Ode To Halloween

The fake blood is coagulating, the eyeballs are floating in the punch bowl, the finger fries are twitching and the decapitated heads are spinning, that's right the time to celebrate Samhain has arrived and he's ready to party. October 30-31, the only two days of the year that we're permitted to release our inner child, or in some cases inner demon, to frolic upon the earth extorting candy from strangers and TPing houses.

Regardless which one of the pagan gods you pay tribute to this year you're sure to bring in  a vast amount of fortune in chocolate and gummy candy whether it be dressed as a goblin, a zombie, a witch of even a Mighty Morphin Power Ranger. We're all equals in the time of All-Hallows Eve despite the size of your candy sack.

So load up the mini-van mom, get those kids on the road for two short nights of begging and pleading and a months worth of tooth aches and tummy pains. As for me, my celebrating will have to wait till I get back from the store, I've somehow run out of toilet paper and eggs again.

I Say Tomato, You Say Shut The Hell Up

photo by Alfred Weidinger

What ever happened to "let's just agree to disagree"? We were all raised with our own sets of values and opinions, that's a fact, it's what makes this world so beautiful. Diversity, your beliefs of ideas compliment my beliefs of ideas, or my ideas clash with your ideas. Either way it's these differences that make us unique and define us as individuals.

So why is it so many people feel the need to impede on this individualism? Attempt to take away or destroy the very thoughts that make us all unique. This behavior is practiced from person to person, government to citizen and even country to country. No matter who you are or what you believe there will always be someone else telling you to conform to society and stop thinking outside the box.

Well I'm here to say no way! I will not be some kind of robot or puppet for anyone. I will think, speak and fight for my thoughts and opinions, I will always speak my mind and I will express the feelings I wish to share. I will not expect you to agree with me, I will not try to convince you that my way is better, and I will never discourage your individualism. I expect us to think differently, I expect us to enjoy different things, like different activities, practice different religions and live our different lives.

photo by rajkumar1220 on Flickr

There is no right or wrong way to live your life, only different. If we could all just find a way to accept each others right to be our own person we could be so much better on every plateau of life.I don't want your country to be like mine, I don't want my neighbor to eat what I eat, I don't need you to worship my God, and I don't want you to change who you are. Let's all continue to be ourselves and let others do the same, your beliefs, thoughts and opinions are important to you, so share them, but when that next person, country, culture or religion does the same thing respect it and allow them to be different than you.  

Our Assets Are Everything

My greatest personal asset is my brutal honesty, towards myself, mostly because it keeps my ego in check, and towards others when absolutely necessary, like when their ego needs checked.

My absolute worst personal asset is my brutal honesty, towards myself, mostly because it keeps my confidence below its full potential, and also towards others when absolutely necessary, which tends to tick people off.

The ego and confidence of  humankind can be our best and worst trait all at once. Without them you may never reach your highest point of success, yet with to much of either you're surely destined to be knocked off the high point you worked so hard for. The greatest achievement of all is finding that happy middle ground that compliments your success and keeps you humble.

Self Reflection - The odds Are Not In My Favor!

Some days I have to wonder who I really am, and how the hell did I get here? If I would of seen the person I am now 20 years ago, hell even 10 years ago, I wouldn't have believed it for a minute. We all go through so many changes in life it's often hard to remember who we once were, what was important to us and why it no longer is.

 Everything that I thought was so important back then I now sit back and laugh at, and wonder why I even cared. The real downside to this is it makes me ask myself, will I feel the same way about the priorities in my life now 10 years down the road or will it all just be dust in the wind.
 Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about the real important things like family but everything else, career, location, friends, associations, rants, political views etc...

Will I look back and ask myself how the heck did you ever think you could write, or why did you invest time or money into that, what possibly made that seem like the right decision at the time. I know I'm obviously not gonna know the answers to my questions until that time actually comes, but I can't help thinking about it.

I made so many poor decisions in my youth, it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume I'm still on the wrong path. At any rate I will continue traveling the road that I'm on and just hope and pray that the decisions I make today are for the most part the decisions I would make in the future.

No one is perfect and I'm sure we all have regrets, but who really wants to continue to have the same regrets, right? This has been a publicly broadcast rant on self-reflection by D.S. Duby brought to you by the letter S and the number 13. Thank you for your participation and have a great day.    

Leave The Turkey, Candy And Presents And No One Gets Hurt!

Many atheists say stop celebrating Christmas and Easter. Several religions believe celebrating Halloween is evil and forbidden, the broken hearts say cancel Valentines day my soul is hurting, some Indians say Columbus day  is an insult to their people and it has to stop being celebrated, it's only a matter of time before Thanksgiving gets wiped out by the vegans or some radical group of thankless people  who feel their rights are violated by my beliefs in eating turkey. Well guess what while you're stomping your feet having a tantrum over my beliefs your trampling all over my rights and freedom. If you don't wanna celebrate Holidays then don't, but stop trying to convince the world that your way is the only way, because it just so happens many of us like having holidays off work, reconnecting with family and friends and celebrating our beliefs regardless of how unnecessary or mundane they may seem to you. I'm not hating, your certainly entitled to your opinion but on the same not so am I so stop trying to push my opinions out the window. Oh and by the way I say Merry Christmas not happy holidays get over it.

Don't Be Cruel....

I no longer have a love for the Internet! So many people are just so cold and hateful in this world and it makes me sick seeing it every day. I'm an asshole, I admit it, but the mean and cruel stuff that comes out of some people's mouth for no other reason except to look cool or bully others makes me sick! And the Internet has only made it worse because now these haters abusive words are broadcast worldwide and are spread to millions of people. This type of hate talk does nothing but corrupt our youth into thinking the mistreatment and bullying of others is an acceptable form of behavior. Facebook is no exception to this, a young girl commits suicide and complete strangers label her a whore, soldiers die and people laugh at their families loss, children are born disfigured or disabled and people make cruel jokes about their appearance. This truly is a cold and heartless world we live in and I'm starting to believe that a real civilization ending apocalypse might not be such a bad thing. We have to teach our children better people, they need to have morals and respect for others, or what good is this world we're living in? I for one am ashamed of the way society has changed and long for the days of respect and gratitude.

Is It Still We The People, Or Has That All Somehow Changed

DVIDSHUB on Flickr    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Is it still said as "we the people" or has it somehow been changed to "we the corporate leaders"? Though our great nation may still be considered free for now,our rights and liberties are gradually being diminished in the hands of politicians and the corporations that control them.

Obviously, not everyone is going to feel the same way that I do aboutthis subject, and I’m OK with that, but there are millions of otherAmericans suffering and feeling the effects of having their rights taken away by aGovernment that’s unable or unwilling to give a damn about thepeople who should matter the most. The little man, the people who areout working hard every single day with little or nothing to show fortheir efforts. The men and women who pay higher taxes every year,while the corporate leaders pay less, get bonuses and get bailed outin times of crisis.

I'm not really sure why they still bother to ask us to vote, orwhat we are even voting for anymore. There is no such thing as apolitician that’s actually for the betterment of mankind, and forthe most part they’ve even stopped pretending to be. Politicianshave their own agendas they don’t need to know ours, and if youdon’t like it switch parties, where you will just find anotherpolitician that doesn’t concern himself with the worries of thecommon folk. 

There is no longer any real difference between theRepublican and Democratic parties, except for the lies they choose totell us, when it all comes down to the fine print they are all workingfor the major corporations not us, and our opinions means nothing at all.

Please, believe me when I say I want tostill trust in our Government, and consider that the wars we fightare for our protection and the betterment of mankind. But thatassumption has been eaten away by the consistent lying and all tofrequent coincidences surrounding the stories given to us by theGovernment.

Is it any real wonder why nearly every countryhates America? Try thinking of it on a much smaller level, when themajority of people you know tell you not to hang around a certainperson, isn’t there usually a pretty good reason for that. It’snot jealousy of your freedom I’ll tell you that much.

Corporate America cannot survive without the support of our leaders, nor can they prosperto unlimited expectations without completely controllingthe production and distribution of natural resources. Experienced and skilled professionals are no longer a necessity for the most part, we have been replaced with cheap labor andhi tech machines or software. We have dug a hole so great that thelittle man can no longer see the light, or grasp the reality of thepredicament that the big man looking down on us has put us into.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, not everyone isgoing to agree, every single person has their own perspective. I dobelieve though, that if you take a long hard look at society, how webegan to where we are now, you will surely see the downward spiral weare in.

There is no complete fix to our great nations situation, butwithout at least making an attempt to fix it, then it will alwaysremain completely broken. I am in no way against our Government ingeneral, I just fill that they have taken us down a road that’sdefinitely not in our best interest.

If the changes are going to bemade then they need to be made soon, keeping the interest of thepeople at heart and not the controlling corporations. These are justmy thoughts and opinions, but if they even open one personseye’s then it was worth the effort.

D.S. Duby