Traffic Blows

Attention car culture, what I am about to explain to you could quite possibly change your life. 

Proper lane usage. It is quite simple. when used correctly, the highway system functions in a much more efficient manner.

Left lane = passing lane.  In order to qualify for driving in this lane, you should be actively attempting to pass somebody else.  Whenever you are driving in this lane, take a moment to consider the humanism that it is to exist within a culture, and glance over to your right.  If there is not anybody immediately ahead or just behind you in that lane, then shift over so that others may proceed in passing you.  When there is nobody else on the road, you should not be in the left lane.  If you are not driving over the speed limit, you should not be in the left lane. If people are passing you on the right, you should not be in the left lane.

Middle lane = driving lane for drivers traveling at least the speed limit, that may or may not have future intentions of passing or exiting. If you are driving at a slower rate than the general flow of traffic, then shift to the right lane. 

Right lane = slower traffic.  When traveling under the speed limit you are encouraged to drive in the right lane even if you do not plan on exiting. There is not any reason to feel ashamed, or less important, or like a failure in any way for driving in the right lane.  


Remember, just because YOU want to go the speed limit, doesn't mean I want to.  It is my right as an American to speed and take my own risks of getting a speeding ticket, though I appreciate your concern. Now please move right.



Internet Dating

It's called guerrilla marketing. A company enters the market and their strategy is to divert users and consumers away from a product or service.  In this case, online dating came into the market and built negative connotations to traditional dating: the dangers of "being out there" and the unlikeliness of actually meeting somebody that you have things in common with. Then, once they have wiped out the competing market (real life in exchange for cyber life) they flip public perception and take over the vacant market.  Thus, you have match.com hosting date nights, where tons of singles take cooking classes, or dance classes, or go to designated bars or restaurants to meet other singles.  Not even 5 years ago, people just did things like that all by themselves, and we have generation after generation of people to prove that dating worked just fine before the internet told you how to do it.

This has been a public service announcement.   Do not let business control every aspect of your life. You dumb sheep.

Sidebar:

Forgive me for being ignorant, but do black people date differently than other people? Do they do different things to meet each other? Because I thought that people tended to interact with each other the same regardless of skin pigmentation.  However, http://www.blackpeoplemeet.com/ seems to think that there are differences.  Racial tension and racial discrimination can never go away if we don't stop putting any emphasis on it. People aren't born racist. Anthropologically, race does not even actually exist, it is a social construct. Cultural differences are based on education, resource and financial variations that manifest in differences in social behavior.

Just saying.

The Worst Americans Ever

Fall tuition is due. Now Jess and I have to make a decision as to how much money we will take out in loans to pay for our classes. Freaking blows. Our whole plan is to take as many classes as possible at once so we can finish earlier, and get real jobs and FINALLY start making enough money to do anything other than be poor ass broke college kids with a 2 year old. Unfortunately that means we will be paying off student debt for another 4-6 years after we retire.

Then Jess takes a look at the cost and breaks it down.  Of the almost 5K a semester it is going to cost for him to go to school, just over 3K is for actual credit hours, the rest is for all the bo-shit fees that are variable to whatever particular school you are attending.  And I'm not even going to address the outrageousness of what all of those fees are, just the mere existence of them.  And before all of you 1-trick pony right-wingers start defending the necessity of the fees to operate the university and pay salaries, let me just say, that I'm not fucking dumb, and I know that the fees are necessary - to an extent.  This last semester, UNT scheduled to increase fees by a total of 8% (for a bunch of "perks" that don't actually benefit the students, just to those responsible for "offerreing services" to the students).  In Canada, a school planned to increase their tuition fees by only 2.5% and the student body revolted and protested, and it didn't happen.  In Denton? Not a damn thing. Why? Because we are currently experiencing the weakest American generation ever.

Jesse thinks its because nobody is informed, and nobody cares. I disagree. Well, not entirely, but somewhat, but there is simply more to it than just that.  While I do think there are those out there that are stupidly oblivious to their surroundings, I think that the number of people that are like that, has been fairly consistent for the entire history of our culture- increasing correspondingly with the population growth.  (However, I have to have to acknowledge the variable of technological influence on communication, but that is another story another day.)

My thought is that there are the same amount of people that are pissed about this kind of stuff as there always has been (sparking the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Social Equality Movements), and just as many people complaining about it. The difference, is that now, nobody knows what to do about it. They all think that they just have to deal with it, and "it is what it is."   They don't know that you could all join up together and do something about it, about anything. We all just sit around and bitch about how much we hate everything, and how everything sucks, and none of us do anything about it. 

In the early 1900's, young American's thought that shit sucked, and instead of joining together, they all just worked their ass off and built something out of nothing. By the 50's, the middle class was alive and strong, and the opportunities to make something out of nothing became fewer and fewer, and thus harder and harder to obtain. So then, rather than working their ass off to obtain a positive change in society for themselves, we learned to unite, and work together, and to have a single, strong voice to get things done.  But now, we don't work, because we don't see value in the pay off (because the man is keeping us down, man). And we don't join together, because we are so self absorbed (thanks 80's) and selfish to care about anyone else's problems but our own. 

The irony, is that with all the social media platforms that link us all together, you would think that we would figure out that all of our problems are the same fucking problems that everyone else has. And frickin do something, anything, about it.

As I sit here, and blog to nobody, as if I were making any difference myself.