Journal #10: Science Vs. Religion

In this corner weighing a hefty 6.022 x10 to the 23rd it's Sciiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiience. And in the other corner weighing an entire 5000 lbs times i it's Religioooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon. Ok now that the goofy intro is out of the weigh I'll talk about my views on Science and Religion. I'm a pretty big Science guy so I'm a fan of Science in this debate. It's kind of a touchy subject for a lot of people and my parents have always told me that religion, along with politics, is something that you just never discuss with people and whatnot. Personally I think a lot of the stuff in religion is totally unbelievable and can be dis-proven with religion. Like the fact that the Bible says that the Earth is only 6000 years old is obviously false and can be easily dis-proven with carbon dating and the awesomeness that is Science. That's just my opinion though and I find a lot of that stuff to be false with the help of science. The fact remains however that back then they didn't really have as much information on the world as we do now and what we now regard as foolish was the only explanation for things back then and they regarded that as true. What we now see as stupid and unbelievable was the only thing they could come up with back then and they didn't have anywhere near as good of a scientific. Old stories about religion like the Greek Gods and stuff in the bible or the Quaran can be disproved using Science and I think that the clear victor in this battle is Science. Science is emerging as a very powerful force in the world and in the coming years I think that we can use science to prove and disprove just about anything, including religion. That's my take on the whole battle between religion and Science. It's a really controversial topic however and alot of the stuff I talked about isn't really right to bring up in normal conversations.

Puritan Project

Journal #9: Organized Religion

Organized religion is a pretty broad spectrum of religions. All the branches of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Shinto, and Pastafarianism are just a few examples. My favorite religion is Pastafairanism. They believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster and they don't worship him but they believe he is there. Also they think pirates are good for the environment and help bring down global warming. They dress as pirates on National Dress Like a Pirate Day and believe this will help to end Global Warming. I find this to be the most entertaining religion aside from Scientology of course. THEY believe that the Dark Lord Xenu brought all the aliens down from space a few billion years ago and put them all on earth, gathered them around volcanoes, and dropped Hydrogen bombs on them and their spirits (Thetans) now wander the earth inhabiting human's and this is what causes emotions and all that good stuff. Now Pastafarianism is a joke religion that just pokes fun at Christianity and all those other religions, but sadly enough Scientology is actually real and people believe in it. That too me is just the most entertaining aspect of the religion and I find that just so entertaining it's not even funny. I'm personally not a fan of organized religion but hey whatever floats peoples boats and as long as they don't try and shove their belief's down my throat I'm all good with whatever they feel like believing. I think I'm going to be converting to Pastafarianism pretty soon. They seem like a fun religion and I hear they give great Dental coverage. Anyway that's just my personal take on some of the more ridiculous organized religions in the world. Also in regards to Scientology it should be noted that the founder of the religion stated on more than one occasion that the best way to make money is to create a religion and suprise, suprise he made a religion. Isn't that just a little bit coincidental?

Journal #8: Proofreading

Uh, wow that's the only thing I can say after seeing that video. That was a pretty fun knee video. I sea that guy's pint on why you should proofread your owne piper. Bad jokes aside it is really important to proofread your own paper after you type out your paper because grammer mistakes on your paper can kill your grade. (I spelled grammar wrong back there because it was ironic.) I can't count the number of points I have lost because because I typed the same word twice in a sentence or maybe used two periods.. Having a parent or a friend read over your paper for mistakes is a great idea because they will catch some of the things that you don't. Your own mind works in it's own way and when you read doubles doubles sometimes it doesn't catch that, but when you let somebody else read over your paper they can catch mistakes like that and tell you to correct them. Plus when you make a grammar mistake people kind of just think to themselves, yeesh this kid can't even spell grammar correctly he must not be very bright. Parents are not always a very good idea because they might feel bad if they tell you things are wrong with your paper which is why the best people who could read over your paper are other teachers or maybe just turn in the essay early and let the teacher look it over for mistakes. The points are the main killer in essay gradings.

Journal #7: Superstitions

I'm not a very superstitious person. I guess I believe in good and bad luck to an extent but not like the whole going under ladders and breaking glass and stuff. That kind of seems like a stereotype of luck. I feel racist talking about luck like that because everybody thinks about that kind of stuff when they talk about luck and I'm not like that, but anyway I digress back to the luck thing. I'm Irish so I believe in the luck of the Irish and the fact that four leaf clovers are good luck. I guess my thing is I believe in all the good luck things about luck but not the bad things. I don't believe that going under ladders is a bad thing or that breaking a mirror is a bad thing, nor that black cats are bad luck. I do however believe in the luck of the Irish, four-leaf clovers, and finding a penny head side up is good luck (I actually have a collection of all the pennies I have ever found that were heads up.) I'm selective in my superstitious beliefs. I don't believe in ghosts or witches or anything stupid like that either. I'm a very scientific man and don't believe in any of that superstitious stuff. Except for the fact that Ninjas are all around us at any given time. But that isn't even a superstition that's a cold hard fact. Seriously ninjas are all around us, in fact I am even a half-ninja by blood. That means I'm able to see all my full blooded ninjas. Little known fact, you have one in the far corner of your room. He likes it there and finds the temperature to be very nice. His name is Greg and although you are a pirate he doesn't have any bad blood against you. It's just a stereotype that all ninjas hate pirates and he doesn't like it when people assume he is prejudice against pirates because some of his best friends are pirates.

Journal #6: The Blame Game

Blaming someone with something they didn't do could have some very serious repercussions. It's a morally bad thing to do and could get either you or the person you blame for whatever you're blaming them for into a serious amount of trouble. It may momentarily get you out of trouble but you will live with the guild and will probably end up turning yourself in or getting found and out and getting into an even larger amount of trouble than you would have been if you had just been a bigger man and accepted the blame in the first place. Some repercussions could be that if it was serious enough you could have the event follow you for some time. Like if it were for a drug that you had on you and you pinned it on a friend hiding it in your things. You would get in serious trouble for having such a substance on you and most likely do a number on your friends reputation as well. The event could follow you all the way into college and decrease your chance of getting into a school. On the other hand it could also ruin your friends life if he were attempting to get into something that didn't allow any history of drug use. Maybe his life long goal was to join Harvard or an Ivy league school and because you accused him because of your problems you have destroyed his chances of getting into that school and maybe just ruined his life. You would lost a friend and also have to live with that fact that you did that to a person. I would never be able to do such a terrible thing to anybody no matter how much I dislike them. The fact that such a terrible ting could follow somebody around for the rest of their life is a scary idea and I would not be able to live with the consequences of such a terrible and aprehensible action.

Journal #5: Technologic Punishment

Compared to punishments of the past the punishments of today are no where near as harsh. Compared to being beaten or cut off from like food or something now a days we are just told "no electronic devices for a few days." The world of today is much more different from the world of yesteryear. In the past children being hit was an acceptable punishment but now if parents hit their children the social workers will be noticed quicker than you can say flapjack. Now children rely mostly on electronic devices like computers, Xbox, PS3s, phones, and iPods. It seems like a fair punishment because of the technological dependence of this day and age and it works very well. Cutting off children from their lifelines with all of their friends is a very good punishment to get them to obey their parents. To me thought compared to punishments of the past these punishments seem very lenient and not severe enough but they are very effective and get the point across. Facebook getting taken

Journal #4: My opinion on long trips

I actually just got back from a two week trip in Ireland in early August. We were gone from our house for around two weeks and traveled around Ireland. I usually like most vacations and this was one of the best vacations I have ever taken but after being away for so long it is a very draining experience. Long trips are always very fun at first, but near the end you are very drained and get homesick. In my opinion the length of a perfect trip would be just over one week around maybe eight or nine days. And by the end of the trip if you are stuck with a large group of people then by the end you are kind of sick of hanging out with them. Despite living with your family after being couped up with your family in tiny hotel rooms it can be a bit agitating as the trips nears it's end. Being in a car for long periods of time is also very fatiguing. Especially when you are the one driving the car by the end of the time you get there you are just ready to hit the hay and not do much else. Thankfully I wasn't the one driving while we were in Ireland so I didn't have to deal with such an issue but still being couped up in a car with MY family for so long did have a bit of a lasting affect on my mental state. I still haven't fully recovered from my time overseas. But for the most part the longs trips are very enjoyable especially if you go somewhere that you enjoy. For the most part Ireland was awesome but near the end me and my entire family were ready to go home, despite this though we would all love to go back there at one time or another because of how fascinating a country it is. That's my blog.

Journal 3: Stockholm Syndrome

Being held hostage would probably not be a very enjoyable activity and would most likely push a person to the brink of their limits. I think that coping in a hostage situation would be extremely difficult and would be very difficult. There is also the ever-present threat of coming down with Stockholm syndrome but that would probably make dealing with the situation a bit easier. Stockholm syndrome is a great song by Muse also. I think that to cope with being in a hostage situation I would probably turn to humor and try to lighten the mood. Humor is usually my one effective method at lightening a situation and it would be the only thing I really had in my arsenal. Being in a hostage situation would be extremely dangerous and it depends on what kind of people the captors are. I guess if it was a multiple hostage situation like in a bank the humor might be good for keeping some people calm and not letting them worry, but in a one person captivity time thing befriending your captor is probably not a good idea, unless you can then trick them into letting you go or escaping somehow. The thing is though you can't get too attached to your captor then things won't end well for you and you would probably turn out like that one person's daughter who was captured by some extremist group and when she was getting ransomed she changed her viewpoints and ended up joining the group. Can't remember her name but that was a classic case of Stockholm Syndrome and that really sucked for her. All in all being in a hostage situation would be extremely unenjoyable and would be extremely difficult to cope with. There wouldn't be very many way to cope with such a situation but I think that humor might be a good way to diffuse the situation and possibly cope with such a harsh and bone-chilling reality.