Being the man she deserves

Published on January 25, 2012 in A Day in the Life and My Goddess. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Sometimes I take a step back from my life and think, “Man, I am one luck guy!” No, I’m not be a billionaire, and I’m certainly not anything special to look at, but I have been extremely fortunate to find myself in the loving arms of a beautiful woman. Denice is such an awesome girl, and I am so happy to be hers. I only hope I can live up to the kind of person that she believes I am. It’s a weird feeling to have someone believe in you. It is exhilarating in a way, yet in another it is frightening.

I was telling Denice about how I let this asshole on the Interstate get to me today. Normally when someone gives me the finger for no apparent reason I just blow it off, but today that wasn’t the case. I was driving home a few hours ago, going a little faster than the speed limit, when this clown gets right up on my bumper. There was a car in front of me, so I couldn’t go any faster. He eventually sped around me, and flipped me off, all while hanging his head out of his window and hurling expletives at me. I was enraged. I started to speed up to catch him. I’m not sure what I would have done if I did, but it was a moot point, seeing that my truck is a beater, and couldn’t catch the guy anyway. Well, after about a minute I realized how stupid my behavior was. Here I am, driving like a maniac in my little green beater, trying to catch an immature little punk who doesn’t know me from Adam, all the while endangering my life and the lives of everyone around me. Stupid. I quickly regained my calm, and went back to driving like a normal person.

When I finished telling Denice my story, she said that she thought it was funny because every time she would get road rage, she would hear my voice saying, “just let it go. It’s not worth it,” in her mind. I have already made that kind of impression on her. It was humbling to know that she takes my words as wisdom, and I almost ruin her image of me by letting that douche push my buttons. It makes me want to try harder to be the kind of person that she can look up to. She already is to me. I hope I never let her down again.

 

You kill a killer, you become a killer

Published on January 24, 2012 in Philosophy. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

I get in these phases sometimes when I go looking for horrific things on the Internet. I’ll go on Youtube and look for videos of slaughter houses, self-immolation, torture, and all manner of violence. Most of the time I can’t finish watching what I went looking for. Like I’ve said before, I have a pretty high capacity for empathy, and strangely enough… an equally high capacity for violence. Seeing someone innocent hurt, or even an animal being abused, triggers a kind of rage inside me. I have watched videos about women being kidnapped and then pimped out as sex slaves, and I would fantasize, do fantasize, about hunting down their captors and slaughtering them. I am keenly aware that there are two distinct sides to my psyche. One is gentle and caring, another is brutal and cold. I am careful to never allow my dark side to influence my actions. If I were to unleash it, even to avenge the innocent, I do not believe that I could ever fully recall it. I would be changed, and I can never allow that. Revenge is not the answer, and contrary to popular belief… you cannot fight fire with fire. You can, however, extinguish fire with water.

Sylar flipping out [Video]

Published on January 22, 2012 in A Day in the Life and Youtube. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Sylar has a tendency to ‘flip out’ when he gets around Denice.

Rolling Thunder

Published on January 21, 2012 in A Day in the Life, Vegan and Youtube. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

It was storming when I woke up this morning. I love thunder storms. Lightning is beautiful and terrifyingly dreadful at the same time. I’m attracted to it with a sense of cautious awe. When I finally got out of bed, I tried to take Sylar out for a potty break, but he refused to go out into the rain. I had to pull him out of the door. Afterwards, we both went back to bed and listened to the thunder for a while.

We now have four videos in the can for our Carnivore Rehab project on Youtube. We’re still having a hard time keeping away from the dairy products, but we have maintained our abstinence from meat. Our weakness is Mexican food, especially chips and queso dip. If we can break our addiction to cheese, I think we will be on our way to becoming true vegans.

I’m trying to think of what to do for the next video over at the Erick’s Odyssey Youtube Channel. I’m going to give editing a try for a while. I’m not that proficient with it yet, so don’t expect much. I think I’ll do a video on the defeat of SOPA and PIPA. Stay tuned.

The Nature of Friendship [VLog]

Published on January 17, 2012 in Youtube. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

What is it that causes people to bond together in friendship? Why is it that some people, even though they should be good friend material, are so hard to relate to? Is it all just body language, personality, and shared interests, or is there something else going on? Thoughts welcome…

I have a Dream too [VLog]

Published on January 15, 2012 in Philosophy and Youtube. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has a dream, well, I have a dream too. In my dream there are no races or nations, we are all just human beings. In my dream, we are one family, living on one planet. In my dream, the things that we all have in common are far more important that the things we don’t. Come, join me… we can make the dream real.

A line in the sand

Published on January 14, 2012 in In the News, Philosophy and Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

I was discussing the recent incident of the US Marines urinating on the dead Taliban fighters with Denice. The video was very shocking to her. The bad thing is that it should have been shocking to me, but it wasn’t. Unfortunately, my eyes have seen this and much, much worse. For the life of me, I don’t know why soldiers love to film their exploits. I’ve seen video of soldiers hurling puppies off of cliffs, shooting random pedestrians, sexually abusing prisoners of war, torturing, raping, and killing… all for simple amusement. The amazing thing is that most of these people started out as normal, well-adjusted individuals. It takes a lot of training to make a good soldier, but just one good taste of the horrors of war to turn that soldier into a sub-human killing machine. It is a hard thing indeed for a good person to hold on to their humanity when they are injected into a situation where they are forced to kill, and often kill on a regular basis.

At a point in the conversation we got to talking about the trouble that is brewing with Iran. I personally think it is only a matter of time before the U.S. ends up in a major conflict with Iran. A war with Iran would be bad, no so much because Iran is a capable military opponent, but more because it could end up dragging China, Russia, and Israel into the insanity. China and Russia are heavily dependent on Iran for oil, and Israel has been frothing at the mouth to get at Iran for a long time. The U.S., China, and Russia all have nuclear weapons technology. What I see forming is the perfect storm of human stupidity that could very well usher in a Mad Max, Hell on Earth apocalypse.

If the wort case scenarios come to fruition, it is a certainty that the U.S. government will re-institute the draft. Technically, I have exceeded draftable age, but I’m sure if things got bad enough that wouldn’t matter. If the proverbial ‘shit’ hits the proverbial ‘fan’ then I’m afraid anyone who can walk and pull a trigger would be fair game. I want to make my position known right now on this. I am not going to play this game, period. I am not going to go kill people to protect corporate interests, or to satisfy the egos of government and military douche bags. I am not a coward, and have no problem using deadly force to protect what I hold dear, but I do not believe that this is the case. When things are escalating out of control, someone has to draw a line in the sand. If enough of us refuse to become instruments of death… then the insanity will come to an end. Enough is enough. War ends with me!

Basketball is better with hair bows, and a weather update

Published on January 12, 2012 in A Day in the Life. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

I’m sitting here with Denice, watching women’s basketball. I don’t know why I feel a need to preface it by saying that we are watching women’s basketball, instead of just basketball. No one says that when they watch men play basketball. They just call it basketball and everyone assumes it is men, but not so with the girls. I’m not really into the sport, but to be honest with you, I like watching the girls play a lot more than I like watching the boys. When the men play, it’s mostly about show-boating and superstars. The girls are more technical and team oriented. And besides that, it’s always interesting to see so many six-foot+ tall girls in one place.

We have enjoyed unseasonably warm weather here in the Tennessee valley for the past few days. That has come to an end. In the past twelve hours the temperature has dropped over twenty degrees, and it’s going to get even colder by morning. I fear that old man Winter is about to bitch-slap us a reminder of just how bone-chilling cold he can be. I’m ready for it. Sure, it’s going to put a hamper on my sudden mountain biking renaissance, but I’m too chubby for that right now anyway. I am dropping some weight though. In spite of the recent bad eating that Denice and I have done, we are both still down a few pounds. Hopefully, we will be able to keep the momentum, and by spring time we’ll be in much better shape to do some cycling.

That’s all for now. I’m going to go take a hot shower, and engage in one of my favorite activities… sleep.

 

To thine own self be true [VLog]

Published on January 9, 2012 in Youtube. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

I’m not sure who I am yet, but I know I’m not a professor, or a tough guy, or an atheist with anal-retention. I’m just an ordinary guy who thought he had it all figured out. I am Erick, and this is Erick’s Odyssey.

Blogging with Aliens and Barking Dogs

Published on January 6, 2012 in A Day in the Life, What I'm Reading and Youtube. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

The past few days have been pretty busy. I’ve haven’t had a lot of time to blog. We’re in the middle of doing a refinance of our house. At the moment we are in a conventional 30 year mortgage, but if this goes through ok, we are going to be switching to a 15 year loan at a much lower rate. I was kind of amazed when I looked up the numbers and found that we had only paid off a few thousand dollars on the actual principle of the loan. The vast majority of our payments have been going towards the interest. Over the couse of this loan, we will pay more than twice what the home is worth in interst alone. Fifty years ago you could have been locked up for charging such an exorbitant amount of interst on a loan. It was called ‘usery.’ Today, the banks own the law, and can freely take advantage of people who are in desperate situations. Shameful.

Anyway, it’s kind of late right now. Denice is laying down, catching up on some much needed rest. I am sitting here blogging, and watching something on TV about Area 51 and alien conspiracies. The dogs seem a little on edge tonight. I’m not sure why. They have been going off at the slightest noises from outside. They’re good watch dogs, but it does get anoying some times. When I get done with this I’m probably going to take a long hot shower.

We haven’t done any videos yet for out Carnivore Rehab project on Youtube. It’s turning out to be more difficult than I thought it would. I haven’t had any meat, but both Denice and myself have had dairy and processed food. There is no doubt about it… this is a real addiction. Hopefully we’ll get to do some videos tomorrow.

I am currently reading Children of the Mind, the final book in Orson Scott Card’s Ender saga. So far it’s pretty good. I was trying to explain the concept of a monastic order where you have to be married to join, but also be celebate. Having sex is awesome, but if I had to give it up to be with Denice, I would do it. If you have no idea what the hell I’m talking about, read the book.

Till next time.