"If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself."

Some of Matias Troncoso's work.

As Seen on TV

And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

Maybe grandpa will remember..

I received some mail today. Not just the usual bills or junk but an actual piece of handwritten mail, from my good friend who happens to live in Chicago. It is such a refreshing feeling to communicate by way of pen and paper, rather than an endless series of clicking(I'm talking to you, keyboard and cell phone). We write back and forth on a regular basis and receiving her letters is infinitely more satisfying than receiving a Facebook wall post or something similar. We write about anything and everything I have really become accustomed to seeing her familiar envelope (it's blue) in my mailbox.

As a nation, our ways of communication have really started to bother me. Our lives are dominated by sites like Facebook and Twitter, and I'll be damned if I meet someone who doesn't text on a daily basis. Our interpersonal relationships have taken a turn for the technological worse. Now, stages of relationships can be broken down by which means of technology are being employed.

After meeting someone at a party or a show, a Facebook friend request is the standard protocol. Then, after maybe a series of Instant Messages or Wall Posts, cell phone numbers are exchanged and now this relationship has moved into the slightly more personal, albeit, still "face-less" stage of texting. This is the stage that some personal details are given and if both members agree, a hang-out is arranged and from there both parties may choose to continue the series of texting and hanging-out.

Now I know I am talking in terms of generalities but for the most part, this is how I observe most of my peers' relationships happening. Does it bother anyone else that this is how our social structure is set up? It is slightly unnerving that our culture has embraced this almost totally. I experience actual anger when I witness someone glued to their phone while we are doing something, or at a restaurant. One of the scariest things is that no one seems to care, or notice.

Maybe I just hate people. Maybe I just hate everything.

Sometimes, I wish I could fly.

Steak and Eggs

Today, I've been weighing the advantages and disadvantages of becoming a vegetarian. Now before thoughts of "pretentious" and the all-inclusive "hipster" come to mind, hear me out. One of the biggest advantages to me would be to stop support America's corrupt and disgusting meat industry. Our "big 5" chicken companies, which includes Tyson Chicken, give obscene amounts of growth hormones to their chickens which speed up their growth so fast, the chickens are unable to even hold up their own weight. They even go as far as keep their chickens in cages to have storage space for more.
       Another advantage I would be pumped about is forcing me to eat more fresh fruits and veggies, not that I don't eat them now, but I would certainly eat more, and that is just all around good, right? However, I am not a master-chef so I guess I'll have to read up on some nice recipes to keep things from getting boring.
       I guess some of the disadvantages would be the threat of carb-overloading (eating nothing but pasta and bread) simply for the fact that pasta and bread are cheap, while keeping my place stocked with fruits and veggies is not.

WE'LL SEE.

It's not wrong to laugh at this

Closed Captioning

Babies make me laugh.

Grilled Cheese, with Tomato Soup

This feeling of being lonely and very temporary visitors in the universe is in flat contradiction to everything known about man (and all other living organisms) in the sciences. We do not "come into" this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean "waves," the universe "peoples." Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe. This fact is rarely, if ever, experienced by most individuals. Even those who know it to be true in theory do not sense or feel it, but continue to be aware of themselves as isolated "egos" inside bags of skin.
       The first result of this illusion is that our attitude to the world "outside" us is largely hostile. We are forever "conquering" nature, space, mountains, deserts, bacteria, and insects instead of learning to cooperate with them in a harmonious order. In America the great symbols of this conquest are the bulldozer and the rocket--the instrument that batters the hills into flat tracts for little boxes made of ticky-tacky and the great phallic projectile that blasts the sky. (Nonetheless, we have fine architects who know how to fit houses into hills without ruining the landscape, and astronomers who know that the earth is already way out in space, and that our first need for exploring other worlds is sensitive electronic instruments which, like our eyes, will bring the most distant objects into our own brains.) The hostile attitude of conquering nature ignores the basic interdependence of all things and events--that the world beyond the skin is actually an extension of our own bodies--and will end in destroying the very environment from which we emerge and upon which our whole life depends.

"Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why."

Well, I suppose my first blog post should be all about me, what I like to do, et cetera, et cetera. But I find myself to be a terribly boring person, so I'll keep it short.

My name is Joe and I am twenty years old. I am going to school full-time, double majoring in Psychology and Philosophy, aspiring to be a professor (ENFJ, ftw!). In my spare time, I work as a Produce Manager in a grocery store chain, lame, I know but it pays well.

Besides formalities like schooling and work, I drink on a semi-regular basis(rum, please) and just like to have a good time with good vibes. No, I do not smoke marijuana, makes me too apathetic, but I do advocate the legalization and regulation in the United States.

I immensely enjoying reading, owning over 400 books and growing. My reading habits go through interesting trends and right now I am trapped in the goodness that is John Irving, Soren Kierkegaard, St. Augustine, and of course, one of my favorite authors/people in general, Alan Watts.

 I value strangeness, eccentricity, and true uniqueness. I seem to be a sort of magnet for these types of people so let's discuss things!