The Food Doesn't Matter

Any food can be fried, baked, chocolate-covered, battered, breaded, salted, corn oiled, and have all of these unhealthy things done to it. No matter what food this is done to, its nutritional value can range dramatically as a result. People may think chocolate-covered raisins, or plantain chips are healthy because the origin of the two unhealthy foods are fruits. By that same token any fruit, however, can be turned into a dessert or pastry, and thus, sure a tasty treat that is self-assuring because it was once a fruit, but a far more unhealthy food than anyone is ever willing to realize.

To the Deliberately Different Folk

To anyone who refuses to use Google, iTunes or Apple products, YouTube, or Facebook stemming from a distinct attempt to simply be "different", I applaud your behavior. I experience similar angst whenever I use my iPhone (right now as I write this blog with it in fact!). There is something to be said about the way people flaunt their mass-market, populist devices. And whatever is to be said, I don't want to be part of it. I think it's the connoisseur in me, the film-noir fanatic, the intentionally anti-triple-A video game and blockbuster film gene in my blood that makes me want, at every opportunity, no matter the cost, to be unique, and unlike the ghastly "mass market", or plain Jane "least common denominator". I am someone who can't appreciate life's joys without analyzing them. I can't possibly bear to follow the crowd. But despite this, I sometimes do. Moreso out of necessity to 'get with the times', but I do nonetheless.

To all of those who use 35mm as opposed to digital, I understand. To all of those who have purchased Zunes, and not iPods, I'm here with you. To all of those who actively forced themselves to type in "Bing.com" to try it out, rather than the ever-ubiquitous "Google.com", for which is now a verb and all you have to do to get there because you've visited it so much is type in the letter "G", high-five. And to myself, who has given up Facebook for Lent, great choice, and why don't we keep this rolling for as long as it will last, because we all know scouting people's Homecoming pictures, and copping to the fact that you "stalk" people is lame, and let's be frank about this, no one listens to what you have to say anyway, which is why I come here, my pedestal, where my words bear meaning. So much so that I got an entire sports team up in arms. The power of words is mighty.

Why I am Becoming Less Impressed with THE Google

Google search is infinitely ubiquitous for its usability, efficiency, and... well, it's lack of accuracy. But I have found many problems with it.

The single problem that screams most prominently is Google's own ad service in which invariably ads will clog up any hope you had at finding any information regarding your query other than its Wikipedia page, and If that's what you want, then why not set your homepage to "Wikipedia.org"?! Google seems to truly have stooped rather low in order to garner support from the world of least common denominators out there. Which brings me to my second grievance; AutoComplete. AutoComplete is likely the single feature in technology that has made me lose faith in humanity. It is the most embarrassing display of the average human's lack of intelligence by some of the extremely lame-brained that have been voiced, and has convinced me of how sexually-obsessed and entertainment-hungry society is. It is a shame, but what can you expect from the world's least common denominators and their tendencies to be attracted to violent or otherwise inappropriate forms of media.

The Attire of Scumbags: Black Shirt + White Tie

Why is it that scumbags insist on making themselves so easily identifiable? With their formal attire of choice invariably a black flannel button-down with a white tie.

Weddings, wakes, funerals, birthdays, whatever it be, you can spot these Mafia-wannabes a mile away. And for this do they rarely fit in.

The Nature of My Blogging

I have received countless remarks of acclaim, as well as criticism for my blogging style and the topics I cover. I can't help but sense I'm restricted at every opportunity to be raw and truthful with my readers in favor of a soft, plausible fallacy that both comforts people and makes them think they know the way I feel. I think this is too conventional. I don't like convention. So I decided to break away from this.

Thus, I am now, without restraint, going to tell you exactly how I feel at this very moment: like a caged animal. Furious. Irritated. Uneasy. I am furious that my truth is being oppressed. I am irritated that irritated that people take offense with my words, knowing that I am being as frank and honest with my readers as possible. And I am uneasy contemplating the number of times I will likely be sent to the dean's office for my sister's tattle-tailing tendencies.

I'm also not a fan of façades, or of people behaving in a fashion that is inauthentic and not true to themselves.

An interesting facet of my psyche is that I could never cope with being merely "average". So rather than being "strange", I have attempted to be "extraordinary". Whether this intent has worked or not, it has certainly worked in my favor somehow, no one will ever make the mistake of deeming me as "average".

Ignatius Internet

When a $13,000+ tuition affords you as crappy of an internet service as Ignatius' you have to ask yourself, what went wrong? For starters, this year Ignatius added several new laptops to its inventory, further overwhelming the already sufficiently 'whelmed school bandwidth. The small bandwidth was clearly implemented as a cost-savings measure some time ago, presumably when we didn't measure memory in terms of gigabytes, or now, terabytes.

The internet is so slow in fact that to sign in to this page, I was forced to wait five minutes. Despite this sounding inconsequential and knit-picky this can seem ages, especially when we as students have very limited time as it is, balancing school, sports, extra-circulars, and whatnot, our relatively little time spent during free periods is valuable, and need not be wasted.

Consider fiber optic, Ignatius.

Is it possible to be as Popular as Ashton Kutcher or Justin Bieber?

An interesting website called Twitaholic.com records the total number of followers, updates, and the number of those being followed by the most popular Twitter users. Topping the list are none other than Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and Britney Spears at third. Recently it has been proved by the Freakonomics Radio podcast that Twitter's users don't necessarily act by the rules of reciprocity; meaning, you don't have to follow in order to be followed. For example, country/pop singer, Taylor Swift has over 5.5 million followers, while she follows a measly 53 other users.

If you scour the site, you'll soon notice that the overwhelming majority of the microblogging site's most popular users have reputations to maintain and PR agents breathing down their necks. No ordinary person would be so obsessed to deal with their fans on such a superficial, indirect, and impersonal level as the site's users inevitably stoop down to. After a quick scan of the "loved" tweeters, the self-obsession bleeds right through the monitor. There's the obvious "I had this for breakfast" routine, but then there's also the whole show-boating aspect of it all, pimping any new products you happen to be advertising, any films you happen to be in, and music you happen to be releasing, etc. There are also feeble attempts at saving the world via Red Cross text message funds. (See Katy Perry, also http://gizmodo.com/#!5781182/did-your-donation-really-reach-japan-probably-not)

Ashton Kutcher used World Malaria Day as a way to garner followers, whether it was disingenuous and merely a publicity stunt is debatable. So if I, virtually a nobody to anyone outside of my school, community, parish, family, and friends were to stand up to the Lady Gagas of the world, the Kim Kardashian-bigshots, the Parish Hilton-owners of the universe, I first, would likely fail to do so, but not fail to make a contribution to a "good" cause, but rather, fail to gain nearly as a substantial following those mentioned. Although, considering how patently useless someone like Paris Hilton has been to all of mankind, and how undeserved all of her fame and wealth are, I may actually stand a chance.

In short, and not to get the reputation of a mad UFO witness, the world would be a [slightly] better place without Twitter. People would think in complete thought and sentences, would abide by the rules of grammar, children wouldn't be fooled by false hopes of someday becoming famous through Twitter, and no one would ever be cut off because of a 140 character cap.

Don't expect to see a "FlammenHund" account on Twitter any time soon.

Quick Question: Do Laws of Morality Apply Online and On the Road?

Here's a question to rattle your intellects; do laws of Christian, if not, other religious standards of morality apply to our behaviors online or while driving on public roads? Most would say yes, but to add another layer of complexity to the query, think of how minimally [or possibly maximally] our behaviors in both worlds may yield results; cutting someone off equals a middle finger to be drawn, while blowing a red light may cause an accident, ultimately costing someone his or her life, likewise, negative status updates, tweets, or other net-based contributions may have someone feel unhappy for moments afterward, or in some cases, force the one being ridiculed to commit suicide as we commonly see with teenage girls on Facebook or other popular social networking sites.

Bah

We have to live with imperfection and interruption. Distraction and disenchantment. Urges and obligations that prevent us from doing what we love most, or hope to do most, or build on and progress with most.

My "Gift to the World"

YOU KNOW WHAT? Believe it or not, blogging is my gift to the world. Whether I have evidence to back up the claims found in my posts is debatable, but just because my style of blogging is controversial or gets people up in arms doesn't mean this hobby is invalid or should seize to continue. In fact, I have a right to voice my opinions, no matter how hair-brained they may be, or however hair-brained you may perceive them to be.

No doubt I have a lot of things against America, like its drivers, its people, its government, but if I didn't tell you what I thought was wrong with it, I'd just be lying! The worst possible thing any journalist can do, amateur or professional, is tell a lie. Bias often creeps in to our newspapers, magazines, and websites in the form of advertisement pressure, "moneyhats", "SWAG", etc. (SWAG denoting "Stuff We All Get", rather than a rapper's version of Austin Power's "Mojo"). But my transparency, my honest-to-goodness clarity and self-criticism are what make my blog posts so unique and uncannily unbiased.

So if you disagree with my writing, that's quite a shame. Because I'm not going anywhere, and don't intend to any time soon. I have an opinion on almost any issue, and as the common adage goes, 'I have a right to voice it'.