The beginning of the notebook had a “what will I do after college” plan, written just before I graduated in 2006 – amazing how things really turned out differently:

1. The computer repair business I ran, defunct since late 2008, was supposed to have run radio advertisements in late 2006 (I threw out this idea after taking a closer look at the market)
2. I was supposed to have a building/storefront between 2008 (the year I shut the business down) and 2013.
3. A second college degree in accounting was under consideration at the time. I’m long past the idea of going back to school – rising tuition costs won the race against my indecisiveness.
4. I had wanted to spend money on certain things, but wound up buying others instead.
5. The creepiest thing though was a mention of a possible inheritance from my grandmother in 2007, which was the exact year she died.

The list stopped at 2013, and a “2014-2020″ had a blank space underneath it. The next few pages had some political columns (penned in a writing style unusually simplistic for me) written in April 2006, and years of other material followed, with some recent material (such as my map for the game) sandwiched towards the end of the notebook.

Who knows, maybe I’ll get over my embarrassment, search my room for these crazy poems and writings and publish them in the IA. I remember having a ton of haikus written down in another notebook somewhere. Many of these poems came from bad times in my life, so they can get pretty creepy and depressing.

i got some suggestions to try something on the internet, i’ll try them as soon as i get a chance.

i’m almost done with flypapers volume ii

this was posted with real wordpress, not gvim

later

bye

We need to cut any and all government funding of public, private, nonprofit, and academic efforts researching “curing” mental illness, autism, retardation, etc. because there is a major conflict of interest issue.

Unlike medication, which treats symptoms such as depression, anxiety, paranoia, attentiveness, etc., a “cure” implies that one’s personality would be permanently altered for life, and in order to be defined as a “cure”, it would have to be irreversible.

This creates a major problem – what is the “normal” and “sane” personality? It could be the personality that does not suffer from delusions, is capable of full social interaction, knows what type of discussion is warranted and where, and functions well in the workplace – as most people view it today. But it can also be personalities that follow all laws, do not question authority, have a materialistic lifestyle which can easily be “sold to”, someone who rejects or accepts God, the “tolerant” person. In other words, this could lead to an unexpected “standard” – a vulnerable, apathetic, and easily-manipulated person lacking free will, freedom of thought, and a free conscience.

When taken to the unborn child, we can also be born “customized” to have the biggest breasts, the perfect weight, the Hollywood body, bodies suited for porn, bodies suited for advertising and modeling, voices well-suited for TV, music, and acting. Sound familiar? Yes, it could just as well be blond hair and blue eyes. Pricing would become tied to economic class and social status as prospective parents pay for the “perfect” body and mind – or have your child face social rejection and discrimination not unlike the victims of racial segregation, Communism, World War II, and Apartheid.

But what does this all have to do with government? Wouldn’t accepting a “cure” be an individual choice?

As the price of such a surgery or other treatment will drop, insurance companies and socialized medicine would begin to force this treatment on the mentally handicapped without their consent. (One surgery, or thousands of dollars worth of prescription drugs and counseling?) There is too much money to save when an illness is no longer chronic.

As the government has the sole power to force such a treatment (through directives to programs like Medicare and Medicaid), and to permit or deny private industry to force such a treatment (through regulation of the insurance companies), there is a major conflict of interest, and all public (and hopefully private) funding of these mental, cognitive, and retardation “cure” groups should immediately stop.

Well now (actually in March) Wikileaks has revealed another reason – to enable abuse of power in government. Here are excerpts from a CIA document on propaganda operations to increase support for war in Afghanistan:

Afghanistan: Sustaining West European Support for the NATO-led Mission—Why Counting on Apathy Might Not Be Enough

Public Apathy Enables Leaders To Ignore Voters

French Focused On Civilians and Refugees. Focusing on a message that ISAF benefits Afghan civilians and citing examples of concrete gains could limit and perhaps even reverse opposition to the mission. Such tailored messages could tap into acute French concern for civilians and refugees.

Conversely, messaging that dramatizes the potential adverse consequences of an ISAF defeat for Afghan civilians could leverage French (and other European) guilt for abandoning them. The prospect of the Taliban rolling back hard-won progress on girls’ education could provoke French indignation, become a rallying point for France’s largely secular public, and give voters a reason to support a good and necessary cause despite casualties.”

The French government has already made combating Afghan human trafficking networks a priority and would probably support an information campaign that a NATO defeat in Afghanistan could precipitate a refugee crisis.

For example, messages that illustrate how a defeat in Afghanistan could heighten Germany’s exposure to terrorism, opium, and refugees might help to make the war more salient to skeptics.

The same poll also found that, when respondents were reminded that President Obama himself had asked for increased deployments to Afghanistan, their support for granting this request increased dramatically

Media events that feature testimonials by Afghan women would probably be most effective if broadcast on programs that have large and disproportionately female audiences.

Here is the Wikileaks page, though the PDF file download seems to be down. You can read and download the PDF on Doxtop.com.

There is more to Irion’s case than just Obamacare – he is challenging several FDR-era Supreme Court rulings which have since given near unlimited powers to the federal government. For example, one of Obamacare’s notable features is the requirement that all Americans purchase health insurance or pay a fine when the law takes effect.

The lawsuit has received mainstream media coverage, including Fox News’ Judge Napolitano and Greta Van Susteren.

As of the date and time of this blog post listed above, 31,839 plaintiffs (this number includes both individuals and businesses) have joined the class. I joined many months ago, but now for verification purposes a donation of any amount is now needed ($10 is suggested, but lower is acceptable).

Visit ObamacareClassAction.com to join the lawsuit

I was really unhappy to see, this afternoon, that someone had linked to my previous blog entry and written a commentary themselves, which I could only read a half a paragraph, since the user shut their blog down on the same day. No Internet Archive either. I guess it’s forever lost in history…

You Are A Mild Insomniac

You aren’t like the walking dead during the day, but you could probably use a little more sleep. Even if you don’t have trouble falling asleep at night, you tend to drag a little during the day. Try to make sleeping soundly a priority. Cut back on caffeine. Make your bed and bedroom comfortable. Just getting an extra half hour of quality sleep could make a big difference for you.

Blogthings: Are You An Insomniac?

HAVE IT YOUR WAY (R)
Est. 1954

A King cup tells others you enjoy the better
things in life. A refill may be all well and good,
but no thank you, you’ll just take this single,
cup of champions, fill it once and sit down
and enjoy your meal. And if somehow you
still finish and need to refill, well, then
you’re that rare breed who needs two giant
vessels of refreshment. And that means only
one thing. You’re having it your way.

And as always, I filled the cup on the way out. It’s in the fridge right now.

So for their next album, Razorblade Suitcase, Bush does something unique. Except that the name Steve Albini, producer of Nirvana’s final studio album In Utero, was behind it. Now Bush was copying In Utero. But unlike In Utero, Razorblade Suitcase wasn’t “I’m such a stressed-out emotional wreck right now and don’t know what to do [but commit suicide]” but a calmer though still painful “You really hurt my feelings and I’m very upset”.

The first half of Razorblade Suitcase, which includes two former “radio hits” that are no longer played, was heavier and seems to detail a failed relationship. The last song of that first half slows down, leading into apparent hurt feelings on the second half, with the last song conveying an “It’s time to move on.” A hidden track is a brief instrumental encore of one of the songs, beginning with weird guitar noises that will scare you shit awake if you fall asleep while listening.

I used to listen to this album frequently back when it came out (1996). It’s very therapeutic on bad days. 2-3 years later I join the Internet, and am thus exposed to popular opinion, eventually on this album. I don’t get why Razorblade Suitcase is so unpopular. It must have been out of print for a while, since it’s still for sale as “Original recording reissued” according to Amazon. Though now that we’ve gone back to the hit single (vs. the whole album) under the influence of MP3 and iTunes, the reason seems to be more apparent.

As for Bush, they got into techno in 1997 (as did other rock bands, it was a big fad), afterward fading into obscurity (I remember finding their 1999 album The Science of Things emotionless) and finally crashing down with post-9/11 censorship of their last album. I recently heard singer Gavin Rossdale singing Mayer/Mraz girly rock. Sad.