Camping, papers, and more camping

Went camping this weekend, well, only saturday night because i had to work on friday. Went with a few other Wal-mart people, 7 of us total, I bought a tent so that will come in handy for the point as well. We went (as i call it) "ghetto tubing", i call it that because there were 7 of us in a small fishing boat thats only supposed to have 5 passengers max. It was really low in the water, it was having major engine/fuel intake problems, and it would only go a decent speed for 20-30 seconds in a row most of the time. Micki and i went right away, she fell off twice, then it was just me and Matt (the driver) was really rough on me, I took a beating, but everyone said i was an awesome tuber so it's all good. The water was so choppy because the boat was so low, so there was a huge wake and water was spraying right in my face. We went about a minute and a half once without the boat dying...at full speed...and my whole body was just taking a beating, but they could hardly see me through the water and i was yelling "OOOWWWWWW" the whole time and they never heard me, finally i just decided to let go cause i didnt know how long it was gonna be and i really needed to get off....so i just let go and i slid right across the water about 30 feet until i caught, then i went straight under a ways and got water in my ears and it really hurt for a few hours. Too much bouncing up and down on the tube, they said i got some awesome air though, but i couldnt tell, i couldnt see anything, i just felt like i was flying and then crashing down hard. Most of you probably dont want to know this, but wow did my balls hurt after that ride, that was not a very comfy-poo tube.
Next news of note: I am currently (kind of) working on a 10-15 paper for my money and banking class and an 8-12 page paper for my music class....ouch. Not doing so well right now, i cant focus, so Im taking a 10 minute break, in which Josh has ordered me to blog..but this is taking longer than 10 minutes.
The Point - I cant wait, camping with the wal-mart people is ok, but camping with all you guys is always way more entertaining, even if we dont have a boat. And Im glad i splurged and bought a tent, it's pretty cool even though its not too big and it was cheap, but it comfortably fits two people. Im currently trying to think of some outlandish stories to tell Dusty, etc to get people riled up if the conversation ever dies. Although i dont know where we'd put it, it is slightly possible that my dad would let me borrow his new boat, but i only barely know how to use it and i dont have much time to learn more about it, something he would require to lend it to me, although he knows i would never try anything that im not sure i could do (like pull skiers/tubers if i hadnt yet). Im sure he would want to load/unload it though, but that wouldnt be a big deal, just let us drive it around for part of saturday or something, maybe go for some "leisurely" tubing rides ;), or just a nice cruise around the lake, since i dont think anyone else is even on it. what lake is it btw jake?...
My house: it blows donkey balls, seriously....ok, not seriously, but analagiticaly (is that a word?) When its 80 outside, its 90 inside, and 100 in my room since its facing east (no wind) and its on the top floor and i can barely get the windows open. We have had so many problems with this house, and we have tried to get them fixed, but our landlord doesnt do shit, he thinks he can just ignore us cause we signed the lease, well i got news for him...he's f*cking going down! I wrote a 3 page letter that was very to the point (seems odd huh) and I told them that we would contact the authorities if they dont respond quickly and fix stuff, and give us money. Well, they have done neither, so Im having the house inspected, and when the inspector finds stuff wrong, I (we) are taking them to court for rent abatement or some crap like that, we are gonna mess them up. I could tell you all about our problems, but I dont feel like typing that much, but now i hope that the landlord isnt taking us as a threat, because then he'll be more suprised and pissed off when we do something about it and he gets his as sued.
Josh wants me to talk about how using the word "unfortunate" to describe poor people is totally insulting to people who "work hard" for a living. I am not going to do that, because I dont believe it at all. Instead, I am going to show the ignorance in Josh's point of view and illustrate why "conservativism" in this country is screwed up right now and how the govt/army is making people stupider and stupider so people blindly follow them. To start, using the word unfortunate is used as a general term, and only used because it is a general term....it doesnt imply that all poor people are poor cause theyre unlucky, it implies that at least some do, and it is meant to not insult those people who are truly unlucky. If you were to call poor people "lazy" and a general term, that would be insulting, even if it is MORE true, it is not the thing that is said. UNFORTUNATELY, conservatives in this country like to use argue the use of "nice" general terms and use "mean" ones instead, because the conservatives in this country are much more concerned with pushing their own agenda rather than helping the general good. This wasnt always true, but now it is. conservatives like to call other people "lazy", etc in order to make themselves feel good and/or "patriotic", with them everything has to be dumbed down and over generalized, broken down into easily digestable chunks so their constituents can "understand" them, but really its more to encourage ignorance and decrease opposition. for example, i get emails from RNC chairman Ken Mehlman, in these emails he never talks about issues or what needs to be done, he talks about "patriotism" - and he dumbs everything down and every sentence is loaded. here's an example:
"The U.S. Senate should not force a choice between the Constitution and the people's business. You can stop these liberal Democrats and support President Bush at the same time. Call your Democratic Senator and tell them to do their job and give the President's judges the fair up or down vote they deserve!"
There are several loaded and completely unfair statements in this paragraph alone. First off, he is saying filibustering is equal to unconstitutional, not only is this totally untrue (congressman are given specific filibuster rights in the constitution), but republicans do this as well, and alot more than democrats do, they have even done it in this exact situation before...so that alone makes this statement ridiculous. Next sentence...mehlman says "liberal democrats", this is also unfair because the republican party has pushed the idea that liberalism = evil, so saying that automatically makes conservatives think that whatever the democrats have done is evil, without even looking at what he's accusing them of. He also says you can support president bush at the same time...you should be able to see the fault in that part of the sentence. He then says to call MN senator D Mark Dayton and say that the judges should get the "fair" vote that they "deserve"...but these are decisions that should be made BY the voters, not just be TOLD to them by the head of the party...if that isnt contradictory to our whole democratic system, i dont know what is. All Mehlmann is trying to do is stir up emotion in his followers, he doesnt care if theyre stupid and dont understand what he's saying or are misinformed by him, he just wants them on his side, these are the tactics that the conservative wing of the US have been employing for quite some time now, and its not fair to the intelligent, independant thinkers who love this country because we make decisions collectively, by majority rule....but instead the people who rule are country and are "patriotic" are really the ones who dont do what "patriotism" is all about, which is standing up for what you believe in, even if the country is at war, or youre told not to....nobody should ever say what ive been hearing too often lately..."youre country is in trouble, you must stand up for whatever it is doing, you have no right to oppose"...because thats total bullshit, it is our right and our DUTY to oppose when we dont agree with something, regardless of whether were at war or not. And dont tell me Im not supporting the troops, because there is a huge difference between "opposing the war" and "supporting our troops", that is just another tactic used by the Bush administration. The reason this country is going down the tubes like ive heard is because of unpatriotism, the conservatives got that part right, the part they got wrong is defining patriotism. Most of the people in this country, when faced with an issue, go into it with their opinion pre-determined, they do not reason and try to figure out what is right, they reason to try to make themselves and other people think that they were right originally...this is the attitude that conservatives have towards the war, when we go to war they try to find why its right, not why it may be wrong. So whoever reads this, i hope you didnt go into this with your opinion already determined, because if thats true...no matter what i say, no matter what is right...youre just gonna argue with me and try to convince me that you are right.
So Josh, think about this: the issue at hand in your debate is not whether "hard working successful" people are insulted by calling poor people "unfortunate", because if youre hard working and successful you should be smart enough to understand that you deserve everything you have and should not be offended by comments from other people. Instead the issue is that there are people in this world who are poor because their unfortunate, and all that are poor are certain unfortunate on some level, or at least it is unfortunate that they are poor, regardless of whether they deserve it or not. But the people who need not be offended are the people who are truly unfortunate and really have no way of making a decent living for themselves. You say that there are so many programs/opportunities out there that anybody can make a living. This is true, it is possibly for anyone to make a living, no matter their circumstances, but sometimes it just doenst work out, even if you work really really hard, oftentimes things happen that you dont have much control over, and remember that not every area of the world is like what you are accustomed to, there are parts where it is almost impossible to make a living, even if you try hard, there just arent enough jobs to go around. If I was one of those people who had very little chance of making it to begin with...I would work hard, but i might not succeed, its hard to get a job when you live on the street, have no clothes, smell like shit, have little education, no transportation, no references, no previous work experience, no money to start with, etc...most of the time you have to have money to make money. If i were one of those people, and i was grouped into a group that was referred to as "lazy", that would truly and rightly be offensive.
This post is as it flows from my brain, and in no particular order, and some thoughts may not have been broughten to completion, but i hope you all see my point.