Watching CNN this morning I was struck by something: their coverage of the contested Iranian elections focused solely on the US and Obama’s position. What’s wrong with that you ask? Well, quite frankly, the struggle in Iran is NOT ABOUT US!
Perhaps we are conflating Iran with other countries in South West Asia (aka the middle east) in thinking that their politics revolve solely around candidates’ posititons regarding the US. But in actual fact this election in Iran was about who gets to preside as a figure head, as a messenger for the Ayatollah and the theocrats who actually control Iran. The election in Iran is like voting for Vice President in the US.
Now if there were election fraud taking place we ought to be outraged. But talking heads debating how well Obama has handled this? Handled what? That’s like Chinas media critiquing their head of state over how well he handled Obamas election.
We know very little about what is going on in Iran. It is worth noting that the current Iranian government was put in place by a revolution 30 years back. That revolution was carried out by people who detested Irans relationship with thr west and the utter disregard for the poor while the richest in the country lived in luxury off of oil revenue. This is a big reason that I have a hard time believing that most Iranians want an American-style democracy. For one thing, they know their own system and these protests aren’t truly about political candidates they are about ideologies. Who ought to control Iran, the people, or those closest to God? This is a very complicated question, and yet it is not the one we are hearing about in the US media’s coverage.
So for those who wish to support Iran and those protestors who have been subjected to abuses, my advice is to read up on Irans incredible history, and on the overwhelming majority of the populations beleif that the Ayatollah is closest to God and that his word is not only law, but is absolutely just.
I’m very thankful that we have a system of representative government, put in place by the people of this country. But we have to remember that Iran does as well. I’m extrememly glad that Obama hasn’t tried to intervene in a conflict that must be sorted out the people of Iran and only the people of Iran. Finally, we have a president who has studied some of the history of Persia and understands that our role in this conflict ought to be that of spectator, not referee, nor judge, nor jurry.
I, like all of us have as of late, am guilty of abandoning Lived Reality and I feel like this is unfortunate and like I’d really like to start writing again. This is just good excercise for writing and a fun place to discuss the various things going on in the world. While I have every intention of beginning to post and comment on here, I know that I cannot do it now because I am skipping town for a bit.
A little while back, my mother decided that we haven’t all taken a family vacation in quite a while and she figured it was about time. It really has been about 4 or 5 years since we all went on vacation together which seems sad. Since neither of my parents have been to Europe yet, we decided it was about time. I leave in a matter of 7 hours from now and we are going on a two week whirlwind tour of Europe visiting 7 countries. It’s going to be a lot of traveling and should be itneresting and I plane on having a lot of pictures and interesting experiences on this bus being 1 of 45 people. I will do my best to update Lived Reality, but I don’t know how much internet access I will have. I will, however, have my phone and email access while over there and will be posting on another blog I am on and run. Because I am the owner of that one, I was able to setup the “post by email” functionality and will be able to post using my smart phone with pictures. For those interested in following my travels, please visit http://www.sonora516.com and check it out. To start it off, here’s a map of the path we are taking. Hope to hear from you all soon!
I detest blogs that are on again off again. Or, blogs that I really enjoy, such as Drama for President which I loved reading and then they just kind of disappeared. And there I sat, at my computer facing the email informing me that I had but 15 days to decide if I would renew my domain and hosting package for livedreality.org.
The first real blog I ever created was mildly succesful, liberalcollegekid.com . It was a political blog site, written by and for college students from a progressive standpoint (if you couldn’t have guessed from the name :)). At one point we were averaging around 350 hits per day, and my work on that site saw my writing published on the ultra-conservative pajama’s media main page. But as I became involved with a local non-partisan political election and my co-bloggers began to lose interest in the effort of daily (even weekly, monthly) blogging the site suffered and lost its readership. Alas, when I got the email that liberalcollegekid was set to expire, I did nothing, and off it faded into blog oblivion.
Next I thought I’d start a blog that would be a bit more fun, a wine blog. Titled Hip2Wine, my goal was to write about wine in a way that made it more approachable, more accessible for people who wanted to drink wine but didn’t have all the requisite knowledge that comes from many an hour spent sipping. My summer residence at my parent’s home and their occupation enabled me to drink many, many fantastic wines, visit wineries and vineyards, and speak with winemakers. Once summer had ended and I returned to school, however, I found my ample supply of new wines and wine related experiences diminished to the point that I had almost nothing to write about other than mere tasting notes. Again, a blog I let fade away.
And then there was my latest blog idea, a site about everything, called lived reality. Perhaps it was / is too broad, as the most successful blogs tend to be quite narrow and specific in their scope. But my hope was that if I cast my net wide enough, every idea I could possibly have that was blog worthy would have a space. Still, I abandoned livedreality for no real reason, other than I got incredibly busy in the final stages of my thesis and by the time I was finished was so out of the habit of posting I simply never started again. That is, until today.
As I clicked the renew button just a few moments ago I thought of all the things I might write about in the coming year as I transition to Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota for my PhD. As I have literally one friend there now, I’m sure I will have plenty of time to share my experiences and thoughts on this site in the hopes that people will react to it, in whatever way they see fit.
So, to conclude this history of my trials and tribulations at blogging, I will state plainly that livedreality.org is here to stay, will continue to see posts and updates, even if they are as simple as twitter messages I send from my iphone. Thank you to those who have read my blogs in the past and to those who hopefully will continue to do so in the future.
Cheers.
p.s. I am beyond excited for iPhone 3.0 to come out! I’ve been clicking “check for updates” in iTunes periodically for about 7 hours (stupid jet lag).
In the long drive returning home to Minnesota from my dear and beloved Arizona, nothing is more grueling and no stretch of freeway more unbearable than the I-80 through Nebraska.As this is the most mundane portion of the entire trip and since by this point in my journey I had lost my travel companion I had a lot of time to let my mind wander and ponder utterly useless epiphanies.
Perhaps the most significant conclusion I reached during my quest is that Nebraska has a serious road kill problem.Never in my life have I seen so many dead animals – I swear at least one a mile.And it’s not like we are talking about fresh meat here.Some of the carcasses were so mangled that only a giant red stain and several tufts of fur remained.Which brings me to my next point – as if leaving animal carcasses on the side of the road for undetermined amounts of time weren’t bad enough, people make no effort for avoid running them over thus leaving a mangled mess on the freeway – a mess which, by the way, stains the road.The lesson to be learned from this: if you are going to leave road kill on the highway for a prolonged period of time make sure the road is dark so the guts are less visible.
After this revelation I moved on to creating elaborate imaginary situations and interactions with people.(Please remember I was really bored and had absolutely nothing to do.Now that I think about it, it was like the bunny on Sims, only I created people in my head.Also, please forgive my nerdy Sims reference.)The product of one of these interactions was my realization that reality is like memory foam.Now, this sounds a whole lot cooler when you are surrounded by Nebraskan nothingness, but hear me out.Reality exists, but people are capable of bending, twisting or otherwise shaping it nonetheless.As long as one is willing to put effort in to holding that shape, one can maintain a false view of reality, but as soon as you release the fantasy reality will go back to its true form.Thus reality is like memory foam, but it takes continuing effort to sustain our illusions and once that effort is eliminated reality will go back to how it is.No matter what that true form is always in the foam.
My final tangent of thought was highly inspired (I think) by my younger sister, who is a huge believer in karma.I, on the other hand, am currently a huge believer in life screwing me over (don’t worry, I am not as depressed about it as that makes me sound).I decided that there must be two kinds of karma: positive karma and ironic karma.Positive karma, which exists on continuum with lack-of-positive or negative karma) is your standard “I did something good, so something good will happen to me” and paints a beautiful picture of life, kindness and generosity.However, I have found that ironic karma is far more prevalent in my life.This karma, as the name implies, says “You did something good, so something bad is going to happen to you”.Granted, this karma could work in the inverse matter, but unfortunately has not shown itself in that form during my lifetime.Ironic karma says “You moved off the sidewalk to let the stroller pass, so you are going to tear your shirt open on that fence” (true story).And while ironic karma can be even more of a bitch than negative karma I have to say that I love it because it creates some of the best stories.But this is really all superfluous to the fact that I don’t believe in karma anyway.The fact that both these types of karma exist just convinces me that whatever happens happens and sometimes there really is nothing more to it than that.
I think all of these rants have a very clear and concise message: don’t drive through Nebraska alone.
There are some places, and more importantly, some people, that you can go months without seeing, and it’s just like you met them for coffee yesterday. I have found those are usually the best people, the closest friends. This has been a week full of those, after visiting Arizona for the last time for who knows how long, and heading up to SL,UT. Hopefully livedreality is a bit like that, since it’s been awhile. Let’s skip the catch up, and dive into the most recent and most important stuff.
I repeated my first 8 mile run in AZ, with an extra 15 degrees. I thought that the only reason I would ever really sweat was humidity, but the heat makes a difference! I am sure those moisture wicking socks will come in handy. I also had the added bonus of allergies. My allergies appear to be West Coast plants, so I have been symptom free until now, and did not have my usual antihistamine response team ready.
Ran again 2 days later, even though I didn’t want to. Sometimes those runs are great. You get going, get into the zone, and end up so glad you went. Sometimes you drag the whole time, and just keep thinking about how you can shorten your planned route a little, and sometimes you do cut yourself short. I didn’t trim the route, but I never got in the zone either.
I ran for the first time in Utah yesterday. I live about 1/2 a mile from the Jordan River Parkway, a great path that goes along the Jordan River. However, I can’t judge distance by that, so I just ran around my little city, Murray. As I ran past my old high school (also David Archuleta’s old high school, for those Idol nuts out there…they have thankfully removed the giant picture that used to flank its side), I caught a whiff of freshly mowed grass. And remembered my allergies. Then the rain started. NOT a fabulous run. But acceptable. Looking forward to another run tomorrow morning.
This is a tough one to do for me, and many people I’d imagine, as music is such a subjective thing to our moods and environment. I don’t know that I have and all time 3 greatest songs per say, however, I can probably choose three that have had a great impact on me.
1. NoFX – Theme from a NoFX Album Why? NoFX may be one of my favorite bands and this is definitely my favorite song by then. This song reminds me of some great times with friends and some amazing memories. Also, these guys generally put on a fantastic show.
2. Bloc Party – Hunting for Witches Why? This one is a more recent and it reminds me of inspiration and youth. It was a song I used while student teaching as a filler lesson for a lazy Halloween day where we had nothing planned in a successful (I think) attempt to bring The Crucible to modern day terms.
3. Tapes ‘n’ Tapes – Insistor Why? This one is love lost.
What are three songs that have impacted your life? Why are they important to you? Help us all learn more about you and reply here.
Our current monetary system is laughably imaginary. Since abolishing the gold standard (the idea that the dollar’s worth is tied to the amount of gold the federal government has and thus paper money stands in for gold (a material with value)), our financial system has been based on the idea of the dollar being worth something. Here is a great demonstration of how astronomical our current financial spending is at the federal level:
On a daily basis, I make a very high number of phone calls. Conversations can last anywhere between a couple minutes just checking in to a 40 minute conversation about a persons background and career goals and how I can help them achieve those goals. For every conversation I have, I miss at least three people and have to leave a voice mail, half of which never get returned. This doesn’t bother me and I really don’t mind being on the phone that much. I get to meet a lot of interesting people and some of them can be amusing. There is one thing, however, that I just don’t understand… Ring Back Tones
I am all for having a clever ringer that lets the people around you know that you are up with the latest technology and the most hip music. I personally have the classic Mario Bros. theme song on my CrackBerry because I grew up with that game and I love the tune. Also, it can sometimes start some fun reminiscent conversations with friends when they actually hear it. I clearly have no issues with a fancy ringtone. But these ring back tones are just a strange idea to me.
In concept, they are actually a clever marketing tool. There are some days when that standard ring can really start to wear on you and be grating. For the most part though, it is easy enough to ignore and becomes background noise. From a marketing standpoint, I get why cell phone companies would do this as it gives artists a new outlet to display their music and everyone makes money from it. The real beauty of this is that it cannot be hacked, as far as I know, and so you have to pay for it if you want it. But here’s the thing, I love the speakerphone. And not just that, when I have an actual handset and am making a call, I tend to leave the volume somewhat high as a lot of people speak softly and can be difficult to hear because they hold the phone so far from their mouths. So I, innocently enough, make a phone call expecting to ignore the noise in my ear until I hear “Hello?”. But wait, now I’m going deaf because someone has chosen the loudest song that is recorded so poorly that it is just a clipping mess. Not only am I now in a bad mood for our phone conversation now, but you have damaged my hearing more than I have and I wasn’t able to enjoy the music you spent and extra $5 a month to share with me.
People, take them off! Or at least choose something soft and soothing. When someone is calling you, you don’t want to offend them before you even get on the phone with them. It is just a bad idea. For those of you looking for a job right now, if your cell phone is listed in the contact information, it’s time to become an adult and get rid of that ring back tone. Save your $5 a month and donate it to one of those save the children organizations that tell me I can feed an entire nation in Africa for just pennies a day and they will even send me a random picture of a child in return.
Yesterday was a massive holiday here in Boston. Patriots’ Day, better known as “Marathon Monday.” While everyone else in Boston was enjoying a day off, morning cocktails and watching other people run 26.2 miles, I was doing homework. BUT in the afternoon I went for my usual Monday run. Well, I changed my route so that it would not include the final 4 miles of the Boston Marathon route, as my typical route would. I went at about 4:30 pm, meaning that the race was essentially over by the time I went out. Additionally, the majority of my 5 mile run was off the course entirely. However, as I ran past Boston College along Com Ave, I was along the route. I ran in the OPPOSITE direction on the OPPOSITE side of the road, away from the barricades.
I was cheered on by more than 10 people at various points. The first time I just smiled and ran on, wondering how they missed the fact that I wasn’t wearing a number. And that I was running on the sidewalk with them, not inside the barricades. Then I turned off the route ENTIRELY and a guy yelled, “You can do it! Finish it, blue shorts!” Oh, drunk BC kids… but I must admit, it made my day.
Maybe next year I WILL be on that run, and if I am, I will be wearing my blue shorts.
@jaybeestarsky redistribution would have been just and right. It's analogous to healthcare right now: everyone has coverage doesn't mean ...
01:09:26 PM July 02, 2009 from txt
