I lost my check card over the weekend. Actually, I know exactly what happened to it, I left it in an ATM.
I cancelled the card last night and this afternoon I went to the bank to get issued a new card. After waiting a few moments for someone (Apparently, you can't just do this with the tellers) he asked me to take a seat. He said..."So, you lost your check card and need a new one?" I nodded.
He then said: "Okay, Mr. Patterson if I could just see your check card..."
My reply: "I lost it...remember?"
"Well Mr. Patterson, this would go a lot faster if you had it."
Really?
You are so right actually. I wouldn't have had to come to the bank at all, actually. It would have been THAT fast. It is really hard to replace something I haven't lost.
Maybe he was on one of those fancy drugs the kids are using these days. Because when I cleared up that whole "I don't have a check card. I lost it. That is why I'm here" thing and did the paperwork for a new one he asked me... "Is there anything else i can do for you today?" ...I of course said "Nope." However, he just looked at me and said nothing....until I physically got up and walked away.
I wouldn't be surprised if something horribly wrong shows up on my check card. I can't wait.
={+}=
Monday, April 30, 2007
Friday, April 27, 2007
MySpace
I joined MySpace YEARS ago, because a friend told me to. It was still small, and I had never heard of it. I registered a profile, messed around for a few minutes and didn't come back for...about 3 years.
By then everyone and their Emo brother was on MySpace. Grandparents, politicians (some who need to respect web designers a little more...I'm looking at YOU John McCain...) and movie stars all use MySpace alongside the 14 year old kids who don't know that 'you' is not spelled 'u'.
I was never really a fan of MySpace. I don't like that users, many of whom have no idea what they are doing, can throw around HTML and CSS like they are frisbees. I have been to pages where there are 7 different songs, videos, embedded mp3's and blinking texts Java applets all going at the same time. I'm somewhat surprised there hasn't been at least one outbreak of seizures because of the mess that some MySpace pages are constantly in. Also, it was hard to navigate and I could never know when someone updated their page.
Lastly, I have always liked Facebook better, especially for keeping up with people. I guess I'm not nearly as interested in self expression as I am with keeping up with friends and family in a simple manner.
I think I had my last straw with MySpace today. I had someone message me. This person shall remain nameless...lets call him..."X". X was wondering why he wasn't in my "top friends".
I started to reply. I stopped. I didn't really even know this guy well. Then, it dawned on me....Wow. Really? People put stock into this? Isn't it terrible to be figuring out order of friends, how they 'rank' to you and who the best of the bunch are? I looked at my 'top friends' and I have no idea how I came up with the order they were in. I certainly didn't sit down and think to myself..."Okay...where numerically does so-and-so fit into my life...I better be right about this, otherwise the friend police will come take me off to MySpace jail".
I guess I'm not monosyllabic enough to think of friends and family in this way. All I did was put people who I wanted to be able to quickly check their page, if needed.
Honestly, this made me like MySpace less then I already did. I'm not leaving the site, because that is more work then it is worth, but whatever enthusiasm I once had for it is now gone. I almost never check it anymore to begin with, so I've really come to peace with this.
Notes:
-I'm thinking about using LiveJournal again for more personal blog material, so that I don't necessarily broadcast somethings to the entire world. I used to use LiveJournal a few years ago, but I'll likely start a new journal. Anyone have thoughts on this? It would be more for me, but some of it will be published.
-On that note, I'm starting a blog completely devoted to baseball and the Twins separate from this one. I'll share the address for that once I'm all set to go.
-I finished writing my first article for "Cereal:Geek", the magazine I'm writing for. I'll make sure to show it to anyone interested.
={+}=
By then everyone and their Emo brother was on MySpace. Grandparents, politicians (some who need to respect web designers a little more...I'm looking at YOU John McCain...) and movie stars all use MySpace alongside the 14 year old kids who don't know that 'you' is not spelled 'u'.
I was never really a fan of MySpace. I don't like that users, many of whom have no idea what they are doing, can throw around HTML and CSS like they are frisbees. I have been to pages where there are 7 different songs, videos, embedded mp3's and blinking texts Java applets all going at the same time. I'm somewhat surprised there hasn't been at least one outbreak of seizures because of the mess that some MySpace pages are constantly in. Also, it was hard to navigate and I could never know when someone updated their page.
Lastly, I have always liked Facebook better, especially for keeping up with people. I guess I'm not nearly as interested in self expression as I am with keeping up with friends and family in a simple manner.
I think I had my last straw with MySpace today. I had someone message me. This person shall remain nameless...lets call him..."X". X was wondering why he wasn't in my "top friends".
I started to reply. I stopped. I didn't really even know this guy well. Then, it dawned on me....Wow. Really? People put stock into this? Isn't it terrible to be figuring out order of friends, how they 'rank' to you and who the best of the bunch are? I looked at my 'top friends' and I have no idea how I came up with the order they were in. I certainly didn't sit down and think to myself..."Okay...where numerically does so-and-so fit into my life...I better be right about this, otherwise the friend police will come take me off to MySpace jail".
I guess I'm not monosyllabic enough to think of friends and family in this way. All I did was put people who I wanted to be able to quickly check their page, if needed.
Honestly, this made me like MySpace less then I already did. I'm not leaving the site, because that is more work then it is worth, but whatever enthusiasm I once had for it is now gone. I almost never check it anymore to begin with, so I've really come to peace with this.
Notes:
-I'm thinking about using LiveJournal again for more personal blog material, so that I don't necessarily broadcast somethings to the entire world. I used to use LiveJournal a few years ago, but I'll likely start a new journal. Anyone have thoughts on this? It would be more for me, but some of it will be published.
-On that note, I'm starting a blog completely devoted to baseball and the Twins separate from this one. I'll share the address for that once I'm all set to go.
-I finished writing my first article for "Cereal:Geek", the magazine I'm writing for. I'll make sure to show it to anyone interested.
={+}=
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Night.
I'm very different from everyone I work with in a lot of ways. Today was a good example.....
I was meeting with a coworker in his office and we started chatting about why I wanted to come in later in the morning (I get to work about 8:45am). He assumed I wanted to do things in the morning BEFORE I came to work. I told him I sleep until 8:10 almost everyday I go to work.
He seemed shocked. He didn't say anything. He quietly asks..."Why do you need so much sleep"?
I respond: "Well, I really don't. I don't really go to bed until about 12:30 or 1am most nights...at the earliest."
He leaned back in his chair, befuddled. "What do you DO?"
I didn't really know how to answer that question. Why does it seem to SO incredibly weird to people who are very much morning people that people who are night owls do that same things they do, just at different times? I know why people like to get up in the morning. It is just how they do things. I'm not the same way. I understand that. Most morning people don't seem to see it the other way around.
I told him I do everything. Work on projects. Hang out with friends and family. Exercise. Run errands. Whatever comes up. Even last night I got home at a surprisingly early hour (11:30) and thought about drawing and going to bed, but my friend Laura called from Taiwan. That put the bedtime much later. It was great.
Honestly, I've always been a night owl. I always liked working on homework in the middle of the night. I love doing random things at night. I like to do hobbies until late at night. I like talking on the phone at night. I especially like sitting outside or even inside and thinking at night. It is quiet and things seem to be at peace.
I gradually won him over. He told he always seemed convinced that people who slept later were just lazy. I told him that he needs to make sure to remember that some people just like to go to bed later...people like me.
Notes:
-I joined a concert band. I'm pretty excited about it, as I have been looking for ways to get back into playing percussion. We might be looking for other instruments as well, let me know if you might be interested.
-Chuck Norris loves America. If you don't know why, or what the hell I'm talking about you need to read the blogs to the right. That Mike Allen is a funny dude.
-My desk fan is called "Lil' Blizzard" I thought it was a hilarious name for some reason.
={+}=
I was meeting with a coworker in his office and we started chatting about why I wanted to come in later in the morning (I get to work about 8:45am). He assumed I wanted to do things in the morning BEFORE I came to work. I told him I sleep until 8:10 almost everyday I go to work.
He seemed shocked. He didn't say anything. He quietly asks..."Why do you need so much sleep"?
I respond: "Well, I really don't. I don't really go to bed until about 12:30 or 1am most nights...at the earliest."
He leaned back in his chair, befuddled. "What do you DO?"
I didn't really know how to answer that question. Why does it seem to SO incredibly weird to people who are very much morning people that people who are night owls do that same things they do, just at different times? I know why people like to get up in the morning. It is just how they do things. I'm not the same way. I understand that. Most morning people don't seem to see it the other way around.
I told him I do everything. Work on projects. Hang out with friends and family. Exercise. Run errands. Whatever comes up. Even last night I got home at a surprisingly early hour (11:30) and thought about drawing and going to bed, but my friend Laura called from Taiwan. That put the bedtime much later. It was great.
Honestly, I've always been a night owl. I always liked working on homework in the middle of the night. I love doing random things at night. I like to do hobbies until late at night. I like talking on the phone at night. I especially like sitting outside or even inside and thinking at night. It is quiet and things seem to be at peace.
I gradually won him over. He told he always seemed convinced that people who slept later were just lazy. I told him that he needs to make sure to remember that some people just like to go to bed later...people like me.
Notes:
-I joined a concert band. I'm pretty excited about it, as I have been looking for ways to get back into playing percussion. We might be looking for other instruments as well, let me know if you might be interested.
-Chuck Norris loves America. If you don't know why, or what the hell I'm talking about you need to read the blogs to the right. That Mike Allen is a funny dude.
-My desk fan is called "Lil' Blizzard" I thought it was a hilarious name for some reason.
={+}=
Friday, April 20, 2007
Writing for the Corporate Machine
I like to think of myself as something of a writer. I majored in Journalism. One of my minors was English (emphasis on writing). I do some freelance stuff for a magazine. I write here. I write for the comic strip I'm developing. I like to write and I actually get some opportunities to do it.
One of the most frequent opportunities to write is at work, which makes sense, since I am in charge of marketing and communications and it was that opportunity that really first attracted me to this job. I knew corporate writing was completely different then any other writing I had ever done, I knew that from college. However it is completely ridiculous here. I'm just told, sometimes almost word for word, what to write by people who either A. Have no idea how to construct logical ideas into an assembling of paragraphs or B. Want to sound as important or "business minded" as possible, usually leading to more corporate jargon and business slang then I can handle.
It usually leads to passage like the one I'm going to share. I had the extreme misfortune of having to "write" this. I tried rewording it, I tried completely rehashing it to no avail. This is what it has to look like, according to the people who matter:
"Our clients appreciate the benefits our services bring. [company name] continually invests in the development of our talent, technology partnerships, software solutions and our community. We are customer focused and we develop strategic client relationships. Our clients understand that our IT services and solutions are in line with their business goals."
This is straight out of the brochure I just "wrote". Just about everything in that passage goes against both my Journalistic and my English instincts. First of all, NOTHING backs any of this up. We basically 'made' up that we think our clients 'appreciate our benefits'. What are those 'benefits'? I have no idea. Neither will you...since we never tell you. How are we customer focused? What does 'develop strategic client relationships' even mean? Since when are we developing anything? When is the last time we actually 'invested in the community'? Don't even get me started on the last sentence. Look at all the jargon... "partnerships","in line", "solutions", "focused", "development" are all fine words usually, but here they are muddled, confusing and usually have no actual meaning.
Where is the clarity in this? How is this acceptable, or worst, looked favorably upon? If I was looking at companies to partner with, I would do so on there Marketing and Communications materials, because that is what the majority of the public sees about your company. Why would you strive to confuse? It seems like we are hiding what we really do or trying to hard to elaborate on what we really do. It ends up looking like a 9th grader with no grasp on English who found a pocket thesaurus.
It just irks me that I am forced to write things like this. It really stems to my boss, who also happens to the be the owner. He controls everything and micromanages stuff like this to no end. I can occasionally get around it, or try and convince him of my way, but it rarely works.
It would help if other people expressed discontent about this with me. I don't want to feel alone on this.
Please do not let Corporate America eat my soul with a side or jargon.
={+}=
One of the most frequent opportunities to write is at work, which makes sense, since I am in charge of marketing and communications and it was that opportunity that really first attracted me to this job. I knew corporate writing was completely different then any other writing I had ever done, I knew that from college. However it is completely ridiculous here. I'm just told, sometimes almost word for word, what to write by people who either A. Have no idea how to construct logical ideas into an assembling of paragraphs or B. Want to sound as important or "business minded" as possible, usually leading to more corporate jargon and business slang then I can handle.
It usually leads to passage like the one I'm going to share. I had the extreme misfortune of having to "write" this. I tried rewording it, I tried completely rehashing it to no avail. This is what it has to look like, according to the people who matter:
"Our clients appreciate the benefits our services bring. [company name] continually invests in the development of our talent, technology partnerships, software solutions and our community. We are customer focused and we develop strategic client relationships. Our clients understand that our IT services and solutions are in line with their business goals."
This is straight out of the brochure I just "wrote". Just about everything in that passage goes against both my Journalistic and my English instincts. First of all, NOTHING backs any of this up. We basically 'made' up that we think our clients 'appreciate our benefits'. What are those 'benefits'? I have no idea. Neither will you...since we never tell you. How are we customer focused? What does 'develop strategic client relationships' even mean? Since when are we developing anything? When is the last time we actually 'invested in the community'? Don't even get me started on the last sentence. Look at all the jargon... "partnerships","in line", "solutions", "focused", "development" are all fine words usually, but here they are muddled, confusing and usually have no actual meaning.
Where is the clarity in this? How is this acceptable, or worst, looked favorably upon? If I was looking at companies to partner with, I would do so on there Marketing and Communications materials, because that is what the majority of the public sees about your company. Why would you strive to confuse? It seems like we are hiding what we really do or trying to hard to elaborate on what we really do. It ends up looking like a 9th grader with no grasp on English who found a pocket thesaurus.
It just irks me that I am forced to write things like this. It really stems to my boss, who also happens to the be the owner. He controls everything and micromanages stuff like this to no end. I can occasionally get around it, or try and convince him of my way, but it rarely works.
It would help if other people expressed discontent about this with me. I don't want to feel alone on this.
Please do not let Corporate America eat my soul with a side or jargon.
={+}=
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Bad Day.
I don't have bad days. Well, that is a bit of a lie, everyone has bad days...days when things just don't go your way or negative things all seem to happen at once. Those happen to everyone.
I don't have bad days like I'm having today. I can't control my emotions, I'm moody, I'm a little woozy and honestly, I was a little depressed. I've got a pit in my stomach and it makes my legs feel like they are wobbly.
The worst part is...I have no idea why. I think I might know one of the reasons, but I'm not sure. The fact that I can't put my finger on the source of this is upsetting me more. I'm not generally this way. I've even had problems sleeping at night lately, having awkward dreams, but all I remember about them is that they are awkward. I had a good day yesterday...I saw the family and I talked at length with two great people and that is always a highlight for me. Work is fine...in fact I am doing a good job masking my downer of a day and pretending to be 'the usual Brett'. So, in other words, I should be fine.
But I'm not.
I'm not good at handling issues like this. I'm used to being the friend helping in situations like this, not the other way around. Maybe it will help just writing and venting and talking about it, but I don't know the source and that is frustrating.
I know I don't use this venue for this type of thing and a few may be surprised to even be reading this from me.
I just had to get it out.
I'm sure tomorrow/later today will be better, but I guess that is just something to pacify myself.
I don't have bad days like I'm having today. I can't control my emotions, I'm moody, I'm a little woozy and honestly, I was a little depressed. I've got a pit in my stomach and it makes my legs feel like they are wobbly.
The worst part is...I have no idea why. I think I might know one of the reasons, but I'm not sure. The fact that I can't put my finger on the source of this is upsetting me more. I'm not generally this way. I've even had problems sleeping at night lately, having awkward dreams, but all I remember about them is that they are awkward. I had a good day yesterday...I saw the family and I talked at length with two great people and that is always a highlight for me. Work is fine...in fact I am doing a good job masking my downer of a day and pretending to be 'the usual Brett'. So, in other words, I should be fine.
But I'm not.
I'm not good at handling issues like this. I'm used to being the friend helping in situations like this, not the other way around. Maybe it will help just writing and venting and talking about it, but I don't know the source and that is frustrating.
I know I don't use this venue for this type of thing and a few may be surprised to even be reading this from me.
I just had to get it out.
I'm sure tomorrow/later today will be better, but I guess that is just something to pacify myself.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Late Nights, Friends PLUS a Rivas and 50 Year Olds Who Drive Pink Geo Trackers Update...
That may be the longest blog title in the history of blogging, which I believe has a history of...4 years. Dan Rather will be writing a book about it any day now.
I always seem to get these great ideas for blogs at 2am. I'm not sure they are actually great, being that a lot of things thought up at 2am are usually deemed great then but later they just look like hazy thoughts with no real integrity.
On Tuesday, at the hazy thought hour, I had an idea for a blog. I thought about it and was excited about writing it. I jotted a note to myself about it and went to bed. Early the next 'morn I got up and went to work. I remembered my note about the blog and smiled...got ready to type...and...nothing. Nada. I couldn't remember the majority of what I wanted to write.
I knew that I wanted to write about my friends, how I (and they) have changed in the last couple years...but the details were gone. I couldn't remember what had excited me about the entry the night before. I had made some sort of connection in my brain that was gone by the next morning. Crap.
Well, what I did remember was this: First off, I have tremendous friends. All of them. I love that my friends from my different areas of life have often come together and become friends with my other friends. I love that I have a diverse group of friends.
It is funny how our needs in friends change over the years. Early on, our friends are because of geographical convenience. Neighborhood kids or school kids who maybe like the same activity as you. Later on, in Middle School, you learn that a friend is maybe just someone who makes LESS fun of you and is just a little less terrible to you then everyone else. (Middle School sucks!) In high school you make your first real friends and you might have similar interests and you might even make actual connections, but most friendships are based on frivolous things and loose connections.
I don't know how to describe friends in college. You have such a cornucopia of friends, it is hard to know, but it is generally a tossup of EVERYTHING I had mentioned before and the next phase. College is a weird time. Some friends are because of geographical convenience (roommates, neighbors, etc.) people who just are nicer then the rest, people you do activities with, and people who actually have a genuine connection with.
I'm entering this new phase. After College, or AC. I don't want friends anymore who I just joke with. I don't want friends that are just always shallow. I desire substance these days, and I'm glad that I found that just about everyone I was friends with before felt the same way. That made me happy and I became better friends with those people. Great success. Also, I've made a bevy of new friends since college, which surprised me. I was always told that AC I was done making friends and meeting people. I beg to differ. I've met some awesome people since then. People who think and are funny. It has brought out a whole new side of me in the last 30 or so months. Thanks to my friends.
A quick Rivas update: He DIDN'T make the Indians out of spring training. Wow. I was disappointed. Hopefully he will be up at some point during the year though, as he did accept his assignment to AAA Buffalo. Also, I tried ordering a Rivas AAA jersey, because I thought it would be hilarious, but sadly, they do not exist.
Also, a quick Creep Old Guy Who Drinks Milk and Vodka and Drive a Pink Geo Tracker Update. I saw his Geo Tracker at a friend's apartment complex! Augh! Scary! He is following me! It was definitely his. He had weird miniature boxing gloves hainging up in the car...and they were there. It was him. That alone frightened me, but I saw him AGAIN today, back at Super America. I wasn't planning on going inside, but I started to walk towards the entrance, and he was leaving. I swear that he is going to kill me.
Time to go from one job to another!
={+}=
I always seem to get these great ideas for blogs at 2am. I'm not sure they are actually great, being that a lot of things thought up at 2am are usually deemed great then but later they just look like hazy thoughts with no real integrity.
On Tuesday, at the hazy thought hour, I had an idea for a blog. I thought about it and was excited about writing it. I jotted a note to myself about it and went to bed. Early the next 'morn I got up and went to work. I remembered my note about the blog and smiled...got ready to type...and...nothing. Nada. I couldn't remember the majority of what I wanted to write.
I knew that I wanted to write about my friends, how I (and they) have changed in the last couple years...but the details were gone. I couldn't remember what had excited me about the entry the night before. I had made some sort of connection in my brain that was gone by the next morning. Crap.
Well, what I did remember was this: First off, I have tremendous friends. All of them. I love that my friends from my different areas of life have often come together and become friends with my other friends. I love that I have a diverse group of friends.
It is funny how our needs in friends change over the years. Early on, our friends are because of geographical convenience. Neighborhood kids or school kids who maybe like the same activity as you. Later on, in Middle School, you learn that a friend is maybe just someone who makes LESS fun of you and is just a little less terrible to you then everyone else. (Middle School sucks!) In high school you make your first real friends and you might have similar interests and you might even make actual connections, but most friendships are based on frivolous things and loose connections.
I don't know how to describe friends in college. You have such a cornucopia of friends, it is hard to know, but it is generally a tossup of EVERYTHING I had mentioned before and the next phase. College is a weird time. Some friends are because of geographical convenience (roommates, neighbors, etc.) people who just are nicer then the rest, people you do activities with, and people who actually have a genuine connection with.
I'm entering this new phase. After College, or AC. I don't want friends anymore who I just joke with. I don't want friends that are just always shallow. I desire substance these days, and I'm glad that I found that just about everyone I was friends with before felt the same way. That made me happy and I became better friends with those people. Great success. Also, I've made a bevy of new friends since college, which surprised me. I was always told that AC I was done making friends and meeting people. I beg to differ. I've met some awesome people since then. People who think and are funny. It has brought out a whole new side of me in the last 30 or so months. Thanks to my friends.
A quick Rivas update: He DIDN'T make the Indians out of spring training. Wow. I was disappointed. Hopefully he will be up at some point during the year though, as he did accept his assignment to AAA Buffalo. Also, I tried ordering a Rivas AAA jersey, because I thought it would be hilarious, but sadly, they do not exist.
Also, a quick Creep Old Guy Who Drinks Milk and Vodka and Drive a Pink Geo Tracker Update. I saw his Geo Tracker at a friend's apartment complex! Augh! Scary! He is following me! It was definitely his. He had weird miniature boxing gloves hainging up in the car...and they were there. It was him. That alone frightened me, but I saw him AGAIN today, back at Super America. I wasn't planning on going inside, but I started to walk towards the entrance, and he was leaving. I swear that he is going to kill me.
Time to go from one job to another!
={+}=
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Returning to 'Traditional Family Values' and becoming a Christian Nation..."again".
For those of queasy religious/political stomachs. Turn away now. Don't say I didn't warn you. This may be similar to eating a bad Chicken Soft Taco at Taco Bell....except with reading and controversy, with less hot sauce.
I often hear outrageous claims from ultra-conservative-evangelical Christians that we need to return to 'conservative family values', or something along those lines, in this country. I've been trying to research when this fictitious time period was that we need to return to. One where violence, sex, cruelty, greed, jealousy and sin did not exist and people were free to say how much they love Jesus. Two distinct time period always come up. The first time period? The area of time before and after World War 2 all the way up until sometime in the early 1960s. I'm always told this time was 'better' and given no evidence, or worst...terrible evidence. One of the most shocking is the use of mass media. Granted, mass media has only gotten worse, but one CANNOT use mass media to depict how a time period really was, especially if it is television. On ore then one occasion, I have heard shows like "Leave it to Beaver" and "Lucy" were testaments to the time period. In some ways they were, just like popular shows are today. However, as depictions of everyday life? That is where the confusion lies. Using "Leave it to Beaver" as an example of how families and people operated during the time period the show ran is ridiculous. That is like using "Full House" to demonstrate what American life was like from 1987 - till whenever the show went off the air. You remember "Full House". Very popular. Very unrealistic.
The problem is, no one seems to do research or eve think about these sort of things. "Oh, we used to be so much better back then" is a terrible thing to say. It just isn't true. Humanity has always been the same. Actually, I would argue that we keep getting better as a race. The myth that our society and families have decreased since the 1950's, and using old television shows as evidence is unreal.
My favorite, and most often heard saying is: "We were created a Christian nation..." and then usually something else ridiculous follows. When did THIS notion begin to spread? We weren't founded with any religion! That is part of the BASIS of this country. People came to the USA to avoid religious persecution, not the other way around. Separation of Church and State is a founding principal of this country, so we don't fall into the trap that western Europe did for almost a thousand years. The founding fathers were generally NOT Christian. They were mainly Unitarian, or some Deists, and some atheists. In fact, the Treaty of Tripoli, passed by the U.S. Senate in 1797 specifically states that: "The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." The fallacy that many point to...the "In God We Trust" seal on our dollars and coins was not used consistently until, well, the 1950s (bad timing for me, I know) during the McCarthy scare. It seems to me that the Founding Fathers were more concerned about making sure this country never thought this country was founded on any religion.
Honestly, there have always been and will always be similar problems. Parents get divorced or have a falling out. People will fight and kill. People will do terrible things to each other in every way we can think of. I pray that there will be a day that these things WON'T happen, but lets not try to pretend that they didn't in the past. Ignorance is bliss, but one can only have so much bliss before they pass out.
To read more about the founding fathers and religion...check this out: http://skeptically.org/thinkersonreligion/id9.html
Also, Wikipedia helped me out doing this blog. Check it out too.
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I often hear outrageous claims from ultra-conservative-evangelical Christians that we need to return to 'conservative family values', or something along those lines, in this country. I've been trying to research when this fictitious time period was that we need to return to. One where violence, sex, cruelty, greed, jealousy and sin did not exist and people were free to say how much they love Jesus. Two distinct time period always come up. The first time period? The area of time before and after World War 2 all the way up until sometime in the early 1960s. I'm always told this time was 'better' and given no evidence, or worst...terrible evidence. One of the most shocking is the use of mass media. Granted, mass media has only gotten worse, but one CANNOT use mass media to depict how a time period really was, especially if it is television. On ore then one occasion, I have heard shows like "Leave it to Beaver" and "Lucy" were testaments to the time period. In some ways they were, just like popular shows are today. However, as depictions of everyday life? That is where the confusion lies. Using "Leave it to Beaver" as an example of how families and people operated during the time period the show ran is ridiculous. That is like using "Full House" to demonstrate what American life was like from 1987 - till whenever the show went off the air. You remember "Full House". Very popular. Very unrealistic.
The problem is, no one seems to do research or eve think about these sort of things. "Oh, we used to be so much better back then" is a terrible thing to say. It just isn't true. Humanity has always been the same. Actually, I would argue that we keep getting better as a race. The myth that our society and families have decreased since the 1950's, and using old television shows as evidence is unreal.
My favorite, and most often heard saying is: "We were created a Christian nation..." and then usually something else ridiculous follows. When did THIS notion begin to spread? We weren't founded with any religion! That is part of the BASIS of this country. People came to the USA to avoid religious persecution, not the other way around. Separation of Church and State is a founding principal of this country, so we don't fall into the trap that western Europe did for almost a thousand years. The founding fathers were generally NOT Christian. They were mainly Unitarian, or some Deists, and some atheists. In fact, the Treaty of Tripoli, passed by the U.S. Senate in 1797 specifically states that: "The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." The fallacy that many point to...the "In God We Trust" seal on our dollars and coins was not used consistently until, well, the 1950s (bad timing for me, I know) during the McCarthy scare. It seems to me that the Founding Fathers were more concerned about making sure this country never thought this country was founded on any religion.
Honestly, there have always been and will always be similar problems. Parents get divorced or have a falling out. People will fight and kill. People will do terrible things to each other in every way we can think of. I pray that there will be a day that these things WON'T happen, but lets not try to pretend that they didn't in the past. Ignorance is bliss, but one can only have so much bliss before they pass out.
To read more about the founding fathers and religion...check this out: http://skeptically.org/thinkersonreligion/id9.html
Also, Wikipedia helped me out doing this blog. Check it out too.
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