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TaiWilson

...is a Brony.
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. . . Unless it's good. But that rarely happens.

This'll probably be a short post, since I'm very tired and kinda sick, but have also been wanting to write this for a while (and I've become VERY tired of always seeing my last journal post.)


So, anyway, after I posted my Prop 8 poem on here the other day, I started reading through a few of my other stories, to possibly post more. I had dug the poem out of a few submissions I'd made for a Creative Writing class one semester. The poem was short, and I had put a fair amount of planning and research into it. So it turned out pretty good in my opinion, and other people's liking it seems to confirm this idea.

But one of the short stories I wrote (which at the time I thought was the best thing I had written in a while) turned out to be really shitty once I read it again. This story had not been well planned or researched. It had been written literally hours before it was due, with no re-writes.

I might still upload it at some time, but it needs a lot of work. The idea is decent, but it's completely biased. Biased in that, at the time, I felt it imperative that I come out to my classmates, without ever actually saying anything (what can I say? I'm a wuss.) So, I wrote stories about LGBT issues, flirted with the only clearly gay guy in the class, and (in retrospect) generally made an ass out of myself. I even took a dance class and an acting class, based almost entirely on the hopes that I could meet someone while in the class. While I enjoyed both classes a lot, I didn't do very well in either (Modern Dance kicked my ass, and I just don't have the memory needed for acting (can't memorize monologues to save my life.)


As usual, I seem to have gotten off topic. As I was saying, reading my old stuff sucks. A lot. But some of it is still about as good as I remember it (which is pretty good) and I'll probably be posting various stories more regularly in the near future.
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God, why do I alway start big, philosophical, introspective essays in the middle of the night? I never give these things the attention they deserve. Oh well. Hopefully I get everything I want to out before I become tired and/or bored.

So, here we go:
A few nights ago, I rented "Yes Man" starring Jim Carrey. I have to say, it was a pretty good movie. But there was a line at the end that really stuck with me.
The basic premise of the film is that Carrey is a man who never says "yes" to anything, and never commits to anything. He's stuck in a dead-end job because he won't ask for a raise, and the only thing he's ever seemed to say "yes" to, his marriage, ended in divorce.
One day, a friend convinces Carrey to go to a "Yes!" seminar, where they learn that the key to happiness is saying "yes" to every opportunity that approaches them.

SPOILER ALERT!!!
--------------------------------


Carrey embraces this philosophy full-heartedly, being told that he has made a covenant with himself, and that bad things will happen if he says no to anything, and good things will happen if he says yes to everything.

Eventually, Carrey takes this too far and gets hurt emotionally because of it. The next time he is asked to say yes (to getting back together with his wife) he says no, and almost instantly starts having terrible luck.
Thinking the covenant is trying to kill him for saying no, he finds the "Yes!" seminar's leader and waits for him, hiding in the back of his car.
When Carrey suddenly pops up from the back seat, while the man is driving, the two get into a potentially serious accident.

While in the hospital, the man asks, enraged, what the hell Carrey was doing hiding in his car. Carrey says that he needs the man to remove the covenant from him, because it's killing him (literally).

This is the good part: The man says, (more or less): "There was never really a 'covenant' or curse, or anything like that. You're only supposed to say yes to everything at the start, to free yourself from the idea of saying no to everything. Then, eventually, you won't say yes because you have to, or even because you want to, but because you know it's what you really want, and really need.
Basically: If you don't feel comfortable doing something, you shouldn't do it. But keep yourself open to new experiences.

How does this relate to religion? Frighteningly well.
Granted, religion was likely invented more as a means of explaining things we didn't at the time, such as death, lightning, and poor luck, like droughts. But I'm talking more about the later applications of religion: as social and societal control.
Religion is a great thing, and was entirely necessary at the dawn of man, as well as the dawn of civilization. Not only did it claim to explain things, it also was a quick and effective means of bestowing a lot of rules upon a peoples without much hubbub (think Exodus).

It would have been one thing if Moses had just stood up and said "Everyone listen to me and do what I say and follow me blindly though the desert for years on end!" What reason would people have had for listening to him? But the Hebrews, they were promised a messiah, someone to lead them out of Egypt, and out of slavery.
So, Moses tapped into that. He said, "I'm sent from God, and he likes you guys the best, and wants you all to be free!" Suddenly, he had what was likely the majority of the Egyptian population on his side (because the slaves always outnumber their masters).

Once they were out of Egypt, Moses was free to start saying all the "Do what I say" stuff, knowing that he now had the peoples complete respect and control. So, he started putting out rules. Rules like, "don't kill each other" "don't steal shit" and "don't question your religion/my law". Fairly simple stuff, which any society needs to survive. Minus the last one. (Well, really, it's the first commandment, but you know what I mean)

So, rules. Just like in the movie. And those are good. However, once a few centuries pass, and the laws slowly evolve from just laws, to common sense and, eventually, true human nature, the laws should be unnecessary, right? Like reminding a person to breath.
And similar to telling a person to breath, thinking about too much can make it start to look like a task.

It's like giving a horny teen a couple of purity rings. All it does is constantly remind them that the one thing they're definitely not doing is having sex. Even if you're not doing something, if it's all you think about, you'll eventually just fucking do it all ready and get rid of all that tension.

So, if you tell a person, "Don't have sex before, or outside of, marriage" they're eventually just going to think: why not?
Well, the smart answer would be: Because, having unprotected sex with everyone you see will quickly spread disease, and when we're living in a tent in the middle of the fucking desert, that's not a smart thing to do.
However, not being capable of conveying, or even understanding that statement, tribal leaders had to settle for: Because we say so, and if you disagree, you're heretic scum and will be promptly put to death or banished, which it just as good.
*sarcasm* Yeah, because the best way to keep your constantly dwindling, and  increasingly inbred (40 years!) numbers up is to kill people. *end sarcasm*

Eventually, as said, people start to adopt these rules as common place, and they become practically instinctual.
So, why keep the rule book, if everyone's already so familiar with the game? The game of not killing or raping each other?
Partially, because some people are born idiots.
But also partially, and this is where it gets interesting, because people can become idiots.

Now, I'm not saying everyone who believes in religion is an idiot. Far from it. What I'm saying, is the early Tribal leaders, after setting down the ground rules, saw the awesome power invoked in being able to wield religion with an iron first.
Of course, some people probably had good intentions in mind when creating certain religions. But when virtually anyone can become a member of the clergy or high-ups, things can get out of hand and become corrupted very quickly, assuming they aren't already.

Now, people are indoctrinated from birth, being told to always follow the Bible, and always do what a priest, rabbi or minister tells them to, and that you can never, ever break the rules, or they'll spend all eternity, a scientific improbability, in Hell. Then these kids grow up, and tell their kids the same thing, and so on.

Why can't we ever just tell kids straight up what the rules are, and if they ask why, tell them why? Why does everything always have to be wrapped in either sugar or brimstone? Either we're bribing kids to obey, or threatening them. Why not just talking to them like the rational human beings they are, and the mature adults we hope them to be? If we don't start respecting them now, why will we ever?

I often find it amazing how similar the secular (or non-religious) Christmas and the religious Easter are.
During Christmas, we tell kids, "If you're good all month, Santa will bring you a gift! And don't just do it while I'm around, because he's always watching you!"
During Easter, it's the same story, except we're telling it to kids and supposedly sensible adults. We tell them, "If you're good for the next 40 days and nights, you won't burn for all of eternity!" Of course, kids aren't as stupid. If they're going to forgo something for over a month, they expect to be compensated in an immediate, tangible manner. So, we tack on, "And a giant bunny in a pastel waistcoat will bring you colored eggs." Kids just hear, "CANDY!!!" If you told an adult that part, they might nod thoughtfully for a moment about the Jesus part, then, hearing about the rabbit, will go, "Wait, what the fuck?"
Of course, as with Christmas, all of the fun, pagan aspects of the two holidays have been bogarted/taken back by the secular world, leaving behind all of the unnecessary religious aspects, thus improving it. You can wrap a guilt-trip in paganism all you want; it's still going to be depressing. And no, Bill, it's not a "War on Christmas"(TM). We're simply taking back what is rightfully ours.

So, many may ask, "If we, as a species, don't really need religion anymore, why stay in it?" To tell you the truth, there really isn't any reason I can think of, save one: the community. Now, for some people, leaving a certain church may be all too welcomed. But for others, if a church is all you've known, then it's parishioners are probably all you know, too.
However, there are now several up-and-coming community groups who act as a sort of "half-way-parish" for those slowly weening off of the teat of religion. They perform non-denominational weddings, help out with things such as counseling for things like dying family members, and help out member of the "parish" such as new or expecting parents. Essentially, they perform all of the duties of a church, minus the church. They're still there for people who prefer to say that they're "more spiritual than religious" with things like meditation training and such, and can really help a person while they're transitioning.

Unfortunately, these half-way-churches (they aren't really called that; at least not to my knowledge) are generally few and far between right now, and can be a little hard to locate. Although, I'm sure that's nothing a couple of hours on the internets can't remedy.


I guess I should start wrapping this up. I'm not bored or tired, which is amazing (or, I'm not letting myself realize I'm tired) but I really can't think of anything else to say about this. I'm sure there's a lot more that could be said, but, to be honest, I'm not very knowledgeable on this subject. Especially the half-way-churches, hence the made up, comedic name.

Oh, and for those of you who couldn't tell from this post: I'm probably an atheist. For now, we'll just say agnostic atheist, meaning there might be a God, but there's no reliable way of proving that I can see. I'm still, however, fascinated with religion, all religions, and think that it plays a major role in human development as a whole. Also, I'm still going to church, if only for the community and friends, and twice yearly good music (see above holidays). And the only reason I'm always comparing everything to Catholicism, or Christianity in general, is because I was born into it, and it's basically all I know.

Oh, and check out the book in my "Reading" box. It's really interesting, funny and, best of all, free for download on iTunes as a Podcast.
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"America's Got Talent" premiered in June 2006. "Britain's Got Talent" premiered in June 2007. I think it's safe to say that Britain has now completely passed us up.

What is it about the U.K. that they have so much better singers than us? Is it something to do with the accent, because I think dialects kind of melt away for the most part once a person starts to sing, especially if it's well done, which this is.

Maybe it's the type of singing, and the class. I mean, look at just a few of the people who have gotten singing careers from shows like this:

America:
Some chick who yodels
(If you count American Idol):
Daughtry
Kelly Clarkson

Britain:
That Opera singer
Susan Boyle
Shaheen Jafargholi  snipurl.com/ggwey

Now, this is probably ridiculously biased, because I'm just putting down people that come to me off the top of my head, and obviously, with all that's been going in in BGT, I'll remember those better.
But, still. You have to admit that the quality, and intelectual value is so much better with the British version. One side (us, the U.S.) is singing Pop songs, while the other side is singing Opera and West End musical classics, based on classic novels.

So, why does it seem sometimes that Americans really are just a bunch of yankee hicks who do nothing but watch NASCAR and drink Bud Lite?
You can't blame TV on it; they have those over there, too. And just because a person accent gives them the assumed idea of elegance and sophistication, doesn't mean they actually are any of those things.

Also, I've never heard of a British person having trouble understanding an American because of their accent. Or Scottish, or Irish, or anyone like that. Why is it perfectly easy to understand Americans, but most Americans seem to be incapable of understanding anyone who wasn't born into their immediate family?

Of course, to say that American's don't have talents is ridiculous. There are plenty of amazing American writers, such as Stephen King, and great film makers, such as Martin Scorsese. I'm not sure if we have any truly good actors. They're all Australian....

So, maybe it's just that we're good, behind-the-scenes types of people, while the Brits are good at doing the actual work. As well as the behind-the-scenes bits..... Maybe that wasn't such a great point to make.

So, who knows. Maybe there's no real corilation at all, and it's all just in my head. Either way, I'm sure of one thing: Britain's Got Talent.



.......God, that's corny. ^^;
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Wow, I've been spending a ridiculous amount of time on YouTube lately, mostly thanks to my iPod, and other people showing me videos. It's really amazing just how quickly this thing has exploded over the years.
I remember when YouTube was just a place to put up videos of teens being idiots, blowing stuff up and kicking each other in the nuts.

Then people started to realize that they could post things that were actually meaningful and worthwhile.
There are so many people with talk shows, or create music, or what-have-you, who never would have gotten off the ground if it weren't for something like YouTube.

Of course, there's still room for fun stuff
There's this: snipurl.com/fxblv  […
Here's a great video I just found on Joe. My. God.: snipurl.com/fxbpk  […
It is, for lack of a better word, simply amazing and perfect. I love it so much. I really wish I had the courage to do stuff like this. It's not the performing that gets me, I don't think. Or even the fact that everyone's watching; it's that they aren't expecting it. And there's so many people, everything has to go perfect, or you'll look stupid.

My Creative Writing class is doing "guerilla slam poetry" next week, where we'll be in the cafeteria, and suddenly, someone will stand up, perform a slam, then the next person, and so on. Then at the end, the teacher walks out and says, "April is National Poetry Month" and that's it.

I think I might chicken out. I have a few reasons:
1. I didn't sign up for an acting class. However, because I took an acting class last semester, I'll hate myself if that's my only reason.

2. I have a god-awful memory. Seriously. Just tonight, my parents and I were leaving church, and they had already pulled the car up front. I was going to go out the side door, to where we usually park, when they stopped me, becuase they were out front.
I thought they had just pulled the car around. No. They never went back there. I had no fucking clue where the car had been parked. Seriously, I couldn't remember for the life of me where we had put it. I only just now remembered where it was as I was going over this again in my head, and even now I'm not really sure if that's how it happened.
So, my main point is I'm afraid I won't be able to remember my lines, which happened to me on my final exam of acting class. I completely bombed, and I think I came out with a "C". It sucked, because I really liked the line, I just couldn't remember it. Of course, I remembered a few days later, standing in the shower. I recited it twice right there, word for word, just to show myself I could.

3. I have no good poem. I'm terrible at writing them (for now) and I have one I'd like to do, but it's almost ten minutes long, and there's no was I'd ever remember it.

So, that's why I don't do improv.


It's WAY off topic, but here's another video that is also amazing, if only slightly less amazing: snipurl.com/fxbrf  […
For those of you how don't know, it's a humorous response to this: snipurl.com/fxbsi  [… pissed a lot of people off, so, of course, what better way to deal with that, than to pair it up with one of the greatest, gayest songs ever?

So, basically, what I'm saying, is that if YouTube wasn't so free and easy of access, none of these amazing videos would be possible. (Even that "Storm cloud" one is good, because it shows us how not to act, and how to do a really terrible job of collecting information. Seriously. Look it up; everything they say is completely incorrect.)

Okay, that's all I can think to say for now. Three amazing videos up there. That seems pretty good, huh?
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I'm Batman.

6 min read
In the movie "Batman Begins" Bruce Wayne is told about the plot by Razz Al Ghoul to destroy Gotham City and all of it's residents, in order to cleanse the city of it's wickedness and start fresh. It's very similar to the Great Flood in Genesis, except that this is man-made, there's no boat, and no pairs of every animal that lacks gills.
Even in the Bible, this is proves to be a bad idea, once you realize that in order to keep the family name/all of humanity going, the survivors likely had to resort to incest.
But, it was in Genesis, where everything was one giant test run. Plus, it spawned the rainbow, so all it forgiven (because, apparently, light had never gotten the idea of filtering itself through prism-like structures before then.)

But back to the movie.
When Ol' Brucey finds out that Razz's plan is to just kill everyone, like they apparently did in Rome and Great Britain centuries before, he says, in a nutshell, "FU guys, Gotham is not beyond saving. I'll go back there, kick it's ass into shape, and make it better because of it."

That's kind of how I feel now, with things like Religion and Politics and America in general.
Lots of people have been talking lately about how Christianity is a repressive, hateful religion. I don't think this is true at all. I think there are plenty of people out there who use religion to try and progress their own agenda, and who misinterpret certain Scripture, and use it out of context. But I don't think the religion itself is inherently evil. It's just about how much you know about your own religion. Unfortunately, some of the loudest people seem to know the least.
It's like Gandhi said once when asked how he felt about Christianity. He said (paraphrasing): I have nothing against Christianity. I think it's great. It's the Christians who worry me."
I but at the same time, I'm not about to leave the Church, just because I haven't like a thing the Pope has made a point of saying, or because a few misplaced minds want to try and confuse people about what the Bible is actually saying.
If anything, this is a huge reason to stay in the Church; so I can try and set the record straight (no pun intended). That's one of the reasons I'm thinking so seriously about becoming a priest or a brother; because I know what I say will carry more weight that way. Now, it might be wrong to use a Holy Sacrament as a tool like that, but how many people out there probably already do that? And I'm not actually doing it just for that. There are many more reasons than just that.
But how insane is that? I'm willing to give up material things and any relationship outside of a platonic one, simply to help me get a point across. Am I insane? No, just really passionate about my message (and pretty pissed off!)

There's also the subject of the state of our nation. Now, it's getting better and better every day (the guy I voted for won, what about you?) but it could still be a lot better.
There's this hardcore conservative who I fence with who, before the election, was threatening to move to Canada if Obama won. I find this hilarious. Simply because, Canada embodies everything he opposes: Gay rights (to include actual marriage), stricter gun laws, universal health care, French people.
I, however, was making the same claim, assuming the other side had won, but because I wanted all of the things I just mentioned. (Whoo! French people!) I haven't had a chance to talk to him about it since then, but I'm really looking forward to it.
But that's the thing: Even if almost every other modern country around the world now accepts homosexuals (I'm looking at you, U.K. So cool.) and they also do just about everything else better (healthcare) do we really want to leave our own country just to get something that we should have anyway? If we were in war-torn countries, it would be different, but this is supposed to be the land of the free! If you can pass laws that say you can inject the most toxic protein know to Man (Botox. Literally. Look it up.) into your face on a daily basis, then we should damn well be able to get equal right!
So why leave now, when we're so close you can taste it? Every time I start feeling depressed now, I can just think of the times I live in, and I instantly feel better, because I know that amazing things are starting to happen. Why would you want to leave? Why not stay, and help up round that final bend to complete freedom? It's like walking out of "A Scanner Darkly" before Keanu plucks that blue flower; it's just bizarre and depressing before then.

Maybe it's just because I'm finally reaching my Age of Exploration, taking all the "liberal" classes at the college, and trying to find a date, any date.
That's another thing. When did "liberal" become an insult? Same goes for conservative, I suppose, but where I live, that's not considered such a bad thing.
But it's like it's become synonymous with words like 'slut' or 'without morals'.
Just because I'm not as restrictive as you about who I consider human, and who I think deserves rights, doesn't mean I want complete sexual debauchery or hedonism. Once you start to realize that there's nothing in the Bible that condemns homosexuality, only sexual acts, which happen to be homosexual in nature (really, it's just speaking out against rape, of any kind, as it should), and that it never once actually uses the word "homosexual" (a very modern word, inserted later by false/inaccurate translations) you start to realize that there can be such a thing as a gay Christian, and even a gay Bishop (Robinson, one of my many new role models)

Well, that's about all the brain power I have left tonight. I'm glad I finally wrote that. I've been meaning to for a while. But it could be better. I'm sure it all ties in to Batman somehow.
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Featured

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