I absolutely love the location of my apartment. Last night I went for a run north on Larkin street, past Ghiradelli square. As I extend my run I think I will run to the sea lions and back.
And then this morning I find out there is an anti-Wal-Mart documentary coming out soon. It will be shown in select theatres (11 total in the country). One of them is 0.6 miles from my apartment. That makes it rather easy to go to.
Well I just rescheduled my CCNA exam from tomorrow to Friday. That is a monkey off of my back. He was starting to scratch, too.
As many of you know, I am an atheist. Not only am I an atheist in the broad sense of the term, which is “an absence of belief in the existence of god(s)”, but I am an atheist who has an affirmative belief that there does not exist a god.
Everyone is a hypocrite in some way. I personally try to minimize my own level of hypocrisy. This is difficult for an atheist to do in a Christian country. We encounter Christianity and religion every day. Through the use of phrases, belief in a god becomes assumed among everyone. It is amazing how difficult it is to remove certain religious habits from my daily practices. For a few years now, I have been trying my hardest not to say “bless you.” Instead, I say “salud”, which means “health” in Spanish, and is the customary equivalent to “bless you.” Just changing this one phrase in my vocabulary has proved extremely difficult. Maybe ten years from now I can stop saying “God damn it” and “Jesus Christ!” as exclamatory remarks.
As difficult as it is to change your own behavior, I would imagine it would be much more difficult to change others’ behavior towards you. We are approaching the winter holiday season. As we get closer to Christmas, I can expect to receive at least a few Christmas cards. Additionally, I will hear “Merry Christmas!” directed towards me quite often. Unfortunately, Christianity is something that is placed upon you by default in this country. It is something you have to opt out of. Another unfortunate trend is that one seems to have a limited number of choices. Unless you are outwardly a member of another major religion, you become Christian by default to almost everyone.
So now the question becomes – How do I protect my own identity? There is a fine line between protecting my identity and avoiding confrontation with those close to me. I think I will make a conscious effort to kindly inform at least some people that I do not celebrate Christmas if they are to wish me a merry Christmas. But will I do the same with my own family? That is not likely to happen this year. I can only remove so much of my hypocrisy at a time.
Tim O’Reilly says:
“Wikipedia may have its problems, but the output of traditional media can be pretty crappy too,” he said. “Fox News managed to persuade much of America that we found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, didn’t they?”
The above quote was found in the article “Web 2.0 Cracks Start to Show” from Wired.
For all you Redskins fans – check out this sweet video of Sean Taylor highlights.
I am reminded every single day of the life that I thought I would be living. I will be happily sitting at my computer reading some news and I will see a story about Madison, Wisconsin.
It is like going to washingtonpost.com and seeing:
8 Marines die in Iraq
Your girlfriend broke up with you
Redskins beat 49ers
It is inescapable.
You have probably heard the following countless times: We must respect everyone’s beliefs. Well that is, of course, unless such beliefs have already been deemed taboo.
It is unacceptable to subscribe to a belief system that does not allow equal rights for all, and I do not respect any such belief system. Take, for instance, gay marriage. Why should I respect the viewpoint that gays do not deserve equal rights? Calling gay people second-class citizens, which is essentially what such a viewpoint is doing, is hateful. It doesn’t matter that the majority of our country holds such beliefs, or that many sects of Christianity advocate such beliefs. These beliefs are still hateful and those who hold them should be called on it.
At the same time, why not listen to the arguments of a belief that you don’t respect, at least once? However twisted or wrong these particular individuals may be, some of them are very intelligent and aren’t just talking out of their ass.
See, here we have two extremes. If a belief is taboo, then we aren’t even supposed to listen to and carefully consider the arguments for said belief. On the other hand, if a belief is mainstream, then we automatically have to “respect” said belief.
Today was the 22nd anniversery of my birth. I was able to, rather sporadically, arrange to meet Rosa at a bar near Columbus Avenue. Her friend from work was scheduled to spin some rap and R&B.
I think I may have found a new “good” bar (although, *grumble*, they don’t make White Russians). Well, I suppose it was Rosa that found it, not me. I digress. I asked for two shots of “good” (I need to lay off the quotes) vodka. Some bartenders might have probed me for an exact brand name, but this one understood that I wanted him to figure it out for me. He returned with the best damn vodka I have ever had. I felt a little awkward downing two shots of vodka for no particular reason, so I explained that it was my birthday, and that drinking two shots was better than drinking 22 shots. What a great bartender! He gave me the premium vodka on the house!
Conversation was good with Rosa and her friend. Oddly enough, I think birthdays are best celebrated with people you don’t know well. I remember my 18th birthday. Two of my friends ditched me, and I celebrated my birthday with my friend Jamie, and three of his friends that I don’t even remember any more. Even though I knew only Jamie, that was one of my best birthdays.
I hope everyone else had a great day as well. As for me, only two more nights of sleeping without a mattress!