOUR help! Anyone wanna be my gym or bike buddy?

It finally happened...

2008-08-04T00:05:00.003-05:00

Earilier today, something that, as far as I can remember, had never happened before, happened. Something that I had always dreaded and worried about while walking to school. Something that recently I had marveled at my ability to avoid.

Today, I stepped on a frog.

Stepping on a frog is unlike stepping on an insect, in that when you step on a frog, you cannot quite ignore the aftermath as one would when stepping on, say, a beatle. Frogs make a distictive noise when you step on them, which sounds like half a croak and then the abrupt silence one would expect to hear from an animal which just had its lungs, ribs, and spinal cord collapsed.

BEST FAKE IMAGINARY NIGHT EVER

2008-07-31T11:01:00.002-05:00

Last night I had a dream that me and Paul Lynde (the flaming queen who played Uncle Arthur on Bewitched) hung out and cracked jokes and made fun of people and were just all around catty. It was grand.

NOOO or YEAH?!

2008-07-30T01:38:00.001-05:00

http://www.ifmagazine.com/new.asp?article=6571

Cowboy Bebop movie.

I seriously dont know how to feel about this.

Holy poop.

Holy poop what an epifiny

2008-07-28T12:48:00.001-05:00

Hey! Did you guys know that Xzibit is a RAPPER?!

Yeah, I thought he was some sort of master auto-mechanic.

Oh no! A blog entry about a dream! What a snoozefest! (Pun intended)

2008-07-27T15:53:00.002-05:00

So last night I had a dream I was an astronaut and that for some reason I had wandered (floated) away from the spacestation right outside of earth with no hope of recovery or survival. So as I was drifting away from the earth and into certain death I took out, from the inside lining of my suit, a cyanide capsule that was given to me just in case such situations were to arise. But right before I got ready to ingest the suicide pill, I caught a glimps of the Earth and I got this weird calm feeling, as if I understood all the cosmological implications of being alive. I could feel the inner most secrets of the universe washing over me; how our existence is neither a fluke of nature nor the deliberate result of some onipotent being, but rather the result of billions and billions of years of history setting up the right conditions over a vast, unfathomable period of time. Human life is a necessary result of the universe spawning into existence; we are what happens when variables Q and conditions P are met. And knowing that, I decided it would be better to die of asphyxiation than self-induced poisioning.

Then I woke up, wondering why the hell I never have any sex dreams.

CELEB CRUSH STATUS

2008-07-17T00:48:00.002-05:00

As you all well know, I get celebrity crushes. My current celeb crush is the vocalist for the synth band Crystal Castles, Alice Glass.

Okay. Now that that is out of the way, you can finally exhale and get back to your lives.

Life is worth living.

2008-07-12T21:46:00.001-05:00

That Mr. Boston was allowed back on TV is perhaps the only reason I have not yet killed myself.

Ron Ayers

2008-07-07T07:25:00.002-05:00

I took an economics course at UTSA once. The professor was this wackjob by the name of Ron Ayers. Libertarian lunatic who thought that roads should be privitized and believed that civil liberties should be not government enforced but adopted policy of corporations, should they choose.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA070608.01A.PORNPROF.3fed3fe.html

"After a day of teaching, Ronald Ayers would shut the door to his office at the University of Texas at San Antonio — packed with newspapers, books and rotting food — and surf the Internet for pornography."

HAH! Score one for Markos!

A few thoughts Ive had during my stay in Laredo

2008-07-06T23:47:00.003-05:00

1) One of my favorite professors from back here in Laredo just took a position at Central Arkansas University. Dr. Yoder, you and your jazz bass will be missed.

2) Wall-E. I was worried it was going to be overrated. It wasn’t. However, I must say the obvious: the quality of the film before Wall-E gets on the spaceship is what we in the film criticism community call “Mother-Fucking Superb” while the later half is only “Pretty damn great.” The emphasis on Wall-E’s interaction with the reminants of human civilization and the way he treasures all these trinkets and artifacts of people, and his love of that one song and dance, combined his desire to not be alone was just so fucking adorable.

3) My mom has admitted to internet stalking me via google. She is probably reading this. HI MOM!

4) The deaf-mute Japanese girl in Babel. I approve of this.

5) My grandmother and grandfather and Tia on my Mom's side will need to make a trip to Houston on Friday, and will more than likely be staying with me. A few words about Grandpa Pancho and Grandma Julia: They are very traditional Mexican immigrants with a limited grasp of English and a dislike of contemporary culture and technology. Before retirement, my grandfather's primary source of income was his chicken and goat ranch, along side various odd jobs he would do for the city, such as construction and gardening. They have never been to Houston but are not generally enthusiastic about new endeavors.

I am genuinely enthusiastic about having my grandparents stay with me in Houston. However, I am a bit at a lost when trying to figure out what it is I should do with them? It is not as if I could take them to a museum or the Galleria; they’d just be bored out of their minds and they cant exactly walk long distances or long durations. At the moment, I think my best bet is to take them to the 2nd ward or East End and go shopping at some of the thrift stores there. This might sound a bit condescending, but trust me, my grandparents love flea markets, or as they call them, pulgas. And to be honest, so do I. So, Jack, help me out here.

6) An odd sensation overcame me in Laredo as I was going through my cell’s phonebook in an attempt to find some friends to hang out with, and I realized that I had more people from Houston listed on there than I did from Laredo. This was seriously a weird phenomena for me, because when I lived in San Antonio and during my first year in Houston, I had such a difficult time making new friends, not to mention keeping new friends, and I always felt so isolated from everybody else and disconnected from my peers. I knew though, that in Laredo, as much as the place sucks, I had a social support net of friends who lived there. I knew that I could go to a party, or a local venue, and know at least 20 people there. Now I go to all these new places and its overrun by a bunch of kids, and all my friends have pretty much left town or disappeared. Of course I still have my family and I am very grateful for that (seriously,) but its just a weird feeling knowing that half of what a home usually is, no longer applies.

7) Another sensation, about Laredo, as I walked at Mall Del Norte I remembered all the times that I’ve walked at the Galleria, then I looked at Mall Del Norte and I came to the realization (or re-realization) that “Wow…this place is pretty fucking ghetto.”

8) I really want to finish watching Sky High.

Okay! Goodnight!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALEX

2008-06-24T00:25:00.001-05:00

M.A. says:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
- [ eddie ] † says:
wrong brother, jackass
M.A. says:
Oh, well, I figured I had a 50/50 shot.

Law school is for chumps

2008-06-21T02:04:00.002-05:00

But the American economic situation is seriously making me reconsider it over a PhD in Philosophy. Lets face it, the future looks bleak. I'd certainly be happier as an academic, but for that to work I'd have to be employed.

What do you, fellow readers, think? A law degree would certainly make me more marketable, but chances are I'd probably have to take out loans for it (as opposed to PhD programs in Philosophy, where tuition wavers are the norm) and excess credit is pretty much the reason we're in this mess to begin with.

Meh, Im too tired to think this through. I will instead read more reviews of The Love Guru (I love reading reviews of bad films) before going to bed.

Hello

2008-06-19T13:25:00.002-05:00

I am updating this for fun! FUN! FUN FUN

WHICH ONE DO I SHOOT?!

2008-06-06T23:34:00.001-05:00

????????????????

Nana's Everyday Life (Jeez, what a downer)

2008-05-24T17:11:00.003-05:00

So earlier in the day I went through all 77 strips of the webcomic Nana's Everyday Life. I advise you to do the same, as its pretty good as far as webcomics go. The first twenty strips or so are kind of silly throwaway jokes obviously attempting to be edgy and obscene, which manages to be fairly funny, but nothing special. However, an actual story arch develops at around strip 20 and at around strip 40 it ups the ante and begins to build up to a memorable and heartbreaking ending. Suffice to say the whole thing put me in a bit of a sour mood.

The strip is about this little girl who lives in a lab and has envasive and abusive tests performed on her by "Papa," a sceintist who delights in sexually molesting her and causing her misery. Early in the strip she loses her limbs and becomes a paraplegic and is quickly disposed of by Papa in a dumpster. Then, in Homeword Bound inspired glory, she attempts to become reuinted with Papa while enduring all the indignities and ill-fated adventures. Ho ho ho!

Please to Enjoy

Hear ye hear ye!

2008-05-18T10:06:00.008-05:00

I think storytelling is really cool. I think stories are really cool. I appreciate most mediums of storytelling. Narratives help us attempt to understand what it means to be human.

One form of storytelling which I think has not, for the most part received its fair share of artistic streed cred is television. This is, on the whole, due to the fact that television since inception has been incredibly market driven and tailor made for the masses; and the safest way to appeal to the majority of the masses (does that even make sense?) is to appeal to the common denominator. This has made for some really shitty television, considering that we live in a country where the number of designer A&E shirts in one’s closet is more cause to brag than the number of books one has read (I should make note about quality here; this week’s latest self help guru’s over-priced rags doesn’t count as much as, say, Milton’s Paradise Lost.) Still, shows such as MASH, Twin Peaks, and Lost have managed to show us that, yes, quality teleivison programming that doesn’t rely on ham-fisted writing and cheesy over the top zaniness can be done.

Anyway, that was a bit of a sidetrack. The point of this entry is to plug this really cool site I’ve come across, TVTropes.org.

A trope was originally used to describe a particular literary device found in various writings from various books through various ages. Such examples include The Mary Sue, a character of seeming invincibility who seems to have few flaws; the ones that exist existing solely so that he may overcome them (See Harry Potter) and the MacGuffin, A noun that needs to be found but only exists to advance the plot (See the X of Y in every Harry Potter title.)

This website is a pretty good list of tropes, some of my favorites being:

Book Dumb. Its good to know I’m not the only one who noticed that the fact that main characters being portrayed as “Street Smart” are usually on shows aimed to viewers not too likely to be ordering subscriptions to Popular Physics Monthly and more likely to lose their unemployment check in a bathroom at Arby’s.

Pet The Dog. I hate it when this happens, seeing a really cool character, like Dr. House, turn into Kenny the Badass mail clerk.

NGE. And of course, the incredibly accurate and inexplicably extensive Neon Genesis Evangelion article (Veronica Mars only has a quarter of a page but this gets whole sections dedicated to it) which I think gives the Wikipedia Article a good run for its money.

Okay its 11 am and I haven’t slept. You know what that means…BIG AMERICAN PARTY!

Heh heh heh

2008-05-16T10:14:00.001-05:00

Your Score: Crackpot - INTJ

13% Extraversion, 73% Intuition, 93% Thinking, 53% Judging

People hate you.

Paris Hilton hates Nicole Richie. Lex Luther hates Superman. Garfield hates Mondays.
But none these even rates against the insurmountable hate, people have for you.

I mean, you're pretty damn clever and you know it. You love to flaunt your potential. Heard the word "arrogant" lately? How about "jerk?" Or perhaps they only say that behind your back.

That's right. I know I can say this cause you're not going to cry. You're not exactly the most emotional person. You'd rather spend time with your theoretical questions and abstract theories than with other people.

Ever been kissed? Ever even been on a date? Trust me, your inflated ego is a complete turnoff with the opposite sex and I am telling you, you're not that great with relationships as it is. You're never going to be a dude or chick magnet, purely because you're more concerned with yourself than others. Meh. They all hate you already anyway.

How about this- "stubborn?" Hrm? Heard that lately? All those facts which don't fit your theories must just be wrong, right? I mean, really, the vast amounts of time you spend with your head in the clouds...you're just plain strange.

*****************

If you want to learn more about your personality type in a slightly less negative way, check out this.

*****************

The other personality types are as follows...

Loner - Introverted Sensing Feeling Perceiving
Pushover - Introverted Sensing Feeling Judging
Criminal - Introverted Sensing Thinking Perceiving
Borefest - Introverted Sensing Thinking Judging
Almost Perfect - Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving
Freak - Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Judging
Loser - Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving
Clown - Extraverted Sensing Feeling Perceiving
Sap - Extraverted Sensing Feeling Judging
Commander - Extraverted Sensing Thinking Perceiving
Do Gooder - Extraverted Sensing Thinking Judging
Scumbag - Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving
Busybody - Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Judging
Prick - Extraverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving
Dictator - Extraverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging

Link: The Brutally Honest Personality Test written by UltimateMaster on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test
View My Profile(UltimateMaster)

Huzzah

2008-05-12T22:18:00.002-05:00

I'm back in Laredo. Its tolorable being in my house (except for the maid, gardener, plumber strangers that my parents hire to poke around the house and make me feel awkward,) but the minute I leave in my car I have to deal with the stupidest, most irritating vermin EVER. The sort of people who pay for 50+ groceries in the electronics section of Walmart. The sort of people who have rattails and mullets and are totally serious and non-ironic about it (not that, had it been ironic, it would have been better.)

I hate how, if I want to get anything done in this city, invariably the person in the service industry which I must deal with is a native Spanish speaker who does not understand more than 300 words of English. And its annoying. I can speak Spanish, I just dont like to. My communication skills are much more nuanced when I speak English.

I tried to get a hair cut today. They charged me $10 dollars for a shave along the sides; something a trained chimp could do. Typically, that sort of thing never runs more than five dollars. The lady behind the counter seemed not to know this social convention.

And the mall. Oh the mall. To call it a mall is being graciously liberal with the flexibility of the word. In reality, its truly something somewhere between a corporate owned flea-market and a bazaar in Kolkatta.

Enough complaining. Tomorrow I go out to eat with my grandmother. I'm looking forward to that. I might also play some raquetball at the Country Club.

Alright. I'm done. Toodles.

The Soldier and Death

2008-05-08T10:05:00.002-05:00

There used to be this show I remember I would watch often when I was younger, like five or six I believe. It was on HBO and I would wake up really early in the morning to watch it (along with Tin-Tin.)
The set up was that there was this old man and his talking dog, and he would tell the viewer old fables. The fables would be the focus of the show and there would be puppets involved.

Well, muppets actually. As I learned about twenty minutes ago, the show was called Jim Henson's StoryTeller. I dont remember too much about it, except that there was one episode that scared the pants off of me, because of the bizzare nature of it which conflicted with what I had come to expect in stories (The goodguy loses at the end, Hell and demons are involved, so on.)

Anyway, something reminded me of it and I did some quick research and found the episode on Youtube.

Enjoy.

PS: For good measure.. I remember this show also giving me the creeps. Its a shame that my exposure to Grimm's Fairy Tales was through poorly funded Japanese anime. I would have loved to have read the original text when I was younger. I think that there is something really cool involved with myths and fables and their relationship to developmental psychology. Children ought to have their bedtime stories be tales of murder and deciet and family betrayal and powerhungry lust. Ancient Greek myths will do.

PSS: Anyone remember David the Gnome?

Oh wow

2008-05-07T06:53:00.001-05:00

http://homepages.nyu.edu/~iav202/powers/powers.html
I havent laughed this hard in ages. Especially at the entries for Russel and Immanuel "The Virgin" Kant.

Almost done.

2008-05-06T22:39:00.004-05:00

I've been listening to this one God Speed You Black Emporer song on repeat pretty much for the past two days straight. Hung Over as the Oven in Maida. Its really damn good and enjoyable and those of you who havent heard it should download it. Those of you who have heard it, there is a really cool monolouge in the middle of it. Does anyone know where its from?

One more exam. Then I get to go home.

I checked out a whole bunch of books on meta-ethics that I need to read for my thesis in Laredo. I'm starting with R.M. Hare's The Language of Morals. I also got a few books on the topic of Normativity (oughtness.)

Oh, and lest I forget, I also checked out Quine's Ontological Relativity and From a Logical Point of View. Now that my Epistemology and Philosophy of Science courses are over, I can finally get to studying them.

Hipsters

2008-05-06T03:39:00.002-05:00

So I was going to write a post about how I hate hipsters and their stupid beards and cowboy shirts and how all the girls look the same but then I realized I might offended like half of my irl friends.

Instead, I will make a post about how I love hipsters and their totally non-shitty lifestyle choice.

Let it be known

2008-05-03T17:52:00.002-05:00

I for one am tired of those Charmin bears and their affinity for poop.

Gosh, they way they act, you'd think they thought paper grew on trees.

...

...

It doesnt.

Sigh

2008-05-01T23:46:00.003-05:00

Another night at the library. Gotta do this Epistemology paper by tomorrow.

Ugh.

Soon I will be home in Laredo.

Abstract for thesis

2008-04-30T11:33:00.001-05:00

Abstract:
The shift from a teleological world view to a mechanized world view finally cumulated at the beginning of the modern period and, by the time of Hume, had fully acquiesced into existence.
In ethics, the major consequence of this shift would be that all attempts to ground morality no longer were sought by appealing to the value of man, but instead on external mind-independent sources.

The most famous moralist to first attempt a non-teleological justification of ethics is arguably Immanuel Kant, who, with his categorical imperative, sought to move the concept of morality from the character of an individual man to something outside that man’s head, something universal.

Since Kant, various attempts to universalize morality have been executed. The ones this paper will discuss are: Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative, John Stuart Mill’s Happiness as a Good to the Aggregate of All People, Henry Sidgwick’s Principle of Rational Benevolence, and R.M. Hare’s Prescriptivism.

I aim to show how all of these attempts has failed and attempt to offer a solution on communitarian grounds, by arguing that values exist in the public sphere and cannot be derived from the individual, which is why all previous attempts were fundamentally flawed.

Further, I wish to explore an alternative to a universalized morality: A return to something similar to virtue theory and a move back to the evaluation of the quality of agency over the evaluation of the quality of actions. I argue that such a shift back is the only possible way to not only universalize morality but also give us the most consistent and non-contradictory view of ethics.
-------

Tee hee hee this is going to be fun!

Amazing

2008-04-28T23:29:00.002-05:00

Last night I hung out at Omar's and ate pizza and watched Attonement (which is a pretty good, if not bumming, movie.) It was grand.

Sadly, now I must get back to work on my Philosophy of Science paper.

2008-04-26T23:24:00.003-05:00

It is Saturday Night. I am eating a panini, drinking some jack 'n coke, and studying for Philosophy of Science.

I was supposed to go to Austin this weekend for Liza's birthday party, but sadly I had to stay home, due to excessive school work (Damn you, Bas van Fraassen!) Plus I'm broke. I toyed with the idea of putting my account into overdraft, filling my gas tank, and heading to Austin, but thought wiser of it. There will be other trips.

I am doing my senior honor's thesis on moral universalizability and Sidgwick's treatment of it through his principle of Rational Benevolence. I will argue that all attempts to universalize morality ultimately fail and this means that we must make a return to virtue ethics.

Something like that. I can feel the jack kicking in.

Nightmare

2008-04-24T22:33:00.003-05:00

Last night I had a dream that my brother Alex died. It was an awful dream. I remember being so damn sad in my dream because of the realization that I would never see him again. There is no afterlife. When someone you love dies they are gone forever. I think the biggest battle of my life, all my life, since around age 8, has been trying to come to terms with the knowledge that eventually, inevitablely, everyone I love will soon be dust.

2008-04-24T22:21:00.002-05:00

The semester is drawing near and I have so much homework to do. And finals. I'm scared out of my wits.

HUZZAH!!

2008-04-23T16:19:00.001-05:00

I finally remembered my password. Excellent.

Arg

2008-03-26T23:42:00.002-05:00

Final Fantasy VII was an amazing and excellent video game on its own. One of the reasons why its so great is because of its ambiguous and vague ending. So, to Square(soft? Enix?):

STOP RUINING IT WITH ALL THESE SEQUALS.

I pretty much pretend that Advent Children didn’t happen and that Meteor destroyed the planet, taking humanity with it. Its better that way.

Illuminati

2008-03-25T09:46:00.002-05:00

Hello.

So I'm back in Houston. Yay. Class starts in an hour and a half. I think today I find out what I got on my midterm. I hope I did well.

I need to shower. My hair feels itchy and gross. I got a hair cut! The reason I got a hair cut was because my dad, upon seeing my longer hair, told me it looked like a toupee =/

I should go for a walk before class. Maybe even a bike ride. That would be in my best interest. I need to finish that lecture on Torts on my ipod. Kill two birds with one stone!

Okay. So it's settled. I will shower, then walk, then go to class, then bike ride, then class. Then nap. Oh! And I need coffee badly! Bye!

2008-03-22T01:57:00.003-05:00

Hello friends. As you know, I am currently in Laredo, Texas. To my Houston friends who have never been or heard of Laredo, Texas, I have to tell you to A) Consider yourself lucky and B) Now through the magic of THE INTERNET and THE YOUTUBE I can bring Laredo, Texas straight to your computer screen! Behold! (PS: Sorry about the shitty linkage, but dont be lazy.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyP-A0aG08I
Its seriously an OCEAN of douchebags.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIpYm6Gu0FU&feature=related
Granted, I went to Alexander where people were slightly more civil than this. I've been physically assaulted (IE beat up) three times, all by people who went to United! COINCIDENCE?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-JpKEbp-UQ
No words can describe this. It almost makes English Christian Rock seem tolorable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHAL4o0K3Ao&feature=related
Seriously, 90% of this city is like this. Im not making it up. Its sort of amazing that I came out not a retarded douchebag.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pImwtXTAmE
Holy fuck FINALLY SOMEONE REALIZES IT

Interrupted By Fireworks

2008-03-19T13:11:00.004-05:00

Another boring day here in L-Town.

I wonder what I should do today. Maybe go for a walk at the mall? I want to go ride my bicycle but the wind has been such an annoyance in the past week or so. It keeps blowing at around 20 MPH. What a nuisance.

Im bored. Bored. Bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored.

:D okay bye.

Here I am.

2008-03-18T01:37:00.000-05:00

So I’m in Laredo now. Yippe!

The drive was god-awful. I had a headache the entire time and I believe it was because of caffeine withdrawals. I hadn’t had any coffee in about two days. That is amazing, considering the amount of coffee I usually drink on a daily basis.

As soon as I got into town, I took an hour nap. When I awoke, I drank coffee. Then I felt better. I watched television with Mom and Dad. That was fun. Saw my brothers and my cousin Baby Eddie. Easter is going to be at our place this year. I wish Tio Oscar hadn’t sold the ranch. I miss going there for Easter and exploring the barren wasteland. It was one of the few times I can recall when I actually enjoyed being in nature. It seems sort of fitting that I would enjoy a desert.

Later on in the evening I went to Ralph’s house and saw some of my old friends. It was fun, and I enjoyed it. I hadn’t seen a lot of those people in months. Laredo is weird. I can leave and stay away for long periods of time and when I return I find that nothing has changed and things are exactly as they were, even though I feel as if my life has undergone some noticeable changes. I find that to be a source of comfort, which is sort of sickening considering how much I hate this city.

On the note of things that I find sickening: how much I relate to the character of Frederick A.K.A Caliban from John Fowles’ The Collector. Don’t worry. I’m not about to start kidnapping people.

Kekekekeke.

Homeward

2008-03-17T10:24:00.000-05:00

Looks like I'm about to start getting ready to head to Laredo. Thats going to be fun. Well, being in Laredo might be fun. Driving there wont be.

Actually, how much fun could that city be?

Im supposed to hang out with a whole bunch of people, like Kassie, Cristina, Carlos and Delorean. Yeah, I know.

I wish I were taking the bus. It would give me a chance to read some of my books. This week shall now be dedicated to finishing as many books as possible; starting with John Fowles' The Collector. Then Arthur C Clarke's Childhood's End. Then if I have time, or feel like it, Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse.

See you guys in Laredo. Can't wait to get back so I can get back to class!

Yes.

2008-03-16T19:02:00.000-05:00

Yes. I think this will be better than Livejournal.