So upon reading my weekly comic books as of late, I have noticed an advertisement that keeps popping up. It has got to be the smartest anti-drug ad that I have ever seen. Now I am against drugs personally and I tend not to preach this to people; I feel like everyone is entitled to their own decision, and lately I have been seeing less and less wrong with it as a recreational choice. However, like most American teens, I usually find the television ads humorous and ridiculous in the way that they portray drug users. I will never forget the infamous commercial in which two young stoners run over a girl riding a bicycle because they were too busy laughing as they left a drive-thru window. I never pay attention when I leave the window at McDonald's, solely because I am too busy checking my bag to make sure I have received what I have paid for. Perhaps they should make an ad campaign about poor service at fast food restaurants, this way I can trust that I have the correct amount of hamburgers when I pull away from the window.

That was an unnecessary digression, but alas, here is the ad:









I think it's brilliant. Why would the slugs want to snort salt? It could kill them... oh wait, cocaine kills people all of the time, but it is still a common drug. Clearly it is not as drastic as a slug snorting salt, but the idea is still fantastic. It takes common knowledge and uses it to exhibit that drugs are outrageous and wrong. Once again, I want to say that I'm not trying to preach here, I just thought this was a great ad, and I rarely see anything this intelligent used in anti-drug advertising. I felt it deserved some recognition. With more ads like this one and the "Slomming" commercial, I think the anti-drug campaign would be much stronger.

Thoughts upon a southern drive

I wrote this during a drive to Florida, on the way to hop aboard a cruise ship. I thought it would be a good forward for a novel. So here is the forward, and hopefully the novel will someday follow.



On television and through various forms of the media, characters often undergo drastic changes after a major injury. In many circumstances, these characters come down with a bad case of amnesia and their entire memories can be lost. No knowledge of self or society remains intact, but something does stay with these people -- something that I find to be substantial. Their ability to communicate. Through all of their trauma, their words never leave them.

Upon this realization, I was struck by a lightning bolt containing equal parts of knowledge and inspiration. It is not what a man does or who he is that defines him -- the people, places, names, and faces are all just scenery along our journey towards self-discovery. Reflectively, the thoughts that make up daily life and the words that mark their documentation are what can leave a lasting impression upon both current and future generations. Impacting thinkers, intellectuals, and dreamers can create a shockwave throughout all we know and do, and each individual has a unique point of view to bring to the table. Every single living person, from the mentally challenged to the members of MENSA have ideas, and they are all unbelievably particular and powerful. This is the power that mankind needs to harness, for ideas are, and always will be, a source of greatness open to each and every person on this planet.



This is the embodiment of "potential explosion". Words are power, and we each have the ability to use them as a means of anything we so choose. Our words have the same capabilities as the rings of the Green Lantern Corps; they can be anything that we want them to be, and if we have enough will power, they can overcome just about anything.

Speaking of Michaelangelo

stockings red and spread your legs

follow them to where they meet

and show me what i've paid for

bite your lip and close your eyes

hide the tears you feel inside

for giving up what was yours

i've watched the women come and got

they speak of michealangelo

they think all of their thoughts are all theirs

i want to take one home with me

i put on my shoes and step outside

i breathe the air i know is mine

see everything i own

i've got a house a car and diamond rings

and i can buy these needed things

because i did what i was told

"you could be holding on a rocket

instead you've fallen by the way side of life"

she said "but you don't understand it

this is how i choose to live my life and that's fine"

"i want to take you home

and dry your crying eyes"

and she said "well i just sell my body

but you have gone and sold your mind"

she's right

- Outsmarting Simon, "Hub City"

This song always has me thinking. It makes me think of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", one of my favorite poems, written by T.S. Eliot. It makes me think of my value set; what is it and why is it there? It makes me think of the values of others and how they vary from mine. Is anyone right? Are our values anything more than just scenery?

The song brings up an important point once we get to the middle. With emphasis on the word "needed" when talking about material things, it shows the value set in accordance with the majority. He says he has all of these things because he "did what [he] was told". This is the life that most of us lead because we are told that it is what we want. This is the American Dream; setting up for family life by going through the motions, getting a good job, and buying the things that are wanted and appreciated by members of society.

The problem comes when a new character comes into play, one with an entirely different value set. This girl goes out and has sex for money, but she is a good person. This is very conflicting for the main character, because all his life he has had an emphasis put on innocence on purity while doing good, but this girl has half of that. She does not care about purity; she leads a life of excess because she enjoys it. This creates a crisis of conscience for the man and his value set, as it calls into question the life he has been putting together since the dawn of his existence.

The last verse is the major point of the song. The main character is telling the girl that she could be so much more if she would simply put fun on the back-burner and be the best person she could be. The girl, though, is happy and feels that she is in complete control of her own life by doing the things that she wants and enjoys, whether they are in contrast with social norms or not. In the final lines of the song, she says: "well i just sell my body but you have gone and sold your mind". This hits close to home for me, as it points out a very large fear that most pseudo-intellectuals have: that my thoughts are not my own.

I feel as though I am smart enough to think for myself and to not be swayed by the media. I also feel that I have strong moral fiber and try my best to do what is right. But as I have gotten older, the lines between right and wrong have gotten more skewed. As I still try to cling to my ideals, I realize that the world around me is ever changing, especially as I have begun my ascension into adulthood. It seems that adulthood and ideals don't mesh so well together though, and that is very bothersome for me. Is the girl in the song right, as the speaker says? Have I sold my mind to these morals that are actually worthless in the long run? I realize that these ideals are promoted as social norms, but behind closed doors am I the only one who actually clings to them? I feel as though anyone I ask about it tends to have their own agenda. On top of that, if no one buys into it, it doesn't matter who I ask about it because it's all going to be a falsehood regardless.

What happened to good moral decision making and sacrificing for your ideals? It's very hard to find a guide in all of this, someone to inspire me towards doing good. But what is good? Are drugs still considered bad? Is sex still something that should be limited to love, or is it a pleasure tool? The only heroes I can find are fictional characters, which I think says a lot about the world I (we) live in. Whatever the case may be, my fear of change will keep me holding on tightly to the morals of my childhood like a young boy still holds onto his blanket for comfort, even after he should have grown out of it.

Technology: Friend or Foe?

I imagine it is a tad ironic that I am writing this on my computer, but that is the very point that I am trying to dig into. So let's dive right in, shall we?


Technology is opening all kinds of windows for the youth of today, and even for the youth of yesterday. With a few small clicks and loading screens, I have created a way for my voice to be displayed to any person comes across this page. The Internet has given us all megaphones, and we can choose to use them for whichever means we want. We can create deep, thought provoking questions for others to ponder over. We can say dirty words and giggle with our friends. We can send letters to any board member or politician we choose without any inconvenience. We can even communicate with relatives that are literally thousands of miles away -- a connection that would have been impossible for many in years past. With this voice so greatly and easily made boisterous, what are we sacrificing to get there?

A friend once told me that we should all get to know our neighbors. It really got me thinking. In order to be sitting at my computers writing this blog, I am missing out on a thousand different opportunities that might await me outside of my house. How well do we get to know people when a good amount of our conversing is done through print? So much is missing; so much of reality and necessity is abandoned for convenience.

Children could be gaining a wealth of knowledge through new and exciting mediums. I myself have taken a huge interest in the Biography channel and Wikipedia, which give me every information about a person of interest that I could ever want. But in order to learn how these people were able to get to the state that warranted a televised biography or a large Wikipedia page, I am losing out on learning about what is making Frank or Jill from the neighborhood tick. I am sure the same type of scenario could be said about me reading biographies instead of watching them, so media cannot be at fault. The problem is, though, that with this information so readily and handsomely made available, it becomes more than a hobby. We can have any question answered in a heartbeat, but are we losing our heartbeats in order to do it?

I have always been against change -- I stand firmly behind the old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". This clearly impacts my confusion over technology, since I feel that the generation before us was able to be successful without all of the things that we have. Can you imagine if the Kennedy assassination took place today? The blogging would never stop, the Wikipedia pages would be overloaded, and the Internet conspiracy theorists would unite at an alarming rate; the "factual information" regarding the killing would be everywhere, and it would be immediate. How would that have changed history? Or are we better off not knowing?

I wish I didn't need technology but I have been conditioned to depend on it. It is hypocritical for me to explain this over an Internet blog, but that is the root of the question. Is this a better way of life? One that allows us to have a podium to spew anything and everything from the privacy of our own homes while our social and oratory skills are dropping faster than the stock market in our current economical times. I'll leave you to mull it over. Is knowledge truly power or is ignorance as blissful as I have heard?