a lesson learned

So I work in  a shoe store and this older lady was looking at boots and just trying them on. she was a very sweet old lady calling myself and my coworker "hun" This mother came in who was very urgent about buying a pair of shoes so she can be a gold member with us. Her two year old daughter went running off and stayed in the kids aisle. The mother was all done checking out and the daughter would not come. The mother then proceeds to yell at her daughter, "IF YOU DON'T GET OVER HERE NOW, I'M LEAVING AND THE COPS WILL GET YOU AND PUT YOU IN OCS, DO YOU WANT THAT?" The daughter then cries and runs to her mommy and they leave. It was very odd to think that a two year old knows about OCS. (office of child services) The older lady scoffed and said that the mother needs medical attention. The lady tells me that she lost her daughter when she wasn't too much older than the little girl that was just in here. I replied to her with sorrow and empathy, "I guess you don't know what you have until it's gone."

I learned later that day that I need to listen to my own proverb. I almost lost my beautiful wife. She didn't get into a life threatening situation or anything but I said something stupid. I said something that hurt her bad. I thought she was going to leave me. I didn't say something simple like accidentally call her fat, which she is anything but she is this little Filipina. I insulted her womanhood. I insulted her as my wife. I insulted myself for saying that to her. I don't think I have ever been so stupid in my entire life. I went through today not eating and drinking lots of water to calm down the butterflies in my tummy. She came and had lunch with me and I couldn't look at her with out having my eyes fill up with tears. She is the most beautiful thing on this earth I have ever seen. I have seen some pretty amazing stuff but nothing can compare to her. I feel guilty though, I hurt her bad. I hurt her and she is so prideful and bottled up that she won't talk to me about it. I guess that is her decision though not mine. If she wants to talk I'll be there for her.


She really is beautiful. I love bragging about her.

She's the beautiful one with the big lips and I'm the cheesy smile one.

With Gorilla Gone...

I love the quotes from ishmael.

I love the artistic view of it and the thought process and i love the art accompaniment 

It questions how strong you really are

In Ishmael, he had his teacher for the longest time 

He knew that he could ask his teacher questions all the time

and if anything went wrong his teacher would be there for him

Then his teacher leaves him 

What now?

What do you do?

Who do you ask?

You dont have all the answers

Why did your teacher leave you?

Ishmael left because he didnt want to be a prophet

He didnt want to be that mentor 

He wanted the main character to be the main character of his life and Ishmael didnt want to be a part of it

He didnt want to be a prophet or a God

He just wanted to unblind the blind

Now you are the teacher and the main character.......

What do you do now that you're alone?

Matrix

This image came up when I was google imaging pictures of ishmael.

I will assume that everyone has seen the movie where this came from :)

I watched this movie when I was like 8 or so, I was such a tomboy and daddy's little girl.

I watched chucky and wasnt scared but I watched this movie, Matrix and couldn't sleep well for a while.

It scared me so much.

to think

to think

to question everything that i know is true

scared 

I think some of daniel quinn's books do the same thing.

question reality and provokes you to think and question life.

If you knew the "way of the human being" or "the way to live" would you "take the pill" and learn the correct way?

See all the faults in society

See everything that you thought meant so much to you end up to be nothing?

Would you eat from the tree of knowledge?

The red pill or the blue pill

There is no going back when you have this knowledge 

you simply cannot unsee what has been seen.

would you be the character "B" from the Daniel Quinn's, "the story of B"?

It is a little frightening to save the world 

To see everything for the first time

you would be a baby again learning the world all over again

Could you be that brave?

arts

I love the cello and the guitar.

I love French and other foreign languages.

I really wish that we were required to learn another language, music, and art to graduate.

I really wanted to do all those things and i will do all those things when I get time and money to do it.

WHY IS THIS SCHOOL SYSTEM SO MESSED UP?

All these stupid classes that have no application in real life.

A squared + B squared = C squared

I never learned what the origin of that was.

Don't get me wrong I absolutely love math...

But i wanna learn it if its applicable not just because you are making me learn it

Oh guess what?

I know Hypotenuse information

That I have no idea how i could use it in real life because no one has ever told me how i am supposed to use it besides in a book and worksheet.

It'd be so cool to use that and measure a mountain or something cool like that but noo.....just worksheets and stuff in a book.

:(

I'm just reduced to a useless calculator.....

I have all these formulas but i cannot use them i can just regurgitate it

Earth DAY

Today in Honors we talked about earth day!

How many people actually knew it was earth day today?

I'll be honest I didn't.

Today a colleague mentioned that earth day in her opinion, is like Valentine's day, It's a day to boost your ego for doing something good for one day out of the year. 

When in reality 

It's something you should be doing it everyday.

You should do something good for your loved one and you should do something good for the earth everyday, not just on holidays.

Appreciate what you have now in front of you, the earth.

Don't just recycle your bottled soda too boost your ego and make you feel good that you did one little thing for the earth in the whole year.

"You did so good recycling that can!" you are really a world changer today.

Then the next day you just throw your can away not recycle it :P

That's like giving your wife flowers and then beating her the next day.

Do good all year not just one day a year.

Be a world changer not a diaper changer hehe

Honestly, Who wants to live in a nasty world full of.....ya you get the point

So don't be egotistical and just be green for today, be green as much as you can, 

In the end it will be worth it, that much i know.

Maybe, you'll start a chain reaction and everyone recycles

who knows?

you could be the one to save the world!

Pay it Forward

I assume that most people have heard of this movie or at least understand the concept of it?

If you don't, here is the basic principle you do one good thing to three people and then those three people go on and do good to three people. It's a giant chain reaction that can goes on forever! 

I thought it was just in movies but when I was getting coffee the other day with my girlfriend the car in front of us paid for our coffee! We then use this principle to spread ideas.

As well as paying for other peoples coffee....that's always nice.

Daniel Quinn mentioned something like this in his book.

Tell ten people and those ten people will tell ten people and pretty soon you have a new mindset in a whole set of old way thinking people.

So go and tell ten people about this book.

Go pay for someones coffee

Go pass on goodness and new ways of thinking

Go change the world

                                                     

school

So we send our kids to school in hopes that they receive a higher education to get good jobs to provide for their future families.
What has happened now is devastating. Kids get into trouble for breaking up a fight, get patted down before they go into school, have no trust and no privileges.
What has happened to us?
When was the last time the majority of kids wanted to go to school?
If most kids don't want to go to school, something is wrong.
I believe that most people on the inside want to be the best that they can be, in education, physical, life, everything!
Seriously, No Child Left Behind?
The idea is great but so was communist manifesto.
It's an idea that can never truly come into existence.
If some kids aren't getting subjects, get more teachers to teach them, so others can move on.
Why aren't there more teachers to help teach kids individually?
What happened to going outside?
Kids being kids?
Kids learning?


How can we change this?
How can we get our kids to learn and want to learn again?
WE need to learn to want to learn again.

Childhood Obesity

Obesity among kids is a sensitive subject. No parent wants to hear people talk about their kids calling them fat in politically correct terms. 

What happened?

Why are there so many BIG kids?

Everything is fast, cheap, and easy today when it comes to food.

Do kids even know that veggies and fruits are grown?

Do they know how to make food or where it comes from?

Do they know that you can make food that you don't have to buy it?

They can shoot a moose and eat it.

Grow veggies and eat it.

Make bread.

I heard a lady talking about how her friends kid was so amazed that the lady could make marshmallows.

"No, there is a freakin marshmallow tree that grows in factories and they pick it."

I found that so funny!

But it's kind of depressing.

We don't know where our food comes from.

We don't know what we can get from the earth on our own.

That we can make stuff instead of buying it.

What happened to going berry picking?

Fishing?

Hunting?

Gardening?

All of that has gotten replaced by hamburger helper, McD's, and food in bags with ingredients that are impossible to read.

When was the last time that you had food where you knew where it came from and what is in it? 

Culture

People by nature form groups. I have a kid then you have a kid then she has a kid, then those kids play together. 

These groups get larger and form cultures. 

Originally culture was a "thing" that defined part of you and what you are.

Now it is getting harder and harder to find real culture.

Grandparents would tell stories to their grandkids in almost every culture.

When was the last time that happened? 

People put their parents into old folks homes and visit them only a couple times a year.

The grandchildren don't get to hear about grandpa fighting in the war or grandma paying ten cents for gas and a penny for a coke.

I think storytelling is important.

That's why there are so many books, movies, and audiotapes.

Stories help people learn from other people's experiences and socialize.

It's pretty important to love, respect, and share time with elders.

They have all this knowledge and it's just sitting there waiting to be given to more people, younger people.

Elders have lived their lives and now they need to pass their lives and stories on to their kids and grandkids.

They have lessons to share, stories to tell, and life to give.

I am young and naive and I need guidance from the people before me to figure out where i need to go.

Elders can help with that.

Talk with them and learn from them.

You will be closer to saving the world.

Sickness

Have you ever wondered why alcoholics anonymous is anonymous?
People judge.
People see that a person drinks and they assume that they can stop if they want to.
What people don't understand that addiction is a disease.
That many people, especially in Alaska suffer from it.
People aren't hard wired to drink and do drugs and rape, molest, and kill their loved ones.
Have you ever met a person that said today I am going to kill my children?
Probably not, and if you have then you should understand that something isn't right in their head.
Whether it is a mental illness or spiritual something isn't right.
Why are these people so sick?
What happened to them?
Why is there so much sexual abuse in Alaska?
Why...
Why...
Why....
There is no definite answer as to why.
I am asking the wrong questions.
How can we change it?
How can we stop domestic abuse?
How can we change all those drinking problems?
Obviously just taking out of a town doesn't work.
Look at how bad Bethel is.
It is a thinking problem.
It is a hurt.
It is a pain.
And these people don't know how to deal with it in a healthy way.
So the easiest way out.......taking that bottle and doing the unthinkable.
Doing unto others as others have done to you.
I want physical abuse to stop in Alaska.
I want sexual abuse to stop in Alaska.
And I want us to work on ending it.


If you could stop abuse would you?

technology

I'm not old enough to remember when cellphones were not popular or how you would have a special bag to carry them in. I do remember a  time when cell phones were not touch screen and you couldn't use the internet on them. I remember flip phones and how the krzr was a big deal. I remember when people didn't have your cell phone on 24/7 and constantly checking facebook on it.

I find it annoying that everyone is on there IPhone all the time, however, it is a useful tool when used right.

I just found out about the scanner things and CU Codes and all that fancy stuff. People can easily spread words and ideas through a bar code thing. It's amazing! I used if for the first time the other day on my ITouch for a Mcd's cup, pretty cool. Imagine if people did that for useful things not fat food specials. Like linking it to an Ishmael page. Let me get this straight, I'm not THAT into Ishmael but I do like the philosophy behind it, thinking. Not being a Zombie and facebooking, checking out your ex's life, but, instead learning, caring about  the world and people, improving the inner self. If I was all tech savvy, I would be doing that. Maybe some people in our hnrs class would do that. 

Alaska

Alaska is so beautiful this time of year. I have no idea why people seem to hate it so much.
True it's kind of muddy and smelly, but first thing in the morning it is absolutely beautiful!
What saddens me is that there are about 700,000 (Census Bureau) people in Alaska.
How many people appreciate, respect, and understand this land that we live in?
I would bet only about less than ten percent of people in Alaska go outside and enjoy the land.
This place is so majestic and serene and so many people don't see that about it.

Is not that sunset just amazing? Taken at about 8 o'clock in the morning a couple of days ago. 

Is there anybody still that takes the time to go on a walk outside?

Not on a treadmill that doesn't count. 

Outside in the sun, snow, dirt, and all that wonderful stuff. 

No wonder why so many people in Alaska are obese!

We aren't living like we were originally supposed to live...outside!

A perfect world

If you could create the perfect world what would it look like?

The perfect world in my mind would consist of................

No just kidding,
But it would be nice not to clean up after a dog.

My world would be equality.
My world would be peace.
My world would be love.
My world wouldn't have people buying things that they don't need to impress people they don't like.

My world would be simple.
It would be almost sci fi like...
clean energy, no overpopulation, no silliness that we don't need.
In my world people would think..
think critically and artistically

My world would eat food that people knew exactly where it came from.
No McD's, Taco Bell, or any nasty stuff
Everyone would live till they are a hundred
and everything would be just nice.

Philosophy

Imagine a world, where Hitler didn't die and that he did succeed in taking over the world. To some people this image above is offensive to look at, to others it may bring a certain type of pain, and some people don't even care about this image.

What would the world look like if Hitler took over? 

would people even bother telling the Holocaust a different way other than the winner stand point?

Hitler would be the hero of all time

He would be all of history and it would be as if it is good

society would conform and there would be no other that go against Hitler because he is a hero

In Ishmael the protagonist of the story took a philosophy class and he wrote a story that Hitler took over the world and all was good. Some person in the story felt like he was being lied to and that is how he ended his paper. Was the paper he wrote too far fetched or is it something we as a society can relate to? In fact, did something like that, happen to us? Have we been lied to and made to think that this is the right way to live because this is the only way to live? I think that our Hitler took over our entire nations minds and created a monstrosity that we are okay with.

your cousin

Walking through the woods a person would expect to find picturesque trees, cute little bunny rabbits, some forest brush and scrub, and maybe even a cute little squirrel. what a person wouldn't expect to find however is a big screeching, hairy, non showering big foot. A clarification, BIG FOOT, commonly referred to as Sasquatch and closely related to the Yeti. Not an average Joe or Jane with big feet but a supposedly mythical creature. Some people believe he's real, some people even swear they have real footage of the stinky, hairy monster of a cousin. Others think that bigfoot is a fairy tale like santa clause or the tooth fairy. Whatever people believe they should take into consideration the history of this world. something grandparents might know...

or you know...the Hobbit!!!! LITTLE ITTY BITTY people :)

So in fact, the hobbit was a mythical creature until recently because of obtained knowledge. so if this is the case maybe it's applicable to big foot. maybe he's real we just do not have enough evidence to support it yet. or maybe the government has covered it up just to piss off the people that have spotted it.

either or, just because we dont have enough facts to support an idea doesnt mean its not real or possible. so go out there and find out and do the supposed "impossible"

Ishmael

So I am writing this blog for my Hnrs 192 class. I'm not exactly one hundred percent sure what my teacher wants out of this blog. I have never used a blog before and i am not tech savvy so this blog is not going to look pretty :/ This is worth a hundred points so I might as well do it and just jump into writing about this book we're required to read, called Ishmael. The idea behind this book (my interpretation) is that the author is trying to encourage people to "save the world." No, not put on blue spanks and a red cape on but be a better person type of save.

The core of this topic isn't saving the world but do people want to save the world do they care that they are sucked into a mediocre type of life style. that people are trapped in a cage that they don't even know about or seem to care. Am I the only one that doesn't like the life style that American's have? I love the country I live in, I love the freedom of religion, and speech and equality. However, something seems very wrong. Are we supposed to live this way? Were we meant to succeed far beyond any other culture?  In being so ahead we have seemed to crush every other type of lifestyle there is. What happened to the Indian gatherers, the nomadic people, the indigenous way of life? I'm not saying that I want to go back to that life style, or that it's the only way to live. I'm saying that we were not meant to be the rulers of the world and kill off everyone else. we killed the rain forests, and we killed off entire species. I'm not a hippie tree huger type of person but I do feel wrong.

The type of wrong like in wally. I could see us going that far. So filled up in our own mess and over taken the world that we have to move away, maybe not to space. I do see people killing off lots of other races for more space though. "Oh, Africa I am very sorry but we have to strip you of your beautiful territory so we can grow food there and put our trash there because everyone in America with there over abundance in excess Superbowl gear had no where else to put it so we are dumping our crap on you."  We then go on and keep with our mentality that everything on earth is ours to take. We can kill who we want, destroy whatever we need, and there is nothing wrong with that. 

We are trapped in our minds. We don't see that the way we are living is bad. We don't seem to care. Just as long as we pay the rent and reproduce, everything is okay.



If You Could Save The World, Would You?