Now that's a downright lie.

I don't mean to make this blog a happening for anarcho-socialist critiques of capitalism, but
isn't that better than a catch-all of whining and indecision?

Have you guys (as I assume there are two of you, and at this point, it's only men) seen the documentary The Yes Men Fix The World?

I just watched it and I'm inspired to lie to the public. I should be a spy.
Do spies have blogs? Do I need an alias?
If I become a spy, I'll let you know, just please don't tell anyone that I'm a spy.

Some girl on facebook keeps trying to sell me weed. I think that's funny. I don't smoke weed, or I don't really. Or, I would, but... I'm trying to remain cool and respectable and those two ends are at odds. Not just sell me weed, but get a weed hookup from me. I relented and gave her a name of a friend that smokes, rudely.

I don't even know this girl. I'd like to say bros before hos (hoes?), but every time I think about drugs, I feel like I have a gun to my head.
(Funny, to go to sleep, sometimes I imagine someone breaking in to my room and pointing a shotgun at me, as if that hardens me or something. Weird habit, but it puts me to sleep.)

I thought about salvia once and was pulled over. It's the fear of God, man.

On the same note, I almost smoked a cigarette just now. That isn't news, is it? Or it is news, but it's the lamest news in the world. "Oh, Joel, good reading, thanks. Peer pressure is present in college, good one."
But it's more than that (or maybe it isn't; regardless). I have it ingrained that I look at a cigarette and scoff. When my friends started smoking, I laughed, What Fools! As if peer pressure is something that happens to someone else, like death, taxes and mutually beneficial romantic relationships between consenting adults.
That's supposed to be a joke! Laugh at it!

Well, it wasn't funny, so...

The girl offered me a cigarette, jokingly and I rebuffed. Oh, you're funny, I thought. She laughed, but pressed.
She called me a pussy for not smoking. Your joke is TOO funny.
To situate myself back in my created reality, I told her and her cohorts and reminded my cohorts that I ate a cigar once to spit on peer pressure.
I don't think she understood.

"How old are you?" ..."So do you want to smoke weed? You've got to smoke something tonight."

And thanks to Hania, here is a sight (what a site!) where you can download music for free legally, or whatever.

Speaking of music, have you guys heard of this new hip hop thing? We don't have it in Oregon. Ever since, I came to the city, I've heard a lot about it. Is it different than rap? I don't know. I have a lot of questions.

What if these things don't materialize? What if you don't get hired? What if your debt breaks a hundred thousand? What if you work in a padded office?

It wouldn't be so bad.

In a moment of doubt, I wait for clarity to wash over me, clarity or forgetfulness.

Charity is Great

But it is not enough.

There's some hubbub about a fad on facebook, that's a social network I frequent, about changing one's profile picture to a cartoon character to fight against child abuse. There was some ideological backlash, of course, because it involves effort. I think most people ignored it.
Though, If it would have been framed as "raising awareness" or "bathing in nostalgia" or not framed at all, it would have results as powerful as when users were asked to change their picture (voluntarily and not by facebook itself) to Pokemon or doppelgangers.

One of my friends even started a reverse trend fighting terrorism with pictures of orange juice.

And then I saw this lecture by Slajov Zizek and after the initial nausea was the grain of truth reflected in the hubbub.

Are you really making a difference, or passing over for status quo?




I'm not throwing away my TOMS shoes or shaving my hair that I was growing for charity. Charity is still necessary, I made my professor and classmates tell me,
but Joel, does shoelessness still prevail?

One less person! It's still useful!
Yes, but the problem, Joel.

The problem.