Congratulations are in Order

So on Thursday morning (12-18) at about quarter after 4 in the morning our family welcomed a new face into our lives. Lucas Adriel (sp?) Teal was about 6 lbs 15 oz (?) and about 20 inches long when he arrived. He is the first son of my older brother Dave (to those of you who don't know me) and his wife Leta.

I am only now posting about it because I am lazy and I fugured, "Why bother, the only people who read my blog know already anyway." But then I though that it might be nice to tell about it just in case anybody new stumbles upon my blog (sorry bout that), I'd want them to know too, right?

So congratulations to Dave and Leta for their new baby boy! I still haven't seen him, but hopefully I will be able to make a trip to see him real soon.

Schools End

Tonight, and as a matter of fact, right at this moment, I am at school and awaiting the commencement of my last class of the semester. Am I glad it's soon to be over? I think so, I need a break from it all. In another month maybe I'll be ready to go back. Until then, I plan on... working... writing stuff... watching movies that I have not had time to watch... cleaning my room... and so on. I hope I did good on everything!

My US History teacher also gave me a B+ (he said I could have had an A, but I knew I didn't quite deserve one... so did he) and he also gave me a 20 year old video camera. The kind where you put an entire VHS tape inside it and stuff. For that I am grateful... even though it's not top notch, it will do for now.

That's about all for now.

An Attempt to Keep the Story Alive

I laid my head back down on the hospital be I was in and tried to concentrate. "What was it? What just happened to me?"

It was a scary thing not being able to remember something you had just experienced. It was kind of like being blind. Then I caught a glimpse of it. Was that really it? Was... no, that couldn't be. That's too weird, nobody would believe that... I wasn't even sure if I believed it. "Let's see," I thought to myself, "I was at the base... I was eating dinner with my comrades... No! I don't believe it!"

I groaned loudly, partly out of frustration and partly out of fear. The man from before, who I had assumed was a doctor of some sort, came rushing back into the room. He stood by my right arm and bent over and asked, "Are you remembering anything?"

I looked up at him and asked, "Where is everyone else?"

The man's answer put me back into a shock: "They're... they're all gone. Your the only one left alive, that's why we need to know what happened."

My head began reeling from the answer he gave me. "They... you... you wo-" I couldn't finish cause I couldn't get my thoughts organized. Finally I managed to get a sentence out, "I don't believe it!" I told him.

"What don't you believe? That your the only one alive? Or is there something else you don't believe?"

I Shut my eyes hard and braced myself, "Both." I responded, "I don't believe both... either." I corrected myself. "I-I-I need to..."

"I understand." said the doctor.


BLAH BLAH BLAH! That's all it is!

Another Beginning Never to be Finished

My head was spinning. I could no longer tell what was happening around me. The chaos was just too much for my mind to take in. Everything went dark.

I woke up in a white room, surrounded by men in coats rushing to and fro above me. I was laying on my back on a white mattress with an IV in my arm. "What happened?" I wondered to myself. The time was unknown to me and I had no idea how long I had been unconscious. One of the men noticed I was awake and rushed to my side.

"Sir," he began, "can you tell me what happened?"

I looked up at him slowly, my eyes blinded by the lights above me. I said nothing, I just stared. I still was trying to make sense of it all. I didn't even know where I was, how was I to know what happened?

"Sir, can you hear me?" the man continued. "If you can hear me, blink your eyes."

I tried to understand what he was talking about, but it was hard. I finally managed to blink my eyes twice. The man repeated his first question, "Sir, can you tell me what happened?"

Another man came to his side and looked intently at my face. He must have seen the confusion in my eyes because he told the first man to let me rest and ask me again later to see if I was more aware of what was happening. Both men left and I was left to wonder what they were talking about. "Why couldn't I remember anything? Why were they so interested anyway? Where was I?" My thought echoed deep within me, and I hoped, or did I fear that I should remember them soon.

jhdf

Next week I will be done with school for the semester... yay?

Probably No Good

This is probably a bunch of nonsense... but I wrote it in 10 minutes last night.

My mind is bleeding from the overwhelming senses / how can it be I am left so defenseless?/ These thoughts that invade me with all the wrong timing / this pain that pervades and infects and is binding / slowly begin to succumb to the feeling / of being so lonely at times so revealing / Numbed to the insults and lies that surround me / my every effort to love it is drowning.

Climbing up mountains but falling back down / all of the while never leaving the ground / Reaching up high / but being pulled lower / my fate it does seem is to be ever poorer /
My eyesight gone bad with my mind in a blur / Why can’t I seem to get out of this slur / of rejection and feeling that there’s nothing left / but to just sit and wonder if worse will come next.

I try to continue I’m met with defeat / why must this life be so filled with my grief /
Cornered at last and with nowhere to turn / I gaze heavenward and my heart starts to yearn / Why for so long did I not even see / what I was looking for was right in front of me / At last hope was grasped and life was renewed / and my soul was no longer twisted or skewed.

It still needs a few revisions....

Love and Marriage

It seems to be that my Sociology class on Monday nights is never lacking in lively discussions. Last night, the discussion revolved mostly around the topic of the family. Issues ranged from Polygamy to "hitting" children. The discussion I found the most... interesting was on love and marriage. The claim was that in societies where love is the main reason behind marriages, the divorce rate is higher. In societies with arranged marriages, the divorce rate is considerably lower.

I will now take a minute to say that this post may be a little edgy... meaning for more mature... how do I say this? Not for little people! There we go.

While my professor did acknowledge the fact that in most societies with arranged marriages, divorce is illegal, he still seemed to press the idea that maybe marriage because of love was the big issue behind the higher divorce rates. Also presented was the idea that marriage for love was a relatively new concept (I disagree, but I didn't say why).

But could there be another reason the divorce rate is so high that is going unnoticed?

Here is my take on the situation; what are we falling in love with as a society? I once heard a lively discussion on a local radio station about how stupid it was to wait until after marriage to... yeah, that. The DJ's likened it to buying a car before taking it for a test drive. I was completely dumbfounded! So this is what the popular ideas of the day are??

OK, so on the more obvious side, people are not cars, I want to stress this point. This analogy - which is evidently more widespread than I imagined - is completely bogus. You get to know a car by taking it for a test drive. You get to know people by spending time with them.

My thoughts were much more organized last night. :/

So, what are we falling in love with in this society, the "test drive"? I think so. That is why the divorce rate is so high; people fall in love with the "test drive" and they don't know who they are marrying. After marriage, the high wears off and then the realization sets in: "Oh boy, I married a jerk!"
"Well if you had waited, and instead taken the time to get to know the person, maybe you would have known that before you got married, eh?"

Wow, so when the Bible instructs us to wait until after marriage to have sex, it's not just being old fashioned, it's being logical! Now there's a new concept! (sarcasm)
Actually, the reasons for this instruction are many, and all of them are logical.

Now is this the sole reason for divorces? No, of course not. But if people would just realize the benefits of waiting, it is my firm belief that the divorce rate (no matter which one you look at) will plummet. Or maybe I'm just being old fashioned and legalistic.

I had some other points to make, but I have to leave now.

Quote of the Day

"I am a pessimist. When I realize this, I briefly become an optimist. Then I realize that I am wrong."
-Me

Ouch!

Today, and for some of yesterday as well, I have had a problem with my right upper wisdom tooth. It seems it is growing in sideways and is beginning to penetrate my cheek. This is painful. Do I have any dental coverage?

nothing good

Yes, for some reason I cannot think of anything that I want to post on the internet for all to see right now (except for this) but I just wanted to say that I cannot do that little 6th picture of the 6th folder thing when I don't even have any pictures... I'm sorry Aunt Priscilla. :(

Fan Appreciation Day

Dear fans,
I write to you today to express my deepest gratitude for your unwavering devotion to my ramblings. I wanted to take this moment to say thank you, thank you for your support and all the kind words you have expressed to me over the course of the last two and 2/3 years I have been blogging. Times have been tough in the past, but you had faith in me, and for that I thank you, you have been an unending inspiration to me and the source of many revelations.

Insincerely - Josiah Teal


That is a joke, just in case you were wondering. I wanted to see if I could write a convincing letter of appreciation... did it work?

Actually, I wrote that because I was in the mood for writing but didn't know what to write about. Oh! How about this:

Recently, I began work on a cheesy tale of goofiness for fun and stuff. It is the story of The Christmas Ogre and it will awe, inspire, amuse, and bring comfort to all who are unfortunate enough to read its dreadful pages. About... 2-3-4 years ago, me and my younger brother Ben began writing one but it has since been lost to the fog of time. So I began writing a new one. I hope it is good... I hope this post is not completely pointless and boring :(

Veterans Day

Seeing as it is now the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day, I would like to take a minute to honor all of the American veterans who have put their lives at risk to keep us safe. I also think of those who did not serve in active combat but rather spent their time fixing broken plane and tanks and such, and those who fixed the broken soldiers. I am a big fan of our military and I believe that our soldiers should be respected.

Anywho, again, thank you all you veterans and those currently serving, whether you saw action or not, your work is appreciated by me. Now let me see if I can find a nice picture to swipe.



I think that is a good one.

No Title

New post on my story blog, I hope you will take a few minutes and take a peek :)

Is America the Villain?

One thing that has been on my mind lately: Is America the villain?

When we watch movies and TV we often come across a story in which the big governing body is being a menace to other nations, like The Alliance in Serenity/Firefly, the Empire in Star Wars, and even in real history, Germany in WWII, and Britain during our fight for independence between the years 1776 and 1783.
Do other nations envision our soldiers as Storm Troopers?

Reasons for Past Conflicts

All one really needs to do in this case is look at what we have fought for in the past; WWII, to stop the spread of evil in Europe and (while also protecting our own interests) liberate nations conquered by the Nazi War Machine; Vietnam, to quell the spread of communism; Gulf War, to protect a small country while also protecting our oil interests; the War in Iraq, to liberate an oppressed people and to fight terror.

Occupations

One must remember also that occupations are often present after a war. This is to ensure that utter chaos does not ensue as a result of an overthrown government and the establishment of a replacement government. If, when Germany was defeated in WWII, we left them to fend for themselves, we would have done little to prevent the wrong person from coming to power in a time of chaos... this gets complicated.

Unfortunately, occupations can also yield some of the worst sides of people. Murder and vandalism often result after the conquering soldiers become more relaxed and less disciplined. They will drive tanks over cars and do other unspeakable things. One must remember that these are the actions of individuals who make bad choices, not the government itself.

The Good Side of America

Despite our more selfish (so to speak) reasons for becoming involved in some past wars, I find it hard to imagine the U.S. as a villain. We have liberated people and countries, we have helped to spread democracy and overthrow murderous dictatorships, and shielded other nations from falling into the hands of people such as Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein (let's be clear that these were bad people, killing innocent people for ethnic cleansing or for sport is bad. No matter where you are from, this is wrong). We are the most generous nation on the planet. We give more to foreign aid and relief efforts abroad than any other nation and that is a fact.

The Other Side of America

So why do some countries label us as the villain? Some things that come to mind are Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we dropped the atomic bomb on both of these cities in August, 1945. These were cities populated with non-combatants. In the mind of most of the world this was terrorism. Although this was not one of the proudest points in American history, many point to the idea that WWII would have lasted much longer and claimed many more lives if it did not happen. Slavery in America is another issue, although the nation was at one time completely divided over it, some nations still scoff at America for having practiced it. Is there slavery in America now? We have sad points in our history yes, but so do all nations.

My Conclusion

After contemplating various issues on the subject, I have decided that our Marines are not the equivalent of Nazis or Storm Troopers, and our leadership is not (not yet) the same as Hitler or Darth Vader. I think an unbiased look at the facts of history and where America currently stands will show, America is not the villain.

I think that pretty much covers it.

Two Different Posts in One!

So as I logged in to my blog this morning I noticed something unusual at the top of the page. My adsense was no longer present. Confused, I quickly checked my E-mail to find that google had disabled my account. The reason was unspecified, but I think it was because it was doing rather well this month, bringing in about $25-$30. I had feared that this may happen; I had read the testaments of several people who were very upset at the fact that their accounts had been dissabled right before their first check would be sent to them. I guess that's is what happens though.... Maybe it was because I mentioned my ads in the last post... I didn't think that was illegal, in fact, it isn't.



Anyway, what I was going to blog about was, of course, political. It is that time.

I think at the top of my list of reasons not to vote for Barrack Obama would be because of what we like to call National Security, as demonstrated in the following video clip.




That's about all I can say there... but wait, theres more.

1. Obama is sympethetic with our enemies.
2. Our enemies like Obama and want him to win the election.
3. Obama want's to disarm America and Americans.
4. Obama is not a fan of America.

Why would we let him become president??
CHANGE! Yay, let's change!

Please define this change Mr. Obama.

Sociological Thoughts

Yeah so, I don't really know how I got body armor ads up there, but I think it's cool anyway.

Anyway, I wanted to take the time in this post to address things that were in my head from last night sociology class. For the most part, I think sociology is common sense, for example, things like, "We change our behavior based on other peoples reactions to it." If I were to pass gas loudly in public, people would make faces or get mad at me and that would indicate to me that passing gas loudly in public is not the best thing to do. I therefore refrain from doing so again... common sense stuff right?

The things that don't seem to make as much sense are these; "there are no absolutes", "right and wrong are relative to the culture that defines them", "Even murder, child rape and stealing have their respectful place in certain societies."
Is this true?? Of course I know it is false, but I would like to get more involved in it than just saying "that's wrong."
Let's address murder, shall we? Killing is not necessarily murder although murder is killing. If I were to kill in self defense, the law would be on my side (for now). When I brought this up, my professors first response was to brig up the disarming tactics used in martial arts such as Judo. (for the story of judo) He claimed that in the country where judo originated, killing in self defense was considered murder and the citizens used Judo to disarm and subdue an attacker. He therefore conceded that maybe all killing was really murder. I quickly brought up the fact that most westerners do not know Judo and therefore often have no other reliable means of self defense other than using deadly weapons.

If I were to kill out of jealousy or hate, that would be murder. Killing enemy combatants in wartime is not murder, killing civilians is. "So what about armed civilians?" my teacher is a tricky guy. My question is, do the civilians become combatants when they are armed? Is it therefore justified when they are killed? This is tricky business.

It seemed as if the issue was being slightly skirted. "Is killing out of jealousy or hate or whatever universally murder?" This question was largely unanswered. For myself, I cannot think of an exception to this rule.

As for child rape, the practice of arranged marriages was the reason child rape is not universally wrong. Arranged marriages are the cultural norm for some cultures and therefore, child rape must be accepted as well. This is the reasoning of my sociology professor. Respectfully, I must disagree. I feel I need not explain the reasons for this.

Stealing... is stealing wrong when one steals to survive? Or to feed a hungry child? Even the Bible makes an exception for this rule. In the book of Proverbs it states that we are not to punish the man who steals to feed himself or (I would assume) somebody else; however, they are expected to repay whatever was stolen when they are able to do so.
The Bible is not relevant to (according to my professor) 2/3 of the worlds population so what it has to say is not sociologically relevant... I would disagree with that. Here is why... briefly.
The Bible has a lot to say about good and bad, right and wrong, truth and lies, and much more. Would one be so bold as to say that any one of those things the Bible describes as right or wrong is... well, wrong? What makes them so sure? Are you right in saying there is no right or wrong... or are you wrong?

This has turned into more of a rant than I meant for it to be... but I hope you get what I'm trying to get at.

At the epitome of sociology there seems to be a theory that everything is relative... nothing is absolute. Can you think of one thing that is a universal truth for all societies? it is hard when one is to rule out things such as murder, rape, stealing, and even terrorism. According to sociologists, terrorism is an accepted way of doing things in certain places and it is therefore right to those who accept is (no way).

I might continue this later... then again, I might not.

Hopes and Aspirations

After learning that my good friend Josiah Slocum has some writing talent of his own, we have decided to write a series of short books/stories for all to enjoy and for us to enjoy writing. I am hoping that this doesn't turn into anther one of our many failed endeavors (such as making short movies... we still don't have a camera for that), and I also hope that we can both find some spare time to come up with fantastic ideas and good characters.

Some of Joe's writing here:

"as the sun grew hotter and the flowers scent filled the air i look towards the sky and..."

"with a look of mischief between 2 friends and the imminant departing that soon would follow."

"as winter approaches one must reflect on a summer of fun and new memories as well as the possibility of the sunburn that i prolly had gotten.lol."

So that's just a sample of the writing style of Slocum, it's a little different than mine, but that's what makes it so that the combination of our writing techniques will be the awesomest thing ever!

_________________________________________________________________

So I re-started writing a screenplay for a story that's been floating around in my head for the last few months and I'm hoping that it turns out super spectacular... oh it will, it will. Anyway, I found out that one of the hardest parts is writing the personalities of my characters out on paper... well, virtual paper. In my head, I know what all of their various personalities are like, but trying to write them out is a challenge as I have to describe things that they do ei: hobbies, quirks, favorite foods, as well as ages, names (wich is hard for a sci-fi/fantasy story), hair color, and clothing preferances.
All the little details in between major plot points is also a tricky thing. I had always thought of only the big picture of the story and not as much about the fillers, but the pace needs to slow down sometime, otherwise the audience will get overwhelmed.

Anyway, that's all for now, I'll catch up on other blogingtons now, so peace out everyone!

P.S. Happy birthday to Bethany!

moved

Post post post, that's all I'm good for.

Anyway, I have moved (mostly) from Dave and Leta's abode to Beth and Adams. It's closer to school and stuff so that will be good. My cat and louis will have to learn to get along... surprisingly it's my cat who is the meany-head.

Refined Narrative, YAY!

Here is my refined story of bees and stuff for all to enjoy! :)


Recklessness; it’s what makes young boys tick. For me being reckless was a part of everyday life, whether it was jumping off of a garage roof onto a trampoline (not agood idea), or stopping the inner tube in the middle of a water slide so that the person behind me could catch up. The thrill of being reckless was often too much to resist and I would often suffer the consequences, and they would almost always hurt.

When I was 12, my friend Kadan and I decided it would be a good idea to try and take out some wasp nests by throwing chunks of dirt at them. Were there better ways to get rid of wasp nests? Yes, there were, but this was definitely one of the more adventurous ways to do it. I don’t think we started out that morning saying to each other, “Hey man, lets throw chunks of dirt at wasp nests and get a huge adrenaline rush!” But as the day wore on and we got more and more bored, things just fell in place.

Kadan lived on a sort of miniature farm with goats and chickens and such, and was surrounded by corn fields. There were several barns scattered randomly across his property and each one of them had about a dozen wasp nests attached to it. As we were moseying along outside wondering what we could possibly do to pass the time, we spotted some of these wasp nests on a couple metal storage units for his family’s tractors. “Hey,” I said excitedly, “can we get your BB guns and shoot those down?” Kadan wasn’t too enthused about the whole idea, probably because we really weren’t supposed to shoot at the buildings. He promptly shot my idea of a good time into a billion pieces with a harsh, “NO!” I felt like a whipped puppy. But I wasn’t going to let
his dreary attitude dampen my spirits for long. I meandered over to the corn fields and sat
down. Kadan soon followed and sat down next to me. I think we were both pondering the
prospect of a lackluster afternoon and how neither of us wanted to live through one of those.

I reached into the cornfield next to us and pulled out a hard chunk of dirt. I fiddled with it for a little while, breaking pieces off and crumbling them between my fingers. I threw a piece off into the grass where it exploded with a small puff. “Hey,” I thought to myself, “that’s kind of groovy.” I picked up another piece and gave it a toss with the same results. Kadan picked up on what I was doing and joined in the fun. Soon we were seeing who could throw farther while sitting down. I would like to say I could, but in reality I think it was a tie. I started to cheat. I stood up and let a few fly. Kadan did the same and soon we were going crazy, letting chunks of dirt fly in all directions. It wasn’t long before one of them hit a barn quite close to one of it’s many decorative wasp nests. The wasps responded by buzzing passionately around their abode trying to discover what had disrupted their calm lives. I looked at Kadan and we both smiled sadistically as we rushed to get more ammunition from the corn fields. We scooped up as many chunks as we could and rushed back to the barn where we lobbed a continuous stream of dirt at the humble wasps who began to get very irate at our meanness, although they couldn’t figure out it was us. We tried several different tactics to get the best shot at the nests; direct hits, shrapnel, they were all fun and exciting and very spectacular. We eventually knocked the nest down. We didn’t hesitate however, to locate another nest and begin to assail it with the same barrage of weaponry and tactics we had so skillfully employed on our last endeavor. These wasps responded with the same frustration as the last ones, and understandably so. We laughed devilishly as each missile exploded and the fury of the wasps raged on.

Knocking down nest after nest never seemed to get old until we decided to end our mission by taking out the biggest nest of all. We thought it similar to fighting the end boss in a video game. The nest was located inside an overhang right above a tractor tire. At first we employed the sniper method; standing far away as we sent our projectiles sailing through the air toward our target. We did have good aim but our weapons were not causing any damage. “That armor’s too strong for blasters!” I said in my excitement. Unfortunately, my little joke went unnoticed by Kadan, who had never seen Star Wars.

Soon we realized that we had to rethink our strategy for this particular “enemy installation.” Kadan decided to implement a sneak attack approach: we would sneak inside the building and climb on top of the tractor’s right tire. Standing up slowly, our plan was to launch a huge chunk of dirt at the nest by hurling it straight up. The get away was the fun part: after our massive bomb had exploded, we would jump down and crouch in the corner of the building, hoping that our enemies wouldn’t detect us, and then when the timing was right we would rush outside to safety. We had to take turns for this tactic, as it was too dangerous to go in full force. I was a wimp I guess, because I volunteered to go first. I sneaked inside the building and slowly scaled the massive tire. Ammo in hand, I cautiously stood up and prepared to fire. Mustering up all the foolishness I had in me, I let my ordnance fly. It exploded directly next to the wasps base and sprayed it with dusty shrapnel. Kadan howled with laughter as I quickly jumped off the tire and crouched in the dark corner. The wasps were buzzing viciously around the nest trying to uncover the source of the disturbance. I stayed crouched in the corner and waited for my adrenaline to tell me when to make a mad dash out of there. I ran. I didn’t get ambushed on the way out either.

Ahh, safe again, but now it was Kadan’s turn. He went about his duty in much the same way as I had, slowly scaling the tire, only his mission was a lot more hazardous than mine was: the wasps were already buzzing with ferocity! I watched from what I thought was a safe distance as Kadan released his bomb into the nest. It was a direct hit and no sooner had his dirt chunk exploded than I finally felt the wrath of an angry wasp. It dove at me right from the nest, swooping down like a dive bomber at an air show. The nerve of that bug! He didn’t even bother to land on me, he just swooped down with his rear end pointed right at me and stung me, stung me right above my left eye. I hollered and ran off through a trail that lead down the corn fields. I wasn’t wearing any shoes and some of the plants were hard and stabbed my feet but I didn’t care, all I knew was that I got stung by one wasp and for all I knew the whole nest was after me. I’m sure I broke a sprinting record of some kind that day, I don’t think I’ve ever run faster. Once I thought I was far enough away I stopped running and sat down, rubbing my eye which both itched and stung terribly at the same time.

Soon Kadan came trotting up the trail to where I was sitting. He was laughing, laughing! How could he be laughing? Didn’t he know that I got stung? Didn’t he know that getting stung hurt? The more I thought about it, the more I realized why he was laughing. We had been
bombarding wasp nests for an hour and a half straight, aggravating so many bugs and I
got stung; I got stung and I couldn’t take it. I felt like such a pansy. I stood up and laughed with him. “I guess that wasn’t really a safe thing to do” I muttered.

Kadan just smiled and said, "Do you want to go play with rusty bear traps and find some evil snakes."

I stopped rubbing my eye and grinned, "That sounds like fun." I replied, and off we went down a dark wooded path.

For Sale

For sale: Broken computer peices, $100.00.

Playstation 2 without controller, $300.00.

Wonderful coin collection, $10,000.00!

Yeah, I only wish I could get that much for useless things. Any takers? :D jk