oh hey

"I remember when my niece, Toni, was a newborn, I'd babysit her and sometimes she'd cry, like babies do. Nine times out of ten I could solve problem, I could figure it out, but...sometimes when I'm walking along the street, and a shaft of sunlight falls in a certain way across the pavement, and I just want to cry. And a second later it's over. And I decide, because I'm an adult, to not succumb to the momentary melancholy, and I had that sometimes with Toni. She just had a moment like that. A moment of not knowing why, and she just let herself...go into it. And there was nothing anyone could do to make it better -- it was just her, and the fact of being alive, colliding."

Life has a gap in it; it just does. Don't go crazy trying to fill it.

Adequacy is the moment you've sold yourself to everyone else's fulfillment, the moment you lose all that you've saved up since your childhood to define the lines that border your soul. 

don't be afraid of being afraid. it sounds like the most dangerous thing in the world

put some armor around that gooey little heart of yours. 

I love you

Sex and Crystal Meth

That's not what my blog is actually about, but Olivia's posts always get more views than mine, so I'm hoping this will do the trick. Anyway, I've been pretty bored lately with school and such, so I've been focusing my energy on random stuff that will mess with my mind. Whether it be the universe, free-will, moral systems, or life after death, it doesn't matter. I could talk about any and all of these for hours, which I probably will over the course of this blog, but I'm completely unsure which to talk about now. Random number generator here I come! Results on the way.
It was a 2.
Thank god. Free-will is so interesting.
A philosophical question that likely will never be really solved is that of free will v. determinism. Free will is thought of as the ability to do otherwise, which is essentially that the universe doesn't already have a path for you, and you make your own path. You have the ability to make choices. The other side is determinism, which is essentially that everything that happens, every choice you make, has its own conditions behind it. If the conditions (same past experiences, same point in time, same genetics, same everything) there is no way that any other decision would be made. Debate this: Whatever you had for breakfast this morning, if you followed the exact same path for your entire life, and you wake up on this morning in time millions of times, will you ever do otherwise? Will you ever choose anything else?
Take a moment to think(don't skip this) and decide which one makes sense to you. Don't let me influence you.

Don't skip this.

























Stop scrolling and think, you devious anarchists.



















Alright, good. Now, I'd like to state first of all that I'm not god. I don't know the answer. I could be wrong, so no one get defensive in the comments. I'm arguing for the sake of arguing, and because it's a mind trip. Like I said, I'm really bored. This stuff fascinates me.

Anyway, as some of you may have guessed with my breakfast analogy, I'm a fan of the determinist point of view. A big reason is that everything in the universe, is made of matter. Matter is governed by unchangable physical laws. Your brain is made of matter. Ipso facto, your brain is governed by unchangable physical laws. Some say that the brain is different in some way, so when I heard this argument, I wanted to figure out where the line of "different" is drawn. So, a buddy of mine came up with this situation, here goes.
You're walking down the street, and are hit by a bus. You lose both your legs, and are replaced by fully functional prosthetic legs. You can feel everything, and they work exactly the same, yet they're synthetic. Are you still you? Can you still make decisions? (Nod your head "Yes")
You're walking down the street again, and are hit by another bus. You lose both your arms this time. Again, they're replaced by fully prosthetic arms, fully functional, and with sense of touch and all that. Synthetic. Are you still you? Can you still make decisions? (Nod your head "Yes")
You're walking down the street yet again (You would think you'd stop going down the street by now, but that's not important) and are hit by another bus. Your torso is wiped out, and all of your organs and such are completely replaced with synthetics. Same deal, fully functional, blah blah blah. Same questions, nod your head "yes" again, you monkeys.
Blah blah blah street bus, and your head is hit. New medical breakthroughs allow your head to be replaced synthetically, and you'll be exactly the same. Your memories, your thoughts, everything about you is exactly the same. Yet you're fully synthetic. Do you, a complete robot have free will? Even though everything about you is completely programmed? What if I create a robot not based on a human, and make him whatever person I'd like? Does that robot have free will?

If you answered "no" to any of the questions, good for you. You're hopeful. Are we all nothing but the sum of our experiences and genetics? We'd undoubtedly have different viewpoints if we were exposed to different environments. I don't know. Anyway guys, this is a great discussion topic. Don't just read this and not comment. COMMENT. Discussions are good for the soul. Show that you have the free will to comment.

Internet Addiction - Taking control of what is our fault

For the past few decades, the internet and social online games have been trapping people inside their houses in secluded rooms. Because most of these addicts are teenagers, there parents and family overreact and call in psychiatrists to help with the so called addiction. But there really is no true harmful addiction being taken place. Of course lights glow when certain parts of the brain are stimulated when doctors poke around to so called addicts, but its nothing compared to the harmful effects of drugs and alchol.

Some say that once addicted to the internet, your lives shut down, and eventually you dont participate in the real world and lose contact with friends. Its all bullshit. I have a friend who I have known for the past three years. He is, by a doctors definition, addicted to the internet. He goes online and plays WOW almost everyday and spends multiple hours with other video games and online social games. From reading this, you would assume he has no life. A picture could be drawn about this person, and it would probably portray a filthy, lazy person, in a secluded, dark room with no friends wasting his life. But damn you could not be more wrong. This person is an allstar athlete, in two sports, and a genius at school; taking several AP classes and exceeding in all of them. Sure you may assume I am lying, and I would tell you his name but I cannot without his consent, (although Economos I do believe you had him as a student last year). This proves that people who constantly play video games and online games are not subject to addiction. Its if you have the balls to get up and be motivated to do something. There are some addicts who would leave school early or skip it entirely to get a few more hours leveling up, but it all depends on the will of the man.

Internet Addiction should not be ruled as an "addiction" because what of the other far more addicting activities such as porn or sex. Both are highly attactive, and almost everyone does both. But that dosent mean we are going to take two or three days out of our week to do it. And a doctor should that the same area in the brain is stimulated when one does either task.

I believe that the only reason society makes such a huge deal about this is because they do not fully understand it yet. My father is a bit older than my fellow students, I believe he is sixty maybe. So in the 1950's, when he was born, he lived in a seculded land area of 112 acers of land in Maine. Our modern toys are t.v., phones, xbox and so on; his toys were knives, guns, and some wild animal to shoot. His most relatable toy was a 19 inch black and white television which he watched occasionly. Two observations can be stated from this. The first is that adults didn't have the same childhood as we had. We have social online games which is found peculiar and mysterious by some adults. They dont fully understand what we are going through, and what we can control.
The other
 observatoin is that we dont have the experience nor the chance that our parents had. For Johns Creek, we live in the suburbs, a modern town which each house may have only a few acres of land to play on. I am lucky enough to have a dozen or so acres. I  can play baseball, play with my dogs, and chop down trees. This real life experience is what keeps me off of my videogames. Without land, I probably would stay inside playing WOW.

Another notable thing is that I watched a Ted Talk Video about pills and ADD. Some, like myself, believe it isnt real. ADD was made to pocket more money for the medicine, ADD is just a lame excuse to not do well in school. But there are some who have serious cases which must be taken care of, but for the most part it isnt real. So why should we believe some doctors about internet addiction. If we believe them, in a few years time, they will be selling anti-internet addiction medicine; do we really want that.

The truth is the society we live in is not a good one, it is full of pussies who need to suck on their mommas tit until they turn 40 and their parents arent around anymore. They need to grow up and get off the games. Sure, take a break once in a while, relax and half fun with friends online, killing demons and assassinating people. Its fine to have fun, but damn have a limit. I am on the computer right now. I am on the internet writing blog, but I'm not on facebook, or youtube, or WOW. I have control. We dont need medicine to cure these so called addictions. What we need is for parents to get up, grab them by the collar, get their heads out of their asses, and pry their eyes open to the real world. Because getting stuck behind the virtual world wont last forever. One day reality will set in and take a giant crap on what is left of their life.

this seemed appropriate

Is Internet Addiction a Load of Crap?

Yes and no. After watching "Rock Center" with Bryan Williams, and looking at both sides of the story, I've decided that the Internet is "habit forming" but not addicting. Addiction is defined by dictionary.com as "the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to somethingthat is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics,to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma." The key phrase is that "cessation causes severe trauma." You can't say that just because someone goes on Facebook all the time, that you can classify them in the same class as a meth addict. It just doesn't add up. I see an "addiction" to the interent as the same thing as an addiction to chipotle. Yes, it's fantastic, and I love going there, but that doesn't classify me as an addict. It's a habit of mine to go to Chipolte, but I'm not addicted. 

I just can't believe that it's a real thing. I can draw the comparison to ADD/ADHD. The diseases aren't real. People who don't feel like focusing or get bored in class label themselves with some "mental disorder" and demand pills to help them concentrate. Are internet addicts going to be medicated next? It's a ridiculous point to make. As a society, we're too inclined to say we have "a problem" and expect to have our problem fixed with some drug. 

I'm not saying the internet is okay to be on all day, and nothing will happen. It's absolutely habit forming. And it's not a great habit to have. American obesity anyone? However, if you stop "using" the internet, you won't go into convulsions, you won't throw up, and you won't show any physical symptoms whatsoever. The only thing that will happen, is you'll have more time on your hands and probably be bored. That sucks, but you don't need to be treated for boredom. Go outside and throw a football, tubby.

Internet Addictions

The psychological addiction to the internet,  the era of digital crack, is a recently-present problem. Brian Williams, on Rock Center, has a host of candidates analyzed for their personal stories. Is it something that exists? Definitely. Is it itself a huge worry? Probably not.

While it is a worry when they show people such as the online-gamer who's lives are inside their electronic box, a small obsession with Facebook isn't really an issue. The difference - the online-gamer typically spends over 6 hours of their day staring at a digital screen, focusing all of their brain on irrelevant information. This activity is extremely counter-productive, and useless to the things that matter for progress in life.

All people are different though; if this activity makes some people extremely happy, then good for them. I would rather have online-gamers than possible murderers. Better they are shooting eachother over Runescape Gold then tangible possessions.

After seeing the T.V. show, I believe there is another, more severe problem. In my opinion, it is more the mother's faults than the child's fault. The parents that are letting these kids be violently addicted to their computer screen need to crack the damn whip. Maybe I just can't understand because I'm not a parent, but if my child was addicted to an activity that was affecting actual productivity and their personality, I wouldn't hesitate to tell them to go play outside. There are some evils on the internet, nature is mostly good.

Internet Addiction

Is Internet addiction real? Can it be treated the same as other addictions, such as to drugs? This topic has been quite controversial recently.  On "Rock Center" with Brian Williams, Nancy Snyder had the opportunity to interview people from both ends of the spectrum.  And after hearing the arguments for myself, I'm not convinced.

This timing is great.  In AP Psychology we literally just covered the various drugs and their effects on the body.  Addiction can be physiological, psychological, or both.  The tolerance that addicts build up to drugs can visibly be seen in the brain.  The withdrawl to some of these drugs is excruciating.  There are serious, lasting, health effects.  In my opinion, it just doesn't make any sense to categorize excessive internet usage as an addiction and weigh it the same as being addicted to heroin, or cocaine, or to being an alcoholic.

Honestly, I think that in today's society we are too quick to diagnose others.  We've seen this before, with ADD and ADHD.  Companies are doping up kids with drugs, making sure that they develop a dependence to them, and happily pocketing the cash from their families.  It's a sick, twisted, never-ending cycle.  If we are to now begin diagnosing internet addiction, we're opening up pandora's box.  Are we to say that because a child plays computer games way too much, he needs treatment? What about people who have a lot of sex? Or who never stop reading? Should they, too, be diagnosed as having an unhealthy "addiction"? Where do we draw the line?

Now I'm not saying that it's ok for kids to be on the internet all day long.  It's not.  But we can take matters into our own hands without paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for someone else to.  Enforce the number of hours your child is allowed to be on the computer each day.  Make them go outside. Plan activities that force them to get out of the house. 

Internet addiction may be an issue for some, but it is in no way shape or form a condition that needs to be diagnosed and treated.