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.