Long Nights

White lips, pale face. Breathing in the snow flakes. Burnt lungs, sour taste. Light’s gone, days end. Struggling to pay rent. Long nights, strange men.

               …

               Reality is, many people must do quite a number of ‘embarrassing’ things to stay alive. Ed Sheeran’s song, A Team; depicts the rough life of addicted teens and mothers who had to leave their homes due to lack of support. The first two phrases create an image of desolation and a job which has no assigned time frame, even amid a snow storm she stays out on the corner. Her burnt lungs and sour taste allude to something such as smoking in the cold or possibly the act of giving a blow job and deep throating to the point of exhaustion and quite possibly death. Continuing on with these arduous acts is the all-night job, she cannot go watch her darlings sleep or get any rest of her own because she must work through the night to earn enough money to live through the day.

               …

               The long nights I spend awake staring out the window are nothing of that resemblance. I can see through my window, that lady who stands under the street light. She hides her face in the shadows just as we hide our mental issues behind a smile. She makes her life better to the best of her ability while we dwell on the past and sink further into the black hole.

               We are forcing ourselves to believe we are like that person out there who made a wrong mistake or two that led to her unruly demise. But she will never be the same as us and our delusional mental illnesses.

               Only we can fix what we broke. Only we stand a chance at redeeming what we threw away.

BEST NIGHT AROUND THE WORLD

There is always something going on around the world, some things are more significant than others, obviously. For instance, wars are a bit more significant than a butterfly flapping its wings; at least it is in the moment. But the flap of that singular butterfly’s wings can cause a ripple around the world that starts a tsunami which in turn starts another world war because we all know that countries will seek any reason to fight… Regardless there are multitudes of these small, immediately indeterminant events in the world and entismal more in the universe. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have an impact in the long run. Tonight, there was meant to be a tripod of some of these events; the moon was full, there was an eclipse (slightly unnoticeable due to the earth blocking the sun from the moon rather than the moon blocking the sun from the earth), and meteor P45 visibly passed across the night sky at 3 am. To not see these rare accomities is nothing detrimental but to experience them is a world of other possibilities; quite literally. It makes you question every scientific aspect of life and venture into the possibility of there being more than us in this existence.

Initiation into the Fraternity Realm

Must fills the air, intoxicating you with its fumes. Candles flicker in the breeze which swirls past your legs in small amounts as the wind outside tries to make its way into the cellar doors. The raggy potato sack over your head itches your nose as you try to see who or what is making the murmuring noise around you. Deep red robes encapsulate those around you. Quickly the bags are ripped from the heads of you and your peers, you may have lost a hair or two in the process. The strangers before you begin to speak audibly as they call to their brothers near and far to hear them with this plea, to never turn against one another, to never disobey the laws, to never share these secrets with the rest of the world. This is the pledge, and now you must sacrifice yourself and your blood to become part of the community as well. Each subject present proceeds to cut the palm of their hand with a shredded knife and squeeze whatever amount of blood they can from their veins to fill the goblet. It is passed around and you must all drink. Now, you are a member of this sacred community for life! HAZAH!

…

It sounds like something out of a medieval fable, doesn’t it? Well from a very young age, this is the image we are encompassed with when pertaining to fraternities and brotherhoods formed in college. That and the skimpy girls in bikinis and costumes barely there to please guys. But this is not at all what they do. I kind of wish they did though.

…

I have officially begun the induction period into a fraternity of my own, my own experience of a pinning ceremony and that of others which have recounted their tales to me; vary from this original persona of sacred ceremonies. You are blind folded, you are taken to an undisclosed location, but you are not forced to do things like cut yourself and drink everyone’s blood, the subjects before you are not strange to your eyes nor do they dress in amines apparel. You simply agree to some standards and receive a little acknowledgement that you are part of the family.

…

Perhaps there will be more enticing events when the official official induction takes place in five weeks!

Campus Colt

There are a lot of things you hear about on the news or read about in fictional stories that you never think will happen to you or to anyone in your life; but sometimes they manage to happen anyway. Late last year for instance, there began to be numerous ‘killer’ clown sightings across the Northeast portion of the United States. Now there is periodic cult appearances sprouting in the places where clowns were once seen. It has not been determined if these so-called cults are satanic or if they are even credible. It has been noted however that they are posting signs around campuses attempting to recruit others to join them for initiation ceremonies as if they are a fraternity whom takes pride in their commitment to community and self. These flyers discuss plans from a video games known as Shivering Isles; I believe it is from the same series as Skyrim if I am not mistaken… Regardless they quote the native language of characters in the game and even discuss plans to sacrifice cats to the patron saint of some church. The original name is forgotten at the moment but I do recall that research on the subject brought forth many copies of the original, old testament bible.

What's Appropriate Coming from Your Parents

               Rarely do kids feel they can confide in their parents. They rather tell lies and go about their days doing their own thing. Eventually this leads to suspicious parents who are deemed ridiculously strict or it could lead to parents who just aren’t part of their child’s life (usually those parents are where the problem originated).

               A select population of youth, however; find it better to vent every frustration to their elders and seek guidance with the smallest of tasks such as meal choices and hygiene. These pupils are the ones who will in due course remain in their parents’ basement living off their income taxes.

               The people who are in between. They live a difficult life. Their parents learn only what they need to, they continue to seek more from these tidbits of information and often disgust their children or push them further away. The only issue with this behavior is that the youth can do nothing to resist talking to their parents and thus the adults feel it is alright to continue these rather symptomatic topics which should not be revealed out-front from child to parent.

               In my own case, I love to tell my parents what is happening in my life because they often are not even listening and it allows me to get stuff off my chest before I tell the wrong people or before I allow horrible ideas to manifest inside my noggin. When they do catch what I have said, it rapidly gets turned on me however. For instance, letting them know of struggles a friend may be facing causes my parents more distress than if I was facing these issues myself. Or per chance they learn that the people I hang with live a certain lifestyle, they expect that I will miraculously morph into these people and make the same choices as them.

               What does this have to do with age appropriate content coming from the mouths of our elders? They are entitled to their opinions and as adults they can say whatever they want to but when talking to their kids or family there are certain things that should not be shared. For instance, there is no need for discussion of sex lives or “sexy” appearances, “sexy” actions…. Anything “sexy” should really just be dropped altogether, especially when between parent and child of opposite genders. It’s just a tad creepy… I am certain that most anti Trump Americans would agree.

Technological Decline

With every advancement we make as a society in the technological field, we are also declining. More and more we are becoming reliant on these machines. But what if they all decided to shut down and you were left to do everything on your own? No more direct messaging, you’ll have to mail letters. No instantaneous results from computers and calculators, you’ll have to read books and do math by hand. Does nobody remember the switch from 1999 to 2000?!??!? The governments were so horrified that the computer databases would not be able to update the year and the entire process would fry leaving everyone in the dark! Now whenever a wifi server goes down or you experience a blackout; no matter how brief or prolonged the period may be, we go into a frenzy because our parents won’t know where we are, our family won’t know what we are eating, our friends won’t know who we are spending time with. Everything would be PRIVATE! And apparently, that is a devastating thing to happen in this day and age.

Running Around like a Chicken with its Head Cut Off

An American phrase dating back to the 19^th century, it refers to poultry whom often run in a frenzied state for several minutes after decapitation.

Everyone has heard this expression at some point in their life weather they noticed it or not. Often it refers to a child who cannot decide on a single activity, they run around from one location to another trying to do everything at once. More recently this saying has connected to college students who run from one end of campus to another for classes or study groups or fraternities and sororities, they even run around trying to finish all their projects at once but never actually completing any of them!

               Although a private college such as my own, often has smaller class sizes and fewer required classes thus decreasing the time spent running from subject to subject; you still end up looking like a lunatic because you procrastinate and want to take advantage of every event possible. Its ludicrous to want to do EVERYTHING. But if you don’t then you aren’t normal and you aren’t using every opportunity that is presented to you. Either way, you look crazy.

Embrace the crazy!!!!

Chemistry is Forever Expanding

               CARBON CAN BIND WITH MORE THAN FOUR ATOMS!!!!!!!!

               You honestly have no clue how enticing this information is to the scientific community. Carbon is used in all walks of life, that is how we get many of our fuels. It is in trees, it is in the atmosphere. Coal. Diamonds. Acid. Graphite in pencils. There are so many other things it can create and now we can possibly create more artificial compounds!!! Can you Just imagine??!!

How Clean is Too Clean

Sanitization is everything in the modern era. In can have a very negative effect on our health and hygiene however good we may think it is. Studies were conducted telling us that bad hygiene and refusing to clean our environment can lead to the spread of dangerous viruses but recent light has also exposed information that not being exposed to any form of dust or bacteria can weaken our immune systems and become ill much easier. That is why public spaces like schools and stores try hard to keep everything clean while not being ‘germophobic-ally clean’.

               Do you realize just how their cleaning process is completed though? Do you realize just what kind dirt is left behind after they clean? I mean, don’t get me wrong; I know how difficult it is to deep clean some things and I know we shouldn’t be going crazy with disinfectant but some recent events have come to light that are a bit fascinating while also disgusting.

               Of late, I have been meeting with some friends in a chemistry organization on my college campus and one activity we enjoy is freezing ice cream with liquid nitrogen. After the cream encounters the below freezing liquid, it does not retain any of the harmful chemicals. In fact, liquid nitrogen evaporates rather spontaneously when exposed to room temperature. Anyway, we had to empty the contents of the canister the science department had provided us with and we were a bit tired of ice cream, thus we proceeded to conduct our own sort of experiment. After clearing the floor of any materials which may be viable to the cold temperature of liquid nitrogen; we slowly, and in small amounts; poured the contents of the canister into the center of the room. All particles of dirt which had been trapped in the creases and cracks of the floor froze and condensed into small beads which then rolled to the edges of the room. Multiple attempts at pouring the contents out all led to the same results and by the end of the night there was an inch-thick layer of dirt creating a perimeter around the room.

               This experiment has not been discussed outside the group but it is just miraculous how we can proudly say that our school takes pride in cleaning every classroom every night yet we can displace so much dirt and bacteria from the floor.

               So honestly, how clean is too clean and how dirty is not clean enough?

Marijuana

I am certain that we have discussed this topic numerous times and I would hate to repeat my opinions or the facts which have been made public through our posts as well as news channels; however, did anybody know that the legalization of marijuana did not actually start in Colorado?!?! The state of Colorado has helped to make a large leap forward when it comes to the legalization and medical use of marijuana however this is just the popular view that they have been the most important stance towards this action due to news coverage. Before they opened clinics across the state and began producing a large tax revenue for their state; California had been creating non-profit marijuana distribution centers and while there were multiple laws in place restricting the growth and distribution of large amounts of cannabis there have not been any put in place to counteract these organizations which help people acquire the drug for medical purposes nor does it ban people from growing a couple plants in their own backyard for private use.

…

               We need to conduct better research I feel.

Lifetimes

Millions of people invest in the institution of marriage every year. Of course, the standards for marriage have changed with time, at one point in time you married for money and power, now we try to marry for ‘love’, yet there are still a few who marry strictly because they feel it is best for their economic or social status. These people often contemplate divorce or murder to get out of a marriage, one way is more legal than another but the other method allows one to maintain the status they gained through the event. When marriage spawns from a mutual caring behavior for one another, the relationship usually lasts decades before they die and even then, once older, they refuse to move on; sometimes even dying from a broken heart. This sort of exclusive love can occur between others beside just husband and wife though as seen with the still recent death of popular mother and daughter duo. Twins also can face this outcome as they spend much of their lives with a soulmate whom embodies their sibling.

               You only get a lifetime event once every lifetime…. obviously, don’t waste time on statuses when you could be living happy and healthy.

               An opportunity like this may not arise for a couple more lifetimes, it is incredibly difficult to remember everything from past lives after all; you won’t have any clue who your soulmate is.