Mormons

Today I had to correct a group of Mormons that it was Elijah who visited Joseph Smith, Jr. NOT Jesus Christ as they were claiming. I - an Atheist - had to correct a bunch of Mormons on their religion. People disgust me.

The Hunt

Being Canadian, the one issue that raises it's head every now-and-then is the seal hunt and it's an issue where most people's gut response is "oh it's barbaric and it should be stopped". I honestly view the hunting and killing of seals in the same light as I see the raising and killing of cattle. However I will add that the seal hunt is not supervised as much as it should be, some seals are still being skinned while conscious, and that has got to stop. The standards have to be raised on how the animals are put down. If the animals suffer in agony than the practices of how they are hunted need to be updated.
I also don't understand the whole logic behind why people are so against the seal hunt. Think about it: The only reason MOST people are so invested in stopping it, is because the seals look like adorable puppies. If they looked like giant crustaceans (See the pic above) than we wouldn't even be having this discussion. Do you see people protesting the crab or lobster hunt with the same effort? Do people care about the suffering the lobsters go through when they are caught in those cages? NO of course not, at least not at the same level, because lobsters and crabs are hideous creatures. I know that some seals suffer at the hands of insensitive hunters and I already said that has to stop, update the procedure to ensure a quick and painless death. I know that the process in industrialized, but as long as they are not being hunted to extinction than how is the killing of seals any different than that of any other animal we hunt?
To tell people "Oh these seals look adorable, so you people over there should change your whole way of life, and just forget your traditions because I can't stand the thought of these seals dying" would be very arrogant. I know people would say "Well if people had the tradition of killing and eating humans, should we not protest that either?" and that is a straw man argument. Of course killing people is unacceptable, so save it. Then there are people who say that killing ANY animal is unnecessary and barbaric, but that's a whole different issue, and there's no pleasing those people.

Prejudice and an odd definition of what "unfair" means

A few weeks ago I was sitting reading my class notes in the Biology Lounge at my University when a few other people started to talk about their grievances on how unfairly they've been prejudged by other people based solely on how they look. I would like to point out that the all the people in the room were White (or of Anglo-Saxon/Nordic descent if you want to be political). I was the sole brown person in the room, so you can imagine my interest in the conversation. Their main grievance focused on how hard it is to dress these days without being categorized as an "emo", "goth", or "vampire", or even "gay" while at the same time not actually being part of any of those groups.
Now you see: I'm Native American and I can go on for days about unfairness and prejudice. When I heard him (fuck it, his name is Matt) talk about his feelings as he felt that first pang of "unfairness" it actually made me chuckle. What he experienced was at worst, a minor inconvenience, you may like to think of Western society as this "free" and "lawful" ecosystem, but I've walked into job interviews where the person who was offering the job looked at me with both surprise and disappointment and actually said: "I'm sorry this isn't going to work, you're not what we were expecting". I mean it must be my fault since my name is of Irish origin and that it's not "Red Eaglefeather".
So when Matt went on about how he hard it is to dress or act without being judged or catagorized. I thought to myself "finally" it happened, even on a tiny level he knows what it feels to be judged based solely on his looks, so I just sat back and basked in his misery. I want to be clear - I felt absolutely no sympathy for this man and his definition of what "unfairness" is. I actually hope it progresses and he suffers for years and decades and has to see a psychiatrist and after 50 years of suffering, and losing jobs because he looks "emo", then he can come to me and tell me his story. I might buy him a beer.

So it's been Winter for a good month now here in Canada, but the weather has been rather nice with very little snow and clear roads. That all changed when old man Winter finally raised his ugly head last week and threw a blizzard my way. The end result was predicable, drivers swerved off the roads and hit lamp posts, trees and each other. What surprises me is that snow falls every year, at the same time every year, at almost the same rate every year. Yet people are still unprepared for it every time a storm like this hits the area. It's not like the snow sneaks up on you, I mean this isn't Southern California. I'm not talking about immigrants either, I'm talking about people who grew up here and lived here for years and decades.
I guess it's sort of like how a smoker goes for a smoke and realizes they forgot their lighter. I'm puzzled about how that can happen, I mean for a smoker, smoking is a daily habit. There is absolutely no reason why a smoker should forget their lighter. There is also no reason why Canadians should forget that snow makes the roads slippery.

The Quadrant Principle

Throughout my adventures in this world I try to conduct myself in a helpful way, unless you get a few drinks into me then I become a burden. However one thing I always try to do when I meet someone, whom I regularly deal with, is try to leave them better off than how I found them. Whether it be mentally or emotionally. During the course of my short life, I noticed something very interesting: The people I helped, helped me help more people. For example: Lets say I helped a friend overcome a drug addiction, this same person also happens to be a down-on-his-luck DJ. I then hear that a friend back home is getting married and is looking for a DJ. I myself would never be able to help my soon-to-be-wed friend. Now that I know my DJ buddy needs work; I can help them both. If I didn't spend 48 hours helping my DJ friend through his withdraws, then none of this would have been possible. Although this weird chain of events has a low probability of actually taking place. Although it only happened once in my life, I am positive it can happen again if I keep helping people. That way I might be able to enable other people to help more people. Then the cycle continues.
I don't have any illusions about the world we all live in. It is a cruel and dark place. Also, if you read what scientists tell us about how the Sun will eventually burn out leaving Earth a barren rock; Than nothing we do ultimately matters. So why do anything at all? Well, I'm here, and as long as I'm alive then I hope to make the world a slightly better place, even if it's for just one person.

Ah Christmas

Throughout this rarely-updated, often neglected, never-given-much-thought-of blog the one thing I've commented on most is how I've grown. That's obviously a subject very few people are interested in, that's probably why I have no followers, but I digress. My mother is the kind of mother who likes family traditions and she never really had much as a child so I guess she wanted to give as much as she can to her children. So she sets aside $300 for each of her children for Christmas, not a huge amount of money, but she has six children, the youngest being 21, so it adds up once friends and extended family is included. She also insists that we all make a list of what we wanted her to get us for Christmas with that $300 limit, although my oldest brother and sister are excluded as they are now in their 30's and they just get money unless my mom is feeling extra generous (which she usually does). That sort of negates the need for my siblings to buy gifts for each other since we all know we'll be getting something for Christmas regardless. However we all still try if we have extra money, we usually don't since we all live hand-to-mouth and rarely save for rainy days.
Anyway, recently the items on my list have shifted from toys, collectibles, DVDs, or video games to clothes, something I found incredibly boring when I was younger. for the past four years I've only asked my mom for clothes at Christmas. Honestly I enjoy that, because I rarely buy clothes for myself as my attention is usually shifted to something tech-oriented instead. Oh well I don't know why I thought that story was worth writing down, I feel I should apologize for wasting any reader's time. Oh well..piss off. Oh and happy holidays.

The Biology Club

Being the youngest child in a large family might have had a negative effect on my psychological maturity. That's a nice way of saying that my parents spoiled me, and probably still try to know that I think about it. Back in April, I've been elected for an executive position of a student society at the University I am attending. For the past month I had to deal with the problems that accompany the operations of a large society. Most of last year's executive's have graduated and that leaves the current committee with little experience. I think the stress is mostly affecting the President, as she sees the success or failures of the society as her own, she certainly seems more curt and flustered than usual.
To be honest, I've never really had large responsibilities at any point in my life, and my job is to make sure the student body, of the entire University, knows about whatever event the society hosts. Needless to say, the amount of people who attend these events, hinges on how well I advertise them. Yet I still don't feel stressed about the position I am in, I even enjoy giving public presentations, or speeches. I have always considered myself to be a shy person, maybe I should rethink the whole concept I have of myself.