My Blog, Your Face.

Guess who’s baaaack? That’s right. Your’s truly: Nicholas X. I’ve been away for far, far too long in a galaxy far, far away. Turns out that I don’t right as much when I’m depressed and just trying to get my life together. But now I’m back on the horse and ready to rock. So be prepared for great new content like rants about politics, religion, and society; poems; thoughtful thoughts; and the ever-popular humorous expositions on day-to-day happenstance. I’m ready to get my readers back, because you know what? *Cartman Voice* “I love you guys…”

Sincerely,
Nicholas X

(P.S. Did I mention I love you? Haha suckers…that means you’re gonna’ get the unadulterated truth from my fingertips. )

The Continual State of the Present

Life goes on. How many times have people said that to you? Yeah, no matter what, life goes on. “Stop” isn’t in life’s vocabulary. You can avoid it, you can numb yourself to it, but you can’t make it stop. Even after death, life goes on. We may like to think so, but the simple fact is that we are not gods. We cannot bend life to our will. Our life will continue as it may, and we can only choose how to deal with it. We can choose what we do but not what life does. I find that many people are unhappy with their lives. Why? Usually because they can’t control it. It isn’t what they want. If only they were richer, if only they were famous, if only they had more drugs. We, as people, try to use things to avoid the reality of reality: Life goes on.

I think more people would be more happy if they stopped trying to ride life like it’s the bull machine out of hell. They’re clinging on tight trying to get it under control, and in the end they just get thrown to the ground. After a couple of mouthfuls of dirt they just look for things to numb the pain. That, however, is not what life is about. Life is about living, and part of truly living is feeling. Being numb is not a natural or God-given state. We are meant to feel. Yeah, life hurts a hell of a lot sometimes, and it would be nice to be numb during those times. But numbness has no discretion as to what times are good and what times are bad. After a while, you’ll start to miss everything good in life if you choose to numb yourself.

Besides, the bad times, the pain, the hurt; they teach us to better appreciate the good times. Conversely, the good times should teach us how to maintain joy through the bad times. I’m not kidding. You might as well try to be happy during the bad times because being pissed isn’t going to change them. Like I said, you can’t control life, but you can control how you deal with it. All kinds of things have happened to me in my paltry nineteen years on this planet. I stopped asking “why” things happen a long time ago. Now I just ask “what” I’m supposed to do with what does happen. I’ll change a famous JFK quote because it works so well: Ask not what life can do for you, instead ask what you can do for your life. That just means life is going to do what it’s going to do, and you just have to figure out what’s best for you to do in response to what it does. Getting tired of all the “do’s?” Me too.

Let’s bring this tirade full circle to the title: “The Continual State of the Present.” I chose the title for the reason that life only exists in the present. The present is the continual state in which in the past and future meet. There is no life in the past because it is already gone, and there is no life in the future because it does not yet exist. Life is now, and only now. Every minute, every second the now slips away and a new now takes it’s place. That’s life.

Some people try to live in the past, many in their high school days or college shenanigans. Unfortunately it doesn’t work, because as great as those times may have been there is no longer any life in them. They are dead and gone. Other people try to live in the future, many in hope that what is to come is brighter than what is. Well, the future doesn’t exist yet, so life doesn’t live there either. We can only live in the now. We will only every have true life if we quit looking backward and trying to plan our lives in the future. The continual state of the present doesn’t stop for anyone, and anyone focused on anything other than the now will be left behind. We can’t stop it; we can’t change it. Life goes on.

2K Blog Hits Celebration

Hooray!!! Thank you friends, fans, and random readers. You make my life. I mean…2,000 blog hits is a big deal right? That’s why I decided to write this measly little post in gratitude and celebration. As long as I have readers, I will keep posting. That’s an unbreakable writer/reader bond. Live long and prosper.

Shuffle: how Apple made us music ADD

They’re everywhere; almost everyone has one. Those who don’t are probably the minority in America today. No, not cellphones (although they fit the bill). I’m talking about iPod’s. Digital audio players (DAP), now more commonly referred to as MP3 players, started to hit the consumer market in the late nineties (after having been first invented almost twenty years prior). Many different companies have made their own digital audio players, some with distinct features and some being blatant knockoffs of others. Until 2001, no company had really created a DAP that dominated the market. What happened that year? Apple released the very first iPod. This iPod was Mac-compatible only, but in only one year Apple released the first Windows-compatible iPod. Along with the iPod came iTunes, the renowned software program for digital audio organization and management. With the evolution of the iPod and iTunes came Apple’s almost complete domination of the digital audio market. However, it also came with something else.

One of the biggest reasons Apple has been so successful is the introduction of the iTunes store in 2003. This store, directly linked to the iTunes software, allows consumers to purchase not only entire albums but single songs. Before iTunes, whole albums had to be bought on CD for people to get the one or two songs they actually liked from a certain artist. The unique feature of purchasing one song at a time has allowed for the rapid expansion of musical taste, as consumers do not have to risk buying an entire album of songs they don’t like to try a new genre of music (the audio samples of songs on the iTunes store also adds to this). Throw in the ever popular “shuffle” feature incorporated into iTunes and every iPod, and you’ve got yourself a random soiree of unrelated songs you can listen to for hours (depending on the vastness of your personal music collection). With all of this and that and the other things to choose from and a feature that let’s us choose to not choose what we want to listen to, we’ve ended up with music ADD.

Several definitions of Music ADD exist in the foremost leading dictionary on the internet, Urban Dictionary. They are all basically the same: “When you or someone cannot listen to a song for more than a minute without changing it to a different song.” With names like “Turtleshat,” you know the people creating these definitions know what they are talking about. Regardless of whether or not they are posted by 12-year-olds with smartphones or 40-somethings with NASA competing super computers in their parents’ basement, the definitions are unanimous. I mean, come on, it doesn’t seem that hard to figure out. Most of the people living in this technological age have Music ADD whether it be infrequent or chronic. I myself am a repeat offender, however infrequent (I’m actually more of a genre-hopper). Regardless of the severity of your Music ADD, I think it’s a safe bet to blame Apple for the majority of the issue. Perhaps the internet itself is somewhat to blame, as it doesn’t exactly promote focus on any one thing (dammit Al Gore, why did you create such a blessing and a curse for us? WHY?!) and has allowed Apple to become as far reaching as it has. Now, if you’ll excuse me; I feel like wandering off and listening to Kanye…no how about Jay-Z…ah I’ll switch genres…Kings of Leon…nope, Phoenix…hmmm Dubstep is tasty…

Hello You, Meet Yourself

Say hello. You’re looking at yourself. You see, yourself would like to meet you for the first time in a long time. You’ve been gone for far too long. You’ve gone looking for yourself in other people, in other things. The fact of the matter is, you will only lose yourself further in anything other than yourself and the one who made you. The Creator put you in you and nowhere else. You’re not in those drugs. You’re not in that guy or that girl. You’re not in that music. You’re not in the movies. You’re not even in religion. You won’t find yourself in any of those places. Instead, you’re right where you are. You’re waiting to be found right within yourself. You’ll only ever know exactly who you are by examining yourself. Anything other than God trying to tell you who you are is a lie. Straight up. That simple. So hello you, it’s time to meet yourself.

Stick It to the Dude

“Stick it to the Man,” the clichéd slogan of the now generation, is losing it’s relativity to the times. So many kids have followed this message of rebellion against “squaredom” that the ideal of being different from the clean-cut old-folks of yesteryear is the new normal. The proverbial “Man” teenagers have been trying to “stick it to” since the 60′s has been replaced by a new dictator. I call him “the Dude” (The Big Lebowski reference intended). Instead of the freedom “sticking it to the man” was supposed to bring, a new standard that all are pressured to follow at a young age has arisen. “The Dude” has a much different persona than “the Man,” but he requires the same undying slavery to his cause. I call him, this proverbial head of the new standard, “the Dude” because he is no man.

“The Dude” is a perverted, alcoholic, and drug-addicted bastard. He’s perverted because he craves sex of any kind. He’s alcoholic because he’s drunk so much trying to be cool. He’s drug-addicted because he turned to mind-altering substances to dull the pain promiscuousness and alcoholism brought him. And finally, he’s a self-made bastard because he forsook his own parents in order to follow his own foolishness. “The Dude” has nothing and no one, so he promises great fulfillment to all that follow his ways. Surely the more people that follow him will make him great. “The Dude” is not any better, no, worse than “the Man;” and the young generation that created him out of their desire for freedom from “the Man” only have a new master.

Chances are, if you’re alive today, you’re in at least some way enslaved to “the Dude.” He’ll only pull you deeper if you don’t do something. “The Man” is dead and gone, but the menace of slavery to an oppressive system is still quite alive. “Sticking it to the Man” has evolved into “serving the Dude.” Sex will not set you free. Alcohol will not set you free. Drugs will not set you free. Rebellion against parental authority will not set you free. All of these things will only enslave you to “the Dude.” Quit trying to “stick it to the Man.” You’re getting nowhere fast. Stick it to the Dude.

The Last Christian

“The last Christian died on the cross.”
–Friedrich Nietzsche

Demographically speaking, there are hundreds of millions of “Christians” on Planet Earth. How many of these “Christians” actually following Christ cannot be determined by said demographics. Christian means “Christ follower,” but so many people slap that label on themselves without any real commitment to living with and like Jesus. You can slap a USDA Organic sticker on a box of Hot Pockets, but no one is going to buy it. I can see why Nietzsche hated Christianity. I can see why he thought Christianity was just a justification for bad behavior or an opiate for the weak minded. I know why Nietzsche hated religion. I hate religion. It’s too bad that people have made Christianity a religion, when in fact religion is the antithesis to Christ’s message. Religion is fraud. Religion is a façade, a tidy looking shell with empty and desolate souls shoved inside. Nietzsche believed strongly in the power of love. How sad is it that he did not see love in Christianity?

Many men, like Nietzsche, have looked at Christians and seen only condemnation and forced compliance to a set of rules and regulations in order to avoid said condemnation. Many men, like Nietzsche, have looked at Christianity and seen only religion. What’s sad is that Christ did not live and die for the sins of the world to create another useless religion. Jesus Christ preached love, and he gave it to everyone freely. He did everything out of love and acceptance. He commissioned Christians to do the same, but somewhere along the way people started using Christianity for their own selfish purposes. Soon thereafter, call oneself a Christian became calling that box of Hot Pockets an organic delicacy. Now the true Christians who love, accept, and really follow Christ are far fewer than they should be; and the world looks at “Christianity” and scoffs at its religiosity. All of that, and Christianity was never supposed to be a religion. Nietzsche was wrong. The last Christian did not die on the cross, but I know why he thought so.