Young & Stupid?

There is an overused phrase that tends to surface somewhat later in life, usually a couple of years after college. “Young and stupid,” people say, when describing the dumb things they did in their earlier days. Life is a learning process, of course, a slightly exponential curve of knowledge gained from birth until we are either dead or mostly incapacitated. Understandably, in our older years we tend to be more morally awake and aware of what is stupid and what isn’t, by the general consensus.

Being as petulant and critical as I admittedly am, I have a problem with that statement. Several problems, actually. Firstly, in the context it is usually used in, it treats stupidity as something that’s funny. In some cases, yes, stupidity can lead to doing things that are pretty funny, but I’m talking about doing things that are just downright brainless. Those of you who know me well know that I have a very, very low tolerance for stupidity. I guess I just don’t understand how wasting people’s time and resources could be funny in any way, especially when it involves doing something destructive or dangerous.

Secondly, I do not understand the concept of a stupidity threshold. That phrase suggests that at some point, people go from being imperceptive in exercising their free will to suddenly realizing that they’ve been acting like morons. It’s like the sonic boom of awareness—once people are beyond that barrier, they look back and start to laugh, like they just got a joke.

I’m sure that looking back I’ll have things I regret. I already regret some of the things I’ve done. But that doesn’t necessarily mean I was stupid. As of yet, I have a disciplinary record that is cleaner than Chris Brown’s image before he punched out Rhianna. There isn’t a thing on my traffic record, my police record, or my academic record—not even a single detention since my first day of preschool. This isn’t because I’m a perfect person, a goody-two-shoes white boy that’s totally full of himself. It’s because I look at each action as a choice, a possibility for different results. It seems that people only focus on the big decisions in life: college, marriage, career choices, and etcetera. But I think it’s more than that—life is affected just as much by the countless small and irreversible decisions we make on a daily basis as it is by those big choices. In order to keep yourself on track—to keep from letting yourself be “young and stupid”—it’s a good idea to calculate just a little more the consequences of your actions. I may sound like a chiding parent, but your image is in your own hands.

There will come a day when I’ll be sitting in a lawn chair having a cold one with some friends at a summer block party, or around a campfire out camping with some buddies, and they’ll start to talk about when they were young and stupid. They’ll talking about getting drunk and getting high, and everything they did when they were drunk and high, or at least the things they remember. And I will sit back in my chair and smile, because I will have nothing to say.

In order to prevent this from sounding totally egocentric, I will add a goal to this. I follow this goal, and I will pass it on to you: challenge yourself to raise your standards. Whenever you act, just use common sense. It shouldn’t be too much to ask. Am I saying to be more like me? No, I don’t like the sound of that. Be yourself. But make your youth something you can look back and be proud of, rather than something of a joke, parts of which you’d rather forget.

Current Mood: Calm

Listening To: "The Unforgiven II" by Metallica

Don't Take Your Guns To Town

Michael Latz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Shooting Incidents in Q2_2008-2009
2008:
    July 27 -- One person was killed and eight others were wounded as a man opened fire inside a church with a shotgun in the city of Knoxville, Tennessee.
    Aug. 1 -- A gunman took the lives of three teenagers and injured another near Menominee River in northern Wisconsin.
    Aug. 13 -- A man forced his way into the Arkansas Democratic headquarters and fatally shot state party chairman Bill Gwatney.
    Sept. 2 -- Six people were shot dead and two were wounded in a series of shooting incidents in Washington State.
    Oct. 16 -- One high-school student was killed and three were seriously injured when a gunman shot at them near their school in Detroit, Michigan.
    Oct. 26 -- Two people were killed and one was injured in a shooting incident at the University of Central Arkansas.
    Nov. 23 -- A teenager shot dead a young man in a shopping mall in suburban Seattle. One person was also seriously injured.
    Dec. 14 -- A man dressed in a Santa Claus costume barged into a Christmas Eve party in Covina, a Los Angeles suburb, and opened fire, killing at least eight people before taking his own life.
2009:
    Jan. 24 -- Two people were killed and seven others wounded in a gun-shooting spree by unidentified assailants in a house in Wichita, Kansas.
    On the same day, two teenagers died and seven others were injured when a gunman opened fire at a group of students outside a nightspot in Portland, Oregon.
    Feb. 24 -- At least seven people were injured in a gun-shooting incident at the New Orleans' Mardi Gras festival.
Source Lu Yanan, Xinhua News, Beijing

That already is quite a list of deadly shootings, and that was before this week began. And what a week it's been:

On Sunday, some asshole showed up at a church in Maryville, Illinois with a .45 and a couple dozen rounds, shot the pastor in the face, and then proceeded to stab the people trying to disarm him.

Yesterday (the tenth,) another jerkoff blew away his mother, and then his dog for Christ sake, lit them on FIRE, and then continued to his Uncle's house where he left enough casings and bodies to be considered comparable to a drive-by in Compton. His next targets included his grandmother, GRANDMOTHER, and three random victims: a pedestrian, a woman in a gas station, and someone driving on the highway. One of his own .38 rounds relieved the police of their duty to blow his head off (I'm assuming it was a .38, because generally speaking, suicide by shotgun is difficult since the trigger is so far away.)

Now I wake up this morning to a cup of coffee and a school shooting near Stuttgart. This time, some 17 year old cockchoke thought it would be a fuckin' blast to play dress up like R6 and blow away some teenage girls at his former school. He walked into the classroom and hit a number of children in the head with surgical precision, dropping them before they even dropped their pencils. Real swift, I hope you had fun when the Polizei filled you with more 9mm rounds than there are holes in the evidence of Saddam's WMDs.

This unfortunate series of events has led me to one question: WHAT THE FUCK?

This planet, United States in particular, is filled, crammed TO THE BRIM with hundreds of thousands of immoral, insecure momma's boys that are deluded with maniacal ideas because of their unhealthy obsessions with COD4. These antisocial creatures breed on hate and their own self-pity, until they "snap" (I think it's more of a "coming out of the closet,") and start spraying bullets like a pack of trigger-happy Hajis in al-Anbar (pardon the racial slur, I am not anti-Islam, just very pissed off.)

That out of the way, I reveal my intention for writing this. The hardcore leftists are bleeding out of the woodwork now like worms after a rainstorm, ranting and raving on their blogs that people should not be allowed to own guns. Their likely story would be that gun control is the root of all these shootings, and that videogames are evil. What? In my opinion that's as likely a story as suggesting that the Bush administration is in no way responsible for the total massacre of the international economy. I need say no more than "Second Amendment," but of course I will.

By default I am independent philosophically and politically, but as a headnote it should be known that gun control is one thing I'm very, very Conservative about. I hate how these people go on and on about banning all weapons permanently, and how it's all the gun manufacturers' fault and whatever. Here's why: they refuse to take responsibility for anything. Some of those people who sit on their damned iMacs drinking Starbucks and Snapple while blowing politics out their ass on their blogs are themselves the problem. And what is that, you ask? PARENTS. I hold parents responsible. As you may know, I am generally disgusted with modern youth and parents, these snobby, yuppie by-products that have mouths bigger than their brains. That is perhaps generalizing a bit too much, but it's true--all of these shooters were under the age of 40, the overwhelming majority were under 30, and some under even 20 years old. They are still under influence of things they learned--or did not learn--from their parents.

This leads me to the videogame point--parents blame videogames for all of these horrible instances. If I may retort: one, you're wrong, and I will explain why, and two, if videogames are the root of all evil in the world, then why the hell do you continue to feed cash into the filthy Rockstar machine so that your little Johnny can let his creativity run free (by which I am referring to rape, torture, and murder) and hack off heads in the comfort of your living room? Hypocrite. Anyway, if you do need an example of a case where videogames do not corrupt the mind, you can look straight at me, or the other 99.9999bar% kids that don't decide on school shootings as their favorite extracurricular activity. You must admit that you are only using videogames as a shield to cover up your poor parenting abilities that are the reason for Johnny's antisocial behavior. In nature vs. nurture, you ARE the nurture, and that plays an immense role in the development of the person.

Back to the "legality of guns" issue. Of course I don't think bazookas should be legal, or even fully automatic weapons, since the only intent of autos is to kill a large number of people or completely annihilate a paper target. But rifles, shotguns, and handguns? Firearms are as important to the American creed as the stars and stripes or saturated fat-laden cheesecake. Here's why outlawing them would be ridiculous. Marijuana is illegal. Do you (especially you college students,) know anyone that smokes Mary Jane? Okay, now apply that to guns. Whoever wants guns, for whatever purpose, will get them, illegal or not. In fact, the ones who get them illegally would be those more likely to carry out horrendous murders such as those committed on a (now) regular basis. Outlawing anything practical deprives it from the law-abiding citizens and limits it to those who break the law anyway. This is one of many items on a long list of reasons why firearms are still legal in this country.

In order to correct any extreme or baseless points, I will acknowledge the flaws in my argument. Not all of these shooters are to be put entirely at fault. Some of them are schizophrenic, or have other mental disorders which are valid reasons to say that they did not possess normal judgement. Not all of them grew up in an environment with poor parenting. However, when it comes to the point of mass-murder, I take this issue very seriously and permanently stick it to their records.

Also, there are many, many flaws in our gun laws that are full of red tape and ridiculous, LUDICROUS rules and exceptions that allow the wrong people to get the wrong thing. The government and gun lobbyists deserve some "credit" for these deaths, and I hold them partially accountable.

That being said, I'm going to go get a shotgun, and also a sidearm thanks to a giant gaping loophole in the California gun codes, and go refine my marksmanship at the RANGE (as opposed to at a school or shopping mall.) That way, when one of these chicken fucks approaches me on the street dressed in their best Sunday BDUs, I can disassemble their head onto the sidewalk before they kill someone whose life has some worth, like the 58 people lost to these pricks in the last 8 months.

And rest in peace.

Current Mood: Agitated

Listening To: "Sonne" by Rammstein

Decisions, Decisions

There are several points in life at which you reach a major crossroads. There are, of course, many side paths and detours you can take that detail the journey, but whenever you are forced to go left or right, you need to think things through. There are no U-turns on this road.

Now, normally these crossroads are few and far between, but only months after the major decision-critical transition from high school to college, I find myself at another damned intersection. Right now I'm stopped at a red light, with some time to figure out which way I'll turn, but when it hits green again, I need to know exactly what I plan to do. To the left is a civilian life, and probably a good one, as an Aerospace Engineer. To the right is the military.

Here are my conditions:
1. I want to serve my country. I am a proponent of civil service, and believe that it is necessary for the betterment of society. I have committed some of my life to this, and would not hesitate to provide more. This pushes me right.

2. I want to fly. A life goal is to become a fighter pilot, or at least some sort of pilot. The military is the easiest way to reach this goal. This pushes me further right.

3. I have no intention of dying. I think war is an overly-glorified, tired-out human concept that does not belong in the modern world. I hate being affected by other peoples' stupidity, and would rather it not be the reason for my death. This pushes me left.

4. I do not want the military to dictate my life. I don't mind living the military life for awhile, but will not allow the government, or any group, ideology, or political institution to own me. This pushes me far left.

5. I want to make sure that I have a solid resume and good experiences for civilian life. I do not want a career in the military, just a term. This is neutral, I could either add military to my resume or just enter the workforce.

6. I have to be able to plan out a sequence. If I enter the military, it pretty much sets my personal life and other career goals back eight years. If I get married, I don't want to have kids while I am in active service. This sounds ridiculous coming from me now, since I'm only eighteen, but I want things to fall into place. There are certain things that will block me from being happy later on if I never accomplished them.


Here are options I am considering:
1. Take OCC: Officer's Candidacy Course is a rigorous, if not torturous entry course to the United States Marine Corps. If I choose this option, I will finish my Bachelor's degree, then go to Quantico, Virginia for the 10-week training camp, and enter the Marine Corps as an Officer. I like this option because I would love to become a Marine, but dislike it because my focus would not be in aviation.

2. Take OTS: Officer's Training School is essentially the OCC of the Air Force. It isn't quite as rigorous, since it is the Air Force instead of the Marines (not quite the same reputation,) but it is longer, at 13.5 weeks. I would also enter this after graduating with my 4-year degree. I like this option because it is much more likely to get me a pilot slot than the USMC, but dislike it because AFROTC and USAFA units are chosen for the slots before OTS. It's kind of the bottom of the barrel.

3. Take AFROTC: Air Force ROTC is a series of courses I can take here at San Jose State. I would have to do mandatory physical training, which I am essentially doing anyway, and take a number of classes. I like this because it would pretty much guarantee me a slot in the Air Force, and has better chances of getting me in the air. I highly dislike it because I do not want the military to interfere with my college life. I want to experience college and the military separately.

4. Skip the military: I could enter the workforce right away. There are lots of options available to me in the industry. Aerospace is a cyclical business, and is currently at a low point, so I think there should be plenty of career opportunities around graduation time. My goal of becoming a pilot could be achieved with a private license further down the line. But it sure ain't a fighter pilot.

In any case, I think I have a pretty good shot at my goal of becoming a pilot. It is a highly ambitious, almost headstrong, and extremely competitive goal, but I think I can do it. My GPA is solid, I would pass the military IQ testing without many problems, and have a number of key things on my resume that gear me towards flight (Eagle Scout, BSAE degree, possibly a double major, and some upcoming aerospace internships.)

However, I am apprehensive about the whole idea since pilot's contracts are 8 years, and I want to be absolutely, fail-proof sure that this is what I want to do for eight years of my life. It is a long time. You probably can't remember much from eight years ago--that was 5th or 6th grade. When planning things out like this, you really begin to realize how short life is.

Current Mood: Contemplative

Listening To: "Walking On My Feet" by Moonbabies