I didn't get this pretty face from punching people.

It’s been a few days, I know, but better quality than quantity... perhaps I need to fire my quality assurance and find someone better at their job ;)

Anyways this has recently come to the surface (as in today) and it’s something I feel needs saying on a grander scale.  In my Facebook travels today I noticed a debate raging on a friends page about violence towards women.  My friend who is a nice girl has a past which involved a particularly unintelligent boy who rather than showing her love and affection, chose to beat her.  It took a very unpleasant experience on her part to end that relationship.  I will not get into details, or commentary on the cycle of abuse that is sometimes mentioned as I don’t feel overly qualified to discuss it.  I do feel it is most undesirable that it exists. 

Back to my story, she had posted a comment stating that real men don’t hit women.  A couple of what I will confidently say are ignorant young men took up the opposing side of that statement saying that when men hit women it’s because the women provoked it, all of this under the banner of ‘broadening her statement’ and bringing a ‘balanced opinion.‘ 

This at very least made me want to slap these young men who think that violence, especially against women, can be justified.  I am very much of the opinion that violence should be avoided by whatever means necessary.  In the end striking out in a violent fashion will only beget more violence.  People all too often use violent reactions as their only resort rather than being responsible to the well being of their fellow humans.  I admit I’ve had times where I have been blinded by rage and wanted to beat the ever living hell out of someone.  But as some of my friends would readily point out, I’m not a fighter, as Matty would say “Mitch is the bearded monk”.  I tend to cope with my anger in a far more rational fashion rather than acting it out in a physical, visceral fashion.  When people get me to that point there is often a reason for it, whether or not it’s a good one there is a reason.  It doesn’t mean that I have to hit them.  It also means I don’t have to communicate with them more than necessary.  Often the best reaction is time and space, if I have to deal with the person in any sort of official or regular capacity than it can be talked about. 

The act of hitting someone because “they were asking for it” is a terrible excuse at best.  Justifying acts of violence against anyone because of your inability to discuss your differences is wrong whether you’re John Smith or leader of one of the most powerful nations in the world.  If you’re not man enough to discuss your gripes with someone and instead bring them harm, are you really a man?  I mean you just did the easy thing and acted on your most base urges.

Now I’m not going and saying that you should be a complete pacifist as there will always be those that think might is right and use strength and violence to get what they want.  I would go so far as to say that I won’t be the first person to throw a punch, but at the same time I would defend myself as best I could against someone who decided ‘we’ needed to fight.  With no training in martial arts or anything of the like I don’t expect that I’d last long in a fight.  I would much rather avoid physical confrontation than get into fisticuffs because I do believe there are better ways of dealing with people rather than imposing your will on their body. 

So in the end, I’ll expand on my friends statement.  Real men don’t hit anyone. Ignorance is no reason for stupidity, or an excuse for being a thug.  If you don’t have the knowledge and mental fortitude to discuss your issues with someone educate yourself.  Physical violence is a lazy man’s approach to solving a problem.

I pine for pie.

I’m having one of those “I’m feeling useless” days.  Perhaps in small part due to the fact that it does look a little bit gloomy outside.  Reality is though, that it’s a terrible feeling.  It’s one of those days where self doubt creeps in and rears it’s head, making me think I’m not good for much.  The job hunt has thus far gone poorly, we’ll see if that trend continues but it seems like all the jobs I can find are for call centers, require some form of degree or training in the trades.  Call centers are right out, the rest I don’t have.  What few other jobs I have applied for I haven’t heard back from at all.  Of course there’s the option to move elsewhere, but the question then is “where?” Add to that I don’t have the funds to move and you find me stuck.

Anyways apologies for the shortness of the blog, I’ll try to write something a bit more meaty in the next day or two.

Know what gets my goat??

Okay, this get’s my goat.  Recently Japan suffered an 8.8 magnitude earthquake, (the scale is out of ten if I recollect) which is the biggest earthquake to ever hit the island.  Adding to that difficulty is that it was off shore and caused a Tsunami (aka a big fucking tidal wave) to rush inland and create even more devastation.  Currently as of the last time I saw an update on the News the Japanese government was working it’s ass off attempting to cool down three nuclear power plant to prevent melt down from occurring.   Think Chernobyl Ukraine as far as meltdown goes.  So not only were they ravaged by Earthquake and Tsunami, they have imminent nuclear meltdown x3 looming in the distance.

Here’s the first issue, somewhat minor in scope compared to the second, but still.  Many people some I know and lots that I don’t are ‘horrified’ and ‘taken aback’ by what occurred and they’re pouring out sympathies via twitter, facebook and whatever other means they have at their disposal.  The problem with this is two fold, firstly unless you have friends or family on your twitter or facebook accounts odds are no one in Japan is very likely to see your emotional outpouring.  The second thing is that your noble exhortations, condolences, and the like do nothing for those that are digging out of the shit as it were.  It’s like witnessing a horrific car crash and yelling at the people in the burning cars that you’re very sorry that they were in that crash just now, than standing back to see what happens.  If you really feel so sorry for the people of Japan, do something, I’m not saying book a flight and jump into the fray, but there are plenty of ways of assisting.  The most useful I’ve seen yet is to donate money to the Red Cross who will be doing everything they can to assist.  You can follow this link to go to the Red Cross site and donate there, of call them toll free to donate. http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=38375&tid=001

Here’s my second issue with the disaster.  There are a group of people, not a majority I hope, but perhaps an uneducated few that believe Japan “had it coming because of Pearl Harbor.”  Now excuse me if I’m wrong but the abridged story of what occurred in the Pacific in WW2 is as follows. The Japanese launch a surprise attack on an unprepared (perhaps overconfident) Pearl Harbor bludgeoning the Americans. In the end there were 2,402 men killed and 1,282 wounded.  Approximately 3.5 years later the war in the Pacific came to a close after the American’s dropped two nuclear devices on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945). Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki with most of the dead in both cities being civilians.  Now maybe I’ve done my math incorrectly but I would say that the Japanese got many times their ‘just desserts’ for Pearl Harbor with those two attacks alone, and that’s without factoring deaths occurring after those first few months, as well as whatever other health problems came as a result of the effects of having two nuclear bombs dropped on your country.  To date Japan is the only country in the world that has had Nuclear devices used on it in a time of war.  So to the simple minded, ignorant people that think that this earthquake and the resulting damages from Tsunami and potential meltdown are Japan getting what they deserve for the 2,402 casualties and 1,282 wounded from Pearl Harbor... All I can say is I can think of the ghosts of 150,000+ dead Japanese from Hiroshima and Nagasaki that would love to beg to differ with you.  That’s not to exclude people like myself who think you’re being childish and ignorant, there are others out there that would agree with me.  I would argue that you people that think this is some sort of ‘payback’ would be those crying loudest if some form of natural disaster was to strike your homeland (I’m going to assume it’s the United States).  I would also venture to say, the Japanese wouldn’t be sitting at home thinking “HAH! That’s what they get for Hiroshima and Nagasaki!”

Anyways </rant>  That was my Sunday evening in a nutshell, I hope I find all of you doing well.  Gokouun o inorimasu (Good Luck)

I ain't singing the blues.

So yes, I know in my last post (or two) I said I would get better about blogging more frequently, since it’s been over a week since my last post that clearly has not happened.  I suppose since lately all I’ve been up to is playing Xbox and job hunting online I should have time to maintain my blog.  And the answer is yes, I have the time, but no I do not have the motivation.  As a weak excuse I did edit a post the other day in regards to the ex, she emailed and asked me (not all that politely, but asked none the less) that I remove a certain portion.  I as such removed what I felt was necessary.  That being said, that isn’t really blogging that’s editing.  As a side note she is insisting again that we “get together on purpose rather than run into each other by accident.”  There are two problems with that thought, for one I don’t wish to ‘get together’ we have nothing to discuss unless it pertains to “sign on the dotted line please”.  Two, if we do run across each other it will be in a situation where neither of us are obligated to talk to the other, and are most likely out with our own friends.

That’s what I’ve got, short sweet and to the point.  I have a couple of thoughts that I’ll hopefully develop into a post in the next day or two.

Metal, cookies, and ranting oh MY!

So I realize it’s been a week since my last posting, and honestly that’s too long.  I meant when I started this to at least post every other day if not daily, and here I am procrastinating like I always do.  SO here is the brief update on where I’m at as exciting as it is. 

No job yet, I need to send out another batch of resumes I keep putting it off even though I should be doing that daily.  I had an interview a week ago which so far I have not heard back about, though they said it may be as late as next week before I hear back.  The job sounded like what I’m looking for, which is less physically demanding and more ‘stable’ than what I was doing previously... alas I must endeavor to keep looking.  In the worst case I do have a back up plan I can try, or I can try EI for a bit which would still drive me nuts.

Still playing much paintball, I’ve been out (I think) every week since the second or third week of January.  That means I’ve been out probably just as much in 2011 as I was in 2010 already, that’s something I’m actually proud of.  That being said I do have welts on top of welts, on top of welts-- which I’m okay with.

After my last blog I received an email from “The Ex” mostly rehashing some things she stated in previous emails.  She keeps insisting that “Let's plan to run into each other sometime instead of being caught off guard.”  I responded as I always do, informing her that I have no need to see her in person, and if she has anything she needs to say or get off her chest she should just inform me via email.  I like to think I’m a fairly smart guy, and something tells me that she has something she ‘has’ to tell me but doesn’t feel it’s appropriate via email.  Fact of the matter is I feel no need to interact with her in person, hell I hardly feel like interacting with her via email.  Fact of the matter is that she asked for the divorce and letting her go has been incredibly difficult, I’ve been trying my damnedest to move on with life and seeing her in person would invariably be a HUGE setback to any progress I have made. 

Anyways enough about that depressing drivel, today I fold laundry, vacuum the basement for dad, and tonight I rock... sort of, there is a metal show at the Distrikt tonight that I’m not particularly excited for.  I’m not usually excited for metal shows in general as for the most part I find they’re all obnoxiously loud, and usually sound like more of the same stuff as the last one.  “This next song is about decapitated christian eating zombies that want you to know your god is dead.”  Yeah yeah, come up with something original will you?  It’s like they completely forget that all their metal buddies have written all their songs about the exact same thing... Give me something fresh and original rather than the same, recycled, old, angry stuff.  I to this day maintain that I would start a metal band IF we could write and sing songs about fuzzy bunnies and happy elves and cookie recipes.  Imagine for a minute wouldn’t you some very metal guy up on stage screaming “Two cups of flour, one cup of chocolate chips, one teaspoon of salt, one teaspoon of vanillaaaaaagggghhh!!!”  How’s that for twisted and messed up?

Enough of that for more, I’ll let your brains wrap themselves around that for a while.