Didn't feel a thing!

Okay, so the US has cut $60M in funding to a UN agency over its vote to recognize palestinian blah blah blah yadda yadda whatever.   First, this feels like dirty politics to me - not that the UN isn't dirty politics and shouldn't just go.   You don't vote the way we want?  We cut your money and livelihood.  Sounds kinda thuggish to me. Again, not that the UN isn't thuggish.  And not that a nation doesn't have the right to do what it wants with its money. 

But since we're saving $60M, first, I didn't feel a thing over here in Beaverton, Oregon.  Nothing.  Yadda yaadda.  Life goes on as usual.  Which makes me question whether the money was ever well spent on these things in the first place. 

Additionally, since we have $60M to do what we want with, can I recommend they just give it to me?  I promise to stimulate the economy with it by spending it and I promise my life will be better!

You know.....

I really wish my dead grandpa would quit coming back from the dead just to use his yahoo messenger account to spam my email account and yahoo messenger with porn ads and viagra coupons.....it's really annoying grandpa.

I have a better idea.....

Okay while this may work - they are fake....

But this would definitely save your place.....(It's fake too) as well as blow some minds when you pick it up and put it in your pocket.....

 

 This might get you your own table or entire section.....

Job sucks?

If only the skinny guy wasn't there so fatso could have room to breathe....

OH LOOK!  Prizes!

Oh now I see how wonderful cubicles are....

GOT IT!

Now...I don't know about y'all - horse aside - this would just be embarrassing - both to do and have done....Like, who wants this for a job?   I'm hoping its a paid internship.......that and to get off to a beanbag?  I mean, animals are animals but still....ugh....

Air Porn Rangers: OKAY!

Apparently, according to the FAA, making porn in a plane before and while sky-diving IS - repeat IS - okay so long as the pilot is not distracted to the point he can't fly. 

I suppose the pilot, aware this might have become an issue, exercised enough self control to wait to watch the video when he landed.  He was a true professional.

I'm just laughing that the FAA had to review the film and doesn't review the films of the airborne Chuck-E-Cheese parties to see if the pilot got distracted

What's the difference between a communist and a liberal democrat?

A communist will secure his borders and support his military......a liberal democrat won't.....

Hmmm....maybe I'd rather be a communist than a liberal democrat if it ever came down to it......

late night pics....

lets use these for biology class from now on so we don't have to disect, okay?

and FBI stands...for.......

mmmmmm

my dream livingroom.....

Go ahead, embiggen it - it's totally sweet!

What it's like having kids (PG-13)

I lol'd.

I thought there was no evidence....

TSA announced there was no evidence that the perverted note about her "personal massager" that was written on a TSA inspection notice left in a woman's luggage was from TSA.

However, TSA has now removed the baggage screener and disciplined him.

(A spanking! A spanking!)

Anyways, TSA needs to - in military parlance - get its head and its ass wired together.  I don't know if their PR people even work for TSA to have issued such a denial to the press.

But anyways, TSA needs to go.

Not that this woman really intended to end up in the spotlight on her personal sexual habits - the price of freedom is often sacrifice and things like this do make more Americans aware of what's going on.  However then, that's just the nature of TSA - an invasion of privacy.  So I don't know that this is really all that unavoidable.

TSA: Touches and handles your personal items and leaves notes....

A woman opened her luggage to find that her "personal adult items" had not only been observed by TSA (Totalitarian Sexual Assault), but that they had left a note in her luggage about her personal adult item telling her to get her freak on. 

That deserves and ass kicking right there - or - something they might have done in the navy - put you on a street corner and every time someone passes by make you snap to attention and sound off "SHIPMATES! NO MASTURBATING IN THE SHOWER WITH ONE OF THESE!" or something.

Yes.  They do that.

No.  I didn't have to sound off like that.

Think about it - a man wanting to touch a woman's vibrator.  Thinking he could.  Thinking he should.  Thinking writing a note about it is okay.  

At any rate, that's just a call for violence on my part against anyone who does stuff like that.  


But this girl who was violated?  She's smart - got a lot of insight into what I would professionally classify as a rapist mentality among the TSA agents:

She wrote that she suspects "whoever left the note felt comfortable doing so (I also suspect that they believed most women would be embarrassed to be "caught" with personal items and wouldn't file a complaint)," she wrote in the email. "That is certainly cause for concern."

TSA said in a statement to FoxNews.com that there is no evidence to suggest one of its agents were behind the note.

 No evidence.  Unless you count a TSA official notice as not evidence. 

mid-morning-pics....

I didn't do the caption on the poster though.....

ROAD TRIP!

thought so....

Common Sense...

Illegal? Then why'd you recognize it?

A bunch of academians are now debating the US declaration of independence and have concluded that the declaration was illegal. 

Okay - then why did England recognize the new nation?   Was England breaking the law in recognizing the US?

I'm pretty sure they were aware of the fact because everyone who's name was on that document would've been hung for treason and that's why they went into hiding as often as they did - der.

Well....that was easy.

I did it without a Ph.d. in stupidity from Cambridge or wherever, too!

Wow....maybe I can be a professor someday or run the news media.

Maybe tomorrow we'll debate the oppressive nature of gravity and how it illegally discriminates against fat people.

oh wow...

One Tyrant Replaces Another....

Now, Qadaffi's dead, doesn't have to worry about the things of this world - meanwhile the mobs left behind and all the other people they "liberated" are proclaiming freedom are going to introduce a more radical and oppressive fundamentalist Islamic law.

It always goes this way in world history, doesn't it?  One tyrant is replaced by another?  Castro's revolutionaries promise equality and freedom and once at the top, turn into despots who have to imprison and torture millions to keep the power and peace.   

Mr Abdul-Jalil went further, specifically lifting immediately, by decree, one law from Col. Gaddafi's era that he said was in conflict with Sharia - that banning polygamy. 

Good thing we got the priorities straight!  First things first - POLYGAMY!  WHEW!  NOW we can have freedom.  Wonder how the women feel about this.

Maybe their turn is next and they might meet the same fate as Qadaffi when people get sick of their crap.

a late night pic....

Obama's still a moron and evil and won't be re-elected though I'm not confident for whoever is going to get elected - so in the meantime, here's a single glass molecule.

A single molecule. And I got a picture of it. Here. Wow....oooOOoooo.And to think we thought things were made of earth, fire, air and water - but no - they were made out of glass molecules all along....silly us.

Some Spiritual Wisdom....

The nice thing about being LDS is that its a religion that makes allowance for God to speak through others who may not even be of the religion because it believes that God can inspire anyone.  I believe the Dalai Lama is an inspired man of God sent by God to be a voice of light in a dark part of the world. 

Depressed? Lousy Day? Life sucks? Try a banana suit....

You know, if you're having a crappy day - or a crappy life - google "Life sucks" or "Crappy life" or "FML." or You'll instantly feel better either because you don't have it that bad or you'll start laughing at what others consider absolutely rotten and see people you'd love to trade places with - perhaps you might even feel sane because you know what real misery is. Like the poor college-football all-star who has to race home after practice to do homework so he doesn't blow his Ivy-League full-ride scholarships.  That's just rough. 

Anyways, maybe if you buy a banana suit and then try go being depressed in it you could just make others laugh.  No clown costumes - those are scary - but a banana suit?  Might just do the trick.  Depressed in a banana suit?  Doesn't work.  Suicide in a banana suit?  Just scary weird but still makes you go "wow."  Totally pissed off in a banana suit?  Entertaining.  Get fired from your job?  Humiliating.  In a banana suit - shows you don't give a rats ass what they think!  Liberating!

Witches really can fly......

Here's two variants - I like the narnia-like music for the first one, though I'm not sure with a hat you'd very much know what it was - but anyways, as one who has a love of flying things I always enjoyed flying witches.




And here's a paper airplane....

Lincoln Lawyer....

Here's a pretty good one if you like a bit of murder mystery and courtroom drama.
It was about a 10 through about the first half and then dropped to a 7 in the end only because the character development wasn't quite there. I mean, you can always have someone you wouldn't expect turn out to be the murderer, but at least give hints don't just have it be like "OH! The mailman! The mailman did it....who knew?" or "OH MAN! It was the accountant!" "The 7-11 cashier? Who'da thunk it?"  I mean, they didn't do THAT but the last minute surprises that came along kinda took the wind out of it I guess from a full blown block-buster drama to probably about an A-.  They did an excellent job, but at least gimme a hint before hand....not that I'll be able to follow it anyways.  Otherwise, darned good flick!  The cinematography with the camera angles and even the lighting are pretty enjoyable.

She votes too....

hope...and change....

late night pics...

 I love having a blog - especially a blog that gets about 500-800 hits a day - I can do whatever I want - and i want to do whatever I do - and nobody really bothers me about it.  Like, these photos here.  Saw them, liked them, posted them, and by the end of the month a few thousand people will look at them cuz I posted them....crazy world if you think about it.  I do in a few keystrokes similar to what took Marco Polo years and riches and risk of life and limb to do in terms of bringing things from around the world to people....just....technology still amazes me even though its all around me. 

This could be eastern oregon

you

late night pics...

I hate it when bats get stuck in my teeth and come out on my toothbrush.....GAH!

and they say dogs are stupid.....

red at night...sailor's delight

WAKE UP!

Nature, I love seeing things like this and photographing things like this....

It can go like this for anybody....

I think of all the dictators and tyrants and heads of state who've been executed by a mob over the millenia - Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette, Czar Nicholas, Benito Mussolini, and now.....well....if you've never fought with a human being for your very existence hand to hand and felt that writhing, screaming animal instinct inside them and felt your own and then seen it caged when you were victorious and watched a human spirit - the very essence of being a human being - crushed and an empty shell of a corpse stand before you.....it's not pretty and it can haunt you still years later, even when it is in the line of duty and your cause is just.

The point is, no matter your station in life, this can happen to you.  Nobody's immune.  Even if you're trained to defend yourself....or have an army like this man did.

They hammered one thing home again and again in our combat training and debriefs over the years of my service:


"The day you think you have an "S" on your chest (for superman) you just became a danger to yourself and everybody around you." 

Meaning - don't think it can't happen to you.  Don't think somehow you're special and that alone means it can't happen.  It can.  And if you're not careful?  It will most assuredly as the sun rises and sets.


I don't like seeing things like this no matter who the tyrant is - and I tried to hold on to that even in my military service and not lose sight of that fact - they are still human beings.  It doesn't mean justice doesn't need to be done.  But don't forget that even when you serve justice and do your job - they are a human being.  They had a father,  a mother, perhaps children and are created in the image of God, and when you make that decision, you're going to become something else you may have never planned on becoming or even wanted to become to their families - or more than you ever wanted in history.   Don't be excited to pull that trigger or be the one to strike the final blow. 


On the flip side now, while Qadaffi may be dead, he's now free of the earthly cares, it's the mobs that killed him now that still have to fight for their lives and who knows but that they might meet a worse fate?   Success and victory are fleeting and are only the next step to the next conflict.

psychologically disturbed....

Got this from Caryn....

Ding Dong A Witch Is Dead......

Qadaffi at room temperature

Isn't it a crazy world we live in where we have to post pictures of dead dictators and tyrants - or create a huge hubbub when we don't - just to show progress in the world?  I mean, are we going to go back to hanging bodies of the bad guys who've been killed at the entrance of town as a warning from Sheriff Obama for the riffraff not to start any shenanigans? (Or whoever the sheriff is)?  I mean, let's recap:

Uday & Qusai illed-kay ead-day

We show Uday and Qusay's bloodied bodies.  Iraqis didn't even believe that they could possibly be killed!  They *HAD* to see the bodies!
As a public service, I'll show the photos again here. Lookit.  Got it?  Okay now back to me.

We don't show Saddam being hanged though he was shown being captured. 

Oh wait, no, someone smuggled a photo of him being hanged out of his hanging and it got turned into some amusing pics to be posted on websites such as cracked.com and break.com or simplybecauseitis.

 So anyways, we COULDN'T release pictures of Osama's burial at sea, but I have an exclusive photo here and am willing to risk national security just to post it.

Hosni Mubarak isn't dead yet - but there's no way an Egyptian mobocracy isn't going to hang him, but here's a photo of him in his hospital bed behind a cage pre-hanging.

A SPANKING! A SPANKING!

And anyways, Libyan rebels killed Qadaffi while Obama takes credit for it, meanwhile Bush's war in Iraq caused needless deaths such as Saddam's and American presidents shouldn't be killing people or shamelessly exploiting their deaths for political gain - let alone taking credit for other people killing people and pretending they did it and exploiting it for political gain like Obama.  I think someone needs a spanking......and it should be televised.


So who's next?  Can't they off someone who's a real threat to the world and our freedom like Kim Jong Il, Hu Jintao, Vladimir Putin, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Joe Biden or Barak Obama?   I keep hoping Obama gets diarrhea from shaking hands or trips getting off Air Force One.

Pay Uncle Joe.....Or Get Hurt.....

You better pass the jobs bill - Obama's plan - or Vice President Joe Biden is going to rape you. 

“Let me tell you, it’s not temporary when that 9-1-1 call comes in and a woman’s being raped. If a cop shows up in time to prevent the rape, it’s not temporary to that woman,” Biden said with his voice rising. “It’s not temporary to the guy whose store is being held up and has a gun being pointed to his head if a cop shows up and he’s not killed. That’s not temporary to that store owner. Give me a break -- temporary.

“I wish these guys who thought it was temporary, I wish they had some notion what it’s like be on the other side of a gun or a 200-pound man standing over you telling you to submit,” he added. “Folks, it matters. It matters.”

How about inexpensively promoting citizen self protection where they carry concealed and can defend themselves - because I can tell you as a former cop, by the time I get the call it's already started and its too late. Not only that, my economic plan is a lot cheaper.  It stimulates the gun industry without raising taxes and improves public safety thereby increasing jobs.  You're the one causing people to be raped Uncle Joe, not me.  I don't want them to even have to wait for the police, or on the cell-phone company to route their call.

I can't help but think this is like paying your dues to the mafia - where you have to pay up or they are the ones who hurt you - only now it's our idiot government.

 

Am I normal? Am I Supposed To.....?

In psychology, as people approach problems they are working on in themselves, they often use phrases to express their thoughts that are so vague as to be useless and in some cases are even harmful to solving the problem or gaining perspective. 

One of the most common is "normal."  As in "Am I normal?" or "Is this normal?"  In psychology, "normal" has an entirely different meaning and framework than what it does outside psychology. "Normal" is so misused when people assess themselves that I consider it actually harmful depending on what you're trying to solve.  Before discussing normal, it's important to discuss psychology's approach to problem solving.

WHY?

Psychology operates differently than medicine though both are used to treat people for problems - their concerns are comparatively different.

For example, a medical doctor doesn't necessarily care how something happened, only what happened. 

The leg is broken?  You put a cast on it.  That's the treatment for a broken leg.

Psychology however doesn't neccessarily focus on what is wrong as it focuses on how it happened.

Abby....Normal....

You're depressed?  We don't go about just treating depression and "put a cast on it" per se because that may quite ignore the real issue.

In psychology you care about why something's happening and how it happened so you can get to the root issue.

Depression.  Has it extended over an entire lifetime?  Have medications recently changed?  Is there a significant life event causing depression?  Answer these and then you begin to realize how to treat the issue.

Going back to "normal."

Some things might not be "normal" per-se when considered within an entire framework.  Let's take a high sex-drive for example.   A high level of anxiety nearly by definition is not "normal."  Otherwise we wouldn't be calling it "high"  we'd call it "normal."

But why is it high?  Are there stress issue at stake?  Are there relationship issues?  Where is the individual developmentally - 15 versus 60?  Put in the context of any of these issues, what might appear "abnormal" may be perfectly normal for that framework - what just a moment ago was abnormal now makes sense.

CONTEXT

The harm with "normal" in terms of an assessment for behavior is that it is framed within the context of observations of those around us.   For example, if you are an Americn living in Japan and have been raised to question authority, if you compare your student-tendencies to Japanese students in a Japanese classroom, you will be quite "abnormal."  However, for an American, you are perfectly normal.

If you are a crack-smoking dope fiend with all your crack smoking dope fiend friends who one day becomes a religious convert and renounces crack and decides to never partake of it again, in the framework of your crack-fiend friends - you are definitely abnormal. I can guarantee you're going to face some fallout over it all, too.  In the context of religious conversion, you might find yourself perfectly normal.

So while you might think you're not normal, the real question is "what am I comparing myself to?" and "Where did I come up with that conclusion?"   Just because you observe it in others doesn't mean it is what you think it is.  I.E. comparing yourself to the Japanese students and concluding that you're "abnormal" without taking in a larger view or even having a larger understanding would be a mistake.

SUPPOSED TO....

Social pressure....

This is another of those phrases that's used all the time by clients in therapy as they try to figure out what to do. Culturally speaking, having lived in other countries as a Defender of American Freedom, I can tell you that we're not as "Free" as we think we are or want to be.  That's not a commentary on America so much as it is on culture.  I used to joke overseas that "In America, you're free to be whatever you want, do whatever you want, think whatever you and and do it however you want....as long as you do it the way we think you should."  Look at fashion for example - this is in, that is out, this is attractive, that is not.  There's definitely a conformist pressure in America, not the most pressure if compared to where Sharia Law prevails but definitely a pressure nonetheless (If your turban or burqa isn't the latest in sharia town, yer gonna get it and be on the outside).

At any rate, the use of the phrase "supposed to" is invariably and unavoidably - inextricably! - linked to context and social pressure.  "Supposed to" inherently denotes 'rules' - and rules by their very nature are almost invariably externally sourced - i.e. come from outside the individual.   For example, "you're supposed to" indicates that "if you don't" you will be breaking a social rule imposed, established or enforced by others. It comes from trying to conform to something outside yourself.  Contract this with "I want to..." "I want to" is internally sourced from within yourself.  

As we can see now, "I'm supposed to" mentality isn't very useful in terms of psychological problem solving because it inherently subverts the will of the individual in therapy or working on a problem and denotes external control, pressure or compulsion.  Developmentally, you could even say that when individuals use this phrase its a Freudian reference to our upbringing in terms of parental expectations and control manifesting themselves in our adult life and how we see ourselves, approach and solve problems.  A healthy, developed approach to problem solving would be to say "I want to....so I'm going to...."  It denotes realization of individual power and control as well as an acceptance of responsibility.  However we might still ask "why do you want to do that?" but that's another therapy session.

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

Let's go back to "normal" now.  Realizing that "abnormal" is usually a "normal" response to a situation, the question then becomes - "What do you want to do?"  Are you fine with the "abnormality?"  Is it harming anyone?  Is there a way to change it?  What would it take?  Are you willing to do that?  Is there something else you'd rather do?

For example, if your "abnormality" is causing problems with people in your life - then the question becomes, "what is more important to you? the people or your issue or...what do you want?"

The only real "Supposed to" is in the framework of "If you want to...." As in, if you want to not get yelled at by your Drill Instructor in Basic Training, then you're supposed to follow orders.  Or "you're supposed to do this if you want that."

Or, if you want a certain outcome in your life, don't be upset when you do something that doesn't foster that outcome keeps you from achieving it.  For example, we can't complain about wanting to have more friends and then wonder why if we have the world's worst hygiene we don't have friends.  Or, not the type we want.  

In achieving our dreams we have to have a bit of perspective, but ultimately the choice as to whether we achieve our dreams, become normal, or do what we want - is up to us.  We're the only ones keeping us back - this puts our personal drives and views of life and ourselves more in the drivers seat and makes "normal" and "supposed to" more like back-seat drivers that we get to - have to - choose whether we want to listen to as we achieve our dreams and live our lives.

Achieving your dreams?  I can tell you definitely isn't "normal."  Pessimists and skeptics often in the guise of friends will give you a million reasons why your dreams won't or can't work or you shouldn't follow them - or even should depending on whether it suits their purposes or not. 

But achieving your dreams...well....you're supposed to! ;P