For those who may be confused, aside from the intended audience of this post, this is directed at a Youtube user called "TheRationalSkeptic." It's directed at his most recent video, as of this writing, called "Love is Evil"; you can view the video here. I posted some comments on his videos using my account called Mythosician06. As you can probably tell already, or if you have read the comments by now, I disagree with him. Wholeheartedly. Anyway, let's get to the point of this post. RS, the segment under the self-made separator is for you.
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Elaborated Response to “TheRationalSkeptic”
RE: Love is Evil
You’re not the first person to hold this opinion. But you’re not the first I have come to disagree with on the subject, either. As I’ve said to you before, this is a subjective topic and it varies so wildly from person to person. I’ll have to get into more detail on this later on.
My contention with your argument is because of what you admit within the first minute; that you have no experience with love. Problem is, and it could be to my demerit, that I don’t know what you think love is. This is an important thing to know. But I feel you’re generalizing love far too much with your video. All of what I said in this paragraph represents how I contend with your argument.
What your “love is evil” line of reasoning seems to rely on the most is the selfish element of love. I need to stress to you again: it differs from person to person. I can say that, as I felt what some would consider “love”, I was quite selfless rather than the antithesis of such. I think we can both agree that people can do, to be blunt about it, fucked up things while in love. I’m writing a short story on that premise, after all. But, as a saving grace, people can do magnificent, empowering things while in love as well.
I have a hard time ever agreeing with arguments based on generalizations. It’s why I have a slight issue with the science of psychology, namely in how it categorizes different mindsets and etcetera. From what I perceive, and some may disagree with me, you are using this faulty, often unreliable style of argument. And since the human mind, at the individual level, varies so vastly while maintaining the simplest premises of life (the drive to survive through some, often self-defined “power”), it is unjust to make such a subjective topic so general. There’s nothing of the sort.
Perhaps you’re looking at it philosophically? If so, what philosophy are you basing your “love is evil” argument on? Is it a religious concept of love that you’re deeming to be evil? Or is it a cultural one?
Perhaps, also, you’re looking at it from a more logical, and more objective standpoint; a scientific standpoint. Then where does the “evil” come in? Certainly, the biochemical aspect that produces the emotions revolving around “love”, which to me seems more like attraction than anything else, never concludes that love is malignant. And psychology, as far as I know, doesn’t uniformly make this argument as well. Sigmund Freud may have suggested that in one sense, love can be evil, but in another, it can be good; other psychologists differ from one to another since it is such a subjective topic to discuss.
Why can’t you accept that it is a subjective thing? I can’t stress that enough. It may seem like a talking point by now, but it’s vitally important when it comes to love. What you think of love, I might think of as mere sexual attraction. What I think of love, you may think of as a desire to be a loyal friend. I’ve been hurt, while feeling so strongly for another person, whom, as I told you in your video comments, I saw as my equal, she gave me meaning and as a result, I wanted to be all I could be for her. I still do not think love is evil, having felt it and being hurt while feeling it. And to think that you’d slap the word “evil” in there as if it has any reason to be; that’s where my question that I asked of you in the beginning comes in.
What do you think love is? What does it mean to you?
And why is love “evil” to you? Help me understand just what you think love is, and maybe with that I can understand your use of the word “evil.” The world is not black and white, remember; it is a spectrum of grey shades.
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Thursday, April 7, 2011
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
A Co-Ed Update: Holidays bring Glory Days; Love Reaches into the Sky; Victim Of Love progress
It's been a while since I touched this blog.
My holidays started over a week ago, and I have less than one week left to spare. Thankfully, it won't be time not-so-well wasted as I am being productive, in more ways than one.
Unfortunately, Victim of Love is on hold for now. In fact, I am considering giving it a "re-try", as the last place left at in the story put me in a bind. The dreaded writer's block. Perhaps I was forcing myself too much as I was writing it but I will definitely give it another go in a day or two, at the soonest. However, at least I wrote something, which I've updated or corrected here and there.
That something is called Love Reaches into the Sky. It's another concept and though it may seem cliche to some who'd read it, the theme I aimed for was that even those who have strength of character can be tested by the Goliath that is love. It's not story-driven, at least in a pure sense, which gives it more flexibility.
I have not given up on Victim Of Love, which I hope will turn out to be something that readers will remember. I want to make an impression with it, but I don't want to be pretentious about it. When you write a story, you often get side-tracked by writer's block if you write "organically", or as it comes in other words.
Other than that, I won't be all that active with this blog until I get another break from college. In terms of college itself, I just hope I didn't fail that Cisco class, which was "taught" by a total wanker who can't teach to save his life (he even admitted to the class that he wasn't an instructor...). At least give me a damn 60 percent so I can move on without worrying about the school letting me go from one incomplete grade. Assholes.
My holidays started over a week ago, and I have less than one week left to spare. Thankfully, it won't be time not-so-well wasted as I am being productive, in more ways than one.
Unfortunately, Victim of Love is on hold for now. In fact, I am considering giving it a "re-try", as the last place left at in the story put me in a bind. The dreaded writer's block. Perhaps I was forcing myself too much as I was writing it but I will definitely give it another go in a day or two, at the soonest. However, at least I wrote something, which I've updated or corrected here and there.
That something is called Love Reaches into the Sky. It's another concept and though it may seem cliche to some who'd read it, the theme I aimed for was that even those who have strength of character can be tested by the Goliath that is love. It's not story-driven, at least in a pure sense, which gives it more flexibility.
I have not given up on Victim Of Love, which I hope will turn out to be something that readers will remember. I want to make an impression with it, but I don't want to be pretentious about it. When you write a story, you often get side-tracked by writer's block if you write "organically", or as it comes in other words.
Other than that, I won't be all that active with this blog until I get another break from college. In terms of college itself, I just hope I didn't fail that Cisco class, which was "taught" by a total wanker who can't teach to save his life (he even admitted to the class that he wasn't an instructor...). At least give me a damn 60 percent so I can move on without worrying about the school letting me go from one incomplete grade. Assholes.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
A Co-Ed Update; Priorities & Issues; Victim Of Love Logo
WordPress is a solid blogging service, but I refuse to pay the fee necessary to edit and save a CSS spreadsheet for styling. I need a distinctive style for my blog(s), so WordPress is not good enough for me. Mind you, I checked into this right after I made my previous submission to this here site, but I haven't bothered making any statements about it until tonight.
I'm still not impressed with Google signing a deal with Verizon, and their stealth processes that run on my computer (GoogleUpdateNotifier, anyone?) prove to be a nuisance, since they don't actually let me know if and when an update to any relevant application is available, and simply install in the background. It totally drove my copy of Kaspersky nuts when it was actually installing a setup executable for Google Earth without making me aware of it.
On another note, my desktop computer is not seeing good days. The two-gigabyte (DDR2) memory is roughly half-free when you subtract the resources that the running processes require, but that's not the biggest problem. My main concern is my PSU; when I compute with resource-intensive applications, it shuts off. I was sort of concerned earlier when it happened today because immediately afterward, a faint smell of melting plastic or what-have-you came about. Not a good sign. It's a 420W PSU that worked just fine for the past year and a half of use, but it's always been near its limits because my GPU uses up 350 W on a good day, and the average mainboard from my PC's time used up roughly 60-75W to run. So it's pretty much stretched thin at all times, moreso when I game.
Anywho, I haven't written much on Victim Of Love, lately. With school comes lots of things running through the mind, like studying, making sure I remember my schedule correctly, writing my own attempt at "The Aristocrats" routine which should surely offend, and other useless things. Aesthetics are another matter. To put that in more understandable terms, I've made some logos for this concept. I'll just show one version below. Note that my signature is in the bottom-right corner.
I'm still not impressed with Google signing a deal with Verizon, and their stealth processes that run on my computer (GoogleUpdateNotifier, anyone?) prove to be a nuisance, since they don't actually let me know if and when an update to any relevant application is available, and simply install in the background. It totally drove my copy of Kaspersky nuts when it was actually installing a setup executable for Google Earth without making me aware of it.
On another note, my desktop computer is not seeing good days. The two-gigabyte (DDR2) memory is roughly half-free when you subtract the resources that the running processes require, but that's not the biggest problem. My main concern is my PSU; when I compute with resource-intensive applications, it shuts off. I was sort of concerned earlier when it happened today because immediately afterward, a faint smell of melting plastic or what-have-you came about. Not a good sign. It's a 420W PSU that worked just fine for the past year and a half of use, but it's always been near its limits because my GPU uses up 350 W on a good day, and the average mainboard from my PC's time used up roughly 60-75W to run. So it's pretty much stretched thin at all times, moreso when I game.
Anywho, I haven't written much on Victim Of Love, lately. With school comes lots of things running through the mind, like studying, making sure I remember my schedule correctly, writing my own attempt at "The Aristocrats" routine which should surely offend, and other useless things. Aesthetics are another matter. To put that in more understandable terms, I've made some logos for this concept. I'll just show one version below. Note that my signature is in the bottom-right corner.
 | |
| Made with the latest build of The GIMP (2.6.9, I think) |
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Google Is Now Doing Evil
The "Googizon" deal that was just recently achieved is only an achievement for them, the moneymakers in this case. Google makes a lot of money annually, as well as Verizon, but does that give them a right to control traffic based on what they believe makes them money? No. They're the transmitters of the internet, not the content providers. This deal basically pushes the prioritization of content that suits their interests, whether a provider pays Googizon the money to earn the heightened bandwidth throttling, or a provider espouses ideals that are for the same interests that Googizon yearns for.
It is pretty clear now that Google, and Verizon especially, are only interested in the bottom line - money. But at what expense, Google? And by the way, this will only work for them in the short-term, because the improvisations they come up with to control traffic will be offset just like TV was for the longest time, with theft being a huge factor in television providers controlling the prices for abiding consumers. They're only going to shoot themselves in the foot in the long run, as the Internet Service Provider(ISP)s which, at least for a while, look out for the interests of the consumer because CUSTOMER KNOWS BEST AFTER ALL, and thus earn more income from interested clients. Competition is good in any case, but actively working against network neutrality undermines competition, which works against the consumers who want what the competition offers. Apologies for the run-on sentence previously.
Not to mention, on Google's twitter (more like 'twatter') profile, they said, last week, that they were not in talks with Verizon for this deal. So they either outright lied about it, or perhaps there was a huge amount of pressure from Verizon for Google to go with the deal (which means that Google is desperate, maybe?), perhaps showing that there's more companies out there who have bad intentions in mind than we consumers are generally aware of. Network Neutrality, a big issue going on for the LITTLE GUYS of the developed and digitally connected world, is in jeopardy because of these two giants and their dealings. Think about it, you want to visit HuffingtonPost.com, which sometimes espouses ideals that are not in favor of giant corporations seeking COMPLETE control of their markets (like any tyrannical government would), then Googizon would slow down the aforementioned website. Fox News (Faux Noise, more like it) would get priority throttling because they are not only in favor of giant corporations, but they are pretty much owned by corporate interests as well. Sounds good? For them, yes (at least in the short-term); for you and I, this is detrimental.
So many people are running businesses on the internet, often failing to meet a profit margin, but they still make necessary money for people. If network neutrality is undermined any further, one of the only bastions of freedom of speech and of societal empowerment (for EVERYONE with internet) will become gang territories of sorts, with the Internet Service Providers being the gang leaders. Segregation and sheer control of interests will ensue, and people will have to watch their step.
Thank you, Google. No really, thanks for showing everyone who looked at you as an objective, supportive internet entity that you are just like all of the bullies of the corporate world; greedy as can get. As a Blogger user, I'm not sure if I will remain here because of this development. Verizon has little or no cred. up here, but that doesn't mean I'm still not going against my interests by giving Google the propping up that my traffic brings to them. I'll consider deleting my account, but until then I need to figure out how I will carry out my (non-detrimental) interests elsewhere.
Peace to you all, and I hope you do what's right. Stick up for the interests of the consumer, for the internet is PUBLIC domain and not PRIVATE.
It is pretty clear now that Google, and Verizon especially, are only interested in the bottom line - money. But at what expense, Google? And by the way, this will only work for them in the short-term, because the improvisations they come up with to control traffic will be offset just like TV was for the longest time, with theft being a huge factor in television providers controlling the prices for abiding consumers. They're only going to shoot themselves in the foot in the long run, as the Internet Service Provider(ISP)s which, at least for a while, look out for the interests of the consumer because CUSTOMER KNOWS BEST AFTER ALL, and thus earn more income from interested clients. Competition is good in any case, but actively working against network neutrality undermines competition, which works against the consumers who want what the competition offers. Apologies for the run-on sentence previously.
Not to mention, on Google's twitter (more like 'twatter') profile, they said, last week, that they were not in talks with Verizon for this deal. So they either outright lied about it, or perhaps there was a huge amount of pressure from Verizon for Google to go with the deal (which means that Google is desperate, maybe?), perhaps showing that there's more companies out there who have bad intentions in mind than we consumers are generally aware of. Network Neutrality, a big issue going on for the LITTLE GUYS of the developed and digitally connected world, is in jeopardy because of these two giants and their dealings. Think about it, you want to visit HuffingtonPost.com, which sometimes espouses ideals that are not in favor of giant corporations seeking COMPLETE control of their markets (like any tyrannical government would), then Googizon would slow down the aforementioned website. Fox News (Faux Noise, more like it) would get priority throttling because they are not only in favor of giant corporations, but they are pretty much owned by corporate interests as well. Sounds good? For them, yes (at least in the short-term); for you and I, this is detrimental.
So many people are running businesses on the internet, often failing to meet a profit margin, but they still make necessary money for people. If network neutrality is undermined any further, one of the only bastions of freedom of speech and of societal empowerment (for EVERYONE with internet) will become gang territories of sorts, with the Internet Service Providers being the gang leaders. Segregation and sheer control of interests will ensue, and people will have to watch their step.
Thank you, Google. No really, thanks for showing everyone who looked at you as an objective, supportive internet entity that you are just like all of the bullies of the corporate world; greedy as can get. As a Blogger user, I'm not sure if I will remain here because of this development. Verizon has little or no cred. up here, but that doesn't mean I'm still not going against my interests by giving Google the propping up that my traffic brings to them. I'll consider deleting my account, but until then I need to figure out how I will carry out my (non-detrimental) interests elsewhere.
Peace to you all, and I hope you do what's right. Stick up for the interests of the consumer, for the internet is PUBLIC domain and not PRIVATE.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Victim Of Love - Update
I've written the first two lyrics just now, all within ten minutes. This has only happened a few times since I've made a hobby of writing song lyrics. I can already see how it would be perceived as dark, given the nature of the character I am still developing. The effort should pay off, big time.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Victim Of Love (Concept Album Overview/Synopsis)
This was just started tonight. The idea first popped in my head a few days ago, and I wanted to write it out, expand it into something romantically sinister, intimately dangerous. One of the most intriguing plot-lines I've ever read in literary history was the sycophantic relationship between (King) MacBeth & Lady MacBeth, of the ever famous cinematic play written by William Shakespeare. This storyline, in lyrical form, is inspired by that play. Of course, there's my own creations involved, and not some blind quest for power over a kingdom.
By the way, until I get a copyright on my concept albums already written (two are finished, two are still in the works, including this one), I will not put them up on here. This may seem hypocritical, given the fact that I've already posted well over one-hundred pieces, but at least they are protected, to a limited extent, by the Creative Commons license. However, I want full authority & ownership of my conceptual works. So at the most, I'll post a synopsis & a song-title list. That should proceed right...about...NOW:
By the way, until I get a copyright on my concept albums already written (two are finished, two are still in the works, including this one), I will not put them up on here. This may seem hypocritical, given the fact that I've already posted well over one-hundred pieces, but at least they are protected, to a limited extent, by the Creative Commons license. However, I want full authority & ownership of my conceptual works. So at the most, I'll post a synopsis & a song-title list. That should proceed right...about...NOW:
Victim Of Love
Love is a shackling series of emotional responses, to attraction, to longing, to the fantastical realm of need. The wealth of possible actions, rational and irrational, determine the character of a person in love. What would it be like if someone were to feel a tingling sense of bloodthirst, serving the frontlines of love? Victims differ by cause, but is the man in my story truly a victim of love? Or is he a slave to it?
Lured By Wire
Entranced
Spinehooks
Grasping My Blood
A Heart Of Gold
Turned To Black
Masochism, Protection, & Perversion
Enemy To Friends
Marked
Duped
En la Negación
Victim Of Love
Saturday, July 10, 2010
This is not a writer's block period
Things seem very slow 'round these parts because my focus is on other things, more pressing things. When circumstances work themselves out more in my favour, I'll pick the pace right back up. I didn't put up the lyrics yet because I want to get them copyrighted before putting them out there for everyone to see & possibly steal. So no, I'm not in a rut; this is not a writer's block period.
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