Things I Just Don't Understand

• Why Google AdSense offers Life Insurance on this blog.

Seriously, why? Are my posts that dangerous that Google needs to offer the people that read them life insurance? What word could have possibly set off the robots to say, "we really think that the readers of this blog are interested in buying life insurance." If anything, it should think my readers are possibly religious, political, or into music - not life insurance. Of course now that I've mentioned life insurance in this post five times already, that will just cement the life insurance ads.

• Why more people don't make money with their blogs if they already blog.

There really is nothing simpler. Sure, you don't make much unless you're actively marketing yourself, but it's still money that you wouldn't have otherwise. And here's the beauty of it all: once you set up the account with your information and import the code into your site (a matter of what, fifteen minutes?), you never have to touch the account ever again. You go about your daily business as you always have and maybe in a couple of months (depending on how many people read your blog) a paycheck will arrive in the mail for you from Google for $100+.

• Why the Romance HelpDesk still gets so many hits a day.

This one, I understand a bit more. My articles on attempts to achieve an hour long orgasm in a woman generates quite a bit of interest. However, I don't think that accounts for the 10-20 hits a day I get on that website in comparison to the 2-5 hits (if I'm lucky) that I get on this blog and The Screaming Eye. Okay, so I'm not talking about hour long orgasms, but I would like to imagine that my content is somewhat interesting sometimes. Besides, I have over thirty posts on this blog and over fifty on The Screaming Eye. That should count for something compared to the eight I have on the Romance HelpDesk. Stupid sex-driven public.

• Why my English 441 Teacher Can't Teach a Goddamn Thing to Save his Life

I'm doing something about this one. I am paying to much to this University to not be taught anything in one of my classes. He can take all of his uh's and um's and shove them up his wirey little ass. And if he doesn't, I'm probably going to shove the Caliph's Design up there. The books we read probably wouldn't be half as idiotic if he bothered to teach us things about them such as the context that they were written in, clarifications on what they were written about, or anything at all. We are left floundering in his class, gasping for whatever it is that he intends to teach us and I'm fucking tired of it.

Those were some things that just perplex me and have been on my mind for the past few days. Now I'm going to go to English and try not to punch my teacher in the face.

Pointless

I think I've discovered part of the reason that I keep not doing my homework like I should. I was just reading the Caliph's Design for my British Modernism class and the more I read it, the angrier I got - not because of the content, but because of the class. I have no idea what I'm supposed to be learning in that class what so ever. The teacher doesn't teach so much as ask us questions that are abstract and sit around letting us figure out an intelligible answer while he just tells us that we're wrong or almost right. Quite often, he will let us travel down the discussion path of a conclusion that he considers wrong for fifteen minutes and then tell us that the truth is the complete opposite. Everything we're doing in class, I could do sitting at home in my living room if I was told what books to read and given time to think about them. I can't stand this. I think I'm going to bring this up with the teacher today because I think he's full of shit and I'm not paying so much goddamn money to be taught shit.

At least all of my other classes actually objectively teach me something, even if I have a problem with them as well.

On Anger

So, I haven't posted in a while, partially because of Hell Weeks at work and because of school starting, but mostly because of Renny visiting before she leaves for Scotland. However, Renny and I had a discussion last night that I think is worth noting since I've been thinking about it constantly since we had it.

Renny posed the statement that she feels that our generation just isn't angry enough about what is going on in our world today. People either play ignorant to the problems that we have or feel that the world is too far gone to anything about.

For the mostpart, I agree. There is a tendency for our generation to be completely wrapped up and self-absorbed, thinking about their own personal problems and not the problems of the world. Whether this is because people are genuinely too stupid to realize the peril that we are facing or because thinking about the major problems of the world just becomes so overwhelming that they shut down and withdraw into themselves, I am not sure. Either way, we need to break out of this mindset.

Renny and I completely disagree with how we should break out though. Renny is a "big picture" thinker, concentrating on all of the problems of the moment at the same time and feels that everyone else should do a similar thing. I, on the other hand, have a tendency to focus on what I can do in a moment. If I can cut down my own energy consumption, support local businesses, recycle more, and encourage my friends to do the same, that's what I focus on. No, it's not enough, but it allows me to make a greater impact than if I was to stress out trying to worry about everything all at once.

I'm not saying that Renny doesn't do what she can in the moment. Actually, it's quite the opposite. I am constantly impressed by how much of an effort and change she consciously puts into her every day life and have taken a lot of my healthy and environmentally friendly habits from her example. I honestly am striving to make an impact like she has. However, what I do think is that she frustrates and stresses herself out quite unnecessarily by trying to figure out how she can make a global impact right away.

She has the right idea though. Our generation isn't nearly angry enough. Maybe we can't save the world by ourselves. Maybe the world will still descend into destruction no matter how much effort we put into change. Maybe one of us aren't able to make a global environmental, economic, or political change. That's not the point.

Every single one of us will die at some point, right? Well, how would you rather die? Fat, unhappy, and with painful suffering over twenty years, or in good shape, doing the things that you love? We may not live any longer by taking care of our bodies through exercise and good nutrition, but I can guarantee that we will enjoy the life that we live more.

The same principle applies to the Earth. We may not be able to stop the global crisis, but with minor changes to all of our daily lives, we can enjoy our time on Earth more and make it worth our short time here. And maybe, if we're really lucky, we might just make the Earth last longer.

I'm not asking you to go out and hug trees, to stop deforestation, to quit smoking, to quit driving, to quit eating processed food, to stop shopping at Walmart, or to even make a single radical change to your life.

What I am asking you to do is to make small changes to your life that really you shouldn't even notice. Turn off lights, monitors, and TVs when you aren't using them. Take advantage of your local recycling facilities. Turn down your heat and air conditioning a single degree. Shop at mom and pop stores sometimes. Buy local food if you can. Buy from businesses that you respect the ethics and business practices of. Read a news article now and then. Talk with your friends, families, and neighbors more. And most of all, don't accept your situation because you think you can't change anything. Maybe you can't make a big change on your own, but you may know someone who can. Complain about your situation, get angry. When enough people get angry, change happens.

I was going to write about a Libertarian argument that I just read as well, but I have to go to class and I want to make that a separate post if I make it.