Leading to Failure

If you’ve read the last blog post, you know that I volunteer a lot with charities and local organizations. As per the last post, I recently ended all in school affiliation with one of the charities.  An update for anyone who was following that story: The in school arm of that charity is on indefinite hiatus. The official line from “Alfie” is that he was tired of leading the group, since he was of equal status to the rest of us, aside from slightly more experience, which is shared by his sidekick and myself. Therefore, he was no longer going to take the leadership role. I am very much fine with that. Since most of the asian kids in the group are  reactive rather than proactive, it was about time. I didn’t want him to lead anymore either, since not much was done anyways (again, see previous post). That may have been partially my fault (since I wasn’t at the district meetings), but I had forewarned everyone that I had other volunteering and school commitments which were already in place. If they pick a time that was never convenient for me, what can I do

So anyways, the following is the reason for this blog post. Because I am a third party to the whole fiasco ( have already renounced my membership), I feel I have the ability to accurate stab the shit out of this situation.

What got me onto this particular rant was the fact that emails from the CITY arm of the youth “leaders” (the real word has nothing to do with leadership, but for the sake of story telling, let’s call them “leaders”) for the charity  have started coming into my gmail. I am completely unaware of the happenings of the other inschool groups, mostly because I don’t go to those schools (surprise surprise). Apparently, one student leader deicded to take action and get an event going in cooperation with the business class that she is enrolled in at school. This idea was shot down by members of another group of student leaders. In an attempt to bring understanding to this issue of LACK OF COMMUNICATION, she (let’s call her Lily) decides to send an email WHILE SHE IS IN ASIA to clarify what may have been misunderstood between the groups. 
Here’s the best part: rather than take this as a sign of remorse and try to work this out, 2 OTHER “oh so special and gifted student leaders decide to shoot her down. Brilliant.

 First of all: the hypocrisy. NOTHING annoys me more than blatant hypocrisy (ok, that’s a lie, but it’s among the top). The bottom part of email from “Soap” (that’s what well call one of the 2 special children) says: you had no right, nor any power to, commit such action. And you were not authorized to do so. At the top part of this email? And I again speak for the rest of [the school]. First of all, we already had appointed a leader for the school of the special children and THESE special fuckers aren’t the leaders. Under what authority do you have to speak as a representative of 1800 students? Who the hell died and made you queen of the crop? Here’s an idea: if you are going to accuse someone of assuming too much of a leadership role: do yourself a favor and don’t put yourself in the same position. You sound like a pompous bitch.

Again, here are some quotes from Soap’s email.

- … because of those flaws, I can only take your words as insincere and dishonest response used as an excuse for your unacceptable actions.
- I hope you understand that there’s no way that [charity] will be in this anymore …
-  …resorted to fake nicety, hiding your true intentions and feelings

The second quote further emphasizes the first problem: Soap is doing the same crap that she’s accusing Lily of doing. The third quote is further emphasis of Soap being a pompous bitch. She’s sending an email minutes before her flight just to make sure you people understood why she did what she did. And you have the decency to go off on an tangent on how wrong she is and how it’s not her place?  

Ok, so Lily made some mistakes on the way. But WAIT A MINUTE. SHE WAS ACTUALLY DOING SHIT. So what have you 6 schools and your collective student leaders and the student body done for the charity for the past 7 monthes? You made Christmas cards to fundraise? did you? OH RIGHT. You people scrapped that plan when something FINALLY clicked in your minds and you people actually realized that the cards were to be hand made and no one would buy fucking construction paper and white glue christmas cards made by a bunch of self righteous high school kids. What else hacve you done? Oh, sell cookies? oh right, that fundraiser. The one where we raised about 20 bucks. Congratulations. Student Council and 4 kids from another club created a combined fundraising activity and raised well over $2000 for Unicef and World Vision. Run a marathon? forget it. You’re gonna be passing out water and chips next month for this event. 
At least Lily had the guts and balls to go out by herself and try to make a difference. The Citywide leader disapproved of her actions is a university student who doesn’t even seem to do shit for the charity. He takes an average of 4-5 days to reply to a single urgent email, IF YOURE LUCKY. Otherwise, good luck waiting for a response.  

Where do we go wrong? 

well, there’s a couple things we can do:

• plan a fucking event
• consider the scale and logistics of said event
• ensure that the event makes sense to the people around you
• make sure that all credit is given where its due
• if there is a problem, TALK IT OUT. Explain your side, listen to the other side, and try to collaborate for a solution.
• ensure everyone has a voice in all discussions and decisions
• PUBLICISE THE EVENT
• execute the event
• and if worse comes to worse, dont be a pompous bitch

By the way? The final bit of the email is this: I have a business club at [school] as well, and also a Junior Achievement. And did I even think of taking the [charity] for my own? You aren’t the only business person here. 
 OH SHIT. She has a BUSINESS CLUB. and she’s a JUNIOR ACHIEVER. and she aint the ONLY BUSINESS PERSON IN TOWN. I’m scared now. Of course she would have such authority to question the actions of everyone. She’s a JUNIOR ACHIEVER. Beat that. The queen has arrived. God save Soap.

Maybe all hypocrites burn in everlasting hydrofluoric acid.

The Cool Shit

Sorry about the lack of posts, even though I’ve said that this blog is would have far less content than my twitter feed. A lot of things have happened recently in which I should be explaining myself, so I’d rather do it now to the masses.

I’ve recently ended my inschool affiliation with a certain major organization. Anyone who knows me well will know of the massive amounts of volunteer work I tend to get myself into. I think it’s fun and it’s nice to be able to help out others and give back to the community. So when an email came my way about the chance to become an “ambassador” for a certain major Canadian charity (which shall not be named, because they are amazing), I took the chance and went out downtown to Vancouver for the training session.  

I ended up going to the training TWICE and you people will be first to know that I was very much disappointed by this training. It COULD be because I’ve been to training camps and conferences with a couple organizations already, but I found that most of it was either giving us a presentation “assignment” or giving us the same information you could find on the press section of their site. I could’ve spent those 4 hours doing something far more productive.

So anyways, after the training, we were told that they would keep in touch by email.  The week after, I was approached at the bus stop outside of school by an ambassador who was  also at the training, telling me that we were starting up a club for the charity in the school.  Sweet, sure, I’ll be there. 

This is where it goes all downhill. At one of the conferences I attended prior to the charity one, we were taught basic psychological, personality, and leadership profiling. Maybe it’s because of that, but anyways
The group was all asians (surprised? I didn’t think so) and only 3 of us were ambassadors, and I was the only member (at the time the club was formed) who was not in grade 12. So seeing that I still have a couple years to go, that’s fine, I’ll let the 2 grade 12s lead the group.
That was my mistake. I’m sure the alpha male (for storytelling purposes, let’s call him Alfie) is an absolutely splendid person to hang out with and he must be a great outgoing and friendly person. HOWEVER, being all cool amongst your fellow grade 12s does not equate to having a licese to fuck around.
In layman terms, it means that telling the whole group to STFU and acting as if you were officially appointed the supreme commander of all things charity is NOT A SMART THING TO DO. Since September, these guys have baked cookies and barely given a presentation. I’m done with bowing down to all the crap that Alfie decides that we should do. I’m tired of having everyones opinions pushed aside because he’s the omnipotent and omniscient being. The faster he graduates, the faster I get the 2 new ambassadors to  completely rebuild the group from ground up. I know it’s kinda mean, but aftr what he’s done to the group and the rest of us, I’m fine with the results.

So I sent an email to the Tri Cities coordinator for the charity, telling him (in VERy sophisticated english) that Alfie could go fuck himself and that I’d be willing to rejoin the organization after he has successfully done so and contracted HIV and gonorrhea, or he heads off on his new life as a lemon. Which ever comes first. 

I’m sick and tired of having to deal with this kind of people. Autocratic leaders are absolutely wonderful,  if they are both logical and they are used in an emergency situation. Otherwise, their constant control freak mannerisms just piss everyone off. You know what? If you are unhappy with the way that I do it, DO THAT DAMN THING YOURSELF. I can’t read your mind and I don’t want to be randomly baking cookies after 3 MONTHES as the first fricken thing we do because your obsessive compulsive ass is unable to process that we have actually had 14 useless meetings before deciding to bake cookies and not publicize that we are doing such a fundraiser.

World Vision fundraiser last year was great for both the organization and it was a great experience for all the volunteers. Wonder why that is, don’t you?.

Honey Roasted Religious Nuts

Some people call me an ass. Fair enough, everyone’s an ass sometimes. I will say things because it’s logical. Call me ignorant (orange pumpkin monsters), racist (wiggers), and evil (primarily christian groups).

But read this one “definition” written by some redneck on the bible belt who has written 402 definitions on the Urban Dictionary, the majority of which have been voted down.

“A very misunderstood person by atheists or ignorant secularists with little or no faith who can do nothing but attack a Bible believing Christian for standing up for what they believe. A label given by the media, the unbelieving and the morally corrupt to describe any Christian who speaks the truth to this sorry society we live in. A Bible thumper does NOT use the Bible to attack or defame persons who believe differently than them, but only uses the Bible as a guide for righteous living and as a witnessing tool to others out of love for their soul. What amazes me is that some ignorant people at urbandictionary have compared Bible thumpers to radical, zealous fundamentalist Muslims who use the Kuran to murder thousands. The 2 cannot ever EVER be compared; not now and not ever. Anyone who thinks so is a moron. 

Some people even call them “radical” or “right-wingers” or “lunatics” by the ignorant, the unbelieving and the socially dysfunctional. How stupid. Maybe I/we could say the same thing for atheists and secularists? Bible thumpers have deep conviction and stand up for what they believe; their faith in Jesus Christ. Someone explain to me how being a Bible thumper is a threat? “

So, John and Jane Christian, what is this about not using the bible to defame others? YOU’RE GOING TO HELL! YOU WILL BURN FOR ETERNITY IF YOU DO NOT CORRECT YOUR SINFUL WAYS!
I’m sorry, but who the fuck are you to judge my actions? What kind of license do you have that permits you to judge and critisize anyone and everyone within a 10 km radius? You think telling someone that they will go to hell is proper social behavio? Were you sent by the god almighty to bring the gift of civility to this earth? If not, get the hell off my earth.

This is one of my favorite parts: “What amazes me is that some ignorant people at urbandictionary have compared Bible thumpers to radical, zealous fundamentalist Muslims who use the Kuran to murder thousands. The 2 cannot ever EVER be compared; not now and not ever. Anyone who thinks so is a moron. ” First of all, IT’S QUR’AN. Q-U-R-’-A-N. Second, the Muslims used the bible to murder thousands? Really? JUST thousands? As opposed to the 200 year party you people set to kill at least 3 million people, if not more? Or how about the fact that no matter what you people have done in the past, once the Pope either corrects the scripture or says sorry, it’s suddenly ok? Is THE ALMIGHTY POPE taking responsibility for the deathes of all those people. I DIDN’T THINK SO.

Here’s the thing, Christians, I am a humanist. I don’t believe in one religion from another. But one thing that strikes me as a fundemental difference between the 4 religions (Christianity, Catholicism, Islam, and SCIENTOLOGY) and Buddhism, Sikhism and other religions is that you don’t have Buddhism dharma pushers. These people have no need to go out and tell people what they should and shouldn’t be doing. These people don’t go and attempt to convert every person they meet. These people have no need to create a seperate genre of music because they are too good for normal music. You see them live their life like everyone else and once in a while go to the temple and pray. Sikhs, wonderful people, actually take active steps as part of their religion to help others who are in distress. The Almighty God loving population decides that ALL PUBLIC POLICIES should be in the favor of their conservative asses. I don’t believe that some guy snapped his fingers and created the universe. I don’t believe that everyone on this planet is engaging in an incestual relationship (If Adam fucked Eve, and they were the only human beings, than that means EVERYBODY ON EARTH is your brother or sister). Working in mysterious ways in Criss Angel, not giving someone terminal cancer. If “god” is putting ME in a difficult position to “test me”, then what kind of fucked up sadistic test if killing off the parents of little children in africa and infecting them with AIDS? What kind of test is starving a mother, and in turn, starving her child when she can no longer produce milk? What is giving waterbourne illnesses to the people who need water the most? What is starving half a country and fattening the other half? What is making greedy CEOs rich while forcing the honest man to live off welfare? Explain to me what all this is. Did the african mother fail to slaughter an animal, so she must live the rest of her days hungry? Did the african child not think of jesus every minute of every day, so  she is condemned to wither? Are the children in rural asia not worth the effort? Are the homeless not worth god’s “great hand”? Is it the select private club of elite christians the only ones who are allowed to live a comfortable life?

So you know what? I am going to work on Sundays, watch TV, go to movies, browse the internet, play violent videogames, watch harry potter, celebrate halloween, and go to funerals to mourn, as opposed to protesting them. I am going to live my life because there are others like me who simply aspire to be the best we can be, not to please a mythical being. The greeks thought mount olympus had gods. Google Earth says otherwise. Then they said Heaven was in the clouds. Aircraft manufacturers and airlines say otherwise. Now he’s in another dimension? How many times are you gonna change your story to fit what you THINK is the right way?

You know those people that used to speak to god and spread his words? They were called prophets back in those days. These days, they are called mentalled handicapped, drugged,  and they are sent to mental health facilities.

Not a Lifestyle Choice

So I was spending about 3 freakin hours taking transit to the #yvrmerchantry “tweetup” on Friday. So fun, amazing people. But that’s for another post. Today I want to talk about some stuff from my travels and experiences that day.

I had to manually transcibe this from iPhone to computer (stupid “invalid post ID” error. What the hell does that even mean?)

First of all, the subject of “hobos” (complete with finger apostrophe gestures). I live out on the fringes of Metro Vancouver, so it’s not very common in these parts to see the homeless. Homeless youth in these parts have access to a number of support services. Downtown Vancouver, on the other hand, is a whole other story. 
So I do have a minor messiah complex. Just like some doctors have an internal urge and simply must save every single one their patients even though some of them might not make it, I feel almost “guilty” (it’s not my fault, but that’s the closest description to the feeling) when I see someone in need. I grew up andtravelled frequently in LA, Hong Kong, and Beijing, where the sight of homelessness is the norm (speaking of which, what happened to all of them during the Olympics? Did the Chinese Government round them up?). Buisnessmen in their pressed and tailored suits and their oh so important blackberries and their expensive leather briefcases just walk along ignoring all these people. And yeah, THEY ARE PEOPLE. I find that a lot of idiots fail to comprehend that fact. They CAN’T GET A JOB. And many of them are mentally disturbed, thanks to the BC Governments “community healing” BS.
I nearly got in a fight with some American tourists once because a guy pushed a beggar on the street and swore at him. I nearly beat that mother******s lights out.  First of all, you just DON’T DO THAT. It doesn’t matter who the person is. You don’t push people off the street and swear at them like they aren’t worth anything. Second, SO WHAT if you’re american? You think your white american ass is superior to the chinese? You think that your little pigeon on your passport and your USA Embassy can protect you from getting your ass mauled by the people? Just go read some Chinese history. The Chinese people are VERY creative when it comes to torture and the most painful capital punishment. After you’ve read about those, you’ll think that lethal injection is for pussys.

It is my personal belief (and probably those shared by many others) that all people are born with talent and have potential. Being in a bad situation should have no bearing on what they can or cannot do. Having nearly touched the bottom, I have been there and I don’t want anyone else to ever have to go through the feeling  of waking up every rainy morning to depression and suicidal thoughts and just a general disregard to yourself.

So this is my debate: should I help these people through objects or through money? What are your thoughts?

Personally, I don’t believe that giving someone a $5 McDonalds Happy Meal is considered a warm meal. Oprah’s gift belief applies very well to this situation: If you wouldn’t give it to yourself, why would you give it to anyone else? A warm meal a real restaurant. It is a referral to Guru Nanak’s Free Kitchen  Union Gospel Missions, or other homeless shelter and assistance services. I give money to people because I believe they should have a CHOICE. They are not 6 year old kids. They have the mental capability to decide what to do with the money. They could get food, buy blothes, or find shelter (I wish best of luck to the man outside of Pacific Center when I was leaving for #yvrmerchantry, because he knew what he needed for the hostel and didn’t just ask for money for the sake of it). If they are really hungry, they will get food with this money. An average human being can stay alive for 6 weeks with no food.
A lot of people complain about this view, saying that the  ”bums” will just go get drugs.  SO WHAT? WHO THE HELL CARES? Short of bringing them to the local Best Western and paying for the room, that’s all you can do for the person.  From there, it’s in their hands what they want to do with this resource. If they feel in their hearts that they should seek help, then they will do so. If they can only think of drugs, then that’s their choice.

 Second on the agenda, the subject of ALCOHOL. I know, It’s a dry subject, but hear me out. If you follow my twitter posts (and if you’re reading this, you probably do), you know that I had quite the eventful ride back home from the tweetup. If you don’t (welcome to the family), here’s what happened:

I got off the Skytrain and got on a bus to get back home. A  VERY  drunk 17 year old guy follows a supposedly “mildly” drunk 17 year old girl onto the busthe both sit at the back after she broke up with him. They were engaging in a 20 minute conversation, which is just 20 minutes of the girl telling the guy to “get the F*** off the bus” and “get the F*** away from me”  while the incredibly high pictched voice of the guy screams, cries, and wants to “make things better between us”, much to the amusement of the passengers.  She tried to find an empty seat at the front of the bus and something just snapped. They got in a  fight and one passenger pushes him into the farebox. At this point, the hardass driver picks up thr crying guy and throws him off the bus onto the curb. AS he tries to get back on, the driver kicks him off, runs outside, and restrains him. For 20 minutes, the girl runs into the bus to bitch and runs outside to yell at the guy. 5 police cars and a transit security car pull up and have the guy arrested. the girl runs back on the bus and tells a 13 year old kid from her school to hide her vodka (this kid, incidentally, is on probation for alcohol consumption).

Alright, first of all, is it REALLY necessary to have 5 police cars for one drunk teenager? Did you send the ENTIRE RCMP staff out for this kid? And what’s wrong with kids these days? Is there some street cred for carrying around a bottle of vodka? Is there something incredibly fulfilling about drinking yourself to death? Is it really such a popular thing now, to publically embaress yourself? If you have had a screwed up childhood, then I understand why You would go for alcohol and drugs. I don’t condone it, but I understand. On the other hand, if you are drinking because your friends’ parents are out the liquor cabinet is unlocked, then that is just plain blatant stupidity. And why is EVERYONE suddely in the youth justice system?

Our culture is just far too protective theser days. We should just remove the big fat warning labels on the obvious things and just let Darwin’s Law work itself out.Them drunk stupid children can walk into walls and run each other over and give each other STIs while the rest of us civilized logical people live on.

But hey, that’s just me.

Twitter Marketing Fail

So you’re a web startup during the great recession. You wanna get your name out there. What’s the smartest thing to do?

If you answered “set up a bot to follow everyone on twitter that utters that word”, you can go launch yourself off a cliff now. No, actually, let me help you. I am very much willing to assist you in this process.

In case this is too hard for you folks to understand, I SHOULDN’T HAVE TO BLOCK 60 ACCOUNTS EVERY DAY when using Twitter. A couple of  us (see Dan’s post here) decided to launch a short 5 minute experiment simply by sending out a couple tweets using the following words.

• internet marketing
• SEO
• social media
• small buisness
• SMB

Simply by using these words in ANY context on ANY tweet, I have personally gained 18 followers within the first 3 minutes. Rather than taking the time to actually follow people on your page and establish a relationship with your potential clients, you assholes decide to flood every twitter user with your BS. Here’s a rule of thumb: if you don’t want to download that “how to make money fast using teh internets” ebook from a poorly designed website which requires your email first to “register”, what makes you think that the rest of us will willingly divulge our email to you? 

Listen, if you’ve ever been in the retail buisness, you know that intrapersonal skills are your best friend. The same applies to internet marketing. If you are unable to establish a connection with your audience, who cares about you? You just seem like a computer, rather than a person sitting in front of a computer taking the time to get to know their fellow netizens. You REALLY think that having 2000 people followed will make a difference when people see that you have 15 following you? And those 15 people are either your staff (if your cheapass company has any) or the useless tweeps who don’t contribute to the twitter community.
And even more wonderful is when you auto DM someone. Once again, it contributes to the “look, it’s ANOTHER twitterbot” feeling that your company gives off. This is the internet, people. What you do here travels VERY far. 

If the Onion adds me, that’s awesome. I’ve tweeted about the onion and how great it is.  Obama, hell yes. If It seems like I give half a shit about your company, go ahead and add me. just don’t expect that curtosy if you’re adding people by just by targetting keywords. 

and Dear Large Technology Corperations:If you’re on Twitter and you’re simply following people based on keywords and it’s not someone from your marketing department actually INTERACTING with the twitter community, rest assured that I will make no effort to purchase or test out your shit products and I’ll make sure that no one else in my social circle and social networks will end up buying your souless shit.

Plan To Fail

It’s the truth: I’ve never been a fan of school. A bunch of grouchy underpaid teachers trying quantify human growth. The same teaching style doens’t work for every person. 

But possibly the most retarded course ever concieved is Planning 10. For those of you who haven’t had the “pleasure”, Planning 10 is supposedly a grade 12 level course for “LIFE SKILLS”. The whole damn course can be summerized to:

1 – eat healthy
2 – don’t screw without a condom 
3 – get a job
4 –  DONT GET PREGNANT
5 – Don’t be a shit driver

Cogratulations. You are completely qualified life-liver.

Planning 10 is based solely on the assumptions that the common highschooler was born without common sense. While I could name a couple people in school who would require such a course, an EQ test should’ve been done to find the people who need it. If you follow me on twitter, you’ll have noticed the updates during every class on how boring the class is.
A presentation from Worksafe BC. The presenter has the most massive mantitties ever. I can assure you thaqt this guy sits in his office complaining that his workers rights are being violated. So we learn about our workers rights and how much we should get paid etc. etc. Now, maybe it’s just me, but most of us are not doing hard labor for our first job. Most of us are smart enough not to put fingers into running machinery. MOST, not all, but MOST of us are not going to work in construction at 15 years old.

Driving. I am perfectly able to find out how to get my drivers license WITHOUT watching 5 videos on it. I think we understand the consequences of drinking and driving, considering that ICBC has bombarded us with such literature since grade 3. I GET THAT YOU’RE GOING TO CUT HOLES IN OUR BODIES IN THE ER. I GET THE BLOODY PICTURE. YOU DON’T HAVE TO REPEAT YOURSELF.

Google lists about 6.6 million resume generators online. Giving us a sample of a cover letter and resume is not considered teaching in most jurisdictions. The majority of the class runs our info through these generators and gets 25/25 on the assignment.

and finally, I don’t need to know what COLOR my personality is. I couldn’t care les if I had a metallic purple personality. It doesn’t have any bearing on my life. These questions wil not be asked in an exam and does not make for good small talk.

I have no hope for this educational system. They got rid of the grad portfolio and replaced it with an equally useless “grad transitions”. Rather than having time to complete our physical activity hours, we’re spending time in front of a computer typing up boatloads of dead trees for the benifit of the educational system, so they feel that they are actually making a difference for grade 12 students.

Educational fail.

Taboo Topics

Studying for Provincial Exams and all that fun stuff. I’m not really gonna have a lot of humor in this particular post, but I wanted to address some of the big taboo topics and my personal opnions about them.

Drugs. Sex. Religion. You have been warned. If you are/were from a conservative background, run away now or prepared to be assulted. This is tagged as NSFC, which is undafe for any conservatives and christians and members of the republican party. As always, anything I write may or may not apply to you. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. If it doesn, feel free to make an EDUCATED arguement in the comments.

So let’s begin

To preface this whole rant, I need you all to understand that I am a very open minded person. Assuming that you’re opinion isn’t too far off the beaten track (ex. Scientology), I will most definetly accept you for who you are. Without these beliefs, we are mindless boring clones of one another. When I’m deciding between a BMW and a Ford, I want to have people giving me every side of the pros and cons. When I’m buying a shirt, I want to know if I bear any resemblence to the general armani/puma/nike population at school. Jumping to conclusions pisses me off. Autocratic leadership, while useful in high risk situations, just isn’t a fuctional style of leadership for day to day life.

I am not into drugs. I don’t believe in destroying your body with harmful substances of any kind, since you only have one anyways. I understand that life is tough and that many people will turn to drugs to help take that edge off and to disconnect from the pain. These are the people that need our help and support. I am very much willing to volunteer and  help facilitate their recovery for the drug abuse and whatever social/emotional/mental issues they are dealing with. I believe that they had it hard, it was the only way to keep on living, and they should get the help they need.  However, I don’t think I should be liable for the stupid ones among us.
If you decide to hang out with the “popular” people and smoke or snort or drink at your “crazy” parties you brag about with your friends on the phone and on your facebook, it is not my problem. I shouldn’t have to pay money to take care of you because you decided not to listen to all the people telling you that it’s wrong. It’s not my fault that you threw out the little comics about drug abuse in middle school. And it CERTAINLY isn’t my problem when you decide that it’s cool to walk into your PE class high.
I am not a very popular person at school. And I’m ok with that. Sometimes my opinions rub people the wrong way. I’ve taken the 40 developmental assets. I am an open person. you can take me as I am, because if you don’t like me, 5 years from now, you won’t be a factor anymore. But that’s just me. If you’ve decided to wrap your life up around your image and your popularity, that’s just fine. If you fit into this kind of person I’m describing and you’re reading this right now, I want you to think about this once question for a minute: if you stopped drinking or taking drugs, would they still be your friends? True friends would still love you. In fact, most of the people around you aren’t even your friends. That’s just a label. They are acquaintances. You hardly know their name, let alone their favorite color. You will say hi once in a while in the hallways. You sit next to them in class because you don’t know anyone else in there.
True friends are the people who will stickwitu (pardon the social reference) no matter what happens. Friends might give you the shirt off their backs, but true friends will buy you a whole damn outfit.

If you are this type and you want to stop this now, I am extending a sign of friendship to you: call Kids Help Phone. They are trained youth councillors ready to tackle whatever situation or problem you’re dealing with. The number is 1-800-668-6868 or #6868 on your Bell phone. If you are trying to get out of this, I will be here with open arms to embrace your choice.

Sex. There are 2 parts to this rant: sex itself, and sexuality. Maybe it’s just me, but having or soliciting sex in high school is not necessary. To my knowledge, pregnancy is not a part of the image most people are trying to achieve. It’s sad to me when I hear that one person was seen givng someone else head. Or one person paid for sex. Along those lines, I just feel very sorry for the person. The problem is that in many cases, I can’t help them. I don’t know the person personally or they seem to enjoy it and think it’s perfectly normal.
I am not a Christian. I will not be throwing the “sex is a sacred institution” BS on you. But I personally believe (another reference there) that if you’re having sex and it’s not with someone you truly love, i think it’s absurd. To randomly have sex with someone you don’t even have any connection to just to get your rocks off is like buying a go kart as your car. It seems fun at first, but then you realize that it was a stupid move and completely devoid of logic. This is assuming you have that capacity to recognize stupid moves.

My rant on sexuality is directly connected to that of  religion.I believe in the universal right to exist in this world. Well, at least until Darwin’s laws come into play. No matter what race you are from, no matter if you’re gay, lesbian, bisexual, transexual, if you’re a child prodigy, if you have a mental disorder, you deserve the breath of life. I want to be able to learn from everyone. Think about it: Taco Bell is not real mexican food. Black people aren’t all thugs. Not all Asians do amazing in school. Native people are not all drunks. British people are not pompous bitches and australians don’t actually spend all day surfing. Having a mix of cultures is what makes Vancouver such a great city. I can spend a couple dollars for an day pass and visit 6 continents by dinner. and for dinner. 

I don’t understand what people have against gays. It has been said time and again that it is not a lifestyle choice that republicans push it to be. Margaret Cho has summed it up amazingly in her preformances. One of my favorites was “I don’t know what happened this morning. I woke up and there was a cock in my mouth”. THAT DOESN’T HAPPEN.  You are not born with a “gay agenda”. Gay people are spectacular people and you will find that they are full of life and joy. That is a big reason why I don’t understand this prejudice. Most of the gay people I know are incredibly friendly and very welcoming. True friends will get you a whole outfit, but your gay friends will design and tailor that thing to perfection before you get it. These people have every right to enjoy marrige and the benefits of having a life partner. I don’t want to know who they want to kiss. I want to know more about the person. What are their strengths? What are their goals? what are their dreams?  

Religion. This has been a big part of the prejudice againt gays. Christianity is spread as the welcoming religion. In reality, 80%+ of ther people who are against gay people are in fact christians. I don’t understand the hipocrasy here. Seems like the All Loving God is all loving, unless you are gay.
I just don’t feel that love for everyone coming from Christianity. Take it for someone who spent a number of years in a Christian school. I don’t find that their actions or their words reflect their “beliefs”. Saying sorry and praying to god may earn you brownie points in his eyes, but for the rest of us, we still think you’re an ass if you did something offensive to someone unless you are taking active steps to amend that problem.

I don’t care that people think that it’s just christianity tacked onto liberal views. I completely respect the Revolution Church (probably the only church i do respect, aside from the FSM). When I first saw their banner on a website, I was awestruck, because it said, “as Chrsitians, we are sorry for being self righteous judgemental bastards”. And I have never heard anyone say that. It gives me the impression that they are starting anew and that they are not just another church offering alpha courses, confessions, and “deprogramming”.

I’ve said what i’ve had to say. It’s time to study for provincials. Night.

Whorenation – A Practical Guide to Profile Pictures

Why does Facebook assume that I know the whores at school? Or more importantly, why is it that it assumes I want to be in constant contact with these people?
These observations are also about the online world. So bear with me for the cynicism. And once again, if you are clear headed and logical, this may not apply to you.

The “people you may know” tool is great for finding classmates who you haven’t added yet. Problem is, recently, the only results from this tool has been the Persians, the asians and the whore population. I do not interact with the persians (They, like the Asian mob, tend to hang out amongst themselves) and I CERTAINLY do not interact with the, um, demographic of whores.

Is there a certain pride to being a whore? They clearly do not hide it in public. Walking around with blonde highlights/hair, orange skin, yoga pants, uggs, a headband, and a large handbag while constantly calling or texting people, this type of “person” is not hard to spot. “Being in style” is not an argument, as the peroxide skin cancer pumpkin monster look is not pretty. She (a generic she. I am not referring to anyone specific) tends to hang out with other like herself, where she will gossip about various topics of no practical use, including “that annoying teacher”, “the cute guy”, ” that retard”, and “the party tonight”. She can usually be found in her native habitat with other similar groups, including but not limited to, the football guys, the white basketball players, the wiggers, the steroid pumpers, the drinking/smoking/injecting/snorters, the armani with gold chains, the 3-sizes-2-large jeans and hoodies, and the johns. 

It IS their life. However they want to live it is up to them. However many babies and/or STIs they want is completely under their control. But here’s another thing I should not be subjected to: their facebook photos.

Here’s an idea: your classmates, your teachers, your family, and your future employers are ALL looking at your facebook profile. It is a very common practice now for employers to look at your social networking profiles before making a decision of who to hire. Is it not a good idea to keep it clean? or marginally decent? The following is what I feel is a logical list of images that should not appear online. These photos shouldn’t have been taken in the first place, but if you’re the kind that likes to take “artistic” pictures, these are what to keep to yourself.

•  Mirror pictures. I swear, every single self absorbed moron on earth has at LEAST a dozen of these. Girls will strike out their best Miss Vain 2009 pose, usually complimented by looking towards the ceiling or puckered lips. Guys will either lift or remove their shirt and will flex, although the latter is optional. Ugly guys will use the flash to completely obliterate their face while retaining the classic . and Asian girls will  always have one or 2 hands out doing the “2 finger azn sign of extraordinary cuteness”. Don’t believe me? Look through any facebook high school or college network.
• (half) Shirtless pictures. I understand that you are proud of the body you spent every waking hour taking steroids for. But vain pictures of yourself in your extra small American Eagle polo you spent 40 bucks should be shared among those who would more appreciate it (like, the whores mentioned above?) rather than subjecting these pictures to the rest of us. I am not gay and I’m sure the rest of the straight male population is doing just fine without our 2 sizes too small tshirts. 
• Drunken pictures. This doesn’t only apply to the party (which is a bad idea in the first place), but even UPLOADING any pictures of yourself with a large bottle of any liquor is a sign of stupidity, especially when you are mounted on top of a girl you don’t know, or you’re doing rock hands on top of a coffee table. Schools maintain a blacklist of known “troublemakers” and employers instantly question the wisdom of hiring someone who may arrive at work drunk or hungover. What happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas if you don’t keep it there.
• Stoned pictures. Including videos, these make for an incredibly spectacular comedy film which should be enjoyed anywhere except for the internet (you know you’ve watched them on youtube). With both Google and Apple pioneering face recognition software to match names to photos, one picture means there is no way you’ll get a government job. Or if it spreads, any job where a clean sheet is necessary.
• Self taken pictures. most commonly seen on Myspace and most commonly taken by girls, these photos are no longer interesting or cool, since the same image can probably be traced to a dozen other girls. These photos, like rickrolls, must end as quickly as they began. 

Please, for the sanity of the rest of us normal folks, these photographic abominations must end. Feel free to upload it into a private invite-only  photo album on Facebook and show all of your closests friends. But I can assure you that

Epilogue

So the “winter” holidays are over. And I, like so many others (trust me, im not the only one. Check your facebook and twitter), did not feel the “spirit” this year. Christmas used to be a great holiday for me. Family gatherings, good food, big gifts, ripped wrapping paper, excessive Christmas carolling, glossy tinsel and colorful lights, and the 75% off boxing day clearance sales. I don’t know what happened this year.
In that spirit, I’ve got some of the holiday grievances this year and you guys can point out what’s causing this lack of spirit. This isn’t the full list, just a partial. I don’t even know if I’m going to publish this in the end.

Pedestrians, you don’t own the road. Keep the ass on the sidewalk. The horn was designed to to completely destroy the eardrum when used effectively.
Drivers, when there is snow, there is an unwritten rule that cars are not to park on the side of the road. Seriously, If I “accidentally” hit your car, blame it on your inability to park IN YOUR DRIVEWAY, where the car was ment to be parked. If you have some mental problem preventing you from keeping the roads clear, there are both young drivers and mental health facilities in the area. I am sure we can find some solution to this dilema.

School was let out on the 19, at which point teachers were already complaining that kids were in holiday mode. Can you blame them? Christmas carols and decorations have been up since November thanks to the desperate retail buisness, and they decide to let the kids out as late as possible then reel them back in as quickly as they could without causing a backlash. How could todays students POSSIBLY be complaining about the pressures of school and being burnt out all the time? After recieving such LONG periods of time to relax and revitalize, it is inconcievable how they could be asking for more time off.

Retail was obvious in a terrible state. Not only was there far less buisness, the majorty of the remaining customers were bastards to the staff. Said it once, I’ll say it again. the men and women of the retail buisness have it hard and being a bitch to us because you are unable to schedule your month properly is not our problem or concern. Here’s an idea: when the mall starts having Christmas sales starting in November, wouldn’t it be a good idea to buy then and get it all wrapped up then? Mhmm, that’s sounds kinda logical.
and by the way, paper bags are expensive (half the time they cost as much as what you’re buying) and we WILL run out of them. If you are unable to cope with that fact, I have another solution for you: SHOP EARLY. Once again, buying back in mid to late November saves us the trouble of ahving to deal with your bitching and we also have a lot more time to help you out if you need it.

2008 definetly was not my year. Family emergencies, financial crisises, emotional breakdowns, and friendship problems, all wrapped up in a silver box with a big red bow and delivered by UPS.
People at school think high school is for the networking, and U is for the learning. I think I’ll leave that networking for University. I miss prep school, where you were either rich or were smart, and in most cases, both. There was a certain prerequisite for logic before you were admitted.

I’m gonna write a futureme letter later tonight. Forgot to write one last year so I don’t have a good reflections blog post for you guys.

I’m sorry everyone for being such a downer on the last day of the year, especially if this was a good year for you. Here’s to the winds of change, as they hopefully blow through this place in 2009. I’m kinda getting desperate now.

Pour votre santé. And cheers.

Vacation Degradation

So I’m on vacation in Portland, Oregon right now, so if you’re following me on Twitter, you’ll notice that I’ve had significantly less tweets yesterday and will continue to until 2009. However, I’ll conserve these observations for the blog.

I went shopping today at a mall which would place a certain couple malls in the Vancouver area to shame. It was a wonderful experience being able to shop without paying attention to taxes and having to round up prices. I have a wide variety of observations today, which doesn’t happen often.

First of all, because I live in Canada, there is a SEVERE lack of good clothing stores. like, VERY severe. Almost famine like. Actually, there’s a lot, but I am incredibly picky when it comes to clothing. So since I was unable to wear hollister for at least 3 years, I relished the opertunity to finally jump into a Hollister Store.
I like Hollister. I don’t mind the prices, I’m ok with the quality, and I like the styles (being californian does things to you). However, there are things to point out:

• Socal is NOT THAT DARK
• Hollister markets itself as a surfers brand. Hollister, California is a hicktown in the middle of Norcal, which is nowhere near the ocean
• Does anyone in Norcal, or all of california, all a girl a “betty”?
• Half of a door, 3 hooks that are not spaced apart, and as little lighting as possible, is not actually considered a dressing room. At least Abercrombie has actual dressing rooms.

So hollister was nice. Spent a little too much there, but it happens. Afterwards, A&F.
Now, Abercrombie was always a store I had problems with, probably because of the LA flagship store at The Grove. That store had loud pulsing music which nearly made it impossible to walk in on account of the sonic booms. The whole place was lit like a night club; the kind where it is nearly impossible to see your hands in front of you. And every 5 meters, where were massive 2 story black and white posters of half naked men. At hollister, I understand because the models are actualy wearing the products, and the images sometimes have artistic value to them. Not so at abercrombie, where the pictures are there simple to show skin. You probably could not find more skin unless you went to a strip club.
Another thing with abercrombie: I am not paying $79.90 for a polo I could get at Hollister for $30 and at H&M for $15.

yup. and after running through that whole rant in my head, I still ended up spending about $100 at the place.

I inadvertantly discovered today that the A&F corperation has no originality whatsoever. The recipe for A&F, Hollister, AND Ruehls is the exact same:

• make the store as dark as possible
• have black and white images everywhere
• make everything as expensive as possible
• make sure the staff are NEVER around when you need a change room, unlike American Eagle
• Poorly imitate the image of a big city and lifestyle to con stupid fraternity and sorority people to burn through daddy’s credit cardS

and last thing about these three stores: the staff are NOT cool. I sincerely apologize if you do work at these stores and you do not act in such a way. this does not apply to you. However, at both Ruehls and Hollister, there was a certain “stuck up” atmosphere from the staff. Hollister staff, you are not californian. As a SoCal citizen,I can personally assure you of that. Also, please refrain from using the “word” (if you can even call it that) Cali. That further emphasizes the non-californianess of the place.

Ruehls staff, it is not necessary to be leaning on the enterance door frame crossed arms crossed legged and giving a slight headnod when people walk in. That emphasizes the lack of staff that are actually inside the store, making it impossible to try stuff on, ask questions, or even pay (there was ONE sales associate at the counter and no one else). Also, the wall of mirror is annoying, especially since you refuse to take the shades off your lights. I saw 3 girls in tanks and short shorts walk straight into the wall/mirror and tried to resist the urge to start laughing.

Abercrombie, Your staff are friendly and surprisingly professional while maintaining the casual image. The one problem is finding them anywhere aside from the till. All of your stores are severely understaffed.

Geek news, I’ve noticed that American citizens all carry awesome phones. Also, the stores ALWAYS have working models so you can actually test them out. So in the spirit of working phone model-ry, I tried a couple and have gathered the response for you.

• The BlackBerry Storm…sucks. RIM, we wanted to love this phone, but….
• The G1 is ok at best. Typing is annoying despite the awesome keyboard because of that little “chin” on the bottom. Best touchscreen next to the iPhone though. Interface still needs a lift. But hopefully open source is the key.
• Whichever one of my friends said the LG Voyager had an “awesome” touchscreen and “totally pwns the iPhone” needs a CAT scan
• The Samsing Omnia…is like those other asian samsungs, except it is further degraded by WinMo
• I miss the Sidekick. The LX is really good looking. And still really not worth the money

So in short, iPhone is still gonna be my baby until something FAR better comes out.

I’ll be dropping by the Woodburn outlets tomorrow. I am still not used to being unable to use 3G on my phone and having to look for unprotected wifi hotspots whenever I need a status update. But I can probably live.