serious for a change.
Life (11/26/04)
Life has been described as many things. Life is what
you make it. Life is a painting. What you do in life
echoes in eternity. We'll discuss two things which are
experienced by all but rarely realized.
When I was a young man I heard a good saying after
some one had suffered through an incredibly horrible
episode in their life. He said, "Let me tell you
something about life. There are three things that
never change.
It.
Goes.
On."
No matter how horrible today was, chances are you'll
be waking up tomorrow, and many more tomorrows able to
rectify the situation, or get away from it. You will
come across incredibly horrible situations in life.
Times that will stop you in your paces and wonder
about going on. If you can. If you even want to. But
here's the scary truth. You can't stop it. It' going
to keep going. It's been said life is 90% what's
thrown at us and 10% how we deal with what we get.
That might be true. We can't decide that our boss will
fire us at work. We can choose what to do after that.
Secondly, life has change, or cycles.
I've been a member of many orginizations. I've seen
them have incredibly high highs, and bottom of the
ocean lows. I've seen years when good people came to
power, and years when bad people did. There is one
common thing in all these: they won't be there
forever. They'll move on. Phases in life generally
last 3-7 years. Where you're at right now in your
relationship with some one, maybe your parents or a
girlfriend/boyfriend, may not be so hot. But give it
time and you'll be in a different place. Life will
move you out on its own.
Recently I left two orginizations, got a job, and
began a new phase in my life. I had been very much in
to a certain style of life for a long time, loving the
daylights out of it, for about 3 years. Suddenly, it
just wasn't appealing any more. The fervor and
excitement I once felt for those things was now
somewhere else. It was simply a change, a cycle. It
was time to move on. I made sure things were good
before I left, so that way if I ever come back in to
those phase, I know I'll have open arms waiting for
me.
So as you go on in the good times, and especially in
the bad times, life has phases, and life goes on.
May you be able to react to every siutation correctly.
May you see you the right times and places of when to
act.
May you commit yourself to the right things at the
right time, and leave when it's the right time.
-Thelodius.
[editor's note: We are proud to announce that Thelodius has totally abolished his addition to caffeine, and unfortunately, this is what happens when he is sober. No, seriously, it's a good article, though. But.... wow....]
galaxy, boys and girls. This delightful place of
intellectual and mental stimulation we like to call
"Thelodius Thinks."
Today we'll be discussing communication. Written
communication, to be exact. First off, we'll start off
with an example of how NOT to do it with an e-mail I honestly received a little while back.
"OI U, THE ONE WIT THE BIG NOSE! yeeeaahh...eer o
yeah. I DONT WANNA B INVOLVED AND IM NOT GONNA SEND
THIS MSG TWICE EVEN IF U DID SEND IT TWICE TO ME, THAS
JUST RUDE, RUDE AS RUBARB! wot wot. BY JINGO, SHES
DONE IT AGAIN! wot wot OODILALLY AND TALLYHOO OLD
CHAP, WOT WOT"
Now tell me, what did they just say? Can you even
understand it? Is it even English? Was the author of
this work sober at the time of composition? I think
not, on all acounts.
Let's go over several things.
First off, know your audience. Who will be receiving
your communication? Will they understand what you're
saying? Do you need to adjust what and how you're
saying to audience? These are important steps to any
communication.
Second, spelling and grammar. Just as a uniform on a
military solder is supposed to look impeccable, as it
reflects upon the solider, your spelling and grammar
reflects on you. Attention to detail in your work
shows your reader that you care a great deal about
this subject and you have gone to great lengths to
make sure they receive the communication. They will
respect you for this and pay more attention because of
it.
Finally, coherence. Does it make sense? Are there any
logical fallacies? Or the question we would ask the
quoted e-mail above, is there any logic, period?
Review your work critically looking for ANY errors.
Happy writing my spellbound hunters! May your keyboard
strokes strike effectively.
-Thelodius
OY! Ya know what I hate? Politics! Ya wanna know why?
I'll tell you why!
1. Devisive
You wanna know how to get a happy family meal going
south, fast? Bring up stem cell research, abortion,
the death penalty, or any one of a whole HOST of
issues that very few have knowledge on, but almost all
have an opinion on. And then there's the shallow
morons who think just because you don't see eye-to-eye
with them, you're stupid, and they treat you such! OY!
Grow up! Learn to appreciate and love the differences
in each other.
2. Brings out the creeply crawlies
You know that one kid in school? The one with glasses
who kinda sits off to his own. He's got the kinda long
hair, chubby guy, smells a bit, doesn't say much. But
man, you bring up Israel and whether or not they
should be defending themselves using the current
methods, he'll have TON of things to say! WHY does
politics and this stuff attract the attention of the
social outcasts?
3. IT TOTALLY MESSES UP MY SATURDAY MORNING
CARTOONS!!! Every four years they have this "swearing
in" ceremony of some sort. It's ALWAYS held on a
Saturday moring and it totally messes up my Saturday
morning viewing activities. Jerks...
Now it's debate season. The only good thing about this
one on the 8th is that it's the same night as
highschool football games, so I can go there and check
out gir.. I mean watch the hardcore pig-skin kickin'
action instead of the thick-skinned pig kickin'
action! Err, something like that.. :-/
Here's Thelodius's Top Four when it comes to politics.
1.KEEP
2.YOUR
3.MOUTH
4.SHUT
It avoids so much conflict!
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not against politics and
a democratic society. That's cool and all. What I'm
not for is listening to kids and adults just spout the
same things they heard from Rush Limbaugh or John
Kerry, or even their parents. COME UP WITH YOUR OWN
OPINIONS! RESEARCH! Hearsay is totally inadmissible in
a court room when you cast your vote if some one
should be put to death or not. Why then would you
allow it to be what you're using to make a vote, or to
bash on some one?
These candidates aren't just talking heads made of
rubber that shine nicely on TV. These are people with
feelings and emotions and souls. How can you let
something you heard from some one, not even the
candidate himself, enrage you so much you say things
threatening their life, limb, and property? Some of
you even curse their after life! CALM DOWN.
So next time you feel like bashing one of the
candidates, or launching in to some tirade about why
you're right and everyone else can burn in Hades, just
remember what we've discussed here. K?
Now, play go play nicey-nice with the other kiddies!!
First off, what in the dark hole that is Hades is
�Emo�? According to Urban Dictionary.com, it�s this:
Genre of softcore punk music that integrates
unenthusiastic melodramatic 17 year olds who dont
smile, high pitched overwrought lyrics and inaudible
guitar rifts with tight wool sweaters, tighter jeans,
itchy scarfs (even in the summer), ripped chucks with
favorite bands signature, black square rimmed glasses,
and ebony greasy unwashed hair that is required to
cover at least 3/5 ths of the face at an angle.
::sniff sniff:: "The Demise of the Siberian
Traintracks of Our Rusty Forgotten Unblemished Love"
sounds like it would make a great emo band name.
::cry::
There�s some other, much funnier definitions that also
can describe it, but this is the cleanest and will be
used for today�s purposes.
First off, I�ll let you know something. Emo annoys the
crap out of me. Why would you even dress this way?
Does it even look comfortable? HECK NO!
Second, why the defeated attitude to take a look at
life with?
Let�s look at some lyrics from Dashboard
Confessional�s song �The Sharp Hint of New Tears.�
You expect me to apologize
for things that you've done wrong.
While you're inciting others.
You're owning up to nothing
and I wish that I was gone,
because you're not going anywhere.
Why is he crying about this? WHY??? If some one was
expecting me to apologize for something they�d done, I
wouldn�t cry about it, I�d get smart and realize,
�Geez, you�re an idiot and I�m not going to waste my
time, or even thought energy, on you.� BUT THEY SING
ABOUT THIS!!! WHY???
Second, the look. Hair. Oh man the hair. I hate it.
When I was in boot camp we all had our hair done the
same way. And you know what? It�s served me fine ever
since. It�s sharp, professional, etc. Do these punkers realize the
kind of message they�re sending to the rest of the
world when they look their hair was chopped off in a
blender accident, then their 4 year old sister
bleached it for them in spots?
When N*Sync and all those guys popped out [of the
closet] a few years back with their bleached, spiked
hair, at least they were kind enough to bleach their
entire head, or at least the top of it, so it looked
even semi-uniform. The strands of black and blonde are
sickening. Enough is enough, GUYS.
And the worst part is it�s guys who are fussing over
the way they look! How sad it is to see a bunch of
guys who spend more time on their looks than their
sisters.
Ladies and gentlemen, Emo is the suck. But, these are
just my thoughts.