The Effects of Peer Pressure

It's been a while since I last posted, but I feel like a little venting is in order. I really should be cleaning my room up, but procrastination is one of my hobbies. More-so then cleaning anything.

So, I was invited to a Halloween party last week (of course). I'm not a loser who has never gone to any parties *cough cough*, because I've been invited, but I was actually planning on GOING to this one. There would, of course, be drinks, but I'm underage and not a drinker, so I never planned on this being a problem. It's $10 for entrance, because they assume everyone is there to drink, but I figured I'd just mooch off enough food worth $10, hmm?

Well, I never actually got to the party, because of family reasons, but I started thinking some dangerous thoughts. This would be my first party (with drinking, I mean), no? Drinking is bad. Sure, it won't kill you right away. But it leads you to do stupid things. And I already do enough stupid things without any alcohol or anything in my system.

Do I drink? No. But Jello-shots! There would be Jell-o shots! Now, I've had some alcohol before (what teenager HASN'T?), but I never liked the taste or the effect it had on me. People say beer and liquor are for socializing, but I say it's kind of lame if you can't have fun without something in your system to loosen you up. So I didn't really attempt to think about the drinking. But Jell-o shots kept coming into my mind. I mean, I LIKE Jell-o. I don't like drinking. But I like Jell-o. And then my mind started into a crazy spiral. One drink couldn't possibly hurt, right? After all, it's just one drink. It's not even a drink. It's Jell-o. Pretend you don't notice that little sour taste in there. It's so colorful. Drink it.....

My obsession with shiny stuff and colors nearly got ahold of me there. But obviously, it's stupid to do something because it looks pretty. "Ooh, that shiny boat in the distance looks pretty! Maybe if I jump off this cliff and into the water 300 ft below, I can swim to it!!!!" Um, no...

And then I thought about all the other people who would be at the party. They all would be drinking. I paid my $10 too. Why don't I get to join them in? This was not my brightest train of thought, and thankfully it was all hypothetical. I tend to get imaginative when thinking about things, including this future party. I thought how they would all be drunk and silly, and how I would be the only one not drinking.

But isn't the FIRST thing most parents teach you is to not succumb to peer pressure? Don't drink, don't smoke, don't do drugs. The only reason most people do this is because of peer pressure. It always seemed like such a dumb thing to do; to do something because your friends are doing it is stupid.

But really, no one wants to be left out. No one was to feel different. Everyone wants to fit in (wow, Captain Obvious much?), and sometimes doing that one illegal thing would help. My train of crazy continued. One drink can't hurt. Jell-o is pretty. Liquor isn't dangerous unless taken in large amounts. In fact, alcohol is legal after a certain age, and they just don't let minors use it for fear of abuse. And in fact, I'm so mature, I would be able to handle it! Not.

Then again, smoking is also legal, after 18, and that's a pretty stupid thing to do. And so I smacked myself out of my temporary insanity. But I think I really got into the mindframe of why peer pressure works. These people are my friends, so I wanted to fit in! Not my closest friends, mind you, but that's because I never party with them.

So all in all, I'm glad I didn't go to the party and succumb to peer pressure. Who know's where I might have ended up. Date raped? Drunk and grounded for life by my parents? On the street somewhere? I mean, I still had some fun with my bffls trick-or-treating and then hanging out at their house.

In the end, though, I think I'm glad I have my best friends who don't drink/smoke/do drugs with me. You shouldn't have to do crazy stuff to fit in. They'll all be over their wild phase when they're in their 40's and having a midlife crisis.

On the topic of war...

So, I saw the movie War Games today, with Matthew Broderick. It gave me a topic to think about, though it was on my mind before: In nuclear wars, there is no winner.

Let's think back to ancient times, when there was no concept of war! One caveman against the other, beating each other with clubs and rocks and whatever. Nowadays, we have nuclear wars. Wow, now that's progressive. Instead of two guys (or even girls) beating each other up over territory, we have bombs and missiles killing millions of people and animals. Those missiles and bombs destroy land, homes, the environment, and just about everything someone could care about. It really makes me wonder about who we are putting in political offices. I get that some terrorists would love to blow some place up for this cause or another, but how stupid do you have to be to not realize that all you're doing is killing each other off in a faster, cruder way?

Hopefully, reality will set in with these idiots, or at maybe we'll get some more intelligent people into office eventually (hah!). Maybe they should really think about what they're doing before they do it.
Political Officer: Hey, Russia is threatening us with bombs to blow up our country and kill millions of our people! We have to blow them up first!
Smart Person who has no power: But sir, they might fire back at us before they blow up, and then won't we all die?
Political Officer who doesn't care:What are you, a liberal?! Do as I say or you're fired! *mumbling* There's no such thing as a true patriot...damn wanna-be heroes...you were never in Korea or 'Nam...
Smart Person who is still confused: *blink*

Yeahhhhhhhh. Obviously that is a very difficult concept to grasp for them.

Fate is a fickle thing...

Right? Shouldn't it be? Isn't that the saying!? When something in life comes unexpectedly (and lets face it, everything comes unexpectedly), we say "oh, fate can be fickle." Of course it can. It's fate! If we knew what it was going to do, we would be prepared, and maybe less tragic things would happen. Less death, less hearts broken, less pain...Huh.

So...what does it mean when fate does the EXACT same thing in a way that's so freakishly the same that it's like de ja vu. It does the same thing TWICE. And no, no time machines were involved in the making of this unfickle fate moment. Maybe, the universe did it because it knew you were expecting something out of the blue, and it just repeated itself, thoroughly shaking you. It's true that a REPEAT was exactly the last thing expected. But it was already done! Grr!

Am I making any sense? No. Well, oh well. This blog is for rambling. It doesn't need to make sense. In case it's not obvious, this "unfickle fate thing" happened to me.

So, dangit fate, you've gotten me again!

Hum...

Why is it, that when someone of 'value' is killed, it's called assassination, but when the homeless man down the street is killed, he's murdered?

Society places unequal value on lives. Sure, they say "All men are created equal", right? Unless you're the homeless man living in the box, or even just a regular person in comparison to the President or something. Some people say that it is the contributions to the community that are the valued part. I'm sorry, what? Yes, CONTRIBUTIONS. As in, "Hey, that politician gave 10 grand to our city last year, we MUST find his assassinator!" vs. "Hey, that homeless guy took that box from my trash can! He was probably killed in a drug dealing argument!"

So, whatever we contribute to society should be what decides whether we were murdered or assassinated? It's not necessarily a "donation given to the city", or something of the sort. It should be more like, "Hey, this guy has a steady job, gives to charity, and helps out with his son's soccer team." Instead, greedy parasite politicians are counted as assassinated, while the good father and husband was just murdered. Where's the justice?

Assassinations get the headlines in the news. Murders are (unfortunately) everyday things. Not much we can really do about it anyways.

We really should put more count on what people do then what position (or how much power) they hold.

/rant

Teenagers don't like to think...

There's a rare kid in a group of many that actually does something productive for his/her life. And I'm talking about doing something productive not for money. That is truly a rare thing to come across these days. Teenagers are the future, right? In only a few years, these kids will be serving the food at Burger King, getting into politics, joining the Peace Corps, starting a business, going to jail. Basically, everyone will end up doing something. But what about now? What are we thinking now?

Huh. We're not. Not a huge revelation, as all adults are pretty aware of this right now. Not that all adults are amazing thinkers; I mean, we're human, we're lazy. It's a fact of life. I think teenagers are the age group that do the less thinking. What do we do instead? Texting, TV, internet surfing, sports, iPods that make it easier to ignore the world, talking on the phone, partying...there's a longer list that could go on, but we know all these things require no [intelligent] thought. How many teens (or kids) out there read for the hell of it? How many sit and ponder about life, the universe, and everything? (Huh, more Hitchhiker's Galaxy references. Maybe you should look it up.) How many of them try to learn a new word each day, or attempt to learn more about what they were taught in school. (more on school eventually, it's a pretty big topic). Obviously, I can't be included in this factor of teens/kids, since I'm here, ranting about my thoughts to whoever is reading this.

Point is, we don't like to think because life is so complicated that if we attempt to break the code, our brains start to ache. Yep. I would know, I've tried. It's just too hard. And with all the distractions for kids and teens today, why would they even bother to try? (I'm just weird that way.)

I really can't think of a solution to this problem with humanity. Getting rid of technology? Nope. Making learning fun? An age-old problem for teachers that is yet to be solved. Global warming? Oh right, nothing to do with that.

Argh, too much thinking. My head hurts. I'm done for today, before my brain implodes.

{CASE IN POINT--SEE ABOVE XD}

More on Disney Channel later...*shudders*

I'm scared...

(Hannah Montana: Taking over the world one theater, tv, and radio at a time)

The Answer to Life is 42?

I was watching "The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls" on the SciFi channel today. Of course they're playing it, as the new Indiana Jones movie, "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", is going to be in theaters soon, but it made me wonder. (I was also watching the rest of the Indiana Jones marathon, of course ;D)

All of the mysteries of the world that there are. The crystal skulls, the creatures of the deep, the supernatural and paranormal things, Doomsday in 2012, global warming (ok, not in the same category, I'm just joking around), Stonehenge, aliens, blah blah blah. There sure are a lot of things we don't know about the universe as a whole. A lot of people are obsessed with finding the secrets of life, the universe, and everything. We all generally wonder the answers to that right.

Huh. Wouldn't it be funny if there was one answer, and it was so simple, and we never realized it? *shrugs* There probably really is a simple answer to EVERYTHING, but we're overlooking it. Who knows. Maybe we'll never find out. Or maybe (if you believe in heaven) when we all die at the end of the universe, God will have a big speech and tell it to us!

Maybe it's 42?

Random Thought of the Day

Here's a thought (and no, I will not begin every post that way): you know how in most junk mail things, magazines, catalogs, etc, there comes a "Business Reply Mail" if you want to reply with a subscription?

See in the top right corner? "NO POSTAGE NECESSARY IF MAILED IN THE UNITED STATES". It's already paid for. Stupid. How much money do these businesses spend on this "Business Reply Mail"? And how many people actually reply to these things?! Definitely less than half, that is. All the money goes to waste. It's crazy. We wonder why our economy is going to hell, and it's because we spend businesses money on things like this.

All the money they use on something like this could go to a better cause! It doesn't have to be going to the Army or something, but it should go to something like the homeless shelters, or third-world countries getting water! A couple million of these envelopes (which is about the population of ONE large city) have enough postage worth to make a build a few homeless shelters.

Corporations should do the math. What is 1 MILLION (stamps) x 41 cents is????? 41 million cents. That's $410K.