This is going to be a strange post, and it’s all China Ya’s fault. On Facebook, she wrote something saying that she’d missed the date 12/12/12, the only one all of us will see in our lifetime (well, anyone that’s able to read now anyway), only to realize later on, after I and a couple other people mentioned something about it, that she had the date wrong. Then she kind of challenged me to write something on the date and have it release at 12:12PM.
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What, now I’m a writer? Oh yeah, I am. And I am the guy who wrote about blogging and creativity after all. I decided to take on the challenge. I’m going to write about 12 things, some you probably won’t care about but hey, it’s 12 things; 12 thoughts I have on my mind that I’m going to share. Will they all be popular or nonsensical? I don’t know yet; I’m being creative. Here we go.
1. I’ve lived in this house of mine 12 years now. Officially we’ve owned it since August, but we didn’t move in until October 1st. It’s by far the longest I’ve ever lived in one location; before that it was 5 years.
2. I’m not registered in any political party, though my politics lean left; I don’t think there’s any secret to that second part. Why don’t I belong to a party? Because overall I don’t like being in large groups where people are expected to believe in the same thing in the same exact way. When that kind of thing occurs, very little good seems to come of it long term. And explains why…
3. I don’t trust religion and I don’t believe in any gods. That’s striking to a lot of people because I’ve never drank, cursed, taken any illicit drugs or smoked a cigarette. By the way, how many of those who consider themselves totally pious can say that?
More people have died in this world over religious beliefs than racism; that should be shocking but it’s not. How many people cry for religious freedom and yet when someone disagrees with them they label them a heathen or non-believer, even if they believe. Nope, don’t care.
4. I think there should be mandatory parenting classes for anyone who becomes a parent under the age of 30. These wouldn’t be classes on how to raise a child to adulthood because no one would remember any of that. But I tend to believe more parents should know how to handle the first year and why that year is so important to the lifetime development of a child. I believe it would help every potential parent not only come to grips with what’s coming but also realize they’re not in it alone. Hillary Clinton was right; it does, and should, take a village to raise a child.
5. While I’m at it, I believe in a woman’s right to choose whether or not to have a baby and I don’t believe fathers should have any say in it. However, I believe all father’s should be forced to pay child support for those children, and I believe the dollar amounts should be a standard percentage so those fathers aren’t being hurt to the extent that they can’t have a life if they decide not to be in that child’s life. It took two to have that child, so it should take two to raise that child, and if that means the mother needs to work, then so be it.
6. Though I believe that people often deserve consequences for their actions, I also believe that maybe sometimes we take it to the extreme. Shooting someone in the face because they looked at you wrong is way over the top. Yelling at someone because your child is disturbing the peace of everyone else is way over the top. There’s definitely a lack of responsibility that’s growing in this world, and a lack of common decency as well.
I’m not immune to some bad behavior here and there but I never yell at people and I haven’t hit anyone since I was 18, though I’ve wanted to. I haven’t totally learned to turn the other cheek but I am learning how to be bated into exchanges with trolls, no matter where they are. I’m growing up! 🙂
7. You need to know about your health. Some of you might remember my post on the relationship between health and your dreams. In the past few weeks I’ve had some friends who have just discovered they have maladies they didn’t know about because they hadn’t gone to the doctors in awhile, and one who learned of his malady even though he had been going. He told me that he just figured it would go away, but without taking the precautions against its possibility it became an eventuality.
You know when you’re feeling “off”. Folks, doctors aren’t perfect but they have more training than you, and they know as well that stuff doesn’t just “go away”, even if you don’t feel as bad days later. Don’t become a bad statistic; check yourself out if you’re not feeling up to par.
8. What do you want to do with your life? Who do you admire, and why? Who can help you get to where you’d like to be? Are you ready for success? And what about Naomi? Other than that last question, these are things we all need to ask ourselves on a continual basis if we feel down, depressed, stuck in a nothing position in life whether it’s professional or personal or just want something more and better. There are great lessons out there, people who have already been through it.
Heck, you’ve probably already been through some things that have helped shape who you are that you’ve forgotten. Not that there’s anything wrong with you but if you feel there is, you need to know that it takes little to be better, it takes a lot to be much better, but that every day you have another chance to start anew; you just have to do it. By the way, who can tell me where the line “and what about Naomi” came from? lol
9. This is a quickie because some of you might not realize it yet. There’s a new WordPress update, 3.5, but I’m going to tell you to wait at least a week before you update it. I did it on two blogs before realizing it conflicted with some of my plugins, which is irksome. This only happened yesterday so I don’t have any answers yet. However, it’s always recommended to wait at least a few days or until you read what someone else has to say about an update before you do it. I should have known better; sigh…
10. You may not have heard this but as of the beginning of the year, your cable service, no matter where you are in the U.S., can start scrambling your television signal if you don’t have a cable box. They actually have to give you 30 days notice, so if you’ve received a letter already you know about it. They say they’re doing this because they’re trying to stop cable theft, and Congress passed it; those weasels.
No cable company has yet come out and said whether they’re going to do it but Cablevision got permission to do it in NYC in 2010 as a test. They said they didn’t get any complaints; they’re lying of course because I know at least 5 people who complained and got nothing. How much more will it cost you? No idea, but I have 8 TV’s in my house and only 2 with boxes; I’m scared.
11. Did you know that the song 12 Days of Christmas was actually a Roman Catholic catechism that was created during a period of time when Catholicism wasn’t allowed in England? Each verse had a specific meaning and used code words to represent different biblical references which no one else knew; that’s the power of music. Isn’t that freaky?
12. I don’t specifically hate anyone. I don’t know a person I hate, though I know some I don’t trust. There are groups of people I hate, and some relatively famous people I hate because of their hate. I hate concepts like racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. I hate some groups because they have the capacity for being over the top.
I don’t love a lot of people, but I like a lot of people. I like to laugh. I actually like to smile a lot. I love my music, which of course is disco and classical mainly. I love science fiction, action and cartoon films & TV shows. I like people who comment on my blog and show me the kind of dignity I try to show them on their blogs, even when I disagree with them. Overall, I like people and I tend to believe that even with a few bad eggs here and there humanity has a lot going for it. I believe we’re going to be alright long term. I hope you believe that as well.
That’s all I have and yes, it’s a long post. And I wrote it all in one sitting, no notes, until it was done.