Same Page (with an epic name), New direction

Alright guys, I seriously have to get these things out of my head, and my hope is that if I write them down, they will leave me alone!! Much like Shallan in "The Way of Kings," until I get these ideas out, they will taunt my mind on an endless loop until I have accomplished the things that I know I must do. This, I hope, will give me respite.

In the past this blog was simply for my Humanities class. As fun as that was, its over, and now I have a blog with a great title, and nothing to do with it. I also have a lot of time on my hands, and want to write down some of my thoughts so that I can finally stop thinking about them.

Recently, Becca and I have started getting more income, which means we can do more than just pay the bills finally, we can also save up, pay off the credit card, and begin working on our year supply and other survivalist projects like the year supply and other things.

Food and water are the most important aspects of the year supply, because if you get sick and have no medicine, you might die. If you get hungry and have no food, you will die. Medicine is important too though, we got some bandages from the store, and have some disinfectant as well. Also we are trying out the colloidal silver, only because everyone says they don't believe it until they try it. Well I tried it earlier today and I see no change!! Jk, it normally takes 3 days to get a sickness out with the silver, while recovery takes weeks without it, so we will see. I'm especially testing it on canker sores.

While on the subject of the silver, I want to address some claims. The FDA claims that it is unsafe and ineffective. They also poison us with Teflon on our pans, harmful medication, and allow the sale of harmful substances like tobacco and alcohol and GMO foods to make a buck, so pardon me for not taking their word when it comes to a product they can't control.
Another claim is that colloidal silver is a cure-all, and its not. Nothing is a cure-all. Balance of Nature and Isagenix are not a cure-all. It takes a balance for the body to cure itself, and that balance comes from Balance of Nature and Isagenix. Special treatments take things like colloidal silver, and other medicines and herbs.

Back to food storage (excise my ADD lapses, you will experience many of them). Buying a few cans or gallons of water goes a long way in building a year supply. Also, buying the gallons of water instead of buying a 55 gallon tub make it easier to transport, use, and store. Its also a little cheaper, at least until you have to replace the water. I'm going to find out if I can just replace the water in the jugs and then reseal them. By the way, do NOT use milk jugs that had milk in them. Seriously don't do that.

As far as survival equipment goes, I got a new machete, its a Roman Gladys, which makes it great for chopping and stabbing. For hunting and foraging purposes. I also got a water filter and hiking stove. What I really need is a heavy duty hiking backpack so that I can create a 72 hour go bag, which in all honesty I would probably use it to hike back to AZ once our food and water supply run out here in case of an EMP attack. That just seems like the most likely thing to me. Other emergencies might come and go, but the world will right itself again quickly, or it will lead to war, which again would end up with an EMP strike.

Lastly, in case of an emergency, look out for each other. Remember that God is watching out for us, and we must watch out for each other. The last days will cause fear for many, and men's hearts will fair them; but for us it must give us hope. Hope as we see the signs of His coming, and faith that it will all be alright in the end, no matter what.

I'm Awake, I'm Alive

So at first as I read Thoreau’s “Where I Lived and What I Lived For." I thought that he would be disappointed if we were not all going around painting and sculpting art, but I realized that what he really means is that we all have our own talents to sculpt with, our own canvas and paint brush to color with, and our own lives to live. I loved when he said:

"It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts."

It was the last line that I really loved, "To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts." and truly it is! And this was important to me because at first I felt bad for not being a marvelous artist, and I began to justify myself in my life, saying that I was creating my own art with my own life, and then he actually said that I was right in doing so, so then I felt great!

Thing is though, is that I know that I could do better in my day brightening, I could do more, give more life and color to my canvas. That is why I love artistic writing like this, cause it helps me want to improve my life and my canvas and stop living like an ant.

I'd like to go into where I got the title for this blog post, its a song by a Christian hard rock band called Skrillex. The title of the song is "Awake and Alive," and its kind of like a prayer to God, a prayer of gratitude: 

"I'm awake, I'm alive
Now I know what I believe inside
Now it's my time
I'll do what I want 'cause this is my life

(Here, right now)
Right here, right now
Stand my ground and never back down
I know what I believe inside
I'm awake, and I'm alive

I'm at war with the world
'Cause I ain't never gonna sell my soul
I've already made up my mind
No matter what, I can't be bought or sold."

What this tells me, and how it relates to the topic, is that through God I am woken up, and in Him I am alive. He is the one that inspires my life to be magnificent. Living for God is what makes me walk away from what is expected of me and walk towards what I know is right. Doing so is what makes my work important and my life meaningful. I am waking up.

Modern Marriage

Hogarth’s series Marriage a-la-Mode is interesting in that it is an artistic parody of marriage in the eighteenth century. If I were to make a similar artistic parody of today, I would start out with a Facebook friend invite, since so many people are meeting online now-a-days. What would follow would be a photo of the couple texting literally for months on account of people today being far too lame to call each other on the phone (heaven forbid they should open themselves up to a real relationship). 

Next would be a first encounter where the couple is both excited to see each other, but feeling awkward, since they don’t get any romantic interaction except on the Internet.  The first encounter is a very important part of the series since these long distance/no physical relationships are so much more common now than they were once upon a time.

The next step (assuming the couple got as far as an actual relationship) would be the marriage preparation, which would basically be a print off of the woman’s Pintrest. The man on the other hand would be playing Call of Duty letting her do all the work.

After that would be a photo of an overpriced and drunken wedding with a lot of iPhones taking Instagram pictures of everything while the groomsman and the bridesmaids run off in the background together. Ladies crying, father’s cringing at the site of the bill, some things never change.

 Finally, (and this is my view of society’s view on marriage) the marriage would likely end a few years later on account of money problems or immaturity and boredom.

 I think that ever generation could have complaints to say and parodies to write on the subject of marriage, because marriage has never been a perfect institution.  It is a something that has to be worked at, and is not for the faint of heart.  Only the best of people can make a successful marriage last and remain happy, but that is something worth fighting for.

The World We Live In

The Renaissance was a call in the human heart to return to classical art and classical beauty. The Renaissance pulled away from the depressing notion that mankind was evil and needed to be reminded of it every Sunday, and artists and the public alike found a new faith in themselves. What was new in the minds of the people was that mankind was in fact not entirely evil, but that they had the potential for goodness of character, and brilliance in performance. It was a time to blend science and art, both united in seeking perfection in beauty.

The Baroque period was all about pushing the envelope. The idea was taking what was done and taking it further than ever before. The idea, "I did it because I can" was prevalent in their art and music, the true extent of human genius being made manifest. The use of counterpoint and fugue and toccata enhanced music and pushed musicians and the human mind further than either were accustom to. At the same time, art and religion began to become more personal, more down to earth and lifelike.

Since this time, man-kind has continued trying to expand its ability in every way possible. We continue to push the envelope on moral grounds and in art, adding variety to music has brought on a huge plethora of musical styles and ways to use the voice and instruments. Doing the same in art added different forms of paintings, and eventually photographs and movies and computer animations and video games. Making things bigger became the new trend, then making them smaller. Always seeking to improve detail, people began searching for the clearest sound or the crispest image.

Another new thing that came up was artists bringing notice specifically to themselves. This is something we can see today when artists say things like, “This is Dre” or “Jason Derulo” just before they start their song or spelling out F-E-R-G-I-E for the chorus. Clearly we as a society have never really left the Baroque mindset, and it has even taken us to the stars.

David vs. David

Donatello and Michelangelo were lifelong rivals in art, sports, and pie eating contests. Donatello was known to be able to eat 6 pies in 4 minutes (compared to Michelangelo's 4 pies in 4 minutes), but Michelangelo 4'7" vertical leap made it so he could dunk a basketball far easier than Donatello.

That leaves only their competition in art:

Donatello had a fairly naturalistic perspective, David's body was natural, if very small and soft seeming. His arms were small, not the arms of a warrior. The art was kind of confusing in a few ways, such as his armor was on the ground, not on his body except for the legs. In addition, Donatello's David has the hair and hat of a pansy man and the sword of a warrior. His eyes seem soft and sweet, the eyes of a lover, which makes sense on account of all of his wives. His head being down and soft facial features also probably added to this look of being a lover.

Michelangelo's David was much more strong and formidable, with the body and expression of a strong leader and warrior. His eyes were those of a king, a royal and stern and regal man, someone you would not want to mess with. At the same time though, his face was kind in a way, the sculpturing was amazingly well done and was probably the Apollonian Classical. His eyes were looking outwards, like he has something he is looking at, like his faith or destiny on his mind. I really liked this one much more, its how I envision King David, the warrior of God and King of Israel.

In this artistic showdown: Michelangelo wins!!

Cathedrals

Here's the thing with this story. I'd be pretty uncomfortable if my wife had a childhood sweetheart or an old lover come over for any reason to stay at my house. They had this relationship going on for so long and then she invites him over. If it had been the man talking to some ol' dame that he use to be with she would be just as uncomfortable, or I would hope she was. If not I'd be a little concerned that she had so little care for me being in a close relationship with another woman.

What ended up happening though is the blind man, Robert, was becoming friends with the husband. They smoke and drank together, and the husband came around. The wife I think lost her idolized version of Robert when he began smoking, in fact I think she became jealous that Robert and her husband started getting along. The wife seems pretty immature, she sleeps with one man and has been in love with the memory of another. That's still cheating in my mind, she's just sleeping with the man that can provide for her, the social norm as it were.

I think that the man and Robert actually have a better appreciation for each other than Robert and the man's wife, because they are both mature adults. In another situation Robert and the man might have been long time friends, but I think that could still happen. I don't think the man's wife would like that though, she felt left out of the entire thing, but that's what she gets for never growing up. She can't act like an adult, so she doesn't get to appreciate adult things.

This is nothing against women by the way, though a woman did once do this to me, and if it ever happened again... well I would be very upset. However I know that men are just as capable of having an old romance and keeping a flame in their hearts while sleeping with another woman. Its despicable. Love and romance should exist only between husband and wife, so that love can grow between them forever.

Today's Epic, Tony with a side of Heroism

 The Iliad and The Odyssey were the national epics of ancient Greece. They told of a hero that took on Greece's enemy Troy and conquered  then defied the gods and went on a legendary quest to return home. An American epic would be Iron Man, and this is why:

Odysseus was a super hero. He was a mastermind in outwitting gods and men, and had fantastic adventures. He was strong, a capable warrior, and good with the ladies. He had the honor honor of speaking with gods and they gave him help and the ability to complete his ultimate mission of coming home. He had everything every Greek could want, he had honor, fame, and glory, family, and upon his return he won his family and estate back, he lived out his days in peace.

Tony Stark has everything every American wants. He has wealth, power, and appeals to the ladies (this seems to be a common theme throughout all of history). His girlfriend however is a red head (Pepper Potts) which just makes him even more awesome. He fights for freedom and justice, battling overwhelming odds and coming out often without a scratch. He fought his competitors that wanted to use their power to enslave mankind and dominate them, and against terrorists that really didn't stand a chance. He is a mortal doing incredible things, and works for the good of mankind. 

Every generation wants super heroes, whether they be our gods, our poems, comic books, celebrities, the founders of a country, the list goes on. Any number of epics could be written on these, and many have been. However, so many of these great stories have gone untold, or been long since forgotten. Therefore, if a great story is to be nationally recognized in today's society, then it must be something that is easily accessible to the public and have a lot of explosions. That is why Iron Man is today's epic.